TRUE TALES. 
 
TRUE TALES 
 
 OF 
 
 %mM miiUi ^hhvitmt, fate Mir f irto. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES MACAULAY, M.A., M.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "all TRUE," " GREY HAWK,' ETC., AMD 
 
 JV7TI/ THIRTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HODDER AND JSTOUGHTON, 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIV. 
 
 (/4// rights feservea.) 
 
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Vinev, Limited, London and Aylesbury. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 William Adams, the Pioneer Englishman in Japan i 
 A Strange Election and a Stranger Auction . 13 
 
 California's First Start 18 
 
 At the Court of the Great Mogul .... 24 
 The Great Mosque of Delhi and the Taj Mehal 
 
 AT Agra 44 
 
 The Last of the Great Moguls 50 
 
 The Story of Cleopatra's Needle '."... 54 
 
 A Persian Grand Vizier 61 
 
 Captain William Peel's Ride through Nubia . 66 
 
 Sarawak and the Soudan 75 
 
 The Voyage of the "Fox" 82 
 
 Perils in the Ice .90 
 
 A Parliamentary Debate in Tahiti . . . .103 
 
 Origin of the Gipsies no 
 
 Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero . .123 
 
 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan 143 
 
 French Accounts of English Naval Victories . 155 
 
 130^1132 
 
VI 
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Battle of the Nile 167 
 
 The Battle of Trafalgar .175 
 
 Luther before the Emperor . . . • . . 184. 
 
 Juggernaut in 1806 189 
 
 Life-Boat Services . • 192 . 
 
 The Talking Wood Chip 211 
 
 EUSTACHE, THE NEGRO SLAVE 215 
 
 The Montyon Prize of Virtue 221 
 
 Remarkable Escape from the Massacre at Cawn- 
 
 PORE 228 
 
 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus .... 238. 
 Capture of a Spanish Slave Ship . . . .255 
 
 Saved from a Floating Sepulchre .... 256 
 
 The Original Robinson Crusoe 261 
 
 Captain Dampier and the Buccaneers . . . 268 
 Arminius Vambery's Travels in Asia . . .280' 
 
 The Fate of a German Watchmaker in Bokhara 289. 
 
 The Gallant Defence of Rorke's Drift . . . 292. 
 
 Heroes of the Victoria Cross . .... . 300 
 
 Kavanagh's Daring Journey 310 
 
 The Last of the Mamelukes 317 
 
 Man Overboard ! 322 
 
 Early Exploring Expeditions in Australia . . 329. 
 
 Across Australia from Sea to Sea .... 337- 
 
 The Discovery of Gold in Australia . . , 345 
 
 How Christianity was Introduced into Mangaia . 349. 
 
 Two Attempts to ascend Chimborazo . . . 360 
 
Contends. vii' 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Twice to the Top of Chimborazo .... 369 
 
 The Widow and her Money-Bags .... 374 
 
 Commodore Byron in Patagonia 381 
 
 The Travels of Marco Polo 386- 
 
 How Blake made Van Tromp take the Broom 
 
 FROM HIS Top-Mast .391 
 
 David Douglas, the Botanical Collector . . 397 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Dutch Settlement at Deshima, Japan 
 
 The Taj Mehal at Agra 
 
 The Palace at Delhi .... 
 
 Arrival of the Good Ship " Harmony " 
 
 Garibaldi's House at Caprera 
 
 A Japanese Water Picnic 
 
 Wreck of the " Indian Chief," and Services of the Ramsgate 
 
 Lifeboat . . . . . . . 
 
 Remarkablp Escape from the Massacre at Cawnpore 
 
 " No sooner had I taken the glass in my hand than I looked 
 
 to see the reflection " . . 
 
 Gallant Defence of Rorke's Drift. The Morning after the 
 
 Conflict ........... 
 
 Blowing up of the Cashmere Gate ...... 
 
 Departure of Burke's Expedition from Melbourne . 
 Mangaia. Heathen Ceremonies on the Return of the Pleiades 
 
 PAGE 
 
 12 
 
 46 
 50 
 
 97 
 124 
 
 143 
 
 198 
 234 i 
 
 291 
 
 296] 
 3051 ] 
 339 
 356 
 
WILLIAM ADAMS, 
 THE PIONEER ENGLISHMAN IN JAPAN. 
 
 IN the year of our Lord 1598, the Dutch East India Company 
 sent out a fleet of five Hollanders ^' to traffic in the Indies." 
 Great xiioiours were spread throughout Europe of the riches 
 obtained by the Spanish and Portuguese in these far-distant 
 parts of the world. Defying the bulls and interdicts of the 
 Pope, and the threatenings of the nations protected by him, the 
 Dutch, like the English, were resolved to seek their share 
 in the good things made known by the navigators and dis- 
 coverers of those times. So this Dutch fleet was _equipped_ 
 and sent forth, sailing from the Texel on the 24th of June, under 
 the command of Master Jacque Mahay, as admiral, in the 
 good ship Erasmus. 
 
 The chief pilot of the fleet was an Englishman, William 
 Adams, born in " Gillingham, two miles from Rochester, and 
 one mile from Chatham, where the Queen's ships do lie." This 
 " Kentish man " was a true and loyal subject of Queen 
 Elizabeth, but he was ready, like many Englishmen of that 
 time, to serve wherever he had good opportunity, provided 
 it was not among the Spaniards and other enemies of free and 
 Protestant England. He gives account of himself and of his 
 voyages in letters to his wife, which were fortunately pre- 
 served, and published by Purchas, the Collector of so many 
 curious and valuable records of old travel and adventure. 
 
 Of his previous life, this is what Will Adams tells : — '' I was 
 from the age of twelve brought up in Limehouse, near London, 
 being 'prentice twelve years to one master, Nicholas Diggins, 
 and have served in the place of master and pilot in Her 
 
 I 
 
2 William Adams, the 
 
 Majesty's ships, and about eleven or twelve years served 
 the Worshipful Company of Barbary Merchants, until the 
 Indian traffic from Holland began, in which Indian traffic I 
 was desirous to make a little experience of the small knowledge 
 which God hath given me." He was thus a well-trained 
 and experienced mariner, this pilot of the Dutch expedition 
 under Admiral Jacque Mahay. 
 
 The fleet sailed on the 24th of June, as we are told ; but 
 as there is some confusion about exact dates in old style and 
 new style reckoning, let it be about the middle of the year 
 1598. Voyages in those days were seldom swift, and provisions 
 not of the most wholesome kind, so we are not surprised to 
 learn that sickness broke out — scurvy, most likely — and they 
 were glad to touch on the coast of Guinea for rest and refresh- 
 ment. Before they sailed again, the Admiral and many of his 
 men died. It was not till April of next year, 1599, that 
 they reached the Straits of Magellan, having decided to reach 
 the Indies by way of the South Seas. In so long a voyage the 
 ships could not expect to keep in company, and Moka, on 
 the coast of Chili, was appointed as the place of rendezvous. 
 The Erasmus arrived here in due course, but after waiting till 
 the month of November for her consorts, only one turned 
 up, the pilot of which was a friend and countryman of 
 Will Adams, "one Timothy Shotten, who had been with 
 Master Cavendish in his voyage round the world." 
 
 Two of the ships were never heard of, and are supposed 
 to have foundered at sea. A third fell into the hands of 
 Spaniards, or pirates, for they were much the same in 
 those days. 
 
 On the American coast the two remaining ships had hard 
 times of it from the same enemies. The captain of the 
 Erasmus, when on shore to purchase supplies for the half- 
 starving crew, was attacked and slain, with several of his men, 
 among whom, says Adams, was '' my poor brother Thomas, 
 and they left scarce so many men whole as could weigh 
 our anchor." The sister ship fared no better. The captain 
 
Pioneer Eiiglishman in Japan, 3 
 
 and twenty-seven men were killed in another affair on that 
 coast. 
 
 The brave and resolute survivors in the two ships chose 
 new captains, and then " held a council as to what they should 
 do to make their voyage most profitable. At last it was 
 resolved to go for Japan ; for by the report of Derrick Ger- 
 ritson, who had been there with the Portugals, woollen cloth 
 was in great estimation in that island ; and we gathered, 
 by reason that the Malaccas and the most part of the East 
 Indies were hot countries, woollen cloths would not be 
 much accepted. Therefore it was we all agreed to go to Japan." 
 
 A very wise and shrewd resolution, arrived at unanimously. 
 There were no '' cotton goods " in those days to export from 
 our factories ; the woollen manufacture and good broadcloth 
 formed the staple of English trade in the rough old times 
 when the Lord Chancellor literally sat upon a woolsack ! 
 Adams had made woollen stuff the substance of his share 
 of the cargo, and probably had advised others to do the same. 
 
 On the 29th of November, 1599, the two ships, piloted 
 by William Adams and Timothy Shotten, started on the long 
 voyage across unknown waters. They bore up bravely 
 before the south-east trade-wind, but so little did they know 
 about winds and weather in these parts of the ocean, that 
 this curious entry appears in the narrative, "The wind con- 
 tinued good for divers months "! 
 
 But after they got beyond the reach of the trade-w^inds, 
 and after various perils and adventures in strange island 
 channels, sailing northward from the equator, they gradually 
 came to regions of stormy winds and angry seas. On the 
 24th of February the Erasmus parts finally from her con- 
 sort, and Timothy Shotten is heard of no more. He is 
 supposed to have gone down at sea — -a less horrible fate 
 than that of eight of his fellow-seamen, who had been killed and 
 eaten by the natives of some cannibal island of the South Sea, 
 
 The Erasmus still held on towards Japan, and on the 
 24th of March Adams records : " We saw an island called 
 
4 William Adams, the 
 
 Una Colonna, at which time many of our men were sick 
 and divers dead. Great was the misery we were in, having no 
 more than nine or ten men able to go or creep upon their knees ; 
 our captain and all the rest looking every hour to die. But on 
 the nth of April, 1600, we saw the high land of Japan 
 near unto Bungo, at which time there were no more than five 
 men of us able to go. The 12th of April we came hard to 
 Bungo, where many country barques came aboard us, the 
 people whereof we willingly let come, having no force to resist 
 them ; and at this place we came to an anchor." 
 
 It was a sorry plight for them to be in on their first arrival 
 at the long-sought land of hope and promise— Cipango, or 
 Zipangu of old Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, who 
 had three hundred years before brought to Europe tales about 
 its fabulous wealth and high civilization. These rumours had 
 spread through Europe, and had kept alive the desire for 
 better knowledge of the mysterious island. Since the first 
 voyage of Columbus, the reaching of Cathay and Cipango, 
 and all the rich regions of the Indies, had become a passion 
 with voyagers and explorers, and merchant men were keenly 
 watching the results of their enterprizes and explorations. 
 
 These Dutchmen were not, however, the first to see the 
 golden islands, as they soon found to their cost. There were 
 enemies in the country more to be dreaded than even the 
 perils of the sea and the dangers of sickness, from which 
 William Adams and his few and weakened comrades had 
 been delivered. 
 
 " After we had been there " (in Bungo), wrote the English 
 pilot, "from five to six days, a Portugal Jesuit, with other 
 Portugals" (so they always then called the Portuguese), "and 
 some Japanese, that were Chri^ians, came from a place called 
 Nagasaki, which was ill for us, the Portugals being our mortal 
 enemies ; who reported that we were pirates, and were not in 
 the wa}' of merchandizing." 
 
 The Tycoon, or executive Emperor of Japan, was at that! 
 time at Osaka, and when the arrival of the ship at Bungo was J 
 
Pioneer Englishman in Japan. 5 
 
 reported to him, the crew thereof being not Portuguese nor 
 Spanish, he ordered that the pilot and one of the seamen 
 should be brought before him, the captain being too ill to 
 move. The Jesuit and the Portugals had no doubt given a 
 very dreadful account of these strangers, as being not only 
 pirates, worthy of instant death, which was the penalty of that 
 crime, but doubly deserving crucifixion, as being heretics, and 
 foes of the true faith (of the Portugals). 
 
 It was a serious crisis, and Will Adams probably had small 
 prospect of safety when he said good-bye to his sick captain 
 and shipmates ; nevertheless, adds he, '^ I commended myself 
 into His hands that had preserved me from so many perils on 
 the sea." 
 
 Brought before the Tycoon, and questioned through an 
 interpreter, '* I showed him," says Adams, " the name of our 
 country, and that our land had long sought out the way by 
 sea to the East Indies." Having explained that this was for 
 purposes of commerce, the Tycoon asked whether our country 
 had wars ? *' I answered him, * yea,' with the Portuguese and 
 Spaniards, being at peace with all other nations." 
 
 Now the Tycoon, who had not long since succeeded to the 
 dignity, had no love for Portuguese or Spaniards. His predecessor, 
 Taiko-sama, had actually commenced a stern persecution of the 
 Jesuit missionaries, as suspected of political intrigues as well 
 as disturbers of the people, and several priests had been put to 
 death in the year before he died. The Jesuits hoped that the 
 new Tycoon would be less hostile, and, in fact, at the commence- 
 ment of his rule there seemed to be full toleration. The 
 missionaries made good use of their time. It is estimated that 
 their export of silver alone at this epoch was about two millions 
 of taels every year, besides gold and other valuables. At 
 least, this is asserted by Kaempfer, the early historian of Japan, 
 who represents these Romish emissaries as keen traders under 
 the guise of devout missionaries. Making due allowance for 
 Kaempfer being a Dutchman, there is no doubt that the Spanish 
 and Portuguese Jesuits in those times knew how to make the 
 
6 William Adams, the 
 
 best of both worlds, and the warrant of the Tycoon for the 
 death of the three priests, still extant among the Imperial 
 records, says that they were condemned to death for '^ having 
 come from the Philippines to Japan under the pretended title 
 of ambassadors, and for having persisted in my land, and 
 preached the Christian religion against my decree." 
 
 All this was well known to the Tycoon, before whom 
 William Adams now stood. He no doubt heard without 
 displeasure that the new-comers were no friends of the Portu- 
 gals or Spaniards, and were of a different religion from that 
 which had proved troublesome to the empire. He gave orders 
 that the two men should be kept in prison, and a little later he 
 ordered that the ship be brought up to Osaka. For thirty- 
 nine days Adams and his shipmate remained in custody, full 
 of anxiety about the fate of themselves and their friends. The 
 Jesuits used every means to influence the Tycoon, and when 
 the Erasmus at length arrived they redoubled their cruel 
 efforts, again affirming that these strangers were pirates and 
 robbers, as well as foes to their people, and saying that " if 
 justice was executed upon us it would terrify the rest of our 
 nation from coming there any more." '' To this intent," says 
 Adams, '' they daily sued to His Majesty to cut us off." 
 
 Perhaps their zeal overshot its mark ; at all events, the 
 heathen ruler proved more humane than the so-called Chris- 
 tian missionaries, for '' the Emperor answered them, that 
 because their two countries were at war, it was no reason why, 
 to please Portugals, he should slay Dutch and Englishmen ! " 
 With keen satire the political appeal was thus disposed of, 
 and though the Emperor made no reference to the religious 
 differences, the charitable state of mind in the Jesuits can be 
 easily guessed ; while honest Bill Adams piously expresses 
 his thankful feeling in the words, " Praised be God for ever and 
 ever ! " 
 
 When the ship arrived, the pilot and the seamen were 
 received by their comrades with wonder and " much shedding 
 of tears," for they had been told that Adams and his companion 
 
Pioneer Englishman in Japan, 7 
 
 had long since been put to death. They were all treated with 
 kindness and hospitality, and they soon recovered health and 
 spirits ; but they and their good ship were never again to 
 return to Europe. The Erasmus was ordered to the city of 
 Yeddo, the capital of the empire, and William Adams, whose 
 bearing and character seem to have favourably impressed the 
 Tycoon, was retained in the Imperial service. What became 
 of the rest of the crew is not stated, but they probably served 
 as seamen, or were otherwise employed in the land of their 
 enforced residence. We know that they were ordered to be 
 granted daily rations of rice, and twelve kobangs of gold a 
 year, as an Imperial allowance. The captain, we also know, 
 received permission to go as far as the Straits of Malacca in a 
 native vessel, and he was killed in an action with the Portu- 
 guese, having joined the Dutch fleet there during the fight. 
 None of the other seamen were allowed to leave Japan. 
 Possibly the hint of the Jesuits had been taken, although not 
 in their fatal intent, that the sending away of these men might 
 bring others of their nation ! 
 
 Several years passed, Adams growing in favour and influence 
 at the Court of Yeddo, acquiring, no doubt, much knowledge of 
 the people, and their ways and language, but never losing 
 remembrance of his country and home in old England. 
 
 His time was turned to good account for his new masters. 
 He had some skill in ship-building, and having built a vessel 
 of 80 tons the Tycoon was greatly pleased. He afterwards 
 built a larger vessel of 120 tons, and made a cruise as 
 far as Miako Bay in her with a Japanese crew. But he 
 astonished the natives by more than skill in manual craft. 
 '' Being in such grace and favour," he says, " by reason I 
 taught him (the Emperor) some points of geometry and the 
 mathematics, with other things, that what I said could not be 
 contradicted. At the which, my former enemies, the Jesuits 
 and Portugals, did greatly wonder, and entreated me to be- 
 friend them to the Emperor in their business ; and so by my 
 means both Spaniards and Portugals have received friendship 
 
8 William Adams, the 
 
 from the Emperor, I recompensing their evil unto me with 
 good." 
 
 What were the " other things " besides " the mathematics " 
 which he showed to the Emperor we are left to conjecture, 
 but the narrative carries a very useful lesson to the young as 
 to the importance of a knowledge of practical geometry in all 
 its branches, as well as skill in the use of various tools and 
 instruments, and as much acquaintance as can be gained with 
 arts and sciences, as well as with mere grammar and literature, 
 whether in living or dead languages. How few of the boys 
 educated in our public schools could have risen to the position 
 and obtained the honour of Will Adams, the apprentice lad of 
 Limehouse ! With fair natural ability, he had always a thirst 
 for knowledge, and desire to add to his '' experience" in what- 
 ever circumstances he found himself. 
 
 The year 1609 brought two events which caused a mighty 
 commotion in Japan, and in which Adams took no unimportant 
 part. A Spanish galleon, the San Francisco, returning from 
 Manilla to Acapulco in Mexico, and having on board the 
 Governor of the Philippines, was wrecked on the coast of 
 Japan. Of the crew, one hundred and sixty souls perished. 
 The remainder, including the Governor, were very kindly 
 treated. The larger vessel, of 120 tons, built by Adams, was 
 placed at their disposal by the Emperor, and fitted out with 
 every means for proceeding on their voyage, which they did 
 in the same year, returning, it appears, to Manilla. How 
 the very name of " Spanish galleon," and such places as Manilla 
 and the Philippines, and Acapulco in Mexico, conjure up 
 visions of dollars and gold-pieces, and the rich freights of the 
 Argosies of those days ! No wonder that pirates abounded, 
 and that in time of war the privateers scoured all the seas of 
 the world in quest of prizes ! 
 
 This was what brought two Dutch privateers to the seas of 
 Japan, in the same year that the Spanish galleon was wrecked 
 there. The Dutchmen came to look after a Portuguese ship 
 which ran yearly from Macao to the land of the Tycoon. 
 
Pioneer Englishman in Japan. 9 
 
 They missed their prize, but they found themselves very 
 well treated ; and professing willingness to engage in lawful 
 and peaceable trade, the port of Firando was ceded to them 
 for this purpose, through the good offices and intercession 
 of William Adams. They returned to Europe to make 
 arrangements for the opening of regular trade, and Adams 
 took advantage of the opportunity for sending letters home. 
 These are the letters which have found an abiding and 
 interesting place of record in the pages of Purchas. 
 
 The Dutch East India Company must have watched 
 anxiously and waited wearily for the ships sent out by them 
 so long ago as 1598, and must have wondered why no tidings 
 ever came of them. Adams, and the other survivors of the 
 crew of the Erasmus, must also have often wondered what 
 people at home were saying of them, whether they were still 
 anxiously looked for, or given up as hopelessly lost. There 
 was at least a hope of opening communication with the lands 
 and people to which their thoughts and affections so often 
 had been travelling. The disappointment at not being allowed 
 to depart with the Dutch ships must have been great, but if 
 these got to Holland in safety there was hope of his being 
 heard of by his family and friends, and of receiving tidings 
 through those who would come to Japan. Meanwhile he is 
 in good quarters so far as outward affairs go. Through the 
 kindness and generosity of the Emperor he has a living "like 
 unto a lordship in England, with eighty or ninety husbandmen, 
 who are as my servants and slaves," — living the life, in fact, of 
 a country squire or nobleman. He has a high opinion of the 
 people and nation where his lot is now cast. '' The people are 
 good of nature, courteous above measure, and valiant in war." 
 And as to the government, " I think no land better governed 
 in the world by civil policy." So he urges his countrymen to 
 come to trade, and have dealings with such a people, ending 
 that letter with a touching utterance of patient submission and 
 pious prayer about what was still nearest to his heart, the 
 thought of his dear wife and children. ''Patiently," he writes, 
 
lo William Adams, the 
 
 " I wait the good will and pleasure of God Almighty, desiring 
 all those to whom this letter may come, to use means to 
 acquaint my good friends with it, and so my wife and children 
 may hear of me ; by which means there may be hope that I 
 may see them before my death — which the Lord grant to His 
 glory and my great comfort. Amen." 
 
 This was written and sent in 1611. How the next year 
 passed with him we do not hear, but in 1613 the startling 
 news came to Yeddo that an English ship had arrived, and 
 was at anchor in the port of Firando. The Governor of that 
 place sent for Adams, in the meantime treating the newly- 
 arrived Englishmen with marked attention. Adams found the 
 ship to be the Clove of London, belonging to the East India 
 Company, and commanded by Captain John Saris, who was 
 furnished with a letter from King James L, and suitable presents 
 for the Emperor, whose friendship and good offices he was 
 charged to seek, in order to arrange a treaty of commerce. 
 The good ship Clove had left the Thames so far back as April 
 1 8th, 161 1, and had spent more than two years in the voyage, 
 trading at various ports, as the custom then was, and not 
 reaching Firando till the nth of June, 1613. Captain Saris 
 little knew how efficient and influential a fellow-countryman 
 he was to find in Japan. After consultation, and despatch of 
 various messages, it was arranged that the captain and ten of 
 his EngHshmen should attend the Emperor at Yeddo, to which 
 place they set out early in August, bearing the royal letter and 
 the presents. The interview and audience came off splendidly. 
 The Tycoon was delighted with the frank and dignified bearing 
 of Captain Saris, and with the advice of Adams a treaty was 
 concluded between the Emperor of Japan and the King of 
 Great Britain, b}'' which the most important privileges were 
 granted — far beyond what had ever before been conceded to a 
 foreign power, and, in fact, beyond what are now possessed. 
 The tone of the whole treaty may be gathered from the first 
 article, which was as follows : — '* We give free license to the 
 subjects of the King of Great Britain — viz.. Sir Thomas Smith, 
 
Pioneer Englishvian in Japan. 1 1 
 
 Governor, and the Company of the East India Merchants and 
 adventurers, for ever safely to come into any of our ports of 
 our Empire of Japan, with their ships and merchandize, w^ith- 
 out any hindrance to them or their goods ; and to abide, buy, 
 sell, and barter, according to their own manner with all 
 nations ; to tarry here as long as they think good, and to 
 depart at their pleasure." Other articles of the treaty gave 
 freedom from customs, tolls, and duties ; liberty of transit by 
 sea or land; right to build and to possess property; orders for 
 instant payment for all goods delivered ; dispensing with 
 permits and passports, and a variety of other rights and privi- 
 leges, the extent and liberality of which the more surprise us, 
 from knov/ing the subsequent history of Japanese relations 
 with foreign nations. But the Tycoon of that period, Tyeyas, 
 was an enlightened and liberal ruler, and he had for his chief 
 adviser in the matter William Adams. Captain Saris took his 
 departure, highly gratified by his reception, and bearing a 
 letter from the Tycoon to King James, offering a hearty 
 welcome to his subjects, complimenting the English people 
 for their worthiness and their skill in navigation, and promis- 
 ing that " in their honourable enterprise of discoveries and 
 merchandizing, they shall find the said Tycoon further them 
 according to their desires." 
 
 The chief station or headquarters of the English trade was 
 to be at the port of Firando, where the Dutch also had their 
 factory. William Adams seems to have entered the employ- 
 ment of the East India Company, and to have resided at 
 Firando as interpreter in the English factory, which was 
 under the charge of a Mr. Richard Cookes, as consul and 
 manager. He probably remained there till his death, which 
 is supposed to have been in or about the year 1619. He had 
 long resigned himself to perpetual exile, and we have no doubt 
 that the consolation of true piety, which marked his whole 
 character, sustained and cheered him. His name will always 
 be remembered with respect and honour. 
 
 It does not belong to this article to follow further the course 
 
12 William Adams, 
 
 of events in Japan. After the death of Adams, and after 
 sustaining loss in their Japanese trade, the East India Com- 
 pany retired from the station, and the factory at Firando 
 was voluntarily abandoned. It was given up just in time. 
 Not long after a new policy succeeded in the Government 
 of Japan. The persecution of the Christians, of which they 
 had had before some experience, broke out with great fierce- 
 ness. The intrigues and misconduct of the Romish priests 
 and missionaries no doubt provoked the attack, and caused 
 an illiberal and intolerant treatment of all foreigners. The 
 Portuguese and Spaniards were forcibly expelled, and the 
 Dutch were permitted to remain only under the most 
 humiliating conditions, their traders being confined to the 
 island of Deshima, near Nagasaki. They were not allowed 
 to set foot on any other part of the soil of the Empire, and 
 when carrying a tribute to the Emperor, they were conveyed 
 in closed carriages, without being permitted to hold com- 
 munication with the people. ^* Not a Christian shall remain 
 in Japan," had been the declaration of an Imperial edict, 
 and the Dutchmen imprisoned at Decima hardly owned them- 
 selves as Christians. The Japanese had borne long enough 
 the interference of meddlesome foreigners, and in 1637 an 
 Imperial interdict was published, of which one clause thus 
 runs : — " No Japanese ship or boat whatever, nor any natives 
 of Japan, shall presume to go out of the country ; and who- 
 soever acts contrary to this shall be put to death, and 
 the ship and goods shall be forfeited ; and all Japanese 
 who return from abroad shall be put to death." 
 
 Thus commenced the policy of exclusion and seclusion 
 which marks the history of Japan for the next two centuries. 
 In 1673 the English made an attempt to reoccupy their 
 fjrmer factory ; but there was no William Adams now at 
 Court to be their advocate with the Emperor. The Dutchmen 
 at Decima did not choose to remember that they owed their 
 introduction to Japan to the English pilot, and they had 
 the craft to inform the Government that the English King, 
 
13 
 
 A Strange Election and a Stranger Auction. 
 
 Charles IL, was married to the daughter of the King of 
 Portugal. The old religious animosity was thus awakened, 
 and the Japanese authorities courteously, but firmly, refused 
 permission for the English to trade. The Dutch retained a 
 monopoly of commerce, such as it was, at Deshima, until 
 intercourse with the outer world was again opened by the 
 United States of America, little more than thirty years ago. 
 • The events that have since occurred are recorded in many 
 well-known books, among which we may name Mr. Mossman's 
 ''Land of the Rising Sun"; Miss Bird's ''Japan" (Murray); 
 and a bright little book by Sherard Osborne, R.N., " A Cruise in 
 Japanese Waters" (Blackwood and Sons). 
 
 A STRANGE ELECTION AND A STRANGER AUCTION. 
 
 IN May 1862, William Talcott, an employe in the Pony 
 Express Company, went to look for his ponies in the 
 nearest range of mountains, which was the Toyabe range, 
 in Nevada, United States. He took with him an Apache 
 Indian boy, who had been purchased not long before in 
 Arizona for a jack-knife and a pair of blankets. When in 
 search for the ponies they struck a seam of greenish quartz, 
 which Talcott thought something like what he had seen in 
 a rich mining region. They carried bits of the rock to the 
 house of a Mr. O'Neill, and there they were seen by Mr. 
 Vanderbosch, an intelligent Dutchman, who immediately pro- 
 nounced a favourable opinion as to the "indications of silver" 
 contained in them. The traces of silver were slight, but there 
 were metals usually found in connection with silver, especially 
 antimony and galena, or lead ore. Specimens were sent to 
 Virginia city, to be tested by assay, with such results as to 
 attract immediate attention. 
 
14 A Strange Election and 
 
 Among those who heard of the discovery was one David 
 Buel, an enterprising miner and frontier's-man, who had spent 
 much of his time among the Indians of Cahfornia. He started, 
 along with two friends, for the Reese River, as a small stream 
 in the locality had been called by a miner of the name of 
 Reese. This party of three prospected at several localities, 
 especially near a spot where the city of Austin was soon 
 to rise. Talcott's friends were also busily prospecting, and 
 had made a settlement, which they called Pony Lodge, in 
 remembrance of the incident of Talcott and the Indian boy 
 seeking the strayed ponies. 
 
 It is curious that the celebrated western explorer and path- 
 finder. Colonel Fremont, had passed near these places, but his 
 route lay a little further to the south, and so he missed being 
 the discoverer of the new silver mines in that part of Nevada. 
 
 Vanderbosch, Buel, O'Neill, Veatch, and many other miners 
 were now hard at work '' prospecting '^ and '' locating " in 
 various localities, and some of the claims turned out to be rich 
 in silver ore. But we are not concerned with mining 
 operations in this narrative. We pass over the time that 
 intervened between the first discoveries, and the foundation 
 of Austin, as the chief place in the district. 
 
 Now it is a peculiarity of the American people that they 
 carry with them into every new territory their municipal 
 and political institutions. A '' city " of only a few houses, 
 and inhabitants consisting only of rough miners, must have 
 a Mayor and Common Council, with meetings, and election 
 excitements. No American can live without making speeches, 
 or hearing them, without holding office, or voting somebody 
 else into office. Austin was not exempt from this notable 
 feature of American life. 
 
 The city charter was passed with due solemnity in April 
 1864. Public rejoicings followed, as a matter of course. 
 There was great excitement at that period touching the politi- 
 cal issues of the day. At Austin, Republicans and Democrats 
 were pretty equally divided, the latter being known chiefly by 
 
a Sti^anger Auction. 15 
 
 the name of Copperheads. The election of Mayor would test 
 the numerical strength of the two hostile parties. Every man 
 felt that not only local, but national interests, were concerned 
 in the result. 
 
 There were two candidates, pretty fairly matched, for the 
 "contest. On the Democratic side was David Buel, already 
 mentioned, — " Uncle Davy," as his fellow-citizens familiarly 
 called him, — a man of imposing presence, six feet four in height, 
 and large in proportion, and with a frank, off-hand manner 
 that endeared him to his fellow-miners. Mr. J. Ross-Browne, 
 an American traveller, who knew Buel well, says that he was 
 acting as " Government Indian Agent on the Klamath Reser- 
 vation" when he first met with him. " I found him a remarkable 
 man in more respects than one. He was a man of grand 
 presence, of indomitable spirit, of superior intelligence, and 
 of great energy of character. He was an honest Indian agent, 
 the rarest work of God that I know of." A more popular 
 candidate could not have been chosen for his side. It was 
 expected that his personal claims would have carried a large 
 portion of the Republican votes, and doubtless would have 
 done so at any other time. But party feeling then ran high, 
 and the Copperheads were regarded as little more than traitors 
 to the National and Union cause. 
 
 The other candidate was Charles Holbrook, a young man of 
 good character and great business capacity. He had recently 
 erected a handsome store, built of cut granite, and was one of 
 the chief merchants of the rising town. His integrity was 
 undoubted, his professions great, and his political faith Ultra- 
 Union. So his chances were n-ot to be despised in an election 
 which seemed likely to turn on public, more than personal, 
 qualifications. Each side was confident of success. 
 
 As usual on such occasions, betting was largely made on the 
 result. One of these bets was of a somewhat eccentric 
 kind. Dr. Herrick made an agreement with Mr. R. C. Gridley 
 to the following effect : — It Buel wins, Herrick is to carry a 
 sack of flour from Clifton to Upper Austin, the distance being 
 
1 6 , A St7'ange Election and 
 
 about a mile and a half, and uphill all the way. If Holbrook is 
 elected, Gridley is to carry a sack of flour from Upper Austin 
 to Clifton, having the advantage of the down-hill grade. 
 
 The battle was exciting, and was zealously and honourably 
 fought out on both sides. The betting did no harm, but 
 rather helped to keep the people in good humour, especially 
 when not for money, but for such a wager as the carrying 
 of the sack of flour ! 
 
 Holbrook, the Republican candidate, was elected by a clear 
 majority. The sentiment of the people was sound, when it came 
 to the great question of maintaining the Union at all hazards. 
 
 Gridley, true to his engagement, was on hand at the 
 appointed time and place, with his sack of flour. The whole 
 population turned out to witness the novel performance. 
 Laughter and good humour prevailed on all sides. Winners 
 and losers fraternized, and enjoyed the fun with equal gusto, 
 . A grand procession was formed, headed by an energetic band 
 of music. The newly-elected officials, including His Honour 
 the Mayor, mounted on horseback, followed the musicians. 
 Next to them walked the hero of the scene, the redoubt- 
 able Gridley, with the sack of flour on his back. On each side 
 marched a standard-bearer, carrying high the flag of the Union. 
 Never was seen such a lively crowd in Austin. '* Go it, 
 Gridley ; " '' Stick to it, Gridley ; " " Never say die, Gridley ; " 
 were the encouraging words which greeted him as he plodded 
 on under his load. 
 
 On arriving at Clifton, it was suggested by some enter- 
 prising genius, whose speculative spirit kept pace with his 
 patriotism, that the sack of flour should be sold for the benefit 
 of the Sanitary Commission. This was a charitable work 
 of which the good offices were devoted to the sick and wounded 
 of both sides, in the war and after. The proposition met with 
 unbounded applause. An empty barrel was quickly found, 
 and an auctioneer mounted on its end. The bidding was 
 lively, but only in small amounts, so that no large number 
 of dollars was offered for the flour. The auctioneer said 
 
a Stranger Auction. ly 
 
 that the reserve price had not been reached^ and announced 
 that another auction should be held at Austin. The sack 
 of flour was taken up again, Gridley insisting on being the 
 voluntary porter. The procession was re-formed, and marched 
 off this time to the tune of '' Dixie." 
 
 The most uncompromising Copperhead was now won over, 
 and all united in common sympathy for the suffering soldiers, 
 and in real regret for the strife in their common country. 
 It was a clever stroke of policy for the Republicans. 
 
 The procession halted in front of the store owned by His 
 Honour the Mayor. By this time the crowd was enormous, and 
 the enthusiasm great. The miners from outlying claims had 
 gathered to the town, the business men had come from their 
 stores, women and children from their cottages and cabins. 
 
 The sack of flour was once more put up at auction, with 
 a general hurrah. This time the bidders were in earnest. 
 They bid up twenties, and fifties, and even hundreds, some 
 bidding against themselves in their eagerness ! Republicans 
 and Democrats vied in the contest. The best feeling pre- 
 vailed, and three thousand dollars was the result. 
 
 The purchaser, amidst vociferous applause, donated his 
 purchase back to the Sanitary Fund. A third auction was 
 held on the following day. The result on this occasion was 
 nearly two thousand dollars. 
 
 The excitement fanned the patriotic fire in the breast of 
 Gridley. He resolved to make an institution of the sack of 
 flour at auction. He would immortalise it ; he would gather a 
 munificent sum as a donation for the sick soldiers, gathering 
 also a reputation for himself. 
 
 So Gridley set out on a tour with his sack of flour. It was 
 sold at Virginia City for eight thousand dollars, at Sacra- 
 mento for ten thousand dollars, and at San Francisco for about 
 fifteen thousand dollars. " I was witness," says Mr. Ross- 
 Browne, in one of his books of travel, " to the procession 
 in San Francisco. It was the notable event of the times. 
 Never did Montgomery Street present a more imposing appear- 
 
 2 
 
1 8 Calif oriua s F*irsl Start. 
 
 ance. The beauty and fashion of the city were there, and so 
 was Gridley, decked out in glorious array, the observed of all 
 observers. Thus did he draw the superfluous cash from the 
 pockets of the generous public, and thus did he good service 
 to the cause of humanity and freedom. All honour to Gridley ! " 
 
 The grand finale was a gift of one hundred thousand dollars 
 to the Sanitary Commission ! It was a noble speculation, the 
 humble origin of which we have narrated, as connected with 
 the Mayor's election at the little Nevada town of Austin. 
 
 On the strength of his fame, Gridley became interested, 
 along with other experienced financiers, in the establishment 
 of a bank in Austin, sufficient capital being raised in New 
 York to commence it, under the name of the "First National 
 Bank of Nevada." 
 
 CALIFORNIA'S FIRST START. 
 
 THE rapid increase of population and wealth in that 
 part of Western America known as '' The Great 
 Pacific Slope " is one of the most notable events in the 
 history of the world. At the time when Queen Victoria 
 began her reign, the land of California was to Englishmen, 
 and even to the people of the United States, a terra 
 incognita. In fact, before the Mexican war, when General 
 Jackson commanded the American army of invasion, these 
 regions had attracted little notice. They were far too 
 remote to tempt the most adventurous emigrants, and 
 seemed divided from the rest of the continent by unpassable 
 mountains and impossible distance. Here and there, in 
 the southern part of the region, a few Mexican squatters 
 had ranchos of unbounded extent, with cattle that were 
 killed only for their hides. Over the whole region wild 
 tribes of Indians roamed, numbering at that time perhaps 
 hundreds of thousands. Gradually adventurous hunters 
 
Calif ornid s First Stai^t. 19 
 
 trappers, and traders came to the country ; but forty years 
 ago, in 1844, the whole white and half-breed population of Cali- 
 fornia did not exceed seven or eight thousand, with about 
 an equal number of domesticated Indians. The whole vast 
 territory was little better than a wilderness. 
 
 In 1845 the American Congress declared Texas to be 
 annexed to the Republic, as Mexico owed a debt of some 
 million of dollars, a debt which could neither be paid nor 
 repudiated. The war which followed led to further annexa- 
 tion, and the American flag was planted in California. 
 Under the protection of that flag, and in the confidence 
 which it gave, people from the States, and emigrants of 
 other nationalities, began to appear, streams of emigration 
 waggons slowly travelling over the pathless prairies and 
 across the rugged mountains, toward the lands of the west. 
 In two or three j'-ears the population had doubled. Among 
 the earlier emigrants was one Captain Sutter, who had a 
 large farm on the Sacramento River, where he had planted 
 himself, building a fort, which he called New Helvetia. 
 
 An event was soon to occur, apparently purely accidental, 
 but which now, on looking back upon it, will be recognized 
 as the providential means used by the Ruler of the world 
 for great and beneficial purposes. It had the effect of 
 changing the whole face of the country, of attracting the 
 attention and stirring the feelings of men, not only in 
 America, but in distant lands, and of drawing multitudes to 
 people a region hitherto almost uninhabited, and providing 
 homes, amidst riches and plenty, for vast numbers of the 
 human race. In the course of a few years this event pro- 
 duced results which a century might not have effected in 
 the ordinary march of civilization and rate of progress. 
 
 In the winter of 1847-8 this Captain Sutter was build- 
 ing a saw-mill on the south branch of the Sacramento 
 River. Mr. James Marshall, the contractor to erect the 
 mill, one day let water into the tail-race, in order to deepen 
 
20 Californias First Start, 
 
 the channel. With the water was borne some sand and 
 mud, which was deposited. On looking down, Marshall saw 
 little bright grains among the sand. Picking some of it up, 
 examining it, and noticing its weight, he was certain that 
 he had particles of gold in his hand. Eager with excite- 
 ment, he ran to tell Sutter what he had found. The 
 captain, on hearing his words, and observing his excited 
 manner, thought at first he had gone mad, and kept an eye 
 on his loaded rifle. Marshall soon satisfied him that he 
 was all right, and gave him the gold to examine for him- 
 self. Both were now alike excited, and they hastened to 
 the place, vowing to each other the utmost secrecy. But 
 they did not know that they had been observed. A Mor- 
 mon soldier, who happened to be within sight, was attracted 
 by their movements, and closely watched them from a 
 concealed spot. He was one of a band who had been 
 in the Mexican war, and with his companions was on his 
 way back to the States. The soldiers soon ascertained for 
 themselves what was the cause of excitement in Sutter 
 and Marshall. The secret was out, and rumour began its 
 usual course, with more than usual speed and enlargement. 
 The news spread far and wide that gold was to be had 
 for the picking up in the sands of the " Rio de los Ameri- 
 canos," as that branch of the Sacramento was called in the 
 country. Birds of prey do not more rapidly and mysteriously 
 see or scent from afar the place of feeding than men 
 become aware of the existence of gold. 
 
 Before many days had passed, many hundreds of people 
 could be seen from Sutter's saw-mill, and swarms more 
 day by day arriving in the neighbourhood, armed with spades, 
 shovels, knives, sticks, and wooden bowls, all searching in 
 the stream and the soil for the hidden treasure. As the 
 news spread, the rush increased — Spaniards, Mexicans, 
 Americans. Then the tidings reached remote places ; towns 
 were deserted, ships left crcwless. An American clergy- 
 
California s First Start. 21 
 
 man — Dr. Todd, of Pittsfield — who visited California some 
 years after, and heard on the spot the legends of those days, 
 thus describes the events : — " Oregon on the north, 
 the Sandwich Islands on the west, Peru and Chili 
 on the south, poured in their eager diggers. Then China 
 felt the thrill, and her people flocked over ; Australia sent 
 her convicts and rascals ; and adventurers from all parts of 
 the earth, having nothing to lose, flew to California. The 
 Mexican war had just been closed, and thousands of young 
 men from the soldiery went to the land of gold. The 
 Eastern States caught the fever, and emigrant waggons 
 uncountable hastened over the deserts, leaving the bones of 
 men and of animals to bleach along their path. 
 
 " On — on, to the land of gold ! Ho, for California ! Ships 
 went tossing round Cape Horn full of young men, England, 
 Germany, France, Italy, sent multitudes. At once the east 
 (of the United States) was aroused, and sent fifty thousand 
 men a year for five successive years, and invested ninety- 
 two millions of dollars before any return was made. In a 
 time incredibly short there was at least a quarter of a 
 million of the wildest, bravest, most daring, and most 
 intelligent young men digging for gold. There was no 
 female society, there were no homes to soften or restrain, 
 no laws, no police, and no magistrates. From the lakes 
 of the north to the Gulf of Mexico, from the lumber-mills 
 of Maine to the settler on the Indian territories, the whole 
 land was moved." 
 
 This is no exaggerated statement of the excitement 
 caused by the reported gold discoveries. We well remem- 
 ber the influence of the news even in London Numbers 
 of young men left their situations, and shop-keepers 
 gave up trade, in the hope of getting rich in a more rapid and 
 certain way. It was no uncommon sight to see shutters 
 closed, and a notice posted or chalked up, '' Gone to the 
 diggings," or " Off to California " ! 
 
 Nothing was thought of b}^ these adventurers beyond the 
 
2 2 California s First Start, 
 
 hope of getting gold for the searching. Whether the search 
 would be successful, or whether the game would pay, was 
 seldom considered. It was a far-off land, where there were 
 neither houses nor shops, clothing nor food. Fabulous sums 
 are reported to have been paid for the most trifling articles. 
 As a rare luxury, a so-called " saloon," composed of tar- 
 paulin, could now and then hang out the sign "Potatoes 
 this day," and crowds flocked to the costly entertainment. 
 Apples are known to have sold for five dollars apiece in 
 gold ! '' Easy come, easy go," it was with such expenditure ! 
 
 Worse than costly living, was the fearful gambling among 
 the diggers. Fortunes made in a day were lost in a night 
 in these infamous gambling dens. 
 
 Now and then rumours came of new places where gold 
 had been found. Once, for instance, it was reported that a 
 rich field was in Oregon, in the black sand near the sea- 
 shore. In two days eight vessels from San Francisco were 
 advertised to sail for the Gold Bluffs. The excitement 
 died at once when thousands had been disappointed. 
 
 Long afterwards there were still fresh reports and 
 repeated failures. Who does not remember the Fraser 
 River excitement ? It was a thousand miles away, up in 
 British Columbia, Hundreds started off" at once, in the 
 next month nine thousand five hundred went, and in three 
 months from the first notice nearly twenty thousand had 
 gone from California ! 
 
 This article is not intended to be historical nor statisti- 
 cal, so we say nothing here about the amount of gold that 
 has been obtained since the first year of its being dis- 
 covered, nor of the growth of California in population or in 
 resources. Neither are we going to moralize about the lust 
 of gold, nor the habits and character of the digger. Let it 
 suffice to say that here, as in Australia, and in all countries 
 and periods of the world, the miner's and digger's career 
 is, on the whole, not to be admired or envied. A few find 
 wealth, but the fate of the vast majority is poverty and 
 
Calif ornia s First Start, 23 
 
 disease, disappointment and disaster. The object in recalling 
 this strange time of excitement is not to deal with per- 
 sonal conditions, but to refer to the providential circum- 
 stances by which a new region of the world was occupied, 
 and a mighty increase made in the population and wealth 
 and influence of the great American Republic. That Republic 
 now bears dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, 
 and by the peopling of the Pacific Slope has added a vast 
 territory, available for supporting millions of civilized and 
 Christian men. For with all the faults and vices that pre- 
 vail among men of every race and clime, it is pleasant to 
 think that the influence of the United States is, on the 
 whole, conducive to the peace and prosperity, the civilization 
 and progress of the human race. 
 
 One curious and remarkable incident we must mention 
 before closing this article. At first the digging or gathering 
 of gold and of silver, which was discovered in the Nevada 
 ranges not many years after, was at best a rude and mechani- 
 cal work. For continuing the mining with success and profit, 
 Art had to be used, both in providing machinery and b}^ 
 introducing chemical processes. In the latter case the use ot 
 an enormous quantity of mercury or quicksilver is required. 
 It will add to our admiration of the providential arrange- 
 ment to which we have referred when it is stated that the 
 discovery of vast stores of quicksilver was also the result 
 of what we call a lucky accident. Not long before the gold 
 discovery, a Mexican officer met a tribe of Indians with their 
 faces resplendent with vermilion colour. He knew that this 
 paint comes from cinnabar, an ore of quicksilver. By a 
 bribe, he induced the Indians to show him the place where 
 they got the ore. What followed, and how from the ore 
 the mercury is obtained, and how the rich mines hav^e been 
 utilised, need not here be described ; but we cannot avoid 
 remarking how seasonable this discovery also was, and 
 how it worked along with the gold discovery in securing 
 the settlement of the great State of California. 
 
24 
 
 AT THE COURT OF THE GREAT MOGUL. 
 
 IN the year a.d. 1600, the first charter was granted to 
 the East India Company by Queen Elizabeth. The 
 trade of England with India continuing to increase, King 
 James the First resolved to send an ambassador, or special 
 envoy, to the Emperor of Hindustan, commonly called the 
 Great Mogul. The object of the embassy was to obtain a 
 treaty of peace and amity between the King of Great 
 Britain and his Indian Majesty ; to secure for English sub- 
 jects freedom of trade in all ports of India ; and in various 
 ways to advance the commercial interests of England, by 
 such protection and privileges as could be granted by the 
 mighty Ruler of the East. 
 
 The Mogul of this period was Jehan Guire, the tenth in 
 descent from Timour-Leng (the lame prince), better known 
 as Tamerlane, the renowned conqueror, Timour married 
 the only daughter of those nations or tribes of Great Tartary 
 called Moguls. Hence the name borne by the conquerors 
 and rulers of Hindustan, or Indostan, the country of the 
 Hindus, or Indians. By successive conquests these rulers 
 now bore sway over all the regions from China to the 
 Caspian, and from the mountains to the sea. Candahar, 
 Cashmere, Cabul, the Punjab, Agra, Delhi, Gwalior, Gujerat, 
 Bengal, these are but a few of the principalities and powers 
 mentioned as being under the dominion of Shah Selim 
 Jehan Guire, the Great Mogul, at the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century. The rulers in different regions were 
 not all of the Mogul race ; some were Persians, Arabs, or 
 Turks, while other territories were left under their native 
 Indian rajahs or kings, who were tributaries of the Moham- 
 medan Suzerain, the Great Mogul. 
 
 Sir Thomas Roe was the ambassador sent by James 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul, 25 
 
 the First, having with him many curious and valuable articles 
 from the western world as presents, and accompanied by a 
 small retinue, including a chaplain and an artist. Sir Thomas 
 kept a minute journal of his travels, and of his residence at 
 the court of the Mogul, portions of which are published in 
 various old collections of travels, both in English and foreign 
 languages. The journal extends over three years — 1614, 161 5, 
 1616. Even at this distance of time, and under the strangely- 
 altered conditions of English intercourse with India, there are 
 many things recorded by Sir Thomas Roe full of interest. 
 
 On March 6th, 1614, the Lizard light was lost sight of, 
 and the course begun for the Cape of Good Hope. On the 
 26th the African coast was descried ; Cape Bodajor east 
 by south on the 27th ; April 14th the Line was crossed ; May 
 2nd the tropic of Capricorn; and on June 21st they arrived 
 at the Cape. Saldanha Bay and Penguin Island were the 
 only places at which anchor was cast. At Saldanha 
 the natives are described as '' the most barbarous people in 
 the world," '' eating carrion," " having no clothes but skins 
 wrapped upon their shoulders," and '' their houses but a 
 mat, rounded at the top like an oven, which they turn as 
 the wind changes, having no door to keep it out." There 
 are, at the same time, " cows in abundance, antelopes, baboons, 
 pheasants, wild geese, ducks, and many other sorts." On the 
 Isle of Penguin " is a sort of fowl of that name, that goes 
 upright, his wings without feathers, hanging down like sleeves 
 faced with white. They do not fly, but only walk in parcels, 
 keeping regularly their own quarters. They are a sort 
 of mixture of beast, bird, and fish, but most bird ! " The 
 Table Mountain is described as ''11,853 feet high." "The 
 bay is full of whales and seals." 
 
 They did not stop at the Cape, and on July 8th sighted 
 Madagascar, and anchored on the 22nd at Molalid, one of 
 the Comorese Islands. Of the Arab people inhabiting these 
 islands, with their government, customs, products, and their 
 trade with the Mozambique mainland, details are given. On 
 
26 At the Court of the Great Mogul, 
 
 August the 2nd they weighed and stood for Socotora ; recross- 
 ing the equinoctial line northward on the loth; making 
 Cape Guardafui, at the entrance to the Red Sea, on the 
 1 8th, and coming to anchor in Delicia Bay, Socotora, on the 
 24th August. Socotora, or Socotra, is the Dioscuria of the 
 ancients, well known in their commerce and navigation. The 
 people then, as now, being Mohammedans, were ruled by 
 an Arab Sultan, son of a great sheikh in Arabia Felix. The 
 king received the English embassy with much courtesy, 
 coming to the shore on horseback with about three hundred 
 men, armed some with muskets, some with bows, and all 
 with good swords." " He had a very good turban, but was 
 barefooted." '' He was so absolute that no man could sell 
 anything but himself, his people sitting about him very 
 respectfully." Mr. Boughton, one of the embassy, went to 
 see the king's house at the chief town — Tamara. He found 
 it "such as would serve an ordinary gentleman in England. 
 The lower rooms served for warehouses and wardrobe, 
 some changes of robes hanging about the walls, and with them 
 about twenty-five books of their law, religion, history, and 
 saints' lives. No man was permitted to go upstairs to see 
 his wives, which were three, nor the other women ; 
 but the ordinary sort might be seen in the town, with their 
 ears full of silver rings." For dinner Mr. Boughton had fowl 
 with rice, and for drink water and " cahu, black liquor, drank 
 as hot as could be endured " — no doubt cafe noiVy or coffee, with 
 which evidently Sir Thomas Roe was not acquainted. A 
 priest was at service in the mosque, which they visited. 
 Some remains were seen of crosses and images, showing 
 that Christians formerly had been in the island. Some of 
 the older inhabitants of the island were seen — a poor, 
 unclothed, savage people. Aloes and certain gums seemed 
 the chief trade products of the island. 
 
 They weighed anchor on August 31st, and steered their 
 course for Surat, where they landed on the 26th of September. 
 Surat, near the mouth of the river Taptce, which flows 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul, 27 
 
 into the Gulf of Cambay, was in old times the chief port on 
 the western side of India, being then, as Bombay now is 
 the first place reached by all voyagers by the Red Sea 
 route. It is still the favourite port for the embarcation of 
 Mohammedan pilgrims to Mecca. . On the arrival of the 
 English ambassador, he was received by the principal 
 officers of the town in an open tent. Much discussion took 
 place as to the payment of duties, and searching the persons 
 of the servants of the ambassador ; but at last all were per- 
 mitted to proceed to a house provided for them, where they 
 remained till the 30th of October, '' suffering much," says 
 Sir Thomas Roe, " from the Governor, who by force searched 
 many chests, and took out what he thought fit." What caused 
 so long a tarrying as five weeks is not explained, but possibly 
 the Governor had despatched swift messengers to announce 
 the arrival of the unusual and important strangers on the coast. 
 
 They left Surat " on the 30th aforesaid," and travelled verj^ 
 leisurely northward towards Ajmere, or Adsmere as Sir 
 Thomas calls it, where the Court of the Mogul then was. 
 It was not till near the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 under Shah Jehan, son of Jehan Guire, that new Delhi rose 
 near the ruins of the ancient Delhi, and attained to the 
 magnificence it reached in and after the reign of Shah Jehan, 
 of his son Aurungzebe, and of later Moguls. 
 
 Of the journey to Ajmere we must give very brief notice, as 
 our space will be better occupied with particulars about the 
 Mogul and his court. On the third day after leaving Surat 
 they entered the kingdom of '' Pardassha, a pagan lord of 
 the hills, subject to nobody," — for there were some of the 
 ancient people, as everywhere in mountain countries, who 
 long retain freedom and independence. Six days from Surat; 
 at Nunderbar, they tasted bread for the first time on the 
 journey, as " the Banians who inhabit the country make no 
 bread, but only cakes. The country is plentiful, especi- 
 ally of cattle, the banians killing none or selling any to 
 be killed. One day I met ten thousand bullocks loaded 
 
28 At the Court of the Great Mogid. 
 
 with corn, in one drove, and most days after lesser 
 parcels." At one place, having pitched the tents outside a 
 town or village, " the king's officers attended me all night 
 with thirty horse and twenty shot (armed men), for fear of 
 the robbers on the mountains, because I refused to remove 
 into the town." The towns were mostly collections of mud- 
 built huts, with stone buildings occasionally, when there 
 were persons of importance or wealth. On the fourteenth 
 day they reached '' Brampore," " which I guess to be 223 
 miles from Surat." At Batharpore, a village two miles 
 short of Brampore, there was a prince, or rajah, to whose 
 presence he was conducted. '' The officer told me as I 
 approached I must touch the ground with my head bare, 
 which I refused, and went on to a place right under him, 
 railed in, with an ascent of three steps, where I made him 
 reverence, and he bowed his body ; so I went within, where 
 were all the great men of the town, with their hands before 
 them like slaves. The place was covered overhead with a 
 rich canopy, and under foot all with carpets. It was like a 
 great stage, and the prince sat at the upper end of it. Having 
 no place assigned, I stood right before him, he refusing to 
 admit me to come up the steps, or to allow me a chair. 
 Having received my presents, he offered to go into another 
 room, where I should be allowed to sit ; but, by the way 
 he made himself drunk out of a case of bottles I gave him, 
 and so the visit ended." 
 
 In some parts of the journey, ruins of great extent and 
 apparent magnificence were seen, *' fair towers, many pillars, 
 and innumerable houses, but not one inhabitant." This was 
 in the country of Rama, '' a prince newly subdued by the 
 Mogul, or rather brought to own subjection." This was in the 
 time of Echar Shah, father of Jehan Guire. Rama was said to 
 be lineally descended from Porus, the Indian king, overcome 
 by Alexander the Great. The rest of the journey was in a north- 
 westerly direction '' to compass the hills," but after that due 
 north again, the whole distance to Ajmer being estimated at 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul. 29 
 
 about 418 English miles. Ten months had passed since the 
 Embassy left England, and at last they had come near the 
 presence of the Great Mogul. We now use the words of Sir 
 Thomas Roe. 
 
 January the loth, I went to court at four in the afternoon to 
 the Durbar, where the Mogul daily sits to entertain strangers, 
 receive petitions and presents, give out orders, and to see and 
 be seen. And here it will be proper to give some account of 
 his court. None but eunuchs come within that king's private 
 lodgings, and his women, who guard him with warlike 
 weapons. These punish one another for any offence com- 
 mitted. The Mogul every morning shows himself to the 
 common people at a window that looks into the plain before 
 his gate. At noon he is there again to see elephants and 
 wild beasts fight, the men of rank being under him within 
 a rail. Hence he retires to sleep. After noon he comes to 
 the Durbar aforementioned. After supper at eight of the 
 clock he comes down to the Guzalcan, a fair court, in the 
 midst whereof is a throne of free stone, on which he sits, or 
 sometimes below in a chair, where none are admitted but of 
 the first quality, and few of them without leave. Here he 
 discourses of indifferent things very affably. No business of 
 state is done anywhere but at one of these two last places, 
 where it is publicly canvassed, and so registered; which 
 register might be seen for two shillings, and the common 
 people know as much as the council; so that every day the 
 king's resolutions are the public news, and exposed to the 
 censure of every scoundrel. This method is never altered 
 unless sickness or drink obstruct it ; and this must be known, 
 for if he be unseen one day without a reason assigned, the 
 people would mutiny ; and for two days no excuse will serve, 
 but the doors must be opened, and some admitted to see him 
 to satisfy others. On Tuesday he sits in judgment at the 
 Jarruco, and hears the meanest person's complaints, examines 
 both parties, and often sees execution done by his elephants. 
 
 Before my audience, I had obtained leave to use the customs 
 
1 
 
 o A^ tJie Court of the Gixat Mogul. 
 
 of my country. At the Durbar I was conducted right before 
 him ; entering the outward rail, two noble slaves met to 
 conduct me nearer. At the first rail I made a low reverence, 
 at the next another, and when under the king a third. The 
 place is a great court, to which all sorts of people resort. The 
 king sits in a little gallery overhead ; ambassadors, great 
 men, and strangers of quality within the inmost rail under 
 him, raised from the ground, covered with canopies of velvet 
 and silk, and good carpets under foot. The next degree, like 
 our gentry, are within the first rail, the commonalty without in 
 a lower court, yet so that all may see the king. In fine, it is 
 rising by degrees like a theatre. His reception was very 
 favourable, but needs not particularizing. 
 
 The next day being the 12th of March, I went to visit the 
 king, and delivered him a present, where I saw abundance of 
 wealth, but being of all sorts put together without order, it did 
 not look so regular. The same day the son of Rama, the new 
 tributary before mentioned, did his homage, touching the 
 ground three times with his head. The thirteenth at night I 
 had audience at the Guzalcan, and pressed to have the peace 
 and commerce with England settled after a solemn manner, 
 and all the articles settled, which the Mogul ordered should be 
 done. The fifteenth I went again in the evening to the Norose, 
 and according to the Mogul's order chose my place of standing, 
 which was on the right hand of him on the rising of the throne, 
 the Prince and young Rama standing on the other side; so I 
 had a full view ol what was to be seen — presents, elephants, 
 horses, and women. The twenty-third the Mogul condemned 
 one of his own nation upon suspicion of felony ; but being one 
 of the handsomest men in India, and the evidence not very 
 clear against him, he would not sufter him to be executed, but 
 sent him to me in irons for a slave to dispose of at my will. 
 This is looked upon as a great favour, for which I returned 
 thanks : adding, that in England we had no slaves, nor thought 
 it lawful to make the image of God equal to a beast, but that I 
 would use him as a servant, and if he behaved himself well, 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul. 31 
 
 give him his hberty. This the Mogul was well pleased with. 
 The twenty-sixth I went to the Guzalcan, and delivered the 
 articles I had drawn up, which were referred to Asaph Chan, 
 who a while after sent to me to remove from the standing I 
 had taken before the king, because I stood alone, and that was 
 not the custom. I refused at first, but he insisting I should 
 rank myself among the nobility, I removed to the other side, 
 to the place where only the Prince and young Rama were ; 
 which more disgusted Asaph Chan, who persuaded the Prince 
 to complain of me, which he did; but the Mogul having heard 
 their complaint, and my answer, that I removed by Asaph 
 Chan's order, answered, I had done well, and they were in the 
 wrong to offer to displace me in his sight. So I kept my 
 place in quiet. 
 
 The substance of the articles delivered to the Great Mogul 
 was : I. That there be perpetual peace and amity between the 
 King of Great Britain and His Indian Majesty. 2. That the 
 subjects of England have free trade in all ports of India. 3. 
 That the governors of all ports publish this agreement three 
 times upon the arrival of any English ships. 4. That the 
 merchants and their servants shall not be searched, or ill used. 
 5. That no presents sent to the Mogul shall be opened. 6. 
 That the English goods shall not be stopped above twenty-four 
 hours at the custom-house, only to be there sealed and sent to 
 the merchant's house, there to be opened and rated within six 
 days after. 7. That no governor shall take any goods by 
 force, but upon payment at the owner's price ; nor any taken 
 upon pretence of the king's service. 8. That the merchants 
 shall not be hindered selling their goods to whom they please, 
 or sending them to other factories, and this without paying 
 any other duty than what is paid at the port. 9. That what- 
 soever goods the English buy in any part of the Mogul's 
 dominions, they may send down to the ports without paying 
 any duty more than shall be agreed on at the port at shipping 
 them, and this without any hindrance or molestation. 10. 
 That no goods brought to any port shall be again opened, the 
 
32 At the Cozirt of the Great Mogul. 
 
 English showing a certificate of their numbers, qualities, and 
 conditions, from the governor or officers of the place where 
 they were bought, ii. That no confiscation shall be made of 
 the goods or money of any English dying. 12. That no 
 custom be demanded for provisions during the stay of English 
 ships at any port. 13. That the merchants' servants, whether 
 English or Indians, shall not be punished or beaten for doing 
 their duty. 14. That the Mogul will punish any governor or 
 officer for breach of any of these articles. 15, That the 
 English ships shall suffer all others to pass and repass freely 
 to the Mogul's ports, except their enemies ; and that the 
 English ashore shall behave themselves civilly as merchants. 
 16. That they shall yearly furnish the Mogul with all rarities 
 from Europe, and all other such things as he shall desire at 
 reasonable prices. 17. The English to pay the duty of 
 3^ per cent, for goods reasonably rated, and 2 per 
 cent, for pieces of eight, and no other duty elsewhere. 18. 
 That the English shall be ready to assist the Mogul against all 
 his enemies. Lastly, That the Portuguese may come into this 
 peace within six months ; or if they refuse, the English to be 
 at liberty to exercise all hostilities against them. These were 
 the articles presented, but they were delayed and opposed, and 
 what was the conclusion we shall see hereafter. 
 
 The 31st of March the Mogul dined at Asaph Chan's house, 
 all the way from the palace to it, which was an English mile, 
 being laid under foot with silks and velvets sewed together, 
 but rolled up as the King passed. They reported the feast 
 and present cost six leeks (lacs) of rupees, which is ;j^6o,ooo 
 sterling.* 
 
 From this time Sir Thomas Roe continues his journal as 
 before ; but there being nothing in it remarkable for many 
 days, all the business being soliciting for money due to mer- 
 chants, and such other affairs, in which there is nothing worth 
 
 * Thevenot says a lac is ioo,oOo rupees, and a rupee worth a crown 
 French and five sols, after which rate the six lacs must have been in those 
 days at least £150000 sterling. The rupee is now less than zs. 
 
At the Co2U't of the G^^eat Mogul. ^-i^ 
 
 observing, "that part is thought fit to be wholly left out 
 here, as it was also done by Purchas in his account of this 
 embassy. 
 
 The month of July passed most away in soliciting the prince 
 to sign and seal the articles I had presented to the king, of 
 which an abstract was given before. On the 13th at night I 
 went to the Durbar to visit the king, who sent Asaph Chan to 
 tell me he was informed I had an excellent painter at my 
 house, which I told him was only a young man that drew upon 
 paper, and that very indifferently ; however, I promised to 
 bring him to His Majesty, who at this time used so many 
 expressions of kindness to me that all men were amazed at it, 
 and proffered me anything I would ask for in his kingdom. I 
 went from him to Asaph Chan's house, where I continued till 
 the king came out again, when I was conducted back to him, 
 carrying with me Mr. Hughes, the supposed painter, with whom 
 the king had some discourse. After this I presented the king 
 with a curious picture I had of a friend of mine, which pleased 
 him highly, and he showed it to all the company. The king's 
 chief painter being sent for, pretended he could make as good ; 
 which I denying, a wager of a horse was laid about it between 
 me and Asaph Chan, in the Mogul's presence and to please 
 him ; but Asaph Chan afterwards fell off. This done, the 
 Mogul fell to drinking of Alicant wine I had presented him, 
 giving tastes of it to several about him, and then sent for a full 
 bottle, and drinking a cup, sent it to me, saying, it began to 
 sour so fast it would be spoiled before he could drink it, and 
 I had none. This done, he turned to sleep ; the candles were 
 popped out, and I groped my way out in the dark. 
 
 Nothing remarkable happened till August the 6th : I was 
 sent for to the Durbar, where I had much talk with the king, 
 who asked me many questions to satisfy his curiosity, and bid 
 me come to the Guzalcan at night, and I should see my picture 
 so exactly copied, that I should not know the one from the 
 other. I came at night, and he showed me six pictures, five of 
 them painted by his own painter, all pasted upon a board, and 
 
 3 
 
54 ^i ifi^ CoM7't of the Great Mogtd. 
 
 so like, that by candle-light I could scarce know* one from 
 another. Neither did I at first sight know my own, at which 
 the Mogul was much pleased ; but looking closer upon them I 
 showed it, and the difference between it and the others. The 
 Mogul was overjoyed, and I surprised at their art, not thinking 
 they could have performed so well ; and the king, after many 
 civilities, promised me his own picture. 
 
 The 17th I went to visit the king, who as soon as I came in, 
 called to his women, and reached out his own picture set in 
 gold, hanging at a gold wire chain, with one pendant of foul 
 pearl, which he delivered to Asaph Chan, warning him not to 
 demand any reverence of me, but what I was willing to make ; 
 it being the custom, whensoever he bestows anything, for the 
 receiver to kneel down, and put his head to the ground, which 
 has been required of the ambassadors of Persia. Asaph Chan 
 came to me, and I offered to take it in my hand ; but he made 
 signs to take off my hat, and then he put it about my neck, 
 leading me right before the king. I understood not his mean- 
 ing, but feared he would require the custom of the country 
 mentioned above, which they call Size-Da, and was resolved 
 rather to return my present than submit to it. He made signs 
 to me to give the king thanks, which I did after my own 
 manner ; whereupon some officers called to me to make the 
 Size-Da, but the king in the Persian tongue said. No, no. So 
 I returned to my place ; but that you may judge of the king's 
 liberality, this gift was not worth in all ^30 ; yet was it five 
 times as good as any he gives in that sort, and looked upon as 
 a special favour. For all the great men that wear the king's 
 image, which none may do but those to whom it is given, 
 receive only a medal of gold, as big as a sixpence, with a little 
 chain of four inches to fasten it on their heads, and this at 
 their own charge; some set it with stones, or adorn it with 
 pendants of pearls. 
 
 The 2nd of September was the king's birthday, and 
 kept with great solemnity. On this day the king is weighed 
 against some jewels, gold, silver, stuffs of gold, silver, and silk, 
 
At the Coitrt of the Great Moguo. 35 
 
 butter, rice, fruit, and many other things, of every sort a little, 
 which is all given to the Bramas or Bramans. The king com- 
 manded Asaph Chan to send for me to this solemnity, who 
 appointed me to come to the place where the king sits at 
 Durbar, and I should be sent for in ; but the messenger mis- 
 taking, I went not till Durbar time, and so missed the sight ; 
 but being there before the king came out, as soon as he spied 
 me, he sent to know the reason why I came not in, since he 
 had ordered it. I answered according to the mistake, yet he 
 was very angry, and chid Asaph Chan publicly. He was so 
 rich in jewels, that I own in my life I never saw such inestim- 
 able wealth together. The time was spent in bringing his 
 greatest elephants before him ; some of which being lord 
 elephants, had their chains, bells, and furniture of gold and 
 silver, with many gilt banners and flags carried about them, 
 and eight or ten elephants waiting on each of them, clothed in 
 gold, silk, and silver. In this manner about twelve companies 
 passed by most richly adorned, the first having all the plates 
 on his head and breast set with rubies and emeralds, being a 
 beast of wonderful bulk and beauty. They all bowed down 
 before the king, making their reverence very handsomely ; 
 this was the finest show of beasts I ever saw. The keepers of 
 every chief elephant gave a present. Than having made me 
 some favourable compliments, he rose up and went in. At 
 night, about ten of the clock, he sent for me. I was then abed. 
 The message was, that he heard I had a picture which I had 
 not showed him, desiring me to come to him and bring it ; 
 and if I would not give it him, he would order copies of it to 
 be taken for his women. I got up, and carried it with me. 
 When I came in, I found him sitting cross-legged on a little 
 throne, all covered with diamonds, pearls, and rubies. Before 
 him a table of gold, and on it about fifty pieces of gold plate, 
 all set with jewels, some very great and extremely rich, some 
 of them of less value, but all of them almost covered with 
 small stones. His nobility about him in their best equipage, 
 whom he commanded to drink merrily, several sorts of wine 
 
36 At the Court of the Great Mogul, 
 
 standing by in great flagons. When I drew near, he asked 
 for the picture. I showed him two ; he seemed astonished at 
 one of them, and asked whose it was. I told him a friend of 
 mine that was dead. He asked if I would give it him. I 
 answered I valued it above all things, but if His Majesty would 
 pardon me, and accept of the other, which was an excellent 
 piece, I would willingly bestow it on His Majesty. He thanked 
 me, and said he desired none but that picture, and if I would 
 give it him, he should prize it above the richest jewel in his 
 house. I replied, I was not so fond of anything, but I would 
 part with it to please His Majesty, with other expressions 
 of respect. He bowed to me, and said it was enough, I had 
 given it him ; that he owned he had never seen so much art, 
 so much beauty, and conjured me to tell him truly, whether 
 ever such a woman lived. I assured him there did, but she 
 was now dead. He said he should show it his women, and 
 take five copies, and if I knew my own I should have it again. 
 Other compliments passed, but he would restore it, his painters 
 being excellent at copying in water-colours. The other 
 picture being in oil, he did not like. Then he sent me word it 
 was his birthday, and all men made merry, and asked 
 whether I would drink with them. I answered, I would do 
 whatsoever His Majesty commanded, and wished him many 
 happy days, and that the ceremony might be renewed a hun- 
 dred years. He asked me whether I would drink wine of the 
 grape, or made, whether strong or small. I replied, what he 
 commanded, but hoped it would not be too much, nor too 
 strong. Then he called for a gold cup full of mixed wine, half 
 of the grape and half artificial, and drank ; causing it to be 
 filled again, and then sent it by one of the nobles to me with 
 this message, that I should drink it off twice, thrice, four or 
 five times for his sake, and accept of the cup and appurtenances 
 as a present. I drank a little, but it was stronger than any I 
 ever tasted ; insomuch that it made me sneeze, which made 
 him laugh ; and he called for raisins, almonds, and sliced 
 lemons, which were brought me on a gold plate, bidding me 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul, ij 
 
 eat and drink what I would, and no more. I made reverence 
 for my present after my own manner, though Asaph Chan 
 would have had me kneel, and knock my head against the 
 ground ; but His Majesty accepted of what I did. The cup 
 was of gold, set all about with small rubies and Turkey stones, 
 the cover with large rubies, emeralds, and Turkey stones in 
 curious works, and a dish suitable to set the cup on. The 
 value I know not, because the stones are many of them small, 
 and the greater, which are many, not all clean ; but they are in 
 number about two thousand, and the gold about twenty ounces. 
 
 Thus he made merry, and sent word he esteemed me more 
 than ever he had done, and asked whether I was merry at 
 eating the wild boar sent me a few days before, how I dressed 
 it, what I drank, assuring me I should want for nothing in his 
 country : the effects of all which his public favours I presently' 
 found in the behaviour of all his nobility. Then he threw 
 about to those that stood below two chargers of new rupees, 
 and among us two charges of hollow almonds of gold and 
 silver mixed ; but I would not scramble, as his great men did, 
 for I saw his son take up none. Then he gave sashes of gold 
 and girdles to all the musicians and waiters, and to man}- 
 others. So drinking, and commanding others to do the same. 
 His Majesty and all his lords became the finest men I ever saw, 
 of a thousand several humours. But his son, Asaph Chan, 
 two old men, the late King of Candahar, and myself forebore. 
 When he could hold up his head no longer, he laid down to 
 sleep, and we all departed. 
 
 Seven months were now spent in soliciting the signing and 
 sealing of the articles of peace and commerce set down above, 
 and nothing obtained but promises from week to week, and 
 from day to day; and therefore on the 3rd September, the 
 English fleet being hourly expected at Surat, I went to the 
 prince, and delivered him a memorial containing the articles I 
 desired him to give an order to be observed for the unloading 
 of the ships. The articles were. 
 
 First, That the presents coming for the king and prince 
 
38 At the Court of the Great Mogul. 
 
 should not be opened at the port, but sent up to court sealed 
 by the custom-house officers. 
 
 Secondly, That curiosities sent for other presents, and for 
 the merchants to sell, should also be sent up to court sealed, 
 for the prince to take the first choice. 
 
 Thirdly, That the gross merchandize be landed, reasonably 
 rated for the custom, and not detained in the custom-house ; 
 but that the merchants paying the custom have full liberty to 
 sell or dispose of it ; and that the ships be supplied with pro- 
 visions without paying custom. 
 
 On the 4th, Asaph Chan sent me back my first articles, after 
 so long attendance and so many false promises, some of them 
 altered, others struck out, and an answer, that there was no 
 articling at all, but it was enough to have an order from the 
 prince, who was Lord ofSurat, to trade there : but forBengala 
 or Syndu, it should never be granted. Notwithstanding all 
 this vexation, I durst not change my method of proceeding, or 
 wholly quit the prince and Asaph Chan : therefore I drew up 
 other articles, leaving out what was displeasing in the former, 
 and desiring Asaph Chan to put them in form, and procure 
 the seal, or else to give me leave to apply myself to the king, 
 to receive his denial, and depart the country. The substance 
 of the new articles was as follows. That all the subjects of 
 the Mogul should receive the English in friendly manner; to 
 suffer them to land their goods peaceably; to furnish them 
 with provisions for their money, without paying any customs 
 for them ; to have liberty, after paying custom for their goods, 
 to sell them to any person, and none to oblige them to sell any 
 under rate ; to have liberty to pass with such goods to any 
 parts, without anything being exacted further of them more 
 than at the port ; to have the presents for the Mogul and prince 
 sealed without opening, and sent to the ambassador ; to have 
 the goods of any that die secured from confiscation, and 
 delivered to the other English factors ; and in short, that no 
 injury in any sort be offered to any of them. 
 
 The 8th of this month, Asaph Chan sent me word in plain 
 
At the Court of the Great MogtiL 39 
 
 terms he would procure nothing for me sealed ; but I might 
 be satisfied with an order signed by the prince : which made 
 me resolve to apply myself directly to the prince, and apply 
 no more to Asaph Chan. Accordingly I was with the prince 
 the loth, and the nth he sent me an order, but so altered 
 from what I had given in, that I sent it back. But at night I 
 received a new order from the secretary, containing all my 
 articles; though some words were somewhat ambiguous, 
 which the secretary interpreted favourably, and at my request, 
 writ to the Governor of Surat, explaining them to him as he 
 had done to me. He gave me many assurances of the prince's 
 favour ; and being a man not subject to bribery, I gave the more 
 credit to him. So I accepted of the order, which, when trans- 
 lated, I found very effectual. The i6th I visited the prince, 
 resolving to seem wholly to depend on him, till I had heard 
 what entertainment our ships met with. I found him sad for 
 fear of Prince Pervis coming to court, be being but eight cosses 
 from it ; but the power of Normahal, the favourite queen, 
 diverted it, and he was ordered away directly to Bengala. 
 The Mogul was retired, but whither no man could certainly 
 tell. 
 
 Several days passed in soliciting the king and great ones, 
 and paying court to them, without anything remarkable ; till 
 on the 9th of October I received letters from Surat with an 
 account that four English ships were arrived there. 
 
 T^he ships brought much merchandise, but difficulties were 
 made in disposing of them, for want of the treaty having been 
 formally signed and sealed. It was evident that Asaph Chan 
 and the other courtiers hindered the Mogul from carrying out 
 his original purpose of settling matters favourably. In fact. 
 Sir Thomas Roe had to leave, after long delay, without accom- 
 plishing what the embassy had been sent to do. But this is 
 not the main object of our narrative, which is chiefly to report 
 some of the strange records given of the proceedings at the 
 court of the Mogul. In the following year the ambassador 
 was more fortunate in witnessing the ceremonies at the cele- 
 
40 At the Cotirt of the Great Mogul, 
 
 bration of the royal birthday, especially the public weighing, 
 which is thus described : — 
 
 The I St of September being the king's birthday, with the 
 solemnity of weighing him, I was conducted into a fine garden, 
 where besides others there was a great square pond with trees 
 set about it, and in the midst of it a pavilion or tent, under 
 which were the scales the king was to be weighed in. The 
 scales were of beaten gold, set with small stones, rubies, and 
 turquoises ; they hung by chains of gold, and for more surety 
 there were silk ropes. The beams were covered with plates 
 of gold. The great lords of the nation sat about the throne on 
 rich carpets, expecting the king's coming out. At length he 
 appeared covered with diamonds, rubies, and pearls. He had 
 several strings of them about his neck, arms, wrists, and turban, 
 and two or three rings on every finger. His sword, buckler, 
 and throne were also covered with precious stones. Among 
 the rest I saw rubies as big as walnuts, and pearls of a prodi- 
 gious magnitude. He got into one of the scales, sitting on his 
 legs like a tailor. Into the other scales to weigh against him, 
 were put several parcels, which they changed six times. The 
 country people told me they were full of silver, and that the 
 king that day weighed 9,000 rupees. Then they put into the 
 same scale gold and precious stones ; but being packed up I 
 saw them not. After that he was weighed against cloth of 
 gold, silks, calicoes, spices, and all other sorts of precious 
 commodities, if we may believe the natives, for all those things 
 were packed up. Lastly, he was weighed against honey, 
 butter, and corn ; and I was informed all that was to be 
 distributed among the Banians ; but I think that distribution 
 was not made, and all those things were carefully carried back. 
 They told me all the money was kept for the poor, the king 
 using to cause some to be brought at night, and to distribute 
 that money among them very charitably. Whilst the king 
 was in one of the scales, he looked upon me and smiled, but 
 said never a word, perhaps because he did not see my inter- 
 preter, who could not get in with me. After being weighed, 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul, 41 
 
 he ascended the throne. Before him there were basins full of 
 ahnonds, nuts, and all sorts of fruit artificially made in silver. 
 He threw about a great part of them, the greatest noblemen 
 about him scrambled for them. I thought it not decent to do 
 so ; and the king observing it, took up one of those basins 
 which was almost full, and poured it out into my cloak. His 
 courtiers had the impudence to thrust in their hands so greedily, 
 that had I not prevented them, they had not left me one. 
 Before I came in, they had told me those fruits were of massive 
 gold ; but I found by experience they were only silver, and so 
 light, that a thousand of them do not weigh the value of ^20. 
 I saved the value of ten or twelve crowns, and those would 
 have filled a large dish. I keep them to show the vanity of 
 those people. I do not believe the king that day threw away 
 much above the value of ^100. After this solemnity, the king 
 spent all the night a-drinking with his nobles : I was invited, 
 but desired to be excused, because there was no avoiding drink- 
 ing, and their liquors are so hof^they will burn a man's inside. 
 
 The Journal kept by Sir Thomas Roe ends rather abruptly, 
 the concluding portion having been lost. The last entry is as 
 follows : — 
 
 ** January the 30th the Dutch came to court with a present 
 of several rarities brought out of China. They were not per- 
 mitted to come near the third ascent. The prince asked me 
 who they were. I told him they were Dutch, and lived at 
 Surat. He asked whether they were our friends. I answered, 
 they were a nation that depended on the King of England, and 
 were not well received in all parts ; that I knew not what 
 brought them thither. Since they are your friends, said he, 
 call them. I was forced to send for them to deliver their 
 presents. They were placed near our merchants, without 
 holding any discourse with them." 
 
 Sir Thomas Roe seems soon after this to have left the court 
 of the Mogul, not without sending reports to the East India Com- 
 pany. The first letter, dated at Adsmere or Ajmere, January 
 25th, 161 5, was as^follows : — 
 
42 At the Coitrt of the Great Mogul, 
 
 "At my first audience, the Mogul prevented me in speech, 
 bidding me welcome as to the brother of the king my master ; 
 and after many compliments I delivered His Majesty's letter, 
 with a copy of it in Persian ; then I showed my commission, 
 and delivered your presents, that is, the coach, the virginals, 
 the knives, a scarf embroidered, and a rich sword of my own. 
 He sitting in his state could not well see the coach, but sent 
 many to view it, and caused the musician to play on the virgi- 
 nals, which gave him content. At night, having stayed the 
 coachman and musician, he came down into a court, got into 
 the coach, and into every corner of it, causing it to be drawn 
 about. Then he sent to me, though it was ten o'clock at night, 
 for a servant to put on his scarf and sword after the English 
 fashion, which he was so proud of, that he walked up and 
 down, drawing and flourishing it, and has never since been 
 without it. But after the English were come away, he 
 asked the Jesuit whether the King of England were a great 
 king, that sent presents of scKsmall value, and that he looked 
 for some jewels ; yet rarities please as well ; and if you were 
 yearly furnished from Frankfort, where there are all sorts of 
 knacks and new devices, a hundred pounds would go further 
 than five hundred laid out in England, and be more acceptable 
 here. This country is spoiled by the many presents that have 
 been given, and it will be chargeable to follow the example. 
 There is nothing more welcome here, nor did I ever see men 
 so fond of drink, as the king and prince are of red wine, 
 whereof the governor of Surat sent up some bottles, and the 
 king has ever since solicited for more : I think four or five 
 casks of that wine will be more welcome than the richest jewel 
 in Cheapside ; large pictures on cloth, the frames in pieces, 
 but they must be good, and for variety some story with many 
 faces. For the queen, fine needle-work toys, bone laces, cut- 
 work, and some handsome wrought waistcoats, sweet-bags, 
 and cabinets will be most convenient. I would wish you to 
 spare sending scarlet, it is dear to you, and no better 
 esteemed here than stammel. I must add, that any fair 
 
At the Court of the Great Mogul, 43 
 
 China bedsteads, or cabinets, or trunks of Japan, are here 
 rich presents. 
 
 This place is either made, or of itself unfit for an ambassador ; 
 for though they understand the character, yet they have much 
 ado to understand the privileges due to it, and the 1-ather 
 because they have been too humbly sought to before." 
 
 The latest letter to the Company ends in similar strains of 
 disappointment. 
 
 " I will settle your trade here secure with the king, and 
 reduce it to order, if I may be heard ; when I have so done, I 
 must plead against myself, that an ambassador lives not in fit 
 honour here. I could sooner die than be subject to the slavery 
 the Persian is content with. A meaner agent would, among 
 these proud Moors, better effect your business. My quality 
 often for ceremonies, either begets you enemies, or suffers 
 unworthily. The king has often demanded an ambassador 
 from Spain, but could never obtain one, for two reasons ; first, 
 because they would not give presents unworthy their king's 
 greatness ; next, they knew his reception should not answer 
 his quality. I have moderated according to my discretion, but 
 with a swoln heart. Half my charge shall corrupt all this 
 court to be your slaves. 
 
 The best way to do your business in this court is to find 
 some Mogul that you may entertain for a thousand rupees a 
 year, as your solicitor at court. He must be authorised by the 
 king, and then he will serve you better than ten ambassadors. 
 Under him you must allow five hundred rupees for another at 
 your port to follow the governor, and customers, and to adver- 
 tise his chief at court. These two will effect all, for your 
 other smaller residencies are not subject to much inconveni- 
 ency." 
 
 Such is the account of the first intercourse of the English 
 with the Great Mogul. The son of Jehan Guire moved his 
 court to Delhi, where a new and magnificent capital was built 
 near the site of the more ancient city. 
 
44 
 
 THE GREAT MOSQUE OF DELHI, AND THE TAJ MEHAL 
 » AT AGRA. 
 
 THE first European whose visit to new Delhi is recorded 
 was a Frenchman, M. Bernier, who was there in the 
 time of Aurungzebe, grandson of Jehan Guire. The history 
 of his voyage to the East Indies is full of curious matter, and 
 his account of the new capital, and also of the city of Agra, 
 has much interest, as being the earliest description of places 
 so familiar in subsequent annals of India. We quote on this 
 ground the Frenchman's description of the two celebrated 
 buildings so often described by later travellers — the great 
 Mosque of Delhi, and the Taj Mehal at Agra — the latter being 
 the tomb of Shah Jehan's favourite wife Normahal. 
 
 The great Mosque is seen afar off in the midst of the town, 
 standing upon a rock, flatted to build upon, and to make round 
 about a large place for four long and fair streets to end upon, 
 and answering to the four sides of the Mosque — viz., one to the 
 principal gate, or frontispiece, another behind that, and the 
 two others to the two gates that are in the middle of the two 
 remaining sides. To come to the gates, there are twenty-five 
 or thirty steps of fair and large stones going round about, 
 except the back part, which is covered with other great quarry- 
 stones to cover the unevenness of the cut rock. The three 
 entries are stately, there is nothing but marble, and their large 
 gates are covered with copper-plates exceedingly well wrought. 
 Above the principal gate, which is much statelier than the two 
 others, there are many small turrets of white marble as well 
 without as within ; that in the middle is much bigger and 
 higher than the two others. All the rest of the Mosque. I 
 mean from these three domes unto the great gate, is without 
 covering, because of the heat of the country ; and the whole 
 pavement is of large squares of marble. I grant willingly, 
 that this structure is not according to the rules and orders of 
 
The Great Mosque of Delhi. 45 
 
 architecture, which we esteem is indispensably to be followed ; 
 yet I observe nothing in it that offends the eye; but rather 
 find all to be well contrived, and well proportioned : and I do 
 even believe, that if in Paris we had a church of this way of 
 architecture, it would not be disliked, if there were nothing else 
 in it but that it is of an extraordinary and surprising aspect, 
 and because that, excepting the three great domes and all the 
 turrets, which are of white marble, it appears all red, as if all 
 were nothing else but great tables of red marble, though it be 
 nothing else but a stone very easy to cut, and which even 
 flaketh off in time. 
 
 This Mosque it is to which the king repaireth every Friday 
 (which is the Sunday of the Mahometans) to pay his devotion. 
 Before he goes out of the fortress, the streets he is to pass are 
 constantly watered because of the heat and dust. Two or 
 three hundred musqueteers are to stand and make a lane about 
 the gate of the fortress, and as many more on the sides of a 
 great street that ends at the Mosque. Their musquets are 
 small, but well wrought, and they have a kind of scarlet-case 
 with a little streamer upon them. Besides there must be five 
 or six cavaliers well mounted ready at the gate, and ride at a 
 good distance before the king, for fear of raising dust ; and 
 their office is to keep off the people. Things being thus pre- 
 pared, the king is seen to come out of the fortress seated upon 
 an elephant richly harnessed, under a canopy with pillars 
 painted and gilded; or else on a throne shining of gold and 
 azure, upon two beams, covered with scarlet or purfled gold, 
 carried by eight chosen and well accoutred men. The king 
 is followed by a body of Omrahs, some of which are on horse- 
 back, some in a palekey. Among these Omrahs there are 
 many Mansebdars, and mace-bearers, such as I have before 
 spoken of. And though this be not that splendid and magnifi- 
 cent procession, or rather masquerade of the Grand Seignor 
 (I have no properer name for it), nor the warlike order of our 
 kings, it being altogether of another fashion, yet for all that 
 there is something great and royal in it. 
 
46 
 
 The Taj Mehal at Agra, 
 
 So much for the Mosque of Delhi ; now for the Taj Mehal. 
 
 You may represent to yourself, that at the going out of the 
 city of Agra eastward, you enter into a long and broad paved 
 street, which riseth gently, and hath on one side a high and 
 long wall, making the side of a square garden that is much 
 
 THE TAJ MEHAL AT AGRA. 
 
 bigger than our Place Royal, and on the other side a row ot 
 new houses arched, such as those of the principal streets of 
 Delhi above spoken of. Having gone the length of half the 
 wall, you shall find on the right hand of the side of the houses 
 a great gate well made, by which one enters into a caravan- 
 serah, and over against it, on the wall's side, a stately gate ot 
 
 I 
 
The Taj Mehal at Agra. 47 
 
 a great square pavilion, by which you enter into the garden 
 between two conservatories built up with free-stone. This 
 pavilion is longer than it is large, built of a stone-like red 
 marble, but not so hard. The frontispiece seems to me 
 very magnificent, after their way, and as high as that of St. 
 Louis in the street of St. Anthony. It is true you do not there 
 see columns, architraves, and cornishes, cut out after the propor- 
 tion of those five orders of architecture so religiously observed 
 in our palace : it is a different and particular kind of structure, 
 but such an one as wants no agreeableness even in the unusual- 
 ness of its contrivance, and which, in my opinion, would very 
 well deserve a place in our books of architecture. It is almost 
 nothing but arches upon arches, and galleries over galleries, 
 disposed and ordered a hundred different ways ; and yet all 
 appears stately, well enough contrived and managed. There 
 is nothing that offends the eye ; on the contrary, all is pleasing, 
 and a man cannot be weary in beholding it. The last time I 
 saw it, I was there with one of our French merchants, who 
 also could not behold it enough. I durst not tell him my 
 thoughts of it, apprehending it might have spoiled my gust, 
 and framed it according to that of Indostan. But he being 
 lately come from France, I was very glad to hear him say, 
 " He had never seen anything so august and bold in Europe." 
 
 After you are somewhat entered into the pavilion to pass 
 into the garden, you find yourself under a high vault made 
 like a cap, which hath galleries round about and below, on 
 the right and left side, two divans or causeys, made up of 
 earth of eight or ten foot high. Opposite to the gate there is a 
 great arch quite open, by which you enter into an alley, which 
 cuts almost the whole garden into two equal parts. This alley 
 is by way of terrass feo large, as that six coaches can pass on it 
 abreast, paved with great squares of hard stone, raised some 
 eight feet above the garden-plots, and divided in the middle by 
 a channel walled up with free-stone, having jets of water at 
 certain distances. After you have gone twenty-five or thirty 
 paces upon this alley, turning your eye to behold the entry, 
 
48 The Taj MeJial at Agra» 
 
 you see the other face of the pavilion, which, though it be not 
 comparable to that which looks to the street, yet wants not its 
 stateliness, being high and of a structure approaching the other. 
 And on both sides of the pavilion, along the wall of the garden, 
 you see a long and profound gallery by way of terras, supported 
 by many low columns near one another. And in this gallery 
 it is, that during the season of the rains, the poor are permitted 
 to enter, who come there thrice a week, receiving alms from a 
 foundation made there by Shah-Jehan for ever. 
 
 Advancing further in this alley, you discover at a distance 
 before you a great dome, where is the sepulchre, and below on 
 the right and left hand you see divers alleys of a garden set 
 with trees, and several parterres covered with flowers. At 
 the end of this alley, besides the dome before 3'ou, you discover 
 on the right and left two great pavilions, built of the same 
 stone, and consequently, looking all red as the first. These 
 are great and spacious square edifices, made by way of terrass 
 opening by three arches, and having at the bottom the wall ot 
 the garden, so that you march under them as if the}^ were high 
 and large galleries. 
 
 I shall not stay to describe unto you the ornaments within 
 these pavilions, because in respect to their walls, ground-plot,, 
 and pavement, they are not so much unlike the dome, which I 
 am going to delineate to you, after I shall have observed, that 
 between the end of the alley (which we have spoken of) and 
 the dome, there is a pretty large space of a floor, which I call 
 a water-parterre, because that the diversely cut and figured 
 stones you march upon, are there instead of the box-wood of 
 our parterres. And it is from the midst of this parterre, that 
 you may conveniently see a part of this edifice, where the 
 sepulchre is, which remains now to be considered. 
 
 It is a great and vast dome of white marble, which is near 
 the height of that of our Val de Grace in Paris, surrounded 
 with many turrets of the same matter, with stairs in them. 
 Four great arches support the whole fabric, three of which are 
 visible, the fourth is closed in by the wall of a hall, accom- 
 
TJie Taj MeJial at Agra. 49 
 
 panied with a gallery, where certain Mullahs (entertained for 
 that end) do continually read the Alcoran, with a profound 
 respect to the honour of Taje-Mehalle. The mould of the 
 arches is enriched with tables of white marble, wherein are 
 seen engraven large Arabian characters of black marble, 
 which is very agreeable to behold. The interior or concave 
 part of this dome, and the whole wall from top to bottom is 
 covered with white marble ; and there is no place which is not 
 wrought with art, and hath not its peculiar beauty. You see 
 store of agat, and such sort of stones as are employed to enrich 
 the chapel of the great duke of Florence ; much jasper, and 
 many other kinds of rare and precious stones, set a hundred 
 several ways, mixed and enchased in the marble that covers 
 the body of the wall. The squares of white and black marble, 
 that make the floor, are likewise set out with all imaginable 
 beauty and stateliness. 
 
 Under this dome is a little chamber inclosing the sepulchre, 
 which I have not seen within, it not being opened but once a 
 year, and that with great ceremony, not suffering any Christian 
 to enter, for fear (as they say) of profaning the sanctity of the 
 place : but really by what I could learn, because it hath 
 nothing rich or magnificent in it. 
 
 There remains nothing else, than to take notice of an alley 
 in the fashion of a terrass (we follow the old spelling), twenty 
 or twenty-five paces large, and as many or more high, which is 
 betwixt the dome and the extremity of the garden, whence you 
 see below you, at the foot of it, the river Jumna running along 
 a great campaign of gardens, a part of the town of Agra, the 
 fortress, and all those fair houses of the Omrahs that are built 
 along the water. There remains no more, I say, than to cause 
 you to observe this terrass, which taketh up almost the whole 
 length of one side of the garden, and then to desire you to 
 judge, whether I had reason to say, that the Mausoleum, or 
 tomb of Taje-Mehalle, is something worthy to be admired. 
 For my part I do not yet well know whether I am not some- 
 what infected still with Indianism ; but I must needs say, that 
 
 4 
 
50 The Last of the Gixat Moguls. 
 
 I believe it ought to be reckoned amongst the wonders of the 
 world, rather than those unshapen masses of the Egyptian 
 pyramids, which I was weary to see after I had seen them 
 twice, and in which I find nothing without, but pieces of great 
 stones ranged in the form of steps one upon another, and 
 within nothing but very little art and invention. 
 
 THE LAST OF THE GREAT MOGULS. 
 
 HAVING given an account of the first contact of the 
 English with the mighty ruler known as the Great 
 Mogul, it will be interesting as a contrast to mention the 
 fate of the last of the Moguls, who died a prisoner and an 
 exile in British Burmah in 1863. 
 
 But it may be useful first to devote a brief paragraph 
 to the story of the dynasty of the Mogul Emperors of Delhi. 
 
 Baber, the founder of the dynasty, was descended from 
 both Ghengiz Khan and Tamerlane, the mighty conquerors 
 and terrible scourges of earlier times. The conquest of 
 Delhi by Tamerlane was in the year 1398. During five 
 days he gave up the city to massacre, and every male above 
 fifteen years of age was slaughtered by his savage troops. It 
 was after this the city became a heap of ruins, till a new 
 Delhi was built by the descendants of Baber, as we have 
 already stated. In the time of Baber and of his son 
 Humdyun (1526 — 1556) the Mogul dynasty was not firmly 
 established, the Afghan power having for a time successfully fl j 
 contested the sovereignty. But the third of the Mogul rulers, 
 Akbar, subdued every opponent, and became the ruler not 
 only of almost all Hindostan, but also of Cashmere and 
 Kandahar. Akbar's reign (1556 — 1605) nearly coincided 
 with that of our Queen Elizabeth. He was succeeded by 
 his son Jehan Guire, to whose court Sir ThotiiaS Roe came 
 
o 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 u 
 u 
 < 
 
 a. 
 
The Last of the Gi^eat Mogtils. 51 
 
 as Ambassador from James I. The next ruler was Shah 
 Jehan, third son of Akbar. He was the builder of New 
 Delhi. To him succeeded his brother Aurungzebe, under whom 
 the Mogul Empire seemed to increase in glory, but really 
 passed its zenith. Jehan-Guire, Shah Jehan, and Aurung- 
 zebe were, all three of them, monsters of vice and cruelty, 
 and the dynasty became contemptible as well as infamous, 
 though still possessing mighty power. By frequent conflicts 
 with Hindu princes, to whom Akbar had wisely left some 
 form of independence, and still more by attempting to reduce . 
 the Mohammedan kingdoms of the Deccan, the rulers of Delhi 
 began to lose their supremacy. Shah Alum, the successor 
 of Aurungzebe, had to make concession to the MahrattaF, 
 who now first appeared as a formidable power in India. Their 
 power grew till they became the real rulers of Delhi. From 1 7 1 8 
 to 1803 this influence remained, the history of India mean- 
 while being enlivened by the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1748, 
 and the irruption of an Afghan force under Ahmed Shah, 
 better known as Durani, who in 1757, in the battle of Paniput, 
 for a time checked the Mahratta power. 
 
