THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID Stir- ''x/ i^m^mm^ '1^ f'-'"-^,? MM .i _ir\\\t>-' i%:-L^/l With the "Ophir" Round the Empire WITH THE OPHIR" ROUND THE EMPIRE An Account of the Tour of the Prince and Princess OF Wales 1901 By WILLIAM MAXWELL Special Correspondent of the " Standard If ILLUSTRATED CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE All Rights Reserved MCMII First Edition, Ja4%uary\ 1902 . Reprinted, January 1902 ; February, 1902. Co mp wife PREFACE. I DESIRE to express my deep gratitude to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales for the gracious manner in which they received my colleagues and myself, and gave us the great privilege of record- ing their memorable tour through the Empire. This is a record, not of ceremonies, but of im- pressions and incidents, and is made in the hope of interesting rather than of instructing those who have felt the inspiration of that racial and Imperial pride which has come upon the people of Greater Britain in these later days. My thanks are due to the First Lord of the Ad- miralty, the Earl of Selborne, for granting me per- mission to accompany their Royal Highnesses ; to the officers of H.M.S. 5/. George, Royal Arthur, Gibraltar, Opkir, and Niobe, for much kindness during this long voyage ; to the Ministers and Governments of many Colonies and States ; to the directors of the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Railways in Canada ; and to * M310583 viii PREFACE. my confreres in many parts of the world, and especially in Australia and Canada. To the proprietors and the Editor of T/ie Standard I am indebted for the liberty to make use of the material contributed by me during the tour. The letters have been in most cases re -written, and contain new matter. To Mr. J. Walter Jones, who accompanied the Prince throughout the tour, I am indebted for most of the photo- graphs in this volume. W. M. CONTENTS. -«o»- CHAPTER I. rAGE The Imperialism of Greater Britain . . . . i The Britains beyond the Seas — A Pilgrimage without Parallel— Colonial Loyalty— " The Old Home." CHAPTER II. The Governor of Gibraltar 6 Arrival at " Gib." — Sir George White — Recollec- tions of Ladysmith — The Channel Squadron — Again Under Weigh, CHAPTER III. Scenes in the Suez Canal . . . . . -13 Port, Said — A Marine Clapham Junction — Our Rever- ential Pilot — Suez and its Si-ghts — We Set Sail for Aden. CHAPTER IV. The Famous Tanks of Aden 19 A Day of Festival — The Town — The Great Reservoirs — The Ophir comes in Sight — The Sultan of Abdali — Between the Monsoons. X CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE The Beauties of Ceylon .... . 28 Arrival at Colombo — Reception of the Prince and Prin- cess — The Cocoanut Valley — Kandy — A Graceful Wel- come. CHAPTER VI. The Sacred Elephants 34 A Strange Spectacle — Devil Dancers — Presentation of Colours to the Ceylon Mounted Infantry — Durbar in the Audience Room — The Exile from Egypt — The Temple of the Tooth. CHAPTER Vn. Boer Prisoners in Ceylon ...... 41 Adam's Peak — The Boer Camp — Krugersdorp and Steynsville — General Olivier — The Fighting Predikant — Play and Prayers — Children in Camp — The Irish- American Brigade — The Foreign Contingent. CHAPTER VIII. The Mystery of Race 51 Our last Night at Colombo — Our Singhalese Fellow Subjects — On Board Again — Prickly Heat — A Wel- come Storm. CHAPTER IX. Singapore and the Malays 57 First Impressions — A Singapore Sunday — Durbar in the Town Hall— The Sultan of Perak— Malay Prob- lems. CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER X. PAGE A Trip to Chinatown 67 The Chinese of Singapore — The Two Chinatowns — The Decoration of the Merchant Quarter — The Great Green Dragon — A Marvellous Procession — An Opium Den — A Tea House — The Singing Girls. CHAPTER XI, Freemen of the Sea 76 King Neptune comes on Board — The Prince Presented at Court — Sunday Service. CHAPTER xn. Opening the Federal Parliament 81 Queen Victoria and the Prince's Mission — Marvellous Melbourne — An Impressive Ceremony — Federal Statesmen. CHAPTER XIII. The Golden Cities of Australia 90 The Eureka Stockade — Ballarat and Johannesburg — The Hon. Peter Lalor — Ballarat To-day. CHAPTER XIV. Military Cadets 97 Military Spirit of Australia — The Ambition of Schools — Review at Melbourne — How the Cadet System is Worked — Its Popularity — Education in Schools and Universities. CHAPTER XV. Queensland and Brisbane 104 A Picnic on the Darling Downs — Gienrowan and the Kelly Gang — Wagga-Wagga and " The Claimant " — The Queensland Club — A Notable Review — Lytton. xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. PAGE The Australian Aboriginal iii A Corrobboree — An Irreclaimable Race — A Complex Language — The Tribal System — Superstition and Re- ligion. CHAPTER XVII. The Attractions of Sydney ii8 " Our Harbour " — Mrs. Macquarie's Chair — Hyde Park — A Paradise for the Unemployed — The Rival Capitals of Australia — Sydney's Suburbs. CHAPTER XVIII. The Land of the Golden Fleece 124 Pastoral Australia — Drovers and Squatters — The Romantic Story of a Great Cattle Drive. CHAPTER XIX. Bush Life and Sport 132 The Landed Aristocracy of Australia — The Squatter's Homestead — An Historic Family — Bush Impressions. CHAPTER XX. Impressions of New Zealand . . . . . . 141 Wellington — Christchurch — Dunedin — A Land of Wealthy Debtors — Of Soldiers and of Socialists — Mr. Seddon. CHAPTER XXI. The Commonwealth and New Zealand .... 