presented to
ZTbe mntversits ot Toronto SLtbrarg
fcwme Blafee,
from tbe boo^s ot
TTbe late Ibonourable lEbvvart) Blafte
Cbancellor of tbe Illnlversits of Toronto
(1876=1900)
A
VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,
AND VISITS TO
VARIOUS FOREIGN COUNTRIES,
UNITED STATES FRIGATE COLUMBIA;
ATTENDED BY HER CONSORT
THE SLOOP OF WAR JOHN ADAMS,
AND COMMANDED EY
COMMODORE GEORGE C. READ.
ALSO INCLUDING
AN ACCOUNT OF THE BOMBARDING AND FIRING OF THE TOWN OF MUCKIE, ON THE MALAt
COAST, AND THE VISIT OF THE SHIPS TO CHINA DURING THE OPIUM DIFFICULTIES
AT CANTON. AND CONFINEMENT OF THE FOREIGNERS IN THAT CITY-
BY FITCH W. TAYLOR,
<t)aplaw to t\)z Squatrron.
VOL. I.
NINTH EDITION.
NEW-HAVEN:
PUBLISHED BY H. MANSFIELD
NEW-YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.
1847.
%
Entered according to Act of Congress, by
H. MANSFIELD,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut.
R CRAIOHKAD'S Power Press.
112 Fulton Street
TO
(Eommotrorc <&eorfje <.
DEAR SIR :
The late East India Squadron, in its circuit of the
world under your command, has done honor to our coun-
try and professional credit to yourself. No voyage of
equal length in distance and in time can be made, without
encountering many hazards and circumstances of frequent
difficulty. These have been met by yourself the cruise
successfully completed and the purposes of the govern-
ment accomplished. Though it has not been my design
to enter into all the details of the -cruise of the East India
Squadron, its action will be found sufficiently developed
in the succeeding pages for the general reader. But it is
as an acknowledgment of the invariable courtesy, which
I have received from yourself during the voyage which
has originated the following pages, that I beg you to ac-
cept these volumes, with the assurances of my great re-
spect and esteem.
FITCH W. TAYLOR.
NEW-YORK.
VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD
S E C T I O N I.
The eve before sailing. View of the two ships from shore. A bright omen.
Author's adieus. The Lieutenant and miniature of his boy. An officer's
farewell to his wife. Social sacrifices on the part of the officers of the
Navy. The ships in the Roads. Lines to Mrs. R. The sailing of the
ships from the Roads. Ships at sea.
I SHALL never forget the sunset scene of the last even-
ing I spent on shore. The sky had been lowering with
April showers, and the sun stood yet on his declining
course behind the fleecy clouds, but, occasionally, broke
forth again through the opening vistas of their dark layers,
as if to assure us that life, even the most shaded, has its
smiles as well as tears. The mild air, at this hour, touched
the cheek as blandly as rests the head of lady on the
down of velvet ; and since the slight peals of thunder,
which had rolled far off and high above the city, the
clouds had parted ; and now, here and there, the blue dis-
tance beyond them was seen, in its deepness and beauty.
I went to call upon my friends. It was the last even-
ing I could hope to meet them, before our ships would
take their long course to distant seas. Besides, I had
been thinking of other friends, and dearer kindred, whom
I had already left to the chances of a world of change,
until another three years, perhaps, should permit us again
to meet.
It is at such a moment, when the reality nears us, we
feel that there is sorrow in the parting of friends. Some
foreboding thought, with its dark wing, will sail across the
imagination, and leave the heart deeply sensible of the
shadow it has cast. We may have much in our antici-
1*
6 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
pations of onward pleasure ; we may be looking forward
to opportunities for observation, in our extended associa-
tions with men and things, and promise to ourselves im-
provement as we shall read foreign manners, and commune
with foreign intellects, and compare foreign institutions
and homes with the government and society and peace-
ful dwellings of our own native land ; but, as we think
that a few hours more, and each day, for months and
years, we shall be receding yet further and still further
from those we love, and, 'perhaps, meet them no more ; it
is then the heart, that can ever feel, wakes its deepest
flowing sympathies. Such moments of deep feeling,
doubtless, come over all who travel, on the eve of their
leaving their native land. Before this hour, they may
have been busy in their preparations ; or, the time of their
departure may have been unfixed, as to the day ; and
various things contributed to dissipate the thoughts, and
to conceal, from the full perception of the mind, the reali-
ty of one's leaving, it may be for ever, those hearts to
whom his is most devoted. But the calm hour that pre-
cedes his departure has now come. The moment is
fixed, and he is to bid adieu, for years, to the objects he
holds dearest of earth.
My own moveables had been sent on board the Colum-
bia. We were to sail the next day. This evening I met
the welcome of my friends. With two of them I walked
to the edge of the stream, on the bosom of which the
two ships were now so gently reposing, still half en-
veloped in the fog that weighed on the still surface of
the stream. But it soon lifted, while we yet lingered on
the green bank and heard the music beat the call, as the
sun went down in its glory behind the pillars of the dark
clouds, piled like Alps on Alps above each other, as the
sunbeams threw upon their castellated peaks the last
gleams of its departing and indescribable glories. Here
we still lingered, to watch the tints of gold, and crimson,
and emerald green, as they melted away into the dun of
earliest twilight ; when, as if by magic, 'the still lingering
stratum of vapor, which hung around the two ships,
rolled back, and left every cord of the beautiful frigate
and her consort lined on the distant horizon beyond them ;
. .A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 7
while the crescent of the new moon, from the point
where we were standing, seemed fixed, in its momentary
rest, on the main-truck of the beautiful Columbia. Surely,
if I could have ever believed in omens, 1 should have in-
terpreted this as a bright one, as I carried on my thoughts
to the lands whither that dark courser was soon to speed,
and heard at the same moment the roll, as the few beats
of the drum came over the water, only to render doubly
more still the breathless silence of this enchanting scene.
We slowly paced our way back to the circle which
we had left, and soon, my last land-adieu was spoken ;
and the next morning, at sunrise, I was on board our gal-
lant ship. In another half-hour our anchors were aweigh,
and we dropped, with a fair wind, down to the Roads,
some fifteen miles from Norfolk, with the John Adams,
our consort, following our motions.
While our new ship was gliding, like enchantment,
through the waters from Norfolk to the Roads, to the de-
light of all the officers, who were solicitous to mark her
first movements, and were trimming the yards, and di-
recting as to the different sails, there was one officer,
whose epaulet (usually worn when on duty) rested not
upon his shoulder. He stood upon the horse-block, as
the side-steps of the ship are called, his elbow resting
upon the hammock-nettings, and sometimes his temples
rested upon his hand. I know not what were his thoughts,
but he had been unwell, and was yet off duty, and had now
parted with a loved and lovely wife, and a cherished boy,
who is 'his " only and beautiful." He did not long re-
main on deck, but returned to the ward-room ; and there,
soon after, he showed me, as I went below and found him
contemplating it, a beautiful picture and striking resem-
blance of his child, which the mother had caused to be
taken for the father, that it might go with him on the
seas.
Another officer said to me last evening, as he was
walking in Norfolk with some rapidity in the edge of
the evening to say adieu to his wife before he went on
board, " Death were a blessing to me rather than this
farewell !"
There is much in the world which casts its mists, and
8 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
shadows, and darkness over its brightest views. But
there are those feelings constantly being developed before
us, which make us look with a kind and melting heart, it
not with a melting eye, on those with whom we asso-
ciate. And nowhere more than in the service of the navy
are the social feelings called on to pour out those bitter
currents, which flow when hearts that are bound togetner
by the ties of hallowed love are severed. And surely, some
consideration should be awarded to those men, who not
only brave the seas, and dare pestiferous climes for the
protection of our commerce and for the tranquillity and
defence of our homes and nation, but also leave the
sweets of their own domestic circles and the bosoms of at-
tached friends for a home upon the wild wave, and the
precarious course of the wanderers on the world's wide
ocean.
Our ships, for one week, lay at anchor in Hampton
Roads. There was a daily communication with Norfolk
by the steamer, which ran from Old Point to the city.
Many parting mementoes from friends were thus received
by the gentlemen of the ward-room, during our week's
stay ; and an occasional visiter from town was found
upon our decks. Among- other acceptable attentions, to
be acknowledged on my own part, was the reception of
a fine loaf of plumb-cake, jars of pickles, and, daily, rich
bouquets of flowers " to deck my tiny room," which w.ere
unsurpassed for their beauty and fragrance by any col-
lection that could have been made, even from that island
of flowers for which we were first to sail. And then,
more acceptable than all, were letters, "to be opened
when at sea."
Commodore Read's lady had spent the week on board
the Columbia ; and by her courteous, accomplished, and
benevolent manners, won the high consideration and as-
sured esteem of the officers of the ship. We were to
sail, by light, on Sunday morning, for Rio de Janeiro,
touching first at the island of Madeira, should the wind
favor our wishes. On Saturday evening Mrs. R., who
had been waited upon by Major M.'s family, then sta-
tioned at Old Point, accompanied them to the shore. The
incident of her leaving on the eve of our sailing, under
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the broad pennant of her husband, will render an apology
unnecessary, for the introduction of the following lines,
addressed to her at such a moment, and with the felt in-
terest they express :
TO MRS. R.
On the eve of the sailing of the East India Squadron, under the command of Commodore
George C. Read.,
Lady, calmly rides our bark
On the green wave of the bay,
But like a charger soon will take
Her fleet and distant way.
Proudly waves her pennant now
From main-truck to the breeze,
And soon in graceful curve she'll bow,
And course for Indian seas.
Music of the sea-surge oft
Hath met thy lady ear,
And firm as fearless men aloft
The sea-moan thou didst hear.
Beauty of the witching calm
Hath held thy gaze at sea,
As in its stilly ocean-sheen
The blue deep smiled for thee.
And song, they say, once could charm
The Nereids of the deep;
Then sure thy notes had spells for them
As ocean lulled to sleep.
Would that now that gifted hand
Upon our course might come,
And while we wept beneath its wand,
In tears we'd think of home :
Home ! where oft a sister's tone,
In sweetest melody,
Hath on the heart its cadence thrown,
And broke it tearfully ;
Home ! where truest hearts of love
For each their feelings mete,
And we but smile, or sigh, or move,
And kindred bosoms beat.
But, fair lady, not again
The wild wave thou dost dare,
Though with thy lord we plough the main,
And his broad pennant bear ;
10 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Still- thy night-dreams and of day
Will paint their visions true,
And trace us to yon lands and sea,
Where suns first loom to view.
And O ! thou wilt pray for him
Who guides our gallant fleet,
And never woman's prayer hath been
By heaven unanswered yet.
Then we'll trust us on our course,
And think of those who pray,
And as our thoughts on them repose,
For them a prayer we'll say.
But, adieu we now must speak,
And storms of ocean dare ;
And on the crested billow's peak
Is home that we must share ;
But for thee we've asked a sky
Calm as the breath of even,
And bright as gleams the loveliest ray
On home, in smiles, from heaven.
On the 6th of May, 1838, at daybreak, all hands were
piped to unmoor ship, and a bright sun let fall his earliest
beam on our white sails, as we were standing by the long
granite line of threatening fortification at Old Point. Ano-
ther hour and we had passed Cape Henry, and with a
fair breeze stood on our course upon the blue deep, while
the John Adams came on in our wake, as a thing of ani-
mation, graceful as she was fleet, and like a nettled steed,
unwilling to be parted from his associate, she put forth
her strength and regained the side of her companion.
Beautiful ships ! how are ye now the objects of the
thoughts, and the prayers, and the tears, of tender hearts
and floating eyes, from whom ye are now bearing the
choicest of their earthly treasures above the fickle wave
to foreign climes, through dangers known and unknown,
with the chances that ye yourselves may be dashed upon
the rock and the coral reef, or wrecked in storm and hur-
ricane, as a sacrifice to the yet uncompleted millions,
who are to find their burial in the insatiable bosom of the
eternal ocean ! But ye list not while we would tell ye,
that there are mothers' prayers that attend you, that there
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 11
are sighs of sisters, whose young hearts have yet known
no deeper love than that for brothers ; and tears, and
sighs, and prayers of others, whose hearts in their devo-
tion and companionship, they say, are yet dearer than
the love of mother and sister, follow you. Be gentle
then, beautiful ships, be gentle with the choice band, who
have trusted you for their long course of ocean, and bear
back to the renewed gush of love, the bosoms who have
confided in your stanch and faithful properties, to bear
them safe and true in their circuit of the world.
I had now placed myself on the side-steps of the fri-
gate, and gazed for the last time, I could not tell for how
long a period it would be, on the land of my home fast
receding in the distance. The heart has its private mu-
sings at such a moment, and communes too sacredly with
itself for development to the eye of an unsympathizing
world. But there were friends who had more than one
sigh, as the distant shore sunk lower, and lower still, in
the dim, dim distance.
The blue surge, in its sea-roll, now quite concealed the
land of our western homes, as our ships, heartless rovers
of the deep, stood on their foaming course to the east. I
sought the retirement of my state-room, for the melan-
choly pleasure of perusing the letters addressed to me.
on board " The Frigate Columbia, at Sea."
SECTION II.
Sailors' debts paid with the main-top-sail. Broad pennant saluted. System
of signals. How to shoot an Indian. An acting appointment. Reli-
gious service at sea. Marine hymn. Dinnerparty at sea. Parting with
the John Adams. The middle watch. Speaking a ship. Phosphorescent
track of the Columbia at night. Music. Sunset. A seaman falling from
aloft. Burial at sea. Its effect on a young Midshipman. A ship short
of provisions, supplied. The John Adams again in company. The high
peaks of Madeira descried. Distant view of the island on the eve of the
squadron's arrival.
" THANK heaven !" said a messmate, as the capes were
disappearing, " our debts are all paid, at least, for two
12 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
years to come." " Yes," added another, " paid with our
main-top-sail" True it is, our sails are bearing us fast
alike from creditor and debtor, from enemy, friend, and
home.
As the broad blue pennant was run up, after we had left
the last point of land low in the west, the John Adams
fired a salute. The Commodore, by signals, directed our
consort to take her position on our larboard quarter. As
she came down to us, she exhibited a beautiful movement,
gracefully gliding on her course, bowing, and courtesying,
and coquetting, like a beauty aware of her charms, and
knowing herself the object of admiration. She luffed up,
as she laid her bows obliquely across our wake. Our first
Lieutenant, with the trumpet in his hand, stood upon the
tafferel of the ship, and as the Adams reached her nearest
point, he spoke through the sounding tube :
" The Commodore will send a boat aboard of you, sir."
" Ay, ay, sir," was the sententious response of the of-
ficer, from the deck of the Adams. The two ships came
so nearly together, that the officers recognised each other,
and touched their caps in acknowledgment of each other's
courtesy.
It is not an uninteresting sight to witness two ships,
while tossed on the surges of the ocean, and beyond speak-
ing distance, conversing with each other by means of
signals.
Every nation has its private signals. In war and in
peace, the signal book is held sacred, and the signals are
supposed to be known only to the commander of each
vessel. In case of war, if a national vessel happen to be
captured, the signal book is at once thrown overboard,
before the victor can gain possession of it. Otherwise he
might decoy into his power, by a knowledge of these
private signs, other ships of the nation with which he is
at war.
The system of signals has never yet been brought to
any great perfection, in practice, by any maritime power.
Since the introduction of numbers into telegraphic lan-
guage, however, the communication by signals has been
extended and facilitated ; and it has created a language
that may be made use of as a more general means of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 13
communication between ships at sea, and from ships with
the shore.
Ten separate flags, with different devices in figure and
colors, are used, as, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ; the
number of each being known by its device. The flags are
read from the top downwards. Thus, if it is desired to
make the number 15 to a distant ship, which however is
sufficiently near to make out, with her glass, the emblems
by which the numbers of the signal are known, the two
flags which stand for No. 1 and No. 5 are set, at the gaff
or other part of the ship, where the signal can most readi-
ly be made out by the distant vessel. If the No. 152 is
to be communicated, the flag representing No. 2 will be
set beneath the two flags already mentioned.
The signal book contains numbers from one to one
thousand, more or less, and opposite each number is some
nautical phrase, sentence, name of place, latitude, longi-
tude, or other expressions, and sufficiently numerous and
varied for most purposes. Therefore, when the number
is made out by the distant vessel, a reference to the signal
book will give the expression opposite to it, which it is the
wish of one party to communicate to the other. Suppose,
then, No. 15 of the signal book has opposite to it the word
" ves ;" No. 16, the words "if wind and weather permit ;"
No. 17, " Sunday ;" No. 18, " 2 o'clock ;" No. 19, " Will
you dine with us ?" With these numbers we may illustrate
the subject by a case which has already occurred on board
our ship. The Commodore, desiring to invite the Com-
mander of the John Adams to take dinner with him, di-
rects the flag-officer to have the signal No. 19 made,
which is done by setting the two flags which stand for the
numbers one and nine. This being read on board the
Adams, an answering pennant, which means, " We have
made out the number," is run up and again hauled down.
The number of the first signal having been read, the second
or No. 18, in like manner with the first, is made by th"
two flags representing one and eight. This answered, as-
being understood on board the other vessel, No. 17 is
made by the flags No. 1 and No. 7. No further signals
following from the Columbia, the Commander of the Adams,
by referring to the signal book, finds it to read,
2
14 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" No. 19. Will you dine with us ?"
" No. 18. Sunday."
"No. 17. 2 o'clock."
The Commander of the Adams, accepting the invitation,
replies by making the numbers 16 and 15, which will
read, " Yes, if wind and weather permit."
Signals, in the night-time, are often made by lights of
different colors, and by adjusting them in different posi-
tions, at various angles ; by rockets and by fires.
The signal book of the navy has attached to it a heavy
piece of lead, which would immediately sink it if thrown
overboard.
I quote, at random, the following numbers from the
" American Signal Book," which is generally used in the
American merchant service :
'219. What are you about ?"
"313. A mutiny onboard."
"716. If we have not immediate assistance."
"962. All's lost."
"718. We will send assistance."
" 188. Heave all aback."
"332. Mutiny is quelled."
"40. All's well."
"327. Adieu."
" I tell you what," says Lieutenant W. (the subject of
shooting the aborigines of our land being under discussion,)
if you would kill an Indian, you must proceed somewhat
after the manner of cooking a dolphin." " How is that ?"
" Why, catch him first."
It is not unusual for the young gentlemen of the ship
to avail themselves of any innocent occasion for creating
a smile at the expense of one of their messmates. As we
left the Roads without the usual number of Lieutenants,
it was presumed that some of the passed Midshipmen would
receive acting appointments. By consequence, these young
gentlemen were on tiptoe expectation for the announce-
ment of their acceptable good fortune. One of the Lieuten-
ants, a young gentleman of wit and worth, caught a pen
at my desk, and scribbled an acting appointment for one
of these expectants, for whom there was no doubt but that
an acting appointment had been made out by the Com-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 15
modore, who yet, for the present, retained the paper.
Having finished the fictitious appointment, it was regularly
enclosed within the official fawn-colored envelope, and
conveyed to- the Master (who is a passed Midshipman)
by the orderly, who generally bears the particularly offi-
cial messages from the Commodore. The orderly knock-
ed at the door of the Master, who was in his room, busily
making out the reckonings of the day's sailing. " Come
in, sir," echoed a voice from within, while the Lieutenant
and some others were standing at a distance without to
witness the effect. The Master's door was opened. The
fawn-colored envelope acted like a spell. The Master
dropped his figuring utensils, and hopped into " the coun-
try" of the ward-room, as its open .space is called, holding
up his fawn-colored envelope and exclaiming in abundant
exultation, in the possession of an acting Lieutenancy,
" I writes no more of these Master's figurations, gentle-
men," shaking the fawn-colored, with three significant
configurations above his head, and at the same time open-
ing the seal, read as follows :
" U. S. Frigate Columbia, May 1st, 1838.
" SIR, You are hereby appointed acting Jemmy Ducks of this ship until
it shall please the Hon. the Secretary of the Navy, to confirm the appoint,
ment.
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"'CORINTHIAN TOM,'
" Commander in chief of all the U. S. poultry in the China seas.
" To &c. &c."
The joke went off with a round peal of laughter from
Corinthian Tom ; and the same evening the acceptable
appointments were distributed to the young gentlemen, so
worthily deserving them, in view of the arduous duties
which lay before them on a long and critical voyage. .
" What olden poet," it was asked at the mess-table to-
day, while an antique chicken was under both discussion
and dissection, " does one think of when masticating the
drumstick of a tough one ?" " I have it," said another, as he
gave the experimental answer, with a delicate morsel of
the antique gentleman between his teeth. "Chauser,"
was the reply, as the chewer took breath, to save him
from premature exhaustion.
16 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
If these are trifles, they yet show that trifles are not
always excluded from shipboard, any more than from the
society of triflers on land. And they further show that
men, thrown together within the narrow compass of a
ward-room, with dispositions and tastes perhaps alike in
no two instances, can yet make themselves agreeable and
become true and lasting friends.
The weather being fair on Sunday, we had divine ser-
vice on the upper deck. Such a service on board a man-
of-war is characteristic and interesting.
At half-past ten o'clock, the decks of the ship having
been cleared, as usual, and the men having been inspected
at their quarters, they are piped, on Sunday morning, in
their best dresses, to muster.
A frigate's company, in all, generally consists of five
hundred persons. At the call to muster, the men take their
position on the quarter-deck. In warm weather, they are
generally dressed in white duck trousers, white shirts, with
blue collars and bosoms. The broad blue collar is turned
down, with a star upon each corner, and the blue bosom
exposes three stripes of narrow white tape, edging the
inserted blue. A black silk neck-cloth, beneath the over-
turned collar, is knotted on the bosom, or tied with a piece
of white tape, leaving the neck open and exposed. A
blue jacket, unbuttoned, polished shoes, with tarpaulin hat,
or a lighter straw one in warm weather, complete the
uniform and characteristic dress of an American seaman.
The whole appearance of the sailors on this day is ex-
pected to be such as to pass the particular examination by
the officers an inspection which they invariably go through
on this day, after the religious services are over their
names being called, one by one, as they pass from their
positions in review directly before the officers, who still
retain their places until the muster-roll is finished. Should
the shoes of any one of the men be found unpolished, or
any portion of the dress be characteristic of negligence,
the man is directed to stop at the mainmast. It is known
that such an offence incurs a penalty of half a dozen lashes
at the gangway, and most frequently it is inflicted. This
tends to render the appearance of the whole crew strik-
ingly neat on the Sabbath, in their uniform sailor-dresses.
AMERICAN TAR.
18 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
And this requisite, as to particularity in dress, extends to the
officers, who are expected to appear in their uniform, and
with as great a care to neatness as is required of the men.
The sailors thus placed upon the quarter-deck, the ma-
rines, about sixty in number, are next drawn up, in dou-
ble file, in full dress, on the larboard side of the ship, with
the right of the division resting near the sailors on the
quarter-deck, and stand, with their polished guns, at rest.
On the starboard side, opposite the marines, is the po-
sition of the officers of the ship ; and between them, with
the officers on his left, and the marines on his right, and
the sailors directly in front, on the quarter-deck, the Chap-
lain takes his position at the capstan, both as his desk and
pulpit. The capstan in itself is an object of ornament
on board a frigate, standing abaft the mainmast, and is
generally inlaid with different devices of stars and other
figures of brass, and always kept brightly polished. Over
the top of the capstan, which is some four feet in diame-
ter, a flag is thrown, in preparation for the expected ser-
vice, and the platform on which the chaplain stands is al-
so covered with bunting. When the chaplain is in his
position, the commanding officer stands near his left, with
the other officers but a small distance still further at the
left of the chief officer.
The deck is generally in this attitude when the Chap-
lain ascends the hatchway from his room, and takes his
position at the capstan. The Commodore taking a book
from the number, which are upon the capstan and before
the Chaplain the others are distributed among the officers ;
when the Chaplain begins the religious services according
to the ritual of the Episcopal church.
Surely no one can, for the first time, contemplate such
a scene on the deck of a man-of-war, without interest
nearly five hundred souls, their persons attired in their
neatest dresses, often deemed a rough people, but now
exhibiting a beautiful aspect of propriety and neatness,
and profoundest stillness, gathered for solemn worship on
the decks of a majestic frigate, bounding yet fleetly on
her way of ocean, yet, as if conscious of the solemn hour
and, the solemn scene upon her deck, scarcely once ca-
reening or pitching so perceptibly as to inconvenience
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
19
the worshippers. Around spreads the far blue deep, and
above the fair blue sky ; and God is seen in the majesty
and the beauty of both. The Chaplain commences the
profound worship of the Eternal it is continued it ends.
* The service on these occasions is generally and pro-
perly abbreviated, and the sermon, it is expected, will be
comparatively brief, as the officers and crew are standing
throughout the service, uncovered, but beneath a spread
awning, shading the entire deck when the weather is warm.
Our services to-day, with little variations to meet the
circumstances of the ship, now but eight days at sea, were
conducted after the manner described.
MARINE HYMN.
O God, the suns were made by thee,
And stars that arch the deep blue sea ;
We course the waves beneath their light,
And trace thy hand by day and night.
We hear the roar of ocean-surge,
And know, for thee, the gale will urge ;
And on the sea when rests the calm,
The stilly breeze sleeps in thy palm.
And when our ships ride on the deep,
And waters only round us sweep,
The heart then feels thy throne is high,
And on the sailor rests thine eye.
Then hear our worship, O our God,
Who gemmed the heavens and seas laid broad ;
Before thee now our hearts we lay,
And in our sea-horne temple, pray.
The day was fine. The John Adams was seen on our
larboard quarter, nearly within the sound of the Chap-
lain's voice. The sermon was delivered without inter-
ruption, save now and then a single flap of the wing of
a sail was heard, and once, a suppressed order from the
officer of the deck to the captain of the mizen-top.
Captain Wyman, of the John Adams, was invited on
board the Columbia, the succeeding day, to dine, together
with the Commodore, with the ward -room mess.
It would be interesting to a landsman, to see one of
the boats of a man-of-war, with all the confidence of
20 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
security, passing from one ship to another, in mid ocean
Our ships, however, in this instance, are within a mile
of each other, and the invitation to the commander of the
Adams, was given by signal. Nor less a matter of sur-
prise, perhaps, would it appear to some of our friends,
could they peep into our spacious ward-room, and mark
the degree of neatness and taste with which a table is
arranged for a dinner-patry, on board our frigate. The
manner of serving up a dinner in the ward-room, would
in no way do discredit to a dining-hall on shore. The
polished covers, the pure French china, the silver forks,
the napkins and the damask table-cloths, covering a well-
polished mahogany table, all show no inconsiderable de-
gree of elegance ; and under the management of Dr. H.,
our tasteful caterer, presented, on this occasion, an ap-
pearance that would be respectable in any private par-
lor. And then the different dishes, got up by French
cooks, (heaven bless the French genius, when variety is
desired,) are quite sufficient to satisfy the taste as well as
the appetite. And fruits are always kept by the mess,
and pastries are made per order of the caterer. In
truth, one would hardly remember that he was not in the
private dining-hall of a friend, if one happened to have his
friends around him, the motion of the frigate not being
sufficient to create any inconvenience, as may be sup-
posed, so far as the present occasion was concerned, as the
tables were unlashed, and no article of the dishes moved
from their position, otherwise than they would have been
from the table of an unrocked dwelling of one's land-home.
After a beautiful sunset last evening, May 14th, the
sun clouded in, and the rain descended, at times, in tor-
rents. It was so thick, that nothing could be seen five
lengths of the frigate, ahead of her. The weather, as
usual in the Gulf Stream, has been more or less rainy,
but more favorable than is generally found to attend a
passage across it.
At a half-hour by sun, a signal was made to the John
Adams, for tacking ship. The Columbia changed her
course gracefully, as the Adams still stood on her way,
apparently directly by us, lining her beautiful form in
distinct relief on the glorious sky, then illumined by the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 21
golden sunset behind her. But soon, when on our lar-
board quarter, she came up into the wind, and tacked
with grace ; and the two coursers together, stood again
on their equal and parallel track. We were still to-
gether during the middle-watch. But, this morning, the
Adams is not to be seen. She can be descried nowhere
upon the ocean, and probably will take good care not to
get into our company again, if she can avoid it, until we
shall reach Madeira. It is generally deemed a pardonable
offence, for one vessel sailing in company with another,
and having a common rendezvous, to make her escape,
if a plausible excuse can be rendered to the flag-ship.
The mists and squalls of last night, were quite too
good an opportunity for the Adams not to get out of
sight. And doubtless they are in high glee this morning,
at their good fortune, in being at liberty to trace their
own way, without following the motions, in making and
shortening sail, in mimic suit of the Columbia, to whose
movements she has to accommodate herself. " By heav-
ens," says an interesting small gentleman, on board the
Adams, as he takes his seat at the mess-table this morn-
ing, " I managed it, gentlemen, last night, any how,
ay ?" with a small ' flourish or two -of his finger, as he
edges a little nearer the table, to commence a very short
description of the movement and other things.
The John Adams had orders to stand for Madeira, if
we parted company ; and having watered and taken in
all necessary supplies, to stand on her way again, for
Rio de Janeiro, unless the Columbia should be at Funchal,
the capital of the island of Madeira, at the time of her
reaching there.
As I sought the deck, to-night, I saluted the officer of
the watch, by touching my hat, as the usual ceremony
of respect to the deck-officer, adding,
" O Pilot, 'tis a fearful night,
There's danger on the deep ;
I'll come and pace the deck with thee,
I do not dare to sleep."
\
" Come," said the Lieutenant, " at the middle-watch,
that is the hour we have for gentle memories."
22 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
It was a lovely night, and not such as the poetry quot-
ed would lead one to suppose, but such as might awaken
poetry in sentiment, in one who yet might never have
made rhymes.
" And then," I said, " it is not with you, as the sailors
say, that salt water washes away the recollections of
home ?"
" No," continued the officer of the deck. " Were I a
young lady with a lover, I would command him to go to
sea. I am sure his affections would be deepened in the
long and deep memories which awake while he paces
the deck in the hours of the middle-watch."
" And how is it with you, Doctor ?" I asked, as the
fleet surgeon joined our promenade. " Do you find that
the briny mist washes away your soft musings of home,
and wife, and the little ones ?"
" Ah, sir," returned the surgeon, " I find it like a mor-
daunt of the chemist and the dyer, one ingredient of
which is salt, and which they use to fix indelibly their
colors. And yet I shut my eyes as much as possible to
the visions which come up before me, in their every hue
of love and home-associations."
" For myself," I added, " there was sufficient of the
nausea about me, for four or five days, to make me think
only of my uninteresting self; but I now cast my look
over the waste of waters between me and those I love,
and feast sadly but happily on the memories which winds
and waves cannot bear from me."
The watches of the ship are divided into eight, each
Lieutenant, in turn, keeping the deck during one watch.
He is called, for the time being, the officer of the deck;
and through him, all orders are issued, and to him the
care of the sailing of the ship is committed. The watches
at night are from 8 till 12, called the first watch ; from 12
till 4, called the mid-watch ; from 4 till 8, called the morn-
ing watch. During these hours, if the wind is fair, the
Lieutenant has much time for thinking, as may be the
train of his feelings, in happy or in sorrowful musings.
And I can imagine how often the memories of home
come up to the mind of the young Lieutenant, as he paces
the deck, with the trumpet in his hand, alone ; occasion-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ally casting up his eye to mark the trim of the sails, and
issues, at one moment, an order to give a pull upon a brace,
which serves to break in upon the train of his deepening
memories. But he soon again renews his monotonous
step, and the gentle recollections come over him, which
transport him to those he loves, while he almost thinks
himself in their embraces, in happy commune, until a sud-
den sigh comes from some sudden consciousness that it is
but a dream ; and he wakes to the reality, that he is yet
stemming on his long course, still away and away from
the land of his home, the young companion of his bosom,
and friends less near than she, but still dear in his delight-
ful and welcome loves.
On the morning of the 18th, a barque from Havre,
bound to Baltimore, came down upon us, with most of her
sails set, as we bore a little out of our course to meet her,
that we might forward letters to our friends in the United
States. A letter bag was soon prepared, and a boat low-
ered. Lieut. Turner and Mid. Sincler boarded the barque,
as she lay off from us, with her sails aback, exhibiting a
fine model of an American ship.
It was a beautiful sight as the two ships lay aback, and
a moment lingered on their separate courses, while the
frigate's boat bounded on the surge, to bear our tokens
of remembrances to friends and to communicate with a
ship from a foreign land.
As soon as our boat had left the barque, on her return
to the frigate, a fog came up suddenly over the ocean,
with a change of the wind to the west. The barque filled
away, and in a few moments was lost in the mists that
swept over the sea ; and had our boat been delayed fif-
teen minutes longer, she might have been shut in by the
fog ; while, however, in this instance, there would have
been no danger, as she was within the hearing of our
ship's bell. The scene was an interesting exhibition, re-
calling to the mind occurrences which often take place at
sea when a boat has been despatched from the ship. The
instances are many of a fog unexpectedly overtaking a
boat, when, in the absence of a compass, the course be-
comes unknown. In such a case, the ship, having the
bearing of the point from which the boat is expected,
24 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
stands for her accordingly, and in most cases, by the dis-
charge of guns and the sounding of the bell, the boat is
recovered.
To-night, now after ten o'clock, our frigate presents a
magnificent exhibition, while cutting her 'way of light
through the dark ocean. Clouds hang thick above us,
veiling star and moon from the sight ; and the fresh
breeze drives our gallant vessel twelve knots the hour on
her course. She leaves in her wake a stream of light,
which blazes forth in its mellow and spreading trail, like
the tail of a comet lined on the blue heavens ; and before
her the phosphorescent billow curves around her bow a
mighty crest of ever rolling and flashing light. Beyond
us, the illumined peaks of the waves, as they break, sail
down in their silver sheets, to mingle their sheen of phos-
phorescence in the flood of glory, which the ship carries
before her. How grand ! how beautiful ! I went far out
upon the bowsprit to get a fairer view of her stem, buried,
as it is, in its halo of glory, and throwing up its cascades
of corruscating light. What is she like as she careers on
her way, a giant in her prowess, and yet, in her graceful
make, a fit personification of the genius of America?
And she is the genius of our own, our native land. Her
name, too, is Columbia, and she is driving onward, to
bear proud credentials of her origin and of the glory of
the land she owns, to far and wilder nations, and older
but not prouder dominions and people than the land from
which she sails. God speed thee, good ship. Thou art
freighted with some choice spirits, and with honorable
designs. Thy way, to-night, is one of light and glory.
May it be brightly ominous of thy good reception ; and
emblem forth thine honorable offices and untarnished
bearing, while on thy mission of courtesy and reciproca-
ted good will of the younger West to the olden East.
The Mahonese, Mr. C., has occasionally favored us
with music, playing on the guitar, and accompanied to-
night by one of the ward-room officers, on the flute. Our
First Lieutenant sang a sweet little air, with taste and
feeling. How it comes over the soul, that sweet strain
of symphony ! Music, I love thee ever ! Thou art to
me an inspirer a soother and yet thou sometimes
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 25
breakest my heart, and I weep ! Oh, are they not happy
thoughts which thou awakest, as thou bearest me over
the vast waters to those I love as I seem anew to hear
the dulcet strains, which the voices of loved ones have
poured upon my ear in days that are gone ! I find my-
self more and more susceptible to the influence of sweet
harmonies. And yet, it is sometimes difficult to analyze
the spell of enchantment which comes over me. But it
intoxicates like the papaver of the opium-eater. Still I
wish to pour out these feelings in lonely commune with
myself. They are all too hallowed emotions for the
sympathy of others. Sweet music, I will love thee ever,
for thy power is always kind. Thou takest me anew
along the woodland acclivities and deep ravines, and
shaded and meadow-plains of my own grounds. Thou
recallest the moon-lit nights, when I have paced the ave-
nues with a sister leaning on my arm, and we have paused
and gazed together on the bright bosom of the river,
sleeping in its flood of moonbeams. And thou tellest me
when together we have sat on the embowered bench,
and not a bird was awake, and moist eve had perfumed
the balmy air, and for me the guitar was struck was
struck for me and we loved more kindly, and our hearts
were more blessed. And when, further off, sweet music
hath awakened, I have leaned upon my elbow, and gazed
from the lattice of my country home, and contemplated
the deep shade beneath the fruit-trees and the forest clus-
ters, and read the bright stars above when seen through the
shady vistas, and when the romance of nature was weav-
ing her mystic and fairy and enchanted visions of days
yet to come, when all would be well when all would be
happy when all would be bliss. Ah ! those days I hoped
for, where are ye ? But it was happiness thus to muse
thus to despond thus to hope thus, in imagination, to
realize in fancied possession, more than the growing re-
ality. Music, I will love thee ever !
The monotony of ship-board would be fatiguing, were
there not various things at sea to relieve the prevailing
sameness. The sunset scenes are often magnificent, and
various as are the courses of the evening clouds, and the
latitude and longitude through which we sail. The sunsei
3
26 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
scene to-night, in longitude 32 48' W., would be indescrib-
able, if the description were expected to meet the reality.
But there is such a thing as employing general terms to
awaken the beautiful in emotion, which, if sufficiently dis-
tinct in the picture they define, will convey to another's
bosom some of the delightful emotions one's self has felt,
when gazing at an object addressed to our perceptions, of
the glorious, the beautiful, and the sublime. Such was the
sunset scene of this evening. Its beauty consisted in the
different layers of clouds, horizontally placed one above
the other, some extending further, some not so far broken
here and united there while intervening strata of the
deeper back-ground were seen to divide these several
layers, and varying in its hue, from the palest light to the
faintest blue ; and then to the lightest, brightest, and deep-
est green, so as to present the back expanse, in its various
changes, now like an ocean of emerald-green water, un-
rippled, and throwing back its flood of mellowed and green
light, while the island-clouds, with their edges fringed with
light, became less bright and more dark in their colors
as the eye receded from their scalloped and illumined
edges to their centres. And then, far up and far off, as
the sun just now entered a broken bank of clouds, were
seen other piles of the airy voyagers in their various hues
of light, and dark, and dun, yet everywhere in their velvet
mellowness, soft as a
" Sunbeam gone astray,"
or,
"Plume in crest of knight ;"
or,
" Cloud in sombre gray,"
seen
" Far and low at night"
But when you combined the whole picture the golden
cloud-islands in the emerald-green sea and the strag-
gling islands, which shone in their more solitary and bril-
liant and lighter beauty, higher up and further off, it was
then, indeed, you felt the calm emotion of the beautiful
gather through all your bosom, as you gazed in happy and
gentle and lonely musing. But scarcely an interval had
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 27
passed, when all this beautiful was illumined with intense-
ly more brilliant hues, as the full orb fell quite beneath
the horizon ; and the soft and mellow scene glowed in the
vivid colors of new floods of glory, thrown on this eme-
rald-green ocean of a thousand golden isles. You gazed
on it a happy and entranced beholder. The beautiful now
had changed to the sublime. And as you let your thoughts
lead on in their involuntary train of association, you mused
with admiration and worship, as you thought in silence on
the attributes of the Eternal, veiled in his pavilion of glory.
A moment since, one bell, first watch, a man fell from
the main-top-gallant yard. He w r as heard to cry, " O my
God !" as he passed the maintop ; and the next moment
he struck, head foremost, upon the first cutter, stowed
amidships alongside the lanch, and bounded into the gang-
way. The surgeon was called, and when he reached the
spot the poor tar had ceased to breathe. His skull was
fractured, and in a moment, without having spoken, after
striking the deck, he passed from full strength and active
life to the motionless corpse and the solemn stillness of
death.
The dangers and the toils of seamen are great and severe,
and thanks seldom greet them. I was on deck a few
moments after this melancholy incident had occurred. It
was dark, and the men were still furling sails. I stood by
the after hatchway, and heard more than one sigh from
those rough men as they passed me while still pulling upon
the halliards. A squall appeared to be gathering in the
west, and the men were furling the top-gallant-sails at the
time this unfortunate man fell.
After quarters, the succeeding morning, "all hands"
were piped " to bury. the dead." The sailor, who fell last
night from the main-top-gallant yard, was to be given to
the deep. He had been laid out, as usual in such cases,
by. his messmates, on the half-deck, with the flag of his
nation thrown over him. His messmates were his
watchers during the night, and now, at the hour of his
burial, they bore him to the leeward gangway of the
frigate.
The lanch and the first cutter, two large boats of the
ship, upon one of which he had first struck, are stowed
28 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
amidships. Within these the clothes-bags of the crew
are generally piled, rising high above the gunwale of the
boats, and forming an elevation in the central part of the
ship. Upon these a large number of the crew had now
placed themselves, to witness the ceremony, new to many
of them, while others were standing upon the deck adja-
cent to the gangway, from which the relics of the depart-
ed tar were to be given to the deep. The officers stood
nearer the quarter-deck. In full view of these, nearly five
hundred gazers, rested the plank upon the upper step of the
gangway, on which the unconscious sleeper, sewed in his
hammock, with thirty-two pound shots at his feet, was
reposing, with the stars and stripes wreathing his rough
bier, as his honorable pall. Six of his messmates, as his
bearers, held the plank in its horizontal position, ready to
launch their brother of the ocean into the blue sea. And
nearest them, stood the Commodore. The chaplain ad-
vanced to his side, commencing the services, as all, uncov-
ered and with the silence of the dead, listened to the affect-
ing ritual : " Man that is born of a woman hath but a short
time to live, arid is full of misery. He cometh up, and is
cut down like a flower ; he fleeth as it were a shadow,
and never continueth in one stay. In the midst of life we
are in death. Of whom may we seek for succour but of
thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased. Yet,
O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and
most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains
of eternal death !" The chaplain advanced yet nearer to
the sad object that concentrated the solemn interest of the
moment, and continued : " Forasmuch as it has pleased
Almighty God, in his wise providence, to take out of this
world the soul of our deceased brother, we therefore com-
mit his body to the deep !" And in the breathless stillness
of the momentary pause, the solemn plunge was heard,
which spoke louder than the thunder of ordnance to the
heart, as the dead man was sinking to deeper and yet
deeper fathoms, until the eloquent silence was again broken
by the chaplain's voice, as he added, " Earth to earth,
ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; looking for the general re-
surrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come
through our Lord Jesus Christ ; at whose second coming
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 29
in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the
sea shall give up their dead, and the corruptible bodies of
those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like
unto his own glorious body ; according to the mighty
working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto
himself."
The services ended the crew were again piped to
their places and then we were on our course again, to
other lands. But no one would tell the story of him whom
we had now left to drift in the low deep, and among the
far-down currents of the recordless ocean. O ! it is a
solemn thing to die. It is a solemn thing to " lie down in
the dust," in the bosom of our mother earth ; but to sink
down, and down, and down in the deeper, darker, desolate
waters this thrills even the bosom of the way-worn and
brazen-featured mariner, as his thoughts for a moment are
arrested, and he follows his messmate to the deeps below !
But, all willingly turn from the scene, and again we
stand on our way; and our ship seems little less uncon-
scious than ourselves, that one of her inmates has been
left, in mid-ocean his name to be no more spoken his
memory to be unwept his story for ever untold. But go
on thy bounding course, thou glorious courser, still go on ;
and
" God speed thee, good ship, on thy pathway of foam,
The sea is thy country, the billow thy home."
The night succeeding the burial, young H. (a boy in
years but a man in mind) was very singularly affected.
I heard him scream aloud. His hammock being near the
ward-room, two of the gentlemen rushed to quiet him.
For a moment, he seemed quite beside himself. " Don't
you know me," asked Mr. M'C. " Yes, sir," said young
H. " Yes, sir Mr. Mahogany ;" and then screamed yet
louder, "A man overboard throw me a rope throw me
a rope !" This little incident is not unworthy of narrating,
in connection with the burial of the morning, which must
have left such an impression on the mind of the youthful
midshipman, as to produce the singular phenomenon of
his dream. The lost sailor belonged to the Commodore's
3*
30 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
gig ; and young H. generally went with the boat, and thus
particularly knew the man, as one of his boat's picked
crew.
A few moments after we had buried the dead, a brig
came down upon our starboard bow. We spoke her, and
learned that she was from Palermo, fifty days out, and
short of provisions. She lay to for our letter-bag, and
the Captain desired us to send him a barrel of beef, and a
bag of bread, if we could spare it. It was sent, to the
full amount the Captain desired, and his receipt taken, as
the only ackowledgment of the favor.
This incident shows the beautiful utility of our navy, as
the strong and encouraging arm of a protecting govern-
ment. It is one of the specific duties of our government
ships, to relieve, without charge, our merchant vessels.
A receipt, mentioning the name of the owners of the vessel
relieved, is taken, to prevent imposition. This receipt is
forwarded to the Department at Washington, and if the
vessels of the same owners should be found frequently
to have sought such aid, the Government would charge
them for the stores their vessels had received, otherwise
not.
Here, then, was one of our own countrymen on the
wide ocean, fifty days from land, with a three weeks' run
yet to make, and perhaps, by accident unforeseen, twice
that time, short of provisions and out of bread. Our noble
frigate, standing on her course, is espied by the distressed
merchantman, who has been to distant lands and tempted
perilous seas for our luxury and pleasure. With glowing
feelings he sees the distant object, first looming to his view,
her royals only seen in the horizon, rising higher and
higher, until top-gallant-sails and top-sails and courses ap-
pear ; and at last, a noble ship, with all her sails set, comes
nearer and nearer ; when, at last, she is made out to be
one of our own majestic frigates, powerful to defend,
courteous to compliment, generous to relieve. The mer-
chantman gazes with renewed pride on the gallant war-
ship, and feels that there is majesty, might, and magna-
nimity in the arm that protects him ; and with still greater
love, he thinks on the land of his home.
Such, doubtless, were the feelings of the trader, whom
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 31
we met and relieved. He was unbounded in his enthu-
siasm, when speaking of the beauty of our frigate, as he
gazed upon her, while the two vessels were aback, and
for a moment resting on their different ways, for the pur-
poses of friendship and mercy. The Captain was but
one of the hardy men who fill the seas from the east, but
he could see, and could feel the beauties and sublimities
of the scene, and go on his way, yet more and more lov-
ing his country and western home.
This morning, May 26th, a large ship loomed up in
the horizon, at the northwest of us ; and ere long, our sus-
picions were confirmed. It proved to be the John Adams,
our consort, who parted with us some two weeks since ;
and now she has come down, in answer to our signals,
and taken her former position on our larboard quarter.
The incident is a beautiful illustration of the accuracy of
nautical science. Here we again meet on the ocean, after
having been lost to each other for fourteen days, and just
at the moment when we are expecting to make the high
lands of Madeira.
At the present hour it is squally, and we are now
shortening sail, and probably shall not venture to near
the land, after dark, unless we make it before sunset.
The sea, at this moment, is high, and a sail, not far off,
to the windward of us, standing on an opposite course to
ourselves, is taking in her royals and reefing. We are
rolling more than we have before done since we weighed
our anchors in Hampton Roads, twenty days since. We
hope to lie at moorings, in Funchal Bay, to-morrow ; and
then, beautiful Madeira will be the agreeable object of
our visit and observation, after a passage of twenty-one
days.
Off the High Peaks of Madeira, May 26th, P. M.
Never did the call to quarters roll its beat more sweetly
through our ship, than at this soft hour of evening. I
have been gazing at the wedge-shaped bluff of the west
end of the island of Madeira, now wrapped in fog, which,
however, at this moment, is lifting sufficiently for the
curved outline of the island to trace itself visibly on the
misty back-ground of the horizon. And there it stands,
32 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the island of Madeira, famed and far-known, in mid-
ocean, raising its huge and sable elevations, at this hour,
like some dark monster of the deep, in his unconcern and
deep repose ; with its far-up and shaded sides lost in the
mists, which now wreath their mystic sheet around its
elevated peaks.
As we glide nearer in towards its abrupt shores and
along its deep-green sides, we discover here and there a
hamlet ; while far above the mists, which curl around
the highest. acclivities, and sail along the midway eleva-
tions, the denser clouds are seen to roll back, and leave
to our view a deep-blue sky, such as they say arches
above the land of Italy.
The John Adams is standing in behind us. The blue
deep, far out, is restless, and the heavy swell heaves the
careening ships at this moment, more furiously than at
any other time since we have been coursing our way to
this island of vines and flowers. Long slopes of verdure,
and deep and green ravines, reach or view as we gaze ;
and the imagination easily embowers the hill-sides in
orange groves, and citron trees, and pomegranates, and
bananas, and figs, and the trellised grape. But more in
description when we shall have gained a nearer view, on
a fairer evening and a brighter day.
" All hands to reef topsails, ahoy !" sounds through the
ship. It is deemed too late for us to run into the bay of
Funchal, the capital of Madeira ; and the purpose of the
Commodore is, to stand off and on, under reefed topsails,
during the night, and to anchor in Funchal bay early in
the morning.
The island now lies some four miles in the distance.
The sun has just gone down ; and the dark island,
wreathed in its vapor-sheet, exhibits an interesting scene
of the mystic and the sublime. The outlines of the dark
pile are distinctly marked on the horizon, rising some
eight thousand feet from the bosom of the deep, and now
crowned with masses of cumuli-clouds, with their round
caps tinged with the purest pink and darker crimson, as
the rays of the fallen sun send far up, in their slant, theii
beams in profusion and glory ; while the lower layers of
the clouds, on which these illumined cones are resting,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 33
sleep in their solemn gray and dun. At the southwest of
us, the lashed sea is still raging ; but the clouds above its
dark bosom rest peacefully in their hundred evening hues,
which the sun, in atonement for his day's absence, now
loans to these airy voyagers.
But, it was as we tacked ships, to stand off from the
land, amid this exhibition of the mystic in our north, and
beauty in our west, that an omen gleamed above us, fair
and bright as the one which shone in the heavens, on the
eve of our departure from our first anchorage-ground, in
our western land. Directly above our main, in the zenith
of his glory,
" The bright Arcturus, fairest of the stars,"
looked benignantly from out his azure hall upon us. The
sky, over our heads, was blue, deep, and clear ; and no
other brilliant was seen in the high heavens ; while the
moon, in her path of peerless loveliness, this night, was
throwing the soft beams of her first quarter over our
right shoulders. The air was balmy to the cheek ; and
we were happy as we paced the deck, and talked of
things associated with the Madeiras, and friends, and
home.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 35
SECTION III.
Madeira. Funchal, capital of Madeira. Quintas. Fortresses. Santa
Clara, convent. Shrubbery and vines. Olden associations. The influ-
ence of beautiful nature. Visit to the shore. Breakfast with the Amer-
ican Consul. Invitation to visit Santa Clara convent. Ride to the Nos-
sa Senhora do Monte, or the Church of our Lady of the Mount. Visit
Mr. Blandy's Quinta. Avenues of geraniums and roses. View from
the terrace-house. Miracles of our Lady of the Mount. Portuguese
seamen pledge their top-sail to this patron saint to pfopitiate her favor in
danger. Priest and his present of eggs. The Catholic system. A pile
of human bones. Portuguese bury in their churches. New cemetery.
Visit to Santa Clara convent. English burial ground. Portuguese fune-
ral. The daughter of the deceased visiting England. Ride to the Cur-
ral. Scenes on the road. Peasantry. The grounds of Count Carvalhal.
Ramble through the grounds of Palmyra. Mr. and Miss O. Miss O.'s
opinion of Abbot's Works. The Til. Moving by torch-light through
the streets at night. Palanquin. Easy manners of the Portuguese. Eng-
lish yatch commanded by a lady. Legend of the Madeiras. Cultiva-
tion of the grape and process of making wine. Tinto. Malmsey. Quan-
tity of wine produced. Last eve on shore, and good-night to Madeira.
WE 'have come to anchor, in full view of one of na-
ture's most beautiful landscapes. Funchal, the capital
of Madeira, is about two miles from our frigate ; and the
southern exposure of the island lies, in its enchantment,
before us. Think of a fairy isle, raising its high peaks
Abruptly 8,000 feet above the bosom of the blue deep,
and tracing its waved outline indistinctly among the mys-
tic and dark clouds, which hang, like spirit-shapes, on its
high and misty cones ; while, everywhere else, around
and further yet above the cloud-capt peaks, the sky is blue
and clear ; and the soft breeze and the mimic gale from
the sea strike balmy, like an eastern atmosphere, upon
the cheek. And then, think of the elevated acclivities,
and deep ravine, broken into thousand crests, throwing
their every-shaped shadows over their own mountainous
and cragged and unique landscape ; and every peak, and
every slope, and every ravine, covered with vineyard
and garden, and ever-green tree and shrub and flower,
varying from the palest gold of harvest time to the deep-
est and prevailing verdure of the freshest meadow ; and
then the villas, or country residences of the English mer-
36 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
chants and the wealthier Portuguese, which are here
called quintas, of all dimensions, with red-tiled tops, and
piazza and balcony and corridors for promenade and
look-outs, and trellised terraces for the embowering vines ;
and then, the antique cathedral and the ancient fortress,
and the sacred convent ; and then, the mountain, capped
witfc an eternal cloud, and the far-surrounding ocean,
in eternal blue, and you will have some of the outlines,
which go to make up one of the most glowing pictures
of the beautiful I ever saw. It is almost perfect as a
specimen of rural scenery of its kind. It only needs a
few s castles on some of the high peaks of the elevated
positions, to render it quite so.
The houses of Funchal rise one above the other, from
the edge of the sea, which tumbles its breakers, inces-
santly upon the narrow and dark-pebbled beach. The
Loo fort is seen on the right of the city, constructed on
the top of .a rectangular rock of basalt, encrusted with
the outer honey-comb layer of lava ; and rises from out
the sea a few yards from the main beach.
Another fortress is situated near the sea, and is still
garrisoned. Between the two lie the pile of buildings,
occupied by the Franciscan monks before their expulsion
from the island, but now possessed as barracks for the
Governor's guards. Further up, the convent of Santa
Clara, with its dusky and rectangular walls, appears above
city spire and city dwellings. Ascending still higher the
steep acclivity, rising like an amphitheatre before you,
the beautiful quintas of the English merchants and* the
Portuguese, are seen, every way, studding the elevated
points, and lay before the enchanted eye embowered in
nature's freshest green, amid shrubs, and orange trees,
and figs, and citrons, and bananas, the coffee tree, and
the pomegranate ; with every other point, unoccupied by
shrub and tree, covered with spacious areas of trellised
vines, in their richest foliage, the whole together exhibit-
ing one blended scene of rural loveliness, too distant to
enable one to particularize the different kind of shrub, and
tree, and flower, but delighting the beholder with the
blended beauties of one of nature's own amphitheatres,
where she has poured out, with the munificence of her
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 37
tropical hand, the gorgeous magnificence of a perennial
green-house. And still above all this beauty of vine, and
shrub, and tree, and folia of fig and orange and pomegran-
ate, and the beautiful quintas, and the imposing turret,
and fortress, and convent, stands in lovely and bold re-
lief, the Nossa Senhora do Monte, or the Church of our
Lady of the Mount. It is the highest building seen, and
rivets the eye of the stranger. Its proportions are in
keeping, and its two turrets, rising on either side of the
front, give the picturesque edifice the loveliest appear-
ance, as it rests, in its quiet repose, and high-up retire-
ment. Its white walls are beautifully relieved by one
extended curtain of green, which rises still further
above its white walls to meet the clouds in their ever un-
dulating volumes. And from the commanding front of
this solitary building, you gaze on all this beauty below,
in its blended grandeur and loveliness ; on the vast ocean,
from whose blue bosom the green isle awakes ; and now
upon our own sleeping war-ships, as they ride, in their
security and distance, like mimic models of their own
beautiful reality, on the edge of the broad expanse of the
boundless main. But still further up from the nestling
place of our Lady of the Mount, the green mountain
steeps are coated in verdant shrub and tear grass, and
flowering broom, and heath, and sweet balm, until the
veil of the dark spirit of the mountain-heights, forbids
the eye to penetrate her loftier and clouded home. Sure-
ly the Fairy-Queen poet dreamed not of a lovlier scene
than this, wherever his vision was bearing him in the fol-
lowing lines :
It was a chosen spot of blooming land,
Amongst wide waves, set like a little nest,
As if it had by nature's cunning hand
Been choicely picked out from all the rest,
And laid forth as example of the best.
No daintie herb, or flower, that glows on ground,
No arboreth with painted blossoms drest,
And smiling sweet, but there it might be found,
To bud out fair, and her sweet fragrance throw around.
And all this I gaze upon, as I stand, lost in delightful
4
38 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
reverie, on the deck of our own beautiful Columbia, sleep-
ing calmly, and confident in her own prowess, on these
waters, in full view of this enchanting landscape. And
the eye tires not, as one's thoughts, in connection with the
olden story of this sunny isle and summer beauty, come
over the memory, in recollected legend or truer history.
Here has been revolution on revolution. Here the prince
to-day has been embarked, in an hour and in secret, for
his distant exile. And here the priest has ridden, in his
ghostly power, and with undisputed dictate, a supersti-
tious and submissive people ; and again, the people have
aroused to a sense of their degradation and the imposi-
tion of the Franciscan hoards, and expelled them from
their isle. And here the nun, for years the inmate of the
cloister, and doomed no more to look abroad upon the
world, save through a double grating or convent lattice,
in the tide of revolutions has been set free, and walked
again in liberty and light. But again the restrictions are
placed upon her, and she is re-enclosed within the halls
of her ancient home.
I indulged myself, for hours, in delightful contemplation
of the beautiful scene before me, as seen from the quarter
deck of our frigate. Nothing could more calmly sooth
the heart, whatever may have been its musings of sad-
ness or of joy, in retracing the past, or in sorrowful or
happy anticipation of the future. There are some scenes
which we love to treasure among the fadeless things, in
the arcana of our choicest memories, to which we recur,
when things around, and men more than things, become
insipid. I felt assured that the scene before me was one
of these. I find myself daily more and more susceptible
to the influence of beautiful nature ; while she often com-
munes with me, as one who has sympathies kindred to
my own. She never upbraids the confiding heart she
never looks with cold suspicion she has about her
nothing that is mean, or low, or unrefined ; but hers is
an open brow a warm, and pure, and noble heart and
she has thoughts that are holier than earth elsewhere
knows, which she will give, with generous and cordial
liberality, to that spirit, which lets the eye rest on her
mellowed beauties, with a melting and gushing heart.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 39
Commend me then to her loveliness and proffered sym-
pathies, when the heart feels alone, in its deep and young
desolation.
I had fixed the lovely picture of Madeira's green ac-
clivities in my mind, and dwelled upon it with increased
and increasing emotion and delight. And thus I felt pre-
pared for my first visit on shore, while I only feared that
a nearer view might dissipate the fairy vision, which lay
so willingly and distinct among those remembrances
which fail not. Our time at the island would be short,
and much, it was said, existed on shore to interest the
stranger, and was worthy of his observation. I went early
the morning succeeding our arrival, and breakfasted, by
invitation, with the American consul. This gentleman,
ever attentive to the officers of the ship, introduced me
to Mr. B., who is said to have large possessions on the
island, and to whose courteous and gentlemanly manners
I am happy here to bear testimony, in the remembrance
of our agreeable visit to Madeira. By Mr. B. I was ac-
companied to the Reading Rooms ; and afterwards,
through his kindness, was introduced to another of the
English residents, who is supposed to have considerable
influence with the Catholic inhabitants of the island.
Mr. P., the name of this gentleman, had received an in-
vitation to dine with the vicar-Ceneral, or Bishop of Ma-
deira, at Santa Clara Convent, where the Bishop was to
visit, during the day. Mr. P. had induced the vicar to
allow him, on this occasion^ to introduce some of his
friends into the convent, and politely extended his invita-
tion to myself. Four o'clock in the afternoon was the
hour appointed for our introduction into the enclosures
within the convent walls.
In the mean time I took a ride to the church, high up
on the green slant, previously alluded to as Nossa Sen-
hora do Monte, our Lady of the Mount. We procured
our horses and attendants. Every thing around us ap-
peared unique, and the mode of our conveyance was
quite in character with our circumstances. The road to
the mount church, in its ascent of the mountain, is in-
credibly steep, and as far as the Nossa Senhora do Monte is
paved with the blue pebbles of the beach, and basalt from
40 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the mountain. The angle of ascent is frequently twenty
degrees. We mounted our horses, and at our side stood
our burroqueros, or foot-boys, in their picturesque costume
of the island peasantry, and each with his wooden staff,
six or seven feet in length. " Nossa Senhora do Monte."
we said, and dashed oft' in full spring as the burroquero
swept his staff against the flanks of the horse, and seized
the animal by the tail, to be borne along in company
with the cavalcade ; and every now and then, again
riving the sides of the horse, and particularly at the steep-
est parts of the road, up which fearful acclivities the horses
sprung in full canter, with their hoofs clattering over the
paved way, with the riders upon their backs and the at-
tendants at their tails. I suffered my companions to
advance, while I held in my spirited horse, and to my un-
bounded amusement, contemplated the comical exhibition
of the riders in full speed before me, with their burro-
queros at their horses' tails, all on the full jump, ascending
the fearful steeps which, in our own land, would have
been deemed almost, if not quite, inaccessible. While we
thus rushed up the aslant, the clatter of our horses' hoofs
often drew the Portuguese brunet to the terraces, ever
above us, as the quintas, with their elevated walls and
embowered terraces, lined our narrow way, two thirds
the distance to the Church of the Mount. Over these
walls, in truant festoons falling from the terrace, and filling
every crevice in the walls, hung the luxuriant geraniums
and multifloras, and rose of every kind, and other flowers,
and vines in profusion, trailing down their branches and
making our ascending way a path of blossom, and per-
fume, and flowery beauty.
When we had reached some distance up the mountain
ascent, with quintas on each side of the narrow way, we
paused at the country seat of Mr. Blandy, who had in-
vited me, during the morning, to visit his quinta, as I rode
to the mount.
We turned in from the road to the left, through a gate-
way, which opened into his grounds, and found ourselves
at once among winding avenues of geraniums, and roses,
and other flowering shrubs, which, in America, are cher-
ished as choice plants, in flower-pots, and preserved in
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 41
green-houses. It is this particularity which delights and
surprises the eye. As we turned to the left, we pursued
one of these hedged avenues of geraniums, which I took
to be of that beautiful species called the Princess Caro-
line, bearing a large flower, and here, in its luxuriance,
growing five feet high, and inlocking its branches so as
to form a thick hedge on either side of the pathway.
The avenue extended along the high terrace, overlooking
the roadside, until it reached the front part of the garden,
at which point it commanded the city and harbor and the
blended beauties of the glowing scene below. Owing to
the steep ascent of the mountain, it becomes necessary
to raise high walls for gaining a level for the buildings,
and the pleasure grounds around them. The terraces
thus formed are numerous, in different parts of the grounds
of the quintas, forming levels of made soil for flower-
enamelled paths, and trellises for the vine, and for fruit-
trees and ornamental shrubs, which nature here, with the
soil of volcanic ruins, and an atmosphere ever revivifying
to produce and sustain in greatest perfection, has lavished,
with a luxuriant hand, on this green isle of the sea. We
walked through the grounds, every avenue being lined
either with geraniums or roses, or other flowering shrubs.
The japonica was seen to rise from ten to fifteen feet in
height, and spread in like proportion the hyderanger, in
its luxuriance, spreading its branches to a circumference
of twenty to thirty feet. All is luxuriance. We marked
the coffee tree, now beginning to be successfully cultiva-
ted in the island the pomegranate, decked with its scarlet
blossoms the fig, in its green luxuriance the banana,
raising high its long and fan-like leaves. A hundred or-
namental flowering trees, high and spreading, decked the
grounds ; and in this rich season of flowers, one tree, of
forest height, attracted and held my admiration. It was
wreathed in multifloras, so as to exhibit one complete
layer of these clustered roses over every part of the
stem and boughs of the tree, exhibiting a rose tower in
its magnificence and beauty.
The walk which we first entered extended along the
terrace, which rose high above the road, and terminated
abruptly in a rectangular summer-house on the terrace.
42 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
From this, one contemplates the beauties of the scene be-
fore and beneath him, with the ranges of the green hills
on either side, and the vineyards, and embowered houses,
together with the blue bosom of the harbor, dotted by
the vessels of varied and fairy forms, that repose upon its
surface, or are seen sailing in the offing.
Here I could have lingered, and mused, and thought,
delighted, on crowding subjects, which this fair isle of the
Madeiras awakes, and on dearer objects of the land of
my home. But we were yet to visit the Nossa Senhora
do Monte, and return to the city in time to meet our en-
gagement at four o'clock, that we might not lose the pleas-
ure of our contemplated visit to the convent of Santa
Clara. We therefore remounted our horses, and left this
lovely quinta for the Church of the Mount, with a secret
purpose of again threading the beautiful avenues of Mr.
B.'s country seat, which, to-day, was unoccupied by his
family.
It will strike the visiter to the Madeiras as a peculiarity,
that the country residences here are not found by riding
some distance into the interior. On the contrary, all the
advantages of country air, and of an escape from the heat
of city-walls, is secured by ascending the heights of the
mountain, until the temperature desired is gained. Thus
a delightful and salubrious atmosphere is found by a half
hour's climbing up the steep roads, to these beautiful
eyries, where lovers might nestle in their ever-green bow-
ers and flower-enamelled paths; and philosophers become
poets ; and poets philosophize and be happy. The pro-
prietors of these quintas, while residing in the city, during
the cooler parts of the seasons, not unfrequently retire to
their mountain seats, when they would invite a party of
their friends to partake of the sociability of their free and
elegant hospitality, their furthest seats being within a
half hour's ride from the points of their business and city
houses.
When we had ascended still higher up, to reach the
Church of the Mount, we alighted at a flight of steps lead-
ing to the artificial level, on which the edifice of the church
of Our Lady is situated. We found a number of the
younger officers of the Columbia already at the church,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 43
but having satisfied their curiosity, were soon on their de-
scent of the mountain.
The sexton was ready to exhibit every thing which
could gratify our observation or interest our curiosity.
Our Lady of the Mount is represented by a small figure
about two feet in height ; and as the patron saint of the
island, she is preserved with great care within a glass case
upon the principal altar of the church. She is decorated
with a wax wig and tinselled robes ; and formerly dis-
played about her person chains of gold, and gems yet
more precious, as gifts of her devotees. The revolution
of time and sentiment has left her sanctuary, as well as
herself, with only imitations of what once was.
We were unable, from personal observation, to know
how sacredly this saint of the island is now venerated, but
many stories are related, or rather, observed scenes are
recorded, to show the high esteem with which the Nossa
Senhora of the mount has been held. And the supersti-
tions of the lower orders at least, are slow to be removed
from their credulous minds ; nor are they easily restrain-
ed from ceremonies long cherished and practised in their
religious devotions.
In 1803, owing to the profusion of rain from the con-
densation of the clouds upon the mountains, the swelling
streams which rush down the ravines almost flooded the
city, so as to destroy a large number of houses, to the
sacrifice of many lives. This period of inundation from
the mountains, is even now spoken of, almost as a dating
epoch. " Such a thing occurred before or since the flood,"
meaning the inundation of 1803. After this devastation
of waters had ceased, the image of this patron saint was
conveyed, in solemn procession, from her home of the
mount to the city, where the greatest pomp and ceremony
attended her ; the clergy, and the military, and the civil
authorities appearing in their gaudiest exhibition, with the
impression that her presence could stay any succeeding
inundation. After the public ceremonies and processions
of the streets were over, and due honors paid, the Lady
Patroness was placed for some months on the altar of the
cathedral in the city ; but afterwards she was returned to
her own altar at her proper mountain home, with demon-
44 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
strations of respect and veneration, as the church of the
mount was built, according to the legend of the island, on
the spot where the saint was originally found, soon after
the first discovery of the island.
One of her well-accredited miracles (if we believe the
credulous testimony of her attached devotees) will suffice
to be narrated here, as a specimen of the many and extra-
ordinary performances of our Lady of the Mount. The
incident occurred during the American revolutionary war,
when a great and threatening scarcity prevailed at the
island of Madeira, in consequence of the British cruisers
preventing the American vessels from conveying to the
island the usual supply of bread-stuff. In this state of dis-
tress, supplication was made to the Lady of the Mount,
that her influence might be secured, and by her interces-
sion that the calamity might be removed, and the general
distress be relieved. This ceremony was attended by a
public procession, and accompanied by various devotional
rites. At daybreak on the following morning, it is said,
a ship appeared in the offing, which afterwards was found
to be laden with wheat, from Portugal. The inhabitants
on repairing to the mount church, found the lady-saint's
clothes dripping wet with salt-water, which was interpret-
ed by the priests to be conclusive evidence that the patron-
ess had taken a trip to sea during the night, to hasten
the vessel which had so unexpectedly been descried in the
offing. The crew of the vessel, on their reaching land,
were greatly astonished when the circumstances of the
miracle were told them ; and, on recollection, it occurred
to them that they had been becalmed some distance off
the island just at sunset, the preceding evening, when they
saw something white rising from the waves, which hover-
ed about the vessel, and ere long they were impelled to
Funchal. This narrative of the crew confirmed the mi-
racle ; and the miraculous interference of the Lady of the
Mount, on this occasion, it is said, remains an article in
the faith of the devoted worshippers at the altar of the
Nossa Senhora do Monte, until the present time.
There is a custom among the Portuguese seamen, in
case of danger or difficulties at sea, to devote, with a solemn
vow, their topsail, or some other article, to the Lady of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 45
the Mount. On their reaching their home in safety, they
go in procession to her altar, bearing their devoted canvass,
but they redeem the trophy, by paying, in money, the
amount of its value, as affixed by the priest.
But the glory and the power of this patron saint, I
should judge, when contrasting her present appearance
with her affirmed splendor of other days, has passed, in
no inconsiderable degree, if not for ever, away, while the
ceremonies and the public processions yet continue. And
the peasantry are greatly fond of these festivals and public
processions. They gather from their mountain recesses
on the occasion, and give themselves to the enjoyment of
the holidays. We regretted that we should leave the island
on Saturday evening, which would prevent us from wit-
nessing the various ceremonies of one of their most inter-
esting seasons, the succeeding Sunday being Whit-Sunday.
On Saturday evening, however, we saw, from the frigate,
the bonfires on many a peak, and the church of the mount
sent forth the brilliant rays of her taper-lights far over the
blue deep, from her high and beautiful eminence.
We indulged ourselves by walking through the main
edifice and the various rooms, where the laced robes of
the priests are kept, some of which had been rich in their
day, and are still gaudy and imposing to the peasant's eye,
though thread-worn to the curious. The pictures were
generally indifferently executed, some of them even cari-
catures. I was struck with one, however, in connection
with an anecdote narrated at the time, by the gentleman
who accompanied me to the mount. This painting repre-
sented the presentation of eggs, with various other things,
to the infant Saviour, who was resting in the lap of his
virgin mother ; certainly no impolitic design to encourage
the donations from the peasantry to the Franciscans, who,
by the tenets of their order, possess no property, save a
place to lodge in, while they live on the gifts of the people.
Before the expulsion of the Franciscans, the scene of a
friar with his bag, collecting eggs and bread and other
eatables, was a common and hourly scene, and met with
encouragement from their devoted admirers. And as we
stood before the picture, my friend instanced a case of one
of the priests, who, when delivering his discourse, spoke to
46 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the people in the following frank language : " My flock,
you may make me presents if you choose, or not, as it
may please you ; but if you make me presents, no hum-
bugs, if you please ; bring me no rotten eggs : good ones,
if any thing." While the Franciscans have been expelled
from their ancient home on the island, a small number of
priests of the college have been retained ; and the nuns
still possess their enclosures, with the rents derived from
the convent grounds, and entails. The salaries of the
priests, however, are less than formerly ; and the bishop
now receives only $2000, while his former income amount-
ed to 4000 with perquisites, which, together, often reach-
ed the sum of twenty thousand dollars and upwards. So
passes the glory of the popish world, in her olden pos-
sessions.
I have no heart to upbraid the Roman Catholic. It is
always an emotion of solemn pity, that comes over me,
when I pace their dismantled cathedrals, and decaying
halls, or listen to their venerated, but superstitious, and, as
a Protestant, I think, very often, puerile worship. But, I
well know that the heart is the secret place which the eye
of Omnipotence penetrates, and I firmly believe he often
finds in the Catholic worshipper great sincerity. But, I
also hold, that the whole system of the Roman Catholic
rituals, and monkish celibacy, and many worse than fool-
ish accompaniments of their worship, tend to great cor-
ruption in a community purely Roman Catholic, and to the
great perversion of the simple and true worship of the
Deity. It is in vain for the advocates of Papacy to deny
the corruptions which have existed, or the severities which
have sprung from a system which has had its triumphs,
and in the advance of intelligence and purer systems, we
think, must have its downfall. Spain and Portugal, and
their dependencies, give a story which has been recorded
on the page of history with a pen of blood. And O ! how
devoted have millions been, in the execution of the mis-
guided plans of infuriated zealots, and in the support of
erroneous tenets ! But the age in which crime, in the sup-
port of the church, was deemed a virtue, and intolerance
believed to be furthering the cause of the cross, existed
when men had not learned the correct principles of Chris-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 47
tian ethics, and the world deemed that their several reli-
gions were to be propagated even at the point of the
sword. If our charities were a little more enlightened by
a knowledge of the spirit of ages past, and we judged of
the actions of men in connection with the spirit which
ruled the times in which they existed, we should be more
lenient in our estimate of their motives when criticising
their actions. And we should regret rather than upbraid,
when we perceive that the circumstances of the period
in which they lived, did not embrace, in its elements of
religion, a philosophy, so far as systems were concerned,
which inculcated mutual forbearance, and heaven-born
charity. Toleration, either by Catholic or Protestant,
was unknown until the seventeenth century. And the
Catholics will have to live through years yet onward, be-
fore they will come to appreciate the errors of their sys-
tem, and the unscriptural and intolerant inculcations of
their creed. But the ball of revolution has been set in
motion. The power of the Papal hierarchy has been pa-
ralyzed by the advance of more enlightened public senti-
ment, and truer philosophy than that of earlier ages. It
must still go on. We see already the mouldering relics
of the ancient system. And while we walk through her
antique aisles, of cathedral, and abbey, and convent, we
rejoice in the assurance that there is a breaking up of olden
foundations, for the laying of a basis of a more beautiful
superstructure in morals. Yet as we reflect on the past
and the present, we pity we sigh we hope, while a
cloud yet veils the onward prospect, as it looms up, how
darkly ! in the coming future.
We had gone through the building, no way remarkable
for its superstructure, but a convenient edifice, and once,
doubtless, imposing in its decorations. But now it exhibits
little else than gilded altars and an occasional silver cross,
defaced paintings, and two indifferent and even offensive
statues, as they are robed in their canonicals.
My friend asked our cicerone to show us the place
where he deposited the bones, when they were taken from
the common vault. We passed over the pavements, which
form the great terrace of the church, and reached a door
in a wall which rises some feet on the outer cage of the
48 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
level on which the church stands. The sexton applied
his key, and the door opened, when a sight addressed the
eye, which would have pained a less susceptible heart
than my own. A pile of human bones lay beneath us,
within an unwalled rectangular space ; and as my eye ran
over the mass, I counted fifty-one skulls. Probably in the
same pile, there were thousands, with their attendant skel-
etons, which it would have taken a number of men a num-
ber of days to remove.
It is the custom of the Portuguese to bury the dead in
their churches. They inter the bodies within the same
vault, or rather they dig the grave for the body which is
to be interred, among the bones and dust of those who
have already been buried. That the body may be more
rapidly consumed, they mingle quicklime with the earth
that covers the inhumed relics. The earth of the conse-
crated enclosure is deemed holy ground. But where the
soil is so shallow as in most places on the" island, and par-
ticularly at the point where the church of the mount is
located, the excavation can be but a few feet deep, and
extending but a few feet in width. And within this place
the peasantry of the surrounding situations are interred.
But seldom habituated to think for themselves, and ever
ready to believe in the miraculous, they dream not that
the bones of their forefathers rest not where they are
consigning their own contemporary friends, and where,
ere long, they hope they may themselves be interred.
They, nevertheless, do not rest there. At intervals the
bones of the mingled bodies are removed, to make room
for the ever unanswered demands of the stern arbiter,
whom nothing will propitiate whose heart nothing will
make relent. And while this necessity exists for the re-
moval of the bones of the bodies which are here buried,
one upon the other, it yet seemed to me to be an unjustifi-
able imposition, if it be one, that the mass of the people
should be ignorant of the disinhuming of the relics of the
dead, while they dream that they are mouldering where
they hope that they themselves, when they shall be called
hence, shall also moulder, in kindred dust, within the bosom
of their own and popular patron saint, the Nossa Senhora
do Monte.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 49
It is a laudable object of the city authority, at the pre-
sent moment, to encourage among the Portuguese the
burial of the dead in an open ground. They are now
preparing a pere la chaise on the bank of the west side
of the city, near the water, commanding a lovely view of
the sea. It must eventually become popular, even with
the Portuguese, as a place for burial. As yet, however,
it is unfinished, though tastefully inwalled ; and the ground
is nearly prepared. The portal entrance is very respect-
able, and the whole, altogether, a worthy and commend-
able project.
We now took our last view .of the lovely scene, pre-
sented from the front terrace of the Church of the Mount.
The city was far, far down ; and between the city and
ourselves, on the right and on the left, slept the lovely
quintas, embowered in their luxuriance of vine and flowers,
and fruit-trees, and ornamental shrubbery, with the rip-
pling streams from the mountains always passing through
the premises to water the grounds at the pleasure of the
proprietors, or to replenish their ponds or jets of water.
And then, beyond quinta, and city, and fortress, and shore,
our eye, for a moment, lingered on our own sea-home
dwellings, which had brought us safely from the lands of
our western homes ; and we blessed them for their stanch
properties, and admired them for their beautiful propor-
tions, and felt willing again to trust us to the safety of their
keeping. But we could linger no longer, and we remount-
ed our horses and dashed down the steep declivities, with
the velocity with which we had ascended. And yet our
horses tripped not ; and what elsewhere would have seem-
ed inevitable destruction, here, from the confidence we had
in the surefooted beasts, was regarded but pleasing excite-
ment, as we dared the steep and fearful slant, at the speed
of a full trot.
VISIT TO SANTA CLARA CONVENT.
The convents of Madeira, in connection with other ob-
jects of interest, had been the subject of frequent conver-
sation, during our passage to the island. One of the in-
mates of Santa Clsxa Convent, too, from romantic incident
5
50 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
being associated with her involuntary entrance within the
convent-walls, and also her acknowledged beauty and
strikingly interesting manners, had elicited the curiosity
of the stranger. An English bard had sung her praises,
and others alluded to her interest of person, and romantic
story ; and one of our own countrymen, in the romance
and benevolence of his heart, had conceived a plan for
the rescue of the " beautiful nun," from the convent of
Santa Clara, where, it was supposed, she was retained, an
unwilling prisoner, through the caprice of ill-judging pa-
rents, and intriguing priests. All these circumstances con-
tributed to give to this interesting inmate of the convent
an eclat, unenviable, perhaps, to one of the order of the
recluse, but flattering to that love of admiration, to which
the young and beautiful are said ever to be given. We
therefore were much gratified, in the morning, by the in-
vitation of Mr. P., who had secured from his friend, the
Vicar-General, the privilege of introducing some of his
friends into the convent. Such an incident had never be-
fore been known. And we had only dreamed of the pos-
sibility of gaining a sight of the nuns through the double
gratings, while we should be purchasing, for their interest,
and as mementoes of our visit to the island, some artificial
flowers, being the exquisite handiwork of the inmates of
the convent. But the Bishop is said to be something of a
liberal ; and at any rate, on this occasion, extended to the
considerations of friendship, a favor, of which we were
the participants.
We had returned from the mount church in time to pre-
pare for our visit to the convent of Santa Clara ; and at
a little past four o'clock, agreeably to our appointment,
we entered the outer walls of the convent grounds. The
doors, which opened from the court into the sacred enclo-
sures, were closed ; and four or five persons, apparently
on the same unusual errand with ourselves, were standing
at the massive doors, awaiting their opening. My friend,
who had accompanied me to the mount, announced in
Portuguese our names, at the whispering window, as the
friends of Mr. P., and was answered that the Senhor was
within, and we should have immediate admittance. We
walked towards the large doors, which opened into a spa-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
51
cious and covered area, from which the passage-ways led
to other parts of the buildings ; and, as the doors turned
back on their heavy hinges, we found ourselves at once
in the presence of ten or twelve nuns, in their holiday
and dark habiliments, some giving us a very polite wel-
come, and others talking with their friends who had pre-
ceded us. My friend was immediately at my side, after
greeting some of his acquaintances who were within, and
added
" Here is Donna Clementina now, of whom you have
spoken allow me to introduce you to her."
52 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
I walked with him into the presence of a beautiful
young nun, dressed in her glossy black habito, with her
veil falling gracefully over her shoulders from her silk
head-dress, which was so adjusted as to cover the top oi
the head, and terminate in a graceful point upon the fore-
head, without concealing the beautiful blond of her hair,
or the open expression of her brow.
Various circumstances had been recited to me, before
I had left the frigate, which contributed considerably to
diminish my interest in the character of Maria Clementina,
the name of the beautiful nun alluded to. And it was
supposed, that, at this time, she must be, at least, thirty
years of age. I should not have been disappointed, there-
fore, if I had found an ordinary looking nun, once cele-
brated for her beauty, but whose charms of person had
been painted in colors gaining their tints from the in-
tenser hues of the imagination of her admirers, who only
had seen her through double gratings, and with sympa-
thy which did them honor, while it deceived their
discrimination. But before me now, there was greater
youth, and a taller and more symmetrical figure, and a
graceful manner, which at once pleased me, and made
me disposed to censure some criticisms which dissented
from the general admiration ; and some free remarks
which 1 had heard, detracting from the personal character
of the beautiful Maria Clementina. I was agreeably as-
sured, as I stood before her, that she was a just object of
one's admiration.
I said, I was happy to meet with one, of whom I had
heard some of her friends speak with much interest ; and
besides, I had for her the good wishes of an American
lady, from whom I knew she would be pleased to hear.
" Ah !" said the pretty Clementina, " I remember Mrs.
R., and hope she is well."
I assured her that she was ; and an olden friend of
hers was lately arrived at the island. The frigate and
corvette which lay in the offing were American ships,
commanded by Commodore Read, and were late from the
United States.
" Indeed !" again continued the interesting nun, " I had
not heard it."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 53
I replied that it might not be surprising, as the inter-
esting inmates of these fair grounds were not always, I
supposed, the first to gain the news of the world.
What were, the musings of the young nun, at this mo-
ment, I know not ; but I could not myself perceive that
her eye kindled with that interest, which I had anticipa-
ted would be the case on my informing her of the welfare
of those, whom I had known to feel an interest in her
welfare, when they had visited the island some few years
before this ; and for whom, from various circumstances, I
had presumed Maria Clementina cherished a very partial
friendship.
Others were now crowding about the nun, when my
friend touched my arm ; and accompanied by a number
of other nuns, we rambled through the piazzas, extending
along the buildings and overlooking the gardens ; and
threaded the different halls and rooms of the nunnery.
" Did you deliver your message ?" asked my friend,
with a smile slightly playing upon his lip.
Yes, I told him ; and Clementina is certainly prettier,
and more youthful in her appearance than I anticipated to
find her. And yet she did not seem so much interested
in my communication as I expected she would be.
In my own mind, I had already accounted for the want
of animation, which I had expected to witness in Maria
Clementina at the moment of my communicating to her
the intelligence, which I had presumed would be greatly
gratifying to her. The interesting recluse, doubtless, I
thought, might be the object of the watchful care of her
elder sisters, as she would be the centre of attraction on
this occasion, which I now perceived had been made an
opportunity for introducing into these sacred enclosures a
larger number of friends than I previously anticipated to
meet there.
" Why," said my friend, with another smile, " I told
you, on our way to the convent, that Maria Clementina
did not speak English, and I supposed you would, at once,
discover the deception."
" And then you are deceiving me, ay, mon cher ? And
the greatest deception is, that you would make me now
believe that the real Clementina is not Clementina's self."
54 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" No, by no means, I assure you. I will point out to
you the real Maria Clementina when we find her."
My friend himself had not seen Clementina for two
years past, and never only through the speaking grates,
and had but lately returned from America. My own im-
pressions now were, that for some reason, it was a policy
in the inmates of the convent, knowing that a number of
strangers were to be introduced this afternoon, to have
one of their younger nuns assume the character of Maria
Clementina, and the real one to be missing ; for I did not
know otherwise how to interpret the movements of my
friend, and had, at this time, no conception, that the occa-
sion would admit of any thing more nearly bordering on
a masquerade.
We proceeded on our walk, through the halls and
different rooms, all perfectly neat. This was the bed-
chamber of one of the nuns ; this, of another ; this, of
Genoveva Caroleta ; and this, in which I was willing
longest to linger, overlooked the far extending ocean,
our two ships at anchor, reposing like some spirit-shapes
on the bosom of the blue deep ; and directly beneath,
was the English church, with its loveliest garden of flow-
ers surrounding it, and trees embowered in flowers, and I
thought there was poetry in all this, and that there ought
to be religion in the bosom that dwelled here ; and the
soft tear of love and gratitude should fall from the eye
that gazed over the enchanting scene, to the delight of a
devout mind, which could appreciate the loveliness of
the character of that Being, who made all these beauties,
that they might delight and win our hearts to him. But
we turned our gaze from this lovely point, and left the
room so delightfully situated, and which, like most of the
others, was hung around with pictures ; and upon each
bed was one tiny pillow, white and edged with ruffle,
which we would have thought most suitable for the toilet
table rather than the fair cheek of the sleeping nun.
" And where is Maria Clementina ?" asked my friend,
as we entered other rooms from another hall, where two
or three friends, who had been introduced into the build-
ings, like ourselves, were seated in conversation with
some of the nuns.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 55
" I will send for her," said one of the dark-clad ladies,
who, with others, was accompanying us, and as we stepped
into yet another room.
A little time only had passed, and I had said to my"
friend, You are not designing again to deceive me ?
" Most certainly not," was his reply, which now seemed
most sincere ; when, the next moment, the nun who had
volunteered to thread a number of the passage-ways to
find Maria Clementina, returned again, and, to my utter
astonishment, and I have reason to suppose, to the no little
confusion of my friend, introduced me to the young and
fair Clementina, to whom he had made me acquainted, on
my first entrance into the convent
I could only advance, and repeat the assurances of my
own interest, and that of our mutual friends, and adding
an apology for the desire of renewing the introduction, as
my friend here, who must take the responsibility of the
occasion, assured me that I was not originally introduced
to Maria Clementina. We chatted again for a little time,
about our American friends, whom she had seen, and
which now yet more confirmed me that I was, in reality,
with the nun, who well answered the description which I
had read of her, during the morning ; and now we passed
through yet other circuitous passages, and, at length, joined
the crowd on the piazza, which lead quite along the side
of the spacious buildings which front the inwalled gar-
dens of the convent. A number of nuns and their friends
had gathered here, into a small bastion room, which opened
from two of its sides into the piazza, which, at this point,
made an angle. This room contained an altar, hung
with pictures, and studded with the brazen candle-sticks,
and gilded images, characteristic of the religion of the
Catholics. A piano-forte also occupied a position near
the altar. The nuns, some of them were standing, and
others sitting upon the carpet, all at perfect ease with their
company ; while others of the company, in considerable
numbers, were gathered on the piazzas, near the two doors
of the small room. A harp, also, stood at the end of the
piano-forte ; and now a lady in full and rather gaudy
dress, but tasteful, advanced to the harp, and music was
expected. A young nun was seated at the piano-forte,
56 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
who seemed to me more youthful still than the Clementina,
to whom I had been introduced. I asked Mr. P., through
whose politeness I had been introduced into the convent, to
whom we were to be indebted for our music on the harp ?
" It was his wife."
" And I am sure, then, you should be a musical and
happy man, sir."
The music soon aw r oke, the harp and the piano-forte.
It was a sweet quadrille, vibrating on the soft air of Ma-
deira, and within the sacred enclosures of the convent of
Santa Clara the orange tree, and the citron, and the rose,
and the geranium, and the jasmine, giving forth their rich
perfume to the gentle breath of evening, which was borne
in zephyr-breeze along the flower-enamelled piazza, alike
to meet the cheek of the English belle, the brunet beauty
of the Portuguese, and the now laughing lip of the happy
nun, clad in her cloistered and flowing habiliments, and
delighted to greet within their own enclosures the friends
with whom, in other days, she had only conversed through
the cold barriers of unsocial and double gratings.
A number of voluntaries and variations were played, in
good taste. A young Portuguese sang a laughing melo-
dy ; and his Portuguese laugh I shall never forget. It will
haunt me over the waters, but the recollection will not
be disagreeable among remembered symphonies, as some
spell of darker spirit, which mingled unearthly things with
sweet harmonies that melted, while its own and single
notes thrilled with the awe of superstitious forebodings.
And as I stood beside one of the doors of the small
room, now principally occupied by the ladies, listening to
the music, I addressed a Portuguese gentleman at my
side, in the absence of my friend, and asked, (for I was
not yet fully satisfied as to my having seen the real Ma-
ria Clementina.) who was the young nun, sitting in front
of a gentleman, whom I now designated.
" Nun, Senhor !" said the Portuguese, " I do not see
any nun in that direction."
" It strikes me," I replied, " that she very much resem-
bles the other young nun at the piano-forte, with blond
hair and a more rosy cheek."
" Oh, sir," said the Portuguese, looking me kindly in
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 57
the face, " that young lady, at the piano-forte, is Miss P.,
the daughter of the lady at the harp, and sister to the
young lady you take for a nun beside the gentleman.
There is a still younger daughter near us. They have
only put on the habito and the veil of the nuns for this
occasion."
I said no more, and at once comprehended the scene
and my own circumstances. I held up my finger rather
menacingly to my friend, who, however, had already as-
sured me that we had been a second time deceived. He
had also pointed out one of the nuns, as she had quickly
passed us, as the real Maria Clementina. I advanced to
Miss P., and assured her that she was no less interesting
in her own proper person than as Donna Clementina ;
and I did not know but a second apology was due her
for my almost inexcusable blunders.