 The wars and revolutions of these generations reduced India 
 to a sad state of anarchy, and its conquest by some foreign 
 power seemed the only safety for the oppressed and im- 
 poverished people. The story of the gradual rise and pro- 
 gress of English rule under Clive, Warren Hastings, and 
 Wellesley, we cannot recount here, but only tell that in 1803 
 Lord Lake took Delhi, and rescued Shah Alum II., the 
 fourteenth Mogul Emperor, from the Mahrattas, whose power for 
 further mischief was broken by the decisive battle of Assaye, 
 one of Wellington's early victories. From this time the 
 Great Mogul at Delhi became a vassal or tributary of the 
 English, receiving a pension of ;^i 50,000 yearly, the Emperor 
 still retaining a nominal sovereignty, under which there 
 was an attempt to restore the native rule, in the person of 
 Mohammed Shah, the seventeenth and last in the imperial 
 dynasty founded by Baber. THe overthrow df this attempt was 
 
52 The Last of the Great Mogtils, 
 
 the turning-point of the terrible crisis in English history known 
 as the Indian Mutiny. 
 
 The capture of Delhi broke the neck of the rebellion, and 
 from that moment the restoration of British rule was 
 assured 
 
 The gist of the story of the mutiny can be told in a few 
 sentences, although volumes would not exhaust all the nar- 
 rative of that epoch of danger and disaster, of heroism 
 and triumph. After the great Sikh war ended, the Sepoy 
 army, which had for generations been led from victory to 
 victory, with extra batta and unlimited loot, in the peaceful 
 years which followed led a comparatively idle life. They 
 were pampered and spoiled, and discipline was sadly relaxed. 
 Becoming insolent and high-minded, they became the ready 
 tools of designing men. Some of the native princes were 
 alarmed by the annexations in Lord Dalhousie's time. 
 Mohammedain ambition helped to fan the smouldering dis- 
 content. Under these circumstances the regulation was 
 issued, in 1856, that all Bengal Sepoys were to be enhsted 
 for general service. In 1857 the new Enfield rifles were 
 introduced into the Indian army, and immediately the re- 
 port was spread that the cartridges were greased with the 
 fat of pigs and of cows, that Mohammedans and Hindus might 
 alike be defiled. This was the spark that set the inflam- 
 mable materials ablaze. The horrors of the massacres 
 and other events that followed need not be recalled. 
 Most of the mutinous regiments made for Delhi, and there 
 proclaimed a native empire. When an English army, rein- 
 forced by the troops raised by John LawTence in the Punjab, 
 commenced the siege of Delhi, there was not a man in 
 India who did not say, "It must be- taken in a month, or our 
 empire is gone." It was not taken for several months, for 
 the place was full of troops, and the military stores were un- 
 bounded. With true British endurance the siege was kept 
 up, and with true British valour the storming of the strong- 
 hold was at length effected. The rebels might have resisted 
 
Tlie Last of the Gi^eat Moguls, 53 
 
 long, but they soon took to flight. The victors were too 
 few and were too exhausted at once to pursue the fugitives^ 
 but some were slain or captured, and among the prisoners 
 was the aged king. His life was spared because the officer to 
 whom he surrendered had pledged his word to that effect. 
 Some of his sons, greater miscreants, if possible, than the 
 father, met with swift and merited doom. The old man 
 and two young princes were taken as prisoners to Rangoon, 
 after a trial in which the guilt of the king as the instigator 
 of many atrocities was clearly proved. 
 
 The capture of Delhi, and the pursuit and dispersion of 
 the rebel forces there, did not prevent the subsequent cam- 
 paigns in Oude and Rohilcund, but even the recovery of 
 Lucknow was a less important event than that of the ancient 
 city of the Great Mogul. 
 
 We are indebted to the Leisure Hour for the only notice 
 that we have seen of the ex-king in his last days. In that 
 magazine, in the number for July 1862, appeared a photo- 
 graph of the king and two of his sons, and of the prison 
 at Rangoon where they were confined, sent by the officer 
 whose duty it was to inspect the prisoners. In his com- 
 munication he says : " These prisoners are no other than 
 ' the last of the Great Moguls ' and his family. They reside 
 in the small house adjoining the main guard, as shown in 
 the drawing. It is surrounded by a paling about fifteen 
 feet high. In the court-yard were several attendants, and 
 upon going up the ladder and entering one of the small 
 rooms into which the house is divided, I saw the ex-king 
 sitting down on a bed, robed in true Oriental undress, smoking 
 a hubble-bubble. He looked vacantly at me, said nothing, 
 but put out his hands and bent his head slightly to one 
 side, and assumed an aspect as if to express, 'See here 
 the pitiable condition I am come to ! ' He looked very old, 
 and as if he was fast sinking. His tivo sons, Gewun Buksh 
 and Shah Abbas, were in the verandah. I send a photo- 
 graph of the whole party. Previous to the mutmy or rebel- 
 
54 The Stoiy of Cleopatra s Needle. 
 
 lion our government allowed the king ^150,000 a year, 
 the total expense incurred now is under ^500 ! " 
 
 The old king died, as we have said, in 1863. These sons 
 were treated kindly, and instructed by English teachers. 
 What was their subsequent career need not here be recorded. 
 We have seen the end of the last of the Great Moguls ! 
 
 THE STORY OF CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE. 
 
 AMONG the remarkable objects to be seen in London few 
 have more romantic interest than the Egyptian obehsk 
 on the Thames embankment, popularly known as Cleopatra's 
 Needle. It is wonderful for its size, being by far the largest 
 quarried stone in England ; and it is more wonderful for its 
 character and history, having been prepared by workmen two 
 centuries before the Israelites were delivered by Moses from 
 their bondage in Egypt. It was set up before the great temple 
 of the sun, at Heliopolis, by Thothmes III. The hiero- 
 glyphics, or sacred inscriptions in the columns on its four 
 sides, were carved by order of that monarch, and the columns 
 of hieroglyphics on the sides of the central record were added 
 by order of Rameses II., the Pharaoh of " the oppression," 
 so that on this obelisk on the Thames embankment may be 
 read records carved by the two mightiest of the kings of 
 ancient Egypt. 
 
 Before describing the historical record, it is worth saying a 
 few words about the obelisk, viewed merely as a gigantic 
 monument, and as a specimen of architecture and of masonry. 
 
 First, in regard to its size. It is sixty-eight feet five-and- 
 a-half inches long, and from the base — which measures about 
 eight feet — it tapers upwards to the width of five feet, when it 
 ends in a pointed pyramid seven feet in height. This is the usual 
 form of an obelisk, the tapering point being sometimes called 
 a pyramidion, or pyramid-like structure, the sides of which arc 
 
The Story of Cleopatra s Needle. 55 
 
 generally inclined at an angle of sixty degrees. The top was 
 originally covered with gold, as is mentioned in the inscription. 
 The substance of this obelisk is that form of granite known 
 as Syenite, being taken from the quarries of Syene in Upper 
 Egypt. Taking the density of Syenite, and the size of the 
 tapering monument, the estimate of the whole mass is about 
 one hundred and eighty-six tons. This is about ten times the 
 weight of the largest block of stone at Stonehenge, which was 
 the heaviest monolith, or single piece of wrought stone, in 
 England before the arrival of this Egyptian monument. 
 
 In the great Pyramids may be seen some enormous masses, 
 but the largest do not approach the size and weight of this 
 obelisk. There are also huge blocks of masonry in the ruined 
 walls of the Temple at Jerusalem, but these, also, are com- 
 paratively small and light. One has been measured twenty- 
 six feet long, six feet high, and seven feet wide, a block oi 
 solid limestone, estimated to weigh about ninety tons. This 
 is still less than half the weight of Cleopatra's Needle. 
 
 Although larger by far than any other stone in England, this 
 obelisk is surpassed in size and ^eight by many stones in the 
 country from which it came. The column of red granite, 
 known as Pompey's Pillar, is in length about one hundred 
 feet, and its girth round the base twenty-eight feet, the weight 
 of the monolithic shaft being estimated at about three hundred 
 tons. Even more gigantic than Pompey's Pillar is a block of 
 carved granite found on the plain of Memphis, which, next to 
 Thebes, was the most important city in Upper Eg3^pt in 
 ancient times. This block is a gigantic statue, lying face 
 downwards, and partly covered with sand and rubbish. The 
 head is about ten feet long, and the body in proportion, all 
 carved from one mass of granite, the total weight of which is 
 estimated at about four hundred tons. 
 
 There is yet one more monument which was more colossal 
 than this prostrate statue, but it is not now of its full weight 
 or dimensions. The great obelisk in the Piazza of St. John 
 Lateran, at Rome, was originally one hundred and ten feet 
 
56 The Story of Cleopatra s Needle, 
 
 long, and therefore the longest monolith ever known to have 
 been quarried. It was also the heaviest, weighing, as it does, 
 about four hundred and fifty tons, or more than twice the 
 weight of the London obelisk. ^ 
 
 By what mechanical contrivances these gigantic olocks were 
 quarried, and with what tools the hard syenite was worked, 
 we do not very clearly know. Enough has been discovered, 
 however, to get a general idea of the modes of procedure. In 
 the quarries at Syene may yet be seen an unfinished obelisk, 
 still connected with the parent rock, with traces of the work- 
 men's tools so plainly seen on the surface, that one might 
 suppose the men to have been hastily called away, and that 
 they intended soon to return to their work. This unfinished 
 obelisk shows the mode in which the huge monoliths were 
 separated from the native rock. In a sharply cut groove, 
 marking the boundary of the stone, are holes, evidently de- 
 signed for wooden wedges. After these had been firmly 
 driven into the holes, the groove was filled with water. The 
 wedges, gradually absorbing the water, swelled, and cracked 
 the granite from end to end. 
 
 The block once detached from the rock, was pushed for- 
 wards on rollers made of the stems of palm trees, from the 
 quarries to the edge of the Nile, where it was surrounded by 
 a large timber raft. It lay by the river side till the next 
 rising of the waters, when the raft floated with its precious 
 burden, and was conveyed down the stream to the city where 
 it was to appear as a monument. Here it was again pushed 
 upon rollers, up an inclined plane, to the front of the temple 
 or other site. The pedestal had previously been placed, and 
 a firm causeway of sand, covered with planks, formed an 
 incline up which the mass was rolled. By levers, and ropes, 
 made from the palm-fibre, the obelisk was hoisted into an 
 upright position. This is as much as is known about the 
 architectural and mechanical arrangements connected with the 
 ancient Egyptian monuments. In one bas-relief at El-Bershel 
 is a representation of the transit of a monument, a colossal 
 
The Story of Cleopatra s Needle, 57 
 
 figure upon a sledge, with four rows of men dragging it by 
 ropes, urged by the whips of task-masters. 
 
 The Syenite granite being extremely hard, is capable of 
 taking a high polish. The carvings are always in hollow relief, 
 as the inscriptions, if projected in high relief, would have been 
 more liable to be chipped off. They are always arranged 
 with great taste in vertical columns, and they were carved 
 after the obelisk was placed in its permanent position. The 
 tools for this work must have been admirable, and we know 
 that, from earliest times, there has been great skill in the 
 manufacture and the tempering of metals. 
 
 Thothmes III. erected four great obelisks at Heliopolis, and 
 probably others in different parts of Egypt. Of the two pair 
 knov/n as Pharaoh's Needles and Cleopatra's Needles, the 
 former were removed from Heliopolis to Alexandria by Con- 
 stantine the Great. Thence one was taken to Constantinople, 
 where it now stands at the Almeidan. Being only fifty feet 
 high, it is thought that the lower part was broken, and that 
 the part remaining is only the upper half of the original 
 obelisk. The other was taken to Rome, and is that which 
 stands in front of the Church of St. John Lateran. 
 
 The well-known obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, at 
 Paris, is one of two which Rameses II. erected before the 
 Temple of Luxor. It is seventy-six feet high, or seven-and-a- 
 half feet higher than the obelisk in London. 
 
 That which stands in front of St. Peter's at Rome, in the 
 great Piazza, was erected by Menephtah, the son and successor 
 of Rameses II. It is about ninety feet high, and in size is 
 reckoned the third obelisk in the world. The second in size 
 is still standing at Karnak, about one hundred feet high, a 
 companion obelisk having fallen to the ground. The largest 
 of all, as already stated, is that of the St. John Lateran, at 
 Rome. 
 
 It would take a long time to tell how the various obelisks 
 now in Europe and in other lands (for the Turks and the 
 Americans also have these monuments) came into the hands 
 
58 The Story of Cleopatra s Needle. 
 
 of their present possessors. The story of Cleopatra's Needle, 
 so far as ownership is concerned, may be briefly told. After 
 the defeat of the French in Egypt, first by Nelson, who destroyed 
 their fleet in Aboukir Bay, and then by Sir Ralph Abercrombie 
 and his troops, it occurred to many of the officers, naval and 
 military, that this column might be taken to England, and set 
 up as a trophy of their Egyptian victories. After considerable 
 expenditure, both of labour and money, the idea was abandoned, 
 the commanders not heartily taking to the scheme. They 
 contented themselves with getting part of the pedestal disin- 
 terred and erected, with a space chiselled out of the surface, 
 into which a brass plate was inserted, on which was engraved 
 a short account of the British triumphs. 
 
 When George IV. came to the throne, Mehemet Ali, then 
 ruler of Egypt, formerly made a gift of the obelisk to the king, 
 as his ally and friend. King George had more unromantic 
 sentiments, and more congenial ways of spending money. The 
 offer was renewed to King William IV., with the handsome 
 addition of offering to ship the monument free of charge. The 
 compliment was declined with thanks. In 1840 the govern- 
 ment announced its desire to bring the gift of Mehemet Ali to 
 England, but the opponents of the Ministry of the day urged 
 " that the obelisk was too much defaced to be worth removal," 
 and the proposal was not carried out. In 1851 the question 
 was again broached in the House, and the appearance of the 
 obelisk would have been a memorable incident in the Great 
 Exhibition in Hyde Park, but the estimated outlay of ^7,000 
 was deemed too large an outlay of public money. In 1853 
 the Crystal Palace Company expressed their readiness to be at 
 the expense of bringing the obelisk to be an ornament of their 
 Egyptian Court, but the design fell through, on the ground of 
 its being against precedent to allow what was national property 
 to be used for the benefit of a private company. This seemed 
 rather a dog-in-the-manger polic}'-, but we suppose it is neces- 
 sary that the custodians of public property must avoid making 
 bad precedents. In 1867 the new Khedive sold the ground 
 
The Story of Cleopatra s Needle. 59 
 
 on which the obelisk lay to a Greek merchant, who insisted on 
 its removal from his property. The Khedive appealed to the 
 English authorities to take possession of it, otherwise the title 
 to the monument must lapse. The appeal had no effect, and 
 it was evident that if the monument ever came to England it 
 would not be at the cost of the Government or the nation. If 
 no private munificence interposed, the obelisk would be broken 
 up for building material, as the owner of the ground now 
 threatened. 
 
 Meanwhile, there was one public-spirited Englishman, an 
 old soldier who admired Abercromby and his army of Egypt, 
 and who never had forgotten the original purpose of the 
 removal. General Alexander had often pleaded with the 
 Government, and the learned societies, and with the public 
 through the press, and now he went to Egypt to visit the spot. 
 He found the prostrate obelisk almost buried in the sand, but 
 through the assistance of Mr. Wyman Dixon, C.E., he had it 
 uncovered and examined. 
 
 On returning to England, General Alexander stated the 
 case to his friend. Professor, now Sir Erasmus Wilson, the 
 eminent surgeon. The question of transport was discussed by 
 them, along with Mr. John Dixon, C.E. The result was that 
 Professor Wilson signed a bond to pay ^10,000 to Mr. Dixon 
 on the obelisk being erected in London. The Board of Works 
 offered the site on the Thames Embankment, and Mr. Dixon 
 set about his part of the contract. 
 
 Early in July 1877 he arrived at Alexandria, and on 
 examination found the monument in better condition than had 
 been usually stated in the discussions on its removal. He 
 adopted the plan of encasing the obelisk in an iron water-tight 
 cylinder about 100 feet long, which, with its precious burden, 
 was set afloat by digging to it a short canal. The Olga steam- 
 tug was engaged for towing the cylinder, and the voyage from 
 the harbour of Alexandria was begun. For twenty days the 
 passage was propitious, but a storm arose in the Bay of Biscay, 
 and as the cylinder threatened to sink, and to involve the Olga 
 
6o The Story of Cleopatra s Needle, 
 
 in the catastrophe, there was nothing for it but to sever the 
 connection. The captain returned to England under the 
 impression that the cyHnder with its heavy freight had gone to 
 the bottom, and great was the vexation and disappointment. 
 It turned out, however, that the cylinder had floated safely, and 
 after drifting on the surface for about sixty hours was sighted 
 by the steamer, and towed to Vigo on the Spanish coast. After 
 a few weeks' delay, and glad payment of salvage, the obelisk 
 arrived in the Thames, to be set up in its present position. 
 Many will remember the excitement of those few days, and 
 the whole nation rejoiced in the successful termination of an 
 affair in which few had previously shown any interest. 
 
 The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the obelisk we consider of 
 less importance than might have been anticipated, — always 
 excepting the one fact which they reveal as to Thothmes III. 
 being the builder. His cartouche, with the name, occurs four 
 times, once on each side, at the top of the central column of 
 hieoglyphics. We know that this Thothmes reigned more than 
 3,000 years ago. He and his armies overran Palestine two 
 centuries before Moses was born. His was a long reign, about 
 fifty-four years, and he was the greatest perhaps of all Egyp- 
 tian kings, although Sesostris, or Rameses II. has even more 
 fame as a foreign conqueror. Possibly Jacob and Joseph, 
 certainly Moses and Aaron, and the Greek philosophers, Pytha- 
 goras and Plato, and the ancient travellers and historians, have 
 gazed on this very monument. But the inscriptions them- 
 selves do not greatly increase our feeling of reverence or admi- 
 ration. Thothmes boasts of his ancestry, as being the son of 
 Horus, and the descendant of the Sun. The obelisk is dedi- 
 cated to the rising sun. There were different divine names 
 for the sun at rising, at midday, and at going down. The in- 
 scription bears many pictures of objects, the symbolic meanings 
 of which are known to students of hieroglyphics, chiefly 
 representing attributes or abstract ideas, — such as the arm for 
 power, the beetle for life, the lion's head for victor;^, and so 
 on. The literal translation of the inscription on one of the 
 
A Persian Grand Vizier, 6r 
 
 sides is as follows : — " Horus, powerful Bull, beloved of Ra (the 
 Sun), King of Upper and Lower Egypt. His father set up for 
 him a great name, with increase of royalty, in the precincts of 
 Heliopolis, giving him the throne of Seb (Saturn of the Latins), 
 the dignity of Kheper (the sacred beetle, emblem of majesty), 
 son of the Sun, Thothmes, the Holy, the Just, beloved of the 
 benner (sacred bird), of An (or On) ever-living."* 
 
 Since the obelisk came to London the wonderful discovery 
 has been made of the actual bodies of Thothmes III., of 
 Rameses IL, and other mighty monarchs of Old Egypt, in a 
 rocky sepulchre at Deiv-el-Bahari. The royal mummies are 
 now ranged in order at the Boolak Museum, near Cairo. 
 
 A PERSIAN GRAND VIZIER. 
 
 IN Oriental histories, ancient and modern, the career of the 
 great minister of state known as the Grand Vizier is 
 seldom without strange romance. The story of Mirza Tekee, 
 Persian Plenipotentiary at the Conference of Erzeroum, is an 
 example of the wonderful vicissitudes seen in the life of these 
 high dignitaries. The purpose of this conference was to 
 arrange the disputed boundaries between the Turkish and 
 Persian dominions. The survey of the countries, and the 
 proceedings of the conference lasted for some years, but we 
 are not here concerned with the geographical and political 
 matters under discussion. The Grand Vizier of Persia, Mirza 
 Tekee, was one of the ablest and most interesting of the per- 
 sonages who assembled at Erzeroum, and an account of his 
 early career and of his tragic end has been given by the Hon. 
 Robert Curzon, in his book of travels in Armenia. 
 
 Mr. Curzon, then the private secretary to Sir Stratford 
 
 * The derailed account of the inscriptions, with much valuable matter, 
 will he found in a little book published by the Religious Tract Society, 
 '• Cleopatra's Needle," with exposition of the hieroglyphics and illustraiions, 
 by the Rev. James King, M.A. 
 
62 A Persian Grand Vizier. 
 
 Canning, afterward Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, was appointed 
 joint Commissioner for England, along with Colonel Williams, 
 the distinguished hero of Kars, during the Russian war. There 
 were also Russian and Turkish Commissioners. Their joint 
 labours settled the frontier and arranged affairs, but the settle- 
 ment was of short duration, and the regions have since been 
 exposed to various troubles and wars. However, our present 
 subject is Mr. Curzon's account of his Persian colleague, the 
 Persian Grand Vizier. 
 
 Mirza Tekee was the son of the cook of Bahmas Meerza, 
 brother of Mohammed Shah, and governor of the province of 
 Tabriz. The cook's little boy was brought up with the 
 children of his master and educated with them. Being a 
 clever boy, as soon as he was old enough he was put into the 
 office of accounts, under the commander-in-chief, the famous 
 Emir Nizam, who was employed in organizing and drilling the 
 Persian army in the European style. 
 
 Tekee became Vizier ul Nizam, or the governor's adjutant- 
 general as we would say, and having the confidence of the old 
 Emir, he did as he pleased, and amassed great wealth. It 
 was partly because of his being rich that the Shah of Persia 
 chose him to be his representative at the Erzeroum congress, 
 for he had no intention of paying him any salary, but sent 
 him with flattering speeches and promises, none of which he 
 intended to fulfil. The cunning old prime minister at Teheran, 
 Hadji Meerza Agassi, who was sedulously employed in feather- 
 ing his own nest, was jealous of Mirza Tekee, and very glad 
 to get him safe out of the way. 
 
 The Turks and Persians, as everybody knows, hate each 
 other religiously, which seems always the worst sort of hatred. 
 The Soonis and the Shiahs, the two great divisions of the 
 Mohammedan world and creed, are, as it were, the Papists 
 and Protestants of that religion. If these two countries, 
 Turkey and Persia, are at peace for a timfe, tH^ snibuldering 
 flame is sure to break out again at the first convenient 
 opportunity, and it will do so till the end of tirne^ 
 
A Pe7^sian Gi^and Vizier. 63 
 
 The Turks, who disHked Mirza Tekee with more than 
 common aversion, from his dignified bearing and stately 
 manners, gave out various accusations against him and against 
 members of his household. A fanatical mob of many thousand 
 indignant Soonis surrounded all that quarter of the town of 
 Erzeroum where Tekee, the illustrious Shiah, then was, at- 
 tacked the Plenipotentiary's house, and kept it in a state of 
 siege for some hours. Volleys of rifle-shots were fired at the 
 windows, while from within Mirza Tekee only permitted his 
 servants to fire blank cartridges. Izmet Pacha, the Governor 
 of Erzeroum, a drunken old Turk, sat on horseback as well as 
 he could, but would not interfere in the disturbance, though 
 he had all his troops, amounting to several thousands, under 
 arms. For his misconduct on this occasion he was turned 
 out of his governorship. Colonel Williams, at great personal 
 hazard, did all he could to quell the tumult and to protect 
 Tekee. The Turks swore they must have blood, and de- 
 manded that one of the Persians, at least, must be delivered 
 up to them as a victim, upon which they promised to with- 
 draw. Colonel Williams could be no party to such a compro- . 
 mise, but the servants of Tekee laid hold of a poor man in the 
 house and thrust him out to the mob. It was a man who had 
 called that morning to say he was going to Tabriz, and would 
 be happy to take charge of any message or letter. The 
 servants knew nothing of him, and they saved their own lives 
 by the sacrifice of this poor fellow, who was killed by the mob. 
 Another Persian, a merchant, was killed the same day in 
 another part of the town, where he had no knowledge of the 
 disturbance at Tekee's house. The mob continued to assault 
 the place, and breaking down the doors effected an entrance, 
 pillaging and destroying all that they could get hold of. Mirza 
 Tekee was saved only by barricading himself in a room at the 
 back of the house, where he and his servants defended them- 
 selves for many hours, till the mob dispersed with their booty. 
 The Sultan afterwards sent Mirza ^8000 in repayment of 
 the loss sustained by this outrage; 
 
64 A Persian Grand Vizier, 
 
 When the treaty was signed between Turkey and Persia 
 Mirza Tekee returned to Tabriz. On the death of the Emir 
 Nizam he succeeded to the office of commander-in-chief. 
 
 During the last illness of Mohammed Shah, his brother, 
 Bahman Meerza, had been intriguing in hopes of succeeding to 
 the throne. But his intrigues being discovered and baffled, 
 he escaped to Tiflis, under Russian rule, where he knew he 
 would be welcomed. It is the policy of Russia, in the East, to 
 receive and pension rival claimants and rebels, in expectation 
 of their being possibly turned to useful account in the future. 
 
 Mirza Tekee now found his occasion. He marched to 
 Teheran at the head of his army, and seated the young Prince 
 Noor Eddin, upon the throne. Noor Eddin was grateful; he 
 gave to Tekee his sister in marriage. He also got possession 
 of the vast territorial estate of Hadji Meerza Agassi, the prime 
 minister of Mohammed Shah. The Hadji had been Moham- 
 med's tutor, and rose to be one of the most famous of the 
 Viziers of that monarch, whose chief amusement, in his latter 
 years, was to shoot sparrows with a pistol ! When the Hadji 
 became rich his master squeezed him, as our Henry VIII. did 
 Cardinal Wolsey, but as he still retained a considerable 
 treasure in gold, silver, and jewels, he thought it prudent to 
 retire to Kerbela, where he died in the odour of sanctity in 
 185 1. Thus the way was clear for Tekee to be Grand Vizier. 
 
 He was now seated on the pinnacle of prosperit}^ The 
 extent of the possessions which the Shah handed over to him 
 from the plunder of his predecessor, the Hadji, was so great 
 as to be almost incredible, and was such as would have 
 yielded the revenue to a king. 
 
 Mirza Tekee had, nevertheless, or rather the more on 
 account of his prosperity, enemies at court. His chief enemy 
 was the Shah's mother, a lady who in Turkey and Persia, and 
 in other Oriental lands, usually enjoys an extraordinary degree 
 of power, wealth, and dignity. If she likes to do good she 
 can do much good, if she likes to do evil she can do much 
 evil, whether to the state or to individuals. 
 
The Persian Grand Vizier, 65 
 
 Between those who were partizans and the friends of 
 Bahman Meerza, the late Shah's brother, and those who hated 
 the strong government of Mirza Tekee, a powerful party of 
 malcontents was growing, who got hold of the weak mind of 
 the young Noor Eddin. Although he owed everything to the 
 Vizier at his coming to the throne, he now allowed him to be 
 destroyed by his enemies. Permission was given to him to 
 go to Koom, where he had an estate. This was the form in 
 which his banishment from court was announced. 
 
 So secretly had the conspiracy worked that Tekee's sus- 
 picions do not seem to have been aroused. His young wife 
 followed him, with all her train, looking forward to the 
 pleasure of living with her husband for a while in the quiet 
 retirement of a beautiful place in the country. But when she 
 arrived within sight of the town of Koom, a messenger came 
 out to meet her, and the news that he brought was that Mirza 
 Tekee had been killed by the order of her brother, the Shah. 
 The assassins sent for this cruel deed found the minister in 
 his bath on their arrival, and there they opened his veins and 
 held him till he bled to death. No charge was made against 
 him, and no crime ever proved. It was an instance of foul 
 murder by the Shah, who thus destroyed one of his ablest and 
 most honest subjects, at the instigation of some of the most 
 infamous and worst. 
 
 This tragic event happened in 1851, about the time when 
 the representatives of all nations were assembled in London, 
 at the opening of the Great Exhibition, the festival of the world's 
 peace and industry. In our happy land we know little of what 
 is passing in the dark places of the earth, which are full of the 
 habitations of cruelty. Such was the career and such the fate 
 of a Grand Vizier. 
 
 % 
 
66 
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM PEEL'S RIDE THROUGH NUBIA. 
 
 LET the reader join me in paying a tribute of respect to the 
 memory of the sailor son of the great statesman — Sir 
 Robert Peel — William Peel, as noble an Englishman as ever 
 served in the British navy, whose career of honour and useful- 
 ness was too early closed. There are many who still remember 
 the sad sorrow when the news came that the commander of 
 the naval brigade in the time of the Indian Mutiny had fallen 
 a victim to small-pox. Of his gallant services at that crisis, 
 as well as in the Crimean war and on other occasions, this is 
 not the place to give a record. Suffice it to say that in his 
 profession he always well sustained the reputation of the name 
 that he bore, and of the illustrious house to which he 
 belonged. 
 
 It is not so generally known that he published a book 
 descriptive of a journey made by him in one of the intervals of 
 public service, " A Ride through the Nubian Desert." It was 
 as long ago as 1851 that he went there, but recent events in 
 that region of the world give a fresh interest to the record of 
 that journey. He saw and described many of the places of 
 which the names are now more familiar to us, and some of the 
 matters referred to have an enduring importance. 
 
 The character of the man, and the spirit in which he went 
 forth on this journey, appear in his opening chapter. Speakmg 
 of his companions in the voyage to Egypt he says, " Some 
 have gone to India, some to Afghanistan, others to China and 
 to Borneo, — all to uphold the character of England, to admini- 
 ster justice, to extend commerce, or to defend and expand our 
 empire. I embarked with the object of travelling in the 
 Soudan, hoping, by the blessing of the Almighty, to help to 
 break the fetters of the negro, to release him from the selfish 
 Mussulman, from the sordid European ; to tell him there is a 
 God that made us all, a Christ that came down and died for 
 
Ride through Nubia, 67 
 
 all." And again, on the last parting at Cairo, he says, " They 
 left me at Cairo, thinking I was bound for pleasure, all except 
 one, to whose kind and honoured friendship I had confided my 
 views. I watched them all depart ; to me it was another trial. 
 I felt tired of Egypt, and turned with horror from the natives, 
 for whom I had no sympathy ; in despair from the rapid 
 flowing Nile, whose current must be stemmed for many hun- 
 dred miles. I was in most wretched health, and the question 
 rose why I should go. Europe seemed so inviting, her civili- 
 zation so intelligent, her Christianity so genial. But four days 
 sufficed to restore my health, and in the quiet rides to Shoubra, 
 unsurpassed by those of any city, along the banks of th^ 
 mysterious Nile, all my high hopes returned." 
 
 He had sailed from England for Alexandria on the 20th 
 August, 1850, in the good steamer Pottinger ; and after stop- 
 ping six hours at Gibraltar and forty at Malta, reached the 
 Egpytian port on the 4th September. That day they all 
 embarked in the canal boat on the Mahmondieh canal, and 
 towed to Afteh on the Nile. There they changed to a steamer, 
 and arrived at Cairo the following evening. Such was the 
 mode of transit at that time. 
 
 Cairo having been explored, and a Firman and Couwass or 
 Commissionaire being procured, with the help of Mr. Murray, 
 the Consul-General, he sailed, at sunset of September the nth, 
 from Boolak, the port of Cairo, in a dahabieh, or Nile boat, 
 for Korosko. He had previously had an interview with the 
 Viceroy, Abbas Pacha, a true friend of England and the English, 
 to whom he was already personally known, and who showed 
 much interest in his projected journey. 
 
 In eleven days from Cairo they arrived at Assouan, the 
 ancient Syene, the frontier post between Egypt and Nubia, 
 where the river commences its unbroken flow through the 
 valley of the Nile. While viewing with admiration the natural 
 and historical scenes, the sympathy of our traveller is called 
 forth by the condition of the labouring people. " The villages 
 of the fellahs are a collection of huts made of unburnt bricks 
 
68 Captain William Peel's 
 
 or date leaves stuccoed with mud, about eight feet high, pul- 
 verised by the sun, a heap of dirt and dust standing on the 
 accumulated rubbish of centuries. A grove of date trees 
 surrounds them, which readily marks their site, and their 
 appearance at a distance is often improved by a number of 
 pigeon houses built like turrets. And this is the abode of a 
 human being, the fellah of Egypt, who goes to his work day 
 after day, from early dawn till dark, working naked in the sun, 
 often without even a covering to his head or loins, standing all 
 day in the water, raising it by a bucket, digging a trench with 
 his hands, or cutting the mud with his feet ; and his labour is 
 not for himself, but for a grinding master. With all this he 
 preserves the beauty of the human form, his countenance is 
 serene, and he answers the passing traveller with a pious and 
 graceful salutation. To say that he is happy because he knows 
 no better, is it not making his condition worse ? The women 
 are frightfully ugly, and their dress most dismal — a large sheet 
 or wrapper of dull blue drawn over the head and body, and 
 held across the face. See them squatting on the banks when 
 they go to fill their water-jars, uttering a mourning cry, they 
 look like evil spirits waiting to be carried across the river of 
 death." 
 
 Such are the poor fellaheen of Egypt, but such is the lot of 
 poverty and labour all the world over, only here there is little 
 to raise the spirit above its depressing surroundings. Happily 
 there are efforts now being made to improve their condition, 
 and Christian missions are bringing to many of these sons and 
 daughters of toil new comforts and hopes, which the religion 
 of the false prophet failed to effect for them. 
 
 But we must pass on to Nubia or the Soudan. Captain 
 Peel's only companion was Churi, a Maronite of the Lebanon, 
 from whom he had taken lessons in Arabic and Italian in 
 London, and whom he persuaded to accompany him on his 
 journey. Churi had been at an early age sent from his own 
 country to be educated at the college of the Propaganda at 
 Rome ; a good linguist, and a man of probity and intelligence, 
 
Ride through Nubia. 69 
 
 With him Captain Peel travelled, not in Egypt only, but in the 
 Sinaitic Desert and in the Holy Land, and his companionship 
 is spoken of with commendation and gratitude. 
 
 Korosko was reached on September 27th, at noon of the 
 sixteenth day after leaving Cairo, and on the following day the 
 journey through the desert began, in the direction of Berber. 
 The party consisted of the Captain and Churi, the couwass, 
 and an Egyptian cook, an Arab guide, and four Arab attendants 
 or camel drivers. There were thirteen dromedaries to carry 
 the travellers, with their baggage and water. 
 
 It was a weary, dreary journey through this parched and 
 barren wilderness. Here are some of the entries in the 
 Journal : — -'* We marched in silence, our camels advancing in 
 line abreast over the broad pavement of closely-packed sand. 
 There was not a blade of grass, not even a withered straw, the 
 remnant of some partial winter vegetation, and the heat was 
 intense, a hot south wind blowing from the rocks with the 
 breath of a furnace, and the sand glaring with light. We 
 halted at seven o'clock that night, but only to feed the camels ; 
 there was no time to make a fire, we, therefore, drank water 
 and ate onions for our dinner. The march was then resumed. 
 I never was more fatigued ; my tongue was parched, and the 
 throat painfully swollen from the hot wind. We came to a 
 halt at twenty minutes past one o'clock, when I stretched my 
 poor body on the sand to sleep, and my mind wandered by the 
 side of rippling streams in the earthly paradise of England. At 
 5.15 a.m., having drunk only water for our breakfast, we were 
 again on the march, and went on till 8.20 under the sickening 
 heat of a morning sun without food. Our halting place was 
 on the side of a hill, under a deep ledge, which afforded 
 shade till noon. The Arabs told us we were to sleep, and 
 showed us the example, but the mind was too active, and I 
 felt the necessity of supporting the body with food. 
 
 " I eagerly asked what we had brought, and then first learned 
 that we had come to cross this desert without a stick of fire- 
 wood, with no meat, no eggs, no vegetables, for even the 
 
70 Captain William Peel's 
 
 onions were gone ! I turned with the fierceness of an African 
 tornado. What was the use of a couwass ? What was the use 
 of a cook ? What was the use even of my faithful Churi ? 
 The cook and the couwass retired, but Churi's temper is im- 
 perturbable, and he loves me too well to care for my hasty 
 words. He said he had tried his best ; he said he thought I 
 knew there were none of these things. The fierce passion 
 soon fell at his soft answer, and I asked kindly to know what 
 there really was besides our tea and coffee. There was only 
 a bag of rice and some stale bread, which we had bought at 
 Eme, and had baked in the sun. We then made a fire with 
 camels' dung, and boiled the coffee and rice. This was our 
 only food in crossing the desert, and it came twi(!e a day ; it 
 was boiled rice and coffee in the morning, boiled tea and rice 
 in the evening. Churl's- diet was still more simple, for he 
 confined himself almost entirely to soaked bread and water. 
 The thermometer here at noon, under the shade of the 
 deep rock, and held apart from the side, was io8° of 
 Fahrenheit." 
 
 So they went on day by day, and at sunset on the ist 
 October arrived at the wells of Mourad, three reservoirs of 
 brackish water in the middle of this desert. These wells are 
 in a little amphitheatre, formed by the high surrounding hills. 
 Some trees grew in the water-courses formed in the rainy 
 season from these heights. Next day the journey was resumed 
 across plains of sand, interrupted occasionally by rocky ridges, 
 arriving at length at Aboo Hamed, on the edge of the desert, 
 but on the banks of the Nile. 
 
 The river at Aboo Hamed is of great breadth, and in the 
 centre is a chain of islands highly cultivated. There are no 
 boats, and the people swim across the stream on inflated skins, 
 gathering their clothes in a high turban round the head ; or 
 they form rafts of grass and the green straw of the doora, 
 which they bring for the fodder of the camels, and on them 
 they place their other produce. 
 
 A short distance below the Nile turns sharp to the west- 
 
Ride through Nubia. yi 
 
 ward, running over beds of rock, causing rapids which prevent 
 navigation. It is to avoid this great detour that this line ot 
 communication lies straight through the Nubian desert. 
 
 From Aboo Hamed to Berber the course runs in a straight 
 line, at times close to the river ; and when there is a bend, 
 the path stretches across some high plain, but all sense of 
 weariness is removed by the sight of the delicious Nile, which 
 runs through the midst, tracing a line of the deepest green. 
 The islands, as well as the lands on either bank, are richly 
 cultivated and highly productive, at least after reaching 
 Kenaniet, where the camels had green food for the first time 
 since leaving Korosko. 
 
 Above Kenaniet the country is no longer threatened by the 
 sands of the desert, and the inundation fertilizing a wide plain. 
 It is like a second Egypt. 
 
 Berber, or Barbar, was reached on October nth, after 
 travelling with the same long journeys, but not at the same 
 rapid pace as through the desert. This is the capital and also 
 the limit of Nubia. The people are still called Barbaras, 
 whence, probably, the Greek word " barbarians." All above is 
 the country of the Soudan. The native name of Berber is 
 also El Moukharef. The governor of Berber at that time was 
 an Albanian, who received the travellers hospitably. The 
 Arabs were dismissed, and as they had served willingly and 
 faithfully, a good backshish was added, that they might have 
 an entertainment before the return journey. Enough was 
 given to buy a sheep and other materials for a feast. The day 
 wore on, and the poor camel drivers continued near the tent. 
 " We asked them if they had roasted the sheep. They ex- 
 pressed astonishment, and said there was nothing for them to 
 eat. The guide was sent for, and though clearly convicted 
 before them all of having kept the money, it was impossible to 
 raise a blush on his hardened face. He seemed only surprised 
 at our taking up his roguery so warmly ! The piastres were 
 then given to the others, amidst great clamour and abuse of 
 the guide ; but five minutes after, knowing each would have 
 
72 Captain William Peel's 
 
 done the same, they and the conductor were in perfect 
 harmony." 
 
 On the 1 2th October, with a favourable northern wind, they 
 set sail in a boat for Khartoum, passing Shendy on the 
 morning of the i6th, and reaching Khartoum soon after sun- 
 rise on the 23rd October, exactly six weeks after leaving 
 Cairo. Their home was made at the Roman Catholic Mission, 
 the vicar-general, the chief of which, was absent, but two 
 brethren of the mission showed every hospitality and attention. 
 The reception was also cordial on the part of Latif Pacha, 
 governor-general of the upper provinces, of which this is the 
 capital. " Khartoum, on the conquest of the country, only a 
 few years back, did not even exist. It is now a very rising 
 city, with an excellent bazaar, several gardens and date-tree 
 plantations, and a large fleet of dahabiehs. From its position, 
 it would soon, under good government, become a place of 
 first-rate importance." This was said in 1851, and Captain 
 Peel adds, " I am one of those who believe that an English 
 government and a handful of Englishmen could make Egypt 
 and the Nile the means of civilizing Africa and conferring 
 blessings on the world. Under English rule cities would rise 
 up at Assouam and at Khartoum, whose influence would be 
 felt over the whole interior. I know, alas ! the spirit of the 
 age is against such thoughts; and there are even men who 
 would wish to abandon our empire ; but I speak the voice of 
 thousands of Englishmen who, like myself, have served their 
 country abroad, and who do not love her least, who will never 
 consent to relinquish an empire that has been won by the 
 sword, and who think the best way to preserve it is by 
 judicious extension." 
 
 Latif Pacha tried hard to dissuade the travellers from pro- 
 ceeding beyond Berber, saying much about the perils and risk 
 of the journey to Labeyed or Obeid, the capital of Kordofan. 
 But when he found them resolved to go there, he gave every 
 advice and assistance. The Cairo couwass being invalided, 
 the governor sent his own couwass, and gave a letter to Abd- 
 
Ride through Nubia. 73 
 
 el-Kader, the ruler of the province of Kordofan. The Sheik 
 All Abd El Wacked^ head of Ababdeh Arabs, the most power- 
 ful of the tribes in all Egypt, had the courtesy to come to see 
 them set out on their journey, and gave letters to some of his 
 people in the country. 
 
 In ten days they arrived at Obeid, meeting on the way 
 several gangs of slaves on their route to Khartoum. The 
 Arab escort was well armed, every one in the country carrying 
 spears, and some having also firearms. 
 
 A house was given to the travellers, near that of the 
 governor, and here they remained some da3'^s. They then 
 announced their wish to go on to Darfoor, but the governor 
 objected to this, without having obtained the leave of the 
 Sultan. But he gave way, after some dissuasion, and agreed 
 that they should proceed to the frontier, and there wait the 
 permission of the ruler of Darfoor. But a severe attack of 
 fever and ague put an end to this plan. Captain Peel and 
 Churi were both prostrated, and it was not till the end of 
 November that they were able to move out of the house. 
 
 The reports in his journal about Obeid are chiefly valuable 
 as showing the extent of the slave trade. The only other 
 trade of importance is in gum-arabic, which is collected at 
 certain seasons of the year. But at all times slaves are bought 
 and sold. Here is one extract from the captain's note-book : 
 "Monday morning, November loth, 1851. Scene opposite my 
 windows, which look into Government court-yard. Five male 
 slaves just arrived, their necks in a wooden triangle at the 
 end of a long heavy pole, which was attached to a camel during 
 the march ; also one female slave bound by the feet. I 
 believe the number of slaves brought every year to Khartoum 
 and Obeid, and thence sent to Egypt, is very great. Some 
 are also sent from Darfoor to Siout. These slaves were 
 caught by the Arabs in some mountains to the southward. 
 In the afternoon they were stripped, examined, made to walk 
 — in fact, critically examined like beasts — in the government 
 court-yard. And how did they behave ? Like beasts ? I 
 
74 Captain PeeV s Ride through Ntibia. 
 
 watched them closely, unseen, and cannot conceive how men 
 could have behaved with such propriety, or shown more 
 touching dignity. There was no fear, nor was there any 
 momentary pride to show muscular strength ; they held 
 themselves mechanically, letting others bind their limbs, and 
 marched no further than the very line. When inspection was 
 finished, they wrapped their scant clothing with decency 
 round their waists, and took no notice of the flowing robes 
 or gorgeous turbans of their masters. As men, physically, 
 they were their superiors, in heart and feeling it is mockery to 
 make comparison, in courage unquestionably not inferior ; but 
 they have no self-reliance or moral strength, and in the onward 
 march of the world, from the position of their country and its 
 climate, have been left behind." 
 
 Kordofar was a rich and populous negro land when con- 
 quered by the Egyptians, now sixty years ago. The excesses 
 of the troops, and the exactions of the rulers have ruined it. 
 The people have been regarded both by Egyptians and by 
 Arab traders as only fair game for being hunted and kidnapped 
 for slavery. The government retained its power at that period 
 only by terror. The sale of firearms or of gunpowder was 
 forbidden, and the people were kept down by the Egyptian 
 garrison. So things remained till near our own time. On 
 the return journey Captain Peel found that " all the boats of 
 Khartoum had gone on the annual slave-hunting expedition up 
 the White Nile ! " 
 
 We conclude with quoting Captain Peel's general estimate 
 of the Arab tribes in Africa. *' All that 1 have seen," he says, 
 ** of the Arabs has made me form a very bad opinion of them. 
 There is little elevating in their character, and they are essen- 
 tially avaricious. Hospitality is their redeeming feature ; it is 
 a law universally acknowledged, and accorded without stint 
 or afterthought to any traveller. They have respect for the 
 Mohammedan religion, even when themselves ignorant or 
 neglectful of its precepts. Hence, negroes on their pilgrimage 
 to Mecca, with their wives and children, travel afoot from 
 
Sarawak and the Soudan. 75 
 
 remotest regions of Africa without fear, and without any 
 money, whilst their pagan countrymen are being hunted and 
 sold into slavery around them. Hadji, or pilgrim, is a title 
 that gives them sure protection." 
 
 The road these people take is to Suakim, a port on the Red 
 Sea, about ten days' journey from the Nile, where they embark 
 and go almost direct across to Mecca. It is a stream of human 
 beings constantly flowing and continually increasing, for while 
 the Mohammedan religion seems fading in the East, it is mak- 
 ing astonishing progress through the negro nations. We little 
 know with what fiery zeal the missionaries of this religion are 
 propagating their faith ; already it extends in an unbroken 
 line from the Red Sea to the Atlantic ; and wherever it comes, 
 it falls as a blight upon the country, turning the warm heart 
 of the negro into selfishness and suspicion, and forming the 
 most dangerous barrier to the enterprise of the traveller. In 
 returning, between Khartoum and Berber, Captain Peel saw, 
 in a hollow where some water still remained from the rains, 
 above two thousand camels, all together, organized into troops, 
 and attended only by a few Arabs, Other scenes and incidents 
 were met with, but we have quoted enough to interest the 
 reader in this ride through the Nubian desert and journey to 
 the Soudan. 
 
 SARAWAK AND THE SOUDAN. 
 
 THE STORY OF RAJAH BROOKE. 
 
 THE position of Egypt and of the Soudan may be very 
 different when this book is read from what it was 
 when written. But, apart from passing events, there is a 
 permanent interest, of no common kind, in the following letter 
 written by Rajah Brooke in reference to the work of General 
 Gordon in the Soudan. It gives an authentic summary of the 
 great work done in Borneo by the uncle of the writer, the 
 first Rajah Brooke. It shows what can be done by a wise and 
 
76 Sarawak and the Soudan, 
 
 brave Englishman in foreign lands, even when alone and un- 
 supported by the power and resources of his own country. 
 We may criticize details in the lives of such men, but must 
 admire the result of their enterprise and spirit in bringing 
 civilization to regions long given over to barbarism. 
 
 In 1838, when my uncle. Sir James Brooke, first anchored 
 his yacht off the coast of Borneo, he found a condition of 
 things existing on the coast not unlike that which has neces- 
 sitated the abandonment of the Soudan. The country was 
 under the government of the Sultan of Brunei, a potentate 
 whose authority over Sarawak was characterized by the same 
 abuses which have driven the Soudanese to revolt. His 
 government was a system of Bashi-Bazoukery plus slave- 
 raiding, with this difference, that in Sarawak, unlike the 
 Soudan, the slave-raids were undertaken by the orders and 
 under the direction of the Sultans or Rajahs of Brunei. Their 
 agents scoured the country in all directions, kidnapping 
 children, and young girls to supply their harems. The tribes, 
 provoked at last beyond endurance, rose in revolt, and at the 
 time when my uncle arrived at Sarawak the insurgents were 
 confronting the forces of the Sultan very much as those of the 
 Mahdi are now confronting the troops of the Khedive. Sir 
 James Brooke interposed between the combatants. He won 
 the confidence of the leaders of the revolt, and undertook to 
 act as mediator between them and their Sovereign. The 
 Sultan of Brunei conceived a great liking for my uncle, and 
 without much difficulty it was arranged that the Sultan should 
 abandon his claims over the revolted region. Sarawak became 
 independent, the Bashi-Bazoukery from Brunei ceased to 
 trouble the tribes, and the homes of the villagers were no 
 longer laid desolate in order to supply victims for the Sultan's 
 pleasure. The bag-and-baggage policy was unsparingly applied, 
 and Sarawak, stripped of all the agents of the executive 
 authority of the Sultan of Brunei, was left as independent as 
 the Soudan will be when General Gordon has completed the 
 amputation of *' the dog's tail." 
 
Sarawak and the Soudan. jj 
 
 But, instead of leaving Sarawak in a state of native anarchy, 
 that province was saved for civilization by the transfer of all 
 the prerogatives of the Brunei Sultans to my uncle. A free 
 grant of sixty miles of coast-line was made to Sir James Brooke 
 to govern as seemed to him good. The task of establishing a 
 civilized government in that wild and savage region was no 
 child's play. It was in miniature identical with that which 
 would lie before General Gordon if, after the completion of the 
 evacuation, he were established, as has been suggested, as 
 Lord Protector of Khartoum and the Valley of the Niles. To 
 begin with, he was face to face with a population long cruelly 
 oppressed and but yesterday emancipated. He was an 
 Englishman and a Christian in the midst of a mixed popula- 
 tion of Moslems and heathens. The Malays on the coast 
 correspond to the Arabs of the Soudan, while the Dyaks 
 inland resemble the negro population. These Dyaks should 
 properly be divided into two classes — the peaceful and the 
 savage ; the latter, best known as the head-hunting Dyaks, 
 carried on a species of warfare, which may be described as 
 the Bornean counterpart of the razzias of the slave-hunters 
 against whom Gordon waged unsparing war. Of the slave- 
 trade in the African sense there was little in Sarawak, but the 
 Dyaks of the hills, in their hunts for heads, contrived to inflict 
 as much misery upon their neighbours as even Zebehr has 
 brought about in the heart of Africa. It is very extraordinary 
 what a passion the Dyaks had for heads. When remonstrated 
 with, they replied that it was the custom of their ancestors, 
 which it was their duty to hand down unimpaired to posterity. 
 It was really the women who were at the bottom of it ; no 
 Dyak woman would ever marry a man who could not display 
 as a trophy at least one human head. As long as the taking 
 of human life was an indispensable condition preliminary to 
 marriage, head-hunting prevailed, and all attempts to suppress 
 it by killing'jthe men were utterly unavailing ; it was only when 
 you carried the war into the homes of the women, and burnt 
 their finery and all their household goods, that head-hunting went 
 
 ./ 
 
yS Sarawak and the Soudan. 
 
 out of fashion. Few Englishmen have any idea of the extent 
 to which this head-hunting was carried on. Immense flotillas 
 of head-hunters' canoes would sally forth from the rivers and 
 cruise along the coast, proceeding sometimes as far as 400 
 miles from home. On such an expedition, sometimes 7,000 
 men would be engaged ; each canoe carried about sixty 
 warriors. They landed wherever they saw a village on the 
 coast, slew man, woman, and child, and carried off their heads 
 in triumph. It is difficult to exaggerate the misery produced 
 over vast regions by these head-hunting expeditions, but they 
 were an established custom in the country, they had existed 
 from time immemorial. Sir J. Brooke, however, worked 
 patiently on, and he had a marvellous faculty of winning the 
 confidence of the natives. His material resources were very 
 limited ; aid from Government, except an occasional man-of- 
 war on the coast, he had none. He had his yacht and a 
 private fortune, which, when all was realized, did not amount 
 to more than ;j^3 0,000 ; yet from that small beginning he 
 succeeded in building up a kingdom considerably larger than 
 Scotland, in which at this moment the authority of the law is 
 as supreme as in Hyde Park. 
 
 The way in which this work was accomplished was very 
 simple. Sir J. Brooke had little difficulty in securing the 
 support and devotion of the Malays on the coast, who were 
 sufficiently enlightened to see the benefit of a settled govern- 
 ment, and to welcome the rule of a just and upright Governor, 
 foreigner though he was. From this nucleus he worked along 
 the coast, and gradually drew inland. The Dyak tribes who 
 were weak, and were constantly plundered by the head- 
 hunters of the interior, naturally rallied round the new Rajah, 
 and assisted him in attacking their enemies. This was very 
 simple, but very practical. The Rajah's secret was the protec- 
 tion of the oppressed, and the conversion of the victims of the 
 head-hunters into instruments for the suppression of head- 
 hunting. By small .degrees, pressing forward step by step, the 
 domain of order and peace was pushed inland until over the 
 
Sarawak and the Soudan. 79 
 
 whole of the free-grant territory head-hunting was extinct. 
 The work was not done with rosewater, but by dint of sheer 
 hard fighting ; but the whole of the blood shed in suppressing 
 the custom was nothing compared with the carnage of a single 
 head-hunting expedition. Operations against head-hunters are 
 comparatively rare now. It is more than two years now since 
 I had to lead an expedition against some young fellows who, 
 more for sport than anything else, had revived the custom of 
 their ancestors, and had to be burned out in consequence. I 
 know few more striking scenes in the world than the departure 
 of an expedition against the head-hunters. The advance is 
 made in the first instance by water, for the rivers are the only 
 highways of Sarawak. A summons is sent round to the tribes 
 who are exempted from taxation on condition of rendering 
 military service. They assemble in thousands, each man 
 bringing his own provisions of rice and salt, sufficient for three 
 weeks' campaign ; they bring their own arms and their own 
 canoes. At the appointed time the whole force, varying, 
 according to circumstances, from 6,000 to 15,000 men, embark 
 on board some 300 to 500 canoes. The signal for starting is 
 generally given by the firing of a gun ; in a moment the whole 
 flotilla is in motion ; every paddle strikes the water when the 
 flash is seen, and a great wave stirred by the thousand paddles 
 lashes the shore as ,the expedition departs on its errand of 
 vengeance. The cost of such an expedition is next to nil ; the 
 men render their services without pay, and they find their own 
 rations. The Dyaks supply the rank and file of fighting men 
 under their own chiefs ; the Malays supply the central or body- 
 guard. The great advantage which we possess is the control 
 of the rivers, which afford us access to all parts of the country. 
 From these we operate as a base. 
 
 If any one who saw Sir J. Brooke drop anchor forty-six 
 years ago off the coast of Sarawak had been told that in the 
 year 1884 the representative of that Englishman would be 
 reigning with undisputed authority over the whole of the 
 Principality of Sarawak, maintaining peace and enforcing the 
 
8o Sarawak and the Soudan. 
 
 law, levying taxation, equipping forces, and exercising all the 
 functions of sovereignty, he would have naturally regarded 
 the prophecy as ridiculously absurd ; but what would have 
 been his amazement if he had been informed that not only 
 would all those things be accomplished, but that the foreign 
 Government established with the unassisted resources of that 
 solitary Englishman would have suppressed the most cherished 
 institutions of the natives, converted the head-hunting Dyaks, 
 for the most part, into peaceable citizens, suppressed piracy, 
 established schools, and created a commercial value at ^ i ,000,000 
 annually, and is about to completely eradicate slavery. Such, 
 however, is a simple statement of an accomplished fact. 
 
 This, I am told, is absolutely unique ; Sarawak stands alone, 
 but I do not see why, with the experience of Sarawak before 
 us, we should despair of accomplishing similar results in the 
 Soudan. General Gordon, or whatever other Englishman 
 might be appointed ruler of Khartoum, — though it m'ay be 
 difficult to find another so suitable as Gordon, — would have 
 advantages far greater than those which sufficed for the found- 
 ing of the Principality of Sarawak. He would occupy a 
 commanding position at the junction of the two Niles, from 
 which with the steamers already in his possession he could 
 dominate the country on both banks of both streams for a 
 thousand miles. He would have in the storehouses and 
 arsenals of the late Government a vast stock of necessary 
 material for arming and equipping such native forces as might 
 be necessary to assert his authority and to suppress slave-raids. 
 He would have no English troops, and he would be much 
 better without them ; he must rely upon native strength ; he 
 might, of course, have a few friends as a personal staff, but 
 his administrators, like his soldiers, would be drawn from the 
 Soudan. (The staff in Sarawak consists of about thirty 
 Europeans.) 
 
 I do not think there would be any insuperable difficulty in 
 
 dealing with the slave-raids on the same principle that we 
 have dealt with the head-hunters. Of course, if you clear out 
 
Sarawak and the Soudan. 8i 
 
 not only the Egyptian soldiers and Bashi-Bazouks, but also the 
 English officer who superintends the evacuation, you hand the 
 Soudan over to the unchecked domination of the slave-traders 
 and slave-hunters ; in short, you do in the Soudan what 
 would have been done in Sarawak if when the authority of 
 the Sultan of Brunei was withdrawn no other authority had 
 been set up in its place. In Sarawak that would have meant 
 handing over the whole territory to the atrocity of the head- 
 hunters. Are you prepared to sanction as great an infamy in 
 the Soudan ? It is even worse in the Soudan, for there you 
 have had a semi-civilized Government, and you have a great 
 waterway open to the commerce of the world, which will then 
 be used almost exclusively for the slave trade. Sultan will 
 fight against sultan, tribe will prey upon tribe, the whole of 
 the Nile valley will be one scene of bloodshed and desolation. 
 Surely, if this can be avoided it ought not to be allowed to 
 take place. Why not let General Gordon stay in Khartoum, 
 with instructions to do what he can with such resources as he 
 finds to his hand ? England would have no responsibility for 
 him any more than she has for me ; the trade of the Nile is 
 rich enough, surely, to pay the moderate expenses of the 
 simple but efficient Government which is all that is required. 
 There is no need to aim at a great scheme at first. Khartoum, 
 and as much of the Soudan as can be covered by the range of a 
 field-piece on the deck of a steamer, would form the nucleus of 
 a kingdom which might grow hereafter until it included almost 
 all the provinces of the now abandoned empire. That, how- 
 ever, is for the future : the question of the hour is whether 
 Khartoum and the Nile are to be handed over to the slave 
 trade or saved for civilization. The experience of Sarawak 
 seems to me to justify a hope that the latter alternative may 
 yet be found practicable."^ 
 
 * This paper, by Rajah Brooke, appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of 
 March ist, 1884. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF THE "FOX," 
 
 AND DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 THE search for Sir John Franklin and his lost men and 
 ships occupies a large space in the history of modern 
 Arctic exploration. It was in 1845 that Her Majesty's ships, 
 Erebus and TerroVy under captains Sir John Franklin and 
 Crozier, were sent to endeavour to find a way from the North 
 Polar Sea, through Behring's Straits, into the Pacific Ocean. 
 This was the famous " North-West Passage," which had been 
 the dream of the early Elizabethan age, and in search of which 
 in recent times many gallant seamen had volunteered to sail. 
 John and James Ross, Parry, Richardson, and many others 
 went forth, from 18 18 to 1840, and laboured and suffered 
 much, in unavailing efforts to carry out to completion this 
 desire of their countrymen, and of men of science all over the 
 world. 
 
 European geographers knew that Behring's Straits were 
 navigable ; that the Mackenzie River discharged itself into a 
 salt-water sea ; and that Baffin's Bay separated Greenland from 
 the North American Continent. The object was to connect 
 these three known points, and to discover an open way round 
 North America to the Indies. 
 
 When the expedition set forth, in 1845, there was a very 
 sanguine though unfounded confidence in an easy success. So 
 much had been discovered in previous voyages; the ships 
 were so well equipped and well manned, that no one seems to 
 have expressed any ^ioubt that the Admiralty order was quite 
 sufficient to insure its achievement. Previous difficulties, 
 hardships, and failures were ignored ; no cautions were given 
 as to establishing depots as they advanced, in case of retreat 
 being necessary, or to afford information to those who might 
 have to seek them ; no overland expeditions were organized 
 to co-operate from the North American mainland ; and no 
 means of rescue provided, in case the ships were lost, and in 
 
The Voyage of the '' Fox^ Z^y 
 
 case the crews had to retire upon the Hudson's Bay territories. 
 They sailed amidst boundless enthusiasm, and everyone 
 expected to hear of them again from a very different region ot 
 the world. 
 
 When the winter of 1847 closed, and no tidings of Franklin 
 and his comrades had ever come, people began to feel uneasy. 
 Two winters had already passed, and the ships were only 
 provisioned up to the spring of 1848. Then the search for 
 Franklin was commenced. No better proof exists of the 
 vigour and perseverance with which it was prosecuted, year 
 after year, for eleven long years, from 1848 to 1859, than the 
 comparison of Arctic charts and maps at the beginning and 
 close of the period. More was done in the way of geographical 
 discovery in those regions in these few years than in two 
 centuries previously. Ever}' channel and inlet seemed to be 
 penetrated ; every island and shore searched, in that vast 
 Arctic archipelago, before their energies were turned in the 
 right direction. The ships were used chiefly as affording the 
 basis of operations, the officers and men passing the most of 
 their time in expeditions on foot over the frozen lands, in 
 seeking first to save the lives of the one hunded and forty 
 missing comrades, and, when this seemed hopeless, to solve 
 the mystery of their fate. America joined with England in 
 the noble efforts. No less than forty thousand miles, it is 
 estimated, were journeyed over by upwards of one hundred 
 sledging expeditions, often at terrible risks and always with 
 extreme hardships. 
 
 The history of these various exploring voyages and expedi 
 tions will ever hold a high place in the annals of the British 
 navy. The records of hair-breadth escapes from wreck and 
 famine ; of firm, manly reliance in God and their own energy ; 
 of proofs of a courage which no danger could daunt, and an 
 endurance which no suffering could subdue, thrill the lands- 
 man as he reads them, and must ever stimulate future genera- 
 tions of seamen to emulate such deeds of "high emprize." If 
 any proofs are wanted that the seamen of our time have in no 
 
84 The Voyage of the ''Fox!' 
 
 way fallen off in the enterprise, hardihood, and courage of 
 theif' forefathers, they will be found in the narratives of modern 
 Arctic exploration, and especially in the expeditions in search 
 of Sir John Franklin. 
 
 But while the interest of these narratives will always remain, 
 it must be confessed that there is, also, in some degree, a 
 sameness in their perusal. The battling with waves and ice- 
 bergs ; the long, dreary Arctic winters ; the details of geo- 
 graphical discovery in regions so inhospitable and unfruitful, 
 all this would pall on the taste were it not the hope ever 
 springing up of a successful issue to the search for the lost 
 explorers. The later volumes of this library of Arctic travel 
 leave a painful and wearisome impression on the mind, and 
 people began to feel, as it were, a relief, when a narrative was 
 advertised with the title of " The Last of the Arctic Voyagers," 
 almost wishing it to be the last as well as the latest of these 
 fruitless expeditions. The Admiralty and the Government of 
 the day recognized the state of public opinion, and refused to 
 sanction further search at the nation's approval and cost. 
 
 Then came the voyage of the good ship Fox. At the darkest 
 hour of public despair as to the search the light of a new hope 
 arose. The devoted wife of Franklin was not discouraged by 
 the adverse decision of the naval authorities. She, with the 
 aid of a few sympathizing friends, resolved to have another 
 expedition, and in Captain, now Sir Leopold, M'Clintock, she 
 found a leader worthy of the adventure. To this voyage we 
 owe the discovery of the only authentic document which 
 rewards the long search for the lost expedition. Other tidings 
 have since been gleaned, and other relics recovered, but the 
 romance of the successful search belongs, to the " Narrative 
 of the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his 
 companions," as told by M'Clintock. Here is the substance 
 of the story. 
 
 It was in the summer of 1857 that the little steam yacht 
 FoXj screw fitted, and only of 177 tons burden, set out on her 
 perilous mission. She left Aberdeen on the ist of July, and 
 
 
The Voyage of the " FoxT 85 
 
 by the 8th of August, under sail and steam, she was striving 
 to find a way through the great belt of broken ice which 
 streams down from Baffin's Bay into the Atlantic Ocean. 
 Satisfied, after a close examination of many miles of its margin, 
 that no passage across the Bay towards Lancaster Sound 
 could be forced, the Fox's prow was turned northward, and an 
 attempt made to go round Melville Bay. But before the 
 *' middle ice " could be rounded, the short summer had passed, 
 and wintry weather set in. On the 7th of September, after 
 gallant efforts to cut, bore, or warp through the pack, the Fox 
 was frozen in, and there was no alternative but to drift with 
 the ice where it listed. She remained thus enchained with 
 frozen fetters till April 17th, 1858, never moving from her 
 involuntary moorings. In these eight dreary months she 
 drifted helplessly far south of the Arctic Circle, which she had 
 so gaily entered. During the 242 days she had been impacted 
 in the ice, she had travelled no less than 1,385 miles, the 
 longest drift on record. , 
 
 We can imagine the wild grandeur of this scene of solitude, 
 when the little ship, a mere speck on the vast frozen sea, was 
 thus drifting helplessly southward. There were only twenty- 
 five souls on board, all told, twenty-two of the crew, with the 
 captain, and Lieutenant Hobson second in command, and 
 Captain Allen Young, an experienced Arctic navigator, sailing 
 master. We can enter into the feelings of the gallant captain, 
 as he writes in his Journal — 
 
 ** Everything around us is painfully still, excepting when an 
 occasional iceberg splits off from the parent glacier ; then we 
 hear a rumbling crash like distant thunder, and the wave 
 occasioned by the launch reaches us in six or seven minutes, 
 and makes the ship roll lazily for a similar period. I cannot 
 imagine that within the whole compass of nature's varied 
 aspects there is presented to the human eye a scene so well 
 adapted for promoting deep and serious reflection, for lifting 
 the thoughts from trivial things of every-day life to others of 
 the highest import. 
 
86 The Voyage of the '' Foxr 
 
 The glacier serves to remind one at once of time and oi 
 eternity — of time, since we see portions of it break off to drift 
 and melt away ; and of eternity, since its downward march is 
 so extremely slow, and its augmentations behind so regular, 
 that no change in its appearance is perceptible from age to age. 
 If even the untaught savages of luxuriant tropical regions 
 regard the earth merely as a temporary abode, surely all who 
 gaze upon this ice-overwhelmed region, this wide expanse of 
 * terrestrial wreck,' must be similarly assured that here * we 
 have no abiding place.' " 
 
 It needs, indeed, a noble enthusiasm, a steadiness of purpose, 
 to carry men bravely through such scenes, the awfulness of 
 which was enhanced by darkness, monotony, and the constant 
 dangers of a winter's drift in that polar pack. All their visions 
 of success in 1857 were gone — all hope of returning home 
 in 1858, with the important news which their eager hopes 
 assured them they should obtain, deferred until 1859. Yet 
 M'Clintock neither bewails his misfortune nor doubts his 
 ultimate success — all his fears, when he expresses any, are for 
 *' poor Lady Franklin ; how disappointed she will be ! " At 
 last, after long months of imprisonment, the day of release 
 came for the little FoXy but was a day indeed of frightful danger. 
 On Saturday, the 24th of April, Captain M'Clintock writes : — 
 " It is now ten o'clock in the evening ; the long ocean swell 
 already lifts its crest five feet above the hollow of the sea, 
 causing its thick covering of icy fragments to dash against each 
 other and against us with unpleasant violence. It is, however, 
 very beautiful to look upon the dear old familiar ocean swell ! 
 It has long been a stranger to us, and is welcome in our 
 solitude. If the Fox was as solid as her neighbours, I am 
 quite sure she would enter into this ice-tournament with all 
 their apparent heartiness, instead of audibly making known 
 her sufferings to us. Every considerable surface of ice has 
 been broken into many smaller ones. With feelings of exul- 
 tation I watched the process from aloft. A floe-piece near us, 
 of one hundred yards in diameter, was speedily cracked so as to 
 
The Voyage of the ''Fox!' 87 
 
 resemble a sort of labyrinth, or, still more, a field-spider's web. 
 In the course of half an hour the family resemblance was totally 
 lost ; they had so battered each other, and struggled out of their 
 original regularity. The rolling sea can no longer be checked. 
 •■ The pack has taken upon itself the functions of an ocean,* as 
 Dr. Kane graphically expresses it." 
 
 By midnight the Fox was striving for sweet life through this 
 rolling sea of ice. Sunday, the 25th of April, came in; the 
 swell was ten feet high, the shocks from the ice so severe that 
 the crew could hardly keep their feet on deck, and the vessel 
 had to be steered very nicely so as to keep her sharp stem 
 towards the charging masses. Still, aided by the screw and 
 steam, the stout yacht fought her way outwards to the open 
 sea ; an iceberg was passed, it was nearly seventy feet high, and 
 ** crashing through the pack," while from the small water space 
 left in its wake the seas were throwing spray quite over its 
 summit — a pretty good proof of the fearful commotion through 
 which the Fox was seeking a way. The swell still increased, 
 and rolled along more swiftly — an ugly sea, thickly strewn 
 with heavy ice. 
 
 At sea ! writes Captain M'Clintock on the next day, " It has 
 pleased God to accord to us a deliverance in which His merci- 
 ful protection contrasts, how strongly ! with our own utter 
 helplessness." It appeared as if the mercies vouchsafed during 
 the long, long winter and mysterious ice-drift " had been con- 
 centrated and repeated in a single act ; and, after yesterday's 
 experience," he adds, " I can understand how men's hair has 
 turned grey in a few hours." The Fox, however, passes out 
 of the ice in Davis's Strait only to refit in Greenland, and 
 again enter it a month afterwards. Men so stanch deserved to 
 succeed. The middle-ice was cleared ; the Esquimaux stories 
 from Pond's Bay about white men and ships disposed of by 
 personal examination ; Lancaster Sound reached ; Beechey 
 Island, the great Arctic store depot, visited ; and on August 
 i6th they sailed up Barrow's Strait. That night the /oat ''was 
 battling against a strong wind with s^«," and so unusually clear 
 
88 The Voyage of the '' Foxr 
 
 of ice was this channel that on the 17th the gallant captain 
 writes : — 
 
 '' 17th. — Last night battling against wind and sea, in rain 
 and fog. To-day much loose ice is seen southward of Griffith's 
 Island. The weather improved this afternoon, and we shot 
 gallantly past Limestone Island, and are now steering down 
 Peel Strait, all of us in a wild state of excitement — a mingling 
 of anxious hopes and fears ! 
 
 1 8th. — For twenty-five miles last evening we ran unobstruct- 
 edly down Peel Strait, but then came in sight of unbroken ice, 
 extending across it from shore to shore ! It was much decayed, 
 and of one year's growth only ; yet as the strait continues to 
 contract for sixty miles further, and it appeared to me to afford 
 so little hope of becoming navigable in the short remainder of 
 the season, / immediately turned about for Bellot Strait, as afford- 
 ing a better prospect of a passage into the western sea 
 discovered by Sir James Ross from Four River Point in 1849. 
 Our disappointment at the interruption of our progress was 
 as sudden as it was severe. We did not linger in hope of a 
 change, but steered out again into the broad waters of Barrow's 
 Strait." 
 
 This rapidity of decision, when combined with correct judg- 
 ment and great nerve, is the most essential qualification in the 
 Arctic navigator, who has no time to cast about, lest the right 
 moment slip away. Success rewarded the captain's attempt to 
 reach Bellot Strait, and with but little hindrance he had within 
 seventy hours repassed Barrow's Strait, visited Leopold harbour, 
 secured the depot established there by Ross in 1848, and 
 sailed down Regent's Inlet into the entrance of the remarkable 
 strait which cleaves North Somerset and Boothia. Here, 
 happily for the Fox and her gallant company, as we believe, 
 they found the sea to the westward of Boothia still choked 
 with ice, and Captain M'Clintock was obliged to be satisfied 
 with wintering in the very excellent position which had been 
 vouchsafed to him, for while his retreat to Baffin's Bay 
 was open annually in his rear^ the coasts of King William's 
 
The Voyage of the '' Fox!' 89 
 
 Land were only 150 miles distant from Bellot Strait in his 
 front. 
 
 The winter of 1858-59 was an unusually severe one in 72 
 deg. north, and its severity was augmented by the position of 
 their winter quarters. The lofty granitic cliffs of Bellot Strait, 
 with the hills, 1,500 feet high, of Murchison Promontory, on 
 the one side, and those of North Somerset on the other, formed 
 a funnel through which the storm and the snow-drift seemed 
 to be ever revelling in wildest mood, while the deep waters of 
 the strait rolled ever to and fro with fierce rapidity, chasing 
 and grinding the heavy ice borne into it from that hopeless 
 western sea. " Even when we have a calm night," says 
 M'Clintock, " we can hear the crushing sounds of the drift ice 
 in Bellot Strait, and it emits dark chilling clouds of hateful, 
 pestilent, abominable mist." 
 
 The sun of 1859 had hardly thrown his light over North 
 Somerset when we find Captain M'Clintock and his comrade, 
 Allen Young, braving a temperature of 48 deg. minus of Fah- 
 renheit, or 80 deg. below the freezing point of water, in sledg- 
 ing parties to the westward and southward. The great object 
 of Captain M'Clintock's visit to these frozen wilds seemed at 
 once to be within his grasp, for from Esquimaux he recovered 
 many relics of the Franklin Expedition, all of which they 
 assured him came from a party of " starving white men " who 
 had reached an island in the mouth of the great river (Montreal 
 Island), after their ship had been crushed by the ice in the sea 
 to the west of King William's Land. This one ship, for they 
 knew not of a second, must have been either the Erebus or 
 Terror^ and their intelligence confirmed Captain M'Clintock in 
 directing his principal division of sledges to the search of King 
 William's Land, while the uncertainty as to the fate of the 
 second vessel compelled him to detach his able comrade. 
 Young, to search the shores of Prince of Wales Land, in case 
 she might have been there wrecked or beset. 
 
 Early in April every man, dog, and sledge that could possi- 
 bly be spared from the Fox started upon their final and momen- 
 
90 The Voyage of the *' FoxT 
 
 tous duty. Allen Young faithfully accomplished all the work 
 assigned him in spite of many difficulties and much suffering. 
 He found no trace of Franklin's Expedition, but he discovered 
 380 miles of coast-line, established the insularity of Prince of 
 Wales Land, and connected Sir James Ross's furthest in 1848 
 with the shores of Bellot Strait. 
 
 On the other hand. Captain M'Clintock, Lieutenant Hobson, 
 and Carl Petersen explored the entire coast of King William's 
 Land, as well as the west coast of Boothia and the estuary of 
 the Great Fish River, and, above all, they discovered at Point 
 Victory a document — the only document as yet found — in 
 which the death of Franklin and the achievements and loss of 
 his expedition are at last revealed to us. From that record, 
 the relics found, the information now brought home, as well as 
 Esquimaux reports, which Carl Petersen's cross-examinations 
 rectify to a very considerable extent, we are able to put to- 
 gether the following facts, and they briefly account for the 
 Erebus and Terror up to the period of their abandonment by 
 the crews, and of the subsequent fate of those gallant men. 
 The tale is briefly as follows : — 
 
 The Erebus and Terror, under Franklin and Crozier, in the 
 same year (1845) that they left England, proceeded up Barrow's 
 Straits ; entering Wellington Channel (of which we then only 
 knew the southern headlands), they sailed up that remarkable 
 straight to the 77th degree of north latitude, some miles fur- 
 ther than was attained by Her Majesty's ships Assistance and 
 Pioneer, under Captains Belcher and Osborn, in 1852. From 
 the northern outlet of Wellington Channel Franklin was 
 obliged to retrace his steps southward, and this, in all pro- 
 bability, owing to his finding the path to the westward 
 hopelessly blocked with ice. He discovered, however, a new 
 channel between Bathurst and Cornwallis Island, and must 
 have re-entered Barrow's Straits very near the point at which 
 the expedition of 1850, under Captains Austin and Ommanney, 
 wintered — namely, Griffith's Island. 
 
 Having accomplished this almost unparalleled extent of 
 
The Voyage of the ''Fox!' 91 
 
 Arctic navigation in the open season of 1845, Franklin pro- 
 ceeded to Beechey Island, and there, as we have long known, 
 passed his first winter, with the loss of only three men out of 
 the entire complement of 129 souls in the expedition. In that 
 exploration of 1845 Franklin discovered full}^ 500 miles of new 
 coast-line, and explored two channels, of a combined length of 
 250 miles; subsequently, searching parties have gone over 
 and rediscovered nearly every inch of this ground, and it is 
 strange, that, throughout its whole extent, the Franklin Expe- 
 dition should have erected no cairn, placed no record ; and, 
 still more so, that they should have again sailed from Beechey 
 Island for a second effort in accomplishment of their task — the 
 discovery of the North-West Passage — without placing in some 
 of the many cairns erected around their winter quarters a 
 statement of their past success and of their future intentions. 
 
 We can account for such a fatal omission but in one way, 
 that they were so confident of reaching Behring's Straits or the 
 American continent that it was never deemed possible others 
 would follow on their footsteps to aid or assist them, and that, 
 if the anxiety of the leader led him even to contemplate the 
 possibility of failure in carrying his followers to the Pacific, 
 he supposed, when his expedition had outstayed its time from 
 England, that the same steps for his relief would be repeated 
 as had been carried out when John Ross was missing in the 
 Victory — that parties would be merely sent overland down the 
 Great Fish and other rivers to rescue him. 
 
 At any rate, in 1846, without placing any record at Beechey 
 Island, the Franklin Expedition sailed to reach the American 
 continent, at or near the Great Fish River, whence to Behring's 
 Straits the ground had been already explored. The concurrent 
 testimony of all the Arctic navigators who have subsequently 
 visited the seas round Cape Walker and Prince of Wales Land, 
 go to maintain that it was down between that land and North 
 Somerset that Franklin found his way to the south. Great 
 success again attended this second cruise of the intrepid navi- 
 gator, and it was not until he had accomplished 250 miles 
 
92 The Voyage of the ''Fox!' 
 
 down a new strait, which now bears the name of Franklin, 
 that his expedition was overtaken by winter and beset in the 
 ice. They were only twelve miles from and in sight of Cape 
 Felix, a headland of what was then supposed to be a promon- 
 tory of the continent of America, and known as King William's 
 Land. The second winter, that of 1846-47, was passed in this 
 tantalizing position ; but considering how large had been their 
 success in each of the previous summers that they had passed 
 in the Arctic zone there was everything to cheer the officers 
 and men and assure them of perfect success in 1847, the more 
 so that Cape Herschel, the point at which the connection of the 
 Pacific and Atlantic oceans would be established, was barely 
 ninety miles distant. 
 
 We are, therefore, not astonished to find the officer in charge 
 of a sledge party which left the Erebus in May 1847, describ- 
 ing their condition in the expedition to be " All well. Sir John 
 Franklin in command." The trail of the sledge party, as shown 
 by certain cairns, indicated that it went to the south-west, very 
 probably to connect the coast-line with Cape Herschel, and to 
 cheer up the ship's companies with the glorious intelligence 
 that they had really discovered the long-sought passage. So 
 far all was indeed well, but the summer of 1847 must have 
 been one of those " close seasons," of which our Arctic sailors 
 have had such trying experience. The ships appear to have 
 drifted a very short distance to the south-west, and to have 
 been constantly beset. Sickness seems to have broken out, 
 Sir John Franklin died as early as the 12th of June, and we 
 are appalled to find, when the spring of 1848 dawns upon the 
 expedition, that, since leaving Beechey Island, no less than 
 twenty-one souls had perished, nine of whom were officers. 
 
 We need not say that scurvy and starvation must have been 
 rife during that winter of 1847-48, for we find in Captain 
 M'Clintock's narrative ample testimony to show that even in 
 his small crew, in spite of a far more nutritious and liberal 
 dietary than ever Franklin's crews could have had, scurvy 
 was making steady and fatal inroads during even a second 
 
The Voyage of the '' Fox'' 93 
 
 winter in the ice. This fearful loss of life, and the fact that 
 the expedition was only provisioned to the spring of 1848, 
 obliged Captains Crozier and Fitzjames to direct a retreat and 
 abandonment of the ships, and as they had no choice, they led 
 one hundred and five poor starving sailors and officers away 
 from the Erebus and Terror on the 22nd of April, and did not 
 reach the land, though only fifteen miles distant, until April 
 25th — a sad proof of how weak or encumbered with sick they 
 must have been. 
 
 On that 25th of April they write that they start on the 
 morrow, the 26th, for the Fish River ! The next time they 
 were seen or heard of alive was by some Esquimaux, who 
 were sealing on King William's Land ; the " starving white 
 men " were then only about forty in number, all, with exception 
 of a chief, "a tall, stout man," were dragging at a sledge; 
 they were hungry and thin ; they purchased seal's flesh ; they 
 fell down and died as they marched along ! What became of 
 this forlorn hope of forty individuals we will presently relate, 
 but how they had suffered up to the point at which these 
 Esquimaux met them, the wreck-strewn beaches of King 
 William's Land but too sadly tell. An abandoned boat, with 
 two skeletons in it, only half-way from the Erebus and Terror 
 to Cape Herschel, indicated some attempt to return towards 
 the ships, or such weakness that they could no longer drag 
 what was so essential to them in the ascent of such a stream 
 as the Great Fish River. Another skeleton was discovered 
 some miles beyond Cape Herschell, and Heaven only knows 
 whether the bleaching bones of the unaccounted for sixty 
 individuals lie under the snows of King William's Land, or in 
 the depths of its ice-encumbered sea. Clothing, sledge gear, 
 and personal equipment of all descriptions were found on that 
 west coast of King William's Land by Captain M'Clintock and 
 Lieutenant Hobson, but no provisions ; this fact alone only too 
 painfully brings home to us the melancholy end of the un- 
 fortunate crews of the Erebus and Terror. 
 
 Of the " forlorn hope " seen in the spring by the Esquimaux 
 
94 The Voyage of the ''Fox!' 
 
 we have a clue in the visit of Mr, Anderson to Montreal 
 Island, at the mouth of the Great Fish River in 1855, and the 
 traces he found all went to corroborate the report gleaned 
 from the natives, by Dr. Rae, in 1854 — that in the summer of 
 the same year, and subsequent to the period that the natives 
 had seen them alive, the corpses of thirty white men, and 
 some graves containing others, were discovered in one spot, 
 near the great river, and five more dead bodies on an adjacent 
 island. Some of these dead white men were in a tent ; others 
 under a boat turned over for shelter, and the officer was again 
 recognized by his having a telescope and double-barrelled gun 
 near him. Nothing can be more circumstantial than this 
 evidence, and it all goes to prove that, although some portion 
 of the starving crews reached the continent of America, at the 
 entrance of the Great Fish River, that they there perished 
 of starvation, and on Captain M'Clintock's visit to Montreal 
 Island, every vestige or relic of them had been swept away by 
 the natives, although in 1855 traces of Europeans having been 
 there were pretty numerous. 
 
 Apart from an official record contained in a cylinder, and 
 already damaged by iron rust, not a single journal, log, or 
 manuscript was discovered calculated to give any additional 
 information as to the proceedings of the lost expedition. In- 
 deed, it was not until the retreating party reached King 
 William's Land that the idea seems to have struck the officers 
 commanding, that any record of their past acts or future in- 
 tentions ought to be left in cache ; and, instead of a carefully 
 prepared document being brought from the ships and left at 
 Cape Victory, they merely opened the usual official notice, 
 which Commander Gore had placed there in 1847, and in the 
 bitter temperature of an Arctic April day. Captains Crozier 
 and Fitzjames added a few brief, though graphic, sentences, in 
 which all we shall probably ever know of that sad tale is 
 revealed to us. 
 
 Yet we will not blame them ; suffering, disease, and starva- 
 tion had doubtless caused all their thoughts and feelings to be 
 
The Voyage of the ''Fox'' 95 
 
 concentrated in the one great idea of saving their lives in that 
 forthcoming summer. It was far more than they could all 
 hope to do, and the strong would assuredly have preferred to 
 drag a sick shipmate rather than a load of logs or journals ; 
 nay, more, had they even carried such dead weight to the 
 shore, would they not, we ask, have placed them under the 
 cairn at Cape Victory, around which, we are told, there was 
 a pile of abandoned clothing and equipment, indicative of 
 weakness, and a desire to lighten themselves of every en- 
 cumbrance ? That a few prayer-books and religious works, 
 capable of being carried in the pocket, were discovered in the 
 abandoned boat, is true ; but that only shows how utter must 
 have been the exhaustion of our starving sailors, when they 
 parted with the last solace of men, who knew their days were 
 numbered. 
 
 All goes to prove that in the ships was left all further 
 record of the voyage of the Erebus and Terror. One vessel 
 indubitably sank when the ice broke up ; the other was 
 evidently carried round Capes Crozier, or Herschell, into the 
 haunts of the Esquimaux, and one party of these savages 
 distinctly pointed out that she had been lying upon that coast 
 within a somewhat recent date. In 1859 this wreck had like- 
 wise disappeared, for every part of the coast was narrowly 
 examined for her ; the ice had either swept her off the beach, 
 and she had then probably sunk in deep water, or the natives 
 had applied fire to detach the wood and metal, in which she 
 was a mine of wealth to them. 
 
 Such is the tale of Captain M'Clintock, and grateful ought 
 every one to be that at last such conclusive intelligence was 
 gained of an expedition, the search for which has called forth 
 so much zeal and self-sacrifice. The official acknowledgment 
 from the Admiralty, of the services of Lady Franklin's expe- 
 dition, very justly says that Captain M'Clintock has rendered 
 important service " in bringing home the only authentic intelli- 
 gence of the death of Sir John Franklin, and of the fate of the 
 crews of the Erebus and Terror," and his Sovereign gracefully 
 
96 Perils in the Ice, 
 
 evinced her high appreciation of the gallant officer's services^ 
 by an Order in Council granting him sea-time for every day 
 he commanded the Fox yacht, as if his pendant had been 
 flying on board one of Her Majesty's ships ! — a handsome 
 compliment, right worthily bestowed. The return voyage of 
 the Fox to England was a prosperous one, and the little craft 
 was sold to be used as an Arctic sealing vessel. 
 
 The writer of the notice in the Times of Captain M'Clintock's 
 book, himself evidently well acquainted with Arctic affairs, 
 and to whom we are indebted for valuable information, states 
 that neither the captain, nor Allen Young, the sailing master, 
 would accept any recompense for their services from private 
 hands, and that of the ;^i 0,000 which the expedition cost, 
 about p{^7,ooo came from Lady Franklin's own purse. The 
 gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society was presented 
 to her as an honourable recognition of her husband's services 
 in discovering the North-West Passage, and the monuments 
 in Westminster Abbey and Waterloo Place recall the memory 
 of Franklin, Crozier, Fitzjames, and their gallant comrades, 
 who fell in the execution of a duty which had been assigned 
 to them by their countrymen. The services of M'Clintock, 
 with the good ship Fox^ will always hold an honourable place 
 in the records of Arctic voyages and travels. 
 
 PERILS IN THE ICE. 
 
 IN the year 1770 the Society of the Moravian Brethren first 
 established mission stations on the coast of Labrador. 
 Every year since that da.te a ship has been sent from the 
 Thames, sometimes for the conveyance of passengers, but 
 always for carrying the stores necessary for the life and com- 
 fort of the dwellers in those remote settlements. The records 
 of these voyages are preserved in the Periodical Accounts 
 published by the Society. Many remarkable events appear in 
 

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Perils in the Le, 97 
 
 these records, the ships having been often exposed to great 
 perils, and having met with memorable adventures, in times 
 both of war and peace. Through the protection of Divine 
 Providence, in all the years that have passed, the voyage has 
 been made in safety, although the ships have encountered the 
 dangers common to those seas and coasts. One of the most 
 perilous voyages was that of the year 181 7, in the Jemima, the 
 predecessor of successive ships which, under the name of the 
 Ifarmony, have continued the voyages from 18 18 to the present 
 time. 
 
 The Jemima reached Stromness from London on the 14th of 
 June, and thence had a favourable voyage across the Atlantic. 
 Up to the end of June all went well, but a few days later the 
 record, as given by Brother Kmoch, a veteran missionary who 
 was on board, bears a more stirring character : — 
 
 Between the 4th and 5th of July we heard and saw many ice- 
 birds. This bird is about the size of a starling, black, with 
 white and yellow spots, and is met with about 200 English 
 miles from the Labrador coast. When the sailors hear it^ 
 they know that they are not far from the ice. It flies about 
 a ship chiefly in the night, and is known by its singular voice, 
 which resembles a loud laugh. 
 
 7th. — The morning was cold and rainy. In all directions 
 drift-ice was to be seen. In the afternoon it cleared up a 
 little, and we entered an opening in the ice, looking like a bay. 
 The continual rustling and roaring of the ice reminded us of 
 the noise made by the carriages in the streets of London, when 
 one is standing in the golden gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 The mountains and large flakes of ice take all manner of 
 singular forms, some resembling castles, others churches, wag- 
 gons, and even creatures of various descriptions. As we or 
 they changed positions, the same objects acquired a quite 
 different appearance ; and what had before appeared like a 
 church, looked like a huge floating monster. Sitting on deck, 
 and contemplating these wonderful works of God, I almost 
 lost myself in endeavouring to solve the question, — '' for what 
 
 7 
 
98 Perils in the Ice. 
 
 purpose these exhibitions are made, when so few can behold 
 them, as they so soon vanish, by returning to their former 
 fluid and undefined state ? " But surely everything is done 
 with design, though short-sighted man cannot comprehend it. 
 Having in vain exerted ourselves to penetrate through the ice, 
 we returned at night into the open sea. 
 
 14th.— Land was discovered ahead. It was the coast of 
 Labrador, sixty or eighty miles south of Hopedale. We were 
 close to the ice, and, as a small opening presented itself, the 
 captain ventured to push in, hoping, if he could penetrate, to 
 find open water between the ice and the coast. For some 
 time we got nearer to the land, but were obliged at night to 
 fasten the ship with two grapnels to a large field. This was 
 elevated between five and six feet above the water's edge, and 
 between fifty and sixty feet in thickness below it. It might 
 be three hundred feet in diameter, flat at the top, and smooth 
 as a meadow covered with snow. The wind has but little 
 power over such huge masses, and they move very slowly 
 with the current. There are small streams and pools of fresh 
 water found in all those large pieces. Our situation now 
 defended us against the smaller flakes, which rushed by and 
 were turned off by the large field without reaching the ship. 
 We were all pleased with our place of refuge, and lay here 
 three whole days, with the brightest weather, and as safe as in 
 the most commodious haven ; but I cannot say that I felt easy, 
 though I hid my anxiety from the party. 1 feared that a gale 
 of w^ind might overtake us in this situation, and carry fields 
 larger than that in which we lay, when the most dreadful 
 consequences might ensue ; and the sequel proved that I was 
 not much mistaken. 
 
 On the 17th the wind came round from the south, and we 
 conceived fresh hopes of the way being rendered open for us. 
 
 1 8th. — ^The weather was clear, and the wind in our favour; 
 we therefore took up our grapnel, got clear of our floating 
 haven, and again endeavoured to penetrate through some small 
 openings. Both we and the ship's company were peculiarly 
 
Perils 171 the Ice. 99 
 
 impressed with gratitude for the protection and rest we had 
 enjoyed, and the warmth of a summer's sun felt very 
 comfortable among these masses of ice. The clearness of 
 the atmosphere to-day caused them to appear singularly 
 picturesque. It seemed as if we were surrounded by im- 
 mense white walls and towers. In the afternoon we had 
 penetrated to the open water, between the ice and the land, 
 but we durst not venture nearer, as the sea is here full of 
 sunken rocks, and the captain knew of no harbour on this 
 part of the coast. Having found another large piece of ice 
 convenient for the purpose, we fastened the ship to it. In the 
 evening a thick fog overspread us from the north-east, and we 
 were again quite surrounded by ice, which, however, was 
 soon after dispersed by a strong north-west wind. 
 
 In the night, between the 19th and 20th, we were driven 
 back by a strong current to nearly the same situation we had 
 left on the 17th, only somewhat nearer the coast. On the 
 20th, the morning was fine, and we vainly endeavoured to get 
 clear, but towards evening the sky lowered, and it grew very 
 dark. The air felt so oppressive that we all went to bed, and 
 every one of us was troubled with uneasy dreams. At 
 midnight we heard a great noise on deck. We hastened 
 thither to know the cause, and found the ship driving fast 
 towards a huge ice-mountain, on which we expected every 
 moment to suffer shipwreck. The sailors exerted themselves 
 to the utmost, but it was by God's merciful providence alone 
 that we were saved. The night was exceedingly cold, with 
 rain, and the poor people suffered much. We were now 
 driven to and fro at the mercy of the ice, till one in the 
 morning, when we succeeded in fastening the ship again to a 
 large field. But all this was only the prelude to greater 
 terrors. Deliverance from danger is so gratifying that it 
 raises one's spirits above the common level. We made a 
 hearty breakfast, and retired again into our cabins. At one 
 o'clock the cook, in his usual boisterous way, aroused us by 
 announcing dinner, and putting a large piece of pork and a 
 
lOO Perils in the Ice. 
 
 huge pudding upon the table, of which we partook with a good 
 appetite, but in silence, every one seemingly buried in thought, 
 or only half-awake. Shortly after, the wind changed to north- 
 east and north, increasing gradually, till it turned into a furious 
 storm. Top-masts were lowered, and everything done to ease 
 the ship. We now saw an immense ice-mountain at a distance, 
 towards which we were driving, without the power of turning 
 aside. Between six and seven we were again roused by a 
 great outcry on deck. We ran up, and saw our ship, with the 
 field to which we were fast, with great swiftness approaching 
 towards the mountain ; nor did there appear the smallest hope 
 of escaping being crushed to atoms between it and the field. 
 However, by veering out as much cable as we could, the ship 
 got to such a distance that the mountain passed through 
 between us and the field. We all cried fervently to the Lord 
 for speedy help in this most perilous situation, for if we had 
 but touched the mountain, we must have been instantly 
 destroyed. One of our cables was broken, and we lost a 
 grapnel ; the ship also sustained some damage. But we were 
 now left to the mercy of'the storm and current, both of which 
 were violent ; and exposed likewise to thick masses of ice, 
 which floated all around us. 
 
 The following night was stormy and dreadfully dark, the 
 heavens covered with the blackest clouds driven by a furious 
 wind, the roaring and the howling of the ice as it moved 
 along, the fields shoving and dashing against each other, were 
 truly terrible. A fender was made of a large beam, suspended 
 by ropes to the ship's sides, to secure her in some measure 
 from the ice, but the ropes were soon cut by its sharp edges, 
 and we lost the fender. Repeated attempts were now made 
 to make the ship again fast to some large field ; and the 
 second mate, a clever young man, full of spirit and willing- 
 ness, swung hmiself several times off upon such fields as 
 approached us, endeavouring to fix a grapnel to them, but in 
 vain, and we even lost another grapnel on this occasion. 
 The storm indeed dispersed the ice, and made openings in 
 
Perils in the Ice. loi 
 
 several places ; but our situation was thereby rendered only 
 still more alarming, for when the ship got into open water, 
 her motion became more rapid by the power of the wind, 
 and consequently the blows she received from the ice more 
 violent. Whenever, therefore, we perceived a field of ice 
 through the gloom, towards which we were hurried, nothing 
 appeared more probable than that the violence of the shock 
 would determine our fate, and be attended with immediate 
 destruction to the vessel. Such shocks were repeated every 
 five or ten minutes, and sometimes oftener, and the longer she 
 remained exposed to the wind, the more violently she ran 
 against the sharp edges and spits of the ice, not having any 
 power to avoid them. After every stroke we tried the pumps, 
 to find whether we had sprung a leak; but the Lord kept 
 His hand over us, and preserved us in a manner almost 
 miraculous. In this awful situation, we offered up fervent 
 prayers to Him, who alone is able to save, and besought Him 
 that, if it were His Divine will that we should end our lives 
 among the ice. He would, for the sake of His precious merits, 
 soon take us home to Himself, nor let us die a miserable 
 death from cold and hunger, floating about in this boisterous 
 ocean. 
 
 It is impossible to describe all the horrors of this eventful 
 night, in which we expected every approaching ice-field to be 
 fraught with death. We were full ten hours in this dreadful 
 situation, till about six in the morning, when we were driven 
 into open water, not far from the coast. We could hardly 
 believe that we had got clear of the ice ; all seemed as a 
 dream. We now ventured to carry some sail, with a view to 
 bear up against the wind. The ship had become leaky, a-id 
 we were obliged to keep the pump a-going, with only about 
 ten minutes' rest at a time. Both the sailors and we were 
 thereby so much exhausted that, whenever any one sat down, 
 he immediately fell asleep. 
 