147 Why New Zealand Holds Aloof — Auckland Harbour — Mount Eden — Roitorua — Mother Rachel's Bath* — A Maori Welcome. CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XXII. PAGE A Maori Chieftain i55 A Visit to the Maoris — Patarangukai and his Great Deeds— His Death and Burial— The Custom of Muru— Maori Decadence. CHAPTER XXIII. A Trip to Geyserland 163 Whakarewarewa and its Legends— A Famous Guide — The Visit to the Geysers— A Maori Idol— Tikitere. CHAPTER XXIV. Maori Dances and Customs 169 A Race of Fighting Men— The Maoris and the Boer War — A Maori War Dance. CHAPTER XXV. A Journey Through North Island 179 The Way to Wanganui— Convicts on Parole — Waio- tapu — The Geyser Valley— Lake Taupo — A Beautiful Forest River. CHAPTER XXVI. A Land of Orchards 191 The Last of New Zealand — Hobart — The Resources of Tasmania — The Switzerland of the South. CHAPTER XXVII. The Model City of Adelaide 197 Arrival at Adelaide — Its Charms and Beauties — The Royal Visit to the University — A Happy Inspiration — The Wine Industry of South Australia. xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVIII. PAGE Farewell to Australia . 203 Rough Weather — 'Tis an 111 Wind, etc.- — The Surprise Visit to Albany — Fremantle. CHAPTER XXIX. The Island of Mauritius 209 Our Longest Voyage — Fine Steaming — Port Louis — The Mauritians — Curepipe — The Sugar Industry — Mauritian Race Question. CHAPTER XXX. In the Shadow of War 216 Arrival at Durban — Maritzburg en Fete — Old Friends — Heroes of the War — The Distribution of V.C.'s and D.S.O.'s — The Zulus Pay Homage. CHAPTER XXXI. Cape Town 224 Cape Town Revisited — " Then and Now " — The Boer Prisoners and the Princess — Basuto Chiefs in Cape Town— The Royal Visit to Mr. Rhodes's House—Sir W. Hely-Hutchinson. CHAPTER XXXII, The Voyage to Canada 232 Afloat Again — The Royal Suite — St. Vincent — Good- bye to the St. George and Juno — The Niobe — Cape Breton. CHAPTER XXXIII. A Queen among Cities 239 The Entry into Quebec — Reception at the Town Hall — The Address of Welcome — The Loyalty of the French- Canadians--The Abbe Faguy's Tribute— Quebec and its Memories. CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XXXIV. PAGE The City of Montreal 249 A Modern City — Addresses of Welcome — The McGill University — The Laval University — The Ville Marie Convent. CHAPTER XXXV. A Bright Little Capital 256 How Ottawa Became the Capital — A Great Military Display — The Princess and Trooper Mulloy — The Timber Trade of Canada. CHAPTER XXXVI. Shooting the Slides . . , 262 A New Experience — A Picturesque Flotilla — Voyageurs and their Songs — " Log Rolling." CHAPTER XXXVII. From Atlantic to Pacific 269 After Two Score Years — The Royal Train — Lake Nipissing — " Our Heart is French, but our Head is British " — Lake Superior — Manitoba — Winnipeg. CHAPTER XXXVIII. An Indian Pow-Wow 278 The Prairie Camp — White Pup and Bull's Head — The Pow-Wow — Poetry and Prose — The Indian Children. CHAPTER XXXIX. Across the Rocky Mountains 288 The Charm of the Rockies — A Ride on a Cow-catcher — Banff and its Beauties. xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XL. PAGE Chinese in British Columbia 295 Vancouver and Victoria — Rival Cities — The Chinese of Columbia. CHAPTER XLI. The Cities of Ontario 302 Homelike Ontario — Canadian Weather — Two Days in Toronto — London, Ontario — Hamilton. CHAPTER XLH. Impressions of Niagara 306 " Three Minutes to See the Falls " — The Penalties of Greatness — The Emerald Horse Shoe. CHAPTER XLHL Newfoundland and Home 314 The Thousand Islands — British American Societies — Farewell, Canada — " The Sport of Historic Misfortune " — Potentialities of the Island. APPENDIX , . . 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Voyage of the "Ophir": Map . . . Frontis Maltese Villagers .... To face page 12 View of Aden „ 22 A Street in Singapore „ 58 A Corrobboree . „ 112 An Australian Cattle Ranch . . . . „ 124 Tree Cutting in New Zealand . . . „ 143 A Maori Village „ 157 The King River, Tasmania , 193 Proclamation Tree, South Australia . . „ 202 Zulu Women, Durban „ 219 A Rickshaw Boy, Durban ...... 220 Street Scene, Durban: "Eyes Right!" . „ 222 Arrival at Simon's Bay „ 226 XVlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. View from the Citadel, Quebec, with the "Ophir" lying at Anchor . . . To face page 342 The Indian Pow-Wow at Calgary . An Indian Brave Indian Brave and his little Daughter . Shaganappie Point, near Calgary Banff: View from the Hot Sulphur Springs Vancouver, B.C. : Their Royal Highnesses leaving the Station to visit the City . Vancouver, B.C. : The Fort Simpson Indian Cornet Band playing before Their Royal Highnesses Arrival at Victoria, B.C.: Their Royal Highnesses accompanied by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Sir Henri Joly de Lotbiniere, leaving the "Empress of India " for the City >j a >> » J) » 278 280 282 284 292 294 296 M 298 WITH THE 'mi\ ROUND THE EMPII[E. CHAPTER L THE IMPERIALISM OF GREATER BRITAIN. The Britains beyond the Seas — A Pilgrimage without Parallel —Colonial Loyalty— 'The Old Home." If you would know what is meant by Greater Britain you must take ship and circle the world twice over, and after that you must travel by train or horse distances of which Europe can give you no conception. And every- where you will meet men and women of your own race, living practically the same lives, having the same thoughts and ambitions and the same moral and re- ligious standards. Surely in the dim past this little island of England was a vast continent, and some benign power scattered its fragments over the face of the earth so that they might