The young lady replied that she was Clementina here,
and Miss P. at home. She had once had the pleasure of
meeting my friend Mrs. R., when she was at the island
of Madeira, and therefore was glad to hear from her ;
and supposed, when I spoke of her, that I was aware of
their slight acquaintance.
Some moments afterwards, my fair and interesting
friend, who so perfectly graced the habito and the veo do
fummo of the Santa Clara nuns, approached me and said
they were about to engage in a little dance, and would I
join them ?
I excused myself, by saying that I had ceased, for some
years, to dance, and she must pardon me. Indeed, I felt
that I was certainly subjecting myself to the imputation
of the want of proper gallantry when adhering to what I
deemed though it be a dissent from some of the clergy
of the English church in my own case to be propriety.
The dance did not take place ; and I thought I must attri-
bute the failure in some little degree to the fact that I did
not consent to join it. It certainly would have exhibited
an interesting scene and rather an unique one to an
American nuns and priests, and the gay lip and the
bright eye of young and happy hearts, mingling in the
dance within the supposed-to-be impenetrable and sacred
enclosures of a religious convent.
58 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The music was repeated before we left. And while I
was conversing with a group of Portuguese gentlemen
on the piazza, a gentleman approached me and desired to
know if I were from the United States. I replied that I
was. He had lately returned from America, he said, by
the way of Europe. There was an American lady pres-
ent, to whom he would introduce me if I would allow
him.
I was happy indeed to learn, that Mrs. Abreo, the
young wife of the gentleman who was addressing me,
had just reached the island in company with him, by the
way of London. She is a niece of General Van N., a fa-
mily of Washington, at whose house I had dined, and
with some members of whose family I had formed a
slight acquaintance. I met in Mrs. A. a young and pretty
woman, and was justly happy that America would have
so interesting a representative of the sex from the land of
my home.
During my interview with Mrs. Abreo, I told her of
my adventure with Clementina, the young and interest-
ing Miss P. She smiled, and asked if I had become ac-
quainted with the real Maria Clementina. Her husband,
she added, was particularly acquainted with her, and had
known her from her youth, and would introduce me to
her. He did so.
There was now no longer any doubt that I saw the
interesting person, who had awakened so much interest
in other days whose story has been repeated in both
hemispheres for its romance ; and herself deemed the
queen of all that is lovely in person, and delicate and
elegant in manners ; and she had not yet ceased to attract
the interest and consideration of the stranger, and the
continued courtesies of older friends. When I mention-
ed the name of my own. fair countrywoman, who had
left a just impression of her accomplishments and good-
ness of heart in the island, the nun's eye lighted up with
a brilliancy which must have been equal to her fame
when she was some years younger. She talks with great
vivacity, and seems yet to be the favorite of those who
visit the convent. She speaks French, but understands
little English ; and yet she seemed to comprehend, with
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 59
almost the quickness of intuition, an English sentence, if
given to be interpreted to her in Portuguese. Her manners
were easy and lady-like far more soft and delicate than I
had been led to judge, from the description of one who
had seen her during the revolution, which, for a period,
opened the doors of the convents of the island. Her per-
son is slighter than most of her sisters-recluse, and I
should think taller ; her figure and features partaking of
the more graceful form, (as we think it,) and thinner, clas-
sic visage of an American lady. She spoke of our ships ;
of the great kindness of Mrs. R., and inquired, by name,
after some of the Americans with whom she had met.
When I parted with her, in company with Mr. and
Mrs. Abreo, at the large doors opening into the court
without Mr. and Mrs. A. having invited me to accom-
pany them to the residence of their friends, where they
were to meet a small collection of their connections I
said to the nun, that I had made a collection of artificial
flowers, which Genoveva Caroleta had in her care for me :
would she add a bouquet of natural ones from the garden,
from which I might press a few to take with me to Amer-
ica? And should I see her again if I called at the convent ?
She replied that she would meet me at the speaking
parlor, if I should call again. I knew that there would
be no other opportunity of entering within the inner walls
of the convent.
And should I inquire for Santa Maria Clementina ? I
added.
" No no" she said, as she cast a melancholy look in-
to the face of Mrs. A., on whose arm she was now lean-
ing. It was the melancholy of a Portuguese eye, which
laughs and melts in floating light when it is not sad ; and
then she added, " I am not yet a saint inquire for Maria
Clementina." I sought not to interpret that look of sad-
ness and gentle smile of feature, that seemed to say that
the heart wept.
The next day I sent for my flowers, and among them
was another artificial bouquet, more beautiful than any
which I had selected, with the signature, in her own fair
handwriting, tastefully affixed to it, " Maria Clementina."
My visit to the convent of Santa Clara had been highly
60 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
/ing. The general appearance of the nuns was
happy. In their persons they were very generally in-
clined to embonpoint, with but a very few exceptions out
of the fifty-four nuns who are now in the convent of San-
ta Clara. Maria Clementina is an interesting exception.
Genoveva Caroleta I should think the youngest nun in the
convent, and is quite pretty. Her person and features
are more a la Portugaise, than her further-famed sister
of the convent. She, also, has been distinguished for
her beauty, and merits admiration. Her eye (few na-
tions can equal the Portuguese in the general beauty
of this feature of their women) is sweet beyond expres-
sion, and national. The Portuguese eye languishes in its
smiles of light, and yet has nothing of the glare of the
dark French eye. It is soft, melting, floating, and the
light that beams from its contrast of dark and purest
white, greets you in vivacity, and sympathy, and sentiment,
as the conversations may awaken the different classes
of emotions. You would think it easy for such to
weep, while the tear would leave the eye yet undimmed,
and when brushed away, its smiling light would greet you
as before. It is said, and I have thought it true, that dark
eyes have only one expression, though always bright. It
is not so with the Portuguese eye. Genoveva's is large,
soft, laughing, and sentimental, and more beautiful as a
single feature, perhaps, than the eye of her fair sister,
and her other features, with the exception of her double
chin, are interesting. She is more purely a Portuguese
beauty than Maria Clementina, who, with her more sym-
metrical features, possesses also a more engaging and
graceful person.
The Santa Clara Convent, I understand, is well endow-
ed. But no accessions can be made to the number of its
inmates ; and when the present nuns shall have died, the
property entailed to the convent, reverts to the Govern-
ment.
The Curral, an object of great interest to the stranger
who visits the island, being a deep and fertile ravine of the
mountains, which, on its sides and its valley is cultivated
by the peasantry, belongs to the convent of Santa Clara.
At the convent, on the afternoon of our visit, I saw but
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 61
one priest besides the bishop or vicar-general. The bishop
was clad in usual European dress, with the exception of
red cuffs to his coat, and scarlet stockings, worn with
short-clothes. He is a partisan of the present powers.
The favorer of Don Miguel was exiled, in haste, during
the last revolution, in which Don Pedro gained the supre-
macy .
BURIAL GROUNDS AND BURIALS.
The day succeeding my visit to the convent of Santa
Clara, I spent in company with a gentleman of the island
and one of our officers, visiting different objects of inter-
est in Funchal.
The English burial ground was one of these objects of
interest. Although the ground is small, and hemmed in
on all sides by buildings, in the midst of the city, it is filled
with flowers ; and many of the graves, as we saw them,
were marked only by one unbroken cluster of fresh and
beautiful rose-heads, so trimmed and arranged as to form
the shape of a monumental mound. The avenues were
here, as in almost all the gardens, lined on either side with
hedges of geraniums. But it was an emotion of deep sad-
ness which awoke, as I walked along the flowery paths
of this lovely little cemetery. It was youth and beauty,
and young life from other lands, which had come here to
prolong its career, but found, in this isle of flowers, an early
grave. The great majority of the stranger-sleepers are
under the age of twenty-five.
" The good die first ;
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust,
Burn to the socket."
I paused at a monument in relievo in the wall, with
a lovely design in marble. It represented, in classic chaste-
ness, a female figure reclining, in contemplative sadness,
with her arms resting in abstracted grief around an urn.
It marked the resting spot of a lovely girl of 16 years of
age, from Liverpool, England. She sought health, like
many others, but returned not to the land of her fathers.
Her name was " Frances," and, as the monument said.
6
62 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" She sleeps in Jesus. Far from thee,
Thy kindred and their graves may be ;
But thine is still a blessed sleep,
From which none ever wake to weep."
" Whom the gods love die early," is an ancient apho-
rism, that recurred to my memory as I turned from this to
a neighboring monument, with the following inscription :
" GEO. FARISH."
" Q,u. et Trin. Coll. Cam."
This young man was engaged to the daughter of Legh
Richmond. They were married but a few days before
they sailed together for the island of Madeira, where she
left him entombed among the roses, which die, and bloom
again when spring comes ; but the sear of the blighted
heart that has felt the frost of the cold hand that has laid
its dearer half in the tomb, knows not again the freshness
of its young verdure. If aught, however, can render soft
the heart of grief, surely it must murmur its faintest and
soft moan, while winding through these profusions of flow-
ers, geranium-hedges, and rose-embowered monuments.
Nearly opposite, a few steps from the entrance to this
repository of the young, the loved, and the beautiful, is
the ground, called " The Strangers' Burial Place." It is
the old place of interment, and smaller than the new ground.
There was a time, when Papacy reigned in its greatest
superstition and power, that the Protestant stranger could
find, in the island, no place for the repose of his dust. His
body was thrown into the sea. Since 1770, the unchari-
table and cruel prohibition has been removed. Within
this ground is the trunk of a large orange-tree, which still
gives forth its few branches. It is some twelve or more
inches in diameter, and has been long standing, to con-
template the solemn advance of procession after procession
to deposit, in deep and lone sleep, friend after friend ; and
has seen the tear fall from the eye of kindred, and heard
the low moan and suppressed sigh of widow and orphan,
and of hearts that loved with sisters' and brothers' love ;
and gave to them all the most impressive of all sympathy,
its silence. After this burial ground was opened for the
interment of strangers, and Madeira had become the resort
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 63
of invalids, it was a common saying among the Portuguese,
when observing one of these sorrowful seekers for renew-
ed health, to say,
" He is going to the orange-tree."
We all, in this life of change, have our private sorrows
and tearful remembrances, which the association of place
or time or circumstance brings up to the mind's review and
re-saddens the heart. As we walked among these graves,
doubtless our thoughts took their separate course, with
some private reference to the memories of each one's own
kindred dead. I envy not the man who can walk through
the grave-yard with a bosom that wakes no sigh, and with
a heart that never declared its emotion by the tribute of a
tear. And there are moments while others surround us,
in which we were never more alone. The friend that was
with me I saw stand at the flowery mound which marked
the resting place of his early companion. For myself, the
scene around me had in it much to recall past hours, when
the currents of deep wo had coursed through a heart
which had been bereft of a brother next older than myself,
and a sister next younger ; and with the insinuating and
insidious disease which had borne most of these from earth
to a world where life ends not. I thought, too, how I had
stood beside the grave of that brother, who, like some of
these, had gone far from his home to southern latitudes,
in search of health, but returned no more to the embrace
of doting friends. Who can know the anguish of that
heart that ceases its last beat among strangers, but he
who has left the home he loves to die in other climes ?
And who but such can realize the beauty of the eastern
blessing, " May you die among your kindred !" But the
lone hour when I saw a brother's grave filling, far from
kindred and home, claimed not now the tenderest thoughts,
as I walked through the home of these young consump-
tives. It was at midnight, when I last stood beside a sis-
ter's grave. How do I remember it ! It was but the last
night before I left my home for my distant wanderings ; and
only a few days before, that sister had rested in my arms
as she breathed her last ; and almost with her last breath,
conveyed from her lips her farewell kiss. It was a wintry
64 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
grave ! And over it, unlike the flowers that covered these,
the snow had thrown its robe of white, which I then
thought so emblematical of the purity of her beautifu 1
character and lovely piety. Who can tell the hallowed-
ness of a sister's love, until he feels its absence ? Who
ever shed a holier tear, than falls upon a sister's grave ?
The same friend who accompanied us to the English
burial ground, was kind enough to call upon me the last
day I was on shore, to say, that the funeral obsequies of
Donna Senhora Cabral were to be attended that afternoon,
and he would accompany me to witness a Portuguese bu-
rial. This lady was a cousin of Count Carvalhal, lately
deceased himself, who was deemed the wealthiest fidalgo
on the island, if not the richest subject of the king. I glad-
ly availed myself of the invitation ; but by mistaking the
church, we were belated, so that we did not reach the
cathedral in time to witness the ceremony, though we saw
the interment of the body.
The ceremony of a Portuguese 'funeral, however, is de-
scribed to be (or, at least, formerly was) much as follows.
The body is interred, as soon as twenty-four hours after
the decease. It is borne on an open bier to the place
where it is finally to be deposited, with the face and arms
exposed, and attended by priest and friar, chanting a fu-
neral dirge. The friends of the deceased follow next, and
the line of the procession is closed by a motley company
of beggars, bearing torch-lights. With the body a quan-
tity of vinegar and lime is thrown into the grave, to cause
a quicker decay, that room may be made for others.
Their churches are the only places where the Catholics
inter their dead, and, by consequence, the space for these
purposes must be small. The relatives, of the deceased
never follow the departed to the interment. It would be
deemed, in the sentiment of a Portuguese, as highly im-
proper ; and the widow of the departed, in the higher cir-
cles, is said not to leave her house for twelve months after
the loss of her husband.
The grave-men were adjusting the coffin in its place
of skulls when we reached the cathedral, and persons who
had attended the ceremonies were all retired from the build-
ing. The excavation had been made beneath the floor of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 65
one of the small rooms or chapels, which form recesses
from the main part of the church, and contain each an
altar. There are some three or four of these private
chapels with their altars, in this collegiate church of Saint
Peter, where the remains of this lady were interred.
The place of interment was indeed " the place of skulls/'
for, in digging the grave, there had been thrown out with
the earth more than a dozen skulls and more than a bushel
of bones, which we perceived lying upon the consecrated
dust, now placed in its heap upon the floor of the recess of
the altar. And as we looked within the grave, we saw
that its sides were nearly lined with similar emblems of
our mortality and decay, jutting from the uneven walls of
the excavation. How many slept there in their com-
mingled dust !
Knowing that the body was generally exposed before
its interment, and finding ourselves too late to witness the
manner of its attire, my friend, in Portuguese, asked the
persons who were yet adjusting the coffin in its place, if it
were admissible to open it. We were given to understand,
that if we would give them money it should be done ; and
they immediately laid the lid upon, which was divided
lengthwise in the centre, so as to form a folding lid, on
hinges. The sleeping Donna, unconscious of the eyes
which gazed not irreverently, but with pity and sorrow,
lay before us, robed in a black silk dress, and lace cap and
veil, and shoes and stockings. The coffin was of common
materials, as usual, lined inside with white, and outside
with black. We were satisfied when we had lingered a
moment over this sad exhibition of the last end of mor-
tality ; when, instead of immediately reclosing the folding
lid, the sexton placed the veil doubly over the face of the
sleeping Donna, and shovelled the consecrated dust, min-
gled with the dust of her ancestry, around and over her
face and body, as she lay within the coffin. This seemed
like cruelty to me, but my friend assured me that it was
a greater honor to the dead, thus to fill the coffin with the
hallowed dust. The grave-men then reclosed the lid and
half filled the grave, when they took the skulls and many
bones and replaced them in the excavation, and complet-
ed the task before them, where the mingled dust of the
6*
66 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
new-comer would rest, until another claimant for a place
among these deep reposers should again lay open thip
crowded home of the dead.
As the sexton was throwing the earth into the coffin, it
was asked if it would be deemed sacrilege to take the piece
of satin riband, attached to the head-dress of the uncon
scious Donna. The answer was immediately given to the
question by the action of one of the men, as he severed the
riband from the dress, upon which my friend, as he folded
it, inscribed with his pencil,
"Donna Senhora Cabral, died and interred June 2d,
1838 ;" and passed it to me as a memento of a scene so
peculiar and solemn.
We left the grave and wandered through the church,
a guide being at my elbow, and admitting me into every
recess. As I was about leaving the church, with my two
companions, I perceived a priest with his assistant, (the
latter of whom was standing near the place of interment
while we were witnessing the covering of the relics,) in
one of the lesser rooms of the cathedral. The low bow
of the priest invited an interview, while my friends were
lingering on the steps of the cathedral. The priest was
exceedingly urbane, and invited me to his house. Among
other things, he remarked that he had been imprisoned by
Don Miguel, in Lisbon, but under the present regime, he
was the first collegiate priest of the church of St. Peter.
He gave me his name as I left him, much regretting that
I should not be able to meet him again that I might gain
various information, which I felt assured he would readily
have communicated, and which, to myself, at least, would
have been highly interesting. He wrote his name and
titles in a neat and legible hand on a paper, which he
handed me in exchange for my card.
An interesting daughter of the lady whose funeral obse-
quies we attended, is now in England. There is interest
connected with her story. In her association with some
of her English friends, her mind became interested on the
subject of the Protestant creed. She saw that some things
in her own faith were greatly erroneous. But if she be-
came a Protestant, she would lose her cast ; and the trial
of one placed in her circumstances, probably, can only be
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 67
known by those who have been similarly situated. Her
English friends (how judiciously I do not pretend to judge,
but with Protestants there is sometimes need of more char-
ity than they exercise) insisted that it was her duty, at
once, to give up her Catholic creed and embrace theirs.
And in her state of agitation, still believing the truth of
much that was the hereditary religion of her family, and
yet perceiving that other things were untenable, and, per-
haps, injudiciously pressed by her Protestant associates, she
became much excited, and for a period, her mind lost its
balance in the delirium of her emotions, through ill-judged
and contrary counsels of friends. She however regained
her reason ; and for the improvement of her health, or for
the sake of accompanying some of her English friends,
she is now visiting England. It was said to me, by the
friend who narrated these circumstances, that the mother,
who now sleeps so low and lorn, has been much solicitous
for her daughter ; and that this anxiety of mind, doubtless,
has contributed to hasten the sad termination of the mo-
ther's life. And the daughter may the intelligence be
borne gently to thine ear, and the support which heaven, in
its sympathy, alone can give, yield thee the consolations
needed for early orphanage. Nought but thy God can
meet the necessities for such an hour ; and his friendship
will suffice for the deepest wo.
THE CURRAL.
There are a number of interesting mountain rides out
of Funchal. The Curral is considered one of the chief
lions of Madeira, and a ride to this deep ravine, so desig-
nated, is a matter of course to all who visit the island. It
is distant about five miles from the city, and by a circuit-
ous and winding ascent. On the morning fixed upon for
the excursion from the ship, seven of our officers, including
myself, took their places in one of the ship's cutters, and
were early conveyed to the landing at the Loo-fort. Here
we found horses in waiting, from which the gentlemen
selected each his trusty steed, while I despatched a man
for the sure-footed animal which, on several occasions, I
had ridden, and now preferred for his known speed, ease,
68 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and safety. The officers had mounted and were on their
ascending way, with the exception of Professor Belcher,
who delayed a few moments to accompany myself, know-
ing that we should soon overhaul the cavalcade, which
had struck forward in full speed and loud tramp of their
horses' hoofs over the paved and narrow passage that led
to the mountain through the suburbs of the city, and occa-
sionally by a quinta situated on the western side of the city.
But a few moments had passed, when Antonio, a Portu-
guese, who had before served me, dashed down the descent
to the level of the fort ; and with his amiable smile, which
the expectation of a good day's bargain rendered even
more amiable, led forward his horse for me to mount, and at
the same time smoothing his hand upon the well-groomed
neck of the animal, added with great confidence, " Caval
American mointebom" a very fine American horse
which I had already proved to be true. We were but a
moment behind our friends, but we found them in the midst
of a shower of mists, which had reached them before our-
selves, and in which we now, together, advanced along the
mountain- way. The principal excitement along the road
arose from the narrowness of the track, which led along
the mountain, and winding around jutting peaks, which
looked down hundreds of feet into the deep below ; to the
bottom of which, in many places, both horse and rider
would pitch, if the animal should make a single false step.
The day which we had selected for our visit to this deep
ravine among the mountains was very unfavorable ; but
it was the only one we could expect to have. It is often
the case, and was thus every day while we were lying off
Funchal, that the mountain is capped with clouds which
roll half way down the aslant, while the sun is shining
within the city. But our purpose remained unchanged,
although the greatest part of our ride to the mountain's
highest peaks, was through showers of rain. Occasionally
the sky would light up, as the mists would break away,
or be seen sailing in horizontal strata along the high sides
of the deep ravines far above us ; while we were winding
along the narrow path, which had been made on the steep
aslants. These appearances of the clouds themselves
were an object of curiosity, occasionally opening above
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 69
us and exhibiting a deep blue vault, through the fleecy
vista ; while beneath us lay vast chasms, on the sides of
which our passage was now leading to the mightiest of
these mighty openings, which exist everywhere through-
out the island.
As our ride was early, we met many of the peasantry
descending from their mountain homes, with various arti-
cles upon their heads, which they were bearing to the city,
as the fruits of their toil and the means for gaining, in
exchange, a string of fish or bag of minto, or other article
of food or little luxury. Again we would catch, in pictur-
esque relief on some far-off peak, three or four peasants,
winding along their private paths, their diminutive forms
describing themselves in outline on the light beyond them.
And in some other and still lower positions, with a chasm
between us, we now and ever descried the shepherd boys
and girls, with their crook, guarding their flocks of goats,
or more generally their stock of a small and beautiful
breed of cattle, feeding on the green herbage that coated
the steep acclivities everywhere. The constant care of
the peasant is needed for his flock, to prevent their wan-
dering down declivities, up which they could not again
ascend ; and to keep them within the range which shall
enable them to direct their way back to their mountain
shantees before night ; for every step here, when the deep
shades of the ravines have spread themselves, would be the
step of death, as it launched the bewildered straggler
thousands of feet below.
Having urged on our course by the' narrow path that
wound along the sides and projecting peaks of the ravines,
leading up and still up the steep acclivities at angles of
ascent, sometimes so great as to make it appear impossible
to rise them, and which the horses only accomplished by
starting upon the full spring before they reached the steep-
est aslants, we finally came, and suddenly, upon the full
view of the deep ravine, which constitutes the famous
Curral of the island of Madeira. It is 1600 feet deep from
the point at which we were standing ; and the dark sides
of the ravine raise their sublime bulwarks until they are
lost in the clouds yet above us. At the bottom of the
ravine runs a blue foaming current, dashing on its way,
70 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and no wider, as seen from the elevated position at which
we stood, than the riband on a lady's hat. A chapel,
occupied by a solitary monk, is situated on the flats below ;
and the day after our visit, two officers who sought the
same position, spied the " pilgrim's flag" flying from its
walls, as an invitation for the strangers to descend to the
bottom of the ravine. It was my intention to have done
this on the day of my visit, but the road was slippery, and
no persuasion nor money would tempt my Antonio to allow
his horse to proceed. We therefore ascended on foot to
a high peak, which gave a better view of the deep below,
and of the length of the ravine. This deep hollow in the
centre of the island is deemed to be an extinct crater of
a volcano. We gazed into it, and marked the vineyards
that occupied the cultivated grounds around the solitary
church and the vine-clad peaks, and everywhere on the
sides of the ravine. The blue deep was seen at the west,
rolling its high surges far off at sea ; and as I gazed from
this elevated point, no sound was heard around, nor life,
to-day, could be seen, and nature slept in her sublime soli-
tude. A single bird, true, I should not forget, was sailing
over the far-down depths, careless of the fearful vacancy
of the chasm beneath him ; and higher and still higher he
edged up his flight, by the graceful slant of his wide-spread
wing, until he scaled above us, and hung in mid-air, over
our right, when he was finally lost in the clouds that rolled
their mists above us. It was the Manto ; but I thought
of our own bird of our own republic, that looks with an
undimmed eye on- the sun ; and decks, as an emblem of
elevated bearing, the proud flag that waves over America's
fair land of the brave and the free. It takes but trifles to
Dear back to one's native land the heart that loves its home.
The mant's wing, or the canary's song, or music from the
guitar's string, can call us away from foreign loves ; and
with an instant spell transport us from isle and over ocean,
to the land and the home most dear.
Our caterer, who accompanied us, mindful of the effect
of a ramble and a ride on the appetite of healthy men, had
amply provided for its calls in the contents of a pouch,
which one of our burroqueros, with the assistance of the
tail of the horse to which he clung on our steepest ascents,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 71
bore to the Curral. We lunched ; and remounting our
horses, were on our return again ; with more solicitude in
descending the declivities than we had experienced when
rising their steeps. But we kept on our way, often with
great speed, and to the no little excitement of some of the
party with variable nerves. The rains had rendered the
path slippery ; and when we were half way on our return,
and descending one of the clayey steeps, my eye suddenly
rested on a horse prostrate in the path, and his rider, Lieu-
tenant W., quite composedly, on foot, pursuing his way,
ahead of him. The horse, which had fallen, and which I
had supposed already dead from the position in which he
lay, with his head downwards, soon rose again, with the
burroquero at his side. Had the horse fallen thus at some
other points of the road, both himself and the rider must
have launched a thousand feet into the deep below.
Instances of horses pitching from the narrow path have
frequently been known, but the riders most generally have
managed to escape, before the horses have taken their
plunge. A gentleman assured me, that a friend of his, on
the same route, had been thrown off a precipice, of fifteen
feet in height; but the ravine bulging out at this point below
the path, saved horse and rider from the fearful destruction
that would otherwise have met them in their tumble of a
thousand feet in perpendicular descent. When the burro-
quero, however, had regained the path, he seemed to
insist upon the reinstatement of the spirited steed to the
good opinion of his rider, by saying, with the greatest assu-
rance, " Very good horse, master, Mointebom, killed only
two men." This last expression may be a little like
" romancing" to use an expression of one of our young
gentlemen, who greatly dislikes over-coloring in descrip-
tions ; but the danger is not inconsiderable, to any one who
rides over this passage of the mountain, to the Curral ; and
in one instance, my Antonio seized the reins of my horse,
and on another occasion seemed to deem me too adventu-
rous. I thought of the remark, that the oldest sailors are
generally the most timid navigators, as they are aware of
the real dangers that may be encountered. And here,
Antonio loved his caval American mointebom, and was
aware of the danger to which his very good American
horse was exposed.
72 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
We had now descended to the foot of one of the lesser
ravines, on our return. The other officers had advanced
some distance, while I lingered a moment behind them,
as they passed a group of peasants, beside a mountain-
stream. The young women were more than usually neat
in their attire, and seemed as pleased with the costume of
the officers as the officers were interested in theirs. I
asked the peasants if they could give me a drink from the
pure stream, which was gurgling most refreshingly over
the pebbles and through the green yam-leaves, at this
hour, when the sun again made his appearance with his
uncomfortable heat, as we were reaching the lower posi-
tions of the mountain. These mountain-nymphs seemed
somewhat in a dilemma at first, as to the manner in
which they should meet my request ; but a woman for-
ever, when a dilemma is to be relieved. One of the
peasant girls flew up a path, to a small patch of yams,
and plucked a large leaf, and in a moment was at the
little streamlet again ; and with a twist of the leaf formed
a leaf-cup. Dipping it in the stream, she presented it to
my lip, to the very considerable amusement of herself and
the laughing group, while I sipped the limpid water from
the extempore cup of the yam-leaf. I knew that a Por-
tuguese peasant was ever ready to receive a compensation
for every little favor, and I dropped a silver piece into
her hand, and started my horse again on his way ; but
the sight of the money gave motion to the whole group
after me. As a matter of amusement, I scattered my
small pieces of coin along the path, desiring to observe
the peculiarities of these mountaineers ; and in a few mo-
ments more, although I kept my horse in a trot, the group
of boys and girls was every half minute augmented, until
I had quite a small squadron crying after me in most per-
suasive tones of voice, and putting forth the utmost
strength of limb to reach me, as I occasionally held taught
the rein of my horse and suffered the augmenting troop
to come up. " For sua suade," exclaimed the foremost
boy, who had already gotten his portion, and had advanced
as near as my threatening stick would allow him, " for
the sake of your salvation," with his hands in the most
entreating attitude ; and soon the rest would hasten forward
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 73
for an additional supply. Importunate from the encourage-
ment they had already met with, as I attempted to increase
the speed of my horse, the largest boy succeeded in seiz-
ing the reins of the animal, and one further retrograde step
would have landed myself and horse in the deep below.
I raised my whip, and the boy dropped the reins ; and I
avoided another pause until I had reached a part of the
path where there was a wider space, when I once more
suffered the still increasing number to come up with me,
and scattered among them all the small change I possessed,
and soon regained my associates in the advance.
Throughout the city of Funchal, and along every road,
the children of the lower classes, almost without excep-
tion, ask you " por sua suade," for alms ; and if you pass
them unanswered, and a group happen to be near, a gen-
eral smile awakes upon their young faces, which are sad,
and only then fictitiously, when they seek for a donation.
Formerly, before the Franciscans were exiled, there were
a vast number of beggars in the island. Now very few
are seen, and only among the children. But there seems
to be not the least sense of shame or degradation con-
nected with their petition for alms.
The peasantry of the island appear to be, comparatively,
a happy people. They cultivate the land, and give the
proprietor one half the produce, liberally dividing the va-
rious articles they raise, even to the head of a cabbage.
From the mountains they also gather billits of wood, and
bundles of flowering broom, which, when dry, answers
for oven wood. They receive from nine to eighteen cents
for the quantity they can carry upon their heads. One
half of this goes to the proprietor, from whose land the
material is gathered. The same division takes place in
the grapes, vegetables, poultry, and the flocks of goats
and sheep, and herds of cattle. The peasant who occu-
pies the land on these conditions, leaves his title to his
children, who cultivate the soil on the same condition as
the father before them.
We returned in safety to the ship, regretting that the
day had not been more favorable for our ride and obser-
vation, and particularly, that we could not descend to
the bottom of the Curral. But the passage along the
7
74 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ravines, ascending to the point where we gazed into this
deepest chasm of the mountains, and the grand scenery
beneath, and above, and around us of high peak and
fearful slant of far off and blue ocean of cloud, sailing
but half way up the sublime mountain-sides here, deep
green and clad in vines, and there, dark brown in its
rough pumice-stone or basalt, and jets of water spout-
ing from its wide area, and lining its way, like a silver
stream floating on a dark ground to the bottom of the cra-
ter, or to mingle its bright line in the Ribeiro do Curral
all, with the peasantry in their mountain fastnesses, con-
stitute elements of the beautiful and the sublime, the rural,
the picturesque, and the novel, which, in their combina-
tion, produce a picture that will ever appear unique for
its singularity, grand for the prevalence of the vast, and
pleasingly exciting for the blending of so much beauty
with the fearful.
VARIOUS PRIVATE RESIDENCES.
The grounds of Count Carvalhal, lately deceased, the rich
fidalgo of the island, and deemed one of the wealthiest
subjects of the Portuguese king, are deemed an object of
curiosity to the visiter of Funchal. His situation, called
Palherio, is on the east of the city. We rode to it in the
afternoon. The late proprietor left his large estates in-
volved in dispute among his heirs. He is spoken of as
having been a man of great interest of character in his
liberal contributions for every public improvement ; and
his own grounds exhibit him to have been a man of taste.
His domain is set out with forest trees, forming wide
avenues of oaks, firs, chestnut, in imitation of an English
park. The double Camilla grows here in rich perfection,
and exists in immense hedges. The tree reaches six to
eight feet in height, and the flower, in its white and red,
more nearly becomes the rival of the rose, than any
other shrub of which the queen of flowers could be
jealous. The perfume of the rose is wanting, but the
ever-green leaf of the tree, with its polished luxuriance,
has altogether its superiority over the rose. We regret-
ted that the shrub was not in blossom.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 75
In a ramble which I took alone and at random, the
evening preceding the one we were to leave the island, I
entered the grounds of Palmyra, regarded as one of the
most beautiful quintas on the island. It is a lovely spot.
The courtesy of Mr. O. invited me to the house, after
having with much politeness accompanied me through
the grounds. The interview with himself and sister is
remembered with pleasure. Miss O. spoke of the works
of the Abbots with interest ; and her taste made her com-
mendation of these American productions a matter of
gratification to myself. Mr. O., a genteel young gentle-
man, visited our ship the next day, and I was pleased
with the opportunity of reciprocating his courtesy.
At the Til, another quinta, we looked with interest
upon a large bath in the centre of the buildings, supplied
with water from the mountains, as being the reservoir in
which Captain Canning of the Royal Navy, son of the
late Prime Minister of England, was drowned. He had
proposed to bathe previous to breakfast, and delaying
longer than was expected, was sent for. His clothes
lying by the side of the bath, and his person being un-
seen, declared the melancholy catastrophe.
Having spent the evening with Mr. A., at his friend's,
I left at a late hour their residence, for the American
Consul's. It was quite dark in the narrow streets of
Funchal, through several of which I was to pass. The
servant was furnished with torches, formed of pitch and
broom, which quite lighted up the narrow street, and
made our course through the dark passes striking and
characteristic. As we were thus seeking the residence
of the Consul, we passed a lady, borne in a palanquin.
The two men who moved forward with this comfortable
conveyance, also bore their lighted torches. The vivid
glare of the meeting lights rendered each party distinct to
the view of the other ; and with a salutation, we each con-
tinued our glaring way through the dark streets, over
which night, with her sablest wing, seemed at this hour
to hover.
The palanquin is a kind of sedan, attached by cords,
at each end, to a long pole, which rests on the shoulders
of two athletic Portuguese peasants. The lady places her
76 A VOYAGE -AROUND THE WORLD.
self on a seat, or reclines as she chooses ; and if she please,
she draws a curtain, which is thrown over the pole, so that it
may entirely conceal her person within, or only partially,
so as to defend from the sun or rain, while the passers-by
and the lady may recognise each other. When crossing
the mountains or performing any distance from Funchal,
a hammock is slung to the pole instead of the palanquin,
being more convenient both for the person carried, and
those who bear the traveller. The facility and strength
which the peasantry manifest in ascending the mountains
with such a burden, is surprising. The peasantry are a
hardy race, and perfectly courteous. Their ease in salut-
ing the stranger would do credit to men who pride them-
selves on much better breeding. They wear a small cap
upon their head, terminating in a peak. Their trousers
are gathered tight below the knee, leaving the calf of the
leg and foot bare, unless a boot of goat-skin decorates the
lower part of the limb. A jacket and shirt complete the
dress. The peasant women wear a short petticoat, a
bodice, and a shawl, with a cap of blue broadcloth lined
with red, similar to the men's. The cloth from which they
usually make their garments, is a homespun linen. The
frock or petticoat of the women is sometimes a striped
material of yellow and red. The peasants invariably
salute the stranger, by raising the cap, and the men never
pass a peasant woman of their own class, without doing
the same. On our way to the Curral, we passed not a
single peasant who did not make this courteous demonstra-
tion of his polite and easy manners.
The stranger will be struck and pleased with the mark-
ed ease and courtesy of the Portuguese at Madeira, in its
society of every grade. The higher orders of the Portu-
guese and English society are a good deal distinct. I know
not that there are any jealousies existing between them.
But I should attribute the circumstance to the fact, that
the English families are sufficient in number to form a so-
ciety of their own, and but few Portuguese women speak
the English with ease ; nor are there many English
women who readily converse in the Portuguese language.
The gentlemen, however, more . generally, speak the two
languages of the island.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 77
On our arrival at Madeira, among other vessels, we
found an English yacht. It has excited some interest from
the circumstance that a lady commands it, who is thus
seeking her health upon the billow. She is the wife of
Col. H. Her story, as given by herself, is, that her hus-
band had purchased and fitted up the boat, with the inten-
tion of accompanying his wife to sea. But on the eve of
their sailing, he was promoted to a command in the Guards,
which was deemed a matter of sufficient interest to the
husband, to decide him not to accompany his lady on
the proposed voyage. The alternative was, that his wife
must remain at home, or consult her health by entering on
her course, unattended by her husband, to the latitudes re-
commended. She did not hesitate, however singular it
might be deemed by the world, to give her health the first
consideration, according to their original plan. With her
servant, pilot and crew, she has consequently been pursu-
ing her track on the ocean. She dares
" The wild raging sea,"
with all the composure of a rear-admiral, and daily unfolds
her sails to the evening breeze, and dashes out into the
offing over the blue surges, in her beautiful little bark,
bounding upon the sea-billow r as light and securely as a
swan, rippled on the waves of a home-stream.
She passed under the stern of the Columbia this even-
ing, while her band was playing " Yankee-doodle," and
her crew, composed of some seven or eight in number,
were dancing on the deck, in tip-toe glee, to our national
air. Mrs. H. was sitting in her usual place on the quarter-
deck, with a young friend lounging comfortably near her,
and her pilot standing near the steersman to guide the
bark. Our officer of the deck touched his cap as the yacht
glided by ; and laughingly said, as he took his seat at the
tea-table a few moments since, " I was about to call you to
witness a scene, but was rather too busy just at the moment."
The particulars above we knew, having heard the music
of the yacht as she passed. The Lieutenant, who has a
nice perception both of fitness and the ridiculous, continued,
" I thought our band was rather too small in its numerical
constitution to return the compliment, and being just ready
7*
78 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to send down the royal yards, the music beat the call, and
away came the pennant, ensign, and royal yards ; and as
the yacht rounded about the frigate's bow, we rolled off
in fine style." A very clever thing, was the response,
with a simultaneous peal of approbation from the mess.
A LEGEND OP THE MADEIRAS.
There is a pretty legend connected with the first dis-
covery of Madeira, if I may so call a romantic narrative,
which has been embodied, as dignified history, in the wri-
tings of Cadeyro, who is considered by the Portuguese
one of their historians of the first rank. The incident is
laid in the times of Edward III. of England and Don John
the First of Portugal.
An English gentleman by the name of Robert Machin
became attached to a young lady of noble family, by the
name of Anna D'Arfet. Her beauty, accomplishments,
and endowments, of course, were equal to her birth, and
her fortune large. She reciprocated the attachment of
Machin ; but on account of the superiority of the lady's
family, the parents forbade the union of the two lovers.
To prevent the consummation of the desires of Anna
D'Arfet and Robert Machin as the young heroine thought
virtue and noble qualities of more value than antiquity or
elevation of family the parents compelled their daughter
to accept the offers of a nobleman of distinction, who was,
however, the object of her great aversion. And to render
the wishes of the parents and the noble lord more certain
of accomplishment, a warrant was obtained from the king,
on some pretext, by which Machin was retained in prison
until after the celebration of the nuptials between Anna
D'Arfet and the noble suitor. T ne bride was immediately
conveyed, by her husband, to one of his country estates, near
Bristol, where she became the inmate of a strong castle.
It being supposed that the lady was now successfully
secured from forming a connection, which her friends
deemed would have been dishonorable to the dignity of
their family, Machin was suffered to leave his prison.
But the lover, on hearing the intelligence of the marriage,
first gave himself up to despair ; then, impelled by rage
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 79
and revenge, he determined, if possible, to rescue the ob-
ject of his love from a position he had every reason to be-
lieve to be a state of extreme wretchedness to her, and to
which she had been reduced by acts of the greatest cruel-
ty. He had his friends, who all pledged their devotion
for executing his plans. He sought her castle communi-
cated, by stratagem, his presence and purposes, if she
would consent to accompany him and having a small
vessel already manned, he gained her consent ; and the
lovers were soon together in their bark, making their way,
as they supposed, successfully to the coast of France.
But the winds arising, they were driven far out to sea ;
and bewildered, as they had no experienced pilot on board,
they missed their intended port ; and when nearly ex-
hausted and hopeless, after being thirteen days at sea,
they descried a dark object looming in the distance, which,
as the sun broke clearly upon it in their nearer approach,
they discovered, to their inexpressible relief, to be land.
As they neared the high bluffs, the land presented the beau-
tiful appearance of green luxuriance ; and birds, with white
and yellow plumage, lighted upon their vessel. And yet,
while I was on the island, a single canary and a .solitary
manto, were the only two birds which met my eye, in
my different rides and rambles. But the age of which
we are speaking, of Anna D'Arfet and Robert Machin,
were days of adventure, and love, and beautiful birds.
The sea was tranquil, as they came still nearer the island,
and before them was exhibited a scene of enchantment.
The boat was launched, and the party examined the
point which had attracted their attention for its beauty.
The report of the boat's crew was so favorable as to lead
the distressed lovers to hope that they had, at least for a
time, obtained a haven of repose, refreshment, and secu-
rity. Fruits of various kinds, indigenous to the island, met
their eye and gratified their taste ; and the honey found
in the crevices of the rocks possessed the flavor of violets.
The trees were immense ; and the forests, undisturbed in
the quiet of unrecorded years, displayed their verdant
and massive canopies of foliage. This may not be im-
probable, though the island now is almost entirely desti-
tute of forest trees. I saw the trunk of one of the old
80 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
monarchs of the isle, measuring more than thirty feet in
circumference, which still lingered in its leafless dignity,
in the grounds of the Til.
Machin and Anna D'Arfet, with some of their follow-
ers, left the ship, and landed at the spot which had attract-
ed their gaze for its loveliness, and where they were anti-
cipating that they should enjoy the delights of security, as
they calmed their minds, after the perils of the tempestuous
voyage. But their peace was destined not long to con-
tinue. A storm was borne over the ocean ; and the ill-
anchored vessel, which, under any circumstances of moor-
ing, could hardly have withstood the rolling of the open
roadstead, was forced to put to sea, while nothing of ne-
cessity or accommodation had been conveyed from the
vessel to the shore. The vessel, at length, was lost to the
anxious gazers on the shore. The shock of this new cala-
mity overpowered the already prostrated system of the
young sufferer, and her form sunk beneath the pressure of
her dejected spirits and increasing misfortunes. The
spirit of the lovely Anna D'Arfet could no longer support
the multiplied distresses of her situation, and in a few
days she expired, in the arms of her devoted and distract-
ed lover.
Aware that he could but a little while survive the loss,
which had thus overwhelmed him and made life to him of
no longer desire, Machin spent the few succeeding days
in erecting a memorial, to perpetuate the story of the
fidelity, the affection, and the misfortunes of their loves.
And as he was breathing almost his last respiration, he
entreated his followers, that his own remains might be in-
terred in the bosom of the same grave with his beioved
Anna. The request of Machin was religiously complied
with, and the bodies of the lovers slept together at the
foot of an erected altar, beneath the overhanging boughs
of a wide-spreading tree, against the stupendous stem of
which a cedar cross was placed, which seems to have
been venerated in the changes of time, as it yet occupies
its original position, to awaken the sympathy of the passer-
by, while he reads the story of Robert Machin and Anna
D'Arfet. Thus terminated the sad tale of these two un-
fortunate lovers. And thus, and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 81
" Far from their own, their native land they slept ;
No pitying kindred o'er their relics wept !
Madeira's earth enshrined the hapless pair,
The first who lived, who loved, who perished there."
On the memorial, however, which Machin had left to
perpetuate the affecting tale of his own and his loved
one's fate, was a request that if, at any future period, a
colony should be planted upon the island by Christians,
they would erect on the spot a church, to be consecrated
to the Redeemer of mankind. The pious request of the
dying lover has been complied with ; and a church, dedi-
cated as desired, now occupies the memorable spot.
After the death of their leader, the distressed followers
of Machin left the island, whether in the boat which they
had preserved, or in a larger craft which they construct-
ed for the purpose, is not said ; and they made the Afri-
can coast, which lies about three hundred miles from the
island of Madeira. They were captured by the Barbary
powers and carried to Morocco, where they fell in with
their old companions, who had been driven on the same
shores and lost their vessel. While they were all confined
in slavery, the topic of their adventures was often the sub-
ject of their conversation, all of which Juan de Morales,
a Spaniard, was particular in observing, and treasuring
in his memory. He questioned them about the island,
and all particulars which he deemed of interest as to its
locality, beauty, and worth. With this information
he was soon afterwards ransomed, by the particular in-
tervention of the king of Spain ; but while returning to
his own country, he was taken prisoner and carried into
Lisbon by Joao Gonsalves Zarco, a Portuguese naviga-
tor, to whom he narrated the particulars, which he had
gained from the party of English, who had been his fel-
low prisoners at Morocco.
Zarco, imbued with the spirit of adventure, communi-
cated the intelligence which he had gained from the Span-
iard to the Infant Henry of Portugal, whose mother was
the daughter of Edward III. of England. The Prince
Henry submitted the information to his brother, Don
John, the king of Portugal, who immediately ordered a
ship to be got in readiness for Zarco, who undertook,
82 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
without delay, to make the discovery of the island of which
they had gained this account. He sailed on the first of
June, 1419, and reached Porto Santo, which had been
discovered a few years before, and was held by the For-
guese. He made a short stay. The inhabitants inform-
ed him that off at the westward, a dark stupendous object
was always seen, which loomed up in the distance, but
which they had never approached from its dismal appear-
ance, and which, with the superstitious apprehensions of
the age, they regarded as the haunt of demons and evil
spirits. The adventurous navigator having seen too ma-
ny dangers to be alarmed by this representation of the
supposed residence of evil genii, set off on his course, and
soon made the island for which he steered ; and as he gained
a nearer view of the dark object as it first presented itself
to the sight, he thought the lightsome beauty of its green
sides, more nearly than any other known land, realized the
fancy of a region of fairies, and a scene of the golden age.
At the bay they first entered, Zarco sent one of his
followers on shore to make what discoveries might pre-
sent themselves. He landed at the very spot which the
English voyagers had but lately occupied. They soon
traced their way to the place where the unfortunate lov-
ers were interred. The altar and the cross with the
inscription were soon discovered, and the spot, in com-
memoration of the misfortunes of the unhappy Machin,
received the name of Machico, which it still retains.
The company having returned to the ship with their in-
teresting report to Zarco, he, accompanied by two priests,
went on shore, and on the same day, the 2d of July, 1419,
made a pious visit to the tomb of the two lovers. The
ceremonial of thanksgiving for the discovery of the island
was performed, and formal possession of the same, in the
name of the king of Portugal, was taken, to whose domin-
ions the island has ever since been attached. The ser-
vice for the dead, according to the Roman ritual, was
then said at the sepulchre, and the ceremonies concluded
by laying the first corner-stone of the church, which, ac-
cording to the request of Machin, was dedicated to the
Redeemer of the world, and subsequently the edifice
was completed, by the materials from the tree that shel-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 83
tered, during their residence on the island, the followers
of the devoted Machin and Anna D'Arfet. The pavement
of the cnoir was intersected with the bones of the unfor-
tunate lovers, whose story has served to add romance to
this green isle of the ocean, and which history has digni-
fied by repeating, with how much truth we stop not to in-
quire, and care not particularly to know. But we do
know, that nowhere else could the unfortunate Machin
and the lovely Anna d'Arfet have found a sweeter spot
to repose their mingled dust, until it awake again for the
ever-green youth of ever-blooming years. So ends the
legend of Machin and Anna d'Arfet.
Zarco found the island so thickly coated with immense
forest trees, that he gave it the name of Madeira, or Mat-
tera, which signifies THE ISLE OF WOOD. Proceeding still
further along to the west he came to an open bay, which
he deemed to be the most favorable site for the capital of
the island. As the spot was remarkable for its large
quantities of fennel, which is Funchal in the Portuguese
language, he gave this name to the location from this bo-
tanical association, which has been retained up to the
present time.
Zarco transmitted his favorable reports to the king ; and
Madeira having become a part of the Portuguese domin-
ions, Joao Gonsalves Zarco was justly appointed to the
government of the island. The king also dignified Zarco
with the rank of nobility. And that he might add impor-
tance to these his newly acquired possessions, Don John
sent three young noblemen from his palace to espouse
the three daughters of Zarco, whom the king had endow-
ed with large tracts of land in the island ; and from these,
it is said, the principal families of Madeira are de-
scended.
The island of Madeira has been known to Americans
principally for its wines ; and in former years, on account
of the quantities of bread-stuffs which were imported in-
to the island from the United States. In later years the
number of vessels arriving here from the United States
has diminished ; while it is still a matter of some interest
in our commerce.
The principal part of the trade is in the hands of the
84 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
English merchants, who have their permanent residences
on the island, with their families.
THE GRAPE, AND MODE OF MAKING WINJE.
The following particulars in connection with the culti-
vation of the vine and the manner of securing its product,
may not be uninteresting, as given, in substance, in a
sketch by Mr. Bowditch. The best kind of grapes for
making wine are the Bual, Sercial, Verdelha, Negro
Mole, and Malvasia. They are said not to be palatable,
as eating fruit. The vines are propagated by cuttings,
which are planted in trenches. The usual mode of train-
ing the vines is on trellises, made of common cane, and
from two to three feet above the ground. The com-
mencement of gathering the grapes for pressing is early
in September. The grapes are first trodden by the feet,
in a trough made of wood, or excavated in the rocks ;
and the first juice, thus expressed, is distinguished as the
vinho da flor. The bruised grapes are then collected
within the coils of a thick rope, made of the twisted
shoots of the vine, and repeatedly subjected to the press
for the second quality, called must. This is mixed, usual-
ly, with the vinho da flor, and transferred the same day
into casks to ferment. The rapidity of the fermentation
depends partly on the warmth of the weather, and also on
the perfect maturity of the grape. The more violent
action commonly ceases in about a month or six weeks;
but a certain degree of fermentation continues to go on,
particularly in the richer qualities of vines. The liquors
are clarified by a kind of gipsum, brought chiefly from
Spain. This is the last process of the operation. Neai
the beginning of the year the wine is racked from the lees.
In the case of the Tinto wine made of the black grapes,
(negro mole,) the grapes undergo only one pressure from
the lever, and are afterwards drained through a sieve,
which allows the husks and seeds to pass, the stalks only
remaining behind. The whole is put into a vat open at
the top and strained three or four times during the day,
until the fermentation has ceased. Then it is racked off
into casks.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 85
In making the white wines, the different kinds of grapes
are commonly mixed together, except the Malvasia or
Malmsey, and the Sercial. The Malmsey grapes are
suffered to ripen for a month later than any other, until
the skin begins to shrivel. The Malmsey grape is pro-
duced only on a few spots, enjoying a peculiar warmth of
exposure. The grape does not always produce a sweet
wine. Indeed it only does so in one or two situations. In
other cases sugar, burnt by a particular wood, is thrown in.
The Sercial also will succeed only in particular spots.
The quantity produced scarcely equals fifty pipes a year.
A quantity of brandy, from two gallons a pipe and up-
wards, is generally thrown into the wines intended for ex-
portation, with the exception, it is said, of the Tinto. In
the war time, when, from the great demand, the mer-
chants were unable to keep a great stock on hand, it was
usual to ripen the wines by the use of stoves, raising the
heat gradually from 60 to 100 degrees ; and it is still the
practice to subject a certain portion of the vintage to the
operation of this artificial temperature. The mellowness
of the wine is no doubt thus accelerated, but at some ex-
pense of the delicacy of its flavor.
The average quantity of the produce throughout the
island is one pipe to the acre, though in some instances
four pipes have been obtained.
The wine from the north of the island is generally in-
ferior in quality. It is nearly all consumed on the island,
or converted into brandy. There are about twelve distil-
leries. Three pipes of wine make one of brandy.
The quantity of wine produced during the five preced-
ing years, according to a statement furnished me by the
American Consul, is as follows :
In 1834, 15,000 pipes.
In 1835, 15,500 "
In 1836, 29,000 "
In 1837, 29,000* "
* The Malmsey wine has been known formerly as forming a lux-
uriant beverage of the more opulent classes in England. It is fre-
quently mentioned by Shakspeare, and is seen in all the accounts
of ancient feasts, and in the household books of the nobility of form-
8
86 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
As I descended the gangway to the deck, on the last
evening of our stay at Madeira, the First Lieutenant, with
his usual and always amiable smile, exclaimed, " Why,
Mr. T., you like to have been left we only wait for the
departure of some gentlemen, who have been dining with
the Commodore, before we weigh anchors." An hour
afterwards, and all hands were called to unmoor ship.
The frigate's last boat had left the shore at sunset, but
as I saw no movement on board either of the two ships, I
ventured to delay a half hour, with the design of being
pushed offin a shore-boat. I was on my way for a ramble
through the buildings occupied by the Franciscans, before
they were banished from the island. By their tenets, this
order of monks exclude themselves from all participation
in other possessions than houses for their lodgings ; acting
literally on the precept, " provide neither gold nor silver;"
they were to beg for their living, and to pursue the course
of profoundest humility, in the externals of dress, food, and
their general intercourse with men, as well as in their pri-
vate communion with their God. But after the death of
St. Francis, their founder, succeeding generals of their or-
der encouraged a mitigation of the strict rules of St. Fran-
cis, while the fraternity yet remained mendicants, but en-
joyed, from various Popes, certain privileges which yield-
ed them revenues for their comfortable living. Formerly,
there were three branches of the general institution in
Funchal. - Their convent, to which I was directing my
way, once exhibited, in its spacious building, one small
chamber, displaying a peculiar furniture. Its ceilings and
walls were covered with human skulls and thigh-bones, so
arranged as to form a triangle, with skulls at each point.
A figure of St. Francis was balancing the representation
of a saint and a sinner, to ascertain which was the heavier
er times. The Duke of Clarence, according to English historians,
was drowned in a butt of it ; and whether from any particularly
inspiring property it possesses, we do not pretend to say, but a cer-
tain portion of this sweet wine is allowed, as the annual stipend of
the poet laureat. It was formerly brought to England from Malvisia, a
town on the east coast of the Morea, from whence it derived its name.
And from the grape, originally transplanted from Malvisia to Ma-
deira, as is supposed, the modern Malmsey is produced.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 87
of the two. A lamp suspended from the ceiling threw its
dim light on the skeleton scene, which it were better should
have been veiled by a curtain of darkness. The number
of bones in this collection was deemed more than three
thousand. But with the banishment of this order of friars
from the island, this chamber of skeletons no longer re-
mains a relic of Franciscan taste, although nothing has
surprised me more than the collection of skulls and their
associate bones, which have met my eye within the few
days of my visit to the island. The phrenologist might
have made a collection of any amount of these sad relics,
to deck the shelves of his lecture-room.
I did not reach the point of the walk which I had pro-
posed to myself. Mr. B., a friend, met me, and repeated
inquiries which the interesting Clementina, whom I first
saw in her assumed character of nun, at the convent, had
made. I left for her cordial assurances of interest, which
the incidents of the convent would render permanent,
among my acceptable recollections of the green isle of
Madeira. I regretted that the ship's boat, by which I
was to visit the shore for the last time, was on the eve of
leaving the ship at the moment of her visiting the frigate
during the morning, with her father. It is a strange fata-
lity, which seems often to guide our steps. By strange
coincidences we meet. As strangers, we are surprised
at the interest which a passing interview with the stranger
has awakened. The golden chain of sympathy has wound
yet another coil around the heart. And when we hope
again to meet, some fatality has forbidden ; and then comes
the passing salutation ; and then, the wave, the surge, the
ocean, bear us on our separate courses, like divergent rays
of light, each moment of their flight, further and still
further apart.
Some of the stragglers from the John Adams were has-
tening to their boat, expecting every moment to see her
sails fall. With an admonition to another idler from the
Columbia, who proposed delaying until nine o'clock, to
finish his notes on shore, I placed myself in a shore-boat,
yet dry upon the pebbled beach. Two athletic oarsmen
were in their seats, when four others of their associates
watched the movement of the in-rolling breaker, and as it
88 A VOYAGE ABOUND THE WORLD.
was returning to the sea, launched our light bark on the
mimic billow, which bore us to the unbroken water from
off the beach. A pull of a half hour brought us within
the hail of the sentry, in the chains of the good Columbia
Descending to the ward-room, I found the Consul tak
ing tea with the gentlemen of the mess.
" Well, Mr. T.," said the Consul, as he rose to welcome
me, " I was just devising how I should entertain the chap-
lain if you had chanced to be left."
" Sat cito si sat tuto," I replied soon enough if safe
enough. He had my thanks for the entertainment he had
already so politely extended, and here (I held up a beauti-
ful handful of flowers) was a magnificent bunch of gera-
niums from his grounds, which would remind me of the
Consulate when the green isle had sunk far in the distance.
The gentlemen from shore soon after left the ship, and
"all hands to up anchor, ahoy," was piped along the
decks ; and soon the music, to which the men walked
around with the capstan, was heard mingling with the
occasional clank of the coming in of the iron cable.
And now we leave thee, sweet Madeira, with all thy
flower-enamelled hills, and geranium avenues, and hedges
of roses, and terraces of ever-green and ever-blooming
shrubs, and trellises of vines, and embowered quintas, with
balcony and turret. But not all of thee shall we leave,
for of thee we have treasured up thoughts that may not
die. Yet fare thee well, thou green isle ! Henceforth thou
shalt lie, as a beautiful thing, in my memory. And the
names of some who dwell among thy garden-flowers, are
treasured where they are not to be forgotten. The shades
of evening have shut in, and only the lights that gleam
from thy balconies tell me where lie thy beautiful parterres.
But the clear blue sky spreads its canopy of early eve
above thy shaded isle. And I have now given to ye all
my last look, and seek my room. Then,
Good-night, good-night ! one star is o'er you peering,
As 'cross the wave our gallant ship is steering ;
Good-night, good-night ! ye'll calmly seek your pillow,
While we, afar, are toss'd upon the billow.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 89
SECTION IV.
Ships stand south. Sunday exercises. Meeting of friends in another world.
A grasshopper visits the ship. His message a true one. Cape de Verdes.
General quarters. Crossing the Line. Star-gazing. The old eagle at
home. Reefing. An Extract. A Naval toast. A man overboard. Me-
mory of the departed arid loved. South American coast in sight. Moon-
light scene. Entering the narrow pass to the harbor of Rio de Janeiro.
Music at sundown.
OUR two ships have been standing on their southwest-
erly course, from Madeira, for several days, without any
incident of particular interest occurring. It has been a
leisure moment for reviewing the scenes which presented
themselves to us at Madeira, the fairy isle which cannot
fail to originate in the mind of the visiter many pleasur-
able visions, and always be recalled in the future, among
the most welcome memories.
On the first Sunday out of Madeira, after the religious
exercises of the day, one of the Lieutenants joined me as
I was pacing the quarter-deck, and expressed his persua-
sion that he would become religious if one idea could be
made certain to him, which I had advanced in my morn-
ing's discourse. It related to the meeting of friends, and
their recognition of each other, in another world. That
Christian friends will meet in heaven, and there recognise
each other, I believe to be the general drift of the Scrip-
tures. " To depart, and to be with Christ, is far better,"
is the language of St. Paul, applicable to all Christians
as well as to the Apostle. And if Christians shall all be
with Christ, they, by consequence, will be with each other.
And retaining their memories, as one constituent part of
their mental and responsible being, they must, as associate
and social spirits, recognise each other, in their eternal
intercourse in the society of the redeemed.* This young
* See this subject treated at length in " ELLA V , OR THE JULY
TOUR," written by the author of the Flag Ship, wherein the travel-
ling party is represented as holding several conversations on the sub-
ject, while visiting the beautiful burial grounds at Mount Auburn,
near Boston.
8*
90 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
gentleman's interest in the subject of which he spoke was
sincere ; and he has had my sympathy and solicitude for
his highest happiness for this and the coming world.
We infer that land is not far from us, as a grasshop-
per has made his off-shore leaps, to visit so strange a thing
as a man-of-war. Had he been a Malay, perhaps we
should have asked him questions about his so unceremoni-
ously boarding us. And what must have been his surprise,
as he cautiously crawled up our sides and took his first
view of our fearful decks, with their threatening forty-two
pounders lining their long bulwarks, with perforations,
through which " death and destruction" bear forth to their
enemies " blood and carnage sounding with death-groans."
And then, as he looked upon the four or five hundred
tarpaulin-headed sons of the ocean, moving over the decks
of the sea-monster here, in unison pulling upon some
sinew of the moving animal, or there, easing a strain upon
one of her tiring wings ; then, as he saw certain timid
young gentlemen waiting, with expectant attention, the
order of the deck-officer, who was about to speak big
words through a trumpet ; and then, as he sat on the lee
gunwale and cast his eye to the quarter-deck, and caught
a look at a venerable and graceful old gentleman in gold
lace and epaulets and bright buttons, moving backwards
and forwards in commanding dignity and self-possession ;
and then, as he gazed upon the bright things, and the
dark things, and the painted things, and the double edged
things, and the confused things, and the straight things,
and the crooked things, surely, his agitated bosom must,
at length, have heaved in fearful and profound surprise.
Ah ! Mr. Grasshopper ! not I should like to have been
upon thy trembling legs. In fearful haste to re-seek my
forsaken land-home, I should, with a single leap, have re-
laved my grasshopper sides !
The grasshopper's message was a true one. At meri-
dian, the cry of "land ho !" told us, that we were sailing
through the pass between the islands of the Cape de
Verdes Saint Jago on our right and the Isle of May on
our left. The jagged outlines of St. Jago present a pecu-
liar appearance, lower than Madeira, but barren, as we
see it through the mists which render its base indistinct,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 91
and its more elevated points devoid of other interest than that
found in the varied shades which its nearer prominences,
in contrast with the further-in ravines, produce, while the
blending of the irregular tops of the cragged peaks, repre-
sents the troubled waves of a rolling ocean, when render-
ed partially indistinct by the mists which sweep over its
gray bosom.
GENERAL dUARTERS.
A proud frigate with all her equipments of war, and
tracery of cordage, and sheets of canvass, is always an
object to secure the gazer's admiration for her beauty and
grandeur. But nowhere, save in the storm, is the interest
which one feels as he stands upon her deck, more intense,
than during the profound silence that occurs at general
quarters.
A few rolls of the drum beat the call to quarters, first
slow, then quicker, and in another moment the thrilling
roll has ceased, giving only time for every man to reach
his place. The officers, with their swords in hand, are at
the position they would occupy in an engagement. The
men are at their guns. The magazine is opened, and the
passers of powder occupy their stations, forming a line to
the decks from the depository of the fearful agent, which
is to do the deeds of destruction, devastation, and death.
A hasty review of each division is gone through by its offi-
cer, who reports his division to the commanding officer
as ready for action ; when he returns again in silence, to
wait the orders which are to succeed. It is, at this mo-
ment, a stillness reigns through the ship, so hushed, that a
single sigh could almost be heard ; and the step of the
commanding officer sounds, as he paces the deck back-
wards and forwards, as if he were the solitary being that
possessed the ship. The deep stillness impresses the soul
[ike the ominous foreboding which precedes the earth-
quake, or as the interlude between the eruptions of the
volcano.
Such was the scene exhibited to-day, June 12th. The
Bea was calm. The sails hung flat to the masts. The
beat to quarters had rolled through the ship ; and in an-
92 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
other moment, every man was at his station. The ship's
crew had been almost daily exercised at the guns, that
they might become familiar with their management ; but
to-day their evolutions were to include the discharge of
four rounds of canister. The order was given, and the
double broadside, with the thunder of sixty cannon, boomed
over the wide sea. Then the irregular cannonading suc-
ceeded, each division vieing with the others, in their en-
deavor to exceed, in quickness of action, the discharge
of the others' pieces, while the successive and quick report
of musketry was heard from the upper deck.
I had passed from the magazine to the berth-deck dur-
ing the action, where I met the surgeon. For a moment
the cannonading had ceased. The hatch of the gun-deck
was hurriedly raised, and the word passed for the surgeon.
The doctor, attended by one of his assistants, was immedi-
ately at the spot, where a wounded sailor was lying, with
a lacerated arm dripping with blood, and two fingers
blown from his hand. The accident occurred in conse-
quence of the bursting of a powder-horn while re-priming
a gun, a portion of an ignited match having remained upon
the breech after the match had been unsuccessfully applied
to the priming tube. Others, who were standing about
the gun, were slightly wounded. The principal sufferer
had his hand and arm immediately dressed, and was con-
veyed, in a cot, after the closing of the magazine, to a
position in the sick-bay. A few hours afterwards, he was
carried to a yet more comfortable place on the gun-deck.
I went to the sick-bay after the mock-fight was over, and
found some half a dozen of the men having their slight
cuts and bruises bandaged.
There is seldom any good we would secure, which is
not attended by some evil, in the way of our obtaining it.
And the very accidents which occur on these occasions
of exercise, show the necessity of their repetition, that
the crew may become familiar with their duty, and be
saved from greater destruction, in case of any necessity
for conducting a general engagement with an enemy ; or
in sustaining the proper dignity of the national flag. Our
men-of-war, even in times of peace, are often placed in
circumstances, critical in themselves, and requiring the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 93
self-possession of confident preparation, to enable a com-
mander to act with the dignity which his station, as the
protector of our commerce in foreign ports, or as the
politic negotiator, requires. The crew have also been
drilled in the use of small-arms, and exercised in the
evolutions for boarding with the pikes and cutlasses, as
well as in the calling away of the firemen with their water-
buckets, in case of the critical situation of the ship on fire.
When the exercises of our guns were over, volumes of
dense smoke were seen to issue from the ports of the
John Adams, now lying on our larboard quarter ; and in
a moment more, the roar of her cannon told us that she
was following the motions of the Columbia.
We are nearing the line this evening, if we have not
already bounded over it. Our latitude at meridian, July
17th, was 49' North. We are driving along finely, with
royals set and filled with the fresh trades from the south-
east. The night is fine ; and the contrast of variables
and calms which have attended us for a few days past,
renders our present good fortune doubly acceptable, .and
conducive to make us all good-natured. The breeze
comes blandly upon the cheek, while dark clouds, in
their characteristic gray of the trades, form a panoramic
view in the horizon. The sun fell beneath a serrated
vapor bank, and lighted up its cragged peaks with a
fringe of gold. The twilight was brief, while the strag-
gling gray clouds began to assume a dull but soft bottle-
green color, deepening as they sailed through a back-
ground, which changed from the faintest light to a shade
of pink, as delicate as the softest blush on the cheek of
loveliest lady. And now above us, and higher up than
ever before I had seen her riding through her azure halls,
every moment deepening in their blue, the lovely Diana
moved on her course serene, with a night-brilliant thrown
carelessly upon her western horn, as if to pioneer her
way of gems and purple.
I was on the horse-block with the surgeon, looking at
the scene in the west, and inhaling the delightful breeze
of the evening's earliest hour, which, although in the
temperature of 82 F. to-night, reminded me of the
bracing atmosphere of earliest nothern autumnal days.
94 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" Two idlers here, that should be ordered to the deck,"
said the First Lieutenant, as he made a third upon the
horse-block.
" And that fringe of gold thereaway, is worth looking
at and remembering, as seen on the eve when we were
on the widest point of earth and ocean," I repeated.
" Fine, indeed," continued the First Luff. " But, Doc-
tor, do you see the Line yet ? It strikes me that you and
Mr. T. look as if you might need shaving before morning."
" The Line has not snubbed us yet," added Lieut. W.,
who had also joined the party, " but there goes a bird,
and there another. They are as great boobies as our-
selves, for being here ; at least, Jack calls them boobies,
as they sometimes light upon the ship, and in an instant
seem to be asleep, and suffer themselves to be taken."
" See you that ?" added Lieutenant P., approaching the
horse-block and pointing to a bank of clouds, which had
already caught our admiration, and had not yet lost its
edge of gold.
" And Diana too, with her bright-eyed greyhound, on
her evening hunt, see you not that also ?" I pointed to
the beautiful moon, having at this moment nearly the
same right ascension with Jupiter, who, in his brilliant
white light, at this hour of early evening, appeared,
though intensely more bright, of the size of a star of the
fourth magnitude.
We lingered on the side-steps, and talked of olden
customs, when crossing the Line ; and chatted of other
things, like a group of idlers, enjoying the sweet hour
and the lovely scene, and snuffing the soft air, while we
were gliding finely through the waters, with our sails
trimmed on a tack which, with the southeast trades, we
expected would last, almost without touching a cord, for
a dozen days to come.
A boy from the ward-room approached, and touching
his hat, said that tea was ready. The horse-block and
the tea-table have their separate temptations ; and we
left the sociability of the one, and the gorgeous scene
contemplated from it, for the cheer and the chat of the
other.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 95
STAR-GAZING AT SEA.
It is a glorious thing, that gemmed blue sky, which
nightly arches its spangled canopy over the head of the
voyager. I have long and often amused myself in read-
ing the bright night-lights, as they have gleamed in their
mellowed beauty of distance and brightness. I have
watched the north polar-star, from night to night, as it
sank lower and lower towards the horizon, telling me
that I was receding further and still further from the
land of my home ; until, at last, it sat to be seen no more,
until our ship should retrace her course from a southern
to re-enter a northern hemisphere. The eye, however,
still lingers on the dipper of the northern bear, which has
served to point out to one the position of the polar gem,
and still tells him where the sunken brilliant gleams, to
delight the eyes of gazers beneath another zenith. But.
to me, one star, more dear than any other, attracts and
holds my gaze, in the region of the north. Nor is there
a lovelier gem in the heavens. It shines like the ever-
varying but ever-brilliant hues of the diamond in a well
lighted hall, giving forth its translucent gleam of light,
now of palest green, and then of blue, and red, and some-
times, in its ceaseless twinkling scintillations, deepening
to the blue of indigo, while undiminished in its brilliancy
and light. It is Lyra, of the constellation of the Harp.
And it is my natal star, reaching its meridian in the
month and nearly on the day of my birth. And it gleams
almost in the zenith of the region that marks the home
of my youth ; and reminds me of hours when, with others,
I have gazed upon it for its brightness and beauty.
Nor is it only our own private associations which awake,
when the stars are the objects of one's contemplation.
The thoughts go back to olden times, when the sages of
other lands and periods gazed upon the same bright orbs ;
and astrologers read them as if they might find, in their
hidden lore, the secret of immortal years and the fortunes
of princes, and armies, and kingdoms, as well as the un-
developed destinies of the private adventurer, and the
hidden fortunes of the agitated and expectant lover. But
96 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
how deep is the sleep that has gathered over the closed
eyes of all that multitude of millions, who, like ourselves,
have gazed on the same undying lights which awake our
admiration, and still gleam in the heavens for the delight
of generations yet to come ! It is no unwelcome revery
of the mind, while looking upon these bright orbs, to re-
call the recorded feelings with which others have mused,
like ourselves, on the blue heavens, hung in their gorgeous
display, inwrought and inlaid by the hand of Deity.
How many philosophers have gazed on these same lumina-
ries, with lingering eyes and longing minds, to read the true
theory of their motions and matter ! But the far-ancient
solved not the problem : his theories all failed somewhere.
But though ever fanciful, they were yet often beautiful
imaginings ; and not unfrequently were blended with ideas
strikingly sublime. Far off, in that yonder region of the
north, Cosmas Indopleastes, who supposed this earth an
immense plane with an insurpassable ocean washing its
circular edge, placed a conical mountain. Around this
he conjectured that the stars performed their daily revo-
lution ; and the sun also, with an oblique motion, by which
the different lengths of the days and the seasons were
accounted for. But the stars and the sun itself, were
borne on in their several courses by celestial spirits.
And olden bards have sung the same starry glories,
in strains which associate their ancient reveries with the
mystic dreamings of the philosophers. Long-haired
lopas, as Virgil's heroics tell us, tuned his gilded lyre to
what the mighty Atlas taught ; whence the race of men
and beasts ; whence Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, and the
two northern cars ; why winter suns make so much haste
to set in the ocean, and what retarding cause detains the
slow summer nights.*
And Manilius, in the age of Augustus Caesar, also
mused in numbers on the beautiful star of Lyra, as
" ONE, placed in front above the rest,
A vigorous light ;"
and the story of Orpheus carries us back to the period of
* " Cithara crinitus lopas
Personat aurat&, docuit quae maximus Atlas.
Hie canit erratem Lunam, Solisque labores ;
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 97
the Argonauts. The constellation of which Lyra is the
principal star, as ancient legend tells us, is the celestial
Harp, with which Apollo gifted Orpheus. As he touched
its strings, rivers paused in their flow, and the forest-beast
forgot his wildness, and hill and mountain moved to
listen to his song. And when he had lost his lovely
Eurydice, his bride, from the land of the nymphs, his
grief led him to the lower regions of Pluto and Pro-
serpine, in search of her. He touched his lyre in their
hearing, and so moved their pity, that they consented to
restore Eurydice to him, with the single condition that
he should not cast back his eyes upon his beautiful bride,
before he had reached the outer border of their dark
dominions. But, while already in sight of the upper re-
gions of the air, Orpheus cast back one longing look upon
his beloved Eurydice. He saw her ; but the next mo-
ment she was beyond his future sight. He could not
re-enter the regions of Pluto ; and on earth his grief led
him to forsake all society of his species. This behavior
so incensed the Thracian ladies, as story tells us, that
they destroyed the lyric bard and harper, and threw into
the river Hebrus his head, which continued to articulate,
as it glided down the stream to the ^Egean sea, " Eury-
dice ! Eurydice ! Eurydice !"
Such is the legend of Orpheus, decreed divine honors
after his death, and his lyre placed among the constella-
tions of the heavens. It is not madness to dream, in le-
gends, when gazing on the stars.
The music of the spheres, we know, is another olden
idea Pythagoras representing Apollo as playing upon a
seven-stringed harp ; by which, we are informed by Pli-
ny, is meant the sun and the seven planets. To this har-
mony of the spheres, Euripides thus beautifully alludes :
" Thee I invoke, thou self-created Being, who gave
birth to nature, and whom light and darkness, and the
whole train of globes encircle with eternal music."
But it is in Shakspeare, we may find allusion to almost
Unde hominum genus et pecudes ; unde imber, et ignes ;
Arcturum, pluriasque Hyades, geminosque Triones
Quid tantum Oceano properant se tingere Soles
Hiberni, vel quad tardis mora noctibus obstet"
98 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
every thing ; and as no other bard has described, and no
other muse has sung. What can surpass the lines I copy here?
" Look, how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ;
There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,
But in his motion, like an angel, sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim :
Such harmony is in immortal souls ;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it"
But as I turn from the beautiful star Lyra, my eye rests,
not far off in the S. W., on Arcturus, " the brightest, the
fairest of the stars," another favorite, but all unlike the
soft and modest Lyra. It shone, in its beautiful red light,
almost in our zenith at Madeira, and by some is deemed
the star of the heavens nearest to our earth, as it is cer-
tainly one of the brightest and loveliest of the heavens.
And its associations bear us back to sacred records as
well as to pagan legends. Surely nothing can be sub-
limer than some of the allusions of the sacred penmen,
when penetrated by a profound sense of the omnipotence
of the Deity, as seen in his works. What can be finer,
or more thrilling, as an exhortation to a spirit that ac-
knowledges its responsibility to the Eternal God, than the
following? " Seek him that maketh the seven stars, and
Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning."
And Job represents the Eternal as demanding, " Knowest
thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou bind the
sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of
Orion ? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his sea-
son, or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ?* And
this is language, supposed to have been written, at least,
3351 years ago. And on that same star gazed the patient
Job, at that far-back period ; and on the same luminary,
that loses nought of its loveliness or brightness with its
years, also gazed the " priests of On," in the land of the
mighty Pharaohs, from one of whom Pythagoras gained his
knowledge of the theory of the heavens, and introduced the
true system of the universe into Greece ; and the daughter
of another, Pharaoh wisely gave to Joseph, as a bride.
* Job xxxviii 31-33.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 99
The stars of the southern hemisphere strike one as
being fewer, but brighter and more distinct, than those of
the northern. The stars of the first magnitude appear at
greater intervals from each other, and less surrounded by
smaller stars, and nebula. The constellation which al-
ways attracts the voyager from the north, who has never
before crossed the Line, is the southern cross. This is
composed of four distinctly bright stars, forming the four
points of a cross, one of the first magnitude, two of the
second, and one of the third or fourth. It is a beautiful
constellation ; and no wonder that it should have attract-
ed, with deep interest, the daring discoverers, who sailed
in an age when the cross was the emblem which gave
license to conquest, and enthusiasm and zeal to the bad
and the good, on the land and on the sea.
" He who admires not, to the stars is blind."
The Aquila, or the Eagle, has also attracted my atten-
tion for its beauty, being favorably situated for our ob-
servation, on our passage from the Madeiras to the Bra-
zils. Its central red brilliant, called Altair, and a lunar
star, is a lovely gem of the heavens ; and it requires not
a vived imagination to fancy it the bright eye of the bird
of Jove, though the fanciful resemblances appropriated,
by the ancients, to the constellations, have but little re-
semblance in reality, in the adjustment of the stars in
their appropriate places. And what American can gaze
at the Eagle and not think of the emblem in his own na-
tional escutcheon :
" The bird, above the world that dwells alone,
And proudly makes the strength of rocks his own."
They say he is a noble bird. His bearing, at least, has been
a proud one on the banners of many nations. The Roman
standard, as it displayed its graceful folds, spread the wings
of the favorite bird over the hill and vale of every known
land; and Napoleon preferred the undaunted eagle, an
emblem of his own towering spirit, to the fleur de lis.
When shall that standard, which our own gallant
barque is now bearing, with honorable designs, in her
voyage around the world, cease to be, as it now surely
100 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
is, the emblem of as happy may I not say the happiest
nation of the globe ? There are those, who seem to see
the period, when we shall cease longer to be a united
people. It seems almost the fashionable slang of the
times, to predict the period of our dismemberment, in lan-
guage, which, but a few years ago, it had been treason to
use. But is there no sublimer destiny before a nation,
which the hand of Deity seems so strikingly to have
guided to independence and greatness, than what the po-
litical croakers of the day have marked out for us ? Let
them read the past. There have been crises, which our
country has met there have been shoals, that threatened
shipwreck to the beautiful vessel of state, which,. thus far,
in safety, has borne the charter of our rights, liberty, and
blessed happiness; but we have weathered the threatening
shoal, and the crested breaker. Why shall we not still
be able to guide the national interests, though storm, and
tempest, and whirlwind may sweep over us in succession,
and devastation often follow in their train? The ship
may still ride safely on the threatening billow, though dis-
mantled ; and like oil spread upon the ocean, producing a
calm to the surge, so the clear interest of the whole people
must ever allay the gale of sectional passion, before it
shall have for ever crushed the hopes of the good, and
veiled in darkness the memories of the past, by a reckless
forgetfulness of the glory and the moral worth and the
treasured happiness which our forefathers, in their onward
vision of the future, bequeathed to yet unborn genera-
tions of the American people.
For one, I believe not in the prophecies of political
demagogues, or the maturer apprehensions of more sober
and juster men. Every day increases those bonds of self-
interest, which must preserve us a united nation. Sec-
tional interest must yield, and will yield, and general
sacrifices will be made, when the periods of the greatest
excitement come. Mutual concession, as in times past,
shall save us ; and the God who led our armies, and has
guided us thus far in the pathway of national prosperity
and happiness, ought to receive, in view of the onward
probabilities of our continued union, the devout acknow-
ledgment of every American heart.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 101
The transition of thought from one subject to another
is quicker than the passages of light from one electric
cloud to its fellow. We fly from the grave to the light,
from the sad to the joyous, from the private to the public,
and the contrary. And are there not other and private
musings for me, while gazing on the Aquila the constel-
lation of the Eagle ? Yes, I do remember me of summer
and autumn hours, when I have wandered through the
path of the thick wood, and rustled the leaf when no
other foot was near, and bounded down the ravine and
the steep declivity to the lawn, which stretches along the
most romantic spot of the Connecticut. And then, I have
traced my away along its green bank or sandy shore, and
paused to look upon the still bosom of the silver stream
that lay sleeping like a lake among these highlands, and
almost the only highlands of this lovely stream. Ere
long, if I saw him not already perched upon an old oaken
limb in his solitary home of the high rock, I would soon
catch the image of a gliding eagle moving in solemn and
slow dignity up the reflecting stream ; and one glance
above it would give me to recognise my old familiar friend
on his return to his perch, far up on the almost perpendi-
cular slant of the opposite side of the stream. It seemed
but a sling's throw where that old eagle was wont so oft and
so long to sit. And here we have often sat, and long
have looked at each other, as familiar friends. It seemed
always to me, as if that bird could read my own heart,
and sympathize with its loneliness, I had learned to love
that solitary bird, and to me he was not wild. May I
find thee still, my old friend, at thy hill-home, on my re-
turn. And if thou hast, as I have sometimes thought thou
hadst, a fellow-feeling for a lonely heart, we will again
commune with each other, and think of our mutual wan-
derings to other climes during our parting, and be happy
again to find our olden summer and autumn homes. My
old friend, may I find thee there.*
* It was a welcome coincidence to the writer, on his return, as
he glided down the Connecticut, that the old eagle, at the point
alluded to, was seen scaling in the clear ether above ; and seemed
to slant his graceful pinions in kind and courteous welcome, as he
kept his way high-up and ahead of the steamer, until he was lost
102 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
It is now after eight o'clock in the evening, and I have
just come from the deck, where I have been witnessing
the double-reefing of the topsails. The day has been
squally ; and to-night the wind whistles through the rig-
ging of the ship in notes, which tell how many a poor
mariner a single gale may destine never more to see
country and home.
It is indeed a fine sight, to witness a noble frigate madly
dashing through the billows, as if in defiance of the dark
surges which roll by her, and with supreme contempt for
the winds which howl, in murmurs of the sea-moan, across
her decks ; and at the same moment, one hundred of her
men lying out upon her yards, to clip the wings of the too
nimble bird by knotting the reefs in her bellowing canvass,
and when a landsman would deem their hold upon a yard-
arm a matter of impossibility, in the impetuosity of the
gale. To me such a scene is deeply exciting. Since we
have been out, on no previous occasion has the Columbia
more than single-reefed her top-sails. Most of the time
she has been carrying royals, topgallant-sails, and stud-
ding-sails. The winds have been favorable, and the frig-
ate's cutters could have performed the course in safety.
I should be considerably disappointed not to witness a few
bona fide gales during our cruise. And so firm is my con-
fidence in the stanch qualities of our ship, that I appre-
hend that I could have no fear, in the circumstances of a
hurricane at sea. The fresh gale of this squally night,
which is driving us onward, hardly changes the action of
our vessel from her usual motion ; and as I sit at my wri-
ting-desk in my every way comfortable and snug little
room, at this moment, no one who had not been on deck
would suppose that a mimic gale was raging over the dark
deep, and driving its fleecy sheets of mists over a sea,
lashed into a wild commotion of frenzy and foam. And
in a neighboring state-room, three or four gentlemen are
holding their evening tete-a-tete about Lord Byron, and
other worthies and unworthies, as pleasantly as if they
among the olden trees, where we had often met, and with kindly
feelings, in former days. What trifles, sometimes, will originate
overwhelming emotions !
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 103
were conversing in the ampler and motionless parlor -of a
land-home. But here we are, bounding carelessly over
the blue surge, as if our ship were the very personification
of the wave and the gale, which for the last few hours has
been careering over the high seas, and robing the ocean in
its sombre and white of whirling mists and cascading foam.
An Extract. " In your letter you speak of your love of
home, and unwillingness to leave it for society abroad.
From my own wanderings, you might think differently of
my taste. But, not so. I only go the world around, that
home, hereafter, may have its undisturbed sweets. Surely
do I know that the mere thing of travelling has but little
charm in it for me ; but to see the world as it is, and to
cease to look at it through the imagination, has always been
an object with me ; and without it, I might never be con-
tented, even with my contented disposition. But HOME
there is indeed a charm in that dear word. I love every
letter of the monosyllable for the hallowed associations,
which, when blended, the word awakens. And E. once,
was to me a short home. To you, may it ever prove,
while it shall be so happy as to possess you, a sweet,
happy home. Tell little Rosa, that Mr. T. loves her as
much as ever ; and hopes that she and her mother may
ever be protected and blessed by "our Father, who art in
heaven."
JULY 4th, 1838.
A Naval Toast. Our whole country : As one dark sea-
surge succeeds another but to preserve the purity of the
ocean, so may the waves of sectional jealousies in our land,
only agitate to perpetuate our union.
"A man overboard !" is a frequent cry and occurrence,
at sea. It awoke a few moments since, from our deck.
At such a moment, if the winds be not so high as to pre-
vent it, the mainsail is hauled up the ship thrown aback
and her progress thus checked, the boats are lowered
and search made for the man overboard. All this opera-
tion had been gone through, when it was discovered that
the seaman had fortunately caught the end of some rope,
which, by some oversight, was trailing in the water, and
104 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
thus saved the man, though very much endangering the
back of some negligent lubber whose duty it was to keep
every line in its place.
The John Adams was on our larboard beam, at the
time, and at no great distance from us. Every motion of
each vessel is so narrowly watched by the quarter-masters,
with their glasses alw r ays in their hands, that no movement
of either is long unobserved by the other. The boat of
the Adams was in the water almost as soon as our own,
on the supposition, from our action, that a man was over-
board ; and the boats from the two ships soon neared each
other abaft the frigate ; but instead of extending their dis-
tance until they were lost to our sight, for a drowning man,
they were now endeavoring to find the life buoys, which,
as the first thing, on the cry of a man overboard, are cut
from the stern of the ship. Though it had been dusk for
an hour, the broad beams of the full moon threw over the
waters a flood-way of light, by which the boats at length
were fortunately able to discover the life buoys, and return
to the ships. Again we were on our way of foam ; and
the succeeding morning being the Sabbath, made the text
of the discourse for the day peculiarly appropriate, in view
of the incident of the preceding evening, as it always is in
view of the brevity and the casualties of life : " Behold,
NOW is the day of salvation. 19
I have wept to-day, in memory of one, dear indeed for
her beautiful character and devoted love. I thought of her
last words as she said, " My mind is almost gone brother,
you will take care of me will you not ?" What is there
like a sister's love ? What memory so gentle and affecting
as that which recalls her tenderness, with the conscious-
ness that she waits not to greet your return, as once she
waited, when you had wandered from the family mansion?
How do you see her, as she moved in every path through
every room adjusting the flowers in the parterre, and
arranging the fresh-culled vase upon the mantel-piece of
the parlor, and the table, and the toilet ! And how do you
regret that your heart, ever kind, was not more kind and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 105
your ever delicate attention, was not yet more delicate ?
And when you have been an invalid, who was it that
watched, with the stillest breath and the gentlest step,
around your bedside and over your pillow '( And who,
with the softest hand, has smoothed your pallid brow, and
poured forth the stream of sympathy from a filling eye,
when your own hath languished, and your heart was faint-
ing ? Oh ! it is a sister's love, that will never tire it is a
sister's love, that will never weary nor complain, though
you forget, in your debility, which makes you a child
again, and as an infant, helpless ; and often like an infant
and a child, complaining and impatient. But she, when
others sleep and the watchers faint, steals to your couch
and softly whispers the words of comfort, and gives to
you your simple remedies as no other hand (save your mo-
ther's) presents them. And if you are convalescent, whose
smile is so cheerful whose step at your call is so fleet
whose invention, for your taste, is so varied ? And when
again you breathe the pure air of the window and the
piazza, and at length seek the field, who so gentle, so assidu-
ous, and so much your welcome companion as she, who
has laughed with you, and wept with you, and nourished
you, and read for you, and prayed for you, and suffered
for you, but only suffered half of what she gladly would
have suffered, if your happiness might have been increased.
Surely do I pity him who has no sister and more than
abhor him, who has one and loves her not. But thou,
gentle, dearest, unobtrusive, retiring, and affectionate E.,
thou art gone ! And at thy wintry tomb, but lately made,
have I wept; and memory yet breaks the heart at the
recollection of thy lovely and modest virtues, thy change-
less Christian character, and thy devoted, ceaseless, and
holy love.
Last night, the South American coast was in sight ; and
this noon, the lighthouse, on the bold bluff of Cape Frio,
bears northwest one point north, and distant about seven
miles. We have been standing along the coast during the
morning, while the land has exhibited the appearance, in
its dusky distance, of a chain of dark barren islands. We
shall soon double Cape Frio, as we stand up north and
westerly for the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is distant
106 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
about sixty miles from the light on the bold cape. This
lighthouse is a very picturesque object, elevated upon the
highest cone of several eminences, which form the eleva-
ted ground of the point. In its high position and distance
from us, it looks as if one might measure its length with
his thumb and finger, so small is it in comparison with the
height of the mountain rock, on which it is perched ; and
resembles one of the ever-recurring watch-towers of the
olden Moors, seen along the mountain-heights in the Medi-
terranean.
It was kind in the officer of the deck to send for me, in
the evening, to witness the glorious moon, wading, in her
path of light, through a bank of clouds piled one upon an-
other, and coloring, with gold, the fleecy vapors, banked in
the west. Our ship was gliding easily through the blue
waters, with the courses hauled up, and the top-sails sin-
gle-reefed, with the point of our destination in view, but
the hour was too late to make the entrance of the harbor
of Rio de Janeiro to-night. The Columbia seemed con-
scious of her unusual leisure, on her hitherto untiring course,
and rested in gentle movement on the slightly ruffled sea,
until the earliest light of the coming morning should break
upon her, for her entrance through the beautiful pass called
Pao de Assacar, which lets in from the sea, into the ex-
panded and mountain-bound waters that constitute the har-
bor of Rio de Janeiro. I never before have witnessed
such a moon-lit scene. The brilliant Dian seemed, to-
night, to be abroad in her golden chariot, for the reflection,
on her way, tinged the clouds as deeply as the sun some-
times gilds the east, when the retiring wheels of his day-
car recede deep into the western ocean.
Lieutenant W., with Lieutenant P., was on the horse-
block. I joined them, and together we gazed on the moon,
now edging a long pile of cumuli-clouds, with brilliant and
colored light ; and now appearing half above the gilded
bank, like a sultana, pillowed on her couch of gold and
silver. We gazed at her varied beauties, yet more beau-
tiful in every new movement, as she changed her attitudes
of grace, and freely, from her own loveliness, gave reflected
beauty to all about her.
We talked of the refinement which the contemplation of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 107
nature's lovely scenes produces upon the sensibilities of our
rougher natures. It makes us love the chaste it makes
us abhor the low ; it leads us to respect ourselves, as we
listen to the gentle whispers, which a refinement in percep-
tion and character wakes persuasively in a feeling bosom.
We talked of Byron, as a descriptive poet, ever the favor-
ite of W., who now repeated the lines of the poet, so much
and justly admired for their beauty and truth to nature, as
associated with the sunset scene :
'* Filled with the peace of heaven, which from afar
Comes down upon the waters ; all its hues
From the rich sunset to the rising star,
Their magical variety diffuse :
And now they change ; a paler shadow strews
Its mantle o'er the mountains ; parting day
Dies like a dolphin, whom each pang imbues
With a new color, as it gasps away,
The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone and all is gray."