 During the afternoon the wind abated, and towards evening 
 it fell calm. A thick mist ensued, which, however, soon 
 
I02 Perils in the Ice. 
 
 dispersed, when we found ourselves near a high rock, towards 
 which the current was fast carrying us. We were now in 
 danger of suffering shipwreck among the rocks, but, by God's 
 mercy, the good management of our captain succeeded in 
 steering clear of them ; and after sunset the heavens were free 
 from clouds. A magnificent northern light illumined the 
 horizon, and, as we were again among floating pieces of ice, 
 its brightness enabled us to avoid them. I retired to rest, 
 but, after midnight, was roused by the cracking noise made 
 by the ice against the sides of the vessel. In an instant I was 
 on deck, and found that we were forcing our way through 
 a quantity of floating ice, out of which we soon got again into 
 open water. The wind also turned in our favour, and carried 
 us swiftly forward towards the Hopedale shore. Every one 
 on board was again in full expectation of soon reaching 
 the end of our voyage, and ready to forget all former troubles. 
 But, alas ! arriving at the same spot from which we had been 
 driven yesterday, we found our way anew blocked up with a 
 vast quantity of ice. The wind also drove us irresistibly 
 towards it. We were now in a great dilemma. If we went 
 between the islands, where the sea is full of sunken rocks, 
 we were in danger of striking upon one of them, and being 
 instantly lost ; again, if we ventured into the ice, it was 
 doubtful whether the ship would bear many more such shocks 
 as she had received. At length the former measure was 
 determined on, as, in case of any mishap, there might be some 
 possibility of escaping to shore. 
 
 After encountering a succession of further perils and dis- 
 appointments for three additional weeks, the Jemima was 
 brought safely into Hopedale harbour on the 9th of August. 
 
 To the foregoing narrative the following remarks are 
 appended by the editor of the "Periodical Accounts" : — "The 
 captain and mate report that, though for these three years 
 past they have met with an unusual quantity of ice on the 
 coast of Labrador, yet, in no year since the beginning of 
 the Mission, has it appeared so dreadfull}^ on the increase. 
 
A Parliavientaiy Debate in Tahiti. 103 
 
 The colour likewise of this year's ice was different from that 
 usually seen, and the size of the ice-mountains and thickness 
 of the fields immense, with sand-stones embedded in them. 
 As a great part oC the coast of Greenland, which for centuries 
 has been choked up with ice, apparently immovable, has, by 
 some revolution, been cleared, this may perhaps account for 
 the great quantity alluded to." 
 
 A PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE IN TAHITI. 
 
 AFTER the people of Tahiti and the other Windward 
 Islands of the South Sea had received the religious 
 teaching of the Christian missionaries, they sought instruction 
 as to the principles and practice of civil government. The 
 chiefs declared their readiness to give up their personal and 
 despotic rule, and to adopt a suitable constitution and just 
 laws. There was much consultation and deliberation, and at 
 length, at the request of the chiefs, the missionaries prepared 
 a draft of a constitution and of a code of laws, to be submitted 
 for the approval of the chiefs. The advice given was to 
 summon a conference of the chiefs and leading men, and 
 to discuss the proposals offered for their consideration. 
 
 Accordingly, an assembly was convened, consisting of the 
 adult male members of the royal family of Tahiti, the same 
 of the principal chiefs, these being hereditary legislators ; to 
 whom were added, as representatives of the people, two 
 members from each Mataaina or district, appointed by the 
 people themselves. The place of meeting was at Papaoa, ' 
 as being convenient of access for the members from other 
 islands, as well as those in Tahiti. Mr. Nott, the senior 
 missionary, was requested to act as president or speaker. 
 The other missionaries were present, but took no part in the 
 proceedings, and there were also present Mr. Tyerman and 
 Mr. Bennett, a deputation from the London Missionary 
 
I04 A Parliamenta7y Debate m Tahiti, 
 
 Society, then on a tour round the world, for the purpose 
 of visiting the various stations of that Society. Except the 
 president, all the members were natives, and it was the first 
 native parliament of the Windward Islands, held for the 
 purpose of legislation and government. In old times no 
 council had met except for unholy or warlike conference. 
 
 The draft of the code had been previously prepared by Mr. 
 Nott, at the request of the chiefs and people, the general 
 principles and specific enactments having been frequently and 
 fully canvassed in several conferences, and recognized by all 
 present as the basis of the literal form in which the same 
 should be embodied and promulgated. This code, thus 
 adopted, consisted of about forty articles, which appeared to 
 comprehend all the necessary provisions for maintaining social 
 order, promoting public welfare, and securing the rights and 
 privileges of all ranks among the community, with regard to 
 life, liberty, and property. For instance, in regard to theft, 
 upon conviction there was to be reparation fourfold, and for 
 repetition of the offence, hard labour, to the extent of five 
 years as the maximum punishment. For drunkenness, the 
 first offence was dealt with by public admonition, and hard 
 labour after subsequent convictions. The enactments against 
 tattooing and other former customs were repealed, leaving 
 persons to act as they pleased in matters not injuring their 
 neighbours. 
 
 For executing the laws many magistrates or judges were 
 appointed, there being two, at least, for each district, besides 
 seven supreme judges for Tahiti, and two for Eimeo. Juries 
 were to consist of six persons, peers of the accused. Many 
 of the articles were agreed to after considerable discussion, 
 the most protracted of the debates being that on the question 
 of capital punishment for murder. The question lay between 
 punishment by death or perpetual banishment to some 
 uninhabited island, the latter alternative being adopted 
 unanimously. It is this debate that we are going to report, 
 as showing the intelligence and earnestness, the good sense 
 
A Parliamentary Debate in Tahiti. 105 
 
 and good feeling, displayed forty years ago by these untutored 
 natives of the South Sea Islands. 
 
 Before giving the summary of the debate, as recorded by 
 Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, who were present during the 
 two days over which it extended, let us recall a somewhat 
 analogous state of affairs which might have been witnessed in 
 a European assembly, equally without previous experience in 
 parliamentary procedure. 
 
 In the course of the great continental war of the early part 
 of this century, Sicily fell into the hands of the English, and 
 without any previous political education or preparation for 
 liberty was placed under a constitution modelled after that 
 of Great Britain. '' No words," says a traveller, '' can describe 
 the scenes which daily occurred upon the introduction of the 
 representative system into Sicily. The House of Parliament, 
 neither moderated by discretion nor conducted with dignity, 
 bore the resemblance of a receptacle for lunatics, instead of a 
 council for legislators, and the disgraceful scenes so often seen 
 at the hustings in England were here transferred to the floor 
 of the Senate. The president's voice was unheeded and 
 unheard ; the whole House at times rose ; partisans of 
 different antagonists mingled in the fray, when the ground 
 was literally covered with combatants, kicking, biting, and 
 scratching. Such a state of things could not last ; indeed, 
 this constitutional synod was dissolved the very first year of 
 its creation, and martial law established." 
 
 Similar scenes would probably be witnessed in an Irish 
 parliament, under Home Rule ! What caused the congress in 
 Tahiti to present so totally different an aspect, and display so 
 different a spirit ? It was because many of the chiefs and 
 people were truly Christian men, whose character was 
 ennobled, and whose conduct was regulated by the truths 
 and the spirit of the Gospel. In the whole proceedings of 
 that assembly there was a propriety and earnestness that 
 might put to shame even our own parliament in some of its 
 debates. 
 
io6 A Parliamentary Debate in Tahiti, 
 
 On the question being proposed, whether exile for life to a 
 desolate island should be the penalty on conviction for murder, 
 Hitoti, the principal chief of Pape, stood up, and, bowing to 
 the president and the assembly, said : "No doubt this is a good 
 law ; but a thought has been growing in my heart for several 
 days, and when you have heard my little speech you will 
 understand what it is. The laws of England, from which 
 country we have received so much good of every kind, must 
 they not be good ? And do not the laws of England punish 
 murderers by death ? Now, my thought is that as England 
 does so it would be well for us to do so. That is my thought." 
 
 Perfect silence followed this short but earnestly spoken 
 address. And it may be observed here that, throughout the 
 whole eight days' meetings of this assembly, in no instance 
 were two speakers on their legs at once ; there was not an 
 angry word uttered by one against another, nor did any 
 assume the possession of more wisdom or authority than the 
 rest. In fact, none controverted the opinion of a previous 
 speaker, or even commented on it, without some respectful 
 commendation of what seemed praiseworthy in it, while, for 
 reasons which he modestly but manfully assigned, he deemed 
 another sentiment better. 
 
 After looking round to see whether anybody were already 
 up before him, Utami, the principal chief of Buanaauia, rose 
 and thus addressed the president : '' The chief of Pape has 
 said well that we have received a great many good things from 
 the kind Christian people of England. Indeed, what have we 
 not received from Beretane ? Did they not send us the true 
 gospel ? — But does not Hitoti's speech go too far ? If we take 
 the laws of England for our guide, then must we not punish 
 with death those who break into a house ? — those who write a 
 wrong name ? — those who steal a sheep ? And will any man 
 in Tahiti say that death should grow for these ? — No, no ; this 
 goes too far ; so I think we should stop. The law, as it is 
 written, I think is good ; perhaps I am wrong ; but that is my 
 thought." 
 
A Parliamentary Debate in Tahiti. 107 
 
 After a moment or two of stillness, Upuparu, a noble, 
 intelligent, and stately chief, stood forth. It was a pleasure to 
 look upon his animated countenance and frank demeanour, 
 without the smallest affectation either of superiority or con- 
 descension. He paid several graceful compliments to the 
 former speakers, while, according to his thought, in some 
 things each was right, and each was wrong. " My brother, 
 Hitoti, who proposed that we should punish murder with 
 death because England does so, was wrong, as has been shown 
 by Utami. For they are not the laws of England which are to 
 guide us, though they are good ; — the Bible is our perfect 
 guide. Now, Mitti Truhi (the Missionary Crook) was preach- 
 ing to us on (naming the day) from the Scripture, ' He that 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed'; and 
 he told us that this was the reason of the law of England. My 
 thought, therefore, is not with Utami, but with Hitoti (though 
 not because the law of England, but because the Bible, orders 
 it), that we ought to punish with death every one found guilty 
 of murder." 
 
 There was a lively exchange of looks all through the assem- 
 bly, as if each had been deeply struck with the sentiments of 
 the speaker, especially when he placed the ground of the 
 punishment of death, not upon English precedent, but Scrip- 
 ture authority. Another chief followed, and " rising, seemed 
 a pillar of state," one whose aspect, and presence, and costume 
 of dress (richly native) made the spectators forget even him 
 who had just sat down. His name was Tati ; and on him all 
 eyes were immediately and intensely fixed, while, with not less 
 simplicity and deference to others than those who had preceded 
 him, he spoke thus : " Perhaps some of you may be surprised 
 that I, who am the first chief here, and next to the royal 
 family, should have held my peace so long. I wished to hear 
 what my brethren would say, that I might gather what thoughts 
 had grown in their breasts on this great question. I am glad 
 that I waited, because some thoughts are now growing in my 
 own breast which I did not bring with me. The chiefs, who 
 
io8 A Paidiamentary Debate in Tahiti. 
 
 have spoken before me, have spoken well. But is not the 
 speech of Upuparu Hke that of his brother Hitoti — in this way ? 
 If we cannot follow the laws of England in all things, as 
 Hitoti's thoughts would perhaps lead us, because they go too 
 far, — must we not stop short of Upuparu, because his thought 
 goes too far likewise ? The Bible, he says, is our perfect 
 guide. It is. But what does that Scripture naean, ' He that 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed' ? 
 Does not this go so far that we cannot follow it to the end, any 
 more than we can follow the laws of England all the way ? 
 I am Tati ; I am a judge ; a man is convicted before me ; he 
 has shed blood ; I order him to be put to death ; I shed his 
 blood ; then who shall shed mine ? Here, because I cannot 
 go so far, I must stop. This cannot be the meaning of those 
 words. But, perhai>s, since many of the laws of the Old 
 Testament were thrown down by the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 only some kept standing upright, — perhaps, I say, this is one 
 of those which were thrown down. However, as I am igno- 
 rant, someone else will show me that, in the New Testament, 
 our Saviour, or His apostles, have said the same thing concern- 
 ing him that sheddeth man's blood as is said in the Old Testa- 
 ment. Show me this in the New Testament, and then it must 
 be our guide." "^ 
 
 Much cordial approbation was evident at the conclusion of 
 Tati's speech, and its evangelical appeal seemed to remove 
 some difficulty and doubt respecting the true Scriptural autho- 
 rity applicable to the case. 
 
 Next rose Pati, a chief and a judge of Eimeo, formerly a 
 high priest of Oro, and the first who, at the hazard of his life, 
 had abjured idolatry. " My breast," he exclaimed, " is full of 
 thought and surprise and delight. When I look round at this 
 fare bure ra (house of prayer) in which we are assembled, and 
 consider who we are that take sweet counsel together here, it 
 is to me all mea huru e (a thing of amazement), and men faa 
 oaoa te aau (a thing that makes glad my heart). Tati has 
 settled the question ; for is it not the gospel that is our guide ? 
 
A Parliamentary Debate i7i Tahiti. 109 
 
 and who can find directions for putting to death ? I know- 
 many passages which forbid, but I know not one which com- 
 mands, to kill. But then another thought is growing in my 
 breast, and, if you will hearken to my little speech, you shall 
 know what it is. Laws to punish those that commit crime are 
 good for us. But tell me, why do Christians punish ? Is it 
 because we are angry, and have pleasure in causing pain ? Is 
 it because we love revenge, as we did when we were heathens ? 
 None of these : Christians do not love revenge ; Christians 
 must not be angry ; they cannot have pleasure in causing pain. 
 Christians do not, therefore, punish for these. Is it not that, 
 by the suffering which is inflicted, we may prevent the criminal 
 from repeating his crime, and frighten others from doing as he 
 has done to deserve the like ? Well then, does not everybody 
 know that it would be a greater punishment to be banished 
 for ever from Tahiti, to a desolate island, than just, in a 
 moment, to be put to death ? And could the banished man 
 commit murder again there ? And would not others be more 
 frightened by such a sentence than by one to take away his 
 life ? So my thought is that Tati is right, and the law had 
 best remain as it has been written." 
 
 One of the taata riiy or little men, a commoner, or represen- 
 tative of a district, now presented himself, and was listened to 
 with as much attention as had been given to the lordly per- 
 sonages who preceded him. He said : '' As no one else stands 
 up, I will make my little speech, because several thoughts 
 have been growing in my breast, and I wish you to hear them. 
 Perhaps everything good- and necessary has been said already 
 by the chiefs ; yet, as we are not met to adopt this law or that 
 law because one great man or another recommends it, but as 
 we, the taata rii just the same as the chiefs, are to throw all 
 our thoughts together, that out of the whole heap the meeting 
 may make those to stand upright which are best, whencesoever 
 they come — this is my thought. All that Tati said was good ; 
 but he did not mention that one reason for punishing (as a 
 Missionary told us when he was reading the law to us in pri- 
 
1 1 o Origin of the Gipsies. 
 
 vate) is to make the offender good again if possible. Now, if 
 we kill a murderer, how can we make him better ? But if he 
 be sent to a desolate island, where he is all solitary, and com- 
 pelled to think for himself, it may please God to make the bad 
 things in his heart to die, and good things to grow there. But; 
 if we kill him, where will his soul go ?" 
 
 Others spoke to the same purport, and, in the result, it was 
 unanimously determined that banishment, not death, should be 
 inflicted on murderers. It followed, of course, that the extreme 
 exercise of magisterial power, to take away life, was excluded 
 from every other case. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE GIPSIES. • 
 
 WITH SPECIAL ACCOUNT OF A SCOTTISH COLONY OF THEM. 
 
 AT the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria it was 
 estimated that the gipsies in Great Britain numbered 
 about 18,000. In all Europe, it is supposed there were not 
 fewer than 700,000 at that period. There were few or none 
 then in the New World, but they have since found their way 
 to the United States of America. Everywhere they have 
 always retained peculiar and well-marked characteristics, 
 easily recognized, and distinguishing them from the people 
 of the countries where they wander and reside. 
 
 Where did these people come from ? Many opinions have 
 been held, and many theories propounded, and not a few 
 books written, in reply to this question. After all that has 
 been said on the subject, those who maintain their Indian 
 origin have much the strongest proofs on their side. There are 
 no authentic records or historical documents to appeal to, but 
 taking the evidence arising out of the appearance of the 
 people, their habits and customs, their superstitions, and, 
 above all, their language, there is little doubt of their having 
 originally emigrated from the far East. 
 
Origin of the Gipsies. 1 1 1 
 
 The notion that they are descendants of Israel is wholly 
 untenable. There are only a few words in their language 
 resembling Hebrew, and they have not a ceremony peculiar to 
 the Hebrew race in every land. They have also few words 
 resembling " Coptic," and in Egypt they are deemed as 
 strangers to the present time, although their name seems to 
 indicate a connection with that country. Everywhere, in 
 Europe, Asia, or Africa, they use a language peculiar to 
 themselves ; more or less modified by that of the people among 
 whom they dwell. In fact, they remain, as they always have 
 been, a distinct race in this western world. 
 
 Although history does not reveal their origin, it states very 
 clearly when they first made their appearance in Europe. 
 About 1410 they were first seen in southern and central 
 Germany; in 141 8 they were found in Switzerland ; in Italy 
 they are mentioned in 1422 ; and in France in 1427. In the 
 reign of Henry VIII., from Statutes passed against them, they 
 must have been for some time in England, although the time 
 of their coming is unrecorded. It isYemarkable that in the 
 earliest notices of them, when they were in Europe, they are 
 spoken of as black, especially the women, and they evidently 
 were of darker hue then than now, an additional evidence of 
 their Indian origin, before their complexion was affected by 
 the climate and life of the countries to which they had migrated. 
 
 All these facts point to the conclusion, which has been a 
 current belief for many generations, that these people were 
 Asiatic Indians, driven from Hindostan in consequence of the 
 terrible persecution of Timur Beg, or Tamerlane, the Tartar 
 invader, who, in 1408 and 1409, ravaged the Indian peninsula, 
 and put to the sword hundreds of thousands of the inhabitants. 
 It is rational to suppose that numbers of those who escaped 
 from these hordes of ruthless invaders should seek to save 
 their lives by flying from their native land, to become wander- 
 ing strangers in other countries. The Brahmins and other 
 higher castes would sooner die than go into exile, and many ot 
 the Indian chiefs and people were able to make terms with 
 
112 Origin of the Gipsies. 
 
 their Mohammedan conquerors. But the outcast Sudres were 
 a poor and degraded people, looked on as the basest of the 
 human race ; and with ferocious troops seeking their destruc- 
 tion, they had every motive to leave, and none to stay in 
 Hindostan. They fled to save their own lives and the lives of 
 those dear to them. 
 
 By what track the ancestors of the gipsies found their way 
 to Europe we cannot determine. But it may be presumed 
 that they passed over the southern Persian deserts, and along 
 the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates, thence to 
 Bussorah, and into Arabia, and thence into Egypt. Their 
 appearance in Europe corresponds with the time at which the 
 invasion of Timur Beg would have driven them from India. 
 
 It is needless to adduce the many proofs which philology and 
 ethnology has accumulated in proof of the Indian origin and 
 associations of the race. Long lists of words have been pub- 
 lished, showing the identity and resemblance of gipsy words 
 with those of Hindostanee. Writers in different countries of 
 Europe have done this, and it is remarkable how many of the 
 words are the same, notwithstanding the diversity of the tongue 
 of the countries where the comparison has been made. Two 
 or three incidental notices will be more to the point than 
 elaborate lists of words. 
 
 Bishop Heber, in his Journal, says : '' On the other side of 
 the river" (in north-west India) "was a large encampment of 
 wretched tents of mats, with a number of little hackeries, 
 panniers, ponies, goats, etc., so like gipsies that on asking what 
 they were, I was not surprised to hear Abdallah say they were 
 gipsies ; that they were numerous in the north-west provinces, 
 living exactly like the gipsies in England ; that he had seen the 
 same people both in Persia and Russia ; and that in Persia 
 they spoke Hindostanee the same as here." Abdallah said 
 that by desire of Sir Gore Ouseley he had talked with some of 
 them when he was in Persia, and found they could understand 
 and answer him. 
 
 In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal 
 
Origin of the Gipsies, 113 
 
 Society, read to the Society of Antiquaries in London, in 1785, 
 Mr. Marsden speaks with certainty of '' the identity of the 
 Gipsy or Cingari or Hindostanee language," adding " that 
 through the mountains of Nubia and on the plains of Roumania 
 these tribes have conversed for centuries in a dialect similar 
 to that spoken to this day by the gipsies in England." 
 
 Lord Teignmouth once said to a young gipsy woman in Hindo- 
 stanee, " Tue burra tetschur," '' Thou art a great thief." She 
 immediately replied, " No, I am not a thief; I live by fortune- 
 telling." An Indian missionary was in the house of the Rev. 
 James Crabb, of Southampton, when a gipsy woman was 
 present. After talking with her he expressed his conviction 
 that her people must once have known well the Hindostanee 
 tongue. 
 
 These are sufficient instances to show the truth of the alleged 
 origin of the language. To argue that they are not of Indian 
 origin because they do not speak Hindostanee with correctness, 
 would be as absurd as to deny that they are natives of England 
 because they speak very incorrect English. 
 
 I have mentioned the name of Mr. Crabb, of Southampton, 
 long well known as " The Gipsies' Friend," because he was 
 the first who made systematic efforts to civilize and improve 
 them, and whose labours induced many benevolent persons to 
 take interest in their social and religious welfare. Much in 
 this way has been done since, and is still being done, notably 
 by Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, and others who have written 
 on the condition of the gipsies, and laboured on their behalf. 
 But the services of Mr. Crabb, the pioneer in this good work, 
 deserve lasting remembrance. From a little book published 
 by him in 1832, entitled " The Gipsies' Advocate," we extract 
 a chapter containing letters from a correspondent, a clergyman 
 in Scotland, giving an account of a tribe then located in a 
 parish of that country. The letters are as follows : — 
 
 Kirk Yetholm, a small village in the county of Roxburgh- 
 shire, upon the borders of the two kingdoms of England and 
 Scotland, has been long known, and sorrkewhat celebrated, as 
 
 8 
 
114 T^^^ Gipsies of Ki^^k Yet holm, 
 
 the favourite residence or head-quarters of the largest colony 
 in Scotland of that singular and interesting race of people the 
 gipsies, whose origin is involved in so much obscurity and 
 doubt. It is not, perhaps, correct to say that the '^ muggers " 
 or " tinkers " of Kirk Yetholm are the pure, unmingled gipsy 
 race, whose forefathers, upwards of four centuries ago, 
 emigrated to Europe from the East. As in England, so also 
 in Scotland, from their intermixture with the natives of the 
 country, and with other wanderers like themselves, they are 
 now less distinguishable as a. peculiar race. Still, however, 
 their language, their erratic and pilfering propensities, and, in 
 general, their dark or dusky complexion, black piercing eyes, 
 and Hindoo features, sufficiently betray the original of this 
 despised and long-neglected race. At what period they first 
 settled in Kirk Yetholm I have not been able to ascertain. 
 The family of Fa, or Fall (a name renowned in gipsy story), 
 seems to have been the first, which probably was about the 
 beginning of the last century. Whether or not they have any 
 intercourse with the gipsies in other parts of the country I am 
 unable to say ; I have at least no evidence that they have. 
 That they have a peculiar language is a subject on which I 
 have no doubt; though they themselves deny the fact, and 
 seem astonished at the question. I do not mean to say that 
 it is a regularly formed and complete language, but they are 
 able to converse in words unknown to others. 
 
 I find that the slang or language used by the Kirk Yetholm 
 gipsies is very much the same with the language spoken by 
 the English and Turkish gipsies, a fact which identifies the 
 colony residing in Kirk Yetholm with the same people in other 
 parts of the world. The number of gipsies in the parish of 
 Yetholm is about one hundred. It wsuld appear, however, that 
 the gipsy population of this place is fluctuating. In 1798, 
 from the statistical report of the minister of the parish at that 
 period, there were only fifty-nine. In 18 18, there were one 
 hundred and nine. In 1831, upwards of one hundred ; and, in 
 a few years more, this number may be considerably diminished 
 
The Gipsies of Kirk Yethohn, 115 
 
 or increased. Their occupations are various. Two of the 
 famiHes are '' horners " or '' spoonmakers/' who manufacture 
 horn into spoons ; one a travelling tinker; another a travelling 
 cooper ; the rest are '^ muggers," or " potters," as they prefer 
 being called, who carry earthenware about the country for sale. 
 Some of them also make baskets or besoms for sale. The 
 spoons fabricated by the horners are very generally used 
 by the poor, and farmers purchase a considerable number of 
 them before autumn for the use of the reapers. With the 
 exception of the individuals of this profession, whose occupa- 
 tion is better attended to at home, all the others are absent 
 from home, with their families, from eight to nine months in 
 the year. 
 
 It is needless, I suppose, to describe a gipsy tent, which is 
 the same in England as in Scotland. They usually prefer for 
 pitching their tents the least frequented parts of the country, 
 and where they may have some convenient shelter. It is the 
 business of the women to carry about and to dispose of the 
 articles which they have for sale. The men, in the meantime, 
 remain with their horses and carts, or occupy themselves in 
 fishing or poaching, in both of w^hich they show much 
 dexterity. Occasionally two or more families travel together. 
 They seldom remain longer than a few days in one place, and 
 I believe they very rarely or never travel on the Sabbath. 
 They leave their head-quarters very early in spring, probably 
 the beginning of March, and return usually after the winter 
 has fairly commenced, about the end of November. They 
 seem to enjoy the best of health ; and the older women of the 
 tribe are supposed to possess much skill in the management 
 of wounds and diseases. The only species of country work 
 in which they engage with others is that of reaping, and for 
 this purpose many of them return about the beginning of 
 autumn, to hire themselves to those farmers who will engage 
 them. At home they usually conduct themselves in a quiet 
 and peaceable manner, and their quarrels are chiefly among 
 themselves. These are very violent whilst they last, and the 
 
1 1 6 The Gipsies of Kirk Yet holm. 
 
 occasion or ground of quarrel is seldom known but to them- 
 selves. On these occasions especially they are addicted to 
 profane and dreadful imprecations. Their character for truth 
 and honesty does not stand high. But they have enemies 
 enough to proclaim their faults, and these faults, it must be 
 confessed, are neither few nor small. 
 
 The greater number of writers, in Scotland at least, when 
 speaking of or alluding to this unfortunate race, seem scarcely 
 able to discover expressions sufficiently strong to manifest 
 their abhorrence of them. This is in some respects unjust. It is 
 granted that they are idle, disorderly, vicious, and unrestrained ; 
 without almost any knowledge of religion. But it might also 
 be recollected that this will always be the character, more or 
 less, of those who live as they do — a very wandering life ; and 
 it becomes, therefore, the duty of society to inquire what they 
 can do to reclaim them from their erratic mode of life — the 
 grand source of almost all their vicious habits. 
 
 The gipsies are not destitute of good qualities. They have 
 a species of honour, so that if trusted, they will not deceive or 
 betray you. They are grateful for any attention that is shown 
 them ; so that I believe there are few instances of those who 
 have treated them with kindness receiving any injury at their 
 hands. Many pleasing instances could be mentioned, and 
 several instances have come under my own observation, of 
 their grateful sense of favours conferred, and at any length of 
 time will remember an act of kindness shown to themselves or 
 relations. They are very sensible of the dislike which is 
 generally entertained against them, and would frequently 
 conceal the fact that they belong to a separate race : whereas, 
 formerly, it would appear they were rather proud of being 
 regarded as a peculiar tribe, and this feeling is not altogether 
 extinct among them. 
 
 I do not think that the gipsies of Kirk Yetholm are much 
 addicted to drunkenness. There are particular seasons and 
 occasions indeed when they drink to excess, and at such times 
 may be guilty of dreadful extravagances ; but I am not aware 
 
The Gipsies of Kirk Yetholni. 1 1 7 
 
 that there is one habitual drunkard here. A deep and dark 
 spirit of revenge seems to be the worst trait in their characters ; 
 and at their merry-makings or carousals, which are now, how- 
 ever, of rare occurrence, when their blood is heated with 
 whiskey, this revengeful spirit is most apt to exhibit itself. 
 Most or all of the gipsy parents have been married, I believe ; 
 the greater number, however, in an irregular manner. The 
 majority of the children have been baptised. They almost 
 invariably intermarry in their own tribes, and are generally 
 dissatisfied when this is not the case. The interior of their 
 houses is usually dirty, and the furniture of a very mean 
 description ; there are, however, some very pleasing exceptions 
 to this observation. You rarely find them, except when very 
 poor, destitute of a blazing fire, which they seem to regard, 
 and with reason, too, as one of the greatest comforts of life. 
 Most of the tribe can read ; many, however, very indifferently ; 
 but all of them seem very sensible of the benefits of education. 
 The parents generally express themselves as extremely desirous 
 that their children should be instructed, and they speak ot 
 education as the only legacy which a poor man has to leave his 
 children. 
 
 In Scotland, it will be remembered, that a person who 
 cannot read, and even write also, is rarely to be met with. 
 Still, however, there are many of the gipsy children not sent 
 regularly to school, even during those few months they remain 
 at home; and those of them that attend, during many months 
 are travelling in the country, and are extremely apt to forget 
 all they have been taught, and in the following winter must 
 probably commence the same course of instruction anew. 
 Generally they are remarked as clever children ; and consider- 
 ing the many disadvantages under which they receive instruc- 
 tion, the progress they make is surprising. The parents are in 
 general very much attached to their children. This, indeed, is 
 one of those features of their character which distinguish their 
 tribe wherever it is found. Nevertheless, so anxious are they 
 that their children should be instructed, that they have again 
 
' 1 1 8 The Gipsies of Kirk Yetholm, 
 
 and again expressed their utmost willingness to part with them 
 for this purpose, and to leave them at home during the summer 
 months, that they might attend school, but lament their 
 inability to maintain them. Most of the children have attended 
 the Sabbath school during their continuance at home. Latterly 
 a considerable number have attended church, most of them 
 only occasionally ; some of them, however, with exemplary 
 regularity. The ideas entertained generally on religious 
 subjects are extremely limited and erroneous. Indeed, how 
 can they be expected to be otherwise than deplorably ignorant 
 of religion, when it is considered that their education is so very 
 defective, and that during eight or nine months out of the 
 twelve they are houseless wanderers, with none to care for 
 them, and none to instruct them ? If we discover so much 
 ignorance amongst our own residents, and our own church- 
 going population, there is no wonder the gipsy is totally 
 ignorant, as in many instances he is, of the very first principles 
 of Christianity. Still they seem to profess a general respect 
 for religion. I am not aware that they entertain on this 
 subject any sentiments peculiar to themselves. Like all 
 persons whose knowledge of every substance is extremely 
 contracted, and who entertain a confused belief of the truth 
 of religion, without knowing what it really is, they are very 
 superstitious. Nor am I sure that their superstition differs 
 much from that of the ignorant in general. They believe 
 in apparitions and witchcraft, and in the existence of invisible 
 beings, capable of doing them an injury. They have also a 
 belief in omens. They hold it to be very ominous of evil, 
 before commencing a journey, to meet with certain animals 
 early in the morning, or with persons possessing certain 
 features or deformities, and on such occasions they will unload 
 their carts or asses, and wait a more auspicious season for 
 their journey. They all profess to belong to the established 
 church of Scotland. Most of them have Bibles or New Testa- 
 ments, or at least the tattered remains of some portions of 
 the Scriptures in their possession. It will be understood, of 
 
The Gipsies of Kirk Yetlwlni. 119 
 
 course, that in these remarks I speak generally. As a proof 
 that they are not universally destitute even of ponderous folio 
 Bibles, I may mention rather an interesting fact, which occurred 
 during the late vacancy of the parish of Yetholm, or that 
 interval of time which elapsed between the death of the pre- 
 ceding clergyman of the parish and the appointment of his 
 successor. The deceased minister's family had left the parish, 
 and carried with them the usual pulpit Bible. It happened 
 that on the Sabbath following the removal of the Bible, a young 
 clergyman from a distance, an entire stranger in the parish, was 
 appointed to officiate : it appears also that the absence of the 
 Bible was not discovered by the elders or church officers until 
 the moment almost when it was necessary that the minister 
 should be in the pulpit ; upon this, as there was no time to 
 send to any distance, the elders immediately proceeded to the 
 nearest cottages, to inquire if a Bible of something like orthodox 
 dimensions could be procured. One cottage after another was 
 entered, without being able to furnish what was wanted. The 
 next was the cottage of a gipsy. Probably they lingered before 
 the door, doubtful whether to enter or not. They did enter, 
 however, and thence returned with a folio Bible of the largest 
 dimensions, and with copious notes. 
 
 One circumstance in the character of the gipsies I think 
 ought not to be omitted. I allude to their manners. While 
 these in most instances are rude and uncultivated, displaying 
 only a bold and fearless independence, there are individuals 
 among them who, judging from their manners alone, might 
 have been bred at court. This is scarcely too exaggerated a 
 description. In addressing their superiors, no matter how 
 elevated in rank, they display the utmost self-possession, and 
 most perfect propriety of behaviour. They express them- 
 selves tolerably well, and without hesitation or awkwardness. 
 Perhaps there is among them too much display, but their 
 movements are natural and even graceful. Like a late departed 
 monarch, his present gipsy majesty is the most polished of all 
 subjects. The whole of this (royal) family indeed, male and 
 
I20 The Gipsies of Kirk Yet holm. 
 
 female, are rather remarkable for this freedom and polish of 
 manner. His Majesty, moreover, who is now an old man, 
 without any family, and who never removes from home, is 
 also a regular hearer at church. 
 
 Kirk Yetholm, therefore, has some pretensions to the name, 
 which it has sometimes received, of the metropolis of the gipsy 
 kingdom in Scotland. It is alluded to as their favourite 
 residence in the following lines by Leyden : — 
 
 " On Yeta's banks the vagrant gipsies place 
 Their turf-built cots, a sunburnt swarthy race ; 
 Through Nubian realms their tawny line they bring, 
 And their brown chieftain vaunts the name of king. 
 With loitering steps from town to town they pass, 
 Their lazy dames rocked on the panniered ass. 
 From pilfered roost or nauseous carrion fed, 
 By hedge-rows green they strew the leafy bed. 
 While scarce the cloak of tawdy red conceals 
 Their fine-turned limbs which every breeze reveals. 
 Their bright black eyes thi-ough silken lashes shine, 
 Around their neck their raven tresses twine. 
 But chilling damps and dews of night impair 
 Its soft sleek gloss and tan the bosom bare. 
 Adroit the lines of palmistry to trace, 
 Or read the damsel's wishes in her face. 
 Her hoarded silver store they charm away, 
 A pleasing debt for promised wealth to pay." 
 
 The practice alluded to in these lines is, I believe, almost 
 totally laid aside. Kirk Yetholm I may mention is a small 
 village, containing about four hundred inhabitants, and situated 
 a short mile from the boundary which separates the two 
 kingdoms of England and Scotland, The boundary here is 
 either a trifling stream, or more generally a mere imaginary 
 line. 
 
 '* A river here, there an ideal line. 
 
 By fancy drawn divides the sister kingdoms ; 
 On each side dwells a people similar. 
 As twins are to each other, valiant both, 
 Both for their valour famous through the world." 
 
The Gipsies of Kirk Yet holm. 121 
 
 There is another and larger village in the parish, called 
 Town Yetholm, perhaps one of the most beautifully-situated 
 villages in Scotland. It is distant from the other less than 
 half a mile. They are placed on opposite sides of a valley, 
 through which flows a wild romantic stream, called the 
 " Bowmont Water." The parish lies at the foot of the 
 Cheviot range of mountains, is small though populous, at a con- 
 siderable distance from any town, peacefully secluded, and 
 embosomed amid pastoral hills, which are smooth and green 
 to the summit. The secluded situation of the parish, and the 
 immediate vicinity of Kirk Yetholm, more especially to Eng- 
 land on one side, and to the wild and pathless range of the 
 Cheviot on the other, may perhaps be given as reasons why 
 the gipsies originally chose this as their favourite haunt. If at 
 any time pursued by the hand of justice, it was easy, the work 
 of only a few minutes, to cross from the one kingdom to the 
 other ; or if the magistrates on both sides of the border were 
 on the alert, the nimble-footed gipsies were soon safe from 
 their pursuit among the wild valleys of the neighbouring 
 mountains. It is very generally said that the gipsies of late 
 years, probably since the end of the last century, have lost 
 character very much. I will not inquire at present what truth 
 there may be in this, but if it be the case, several reasons may 
 be assigned for it. Many lawless and desperate characters, 
 not belonging to the tribe, have from time to time connected 
 themselves with it, and initiated them into practices formerly 
 unknown among them. Their greater poverty also of late 
 years may be another cause of their increased immorality, and 
 the severe and unfeeling treatment of them by society may be 
 regarded as a third cause of their more depraved and lawless 
 condition of late years. 
 
 The gipsies are at present known as a wild and semi- 
 barbarous race, " whose hand is against every man's, and 
 every man's hand against them," who are feared and dreaded 
 by others, as setting all law, character, religion, and morality 
 at defiance, and unfortunately there is but too much truth in 
 
122 The Gipsies of Kirk Yet holm, 
 
 the description. The original and fruitful 'source of all the 
 vicious habits and unfortunate peculiarities of this tribe has 
 already been stated to be their loose, irregular, and wandering 
 mode of life, and the natural consequences of this mode of life 
 have been aggravated, it would appear of late years, by the 
 causes above mentioned. 
 
 There is nothing obviously in the native character, blood, or 
 constitution of the gipsy, to render him more desperate and 
 vicious than others. They are neither better nor worse, I 
 conceive, than other members of society would be were they 
 placed in similar circumstances. Their wandering, for instance, 
 exposes them to many peculiar temptations, idleness and 
 rapine lead them frequently into scenes of mischief and 
 wickedness, and necessarily leave them ignorant, uneducated, 
 and uncivilized. Withdraw them, therefore, from this mode 
 of life, and at as early an age as possible, before they have 
 acquired the bad habits of the tribe, and you save them from 
 innumerable evils, and probably render them valuable members 
 of society ; and several cases fortunately can be referred to of 
 gipsies, who, owing to some peculiar circumstances, have been 
 separated from their tribe, acquiring domestic habits, residing 
 contentedly at home, and in no way to be distinguished from 
 the rest of the community: and an equal or greater number 
 of cases might be adduced of individuals in no way connected 
 with the tribe, and who in early life had been trained to 
 domestic habits, associating themselves with it, and acquiring 
 all their disorderly and vicious habits. Let society, therefore, 
 do their duty to these houseless wanderers, regard them not as 
 an outcast and infamous race, but stretching forth to them the 
 hand of reconciliation, say by their altered conduct, let us be 
 friends and brothers, and as the poor, and ignorant, and 
 immoral, let a civilized, a religious, and a benevolent society 
 grant to them the privileges of education, and the means of 
 improvement. Until this be done, they must naturally expect 
 to have their properties injured, and perhaps even their own 
 persons insecure. And they have a fine class of subjects to 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Pat^Hot and Hero. 123 
 
 work upon ; a people who will be grateful for any attention 
 that is shown them, and the more so as they have been little 
 accustomed to kindness; and a people whose capabilities of 
 improvement are very great. 
 
 It is obvious that the rest of the community would be no 
 small gainers by a change which is here contemplated. They 
 would render their own homes, their persons and property, 
 more secure, while they would discharge a long-neglected 
 duty to a most interesting and unfortunate portion of their 
 brethren. It cannot and ought not to be said, that such an 
 attempt will be unsuccessful until it has been fairly tried and 
 failed. But by the blessing of God it will succeed. Let 
 Christians, uniting together, implore the divine blessing of God 
 on their undertaking, go forward in their great Redeemer's 
 name, and let them manifest how highly they value the privileges 
 they enjoy, by their earnest and persevering efforts to bring 
 these almost heathen wanderers in a British land, to share 
 the comforts of social life, and the inestimable blessings of 
 the gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 Amidst all that has been done and said concerning the 
 gipsies in more recent years, these old records, preserved by 
 good Mr. Crabb, of Southampton, will be read with interest, 
 and studied with advantage. 
 
 GARIBALDI, THE ITALIAN PATRIOT AND HERO. 
 
 THE name and deeds of Garibaldi will always have a 
 romantic interest. Few men ever had a life of more 
 perpetual peril and adventure, by sea and land. In his early 
 years it was the mere natural love of excitement that moved 
 him, but from the time that he was acquainted with public 
 events, he became, above all, a true patriot and a lover of 
 freedom. Born in the days of the first Emperor Napoleon, he 
 lived to see the fall of Napoleon III. The Italy of his child- 
 
124 Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot ana Hero. 
 
 hood, divided and oppressed by tyrants, domestic and foreign, 
 he lived to see united and free. He was one of the chief actors 
 in the second great revolutionary epoch of modern Europe. 
 Of the new^ kingdom of Italy he was truly one of the founders, 
 for without the enthusiasm which he inspired, the plans and 
 counsels of statesmen would have had little influence. He 
 was the popular idol and hero in the heroic age of young 
 Italy. Had he died, as Cavour died, when his main work 
 was accomplished, it might have been better for his future 
 fame. Noble in nature, generous in feeling, prompt in action, 
 he was also easily impressionable, and liable to be misled by 
 evil advisers. But the mistakes of his closing years will be 
 readily forgiven and forgotten in the record of the grand 
 events of his earlier life, a few incidents of which I will 
 narrate. 
 
 Guiseppe, or Joseph Garibaldi, was born at Nice in July 
 1807. His father was a seaman, as his father before him had 
 been. Joseph took to the sea as to his native element, being 
 always about the shore and the ships, and becoming a power- 
 ful and skilful swimmer, an accomplishment which enabled 
 him to save life on various occasions. The little book-learning 
 that he obtained was through the influence of a worthy priest, 
 his mother's brother. The only subjects for which he showed 
 taste or aptitude were languages and mathematics, the know- 
 ledge of the latter serving him in good turn when once, like 
 Louis Philippe and other notable men in exile and poverty, 
 he had to earn his living by teaching. 
 
 Of his mother, Rosa Ragiundo, he always spoke with tender 
 and grateful remembrance. To her inspiration he said that he 
 owed his patriotic feelings. She was a devout woman also, 
 after her creed, and he records that " in his greatest dangers 
 by land or sea, his imagination conjured up the picture of a 
 pious woman prostrated at the feet of the Most High, inter- 
 ceding for her beloved son." 
 
 When still a boy, he made several trips in his father's trading 
 vessel, a brig, to Rome, Odessa, and Constantinople. His 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 125 
 
 rtaste for naval pursuits being fixed, he entered the Sardinian 
 navy, and remained several years in the service. He rose to 
 
 I be lieutenant, and might have become a naval captain in 
 command of a ship quietly cruising about in the Mediterranean. 
 
 I But a more stirring career was destined for him. At Marseilles 
 he met with one whose name is also imperishably associated 
 with the story of new Italy, Joseph Mazzini. By his influence 
 the course of his life was changed. Mazzini was by nature 
 a dreamer and a schemer, and by conviction and circumstance 
 
 I he became the arch-conspirator for the liberation of his country 
 
 [from foreign sway. He easily gained the young and generous 
 
 [Garibaldi to be a sharer of his enthusiasm and an instrument of 
 his plots. At first Mazzini planned a descent on the Italian 
 coast by sea, but the discovery of the scheme led to his ex- 
 pulsion from Marseilles. A raid upon the Savoy frontier was 
 then planned from Geneva, but this also proved a futile scheme, 
 Garibaldi ascribing the failure to treachery on the part of the 
 Polish General, Romorino. We next hear of him on board 
 
 [the Royal frigate, Eiirydice, off Genoa, in hope of seizing the 
 vessel by raising mutiny among the crew. At this moment, 
 having heard of a plot to storm the barracks of the Carbineers, 
 he went on shore to join in the attack, but the attempt mis- 
 carrying, he found himself irreparably compromised. Not 
 daring to go back to his ship, he fled to Nice, and thence across 
 the frontier, taking refuge as an exile at Marseilles. At this 
 
 [great seaport it was easy for him to obtain employment. He 
 went one voyage to the Black Sea, another to Tunis, where he 
 even entered the service of the Bey, but soon tiring of this, he 
 sailed in the Nageur, a vessel of Nantes, for Rio Janeiro. This 
 was in 1836, when only in his twentieth year. 
 
 South America was a region well suited for the restless and 
 adventurous spirit of the young exile now landed on its shores* 
 The Wars of Independence were over, and the conflicts 
 between the parent states of Europe and their colonies ended, 
 but had been succeeded by fiercer fights and more lasting 
 enmities than those which had marked the struggles for free- 
 
126 Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 
 
 dom. Garibaldi was soon drawn into the strife. He took 
 service with the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul, a vast territory 
 belonging to Brazil, but then in rebellion against that empire. . 
 Probably it was the mere name of Republic that attracted him 
 to take the side of rebellion, for he could know nothing of the 
 rights of the contest. We suppose this from the fact of his 
 giving the name of '' Mazzini " to a small privateering boat, 
 with a crew of twelve men, of which he took the command. 
 By aid of this he soon took possession of a larger and better 
 armed vessel, his first prize seized from the enemy. 
 
 In the months which followed, he had a succession of hair- 
 brained adventures and hair-breadth escapes, sometimes 
 victorious against incredible odds, winning battles, storming 
 fortresses, and keeping the Brazilian government in perpetual 
 panic by his raids both on sea and land. 
 
 It was at this period that he first formed a band of irregulars, 
 drawn to him and kept to his standard by personal admiration 
 and attachment. Most of these were countrymen of his own, 
 Italian exiles or emigrants. There was little of military 
 discipline or stern rule, but the courage and endurance, the 
 clemency and disinterestedness of the chief inspired all the 
 band with sympathetic fidelity and daring. This was the 
 origin of Garibaldi's Italian legion, which reappeared with 
 fresh life at various periods of his career. ♦ 
 
 The Imperial resources of Brazil at length proved too 
 powerful for the struggle to be successfully maintained. On 
 one occasion, being severely wounded. Garibaldi fell into the 
 hands of a Spaniard, who treated him with brutal cruelty, and 
 he escaped death only by the intervention of the Governor of 
 the district. 
 
 •At a later time his little flotilla of armed boats was overtaken 
 by a hurricane, and he landed on the coast of Santa Caterina, 
 wrecked and forlorn, having seen the bravest and best of his 
 men shot down or drowned, and the means of further 
 resistance no more to be found. 
 
 It was at a season of depression and disaster, when his 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Pati^iot and Hero. 127 
 
 fortune seemed at the lowest ebb, that he fell in with his 
 Anita, who became his devoted wife, and his faithful companion^ 
 amidst all the troubles and vicissitudes of his career, till parted 
 by her death in the sadly tragic manner to be presently described 
 This was not the first kind womanly heart that had pitied and 
 comforted the young Italian. He tells with gratitude how, 
 when thrown into a dungeon by the cruel Spaniard, when 
 wounded and a prisoner, his life was saved and his sorrows 
 soothed by the gentle ministrations of a good angel of charity, 
 by name Madame Alleman. Now, in Anita he had such a 
 helper and comforter always at his side, a woman as brave 
 and enduring as she was gentle and tender. After the birth 
 of her firstborn, Menotti Garibaldi, in September 1840, she 
 went through all the perils and hardships of the closing scenes 
 of that war, with the infant and his father. The sight of her 
 sufferings, and the hopelessness of altering the fortune of an 
 ill-conducted contest, led him to take leave of his Republican 
 friends of Rio Grande, and he went, for a short interval in his 
 adventurous career, to live at Montevideo. Here he gained a 
 living for himself and loved ones by teaching mathematics, 
 and by the business of a general broker — employment little 
 to his taste. 
 
 At this time war broke out between the Republic of Uruguay 
 and Buenos Ayres. As he had received the hospitable pro- 
 tection of the former State, he felt in honour bound to adopt her 
 cause when appealed to. His reputation for skill and daring 
 being well known, he was offered the command of the fleet 
 of the young Republic, an absurdly imposing offer, for they 
 had only a few small fishing boats on the river Parana. 
 Garibaldi made the best of the circumstances; if he had not a 
 fleet he would find one. Setting out in the night, with 
 muffled oars, he entered a creek where an armed sloop of the 
 enemy was at anchor. He boarded and captured her, with 
 the whole crew, without any loss, as they were surprised by 
 the sudden attack. A second vessel fell into his hands after a 
 sharp engagement. He was then urged by persons high in 
 
128 Gaidbaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 
 
 power in the Montevidean government to make an expedition 
 against the still strong fleet of Buenos Ayres, in the Parana 
 river. The affair seemed so desperate, that it has been not 
 without reason asserted that the object of the planners was to 
 get rid of Garibaldi by exposing him to certain danger, they 
 being jealous of his rising fame and influence. He made the 
 best of his desperate position, and escaped from this conflict, 
 not only with his life, but also *' with honour, the only 
 thing that was not lost." There being no longer hope ot 
 success by sea, Garibaldi organized another Italian legion, 
 numbering three or four hundred men. This band performed 
 deeds of wonderful daring, and rose to such distinction that, as 
 a mark of honour, they were allowed precedence over all the 
 other troops of the Republic. 
 
 At the close of its exploits grants of land were made to the 
 survivors, but they refused them, at least Garibaldi in their 
 name refused, saying that '' the triumph of the Republican 
 cause was the sole stimulus of their exertions." This reply 
 shows the disinterested spirit of the man, but we think the 
 men of the legion deserved all the reward that they could get 
 for their heroic bravery and willing endurance in long and 
 difficult contests. Their hundreds had almost always to 
 contend with as many thousands, as was literally the case in 
 more than one battle where the opposing forces were under 
 General Rosas. 
 
 On one occasion Rosas advanced near Montevideo, having 
 three thousand troops. Garibaldi had, three hundred, about 
 two hundred having been despatched by him to the neighbour- 
 hood of Montevideo, for the protection of his wife, whose 
 safety was threatened by this invasion. The fight was 
 maintained long against fearful odds. The legion succeeded 
 in piercing the centre of Rosas' force, and dividing them into 
 two. Anita at this moment coming up with the two hundred 
 men, attracted by the firing, fell suddenly on the left division 
 of the army of Rosas, who little knew the small number of the 
 assailants, and fled in confusion. Next day Garibaldi attacked 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero, 129 
 
 the right suddenly at Las-Tres-Croces (The Three Crosses), and 
 drove them back. The camp at Bayada was carried the same 
 night by a sudden assault, and Garibaldi returned next day 
 with his beloved wife to Montevideo. 
 
 Her heroism on this occasion endeared her more than ever 
 to her husband, to whom she was soon again to present a son. 
 The child was born slightly lame, in consequence of the terrible 
 fatigues and exertions of those days and nights. 
 
 It was, doubtless, the remembrance of that time of anxiety 
 in his young married life that added intensity to the grief 
 and implacable indignation against the Austrians, who in after 
 years brought premature death to his Anita, when in a similar 
 condition. 
 
 All through her life she shared the perils and adventures of 
 her noble husoand. At times, when left alone, she displayed 
 the same undaunted spirit. More than under the excitement 
 of the journeys or the battlefield, this cool courage was re- 
 markable when she remained in charge of the farmhouse near 
 Montevideo. The worst danger she then incurred was not 
 from the enemy's attacks, but from the invasion of an armed 
 band of mutineers, whose pay from the Republic was in 
 arrears, and who, on finding Garibaldi absent, threatened 
 to kill the wife and her children. By her coolness and 
 tact she turned them from their rage, and sent them away 
 full of admiration for her, and of hope that their grievances 
 would be redressed. 
 
 On one occasion both husband and wife had a narrow 
 escape. Rosas was eager to obtain possession of a foe so 
 troublesome, and hearing that Garibaldi was then at his home, 
 he made a sudden inroad into Uruguay, in hope of surprising 
 him. On reaching the house unobserved, the cry arose, '' He 
 is taken." " Not yet," he replied, as he ran out and threw 
 himself into a skifi" at the bottom of his garden, whence he 
 hurriedly pushed off" into the stream. His pursuers got a boat 
 as quickly as possible, but he had a good start, and, eluding 
 thpir chase, he shortly afterwards arrived at Montevideo, 
 
 9 
 
1 30 Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero, 
 
 where his wife and children had fortunately preceded him a 
 few days before. 
 
 The story of the conflicts of these South American wars 
 would be a narrative of romantic interest, so far as personal 
 adventures are concerned, but the wars themselves are not 
 worthy of detailed record. As Milton said of our own conflicts in 
 the days of the Saxon Heptarchy, they have no more interest 
 for living men now than " the struggles of kites and crows " ! 
 The rude guerilla warfare of Garibaldi's early life in the 
 western world has importance now chiefly because he there 
 was trained for the exploits on the larger and loftier field of 
 European conflict. In his own native land he was soon to 
 display the same dauntless courage, the same fertility of 
 resource, and the same magnetic influence on the minds 
 of others which had made him the hero of Mont!^video. 
 
 Two other incidents only we mention, as showing his 
 cleverness and his audacity in irregular war. He was equally 
 ready in resource by sea as by land, and it was there that some 
 of his most adventurous deeds were witnessed. On one 
 occasion, at night, he had the ingenuity to make two of the 
 enemy's vessels assail each other, to their irreparable injury. 
 Steering his light vessel boldly down between them, he sud- 
 denly, by means of a pair of long sweeps, arrested and backed 
 his course, after delivering a broadside at each, leaving them 
 in the surprise and darkness of the night furiously firing at 
 each other, till the stratagem was understood. 
 
 His last encounter at sea was one of the most daring and 
 decisive. With two small vessels he encountered three of 
 superior force, which Rosas sent to attack when the others 
 were in port. Garibaldi, beating to quarters, ordered his 
 crews to reserve their fire till within musket shot. A well- 
 directed broadside at so short a range had deadly effect, and 
 staggered the assailants. Another broadside was then coolly 
 ordered by Garibaldi to be aimed at the rigging, and masts 
 and sails came down by the board. In the confusion he then 
 grappled with the enemy's ships, and boarded them, he 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 1 3 1 
 
 leading the onset, cutlass in hand. In less than twenty 
 minutes he drew the three ships into port. 
 
 One of them afterwards escaped, but was recovered by a 
 singular stroke of audacit3\ He followed her in a swift fishing 
 boat to reconnoitre her, and see if she was much damaged 
 during the fight, as he thought she had been. They pursued 
 him when far from land, and his boat grounded when re- 
 turning to shore. He managed to escape by swimming to land, 
 dragging the boat. It was night by this time, and he ordered 
 his men to take the boat for a considerable distance along the 
 coast, whence he again pushed off and gained the sea-board of 
 the enemy. The crew of the ship were asleep, and utterly 
 unprepared for the new assault, when Garibaldi and his men 
 quickly cleared the deck with their cutlasses. Most of the 
 crew were below, and surrendered. At daylight Garibaldi 
 returned with the vessel into harbour, mooring it alongside of 
 its companions already captured. Such was a specimen of 
 the mingled stratagem and audacity of the man. He was now 
 to appear on a field worthier of his name. 
 
 News came from Europe which thrilled the hearts of 
 Italian patriots, whether emigrants or exiles, in the New 
 World. Changes had "taken place which altered the whole 
 condition and prospects of their native land. There was a 
 new Pope, Pius IX., who at first professed himself to be 
 patriotic and liberal. In France a Republic had been pro- 
 claimed, after the flight of the Orleans king, Louis Philippe. 
 There was a wave of revolution rolling over the whole of the 
 continent, and constitutions, or promises of them, were being 
 wrested from the reluctant despots of old dynasties. " After 
 me the deluge," Metternich used to say, but it had come in his 
 time. Austria was convulsed with insurrectionary move- 
 ments. With its enormous army and impregnable fortresses, 
 it could still keep firm hold of its Italian provinces, but these 
 could no longer remain tamely submissive. When Naples 
 was preparing to resist the brutal tyranny of its Bourbon king, 
 and Sicily had risen in open and successful revolt, northern 
 
132 Garibaldi y the Italian Patriot and Hero, 
 
 Italy was ripe for insurrection against the Austrian yoke. The 
 Milanese drove the garrison under Marshal Radetzky from 
 their city, after five days' continuous fighting, and throughout 
 all Lombardy the people were preparing to strike for freedom 
 and independence. A party of Austrian cavalry and Hun- 
 garian artillery, on their way from Pavia to Milan, with six 
 pieces of cannon, were attacked by the populace at Binasco. 
 The Austrians fled, but the Hungarians cried " Vive I'ltalia," 
 and joined the insurgents. 
 
 It was time for the King of Sardinia to declare himself 
 Charles Albert must either lead the movement, or himself be 
 removed by the national leaders. He proclaimed war against 
 Austria, and then Venice and all the territories so long held in 
 bondage by the House of Hapsburg were united in a common 
 cause, and, so far as Austria was concerned, the independence 
 of Italy was no longer a dream of patriots and poets. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs while Garibaldi was yet in 
 far-off Uruguay. The struggle for independence had begun, 
 but Italy had 3'et to see years of conflict, and to pass through 
 many trials and disappointments before the final triumph. 
 
 All these movements were becoming known to the Italian 
 exiles throughout the world. Garibaldi had early heard 
 rumours of the Pope's liberal professions, and as far back as 
 October 17th, 1847, he wrote a letter from Montevideo to 
 the Nuncio Bedini, offering to his Holiness his services, with 
 his comrades of the Italian legion of South America, in case of 
 war with Austria being resolved upon. The letter was referred 
 to the Pontifical Government at Rome. But Garibaldi, after 
 waiting in vain for a reply from Nuncio or Pope, could no 
 longer brook suspense or delay. With immense difficulty he 
 gathered sufficient means to enable him to sail for Europe, 
 along with his brave friend Anzani, having with them eighty- 
 five men and two cannon, leaving the remainder of his legion 
 to follow how and when it could. 
 
 He reached Nice in July 1848, and hastening to Genoa and 
 Milan, learned the true position of affairs. Jiis offer of services 
 
Garibaldi^ the Italian Patriot and Hero. 133 
 
 to Charles Albert was received coldly, owing to his supposed 
 sympathies with the irreconcilable republicanism of Mazzini. 
 The truth was, that after being defeated at Mortara and Cus- 
 tozza, Charles Albert had lost all hope of successful insurrection, 
 and had accepted an armistice, which saved Piedmont from 
 invasion. 
 
 There was still a provisional government at Milan, to which 
 Garibaldi transferred his offer of service, and placed himself 
 at the disposal of Mazzini. 
 
 A proclamation was issued, declaring the king a traitor to 
 the cause of Italian independence, and announcing that *' the 
 royal war was at an end, and that of the people was now to 
 begin." This Mazzinian proclamation was little better than 
 idle bravado. With small and dispirited bands of guerilla 
 troops success was hopeless. After maintaining for some 
 time a gallant but unavailing struggle in the mountains, 
 Garibaldi crossed the frontier into Switzerland, where already 
 many of his men had found refuge. 
 
 A new turn of events called him back to Italy. Pius the 
 Ninth had begun to throw off his cloak of pretended 
 liberalism, and his popularity had departed. Pressed hard by 
 his disaffected subjects, who assassinated his minister, Rossi, 
 as the supposed cause of his withholding constitutional rights, 
 and being himself threatened in his palace at the Quirinal, the 
 Pope fled to Gaeta. A Roman Republic was proclaimed, with 
 a Triumvirate at its head, Mazzini being the leading spirit. 
 A brief gleam of glory rests on this episode of Roman history. 
 The people used their triumph with the utmost moderation, 
 and there was every prospect of peaceful and orderly rule. 
 But a cloud rose in an unexpected quarter of the political 
 horizon, and the sky of hopeful promise was speedily overcast. 
 
 The French Government, although itself Republican, main- 
 tained towards the sister Republic of Rome an ambiguous 
 policy. Even Cavaignac had been induced to send succour 
 to the Pope, and when Louis Napoleon succeeded to the 
 Presidency he declared his hostility in the strongest manner. 
 
134 Garibaldi, the I tab an Patriot and Hero. 
 
 in the hope, probably, of gaining the support of the clerical 
 party in France to his own selfish interests. It was a cruel 
 and disgraceful business, French troops sent to join with 
 the mercenaries of the King of Naples to suppress the Roman 
 Republic and restore the Papal tyranny. 
 
 Now was the time for Garibaldi to reappear on the 
 scene. His exploits at this crisis were full of daring, but 
 could avail only to delay the catastrophe. He drove back 
 the French from Porta Pancrazio, in the last days of April 
 1849. The Neapolitan army was routed in the campaign 
 of Velletri, with a rapidity which astonished and amused 
 all Europe. But this was like the farce preceding the 
 tragic drama that was to be witnessed at Rome. The French 
 army had been reinforced, and appeared before the eternal 
 city with power and determination to take possession at 
 all hazard and loss. The General, Oudinot, was instructed 
 to proclaim that he came as the friend, not the foe, of the 
 Roman people, and that his only object was to save the 
 city from anarchy. 
 
 The Triumvirs hesitated until the French shells fell round 
 St. Peter's, and even lodged in the library of the Vatican. 
 Mazzini, with his love of learning and taste for art, fearing 
 probably the reproach of allowing the treasures of the city 
 to be destroyed, felt inclined to come to terms. But Garibaldi 
 was determined to resist to the last, and the people were 
 with him. The details of the gallant defence throughout a 
 three months' siege, with occasional sorties, when heavy 
 losses were inflicted on the besiegers, it is needless now 
 to relate. On the 13th of July, 1849, the French entered the 
 city as conquerors, having first threatened to lay St. Peter's 
 and all the historic monuments of the place in ruins. " Let 
 them perish," said Garibaldi, " rather than independence and 
 freedom be lost." But Mazzini consented to sign terms of 
 capitulation. While the French troops were entering the 
 city in one direction, with triumphant martial music. Gari- 
 baldi, with his band of devoted volunteers, sorrowfully marched 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 135 
 
 out at the other side, towards Terracina, A French officer, 
 with a strong body of troops, presented himself before the 
 Constituent Assembly, then presided over by the Prince 
 of Canino, a Buonaparte, and summoning them to disperse, 
 the Republic was at an end. 
 
 General Oudinot, on receiving the keys of Rome, sent 
 one of his officers to lay them at the feet of the Holy Father, 
 and at the same time sent a division of his troops in pursuit 
 of Garibaldi. These were kept at bay for some time, and 
 defeated at Turin, Orvieto, and other places ; but the heroic 
 chief, with his diminished band, had to cross the Apennines, 
 retiring before overwhelming odds. New foes here awaited 
 him. The Austrians were in large force ready for his de- 
 struction. He sought a brief respite in the small republic 
 of San Marino, but no respect was paid to the rights of 
 this puny state by his relentless pursuers. He reached the 
 shore, in hope of finding some way of reaching Venice, 
 which still was resisting the Austrian siege, but some 
 Austrian ships in the offing hindered the attempt. By his 
 request, those of his followers who still adhered to his for- 
 tunes, however desperate, dispersed for their own safety. 
 Some of his nearest friends, including Ugo Bassi and Ciceru- 
 acchi, falling into the hands of the Austrians, were shot by 
 them, without any form of trial, not even a military court 
 martial, an act of wicked and wanton barbarism. 
 
 It was at this time that Garibaldi lost the loving and 
 faithful partner of his life. While making her way along 
 the banks of a small stream near Chioggio, in the territory 
 of Ravenna, she was seized with the pangs of labour. 
 Mother and child perished in that lone place, unaided in 
 that sad hour ; and after hastily interring them, the husband 
 again set out, an utterly grief-stricken man. 
 
 Meeting here and there with a few friends, they had to 
 assume disguises and adopt many stratagems to elude their 
 bloodthirsty pursuers. For some weeks he wandered among 
 the forests and ravines of the Apennines, sleeping by day 
 
136 Garibaldi^ the Italian Patriot and Hero. 
 
 and moving by night. At last, wearied and worn out, having 
 crossed from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, he was 
 found, with a single attendant, by some carbineers of the 
 Sardinian army. They took him to Nice, when the people, 
 on hearing who was the prisoner, received him with accla- 
 mation. He was permitted to see his children, two sons 
 and a daughter, and a few of his friends. The rumour of 
 his being in the city disturbed the authorities, who became 
 quickly anxious to get rid of him. They sent him to Genoa, 
 where La Marmora was in command. The veteran general 
 treated the fugitive with honourable respect, and letters, 
 which were long afterwards published in the Italian journals, 
 prove that already between these two brave men there had 
 sprung up the warmest mutual esteem and sympathy. La 
 Marmora supplied him with ample means for his going to 
 Tunis, where he was willing to take refuge, obtaining also 
 a pension for him from the Turin Government, who were 
 no doubt glad thus to rid themselves of a troublesome guest. 
 There was no more at the time for Garibaldi to do in 
 the cause of Italian independence. Charles Albert had resigned 
 in favour of his son, Victor Emanuel, who had the will, 
 but not yet the power, to gain his country's freedom. The dis- 
 astrous defeat at Novara closed the prospect for that period. 
 Venice had capitulated after heroic resistance, and the whole 
 of northern Italy was again under the hated power of the 
 Austrians. 
 
 In a letter to a friend, on the eve of his departure lor 
 Tunis, Garibaldi wrote : " I sail to morrow on board the 
 Tripoli^ for Tunis. I have seen what you and your generous 
 colleagues have done for me. I charge you to express my 
 gratitude to them. I have no reason to complain of any 
 one. I believe we live in times in which resignation is 
 necessary, for we are in times of bitterness. Remember 
 me to all the brave defenders of the Italian cause." 
 
 Tunis afforded him no lasting resting-place. The relent- 
 less hostility of those who feared him followed him there. 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero, 137 
 
 He was too near the theatre of his past efforts, and his 
 name might keep alive the desire for insurrection. He must 
 leave the shores of the Mediterranean, and become an exile 
 again across the Atlantic. He went this time to the United 
 States, where he expected among Republicans to find hospi- 
 tality and sympathy. 
 
 It would be painful to give details of the life of the hero of 
 Italian independence, when a refugee in the United States. 
 Few took any notice of the illustrious exile. For some time 
 he gained his living as a chandler or candle-maker on Staten 
 Island, near New York. When his place of residence became 
 known, vile^agents, at the instigation of despotic governments, 
 followed him with insults, hoping probably to incite him to 
 violence. He had to move about armed to protect his life. 
 One of his persecutors is said to have been a lawyer, whom 
 the chances of political life afterwards lifted to notoriety at 
 Washington, and who was even sent as ambassador to a 
 European court. Garibaldi felt the annoyance so much as to 
 leave his retreat, at the sacrifice of his little property, and he 
 returned to his former haunts in South America. Finding 
 no suitable employment there, he became sailor again, and 
 once actually carried coals from Newcastle to Genoa. By 
 intercession of friends he was allowed to remain on this side 
 of the Atlantic, and went to Caprera, a small island near the 
 Sardinian coast, when he settled down as a farmer, in a home 
 where many English visitors saw him in his later peaceful 
 years. There was yet, however, to be a stormy interval of 
 war, and work in fields more in accordance with his impetuous 
 spirit and his early fame. 
 
 On the ist of January, 1859, at the usual reception of the 
 ambassadors in the Tuilleries by Louis Napoleon, all Europe 
 was thrown into excitement and alarm. It was the custom of 
 this Imperial personage to utter words on this annual ceremony, 
 not impromptu, but deeply planned by his advisers. It is as- 
 serted by. those best qualified to judge that these utterances were 
 for the most part made with financial rather than political pur- 
 
138 Gainbaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 
 
 pose;"at^all*events, it came to pass that the funds on every Stock 
 Exchange in Europe rose or fell according to the report, flashed 
 by the electric wires, of what Louis Napoleon said on New 
 Year's day at the Tuilleries. 
 
 On this occasion there was more perceived than words to 
 make money on the Stock Exchange. " I regret," he said to 
 the Austrian ambassador, '' that my relations with your 
 government are not so amicable as I could have wished." The 
 phrase, however ambiguous, convinced the diplomatists that 
 war was intended. Vague declarations in the official Moniteur 
 kept the event in doubt, but preparations for war were going 
 on quietly and unceasingly. Sardinia was arming as well 
 as France, and the Austrian government knew what this meant. 
 The Sardinians were informed that continued preparation 
 would be regarded as a menace, and, in fact, a declaration of 
 war. The English foreign minister. Lord Malmesbury, induced 
 the Austrian emperor to restrain hostilities for a week, and in 
 the interval the French troops were already crossing the Alps, 
 or steaming for Genoa. 
 
 A revolution in Tuscany preceded more important events. 
 A popular demonstration in Florence, designed apparently to 
 force the Grand Duke Leopold to declare himself openly on 
 the side of Italy, led to the retirement of that prince to Elba. 
 Victor Emanuel, of Piedmont, was then declared Dictator, and 
 the army unfurled the Italian tricolour flag. Parma, Modena, 
 and other principalities followed the example of Tuscany, and 
 the Austrian rulers had to retire from all places not under the 
 guns of the great fortresses of the army of occupation. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, who had issued a rhetorical proclamation 
 before quitting Paris, addressed another on his arrival at 
 Genoa to the army of Italy. It thus began : " Soldiers, I come 
 to place myself at your head to conduct you to the combat. We 
 are about to second the struggles of a people now vindicating 
 its independence, and to rescue it from foreign oppression. 
 This is a sacred cause, which has the sympathies of the 
 civilized world. I need not stimulate your ardour. Every 
 
Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 139 
 
 step will remind you of a victory." In the Via Sacra of ancient 
 Rome inscriptions were chiselled in marble reminding the 
 people of their exalted deeds. It is the same to-day. In 
 passing Mondovi, Marengo, Lodi, Castiglione, Arcole, and 
 Rivoli, you will, in the midst of these glorious recollections, 
 be marching in anothing Via Sacra. The proclamation thus 
 concluded : " The new army of Italy will be worthy of her 
 elder sister ! " 
 
 The interference of Lord Malmesbury, perhaps well meant, 
 but certainly mischievous, prevented Austria from meeting the 
 French before they arrived on Italian soil. They had thus time to 
 take up good positions on the plains of Piedmont, instead of 
 being assailed amidst the passes of the Alps. It is not our 
 purpose to give any narrative of the Franco-Austrian war, nor 
 of those campaigns of which the battles of Magenta and of 
 Solferino formed the crowning events. The Austrian armies 
 were overmatched by the French troops headed by their most 
 experienced generals, and with the whole population of 
 northern Italy in insurrection. 
 
 After Solferino, when there was enormous slaughter on 
 both sides, the abrupt termination of hostilities caused surprise 
 everywhere. When victories such as were jubilantly cele- 
 brated in Paris had been gained, it seemed strange that the 
 conqueror should not follow up his advantages. But Louis 
 Napoleon had gained all that he wanted. He had brought new 
 glory to the French army, and had himself appeared as a 
 successful general. He had posed as a friend of Italian liberty 
 "and independence, and had risked enough to justify his claim 
 for the Italian maritime provinces to be annexed to France as 
 the price of his assistance ! 
 
 In addressing their own serfs and senates the French and 
 Austrian Emperors represented the cessation of hostilities to 
 have been the result of foreign intervention. But there was 
 no truth in this statement. The real fact is, that the French 
 ruler had gained all that he went to war for, and he might 
 have broken his power in the attempt to attack the yet un- 
 
1 40 Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot and Hero. 
 
 threatened Quadrilateral and other Austrian strongholds. Let 
 us believe, in accordance with his early associations, that he was 
 sincere in his wish to aid the Italians to throw off the Austrian 
 yoke. But his conduct in regard to Rome and other Italian 
 difficulties proved how, in the main, his objects were personal 
 and selfish. At all events, this was the view taken by General 
 Garibaldi, who had thrown himself heart and soul into the 
 conflict, and who now saw with regret the war concluded, 
 without results to justify so much bloodshed, or worthy of so 
 great efforts. But we must briefly refer to the part taken by 
 him in the war of Sardinian independence. 
 
 As soon as there seemed prospect of hostilities, Garibaldi 
 had made offer of his services to the Sardinian government. 
 General de la Marmora, as head of the army, declined to 
 receive him, not so much on his own motion as on account of 
 foreseeing difficulties in regard to the regular troops. Victor 
 Emanuel and his minister Cavour promptly met the difficulty 
 by giving Garibaldi independent command, uncontrolled 
 by official rules or routine. Hence he took no part in 
 the campaigns already described, but took his own line in 
 attacking and harassing the Austrians. He had no sooner 
 raised his standard than all the enthusiastic Italian patriots 
 flocked to join him, reinforced by volunteers from Switzerland 
 and other countries. Acting at first with Cialdini, the only 
 Sardinian general whom he had fraternal sympathy with, he 
 assailed the Austrians at Vercelli, and this was the earliest 
 success of the war, " rather to the chagrin," we are told, " of 
 the French protectors of the Italian cause." Other combats 
 followed, and the Austrian generalissimo, Gyulai, dispatched 
 Urban, one of his fiercest fighting generals, to encounter 
 Garibaldi, who now established himself at Como. Louis 
 Napoleon announced that he was going to send General Niel to 
 co-operate with the irregular leader, but it was a false report, 
 and no support .was given by the French to Garibaldi's move- 
 ments. At Como and at Bergamo the Austrians were repulsed, 
 and Garibaldi led his volunteers, now called the Chasseurs of 
 
Gartbaldiy the Italian Patriot and Hero, 1 4 1 
 
 the Alps, in triumph to Brescia. Here he issued a proclama- 
 tion, signed by him, " General Garibaldi, Commissioner of his 
 Sardinian Majesty." The Austrian General, Urban, an old 
 leader in the Hungarian war, proved a formidable foe, with 
 troops well equipped and armed, and outnumbering the Italian 
 free corps. Many of Garibaldi's men were killed or disabled 
 in the conflicts at this time. It would be tedious to give details 
 of the war, but one incident in an early encounter is worthy of 
 being recorded. Garibaldi heard that Urban had shot one of his 
 men who had been taken prisoner. Hearing of this atrocity, 
 he ordered two of his Austrian prisoners of war to be shot, 
 and then he called one of the oldest of the prisoners before 
 him, and said, '' I set you at liberty. Go to General Urban, 
 and tell him that since he has caused one of my soldiers to be 
 shot, I have shot two of his ; and let him be assured that if I 
 learn that a single prisoner is executed again, I swear to shoot 
 every one who may fall into my hands, be he Marshal or 
 Emperor of Austria." He was determined that his men, 
 although irregular troops, should be treated as soldiers and as 
 prisoners of war. And the Austrian General respected his 
 determination. 
 
 With his Chasseurs of the Alps, Garibaldi did more to 
 molest the Austrians than any general in the allied ranks, and 
 although the French Emperor in his proclamations ignored 
 him, his merits and services were honourably recognized by 
 the sovereign whom he served, and his movements reported 
 in the Piedmontese Gazette. Foreign journals everywhere 
 rang with his exploits, which were finished only when peace 
 was declared. 
 
 Of the events of the latter years of the life of Garibaldi, for 
 reasons referred to at the beginning of this article, we do not 
 here speak in detail. He lived to see the dream of his 
 youthful enthusiasm more than realized, and Italy united, as 
 well as independent and free, from the Alps to the Calabrian 
 Gulf. When the French were compelled, by troubles of 
 their own, to withdraw the army of occupation, so long 
 
142 Garibaldi y the Italian Patriot and Hero, 
 
 shamelessly retained at Rome, Victor Emanuel entered the 
 capital as King of Italy. The head of the ancient House of 
 Savoy then ruled as a constitutional monarch over the whole 
 peninsula. Garibaldi was a member of the Italian Parliament, 
 but he never was an intelligent or hearty supporter of the 
 new order of affairs. His sympathies were too much with his 
 early Mazzinian and Republican friends, not understanding 
 how, as in England, a constitutional monarchy is the safest 
 and best of all republics. He never rightly appreciated the 
 wisdom and prudence of Count Cavour and the other true 
 statesmen who placed the fortunes of his country on a sure 
 foundation. Possibly in some points the more impetuous and 
 single-minded impulses of the heroic patriot might have saved 
 Italy from some of its subsequent troubles. He would have 
 driven the Pope away from Rome, and not have left him in 
 the Vatican as the disturber of peace and the intriguer against 
 the country's truest welfare. But into these political and 
 religious questions we do not now enter. We leave Garibaldi, 
 as we love to think of him in his peaceful retreat in the Island 
 of Caprera, after having nobly helped to obtain for Italy its 
 freedom and independence. His appearances in the Roman 
 chamber were not always conducive to a higher estimate of his 
 prudence or judgment, although he was always the honest, 
 upright, generous patriot. It was in this aspect, as well as in 
 admiration of his personal heroism, that his visit to England 
 was marked by an outburst of popular enthusiasm such as has 
 rarely been witnessed. Kings and emperors might have 
 envied such a triumph. And in spite of weaknesses and faults 
 of character, no man in modern times is remembered with 
 more honour and respect that the Italian hero and patriot, 
 Joseph Garibaldi. 
 
I 
 
143 
 
 UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN. 
 
 IF old Will Adams, whose adventures in Japan were 
 recorded in the first pages of this book, or if Kaempfer, 
 the early Dutch historian, or any of the Tycoons or Mikados 
 of other days could behold their land now, they would indeed 
 be struck with amazement. Foreigners are no longer excluded, 
 but are everywhere seen, and the natives, from the Emperor 
 to the humblest official, affect European or American manners, 
 education, and even dress. On the waters are iron-clad war 
 I ships and bustling steamboats; on the land are railroads and 
 telegraphs; while schools, colleges, newspapers, and all the 
 appliances of modern civilization are rapidly transforming the 
 nation. The Christian religion is not only tolerated, but has 
 many true and zealous followers and teachers. The learning 
 and science of the west are diligently cultivated, and young 
 Japan has even the tendency to imitate the new-fangled 
 notions of our time, and, like our own agnostics, look up to 
 some of the lesser lights of modern research as greater men 
 than Bacon or Newton. The change and the growth in mental 
 culture may have been too rapid, but things will right them- 
 selves in the long run, and the Japanese will learn what is 
 solid and sound, as well as what is showy and superficial in 
 literature and in philosophy. 
 
 It is not pleasant to see ancient national customs and 
 manners disappear, except those that are inherently evil and 
 hurtful. Throughout the islands, and among the masses of 
 the populations the old ways and usages and costumes will 
 long remain, but many changes for the better have already 
 been introduced from the foreigners. It is good, for instance, 
 that the Daimios or feudal chiefs, with their bands of armed 
 retainers, no longer oppress the peaceable people, but that 
 all subjects of the Emperor are under new laws, administered 
 by responsible magistrates. It is good to see policemen, and 
 postmen, and other officials of social order in the great towns. 
 
144 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, 
 
 Not much change can be expected in the personal and 
 domestic life of the people, and Japan will continue to present 
 features of strange novelty to travellers from Europe. The 
 physical aspect of the country cannot be changed any more 
 than that of the natives with their almond-shaped eyes and 
 olive-coloured complexions. It will be long also before rail- 
 ways and coaches displace the ordinary vehicles and modes of 
 travel. 
 
 The kuruma, a light species of " Bath chair/' is still the 
 common carriage in streets and on highways, while boats 
 pulled by men harnessed for swimming may still be seen on 
 the lakes and bays. The grandeur and the beauty of the 
 scenery all travellers speak of, and some have said that it 
 was worth going to Japan, if only to see their celebrated 
 mountain, Fuji-Yama, a mountain more picturesque and more 
 gigantic than the peak of Tenerifife. Here is the testimony of 
 one of the most enterprising of travellers, Mrs. Bishop, better 
 known as Isabella Bird, author of the charming and instructive 
 book, *' Unbeaten Tracks in Japan." (J. Murray). 
 
 '' It would be treachery to many delicious memories were I 
 to omit to say that Fuji, either as a cone of dazzling snow, 
 or rosy in the autumn sunrise, or as a lofty spiritual presence 
 far off in a veil of mist, or purple against the sunset gold, is 
 one of the great sights of Tokiyo.* Even of Shiba, that 
 dream of beauty, among whose groves the city hum is unheard, 
 one might weary, but of Fuji never, and as time goes on, he 
 becomes an infatuating personality, which raises one above 
 the monotonous clatter and the sordid din of mere material 
 progress. One vision of Fuji I shall never forget. After 
 spending an afternoon alone among the crowds which throng 
 the great temple of Kwannon at Asakusa, as I turned a corner 
 at dusk to go down a hill, my kuruma-x\inr\^r looked round 
 and said, "Fuji !" and I saw a glory such as I had not seen 
 before in Japan. The heavens behind and overhead were 
 dark and covered with clouds, but in front there was a clear 
 
 * Tokiyo js the moderp capital, in -which the ancient Yedp is merged, 
 
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, 145 
 
 sky of pure, pale green, into which the huge cone of Fuji rose 
 as a mass of ruddy purple, subhme, colossal, while above the 
 green, which was streaked with some lines of pure vermilion, 
 the clouds were a sea of rippling rose-colour, and in the dark- 
 ness below, at the foot of a solemn, tree-covered embankment, 
 lay the castle moat, a river of molten gold, giving light in the 
 gloom. Actual darkness came on, and still Fuji rose in purple 
 into the fading sky, lingering in his glory, and never, while 
 the earth and heavens last, will just the same sight be seen 
 again." 
 
 Here is part of the account of a journey in the great plain 
 of Yedo, made in a kuruma, or " one-man gig." There were 
 two other kurumas^ one for Ito, the guide and interpreter ; the 
 other for the baggage. The agreement was to go to Nikko, 
 ninety miles, in three days, without change of runners, for 
 eleven shillings each. 
 
 *' Blithely, at a merry trot, the kuruina-YnnnQYS hurried us 
 away from the kindly group in the Legation porch, across 
 the inner moat and along the inner drive of the castle, past 
 gateways and retaining walls of Cyclopean masonry, across 
 the second moat, along miles of streets of sheds and shops, 
 all ^grey, thronged with foot-passengers and kurumas^ with 
 packhorses loaded two or three feet above their backs, the 
 arches of their saddles red and gilded lacquer, their frontlets 
 of red leather, their '' shoes " straw sandals, their heads tied 
 tightly to the saddle-girth on either side, great white cloths 
 figured with mythical beasts in blue hanging down loosely 
 under their bodies ; with coolies dragging heavy loads to 
 the guttural cry of Hai ! huida ! with children whose heads 
 were shaved in hideous patterns ; and now and then, as if to 
 point a moral lesson in the midst of the whirling diorama, a 
 funeral passed through the throng, with a priest in rich robes, 
 mumbling prayers, a covered barrel containing the corpse, and 
 a train of mourners in blue dresses with white wings. Then 
 we came to the fringe of Yedo, where the houses cease to be 
 continuous, but all that day there was little interval between 
 
 10 
 
146 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, • 
 
 them. All had open fronts, so that the occupations of the 
 inmates, the " domestic hfe," in fact, were perfectly visible. 
 Many of these houses were roadside chayas, or tea-houses, 
 and nearly all sold sweetmeats, dried fish, pickles, utochi, or 
 uncooked cakes of rich dough, dried persimmons, rain hats, 
 or straw shoes for man or beast. The road, though wide 
 enough for two carriages (of which we saw none), was not 
 good, and the ditches on both sides were frequently neither 
 clean nor sweet. Must I write it ? The houses were mean, 
 poor, shabby, often very squalid, the smells were bad, and the 
 people looked ugly, shabby, and poor, though all were working 
 at something or other." 
 
 The country is a dead level, and mainly an artificial mud 
 flat or swamp, in whose fertile ooze various aquatic birds 
 were wading, and in which hundreds of men and women 
 were wading too, above their knees in slush ; for this plain 
 of Yedo is mainly a great rice-field, and this is the busy 
 season of rice-planting ; for here, in the sense in which we 
 understand it, they do not " cast their bread upon the waters." 
 There are eight or nine leading varieties of rice grown in 
 Japan, all of which, except an upland species, require mud, 
 water, and much puddling and nasty work. Rice is the 
 staple food and the wealth of Japan. Its revenues were esti- 
 mated in rice. Rice is grown almost wherever irrigation is 
 possible. 
 
 The rice fields are usually very small and of all shapes. 
 A quarter of an acre is a good sized-field. The rice crop 
 planted in June is not reaped till November, but in the 
 meantime it needs to be "puddled" three times, — i.e.f for all 
 the people to turn into the slush, and grub out all the 
 weeds and tangled aquatic plants, which weave themselves 
 from tuft to tuft, and puddle up the mud afresh round the 
 roots. It grows in water till it is ripe, when the fields arc 
 dried off. An acre of the best land produces annually about 
 fifty-four bushels of rice, and of the worst about thirty. 
 
 On the plain of Yedo, besides the nearly continuous villages 
 
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 147 
 
 along the causewayed road, there are islands, as they may be 
 called, of villages surrounded by trees, and hundreds of plea- 
 sant oases on which wheat ready for the sickle, onions, millet, 
 beans, and peas, were flourishing. There were lotus ponds 
 too in which the glorious lily, Nelumbo nucifera, is being 
 grown foe the sacrilegious purpose of being eaten ! Its splendid 
 classical leaves are already a foot above the water. A species 
 of Sagittaria is also grown in water for food, but both it and 
 the lotus are luxuries. There are neither hedges nor fences 
 anywhere, but the peasant proprietors are well acquainted 
 with their boundaries, and no land-gluttons have arisen yet 
 to add " field to field." Except that in some cases horses 
 and oxen are used for ploughing the rice-fields, the whole 
 cultivation is by hand, and not a weed is to be seen. Rows 
 of the Paulownia Imperialism grown for the sake of the lightness 
 of its wood, which is used for making clogs, do not improve 
 the somewhat monotonous landscape. 
 
 After running cheerily for several miles, my men bowled 
 me into a tea-house, where they ate and smoked while I sat 
 in the garden, which consisted of baked mud, smooth stepping 
 stones,' a little pond with some gold fish, a deformed pine, and 
 a stone lantern. Observe that foreigners are wrong in calling 
 the Japanese houses of entertainment indiscriminately ^' tea- 
 houses." A tea-house or chaya is a house at which you can 
 obtain tea and other refreshments, rooms to eat them in, and 
 attendance. That which, to some extent, answers to an hotel is 
 ayadoya, which provides sleeping accommodation and food as 
 required. The licenses are different. Tea-houses are of all 
 grades, from three-storied erections, gay with flags and lan- 
 terns, in the great cities and at places of popular resort, down 
 to the roadside tea-house, with three or four lounges of dark- 
 coloured wood under its eaves, usually occupied by naked 
 coolies in all attitudes of easiness and repose. The floor is 
 raised about eighteen inches above the ground, and in these 
 tea-houses is frequently a matted platform with a recess called 
 the doma, literally *' earth-space," in the middle, round which 
 
148 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, 
 
 runs a ledge of polished wood called the itamay or " board 
 space/' on which travellers sit while they bathe their soiled 
 feet with the water which is immediately brought to them; 
 for neither with soiled feet nor in foreign shoes must one 
 advance one step on the matted floor. On one side of the 
 doma is the kitchen with its one or two charcoal fires, where 
 the coolies lounge on the mats and take their food and smoke, 
 and on the other the family pursue their avocations. In almost 
 the smallest tea-house there are one or two rooms at the back, 
 but all the life and interest are in the open front. In the small 
 tea-houses there is only an irori, a square hole in the floor, 
 full of sand or white ash, on which the live charcoal for cooking 
 purposes is placed, and small racks for food and eating uten- 
 sils ; but in the large ones there is a row of charcoal stoves, 
 and the walls are garnished up to the roof with shelves, and the 
 lacquer tables and lacquer and china ware used by the guests. 
 The large tea-houses contain the possibilities for a number 
 of rooms which can be extemporised at once by sliding paper 
 panels, called fusuma, along grooves in the floor and in the 
 ceiling or cross-beams. 
 
 When we stopped at wayside tea-houses the runners bathed 
 their feet, rinsed their mouths, and ate rice, pickles, salt fish, 
 and " broth of abominable things," after which they smoked 
 their tiny pipes, which give them three whiffs for each filling. 
 As soon as I got out at any tea-house, one smiling girl brought I 
 me the tahako-bon^ a square wood or lacquer tray, with a china 
 or bamboo charcoal-holder and ash-pot upon it, and another 
 presented me with a sen, a small lacquer table about six inches 
 high, with a tiny teapot with a hollow handle at right angles 
 with the spout, holding about an English tea-cupful, and two 
 cups without handles or saucers, with a capacity of from ten 
 to twenty thimblefuls each. The hot water is merely allowed 
 to rest a minute on the tea-leaves, and the infusion is a clear 
 straw-coloured liquid with a delicious aroma and flavour, 
 grateful and refreshing at all times. If Japanese tea '' stands," 
 it acquires a coarse bitterness and an unwholesome astringency. 
 
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 149 
 
 Milk and sugar are not used. A clean-looking wooden or lac- 
 quer ^ail with a lid is kept in all tea-houses, and though hot 
 rice, except to order, is only ready three times daily, the pail 
 always contains cold rice, and the coolies heat it by pouring 
 hot tea over it. As you eat, a tea-house girl, with this pail 
 beside her, squats on the floor in front of you, and fills your 
 rice bowl till you say, ^' Hold, enough ! " On this road it is 
 expected that you leave three or four sen on the tea-tray for a 
 rest of an hour or two and tea. 
 
 All day we travelled through rice swamps, along a much- 
 frequented road, as far as Kasukabe, a good-sized but miserable- 
 looking town, with its main street like one of the poorest 
 streets in Tokiyo, and halted for the night at a Xdccg^ yadoya^ 
 with downstairs and upstairs rooms, crowds of travellers, and 
 many evil smells. On entering, the house-master or landlord, 
 the teishi, folded his hands and prostrated himself, touching 
 the floor with his forehead three times. It is a large, rambling 
 old house, and fully thirty servants were bustling about in the 
 daidokoro, or great open kitchen. I took a room upstairs [i.e., 
 up a steep step-ladder of dark, polished wood], with a balcony 
 under the deep eaves. The front of the house upstairs was 
 one long room with only sides and a front, but it was im- 
 mediately divided into four by drawing sliding screens or 
 panels, covered with opaque wall papers, into their proper 
 grooves. A back was also improvised, but this was formed 
 of frames with panes of translucent paper, like our tissue 
 paper, with sundry holes and rents. This being done, I 
 found myself the possessor of a room about sixteen feet square, 
 without hook, shelf, rail, or anything on which to put any- 
 thing — nothing, in short, but a matted floor. 
 
 My bed is merely a piece of canvas nailed to two wooden 
 bars. When I lay down the canvas burst away from the 
 lower row of nails with a series of cracks, and sank gradually 
 till I found myself lying on a sharp-edged pole which connects 
 the two pair of trestles, and the helpless victim of fleas and 
 mosquitoes. I lay for three hours, not daring to stir lest I 
 
1 50 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, 
 
 should bring the canvas altogether down, becoming more and 
 more nervous every moment, and then Ito the guicie and 
 interpreter called outside the shojiy " It would be best. Miss 
 Bird, that I should see you." What horror can this be ? I 
 thought, and was not reassured when he added, " Here's a 
 messenger from the Legation, and two policemen want to 
 speak to you." On arriving I had done the correct thing in 
 giving the house-master my passport, which, according to law, 
 he had copied into his book, and had sent a duplicate copy to 
 the police-station, and this intrusion near midnight was as 
 unaccountable as it was unwarrantable. Nevertheless the 
 appearance of the two mannikins in European uniforms, with 
 the familiar batons and bull's eye lanterns, and with manners 
 which were respectful without being deferential, gave me 
 immediate relief. I should have welcomed twenty of their 
 species, for their presence assured me of the fact that I am 
 known and registered, and that a Government which, for 
 special reasons, is anxious to impress foreigners with its power 
 and omniscience, is responsible for my safety. 
 
 Miss Bird travelled over many remote parts of the empire, 
 especially in the northern island, where the aboriginal race of 
 Ainos still form the chief portion of the population. She de- 
 scribes in glowing terms the scenery of these regions, as in the 
 following letter written from Volcano Bay, Yezo, in September : 
 
 *^ It was a heavenly morning. The deep blue sky was 
 perfectly unclouded, a blue sea with diamond flash and a 
 *■ many-twinkling smile ' rippled gently on the golden sands 
 of the lovely little bay, and opposite, forty miles away, the 
 pink summit of the volcano of Komono-taki, forming the 
 south-western point of Volcano Bay, rose into a softening veil 
 of tender blue haze. There was a balmy breeziness in the 
 air, and tawny tints upon the hill, patches of gold in the woods, 
 and a scarlet spray here and there heralded the glories of the 
 advancing autumn. As the day began, so it closed. I should 
 like to have detained each hour as it passed. It was thorough 
 enjoyment I visited a good many of the Mororan Ainos, saw 
 
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 151 
 
 their well-grown bear in its cage, and tearing myself away 
 with difficulty at noon, crossed a steep hill and a wood of 
 scrub oak, and then followed a trail which runs on the amber 
 sands close to the sea, crosses several small streams, and 
 passes the lovely Aino village of Maripu, the ocean always on 
 the left and wooded ranges on the right, and in front an ap- 
 parent bar to farther progress in the volcano of Usu-taki, an 
 imposing mountain, rising abruptly to a height of nearly 3,000 
 feet, I should think. 
 
 '' In Yezo, as on the main island, one can learn very little 
 about any prospective route. Usually when one makes an 
 inquiry, a Japanese puts on a stupid look, giggles, tucks his 
 thumbs into his girdle, hitches up his garments, and either 
 professes perfect ignorance, or gives one some vague second- 
 hand information, though it is quite possible that he may 
 have been over every foot of the ground himself more than 
 once. Whether suspicion of your motives in asking, or a 
 fear of compromising himself by answering, is at the bottom 
 of this, I don't knowj but it is most exasperating to a 
 traveller. In Hakodate I failed to see Captain Blakiston, 
 who has walked round the whole Yezo sea-board, and all I 
 was able to learn regarding this route was that the coast was 
 thinly peopled by Ainos, that there were Government horses 
 which could be got, and that one could sleep where one got 
 them ; that rice and salt fish were the only food ; that there 
 were many ' bad rivers,' and that the road went over ' bad 
 mountains'; that the only people who went that way were 
 Government officials twice a year, that one could not get on 
 more than four miles a day, that the roads over the passes 
 were ^ all big stones,' etc., etc. So this Usu-taki took me 
 altogether by surprise, and for a time confounded all my 
 carefully-constructed notions of locality. I had been told that 
 the one volcano in the bay was Komono-taki, near Mori, and 
 this I believed to be eighty miles off, and there, confronting 
 me, within a distance of two miles, was this grand, splintered, 
 vermilion-crested thing, with a far nobler aspect than that of 
 
152 Unbeaten Tracks m Japan. 
 
 * the ' volcano, with a curtain range in front, deeply scored, 
 and slashed with ravines and abysses whose purple gloom was 
 unlighted even by the noonday sun. One of the peaks was 
 emitting black smoke from a deep crater, another, steam and 
 white smoke from various rents and fissures in its side, 
 vermilion peaks, smoke, and steam, all rising into a sky of 
 brillant blue, and the atmosphere was so clear that I saw 
 everything that was going on there quite distinctly, especially 
 when I attained an altitude exceeding that of the curtain range. 
 It was not for two days that I got a correct idea of its geo- 
 graphical situation, but I was not long in finding out that it 
 was not Komono-taki ! There is much volcanic^activity about 
 it. I saw a glare from it last night thirty miles away. The 
 Ainos said that it was ' a god,' but did not know its name, 
 nor did the Japanese who were living under its shadow. At 
 some distance from it in the interior rises a great dome-like 
 mountain, Shiribetsan, and the whole view is grand. 
 
 " After passing through miles of scrub and sand we came quite 
 suddenly upon the agricultural settlement of Mombets, where 
 the Government has placed a colony of 600 Japanese, and the 
 verses apply, 'The valleys are so thick with corn that they laugh 
 and sing — the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad 
 for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose,' 
 For two miles, careful manuring and assiduous hand labour 
 have turned a sandy waste into a garden, a sea of crops 
 without a weed, hundreds of acres of maize, wheat, millet, 
 beans, tobacco, hemp, eggplants, peaches, apricots, pumpkins, 
 and all the good things of Northern Japan, beautiful and 
 luxuriant, with a good bridle road, fenced from the crops by a 
 closely-cropped willow hedge, and numbers of small, neat 
 Japanese houses, with gardens bright with portulacas, red 
 balsams, and small yellow chrysanthemums, all glowing in 
 the sunshine, a perfect oasis, showing the resources which 
 Yezo possesses for the sustenance of the large population. 
 
 " I have not seen above three or four Japanese together since 
 1 left Hakodate, and I was much impressed with their ugliness. 
 
Unbeaten T^^acks in Japan, 153 
 
 the lack of force in their faces, and the feeble physique of both 
 men and women, as compared with that of the aborigines. 
 The Yezo Japanese don't look altogether like the Japanese of 
 the main island. They are as the colonists of Canada or 
 Australia as compared with the small farmers of England, 
 rougher, freer, more careless in their dress and deportment, 
 and they are certainly affected, as people always are, by the 
 cheapness and abundance of horses, which they ride cross- 
 legged, in imitation of the Ainos. Till I reached Mombets, 
 all the Japanese I have seen have led a life of irregular and 
 precarious industry, very different from that of the peasant 
 proprietors of the main island ; and in the dull time they loaf 
 and hang about ' grog shops ' not a little, and are by no means 
 improved by the habit of lording it over an inferior race. 
 