grow and multiply. They have fallen thick in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, for there are many Britains destined to be great, not only from their limitless resources, but from the energy and vitality of their people. It is the fashion among those who visit the United States for the first time to be awed by the restless activity of its citizens, and to see in that nervous display of energy the impending downfall of Europe. There are volcanoes in many parts of the world, but the scientist will tell you that the energy of them all is not one-hundredth part of the energy calmly and quietly expended by the therroai B 2 WITH THE 'OPHIR' springs. And thus I believe it is with these new Britains. For nearly eight months we journeyed from country to country and from capital to capital, and in all of them we have seen, not convulsions, but a cease- less flow of energy directed to objects that must make a people great And the nearer we came to the rising and the set- ting sun the more clearly did we see the dawn of a new hope. The heir to a throne set in the hearts of a world- spread people saw with his own eyes that the union of oar race is not ithe shadow of a dream, but a truth toward which men are tending. In Canada, in Aus- tralia, in New Zealand, in South Africa, and in the islands of the sea to which our course was bent, the presence of the Prince and Princess has quickened the spirit of brotherhood, and brought us nearer to the accomplishment of the desire of statesmen and patriots. Under the shadow of the sword we have seen that pride of race and loyalty to -the Empire are undying impulses. The loyalty of men who have carried our language, our customs, our traditions, our creed, and our freedom over ten million square miles is of the strong, personal kind that endures no sordid ends. We have heard it again and again strike the deep chord that will vibrate to the doom. Who having seen and heard can doubt that the bond which time and blood are welding will last and give strength and security to every part of the Empire .? In their pilgrimage of nearly forty-seven thousand miles the Prince and Princess of Wales only once set foot on foreign soil, and that was at Port Said, where ROUND THE EMPIRE. . 3 Britain rules if she does not reign. They visited seven- teen British possessions in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and America, with an area of seven and a quarter million square miles and a population of nineteen million. Of these, eleven million are of European origin. The vast majority are English, Scotch, and Irish, who by courage, industry, and energy have made new Britains in the waste places of the earth. They have changed their sky, but not their character. Climate, milieu, and occupation, no doubt, create modifications, yet they are not deeper nor more marked than the differences among people of several counties in England. The Australian and the Canadian are as British in their habits, ideals, and mode of life as the men and women who pass their lives in these islands. The real difference is in their sur- roundings. Space and hght and air are the common heritage. Their towns are not hot-beds of dirt, disease, and crime. Men, women, and children alike live clean, wholesome lives. Seeing, one could not but regret that the stream of emigration from our crowded cities cannot be increased, or at any rate diverted from the United States to our own lands, whose limitless resources await only labour and capital. We have made some advance in knowledge and common-sense since the day when statesmen spoke of the Colonies as a burden to be laid aside at the first opportunity ; but we do not yet realise the potentialities of these national estates. The value of the trade between the Uni4:ed Kingdom and her Colonies is estimated at i;"200,ooo,ooo a year, and of this sum the countries visited by the Prince and Princess contribute 4 WITH THE 'OPUIR more than one hundred millions. Yet we have but scratched the surface, and the danger in Canada, at any rate, is that we may leave the capitalists of the United States to reap the harvest which we are reluctant to sow. And in these Colonies there is another and a more valuable asset that cannot be stated in figures. They may be made the home of millions of healthy, con- tented, and prosperous citizens of the Empire, who will carry on the traditions of our race, and be to us — as we have been and will be to them — a source of strength and pride when the enemy is at our gate. In years to come, when destiny has set them on the throne of this great Empire, the Prince and Princess will not be strangers to their people in the uttermost ends of the earth. They have met and spoken with the men to whom are committed the interests of the King's dominions beyond the seas. They have noted the material, moral, and social condition of the people, and the resources and potentialities of their countries. They have been the central figure in a succession of brilliant ceremonies. Everywhere they were received with a heartiness that must have assured them of the sincerity of the attachment of the colonists. It is the custom to talk of loyalty as a sentimental virtue, and to assert that the only sure bond among men is common interest. In the Colonies it is recognised that loyalty lies at the root of every powerful nationality, and that security and pro- gress are made certain by the unity of the Empire, by the defence of its rights and the maintenance of its prestige. It is true that they saw the people only in moments of enthusiasm, and that the cities were adorned ROUND THE EMPIRE. 