seventeen different to differs from his neig pearance and costu and lanky, others en with whiskers growin their hair, and long 1 the wind. The rob were for the most pa tons, resembling the in our melodramas, a like Tibetan lamas ceremony of exorcis was very striking an the various Europe other hand, bore an gance and refinemen daughters also were tractive. The ladi silks and gauzy mate lar of the most eleg morning they walked or lay down upon co their husbands waiti long, attending like and call. After bre husbands and wives down arm-in-arm for and when tired woul of chairs drawn clos of conversation was ing of swallows in t waterfowl alighted day slips by in idler 16th. Among th we had a Mohamm was bound on a pilg the founder of his f minions, but since been confined to b morning he was g passengers die on are weighted with sea. The captain, of the deceased, fo *This is the first m elling companions f above named was th his nomination for th panied, besides, by tw toms service, Messr Trans. gular forms, but the music souls. There is an end- of hours or more. into three compartments, there is also a marvellous the walls there are painted The Custom-house passed approaching Cairo, the cap i. e. in China. 24th. Got under way at 5 A.M. At 10 A.M. passed out of the river and headed for the south. 27th. At 8 A.M., reached Hong Kong, the rugged peaks of which were visible from a long distance. The entrance to the harbour is many miles in length, and the appearance of the place, with its ranges of buildings scattered up and down the mountain slope, is in complete contrast to that of Shanghai. At 10 A.M. shifted to another steamer, named the Cambodge, a threedecked vessel. 28th. A fine warm day. At noon three or four of the officers took observations of the sun by means of instruments, and affirmed that during the 20 hours elapsed since our departure we had run 735 li (245 miles). This night the moon shone brilliantly, and the deep-green sea was perfectly still. Leaning against the bulwarks, and gazing into the far distance, I mused tranquilly with far-reaching aspirations. on board the French steamer Labourdon- steam is then utilized and converted into nais. This vessel is 276 feet long, 30 feet water for use. Iron pipes are carried all beam, and 18 feet deep. Her capacity is over the ship, through which the water is 2,000 tons, of which space her machinery conducted; and, with hundreds of persons occupies the greater part, taking up 1,200 on board, there is no danger of the supply tons, which leaves only 800 tons for cargo. being deficient for drinking or for purposes She carries a captain and 11 officers, 30 of ablution. seamen, 40 engineers and firemen, 15 stewards, and 6 cooks, making in all 103 persons. There are 40 cabins on board, each accommodating 3 or 4 passengers. The dining-saloon is abaft the mainmast, where a dining-table 60 or 70 feet in length is arranged, giving room for 30 or 40 persons. The utensils of every kind are kept in the highest condition of neatness and cleanliness. Abundance and elegance characterize the service of meals: the dishes are all in the foreign style of cookery, but the majority are highly palatable. After dark the saloon is brilliantly lighted up. There are 15 cabins on either side, and in each cabin two glass lamps are inserted, beside a large toilet-glass, in which the lights are gorgeously reflected. Entering this apartment, one is dazzled with the radiance, and bewildered as though lost in a palatial maze. Forward of the mainmast are the engineroom and the gallery, with a long passage running on either side, upon which doors open, above each of which a lamp is hung. These are the cabins of the officers and the second-class passengers, numbering forty or fifty in all. The whole is brightly lit up at night. In addition to this, there are galleys, closets, &c., to the number of ten or a dozen separate apartments, all in the highest degree neat and well arranged. The captain studies charts, by which he ascertains localities and distances, and fixes the course and position of the ship by means of astronomical observations. Beside this, there are five compasses on deck, each of which is attended to by two men, for regulating the course of the ship. Soundings are taken by means of a lead, and the rate of speed is ascertained through the agency of a log-line. All other devices in use, such as for ascertaining the temperature or the state of the weather, as also for making sail and moving the rudder, are marvellously skilful. The vessel pursues her course unceasingly day and night; meals are spread in profusion, as though in the heart of a city; and one might think oneself living on shore, so little is there to give the impression of being on a journey. What is most noteworthy of all is that, whereas fresh water is a prime necessary at sea, on board steamers water is obtained through the agency of fire. The motive power of steam is employed to propel the ship, and the 29th. A fine