Our worthy Master came up, and for once (I had never
before seen him sentimental, only when singing love-dit-
ties to himself) said, " Could I but have a true description
of that scene" looking directly at the moon, " I would
send it in an envelope to the north." Well, Master, may
thy bridal-night be as fair and gorgeous as this ; and thine
onward skies clear of all clouds that can threaten diminu-
tion to aught thou hopest of happiness and love.
ENTRANCE INTO RIO HARBOR.
We came through the narrow pass which forms the
inlet from the ocean into the expanded harbor of Rio de
Janeiro, Thursday the 10th July. This pass is exceedingly
striking, grand, and beautiful. It may be a mile wide,
but seems like a creek only, in breadth, as it runs between
the high bluff of the sugar-loaf, which rises more than one
thousand feet, on the left, with the fort and high moun-
tain-side on the right. The evening sea-breeze occurring
regularly here, a ship stands boldly in, passing beneath
the fortified ramparts on either side of the narrow entrance;
and in a few moments more, she lies in an expanded basin
of water, surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, with
108 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
their thousand cones, far off and near, high up and low ;
and their bases studded here with village and there with
villas; and there again and most conspicuously on the
western range, lies the city the white, the panoramic,
and mountain-side city of Rio de Janeiro.
Our anchor had run out its length of cable but a mo-
ment, when boats from the English and French ships of
war were alongside the Columbia with an officer from
each, to tender the compliments of their several command-
ers to our Commodore, and proffering any civility and
assistance which might be acceptable. This is usage and
form ; and is often frank and sincere as it is ceremonious.
Our ships had been telegraphed during the morning ;
and a boat from the U. S. sloop of war Fairfield had pull-
ed out the harbor to meet us ; and before we had reached
our anchorage ground, a salute from the Fairfield was
fired. It was soon returned. The next day salutes were
exchanged with all the ships in port and the municipal
authorities. On succeeding days, when visited by the dif-
ferent commanders, English and others, and the American
Charge, salutes were fired, which were reciprocated to
the Commodore, on his return visits.
At sundown I stood upon the quarter-deck of the Co-
lumbia, contemplating the scene around us. The ship's
decks had been cleared, and all was now at rest. The
bay was sprinkled with the men-of-war of different nations,
at some distance from each other ; and at our left, as our
ship was then swinging, lay the beautiful city of Rio de
Janeiro. The waters around us slept like the still bosom
of a mountain lake, unrippled as it drank in the reflected
loveliness of a serene how serene a sky ! It was like the
earliest, and the mildest, and the loveliest eve of autumn,
at the north, with the ever-green foliage of the mountain-
side of the south for this is the winter month of the
summer- winter of the southern tropics. And we had just
made another point of our cruise, and anchored amid so
much, and so lovely, and so enchanting a display of beauti-
ful nature around us. It was sunset. The music of our
own ship awoke ; and down the royal yards, and ensign,
and pennant had come ; and all was still again on deck,
save a few of the officers on the quarter-deck, gazing on
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 109
the mellow and lovely scene around us. I had placed
myself on the arm-chest of the quarter-deck ; and while
I leaned against the hammock-cloths, gazing over the lar-
board quarter of the tafferel, the sweet and subdued music
of a full band of a Brazilian man-of-war, lying not a great
way at the stern and at the windward of us, came softly
over the water, in its wild and magic strains. I listened
apart from the rest ; and was carried far, far back to those
whom I had left. A second melody came floating over
the ripple- wave as the band continued its ever-melancholy
and subdued strains, on their brass instruments. I had
placed my elbow upon the tafferel, and bowed my head,
and wept. Once more the music awoke. Now, it was
the evening vesper, and the bell of the ship chimed in
with the sacred harmony. Surely, if ever prayer sincere
awoke for those I love, it was borne to heaven this night.
SECTION V.
RIO DE JANEIRO.
Visit to the shore. The Morning Mass. Ramble up Rua do Cas-
tello. View from the hill. Imperial Chapel. Te Deum. Idem
in Greece. Dine with the English Chaplain. Visit to Mr. Wright.
The American Charge d'Affaires. Ride to the Botanical Garden.
Lord Hood's Nose. Museum. Doctor J. J. Prestina. Call on
the Chaplain of H. B. M. ship Stag. British and American Navy.
'Commodore Read's Dinner to the English Officers. The Author
preaches in the English Chapel. Its worship, in contrast with
the scene at the Imperial Chapel. Funeral. Last evening in the
beautiful harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Associations. Passage out
the Harbor.
TO-DAY I visited the shore, with the single purpose of
wandering at random through the town, and to mark the
floating multitude of the streets, presuming that I should
have ample time, during our stay at Rio, to analyze the
peculiarities of the people, and observe for my own gra-
tification at least, their institutions, and public and domestic
economy. It is said to be a difficult thing for a foreigner
10
110 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to gain access to the Brazilian families. But I apprehend
the difficulty only lies in the want of an acquaintance,
with the Portuguese language, and of letters of introduc-
tion from mutual friends.
The first thing which strikes the stranger as he steps
upon the shore at Rio, is the immense number of slaves
engaged in the labors of carrying the merchandise of the
country, apparently native-born Africans ; and then, the
many well-dressed mixed bloods, and equivocal bloods,
and many unequivocal blacks, well-dressed, and all, ap-
parently, constituting part of the free and bona fide society
of the city. And now and then you see a well-dressed
female of the same equivocal relationships, with a shawl
or a veil elevated upon a wide and high comb, and drop-
ping upon the shoulders.
The dark-faced slaves are hurrying on at the rate of a
slow trot, in small squads, with bags of coffee or other
burdens, on their heads, which they are bearing to the
boats of loading vessels, or to the storehouses for deposit.
Then, you mark the Frenchman, of darker complexion
than of northern climes, and the purer blooded and lighter
faced Brazilian-Portuguese and now, an Englishman
and now an American, with their usual and several char-
acteristics. A moment more, and by you dashes a small
vehicle, with the proportions of an old-fashioned gig for
its top, and the ponderous wheels of a stage-coach for its
rollers, attached to four mules, with a black in livery, upon
the fore nigh animal, wearing a high leather cap resem-
bling a fire bucket bottom upwards, with a red flannel or
velvet band about it, and with boots that come above the
knees, and a pair of spurs, for all the world, like the end-
iron of the tongue of an ox-cart, for its weight and propor-
tions. Heaven forfend us from such an equipage, exclaims
one, as he hops into the door of the neighboring shop as
the nondescript passes by him, to the endangering of the
limb and life of the foot-passenger through these pent up
and narrow streets. These vehicles, however, are not
frequent, and are generally the establishments afforded
one from the livery stables. Again you meet, as before,
another line of half a dozen blacks, with bags of coffee
on their heads, trotting through the street at the monoto-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. Ill
nous sound of their leader's voice, in which at intervals,
and as a chorus, they all join ; or, at the sound of a jing-
ling basket, which some one of the group carries beside
his ponderous burden, and shakes with his right or left
hand, as he angles his naked elbows in common with his
fellows. From every pore issues the free perspiration,
and streams, in no very small rivulets, down their bony
and naked shoulders and shining backs.
I wandered up the Rua do Castello to the top of the hill,
upon which an olden castle once stood, and where the
wrecks of the fortification still exist. From this point the
whole bay is commanded the range of conic mountains
on the east, north, and west the city of Prior Grande op-
posite Rio and the greater part of the city of Rio itself
at your feet. The view is very fine. But the poetry of
this beautiful hill itself, as one contemplates it from the
ship, vanishes when one has ascended to its top. The ba-
nana and the cocoa-nut tree, and occasional shrubs, seen
from the bay, as they stud the hill and seem to embower
the buildings as they rise one above another, no longer
conceal the ruins, and the rubbish, and the old walls, and
the olden everything, as you look into the miserable yards
of the dwellings in the neighborhood beneath you. But
as you gaze over the city, and on the bay, and on the sur-
rounding amphitheatre of mighty mountains, which inhem
the vast basin of the harbor, like a mountain-lake, sprink-
led with ships of war from almost all the navies of the
earth, and with merchantmen of every nation and people
whalers, and slavers, and traders resting on their several
errands you have a charm which compensates for the lost
vision, which the eye had taken in when contemplating
the Castle Hill from the deck of the Columbia.
Towards evening, I went to the imperial chapel, a
building with high ceiling, and a range of private boxes
in the upper story, so arranged as to allow the occupant
to contemplate the ceremonies and the crowds below, and
hung in front with drawing curtains. The building is
decorated, as usual, with Catholic images, which, so far as
I have yet seen, are ever disgusting to good taste, being
generally composed of wax or painted wood, dusty and
tinselled, and decorated with robes and halos in such a
112 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
manner that one would suppose that no eye but the rab-
ble's could regard them as ornamental. None of the
buildings of Rio, and least of all the imperial palace, can
boast any thing as specimens in architecture. The palace
is but an extension of only tolerably decent private dwell-
ings.
A single individual was within the silent building as I
entered the vacant and solitary nave of the church, and
advanced up to the far-in altar. The tapers were burn-
ing brightly, but no whisper was heard within the spacious
walls, and the solitary individual stood listless in a cross-
passage, which led into the interior of the building to ad-
jacent rooms. I passed him, and advanced within the
railing of the altar, and opened the quarto volume con-
taining the services of the church. It was not unaccept-
able to turn at once to the familiar and beautiful Te Deum,
which carried me back to other hours, though I perused
it in the language of its original :
TE DEUM LAUDAMUS.
Te Deum laudamus ; te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem ; omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli ; tibi cceli, et universae potestates :
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim ; incessabili voce proclamant,
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt cceli et terra, majestatis glorias tuae.
Te, gloriosus Apostolorum chorus ;
Te, Prophetarum laudabilis numerus !
Te, Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te, per orbem terrarum, sancta confitetur Ecclesia.
Patrem immensae majestatis ;
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium.
Sanctum quoque Paracletum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus et Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem ; non horruisti Virginus
uterum.
Tu devicto mortis aculeo ; aperuisti credentibus regna ccelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Judex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quEesumus, tuis famulis subveni ; quos pretioso sanguine
redemisti.
uEterna fac cum sanctis tuis ! in gloria numerari.
Salvum fac populum tuum Domine ; et benedic haereditati tu.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 113
Et rege eos ; et extolle illos usque in eeternum.
Per singulos dies, benedicimus te
Et laucfomus nomen tuum in seeculum, et in sseculum seeculi.
Dignare Domine die isto, sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri Domine ; miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos, quemadmodum speravi-
mus in te. *
In te Domine speravi ; non confunda in eeternum.*
A sharp, hissing sound, which I knew to come from the
solitary individual before alluded to, reached my ear as
an admonition for attention, when he beckoned that others
were approaching; and in a moment afterwards, eight or
ten priests, in their appropriate robes, entered from the
passage-way leading from the interior of the building. I
retained my place until they had approached, when, with
a mutual salutation, I passed them, and took my place
* Idem in Greece.
Ze Qcbv "TpvaSpev.
Se' Qebv fc//vofyjv, at rbv Kvpiov 6//oAoyofyiV.
Se 1 rbv al&viov TlaTipa iraara fi yrj ffiperai.
Kal iravrcj ol "AyyfXot fK^wvw? /Jowfft, aol ol o&pavot, Kal Trao-ac al Svvdpcif
Sot rd XepovfUfJt Kal Spu0</x a<carairat5<rw 0wv?j {KJ3o(aaiv }
"Aytoj, ayof, "aytog Ku'pto? 6 6tfif Saj8aa>0.
IIA)fptf o{ oujjavoi", Kal f] yi? TTJS neyaXeidrrjTos rrjs $6frs <rov.
2f 6 evfio^os f&v ' AiroardXtov xP*f avvfivsi.
1.1 o TWV 7rpo$7TWj> a^07rp7r^j avAAoyoj avvfuvti.
SE 6 rail/ Maprvpwv yevalos orpardf avvpvti.
Zf avd iravav rtfv olKOVufvrjv ft 'Ayj'a 6/xoAoya '
ITarfpa r>)f dnepavrov //EyaAfttfrT/roj.
Tbv T ac^dff[jLi6v crov oAi;0J7 KOI povoyevrj "fi6v.
Roi rb "ayiov IIvfy/a rd irapaK\rjTov.
2w roC narpdj (ij^t
Si) fTrixEtpjJffaf AuTpiiffaaOat rdi/ aV0pa7rov, oi* iP$\vl-<>) TT)V rij$ napOtvov
yaoTfpa.
2i viKfaas TOV Qavdrov TO Ktvrpov fivoii-as Traai ro7f iriffro'is rijv Pa.<ji\dav
TWV ovpav&v.
SD f/c ^^tcDv roC 6o5 KaQrjvai tv rfj S6^rj TOV Ilarprfj.
Sf KptTriv fin&v fifav iriaTetopEv.
Sou rotvCv 6c6ufda rots o-oij ok^ratj j3o/50t, oiff rw n//fw ffou (J-rjy6paffa.
aiuaTt.
Hotrjaav airo&f */ T^ al&vib) tidt-rj roT? Ay/otj <rou orvapt0/i70?Jj/at.
Swtrov rdv Aao"v (row Ki'pu, /cat ciAdyno'ov ri/v K\r]povofjilav <rov t
Holpavov avrovs, KOI rrrapov aiiTovs/U ToDy a/iSvaf.
Kat TrpoaKwovpEv nj5 dvdpaTi aov d$ Tbv al&va, Kal elf TOV al&va TOV aliavos.
E, i\ft]<rov fj/jias.
TevoiTO Kvpie TO lAfdj o-ou ty' ^//aj, KaQditto j)\irloanev em trot.
'Ejri (>i Kuptc lAx-to-a, pri K.aTaia-)(yvQti^v th rbv aiGtva.
10*
114 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
without the altar. One of their number perceiving that I
had been perusing their formulas on the stand in the cen-
tre of the enclosure, said that they were about to repeat
the service. I therefore waited to listen to it, as their
solitary auditor. They went through the vespers with
distinct and rotund voices, now responding to each other,
and now mingling their several voices together, and again
chanting, as is their custom, parts of the service orally.
There was no music. When they were through, I ap-
proached a priest who seemed to be one of the superiors,
and addressed him in Latin.
It appeared to me peculiar, and yet not uninteresting,
that the priests had gathered here for their evening ves-
pers, with the doors opened for those who chose to enter
to say their evening prayers with them. But none came;
and why should the mass of the people gather, to listen
to what they cannot comprehend, and where it requires
a bell to tell them the time and the place they are required
to kneel ?
As I left the imperial chapel, to which I understood
there are a certain number of priests attached, and who
must all be of noble extraction, and, here, are alone enti-
tled to wear the red stocking, I stopped on my way
through the Rua do Ouvedor, in a respectable bookstore,
and was pleased with the motto in gilded letters above
their shelves :
" Vita sine litturis, mors est."
I thought, in connection with the scene I had but a
few moments previously left, that it was equally true, that
Religio, sine vita, mors eterna est
During the earlier part of the day, scarcely a female
of the higher order of the Brazilians is to be seen in the
streets. In the evening, however, they promenade gen-
erally with their attendants^ without bonnets or veils.
I took a shore-boat to the frigate, as I had delayed be-
yond the hour for the sundown boat. It was nine o clock
when I neared the ship. The music was just rolling off
the tattoo. I ordered the oarsmen to rest upon their oars.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 115
In a moment, a red sheet of flame came from the bows
of the Columbia, and the report of the nine o'clock gun
sent its echo around the panoramic hills, as if an answer-
ing cannon had returned its voice from a dozen peaks.
The boatmen again applied their sculls, and " Boat
ahoy !" came as an authoritative hail, from the tafFerel of
the frigate. " Ay, ay," was the reply ; and in a moment
more the lanterns were at the gangway and side of the
ship, to light one to the deck of the Columbia.
I dined on the 13th with the English Chaplain, attached
to the British delegation on shore, and met the Chaplain
of H. B. Majesty's ship Stag at the table, and some other
of the English officers. The Gloria Hill, where the house
of Mr. M., the Chaplain, is situated, is an exquisite spot.
The view from his piazza is very beautiful, commanding,
with still greater interest than from Castle Hill, the view
of the surrounding scenery, so picturesque, and beautiful,
and grand, and varied, in its complex particulars, as al-
ready described.
On the preceding evening, I visited at Mr. Wright's,
an estimable American family, where most of the Ameri-
can society were gathered. Mr. Hunter, the Charge
d' Affaires, was present, with other members of his family.
He is a gentleman of agreeable manners, and read in
polite literature. Miss H., his interesting daughter, is de-
servedly admired for her chaste beauty and simplicity of
manners. " Kate" her father says, she is called at home,
(Miss H. of course abroad,) and all of her acquaintances
will ever after affirm that " Kate " is a very pretty dimin-
utive. Mr. Hunter promises me the perusal of some
choice papers of the date of Charles the Second, on the
return of our squadron, which are in the imperial library.
I have seen, since the evening of the American party, two
other ladies of the clan de PAmerique, and their acquaint-
ance increases rather than diminishes my interest in the
American society of Rio ; and from one I shall bear, as a
decoration of my little room, a choice plant, in memory
of the donor, and as one of nature's prodigal distributers
of the rich perfumes of flowers.
116 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD
RIDE TO THE BOTANICAL GARDEN.
The botanical garden is deemed one of the principal
lions of Rio, distant some five or six miles in the country.
Lieutenant G. of the Fairfield having made all due pre-
parations for a ride thither, I left the ship at ten o'clock in
the morning ; and found our carriage in waiting to ta^e
us a ride into the country. We preceded the Commodore,
Captain M. and Lieutenant P., who reached the garden
soon after ourselves. Our ride lay along the beautiful
little bay of Boto Fogo, lined on its curved shore by a
number of English residences, the German minister's, and
some pretty Brazilian country-seats. The sugar-loaf
mount at the entrance of the harbor of Rio, forms a prom-
inent point to the scenery of this beautiful little crescent
of water, as its high peak and base mark the eastern ter-
mination of the curved line of the basin. Its stilly bosom
and surrounding eminences on this morning of our ride,
reminded me of some of the still-calm scenes amid the
scenery of Lake George. The Corcovado, the highest
mount, so deemed, of all the surrounding peaks of this
mountainous landscape, was above our heads on our right,
as we drove on through the pathway, lined on either side
with the cocoa-nut and banana and tamarind trees, and
partly on our left and often in our front rose the peculiar
prominence, which, as I deemed it as seen from the ocean,
constitutes " Lord Hood's Nose," so much spoken of by
all who enter the harbor of Rio, and which astonishingly
resembles the face of a strong-featured man lying upon
his back, as you approach the land to enter the harbor.
But the face, to me, is not the only or hardly the most
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 117
striking appearance lined on the horizon, by the blending
of" the peaks of the highlands, which raise their elevated
cones and table mountains in the skies, and strike with
pleasure the eye of the voyager as he is approaching the
inlet to the expanded basin, constituting the harbor of Rio
de Janeiro. All of the prominences to which I have
alluded, are so blended with intervening and lower moun-
tains, as, together, to form the striking resemblance (if
such realities ever were) of a huge giant one of nature's
olden monsters, laid out, with his face upwards, and em-
balmed in eternal rock. There you see him, his forehead
slanting and low, with his hair combed back his nose
prominent, between Roman and the Aquiline then, his
small chin and short neck then, his elevated chest, with
his arms folded for his last embalmment then, his ex-
tended limbs, with the prominent eminence of the sugar-
loaf mount, 1,000 feet high, constituting his up- turned
feet, and in just keeping with the other proportions of this
immense phenomenon of ages back, till now, with this
evidence before us, believed to have been fabulous. And
there he lies, as seen from the ship, as she stands on her
course to the nearing land, looking at the blue heavens,
and listless to the roar of ocean, and the storm, and the
whirlwind, and the sea-gale ; and there he shall still lie,
until one mightier than he shall sound the trump of the
last angel, and burst in sunder and wild dismemberment,
his sarcophagus of imperishable granite.
Our ride, the remaining part of the way from Boto
Fogo, was less interesting but possessing variety. We
reached the garden after an hour's drive, and having order-
ed dinner, entered the grounds, to wander at leisure through
avenues and by-paths of the garden, to observe the col-
lected exotics as well as native plants, shrubs, and trees,
and yet more for myself, the taste with which the grounds
were laid out all of which we had been assured to be of
considerable interest, and promised much pleasure to the
new observer.
The grounds which compose the garden are irregular,
and form a flat near the beach and beneath the mountain
previously alluded to, called the Corcovado. At the en-
trance of the gateway, a segment of a small circle is
118 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
swept, with the gate as the centre of the circle, from the
convex part of which four or five avenues extend, in
straight lines, which constitute all the peculiarity of the
taste here displayed in the adjustment of the walks. The
paths run, afterwards, as convenience directs, through the
grounds, joining the main avenues. There is an annual
appropriation for the improvement of these grounds, but
they are any thing rather than what we would suppose
they should be, in a climate and soil of such capabilities ;
and the grounds only in their central parts evince much
care. There is a tasteful bower, however, which meets
the eye of the stranger in his promenade, and courts him
to enter within its ever-green walls. It is elevated on an
artificial and turfed mound, some twelve to fifteen feet
high. The bower is a parallelogram, and formed by the
inlacing of the branches of the arbor vitse trees, with
glassless windows inserted in each pallisade of the trees,
so as to form an opening for observation, and for the sweet
gales of the garden to quaver through, to fan the cheek
of the lady-visiter, or to give breath to her rougher com-
panion who may attend her ; or to render yet more pleas-
ant the pick-nick coteries which, they say, often ride from
town, and here take their lunch, and chat all manner of
gentle and kind words. You ascend to the entrance of
this ever-green bower by a flight of steps cut on a trunca-
ted triangle of earth, which, like the mound on which the
bower is raised, is overgrown with perennial grass.
And in the same neighborhood, beneath two large tufts
of cane, rising high and gracefully, and branching out their
tops like some mighty plume of mighty knight, is a swing,
in which all who wish once more to live over one scene
of their childhood, may go on the gentle sweep, and think
how different are the days of our childhood, from those
when we are called to gaze abroad on a wild world, and
to buffet its wild waves.
We saw in the garden a number of the tropical plants
and trees new to us, and others, from other climes, which
before we had not seen. The tea shrub was growing in
considerable areas, and at this time was in blossom. The
shrub was about three feet high, and cultivated in hills of
a few shoots each. Then there was the clove and the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 119
cinnamon tree, and the coffee tree, the bread tree and the
jack-fruit, which last is a striking thing, the tree growing
as large as a forest oak, and the fruit hanging from a stem
that projects directly from the body of the tree or from
the largest limb ; and growing to the size of a half-bushel
basket, though generally elongated and flattened, rather
than perfectly globular.
There were many other fruits, which it cannot be of
interest here to name or describe.
We wandered through the grounds again, and left the
garden for the little building in the neighborhood, kept
as a hotel. To our surprise, the comfortable essentials
of a good meal were spread before us, after some delay
our party now being constituted of the Commodore, Capt.
M. and four others. Having nought else to do, a long
time was lingered away at the table, (some two hours or
more horrible !) but rendered tolerable in the lounging
ease of the gentlemen who composed it, and the succession
of unexpected tastefuls which came before us. Our attend-
ants themselves did not entirely deny us a pleasure, as it
was all so unexpected. " Take care there, Jose Maria
Cavallo, don't shake that bottle of port as you did the
other." Don Jose Maria, etc. etc., taking the hint, thought
he understood it, and, as if it had been champaign wine
or spruce beer, deemed he was making it yet more spark-
ling and choice, by adding greater agitation to the shak-
ing he again gave the bottle.
Our two carriages drove into town ; and as we rattled
over the horrible pavements, the dark, and the dark, and
the DARK Brazilians looked from their balconies and upper
windows at the Americans of the frigata and the corvetta,
as it was the evening hour, when they are privileged to
gaze on the passers by, and be stared at, without displeas-
ure or displeasing of either party.
On a succeeding day I visited the Museum, which is
opened gratis for the people, twice a week. I did not ex-
pect to find a large or a greatly varied collection. Neither
the display of birds nor minerals was such as might have
been looked for in other days of Brazil. The specimens,
however, in mineralogy were respectable, though very
far inferior in variety, beauty, and arrangement, to the
120 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
cabinet at New Haven. It is said that Don Pedro I. rob-
bed the Museum of its choicest and richest materials,
when he left the country. Don Pedro II. is yet a lad of
twelve or fourteen years of age, and though said to be a
bright boy for his years, will probably have enough of
turmoil, when he shall have reached the age to take his
position for himself in the relations of the state parties,
to occupy his time for the safety of his crown, to the
neglect of the improvement of the public institutions of
his imperial dominions. As evidence of the brightness
of young Pedro, I was told by Doctor Prestina, a Portu-
guese gentleman of learning, that he was familiar with
the French language, and had made considerable profi-
ciency in the English and Latin ; and had advanced in
mathematics, and read a good deal in history.
When I had wandered through the upper rooms of the
Museum, which are small, and exhibit but few curiosities,
I left them and entered an under apartment of the same
building. This lower room contained a few specimens in
mechanics, where a few visiters, like myself, were now
strolling. I saw nothing, however, particularly to arrest
my attention but a case of books and an atlas (a London
copy) of the comparative heights and extent of the dif-
ferent water-falls of the globe. I had placed myself in an
examining posture, but the atlas was hung too high for
convenience, which the attentive person in charge of the
rooms observing, presented himself, and immediately spread
the atlas before me on a table. I placed my ringer on the
Falls of Niagara, with some remarks connected with it,
when a soft voice at my side asked, " And have you, sir,
seen the Falls of Niagara ?" with an intonation that at once
told me that it was not native.
"Yes, madam," I replied, as I turned and beheld a
young English lady leaning upon the arm of a gentleman-
ly looking man ; " and I left them," I continued, " as I
would part with a newly formed acquaintance, who had
greatly contributed to my pleasure delighted that we had
met, and regretting that we were so soon to separate."
" My sister," continued the lady, " is now in the United
States, and gives me such glowing accounts of what she
meets, that I envy her the fortune to have enjoyed before
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 121
me the opportunity of visiting North America. If I might
induce my lord here," said the lady, gently smiling, and
myself and her lord gently bowing, " we should not long
delay our passage to the United States."
All Englishmen, and certainly all English women, are
not prejudiced against the United States. And the time
has come when they are pleased if they can identify their
own genealogies as kindred with those of the early wor-
thies of our country.
A letter from a Portuguese gentleman of Madeira, made
me acquainted with J. J. Prestina, a doctor of learning
at Rio de Janeiro. He visited our ship, with a friend,
and pressed me to accept an invitation to accompany him,
on any day of our stay, to his seat in the country. I have
postponed this, with other visits, until a good Providence
may return us to this port again, on our way back to our
northern homes. Dr. P. is a Chappy specimen of a Portu-
guese gentleman, surpassed by few for ease and urbanity
of manners. He is said to have accumulated a fortune in
the practice of law ; and in the revolution of Portugal of
1823, when many of her choice sons had no alternative
but to fly to arms or to exile, he visited Brazil. With
this gentleman, I hope, on my return, to take several ex-
cursions into the surrounding country, and to the neigh-
boring islands, which are said to be exquisite in their
scenery, and rich in their high state of cultivation,
The Chaplain of H. B. Majesty's ship Stag having call-
ed upon me, I reciprocated his visit, and was invited to
take a stroll with him and some of the officers of the Stag,
to Prior Grande. They would send a boat for me.
Between England and America, there doubtless will
ever be the memory of former incidents, to serve to keep
alive the spirit of jealousy between the two nations, with
a spice of envy on the part of the British people. The
English had ruled mistress of the seas, until their prow-
ess was fairly contested, in several actions, by our own
vessels. The English can hardly be expected to yield a
concession on this point which would take them one step
from their self-complacent and proud elevation. And
Americans believe, and without doubt have proved to their
own satisfaction, and to that of the world, that they are a
11
122 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
match perhaps in their young thirst for glory, more than
a match for the English, with equal forces. These cir-
cumstances sometimes produce, if not a coolness yet a
preserved distance, in the association between American
and British officers ; while there is, at the same time, no
asperity or unkindness of feeling on the part of either. It
only prevents the approach of the two parties. But when
they do meet and know each other, there is no want of
cordiality in real feeling, or generous hospitality, and fa-
miliar and well-bred courtesy.
On the evening preceding our departure from the har-
bor of Rio de Janeiro, Commodore Read gave a dinner
to the English officers in command of the British ships,
now in the harbor. Commodore Sulivan has command
of the British squadron on this side Cape Horn ; and an
Admiral commands the squadron on the other. Former-
ly the forces on either side of the Cape were under the
command of an Admiral, stationed on this side the Cape,
with a Commodore, subject to his orders, on the other
side. The two forces are now independent commands.
Commodore Sulivan is an agreeable gentleman, and
made himself such on the present occasion ; and Captain
Shepherd I found sociable. He is deemed an officer very
creditably familiar with his profession.
The Commodore's table-plate, and well-served dishes,
always do him credit as a man of taste ; and becomingly
supports the respectability of the government, whom he
represents in his honorable commands.
Previous to our leaving the harbor of Rio de Janeiro,
I preached in the English chapel. The congregation was
very respectable. The English chaplain who has charge
of the congregation, and the chaplain of the Stag, were
present the former reading the service.
It is indeed a grateful opportunity, when abroad, after
having been for months on board a ship, to be able to
mingle in your own familiar worship of home, on shore.
They are the same prayers to which you have often lis-
tened with a melted heart ; or which you yourself have
offered, as the leader in the petitions of hundreds of
others the same responses, and the same psalms, and the
same chants, and the same hymns. The heart goes home
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 123
to kindred and to native lands ; and if rightly affected,
goes upward too in devout devotion and gratitude to Him,
who hath blessed and protected the wanderer on his course
of the seas.
The modifications in our prayer-book, in which it differs
from the English service, strike the worshipper of the
American church, but interrupts not his devotion. It is
but natural that the English should pray for their rulers,
though it appears peculiar that they should mention them
by name. And in the modification of some of the old ob-
solete terms, the omission of some things, and leaving
others discretionary on the part of the American clergy-
man, where they are required to be gone through on the
part of the English, I deem to be in favor of the Ameri-
can prayer-book. And yet there could be very little
objection for an American clergyman of the Episcopal
church, to go through the services of the mother- church,
before an English congregation, on English ground.
Dr. Hazlet and Lieutenant Turner accompanied me
from the ship to the English chapel. On our return we
stopped, as we were passing, for a moment, in the impe-
rial chapel. The services were nearly concluding. The
music was powerful. Here they have two or three eu-
nuchs from Italy, whose voices mingle with peculiar
effect in the choir. The crowd were jammed together,
blacks and whites, and all sorts of the males. The pri-
vate openings in the second story on the sides of the
building, alluded to on a preceding page, were filled with
Brazilian women, without bonnets, who composed the
household of the Emperor and other Brazilian families.
Many of them were respectable for their personal ap-
pearance, and all dressed with becoming taste. Rockets
and other fire- works were already arranged in the street,
at the door of the chapel, with which to conclude the
ceremonies of a Christian worship ! We had left the build-
ing, and had proceeded but a short distance on our way
to our boat, which was in waiting for us from the ship,
when the match had been applied, to the bursting of
rockets and other fire- works ; and the loud reports of the
exploding crackers, and the feu-de-joie, exhibited a scene,
which we could not but identify with the whole service,
124 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
as a fanciful show a religious farce gone through for
the amusement of the people.
How unlike the simple, suppressed, solemn worship of
the Eternal, in which we had just been engaged ! The
Lord was not in the whirlwind, nor in the earthquake,
nor in the fire : but in " the still small voice" And when
the prophet heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle.*
It is now too late, in this age of free inquiry, with the
materials which have been spread before us, and the
scenes which are yet daily enacting in Catholic countries,
to pretend an apology, as if there were in the mummeries
and in the religious farces of the papal ceremonies, a ten-
dency to pure morality and " religion undefiled." In our
own country, the Catholic religion, for the sake of appear-
ances and decency, must omit much which is seen abroad.
It is a notorious fact, in connection with Madeira and this
place, that the people have so far felt the unhappy influ-
ences of the monastic institutions, as" to make them a
subject of legislation and restriction. And common re-
port everywhere says, that the celibacy of the corrupted
priesthood has made inroads upon the domestic peace,
and harmony, and virtue of the social compact. And in
affirming these things, which modern Catholic legislatures
have themselves affirmed, and in some measure acted
upon, the Protestant is declared to be prejudiced, perse-
cuting, and illiberal. Pray, are there none but Protestant
persecutors in the world of Christendom ? Until within
comparatively a few years, the right of Christian sepul-
ture was forbidden, in the countries where Papacy had
the ascendency. And now, I am told, that the English
chapel here is precluded from holding their worship with
the doors of their church shut. And when I see the mem-
bers of that church rather inclining to join the reviler and
the blasphemer against the cause of Protestant missions,
and other institutions under Protestant influences, I am
led to question the soundness of a system, which will lead
to the union of sympathies so unlike the spirit and the
professed end of the religion of Jesus Christ. For my-
self, I shoujd be most happy that the Roman church, or
* 1 Kings xix. 11-13.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 125
the Catholic church, as they rather choose to be called,
in our country, should, as they have in some measure,
reform their system, retaining the good and rejecting
the bad ; and adhering less closely (which both patri-
otism and religion require) to the Papacy at Rome. The
Catholic church in the United States is respectable in
numbers, character, and we would be uncharitable indeed
not to suppose, in some good degree, in Christian influ-
ence. But there is an incubus in her system a draw-
back to all the good. There is ignorance of the Bible,
and premeditated ignorance on the part of those whose
duty it is, according to th.e charter of all our hopes, to
dispense "the word" to their flocks, which is able to
make, and which will make, wise unto salvation. And
so long as the Bible shall be kept from the laity, there
will be and there must be something bad existing in the
premises, and a perpetual wandering from the essentials
and the spirit of the gospel system. It has been so it
will be so. It is necessary to the existence of the truth,
in its purity, that the-Bible should be in the hands of both
the people and the pastors, that the example of both may
be tested by a common and the acknowledged standard.
A FUNERAL IN RIO.
I have taken my last ride out of Rio, with Lieutenant
G. of the Fairfield. We went to the Emperor's country
residence, and also called on most of the American fami-
lies of Rio. Their residences are in the neighborhood
of the Emperor's grounds, a short way into the country.
Our ride was exceedingly pleasant, and our calls agree-
able to ourselves at least. In the evening we took tea at
the Wrights', and prolonged our stay in the social circle
of this amiable family. To-day, the last we spend in the
harbor of Rio for a long, -long time, I witnessed on shore,
at four P. M., a funeral ceremony of considerable mag-
nificence ; and, as characteristic of the customs of this
people, is worthy of a nota bene. It was imposing, and
fully attended. I was aware that the solemnities of a
burial were to take place, from the ringing of the bells of
the large cathedral situated on the east side of the square,
11*
126 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
into which the Rua do Ouvedor, the principal street of
Rio de Janeiro, enters. The hearse, drawn by four white
horses, with high plumes of black feathers decking their
head-stalls, had already reached the front of the building,
where a crowd was gathered, when I arrived at the steps
of the cathedral. I entered the door of the building,
where numbers had arranged themselves in two lines
leading from the far-in altar, with each a waxen taper in
his hand, which served him as a staff. As I passed, one
of these lighted sticks of wax, reaching quite to the
shoulder, and about two inches in diameter, was handed
to me, and I advanced up the line of lights to a vacant
position nearest the altar. As I looked down to the en-
trance of the cathedral, the two lines of similar tapers,
each supported by its holder, gave forth a continuous
gleam of light, streaming on either side in a brilliant pe-
riphery of an elongated ellipsis. In a few moments, from
an adjacent recess, which communicated with an interior
passage, entered three richly decorated priests, in the ha-
biliments of their order, the central one supporting a mas-
sive silver cross, and the two on either side bearing a taper
light in massive silver candlesticks. They advanced
with twenty priests following them, with lighted waxen
tapers in their hands, to meet the corpse at the entrance of
the cathedral. A number of the priests I had before seen
at the imperial chapel. They were now decked in short
robes of white lace, falling, like a roundabout, a little be-
low their shoulders, upon a lower robe of black. Beside
these, were thirty or forty attendants in black bombazine
canonicals, whose province seemed immediately to bear
the corpse and perform the laborious parts of the burial.
They all together advanced, with the coffin, overlaid with
gold lace, to a high altar raised without the chancel, and
highly gilded, seven feet long and three in breadth, upon
which the deceased was placed. The services of the
burial commenced by the chief priest, who had borne the
silver cross in the procession. . The responses were loud
and rotund. As the coffin was elevated upon the altar, it
fell apart, by its peculiar construction, opening from the
top, by means of the split-lid, and dropping either way
by hinges on either side, so as to expose half the body
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 127
dressed in its usual habiliments. The chief ecclesiastic
moved thrice around the body, sprinkling, from a silver
wand, the holy water upon the body, as he passed at the
head, the side, the feet, and the side again, bowing to the
silver cross as he passed it, which was now elevated at
the feet of the altar, without the chancel. The ceremony
continued when a strain of music came from the choir,
now in full chorus, now in dulcet strains, now in duetto,
and again in a chorus that shook the walls of the massive
buildings ; and once more the requiem was long, and soft,
and silent !
The heavy doors of a side passage were opened, and the
priests advanced to an inner court of death, embracing an
extensive area, surrounded by high walls. A colonnade
extended around the spacious rectangle, within which and
the wall a covered pavement ranges around the square, the
centre of which is open for light and air. The procession
of priests moved on, (the concourse of the spectators hav-
ing extinguished their lights, and retired at the conclusion
of the requiem in the church,) and reached the furthest
side of this hollow square. They paused at an open niche
in the wall. The wall is filled with ranges, five or six tier
high, of such niches, one above the other, rendering it a
bulwark of imbedded skeletons. Here the coffin was
placed upon a smaller altar, similar, but less decorated than
the first, standing without a rougher pair of steps, which
rested beneath the opening in the wall. Upon this altar
the coffin was first placed, by the attendants in black, who
had borne it from the spacious room of the cathedral to
this adjacent court, which forms a part of the same pile of
building. Then, with the repetition of a short additional
service, the body was elevated to the rougher platform,
and again the coffin fell and exposed the body ; and each
of the dark-robed men advancing to the steps, took a small
scuttle of quicklime, and ascending the steps, deposited it
upon the body, and again descended, to be succeeded by
others, until the unconscious sleeper was imbedded in the
element which was soon to prey in consumption upon his
yielding dust. It only remained, in completing the cere-
mony of the burial, to place the body within the vacant
niche of the wall, and to seal it in masonry of lime and
128 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
rock, and to affix to the external surface the number of the
inwalled vault.
The procession of priests returned through the church,
bending their knees as they passed the altar, and extin-
guishing their lights as they sought the inner rooms, where
they unrobed, and replaced their dresses, which they had
assumed as appropriate habiliments for the religious cere-
monies of the burial.
They had gone ; and their voices were heard to murmur
low in the inner distance of the extended building. And
now, all was silence. I, alone, stood in that spacious hall,
where but just now the peals of music echoed, and a thou-
sand lights were gleaming, and the tramp of many feet
were heard. Mine alone now lingered ; and one solitary
taper only was glimmering on the altar, in that vast build-
ing, to keep the vigils of the night-watch.
I walked through the dark passage-way to the interior
rooms again retraced my steps, and left the silent build-
ing, and was soon on my way down the Rua do Ouvedor,
with thoughts, solemn and strange, in their commingling
of emotions and sentiments, which these scenes and their
associations had awakened.
LAST EVE IN THE HARBOR OF RIO.
I have made the preceding notes, associated with Rio
de Janeiro, purposely omitting any excursions into the inte-
rior and to some of the neighboring islands, which, with
visits to some other objects and Brazilian families in the
neighborhood, I hope to be able to make, on my return,
under the favorable circumstances of intelligent and gentle-
manly Brazilian attendance.
But on this evening of our last stay in this beautiful har-
bor, how many are the associations of the past, which min-
gle with the present ! It is here, on the still bosom of this
mountain-shored basin, sleeping to-night like a calm lake
among the hills, where the winds cannot ruffle it, the bat-
tle-ships of all the early states of Europe have rode, and
for a moment paused on their several courses of discovery,
of adventure, of merchandise, of war, and of circumnavi-
gation of the world ! Here the daring and adventurous
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 129
Portuguese moored their tempest-tost barks, which had
first discovered these and hundred other shores, as the
pioneers on the seas, where the white-spread sails of other
nations are now wafted in the same, but earlier and fearful
tracks of the Portuguese, without solicitude, and hardly
with a memory of the men who pointed out to them the
paths of the seas. And here Magellan paused with his
little fleet of five ships, for a fortnight, whose name is
immortalized on the land, as having first passed through the
straits that unite the northern with the southern ocean ;
and among the stars, as giving an appellation to the twin
nebula, or the Magellan clouds in the southern hemisphere.
And here, in 1764, the Dolphin and the Tamor under
Byron 'in chief, and Mouat, in their circuit of discovery,
moored ; and De Bougainville followed, after resigning the
Falkland Isles into the hands of the Spanish, agreeably to
the order of his government. And on these same waters,
the energetic and accomplished, but unfortunate Cooke,
with his companion Banks, whose thirst for knowledge
was insatiable, lay moored in the good ship Endeavor.
And they have all passed on passed on ! And how many
others have come after and where now are they ? And
we follow them and where soon shall we be, when others
shall still follow us, and like ourselves, and all who have
gone before, shall pass to the realities, and the silence, if
not the forgetfulness of the dead i But since the days of
Magellan, and Vasco de Gama, and Columbus, what a
revolution has passed over the two hemispheres of the
north and the south, and of the west and the east ! New
worlds, and fair worlds, if not in literal extent, yet in pro-
duction and population, have been developed; and the
seas of the globe have become as plain a pathway to the
mariner as the school-boy's track to the house of his early
pupilage. And to-morrow we again weigh anchors, and
follow on in our course. The high peaks which now sur-
round us, and which have reverberated the echo of the
cannon of almost every national flag of the earth, and have
heard our own loud-mouthed pieces speak more than a
dozen times in national courtesy and personal civilities,
will soon sink from their proud elevations to mole-hills, as
we stand on our eastern traverse. We bid ye, in good
130 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
sooth, ye lofty eminences and waved outline of cone and
table-mount, and organ peaks, good-by, for long months,
perhaps for years, perhaps for ever ! And we will not
forget the image which ye will have left in our vision, for
the grand in nature is always imposing, and commands
remembrance if we would forget. And kindly we will
think of your inwalled lake, and some who dwell in homes
which overlook these embosomed waters ; for we would
think with kindness on those who kindly have treated us.
May a good Providence guide us again to look upon your
green mountain-sides, and to re-greet the stranger friends,
of whom we have learned enough to desire yet more to
learn.
JULY 29, 1838.
We are now gliding finely out of the harbor of Rio de
Janeiro, to sea. The morning land-breeze is swelling our
sails gently, and ten boats are ahead of us, from the dif-
ferent ships of war in the harbor, with our own, towing
us beyond the mouth of the bay. A few moments more,
and the boats will have returned ; and the breeze, still
freshening, assures us that we shall gain a sufficient offing
before the sea-breeze shall set in, and give us a clear sweep
over the blue billow, from every danger of an iron-bound
eoast.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 131
SECTION VI.
Ill, at sea. Religion everywhere a beautifier of the character. Lines An
invalid's thoughts of home. Gale at sea. Nature's harmonies, in color-
ing and adaptation. Blow, off Cape Good Hope. Luna-bow. Theo-
ries confirmed by experience. The variety of clouds. Island of Mada-
gascar. Associations on descrying the land. Beautiful rainbow. The
isles of France and Bourbon. Harriet Newell's last resting-place. Lines
to a beautiful bird, which lighted on the ship. Diego Rodriques. Henry
Martyn. Religion beautifies the countenance as well as the character.
Byron and Pollock. Corpo-Sant, or St. Elmo's light. Sunset scene in
the seas of Arabia. On the equatorial line at meridian. An Arabian
Falco. Eclipse of the moon. Calm of the Arabian seas.
For several days since our leaving Rio, I have been
unwell. Others of the ship have been variously affected.
My own indisposition has been attended with considerable
suffering, and is supposed to be the consequence of eating
too freely of the tropical fruits, found in great abundance
and perfection, at Rio de Janeiro. Doctor H. has treated
me gently, and yet I am extremely weak. For three days
past I have kept my state-room, while every thing has con-
tributed to my comfort, so far as the ship and its conveni-
ences can afford. Our surgeon is every thing we would
embrace in the gentleman, the physician, and the Christian.
Religion, everywhere, is a beautifier of* the character,
refining the sensibilities of our nature. It gives a charm
to the social circle. It is, or should be, the very breath of
woman. It is the without which nothing, to the minister
of the gospel. But nowhere is it more fitly appropriate,
than in the character of the physician. He secures our
confidence in the exercise of his skill, and the heart is
softened to receive his sympathy, which never reaches the
perfect state of the patient's circumstances, unless the
heart that gives it has been touched by the gospel princi-
ples, which are indissolubly connected with the very being
of man. And advice coming from such a man, in the
hours of a patient's illness, is not ill-timed, or attended with
ill-grace. It is not ex-officio. As possessing such a charac-
ter, I regard our amiable and gentlemanly surgeon.
132 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
But with all the comfortables of a convenient ward-
room, state-room, servant, provision and attendance, all
will be forgotten by the invalid, when much prostrated ;
and his thoughts will go to his far-off home. He thinks
of the soft hand of a mother and sister, who have at-
tended him in some former illness. He thinks of the
spacious and comfortable chamber in his father's house.
He will recollect the soft step the low whisper the
smile the caress the sympathetic expression the
cheerful hopes, and the encouraging voice of those who
love him. And then, when he had so far recovered as
to move from room to room, to be bolstered at the win-
dow in the easy-chair, to walk, for the time, in the yard,
on the lawn, and in the field he recurs to all these
scenes the delicate preparations the support of the sis-
ter's arm the green grass his foot first pressed the
refreshing fish-pond at whose side he sat the sweet or-
chard through which he leisurely strolled, and the bench
and the bower where he lounged, and the beautiful scenery
now rendered doubly more enchanting, on which he
gazed and then, when he could again bear it, the soft
and sweet music, which awoke for him. Some of these
things have been passing through my own thoughts as I
have reposed upon my state-room cot and mused of home
and scenes of other days. And could the heart but break
under such remembrances of kindness, and solicitude, and
parental and sisterly care ? And the love of home, and
kindred who make home the blissful spot that it is, wakes
more intensely in such circumstances, than ever before
he has known it, however sincerely he may have loved.
It is the voyager away and afar, musing in his hours of
illness, who begets in his bosom a love of home, which
others cannot know. He realizes, in more vivid appre-
ciation, the charm of those associations, which originally
possessed their interest on account of the pleasure they
had caused him to experience at the locality of his home ;
and all these things which have once awakened his pleas-
urable emotions are now reviewed with a gentler heart,
rendered additionally susceptible in his weaker strength
of body ; and he realizes with a warmer love the happy
circumstances of those happy hours, which have been,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 133
but now, in his absence and distance, he realizes with the
deepening effect, of contrast, not to be. How then, with
intenser love, will he greet, on his return, his forest shades,
the water stream, the deep ravine, the hill, and the ex-
tended lawn of his country home ; or the social and the
kindred hearts of his city residence.
If the following lines may meet the eye of one who
has been placed on a sick-bed, far from kindred and home,
the writer of them believes the reader will recognise
some feelings kindred to his own, however defective may
be the manner in which they may be embodied in the
accompanying measure.
Oh, hast thou known the sorrowing heart
Of one afar from home,
r heirjnilses gush
with fevered beat,
And friends around thee thou hast none?
Then hast thou wept a stranger's tear
Upon thy path forlorn,
While musing with a wanderer's care
On scenes which memory hath of hom&
'Tis then a mother's holiest love
Comes o'er thee as a spell,
And thoughts that burn thy bosom rove,
As memories on her kindness dwell.
For thou hast known the silken hand
Of mother on thy brow,
As like some charm of magic wand,
It soothed thy pulses' rapid flow.
Ay, dearer than ambition's hope
Is home at such an hour ;
And all that earth to men can ope
Hath lost for thee its wooing power ;
There is not then a charm in wealth,
Nor lure for thee in fame ;
The heart one magnet only hath,
And that is e'er remembered home.
Oh yes, it is a mother's care,
A sister's sister-love,
And friends at home, who offer prayer
For thy best weal and hopes above-
It is on them fond memories dwell,
Nor world hath charm beside ;
12
134 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
To them thou wouldst thy last thoughts tell
When gathered sadly at thy side.
O give me back, then, to my home,
Where love awaiteth me,
For fevered heat hath on me come,
And few, they say. my hours may be :
Then back, give back this heart forlorn,
And aching head of mine,
For I have words to speak at home,
Ere yet my life-lamp cease to shine*
And then I'd lay me in the ground,
Where sleep my kindred near,
That friends may gather at my mound
And shed for me affliction's tear ;
And say he loved as child should love,
And had a brother's heart,
And will their spirits guide above
When they, ere long, and earth shall part.
SOMETHING APPROACHING NEAR A STORM.
We have had fresh winds ever since we left Rio ; and
only on the day of our leaving the harbor have we car-
ried our royals. The winds have continued to increase,
as we have stood on our course, still more to the south
and east, until, for two or three days past, it has been
blowing a fresh gale. Our guns have been housed, royals
and top-gallant yards sent down, and the ship made snug
for the blow. It is on us. It has been sweeping over us
for two or three days. But to-night, the darkest wing of
the storm has been expanded over the heavens, and the
billows are heaving their heaviest throes against the bul-
warks of our frigate, as if they would feel her strength,
to know how well she will meet the contest of the
night.
Having been unwell for some time, though much better
for the last three days, I have not ventured on the upper
deck, as the weather has been so bad, and the winds so
high, and the gun-deck so wet from the water that floods
it, though the guns have been run in, and the ports ren-
dered as tight as practicable. But the gale rises, and I
have desired to contemplate the sea in its mad commotion,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 135
and to listen to the wild winds as they whistle through the
rigging of the ship, with her storm-dress upon her. To-
night, therefore, I attired myself for the enjoyment of the
opportunity, and, de pie en cap, ascended to the spar or
upper deck. Lieutenant P. was the officer of the deck,
and held the nettled courser on her path of darkness and
foam. I told him, as he discovered me, that I had come
to look at the dark eye of the gale. We talked a mo-
ment of the necessity of witnessing scenes of this kind
rightly to conceive, or to feel, or to describe them. I
had waited for such an opportunity to ascend the rigging
of the ship, and now placed myself upon the windward
ratlins of the mainmast. " Have a care of yourself, Mr.
T.," said the officer, on learning my purpose, " if you fall
overboard, the ship cannot be hove to, to save you to-
night." " I know it I know it," I said, and left him on
the deck.
It was a fearful slant those masts, ever and now made,
as they bent to the influence of the gale and the surge
that rolled beneath the frigate ; but her noble hull was
ever true, and again the masts righted, as if to mock the
winged spirit of the storm, and waited exultingly for yet
other rencounters, in their wrestles for the mastery. And
those succeeding rencounters came. Ever and anon I
saw, far off, the terrible roller that bore down on the
weather-beam in its majesty, unseen only as its phospho-
rescent crest broke higher than the others on the dark
sea, ere his huge proportions struck the waiting Columbia,
now dashing on her way as if no antagonist greater than
before were nearing. But he came on in his darkness
and foam. And he was no boaster, that huge' billow ;
but he was met, and the triumphant ship spurned the
surge, as she bent to the mighty impulse, and dashed yet
wilder and yet grander on her way of terror, and dark-
ness, and mist, and whirlwind, and hurricane. Who can
ever forget the sea-moan of the wind, in its flight of
storm through the rigging of a frigate, as ours, this night,
bends beneath the swift and heavy passage of the aeriel
elements without a rag on our mizen-mast the spanker-
gaff down and under double-reefed foresail, close-reefed
main-topsail, and storm staysail ; and yet the gallant ship
136 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
is leaping from surge to surge through the dark deep,
with thickest midnight brooding over the ocean, at the
rate of twelve knots the hour. What could save us were
we dashing on a coral reef? What could save us, were
we to come in contact with a heavier mettled vessel than
ourselves ? And what could save the craft upon which
our ship this night should strike ? No one, in the wild
darkness that overhangs us, could descry a sail ahead,
nor the high peaks of an ocean-isle, nor the coast of main
land, nor in the roar of the tempest that rages with the
voice of mighty elements, catch one lisp of the loud mur-
murs of a coast of breakers.
I left the rigging, and wished no longer to look at the
fearful slant of the careening bark. How she is saved
from rolling irrecoverably, as her main-yard nearly sweeps
the careering billow, science can tell us, and science
only, while the eye dilates as it marks the fearful sweep
of the main-mast, from the dark zenith to the darker hori-
zon. It would seem as if there were power enough in
the wind and the surge, in their madness to-night, to bear, on
an untiring wing through mid-heaven, our heaving frigate,
as a god, in his might, would, sport with an infant.
This is the winter season in this latitude of the south-
ern hemisphere, and a squall with hail hath met us. How
strange, in connection with all our previous experience !
While our friends are burning with heat in the early part
of August, it being the twelfth, or enjoying the cool shade
of the bower that shelters them from the sun's too intense
beam, we are shivering, in his absence, and with the tem-
perature, to-day, of a northern December around us.
CAPE PIGEON.
Our ship has been driving, with great speed, on her
course towards the Cape of Good Hope. When but a
few days out of Rio, we were attended by a considerable
number of a beautiful bird, usually called the cape pigeon.
It may be deemed the gull of the southern hemisphere,
in size resembling that graceful personification of the
wave and its foam, which scales nearer in to the shores
in the northern seas. These birds are heavier than the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 137
northern gull, their wings shorter ; and varied with tracery
of white feathers on their wings, giving a beautiful con-
trast of dark and white waved lines on either wing.
Their necks, though stouter, much resemble, in their hues,
the wild pigeon, but their legs are short, and their feet
webbed. One of these birds became entangled in the
rigging of the ship, and was taken by the men. Another
was ensnared by a line, thrown overboard with a bait ;
but the bird caught his wing in the cord and was thus
drawn aboard.
How beautiful is nature in all her harmonies of color-
ing and adaptations ! These birds, and more particularly
the northern gull, with its white breast, dark-brown wing,
and graceful Sight, chime in with the waters over which
they scale, in their thousand evolutions. Would they not
have seemed, quite out of place, had they been of a deep
scarlet color ? Such a colored bird we look not for on the
deep, but among the green bowers, and fadeless forests of a
tropical climate. But the gull seems the graceful child of
its mother foam, breaking her curling crest on the dark-
blue wave. And the cape pigeon, venturing further out
upon the deeper blue ocean than the northern gull, has a
plumage partaking of the still deeper blue of the surge,
and his wing feathered with the lighter white of the wilder
crested billow.
But there is another bird which hangs on our course of
fresh gales, as they have attended us for the most part of
our passage since we left Rio. He is a larger bird than
the cape pigeon, with longer wings and a slimmer body,
and dark as the misty nights themselves which have over-
hung us. I cannot look at that bird without regarding
him as the very spirit of the storm that sweeps, with its
dark wings, over the lashed sea. There he is, scaling in
his quick evolutions a thousand times, during the cloudy
day, across the track which our ship leaves in the disturb-
ed waters behind her. And when the tempest of the night
has had its full sweep through the rigging of our naked
spars, the morning finds that dark bird still near us, though
scarcely seen only as his wing tips the billow in its roll,
as he turns himself in his flight, and lines his shape in his
upward curve and dark relief, on the horizon beyond him.
12*
138 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
And yet, I dislike not that bird he is so sublimely in keep-
ing with the dark-rolling billows of the sea, when no crest
is on their tops, but clouds darken the heavens or as seen,
the precursor of the dark- winged squall, when driving,
with nearing approaches, over the waters or when the
heavy gathering of the dark nimbi-clouds around the whole
horizon tell the wary sailor of the coming hurricane, that
shall throw ocean and air, and falling waters, into their
wildest tumult and rage.
OFF CAPE OF -GOOD HOPE, AUGUST 19th, 1838.
I have written of the blow which swept over us on the
llth instant; and fresh winds have attended us during
most of our course from Rio, up to our present position.
But the gale of last night and this morning, has out-
matched the elements in their tumult of the eleventh. We
are now standing nearly east, with fore-course double-
reefed, and main-topsail close-reefed, and the wind abaft.
The swell of the ocean exceeds any thing which we have
before seen. The crest of the surge raises high its white
cap, only to be sent, like whirling drifts from the high peak
of a snow-bank. At times, the extended ocean lies before
us sheeted in one vast layer of foam ; or again, the blue
billow, rolling higher than his fellow, breaks its huge vol-
ume, and sends its thousand currents of mingling froth
down the steep aslant of the surge, like expanded flakes
of snow, resting on the declivities of the blue ravine.
While standing on the arm-chest of the quarter-deck, one
mightier surge than the rest, came on, and rolling high its
curling crest, bent its lip of foam over the hammock-cloth
and drenched me from head to feet. It was a mighty
heave of the ocean, thus to overleap the highest part of
the spar-deck.
Having changed my dress, I again sought the deck, to
ascend to the mizzen-top. No sail was spread upon the
naked spars, while the winds roared through the moaning
rigging ; and here in grand solitude, I gazed abroad upon
the lashed ocean, raging in the wildness of a gale at sea.
The sun was out, and sent his steady beams abroad, as if
to light up the terror of the storm. The spray of the clip-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 139
ped surge reached me, even in the mizzen-top, as it was
whirled on the wing of the eddying currents. Abroad,
on the vast deep, the mighty cascades of ocean threw up,
as incense of oblation to the winds, their jets of foam, co-
ruscajing in the light of the glorious sun, and rendering
contemptible all the attempts of art to imitate the water-
spouts of nature. But the winds those moaning winds,
wailing through the taughtened rigging, now howled like
a thousand spirits, that seemed ready to chant the requiem
of half a thousand souls held at their mercy, and driving
them on their way of tempest, with life-lines stretched
from gun to gun, the length of either deck, to enable them
to pass from bows to stern of the careening, and pitching,
and struggling ship. It was a grand spectacle, that veiw
from the mizzen-top. The fore and main each bore only
a single sail, close-reefed. No other sail was set. The
top-gallant-masts were housed, the guns run in, and all
was snug. Scarcely a man was seen aloft in the fore and
main tops, while the mizzen-mast stood in its naked cords
and spars, to wail, in sympathy, with the maddened ele-
ments of wind and wave, while the one swept through its
cordage, and the other around us, in the wildness of its
tempest-course. It was a fearful chord those masts, at
times, would line on the heavens, as the ship was heaved
by the rolling billow ; and as I gazed over the chafed sea,
from the rocking height, the very currents of the air seem-
ed as if they would choke me, as I inhaled my breath.
Never before, as now, had I so fully realized the fearful
circumstances of the adventurous tar aloft while the gale
is raging, and mastering the winds themselves, though,
from habit, he is as confident and sure as if his feet were
pressing the firmer deck below.
Such is the scene while we are moving around the Cape
of Good Hope, some hundred miles in the distance from
it. But we fear nothing. We know our path unlike
the earliest adventurers on the same course, but hugging
nearer to the shore, which they justly denominated, in the
days of their smaller ships and imperfect knowledge, "the
cape of all torments." But our run is at the rate of ten
knots and more the hour, directly on the course which
we desire to make over the mighty billows, which, in all
140 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
their mountain-height of blue and green, and crest of foam
and mist, and spouting cascades of crystal waters, drink-
ing in the light of the high sun, are yet beautiful, and grand,
and sublime as nature, even in her wrath, ever appears.
Go on, then, thou goodly ship. Thou hast borne us safely
thus far, and we will trust thee still, in the hand of that
greater Power, who poured the ocean's self from his palm,
and can wake or allay its mighty commotion, at his will.
On a succeeding evening Lieutenant Turner sent for
me, to come to the deck and look at a beautiful Luna-bow.
Its colorless but soft phosphorescent arch was' lined dis-
tinctly and perfect on a dark-brown cloud, in the south-
east, while the moon shone sweetly and bright in the north-
west. The apex of the arch was some 15 above the sea;
and nothing could be more soft, more chaste, more lovely.
In its proportions and position it obeyed all the laws of the
rainbow, with the exception of the color of its rays. The
light of the moon, though her smiles were abundant for a
maiden no more than a week old, was too feeble to trans-
mit from the bow the prismatic colors. And I would not
wish to have seen them, if ever they appear. They
would have been out of character, in the soft light of the
moon, as she walked through her blue halls to-night, with
the horns of her silver crescent turned towards the north,
and the stars above her and around her shining in their
own peculiar sheen of glory. And then, not far above
this arch of light, so chiming in with the color of the stars
and the moon's pale beam, was seen the constellation of
the Southern Cross. There, then, were all the elements
of the escutcheon of the once proud house of Portugal,
with her gems of the Brazils the cross supported by its
arch, and its azure field studded with brilliants. But the
mind that loves to let its vision go beyond the things of
change, would think of the reality, which that constella-
tion emblems forth of immortality to spirits, which dia-
monds of the mines and stars of the heavens may not
redeem ; and associate the halo, spanned in its graceful
loveliness and light on the heavens, with the brow of Him
who made them all, and redeemed man to fadeless bless-
edness, if he will but return to him the fit devotion of his
heart !
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 141
THEORIES CONFIRMED BY OBSERVATION.
Few things can more gratify one, whose habit of mind
has been to philosophize on the phenomena of nature, than
to be placed in circumstances where he is able to verify
the theories with which he has been familiar, and to ob-
serve for himself the reality of those theorems in physics
which he believes as mathematical certainties, but which
his opportunities of observation have never before given
him to feel to be true, as matters of his own visible inspec-
tion and consequent experience.
We all believe that the earth is a sphere. We have
read the proofs and followed out its demonstrations in
curves and sines and tangents ; and have read of ships,
guided by the unerring magnet, and the bright stars, and
the yet brighter sun, sailing around the world, by keeping
on their unchanged course to the east. We believe it all.
But it is not with that feeling of conviction which pos-
sesses him, who has watched the compass from day to day
and from month to month as he has urged on his curved
course, with the prow of his ship ever pointed to the east,
and finds himself at last, at the same point of the west from
which he started.
And again, if from the north the voyager has ever look-
ed at the sun performing his daily circuit at the south of
him, seeming so closely to hug his bright halls in the south-
ern distance as almost to leave a doubt in one's feelings
whether it be a possibility for one to place that same
luminary at the north of him, though he should sail to the
southmost extent of the earth. But the voyager no
sooner commences his course southward than he finds that
the sun, at noonday, is more nearly above him than before.
He continues his course another day, and still another, and
another, and finds the sun, in his never-failing circuit, yet
nearer above him, when midway on his diurnal track
of the heavens. As his ship still bounds on her fleet tra-
verse, at length the sun, at meridian, sends down his per-
pendicular ray, with an intensity of heat, that tells him
there is no mistake about its coming from the point direct-
ly in his zenith. But he still urges on his course to the
142 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
south, and finds that he is continually leaving the belt of
the heavens through which the sun makes his annual
circuit, until, as is now our own case, he reaches a point,
from which the sun appears as far to the north of him at
noonday, as a New-Yorker would see the same glorious
orb at his south, on a November's noon.
And then, as he gazes from night to night on the bright
stars, on which he has looked from his infancy, sinking one
by one beneath the horizon, as he recedes from them;
and another hemisphere of yet brighter brilliants looming
up before him to delight his view, he feels, while he thus
gazes and admires, and is sad, that he has evidence that
this earth is a vast globe, on which he has sailed to its
higher part, and there for a moment delayed, but is now
descending again, with a long farewell to the home and
the hemisphere where he has ever before lived, and looked,
and loved.
The trade-winds are another subject of interest to the
voyager, as he passes to the equator and beyond it. In
accounting for the regularity of these winds, for ever blow-
ing in the same direction, he has to review but a few and
simple principles, for the confirmation of the theories in
meteorology, with which he made himself acquainted in
his school-boy days, or in hours of maturer reasonings.
And he finds the reality to be, as his theories would lead him
to infer. In the northern tropic, a perpetual northeast
wind prevails, ever driving towards the equator, and in
the southern tropic, a southeast trade alike drives on its
perpetual slant.
THE VARIETY OF CLOUDS.
There are many other objects of interest, which attract
the gaze, and offer continual subjects to amuse the specula-
tions of the meteorologist, as well as to delight the fancy
of the poet, and awaken the emotion of the beautiful in
the bosom of the lover of nature. Nowhere else can we
have so full and ever varying views of the changing
clouds, as at sea. One sees them in their thousand forms
and changes and picturesque grouping of castle and turret
and falling ruins ; and cavalcade and infantry in elemen-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 143
tary war ; and in the calm of succeeding truce, and the
serene of final peace. And then, the expanses, like ocean-
plains, in the ever changing skies, often lay before him in
their green, or blue, or saffron and gold, with the soft clouds
drifting slowly over the bosom of the rich expanse, like so
many floating islands, prepared for the spirits of the blest
in their circuit of the universe, and of fadeless happiness
and years.
We gaze upon the cirrus most generally occupying
the highest place of the atmosphere, and sometimes cover-
ing the vast expanse above us, sometimes usurping the
whole heavens. Now it throws out its fibrous lines with
curled ends, like the flowing hair of a " Kate's crazed,"
streaming dishevelled in the breeze. Again it is seen in its
lines of net- work ; and at others, like flakes of wool dis-
tended and terminated in its curve of curls. The sailors
call this cloud the mare's tail; and the cirrus, Englishized,
means a tuft or lock of curled or frizzled hair. The mari-
ner supposes it to be a harbinger of coming winds ; and
when it gathers low and dense, a blow may be deemed to
hang upon its nearing wing. At such times, it is generally
seen rising from a direction opposite to the one whence
the gale shall come. The brushy and filiform structure
of this cloud, would seem to favor the supposition, that
tiiis class of nebula serve as conductors of electricity from
cloud to cloud, and from one mass of the atmosphere to
another. Its changes are often very rapid, throwing out
filaments in various directions, from the original thread, and
disappearing in the form of another cloud, but when most
elevated, sometimes pencils its beautiful tracery, for hours,
on the fair and deep-blue sky.
The cirro-cumulus is a modification of the cirrus, having
the appearance we would imagine to be given to the cir-
rus, if its small fibrous layers were contracted into globu-
lar shapes, and extending themselves in irregular and hori-
zontal masses. They generally occupy the place next
lower in the sky than the cirrus ; and by some, this variety
of form is deemed to result from the cirrus ceasing its
office as an electric conductor, either by its change of form
or the changed state of the atmosphere. It is deemed the
forerunner of fair weather ; but not always is it such, for,
144 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
when accompanied by the cirro-stratus, another variety
of cloud, it is regarded as a sure indicator of a coming
storm.
The cirro-stratus is varying and many-formed, but, like
the cirrus, it is a fibrous cloud. It spreads its cross-bars
or fibrous layers of oblique and parallel streaks in a hori-
zontal extension, varying in their length and size and color,
.but uniting themselves in a horizontal line, while the ends
are jagged and distinct. At other times they spread them-
selves in disconnected but regular oblique lines, parallel to
each other, lying on the back-ground of the heavens in
fanciful resemblance of a school of fish, and hence deriving
from the voyager the name of mackerel skies. The night
before the gale we experienced off Cape Good Hope, the
skies were checkered with this variety of clouds, attended
by the cirrus yet above it, and both sailing in the upper
region. Ere long they condensed into darker layers
towards the falling of 'the sun, with the increase of the
winds. The cirro-stratus, in connection with either of the
preceding forms, is regarded as an unfailing precursor of
a gale ; and in the language of the sailors,
" Mackerel skies and mares' tails,
Make high ships carry low sails."
The cumulus and the cumulo-stratus never tire the eye
as it gazes on their sublime piles, banked up one upon
another, and rolling on their courses in changing but ever
beautiful formations. What may not one fancy them to
be in their fleecy robes of light, and gossamer of a thou-
sand dyes, from the deepest crimson and scarlet and ver-
milion, to every shade of gold ; or as they stack their
spherical shapes in an untarnished glow of silver and gold,
against the deep blue of the ether ? I have watched, for
hours, their varying forms, as they have lined themselves
in one almost unbroken and glorious panorama around the
horizon of the heavens, when nature seemed to be deco-
rating herself for the gala of some one of her grandest holi-
days. And then, as the sun coursed down his way to his
bed of the ocean, retiring behind the banks of these conic
and terraced masses,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 145
* I've lingering gazed upon the glowing west,
Seen in her gold and gorgeous purple drest ;
But soon those brilliant dyes have past away,
As evening threw her veil far o'er the sky."
Of these two clouds, the cumulus, whenever it is the
precursor of rain, presents a more sombre and fleecy
appearance, and is less globular and distinct in its forma-
tion, and sinking in denser masses towards the horizon.
But in fair weather, its rounded forms are well defined,
and sail higher up on its course of light, drinking in the
beams of the smiling sun, throughout the whole of the
loveliest day.
The cumulo-stratus is yet more beautiful in its combina-
tions of rolling and heavy masses, overhanging its dark
underlayers ; and sometimes seems to lower, as if all were
not right in the peaceful regions through which it is sail-
ing ; but it is believed that rain never falls from this majes-
tic voyager of the fair and beautiful heavens.
The nimbus, or the rain cloud, often has its origin in the
cumulus. Large masses of the cumuli, at times, may be
seen crowding together, blending their folds and raising
high their peaks, and gliding into the form of cumulo-stra-
tus. Ere long they become more and more dense, until
they present to the beholder the dark sides and threat-
ening volumes of the nimbus, which delays not long its
approach over the waters in gust and whirlwind and rain;
and is known alike to the observant and the unobservant,
as the dispenser of showers, and tempests, and storms.
The cloud which is spoken of by the meteorologist, as
occupying the lowest stations, is the stratus, which includes
in its genus the mists and fogs formed during the night, and
dispersed by the rarefying beams of the early sun. It is
supposed to reach its density at midnight ; and owing to
this circumstance, it is sometimes called the cloud of night.
But when the sun's early rays scatter its white folds into
thin air in the morning, it is the surest harbinger of fairest
skies. Who has looked on the vast volumes of the autum-
nal fogs, rolling from the river up the ravines, as the sun
sends forth his morning beams, and has not admired the
silvery and fleecy folds of the slowly rolling vapors, as
they rise beneath the rarefying influence of the morning
13
146 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ray ? And if we have beheld them while we were gazing
upon them from the side of friends, and at the home of
our youth, nothing can make us forget the charm of these
young associations, and the waking views of our careless
and happy hours.
LAND, HO !
We have just made the southern point of the island of
Madagascar, after a run of thirty days from Rio. It is a
question whether a quicker passage has been made over
the same track, our ship having measured ninety degrees
of longitude, or sailed one fourth the way around the
world in thirty days.
It is indeed a thing of delight to gain a view of land,
after a passage of weeks at sea. The voyager feels that
he is again united to a world of living beings ; and the eye
fixes itself on the land as an associate object, to carry the
heart directly to friends, though they be a hemisphere from
the spot where the eye is lingering its gaze. It is on land
where our dearest associations cluster. It is there we have
laughed, and wept, and loved ; and it is there we believe
ourselves still to be beloved.
To me, it is an agreeable circumstance to be noted, that
we have,in every instance,made the land under some inter-
esting exhibition of nature. The scene at Madeira, and
the bright Arcturus shining above us, has been mentioned.
The eve of our gaining our first view of Rio de Janeiro
is noted, as associated with an unequalled moon-lit scene.
And to-night, as the sun went down but a little at the west
of the island, which lies in the horizon on our larboard
beam, bathing his golden disk in the Indian seas, he exhib-
ited a peculiar and peaceful sunset, which seemed to omen
brightly of our onward way, through the waters of these
olden lands. The large orb fell, while we were gazing
on the newly seen isle. When his lower limb touched the
waves, they heaved against his crimson belt, while some
six or eight digits of his disk only could be seen, as he
continued to settle beneath the waves, from a cloud above
him, until at length his upper rim emerged from the fleecy
bank, and in a moment more he disappeared, saying, in the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 147
last gleam that scintillated in his farewell ray, " I have been
your friend I have given you my beams until I have
saved you from the nearing danger, and the wished-for
object now lies before you. Praise ye, then, the God who
made me."
Surely that heart must be devoid of all capability of
gratitude, who, after a course of weeks upon the bound-
less ocean, can look upon the land, and think of friends,
and health, and safety, and gives not a gush of bursting
love to the God who made him, and whose attending
goodness has been with him on the seas.
The land which we have made is the island of Mada-
gascar, the first we have seen in this ocean of isles, into
which we are about entering, and which we first desired
to make.*
In consequence of finding it impossible to weather the
southeastern point of the island of Madagascar, occasion-
ed by the adverse winds called the Fort Dauphin winds,
which prevail at the south end of Madagascar, our ship
has been standing to the east and south for several days,
with the intention of taking one of the outer passages for
Muscat or Bombay. The island of Madagascar is a con-
tinent in itself; and it seems remarkable that it has not
met the avaricious eye of some of the European powers,
and called for the exercise of their prowess, in the at-
tempt to take and to hold possession of it.
Yesterday, September 4th, we were some three hun-
dred miles from land, with the island of Bourbon and the
Isle of France at the windward. It seems yet unsolved
whether we shall touch at the latter. It is replete with
associations. It is the spot where the scenes are laid,
which have brought the tear to the eye of many a young
* During the night, owing to our proximity to the land, we stood
off to the South, but tacked ship early in the morning. When again
we had gained a view of the land, a cloud had passed the ship ;
and a bow more brilliant than any one on board had ever before
seen, arched itself over the southern extremity of Madagascar.
The lower chord of rays lined themselves as distinctly in its lovely
violet as art's less lovely tints could have drawn them on canvass.
It was a perfect thing, and awakened the admiration of every eye
on board.
148 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
heart while reading the sentimental and tragic story of
Paul and Virginia. The island, in other days, has . been
noted for its loveliness, and choice and hospitable society.
The clove in its rich aroma, and the cinnamon, and the
coffee tree deck the plantations, while the flowering mi-
mosas with their contrasts of white and yellow and rose
blossoms, with the deep verdure of their dense foliage,
decorate the streets of Port Louis.
But to me, the greatest charm which could be thrown
around this fair isle of the Indian seas, is the circumstance
of its being the final resting-place of the lovely and de-
voted Harriet Newell. I well remember the story of this
first martyr to the cause of East India missions. And
when a boy, the memoirs that narrated her voyage, and
exhibited her character in its loveliness, its sweetness, and
its piety, melted my heart, and perhaps was among the
first things that awakened in my own bosom the desire
that the God in whom she confided might be mine. How,
then, would I stand beside that grave, which contains the
dust of the self-sacrificing and lovely missionary, who
had a heart which embraced in its benevolence the mil-
lions of India ; and though delicate in her feminine loveli-
ness, hesitated not, in that early day of Christian effort for
the East, to dare the difficulties that attended on the path
of the strongest and the roughest, who went forth with
good intent for the salvation of the benighted. Peace-
fully she rests in the green island of cloves, which give
their spicy richness to the gale. None who can appre-
ciate the moral beauty of virtue in its loveliest dress can
recall thy memory, sweet sleeper of the ocean isle, and
not yield thee the tribute of deferential respect and love.
This evening, at about sunset, a little bird came down
on its tired wing, and lighted on our ship. The quarter-
master took it, and brought it to me. It is far away from
the shore for such a little wanderer to venture ; and when
taken, manifested no symptom of alarm. I brought the
little voyager to my room, and penned to it the following
lines :
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 149
TO A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE BIRD,
Which lighted on the deck of the Columbia, some hundred miles and more to the leeward
of the Lsle of France.
Sweet bird of the isle, too far o'er the sea
Thou has bent thy slight wing come hither to me ;
There's none that will harm thee, sweet bird of the isle,
As thou on this bosom shalt rest for a while.
The first shade of night is on the dark wave,
And the zephyrs of eve in their sea-dews lave ;
And thy home many leagues is away in the west,
Thou canst not reach it come hither and rest.
And when the morn breaks with its first ray beaming,
And o'er the blue sea to thy green isle is streaming,
I'll give thee to thy wing, if again thou wilt dare
To cut thy fleet way through the deep azure air.
But thy breast is now beating, lone bird of the isle,
And none its grief-breakings hath power to beguile ;
Thou dreamest of thy left-one 'mong bowers of the clove,
There carolling her vesper this eve in the grove :
" O where, O where is my lost-one," she is murmuring now,
" That, to-night, he returns not to his cinnamon bough 1
The soft spicy breezes lose their sweetness for me,
While I am absent, my lost-one, my lost-one, from thee !"
But cheer thee, little bird of the sweet azure crest,
Again thou shalt see thy green isle of the west ;
We will bear thee, to-night, full many leagues on,
And thou shalt live again, and love, in thy own spicy home.
On the morning of the 9th, we made land, agreeably
to our expectation, and corresponding in its longitude with
the time of our chronometers. It is the island of Diego
Rodriques, long. 63 7', lat. 19 37'. It presents, the south-
ern extremity of it, an oval outline with the highest point
in the centre, and declining either way with a nearly
equal curve. It is composed of high mountains and deep
ravines, while it sleeps in its ocean-solitude, in undisturbed
possession of the crabs and turtles frequenting its shores.
13*
150 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
SABBATH OF THE 9TH OF SEPTEMBER.
We have taken the southeast monsoons, and are sailing
delightfully on our course. It is a lovely day, and it is the
Sabbath. The services of the morning are over ; and a
few moments since, while on the quarter-deck, I marked
one of the Lieutenants, who had turned from the view of
the land to the opposite quarter of the ship. His head rested
upon his hand, and his elbow upon the hammock-cloth ;
while his cap was carelessly held in his other hand, which
lay listless upon the netting ; but his thoughts were on
wings, I doubt not, which bore him to loved ones far
how far away, on other shores ! And this was not all.
His were not only thoughts which relate to this life.
None loved more entirely than he ; and it was this love
which now bore his thoughts up to the Father of us all, for
blessings which this earth cannot give, to rest on the
absent. Oh, there is a hallowedness in those breathings,
which go forth in prayer for those who are deeply be-
loved, when the soul of him who prayeth hath but lately
learned to feel that there are riches beyond this world
which friends dearer to him than life may attain, and
when such is the burden of his prayer. God bless those
friends ; and in the mysterious commune of spirits, may the
prayer of this young husband bear on it, by the way of the
courts of heaven, this day, a blessing which shall thrill a
kindred chord of devotion in the bosom of his young and
amiable bride, and consecrate to their God the young
years of their boy, who has, as yet, but just learned to
lisp the name of father and mother.
While reading, to-day, in the Memoir of the accom-
plished Henry Martyn, the scholar of Cambridge and the
missionary to the Indies, I noted, with interest, the follow-
ing passage : " Since I have known God in a saving man-
ner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown
to me before. I have received what I suppose is a taste
for them ; for religion has refined my mind, and made it
susceptible of impressions from the sublime and beautiful.
Oh how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those
pleasures which keep so many from God, by their becom-
ing a source of pride !"
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 151
There is deep truth in this reflection ; and it has often
impressed my own mind as it is here delineated in the
words of Martyn. And I once heard a gentleman of
great refinement of character, taste in literature, and who
minutely observed men and manners, say, that there was
nothing like religion to give beauty of expression to the
countenance. Why should it not be so i We know that
the muscles of the face are exercised by the emotions of
the heart ; and those emotions which are most frequently
exercised in the bosom leave the evidence of their frequent
existence demonstrated on the countenance. If, therefore,
the benevolence of the heart towards our fellow-men,
often touch our sympathies if sympathy for the distress-
ed if ingenuousness of character, rectitude of purpose,
and truth in principle, are all habitually waking in the
bosom and controlling the mental decisions and external
actions of one who has devoted himself, or herself, to the
discipleship of Christ, how can it be otherwise than that
these feelings should chronicle themselves in the open, and
manly, and ingenuous face of the sincere follower of Jesus
Christ, whose religion inculcates good will to all men.
And these are the virtues and the excellencies which we all
admire, wherever they are seen to exist. It is in the very
nature of our constituent being to admire virtue and moral
excellence, as much so, as it is a quality of the physical
eye to appreciate physical beauty. Therefore, where
other things are equal, that countenance will be the most
lighted up by that inexpressible and often indescribable
charm, which gives one to believe that he reads, in the
light of its expression, the amiable and enchanting quali-
ties of an unseen but intelligibly speaking soul. And
when a character, thus refined in its sensibilities and prin-
ciples, goes forth to look on nature, her beauties chime in
with such a character's sympathies. Nature, in all her
coloring and landscape and sublimity in effect, exhibits a
perfection in the Creative Mind that conceived and spread
such beauties forth to the view ; and it awakes, in the
bosom of the refined, a longing desire for a kindred purity,
that his spirit may be untarnished by one blemish. And
the least blemish, wherever seen in contrast with the loveli-
ness around him, in his growing habit of refinement,
152 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
gives pain to the increasing delicacy of his perceptions.
And with this deepened refinement of spirit, painting,
poetry, and music, made up of beautiful and delicate
harmonies in imagery, sentiment, and sound, come home
to his sensibilities, and the soul thrills as it yields to the
deep tides of flowing, and beautiful, and refined thought
No man nor woman hath reached that delicacy of suscep-
tibility, where harmonies find the deepest chords which
nature has strung in our bosom, unless the element of
religion lies among the vibrating strings of the spirit. It is
of no account to say that some unholy men have been the
greatest poets, and that many holy men have never had
the gift of poetry. Byron perceived what he might have
enjoyed, had he himself been all that his mind conceived of
the pure, the beautiful, and the refined. We read his con-
fession in the sentiment, when the prayer of one who was
lovely, and young, and pure, was sent to him, as having
been penned and offered up to her God for him, and which,
on her death, had been found among her private papers.
He would sooner have exchanged all the glory of his poetic
fame than the one consciousness that such a prayer had
been sent to heaven in his behalf. Byron should have
been a Christian, and then he would have experienced the
happiness rather than the miseries of one of the gifted chil-
dren of poesy. Pollock was such ; and as he wrote, he
not only enjoyed the mental perception of the beautiful
and the sublime, but his heart melted in the depths of its
profoundest and purest sensibilities, which reached the
circumstances of his whole mental, and moral, and im-
mortal being.
On the twelfth, a dark storm, with rain and thunder,
attended us, and reduced the ship to her fore-course and
main-topsail, close-reefed. The spindle of the main con-
ductor was illuminated for some time, and I stood, for a
half hour, in the deep darkness of the night, and the heavy
peltings of the rain, on deck, to watch the effect of the
clouds, charged with electricity, upon the pointed spars
of the ship. The illuminated point of the spindle appear-
ed like a small star, and lined its chord of light on the dark
zenith as the ship rolled, but at times disappeared, 01
again gave forth its small bead of light. Before I ascend
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 153
ed to the deck, the officer assured me that the truck was
considerably more illuminated, and a phosphorescent ap-
pearance extended some inches down the royal-mast.
The sailors are, confessedly, a superstitious class, very
generally believing in ghosts and various kinds of spiritual
appearances. While standing upon the deck, I was
amused with strange stories, each one being ready to spin
his yarn when interrogated. They call this electrical ap-
pearance corpo-sant the St. Elmo's light of the books,
and of other superstitious times. A main-top-man as-
sured me that he had often seen the corpo-sant descend
from the truck to the deck, and ascend again. In case of
its rising again from the deck to the truck, it is deemed
an omen of approaching good weather. But should the
corpo-sant descend the mast, and make its way out of the
lee-scupper, then,
" There's danger on the deep,"
and many vessels, under such circumstances, are known
to have been lost, said the sailor, with all their crews.
It is not unusual, during a stormy night like this, for
the three trucks of a ship to become illuminated, as also
the ends of the higher yards. This phenomenon is of
frequent occurrence off Cape Hatteras, and the cause must
be obvious, as an electric exhibition, at the rounded points
of the spars of the ship.
Nature never tires the eye of the admiring gazer, as he
lingers his vision on her ever changing beauties. The
sunset of one night is beautiful the next may equal it
for its brilliancy, while the coloring and the thousand
fairy forms of the one shall differ entirely with the ever
varying forms and colors of the other. I have already,
and more than once, alluded to the beautiful sunset scenes,
which are ever presenting themselves to us, at sea. But
the scene of glory spread before our eye on the evening
of the 13th, in our west, has not before been equalled for
its coloring and variety of fantastic forms ; and we will
call it
154 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
A SUNSET SCENE IN THE SEAS OF ARABIA.
And what is there of the imagination that does not come
forth as the memory recalls the olden stories and fairy
tales of that enchanted land the days of the Caliphs-
Yemen's golden mountains, and Oman's emerald waters ?
We are now approaching this land of gorgeous legends,
and in a few days more may lave our anchors in the green
waters of Oman. And just as we are entering the seas
of Arabia, the delight is not a little augmented by the
coincidence that presents to us, to-night, so gorgeous a
sunset, while we let the imagination go on its free wing
to mingle the half-shady memories and mystic fictions of
the past with the brilliant images and reality of the present.
A summer's shower had gone over us, such as I have
known at the north in June, which left the soft and moist
air to rest refreshingly against the cheek. The clouds
had been floating on their way, and were now packing
themselves up in the south and west, leaving vacant fields
in the sky, deep and vast, where they seemed to have laid
off the beautiful spaces, as if they had thought on this night
as the hour for making the greatest display of their mag-
nificence and loveliness. The sun had sunk his veiled
disk beneath the western rim of the ocean, and sent back
upon the clouds his beams, in his greatest prodigality ;
while these aerial vapors had disposed themselves in fan-
tastic lines, as if they sought to be peculiar this night.
One long cirro-stratus stretched itself in a horizontal line,
midway in the scene, dark, and low, and long ; and above
and below were oblique layers so converging on the green
back-ground of the sky, as to exhibit the appearance of
an undulating sea of paling green, sending back from its
unbroken and mirroring surface a sheet of light, in deli-
cate and softest beauty. Not the gossamer zone of lady
ever floated so lightly as, here and there, waved the elon-
gated curls of fleecy vapors, in their different hues of
lightest pink, and blue, and palest gold, while the heavier
layers of clouds piled themselves in strata upon strata,
and all were illuminated with every tint of mingling
scarlet and carmine and deepest Indian red, such as
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 155
painters might wish, to give the highest coloring to the
cheek.
But it was the arrangement of the clouds, to-night,
which mostly struck my eye, and awakened my interest,
though nature's colorings shone forth in their indescrib-
able magnificence. There, around the gorgeous horizon,
lay all the cities of the East, as they had filled our young
minds and vivid imaginations, with all their turrets and
domes and embattled ramparts, notching themselves along
the line of the glowing horizon. But one scene, more
than the rest, attracted the long gaze of my own eye,
willingly lingering on the princely vision. Two parallel
rows of clouds were so piled, as to give the perspective
of a spacious avenue, lined, on either side, with palaces
and castles, embowered in regular rows of ornamental
and towering trees, extending from the rim of the ocean
far across the area of the wide city, to a curve in a crys-
tal and expanded river, that seemed to wind, for leagues,
in the back-ground. It opened directly in our front; and
in its distance, this princely street, at this hour, seemed
animated with the equipages of nobles and the luxurious,
on their evening and pleasure drives, now returning to
their several homes ere the night-fall gathered over them.
I gazed until the twilight of evening left those distant halls,
and battlements, and turrets, and equipages, in the dun
of earliest eve ; while only some few of the latest strag-
glers here and there seemed to be driving on a belated
course, at the hour when night is soon to wrap all alike
in her deep and dark mantle of shadows and forgetfulness.
All on board the frigate were gazing, from their several
places, on this gorgeous scene.
" There, Mr. T.," said the Commodore, as he turned to
me from the horseblock, "is a scene for poetry. I think
we may hear of it again. We are near enough to the
waters of Arabia to lay the scene in her seas."
" And a lady in Rio, you know, sir, told me that she
knew I was a poet, the first time she saw me. And I as-
sured her that she was early to find out, what nature had
never yet discovered."
" Your modesty, Mr. T."
" At least I can fancy that the breeze this evening snuff?
156 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
of balmy Araby ; and the whole scene is in keeping with
the tales of enchantment, which have lain, like fairy spells,
in the imagination from our infancy, as we have thought
of the storied land of the East. It is association, as I
take it, which delights the voyager, as he nears, and as
he stands on olden ground, rather than the things of the
present which meet his eye around him. He cares not
though he treads on ruins, if the past be in his memory
and musings ; and he chooses fiction rather than the re-
ality, if that fiction has before delighted him. Araby once
had the reputation of all the East. She is now only
Araby, by herself. The Sultan of Muscat, however, is a
lion of modern times, that may justly awake our curiosity
and admiration."
" Yes ; and I would," continued the Commodore, as he
held his hand up to the gentle breeze, " that these prog-
nostics of a change of wind might come from this quarter,
and a few more days would give us the pleasure of seeing
the Sultan. But had we a suitable present for his High-
ness, and five thousand dollars to give him an entertain-
ment becoming his generous hospitality, we should be ad-
ditionally gratified. But mark you that pile of dark pil-
lars rising in the continued changes of the sky, in that
expanse of exquisite green, so like an ocean, thereaway ?"
" It looks like the dark sugar-loaf, as the masses now
crowd together, and reminds me of the beautiful moon-rise
scene, that smiled on our first making the city of St. Se-
bastian, which should have been built of rock. I thought,
as I marked the beds of beautiful granite inwalling the
city of Rio on its three sides, that Don Pedro, with his
Brazilian gold and diamonds and agricultural resources,
if he had possessed any energy, should have been able to
say, when exiled from his western capital. ' I found the
city in mortar and pebbles ; I leave it a city of granite ;'
in imitation of the Roman, who left the seven-hill city of
brick, a city of marble."