5 for a holiday. But under the trappings incidental to a Royal reception there was a sentiment of Imperialism and loyalty so strong, so impulsive, and so natural that it could not be mistaken for the mere effusion of a passing excitement. Their Royal Highnesses have brought back many pleasant memories, but the most inspiring memory of all is of the energy 3nd. -vitality of the people, of their strength and pride of race, and of that passionate Imperialism which has acclaimed them in every part of the world. They have returned with experiences that will be of service to them and of benefit to the people. And above all they have seen that this Empire of ours is neither old nor in decay, but has only begun to reahse its strength, and to feel that inspiration of unity which will give it greater power and nobler ambitions. Let Britain be as loyal to her children as they are to her, and she need fear no splendid isolation. We who live in the heart of Imperial traditions and associations until they become as the breath of our nostrils do not always understand and value at its true worth that sentiment which unites the scattered race that calls England " Home." You must touch the limits of the Empire before you can realise the force and vitality of the sentiment and can sympathise to the full with those who speak of " the old home," even though their eyes may not have seen this Httle island. As in the magnet the strength seems greater at the poles, so in the utter- most ends of the British Empire do you feel the strength of that pride of race which fires the imagination and stirs the heart. 6 WITH THE OPHIR' CHAPTER 11. THE GOVERNOR OF GIBRALTAR. Arrival at " Gib." — Sir George White — Recollections of Lady- smith — The Channel Squadron — Again Under Weigh. When Alexandre Dumas came to Gibraltar and saw the famous Rock shrouded in fog his surprise was great A Frenchman and a novelist, he was not at a loss to explain this unnatural phenomenon. Before the arrival of the British the skies were blue and the air was clear. At first the Englishman was content ; but, after a time, he was seized with an uneasy suspicion that something was wanting to his happiness. A brilliant genius made the discovery, and won the undying gratitude of his countrymen. '* What we lack is a fog." Being an eminently practical people, the English made a fog, and lived happily ever after. Certain it is that rain and mist are often the lot of Gibraltar even when the Mediterranean is a sunny lake of laughing blue. On Tuesday, March the I2th, when the St. George cast anchor in the Bay, the sun shone ; but next day the rains descended, and dark clouds hung like a pall over the bold grey crag that keeps ward of the Straits, boding ill for the voyage of the Opkir. We left Portsmouth on Thursday, the 7th of March, and three days later sighted the coast of Portugal. The time had come for firing practice, and decks were ROUND THE EMPIRE. 7 cleared for action. Live shells were hoisted from the magazines, men mustered at their quarters, guns were run out, and two huge triangles of wood and canvas with flags at the corners were dropped astern as targets. The JuiWy as senior ship, took command, and steamed ahead, flying signals that we were to follow in a circle and open fire with oiu: starboard batteries. Such a target is not easy to keep in sight. A sudden squall arose, and when the moment came, behold the target was nowhere to be seen on the ruffled waters ! Obedient to our small companion, we went back upon our course in vain search. Next day we were more fortunate. Off^ Lisbon we sailed into sunny waters. Once more the decks were cleared and the men mustered. Our great guns, fore and aft, each of 9.2 calibre, firing a shell of 380 pounds with a cordite charge of 160 pounds, moved to the touch of their captains as if their 22 tons had been so many ounces. Thick tongues of crimson flame darted from the side of the Juno, lightning flashed and thunder rolled from her fighting tops, and smoke wrapped her graceful lines in the fog of war. The battle had begun. Sweeping in wide circle, she poured shot and shell from her star- board batteries until the sea rose in fountains of spray, and a trim little yacht, coming out of the sunny distance, paused in her flight and hung on the wing like a startled sea gull. Then the St. George opened fire with her heavy armament. To the dull roar of the 9.2 guns was added the crash of ten 6-inch guns with a 100-pound shell, of twelve 6-pounders, two 9-pounders, and five 3-pounders. Shell after shell rent the air and churned 8 WITH THE OPHIR' the sea around the targets, each sounding its famiHar note — now the rush of an unseen express train, now the scream of an hysterical woman, now the hiss of rifle bullet. We went ashore on Wednesday, and I called upon the Governor, Sir George White, whom I had not seen since that memorable day in March of 1900, when the relieving force marched in triumph through the streets of Ladysmith. We strolled in the garden of the Residence, which was a convent five or six centuries ago, and contains many objects of historic interest. It is a beautiful little garden of date palms and orange trees hanging with golden fruit, and a wonder- ful dragon tree said to be a thousand years old. A dainty little maid in white sat upon a swing in a green bower. " This is part of the Governor's duties," said the General, giving the board a push that sent a rosy, laughing face high in the air. We talked of Ladysmith. The subject came naturally, for I was one of the besieged. I recall Sir George White's parting words in Natal : " Whatever controversy may arise in connection with the siege, there is at least one point of agreement — we were a happy family." How could we be otherwise with a leader of such old-world courtesy and chivalry, with men like General Sir Archibald Hunter, " brave as a lion, gentle as a child "^ — to use his late chief's words — like General Sir Ian Hamilton, ever alert and keen, and like Colonel Sir Edward Ward — " the best supply officer since Moses " — full of resource and the contagion of good spirits. Everybody knows now that the unflinching courage ROUND THE EMPIRE. 