day. Rose at 5 A.M., and saw the mists of the ocean assuming countless fanciful shapes as the sun rose above the horizon. At noon it was ascertained by observation that we had run 1,207 li in the past twenty-four hours, and that we were only 1,180 li from Saigon. Since nine o'clock, the mountains and islands of the coast of Cochin-China have been in sight, extending to the westward of us at a distance of about thirty miles. The heat has been intense to-day, and punkahs have been put up on board. Fifteen men are employed in pulling them, and they produce a constant current of air above the seats. Although more than one hundred persons sat down to meals, no inconvenience from heat was felt. 4th. Sailed at 9 A.M. At noon the sky grew overcast, and for the first time a little coolness was experienced. Towards night a heavy thunderstorm came on, but the vessel continued her course as though nothing were the matter. Nothing but a steamship could have done this. April. 9th. At 3 P.M. anchored at Ceylon. 10th. At 7 P.M. the steamer put to sea. Upwards of 170 additional passengers have come on board, and she is crowded to the utmost degree. There are twenty-seven nationalities represented on board, speaking make my notes in the full-formed character. 18th. Arrived at Aden at noon. seventeen different tongues, and every man differs from his neighbour in personal appearance and costume. Some were long and lanky, others enormously stout; some with whiskers growing up to the roots of their hair, and long locks dangling loose in the wind. The robes these people wore were for the most part of gaily-tinted cottons, resembling the dresses worn by actors in our melodramas, and others again looked like Tibetan lamas about to perform the ceremony of exorcism. The effect produced was very striking and new. The natives of the various European countries, on the other hand, bore an air, in general, of elegance and refinement, and their wives and daughters also were good-looking and attractive. The ladies costumes, of light silks and gauzy materials, were in particular of the most elegant description. Of a morning they walked arm-in-arm upon deck, or lay down upon couches made of rattan, their husbands waiting upon them all day long, attending like slaves to every beck and call. After breakfast and dinner [the husbands and wives] would walk up and down arm-in-arm for a hundred steps or so, and when tired would lie down on a couple of chairs drawn close together. The noise of conversation was like that of the twittering of swallows in the eaves, or a flock of waterfowl alighted for repose. Thus the day slips by in idleness, but without ennui. 22nd. A fine day. Our run at noon was 16th. Among the passengers on board 729 li. At 3 P.M. sighted a lofty tower riswe had a Mohammedan from India, who ing in the midst of the sea. On approachwas bound on a pilgrimage to the tomb of ing, saw that it is built in seven stories, and the founder of his faith, in the Turkish do- rises to a height of more than 100 feet. It minions, but since coming on board he has is constructed of iron, and a red flag is disbeen confined to bed by illness, and this played on the summit. One of the persons morning he was gathered to rest. When on board told me that this building is placed passengers die on board ship, their corpses where it stands in order to mark the position are weighted with stones and cast into the of a shoal. Persons are stationed within, The captain, on examining the effects who hoist a flag when a vessel comes in of the deceased, found a will, bequeathing sight, and display a light after dark, in or40,000l. to his son, whose place of residence der that navigators may be warned to keep was mentioned. I felt much emotion on at a distance. This is, indeed, a most exhearing of the occurrence. Mr. Hartcellent undertaking. sea. asked me to compose some poetry, and 24th. Anchored at Suez shortly after I indited a stanza in pentameter verse. midnight. Rose at 4 A.M., and at 6 A.M. Toward midnight we passed an island, near we were transferred, with our luggage, to a which, I was told, sudden and unaccounta- small steamer, which conveyed us a disble gales often spring up. From Hong Kong to this point I have travelled tens of thousands of li across the boundless ocean, but wind and waves have been propitious and calm, and I have been able each day to tance of three or four miles to the landingplace. Went to the hotel, a building with lofty and handsome rooms. Tables were spread in four rows, giving seats for 150 persons, and meals are served precisely as on board the steamer, except that wine has This is the first mention Pin makes of his trav- to be paid for as ordered. While we were elling companions from China. The gentlemen above named was the patron to whom Pin owed breakfasting, loud sounds of music were his nomination for the journey; and he was accom- heard. The performers were eight in numpanied, besides, by two interpreters from the Cus-ber, male and