"Tea is ready, sir," said a servant, as he approached
and touched his hat to the Commodore. [Exeunt omnes.~\
It is not a frequent coincidence, in the run of a ship,
for the vessel to pass the equatorial line at meridian and
under a clear sun. In our own case to-day, however
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 157
Sept. 17th, we found ourselves, at noon, five minutes, or
five miles, north of the equatorial line, of which, had it not
been an imaginary circle, we could have had a fair view.
The declination of the sun was only 2, and consequently
nearly perpendicular. The shadows of the men looked
like crabs as they were passing fore and aft the decks. I
suspended a broom, at the moment of twelve, and the
shadow of the handle could not be seen, so nearly vertical
was the sun. For a few moments before twelve it seemed
doubtful whether the sun would dip ahead or abaft of us,
our ship standing, at the time, on a north course. But
when the sun had reached its highest point, the sextant
brought its reflected disk to the rim of the ocean, ahead
of us. To-morrow the sun and ourselves will have chang-
ed sides with each other, and a long sweep remains for
each of us before we shall again meet and reciprocate
our passing compliments.
A bird was sent to my room this morning before I had
plumed my own wings to venture from my nest. It came
at the direction of the Commodore, who has been abroad
earlier than myself. It is a true Arabian of whom we
think as of a rover that has designs upon his neighbor
with the eye of a hawk, the fleetness of his own Arab
steed, and the strength and the agility of the dromedary.
The bird is an Arabian falco, that lives by his predatory,
excursions, and eats his weaker neighbors, when he can
catch them. And notwithstanding his own merciless na-
ture, it was a long colloquy between my conscience,
humanity, and love of the curious, whether said falco
should be considered as having forfeited his life by his
previous course, which course, however, was to be judged
of only by circumstantial evidence and reasonings a priori.
It was at length decided that a preparation should be
made of him, and my servant boy was directed to place
his hand so as to press the breast of the bird that it might
not expand, and to place his fingers around its neck. The
beautifully speckled falco, with his dun-colored and dark-
spotted plumage, in a moment saw no more from those
large, round, and beautiful dark eyes, though they had
looked on so many beautiful things of nature, and with
the quickness of light had seen and seized his weaker
14
158 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
prey. He did not even flap his wings, and seemed un-
conscious of pain, so suddenly and so completely did he
lose his breath.
I can seldom bring myself to a willingness to destroy
the life of a bird, or other animal, merely for my own
pleasure of preserving him to fill a niche in a private mu-
seum. And I admire that delicacy of feeling which
caused a gentleman of my acquaintance, on perceiving a
serpent endeavoring to devour a toad, to alight from his
carriage, and separate them giving each a switching,
and sending them about their business. But on board of
ship, the birds which alight upon her spars and rigging,
are generally so far spent that they do not recover, and
will not eat or drink. The same day a pretty little swal-
low was brought to me, and with a desire to cherish its
life I placed it in one of the side lanterns of the ship, with
the intention of bearing it nearer to the land, that it might
find its way back again to its green bowers and sylvan
tents. But it died during the night. This was also the
sad fate of the pretty bird that came aboard of us at the
leeward of the Isle of France ; and all my kind desires
that it might reach its green land-home again, failed of their
gratification. It died, as I watched its last pulsations, on
my handkerchief. And though my sympathies could
avail it nothing, the incident bore me many leagues over
the seas, where I remembered to have seen a sweet young
lady, sitting in pensive mood, with her long dark eyelashes
nearly closed, as her neck, with a gentle curve, bent to
gaze on her pretty canary, which lay imbedded on her
rich laced handkerchief, and was dying. Each pulsation
of its yellow plumed bosom was watched with a languish-
ing air of sentiment, as the little sleeper lay in her lap ;
and when the last beat of its heart had stopped, and the
convulsed wings extended themselves, and its delicate
feet contracted, and all then was over, one long sigh
swelled that young lady's bosom, and a tear filled her ab-
stracted eye. Who will say that such a tear was ill-spent
over the death of that beautiful little bird ?
There was a beautiful eclipse of the moon this evening,
October 3d, and we were every way favorably situated
to observe it, in the Arabian sea. The night was clear,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 159
and the sea smooth, while we were gliding on our course,
with our sails sufficiently filled to keep the ship steady.
The air was mild and delightful. The officer of the
deck sent for me ; and when I reached the upper deck,
the earth's shadow had already covered ten digits of the
moon's disk. The heavens were lighted by the bright
stars, now streaming in their greatest brilliance from out
an Indian heaven, while the northern edge of the moon
gleamed in its narrow strip of light, only to render the
gloom beneath her on the ocean yet more sickly and
drear, while the stars above and around lay in their love-
liness, deep in their dark concave above us.
Even philosophers are sometimes so much the things
of habit in their associations, that we had not bethought
ourselves that an eclipse, invisible in the United States,
would be in full view to the eye that gazed at it in the
Indian seas. It was a beautiful sight, however, as pre-
sented to our observation. The gorgeous queen seemed
to have taken the whim of a quakeress to-night, in her
attire of the light dun of her gossamer dress. I contem-
plated her changes with interest, first with the naked eye,
then through the common night-glass, afterwards through
a larger inverted telescope, which exhibited her appear-
ances yet more interesting, in her contrasts of colors.
The shadow exhibited the appearance of the richest am-
ber; and the brilliant stream of light, that gleamed in a
small line on the northern rim, as it increased its field
while the shadow receded, presented an area resembling
a surface of purest snow, reflecting back a flood of light
in contrast with the amber of the shadow.
We envied our friends on the 18th of the last month,
the opportunity of gazing at the annular eclipse of the
sun. No evidence of a frown gathering over his face,
appeared to us. And the privilege we enjoyed in con-
templating the scene of to-night, from the mid-ocean,
might justly excite their envy towards us, could friends,
in their kindness of heart, ever indulge such a feeling to-
wards those of their number when far away, for "the
occasional pleasures which come across their course.
160 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
A LAZY SHIP WAKING AGAIN TO LIFE.
Our ship has been sleeping for some fortnight and
more in the calm waters of the Arabian seas, as if she,
like the rest of us, had become unnerved by the relaxing
heat of these latitudes. We have made but little pro-
gress, from day to day. The sea has presented, often, an
unruffled bosom. Around us occasionally, the thousand
colored and beautiful dolphins have been seen, and the
rudder-fish adhering, as if it were life and death with
him, to the course of the ship. The waters in these seas
are remarkably phosphorescent. At night, a sponge,
dipped into a bucket freshly filled from the sea, will be-
come bespangled entirely with the brilliant phosphorescent
points, giving forth their light from a thousand small glob-
ules, that coat the surface to which they adhere. And
when the water is dashed upon the deck these thousand lit-
tle brilliants cover the moistened space. But when a light
is brought to observe the animalcules themselves, which
are supposed to give forth these phosphorescent appear-
ances, not one can be detected. At least, on several
occasions I have made the examination with others, and
without success ; though these illuminated particles are
perfectly perceptible to the eye in the dark, and on placing
your finger upon them, as they adhere to any surface,
they give forth a brighter illumination, and can be suf-
fused over a larger space by compression, as a small par-
ticle of glutinous matter would extend itself when the
finger was drawn, with a pressure, over it. I can ima-
gine that these seas should sometimes exhibit one unbroken
sheet of phosphorescent light, as it has been affirmed of
them, as seen in some instances. And on one evening,
as our vessel was gliding gently through the water, which
was undulating with an unbroken surface, the dark sea
near us seemed but a counterpart of the bespangled arch
above us, as we looked into the deep concave below, illu-
minated by a thousand points of these phosphorescent
and twinkling globules, which the imagination placed as
far off and beneath us as the orbs that gleamed in their
distant and far-off halls above us.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 161
For several days have we been gliding through such a
sea, lazily indeed, and where alone we have, during our
voyage, seen the expanded bosom of the ocean exhibit its
vast surface as a mirror in its smoothness and reflecting
powers. But to-day our courser has aroused herself, and
seems moving with awakened speed on her way, as if
she had again come to her remembrance that there was
something to be done, and dreaming was not always to
be indulged in by one who bears a nation's messages and
commission around the world.
SECTION VII.
MUSCAT.
Off Muscat. Night signals. First view of Muscat. Title of Imam. Visit
of the Commodore to the Im&m. Commodore Read's letter to his High,
ness. Letter and lines from the Author to the Sultan. Also letter to the
young Imam. Note of Syed Bin Calfaun. The burial of a seaman at
Muscat. Author's visit to Captain Calfaun. Sentiment of the Sultan as
it respects the residence of Missionaries. The Sultan's horses. Visit of
the young Sultan to the frigate. Camp of the Bedouin Arabs. Banyans.
Bedouin Chief. Captain Syed Bin Calfaun. Generosity of the Sultan
of Muscat. Syed Syeed Bin Soultan's family.
THIS morning, October 18th, we find ourselves off Mus-
cat, the wished-for port, for which we have been steering
over a long track of water since we left Rio de Janeiro.
We have been eighty days at sea since we left the South
American coast. Last night we deemed ourselves within
a few miles- of the harbor, and with all our studding-sails
set, endeavored to press the ship up to a point, at which,
as we rounded it, we expected we should discover the har-
bor. But the sun delayed not on his declining course, and
lost himself behind the serrated range of hills of the Ara-
bian coast, along which we had been standing during the
day, before we could weather the low and elongated bluff.
As the sun declined beyond the cragged highland, he still
14*
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 163
sent back his rays, to bless our eyes with a long twilight.
But the point was too far to be gained by the ship before
the shades of evening had spread over the sea ; and no
one on board, with any confidence, could point out the
entrance to the harbor, as we were approaching it. Hav-
ing tacked ship, and re-examined our latitude and longi-
tude, which placed us, according to our best authorities,
directly off the harbor of Muscat, we continued to stand
some points more off, but along the shore.
We had spoken a vessel a day or two before, direct from
Muscat, who reported an American armed vessel there,
having arrived five days before from Zanzebar. We con-
cluded of course that the John Adams had arrived in
safety before us ; and if still in the harbor, bearing as we
presumed it did from us, she might be able to mark our
night signals, and return them. The gunner, therefore,
was ordered to send up a number of rockets, which traced
their stream of light through the air, exploded, and illu-
mined, with a faint flitter, the dark waters beneath them,
and expired. But no coruscating light, in the distance,
announced that there was one living being on that iron-
bound and apparently desolate shore, who marked that a
noble frigate was within a few miles of the secluded capi-
tal of the Arabian Sultan. And the hills of rock, deeply
cut by vast chasms into unequal and fearful ravines, are
so high that the Adams, if she is now lying at Muscat,
most probably could not have caught the gleam of our
rockets.
But, this morning, having made a gentle slant to the
west and north during the night, we see a little notch in
the side of the elevated land, seven or ten miles distant.
It looks as if a niche had been made in one of the bluffs
extending along the shore ; and there, as if it were an
eagle's eyry, in its wild and still solitude, is perched a cas-
tle ; and there, too, the glasses discover to be the entrance
to the inwalled cove, on which is situated the city of Mus-
cat. A small and light-colored island, as it shows itself
in the beams of this morning's sun, lies off the cove, as if
it were a buoy thrown adrift, to mark the entrance to the
little bay of Muscat. And on a range, higher up than the
castle, and nearer to us, are seen two watch-towers, which
164 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
occupy the elevated heights half way up the sides of the
most elevated line of the hills, and perched on some peak
of lesser mountains. It is all a wild scene, but unique and
interesting. Not one spear of grass or leaf of green, or
relief of tree is seen upon the notched outline of the dark
rocks which are lying far back and near, cragged, and sha-
ded by each other, or throwing back their reflected light,
as the sun this morning pours its beams upon the steril and
hard surfaces of the broken and rocky heights. Ere long
we shall glide nearer and through the rocky inlet ; and
there we hope to meet our consort, after a long separation ;
and then we will assure his Highness, the Sultan of Mus-
cat, that we value his generous dealings with our nation,
and that we are friendly in the purposes of our visit and
future designs in his seas.
While writing the preceding, an Arabian pilot came off
to our ship, in a canoe, paddled by two slaves. He advan-
ced to the officer of the deck with perfect ease, and exhib-
ited a person, clad in his flowing gown, sash, and turban,
with a kinger, ornamented with a silver handle, stuck, like
a bowie-knife, in his girdle. We learned from him that
the John Adams has been at Muscat, and left there for
Bombay, four days since.
With the light sea-breeze of the morning we continued
to approach the harbor, and have now rounded the castel-
lated point on the east of the cove, and moored our ship
in full view of the city of Muscat. And the scene pre-
sented before us is like Muscat. What else it resembles
I can scarcely define. But it is peculiar, interesting, and
Arabesque. Here, enclosing the city on three of its sides,
stands the mighty rock, crowned with castles and various
small turrets and towers, around the picturesque cove.
And there was never any thing that is mean in rock. It
is ever grand, and gives us the idea of power, durability,
and immoveable prowess. Ages on ages roll by, and
still it stands, to laugh at the tempest, and to gaze with a
heart of flint on the generations of mortals which the earth
sends to their graves, while the mountain-rock sheds but
its disintegrated particles, from its enduring bulwarks, to
the plains.
We had let go our anchors but a short time before a
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 165
number of Arabian boats pulled around our ship, and a
few of the Arabs came on board in their characteristic cos-
tumes. In a few moments after, Captain Syed Bin Calfaun,
with the newly arrived American Consul, pulled off to the
ship. They spent a short time with the Commodore, and
soon after their leaving the ship a salute was fired, in com-
pliment to his Highness, the Sultan of Muscat. Our salute
was instantly returned by the forts on three sides of the
cove, two of which are almost within gunshot of our frig-
ate. Scarcely could a finer effect have been produced
than by the reverberating echoes which our cannon pro-
longed around this rocky inlet. I have heard, on Lake
George, its justly admired reverberations to the sound of
the bugle, and in repeating the thunder of a piece of artil-
lery ; and can imagine the grandeur of the effect, were the
good ship Columbia's cannon discharged over its waters
and among its surrounding hills. But here, the echoes of
the inwalled cove were repeated in quicker and shorter
reverberations, yet sublime and peculiar in their retreating
succession, until lost, like connected crashes of thunder, as
they rolled along the most extended side of the rocks, and
were spent in low thunder in the opening towards the sea.
It was indescribably fine. The repetition of the first
cannon had not ceased its rapid succession of reverbera-
tions on each of the three sides of the cove, until the next
gun spoke to the yet vibrating air, to be repeated in its
turn, until the succeeding gun prolonged the sound. And
when our own cannon had ceased their handsome fire of
twenty-one guns, the forts immediately opened, and return-
ed the salute, as the hills seemed to have awoke from a
silence of ages, to give forth their burning fires and sleep-
ing thunders.
Just previous to our reaching the place of our mooring,
our Hindoostanee, who has been nicknamed Handsaw,
(whose real name is Hassan Hassaul,) seemed greatly
delighted that he had gotten into a region where he might
find cast, in color and language. When the Arab came
on board, the said Handsaw, being the steerage cook, was
not in the habit of wearing either hat, cap, or chapeau.
But after his first interview with the Arab, he disappeared
beneath the hatches, and when again seen, a purser's new
166 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
handkerchief, as a turban, was upon his head. This was
not objected to. But when the word was passed for all
hands to clean themselves, as is usual when nearing a
port, Hindoostanee Handsaw re-appeared on deck, clad in
petticoats, sash, and turban. Approaching the First Lieu-
tenant, with great hesitation and considerable stammering
as if he had already committed a punishable offence, he
at length, with an oblique glance at his own unique gar-
ments, muttered out, " Fashion of the country, sar these
country fashion, sar" by all of which he meant to say,
If you please, I will dress after my own cast. " Get out
of that, you rascal, you," cried the Lieutenant, to the great
dismay of the brown Handsaw "get out of that instantly,
or I will have you at the gangway, sir !" Hassan Hand-
saw sunk beneath the hatches, to appear no more in his
suit Hindoostanee.
We learn from Captain Calfaun, that his Highness, Syed
Syeed Bin Soultan, Sultan of Muscat, as he is styled in
the treaty, and in the descriptions of Muscat, as they have
been given in the narratives of the two voyages of the U,
S. ship Peacock, has left Muscat, and is now at Zanzebar,
where he has been residing for two or three years, having
left Muscat soon after the Peacock's second departure from
this place. The son of Syed Syeed Soultan, whom his
father has left there, receives the title of his father. And
this title, instead of being Sultan, is here called, by the
Arabs, Imam, pronounced Ee-maum. But both the Ameri-
cans and the English, as a title more familiar to their ear,
style him Sultan, in imitation of the title of the Grand
Seignior of the Turks.
This morning the Commodore waited upon the young
Imam, or Sultan, as we shall continue to style him, being
the heir apparent to his father's possessions, and his repre-
sentative here in his father's absence. Captain Calfaun had
come on board the frigate to accompany the Commodore
and the officers who attended him, to the palace, which is
a large but plain building, situated directly on the edge of
the bay. We landed near the residence of Captain Cal-
faun, and proceeded to his house, where we remained until
Captain C. himself repaired to the palace, (kings' houses,
all know, are called palaces,) to inform his Highness that
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 167
the Commodore was on his way to wait upon him. On
the return of Captain C., (a few moments having expired,
which we had spent in looking at the match-locks and Ara-
bian sabres ornamenting the walls of the room where we
were sitting,) he conducted us along a number of winding
and narrow streets ; and having passed through crowds
of half naked Arabs, turbaned Arabs, gracefully robed
Arabs, and yellow, red, and dark-skinned Arabs, all entirely
respectful in the indulgence of their curiosity, we at length
came to the gate of the palace, which opened from the
narrow street to a passage-way leading to the court, around
which the walls of the dwelling are built. The walls of
this passage-way were studded with all manner of war-
like weapons, from the gun with its match-lock, to Damas-
cus blades in leather scabbards, kingers, not unlike a bowie-
knife, and spears, all having about them a peculiar look of
antiquity, either from their much use, or age, or fashion ;
and the match-lock, in particular, would have astonished
the sportsmen of the modern school of percussion caps
and wafer wads. At this point, we passed through a line
of his Highness's guards, whose arms were decorating the
walls ; and then, proceeding along the court containing a
few orange trees and stunted bananas, we entered a hall
or passage-way, leading from the court to a piazza, called
by others, the divan. This passage was lined by a number
of better dressed guards, with kingers in their girdles, orna-
mented with silver hilts. They saluted us as we passed.
The piazza or saloon overlooks the harbor, the water
washing the wall on which it is based, with a full view of
the shipping and the elevated and castellated rocks, which
inwall this picturesque cove. The piazza runs the whole
width of the building ; and the upper end of it was car-
peted with Persian rugs, with settees and chairs arranged
at its sides. His Highness was standing, with four or five
of his friends and advisers on his left, ready to receive us,
as we entered. The Commodore and his officers were
severally greeted by his Highness and his friends, with a
familiar shake of the hand, after our own American style
of meeting, each one then taking a seat, the Commodore
near the Sultan, as Captain Calfaun placed himself nearly
opposite the Prince and next to myself, in the range of our
party.
168 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The Prince was glad to welcome the frigate Columbia
into this port, he said, and hoped the Commodore and his
officers were well, and inquired after the health of the
President of the United States.
Commodore Read made the usual replies ; and during
the conversation took the opportunity to say, that the
President, the government, and the citizens generally of
our country had felt and expressed a deep sense of the
Sultan's great kindness towards the officers and crew of
the Peacock. And he had hoped that he should have been
able to convey a more particular expression of that feel-
ing, than it was now in his power to give. He had been
under the necessity of leaving the United States before
the government had definitely acted on the subject which
had awakened their additional interest towards his High-
ness, and he hoped, ere long, that his Highness would
again hear from the government of the United States in a
manner yet mre acceptable than his present statement
could be.
The Prince replied, that it was but very little that they
had done for the Peacock, and that so trifling a circum-
stance could hardly require any acknowledgment.
Here was deep sarcasm, or else great magnanimity.
Prithee, Americans, which was it ? No one who saw the
ingenuous countenance of the Prince, or his principal ad-
viser, who was the speaker on this occasion, and is the
favorite cousin of the Prince, could have read any satire
in their expression, and I am sure there was none in their
feelings.
Coffee, sweetened with crystallized sugar-candy, was
served by one of his Highness's oldest eunuchs, a slave
long attached to the family of his young Highness's father,
as Captain C. said to me as he gave me the names of the
different persons present. After this, lemonade, made
from sweet lemons, was passed. The coffee was served
in small cups, resting in corresponding silver ones. The
lemonade was passed in common glasses.
We sat with the young Prince and his relatives, and
others of his council, for three-quarters of an hour. His
cousin, a young Arabian of thirty-two or three years of
age, was the principal speaker, and has a sprightly intel-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 169
lect. A lad, son of this last, was also present, whose at-
tention to all that was said was particularly marked for
one so young, as he sat with his hand upon the hilt of
his Damascus blade, almost as long as himself. Captain
Cal faun's brother also was present, the two brothers strik
ingly resembling each other, and their features indicating
considerable cleverness. The young Sultan has a round
face, with full, large eyes, greatly striking in this burning
region, where the sun, darting forth his scorching rays,
forbids the Arab ever to open his eye with the expanding
frankness of the European. And this fine feature, with
his rotund face, corresponded with the idea I had con-
ceived of a Persian, rather than one of the princes of Ara-
by. His wife is said to be a Persian Princess ; and an
allusion to his marriage, which took place at the time the
Peacock was last here, originated a conversation, which
seemed to please the whole party.
I trust it will not be deemed out of place, when allud-
ing to another incident, occurring a moment before our
leave-taking of the Prince. It was gratuitous on the part
of Commodore Read, and unexpected on the part of my-
self; and, in connection with the succeeding papers, it
becomes a necessary part of a correct description of our
presentation. The Commodore had alluded to the Presi-
dent's Message, and would give Captain Calfaun the docu-
ment to be interpreted to his Highness, so far as it related
to a mention made of the generous action of the Sultan
towards the Peacock. And you will please further say to
his Highness, added Commodore Read to the cousin of
the Prince, that a young gentleman of the Columbia, re-
collecting that the Arabians are a poetic people, has pen-
ned some lines, evincing the general feeling of interest
cherished at home, in connection with the kindness of his
Highness, the young Sultan's father, towards the officers
and crew of the Peacock. He would be happy to present
them to the Prince, that they may, through him, be con-
veyed to his Highness's father. The Commodore bowed
to myself as the writer of the lines ; and when Captain
Calfaun had interpreted the Commodore, the Prince, with
a courteous acknowledgment, said that he would be
most happy to receive the communication, and would
15
170 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
transmit it, as desired. I did not, at the moment, possess
the lines which had been alluded to, and replied that they
should be handed to Captain Calfaun at some other time,
before we sailed.
It was the object, of the presentation, to produce as
favorable an impression upon the Prince and his family
as practicable, in view of the interests of our commerce,
and of humanity. If, therefore, the following papers,
which were sent to the young Sultan, as the consequence
of this allusion of the Commodore, shall in any degree
contribute to the good- will and kindly feelings existing
between his Highness the Sultan of Muscat and our own
citizens, I shall be happy that they were penned, and for-
warded as further described.
My own communications were enclosed in the follow
ing letter from Commodore Read :
To His HIGHNESS SYED SYEED BIN SOULTAN :
I had anticipated, on my arrival at Muscat, the pleas-
ure of being able, in person, to tender to your Highness
the assurances of the sincere good wishes, which the
President of the United States continues to cherish for
the happiness and prolonged prosperity of your Highness.
And while transmitting the accompanying papers, penned
by my Chaplain, as evidence of the general kind feeling
which the generous course of your Highness towards
the Peacock has created in the United States, I fully be-
lieve, although I have not been instructed by my Gov-
ernment thus to say, that your Highness, ere long, will
again hear from the President of the United States, in a
manner more accordant with the generosity and great
merits of your Highness.
I am, with high considerations of respect,
Your Highness's obedient servant,
GEORGE C. READ,
Commanding the U. S. Naval Force in the Indian Seas.
Harbor of Muscat, October 20th, 1838.
The following are the two papers, alluded to in the
preceding letter of Commodore Read
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 171
His HIGHNESS THE SULTAN OF MUSCAT
Will excuse the freedom of one who admires his magnani-
mous and elevated character, for the liberty which is taken
in transmitting to his Highness the enclosed lines. They
are sent as evidence of the cordial sentiment of admira-
tion which affects the writer's own bosom not only, but
also of all those who have heard of the generous action of
his Highness towards the officers and crew of one of the
United States ships, when she was near being stranded
on the Arabian coast.
Will his Highness receive the sincere wishes of the
writer, that the years of his Highness may still be long
and happy, as they have been beneficent and glorious.
FITCH W. TAYLOR,
Chaplain of the U. S. Frigate Columbia.
Harbor of Muscat, October 18th, 1838.
The following are the lines alluded to in the preceding
note:
TO HIS HIGHNESS SYED SYEED BIN SOULTAN, SULTAN OF MUSCAT
SULTAN OF MUSCAT ! thy proud story
Lives where the day-beam latest falls,
And thy name famed in Eastern glory,
Is heard within the Western halls ;
And far o'er seas to Oman's waters
A nation's thanks we bear to thee,
And long their thousand sons and daughters
Will bless the Prince of Araby.
Not purest pearls from Bahrien's ocean,
Not diamond gems from eastern mines,
Not hoarded gold of proudest Imam
Could win the hearts from western climes ;
But courteous deeds and princely dealing
Their stranded sons received from thee,
Hath met a nation's grateful feeling,
Who laud the Prince of Araby.
For such as thee, in martial strains,
The notes of clarion should be swelling,
And minstrel harps and sybil-lines
Thy deeds in glorious verse be telling ;
172 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
And storied rolls and fadeless pages
Trace bright thy name and chivalry,
And chronicle for deathless ages
The generous Prince of Araby.
And bright thy name, with glory streaming,
Shall light the page of future story,
And fairer than thy fellows gleaming
Shall fix the gaze of young and hoary ;
And though, like meteor-lights declining,
The sheen of other names may die ;
Thy deeds shall be for ever shining,
Thou glorious Prince of Araby.
O Araby, of olden story,
Though fairy-spells live in thy name,
Deserts, green, sheiks, and all h'ath glory,
As in our youth we learned thy fame ;
Yet mountain-gems, and myrrh, and balms,
And tales of proud antiquity,
We lose them all, while verse proclaims
The proudest Prince of Araby.
Then peace attend thee in thy glory
Of Eastern climes and golden treasure,
And years of life gleam long before thee,
To fill the chalice of thy pleasure ;
And where the sun goes late to rest,
Far o'er the deep and wide blue-sea,
There SYEED BIN SOULTAN shall be blest,
As noblest Prince of Araby.
The preceding papers, in a sealed envelope, to his
Highness Syed Syeed Bin Soultan ; together with their
duplicates unsealed, were sent, through Captain Calfaun,
with the following accompanying letter, to the young
Prince, on whom we had called :
To His HIGHNESS THE IMAM OF MUSCAT.
We anticipated the pleasure of paying our respects to
his Highness, your illustrious father, on our arrival at
Muscat. But in his absence, we are happy that we shall
have the privilege of conveying to him, though your
Highness, the grateful considerations which every Ameri-
can citizen, as well as the Government of the United
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 173
States, must continue to feel towards your illustrious fa-
ther and his distinguished family, for the noble manner
with which he treated the officers and crew of the U. S.
ship Peacock, when she was near being lost at Mazeira.
Will your Highness, therefore, excuse the freedom of
the request, that the accompanying papers, addressed to
his Highness, your father, may be forwarded to him as
opportunity may offer ? A duplicate of the same is sent
to your Highness, alike to evince the high respect and
grateful consideration which the writer and his country-
men feel towards the whole family of your distinguished
father.
FITCH W. TAYLOR,
Chaplain of the U. S. Frigate Columbia.
Harbor of Muscat, October 19th, 1838.
But to return to our sitting with the Imam and his suite,
from which we digressed for the insertion of the prece-
ding papers. We soon after left the palace ; Commodore
Read having given the Prince an invitation to visit the
Columbia, which was accepted. On our leaving the Imam,
it was with the usual ceremony of shaking hands in our
own style, with cordial good feelings, apparently by both
parties ; and while Captain Calfaun accompanied the Com-
modore and other of the officers to look at the Sultan's
horses, I returned to the edge of the bay to meet the two
boats, seen pulling from our frigate, with their flags at the
stern, declaring that they were bearing one of their num-
ber to the shore, for his burial. As I reached the landing
place, a dark Arab approached me, taking from the folds
of his turban the following note :
" SIR,
" The bearer of this note will conduct you to the bury-
ing ground. Also, some of his Highness's guards will
attend you.
" Your obedient servant,
" SYED BIN CALFAUN."
The boats soon reached the shore, and the body of the
poor sailor was borne by his messmates, accompanied by
the officers of the boats and the assistant surgeon, and a
15*
174 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
crowd of Arabs and Africans, whose curiosity collected
them to witness the ceremony of an American burial.
We proceeded through the narrow and winding streets,
until we passed out of the southmost gate of the inwalled
city ; and after proceeding through the range of bamboo
houses clustered together without the walls, we soon
reached the spot where the grave had already been dug.
The crowd, from their loud and noisy chattering, became
silent as our party all uncovered, and the ceremony of
interment was said above the body of the departed sailor.
And while they were now filling the grave, a collection
of masked women at a bamboo tent at some distance on
the steep aslant above us, commenced their wail for the
dead. We left this worthy tar to sleep in his foreign
grave, beneath the pouring rays of an Arabian sun. His
death was sudden, and occasioned by the intense heat of
the sun, on the afternoon of our mooring our ship. An
active seaman and petty officer, he had exerted himself
on the yard while furling sails, and with his hat off, suf-
fered the sun to beat upon his uncovered head. He fell
soon after his reaching the deck, and died in the course
of an hour. One or two others were affected, but have
recovered so far as to be out of danger.
The sides of the high rocks which surround, on three
sides, the narrow cove on which the city of Muscat is
situated, are like so many mirrors, converging the sun's
rays to a focus, and thus concentrating the heat upon a
vessel which lies within the harbor. At the moment of
our mooring ship and furling sails, at about four o'clock
P. M., the sun's rays, from this circumstance, were in-
tolerable, where one was exposed to them. And though
I made no particular note of the degree of heat we ex-
perienced while at Muscat, I am told the thermometer rose
to 110 in the sun, while kept on the gun-deck, and in my
own room it generally ranged, during the day, at 86.
The nights were comfortable, and the officers generally
rested well. But during the day, the perspiration was
streaming from every pore ; and in no case have I ever
perspired so freely, for a succession of days, as at
Muscat.
On the day succeeding our presentation to the young
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 175
Sultan, who is about twenty-three years of age, I went
on shore to visit Captain Calfaun, and spent some time
with him in his upper rooms.
Captain Calfaun has been in the navy of his Highness,
the Sultan of Muscat, and is said generally to have com-
manded the vessel in which the Sultan himself has sailed,
when visiting different parts of his possessions. He
seems to be a good Mussulman, and is particular in con-
forming to the ceremonious observances of his religion.
We had a long conversation on the peculiarities of the
Mohammedan and the Christian systems ; and it seemed
his wish rather to leave with me the impression, that the
followers of Mohammed venerated the character of Jesus
Christ as profoundly as ourselves. And yet, while he
affirmed that they considered Jesus Christ to have had,
in his generation, no earthly father, but was born of Mary
by the exercise of the power of the Almighty, and that
Mohammed was born of earthly parents ; it was evident,
at the same time, that Captain Calfaun did not feel that
Jesus Christ was a greater prophet than Mohammed, or
was other than a prophet, like Moses, and others after
Moses, and Mohammed after Christ. Jesus Christ came,
at the time he did, to save certain tribes of people,
and was persecuted. Mohammed also was persecuted
for the first few years of his mission, but was finally suc-
cessful in establishing his purpose, and was the latest and
the last prophet whom God had sent or would send to the
earth for the welfare of mankind.
His peculiar sect, which prevails in Oman, differs in
some things from the generality of Mussulmans, particu-
larly in connection with their idea as to a metaphysical
speculation about the visible appearance of God. They
affirm that God, being a spirit, can never be seen, while
others suppose that he will be visible to the inhabitants of
another world. Their whole system, however, represent-
ing the future state as a physical existence, would, of
necessity, introduce a thousand difficulties, were they at
all given to philosophical reasonings. But it is my pur-
pose elsewhere to devote a paragraph to the subject of
the religion of the Arabs, and, therefore, I waive it
here.
176 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
In speaking of the toleration which his Highness the
Sultan cherishes towards his subjects .of different creeds,
Captain C. assured me, in reply to a question on the sub-
ject, that there would be no opposition made to the loca-
tion of an American missionary at Muscat.
But, I continued, should such a missionary succeed in
making a Mohammedan a Christian, in what manner
would the Arabian afterwards be treated by his tribe and
countrymen ?
" That would be impossible," Captain C. replied. " A
missionary could not make a Mohammedan a Christian."
But, I continued, with a smile, suppose the missionary
did succeed suppose by argument and conclusive reason-
ing with Captain Calfaun, he should make Captain C.
renounce his present creed and join the Christians, how
then would his Highness treat Captain Calfaun ?
" His Highness, or the true Imam, would kill him," con-
tinued Captain C.
But would not that be rather cruel, and uncharitable ?
I asked.
" But it would be just," continued Captain C., " for I
should deserve it."
Here then is seen the amount of toleration an Ameri-
can missionary would receive at Muscat; or rather, it
presents to him the probabilities of his success, and the
consequences of such success to the converted Mussulman.
Were there an American population at Muscat sufficient
to render it desirable to have Christian services and the
residence of a Christian minister, his Highness would im-
pose no obstacles to the establishment of a church for
themselves, any more than he opposes the existence of a
Banyan temple, which is tolerated within the city walls,
with all their Banyan peculiarities, glaringly opposed to
the professed dislike of the Mohammedans to all idol-wor-
ship. But should a convert from among the Arabs be
made to the Christian religion, an immediate opposition
would be raised ; and the Sultan, who is generally at the
head of the spiritual as well as the civic power, would be
obliged to interfere ; and in case the two powers, civic
and spiritual, were not invested in the same individual,
the Imam, who is at the head of the spiritual power
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 177
would act, without appeal, in his opposition to the intro-
duction of the Christian system.
It is not always the case that the Imamship is united
with the chief civic power. It is required, in the case
where they are invested in the same individual, that the
Prince shall possess sufficient theological knowledge to
enable him to deliver a discourse before the doctors or
priests, and the assembled shieks of the different tribes,
who have elected or made the reigning power. If, how-
ever, the Prince decline, either from incompetency or
other reasons, thus to discourse before ihe assembled
chiefs, he does not receive, in fact, the title of Imam,
while, at the same time, it is generally accorded to him,
in courtesy. This is the state of things in the case of his
Highness, the present Sultan of Muscat. He is called
Imam by courtesy, though he has never gone through the
ceremonies, and assumed the spiritual obligation, which
the title supposes.
Early on a succeeding morning I went to take a view
of his Highness's horses, tethered near the beach, at the
eastern side of the city. We passed along the narrow
bazaar, principally occupied hy the Banyans ; at the end
of which is their temple, with sketches of wretchedly
drawn houses and ships covering its walls. Both the Ban-
yans and the Arabs seem entirely ignorant of perspective.
Their ships and houses are fac-similes of the first essays
of the nursery, in drawing a man or a mouse, or a horse
or a house. The Sultan's stables are arranged within an
inwalled square of considerable size, with a roof extend-
ing quite around three sides of the area-wall, sufficiently
wide to protect the animals from the rays of the sun. A
fixed rope, attached by a noose over the fetlock-joint of
the hind legs of the horses, preserved them in their place,
and prevented them from doing mischief either to them-
selves or others. We saw a few tolerably fine horses,
among the forty or fifty animals in this collection. But
most of them, disconnected with their Arab associations,
would not have commanded fifty dollars a piece, for a
dray in New- York. There was one beautiful mare with
sleek limbs, strikingly in contrast with the stiff joints and
clumsy legs of most of the horses we saw. Captain Cal-
178 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
faun said, that quite a number of his Highness's best horses
had been sent from Muscat, a few days before we arrived.
As we returned through the bazaar, I purchased some
Persian rugs, which were very pretty, and must be very
durable, judging from their material and compactness.
Others were afterwards purchased, by several officers of
the ship. These rtigs are brought in boats from up the
Persian Gulf, to Muscat, and sold at auction here. They
are afterwards, a considerable supply of them, sent to
Bombay.
THE SULTAN'S VISIT TO THE COLUMBIA.
The young Sultan, having accepted the invitation of
Commodore Read to visit the Columbia, came on board
with his suit in the afternoon, at the hour which had been
fixed upon. He was attended by his principal minister,
who is a cousin and a young Arab Prince of decided cha-
racter ; also a brother of the young Sultan about fourteen
years of age, a bright lad ; and the commander of the
Sultan's guards, who is said to have fought some hard
battles ; together with Captain Calfaun, Captain C.'s brother,
and several others of the Prince's officers and retainer^.
The gig and cutter left the frigate at four o'clock to
bear the young Prince and his suit to the ship. Our crew
"Were all in their clean dresses, and the officers in their
cocked hats and swords, ready to receive this young
Arab. The yards were manned, and as the Prince came
over the side of the frigate, the music beat the roll, while
the marines, in full-dress, presented arms as the Prince
descended to the deck. The music repeated the roll suc-
cessively as his Highness's chief counsellor and the Prince's
young brother came over the frigate's side. They were
all received by the Commodore and First Lieutenant in
advance of the other officers, who then, together, walked
to the quarter-deck. The beat to quarters at once dis-
persed officers and men to their several places ; when the
Prince, through his interpreter, Captain Calfaun, was in-
formed that the frigate was now in the attitude assumed
when about to engage an enemy ; Would he walk
through the ship and examine her ?
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 179
The whole party passed fore and aft the three decks,
and having sufficiently gratified their curiosity, entered
with the Commodore into his cabin ; to which all the offi-
cers were then invited. The Commodore, with his usual
taste, had arranged his table with fruits, sweetmeats, sher-
bet, lemonade, &c., of which they partook ; after which
coffee was served.
The young Prince, seated on the right of the Commo-
dore, said but little himself. His minister was the chief
speaker and the primum mobile of the scene, here as at
the presentation of the Commodore at the Sultan's divan.
He is decidedly the most intellectual Arab I have yet seen,
is about thirty-five years of age, with a sprightly flow of
words and play of the muscles of his face ; while his
speaking eyes give forth their expressions, as indices of his
emotions. The Prince's young brother sat next below
the minister on the Commodore's left, and opposite to my-
self. There was no wine on the table, it being contrary
to the religion of the Mohammedans to partake of it, or of
any other spirituous liquor, until they reach the highest
heaven of their paradise. The Commodore, however,
with a smile that was understood, said he would take wine
with the Prince if he would allow him. The compliment,
as meant, was interpreted to the Prince, who offered the
precepts of his religion as his apology for declining. But
the gentleman beside me, said one of the officers, drinks
wine, sir. The Lieutenant alluded to Captain Calfaun's
brother, who had been in France, and had gained some
knowledge of the French language. " No, sir," added the
courtier, " I do not drink wine in the present company."
While Mohammed, the young brother of the Prince,
was sipping his coffee, I indicated that I would drink coffee
with him, as there was no wine on the table. The coffee
seemed particularly agreeable to his taste, but the Com-
modore's cups, so large in comparison with theirs, were
rather unmanageable in his hands, and his own awkward-
ness so amused himself, as to betray him into an audible
laugh. This young brother of the Prince was now com-
plimented for his fine head and teeth, and general appear-
ance, all of which was merited by the apparently clever
lad ; and his teeth were but counterparts of his brother's,
180 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and others of his family. They are strikingly white, clear,
and preserved thus by the use of a particular root, which
serves them as a brush.
" His Highness," said Captain Calfaun, addressing my-
self, " has seen you twice, and in both instances in black.
He desires to know the cause of your wearing it ?" This
curiosity seemed to be awakened by the contrast of my
dress with others of the officers.
I replied that it was the uniform dress of the Chaplain
of the ship.
Captain Calfaun, apparently not comprehending the
term chaplain, I added, that it was the dress of the reli-
gious officer on board the ship, corresponding, in part,
with the religious office of the Imam on shore among
themselves. The Catholics,' of whom they had known
more than of the Protestants, would call me the priest, for
which title we use the term minister or clergyman, and
on board of ship, chaplain.
His Highness replied, that he had supposed I wore
black as mourning for the loss of some friend. And could
he have read the heart at the moment of his mentioning
it, he might have seen it wreathed in weeds, as it even
then bled at the recurrence of the thought that I was, in-
deed, in mourning for one who sleeps to wake no more,
until the hour that shall wake us all at the last day.
The party rose and retired to the private cabin of the
Commodore. The cousin of the young Sultan and his
principal counsellor, now continued the conversation, in-
quiring as to the age of the Columbia. He was told that
this was her first cruise.
" And the John Adams, was she also new ?"
" She had lately been repaired, which was almost the
same as being newly built for the cruise, but had long
been in the service."
His Highness continued, that they were greatly pleased
with their visit to the Columbia admired the ship and
was sure that his Highness his -father would greatly re-
gret that he was not at Muscat himself to receive us, and
would have been particularly pleased with the Columbia's
visit, as she was the first large frigate that had ever visit-
ed the waters of Muscat.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 181
The Commodore re-assured his Highness of the kind
feelings of the President and people of the United States ;
and fully believed that they would manifest it in their
future intercourse in his Highness's ports.
His Highness replied, that Americans would always
be welcomed, and that every thing would be done that
was possible for their happiness and convenience.
But, said the Commodore, our frequent visits to your
ports would cause you a considerable expense, if you
should insist, in all instances, as you have done in this,
that our ship shall be supplied gratuitously.
" We are friends" said his Highness with emphasis,
" now, and are happy that it is so. And we hope that it
will continue to be so from father to son, and from sons'
sons, down to the latest time of our family, and FOR EVER,"
he added, as he seemed a moment to hesitate for the last
word, in the evident increase of his feelings, in the gen-
erous glow of the noble sentiment.
How great a pity, said the Commodore, addressing
myself, that we do not understand all languages ! This
sentiment of the Commodore was an expression of regret
that he could not tell this Prince, as forcibly as he would
wish, the sincerity of the good feeling of the American
people, in their high appreciation of the character of the
Sultan of Muscat.
Captain Calfaun was desired, however, to say, in reply,
which was the last sentence interpreted to his Highness
in this talk, having particular reference to the feelings of
the two governments towards each other, that " when we
returned to America, the President and the citizens of the
United States would be told in a language which they
would entirely understand and feel, how true and how
generous is the friendship of the Sultan of Muscat towards
the people of the United States."
The Commodore now ordered the two boats to be
manned, as the Prince and his suit were about to take
leave of the ship. The awnings had been furled while
we were in the cabin, having been spread when the
Prince and his party came on board. The yards were
ready to be re-manned. The young Sultan regained the
deck, and as he left the ship, the music and the presenting
16
182 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
arms of the guard complimented him as he passed over
the side of the frigate to the boat. So soon as the boats
had pulled to a suitable distance from the ship, their crews
rested on their oars, as the loud note of the first gun of the
frigate loomed over the still waters of the bay, succeeded
by twenty other loud-mouthed pieces, in compliment to
his Highness, to be reverberated in rolling thunders along
the high defile of rock, which nearly surrounds the har-
bor. The scene was a fine one; and when our own
pieces had ceased their voice of national compliment, the
oars of the two boats were seen again to dip, in regular
stroke, for the shore, while the guns of the returning sa-
lute from one of his Highness's vessels, opened, to prolong
and to return, with an equal number of guns, our fire.
VISIT TO THE CAMP OF THE BEDOUIN ARABS.
I went late on shore, in the evening, with a design to
take a stroll to the camp of the Bedouin Arabs, the Sul-
tan's retainers, who are quartered in their tents about
three-fourths of a mile without the walls of the city.
I called at Captain Calfaun's ; and our Consul, who was
there, taking my arm, we started for a charming evening's
walk. The sun is scorching during the day, but now it
had gone behind the high cragged peaks which stretch
every way around Muscat, and had just settled beneath
the notched outline of the rocks, even before I had left
the Columbia, sleeping at this pleasant hour on the bosom
of the picturesque cove. We passed along the narrow
streets, leading to the western gate of the city ; and being
assured that it would not be closed until our return, we
passed out and followed on to the encampment, which was
located in a ravine between two high defiles of rocks, the
only kind of a location that could be found in the neigh-
borhood of Muscat.
On reaching the encampment, we perceived that some
few of the Bedouins had already placed their mats in the
open ravine for their night's repose beneath the bright stars ;
while the early twilight, however, was yet streaming over
the mountain rocks, and clothed the scene in the softness
of the early sunset-hour. As we neared the Bedouin
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 183
lodgment, we observed the polite old chief a short distance
from his tent, in the oper air, at his sunset- worship, with his
face turned towards the soft west, while the bright cres-
cent of the moon was mingling her silver light with the
early twilight of the hour, to light up the whole of the
camp. Several Bedouins approached to welcome us ; but
as we perceived that the old chief had not finished his
prayers, and some others of the camp were making their
three inclinations to the ground, we said that we would
pass on a little distance further and stop on our return.
We paused at one of the numerous wells in this neigh-
borhood, where the water is drawn by an ox, with a rope
reeved through a block, which hauls up a goat-skin of
water, as the ox descends an inclined plane, reminding
one of his boyhood, when he has labored to drag his sled
up a steep hill for the pleasure and ease of gliding down
again, with this advantage or apology for the boy, that
there was a necessity in the case for the youngster thus to
proceed, if he would gain his purpose ; whereas, in the
case of the ox, in this arrangement for drawing water, he
would find his convenience much improved, with proper
machinery, by walking over a level surface, rather than
wasting himself both by the uncomfortable gait of descend-
ing, and the necessary great effort of reascending the in-
clined plane.
We turned off to the back of the encampment to find the
inwalled area, where the Banyans feed and cherish and
pet their cows, which, it is said, they worship. Their creed
at least embraces the idea of transmigration of souls ; and
they suppose when the spirit leaves the body, it enters into
one of these or other animals. A thatched roof extends
on the inside around the wall of the enclosed area, to shel-
ter these, their deities, during the heat of the day. We
entered the enclosure without any obstruction, as the gate-
way was open, and no Banyan,- at the moment, was near.
We were cautious in our advance, lest some rude one of
their godships should take it into his horned head to sport
with us. Soon after, however, three Banyans came into
the enclosure as we approached several of the cherished
cattle. One of the keepers, manifesting that some of the
animals we were looking at were mischievous, I indicated,
184 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
by placing my hand upon the hilt of a sword, that I would
prick their hides for them if they approached too near ;
at which, the keeper's astonishment being manifested in his
countenance, I reassured him that I would not injure his
creatures, nor trifle with his religion, however preposterous
it might be ; while, at the same time, it was my purpose,
to ascertain how great was the reverence they cherished
for these beasts.
There were several beautiful creatures among a larger
number of most miserable and apparently half-starved year-
lings and calves. Their horns were mostly stained with
red or black, in imitation, I suppose, of their tattooed and
yellow-skinned worshippers, who, as a cast, exhibit some
fine specimens of manliness in their persons ; with their
peculiar turban arrayed high on their head, like a bishop's
cap as cut on chess-men, with a small solid twist in front,
which might emblem forth a young stump of a horn grow-
ing from the brow. I marked particularly one gentle
creature, a brindle-colored ox, thick and short, with a
white freckled face. He looked like a favorite, and there
was gravity and kindness in his countenance, and friend-
ship in his manner, and a white frill of his superabundant
hide extended down his neck and breast and along the
belly, and wreathed itself in graceful folds over his hind
legs.
I was told by Mr. M., who was walking with me, that
the Arabs here sometimes impose upon their Banyan neigh-
bors. If they have an indifferent calf or cow, and would
dispose of it at a good price, they take the animal to the
house of a Banyan, whose religion forbids him to kill any
living creature, and whose veneration is particularly turned,
with tenderness, towards the bos-genus. With a knife
drawn they assure the Banyan, that if he does not give
them the price demanded, the animal shall die. It is an
appeal which the Banyan finds it difficult to resist ; and the
shiners are dealt out, and the rescued animal conveyed to
the enclosure, to feed upon dates, until he shall become
sufficiently sleek to be conveyed to their sacred land of
Hindoostan ; which is their home, and where they often
return themselves, after an absence of ten, twenty, or
thirty years.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 185
We bid the Banyans and their petted animals good-by,
as their keepers were giving them their evening meal of
dates ; and after a few moments, reached the tent of the
Bedouin chief. Two or three of the Arabs came out to
welcome us before we reached the entrance, and the old
chief rose from his couch and placed us beside him, with a
graceful and cordial shake of the hand. I had no sooner
displaced my hat than several of these long-haired Arabs
were around me in their beautiful and artless simplicity,
while one of their number seized a fan and swept it before
me, bearing by me the grateful currents of the cooling air.
In a few moments, others brought a dish of halwah, a spe-
cies of sweetmeats, and desired me to partake as the old
chief raised it for me to smell it ; of which I partook with
my fingers, having removed my glove, and thus we ate it
together, from the same dish. Two other Bedouins with
their flowing curls approached the one who was using the
fan, and with considerable earnestness desired to relieve
him. But the first had secured the honor of thus showing
a courteous attention to a guest, and insisted upon his privi-
lege of continuing to perform his part in the civilities and
simple hospitality of the artless and beautiful Bedouins.
He was a beautiful and graceful figure, that half-naked
Bedouin, as he stood before me, and swept his fan while I
sat with the chief. I would I could ever retain such a
picture in the imagination. There he stood, with a smiling
countenance, which was the beautiful smile of artless na-
ture with smooth features, thin lip, and white teeth, and
dark amber skin, and jet hair falling in profuse ringlets,
with a fillet over the forehead pressing the flowing curls
gently back and over his uncovered shoulders, displaying
his slim and well-formed person the whole length of his
chest. And he not only smiled, but all smiled ; and he
was not only doing what he believed to be most agree-
able to the guest, but all were ready to spring on any errand
for the same purpose. And when we had slightly eaten
of the halwah, and the chief called for coffee, three equally
beautifully curled and raven-headed Arabs shot to the back
of the tent, vieing with each other to see which should first
bring forth the hot pot of coffee, with its accompanying
little cups. In an instant the beverage was at our lips,
16*
186 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and we sipped two cups with the old chief, who in his art-
less grace and amiable manners, reminds one of a patri-
arch, surrounded by his hundred grown and handsome
children, each delighting to move at his beck, and would
be greatly ashamed if all was not done that could be done
to render pleased and happy their stranger-guest.
The Sultan of Muscat, it is said, at a short notice can
call to his service eight or ten thousand of these Arabians
of the interior ; and on any march through his possessions,
their numbers would be continually increasing. Three or
four hundred of these Bedouins are continually retained,
at the expense of the Sultan, without the walls of the city,
to which they have ingress and egress at their pleasure
during the day. And you see them during the hot part
of the day, in the pride of their own free and bounding
elasticity of disposition and person, arrayed along the nar-
row and shaded bazaars ; and with their flowing and full
dishevelled curls, bearing their match-lock, or shield and
Damascus blade, or spear and kinger, mingling with the
turban-headed Arabs of the city and Banyan merchants ;
and exhibiting an acceptable and picturesque contrast with
all else about them.
The interior of Oman, which yields allegiance to the
Sultan of Muscat, is divided into different tribes, with a chief
at their head. And in each jurisdiction there is a castle or
stronghold. The shiek, or chief, administers the law in
his own tribe, who have a right to appeal to the Sultan in
case either party deems itself aggrieved by the decision
of the shiek. The chiefs of these different divisions are
appointed by the Sultan, and hold their place with the sim-
ple condition of fealty, to be manifested by the supply of
men as soldiers from his tribe, according to the Sultan's
requisition. It is the old feudal system of Europe, in many
particulars. And in case the Sultan should abuse his
power, the different chiefs, like the old barons, can and have
retired within their strongholds, and brought the Prince to
their terms. It is the policy of the present Sultan to pre-
serve the friendship of the Bedouin tribes of the interior;
and he is said to treat them with the greatest liberality,
never dismissing any that call upon him without a present
or some mark of particular kindness. The consequence
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 187
is, that he has secured their affection and attached devo-
tion.
We parted with no little interest with the aged chief
of this Bedouin encampment, and his young and dark-
haired attendants, whose glossy ringlets so gracefully
hung in long curls upon their necks and shoulders, or in
some other instances were gathered in a tie behind, with
the ends hanging loosely, in the mode of the Greek. Their
fine features, soft smile, and incomparably beautiful heads
of hair, curled and glossy, and daily dressed with oil of
cocoa-nut, together with their beautifully developed mus-
cles of the shoulders and arms, rather effeminate than
otherwise, and yet not unmanly, presented a more pic-
turesque and interesting bust than has met our eye besides,
and is more in keeping with nature and taste than the
shaved and turban-headed Arabs of Muscat.
We returned, by invitation, to Captain Calfaun's, to
take tea with him, this evening, and found a cup of the
delicious beverage refreshing indeed, after the heat of the
day and the stroll of the evening. Captain Calfaun's, and
one or two others, are the only families in Muscat who
are in the habit of serving tea. Captain Calfaun and
some of his guests were reclining upon Persian rugs and
' bolsters, while I occupied a comfortable couch. After tea
we were shown through several of the upper apartments
of the house, besides the well-furnished and large room
iri which tea was served. One or two of these rooms
were surrounded with lattice-work, constructed from the
split bamboo, which is so graceful and light a thing for
ornamenting the upper and even lower apartments, in
warm climates. Two rooms which we entered, one
quite on the top of the house, were without roofs ; and
the bright stars were looking down upon us, with their
sweet smiles, as we gazed delighted from the turreted
chamber up to the blue halls above us. It is not astonish-
ing that an Arab of ancient times should become an as-
trologer, reader and worshipper of the stars, when his
home is so constructed as to catch the smiles of the heav-
enly goddesses, so graciously contemplating their worship-
per, and holding their night- vigils above his sleeping-
couch.
188 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Captain Calfaun has shown himself every way attentive
to the officers of the Columbia, in contributing to their
pleasure and convenience, and left with them a feeling of
great kindness towards himself for his polite attentions to
them. And as this gentleman has been the object, of
frequent mention in the accounts given of the visits of our
ships to the port of Muscat, his character may naturally
awaken some interest with those who may peruse these
pages. He is a fine specimen of an Arabian of his own
tribe and sect. A perfect gentleman in his simple, easy,
and unostentatious manners ; moving with ease in his
graceful costume, and doing every thing with a fitness
which prevents the attention from being arrested by any
incongruity, eccentricity, or personal peculiarity. And
this, whether he is in the presence of his Prince and other
members of his Highness's family and his own people, or
on board of our ship, moving among ourselves, with man-
ners and customs totally unlike the habits and usages of
our Arabian friends. His costume is a red or black cloak
with sleeves, over a thin white and long under robe, but-
toned low at the neck. These are gathered about the
waist with a sash, in which is placed a silver-mounted
kinger. A turban of fine check-linen, edged with red
and yellow stripes of silk, wreaths his head. This, with
sandals, which are composed of a sole of leather for the
foot to rest upon, and an ornamented strap to cross the
instep of the foot, compose the costume of this Arab
gentleman. Besides the kinger in the sash, he bears a
long Damascus blade in its sheath, in his hand.
This dress, as described here, is the same as the cos-
tume of the Prince, only the outer robe of the Prince was
black, and laced with a fringe of gold thread about the
neck, and down the front on each edge of the folds.
Captain Calfaun seems sincere in a cherished purpose
of visiting, at some time not far onward, the United States,
and evidently is partial towards the Americans. We
doubt not but that he would receive a welcome, that
would re-assure him in the kind feeling he has cherished
towards the citizens of the United States, and find hist
own hospitality and politeness reciprocated when visit-
ing their shores. He, at least, may have the assurances
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 189
of a cordial reception from those who have been so happy
as to form his acquaintance in his own native Araby.
As evidence of the continued good feeling of the Sul-
tan of Muscat towards the Government of the United
States, we found that the John Adams, having met his
Highness at Zanzebar, brought to Muscat an order that
the Columbia should be supplied with water and provis-
ions, on her arrival at this place, on her way to Bombay.
Water has been conveyed to our ship in the Sultan's own
boats, and by the Sultan's own subjects, at the Sultan's own
expense. We have received, also, almost daily, since we
have been lying here, fruits, as presents from his High-
ness grapes, pomegranates, etc., together with sheep and
goats. The Commodore expressed a hope that his High-
ness would, at least, suffer him to pay the men, who, at the
expense of so much labor, watered our ship after we had
been eighty 'days at sea ; but it was replied, that his
Highness would not allow it, and if any thing were re-
ceived in his absence, it would meet his displeasure. Now,
this is all a generous action on the part of this Arab
Prince, which exhibits his hospitality in a light that should,
at least, make the American people feel that some hand-
some compliment from them would receive a worthy dis-
position, should it reach so magnanimous a Prince as the
Sultan of Muscat. And though I know not how far our
commercial interests shall be furthered by the treaty
which has been formed between the two governments, I
yet should be ashamed of my own country, should it be
justly said, that the generosity and hospitality of an Arab
Prince surpassed the munificence and liberality of the
American Government.*
It is our purpose to weigh anchor, and leave the cove
of Muscat this afternoon, October 25th. The evening
breeze regularly prevails, and with it we expect to gain
an offing that will leave the high shores of Oman, by the
morning, low in the western distance.
* Since the visit of the squadron to Muscat, a vessel belonging
to the Im&m arrived in the United States, bearing presents ; and on
her return, she conveyed from the President reciprocated testi-
monies of good feeling between the two powers, to the Sult%ia of
Muscat.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
It may not be uninteresting, in connection with this
Arabian Prince, whose possessions we are on the eve of
leaving, and by whose government our ships have been
so generously entertained, to give the following, brief state-
ment, in connection with his Highness's family.
The Mohammedan system entails endless dissentions
on those governments where it is embraced, in connec-
tion with the title to the throne. A Mohammedan is al-
lowed, by the Koran, four wives, and his children by his
concubines are also heirs to his father's titles.
Seyd Syeed Bin Soultan is descended from Aimed, (to
go no further back,) who, at his death, left five sons. Their
names were Seif, Kis, Soultan, Thabit, Mohammed.
Kis was chief of Sohar, a town less tha^n a hundred
miles from Muscat, on the Persian Gulf, during his father
Almed's lifetime, and at his death.
Seif, the heir apparent, being the eldest*son, was elected
Sultan* by the chiefs at the decease of his father. The
son of Seif, whose name was Aimed, succeeded his father.
But on this Almed's death, who is said to have been him-
self a wise prince, the government was left in confusion.
The chiefs, however, made Soultan, the third son of the
elder Aimed, Sultan, who was afterwards slain by the
Johasm pirates. This prince left two sons, the present
Sultan and his brother Salem. On the death of Soultan,
however, Kis, the chief of Sohar and brother of the de-
ceased Sultan, intrigued for the Sultanship.
On hearing of the death of the Sultan, Budr, a cousin
of the present Sultan and his brother Salem, and son of
Seif, having previously retired into Ihe interior, and living
with the tribes there for some time, now returned, and
agreed to live on terms of amity with his two cousins.
While in the interior he had joined the tribe of the Wa-
habis, who were rapidly extending their power. The
three cousins now united their influence against the en-
croachments and pretensions of their uncle Kis, the gov-
ernor of Sohar. But Budr having ingratiated himself
* ImS.m is the Arabic title.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 191
with the interior tribes, they were desirous of seeing him
made Sultan ; and aware of his influence with these
tribes, he entered into a secret treaty with the Wahabis,
that if they would place him in the Sultanship of Muscat,
he would contribute fifty thousand dollars to their tribe,
and hold his power as Sultan of Muscat, as a tributary
Prince to the chief of the Wahabis.
Syed Syeed, being now assured that his throne would
be insecure so long as this intriguing cousin Budr lived,
contrived to have him assassinated at a village named
Namhan, near Burkse, on the sea-coast.
The struggle, however, was not yet over. Saoud, chief
of the powerful and increasing tribe of the Wahabis, who
styled themselves reformers, with whom Budr had entered
into a treaty, as previously stated, now demanded that
Syed Syeed should ratify it in his own case. Syed Syeed
refusing indignantly so to comply, the Wahabi chief waged
war against him ; and with a force of 4,000 Arabs, under
Syed ibn Matack, a warlike and enterprising chief, so re-
duced Syed Syeed, that he was under the necessity of
seeking assistance from the Persians. Eventually how-
ever the death of his uncle Kis, followed by that of Saoud
and the dispersion of the Wahabis, left the present Sultan
Syed Syeed Bin Soultan in undisturbed possession of his
dominions.
These particulars of the family of the Sultan are given
on the authority of Welstead, a Lieutenant in the English
navy, who has lately published an account of his survey
and travels through the interior, and along the coast of
Oman. He pays a high compliment to the present Sultan
for his liberality, and the assistance which he derived
from him in furthering his purposes of science and trav-
els. This book, which was loaned me by our Consul for
a hasty perusal, I should like to have taken with me. But
I had heard an anecdote of another work, which would
have become too pointed towards myself, had I forgotten
to return the volumes to the courteous gentleman who
afforded me the pleasure of their perusal.
Captain Calfaun (as the story goes) possessed a copy of
the " Naval Monument," which contains a description of
all our engagements with the British, during the late war
192 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
with England. An English officer, while one of their ves
sels was lying in the harbor here, seeing the work, desired
to borrow it. But when the English ship was about leav
ing the cove, the officer assured Captain Calfaun that the
book had gotten overboard in some unaccountable way,
or was otherwise displaced, and greatly regretted that it
could not be found to be returned.
The general smile at this statement, as the circumstance
was alluded to at the ward-room table, was sufficiently sig-
nificant ; and as there happened, very opportunely, to be a
copy of the same work on board, Captain C. was asked to
accept it, who assured the donor that he would be more
careful of the present copy, and would see that it did not
get wet or overboard if he loaned it again.
Captain Calfaun had translated some of the scenes in
this work, at the request of the Sultan, that he might learn
something of the actions of our navy. And while Cap-
tain C. was reading his Highness the account of Perry's
victory on the lake, at that part which describes his leav-
ing his own ship, on account of her being so much cut up,
in his small boat for another, the Sultan rose from his seat,
and exclaimed, with an emphatic gesture of his hand>
" THAT'S A HERO !"
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 193
SECTION VIII.
BOMB AY.
Bombay. Call upon the American Missionaries. Bishop Carr. Archdea-
con Jeffries. Rev. Mr. Fletcher. Stroll on shore at evening. Funeral
pyre. Breakfast with the Lord Bishop of Bombay and Family. Family
prayers. Schools for the children of the poor. The power of Cast.
Governor Farish. Call on the Governor's lady. Douglass. Evening
prayers. Governor's dinner, at Parel. Sir John A. Sir John Kean.
Ride from the Governor's to the Bishop's by moonlight. Caves of Ele-
phanta Island. Tea at Dr. Wilson's, Scotch Missionary, and President
of the Asiatic Society, at Bombay. Walk in the evening to the Hindoo
temples. The long-nailed devotee. Farewell to Bombay.
WELL, if, as they say, Bombay will give a stranger a
fever should he move much abroad, it is worth one fit of
illness to look at the medley of the fine and the finical ;
the grand, the great, the good, the grovelling, the gloomy,
and the grievous ; the nondescript, and the non-to-be-for-
gotten, which this very strange city of Bombay presents.
I have been on shore this evening, after a busy day of
writing to friends at home, by an American vessel, which
we fortunately chanced to intercept while standing into
the harbor, and detained for our letter-bag.
It was rather a late hour when I reached the shore, but
I saw enough to assure me that there is much to be seen,
and yet much more which cannot be seen in a passing
week. It is all a vast and mingled variety, which strikes
with deeper impressions than would be the case if ad-
dressed to an eye that had contemplated the different parts
which go to form the variety, at the different spots of the
world with which they are severally and singly associated.
It is England abroad, here, that meets the eye it is the
French, and the Portuguese, and other powers of European
the East, and specimens from all India, gathered at this point,
with their gray hairs of olden years and crowded masses.
The object of my visit to the shore, this evening, was
to make some inquiries for future convenience ; and on land-
ing, I was trotted away and around in a palanquin, borne
on the shoulders of four Hindoos, a guide pacing at my
17
194 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
side, to direct this Eastern car whither I desired. What
would my friends have thought of me, could they have
taken a peep at me, just at the dusk of evening, borne on
as I reclined in so strange a machine, on black shoulders
of black limbs, with turbaned head and ambling elbows ?
They would have seen me, as before I had not dreamed
ever to be seen. In all this varied and mingled vision oi
the city, there are a thousand things of light and shade,
and oddities and fantasies, which must long lie in the
memory, when reviewing the ever-varying forms, in which
the character and the taste and the religions of mankind
present themselves, in this very strange city of the East.
As my sympathies directed, my first callma.de in Bom-
bay was upon the American missionaries. I passed through
the city at an early hour the next morning, when all is life
and bustle. And what a city is Bombay ! Some may be
disposed to accuse me of painting. But I paint only from
my own feelings. And he who has feeling, and loves to
look at mankind in its varied forms, with susceptibilities
capable of fresh and deep impressions, and has contem-
plated mankind, with but few exceptions, in its better and
similar forms of European and American peculiarities,
will not accuse me of heightening the coloring, if he should
chance ever to move, at this same hour, and at his own
lounging ease and leisure, through the streets of Bombay.
It was a new world to me, though in the old world, a far-
wanderer from the new. I had read of Hindoos. I had
read of Banyans, Bramins, Gentoos. I had read of the
Parsees, Mohammedans, and Sepoys. But it was never
among the young dreams of my earlier years, while musing
on Rome, and Greece, and blessed England, and Europe,
and the Holy Land, that I should look upon these hundred
casts of Arabia and Persia, and India, in their variety of
costume and manners and religions. But now, I was set
down amidst all this medley of casts these unique forms
these strange incongruities and endless varieties these
naked busts and robeless legs and thousand-formed and
colored costumes of those who were robed and the tat-
tooed, with ringed toes, and foot, and ancle, and wrist, and
hand, and nose and numberless and ever-occurring varie-
ties of enslaved or degraded, and rich and proud, and mean
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 195
and good and noble men, with every colored skin from
the jet of Africa and amber of Asia, to the lily of Europe.
And then, the describable and the non-describable animals
the Banyan and sacred cows, and buffaloes, and sparrows,
and ravens, and pigeons, and goats, and other things innu-
merable, all crammed and jammed and jumbled and hud-
dled, and yet all a mass of moving and acting life this,
this is Bombay, to the newly arrived stranger, as he is
borne through the capital of an English-Asiatic presidency.
If this be a confused collection, of appellatives and
blended images, none but a jumbled and almost accidental
combination of words, could rightly or naturally describe
the confused, and varied, and ever-varying scene, as it
breaks on the eye of the stranger, as he moves, for the first
time, through the streets of this epitome of a world.
Some days pass on, and the newly arrived begins to an-
alyze and arrange. By the time he has traversed the length
of one of the streets, he finds himself beginning to class
the different casts, as they pass him by, and are known by
their different turbans these head-dresses varying with
the cast, but alike to all the members of each and the
cut and make and color of the flowing robe or tighter
costume, and the religious mark, lined in yellow paint, in
curve or oval or straight lines or dots on the forehead, or
eyebrow, or ear, or naked chest, begin to take, in his mind,
their appropriate classification.
With this varying and apparently ever-changing vision
of a phantasmagoria before my view, I had gone some two
miles or more from the walls of the fort, which includes
some large portion of the city within its winding defences,
when I came to the residences of the American missionaries.
The buildings are sufficiently spacious, to afford conveni-
ent and comfortable rooms, for the purposes and the dwell-
ings of these worthy disciples of the religion of Jesus
Christ, and philanthropic exiles from their country and home
to the shores of India.
The gentlemen of the mission were out at the moment
of my call. I sent my card to the ladies, and immediately
followed the messenger, who informed me that they were
in. I could have left my shoes at their door, so profoundly
do I venerate the character of the sincere missionary, and
196 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
admire his self-sacrifice for the welfare of his fellow men.
T was introduced to Mrs. Webster, the interesting wife of
Mr. W., of popular and just fame as an ingenious man and
accomplished printer, as well as a man of benevolence and
Christian philanthropy. Mr. and Mrs. Balentine. missiona-
ries from the interior, are guests of Mr. and Mrs. Webster,
at the present moment, having, with Mr. and Mrs. Boggs,
and Mr. and Mrs. Munger, come to Bombay, at.this sea-
son, for mutual consultation in connection with their labors.
The two first gentlemen with their wives are staying with
the Rev. Mr. Allen. I gave Mrs. Webster my hand with
feelings which were most cordial, for the love wherewith
she serves the cause of our common Lord. The Rev. Mr.
Allen soon after entered, who occupies another house in
the immediate neighborhood, whom I afterwards called
upon. Ere long the Rev. Mr. Balentine and Mr. Web-
ster entered all gentlemen, whom the cause of missions
may justly be glad to have attached to their interests.
I sat for a considerable time with this band of Christians,
and was glad to witness so much simplicity of character
and Christian adornment, with minds so respectable for
their intelligence and refinement. I thought, as I con-
versed with Mrs. W., that there was a propriety of expres-
sion, a clearness of thought, and a simple chasteness of
manners that would have adorned any sphere in which
she might have been placed. And nothing but ill-bred
jealousy, profanity, or bigoted sectarianism, could offer
aught against such a becoming combination of Christian
propriety and unaffected example of Christian sincerity and
propriety in manners.
During the day, I was introduced to Mrs. Allen, of whom
I might repeat, with striking propriety, what I conceived of
the character and appreciated in the manners of Mrs. W.
These ladies have not forgotten that society has its techni-
calities and refinements, and that religion is a system of
good breeding, which makes it a school of true politeness
as well as of morals and devotion.
Mrs. Allen's health was not good, but her heart poured
forth its sympathies in the cause in which the missionaries
are engaged, and I shall remember with pleasure her gen-
tle manner, and the social repast, of which I partook with
Mr. A. and herself.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 197
I went with Mr. Allen to call upon Dr. Carr, Lord
Bishop of Bombay the Rev. Mr. Jeffries, the Archdea-
con and the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, the Bishop's Chaplain.
The Bishop was out, but we sat a short time with Miss C.,
the Bishop's daughter, a young lady of gentle and agree-
able manners, and were soon joined by the Rev. Mr.
Fletcher and lady. Mr; F. is son-in-law of the Bishop,
and resides in his lordship's family.
We conceive of an India Bishop as we have learned of
a Heber, and know of others, who have left so favorable
an impression of their evangelical piety on the mind of the
American church. I sat with this family with these asso-
ciations, and left the Bishop's residence with Mr. F. and
Mr. A., to call upon the Archdeacon, whom we found at
home, although just returned from sitting in committee
with the Bishop and others connected with the charity
schools, which are established here on a commendable
scale, with government patronage, and are creditable to
the cause of British philanthropy. The Archdeacon is
deemed a benevolent and devoted man. The cause of
temperance has elicited his feelings and action, very much,
as I am informed, to the- extension of so meritorious a cause.
"America," said the Archdeacon, "has achieved a greater
victory, in her efforts in the cause of temperance, than her
annals, however proud, can otherwise display. We ad-
mire her for her action on this subject, and have just re-
ceived the intelligence of the resolutions in the Legislatures
of Massachusetts and Tennessee, not to issue a single
license for the sale of ardent spirits in either of those
states." Our countryman, Mr. Delavan, so justly known
and estimated for his unceasing efforts in the cause of tem-
perance, is a correspondent of Archdeacon Jeffries, who
admires the spirit of this American patriot and philanthro-
pist. While the action of America in the cause of tem-
perance is awaking so much admiration, even in the distant
regions of the Indies, shall she herself slacken in her efforts,
and suffer the fields of so many victories to be resumed
by the devastations, desolations, and death, which spread
so fearfully beneath the tramp of intemperance ?
The English army is continually augmenting at Bombay,
as the rendezvous for the troops from different parts of the
17*
.
198 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Indie^, destined to the Indus, with a design to carry on the
war with the Persians. A document of interest, showing
the comparative health of the temperance men of the army
and those who continue to draw their grog, was lying on
the centre-table, and doubtless will be published. At times
the difference rose to four per cent., and was never less
than two and a half. This speaks volumes to our army
and navy department. It was a matter of exhilarating
information to the excitable Archdeacon, to learn that more
than 150 men of the Columbia did not draw their allow-
ance of liquor.
In the Indian army, the cause of temperance has found
many advocates ; " and the commander-in-chief " so said
a gentleman of the party in conversation " by some pub-
lic act in favor of the temperance cause, before he leaves
for the Indus, is going to do the Archdeacon's heart good."
I parted with these clerical friends, with the expectation
of taking breakfast with them at the Bishop's, by invita-
tion, on Monday morning.
The American missionaries stationed at Bombay, Messrs.
Allen and Webster, and the gentlemen from the interior,
Messrs. Boggs, Munger, and Balentine, now with their
fellow laborers at this place, have visited the Columbia.
I was glad to pay them the civilities due to a class of our
own countrymen, who have left their native land to devote
themselves, with philanthropic and Christian benevolence,
to the cause of humanity and religion.
The Commodore sent a special message to invite them
to the cabin, when they should have finished their walk
through the ship, and with great good feeling evinced his
desire to assure these gentlemen, that he appreciated their
characters as Christian missionaries, and in that character,
and also as American citizens, was happy to welcome
them on board the Columbia. On their taking leave of
the ship, after having spent some time with the Commo-
dore, he invited them, if it would be a matter of interest
for them to visit the Elephanta Caves, to make up a party,
and he would accompany them, in the ship's boats, to the
island, some six or seven miles distant.
I am sure that the Christian people of our country will
thank Commodore Read for his thoughtful and courteous
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 199
attentions to these generous exiles from their homes ; and
they will be happy to know that our ships were not for-
getful of the courtesies due and cordially accorded to our
missionary citizens, so worthy, and so far from the shores
or their native homes, and the scenes of their earliest and
happy recollections. The Commodore desired me to say,
that he would be happy to have one of their number give
us a discourse on board the Columbia the succeeding Sun-
day, and that he would send a boat ashore, at the appoint-
ed hour, in the morning. I was glad that the opportunity
was presented still further to show our feelings of appro-
bation and commendation towards these gentlemen and
their amiable associates ; and their number being increased
at this moment at the station of Bombay, by the visit of
the missionaries from the interior, it was arranged that one
of them should be with us on the succeeding Sunday.
FUNERAL PYRE.
I took a stroll on shore in the evening. Having wit-
nessed the drilling of the Sepoys, native troops in the
service of the company, at their evening exercise on the
esplanade, and passed the worshipping Parsees with their
face turned to the sea as one of the elements which they
adore, and who were now in considerable numbers gather-
ed, at this hour of sunset, on this beautiful ground of the
esplanade, to gaze on the departing god whom they wor-
ship, with other sects and casts at their sundown prayers,
I passed further on to the western side of the city, where
we had been told the Mahrattas burned their dead. The
sun had already gone down ; and when we reached the
beach, several fires were seen yet burning along the shore.
We approached them, but they were so nearly expended
that we saw but few indications, in the glowing embers,
of the relics of the cindered bodies. The uncrumbled ashes
of a few bones assured us, however, that we were gazing
upon the residuum of what, but a short time before, was
the articulated mass of sinew and bone and muscle of a
departed Hindoo, whose spirit his brother Mahrattas now
believe to have gone on its round of new births, or, as the
consummation of their ideas of the greatest conceivable
200 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
good to the departing soul, was now absorbed in the spirit
of the Eternal.
While we were gazing on this expiring funeral pyre,
a person approached us, and pointed to a group not far
beyond us, who were raising a new pile, on which they
were to place the body they had borne with them but a
few moments before to the beach, attended by the sounds
of discordant music, for his last funeral honors. We
were glad that we were so opportune in our visit to this
beach of death, to gratify the curiosity that led us there.
Three upright sticks had already been planted in the sand
to confine the pile within its proper dimensions, and the
friends of the deceased, now lying near on his bier note-
less of the preparations which were making to reduce his
unconscious relics to ashes, were arranging the large and
dry sticks of teel-wood, which is kept prepared and vended
for the funeral rites of the Hindoo. When they had rais-
ed the pile to half the height they designed it, they bore
the body forward and lodged it on the mound of wood.
There was an old man there, who, like* all the rest that had
gathered to pay the last honors of the cast to one of their
departed number, was clad only with a cloth around the
waist, as is usual on the occasion of the Hindoo obsequies.
He had gone to the edge of the sea, which at this hour of
low tide was some rods from the pile, but soon returned,
bearing a jar of water, and placed himself at the head of
his sleeping kindred. When he had poured from the palm
of his own hand a small quantity of water upon the face
and into the mouth of the unconscious sleeper, each of the
surrounding cast dipped their hands in like manner into
the jar, and poured from their two palms the water which
they had thus taken from the vessel, into the mouth of the
deceased. They now completed the pile, by adding as
much more of this heavy and dry material above the body
as lay beneath it. A small pile of light wood had already
been enkindled, and the burning fagots were placed among
the timbers of the funeral heap, and in a few moments the
drawing eddies of the wind fanned the flames, until the
pyre was enveloped in one ambient and glowing sheet
of fire.
The Hindoos now seated themselves in a crescent
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 201
around the burning pile, and the glare lighted up their
dark faces and naked shoulders, and threw a gleam of light
around, only to render doubly more deep the gloom that
had gathered on the adjacent cocoa-nut grove, and the
clouded bosom of the neighboring sea. We watched the
glowing mass as the body began to melt before the dis-
solving power of the resistless element. The swelling
muscles, with their boiling fluids, bursted the outer and
blackening coats of the body ; and soon the limbs were
dismembered at the knee, when the swollen feet, by a
long pole, were forced yet further into the glowing pile.
It was a thrilling scene, and we gazed upon it until the
dissolving body lessened before the flame, while the head
had melted away and still away, as the burning pyre sent
up and around its glowing and intenser heat, and yet
brighter and augmenting volumes. We bowed to the
surrounding and singular crowd, who rose from their sit-
ting posture as we left them, and retraced our way along
the shore. Having passed through the town on our way
back to our landing place, a boat soon took us to the ship.
According to the regulations of the cast, the heir of
the deceased is obligated to perform the funeral obsequies
of the connection, and at stated periods, afterwards, to
attend to certain rites,, agreeably to the Hindoo customs
such as the offering of rice, flowers, water, and so forth,
to the deceased and to the manes, that the departed spirit
may ascend to the paradise of the Pitris, as they call the
divine progenitors of the human race. These offerings
are to take place on the eleventh day succeeding the death
of the deceased, and afterwards monthly, and on the an-
niversary of the death of the departed one.
VISIT TO THE LORD BISHOP OF BOMBAY.
Having received an invitation from Dr. Carr, Lord
Bishop of Bombay, to breakfast with him on the morning
of the sixth, I left the ship a little before eight o'clock,
and found, on my reaching the Apollo-bunder, a carriage
waiting for me, through his Lordship's politeness, to take
me to Byculla.
The Bishop is a venerable gentleman, simple in his man-
202. A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ners, with an air of kind diffidence in his address which
makes you esteem him and believe you would love him for
his goodness on an intimate acquaintance.
I reached the Bishop's residence a little before nine
o'clock. I was shown into a spacious upper room, into
which other rooms, nearly as spacious, communicated. In
front of these rooms runs a spacious and covered verandah,
constituting, itself, an upper hall, and extending quite the
length of the building. The verandah is common to the
best style of houses in Bombay, to protect the rooms from
the intense heat of the day, and affording a most agree-
able lounge in the cooler hours of the morning and even-
ing. A centre-table, with a large family Bible and Prayei
Book upon it, occupied its appropriate place. A piano
forte, also, particularly attracted my attention. And I
never look at this instrument when abroad, without having
my sympathies awake
" Some remembered notes of a mute lyre,"
which carry me back to friends and kindred, to whom I
have listened almost in enchantment" in past hours, but
whose voices now, in repetition of air, and song, and sacred
hymn, would hold me in deeper charm than ever, after an
absence of months away from home and sounds of familiar
voices.
The Bishop entered with his eldest daughter, Mrs.
Fletcher, leaning upon his arm. Who does not love to
look at such a sight a lovely and loved daughter, grown
to the pride of young womanhood, pressing gently on the
parental arm of a venerable father ? Miss Carr, a younger
daughter still, soon after entered the parlor; and the party
now gathered around the centre-table, when the good, and
I am sure, kind-hearted Bishop, opened the sacred volume
and read a chapter from one of Saint Paul's epistles, and
added his own reflections upon it. We all knelt, and to-
gether prayed to the God we worship. I could have wept;
for it was the first scene of social worship at the family
altar in which I had been privileged to mingle, since I left
the United States.
I am sure the susceptibilities of our nature are both
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 203
deepened and augmented for the reception of impressions,
by one's seclusion for months from society on shore. And
how like one's father's house, that morning and evening
service ! There is a beauty in the domestic scene, when
the family gather at. early morn to testify their gratitude
to our almighty Preserver for the mercies of the night, and
at eve, for the blessings of the day.
The Rev. Mr. Fletcher, the Bishop's chaplain and son-
in-law, joined us at the breakfast-table.
The family are on the eve of leaving Bombay for the
interior, where they spend some months in the mountains,
for health and pleasantness. The Bishop is just commen-
cing an extensive visitation through the interior. He
leaves, with all his family, on Wednesday.
At 1 1 o'clock I accompanied the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, to
visit the schools for promoting education among the poor.
They are, in many particulars, conducted on the principles
of our Free Schools in the city of New York. The Com-
pany has constructed two ranges of fine buildings, for the
separate accommodation of the boys and girls, which do
credit to the Presidency of Bombay, and speak well of
English benevolence and charity.
The schools are composed chiefly of the children of sol-
diers, being mostly of the mixed cast of Mahratta and
English. The children exhibited a very neat appearance.
We have no schools in our country with which we could
with propriety run a parallel ; as these children, I am told,
originally speak no English, and have to acquire that lan-
guage as they proceed in their studies. Most of the schol-
ars whom I saw were under the age of twelve. They read
English with very considerable accuracy, and seemed to
comprehend, as far as children of their age usually do, the
instructions which are given to them, in illustration of the
religion of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the principal and
last class-book used, and explanations in connection with it
enter into the plans of the directors, particularly for imbu-
ing the minds of these scholars with Christian knowledge ;
while they attend to reading, writing, and arithmetic during
the time of their connection with the schools. The boys,
when they have reached the suitable age and acquired the
necessary attainments, are apprenticed to tRe different
204 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
trades, or taken as writers into the Company's offices ; or,
at the present moment, are attached to the army as dri-
vers of the teams, at a certain rate of pay, to be gradu-
ally increased to the maximum allowance of the first of
that class.
I did not visit the schools composed purely of natives,
which are under the direction of the same gentlemen. But
the schools already described seem to be favorite objects
of the gentlemen connected with the superintendence of
the institution ; and they certainly deserve great credit for
the exertions, appropriations, and successful efforts which
have presented their benevolent institution in a very favora-
ble light.
The Right Honorable the Governor is President.
The Lord Bishop of the Diocese, Patron.
The Members of Council, the Judges of the Supreme
Court, the Commander-in-Chief, and the Superintendent of
the Indian Navy, are Vice Presidents.
The Archdeacon is Vice Patron, and
All the Chaplains of the establishment, who are subscri
bers, are ex-officio Directors.*
There is an hospital department attached to the institu-
tion, with a medical attendant
Morning and evening prayers are read ; and when the
pupil leaves the school, a Bible and Prayer Book are pre-
sented to him, with a testimonial of character when de-
served.
The Lady Patroness and Directresses transact the busi-
ness of the girls' department.
The fiftieth and fifty-fifth articles of the institution pro-
vide that the boys shall be instructed in reading, writing,
and arithmetic ; the girls in needle- work and household
duties ; and in both schools every endeavor is to be made
to "impart such information and useful habits, as the situa-
tion of the charity renders most desirable ; but particularly
they are to be instructed in the principles of the church of
England, and trained up in habits of piety and good morals.
And before the time at which they are to leave school, the
* To these gentlemen, and other ex-officio Directors, is confided
the government of the institution.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 205
boys are to be bound as apprentices if practicable, and the
girls disposed of by marriage, or with due consideration
restored to their friends."
The hope of the success of missions in the East must
continue to lie in the education of the native children.
Nothing else can break down the powerful influence of
cast, which with an iron chain binds each man to his own
peculiar clan. To lose one's cast, to a Hindoo, is to be an
outcast from a father's family, and an object of execration
to all relatives and acquaintances. A beautiful boy of the
Gentoo cast, who was riding with me in a buggee, with a
turban more elegant than usual and a hand that would have
graced a lady's arm for the roundness and smallness of his
fingers, tapering in perfect symmetry, replied to me, as I
was urging him to accompany me to America: "Me no go,
master me no go me eat no pork me eat no beef me
lose my cast"
" What of your cast, Alee ? American cast as good as
yours."
" Yes, master," continued the sincere Hindoo, " your
cast good to America English cast good to English, but
no good to Gentoo. Friend be dear to each other I no
have my friends more if I lose my cast."
" But if you come back and have your pockets filled
with money, you can get your cast again."
" Yes, master, I have two or tree hundred rupee, me get
my cast again."
" But, Alee, what would your cast do with the money
you would give them?"
" Cast give great dinner all can't come to it, but all
invited, and all come, who come."
We thus see that both prejudice, inconceivably strong,
and moneyed interests are against all innovation on the old
system. And no one can adequately estimate the strength
of this feeling of cast. It hoots at a renegade. And it is
almost impossible to approach the convictions of the mass
who are grown to manhood, if for no other reason, yet, for
their little or no acquaintance with English, as well as their
settled habits connected with their own creeds, which are
interwoven with every thought and action of their being,
and preclude the expectation of their appreciating or list-
18
206 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ening to the argument for the truth of Christianity. The
setting in of English influence, however in some instances
it may tend to corrupt the people, must eventually carry
with it, over this empire of millions, a respect for the
Christian institutions ; and by the constant exhibition of
the superiority of their English masters, the Hindoos must
finally come to attribute this greater excellence to the su-
periority of the Christian system over their religion. And
this is in fact the secret of the national greatness of their
British conquerors over the submissive and superstitious
millions, adhering to their own Hindoo follies of religion
and cast.
And it is in this view we see the importance of the
schools of which we have been speaking, and others within
the boundaries of the Presidency, whether under the care
of the Government, or under the management of American,
Scotch, or British missionaries. The yearly throwing of
five hundred or a thousand children, who are to become
the heads of families, into this mass of heathenism, with a
knowledge of the two languages and the better principles
of the religion of Jesus Christ, cannot but have a gradual
and permanent influence upon the heathen population, and
in time, render idolatry a thing of ridicule ; and an adher-
ence to it, a matter of disgrace and shame to its devotee.
We passed by Christ's church, in which Mr. Fletcher
officiates, as we left the school buildings, with the intention
of calling upon the family of his Excellency the Governor.
The building is a creditable specimen of architecture, but
mostly interesting for its twelve or fourteen fluted pillars
of cast iron, of the Grecian order, extending in two rows
from the door to the altar, equidistant from the sides
through the nave of the church. Pilasters for the side
walls of the building correspond with the two central
ranges of columns. The beautiful capitals and the shafts
of the pillars are in one piece, and the diameter of the col-
umns I suppose to be a tenth of their length.
It was the day on which Mrs. Parish, the Governor's
lady, received her company. And the Governor had
been kind enough to say that he would see me when I
called upon Mrs. Parish. We were introduced by the
Governor's Aid, and sat a short time with Mrs. P. and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 207
her daughter, a young lady of seventeen or eignteen ;
and met at the Governor's residence, which is a charming
spot, other ladies, who had called on the Governor's lady
at the same hour.
The character of Governor Parish is well known for
its benevolence, and the happy Christian influence which
he has thrown over the state of society in which he moves.
To the American missionaries, I have been assured, he
has been very kind, and advanced their desires as far as
they have come within the influence of his station, as a
member of the Council and as a Christian citizen. I con-
ceived a most favorable opinion of this worthy gentle-
man at our short interview.
An invitation had already been given by hrs Excel-
lency to our Commodore to dine with him on the succeed-
ing Wednesday, with such of his officers as he should
choose to have accompany him.
We returned to the residence of the Bishop ; and at
five o'clock sat down to dinner, the company having been
increased by the acquisition of a number of ladies and
gentlemen. A Captain Douglass of the Indian service,
formerly of the Royal Navy, was at the table.
" The Douglass." . I cherish but little deference for
titles or names, or admiration for great men in loco, merely,
and believe that " nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus."*
Yet there is a charm in the name of Douglass which I
greatly appreciate, in connection with its olden associa-
tions. I have even formed an affection for the memory
of the Douglass and the Percy, associated as they indis-
solubly are together. And if the impression which I
gained be true, there is generosity and nobleness remain-
ing in this blood-descendant of the ancient house. The
Captain displays from his mast-head, as his private signal,
the emblem of his house. Allusion to the Douglass coat
of arms led to the remark on the part of Captain D., that
he was once sailing from England, when he discovered a
vessel with her union down, and made her out to be in
distress. He bore up for the ship, aud as the two vessels
neared each other, he run up his private flag. " I know
* Virtue is the only and true nobility. Juvenal
208 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
that emblem," exclaimed the master of the distressed ship
as the flag unfurled itself and discovered the arms of the
ancient house. " It is the Douglass ; he will not forsake
me while my ship swims." The Douglass did not for
the distressed captain and his crew had barely reached
the deck of Douglass's ship before the wallowing vessel
went down to the deep currents of the deep sea.
It is said a Scotchman never forgets the land of his
home. Like the New-Englander, he may wander far
from his native hills and the remembered lawns, which
have left their unfading visions among the early impres-
sions of his mind and the young loves of his feeling heart.
And when he has wandered far, and made himself rich
and honorable, he yet often returns in his happy mem-
ories, and not unfrequently re-seeks, in person, the home
of his infancy, as the sacred spot to enjoy the calm of his
old days, and to repose, for its long rest, the urn of his
ashes. The Hon. Mr. Dunlop, member of Council, is a
Scotchman, and was of the company at dinner. Scot-
land seemed to be a word which had not lost its music
for him. And that lady now at the piano, he said to me,
in the evening, learned her music in Scotland.