9 and steadfast determination of Sir George White saved the Empire and the army from lasting disgrace. These are qualities one would naturally look for in the soldier who rushed the heights of Charasiah and slew with his own hand the leader of the Afghans who had checked the advance of the Gordons. I am not going to enter into any controversy about the famous heho- grams of Sir Redvers Buller. General White, as many of us then in South Africa have long been aware, did not act upon advice which at first he believed had been misinterpreted, and which, when repeated, drew from him a reply that will be memorable in the annals of war. We were not sorry to see the last of the Rock. For three days we in the St. George had played the part of Cinderella, and been at the beck and call of our elder sister the Juno, who, after all, carries no 9.2 guns, and displaces only 5,600 tons of water. While she lay calmly in the basin displaying her dark hull and military tops to the admiring gaze of landsmen, we had to ride at anchor in the bay. Our berth near the mole was wanted for the Channel Squadron, and yet the Squadron could not be seen, for, like the Armada, it was not in sight. This may seem a small matter. But it becomes a crying grievance when you crave for the pleasures of the land, and are not sure where your ship may be in the morning. Shore boats are not as the sands for multitude at Gibraltar. Indeed, there is a belief, amounting almost to conviction, in Naval circles that the last boatman is being buried at the very moment you are in dire need of his services. The Channel / lo WITH THE OPHIR' Squadron came at last, and then we learned what it is to be only a first-class cruiser instead of a battle-ship. We were banished forthwith as unfit to associate with these steel-clad leviathans, chevied from one station to another at the bidding of a string of insolent flags, until the young gentlemen in blue serge who were trying to take life pleasantly in the Mediterranean Club found themselves involved in a distracting game of hide and seek. There was nothing for it but to go on board at once, lest the flagship should take it into her erratic head to order our much-haxried St. George to some inacces- sible point. And all the while the Juno lay within reach of the shore, with an air of quiet seniority that was not conducive to sobriety of language. Our cup was filled to overflowing when, in view of the warships, she bade us weigh anchor and follow in her wake. Let who will lament the glories of sailing-days. There is no more beautiful object than a warship under steam, when the hot life is in her, and the snowy crests of violet seas dance under her streaming bows. She is the embodiment of strength and grace. Every move- ment of her smooth moulded sides, and every caress of the waves that linger in sheer delight of her curved lines, disclose some new and unexpected charm, until even the landsman can understand why she is the sailor's mistress. So the Juno looked as she steamed proudly out of the bay to the sound of music and of cannon. The Rock rose stem and grajid behind us. Scarlet tunics of marines drawn up on the quarter-deck shone in the sunlight. The St. George throbbed and quivered into life. Once more we were under weigh. Our course ROUND THE EMPIRE. n lay for Port Said, through the Malta Channel. It was not to be our good fortune to call at the Island, or to see those marine monsters which the inventive genius of Sir John Fisher and the Mediterranean Fleet had pre- pared for the entertainment of the Prince and Princess. We had to content ourselves with the stories that reached us — how, none can tell — stories of wonder- stricken artificers and bluejackets summoned to the quarter-deck to say whether they could make a sea- serpent that would wriggle, a forty-foot dolphin that would swim, and other marine marvels undreamt of by Munchausen. Four days went by, and at noon on Wednesday we had made 1,134 niiles, at an average speed of twelve knots. The coast of Algiers slipped silently past us like a dim shadow, out of which rose snow-capped mountains. We passed Malta in the night, unseen yet not unspoken. From the mast-head of the St. George rises a slender shaft of wood and metal. Below, on the after-bridge, in a glass-screened shelter, are two dark boxes, on which an energetic and lively Torpedo-Lieu- tenant, Mr. Trousdale by name, performs mysterious rites. You may know when he visits them, for instantly there issues from the chamber a series of crackling pro- tests like the grating of steel on a gritty grindstone. Thereupon the Lieutenant comes forth and gives you news of De Wet, and water-tube boilers, and quarrels about railways in China, as gravely as though he were reading from the columns of the morning newspaper, which you have not seen for fifteen days. When we went to breakfast