 " A little beyond Mombets flows the river Osharu, one of the 
 largest of the Yezo streams. It was much swollen by the 
 previous day's rain ; and as the ferry-boat was carried away, 
 we had to swim it, and the swim seemed very long. Of 
 course, we and the baggage got very wet. The coolness with 
 which the Aino guide took to the water without giving us any 
 notice that its broad, eddying flood was a swim, and not a 
 ford, was very amusing. 
 
 " From the top of a steepish ascent beyond the Osharugawa, 
 there is a view into what looks like a very lovely lake, with 
 wooded promontories, and little bays, and rocky capes in 
 miniature, and little heights, on which Aino houses, with 
 tawny roofs, are clustered ; and then the track dips suddenly, 
 and deposits one, not by a lake at all, but on Usu Bay, an 
 inlet of the Pacific, much broken up into coves, and with a 
 very narrow entrance, only obvious from a few points. Just 
 as the track touches the bay, there is a road-post, with a 
 prayer-wheel in it, and by the shore an upright stone of very 
 large size, inscribed with Sanskrit characters, near to a stone 
 staircase and a gateway in a massive stone-faced embankment, 
 which looked much out of keeping with the general wildness 
 of the place. On a rocky promontory in a wooded cove, there 
 
154 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 
 
 is a large, rambling house, greatly out of repair, inhabited by 
 a Japanese man and his son, who are placed there to look 
 after Government interests, exiles among 500 Ainos. From 
 among the number of rat-haunted, rambling rooms which had 
 once been handsome, I chose one opening on a yard or garden 
 with some distorted yews in it, but found that the great gate- 
 way and the amado had no bolts, and that anything might be 
 appropriated by any one with dishonest intentions ; but the 
 house-master and his son, who have lived for ten years among 
 the Ainos, and speak their language, say that nothing is ever 
 taken, and that the Ainos are thoroughly honest and harmless. 
 Without this assurance I should have been distrustful of the 
 number of wide-mouthed youths who hung about, in the 
 listlessness and vacuity of savagery, if not of the bearded men 
 who sat or stood about the gateway with children in their 
 arms. 
 
 *' The next morning was as beautiful as the previous evening, 
 rose and gold instead of gold and pink. Before the sun was 
 well up I visited a number of the Aino lodges, saw the bear, 
 and the chief, who, like all the rest, is a monogamist, and, 
 after breakfast, at my request, some of the old men came to 
 give me such information as they had. These venerable elders 
 sat cross-legged in the verandah, the house-master's son, who 
 kindly acted as interpreter, squatting, Japanese fashion, at the 
 side, and about thirty Ainos, mostly women, with infants, 
 sitting behind. I spent about two hours in going over the 
 same ground as at Biratori, and also went over the words, 
 and got some more, including some synonyms. The click of 
 the ts before the ch at the beginning of a word is strongly 
 marked among these Ainos. Some of their customs differ 
 slightly from those of their brethren of the interior, specially 
 as to the period of seclusion after a death, the non-allowance 
 of polygamy to the chief, and the manner of killing the bear 
 at the annual festival. Their ideas of metempsychosis are 
 more definite, but this, I think, is to be accounted for by the 
 influence and proximity of Buddhism. They spoke of the 
 
French Accounts of English Naval Victories, 155 
 
 bear as their chief god, and next the sun and fire. They said 
 that they no longer worship the wolf, and that though 
 they called the volcano and many other things kamoi, or god, 
 they do not worship them. I ascertained beyond doubt that 
 worship with them means simply making libations of sake, 
 and ' drinking to the god,' and that it is unaccompanied by 
 petitions, or any vocal or mental act. 
 
 '^ These Ainos are as dark as the people of southern Spain, 
 and very hairy. Their expression is earnest and pathetic, and 
 when they smiled, as they did when I could not pronounce 
 their words, their faces had a touching sweetness which was 
 quite beautiful, and European, not Asiatic. Their own im- 
 pression is that they are now increasing in numbers after 
 diminishing for many years. I left Usu sleeping in the loveli- 
 ness of an autumn noon with great regret. No place that I 
 have seen has fascinated me so much. 
 
 FRENCH ACCOUNTS OF ENGLISH NAVAL VICTORIES. 
 
 ABOUKIR AND TRAFALGAR. 
 
 THE records of our great naval victories are familiar in all 
 books of history in the hands of English readers. But 
 there is a curious interest in seeing how the same events are 
 described by the losers as well as the gainers of great battles. 
 We select two of the greatest English victories in modern times, 
 the battles of Aboukir or the Nile, and of Trafalgar, as viewed 
 through French spectacles. / 
 
 The account of the battle of Aboukir we take from the work 
 of M. Denon, chief of the Savans who accompanied the French 
 army to Egypt in 1798, and remained throughout the campaigns 
 of General Bonaparte in that country. The dedication of the 
 work is in the following terms : '' To Bonaparte. To combine 
 
156 French Accounts of 
 
 the lustre of your Name with the splendour of the Monuments 
 of Egypt is to associate the glorious annals of our own time 
 with the history of the heroic age, and to reanimate the dust 
 of Sesostris and Menes, like you Conquerors, like you Bene- 
 factors, Europe, by learning that I accompanied you in one 
 of your most memorable expeditions, will receive my work 
 with eager interest. I have neglected nothing to render it 
 worthy of the Hero to whom it is inscribed, by Vivant 
 Denon." 
 
 The Battle of Aboukir. 
 
 On the morning of the ist of August we were masters of 
 Egypt, Corfu, and Malta ; and the security of these possessions, 
 annexed to France, seemed in great measure to depend on the 
 thirteen ships of the line that we had with us. The powerful 
 English fleets which were cruising in the Mediterranean could 
 not be supplied with stores and provisions without much 
 difficulty and enormous expense. 
 
 Bonaparte, who was sensible of all the advantages of such a 
 position, was desirous to secure such advantages by bringing 
 our fleet into the harbour of Alexandria, and offered two 
 thousand sequins to any one who should accomplish this. 
 It is said that several of the captains of merchantmen had 
 sounded, and had found a passage for the fleet into the 
 old harbour. The evil genius of France, however, counselled 
 and persuaded the admiral to moor his ships in the Bay of 
 Aboukir, and thus to change in one day the result of a long 
 train of successes. 
 
 In the course of the afternoon chance led us to Abu-Mandur, 
 a convent at the end of a pleasant walk from Rosetta along the 
 river side. When we had reached the tower which commands 
 the monastery, we descried a fleet of twenty sail. [There 
 were really only fifteen, including a small brig.] To come 
 up, to range themselves in a line, and to attack, were the 
 operations of a few minutes. The first shot was fired at five 
 
English Naval Victories, 157 
 
 o'clock, and shortly after our view of the movements of the 
 two fleets was intercepted by the smoke. 
 
 When night came on we could distinguish somewhat better, 
 without, however, being able to give an account of what 
 passed. The danger to which we were exposed, of falling into the 
 hands of the smallest troop of Bedouins which might come that 
 way, did not withdraw our attention from an event by which 
 we were so strongly interested. Rolls of fire incessantly 
 bursting from the mouths of the cannon evinced clearly that 
 the combat was dreadful, and supported with an equal obstinacy 
 on both sides. 
 
 On our return to Rosetta we climbed on the roofs of the houses, 
 where, at ten o'clock, we perceived a strong light, which 
 indicated a fire. A few minutes after we heard a terrific 
 explosion, followed by a profound silence. As we had seen a 
 firing kept up, from the left to the right, on the object in 
 flames, we drew a conclusion that it was one of the enemy's 
 ships, which had been set fire to by our people, and we imputed 
 the silence to the retreat of the English, who, as our ships were 
 moored, were exclusively in possession of the range of the 
 bay, and who, consequently, could persevere in or discontinue 
 the combat at pleasure. 
 
 At II P.M. a slow fire was kept up, and at midnight the 
 action again became general. It continued till two in the 
 morning. At daybreak I was at the advanced posts, and ten 
 minutes after the fleets were once more engaged. At nine 
 o'clock another ship blew up. At ten, four ships, the only 
 ones which were not disabled, and which I could distinguish 
 to be French, crowded their sails and quitted the scene of 
 the battle, in the possession of which they appeared to be, 
 as they were neither attacked nor followed. Such was the 
 phantom produced by the enthusiasm of hope. 
 
 I took my station again at the tower of Abu-Mandur, whence 
 I counted twenty-five vessels, half of which were shattered 
 wrecks, and the others incapable of manoeuvring to afford 
 them assistance. For three days we remained in this state of 
 
158 French Accounts of 
 
 cruel uncertainty. We cherished illusion^ and spurned at all 
 evidence, until at length, the passage across the bar being cut 
 off, and the communication with Alexandria intercepted, we 
 found that our situation was altered, and that, separated from 
 the mother countr}', we were become the inhabitants of a 
 distant colony, where we should be obliged to depend on our 
 own resources for subsistence until the peace. 
 
 We learned, in short, that the English fleet had surrounded 
 our line, which was not moored sufficiently near to the island 
 to be protected by the batteries ; and that the enemy, formed 
 in a double line, had attacked our ships one after the other, 
 and had by this manoeuvre, which prevented them from acting 
 in concert, rendered the one half a witness to the destruction of 
 the other half. 
 
 We learned that it was the Orient which blew up at ten 
 o'clock at night, and the Hercule the following morning ; and 
 that the captains of the ships of the line, the Guillaume Tell and 
 GenereuXf and of the frigates Za: Diane 2in6. La Justice, perceiving 
 that the rest of the fleet had fallen into the» enemy's hands, had 
 taken advantage of a moment of lassitude and inaction on the 
 part of the English to effect their escape. We learned, lastly, 
 that the ist of August had broken the unity of our forces, and 
 that the destruction of our fleet, by which the lustre of 
 our glory was tarnished, had restored to the enemy the 
 empire of the Mediterannean ; an empire which had been 
 wrested from them by the matchless exploits of our armies, 
 and which could only have been secured to us by the 
 existence of our ships of war. 
 
 Such is M. Denon's account of the Battle of Aboukir. We 
 now give a French narrative of the Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
 A book published many years ago, " The Memoirs of a 
 French Serjeant," gives the history and achievements of 
 Robert Guillemard, — a sailor on board the French fleet at 
 the battle of Trafalgar, and supposed to be the person who 
 shot Lord Nelson. His claim to be the author of that 
 memorable deed, seems to be confirmed by the promotion 
 
English Naval Victories, 159 
 
 and the honours to which he was raised in his country.* 
 He went to the Russian campaign with Napoleon in 181 2, 
 and in that expedition, so disastrous to the French, he was 
 taken prisoner, and sent to Siberia, where he remained till 
 the peace of 18 14 restored him to liberty, and his native 
 France. We quote the account of the battle of Trafalgar, 
 out of a great variety of adventures detailed in the Serjeant's 
 book. 
 
 BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 
 
 I was beginning to get tired of being at Cadiz, as were my 
 companions, and nothing indicated that a change would soon 
 occur. It was said that we were to sail for the Channel, 
 to protect the landing of the troops in England, which every- 
 body talked of at the time ; but an English squadron, known 
 to be commanded by Nelson, blockaded Cadiz, and prevented 
 us leaving the bay ; and there was a report that Vice-Admiral 
 Villeneuve had received express orders to come to action. 
 On the 20th October, however, there was a vague rumour 
 in circulation that we were to leave our position next day 
 and attack the English. The frequent signals made by the 
 Bucentaure (the admiral's ship), the meeting of all the 
 captains of the fleet on board it, and the manoeuvres and 
 preparations of the different vessels, indicated that these 
 reports were not without foundation. In fact, on the 21st 
 of October, at ten in the morning, the combined fleet left 
 Cadiz to offer battle to the English. It consisted of thirty 
 vessels, of which ten Spanish ships occupied the left flank. 
 Six frigates, French and Spanish, formed the wings of this 
 splendid fleet, and had orders to assist the vessels that re- 
 quired it during the action. Our line occupied more than 
 a league in extent, and towards twelve o'clock had come up 
 
 * In an account, however, of this battle, published in the Gibraltar 
 Chronicle of November 9th, 1805, it is stated that the Frenchman who gave 
 the fatal wound to Nelson was shot by Mr. Pollard, midshipman of 
 the Victory, and was seen to fall out of the mizen-top. He may have 
 been only wounded, and recovered to receive his pension. 
 
i6o French Accounts of 
 
 within cannon-shot of the English squadron, which was nearly 
 of equal strength. The two fleets manoeuvred for more than 
 an hour, for the purpose of choosing their positions and 
 terminating the preparations for a battle that was henceforth 
 inevitable. The Redoubtable was in the centre, and a little 
 in front of the French line, which by the admiral's last orders 
 had been formed in a semicircle. Immediately in front of 
 him was an English three-decker, carrying a vice-admiral's 
 flag, and consequently commanded by Nelson. This vessel 
 occupied in the English fleet the same position which the 
 Redoubtable did in ours. All at once it made signals, which 
 were instantly answered, and advanced with full sail upon 
 us, whilst the other vessels followed its example. The in- 
 tention of its commander was evidently to cut our line by 
 attacking the Redoubtable, which presented its flank, and 
 discharged its first broadside. This was the signal for action. 
 The English vessel returned the fire ; and at the same 
 moment, there began along the whole of the two lines a 
 fire of artillery, which was not to cease, except by the 
 extermination of one of the two squadrons. Already cries 
 of suffering and death were heard on the decks of the Re- 
 doubtable. By the first discharge, one officer, and more than 
 thirty sailors and soldiers, were killed or wounded. This 
 was the first time I had been in action ; and an emotion 
 I had never felt till now made my heart beat violently. Fear 
 might form an ingredient in the feeling, but it was mingled 
 with other sentiments which I could not account for. I was 
 grieved that I was kept in a post where I had nothing else 
 to do but to fire my gun upon the enemy's deck. I should 
 have desired a more active duty, to be allowed to go over 
 the ship, and to work one of the cannon. 
 
 My desires were soon gratified. All our top-men had been 
 killed, when two sailors and four soldiers (of whom I was 
 one) were ordered to occupy their post in the tops. While 
 we were going aloft, the balls and grape-shot showered around 
 us, struck the masts and yards, knocked large splinters from 
 
English Naval Victories. i6i 
 
 them, and cut the rigging in pieces. One of my companions 
 was wounded beside me, and fell from a height of thirty feet 
 upon the deck, where he broke his neck. When I reached 
 the top, my first movement was to take a view of the prospect 
 presented by the hostile fleets. For more than a league ex- 
 tended a thick cloud of smoke, above which were discernible 
 a forest of masts and rigging, and the flags, the pendants, and 
 the fire of the three nations. Thousands of flashes more or less 
 near continually penetrated this cloud, and a rolling noise 
 pretty similar to the sound of continued thunder, but much 
 stronger, arose from its bosom. The sea was calm, the wind 
 light, and not very favourable for the execution of manoeuvres. 
 When the English top-men, who were only a few yards 
 distant from us, saw us appear, they directed a sharp fire 
 upon us, which we returned. A soldier of my company 
 and a sailor were killed quite close to me ; two others who 
 were wounded, were able to go below by the shrouds. Our 
 opponents were, it seems, still worse handled than we, for I 
 soon saw the English tops deserted, and none sent to supply 
 the place of those who must have been killed or wounded by 
 our balls. I then looked to the English vessel and our own 
 The smoke enveloped them, was dissipated for a moment, and 
 returned thicker at each broadside. The two decks were 
 covered with dead bodies, which they had not time to throw 
 overboard. I perceived Captain Lucas motionless at his post, 
 and several wounded officers still giving orders. 
 
 On the poop of the English vessel was an officer covered 
 with orders, and with only one arm. From what I had 
 heard of Nelson, I had no doubt that it was he. He was 
 surrounded by several officers, to whom he seemed to be 
 giving orders. At the moment I first perceived him, several 
 of his sailors were wounded beside him, by the fire of the 
 Redoubtable. As I had received no orders to go down, and 
 saw myself forgotten in the tops, I thought it my duty to fire 
 on the poop of the English vessel, which I saw quite exposed 
 and close to me I could even have taken aim at the men 
 
 II 
 
1 62 French Accounts of 
 
 I saw, but I fired at hazard among the groups I saw of sailors 
 and officers. All at once I saw great confusion on board the 
 Victory ; the men crowded round the officer whom I had taken 
 for Nelson. He had just fallen, and was taken below covered 
 with a cloak. The agitation shown at this moment left me no 
 doubt that I had judged rightly, and that it really was the 
 English admiral. 
 
 An instant afterwards the Victory ceased from firing ; the 
 deck was abandoned by all those who occupied it ; and I 
 presumed that the consternation produced by the admiral's 
 fall was the cause of this sudden change. I hurried below 
 to inform the captain of what I had seen of the enemy's 
 situation. He believed me the more readily, as the slackening 
 of the fire indicated that an event of the highest importance 
 occupied the attention of the English ship's crew, and pre- 
 vented them from continuing the action. He gave immediate 
 orders for boarding, and everything was prepared for it in 
 a moment. It is even said that young Fontaine, a midshipman 
 belonging to the Redoubtable, passed by the ports into the 
 lower deck of the English vessel, found it abandoned, and 
 returned to notify that the ship had surrendered. As Fon- 
 taine was killed a few moments afterwards, these particulars 
 were obtained from a sailor, who said he had witnessed the 
 transaction. However, as a part of our crew, commanded 
 by two officers, were ready to spring upon the enemy's deck, 
 the fire recommenced with a fury it never had had from the 
 beginning of the action. Meanwhile, an English eighty-gun- 
 ship placed herself alongside of the Redoubtable to put it 
 between two fires ; and a French ship of the same force placed 
 itself abreast of the Victory to put it in the same situation. 
 There was then seen a sight hitherto unexampled in naval 
 warfare, and not since repeated — four vessels, all in the same 
 direction, touching each other, dashing one against another, 
 intermingling their yards, and fighting with a fury which no 
 language can adequately express. The rigging was abandoned, 
 and every sailor and soldier put to the guns. The officers them- 
 
English Naval Victories, 163 
 
 selves had nothing to provide for, nothing to order, in this 
 horrible conflict, and came likewise to the guns. Amidst nearly 
 four hundred pieces of large cannon all firing at one time in 
 a confined space — amidst the noise of the balls, which made 
 furious breaches in the sides of the Redoubtable — amongst the 
 splinters which flew in every direction with the speed of 
 projectiles, and the dashing of the vessels, which were driven 
 by the waves against each other, not a soul thought of any- 
 thing but destroying the enemy, and the cries of the wounded 
 and the dying were no longer heard. The men fell, and if 
 they were any impediment to the action of the gun they had 
 just been working, one of their companions pushed them aside 
 with his foot to the middle of the deck, and without uttering a 
 word, placed himself with concentrated fury at the same post, 
 where he soon experienced a similar fate. 
 
 In less than half an hour our vessel, without having hauled 
 down her colours, had, in fact, surrendered. Her fire had 
 gradually slackened, and then ceased altogether. The muti- 
 lated bodies of our companions encumbered the two decks, 
 which were covered with shot, broken cannon, matches still 
 smoking, and shattered timbers. One of our thirty-six 
 pounders had burst towards the close of the contest. The 
 thirteen men placed at it had been killed by the splinters,, 
 and were heaped together round its broken carriage. The 
 ladders that led between the different decks were shattered 
 and destroyed ; the mizen-mast and main-mast had fallen, 
 and encumbered the deck with blocks and pieces of rigging. 
 Of the boats placed forward, or hung on the sides of our vessel, 
 there remained nothing but some shattered planks. Not more 
 than one hundred and fifty men survived out of a crew of about 
 eight hundred, and almost all these were more or less severely 
 wounded. Captain Lucas was one of the number. It was 
 five o'clock when the action ceased. I went over the ship, 
 where everything presented a prospect of desolation. Calm 
 despair was painted on the countenances of those who had 
 escaped from this terrible scene. 
 
164 French Accounts of 
 
 In the evening, English long-boats came to take away the 
 remainder of our crew, to be divided among the vessels of 
 the fleet ; and I was taken on board the Victory. There I 
 learned the death of Nelson ; he had been wounded on the 
 right shoulder by a ball, which penetrated obliquely, and 
 broke the spine of the back. When taken to the cock-pit, 
 he ordered his surgeon, Mr. Betty, to inform him of his situa- 
 tion without concealment or ceremony. He learned, without 
 the least emotion or regret, that he had only an hour to live, 
 called for his captain (Captain Hardy), and after inquiring about 
 the situation of the two fleets, expressly forbid him to let 
 the English fleet know of his death, and directed the vessels 
 to be brought to anchor as soon as the action was over, on 
 the very spot where it was fought. Captain Hardy promised 
 to obey his orders implicitly, but he did not like to assume 
 the responsibility. He made signals that the admiral was 
 dead, when Lord Collingwood took the command, and did 
 not judge proper to come to anchor, which, perhaps, might I 
 have been dangerous on account of the gale that came on 
 that night. The death of Nelson was regarded by the English 
 as a public calamity, the bitterness of which could not be 
 allayed by the victory they had obtained. The sailors 
 deplored him as a father ; the officers as a commander, whose ' 
 talents had caused the glory and prosperity of their country, 
 and whose place would not for a long period be filled byj 
 an admiral of equal merit. He whose loss is regretted byj- 
 an entire nation, he whose death is deplored by old sailors,! 
 usually little susceptible of sentiments of attachment, should] 
 necessarily inspire some interest, even in an enemy ; hence 
 as a man, I could not help sharing in some degree the affliction 
 that prevailed on board the Victory ; while, as a Frenchman,] 
 I had reason to rejoice at an event that had delivered myj 
 country from one of her most dangerous enemies. At any! 
 rate, from the moment in which he received his wound, and] 
 the position of the wound itself, I could not doubt for al 
 moment that I was the author ; and I have ever since been! 
 
English Naval Victories. 165 
 
 fully convinced of it. But though the shot that had brought 
 down this admiral had rendered a service to my country, 
 I was far from considering it as an action of which I had a 
 right to boast. Besides, in the general confusion, every one 
 could claim the honour ; I might not be believed ; so that 
 . I was afraid of furnishing my companions with a subject of 
 ridicule, and did not think proper to mention it to them, 
 nor to the French officers I saw on board the Victory. It was 
 in this manner, that more than once in the course of my life, 
 carelessness and false shame have deprived me of advantages 
 I might have justly claimed. A very strong gale arose in 
 the evening, and blew through the night with extreme violence, 
 and soon scattered the wrecks of our vessels which covered 
 the sea. 
 
 We did not learn the particulars of the action till next 
 da3^ Five French vessels were unable to come into action ; 
 the greater part of the Spanish ships would not fight ; and 
 the rest of the fleet sustained with the most distinguished 
 courage the attacks of an enemy now become superior in 
 number, for the whole of the English fleet were engaged. 
 The Spanish three-decker, the Santissima Trinidada^ com- 
 manded by Admiral Gravina, was sunk after an obstinate 
 resistance against three English vessels ; the'admiral was taken 
 up wounded, and died some time afterwards at Cadiz. When 
 he saw all the masts of the Trinidada shot away, he exclaimed, 
 — " I was lately in a ship, I am now in a fortress, and shall not 
 abandon it till it sinks under me." This he did. The Aigle, 
 a French 74, fought also against three English ships, lost 
 almost all its crew, was taken, and was stranded during the 
 night upon the Spanish coast, where both French and English 
 were drowned together. The Indomptable foundered at sea, 
 with fifteen hundred wounded men on board, not one of 
 whom was saved. The Intnpide, commanded by the brave 
 Infernet, was also sunk, after a terrible resistance to several 
 vessels who came up successively to cannonade it. Infernet 
 was picked up, along with one of his sons, and was taken 
 
1 66 French Accounts of English Naval Victories, 
 
 on board an English vessel, where he astonished the officers 
 by his language, equally remarkable for its freedom, bluntness, 
 spirit, and originality. The Achille, in which was a detachment 
 of the 67th regiment, was set on fire during the action. The 
 English who were fighting it cleared off; and of eight hundred 
 men, who formed the crew, not more than twenty found an 
 opportunity of escaping. When all hopes of stopping the 
 progress of the flames were gone, and death seemed inevitable, 
 to avoid waiting for it, several officers blew out their brains ; 
 others threw themselves into the flames that were consum- 
 ing the forepart of the ship, several sailors went to the 
 storeroom, gorged themselves with brandy, and by the most 
 complete drunkenness endeavoured to throw a veil over the 
 disaster that was about to terminate their existence. Towards 
 six o'clock in the evening the fire reached the gunroom, the 
 vessel blew up, and everything disappeared. Upon any other 
 occasion, the unfortunate crew could easily have been saved; 
 but without troubling themselves about their fate, the two 
 fleets in their vicinity thought of nothing but their mutual 
 destruction. I need not enumerate all the vessels that perished. 
 It is sufficient to state, that the combined fleet was totally 
 annihilated, and that it fought with such obstinacy that of 
 all those that were engaged in action, the English could only 
 save, I believe, one single vessel : the rest all perished at sea, 
 on the coast, or by fire. 
 
 The day after the action, they brought on board the Victory 
 Vice-Admiral Villeneuve, who had displayed so much intrepi- 
 dity, talent, and patriotism. The English received him with 
 the marks of respect due to bravery and merit in misfortune. 
 He was wounded in the right hand, and seemed quite terror- 
 struck at his defeat, and careless of the respectful attentions 
 that were shown him. The same day, he caused an inquiry 
 to be made if there were any non-commissioned officers among 
 the French prisoners on board ; not one was found. He then 
 asked for a military man of any rank, who could write easily 
 what he should dictate ; I offered myself. After a short 
 
The Battle of the Nile, 167 
 
 examination, he told me that I should act as his secretary 
 till further orders, and ordered me to come daily to the 
 chamber that had been allotted to him. 
 
 Let us now see English accounts of these two naval victories. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 
 
 THE enemy's fleet was first discovered by the Zealous^ 
 Captain Hood, who immediately communicated, by signal, 
 the number of ships, sixteen, lying at anchor in the line of battle, 
 in a bay upon the larboard bow, which we afterwards found to 
 be Aboukir Bay. The Admiral hauled his wind that instant, 
 a movement which was immediately observed and followed by 
 the whole squadron, and at the same time he recalled the 
 Alexander and Swiftsure. The wind was at this time N.N.W., 
 and blew what seamen call a topgallant breeze. It was 
 necessary to take in the royals when we hauled upon a wind. 
 
 The admiral made the signal to prepare for battle, and 
 showed that it was his intention to attack the enemy's van and 
 centre as they lay at anchor, according to the plan before 
 developed. His idea in this disposition of his force, was, first, 
 to secure the victory, and then to make the most of it, as cir- 
 cumstances might permit. A bower cable of each ship was 
 immediately got out abaft, and bent forward. We continued 
 carrying sail, and standing in for the enemy's fleet in a close 
 line of battle. As none of the officers were acquainted with 
 Aboukir Bay, each ship kept sounding as she stood in. 
 
 The enemy appeared to be moored in a strong compact line 
 of battle, close in with the shore, their line describing an obtuse 
 angle in its form, flanked by numerous gun-boats, four frigates, 
 and a battery of guns and mortars on an island in the van. 
 This situation of the enemy seemed to secure to them the 
 most decided advantages, as they had nothing to attend to but 
 their artillery, in their superior skill in the use of which the 
 French so much pride themselves, and to which indeed their 
 
1 68 The Battle of the Nile. 
 
 splendid series of land victories was in general chiefly to be 
 imputed. 
 
 The position of the enemy presented the most formidable 
 obstacles : but the admiral viewed these with the eye of a 
 seaman determined on attack ; and it instantly struck his eager 
 and penetrating mind, that where there was room for an 
 enemy's ship to swing, there was room for one of ours to 
 anchor. No farther signal was necessary than those, which had 
 been made. The admiral's designs were as fully known to 
 his whole squadron, as was his determination to conquer, or 
 perish in the attempt. 
 
 The Goliath and Zealous had the honour to lead inside, and 
 to receive the first shot from the van ships of the enemy, as 
 well as from the batteries and gun-boats with which their van 
 was strengthened. These two ships, with the Orion, Audacious, 
 and Theseus, took their stations inside the enemy's line, and 
 were immediately in close action. The Vanguard anchored 
 the first on the outer side of the enemy, and was opposed 
 within half pistol shot to Le Spartiate, the third in the enemy's 
 line. In standing in, our leading ships were unavoidably obliged 
 to receive into their bows the whole fire of the broadsides of 
 the French line, until they could take their respective stations ; 
 and it is but justice to observe, that the enemy received us 
 with great firmness and deliberation, no colours having been 
 hoisted on either side, nor a gun fired, till our van ships were 
 within half gun shot. 
 
 At this time the necessary number of our men were em- 
 ployed aloft in furling sails, and on deck, in hauling the 
 braces, etc., preparatory to our casting anchor. As soon as 
 this took place, a most animated fire was opened from the 
 Vanguard, which ship covered the approach of those in the 
 rear, that were following in a close line. The Minotaur, 
 Defence, Bellerophon, Majestic, Swiftsure, and Alexander, 
 came up in succession, and passing within hail of the Vanguard, 
 took their respective stations by the stern, by which means 
 the British line became inverted from van to rear. 
 
The Battle of the Nile. 1 69 
 
 Captain] Thompson, of the Leander, of 50 guns, with a 
 degree of judgment highly honourable to his professional 
 character, advanced towards the enemy's line on the outside, 
 and most judiciously dropped his anchor athwart hawse of 
 Le Franklin, raking her with great success ; the shot from the 
 Leanders broadside, which passed that ship, all striking the 
 L Orient, the flag-ship of the French commander-in-chief. 
 
 The action commenced at sunset, which was at 31 minutes 
 past 6 P.M., with an ardour and vigour which it is impossible 
 to describe. 
 
 At about seven o'clock total darkness had come on ; but the 
 whole hemisphere was, at intervals, illuminated by the fire of 
 the hostile fleets. Our ships, when darkness came on, had 
 all hoisted their distinguishing lights, by a signal from the 
 admiral. 
 
 The van ship of the enemy, Le Guerrier, was dismasted in 
 less than twelve minutes ; and in ten minutes after, the second 
 ship, Le Conqtterant, and the third, Le Spartiate, very nearly 
 at the same moment, were also dismasted. LAqiiilon and 
 Le Souverain Peiiple, the fourth and fifth ships of the enemy's 
 line, were taken possession of by the British at half-past eight 
 in the evening. 
 
 Captain Berry, at that hour, sent Lieutenant Galway of the 
 Vanguard, with a party of marines, to take possession of 
 Le Spartiate, and that officer returned by the boat the French 
 captain's sword, which Captain Berry immediately delivered 
 to the admiral, who was then below, in consequence of a 
 severe wound he had received in the head during the heat of 
 the attack. 
 
 At this time it appeared that victory had already declared 
 itself in our favour ; for although LOrient, LHeureux, and 
 Tonnant were not taken possession of, they were considered 
 as completely in our power, which pleasing intelligence Captain 
 Berry had likewise the satisfaction of communicating in person 
 to the admiral. 
 
 A few minutes after nine a fire was observed to have 
 
1 70 The Battle of tlie Nile. 
 
 broken out in the cabin of VOrient; to that point Captain 
 Hallowell ordered as many guns as could be spared from 
 firing on the Franklin to be directed, and that Captain Allen 
 of the marines should throw in the whole fire of his musketry 
 on the enemy's quarter, while the Alexander on the other side 
 was keeping up an incessant shower of shot on the same 
 point. The conflagration now began to rage with dreadful 
 fury ; still the French admiral sustained the honour of his flag 
 with heroic firmness ; but at length a period was put to his 
 exertions by a cannon ball, which cut him asunder. He had 
 before received three desperate wounds, one on his head, and 
 two on his body, but could not be prevailed upon to quit his 
 station on the arm-chest. His captain, Casa Bianca, fell by 
 his side. Several of the officers and men seeing the impracti- 
 cability of extinguishing the fire, which had now extended itself 
 along the upper decks, and was flaming up the masts, jumped 
 overboard ; some supporting themselves on spars and pieces 
 of wreck, others swimming with all their might to escape the 
 dreadful catastrophe. Shot flying in all directions dashed 
 many of them to pieces ; others were picked up by the boats 
 of the fleet, or dragged into the lower part of the nearest 
 ships. The British sailors stretched forth their hands to save 
 an enemy, though the battle at that moment raged with un- 
 controlled fury. The Swiftsure, anchoring within half pistol 
 shot of the larboard bow of the L Orient^ saved the lives of the 
 commissary, first lieutenant, and ten men, drawn out of the 
 water through the lower-deck ports during the hottest part of 
 the action. The situation of the Alexander and Swiftsure now 
 became perilous in the extreme. The expected explosion of 
 such a ship as VOrient was to be dreaded as involving all 
 around in certain destruction. Captain Hallowell, however, 
 determined not to move from his devoted station, though 
 repeatedly urged to do so. He perceived the advantage he 
 possessed in being to windward of the burning ship. Captain 
 Ball was not so fortunate : twice he had the mortification to 
 perceive that the fire of the enemy had communicated to the 
 
The Battle of the Nile. 1 7 1 
 
 Alexander. He was, therefore, under the necessity of changing 
 his berth, and moving to a greater distance. 
 
 The admiral was informed, by Captain Berry, of the situa- 
 tion of the enemy. Forgetting his own sufferings, he hastened 
 on deck; the first consideration that struck his feeling mind, 
 was, concern for the danger of such a number of lives. To sav e 
 as many of them as possible, he ordered Captain Berry to make 
 every exertion in his power. The only boat that could swim 
 was despatched from the Vanguard ; the other ships immedi- 
 ately followed the example, and above seventy drowning 
 wretches were preserved by those lately employed in their 
 destruction. 
 
 The van of the English fleet, having for the present finished 
 their part in the glorious contest, now enjoyed a sublime view 
 of the two lines illumined by the fire of the ill-fated foe ; the 
 colours of the contending vessels being plainly distinguished. 
 The moon, which had by this time risen, opposing her cold 
 light to the warm glow of the fire beneath, added to the 
 grandeur and solemnity of the picture. The flames had now 
 made such progress that an explosion was instantly expected, 
 yet the enemy on the lower deck, either insensible to the 
 danger that threatened them, or impelled by the last paroxysms 
 of despair and vengeance, continued to fire. 
 
 At thirty-seven minutes past nine the fatal explosion 
 happened. The first communicated to the magazine, and 
 VOrient blew up with a crashing sound that deafened all 
 around her. The tremendous motion, felt to the very bottom 
 of each ship, was like that of an earthquake. An awful pause 
 and deathlike silence of about three minutes ensued before the 
 fragments driven to a vast height into the air could descend ; 
 and then the greatest apprehension was formed, from the 
 volumes of burning matter which threatened to fall on the 
 decks and rigging of the surrounding ships. Fortunately, 
 however, no great damage occurred. A port fire fell into the 
 main-royal of the Alexander, and she was once more in danger 
 of sharing the fate of the enemy; but by the exertions 
 
172 The Battle of the Nile, 
 
 of Captain Ball, the flames were soon extinguished. Two 
 large pieces of the wreck likewise dropped into the main and 
 fore tops of the Swiftsure, from which the men had fortunately 
 withdrawn. 
 
 An awful silence now reigned, of several minutes, as if the 
 contending squadrons, struck with horror at the dreadful 
 event, which in an instant had hurried so many brave men 
 into eternity, had forgotten their hostile rage, in pity for the 
 sufferers. But short was the pause of death ; vengeance soon 
 roused the drooping spirits of the enemy. The Franklin, 
 which now bore the French commander's flag, opened her fire 
 with redoubled fury on the Defence and Swiftsure, and made 
 the signal for renewed hostilities. The Swiftsure, being dis- 
 engaged from her late formidable adversary, had leisure to 
 direct her whole fire into the quarter of the foe who had thus 
 presumed to break the solemn silence ; and in a very short 
 time, by the well-directed and steady fire of these two ships, 
 and the Leander on her bows, the Franklin was compelled to 
 call for quarter, and struck to a superior force. 
 
 The Alexander, the Majestic, and occasionally the Swiftsure 
 were now the only British ships engaged ; but the commander 
 of the latter, finding that he could not direct his guns clear 
 of the Alexander, which had dropped between him and the 
 Tonnant, and fearful lest he should fire into a friend, desisted, 
 although he was severely annoyed by the shot of the Tonnant, 
 which was falling thick about him. Most of the English ships 
 were so cut up in their masts and rigging, that they were 
 unable to set any sail, or to move from their stations. The 
 firing ceased entirely about three in the morning of the 2nd 
 of August ; but at four, just as the day began to dawn, the 
 Alexander and Majestic recommenced the action with the 
 Tonnant, Guillaume Tell, Genereux, and Timoleon. Heureux and 
 Mercure had fallen out of the line, and anchored a considerable 
 distance to leeward. 
 
 Captain Miller, perceiving the unequal .contest, bore down 
 to assist his friends, and began a furious cannonade on the 
 
The Battle of the Nile. 173 
 
 enemy. The Theseus had as yet fortunately received but 
 little damage in her masts and rigging, and that little had been 
 repaired by the active exertions of her commander, as soon as 
 the first part of the action in the van had terminated in favour 
 of the British arms. VArtemise frigate, stationed on the left 
 of the centre of the French line, fired a broadside at the 
 Theseus, and then struck her colours. Captain Miller dis- 
 patched an officer to take possession of her, but when the 
 boat had arrived within a short distance, she burst into a 
 flame, and blew up. This unofficer-like and treacherous 
 conduct reflects disgrace on the name of Estandlet, who 
 commanded her. After having surrendered his ship by striking 
 her ensign and pendant, conscious that he was then secure 
 from immediate danger, he set fire to her, and most of his 
 crew escaped to the shore. 
 
 At six o'clock, the Leander having as yet received but little 
 damage, was ordered by signal from the admiral to assist the 
 ships engaged, which was accordingly obeyed. At this time 
 the action between the three British ships, Alexander, Majestic, 
 and Theseus, and the Guillaume Tell, Genereux, Tonnant, and 
 Timoleon, had become very distant, as the latter continued 
 imperceptibly to drop to leeward, and the Theseus was obliged 
 to veer on two cables to keep within reach of them. 
 
 At 8 A.M. the Goliath bore down and anchored near the 
 Theseus, the French ships having brought to again. The fire 
 of the British was now chiefly turned against the Heureux and 
 Mercure, which were soon obliged to surrender. The Timoleon 
 was ashore, and the Tonnant was rendered a complete wreck. 
 Under these circumstances Rear-Admiral Villeneuve, in the 
 Guillaume Tell, of 80 guns, perceiving that few, if any, of 
 our ships were in condition to make sail, resolved to lose no 
 time in escaping from the inevitable fate that would otherwise 
 have awaited him. About 7 o'clock he cut his cable and got 
 under weigh, and his example was followed by the Genereux, 
 with two frigates. La Justice and La Diane. 
 
 Perceiving their intention, the British admiral, by signal. 
 
1 74 The Battle of the Nile, 
 
 ordered the Zealous to intercept them. Unfortunately none 
 of the windward ships were in a cortdition to second his 
 attempt to stop the fugitives. Captain Hood did all that could 
 be done : as they passed by him, he received and returned the 
 fire of each in succession. The damage he sustained prevented 
 him from tacking, and the admiral, with his usual judgment, 
 gave the signal of recall. 
 
 The whole day of the 2nd was employed by the British 
 admiral, his officers and men, in securing the ships that had 
 struck, and repairing the damages their own had sustained. 
 Though this was fully sufficient to occupy their attention, yet 
 the mind of the victorious commander was too deeply impressed 
 with the most pious gratitude to the Supreme Being, for the 
 success which had crowned his endeavours in the cause of his 
 country, to delay returning i^his public acknowledgments for 
 the Divine favour. On the morning of the 2nd he therefore 
 issued the following memorandum to the different captains of 
 his squadron : 
 
 Vanguard, off the Mouth of the Niky 
 2nd day of August, 1798. 
 Almighty God having blessed His Majesty's arms with 
 victory, the admiral intends returning public thanksgiving for 
 the same at two o'clock this day, and he recommends every 
 ship doing the same as soon as convenient. 
 To the respective captains of the squadron. 
 
 Accordingly, at two o'clock public service was performed on 
 the quarter deck of the Vanguard, by the Rev. Mr. Comyn, 
 the other ships following the example of the admiral, though 
 perhaps not all at the same time. The solemn act of gratitude 
 to Heaven seemed to make a deep impression on many of the 
 prisoners, and some of them even remarked, •' that it was no 
 wonder the English officers could maintain such discipline and 
 order, when it was possible to impress the minds of their men 
 
The Battle of T^^afatgar. 175 
 
 with such sentiments, after a victory so great, and at a moment 
 of such seeming confusion." 
 
 The same day the following memorandum, expressive of 
 the admiral's sentiments of the noble exertions of the different 
 officers and men of his squadron, was sent round to all the 
 ships : 
 
 Vanguardy off the Mouth of the Nile, 
 2nd day of August, 1798. 
 
 The admiral most heartily congratulates the captains, officers, 
 seamen, and marines of the squadron he has the honour to 
 command, on the event of the late action ; and he desires they 
 will accept his most sincere and cordial thanks for their very 
 gallant behaviour in this glorious battle. It must strike 
 forcibly every British seaman, how superior their conduct is, 
 when in discipline and good order, to the riotous^behaviour of 
 lawless Frenchmen. 
 
 The squadron may be assured the admiral will not fail with 
 his dispatches to represent their truly meritorious conduct in 
 the strongest terms to the commander-in-chief. 
 
 To the captains of the ships of the squadron. 
 
 The Arabs and Mamelukes, who had lined the shores of the 
 bay, beheld with transport that victory had declared itself in 
 favour of the English. Their exultation was almost equal to 
 that of the conquerors, and for the three following nights the 
 whole coast was illumined in celebration of the victory. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 
 
 ON the 19th of October, 1805, the combined fleets, French 
 and Spanish, put to sea, and on the 21st Lord Nelson 
 intercepted them off Cape Trafalgar, and sixty miles eastward of 
 Cadiz. When his lordship found that by his manoeuvres he 
 had placed the enemy in such a situation that they could not 
 avoid an engagement, he displayed the utmost animation, and 
 
iy6 The Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
 his usual confidence of victory. " Now," said he, to Captain 
 Hardy and the other officers, " they cannot escape us ; I think 
 we shall at least make sure of twenty of them. I shall pro- 
 bably lose a leg, but that will be purchasing a victory cheaply." 
 
 The following is transcribed from Lord Nelson's private 
 memorandum of that day, for which we are indebted to Mr. 
 Harrison's " Life of Nelson" : " We were between Trafalgar and 
 Cape Spartel. The frigates made the signal, nine sail outside 
 the harbour. I gave the frigates instructions for their guidance, 
 and placed Defencey Colossus, and Mars between me and the 
 frigates. At noon, fresh gales and heavy rain — Cadiz north- 
 east, nine leagues. In the afternoon Captain Blackwood 
 toiegraphed that the enemy seemed determined to go to the 
 westward — and that they shall not do, if in the power of 
 Nelson and Bronte to prevent them ! At five, telegraphed 
 Captain Blackwood that I relied on his keeping sight of the 
 enemy. At five o'clock. Naiad made the signal for thirty-one 
 sail of the enemy north-north-east. The frigates and look-out 
 ships kept sight of the enemy most admirably all night ; and 
 told me, by signals, which tack they were upon. At eight we 
 wore, and stood for the south-west ; and at 4 a.m. wore, and 
 stood to the north-east. 
 
 "Monday, October 21st, 1805. At daylight, saw the 
 enemy's combined fleet, from east to east- south-east. Bore 
 away ; made signal for order of sailing, and to prepare for 
 battle; the enemy with their heads to the southward. At 
 seven, the enemy wearing in succession." And then follows 
 his lordship's appeal to heaven for success, which were 
 probably the last words written by this great and brave com- 
 mander : — 
 
 " May the great God, whom I worship, grant to my country, 
 and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious 
 victory ! and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it : and 
 may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the 
 British fleet ! For myself, individually, I commend my life to 
 Him who made me ; and may His blessing light upon my 
 
tThe Battle of T^^afalgar. 177 
 
 ndeavours for serving my country faithfully ! To Him I 
 esign myself, and the just cause which is entrusted to me to 
 defend. ''Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! " 
 
 About twelve at noon the action began, and the last signal 
 before it commenced was a private one by telegraph — a signal 
 too emphatic ever to be forgotten — "ENGLAND EXPECTS 
 EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY." 
 
 While the Victory was going into action, his lordship walked 
 the deck very quickly, and exclaimed, " This is the happiest 
 day of my life — and it is a happy day, too, for Burnham 
 Thorpe (the place of his nativity), for it is the day of their 
 fair." He then went over the different decks, saw and con- 
 versed with the seamen, encouraged them with his usual 
 affability, and was much pleased at the manner in which they 
 had barricadoed the hawser-holes of the. ship. All was perfect 
 death-Hke silence, till just before the action began. Three 
 cheers were given his lordship as he ascended the quarter-deck 
 ladder. He had been particular in recommending cool, steady 
 firing, in preference to a hurrying fire without aim or precision, 
 and the event justified his lordship's advice, as the masts of his 
 opponents came tumbling down on their decks, and over their 
 sides, within half an hour after the battle began to rage in its 
 full fury. 
 
 The conduct of their leader was fully adequate to rouse the 
 British officers to deeds of hardy enterprise. It was his intention 
 to have begun the action by passing ahead of the Bucenfaure, the 
 flagship of Admiral Villeneuve, that the Victory might be ahead 
 of that ship, and astern of the Santissima Trinidada; but the 
 Bucentaure shooting ahead, his lordship was obliged to go 
 under her stern, raked her, and luffed up on her starboard 
 side. The Bucentaure fired broadsides at the Victory, before 
 his lordship ordered the ports to be opened, when the whole 
 broadside, which was double-shotted, was fired into her, and the 
 discharge made such a tremendous crash that the Bucentmtr 
 was seen to heel. The number of her men killed proved to be 
 
 12 
 
178 The Battle of Trafalgar, 
 
 three hundred and sixty-five ; wounded, two hundred and 
 nineteen. The flag of the Bucentaure was then struck, as she 
 was dismasted and quite unmanageable. 
 
 Lord Nelson now shot ahead to the Spanish admiral's ship, 
 the Santissima Trinidada. He had already gained the highest 
 honour in grappling with this ship during the action off Cape 
 St. Vincent, in 1797. She was the largest ship in the world, 
 carried 136 guns, and had four decks. The hero ordered the 
 Victory alongside his old acquaintance as he called her, and 
 to be lashed to his tremendous opponent. The conflict was 
 horrible ; the enemy were engaged at the muzzle of their 
 guns. A dreadful carnage was made in the Spanish ships, 
 which were full of men. The Santissima Trinidada had on 
 board sixteen hundred, including a corps of troops, among 
 whom were some sharp-shooters. 
 
 The royal marines on the poop of the Victory, as well as the 
 officers, seamen^ and marines on the quarter-deck, soon felt 
 the effects of the system of sharp-shooting. The men began 
 to drop fast ; and, as Captain Adair, of the marines, wishing 
 to counteract the destructive fire, went up the shrouds with a 
 party, he fell quite dead on the poop, perforated with near 
 twenty balls from those marksmen. The action then became 
 very hot, and Lord Nelson was advised not to appear so 
 conspicuously, in full uniform, to the mark of the topmen of 
 the enemy. His answer was, '' No, whatever may be the 
 consequences, the insignia of the honours I now wear I gained 
 by the exertions of British seamen under my command in 
 various parts of the world, and in the hour of danger I am 
 proud to show them and the enemies of old England that I 
 will never part with them ; if it please God I am to fall, I will 
 expire with these trophies entwined round my heart." 
 
 Amidst the conflict of cannon, fired muzzle to muzzle, 
 showers of bullets were directed on the quarter-deck, where 
 the gallant hero stood, fearlessly giving his orders, and cheer- 
 fully abiding every peril. His heart was animated, and his 
 spirits gay. The stump of his right arm, which he always 
 
The Battle of Trafalgar. 179 
 
 facetiously denominated his fin, moved the shoulder of his 
 sleeve up and down with the utmost rapidity, as was customary 
 when he felt greatly pleased. Captain Hardy observing from 
 the manner in which the sharp-shooters fired that it was their 
 object to single out the officers, repeatedly requested Lord 
 Nelson to change his coat, or to put on a great coat over it. 
 The undaunted admiral answered he had not time. Too soon 
 were Captain Hardy's apprehensions verified. A shot from the 
 main-top of the enemy carried away part of the epaulette, and 
 penetrating through the star, entered his left breast, and took 
 a direction through the vital parts. He fell on the deck. 
 Captain Hardy ran to him, and said, " I hope it is not mortal, 
 my lord." He replied, '' They have caught me at last." He 
 was then taken below by Mr. Bourke, the purser of the Victory y 
 who carried him in his arms, and laid him on a bed. His 
 lordship said, " Bourke, my back is broke." The surgeon 
 (Mr. Beatty) soon came and examined the wound. He said, 
 *' Doctor, you can be of no use to me ; go and assist those to 
 whom you can be of service, as I have but a few moments 
 to live." He repeatedly asked for Captain Hardy, of whom 
 his lordship inquired " how they went on ? " Captain Hardy 
 replied that ten ships had struck ; and his lordship said, " I 
 hope none of ours have struck ; " to which Captain Hardy 
 replied "There is no fear of that.' He then returned to the 
 deck. After the Victory had ceased firing. Captain Hardy 
 again went to his lordship, who took him by the hand, and 
 said, " I am now happy." Captain Hardy now told him the 
 number of the enemy that had struck, and his lordship said, 
 " Hardy, bring the fleet to an anchor," and that was the last 
 order his lordship gave. Captain Hardy again returned to the 
 deck ; his lordship previously said, '' I shall be dead before 
 you return, take my body home." A short time after he said 
 to Mr. Bourke (and these were^his last words), " I have done 
 my duty — I praise God for it ! " and in a few moments he 
 expired without a groan. 
 
 It was known on board the Trir\idada that the British 
 
i8o The Battle of Trafalgar', 
 
 admiral had been wounded, and the moment he fell there was 
 a general shout on board the Spanish ship. Short, however, 
 was the exultation of her crew, who were soon obliged to 
 strike to the irresistible prowess of the British tars. After 
 this conquest, the Victory subdued a third ship, which closed 
 her part in the engagement. 
 
 The following particulars of Nelson's last moments are 
 related by Mr. Beatty, the surgeon, and Mr. Bourke, the 
 purser : — 
 
 About the middle of the action with the combined fleets, on 
 the 2ist of October, Lord Nelson was upon the quarter-deck, 
 where he had resolved to take his station during the whole 
 of the battle. A few minutes before he was wounded, Mr. 
 Bourke was near him ; he looked steadfastly at him, and said, 
 " Bourke, I expect every man to be upon his station." Mr. 
 Bourke took the hint, and went to his proper situation in the 
 cockpit. 
 
 At this time his lordship's secretary, Mr. Scott, who was 
 not, as has been represented, either receiving directions from 
 him, or standing by him, but was communicating some orders 
 to an officer at a distant part of the quarter-deck, was cut 
 almost in two by a cannon shot. He expired on the instant, 
 and was thrown overboard. 
 
 Lord Nelson observed the act of throwing his secretary 
 overboard, and said, as if doubtful, to a midshipman who was 
 near him, " Was that Scott ? " The midshipman replied he 
 believed it was. He exclaimed, " Poor fellow ! " 
 
 He was now walking the quarter-deck, and about three 
 yards from the stern, the space he generally walked before he 
 turned back. His lordship was in the act of turning on the 
 quarter-deck, with his face towards the enemy, when he was 
 mortally wounded in the left breast by a musket ball, supposed 
 to have been fired from the mizen-top of the Redoubtable^ 
 French ship of the line, which the Victory had attacked early 
 in the battle. 
 
 He instantly fell. He was not^ as hag been related^ picked 
 
The Battle of Trafalgar. i8i 
 
 up by Captain Hardy. In the hurry of the battle, which was 
 then raging in its greatest violence, even the fall of their 
 beloved commander did not interrupt the business of the 
 quarter-deck. The sailors, however, who were near his lord- 
 ship, raised him in their arms, and carried him to the cockpit. 
 He was immediately laid upon a bed, and the following is the 
 substance of the conversation which really took place in the 
 cockpit, between his lordship. Captain Hardy, Mr. Bourke, 
 and Mr. Beatty. 
 
 Upon seeing him brought down, Mr. Bourke imme- 
 diately ran to him. '' I fear," he said, " your lordship is 
 wounded." " Mortally, mortall3\" " I hope not, my dear 
 lord ; let Mr. Beatty examine your wounds." " It is of 
 no use," exclaimed the dying Nelson ; '' he had better 
 attend to others." 
 
 When Bourke returned into the cockpit with Captain Hardy, 
 Lord Nelson told the latter to come near him. " Kiss me, 
 Hardy," he exclaimed. Captain Hardy kissed his cheek. 
 "I hope your lordship," he said, ''will live to enjoy your 
 triumph." " Never, Hardy," he exclaimed ; " I am dying ! 
 I am a dead man all over, Beatty will tell you so. 
 Bring the fleet to anchor ; you have all done your duty. 
 God bless you." Captain Hardy now said, " I suppose 
 Collingwood, my dear lord, is to command the fleet ? " 
 " Never,' exclaimed he — " whilst I liveP Meaning, doubtless, 
 that so long as his gallant spirit survived, he would never 
 desert his duty. 
 
 What passed after this was merely casual ; his lordship's 
 last words were to Mr. Beatty, whilst he was expiring in his 
 arms, " I could have wished to have lived to enjoy this, but 
 God's will be done." " My lord," exclaimed Hardy, " you die 
 in the midst of triumph." " Do I, Hardy? " he smiled faintly. 
 " God be praised ! " These were his last words before he 
 expired. 
 
 The day after the victory. Admiral Collingwood issued the 
 following general order : — 
 
1 82 The Battle of Trafalgar, 
 
 EuryaluSy October 22ndy 1805. 
 
 The ever-to-be-lamented death of Lord Viscount Nelson, 
 Duke of Bronte, the commander-in-chief, who fell in the action 
 on the 2 1 St, in the arms of victory, covered with glory, whose 
 memory will ever be dear to the British navy and the British 
 nation, whose zeal for the honour of his king and for the 
 interests of his country will be ever held up as a shining 
 example for a British seaman, leaves to me a duty to return 
 my thanks to the Right Honourable Rear-admiral, the captains, 
 officers, seamen, and detachments of royal marines, serving on 
 board His Majesty's squadron now under my command, for 
 their conduct on that day : but where can I find language to 
 express my sentiments of the valour and skill which were 
 displayed by the officers, the seamen, and marines, in the 
 battle with the enemy, where every individual appeared a 
 hero, on whom the glory of his country depended ; the attack 
 was irresistible, and the issue of it adds to the page of our 
 naval annals a brilliant instance of what Britons can do, when 
 the king and country need their service. 
 
 To the Right Honourable Rear-admiral the Earl of Northesk, 
 to the captains, officers, and seamen, and to the officers, non- 
 commissioned officers, and privates of the royal marines, I beg 
 to give my sincere and hearty thanks, for their highly meri- 
 torious conduct, both in the action, and in their zeal and activity 
 in bringing the captured ships out from their perilous situation 
 in which they were, after their surrender, among the shoals of 
 Trafalgar, in boisterous weather. 
 
 And I desire that the respective captains will be pleased to 
 communicate to the officers, seamen, and royal marines, this 
 public testimony of my high approbation of their conduct, and 
 my thanks for it. 
 
 C, COLLINGWOOD. 
 
 To the Right Honourable Rcar-Admiral the Earl of Northesk, 
 and the respective captains and commanders. 
 
The Battle of Trafalgar. 183 
 
 General Order. 
 
 The Almighty God, whose arm is strength, having of His 
 great mercy been pleased to crown the exertion of His Majesty's 
 fleet with success, in giving them a complete victory over their 
 enemies, on the 21st of this month ; and that all praise and 
 thanksgiving may be offered up to the throne of grace for the 
 great benefits to our country and to mankind : 
 
 I have thought proper that a day should be appointed of 
 general humiliation before God, and thanksgiving for this His 
 merciful goodness, imploring forgiveness of sins, a continuation 
 of His divine mercy, and His constant aid to us, in the defence 
 of our country's liberties and laws, without which the utmost 
 efforts of man are nought, and I direct, therefore, that a day be 
 appointed for this purpose. 
 
 Given on board the Eiiryahts, off Cape Trafalgar, 22nd 
 October, 1805. 
 
 C. COLLINGWOOD. 
 
 When the news of the victory arrived in England, addresses 
 to the throne poured in from every part of the country. The 
 city of London as usual took the lead, and the Court and Common 
 Council waited on His Majesty at St. James's, with an address 
 of congratulation. 
 
 To this address His Majesty George III. was pleased to 
 return this most gracious answer : — 
 
 " I receive with peduliar satisfaction the congratulations of 
 my loyal city of London on the late glorious and decisive 
 victory, obtained, under the blessing of God, by my fleet 
 commanded by the late Lord Viscount Nelson, over the 
 combined force of France and Spain. The skill and intrepidity 
 of my officers and seamen were never more conspicuous than 
 on this important occasion. The loss of the distinguished 
 commander under whom this great victory has been achieved, 
 I most sincerely and deeply lament ; his transcendent and 
 heroic services will, I am persuaded, exist for ever in the 
 recollection of my people, and whilst they tend to stimulate 
 
184 Luther before the Emperor. 
 
 those who come after him to similar exertions, they will prove 
 a lasting source of strength, security, and glory to my 
 dominions." 
 
 LUTHER BEFORE THE EMPEROR, 
 
 LUTHER standing alone before the Emperor Charles V., 
 and the Imperial assembly at the Diet of Worms, is one 
 of the grandest scenes in the history of the world. Apart 
 from the religious aspect of the event, as bearing on the cause 
 of the Reformation, there never was a more noble instance of 
 personal courage and heroism, and nothing could have sustained 
 the humble solitary monk in such a contest, save his living 
 faith in Divine power and help. 
 
 It was with great reluctance, and after many efforts at 
 obtaining internal reform, that Luther at last resolved to break 
 into the Roman Catholic Church. When cited to Rome, in 
 15 19, he still professed readiness to submit himself : "I am 
 willing to be silent," he said, "if they will not attempt to silence 
 the gospel." When the scandalous sale of pardons by Tetzel, 
 the papal envoy, roused his indignation, and he published his 
 theses against indulgences, the Pope replied by sending a bull 
 of excommunication. 
 
 It was on December loth, 1520, that he burned publicly the 
 Pope's decretal against him, the students and the people of 
 Wittenberg witnessing the scene, amidst great excitement. 
 This was at length an open rupture with Rome, and a deed 
 of defiance from which there could be no retreat. 
 
 In less than a fortnight after the burning of the papal bull, 
 Luther heard of a citation to appear before the new Emperor, 
 Charles V. It was as yet doubtful what part the German 
 nation, represented by its chief and princes, would take in a 
 conflict with Rome. The Emperor paid great deference to the 
 Elector, Frederic the Wise, and it was by his advice that he 
 refused to obey blindly the papal commands, but decided first 
 to examine into the matters at issue. Hence the citation of 
 
Luther before the Emperor. 185 
 
 the German monk to appear before the Diet summoned to 
 assemble at Worms. The citation was put into his hands on 
 March 26th by the Imperial Herald, Caspar Sturm, who 
 appeared at Wittenberg to escort him, bearing a safe-conduct. 
 In the beginning of April they set out, and arrived on the i6th, 
 a journey which can now be made by rail in a few hours. 
 
 Some of the crowd who accompanied him in the outset of his 
 journey, said, " There are many cardinals and prelates at 
 Worms ! You will be burnt alive, and your body be reduced 
 to ashes, as they did with John Huss." " Though they should 
 kindle a fire," he replied, " whose flames should reach from 
 Worms to Wittenberg and rise up to heaven, I would go 
 through it in the name of the Lord, and stand before them." 
 
 One day, when he had entered into an inn, and the crowd was 
 as usual pressing to see him, an officer made his way through, 
 and thus addressed him, " Are you the man who has taken in 
 hand to reform the papacy? How can you expect to succeed ?" 
 ^' Yes," said Luther, " I am the man. I place my dependence 
 upon the Almighty God, whose word and commandment are 
 before me." The officer, deeply affected, gazed on him with 
 a look of kindly sympathy, and said, " Dear friend, there is 
 much in what you say. I am a servant of the Emperor 
 Charles, but your Master is greater than mine. He will help 
 and protect you." 
 
 At Naumberg Luther met a priest, said to have been 
 J. Langor, a man of stern zeal, who kept hung up in his study a 
 portrait of Jerome Savonarola, of Ferrara, who perished in the 
 flames at Florence in the year 1498, by order of Pope 
 Alexander VI., a martyr for liberty and morals rather than an 
 enlightened confessor of the Gospel. Taking down the portrait, 
 the priest held it forth in silence as he approached Luther, who 
 saw the import of his solemn and silent action. But his 
 intrepid spirit was unmoved. " It is Satan," he remarked, 
 " who seeks by these terrors to hinder the confession of the 
 truth in the assembly of the princes, for he foresees the effect 
 it will have on his kingdom." "Stand fast in the truth thou 
 
1 86 Luther before the E77tperor, 
 
 hast professed/* replied the austere but honest and friendly 
 priest, '' and thy God will never forsake thee." 
 
 From Frankfort he wrote to Spalatin, '' I am arrived here, 
 although Satan has sought to stop me on my way by sickness. 
 From Eisenach to this place I have been suffering, and 1 am 
 at this moment in worse condition than ever. I find that 
 Charles has issued an edict to terrify me ; but Christ lives, and 
 we shall enter Worms in spite of all the councils of hell, and 
 all the powers of the air. Therefore engage a lodging for me." 
 
 Spalatin soon became alarmed ; and when Luther was 
 approaching the city he sent a message by a servant, who 
 said, " Abstain from entering Worms." This was at Oppen- 
 heim, a few miles from the city, now the last station on the 
 railway between Mayence and Worms. Luther, still undaunted, 
 turned his eyes on Spalatin's messenger, and answered, ''Go, 
 tell your master that though there should be as many devils at 
 Worms as there are tiles on its roofs, I would enter it." 
 
 Not long before his death, Luther was reminded of this, 
 when he said, " I feared nothing. God can give this boldness 
 to man. I know not whether now I should have so much 
 liberty and joy." 
 
 When Luther was in the hall, about to be ushered into the 
 presence of the assembly, a veteran knight, George Freunds- 
 borg, commander of the guard, touched him on the shoulder, 
 and said kindly, " My poor monk, my poor monk, thou hast a 
 march and a struggle to go through, such as neither I nor manj^ 
 other captains have seen the like of in our worst campaigns. 
 But if thy cause be just, and thou art sure of it, go forward, 
 in God's name, and fear nothing ! He will not forsake thee ! " 
 A noble tribute from a brave soldier to the courage of the 
 soul ! 
 
 After Luther made his first appearance before the Diet, and 
 had delivered the addresses prepared by him in defence of 
 himself against the charges made, he was required to retire. 
 He went to his inn, a few of his friends accompanying him, and 
 a great crowd filling the streets, and struggling to catch a sight 
 
Lttther before the Emperor. 187 
 
 of the man about whom so much stir was being made. He 
 sought the quiet of his chamber, and there he wrote a letter to 
 the Councillor Caspianus in these words, '' I am writing to you 
 from the very midst of a tempest " (alluding probably to the 
 noise outside the inn, and the excitement in the town). " An 
 hour ago I appeared before the Emperor and his brother. I 
 avowed myself the author of my books, and I have promised 
 to give my answer to-morrow as to recantation. By the help 
 of Jesus Christ, I will not retract a single letter of my writings." 
 He had already in prayer sought and found the strength which 
 made him firm as a rock. 
 
 Luther mentions in his letter that he had appeared before 
 the Emperor and his brother, the Archduke Ferdinand. But 
 in truth there had seldom if ever been seen so great and august 
 an assembly. The six Electors of the Empire, whose de- 
 scendants almost all became kings ; eighty dukes, rulers of 
 large territories; thirty archbishops and other Romish prelates ; 
 many princes, barons, counts, and knights of good estate ; 
 seven ambassadors, including those of France and England ; 
 the Pope's nuncios ; in all above 200 notables ; such was the 
 imposing Court before which " the solitary monk " appeared. 
 
 On the morrow, when ushered into the presence of the 
 Emperor and the assembly, when the question was put to him, 
 " Will you, or will you not, recant ? " Luther answered 
 ■unhesitatingly, "Since your Most Serene Majesty and your 
 High Mightinesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct 
 answer, I will give one, and it is this : I cannot submit my 
 faith either to the Pope or to the Councils, because it is clear 
 as noonday that they have often fallen into error, and even 
 into glaring inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not 
 convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, 
 if I am not satisfied by the very texts I have cited, and if my 
 judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's 
 Word, I neither can nor will retract anything, for it cannot be 
 right for a Christian to speak against his conscience." 
 
 Then turning a look on that assembly before whom he stood, 
 
1 88 Luther before the Emperor. 
 
 and which held in its hand life or death, he said, "Here I 
 
 STAND. I CANNOT DO OTHERWISE, GoD HELP ME ! AmEN." 
 
 The assembly for a time was motionless with astonishment. 
 Luther's friends were proud of their champion, yet felt painful 
 anxiety as to the result. Several of the princes present could 
 scarcely conceal their admiration. The Emperor, who had the 
 day before listened to Luther with marked attention and 
 interest, on recovering from the first impression made by this 
 declaration of firmness, exclaimed, "The monk speaks with an 
 intrepid heart and unshaken courage." 
 
 "If you do not retract," resumed the Chancellor, the as- 
 sembly being recalled to attention, " the Emperor and the 
 States of the Empire will proceed to consider how to deal with 
 an obstinate heretic." At these words Luther's friends trembled, 
 but the monk repeated, " May God be my helper, for I can 
 retract nothing ! " Luther was conducted out of the hall during 
 the deliberation, and on being again called in, the Chancellor 
 then addressed him : " Martin, you have not spoken with that 
 humility which befits your condition. The distinction which 
 you have drawn as to your works was needless, for if you 
 retracted such as contained errors the Emperor would not allow 
 the rest to be burnt. It is absurd to require to be refuted by 
 Scripture, when you are reviving heresies condemned by the 
 General Council of Constance. The Emperor, therefore, com- 
 mands you to say simply ' Yes ' or No,' whether you mean to 
 affirm what you have advanced, or whether you retract any 
 part thereof." 
 
 " I have no other answer to give than that which I have 
 already given," said Luther, quietly but firmly. 
 
 The Elector Frederic had expected that possibly Luther's 
 courage would have failed him in the Emperor's presence ; 
 however, he was the more deeply affected by the Reformer's 
 firmness. He felt proud of having taken such a man under his 
 protection. He said afterwards to Spalatin, " Oh ! how Luther 
 spoke before the Emperor and all the States of the Empire : 
 all I feared was that he might go too far." 
 
Juggernaut in 1806. 189 
 
 Well may it be said that this was the grandest scene in the 
 history of the Reformation, one of the grandest scenes in all 
 history. 
 
 JUGGERNAUT IN 1806. 
 
 MUCH has been written about the Hindoo idol Juggernaut, 
 not only in missionary records, but also in books of 
 travel and history. The horrible scenes formerly witnessed 
 during the festivals have been checked by the interference 
 of the British Government, and especially the sacrifice of 
 human life is prevented by the authority of the law, and the 
 regulations of the police. Before long it is to be hoped that 
 Christian influence and educational enlightenment will put an 
 end to what still prevails of heathen idolatry and superstition. 
 The following account of the festival, during the times when 
 priestcraft and fanaticism were as yet unchecked, is from the 
 journal of an eye-witness. Dr. Claudius Buchanan, an enterprising 
 traveller, and a man distinguished for his learning and piety. 
 The idol called Juggernaut, says Dr. Buchanan, has been 
 considered as the Moloch of the East, and he is justly so named, 
 for the sacrifices offered up to him by devotees are not less 
 criminal, perhaps not less numerous, than those recorded of 
 the Moloch of Canaan. 
 
 Two other idols accompany Juggernaut — namely, Bolovam 
 and Shubudra, his brother and sister; for there are three 
 deities worshipped here. They receive equal adoration, and 
 sit on thrones of nearly equal height. The temple is a stupen- 
 dous fabric, truly commensurate with the extensive sway of the 
 *' horrid king." 
 
 On the 1 8th June, 1806, I witnessed a scene which I shall 
 never forget. It was the great day of the Feast, and at twelve 
 o'clock the Moloch of Hindostan was brought out of his temple, 
 amid the acclamations of hundreds of thousan4s of his \yQr- 
 
190 Jtiggernaut in 1806. 
 
 shippers. When the idol was placed upon his throne, a shout 
 was raised by the multitude, such as I had never heard 
 before. It continued equable for a few minutes, then gradually 
 died away. 
 
 After a short interval of silence, a murmur was heard in the 
 distance. All eyes were turned to the place, and beheld a 
 grove advancing. A body of men, having green branches or 
 palms in their hands, approached with great celerity. The 
 people opened a way for them, and when they had come up to 
 the throne, they fell down before him that sat thereon, and 
 worshipped. And the multitude again sent forth a voice 
 '^ like the sound of a great thunder." But the voices I now 
 heard were not those of melody or of joyful acclamation. 
 Their number indeed brought to my mind the countless 
 multitude of the Revelation, but their voices gave no tuneful 
 hosanna or hallelujah — it was rather a yell of approbation. 
 
 The throne of the idol was placed on a stupendous car, about 
 sixty feet in height, resting on wheels, which indented the 
 ground deeply as they turned slowly under the ponderous 
 machine. Attached to it were six cables, by which the people 
 drew it along. Upon the tower were the priests and satellites 
 of the idol, surrounding his throne. The idol is a block of 
 wood, having a frightful visage, painted black, with a distended 
 mouth of bloody colour ; his arms are of gold, and he is 
 dressed in gorgeous apparel. The other two idols are of a 
 white and yellow colour. Five elephants preceded the three 
 towers, bearing lofty flags, dressed in crimson caparisons, and 
 having bells hanging thereto, which sounded musically as they 
 moved. 
 
 I went on in the procession, close by the tower of Moloch, 
 which, as it was drawn with difficulty, grated on its wheels 
 harshly. After the tower had proceeded some way, a pilgrim 
 announced that he was ready to offer himself a sacrifice to the 
 idol. He laid himself down in the road before the tower, as it 
 was moving along, lying on his face, with his arms stretched 
 forward. The multitude passed round him, leaving the space 
 
Juggernaut in 1806. 191 
 
 clear, and he was crushed to death by the wheels of the car. 
 A shout of joy was raised to the god, and the people threw 
 cowries, or small money, on the body of the victim, in appro- 
 bation of the deed. He was left to view a considerable time, 
 and was then carried by the hurries to the Golgotha. A woman 
 next devoted herself to the idol. She laid herself down in the 
 road obliquely, so that the wheels did not kill her instan- 
 taneously, as is generally the case, but she died in a few hours. 
 Next morning, as I passed the place where she had been taken, 
 nothing of her remained but the bones. 
 
 And this, thought I, is the religion of the Brahmins of 
 Hindostan, and their worship in its highest degree ! What, 
 then, shall we think of their private manners and moral 
 principles ? For it is equally true of India as of Europe, if 
 you would know the state of the people look at the state of 
 the temple. 
 
 The idolatrous processions continue some days longer, but 
 my spirits, adds Dr. Buchanan in his journal, are so exhausted 
 by the constant view of these enormities, that I mean to hasten 
 away from Juggernaut sooner than I at first intended. 
 
 As to the number of worshippers assembled here at this 
 time no accurate calculation can be made. The natives 
 themselves, when speaking of the number at particular 
 festivals, usually say that a lac (100,000) of people would not 
 be missed. I asked a Brahmin how many he supposed were 
 present at the most numerous festival he had ever witnessed. 
 '' How can I tell," said he ; " how many grains are there in a 
 handful of sand ? " 
 
192 
 
 LIFE-BOAT SERVICES. 
 
 EVERY year, all round the coasts of the British Islands 
 there are deeds of daring and of endurance done by 
 the men of the Life-Boat Service, worthy of record among the 
 noblest histories of heroism. It is but rarely that there are 
 eyes to bear public witness, or pens to chronicle these heroic 
 deeds. A bare report of the fact of a boat going out, and of so 
 many men saved from a watery grave, is all that is usually 
 heard of. Now and then some shipwreck of unwonted magni- 
 tude, or rescue services of special gallantry, attract attention, 
 and medals and honours from the Royal National Life-Boat 
 Institution reward the crew. But there is no need of such 
 inducements to prompt to efforts for saving life. The sense of 
 duty and the feeling of benevolence suffice to bring volunteers 
 for the service. At the same time, it makes a great difference 
 to a poor sailor or boatman, when he knows that those dependent 
 on him will not be forgotten if he risks his life. It is to be 
 desired, therefore, that ample funds be at the disposal of the 
 managers of the Institution we have named, and of other 
 societies for kindred objects, not merely to support the service 
 in efficiency, but to help the widows and orphans of those that 
 perish in the good cause. 
 
 Of the importance of the Life-Boat work some idea may be 
 formed by the statement that in one single year 1,200 lives 
 were saved through its means; since the beginning of the 
 Institution about 35,000 have been saved. The expenditure 
 every year is now not far from ;£"4o,ooo, figures which show 
 the magnitude to which the work has attained. The number 
 of boats is now about 280. It is pleasant to record that 
 amongst the latest additions to this great fleet of mercy are two 
 boats subscribed for by readers of the Boys^ Own Paper. One 
 of these boats, almost immediately after it was placed on its 
 station, at Poole, in Dorsetshire, had the good fortune to rescue 
 the crew of a foreign ship. The subscriptions for these two 
 
Life-Boat Services. 19 
 
 'y 
 
 boats was mostly in small sums, collected by boys themselves 
 in every part of the kingdom, giving good hope and happy 
 augury that the work will be maintained and extended in 
 future years. 
 
 Kindred in purpose and spirit, is the work of the Rocket 
 and Mortar Apparatus, under the direction of the Board of 
 Trade, and the management of the Coast-Guard. To the 
 exertions of Captain Manby the nation is mainly indebted for 
 the establishment and thorough organization of this important 
 service. There are many parts of the coast where, from the 
 rocky nature of the shore, the deep water running up to steep 
 cliffs, the absence of a sufficient population from which to draw 
 a crew, and other reasons, life-boats would be either useless, 
 or could not be maintained in a state of efficiency. On such 
 coasts the rocket apparatus is the ship-wrecked sailor's only 
 hope. Many thousands of lives have been saved. In one year 
 there were above 500 men thus rescued. Information about 
 these and other services for the benefit of sailors will be found 
 in Dr. Macaulay's book of " Sea Pictures " (Religious Tract 
 Society). Of the Life-Boat Service a full account is given in 
 " The History of the Life-Boat and its Work,^' by the late 
 Mr. R. Lewis, Secretary of the Institution ; and also in the 
 periodical the Life-Boat Journal. From that Journal we extract 
 a remarkable narrative, not because of special gallantry in the 
 men, nor unusual peril in the service, but because we happen 
 to have a more clear and detailed account of the wreck and 
 the rescue, than in most other recent cases. But in turning 
 over the pages of the Life-Boat Journal we meet with many 
 brave and noble deeds, as worthy of public recognition as 
 those of any of the gallant men who have gained the Victoria 
 Cross. The Albert medal is occasionally given for such 
 services. 
 
 Before quoting, however, the account of the '^ Wreck of the 
 Indian Chief ^^ let us, very briefly, refer to two or three other 
 recent cases, which show the variety and extent of work, and 
 the readiness of resource, and the hard labour, sometimes 
 
 13 
 
194 Life- Boat Services. 
 
 necessary before the oars can be put into the water, or the 
 sail hoisted. 
 
 The first case is on an Irish station, the boatmen of the 
 Sister Island not being deficient in the qualities most required 
 in the service. 
 
 I. At Ballywalter, County Down. — A messenger having 
 brought information at 1.30 p.m. on the 6th February, 1883, 
 that a vessel was ashore on the north end of the Long Rock, the 
 crew of the Admiral Henry Meynell Life-boat at once assembled, 
 and crowds of the villagers dragged the boat by road to the 
 scene of the wreck, much difficulty being experienced in 
 getting her to the shore, on account of there being two ditches 
 on the way. The boat was at last launched, but notwith- 
 standing the noble exertions of her crew to battle with the 
 fierce gale blowing from the E.S.E., she was driven ashore 
 with great violence, three of her oars being broken. Owing 
 to the strength of the gale and the violence of the surf great 
 difficulty was experienced in saving the boat. After renewed 
 exertions, however, she was again launched at 3 a.m., and 
 succeeded in rescuing the crew of the vessel, consisting of six 
 men, who had been all night in the rigging. The vessel was 
 the brig Euphemia Fiillertoiiy of Londonderry, bound to that 
 port from Maryport with a cargo of coal. She became a total 
 wreck. 
 
 II. At Holy Island, Northumberland. — We are glad to meet 
 with the honoured name of Grace Darling, more than one boat 
 being called after her on the coast where she gained her renown. 
 The ketch Mary Tweedie, of Berwick, was seen running before 
 the wind, under bare poles, at 3 p.m., on the 6th March, 1883, 
 during a fearful gale of wind from N. to N.E. and a very heavy 
 sea, the whole bar and the sea as far as the eye could reach 
 being one mass of broken water. The No. i Life-boat, Grace 
 Darling, was launched, and was more than three hours in 
 reaching the vessel. The crew pulled bravely until almost 
 exhausted ; but every time they seemed to be near enough to 
 throw a line on board, a huge wave washed them about a 
 
Life- Boat Services. 195 
 
 hundred yards astern. This was repeated ten or twelve times 
 before the Hfe-boat men were able to get a rope fast to the 
 vessel, after which they took two men into the boat, by means 
 of the life-buoy, in a very exhausted and numbed condition. 
 One of the crew had received a blow on the head from a falling 
 spar, and had died soon afterwards. 
 
 III. The next rescue is on the coast of North Wales. On the 
 morning of the 30th March, 1883, it was reported that a barque 
 was ashore on Cymeran Beach, with all hands in the fore 
 rigging, the vessel having sunk, and her mainmast having 
 been carried away during a heavy S.S.W. gale. The Rhosnei- 
 gir Life-boat went to her assistance, but being disabled by the 
 breaking of several rowing crutches, was compelled to return to 
 the shore, one of the boat's crew being also washed overboard 
 by a heavy sea, and rescued with some difficulty. The Holy- 
 head Life-boat was then launched, and at about 1 1 o'clock was 
 taken in tow by the s.s. George Eliot to the N.W. of the South 
 Stack. Here the life- boat was cast off, and proceeded under 
 canvas until about 12.30, when she fell in with the steam-tug 
 Challenger^ by which she was towed in the direction of the 
 stranded vessel. Owing, however, to the heavy sea, the tug 
 could not go within a mile of the wreck, and the life-boat, 
 being obliged to continue her course under oars, made three 
 fruitless attempts to reach the vessel, owing to the broken 
 water and the heavy surf. As the wind was rising, and there 
 was no place to breach the boat, it was obliged to return to 
 Holyhead. Other unsuccessful attempts to reach the vessel 
 were subsequently made by the Rhosneigir Life-boat, but they 
 failed, and endeavours to rescue the shipwrecked men by 
 means of the rocket apparatus also proved unavailing. As 
 the Rhosneigir men were reported to be exhausted by their 
 exertions, it was suggested that the Holyhead crew should 
 proceed to Rhosneigir and try to get to the vessel in that 
 life-boat. An application was accordingly made to the rail- 
 way authorities for a special engine, which was at once granted,, 
 and the Holyhead crew were thus conveyed to the spot nearest: 
 
196 Life- Boat Services, 
 
 to the wreck. It was now quite dark, and the men had 
 scarcely any knowledge of the position of hidden rocks on that 
 coast, but they nevertheless gallantly took the boat out, 
 succeeded in reaching the wrecked vessel, and in rescuing the 
 twenty men who were on board. 
 
 The Silver Medal of the Institution was presented to 
 Mr. T. Roberts, coxswain of the Holyhead Life-boat, and the 
 thanks of the Institution, inscribed on vellum, with an extra 
 pecuniary reward to each of his crew, in consideration of their 
 heroic exertions. 
 
 IV. At Seaton Carew, County Durham. — On the nth March, 
 
 1883, at about 8.30 p.m., during a violent gale from the N.E., 
 
 accompanied by thick snow-showers and a very heavy sea, 
 
 signals of distress were exhibited from the Long Scar Rocks 
 
 off this place. The Seaton Carew Life-boat was at once 
 
 launched, and proceeded in the direction indicated, but no trace 
 
 of any wreck could be found. Henry Hood, the coxswain of 
 
 the Life-boat, and one of the crew named John Franklin, then 
 
 determined to land on the reef and make a thorough search for 
 
 it, as it was impossible to take the Life-boat among the rocks 
 
 in the darkness. With much difficulty and danger, the sea 
 
 breaking heavily over them, and the coxswain on one occasion 
 
 being washed off the rocks, they at last discovered the wreck, 
 
 and being afterwards joined by another of the life-boat men, 
 
 Matthew Franklin, they, after many ineffectual attempts, 
 
 succeeded in throwing the heaving line over the stern. Just 
 
 as this was accomplished, Hood heard a voice, and seeing some 
 
 dark object in the surf, he rushed into the sea, and, with the 
 
 aid of his companions, rescued a man, who proved to be the 
 
 mate of the vessel, in a most exhausted condition. They then 
 
 hailed the wreck, and the remaining four men, by means of 
 
 the communicating line, were got on to the rocks. The 
 
 rescuers and the rescued now made for the life-boat ; after a 
 
 perilous journey across the rocks, which were being swept by 
 
 the sea, they at last reached it, and pulled for the shore, which 
 
 was made in safety about half an hour after midnight. The 
 
Life- Boat Services. 197 
 
 wrecked vessel was the schooner Atlas, of Drammen, bound 
 thence to Sunderland. She broke up very soon after the crew 
 had been rescued. 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen subsequently conferred the decora- 
 tion of the Albert Medal of the Second Class on Henry Hood, 
 in recognition of his most gallant conduct on this occasion, and 
 the Institution also awarded its Silver Medal to him, and to 
 the two Franklins. 
 
 v. We give one other case, which shows the labour often 
 necessary in reaching the scene of action. On Sunday, the 
 25th November, 1883, intelligence was received that a large 
 foreign barque was riding at her anchors off Beachy Head 
 Lighthouse, in a very dangerous position, with a signal of 
 distress flying. With as little delay as possible, the crew of 
 the Williain and Mary Life-boat were mustered, and the boat, 
 mounted on its transporting carriage, started for Birling Gap, 
 drawn by seven horses. The route taken was through Meads, 
 where three additional horses were procured, and with this 
 extra power, she speedily mounted the hill, and crossed the 
 downs to Birling Gap, a distance altogether of five miles. 
 There the boat was obliged to be taken off her carriage, as the 
 Gap had to be widened to admit even of the passage of the 
 boat, and the incline was very sharp. The lower part of the 
 Gap had been washed away by the sea, but this difficulty was 
 overcome by using some long pieces of timber which were 
 fortunately on the spot. Under the superintendence of the 
 coxswain, the boat was by great exertions got safely down to 
 the beach, and was launched at 1.15. The wind was blowing 
 a gale from the S.S.W\, and a tremendous sea was rolling in. 
 At about 2 o'clock, after a very hard struggle against the head 
 sea, the midship oars being double-banked, the vessel was 
 reached ; she was then opposite the Gap, about a mile from 
 shore, labouring heavily in the seas with two anchors down, 
 sails torn, and spars carried away. A storm of rain then came 
 on, and the vessel and life-boat were hidden from the view 
 of the spectators who lined the cliffs. After a period of 
 
198 Wreck of the ''Indian Chiefs 
 
 suspense, the life-boat was seen making for the shore, and in 
 gallant style she took the beach almost close to the spot from 
 whence she had started, and landed the rescued crew of eleven 
 men. The life-boat had anchored as close as possible to the 
 vessel, and the crew were then hauled into her. The poor 
 fellows, who were in a very exhausted state, one of them 
 having sustained a fracture of the ribs, were taken to the 
 Coastguard Station, where they received every attention from 
 the Chief Officer and the Coastguardmen. The life-boat was 
 got up the Gap with considerable difficulty, and arrived back 
 at her station about 7.30. The distressed vessel was the 
 barque New Brunswick^ of Brevig, 480 tons, bound from Quebec 
 to West Hartlepool with a cargo of timber. 
 
 WRECK OF THE '' INDIAN CHIEF," AND GALLANT RESCUE-SERVICES 
 OF THE RAMSGATE LIFE-BOAT, THE '* BRADFORD." 
 
 In the Life-Boat Journal for February 1881, we find a full 
 report of the wreck of the Indian Chief, and of the rescue of the 
 survivors of the crew by the Ramsgate Life-boat, the Bradford. 
 This report seems to have been chiefly gathered from the mate 
 of the wrecked ship, and from the coxswain of the Life-boat, by 
 the correspondent of the Daily Telegraphy who visited the place 
 soon after the events narrated. It is not the first time that the 
 gallant services of the Ramsgate boatmen have been con- 
 spicuous. Their station is one of the most important on all 
 our coasts, and the wreck-chart shows how often help is 
 needed in that region of the northern seas. In a letter from 
 Mr. Braine, the harbour-master, special testimony is borne to 
 their services on the present occasion. He says : — 
 
 '' Of all the meritorious services performed by the Ramsgate 
 tug and life-boat, I consider this one of the best. The 
 decision the coxswain and crew arrived at to remain till day- 
 light, which was in eftect to continue for fourteen hours cruising 
 about with the sea continually breaking over them in a heavy 
 gale and tremendous sea, proves, I consider, their gallantry and 
 determination to do their duty. 
 
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Wreck of tjie ''Indian Chief r 199 
 
 " The coxswain and crew of the life-boat speak in the highest 
 terms of her good qualities ; they state that when sailing across 
 the ' Long Sand/ after leaving the wreck, the seas were 
 tremendous, and the boat behaved most admirably. Some of 
 the shipwrecked crew have since stated that they were fearful, 
 on seeing the frightful-looking seas they were passing through, 
 that they were in more danger in the life-boat than when 
 lashed to the mast of their sunken ship, as they thought it 
 impossible for any boat to live through such a sea." 
 
 It was during the night of the 5th January, 1881, that the tid- 
 ings reached Ramsgate that a large ship had gone ashore on the 
 Long Sand. From Aldborough, in Suffolk, from Clacton and 
 from Harwich in Essex, where signals or messages had also 
 reached, the life-boats put off to the scene of danger, but none 
 of these succeeded in reaching the wreck. Happily the 
 Bradford ho2it, of Ramsgate, persevered amidst difficulties, hard- 
 ships, and dangers, rarely surpassed in the service, and had 
 the reward of saving eleven of the crew, who were nearly 
 perishing, after exposure for nearly thirty hours, in bitterly 
 cold weather. The following is the account given by Mr. W, 
 Meldrum Lloyd, the second officer of the ship. The captain 
 and sixteen of the crew perished that night. 
 
 THE mate's account. 
 
 Our ship was the Indian Chief, of 1,238 tons register; our 
 skipper's name was Fraser, and we were bound, with a 
 general cargo, to Yokohama, in Japan. There were twenty- 
 nine souls on board, counting the North-country pilot. We 
 were four days out from Middlesborough, but it had been thick 
 weather ever since the afternoon of the Sunday on which we 
 sailed. All had gone well with us, however, so far, and 
 on Wednesday morning, at half-past two, we made the Knock 
 Light. The water is here just a network of shoals ; for to the 
 southward lies the Knock, and close over against it stretches 
 the Long Sand, and beyond, down to the westward, is the Sunk 
 Sand. 
 
200 Wi^eck of the '' Indian Chief.'' 
 
 Shortly after the Knock Light had hove in sight, the wind 
 shifted to the eastward and brought a squall of rain. We 
 were under all plain sail at the time, with the exception of 
 the royals, which were furled, and the mainsail that hung in 
 the buntlines. The Long Sand was to leeward, and finding 
 that we were drifting that way the order was given to put the 
 ship about. It was very dark, the wind breezing up sharper 
 and sharper, and cold as death. The helm was put down, but 
 the main braces fouled, and before they could be cleared the 
 vessel had missed stays and was in irons. We then went to 
 work to wear the ship, but there was much confusion, the 
 vessel heeling over, and all of us knew that the Sands 
 were close aboard. The ship paid off, but at a critical 
 moment, the spanker-boom sheet fouled the wheel ; still, we 
 managed to get the vessel round, but scarcely were the braces 
 belayed and the ship on the starboard tack, when she struck 
 the ground broadside on. She was a soft-wood built ship, and 
 she trembled, as though she would go to pieces at once like a 
 pack of cards. Sheets and halliards were let go, but no man 
 durst venture aloft. Every moment threatened to bring the 
 spars crushing about us, and the thundering and beating of the 
 canvas made the masts buckle and jump like fishing-rods. 
 
 We then kindled a great flare and sent up rockets, and our 
 signals were answered by the Sunk Lightship and the Knock. We 
 could see one another's faces in the light of the big blaze, and 
 sung out cheerily to keep our hearts up; and, indeed, although 
 we all knew that our ship was hard and fast and likely to leave 
 her bones on that sand, we none of us reckoned upon dying. 
 The sky had cleared, the easterly wind made the stars sharp 
 and bright, and it was comforting to watch the lightships' 
 rockets rushing up and bursting into smoke and sparks over 
 our heads, for they made us see that our position was known, 
 and they were as good as an assurance that help would come 
 along soon, and that we need not lose heart. But all this 
 while the wind was gradually sweeping up into a gale — and 
 oh, the bitter cold of that wind ! 
 
Wreck of the ''Indian Chief!' 201 
 
 It seemed as long as a month before the morning broke, and 
 [just before the grey grew broad in the sky, one of the men 
 yelled out something, and then came sprawling and splashing 
 aft to tell us that he had caught sight of the sail of a life-boat 
 dodging among the heavy seas. It was not a life-boat, but a 
 fishing-smack, which after vain efforts to come near us, probably 
 took the news to Harwich. She was a good distance away, 
 and she stood on and off, on and off, never coming closer, and 
 evidently shirking the huge seas which were now boiling 
 around us. At last she hauled her sheet aft, put her helm 
 over, and went away. One of our crew groaned, but no other 
 man uttered a sound, and we returned to the shelter of the 
 deckhouses. 
 
 Though the gale was not at its height when the sun rose, it 
 was not far from it. We plucked up spirits again when the 
 sun shot out of the raging sea, but as we lay broadside on to 
 the waves, the sheets of flying water soon made the sloping 
 decks a dangerous place for a man to stand on, and the crew 
 and officers kept the shelter of the deck-cabins, though the 
 captain and his brother and I were constantly going out to see 
 if any help was coming. But now the flood was making, and 
 this was a fresh and fearful danger, as we all knew, for at 
 sunrise the water had been too low to knock the ship out of 
 her sandy bed, but as the tide rose it lifted the vessel, bumping 
 and straining her frightfully. The pilot advised the skipper to 
 let go the starboard anchor, hoping that the set of the tide 
 would slue the ship's stern round, and make her lie head on 
 to the seas ; so the anchor was dropped, but it did not alter the 
 position of the ship. 
 
 To know what the cracking and straining of that vessel was 
 like, as bit by bit she slowly went to pieces, you must have 
 been aboard of her. When she broke her back a sort of panic 
 seized many of us, and the captain roared out to the men to 
 get the boats over, and see if any use could be made of them. 
 Three boats were launched, but the second boat, with two 
 hands in her, went adrift, and was instantly engulphed, and 
 
202 Wreck of the ''Indian Chiefs 
 
 the poor fellows in her vanished just as you might blow out a 
 light. The other boats filled as soon as they touched the water. 
 There was no help for us in that way, and again we withdrew 
 to the cabins. A little before five o'clock in the afternoon a 
 huge sea swept over the vessel, clearing the decks fore and 
 aft, and leaving little but the uprights of the deck-houses 
 standing. It was a dreadful sea, but we knew worse was 
 behind it, and that we must climb the rigging if we wanted to 
 prolong our lives. The hold was already full of water, and 
 portions of the deck had been blown out, so that everywhere 
 great yawning gulfs met the eye, with the black water washing 
 almost flush. Some of the men made for the fore-rigging, but 
 the captain shouted to all hands to take to the mizenmast, as 
 that one, in his opinion, was the securest. A number of the 
 men who were scrambling forward returned on hearing the 
 captain sing out, but the rest held on and gained the foretop. 
 Seventeen of us got over the mizentop, and with our knives 
 fell to hacking away at such running gear as we could come at 
 to serve as lashings. None of us touched the mainmast, for 
 we all knew, now the ship had broken her back, that that spar 
 was doomed, and the reason why the captain had called to the 
 men to come aft was because he was afraid that when the 
 mainmast went it would drag the foremast, that rocked in its 
 step with every move, with it. 
 
 I was next the captain in the mizentop, and near him was 
 his brother, a stout-built, handsome young fellow, twenty-two 
 years old, as fine a specimen of the English sailor as ever I 
 was shipmate with. He was calling about him cheerfully, 
 bidding us not to be down-hearted, and telling us to look sharply 
 around for the life-boats. He helped several of the benumbed 
 men to lash themselves, saying encouraging things to them as 
 he made them fast. As the sun sank the wind grew more 
 freezing, and I saw the strength of some of the men leaving 
 them fast. The captain shook hands with me, and, on the 
 chance of my being saved, gave me some messages to take 
 home. He likewise handed me his watch and chain, and I put 
 
Wreck of the * Indian Chief r 203 
 
 them in my pocket. The canvas streamed in ribbons from the 
 yards, and the noise was like a continuous roll of thunder 
 overhead. It was dreadful to look down and watch the decks 
 ripping up, and notice how every sea that rolled over the 
 wreck left less of her than it found. 
 
 The moon went quickly away — ^it was a young moon with 
 
 little power — but the white water and the starlight kept the 
 
 night from being black, and the frame of the vessel stood out 
 
 like a sketch done in ink every time the dark seas ran clear of 
 
 her and left her visible upon the foam. There was no talking, 
 
 no calling to one another; the men hung in the topmast rigging 
 
 like corpses, and I noticed the second mate to windward of his 
 
 brother in the top, sheltering him, as best he could, poor 
 
 fellow, with his body from the wind that went through our 
 
 skins like showers of arrows. On a sudden I took it into my 
 
 head to fancy that the mizenmast wasn't so secure as the 
 
 foremast. It came into my mind like a fright, and I called to 
 
 the captain that I meant to make for the foretop. I don't 
 
 know whether he heard me or whether he made any answer. 
 
 Maybe it was a sort of craze of mine for the moment, but I was 
 
 wild with eagerness to leave that mast as soon as ever I began 
 
 to fear for it. I cast my lashings adrift and gave a look at the 
 
 deck, and saw that I must not go that way if I did not want to 
 
 be drowned. So I climbed into the crosstrees, and swung 
 
 myself on to the stay, so reaching the maintop, and then 1 
 
 scrambled on to the main topmast crosstrees, and went hand over 
 
 hand down the topmast stay into the foretop. Had I reflected 
 
 before I left the mizentop, I should not have believed that I 
 
 had the strength to work my way for'rards like that ; my 
 
 hands felt as if they were skinned and my finger-joints 
 
 appeared to have no use in them. There were nine or ten 
 
 men in the foretop, all lashed and huddled together. The 
 
 mast rocked sharply, and the throbbing of it to the blowing of 
 
 the great tatters of canvas was a horrible sensation. 
 
 • From time to time they sent up rockets from the Sunk 
 
 lightship — once every hour, I think — but we had long since 
 
204 Wreck of the ^'Indian Chief!' 
 
 ceased to notice those signals. There was not a man but 
 thought his time was come, and, though death seemed terrible 
 when I looked down upon the boiling waters below, yet the 
 anguish of the cold almost killed the craving for life. It was 
 now about three o'clock on Thursday morning ; the air was 
 full of the strange, dim light of the foam and the stars, and I 
 could very plainly see the black swarm of men in the top and 
 rigging of the mizenmast. I was looking that way, when a 
 great sea fell upon the hull of the ship with a fearful crash ; a 
 moment after, the mainmast went. It fell quickly, and, as it 
 fell, it bore down the mizenmast. There was a horrible noise 
 of splintering wood and some piercing cries, and then another 
 great sea swept over the after-deck, and we who were in the 
 foretop looked and saw the stumps of the two masts sticking 
 up from the bottom of the hold, the mizenmast slanting over 
 the bulwarks into the water, and the men lashed to it drowning. 
 There never was a more 'shocking sight, and the wonder is 
 that some of us who saw it did not go raving mad. The 
 foremast still stood, complete to the royal mast and all the 
 yards across, but every instant I expected to find myself 
 hurling through the air. By this time the ship was completely 
 gutted, the upper part of her a mere frame of ribs, and the gale 
 still blew furiously ; indeed, I gave up hope when the mizen- 
 mast fell, and I saw my shipmates drowning on it. 
 