And in the evening we had music. I shall not forget
it. The Bishop's two daughters played and sung. Their
voices were soft and gentle like themselves. And the
lady of the Highland associations also sung. There was
a thrill in her voice, which rendered it characterisic of
herself and agreeable.
After tea had been served, and the hours had advanced
into the evening, the party adjourned from the parlor to
the drawing-room, which communicated with it by fold-
ing-doors. There was an organ in the room, and the
family Bible and Prayer Book occupied the centre-table.
The Bishop placed himself at the centre-table, and his
daughter at the organ, as it had been proposed that we
should have prayers before the party separated. A
hymn was read by the venerable Bishop ; and he who
has been a wanderer pver the world afar from his friends
in his native land, can appreciate the sentiment it con-
tained, as well as every Christian, to whom alike it is
applicable :
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 209
" The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care ;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye ;
My noonday walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.
When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
To fertile vales and dewy meads,
My weary wandering steps he leads,
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.
Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread ;
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord, art with me still ;
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade."
The organ was accompanied by several voices. The
Bishop read a chapter from the Bible and added his com-
ments, and then, together, we knelt in prayer.
Is there any heart so callous that would not love such
a scene of quiet and social worship, exhibiting the beauty
of household religion ? And who, after the confusion and
the unrest of the day, would not repose with a more as-
sured and composed heart, after mingling in such a scene
of evening worship ? And who can behold a venerable
father, surrounded by his offspring and friends, thus de-
voutly engaging in social and sincere worship, and not
give him the earnest of an enduring friendship ?
Douglass, (I like that name,) had said to me in the
early part of the evening, that if I designed to return to
the ship, he would offer me a seat in his carriage to the
Apollo-bunder, and then send me on board the Columbia
in his gig.* I accepted the polite offer, and accompanied
Captain D. and his lady in their carriage, and bid them
good-night when they had ascended the deck of their
own vessel, to which we had been pulled in his own boat,
which soon after conveyed me yet further out in the
stream, to the good frigate Columbia.
* The boat of the Commander of an armed vessel is called a gig.
18*
-
210 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
DINNER AT THE GOVERNOR'S.
The Governor gave his dinner at the government-house,
on Wednesday evening, in compliment, in part at least,
to our Commodore. At half-past seven the carriages
disgorged their red-coats, and blue-coats of the English
army and American navy, and the black coats of the civil
list, composed of the Council and the bench of Judges ;
together with the Bishop and Chaplain and the variously
robed ladies, who, though mentioned last here, in this
instance is somewhat after the manner of their own
postcripts ; for which, it is said, a lady ever retains her
most interesting intelligence, or what, at least, is most in-
teresting to herself.
The Governor's house is a spacious building, said once
to have been a Roman Catholic cloister, the chapel of
which, on the lower floor, now serves as the dining hall ;
while the spacious room above it, to which you ascend
by two or three flights of steps, with suits of rooms and
a verandah on either side of it, forms the reception hall.
But the building has been refitted and enlarged, and now
is every way a creditable establishment for the purposes
for which it is appropriated, as the residence of the Gov-
ernor of the Presidency. Its distance is some six miles
from the inwalled portion of the town, and the ride to it
is a delightful one through extensive country residences,
built by the Parsees for the purposes of being rented to
the English ; and at this hour of the evening, when the
company were gliding by them, were lighted up with
their hundred lamps, giving forth the beautifully clear
flame of the cocoa-nut oil, burning in open glasses, around
which rose a yet longer one to protect the light from
flaring in the evening breeze, which comes deliciously
through the open windows, swinging on their hinges quite
down to the floor, that every breath of the refreshing
gale may sweep through the open rooms.
The large room with the spacious lobbies on either side
formed by the verandahs, were soon enlivened by the
crowd that entered, and advanced to be presented to Mrs.
Parish, the Governor's lady, who had taken her place near
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 211
the centre of the room. The ladies were presented by
the Governor's Aid, a young officer of gentlemanly man-
ners.
Miss Carr, the Bishop's daughter, with her cousin, Miss
Parish, were the first two who entered the room after the
Governor's lady had taken her seat. And Miss Carr, I
am sure, will be remembered as an interesting vision of
amiableness, as if some ineffable beam had gleamed from
the benignant and subdued brow of her father, and lighted
on the sweet countenance of his child. We admired her
as possessing more truly an American face, manners, and
fashion than any others who were present. Her cousin,
the Governor's daughter, in blue, in contrast with the
plain and tasteful white of Miss Carr, is also an interest-
ing young lady, and seemed to be a worthy representative
of her excellent and very lady-like mother. There were a
number of other ladies present, generally plainly dressed
and without a superabundance of ornaments decorating
their persons, and therefore, more in taste than otherwise
they would have been.
The Governor was conspicuous in his civilian cftess of
plain black, moving unostentatiously among his guests.
His face is strikingly benevolent ; and he is one I would
venture to take as a pledged friend, were circumstances
such as to secure from him, in an hour of .one's need, the
plighted hand of sterling worth, and the action of a gen-
erous nature. In consequence of the death of Sir Robert
Grant, he is now the acting Governor of the Presidency,
an appointment which falls, ex-officio, on the demise of
the Governor, upon the eldest of the two civilian members
of the Council.
The Hon. Sir , Knight, Judge, etc., was of the
number to whom I was introduced. I should suppose
him (but my impressions were the result of a short inter-
view) a man of great amiableness of character, with a
smack of letters, somewhat gifted, read in polite litera-
ture, and withal amiably eccentric. His manners are cer-
tainly so, resulting (is it not ?) from his keen perception
of the ridiculous. And when he would express himself
in connection with a subject, his own mind rejects the
common-place replies, and seizes hold of a more distant
212 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
association ; and the very consciousness of its peculiarity
produces a peculiarity of manner which is his own,
though perhaps, from natural diffidence, the manner is
defective in its correspondence with the sentiment ex-
pressed ; while, at the same time, it betrays his own con-
sciousness that his remark has the merit of originality in
its associations, and is peculiar to himself.
" We are happy to acknowledge England as our mo-
ther-land," I observed in a conversation upon the two
countries, and added, after the usual self-complacence of
an American, notorious for having quite enough of it in
relation to his own country, " we trust England is not less
happy in owning us her child."
" That is," said the knighted Judge, catching at the first
part of my remark, " when we go back to the age of
Milton or Addison, we have the same progenitors."
And what American of English descent but cherishes
with laudable consideration the knowledge that his fathers
were of a nation that has so many names justly famed
and loved, as they have been chronicled in the rolls which
narrate their glory in action, their attainments in letters,
and their general excellence, goodness, and piety of heart?
And here, too, was Sir John Kean. -And who was Sir
John Kean ? He was an English officer in red regimen-
tals, who entered the room with a bow, and a smile, and
a bend, and a nonchalance, speaking to one and to another
as he advanced to make his compliments to Mrs. F. ; all
which he did as one would do who knows that he is among
his own acquaintances, and that his acquaintances know
that his position is one that enables him to smile and no-
tice those he passes without compromiting his dignity of
station ; and who knows himself that his rank gives him
the precedence, and the privilege, as its legitimate conse-
quence, of acting just as he chooses, while he keeps within
the bounds of politeness. But who was Sir John Kean ?
A man who can enjoy a joke, even at his own expense, and
can acknowledge that he has been most shockingly whipped,
and that it was at the battle of New-Orleans I Sir John
was one of the principal three English officers engaged
in the battle of the 8th of January, and on him devolved
the command when Packenham and Gibbs fell. He led
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 213
off the British forces from the deadly field. "Yes,"
said the good-humored Sir John, "we were whipped,
most thoroughly whipped, by the Americans." Noble
confession, Sir John. It does thee no discredit, nor others,
but honor, to acknowledge the truth, though the action,
involved in that truth, in the ever-varying chances of
war, contributes nothing to the well-known and well-
earned glory of the arms of the British nation.
The company gazed at each other, and said what they
chose to anybody they knew, for a half-hour ; when they
adjourned to the dining-hall below.
The Governor's band gave forth the rich strains of its
music to regale the feasters, who had served before them
the variety and abundance of several courses, and some
Indian fruits which I had not before seen.
The gentlemen were not long after the ladies in their
adjournment from the table to the rooms above. And the
hours passed rapidly into the middle- watch of the night,
when the company left the palace.
A polite note from his Lordship the Bishop, who, with
a part of his family, had delayed his departure into the
interior for a day or two, had early in the morning con-
veyed to me an invitation to accompany him, from the
Governor's, to spend the night and the succeeding day
with himself and his family. I therefore paused, until the
spacious halls were vacated by all, save the Governor's
and the Bishop's families. Sir John A. also delayed. It
had been proposed by his Excellency, that family prayers
should be attended, before the Bishop departed. It was
indeed to me an acceptable termination of a dignified and
social entertainment, where had been gathered the prin-
cipal dignitaries in the civil and military service of the
Presidency, and from the first circle of the society in
Bombay. It was now an hour of stillness. The rumbling
wheels of the last carriage had rolled through the extend-
ed grounds. The brilliant lamps still lighted up the spa-
cious rooms, but no step was moving where, but a moment
before, the throng passed in social vivacity and friendly
cheer. The Governor's lady and daughter, and their
cousin, Miss Carr, had withdrawn to the room at the end
of the hall, where the gentlemen soon joined them. And
214 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
was not this a worthy example to our men in power ?
There had been nothing in the entertainment of the even-
ing inconsistent with the propriety of a Christian house-
hold. And his Excellency's family, with some of his
guests, had now gathered to make their acknowledgments
to the High Power that had protected and blessed us for
the day. It is religion which hallows all our enjoyments
gives additional dignity to the man in station ennobles
the man of lower degree and yields consolation, content-
ment, and happiness to all. We knelt around the family
altar in the Government-house ; and when we had risen
from our worship, we made our adieus to his Excellency
and his Excellency's most worthy and interesting family.
A lovely drive by moonlight, as the moon's bright beams
gleamed through the foliage of the tall cocoa-nut trees,
brought us, in a half-hour, to the residence of the Bishop.
The succeeding morning I took leave of the Bishop's
family, having engagements for the remaining part of the
week, which would prevent me from again calling at his
residence. The Bishop himself however designed, with
the Archdeacon, to visit the Columbia on Saturday morn-
ing. On Monday he would leave Bombay, accompanied
by his daughter.
I am greatly indebted to his Lordship for the attentive
politeness received from himself and family ; and I regret-
ted most sincerely that our ea^rly sailing would prevent me
from accepting his invitation so cordially given, that 'I
would accompany him and his family into the interior. It
would have gratified my desire of visiting the adjacent
country, and given me the happiness of attending him on
his visitation, and yet to prolong my acquaintance with his
amiable household. I know not that this page will ever
greet his Lordship's eye, but it is yielding a tribute to my
own agreeable and grateful remembrances, here to record
the pleasure of my brief but most acceptable acquaintance
with himself and his estimable family.
ELEPHANATA CAVES.
" Elephanta who goes to Elephanta to-day ?" " I
would not give a fig to see Elephanta." " I should not
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 215
like to have been to Bombay, and have to answer, on being
questioned, that I did not go to see Elephanta." " I should
care but little not to have seen the Elephanta caves, so far
as the mere having seen or not having seen them is con-
cerned ; but if, after leaving Bombay, the thought should
occur to me that a pleasure to be derived from a visit to
these caverns was within my reach and I neglected it, I
should be unhappy. To save myself from such a haunting
thought, I shall go to see the Elephanta caves."
Such and other expressions were made by various per-
sons, who felt more or less interest in connection with the
celebrated caverns which are excavated in the hills of the
island of Elephanta. I had myself fixed on Friday for
making an excursion to the Elephanta caves. I confess
tKat my own curiosity had diminished, in view of other
things of interest which were inviting me in the city. But
two days remained for our stay at Bombay. Having
been detained on board the frigate until ten o'clock in the
morning, the delay gave me an opportunity of going alone,
to visit this curiosity, justly reckoned among the most
interesting objects that can attract the inspection of the
stranger.
The bunder-boat which I had engaged to convey me to
the island, had a nice little cabin, large enough comfort-
ably to seat five or six persons, and in which three might
most comfortably lounge ; while sixteen men pulled the
boat over the water. Lingo, who had often accompanied
me on my excursions through the city and without it,
was ready to share my fortunes to-day. Off we glided,
as I threw myself upon a.comfortable cushion and bolster;
and owing to the few hours of sleep I had enjoyed the
preceding night, I now yielded to the promptings of na-
ture and comfort to take a doze, during the two hours I
expected to be in reaching the island. And what else
should I have dreamed of but olden giants, and hobgoblins,
and screech-owls, bats, and such like things, which are
said to dwell in the deserted haunts of men of other days,
and these now forsaken recesses of yet cherished and ven-
erated temples of ancient and superstitious Hindoos?
But ere long I regained my waking consciousness, and
amused myself for the rest of the way, with a story of
216 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the once celebrated Goa, the capital of the Portuguese
East Indian dominions of olden and glorious memory,
which we are next to visit on our leaving Bombay.
I ascended from the beach, which is edged with dark
rocks at the point of my landing, along a path, leading
over patches of clay baked to a brick by the intense rays
of the sun. This path, winding aiong the ravine, soon as-
cended the side of the hill, covered with scattered trees
and undergrowth ; and more than half way up the ele-
vation, a diverging path conducted me to one of the lesser
excavations in the rock of the mountain. As I diverged
from the main track, I turned an inquiring look to Lingo.
" Not that way, master."
" Doubt that, Lingo ; come on, and we will see." A
few paces more satisfied Lingo, that I had either awaken-
ed a suspicion that he was desirous of getting too rapidly
over the examination of these cavernous recesses, or that I
had fallen upon one which he had not before seen. I stood
before the entrance of one of the smaller excavations.
To gain a correct idea of these artificial excavations
into the rocky hill, we must imagine a mountain-side,
studded with cocoa-nut trees and other ever-greens, shrubs
and vines, but thinly wooded, which forms one side of a
deep ravine. Half way up this hill-side your eye meets
a stratum of dark rock, rising abruptly and slightly reced-
ing. At the base of this rock, where the ground assumes
a comparative level, extending in a narrow strip in width
from the rock to the edge of the steeper part of the ra-
vine, the excavation is commenced. This is carried into
the mountain-side foj* a few feet, when a fissure, some six
or eight feet deep and as many wide is sunk in the rock,
from which, as the level of the floors of the excavated
rooms, the rocky chambers recede, though at the point
which I was at this moment contemplating they are but one
room deep. In front of you, when you have descended
the fissure, you have three rooms, about fifteen feet square
and nine or ten feet high. A partition of solid rock, smoothly
chiselled, is left between them, separating them into dis-
tinct chambers ; and the same is the case with the outer
wall, through which three entrances are cut, one for each
room. The centre one of the three entrances is orna-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 217
mented with various devices, chiselled in the solid case-
ment and lintel, and high over and wide around the
passage way; together with two immense figures, stand-
ing in lone solitude and silence, as I now saw them, like
two mighty giants, or huge knights of olden days, posted
at this portal of the entrance of the sacred room. Within
the centre room stood the altar, consisting of a base three
or four feet high and five or six feet square, with a broken
pillar two and a half feet in height, rounded at the top,
and rising from the centre of the base.
There was a stillness reigning here which rendered the
scene imposing. The large but mutilated figures, and the
many lesser ones above and around, exhibiting in contrast
the huge proportions of the two principal statues which
had remained, in their speechless and grave attitude, longer
than tradition tells, contributed (with the occurring impres-
sion on the mind of the great labors that must have been
expended here, and the mystery and the solemn shade that
now rests on all that connects these cavernous rooms with
the past) to render yet more still and yet more sombre,
the silence and the shadows which now pervade these sa-
cred and forsaken haunts, as you stand and muse on the
generations and the superstitions of the past, and the Hin-
doo in his darkness and ignorance of the present.
"Come down here, Lingo," I cried to my guide, who
was sitting at the outer entrance above me, as I was about
to enter the centre room, containing the altar, after having
examined the devices and figures on the outer wall, " Come
down, Lingo, and enter this room with me."
" Me no come there, master."
" Come down at once, boy, and enter with me."
" Me no come, master," continued the yet submissive
Gentoo, with a touch of his hand to his forehead, and then,
impressively upon his breast.
" Why not, Lingo ?"
" Gentoo no go in there, master, sargeant tell you why,"
added the dark-featured Hindoo, with his hand pointing
further on, with a persuasive look that I would go to the
principal cave.
I advanced to cross the threshold of the entrance, and
was surprised at the apparent cleanness and smooth surface
19
218 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
of the ground floor. Another step, and I was ankle-deep
in water ; and had not boots prevented, I should, beyond
a conjecture, have gone through the ablution of the feet
as my initiatory rite of entering into the mysteries of the
Hindoo temples, according to their many washings in their
superstitious observances. At each end of this range of
rooms, and at right angles with them, is a recess with three
pillars, forming two more rooms or courts, which, together
with the central chambers already described, constitute
half a hollow square.
An excavation, quite similar to that now described, I
found adjacent to it, though upon a yet larger scale ; and
the knights, in alto-relievo, at the entrance of the central
room, were yet huger in their proportions, and the sur-
rounding groups of figures more numerous and more dis-
tinct. And yet, the faces of all the figures have been
mutilated ; and in instances, so entirely, as hardly to leave
a trace of many features of the face remaining. This profa-
nation of these Hindoo temples is said to have been done
by the great guns of the Portuguese, in that age of zeal
for the extension of the Roman Catholic religion and for
the destruction of all idols of every other system. But
this big gun story, I take it, is something of a big gun it-
self, so far as the big guns are concerned. For, in the
first place, a very large gun could not conveniently be
transported up such a steep acclivity. In the next place,
it would be rather difficult, when the guns were in the
caves, so to elevate them and with accuracy so to point
them as to take off so invariably the noses of all these
rocky deities a point towards which the mischievous de-
spoiler seems to have particularly directed his shots. And
what is a further and pretty conclusive consideration on
this subject is, that a sledge-hammer, in the hand of an
athletic man, would have done more rapid execution and
with far greater convenience, in de-facing, de-nosing, de-
cheeking, and de-legging all these figures, as they are now
presented to the visiter, to awaken his regrets that greater
taste had not been displayed for the preservation of these
peculiar specimens of the arts of an ancient people, instead
of the indulgence of an unenlightened, misjudged and su-
perstitious zeal, in the demolition of these figures, which,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 219
unmolested by the destructive hand of man, had remained
as enduring as the mountain rock, in which, in relievo, they
have been chiselled.
Lingo's patience, seeming to be waning to its lowest
point, although he sat as submissive as a fawning spaniel
that longed to return home, I delayed no longer at these
lesser excavations, and wound still further around the moun-
tain to find the principal entrance to the most spacious and
interesting cavern.
I walked on but a few moments more in this winding
path, when a charming view opened to the eye, exhibiting
in its beauty the water scene on the opposite shore, lying
in front of the winding path of the island by which I had
approached these mountain temples. There, lay the lovely
expanse, with green islands yet beyond it, with the still
bosom of the mirroring water, sprinkled with numbers of
the graceful lateen boats, whose sails, in the distance, rising
in their spiral cut, give them the appearance of so many
butterflies, with their light and bright wings sailing over
the waters. And at the right, appeared the white mosque
of the Mohammedan worshipper, lying in picturesque and
beautiful relief against the green mountain-side of the op-
posite shore.
I had now reached a wide level which spread out from
the rising conical rock, to the steep of the hill-side. Here
was the sergeant's house and the corporal's shantee these
two personages being retained at this point to prevent the
caverns and their remaining curiosities from being furthei
mutilated. Commanding the view of this beautiful pros-
pect, lies this little green level, more than half way up the
mountain-side, from the inner edge of which the rock again
raises its heavy bulwarks in limestone masses.* And here,
in that massive rock of the mountain, coated with trees
and shrubs above it, you see the great entrance to the cav-
erns of the mountain, called the ELEPHANTA CAVES, and
which tradition tells, and which the books of the Hindoos
yet preserved narrating the actions of their gods declare,
* I took this rock to be limestone, and still believe it to be so,
though a gentleman of science in Bombay assured me that it was
basalt.
220 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to have been, as they still are, the temples of the Hindoos.
In the niches of the walls, and on the side ranges of the
rooms are chiselled the incarnations of the gods of the
Hindoostanee.
The front view of the rock presents a portal, with four
pillars and two side pilasters, supporting a horizontal entab-
lature slightly ornamented with mouldings. The pillars
are fluted and large, and considered as capitals of unfin-
ished pillars might be considered as approximating to some
beauty, but as they are, exhibit no. idea of correct propor-
tions, according to our appreciation of the perfect models
of Grecian or Egyptian architecture. These pillars are
cut from the solid rock, and are ten or twelve feet high.
As the excavation extends into the mountain, four ranges
of similar pillars yet stand, as they were left, chiselled from
the solid rock, and receding in regular distances and regu-
lar intervals in straight lines back from the front pillars.
Two additional rows correspond with the pilasters on each
side of the portal. When you have entered the portal, the
excavated hall branches off wider yet to the right and
left, giving an internal room of spacious dimensions. In
the back wall fronting the entrance, and seen between the
central ranges of pillars extending from the portal, is a
niche excavated in the rock, its distance from the front
being some sixty or a hundred feet from the entrance. In
this niche is seen the principal figure, which attracts the
attention of the visiter, and remains there in its three-faced
form, looking east, west, and north, as the only perfect
statue which remains. This triad figure is in keeping, in
the proportions of the several faces ; and the execution,
though presenting little to win our admiration for the beau-
ty or manliness of the features, is deemed to reflect credit
on the artist. The heads may be four feet in diameter
the lips large the noses well chiselled the cheeks rotund
the neck decorated after the present style of the Hindoos,
in the wearing of their ornaments circling the neck in a
crescent and low on the chest. The heads are decorated
with a cap unlike any I have seen at Bombay, but resem-
bling others worn further east, rising high and receding
somewhat like the upper part of a helmet, and ornamented
with various devices.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 221
It cannot be interesting to the reader, to follow the mi-
nute description and measurements of these caverns. The
general appearance and the impressions they leave on the
mind of the visiter, are the principal things to interest the
reader, in the absence of visible inspection.
The excavation here, constituting the principal room, is
spacious, embracing thirty or forty pillars in their regular
ranges, which support the rocky ceiling, and are parts of
the rock left in excavating. On one side of this spacious
hall is a cubical room, higher than the square of its base ;
which is also an appendage of the solid rock, and excava-
ted, within itself, for the purpose of embracing the altar,
corresponding to those already alluded to. On the sides
of each corner of this cubical room, an immense figure,
making eight in all, is chiselled ten or fifteen feet in height,
exhibiting an imposing attitude. But all these figures are
defective in the proper development of the muscles. The
limbs are particularly so. The curve line seems to exist
only as encircling the limbs ; while the lines from the knee
to the foot are nearly straight, giving to the limbs the
tameness of a pipe-stem, or more properly a regular pyra-
midal form, unlike the varied developments of the different
muscles as seen exhibited in the natural figure of man him-
self. The same is true of the arms. They are invariably
cramped, or make acute angles as stiffly as the adjustment
of two straight sticks, intersecting each other, would do.
The head and the chest are the two parts of the figures
best executed, while the waist reminds one of the sole-
leather corsets of olden days, or one half of an hour-glass.
And this we would deem surprising, when it is considered,
that the human form is continually exposed in these east-
ern countries, thus giving the artist the opportunity of daily
studying the muscular action of the body and limbs, so
essential to be noted and to be understood by the sculptor
to enable him truly to delineate his figures according to
life, in the different positions of attitude and action in which
he places them. And yet, the effect of the main figures
of the principal groups is striking, and must have been
particularly so upon the minds of the common people.
The larger number of lesser figures around the principal,
exhibit the god in a conspicuous and imposing form, the
19*
222 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
effect being derived principally, however, from the idea of
power, inferred from dimension in contrast. In the groups
of figures occupying different excavations in the walls, and
describing various actions of the gods of the Hindoos,
there are a great variety of heads crowded together, as
they are often seen on Chinese carving in ivory elephants
and lions, grotesque winged animals and serpents while
the principal one or more large figures are thus shown oft
in bold relief; and in all these representations, the strictest
modesty is preserved, though the figures are slightly
dressed, after the manner of most of the native Hindoos.
There is one figure cut in a recess on the inner wall,
which attracts the interest of the visiter, and is on the
right of the triad, or three-faced god, and by some called
the Amazon though the peculiarity of the figure emblems
forth a very different legend of one of the Hindoo gods.
The figure is nearly perfect, more so than any other besides
the triad. Yet the same objection applies to this figure,
tall in its height, which I have stated of the others, though
some speak of it as a creditable specimen of sculpture ;
and probably it is the best, with the exception of the thre
faced Vishna or Sciva, which decorates the rocky walls
of this spacious excavation. Indeed, there is in all the
figures, without an exception, the absence of all anatomical
correctness. Straight lines prevail, and the limbs are like
tapering poles, and the faces remind one of the rude cuts
seen on the old English grave-stones of the 17th century,
with cherub wings attached to their young and rounded
cheeks, though here, where wings are introduced, they are
the more tasteful, being of the sylph-like form.
From this principal room, a passage on the left as you
advance, extends to a yet more interior excavation, with
like groups of figures studding the excavated niches in the
inner walls. And here is an inner saloon, longer than
wide, with pillars in front, and the wall constituting the
back part of it is studded with a range of statues. These
extend quite the whole length of the wall of this apart-
ment, in alto-relievo, on the wall, exhibiting a variety of
male and female figures, men, women, mothers with chil-
dren in their arms, in different attitudes, and all constitu-
ting a row of statues which must have been imposing
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 223
when in their perfect state. But now there is scarcely a
statue of the whole number undefaced.
On my entering a small cubical room containing the
altar, in this range of the excavated rooms, the soldier, a
native Hindoo, who was now accompanying me, signified,
with considerable emphasis, that it was not allowable for
me to enter the room of the altar. He had not marked
me entering the other, and now remonstrated at my at-
tempt to enter this " Gentoo might go in but no English
go no American go." " Nonsense, Sepoy," I said to
him, and mounted the altar, which I conclude, from its
being more polished than the others, still serves as the
altar where the Hindoos offer their gifts when they as-
semble here, as they still do on holidays, to worship
agreeably to their own rites. " Nonsense," I again added,
still further to try the sincerity of the sentry. " Make any
resistance and I take you, in good haste, to the hearing
of the Governor."
"Against order, master," added the doubtful soldier,
with his present hand to his forehead " no order to let
English enter. Hindoo only enter."
" Well, Sepoy, do you not know that I have become a
Gentoo since I reached Bombay go to Gentoo church
have a mark put on my forehead ? See, Sepoy, see you
it not ?" I added, touching my finger to my forehead be-
tween the eyes.
Lingo and the Sepoy both laughed roundly, and made
no more opposition to my entering the consecrated room
of the altar, but their incredulity was observable enough,
and their horror of my polluting their temple I took to be
more a matter of affectation than otherwise.
But what was the propelling motive which led the
enthusiast, or devotee, or prince, or potentate, or genius,
struggling in the infancy of the arts, to give development
and immortality to his swelling conceptions, in the execu-
tion of these mysterious works, of which no record now
retains the traces of their origin, or the progress and the
completion of these stupendous works stupendous, at
least, when associated with the age in which they must
have been executed? And even now, they are gazed
upon as astonishing demonstration of the labors of the past.
224 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Nothing that narrates of them is found nothing is known.
A shade, dark as the stillness was deep, which pervaded
the caverns at that moment as I mused on the revolutions
of empires, religions, and even the mountain-rock, now
rests over the story of their past ; while at the same time
here live, in visible characters, the rocky records which
chronicle, and which shall chronicle for ages to come, .he
religions, the habits, and the manners of the Hindoo of
other times. How profound is ignorance ! How fleet
the years of man ! How unbecoming is pride in a mortal !
How low may superstition bring him in the scale of intel-
lect ! How sublime and elevated his nature, when fixed
on divine things ! How vast his capacities, when direct-
ed by the beams of intellect and the elevating influences
of the true system of worship recorded for the otherwise
benighted spirit, in the gospel of Jesus Christ !
I returned to the boat, and our two lateen sails soon
bore us on to the good frigate Columbia my home on the
deep whose deck one is ever willing to reach, after a day
of toil on duty or on pleasure ; and whether his rambles
have been accompanied with happiness or disappointment.
To-day, the field of that ramble was curious, unique, and
deeply interesting. None will regret the effort which it
may cost to accomplish a visit to the Elephanta caves
and none, having examined it in connection with the reli-
gion of the Hindoo, will forget their temples in these moun-
tain rocks.
VISIT TO DR. WILSON AND FAMILY.
On the evening of the tenth I visited at the Rev. Dr.
Wilson's, agreeably to an invitation to dine with him, with
the expectation of meeting other religious persons whom
the Dr. had politely said he would invite to meet me. The
Rev. Mr. Nesbit, and Dr. Smitten, a benevolent gentleman
who has long been in India, were there ; and the two
Misses Baynes, the sisters-in-law of Dr. W.
Dr. Wilson is a gentleman of attainment in letters, and
his conversation is greatly interesting in connection with
the Hindoo religion their ceremonies, their habits, their
manners, and incidents in his own experience among the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 225
natives. His courteous attentions will be remembered
with very acceptable associations, in connection with
the pleasure received in my interview with himself and
family.
Dr. W. is at the head of the Literary Asiatic Society
of Bombay ; and, with his modesty of character, he exem-
plifies the truth of the Scripture, that he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. He excels as a linguist, possess-
ing great natural readiness in the acquisition of a new
tongue, already understanding many of the languages of
the East, Arabic, Sanscrit, Hindoostanee, etc. etc., and has
written with effect in several of them against the systems
of the Mohammedans, Hindoos, and the Parsees.
In the evening we took a walk through one of the
streets, near Dr. W.'s residence, in which almost every
house was a temple, or contained a Hindoo god. We
saw enough to interest, to pity, to grieve us, and to dis-
gust in the worshippers, who entered their temples and
prostrated themselves before their wooden deities, whose
forms were hideous for their shapes and paints. One of
these gods, in an apparently greatly frequented temple,
contained three heads, resembling the swine's more than
aught else, though called the monkey, with its three-formed
shape, painted red, with glaring white and black eyes.
Before this ill-formed block of wood numbers prostrated
themselves and worshipped asking their god for what-
ever might be the object of their particular desire, and ten-
dering to him offerings of rice, or cocoa-nuts, or money
at times beseeching his assistance, or at others threatening
the painted deity, that if the request be not granted his
godship would get no more cocoa-nuts. This seerns a pe-
culiar kind of worship, but the Hindoos both threaten and
entreat, in their approaches to their gods.
We wandered by some thirty or forty and more of these
idol-houses, to examine their many and various appear-
ances. The houses differed not much from the indifferent
residences of the lower classes in the bazaar part of the
town. Others presented more respectable piles of build-
ings ; and in a few instances the temples were embraced
within a court of considerable spaciousness.
226
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
HINDOO DEVOTEE.
At length we came to the tent of a noted devotee, who
has made himself conspicuous as a sacred character for
his abstinence, mortification, and by the peculiarity of the
form of his penance. He holds in his left hand a small
flower-pot, containing a rose-shrub, with its branches pro-
tected by a light frame-work. The finger nails of the
hand, which embraces the flower-pot, wind in their un-
couth and spiral shape, six or eight inches in length.
They say he has held this flower-pot in the position
he now carries it for thirty years. The fleshy part of
his fingers, under his nail, has also oddly elongated itself.
Whether he has thus preserved this flower-pot this length
of time or not in this position, he evidently has well played
his part, as the result of this action, deemed self-mortifica-
tion and penance, has been to accumulate from the multi-
tude who visit him, some 20,000 rupees, equivalent to more
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 227
than nine thousand dollars, a part of which he is now de-
voting for the establishment of an institution, in which
shall be inculcated the sentiment and the habit of one's
personal consecration to some act of similar devotion.
This singular personage is now, from his appearance, be-
tween the age of fifty and sixty years, and is not deficient
in sprightliness and shrewdness. " I'll get no money to-
night," he said to Dr. W. " You are the enemy of all re-
ligions here, and -persuade people from giving pice to the
devotees."
The old man was nearly naked, with his white beard
brushed up to the cheek, and smeared over with white-
wash, or something like it, which covered his whole face
and brow and most of his exposed body ; with a tint of
red-like blood on the brow and breast, contrasting with this
wash of white overlaying his darker skin. It is generally
supposed that this old devotee's arm, which supports the
flower-pot, has become emaciated. But it is not more so
than the other. The muscles of each were alike, and so
appeared, when the devotee, at my request, put his right
arm in the same attitude as the left which supported the
flower-pot. He seemed not unpleased by our call ; and
as we left, without marking that my friend Dr. W. saw
the action, I dropped a piece of silver into the old man's
hand, which the next moment I regretted, although I had
done it as I would have given pence to a conjuror for
amusing me with tricks of his art and enchantments of
his snakes ; or to the keeper of a menagerie of odd and
curious beasts of the country. Should Dr. W.'s course
be pursued by all who visit this long-nailed Gentoo, he
would soon be seen making an effort to earn his rice and
curry in some more industrious manner, and the leisure-
penance of the devotee would be changed for the reality
of self-denial, which the laborious poor man is often called
on to experience in the honorable effort to give support
and comfort to his household.
Returning late to the ship, I found the sea rolling higher
than is usual, or than I had before seen it, in the harbor.
The oarsmen pulled to the boatman's cheerily tune ; and
ere long the sail was set, when our boat leaped from wave
to wave as she glided over the water, and dashed the
228 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
spray before her in the dark night like a spij-fire, spread-
ing the phosphorescent light every way around her.
I have made my last visit on shore, and in the morning
our ship stands yet again on her eastern course. And
there are more than one to whom I may repeat with most
acceptable memories, as I leave the strange, the curious,
and the interesting city of Bombay :
" Farewell, but whenever you welcome the hour, .
Which awakes the sweet night-song soft in your bower,
Then think of the friend who once welcomed it too,
And forgot his own griefs to be happy with you.
His griefs may return, not a hope may remain
Of the few that have lightened his pathway of pain,
But he ne'er will forget the short vision that threw
Its enchantment around him while lingering with you."
SECTION IX.
GOA.
Goa. Row up the river to the site of old Goa, now the city only of
churches and convents, and once the seat of the Inquisition in the East.
Returning, wind and tide ahead. Passage through the breakers. Unable
to reach the frigate. The ships stand out to sea. Sleep at the fort.
The next morning the ships stand in, and the author regains the frigate.
WE came to anchor in Goa Roads on the fourteenth
of November. The basin of water in which we are now
lying indents a very picturesque shore, broken into ranges
of table-land which stretches along the shore, and high
ranges, more elevated, rising in double tier of mountains,
in the blue distance of the interior.
This morning, succeeding the evening of our arrival,
I jumped into a shore-boat, with the understanding that
the ship would go to sea in the evening, and with the
purpose of getting a larger boat on my reaching the
shore, to take me to Goa, some six miles and more distant.
Should I happen to be left in these regions, why, the only
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 229
alternative will be, to go over land to Madras, to regain
the ship at Colombo, or to make the best of my way back
again to the United States of America. However, it
would be
" Pitiful, wondrous pitiful,"
to come into these Roads, with all the olden associations
connected with this ancient capital of all the Portuguese
Indian possessions, and not to look at the far-famed city
of Goa, now in its ruins, and so memorable for its former
magnificence and ecclesiastical associations.
I had marked a picturesque building before I left the
ship, situated on one of the prominent elevations, .near the
landing-place at the fort ; and receiving the courteous
salutation of the Captain of the fortress as I passed through
it, I sought this building on the heights by a path which
had been pointed out to me as leading to the residence
.chapel of the Padre, while my boat was ordered round
to another point on the opposite side of the island to wait
for me. But when I had reached this pile of buildings on
the heights, I found it like most of the olden Portuguese
ancient edifices, more beautiful in the distance than on
near inspection. The Catholics are tasteful in the selec-
tion of the locations for their public edifices ; and the
chapel, the cathedral, the monastery, are mostly found to
occupy the most conspicuous points of high ground wher-
ever their religion prevails, and the effect of the tout en-
semble of their religious buildings, at a distance, is almost
invariably fine and imposing.
The view from this church of the mount was very fine,
and no little interest was given to the scene of the water
expanse which lay before the eye, by being varied with
our own two men-of-war, riding on the bosom of this
beautiful indentation of the sea. The Padres whom I
met here, had nothing about them which was attracting.
After a rapid view of the chapel, the principal room within
which contained a saint with a small ship poised in his
hand, I bid the brotherhood adieu and descended to the
boat, which I found waiting for me as directed the pea-
santry at the foot of the hill showing me courtesy and
kindness as I passed their tents.
20
230 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
We soon crossed over to Pangim, or New Goa. where
I again changed my boat for one still larger, with ten
oarsmen, that I might more certainly accomplish my ex-
cursion and return in time for the sailing of the ship
Comfortably seated in the cabin of this boat, and gliding
to the dip of ten oars up the stream, I am now penning
this nota bene of the way to the old city, some four miles
further up the stream, which runs between the island of
St. Pedro and the opposite shore. Church edifices, Portu-
guese, French, and Mohammedan mosques, are frequently
occurring on either side, in agreeable relief of white plas-
tered walls and the groves of cocoa-nut and banana-trees,
with their peculiar and characteristic tops.
THE RUINS OF GOA.
After a pull for a couple of hours, we reached the De-
serted City once the proud, the lofty, the superstitious,
and the overbearing city of Goa. It still stands a beacon
of what once was ; but it is like the hall deserted of its
feasters, when the revellers have gone ; while the still-
ness of the present contrasts, in sad eloquence, with the
hour of carousal. I walked through the streets overgrown
with grass, with reflections which I could have cherished
nowhere else. Scarcely a being was to be seen moving
throughout the city. The olden churches, the spacious
and massive cathedral, the private chapels, and the nunne-
ries, the crumbling walls, and the cocoa-nut groves, and
the banana-trees, were seen in their profound solitude,
where once was bustle, and where the mighty and the
proudest moved forth in state and affluence ; and where
the mighty Inquisition ruled in its terror and sublimity.
A cross on its base of rock, composed, itself, of imperish-
able material, was standing at the corner of almost every
street, telling the universality of the Roman Catholic religion.
The walls lining each side of the streets were generally
falling, exposing the areas that once composed the gar-
dens and the sites of private mansions and palaces, but
where now scarcely a private residence can be found or
bamboo hut can be seen ; while the rank and luxurious
vegetation mellows all this ruin and decay, of fallen walls,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 231
and terraced mounds, and filling avenue, and broken pas-
sage, in embowering green of vine, or shrub, or thatching
tree. Here is indeed a field for the imaginative to wander
in. Here are all the elements of romance, of poetry, for
the tragic and the lyric muse. Goa ! how art thou fallen !
The huge walls of thy spacious churches, and cathedral,
and monastery yet stand, while the dust is gathered on
their altars, and the gold of their candlesticks is dimmed,
and the images that once moved in procession and parade
in holiday scenes, are veiled and crowded, in their tar-
nished gilding, into the dark recesses of the interior rooms.
Ye ghosts of departed saints, said yet to walk on your
rounds through the silent recesses of these almost deserted
temples, tell us, what is the blight which has come over
all, that now, only the stately pile of cathedral, and chapel,
and nunnery, in decay and dust, mark a solemn city of
churches, where once stood the ancient, the famed, and
the prosperous Goa of the East ? And why, all around
you in the same eastern seas, are, another people, with a
different but Christian creed, springing up in successful
prosperity and irresistible prowess? Must the religion of
the Catholics for ever leave blighted, whatever it touches?
I walked through the cathedral, an immense pile of
buildings, which once must have been imposing. The
entrance door opened into a passage-way lined on one
side with paintings of a large and corresponding size, of
inferior merit as to their execution, while the scenes were
often such as to produce a great effect. One represented
Saint Augustine, suspended with his head downwards.
Another, the devil in interview with a priest; and
Saint Augustine seeing the visible Christ, while partaking
of the eucharist. This passage communicated with the
door, which opened into the spacious chapel, with its lofty
ceiling. I passed rapidly through the different rooms,
some containing various images of large sizes and of les-
ser dimensions the twelve apostles and various saints,
and the Saviour represented in different scenes; one
with the thorns upon his brow, the image being larger
than life ; and others, in other scenes of corresponding
proportions.
From the cathedral I went to a nunnery. A cup of tea
232 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
was handed to me by the Lady Abbess, from whom I
gained some little things, to be retained as mementoes of
my visit. I wandered, at random, into another nunnery,
and other churches, but, in haste to return, I made my
way back from the heights on which these buildings are
mostly situated, covering grounds, which with their adjacent
lots must have been beautiful and valuable, almost beyond
account, but now neglected, with the walls of the sur-
rounding areas fallen or falling, and overgrown, exhibiting
long ranges of neglected fields and gardens in ruins.
RETURN TO THE FRIGATE.
On reaching the boat, to my no small surprise and no
very inconsiderable alarm, I found that the wind and the
tide had both changed against us, while I had been wan-
dering through the solitary streets and stately piles of
churches and nunneries of Goa. The boats were now
streaming up the favoring current, with their canvass
spread to a fair and strong breeze, while I had been cal-
culating upon both to secure my return to the frigate by
four o'clock. No time now could be lost, it being already
near three o'clock. I passed into the boat, and directed the
ten oarsmen to put forth their strength. They did well.
Our boat dashed back to Pangim, or lower Goa, from
which our ships were lying some four or five miles-
the sea setting in with increased power, and the opposing
wind strengthening every moment. We paused' only for
the men to take a draught of water, when they again
started for the frigate. We had passed the inner fort of
the Portuguese, but every moment was convincing us
that it was almost impossible to accomplish our purpose
against the opposing wind and tide. But the two ships
still lingered in the offing, the John Adams apparently
just standing out, while the Columbia had shaken out her
topsails, and was lying lazily in the wind. The men were
encouraged to pull to their utmost, but the' ground-roll of
the sea was pitching in, and we had now reached a posi-
tion where the breakers combed high and fearfully. The
men, however, were true to their oars. As the high wave
came on with its curved edge higher than our boat, fear-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
233
fully threatening to flood it, the oarsmen for a moment
would rest on their poles, and as the breaker struck the
boat they broke the profound silence of the preceding in-
stant by their own peculiar prayer, as they ejaculated in
their own tongue, "Jesu Christe !" when again they dipped
their oars with their greatest effort, to send the boat still
further ahead, only to meet another mountain-sheet with
its distinctly defined curl, inclining towards us. As the
second breaker struck us, it was waited in silence, but with
the blow of the wave, the ten oarsmen, at the slight indication
of the steersman, again sent forth, in their suppressed and
reverential tone, " O Jesu Christe !" I thought it would
be impossible to drive the boat through these foaming
breakers, which came down against us in succession with
their almost perpendicular fronts. But so long as I saw
the features of the steersman, while they were profoundly
solemn, quaked not, I encouraged the men with the ex-
citing words of " Cheerily O, cheerily all !" which they
caught with spirit, as I applied my own hands to the oar
guided by the nearest man. The boat at length was
torced through seven or eight of these tremendous and
fearfully dangerous rolls of the sea, which would instantly
have swamped us, had the prow of the boat not been
ke.pt perpendicularly to the line of the waves, as they
came successively, at this point of the way, some fifty
rods and more -apart from each other. We were now
beyond these breaking surges, our boat having taken in a
considerable quantity of water, sweeping from the bows
nearly to the stern and entirely drenching the men. But
the wind fell not and the tide seemed still stronger, while
we continued to pull out as we saw the Columbia still
lingering, with her anchors evidently weighed, and, as I
concluded, only waiting for myself. But I was doubtful
whether, in her far-out position, she yet saw me, although
my boat was a large one. Yet at this moment she run up
her gib, and seemed to ware as if she were standing in
for the boat. But with the strong breeze blowing directly
on this iron-bound shore, at this late hour, I knew that
she could not, with propriety, venture much further or
delay much longer. The sun was fast declining, as our
boat seemed only inch by inch to gain her distance out-
20*
234 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ward ; when, ere long, the sun fell beneath the distant
rim of the ocean, with the Columbia directly in its wake,
which longer and more distinctly preserved the frigate io
our view. I had spread my handkerchief above the poop
of the boat with the hope that it might attract the atten-
tion of the quarter-master, who is always keeping a look-
out with his glass ; and at the time the ship seemed to
veer, I supposed that I was seen. But as the red bank
of a glorious sunset began to die away into the dun of the
palest twilight, the distant ship also began to fade, and at
length, as she lined herself on the horizon, I could plainly
see that she was standing out to sea, with evident pro-
priety of not lingering longer so near the shore for the
night. In a short time, in the increasing darkness, the
ship was entirely lost, and the boatmen, already exhaust-
ed, were directed to put about and stand in for the shore.
The only hope that now remained, was, that Commo-
dore Read, although he had expressed himself to me with
more than his usual earnestness about sailing during the
evening, would stand off during the night and put back
again in the morning, and take me up, as I then would
be able to stand out with the land breeze and a-smooth
sea. But should he proceed directly on his course to
Colombo, as the John Adams seemed to have done, my
situation might become very peculiar, at least for myself.
I had taken but twenty dollars in my purse for the day's
excursion. As I had gone by myself, however, I took a
sword in my hand, as a walking stick, and possessed a
watch of some value. At the worst, I concluded I could
manage, with these, comfortably to reach Bombay, where
I had no apprehension but that I could get any amount
of funds I might desire, and letters of credit to meet my
wants, whether I should make my way back to the
United States through the Red Sea, the Isthmus of Suez,
the Mediterranean, France and England, completing a
desirable tour ; or, if opportunity should present from
Bombay, to take passage to Macao, and rejoin the ship
at Canton, where I should probably anticipate her arrival,
as she would call at several places, and be for some time
detained before reaching Macao. And should I not meet
her there, a Canton packet would take me comfortably
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 235
back to the United States. These were the dreamings
of a moment, while our boat was standing back to the
fortification where I had landed first, in the morning, and
the bearing of which I had been sufficiently considerate
to take by the stars, before it had become so dark that
the land could not be seen.
But in the unrest of the night, other thoughts presented
themselves, though they were too gentle in their alarms
to frighten entirely from me, after the fatigues of the day,
a welcome refreshment from sleep. But what, if circum-
stances should so conspire as to reduce me to the neces-
sity of begging ? No one person knew me on shore. And
then, the symptoms on board the John Adams had been
such, since she left Bombay, as to leave it doubtful whether
the cholera was not in our squadron. And in a climate
deemed unhealthy, and exerting myself in the excitement
of the moment, beyond my own strength and habits, it
might be my destiny to be prostrated suddenly among
strangers of a different faith and language, and where I
knew not twenty words of their tongue. But necessity
in the unexpected circumstances in which I had been
placed, could not be resisted, and God Almighty, in whom
I trusted, I did not doubt a moment, would direct and
provide.
The fortress, which is an extensive work, was already
shut, when I had reached near the landing-place opposite
one of the gates. The occupants of a boat, lying a little
way in the stream, assured us that the Captain of the fort
ress was already in his bed ; and my boat's crew appeared
to regard it as equivalent to a capital crime to wake him.
and they now insisted that they would not land, but they
must take me up the stream some three or four miles to
Pangim. I told them that they should land me, unless
the breakers prevented, which were now roaring horribly
on the ear in the darkness of the moonless night ; and I
took my sword in my hand, without any further threats
than my manner indicated, which once before, when the
men had become exhausted nearly to a rebellion as we were
pulling for the ship, I had, with yet more positiveness assum-
ed, although I am sure I could not have injured the head of
one of the miserable cowards. They yielded, and said
236
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
they would try ; and we pulled to the north side of the
stone pier, over which the inswelling surf now rolled, as
if it were another cataract of Niagara. We kept the
boat off from its side, or the waters, in the immense sheets
as they rolled over the pier, would instantly have filled
the boat, and dashed her away like a speck drifting on
the boundless billow.
FORT AGOADA.
Watching my opportunity, I sprung upon the part of
the pier nearest the shore ; and approaching the gate of
the fortress- wall, the sentry hailed me. I told him I wish-
ed to speak with the Captain of the fort. The Captain,
with half a dozen other Portuguese, put his head out the
window of a stone building, which formed something like
a bastion of the embattlements of the fortress, and said
that he was the Captain. I told him my story. He apo-
.ogized for his soldier-like quarters, but soon the gate was
thrown open ; and as if he thought some secret design
was being made upon the fortress, or else for effect, I was
ushered through the portal, along a line of guards of some
twenty dark-faced and dark-dressed soldiers, who had
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 237
been gathered at this point of the fort at the opening of
the gate. The Portuguese officer showed me to a small
apartment, through a passage which led for some short
distance without the main wall, but where two sentinels
were stationed, and which constituted the quarters of the
Captain. I was glad to be there, notwithstanding some
big stories I had heard of Portuguese treachery, and many
more I had read of it ; and now I was a stranger, within
a Portuguese fortress, in most treacherous times. I was
sufficiently tired to find the spread cot of the Captain, not-
withstanding the immensity of his mustaches, a very ac-
ceptable tender, although I felt a reluctance to avail my-
self of it, as this Portuguese officer, with true soldier-like
generosity, threw a piece of matting into another corner
of the room, and said, " This, to-night, shall be my bed ;"
inviting me, at the same time, to slip off my coat and to
lounge, after my fatigue, upon his clean-spread and ten-
dered cot. A cup of tea was ere long served, with bread
and butter, curd, cheese, eggs, and cake, the last being taken,
with a nonchalance du corps, from the wall, were it had
been suspended by a nail in a wrapper around the plate
that contained it. " Eat, my good sir," said the Portuguese
with the huge mustaches ; " you no eat any thing ;" not-
withstanding I had already finished a couple of eggs, drank
one cup of tea, and a round glass full of most delightful
water. I was greatly refreshed, and threw myself upon
my cot to get some rest. I slept ; and I remember, in
my visions of the night, to have seen two gallant ships
standing in shore for me, which reassured me that how-
ever unsailor-like it might be for the ships to be there, or
that I should be here, the generous Commodore would not
leave me behind. But my dreams were unquieting. I
had a rencounter with two banditti and mastered them.
But these were plantoms of the brain ; perhaps the real
banditti I should not be able to master, if about me there
were those who might be disposed to attack me. Besides,
there was something peculiar in the cup of tea which I,
almost from necessity on account of the politeness which
prepared it for me, had drunk. I now remembered
the officer had poured some drops, as it seemed to
me, from a junk-bottle into the small teapot, in which the
238 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
tea was drawn. What on earth, or in the name of poison,
could he pour from a junk-bottle into a teapot, without a
design to get rid of me ? But we had shown, only a few
hours before, a sufficient force, at least, to induce respect,
so long as there was a probability that the ships would
return. Therefore, I slept, and was refreshed and much
recovered from my fatigue the next morning, and my
nervous excitement was past. The broad daylight brought
with it the assurance to myself that my good health con-
tinued. But the daylight was abroad, and the sun was
up, and the look-out from the high point of the flag-staff
reported, to my great disappointment, "no ships to be seen
in the offing." I quietly yielded to my apparent fate, and
began to make some inquiries, to enable me to decide upon
my best course, when I learned that the Captain of a Por-
tuguese brig was in the fort, who was designing to get
under way in a few hours for Bombay ; but only a few
moments longer had passed, before a paper was handed
to the Captain, as a second report from the telegraph, con-
taining the words, " Two large three-masted vessels in the
offing, standing to the north." " They are the frigate and
the corvette," I exclaimed ; " I thought they would not
leave me." I went myself, at the suggestion of the Captain,
to the top of the hill, embraced within the extensive forti-
fication, and where the flag-staff is fixed, to see what I
could make the vessels out to be, while he ordered break-
fast to be prepared and to be in readiness for me on my
return. The flag-staff I should judge to be 400 feet above
the walls of the fortress. These walls stretch along the
shore, and are themselves a part of the works ; and a dis-
tinct fort, above all the rest, with covered passages lead-
ing to it, is almost if not quite impregnable to any force,
should the lower works be taken. You ascend to this
high point by inclined planes, so arranged that provisions
and ammunition may be conveyed to the elevated position,
while the artillery above commands the whole ranges of
the steep passages. The view from this point is at once
beautiful and grand. The wide ocean extends as far as
the eye can reach, north, south, and west, with the adja-
cent county around, in its peculiar features of inland, island,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 239
and mountain, in their perpetual green and foliage of the
tropics.
I took the glass, and at once recognised the long side
of the good Columbia, standing in, and with grateful feel-
ings believed that I should yet reach her. The Adams
was further out, but standing on the same tack, north. I
had already provided a large boat with sails and ten oars-
men to take me out, at the first appearance of the ships in
the offing, should they again be seen.
Taking another cup of tea, (which, in the daylight, at
its making, I now more particularly observed to be taken
from a junk-bottle, in which it was preserved instead of
the more usual domestic tea-caddy with which I have
been familiar,) I entered my boat, and cheerily, with her
canvass spread and ten men at the poles, the boat made
good speed towards the Columbia, still some ten or twelve
miles in the distance. When she perceived us, she tacked
ship, and bore down for us as far as practicable with the
head wind ; and, ere long, I was again, with a very com-
fortable feeling of convenience, on the deck of the frigate.
Advancing to the officer of the deck, I reported myself, as
is usual, as having " returned." " Very well, sir," was the
courteous and officer-like reply. " Please report yourself
to the First Lieutenant," who was standing not far off.
" Very well, sir," was repeated, with as much gravity as
the countenance of this amiable gentleman could assume,
" please report to the Commodore."
I made the best of my way to the cabin. Our Commo-
dore was sitting over his private journal ; and whether it
contains a private record of my own name or not, I do
not know ; but I do know that Commodore Read has in-
variably treated me with gentlemanly kindness ; and that,
in a few moments more, the ship, with a crowd of canvass
set, was pressing on her bounding course to Colombo, the
capital of the island of Ceylon.
240 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WOELD.
SECTION X.
COLOMBO.
Colombo. Church in the evening, on shore. Differences between the
English and American prayer book. The Governor's dinner to the Com-
modore and his officers. " Grace." Sir John Wilson. The Governor's
house. Promenade with his Excellency. Governor Mackenzie's opinion
of the American Missionaries, and liberality towards them. Music.
Early fortifications in the East. Mess-dinners. Mrs. Steward Macken-
zie. Sail by moonlight, and dinner at Sir John Wilson's. Sir John's
mansion. Bouquet. Cooper's Switzerland. Willis's poetry. Lord
Cochrane at New Orleans. Hospitality of British officers. " West coast
disaster." Murder of Captain Wilkins of the barque Eclipse, by the Ma-
lays. Tiffin with Rev. Mr. Bailey. A drive. Shells. Ceylon the besl
place for making a collection in conchology. Breakfast to Governoi
Mackenzie on board the frigate. Leaving Colombo.
WE anchored in Colombo Roadstead on Sunday morn
ing, November 25th, 1838, having made land the preced
ing evening and standing off during the night.
After the services on board, during the day, I accom-
panied Lieutenants Magruder and Turner and Dr. Haz-
lett to the shore, to attend the services of the church in
the evening. It was dark before we landed ; but the Co-
lonial Secretary, who had called on the Commodore, po-
litely accompanied us to the church within the walls of
the fort, and obtained us seats. As we landed we passed
within the gate, along a street with its white colonnade
lining on either side the whole range of the low buildings,
and producing a fine effect in the bright moonbeams ; while
the mellowing shade of the hour concealed all that would
diminish our favorable impression, as we reached the
church, lighted up for the services of the evening. The
congregation had already mostly assembled, and the faces
and the dress of the female part of the congregation were
so like our own congregations at home, and the prayer
book containing our own prayers, and the English service
in our own tongue, and the like ceremonies of rising,
sitting, and kneeling, all made it seem like being in one of
our own temples in our own western home, among our
own acquaintances, on the still eve of the Sabbath day.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 241
Most of the gentlemen attending the services of the
evening, were the officers of the barracks, in their red
uniform, accompanying the ladies present, who were gen-
erally of the officers' families.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN EPISCOPAL SERVICE.
The American is struck with the slight variations in the
services of the English from the American Episcopal
church. And where this variation occurs, I think it must
be conceded, that the alterations, in our American service,
are decidedly an improvement; The English clergy so
consider it ; at least the Rev. Mr. B thus expressed
himself to me, when the two services were a subject of re-
mark. There is also a difference between us in pronoun-
cing several words of the service. In the opening exhor-
tation of the clergyman to the congregation, the attention
of the American is particularly arrested by the pronuncia-
tion of the word acknowledge, which the English clergy-
man pronounces as if written ac-no-ledge : " The Scripture
moveth us in sundry places to ac-no-ledge and confess our
manifold sins and wickedness ;" " And although we ought
at all times to ac-no-ledge our sins before God," &c. And
in the Te Deum laudamus, " We praise thee O God, we
ac-no-ledge thee to be the Lord." And yet, Sheridan,
and Perry, and Jones, and Jameson pronounce this word
as if written ac-nol-ledge, as also do Walkfr, Fuller, and
Knight, while they are the only three who give their au-
thority also for ac-no-ledge.
As we returned to the ship, the sea was running high.
The anchorage ground is an open roadstead ; and some-
times the swell is threatening to a small boat. And yet
there is a species of canoe here, constructed with an out-
rig. It consists of light pieces of wood, narrow, and nearly
as long as the canoe, and is parallel with it. It has two
arched bars, extending from the canoe to this stick, thus
enlarging the base of the little boat by several feet. This
fragile thing, with this construction, rides on the heaviest
billow, like a wafer or a cork.
21
242 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
DINNER WITH THE GOVERNOR.
The Commodore and some of his officers dined with
his Excellency the Governor, last evening, November 27th.
It was a beautiful night. We reached the Governor's
house, a spacious mansion, at half-past seven o'clock
Commodore Read and his officers were severally present-
ed to Mrs. Mackenzie, the Governor's lady, who entered
the room with her hat on, as her head-dress, which we
humbly conceive to have been in great bad taste, while
her ladyship was prodigal- with her smiles, and with great
frankness and goodness of heart, placed her guests at
their ease. The Governor's self, in lace and silver epau-
letts, soon presented himself, that others might be presented
to him. He entered the reception-room after a number of
the guests had arrived, with ease, but less with the air of a
polished courtier than the plainer gentleman of education
and great good sense, who had seen the world and knew
its different phases and its fashions, and relied on his per-
sonal merit and conscious mental acquisition for consider-
ation, in connection with his station, rather than on man-
nerism, or on a polished address that excludes mannerism,
in the faultless but marked attitudes of graceful and ele-
gant demeanor.
An hour passed after the arrival of the Governor's
company few ladies and more gentlemen when there
was a movement from the antechamber to the hall, where
the guests placed themselves on a range of seats around
a tasteful and well-spread table.
It contributed much to my gratification to be seated on
the right of Sir John Wilson, the Commander of all her
majesty's forces in the island ; a gentleman of great amia-
bleness, worth, and popularity, and distinguished for his
services in the peninsular war.
His Excellency called upon myself to " say grace," as
the guests were about to take their seats, and again to re-
turn thanks before the ladies left the table. I note this
here, as illustrating the custom of those in high stations,
in the East, of whose hospitality we have participated,
and to commend what we deem laudable at their tables.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 243
At Bombay, at the Governor's table, the same was true.
A blessing was asked and thanks returned. And there
was no blush for the name of Christian, nor felt appre-
hension that this act of devout acknowledgment to the
Giver of all our mercies, might be unwelcome to the
pleasure of any at the extensive table.
. The gentlemen sat longer after the ladies had retired
than was the case at Bombay, but it was not in the turbu-
lence of noise and excess of wine, but to indulge in the
vivacity of free and social conversation. We had already
learned of the frank hospitality of the residents at Colom-
bo ; and our anchors had hardly dropped before we were
partaking of it in a manner that assured us of its gener-
ousness and entire cordiality.
Before I had risen, myself, from the table, earlier than
others, Sir John Wilson had politely urged that I would
dine with him, at his lovely villa, on the beautiful little
lake in the neighborhood of the city. Leaving the day
to be named by myself, and proposing to invite some
friends whom he supposed it would give me pleasure to
meet, I was happy to accept his politeness, even to the
necessary omission of courtesies proffered in notes of
invitation to the ward-room mess generally, and some
others individually, which had been received for every
night of the week. The number of English officers at
this station is numerous, and the officers of the different
brigades have their different mess-houses. Each of these
messes sent invitations to the officers of the Columbia.
And though I did not make it convenient, myself, to be at'
either of their dinners, the officers who were, found the
entertainments to be most creditable to the messes, for
the taste and elegance displayed ; and in every instance
they were particularly complimentary, in the sentiments
which were expressed, towards the American nation, and
personally to Commodore Read and his officers.
As I vacated my seat at the table, I strolled into the
verandah, extending, with its colonnade of pillars, quite
the length of the main building with its extensive wings,
and adjacent to the garden grounds, which surround the
house ; but ere long I passed to the upper chambers, de-
lightfully disposed for receiving every breath of air which
244 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
sweeps with the sea-gale, through the windows, quite
down to the floor of the verandah. And the sea ! the deep
rolling sea, the surf-sounding sea, the beautiful, the sub-
lime, the eternal sea, with its now calm and now turbulent
and now throwing bosom, spreads its vast expanse before
the commanding residence of the Governor. The build-
ing consists of a centre and two long and low wings,
surrounded by the verandah already alluded to, with its
massive pillars in front and rear, with also an upper ve-
randah to the centre building, which opens at each of its
ends, directly upon the flat roofs of the long wings of the
mansion.
As I ascended the inner flight of stairs to the upper
verandah, the Governor approached me ; and as we leaned
over the balustrade, contemplating the scene in front of
us, his Excellency soon discovered the elements of poetry
to be in his make ; and for a while, we promenaded this
sweet balcony, overlooking the grounds between the near
sea-shore and the garden, with the white pagoda-like
lighthouse in the perspective. And the moon, the bright
moon, on one of her loveliest passages through the clear
and deep blue sky, was moving to-night, in her meekness
and softest sheen of glory, with only here and there a
collection of fleecy clouds, which, drinking in her prodigal
beams, added new beauty to the scene, as they cast their
mimic shadows on the illumined bosom of the far-out
deep.
" That scene reminds me," said his Excellency, " of a
print which I have seen, representing night in its compo-
sition, and another of morning. The night-scene was
composed of the particulars as they now lie before us."
" It is beautiful," I replied. " I have seen night repre-
sented by a black horse with a dark cloud curling upon
his neck ; and morn, by a courser striking his small hoof
upon the fleecy folds of a golden-edged cumulus, as his
nostrils snuffed its vapor as the early dew. But this is
indeed a charming view the queen of night, as she is
now seen reclining on those clouds, as Cowley describes
her, like a Sultana pillowed on couches of silver. And
then, that mighty ocean, and that dashing, cascading,
eternal surf which beats upon those rocks, throwing up
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 245
their jets in crystal sheets of foam, to drink in the moon-
beam, in contrast with the deep shades of those young
forest trees certainly there is composition here, to de-
light ; and how the soul loves the hallowed impressions
received from the pure sounds and pure visions of nature,
when addressed to the mind which sometimes lives in
itself."
" You see those shrubs," said the Governor, as he led
the way from the verandah to the promenade on the top
of the wing of the building nearest the sea, and the ideal
visions of improvement in his garden-plots warming his
imagination, as the capacities of his grounds were alluded
to ; " scarcely one of them was here seven months ago ;
so luxuriant is the vegetation in this climate, that they
have been brought forward in their cultivation, in so short
a period."
The Governor devotes his mornings to the improvement
of his grounds, and pointed out to me the different plans,
as they lay in his own imaginative mind. He has but
lately, comparatively, come to the island, as Governor of
Ceylon, but evinces an enthusiasm for its improvement,
and the development of its resources, and the promotion
of its interests as a statesman, a Christian philanthropist,
and a man of literary taste and acquisition. He has al-
ready found materials of interest in the old Dutch records ;
and is having translated a manuscript document composed
by one of the old Governors, on the eve of his leaving
the island for the benefit of his successors, showing what
he had done, and proposing measures which would facili-
tate and extend further improvement. " Just such a
thing," said his Excellency, " as I should like to leave to
my successor." The paper is a curious document, and
will form a treat to the antiquary and the politician.
His Excellency talked of the interior gave a graphic
description of the reception of one of the chief men of
Candy, who lately visited Colombo, whom he presented
with a medal, and who, of his own accord, has lately
manumitted all his slaves. This man, though of little im-
portance in a political point of view, in the present firm
establishment of the power of the English in the island,
yet retained all the airs of one who still deemed himself a
21*
246 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
prince among his own people. And of the scenery of the
interior, on the route to Candy, the olden residence of the
ancient powerful chiefs of the island and the capital of
the empire, the Governor gave a description, which, doubt-
less, was colored by an imagination and a sympathy which
he legitimately inherits, as the birthright of one who has
been born in Scotland, and has roamed in his young days
among its mountain ranges and highland hills.
I was glad, also, to hear from his Excellency, an une-
quivocal commendation of our missionaries, who are sit-
uated in different parts of the island. During the late
embarrassed state of the finances of the people in America,
which affected the resources of the missionary stations,
the government here contributed 200 or nearly $ 900
for the benefit of the American missions. And his Ex-
cellency, in making up his private budget this season,
was so thoroughly impressed with the commendable zeal
which actuated the American missionaries, and the happy
results consequent on their labors, that he did not wait to
hear of any embarrassment of theirs, or allow an applica-
tion to be made in their behalf, but anticipated any thing
of this kind by asking if the allowance of the preceding
year would be acceptable to them. It was added to his
list of expenditures.
" And believe me," was the sentiment of his Excellency,
" we think the Government to be under a greater obliga-
tion than this, for the efforts which the American mission-
aries are putting forth for the education and the religious
welfare of the inhabitants of the island."
We had been promenading for more than an hour on
the top of this wide and extended west wing of the Gov-
ernor's house, with a bright heaven above us, and a rich
landscape and glorious moon-lit sea-scene around us, un-
covered, and with the moonbeam glancing back from the
rich lace of the Governor, as we turned or paused in our
walk, to express an agreeing sentiment on the topics al-
ready alluded to ; or which the works of Scott, and Bul-
wer, or Cooper and Irving, (the last, all Englishmen
bless,) or the general theme of England and America
awakened. And now, a strain of music, borne from the
inner rooms along the verandah, met our ears, in the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 247
open air, as the vibrating zephyr came dancing and de-
lighted by us. It had attraction for both of us, and we
sought the company, who were listening, with a marked
compliment, to the fine execution of one of our officers
on the Spanish guitar.
"Americans," said an English officer in red, who was
near me, " excel in music. I have had the pleasure o
spending some time among them, and longest in New York.
I speak from observation and feeling."
"At least," I rejoined, " I know some New Yorkers who
have a love for music almost to a passion, whatever may
be their execution ; still, the inhabitants of the Eastern
States have the highest reputation for excellence in the
art, which, you know, it is said, and I should question the
sensibility of the man who doubts it, once had the power
to move stones into regular built palisadoes. And your
particular friend, Miss B , I should think had inherited
the lyre of Apollo, as his favorite muse. At least she has
the song of soul which is the soul of song, if I have read
rightly the spirited play of her features."
The Colombo people were ever ready to say kind and
complimentary things of America, and I had no reason
once to question the sincerity of their expressed sentiments
towards our nation ; but without an intended compliment,
merely, to the young lady, to whom the gentleman I then
addressed, as rumor that evening said, was soon to be joined
in matrimonial nuptails, I thought her face strikingly pretty,
as the simple fillet of braid confined her luxurious ringlets
from off her beautiful and pure brow.
The ladies gave us music, with the piano-forte as their
accompaniment ; and the evening was spent in social and
agreeable interview.
Sir John, lounging at his ease on a rich ottoman, had
passed to me the word, " dinna forget," just previous to our
leaving ; and the Commodore and his officers, at a sea-
sonable hour, returned to the ship.
DINNER AT SIR JOHN WILSON*S.
On Wednesday evening, a large number of officers went
on shore some to the " mess dinners," some to meet other
248 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
invitations, and most of them, finally to gather at the ball
of Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie,* the Governor's lady, later in
the evening. Dr. Hazlett and myself found Sir John Wil-
son's carriage waiting for us, as the last boat from the ship,
over a high sea, reached the shore. We entered it, a.nd
accompanied by Sir John's aid, Major S., on horseback,
who was politely waiting for us at the dock, we were soon
rolled without the gate of the fort.
These early fortifications of the East generally embrace
a large space of ground, and at first must have contained
all the European residents ; and now, the wall of the fort
at Bombay extends for six or nine miles in circumference,
embracing a large portion of the city ; and the wall of the
fortification at Colombo, though not as extensive, embra-
ces the long lines of spacious buildings constituting the
barracks, and nearly all the houses of the European resi-
dents.
Having passed the gate, we rolled almost insensibly over
the first part of the smooth road that runs along the exqui-
site beach, where the surf is ceaselessly throwing up its crys-
tal cascades, with the dashing murmur of waters, so grateful
in a warm climate ; but we soon wound along the diverg-
ing way around the fort, and to our delightful surprise,
were brought suddenly to the lip of a beautiful lake, where
a boat was waiting for us.
" We will give you a sail by moonlight," said the Major,
as he rode up to the carriage door and dismounted.
* Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie is the daughter of Lord Seaforth, whose
family name is Mackenzie. She was the only child, and married
Sir Samuel Hood, afterwards an Admiral in the British Navy. She
inherited the estates of her father on his death, but her husband
dying without issue, she lost the title. She afterwards married Gen-
eral Alexander Stewart, her present husband, who at his marriage
took the family name of Mackenzie.
It is said that his Excellency has been offered knighthood, but has
declined it, in view of obtaining something yet more acceptable,
which, it is thought probable, will await him on his return, when he
shall have conducted with satisfaction to her Majesty his Guberna-
torial term. Lord Seaforth, the family title of the Mackenzies, is
what we presume would meet his Excellency's desires, and the
family's expectation. And the peerage would receive an acquisi-
tion in the person of his Excellency, that would add honor to its
number.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 249
We skipped from the carriage to the boat, while the
horses were ordered around, by the road, to Sir John's.
"And be assured we will not forget the moon-lit scene,
as we glided over the sweet lake in * bonnie bark/ to Sir
John's," was the reply.
" Beautiful, indeed," exclaimed the doctor, who is as sus-
ceptible of the poetry and romance of nature, as good taste
united with goodness of heart, always begets. Dr. L.,of
the John Adams, a gentleman of great excellence of char-
acter, and little Read, a sweet boy and bright youngster,
were also with us.
Our guide had evidently studied effect in giving us this
variety, on this enchanting evening.
The gentle breeze, puffing from the land, soon filled our
sails, and the ripple curled around the prow of our boat ; in
a moment more, we were cutting the moon-lit bosom of the
lake, most gently and pleasantly, as the mimic wave sent
its music along the sides of our boat.
" Surely, night has a lovely face in your clime, Major L.,
and I see she has her tasteful admirers. There is witchery
in the blending of light and shade of the tall trees of that
cocoa-nut grove, and the shady indentations of that border
line of the lake."
We were now gliding some distance outside of a little
island stretching itself in the lake, and in fifteen minutes
more, our polite guide, by a gentle . veering of the boat,
brought us in full view of the mansion of Sir John.
There it stood, as he pointed it out to us, brilliantly illu-
minated, with the bright lamps gleaming among the colon-
nade pillars of the extensive verandahs, which overlook the
beautiful sheet of water, and reach quite to the margin of
the lovely expanse. We continued to near the beautiful
mansion, as the guests already assembled were seen moving
in promenade among the pillars of the spacious portico,
extending along the whole front of the gorgeous edifice.
Our boat came quite up to the steps of the verandah, and
we were welcomed by Sir John, and others whom I had
seen at the Governor's dinner, on the evening but one pre-
ceding.
We were soon seated at the dinner table of our amiable
host, ourselves being the last arrived.
250 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Sir John displayed his taste in the decorations and the
substantiate of his table. But being myself no epicure in
meats, or connoisseur in wines, which, on this occasion, were
varied and abundant, I take but little notice of the dishes
which are passing during the different courses at a dinner
table ; and am much more attracted by a beautiful vase of
flowers which may be displaying its lovely and gorgeous
collection of colored bell and virgin cup, and varied hues
of corollas and chalices, and pistils, and stamens, and giv-
ing forth to all, their beauties and fragrance. And there-
fore, I ought not to forget the beautiful vases of flowers
which decorated Sir John's dinner table.
" Did you mark it, Mr. T. ?" he asked^as a splendid vase
was removed from the table.
" Did I mark the bouquet, Sir John ? I was thinking that
it even surpassed the Governor's for its richness and varie-
ties. And I shall remember it too* and the mango, and the
place where you showed me how to cut it."
"And you will remember that the bouquet was collected
in the month of November, and the twenty-eighth day of
that month, hard on to the approaching Christmas."
The residence of Sir John was once a government or
private botanical garden ; and he has, as he said, always
been famous for his boquets. Only in the sweet and flow-
ering isle of Madeira, should I have looked for so rich a
chalice of these beautiful smiles of nature.
The manners of Sir John are as gentle as his flowers ;
and I am sure no one will forget their kindness who has
been the recipient of his amiable and elegant courtesies.
The Rev. Mr. B. sat on my left, who had lately been
reading Cooper's Switzerland, and a collection of American
poetry all which he was polite enough to admire. I led
him to expect that I would send him some further specimens
of American poetry, when I returned to the ship, with a
copy of the Prayer Book as -used in the American Episco-
pal churches, which he regarded as a very considerable
improvement upon their own. He had not read Mr. Wil-
lis's poetry, and I was desirous of furnishing him with some
pieces from the elegant pen of this American bard. I
cannot conceive how it could otherwise than please the
taste which can appreciate the delicate tints in coloring
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 251
and the exquisite beauty of the poetic comparisons with
which Mr. Willis's poetry abounds in its imagery. It is said
that Mr. Willis seldom reaches the sublime. Is it not
enough always to be beautiful, and a master in it? But this
gentleman has outlived the envy and the jealousy which I
am sure some of his young contemporaries cherished, and
used to his disadvantage as they started together in the
race of writers in polite literature. If Mr. Willis shall
continue to dip his pencil only in the beautifully pure and
virtuous, 'which characterizes his own pieces particularly,
and almost all American poetry, to the shame of many of
the writers of Europe, who have corrupted rather than
benefited their species, he will continue to hold the consid-
eration in the esteem of his countrymen, which is now
awarded to his productions, and do the greatest justice to
himself.
There was an English officer of rank at the table, who
spoke of his having been taken prisoner on the northern
boundary in the last war. He recurred with pleasure to
the gentlemanly conduct of Governor Cass, who was then
an officer under General Harrison. There can be no doubt
that the English nation duly appreciate the prowess of the
young America. And the two rencounters which the two
nations have had with each other, have contributed to
induce great respect, on the part of both, for each other.
The battle of New Orleans was alluded to at the mess-
dinners by the British officers, as an intentional compliment
to our arms. And however much General Jackson's ad-
ministration, at home, may have excited the opposition of
the respectable minority of the people, it is no less true
that the eclat of his military fame has added reputation,
with himself at the head of it, to the American govern-
ment, abroad.
It is a circumstance which develops another secret mo-
tive which induced an attack on New Orleans, that the eye
of Lord Cochrane was on the cotton bags and hogsheads
of tobacco, which at this time were supposed to be, and were
in reality, deposited there. Lord Cochrane thought of the
prize-money, or the price of plunder. And we have the
word of one who must have known, as he was then high
in rank as an English officer, that " the attack on New Or-
252 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
leans would never have been made, had it not been to
gratify Lord C.'s desire for enriching himself. For this
the blood was shed, and it mattered not how many lives
of English soldiers should be sacrificed for it."
If such a motive could actuate, almost exclusively, a
commanding officer, we should think that, whatever may
be the fact as to what has been denounced as calumny by
the surviving officers who were at the battle of New Or-
leans, it yet might be true of such a commander-in-chief,
that he promised to his army the privileges of plunder and
rapine, as rewards of victory.
But those things are past ; and English and American
hearts can now, and do now, respond to each other when
they meet, as descendants of a common parentage, and as
mutual admirers and friends of each other. And at Colom-
bo, where the largest number of its European inhabitants
are British officers, our Commodore and his officers have
received an unbounded, and generous, and frank hospitality
and courtesy, which, while it evinces the noble heart of the
Briton, declares also the partiality of the two nations for
each other. May it long continue in their mutual prosperity,
as is their interest ; and in unitedly carrying forward the
noble enterprises of the age, the improvements in science
and the cultivation of letters, and in the efforts of philan-
thropy and Christian benevolence, for bringing a world
to the participation of the blessings proffered in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Such, surely, is the becoming and wise
course to be pursued by two nations deriving their being
from a common ancestry, of the same language, domestic
associations, sympathies, and religion.
When we rose from the table, near ten o'clock, the car-
riages were at the door, to take most of the party to the
Governor's, as it had been understood that the officers at
the different dinners would attend Mrs. Stewart Macken-
zie's ball for the evening. I had engaged to ride back as far
as the Governor's in Sir John's carriage, on the evening
of accepting the invitation to dine with him, without giv-
ing it to be understood that I should stop at the ball during
the evening.
We drove back from Sir John's enchanting residence,
through his beautiful grounds, along the road of the ever
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 253
surf-sounding beach, with the sea on our left, which is the
avenue for the fashionable drives at the hour a little before
sunset. And a most delightful drive it is. Having re-en-
tered the gate, and approached the Governor's, the music
soon reached the ear on the balmy air of the evening, as
it came from the well-lighted halls of the Governor's man-
sion.
Here I said adieu to numbers of the company, who were
gathering for the dance; and having lingered one moment
at the carriage door, as the fine strains of music from the
full band came to the ear, I walked with Dr. H. to our
boat ; and ere long we reached the ship, after an agree-
able entertainment at the courteous and amiable Sir John's.
I had now visited the shore at Colombo four times, but
??i the evening of each day, since our arrival. And there-
fore my views of the city, thus far, had been entirely by
moonlight ; and of the elite among its inhabitants, in the
gleam of the mellow light of the chandelier and lamp, and
lesser tapers. But I had hoped for a number of days in the
coming week, both for the purpose of making a very desi-
rable excursion into the interior, to Candy, which place the
Commodore had almost made up his mind to visit, and also
for examining some objects of curiosity in Colombo ; and
more particularly to re-visit the places where I had already
called. I was quite desirous of again seeing the beautiful
grounds of Sir John Wilson, who had obligingly pressed
me to do so. But all these purposes were destined to be
frustrated, by our more speedy departure from the Roads
of Colombo than was the Commodore's first design.
DISASTER ON THE COAST OF SUMATRA.
The following document appeared in the Colombo Ob-
server, purporting to be extracted from a Penang paper, of
Prince of Wales' Island. It determined Commodore Read,
without delay, again to put to sea, for the purpose of gain-
ing all the information possible in connection with the al-
leged outrage, and if the particulars affirmed should be
substantiated, and render action on the part of the squad-
ron, in connection with the case, justifiable and obligatory,
to pursue the course which circumstances should require.
22
254
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The Observer thus prefaces the document which he
quotes :
" From a number of the Penang Gazette, of the 13th of
October, we extract a description of the murder of the cap-
tain and some of the crew of the American ship Eclipse,
by the natives of the west coast of Sumatra, published at
the request of the Consular Agent of the United States,
at Penang. Perhaps COMMODORE READ may be induced
to bend his course, with the Columbia and the John Ad-
ams, now in our Roads, to Sumatra, to avenge the death
3f his countrymen."
MALAYS TAKINa THE ECLIPSE.
" To the Printer and Publisher of the Penang Gazette :
SIR I will thank you to insert the accompanying let-
er, addressed to me, in your next paper.
Yours, obediently,
J. REVELY,
Consular Agent of the United States of America,
at Prince of Wales' Island.
Penang, October 12, 1838."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 255
" WEST COAST DISASTER.
"Sm Agreeably to your request, with the greatest
pleasure, I send you an official narrative of the murder of
Captain Wilkins, of the American ship Eclipse.
" From the 24th June, the day of my arrival at Tulloy
Pow and Muckie, and also the day I spoke with the
Eclipse, to the 26th August, I know very little about her
operations ; however, I was informed that Capt. W. was
many days trading at a village called Trabangan, a dis-
tance of about twelve miles from Muckie. On the night
of the 26th August, at about two o'clock, a man from a
jolly-boat hailed the ship in French, and begged for hospi-
tality, saying they were from the barque Eclipse, that the
captain was murdered by the Malays ; and the second
mate, who was then in the boat, severely wounded in the
loins, who, with two sailors wounded in several parts of
their bodies, with great difficulty got on board. After
dressing their wounds, they communicated to me the fol-
lowing narrative :
" On the evening of the 26th August, two sampans with
twelve men in each, having a small quantity of pepper,
came alongside the ship and offered it for sale, as it frequent-
ly happens. The second mate, whose watch it was, being
particularly acquainted with Lebbey Ousso, juratoolis of
Muckie, and knowing that he had assisted Captain W. in
his former voyages, thought it no harm to allow him and
his people to come up, as they were very good friends, not-
withstanding it was then night-time. When they came
up, he told them the captain was asleep, and had been in-
disposed many days, and that they would be obliged to
wait until he awoke to weigh their pepper and settle the
price. He also told them that the custom of the ship was,
by way of precaution, to ask for their weapons, which
they without any objection, immediately gave up, and he
got these secured under lock and key. After which they
feigned to sleep in different parts of the deck,, awaiting the
appearance of the captain, who came up about ten o'clock,
when they asked him to weigh their pepper. Lebbey
Ousso, feigning friendship for the captain, complained of
the distrust of the second mate, and requested to have his
256 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
own and his friends' daggers given back to them, which
was accordingly complied with. From his long acquaint-
ance with the man, the captain did not think that he was
doing an act of imprudence in giving their daggers. Du-
ring this interval, the second mate and two sailors were
busy in getting ready the scales for weighing the pepper
that was on deck. As the second draught was being
weighed, the captain, who was seated by a light near the
binnacle, cried out, ' I am stabbed.' The second mate,
who was stooping to take up the bags, was stabbed in the
loins. At the same time, the apprentice, who was near the
captain, was killed by the very same hand that slew his
commander. The second mate jumped overboard, not-
withstanding his wound. Part of the crew followed his
example, and the rest went up the masts and yards. The
mate, and those who followed him, afterwards returned to
the ship, by the ropes that were hanging from the quarter-
deck, and went up the masts to join the others. Several
among them were wounded. During this time, the murder-
ers were looking out for other victims. They found the cook
in irons for insubordination. He begged for his life, prom-
ising to show them the place where the dollars and opium
were deposited. They immediately broke his fetters and
set him free, and took four cases of opium and eighteen
casks containing 18,000 Spanish dollars, and left the ship
in company with their good friend the cook. The second
mate and four sailors who were on board, armed a boat
and came to us, leaving the ship without any guardian to
take care of her. The carpenter and two sailors went on
shore to join the chief mate and four sailors, who were
left there for the purpose of procuring pepper.
" On the morning of the 27th, we unanimously agreed
that the sailors should return to their ship and hoist the sig
nal of distress, to call the chief mate, and if he did no#
come, to fire a gun, which they did on their arrival on
board.
" The second mate and sailor that had two severe wound?
in their bodies, and another wounded in the foot, remained
on board of my ship for four days, after which we took
them on board of an American brig, that was trading ai
Assahan.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 257
" On the 27th, at two in the afternoon, Tunkoo Datoraga
of Nunpat Tuan, sent his schooner in quest of the robbers ;
she returned the next day without being able to discover
any thing.
"I was afterwards informed, that the ship Eclipse, under
the command of the chief mate, sailed for Muckie, to take
one of the chiefs of that place to Soosoo, to recover his
losses and part of the opium, which the Rajah of that coun-
try got from the robbers. These he refused to give up.
" This statement contains all that I know, and which I
give as authentic.
" I have the honor to be, sir,
" Your most obedient servant,
" A. VAN ISEGHEN.
Captain of the barque 1'Aglee of Nantes.
Penang, October 12th, 1838."
" A true copy,
J. REVELY,
Consular Agent of the United States of America,
at Prince of Wales' Island."
It may be a fortunate circumstance that our arrival at
Colombo occurred just at this time, for the accomplish-
ment of some part of the purposes for which our ships
have been sent into these seas. We have, by the coinci-
dence of our arrival and the publication of the preceding
paper, obtained this intelligence four days after our reach-
ing this port ; and there seems so much probability of the
truth of the statement, that it becomes a matter of inter-
est that the squadron should be prepared for the exigencies
that may occur, and that the ships should hasten to the
ground where this outrage is said to have occurred. And
although it would be most grateful to linger here, where
the hospitality of the people is so unbounded and cordial,
and at a moment when aquaintances have been formed
of so much interest as to make us greatly wish to prolong
that acquaintance, and in some good degree to reciprocate
the courtesies which have been received from the residents
on shore, yet pleasure always should yield to duty ; or
rather, our chief pleasure should be in doing our duty,
whatever temporary sacrifices it may cost.
22*
258 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
On Friday, tl^e day after the preceding document ap
peared in the Colombo paper, I took tiffin, as an early un-
ceremonious dinner is called, at three o'clock P. M., with
the Rev. Mr. Bailey, and met the Rev. Mr. Marsh, and
one of the Wesleyan missionaries, with a Mr. S., and a
Lieutenant in the English navy. I had purposed to spend
the evening in riding, as it was understood that we would
sail on the morrow ; and expecting a longer delay at Co-
lombo, I had willingly postponed my intended drives and
some additional visits on shore for the succeeding week.
After partaking of this no unsubstantial meal, which
here corresponds more with the southern snack rather
than the northern lunch, at home, Mr. M. proffered to take
me in his carriage on the drive, while the one I had order-
ed was directed to follow.
We nearly encircled the lake, passing through the cin-
namon groves which lie adjacent to the suburbs of the city,
and finally reached a prominent position occupied by the
Rev. Mr. M. Here we gained a view, which on a clearer
day must be peculiarly fine. And far across, on the lake,
as seen on this showery evening, my eye rested with pleas-
ure on the lovely mansion of Sir John Wilson.
Returning to the town with my cinnamon boughs, and
various leaves of various plants, I drove at a late hour to
a Moor-man's shop, to complete a collection of superb and
curious shells, which a good fortune had given me to find,
in Colombo. I sat for some time with Corin, the shell mer-
chant, who has his shells in baskets, piled up in a miserable
hut, like almost all the native shops of the bazaars of the
East. This said Corin, the Moorish shell-merchant, might
be of some convenience to those who may follow us, with
like desires of my own to make a collection in conchology.
At the same time, it will always be advisable for the pur-
chaser to be careful in the prices he offers. Generally
the venders in shells, and in all other things in the East,
will take half, and often less than half of what they origi-
nally ask. It is a confirmed habit with them, to ask double
the value of the article they would dispose of, and were
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 259
you to give their price at once, you probably would very
much astonish them, and do injustice to yourself.
I purchased a large number of shells from Corin. Two
boxes packed with taste, and others in baskets. Ceylon
is evidently the best place in the East for making a collec-
tion in conchology.
Several men took my boxes and baskets, forming a little
cavalcade, to the customhouse, for the night, whence they
were to be taken off to the ship the next morning. They
made their appearance accordingly ; and I think they
will gratify the eye of the common gazer, on their reach-
ing the United States ; while the duplicates may form an
acceptable acquisition to any cabinet that may so far
secure the complacency of the possessor, as to induce him
to make half the collection a donation to it.
On Saturday morning, December 1st, agreeably to in-
vitation, his Excellency, lady and daughters, and others of
the powers that are of the Ceylon Isle, of whose hospitality
the Commodore and his officers had been the recipients,
came off to the Columbia, to breakfast. It would have
gratified Commodore Read, to have given a very general
entertainment before he left the Roads of Colombo, and in
that style, which would have evinced, at least, the desire to
please the generous people whom he had met ; and more
creditably, than was now in his power, in consequence of
his sudden departure, to have reciprocated on board his
ship, the courtesies which he had received on shore. And
a like feeling prompted the desires of the officers of the
ward-room. But the only practicable thing, in the time
that was left, was to manifest to his Excellency and the
authorities, his sense of their politeness, by an invitation to
breakfast a popular meal, according to the custom pre-
vailing through the East, and borrowed from the mother
country ; and of late somewhat introduced into our own.
The Columbia's boats were sent to the shore between
the hours of 9 and 10 o'clock, and a salute in compliment
to his Excellency, ere long, announced his arrival on board.
The breakfast passed off with apparent pleasantness to the
party his Excellency, in an apt and pretty speech com-
plimenting our nation and expressing his happiness to have
enjoyed the opportunity of meeting with our Commodore
260 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and his officers, and desiring prosperity to themselves indi-
vidually and to the nation, in the accomplishment of whose
commissions we were sailing.
Commodore Read, deeming himself called upon by the
national allusion in the Governor's remarks, replied, io
equally complimentary terms to the British nation, a peo-
ple, whom we not only more than respected, but to whom
we gave our preference among the nations of the globe.
The courtesies which we had received were acknowledg-
ed ; and with cordial sincerity it was believed, that the
interest and the happiness of England and America lay in
the perpetuity of that good-will and friendship which he
knew, so far as the feelings of Americans were concerned,
now to exist between the two nations.
The ladies seemed pleased with the ship ; and it would
have been a pretty compliment to have weighed anchor,
and put to sea for a few miles, favored with their compa-
ny, and then to have tacked ship, stood in, giving them
our last adieus, as the ship was lying aback and the boats
took them to the shore, and then filled away again, on our
bounding track of the boundless seas. As it was, the party
left the ship at about twelve o'clock the yards being
manned as his Excellency left the deck ; and the crew, in
their three cheers, bearing to his ear what the pulses of
our own hearts would have conveyed to his, that we left
him with cordial feelings of interest for his welfare, and
due appreciation of the courtesies we had received during
our short delay at the spicy isle.