female, and the instruments toms service, Messrs. Bowra and Deschamps.Trans. upon which they played were of very sin In four hours we had effected a land jour- gular forms, but the music was not unpleasing. I found, on inquiry, that these persons were Germans. Three of the women passed round the tables with glass dishes in their hands, and each guest gave them one or two pieces of silver money. A number of airs having been played, the women sang. Their voices were pure and well-modulated, and the effect produced was really agreeable. The music was kept up for a couple 25th. At 4 A.M. packed up some proviof hours or more. At 3 P.M. we took our sions, and having engaged a carriage drove places in the railway-train. The vehicles out in a north-westerly direction. After in front comprise the engine, burning coal driving for three or four miles crossed a and putting the wheels in motion by means small river. My companions hired six donof the water contained (in the boiler); and keys, which they put to speed on reaching to this the remaining carriages are attached the further bank. The donkeys are very in succession, to the number of thirty or fine animals, aud would outrun a horse. A forty, as the case may be. Each carriage distance of three or four miles farther on is like the room of a house, and is divided we arrived at the tombs of the ancient kings, into three compartments, to each of which of which there are three in close proximity there is a door. On entering, seats are to each other. The tomb lying to the north found ranged along either side, each seat is of immense size. According to the degiving room for eight or nine persons. scriptions given of it, it occupies an area of Above and below the seats there are spaces five li, and its summit attains an altitude of where some dozens of articles of passengers' 500 feet; and this I believe to be no exagluggage can be stowed away. Each com- geration. The structure is square below partment has six glass windows, to keep out and rises to a point (pyramidal), and is enthe draughts and glare of the sun; they can tirely composed of blocks of limestone. be opened and closed at will. The car- The larger blocks measure perhaps five or riages are handsomely painted, and fitted six feet in height by seven or eight feet in with well-filled, luxurious cushions. One breadth. On the north face there is a cavcan sit or lie down, eat and drink, get up ernous passage winding into the interior, and look out right and left, exactly as one through which visitors are led by the native chooses. The carriages next in order con- guides, waving lights in front. In the narvey the luggage, and those last of all ac- rowest places there is barely room for a commodate several camels and horses. The man to pass. The passage winds from side train does not start until after a bell has to side, now up and now down, in the been rung three times. For the first few densest obscurity, and with many steep and paces the motion is gradual and easy, but dangerous inclines. In the centre a stone after this it becomes like "the speed of a trough is met with, which, on being struck, galloping horse, whom no one can stop." gives forth a ringing sound. This is said The houses, trees, hills, and roads by the to be an ancient sarcophagus. The [vault] side of the train fly past so swiftly that they where the passage debouches is upwards of are scarcely perceived by the eye. After a 100 feet in height, and here, on a slab of time the train stops, and in the village by stone, there is an inscription in ten colthe roadside there is a building, to which all umns, comprising about 100 characters, rethe passengers, male and female, repair to sembling those of the ancient bells and purchase refreshments. The master of the vases (found in China). About one-third establishment is a Mohammedan, and on of the inscription can be distinguished, but the walls there are painted images of Bud- the remainder has perished under the cordha, and sundry (figures of) dragons and roding influences of time, and is wholly unother monsters, huge fishes, and wild beasts decipherable. Some connoisseur should are hung up all over the place, together take a rubbing of the characters and bring with five or six pictures in frames, repre- it to China for the purpose of instituting a senting Chinese theatrical scenes. After minute comparison with the inscriptions of taking refreshment, we again got in motion, our own ancient monuments in stone and under the light of a brilliant moon. After bronze. They might then be deciphered travelling for another couple of hours, withont difficulty, and the period from towards 8 P.M. groves of trees began to show themselves by the wayside, and houses to become more and more frequent. We were approaching Cairo, the capital of Egypt. which they date be accurately ascertained. Although inscriptions also exist on both sides of the internal passage, both above and below, still the characters here seen all belong