 It was half an hour after this that a man, who was jammed 
 close against me, pointed out into the darkness and cried in a 
 wild hoarse voice, '' Isn't that a steamer's light ? " I looked, 
 but what with grief and suffering and cold, I was nearly 
 blinded and could see nothing. But presently another man 
 called out that he could see a light, and this was echoed by yet 
 another ; so I told them to keep their eyes upon it and watch 
 if it moved. They said b3'-and-by that it was stationary; and 
 though we could not guess that it meant anything good for 
 us, yet this light heaving in sight and our talking of it gave 
 us some comfort. When the dawn broke we saw the smoke 
 of a steamer, and agreed it was her light we had seen ; but I 
 
Wreck of the ''Indian Chief'' 205 
 
 made nothing of that smoke, and was looking heart-brokenly 
 at the mizenmast and the cluster of drowned men washing 
 about it, when a loud cry made me turn my head, and then I 
 saw a life-boat under a reefed foresail heading direct for us. 
 It was a sight, sir, to make one crazy with joy, and it put the 
 strength of ten men into every one of us. A man named 
 Gillmore stood up and waved a long strip of canvas. But I 
 believe they had seen there were living men aboard us before 
 that signal was made. 
 
 The boat had to cross the broken water to fetch us, and in 
 my agony of mind I cried out, " She'll never face it ! She'll 
 leave us when she sees that water ! " for the sea was frightful all 
 to windward of the Sand and over it, a tremendous play of 
 broken waters, raging one with another, and making the whole 
 surface resemble a boiling cauldron. Yet they never swerved 
 a hair's breadth. Oh, sir, she was a noble boat ! We could 
 see her crew — twelve of them — sitting on the thwarts, all 
 looking our way, motionless as carved figures, and there was 
 not a stir among them as, in an instant, the boat leapt from 
 the crest of a towering sea right into the monstrous broken 
 tumble. The peril of these men, who were risking their lives 
 for ours, made us forget our own situation. Over and over 
 again the boat was buried, but as regularly did she emerge, 
 with her crew fixedly looking our way, and their oilskins and 
 the light-coloured side of the boat sparkling in the sunshine, 
 while the coxswain, leaning forward from the helm, watched 
 our ship with a face of iron. By this time we knew that this 
 boat was here to save us, and that she would save us, and, 
 with wildly beating hearts, we unlashed ourselves, and dropped 
 over the top into the rigging. We were all sailors, yow see, 
 and knew what the life-boat men wanted, and what was to 
 be done. Swift as thought we had bent a number of ropes' 
 ends together, and securing a piece of wood to this line, threw 
 it overboard, and let it drift to the boat. It was seized, a 
 hawser made fast, and we dragged the great rope on board. 
 By means of this hawser the life-boat men hauled their craft 
 
2o6 Wreck of the '' Indian Chief r 
 
 under our quarter, clear of the raffle. But there was no such 
 rush made for her as might be thought. No ! I owe it to my 
 shipmates to say this. Two of them shinned out upon the 
 mizenmast to the body of the second mate, that was lashed 
 eight or nine feet away over the side, and got him into the 
 boat before they entered it themselves. I heard the coxswain 
 of the boat — Charles Fish by name, the fittest man in the 
 world for that berth and this work — cry out, " Take that poor 
 fellow in there ! " and he pointed to the body of the captain, 
 who was lashed in the top with his arms over the mast, and 
 his head erect and his eyes wide open. But one of our crew 
 called out, " He's been dead four hours, sir," and then the rest 
 of us scrambled into the boat, looking away from the dreadful 
 group of drowned men that lay in a cluster round the prostrate 
 mast. The second mate was still alive, but a maniac; it 
 was heartbreaking to hear his broken, feeble cries for 
 his brother, but he lay quiet after a bit, and died in half 
 an hour, though we chafed his feet and poured rum into 
 his mouth, and did what men in our miserable plight could 
 for a fellow-sufferer. Nor were we out of danger yet, for 
 the broken water was enough to turn a man's hair grey to 
 look at. It was a fearful sea for us men to find ourselves in 
 the midst of, after having looked at it from a great height, and 
 I felt at the beginning almost as though I should have been 
 safer on the wreck than in that boat. Never could I have 
 believed that so small a vessel could meet such a sea and live. 
 Yet she rose like a duck to the great roaring waves which 
 followed her, draining every drop of water from her bottom 
 as she was hove up, and falling with terrible suddenness into 
 a hollow, only to bound like a living thing to the summit of 
 the next gigantic crest. 
 
 When I looked at the life-boat's crew and thought of our 
 situation a short while since, and our safety now, and how to 
 rescue us these great-hearted men had imperilled their own 
 lives, I was unmanned ; I could not thank them, I could not 
 trust myself to speak. They told us they had left Ramsgate 
 
Wreck of the " Indian Chiefs 207 
 
 larbour early on the preceding afternoon, and had fetched the 
 i^nock at dusk, and not seeing our wreck had lain to in that 
 raging sea, suffering almost as severely as ourselves, all through 
 the piercing tempestuous night. What do you think of such 
 a service, sir ? How can such devoted heroism be written of, 
 so that every man who can read shall know how great and 
 beautiful it is ? Our own sufferings came to us as a part of 
 our calling as seamen. But theirs was bravely courted and 
 endured for the sake of their fellow-creatures. Believe me, 
 sir, it was a splendid piece of service ; nothing grander in its 
 way was ever done before, even by Englishmen. I am a plain 
 seaman, and can say no more about it all than this. But 
 when I think of what must have come to us eleven men before 
 another hour had passed, if the life-boat crew had not run 
 down to us, I feel like a little child, sir, and my heart grows 
 too full for my eyes. 
 
 The facts of the foregoing statement were no doubt given in 
 detail by the mate, but the narrative owes much of its graphic 
 power to the newspaper writer, from whose report of the work 
 done by the life-boat we add some extracts : 
 
 Two days had elapsed (continues the writer in the Daily 
 Telegraph) since the rescue of the survivors of the crew of the 
 Indian Chief, and I was gazing with much interest at the 
 victorious life-boat as she lay motionless upon the water of 
 the harbour. It was a very calm day, the sea stretching from 
 the pier-sides as smooth as a piece of green silk, and growing 
 vague in the wintry haze of the horizon, while the white cliffs 
 were brilliant with the silver sunshine. It filled the mind 
 with strange and moving thoughts to look at that sleeping 
 life-boat, with her image as sharp as a coloured photograph 
 shining in the clear water under her, and then reflect upon the 
 furious conflict she had been concerned in only two nights 
 before, the freight of half-drowned men that had loaded her, 
 the dead body on her thwart, the bitter cold of the howling 
 gale, the deadly peril that had attended every heave of the 
 
2o8 Wreck of the " Indian Chiefs 
 
 huge black seas. Within a few hundred yards of her lay the 
 tug, the sturdy steamer that had towed her to the Long Sand, 
 that had held her astern all night, and brought her back safe 
 on the following afternoon. The tug had suffered much from 
 the frightful tossing she had received, and her injuries had not 
 yet been dealt with ; she had lost her sponsons, her starboard 
 side-house was gone, the port side of her bridge had been 
 started, and the iron railing warped, her decks still seemed 
 dank from the remorseless washing, her funnel was browned 
 with rust, and the tough craft looked a hundred years old. 
 Remembering what these vessels had gone through, how they 
 had but two days since topped a long series of merciful and 
 dangerous errands by as brilliant an act of heroism and 
 humanity as any on record, it was difficult to behold them 
 without a quickened pulse. I recalled the coming ashore of 
 their crews, the life- boatmen with their great cork jackets around 
 them, the steamer's men in streaming oilskins, the faces of 
 many of them livid with the cold, their eyes dim with the 
 bitter vigil they had kept, and the furious blowing of the spray ; 
 and I remembered the bright smile that here and there lighted 
 up the weary faces, as first one and then another caught sight 
 of a wife or a sister in the crowd waiting to greet and accom- 
 pany the brave hearts to the warmth of their humble homes. 
 I felt that while these crews' sufferings and the courage and 
 resolution they had shown remained unwritten, only half of a 
 very stirring and manful story had been recorded. The 
 narrative by the coxswain of the life-boat, Charles Fish, is 
 given with great detail in the same number of the Life-Boat 
 Journal, but we have space only for the concluding para- 
 graphs. 
 
 We lay to all night, despite the bitter cold and fierce seas, 
 that we might be at hand when the dawn would show where 
 she was. The morning had only just broke, and the light was 
 grey and dim, and down in the west it still seemed to be 
 night ; the air was full of spray, and scarcely were we a-top 
 of a sea than we were rushing like an arrow into the hollow 
 
Wreck of the ^'Indian Chief,'' 209 
 
 again, when young Tom Cooper bawled out, " There she is ! " 
 pointing with his hand. The moment he sung out and pointed, 
 all hands cried out, " There she is ! " But what was it, sir ? 
 Only a mast about three miles off — just one single mast sticking 
 ap out of the white water. Yet that was the ship we had been 
 waiting all night to see. There she was, and my heart thumped 
 in my ears the moment my eye fell on that mast. '' Up fore- 
 sail," I shouted, and two minutes after we had sighted that 
 mast we were dead before the wind, our storm foresail taut 
 as a drum-skin, our boat's stem heading full for the broken 
 seas and the lonely stranded vessel in the midst of them. It 
 was well that there was something in front of us to keep our 
 eyes that way, and that none of us thought of looking astern, or 
 the sight of the high and frightful seas which raged after us 
 might have unnerved the stoutest hearts. Some of them 
 came with such force that they leapt right over the boat, and 
 the air was dark with water flying a dozen yards high over us 
 in broad solid sheets, which fell with a roar. But we took no 
 notice of these seas even when we were in the thick of the 
 broken waters, and all the hands holding on to the thwarts for 
 dear life. Every thought was upon the mast that was growing 
 bigger and clearer, and sometimes when a sea hove us high we 
 could just see the hull, with the water as white as milk flying 
 over it. The mast was what they called '* bright," that is 
 scraped and varnished, and we knew that if there was anything 
 living aboard that doomed ship we should find it on that mast ; 
 and we strained our eyes with all our might, but could see 
 nothing that looked like a man. 
 
 But on a sudden I caught sight of a length of canvas stream- 
 ing out of the top, and all of us seeing it we raised a shout, and 
 a few minutes after we saw the men. They were all dressed in 
 yellow oilskins, and the mast being of that colour was the reason 
 why we did not see them sooner. They looked a whole mob of 
 people, and one of us roared out, " All hands are there, men ! " 
 and I answered, " Aye, the whole ship's company, and we'll 
 have them all ! " for though, as we afterwards knew, there were 
 
 14 
 
 
2IO Wreck of the ''Indian Chiefs 
 
 only eleven of them, yet, as I have said, they looked a great 
 number huddled together in that top, and I made sure the whole 
 ship's company w^ere there. By this time we were pretty close 
 to the ship, and a fearful wreck she looked, with her mainmast 
 and mizenmast gone, and her bulwarks washed away, and 
 great lumps of timber and planking ripping out of her and going 
 overboard with every pour of the seas. We let go our anchor 
 fifteen fathoms to windward of her, and as we did so we saw 
 the poor fellows unlashing themselves and dropping one by one 
 over the top into the lee rigging. As we veered out cable and 
 drove down under her stern, I shouted to the men on the wreck 
 to bend a piece of wood on to a line and throw it overboard for 
 us to lay hold of. They did this, but they had to get aft first, 
 and I feared for the poor half-perished creatures again and 
 again as I saw them scrambling along the lee rail, stopping and 
 holding on as the mountainous seas swept over the hull, and 
 then creeping a bit further aft in the pause. There was a 
 horrible muddle of spars and torn canvas and rigging under 
 her lee, but we could not guess what a fearful sight was there 
 until our hawser having been made fast to the wreck, we had 
 hauled the life-boat close under her quarter. There looked to be 
 a whole score of dead bodies knocking about among the spars. 
 It stunned me for a moment, for I had thought all hands were 
 in the foretop, and never dreamt of so many lives having been 
 lost. Seventeen were drowned, and there they were, most of 
 them, and the body of the captain lashed to the head of the 
 mizenmast, so as to look as if he were leaning over it, his head 
 stiff upright and his eyes watching us, and the stir of the seas 
 made him appear to be struggling to get to us. I thought he 
 was alive, and cried to the men to hand him in, but someone 
 said he was killed when the mizenmast fell, and had been dead 
 four or five hours. 
 
 Well, sir, the rest of this lamentable story has been told by 
 the mate of the vessel, and I don't know that I could add any- 
 thing to it. We saved the eleven men, and I have since heard 
 that all of them are doing well. If I may speak, as coxswain 
 
The Talking Wood Chip, 211 
 
 of the life-boat, I would like to say that all hands concerned in 
 this rescue, them in the tug as well as the crew of the boat, did 
 what might be expected of English sailors — for such they are, 
 whether you call some of them boatmen or not ; and I know in 
 my heart, and say it without fear, that from the hour of leaving 
 Ramsgate Harbour to the moment when we sighted the wreck's 
 mast, there was only one thought in all of us, and that was that 
 the Almighty would give us the strength and direct us how to 
 save the lives of the poor fellows to whose assistance we had 
 been sent. 
 
 THE TALKING WOOD CHIP. 
 
 AN INCIDENT OF EARLY MISSIONARY DAYS IN RAROTONGA. 
 
 AMONG the islands of the Pacific Ocean there is no one 
 which has been more wonderfully transformed, by the 
 influence of Christian missions, than Rarotonga, in the Hervey 
 Island group. This group was formerly called Cook's Islands, 
 having been first brought to notice by the great navigator, who 
 arrived at the adjoining island of Mangaia in March 1777. 
 Rarotonga was not known till long afterwards, and the first 
 missionary who planted the gospel there was John Williams, 
 " the martyr of Erromango." 
 
 We have heard much of these Hervey Islands in recent 
 times from the letters and books of the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, 
 one of the most accomplished as well as devoted of the many 
 noble missionaries who have spent their lives in spreading 
 peace and true happiness in these distant isles of the sea. 
 In the Hervey group, pagan idolatry, with all its horrible 
 crimec and cruelties, has long ceased to exist. The savage is 
 now completely civilized. The bulk of the population read the 
 word of God intelligently in their own tongue. A large 
 number are members of churches, the young are taught in 
 schools, and the natives help, by their industry and trade, to 
 
2 12 The Talking Wood Chip. 
 
 send the gospel to islands less favoured. Such is the result of 
 the good work of which the Rev. John Williams was the pioneer. 
 From the ''Narrative of a Missionary Enterprise in the South 
 Sea Islands," the book in which Williams first published a 
 record of his work in connection with the London Missionary 
 Society, we give a description of some of his early experiences 
 in Rarotonga. After a period of absence, native teachers 
 having been left in charge of the converts, he returned to visit 
 the station. 
 
 We found, he says, the teachers and people just about to aban- 
 don the old settlement, a new one having been formed on the 
 eastern side of the island. As the Thursday after our arrival 
 was the day appointed for the removal, we determined not to 
 interfere with this or any other arrangement, until, by a more 
 accurate acquaintance with the affairs of the station, we should 
 be enabled to take the arrangement of the Mission into our 
 own hands. On Wednesday afternoon we attended service, 
 when one of the teachers addressed the assembly ; after which, 
 the multitude gave us a welcome by a hearty shake of the 
 hand. As there were between two and three thousand of 
 them, and they considering that the sincerity of their affection 
 was to be expressed by the severity of the squeeze, and the 
 violence of the shake, we were not sorry when the ceremony 
 was over, for our arms ached severely for hours after. Early 
 the following morning, with nearly the whole of the inhabitants 
 of the island, we proceeded to the new station, to which we 
 found but little difficulty in getting our things conveyed, as 
 every person was desirous of carrying some part of our, 
 property. One took the tea-kettle, another the frying-pan 
 some obtained a box, others a bedpost ; even the chief himseljj 
 felt honoured in rendering assistance, and during the journe)i| 
 he ceased not to manifest his admiration of the devices printedj 
 upon the articles of earthenware with which he was entrustedj 
 and to exhibit them to the crowd that surrounded him. 
 
 A heavy fall of rain had rendered the ordinary road unfitj 
 for travelling, or otherwise the walk would have been delight- 
 
The Talking Wood Chip, 213 
 
 ful ; but as the kind people conveyed goods, wives and children, 
 upon their Herculean shoulders, all delighted with their 
 occupation, the journey was by no means unpleasant. 
 
 On our arrival, we found that the teachers had very 
 comfortable houses, one of which they most cheerfully gave 
 up to us. A day or two afterwards, they requested us to take 
 our seat outside the door ; and on doing so, we observed a 
 large concourse of people coming towards us, bearing heavy 
 burdens. They walked in procession, and dropped at our 
 feet fourteen immense idols, the smallest of which was about 
 five yards in length. Each of these was composed of a piece 
 of aito, or iron wood, about four inches in diameter, carved 
 with rude imitations of the human head at one end, and with 
 an obscene figure at the other, wrapped round with native 
 cloth, until it became two or three yards in circumference. 
 Near the wood were red feathers, and a string of small pieces 
 of polished pearl shells, which were said to be the manava, or 
 soul of the god. Some of these idols were torn to pieces before 
 our eyes ; others were reserved to decorate the rafters of the 
 chapel we proposed to erect ; and one was kept to be sent to 
 England, which'is now in the Missionary Museum. It is not, 
 however, so respectable in appearance as when in its own 
 country ; for the Custom House officers in London, fearing lest 
 the god should be made a vehicle for defrauding the revenue, 
 very unceremoniously took it to pieces ; and not being so well 
 skilled in making gods as in protecting the revenue, they have 
 not made it so handsome as when it was an object of veneration 
 to the deluded Rarotongans. An idol was placed upon the fore 
 part of every fishing canoe ; and when the natives were going 
 on a fishing excursion, prior to setting oft', they invariably 
 presented offerings to the god, and invoked him to grant 
 them success. Surely professing Christians may learn a lesson 
 from this practice. Here we see pagans of the lowest order 
 imploring the blessing of their gods upon their ordinary occupa- 
 tions, — a lesson to Christians to do likewise. 
 
 On the following Sabbath, a congregation of about four thou- 
 
214 ^^^^ Talking Wood CJup. 
 
 sand assembled; but as the house was a temporary building, and 
 would not accommodate half the people, they took their seats 
 outside. This induced us to determine to erect immediately a 
 place of worship. With this view the chiefs and people were 
 convened, and arrangements made for commencing the 
 building ; and so great was the diligence with which the people 
 laboured, that although ill supplied with tools, the house was 
 thoroughly completed in two months. It was one hundred 
 and fifty feet in length, and sixty wide ; well plastered, and 
 fitted up throughout with seats. It had six large folding-doors. 
 The front windows were made in imitation of sashes, whilst 
 those in the back resembled Venetian blinds. It was a large, 
 respectable, and substantial building ; and the whole was 
 completed without a single nail, or any iron-work whatever. 
 It will accommodate nearly three thousand persons. 
 
 In the erection of this chapel, a circumstance occurred 
 which will give a striking idea of the feelings of an untaught 
 people, when observing for the first time the effects of written 
 communications. As I had come to the work one morning 
 without my square, I took up a chip, and with a piece of 
 charcoal wrote upon it a request that Mrs. Williams would send 
 me that article. I called a chief who was superintending his 
 portion of the work, and said to him, '' Friend, take this ; go 
 to our house, and give it to Mrs. Williams." He was a singular- 
 looking man, remarkably quick in his movements, and had 
 been a great warrior : but, in one of the numerous battles he 
 had fought, had lost an eye, and giving me an inexpressible 
 look with the other, he said, *' Take that ! she will call me a 
 fool and scold me, if I carry a chip to her." " No," I replied, 
 *' she will not, take it, and go immediately ; I am in haste." 
 Perceiving me to be in earnest, he took it, and asked, " What 
 must I say ? " I replied, " You have nothing to say, the chip 
 will say all I wish." With a look of astonishment and con- 
 tempt, he held up the piece of wood, and said, " How can 
 this speak ? Has this a mouth ? " I desired him to take it 
 immediately, and not spend so much time in talking about it. 
 
Eustache, the Negro Slave, 215 
 
 >n arriving at the house, he gave the chip to Mrs. Williams, 
 [who read it, threw it down, and went to the tool-chest ; 
 [whither the chief, resolving to see the result of this mysterious 
 )roceeding, followed her closely. On receiving the square 
 [from her, he said, '' Stay, daughter, how do you know that 
 [this is what Mr. Williams wants ?" *' Why," she replied, " did 
 [you not bring me a chip just now ?" "Yes," said the astonished 
 Iwarrior, '' but I did not hear it say anything." " If you did 
 'not, I did," was the reply, " for it made known to me what 
 he wanted, and all you have to do is to return with it as 
 quickly as possible." With this the chief leaped out of the 
 house ; and catching up the mysterious piece of wood, he ran 
 through the settlement with the chip in one hand and the 
 square in the other, holding them up as high as his arms would 
 reach, and shouting as he went, " See the wisdom of these 
 English people ; they can make chips talk ! They can make 
 chips talk ! " On giving me the square, he wished to know 
 how it was possible thus to converse with persons at a dis- 
 tance. I gave him all the explanation in my power; but 
 it was a circumstance involved in so much mystery, that he 
 actually tied a string to the chip, hung it round his neck, and 
 wore it for some time. During several following days, we fre- 
 quently saw him surrounded by a crowd, who were listening 
 with intense interest while he narrated the wonders which this 
 chip had performed. 
 
 EUSTACHE, THE NEGRO SLAVE. 
 
 EUSTACHE was born in the year 1778, on the estate of 
 M. Belin de Villeneuve, a planter in the northern dis- 
 trict of the island of St. Domingo, now known as the Republic 
 of Hayti. During his childhood he seemed indifferent to the 
 society of the young negroes, and eagerly sought that of the 
 whites. This did not proceed from any servility of disposition, 
 
2i6 Eustache, the Negro Slave. 
 
 but evidently from the desire to avail himself of the advantage 
 to be gained from intercourse with those above him in intelli- 
 gence. His shrewdness and integrity induced his master to 
 place him in the service of the overseers employed in the 
 sugar-house, where he conducted himself in so unexceptionable 
 a manner, that never was it found necessary to inflict even the 
 slightest punishment on him ; and while he gained the regards 
 of his master by his good behaviour, he also contrived to 
 acquire daily that influence which is the result of superior 
 intelligence over the negroes of his own, as well as the 
 adjoining plantations. 
 
 During the time M. Belin was travelling in Europe, symptoms 
 of revolution began to be exhibited in St. Domingo. Eustache 
 was at this time about nineteen years old, and then did he 
 commence that course of noble disinterestedness which became 
 a habit with him through life. Even at this early period of his 
 life, the negroes who had revolted possessed such unbounded 
 confidence in him, as to reveal to him their projects, and admit 
 him into all their councils. He made a point of turning to good 
 account the information he thus received, and by his address 
 on one occasion, saved the lives of four hundred whites from 
 being massacred by his infuriated countrymen. 
 
 About this time of tumult, M. Belin returned to St. Domingo. 
 His faithful negro received him with joy, and advised him to 
 take up his abode for safety near the sugar-work, where he 
 had taken the precaution of providing provisions, at his own 
 cost, with the knowledge of those blacks in whom he could 
 repose confidence. Thus through the fidelity of Eustache, his 
 master enjoyed a security and comfort unknown to the other 
 proprietors in those troubled times. 
 
 At length a favourable occasion seemed to offer of obtaining 
 deliverance from these dangers. An American vessel touched 
 at the neighbouring coast, and after a consultation with his 
 master, Eustache lost no time in agreeing with the captain to 
 receive M. Belin on board during night. Another preliminary 
 required to be settled : none of his master's property could at 
 
Eustache, tlie Negro Slave, 217 
 
 the moment be converted into money, and he could not leave 
 home a beggar. Here the ingenuity of his faithful slave sup- 
 plied a remedy for the evil : he collected the negroes of the 
 estate, and appealed in the most feeling manner to their 
 humanity ; he succeeded beyond expectation, and, out of five 
 hundred who were present, three hundred and sixty-five agreed 
 to contribute a supply of white sugar : so that in a short time 
 M. Belin was owner of a good cargo. While tears of gratitude 
 flowed down the master's cheek, and he in vain tried to express 
 his gratitude, his faithful friend declared that the only return 
 he asked was permission to accompany him, and to share, if he 
 could not alleviate, the sorrows that might await him. 
 
 The plan seemed to prosper ; but, alas ! they had scarcely 
 been two days on board, when their vessel was seized by 
 English privateers. How shall we describe the anguish of 
 Eustache, — his master a prisoner, and deprived of all the re- 
 sources it had cost him so much trouble to collect ! But his 
 motto seemed to be, " Never Despair." Difficulty seemed but to 
 call forth his energies the more. Happily for him, he was a pro- 
 ficient in cookery, and it occurred to him, that he might turn 
 this to account in gaining the good graces of the captains of the 
 vessels. He succeeded beyond his expectation. Every day he 
 produced some new dish, which seemed more relished than the 
 last ; and by-and-by he became such a favourite that they were 
 almost disposed to prolong their voyage, so much did they enjoy 
 feasting on the good things provided by the skilful Eustache. 
 
 They went on thus for some time, when an opportunity 
 occurred too favourable not to be embraced for effecting their 
 escape. It was agreed betwixt the American captain and 
 Eustache, that an attempt should be made to regain their liberty 
 by seizing the privateering ships, which were not strongly 
 manned. Accordingly, one afternoon when they had feasted 
 and drank in abundance, and were probably drinking Eustache's 
 health, with three times three, the signal for a general move- 
 ment on the part of the American seamen was made. The 
 brave Eustache was foremost in the fray; he attacked them 
 
2i8 Eustache, the Negro Slave, 
 
 sword in hand. The captain also distinguished himself by his 
 valour. Little resistance was made ; and in a short time the 
 English sailors were overpowered and made prisoners. The 
 captain resumed the command of his own vessel, proceeded to 
 Baltimore, his original place of destination, carrying along with 
 him the ships which they had so gallantly captured. 
 
 Here M. Belin and his deliverer found many of the wretched 
 inhabitants of St. Domingo, who had formerly been in opulent 
 circumstances, reduced to the utmost necessity. The wit- 
 nessing such scenes by the benevolent slave, took away from 
 the pleasure he would otherwise have enjoyed in the improved 
 situation of his master. The sugar had been sold to advantage, 
 and the proceeds were a little fortune to them. Eustache 
 engaged in a little commercial undertaking for the benefit of 
 the necessitous friends of his master ; and never did a day pass 
 over his head in which the little produce of his labours did not 
 help to relieve the sorrows of the poor and destitute. 
 
 The state of St. Domingo seemed to become more tranquil, 
 and the fugitives ventured home. Scarcely, however, had they 
 arrived, when a new insurrection arose, and a massacre of five 
 hundred whites took place at one time. M. Belin was of the 
 number of those who barely escaped with their lives ; he was 
 separated from his friend, and owed his safety to the protection 
 of a Spanish captain, who happened to recognise him. Eustache 
 anxiously sought his master, but without success; he continued 
 to hope that Providence would some time throw them together ; 
 and in the meantime, in order to secure his trunks and a 
 valuable chest of silver plate, he gave them into the custody of 
 the wife of Jean Francois, a negro who stood high in the esteem 
 of his companion. After placing the goods in safety, he went 
 to the scene of carnage, and made a search for his beloved 
 master's body, trembling lest he should discover him among the 
 slain. He soon after learned at the Spanish fort, that M. Belin 
 had been seen embarking in a sloop for the Mole of St. Nicholas, 
 then occupied by the English. He determined immediately to 
 rejoin him ; but made the disagreeable discovery that the lady 
 
Euslache, the Negro Slave. 219 
 
 to whom M. Belin's effects had been consigned was rather in- 
 disposed to part with them. Here a new exercise of ingenuity 
 was requisite : he engaged himself as a sick nurse during an 
 illness she had, waited on her for some time with the utmost 
 assiduity, and one night, when she was sound asleep, assisted 
 by some friendly negroes, he succeeded in carrying off what 
 now constituted all his master's worldly wealth. 
 
 The arrival of Eustache at the Mole was celebrated like a fete. 
 M. Belin had spread the report of his heroic devotedness ; and 
 such was the public estimation in which he was held, that he 
 was borne into the town as the hero of a triumphal procession, 
 in honour of his noble and disinterested conduct. 
 
 M. Belin soon after went to Port-au-Prince, where he was 
 appointed president of the privy council. Here Eustache, 
 restored to domestic life, engaged himself in providing a 
 mansion suited to his master's new dignity ; and little was that 
 master aware that the luxuries and comforts he enjoyed in such 
 profusion were the fruits of Eustache's daily labour. His free- 
 dom was at this time bestowed on him ; but in this case freedom 
 and slavery were but names ; he remained the same faithful 
 servant as ever. 
 
 Some time after, M. Belin was afflicted with sleeplessness 
 and weakness of the eyes ; and he one day incidentally ex- 
 pressed a regret that Eustache had not been taught to read in 
 his youth, as it would have been an agreeable way of beguiling 
 the time to have him to read aloud occasionally. Without 
 saying a word to his master, he immediately went and hired 
 an instructor ; and, to prevent his lessons interfering with his 
 other duties, he fixed four in the morning as his hour for study. 
 Three months after, he approached his master with a news- 
 paper in his hand, and, to his surprise and delight, began to 
 read with the utmost fluency. What a remarkable instance of 
 willingness and perseverance, and at the same time, of that 
 delicate attention to the wishes of another, which one would 
 think the refinement of woman alone could have suggested ! 
 
 By a change in the government of St. Domingo, M. Belin had 
 
220 Bust ache, the Negro Slave. 
 
 his property once more restored to him. The arrival of General 
 Leclerc, however, again excited the indignation of the blacks, 
 and a scene of tumult ensued, when Eustache once more saved 
 the life of his master. He had by this time become blind 
 and very feeble, and the care of his faithful domestic could not 
 ward off the stroke of the last enemy. He expired in the arms 
 of one who had shown to him more than a father or a brother's 
 love. 
 
 That M. Belin was not unmindful of his fidelity and regard, 
 he proved, by leaving his property, in money as well as move- 
 ables, to his most faithful friend. 
 
 Though deeply afflicted, the benevolent mind of Eustache 
 did not allow him to sink into that state of inactivity which 
 sometimes follows intense grief. He found comfort in the 
 performance of acts of charity to his fellow-men. To some he 
 gave liberally of his money, to others he dispensed clothes and 
 other necessaries. Was money required to send a poor for- 
 saken infant out to nurse ; was a soldier disappointed of his 
 pay ? in short, was there any exercise of liberality requisite ; 
 only let it be made known to Eustache, and his heart and his 
 purse were opened, with a readiness that showed how much 
 more blessed he thought it was to give than to receive. He at 
 length so impoverished himself, that he found it necessary to 
 engage himself in the service of General Rochambeau, whom he 
 accompanied to England, and afterwards to France. We need 
 not be apprehensive of lessening the admiration of our readers, 
 by following out the history of Eustache to the day ofhis death. 
 
 From this period not a day passed unmarked by some act of 
 humanity. It was justly remarked by a friend, that to him 
 the exercise of benevolence was as natural as it was to others 
 to inhale the air they breathed. One instance, among many, 
 we quote. 
 
 He learned that a young female who had recently come 
 from the country, had been deprived of her husband by death, 
 and left totally unprovided for with four helpless children. 
 He immediately went in search of her, clothed and fed her 
 
The Monty on Prize of Virtue. 221 
 
 children, placed the oldest in a respectable apprenticeship at 
 his own expense, — not forgetting to provide for him the tools 
 necessary for practising his trade. Some time after, he had 
 the reward of seeing that child grow up an active tradesman, 
 and in the way of providing for the remainder of the family. 
 On another occasion, being aware that an old friend of his 
 master's had fallen into sickness and poverty, and that his 
 master was unable to give the assistance his inclination would 
 have suggested, he secretly devoted for a twelvemonth all the 
 money he gained to the relief of this object of his solicitude. 
 He delicately let it be understood that the charity bestowed 
 was from his master ; and it was not till the poor man came 
 to express his gratitude to his benefactor that the disclosure 
 was made, that that benefactor was no other than Eustache. 
 
 Eustache died 15th March, 1835, at the age of sixty-two. 
 Had he lived in a country where virtue is as highly esteemed 
 as genius or valour, a monument would have honoured his name. 
 
 In 1832 the French Academy had bestowed on him the 
 first " Montyon Prize " for virtuous conduct. Never was that 
 honourable distinction more worthily bestowed, although 
 many a noble and generous life has been made known by this 
 award, of which our next article gives some account. 
 
 THE MONTYON PRIZE OF VIRTUE. 
 
 THERE is published every year by the French Academy, 
 that select and illustrious body to which the greatest 
 men in science and literature aspire to belong, a programme 
 of prizes, of which they are the trustees and awarders. Some 
 of these prizes are for discoveries in science, or improvements 
 in arts and manufactures ; others for distinguished works in 
 history or poetry, and various results of intellectual power and 
 genius. But there are also some prizes for the encouragement 
 of moral excellence, and among these the best known is tha 
 
222 The Monty on Prize of Virtue, 
 
 called the Montyon Prize, given either in one award, or divided 
 among several recipients, for virtuous conduct. There are 
 some other prizes of a similar kind, but this is so conspicuous 
 above all, that it is always spoken of as the Prix de Vertu, 
 What was its origin ? and what are the deeds thus crowned 
 with reward and honour ? 
 
 Before the great Revolution, there lived in Paris a lawyer, 
 named M. Montyon, about whom little is known except that he 
 was wealthy and beneficent. Much was heard in those days 
 about ''the rights of man"; this good citizen often told his 
 friends that they ought to hear more about the duties of man. 
 One of the first of these duties was to help the helpless, to 
 relieve the destitute, to encourage charity, and good deeds. 
 He thought that one way of promoting this true fraternity 
 would be to award public prizes for acts of virtue and kindness, 
 wherever they were found. Some remarkable cases were 
 made known, but before long the storms of the revolutionary 
 epoch broke out, followed by the military despotism of Napoleon, 
 and the peaceful proposal of M. Montyon was neglected and 
 forgotten. 
 
 After the fall of Napoleon, and the restoration of peace to 
 France, M. Montyon, who had emigrated and lived in exile, 
 returned to France. He resumed his work as a solicitor, and 
 anonymously — so retiring and modest was he in his beneficence 
 — he sent money to revive and enlarge the fund for the Prix (ie 
 Vertu, which he had founded thirty years before. It does not 
 appear that the donor was publicly known, but after his death, 
 in 1820, he bequeathed four sums often thousand francs each, 
 for these four good objects; a prize for the book adjudged by 
 the Academy to be most beneficial to morals ; a prize for the 
 greatest improvement in the healing art, medical or surgical ; 
 a prize for the discovery of lessening the danger or unhealthi- 
 ness of any art or trade; and lastly, a prize for the most virtuous 
 action ; and this is the world-famed Prize of Virtue. 
 
 I have before me the official rules and conditions for this 
 prize,, and they show clearly the sorts of action to be recognized, 
 
The Monty on Prize of Virhte, 223 
 
 and also the conscientious care in carrying out the worthy 
 founder's good object. I ought to have said that before his 
 death we find him bearing the title of Baron de Montyon, so 
 that some one capable of judging, had discovered and honoured 
 his character and merit. Well, the rules require that an account, 
 in full detail, must be sent, signed by the Prefet, or Maire, or 
 other responsible public functionary, and attested by neighbours 
 and others in good position to witness the deeds reported to 
 the Academy. These reports may come from any part of the 
 French dominion ; and one useful regulation is that the life of 
 the candidate must have been known for at least two years 
 previously. This excludes any award for sudden or single 
 acts of courage, for which other rewards are always ready to 
 be given, and shows that the Montyon award is intended rather 
 for the encouragement of " patient continuance in well-doing," 
 a much higher and more difficult virtue than a daring act which 
 may be the result only of momentary impulse. The word 
 *' candidate " was used, but the cases are not competitive ; in 
 most of them the recipients are utterly unconscious of their 
 deeds being observed, and are often greatly surprised when 
 they hear of the awards. 
 
 On the day of the prize or prizes being given, the receiver 
 appears either in person, or by proxy, and one of the members 
 of the Academy delivers a discourse on virtue in general, and 
 on the particular good deed or good conduct now to be specially 
 recognised. All this seems to us rather '^ French " in idea and 
 in style, and most of the English folk who might be worthy of 
 such distinction would prefer letting their virtue "blush unseen," 
 and not be blazoned by an eloquent Academician. However, it 
 is " the way " in France, and the published reports or eloges 
 of the Montyon orators form a most interesting and instructive 
 record of noble and generous deeds, of which we have told 
 one in the story of the Haytian negro Eustache ; of a few others 
 we give merely a brief mention. 
 
 Some of the instances have very little romance in them, so 
 far as narrative goes, yet imply long and unwearying service 
 
224 l^he Monty on Prize of Virtue, 
 
 made light by love. Such are histories of children toiling to 
 support aged or disabled parents ; nurses devoting themselves 
 to the unpaid tending of the sick and suffering ; a daughter 
 who accompanied her mother to prison, and was allowed to 
 remain with her ; a young labourer who gave the earnings of 
 years, to purchase the release of a conscript, the sorrow of 
 whose mother he could not bear to witness ; a young lady who 
 refused a splendid offer of marriage, because she preferred 
 being wedded to the poor among whom she toiled ; a young 
 graduate who surrendered his prospects, and went to a 
 provincial town to take employment as a porter, in order to 
 secure support for his parents suddenly reduced to poverty ; 
 and many such instances of humble devotion and self-denial. 
 
 *' Unromantic," we said, but sometimes a gleam of romance 
 meets us, as when we read of Alexandre Martin, the servant 
 of the Marquis d'Aubespine, the descendant and representative 
 of the great statesman, the Due de Sully. After some genera- 
 tions the name of Sully became extinct in the male line, but 
 a daughter of the family had carried the property and the 
 ancestral domains to the house of Aubespine. At the time of 
 the Revolution, the then marquis had to sell the castle of 
 Villebon, and all that remained of the property of the great 
 Sully. Out of the price he could only save enough to purchase 
 for himself a life annuity of six thousand francs, another of two 
 thousand fouir hundred francs for his son, and another of four 
 hundred francs, for his faithful attendant, Martin, who had 
 served him for thirty-five years. Soon after, the old Marquis 
 died, and being in debt, the creditors, we do not know how, 
 but unjustly as it seems to us, seized the annuity not only 
 of the old man, but of his son and of Alexandre Martin. No 
 redress could be obtained, and Martin went back to his native 
 village, Champond-en-Gatinais, and worked as a carpenter, 
 having learned the trade at the expense of the Marquis, before 
 becoming his servant. 
 
 One day, in June 1830, his old master's son, the Count 
 d'Aubespine, came to Martin's cottage, with his three children. 
 
TJie Monty on Pinze of Virtue. 225 
 
 He told him that they had been left motherless ; that he had 
 lost all his property, and was leaving France for a time ; and 
 that he knew no one whom he could entrust with the care of 
 his children, except Martin. Nothing was said about paying 
 their expenses, and probably Martin guessed at once that the 
 Count had no means of paying. Yet he hesitated not a 
 moment, and gladly undertook the charge, for the sake of his 
 old master, although he had three children of his own to 
 provide for. 
 
 Martin's eldest daughter was able to earn a trifling sum, 
 when not required for looking after the younger children, and 
 his wife also gained a little by going out to work. His own 
 earnings averaged only about thirty sous a day, and the whole 
 household had to live on less than sixty sous a day. Never- 
 theless the Count's children were well cared for, and were 
 treated with the utmost respect and consideration. They were 
 served as if they were well-paying lodgers, the family living in 
 the most frugal way, that the guests might feel no want. They 
 ate brown bread that the little Aubespines might always have 
 white, and old clothes had to be worn threadbare that they 
 might be well clad. Something was even paid to the village 
 cure for their education. The father never sent an}'^ money, 
 nor indeed was he ever heard of, till news came of his death, 
 six years after. The tidings became known in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and inquiries began to be made about the guests in 
 the carpenter's home. Some ladies at Chartres then offered to 
 take charge of the two girls, and Martin's wife, with much 
 regret, allowed them to go, well pleased that they would now 
 be brought up as ladies, as the descendants of Sully ought to 
 be. The third child, a son, was sent to a charitable foundation 
 endowed by his great ancestor, and then, as Miss Yonge saj-s, 
 who tells the story in her book of " Golden Deeds " (Macmillan), 
 '' thus, the only portion of the wealth of Sully that ever reached 
 his own descendants, was that which had been laid up in the 
 true treasure house of Charity." 
 
 After a time, the rumour of what had been done reached 
 
 15 
 
226 The Monty 071 Prize of Vh'tue, 
 
 Paris, and came to the ears of the King, Louis Philippe, by 
 whom a presentation was given for young Aubespine to the 
 College of Henri IV., for completing his education. What 
 his subsequent career was I do not know, but what concerns 
 us now is that he was present, along with his generous bene- 
 factor, Alexandre Martin, at the annual meeting of the French 
 Academy in 1838, when the Montyon prizes were awarded. 
 The customary discourse was delivered by M. Salvandi, part 
 of which deserves to be recorded : ^' Martin, your task is 
 accomplished, you have deserved well of your country and of 
 all good men. You have shown our age, what is too seldom 
 seen, an example of gratitude, fidelity, honour. The Academy 
 awards to your virtue the prize of 3,000 francs. And you, 
 Louis d'Aubespine, as you are present at this solemn 
 ceremony, may it make a deep and lasting impression on 
 your young heart. You are entering life, as persons are 
 sometimes forced to appear at maturer age, with all eyes 
 upon you. Learn that the first of earthly blessings is to be 
 honoured by one's country, and pray to God, who has watched 
 over your infancy, to enable you to use that blessing that 
 depends on our own efforts, and that no event can rob us of. 
 One day you will be told that illustrious blood flows in your 
 veins, but never forget that you must trace your line as far 
 back as to the great Sully, before you can find a name 
 worthy to stand beside that of Alexandre Martin. Grow up 
 then to show yourself worthy of the memory of your ancestor, 
 the devotion of your benefactor, and the patronage of the king." 
 Many similar cases of gratitude, fidelity, and exertion, on the 
 part of servants and dependents, appear in the records of the 
 Montyon awards. There is one in which a woman-servant 
 named Rose Pasquer, at Nantes, entirely supported her master 
 and mistress, who were reduced to penury by the loss of their 
 West Indian estates. She had been eighty years in the service 
 of the same family, and she was herself in her hundredth year 
 when she received a prize, in 1856. Another woman, Madeleine 
 Blanchet, had saved her mistress at the hazard of her own life 
 
The Monty on Prize of Virtue, 227 
 
 during a time of revolutionary riot, and rescued some of the 
 property from the plunderers. This was at Buzancais, in the 
 Department Indre-et-Loire. When order was restored, and 
 the rioters were tried for their atrocities, Madeleine was called 
 as a witness. She told what she had seen, but said nothing 
 as to the part she had taken. The judge said that witnesses 
 had described her as covering her mistress with her own body, 
 and being heard to declare that they should kill her before 
 they injured her mistress. Was this true ? '* Yes, sir," she 
 replied, and without appearing as if she had done any- 
 thing out of the way. " If," said the President of the Court, 
 after hearing all the evidence, " if there had been only twenty 
 men in Buzancais with the heart of that woman, none of the 
 disasters we deplore would have taken place." She received 
 a gold medal, and an extra reward of 5,000 francs for her 
 courage and devotion. 
 
 Another poor woman, the wife ot Jacqnemin, a water-carrier 
 in Paris, who had to support three children, one of them 
 dumb and infirm, interested herself in seeking relief for a poor 
 woman, reduced from better circumstances. In seeking help 
 for her, the curate of the parish learned the poverty of this 
 petitioner on behalf of others. He gave her ten francs, mean- 
 ing it for herself, but with tears of gratitude she said, " Oh, how 
 happy this will make Madam Petrel ! " The worthy curate 
 was the more interested by this incident, so expressive of 
 charitable feeling. He inquired, and learned all the details of 
 the poor water-carrier's self-denial and labour. He got friends 
 to provide for the poor widow Petrel, and made known the 
 circumstances of the Jacqnemins, and the mother received a 
 Montyon award. 
 
 The cases last mentioned are those of women, and it is per- 
 haps only what we might expect, that the majority of those 
 rewarded should be of the gentler sex. In thirty-five years 
 the proportion of those receiving prizes, including lesser awards, 
 was 565 women to 211 men. As one of the orators said in 
 announcing this fact, ''Such is the role of the sexes respectively; 
 
2 28 Remarkable Escape from 
 
 we make the laws, they form the manners and character. 
 Continnez a f aire les loiSy Messieurs, laissez les femmes faire les 
 'inceursT Although the examples cited have been chiefly those 
 of the virtuous poor, the prizes are not restricted to huinble 
 life, nor to any class of the community. Some men of good 
 social position have been as proud to receive the honour, as 
 the poorest recipients have been grateful for the money. The 
 prize has been also awarded to persons of all creeds and 
 callings — to Roman Catholic sisters of mercy, for instance, and 
 to the venerated Jean Bost, the founder and patient admini- 
 strator of the Asylums of La Force, which are still superintended 
 by members of his family. 
 
 Amidst all the future political or social changes of France, 
 long may the French Academy continue its honourable and 
 useful services, among which few have greater interest for us 
 than the administration of the Montyon Prizes. 
 
 REMARKABLE ESCAPE FROM THE MASSACRE AT 
 
 CAWNPORE. 
 
 ON a previous page (see p. 52) will be found a brief 
 account of the origin of the Indian Mutiny. One of 
 the most fearful episodes of that revolt of the Sepoy Army was 
 the massacre of the English garrison and residents at Cawn- 
 pore. The details of that scene of carnage are given in the 
 histories of the time, and can be read only with pain and 
 horror. The following narrative of a wonderful escape is 
 from the pen of Lieutenant Thompson, one of the very few 
 survivors of that tragic event : 
 
 We had plenty of warning, he says, of what was to happen 
 at our station, by the example that was set to our troops by 
 those that were stationed at Meerut and Delhi. At Cawnpore 
 we had the 2nd Light Cavalry, the ist Regiment N.L, the 53rc| 
 
the Massacre at Cawnpore. iig 
 
 Regiment N.I., and the 56th N.I. The European part of the 
 garrison consisted of the invalid depot of H.M.'s 32nd Regi- 
 ment, in all about 80 men, about 50 men of the Queen's 84th, 15 
 men of the ist Fusiliers, and a company of European Artillery, 
 59 men ; total, 204 fighting men. There were also a great 
 many private individuals, such as civil engineers, tradesmen, 
 writers in offices, etc. ; in all, together with the soldiers, about 
 300 men. The ladies, women, and children, I am afraid to 
 mention — certainly not less than 450. 
 
 It must have been about the 15th of May that rumours first 
 began to spread that the 2nd Cavalry were ripe for mutiny, 
 but this their officers declared was absurd, and if any one 
 hinted at the idea of their mutinying they were quite offended. 
 Things went on in this state until the 20th, when a fire broke 
 out in the ist lines; then the guns belonging to the artillery 
 were sent down to the barracks occupied by the sick of the 
 32nd Foot, which was the site fized upon for our position. 
 There we were to make our stand if attacked by the rebels. 
 A worse position could not have been chosen, as on the north- 
 west side of the building there were several houses which quite 
 commanded the wretched trenches which were thrown up 
 around the barracks. You can imagine the consistency of the 
 earthwork when I tell you it was hardly bullet-proof. In the 
 next place, one of the barracks was thatched ; but of course 
 the rebels would not set fire to it ! The magazine, alas ! was 
 hardly given a thought to ; everybody said there was nothing 
 in it. So the magazine was left alone. 
 
 To make matters worse, the Nana Sahib about this time 
 came into Cawnpore, and offered our collector his assistance in 
 protecting the treasury, in case the troops should rise. His 
 offer was accepted ; so he sent 400 infantry, 200 cavalry, and 
 two small guns into Cawnpore for the treasury guard. Fancy 
 married men, when these preparations for defence were being 
 made, not sending their wives away to Calcutta out of danger ! 
 Many and many a time did I beg of the ladies I knew at all 
 intimately to go away ; but no, they said, " Why should we 
 
230 Remarkable Escape from 
 
 go ? The General keeps his family here ; surely there can be 
 no danger for us ! " Poor creatures, how little did they know 
 what was in store for them ! Provisions were laid in for a 
 month, in case the place should be invested. Still no one 
 thought of sending their families away. 
 
 Things went on in this unsettled way until the night of the 
 5 th, or rather the morning of the 6th of June, when the cavalry 
 went off towards the treasury, followed by the ist N.I. The 
 53rd and 56th both remained under arms until daylight, 
 when they were dismissed and sent to their lines. It was 
 supposed that these regiments were staunch ; but about nine 
 o'clock the 56th ran away, taking their colours with them, and 
 they were immediately followed by our regiment. All made 
 for the treasury, where they plundered nine lacs of rupees. 
 The Nana's forces, which had come to protect us, of course 
 never drew a sword in our favour. The regular troops, after 
 getting all the money they could, were setting off for Delhi, 
 and had actually gone some distance on the road, when 
 they were sent for by the Nana, and told the}^ had much 
 better come back and murder the Feringhees, which could be 
 very easily accomplished, as the magazine was well furnished 
 with guns of all calibre, and ammunition enough to last for 
 a twelvemonth. You see he knew better what was in our 
 magazine than we did. 
 
 When the troops consented to return, the Nana sent a letter 
 to the General to say he intended to attack his position the 
 next morning (the 7th of June), and, true to his word, he 
 commenced the attack by opening a 9-pounder gun on us. 
 This was the beginning of a cannonade which lasted for 
 twenty-two days, the equal to which I suppose is hardly 
 known in history ; for we had pounding into us fourteen guns 
 — viz., three 24-pounders, two i8-pounders, two 6-pounders, 
 and seven 9-pounders. These, together with some 3,000 
 infantry, kept up an incessant fire all day, and at night they 
 had three mortars playing on us, which very eftectually kept 
 us from getting rest. 
 
the Massacre at Cawnpore. 231 
 
 How thankful I was when once their firing commenced that 
 I had no relations in the entrenchments ! Then it was that 
 one heard husbands and fathers cursing their stupidity for not 
 sending away their families ; but of what avail was their only 
 now having their eyes opened to their folly ? It was too late. 
 Wives saw their husbands' bodies mutilated in the most 
 awful manner with round shot, and husbands saw their wives 
 suffering the most excruciating agonies from wounds which 
 they were unable to heal. Then there was the screaming of 
 children after their dead parents. Poor little things, how 
 it unnerved one to see them ! but at last one got accustomed 
 to the horrible scenes which were going on around, till at last 
 they hardly made any impression. 
 
 One scene I can never forget. A poor woman of the name 
 of White was walking along the trenches with her husband, 
 and nursing her children (twins) in her arms ; some fiend 
 fired at them, killed the man, and broke both the poor 
 woman's arms. The children fell to the ground, one of them 
 wounded. Then followed a scene which can only be imagined. 
 Fancy the poor woman throwing herself down beside her 
 children and not being able to assist them on account of the 
 wounds she had received ! Another woman, who was in a 
 wretched state, bordering on starvation, was seen to go out ot 
 the protection of the trenches with a child in each hand, and 
 stand where the fire was heaviest, hoping that some bullet 
 might relieve her and her little ones from the troubles they 
 were enduring. But she was brought back, poor thing, to die 
 a more tedious death than she had intended for herself. Here 
 you saw poor Mrs. W. hit by a ball in the face, passing through 
 the palate of the mouth ; and by her side you saw her daughter 
 who, although she was badly wounded in her shoulder, was 
 doing all she could to alleviate the sufferings of her unfortunate 
 mother. Poor creatures, they both died from their wounds ! 
 Then you saw an unfortunate native servant, who had 
 remained faithful to her mistress, and was nursing her infant 
 under the protection of the walls of the barrack, as she 
 
232 Reina7'kable Escape from 
 
 imagined ; but all of a siidden you saw her knocked over, and 
 the child hurled out of her arms, and on examination you 
 found both her legs cut clean off by a round shot, but the child 
 was picked up uninjured. Many other such horrid scenes could 
 I describe, but, judging from my own feelings on the subject 
 I know that I shall only be stirring up in the minds of those 
 who may see this letter a feeling for revenge which can never 
 be properly accomplished on the right objects of justice. 
 
 On the evening of the 9th of June the thatched barrack which 
 I mentioned above was set fire to by the rebels. No arrange- 
 ments had been made in anticipation of such an occurrence, so 
 those who were able to get into the trenches were saved from 
 the flames, but many a poor wounded man, who was unable to 
 move, was burnt alive. All the medicine chests and surgical 
 instruments were destroyed, so that all who were wounded or 
 fell sick after this date were unable to be attended to. 
 
 During the time that the barrack was burning, we all 
 expected the rebels to come down upon us, and if they had 
 had the courage of anything in them except that of an Asiatic, 
 they would certainly have made an attempt. But the wretches 
 had not the heart to come nearer than 200 yards from the 
 trenches. After this the cannonading continued, I must say, 
 without intermission, until the 23rd of June (anniversary of 
 the Battle of Plassey), committing frightful havoc amongst our 
 little but heroic garrison, but still they were willing to hold 
 out till the last, as they were told by General Wheeler that 
 relief must come. 
 
 On the 23rd of June the rebels showed in great force around 
 us, and made attempts on every quarter to get into our 
 entrenchments. But all their endeavours were useless, as 
 when the main body charged, a few were knocked over, and 
 this intimidated the rest, and back they went with greater 
 speed than they advanced. The rebel chieftain, finding he 
 could not dislodge us by fair means, thought it wiser to adopt 
 another plan, as I suppose he had heard some news of a force 
 leaving Allahabad for our relief Any way, he sent a woman, 
 
the Massacre at Cawnpore. 233 
 
 whom he had taken a prisoner, over to us with a letter to this 
 effect : — 
 
 "to the soldiers and subjects of her most gracious majesty 
 
 QUEEN victoria. 
 
 "All men who have in no way been connected with the Act of Lord 
 Dalhousie, and are willing to lay down their arms, shall have permission 
 and protection to proceed to Allahabad." 
 
 This artfully-worded letter, I am sorry to say, had its desired 
 effect, and a brave officer. Captain Moore, who had always 
 had the management and carrying out of any little enterprise 
 which was set on foot, such as the spiking of the enemy's 
 guns, or charging the rascals when they congregated in the 
 building near us — this man, who seemed to be the very life of 
 our garrison, was immediately for making a treaty with the 
 enemy. We all expected he would be the last to give in. 
 He did not know with whom he wished to treat. Poor fellow, 
 he had a wife in the trenches, and this must have biassed him 
 in a great measure. He saw that in making a treaty there 
 was some chance of escape for the women and children, but 
 unless relief came for us he knew we must give in at last, as 
 provisions were running short, and then I suppose he thought 
 something more awful would happen. Poor M. had not been 
 long in the country, or he would never have attempted to treat 
 with a native of India, especially a Mahratta. 
 
 General Wheeler, although not wishing to treat with the 
 Nana, told Captain M. that he might do what he thought 
 proper. Accordingly, a treaty was signed that very evening, 
 26th of June, 1857. The following were the conditions of the 
 treaty : — " That the garrison should give up their guns, 
 ammunition, and treasure ; should be allowed to carry their 
 muskets and sixty rounds of cartridges with them ; that the 
 Nana should provide carriages for the sick, wounded, women, 
 and children, to the river's bank, where boats should be in 
 readiness to convey all to Allahabad." This seemed to promise 
 a speedy release from our troubles ; but many an one seemed 
 to doubt the fulfilment of the same. A committee was sent 
 
234 Reinarkabce Escape fro7n 
 
 down to the boats to see all was in preparation for our 
 departure the following morning, and nothing was found 
 wanting. The morning broke and found everyone getting 
 ready for our departure. The carriages came down at sunrise 
 for our wounded, etc., etc. ; and, after making over all our 
 military stores, as agreed upon, we marched off for the boats. 
 We reached them in safety, and everybody who left the 
 trenches on the memorable morning of the 27th of June, 1857, 
 got on board safely. But immediately we began to shove oft 
 from the shore, at a given signal from the rebels, all our 
 boatmen deserted us, leaving fire in the thatches of the boats ; 
 the consequence was, they were all in a blaze very quickly. 
 The guns opened on us from the Cawnpore side of the river, 
 with a frightfully heavy fire of musketry. 
 
 1 must now come to the egotistical part of my narrative, 
 
 as it is impossible for me to describe what became of the rest 
 
 of our unfortunate garrison except those with whom I came 
 
 in personal contact. When the boat I first took shelter in was 
 
 fired, I jumped out with the rest into the water, and tried 
 
 to drag her off the sand-bank, but to no purpose ; so I 
 
 deserted her, and made across the river to the Oude side, 
 
 where I saw two of our boats. It was an awful swim that ! 
 
 Grape-shot and bullets came whizzing along the water after 
 
 my more unfortunate companions, several of whom I saw 
 
 perish close beside me ; but still I persevered in my object 
 
 to gain the boats, which at last I succeeded in doing. It was 
 
 a hard struggle, I can assure you, as I was rather heavily 
 
 clothed for so long a swim. How I thanked God for 
 
 having learned to swim ! I had on a regimental pair of 
 
 cloth trousers and a flannel shirt, so you can imagine the 
 
 weight of them when they got thoroughly saturated. When I 
 
 arrived at the boat I was so much exhausted that I was obliged 
 
 regularly to be pulled on board. 
 
 The two boats managed to keep together for about a mile 
 down the river, when a round shot went through the rearmost 
 one, and rendered it useless, so we took all her passengers on 
 
the Massacre at Cawnpore. 235 
 
 board our boat. [There were now in this boat more than 
 fifty persons, including women and children ; there were a 
 large number of officers.] With this boat-load we managed 
 to get ahead five or six miles down the river ; but as the 
 rebels continued to follow us on the Oude side, with two guns 
 and about 2,000 infantry and cavalry, who kept up an 
 incessant fire, you may suppose our numbers were 
 considerably thinned. The first day we lost Captain Moore, 
 Captain Ashe, Lieutenant-Colonel Wiggins, Lieutenants 
 Burney, Glanville, Satchwell, and Bassilico ; wounded. Major 
 Vibart, Captain A. Turner, Lieutenants Fagan, Mainwaring, 
 Master Henderson, and myself. I received a severe wound 
 on the head with a bullet. I was hit in two other places, 
 merely contusions, but still unpleasant. 
 
 We remained where the boat grounded until nightfall, 
 when we managed to get once more afloat, and, will you 
 believe it, the rascals followed us down the river with 
 torches and lighted arrows in their hands, doing all they could 
 to fire our boat, so we were obliged to throw overboard the 
 thatched covering we had to protect us from the sun and rain. 
 We sailed on after this for some hours in peace ; but when 
 we arrived at Nuzzuftghur, some distance down the Ganges, 
 we again got aground, and again fell in with the enemy, who 
 brought a gun to bear upon us, with which, through God's 
 mercy, they were unable to do us any harm. 
 
 Our numbers were again thinned by the musketry. As the 
 enemy came by mistake nearer to us than they intended, we 
 beat them off with severe loss on their side, and they returned 
 to Cawnpore to tell the Nana that they could do nothing with 
 us ; so the fiend sent two fresh companies of sepoys after us. 
 During the time we were aground at Nuzzuffghur we lost 
 Captain Whiting, Lieutenant Harrison, and several privates 
 killed. Captain A. Turner again wounded, Captain Seppings 
 and his poor wife, and Lieutenants Daniel and Quin wounded. 
 A tremendous storm coming on now freed us from this awful 
 position, and we floated down the river till dawn, when we 
 
236 * Remarkable Escape front 
 
 again stuck at a place called Soorajpore, and daylight revealed 
 our position. We were immediately attacked by the sepoys 
 belonging to a hostile zemindar ; so I was sent on shore with 
 Delafosse, a sergeant named O'Grad}'^, 84th Foot, and eleven 
 men, to beat off the rebels, whilst the rest of the survivors 
 endeavoured to get off the boat. On our part we succeeded 
 only too well ; we drove off the scoundrels until they sur- 
 rounded us on all sides, so we were obliged to try a retreat, 
 which we partially effected — that is to say, we took shelter in 
 a temple on the river bank, having only lost one of our 
 number, the poor sergeant, who was hit in the eye by a bullet. 
 I attempted to parley with the rascals, but was answered by 
 a shower of bullets. The rebels tried all in their power 
 to get us out of the temple ; they brought a small gun to bear 
 upon it, they tried to undermine the foundations, but all in 
 vain. We still remained in possession, and still continued 
 to knock them over, until at last they hit upon the idea of 
 burning us out. After heaping the brushwood before the 
 door (we could not help their doing this, as the temple was 
 round, and had only one entrance), it was lighted, and we 
 waited to see the result, and by God's blessing, the wind was 
 blowing from such a quarter that it did us no harm — not a 
 particle of smoke came inside. Again they piled the brush- 
 wood, and this time the}' threw powder into the fire, and the 
 smoke came in in volumes ; and, almost suffocated, we resolved, 
 when the fire consumed itself, to make one rush for the river. 
 We waited our time, and, with a regular British cheer, 
 out we went. Our enemies, although their numbers must 
 have been forty to one against us, ran in all directions. Six 
 of our poor fellows, who could not swim, charged home into 
 the crowd, and met the death they sought. The remaining 
 seven of us got into the river ; two more were shot before 
 they could make many strokes from the bank ; but Delafosse, 
 myself, privates Murphy, Sullivan, and Ryan, swam some 
 distance down the Ganges, followed all the time by the muti- 
 neers, who continued firing at us, when Ryan (I suppose from 
 
the Massacre at Cawnpore, 237 
 
 exhaustion), made for the shore, and was killed by three 
 ruffians who previously had offered to protect Delafosse and 
 Murphy, if they would give themselves up. But when their 
 offers were rejected, they made a rush at their intended 
 victims, but were baulked of their prey by the fugitives 
 diving. Murphy received a severe rap on his head from one 
 of their clubs. After this we swam on for some distance 
 undisturbed ; so we thought, the coast being clear, we would 
 take a rest. 
 
 I had hardly got into my depth, where I was sitting up to 
 my neck in water, when looking behind me, I saw three men, 
 armed, running along the shore, evidently making for us. I 
 gave the alarm, and we were all off into the stream in a 
 minute. When these natives came abreast of us they addressed 
 me in a very respectful manner, and begged I would entrust 
 myself to their charge, as they meant me no harm. Their 
 Rajah, they said, was friendly to our Government, and if we 
 would avail ourselves of his protection, he would send us 
 safely to Allahabad. From the moment they addressed 
 me I felt there was no treachery, so I went on shore, and 
 was kindly received. The others at first hesitated, but at last 
 yielded to my persuasion. These three men (sepoys in the 
 service of the Rajah) took us to their village, and gave us a 
 capital meal of dhal and chupatties, which we devoured most 
 eagerly, not having tasted food since we left Cawnpore. I 
 cannot understand how our strength was kept up after so long 
 a fast. We swam six miles down the river, which is a great 
 feat to accomplish at any time, but after a three days' fast it 
 really must sound very like an impossibility. Nevertheless, 
 it is true. Our party remained a month with the old Rajah, 
 and we were treated during our stay with all the kindness a 
 native could show. 
 
 The Nana sent down for us twice (according to the records 
 found at Cawnpore), but the Rajah refused to give us up, and 
 immediately sent us across the river to a friendly zemindar, 
 who supplied us with carriage for our trip to Allahabad, and 
 
238 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, 
 
 an escort of a few men. We had, however, only to travel a 
 few miles with this retinue, as we met a detachment of ours 
 on its road to Cawnpore, so we determined to retrace our 
 steps, and I joined General Havelock's force. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS. 
 
 THE destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by 
 the Romans, while one of the most memorable events 
 in the history of the world, has also a special interest as a 
 fulfilment of sacred prophecy. The woes predicted against 
 the doomed city and its inhabitants were terribly carried into 
 execution, and one of the Jewish nation has been the instru- 
 ment used to tell the tragic tale. Josephus, in his books of 
 the wars of the Jews, gives a detailed narrative of the siege 
 and capture of the city by the Roman General, Titus, in whose 
 camp and near whose presence he was during all the events 
 which he describes. From his pages has been compiled * 
 the following narrative. While we know that the '' accursed 
 nation " brought upon itself the terrible judgment of that 
 time, we cannot refrain from a feeling of admiration at the 
 courageous and determined resistance offered to the con- 
 quering Romans, and at the last efforts of Jewish patriotism. 
 
 When Titus had collected and arranged his forces, he pro- 
 ceeded to within three miles and three-quarters of the city, 
 where he encamped at a place called the Valley of Thorns. 
 Having selected six hundred choice horsemen he proceeded to 
 survey the city, with the hope that the Jews would surrender; 
 
 * "The Judgment of Jerusalem," by the Rev. D. Patton, of New York, 
 published by the Religious Tract Society, contains a complete view of 
 the events predicted in Scripture, and fulfilled in history in these times. 
 Many other books contain accounts of the siege, but all of them founded on 
 the history of Josephus. 
 
The Siege of Jerusalem by Tittcs. 239 
 
 for he had heard that the citizens were desirous of peace, being 
 sorely oppressed with the robbers. So long as he rode along 
 the straight road, which led to the wall of the city, nobody 
 appeared out of the gates ; but when he went out of that road, 
 and declined towards the tower of Psephinus, and led the band 
 of horsemen obliquely, an immense number of the Jews leaped 
 out suddenly through the gate, and intercepted his horse, 
 and cut him and a few others off from the main body of his 
 horsemen. By surprising personal courage he cut his way 
 through the masses ; and though several of his men were 
 killed, and many darts thrown at him, still, shielded by the 
 providence of God, he escaped unhurt, notwithstanding he had 
 on neither his headpiece nor his breastplate. 
 
 Titus now divided his army into three portions. He 
 stationed two legions in a fortified camp at the north, at a 
 place called Scopus, less than a mile from the city. The 
 fifth legion was stationed half a mile from them. The tenth 
 legion he stationed on the Mount of Olives, — on the east side, 
 about three-quarters of a mile from the city. 
 
 Seeing these determined preparations, the factions within 
 the city were now compelled to cease their strifes, and unite 
 for the common defence. They immediately put on their 
 armour, and ran out upon the tenth legion, who were fortifying 
 their camp, and fell upon them with eagerness. The Romans, 
 having laid aside their arms in order to perform their work, 
 were taken at disadvantage and in different parties, and were 
 consequently thrown into great confusion. The success of this 
 onset drew larger numbers from the city, who so pressed upon 
 the tenth legion that they were driven back. 
 
 Titus now ordered that the space between Scopus and the wall 
 of the city should be levelled. In four days they finished the 
 work, cutting down the hedges and the trees, filling up the hollow 
 places, and demolishing the rocky precipices, thus making a 
 level place suitable for an encampment. Titus .with the 
 strongest part of his army encamped over against the 
 wall on the north and western quarter, near the tower of 
 
240 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 
 
 Psephinus. Another portion fortified itself near the tower of 
 Hippicus ; whilst the tenth legion still continued on the Mount 
 of Olives. 
 
 Titus, in company with a few chosen men, made another 
 survey of the walls, to fix upon the points of attack. In the 
 valleys the walls were inaccessible for the engines. The first, 
 or old wall round Zion, appeared too strong to be shaken. 
 The place he finally fixed upon was where there was a gap, the 
 first fortification being lower than the second, and not joined 
 to it, the builders neglecting to build the wall strong where the 
 new city was not much inhabited. 
 
 Before making the attack he determined again to propose 
 terms of peace. In company with Josephus and Nicanor, he 
 approached near the wall. Instead of listening to proposals, 
 they hurled darts at the messengers, and severely wounded 
 Nicanor in his left shoulder. This so incensed Titus, that he 
 gave orders to set fire to the suburbs, also to bring forward 
 timber to raise the banks or platforms, and to set the engines 
 against the wall. This they did with great despatch, but not 
 without serious annoyance from the Jews, who made frequent 
 sallies both by night and by day, and did much injury to the 
 Romans. The banks, however, were prepared, and the 
 engines, seventy-five feet high, placed thereon, and brought to 
 the wall. For awhile they plied their battering-rams without 
 an}' serious hindrance from the Jews. Suddenly the Jews 
 sallied forth, through an obscure gate at the tower of Hippicus, 
 for the purpose of burning the engines and destroying the 
 banks ; and, with the courage of desperation, they went up to 
 the very fortifications of the Romans. The conflict was fearful, 
 — the Romans were driven back, and fire was applied to the 
 engines and the banks. But as fresh legions, led on by Titus 
 in person, came up, the Jews were forced to retreat within 
 their walls. On the fifteenth day the Romans, by the inces- 
 sant application of their battering-rams, succeeded in making 
 a breach in the wall of the city at Bezetha. The troops 
 immediately mounted this breach, and poured into the 
 
The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 241 
 
 narrow and crowded streets. They were attacked from the 
 roofs and side alleys with such fury, that with considerable 
 loss they were compelled to retreat without the wall. It was 
 some days before Titus could regain what he had thus lost, 
 and again enter the streets of Bezetha. When he did return, 
 the Jews fled from the outer wall, and entrenched themselves 
 within the second one, which enclosed Acra. There being no 
 armed force to resist, the gates were thrown open, when the army 
 entered and demolished the wall and a large portion of the city. 
 
 Titus, having now removed his camp within the city, 
 immediately commenced his attacks upon the second wall 
 around Acra. The Jews divided themselves into several 
 bodies, and in the most courageous manner defended this wall. 
 John and his troops occupied the tower of Antonia and the 
 northern cloisters of the temple. Simon, to whom was 
 committed the defence of the wall, placed himself near the 
 tower of Hippicus. The Jews made many violent sallies from 
 the walls, and with the most determined boldness attacked 
 the Romans. " Nor did either side grow weary," says Josephus, 
 " but all day long there were attacks and fightings on the wall, 
 and perpetual sallies from the gates. And the night had 
 much ado to part them, when they began to fight in the 
 morning. The night was passed without sleep on both sides, 
 and was more uneasy than the day to them. The one was 
 afraid lest the wall should be taken, and the other lest the 
 Jews should make sallies upon their camps. Both sides lay 
 in their armour, and were ready at the first appearance of 
 light to go to the battle." 
 
 This continued for several days. Twice the Romans were 
 driven back after effecting an entrance, and the breaches in 
 the wall were repaired. But at length the Jews were 
 compelled to take refuge in the temple and in Zion, or the 
 upper city. Thus Titus regained possession of this second 
 wall, which he immediately and entirely destroyed. He put 
 garrisons in the towers on the south part of the city, and then 
 devised his plan for the assault on the third wall. 
 
 16 
 
242 The Siege of Jerusalein by Titus. 
 
 Having gained the control of Acra, or the lower city, he 
 decided not to proceed immediately, but to relax the siege a 
 little, to allow the citizens time for consideration, supposing 
 that his successes and demonstrations of power would decide 
 them to surrender. To impress their minds the more deeply, 
 he had his whole army drawn up in battle array in the face of 
 the enemy, and for four days publicly distributed subsistence 
 money among them. The historian adds, '' The whole old 
 wall and the north side of the temple was full of spectators ; 
 nor was there any part of the city which was not covered 
 over with their multitudes, nay, a very great consternation 
 seized upon the hardest of the Jews themselves, when they 
 saw all the army in the same place, together with the fineness 
 of their arms, and the good order of their men. And I cannot 
 but think that the seditious would have changed their minds 
 at that sight, unless the crimes they had committed against the 
 people had been so horrid that they despaired of forgiveness 
 from the Romans ; but as they believed death with torments 
 must be their punishment if they did not go on in the defence 
 of the city, they thought it much better to die in the war." 
 
 This interval lasted four days. " But on the fifth, when no 
 signs of peace came from the Jews, Titus divided his legions, 
 and began to raise banks both at the tower of Antonia and at 
 John's monument. His design was to take Zion, or the upper 
 city, at that monument, and the temple at the tower of 
 Antonia ; for if the temple were not taken it would be 
 dangerous to keep the city itself. So, at each of these parts, 
 he raised his banks, each legion raising one." The conflict at 
 these two points was exceedingly sanguinary, and for a time 
 proved too much for the Romans. The determination of Titus 
 to conquer became more settled and firm. Before proceeding 
 to more extreme measures, he sent Josephus again to exhort 
 the people to surrender. The Jews only ridiculed his exhorta- 
 tion, and by throwing stones and darts defied the utmost 
 power of the Romans. Josephus was struck on the head with 
 a missile, and carried to the camp insensible. At this time 
 
The Sie^e of Jerusale77t by Titus. 243 
 
 many of the people endeavoured to escape from the city, but 
 they were either killed by the seditious, or destroyed by the 
 Roman soldiers for the Sake of the gold which they were 
 said to have swallowed. 
 
 In order to bring the battering-rams and other engines to 
 bear upon the walls, it became necessary, by means of timber 
 and other materials, to erect new mounds. For the wall on the 
 brow of Zion was on a precipice thirty feet high, whilst a deep 
 trench defended the tower of Antonia. For seventeen days 
 they were employed in raising these banks. There were now 
 four great mounds. One at the tower of Antonia, raised by 
 the fifth legion. Another, cast up by the twelfth legion, at 
 the distance of about thirty feet from the first. The third, 
 erected by the tenth legion, was on the north quarter of the 
 old wall. The fourth, built by the fifteenth legion, was about 
 thirty .feet from the third. On all these banks immensely 
 powerful battering-rams were placed. 
 
 John, who had possession of Antonia, carefully watched the 
 operations of Titus, and was busy in excavating from within 
 the wall at Antonia, so as to undermine and destroy the 
 foundations upon which the engines of the Romans rested. 
 Having supported the excavated ground, under the engines, 
 with beams laid across, he brought in the most combustible 
 materials, which he set on fire. So that while the Romans 
 were working the engines, the materials beneath were burning, 
 until the beams were burnt through, when the? engines 
 suddenly fell into the mine, and with many men were 
 destroyed. This happened just as the Romans were in hopes 
 of forcing the wall, and it very much cooled their ardour. 
 
 Two days after this, Simon made an attempt to destroy 
 the other banks on the north side of Zion, for the Romans had 
 begun to make the wall shake. They ran out suddenly, with 
 lighted torches, and violently rushing through those who were 
 working the engines, set these machines on fire. Although 
 assaulted on every side with darts and swords, yet did they 
 not give way, but caught hold of the machines. When the 
 
244 T^^^ Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 
 
 Romans saw the flames, multitudes hurried from the camp to 
 save their engines. Then the Jews fought with those who 
 endeavoured to quench the fires. When the Romans en- 
 deavoured to pull the battering-rams out of the fire, the Jews 
 caught hold of them through the flames, grappling them fast, 
 although the iron upon them became red hot. The flames 
 extended also to the banks. Many more rushed out from the 
 city, and the Jews becoming still more bold drove back the 
 Romans, pursuing them to the very fortifications of their 
 camp, and there fought most desperately. This assault was 
 concluded by Titus, with a body of troops, attacking the Jews 
 in the rear. They immediately wheeled about, and attacked 
 the new enemy. After a fierce conflict, the Jews were driven 
 into the city, but the Romans lost their banks and battering-rams. 
 The Romans spent twenty-one days in reconstructing new 
 mounds, when they again brought forward their engines. 
 Those in the city felt that unless they could succeed in burning 
 these also, it would be impossible longer to resist. The 
 Romans felt that if these were destroyed it would be exceed- 
 ingly diflicult to construct others, as materials had become very 
 scarce, owing to the fact that the trees about the city had already 
 been cut down within a circuit of more than twelve miles. 
 
 The attack on Antonia was renewed, and the conflict 
 continued with the utmost desperation on both sides. The 
 engines were worked with wonderful power. The resistance 
 and strategies of the Jews were perplexing and distressing to 
 the army of Titus. The wall by night was so shaken by the 
 battering-rams, in the place where John had undermined it 
 for the purpose of burning the banks, as already stated, that it 
 gave way and fell suddenly. This encouraged the Romans. 
 But the Jews felt confident, as the tower of Antonia still stood. 
 The Romans pressed on through this breach ; but they found 
 another wall within, which John had built up to protect the 
 spot weakened by his own excavations. This, however, was 
 more easily thrown down than the other. Titus encouraged 
 his soldiers to advance, and take the tower of Antonia, saying, 
 
The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, 245 
 
 " If we go up to this tower of Antonia, we gain the city." The 
 attack was renewed on the third day, and continued for 
 fourteen days, when it was carried by the following bold 
 stratagem. Twelve of the Roman guards upon the banks 
 called to them the standard-bearer of the fifth legion and two 
 others of a troop of horsemen and one trumpeter. These 
 went, without noise, about the ninth hour of the night (/>., 
 about three o'clock in the morning), through the ruins to the 
 tower of Antonia ; and when they had killed the first guards 
 of the place, as they were asleep, they got possession of the 
 wall, and ordered the trumpeter to sound his trumpet. Upon 
 this the rest of the Jewish guards fled, before anybody could 
 see how many had entered, for they imagined that the number 
 of the enemy must be great. Titus, hearing the signal 
 trumpet, crowded forward his men, and entered through the 
 breach. John and Simon rallied their forces, and attacked the 
 Romans with the most determined courage and zeal ; " for 
 they esteemed themselves entirely ruined if once the Romans 
 got into the temple, as did the Romans look upon the same 
 thing as the beginning of their entire conquest. A terrible 
 battle was fought at the very entrance of the temple, and 
 great slaughter was made on both sides. The contending 
 forces had alternate success and defeat. At length the Jews' 
 violent zeal was too much for the Romans' skill, and the 
 battle already inclined entirely that way ; for the fight had 
 lasted from the ninth hour of the night {i.e., 3 a.m.), till the 
 seventh hour of the day (/>., i p.m.) ; ten full hours. 
 
 Here occurred one of the most extraordinary displays of valour 
 of the whole siege. " For there was one Julian, a centurion, 
 famed for his skill in arms, bodily strength, and courage of 
 soul, seeing the Romans giving ground and in a sad condition, 
 leaped out, and of himself alone put the Jews to flight, when 
 they were already conquerors, and made them retire as far as 
 the corner of the inner court of the temple. From him the 
 multitude fled away in crowds, supposing that neither his 
 strength nor his violent attacks were those of a mere man. 
 
246 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 
 
 He rushed through the midst of them, kilhng those whom he 
 caught. As he ran he slipped upon the bloody pavement of 
 the court, and fell upon his back. Immediately the Jews 
 surrounded him, striking at him with their spears and swords. 
 For a considerable time he defended himself with his shield, 
 but being overpowered by the multitude, he cut his own throat 
 and died." The Jews caught up his dead body, bore it with 
 them as a trophy, put the Romans to flight, driving them from 
 the temple area, and shut them up in the tower of Antonia, 
 which they had gained b}'^ stratagem, and at a vast expense of 
 time, and labour, and life. 
 
 Titus now gave orders to his soldiers to make a breach in 
 the foundations of Antonia, except such portions as were 
 needed for the garrison, and to make a ready passage for his 
 army to come up. While these orders were being executed, 
 he made one more effort to save the city and temple, sending 
 Josephus as before. Josephus, speaking in the Hebrew 
 language, urged upon the people a variety of considerations 
 why they should, without any further shedding of blood, 
 submit, and throw themselves upon the clemency of Titus. 
 His manner was very earnest and sorrowful, speaking with 
 groans and sobs which interrupted his words. This moved 
 the people ; but John cast reproaches and imprecations upon 
 Josephus, and defied the power of the Romans, because this 
 was God's city, and He would take care of it. 
 
 Having failed to make any arrangement with the Jews, 
 Titus prepared his forces for an attack upon the temple. As 
 he could not bring all his army into action, the place being 
 so narrow, he chose thirty soldiers of the most valiant out of 
 every hundred, and committing one thousand to each tribune, 
 he ordered them to attack the guards of the temple about the 
 ninth hour of the night {i.e.^ 3 a.m.). They did not find the 
 guards asleep, as they hoped, but were compelled to fight with 
 them hand to hand, as with shoutings and great violence they 
 rushed upon them. Those in the temple ran to the help of the 
 guards. By reason of the darkness there was great confusion, 
 
The Siege of Je7nisalem by Titus. 247 
 
 and many of the Jews were slain by mistake by their own 
 friends. The fight continued from 3 a.m. until 11 a.m. in the 
 same place where it began, for neither party could say that 
 they had made the other retire, so neither could claim the 
 victory. 
 
 For the next seven days the Roman army was employed in 
 throwing down some of the walls of Antonia, that a ready and 
 a broad way might be made to the temple, that thus a much 
 larger force might be brought into action. When this was 
 accomplished, then the legions came near the first court, or court 
 of the Gentiles. Seeing the enemy advancing to the holy 
 house itself, in their desperation they set fire to the north- 
 west cloister, which was joined to the tower of Antonia, 
 and thus broke oft^ thirty feet of that cloister, and thereby 
 made a beginning in burning the sanctuary. Two days after 
 this, on the twenty-fourth of Panemus, the Romans set fire to 
 the cloister that joined to the other, when the fire went 
 twenty-two and a half feet farther. Nor was the work of 
 destruction in this quarter ended until the tower of Antonia 
 was parted from the temple, even though it was in the power 
 of the Jews to have stopped the fire. 
 
 When two of the legions had completed their banks, Titus 
 gave orders that the battering-rams should be brought and set 
 over against the western edifice of the inner temple ; for before 
 these were brought, the most powerful of all the other engines 
 had battered the wall for six days together without ceasing, with- 
 out making any impression upon it ; the largeness of the stones 
 and strong masonry of the walls was superior to the power of 
 the engines. Others undermined the foundation of the northern 
 gate, and after a world of pains removed the outermost stones ; 
 yet was the gate upheld by the inner stones, and stood still 
 unhurt. The soldiers now brought their ladders to the walls 
 to scale the place ; but the Jews fell upon them, threw them 
 back headlong, and got possession of the engines and destroyed 
 them. 
 
 Titus the next day ordered the soldiers to quench the fire,, 
 
248 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 
 
 whilst he called a council of his generals to decide what should 
 be done with the holy house. Some were for demolishing it ; 
 others would preserve it if the Jews would surrender, if not 
 then to burn it. But Titus said " that he was not, in any 
 case, for burning down so vast a work as that was, — it would 
 be an ornament to the Roman empire ; and that it should be 
 spared, even though the Jews should fight from it." But the 
 historian adds, " God had for certain long ago doomed it to 
 the fire, and now that fatal day had come." 
 
 The consultation having ended, '' Titus retired into the tower 
 of Antonia, resolved to storm the temple the next day early in 
 the morning." The more effectually to succeed, he determined 
 to bring his whole army and encamp round about the holy 
 house. When Titus thus retired, the seditious for a little 
 while lay still ; then suddenly they attacked the Romans who 
 were quenching the fire, which had reached and was burning 
 the inner court of the temple. But the Jews " were put to 
 flight, and the Romans proceeded as far as the hol}'^ house 
 itself; at which time one of the soldiers, without staying for 
 any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so 
 great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine 
 fury, snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on 
 fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he threw a burning 
 brand through a window into the rooms that were round about 
 the holy house on the north side of it." 
 
 It will be remembered that the interior of the temple 
 was richly furnished with the choicest woods, that the floors 
 were of cedar, covered with fir; consequently the flames 
 spread with great rapidity. " As the flames went upward, the 
 Jew3 made a great clamour, . . . and ran together to prevent 
 it ; and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor 
 suffered anything to restrain their force, since the holy house 
 was perishing." A messenger ran to the tent of Titus, who was 
 resting himself after the last battle, and told him, " whereupon 
 he rose up in great haste, and as he was ran to the holy house 
 in order to have a stop put to the fire. After him followed all 
 
The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 249 
 
 his commanders and several legions. Then, both by calling 
 with a loud voice to the soldiers, who were fighting, and by 
 giving a signal to them with his right hand, he ordered them 
 to quench the fire. But they did not hear what he said, having 
 their ears dinned by the greater noise another wa}' ; nor did 
 they attend to the signal he made with his hand. But as 
 for the legions that came running thither, neither anj^ per- 
 suasions nor any threatenings could restrain their violence ; 
 but each one's own passion was his commander at this time ; 
 and as they were crowding into the temple, many of them 
 were trampled to death, whilst a great number fell among the 
 ruins of the cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and 
 were destroyed : and those who came near the holy house 
 made as if they did not hear Titus' orders, but encouraged 
 those who were before them to set it on fire." 
 
 As Titus was unable to restrain the mad fury of the soldiers, 
 and as the fire spread yet more and more, he went, with his 
 commanders, into the Holy of Holies, and saw what was in it — 
 viz., the golden censer, the ark of the covenant overlaid round 
 about with gold, and the tables of the covenant, and over it 
 the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat. The sight 
 he found to be far superior to what he had previously heard. 
 *' As the flames had not yet reached to its inward parts, but 
 were consuming the rooms about the holy house, supposing 
 that the house itself might yet be saved, he came up in haste, 
 and endeavoured to persuade the soldiers to quench the fire. 
 He ordered the refractory to be beaten and restrained ; yet 
 were their passions too fierce for their regard for Titus, or 
 their dread for those who forbade them. The hope of plunder 
 induced many to go on, as having this opinion that all the 
 places within were full of money, and as seeing that all round 
 about it was made of gold." One of those who went into the 
 place prevented Titus, when he ran out so hastily to restrain 
 the soldiers, and soon the flames burst out from within the 
 holy house itself, consuming the remains of the cloisters and 
 the gates, also the treasury chamber, in which there was an 
 
250 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, 
 
 immense quantity of money, garments, and precious goods. 
 Thus total and thorough was the destruction by fire. 
 
 How signal the overruling providence of God ! How marked 
 the destruction ! It was accomplished notwithstanding the 
 strong desires of the Jews and their enemies to preserve it. 
 The Jews themselves, and Titus through his soldiers, were the 
 instruments employed for carrying out all that the prophets 
 had written, and all that Jesus Christ had spoken concerning 
 the overthrow and utter ruin of the city and the temple. 
 
 The new city Bezetha, the lower city Acra, and the temple 
 on Moriah being in utter ruin, the only remaining portion of 
 Jerusalem was Mount Zion, the upper city, or the city of 
 David, This was connected with the temple by a bridge 
 already described, which spanned the Tyropoeon valley. 
 Before proceeding against Zion, Titus made one more attempt 
 to end the war by inducing the Jews to surrender. Standing 
 upon the bridge he, through an interpreter, addressed the 
 people, who were under the command of Simon and John. 
 
 The only reply was to require that they, with their wives 
 and children, might go through the wall he had made about 
 them into the desert, and leave the city to him. Titus was 
 indignant that those whom he had conquered should make 
 their own terms as if they were the conquerors. He told 
 them " that they should no more come out to him as deserters, 
 nor hope for any further security ; for that he would hence- 
 forth spare nobody, but fight them with his whole army ; and 
 that they must save themselves as well as they could, for that 
 he would from henceforth treat them according to the laws of 
 war." 
 
 Now when Titus perceived that Zion, or the upper city, was 
 so steep that it could not be taken without raising banks 
 against it, he distributed the work among his army. The 
 carriage of the materials was difficult, since all the trees within 
 a distance of twelve miles had been cut down to make the 
 former banks. The banks of the four legions, however, were 
 raised on the west side of the city, over against the royal 
 
The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 251 
 
 ■Xystus, an immense open place on the extreme east, sur- 
 rounded by a covered colonnade, where the people often 
 assembled, and from whence they reached the bridge. Whilst 
 these preparations were advancing, the commanders of 
 the Idumeans, whom the people had formerly received into 
 the city to defend them against the seditious, surrendered 
 themselves. They were received as prisoners by Titus, and 
 were sold into slavery by his soldiers. 
 
 In eighteen days the banks were finished, and the battering- 
 rams brought against the wall. Despairing of saving the city, 
 many of the Jews fled from the wall, and took refuge in the 
 citadel ; whilst others went down into the subterranean vaults. 
 Still a great many defended themselves against those who 
 brought the engines. The numbers of the Romans prevailed. 
 As soon as a part of the wall was battered down, and certain 
 of the towers yielded, a great terror fell upon the Jews ; and 
 before the Romans got over the breach they had made, they 
 betook themselves to flight. 
 
 Thus becoming master of the wall, Titus placed his ensigns 
 upon the towers, and made joyful acclamation for the victory 
 they had gained, as having found the end of the war much 
 lighter than its beginning. For when they had possession 
 the last wall without any bloodshed, they could hardly believe 
 what they found to be true. Seeing nobody to oppose them, 
 they stood in doubt as to what it meant. But when they 
 went in numbers into the lanes of the city, with their swords 
 drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without mercy, 
 and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and 
 burnt every soul in them. And when they entered the houses 
 to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead 
 men, and the upper rooms full of corpses of those who died 
 by famine. 
 
 '' When Titus saw the solid altitude and the largeness of the 
 several stones, and the exactness of their joints, as also how 
 great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he 
 
252 The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 
 
 said, ^ We have certainly had God for our assistant in this 
 war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out 
 of these fortifications, for what could the hands of man, or any 
 machines, do towards overthrowing these towers ? ' " He 
 gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city, 
 leaving the towers of Phasaelis, Hippicus, and Mariamne, and 
 so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. 
 This wall was spared to afford an encampment for those who 
 were to remain in garrison, and the towers to demonstrate to 
 posterity what kind of a city it was, and how well fortified, 
 which the Roman valour had subdued. All the rest of the 
 wall was so thoroughly laid even with the ground that there 
 was left nothing to make those who came thither believe it 
 had ever been inhabited. '' This," adds the historian, " was 
 the end to which Jerusalem came, — a city of great magnificence 
 and of mighty fame among all mankind. 
 
 To commemorate this victory of Titus, the Roman senate, 
 after his death, erected a magnificent triumphal arch, which to 
 this day stands on the highest point of the Via Sacra, not far 
 from the Colosseum. The two carved tablets are the best 
 known of all Roman remains. One represents Titus on a 
 triumphal car ; the other the Jewish captives ; the golden table, 
 the seven-branched golden candlestick, silver trumpets, and 
 other spoils from the temple. Whilst the Colosseum, the 
 Forum, and the palaces of the Caesars are in ruins, this arch 
 stands as a monumental record of the destruction of Jerusalem 
 by the Romans. 
 
CAPTURE OF A SPANISH SLAVE SHIP- 
 
 THE time is not very remote when the traffic in human 
 beings for slavery was openly defended in the British 
 Parliament. A great advance in the annals of humanity was 
 made, when the slave trade, through the exertions of Clarkson, 
 Wilberforce, and other Christian men, was denounced, and 
 slave traders ordered to be treated as pirates and robbers 
 of the worst class. Although this resolution was assented 
 to by other civilized nations, it is England which has mainly 
 laboured, at much expenditure of life and treasure, to put 
 down the nefarious traffic. We would not now refer to the 
 crimes and cruelties of former days, were it not that voices 
 are again being heard, not exactly defending the slave trade, 
 but objecting to the employment of British ships and men 
 in this humane service. There is danger, in fact, of the 
 national conscience being deadened, and the national efforts 
 relaxed in this matter. If our cruisers were withdrawn, 
 there is every likelihood of the trade being revived, for there 
 are still countries where slavery flourishes. Many travellers 
 in Africa have described the fearful scenes connected with 
 what Dr. Livingstone called " this plague spot of the world." 
 Even worse than the fatal journeys of the slave gangs towards 
 the coast are ** the horrors of the middle passage." To show 
 what these were, and may still be, we give part of the narra- 
 tive of the capture of a Spanish slaver by a British ship, the 
 North Star. The capture was witnessed by Dr. Walsh, a 
 physician on board returning to England from Brazil. 
 
 The Spanish ship had taken on board 562 slaves, and had 
 been out seventeen days, during which she had thrown over- 
 board fifty-five dead bodies. On being sighted she made all sail, 
 but the British ship gained on her, and after a chase of thirty 
 hours, got within gun-shot and made her heave to. 
 
 The slaves were all enclosed under grated hatchways, 
 between decks. The space was so low, that they sat between 
 
254 Capture of a Spanish Slave Ship. 
 
 each other's legs, and stowed so close together, that there was 
 no possibility of their lying down, or at all changing their 
 position, by night or day. As they belonged to, and were 
 shipped on account of, different individuals, they were all 
 branded like sheep, with the owners' marks of different forms. 
 These were impressed under their breasts, or on their arms, 
 and, as the mate informed me, with perfect indifference, 
 ^' burnt with the red-hot iron." 
 
 As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, 
 their dark and melancholy visages brightened up. They 
 perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks, 
 which they had not been accustomed to, and feeling instinct- 
 ively that we were friends, they immediately began to shout 
 and clap their hands. 
 
 Some, however, hung down their heads in apparently 
 hopeless dejection ; some were greatly emaciated, and some, 
 particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance 
 which struck us most forcibly was, how it was possible for 
 such a number of human beings to exist, packed up and 
 wedged together as tight as they coul<i cram, in low cells, three 
 feet high, the greater part of which, except those immediately 
 under the grated hatchways, were shut out from light and air, 
 and this, when the thermometer, exposed to the open sky, 
 was standing in the shade at 89°. The space between decks 
 was divided into two compartments, 3 feet 3 inches high ; the 
 size of one was 16 feet by i8, and of the other 40 by 21 ; into 
 the first were crammed the women and girls ; into the second 
 the men and boys ; 226 fellow-creatures were thus thrust into 
 one space 288 feet square, and T^T^d into another space 800 
 feet square. We also found manacles and fetters of different 
 kinds ; but it appears that they had all been taken off before 
 we boarded. The heat of these horrid places was so great, 
 and the odour so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter 
 them, even had there been room. They were measured as 
 above when the slaves had left them, the officers insisting that 
 the poor suffering creatures should be brought on deck to get 
 
Capture of a Spanish Slave Ship, 255 
 
 air and water. It was then that the extent of their sufferings 
 was exposed in a fearful manner. They all rushed like maniacs 
 to the water. No entreaties, or threats, or blows could restrain 
 them ; they shrieked and struggled, and fought with one 
 another, for a drop of this precious liquid, as if they grew rabid 
 at the sight of it. There is nothing which slaves, in the mid- 
 passage, suffer from so much as want of water. It is sometimes 
 usual to take out casks filled with sea-water as ballast; and when 
 the slaves are received on board, to start the casks, and re- 
 fill them with fresh. On one occasion, a ship from Bahia 
 neglected to change the contents of the casks, and, on the 
 mid-passage, found, to their horror, that they were filled with 
 nothing but salt-water. All the slaves on board perished. 
 
 I was informed by my friends, who had passed so long a 
 time on the coast of Africa, and visited many ships, that this 
 was one of the best they had seen. The 'height sometimes 
 between decks was only eighteen inches; so that the unfortunate 
 beings could not turn round, or even on their sides, the 
 elevation being less than the breadth of their shoulders ; and 
 here they are usually chained to the decks by the neck and 
 legs. In such a place the sense of misery and suffocation is so 
 great, that the negroes, like the English in the Black Hole at 
 Calcutta, are driven to frenzy. They had, on one occasion, 
 taken a slave vessel in the river Bonny ; the slaves were 
 stowed in the narrow space between decks, and chained 
 together. They heard a horrid din and tumult among them, and 
 could not imagine from what cause it proceeded. They opened 
 the hatches, and turned them up on deck. They were 
 manacled together in twos and threes. Their horror 
 may be well conceived, when they found a number of 
 them in different stages of suffocation ; many of them were 
 foaming at the mouth, and in the last agonies, — many were 
 dead. A living man was sometimes dragged up, and his 
 companion was a dead body ; sometimes, of the three attached 
 to the same chain, one was dying and another dead. The 
 tumult they had heard was the frenzy of these suffocating 
 
256 Saved from a Floating Sepulchre, 
 
 wretches in the last state of fury and desperation, struggling 
 to extricate themselves. When they were all dragged up, 
 nineteen were irrevocably dead. Many destroyed one another 
 in the hopes of getting room to breathe ; men strangled those 
 next them, and women drove nails into each other's brains. 
 Many unfortunate creatures, on other occasions, took the first 
 opportunity of leaping overboard, and getting rid, in this way, 
 of an intolerable life. Sometimes a mortal malady had struck 
 them from which they never could recover. They used to 
 lie down in the water of the lee-scuppers, and notwithstanding 
 every care, pined away to skin and bone, wasted with fever 
 and dysentery ; and when at length they were consigned to 
 the deep, they were mere skeletons. 
 
 It is an honour to England to lead the way in putting down 
 the slave trade, and instead of withdrawing our cruisers, 
 these ought to be the swiftest and strongest steamers that 
 can be obtained. All success to them in their service ! And 
 still better, may the noble efforts of men like Livingstone 
 and Gordon, and other Christian Englishmen in Africa, avail 
 to put an end to this inhuman traffic ! 
 
 SAVED FROM A FLOATING SEPULCHRE. 
 