The shades of the night-fall were on the sea, ere many
hours more, and the moonbeam fell again upon our spread
canvass, bearing us on our course to the yet further East
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 261
SECTION XL
General preparations for an attack on the Malays. Ships anchor off Anna-
laboo, island of Sumatra. Sunset. Ships at anchor off Kwala Batu. A
Malay comes on board the frigate. Po Adam follows him. His state-
ment of the murder of Captain Wilkins and the distribution of the pro-
perty found on board the Eclipse. Landing of the first boat at Kwala
Batu, for a talk with the Rajah. Instructions to Captain Wyman. Sec-
ond interview and talk. Po Nyah-heit. A beautiful wild buffalo. Ma-
lay wit. The ships prepare for action. Cannonading of Kwala Batu.
Christmas in the tropics. Ships sail for Muckie. Boat goes ashore for a
talk with the Rajahs of Muckie. News from home. Things are valuable
for their association. Destruction of Muckie. Captain Wyman's Report.
Soo-Soo. Po Chute Abdullah's obligation to pay two thousand dollars.
Commodore Read's paper to the Rajah. Talk with the Rajahs of Soo-
Soo. Pledge of the Rajahs. A stroll. Interview at Pulau Kayu, with
Po Kwala, Pedir Rajah of Kwala Batu. Agreement, and the scene of
affixing the seal to the instrument. Po Kwala's visit to the frigate.
WE have now been out from Colombo for five days.
In view of the possibility and probability that we shall
have something to do, ere long, with the Malays, the ship's
crew, in their different divisions, have been grinding their
cutlasses, battle-axes, pikes, and putting their guns and
pistols in order, for immediate use.
The men are deemed to be well drilled for sailors; and,
as sailor-soldiers, doubtless will accomplish any thing on
ship-board or on shore, which can be reasonably expected
from them. The increased probability, however, that the
services of a detachment from the ship will be required,
has led to more particular exercise with the small-arms
since we left Colombo. The target has been rigged out
at the yard-arm, for the men to practice at, with their fire-
arms ; and another, in the gangway, for improving them
in pistol-shooting. Every preparation is made, and the
ship is now in perfect readiness to act with promptness,
when information shall have been obtained in connection
with the affirmed murder and robbery, which shall render
action justifiable and obligatory.
We are now nearing the ground of the murder of the
crew of the ship Friendship, some few years since ; and
where the late additional scene of perfidy, murder, and
262 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
robbery, is affirmed to have taken place. Ere long, al
least, all suspense will be relieved by the reality, which
must soon present itself; it is to be hoped, however, not
at the expense of the lives of any of the officers of the
Columbia or the Adams. But no one on board, when
necessity and propriety direct, will be found one moment
to hesitate, even critically to expose his life in the ac-
complishment of duty and orders. And the expedition,
if it land, will, no doubt, be conducted with judgment,
and most certainly with no lack of recklessness and cou-
rage. Bravery is never wanting in the young gentlemen
or older ones of our navy, whenever an order is to be
executed ; prudence and maturity of judgment may be,
frequently. In all that relates to the circumstances of
these miserable people, and the safety of our own officers
and men, in the event of a landing from our ships, may
a merciful as well as a just God direct.
The John Adams, ahead of us, signalized to the Co-
lumbia, at meridian to-day, Dec. 19th, that she saw two
vessels anchored in shore, which we soon made out to be
on our larboard beam. We are now off Annalaboo, island
of Sumatra. The Commodore gave an order for the
ships to stand in shore ; and having done so, we came to
anchor within some five or six miles of the land, near
which the two brigs are lying, to which a boat, with the
First Lieutenant, has been despatched, to gain all the in-
formation possible in connection with the affirmed murder
of the captain and part of the crew of the Eclipse, and
the taking of her money. The boat, like a speck, was
seen, and scarcely seen, in the distance, as I last looked
at her, nearing the largest of the two brigs, whose English
colors were flying.
I watched the sun as it went down to-night, beneath
the rim of the far-out ocean. How often have I. thought
of home, as I have watched the beautiful illumination in
the west, at the sunset hour, which always points out to
me where the land of my home lies, in its distance and
blessedness ! And I never tire in gazing at the sunset
scene. It ever awakens feelings that make me happy,
often melancholy, and always gathers over me a species
of the serene in emotion. How beautiful ! how glorious '
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 263
how devotional ! It seems the hour of nature's evening
worship. There, in the west, she lights up her temple,
every eve. How gorgeous are those spacious vestibules,
that lead into her garnished inner courts ! The sapphire-
pillars stretch themselves in endless colonnades, enclosing
other massive and gorgeous shafts, supporting their en-
tablatures of mammoth emeralds, with frieze and cornice
inlaid of pearl and amethyst, and on which are resting a
hundred golden domes ! And the lost sun, pouring forth
its flood of glory from a central point in the foreground,
throws up from the evening's golden censer her oblation
in burning incense, as it tinges the fleecy folds of the
clouds which linger over the scene as spirit-worshippers
in saffron, and carmine, and vermilion. Who could not
almost become a Parsee at an hour so beautiful, and fall
before the setting sun and worship its hallowing glories ?
The boat has returned from the brig. She is just from
Penang, and arrived here only a few hours before us. She
had learned the same particulars there, which we received
through the Colombo paper, as extracted from the Penang
Gazette. The captain is acquainted with the consular
agent at Penang, who transacts the business both for the
French and American vessels at Prince of Wales' Island.
The captain of the trader has been on this coast for
fifteen or twenty years, and says that the Malays are
treacherous and can never be trusted. He invariably
requires that their arms be resigned before they are per-
mitted to come on board his vessel.
We get under way at about three o'clock to-night,
and stand on our course to Kwala Batu, where we expect
to be, at some hour of the day to-morrow. Things look
a little more like an expedition on shore. And should it
be found that the Muckie people are implicated in these
treacherous and murderous proceedings, we learn that our
ships can lie close in to the place, and, without ceremony,
batter down their town, a thing which the information
obtained may require to be done. The distance, nor time,
can be very long before our position and action will de-
cide.
264 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
OFF KWALA BATU.
We have* come to an anchor, in thirty fathoms of water
to-night, December 20, in sight of the lights on shore
which we take for Kwala Batu.
" The probabilities seem to augment a little, to-day
as to an expedition on shore, do they not Mr. T. ?" askf
one young gentleman, approaching me on the quarter
deck.
" Should think they did, while it yet remains, as I take
it, but a perhaps."
" The plot seems to be deepening, Mr. T.." adds an-
other, approaching from another quarter.
" And yet the fifth act may be wanting at least it is
so to be hoped, so far as it may involve any but the
guilty."
The ward-room mess have gotten nearly out of " fresh
grub," as fresh provisions are called on ship-board ; and
in the length of time we have been out, we are now re-
duced to "hard tack," also another phrase for ship-biscuit,
which would require a sledge-hammer almost to break,
at least that quality of it which was purchased at Bom-
bay, having nearly exhausted our American biscuit, which
was quite eatable even to one who has some regard for
his teeth, in comparison with the flinty substance obtained
at Bombay.
" What a rush there will be for the hen-roost," adds
third gentleman, with a little spice of an epicurean in his
nature, "when we shall have frightened the Malays from
their bamboo palaces !"
The mess-table of the ward-room has been well sup-
plied with fresh provisions, nearly the whole time we
have been from the U. S., as also with soft bread, newly
baked, for each day. And the deprivation of fare so re-
spectable and acceptable to voyagers so many days at
sea, makes a small interruption to such things observable,
even if they should never lead to unamiableness.
The tea-table had been cleared, when one of the Lieu-
tenants called for a glass of water, and had spent some
time in vain endeavor to take, with his silver trap, three
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
skippers, which were sailing deep down in the sea of his
tumbler.
" Well, my nimble fellows, if you will not resign your-
selves complacently, to be removed to other quarters, you
must enter on a traverse of unknown but not unfrequented
coast for the like of ye," said the Lieutenant, with a very
considerable threat that the three skippers should, without
much further ceremony; be submitted to the chemical
alternative of the gastric laboratory.
" And there, then," continued the officer, on re-examin-
ing the glass after a moderate sip of the fluid, " one of
your triad seems to have trailed on a new path of wilder-
ness to him."
" Thanks, Mr. skipper-destroyer," added the Lieuten-
ant's neighbor, "for your benevolent consideration of
the public good. I take it, that same small draft of yours
will save me from the serenades of at least one nearly-to-
be-born musqueto, as his chrysalis took his gauge of the
vasty deep."
" There is still one way more of securing the remain-
ing duet," continued the same gentleman as he dipped his
spoon into the clear water, minus the two remaining
skippers.
" That is what one may call running them aground, I
suppose," added another neighbor, at his end of the table,
seeing the water diminishing by spoonfuls.
A silence of some three minutes, (a long and profound,
for a ward-room table,) now prevailed, while the First
Lieutenant was examining the external coat of an insect,
which, by some presumptuous intrusion had presented
himself as a self-invited guest, or had boarded us, with
unknown malicious intent, from the Malay coast. " Shall
we have mercy for him or not ?" asked the tender-hearted
officer.
" No mercy," seemed to be the sentence of the majority.
Every kind of insects on board of ships have no quarters
appropriated to them, and, therefore, he was denied both
" light and air."
Another silence of three minutes ! " It is my delibe-
rate opinion," abruptly added the surgeon, " that they are
holding a town-meeting on shore to-night."
23
266 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The doctor's supposition seemed to be a very sensible
one, to which all assented, with the expectation of hearing
the subjects of their discussions on the morrow. And this
sketch is given here, merely to show how devoid of all
sens.e of danger or feelings of solicitude were any of
the officers of the Columbia on this eve, preceding, per-
haps, a morrow which shall find them on shore, receiving
the shots of an enemy. And this, too, after the discussion
of the Dutch expeditions, the first and second of which
were cut off, and another was sent to engage the people,
whose town is now lying near us, with the loss of sixty
or seventy of their number, within a few years back.
The probability, however, of an expedition going to
the shore. I deem to be involved in considerable uncer-
tainty, and from this cause, doubtless, those who are in-
cluded in the detachment to be sent from the ship, in
case the exigency requires their going to the shore, may
feel differently from what might be the case, were their
landing a certainty. But were the shore expedition fixed
upon, as a thing certainly to take place, no particular
anxiety, even then, would be manifested. So profound
is the habit of military life and of naval action, where
duty and orders lead. It is, with them, no more than the
laboring man going to his daily work, and the professional
one to his speech, with the agreeable excitement of in-
terest, rather than with any fear or anxiety.
We wait until daylight, when the ships again get under
way, to stand nearer to the shore. Ignorant of the sound-
ings, it would be imprudent to put furjther in for the night.
The further action of the ships will depend on the infor-
mation that may be obtained.
Our ships were not under way so early the succeeding
morning as was anticipated, owing to the want of a suffi-
cient breeze to drive our vessels through the water. A
canoe, however, ere long was espied in the distance,
making its way towards the Columbia. On reaching our
ship, the principal Malay came over her side and reported
that he had been sent by Po ADAM, who, it seems, has
made out our vessels aright. The Malay stated that Po
Adam was ready to come on board if the Commodore
desired it. He also confirmed the truth of the reported
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
267
murder of Captain Wilkins and one of the crew of the
American barque Eclipse, and the plundering of the ves-
sel. One of the murderers, he affirmed, was now at Kwala
Batu, and two thousand dollars of the money taken from
the ship, was in the hands of the Rajah there ; others of
the murderers are at Soo-Soo, and others at Muckie, and
the rest of the money had been distributed among the
Rajahs of Muckie and Soo-Soo.
PO ADAM.
Our ships having stood in some distance with the fresh-
ening breeze, another canoe was seen in the distance, and
268 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
in a short time Po Adam's self, big as life, came over the
gangway, with a cordial expression of countenance, as if he
had gotten among friends. He greeted the officers, and
was re-greeted by them. The name of this man has been
very favorably heard of, as one who rendered effective
assistance to Captain Endicott and others of the crew of
the Friendship, when a number of her men had been cut
off, and to whose kindness and assistance Captain E. thought
he owed, in no inconsiderable degree, his safety. His as-
sistance contributed to his support and comfort after they
had put off from the shore, and for several days were in
the small-boat along the shore. The story is told in the
narrative of the voyage of the Potomac, so as to produce
a favorable impression of this trusty Malay, if the word
trusty, in any one instance, can be applied, with propriety,
to one of a notoriously treacherous people.
Po Adam repeated what he had directed his man to
communicate, and added many other particulars, and rep-
resented things with so much apparent fidelity, that it was
decided that a boat should be sent ashore for the purpose
of gaining an interview with the Rajah.
-'
FIRST TALK WITH THE RAJAH OF KWALA BATU.
The officer was instructed to make known to the Rajah
that we had received information of the robbery commit-
ted on board of the Eclipse, the murder of her captain and
one of her crew that we were informed that one of the
murderers was at Kwala Batu that we had come with
friendly intentions, and wished to know if the Rajah will
give up the murderer, which it is expected that he will do,
if he values and would continue to value the friendship of
the Government of the United States.
Po Adam had assured Commodore Read that the persons
of the officers who should go on shore would be safe, and
run no risk in visiting the Rajah with him. *But as all the
Malays are treacherous, implicit confidence could not judi-
ciousfy be placed in this man, although he had given so
conclusive an evidence of his former honesty. Still, as the
probabilities were so preponderating in favor of Po Adam's
statements and trusty character, the Commodore deemed
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 269
the risk to be small, in sending a boat in, and did so ac-
cordingly.
The boat started from the ship with Lieutenants Farmer
and Pennock,and Lieutenant Baker of the marines, accom-
panied by Po Adam and one of our sailors, who has some
familiarity with the Malay language, as an interpreter.
The hour had already advanced towards evening, and
the boat neared the beach only a short time before sundown.
If there had been doubt as to the propriety of sending a
boat ashore before it left the ship, the officers' suspicions
were now but little allayed, as they saw the shore lined
by more than a hundred armed Malays, who had unsheath-
ed their weapons and wielded them above their heads, as
the officers supposed, with an attitude of defiance. It was
the same movement among these treacherous natives
which had prevented the boat's crew of the Potomac from
landing, when that frigate was on the coast, to punish
these same people for their treachery towards the crew of
the Friendship. But notwithstanding every dark-skinned
and frowning-faced Sumatrian raised each his kris, a wea-
pon of fearful association in connection with their treach-
ery, to the number of a hundred glaring blades, with nearly
a^many more small daggers in their girdles, the boat was
driven boldly upon the beach, and the three officers jump-
ed, without hesitation, into the midst of this wild and armed
multitude, who immediately surrounded them as they
walked up the beach, and entered the pass to the Rajah's
fort. As they were moving on with the armed crowd, Po
Adam seemed not unfrequently to laugh unnaturally loud,
as he talked with the crowd, which pressed on even against
his apparent remonstrance. And when they passed the
furthest stockade, through a gate that opened into another,
which contained the bamboo palace of the Rajah, they
found the chief upon an elevated stand, presenting a per-
son of a larger frame and of finer proportions than had
been seen among his retainers, or the mob upon whom the
gate had now been shut, while numbers had managed to
throw themselves into the enclosure before the passage
had been closed.
The greeting passed, and Po Adam manifested great re-
spect and considerable ceremony towards the Rajah ; when
23*
270 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
it was indicated that a talk with the chief was desired, to
communicate the Commodore's sentiments through the
officers from the Columbia. The Rajah, unwilling that
this talk should proceed in so open a position, led the way
to his adjacent council-chamber, into which only one of his
friends was admitted, while the conversation was carried
on in a whisper.
" It would be something of a difficult matter for them
to board us here," said Moses, with a slight squinting of his
eye, which at once took in the bearings and defences of
the room.
Moses, one of the quarter-masters, had followed the offi-
cers, with two pistols in his belt and a cutlass at his side,
giving him, in spite of his amiable phiz, something of a
Bucaneer-rake, in the favoring shades of the night, which
had now advanced upon them.
The party seated themselves for the talk, some with the
apprehension of receiving a slight piece of steel through
their ribs before they were done with it ; and that no such
inconvenient weapon might reach them through the bam-
boo floor, which their imagination had constructed for them,
some of their number, by a species of intuition, placed
themselves above a sleeper, or leaned against a stanchiq|L,
or other more solid piece of material than a bamboo mat-
ting. They had heard of the Malays finding the life-blood
of their enemies through the slight partitions of bamboo,
or matted walls of cane, or other light material, of which
they construct their buildings.
But the talk was over, and with all the excitement of
awakened imaginations, the known treachery of these peo-
ple, and the scene through which they had moved from the
beach, full before them, the officers left the Rajah, and made
their way back again for the boat, anticipating the same
crowd to be around their path. But they wound through
the several passes, finally reached the open beach, and to
their own surprise, with the certainty that their heads were
on and their sides unriddled, they entered the boat, but
not without a drenching from the high breakers which were
rolling in, through which they had to pass to reach the cut-
ter, which was lying moored a short distance from the
shore, to save her from thumping in the surf. The party
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 271
having returned to the ship, expressed themselves as hav-
ing passed through one of the most exciting scenes, in view
of the known treachery of the Malay character, their own
helpless situation, and the unknown disposition of the mass
of the Malays who surrounded them. But the Rajah was
sufficiently courteous to them, and the result of the con-
ference was, that he would, during the night, send his men
and take and confine the murderer, now at Kwala Batu,
and he should be delivered up to-morrow.
Po Adam returned with the officers, and seemed to think
that the Rajah was sincere in his intentions to take the man
now at Kwala Batu, who had been concerned in the rob-
bery and murder committed on board the ship Eclipse.
The Rajah denied nothing in connection with this man
and the transaction ; but consented to the truth of the oc-
currence and the fact of one of the murderers being in his
town, by affirming that he would use every effort during
the night to take him, that he might, on the morrow, be
delivered up as demanded.
As Po Adam was going over the side of the ship to enter
the Columbia's boat, for the shore excursion already de-
scribed, he was in considerable good cheer ; and left as
hostages, to assure us of his fidelity, the men who had come
off with him in his canoe. When he had mounted to the
top of the steps of the gangway, he turned round, seeming
to catch the spirit of the officers and the crew, who were
looking upon him ; and with a cunning laugh and shake
of his little hand, he added, in his broken English, "Neber
you fear me come again look sharp /" The last expres-
sion had reference to the fouc Malays he left on board ; and
Po Adam's whole expression of face and person, and sig-
nificant and broken English, caused the officers and men,
for once, to forget their gravity ; and to Po's no little de-
light, a general smile passed over the countenances of the
more than a hundred faces which were, at the moment,
gazing upon him.
It was believed, notwithstanding the professions of the
Rajah, that he would not make any particular effort during
the night to take the murderer whom he had protected, and
with whom we have every reason to suppose he shared
the money, to the amount of two thousand dollars.
272 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
SECOND TALK WITH THE RAJAH.
It was therefore the wish of the Commodore to let this
Rajah know at once what was expected of him, and on what
he should insist. He accordingly made out the following
instructions to Captain Wyman, of the John Adams, now
lying near us :
" SIR :
" You will call upon the Rajah of Kwala Batu, and in-
form him what we have learned at Ceylon and other places
respecting the attack and plunder of the ship Eclipse, and
the murder of Captain Wilkins and one of his crew.
" You will make known to him that it is the desire of
the Government of the United States to remain at peace
and on terms of friendship with the chiefs and people of
Sumatra ; that we have come to the island as friends, and
hope that we shall be enabled to leave Kwala Batu in the
continuance of the same sentiments. But this must depend
upon the readiness which shall be evinced by the Rajah
to give up one of the murderers of Captain Wilkins, who,
having taken refuge in Kwala Batu, has been protected
by the Rajah.
" You are also instructed to demand all the money and
any other property which the murderer brought with him
to this place, and is known to be part of the plunder of
the ship Eclipse.
" You will endeavor to make the Rajah explicit, by in-
quiring of him what course he means to take ; whether
that of a friend or an enemy. If a friend, he will at once
give up this murderer ; and cause the money and other
property taken from the ship Eclipse and may now be
found at Kwala Batu, immediately to be returned, through
me, to the proper owners.
" I am, sir, very respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
" GEORGE C. READ,
" Commanding the U. S. Naval Force in the Indian Seas
" To Commander THOMAS W. WYMAN,
U. S. Ship John Adams."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 273
Captain Wyman was accompanied to the shore by two
or three of his officers, and three from our own ship. It
was yet a matter of doubt what might be the reception of
our boats. The threatening appearances of the preceding
evening, and the possibility that the Rajah was using a
finesse for delaying our action ; and the possibility, too,
that even Po Adam might be playing his game, and be
implicated in the transactions which related to the money,
rendered many things suspicious ; for Po Adam seemed
hand and glove with the people on shore, and yet, when
away from them, was obviously concerting their overthrow
and destruction. There was, however, but little solicitude
felt by those officers who were conveyed to the shore.
The boats nearly reached the beach, when the grap-
nels were dropped, and the officers conveyed through the
breakers to the shore, on the trusty shoulders of the ever-
obedient and ever ready tar. The Malays, to the apparent
number of fifty or sixty, were on the beach as before, while
their weapons now were mostly in their sheaths. We ad-
vanced, however, without solicitude, through a narrow
passage-way, stockaded on either side, leading to an area
lined, like itself, by a stockade of bamboo. Passing through
this enclosure, we entered a gate-way that opened into
yet another stockaded enclosure, which contained the bam-
boo dwelling of the Malay Chief. We found the Rajah,
as he was found the evening before, elevated upon his
bamboo throne of state. He welcome us by rising, and
with a shake of the hand the latter action requiring his
chieftainship to bend forward and downward, to receive
the proffered emblem of friendship while his position was
such, that it would have been difficult for an enemy to have
reached his bosom unobserved (a la Malay) with one of
their stealthy weapons. I further remarked, at the moment,
that a gate-way leading directly to the Rajah's fort, was
behind the elevated position on which the chieftain had
placed himself, affording him a retreat, in case of necessity,
to his fortress ; as in olden times the Baron, when endan-
gered in his castle, escaped for his safety through some
secret trap-door, giving him access to some concealed
passage-way, by which to elude his enemies.
So soon as the greeting was over, Captain Wyman
274 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
signified that he had been instructed by the Commodore
to wait on the Rajah, to have a talk with him ; and signi-
fied that he would proceed to make known his instructions
if the Rajah was ready to hear him.
The Rajah motioned that he would adjourn to the ve-
randah of his house, which serves as his council-chamber.
We ascended to this apartment by a flight of steps, con-
structed as a common ladder, with the exception of the
rounds, which in this instance gave place for wider mate-
rials for the cross-pieces. We entered this balcony-kind
of a room, the floor of which was carpeted with matting.
A few considerably worn Persian rugs, with some fresher-
made mats, had been placed for the guests to sit upon.
Two seats also were arranged in the verandah, one a back-
less chair, the other a chair with a back, which Captain
W. and myself occupied ; while others placed themselves,
a la Turk, upon the mats, or sat on the balustrade the
open side of the room looking directly over the Rajah's
fort, towards the sea. The Rajah placed himself upon a
mat furthest possible in a corner, to which spot the chairs
were drawn, and around sat the officers, with Po Adam
and the sailor, who served as our interpreters, on their
haunches near the Rajah.
But previous to the entrance upon the subjects which
Captain Wyman was instructed definitely to bring before
the Rajah, a silence of a considerable length continued ;
while twenty men, more or less, of the Rajah's retainers,
were collecting cocoa-nuts, fresh from the surrounding
trees. These they brought to the foot of the ladder be-
low, and with their krises, a long-bladed weapon, they cut
off the outer part of each end, and opened a small vent
through the soft material with the point of the instrument,
and presented one to each of the officers, to drink of the
delicious beverage. This is apparently the universal cus-
tom of the Rajahs here, as a prelude to the commencement
of a council talk.
The Rajah now untied his knotted handkerchief, in
which he carried several small cases, filled with various
articles which contribute to the luxury of his taste ; and to
each corner of the handkerchief was attached a gold nob,
both for ornament and that the tie might more conve-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 275
niently be made. The Rajah first opened a silver case,
from which he took a bundle of green beetel leaves, put up
in a convenient form for him to make a selection. He
next opened a golden box, from which he took a substance
of the consistency of cream, being a mixture of lime, and
spread it entirely over the leaf. He then placed within
the leaf thus prepared, a compound make up of various
materials, spice, opium, aracca-nut, a little tobacco, etc. ;
and seemed, like his kindred skins about him of similar
tastes, to be much delighted with his cud quite as re-
spectable at least, in its appearance, as those which often
grace to the disgrace of the mouths of many American
gentlemen.
The cocoa-nut beverage having been drunk, to the
content of all, the council was deemed to be regularly
opened according to custom. Captain Wyman stated that
we had heard of the robbery and murder committed, and
desired to know if the murderer had been taken, as the
Rajah had given us to suppose would be the case, last
night.
The Rajah replied that he had been unable to take the
Malay that he had endeavored to seize him had sent
fifty men to accomplish it but he had not been appre-
hended, as it was hoped would be the case. He had, how-
ever, despatched his men, with letters around the country,
with the intention of yet taking him ; and he should be
delivered up as soon as he could be found.
This was all as we had anticipated.
The Rajah was then told, that it had been reported
that two thousand dollars of the money, taken from the
Eclipse, had been brought to Kwala Batu ; and that it
was expected that this, with any other property known to
have been taken from the Eclipse, should be returned.
The Rajah said that the money had been distributed, in
small quantities, to the people he never had any thing
to do with it he had refused to receive any of it and
he knew nothing about it and was unable to do any
thing about it.
Here, one of the sub-men suggested that some of it had
been buried, and could not be found. The statement was
entirely unsatisfactory and somewhat contradictory ; but
276 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
even on the statement of the Rajah himself, the people of
his town were responsible, and therefore Kwala Batu has
become implicated in the outrage.
Nothing being gained at all satisfactory in the con-
tinuance of the talk, the Rajah was again assured that the
Government of the United States was desirous of preserv-
ing a friendly intercourse with Kwala Batu, but that it
would depend upon the Rajah's action whether the United
States and himself were to continue friends. If the mur-
derer and the property were brought on board the Colum-
bia, by sundown that evening, the good feeling which
the United States desired to preserve towards the Rajah
would continue. But if the murderer could not be taken
by that time, a deputation from the Rajah of one or more
men, (to whom Captain Wyman gave the assurances of
safety.) would be expected to make known to the Com-
modore the reason of the delay ; and the Rajah's good or
ill will would be judged of accordingly.
The Rajah himself had been invited to visit the Colum-
bia, to talk with the Commodore, but he declined visiting
the ship, giving an implied assurance, though hesitatingly
expressed, that a message should be sent off by night, if
the murderer was not taken.
The interview was here concluded. Gaining the con-
sent of the Rajah, we walked through the town, hastily,
and along the beach. I had been left some distance behind
the party, while examining some of the houses, and was
repeatedly among twenty or thirty of these armed and
treacherous men, asking questions of some of them, and
giving others a brief reply, which several of them, at dif-
ferent times, caught up and repeated, as a word of a lan-
guage peculiar in its sound to their ears. They rang their
changes on the word " yes," " yes," to the considerable
amusement of the crowd, which was gathering around me
as I passed along the bazaar ; and without waiting for
many moments to pass, while out of sight of the other offi-
cers, I hastened along the little winding river on the east
side of the town, and then wound to the right along the
beach. Captain Wyman and two of the officers had al-
ready wandered along the shore, to gain a view of the fort
which flanks the town on the west ; and as I was advan-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 277
cing along the same course, far behind them and near to
the edge of the jungle, I came upon thirty or forty men,
gathered under a tree by themselves. The chief came
towards me as I approached. He was the best dressed
man I had seen.
" Come," said he, " let you and me have a talk ;" his
men gathering around me at the same time.
" Very well," I replied, " and what would you say ?"
I had observed this same man in the council, but he did
not appear to share the confidence of the Rajah. And
before the interview in the council was over, this same
chief rose, with a number of his followers with him, and
left the verandah.
" Me belong to another king," he continued. " This
one king here there, (pointing to the interior,) another
king. Me no fraid to go board ship. Me done nothing
me no fight when Potomac here. Me want to make
present of buffalo to Commodore and be friends."
I told this Malay, who is the son-in-law of a rich Rajah,
said to have more men than any other chief of the island,
in this region, that I presumed thoCommodore could not
receive his buffalo, but that he must come on board and
see him.
" Me want to give him a buffalo, and be friends. Me
take you to my house and show you buffalo."
I followed the chief, whose name is Po Nyah-heit, with
his men attending him, with their weapons ; and soon we
entered his fort, some distance in the jungle, which in-
cludes an area of some extent, with the tall bamboos and
other trees embowering the romantic spot. The gate
was firmer and in better repair than I had elsewhere
seen. And there stood the beautiful, and young, and
wild buffalo, with a string through his nostrils, and a rope
around his horns and his legs, tying . him to three or four
trees before and behind him. I saw, from his eye, that
he was wild, and requested that one of Po Nyah-heit's
men should approach him. As the man advanced, the
young and sleek animal snorted and shook his head and
rolled his brilliant eye, and bounded up and down as far
as the ropes would allow him. He was a beautiful crea-
ture, as fat as a well-stalled ox, but like a sleek-limbed
24
278 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
two year old heifer, petted and rendered a prize specimen
for the city market. I should like to have owned that
beast, could it have remained as beautiful a thing as I
then saw it, and would have tamely coursed the fields as
a^petted animal.
I did not choose longer to delay in so wild a place,
surrounded by so wild a multitude, out of sight, and re-
moved from any communication with our party. I there-
fore again invited Po Nyah-heit to come off to the Colum-
bia, and tender his buffalo himself to the Commodore, and
talk with him.
On communicating this interview to Captain Wyman,
he proposed to take Po Nyah-heit off in the boats with
us, if he would go. The principal Rajah himself had re-
fused to visit our ship, and hesitated about promising to
send any communication ; and it was in view of this
timidity and hesitation on the part of the Rajah, in the
council, that he said he was not afraid to go he was
innocent and on being^ asked by Captain W. if he would
like to accompany us to' the ship, immediately consented ;
while, at the same time^.1 secured the assurance, that "his
person should be safe, and himself allowed to return to
the shore at his pleasure.
After having reached the ship I had a conversation with
this Malay. He assured us that the present Rajah of
Kwala Batu had received the two thousand dollars, and
that he would never take the murderer. He also added,
that, in case of difficulties, he wished to come on board
with his family and property.
" And what would you do with yourself, after we shall
have destroyed the town, " he was asked, " should that
be our final purpose ?"
" I return, then, and be the Rajah," replied the wily
Malay ; " I get my men around me I new Rajah I be
friend to America."
From what Po Adam said of this Malay, after he had
returned to the shore, there is great probability that his
scheme might succeed, if he could get but a little assist-
ance from us. He offered his fort for our forces, and
proposed to meet our men on the beach, when they should
accompany him and his retainers to his fort, fight from it,
and defend his house.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 279
But, unlike the policy of other nations, ours is not to
interfere with the petty contentions, or larger broils of a
different people. It would be an easy thing for the Amer-
icans to set up a Rajah here, and maintain him; at a little
expense, in his position, for our advantage. But such a
course would deviate from our fixed policy as a nation,
and eventuate, as a deviation from our independent and
neutral course, to the injury of the greatest good of our
Government. And yet, when one looks upon this beau-
tiful island, a*5 it now lies before us in its luxuriant green,
the mountain- side entirely embowered in beautiful and
full foliage of the trees and vegetation, without a barren
spot, one could wish it were in the hands of an American
colony, and its resources developed by American industry.
But our home and land are far beyond these waters, and
there are happiness and riches enough for us at home, if
we will but husband them, with gratitude to the God who
has given us so goodly a heritage. Po Nyah-heit was
assured, that if he came aboard the Columbia with his
family, he would be permitted to remain in safety during
any difficulties that were being adjusted between our ships
and the town of Kwala Batu, without any promise of
protection or discrimination as to localities or persons on
shore. No other course could well have been pursued
with this man, as he was no further known than he had
made himself to be during the day ; and while there ap-
peared to be honesty and certainly ambition in his make
and purposes, there might, for all we knew, be deep
treachery, though I believed otherwise.
Po Nyah-heit left the ship, as he had been promised he
should, at the hour he wished, which was near sunset.
In the evening. Po Adam was at the mess-table, while
one of the Lieutenants read the. account given of his gen-
erous action towards the part of the crew of the Friend-
ship, who were not massacred. To him they gave the
credit of contributing to their safety, if he was not the
means of preserving their lives.
Po seems to be desirous of having all the towns along
the coast blown sky high. He has lost his own fort by
some crook of a mightier hand, or by mightier men than
he. And, doubtless, he would be very grateful to the
280 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Commodore, would he restore it to him again. And were
it a consistent movement of our ships, perhaps Po Adam
deserves this, and much more at our hands. His house is
at Soo-Soo, which is in sight of our ships, some four or
six miles east of Kwala Batu.
" Do you like the Soo-Soo people, Po ?"
" Me like them here," answered the wily Malay, put-
ting his finger upon his lips, "but no like them here,"
laying his spread hands upon his breast.
" But, Po, if there is much property in Kwala Batu, and
the Rajah would preserve his houses, do you think he
would rather pay up the two thousand dollars than have
his place knocked down ?"
" Rajah is fool. He give up murderer he give mo-
ney then he save pepper-trade. What can Rajah do
with pepper no ships come and buy ? He no eat pep-
per. He give up murderer, he have plenty friends in
America they come and buy pepper. But he will no
give up Malayu he fool he d n rascal he buffalo !"
" Why, Po, we think the Rajah a very bad man, but do
not call him by one of those names you have used."
Po understood the allusion, and repeated, " He bad
man he no give up money me thought he sincere yes-
terday, no sincere to-day he no send fifty men after
Malayu. I Rajah, I catch the man Rajah no sincere
he fool he d , he one buffalo."
Po now had more than one to join him in a round laugh,
at the flow of his Malay wit.
I say Malay wit. Po, however, says that he was born
at Achin, and has spent twenty-five years on the coast in
this region. He is now about fifty years of age, has a
very good face, an aquiline nose, and, at times, has a
great deal of vivacity in speech. With his mimic atti-
tudes, to render himself more readily understood in Eng
lish, he often becomes quite amusing.
CANNONADING OF KWALA BATU.
All expectation of gaining any satisfactory action from
the Rajah of Kwala Batu being given up, the Columbia
weighed anchors to take a nearer position to the town,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 281
that her guns might be brought to bear upon the forts arid
houses with the greatest effect. Having reached the de-
sired position, a spring hawser brought our broadside to
bear, at discretion, upon the forts and town.
The John Adams was now seen standing in to take
her place yet nearer to the shore and a little on our lar-
board quarter.
All things were now ready for cannonading the forts
and town. We had been moored in this threatening po-
sition for two or three hours. But no boat was seen put-
ting off from the shore, or any sign made by the Rajah
that he intended to offer any satisfaction for the injuries
he had sanctioned, or further explanation for his delay.
It was a moment of intensest interest on board. I am
sure there was no one who did not wish that the Rajah
should pursue the course of justice, and yield the mur-
derer and the property, which was deemed to be alto-
gether within his power to do, and thus save himself from
the demonstration of our just displeasure, which could not
long be delayed, to the expected demolishing of his forts
and town.
And I am sure that no one more intensely desired this
course to be pursued than our Commodore, who had now
used every means to induce the Rajah to act the part of
a just chief, and what was believed to be the wishes of
many of his men. The moment, however, had arrived
when further delay on our part would have been treachery
to the lives of our own countrymen, and a conniving at
the crimes of robbery and murder.
Three taps upon the drum started every man in the
ship, as if the wing of some unseen spirit had suddenly
swept over each one's face ; and the music, the next in-
stant, beat the thrilling summons to quarters. Each man,
before a minute was passed, was in his place, ready to do
his superior's bidding, to throw destruction and devasta-
tion into the forts and town, which lay but a few cables'
length in the distance from us. The thrilling excitement
now felt was not from fear, for there was nothing to be
apprehended, though it was expected that the Rajah's
forts might open upon us. But it was the idea, that our
own shot would be sending these miserable people into
24*
282 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
another world, and crumbling upon their heads the dwell-
ings they inhabited.
The guns in a moment were cleared for action the
tompions out, the shot, grape, canister, and wadding ar-
ranged, the matches in readiness and now, the men, in
prolbundest silence, stood waiting the order to fire ! But
a few rolls of the music now beat the retreat ; and all, save
the excited hearts of the crew, and the guns in readiness
for an engagement, were again as if we had never dreamed
of treacherous falsehood, infamous robbery, and murder-
ous Malays.
An hour or more had passed. The officers were nearly
finishing their dessert when the beat to quarters again
rolled through the ship. It was known that now there
would be no longer delay. The different forts had been
pointed out, as objects towards which the guns were to be
directed. The firing commenced. It was an interesting
sight. The first shot from the Columbia boomed over the
water, and shivered to pieces one of the trees which em-
bowered the fortification, and in their thick and distinct
cluster, entirely concealed the fort. A second shot, directed
from another division towards another fortification, scat-
tered every Malay who had come to the beach, and be-
neath a number of bamboo houses, had trusted to the display
of a white handkerchief, waving low in the gentle breeze,
for their protection. The Rajah's most western fort in-
stantly opened upon the Columbia the shot striking a few
fathoms from the ship. The divisions continued their fire
from the frigate, riddling the thick foliage in which the
fortifications were concealed, and silencing the Rajah's fort
after it had sent three shots, one of which fell just beneath
our dolphin-striker.
The John Adams, at the same time, opened her guns upon
a fort on the east of the town, and beyond the little river
which separates it from the principal bazaars. The
clouds of smoke curled from her side, as the thunder of
her cannonades, in the repeated concussions on the vibra-
ting air, roared loud and long ; while the shots now buried
themselves in the fort, or occasionally, by a ricochet upon
the water, struck again upon the beach, and threw up, in
mid-air, their clouds of sand, and uprooted shrubs and
trees.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 283
The cannonading continued from both ships for nearly
a half hour, when the order was given to cease firing.
CHRISTMAS IN THE TROPICS.
There are periods in time, that come upon us on their
annual occurrence, with an irresistible power of associa-
tion. And they are happy or grievous, as our experience
may have been, as those periods have rolled round, on their
yearly returns. To-day is Christmas. And how imme-
diately is the inquiry raised, "Where was I last Christmas?
And whom was I with ?" And how much there is in the
answers, as the mind runs over the objects and their asso-
ciations, which are recalled in connection with that day !
To me, as I go back to the Christmas day, one year from
this, all things come back with a freshness, as if I were
again standing amid those scenes, so far over the sea, and
among friends rendered yet more dear, by the distance
which intervenes and the time we have measured since we
parted. I remember the clear day that sent forth its beams
from a clear sun, but with little warmth in his rays. I
remember the church wreathed and festooned, and inly em-
bowered with evergreens ; and the pulpit where I stood,
and the fixed eyes of the people as they listened to the
word of God, and the altar around which they gathered.
And I remember the young and endeared sister, so lately
attired in her dress of deep mourning, and like a dove
whose companion had been smitten from her side by an
arrow, seemed an object of lonely loveliness, amid a con-
gregation of lighter robes and lighter hearts. And beside
her sat a man of years, who had but a few days before
put his lip upon the cold and marble brow of the child he
cherished and loved as but few fathers love, ere that child
was borne to her cold grave, to come no more, at the
Christmas gathering, around the family table, and to min-
gle in the family's domestic circle. And I remember the
letter, which, on that day and at that place, was handed
me, which invited me to visit scenes in other nations, and
which determined me to start on the course that has brought
me to spend this Christmas day nearly half way around
the world from the spot where I then was standing, and
from the friends with whom I then communed.
284 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
And to-day, instead of that neat temple, so tastefully
festooned and decorated in evergreens, on the joyous birth-
day of the Redeemer of the world, and in a clime where
the December gale bears on its wing a freezing and bra-
cing air, and the snow-storm spreads the wide folds of its
gorgeous ermine mantle over mountain and meadow, for-
est and fern, and the ice bridges span the rivers in their
flow, I now look abroad from an ocean-temple, floating
in the warm seas of a torrid clime. And before me lies
one of nature's sublimest, loveliest evergreen mountains,
curving its beautiful outline of embowering trees on an
horizon that smiles blandly and serene, as the warmer
than the summer gale sweeps along the thick foliage of
the green mountain-side of the pepper Isle. And to-day,
our still ship slumbers on the smooth bosom of the lovely
bay, over which our guns yesterday were throwing their
intonations of displeasure and rebuke, into the ears of the
abettors and protectors of the robber and the murderer.
But, while the thunders of those guns have ceased, the
eternal roar of the surf sleeps not, as the undulating wave
breaks, in its perpetual rim of cascading foam, along the
extended beach of gold. I have always loved this roar of
ocean-wave this loud murmur of the sea-surge, breaking
on the golden beach. It ever reminds me of the voice of
Niagara, in her perpetual worship of the Eternal. And
though the voice of man were lost, were he to join in the
loud chant, yet the one emotion that swells the bosom of
the worshipper, as he stands upon the sea-shore, is sublimer
far than the loudest roar of mighty waters. But, ye friends,
who to-day are more than ten thousand miles away, in the
happy land of the west, " a merry, happy Christmas to ye
all." And O, that I could hear your response, and greet
you for one hour on this hallowed day, at your festive and
happy board. I know that your thoughts this day are
often with me, and that for me your prayers, in kindness,
as certainly ascend. And I but may God bless ye all.
SAILING FOR MUCKIE.
As the light began to stream upon the mountain this
morning, the 28th, our anchors had been weighed and we
were starting off from Kwala Batu, for Muckie.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 285
Yesterday, while flags were flying on shore, and some
communications passed between the Commodore and the
Rajahs, Po Kwala, at whose fort the John Adams partic-
ularly directed her shot, sued for peace : " He no have the
money he no have any thing to do with the robbery he
wish to be friends." Po Kwala is a near connection, by
marriage, of Po Nyah-heit, at whose fort, also, a white fln #
was flying. Po Nyah-heit has previously been alluded LU ;
and was desirous of joining his men with ours and Po Kwa-
la's, the Pedir Rajah of Kwala Batu, to fight Po Chute-
Abdullah, the principal or Achin Rajah of Kwala Batu.*
But while no confidence, it was thought, should be placed
in these professions, Po Nyah-heit's course saved his fort
from being fired into, unless one of the first shots may have
reached it by mistake.
The Achin Rajah, it is said, sent us, as his last commu-
nication, that " he had endeavored to take the murderer,
but was unable he had not gotten the money we had
fired into his town and killed his men their relatives had
called upon him for vengeance and if we wanted to have
his life also, we must come on shore and take it." The
sequel will show that he was a little more modest at a later
hour.
After stretching along down the coast from Kwala Batu,
we have come to anchor within a few cables' length of
the town of Muckie. While the* mountain scenery was
deemed exquisite at Kwala Batu blending the beautiful
. of the thick foliage of the embowered mountain-side with
the sublimity of its height, and the graceful clouds laying
their soft folds here and there upon its tops the scenery
now before us is additionally picturesque and equally sub-
lime, and even yet more beautiful. There is a greater
space of cultivated field on the mountain-slant, which ex-
hibits every variety of green, from the lightest yellow,
through every shade of sea and bottle and emerald, and
* There are two Rajahs at Kwala Batu one, Po Chute- Abdullah,
having the rule over the men from Achin ; the other, Po Kwala,
called the Pedir Rajah, holding the power over the Pedir men.
They divide the revenue of the port between them, and are not al-
ways good friends of each other.
286 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
yet deeper green. Then comes the wide and high-up
slant of the original forest, spreading from the top of the
high mountain, until its rim comes down to the edge of
the cultivated fields on the hill-side, where the green pep-
per vines are seen growing in their richness and beauty.*
The town of Muckie, itself, is spread out on a little
peninsula or point, with groves of cocoa-nut trees embow-
ering the houses ; and the fort furthest out on the point,
for the defence of the town, is equally shaded by these
trees in Asiatic costume, deep, and spreading, and peculiar.
A boat from the Columbia is now shoving off from the
ship, bearing Captain Wyman, of the John Adams, to hold
a communication with the Rajah of the town. Two hun-
dred natives are lining the shores, at the landing-place of
the town, waiting this boat, which is attended by two of the
cutters, whose crews are armed with cutlasses and pistols,
that in case of manifestations of enmity or treachery, they
may form a force sufficient to defend the boats and the
persons of the officers.
The Rajahs manifested great frankness in this first inter-
view ; and the next morning Lieutenant Turner was sent
on shore, at an early hour of the morning, for the purpose
of bringing off the Rajahs to the ship, agreeably to the ex-
pectation they had raised in the minds of those officers
who had held the talk with them, that they would willingly
come. But the Commodore's invitation to them to visit
the ship was finally declined, after a long talk among them-
selves, and evidently on the ground that they feared, if
once on board, they would be retained until the restitution
of the money and the surrender of the murderers suppo-
sed to be at Muckie. And in their way of estimating
things, they doubtless also considered that their lives
would be endangered. They therefore declined, altogeth-
er, a visit to the ships ; and Lieutenant Turner expressed
himself, on his return, fully persuaded that no satisfaction
could be derived from these people. The finesse of yes-
terday was to gain delay in any attack that might be de-
signed upon the place. It was further believed, and affirm-
ed positively by Po Adam, that Lubby Sammon, a man
* See Frontispiece.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 287
of considerable influence here and a particular friend of
the chief Rajah of Muckie, was the instigator of the at-
tack upon the Eclipse ; that he induced Lubby Yusuf to
select his men, and shared a great part of the booty. This
same man is now at Muckie, and will not be given up by
the Rajah. The whole testimony, that can be relied on,
goes to implicate the Rajah, here, as one of the chief abet-
tors of the murder and the robbery. But as he refuses to
make any satisfaction, further than denying any participa-
tion in the crime, in the face of evidence which is suppo-
sed to be against him, all further hope of getting the mur-
derers or the money is resigned. The infliction of what
is believed to be a just retribution, therefore, only remains
for the action of our ships, in their attack upon the town,
by which our power may be demonstrated, and the na-
tives be further assured that we have a force to protect
our commerce ; and that it is our purpose to inflict a pun-
ishment upon those who shield the murderers of our citi-
zens abroad, or who share in the plunder from our ships.
For making this demonstration of our ability and deter-
minations, the two ships are to be hauled nearer in to the
town. And if no deputation shall be sent off during the
morning of to-morrow, the last die will have been thrown,
to decide the course of our ships. The intention of the
squadron is entirely understood by the Malays on shore,
with the motives of its threatened action.
NEWS FROM HOME. ASSOCIATION.
While the negotiations with the natives were being
carried on during the preceding day, and our ships were
resting in inaction, with the evergreen mountain-scene
before us and the wide ocean extending far away to the
south and west, I spent the hours in reading newspapers
from the home we have left so many degrees behind us.
A large roll of papers has been forwarded to us from Cap-
tain Silver, of the ship Sumatra, which arrived on the
coast a few days since ; and presuming that we were yet
at Kwala Batu, he despatched a native, in his boat, to
convey this rich treat to us. The boat found us at Muckie,
having reached Kwala Batu just as we were standing
288 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
out from that place. We record this act of Captain S.,
with many thanks for the pleasure he contributed thus to
give us. The news brought us intelligence, four months
later than our leaving the United States. Besides the pa-
pers from New York, the residence of most of my friends,
one came from a neighborhood within a few miles of my
country home. It seemed as if some mystic hand, unseen,
but ever ready to serve me with acts of kindness, had
put this sheet, nicely folded, only for myself, among the
medley-papers of the large bundle which was conveyed
to us. And could all the secrets be told by which that
same folio sheet came to me, on the western coast of the
isle of Samatra, perhaps we should be more ready to be-
lieve in the agencies of unseen powers than the credulities
of most, of us usually will allow.
And how powerful is association, however awakened !
It is a beautiful anecdote, told of a boat's crew of those
who attended Captain Cook around the world. They had
landed upon an island, and entered a log-cabin. A relic
of a spoon, with half its handle gone, met their eye, with
the word LONDON stamped on the remaining part of it.
This single word so affected them, in their distance and
long wanderings from their native land, that it threw them
all into tears, as the floods of associations crowded into
their minds.
Similar is the effect of a letter, even before the seal has
been broken, if we recognise, in its address, the handwri-
ting of one we love. And how we cherish a braid of hair,
which has been given us, with the smiles of a friend, as a
thing that shall revive agreeable remembrances ! And who
has not in his choice repository of trifles a thousand and
one mementoes of emotions and kind words and loved re-
collections of persons and things ? It is this element of our
being affected by the force of association, which makes us
civilized and kind beings, and renders life capable of being
lived over more than once. I have a little essence bottle
will one of my readers remember it which I would not
part with for the choicest pearl that ever came from the
waters of Bahrien. I have a little painting, representing
two placid lambs, and called "peace" For what would I
part with this ? She is dead who gave it. And they have
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 289
told me that she died with bright and consistent hopes of
entering, and for ever ranging the fields, where no discord
comes, where perpetual peace reigns. And I have a gold
pencil case, there is a strange power in that inanimate
token, but I will not speak of that. And I have it is
not a lock of hair, it is a single thread, which, by itself, I
saw floating on the pure brow of a young friend, who did
not think me impertinent as I wound it around my finger
and plucked it from among its associates as a truant thing
that was playing in the breeze, as if it alone were entitled
to the favor of the evening zephyr, as that zephyr swept,
with the refreshing purity of a country air, through the
piazza. And she afterwards wound it around her own
delicate fingers, as a plaything ; and in the leisure, and
luxury, and listlessness of the calm and lovely summer-
evening hour, we took a pencil and marked the date of the
day on a blank paper ; and she scribbled her name upon
it; and the little coil was placed within , the envelope,
laughingly, as if it were all a trifling thing, amusing two
happy idlers, at the moment. And now. how at this mo-
ment that sweet face comes up in my vision, and seems
again to gaze in my own, confidingly, as then she looked ;
her speaking eye, laughing and floating in its soft light ;
her cheek tinged with a loveliness of carnation which
cannot be imitated, and which nature gives to whom she
wills, varying ever, now fading and now deepening with
every emotion expressed or felt ; and then her lip, inimi-
table, whether an hour of excitement deepened its carmine,
or a calmer hour left it in its rim of highly polished coral.
Once, I saw that lip as pale, as if the wing of the angel
of death had swept it. Should this page happen to meet
that eye, which even now I see in all its colors of blended
softness and tell-tale emotion, I wonder if she will remem-
ber that little coil of hair the envelope its date and
the enchanting scene and scenery of that summer-evening
hour ? And I have what have I not ? I have at least
a heart, that bounds over the sea to friends, when incident
or circumstance awakens the train of association, that flies
fleeter than on the wings of dove, or other bird, to the land
of the west. Thanks again to thee, Captain Silver, for
thy roll of newspapers.
25
290 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
DESTRUCTION OF MUCKIE.
New-year day, January 1st, 1838. The first morn of
the new year has dawned upon us with a clear and pure
sky. The sea this morning is sleeping around us, with a
bosom bright as a silver mirror, and the roll of the sea-
surge has lulled, as if, like the calm before the tremblings
of the earthquake, it would smile on the purposes of de-
struction, which our ships this day seem designing to bear
into the town, which now lies almost within gun-shot of
our thirty-two and forty-two pounders. Both ships have
been kedged into their near positions this morning, it being
the purpose of the Commodore to cannonade the town, as
the only alternative of showing our displeasure, and to in-
flict due punishment upon a people whose Rajah refuses
to make any overtures, and against whom the evidence
is deemed to be conclusive, of his being culpable in the
murderous affair and robbery of the barque Eclipse.
The John Adams had early placed herself far into the
little bay, near the beach, and taken her position, with
her broadside sprung to bear upon the town. The Co-
lumbia soon reached her place opposite the principal fort
of the town, from which it was expected that there would
be some guns fired, but which the Columbia would soon
silence. The ships weje so placed that their guns would
rake at pleasure the whole town, in its length and breadth.
No boat having reached the ship with any overture
during the morning, and the ships being in readiness to
execute their purposes of destruction, the order was passed
to fire. Our first shot was a signal for the John Adams
to open upon the town ; and the smoke and the flames
issued from her side the instant the report of our own long
thirty- two pounder broke the quiet still-calm of the sur-
rounding scene.
Every gun from the beautiful corvette seemed to know
its errand, as it sent its report distinctly back to the ear
when the bolt had struck, with its tremendous concussion,
and sent up its cloud of dust as it riddled the bamboo-
houses, or evolved a column of smoke, as if a hundred hot
irons had been applied to the external surface of the trees,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 291
as the cannon ball rived their trunks, or, like a pruning-
hook, lopped their branches to the ground.
The Columbia continued her fire in an almost unbroken
succession of shots, directed particularly at the fort, which
was embowered in a grove of cocoa-nut and other trees ;
and the long thirty-two and forty-two pound cannonades
spoke loud and long, and rebukingly, as their thunder
rolled over the bay, and the echoes repeated their voice
from the mountain-side, and died away in deeper and
later tones, far back in the defile of mountains, which
raise their double tier inwalling an almost concealed
ravine, as their ranges stretch south and west. The quick
reports of the raking shot came back distinct and clear,
as they drove their way into the fort, or sent up the clouds
of dust as they riddled the bamboo-houses, and scattered
the splinters of buildings of firmer materials, or, point-
blank, drove against the cocoa-nut tree, riving it in pieces,
and sending up a spiral column of smoke, as if it were
curling in a pure blue cloud above the green foliage from
a newly lighted fire of some mountain-side cabin.
The cannonading from both ships now continued, by
successions of round, and canister, and grape-shot the
heavy balls at times striking the water near the shore, and
by ricochet, apparently doing the greater destruction, as
crash succeeded crash, while the missile, in its lower pas-
sage, felt its way across the little peninsula through the
town, and finally went on its course of dalliance over the
sheet of water which washes the opposite of the point.
Again, some of the shot passing higher than the rest,
reached quite beyond the peninsula, to the mountain-side ;
and their concussion with the hills sent back a reverbe-
rating crash, which told the desperate rencounter ; and
throughout the embowered town, as I gazed from the
mizzen-top, the falling bough and felled tree, and crack-
ing and smoking roof, were seen, now together and now
separately, tumbling in their destruction, while, at other
times, a straggling shot sent up its cloud of sand, as it
bored its way into the beach, which throws its lip of gold
around the edge of the little bay, dividing the rim of the
light-blue of the sea-water from the deep-green of the
ever-verdant and luxuriant foliage of the trees that em-
292 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
bower the whole line of the beautiful shore. And the
rolling volumes of smoke, driving from the heated mouths
of the cannon, were borne away by the sea-breeze, which
was now beginning to set gently in, and curled the piles
of smoke against the mountain-side, which stood in all its
beauty, untarnished and lovely, and smiling while all was
devastation and anger, and frowning displeasure, on the
level below.
A silence for a moment succeeded. The divisions for
landing were now called away. A few blasts upon the
clear bugle summoned the boats to be manned. A like
order was conveyed to the Adams ; while the large guns
of both ships were continuing their fire, as often as the
remaining men could load and discharge their pieces.
The starboard sides of the. ships had been sprung to bear
upon the shore, and the boats were soon manned, as they
lay along the opposite side of the ships, unseen by any
enemy that might be awaiting the landing of any force
from the two vessels. The single guns continued to open
their fire upon the forts and town during the manning of
the boats. The launch and four cutters, crowded with
two hundred and fifty men, were now ready to shove off
from the frigate. They lingered a moment, with their
oars pointed ready to fall, while silence once more, and
profound, prevailed. The Commodore, from the side-
steps, contemplated the heroic little force, ready and eager
to peril life if dangers were to be encountered by the ex-
pedition.
" You have been desirous," he said, " to have an oppor-
tunity to land, on an expedition like the one which is now
offered you. I have the fullest confidence in your suc-
cess. Burn and destroy the town, and put to death all
men whom you may find bearing arms, and by ho means
injure the unarmed and the yielding. Gentlemen," ne
added to the officers, " I wish you success, and shall ex-
pect your return to the ship in one hour and a half."
The boats now pulled for the Adams, whose five boats
were as instantly directing their way to the beach, the
moment they saw our own put off from the side of the
Columbia.
It was a beautiful sight, those ten boats, crowded by
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 293
armed sailors and marines, their guns pointed with bayo-
nets, or their hands bristling with pikes, with pistols in
their belts and cutlasses at their sides. It would have
been no small force which could have successfully met
that gallant little band, flushed as they now were on their
virgin adventure in arms. Not one of those officers now
in those boats had engaged in the discharge of hostile
guns with destructive intent till within these few days, at
Kwala Batu, and now at Muckie. And the young pulse
of every officer was beating for the occasion, (however
much and deeply they regretted the necessity of the pres-
ent action,) to show their daring on an expedition, which
none could divine should not prove destructive to many
of their number. Yet, the silence of death which had
prevailed throughout the doomed town no gun having
been fired from the fort, nor man nor living soul been
seen during the bombardment, save one solitary being,
venturing beyond his fellows to gaze from his nook
gave encouragement that the thousand and probably more
inhabitants of the town had retired to the mountain ; and
the devastating shot the round, and canister, and grape,
which whistled in vengeance through the groves and
dwellings throughout the town, would have made it mad-
ness for one to have remained. And yet there might be
an ambush, although the ground was unfavorable, and
every thing contributing to favor the operation of our
forces. The guns of the two ships continued to throw
their shot to the left of the boats while pulling to the
shore, rendering it destructive for any foe to attempt to
oppose their landing. It was a wide strand on which the
divisions immediately formed, and without delay advanced,
in order, to the nearest point, to fire the buildings of the
town.
I had watched with excited interest the cannonading,
from the mizzen-top, looking far into the town, and over
it, to the adjacent bay, marking the falling of the boughs,
the dust rising in clouds as the shot riddled the roofs and
sides of the buildings, or chafing the trunks of the cocoa-
nut and other trees, or riving them from their stems.
But the interest had now deepened in increased intensity
The divisions were on their advance ; and if resistance
25*
294 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
were to be made, the moment had arrived. All was dis-
tinctly seen from the ship, left like a deserted hall, where
no step nor voice was longer heard, but where half a
thousand a moment before were moving. I could dis-
tinguish the officers of the different divisions on the beach ;
and the well-known voices of the First and Third Lieu-
tenants occasionally came over the little sheet of water,
and their orders distinctly understood.
Captain Wyman, of the Adams, commanded the expe-
dition. The divisions had advanced to the range of build-
ings stretching along the beach, with a diverging angle
from the water-side ; and the " pioneers," under Acting-
Master Jenkins, attached to the first division, were seen
making a wider breach in the nearest range of the bazaar-
houses ; while the marines, under Lieutenant Baker, ad-
vanced to the neighboring fort, to examine and carry it.
It had already been deserted. The guns were spiked,
and Lieutenant Pennock ordered temporarily to hold it. In
a moment more a smoke was seen curling up from the
adjacent building on the right of the effected passage-
way, now in its thin blue layers, than yet more dense, and
now the flame streamed high above the thatched roof,
declaring that the town was fired. Three or four more
buildings of the same line of houses, ranged with inter-
locking roofs, and forming a regular street in front in a
moment more sent up their separate sheets of flame ; and
the resistless element, kindled by port-fires and torches,
under the direction of Lieutenant Magruder, gave forth
the glare of lurid volumes, rising high and spreading wide,
and blending together their expanding sheet, which now
extended in rapid and destructive volumes down the line
of the bazaars.
Each division had been amply supplied with torches
and port-fires. From this point they took their different
courses to carry the remaining forts, and to fire the re-
maining sections of the town. Lieutenant Turk led on
his division through the northwestern range of houses,
applying the torch and the port-fire as he advanced, till
he reached a considerable stream of water, where a num-
ber of valuable proas, of larger and smaller dimensions,
were found moored and grounded. These and lesser
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 295
craft, in considerable numbers, and with their contents,
were soon sending up their complement of flames to
mingle in the general conflagration. The division was in
time, on its return, to assist in case of necessity in carry-
ing the fort on the point, to which the second division,
under Lieutenant Turner, after effecting the firing of its
portion of the town, with the other forces, had collected.
The fort, like the rest, had been deserted ; its guns were
soon spiked, thrown from their position, and the flames
were soon enveloping it.
The town now exhibited one scene of extended and
extending ruins. The light and dry bamboo buildings
burned like stubble ; and the better houses added intensity
and continuance to the devouring element. Flame min-
gled with flame, as the opposite currents converged. The
dark columns of smoke rolled high in the rarefied air, and
the long and seared leaf of the cocoa-nut, and the crimped
foliage of other thickly embowering trees, added to the
general mass of fuel ; while the spiral sheet of fire wound
up the stem and shot through the branches and over-
topped the highest trees. The very heat seemed to reach
me in the mizzen-top, while the loud cracking of the
green foliage, and the splitting of the tall and thick bam-
boo, in the general roar and loud cracking of a vast and
extending conflagration, came distinctly and clear to the
ear. The forked and ambient and towering flames min-
gling with the dark and floating columns of smoke, now
possessed the entire town, and all was within the full view
of our ships. It was a scene of grandeur in destruction
to be looked at with profound interest, while pity, blended
with a sense of just displeasure, rose in the bosom, as the
eye contemplated the extended devastation. It was a
spectacle of grandeur as beheld in the day-time its
magnificence and sublimity could not be described as it
would have gleamed, in its terror and illumination, in the
night.
Such was the scene of the burning town, when the
different divisions had all gathered upon the point, in open
view of our frigate. The destruction was complete. The
bamboo-bazaars were melting fast to the ground the bet-
ter houses crumbling slower but surely, and with intenser
296 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
heat. The five forts were in flames. Their guns, twenty-
one in number, had been spiked, and thrown from theii
positions. The flames were yet in the tops of the tall
cocoa-nut, the towering and thick bamboo, and other trees.
It was a moment of triumph to this little host, having com-
pleted their work without the firing of a gun. And it
showed the daring and the determination of a gallant band
of American sailors on a foreign strand, ten thousand
miles from their home. And well they might exult, at the
moment, in view of the horrors which might have awaited
them. But hark ! the report of a cannon now boomed
loud on the air. It was one of the guns of the forts,
which had been spiked, and was discharged by the burn-
ing element which was now raging over it. Again, three
cheers came over the water, clear and distinct, as their
huzza and the swinging of their hats declared their com-
plete success. The bugle now sounded the retreat in the
tune of " Yankee Doodle," of olden and revolutionary as-
sociations ; and " Hail Columbia" attended their disembar-
kation.
The divisions reached their separate ships in safety ;
and their return was greeted with a cordial welcome.
The heart of the Commodore unbent itself in generous
feelings, as his solicitude was relieved by the return of
every man to the ship who had left it.
Captain Wyman, of the John Adams, an officer of
great coolness, judgment, and gallantry, led the expedition;
whose report to the Commodore, entering into the par-
ticulars of the action of the divisions, and specifying the
names of the officers from both ships, is here given.
" United States Ship John Adams,
Off Muckie, Island of Sumatra, Jan. 1st, 1839.
SIR,
" In execution of your order to me for the entire de-
struction of the town of Muckie, I this day landed on the
beach at the head of the harbor, and about one hundred
and fifty yards from the town, with six divisions of small-
arms, men, and marines, consisting of three hundred and
twenty men, detailed for the service from the squadron
under vour command.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 297
u Upon getting on shore, the different divisions were,
together with the marines, immediately formed by their
respective commanding officers, when all moved forward
for Muckie, which was entered about half-past twelve, in
the afternoon ; and by two o'clock the town was in our
possession. Five forts were taken without opposition,
and the guns found therein, to the number of twenty-one,
spiked and thrown over the parapet into the ditch the
forts set fire to and entirely demolished. The town, at
the same time, was set on fire in numerous places, which
was entirely consumed, together with all the property in
and near the place consisting of proas, coasting craft,
and boats of various sizes and descriptions, and the rig-
ging, yards, &c., &c., found on shore, belonging thereto,
were destroyed in the general conflagration ; and upon
embarking, nothing remained visible to the eye but the
ashes covering the smoking ruins, upon the site on which
the town of Muckie and the forts once stood.
" The zealous and gallant bearing of the officers, and
the efficient discipline manifested in the men by the prompt
and firm manner with which every order was obeyed,
met my unqualified approbation ; and I am certain, that,
had there been more for them to accomplish, more would
have been done ; and, in my opinion, it only required a
steady opposition on the part of our enemies, for which
they had ample resources, to have rendered this, to us, a
brilliant little affair.
" I am much gratified, however, to inform you, that the
object of our landing was completely attained, and the
several divisions, including the marines, returned on board
their respective ships without the loss of a man.
" i enclose herewith a list of the names of the officers
of the squadron, who landed with, and belonged to, the
expedition, and those who had charge of the boats on that
service.
" I have the honor to remain, sir, very respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
T. W. WYMAN,
" Commander, and commanding officer of the expedition.
" To Commodore GEORGE C. READ,
Commanding East India Squadron, off Muckie."
298 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Commander T. W. WYMAN, commanding the expedition.
Parser D. FAUNTLEROY, ^
Passed Mid. E. C. WARD,
Midshipman JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, > Aids to the Commander
Midshipman J. M. WAINWRIGHT,
Midshipman ROBERT S. MORRIS, J
(From the Columbia.')
Lieutenant GEORGE A. MAGRUDER, First Lieutenant of the U. S,
Frigate Columbia, commanding the first division.
Lieutenant JOHN W. TURK, commanding the second division.
Lieutenant THOMAS TURNER, commanding the third division.
Acting Lieutenant A. M. PENNOCK, commanding the fourth division.
Acting Master E. JENKINS,
Passed Mid. D. Ross CRAWFORD,
Midshipmen C. St. G. NOLAND,
Attached to Divisions.
BARNEY, C. R. SMITH, C. SINCLER,
W. W. GREEN, J. L. TOOMER,
and FAUNTLEROY,
Passed Midshipman JAMES McCoRMiCK,
Midshipman EDWARD DONALDSON, In charge of the boats.
Midshipman FITZGERALD,
J. HENSHAW BELCHER, Prof, of Math., ) Acting as
BENJAMIN CROW, Sailmaker, $
(From the John Adams.')
FIRST DIVISION.
Lieutenant E. R. THOMPSON,
Acting Lieutenant JOSEPH W. REVERE,
Midshipman JOHN N. HIXON.
SECOND DIVISION.
Lieutenant GEORGE MINOR,
Acting Master ROBERT B. PEGRAM,
Midshipman ROBERT H. WYMAN.
In charge of boats.
Midshipman JAMES H. SPOTTS,
Midshipman CHARLES T. CROCKER,
Midshipman WILLIAM K. THOMPSON.
soo-soo.
The ships warped out during the evening after the
burning of Muckie further into the offing, and at daylight
in the morning, weighed anchors for. Soo-Soo.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 299
The ships reached Soo-Soo towards evening of the
same day of their sailing from the harbor of Muckie.
The boats commenced watering the next morning, and
hundreds of the natives gathered on the banks of the little
river, where our boats were filling their breakers, all
armed with their peculiar weapons. Our own men wear
a cutlass, and the boats' crews have their pistols and
muskets in readiness, in case of any treachery. The
marines are stationed to keep a space sufficiently clear
for the convenience of the watering party, and to prevent
any sudden attack upon our men.
While our ships have been thus engaged for the two
last days, within sight of Kwala Batu and surrounded by
the natives of Soo-Soo, the priests of Soo-Soo have been
engaged with the Achin Rajah of Kwala Batu, and have
come from him with overtures to the Commodore. The
Rajah dreads a further bombardment of his town, after
we shall have filled up our water. The amount of the
overture is, to give Commodore Read a written obliga-
tion to pay to the owners of the ship Eclipse, one year
from this time, two thousand dollars, the amount said to
have been conveyed to Kwala Batu, by the pirate resid-
ing there, provided the Commodore will make peace with
him, and abstain from further annoying his town. Com-
modore Read accepts this overture of ro Chute Abdullah,
and has exchanged with him for his written obligation,
the following document :
" United States Frigate Columbia,
Off Soo-S6o, Jan. 5, 1839.
" I hereby certify that Po Chute Abdullah, the Rajah
of Kwala Batu, has given me a note of obligation to pay
the amount of two thousand dollars, in twelve months
from this date, to the commander of any vessel of war
or merchantman who may present the same when it be-
comes due.
" As this may appear to be a transaction of some pecu-
liarity, the following explanation may be necessary.
These are the facts: On the 23d of December, 1838, the
frigate Columbia and the sloop of war John Adams were
hauled as close in to the forts and town as they could be
300 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
with safety, for the purpose of compelling, if practicable,
the delivering up of one of the pirates, who was residing
at Kwala Batu, and known to be one of the twelve men
engaged in the murder and robbery committed on board
the American ship Eclipse of Salem. Some time was
consumed in negotiation, and the Rajah of Kwala Batu
at first promised to deliver up the pirate, but afterwards
professed his inability to do so. I therefore deemed it
necessary to fire a few broadsides, to bring the Rajah, if
possible, to a sense of justice. This, however, at the mo-
ment, did not seem to have the desired effect. On my
return from Muckie, however, after the destruction of that
town, the Rajah of Kwala Batu was induced to pledge
himself, that if I would not return to his town for the
purpose of annoying him, he would pay the owners of the
ship Eclipse two thousand dollars, the amount said to
have been conveyed by the pirate to Kwala Batu, on de-
mand, one year from this date.
" GEORGE C. READ,
" Commanding U. S. Naval Force in the Indian Seas."
The Rajah of Kwala Batu has played a politic game ;
and we have done the best thing practicable for ourselves.
Po Chute Abdullah, doubtless, anticipates an increase of
trade by the destruction of Muckie, and will be able to
meet his engagement by the imposts he will lay upon the
pepper exported from his own place ; and the people thus
reimburse the money which the Rajah declares was dis-
tributed generally among them. The trade will continue
uninterrupted, and the people have gained the second les-
son, demonstrating that the American Government has
the power to punish, and is determined to inflict a chas-
tisement on the towns of this coast if their dealings hence-
forth be otherwise than honest and honorable in their
intercourse with our merchant vessels.
TALKS WITH THE RAJAHS OF SOO-SOO.
An interview with the Rajahs of Soo-Soo has been had
by the Commodore, on shore, since our arrival this second
time off Soo-Soo, and the town generally examined. And
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 301
though it appears that there can be no doubt that four of
the robbers and murderers have taken refuge at Soo-Soo,
and brought part of the money here, yet they will not be
given up, nor will the Rajahs be able to pay any amount
which may be demanded of them. To destroy their town
would be a thing practicable, if deemed best in the proba-
ble influence upon the people towards the American
traders on the coast. They, however, have had a demon-
stration of the power of our ships, and of our purposes
both at Kwala Batu and at Muckie, which are situated one
on each side of them ; and clemency shown to them must
be taken as such, in view of what they have seen inflicted
upon others, and what has been fearfully apprehended by
themselves. Besides, we owe, as it is supposed, some-
thing to Po Adam. Soo-Soo is his place of residence, and
it is believed that its destruction would involve him in
ruin, and probably expose his life to be taken on our leav-
ing the coast. The Rajahs at first promised fairly. But,
finding themselves unable to fulfil their engagements, they
retired mostly from the place, expecting it to be attacked
after^ the cannonading of Kwala Batu, notwithstanding
their white flags were waving in the tops of the bamboo
clusters immediately after our guns began to play upon
the forts of Kwala Batu. Contrary to their expectation,
however, we left for Muckie destroyed that place, and
returned to our present anchorage ground, nearer in to
the shore than when we first anchored off the neighbor-
ing town of Kwala Batu.
It is known that the Rajahs of Soo-Soo, and most of
the people, have again returned to their houses. " The
women," Po Adam says, " cry, and the men too when the
big ships come again." But the Rajahs professed the
continuance of their friendship have suffered the party to
water without molesting them, while one. or two hundred
of their armed men have been collected on the beach
nearly the whole three days during which our boats have
been bringing off* water to the ships.
To-day, according to previous arrangement, the Com-
modore and Captain Wyman, whom I accompanied, went
to meet the Rajahs. There are four in number, having
26
302 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
authority in the town ; and they were to be gathered at
Po Adam's house.
The Commodore's gig led the way around a reef of
coral rocks, over which the breakers dash their white
foam ; and followed by Captain Wyman's boat, we en-
tered over a sand-bar into the mouth of a beautiful little
stream, which empties into the sea, as most of the rivers
of the island do, by a curve, when they have nearly reach-
ed the beach. The surf of the sea produces an embank-
ment, which forces the rivulet to course for a short distance
parallel with the sea- shore ; but ere long the stream, glid-
ing obliquely and silverly along, mingles its tide from the
green mountains with the deep waters of the blue seas.
Our men sprang from the boat as we struck the bar, and
bore it steadily forward as a few inrolling breakers swept
us over the shoal without delay or danger ; and then we
glided up the little sylvan way of the narrow stream some
yards to a landing point, on the grounds of Po Adam.
Could an American of the north have been conveyed
suddenly from his home and placed where we stood as we
stepped from the boat, he would have been in ecstasy, if
he had any susceptibility to the beauty of nature. The
stream was almost embowered by the leaves of the palm,
graceful and fan-like, curving over their half circle of gor-
geous foliage in their place, and blending with the tall
trunks of the cocoa-nut tree, spreading its top like an um-
brella upon a pole, but Asiatic and picturesque beyond
description in its effect ; while the bay-tree, and the ba-
nana, and the forest giant, and their lesser and more grace-
ful associates, with the tall and luxurious bamboo every-
where softening the scene, surrounded us.
As our boat came suddenly to the green bank of this
little stream, we surprised one of Po Adam's young wives,
with her shawl thrown from off her shoulders, leaving her
breast and gracefully curved amber arms uncovered, while
she seemed like some \vater nymph just escaping from
the stream where she had been bathing. A small dish of
fish nicely dressed declared the errand of the Naiad. She
was quite pretty, with the exception of the nose a feature,
which the Malays insist on flattening. A nose as wide
as it is long is regarded by them as nearly the perfection
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 303
of beauty, as it is a perfect square. But nature, in this
instance of Po Adam's youngest espoused, resolved not
to resign all her rights of sovereignty ; and in some other
instances I have seen native women of this place who
possessed a share of feminine softness, and that species
of beauty which consists in the rotund Egyptian style of
feature.
A narrow path led us through a beautiful green field
of rice, surrounded by a range of banana-trees, contrast-
ing with their light yellow green and wide-spreading leaves,
with the deeper green of the bay and cocoa-nut and the
palm. We reached the house of Po Adam, surrounded
by a bamboo fence, which included several other buildings
occupied by his men and friends.
We drank of tke cocoa-nuts, which were brought us ;
and soon two of the Rajahs, the principal two of the place,
were present, with their seals, ready to place their impres-
sions to the following document, which had been previous-
ly prepared.
AGREEMENT OP THE RAJAHS.
" WE THE RAJAHS OF Soo-Soo, for ourselves and the
inhabitants of Soo-Soo on the west coast of Sumatra, sen-
sibly affected by the clemency practised towards us, on the
late visit of the frigate Columbia and the John Adams, do
hereby pledge ourselves to suffer no American vessel to be
molested hereafter, and by all means in our power to pre-
vent all wicked designs for annoying or in any way injur-
ing them.
" Should we ever hear of any plan being laid for the
capture of an American vessel, we engage, forthwith, to
give notice of the same to the commander or whoever
may be on board said vessel, in time for them to prepare
themselves for the defence of their lives and the protection
of their property.
" And we do further pledge o.urselves, that in case any
piratical expedition should at any time hereafter be at-
tempted, or successful plunder be committed upon any
American vessel, and the plunderers should take refuge
amongst us, we will secure their persons and the property
304 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
taken, in the best manner we can, and keep them until
they can be delivered to the first vessel of war of the United
States of America which shall arrive on the coast, or to
any merchantman who shall be willing to take them to the
United States for their trial. But we profess our utter ina-
bility to comply with the demand for the delivering up of
the pirates, and the property belonging to the ship Eclipse
the pirates having fled from the place the moment it
was known that the United States ships of war had come
to Soo-Soo, for the purpose of securing them.
" In. short, we promise to do all that lies in our power
to cultivate the friendship of the United States, which we
know to be our interest to preserve, and which we here
solemnly pledge ourselves, henceforth, in every way, to en-
deavor to maintain.
"In testimony of these our desires and our solemn
pledges, we hereto affix our several signatures and seals.
" DATU BUGAH,
" DATU BUGENAH,
" DATU MODAH,
" DATU UMPATE.
" To Commodore George C. Read, commanding the American ships
of war, off Soo-Soo, January 8th, 1839."
The seals of the Rajahs were made of brass, cut with
Arabic characters. The surface of the stamp, for such
was its character, being an engraved brass plate, attached
to a wooden handle, was now held over the flame of a
cocoa-nut oil lamp, until the lamp-black, or the smoke of
the lamp had well coated the surface of the seal, and the
flame had heated it for the impression. One of the Rajahs,
with a small weapon from his girdle, split a green beetel-
nut ; and with half of it the paper was moistened for the
impression of the heated and blackened stamp. The heat-
ed seal was then applied, and left its dark ground on the
sheet, with the Arabic letters containing the name of the
Rajah in a relief of white.
The Rajahs, at the time, seemed to be impressed with
the solemnity of the transaction ; but whether it will result
in any restraint upon themselves or people, after our de-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 305
parture from the coast, remains a problem which a short
time only can evolve.
Two of the four Rajahs of Soo-Soo not being present
when the principal ones affixed their seals to the preced-
ing paper, it was proposed that the names of the other
two should be appended to the instrument the succeeding
day, in the presence of the Rajahs who had already signed
it ; and, accordingly, another interview for this purpose
was fixed upon, to take place the succeeding morning.
RAMBLE.
I took a stroll from Po Adam's residence, embowered
in all the variety of Asiatic fruit-trees, through several ad-
jacent bamboo gates and bamboo enclosures, inwallipg a
cluster of some four or five houses in each area, alike
shaded by the clustering trees. There are no streets
through the town, but by-paths, to be threaded only by foot
passengers neither horses nor other animals being used
here, either for the purpose of burden or tillage. While
passing through one of these enclosures, I suddenly came
upon a very respectable looking Malay, who was dandling
in his arms an infant of two or three months of age, with
its mother near. I felt that I had a secret to the hearts,
even of savages, if such were before me, where they felt
as much pleasure as these Malays exhibited in their coun-
tenances as they petted this rather interesting little urchin.
They were parents, and this was their child. I approached
them by surprise, and taking a vest button, with an eagle
stamped upon it, I placed it to the neck of the little child,
indicating that the mother, with a string, should make a
necklace of it for the piccaninny. The mother received
it with a mother's smile ; and whistling kindly myself, as
well as I knew how, (I have always abominated whistlers
as invariably ill-bred men,) to please the little chubby, I
passed on. But that would not do. The next moment
I was seized by the arm, and I must wait a moment, as my
captor indicated ; and I had only turned, when I perceived
this Malay mother waving from the verandah of the house,
into which she had suddenly ascended by a step-ladder, a
bundle of white grass, and I was begged by the movement
26*
306 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to accept it. I declined taking it, when the disappointed
woman, in an instant, waved another and larger bundle
from above me, with a kind smile that said, I would give
you a more valuable present did we possess it. I at once
recollected myself, and took two threads from the bundle,
and winding it carefully, put it into my pocket, assuring
them that this was enough as a specimen, and I would keep
it, as a remembrance of the little Malayu and his parents.
As I made another attempt to leave the grounds, they still
insisted that I must delay, to take some cocoa-nuts. I had
seen one of their slaves rush from the gate a moment
before, and he now had returned with a large monkey ;
a line of great length being, in a small coil, attached to
him. The monkey knew his business better than I could
conjecture it, as the next moment he was seen ascending
an immensely tall cocoa-nut tree, on the stem of which,
fifty feet up, not a branch put out, and from the top of
which the gracefully bending leaves, with their long stems,
together formed an umbrella, as it were, to keep the water
of the cocoa-nuts, which were clustering about the top of
the trunk, from boiling in the hot sun, and preserving it
cool and refreshing, to quench the thirst of the heated na-
tive.
Jacko was directed on which long stem of the branch-
ing leaf he should place himself, and the six cocoa-nuts he
must select. The animal accomplished the whole of the
command in a few moments, and the cocoa-nuts fell from
the top. These were opened for me, and I partook of the
acceptable beverage.
" Good-by, good-by, Malayu," I said, and again attempt-
ed to make my escape, but the kind hearts of this Malay
couple begged that I would let the sailor who was accom-
panying me take for me a handsome game-cock, which
had been caught in these few minutes, and which a slave
was now holding for my acceptance. I begged that 1
might be excused, as the hour was already passed when 1
was to be with the Rajahs, and I would come and see them
again to-morrow.
" Come, true," said the Malay, " and I will have a chi
nam shell for you."
The succeeding morning, agreeably to the appointment
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 307
the four Rajahs were assembled, and the names of the
other two were affixed to the letter of obligation, which they
had mutually entered into, and addressed, as already cop-
ied, to Commodore Read. I accompanied Captain Wyman
to the shore to witness the completion of this instrument.
We then wandered through the town, the inhabitants hav-
ing partially recovered from their apprehensions, though
the women and the young children generally made the
quickest speed possible to reach the verandahs of their
bamboo houses as we passed. The Rajahs expressed a
desire to visit the ship, and were invited to do so.
" Soo-Soo safe now," was added in their own style of a
mongrel English ; " we no fight now we friends ;" and,
with an amicable shake of the hand and the drinking of
the delicious water from the fresh cocoa-nuts, ended the
interview.
TALK WITH PO KWALA.
Pulau Kayu is a fort which is situated on the point inter-
mediate between Kwala Batu and Soo-Soo, little less than
three miles distant from each, and the nearest point of land
to our ships, as they are now moored a mile distant from
the shore.
Po Adam formerly resided here, and gave us to suppose
that he had the best right to the fort still, and is quite desirous
that the Commodore should restore it to him. There would
be no hesitation on the subject, could it be ascertained that
his claims are just. But the representations of others de-
clare that Po Adam always held Pulau Kayu as a tenant
at will, and was displaced by the present Rajah or his
father, in consequence of some commercial misunderstand-
ing between him and Po Adam. The present Rajah of the
place is Taku Yah-Housin, and .a relative of Po Kwala,
the Pedir Rajah of Kwala Batu.
Since our return from Muckie, Po Kwala has manifested
the greatest desire to make peace with the Commodore.
His fort at Kwala Batu was fired into by the John Adams,
at the cannonading of that town, riddled and battered.
He displayed during the whole time a white flag, and sev-
eral messages to the Commodore were sent on board. But
308 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
it was the purpose of Commodore Read to hold no definite
communication with this Rajah unless he came on board
the Columbia. His fort was the one which opened on the
boats of the Potomac as they were disembarking, after
their landing and fight, when she was on this coast.
It was evident however that Po Kwala was unwilling
to trust his person in the hands of the Americans until some
treaty had been made, and presents of buffaloes and other
testimonies of friendship had been accepted.
To-day, however, accompanied by Captain Silver, of
the ship Sumatra, which has been lying outside of us for a
day or two, I went on shore with Lieutenant Pennock to
meet Po Kwala at Palau Kayu, the fort occupied by his
kinsman. And the Rajah promised the captain a favora-
ble contract, and would soon load his ship with pepper, if
Commodore Read could be induced to make a treaty of
peace with him.
We landed amidst a large number of men, bearing as
usual their long blades and krises. Po Nyah-heit met us
and conducted us to the verandah, constituting the council-
hall. It was a covered portico, elevated some feet from
the ground, open on its three sides, and extending the whole
length of the bamboo house. Cocoa-nuts, us usual, were
brought fresh from the trees, which were now embowering
us ; and with their blades, always very sharp weapons,
several of the men soon chipped off one end of the cocoa-
nuts, and having laid the inner shell bare, they applied, the
point of their keen daggers to the soft part of the bowl
containing the milk, and passed the refreshing goblet, na-
ture's unperverted gift, to our acceptance. We drank of
the cooling liquid, while the brother of Po Kwala, Po Nyah-
heit, and the Rajah of Pulau Kayu occupied their conspicu-
ous places on the council-mats, as their men surrounded
the verandah.
" Why Po Kwala no' come ?" asked the captain, after
the cocoa-nuts had been passed, in that style of language
which the Malays use when attempting English.
" Po Kwala come soon four men gone for Po Kwala,"
was the reply. Captain S. had seen the Rajah the evening
previous, who assured him that he would meet any propo-
sition that might be made the next morning, and would be
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 309
at the point to attend the council desired. But there is
always great ceremony on the part of these Malay Rajahs,
when they are to appear in council. Two or three sets
of men are despatched, to let the Rajah know that his pres-
ence is desired, and his delay is generally measured for its
length by the greater or less consideration with which he
is held by his followers.
" Po Kwala no come yet how much longer Po Kwala
make, and Po Kwala come ?" was again asked by Captain
S., after another interval had passed, during which Po
Nyah-heit had informed the captain that he esteemed me as
his particular friend, thinking that I had served him in some
two or three instances ; and in a few moments more a
small buffalo pranced along the end of the verandah, with
a rope affixed to his head, by which it was tied to a cocqa-
nut tree in front of the verandah. It was to be a present
from Taku Yah-Housin, the chief of Palau Kayu, who was
now sitting in the council.
Po Kwala not yet having reached the point, we took a
stroll over the grounds and through the forts which consti-
tute the location of Palau Kayu. The point is crowded
with trees bearing a great variety of fruits, magnificent in
their size and beautiful in their every variety of green fo-
liage. The cocoa-nut tree is the first that attracts the eye ;
its stem rising boughless, high up, and terminating with
long branching leaves, which curve over gracefully like
an umbrella, at the junction of which with the stem, the
fruit clusters at the head of the trunk of this peculiar tree.
It would look too stiff and naked were it standing alone ;
but they stand in groves, and their naked stems are con-
cealed more or less by the graceful palm, which serves this
people as a building material in constructing their light
houses, and entirely for their roofs. But the yet more grace-
ful bamboo waves everywhere, blending its deep green and
feathery top wherever nature would soften this otherwise
harsh scenery of the East. The tamarind tree, and the
mango, and the wide-leaf plantain, and banana, and name-
less other trees are seen yielding to the hands of these in-
dolent Malays the necessaries of life, and giving a luxuri-
riance to the appearance of the country, which assures
one what it might be in the hands of an intelligent and
industrious people.
310 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The principal fort is stronger than any other which I
have seen on the coast, while they all seem to have but one
model. An area is enclosed by a bamboo stockade, the
bamboo often still growing, and thus lasting for a long peri-
od. Around this stockade a thick cluster of trees and briers
soon form themselves, rendering a passage through the
jungle or hedge thus formed almost impracticable to the na-
tive. On one corner of this area, or at the part where the
best defence can be made, an outwork is raised, being the
positions of the guns upon the mole. Between this eleva-
tion and the first enclosure is a space, and the passage from
the first area over the stockade, to the outwork, is by as-
cending a flight of steps to a plank, leading from the large
enclosure to the raised abutment, on which the guns are
placed ; and the plank is so disposed that in case a force
should make their way into the stockaded enclosure, the
plank can be raised like a drawbridge, and still impede
the advancing party in their approach to the stronghold,
the passage-way to which is usually defended by one of
the mounted cannon.
It is wholly constructed for self-defence against any at-
tacking party on land, and would afford a place of some
security in the perpetually occurring feuds between the dif-
ferent clans and big men of the coast. They are of little
consequence however in an attack made by an European
or American force. The torch would soon render the
place intolerable, and a few axes would open a passage in
any part of it, while the gate itself would give way to a
few blows from the sledge-hammer wielded by an arm of
the muscular power of our blacksmith.
The guns of the forts are miserably mounted six-pound-
ers. In the furthermost fort on the point, the guns had
been buried ; the Rajah fearing that we might land and
spike them, or take them from their place. The spot
where they had been covered for their preservation, was
pointed out to us.
We returned to the verandah, but Po Kwala had not
yet made his appearance, though we had been ashore for
nearly two hours, and it was now nearly twelve o'clock.
" Tell Po Nyah-heit and the others' 1 1 said to the inter-
preter, " that we wait no longer. If Po Kwala wants to
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 311
make talk he must come soon or not at all. To-day we are
willing to talk with him, and we have no more talk after
to-day"
" He come" " he coming," added two or three voices,
as they stretched their eye along the beach, to which they
had before turned, marking out the point from which they
expected him.
" Po Kwala wants to bring buffaloes Po Kwala come
some distance Po Kwala come soon true."
Po Nyah-heit had only listened to the interpretation of
what was addressed to them, and marked the air of impa-
tience and determination with which it had been spoken.
He rose from his mat, retiring from the council, and put
his head through a door, which led from the verandah. His
call being replied to from within, he immediately entered.
In a few moments he reappeared with seven followers,
each having a cleaver in his right hand, a kris in his gir-
dle, and a blunderbuss upon his left shoulder ; and in a
moment after was threading his way with his followers,
in Indian file, along the beach.
" Po Nyah-heit make fight ?" asked the Captain.
" Po Nyah-heit go for Po Kwala," was the reply.
A few moments more and they were lost to the sight
around a neighboring point of land. One of his seven re-
tainers who now followed him was a striking contrast to
the rest. He was a tall Caffre, with high cheek-bones but
long face, with a skin darker than the blackest night, and
teeth of jet in contrast with the bright color of the inner
surface of his large lips, which glowed deeper than the
reddest enamel of a sea-conch. He wore a scarlet jacket,
and a light turban twisted around a red skull-cap. One
would pause and look three times before he advanced to
meet such a figure, should he happen to cross his path ;
but his third look would assure him that his confronter
was a coward, and would retreat after the first discharge
of his blunderbuss, and postpone his murderous deeds to
be done by stealth. This dark Caffre is evidently a fa-
vorite slave of Po Nyah-heit's, and once seen would al-
ways be remembered as one of Po Nyah-heit's train of
followers.
" Po Kwala come," said one of the chiefs, as his eye
312 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
rested on two figures, winding their way back, though in
the distance, on the beach.
" True ?" asked the Captain, as he seemed himself to
begin to fear that the Rajah's heart would fail him, having
apprehended that some train might be laid for securing
his person. In another moment a hundred more men
doubled around the point, and left it certain that the two
in advance were Po Nyah-heit and Po Kwala.