to the European alphabets; and that the one above referred to actually dates from the period of the Three Dynasties in China, and is no forgery, may be positively asserted. At the foot of the mountain (pyramid) there is a huge block of stone, chiselled in the form of a tank, apparently an unfinished labour of antiquity. Beside it a huge block stands upright, which is sculptured in the likeness of a head of Buddha resembling the image at the Tafuh-sze (Grand Monastery of Buddha) at the Lake of Hang-chow. It is a sight worth seeing. The natives brought ancient coins and stone figures from the places of sepulture for sale to the visitors. amounts to 500,000 souls. There is an endless succession of streets, and the twinkling lights of the shops, crowded together like the stars of the firmament, present a spectacle such as the new-year's night illuminations elsewhere* cannot vie with either in beauty or extent. The splendour of the gas-lamps is a spectacle in itself. The hotel is seven stories in height, with a staircase in a spiral forin; but in order to avoid the inconvenience of frequent ascents, there is, in addition, a small apartment, accommodating seven or eight persons, which by means of a large revolving wheel is hoisted to the top of the building. Each room is provided with a covered indicator of intelligence (bell), through which it is known at once in the office that attendance is called for in that particular room. For transmitting messages there is also a marvellous contrivance. All these devices are very wonderful. The bedding and furniture in general are all elegant in the extreme. 26th. Set out again at 9 A.M. Passed on the road two railway-carriages, gorgeously decorated with gilding, which were said to be the royal carriages. The train pursued a north-westerly course, and as the season was that of harvest the country presented a vast expanse of ripened grain, like yellow clouds. The method of reaping and 3rd. Went by railway to see the place gathering in the corn, of ploughing and where marine engines are manufactured, harrowing, pursued by the peasants of the which lies at a distance of about thirty miles country, resembles in the main the system from the hotel, but the time occupied in the in China. The speed of the train was now trip was barely over four hours. The train greater than before, and the sensation was passed under ten or a dozen hills (through precisely that of flying through the air. At tunnels), of which five were of great length. 2 P.M. we arrived at Alexandria, a distance These passages are all like deep caverns, of 489 li, and embarked on board a small some one and some two miles or so in steamer, which conveyed us to the Medi- length. The train whirls into pitchy blackterranean boat. The latter took her de- ness as it enters the tunnel, but every one parture immediately. She is smaller than of the carriages, some score or more in the Cambodge, and somewhat differently number, is lighted by lamps. After a few constructed, but her saloon is of superior moments the daylight on the other side size. Three long tables are spread, which begins to appear, and we emerge once will accommodate 150 or 160 passengers, more. The vegetation in the open country and windows open on either side, the spaces was very pretty. The bridges and roads between being occupied by fine paintings. all in good repair. Wheat was just in the The saloon is lighted at night by forty-four lamps, rivalling daylight in the illumination they produce. Since leaving the Red Sea the temperature has grown cooler by degrees, and in the morning and evening warm clothing is necessary. Some even put on furs. May 2nd. At 1 P. M. arrived at Marseilles, where the Custom-house exempted our baggage from search. Took a carriage to the hotel. The streets are bustling and crowded, the houses all six or seven stories in height, with highly-decorated fronts and ornamental balconies, towering up into the very clouds. After darkness falls, the lamplight makes them as bright as by day, even in the lesser byways. No rambler by night need carry his own lantern in his hand! It is stated that the population The period extending from B.C. 2200 to B.C. 300. green ear. In the afternoon visited some gardens near the seashore. At 3 P. M. set out in the train and travelled a distance of 283 miles. It was only 8 P. M. when we arrived at our destination, Lyons, where the streets, resplendent with lamplight as if it were broad day, were even twice as bustling as at Marseilles. 7th. At Paris. The Custom-house passed our luggage without examination. The streets are bustling and gay, and in airiness and breadth are finer again than those of Lyons. I am informed that at the latter place the population is 600,000, whilst at Paris it is upwards of 1,000,000. There are 300,000 troops [in the country], and in every street and thoroughfare [sentries] are seen stationed, clad in dark uniforms (lit.: black coats) with red trousers, standing * i. e. in China. |