 IN the month of April 1884, one of the great transatlantic 
 steamers, the State of Florida, was lost through collision 
 with a barque. Both vessels soon sank, and only a few of those 
 on board either ship were saved. One of the survivors had 
 a wonderful escape. Most of the boats foundered. A passing 
 ship next day picked up several sailors, clinging to the keel of 
 a capsized boat, in a state of extreme exhaustion. Singular 
 to say, one man was underneath the capsized boat throughout 
 the night, having managed to secure himself above the bars. 
 His comrades heard him beneath them, but could do nothing 
 
Saved from a Floating Sepulchre, 257 
 
 to relieve him. In the morning, when they were picked up, 
 the bottom of the boat had to be broken through to get him 
 out. He had swooned or become unconscious, probably from 
 the exhausted air, which yet buoyed up the boat. With great 
 difficulty he recovered. 
 
 The adventure was so remarkable that it recalled a still 
 more strange escape, not from a capsized boat, but from a 
 capsized ship. The men were inside the hull when the ship 
 turned over, and had no chance of escape by boats or by 
 swimming. Most of the crew perished, but some escaped in 
 the remarkable way which we are about to narrate, from the 
 account given in the Times, to which is appended the certified 
 report of Lloyd's agent, who took down the statements and 
 depositions of the survivors. The escape took place many 
 years ago, but is curious enough to be worth telling anew. 
 
 The brig Nerinay of Dunkirk, sailed thence on Saturday, 
 October 31st, 1840, under the command of Captain Pierre 
 Everard, with a cargo of oil and canvas for Marseilles. Her 
 burthen was about 114 tons, and her crew consisted of seven 
 persons, including the captain and his nephew, fourteen years 
 old. 
 
 At three in the afternoon of Monday, November i6th, they 
 were forced to heave to in a gale of wind, about ten or twelve 
 leagues south-west of the Scilly Islands. At seven the same 
 evening, still laying to under close-reefed maintopsail and 
 balanced reefed mainsail, a heavy sea struck the vessel, and 
 she suddenly capsized, turning completely bottom up. 
 
 The only man on deck at the time was named Boumelard, 
 who was instantly engulfed in the ocean. In the forecastle 
 were three seamen, named Vincent, Vantaure, and Jean Marie. 
 The two former, by seizing hold of the windlass bits, succeeded 
 in getting up close to the keelson, and so kept their heads 
 above water. Poor Jean Marie was not so fortunate. He 
 must have been in some measure entangled, as after con- 
 vulsively grasping the heel of Vantaure for a few seconds, he 
 let go his hold and was drowned. His body was never seen 
 
 17 
 
258 Saved from a Floating Sepulchre. 
 
 afterwards. The other two, finding that the shock of the 
 upset had started the bulkhead between the forecastle and the 
 hold, and that the cargo itself had fallen down on the deck, 
 contrived to draw themselves on their faces close alongside the 
 keelson (it could not be called on their hands and knees for 
 want of height, towards the stern of the ship, from whence they 
 thought they heard some voices. 
 
 At the time of the accident the captain, the mate, Jean Gallo, 
 and the boy Nicolas were in the cabin. The captain caught 
 the boy in his arms, under the full impression that their last 
 moment had arrived. The mate succeeded in wrenching open 
 the trap-hatch in the cabin deck, and in clearing out some 
 casks, which were jammed in the lazaretto (a sort of small 
 triangular space between cabin floor and keelson where stores 
 are generally stowed away). Having effected this he scrambled 
 up into the vacant space and took the boy from the hands of 
 the captain, whom he then assisted to follow them. In about 
 an hour they were joined by Vincent and Vantaure from the 
 forecastle. 
 
 They were then five individuals closely cooped together. 
 As they sat they were obliged to bend their bodies from want 
 of height above them, while the water reached as high as 
 their waists, from which irksome position one at a time 
 obtained some relief by stretching at full length on the barrels 
 in the hold, squeezing himself up close to the keelson. The}^ 
 were able to distinguish between day and night by the light 
 striking from above into the sea, and being reflected up through 
 the cabin skylight and then into the lazaretto through the 
 tophatch in the cabin floor. 
 
 The day and night of Tuesday the 17th, and the day of 
 Wednesday the i8th, passed without food, without relief, and 
 almost without hope; but still each encouraged the others 
 when no one could really entertain hope for himself. The}' 
 endeavoured to assuage the pangs of hunger by chewing tht 
 bark stripped off from the hoops of the casks. Wantoffresli 
 air threatening them with death by suffocation, the rnat( 
 
Saved front a Floating Sepulchre^ 259 
 
 worked almost incessantly for two days and one night in 
 endeavouring with his knife to cut a hole through the hull. 
 Happily the knife broke before he had succeeded in accom- 
 plishing his object, the result of which must have proved fatal, 
 as the confined air alone preserved the vessel in a sufficiently 
 buoyant state. 
 
 In the dead of the night of Wednesday, the i8th, the vessel 
 suddenly struck heavily. • On the third blow the stern dropped 
 so much that all hands were obliged to make the best of their 
 way, one by one, further forward towards the bows, in 
 attempting which poor Vincent was caught by the water and 
 drowned, falling down through the cabin floor and skylight. 
 
 After the lapse of an hour or two, finding the water to ebb, 
 Gallo got down into the cabin, and while seeking for the 
 hatchet which was usually kept there was forced to rush again 
 into the lazaretto to avoid being drowned by the sea, which 
 rose on him with fearful rapidity. Another hour or two of 
 long suffering succeeded, when they were rejoiced to see by 
 the dawning of the day of Thursday, the 19th, that the vessel 
 was fast on rocks, one of which projected up through the sky- 
 light. The captain then went down into the cabin and found! 
 ;hat the quarter of the ship was stoved, and looking through 
 ^he opening he called out to his companions, " Grace a Dieu^ 
 nes enfans, nous sommes sauves ; je vois un homme a terre.'" 
 Immediately after this the man approached and put in his- 
 land, which the captain seized, almost as much to the terror 
 )f the poor man as to the intense delight of the captain.. 
 Several people of the neighbourhood were soon assembled, the^ 
 side of the ship was cut open, and the four poor fellows; 
 vere liberated from a floating sepulchre, after an entombment 
 )f three days and three nights in the mighty deep. The spot 
 vhere the vessel struck is called Porthelick, in the island of 
 5t. Mary's, Scilly. She must have been driven on the rocks; 
 oon after midnight, at about the period of high water, and' 
 vas discovered lying dry at about seven o'clock on Thursday- 
 aorning by a man accidentally passing along the clifts. In 
 
26o Saved from a Floating Sepulchre. 
 
 another half hour the returning tide would have sealed their 
 fate. The body of Vincent was thrown on the rocks at a short 
 distance from the wreck, and was interred in the burial ground of 
 St. Mary's with the usual rites of the Established Church. 
 
 Not the least remarkable part of the narrative is that in the 
 afternoon of Wednesday, the i8th, the wreck, floating bottom 
 upwards, was fallen in with at about a league and a-half 
 distant from the island by two pilot boats, which took her in 
 tow for about an hour, but, their tow ropes breaking and night 
 approaching, with a heavy sea running and every appearance 
 of bad weather, they abandoned her, not having the least 
 suspicion that there were human beings alive, in the hold o 
 the vessel, which was floating with little more than her kee 
 above water, while had the vessel not been so taken in tow 
 the set of the current would have drifted her clear of the 
 island into the vast Atlantic. The hull was, of course, a 
 complete wreck, and soon went to pieces, and only a small 
 portion of the cargo was saved. 
 
 The survivors experienced at the hands of the inhabitants 
 the utmost kindness and hospitality, which they acknowledgec 
 with gratitude. Then follows the certificate of Lloyd's agent 
 
 *' I, the undersigned, Richard Pearce, French Consular Agen 
 and Agent to Lloyd's at Penzance, having personally taker^ 
 the depositions of the survivors, and having also conversecj 
 with several of the inhabitants of the island (among other; 
 Augustus Smith, Esq.), some of whom actually assisted at th'j 
 towing of the Nerina, while others assisted at the liberation o] 
 the 19th, hereby certify the accuracy of the foregoing state 
 ment. 
 
 '' Richard Pearce. 
 
 ^^ Penzance y December 24M,i84o." 
 
26l 
 
 THE ORIGINAL ROBINSON CRUSOE. 
 
 IT is usually stated, and commonly believed, that the world- 
 renowned romance of Robinson Crusoe, by Defoe, was 
 suggested by the story of the sojourn of a Scottish sailor, 
 Alexander Selkirk, on the island of Juan Fernandez. In the 
 book " All True " will be fouiid the authentic narrative of 
 Selkirk's adventures, as reported by Captain Woodes Rogers, 
 of the Duke frigate, who found him on the island, and received 
 the relation from his own lips. Selkirk had been master of 
 the Cinque Ports, commanded by Captain Stradling, a ship 
 that came to Juan Fernandez with Captain Dampier in 1703. 
 On the recommendation of Dampier, Selkirk was made second 
 mate of the Ditke, an honourable recompense for his cruel 
 abandonment on the island by his former chief. Captain 
 Stradling. This ship was one of two privateers fitted out by 
 Bristol merchants, the Duke commanded by Captain Woodes 
 Rogers, and the Duchess by a Captain Cook. The celebrated 
 navigator. Captain Dampier, accompanied this expedition 
 merely as pilot, although during the voyage, which was one 
 round the world, the skill and experience of the veteran sea- 
 man often proved of vast use to the younger and inferior 
 captains. Thus at Guayaquil, where plunder was secured 
 to the value of ^,^2 1,000, with 27,000 dollars as ransom of the 
 town from bombardment, Dampier was in command of the 
 artillery. He was mainly conducive to the capture of a rich 
 Manilla ship off Cape Lucas, and other rich prizes ; and after 
 many adventures piloted the privateers safely up the Th imes 
 to Gravesend, in October 171 1, laden with booty in mo le}^ 
 and merchandize valued at ;j{^i 50,000. It was some years 
 before this prize money was divided, and it is not certain 
 whether Dampier lived to get his share of the awards. 
 
 It is to the discredit of Captain Woodes Rogers that in the 
 narrative of his voyage he seldom names Captain Dampier, 
 and attributes to him little of the success of the expedition. 
 
262 The Original Robinson Ct^usoe, 
 
 In all matters of difficulty or doubt, however, we know that 
 Dampier's advice was sought and followed, as might well be 
 the case when the old pilot had forty years' experience of 
 peril and adventure. It seems hard that at the end of his 
 long life he was obliged to take service as pilot, when he 
 had formerly so many opportunities of enriching himself. But 
 his ambition was more for seeing the world, and describing 
 its wonders, than for personal gain. Humboldt, the illustrious 
 man of science, and Malte Brun, the distinguished geographer, 
 both speak with the utmost respect of Dampier, and say that 
 none of the old navigators have left records so valuable and 
 trustworthy as are found in his books of travel. 
 
 I have now before me an old copy of one of his books, the 
 title-page of which is worth transcribing, as from it some 
 idea may be formed of the nature and extent of Dampier's 
 researches. It is as follows : " A New Voyage Round the 
 World, describing particularly the Isthmus of America, 
 several coasts and islands in the West Indies, the Isles of Cape 
 Verd, the passage by Terra del Fuego, the South Sea coasts of 
 Chili, Peru, and Mexico ; the Isle of Guam, one of the 
 Ladrones, Mindando, and other Philippine and East-India 
 Islands near Cambodia, China, Formosa, Luconia, Celebes, etc.. 
 New Holland, Sumatra, Nicobar Isles ; the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and Santa Hellena. Their soil, rivers, harbours, plants, 
 fruits, animals, and inhabitants. Their customs, religion, 
 o -^ ernment, trade, etc. Illustrated with particular maps and 
 draughts. By William Dampier. The second edition, cor- 
 rected. London, Printed for James Knapton, at the Crown 
 in St. Paul's Church Yard, MDCXCVII." 
 
 A brief notice of this book, which contains the narrative of 
 events from 1679 to 1691, — for he was away all these years, — I 
 will presently give, but at present confine attention to the 
 account of a solitary man left on the island of Juan Fernandez, 
 where he remained above three years. He was left there in 
 1 68 1, and released in 1684, several years before Alexander 
 Selkirk was heard of. The details are perfectly) authentic, 
 
The Original Robinson Crusoe. 263 
 
 for Dampier was in the ship which left him in 1681, and 
 which found him in 1684; and Dampier, during a later 
 voyage, commanded one of the two ships, the other of which 
 was commanded by Captain Stradling, the tyrannical chief, 
 who left Selkirk on the island in 1704. Dampier was pilot of 
 the Duke privateer. Captain Woodes Rogers, which took off 
 Selkirk, after his solitary exile of four years and four months, 
 in 1709. He knew everything about Selkirk's case, but in his 
 earlier voyage he describes a previous abandonment of a 
 solitary man, and his stay for three years on the same island. 
 Here is the narrative as given in his book. 
 
 The nineteenth day (March 1683), when we looked out in 
 the morning, we saw a ship to the southward of us, coming 
 with all the sail she could make after us. We lay muzzled, 
 to let her come up with us, for we supposed her to be a 
 Spanish ship, come from Baldivia, bound to Lima, we being 
 now to .the northward of Baldivia, and this being the time 
 of the year when ships that trade thence to Baldivia return 
 home. They had the same opinion of us, and therefore 
 made sure to take us, but coming nearer we both found our 
 mistakes. This proved to be one Captain Eaton, in a ship 
 sent purposely from London for the South Seas. We hailed 
 each other, and the Captain came on board, and told us of his 
 actions on the coast of Brazil and in the River Plate. He 
 met Captain Swan (one that came from England to trade here) 
 at the east entrance into the Straits of Magellan, and they 
 accompanied each other through the straits, and were separated, 
 after they were through, by the storm before mentioned. Both 
 we and Captain Eaton being bound for John Fernando's Isle, 
 we kept company, and we spared him bread and beef, and 
 he spared us water, which he took in as he passed through 
 the straits. 
 
 March 22nd, 1684, we came in sight of the island, and the 
 next day got in and anchored in a bay at the south end of the 
 island, in twenty-five fathom water, not two cables' lengths 
 from the shore. We presently got out our canoe, and 
 
264 The Original Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 went ashore to see for a Moskito Indian, whom we left here 
 when we were chased hence by three Spanish ships in the 
 year 1681, a little before we went to Arica, Captain Watlin 
 being then our commander, after Captain Sharp was turned 
 out. 
 
 This Indian lived here alone above three years, and although 
 he was several times sought after by the Spaniards, who knew 
 he was left on the island, yet they could never find him. He 
 was in the woods, hunting for goats, when Captain Watlin 
 drew off his men, and the ship was under sail before he came 
 back to shore. He had with him his gun and a knife, with a 
 small horn of powder and a few shot, which being spent, he 
 contrived a way, by notching his knife, to saw the barrel of 
 his gun into small pieces, wherewith he made harpoons, lances, 
 hooks, and a long knife, heating the pieces first in the fire, 
 which he struck with his gunflint and a piece of the barrel of 
 his gun which he hardened, having learnt to do that among 
 the English. The hot pieces of iron he would hammer out 
 and bend as he pleased with stones, and saw them with his 
 jagged knife, or grind them to an edge by long labour, and 
 harden them to a good temper, as there was occasion. 
 
 All this may seem strange to those that are not acquainted 
 with the sagacity of the Indians ; but it is no more than these 
 Moskito men are accustomed to in their own country, where 
 they make their own fishing and striking instruments, without 
 either forge or anvil, though they spend a great deal of time 
 about them. Other wild Indians, who have not the use of iron, 
 which the Moskito men have from the English, make hatchets 
 of a very hard stone, with which they will cut down trees (the 
 cotton tree, especially, which is a soft, tender wood), to build 
 their houses or make canoas ; and though in working their 
 canoas hollow, they cannot dig them so neat and thin, yet they 
 will make them fit for their service. This, their digging or 
 hatchet work, they help out by fire, whether for the felling of 
 the trees or for the making the inside their canoas hollow. 
 These contrivances are used particularly by the savage Indians 
 
The Original Robinson Crusoe, 265 
 
 of Blewfields River, described in a former chapter, whose canoas 
 and stone-hatchets I have seen. These stone-hatchets are about 
 ten inches long, four broad, and three inches thick in the middle. 
 They are ground away flat and sharp at both ends; right in 
 the midst and clear round it they make a notch, so wide and 
 deep that a man might place his finger along it, and, taking a 
 stick or withe about four foot long, they bind it round the 
 hatchet-head, in that notch, and so, twisting it hard, use it as 
 a handle or helve, the head being held by it very fast. Nor 
 are other wild Indians less ingenious. Those of Patagonia, 
 particularly, head their arrows with flint cut or ground, which 
 I have seen and admired. 
 
 But to return to our Moskito man on the isle of John Fer- 
 nando. With such instruments as he made in that manner, 
 he got such provision as the island afforded, either goats or 
 fish. He told us that at first he was forced to eat seal, which 
 is very ordinary meat, before he had made hooks ; but after- 
 wards he never killed any seals but to make lines, cutting 
 their skins into thongs. He had a little house or hut, half a 
 mile from the sea, which was lined with goat's skin ; his 
 couch or barbecu of sticks lying along about two foot distant 
 from the ground, was spread with the same, and was all his 
 bedding. He had no clothes left, having worn out those he 
 brought from Watlin's ship, but only a skin about his waist. He 
 saw our ship the day before we came to an anchor, and did 
 believe we were English, and therefore killed three goats in 
 the morning, before we came to an anchor, and dressed them 
 with cabbage, to treat us when we came ashore. He came 
 then to the seaside to congratulate our safe arrival ; and when 
 we landed, a Mosquito Indian, named Robin, first leapt ashore, 
 and, running to his brother Moskito man, threw himself flat 
 on his face at his feet, who, helping him up and embracing 
 him, fell flat with his face on the ground at Robin's feet, and 
 was by him taken up also. We stood with pleasure to behold 
 the surprise and tenderness and solemnity of this interview, 
 which was exceedingly affectionate on both sides ; and when 
 
266 The Original Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 their ceremonies of civility were over, vv^e, also, that stood 
 gazing at them, drew near, each of us embracing him we had 
 found here, who was overjoyed to see so many of his old 
 friends come hither, as he thought, purposely to fetch him. 
 He was named Will, as the other was Robin. These were names 
 given them by the English, for they have no names among 
 themselves, and they take it as a great favour to be named by 
 any of us, and will complain for want of it if we do not 
 appoint them some name when they are with us, saying of 
 themselves they are poor men, and have no name. 
 
 This island is in latitude 34° 15", and about 120 leagues 
 from the main. It is about twelve leagues round, full of high 
 hills and small, pleasant valleys, which, if manured, would 
 probably produce anything proper for the climate. The sides 
 of the mountains are part savanahs, part woodland. Savanahs 
 are clear pieces of land without woods, not because more 
 barren than the woodland, for they are frequently spots of as 
 good land as any, and often are intermixed with woodland. 
 In the Bay of Campeachy are very large savanahs, which I 
 have seen full of cattle; but about the River Plate are the 
 largest that ever I heard of — 50, 60, or 100 miles in length; 
 and Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola have many savanahs inter- 
 mixed with woods. Places cleared of wood by art and labour 
 do not go by this name, but those only which are found so in 
 the uninhabited parts of America, such as this isle of John 
 Fernando, or which were originally clear in other parts. 
 
 The grass in these savanahs at John Fernando is not a 
 long, flaggy grass, such as is usually in the savanahs in the 
 West Indies, but a sort of kindly grass, both thick and 
 flourishing the biggest part of the year. The woods afford 
 divers sorts of trees, some large and good timber for building, 
 but none fit for masts. The cabbage trees of this isle are but 
 small and low, yet afford a good head, and the cabbage very 
 sweet. 
 
 The savanahs are stocked with goats in great herds, but 
 those that live on the east end of the island are not so fat as 
 
The Original Robinson Crusoe, 267 
 
 those on the west end, for though there is much more grass 
 and plenty of water in every valley, nevertheless they thrive 
 not so well here as on the west end, where there is less food, 
 and yet there are found greater flocks, and those, too, fatter 
 and sweeter. 
 
 That west end of the island is all high champain ground, 
 without any valley, and but one place to land ; there is neither 
 wood nor any fresh water, and the grass short and dry. 
 
 Goats were first put on the island by John Fernando, who 
 first discovered it in his voyage from Lima to Baldivia (and 
 discovered also another island about the same bigness, twenty 
 leagues to the westward of this). From those goats these 
 were propagated, and the island hath taken its name from this 
 its first discoverer, who, when he returned to Lima, desired a 
 patent for it, designing to settle here ; and it was in his second 
 voyage hither that he set ashore three or four goats, which 
 have since, by their increase, so well stocked the whole island. 
 But he could never get a patent for it, therefore it lies still 
 destitute of inhabitants, though doubtless capable of maintain- 
 ing four or five hundred families by what may be produced off 
 the land only. I speak much within compass, for the savanahs 
 would at present feed one thousand head of cattle, besides 
 goats ; and the land, being cultivated, would properly bear 
 corn or wheat, and good peas, yams, or potatoes, for the land 
 in their valleys and sides of the mountains is of a good, black, 
 fruitful mould. The sea about it is likewise very productive 
 of its inhabitants. Seals swarm as thick about this island as 
 if they had no other place in the world to live in, for there is 
 not a bay nor rock that one can get ashore on but is full of 
 them. Sea lions are here in great companies, and fish, par- 
 ticularly snappers and rock-fish, are so plentiful, that two 
 men, in an hour's time, will take, with hook and line, as many 
 as will serve one hundred men. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ *^ *T* 
 
 There are only two bays in the whole island where ships 
 may anchor ; these are both at the east end, and in both of 
 
268 Captain D ampler a7td the Buccaneers, 
 
 them is a rivolet of good fresh water. Either of these bays 
 may be fortified with little charge, to that degree, that fifty 
 men in each may be able to keep off one thousand ; and there 
 is no coming into these bays from the west end, but with great 
 difficulty, over the mountains, where, if three men are placed, 
 they may keep down as many as come against them on any 
 side. This was partly experienced by five Englishmen that 
 Captain Davis left here, who defended themselves against a 
 great body of Spaniards who landed in the bays, and came 
 here to destroy them ; and though the second time one of 
 their consorts deserted and fled to the Spaniards, yet the 
 other four kept their ground, and were afterward taken in 
 from hence by Captain Strong, of London. 
 
 We remained at John Fernando sixteen days. Our sick 
 men were ashore all the time, and one of Captain Eaton's 
 doctors (for he had four in his ship) tending and feeding them 
 with goat and several herbs, whereof here is plenty growing 
 in the brooks, and their diseases were chiefly scorbutic. 
 
 CAPTAIN DAMPIER AND THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 THE name of Captain Dampier has been associated in 
 history with the buccaneers of America. In point of 
 fact he spent a part of his life among them, and the ships 
 which are called privateers in his books were pirates to aH 
 intents and purposes. In the time of the great war with 
 Spain, it was common to send out ships as privateers, autho- 
 rized to attack the enemies of England wherein they could 
 be met with, and to pay their own expenses by the plunder 
 they could take. After peace was restored, this irregular war 
 in foreign parts and at sea was continued, especially by English 
 and French freebooters, the former being known by the name 
 of buccaneers, and the latter as filibustiers. Buccaneer is said 
 to be derived from the word " boucan," which was the name 
 
Captain D ampler and the Buccaneers. 269 
 
 given by the Carib Indians to the dry beef prepared for food ; 
 and the huts where the meat was smoked also had the same 
 appellation. The various names of privateers, pirates, free- 
 booters, filibustiers, sea-rovers, and others, were all merged 
 gradually in that of buccaneers. They were a people consist- 
 ing of adventurers of various nations, many of them criminals 
 and outlaws, leagued together sometimes for common plunder 
 or common defence, but often separated into rival bands of 
 robbers. 
 
 One of the current maxims with all buccaneers was, '' No 
 peace beyond the Line." The settlements on the American 
 coasts and islands were all originally Spanish ; and against 
 these colonial stations the buccaneers waged unceasing war. 
 There was not the same disgrace attached to the cause or to 
 the name of buccaneers, that their cruelty and crimes after- 
 wards fastened upon them. Hence, there appeared among 
 them at first some men, like Dampier, who deemed the service 
 only a continuance of the privateering expeditions of the 
 heroes of the war-time, such as Drake, Raleigh, and Cavendish. 
 Indeed, some of the most noted buccaneers had sailed in early 
 life with these gallant commanders. But a more desperate 
 and ferocious set of leaders soon came to the front, such as 
 the Frenchmen Lolonnois and Montbar, the Dutchman Mans- 
 velt, and the Englishman, or rather Welshman, Morgan. 
 
 This Morgan became the most powerful and celebrated of 
 all the buccaneer leaders. At first he served under Mansvelt, 
 on whose death he assumed command of a barque, which had 
 already carried terror and devastation to many a Spanish 
 settlement. By degrees his power grew, his successes attract- 
 ing numbers of desperate villains, and he had at one time a 
 fleet of fifteen armed ships, and above two thousand men under 
 his command. Some of his enterprises, such as the capture 
 of Porto Bello and of Panama, were deeds of great daring, 
 and brought immense wealth as well as much renown to the 
 captors. But the leader was a cruel, sordid, brutal man — a 
 disgrace not only to the English name but to human nature. 
 
270 Captain Dampier and the Buccaneers, 
 
 His cruelties often shocked even his lawless followers, as he 
 maintained his authority by fear alone. The atrocities com- 
 mitted after the storming of Panama are too terrible to be 
 described, and the record of them destroys every vestige of 
 the romance that had gathered round some of the earlier 
 exploits of the buccaneers. Sometimes, in our own day, tales 
 appear about them, but they can be read with pleasure only 
 by those who take delight in the lowest kinds of Police News 
 or other criminal literature. Morgan acquired so much money 
 that he was able to procure from the venal and profligate 
 King Charles II. the deputy-governorship of Jamaica, and the 
 title of knighthood, so that he figures in the history of those 
 times as Sir Henry Morgan, Knight. He was afterwards 
 removed from his office, and being sent home a prisoner, we 
 believe that he died in obscurity, during the reign of James II. 
 It does not appear that Dampier ever was with Morgan, but 
 the " privateers " named in his books were most of them 
 buccaneers. Some of the ships in which he sailed were 
 merchantmen, but no mercantile venture in those times on 
 those seas was without expectation of readier and richer prizes 
 than could be got by trading. Captain Eaton, Captain Davis, 
 and notably Captain Swan were famous buccaneers in their 
 day, and with all of them Dampier sailed. He did his part in 
 the fighting, and more than his part in the navigation, but he 
 showed no keenness about the booty. His chief motives were 
 love of adventure and desire for knowledge, and fortunately 
 he always kept a journal, in which he carefully entered his 
 notes and observations. Of some of the countries visited 
 during his long wanderings there are not to this day more 
 valuable descriptions and more exact information. His 
 association with the buccaneers left his name for a time under 
 a cloud, but justice has since been done to his memory. He 
 was a humane and temperate, as well as a brave and intelli- 
 gent man. He detested the cruelty and loathed the vices of 
 his associates, although he, strangely enough, makes no attempt 
 either to justify or to excuse his own presence among them. 
 
Captain Danipier and the Buccaneers. 271 
 
 In his old age he seems to have had remorseful feelings as to 
 his earlier career, but at the time he had no compunction as 
 to privateering. The fact of his remaining poor to the last 
 proves that he had no base motive in belonging to such 
 banditti, and his published works attest his zealous and 
 laudable desire for obtaining and imparting knowledge. 
 
 Plis chief work, the " New Voyage Round the World," is 
 dedicated to the Hon. Charles Montague, then President of the 
 Royal Society, and in the dedication, while deprecating criticism 
 of a book written by one of no profession of learning he says, 
 " Yet dare I avow, according to my narrow sphere and poor 
 abilities, a hearty zeal for the promoting of useful knowledge, 
 and of anything that may never so remotely tend to my 
 country's advantage." 
 
 In the Introduction, he tells, in the most artless and straight- 
 forward way, how he got among the buccaneers. He tells 
 how he sailed, in 1679, in the Loyal Merchant bound for 
 Jamaica, as a passenger, " intending to go thence to the 
 Bay of Campeachy, in the Gulf of Mexico, to cut log- wood ; 
 where in a former voyage I had spent three years in that 
 employ." Some English goods brought from home, he sold at 
 Port Royal, and stocked himself with such commodities as he 
 knew he could dispose of among the Campeachy log-wood 
 cutters. But a friend at Port Royal, Mr. Hobby, persuaded 
 him to go a short trading voyage to the country of the Moskito 
 Indians. He assented, because he wanted money to complete 
 the purchase of a small estate in Dorsetshire, near his native 
 county of Somerset. 
 
 " Soon after our setting out we came to an anchor again in 
 Negril Bay at the west end of Jamaica; but finding there 
 Captain Sawkins, Sharp, and other privateers, Mr. Hobby's 
 men all left him to go with them, upon an expedition they had 
 contrived, leaving not one with him beside myself; and being 
 thus left alone, after three or four days' stay with Mr. Hobby, 
 I was the more easily persuaded to go with them too." 
 
 Captain Sawkins was at first the leader, but on his being 
 
272 Captain D ampler and the Buccaneers, 
 
 slain in an attack on Puebla Nova, the majority wished to 
 make Captain Sharp the commander. A minority disapproved 
 of this, including Dampier, who then started with a band of 
 about fifty men, in a launch or long-boat, and two canoes, or 
 canoas, as he always calls them. There were forty-four 
 whites, a Spanish Indian, two Moskito Indians, expert in spear- 
 ing fish, turtles, and manatees, or sea-cows ; also five negro 
 slaves. After a journey across the Isthmus of Panama, on the 
 North Sea Dampier found quite a fleet of privateers, eight 
 vessels, four English, one Dutch, and three French. 
 
 We are not able to give details of the various expeditions 
 and adventures of the years from 1681 to 1685, but one extract 
 in the journal of the latter year contains some interesting 
 personal references, and will serve also as a good 'specimen of 
 the style of the narrative. It is a description of New Panama, 
 and an incident that occurred there. 
 
 Old Panama was formerly a famous place, but it was taken 
 by Sir Henry Morgan about the year 1673, and at that time 
 great part of it was burned to ashes, and it was never re- 
 edified since. 
 
 New Panama is a very fair city, standing close by the sea, 
 about four miles from the ruins of the old town. It gives 
 name to a large bay, which is famous for a great many navi- 
 gable rivers, some whereof are very rich in gold. It is also 
 very pleasantly sprinkled with islands, that are not only pro- 
 fitable to their owners, but very delightful to the passengers 
 and seamen that sail by them. New Panama is encompassed 
 on the back side with a pleasant country, which is full of 
 small hills and valleys, beautified with many groves and spots 
 of trees, that appear in the savannahs like so riiany little 
 islands. This city is encompassed with a high stone wall. 
 The houses are said to be of brick. Their roofs appear 
 higher than the top of the city wall. It is beautified with a 
 great many fair churches and religious houses, besides the 
 president's house and other eminent buildings, which alto- 
 gether make one of the finest objects that I did ever see, 
 
Captain D ampler and the Buccaneers, 273 
 
 in America especially. There are a great many guns on 
 her walls, most of which look toward the land. They had 
 none at all against the sea when I first entered those seas 
 with Captain Sawkins, Captain Coxon, Captain Sharp, and 
 others, for till then they did not fear any enemy by sea, but 
 since then they have planted guns clear round. This is a 
 flourishing city by reason it is a thoroughfare for all imported 
 or exported goods and treasure, to and from all parts of Peru 
 and Chili, whereof their storehouses are never empty. The 
 road, also, is seldom or never without ships. Besides, once in 
 three years, when the Spanish Armada comes to Portobel 
 then the Plate Fleet, also, from Lima, comes hither with the 
 king's treasure, and abundance of merchant ships full of goods 
 and plate. At that time the city is full of merchants and 
 gentlemen, the seamen are busy in landing the treasure and 
 goods, and the carriers or caravan masters employed in carry- 
 ing it overland on mules, in vast droves every day, to 
 Portobel, and bringing back European goods from thence. 
 Though the city be then so full, yet, during this heat of 
 business, there is no hiring of an ordinary slave under a piece 
 of eight a day. Houses, also chambers, beds, and victuals are 
 then extraordinary dear. 
 
 Now I am on this subject, I think it will not be amiss to 
 give the reader an account of the progress of the Armada from 
 Old Spain, which comes thus every three years into the Indies. 
 Its first arrival is at Cartagena, from whence, as I have been 
 told, an express is immediately sent overland to Lima, through 
 the southern continent, and another by sea to Portobel, with 
 two packets of letters, one for the viceroy of Lima, the other 
 for the viceroy of Mexico. I know not which way that of 
 Mexico goes after its arrival at Portobel, whether by land or 
 sea, but I believe by sea to La Vera Cruz. That for Lima is 
 sent by land to Panama, and from thence by sea to Lima. 
 
 Upon mention of these packets I shall digress yet a little 
 further, and acquaint my reader, that before my first going 
 over into the South Seas with Captain Sharp, and, indeed, 
 
 18 
 
2 74 Captain Dampier and the Buccaneers. 
 
 i 
 
 before any privateers, at least, since Drake and Oxenham, 
 had gone that way which we afterwards went, except La 
 Sound, a French captain, who, by Captain Wright's instruc- 
 tions, had ventured as far as Cheapo town with a body of 
 men, but was driven back again. I being then on board 
 Captain Coxon's ship along with three or four more pri- 
 vateers, about four leagues to the east of Portobel, we took 
 the packets bound thither from Cartagena. We opened a 
 great quantity of the merchants' letters, and found the con- 
 tents of many of them to be very surprising, the merchants of 
 several parts of Old Spain thereby informing their correspond 
 ents of Panama and elsewhere of a certain prophecy that 
 went about Spain that year, the tenor of which was. That 
 there would be English privateers that year in the West 
 Indies who would make such great discoveries as to open 
 a door into the South Seas, which they supposed was fastest 
 shut, and the letters were accordingly full of cautions to their 
 friends to be very watchful and careful of their coasts. 
 
 This door they spake of we all concluded must be the 
 passage overland through the country of the Indians of 
 Darien, who were, a little before this, become our friends, 
 and had lately fallen out with the Spaniards, breaking off the 
 intercourse which for some time they had with them ; and 
 upon calling also to mind the frequent invitations we had from 
 those Indians a little before this time, to pass through their 
 country, and fall upon the Spaniards in the South Seas, we 
 from henceforward began to entertain such thoughts in earnest, 
 and soon came to a resolution to make those attempts which| 
 we afterwards did, with Captains Sharp, Coxon, etc. So that 
 the taking these letters gave the first life to those bold under- 
 takings ; and we took the advantage of the fears the Spaniards 
 were in from that prophecy, or probable conjecture, or whateveri 
 were, for we sealed up most of the letters again, and sent 
 them ashore to Portobel. 
 
 The occasion of this our late friendship with those Indian: 
 was thus. About fifteen years before this time, Captaini 
 
Captain Dampier and the Buccaneers, 275 
 
 Wright being cruising near that coast, and going in among the 
 Samballoes Isles to strike fish and turtle, took there a young 
 Indian lad as he was paddling about in a canoa. He brought 
 him aboard his ship, and gave him the name of John Gret, 
 clothing him, and intending to breed him among the English. 
 But his Moskito strikers, taking a fancy to the boy, begged 
 him of Captain Wright, and took him with them at their 
 return into their own country, where they taught him their 
 art, and he married a wife among them, and learnt their lan- 
 guage, as he had done some broken English while he was 
 with Captain Wright, which he improved among the Moskitoes, 
 who, corresponding so much with us, do all of them smatter 
 English after a sort, but his own language he had almost 
 forgot. Thus he lived among them for many years, till about 
 six or eight months before our taking these letters, Captain 
 Wright being again among the Samballoes, took thence another 
 Indian boy about ten or twelve years old, the son of a man of 
 some account among those Indians ; and wanting a striker, he 
 went away to the Moskito's country, where he took in John 
 Gret, who was now very expert at it. John Gret was much 
 pleased to see a lad there of his own country, and it came into 
 his mind to persuade Captain Wright upon this occasion to 
 endeavour a friendship with those Indians, a thing our pri- 
 vateers had long coveted, but never durst attempt, having 
 such dreadful apprehensions of their numbers and fierceness • 
 but John Gret offered the captain that he would go ashore 
 and negotiate the matter, who accordingly sent him in his 
 canoa till he was near the shore, which of a sudden was 
 covered with Indians, standing ready with their bows and 
 arrows. John Gret, who had only a cloth about his middle, 
 as the fashion of the Indians is, leaped then out of the 
 boat, and swam, the boat retiring a little way back ; and, 
 the Indians ashore seeing him in that habit, and hearing him 
 call to them in their own tongue, "which he had recovered by 
 conversing with the boy lately taken, suffered him quietly to 
 land, and gathered all about to hear how it was with him. 
 
276 Captain Dampier and the Buccaneers. 
 
 He told them particularly that he was one of their country- 
 men, and how he had been taken many years ago by the 
 English, who had used him very kindly; that they were 
 mistaken in being so much afraid of that nation, who were 
 not enemies to them, but to the Spaniards. To confirm this, 
 he told them how well the English treated another young lad 
 of theirs they had lately taken, such an one's son, for this he 
 had learnt of the youth, and his father was one of the com- 
 pany that was got together on the shore. He persuaded them, 
 therefore, to make a league with these friendly people, by 
 whose help they might be able to quell the Spaniards, 
 assuring, also, the father of the boy, that if he would but 
 go with him to the ship, which they saw at anchor at an 
 island there, — it was Golden Island, the eastermost of the 
 Samballoes, a place where there is good striking for turtle, — 
 he should have his son restored to him, and they might all 
 expect a very kind reception. Upon these assurances, twenty 
 or thirty of them went off presently, in two or three canoas 
 laden with plantains, bananoes, fowls, etc., and Captain 
 Wright, having treated them on board, went ashore with 
 them, and was entertained by them, and presents were made 
 on each side. Captain Wright gave the boy to his father in a 
 very handsome English dress, which he had caused to be made 
 purposely for him ; and an agreement was immediately struck 
 up between the English and these Indians, who invited the 
 English through their country into the South Seas. 
 
 Pursuant to this agreement, the English, when they came 
 upon any such design, or for traffic with them, were to give a 
 certain signal which they pitched upon, whereby they migh 
 be known. But it happened that Mr. La Sound, the Frenct 
 captain, spoken of a little before, being then one of Captair 
 Wright's men, learnt this signal, and staying ashore at Petr 
 Guavres, upon Captain Wright's going thither soon after, wh( 
 had his commission from thence, he gave the other Frencl 
 there such an account of the agreement before mentioned, anc 
 the easiness of entering the South Seas thereupon, that he go 
 
Captain D ampler and the Buccaneers, 277 
 
 at the head of about one hundred and twenty of them, who 
 made that unsuccessful attempt upon Cheapo, as I said, 
 making use of the signal they had learnt for passing the 
 Indians' country, who at that time could not distinguish so 
 well between the several nations of the Europeans as they 
 can since. 
 
 From such small beginnings arose those great stirs that 
 have been since made all over the South Seas — viz., from the 
 letters we took, and from the friendship contracted with these 
 Indians by means of John Gret. Yet this friendship had like 
 to have been stifled in its infancy, for within a few months 
 after, an English trading sloop came on this coast from 
 Jamaica, and John Gret, who by this time had advanced 
 himself to be a grandee among these Indians, together with 
 five or six more of that quality, went off to the sloop in their 
 long gowns, as the custom is for such to wear among them. 
 Being received aboard, they expected to find everything 
 friendly, and John Gret talked to them in English ; but 
 these Englishmen, having no knowledge at all of what had 
 happened, endeavoured to make them slaves, as is commonly 
 done; for, upon carrying them to Jamaica, they could have 
 sold them for ;^ 10 or;^i2 apiece. But John Gret and the 
 rest perceiving this, leaped all overboard, and were by the 
 others killed, every one of them, in the water. The Indians 
 on shore never came to the knowledge of it ; if they had, it 
 would have endangered our correspondence. Several times 
 after, upon our conversing with them, they inquired of us 
 what was become of their countrymen ; but we told them we 
 knew not, as, indeed, it was a great while after that we heard 
 this story; so they concluded the Spaniards had met with 
 them, and killed or taken them. 
 
 But to return to the account of the progress of the Armada, 
 which we left at Cartagena. After an appointed stay there of 
 about sixty days, as I take it, it goes thence to Portobel, where 
 it lies thirty days, and no longer. Therefore the viceroy of 
 Lima, on notice of the Armada's arrival at Cartagena, imme- 
 
278 Captain D ampler and the Buccaneers. 
 
 diately sends away the king's treasure to Panama, where it is 
 landed, and lies ready to be sent to Portobel upon the first 
 news of the Armada's arrival there. This is the reason, 
 partly, of their sending expresses so early to Lima, that upon 
 the Armada's first coming to Portobel, the treasure and goods 
 may lie ready at Panama to be sent away upon the mules ; 
 and it requires some time for the Lima fleet to unlade, because 
 the ships ride not at Panama, but at Perica, which are three 
 small islands two leagues from thence. The king's treasure 
 is said to amount commonly to about 24,000 of pieces of 
 eight, besides abundance of merchants' money. All this 
 treasure is carried on mules, and there are large stables at 
 both places to lodge them. Sometimes the merchants, to steal 
 the custom, pack up money among goods, and send it to Venta 
 de Cruzes, on the river Chagre, from thence down the river, 
 and afterwards by sea to Portobel, in which passage I have 
 known a whole fleet of periagos and canoas taken. 
 
 The merchants who are not ready to sail the thirtieth day 
 after the Armada's arrival, are in danger to be left behind, 
 for the ships all weigh the thirtieth day precisely, and go to 
 the harbour's mouth ; yet sometimes, on great importunity, 
 the admiral may stay a week longer, for it is impossible that 
 all the merchants should get ready, for want of men. When 
 the Armada departs from Portobel, it returns again to Cartagena, 
 by which time all the king's revenue which comes out of the 
 country is got ready there. Here, also, meets them again a 
 great ship, called the Pattache, one of the Spanish galeons, 
 which, before their first arrival at Cartagena, goes from the 
 rest of the Armada on purpose to gather the tribute of the 
 coast, touching at the Margaritas and other places in her way 
 thence to Cartagena, as Punta de Guaira, Maracaybo, Rio de 
 la Hacha, and Sancta Martha, and at all these places takes in 
 treasure for the king. After the set stay at Cartagena, the 
 Armada goes away to the Havana, in the isle of Cuba, to meet 
 there the flota, which is a small number of Ships that go to 
 La Vera Cruz, and there takes in the effects of the city and 
 
Captain Dampier and the Bticcaneers. 279 
 
 country of Mexico, and what is brought thither in the ship 
 
 which comes thither every year from the Phihppine Islands ; 
 
 and, having joined the rest at the Havana, the whole Armada 
 
 sets sail for Spain, through the Gulf of Florida. The ships in 
 
 the South Seas lie a great deal longer at Panama before they 
 
 return to Lima. The merchants and gentlemen which come 
 
 from Lima stay as little time as they can at Portobel, which 
 
 is at the best but a sickly place, and at this time is very full 
 
 of men from all parts. But Panama, as it is not overcharged 
 
 with men so unreasonably as the other, though very full, so it 
 
 enjoys a good air, lying open to the sea wind, which riseth 
 
 commonly about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, and 
 
 continues till eight or nine o'clock at night ; then the land 
 
 wind comes, and continues to blow till eight or nine o'clock 
 
 in the morning. 
 
 There are no woods nor marshes near Panama, but a brave, 
 dry, champain land, not subject to fogs nor mists. The wet 
 season begins in the latter end of May, and continues till 
 November. At that time the sea breezes are at S.S.W., and 
 the land winds at N. At the dry season the winds are most 
 betwixt the E.N.E. and the N., yet off \\\ the bay they are 
 commonly at S., but not always. The rains are not so ex- 
 cessive about Panama itself as on either side of the bay, 
 yet in the months of June, July, and August, they are 
 severe enough. Gentlemen that come from Peru to Pa- 
 nama, especially, in these months, cut their hair close, to 
 preserve them from fevers, for the place is sickly to them', 
 because they come out of a country which never hath any 
 rains or fogs, but enjoys a constant serenity ; but I am apt 
 to believe this city is healthy enough to any other people. 
 Thus much for Panama. 
 
 On reading this account of the Armada, and of the galleons, 
 with the rich treasure for the king of Spain, we can hardly 
 wonder at the keen efforts of the buccaneers to seize their 
 share of the booty. The adventures of Dampier in the years 
 he stayed with them, and afterwards in the islands of the 
 
2 8o Arminius Vambdrys Travels in Asia. 
 
 Eastern seas, are full of varied interest ; and we do not 
 know any book of old travel so well worthy of being re- 
 printed than Captain William Dampier's " New Voyage 
 Round the World."* 
 
 ARMINIUS VAMBERY'S TRAVELS IN ASIA. 
 
 A RMINIUS VAMBERY, Professor of Languages in the 
 JTjl. University of Buda-Pesth, is famous as a learned 
 scholar, and is even better known as an adventurous traveller. 
 There are few who have not heard of his going, in the disguise 
 of a Mohammedan Dervish, to visit the Khanates of Khiva 
 and Bokhara, at a time when no European could venture to 
 show himself in those barbarous regions, except at the risk of 
 almost certain death. Bokhara had specially been a place sadly 
 notorious from the death of Stodart and Conolly, of the Indian 
 Service, and from the detention of Dr. Wolff, who bravely 
 volunteered to go to inquire if other Europeans were in danger 
 from the cruel Ameer. Wolff was with difficulty ransomed, 
 after undergoing long and severe imprisonment. It was at 
 this very time that Vambery ventured to visit Bokhara. In 
 his book of "Travels in Central Asia," published after his return, 
 he writes, " I shuddered when I passed the dungeons of the 
 Ameer, where, perhaps, many who preceded me had been 
 murdered, and where, even at that moment, three wretched 
 
 * To the last of Dampier's voyages, that in which he went as pilot to 
 Captain Woodes Rogers, in 1708, we have aheady aHuded. It will 
 interest our readers to know that in the London Gazette of i8th April, 1703, 
 it is stated that " Captain Dampier, presented by His Royal Highness the 
 Lord High Admiral, had the honour of kissing Her Majesty's (Queen 
 Anne's) hand before departing on a voyage to the West Indies." It was 
 not a successful voyage. One object was to attack the famous Manilla 
 o-alleon, which was done, but the Spaniards beat off and nearly captured 
 Dampier's ship, the St. George. 
 
Arminius Vamd^7ys Travels in Asia. 281 
 
 Europeans were languishing so far from their country and 
 every possible succour." 
 
 By his successful disguise Vambery escaped detection, and 
 his account of his travels, both in his book and at the meetings 
 of the British Association and other Societies, when in 
 England, attracted much attention and curiosity as to these 
 regions, and as to the personal history of the traveller who 
 described them. 
 
 In the twenty years that have since passed great changes 
 have taken place. The khanates of Khiva and Bokhara are 
 now subject to Russia, and though Vambery fosters the British 
 dread of Russian advance in Asia, the truth is that the more 
 rapid the progress of Russia, and the more complete its 
 conquests, the better it is for Asiatic civilization. In these 
 khanates order is now maintained, justice is secured, and 
 slavery abolished. The trade of the Russians with Central 
 Asia had long been greater than with all other foreign countries 
 together. There was, therefore, good reason for their military 
 interference in regions where peaceful commerce needed pro- 
 tection. Asia is wide enough both for English and Russian 
 rule, and alarm for our Indian Empire must not hinder our 
 rejoicing in Russian influence in more barbarous regions. If 
 our rule in India is such as to benefit the people of India, it 
 is sure, in the Providence of God, to be continued. Russian 
 influence can only extend there if we are found unfaithful to 
 our trust. We say this because Vambery has helped to keep 
 alive the panic about Russian advances. 
 
 But we avoid political questions, and confine ourselves to 
 personal matters. Professor Vambery has lately written a 
 volume of autobiography, a narrative of his life and adventures 
 (T. Fisher Unwin, London) from his earliest recollections to 
 his last visit to England. There are things in this work not 
 in his earlier book of travels, and being confined to personal 
 narrative, the reader's liveliest interest is sustained throughout. 
 
 Beginning with the days of his childhood, he enumerates 
 the many difficulties which he had to overcome, and shows 
 
282 Arminius Vambdrys Travels in Asia. 
 
 how invincible his zeal must have been in the pursuit ot 
 knowledge, when he allowed neither poverty nor physical 
 infirmity to interfere with his studies, which from an early 
 period were directed to the attainment of great linguistic 
 capacity. "No one," said the reviewer of the work in the 
 Spectator^ "can read the details of Professor Vambery's life 
 without a feeling of mingled sympathy and admiration at the 
 suffering and hardship which he underwent and triumphed 
 over. Yet even in the worst days of his adversity he was 
 always able, not merely to bear up under deprivation, but to 
 look at the bright side of things, — two invaluable qualities for 
 getting through the battle of life under any circumstances, 
 but particularly useful to one whose struggle for existence was 
 long destined to be extremely arduous." 
 
 But although Vambery had to support himself from his 
 childhood — he began work at the age of twelve — and although 
 his resolve to be a savant tied him in his movements, first to 
 the Gymnasium at St. George, and then to the University at 
 Pressburg, he managed to see something of the outside world, 
 and to enjoy his holidays as well as those who were more 
 fortunately situated. He passed his vacation in rambling 
 through the Austrian dominions, and he has no false shame in 
 confessing that he carried on his rambles through the charit- 
 able assistance and hospitality of those he came across. We 
 may add, that in those days there was nothing unusual in 
 this, and the closing of the classes at the different Universities 
 always witnessed a great exodus of students, or Wander- 
 burschen, as they were called, over all parts of Germany. 
 These pedestrian trips had a greater significance in the case 
 of Vambery, for to him they seem to have served as an 
 apprenticeship for his famous journey in Central Asia, in the 
 guise of a dervish. 
 
 While he was thus indulging that spirit of liberty which 
 chafed at the restraints of life in a town, Vambery was 
 sedulously employed in acquiring that intimate acquaintance . 
 with foreign languages which has made him one of the most 
 
Arminms Vambdry s Travels in Asia. 283 
 
 remarkable linguists of our time. At an early stage of his 
 studies his attention had been attracted to the East. The 
 Hungarians treasure the memory of their Oriental origin, and 
 a long political connection had created something more than a 
 bond of sympathy between them and the Turks. That feeling 
 was revived and strengthened at the time of the Hungarian 
 insurrection, by the protection afforded by the Sultan to those 
 of the Magyar leaders who were so fortunate as to escape the 
 pursuit of the Russians and Austrians. It was only natural, 
 therefore, that Vambery should as a young man have felt 
 attracted towards the East, and should see in Constantinople 
 the gate through which he might hope to gain access to those 
 hidden treasures which he believed the literature and countries 
 of Asia would be found to contain. His study at the Press- 
 burg University being completed, he went to Constajitinople. 
 When he arrived there his small sum of money was exhausted, 
 and only the hospitality of a Hungarian refugee, whom he 
 met by chance, provided him with a lodging. He then gained 
 his livelihood as tutor in a Turkish family, and by bringing 
 out a very useful German-Turkish dictionary first attracted 
 the attention of the learned in his own country. But what 
 was more important towards the realisation of the plan of 
 Asiatic travel, which every day assumed more tangible form 
 in his mind, he acquired during his long residence in the 
 Turkish capital an intimate acquaintance with the language, 
 religion, and social habits of the most orthodox or fanatical 
 Mahomedans. 
 
 " I had found," he writes, " in the course of my linguistic 
 researches in the study of Eastern Turkish a field which had 
 been at that time barely cultivated, and devoted to it my full 
 attention. Besides the manuscripts I got hold of in the various 
 libraries, which were of great assistance to me in my studies, 
 I frequented the Tekkes (cloisters) inhabited by the Bokharists, 
 and provided myself, moreover, with a view to attaining to a 
 thorough understanding of these works, with a teacher who 
 was a native of Central Asia. Mollah Khalmurad, as my 
 
284 Arminius Vambdrys Travels in Asia. 
 
 teacher was called, acquainted me with the customs and modes 
 of thought of Central Asia. I used to hang passionately 
 on his lips when he was relating stories about Bokhara and 
 Samarcand, and told of the Oxus and Jaxartes, for he had 
 travelled a great deal in his own country. He had already 
 made two pilgrimages to the Holy Cities of Arabia, and 
 possessed to a high degree the cunning and clear-sightedness 
 peculiar to every Asiatic, but particularly to the much-travelled 
 Asiatic." 
 
 Vambery had thus qualified himself in every way for his 
 meditated journey, and he tells his readers that he had learnt 
 " to know the whims and foibles of mankind, and had found 
 that man in the rude Asiatic garb was nearly the same as man 
 in the civilised European dress." 
 
 Not the least interesting portion of his book is the descrip- 
 tion of his journey through Armenia, from the port of Tre- 
 bizonde to the Persian frontier, and he gives an account of 
 the state of that part of the Turkish dominions in the years 
 that followed the close of the Crimean War. Here Vambery 
 travelled as an effendi, or Turkish official ; and while the 
 disturbed condition of the roads showed that there was no 
 security for peaceful traders or ordinary travellers, the respect 
 exhibited towards him personally proved that the Kurd and 
 other marauders had then no wish to come into open collision 
 with the Sultan's Government. 
 
 Arrived at Teheran, Vambery assumed the character of a 
 dervish. He had to resort to much fresh finesse in order to 
 obtain the realisation of his main object, which was to attach ^ 
 himself to some caravan proceeding into the khanates ofl 
 Central Asia. Success attended his efforts, and in the early 
 months of 1863 he left Teheran with a caravan of dervishes — 
 or, more correctly, of hadji pilgrims — who came for the most] 
 part from Khokand or Kashgar. It may be doubted whether! 
 he would have met with such complete success, but for the! 
 co-operation of the Sultan's Minister at Teheran, who privately] 
 informed the hadjis that Reshid Effendi, the name which! 
 
Arminius Vambdry s Travels in Asia. 285 
 
 Vambery had assumed, was " the Sultan's civil officer," and 
 consequently a person to be taken care of. Then follows the 
 description of his travels through the frontier provinces of 
 Persia to the Turcoman desert, given with an obvious regard 
 to effect, but still all the same very picturesquely. What 
 could be more graphic than the following account of the 
 caravan leaving Teheran ? — 
 
 "The caravan numbered twenty-three, besides myself. 
 Those of my friends who could afford to hire a mule or ass 
 to take them to the Persian border were ready, booted and 
 spurred ; the former, with pilgrims' staffs in their hands, were 
 waiting, too, for the signal of departure. I observed with 
 astonishment that the shabby garments worn by the party in 
 town had been exchanged for other and far more ragged ones 
 hanging down in a thousand tatters, and fastened by means 
 of a rope across the back ; and learned to my great surprise 
 that the miserable dress worn by them in town was their 
 best holiday attire, which was now laid aside in order to save 
 it. But yesterday I fancied myself a beggar in my new 
 costume, to-day I looked fit to be a purple-clad king amidst 
 my companions. Hadji Bilal at last raised his hands for a 
 blessing on our journey, and we had not fairly seized our 
 beards and said our customary Amens, when those of our 
 party who were to walk on foot made a rush towards the 
 gates, in order to get ahead of us who were seated on mules 
 or asses." 
 
 At Khiva he was received in personal audience by the 
 Khan, on whom he made so favourable an impression, that he 
 received the useful present of a donkey, to carry him on his 
 further wanderings. He arrived at Bokhara during the 
 Ameer's absence, but he was received by Mozaffur Eddin a 
 few weeks later at Samarcand. His impression of the former 
 city is expressed as follows : — ** Although the squalid and 
 rickety buildings, and the streets covered with sand one foot 
 thick did not tend to place ' noble Bokhara ' in the most 
 favourable or imposing light, yet upon entering the bazaar, 
 
2 86 Arminius Vambdiy's Travels in Asia. 
 
 and beholding the thronging multitude animating it, I could 
 not refrain from being intensely interested at the novel sight. 
 The beauty and wealth of the bazaar were not the things that 
 surprised me so much as the immense and multifarious variety 
 in races, dress, and manners which struck the eye everywhere. 
 ... I was followed by a crowd of curious people, whose 
 embraces and handshaking became very annoying to me. 
 Jadging by my gigantic turban and the large Koran suspended 
 from my neck, they evidently took me to be some great Sheikh." 
 
 The account of the interview with the dreaded Ameer (or 
 Emir, as Vambery spells it) we must give in his own words : — 
 
 "As we were entering the interior of the city, we were 
 startled to find ourselves stopped by a Mehrem, who gave us 
 to understand that his Badevlet (majesty) wished to see me 
 alone, without my companions. My friends were this time 
 of my opinion, that this message boded ill to me. But what 
 was to be done but to follow the Mehrem to the palace ? After 
 being made to wait for about an hour I was conducted into a 
 room where I found the Emir reclining on a mattress of red 
 cloth, amidst books and papers lying about. I recited a short 
 Sura, accompanying it with the usual prayer for the welfare 
 of the governing prince, and after saying amen, to which the 
 Emir responded, I sat down in close vicinity to him, without 
 having first received his invitation to do so. The Emir was 
 struck by my bold behaviour, which was in fact in perfect 
 keeping with the character of a dervish. He fixed his eyes 
 severely on mine as if wishing to embarrass me, and said : — 
 
 ' Hadji ! I hear thou hast come from Roum to visit the 
 graves of Baha-ed-din and the other holy men of Turkestan ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, takhsir (sir) ! and besides, to be edified by thy blessed 
 beauty.' 
 
 ' Strange ; and hast thou no other object in coming here 
 from such distant lands ? ' 
 
 ' No, takhsir ! It has ever been the warmest wish of my 
 heart to visit noble Bokhara and enchanting Samarkand, upon 
 whose sacred ground, as is justly observed by Sheikh Djelal, 
 
Arminius Vambdrys Travels in Asia. 287 
 
 men should walk with their heads rather than their feet. 
 Besides, this is my only vocation, and I having been roaming 
 now through the world for many a day as a djihangheste ' (a 
 wanderer through the world). 
 
 ^ How is this, a djihangheste with thy lame foot ? This is 
 very strange indeed.' 
 
 * Let me be thy victim, takhsir ! ' (This phrase answers 
 our ' I beg your pardon, sir.') ' Thy glorious ancestor Timur 
 (Tamerlane) — may he rest in peace — was afflicted in the same 
 way, and yet he became a djiJianghir'' (a conqueror of the 
 world). 
 
 Having bantered me in this preliminary conversation, the 
 Emir inquired what sort of impression Bokhara and Samar- 
 kand had made upon me. My answers, which I took occasion 
 to interlard with copious citations of Persian poetry, seemed 
 to make a favourable impression upon the Emir, who was a 
 mollah himself, and spoke Arabic pretty well ; but I was not 
 altogether sure yet of my success with him. After the 
 audience had lasted for a quarter of an hour he summoned a 
 servant, and telling him something in a cautious undertone he 
 bade me follow the servant. 
 
 I quickly rose from my sitting posture and followed 
 as I had been bid. The servant led me through a number of 
 yards and halls, whilst my mind was at the time cruelly 
 agitated by fears and misgivings as to my fate; my perplexed 
 imagination conjuring up pictures of horror, and seeing myself 
 already travelling on the road to the rack and that dreadful 
 death which was ever present to my mind. My guide showed 
 me, after a good deal of wandering about, into a dark room, 
 conveying to me by a sign that I should expect him here. I 
 stood still, in what state of mind any one can guess. I counted 
 the moments with feverish excitement — when the door opened 
 again. A few seconds yet of suspense and the servant 
 approached at last, and by the light of the opening door I saw 
 him holding in his hand, instead of the frightful instruments 
 of the executioner, a parcel carefully folded up. In it I found 
 
2 88 Arminius Vambdrys Travels m Asia, 
 
 a highly ornamental suit of clothing, and an amount of money 
 destined for my onward journey, sent to me as a present by 
 the Emir. 
 
 As soon as I obtained possession of the parcel I hastened 
 away to my companions, wild with joy at my escape. They 
 were quite as glad of my success as I myself had been. I 
 subsequently learned that someone had sent the Emir an 
 equivocating report about me, in consequence of which I was 
 received with diffidence at first by the Emir, but succeeded in 
 dissipating his mistrust, thanks to the glibness of my tongue. 
 
 None of the decayed cities of Asia made the same im- 
 pression on Professor Vambery as Samarcand, which " does in 
 truth excel all the other cities of Central Asia in its ancient 
 monuments, as well as in the splendour of its mosques, its 
 grand tombs, and new structures." 
 
 Professor Vambery returned to Europe through southern 
 Afghanistan and Herat. At Herat, Yakoob Khan, who after- 
 wards became well known in Afghan history, penetrated his 
 disguise for a moment, but was thrown off the scent by the 
 dervish's readiness in quoting a passage from the Koran. 
 With the exception of this incident, the false dervish succeeded 
 in deceiving all his companions and those with whom he came 
 into contact as to his personality. Neither khan nor hadji 
 suspected him of being a European. Suspicion would have 
 led to discovery, and discovery would probably mean certain 
 death. He returned, however, at length in safety to tell 
 Europeans of the strange things he had seen in the lands of 
 Central Asia. 
 
289 
 
 THE FATE OF A GERMAN WATCHMAKER IN BOKHARA. 
 
 WHEN Vambery was in the city of Bokhara, an incident 
 occurred which strikingly illustrates the perils to 
 which all foreigners were exposed in those times. It is not 
 found in his recently published volume, but when in England, 
 shortly after returning from the East, he published the 
 narrative in the Leisure Hour, for August 1865. 
 
 When near Bokhara I broke the glass of my compass, 
 which was in the shape of a watch, and had often done me 
 essential service on my journey. I call it a compass for 
 my European readers, but, in the eyes of my mendicant 
 fellow-travellers, I carried, as a dervish, a kiblenumah, that 
 is, such an instrument as every devout Mussulman is guided 
 by when travelling, as it indicates the direction in which lie 
 the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, towards which he must 
 kneel to perform his appointed devotions. When we arrived 
 at a station or halting-place, either by night or day, the 
 honour of pointing out the holy sites by the kiblenumah was 
 always accorded to me ; but I had so often to consult this 
 instrument, as well on the road as at the stations, to ascertain 
 the right direction, that it behoved me to guard it as the apple 
 of my eye. 
 
 Watches are scarce in Bokhara, and it is hardly possible 
 to find a watchmaker ; so I began to fear I might have great 
 difficulty in procuring a new glass for my compass. For 
 long I inquired everywhere, till at last some one informed me 
 that, in a certain caravanserai, there was a clever mechanic ; 
 but, as such artists were scarce, and his skill was highly 
 prized, it would not be possible for me, a mendicant, to have 
 my work done by him. '* If I cannot give much in money," 
 thought I to myself, '' I will give an abundance of blessings ;'' 
 and soon I was on my way to find the workshop of the Tartar 
 mechanic. I wandered long hither and thither ere I found 
 
 J9 
 
290 The Fate of a German Watchmaker, 
 
 the caravanserai. A long dark passage led to his room. 
 When I opened the door, I was amazed to find myself in a 
 neat apartment, with whitened walls and windows of oiled 
 paper. Such traces of European habits in the midst of the 
 chief town of Tartary astonished me, and I was still further 
 puzzled at perceiving a table and chair, and, seated on the 
 latter, a man in a European dressing-gown and a comfortable 
 cap, who was busy at work, with his back towards me. "Es 
 selam aleikum ! " (Peace be to thee !), said I in a loud voice ; 
 and I sat down in the greatest bewilderment as to who the 
 mysterious artist could be. After I had uttered the accus- 
 tomed prayer of a dervish, he turned round, and his Tartar 
 countenance was so marked that I could not be deceived on 
 that point ; but my curiosity remained as to his dress and 
 furniture, when the Tartar interrupted his work with the 
 following conversation : — 
 
 '' Do I understand by your speech that you are from Con- 
 stantinople ? What business has brought you here ? There 
 are clever watchmakers in your country. You would have 
 made me happier if you could have brought me springs and 
 wheels, which get broken here." 
 
 '' Ah," said I, " that is too difficult for such a long journey. 
 But tell me, how have you learned this art, if you have never 
 been in Constantinople?" 
 
 " I never was out of Bokhara. I learned this handiwork 
 from a European feringhee (infidel) who dwelt here for three 
 years in the time of the Emir Nasrullah. He was a diligent 
 and excellent workman, and not a bad infidel, whom the pious 
 Emir ordered to be put to death because he tried to return 
 to his native country, though many times forbidden to do so. 
 You know that in Bokhara spies in various disguises are 
 always sent out to watch the feringhees in Bokhara, and, 
 when they return with the needful intelligence, they are taken." 
 In spite of my eager desire to hear more, I durst not inquire 
 how he was apprehended. I did, however, make an allusion 
 to it, and the Tartar then informed me that his master often 
 
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The Fate of a Germmi Watchmaker, 291 
 
 did not leave his room for days, and that he read much in a 
 book which the Emir took away after his death. 
 
 '^ Just where you are sitting," continued the watchmaker, 
 '' he used to sleep ; and when he awoke in the morning, he 
 knelt down before what is written over your head, and 
 performed his devotions." 
 
 The words " what is written over your head " filled me 
 at once with the greatest agitation and most painful impatience. 
 For me, as a holy Dervish, to show curiosity might have been 
 dangerous. I recovered myself as well as I could. Without 
 leaving my place or speaking further, I handed him my com- 
 pass to repair, and asked him to give me a looking-glass, that 
 I might see what caused the painful burning in my eye. No 
 sooner had I taken the ominous glass in my hand than I, 
 trembling, looked in it to see the reflection of the writing over 
 my head. After some research, I did indeed find a line, in 
 small German running-hand, and read the words, '^ In the 
 name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen." I felt 
 stunned and trembled. The glass was still in my hand, and, 
 in spite of all my efforts, I could not conceal the pallor of my 
 countenance. Within me was a terrible struggle between 
 dread and curiosity, these few words moved me so strongly. 
 Fortunately I was able to control myself, and to quiet my 
 emotion. I continued the conversation. I could not, however, 
 find out much about the poor mechanic, more than that he 
 came hither from Cabul and was killed ; that he was a 
 German ; and that by his skill he had earned about two 
 thousand tengi, on account of which the greedy tyrant had 
 ordered him to be put to death. I perceived from the words 
 of this man how much he was devoted to his master. To me, 
 who, sitting opposite to him, appeared as a holy man, he was 
 afraid to show his love to the infidel ; yet it was evident, 
 not only in his words, but in his care of the furniture and 
 dress, which he had acquired by purchase. Nothing was 
 moved, nothing changed ; and, strangest of all, the writing 
 was not obliterated. Perhaps, if I had dared to investigate 
 
292 The Gallant Defe^ice 
 
 more narrowly, I might have discovered his name. But 
 how was that possible for me in my character as dervish, 
 and in Bokhara ? 
 
 For long, long in my distant journeyings, there floated 
 before my eyes the unfortunate destiny and the handwriting 
 of the devout mechanic. When I recalled him to mind, I 
 seemed to see him as he knelt at his devotions, and in the 
 midst of barbaric fanaticism, calling in his mother-tongue 
 on that Spirit who is present to all. How ardent must have 
 been his supplications when carried from this spot to the 
 place of execution ! A year afterwards, as I returned through 
 Persia on my way to Europe, I heard in Tabriz, from a 
 German residing there, that the fate of the unhappy watch- 
 maker was not unknown to him, for he had been told of 
 it by some Hadjis from Bokhara. The Italian who met 
 Dr. Wolff in Bokhara had been present at the execution ; and 
 a similar fate would probably await any European whose 
 skill might enable him to enrich himself there. 
 
 THE GALLANT DEFENCE OF RORKE'S DRIFT. 
 
 THERE have been some terrible disasters amidst the 
 glorious successes which have usually brightened the 
 annals of the British army. In recent times no disaster more 
 unexpected and more overwhelming has been recorded, than 
 the almost total destruction of the 24th regiment at Isandhlana, 
 in Zululand. The circumstances may be briefly recalled to 
 mind. The Kaffirs of Zululand, under their king, Cetewayo, 
 were threatening to overrun the territory of Natal, where the 
 white population forms but a small number compared with ; 
 the natives. It was resolved to carry war into the Zulu! 
 territory, as the best way of protecting our own colony. Lord I 
 Chelmsford commanded the British force^ with native allies,] 
 
of Rorkes Drift. 293 
 
 employed for this purpose. Entering the Zulu territory, a 
 halt was made at Isandhlana, or Isandula, for the name is 
 variously written. Lord Chelmsford went forward toward the 
 hilly region to reconnoitre, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Pulleine, 
 with the first battalion of the 24th regiment, under strict 
 orders to defend the camp. Colonel Durnford, in command of 
 the post at Rorke's Drift, was ordered to join Colonel Pulleine, 
 and he arrived with a large number of mounted natives, 
 bringing up the number in camp to about fifteen hundred, 
 more than half of them British troops. 
 
 The Zulu forces, who had probably enticed Lord Chelmsford 
 to a distance by retiring as he advanced, now began to concen- 
 trate towards the camp at Isandhlana. They numbered over 
 twenty thousand fighting men. They formed an immensely 
 extended semicircle, or line with horns, closing in gradually 
 as they advanced. Durnford, unaware of the force of the 
 Zulus, went out to meet them, instead of strengthening the 
 camp, which could have been made into a fortress by parking 
 or laagering the waggons, and other defensive arrangements. 
 Durnford was driven back, and the whole mass of the enemy 
 closed in upon the camp before preparations to receive them 
 could be made. It was a short and fearful struggle. While 
 ammunition held out the enemy was kept at bay, and many 
 Zulus fell, but before long it was a rout and massacre. A few 
 mounted men managed to reach the river some miles off, but 
 nearly fifteen hundred English and native troops were slaugh- 
 tered in the camp or during the flight. 
 
 Lord Chelmsford was not a dozen miles off, and heard firing, 
 but had no conception of danger till a solitary horseman, 
 Commandant Lonsdale, came up with the startling announce- 
 ment that the camp was in the possession of the enemy. He 
 knew no details, but having been at some distance from the 
 camp, in the forenoon of the 22nd January, 1879, the day of 
 thfe disaster, he was surprised to see Zulus dressed in English 
 uniforms, with English weapons as well as their own blood- 
 stained assegais. He could see also the dead lying in heaps. 
 
294 ^-^^ Gallant Defence 
 
 Not losing his presence of mind, he instantly rode off in 
 the direction where Lord Chelmsford had gone, escaping the 
 shower of bullets sent after him when first observed. His 
 warning came just in time, for the commander-in-chief was 
 leisurely and unsuspectingly returning towards the camp, having 
 of course failed to find the enemy among the hills. Advancing 
 now with great caution, and resting on the march for some 
 hours of the night, the light of the next morning revealed all 
 the horrors of the scene. The victorious Zulus happily did 
 not attack them, and Lord Chelmsford pushed on past the 
 camp, and crossed the river to Rorke's Drift. Here he heard 
 of events equally strange to him, but which stood out in 
 glorious contrast to the gloomy scenes of Isandhlana. 
 
 On the same day, the 22 nd January, an attack was made 
 by a vast multitude of Zulus, many of them with their hands 
 and weapons red with blood from the slaughtered troops at 
 the camp, on the small outpost at Rorke's Drift. Here were 
 two small houses, or huts, with enclosures, used as a commis- 
 sariat depot, and sheltering a few invalids. The post was in 
 charge of Lieutenant Chard, of the Royal Engineers, with a 
 detachment of soldiers, and the keepers of the stores, the whole 
 under his command numbering one hundred and thirty-nine, 
 all told. No danger was thought of, and no rumour of the 
 disaster that had occurred had reached them till the afternoon 
 of that terrible day. Lieutenant Chard was watching at the 
 '' ponts " on the river, where a few men were on guard, when 
 two of the fugitives from the camp shouted frantically across. 
 They were at once ferried over, and in hasty broken words 
 told the startling story of that day's tragic work, and that the 
 whole Zulu force would be soon upon them. Hurrying to the 
 post. Lieutenant Chard found that Lieutenant Bromhead, of 
 the company of the 24th left in charge, had already learned the 
 news from an officer of the Native contingent, who had escaped 
 by swimming the river. Bromhead had at once begun to 
 loophole the houses, and to erect barricades with mealie bags. 
 All set to work in right earnest. A rude entrenchment of 
 
of Rorkes Drift. 295 
 
 piled biscuit-boxes, and every sort of material within reach, 
 was arranged for defence. Orders were given clearly to every 
 man as to the particular post he was to occupy, and in little 
 more than an hour all were ready for the fast approaching 
 storm. The invalid soldiers were in one of the huts, the 
 entrances to which were barricaded as strongly as possible, 
 with a guard for their defence. 
 
 They had not long to wait in suspense. The Zulus were 
 soon descried, hurrying in swarms towards the post, three 
 thousand of them at the lowest estimate. Rushing forward, 
 they were met by a cool and steadily-aimed volley, which 
 checked their advance. Some sought the cover of the bushes 
 and rocks near, and others swept round to the rear. Whenever 
 an assault in mass was renewed, it was met with the same 
 steady fire as at the first rush. The savages seemed furious 
 at being checked, after their recent triumph over a large British 
 force, and attacked again and again with fearless fury. At 
 times the brave defenders were driven back from their rough 
 outwork, and the Zulus succeeded in setting fire to the house 
 where the invalids were, some of whom perished before they 
 could be moved. The conflict was maintained all through the 
 evening and during the night, and not till four o'clock next 
 morning did the desperate assaults cease. At this time the 
 assailants retired, but with the intention of renewing the 
 attack, reinforced by newly-arriving hosts of Zulus. There 
 was no rest, however, for the holders of the fort, who set to 
 work to strengthen their position for resisting fresh attacks. 
 The bodies of the slain were used, with the mealie bags, and 
 whatever could be found, to form the redoubt, and give shelter 
 for a second line of fire round the post. 
 
 It was while thus engaged that Lord Chelmsford arrived on 
 the scene, with his force that had not been engaged, and 
 cheered them by a few words of congratulation and praise, for 
 their '' noble efforts and gallant defence." In a general order, 
 issued a few days after, he said : '' The odds against them were 
 nearly thirty to one ; but taking advantage of the material 
 
296 The Gallant Defence 
 
 which -lay to hand, and hastily constructing with it such cover 
 as was possible, this heroic little garrison was enabled to 
 resist, during the space of twelve hours, the determined attacks 
 made upon them, and further inflicted heavy loss upon the 
 enemy, the killed alone being more than three times their own 
 number." 
 
 The Zulus, perceiving the accession of strength by Lord 
 Chelmsford's arrival, made no further attack, and retired baffled 
 and enraged. The glorious success at Rorke's Drift, when 
 heard of in England, was hailed as the bright episode of a dark 
 and disastrous campaign. Its record places in all the sadder 
 contrast the calamity at Isandhlana, the result of incompetence 
 and misunderstanding painful to remember. 
 
 It only remains to present the official report of Lieutenant 
 Chard, the model of what such a report should be, in its 
 modest statement of his own service, and generous recognition 
 of that of his comrades, and affording a graphic sketch of an 
 event which will ever be memorable in the annals of British 
 heroism. 
 
 Rorke^s Drift, January 25///, 1879. 
 
 I have to report that on the 22nd inst. I was left in com- 
 mand at Rorke's Drift, by Major Spalding, who went to 
 Helpmakar in order to hurry forward a company of the 
 24th Regiment. I was specially ordered to protect the ponts. 
 At 3.15 P.M. that day I was watching at the ponts, when two 
 men came towards us from Zululand at a gallop. They shouted 
 out, and were taken across the river ; and I was then informed 
 by one of them — Lieutenant Adendorff, of Commandant 
 Lonsdale's regiment, who afterwards remained to assist in the 
 defence — of the disaster befallen at the Isandula camp, and 
 that the Zulus were advancing on Rorke's Drift. The other, 
 a carbineer, rode on to take the news forward to Helpmakar. 
 
 Almost immediately afterwards I received a message from 
 Lieutenant Bromhead, Commander of the company of the 
 24th Regiment at the post, asking me to come up at once. 
 
.GALLANT DEFENCE OF RORKE's DRIFT. THE MORNING AFTER THE CONFLICT. [/rt^(? 296. 
 
of Rorkes Drift. 297 
 
 I gave instructions to strike tents, and to put all stores into the 
 waggons, while I instantly made my way to the commissariat 
 store, and there found a note that had been received from the 
 Third Column (Lord Chelmsford's), stating that the enemy 
 was advancing in force against our post, which we were to 
 strengthen and hold at all costs. Lieutenant Bromhead was 
 already most actively engaged loopholing and barricading the 
 store building and hospital, and also in connecting the defences 
 of the two buildings by walls, constructed with mealie bags 
 and waggons. 1 held a hurried consultation with him and 
 Mr. Dalton of the commissariat, who was actively superintend- 
 ing the work of defence, and whom I cannot sufficiently thank 
 for his most valuable services — and I entirely approved all his 
 arrangements. I then went round our position, down to the 
 porrts, and brought up along with their guard (one sergeant and 
 six men) the gear, waggons, etc. I desire to mention, for approval, 
 the offer of these pont guards, Daniels and Sergeant Milne, who, 
 with their comrades, volunteered to moor the ponts out in the 
 middle of the stream, and then to defend them from the decks, 
 with a few men to assist. 
 
 We arrived back at our post at 3.30 p.m., and shortly after 
 an officer, with some of Durnford's Horse, came in, and asked 
 orders from me. I requested him to send a detachment to 
 observe the drifts and ponts, and to throw out vedettes in the 
 direction of the enemy, in order to check their advance as 
 much as possible, his men falling back upon the posts when 
 forced to retire, and thereafter to assist in the defence. 1 next 
 requested Lieutenant Bromhead to station his men, and, having 
 seen every man knew his post, the rest of the work went 
 quickly on. 
 
 At 4.20 P.M. the sound of firing was heard behind the hill to 
 the south. The officer of Durnford's Horse returned, reporting 
 that the enemy was now close upon us. His men, he told me, 
 would not obey orders, but were going off towards Helpmakar, 
 and I myself saw them in retreat, apparently about one hundred, 
 going in that direction. About the same time Captain Stephen- 
 
298 The Gallant Defence 
 
 son's detachment of the Natal Native contingent left us — as 
 did that officer himself. 
 
 I saw that our line of defence was too extended for the 
 small number of men now left, and at once commenced an 
 inner entrenchment of biscuit-boxes, out of which we had soon 
 completed a wall two boxes high, when about 4.50 p.m. four 
 or five hundred of the enemy came suddenly in sight round the 
 hill to the south. They advanced at a run towards our south 
 wall, but were met by a well-sustained fire ; yet, notwith- 
 standing heavy loss, they continued to advance till within fifty 
 yards of the wall, when their leading men encountered such 
 a hot fire from our front, with a cross fire from the store, that 
 they were checked. Taking advantage, however, of the cover 
 afforded by the cook-house and the ovens, they kept up thence 
 heavy musketry volleys ; the greater number, however, with- 
 out stopping at all, moved on towards the left, round our 
 hospital, and there made a rush upon the north-west wall and 
 our breastwork of mealie bags. After a short but desperate 
 struggle these assailants were driven back, with heavy loss, 
 into the bush round our works. 
 
 The main body of the enemy close behind had meantime 
 lined the ledge of rocks, and filled some caves overlooking us, 
 at a distance of one hundred yards to south, from whence they 
 kept up a constant fire. Another body, advancing somewhat 
 more to the left than those who first attacked us, occupied a 
 garden in the hollow of the road, and also the bush beyond it, 
 in great force, taking special advantage of the bush, which we 
 had not had time to cut down. The enemy was thus able to 
 advance close to our -works, and in this part soon held one 
 whole side of the wall, while we, on the other, kept back a 
 series of desperate assaults which were made on a line extend- 
 ing from the hospital all along the wall as far as the bush. But 
 each attack was most splendidly met and repulsed by our men 
 with the bayonet. Corporal Scheiss, of the Natal Native 
 contingent, greatly distinguishing himself by conspicuous 
 gallantry. The fire from the rock behind our post, though 
 
of Rorkes Drift, 299 
 
 badly directed, took us completely in reverse, and was so heavy 
 that we suffered very severely, and at 6 p.m. were finally 
 forced to retire behind the entrenchment of biscuit-boxes. 
 
 All this time the enemy had been attemping to force the 
 hospital, and shortly afterwards did set fire to the roof. The 
 garrison of the hospital defended the place, room by room, our 
 men bringing out all the sick who could be moved before they 
 retired. Privates Williams, Hook, R. Jones, and W. Jones, of 
 the 24th Regiment, were the last four men to leave, holding 
 the doorway against the Zulus with bayonets, their ammuni- 
 tion being quite expended. From the want of interior 
 accommodation, and the smoke of the burning house, it was 
 found impossible to carry off all the sick, and, with most 
 heartfelt sorrow and regret, we could not save a few poor 
 fellows from a terrible fate. Seeing the hospital burning, and 
 desperate attempts being made by the enemy to fire the roof 
 of our store, we now converted two mealie-bag heaps into a 
 sort of redoubt, which gave a second line of fire all along, 
 Assistant-Commissary Dunn working hard at this, though 
 much exposed, thus rendering most valuable assistance. 
 
 Darkness then came on. We were completely surrounded, 
 and after several furious attacks had been gallantly repulsed, 
 we were eventually forced to retire to the middle and then to 
 the inner wall of our kraal, on the east of the position we at 
 first had. We were sustaining throughout all this a desultory 
 fire, and several assaults were attempted, but always repulsed 
 with vigour, the attacks continuing till after midnight, our men 
 firing with the greatest coolness, not wasting a single shot. 
 The light afforded by the burning hospital proved a great 
 advantage. At 4 a.m., on the 23rd of January, firing ceased; 
 and at daybreak the enemy were passing out of sight over the 
 hill to the south-west. We then patrolled the ground, collect- 
 ing arms from the dead bodies of the Zulus, and we 
 strengthened the position as much as possible. We were still 
 removing thatch from the roof of the store, when about 7 a.m. 
 a large body of the enemy once more appeared upon the hills 
 
300 Heroes of the Victoria Cross. • 
 
 to the south-west. I now sent a friendly Kaffir, who had 
 come in shortly before, with a note to the officer commanding 
 at Helpmakar asking help. About 8 a.m., however, the British 
 Third Column [appeared, and at sight of this the enemy, who 
 had been gradually advancing towards us, commenced falling 
 back, as our troops approached. 
 
 I consider the enemy which attacked us to have numbered 
 about three thousand ; we killed about three hundred and fifty. 
 Of the steadiness and gallant behaviour of my whole garrison 
 I cannot speak too highly. I wish especially to bring to your 
 notice the conduct of Lieutenant Bromhead, and the splendid 
 behaviour of his Company B. 2, 24th Regiment; of Surgeon 
 Reynolds, in respect of his constant attention to our wounded, 
 under fire, assisting them when they fell; of Acting-Commissary- 
 Officer Dalton, to whose energy much of our defence was due, 
 and who was severely wounded while gallantly assisting in the 
 fight ; Assistant-Commissary Dunn, and others. 
 
 The following return shows the little number present at 
 Rorke's Drift on January 22nd, 1879 — 8 officers, 131 non- 
 commissioned officers and men ; total 139. The following 
 is the list of killed. (Here follow the names.) Total, 15, 
 and 12 wounded, of whom 2 have since died. 
 
 (Signed) John R. M. Chard, Lieutenant, R.E. 
 
 HEROES OF THE VICTORIA CROSS. 
 
 AFTER the close of the Crimean war, during which the 
 nation was aglow with patriotic feeling, and when the 
 heroic deeds and noble endurance of our soldiers and sailors 
 excited general admiration and sympathy, it was determined 
 to provide a special decoration as a reward of personal valour. 
 Before that time the custom had been to give medals to all 
 who were engaged in any campaign or conflict. There was no 
 
Heroes of the Victoria Cross, 301 
 
 discrimination in such awards, and the ordinary service medals 
 might be worn by those who had slight claim to the honour. 
 But a decoration for conspicuous acts of individual valour or 
 devotion was an object of higher ambition, and the Crimean 
 campaign seemed a fit time to institute such an order of 
 merit. 
 
 Accordingly, by Royal Warrant, on the 19th January, 1856, 
 the Victoria Cross was instituted. It was not deemed advis- 
 able to make the action of the Warrant retrospective, and 
 therefore the Crimean heroes were the first to receive the 
 much-coveted decoration. 
 
 Many will long remember the scene in June 1857 when, 
 amidst immense enthusiasm, the Queen fastened with her own 
 hands the plain gun- metal Maltese cross, with the simple 
 legend " for valour," on the breasts of about sixty men, of all 
 ranks ' in both services. Forty-seven were awarded to the 
 army, twelve to the navy, and two to the marines, on that 
 occasion. There are now many hundreds of gallant men who 
 wear the cross, and who are entitled to put the honoured title of 
 V,C. after their names. Every one of these hundreds of names 
 has attached to it a story of stirring interest, and many volumes 
 of the most thrilling adventure could be filled with the records 
 of the deeds that have been thus commemorated. Several 
 books of the sort there are, and they are not only full of 
 interest, but are of practical use in rousing the young military 
 and naval readers of them to emulate the deeds there described. 
 We cannot here give many details, but select only a few cases, as 
 examples of the kind of services _which the Victoria Cross seeks 
 to reward and to encourage. 
 
 Let four instances suffice from the Crimean War, for valour 
 during which, altogether from first to last, about one hundred 
 and fifty crosses were distributed. Two of them are given 
 from the records of the army, and two from those of the navy. 
 
 During the terrible Battle of Inkerman, the result of which 
 depended more upon individual deeds of valour than upon 
 skilful generalship, the Russians at one critical period had 
 
302 Heroes of the Victoria Cross. 
 
 gained possession of what was known as the Sandbag Battery, 
 and were pouring from it a deadly fire. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir 
 Charles Russell, of the Grenadier Guards, offered to dislodge 
 them if any of his men would follow him. A sergeant and a 
 number of privates instantly sprang forward. It was a daring 
 venture, against terrific odds. Several of those who made the 
 rush at the battery were shot down, but Sir Charles Russell 
 held his ground, in the midst of a confused melee. In a 
 letter to his mother after the battle the gallant colonel thus 
 described the critical moment : " There were repeated cries of 
 * charge,' and some man near me said, ' If any officer will lead 
 us we will charge.' As I was the only one just there, I could 
 not refuse such an appeal, so I jumped into the embrasure, and 
 waving my revolver said, ' Come on, my lads ; who will follow 
 me ? I then rushed on." In the desperate struggle that 
 ensued some of the bravest men fell, and the leader was in 
 utmost peril. A private of the Grenadiers, named Palmer, 
 kept close to him, and was one of a small band who saved the 
 colours of the battalion from falling into the hands of the 
 enemy, who were still in overwhelming force. The Russians 
 soon gave way before the desperate valour of their assailants, 
 and the battery was held by the victorious guards. To Sir 
 Charles Russell, and to Palmer, who was promoted next 
 morning to be corporal, the Victoria Cross was presented by 
 Her Majesty. 
 
 Now for the two examples of valour in the Royal Navy. 
 We have already referred to the gallant services of Captain 
 William Peel during the Crimean war {ante, p. 66), in the 
 story of " A Ride through the Nubian Desert." Captain Peel 
 was in command of H.M.S. Diamond, and a naval brigade 
 from that ship formed a battery before Sebastopol, which was 
 named the Diamond Battery. One day some fresh ammunition 
 was brought up from the rear. The enemy were firing briskly, 
 and as the horses were terrified and would not move, it 
 was necessary for some of the men to go into the open, unload 
 the powder-cases from the waggons, and carry them into the 
 
Heroes of the Victoria Cross. 303 
 
 )attery. While thus engaged a shell came right into their 
 midst. '^ The fuse is burning ! '^ someone cried out, as he 
 foresaw the awful explosion that seemed imminent. Captain 
 Peel saw the shell with the fuse alight, and without a moment's 
 hesitation leaped over the powder-cases, and lifting the shell 
 threw it over the parapet. It had hardly left his hands when 
 it burst, but now at too great a distance to explode the powder. 
 By this cool heroism, at such terrible risk, a disaster was 
 prevented, and the deed gained for him the Victoria Cross. 
 
 A young boatswain's mate of H.M.S. Rodney was also serving 
 with the naval brigade on shore. Several times he distin- 
 guished himself by daring deeds. It was desirable to plant a 
 flag-staff on a mound behind which a troublesome Russian 
 battery was working. When he gained the height he became- 
 a conspicuous mark for the Russian riflemen, but he was cool 
 enough to take observation of the exact position of the Russian 
 guns, and then kneeling down he scraped with his hands a 
 hole for the signal-staff, propping it with stones and earth, 
 after satisfying himself that he was in the line between 
 the brigade guns and the Russian battery which had to be 
 silenced, but of which the exact position could not be seen. 
 For this cool and brave act he received the Victoria Cross ; 
 and he obtained also, for other services, French, Sardinian, and 
 Turkish medals. 
 
 Within a year and a half of the institution of the order " for 
 valour," the Indian Mutiny broke out, and a new field was 
 opened for daring and heroic deeds. The first exploit honoured 
 by the gift of the Victoria Cross was characteristic of the 
 gallantry and self-devotion which appeared throughout the 
 whole of that fearful time. After the outbreak of the mutiny 
 at Meerut, the native troops made for Delhi. There were, 
 unfortunately, — or rather, let us say by strange mismanagement, 
 — no European regiments in the city of the old Moguls, although 
 it was the most important magazine of military stores in 
 northern India, and the presence of the king was sure to 
 attract the mutinous troops from all directions. On the morning 
 
304 
 
 Heroes of the Victo^da Cross. 
 
 of the 1 2th May, 1857, Lieutenant Willoughby of the Bengal 
 Artillery, the officer in charge, with two other lieutenants, and 
 the keepers of the military stores, nine in all, were at their 
 usual duties, utterly unaware of what was going on in the city, 
 which was separated from the magazine by the river Jumna. 
 An English resident hastened to inform them that the native 
 regiments were in revolt, and that a strong force was already 
 crossing the bridge to seize, the magazine. The natives in the 
 place could not be depended on, and what could nine English- 
 men do against the hosts advancing upon them ? They 
 determined to defend the post as best they could till succour 
 arrived from Meerut, not knowing of the events that had 
 happened there. If they could not keep the enemy at bay, 
 they resolved to blow up the magazine, being ready to 
 sacrifice their own lives rather than allow the rebels to get 
 possession of the arms and ammunition which they were 
 coming to seize. Guns were posted within the gates, loaded 
 with double charges of grape, to receive the enemy, and in 
 case of the entrance being forced, a train was laid from the 
 magazine, to be lighted as soon as further defence seemed 
 hopeless. 
 
 At this time a summons to surrender came from the king, 
 and a message that the gates were to be opened, and the stores 
 delivered up. The summons was treated with indignant 
 contempt. A threat was made that the place would be carried 
 by escalade, and soon the scaling-ladders appeared, and the 
 rebels were swarming over the walls. The native artificers 
 and other attendants had already thrown off their disguise, 
 and fraternized with the rebels. The guns were fired re- 
 peatedly, but it was impossible to bring fresh ammunition, 
 and they were exposed to heavy volleys of musketry from 
 the walls. Seeing that resistance was hopeless, the signal 
 was given and the train was fired. Not one of the brave 
 nine expected to escape with life, but Willoughby and three 
 others, though terribly stunned and bruised, managed to 
 make good their retreat from the ruins, where hundreds of 
 
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Heroes of the Victoria Cross. 305 
 
 the mutineers perished. Willoughby got into the open country, 
 but was murdered by a band of armed villagers in attempting 
 to reach Meerut ; Forest, Rayner, and Buckley survived to 
 receive promotion, and to wear the Victoria Cross, the first 
 who got it in the Indian Mutiny. The result of the explosion 
 was not so important in its material consequences, for there 
 were still large amounts of military stores undamaged, but the 
 moral effect of the heroic design was immeHse. 
 
 " From one end of India to another," says Kaye, in his 
 " History of the Sepoy War," " it filled men with enthusiastic 
 admiration ; and when news reached England that a young 
 artillery officer named Willoughby had blown up the Delhi 
 magazine, there was a burst of applause that came from the 
 deep heart of the nation. It was the first of many intrepid 
 acts which have made us proud of our countrymen in India, 
 but its brilliancy has never been eclipsed. Sad to think that 
 Willoughby did not live to wear the Victoria Cross !" 
 
 During the siege of Delhi there were several memorable 
 incidents which gained the merited reward of valour, and 
 none more conspicuously than when Major Tombs, every 
 inch a hero, rushed to the rescue of a younger friend, Lieu- 
 tenant Hills, of the Horse Artillery, equally brave, but who 
 was in peril, disarmed and helpless amidst murderous foes, 
 after maintaining an unequal struggle with several assailants. 
 Tombs and Hills both received the Victoria Cross. 
 
 At the critical moment of the storming of Delhi, a small 
 band of gallant men undertook the perilous duty of blowing 
 in the Cashmere gate, led by Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, 
 of the Bengal Engineers, in broad daylight. Under a fierce 
 fire from the walls, they advanced to the gate, planted and 
 fired the powder bags, and opened a way for the attacking 
 column, waiting the result with breathless anxiety. Most 
 of the exploding party were killed, but of the survivors, the 
 two Lieutenants, Sergeant Smith of the same corps, and 
 Bugler Hawthorn of the 52nd Regiment, received the Victoria 
 Cross, the honour of which Home and Salkeld lived only a 
 
 20 
 
3o6 Heroes of the Victoria Cross. 
 
 short time to enjoy. But the fame of their exploit remained to 
 rouse others to heroic efforts, in other posts of danger during 
 the rebelhon. 
 
 Nor was it only by soldiers that the Victoria Cross was 
 gained during the Sepoy rebellion. Not a few civilians received 
 it for heroic deeds ; and several medical officers, though 
 reckoned as *' non-combatants," were as brave in action as 
 they were devoted to their professional duties. Some of 
 the most distinguished deeds were done by civilians. Mr. 
 Ross Lewis Mangles, assistant magistrate at Patna, and Mr. 
 Fraser McDonell, magistrate of Chuprah, may be named as 
 examples, and it has been remarked, that " the gallant deed 
 of Mangles solved the question as to whether civilians could 
 share with their military brethren the honour of the Victoria 
 Cross." The occasion was this. Three Sepoy regiments had 
 mutinied at Dinapoor, and after the usual scenes of violence, 
 they hastened towards Arrah, a distance of about twenty-four 
 miles, expecting to surprise the Europeans there. There 
 were only fifteen of them, with a few native Christians, and 
 fifty Sikhs at the station. Mr. Herwald Wake, the magistrate, 
 assisted by Mr. , Vicars Bcle, an engineer of the railway, 
 had just time to make a roughly-fortified post of a two-storied 
 house, about fifty feet square. Here for a week the little 
 garrison kept at bay some thousands of infuriated rebels, 
 who swarmed around them, thirsty for blood and for plunder. 
 A relieving force was sent by the civil magistrate of Patna, j 
 within whose district Arrah lay. There were nearly five 
 hundred in all, including seventy Sikhs. Two civilians^ 
 Mangles and McDonell, volunteered to accompany the force. 
 
 It was a disastrous expedition. Arriving near Arrah in the 
 night, suddenly a terrible fire was opened upon them from an 
 ambuscade in a dense grove of mangoes. The assailants could 
 not be seen, and the fire could be met only by random 
 shots, by which friends were as likely to be hit as foes. 
 Captain Dunbar, of the loth Foot, the leader of the force, 
 was killed by the first volley and during the hours of darkness! 
 
 
Heroes of the Victoria Cross. 307 
 
 the men were continually being shot down. When daylight 
 broke, it was apparent to the survivors that their only chance 
 of escape was to return to the river, which they had crossed 
 in their evening advance. The Sepoys crowded after them, 
 shooting many down as they retreated. Happily the boats 
 were in the place where they had been left, but it was with 
 the utmost difficulty they could get away from the crowd 
 of fierce pursuers. Less than two hundred of the whole 
 reached the shore, and of these only about fifty were un- 
 wounded. Some gallant deeds were witnessed during the 
 hasty retreat. Lieutenant Ingleby, who led the retiring force, 
 kept the men in heart by his cool and resolute bearing, and 
 was the last to leave the shore. A bullet struck him just 
 as he was stepping into a boat, and his body fell into the 
 stream. Ensign Erskine, of the loth Foot, had been struck 
 down a little before, and was at the mercy of the rebels, when 
 Private Dempsey rushed back to his aid, and bore him in 
 his arms towards the riyer — an act of devotion for which, 
 with subsequent services during the mutiny, he received the 
 Victoria Cross. One of these services was carrying through 
 a burning village, with marksmen aiming at him, a bag of 
 powder with which to mine a passage in rear of the enem3'^'s 
 position, a feat of extraordinary risk, which none but a brave 
 and resolute man would attempt. 
 
 But to return to the retreat from Arrah. Mangles, although 
 suffering from a severe musket ball wound in the head, 
 several times stopped to staunch the blood and dress the 
 wounds of fallen comrades, and when a private of the 37th 
 Regiment was struck down at his side, a large heavy man, 
 Mangles, though feeble from fasting and from his wound, 
 lifted the wounded soldier, and carried him on his back for 
 six miles, over rough and swampy ground, with the Sepoys 
 close behind, nor left him till he deposited his self-assumed 
 burden in safety in one of the boats. 
 