A single Malay entered the verandah and placed him-
self behind Captain S., apparently unobserved, and whis-
pered low: " Captain Silver heart and Po Kwala heart one
the same. Po Kwala safe ?" asked the solicitous Malay,
who, with others, had evidently been sent ahead to make
their observations and to report, if necessary.
It was evident that Po Kwala was now near; and in a
moment more two magnificent bullocks, with their heads
up and their horns sloping back almost to their hips, were
led around the verandah, and exhibited themselves with a
step that seemed to indicate that they were conscious of
their superior blood and royal ownership.
" Beautiful creatures !" involuntarily escaped me, as 1
fazed on these sleek animals, round and plump as the
nest prize ox that ever riband ornamented, and shining
with as clean a coat of glossy hair as the finest groomed
steed of a nobleman.
" Beautiful !" was re-echoed by another, and the snuff-
ing and gentle creatures in their jet and fawn beauty, sur-
passing any thing I ever before saw of the bovine genus
of animals, now passed by the verandah to the shade of
the cocoa-nut trees, as Po Kwala came up from the beach
and entered the council-chamber.
He was not that cut-throat looking individual which he
had been represented to be. His person was rather small,
his deportment more gentlemanly than any other Rajah's
I have met with, with an unaffected air, which declared
him to be of a family above the mass who surrounded him,
though a little solicitude could occasionally be detected in
the roll of his eye. His dark jacket was edged with lace,
and a gold chinam box and nobs ornamented the silk hand-
kerchief containing his beetel-nut, and thrown carelessly
over his shoulders ; while a richly mounted poniard with
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 313
a highly ornamental hilt and gold scabbard, studded his
girdle.
He took his seat at the head of the verandah, and after
the cocoa-nuts had passed around, the interpreter was di-
rected to say that the Rajah had been expected on board
last evening, but having delayed to visit the ship and yet
expressing his earnest desire to make peace with the Com-
modore, we had come ashore to hold a talk with him.
Was he ready to commence it ?
The Rajah expressed his desire to hear what the Com-
modore had directed to be communicated.
" Tell the Rajah, Jones," (the name of our interpreter,)
" that the Americans desire to be on friendly terms with
the Rajahs and their people on the coast that we do not
desire to injure them, but to further the interests of both
themselves and our people that we desire a peaceful in-
tercourse, but that we have come on the coast again to
show that we have the power to protect our commerce,
and that we not only have the power but the determina-
tion to inflict chastisement upon those who commit acts
of piracy against our traders, and on all who shelter them.
We have now done so. Other vessels of war would be
on the coast in due time, and if similar occurrences should
take place to those which had befallen the Eclipse, the
murderers and the robbers would be punished. It was
expected by the Commodore, from all with whom he en-
tered into an agreement of peace on the part of the United
States, that they should engage most solemnly that they
would do all in their power to prevent any further piracies
on the coast that in case any attack should be projected
(it was hoped that there would never be another, but if
there should be) and the Rajah should hear of it, he must
at once give information to the captain and the hands on
board the vessel ; and if any of the pirates should take re-
fuge in any Rajah's particular jurisdiction, he will ap-
prehend them and retain them for the first man-of-war
that afterwards comes on the coast. Would the Rajah
solemnly pledge himself in these particulars, if the Com-
modore would treat with him ?"
" The Rajah will pledge," was the reply.
Then tell the Rajah that we have here a paper which
27
314 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
embraces these particulars and pledges, to which it is
required that he will affix his seal, himself to retain a
duplicate of the paper, as evidence of the pledges made.
If any of his men understand English, they will be good
enough to attend, and mark that the sentences are correct-
ly interpreted.
The following paper was then interpreted, sentence by
sentence, to the Rajah, a number of those around assenting
audibly to the correspondence of the English with the
sense of each sentence, as given in Malayu to the Rajah.
The date of it was explained to him, as it had been pre-
pared the last evening, in expectation of his coming off to
the Columbia, to sign the paper.
" United States Frigate Columbia, off Soo-Soo,
"January llth, 1839."
" Po Kwala, Pedir Rajah at Kwala Batu, having come
on board of the Columbia with desires to make peace with
the Government of the United States,
" HEREBY DECLARES, that henceforth he will use every
effort, on his part, to assist the American ships which may
be trading on the west coast of Sumatra, and bring all
means in his power to suppress all piracies on the coast.
And in case any designed robbery or attack upon any
American vessel should be known to him, he will use his
power to stop it, and give immediate information to the
captain and all who may be on board, for their defence
and protection.
" And should any of his men be guilty of the crime of
piracy against an American vessel ; or, should any pirates
take refuge among his people, he pledges himself that they
shall be punished by death, or given up to the Govern-
ment of the United States for trial, on the demand of the
commander of any armed United States vessel, or to the
captain of any merchantman who may be willing to take
them to the United States of America.
" In testimony of these feelings, Po Kwala hereto affixes
his signature and seal."
Every word of this document was listened to with great
attention, as it was interpreted sufficiently loud for the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 3lt>
large number of Po Kwala's men to hear, who had now
crowded into the verandah and around its balustrade.
The Rajah took his seal to apply it to the instrument.
" We speak true we have but one tongue, tell the
Rajah and &sk him if he fully understands the paper as
it has been interpreted."
" True we understand," was the reply from the Rajah
and several of his chief men ; while a peal of thunder sud-
denly rolled loud and long above the verandah, telling the
near approach of a gathering shower. The profound
calm of a death-scene reigned, while the Rajah still held
his seal.
" Tell the Rajah, that he hears the voice of Allah speak-
ing above us. We do all in Allah's name. Ask if he
pledges himself with equal solemnity and truth."
" True in Allah's name I pledge," was the reply ; and
his seal was on the paper.
It was a striking coincidence, that solemn roll of thun-
der through the heavens at this moment, and every Malay
suppressed his breath in the stillness that reigned. They
are said to be greatly timid in a thunder-storm ; and while
witnessing the present scene, in their present circum-
stances, there must have been deepness added to the emo-
tion of profound veneration that came over the spirit, as
the voice of God was heard so audibly in his works.
The sel of the Rajah having been affixed, the instru-
ment was witnessed by
TUKU NYAH-OUSSIN,
Po NYAH-HEIT,
TUKU NYAH-AHLEE,
FITCH W. TAYLOR, Chaplain U. S. Frigate Columbia ;
ALEXANDER PENNOCK, Act. Lieut. U. S. Frigate Columbia ;
PETER SILVER, Commander of ship Sumatra ;
T. HENSHAW BELCHER, Prof, of Math. U. S. Fr. Columbia.
" We are now at peace, and hope we shall long be
friends," it was said, as the two parties shook the hand of
(he other, in token of their future friendly purposes.
" Stay a moment," was the request of the Rajah, while
he offered to the acceptance of the Commodore the two
316 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
magnificent bullocks that had been led past the verandah,
and tendered another to Captain Silver.
They were accepted, and the Rajah invited to visit the
ship. He placed himself in the boat with his brother, Po
Nyah-heit, the Rajah of Pulau Kayu, and tRe boat pulled
for the Columbia. I had ascended from the boat over the
gangway to the deck of the frigate, and watched the Ra-
jah as he descended the steps to the deck. His attendants
had advanced before him. The Rajah, on reaching the
highest step of the gangway, paused hesitatingly an in-
stant, and then came down to the deck.
They visited the cabin, and paid their respects to the
Commodore, who now affixed his signature to the instru-
ment which had been signed by the Rajah. Having been
shown over the ship, they left her again, doubtless duly
impressed with our power the Rajah expressing his high
gratification and surprise, and desire to have an oppor-
tunity further to listen to the music the bass-drum par-
ticularly attracting his attention.
And, should I judge from the Rajah's unwillingness to
come on board until after the treaty was signed, and the
buffaloes were accepted and the little reluctance which
seemed occasionally to affect him afterwards and the
doubt of security manifesting itself as he came over the
gangway I take it that his Rajahship was greatly happy
when he found himself, with his head still on, once more
safely on shore. The next day he would have visited the
ship, but it rained in torrents ; and the second morning
after, at daylight, the ships were unmoored and again
standing on their course at sea.
From the despatches of Commodore Read to the Sec-
retary of the Navy, containing full accounts of the action
of the squadron, on the west coast of Sumatra, I extract
the following paragraphs, commendatory of the officers
named, when alluding to the expedition at Muckie.
" For the performance and execution of this service,
Commander T. W. Wyman exhibited a promptness and
energy which could not be surpassed ; and had an enemy
appeared to oppose the advance of the party, his gallantry
would have been conspicuous.
" To Lieutenant Magruder, executive officer of the Co-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 317
lumbia, I feel much indebted for the good order and expe-
dition with which the men from the Columbia were landed
and led by him, and for the previous training they had
received, the advantages of which were now apparent.
" Lieutenants Turk, Turner, and Pennock, merit my
warm acknowledgments, as' leaders of their separate di-
visions ; and the conduct of Lieutenant Baker, who led
the marines, deserves my unqualified approbation. Much
was expected from the marines on the occasion, and much
no doubt would have been done, had further proof of
their skill and discipline been required.
" Acting Master Jenkins, Midshipmen Crawford, No-
land, Barney, Smith, Sincler, Green, Toomer, Fauntleroy,
McCormick, and Donaldson ; Mr. Belcher, Professor of
Mathematics, Mr. Martin the Gunner, Mr. Crow the Sail-
maker, were all embarked in this enterprise, and are spo-
ken of in terms of praise by Commander Wyman, to whose
report, sent herewith, I must refer you for the further
particulars of this affair, and for the names of those of-
ficers who landed with him from the John Adams. He
speaks in high terms of them all, and gives me every
reason to believe that they merit my approbation and
thanks."
27*
From an original Chinese
A
VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,
AND VISITS TO
VARIOUS FOREIGN COUNTRIES,
UNITED STATES FRIGATE COLUMBIA;
ATTENDED BY HER CONSORT
THE SLOOP OF WAR JOHN ADAMS,
AND COMMANDED BY
COMMODORE GEORGE C. READ.
ALSO INCLUDING
AH ACCOUNT OF THE BOMBARDING AND FIRING OF THE TOWN OF MUCKIE, ON THE MALAY
COAST, AND THK VISIT OF THE SHIPS TO CHINA DURING THE OPIUM DIFFICULTIES
AT CANTON, AND CONFINEMENT OF THE FOREIGNERS IN THAT CITY
BY FITCH W. TAYLOR,
4}aj)lafn to tf)e .Squatrron.
VOL. II.
NINTH EDITION.
NEW-HAVEN:
PUBLISHED BY H. MANSFIELD.
NEW-YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.
1847.
Entered according to Act of Congress, by
K. MANSFIELD,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut
VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD
SECTION I.
PENANG.
Leaving the frigate, in a boat, while the ship is twenty miles distant from
the shore. Dine with the Consular Agent. The Mangusteen. A night-
sail.
OUR ships doubled Achin Head, the northwestern end
of the island of Sumatra, after a few days' passage from
Soo-Soo, without incident, and arrived off Penang, Prince
of Wales' Island. A boat was sent ashore, to convey
the compliments of the Commodore to the Governor, and
to obtain a pilot to conduct the Columbia through the
straits of Malacca to Singapore.
Lieutenants Palmer and Jarvis, accompanied by my-
self, landed at the town, after a pull of five hours in one
of the ship's boats, and over a distance of twenty miles.
The distance was greater than supposed when we left the
ship ; and before we reached the shore, the highest truck
of the Columbia had sunken in the distance, and was en-
tirely lost to the eye. The broad folds of the American
ensign were floating in front of the Consulate as our boat
approached the town; and Mr. Reverly, our Consular
Agent, was at the landing-place to meet us, to conduct us
to his residence. We were pleased with the neatness
presented by the green-coated area through which we
passed, intersected by the public avenues, gravelled, and
lined on either side by sluice-ways, for conducting the
water from the grounds ; and we had but a moment con-
templated the air of neatness, comfort, and beauty which
6 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the place presented to our first view, before we were
wishing that it might be compatible with the duties of the
squadron to delay a few days at this anchorage. But
the scarcity of our stores requires that the ships, without
further delay, should proceed to Singapore, where the
first store-ship for our supply has been directed to meet
us from the United States.
It was five o'clock P. M. when we reached Mr. Rever-
ly's. A bountiful table, with the air of domestic comfort,
was awaiting us ; and we found ourselves agreeably
entertained as we sat down to the acceptable repast, with
Mr. R.'s family.
Among the fruits presented us at the table, was the
mangusteen, .(garcinia mangostana,) so invariably alluded
to by all visiters to the Indies, as the choicest fruit which
the earth produces.
"And this is the mangusteen of which we have heard
so much, but which before I have not seen," I said to Mr.
R. as the fruit-dish, containing fine specimens of the fruit,
was passed to me. " And some days ago, when a gentle-
man, on whose left I was sitting, helped me to the delicious
mango, he added, if you will pause a moment I will show
you how to eat it. I doubt not you will be equally kind."
M. R. placed his knife upon the centre of the globulous
fruit, and passing the instrument horizontally around it,
raised one half of the thick rind from the other, leaving
exposed to the view the beautifully white pulp of the fruit,
resting in the other half of the bowl, in beautiful contrast
with its brown covering. This inner globule of pulp is
divided into four or five unequal parts, each enveloping
its seed, but together forming a complete scalloped whole.
You take these with your fork easily from the cup or the
thick rind ; and the mildly-acid pulp convinces you, that
the mangusteen justly holds, for its richness and exquisite
acido-dulcis taste, the first place among the delicious fruits
of the East.
Another fruit yet more peculiar and nearly as delicious
as the mangusteen, enriched the dessert. It had the ap-
pearance of a dish of immense oblong strawberries as
they occupy the fruit-dish, but you wonder that they
should be so large. As you take one, you find the external
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
coat bristled with elongated and flexible fibres ; and cutting
the red cuticle, it exposes a semi-translucent pulp resem-
bling the grape, and enclosing its single oblong seed. This
fruit is called the rambutan. Several were crowded upon
my plate, together with the mangusteen, which last, with
its severed rind, leaving the beautiful white pulp resting
in one half of its brown cup, may remind one of the mag-
nolia in its green calix, and suggest the idea that it holds
its pride of place among the fruits of the Indies, as the
magnolia grandiflora blooms the reigning queen in the
kingdom of beautiful flowers. The doctor having whis-
pered me, not to indulge in the eating of fruits when he
heard of my intention to visit the shore, I refrained with
admirable self-denial, as I thought, with such temptations
before me.
Carriages were waiting us at the door, through the
politeness of Mr. R., as we arose from the table, to give
us a short drive through the town and into the country,
along the beautiful and evergreen paths, which charac-
terize all this region of the East, and rendered additionally
lovely and commodious by art, which is ever the case
wherever the English have planted themselves, whose
hand beautifies whatever it touches.
We returned to Mr. R.'s to tea ; and having spent the
evening and been favored with music, which carried our
associations far over the waters, w.e took our leave be-
tween eleven and twelve o'clock, with the expectation of
spending the remaining part of the night upon the water.
As our boat put to sea to find our ship, the land-breeze
had just commenced to blow from the shore. Our sails
were set, and the breeze strengthened, and the sea in-
creased. We stood on our night-path, hoping in an hour
or two to raise the ship in the direction we supposed her
to be lying, presuming that she had not changed her posi-
tion since we last saw her, when she had come to anchor,
after standing to the northward some miles from where
we had left her.
" Shall we have more wind, pilot ?" was inquired by
the officer, as the sails began to feel the pressure of the
freshening breeze, so as to drive the boat with consider-
able velocity over the sea.
8 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" A little more breeze," answered the pilot, who was
placed upon his bag of traps, and now turned his eye as
directed towards the north, where a cloud seemed to be
deepening as the gleams of lightning occasionally shot
horizontally across the dark field.
" Pilot, is there a prospect of more sea ?" again asked
the officer, after an interval, during which the wind con-
tinued to freshen and the waves to dash with greater force
against our boat, as she bent to the impulse of the heavy air.
"A little more sea," replied the pilot mechanically,
" but not more than the boat will stand."
" In the bows there see you the ship yet ?"
It was impossible to catch a glimpse of the naked spars
in the dark distance, I well knew, although the watchful
care of the officer strained his eye to find the first indi-
cation of the rising masts of the frigate, of which, we
knew not yet, but that she had changed her position, and
as we hoped had stood further in to meet us and to lessen
our row.
The fair breeze however took us onward every now
and then some one of the look-outs expressing his belief
that he saw the spars of the ship in the dim distance be-
yond us. But the awakened hope generally soon faded,
as some tracery of cloud melted away and left the field
again a blank and dark expanse.
The moon had emerged from a clouded heaven, while
we had been standing on our course out to sea in our light
barque, as the veil that had concealed moon and star
threw aside its folds, and the silver path she now marked
upon the water south of us held my own gaze, as I hoped
the ship, if yet under way, might be discerned as she
crossed this brilliant wake of the peerless moon. But we
stood yet on our night-path without gaining a view of the
object for which we were searching. More than three
hours had passed, and we had been driving before the
stiff breeze off the land.
" I say the bows there !" cried the officer again, for
more than the twentieth time. " See you not the ship
there, a point on the weather bow ? I know I see her,"
continued the positive officer, as he further directed the
eyes of the look-outs.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 9
" Ay ay sir ! I see her," replied the sailor in the
bows of the boat.
" Keep your eye on her then, sir," continued the offi-
cer, as he satisfied himself that he was not again de-
ceived, while he traced the distant poles like three spindles,
faintly lining themselves on the horizon. " I know she is
there, and the Adams lies beside her by George, they
are there, both of them."
The Adams must have come up during the day, as she
was not in sight at the time we left the Columbia in the
morning. And now the moon, on her course, was already
fast settling, and another half-hour she would be driving
her chariot and peacocks beyond the rim of the dark sea.
She had already, for more than an hour past, assumed the
melancholy of the farewell, and an hour before we finally
reached the ship, she dipped the wheels of her night-car
in the furthest-seen wave beyond the Columbia.
I know not in nature a more melancholy object than
the setting moon. And I shall never forget where I first
saw it. It was from a stage-coach, at midnight, in a state
far south, on my return from a tour to the southernmost
part of our union. It was at a point where the coaches
exchanged their passengers, and travellers from every
point replenished the vehicle for its new course. The
coach had been crowded, and one seat alone was unoccu-
pied as I took it, at the window ; and all seemed to wait
for the morning light to develop the countenances of the
party, before words were exchanged. And yet, so sad
did that moon look that night, as in her full orb she set-
tled behind the distant forests, I ventured to direct the
eye of the lady-passenger, who sat in front of me, to the
mournful object. I know not that this page will meet that
eye, with which but few eyes I have since seen in this
world could at all compare, for its loveliness of expres-
sion and color, as it opened in the morning's light ; but
should it, she will remember the incident, and the rescue
that saved others besides herself from the perils of a
grave in the deep. Reader, watch you the declining
moon at the hour of her next midnight-setting, and tell
me if it be not a sorrowful thing.
The second officer of the boat had now taken his look,
10 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
after we had approached still nearer to the ships, and re
took his seat, satisfied that we were nearing her on the
right course, as he added, in his own manner : " No mis-
take she's there yonder is her light now, all ahoy !
It had gone six bells, or was past three o'clock in the
morning, as we ascended over the gangway of the good
ship, and reported our return to the officer of the deck, a
worthy young gentleman and officer of great merit, now
pacing the still deck in the mid-watch, and doubtless, think-
ing of those he loved in Brooklyn.
Our ships were early under way the next morning, and
we are now standing on our course for Singapore. We
have learned of the island of Singapore as a spot contain-
ing beauty of scenery, hospitality among its residents, and
health in its atmosphere.
SECTION II.
SINGAPORE.
The Chinese junk. Beating into the harbor. American Missionaries and
their prospects. Chinese at Singapore. The Moor-man's daughter.
Fruits of the Malacca Straits. Pepper plantations. The nutmeg. Dine
with the Scotch Missionaries. The Rev. Mr. White, English chaplain,
and his family. An evening drive. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport, Baptist
Missionaries of Siam. Surprising a Siamese and a Chinese, by a develop,
ment of their phrenological character. Siamese coins. Siamese dream-
book. " The departure of the Missionary bride." Missionaries preach
on board the Columbia. Services and communion on shore at the mis-
sion-room. Malay language. Translation of Po Chute Abdullah's agree-
ment with Commodore Read. Also, of a letter from a Rajah of Muckie.
Also, of Po Kwala's letter to Commodore Read. J. Balistier, Esq. and
family. Society of Singapore. Mrs. Balistier's collection of shells. Sud-
den death of Mrs. Wood, a young and interesting missionary. Her fune-
ral. The burial-place of Stevens, a college class-mate of the author.
Episcopal church at Singapore. The author preaches for the Rev. Mr.
White. Courtesy of the English clergy in the East. Last visits, and
drives, and adieus, and sunset at Singapore.
' WE anchored off the city of Singapore, February 5th,
1839, among the little fleet of vessels now lying near us.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 1 1
Another change has come over the spirit of the scene.
The Chinese junk has come down to meet us on neutral
ground a thing not to be forgotten after once seen, for
its combinations of as many dissonant proportions in a spe-
cimen of naval architecture, as could well be assembled
in a monster of ugliness. It is a thing to be drifted and
blown before the wind from Canton to Singapore during
the northeast monsoons, and back again, from a terrestrial
adventure for trade, to its celestial home, when the wind,
after a six months' blow, changes. These ghastly oddi-
ties of other ages, some thirty or forty in number, belong-
ing to these celestials, lie some mile and more distant from
us, nearer in shore than ourselves, and are seen gazing
from their immense eyes, which are affixed to their bows
designating the head otherwise unknown from the stern,
each being equally broad, and equally high, and equally
nondescript. In truth, a Chinese junk is just such a thing
as a flat would be, or a scow, to use a New Englandism,
were it to be increased in length and proportionably in
breadth ; and then, a little more rounded in the bottom, be
built right up in the air for twenty feet ; and then, extend-
ing from stern to bows on one side and bows to stern on
the other, long horizontal ribs, to strengthen said junk.
Then, paint the whole white outside, with a red eye on
either bow as big as a full moon, and looking as much
like the thing intended to be represented, as the face ol
the bright Dian resembles a green cheese. This eye is
placed in its post, never to be closed, on the principle, "he
have no eye, how can see ?" The monster is a ponderous
and heavy thing ; spacious, to accommodate innumerable
unenumerated trifles of these innumerable traders in no-
things, as they would seem to the observant European ;
and in the view of all utility too, for they are gewgaws
of distorted shapes and fragile mechanism, such as are
found in American toy-shops for children, and which seem
to be the very things which keep this nation, with all their
greatest excellencies which can be enumerated, a nation
of grown children. The mind of man is measured by the
objects of its employments.
The appearance of the town of Singapore is picturesque.
The hills of unequal elevations, and crowned with respect-
28*
12 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
able dwelling houses, rise above the buildings located on
the plain ; and the relief of the green hill-side mellows
the scene, in the too great absence of forest and ornamental
trees ; while the air of neatness, but newness, marks the
tout ensemble of the panoramic view from the ship.
Our frigate beat up the narrow passage among the
islands to the harbor, and made a number of tacks in full
view of the town. The strong northeaster blew in our
teeth ; and the ship proved herself in every particular a
superb vessel. All the officers were delighted with her
action ; and certainly she played her part like a thing of
life, as she reached forth on her short tacks, buoyantly
and true, never missing stays, and eating to the windward
like a clipper, even while she tacked. The Columbia had
not before been so faithfully tested as now, as to her pro-
perties and powers for beating to the windward. All
deemed her, in this particular, the truest ship in which
they had ever sailed.
AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AT SINGAPORE.
On visiting the shore, I was happy to find, at this sta-
tion, quite a number of the American missionaries : with
them my sympathies lie. Besides the gentlemen and ladies
regularly stationed here, some six or eight have taken up
their temporary residence, with their brethren, at Singa-
pore. This is owing to the circumstance, that the Dutch
government of Java, with the sanction, it is supposed, of
the mother country, who, with her buckskin breeches, etc.,
is ever one age behind the century of the times, have pro-
hibited the missionaries from locating themselves at any
other place in the Dutch East India dominions, save on the
island of Borneo. And before they shall repair to this con-
tinent of an island, they are required to take an oath that
they will engage in nothing tending to promote rebellion
against this grandfather government. Part of the mis-
sion, therefore, are now at Singapore, waiting for an op-
portunity to go to Borneo, two of their number having
visited the island and found, according to their impressions,
an opening for their labors. The results of the observa-
tions of these gentlemen are about being made known, in
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 13
a communication nearly ready to be sent to their friends
in America.
Singapore presents an inviting position for a town,
destined ere long to become of considerable extent, as the
result of its fine commercial situation. While riding
through its different sections, to wait on the several families
of the mission, many of the houses already constructed
presented themselves on a scale of spaciousness, and con-
siderable elegance and taste in the adaptation of extensive
verandahs and airy rooms to meet the circumstances of
the climate, in wooing the sea-breeze from the ocean, and
to court the land-zephyr from the groves of the nutmegs
and the palms. Many of the sites of the residences are
commanding, and the houses are very generally surround-
ed by spacious grounds.
I was not disappointed in finding interest in the charac-
ters of the missionaries and their wives. Some of them
are young married couples ; and in manners and person
a number of these ladies strike you as most deserving of
the interest they awaken. Why should a young woman,
with the intelligence, manners, and person that would
grace the halls of the noble as she moved among the elite
of a court-levee, leave the happiest land in the world, and
a circle of relatives and friends devoted to her, to seek a
place among foreigners, and devote her life to the strange
and dark people of eastern climes, who care not for the
sympathies that are poured out in their behalf; and who,
in a thousand instances, not only are not grateful, but po-
sitively unkind in the manifestation of their indifference to
those who are lavishing their lives in furthering their best
interests mentally, physically, and religiously ? What, but
a love which lies deeper in the soul than a worldly man
can fathom, and which the opposers of missions could nev-
er dream of ? so far is it all beyond the experience of
the prejudiced mind. Did I not think the action practicable,
in its hoped-for results, as put forth by such self-sacrificing
individuals, forsaking home and kindred, and devoting
youth and maturer age, in labors difficult, and oftentimes
sorrowful and disconsolate, I yet would look with an eye
that should float in warm admiration and sympathy, on the
generous sacrifices of such beautiful spirits, as are often
14 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
found among the missionary band. And merits not he the
language of severity who can speak not only lightly but
slightingly of such a class of citizens, who make the world
the object of the swelling benevolence of their hearts, and
even coarsely question sometimes the motives of such men
and women, as if some sinister views had caused them to
come over seas, and to forsake the home of their early as-
sociations for a life among a heathen people ? I can forgive
and forget a remark that is addressed with unkindness
against myself. And I may forgive but I cannot forget
the language of disparagement, used in dishonor of such
men and such women as those of whom we are speaking,
of whom, as to the character and the excellence of many
of them, the world is unworthy. I take it as an evidence,
than which none can be more conclusive, of the ill-breed-
ing of an individual, however loud and frequent may be
his own self-constituted claims to the chaste and pure feel-
ings of the true gentleman, when I hear one indulging in
sweeping remarks against such a class of persons, intelli-
gent and deserving, and better bred than himself ; and in
most instances better born, both as to the respectability
of their connections and the antiquity of their families.
I dined at the Rev. Mr. Doty's, and met Mr. and Mrs.
Polhman, and Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Doty having
previously called on Mr. and Mrs. North and Mr. and
Mrs. Youngblood, and afterwards drove to Mr. and Mrs.
Ball's, and Mr. and Mrs. Wood's. Time did not admit of
my extending my calls to the families of the Scotch mis-
sion. But in the evening, it being the first Monday of the
month, I gladly consented to stay on shore sufficiently late
to attend the monthly concert, which was to be held at
the house of the Rev. Mr. Orr. I met, as the consequence,
all the missionaries of the station, and others who are tem-
porarily residing at Singapore. The large private hall
was already lined by this company of missionaries, as I
entered ; and I am sure that I shall not forget the scene,
as I contemplated their number, and carried back my
thoughts to other days, when I had read of India missions,
and now mused of the self-sacrifice of some whom I had
known, and others whom I had learned to love for their
gentle characters, and who had ended their lives in these
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 15
eastern lands. It was not among my young fancies that I
should visit these regions, when, while yet a boy, I poured
my tears upon the pages of the memoir of Harriet New-
ell, when reading her plaintive story, or while I turned
the leaves that gave forth the breathings of the beautiful
and classic spirit of Martyn. But, to-night it was my
privilege to stand among this " chosen band," and to sit
and commune with chosen spirits, and to kneel and blend
my own feelings with theirs, in prayer to our common
Lord.
I had thought much on the subject of missions since
reaching the Indian seas. My heart had been depressed
as I contemplated the barriers, which, like impassable bul-
warks, seemed to rise, to debar the advance of Christian
principles among the thousand casts of the people of the
East. If they were an intelligent people had they intel-
lects capable of generalizing, drawing conclusions from just
reasonings could two in ten of their number read the books
in their own language, when placed in their hands indeed,
were they any thing but a race who seem to have no other
idea of life than securing pice to buy curry with, or to hoard
up in their coffers this miserably pitiful coin, then there
might be hopes for the enlightening of the mind now be-
nighted on the grandest subjects which pertain to the best
and the immortal being of the soul ; and more immediate
results might be expected from the efforts of the devoted
missionary. In the present state of the heathen nations,
however, there seemed to the mind, as we first entered
these regions, no gleam of well-grounded and happy ex-
pectation, streaming in the horizon which skirts the vast
expanse of the eastern continent and the isles of these
oceans.
But the min^ wrestles, when oppressed with disappoint-
ment, to gain relief from the burden ; and in my own
case, while revolving the circumstances of the eastern na-
tions, as we have been passing them, and observing their
customs, opinions, and habits, and apparent prospects in
connection with their domestic, political, and religious
destinies, with the missionary efforts among them, better
and most consoling views have presented themselves ; and
even high-wrought expectation has possessed the mind,
16 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
when our views have extended on to the future result of
the present action, and dwelled upon the causes tending to
the ultimate success of the cause of missions, in the en-
circling of the globe in the light of the Christian religion.
But it is not this generation which shall be thus illumined.
The millions yet to come, who, compared with the present
generation, are as the ocean to the drop, are the people
who are to reap the advantages of the present action of
these devoted men and their associates, throughout the
world. Although not a thousand in ten thousand of the
heathen can read the books of their native language ; and
though the people of this age are not to be the recipients
of the greatest benefit of these labors, yet the action which
is being put forth in the instruction of children, and the
creating of Christian books in the different languages of
the world, is the preparatory step. The children will be
ashamed of the superstitions of their ancestors, when they
contemplate them in contrast with the Christian religion.
And as we look over the world, (a mere ball when viewed
in its proportions of a diameter of but 8,000 miles, but a
mighty earth when regarded as the residence-to-be of yet
unborn millions of coming generations,) we find a band
of faithful laborers engaged in the same instructions and
with the same purposes, at almost every point of our globe.
These points are comparatively near each other ; . and the
influence of Christian nations is everywhere setting in from
them, while the books are everywhere in every language
prepared to spread the principles of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Take, for illustration, the stations of the Mediterra-
nean, not far even in miles from Hindoostan, with the inter-
vening stations in Persia, and all along the coast, at the
Cape of Good Hope, Bombay, Ceylon, Singapore, Siam,
Chinese Empire, Pacific Isles, with the Christian shores of
Europe and America. If we join these several points, we
find the earth covered with a net-work of intersecting
lines, which, from one to its neighboring point of intersec-
tion, is but a short distance even in miles. How, then,
shall these points, like radiants, send forth their direct rays
over the surface of the globe as ages advance ! And how
shall these influences, which result from the instruction of
these thousands of children, and the increasing facilities
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 17
of communication between the points as the consequence
of the extension of European and American intercourse,
spread and produce convictions, under the higher influ-
ence of heaven, of the " truth as it is in Jesus Christ !"
It is a bright belt that already spans the earth, more bril-
liant to the Christian's eye than the ba'nd of Saturn to the
vision of the astronomer. And the men who are now
laboring in the field of missions, at these different points,
are the workmen, who shall not be ashamed of their la-
bors when the accounts for eternity shall be made up. It is
their early work which is to tell on the nations of the world
in the advance of the sciences and improvements which
are now making such rapid strides in the world, to encir-
cle the earth in their blessings. And though they see npt
the present generation, in great numbers, embracing the
system they are engaged in propagating, and are thus de-
prived of the consolation they otherwise would have, yet
they are to be commended the more for their unwearied
action in these preliminary and necessary steps of instruc-
tion to spread the gospel story, and for the universal diffu-
sion of other books of wisdom and interest, leading to the
one result of begetting in the preference of the universal
mind of the world an acknowledgment and an embracing
of the religion of the cross. Others shall come in their
steps, and bless their memory, as they labor and see the
greater ingathering of the nations, as the result of the
preparations which the pioneers of missions shall have
made ; and the glorious results of the efforts of these self-
denying and laboring disciples of Jesus Christ shall live
to bless the earth, when they themselves shall long have
been gathered to the unbenighted abodes' of the happy
dead.
CHINESE AT SINGAPORE.
During the week, several objects of interest have pre-
sented themselves to my observation. Singapore is filled
with Chinese, and they seem to form the largest class of
its inhabitants, while offering a new object for the study of
the voyager around the world. Their dress is a pair of
large trousers, varying in colors some of black glazed
18 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
cotton, others of blue nankeen, and still others of white
cambric. To this is added a frock or shirt, generally white,
hanging loosely, some with sleeves, and others with no
sleeves. Their shaven skulls, however, attract the atten-
tion as being most particularly characteristic with their long
quieu hanging down in its braid, and composed of the
gathered hair growing in a circular patch, as large as the
hand would cover, from the crown of the head. This
braid falls nearly to the heels of the celestials, with their
toes encased in their thick-soled and turn-up toed shoes.
They pass with a quick step ; and their loose sleeves and
trousers flutter in the gale they create in their passage,
with nothing upon their shaven heads but the tuft-knot upor-
the crown, and sometimes the long braid curled in a plait
around it. Their heads are remarkably round, and their
brows smooth, indicating ideality, but little powers of rea-
soning or locality. Of the defect in this last particular
we have daily evidence, as our boats, in passing to the
shore, drive into theirs, as if these celestials thought them-
selves intangible spirits, and manifest no kind of perception,
apparently, that the boats are coming into contact, until the
rencounter takes place, when they laugh with their little
cocked eyes, as if it were all a good joke, should their
boat chance to survive the contusion, and save their yellow
skins from a desirable ablution a thing not always their
good fortune, as one of our boats has already emptied one
Chinaman's crew into the sea, while the boat dipped her-
self to the full, as it gave way for the passage of the heav-
ier body of the cutter.
All the eastern people are excessively fond of ornaments.
I visited the house of a Moor-man to-day. He had accom-
panied me during the morning to examine some objects of
curiosity ; and having returned to his residence at the hour
for dinner, he took me to an upper room, where were his
attendants, and his young daughter, a girl of twelve or thir-
teen years of age, quite pretty and smiling, and covered
with ornaments. A red silk bodice encircled her chest,
leaving her arms bare, and a loose robe of white cambric
was carelessly wrapped around her body. I was curious
to note the number of her jewels, as she came to me at
the direction of her father, and gave me her little hand,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 19
darker than a brunette's, with her clear nails reddened with
a stain. Her ears were fringed with rings, twenty-one
in number, covering the whole crown of the upper edges
with golden fillagree. Two rubies gleamed, one on either
side of the nose, being confined to their place by a screw,
which penetrated through each nostril, and fastened inside
the nostril by a knob affixed to the screw. Five bracelets
of gold decorated her wrists, and seven rings graced her
tapering fingers. Two heavy silver bracelets encircled
her ebony ankles, and three silver thimbles encased as
many of the young nymph's toes. She was the old man's
only child, and her mother had died three months be-
fore.
I had thrown myself on the mat which had been spread
for me, on a couch, while one of the slaves of the Moor
flourished before me a sandal-wood fan, whose fringes,
being moistened, gave out the rich odor of this precious
wood.
In a few moments, curried rice, with chicken, was placed
before me, and warm milk and fruits, while the dark-bearded
Moor ate from a separate dish with his young daughter, on
another couch, and occasionally manifested his affection
for his child by patting the cheek of his pretty little girl.
While walking with this Moor, we met the Moorish
priest, robed in his red and graceful costume, and white
turban. He was a very graceful man in his salam and
conversation. 1 told him that I should visit his mosque,
and we parted. He sent to the frigate a present of oranges
for me the succeeding day.
FRUITS OF THE STRAITS.
The fruits of the straits are not only almost innumer-
able for their variety, but exquisite for their richness and
delicious flavor. A great variety is produced in Singa-
pore and its neighborhood, but a still larger assemblage
is gathered to the market here, from the surrounding
islands and the Malacca coast. I have in my possession
thirty or forty illustrations of the different fruits of the
straits, well done in colors, by the interesting Chinese
artist, employed by Sir Stamford Raffles ; and most of
29
20 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
these fruits I have seen growing on the grounds about
Singapore, since we arrived at this place.
I commence the specification of these fruits with the
mangusteen, (garcinia mangostana of Linnaeus,) as being
the most delicate and delicious fruit of the Indies, and
said to be, with the durian, peculiar to these regions of the
Malacca peninsula. I first tasted it at Penang, as before
described. And although I had heard so much of this
fruit and anticipated something exceedingly rich, I found
it equal to its reputation. It is a beautiful thing too when
opened the contrast between the white pulp and the
roseate and scalloped capsule that encloses it. The fla-
vor of the fruit is a most delicate dulcis acid, without the
property of lusciousness. It is a drupe with a rind two
eighths of an inch thick, and of the size of a common ap-
ple, and much resembling some dark-red species of that
fruit the rind being hard on the outside and soft and
succulent within, the juicy property of which is an astrin-
gent. This external envelope encloses the scalloped and
beautifully white pulp of several divisions, occasionally
tinged with the royal purple ; and the rich thing melts in
the mouth, to the great acceptance of the gratified taste.
The number of the relievo petals in the fanciful little for-
get-me-not on the end of the fruit, opposite the calix, tells
the number of scallops into which the beautifully white
pulp so richly encased is indented. It therefore would
not be difficult to guess how many kernels the fruit con-
tains, which make up the scalloped pulp, could one gain
a slight view of the proper end of the fruit, before the
rind is severed in half, for developing the secret. I have
seen them vary from five to eight.
The durian (durio zibithinus) is another fruit, which
no one will forget, after once tasting or smelling it ; and
few, at first, who are brought to the perception of its efflu-
via as it gives forth its strong fragrance, will desire to
taste it. When the first, and I believe the only specimen
of this species of fruit was introduced into the ward-room
of the frigate, the steward was directed forthwith to bear
it hence, and never to bring another. It was then deemed
enough to smell the disgusting thing without tasting it.
Not deeming myself an individual of very strong preju-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 21
dices, and perhaps more curious than some others, I
caused my dubash to bring me a fine specimen of this fruit,
since our arrival here.
The natives are inordinately fond of it. and the Euro-
pean soon learns to love it among the most, if not the
most, luxurious fruit of the East. The external appear-
ance of the fruit is like the bread-fruit, though rougher
and larger, yet smaller than the jack-fruit ; the external
rind of the three in appearance not being very dissimilar.
The fruit when ripe splits at the lesser end, and the rind
being opened quite in two, exposes the white and luscious
and cream-like pulp, placed in different pericarps within
the rind, and covering a seed of the size of a large acorn,
and of the color of a light chestnut. The soft pulp
might easily be fancied to be cream itself, mingled with
the condensed juice of a roasted onion, only supposing it
of a consistency sufficient to adhere to the oblong seed
which lies imbedded in the pasty substance. The taste,
when one is divested of the idea of the unpleasant odor
of the fruit, strikes you as being rich, and you think you
could and most probably would become fond of it were
^you to eat it but a few times. And yet, it is so unlike all
that you have associated with fruits, that you deem it
some way a mistake of nature, and that it must be some
manufactured thing, or at least should be classed as some-
thing that grew beneath the ground rather than above it.
The properties of this fruit are said to be beneficial in
their action upon the system, though when eaten too
abundantly are injuriously heating. They are a tonic,
and otherwise congeni-al to the system. This fruit de-
mands a higher price than any other in the markets. The
tree producing the durian is large and lofty. The leaves
are long and pointed, though small in comparison with
the fruit. The flower grows in clusters from the stem of
the tree and on the large branches. Its petals are five in
number, of a yellowish white ; and the stamina are ar-
ranged in five branches, and each branch containing about
twelve stamina, and each stamen pointed with four an-
therse. When the stamina and petals fall, the empale-
ment resembles a fungus ; and a shape, not unlike a Scot's
bonnet.
22 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The bread-fruit, (artocarpus incisa,) in external appear-
ance is somewhat like the durian. When eaten, how-
ever, it is boiled, or roasted in the fire. The trees are
seen here with the fruit in considerable quantities. The
leaves of the tree are deeply indented like the fig, but they
are larger.
The jack-fruit (artocarpus integrefolia, L.) is an im-
mense thing, as it is sometimes seen pendent from the very
stem of the tree, and growing directly out of the largest
branches, and sometimes weighing fifty or sixty pounds.
I first saw this fruit in the botanical garden near Rio de
Janeiro ; and it will always strike one, on his first observ-
ing the jack-fruit, as a thing of great peculiarity in the
vegetable kingdom. Of this fruit I have never eaten.
When it ripens a cloth is thrown over it, for the purpose
of protecting the fruit from the birds ; and yet it looks, in
its green and rough and huge exterior, of a density suffi-
cient to defend itself against the bills of the most daring
of the feathery thieves. The kernels contained within the
rough external coat (which, when roasted, are said to
have the taste of chestnuts) are enclosed in a fleshy sub-
stance, rich, and eventually agreeable, after a few times
eating it, but at first deemed too strong in smell and flavor.
The yellow wood of this tree is much used in various
ways, as timber, and for boards ; and the root affords a
dye.
The rambutan (nephelium lappaceum, L.) is a beauti-
ful fruit, to which I have already alluded, as resembling the
mammoth arbutus ; and you suppose them at first, when
at a little distance from you, a delicious dish of some trop-
ical strawberry. But you find, on inquiring into the "par-
ticulars within" the outer coat, that there is concealed
beneath the red and hairy covering a semi-transparent
pulp, of a pleasant acid taste, enveloping a single oval and
oblong seed. I know not but I am peculiar in my memory
of the beautiful fruits of the straits, but none lingers in my
recollection so sweetly, in its clustered beauties of the fruit-
dish, as the bearded and rosy rambutan.
The custard-apple, (annona squamosa,) for its kindred
taste, should have been placed next to the mangusteen.
It is more luscious rather, it is too much so to allow of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 23
its being as freely eaten as the mangusteen or most other
fruits. Like rich cream and strawberries, it soon satiates,
while it is yet delicious. The fruit is an irregular cone,
of the size of a medium quince, and more rotund. It is
made up of lesser cones, with each its apex directed to a
centre within, and each including a dark seed. The pulp
is soft, constituting the whole of the fruit, excepting the
seed and the irregular external coat. It is a very choice
and delicate fruit. Its external color is green. The in-
ternal part is white. It is soft when ripe, and a slight
pressure of the hand will crack it open, as a well-baked
custard would fall to pieces on being turned from its cup.
The pomegranate (punica granatum) is a sub-acid fruit,
delicious to a thirsty man, and acceptable to the fastidious,
and gorgeous in its associations with ancient mention, and
the rich crimson of its flowers. The fruit would much
resemble, externally, the capsule of the poppy, were the
poppy's seed-vessel as large as the pomegranate, which
is the size of a quince. When the fruit is broken open it
presents different layers of seeds, of the size of the seeds
of the sun-flower, but of a clear and juicy substance, en-
casing the harder kernel. These seeds are sometimes red,
and generally tinged with coloring matter varying from
the pearly transparent to the deepest crimson. We found
this fruit very fine at Muscat, and it exists in still greater
perfection around the shores of the Mediterranean.
The pine-apples are in their perfection here. They are
deliciously sweet, immense in their size, and abundant as
is the miserable pice, of the currency ; four of which, being
equivalent to a penny, will purchase one of these luxurious
cones. There is one variety more beautiful than I have
elsewhere seen. A hedge of these, with their straw-
colored leaves, I saw lining an extensive circular plot in
the fruit-grounds of a friend whom I visited but yesterday.
They would delight the eye, and yet more the taste, of
some of my friends of New- York, could they eat them in
the perfection in which they are served here.
The mango (mangifera indica) is a fruit, in its external
appearance, resembling a small melon, but is a drupe of
the plum kind, being three, four, and five inches in length,
and two or three in diameter. At Colombo we found it
29*
24 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
in its perfection ; and there it is regarded as a choice va-
riety among the different ornaments of the fruit-dish. The
external color of the fruit is green ; the internal pulp is a
rich yellow, and adheres to the large seed as the cling-
peach adheres to the stone.
The papaya, (carica papaja,) like the preceding in its
external appearance, though larger and yellow when ripe,
is like a smooth melon, not striking for its flavor, though
a rich and healthy fruit. Its seeds are more peculiar, fill-
ing the internal long and scalloped cavity. They are of
the size of a swollen mustard seed, and flavored like the
water-cress. The pulp is a reddish and rich yellow.
The guava, (psidium pomiferum.) from which the rich
jelly from the West Indies is made, is not very unlike a
pear in its external appearance. The flavor, both in taste
and to the smell, some are greatly pleased with, others
dislike. To myself it is too strong and sickening, to be
agreeable. The guava jelly, on the contrary, is a deli-
cious sweet of agreeable flavors.
The blimbing (averrhoa carambola) is a peculiar, acid,
pentagonal fruit. Its seeds are flat. It reminds you of
a craw-fish, although nothing like it ; only it looks some-
what strange, with its pentagonal ridges and green goose-
berry-like color and transparency, to be hanging upon a
tree as its real fruit. I remember .first to have tasted it
in a garden in Rio de Janeiro, South America, and it was
very grateful, in its abundance of sub-acid juice, to the
thirsty lip.
The lanseh is very like bunches of -gooseberries in re-
semblance of external appearance, hung up on the branches
of a'large tree, and like that berry serve to make very
good tarts, when well baked and properly sweetened ; or
rather, when properly sweetened and well baked.
The tamarind tree somewhat resembles the thorny lo-
cust, and the fruit hangs pendent like the pod of the honey-
locust, and appears like bean-pods pendent from the boughs
They are used by the natives among other acid ingredients,
in making their curries.
The jambu (eugenia mallaccensis et aquea, of L.) is
a beautiful thing resembling the pear more than any thing
else, save its own self, in shape, but less tapering at the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 25
stalk with a smooth and very fine skin, tinged with red,
and deeper and lighter shades of the pink and the rose
The handsome tree that produces it, is regular and conical
in its shape, and its foliage of deep-green and pointed
leaves. The fruit of one species is white inside, the other
tinged with pink. Its smell and taste is of the flavor of
roses. Nothing can surpass the beauty of the blossoms.
The numerous stamina are long and of a pink color, ex-
quisite and bright.
I might continue the list and description of the fruits,
so numerous and varied, which are found in the Malacca
countries, and to be purchased in the markets here, and
most of them seen growing on the young plantations of the
residents at Singapore. I shall however only enumerate
the names of those so familiar to the eye of the North
American, common to the tropics, and found in the markets
from the West Indies.
The plantains are in their perfection here ; the green
variety is the best the red, which we have not before
seen, are very fine and most peculiar. The natives num-
ber some forty or fifty varieties, including the bananas,
which are very fine flavored, and abundant as the lazy
native population need desire to support their life of inac-
tivity.
The best oranges of the market are brought from
China, while the fruit grows in any abundance here when
cultivated. The oranges brought here in the Chinese
junks are extremely fine in their flavor, though they can
but little compare with the magnificent fruit of the same
genus, of Rio de Janeiro.
I might sooner have mentioned the sour-sop, a very
agreeable fruit when perfectly ripe. I like to associate
the time and the occasion of my first tasting these fruits,
and the persons with whom they were partaken, with the
memory and mention of the fruits themselves. The sour-
sop is rather a large, green, and irregular conical fruit,
with a rough external rind and a soft succulent pulp. The
first of this fruit which I had seen, was a noble specimen
of its kind ; and when I had taken my leave of the family
I was visiting, I found the said specimen of the sour-sop
gently reposing on a little worked mat in my palanquin,
26 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
where it had been conveyed after I had mentioned that I
had not before met with the fruit. A few days served to
ripen it, as it reposed in its place on my bureau on ship-
board ; and the sour-sop itself and that little mat on which
it reposed, shall serve often to recall my Scotch friends
and their politeness.
Besides the abundance and great variety of fruits in
the straits which are mostly being cultivated on the plan-
tations in the neighborhood of Singapore, the pepper,
coffee, nutmegs and cloves, are produced in great perfec-
tion and considerable quantities. The large plantation of
Mr. Princeps, within a few minutes' ride of Singapore,
includes in its spacious grounds of some hundred acres,
all these varieties of productions and fruit-trees, though
most of them are of but few years' growth.
The pepper plantations in the neighborhood of Singa-
pore are cultivated principally by the Chinese. The vine
is of the creeper kind, raising its knotted stem to twenty
or thirty feet, unpruned, but generally kept down from
ten to twelve feet in height, as producing more fruit thus
than when suffered to reach a greater elevation. At each
joint of the stem, the plant puts out its fibrous tendrils,
which adhere to the prop, up which it climbs. Were the
plant suffered to run upon the ground, these tendrils, as in
the case of the strawberry vine, would shoot into the
earth ; but like the ivy, in such a case, would exhibit no
fruit. The prop therefore is necessary to encourage the
plant to throw out its bearing shoots. The leaves of the
plant are deep green, heart-shaped and pointed, but they
have not the pungent taste of the fruit. The stem of the
pepper vine soon becomes woody, and in a few years
acquires considerable thickness ; some of the stems I have
seen measuring at the foot of the stalk three or four inches
in circumference. The branches are generally short,
brittle, and readily separate at their union with the stem.
The blossom of the plant is a small white flower, and the
appearance of the fruit, as found in commerce, is univer-
sally known. On the vine, however, it hangs in long
clusters of some thirty or fifty grains, each grain adhering
to the stalk,' resembling some kinds of the smallest wild
grapes. The grain, while the fruit is young and after it
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 27
has reached its full size, is green in its^color, but when
ripe and in its perfection, is of a bright red color.
This plant is propagated by cuttings, which are general-
ly placed, with their props either of large stakes or natural
trees, some six feet apart, the vine commencing to bear
after three years, and continuing to do so for several more.
As soon as the berries begin to redden, the bunches are
gathered, not waiting for all the corns to have changed,
as by so doing the riper grains would fall from the bunch.
The bunches being collected in baskets, are spread upon
mats to dry in the sun. The changes in the weather have
but little effect upon the berries to injure them, which soon,
in their curing state, turn black and become shrivelled, as
they are seen when prepared for transportation and for
consumption throughout the world, as the black pepper of
commerce.
The white pepper was formerly supposed to be a differ-
ent species from the black, and esteemed to be the superior
of the two, and a higher price was demanded and given
for it. But it is the same article with the black pepper,
having gone through a different operation in its curing.
It is more mild ; and the mode of preparing it is by put-
ting the grains in baskets, into water running water
being preferred the excavations for the purpose being
made by the side of running streams, or else the pepper is
put into stagnant water. This process causes the external
coat to swell, after which, the grains being exposed to the
sun, the exterior pellicle, by rubbing in the hands and win-
nowing, is separated from the other part. Whether, in
fact, this is an improvement to this article, is a matter of
dispute. The white pepper is to be regarded as superior
in one particular at least. It is composed of the best
grains of the bunch, as none but the full and well-ripened
berries will make the white pepper. It evidently must
lose some of its strength from exposure in the water ; and
though the white pepper has the advantage of the quality
of the grains, the tegument of which it has been deprived
is deemed to possess a flavor more aromatic than the heart,
though more pungent.
28 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
THE NUTMEG.
I conclude this brief description of some of the fruits of
the straits, with the beautiful nutmeg, as it is seen growing
in its place.
The tree that produces this aromatic and highly-valued
article among the spices, is an evergreen of great beauty,
conical in its shape, and reaching from twenty to twenty-
five feet in height, with its branches thickly decorated with
their polished deep-green leaves, like the foliage of the
orange, rising quite from the ground to the top. The fruit,
with its yellow external tegument, resembling a middling-
sized pear, with a smooth skin, lies thick among this green
foliage. When the fruit is ripe, the thick rind cracks open,
so as to exhibit the beautiful white of the internal part of
the rind in contrast with the deep-red mace which over-
lays the black shell containing the kernel or the nutmeg,
as we have it in commerce. It is an exquisite thing as
seen in this state. The shells which contain the kernels,
or the nutmegs as we generally get them from the shops,
are almost a jet polished black. Over this is woven in its
interlacing threads, the mace of commerce. This dark of
the shell and red of the mace in contrast with the beautiful
white edges of the split rind and the yellow of the external
tegument, form together the most beautiful specimen of
nature's colorings and contrasts I have ever beheld, and
is worthy of all the young fancies we have ever drawn of
the beauty of the spice-tree. We thus see that the nutmeg
and the mace of commerce are the product of the same
tree. The leaf and the blossom are strongly aromatic,
like the fruit. There are numerous plantations of this
spice in the neighborhood of Singapore. But as yet they
are young, and extending, the soil being deemed particu-
larly appropriate for the growth of this valuable article.
The government nutmeg-grove is perhaps the most ex-
tensive, or rather, at the present moment, is containing
the largest number of well-grown trees ; while other plan-
tations of greater extent in the number of their young
plants, have also a considerable number of bearing trees.
While walking through the plantation of Mr. Princeps, the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 29
servants, then gathering the nutmegs from the trees, (a
daily work the year round,) informed us that they general-
ly secured 400 ripe ones in a day. The produce of these
plantations eventually will be very considerable, most of
the gentlemen of Singapore having encouraged the growth
of the nutmeg tree upon their country premises in the neigh-
borhood of this beautifully situated town.
CALLS ON VARIOUS PERSONS.
Since the arrival of our ships at Singapore, I have
several times called upon the missionary families, now res-
ident at this place. On the 13th dined with Rev. Mr. A.
Stronoch of the Scotch mission. Scotland and the Scots
have always possessed an interest in niy associations.
The Scots however cease to please when they begin to
forget their own highland and lowland associations, and
manifest their preferences in commending the English, to
the neglect of their own more peculiar characteristics.
Were I a Scotchman I should never think of looking to
England for a national or individual fame, on which to
value myself, when a history so rich in story and a ro-
mance so storied in history were glowing before me of
my own native Scotland.
There are two brothers here, who are attached to the
London Missionary Society. They appear to be very
worthy men, and their wives greatly esteemed. The
ladies have just enough of the Scotch in their accent to
render their conversation of deeper interest to me than it
would have been without it. It reminds one that he is
conversing with one of Scotia's daughters, from that land
which we have learned to love for its intellect, and worth,
and story, and song.
The Rev. Mr. White, the English chaplain at Singa-
pore, is a gentleman of great mildness of character, and
has the reputation of some -cleverness in the natural
sciences. He seems to be fond of them, at least. He
is a Cambridge scholar, and all Cambridge students seem
particularly fond of their alma mater. Indeed all the
English chaplains whom I have met in the East, do credit
to the service to which they are attached, so far as their
30 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
general intelligence is concerned, and in most instances have
exhibited the practical. effects of the principles of the reli-
gion which they teach, in their Christian action and pious
lives. The chaplains in the Indian service are allowed to re-
turn home, at their pleasure, after having spent a certain
number of years, and retire upon a pension of about two
thousand dollars per annum during their lives, after leaving
the service. Their salary while in the Indian service, in most
instances, is five thousand dollars, and upwards, per an-
num. The residence occupied by the Rev. Mr. W. is a
commanding one the whole sheet of beautiful water,
expanding itself in full view from the verandah, dotted
over by the huge and nondescript Chinese junks the
Cochin-China yellow-sided war-ships, bearing the mer-
chandise of the* king the yet better-looking ships of the
king of Siam the finer specimens of naval architecture,
as seen in the French, English, and American merchant-
men and still further out and beyond them all, our own
two gallant cruisers, in the beauty of their squared yards
and tall spars, and graceful and perfect hamper, symme-
try, and order, filling up the picture, and presenting to
the view of the gazer a charming nautical scene.
All shipping lie moored by their anchors in these east-
ern ports the surf and the exposure of the winds being
too great to admit of the construction and use of docks.
And beneath you, as you look from this residence, lie the
crowded bazaars of the Chinese, and the Moor, and the
Malay ; while on the more distant plain and along the
northern beach extend the better houses of the English
and American residents. The hill-side, up which you
wind to reach the prospect which I have described, is
covered with the luxuriant and beautiful nutmeg grove,
'nterspersed with the aracca palm and the banana, and
other fruits of this tropical clime, with the shrubs and
gaudy blossoms which give forth their bright colors but
faint perfume to the moist and balmy air of the morning
and evening, but intensely heated atmosphere of the noon-
day hour.
My visits to this amiable family have always been
agreeable. Mrs. W. executes with taste on the piano-
forte ; and at different times has gratified me with a num-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 31
her of old specimens of Handel's composition. I am sure
that most of the modern belles would have been surprised
by the absence of most of the fashionable music of the
day ; and indeed I was almost ashamed of the tendency
of my own inquiries, from habit, for the love ditties and
" mamma's favorites" of the modern school. " Bid me
discourse" carried me far over the seas, and recalled in
gentle memories to my mind somebody who has sung it
for me at home, with effect and with an indescribable and
delightful thrill, which comes over the spirit when the
soul of song awakes. And " The Pilot" I remember
how the same somebody told me that Miss G., who sings
so sweetly, taught her to sing it. I love a cricket-singer,
one who, in the simplicity of a young heart, seated on an
ottoman at your side, on a winter's evening, when all is
cheer and comfortable and still, and the coal-fire is burn-
ing, and a snow-storm without is raging, will look you
kindly in the face ; and with an eye floating in affection,
sentiment, and artless nature, will give you the sweet
song you desire or the plaintive melody and, perhaps,
once and ever, as if some wild freak of witchery, unusual
but natural when occurring, had come over her spirit, will
sport with you in a laughing recitative. There is a charm
of melody in the note of such, whose eyes melt in sorrow
or dilate in joyousness, as the sentiment glows in the mel-
ancholy, or expresses emotions of the peaceful and the
happy. And such is the note of somebody; and no vesper
strain from deepest vault of Abbey, nor swell of chorus
from fullest orchestra, nor softest music of the full band
on the lake, at moonlight, ever threw such a spell upon
the soul as the artless song of that dearly remembered
somebody. You would not wish to conceal your tears
when she sang for you " The Mistletoe Bough." And
you would have thought that some simple and sweet rosy-
cheeked milk-maid, who, in her fresh health and purity,
sports free as the lark in the morning country-air, was at
your side, as she had unaccountably become sad and pale
as the lily that had drooped before some sudden blast,
while she sang " Kathleen O'More." And then you would
be aroused and surprised that so late an hour had come
when she repeated the Scotch ditty,
30
32 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" O they're a' noddin, nid nid noddin,
O they're a' noddin at our house at hame."
And I remember how, and when, and where she has sung
for me * The Pilot." And Mrs. W. repeated it, this even-
ing, with feeling. And the words are worth more than
the trouble of transcribing them here, but space forbids.
I was grateful to Mrs. W. for the music she gave me,
as indeed I am for all real harmonies in these eastern re-
gions, where music is almost unknown, or at least almost
altogether neglected.
The evening ride, near sunset, is an agreeable pastime
for an hour, and very generally indulged in by the resi-
dents of Singapore. In company with Mrs. White and
my little pet, Mrs. W.'s " only and beautiful," I enjoyed
the evening air at an hour so calm and balmy, when the
wing of the zephyr is beginning to feel the pressure of
the falling and sweet-scented dew. The Singapore rose,
decorating the side-ways as you ride from town, is an
abundant and beautiful shrub ; and the rosa vincula every-
where through the streets meets the eye as a graceful
and luxurious thing. Little B., my little pet alluded to,
(God bless her,) was bare-footed ; so comfortable did her
little white feet and naked arms seem in this warm clime,
encased in loose cambric ruffles. Innocence and flowers ;
how just and beautiful is the association !
Among the missionary families now resident at Singa-
pore is the Rev. Mr. Davenport and lady, who are tempo-
rarily here from Siam, being attached to the Baptist mis-
sion at Bankok. Mr. D. is now attending to the casting
of a fount of Siamese type, and expects in a month or two
again to return with Mrs. D. to Bankok. They are from
Virginia ; and Mrs. D. is a sprightly young lady, who left
her native land with her husband at the age of seventeen;
and I was happy in spending the day that commemorates
her twentieth birthday (fifth of March, 1839,) at their
residence, since our arrival at Singapore. She has accom-
plished a knowledge of the Siamese with great facility,
and I have in my possession some manuscript translations
by herself which she was kind enough to present to me.
I shall remember, with most cordial feelings of friendship
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 33
and interest, their generous efforts to make my stay at
Singapore pleasant to myself, and my memories of it al-
together of the agreeable kind. Their hospitality was
extended with a warmth that declared its sincerity ; and I
am sure I shall not forget the social hour, the brief but
ever agreeable interview, and the family worship, as we
have knelt together at the family altar at the hour of even-
ing parting. Indeed, this act of family worship has been
a source of great pleasure to me in my intercourse with
numbers of the agreeable families at whose houses it was
my pleasure to visit. At the Rev. Mr. White's, the Holy
Book and the Common Prayer reminded me that I was
worshipping with friends of a common creed as well as
of kindred feelings. The Bible and the Hymn-book at
another dwelling would tell me that I was with Presby-
terian brethren, but Christian and devoted hearts. Again,
the Dutch Reformed, and the Congregationalist, and Inde-
pendents, and Baptists, with bosoms swelling with kindred
sympathies and kindred views, and kindred expectations
beyond the life of earth. The very consciousness that
. most of these were American Christians was quite enough
to warm the heart in Christian love, and cause one in the
social intercourse to forget, or to waive all distinctive
principles in church discipline and orders, where intelli-
gence and devotion characterized the mind and swelled
the heart.
In Mr. D.'s family are two or three Siamese. The
subject of phrenology having been made a topic of con-
versation, these Siamese, together with a Chinaman, were
desirous that the doctor, as they styled myself, should tell
them their characters. Mrs. D. was desirous of gratifying
them. I make no pretensions to a practical knowledge
of this science, nor am I any way strenuous as to the
principles it is said by its advocates to develop and to
confirm. Whether true in its deductions or the contrary,
it is but the application of the science of the mind, or
mental philosophy, to certain physical localities of the
cranium. I was willing to be amused, and the Siamese
teacher presented himself with considerable gravity, and
departed with a full persuasion that I possessed greater
knowledge of men than the Siamese priests.
34 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Another less intelligent but apparently good-natured
Siamese retained his gravity and composure for a short
time, but, finally, put both hands over his face in astonish-
ment, and rushed from the room exclaiming, true true
all true. He again entered, after a while, and begged
that I would tell him how long before he would have a
perfect knowledge of the English language.
A Chinaman, in some way connected with the mission,
also presented himself, being equally curious with the
Siamese, and desired me "to speak about his head." I
knew nothing of this celestial, and the examination was
entirely unexpected ; and I felt no disposition to trifle with
either of these persons. This gentleman of the long braid,
however, seeming to linger in profound expectation, as if
something most certainly would be developed, I was un-
willing to disappoint him altogether. I assured him that
I could not pretend to describe his character, but without
knowing whether it were true or not, I should think that
he was a believer in ghosts. The celestial raised his arms
akimbo, turned his oblique eyes upwards, and exclaimed,
"Yes, I believe in them, and I fear them muck." His
unanticipated astonishment excited a slight smile at his
expense, and he left the room, perhaps to burn Josh-sticks,
certainly to procure me a present of oranges, as I had an
occasion soon afterwards to know, as he brought them to
Mr. D.'s for me.
Mrs. Davenport has upon her tables numbers of Siam-
ese curiosities consisting of their books, coins, and dei-
ties. The books are things strikingly curious to the eye
of the American being formed of a continuous sheet of
paper, gathered into folds like the plaits of a ruffle, and
yards in length when unfolded. They vary in size from
three or four inches in length and two broad, to a foot in
length and four inches broad ; when folded, each piece,
generally three or four inches thick, constituting a volume.
The paper is generally black, and the letters traced with
white ink. "As black as ink, and as while as a sheet of
paper," therefore, are expressions which might need a little
explanation to a Siamese.
The Siamese silver and gold coins are small pieces of
bullion, flattened on each end, so as to compress the whole
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 35
into an irregular globulous form, on which the die leaves
two small impressions. In case of a scarcity of small shot
and a plenty of coin, during a war, the Siamese would
have in their silver and gold currency a very good substi-
tute for bullets and buckshot. This coin is a very curious
thing in contrast with our ideas of the flat surface of the
American and European money.
The Siamese, in their religion, are Budhists credu-
lous and superstitious believers in transmigration of
souls, in dreams, and omens derived from a thousand
sources. Their sacred books are said to be considerably
numerous.
I give here a few extracts from two works, which Mrs.
Davenport has translated for me, and presented in a man-
uscript, most beautifully written in her own hand. One
of them is called
THE SIAMESE DREAM BOOK.
The writer introduces the subject of the work thus :
" In former times a great prophet and magician, who
had much wisdom, and could foretell all future events, gave
the following interpretation of signs and dreams. Whoso-
ever sees signs and visions, if he wishes to know whether
they forebode good or evil, whether happiness or misery,
if he dream of any animals, insects, birds, or fishes, and
wishes to know the interpretation, let him examine this
book."
Of these signs and dreams I make extracts promiscu-
ously from the manuscript :
" If a person be alone, and an insect or reptile fall before
the face, but the individual see it only without touching it,
it denotes that some heavenly being will bestow great
blessings on him. If it fall to the right side, it denotes
that all his friends, wherever scattered abroad, shall again
meet him in peace. If it fall behind the person, it denotes
that he shall be slandered, and maliciously talked of by his
friends and acquaintances. If, in falling, it strike the face,
it denotes that the individual will soon be married. If it
strike the right arm, it denotes that the individual's wishes,
whatever they are, shall be accomplished. If it strike the
30*
36 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
left hand, it denotes that the individual will lose his friends
by death. If it strike the foot, it denotes that whatever
trouble the individual may have had, all shall vanish, and
he shall reach the summit of happiness. If, after touching
the foot, it should crawl upwards to the head, it denotes
that the individual shall be raised to high office by the
rulers of his country. If it crawl to the right side, it de-
notes that the person shall hear bad tidings of some absent
friend. If the insect or reptile fall without touching the
body, and immediately flee towards the northeast, it de-
notes deep but not lasting trouble ; if towards the north-
west, it denotes that the person shall receive numerous
and valuable presents ; if towards the southeast, it denotes
that he shall receive great riches, and afterwards go to a
distant land ; or that he shall go to a distant land, and there
amass great wealth.
" If an animal, insect, bird, or reptile cross the path of
any one as he walks along, the animal coming from the
right, let him not proceed some calamity will surely hap-
pen to him in the way. If the animal come from the left,
let him proceed good fortune shall surely happen to him.
If the animal proceed before him in the same road in which
he intends to travel, it denotes good fortune to him.
" If the left ear tingle repeatedly, it denotes that the in-
dividual shall receive evil tidings from abroad. If the right
ear tingle, it denotes that he shall receive speedy and pleas-
ing intelligence from absent friends.
" If the upper lip tremble repeatedly, it denotes that the
individual shall receive presents of the most rare and deli-
cious dishes. If the lower lip tremble, it denotes severe
illness.
" I now beg to interpret the signs of the night. If at
midnight an individual hears the noises of animals in the
house where he resides, I will show him whether they in-
dicate good or evil. If any insect cry * click, click, click/
he will possess real treasures while he abides there. If it
cry ' kek, kek,' it is an evil omen both to that and the neigh-
boring houses. If it cry * chit, chit,' it denotes that he shall
always feed upon the most sumptuous provisions. If it
cry t keat, keat,' in a loud shrill voice, it denotes that his
residence there shall be attended with evil.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 37
" I now beg to interpret with regard to the spider. If
a spider on the ceiling utter a low tremulous moan, it de-
notes that the individual who hears the noise shall either
change his residence, or that his goods shall be stolen.
If it utter the same voice on the outside of the house, and
afterwards the spider crawl to the head of the bed, it de-
notes troublesome visitors and quarrels to the residents.
" I now beg to interpret with regard to dreams and vis-
ions of the night. If an individual dream on Sunday,
whether it be good or evil, it pertains to others, and will not
affect the happiness or misery of the person himself. If
any one dream on Monday, whether good or evil, it will
affect his friends and relations, but not himself. If on Tues-
day, it forebodes good or evil to the parents of the dream-
er. If on Wednesday, the omen pertains to the consort
and children of the individual who dreams. If on Thurs-
day, it relates to the dreamer's teachers or benefactors. If
on Friday, the omen belongs to the servants or cattle of
the individual. If on Saturday, it forebodes good or ill to
the dreamer himself.
" If any one dream of having or wearing handsome
clothing, it denotes great peace and prosperity.
" If one dream of receiving a ring, it denotes either a
speedy marriage or the birth of a child.
" If one dream of putting on a gold ring, it denotes
that the individual, if married, shall be blessed with chil-
dren of great beauty ; or, if single, with a beautiful con-
sort.
" If one dream of putting on new clothes, it denotes
speedy marriage.
" If one dream of seeing his house consumed by fire,
and of being much burned, let him take a lighted candle,
flowers, and other offerings, to the brink of a river or ca-
nal, and there relate his dream to some friend. If he omit
this, some great calamity shall surely befall him.
" If he dream of walking on the air, it denotes that he
shall have great wisdom and be renowned for learning.
" If he dream of being clothed entirely in red, let him
beware lest he speedily suffer a violent death.
' If he dream of seeing a heavenly being of great beau-
ty, or the spire of a palace, it is an omen of good.
38 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" If he dream of a house full of new-born infants, it de
notes that his servants shall continue faithful and true to
his interests.
" If he dream of sleeping in a boat with one foot in wa-
ter and afterwards his head falling in, let him not relate
the dream to any one, but seek a large tree, and sea ung
himself under it, there tell over the dream, and great good
shall result.
" If he dream of seeing a princess, let him relate the
dream to himself on the bank of a river or canal, and
prosperity shall surely attend him.
" If he dream of seeing a woman of beautiful form, his
consort shall exactly resemble her.
" If he dream of reading prayers or sacred books, it
denotes that all his sins shall be pardoned by the gods.
" If one drearn of holding an umbrella to protect him-
self from the rays of the sun, it denotes that he shall rise
to greater eminence than any of his ancestors or family
have done.
" If one dream of blowing a trumpet, or beating drums
and kettles, he shall be raised to an office of great emi-
nence.
" If he dream of placing an image of Budh in a temple,
it is an omen of supreme happiness.
" If he dream of being struck by a thunderbolt, it de-
notes his speedy and violent death.
" If he dream of travelling on a tiger or an alligator to
some distant land, it denotes that he shall be regarded with
terror and suspicion by all his acquaintances.
" If one dream of the entrails being torn out of his body,
it denotes continued health to himself, family, and friends.
" If he dream of riding in an ox-cart, let him beware, it
is an omen of evil.
" If one dream of eating the sun or moon, it denotes that
he shall be a great prophet and magician.
" If he dream of being bitten by a tiger, it denotes that
he shall receive valuable presents from a beautiful woman.
" If he dream of seeing the moon fall and then eating it,
it is an omen of the greatest possible good, let him remem-
ber it.
" If he dream of bathing in a pool, dressed entirely in
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 39
white, of being able to walk on the water, and bringing up
the lotus-flower from the pool, it denotes a speedy and
happy marriage.
" If one dream of gathering flowers and placing them
behind the ear, let him offer sacrifices to the gods, and he
shall speedily obtain a beautiful wife.
" If one dream of walking on roads covered with gold
and silver, let him carefully offer sacrifices, and all his de-
sires shall be gratified.
" If he dream of losing a hand and ear, he shall speedily
be seated on a throne.
" If he dream of seeing many dead people, it denotes
that he shall be free from trouble all his life.
" If he dream of having the right leg bitten by a snake,
whatever property he may have lost shall be speedily re-
covered.
" If he dream of seeing a toad enter a house, he shall
possess great treasures.
" If he dream of being fanned by another, he shall be-
come a magistrate of great authority.
" If he dream that he sees a great many persons dance
together, it denotes that he will die in a prison.
" If he dream of seeing a lady splendidly attired, he shall
pass all his days amid peace and plenty.
" If one dream of stabbing himself, he shall be made a
noble of high rank.
" If he dream of his body emitting the fragrance of flow-
ers, it denotes that he shall have a beautiful daughter, who
.shall be the consort of a king.
" If he dream of eating the raw hand of a dead man, it
denotes that he shall be king of his country.
" If he dream of eating the head of a man, dressed up
as food, he shall possess great treasures, but shall die at an
early age.
" If one dream of his teeth dropping out, it denotes sick-
ness and death.
" If one dream of his own death, it denotes long contin-
ued prosperity.
" If he dream of seeing a woman adorned with red flow-
ers, clothed entirely in red, and having her body painted
red, it denotes that in seven days he shall die.
40 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" If he dream of seeing a woman clothed in black, and
holding black flowers, it denotes the stealing of his goods
and his own death.
" If he dream of an elephant standing over the mouth
of a water-jar, he shall possess rank and affluence, and all
his friends shall take refuge in him.
" If one dream of weeping much, he shall see pleasant
sights.
" If he dream of having the flesh cut off his bones, it
denotes elevation of rank.
" If he dream of his eyelashes coming out, it denotes
that his money and treasures shall be stolen by a woman.
" If he dream of a frog eating the sun and moon, it de-
notes continued happiness.
" If he dream of falling down and rising without injury,
it is an omen of good.
" If he dream of being in great distress, let him make
offerings, it is an omen of good.
" If he dream of being hung, it denotes good fortune.
" If he dream of stretching out his tongue, eyes, and
nose, it forebodes a violent and distressing headache.
" If he dream of being borne on the shoulders of others
and attended by music and rejoicings, it forebodes the death
of his consort and children.
" If he dream of seeing a bat on the roof of his house,
it denotes the supreme favor of the Deity.
" If he dream of seeing a star of uncommon splendor fall
into his house, his consort shall be the daughter of a king."
Not being a strenuous believer in dreams myself, I have
sought to select a few specimens rather of the curious and
characteristic kind than those of general application from
this manuscript interpretation of the Siamese Dream Book.
It would be curious, were the whole of it published, to trace
out the resemblances between many of the dreams (some
of them embracing the precise words) and those in modern
times ; and if the modern omen derived not its origin from
the Siamese Dream Book, the omen of the modern and of
the dreamers among the Siamese must have had a com-
mon origin. And it would still further be curious to run
the parallel between these signs and omens and those of
the Greeks and Romans, some of which are so strikingly
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WOULD. 41
similar that their origin seems to point to a common fount
of superstition and credulity, all taking us back to a com-
mon people and ancestry.
The manuscript from which I have been transcribing
concludes with the following paragraph :
" The interpretation of dreams is ended. Whoever has
the foregoing dreams, whether man or woman, may rely
upon the interpretation here given. If one dream in the
first watch of the night, after eight months the dream
shall be accomplished. If he dream in the seco-nd watch,
after four days the dream shall be fulfilled. If he dream
in the third watch, in one day the result shall be made
known. If he dream in the fourth watch of the night,
the period for the accomplishment of the dream is uncer-
tain.
" The end of the Siamese Dream Book."
There is much of the customs and the manners and the
religion and characteristic modes of the thinking of the Si-
amese to be noted in this otherwise uninteresting work, to
the more enlightened Christian. The allusions in it to the
occasional fate of the moon, induces me to introduce in this
connection, a curious paper, derived from the same source
as the manuscript Dream Book. It shows how a nation's
superstition modifies their philosophy, religion, and enters
into all their habits of thought connected with their private
and public life.
".THE MOON DEVOURED BY RAHU.
" I will relate a story concerning what happened when
Budh had perfected himself in Chetuwau Temple, in the
city of Sawatthi, in South Behar. When the moon was
full it was seized by Rahu, who hid its beams and obscured
its brightness.
" In the morning the attendants of Gandana came in
haste, and having bowed their heads in adoration, told him
what had happened. Seeing their terror, his compassion
was excited, and he said to them, * Cheer up, my lords, be
of good heart, and listen to a story of three tewas (heav-
enly beings) who were brothers. In ancient times, since
which creatures have been transmigrating through seve-
42 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ral hundred systems of worlds, there lived a man of hon-
orable race, named Kunla, in the capital of Hongsawadi,
who had three sons. The title of the first was Lord
Watio ; of the second, Lord Khun ; and of the third,
Lord Ratthako. On one occasion, when alone in a jungle,
they took their food and curry-put to cook their dinner in
haste. The elder mixed the food, the second prepared
the vegetables, and the younger took wood and built a
fire under the rice-pot. While thus employed, the smoke
from the fire affecting the eyes of the elder, he broke out
in abusive language to his two brothers, upon which, the
second, being vexed, snatched a ladle from the hand of
the elder and beat the head of the younger brother, who
in his turn being enraged, uttered the following impreca-
tion against his two brothers : ' Hereafter, whatever pow-
er you may attain to, may I exceed you ten thousand times,
in order to tease and annoy you, until I have avenged my-
self,' thus laying aside his anger to a future state.
"At length, after these brothers had transmigrated through
many states, they were born again as three brothers, in the
days of Gandana. And going in company to make offer-
ings to him, the first put a golden cup into his begging-
box, the second put a silver one, and the third gave a
black curry-pot, after which they entreated that their fu-
ture state might correspond with their several offerings ;
and Gandana bestowed his blessing upon them three times
in succession. When their life on earth was finished, they
ascended to heaven, where the elder became the sun, the
second the moon, the younger a monstrous black tewa,
called Rahii.
" Rahu's height was forty-eight thousand miles. His
arms were thirteen thousand miles asunder. His face mea-
sured five thousand miles. His head, nine thousand miles.
His forehead, three thousand miles. The space between
the eyebrows, five hundred miles. His nose was three thou-
sand miles long. His nostrils were three thousand miles
deep. His mouth was of a deep-red color, and was two
thousand miles wide. His fingers and toes were of equal
lengths, that is, five hundred miles.
" Rahii is bold, fierce, and malicious. He watches the
sun and moon continually ; and when the latter is full, he
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 43
hates her so excessively that he cannot rest, but stands in her
path, with his mouth wide open. Sometimes he compresses
her between his lips. Sometimes hides her under his chin.
Sometimes buries her maliciously in the hollow of his cheek.
And sometimes, shuts her up in his hand, according to his
inclination. On account of his former imprecation his
anger cannot cease, for his prayer was answered by the
great teacher of religion. When the sun and moon are
thus annoyed, being greatly frightened, they recite their
prayers in great haste. For, the sun being only 500 miles
in circumference, and the moon 290 miles, when thrust into
Rahu's mouth, they lose themselves, and are as if they had
fallen into the infernal regions. All the heavenly damsels
being alarmed at this, cry out in great distress some
dishevelling their hair and beating their breasts, cry out,
1 The moon is destroyed we remember all her beauty
she was a bright body and protected us from evil. Rahu
is very audacious thus to frighten her in her path P
" The astrologers say that this phenomenon forebodes
evil. When Rahu has released the moon, he enters his
palace in haste, and throwing himself down, says that he
has been playing tricks with the moon, in consequence of
which his head is almost strained asunder, and that, he is
nearly dead.
" Thus Rahu and the sun and moon are at perpetual va-
riance."*
It must at once strike the reader, that such absurdities en-
tering into the religious and credulous systems of the Siam-
ese, one effectual way of convincing them qf the error of
their own teachers, and that the systems to which they
adhere are false, is by giving the rising generation among
them true ideas in connection with astronomy and philoso-
phy. It is said that their system of religion embraces the
idea that there is a central mountain in the universe, and
that about this are located seven states of existences. The
* " The above corresponds precisely with the belief of the Siam-
ese generally. All eclipses are supposed to be occasioned by this
fabulous monster, whom they endeavor to frighten off by beating
drums, kettles, etc., and exerting their voices in producing the most
hideous and frightful noises. When the eclipse is over, they think
they have succeeded."
31
44 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
earth is one and the lowest for men and animals. Above
it are the others, arranged for heavenly existences accord-
ing to the respective excellencies of their natures and
spiritual prowess. The light of true philosophy alone
will do away such absurdities, and with the undermining
of the basis of their system must crumble the fabric of
'their superstitions. A fit illustration of this sentiment is
found in an anecdote repeated to me by the Rev. Mr.
White, the English chaplain at Singapore. A gentleman
of scientific tastes, in India, at considerable expense and
trouble, procured a fine microscope from England. Hav-
ing properly arranged it, he invited a Bramin to look at
its developments. The Hindoo priest gazed with aston-
ishment at the revelations which a drop of water, exposed
to the effects of the microscope, made to him. He had
for a long sainted life, according to the tenets of his Bra-
minical system, been priding himself on the consistency of
his action with his creed, in never having, in any instance,
destroyed life. Here his whole self-complacency, and his
supposed consistency of a long life, and profoundly be-
lieved tenets of his svstem, were at once overthrown and
destroyed. He manifested the greatest agitation. And
after an interval begged that he might be possessed of so
remarkable a thing. The owner, finding it difficult to re-
ject the unceasing importunities of the Bramin, finally con-
sented that he should have it. The Bramin took it and
having left the dwelling of his friend, was watched on his
way as he departed, when he was seen to take the lenses
and deliberately demolish them all between two stones.
The donor having expressed his surprise and displeasure,
was answered, with a triumphant air, on the part of the
Bramin, that " he had thus acted and was now hapyy; but
while that instrument was in existence his religion was
unsafe. Had it gotten abroad, the system of the Bramins
would have been overthrown."
What then is the moral of these facts ? It is that in
all the actions of the missionary, he should aim to spread
correct and incontrovertible ^rs principles in philosophy;
and that instruments which should amuse and practically
instruct the native children and make them wiser than
their superstitious fathers, should accompany the mission-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 45
ary abroad, and be used in enlightening the mind of the
heathen, and riving the chain that now holds them in obe-
dient ignorance to their superstitions of cast and binding
habits of many centuries.
SIAMESE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
It may not be uninteresting to the reader to have in-
troduced here the Siamese ten commandments, found in
the sacred books of the Budhists ; the first five being ob-
ligatory upon all the people, the last five upon the priest-
hood only.
1. Do not kill animals.
2. Do not steal.
3. Do not commit adultery.
4. Do not tell lies.
5. Do not drink ardent spirits.
7. Do not eat any thing from mid-day until past mid-
night.
8. Do not sleep on a place more than one cubit high.
8. Do not anoint your body with fragrant oil or powder.
10. Do not look at a female, nor at theatrical exhibi-
tions.
The missionaries at Bankok, the capital of Siam, are
said to have the favor of the king and his court at the
present time. A very beautiful specimen of Japanese
work, in an article of a lady's dressing box, occupies Mrs.
Davenport's table, which was a present from one of the
princes of the kingdom, who partially speaks English and
frequently visits the missionary families.
I trust I shall not be deemed departing from the most
delicate dictates of considerate and partial friendship, by
introducing the following lines, associated with the lady
already mentioned, as one of the missionary band located
in Siam, whose residence for the few months past at Sin-
gapore, has given me the pleasure of her acquaintance.
They were written by her brother on the departure of
his sister from her home for this foreign land, with breath-
ings of Christian benevolence towards a heathen people
swelling her young bosom. They do credit to the writer,
as evidencing a mind imaginative and cultivated, and a
46 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
heart swelling with the refined and warm sensibilities of
a brother. How should they shame the coarse perceptions
of those persons, who are incapable of appreciating the
delicate and pure sympathies of a Christian heart that
goes out in generous and ennobling feelings of interest for
the spiritual welfare of a benighted people ; but who, in
the absence of a kindred benevolence, seem ever to seek
for some sinister motive as the propelling cause that urges
the self-sacrificing missionary to leave the endearments
of his native land for the chances and the toils of a foreign,
strange, and unlettered race ! If ever there were a gen-
erous forgetting of one's self for the good of others if
ever there were a scene of moral beauty that the mag-
nanimous and the ingenuous of heart would admire, and
to which they would accord their approbation and respect-
ful but unqualified praise, whatever may be their sentiments
as to the practicability of the missionary cause, it is seen
in the young, and intelligent, and refined, and Christian
female, who, unmindful of the ties of kindred and home,
ventures forth in reliance upon her God for protection and
support, to dare the vicissitudes of a missionary life among
a heathen people. I envy not that man his head or his
heart who perceives not and feels not the moral effect of
such a picture. To him, the tear, the sigh, the parting
word, the glowing enthusiasm of a young and ardent and
Christian heart, the moral energy of a cultivated mind,
encased in a form fragile but fair, are things which must
have lost what another reads in them the truest poetry
of nature.
How apropos the lines alluded to will be found in
many instances besides the interesting one which origina-
ted them ! I suppose they have never before been printed.
"THE DEPARTURE OF THE MISSIONARY BRIDE.
" The time had come. The stern clock struck the hour.
Each long-loved haunt had shared a mute farewell,
And drank a blessing from her loving eye
For the last time. But now the climax came.
Methought she lingered long, as if to gain
Respite from some more dreaded pang,
Appalling though unfelt ; for, near her side,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 47
With eye close following where her darling moved,
Her widowed mother stood. And so she laid
Her on that dear breast, where every pain
Of infancy was soothed. And then arose
One wild, deep sob of weeping, such as breaks
Upon the ear of death, when he hath torn
The nerve fast-rooted in the fount of life.
'Tis o'er the bitterness is past, young bride !
No heavier dreg shall quiver on thy lip
Till the last ice-cup cometh.
" Then she turned
To him who was to be her sole shelter now,
And placed her hand in his, and raised her eye
One moment upwards, whence her help did come.
Then, with a steadfast step, paced forth to take
Her life-long portion in a heathen clime.
" Yet to me it seemed
That, in the flush of youth and health, to take
Death's parting was a strange, unnatural thing ;
And that the faithful martyr, who doth yield
His body to the fire's fierce purifier
But one brief hour, hath lighter claims on heaven
For high endurance, than the tender bride,
Who, from her mother's bosom lifts her head,
To 'bide the buffets of an Indian clime,
Bearing the sorrows of a woman's lot,
Perchance for many years."
The moral courage, the devoted zeal, and the free
sacrifices of the missionary, to be rightly estimated, must
be viewed in connection with the positive conveniences
they were enjoying at the time of their decision to leave
their homes ; their many means of happiness, social and
intellectual privileges, for the probable exposure, difficul-
ties and trials that were expected to be their lot abroad.
It was in full view of such a contrast their resolutions
were taken ; resigning the reality of the present and the
pleasant, for the uncertainty of the doubtful and appre-
hended future. If, however, on reaching a foreign coun-
try, they find that Providence has so disposed things as to
render their situation more comfortable, in external cir-
cumstances, than they expected, it becomes a matter for
gratitude on their own part, their friends at home, and
Christians universally ; their conveniences being so much
the more advantageous for prosecuting their benevolent
labors, as is their situation the more favorable than they
31*
48 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
anticipated. Thus we have found the missionaries at this
station. Their dwelling-houses are spacious, and neatly
but plainly furnished ; having been built before they reach-
ed the place, and affording pleasant residences, at a rea-
sonable rent. Most of the houses of the missionaries are
occupied by two families ; and at the present, while the
Borneo missionaries are remaining at Singapore, they are
residents in the same buildings with their brethren. The
building on the hill, most pleasantly situated, is the most
spacious one occupied by the missionaries. The rooms
are so arranged as to render it convenient for the two fam-
ilies who occupy it, and a large hall in the centre affords
a room for worship on Sunday, and religious meetings
during the week. These buildings and lot, it is said, are
offered for sale ; and I should deem it a most proper pur-
chase, if the Society at home have the funds to secure it.*
It is here the missionary families gather to their afternoon
worship ; and, in themselves, they form a respectable ga-
thering, even in numbers. Their scholars are also present,
and those connected with the mission. It is a matter of
gratification to me to be able to say that these rooms have
been a favorite place of resort to many of our officers for
the afternoon service, during the stay of our ships at Sin-
gapore. In the morning the Episcopal church is open,
and it is usual for the missionaries and all others to frequent
k for the morning services. There is also a Scotch chapel
where service is held on Wednesday evenings.
On the first Sunday in March, two of the gentlemen,
Messrs. Thompson and Polhman of the mission, officiated,
at the invitation of Commodore Read, on board the Co-
lumbia. The selection of persons was left to the arrange-
ment of the gentlemen of the mission themselves. Some
one of their number has also regularly held services each
Sunday on board'the John Adams, during our stay at this
port. And it is a remark that gives me great pleasure in
* The low bungalow, one story high, with verandahs extending
quite around it, and costing from six hundred to one thousand dol-
lars, I believe is the style of building which the missionaries would
prefer, did their funds render it compatible for them to build them.
There are but a few such buildings, I should think, in Singapore.
The Rev. Mr. Travelli occupies one.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 49
recording it here, that almost all the%fficers of the squad-
ron (I do not know one exception among those who have
formed their acquaintance) have given to the missionary
families, now at this station, their cordial good wishes, and
they regard them as a band of worthy men and women
sincerely engaged in a cause of philanthropy and religion,
ennobling and grand in its purposes and expected results.
And I know that a good number of these officers will leave
their missionary friends at Singapore, with hearts warmed
in kindness towards them personally, and giving them,
with their sympathies and their prayers, the cordial hopes
that they may be successful arid happy in the devotion of
their lives to the noble and holy cause of throwing the
light of the Christian religion in the pathway of a benight-
ed people.