ten hour? after passing Malta, there 12 , WITH THE 'OPHIR' lay on the table a telegram announcing that De Wet had reached Senekal, that the Admiralty had decided to have no more Belleville boilers, and that Russia and England were almost fighting about the railway at Tientsin. It was no message from Mars — only a message from the Juno and her wireless telegraph. Thirty miles from Malta she had " called up " the guard- ship and asked for news. " There is none " was the reply. Ten minutes later the guard-ship repented, or was better informed, for the mysterious boxes began to click, and an unseen hand, at a distance of over thirty miles, wrote this news. MALTESE VILLAGERS EN ROUTE TO WELCOME THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES ON ARRIVAL AT THE VERDALA PALACE. BOUND THE EMPIRE. i :> CHAPTER III. SCENES IN THE SUEZ CANAL. Port Said — A Marine Clapham Junction — Our Reverential Pilot — Suez and its Sights — We Set Sail for Aden. The traveller who looks for the picturesque, or who has a mind to emotions, sets little store by Port Sajdu,. Its human types and local manners have been modified by contact with Europeans. It is a change-house for the East and the West — a marine Clapham Junction. There is none of the mystery and glamour of the East about Port Said. It is obtrusively commonplace, frankly dirty, and as wicked as the people who pass through care to make it. Men of every race and colour and condition meet here ; yet you may walk the streets a week and not stop to admire one stately Arab in flowing burnous, or one proud Bedouin in splendid rcigs. The Egyptian in fez and long garment of striped cotton — about as elegant as a bedgown — is not an attractive creature, and at Port Said he is even less interesting than at Cairo or Alexandria. We left him without a pang, after lying for two hours in front of the fine offices of the Suez Canal Company. The Juno remained to coal, drawing less water than her consort. With full bunkers the St. George draws 26 feet 8 inches, and would not be allowed passage through the canal, whose maximum draught is 25 feet 7 inches. We therefore made for Suez, where 530 tons of coal awaited us at 39s. 3d. a ton — los. per ton dearer than at Port Said. There were a few pre- 14 WITH THE 'OPHIR' liminaries before we entered the canal. Our pay-master, Mr. Pritchard, handed over to the Company a bill for £yg2 15s. yd., that being the amount of the canal dues at 9 francs a ton, on a Board of Trade certificate for 2,219 tonnage. Happily a large part of this sum comes back to our own pockets as shareholders in the canal, thanks to the foresight of Lord Beaconsfield. The reflection helped us to bear with equanimity the evi- dences of an alien administration that dictates the language of Port Said and the nationality of the pilots of the canal. Our first pilot was a bronzed and genial Frenchman, who looked like the master of a Thames steamboat. His fault was a too demonstrative reverence for the authorities that the wisdom of the Company has set over him. When we passed the superintendent of the Port Said section he bowed low and much. We chanced upon the general superintendent, and he almost tumbled off the bridge in excess of joy. The navigating officer, Lieutenant Grant, kept a sharp eye on him after that, being filled with gloomy forebodings as to what might befall the pilot if so exalted a personage as a director suddenly came along. Fortunately we were spared that catastrophe, and, steaming at five knots, made our way slowly through the shallow waters, followed by a little American army transport that looked too frail to brave an Atlantic storm. Two or three times we had to tie up to the bank in order that vessels might pass. The level reaches of tawny sand that bound the canal glided silently past, fading from tremulous heat into a mirage. A herd of camels browsed among the ROUND THE EMPIRE. 15 thin acacia bush and rank herbage. Some wild duck rose from the salt edge of a lagoon. A group of natives washed their clothes at a gushing fresh water pipe, their dark brown bodies gleaming like copper in the sun. A family — man, woman, boy, and girl, obviously French — came out of a neat little house with its border of green that marks a station in the canal, and gazed after us. They must have a lonely time, these custodians of the Suez Canal on the fringe of two deserts, with no com- pany save goats, and cattle, and steam dredgers. At the ferry across the old caravan route waited a string of camels. They raised their heads and gave us a super- cilious stare, while their dark-visaged masters in turbans and picturesque raiment sat on the sand with the grave and contemplative air of men for whom time and dis- tance are not. Whither were they tending, these sons of Ishmael, about to enter that unbroken solitude in which centuries of commerce and countless generations of bare and sandalled feet have failed to leave a trace that the wind and the sand of the desert may not wipe out at will ? To Jerusalem or to Damascus, which I have seen them enter after long and weary months in the deserts of Arabia, or it may be to Mecca itself — Mecca the holy and the unchangeable. At night we tied up to a buoy in the open water beyond IsmaiHa, a few cables from a British India steamer which two panting tugs were trying to pull out of the mud. " Have you a pilot on board .? " shouted the crew, pausing in the work of shifting cargo and dashing the sweat out of their eyes. There was no mistaking the 1 6 WITH TEE 'OPHIR' tone. Bitter sarcasm and wrath