 McDonell's deed of daring was scarcely less conspicuous. 
 After performing many feats of valour during the retreat, he, 
 
3o8 Heroes of the Victoria Cross, 
 
 regardless of his own safety, rendered every assistance to the 
 helpless and wounded, and not till he saw them all off the 
 bank did he leap into the last boat, and push out into the 
 stream. The rebels had taken away the oars, and had lashed 
 the rudder, and the thirty-five soldiers on the boat were drifting 
 to the bank, from which a smart fire was kept up. McDonell 
 saw the danger, and from the bow of the boat called out to 
 cut the rope which lashed the rudder. Not being understood 
 or obeyed, McDonell saw that not a moment was to be lost, 
 and he did not repeat the order. The river boats have a 
 covered roof, upon which he climbed, exposed to a shower 
 of bullets, more than one of which pierced his hat and clothes, 
 but he got to the rope, and cutting it, seized the tiller, and 
 steered the boat into the stream, thus saving the lives of all 
 on board. So he shared with Mangles the honour of a civilian 
 bearing the badge of valour and merit. 
 
 In Kaye's " History of the Sepoy Revolt," and in other works 
 relating to that time, we cannot read many pages without 
 meeting with some deeds of heroic enterprise or of noble 
 endurance.* " I may be wrong," saysKaye," but I think this 
 heroism of Patience is grander far than the active gallantry 
 displayed in a perilous charge. It is far easier to rush at 
 an enemy in the fine enthusiasm of battle, than to stand stead- 
 fast on a given spot, for an ungiven period, waiting for the 
 order or the opportunity to move, whilst swept by the fire of 
 a hidden enemy. It is waiting that tries the man ; and never 
 were men more tried, or more patient under trial, than the 
 troopers of Hope Grant's brigade." This refers to a critical 
 season at the siege of Delhi, when for two hours the cavalry 
 brigade stood firm, exposed to terrible fire, waiting the order 
 to advance. The 9th Lancers mainly thus were exposed, but 
 
 * There is a good selection of instances of courage during the Indian 
 Mutiny in a work compiled by Edwin Hodder, entitled " Heroes of Britain, 
 in Peace and War " (published by Cassell & Co.), a book which ought to be 
 in every school library, being full of records not only of warlike daring, but 
 of devotion to duty in civil life. 
 
Heroes of the Victoria Cross. 309 
 
 with them were Tombs of the artillery, Probyn of the Punjab 
 Horse, and other heroic men, who knew how to wait as well 
 as how to fight. 
 
 In the early spring of the same year that the Indian Mutiny 
 broke out, there was a short but sharp war with Persia. Sir 
 James Outram was in command^ '' the Bayard of the Indian 
 army," whose name afterwards shone brigher than ever as 
 one of the conquerors of Lucknow, along with Havelock and 
 Clyde. The small British force in Persia was on one occasion 
 confronted by an army of double their numbers. The enemy's 
 artillery was soon silenced, and their cavalry routed, but a 
 strong battalion of infantry formed square, and seemed resolved 
 to meet the charge of the British cavalry. The battle might 
 have been prolonged, and many of our men sacrificed, if this 
 square remained firm. Their fire was very galling and de- 
 structive, and the square seemed impregnable. The cavalry 
 charge, led by Captain Forbes and other brave officers, was 
 steadily awaited by the Persian infantry with bayonets fixed. 
 Lieutenant Moore, mounted on a splendid charger, in advance 
 of all the others, rode right up to the square, and setting spurs 
 to his horse made him leap upon the bayonets. The poor 
 animal fell dead, and his rider must have shared the same 
 fate, but the confusion caused by the desperate leap left a gap 
 into which other men of the charging squadron rushed. The 
 square once broke, disorder began to appear, and there was a 
 confused mSlee. Lieutenant Malcolmson saw his friend Moore 
 on the ground, alive but with his sword broken, and in deadly 
 peril. Cutting his way to the place he told Moore to grasp his 
 stirrup, and wheeling round brought his friend safely out of the 
 surging crowd. By the good fortune which often favours the 
 brave, neither Moore nor his rescuer Malcolmson received the 
 sHghtest wound, and both received the Victoria Cross for their 
 gallantry on this occasion, and lived to distinguish them- 
 selves during the Sepoy rebellion.* 
 
 We might quote many other examples of heroic conduct in 
 the wars in China, in Abyssinia, in New Zealand, in Afghanistan, 
 
3IO KavanagJis daring Journey, 
 
 and in South Africa, for England has almost always had some 
 conflict on hand, even throughout what is commonly called 
 '^ the peaceful reign of Queen Victoria." But enough has 
 been said to give an idea of the kind of deeds rewarded by the 
 Victoria Cross, and to incite some of our readers to refer to the 
 books in which the noble actions, inspired by duty and by 
 patriotism, are recorded. 
 
 KAVANAGH'S DARING JOURNEY. 
 
 IN the history of the Indian Mutiny one of the most memor- 
 able events was the relief of Lucknow by Sir Colin 
 Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde. Next to Delhi, the city of 
 Lucknow was the place on the possession of which the result 
 of the war mainly turned. A large proportion of the Sepoy 
 troops belonged to this part of India, and Oude was the very 
 centre of the rebellion. Immense efforts were used to over- 
 whelm the little band of Englishmen, who against fearful odds 
 defended the Residency, which the brave and good Henry 
 Lawrence held till his death. 
 
 Then came the famous march of Havelock, from Allahabad 
 to Cawnpore, to reinforce the now few and feeble, but 
 dauntless defenders. The brave Outram joined the advancing 
 force, and when they had fought their way through the 
 besieging hosts, though entitled to command as the senior 
 officer, with the chivalry characteristic of him, became a 
 volunteer, merely in order that Havelock might have the 
 honour of leading the entry of the troops. 
 
 But the relieving force soon found itself closely besieged, 
 and in need of help, although " Havelock's march " was one of 
 the most brilliant exploits in the annals of the British army. 
 The city was beleaguered by countless foes, with every 
 appliance for carrying on the siege. Sorties were useless 
 
KavmiagJi s daring Journey. 3 1 1 
 
 against the numbers by whom the place was surrounded. It 
 came at last to be a matter of days how long the noble little 
 garrison could hold out, for provisions and ammunition were 
 quickly running short. 
 
 At last the rumour reached them that Colin Campbell was 
 on the march to their relief. It was then that the famous 
 incident occurred of the poor Scotchwoman who cheered the 
 fainting soldiers by declaring that she heard the notes of the 
 bagpipes. True, the " Campbells were coming," but they were 
 yet too far away to make this possible, and we must take it as an 
 instance of" second hearing," like the " second sight " of which 
 we read in Highland legends. But Sir Colin Campbell was 
 pushing forward with all possible haste, and at last a native 
 spy came into Lucknow, with tidings that the Commander-in- 
 chief was at Alumbagh, with five or six thousand men. 
 
 Mr. Kavanagh, an Irishman, of " the uncovenanted service," 
 was among those shut up in the Residency, with his wife and 
 family, throughout the siege. He was in infirm health at the 
 time, yet he took a gallant part in the defence, and was con- 
 spicuous for his deeds of daring, especially in the operations 
 when the approaches of the Sepoy sappers and miners had to be 
 resisted. He was thus engaged when he heard of the arrival of 
 a spy, whose name was Kunoujee Lai, and who was going 
 back to Alumbagh the same night with despatches from Sir James 
 Outram to Sir Colin Campbell. Believing that his local 
 knowledge would be of service in guiding the relieving force 
 into the city, he instantly resolved to volunteer to accompany 
 Kunoujee Lai to Alumbagh. He first went to find the man, 
 and told him he wished to go with him in disguise. Kunoujee 
 Lai objected, describing the dangers of the attempt, and saying 
 that the chances of detection in passing through the enemy's 
 lines would be doubled if two went together. Finding 
 Kavanagh resolved to go, he proposed that they should leave 
 the city by different roads, and meet at some distance outside. 
 Kavanagh objected to this, and left him to make preparation 
 for the perilous enterprise. The result of the journey, and the 
 
312 KavanagJis daring Journey, 
 
 story of the daring adventure, we give in Kavanagh's own 
 words. 
 
 " I had some days previously witnessed the preparation of 
 plans which were being made, by direction of Sir James Outram, 
 to assist the Commander-in-chief in his march into Lucknow, 
 and it then occurred to me that someone with the requisite 
 local knowledge ought to attempt to reach His Excellency's 
 camp beyond or at Alumbagh. The news of Sir Colin Camp- 
 bell's advance revived the idea, and I made up my mind to go 
 myself I mentioned it to Colonel R. Napier, chief of Sir 
 James Outram's staff. He was surprised at the offer, and 
 seemed to regard the enterprise as fraught with too much danger 
 to be assented to, but he did me the favour of communicating 
 the offer to Sir James Outram, because he considered, he said, 
 that my zeal ought to be brought to his notice. Sir James did 
 not encourage me to undertake the journey, declaring that he 
 thought it so dangerous that he would not himself have asked 
 any officer to attempt it. I, however, spoke so confidently of 
 success, and treated the danger so lightly, that he at last 
 yielded, and did me the honour of adding that if I succeeded 
 in reaching the Commander-in-chief, my knowledge would be 
 a great help to him. ' 
 
 " I secretly arranged for a disguise, so that my departure 
 might not be known to my wife, as she was not well enough to 
 bear the prospect of an eternal separation. When I left home 
 about seven in the evening she thought I was going on duty 
 for the night in the mines, for I was working there as an 
 assistant field-engineer, by order of Sir James Outram. 
 
 By half-past seven o'clock my disguise was completed, and 
 when I entered the room of Colonel Napier no one in it recognized 
 me. I was dressed as a Budmash, or irregular soldier of the 
 city, with sword and shield, native-made shoes, tight trousers, a 
 yellow silk koortah over a tight-fitting white muslin shirt, a 
 yellow sheet thrown round my shoulders, a cream-coloured 
 turban, and a white waist-band or kummerbund. My face and 
 neck and hands were coloured with lamp-black, the cork used 
 
Kavanagli s daring Journey, 313 
 
 being dipped in oil, to cause the colour to adhere a little. I 
 could get nothing better. I had little confidence in the disguise 
 of my features, and I trusted more to the darkness of the night, 
 but Sir James Outram and his staff seemed satisfied ; and after 
 being provided with a small double-barreled pistol, and a 
 pair of broad pyjamahs over the tight drawers, I proceeded with 
 Kunoujee Lai to the right bank of the river Goomtee. Here 
 we undressed and quietly forded the rivei:, which was only 
 four feet and a half deep, and a hundred yards wide at this 
 point. My courage failed me when in the stream, and if my 
 guide had been within reach, I should perhaps have abandoned 
 the enterprise. But he had waded quickly, and was near the 
 opposite bank, where he went crouching up a ditch for three 
 hundred yards to a grove of low trees on the edge of a pond, 
 where we stopped to dress. While here a man came down to 
 the pond to wash, and went again without observing us. 
 
 *' My confidence now returned to me, and with my tulwar 
 resting on my shoulders, we advanced into the huts in front, 
 when I accosted a matchlock man, who answered my remark 
 that the night was cold, ' It is very cold, in fact, it is a cold 
 night.' I passed him, adding that it would get colder by-and- 
 by. After going six or seven hundred yards farther we 
 reached the iron bridge over the Goomtee, where we were 
 stopped, and called over by a native officer, who was seated 
 in an upper-storeyed house, and seemed to be in command of a 
 cavalry picket, whose horses were near the place saddled. My 
 guide advanced to the light, and I stayed a little back in the 
 shade. After being told that we had come from Mundeon 
 (our old cantonment, then in possession of the enemy), and 
 that we were going into the city to our homes, he let us proceed. 
 We continued on along the left bank of the river to the stone 
 bridge, which is about eight or nine hundred yards from the 
 iron bridge, passing unnoticed through a number of Sepoys 
 and matchlock men, some of whom were escorting persons of 
 rank in palanquins preceded by torches. 
 
 "Recrossing the Goomtee by the stone bridge, we went by 
 
314 KavanagJis daring Journey. 
 
 the sentry unobserved, who was closely questioning a dirtily- 
 dressed native, and into the Chouk, or principal street of 
 Lucknow, which was not illuminated as much as it used to 
 be previous to the siege, nor was it so crowded. I jostled 
 against several armed men in the street without being spoken 
 to, and only met one guard of seven Sepoys talking to some 
 women. When issuing from the city into the country we 
 were challenged by a Chowkedar, or Watchman, who, without 
 stopping us, merely asked us who we were. The part of 
 the city traversed that night seemed to have been deserted by 
 at least a third of its inhabitants. 
 
 " I was in good spirits when we reached the green fields, 
 into which I had not been for five months. After going some 
 miles we found we were out of the way, in the Dilkooshal 
 Park, which was occupied by the enemy. My guide excused 
 himself by saying he had missed the way in his anxiety to 
 take me from the enemy's pickets." 
 
 [By help of one or two native cultivators watching their 
 crops the right direction was regained, and early in the 
 morning they approached Alumbagh, and an advanced picket 
 of Sepoys actually pointed out the road, Mr. Kavanagh going 
 forward to ask them, " as I thought it safer," he says, " to go 
 up to the picket than to try to pass them unobserved."] 
 
 '' Kunoujee Lai now begged that I would not press him 
 to take me into Alumbagh, as he did not know the way in, 
 and the enemy were strongly posted around the place. I was 
 tired and in pain from the shoes, and would have preferred 
 going in, but as the guide feared attempting it, I bade him 
 go on to the camp of the Commander-in-chief, which he said 
 was near Bunne, a village eighteen miles from Lucknow, upon 
 the Cawnpore road. The moon had risen by this time, 
 and we could see well ahead. By three o'clock we arrived 
 at a grove of mango trees situated on a plain, in which a man 
 was singing at the top of his voice. I thought he was a 
 villager, but he got alarmed on seeing us approach, and as- 
 tonished us, too, by calling out a guard of twenty-five Sepoys, 
 
Kavanag/i s daring Journey. 315 
 
 all of whom asked questions. Kunoujee Lai here lost heart 
 for the first time, and threw away the letter entrusted to him 
 by Sir Colin Campbell. I kept mine safe in my turban. 
 We satisfied the guard that we were poor men travelling to 
 Umroola, a village two miles this side of the chief's camp, 
 to inform a friend of the death of his brother by a shot from 
 the British entrenchment at Lucknow, and they told us the 
 road. They appeared to be greatly relieved on discovering 
 that it was not their dreaded foes that had disturbed them. 
 We went in the direction indicated by them, and after walking 
 for half an hour, we got into a jheel or swamp, such as are 
 numerous and large in Oude. We had to wade through it for 
 two hours up to our waists in water, and through weeds ; but 
 before we found out we were in a jheel we had gone too far 
 to recede. I was nearly exhausted on getting out of the 
 water, having made great exertions to force a way through 
 the weeds, and to prevent the colour being washed off my 
 face ; it was almost gone from my hands. 
 
 '' I now rested fifteen minutes, despite the remonstrances 
 of the guide, and went forward, passing between two pickets 
 of the enemy, who had no sentries thrown out. It was near 
 4 A.M. when I stopped at the corner of a tope, or grove of 
 trees, to sleep for an hour, which Kunoujee Lai entreated I 
 would not do ; but I thought he overrated the danger, and 
 lying down, I told him to see if there was any one in the tope, 
 who could tell us where we were. He had not gone far 
 when I heard the English challenge, ' Who comes there ? * 
 with a native accent. We had reached a British cavalry 
 outpost. My eyes filled with tears, and I hastened to shake 
 the Sikh officer in charge of the picket heartily by the hand. 
 The old soldier w^as as pleased as myself when he heard 
 from whence I had come, and he was good enough to send 
 two of his men to conduct me to the camp of the advanced 
 guard. An officer of H.M. 9th Lancers, who was visiting 
 the picket, met me on the way, and took me into his tent, 
 where I got dry stockings and trousers, and, which I much 
 
3i6 KavanagJis daring Journey, 
 
 needed, a glass of brandy — a liquor I had not tasted for 
 nearly two months. 
 
 " I thanked God for having safely brought me through this 
 dangerous enterprise, and I thanked Kunoujee Lai for the 
 courage and intelligence with which he had conducted himself 
 through this trying night. When we were questioned he 
 let me speak as little as possible. He always had a ready 
 answer ; and I feel that I am indebted to him, in a great 
 measure, more than to myself, for my escape. It will give 
 me great satisfaction to hear that he was suitably rewarded." 
 
 Such is the substance of Mr. Kavanagh's narrative. It is 
 not necessary to say more than that the tidings of his arrival 
 soon spread through the camp ; that Sir Colin Campbell's 
 rugged countenance beamed with genial sympathy as he 
 heard the recital of the night's adventures ; that Kavanagh's 
 guidance was of great service in the advance towards Lucknow, 
 on nearing which he pressed forward to be the first to tell 
 Sir James Outram of the success of the march. 
 
 His old comrades received him with enthusiasm, and while 
 the echoes of the cheering still remained, he had the joy of 
 conducting Outram and Havelock into the presence of the 
 Commander-in-chief, who had retained him near his person 
 throughout the advance. In the despatch to the Government 
 of India Sir Colin Campbell recorded in generous terms his 
 obligation to Mr. Kavanagh, and marked his own sense of 
 the enterprise by calling it "one of the most daring feats 
 ever attempted." The Victoria Cross, a handsome present, 
 and an important post, the Assistant-Commissionership of 
 Oude, rewarded the gallant Irishman's services, of which 
 this perilous night journey was the crowning act. 
 
'> 
 
 i; 
 
 THE LAST OF THE MAMELUKES. 
 
 EVERY one who has read anything about the history of 
 Egypt in modern times knows of the terrible massacre 
 '^of the Mamelukes by order of Mohammed or Mehemet Ali. 
 In his plans for becoming sole despot and ruler, and sub- 
 sequently making himself independent of the Sultan, the 
 Pasha of Egypt, or Khedive as one would now call him, found 
 the Mamelukes standing in his way, just as Louis XIV. found 
 the French nobles troublesome, before he was able to become 
 absolute ruler, and to say " L'etat c'est Moi." 
 
 The Mamelukes, a soldier class of independent chiefs, had 
 long ruled in Egypt, although the country had been nominally 
 governed by a Pasha appointed by the Sultan at Constanti- 
 nople. When Napoleon invaded Egypt he found the power 
 of these Mamelukes paramount, and the native population 
 oppressed by them. He was, therefore, hailed as a deliverer. 
 But on the departure of the French army of occupation, the 
 Mamelukes regained their power, and retained it till the 
 pashalic of Mehemet Ali, who determined to humble and 
 subdue them. After much conflict he resolved to complete 
 their overthrow by a cunningly-devised act of treachery. 
 Many of the chiefs were residing in Cairo, having been 
 pardoned, and appearing to be on good terms with the Pasha. 
 
 It is doubtful whether they were caballing and plotting 
 against Mehemet Ali, as he afterwards asserted, or whether 
 he only said so in order to justify his atrocious treachery, 
 as Louis Napoleon did in his coup d'etat. At all events, he 
 resolved to strike a decisive blow, and to get rid of the 
 possibility of danger from these dreaded conspirators. 
 
 He consulted with the Albanian chief, Hassan Pasha, the 
 most confidential of all his advisers, nor is it known that 
 any other person was privy to the plot. Dissembling all 
 suspicion on his part, and shunning everything that might 
 excite it in them, he invited the most influential of all the 
 
 I 
 
3 1 8 The Last of the Ma7nelukes, 
 
 Mamelukes, looked up to as their chief, to an audience, and 
 appearing to take him into his closest confidence, consulted 
 him as to a holy war which he thought of proclaiming, for 
 the advancement of the Mohammedan faith. 
 
 Saim Bey had always been thought a man of great shrewd- 
 ness and penetration, but he was fairly over-reached by 
 Mehemet Ali and Hassan Pasha. Flattered by the confidence 
 reposed in him, he acceded to the proposal, and named all 
 those whom he thought most likely to be useful in the under- 
 taking. Mehemet Ali thus obtained the names of the leaders 
 of the Mamelukes, but he said he would leave the arrange- 
 ments entirely to the Bey, and concluded the interview by 
 inviting him to come on the following Friday to consult 
 further on the matter, bringing with him the whole of his 
 friends and adherents. 
 
 When Saim Bey retired from the audience he went to 
 those of the Mamelukes who were most in his confidence. 
 One of them, more cautious and discerning than the others, 
 warned the Bey of the whole scheme as savouring of treachery. 
 But Saim replied, '' So much the worse for the Pasha if it 
 be so ; and if there be danger, we shall not want power or 
 courage to meet it." The result was that the whole of the 
 chief men of the Mamelukes agreed to accompany Saim Bey 
 to the appointed meeting, at the palace, in the citadel of 
 Cairo, mounted and armed. 
 
 What occurred on that terrible day we now narrate in 
 the words of one of the Pasha's soldiers, who witnessed the 
 whole scene, and who long afterwards published an account 
 of his adventurous life. His name was Giovanni Finati, an 
 Italian by birth, as many of the Franks in Egypt are to this day, 
 and a soldier of fortune. After leaving the Pasha's service he 
 became a guide to European travellers in Egypt, Arabia, and 
 Syria. In this capacity he accompanied Mr. W. J. Bankes, M.P., 
 in an Eastern tour, and Mr. Bankes thought so highly of him 
 that he translated from Italian into English the book we 
 have referred to, and from which we obtain what follows. 
 
The Last of the Mamelukes. 319 
 
 " The Mamelukes coming to the citadel," says Signor Finati, 
 " the Pasha was not idle in concerting his measures for receiving 
 them. Before dawn, upon the Friday named, the drums were 
 beating throughout the city to call the troops together as for 
 some great parade; few, if any of us, had received any intima- 
 tion of this beforehand, so that all hurried from their quarters 
 to know what it meant, and were marched off to the citadel 
 as they arrived, and stationed there. No specific instructions 
 were given, but each man was strictly charged, after his arms 
 had been examined, on no account to quit the post assigned 
 him, and to wait there for further orders. 
 
 " The hour of audience was at hand, and a procession of about 
 five hundred Mameluke officers, of higher or lower degrees, 
 presented themselves at the gate of the citadel, and went in ; 
 they made rather a splendid show, and were led by three of 
 their generals, among whom Saim Bey was conspicuous. 
 When entered, they proceeded directly onwards to the palace, 
 which occupies the highest ground ; and as soon as their 
 arrival there was announced to Mehemet Ali and Hassan 
 Pasha, who were sitting in conference together within, an im- 
 mediate order was given for the introduction of the three chiefs, 
 who were received with great affability, both Pashas entering 
 into a good deal of conversation with them, and many compli- 
 ments and civilities passed. After a time, according to Eastern 
 custom, coffee was brought, and last of all pipes ; but at the 
 moment when these were presented, as if from etiquette, or to 
 leave his guests more at their ease, Mehemet Ali rose and 
 withdrew, and sending privately for the captain of his guard 
 gave orders that the gates of the citadel should be closed ; 
 adding, that' as soon as Saim Bey and his two associates should 
 come out for the purpose of mounting, they should be fired 
 upon till they dropped, and that at the same signal the troops, 
 posted through the fortress, should take aim at every Mameluke 
 within their reach ; while a corresponding order was sent down 
 at the same time to those in the town, and to such even as 
 were encamped without, round the foot of the fortress, to 
 
320 The Last of the Ma7nelukes, 
 
 pursue the work of extermination on all stragglers that they 
 should find, so that not one of the proscribed body might 
 escape. 
 
 "Saim Bey, and his two brothers in command, finding that 
 the Pacha did not return to them, and being informed by the 
 attendants that he was gone into his harem (an answer that 
 precluded all further inquiry), judged it to be time to take 
 their departure. But no sooner did they make their appear- 
 ance without, and were mounting their horses, than they were 
 suddenly fired upon from every quarter, and all became at 
 once a scene of confusion, and dismay, and horror, similar 
 volleys being directed at all the rest who were collected round 
 and preparing to return with them, so that the victims dropped 
 by hundreds. Saim himself had time to gain his saddle, and 
 even to penetrate to one of the gates of the citadel ; but all to 
 no purpose, for he found it closed like the rest ; and fell there 
 pierced with innumerable bullets. 
 
 " Another chief, Amim Bey, who was the brother to Elfi, 
 urged the noble animal which he rode to an act of greater 
 desperation, for he spurred him till he made him clamber up 
 the rampart, and preferring rather to be dashed to pieces than 
 to be slaughtered in cold blood, drove him to leap down the 
 precipice, a height that has been estimated at from thirty to 
 forty feet, or even more ; yet fortune so favoured him, that, 
 though the horse was killed in the fall, the rider escaped. 
 An Albanian camp was below, and an officer's tent very near 
 the spot on which he alighted; instead of shunning it, he 
 went in, and throwing himself on the rites of hospitality, 
 implored that no advantage might be taken of him ; which was 
 not only granted, but the officer offered him protection, even 
 at his own peril, and kept him concealed so long as the popular 
 fury and the excesses of the soldiery continued. 
 
 '' Of the rest of that devoted number, thus shut up and 
 surrounded, not one went out alive ; and even of those who 
 had quietly remained in the town, but very few found means 
 to elude the active and greedy search that was made after 
 
The Last of tJie Mamelukes, 321 
 
 them, a high price being set upon every Mameluke's head that 
 should be brought. All Cairo was filled with wailing and 
 lamentations ; and, in truth, the confusion and horrors of that 
 day are indescribable, for not the Mamelukes alone, but others 
 also, in many instances, wholly unconnected with them, either 
 from mistake, or from malice, or for plunder, were indis- 
 criminately seized on, and put to death ; so that great as the 
 number was that perished of that ill-fated body, yet it did not 
 comprehend the total of the victims. For myself, I have 
 reason to be thankful that though I was one of the soldiers 
 stationed in the citadel that morning, I shed none of the blood 
 of those unhappy men, having had the good fortune to be 
 posted at an avenue where none of them attempted to pass, 
 or come near me, so that my pistols and musket were never 
 fired." 
 
 The strange fact of the leap and escape of Amim Bey, and 
 of his asylum in the officer's tent, reached at last the Pasha's 
 ears, who sent instantly to demand him ; and when the 
 generous Albanian found that it would be impossible any 
 longer to shelter or screen the fugitive, he gave him a horse, 
 and recommended him to fly with all speed into Asia, where 
 I afterwards saw him, living in the palace of Suleyman Pasha 
 at Acre, at the time of my first visit there with Mr. Bankes. 
 
 Thus far the narrative of Signor Finati. At the citadel 
 of Cairo the place is still shown where the desperate leap 
 was made, and the incident is mentioned in all guide-books 
 and histories. But many have wondered, as we have done, 
 what became of the solitary survivor of the massacre, and 
 whether he or his horse escaped from the scene of slaughter. 
 This narrative of the officer who witnessed the scene, and 
 who afterwards saw " the last of the Mamelukes," will be 
 read with interest. 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 MAN OVERBOARD ! 
 
 IT is impossible to describe the intense excitement and 
 anxious interest on board a vessel when passengers and 
 crew are disturbed in their usual course by the startling cry, 
 " Man overboard ! " The life-buoy is at once thrown over, and 
 the boat is lowered ; while those who cannot take part in the 
 rescue, look eagerly over the ship's side, to catch, if possible, a 
 glimpse of the unfortunate, and to direct the course of those 
 who have gone forth upon the waters towards the place where 
 he rises to the surface after his first fearful plunge into the deep. 
 
 Sometimes a gallant comrade, or still more gallant and 
 generous officer, does not wait for the boat, but risks his own 
 life in the attempt to save a fellow-creature. Poor Captain 
 Webb, who lost his life in so tragic a way at Niagara, was first 
 brought to public notice by thus leaping into the stormy 
 Atlantic — at night, too — in order to rescue a man overboard ! 
 The records of voyages, and those of the Humane Society and 
 other institutions for honouring such noble deeds, contain a 
 bright list of names, in every rank and of every age, from 
 admiral to cabin boy, who have ventured life in this gallant 
 way. —-' 
 
 Often the effort is successful and the boat returns, amidst 
 hearty and thankful cheers, with both the rescuer and the 
 rescued. But, alas ! often also the attempt has been in vain, 
 and no help has reached the castaway. 
 
 A painfully interesting case of this kind has gained undying 
 remembrance from having suggested to Cowper his last and 
 one of his most touching poems, TJie Castaway. The in- 
 cident is narrated in '' Anson's Voyage round the World," one 
 of their best seamen being washed overboard on a stormy night, 
 when they were unable to render any assistance. Many a poor 
 sailor has thus been lost, perishing where no attempt at rescue 
 could be made. Sometimes the cause of failure to rescue has 
 been special, as in the following incident, which was related by 
 
Man Overboard ! 
 
 n ^ ^ 
 J- J 
 
 captain of much experience, who had himself several times 
 saved men from drowning. 
 
 " I never lost a man in this way but once," he said, and a 
 dark shadow came over his brow as he recalled the scene. '' The 
 sea was perfectly calm ; it was daylight, and everything favour- 
 able, but the man never rose to the surface. The men in the 
 boat were quite at a loss ; in vain they watched and rowed 
 about the place where he had sunk ; he was never seen again. 
 On returning to the ship, after the long and vain search, an 
 old sailor who was intimate with the lost man said, ' I know 
 how it was, sir; it was his belt of gold ! ' The man, it seems, 
 was coming home from California with his earnings of many 
 years, and had, as he thought, secured them safely by turning 
 them into that which caused his death— a belt of sovereigns 
 worn round his body. Thus weighted, he sank as lead in the 
 mighty waters. The sad incident is told in the first volume of 
 the Boys* Own Paper, and the remarks made about it are so 
 sensible and thoughtful that we quote them here. 
 
 "This man was doing no wrong in taking good care of his 
 treasure, although he might have chosen better ways of doing so. 
 He may have been taking it home to make provision for his old 
 days, or for those near and dear to him. But when I heard the 
 sad incident I could not help seeing in it a lesson of life, for young 
 and old, and for people on land as well as those on sea. The 
 life of the soul may be endangered by some worldly treasure as 
 fatal as that sailor's belt of gold. There may be something 
 round the heart which keeps from Christ and His salvation, 
 too, may be 'a castaway,' and be lost as that sailor was— 
 
 '• ' But I, beneath a rougher sea, 
 
 Am whehiiecl in deeper gulfs than he.' " 
 
 I fancy it must have been good Mr. Kingston, the friend and 
 favourite author of boys, who wrote this in the Bays' Oiun 
 Paper, when I read the closing sentence " Aj^e, as you value 
 your souls' safety, boys, sufter not the things of this world to 
 cling too closely round your hearts, and overweight you so as to 
 drag you down to destruction." 
 
324 Man Overboard ! 
 
 Another famous naval writer, Captain Basil Hall, in his " Frag- 
 ments of Voyages and Travels," a book full of interesting read- 
 ing, has something to say on the subject of " Man overboard." 
 
 There are few accidents, he says, more frequent at sea than 
 that of a man falling overboard ; and yet, strange to say, when- 
 ever it happens, it takes every one as completely by surprise 
 as if such a thing had never occurred before. What is still 
 more unaccountable, and, I must say, altogether inexcusable, 
 is the fact of such an incident invariably exciting a certain 
 degree of confusion, even in well-regulated ships. 
 
 I remember once, when cruising of! Terceira in the Endymion, 
 that a man fell overboard and was drowned. After the usual 
 confusion, and long search in vain, the boats were hoisted up, 
 and the hands called to make sail. I was officer of the fore- 
 castle, and on looking about to see if all the men were at their 
 stations, missed one of the foretop-men. Just at that moment 
 I observed someone curled up, and apparently hiding himself 
 under the bow of the barge, between the boat and the booms. 
 " Hilloa ! " I said, " who are you ? What are you doing here, 
 you skulker ? Why are you not at your station ? " *' I am 
 not skulking, sir," said the poor fellow, the furrows in whose 
 bronzed and weather-beaten cheek were running down with 
 tears. The man we had just lost had been his messmate and 
 friend, he told me, for ten years. I begged his pardon, in full 
 sincerity, for having used such harsh words to him at such a 
 moment, and bid him go below to his berth for the rest of the 
 day. '' Never mind, sir, never mind," said the kind-hearted 
 seaman, " it can't be helped. You meant no harm, sir. I am 
 as well on deck as below. Bill's gone, sir, but I must do my 
 duty." So saying, he drew the sleeve of his jacket twice or 
 thrice across his eyes, and mustering his grief within his 
 breast, walked to his station, as if nothing had happened. 
 
 In the same ship, and nearly about the same time, the people 
 were bathing alongside in a calm at sea. It is customary on 
 such occasions to spread a studding-sail on the water, by means 
 of lines from the fore and main yard arms, for the use of those 
 
Man Overboard! 325 
 
 who either cannot swim, or who are not expert in this art, so 
 very important to all seafaring people. Half-a-dozen of the 
 ship's boys, youngsters sent on board by that admirable and 
 most patriotic of naval institutions, the Marine Society, were 
 floundering about in the sail, and sometimes even venturing 
 beyond the leech rope. One of the least of these urchins, but 
 not the least courageous of their number, when taunted by his 
 more skilful companions with being afraid, struck out boldly 
 beyond the prescribed bounds. He had not gone much further 
 than his own length, however, along the surface of the fathom- 
 less sea, when his heart failed him, poor little man ! and along 
 with his confidence away also went his power of keeping his 
 head above water. So down he sank rapidly, to the speech- 
 less horror of the other boys, who, of course, could lend the 
 drowning child no help. 
 
 The captain of the forecastle, a tall, fine-looking, hard-a 
 weather fellow, was standing on the shank of the sheet anchor 
 with his arms across, and his well-varnished canvas hat drawn 
 so much over his eyes that it was difficult to tell whether he 
 was awake, or merely dozing in the sun, as he leaned his back 
 against the fore-topmast back-stay. The seaman, however, had 
 been attentively watching the young party all the time, and 
 rather fearing that mischief might ensue from their rashness, 
 he had grunted out a warning to them from time to time, to 
 which they paid no sort of attention. At last he desisted, 
 saying they might drown themselves if they had a mind, for 
 never a bit would he help them ; but no sooner did the sinking 
 figure of the adventurous little boy catch his eye, than, diver- 
 fashion, he joined the palms of his hands over his head, 
 inverted his position in one instant, and urging himself into 
 swifter motion by a smart push with his feet against the 
 anchor, shot head foremost into the water. The poor lad sank 
 so rapidly that he was at least a couple of fathoms under the 
 surface before he was arrested by the grip of the sailor, who 
 soon rose again, bearing the bewildered boy in his hand, and, 
 calling to the other youngsters to take better care of their 
 
326 Man Ovei^board ! 
 
 companion, chucked him into the belly of the sail in the midst 
 of the party. The fore-sheet was hanging in the calm, nearly 
 into the water, and by it the dripping seaman scrambled up 
 again to his old berth on the anchor, shook himself like a great 
 Newfoundland dog, and then, jumping on the deck, proceeded 
 across the forecastle to shift himself. At the top of the ladder 
 he was stopped by the marine officer, who had witnessed the 
 whole transaction, as he sat across the gangway hammocks, 
 watching the swimmers, and trying to get his own consent to 
 undergo the labour of undressing and dressing. Said the 
 soldier to the sailor, " That was very well done of you, my 
 man, and right well deserves a glass of grog. Say so to the 
 gun-room steward as you pass ; and tell him it is my orders to 
 fill you out a stiff nor'-wester." The soldier's offer was kindly 
 meant, but rather clumsily timed, at least so thought Jack, for 
 though he inclined his head in acknowledgment of the attention, 
 and instinctively touched his hat, when spoken to by an officer, 
 he made no reply, till out of the marine's hearing, when he 
 laughed, or rather chuckled out to the people near him, 
 " Does the good gentleman suppose I'll take a glass of grog 
 for saving a boy's life ? " 
 
 I could give a pretty long list of cases which I have myself 
 seen, or have heard others relate, where men have been 
 drowned while their shipmates were thus struggling on board 
 who should be first to save them, and instead of aiding so 
 laudable a cause, were actually impeding one another by their 
 hurry-skurry and general ignorance of what really ought to be 
 done. I remember, for example, hearing of a line-of-battle 
 ship, in the Baltic, from which two men fell one evening, when 
 the ship's company were at quarters. The weather was fine, 
 the water smooth, and the ship going about seven knots. The 
 two lads in question, who were furling the fore-royal 
 at the time, lost their hold, and were jerked far in the sea. 
 At least a dozen men, leaving their guns, leaped over- 
 board from different parts of the ship, some dressed as 
 they were, and others stripped. Of course the ship was in 
 
Man Overboard ! 327 
 
 a wretched state of discipline where such frantic proceedings 
 could take place. The confusion soon became worse < con- 
 founded ; but the ship was hove aback, and several boats 
 lowered down. Had it not been smooth water, daylight, and 
 fine weather, many of these absurd volunteers must have 
 perished. I call them absurd, because there is no sense in 
 merely incurring a great hazard, without some useful purpose 
 to guide the exercise of courage. Now these intrepid fellows 
 merely knew that a man had fallen overboard, and that was 
 all ; so away they leaped out of the ports and over the 
 hammock-nettings, without knowing whereabouts the object 
 of their quixotic heroism might be. The boats were obliged 
 to pick up the first that presented themselves, for they were 
 all in a drowning condition ; but the two unhappy lads who had 
 been flung from aloft, being furthest off", went to the bottom 
 before their turn came. Whereas, had their undisciplined 
 shipmates not officiously and most improperly gone into the 
 water, the boats would have been at liberty to row towards 
 the men who had fallen accidentally, both of whom, in that 
 case, might to all appearance have been saved. 
 
 I remember a bitter kind of story which was current in the 
 navy when I first entered it. In those days, naval punishments 
 were not only more severe than they now are, but they were 
 inflicted with less solemnity than is at present deemed essential 
 to their salutary effect. In a frigate, commanded by a well- 
 known Tartar, as the martinets of the service are generally 
 denominated, one of the crew, I forget from what cause, took 
 it in his head to jump overboard for the purpose of drowning 
 himself. When he began to sink, he discovered that a salt- 
 water death was not quite so agreeable as he had reckoned 
 upon ; so he sung out lustily for a rope. The ship being 
 brought to the wind, the man was picked up with some 
 difficulty. The matter was investigated instantly ; and as 
 soon as it appeared that he had gone overboard intentionally* 
 the hands were turned up, the gangway rigged, and the offender 
 seized up. " Now," said the captain, ''I shall punish you under 
 
328 Man Overboard! 
 
 the sixteenth article of war, which is as follows : — ' Every 
 person in or belonging to the fleet, who shall desert, shall 
 suffer death, or such other punishment as the circumstances of 
 the case shall deserve.' " And then, addressing the boatswain, 
 he said, " You will punish this man for desertion, or, which is 
 exactly the san.e thing, for going out of the ship without leave." 
 " Now, sir," resumed the captain to the trembling culprit, " if 
 you have any longer a desire to go overboard, you have only 
 to ask the first lieutenant's leave. He has my instructions to 
 grant you permission ; while I shall take very good care that 
 you are not again picked up." 
 
 I was lately told of some incidents which occurred in a 
 frigate off Cape Horn, in a gale of wind, under close-reefed 
 main-topsail and storm-staysails. At half-past twelve at noon, 
 when the people were at dinner, a young lad was washed out 
 of the lee fore-channels. The life-buoy was immediately let 
 go, and the main-topsail laid to the mast. Before the jolly- 
 boat could be lowered down, a man jumped overboard, as he 
 said, ''promiscuously," for he never saw the boy at all, nor 
 was ever within half a cable's length of the spot where he was 
 floundering about. Although the youth could not swim, he 
 contrived to keep his head above water till the boat reached 
 him, just as he was beginning to sink. The man who had 
 jumped into the sea was right glad to give up his "promiscuous" 
 search, and to make for the life-buoy, upon which he perched 
 himself, and stood shivering for half an hour, like a shag on 
 the Mewstone, till the boat came to his relief 
 
 At four o'clock of the same day, a man fell from the rigging ; 
 the usual alarm and rush took place, the lee-quarter boat was 
 so crowded, that one of the topping-lifts gave way, the davit 
 broke, and the cutter, now suspended by one tackle, soon 
 knocked herself to pieces against the ship's side. Of course, the 
 people in her were jerked out very quickly, so that, instead of 
 there being only one man in the water, there were nearly a 
 dozen swimming about. More care was taken in hoisting out 
 another boat, and, strange to say, all the people were picked up, 
 
Early Exploring Expeditions in Australia, 329 
 
 except the oFiginal unfortunate man, who, but for the accident, 
 which might and ought to have been prevented, would in 
 all probability have been saved. Neither he nor the life- 
 buoy, however, could be discovered before the night closed ; 
 and it is most distressing to think, that, perhaps, he may 
 have succeeded in reaching this support only to perish 
 before the long winter night of those dreary regions could 
 be one quarter over ! 
 
 EARLY EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 WHO first discovered Australia ? By the '' discovery " of 
 a country is meant its being made known to the 
 civilized world. The ancestors of the native inhabitants were 
 of course the first to find the great island or continent of 
 Australia. Sometimes the natives of countries are called 
 Aborigines, as if they grew up there, or developed themselves 
 from some inferior animals. But no one believes this except 
 advocates of the theory of evolution. The Aborigines of 
 Australia migrated thither from other lands or islands, and it 
 is much more probable that they degenerated, as they removed 
 further from the ancient centres of population, than that they 
 were improved by the change. De-civilization is more the 
 natural process than civilization, as we get to the remotest 
 regions of the earth. The 'Australian natives, when first seen 
 by Europeans, were found to be very low in the scale of 
 humanity. 
 
 The question, then, is by what European eyes was the 
 country first seen ? It has usually been said that the Dutch 
 have the honour of the discovery, their commercial enterprise 
 having brought them much into the regions nearest to the 
 Australasian waters, and they claim the discovery as having 
 been made by one of their exploring ships in 1605. That very 
 year a Spanish fleet, under De Quiros, sailed from Callao, and 
 
330 Eaidy Exploring Expeditions 
 
 discovered some of the island groups of the Pacific. One of 
 Quiros' ships, commanded by Torres, having been separated 
 from the others in a storm, passed through the channel 
 between New Guinea and Australia, since known as Torres' 
 Straits. He descried land on the south, which must have been 
 part of the mainland, probably Cape York, its most northerly 
 point. This was, however, after the date given for the Dutch 
 discovery. Within the last few years a manuscript has been 
 found in the Royal Library of Belgium, containing the personal 
 narrative of the discovery of Australia by Manuel Godinho, 
 a Portuguese navigator, who touched on the coast in 1601. 
 There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this record, 
 so that the Portuguese may claim priority at least in sighting 
 the great island of the south. 
 
 Several navigators, chiefly Dutch, were in these seas in 
 subsequent years of the first half of the seventeenth century, but 
 it was Tasman, who, in 1642, surpassed all his countrymen 
 in successful exploration. It was he who discovered New 
 Zealand, large tracts of the Australian coast, and what is now 
 known as Tasmania, but formerly Van Diemen's Land, so 
 named by Tasman in honour of Anthony Van Diemen, then 
 Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, for the hand of 
 whose daughter the adventurous explorer was a suitor. 
 Tasman thought that this was part of the mainland, and so it 
 was believed to be down to the year 1798, when Bass proved 
 it to be an island, by passing in an open boat through the 
 strait which now bears his name. On the whole, the Dutch 
 had most to do with the earliest discovery of the great south 
 land, and evidence of this appears in the names of places 
 given by them, while the whole vast island was, till recent 
 times, known to geographers as New Holland. 
 
 As no settlement was made nor colony founded by any of 
 these early explorers, their discoveries are now matters merely 
 of historical interest. They attracted little attention in Europe, 
 and, in fact, had almost passed into oblivion (although 
 visited occasionally, as by Captain Dampier), till the time of 
 
in Australia, 331 
 
 the celebrated first voyage of Captain Cook. The chief 
 object of his expedition to the southern hemisphere was not 
 geographical exploration but astronomical observation. He 
 was sent to observe the transit of Venus from a station on the 
 opposite side of the globe. This was successfully accomplished 
 at Otaheite, or Tahiti, June 3rd, 1769. After examining the 
 adjacent group, to which he gave the name of the Society 
 Islands, in honour of the Royal Society at whose recommenda- 
 tion the expedition was sent. Cook proceeded south-westward 
 with a general design of exploration in the Pacific Ocean. 
 He reached New Zealand on the opposite coast to that visited 
 by Tasman, and circumnavigating, he ascertained the division 
 into two main islands, separated by the channel since known as 
 Cook's Straits. He then sailed for Australia, or New Holland, 
 exploring its east coast for more than 2,000 miles, and gave 
 the names since so familiar, — New South Wales, Botany Ba}'', 
 and Port Jackson, the magnificent bay or harbour on which 
 now stands the eastern colonial capital, Sydney. After a 
 nearly three years' voyage he anchored in the Downs 
 June 1 2th, 1 77 1, having sailed from England July 3rd, 1768. 
 The subsequent voyages of Cook had no special bearing on 
 Australian discovery. 
 
 The first use made by England of the discoveries by Cook 
 was the establishment of a convict settlement at Botany Ba}'', 
 near Port Jackson, in 1788. It was not till long afterwards that 
 Australia was thought of in connection with colonization or 
 emigration. Very little additional knowledge of the coast-line 
 was obtained for fifty years after Cook's first voyage ; in fact, 
 not till the surveying voyages of Captain King, from 1818 to 
 1822. The interior of the country was then, and long after, 
 wholly a terra incognita. Previously to the establishment of 
 the convict settlement of Botany Bay, it is probable that no 
 European had ever gone inland out of sight of the coast. The 
 first to see the interior were escaped convicts, who long gave 
 trouble to the free emigrants on their beginning to be attracted 
 to the settlement. These gradually advanced northward and 
 
33^ Earty Exptormg Expeditions 
 
 southward along the coast, and searching for suitable locations 
 penetrated to the base of the Blue Mountain ridge. This 
 lofty and rugged chain long formed the boundary of the 
 colony. Many efforts were made to pass this natural barrier, 
 but without success, till the year 1813, the twenty-sixth year 
 of the settlement, when a terrible season of drought burnt up 
 the lands from the sea to the hills, and the cattle perished in 
 large numbers from want of pasturage. Three agriculturists — 
 Bloxland, Lanson, and Wentworth were their names — resolved 
 to join in an effort to penetrate the highlands, and see if there 
 were not open land beyond, to the westward, for their flocks 
 and herds. By observing and following the course of the 
 rivers and streams, they succeeded in gaining a watershed, or 
 main mountain-ridge, and after a difficult route of above fifty 
 miles, they reached the lofty and rugged brow of a precipice 
 from which they looked down on a vast expanse of open grassy 
 land spread before them, like the pampas or prairies of the 
 New World. A road was soon after commenced, by convict 
 labour, to these pastoral downs, in the midst of which, about 
 one hundred and twenty miles from Sydney, the town of 
 Bathurst was founded. The road to Bathurst, crossing the 
 mountains by what is now called the Victoria Pass, was 
 opened throughout in 1832. A railway now runs from it 
 to Sydney. The town is on the banks of the river, named 
 after Governor Macquarie. The sources of the Lachlan 
 river were about the same time discovered, more to the 
 south. 
 
 The first extensive journey into the interior was made in 
 181 7, by Mr. Oxley, the Surveyor-General of the colony. 
 The primary object was to trace the course of the Lachlan. 
 It was ascertained that the Lachlan and also the Macquarie 
 entered a flat, level country, sometimes parched with drought, 
 and at other seasons forming swamps or lagoons, to which 
 no limits were apparent. Not till several years later was 
 the Murrumbidgee river discovered, with the rich tracts of 
 land watered by it, and in 1824 the larger river, the Murray, 
 
in Attslralta. 2>ZZ 
 
 into which the waters of the Murrumbidgee flow. The 
 colonial government did not seem anxious to prosecute further 
 explanation, the reports of Mr. Oxley as to the Macquarie 
 river being discouraging, but two independent colonists, Messrs. 
 Hume and Howell, undertook a journe}' to the south-west, 
 expecting to reach the coast near Bass' Strait, where they 
 arrived, at Port Philip, having crossed a fine pastoral district 
 lying to the west of the Warragong Mountains, of which 
 nothing was previously known, and they discovered the 
 country through which flow the Hume, Ovens, and Goulburn 
 rivers. Returning by a more westerly route, they found 
 other rich tracts of land, and their reports were so favourable 
 that many settlers went to that region, and this was the first step 
 towards the foundation of what is now the colony of Victoria. 
 
 The Colonial Government in 1827 sent an expedition, under 
 Mr. Allan Cunningham, to explore the country west of what 
 is called the Dividing Range. For four hundred miles the 
 land was mostly dry and sterile, but he then came upon the 
 Darling Downs, and crossed the streams forming the head- 
 waters of the river Darling. In subsequent journeys he con- 
 nected his first route with Moreton Bay, passing by a gap 
 in the range which divides the coast-flowing waters from those 
 flowing inland. In his last expedition he ascended the 
 Brisbane river. 
 
 The next distinguished explorer was Captain Charles Sturt, 
 whose narrative of *' Two Expeditions into the Interior of 
 Southern Australia, in 1828 — 31," although published above 
 fifty years ago, in 1833, is still read with interest. He was 
 accompanied in his first expedition by Mr. Hume. Captain 
 Sturt found the Macquarie was connected in wet seasons, 
 through marshes, with the Darling, but that year the whole 
 region was a parched waste. The idea prevailing that these 
 streams, as well as the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee, emptied 
 themselves into some vast inland lake or sea, Captain Sturt's 
 second journey was made to ascertain the truth of this 
 hypothesis. Jie started from Sydney in Pecember 1829 to 
 
334 Early Exploring Expeditions 
 
 explore the Murrumbidgee, and traced it to its connection 
 with the large river named by him, the Murray. After nine 
 days' voyage down this river, the explorers came to the con- 
 fluence of another large river, which Sturt rightly conjectured 
 to be the Darling, Having pursued the course of the Murray 
 for 500 to 600 miles from the union of the Lachlan and 
 Murrumbidgee, the boats entered an extensive lake, called 
 by him Lake Alexandrina, from the southern shore of which 
 he gazed upon the ocean, which was found afterwards, at 
 Encounter Bay, to be easily reached by a navigable channel. 
 This expedition caused the exploration of the country between 
 the Murray and the Gulf of St. Vincent, and so led to the 
 formation, a few years later, of the colony of South Australia. 
 
 The following years, 1832 — t^G^ witnessed most successful 
 expeditions conducted by Major, afterwards Sir Thomas, 
 Mitchell, who, among other discoveries, opened up the mag- 
 nificent sylvan and picturesque region, named by him Australia 
 Felix, destined before many years to be the busy scene of 
 other settlements than those of pastoral quiet and happiness, 
 being " the gold region " of Victoria. A few graziers from 
 Van Diemen's Land and farmers from New South Wales 
 knew the pastoral fertility of the district, but kept their know- 
 ledge secret, in order to monopolize the fine sheep-walks, but 
 Sir Thomas Mitchell at once gave the public the benefit of 
 what he had seen. He was the first European who ever ■ 
 stood on the summit of the famed Mount Alexander (called 
 Mount Bung in his map), and having ridden up he admired 
 the view, little dreaming of the mineral wealth that lay con- 
 cealed in the neighbouring creeks and gullies. 
 
 We must pass with simple mention the expeditions of 
 Lieutenants Grey and ^Lushington, the first to penetrate into 
 the interior on the north-west side of the continent. They 
 started from Hanover Bay February ist, 1838, and discovered 
 the Glenelg River, which they followed upwards for about 
 seventy miles from the coast, but were compelled to return by 
 scarcity of provisions, and by the hostility of the natives. 
 
in Australia. 335 
 
 Having lost their boats, they had a most perilous journey, 
 along an inhospitable shore, to the Swan River. In following 
 years Mr. Eyre made several journeys from South Australia. 
 In his last expedition he set out in February 1841, with the 
 purpose of reaching the settled portion of Western Australia. 
 This he accomplished, keeping near the sea-board all the way, 
 and arriving at King George's Sound on July 7th. The distance 
 was above one thousand miles, the latter half of the journey 
 being made with only one native lad, and amidst most distress- 
 ing privations. On one occasion they were seven days without a 
 drop of water. The country was found to be generally with- 
 out any timber, the higher ground clothed with scrub, while 
 scarcely a stream or river-course occurred for six hundred 
 miles. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Eyre was exploring the western part of the 
 continent, which was found inhospitable, and unsuited for 
 colonization. Count Strzelecki, a native of Polish Prussia, in 
 the course of a scientific voyage round the world, came to 
 Sydney. He was asked by the Governor of New South Wales, 
 Sir George Gipps, to undertake a survey of that portion of 
 the colony between 30° and 39° south latitude, and stretching 
 150 miles inland from the coast. In 1840 the Count discovered, 
 in the extreme south-east, a fine and well-watered region, which 
 he named Gipps' Land, hitherto cut off from the rest of the 
 continent by the Australian Alps. But he had already made 
 a more startling discovery, which was kept a secret, and of 
 which we must give a separate notice — the gold fields of 
 Australia. 
 
 Confining our view meanwhile to the progress of geo- 
 graphical exploration, the next important movement was the 
 attempt to cross the continent from sea to sea. Of the earliest 
 expeditions for this great design we hasten to give a brief 
 account, and can here therefore only mention the names of 
 Austin, the brothers Augustus and Frank Gregory, Kenned}'-, 
 Warburton, and other explorers who, after Sturt and Mitchell, 
 added to our knowledge of various parts of the vast continent. 
 
^;^6 Early Explo^nng Expeditions in Australia. 
 
 Some of the regions traversed by them were not favourable 
 for colonization, but others have been since occupied b}'^ an 
 industrious and rapidly increasing population. 
 
 We conclude this article by referring to the various 
 divisions, political as well as geographical, of the great 
 continent, and the dates at which they became separate 
 Colonies. The first settlement, as we have seen, dates from 
 1788, and this was the beginning of the colony of New South 
 Wales. Victoria was separated from New South Wales in 
 1850, and Queensland in 1859, to form separate colonies; 
 Western Australia was tal^en possession of in 1829. South 
 Australia, at first a settlement of a private company, became 
 a Crown colony in 1836 ; and to it was added, in 1863, the 
 northern territory, or Alexandra Land, stretching from latitude 
 26* south to the north coast, and between longitudes 129° 
 and 138°, The population of this territory is as yet small, but 
 its area is above 523,500 square miles. The densest population 
 in proportion to the area is in Victoria, which has only 88,451 
 square miles. Colonial statistics rapidly change, and it may 
 be interesting to compare with more recent returns the 
 population in 1874. New South Wales, 584,278 ; Victoria, 
 807,756; South Australia, 205,082 (of which only 200 were in 
 the northern territory); Queensland, 160,000; Western Aus- 
 tralia, 26,209. The Aborigines were then reckoned at about 
 50,000. In 1836 Victoria had only 244 persons; in 1851 the 
 population had risen to 77,000; but in consequence of the 
 discovery of the gold fields it increased to 325,000 ; and in a 
 few years had far outstripped the parent colony. It is owing 
 to the gold fields that the rapid increase of population is due, 
 but the solid prosperity of the colonies will henceforth mainly 
 depend on their ordinary commercial and agricultural in- 
 dustries. The sudden leap into notoriety caused by the gold 
 discovery, and the consequent rush of emigrants, will always 
 mark an epoch in Australian history, and deserve separate 
 notice in these pages. 
 
Z2>7 
 
 ACROSS AUSTRALIA FROM SEA TO SEA. 
 
 IN 1844 the first attempt was made to solve the geographical 
 mystery of the great te7Ta incognita of central Australia. 
 Captain Sturt, already so distinguished in adventurous explo- 
 ration, undertook, under Government auspices, to lead an 
 expedition from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria on the 
 north. Following upwards the course of the Murray and the 
 Darling, he thence struck across in a north-west direction 
 through a country hitherto unexplored. It was a dismal 
 journey, mostly through barren desert, and during six months, 
 from November 19th, 1844, to July 2nd, 1845, not a drop of 
 rain fell. The nights were cold even when the days were 
 fearfully hot. No living creatures were seen throughout long 
 tracts of stony wilderness, and even vegetation ceased. Having 
 advanced to within two degrees of the Tropic of Capricorn, and 
 no rain having fallen from July 17th to September 9th, 
 with another summer setting in, it was thought prudent to 
 retreat, and he reached Adelaide January 19th, 1846. He had 
 been out eighteen months, and only accomplished half the 
 distance. The expedition was so far useful as revealing 
 the true nature of large areas of the interior. 
 
 While this expedition was in progress Dr. Leichardt, a 
 German naturalist, undertook a journey from Moreton Bay, 
 on the east coast, to Port Essington on the north. The journey 
 occupied fifteen months, and resulted in the discovery of 
 numerous districts, fertile and well watered, large tracts of 
 which have since been occupied as sheep runs. The distance 
 in direct line was 1,800 miles, but above 3,000 miles were 
 traversed before his return in November 1845. 
 
 Anxious to make further exploration of the interior Leichardt 
 set out in 1848 on a second expedition, from which, alas! he 
 never returned. Two years passed without any tidings of him. 
 When the third year was drawing to a close much anxiety 
 was felt, and in after years expeditions went in search. In 
 
 22 
 
33^ Across Australia fro7n Sea to Sea. 
 
 1852 a report was current among the natives, seven hundred 
 miles in the interior, that he and his party had perished. 
 Thirty years passed without further tidings, and then some 
 relics and the explorer's journal were recovered b}^ a settler 
 from the natives. The interest taken in the lost explorer was 
 as great in the colony as that felt in Europe on the discovery 
 of the Franklin relics. We do not say more now, for the 
 time must be near when some colonial pen will write a full 
 history of Australian exploration, a book which will contain 
 many a story of thrilling interest, and many a record of 
 patient endurance and heroic enterprise. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Macdouall Stuart commenced those expeditions 
 which have made his name famous in the annals of Australian 
 exploration. Three journeys were made into the interior before 
 i860, each of them with valuable results in opening up new 
 districts. In March of that year he started on a fourth journey, 
 with the purpose of crossing to the northern shore, but the 
 determined hostility of the natives compelled him to turn back 
 when within 220 miles of the western extremity of the Gulf \h 
 of Carpentaria. He found wide desert belts, but also at 
 intervals rich and well-watered tracts. In 1861 he set out once 
 more, and taking the old track he reached the furthest camping 
 place of his previous journey, and finally reached the north 
 coast at Van Diemen's Gulf, where he hoisted the British flag, 
 nine months after leaving Adelaide. To find a way through 
 the dense scrub was the chief difficulty in the last part of the 
 journey, but the route once being marked out was never again 
 lost, and before ten years a line of telegraph from north to 
 south across the continent brought Sydney and Melbourne 
 into speaking distance with the mother country. 
 
 Macdouall Stuart got all praise for his successful enterprise, 
 but historical justice must be done to other explorers who 
 were actually before him in crossing from sea to sea. July 25th, 
 1862, was the day of Stuart's arrival on the northern shore, 
 but more than a year before, on the nth February, 1861, the 
 passage had been achieved by Messrs. Burke and Wills. They 
 
DEPAKTIRE OF THE EXPEDITION' FRO.M MELnOlRNE. 
 
 Vpage 339. 
 
Across Australia from Sea to Sea. 339 
 
 perished on their return journey to Melbourne, and so the 
 fact of their having crossed from sea to sea was unknown 
 when Stuart claimed the honour of the first passage. Of 
 this expedition, With its tragic ending, let us give a brief 
 account. 
 
 It was a great gala day in Melbourne, when, on the 20th of 
 August, i860, an expedition, numbering fifteen persons, with 
 horses, camels, and an immense supply of stores, including 
 provisions for twelve months, left the Royal Park, amidst the 
 cheers and good wishes of the assembled population. The 
 funds for the enterprise had been contributed by subscription, 
 and the whole community became interested in the project, 
 which was to cross the continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
 The command of the expedition was entrusted to Robert 
 O'Hara Burke, who had formerly been in the Mounted Con- 
 stabulary in Ireland, and Acting Inspector of Police in Melbourne 
 He was a man much respected and trusted in the colony. The 
 second in command was William John Wills, a medical man 
 by education, recently arrived as an emigrant, and now 
 appointed as surveyor and naturalist to the expedition. 
 Dr, Ludwick Becker, geologist, nine white men, and three 
 coloured men, one of them an Indian Sepoy, in charge of the 
 camels, formed the expedition. Cooper's Creek was selected 
 as the base of operations, where a large depot of provisions was 
 to be formed, as the explorers might have to fall back upon it, 
 if necessary. An advance party of eight pushed on from the 
 Darling to Cooper's Creek to establish the depot, and here 
 all met, and remained from the nth of November to the 
 1 6th of December, making excursions from this centre, 
 and preparing for the perilous and unknown regions to the 
 north, 
 
 Burke knew by this time which men seemed best to accom- 
 pany himself and Wills on the journey, and he selected Gray 
 and King, leaving Brahe in charge of the depot, with strict 
 orders to remain there, and not quit the place, unless from 
 absolute necessity. Three men were thus left along with 
 
340 Across Australia from Sea to Sea, 
 
 Brahe. The others had been sent back, as not necessary for 
 carrying out the expedition. 
 
 Burke, with his party, then started, directing his course along 
 the 140th degree east longitude. He had .with him six camels, 
 a horse, and provisions for twelve weeks. He expressed his 
 belief that in less than that time he would be back, though 
 Brahe said he hardly expected so speedy a return. 
 
 The journey was less difficult than they anticipated. They 
 divided each day into three short stages, and occasionally 
 travelled by night to get more rapidly over desert tracts. 
 They always carried water, that they might be free to halt at 
 any suitable camping ground, although no streams or springs 
 were near. Thus they advanced, steering " by compass and 
 observation," till they came to a river, which Wills pronounced 
 to be the Albert River, but which others have since thought 
 to be the Flinders River, and others some stream on the 
 other side of the Albert, more to the westward. The date is 
 somewhat doubtful, but it was between the nth and 14th 
 of February, 1861. 
 
 They did not think it necessary to go on to the shore of 
 the Gulf, for they were satisfied that the river on whose banks 
 they were was a tidal river, and the water was decidedly salt. 
 They advanced eighteen miles beyond the spot where they 
 came to this conclusion, but a fear had already possessed them 
 of the provisions failing, and they felt satisfied with what had 
 been done. 
 
 About the middle of February the return journey was com- 
 menced. A record of their visit was left at the side of the 
 river, and whatever baggage could be spared, including some 
 books, which had been taken to lighten the monotony of the 
 way. Two-thirds of the provisions having been consumed, 
 it was necessary to be upon short rations, eked out with an 
 occasional hawk or crow that came within gunshot. Rains 
 had made the ground in some places heavy, and the camels, 
 enfeebled by over-fatigue and under-feeding, could scarcely 
 struggle on. Four out of the six soon succumbed, and their 
 
Across Atistralia from Sea to Sea. 341 
 
 flesh gave them a few not very wholesome meals. Gray 
 was the first of the four whose strength was exhausted, and he 
 died on the 8th of April. They had scarcely strength to dig 
 a grave deep enough to cover him, and a sense of lassitude 
 and utter helplessness would have made them lie down also 
 to die, were it not that the hope of reaching the depot at 
 Cooper's Creek sustained their feeble and staggering steps. 
 Another of the camels and the horse " Billy " soon after died 
 of starvation. The bodies were cut, and some of the flesh 
 "jerked," but the dried strips had not a trace of fat, and were 
 mere fibre. 
 
 At length, on Sunday, April 21st, they reached Cooper's 
 Creek. The place was silent and deserted. Without uttering 
 a word, they looked round, and when the terrible truth of 
 their being abandoned broke upon them, Burke flung himself 
 on the ground, completely overwhelmed with surprise and 
 vexation, while Wills seemed utterly paralysed and bewildered. 
 So King reported, who alone survived to tell the tale of that 
 terrible scene. 
 
 In a few moments all three recovered their self-command 
 sufficiently to examine the place and ascertain the state of 
 matters. On a tree near the spot where they had parted from 
 Brahe they descried the words cut, " DIG, 21st April." The 
 feelings of the men on reading this date can be imagined. 
 The depot was deserted upon the very day of their arriving 
 there ! Yet this allowed a gleam of hope amidst their dis- 
 appointment, and prevented it turning into despair. It might 
 be possible, after a little rest, to overtake the retiring party, 
 who had left so recently. Yet they had* hardly strength to 
 dig the ground under the marked tree. Here they found 
 some flour, oatmeal, dry meat, and sugar. These famished 
 men were thankful for this, but as King said afterwards in 
 his aftecting narrative, " they thought they might have left 
 more, as they had nine months' provisions for themselves, 
 without stinting." On further search they found in the 
 cache the following letter : — 
 
342 Across Australia from Sea to Sea. 
 
 "Depot, Cooper's Creek, April i\st. 
 " The Depot part}'' of the V, E. E. (Victoria Exploring 
 Expedition) leaves this camp to-day to return to the Darling. 
 I intend to go S.E from camp to get into our old track near 
 Bulloo. Two of my companions and myself are quite well ; 
 the third, Paton, has been unable to walk for the last eighteen 
 days, as his leg has been severely hurt when thrown by one 
 of the horses. No one has been up here from the Darling. 
 We have six camels and twelve horses in good working 
 condition. 
 
 *' William Brahe." 
 
 This letter was enough to drive them to despair. How 
 could half-dying men overtake those who were ^' quite well," 
 and *' with camels and horses in good working condition " ? 
 
 Nevertheless they took courage, and resolved to endeavour 
 to brace themselves for a last struggle for dear life. They 
 resolved to rest for a few days, for they v/ere too weak to 
 proceed at once, and while thus waiting they anxiously dis- 
 cussed the future. Wills thought they should proceed by the 
 old track homewards, but Burke, being satisfied that the pro- 
 visions could possibly not hold out, resolved to make for 
 Mount Hopeless, from which to the nearest settlements of the 
 Adelaide territory it would be a shorter journey. 
 
 It was a fatal determination, and a second blunder was 
 made in leaving no manifest sign at Cooper's Creek of their 
 having been there. An urgent letter, indeed, was deposited 
 in the cache, but no mark such as Brahe had made on the tree. 
 It seems that this rpfen, possibly from some feeling of conscious 
 guilt in leaving contrary to orders, had gone or sent back to 
 the Creek, and seeing nothing, concluded that no one had been 
 there, and hastily resumed his journey. 
 
 Abandoning everything but what could be carried for sup- 
 porting life, Burke and his companions turned their steps 
 towards Mount Hopeless. They found the water-courses dry 
 and knew that to persevere in this direction would imply 
 
Across A MS frail a from Sea to Sea. 343 
 
 certain and speedy death. They returned with difficulty a 
 distance of about forty miles, to a creek where there was 
 plenty of water, but by this time their provisions were almost 
 exhausted. Wills made his way to Cooper's Creek, and 
 deposited another note in the cache, telling '^ where they were 
 waiting." Some natives found them at this creek, and showed 
 much sympathy. They lived chiefly on nardoo, a plant from 
 the seeds of which they prepared a sort of meal, but this diet 
 was insufficient to keep up, far less to restore, their strength. 
 Wills kept his journal day by day, and there were found in it, 
 on its recovery, such entries as these : '* All very weak, in 
 spite of having had fish from the natives." This was written 
 on June 7th, and on the 15th he writes : "King out for nardoo, 
 Mr. Burke and I pounding and cleaning it ; he finds himself 
 very weak, and I am not a bit stronger." 
 
 The natives had by this time left them, and the three 
 travellers were left to their own resources. The last strip of 
 dried camel had ^ been consumed, and nothing remained but 
 the nardoo, of which Wills says : ^' It appears to be wholly 
 indigestible, and cannot possibly be sufficiently nutritious to 
 sustain life by itself." In a later entrj' he says : " Unless relief 
 comes I cannot possibly last more than a fortnight." On the 
 27th June he wrote a touching letter of farewell to his father^ 
 evidently intended to be a comfort to him after his death, 
 which he felt was imminent, for it ends with the words, " I 
 think to live about four or five days ; my spirits are excellent." 
 He had told of the successful journey, and the causes of its 
 calamitous ending, and said : " Our position, although more 
 provoking, is probably not near so disagreeable as that of poor 
 Harry and his companions " — alluding to his cousin who 
 perished with Sir John Franklin. 
 
 As they felt that some effort must be made, Burke and 
 King went out in hope of meeting with some of the natives, 
 leaving nardoo, water, and firewood within reach of Wills, 
 who was too weak to stand. They made their way to 
 Cooper's Creek, and there Burke lay down to die. King 
 
344 Across Australia from Sea to Sea. 
 
 stayed a few hours beside his dead chief, and then set out to 
 return to Wills. He found only his dead body. He must 
 have died soon after they left him. Burying the body in the 
 sand, the lonely man set out in quest of natives, for he saw 
 that they had been at the place. He soon found some who 
 told him by signs the '' white fellow " was dead, putting their 
 fingers in the ground and covering them with sand, pointing 
 at the same time to the Creek. King made them understand 
 that Burke also was dead, and the poor natives were moved to 
 compassion at his loneliness and misery. They took him to 
 their camp, gave him plenty to eat, and treated him with the 
 utmost tenderness. He stayed with them for about a month, 
 and recovered a little of his strength. They managed to 
 convey a wish to visit the place where Burke had died, and on 
 King conducting them there, they broke into loud wailing and 
 lamentation, and after sitting round in a group looking at the 
 dead chief for a time, they covered his resting place with a 
 pall of green bushes which they gathered. These are the 
 people whom the more savage early colonists, after provoking 
 their hostility by outrages, shot down and killed by poison, as 
 being lower than brutes, and incapable of human feeling ! A 
 happier tone of public opinion now prevails in the centres of 
 colonial life, and Christian influence has been brought to bear 
 on the few survivors, but there is still cause for watchfulness, 
 in remote places, as to the treatment of the natives, whose 
 lands more powerful strangers have taken possession of. 
 
 While these tragical events were occurring, great anxiety 
 was felt in Melbourne as to the fate of an expedition which 
 had started with so much promise. A relief expedition was 
 at length formed, and Mr. A. W. Howitt, a son of William and 
 Mary Howitt, volunteered to be the leader. The. rescuing party 
 reached Cooper's Creek on the 15th of September, and in the 
 neighbourhood they met with King, still dependent on the 
 natives, who had continued to treat him kindly, but he was in 
 a state of extreme weakness and despondency. The natives 
 hailed with delight the advent of the new-comers, evidently 
 
The Discovery of Gold in Australia. 345 
 
 because they thought that their arrival would rouse their poor 
 guest from his gloomy lethargy. Mr. Howitt stayed in the 
 neighbourhood to gather all the relics of the ill-fated expedition, 
 including the journal kept by Mr. Wills almost to the last 
 hour of his life. The remains of the brave explorers were 
 buried with honour, and a record cut on trees beside the 
 graves, over which had been read the grand story of death 
 and resurrection used in the Christian burial service. Mr. 
 Howitt distributed useful presents among the kindly natives, 
 which were received by them with demonstrations of gratitude 
 and joy. On the return to Melbourne, King was received with 
 great honour, and rewarded for his adventurous services. 
 Brahe made the best excuses he could for leaving Cooper's 
 Creek, and his part in the aifair was, happily for him, forgotten 
 in the pride felt at the noble way in which the explorers 
 had done their duty. A monument in Melbourne attests the 
 admiration of their fellow-colonists, and their names will ever 
 live in the annals of heroic adventure. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 IN our account of early exploring expeditions in Australia, 
 it has been mentioned that Count Strzelecki was engaged 
 in a scientific survey of New South Wales, commencing in the 
 year 1839. In his survey of the hill region in the east of the 
 colony he was struck with the resemblance of the rocks to 
 those in Russia, which were rich in mineral wealth. On 
 making further investigation he discovered that extensive 
 gold-fields existed in the region. He communicated the 
 information to Governor Gipps, who implored him not to 
 divulge the secret, dreading the eftect upon the population, 
 which was just settling down to successful industry as 
 colonists. The Count kept his promise to the Governor, and 
 his whole conduct in Australia was generous and self-denying^ 
 
34^ The Discovery of Gold in Australia, 
 
 being a man of philanthropy as well as thoroughly versed in 
 science. He laboured for nearly five years, entirely at his 
 own cost, in exploring the region of which he had undertaken 
 the survey. 
 
 How the discovery was so long dela3'^ed, after settlers began 
 to spread through the country, seems now strange ; but so it 
 was, that not till May 22nd, 1851, was the first public and 
 official notification made. This was contained in a dispatch 
 from Governor Fitzro}'^ to Earl Grey, then minister for the 
 Colonies. In this dispatch the existence of ^ gold-field is 
 announced, to the westward of the town of Bathurst ; at the 
 same time the Governor adds his doubts as to the truth of the 
 report, ." being informed that the gold sent to Sydney for 
 inspection seemed to be Californian gold." At the same time 
 he thought the report to be of sufficient importance to require 
 an efficient police to patrol the Bathurst road. 
 
 A communication from Mr. Stutchbury, the geological 
 surveyor, very soon undeceived and enlightened His 
 Excellency. Three days before the date of the dispatch to 
 Earl Grey, the surveyor had written from Summerhill Creek 
 a note, announcing that gold was being found in considerable 
 quantity, with no better instrument than a tin dish ; that it 
 was found not only in the creek, but far above its flood-line ; 
 and that at least four hundred persons were at work in the 
 locality. The camp of the gold-finders had been named Ophir, 
 and the first public record of the name was in the postscript 
 of Mr. Stutchbury's letter — "Excuse this being written in pencil, 
 as there is no ink in this city of Ophir." 
 
 It was not by Count Strzelecki alone that the presence of 
 gold had been affirmed. Sir Roderick Murchison, probably 
 from hearing the Count's report, and himself knowing the 
 geology of the Ural Mountains, had come to the conclusion 
 that the whole Dividing Range was auriferous, and suggested to 
 the colonial minister the adoption of measures to attract gold- 
 seekers. Sir Roderick did not take into consideration the 
 effects of the announcement, which were dreaded by Governor 
 
The Discoveiy of Gold in Australia. 347 
 
 Gipps and Strzelecki. The immediate effects had much 
 admixture of evil, for individuals at least, but the general 
 result to the prosperity and progress of the Australian continent 
 can never be estimated. 
 
 Besides this testimony from England, the Rev. Mr. Clarke, 
 a local geologist, had expressed his conviction that gold existed 
 and would be found among the Blue Mountains. 
 
 On the 3rd of April, 185 1, Mr. Hargreaves, a settler who had 
 gone to California and seen the gold-fields there, was struck 
 with the resemblance of that country in general aspect, or 
 physical geography, for he does not seem to have been 
 a geologist. He returned to Australia with the firm belief 
 that he w^ould find gold, and he found it. He WTOte to the 
 Government offering to reveal the locality for the sum of ^500 ! 
 This offer, made on April 3rd, 1851, was refused. On the 
 30th April he addressed another letter to the Colonial 
 Secretary, naming the locality, and leaving the reward for the 
 information to the liberal consideration of the Government. 
 Whether any other reward was given we do not know, but 
 Mr. Hargreaves, as well as Mr. Clarke and Mr. Stutchbury, 
 received official and well-paid appointments at the gold-fields 
 of Bathurst. 
 
 Stranger still it seems that the discovery was so long dela3^ed 
 when the following facts are considered. A shepherd had 
 long been in the habit of bringing lumps of gold to Sydney, at 
 occasional intervals, and disposing of them in the town, but 
 alwa^^s refusing to tell where he got them. 
 
 In 1849, an engineer employed in some iron- works, in the 
 neighbourhood of Berrima, produced to the Colonial Secretary 
 a lump of gold embedded in quartz, and asked a large sum for 
 naming the locality ; but it was refused, and Smith kept his 
 secret, w^ith what result to himself is not known to us. 
 
 How the rumour first got wings and spread it is not easy 
 now to tell; but very soon after Mr. Hargreaves had set to 
 work the whole colony began to be in excitement. Communica 
 tion was slow and difficult in those times, and it is a fact that 
 
34^ The Discovery of Gold m Australia. 
 
 on the very day when the Governor sent off his incredulous 
 report to England, there were already above a thousand people 
 at Summerhill Creek, busily at work on an area of not more 
 than a mile in extent, and finding gold in considerable 
 quantities. More than a week before, a man had brought to 
 Bathurst a lump of gold weighing thirteen ounces valued at;^30, 
 and the whole population capable of moving rushed to the gold- 
 field. When the authentic news came to Sydney there was the 
 same excitement there, and tradesmen and labourers of every 
 class and sailors from the ships were soon on the road to the 
 Bathurst Hills. 
 
 Three months after the dispatch of Governor Gipps, 
 Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe wrote from Melbourne to Earl 
 Grey that large deposits of gold had been found in Victoria. 
 A proclamation having been issued, announcing arrangements 
 for granting licenses similar to what had been found necessary 
 to be granted in New South Wales, the population poured forth 
 from the city to the gold-fields, especially to Ballarat, the most 
 productive of the various localities where it had been dis- 
 covered. Previous to this discovery the labourers of Melbourne 
 had been migrating in crowds to the Bathurst diggings. This 
 was soon checked, and not only so, but the tide turned, and 
 the Port Phillip emigrants found their way back again, and 
 with them a large portion of the population of New South 
 Wales, allured by the superior richness of the Victoria gold- 
 fields, and the ease with which they are reached, from their 
 vicinity to the city. In a short time not fewer than 20,000 
 people had arrived at the Victoria mines from the neighbouring 
 colonies. The disorganization of society was threatened, and 
 ruin impended upon all the industrial pursuits of the colony. 
 But things righted themselves gradually. It is not the 
 purpose here to narrate the history of the times subsequent 
 to the first discovery of gold, but having in previous pages 
 described the first discovery of gold in California {ante, 
 page 18), it seemed fitting to narrate the parallel event in 
 our own Australian colonies. 
 
349 
 
 HOW CHRISTIANITY WAS INTRODUCED INTO MANGAIA. 
 
 ON the morning of March 29th, 1777, the natives of 
 Mangaia were startled by the apparition of a " mighty 
 canoe, without paddles or outrigger," but rapidly approaching 
 the southern coast as if possessed of life. By the time it 
 reached the lee of the island, numbers of armed men had made 
 their way to the outer edge of the reef, and gazed at this 
 seeming monster of the deep with admiration and terror. The 
 famous warrior Potai remarked, ''This is unquestionably a 
 visitor from the spirit-world." Another chief oracularly 
 declared that "it was the great (god) Motoro himself" 
 
 After some natural hesitation, Mourua and his friend Majcatu, 
 both worshippers of Motoro, launched a canoe and approached 
 the huge visitor that had successfully " pierced the solid blue 
 vault." The gift of a string of large blue beads (afterwards 
 shown about as veritable chips off the azure arch), and a few 
 nails (subsequently converted into brad-awls), rewarded their 
 daring. The boat of the Resolution rowed along the reef in 
 the vain hope of finding a landing-place. Mourua without 
 hesitation jumped into the boat, and receiving from Captain 
 Cook a large knife, stuck it in his right ear, — the pocket of 
 those days. He was thus sketched by an artist connected 
 with the expedition. 
 
 Numbers of natives now took courage, swam off to the boat, 
 and received gifts from the great navigator. To Kirikovi, the 
 then temporal lord of Mangaia, was presented an iron axe, the 
 first ever seen on the island. A general scrimmage now took 
 place ; but Captain Cook, with great forbearance, after per- 
 mitting these unceremonious fellows to possess themselves of 
 all he could spare, returned to the Resolution, accompanied 
 only by Mourua, who deemed himself wonderfully brave in 
 venturing on board. This he would not have done but for the 
 assurances of Mai (the " Omai " of the Voyages) that he would 
 be perfectly safe. Much to his satisfaction, Mourua was 
 
350 How Christianity was 
 
 eventually brought back to the reef in the ship's boat. He 
 swam ashore, and related to his admiring countrymen the 
 wonders he had seen ; whilst Cook sailed on to Atiu, which 
 lies about one hundred miles north of Mangaia. An important 
 step had thus been taken in civilisation : they had become 
 acquainted with the existence of a race different from all that 
 they had hitherto seen or heard of, wiser, stronger, and more 
 benevolent than themselves. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century, an English whaling 
 ship, name unknown, touched at Mangaia. Emboldened by 
 the profitable intercourse of their fathers with Captain Cook, 
 several canoes at once pushed off to the ship. A brisk traffic 
 was for some time carried on ; but no native was allowed to 
 board the ship. A chief named Koroa had jusfconcluded a 
 splendid bargain in exchanging a fine octopus for a knife and 
 a tenpenny nail, when a wild fellow called Tairoa paddled up 
 in his canoe, and, watching his opportunity, mortally speared 
 a white man who was holding on to the ship's iron braces, 
 and amusing himself with the scene. Highly satisfied with 
 his valour, Tairoa paddled back to what he considered a safe 
 distance, and watched the confusion on board the vessel. A 
 long bamboo (as it appeared to the natives) was pointed at the 
 aggressor, who did not dream of danger. An unaccountable 
 light and noise issued from this hitherto unknown weapon, and 
 Tairoa fell lifeless at the bottom of his canoe. 
 
 All now was consternation amongst the natives. Ngaunui 
 proposed to Koroa to rescue the body of the slain ; but 
 Koroa wisely refused to interfere, and cursed Tairoa for 
 having spoiled the traffic. Ngaunui persisted in attempting 
 to get the corpse, when a few swan shot in his shoulders 
 induced him to retire with all convenient speed. A boat was 
 now lowered, the crew of which took possession of Tairoa's 
 lifeless body and his canoe. All being drawn upon deck, the 
 captain made haste to leave this inhospitable island. 
 
 About 1 814, when Makitaka was lord of Mangaia, and a 
 terrible famine prevailed over the island, another whaler 
 
introduced into Mangaia, 351 
 
 arrived, — the third vessel they had seen. The weather was 
 remarkably fine. The captain, wishing to see something of 
 the island, landed with a companion. The names of the two 
 white men who first landed on Mangaia are unknown. They 
 crossed the reef, and walked in quiet over part of the ground 
 now occupied by the mission premises. Very unwisely one 
 of them displayed a fine pearl oyster shell. A rush w^as 
 made by the natives to get possession of this wonderful 
 treasure. The fortunate thief was himself chased into the 
 interior by scores of envious countrymen. With this magni- 
 ficent ornament dangling from his neck, he would be sure to 
 carry the palm at the festive dances. The white men, alarmed 
 for their own safety, fired repeatedly, though without effect, 
 upon the retreating natives. Recollecting the fate of Tairoa, 
 the natives disappeared in the thick bush then growing to the 
 water's edge, whilst their white visitors hastily took their 
 departure. 
 
 The next vessel that touched at the island was a schooner, 
 having on board the lamented missionary Williams. This was 
 in 1823. Papehia, Taua, and Haavi, with the wives of the 
 two latter, were landed as the first evangelists of Mangaia. 
 But the very rough treatment they at once experienced induced 
 the five to swim back through the surf to the ship's boat. 
 Their escape in safety was owing to Mr. Williams ordering a 
 charge of powder to be fired from the ship to frighten the 
 heathen, who were plainly intent on killing the men and 
 taking possession of the women. All their property was 
 stolen. 
 
 In 1852 good old Haavi revisited Mangaia; and, in an 
 address delivered to a most crowded congregation, he touch - 
 ingly contrasted the savageness and wretchedness of 1823 with 
 the pleasant and Christian aspect of the villagers before him. 
 Many were affected to tears by his remarks, tor not a few of 
 their number had taken part in the attack upon these humble 
 servants of God. 
 
 Mr. Williams left behind him a valuable souvenir in the 
 
352 How Christianity was 
 
 shape of a couple of pigs. The boar was named Tauiti {Little 
 Pet) ; the sow Makave {Ringlet). They were gravely con- 
 ducted to the niaraCy or temple of the war-god, as foreign 
 divinities. They were wrapped in sacred white cloth, and the 
 best of food set before them day by day. But the speech of 
 these divinities was a great mystery. From their grunting 
 about the marae the Mangaians derive the proverb, '' Ua aue 
 nga atua," — "the gods are crying." Eventually the filthy 
 habits of these foreign animals made the heathen suspect that 
 they were no gods after all. The finest of the first litter was 
 solemnly offered to Kongo in lieu of a human victim. They 
 greatly multiplied. In 1852 a grand feast was held, when 
 upwards of a thousand hogs were killed and eaten. 
 
 After the departure of the teachers, their little property and 
 books were used as ornaments for the night dances. Nobody 
 suspected that the printed characters had a signification, the 
 islanders regarding them as ingenious cloth-patterns. But 
 soon after dysentery — hitherto unknown — decimated the 
 population. The heathen very naturally referred this scourge 
 to the anger of the visitors' God on account of the ill-usage 
 His followers had experienced at their hands. A vow was 
 registered that, should He ever deign to send messengers again 
 to their shores, they should be duly protected from insult and 
 injury. The leaves of books, which had been worked up into 
 head-dresses, and strips of calico, once the garments of the 
 teachers and their wives, were carefully collected, and thrown 
 down the deep chasms where they were accustomed to bury 
 their dead, hoping that the scourge would disappear with 
 these things. 
 
 On June 15th, 1824, their sincerity was put to the test. 
 Two members of the church of Tahaa — Davida and Tiere — 
 were landed on Mangaia by Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet 
 on their voyage to Sydney. With the Tahitian New Testament 
 wrapped up in their shirts, and secured to the top of their 
 heads, these intrePid men leaped into the surf, and swam 
 ashore in the presence of many hundreds of heathen. As 
 
introduced into Mavgaia, 353 
 
 Davida's feet touched the reef a long spear was thrust at him 
 by a warrior, who exultingly shouted. " Thou shalt never 
 catch sharks," meaning that the new God should never win 
 victories on Mangaia. Providentially, the future king of the 
 island— then a young man — was standing close behind the 
 intending murderer, and at the very moment the lunge was 
 being made arrested the weapon. 
 
 These humble evangelists landed on the reef, and were at 
 once literally taken by the hand by Numangatini, the king, 
 and conducted to his own seaside marae, dedicated to Rong^^ 
 so as to invest their persons with a sacred character. The 
 crowd dared not follow. After a brief rest the king led them 
 to the interior, where his ordinary residence was. All this 
 had been pre-arranged between the king and principal chiefs, 
 as the schooner had been recognised on the previous evening 
 as " God's ship." The carrying out of their wishes was en- 
 trusted to the king and his warlike friend Maungaati, who 
 showed the strangers great kindness. 
 
 A feast was prepared for the teachers. The crowd was 
 surprised that the strangers should close their eyes and pray 
 before eating. On this well-remembered occasion the follow- 
 ing colloquy occurred between the heathen and their new 
 teachers : 
 
 " What are you doing ? " — ^' Thanking God for His gifts." 
 
 " Where does your God live ? " — '' In heaven." 
 
 " What is His name ? "— '' Jehovah." 
 
 *' Does your God eat food ? " — " God is a Spirit. He is not 
 like us ; He lives for ever. It was He that made the earth, 
 the sky, the sea, and all things. He made us." 
 
 A reed house was now built for the use of the teachers, 
 and a rude hut for worship and daily teaching. The site was 
 the enclosure where human sacrifices were first exposed. 
 
 Very diligently did Davida and Tiere labour to instruct the 
 younger men in the mysteries of book-learning, and all who 
 would attend, in the first principles of Christianity. Nor were 
 their efforts vain, for numbeis came fiom all parts of the. 
 
 23 
 
354 Hozv Christianity was 
 
 island to hear the wonderful words that fell from the lips of 
 these devoted evangelists. 
 
 At length Davida found himself strong enough to form a 
 Christian village near the sea, where a good site could easily 
 be obtained for the erection of a larger church and school-house. 
 This had been originally suggested by the Rev. J. Williams. 
 The new village was called " God's town." At that period its 
 rocky shore was covered with large ironwood and other trees. 
 It was the custom of the early coverts, like Nathanael of old, to 
 retire at midday to the seclusion of these trees to pray, — each 
 having his own particular tree. 
 
 Now, for the first time, husband and wife ate together at 
 meals, and parents tasted food with their firstborn. The 
 oppressive restriction thus broken through had prevailed 
 throughout the South Sea Islands, although no better reason 
 couM be assigned for it than that "such was the will of the 
 gods." 
 
 In September 1825, Mr. Bourne, the pastor of Davida and 
 Tiere, visited Mangaia, and was much pleased with the striking 
 change so speedily brought about by the blessing of God. 
 
 Not long afterwards — in 1826 — Tiere passed away to his 
 rest and reward, so that Davida was left to labour alone for 
 some years. Tiere was a man of amiable disposition and 
 winning manners. 
 
 Opposite to the marae of Motoro and the altar for human 
 sacrifice was the idol-house, known as " The-prop-of-the- 
 kingdom " ( Te kaiard). Inside were the principal gods of 
 Mangaia, which, with the exception of Rongo, all consisted 
 of rude representations of the human form carved in iron- 
 wood. 
 
 The entire family of gods was fed before the sun had 
 actually sunk beneath the horizon, as that was the signal 
 for them to go on their travels all over the island. At break 
 of day they were said to rush back with a great noise " like 
 wind in a cocoa-nut grove," ashamed of daylight ! Occasionally 
 the idols were sunned to prevent their fine wrappings from 
 
introdicced into Mangaia. 355 
 
 getting mouldy. New white cloth was put on them from time 
 to time. 
 
 Some time after the introduction of Christianity it happened 
 that one of the regal family was taken dangerously ill. Whilst 
 the heart was softened by affliction, the parent was struck 
 with the glaring absurdity of professed adherents to Christianity 
 keeping up this idol-shrine with its daily oven of food. What 
 should be done with the idols ? It was decided by the king, 
 Pirama Simeona, and the other leading men of the day, to 
 surrender these dangerous things to Davida. To the horror of 
 the heathen, but to the great joy of the Christian party, the 
 whole thirteen were carried in triumphal procession to the 
 house of Davida by the sea. The wrappings were thrown 
 away, and for the first time since they were carved by Rori 
 they were exposed to the vulgar gaze. Soon after Messrs. 
 Williams and Piatt paid an opportune visit to the island ; and 
 they proceeded to Raiatea laden with these idols, which were 
 eventually deposited in the museum of the London Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 The day the idols were removed, the house in which they 
 had been kept was set on fire ; the maraes all over the island 
 were desecrated, the little houses in which the deity was 
 supposed to be invisibly present were burnt ; the great stone 
 idol of Rongo at the seaside, where human sacrifices were 
 offered, was smashed to atoms, and (what is much to be 
 regretted) the magnificent native mahogany (Jamanu) trees 
 were set on fire, on account of their supposed connection with 
 idolatry. Cocoa-nuts were planted on the crest of the maj^ae 
 of Motoro in commemoration of this happy event. In their 
 wild excitement the war-dance was actually performed, as if 
 they had gained an important victory ! 
 
 The constellation of the Pleiades held an important place 
 in the heathen mythology. Its appearance on the horizon at 
 sunset, about the middle of December, determined the com- 
 mencement of the new year. When at sunset the constellation 
 was invisible, the second half of the year was supposed to have 
 
356 How Christianity was 
 
 commenced. The reappearance of the Pleiades on the horizon 
 at sunset was in many of the islands a season of extravagant 
 rejoicing, and was welcomed with frantic dances and discordant 
 shell-music. 
 
 In July 1845, arrived their first resident missionary, the 
 Rev. G. Gill, who remained at this station until his removal 
 to Rarotonga in April 1857. His labours were incessant, 
 and were owned by the Great Master to the ingathering of 
 many to the fold, and in the general enlightenment of the 
 islanders in spiritual truth. A stone church and a substantial 
 school-house, erected in each of the three villages, testify to 
 his energy. A mission-house of a superior character was 
 built by him at the principal village of Oneroa. Although 
 many years have elapsed since his removal, he still lives in 
 the loving remembrance of the people. 
 
 On his arrival it was difficult to travel from one village to 
 another ; before he left an excellent road had been made 
 round the island. Several oppressive laws were cancelled by 
 the king and chiefs at his suggestion. 
 
 On the 15th of July, 1851, the writer left England in the 
 missionary bark John Williams, but did not land at Mangaia 
 until March ist, 1852. Not long afterwards the character of 
 the people was put to a severe test by the wreck of two 
 vessels within a few months of each other. Most of the 
 property was saved for the captains. Upon the whole there 
 was every reason to be much pleased with the way the people 
 behaved. 
 
 Of the men who welcomed the first white missionary in 
 1845, and myself in 1852, few survive; they were men who 
 knew by bitter experience the cruel bondage of heathenism, 
 and who lovingly embraced Christianity. We thank God that 
 these worthies died as they had lived in the faith of the Gospel. 
 
 Our converts do not seem to be troubled with the doubts 
 and fears which affect the highly-cultured European. May j 
 not this be owing to the childlike nature of their faith, — just 
 taking God at His word ? 
 
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introdticed into Mangaia. 357 
 
 Amongst the excellent men whose death-beds it has been 
 my privilege to visit I would refer to Rakoia, chief of Tamarua, 
 who died in September 1865, nearly eighty years of age. He 
 was emphatically a good man, read}'' for every good word and 
 work. He was never absent from his place in the adult Bible- 
 class or in church, except when ill. During the last two years of 
 his life he became childish ; yet I could nearly always fix his 
 attention for a few minutes by referring to the interests of his 
 soul. The last words I heard from his lips a few days before 
 his death were, " I am dying ; but I am in God's hands. 
 Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life ! " 
 
 Three months afterwards Tamatangi, chief of Ivirua, died 
 of inflammation of the lungs. I had ridden over twice to 
 administer medicine and to converse with him. On the first 
 Sabbath of December 1865, I spent the entire day at Ivirua. 
 After the morning service I went to see him, and at once 
 perceived that the last hour was near, although he was in 
 full possession of his mental faculties. Tamatangi might be 
 seventy years old, and was reclining on a mat supported by a 
 near relative. Like Jacob, he died in the midst of his people; 
 for perhaps one hundred natives were in the chamber of 
 death. His mind was fixed upon Jesus. Twice we offered 
 prayer on behalf of the dying man ; and twice we sung (first 
 a version of " When I can read my title clear," and then a 
 version of " Rock of ages, cleft for me "). I held his hand, 
 uttering such words of comfort as I could think of He 
 looked around upon his wife and relatives, and then fixed his 
 dying gaze on me. His last words were an exhortation to his 
 clan to cleave to the Word of God. He then said " Farew.ii, ' 
 and expired. 
 
 Mauapa died in the same year. He was the oldest man on 
 the island, and had been a valuable deacon for man}' years. 
 In visiting this worthy old Christian, I have often come away 
 refreshed in spirit, beholding what Christianity can do for 
 one who grew up to mature age in heathen darkness. His 
 mind was clear to the last. He passed away without a cloud. 
 
35^ How Christianity zvas 
 
 In October 1866, Paunui, who had been my leading deacon 
 at Oneroa for many years, was called away. His removal 
 was rather sudden. Although by no means faultless — indeed, 
 being possessed of great energy and decision of character, he 
 often occasioned me great anxiety — his death was a brilliant 
 sunset. One Sabbath morning early he sent for me. I was 
 grieved to find him suffering greatly. Gasping for breath, he 
 said, " My teacher, I am going. Do not detain me by your 
 kind prayers and wishes. Let me go. I want to be with 
 Jesus. There we will meet again." To me it seemed in- 
 credible that such a robust, noble frame should be so near 
 dissolution. I spoke of his possible recovery, and the medi- 
 cines I had in my pocket. He again said, " I know I am 
 dying. I wish to go and be with Jesus. Medicines will not 
 avail. Detain me not." I inquired the ground of his hope. 
 He said that he was trusting in Jesus only. He then com- 
 mended me and the native pastors to the special care of a 
 chief (his relative) who was by his side. This he did partly 
 from kind personal interest and friendship, and partly as 
 devolving a sacred trust derived from his cousin Parima, 
 the first chief who embraced the Gospel, and who thereby 
 was universally considered to be the special protector and 
 helper of the " servants of God." Other chiefs who visited 
 him successively received the same charge, proving how 
 sacredly he regarded the trust committed to him by those who 
 nearly fifty years ago embraced the Christian faith. 
 
 I bless God for the many dying testimonies I have met with 
 among these poor natives to the power of the Gospel to take 
 away the sting of death, and to impart in its place a bright 
 hope of a blissful immortality. It should be remembered 
 that these men were all warriors in heathenism, and had 
 freely shed blood without compunction in those days of dark- 
 ness. They grew up in the practice of a debasing superstition, 
 and yet cordially embraced the teachings and moral require- 
 ments of the Gospel. 
 
 For the last seven years the contributions from Mangaia to 
 
introduced into Mangaia. 359 
 
 the general funds of the London Missionary Society, after 
 defraying all local expenses, have exceeded ^200, and during 
 the same period, Rarotonga has contributed a much larger 
 sum. 
 
 The first complete version of the Bible in the dialect of the 
 Hervey Group was brought by \hG John Williams in 1852. In 
 two years every one of the five thousand copies was disposed 
 of. In 1855 a new edition of an equal number was called for, 
 and a third editon (of five thousand), with marginal references, 
 is in general circulation. 
 