were in the voices. They put the question out of pure and disinterested friendship. A word and they would have announced their readiness to provide the whale, for they, too, had had a pilot. I am not sure that we could not have obliged them next day, when we nearly ran our propeller against a buoy at Suez. But we could not then prophesy as to the conduct of the round little Frenchman who came on board at Ismailia with a blue and white check ker- chief under his arm, and sulked because he could not have cocoa and serge, and other articles that he con- sidered indispensable to the pilotage of a British man- of-war. We hurried through the Bitter Lakes, slowed down in the narrow reaches, tied up for a Japanese warship and a British merchantman, and came at last in sight of the hills beyond Suez. It was Sunday and Suez, yet we wanted to go on shore. When we anchored a couple of miles from the beach and looked upon the pilot we thought regretfully of the invitation of the stranded British India crew. Captain Anstruther, of the Cockatrice^ the guardship of the station, almost gave up the chase of us, and the coal contractor was in despair. His lighters were ready to coal us close to the shore, and could not venture so far into the gulf because of uncertain weather. Though of foreign aspect, he spoke English with such ease and perfection that he could only be a Greek — one of those ubiquitous, enterprising polyglots who are the Jews of the East. We coaled next day, and those who could went on shore to escape the dust and dirt. ROUND THE EMPIRE. 17 Suez is of the East, if not actually the East. When you have traversed the sea wall by rail or donkey, when you have quitted the main street with its shops and cafes of European style and have plunged into the reek- ing bye-paths, you might imagine yourself in some mean Damascus, or Jerusalem, or native quarter of Cairo. The houses of sun-baked mud have some originality, and here and there a moulded window or gateway arrests the eye. But it is the people and the costume that attract — the strange mingling of races and the perplexing diversity of dress and colour. The narrow streets and bazaars are crowded. Tinsmiths and coppersmiths at work in their narrow cells add a musical note to the cries of fruit vendors and water carriers. Under heavy canopies that cast a black shadow on the divans sit grave seniors in turbans, smoking the hubble-bubble, and drinking Turkish coffee with the solemn, contem- plative air that gives grace to almost every action, how- ever trivial, of the true Oriental. From the square come the dismal notes of the tom-tom, keeping time to the ghding feet of a group of dancing girls who are com- peting for piastres with a conjurer and his booth. We drove to the Sweet Water Canal, v/hich lies hidden a mile or two away behind a belt of vivid green. Our driver had been a Cairo donkey boy, and had lost none of the manners of the race. Until we had firmly resisted the offers of a guide he knew no English. We had not time to congratulate ourselves on the fact before he proclaimed himself master of five languages, and cer- tainly he was never at a loss to make himself understood. Of course he was a " Scotsman," and his name was c i8 WITH THE 'OPHIW " George Lindsey," while his scare-crow of a horse was called after a popular English beauty. Why do the donkey boys of Egypt always aspire to Scottish nationality ? The Juno joined us in the afternoon, having kept us informed of her movements in the Canal by means of our wireless telegraph. Next morning, the 24th, we set sail for Aden on the last stage of our voyage before the coming of the Opkir. We passed Marah, known as Moses' well, into whose bitter waters the leader of the Israelites cast the tree and made them sweet to the parched lips of the wanderers in the wilderness of Shur. Before sunset we sighted Mount Sinai among the stern, barren hills that overlook the land of the Midianites and the Amalekites. The peaks of Jebel Katherin were like shadows in the shining distance ; on the north, Horeb, " the mountain of God," and on the south, Jebel MuscL, the Mount of Moses, where the law-giver received from the hand of Jehovah the tables of the Ten Com- mandments. There is no more impressive scene than the solitary extent of the desert under evening light. The sun sinking in lines of scarlet and gold dyed the sea with intense and lurid splendour, and gave to every gentle breath of the waves a new and ever-changing life. Westward across the level space of sand the mist of the night advanced Hke the shadow of death, and the white earth seemed to crumble under our feet, leaving only those spectral mountains veiled in silence and in mystery. BOUND THE EMPIRE. i9 CHAPTER IV. THE FAMOUS TANPIS OF ADEN. A Day of Festival— The Town— The Great Reservoirs — The Ophir comes in Sight— The Sultan of Abdali— Between the Monsoons. When Shedad bin Ad sent his retainers to explore the peninsula of Aden, they reported a valley with green trees and huge serpents, overlooking the sea. The trees are gone, and even the serpents have fled this scorched crater of a volcano that sears the eyeballs, bakes the throat, and makes men babble of green fields and water brooks. Sunday, the day of arrival, chanced to be a festival ; but I was not able to make out what particular saint was being honoured by a Ziarah or visitation. A venerable Arab with whom I chewed the leaves of the Kat — a drug which is supposed to produce great hilarity of spirits and an agreeable state of wakefulness — informed me that there are no fewer than fourteen local saints to whose memory have been erected prayer-houses, or masjids. Their claims to reverence have a wide range — from devout and learned shaikhs like Hakam, bin Abban, bin Othman, bin Affan, grandson of the third Caliph after Mahomed, who nightly prayed by the sea shore and exclaimed, " I, with the fishes and beasts. Thee do worship," to wealthy men who gave much in charity, and men of the rare virtue of the released slave, Jauhir Abdalla, " who carried on the business of a cloth 20 WITH THE 'OPHIR' merchant with such honesty and uprightness that no one was ever known to lose by dealing with him." Who- ever the saint may have been, he was honoured in a becoming manner. Everybody, even the youngest child who usually appears in a state of nature, put on clean and gay apparel. In a narrow lane, between white-washed houses at the foot of a mountain of brown lava, you came upon a microcosm of Arabia. Here was a group of Arab merchants and shopkeepers with silk or cotton turbans rolled jauntily round the head, loose jackets of dyed cotton reaching to the hips, white kilts wound about the loins and held by parti-coloured waist-bands, and scarves of Surat silk thrown artistically over the left shoulder. They were sipping coffee flavoured with ginger, and playing " tab," a game re- sembling backgammon. In the shadow of the door, through which floated the scent of frankincense, squatted three or four women in shirts or tobes of silk girdled with green leather belts, their bright red shawls half drawn over their tattooed faces. A few yards beyond several sturdy Somalis in white tobes, with shaven heads, looked on smiling at a game of Sari, or prisoners' base, played by boys whose heads were plastered thickly with white earth to make the hair crisp and frizzy. Four Hindus in bright attire bent over an Indian draught- board. Jews, drinking a vile spirit distilled from dates, Dankalis in sheepskin wigs dyed crimson, Persians, Abyssinians, Seedees, and all those Asiatic and African races that make the population of the settlement, were crowded in this picturesque lane. Even these have their "dudes" or "mashers" — gay young "bucks" tricked ROUND THE EMPIRE. 21 out in as many colours as a pantaloon, swaggering up and down the street and displaying their necklaces of double rows of speckled beads clasped with great lumps of beautifully polished amber. The town of Aden cannot be seen from the shore. It Hes at the back of the lava hills in an arid sun-burnt crater, swept by a hot, sandy wind known as the Shamal, or north wind. Through this town the Prince and Princess passed to inspect the famous cisterns or tanks, those marvels of antiquity and of engineering skill. My driver was a belated hadji, whose green turban pro- claimed his pilgrimage to Mecca, and v/e were quickly beyond the noisy supplications of the crowds of beggar children who make a visit to Aden one long and sore trial to the patience. For some distance the road runs almost parallel with the bay until you come to the village of Maala, whose white-washed houses and mat huts are occupied chiefly by Somalis. A winding road leads up to the main pass, a deep cutting through red lava, which in the sunlight looked like a wall of fire. We halted for a caravan toiling slowly and silently out of the crater — camels bringing coffee-berries, pulse, fruit, vegetables, and kat from the districts of Mokha and Plajariya ; camels and oxen laden with wax and ghee, and grain, and saffron, from the interior of Yemen, whose armed guardians have braved the dangers of a journey through the land of the predatory Subaihi tribes. Once through the defile a rapid descent carries us past the barracks of the native Indian regiment, a company of which, in shirts and turbans, are exercising on the brown plain. The white town spreads out over a broad table land 22 WITH THE OPHIR' shut in by precipitous and jagged cliffs of brown and grey aiid green lava, for the most part solid and com- pact, yet in places resembling a coarse sponge, and in others passing into scoriae. What strong enchantment has drawn men to this wild and wasted valley set among hills that are as the burnt-out wreck of a nether world ? The very earth on which we tread with blistering feet is white and carious, like the dusty floor of some infernal lake in which the bones of men have melted and dried in liquid fires. Mountains of mouldering ashes heave around as if the hidden flame struggled to break its prison and leap in one overwhelming torrent upon the pale town. Scattered blocks of dull red stone lie heaped one upon another like cinders cast from some mighty furnace, and upon the jagged lava peaks that lift them- selves against the glowing sky the torrid sun beats down until they seem like tongues of flame. Yet centuries of men have fought and endured hunger, and thirst, and toil, and wounds to possess this inferno — prophets and pirates, kings and caliphs, Hebrew, and Turk, and Christian, from the day that Seba, son of Cush, ruled the land until the Cruiser and the Vol age, two of her late Majesty's ships of war, bombarded and carried it by assault. The ruins of forts that crown every summit attest the importance which bygone generations attached to this arid spot, while the tanks are startling evidence of former magnificence. When and by whom these great reservoirs were made is uncertain. Some authorities put the date at 1700 B.C., when the great dam at Mareb was built; others ascribe them to the second Persian invasion of 2 LlJ Q < o UJ > d