 A recent critic, referring to the South Sea Missions, speaks 
 of " the smallness of the results obtained from the enormous 
 expenditure upon Mission-work." Now what are the facts of 
 the case ? Sixty-five years ago the whole of the Pacific was 
 heathen. No'Cv upwards of three hundred islands are Christian- 
 ised. When missions were commenced in the Pacific, 
 commerce did not exist. The commerce of the Pacific is now 
 estimated at ^3,000,000. So surely does civilization follow 
 in the wake of Christianity. Idolatry, in the greater portion 
 of the Pacific, is a thing of the past. Education is advancing ; 
 500,000 natives are under instruction ; 60,000 are, we hope, 
 " disciples indeed." Wherever a Christian community is 
 ministered to by a native pastor, he is sustained, not by 
 contributions drawn from Europe or America, but by the free- 
 will offerings of his own people. All this has, under God, 
 been done by various Protestant Missionary Societies at little 
 more than the total cost of the Alexandra Palace, — -less than 
 a million sterling ! 
 
 Seven complete translations of the Scriptures have been 
 made by missionaries into dialects hitherto unwritten. 
 Thirteen others are proceeding at the present moment. That 
 the message of love should thus be conveyed in twenty 
 barbarous dialects is itself a wonderful feat, whether regarded 
 from a literary or a religious point of view. 
 
 The writer has not yet discovered an island of saints. If he 
 were in search of one, he would naturally look for it not 
 
360 Two attempts to ascend Chtmborazo. 
 
 amongst those who within his own memory were heathen, 
 but nearer home, where Christianity has been professed for 
 nearly eighteen centuries. None are so conscious of the 
 manifold defects of their converts as the missionaries them- 
 selves ; but they beheve that they are equal to the church at 
 Corinth (who were honoured by an epistle from an inspired 
 apostle), and certainly far superior to those hordes who in the 
 Middle Ages cast aside their idols, and became the founders of 
 our modern Europe '" 
 
 TWO ATTEMPTS TO ASCEND CHIMBORAZO. 
 
 ' I^EW of the works of nature," says Mr. Prescott, in his 
 X^ " History of the Conquest of Peru," " produce impres- 
 sions of higher sublimity than the aspect of this coast, as it 
 is gradually unfolded to the eye of the mariner sailing on the 
 distant waters of the Pacific, where mountain is seen to rise 
 above mountain, and Chimborazo, with its glorious canopy of 
 snow, glistening far above the clouds, crowns the whole as 
 with a celestial diadem." 
 
 Until comparatively recent times, the Andes were generally 
 supposed to include the highest mountains of the world, and 
 Chimborazo was regarded as the highest of the Andes. It is 
 now known that there are peaks in the Andes loftier than 
 Chimborazo, and that there are mountains in the Himalayas 
 higher than any in the Andes. The present century was, 
 however, well advanced before these facts were discovered, 
 and at the time that the celebrated Alexander von Humboldt 
 was travelling in South America it was universally believed 
 that Chimborazo was the highest mountain in the world. 
 There is no doubt that it was this which principally 
 stimulated the traveller to try to reach the summit, and he 
 was profoundly vexed that he did not succeed. 
 
 * From *' Life in the Southern Isles," by the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, B.A. 
 (Religtous Tract Society.) 
 
Tzuo attempts to ascend Chimborazo. 361 
 
 Humboldt had been travelling three years in South America 
 at the time that he made his attempt to ascend Chimborazo, 
 lie left Quito for the expedition on the 9th of June, 1802, and 
 on June 23rd he reached the mountain. He says, that upon 
 arriving at the elevation of 15,600 feet the way became 
 narrower and steeper. " The natives, with one exception, 
 refused to accompany us farther, and were deaf to entreaties 
 and threatenings, maintaining that they suffered more than 
 we did from the rarity of the air. We were left alone — 
 Bonpland, the botanist, Carlos Montufar, a younger son of the 
 Marquis de Selvalegre, a half-cast Indian from the neighbour- 
 ing village of San Juan, and myself. 
 
 " By dint of great exertion and considerable patience, we 
 reached a greater height than we had dared to hope for, seeing 
 we had been almost constantly enveloped in mist. In many 
 places the ridge was extremely narrow. To our left was 
 a precipice covered with snow, the surface of which shone 
 like glass from the effects of frost. This thin sheet of ice was 
 at an inclination of about thirty degrees. On the right was 
 a fearful abyss, from 800 to 1,000 feet deep, from the sides of 
 which projected huge masses of naked rock. We leant over 
 rather more to this side than the other, for it seemed less to 
 be dreaded than the precipice on our left, where the smooth 
 sides aftbrded no opportunity of checking a fall by catching 
 hold of projecting pieces of rock, and where the thin crust of 
 ice furnished no security against being buried in the loose 
 snow beneath. 
 
 " The rock became more friable, and the ascent increasingly 
 difficult and dangerous. At certain places, where it was very 
 steep, we were obliged to use both hands and feet, and the 
 edges of the rock were so sharp that we were painfully cut, 
 especially on our hands. In addition to this, 1 had for some 
 weeks been suffering from a wound in my foot. The loose 
 position of the stones upon the narrow ridge necessitated 
 extreme caution, since many masses that appeared to be 
 firmly attached proved to be only embedded in sand. 
 
362 Two attempts to ascend Chimb or azo, 
 
 ''We advanced all the more slowly, as every place that 
 seemed insecure had first to be tested. Fortunately, the attempt 
 to reach the summit of Chimborazo had been reserved for our 
 last enterprise among the mountains of South America, so 
 that we had gained some experience, and knew how far we 
 could rely on our own powers. It is a peculiar characteristic 
 of all excursions on the Andes that beyond the line of 
 perpetual snow Europeans are always left without guides 
 just at the point where, from their complete ignorance of the 
 locality, help is most needed. In everything Europeans are 
 left to take the lead. 
 
 " We could no longer see the summit, even by glimpses, 
 and were therefore doubl}'- anxious to ascertain how much of 
 the ascent had still to be accomplished. We opened the 
 tube-barometer at a spot where the ridge was wide enough to 
 allow two persons to stand side by side in safety. We were 
 only at an elevation of 17,300 feet, and therefore scarcely 
 200 feet higher than we had attained three months previously 
 upon Antisana. 
 
 " After an hour's cautious climbing, the ridge of rock 
 became less steep, but the mist unfortunately remained as 
 thick as ever. One after another we all began to feel 
 indisposed, and experienced a feeling of nausea, accompanied 
 by giddiness, which was far more distressing than the 
 difficulty of breathing. Blood exuded from the lips and 
 gums, and the eyes became bloodshot. There was nothing 
 particularly alarming to us in these symptoms, with which we 
 had grown familiar by experience. 
 
 "The stratum of mist which had hidden every distant 
 object from our view began, nothwithstanding the perfect 
 calm, suddenly to dissipate. We recognised once more the 
 dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo, now in close proximity. 
 It was a grand and solemn spectacle, and the hope of attaining 
 the object of all our efforts animated us with renewed strength. 
 The ridge of rock, only here and there covered with a thin 
 sprinkling of snow, became somewhat wider ; and we were 
 
Two attempts to ascena CJnmborazo, 363 
 
 hurrying forward with assured footsteps, when our further 
 progress was suddenly stopped by a ravine, some four 
 hundred feet deep and sixty feet wide, which presented an 
 insurmountable barrier to our undertaking. We could see 
 clearly that the ridge on which we stood continued in the same 
 direction on the other side of the ravine, but I was 
 doubtful whether, after all, it really led to the summit. There 
 was no means of getting round the cleft. On Antisana, after 
 a night of severe frost, Bonpland had been able to travel a 
 considerable distance upon the frozen surface of snow, but 
 here the softness of the snowy mass prohibited such an 
 attempt, and the nature of the declivity rendered it equally 
 impossible to scale the sides. 
 
 " It was now one o'clock in the day. We fixed up the 
 barometer with great care, and found we had now reached 
 an elevation of 19,286 English feet. 
 
 " We remained but a short time in this dreary waste, for 
 
 we were soon again enveloped in mist, which hung about 
 
 us motionless. We saw nothing more of the summit of 
 
 Chimborazo, nor of the neighbouring Snow Mountains. We 
 
 were isolated as in a balloon ; a few rock lichens were to be 
 
 observed above the line of perpetual snow, at a height of 
 
 16,920 feet ; the last green moss we noticed was growing about 
 
 2,600 feet lower, A butterfly was captured by M. Bonpland 
 
 at a height of 15,000 feet, and a fly was observed 1,600 feet 
 
 higher ; both had been carried up into the higher regions of 
 
 the atmosphere by the currents of air originating in the warmer 
 
 plains beneath. We did not, however, see any condors, 
 
 which are so numerous upon Antisana and Pichincha, where, 
 
 in those vast solitudes, from being unaccustomed to the sight 
 
 of man, they are wholly devoid of fear. 
 
 "As the weather became increasingly threatening, we 
 hurried down along the ridge of rock, and, from the insecurity 
 of our footing, found that greater caution even was necessary 
 than during the ascent. 
 
 "When we were at a height of about 17,400 feet, we 
 
364 Two attempts to ascend Chimborazo. 
 
 encountered a violent hailstorm, which gave place to snow 
 twenty minutes before passing the limit of perpetual snow, 
 and the flakes were so thick that the ridge was soon covered 
 several inches deep. The danger would indeed have been 
 great had the snow overtaken us at a height of 18,000 feet. At 
 a few minutes past two we reached the spot where we had 
 left the mules." 
 
 Humboldt was evidently very proud of this expedition, 
 although he completely failed to reach the summit; and to the 
 end of his long life he was never tired of mentioning and of 
 drawing attention to it. Only a few years before his death, 
 after he had travelled in many countries and seen many other 
 mountains, he remarked to Bayard Taylor, ''I still think that 
 Chimborazo is the grandest mountain in the world." 
 
 In 1 83 1 an attempt to ascend Chimborazo was made by 
 M. Boussingault, the French Academician, who had been 
 residing many years in South America. He was accompanied 
 by an American, Colonel Hall, and says, in his published 
 account, that, viewed from Riobamba (that is, from the east), 
 the mountain exhibits two slopes of very different inclinations. 
 ''The one facing the Arenal, the sandy plain on the south 
 of the mountain, is very abrupt, and there are to be seen, 
 coming out from under the ice, numerous masses of the rock 
 called trachyte. The other, descending towards the place 
 called Chillapullu, not far from the village of Mocha, is, on 
 the contrary, little inclined, but of a considerable extent, 
 
 •' After having well examined the environs of the mountain, 
 it was by this slope that we resolved to attack it, and, on the 
 14th of December, 1831, we went to lodge at the farm of 
 Chimborazo, where we found dry straw to lie on, and some 
 sheepskins to keep us from the cold. The farm stands on an 
 elevation of 12,350 feet, so the nights are cool there, and, as 
 a resting-place, it is not agreeable, because wood is scarce. 
 
 " On the 15th, at seven in the morning, we put ourselves 
 en route, under the guidance of an Indian from the farm. We 
 followed, in ascending, a rivulet enclosed between two walls 
 
Two attempts to ascend Chi7?zborazo. 365 
 
 of trachyte, whose waters descend from the glacier ; but very 
 soon we quitted this fissure, in order to direct our steps 
 towards Mocha, going along the base of Chimborazo. We 
 rose very gradually, and our mules walked with trouble and 
 difficulty through the debris of rock which has accumulated at 
 the foot of the mountain. The slope then became very rapid, 
 the ground was unstable, and the mules stopped almost at 
 every step to make a long pause ; they no longer obeyed the 
 spur. The breathing of the animals was hurried and panting. 
 We were then precisely at the height of Mont Blanc, for the 
 barometer indicated an elevation of 15,626 feet above the level 
 of the sea. 
 
 " After we had covered our faces with masks of light gauze, 
 in order to preserve ourselves from snow blindness, we began 
 to ascend a ridge which abutted on a very elevated point of 
 the glacier. It was midday. We went up slowly, and, as we 
 got farther and farther on to the snow, the difficulty of 
 breathing in walking became more and more felt, but we 
 easily regained our strength by stopping at every eight or ten 
 steps, without, however, always sitting down. As we went 
 on we felt extreme fatigue from the want of consistency in the 
 snowy soil, which continually gave way under our feet, and 
 in which we sank sometimes up to the waist. In spite of all 
 our efforts we were soon convinced of the impossibility of 
 advancing ; in fact, a little farther on the loose snow was more 
 than four feet deep. We went to rest on a block of trachyte, 
 which resembled an island in the midst of a sea of snow. The 
 height noted down was 16,623 feet, so that, after much fatigue, 
 we had only reached 997 feet higher than the place whence 
 we set out. 
 
 " At six o'clock we were back at the farm. The weather 
 had been splendid, and ChimLorazo had never appeared to us 
 so magnificent, but, after our fruitless journey, we could not 
 help looking at it with a feeling of spite. We were determined 
 to attempt the ascent by the abrupt side — that is to S2iy, by 
 the slope, which looks towards the Arenal. We knew that it 
 
366 Two attempts to ascend Chimborazo. 
 
 was on this side that Humboldt had ascended this mountain, 
 for they had pointed out to us at Riobamba the place which 
 he had reached, but it was impossible for us to obtain exact 
 information as to the route which he had followed to get there, 
 for the Indians who had accompanied that intrepid traveller 
 were no longer living. 
 
 *'At seven o'clock the next day we took the road towards 
 the Arenal. The sky was remarkably clear. On the east we 
 perceived the famous volcano of Sangay, in the province of 
 Macas, which, nearly a century before, La Condamine had 
 seen in a state of permanent eruption. In proportion as we 
 advanced the land rose sensibly. In general the trachytic 
 plateau, which supports the isolated peaks with which the 
 Andes are, as it were, bristling, rises gradually to the base of 
 these same peaks. The numerous and deep crevasses which 
 furrow the plateau seem all to start from a common centre ; 
 they become narrower as they get away from this centre. 
 We could only compare them to the lines on the surface of 
 a cracked glass. 
 
 ''We were at a height of 16,071 feet when we took to 
 journeying on foot. The ground had become altogether 
 impracticable for the mules, and, besides, those animals, 
 whose instinct is extraordinary, tried to make us understand 
 the great fatigue which they felt; their ears, usually so straight 
 and attentive, were quite drooping, and, during the frequent 
 halts which they made for breath, they never ceased looking 
 towards the plain. Few riders have probably taken their 
 steeds to such a height, and to travel on the back of mules, 
 over a moving soil beyond the limits of the snow, requires 
 perhaps several j^ears' experience in riding in the Andes. 
 
 '' After having examined the locality in which we were, we 
 saw that, in order to gain a ridge which ascended towards the 
 summits of Chimborazo, we must first climb an excessively 
 steep ascent just in front of us. It was formed in great part 
 of blocks of rock of all sizes, disposed in slopes. Here and 
 there these fragments of trachyte were covered by sheets of 
 
Two attempts to ascend Chimb or azo, 367 
 
 ice more or less extensive, and in several points you could 
 clearly see that the debris of rock lay over hardened snow. 
 They proceeded consequently from the recent falls which had 
 taken place in the upper part of the mountain. These falls 
 are frequent, and in the midst of the glaciers of the Cordilleras 
 what one has most to fear are the avalanches, in which there 
 are really more stones than snow. 
 
 "At eleven o'clock we finished crossing a very extended 
 sheet of ice, on which we had been obliged to cut notches in 
 order to make sure of our steps. This passage was not 
 without danger, for a slide might have cost us our lives. We 
 entered, then, afresh on the debris of trachyte, which was 
 firm earth to us, and from that time we were able to ascend 
 more rapidly. We marched along in a file, I first, then 
 Colonel Hall, and my negro last. He followed my steps 
 exactly, in order not to endanger the safety of the instruments 
 which were entrusted to him. We kept an absolute silence 
 during our march, experience having taught me that nothing 
 exhausts so much as a sustained conversation at this height ; 
 and during our halts, if we exchanged a few words it was in 
 a low voice. 
 
 "We had now reached the ridge at which we were aiming. 
 It was not what we had thought it from a distance, for, in fact, 
 there wa,s a little snow on it, and its sides were so steep that 
 they were very difficult to climb. We were obliged to make 
 almost unheard-of efforts, and such gymnastics are painful in 
 these aerial regions. At last we arrived at the foot of 
 a perpendicular wall of trachyte, which was man}'- hundred 
 feet in height. There was a feeling of discouragement when 
 the barometer told us that we were only at a height of 18,460 
 feet. This was little for us, for it was not even the height 
 to which we had attained on Cotopaxi. Besides, Humboldt 
 had ascended higher on Chimborazo, and we wished at 
 least to attain the point at which that learned traveller had 
 stopped." 
 
 Boussingault arrived at this point at a quarter to one, and 
 
368 Two attempts to ascend Chimborazo, 
 
 then became enveloped in cloud for a time. When this 
 disappeared they found a precipice on their right hand, but 
 succeeded in forcing a passage on the left of their ''per- 
 pendicular wall of trachyte." They then found soft and loose 
 snow lying over ice, and nearly came to grief through 
 M. Boussingault slipping. '' We were all in imminent danger. 
 This incident made us hesitate, but, taking new courage, we 
 resolved to go on," and by half-past one they got again to 
 their desired ridge. There they were convinced that '' it was 
 impossible to do more," for they were "now at the foot of 
 a prism of trachyte, of which the upper part, covered with 
 a cupola of snow, forms the summit of Chimborazo." 
 
 " The ridge at which we had arrived was only some feet in 
 width. On all sides we were environed with precipices, and 
 surrounded by the strangest sights. The deep colour of the 
 rock contrasted in the most striking manner with the dazzling 
 whiteness of the snow. Long stalagmites of ice appeared 
 suspended over our heads, so that one might have thought 
 that a magnificent cascade had frozen there. The weather 
 was beautiful, some light clouds only being visible on the 
 west ; the air was quite calm, so that the view was very 
 extensive. The situation was new, and we felt a lively 
 satisfaction in it. We were at a height of 19,513 feet, which 
 is, I believe, the greatest height to which men have ever 
 climbed. 
 
 "After some moments' repose we found ourselves recovered 
 from our fatigues, and neither of us experienced those 
 uncomfortable sensations which most persons who have 
 ascended high mountains have done. Three-quarters of an 
 hour after our arrival my pulse, and also Colonel Hall's, beat 
 106 in a minute; we were thirsty, and evidently under 
 a slightly feverish influence, but it was not a painful state. 
 All sounds seemed to me, however, thinned in a remarkable 
 manner, and the voices of my companions were so much 
 changed, that under any other circumstances it would have 
 been impossible to recognise them. The slight noise which 
 
Twice to tJie top of Chimborazo. 369 
 
 the blows of my hammer on the rock made also surprised us 
 very much." 
 
 Towards 3 p.m. the weather began to change, and when 
 they had descended about a thousand feet they got into cloud 
 and a hailstorm. Night surprised them before they got off 
 the mountain, and it was 8 p.m. when they arrived at the 
 farm. No more attempts upon Chimborazo were made by 
 Boussingault or his friend, who separated from each other 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 Besides these attempts to ascend Chimborazo, others have 
 been made by Professor Wagner, Garcia Moreno, the late 
 President of Ecuador, Dr. Stiibel, and M. Remy, but never 
 with success, till Mr. Edward Whymper, of Alpine celebrity, 
 " came, saw, and conquered," as our next article narrates. 
 
 TWICE TO THE TOP OF CHIMBORAZO. 
 
 THE name of Edward Whymper is widely known as a 
 daring climber and adventurous explorer. As a moun- 
 taineer he has few rivals, and his book of Alpine travel con- 
 tains many feats as wonderful as the first ascent of the 
 Matterhorn. It was natural that so successful and ambitious 
 a climber should long to attack the lofty peaks of the Andes, 
 and the more so because of the recorded failures of other 
 explorers. Towards the close of 1879 he accordingly sailed 
 on this adventurous expedition. 
 
 It must not be supposed that for successful mountaineering 
 the main requisites are strength of muscle, firmness of nerve, 
 and other animal properties in which man is excelled by the 
 sheep or the chamois. These material qualities are necessary, 
 to some extent, but there are higher mental endowments 
 needed for achieving results worthy of record. Before start- 
 ing, there ought always to be much study and planning ; and 
 careful preparation is as essential as readiness of resource 
 
 24 
 
370 Twice to the top of Chimborazo, 
 
 when the time of action comes. The quahties that go to make 
 a first-rate mountain traveller are as remarkable and as rare 
 as those of a general in arranging for a difficult campaign. 
 
 Mr. Whymper's experience in Switzerland, Greenland, and 
 other snowy regions stood him in good stead ; and he took 
 with him to the New World a tried and trusty companion, well 
 known to readers of the ''Ascent to the Matterhorn," Jean 
 Antoine Carrel, with his cousin Louis Carrel, also a skilful and 
 practised cragsman. 
 
 The party sailed from Southampton on the 3rd of November, 
 in the West India mail steamer, the Don. While the ship 
 was at Kingston, Jamaica, the travellers stretched their legs 
 by going up five thousand feet to Newcastle, and from their 
 highest point saw both the northern and southern sides of the 
 island. After crossing the isthmus to Panama little time was 
 lost, for on December 15th the party was mounting from the 
 low-lying land on the Pacific side of the State of Ecuador. By 
 this time the expedition comprised Mr. Perring, an interpreter, 
 and a train of mules with attendants. A few days of continuous 
 ascent brought them to the ridge of the outer range of the 
 Andes, which was crossed at a height of about ten thousand 
 feet, and on December i8th they arrived at the village of 
 Guaranda, which Mr. Whymper resolved to make his head- 
 quarters, hiring a house there, and beginning his observations 
 and plans for the ascent of Chimborazo. A prospecting 
 journey, with the Carrels, to the highest level of the Arenal, 
 or sandy plain, at the base of the mountain, confirmed his 
 opinion as to this being the best side for attempting the ascent. 
 The Carrels were sent on a second prospecting journey, to 
 select a suitable station for the first camping, which they 
 did, at a height of about 16,000 feet. All was ready on 
 the 23rd, but as the muleteers would not be away from 
 Guaranda on Christmas Day, the departure was delayed till 
 the 26th. On that day the journey commenced, the party 
 consisting of Mr. Whymper, the two Carrels, Mr. Perring, two 
 Indians as porters, three arrieros or muleteers, with fourteen 
 
Twice to the top of Chimborazo. 2>1^ 
 
 mules. The camping-ground was reached at 5.30 p.m., a little 
 below the summit of the Arenal. " It was a superb night, 
 with a brilliant moon," says Mr. Whymper,* '^ and the great 
 cliffs of Chimborazo, with their snowy dome, 7,000 feet above 
 us, were indescribably grand." 
 
 Some days' delay took place, partly from the exhaustion and 
 illness of several of the party, the desertion of the Indian 
 porters, and the tidings brought up of the house at Guaranda 
 being broken into by robbers. While Mr. Perring went down 
 with a letter to the authorities, asking for a guard to the 
 baggage, Mr. Whymper and the Carrels prepared a second 
 camping station, at a height of 16,600 feet above the sea, and 
 a third at 17,400 feet. These preparations having been made, 
 the mules and arrieros were sent back, and, on the arrival of 
 Mr. Perring with three Indians, to replace those who had 
 deserted, the whole of the necessaries for the final ascent 
 were got up to the third camp by the 2nd of January, 1880. 
 The result we give in Mr, Whymper's own words. 
 
 "Being now well established, and provided with sufficient 
 food and firing at our high station, I considered that we might 
 prudently attempt to make for the summit, and on the 3rd of 
 January, 1880, we started, at 5.35 a.m. At that time it was 
 calm, and we mounted for a thousand feet without any great 
 difficulty, excepting such as arose from shortness of breath. 
 Our course led up the ridge on which our two camps were 
 placed. On one side of us, and deep down below, there was a 
 large glacier, and on the other very extensive snow-fields. 
 
 "Soon after 7 a.m. wind began to spring up, and at 7.30 
 it blew so hard as to render farther progress highly dangerous. 
 At this time we had mounted little more than a thousand feet 
 above our third camp, and as it was certain that we could not 
 
 * In a communication to the editor of the Leisure Hour, in which maga- 
 zine an account of the expedition was given in the number for January, 
 1881. In Mr. Whymper's great work on the Andes, published by John 
 Murray, all the details of the expedition will be found, with magnificent 
 illustrations. 
 
372 Twice to the top of Chimborazo. 
 
 reach the summit on that day, we came down again, holding 
 ourselves, however, in readiness to start again on the following 
 morning. 
 
 "On January 4th I started at 5.40 a.m., with the two 
 Carrels, leaving Perring in charge of the camp. It was a very 
 fine and nearly cloudless morning. We followed the track of 
 the previous day, and benefited by the steps which had then 
 been cut in the snow. At first the line of ascent was on the 
 southern side of the mountain, but after the height of 18,500 
 feet had been attained, we commenced to bear round to the 
 west, and mounted spirally, arriving on the plateau on the 
 summit from a northerly direction. 
 
 The ascent was mainly over snow, and entirely so after 
 19,500 feet had been passed. Up to nearly 20,000 feet it was 
 in good condition, and as we sank in but slightly, we pro- 
 gressed at a reasonable rate until 11 a.m. We had met with 
 no great difficulties, and up to that time had experienced fine 
 weather, with a good deal of sunshine. 
 
 *' We were now 20,000 feet high, and the summit seemed 
 within our grasp. We could see the great plateau which 
 is at the top of the mountain, and the two fine snowy domes, 
 one on its northern and the other on its southern side. But, 
 alas ! the sky became clouded all over, the wind rose, and 
 we entered upon a large tract of exceedingly soft snow, 
 which could not be traversed in the ordinary way, and it 
 was found necessary to flog every yard of it down, and then 
 to crawl over it on all fours. The ascent of the last thousand 
 feet occupied more than five hours, and it was 5 p.m. before 
 we reached the summit of the higher of the two domes of 
 Chiniboi czo. 
 
 '' On the immediate summit the snow was not so extremely 
 soft ; it was possible to stand up upon it. The wind, however, 
 was furious, and the temperature fell to 21° Fahr. We re- 
 mained only long enough to read the barometers, and left at 
 5.20 P.M. ; by great exertion succeeded in crossing the most 
 difficult rocks which had to be passed over just as the last 
 
Twice to the top of Chiinborazo. 373 
 
 gleam of daylight disappeared ; but we were then benighted, 
 and occupied more than two hours descending the last thou- 
 sand feet, arriving at the camp about 9 p.m." 
 
 Thus was achieved the first recorded ascent of Chimborazo. 
 Mr. Whymper had been compelled to leave the summit before 
 taking all the observations which he had intended, and he 
 desired, therefore, to make a second ascent before quitting the 
 mountain. One of the Carrels was so disabled by frost-bitten 
 feet that the purpose had to be postponed for some months, 
 while medical help was necessary. Mr. Whymper returned 
 at the beginning of July, many important journeys having 
 been made in the interval, including the ascent of Cotopaxi, 
 the great volcano of the Andes. On the 3rd of July, after 
 encamping at a height of about 16,000 feet, the summit was 
 again reached, and more than an hour was passed on the top. 
 Two natives, on this occasion, accompanied him, and as there 
 was very general incredulity in Ecuador as to the possibility 
 of ascending the mountain, one of these natives, Javier Cam- 
 pana, of Quito, made a solemn declaration before H. B. M. 
 Consul at Guayaquil, as to the highest summit of the moun- 
 tain being reached by himself, along with Mr. Whymper, the 
 two Carrels, and David Bcltram, of Machachi. This signed 
 and attested document contains a detailed narrative of the 
 incidents of the ascent : "As we approached the very highest 
 point, we saw that there was something strange upon it, and 
 when we got up we found the pole of the flag which Mr. 
 Whymper had put up on January 4th, 1880. It stood above the 
 snow, but very little of the flag remained, as it had been torn 
 to pieces by the wind. I took a small piece of the flag to show 
 to my friends below, and was filled with joy at being the first 
 Ecuadorian to reach the summit of the great Chimborazo." 
 
 The reader of this account of the ascents of Chimborazo 
 will look with keener interest for the work in which Mr. 
 Whymper gives the personal narrative of his adventures 
 among the Andes. 
 
374 
 
 THE WIDOW AND HER MONEY-BAGS. 
 
 A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION BY THE LATE LORD LAWRENCE.* 
 
 IT v/as my practice in India, where every one who wishes 
 to preserve health either walks or rides early in the 
 morning, instead of taking a mere constitutional (as it is 
 called), to endeavour to join that object with business, or, at 
 any rate, with amusement. There was always some end in 
 view — a village to visit, a new road to be made, or an old one 
 to be repaired, or the spot where a crime had been committed 
 to be examined. If I was in tents, making my annual visits 
 in the interior of the district, which seldom occupied less than 
 five months of the year, there was plenty to engage the atten- 
 tion. I seldom failed to visit every village within a circle of 
 seven or eight miles before the camp moved on another march. 
 Their locality, the nature of their soil, their means of irrigation, 
 — a point of much importance in the East, — the general appear- 
 ance of the inhabitants, and the character they bore among 
 their neighbours, were all points on which I was much 
 interested ; for all such information was of infinite value in 
 the performance of my daily duties. 
 
 I had in truth so much to occupy me, or, what is pretty 
 much the same thing, made so much occupation for myself, 
 that, though often the sole European in the district, and 
 literally without any one with whom I could exchange a 
 word in my native tongue, I do not think that I ever felt 
 listless for a day. I sometimes rode alone, but more frequently 
 with a sii^gle horseman, who either carried my rifle or boar 
 spear. Thus, if anything in the way of game turned up, I did 
 
 * *' Life of Lord Lawrence." By E. Bosworth Smith (Smith. Elder, and 
 Co.). A book worthy of the great man whose career it records. In this 
 incident of his early days as a district magistrate, we see the energy of 
 cliaracter, the devotion to duty, and the high principle, which afterwards 
 shone so conspicuously in John Lawrence, Avhen Governor of the Punjab, 
 and Viceroy of India. 
 
The Widow and her Money -Bags, 375 
 
 not lose a chance ; and if a messenger was required, or any- 
 thing was to be done, an active fellow was always ready. 
 More than once I have in this way brought home a buck ; and 
 many is the good run 1 have had with wolf, hyena, and wild 
 boar. It would have no doubt enhanced the pleasure to have 
 had a friend with whom to contest the spear, and to talk over 
 the turns and chances of the field when ended. Still, when I 
 look back on those days, it is surprising how much I enjoyed 
 them in my comparative solitude. 
 
 In these journeys my follower was instructed to ride at a 
 respectful distance, so that I might freely converse with any 
 one I might pick up by the way. One or more of the head- 
 men, or some of the proprietors of the village I was visiting, 
 usually mounted his mare, and rode with me to the next 
 village ; thus acting as a guide, and at the same time beguiling 
 the tedium of the way, often with useful information, at any 
 rate, with amusing gossip. 
 
 I had one morning mounted my horse for such an expedition, 
 but had not proceeded far when I met the kotwal, or chief 
 police-officer, of the neighbouring town, bustling along in quite 
 unwonted haste. On seeing me, after making the usual salu- 
 tations, he reported that a burglary had occurred in the town 
 during the previous night, and that he was anxious that I 
 should visit the spot myself, as neither he nor any of the 
 police could make anything of the case. 
 
 I at once assented, and as we rode along, I ascertained that 
 the party robbed was a poor widow, who, with her niece, lived 
 in a large and substantial, but rather dilapidated, house in the 
 neighbouring town. The robbery, it seemed, had created 
 much sensation, from the circumstance that the widow asserted 
 that she had lost a large sum of money, whereas she had 
 hitherto been deemed miserably poor. " Some of the neigh- 
 bours," remarked the policeman, " deny that she has been 
 robbed at all, and indeed to me it appears suspicious ; I 
 suspect there is some fareb (deceit) in the matter. Where 
 could such a helpless creature get so much money ? It was 
 
^']t> The Widow and her Money- Bags. 
 
 but the other day that she was exempted from her quota of 
 the watch -tax, as mooflis (a beggar), and now she asserts that 
 she has lost one thousand and fifty rupees." "Well, well," 
 said I, " that will do ; we will hear what she has to say for 
 herself. Don't you pretend to make out that she was not 
 robbed. I suppose there are marks about the house of a 
 forcible entry ? " " Oh yes," he replied, " I don't deny there 
 is a hole in the wall by which the door has been opened. 
 There were two marks of footsteps about the interior of the 
 courtyard, but the ground was so hard we could make nothing 
 of it. I have, however, sent for the khojia (tracker), and if 
 anything is to be discovered, I am sure he is the man to 
 do it." 
 
 By this time we had arrived at the house, where we found 
 some policemen, some of the neighbours, and the widow. 
 The khojia, or personage celebrated far and near for his 
 powers of recognising and tracing the marks of biped and 
 quadruped, had already examined the premises. He informed 
 me that the footsteps were difficult to trace, from the hardness 
 of the soil, as well as from the passing and repassing of the 
 people ; but that he had satisfied himself that there had been 
 two thieves, that the two had entered the house, but that only 
 one appeared to have left it, and that he had followed those 
 traces, through various turnings and windings, till they finally 
 stopped at the house of a man who was said to be the nephew 
 of the widow herself. He then showed me the different marks, 
 from the interior of the widow's house up to the very threshold 
 of that of the nephew. There were certainly some traces, but 
 so very indistinct to my eye that I could form no opinion. 
 The tracker, however, seemed perfectly convinced. "One 
 foot," he observed, " is small and delicate, which goes to the 
 nephew's house ; the other, a large, broad foot, I cannot trace 
 beyond the courtyard." The nephew was summoned, his foot 
 was compared with the print, the khojia insisted that it exactly 
 corresponded, and it certainly answered to the description he 
 had previously given. 
 
The Widozij and her Money -Bags. ^jy 
 
 We then entered the house, and carefully examined the 
 premises. The thieves, it seemed, had picked a small hole 
 in the side of the wall, so as to admit a man's hand, and had 
 thus opened the outer door. It was clear that the theft was 
 perpetrated by someone who was well acquainted with the 
 premises, for the money had been concealed in three earthen 
 pots, buried in the ground floor within a small recess. The 
 ground had been dug up in the exact spot where the pots lay, 
 and it must have been the work of only a few minutes, for 
 they were close to the surface. It seemed that there was 
 some suspicion of the nephew in the mind of both the old 
 woman and her neighbours, for he was a man of reckless and 
 dissolute habits. "But, widow," I said, ''did he know of your 
 treasures ? Did he know of the place where you concealed 
 them?" ''No," she replied to my query, "I can't say he did. 
 I never let him come into the house for many years, though 
 he has sometimes come as near as the door, and asked me to 
 make friends ; but I was afraid of him, and never let him pass 
 my threshold." " Well," I remarked, " it seems a bad busi- 
 ness. That you have been robbed is evident, but there seems 
 no clue as to who did it; and as to your loss, you must have 
 told a lie, for I hear it was only a few months ago that, under 
 the plea of destitution, you were exempted from the watch- 
 tax." " My lord," replied the widow, " it is very true that I 
 pleaded poverty, and poor enough I am ; nevertheless, I have 
 been robbed of a thousand and fifty rupees. You may believe 
 me or not, as you please ; my history is this. Some forty 
 years ago, or more, my husband was a merchant, well-to-do 
 in this town ; but after a time his affairs fell into disorder, and 
 when he died his creditors seized everything but this house in 
 payment for his debts. When dying, he told me that certain 
 moneys had long been due to him in the holy city of Muttra. 
 Accordingly I went there, and collected something more than 
 two thousand rupees, with which I returned here, and I have 
 lived ever since on this sum." "What !" I interrupted, "have 
 you lived on this money for forty years, and yet have a thou- 
 
SyS The Widow and her Money-Bags. 
 
 sand and fifty rupees, nearly half, left ? " ''Yes," said she, " I 
 opened my treasure once a month, and took out two rupees, 
 which lasted me and my niece for the month." "Why," I 
 remarked, ''at this rate you had enough for the next forty 
 ye irs ; why could you not pay the tax ? — how much was it ? " 
 "Two pyce a month," she replied, "and all widows are 
 exempt." "Yes," remarked a bystander, "if they are poor; 
 but you are as rich as Lakhsmi " (the Hindu goddess of for- 
 tune). " I believe that Kali has sent this misfortune on you 
 for your lying. Do you recollect when you were assessed at 
 one anna, how you wept and tore your hair, and said you 
 were starving ? You are a sad liar by your own account, and 
 are well served. I hope if you ever recover your money, the 
 Sahib will make you pay it up with arrears." "Oh," said the 
 widow, clasping her hands, " restore me my mone}^, and I 
 will pay for the rest of my life." 
 
 As I suspected, from the different circumstances which had 
 transpired, that the nephew was in some way connected with 
 the robbery, I directed his house to be searched, but nothing 
 which could in any way implicate him was found. Despairing, 
 then, of discovering the criminal, I mounted my horse, and 
 after telling the police to be on the look-out, I set off towards 
 my tents. I had ridden some little way, conning the matter 
 over in my mind, when it struck me how very singular it was 
 that the khojia should persist in it that only one of the thieves 
 had left the house. As the walls were very high, and as there 
 was but the one door to the courtyard, it seemed as if the thief 
 must still be inside. "Pooh, pooh !" I cried, "the thing is out 
 of the question ; did we not search the house ? And, after all, 
 what could a thief be doing there ? The khojia is trying to 
 mystify me." However, I was not satisfied. After riding a 
 little farther, I turned round and galloped back. I said to 
 the police, who had not left yet, " We must have another 
 search," and upon this my myrmidons spread themselves over 
 the premises. While they were searching, I began to pace 
 up and down, with some little impatience, I confess, as the 
 
TJie Widow and her Money-Bags. 379 
 
 thought struck me of the bootless errand on which I had 
 returned. 
 
 Suddenly I heard a policeman exclaim, " I have not seen 
 him, but I have seen his eye," and as he spoke he pointed to 
 one side of the courtyard near where he stood. On examining 
 the spot, we discovered what appeared to be a small air-hole 
 to some vaults, and from this the man persisted he had seen 
 an eye glisten. Turning to the widow, I demanded what 
 places there were underground, when she explained that there 
 were subterraneous vaults, which had never been opened since 
 her husband's death, and which she had not thought of men- 
 tioning when we first searched the house. " A second case of 
 Guy Fawkes," thought I. '' Show me the entrance. I dare- 
 say someone is down there ; though why any one should be 
 such a fool as to hide there passes my understanding." The 
 old dame accordingly showed me a small door in a retired part 
 of the courtyard, which had hitherto escaped observation. By 
 it we descended to some very extensive vaults, and after some 
 search, dragged out a man. He had not the money about his 
 person, but, after some little hesitation, showed us where it 
 was concealed, at the foot of one of the pillars. He confessed 
 that he belonged to a village in the vicinity, that the nephew 
 had induced him to join in robbing the old lady, whose trea- 
 sures he had for a long time suspected. It seemed that the 
 thief had slept part of the night in the nephew's house, and 
 that they had been prevented from effecting the robbery till 
 late in the night, from the presence of the people who were 
 about, and consequently the morning had broken before they 
 had time to divide the booty, or dispose of it in any safe place. 
 In the hurr}^ and confusion it had seemed best that he should 
 hide in the vaults, where it was supposed that none would 
 think of looking ; for the nephew was afraid to conceal him in 
 his own house, or to allow him to pass out of the town with 
 such a large sum in silver, lest, being recognised by some of 
 the guards at the postern as a stranger, he should be stopped 
 and searched. When the nephew was confronted with his 
 
380 The Widow and her Money -Bags, 
 
 accomplice, his effrontery forsook him, and he confessed that 
 he had seen the old woman smoothing the earth in the recess 
 one day as he stood at the threshold ; and from this circum- 
 stance, coupled with her always being in that part of the 
 house, he had suspected that she had property concealed. 
 
 When the coin was produced, the woman recognised her 
 money-bags ; and on opening and counting the money, we 
 found the exact sum she had stated — namely, one thousand 
 and fifty rupees, or about one hundred and five pounds in 
 English money ; so that this poor creature had lived on about 
 four shillings a month, and even supported part of that time 
 a little niece ! While the money was being counted, and her 
 receipt written out, I said, " You had much better give this 
 money to a banker, who will allow you seven or eight per 
 cent, for it, and in whose hands it will be perfectly safe ; 
 otherwise, now that folks know you are so rich, being a lonely, 
 helpless old woman, you will certainly have your throat cut." 
 *' No, no," cried the old harridan, as she grasped her bags in 
 an agony lest I should take them from her; "no, no ! I will 
 bury it where no one will ever know." I accordingly allowed 
 her to go off with her treasures ; and out she trotted, bending 
 under the weight of her money-bags. 
 
 I may have failed in giving an interest to this story, but it 
 certainly made a considerable impression on my mind at the 
 time. The avarice and parsimony of the old woman, who, 
 bending under the weight of old age, and possessed of wealth 
 which she could never hope to enjoy, yet grudged the payment 
 of two pyce a month to defend her from spoliation, if not from 
 being murdered ; the villainy of the nephew, with his utter 
 want of common sense and prudence in concealing his accom- 
 plice in the very premises they had just robbed ; the acute- 
 ness and discernment of the tracker, in so ably, I may say, 
 deciphering the history of the transaction from the very faint 
 footmarks, altogether formed a picture which it was not un- 
 interesting to contemplate. Of the subsequent fate of the 
 widow 1 do not recollect anything, as I shortly afterwards 
 
Commodore Byron in Patagonia. 381 
 
 left that part of the country ; but if she escaped being robbed, 
 she concealed her treasures in some out-of-the-way place, 
 which, when she dies, her heirs will fail to discover. In this 
 way, no doubt, large sums are annually lost, for although 
 property is remarkably safe in this country, and a very large 
 rate of interest always to be got, the people are very much 
 addicted to concealing coin and jewels, probably from habits 
 they acquired in former times, when seldom a year passed 
 that a village or even town was not laid under contribution, 
 or stormed and plundered by the Mahratta and Pindari 
 hordes. 
 
 COMMODORE BYRON IN PATAGONIA- 
 
 UNTIL comparatively recent times very little was known 
 about Patagonia, the southern region of the American 
 continent. Commodore Byron, in the narrative of his voyage 
 round the world, visited the coast in 1764, and for fifty years 
 afterwards his report was always given as the most authentic 
 account of the country and its people. Now that we know a 
 great deal more about these regions, it is interesting to read 
 this early record of Byron's visit. 
 
 When Commodore Byron had landed his men on the coast, 
 he drew them up on the beach, with the officers at their head, 
 giving orders that none should leave their station. " I then," 
 says he, " went forward alone towards the Indians, but per- 
 ceiving that they retired as I advanced, I made signs that one 
 of them should come near. The chief approached me ; he was of 
 a gigantic stature, and seemed to realize the tales of monsters 
 in human shape ; he had the skin of some wild beast thrown 
 over his shoulders, and was painted so as to make the most 
 hideous appearance I ever beheld ; round one eye was a large 
 circle of white, which was surrounded by a circle of black, and 
 the rest of his face was streaked with paint of different colours. 
 I did not measure him, but if I may judge of his height by the 
 
382 Commodore Byron in Patagonia. 
 
 proportion of his stature to my own, it could not be much less 
 than seven feet. When this frightful colossus came up, we 
 muttered somewhat to each other as a salutation. I then 
 walked with him to his companions, among whom there were 
 many women. Few of the men were less in stature than the chief. 
 I heard their voices at a distance ; and when I came near, I 
 perceived a good number of old men who were chanting some 
 unintelligible words in the most doleful cadence I ever heard, 
 with an air of serious solemnity, which inclined me to think 
 that it was a religious ceremony. They were all painted and 
 clothed nearly in the same manner ; the circles round the two 
 eyes were in no instance of one colour, but they were not 
 universally black and white, some being red and white, and 
 some red and black. Their teeth were as white as ivory, re- 
 markably even, and well set ; but, except the skins which they 
 wore with the hair inwards, most of them were naked, a few 
 only having upon their legs a kind of boot, with a short, pointed 
 stick fastened to each heel, which served as a spur. 
 
 '' Having looked upon these enormous goblins (some of 
 whom were six feet six inches high, though the greater part of 
 them were from five feet ten to six feet in stature) with no 
 small surprise, I took out a quantity of white and yellow beads, 
 which I distributed among them, and which they received w^ith 
 very strong expressions of pleasure : I then took out a whole 
 piece of green ribbon, and giving the end of it into the hands 
 of one of them, I made the person who sat next take hold of 
 it, and so on as far as it would reach ; they all sat quietly, and 
 appeared to be more pleased with it than with the beads. 
 While the ribbon was thus extended, I took out a pair of 
 scissors and cut it between two of the Indians that held it, 
 so that I left about a yard in the possession of every one, which 
 I afterwards tied about their heads, where they suffered it to 
 remain without so much as touching it while I was with them. 
 Their peaceable and orderly behaviour on this occasion cer- 
 tainly did them honour, especially as my presents could not 
 extend to the whole companyi 
 
Commodore Byron in Patagonia. 383 
 
 " These people were not wholly strangers to European com- 
 modities ; for upon closer attention, I perceived among them 
 one woman who had bracelets of brass or very pale gold upon 
 her arms, and some beads of blue glass strung upon two queues 
 of hair, which, being parted at top, hung over each shoulder 
 before her. One of the men showed me the bowl of a tobacco 
 pipe, which was made of red earth, but I soon found that they 
 had no tobacco among them, and this person made me under- 
 stand that he wanted some ; upon which I beckoned to my 
 people, who remained upon the beach, drawn up as I had left 
 them, and three or four ran forward, imagining that I wanted 
 them. The Indians no sooner saw them advance, than they 
 all rose with a great clamour, and were leaving the place, as 
 I supposed, to get arms, which were probably left at a little 
 distance. I desired only one of my people to com.e and bring 
 with him all the tobacco he could collect from the rest. As 
 soon as the Indians saw this, they recovered from their sur- 
 prise, and every one returned to his station, except a very old 
 man, who came up to me and sung a long song ; but before it 
 was finished, Mr. Gumming brought the tobacco, and I could 
 not but smile at the astonishment which I saw he expressed 
 in his countenance, upon perceiving himself, though six feet 
 two inches high, become at once a pigmy among giants ; for 
 these people may indeed be more properly called giants than 
 tall men. Of the few among us who are full six feet high, 
 scarcely any are broad and muscular in proportion to their 
 stature, but looli rather like men of common bulk, run up 
 accidentally to an unusual height ; and a man who should 
 measure only six feet two inches, and equally exceed a stout 
 well-set man of the common stature in breadth and muscle, 
 would strike us rather as a being of gigantic race, than as an 
 individual accidentally anomalous ; our sensations, therefore^ 
 upon seeing five hundred people, the shortest of whom were 
 at least four inches taller, and bulky in proportion, ma}' be 
 easily imagined. 
 
 '' During our pantomimical conference, an old man often laid 
 
384 Co77tmodore Byron in Patagonia. 
 
 his head down upon the s'ones, and shutting his eyes for about 
 half a minute, first pointed to his mouth, and then to the hills, 
 meaning, as I imagined, that if I would stay with them till the 
 morning, they would furnish me with provisions; but this 
 offer I was obliged to decline. I observed that they had with 
 them a great number of dogs, with whichil suppose they run 
 down the animals that serve them for food. Their horses 
 were not large, but nimble, and well broken. The bridle was 
 a leathern thong, with a small piece of wood that served for a 
 bit, and the saddles resemble the pads that are in use among 
 the country people in England. The women rode astride, and 
 both men and women without stirrups ; yet they galloped fear- 
 lessly over the spit upon which we landed, the stones of which 
 were large, loose, and slippery. 
 
 '' Every one of them had a missile weapon of a singular 
 kind tucked into the girdle. It consisted of two round stones, 
 covered with leather, each weighing about a pound, which 
 were fastened to the two ends of a string about eight feet long. 
 This is used as a sling, one stone being kept in the hand, and 
 the other whirled round the head till it is supposed to have 
 acquired sufficient force, and then discharged at the object. 
 They are so expert in the management of this double-headed 
 shot, that they will hit a mark not bigger than a shilling with 
 both the stones, at the distance of fifteen yards ; it is not their 
 custom, however, to strike either the guanico (an animal that 
 resembles the deer), or the ostrich, with them in the chase, but 
 they discharge them so that the cord comes against the legs of 
 the ostrich, or two of the legs of the guanico, is twisted round 
 them by the force and swing of the balls, so that the animal, 
 being unable to run, becomes an easy prey to the hunter." 
 
 Such is Commodore Byron's account. His statement as to 
 the size of the Patagonians has been confirmed by subsequent 
 voyagers, at least in regard to some of the tribes. Lieutenant 
 Musters, who travelled through the country in 1869, describes 
 the Patagonian hunters as being "tall and of fine proportions." 
 It has usually been stated that the people of Tierra del Fuego, 
 
Cominodore Byron in Patagonia. 385 
 
 the island to the south of Patagonia, were of very diminutive 
 size (as some of them m^ be) ; but a French traveller, 
 M. Pertuiset, who travelled there in 1873, describes the 
 Indians of the interior as being ^' well grown and of as good 
 proportions as the Patagonians/' and, like them, living by fishing 
 and hunting. The eastern slopes of the mountains in the north- 
 west of Patagonia are occupied by a race less nomadic than the 
 Patagonians proper, possessing cattle and sheep, and cultivat- 
 ing the soil. They much resemble the Araucanians, on the 
 corresponding opposite slope in southern Chili, a fine race, 
 descended apparently from ancient Indian tribes driven south 
 by the Spanish and Portuguese invaders. The area of Pata- 
 gonia, including Tierra del Fuego and the islands, is almost 
 as large as that of France and Spain together, but is sparsely 
 inhabited. The climate is, in most parts, inhospitable, with 
 long, severe winters, and even in summer often cold and 
 stormy. 
 
 The Argentine Republic and Chili both claim possession of 
 parts of Patagonia ; and under the protection of these States 
 settlements have been recently formed at various stations 
 near the coast — one of them a Welsh colony at the mouth of 
 the river Chupat. The Chilians have a penal settlement, 
 and a coaling station for ocean steamers near the Strait of 
 Magellan, a seam of coal being worked in the neighbourhood 
 by the Chilian Government. 
 
 The condition of the Patagonian people has long excited 
 the charitable attention of Christian people, and the South 
 American Missionar}^ Society — an offshoot of the Church 
 Missionary Society — has stations in these regions. As long ago 
 as 1830 Captain Fitzroy, a benevolent man as well as distin- 
 guished explorer, brought some of the natives to England that 
 they might be instructed at his own expense. He thought well 
 of the capabilities of the race. The first formal attempt to 
 establish a mission, under the superintendence of Captain 
 Allan Gardiner, came to a sad conclusion, but the death of 
 these early martyrs was not in vain, and in the reports of the 
 
 25 
 
386 The Travels of Marco Polo. 
 
 South American Mission many satisfactory and cheering 
 statements of the results of subsequent labours will be 
 found. 
 
 THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 
 
 OF all travellers, ancient or modern, who have left written 
 records of their adventures, no name is surrounded 
 with more mysterious and romantic interest than that of Marco 
 Polo, of Venice. Some of the remote regions of Asia which 
 he describes, as he saw them six hundred years ago, have only 
 been very recently revisited by European explorers, who all 
 bear testimony to the accurate observation and strict veracity 
 of the old Venetian traveller. For instance, he tells how he 
 came to a district in Central Asia '' said to be the hig"hest in 
 the w^orld, a plain between lofty hills, through which flows a 
 great river, issuing from a large lake; and this plain is the 
 best pasturage in the world, for a lean animal becomes fat in 
 ten days." Here he says " the fire does not burn so clear, nor 
 with the same colour, as in other places, nor does it cook 
 victuals so well " — facts which indicate the lofty elevation of 
 this tableland. The plain is the tableland of Pamir ; the 
 river is the Oxus ; the lake the Sir-i-kol in which the river 
 has its source ; and the hills are the beginning of the principal 
 mountain-chains of Asia. No European in after ages knew 
 the place, till at length it was reached, in February 1838, 
 by Lieutenant Wood of the Indian navy. After surmounting 
 immense difficulties, and escaping many dangers. Lieutenant 
 Wood stood on the tableland of Pamir, and saw the source of 
 the Oxus, and thus confirms the story of Marco Polo: ''This 
 tableland of Pamir is about 15,000 feet high, little lower than 
 the summit of Mont Blanc. The natives* call it Bam-i-diinialiy 
 or the Roof of the World ; and it would appear to be the 
 highest tableland in Asia, and probably in any part of our 
 
The Travels of Mairo Polo. 387 
 
 globe. Before us lay stretched a noble sheet of water, from 
 whose western end issued the infant river of the Oxus. 
 According to the Kirghis, the grass is so rich that a sorry horse 
 is brought into good condition in less than twenty days." 
 
 Here is a singular confirmation of Marco Polo's narrative, 
 and many other of his remarkable statements have in like 
 manner been verified by modern travellers. His book has 
 recently beeh re-edited by Colonel Yule of the Royal Engineers, 
 the man of all others best qualified for such an undertaking, 
 and his two volumes, with their minute and learned commen- 
 taries, form a mine of curious and valuable information on 
 Asiatic geography and history. Some of the old traveller's 
 reports still contain mysterious statements, but this is Colonel 
 Yule's judgment of the whole narrative : " With all the in- 
 trinsic interest of Marco Polo's book, it may be doubted if it 
 would have continued to exercise such fascination on many 
 minds, through successive generations, were it not for the 
 difficult questions which it suggests. It is a great book of 
 puzzles, whilst our confidence in the man's veracity is such 
 that we feel certain ever}^ puzzle has a solution." 
 
 In earlier years of the thirteenth century several travellers 
 had penetrated to various parts of the interior of Asia, and 
 had brought back reports of what they saw. One of them, 
 Carpini, an Italian, crossed the desert east of the Caspian on 
 his way to the ruler of the Mongols, and tells how he every- 
 where on these sandy steppes saw heaps of bones and skulls, 
 marking the track of the terrible conqueror Genghis Khan. 
 A few years later, William de Rubruquis, a Fleming, sent by 
 Louis IX. of France, as envoy to the Mongol Emperor, travelled 
 from Constantinople to the Crimea, thence reaching the Don, 
 the Volga, and the Ural, returning by Astrakhan and the 
 Caucasus, after an absence of two years and three months. 
 These expeditions served to increase the curiosity in all 
 European lands about the East, whilst the fear entertained as 
 to the movements of these restless conquerors in Central Asia 
 induced the Governments to seek every information and to 
 
388 The Travels of Marco Polo. 
 
 send ambassadors to court the friendship of the Mongol 
 Potentate. It was with this purpose that Marco Polo set out 
 from Venice, in the year 1271, to make his way to the Court 
 of Kublai Khan, the greatest of the successors of Genghis Khan. 
 Kublai Khan had at this time completed the conquest of the 
 northern part of China, having overthrown the reigning 
 dynasty, and established himself .at Pekin, as the capital ot 
 his mighty empire. 
 
 It would take too long to tell how the young Venetian, at 
 first accompanying his father and un'cle, but left at last to his 
 own resources, after many wanderings and perils, was re- 
 ceived with favour at the Court of Pekin. The Emperor took 
 him under his protection, made him an officer of the Imperial 
 household, employed him in various confidential affairs, and 
 appointed him governor of one of the provinces. Marco had 
 long adopted the dress and customs of the country'', and had 
 taken such advantage of his opportunities that he was well 
 versed in the history and politics as well as the language of the 
 Chinese and of their Mongol conquerors. 
 
 After manjT^ years the desire to return to his native land 
 grew too strong to be resisted, and as he could not obtain per- 
 mission from the Emperor he quitted China by stealth, and 
 sailing from a port in the province of Fokien reached southern 
 India. At Sumatra and other islands in the Indian Archipelago 
 he was long detained, but at last he made his way through 
 Persia and by the Persian Gulf to Trebizond and Constanti- 
 nople, arriving at Venice in 1295, after an absence of about 
 twenty-four years. In all the places through which he passed, or 
 where he resided, he made careful observations, and he included 
 in his notes all the trustworthy information that he could gather 
 from others as well as what he himself witnessed. What he tells 
 about China was for a long time the only source of our know- 
 ledge of the internal affairs of that empire, and his account of 
 the city of Pekin, written more than six hundred years ago, 
 contains much that will be recognised as applicable to our own 
 time, when Europeans first obtained access to the long secluded 
 
 I 
 
The Travels of Marco Polo. 389 
 
 capital. One of the chapters of his book, relating to Pekin, 
 will give a good idea of the style of Marco Polo. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMBALUC (pEKIn), 
 
 • 
 
 You must know that the city of Cambaluc hath such 
 a multitude of houses, and such a vast population inside the 
 walls and outside, that it seems quite past all possibility. 
 There is a suburb outside each of the gates, which are twelve 
 in number, and these suburbs are so great that they contain 
 more people than the city itself (for the suburb of one gate 
 spreads in width till it meets the suburb of the next, whilst 
 they extend in length some three or four miles). In those 
 suburbs lodge the foreign merchants and travellers, of whom, 
 there are -always great numbers, who have come to bring 
 presents to the Emperor, or to sell articles at court, or 
 because the city affords so good a mart to attract traders. 
 There are in each of the suburbs, to a distance of a mile from 
 the city, numerous fine hostelries, for the lodgment of 
 merchants" from different parts of the world, and a special 
 hostelry is assigned to each description of people, as if we 
 should say there is one for the Lombards, another for the 
 Germans, and a third for the Frenchmen. And thus there 
 are as many good houses outside of the city as inside, without 
 counting those that belong to the great lords and barons, 
 which are very numerous. 
 
 You must know that it is forbidden to bury any dead body 
 inside the city: If the body be that of an idolater it is carried 
 out beyond the city and suburbs to a remote place assigned 
 for the purpose, to be burnt. And if it be of one belonging to 
 a religion the custom of which is to bury, such as the Christian, 
 the Saracen, or what not, it is also carried out beyond the 
 suburbs to a distant place assigned for the purpose. And thus 
 the city is preserved in a better and more healthy state. 
 Guards patrol the city every night in parties of thirty or 
 forty ; looking out for any persons who may be abroad 
 at unseasonable hours — i.e., after the great bell hath stricken 
 
390 The Travels of Marco Polo. 
 
 thrice. If they find any such person he is immediately taken 
 to prison, and examined next morning by the proper officers. 
 If these find him guilty of any misdemeanour they order him 
 a proportionate beating with the stick. Under this punish- 
 ment people sometimes die ; but they adopt it in order to 
 eschew bloodshed, for their Bacsis say that it is an evil thing 
 to shed man's blood. To this city also are brought articles of 
 greater cost and rarity, and in greater abundance, of all kinds, 
 than to any .other city in the world. For people of every 
 description, and from every region, bring things (including all 
 the costly wares of India, as well as the fine and precious 
 goods of Carthag itself with its provinces), some for the 
 sovereign, some for the court, some for the city, which is so 
 great, some for the crowds of barons and knights, some for the 
 great hosts of the Emperor, which are quartered round about, 
 and thus between court and city the quantity brought in is 
 endless. 
 
 '' As a sample, I tell you, no day in the year passes that 
 there do not enter the city one thousand cartloads of silk 
 alone, from which are made quantities of cloth of silk and 
 gold, and of other goods. And this is not to be wondered at ; 
 •or in all the countries round about there is no flax, so that 
 everything has to be made of silk. It is true, indeed, that 
 in some parts of the country there is cotton and hemp, but 
 not sufficient for their wants. This, however, is not of much 
 consequence, because silk is so abundant and cheap, and is 
 a more valuable substance than either flax or cotton. Round 
 about this great city of Cambaluc there are some two hundred 
 other cities at various distances, from which traders come to 
 sell their goods and buy others for their lords, and all find 
 means to make their sales and purchases, so that the traffic of 
 the city is passing great." 
 
39^ 
 
 HOW BLAKE MADE VAN TROMP TAKE THE BROOM FROM 
 
 HIS TOP-MAST. 
 
 IN the middle of the sixteenth century the Dutch were the 
 acknowledged " masters of the sea." The States of Hol- 
 land, having carried on a successful trade at home and abroad, 
 even in the remotest East, had reached a height of naval power, 
 and of wealth, which caused them to treat all other nations with 
 the insolence of superiority. The navy of Spain, once supreme, 
 had been declining ever since the defeat of " the Invincible 
 Armada." The English followed up that victory by carrying 
 war into the Spanish dominions in America, under such sea- 
 kings as Cavendish and Drake. But all this naval greatness 
 had departed during the inactive reign of James I., and the 
 civil commotions during the time of Charles I." and the Long 
 Parliament. The Dutch saw their opportunity, and aimed at 
 the empire of the sea. When war between the two Common- 
 wealths of England and Holland broke out in 1652, the English 
 were unprepared, while the Dutch had a splendid fleet, with 
 commanders the most renowned, whose names are still famous 
 in history — De Witt, De Ruyter, and Van Tromp. 
 
 Having long been making preparations they equipped a 
 powerful fleet, without any appaTent need of it for purposes of 
 defence. The English were naturally suspicious of their aims, 
 and resolved to fit out a fleet for the security of their merchant- 
 men and for the protection of their coasts. Robert Blake, who 
 had already distinguished himself by his naval services against 
 the Portuguese and the French, was appointed admiral of the 
 
 fleet. 
 
 The Portuguese war arose in this wise. Prince Rupert had 
 taken refuge in the Tagus, having gone there after escaping from 
 Kinsale Harbour where Blake was watching for him. Blake 
 demanded leave from the Portuguese Government to attack 
 Prince Rupert's fleet, as belonging to the foes of the English 
 Commonwealth. On being refused permission he fell upon a 
 
'J 
 
 92 How Blake made Van Troi7ip 
 
 Portuguese fleet then returning from Brazil, burning three of 
 their ships and capturing seventeen. The King of Portugal 
 ordered Prince Rupert to attack Blake and recover the 
 Brazilian ships. The Prince decKned the honour, and quitted 
 the Tagus, where he could no longer be protected, while Blake 
 was taking home his Portuguese prizes. 
 
 The French war in 1650-51 arose out of the raids of* 
 privateers on English merchant ships. Blake was then in the 
 Mediterranean, where he had blockaded Prince Rupert in the 
 port of Malaga, and attacking him there had destroyed three of 
 his ships, and forced him to quit the sea, and take refuge at 
 the Spanish Court. A French war-ship heaving in sight soon 
 after, Blake ordered the captain to come on board, meaning to 
 ask why privateering was carried on against merchant ships 
 of a friendly nation. The captain was asked to deliver up his 
 sword, in token of surrender of his ship. He gallantly refused, 
 although in Blake's power ; and Blake said " he was at liberty 
 to go back to his ship and defend it as long as he could." 
 After a fight of two or three hours the Frenchman struck, and 
 surrendered his sword. 
 
 These seem rather high-handed proceedings, but the Dutch 
 wai:, which soon followed, was a war of duty and of self- 
 defence. On the 1 8th of May^ 1652, Van Tromp appeared in 
 the Downs with a fleet of forty-five men-of-war; Blake had 
 only twenty. On the approach of the Dutch admiral three 
 shots were fired as a signal, to intimate that a foreign fleet 
 ought in courtesy to lower his flag in entering the seas of 
 another nation. . Van Tromp answered with a broadside. 
 Blake, perceiving that this point of honour and international 
 usage was disregarded, anxious also to prevent an open 
 rupture and a general action, advanced alone with his flag- 
 ship, in order to treat with the Dutch commander. The 
 Dutch, disregarding the customs of war, closed upon him, and 
 fired on him with their whole fleet. It was some time before 
 the English ships could come to his assistance, and although 
 receiving a vast number of shots little damage was -done, 
 
take the BrQ07n from his Top-mast. 393 
 
 while two of the Dutch ships were destroyed. Only fifteen 
 men were killed in the admiral's ship, for which Blake 
 acknowledged the special preservation of God, and ascribed his 
 success to the justice of the cause, the attack being both 
 unprovoked and treacherous. 
 
 For some months the war continued with varying success, 
 the Dutch having the superior armaments ; but their losses 
 being so great, De Ruyter and De Witt were superseded, and 
 Van Tromp was entrusted with the sole command. Blake 
 had to weaken his fleet by sending detachments to protect 
 the coasts and the shipping, and he had less than forty sail in 
 the Downs ill-manned and ill-supplied, for the Parliament had 
 begun to be jealous of allowing undue power to officers either • 
 on land or sea. Van Tromp, desiring to distinguish his 
 resumption of command by a decisive victory, steered for the 
 Downs with eighty ships of war and ten fire-ships. More 
 than half of Blake's ships had had to lie idle, without engaging, 
 for want of seamen. To have retired before so overwhelming 
 a force would have been no dishonour, but Blake had too 
 much personal valour, and too sensitive a jealousy for his 
 country's honour, to do so without a fight. Every one of the 
 twenty-two ships he took into action was assailed by two or 
 three of the enemy, and he lost two men-of-war and four 
 frigates, but not without a gallant resistance, for of the 
 Dutchmen one was blown up and two or three disabled, when 
 Blake withdrew his fleet into the Thames. It was then 
 that Van" Tromp raised the broom on his top-mast in his 
 triumphant passage through the English Channel. But his 
 triumph was short. 
 
 On the 1 8th of February, 1652-3, Blake led eighty ships 
 against a nearly equal force of the enemy. For three days 
 and nights the battle continued, and at last the Dutch had to 
 retire into their ports, or behind the shoals, which they were 
 able to do from the less draught of their vessels, while the 
 English ships could not follow. In one of the actions above 
 a hundred men were killed on board Blake's ship, the 
 
394 How Blake 7nade Vq^n Tromp 
 
 Triumph, and as many in the Fairfax, under Captain Lawson, 
 and the admiral himself was wounded, but no ship was 
 taken. The Dutch lost several ships in the three days' fight ; 
 their own writers confessing to eight men-of-war and twenty 
 merchant ships, probably an insufficient estimate, for the 
 news of the defeat caused such popular discontent, that the 
 people compelled the States General to ask for peace, which 
 was not, however, yet to be obtained. 
 
 In April of the same year, 1653, the form of government in 
 England was changed, and Cromwell became Lord Protector 
 of the Commonwealth. Blake, and his naval comrades, like 
 Hale and Milton, and the greatest and best men of the nation, 
 declared that they were ready to stand to their duties to the 
 country, notwithstanding change in the administration. '' It is 
 not the business of a seaman," said Blake, "to mind state 
 affairs, but to hinder foreigners from fooling us ! " 
 
 On the 30th of April, Blake, with Monk aTid Dean, sailed with 
 a large fleet, and soon drove all Dutchmen in the Channel into 
 the Texel. They then set out in quest of Van Tromp, who was 
 in the north seas, protecting the fishing vessels. Van Tromp 
 steered towards the Sound, and so eluded his pursuers. 
 Several engagements took place during the early summer, 
 notably one on the 4th of June, during which Van Tromp 
 boarded the ship of Admiral Penn, but was beaten off, and his 
 own vessel boarded, when he was relieved by the advance of 
 De. Ruyter and De. Witt, whose services were again in requisi- 
 tion. After this battle the Dutch were clamorous for peace, 
 and the States had to obey their wish. The admirals were 
 summoned to give their opinion. Van Tromp said that 
 "without great reinforcements of large men-of-war he could 
 serve them no more;" and De Witt exclaimed, "Why should 
 I be silent before my lords of 'the states ? The English are 
 ■our masters, and by consequence masters of the sea." 
 
 In November 1654 Cromwell sent Blake with a powerful 
 
 ■ fleet to the Mediterranean. While there the English admiral 
 
 ■«was protector of the sea, his superiority being recognized by the 
 
take the Broom from his Top-mast. 395 
 
 haughty Spaniards and the lawless Algerians, as it already was 
 
 by the surly Dutch. At Tunis many English captives were 
 
 said to be in slavery ; Blake demanded their surrender. The 
 
 Governor drew up his ships under the guns of the forts, Castle 
 
 Goletta and Porto Ferino, '' on which," he said, '' you may do 
 
 your worst." For ships to engage at close quarters fortresses 
 
 on land, was a thing unheard of heretofore in naval warfare, 
 
 but Blake went at them. In less than three hours every gun 
 
 in the castle was silenced, and while he kept pegging away 
 
 at the fortifications, nine well-manned and well-armed boats 
 
 were sent inside, and every piratical ship was sunk or fired, 
 
 with a total loss of only twenty-five of Blake's men killed, and 
 
 •forty-eight wounded. The admiral then went to Tripoli and 
 
 other nests of pirates on the African coast, collecting a tribute 
 
 from the rulers, and threatening vengeance if the capture of 
 
 Christians for slavery were continued. Nor was it renewed 
 
 till Cromwell and Blake had gone to their rest, and under the 
 
 inglorious reigns of Charles II. and James II. the sun of 
 
 England's greatness was darkened. In those reigns all was 
 
 . lost, even English honour. The nation was subservient to the 
 
 Crown, and the Crown to France; and again the Dutch flag 
 
 was seen in the Thames unchallenged and unresisted ! It 
 
 was time for the national awakening, which ended in the 
 
 Revolution of 1688, and the accession of William III. 
 
 The respect with which Blake caused the name of England 
 to be treated is seen in a story which Bishop Burnet re- 
 cords. When he lay at Malaga, some of the sailors on shore 
 meeting a procession of the host refused to kneel as it passed, 
 as all around did. The priest in charge incited the people 
 to attack them. On returning to the ship, and telling of 
 this ill-treatment, Blake sent to the Viceroy or Governor 
 of Malaga, dem.anding that the priest should be sent aboard 
 his ship. The Governor replied that '' he had no authority 
 over persons ecclesiastical." Blake sent to say that "he did 
 not inquire into the Governor's authority, but if the priest 
 Avere not sent within three hours he would bombard the town." 
 
396 Blake and Van Troinp. 
 
 The priest, was sent, and pleaded the provocation given by 
 the sailors. To which the admiral replied, that if complaint 
 had been made to him, the sailors would have been punished 
 severely, for he would not let his men affront the religion 
 of any place, especially of a friendly power; but he was 
 angry that the Spaniards assumed that power, and " he would 
 have all the world know that an Englishman was only to 
 be punished by an Englishman." So, having used the priest 
 civilly, he sent him back, being satisfied that he was in his 
 power. 
 
 When the news of this came home, the conduct of Blake 
 pleased Cromwell greatly, and he read the letter in Council 
 with much satisfaction, saying, '' he hoped to make the name 
 of an Englishman as great as even that of a Roman had been." 
 
 In 1656 war with' Spain was declared, and both on the 
 coasts of the old kingdom, and in their dominions in " the New 
 World the ships of Blake had a series of glorious successes. 
 The destruction of the Spanish fleet at Santa Cruz, a fleet 
 of great power, under the guns of strong fortresses, was 
 an achievement never surpassed in the annals of the English 
 navy. The least of the Spanish ships was larger than the 
 greatest of Blake's, yet he shattered the forts, and destroyed 
 the fleet. " The whole action," says the historian Clarendon, 
 " was so incredible, that all men who knew the place, won- 
 dered that any sober man, with whatever courage endowed, 
 would ever have undertaken it." The Admiral cruised for 
 some months longer, and intercepted many of the rich Spanish 
 trading ships, but broken by the fatigue of the last three years, 
 he resolved to return home, and died before he came to land^ 
 
 His body was embalmed, and having lain in state at Green- 
 wich, was laid with all honour in Westminster Abbey. The 
 nation mourned his loss, and not a man who ever had served 
 under him but lamented his loss as that of a father. 
 
 The opinion of Lord Clarendon as to his courage has been 
 quoted, and we give that of another Royalist to " his lofty 
 character and spotless integrity." So Dr. Johnson speaks ot 
 
David Douglas, the Botanical Collector. 397 
 
 him, in telling of his noble deeds, and says: — "Nor is it 
 without regret that I am obliged to relate the treatment his 
 body met with a j^ear after the Restoration, when it was 
 taken up,* by express command, and buried in a pit in 
 St. Margaret's churchyard. Had he been guilty of the 
 murder of Charles I., to insult his body had been a mean 
 revenge ; but as he was innocent, it was inhumanity and 
 ingratitude. But that regard which was denied his bod}-, 
 has been paid to his better remains, his name and memor}^" 
 
 DAVID DOUGLAS, THE BOTANICAL COLLECTOR. 
 
 MANY of the stately trees and lovely flowers now familiar 
 to us were unknown to our forefathers, and have 
 been introduced from foreign lands to English parks and 
 gardens. A few of them have been sent or brought home by 
 residents in distant regions, or by those who have gone there 
 in the course of ordinary voyages and travels, but the larger 
 part have been obtained by regular collectors sent out for the 
 purpose, either by public bodies or by private persons of 
 wealth. There are always numbers of botanical collectors 
 thus wandering in various parts of the world, some of them in 
 the common course of trade, at the cost of nurserymen and 
 florists, who find it pays them well to employ such travellers. 
 
 One of 'the earliest and most successful of these botanical 
 travellers was a Scotchman, David Douglas, whose name is 
 attached to the magnificent pine tree, the Abies Douglasi't, the 
 seeds of which he first brought to this country from British 
 Columbia. A brief account of his adventurous life, too soon 
 cut short by a tragical death, will be read with interest. 
 
 He. began his career by being apprenticed to the head 
 
 * The same indignity was put on the remains of Cromwell and other 
 men who had made England great. Thus was illustrated the Eastern 
 apologue about the monkeys pulling the dead lion's beard ! 
 
39^ David Douglas, the Botanical Collector. 
 
 gardener at Scone Palace, where he worked, from the age of 
 twelve, for seven years. When nineteen he obtained a situation 
 at Culross, in the garden of Sir Robert Preston. At this place 
 were many exotic plants, which greatly excited his curiosity, 
 and at the mansion there was a good library, including books 
 on botany, which he was permitted to use, so that the two 
 years he was at Culross were very pleasantly and profitably 
 spent. He then obtained employment in the Botanic Garden 
 at Glasgow, under the superintendence of Sir William Jackson 
 Hooker, the father of Sir Joseph Hooker of Kew Gardens. 
 Dr. Hooker took much notice of the young and enthusiastic 
 gardener, and allowed him to attend the lectures on botany, 
 which were given to the medical students of Glasgow Univer- 
 sity. He also took him as his companion in excursions during 
 the summer months in the Scottish Highlands and islands. He 
 thus was prepared for his life-work under the most favourable 
 auspices. 
 
 In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company resolved to send a 
 botanical collector to the vast regions of British Columbia, then 
 under their authority. Dr. Hooker being asked to recommend 
 a suitable person, David Douglas at once received the appoint- 
 ment. In those times the only way to reach the western 
 regions of North America was by a long sea voyage, in a sail- 
 ing ship, round Cape Horn. The voyage lasted about nine 
 months, for the ship did not anchor in Columbia River till 
 April 8th, 1825. 
 
 Of the incidents of the voyage a record was kept by Douglas 
 in his Journal. There was much to interest him, and nothing 
 pleased him more than a visit to Juan Fernandez, on which 
 island, strangely enough, another Robinson Crusoe was found. 
 On the second day after their arrival, while Douglas and some 
 companions were exploring, an uncouth-looking skin-covered 
 man startled them by springing from among the bushes. His 
 name was William Clark, and he had come from London five 
 years before. He seemed contented to stay there, and satisfied 
 with the occasional intercourse with his fellow-men when a 
 
 i 
 
David Douglas, the Botanical Collector. 399 
 
 ship touched at the island. As he did not discover himself on 
 the first day, it is likely that he reconnoitred the strangers 
 before making his appearance, so as to judge whether their 
 company would be agreeable or safe. He had a few books, 
 among which were ''Robinson Crusoe " and "Cowper's Poems." 
 From the latter he had committed to memory the piece upon 
 Alexander Selkirk. Douglas says in his Journal : '' No pen 
 can correctly describe the charming and rural appearance of 
 this island." He took away specimens of the native plants, 
 and in return sowed various seeds of fruits and vegetables, 
 which have enriched the island since his visit. 
 
 Arrived at Columbia Douglas soon found his way to Fort 
 Vancouver, where the chief factor, a fellow countryman. Dr. 
 M'Lauchlan, gave him a warm welcome. He lost no time in 
 commencing his explorations from this place as his head- 
 quarters. His labour was at times interrupted by the rainy 
 weather, but he made such large collections of seeds and 
 plants that his deer-skin tent was too straitened to hold his 
 treasures, and a larger hut of dried oak bark had to be built 
 for their reception and preservation. When the ship was 
 ready to return, at the end of four months, he was able to 
 despatch a large collection of specimens. His hut he expected 
 would 'be useful for winter shelter, but as long as he was able 
 to move about he preferred rougher quarters. At the begin- 
 ning of his first autumn he wrote : " I have been in a house only 
 three nights since my arrival in North- Western America, and 
 these were my first after my debarkation." 
 
 On his journeys he used to wander about, with his gun 
 across his shoulder, and his vascithtm, or botanical box, 
 strapped on his back, attended only by his faithful Scotch 
 terrier, rough and shaggy as his master. The Indians all 
 knew him, mostly taking him for a " big medicine." The 
 forest, was his home. The fur traders' well-appointed stations 
 never tempted him to stay long. He preferred to sleep 
 under one of his own pine-trees. The trappers called him 
 the ''Grass Man." 
 
400 David Dot^glas, the Botanical Collector. 
 
 He sacrificed everything for the sake of his plants. On 
 one occasion we find him wearing a damp shirt, in order 
 to keep the dry one to wrap around his specimens. On 
 another, when he crossed the Columbia river, he congratulates 
 himself that, while he had lost all his provisions, he had saved 
 his plants. Having formed the resolution to cross the 
 continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic, a journey of more 
 than three thousand miles, he describes his outfit : ^' My store 
 of clothes is very low, nearly reduced to what I have on 
 my back — one pair of shoes, no stockings, two shirts, two 
 handkerchiefs, my blanket, and cloak. Thus 1 adapt my 
 costume to that of the country, as I could not carry more 
 without reducing myself to an inadequate supply of paper, 
 and such articles as I required for my business^ 
 
 As an instance of his self-denial and perseverance, we may 
 recount what he did and endured in the discovery of the 
 Finns Lambertiana, which is now scarcely less famous than 
 the pine-tree called by his name. Having secured one of its 
 remarkably large cones from the Indians, he resolved to visit 
 the place in the following spring. After many difficulties he 
 reached the grove, and saw the precious cones hanging like 
 sugar-loaves from the pendulous branches. He secured three 
 of these with almost fatal result. He could neither climb the 
 tree nor hew it down ; he therefore attempted to shoot down 
 the cones. The Indians, hearing the report of his gun, 
 speedily surrounded him in warlike array, with their bows, 
 arrows, bone-tipped spears, and knives. He had invaded their 
 sacred grove; he had dared to fire upon their sacred trees. 
 He managed to allay their wrath, and betook himself to the 
 depths of the forest. In returning he encountered greater 
 dangers. He lost his way ; he again was opposed by hostile 
 Indians ; he was exposed to h pitiless storm. Twelve days 
 he spent in extreme misery and danger, during which his 
 horse perished, before he came out on the Columbia and was 
 taken care of by his friends. 
 
 Shortly after this he made a journey into California, and 
 
David Dottglas^ the Botanical Collector. 401 
 
 whilst there exploring its rich herbage and wonderful arborage, 
 had the good fortune to fall in with a kindred spirit, Dr. 
 Coulter, who had been collecting in Mexico, and with great 
 joy writes to Dr. Hooker, ''As a salmon-fisher he is superior 
 to Walter Campbell of Islay — the Izaak Walton of Scotland — 
 besides being a beautiful shot with a rifle, nearly as successful 
 as myself! And I do assure you from my heart it is 
 a terrible pleasure to me thus to meet a really good man, 
 and one with whom I can talk of plants." 
 
 He manifested the greatest prudence in dealing with the 
 Indians, many of whom had never seen the face of a white 
 man before. When one was boasting of his superiority to 
 the King George men, Douglas quietly lifted his gun and 
 brought down a bird which was flying overhead. They never 
 shoot anything on the wing. This manifestation of his power 
 caused them to lay their hands upon their mouths in token of 
 fear. ''My fame was hereupon sounded through the country. 
 Ever since, I have found it to be of the utmost importance to 
 bring down a bird flying when I go near any of their lodges, 
 taking care to make it appear as a little matter, not done to be 
 observed." On another occasion, having finished a piece of 
 salmon in the presence of a large number of Indians of whom 
 he was not sure, he brought from his pocket some effervescing 
 powder which he carried as medicine, put it into some water, 
 stirred it with his finger, and drank it before them. This had 
 immense effect. A man that could swallow boiling water was 
 not to be interfered with, especially one who could boil it with 
 his finger ! Sometimes he struck terror into their hearts by 
 lighting his pipe with a lens, and greatly impressed them by 
 putting on his blue spectacles. A friendly chief having done 
 him a service, the " Grass Man " bored a hole through his only 
 shilling, and suspended it by a brass wire to the septum of his 
 nose, which was pierced according to the custom of his tribe. 
 Another chief was rewarded for similar service by being 
 shaved after the fashion of white men. In sailing up one of 
 the rivers he was accompanied by Madsue, or " Thunder," 
 
 26 
 
402 David Douglas ^ the Botanical Collector, 
 
 who was long famous in the region around the Columbia 
 Thunder would not taste liquor, but he made up for it in 
 smoking. In self-defence Douglas smoked also. In this, 
 however, he astonished his companion by putting out the 
 smoke from his mouth, which these Indians did not do. 
 '' Oh ! " cried Thunder, " why do you throw away the smoke ? 
 See, I take it in my belly." 
 
 Having made journeys with many perils through Oregon, 
 Washington Territory, and California, he started to go farther 
 north through British Columbia and Russian America. In 
 crossing the Fraser river, up near Quesnelle, his canoe was 
 dashed to pieces against the rocks, all his provisions and 
 specimens lost,- himself cast into the waters, and thrown 
 benumbed and- bleeding upon the shore. This was a great 
 disaster. Xl not only discouraged him from proceeding on 
 that journey, but made him eager to return home. More than 
 four hundred specimens, the result of laborious toil, were 
 there destroyed in a few minutes. His misfortune was felt 
 all the more from the fact that the ten years' toil and exposure 
 had already told severely upon his frame. He could not shoot 
 well, as his eyesight had begun to fail. He became lonely, 
 desolate, despondent, and acknowledges that but for the 
 companionship of his Bible, which he carried with him and 
 perused in all his wanderings, and the sympathy and support 
 of the Faithful Redeemer in whom he believed, he must have 
 perished in utter hopelessness. 
 
 He therefore made preparations for his return to Britain, 
 and left the Columbia river in October 1833. The ship 
 touched at the Sandwich Islands, and had to wait there for 
 cargo. He therefore set out to explore the country — especially 
 the volcanic region. On the 7th January, 1834, he started 
 to visit the volcano Mauna Kea. Returning from the sum- 
 mit of the mountain, hungry, thirsty, blistered, and jaded, 
 he wrote : " Gratified though one may be at witnessing the 
 wonderful works of God in such a place, it is with thankful- 
 ness that we approach a climate more congenial to our natures. 
 
David Do2iglas, the Botanical Collector. 403 
 
 and welcome the habitations of our fellow-men, where we 
 are refreshed with the scent of vegetation and soothed by 
 the melody of birds." 
 
 In the last of his letters to Professor Hooker he said : *' May 
 God grant me a safe return to England. I cannot but indulge 
 the pleasing hope of being soon able in person to thank you 
 for the signal kindness you have ever done me." But in this 
 he was disappointed. He had resolved to visit Mauna Kea 
 once more. At six o'clock in the morning of the 12th July he 
 called at the house of Edward Gurney, an Englishman who 
 had a house in the region of the mountain. He stated that 
 his servant had failed on the way, and requested him to show 
 him the best path. After breakfasting together Gurney 
 accompanied him for about a mile, pointed out the different 
 paths, and specially warned him of the pit-traps, of which 
 there were many, for the catching of wild cattle. He had not 
 ■gone more than two miles when he came to one of these, into 
 which a bullock had fallen. He looked into it, passed by, 
 and went up the hill. There, some idea induced him to 
 turn. Laying down his bundle, beside which his faithful 
 terrier remained, he proceeded to examine the pit more 
 minutely. 
 
 While doing this he missed his footstep and fell down into 
 the pit beside the enraged bullock. Two natives who were 
 passing were attracted by his cries, and saw Douglas under 
 the feet of the animal. They ran as quickly as they could for 
 Gurney, who shot .the bullock, but found that Douglas was 
 already dead. After removing the mangled body, Gurney 
 took charge of the dog, and the bundle, and the other things 
 which he had in his pockets, which were duly forwarded. 
 Thus ended the life of Douglas when thirty-five years of age. 
 Exactly ten years after his first embarkation for America his 
 body was brought down to Oahu for burial. His death was 
 all the more unfortunate as he had not completed his account 
 of his explorations in the north-west. He had lost four 
 hundred of his last collected speci-mens in attempting to cross 
 
404 David Douglas, the Botamcai Collector. 
 
 the Fraser river. His subsequent sickness and despondency 
 had prevented him describing them. 
 
 Notwithstanding these misfortunes and his death ere he had 
 reached middle hfe, Douglas had done noble work, and attained 
 a character that will ever rank high among those who have 
 advanced the interests of humanity. On the reverse side of 
 his monument, *' erected by the lovers of botany in Europe " 
 to his memory in Scone churchyard, there is given a list " of 
 a few of the numerous trees, shrubs, and ornamental plants 
 introduced by Douglas." Among these we recognise many of 
 the annuals now common in our gardens, and of the trees and 
 shrubs that are favourites in our grounds. Thus are his name 
 and memory perpetuated not only by his monumental stone, 
 but by the widely-distributed Douglas pine and other trees in 
 many lands. Their waving branches, moved by the winds, 
 will sound forth the melancholy requiem of him who loved so 
 well the old forests. 
 
 His early friend and patron Dr. Hooker published his 
 Journal, or as much of it as reached home; and long years 
 after, a Scotch clergyman, Mr. Somerville, gathered many 
 traditions from those who knew him in British Columbia. 
 
 From these sources we have obtained most of the facts of 
 
 the foregoing narrative. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Limited, London and Aylesbury. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Fourth Edition, Completing Ninth Thousand. 
 
 ALL TRUE. 
 
 Records of Peril and Adventure by Sea and Land — Remark- 
 able Escapes and Deliverances — Missionary Enterprises 
 and Travels — Wonders of Nature and Providence — Incidents 
 of Christian History and Biography. 
 
 With Ttvelve Illustrations. Crown St/o, cloth, gilt, 5j. 
 
 "Dr. Macaulay has a peculiar genius for the work he has undertaken in this 
 volume. He thinks a collection of true incidents may be made as attractive as the 
 story books which are provided in such abundance. We can onl^' advise every 
 father who has boys growing up around him to be sure and have a copy." — 
 Congregcctionalist. 
 
 " ' All True ' is a record of adventure and enterprise, of the wonders of nature, the 
 goodness of Providence, and generally of such matters as young people are or ought 
 to be interested in hearing about. Young people never like a story the worse 
 because it is true." — The Times. 
 
 ' " A more delightful miscellany could scarcely be found." — British Quarterly 
 Review. 
 
 " A book full of what is useful and true, forming, with its nice binding and well- 
 executed pictures, a capital and handy school-prize or Christmas present." — 
 Nonconform ist . 
 
 " The selection of incidents has been carefully made, and the illustrations are 
 numerous and appropriate." — The Standard. 
 
 •"AH the articles are good, and as they are also short, there is a most agreeable 
 and entertaining variety." — Liverpool Daily Post. 
 
 "A book which cannot but recommend itself to the patronage of book buyers and 
 readers." — The Bookseller. 
 
 " ' All True ' contains records of adventures by sea and land, remarkable escapes and 
 deliverances, missionary enterprises, etc., is as entertaining as the majority of such 
 books are depressing, and may be welcomed as a welcome present for children. The 
 illustrations are above the average of those vouchsafed to us in children's books." — 
 The Spectator. 
 
 "The present volume verifies the saying that 'Truth is strange, stranger than 
 fiction.' It is made up to about seventy short narratives, which cannot fail to rivet the 
 attention and add to the intelligence of the reader." — The Scotsman. 
 
 "Among the numerous story-books designed for the young, this certainly occupies a 
 high place, containing a collection of true incidents, which, while securing attention, 
 and exciting interest, may also help in the formation of sound principles and Christian 
 character in the youthful mind." — Mellwerne Daily Telegraph. 
 " A splendid book for young people." — Daily Rtznezv. 
 
 "No man is better qualified to cater for the intellectual amusement of old and 
 young, and our opinion is that 'AH True ' is one of the most valuable collections he has 
 given to the public." — Edinburgh Courant. 
 
 ""A book difficult to put down. It takes the mind captive. There are twelve 
 first-class illustrations. We have here thrilling adventure, brave conflicts, missionary 
 
 enterprises indeed, seventy short narratives make up a volume of true incidents, 
 
 some of them more marvellous than any fairy stories ; and best of all, the Saviour is 
 honoured and glorified throughout." — Evangelical Magazine. 
 
 London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Third and Cheaper Edition. 
 
 ACROSS THE FERRY. 
 
 First Impressions of America and its People. 
 
 Nine Illustrations. Crotun Svo, cloth. Price ^s. 
 
 "It is needless to commend Dr. Macaulay to our readers; they know too well 
 how graphically and instructively he can tell the story of his travels. And many 
 of them are acquainted with this very book, and have assigned it a place amongst 
 their favourites ; but this edition is illustrated by nine engravings that add much 
 to its interest, and has also a new introduction, making interesting reference to 
 incidents that have occurred since the ' ' First Impressions ' were originally published, 
 and also to the first impressions of other visitors to America. The immense mass of 
 information supplied by these records makes them very valuable, and it is worked into 
 the ' Impressions' with charming facility." — Literary World. 
 
 "Dr. Macaulay not only records his own impressions, but he incorporates with 
 them much of the useful and interesting information which an intelligent traveller not 
 only picks up, but takes special pains to furnish himself with. The volume is a series 
 of photographs of America as it was in 1870, and is full, therefore, of practical interest." 
 British Quarterly Review. 
 
 " It contains a large mass of information, and is full of suggestive 'matter." — 
 Spectator. 
 
 "Dr. Macaulay 's sketches are marked with good sense; they are full of solid 
 information ; and yet they are anything but dull. The present edition has the further 
 advantage of being illustrated." — Scotsman. 
 
 "The description he presents of social life in the great cities of America, of the 
 wonderful growth of some of its centres of population, of the position of its labouring 
 classes, and of its educational and ecclesiastical organisations, is exceedingly instruc- 
 tive. Altogether, the book contains a mass of information which will be regarded as 
 both pleasant and useful by every one who takes an interest in the new world ' across 
 the ferry.'" — Scotsiiian. {^First Edition.') 
 
 "A model in its way of what a book of American travels .ought to be." — London 
 Society. 
 
 "The best and most sensible articles on our country that have ever appeared in 
 England." — Philadelphia Ledger. 
 
 "Well worth reading, throwing quite a new light upon many things of which we 
 k:now too little in this country." — The Graphic. 
 
 " 'Across the Ferry' is extremely full of information. It modestly professes to give 
 ' First Impressions,' but they are both vivid and valuable, and written with a deep 
 insight into whatever is best worth knowing in the United States." — People' s Magazine. 
 
 ■'A very lively, entertaining, and generally accurate description." — Appleton's 
 Jojcrnal. 
 
 " A book written in a genial Christian spirit. Not admiring without discrimination, 
 or finding fault without reason ! We confess to have learnt more from it of what we 
 really care to know, than from any other volume which has come imder our notice." — 
 Mr. Spurgeon's Stvord and Trawel. 
 
 "The author's visit was a short one, but he made good use of his time; and the 
 result of his observations is given in a popular form, embracing a great variety of 
 topics, and without the bias which has destroyed the value of much that has been 
 published in England respecting the United States." — The Times 0/ India. 
 
 London: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Second Thousand. 
 
 GREY HAWK: 
 
 Life and Adventures among the Red Indians. 
 An Old Story Retold. 
 
 Eleven Illustrations. Handsomely Bound. Gilt Edges. 5^. 
 
 " The editor of the Leisure Ho7ir, having come across a romantic story of real life, 
 has worked it up into a genuinely interesting Indian story. The illustrations and 
 handsome style in which the book is got up make it very suitable for presentation." — 
 Sheffield Independent. 
 
 "A book of such thrilling adventures as are dear to the souls of boys, and is well 
 worth the reading of older people than the boys who will certainly delight in it." — 
 Literary World. 
 
 "The story itself is told with the simplicity of Robinson Crusoe, and brings the 
 details of savage life among savage people before the reader's eyes with the same 
 vivid reality." — Guardian. 
 
 " Dr. Macaulay is at his best in ' Grey Hawk.' " — Liverpool Daily Post. , 
 
 " There is a mysterious fascination about the subject which is of itself sufficient to 
 secure for it a wide popularity." — Congregationalist. 
 
 "The story is graphically told, and will be sure to become a favourite with 
 boys." — Globe. 
 
 " These adventures are spirit-stirring as the wildest romance ; and Cooper might have 
 borrowed his heroes from the ' ower true tale ' without scruples. Not only is the story 
 of ' Grey Hawk ' an amusing and instructive book for boys, but it is likewise a most 
 valuable book of reference as to the condition of the Indian race at the period of the 
 tale, compared with what is now beheld at the present day." — Co2crt Journal. 
 " A splendid boy's book." — Derby Mercury 
 "The narrative is very interesting." — Qjteen. 
 
 "This is a picturesque story of a time which now seems curiously remote." — Daily 
 News. 
 
 " The story is written in the first person, and the mingled ease and simplicity of the 
 style make it very pleasant reading. It may be regarded as a description of the life of 
 the North American Indians, regarded from their own point of view. There is much 
 strange, exciting incident and adventure, and many interesting matters of American 
 history are embodied." — School Board Chronicle. . 
 
 "Dr. Macaulay has revived with excellent effect a true story of Indian life. The 
 story has a thoroughly genuine look. But though the savage pictured here is scarcely- 
 ' noble ' he is not wholly ignoble. In fact, to use a famous phrase, there is a good deal 
 of human nature in him. " — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 ' ' Dr. jMacaulay has given us in this volume an account of life among the Indians in 
 the form of a personal narrative. The incidents are drawn from the statements of one 
 who, some years ago, was taken prisoner and kept amongst the Indians when young, 
 and who, growing up amongst them, acquired the knowledge of their ways which he 
 afterwards made public. The story is told in a spirited fashion, and forms extremelj' 
 pleasant reading. "—CzVj/ Press. 
 
 London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row, 
 
THE LATE W. H, G. KINGSTON'S STORIES. 
 
 I. 
 
 Craivn 8z>o, gilt edges, handsomely hound, t^s. Eight Ilhistr actions. 
 
 FROM POWDER MONKEY TO ADMIRAL: 
 
 A Story of Naval Adventure. 
 With an Introduction by Dr. Macaulay. 
 
 "This story is equal to any ever written by its author. It is full of life and adventure. 
 In the stirring days of the French War Bill Rayner was a London Arab, and the story 
 tells how by good conduct and bravery Bill rose from the position of powder monkey to 
 that of Admiral He is, early in his career, wrecked and taken prisoner, with another 
 lad his own age, and the pair go through some exciting adventures before they are 
 again afloat. No detailed description is possible of a story which is from end to end 
 crowded with adventure and incident." — Standard. 
 
 II. 
 
 CrowJi Svo, gilt edges, handsomely bonnd, ^s. 
 
 JAMES BRAITHWAITE, THE SUPERCARGO, 
 
 The Story of His Adventures Ashore and Afloat. 
 
 Eight Illustrations, Portrait, and Short Account of Mr. Kingston' s Life. 
 
 "Mr. Kingston's books for boys are too well known. to need many words. • It will be 
 welcome to boys as a pleasant memorial of an old and valued friend." — Athefz^UDi. 
 
 III. 
 
 Crotun 8z>o, gilt edges, ^s. Eight Illnstrations. 
 
 PETER TRAWL; 
 
 The Adventures of a Whaler. 
 
 "A whaling story by the late IMr. Kingston, and promises well. It is a manly sort of 
 book, with a good deal of information in it as well as the adventures which boys love. 
 A true story of a gallant skipper who, with the assistance of the ship's carpenter, ampu- 
 tated his own leg, is amongst the notable occurrences recorded." — Athencp^un. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Fifth Thousand. Oroxon Svo, gilt edges, ^s. Five Illustrations. 
 
 HENDRICKS THE HUNTER; 
 
 Or, The Border Farm. A Tale of Zululand. 
 
 " ' A Tale of Zululand.' A very appropriate region to take a boy in at this time. We 
 have nothing to do, however, with the late war, though there is plenty of fighting before 
 Hendricks' tale is told. The illustrations are quite in the spirit of the book. No one 
 who looks at the frontispiece but must turn to page 201 to learn the issue of the startling 
 scene depicted." — Times. 
 
 V. . • 
 
 Cheap Edition. Fcap. Svo, Eight Illustrations. 2s. 6d. 
 
 JOVINIAN. 
 
 A Tale of Early Papal Rome. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Seventh Thousand. Cro7vn Svo, cloth, price 3j. dd. 
 
 CLARA MAYNARD; 
 
 Or, The True and the False. A Tale of the Times. 
 
 "A very charming love story, told with singular grace and power, by a writer gifte 
 with an excellent command of language and a keen insight into the workings of human 
 emotions in their best aspects." — StMidard. 
 
 London : HODDER AND STOyGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 
 
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