I accompanied the Rev. Messrs. T. and P., on their
return to shore from our ship, and officiated, agreeably to
previous arrangement, at the missionary room on the hill,
in the afternoon. It was their communion day, being the
first Sunday in the month. All the missionaries were
present and their ladies, and some of the officers from
both ships. The room was well filled, and I shall not
forget the interest of a season, so peculiar to us, privileged,
in our course around the world, a moment to pause here
and to mingle with a band of the disciples of Christ so
worthy, in a region so far from the land of our mutual
and native homes. And here was a beautiful exemplifi-
cation of the union of Christian hearts of different per-
suasions the Presbyterian, the Dutch Reformed, and the
Scotch Independent. There were Chinese converts (a few)
who joined in the communion. I shall remember, as an
agreeable reminiscence of these worthy missionaries, the
range of their numbers, as they lined the room on this oc-
casion of an interesting meeting. And I doubt not that
their thoughts, with all their unfaltering purpose of a life's
devotion to the cause they had espoused, went far over
sea to those they had left and still loved in a distant land.
Their heads at least were bowed in the indulgence of
their overflowing emotions. These lines may meet the
eyes of some of them, when I would again say in the
language I then used, " Cheer ! in view of the necessary
50 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
efforts, in the absence of the age of miracles, which you
are now putting forth in your unwearied work of acquir-
ing the languages ; in your patient instructions of groups
of children ; in the spread of the word of God in their
native tongue, and other works exemplifying the eternal
principles of the fitness, mercy, and salvation, which the
Bible develops. Cheer ! in the knowledge that ye are
working with the Holy Spirit, who converts and sancti-
fies the souls of men, "THROUGH THE TRUTH." Yours is the
precise action that must take place, in the very nature of
mind, as the precursor of that morn, when a day without
its night shall illumine both hemispheres of the earth.
Cheer ! in your hours of shade and sorrow, in the con-
sciousness of your disinterested and benevolent action.
The darkest moment of midnight is just before the break
of day. Cheer ! in your joyous gush of happy anticipa-
tion, for there are gleams of light already streaming all
around the moral horizon of a benighted world. Cheer !
for the warm hearts of Christian millions are with you ;
and the pure tear that would have graced an angel's eye,
has pearled its way on the cheek of many who have given
for you their prayers."
On the succeeding Wednesday evening, i dined with
the Rev. Mr. J. Stronach, and preached in the Scotch
chapel. A number from the families of the town, with the
missionaries in the neighborhood, attend the evening ser-
vices at the Scotch chapel. It is a convenient edifice for
the purposes designed, and the two Scotch gentlemen
seemed to be favorably located for the prosecution of their
plans. They are acquiring the Chinese language, in view
of laboring among this most numerous class of people,
in Singapore. I met the Chinese convert, Leang Afat, at
Mr. A. Stronach's, a short time previously. This Chinese
has been expelled from the Chinese empire, in consequence
of his conversion to Christianity, and is now engaged in
revising the Chinese Bible. His personal appearance is
prepossessing ; and I bear a letter, with some little me-
mentoes of a father's affection, from him to his son Leang
A-tih, who is with the son of Dr. Morrison, at Canton.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 51
LANGUAGE OF THE MALAYS.
The language of the Malays is probably more exten-
sively spoken than any other throughout the eastern seas,
and has justly derived for itself the appellation of the Lin-
gua Franca of this part of the globe. It is strikingly soft
and euphonious, and may be styled, not inaptly, the Italian
of the East. It is said, by those who are capable of ap-
preciating its excellencies as well as its defects, that it is
favorable in its combinations to poetry, and that the Ma-
lays are fond of rhythm, which they attempt in proverbs
and love-songs. There is pith, at least, in the first, and
sentiment in the second distich of the following two speci-
mens:
" What signifies attempting to light a lamp,
If the wick be wanting ]"
" What signifies playing with the eyes,
If nothing in earnest be intended ?"
They say, when expressing their sentiment of fatalism,
which so thoroughly enters into the creed of those imbued
with Mohammedanism:
" Those who are dead are dead ; those who survive
must work. If his allotted time is expired, what resource
is there ?"
The Malays, so far as is yet known, have never had
any original set of characters to designate their elementary
sounds of speech. They use the Arabic characters in
their written language, with some modifications ; and as
a consequence, together with their association with the
Mohammedans in the adoption of their religion, they
have introduced many Arabic words ; and frorrT the early
intercourse with the Portuguese throughout these regions
a number of words from the language of these early ad-
venturers are also found incorporated with the Malay.
Their words, nouns and verbs, are without inflections, and
therefore no grammar of their language, according to our
general notions on the subject, can be formed.
Singapore is a central position of the thousand isles and
large extent of coasts where this language is spoken.
52 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Most of the missionaries study it, and it forms one of the
languages taught in the Literary Institution at Singapore.
Mr. A. North, attached to the mission here, is spoken
of as one of the best Malay scholars of the place, and
certainly manifests a commendable zeal in the pursuit of
Malay literature. With this gentleman I had the pleasure
of occasional interviews, and am indebted to him for the
translation of several Malay manuscripts, which I shall in-
troduce here for their curiosity, and also as having a con-
nection with the transactions of our ships on the west
coast of Sumatra.
The first is the letter of obligation on the part of Po
Chute Abdullah, Rajah of Kwala Batu, to pay two thou-
sand dollars. The following is the translation of the ori-
ginal Malay. Mr. North intentionally retained some of
the peculiarities of the original in the translation as given:
" This is the epistle of Po Chute Abdullah, to Com-
mander Reej, engaging to pay two thousand dollars.
" As to the bad man, he has not been caught ; he has
fled.
" Now, this agreement is to pay the said money, within
twelve months, to Commander Reej, or to any other ship
which shall present this writing, or another equivalent to
it, whether a ship of war or a trading- vessel ; only let not
another ship make war upon the country of Kwala Batu.
Hereby is peace made with Commander Reej, and hereby
does Po Chute Abdullah, Rajah of Kwala Batu, become
his friend as long as he lives. The writing is finished. By
the council of all the elders of Kwala Batu on the side of
Achin. Our words are ended, wishing you peace and
tranquillity."
The following is added in the hand- writing of Po
Adam :
" This writing from Po Chute Abdullah, of Kwala Batu,
is given to Commodore Reej, on Saturday, the 17th day
of the festival month, in the year 1254. Signed, as wit-
ness, by Po Adam, Taku Kadang."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 53
The next document is a letter from one of the chiefs of
Muckie. It was written after the destruction of that
place, and sent to Commodore Read while the ship was
b'ing at Soo-Soo, filling up with water. It is, at least, a
curious document, besides other things containing the
Rajah's own account of the murder of Captain Wilkins.
The Rajah is wrong in one particular, and may be in
others. Commodore Read made no promise of sending
on shore after the second interview of the officer, on the
day preceding the destruction of the town. This is cer-
tified to by Captain Wyman and Lieutenant Turner, the
officers who called on the Rajahs agreeably to the orders
of the Commodore.
" Now this is the document of the great chief of Muckie,
to the Commander of the ship of war and all the officers
thereof. As are the particles of the earth and the stars of
the sky for number, even so many and more, are my
compliments to, and hopes in, the Commander of the Amer-
ican ship of war.
" Now I make known to you, that on a time, Captain
Wilkins having arrived in the harbor of Muckie, Po Ma-
lay u went on board his ship. The Captain put confidence
in him, but not in us. Po Malay u brought his ship to
Taluk Pow, where he took in some pepper ; he then took
her to Sawang, and did the same ; he received at both
places say about one thousand piculs ; he then conducted
her to Tarbangan and took in more. When he had been
at that place two or three days, by Divine Providence,
Panglina Sanyak Blang, with Lubby Yusuf at night,
bringing pepper, which was received and weighed by the
captain at night ; they then killed the captain, and took
his money and goods. Lubby Yusuf then returned to Ta-
luk Pow. It was then reported to us that Captain Wilkins
was made away with by Panglina Sanyak Blang and
Lubby Yusuf. I then sent Taku Yet to the ship of Captain
Silver, directing them to search for the captured vessel.
After Captain Silver had been gone two days, I sent a war-
boat with my scribe, but he did not find Captain Wilkins's
54 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ship ; and Captain Silver, Taku Yet, and my war-boat, all
came back to Muckie. Two or three days after, Captain
Wilkins's ship came with Captain Filbadi (Peabody) to
Muckie. The mate of Captain Wilkins bought of me
about seven hundred pikuls of pepper. I told Captains
Silver and Filbadi, and Wilkins's mate, that I intended to
put to death the persons engaged in this murder, and re-
cover the plundered property. They replied : * Don't do
it. If a ship of war comes to Muckie, you can unite your
forces with her ; you attacking them by land and she by
water/ Thus did I agree with these three men. Why
should they give me these directions ? Because my coun-
try was taken along with three countries and a half, to
wit, Samadu, Taluk Pow, Sawang, and part of Muckie ;
for this reason I made treaty with the ship of war which
was to come.
" I now make known to you that the persons who com-
mitted the murder were Taku Blangi, Taku Yikdul ana
Taku Nyik Raja ; their scribe was the scribe of Po Ma-
layu.
" Now you came to this country and met me and those
men at Taku Yet's house ; you told us all to go on board
the ship ; I said I would go ; but the others said they would
not. The reason of their saying so was that they suspected
some secret understanding between you and me. At
twelve o'clock the next day you were to come on shore,
but at eight o'clock you commenced firing. During my
father's life, and within my own remembrance, I have never
known white men to violate their engagements, whether
for good or evil. I, though alive, now feel like a dead
man. Now, what think you? I wish you would return
me answer immediately by the bearer.
" I send my respects to my brother, Taku Lambadar,
who is on board the American ship of war, and request him
to give any explanation that may be necessary, because
we are brethren. The end."
" The original of the above," adds Mr. North, " is writ-
ten in a very confused and careless manner. It must have
been composed by an exceedingly illiterate person. It has
been difficult for me to make out the meaning, even with
the assistance of the most learned Malay in Singapore.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 55
The passages enclosed in red (alluding to the time of firing
and the treaty with the ship of war, etc.) are the most ob-
scure, and I am not confident that I have given any thing
like the true meaning. Probably some one familiar with
the circumstances alluded to in these two passages could
throw light upon them and enable me to give a correct
translation."
The next paper I insert is a translation of an epistle from
Po Kwala, the Pedir Rajah of Kwala Batu, with whom a
treaty was partly formed at Pulau Kayu and completed
on board the Columbia :
"Now this sincere and friendly writing, which arises from
a white heart, a serene countenance, an eloquent tongue,
and true faith, comes from the side of Taku Rajah Kwala,
who governs the country of Kwala Batu on the side of
Pedir. We send many compliments to the commander
and all the elders of the ship of war.
" Now we will not lengthen out our words, but only
make a short statement. The Taku Rajah Kwala would
fain touch the hand and see the eyes of the commander and
all the elders ; he wishes to meet you all at Pulau Kayu.
If you are willing, let the commander first send down the
elders to meet Taku Rajah Kwala on shore, because the
Rajah wishes immediately to ascend the ship. It is al-
ready known to you that the son of the Rajah wishes to
accompany his father on board, provided you give permis-
sion, since the Rajah is anxious to become the friend of the
commander.
" Concerning the outrage upon your countrymen : The
property is in- the possession of an Achin chief and of the
man who committed the outrage who is his son (subject.)
Taku Rajah Kwala and his sons have had no hand in this
outrage, and no portion of the spoil. What now is the
determination of your Excellency, since I am a poor man ?
Have compassion oh me. Send your trading-vessels. I
have pepper* and you have pepper ships in your country.
Both myself and my royal father have always been at peace
with the Americans, as says Taku Yet Hed ? If you en-
32
56 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
tertain any doubts concerning the truth of my assertion,
you may inquire of your countrymen who is right and who
wrong. Thus may your perspicuous Excellency be right-
ly informed. This is the end.
" In the year of the Flight 1255."
The last document will be regarded as the most graceful
composition, as the Rajah Po Kwala was the most genteel
chief in appearance and manners we met ; and the circum-
stances of the after talk with this chief, and the place and
the scene, have already been described.
The manuscript, of which the following fac-simile is a
copy, was given me by Mr. North, as a beautiful specimen
of Malay manuscript. It is the Lord's Prayer in the Malay
language and Arabic characters:
xt flj ^tf Ub
sJLw
H JLww ^jc\^ xJL*,
Jo Ju^ jj^. Jo
I have already stated that a number of the missionaries
now at Singapore, are waiting for a passage to Borneo.
Two of their number, the Rev. Messrs. Doty and Polhman,
have visited this island, to make observations as to the
prospects of a mission there, and think they are favorable.
But little heretofore has been known of the islanders of
Borneo, composed of Chinese, Bujis, and Dyaks. It is to
the Dyaks the missionaries propose to give their particu-
lar attention. They are a wild and peculiar people in
some respects, and appear to be mild and hospitable in
others. The Rev. Mr. Polhman gave me the privilege of
reading the journal of the tour of these two missionaries
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 57
from Sambas to Pontianah, some one hundred miles in the
interior. Many of their customs are peculiar. That of
cutting off the heads and preserving the skulls as trophies
of personal prowess, is one. For this purpose the mem-
bers of the different tribes make an annual sally from their
villages. The consequence is, that the principal ornament
of the establishment of a Dyak of character among his
fellows is a range of human skulls the more numerous
the more honorable their possessor.
One would think it to be a wild and rough region for -a
delicate and beautiful woman to go to, to spend her life
and to fade away, if not unknown, yet beyond the view
of a civilized world. And yet some such have volunta-
rily devoted themselves to the benevolent efforts of the
self-denying missionary among such a people as the Dyaks.
May God attend them. We have learned, from our own
privilege of association with them for the few past weeks,
to know and appreciate their worth, and give them our
prayers for their success and happiness in the free dedi-
cation of their lives to the best welfare of the human race.
I have not thus long delayed the mention of the Ameri-
can Consul at Singapore and his estimable lady, because
of any forgetfulness of their generous hospitality and con-
tinued courtesies. . J. Balistier, Esq., is at the head of the
American commercial interests here, and, soon after our
ship was at anchor, waited on the Commodore, and ten-
dered to himself and his officers the hospitality of his
house. Commodore Read has made the Consul's his home
during the stay of our ships at Singapore, and the officers
of the squadron always found a welcome when visiting
the family. Mr. B.'s residence is a spacious and commo-
dious building, pleasantly situated on the level, and over-
looking the beach, with a full prospect of the expanded
water, and the hundred junks and the half hundred Euro-
pean vessels moored at some distance at their anchors in
the stream. Mrs. Balistier gave a party to the Commo-
dore and his officers, at which the Singapore gentles were
present. The knowledge that dancing would constitute
a part of the entertainment induced me to excuse myself.
Without entering upon a disquisition as to the propriety
of the dance, or the presence of clergymen and professors
58 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
of religion at the party where the dance is expected to
constitute a part of the social entertainment, I here simply
allude to the subject, by way of accounting to some of
my friends for the course of my own action in such cases.
It is enough that I deem that the clergyman must always
compromit his proper dignity by such an attendance.
The society of Singapore is quite small, the number of
European ladies, I should think, not exceeding twenty.
The civilities of shore were reciprocated by Commodore
Read, by an entertainment given on board the Columbia,
some few days previous to the sailing of our ships. The
quarter-deck of the frigate was decorated with the flags of
different nations, forming a hall, whose ends and sides and
ceiling were lined with layers of every-colored bunting.
Here, unfolded the gorgeous crown and gold of the Span-
iard; there, the emeralds and the diamonds and the emblem
of a world's dominion, supporting the elevated cross, dis-
played the boasted prowess of Portugal, and the wealth of
the Brazils. There again, in graceful festoon, dropped the
five crowns of Bolivia ; and here glowed the full sun of a
neighboring state. Every nation had its representative
in curtain or festoon, or hi spread of wider folds, while the
royal ensign of England and the stars and stripes of the
American Republic occupied the most conspicuous and con-
tiguous places, with their unions in calm and complacent
contact.
Who that has the memories of an honored ancestry
who, with the fresh recollections of olden and modern his-
toric pages who, with the swelling hopes and desires that
a world may be blessed with the highest attainments in civ-
ilization and the hallowed principles and consolations of
the religion of Jesus Christ, will not pray that the national
emblems of these two nations may long wave harmonious-
ly, wherever they may display their folds, on land or on
the sea?
Besides other articles of curiosity in the rooms at the
American Consul's, Mrs. Balistier has a fine collection of
shells, which a residence at this point has enabled her to
secure from most of the adjacent seas. They are taste-
fully arranged in a private cabinet. Here, also, I have
first met with the sacred lotus, the lily of Egypt and other
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 59
classic regions ; and to Mrs. B. I am indebted for the pos-
session of a large number of paintings, illustrating with
great minuteness and accuracy the great variety of fruits
of the straits. With Mrs. B., I am sure all who have form-
ed her acquaintance will leave their kindest wishes, and
take with them remembrances of her courtesies, which
will make the recollection of them among their most ac-
ceptable associations with Singapore.
Our ships had now lingered more than a month in Singa-
pore Roads. The monsoon had begun to weaken its force,
and the sick of the crew, who had early been removed to
a fine airy house, rented for a hospital during our stay,
began to recruit. It was expected that the John Adams
would be sent up the gulf of Siam, while the Columbia
would prolong her stay for a few more days at Singapore,
and the two ships again meet at Manilla. Commodore
Read only waited for the more complete restoration of the
sick of the crew of the John Adams, before he should is-
sue his orders, which had already been prepared, for her
departure for Siam.
The purpose of Commodore Read to send the Adams to
Siam, was afterwards changed, in view of the state of the
health of the crew of the John Adams and the fear that
additional sickness would be the result of the corvette's
visit to Bankok. But as it was the original design of
Commodore Read that the Adams should leave Singa-
pore for Siam ; and more particularly, because I desire it
should be known what views and feelings the commander
of the East India squadron cherished in connection with
the missionaries in these regions, I here quote the instruc-
tions that were made out for Captain Wyman, though, in
view of the reasons already specified, they were not for-
warded to him :
" U. S. Frigate Columbia, Singapore Roads, March, 1839.
"SiR,
" You will proceed with the ship under your command
to the gulf of Siam, and approach Bankok' as near as you
can with safety, for the purpose of communicating with
the city of Siam.
" The object of your visit will be to obtain information
32*
60 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
respecting the state of our commerce with that kingdom,
and to procure all the intelligence which may be deemed
useful to be communicated for the benefit of our govern
ment. It is also desirable that the government of Siam
should be made acquainted with the character pf our naval
force in these seas, and of the original intention that the
squadron under my command should visit the dominions
of his Majesty, and which nothing but the impossibility of
getting sufficiently near to Bankok with the Columbia, pre-
vented.
" The missionaries from the United States at present res-
ident in the kingdom of Siam, are said of late to have re-
ceived particular notice, with marks of favor from the king
of that country, and from his half-brother. The mission-
aries are also represented by impartial accounts from that
quarter of the world, as doing much good their time and
their talents being industriously and zealously employed in
the education of many of the youth of the country. It is
also believed that they are gradually gaining influence
with the great mass of the people ; and it is well known
that a remarkable change in their favor has taken place,
as manifested in their reception and the treatment the mis-
sionaries meet with from the inhabitants. You will there-
fore readily perceive the propriety of affording them all
the countenance in our power. It is my wish that the
government under which they live and the people with
whom they reside, should see and know that we respect
them. You will communicate freely with them, and learn
whatever may be of interest respecting the disposition of
that government towards our own, together with any in-
formation that may be of service to ourselves. If any
aid or assistance which it may be in your power to give
should be asked by the missionaries or any of them, I need
not say that it would be your duty (as I am sure it would
be your inclination) to afford it without hesitation.
"On the completion of your business at Siam, you will
proceed to Manilla, and take on board at that port your
proportion, or one third of the stores deposited there for
the use of the squadron. You will also supply yourself
with bread, if it can be procured, lest you might not be able
to obtain this article of consumption at Canton. You will
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 61
then proceed to Canton. On your arrival at the latter
place, you will immediately commence refitting, and put
your ship in such a state and condition as will render her
capable of again taking the sea, to reach South America.
" With sincere good wishes for the health and happi-
ness of yourself, officers, and crew,
" I am, dear sir, very truly yours,
" GEORGE C. READ.
" To Commander T. C. WYMAN, U. S. ship John Adams."
After tea this evening, Saturday, March 9th, I called
at Mr. Doty's, to spend an hour or two with the mission-
ary families there. I perceived a cloud was hanging
over their circle, and after a short time left them ; when
the Rev. Mr. Orr and myself, having proceeded a short
distance on our return, met Mr. North, who had just come
from the hill, another part of the town, where the Rev.
Mr. Ball and the Rev. Mr. Wood, with their families, re-
side.
" Ah, here is brother North, now," said Mr. O. as we
met, " you can give us all the news from the hill, we
were just thinking about sending there, to learn how Mrs.
Wood is."
" How do you do, Mr. T. ?" replied Mr. N., addressing
myself abruptly, " a note has just gone to you, to ask if
you will perform the burial service over Mrs. Wood to-
morrow, at five o'clock. Another letter has been sent to
the Consul's, and one to Commodore Read, informing them
of the death of Mrs. W., and inviting them and the offi-
cers of the squadron, to attend the funeral. And you, bro-
ther Orr, will conduct the services at the house, if you
can."
It was like a thunderbolt, this unexpected intelligence.
In the morning Mrs. W., was deemed every way comfort-
able ; and although one of the ladies of the neighborhood
had been sent for to go to the hill, it was hoped that Mrs.
W. was not dangerously ill. But, to-night, she is robed
for her grave-yard sleep of to-morrow. Sweet, gentle,
lovely, effeminate woman but lately wedded, and with
a heart swelling with benevolence towards millions, thou
earnest to a foreign land, and here, so soon, hast found a
D2 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
foreign grave. Sleep gently for gentle hearts weep for
thee, and will weep over thee. Sleep gently for thy
spirit was a thing of softness, and purity, and blushing
modesty. Sleep gently for thou dost now rest in Jesus!
And for thee I withhold not the tear, as to thee, in our
short acquaintance, I had given, more than to most others
of thy number, a deep interest and a Christian's sympathy.
FUNERAL OF MRS. WOOD.
This evening of Sunday I have attended the funeral of
Mrs. Wood, the companion of the Rev. Mr. Wood, mis-
sionary at this place.
No tongue can tell the sorrow that this bereavement
has gathered over the missionary families here. I had
myself become deeply interested in Mrs. W., yet a young
lady, embracing in her character an amiableness which
traced itself in every smile on her countenance, and en-
deared her to her friends.
The services commenced at half-past four o'clock. The
large room at the mission house was filled. A large
number of the officers of both ships, manifested their sym-
pathy by their attendance ; and Commodore Read had ex-
pressed his desire that all the officers of the squadron
should attend, whom the duties of the ships would allow.
He himself was confined to his room, by a severe cold.
Captain Wyman of the Adams, with most of his officers,
was present ; Mr. Church the Resident, the American
Consul and his lady, and Mrs. White, the lady of the En-
glish chaplain, and all the missionaries, together with a
large concourse of the citizens.
The services were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Orr. I
would it were in my power here to transcribe the appro-
priate address he made. He did not come, he said, to of-
fer consolation to the bereaved companion it would re-
quire more than human power to do that. And yet he
owed the reciprocation of this act of kindness to his be-
reaved brother, who, on an occasion not a long time since,
had done a like office of kindness for him.*
* At the funeral of Mr. Orr's child, a short time previous.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 68
Mr. O. told in brief the story of Mrs. Wood. She was
the daughter of Johnston, Esq., of Morristown, New-
Jersey. She became pious at the age of fifteen left the
endearments of a refined society, home, and relatives, for
the purpose of entering on the work of missions among a
benighted people. It was not the result of enthusiasm.
She thought on her work, and dedicated herself consider-
ately to the cause. And though she had known some of
the trials and sorrows attendant on such action, she yet
had no desire to return. Her purpose remained fixed.
Mr. Orr addressed himself, in sadness and sorrow, to
his weeping brethren and more bitterly weeping sisters,
from whose bosoms one of the dearest of their number
had been taken. Death had been among them, he added,
for some wise purpose. It had come near to them in tak-
ing early one who had entered with him on this mission ;
and now God had approached, in a voice yet more thrill-
ing, and with a step yet more near.
To the officers he addressed an allusion to the circum-
stance, that death had been in their midst, in the frequent
removal of numbers of our men, since our arrival here,
from both ships.
And among the citizens, he continued, but of late, the
Eride of manhood and the beauty of woman have been
lid low.
The whole appeal was simple, chaste, feeling, appro-
priate. And there were many broken hearts there. I
sat beside the principal mourner. He wept as we knelt
side by side, but like an intelligent, meek, and devoted
disciple of Christ, sustains his loss with a becoming and
beautiful propriety, while the keen sensibilities of a heart
of refinement pours out its grief. And a little way from
me sat Mrs. P. She wept. She had come over with
Mrs. W., and their hearts were united, but death had now
severed chords that bound them in an endearing affection.
And a little way further, sat Mrs. O., who, like all the rest
of this devoted band of women, shed the silent tear as
their heads bent in melancholy sadness, to conceal their
flowing grief. It is beautiful to see woman weep. But
when she sheds her tear under such circumstances of be-
reavement, there is a sacredness in the hour in the spot
64 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
in the stillness, which makes the soul adore the purity
of the Eternal, and love and admire woman's lovely and
virtuous character.
It is not for me to narrate my own private sorrows.
But I had learned to admire this lovely woman, who, as
she now lay reposing in her marble, surpassed in her cold
and pale beauty any chiselled perfection in the arts. It
was the poetry of death. I have elsewhere seen it on
the unsullied face of the infant lying in its death-sleep,
with a flower upon its pale and cold cheek. The scene
carried me back to another and a bitter hour. And it
surely was an easy thing, this day, to weep.
When the procession moved from the house a scene
was presented, which a graphic pen should describe with-
out the colorings of the imagination. The reality was an
imposing spectacle. A long line of palanquins and car-
riages were occupied by the sympathizing attendants, and
along the side of this line of vehicles walked the young
Chinese scholars, With their hair-braids nearly touching
the ground, and who, in the morning, had stood around the
corpse of the departed missionary, and shed their tears in
their young simplicity. They were sad indeed, for hearts
so young. And before them walked the Chinese and
Malay teachers. One of the latter had bent over the cof-
fin of the dead during the morning, and a stream of silent
sorrow poured from his eye as he gazed on the lovely
corpse. She had often spoken kindly to him, as he had
given to her husband lessons in Malay! Mr. W. was
riding in the palanquin with myself, and talked with a full
heart of his beloved companion ; cherishing the many ex-
pressions she had uttered in her last and brief illness, while
unconscious of her near end, but grateful for the favora-
ble circumstances attendant on the birth of her infant.
And like a Christian he cherished the promises of his God,
and confided in their truth and consolation.
The extended procession advanced through several of
the streets, drawing the gaze of the Chinese, the Moorman,
the Bugis, the Sepoy, and still other classes of dark men,
as the Portuguese bearers advanced with the dark-palled
coffin to its final rest. They wound along the beautiful
bamboo-hedge that empales, in evergreen and soft foliage,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 65
this lovely burial-place, and reached its portal just -as the
sun was sending his level beams over the plain, and gave
a mellowed softness and melancholy charm to the hour,
as the coffin rested beside the open grave.
The crowd gathered from the carriages to the spot ;
and the service was repeated, as "earth to earth, ashes to
ashes, dust to dust," crumbled with its muffled sound upon
the gilded coffin of the young and lovely missionary.
How many a heart was bleeding as they turned from
that scene ! But the hill-side, where now the early-
departed is gently reposing, is a lovely spot. The breezes
that sweep up the acclivity are borne from a grove of the
evergreen nutmegs, as if they would breathe a spicy breath
for a spirit so pure, so lovely, and we believe now for ever
happy.
That same grave-yard, to me, will ever have a thrilling
interest, not only as a lovely spot, where, in silence and
solitude, I have trod at an evening hour, reposing in its
sweet seclusion but a short way from my lodgings on
shore, but also for a hundred strange and commingling
associations, which memory will recall in hours of review.
It is a strange pathway we measure while we tread our
course of life, so different every successive year from what
we early dreamed of, and perhaps had planned. And
then its strange intersections with the course of others we
have known, in most unexpected circumstances, and time
and place. Within this burial-ground I have stood at the
grave of a classmate, whom I knew at the university, then
a wild and popular youth, pursuing the same books, solv-
ing the same problems, contending for the same prizes,
and with hopes, I doubt not, swelling his*bosom as high as
any of his associates. I saw him not, as I now remember,
from the hour I gave him my hand of parting, on the
morning succeeding the commencement exercises. But I
frequently heard of him, and among other things, that he
had become a religious man, pursued his studies of theol-
ogy, and gave himself to the cause of missions. He went
to China, and from China purposed a cruise among the
islands of these various seas. He reached Singapore with
fever already in his veins, and after some days died, in the
same dwelling from which the remains of the lovely mis-
61) A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
sionary this day were conveyed, while around him stood
his brethren who had devoted themselves to the same
cause. And he was borne to the same burial-place, and
now lies in his last sleep, to swell the number of early
martyrs to the cause of Asiatic missions. " STEVENS !"
How familiar that name sounds in the associations of the
college-hall ! How strange, when pronounced at his tomb
in this foreign land !
And here, how often have I come on solemn duty since
the arrival of our ships at Singapore ! Nine times have I
read the burial service, in a less number of weeks, over
so many of our crew, who now lie in their death row of
American sailors, their names only recorded in the memory
of their shipmates, while the monument to the last one of
the last war's boatswains designates their graves and his
own resting-place in the soil of the enemy he had met.
And here too, at early sunrise, while the dew was yet
bespangling the green spires which carpet the hill-side of
this sweet spot, I have come to say the burial service over
the stranger to myself in the place of the English chaplain,
when himself too ill to officiate. The custom here is to
avoid the noonday sun, and at early morn or evening to
inter the dead.
This burial-ground occupies the western side of the
government hill. A small chapel (usual in English burial-
places for the temporary rest of the body, when the ser-
vice is to be in full performed) occupies one of the corners.
The lofty banian tree raises its high stem in grandeur and
grace far in the air ; and below the grounds on the same
acclivity, spreads forth to the view, in their luxuriant and
perpetual green, a grove of nutmeg trees, between which
and the rural grave-yard, winds the avenue up the hill-
side to the dwellings of the Governor. The stranger's eye
loves to linger on this spot as it greets his view from many
parts of his rides and walks through the town. " To be
placed in a spot so lovely, to me would yield some conso-
lation," I remarked once, "were I to die in Singapore.
My friends at least would have one bitter drained from
their cup of sorrow could they know how peaceful was
the rural ground where I rested."
" Not so did Mrs. W. seem to view this beautifully situ-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WOULD. 67
dted burial-place," Mr. Wood replied, as we were ap-
proaching near it, on the eve of her burial. " She seemed
to have a presentiment that her remains would lie there ;
and one evening, when I was about to drive along this
path," he continued, " she begged I would take another
road. And in view of the possibility that she soon, might
die, hoped that I would be prepared for the separation."
How mysterious are the visions that sometimes pass
over the mind, and leave upon the spirit the felt shades of
their dark- winged flight !
EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT SINGAPORE.
The Episcopal church at Singapore is a new edifice,
consecrated within the last twelvemonth by bishop Wilson,
of Calcutta, within whose diocese the island is included.
The building has a commanding location, although situa-
ted on the plain, and occupies a spacious area, around
which a hedge of young bamboo has been planted, which
will make a beautiful empalement for the extended grounds.
The church is a conspicuous building as seen from the
shipping of the harbor. The style corresponds with the
necessities of the climate, the main building being entirely
surrounded by a verandah with heavy arched buttresses,
beneath which the carriages drive to the entrances of the
building, affording protection to one as he alights, both
from rain and sun. These buttresses give a heavy and
massive appearance to the otherwise Corinthian air of
lightness of the central part of the edifice ; and the stran-
ger who has contemplated it en masse, is surprised, on his
entrance, to find it not more spacious within. It is amply
large, however, for the usual congregation, and would
accommodate a larger one than will probably fill its seats
for years to come. It is finished inside with the red
wood of these regions, a good deal resembling mahogany,
though a greatly inferior and coarser wood. When the
ground shall be properly arranged and planted, as it
should be, with trees, and the edifice completed as to
many little arrangements still contemplated, the spot will
be a lovely one, and the temple a sweet and beautiful re-
treat for the worship of God.
33
68 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
I preached for the Rev. Mr. White on two occasions,
during the stay of our ships at Singapore. Mr. W. read
the prayers. I should deem it, however, no way impro-
per for an American Episcopal clergyman, did the occa-
sion require it, to perform the English church service
before, an English congregation. It might seem a little
peculiar for the citizen of a republic praying for the
successful reign of " our most gracious sovereign lord,
King William," or " Victoria, our most gracious Queen
and Governor." And yet the clergyman in this case is
but the leader of the prayers of the congregation. I must
confess, however, in my own case, I should in one or two
instances prefer to change the pronoun our for the article
the ; and, by the merest lapsus linguae in the world, the
substitution might be made without materially interfering
with the rubrics or propriety, perhaps without attracting
notice.
I have been indebted to the courtesy of the English
clergymen in most of the places at which we have visited,
and invariably found them gentlemen of interest and edu-
cation. And they have ever given evidence that they
regarded the Episcopal church of the United States with
great partiality and kindness. They look upon her, as
she feels herself truly to be, a child of the church of Eng-
land ; and indeed, there is no difference that makes them
otherwise two churches than their different localities and
dates of origin. Our bishops have been given us by their
own church ; our Prayer Book altered from their own,
only to accommodate it to a different form of government,
and by the substitution and the omission of some few
words and brief sentences, which have the approbation
of themselves ; and this church was planted, too, by the
prayers, and solicitudes, and money of a common ances-
try. It is right, then, that we should cherish kindred
sympathies for the prosperity of each. And such is the
feeling of the church in the United States ; and such I
know to be the feelings among the members of the church
of England : and each at once feels himself at home,
when worshipping in the temples of the other. It is there-
fore to be regretted, that in England there should exist any
circumstances which prevent the English clergy from ex-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 09
tending to their American Episcopal brethren of the minis-
try the courtesies of their pulpits, \vhen they visit Eng-
land. This has been the case, though it results, I believe,
from some civil disqualification each clergyman being
required by law to take the oath of allegiance previous to
his introduction to the pulpit of the English church. But
a little consideration, and the exertion of no more than
the influence which the English clergy possess, could re-
move the obstacle that prevents them from reciprocating
the courtesies which are always and at once tendered to
the English clergyman on his visiting the United States.
If, however, the British clergy at home continue to adhere
to their olden regulation on this subject, the American
clergyman will be quite contented in the self-complacency
of his own greater propriety and politeness.*
Dr. Wilson, Lord Bishop of Calcutta, was in Singapore
some few months since, at the consecration of the church
edifice here. Bishop W.'s name is well known in Amer-
ica, and has been highly commended, particularly and
most justly in connection with his book on the Evidences
of the Christian Religion. It was a pleasure I had hoped
for, to meet one whose writings had given me pleasure,
and whose character I had learned to appreciate as a
Christian and a scholar. I could have narrated one or
two instances where his work on the Evidences of the
Christian Religion has convinced the understanding of the
skeptical, and guided the enkindled feelings of the same
persons to the embracing of the hopes and the profession
of Christianity.
I made my last visit at the Rev. M. Orr's this evening,
the 20th, dined, and afterwards took a pleasant ride along
the beach, with Mrs. Orr ; and through the Chinese vil-
lage where Mr. and Mrs. O. will probably be located in
their endeavors to benefit the Chinese, by their Christian
labors for their welfare. At tea, we were joined by the
Rev. Mr. Wood. The subject of the resurrection of the
* Since the publication of the first edition of this work, there has
been a change in the ecclesiastical regulations of the English church
on the subject alluded to ; and an interesting instance of the cour-
tesy of the Mother Church to the American has been exhibited in
the case of the late visit of Bishop Doane to England.
70 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
dead, the immortality of the soul, and the renewal of the
acquaintances of the Christian dead were among the
topics of conversation.
Admitting that our spirits shall remain tb^ precise
beings that they now are, as to personal identity, which it
would seem must necessarily be true, and which we can-
not conceive of without the preservation of our memory
and the other faculties of the mind, it would seem that
some definite and probable inferences may be drawn in
connection with the future state.
As to our bodies, although there may be some connec-
tion between our present and our spiritual body, yet we
know that " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God." And I cannot conceive of a spirit divested of ma-
teriality, as possessing figure or weight any more than I
can conceive of a heavy, thick, oblong, triangular or rec-
tangular thought. Nor can I conceive of it as occupying
space, any more than does a thought ; and no one's head
was ever so filled with them as to produce any mechanical
dismemberment. Besides, it is said that our bodies are
changing their particles every succession of a few years.
We know this from our daily observation as to our nails,
hair, etc., and therefore the particles of our body to-day
are different from what they will be to-morrow. Our
bodies, in fine, are composed of just what we eat, and
therefore are the same particles which have composed
the bodies of the animals and vegetables we have eaten.
And when these particles are analyzed it is found that the
muscles of the ox and the man, and the vegetable matter
which has been eaten, are composed of the same sub-
stances. And when these bodies go to decay, the conso-
lidated gases which compose the particles of which our
bodies are constituted, resolve themselves back to their
simple elementary elements of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen,
phosphorus, and their few particles of the earths ; and
while the latter mingle with their kindred dust, the gases
composing the greater part of the body, decomposed to
their simple elements, rise from their deposite of the grave
or are dissipated from the funeral , pyre to the gale ; and
in the whirlwind and the storm, may be, are borne from
the spice groves and evergreens of the East to another
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 71
continent in the West, or are soon re-drank by the vege-
table creation, which, in their turn, are re-consumed by
beast and man, and become the bodies of others in their
day and generation. Thus it becomes neither poetry nor
comedy, but a philosophical truth, that the bodies of our
grandfathers may be gazing upon us from the tops of the
trees that embower us, or resting in the cup of the beau-
tiful lotus as it sleeps on the still bosom of the lake, or is
just on the point of being devoured by a buffalo in the
shape of a potato, in its turn to be eaten by a Rajah, and
for a time to become a particle of his Malayship; or, in the
scattered divisions of the elements, perhaps another parti-
cle has been consumed in a glass of claret, and in its com-
binations' in the system, has become the iris of the eye of
the proudest princess of Christendom. Thus in these
perpetual changes of nature, our bodies may be composed
of the particles which have entered into the compound
of millions of others ; and perhaps no one of them, in fact,
belong exclusively to ourselves. What then is the result
of these developments of science? It is the confirmation
of the sentiment of the apostle, that our bodies shall be
"spiritual" bodies, and that "flesh and blood cannot inher-
it the kingdom of heaven."
But of a spiritual body, as I have before hinted, I can-
not conceive of weight, thickness, or breadth, and without
these I am unable to conceive of form, any more than I
can conceive of a thought as possessing shape. The dif-
ficulty here, then, which would present itself to most minds,
would be, "How shall we recognise our friends in another
world, unless we can see them ? And how can we see
them unless they have a form ? And how remember them
unless this form be a resemblance of their persons as we
have seen them on earth ?
But, in the first place, I would reply, that we cannot
now see a spirit ; and unless matter shall be in existence
when all matter shall have passed away, then we shall
have certainly no physical eye to look from. But, how
would the idea of the objector improve the matter ?
Would he remember his friend as he knew him in his in-
fancy, or youth, or riper years, or as a gray-headed man?
How should the mother recall to her vision the little
33*
755 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
cherub of her affection, which went from her bosom almost
as soon as it was born, to the arms of Him who said, " Suf-
fer little children to come unto me ?" How should the
child recall the mother who left it in its cradle, as she went
from earth to the peace and purity and bliss of heaven ?
Or how should the resemblance be fixed for the rotundity
and health of the young and blushing cheek, or for the
thinner visage though not always less interesting lily fea-
tures of the young consumptive ?
But if these difficulties arise on the supposition, agree-
ably to a prevalent idea that our spiritual bodies are posi-
tive resemblances of our temporal ; the apparent impos-
sibility of recognition, as it will appear to some minds,
without this external resemblance, tends, they think, to
destroy that delightful anticipation of a reunion and asso-
ciation with our friends in heaven. But to me this is far
from being the necessary alternative, granting that the
difficulties as above stated in a philosophical view, are
real. In the first place, it is not the bodies of our friends
that we love. The person of our dearest friend, in com-
parison with many others, may be very ordinary in exter-
nal appearance. The form too, changes, and though once
interesting may cease to be so. But it is the mind the
soul the spirit that we love ; and it is that which lights
up this body ; and in our present mode of communication,
gives forth, through the eye and the lip and the counte-
nance, the real expression of that otherwise concealed
being of our friend. It is the thing which loves us, that
we love ; and which lives when the body crumbles to its
original elements. It is that part of our friend that weeps ;
that is happy ; that has made us weep, and has made us
happy. It is the soul which has given us its thoughts
the lights and shades of its character and felt when we
felt, and smiled when we smiled, and was happy when
we were happy ; and would live and would die for us.
It is this, to which our own spirits are bound. And give
me the pow^r to commune with THIS through eternity, and
to love this, and to be happy with this through eternal
years, and the body and its resemblances may go to their
dust, and pass with the material world at the end of time
to their original chaos. It is the indestructible part of my
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 73
friend the memory, the imaginative, the perceptive, con-
ceptive, and reasoning powers and passions of the soul
to which I wish to be united. And will it be difficult to
find such, in the world of blessedness, where, on the sup-
position that the essence of the soul and personal indentity
remain, we shall still be social and intellectual beings ;
and as a consequence, commune with each other? A
single idea conveyed to or from our friend, would call up
all the memories of another world, and the recognition be
of that which we have loved, and ourselves again be uni-
ted in sentiment and affection with the social, the intellec-
tual, the loving spirit of our friend. It may be ideas then,
rather than resemblances of form, that shall produce our
recognition, as is often the case in this world. How often
have the features of our friend so changed in his absence
that we trace not, on the re-greeting, any resemblance of
him to whom we gave the hand for a long separation !
But a single word, a single idea, causes the heart to leap
with the joys of memory, that tell us we are again with
the unchanged and unforgetting spirit of one we loved
and yet love.
But this is already too long a nota bene of a few thoughts
which were passing between us at Mr. O.'s, on the eve
of my last visit, and for which I hold neither of those gen-
tlemen responsible, but as rather constituting my own
passing reflections at the moment. It was an agreeable
hour of an interchange of thoughts with these intelligent
friends, and a happy moment of communion, as all contem-
plated the certainty that the soul should be supremely
blessed in that state of being, whither the Christian is rap-
idly tending, and where some of our dearest friends, but
lately, were gone.
And, indeed, it is a blessed field of enjoyment, which
opens before the redeemed one, as a social, intellectual, and
immortal spirit, retaining the susceptibilities of his spiritual
nature, which shall be gratified in the society of heaven.
There he shall meet those, from every age, to narrate the
incidents of the past, in the providence of God, relating to
the history of the world, and with millions of yet unborn
spirits ; who, again, shall tell of that which shall come
after his own passage from the earth. And I could not
74 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
but add to my friends, (whom it was not probable I should
meet again after this evening's parting,) that, "if hereafter
we shall meet in heaven, I think I shall there and then like
to know of you what was your wo and your joy, while
you lengthened out your day of earth here, in your mis-
sions of the East."
We knelt, as usual, before we separated, in prayer,
after a chapter had been read and a hymn sung. I shall
long remember the sweet voice of Mrs. O. We wrung
each other's hands and parted.
RIDE TO BOOKITIMA.
The time was now arrived when the ships were ordered
to be in readiness for sea. Word had been passed that
the succeeding Wednesday would be the day of sailing
for our ships. All officers were to be on board, Tuesday
evening, and no boat or officer afterwards to leave the
frigate. Yet a few days would intervene. One, therefore,
I devoted to a ride to Bookitima, said to be the highest
ground on the island of Singapore, and distant some six
or seven miles from the town. I had already ridden to
most of the plantations in the neighborhood, marking the
growth of pepper, gambir, coffee, cloves, and nutmegs. A
fine smooth road has been cut quite to the top of Booki-
tima ; and to avoid the necessity of walking up any part
of the hill-steep in the sun, I procured an additional horse
to serve me in case the first I drove should give out. The
road lies along the level through the plantations in the low
grounds for a few miles, until you reach the commence-
ment of the ascent, formerly not attempted by horses, but
since the road alluded to has been constructed, and but
lately finished by the government's convicts, it is practi-
cable to ascend to the hill-top, provided you have a horse
that is good for aught but being led by a half-robed syce
over a level surface. No sooner had we reached the
commencement of the ascent, before the horse protested
against any change of olden customs and all new innova-
tions. Stay he would, any how, as usual, at the foot of
the hill.
" Put in the other horse, syce," I said to the driver, as
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 75
the palanquin door was opened, and Mrs. D. and myself
commenced our walk over the smooth path, as an accept-
able change, minus the sun that penetrated too easily the
silk of a dark umbrella. Mr. D. joined us, and sent on
his carriage with his little charge, up the acclivity.
The dubash dismounted the extra steed, and the two
dark skins commenced the dismantling of the palanquin
animal and substituting the " prime" riding horse. We
had wound up the spiral road into the grateful shade, which
the tall and thick growth of the hill-side threw upon the
embowered path ; and ere long the dubash came on, sans
horse, sans palanquin, sans saddle-horse. This prime horse,
which we had taken with us as our forlorn hope, for va-
rious reasons unlearned, imitated the said other obstinate
animal, and alike declared in actions, which speak louder
than words, that he was an humble imitator, and not a set-
ter of fashions ; and if his kindred flesh did not choose to
advance, he had not the presumption by any course of his
to lead to any reflections upon his associate. To settle
the controversy between bay horse and brown Malay,
the forlorn hope deliberately backed the palanquin, from
its little advance, down to the foot of the hill.
" Well, Krishna, why did you not ride up the saddle-
horse, if you could get neither on with the palanquin ?"
" Master, horse no come, any how."
" Can't believe that, Krishna."
" Master, he no come, any how."
The dubash continued to protest with additional em-
phasis, but the secret afterwards developed itself, that the
horse would not let the said Krishna re-mount him after
he had been so insulted as to be put into the palanquin-
shafts as a draw-horse.
Preferring to walk leisurely, by the way of perusing
some manuscripts which had been brought for pleasure
and amusement, we sauntered up the hill, passing the little
streamlet that gushes, in refreshing and pure ripples, from
a riven rock, leading back the association to the prophetic
Moses and a thirsting people, who then, as others in later
times, were slow in their confidence in the Creator of
bountiful and beautiful nature.
We ere long reached the top of Bookitima. Before us
76 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
now lay field, forest, plantation, and . the outlines of the
whole island of Singapore, the distant water, like narrow
lakes, meeting the eye on every side but one, designating
the extent of the island. But a single view was enough.
The prospect has nothing to attract with interest, as the
view extends into the blue distance, to one who has gazed
on richer landscapes, and mountain-scenery, and ocean
stretching from the foot of the lofty mountain-side for
leagues in the distance to sea. It is, however, a pleasant
ride, when pleasant friends accompany you, like sweet
solitude, when at your side you have a friend to whom
you may whisper, how sweet is solitude, as some French-
man has hinted, who was no less correct in his remark
than another of his penetrating species, who defines grati-
tude to be a keen zest for favors that are to come.
As soon as a comfortable shade had been found, (the
English have committed sacrilege here, in cutting down
almost all the magnificent trees which but lately stood upon
this elevated point, as if vistas could not have been much
better opened to exhibit the distant prospect,) Krishna
made an acceptable display of his fine pine-apples and
other fruits, et cetera, and liquids, which the providence
of my friends had provided, and which our ride had made
no less agreeable to the taste than acceptable to the eye.
The horses having been detached from the carriages,
the shafts of Mr. D.'s gig had been elevated to a horizon-
tal line, and poised upon one of the stumps which some of
the haters of nature's most tasteful arrangements had caused
to occupy the place, divested of its legitimate stem and
foliage. I had placed myself in the gig beside Mrs. D. and
her little girl, as affording to the party a comfortable seat
during our delay, without thinking of centres of gravity,
or lines of direction falling without their base, or of acci-
dents occurring to all kinds of vehicles when this is the
case nor was I at all mindful that the gig was occupying
a point whence a rapid declivity commenced its inclined
plane. And having thus long forgotten all about wheel
and axle and shaft, in an acceptable tete-a-tete, suddenly,
by some slight change of position in the occupants of the
gig, or other cause, (of no consequence here, as the inci-
dent is the remembered thing,) the shafts of the gig were
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 77
seen to be assuming a direction as if they were about to
take the altitude of the sun, and the wheels seemed in
thoughtful intent of moving down the declivity ; but by
some good fortune the three occupants were gently let
down to the ground, to the discomfiture of nothing else
than the calash-top of the gig, which will afford the imi-
tative Chinese a further opportunity of exercising their
genius in patch-work.
I believe few persons, when uninjured and safely out of
a danger, if they have shared it with agreeable friends,
regret the occurrence, which rather adds another agree-
able coil to the memory, which, in the future, shall unroll
its trail of agreeable recollections.
The bays and the Malays having sufficiently fed them-
selves and rested, we were again on our return- way to town,
preferring to descend the hill on foot. Having re-entered
our carriages, in a short time we completed our way back ;
and finishing the last manuscript, as my friend will remem-
ber, in the early part of the drive, we reached the house
of Mr. D. in time for an early dinner.
It is a pleasant ride, I repeat that drive to Bookitima,
if pleasant friends accompany you.
I was early at my room in the evening ; and though
alone, yet not in solitude did I spend the bonne heure soli-
taire.
LEAVE-TAKING.
It matters not how long one may have lingered on his
cruise at any particular place, where he has met with va-
rious interesting things, and yet more interesting friends
the last twenty-four hours of his stay will always find him
with many things to be done, and not a few things to be
said. He must make his last calls, or despatch notes of
adieu ; and he must gather the curiosities which have been
accumulating on his hands, and arrange a thousand things,
which before could not be arranged, and have conveyed
to the ship his chattels, cherished mementoes, and by some
last act of courtesy, reciprocate the choice favors of his
friends.
I could not, with horse and palanquin, go the round of
all my acquaintances, to whom I had been glad verbally
78 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to say, how truly they would be recalled in my future
memories of Singapore ; but all other things being ad-
justed, so that I should find myself in readiness for the
frigate's sailing, on reaching the ship to-night, I started to
take the rounds of several families, among the number of
those whose acquaintance I had formed, and whose friend-
ship I would hope to retain. At such an hour I would not
wish to feel otherwise than sadly, whether the feeling be
expressed or not, as evincing most truly that I have been
happy in the society of those with whom I am soon to part.
What care we, though we leave forever those whose hearts
have never moved more quickly when ours have warmed
with whom we have exchanged nought of the confidence
of friendship in whose association no sudden burst of
sentiment, no new train of thought, no impromptu extrav-
agance of word, in humorous or in grave remark, have
been awakened ? We feel that no chain of sympathy has
connected our hearts, with its golden links, to theirs. But
it is with those who have been sad when we were sad
have laughed when we have laughed were devout when
we have been devout, and could appreciate, and under-
stand, and excuse your own mode of thinking and speak-
ing and acting, and pardon you when you did not think, or
speak, or act it is with such you have irrevocably blend-
ed your thoughts, your interests, your feelings ; and when
you go to their homes, to say adieu, probably for all com-
ing time, a sigh escapes you as you approach their dwell-
ing; and you smile perhaps in their presence, and say cheer-
ful things, but the heart weeps if the eye be not melted, as
you take the long farewell, no more to return to the inter-
view, which has so often been the source of your augment- '
ed happiness.
" It is but a material separation which takes place be-
tween friends, when they part. Their souls are as certainly
united as when their bodies are in each other's presence.
Let us regard the spirit then as our friend, and the body only
as its temporary residence as we have learned to think
of the Spirit that has made us. Then, separation is noth-
ing, and death itself only to be regarded as a passage-boat,
to convey us, not only to our God, but to our friends, no
more to part."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 79
This sentiment was uttered by one on whom I called
to-day, March 27th, to say farewell, and whom I shall
cherish as a friend that will not forget, nor will be forgot-
ten. It was worthy of the mind that conceived it, and the
heart that felt it. And he who has but a slight power over
the trains of his own association, to concentrate his thoughts
on those subjects which please him most, and has been in
the habit of marking the light and the shade in the thoughts
and the feelings of the friend for whom he has formed an
attachment, will feel that there is truth most certain and
welcome in the sentiment expressed. It is the thoughts,
the kindlings of emotion, the remark that discovered the
play of the mind, the feeling of the soul, the character and
the combined worth of the spirit with which we have been
delighted, that we cherish in the review ; and these men-
tal perceptions associated with our friends, are indestruc-
tible and inseparable in our own minds, recurring ever as
agreeable memories ; and the pleasurable emotions they
awake are invariable consequents of the welcome recol-
lections. Then is it true, that the spirits of friends, in the
commingling of the memories of the past, know, that while
many leagues of ocean and land may forbid their bodily
presence, their spirits may be ever and indivisibly united.
Having made the calls I had proposed to myself, I drove
through the grove of nutmegs to the beautiful burial-ground
not, certainly, there to inter forever the recollections
which I had treasured up in my associations with friends
at Singapore, but as a fit place at the sweet hour of even-
ing, to pause for a half hour, in a leisure and solitary prom-
enade through the grounds of this rural spot. I stayed my
step at the grave of Stevens, and for a moment, carriecf'
back my thoughts to days and scenes spent in another hem-
isphere, when together we trod the same halls of the uni-
versity, and stored our minds with the lore of other days
from the same volumes, and drank at the same founts of
literature and science. Those were days of calm, as we
look back upon them through the vista of a bustling world,
from which one would almost wish to retire again to the
peaceful shades of the academy, to rest from the turmoil
and the change and the excitement of the general society
of man.
34
80 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
I passed on through the grounds, and culled a handful of
flowers from shrub and tree that wave above monument
or beside tombstone, until I repassed the row of American
sailors, whose resting-place is marked by a new monument
over the body of the boatswain of the Adams, who rests
in their midst. Here we leave them, to wait their call to
judgment. They came with us!
I passed down, on my way to the portal, and stood upon
a small and green hillock, conspicuous in its location on
the left as you enter the gateway of the grounds. And
there, was the newly-made grave of the young and lovely
missionary. I thought how like a beautiful rose-bud, with
the worm at its heart, she had drooped and died, ere yet
half its lovely petals had expanded. And then, how sad
was the story, that even then was being borne over the
ocean to parents, whose hearts ere long were destined sadly
to break, as they would hear that their child, in her early
age of twenty-two years, had left her place of earth, for a
home in heaven ! I had not thought that one so interesting,
when first we met, would be so soon reposing in her sleep
of the grave-yard, and that I should be called to recite the
solemn rite of burial at her funeral hour. No breeze was
stirring up the hill-side at this soft hour, and all was still,
save the zephyr that now and ever rustled the long and
narrow leaves of the green and beautiful cane-hedge,
which surrounds this land of silence, or whispered through
the spicy foliage of the grove of nutmegs. I strewed the
flowers upon her mound, and placed three roses above the
bosom of the lovely sleeper, and turned and left those
grounds for ever.
The sundown boat was already at the dock. But the
flags of the European and American shipping were yet
flying, as the sun had not quite sunk beneath the horizon ;
and the broad blue pennant of the Columbia waved at the
top of the main-mast of the frigate. A man-of-war is
always an object of interest in the port where she is lying.
At sunset, when her colors fall, the flags of all the shipping
in port, at the same instant, drop, in compliment to the war-
ship. The flag-ship, therefore, as the centre of attraction,
at such an hour, has many eyes turned towards her, to
mark the first settling of her ensign. The sundown mu-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 81
sic was already rolling off, when our boat had reached
half her way on her return to the ship. And there she lay
to-night, with many eyes at this moment resting upon her
beautiful proportions, watching the first slight movement
in her trembling colors as they should severally drop, in
another moment, from the gaff and the main. But it was
the last time these same flags, in their fall, would desig-
nate the hour to the shipping of the harbor, for folding their
bunting. And it was from this circumstance that I gazed
upon the scene with greater interest. " There they go,"
exclaimed the officer beside me, and together in beautiful
harmony were the flags of every ship in the harbor seen
falling to their decks. And to-rnorrow, thou beautiful cour-
ser, thy starred and striped emblem shall wave adieu to
yon shore, hill, dwelling, and friends, from which thy last
boat now conveys us.
On the succeeding morning, the 28th of March, our
ships were standing, under a press of canvass, from the
harbor of Singapore. The town ere long was left in the
blue distance, and the outline of the land, where we had
lingered for nearly two months, faded, and sunk, and now
was lost beneath the horizon.
We are again at sea.
SECTION III.
The Morrison, a missionary ship. Rev. Mr. Dickinson. Extract from a
letter written at the point antipodes to New-York city. Arrive at the
harbor of Macao, in China. Canton, half-way point around the globe.
As our ship fell off from her moorings and filled away,
tve passed a little to the leeward but quite near the ship
Morrison, which had come into the harbor the preceding
evening. This vessel is called the "missionary ship," and
is worthy of the appellation, in view of the generous and
Christian action of her owners, Messrs. Oliphant, King,
and Co., in their endeavors to favor the cause of missions.
82 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
She has often conveyed, without charge, the missionary
from home to his destination in the East, and in the East
from one station to another.
The Rev. Mr. Dickinson is a passenger in the Morri-
son, from Canto to Singapore. His arrival was* unexpect-
ed, and I had hoped the pleasure of meeting him at Ma-
cao. I am not sure that we have seen each other in
America, but think we have, and expected to have found
him, at least, from the same college with myself. Had
we delayed twelve hours longer we should have met.
But we are now lengthening the line rapidly, which, every
hour, measures wider the distance between us. As I
gazed on the mission ship, a fine specimen of an American
merchant-vessel, I thought of the amiable family of her
owner, and some of their neighbors of Bond-street, with
gentle and affectionate kindness.
ANTIPODES TO THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.
" Frigate Columbia, at sea, April 9th, 1839.
" MY DEAR E. We left Singapore a few days since,
and to-day, whereabouts in the China sea do you guess
that we are? Precisely on the parallel of longitude which
makes you and me on opposite sides of the globe. The
longitude of New- York is 74 1' 8" west of Greenwich.
At twelve o'clock to-day, our ship was in longitude 105
43' 45''' ; and since, we have slowly glided over a little
more than fifteen miles, which makes us this evening, and
while I am writing, within a few rods of being directly
opposite Bond-street, or one hundred and eighty degrees
east of the City Hall. And were the earth to be severed
in half with a case knife (what a metaphor) at this mo-
ment, with the plane of section passing through your par-
lor, it would stand nine chances out of ten of hitting
both of us.
" The earth, to me, since I have been sailing thus far
around it, (having now reached the point of half its cir-
cumference,) appears to be a very small thing in measure-
ment, though mighty indeed in its associations of the mil-
lions who, each generation, are coming upon it and pass-
ing from it.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 83
" And the distance to you from me to-night, through the
globe, is only some eight thousand miles. You see the
advantage one would enjoy, were a tunnel sunken through
the earth from the China sea to New- York. The nearest
way a bird could take over the circumference of the
earth, would be some more than twelve thousand miles,
and we have sailed more than twenty thousand in doubling
capes, islands, shoals, etc., including our wild-goose chase
down the west coast of Sumatra, after unfledged Malay
bipeds.
" From this point, too, you may conceive of me as, being
on my return- way, as every day we sail we shall be les-
sening the 180 degrees of longitude we are now from you.
And then, when we shall reach you, by continually sailing
east from the time we left you, we shall have gained one
day, and the world will have turned around once less with
us than with you ; and should we reach New-York on
Sunday, according to the reckoning with us it will be
Saturday with you, and we shall have the curious expe-
rience of proving the old adage, in some cases to be false,
that 'two Sundays never come together/
" I finished a letter to K. T. last night, or I should not
have ventured to occupy so much of this with such a dis-
quisition on the rotundity of this bit of a compound of
land and ocean.
" Ding, ding ding ! goes the John Adams' three bells,
just under our larboard beam, very like the sound of some
passing steamer, as I hear it from my state-room port,
so pleasantly and near are the two ships sailing together.
And to-night, just as the Adams' music beat to quarters,
at sunse-t, she had come up so close to the frigate, that we
could distinguish the features of the officers from our quar-
ter, and distinctly hear every order given on board the
Adams by the officer of the deck.
" Three bells of the first watch, is half-past nine o'clock.
Another half hour, or at four bells, and our lights are put
out, unless an officer ask permission to retain his longer,
which it is expected will not be done, unless something of
particular importance is to be attended to. A few mo-
ments only remain for me to adjust myself for the night's
cradling, before the voice of that almost always disagree-
34*
84 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
able master-at-arms will be heard so untimely at my dooi ,
' Ten o'clock, sir.' Therefore, my dear E., good-night ;
and may kind dreams and kind angels attend thee."
We were standing in through the islands last night,
the 27th of April, for Macao ; and yesterday and to-day
the change in the temperature of the air has been very
great, in contrast with the clear and pleasant atmosphere
we had during our stay at Singapore and passage up the
China sea. The thermometer has fallen ten degrees. So
sudden a change, occurring in almost twenty-four hours,
has metamorphosed our crew into a dark-clad set, with
woollen roundabouts and trousers of the same material,
for their light duck pantaloons and simple frocks.
This morning, the 27th, we came to anchor off Macao,
and this evening ran in still nearer the town, lying now
at a distance of some five or six miles from the city,
though in full view of the town, and the shipping riding
at their anchors in considerable numbers about two miles
from the shore.
Here then we are at last, in the neighborhood of Can-
ton, a point towards which we have been looking with
particular interest from the time of our sailing, as the half-
way point around the world ; and towards which the vision
of every child of the west has been directed when think-
ing of the Indies, where his tea came from, and where
that singular people of the "Celestial Empire," who wear
long braids touching their feet, dwell ; to whom we have
been so largely indebted for toys, trinkets, chessmen, and
China silks, China cups, and ginger sweetmeats.
But every thing here is all aback. No communication
between Canton and Macao ; and the American and Eng-
lish merchants held " in durance vile," some two hundred
of them at Canton, feeding, without servants, on rice and
water, until all the opium shall have been given up to the
Chinese authorities. And our letters, waiting us in Can-
ton, are destined, they say, there to wait, until the " trade
is re-opened;" The Chinese seem to have some pluck,
with an empire of three hundred and sixty millions against
a handful of merchants. Heigh-ho, for long-expected
home news !
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 85
SECTION IV.
CHINA.
MACAO.
Visit to the shore. Matins. H. B. M. ship Larne. Impression produced
by the arrival of the Columbia. Foreigners held prisoners at Canton.
Stroll through the Bazaar. Origin of the word Chowder. Chinese wo.
men with little feet. 'An apology for the custom of contracting them in
infancy. Mrs. King. The City of Macao. Cassa Gardens and Camo.
en's Cave. Latin lines to Camoen's Cave. Translation. English Burial
Ground. Grave of Miss Gillespie. Lines. Inscriptions on the Monu-
ments of Roberts and Campbell. Residence on shore. The Campo.
Visit at Mr. G.'s. Letters from Home. Preach in the English Chapel.
American Missionaries, Presbyterians and Baptists. Mr. King. Mr. and
Mrs. Squire. Woman. Preach and administer the Communion. Call
on Captain Elliot, the British Superintendent. His measures, and Chinese
difficulties. Painting of George the Fourth. Dine with Captain Elliot.
Mr. Beal's Garden. Bird of Paradise. Missionaries in China, and Mis-
sionary prospects. A father's farewell letter to his daughter, on her leav-
ing for a Foreign Mission. The ships change their anchorage from Macao
Roads to Tung-Koo Bay. Catholic processions. The Author leaves Macao
for Canton. Description of the passage, and approach to the city. The au-
thor meets Dr. Parker at the American Hong, and takes up his residence
there during his stay in the Provincial City.
I CAME on shore early this morning, April 30th, 1839.
Having secured my room at the hotel, I sallied forth for an
early morning walk, as I heard the bells for matins strik-
ing in different parts of the town. The church-going bell
has always had a charm in it for me ; and nowhere has
its tones broken on my ear more sweetly than when its
cadence came over a green lawn from a village-spire. In
the crowded city, at home, its notes seem to struggle as if
its vibrations were pent up by the brick walls, and its mel-
low breathings disturbed by the noisy pavements or the
hum of the thousand voices of the multitude crowding to
the thronged temples. But abroad, the matin and the ves-
per bell, in village or in city, have all the romance of re-
ligion associated with them ; and the poetry of the solemn
abbey, and the silence of the spacious cathedral, awake
visions in which the imagination of him who loves the
plaintive, the lonely, and the sad, finds congenial aliment
86 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
for its wild and welcome combinations. Fiction has done
much in throwing a deep romantic interest around the Ro-
man Catholic religion. The novels we have perused in
our young days have had their scenes within the cloisters,
and the cowled priest and the veiled nun have acted their
conspicuous parts in the tragedy and the love-drama, over
which the young imagination has lingered with excited
interest, as we have spent our young emotions. Indeed I
can remember when it was my desire, however much my
private sentiments would lead me to wish the suppression
of those fraternities and sisterhoods of the monastery and
the nunnery for a wiser system of public benevolence and
private piety, that it might be within the compass of my own
journeyings to visit these recluses, as they exist abroad,
before they should crumble, in the revolution of time and
sentiment, to decay and ruin. And I have seen them, both
at home and abroad.
It is my habit, the first morning I spend in a foreign
place where the Roman Catholic religion prevails, to at-
tend matins. I go not irreverently there, but love to seek
the stillness and the solitude of the spacious cathedral,
which is rendered doubly more silent and solemn by the
few, perhaps single worshipper, seen kneeling in the ex-
tended area constituting the floor of the massive building,
while the low murmur of the priest at the far-in altar
comes, in impressive and scarcely heard whispers, to the
ear. It is a fit place for the stranger to carry back his
thoughts to the past to remember the kind Providence
that has been with him to the present to think of those
he loves far away and of his God, to whose care he
would commend them and then, with all these thousand
memories, and musings, and emotions which they awake,
to offer the silent prayer to the Deity, to whom he owes
all from whom he hopes all and whom he would love,
adore, and worship, with thankfulness, dependence, and
devotion.
I returned to the hotel better prepared to relish a shore-
cup of delicious tea and a very good breakfast ; and met
at the table two or three of the officers of H. B M. ship
Larne. They politely invited me to take a stroll with
them through the bazaar, after breakfast.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 87
The Larne, the British sloop of war, is here, delaying
on account of the late disturbances between the Chinese
and the foreigners. She is the only war-ship we have
found here ; and in the possibility of additional difficulties
with the Chinese, they having threatened to cut off all sup-
plies from Macao, our arrival has proved very acceptable
to all. There are several war-junks moored in front of
the city, threatening all that such monsters in nautical
science are capable of threatening, and at least working
so powerfully upon the imaginations and personal appre-
hensions of the Chinese part of the population of Macao,
as to render them unwilling to traffic openly with the for-
eigners. And the officers of the Larne were kind, on
our arrival, in sending a boat which contained fresh pro-
visions for themselves to our ship, under the apprehension
that we might find it difficult to gain an immediate
supply.
Indeed, the arrival of our ship here has been particu-
larly opportune ; and the apprehensions of all the foreign-
ers, as well as the Portuguese, whose settlement of Macao
has been threatened positively and openly, are allayed ;
and the community feel that they have a sufficient protec-
tion to prevent any further high-handed measure on the
part of the Chinese.
Almost all the American and English gentlemen are
now at Canton, there held imprisoned within the grounds
of the foreign factories, and are there to remain until the
stipulated amount of opium (20,000 chests) shall have been
delivered up. Our own arrival is said already to have
had its effect upon the tone of the Chinese authorities, suf-
ficient time having already passed for them to gain at
Canton, through their own agents, knowledge of our an-
choring in the Roads. It would be a fete gratifying, I
doubt not, to all the officers of our ship, from the highest
to the lowest, to force the Bogue, and to demand without
delay the Americans now held within their premises at
Canton. But the apprehension is, that, as their numbers
are comparatively so small, and a mob of a numerous
populace are ever so ready to do the bidding of the reck-
less and the abandoned, our approach might be attended
with danger from the rabble at Canton. The authorities
88 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
themselves have said, all that they have to do for the de-
struction of those now within their power is, to allow the
mob to do their own wishes. And there may be truth in
in all this, as there is a general impression among the lower
classes of the Chinese at Canton, that the foreign factories
are filled with the precious metals, and that the plunder
were well worth the sacrifice of the heads of the few "for-
eign devils" that have the custody of it. It is in view of
these possibilities, and perhaps just apprehensions, that our
Consul advises that no action should be had on the part of
the Commodore, until other exigencies may call for it ;
and that the readiest way for the Americans and the Eng-
lish to effect their departure from Canton is, to await qui-
etly for the delivery of the specified quantity of opium,
which is now being rapidly accomplished through the Eng-
lish superintendent of trade. Captain Elliot. When this
shall have been done, if the assurances of the Chinese au-
thorities are to be depended upon, the foreigners will be
permitted to leave Canton for Macao.
FIRST RAMBLE THROUGH THE BAZAARS.
I accompanied the officers of the Lame in a ramble
through the bazaar, as they had politely offered to point
out the way to this collection of shops, which contain the
principal curiosities of Chinese manufacture to be found
at Macao. And I was gratified to perceive that, in the
event of our ultimately being unable to visit Canton, the
Chinese bazaar at Macao would afford almost all the ar-
ticles of curiosity and of utility we had hoped tb secure at
Canton. The bazaar is composed of a mass of small, one-
and-a-half story shops, lining uninterruptedly both sides of
several narrow streets the streets themselves being gen-
erally flagged by long and roughly cut granite slabs or
blocks, rendering the streets, though narrow, (being only
sufficient for three or four persons to walk abreast,) clean
but thickly crowded. Here the Chinese display the whole
of the interior of their shop with their shelves lining the
three sides the front part of the building being so con-
structed as to be removed during the day. for the display
of the interior. And here may be found all those millions
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 89
of Chinese trinkets, and thousands of more useful things,
which we have seen in another hemisphere, and have been
told, in other days, that they came from China. The dash-
ing lady* might regale her eye, by a simple request of
Mr. Chinese Kingti, with crape shawls of different colors,
and different patterns, and different prices, from what
would be valued in America at ten to one hundred dollars.
And if she desired it, she might, per order, have one
wrought with embroidery according to her own taste and
pattern, to cost any amount short of a round thousand.
And then, she might be pleased in looking over a box of
scarfs some very pretty, some very indifferent and then,
examine some very pretty embroidered aprons, that would
please the young lady of fifteen, and be quite admissible
for her to appear in at breakfast. And then, she might
examine the many and rich colored silks as they unfolded
their rolls one after another ; and if she found them entire-
ly clear of spots, she might say that this and that is very
pretty, and very heavy; but, after all. France and Switzer-
land and Italy give us quite as beautiful dresses as these
would make ; and however fond they may be of making
good profits at Stewart's in Broadway, the dress would
come cheaper, and after all, probably look richer and last
longer. And then, if she herself may be fond of embroi-
dering, she certainly would be tempted to industry as that
rich and beautifully colored floss-silk of every dye was
laid open before her covetous eye, while the visions of un-
wrought lilies and roses and carnations and tulips, and
leaves of the grape-vine, and half-expanded buds of moss-
roses recalled her recollections of handiwork that she had
already inlaid upon the canvass. And perhaps, perhaps,
it would even recur to her, at the moment, as a lingering,
interloping thought, that, if she had possessed all these
rich dyes, she might have added one more beauty to a fa-
vorite pair of beautiful slippers, which her own hands had
embroidered, and which, with her gentlest smile of kind-
ness, her own hand had presented to the partial friend,
* It is not usual for ladies to shop it in Macao, though they some-
times thus indulge themselves. They more usually send to the shops
and request whatever they would see to be sent to their dwellings.
90 A VOYAGL AROUND THE WORLD.
from whom she desired, but did not ask, a memory for her
own gentle self. And then, there is an article almost rich
enough for a bride herself, and only surpassed by the pina
of Manilla for its fineness and its beauty. It rivals the
bishop's lawn, and the finest cannot always be procured.
But it is of gossamer lightness when it can be, and floats
on the air like wreaths of which the softest clouds are
made.
But we could not linger long at Kingti's, and we passed
to his neighbors, and found that the richest and most deli-
cate China ware comes from Nanking, and some of it is
exquisite. Bat the diminution irr the porcelain trade has
reduced the amount of the manufactured articles, and full
sets of the costliest kinds can hardly be found, but must be
made per order. And" there were rich Nanking vases,
which we found we could purchase for one hundred dollars
a pair. They were exquisite, and would be richly ornamen-
tal anywhere, when crowned with gorgeous and lovely
flowers, for which they were made.
The Chinese are fond of flowers, but cultivate them al-
most exclusively in vases, which are generally constructed
of a rough porcelain material, and glazed, to stand the in-
clemencies of the weather and the continued exposure of
the open air.
But nothing crowds more upon the attention of the stran-
ger, as he walks through the bazaar, than the great variety
of the chow-chow,* eatable things in the shape of pickles,
sweetmeats, ginger-root, just taken from the ground, and
soft, white, and tender; and salted eggs, covered with a red
clay, and shark-fins ; and everywhere, first, midst, and last,
paddy, paddy, paddy ; rice, rice, rice. This is the staff* on
which the Chinese lean for support ; and it is said that
a mace a day, or ten-elevenths of a cent, will support a
/"^L '
Chinese.
To each shop there is a back-room, in which the whole
coterie, including the principal Chinese of the establish-
ment, and his five, six, or seven partners, who are often all
* This word is used in the sense of medley, and is often repeated
in China. Does not the New England word chowder derive its ori-
gin from it ?
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 91
brothers, if so many happen to be in the family, gather for
their meals around a single table, with each one his bowl
and his pair of chop-sticks, with a single central bowl of
larger dimensions, to contain the rice for the whole party.
Besides the one large bowl of rice, there is generally seen
upon the table a variety of chow-chow dishes, in the shape
of pickled ginger-root, garlick, beans, cabbage, etc., from
each dish of which they all help themselves with their own
pair of chop-sticks, which lose not their place from between
the fourth arrd third fingers and thumb, during the meal,
and are " nimble boys" indeed, as their own language de-
signates them.
Simplicity is inculcated by the sages of the Chinese em-
pire, and their precepts are rigidly adhered to, by the absence
of every thing else, in the way of table-furniture, save
their pair of chop-sticks and bowl.
The shop-keeper, as one may suppose, has therefore but
few encumbrances to lay aside on the entrance of a cus-
tomer at the meal-time. Rather, as he has most usually,
on such occasions of his rice-eating, divested himself of
his grass-cloth frock, which at other times serves him as
his only upper garment, loosely hanging over his large
trousers, which are gathered within his white stockings
at the knee, he replaces this by a slight manoeuvre of di-
ving through it, and appears before the foreigner less wil-
ling to show the fine development of the muscles of his
arms and shoulders than he was to expose them to the
manes of his grandfathers as he sits disrobed at his meals.
SMALL-FOOTED CHINESE
On our return, we passed two Chinese women attended
Jby their servants, who were walking, rather were waddling
through the less crowded part of Macao, on their little feet,
with each a staff in her hand to enable her to preserve her
balance. They were quite neatly dressed, a la Sinice.
The first emotion awakened in the feelings of a foreigner
on meeting one of these sufferers of China's perverted
tastes, is that of pity, and one almost wishes, as his next
thought, that he had the power of inflicting merited and
severe chastisement upon the parents who suffered such
35
92 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
perversion of nature and taste ; for, turn the world from
east to west, and let other things remain as they are, and
it can never be shown that the principles of fitness and
taste are otherwise than the same. But so it is in China
little feet and swelled ankles, and nature tortured and dis-
located, are regarded as the standard of beauty. And
when the whole secret of the matter is known, it will not,
perhaps, be considered so astonishing that delicate women
should suffer thus to be tortured, and themselves again, as
mothers, repeating the torture upon their children. It is
said to be the very general if not the invariable custom of
the parents, whose right it is, in the selection of a wife for
their son, to choose a small-footed nymph for his first com-
panion, who has gone through this horrible process of dis-
organization. And as the first wife, according to Chinese
customs, is the honorable partner of the husband and has
under her'control all his other wives, which, according to
the custom of the Chinese, each one may add to his house-
hold, it becomes a matter of great interest to the female
that she possess the qualities that will allow her to be eli-
gible to this most honorable and first situation in the house-
hold of her lord. Shoes variously ornamented with tinsel
can be purchased in the bazaar for these tiny feet, or apol-
ogies for what once were such, or would have been, but
now are but an exemplification of a small solid triangle,
which has the appearance of a small imperfect cone, lat-
erally truncated so as to give it a base, that it may rest
on its side. And I have in my possession three or four
pair of these curiosities which have actually been worn,
one of which is less than four inches long. It would seem
incredible ; and the truth is, these shoes are rather forced
upon the great toe and so much of the triangular foot as
it will cover, and then, with a high heel to effect a level, the
rest part of the foot and ankle is bandaged, so as by this ar-
rangement to represent the foot still smaller than it really is.
It would seem, if it be true as is asserted, that the Em-
press of China and her Tartar sisters of the imperial blood,
do not follow the Chinese custom of bandaging their feet :
and thus it is not always true that the court sets the fashion.
But this is in China, where every thing goes by contraries.
Our countryman, Mr. K., of the house of Oliphant, King,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 93
and Co., at Canton, is among the Americans who have
been caught napping at the provincial city ; and although
known not to have given any offence to the Chinese gov-
ernment by engaging in the traffic of opium, but, on the
contrary, exerted his influence to put an end to the trade,
the Chinese chose to make no open distinction between the
foreigners detained in the city. Mr. K. happened to be in
Canton at the time the embargo was laid upon their per-
sons, and as no intercourse is allowed between Macao and
Canton, of course he awaits the further action of the Chi-
nese government.
I called on Mrs. King this morning, who seems but lit-
tle apprehensive for the safety of Mr. K. ; and for herself,
she would apprehend but little danger to the persons of the
Americans, should our ship take her course without delay
towards the commercial mart of these celestials, and ask
permission of these long-braided gentlemen for the Ameri-
cans to take their leave, for a visit to Macao. But Mrs.
K. is something of a heroine, in the way of placidity of
nerves, though danger may be near, as she has demonstra-
ted to her friends in more than a single instance. She was
on board the Morrison with her husband, when that ship
was fired into by the Japanese. This seemed sport enough
for her, I am told, to -make her wish to look at it rather
than to retire below to a safer part of the ship. Woman
is ever brave and patient, when necessity has so combined
circumstances as to render danger or distress an unavoid-
able experience.
Mrs. K. is an interesting representative from our own
good land. And might I describe. I would paint a fine blue
eye, a delicate, frank, and interesting countenance, a set of
brilliant teeth, and a person in a dark silk dress, which the
eye at once recognised, in its make, as a pattern not from
England but from America, and makes you think of your
own lady-friends, as they are remembered, on promenade,
up that finest street in the world Broadway in old Go-
tham of the new world, and the native home of Mrs. K.
Did I feel at liberty, I might record it more especially to
the praise of this lady, that the moral welfare of the native
females of China has elicited in their behalf her feelings
of interest and action.
94 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
It is said that many ingenious devices are resorted to in
these times of non-intercourse with Canton, for conveying
letters between the two cities. There are Chinese who are
willing, for considerable sums, to run the risk of taking
small packages clandestinely, though it be at the endan-
gering of the healthful flow of the blood through the jug-
ular veins. Sometimes a slip of paper is made up in the
form of a paper cigar sometimes placed in the sole of a
Chinese shoe again concealed in some dish of cooked
rice or other eatables.
The city of Macao, in its picturesque, as seen when ap-
proached from the sea, has a combination of interest be-
yond any other city we have visited in the East. Here is
the castellated mount, the high and cross- crowned? spire,
the low and truncated cupola, the green mountain-side rais-
ing high up its conical top in bold relief against the pure
sky, and the white city, laying itself out in the ravines be-
tween the green hills, and presenting, in its front, one line
of dwellings looking over a lovely bay, while the public
buildings covering the heights render the blended amphi-
theatre of house and hill-side, and turret and spire, and
lines of fortification, and convent, and church, and hermit-
age, an exhibition of the beautiful and romantic of the first
order in natural and artificial scenery. The city is flanked
by two forts on the plain and two inwalled hermitages or
small churches on the high conical heights. The largest
fortification of the town, commanding the harbor and the
city beneath it, crowns the central mount, and is the con-
spicuous and high-up object that meets the eye. From
these forts streams the Portuguese flag; and on festal days
of the church, and political jubilees of the kingdom, the
hermitages may be seen illuminated, as bright things with
their rows of light on the mount ; while the guns from the
central fortification usually speak in eulogy of heavenly
saints and political sinners, on their anniversaries. But
all this rich scenic effect, as it falls on the vision when one
is for the first time approaching the city of Macao in his
small boat, to reach the landing place of the Praya Grande,
is considerably diminished when he wanders through the
narrow streets of the town, while nature all around him
retains her proportions of grandeur and outlines of the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 95
beautiful. The Portuguese, like the Spaniards, have a
faculty of giving an air of antiquity to all they have to do
with ; while there is yet a freshness in the appearance of
Macao, as you contemplate it in the distance, which di-
minishes not the effect of the olden in the contrast, which
the fortifications and the public buildings give to a city,
which may boast of centennial years.
In the city of Macao, there are not a few objects of
interest to one of leisure, who has a love for marking
character, observing manners, and connecting and tracing
back present existences to their causes which lie in the
past.
One of the first objects of curiosity to which the stran-
ger is invited, is a beautiful garden now belonging to a
young Portuguese gentleman, containing the cave where
Camoens, the justly celebrated bard who sung, in heroics,
the deeds of the first navigators around the Cape, is said
to have composed many of his verses.
Having dined, by invitation, with a gentleman in the
neighborhood of this garden, we walked to the grounds,
and I was not disappointed in the beauty of the location.
It is a place that will not tire the lover of solitude and
stillness and the profound in nature ; for here is rock and
ravine and deep shades of tangled foliage, as well as
flowers and balmy air and sunshine. I have a partiality
for rocks the cragged peak, the deep ravine, vale and
hill, and dense woods ; and here are mighty granite hol-
ders piled on top of each other ; and the surface of the
garden is almost as uneven as the space of the grounds
could admit. And every thing is luxuriant. The rocks
are embowered by the evergreen foliage. The winding
and abrupt paths, leading up the steep aslant or down the
mimic declivity, are coated with a cement called chunam,
thus giving them a smooth flagging, which the torrents of
ram affect not, however in seasons of the storm or shower
the currents may sport down the hill-steep. By winding
up one of these paths, we came to an elevated spot, that
commanded a view of the other parts of the ground. It
is a small space of table-ground, and from its level surface
rise several granite holders with plain surfaces, two of
which are separated some three or four feet, and on their
35*
96 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
top rests another immense block of the same imperishable
material, thus forming the celebrated cave of Camoens.
They are blocks of granite, resting upon a mightier base
of immoveable rock ; and around, wherever root can find
a place for entering its tendrils, the tree has gained its
hold, and the foliage of the many stately shafts wave on
their interlacing boughs, and give a richness of shade to
this seat of quiet and rural beauty. The cave is open on
two sides, and is some six or seven feet in width, more or
less, rectangular, and more open and regular than the
Judges' cave of western memory, but of the same order,
within a few miles of that most enchanting of all rural
cities of America, New Haven, Connecticut. Seated here,
the muse might well come to him, who courted her.
Through a vista at the left, a sheet of water is seen which
lays its curved edges around the neighboring islands con-
spicuous in the inner harbor ; and the city is shut out by
the walls that run above the rocks, which themselves ter-
race off this nook of fairy land for nature's wild roamers,
who give to her their warm devotions.
It is said that our ship will linger long at this port. I
am glad that such a retreat may be found ; and in my
protracted stay on shore I am sure I shall form a very
partial friendship for many of these old trees, and these
enduring rocks, and winding path and shrub and flower.
There are, at different points of the garden, several
beautiful views and rustic turrets of masonry, raised to
give the gazer a convenient view, and seats within them
that would accommodate a small pic-nic party at a soft
hour of balmy day.
John Francis Davies, Esq., a long resident in the East,
and one of its Oriental scholars, has written the following
Latin verses to the Cave of Camoens. Among the same
rocks and shades I read the verses and pencilled a trans-
lation.
IN CAVERNUM
TJBI CAMOEONS OPUS EGREGIUM COMPOSSUISSE FERTUR.
Hie, in remotis sol ubi rupibus
Frondes per altas mollius incidit,
Fervebat in pulcram camoenam
Ingenium Camoentis ardens :
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 97
Signum et poetse marmore lucido
Spiribat olim, carminibus sacrum
Pavumque, quod vivens amavit.
Effigie decorabat antrum :
Sedjam vetustas, aut manus impia
Prostravit, eheu ! Triste silentium
Regnare nunc solum videtur
Per scopulos, verides et umbras !
At fama nobis restat at inclitum,
Restat poetae nomen at ingeni
Stat carmen exemplum perenne
^Erea nee monumenta quaerit.
Sic usque Virtus vincit, ad ultiams
Perducta fines temporis, exitus
Ridens sepulchrorum inanes,
Marmoriset celerem ruinam !
Macao, MDCCCXXXI.
(TRANSLATION.)
TO THE CAVE,
WHERE CAMOENS IS SAID TO HAVE WRITTEN HIS CELEBRATED POEM.
Among the recesses of the rock and the shade
Where the sun's mild beam on the rich foliage played,
The genius of Camoens, in beautiful verse,
Poured forth its sweet strains which ages will rehearse.
And here the fair marble once breathed in its grace
To tell of the Poet that hallowed the place,
And the seat he loved most while his eye yet was bright
Was known by a bust in the cave's mellowed light.
But time with its years hath betrayed the fair trust,
And crumbled the rich marble, alas ! to its dust,
And stillness now reigns profound as the grave
Through the rocks and the shades of Camoen's cave.
But the fame of the Poet in brightness is streaming,
And his name on the page of glory is gleaming,
While his works as the models of genius yet live
And seek not from marble its praises to give.
Thus genius lives ever through time's crumbling power,
Till ages shall cease to chronicle their hour,
And spurns the proud marble its praises to boast,
And, deathless, yet triumphs, when monuments are lost
98 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The English burial-place is in the immediate neigh-
borhood of the garden, through which we promenaded,
and in which we would willingly have longer lingered ;
but we left this scene of loveliness and flowers and life, for
one of yet deeper stillness, soft beauty, and death. It is
a spot like most of the burial-places I have seen in the
East, possessing a rural beauty, and still-calm and green
richness and softness, which makes you feel that if you
were to die abroad you would choose to be placed in such
a spot. The grounds are small, a rectangular plot of half
an acre, with trees studding the end and one side of it,
and a carpet of green grass overlaying the whole area.
Here the English residents and Protestant foreigners are
interred when they die at Macao. There was an interest
associated with this ground to me independent of its rural
beauty, when considered as occupying a place within the
bounds of a circumscribed city. There were a few Amer-
icans reposing in their last and long sleep there ; and one,
though it was not my fortune to have been intimately ac-
quainted with her, others of my friends were, and I had
learned from them to esteem the sweet qualities of her
amiable character. I saw her once just previous to her
leaving America for Canton, with her guardian, in hopes
that the voyage would contribute to her restoration to
health. It was otherwise ; and now she sleeps beneath
the green sod and green boughs in a tropical clime ; and
her tombstone bears the following inscription, over which
the waving foliage fades not, as if to emblem forth the
ever youthful spirit of her who has gone, with bright and
happy hopes of fadeless joys and a bright immortality.
" In memory of Elizabeth McDougal Gillespie. Born
at New- York, June 6, A. D. 1814. Died at Macao,
Dec. 6, A. D. 1837.
" Erected by an affectionate Guardian over the grave
of a beloved ward."
She sleeps but not beneath the deep
That mourns the sea-dirge for its dead,
While low among the tides they sweep
Or rock upon their coral bed.
She sleeps but not beneath the ground
Where kindred dead lie near and deep,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 99
And friends oft gather at the mound
To think, and love, and newly weep.
She sleeps a gem from western land,
That shone as ray of diamond light ;
But soon was lost on foreign strand,
A setting star in earliest night.
She sleeps where strangers stop to trace
The story of the early dead ;
And one far- voyager seeks her place
His tribute tear o'er worth to shed.
There are two other monuments of the same style as
the one that covers the remains of Miss G., constituting,
with hers and one other, a row by themselves. The two
alluded to, and adjacent to hers, bear the following in-
scriptions :
" The remains of EDMOND ROBERTS, Esq., Special Di-
plomatic Agent of the U. S. to several Asiatic Courts,
who died at Macao, June^lS, 1836, M. 50.
" He devised and executed to their end, under instruc-
tions from his Government, Treaties of Amity and Com-
merce between the U. S. and the Courts of Muscat and
Siam."
" The remains of ARCHIBALD S. CAMPBELL, Esq, who
died at Macao, in command of the U. S. schooner Enter-
prise, June 3, 1836, ^E. 46.
" Erected to the memory of Lieutenant Commander
A. S. C., by the officers of the U. S. ship Peacock and
schooner Enterprise, 1836."
And here, unless this spot for the sleep of the dead
shall prove unlike others which have raised their voice for
their complement of those we are to leave on foreign shores
in our circuit of the globe, a number of American seamen
from our ship will form their death-row before we shall
have left the China seas.
Commodore Read has taken up his residence on the
Praya Grande ; and it is pretty certain that the Columbia
will remain at her present anchorage fora month and more.
If the present state of affairs continues, she will not leave
these seas in twice that time.
I have become very pleasantly located in the family of
the Rev. Mr. Shuck, whose residence is situated in one of
100 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the most beautiful parts of the town, and directly in the
neighborhood of the romantic garden already partially
described, and of the English burial-ground, two of the
sweetest rural spots in the city. The large building occu-
pies one side of a rhomboidal area, the other three sides
being lined by the church of St. Antonio, the gate of St.
Antonio, the monastery or residence of a number of Cath-'
olic priests, together with the entrance to the English bu-
rial place. The remaining, or fourth side, is fronted by the
large buildings of the elder and younger Marquise, two
Portuguese gentlemen, who are the proprietors of the beau-
tiful grounds containing the cave of Camoens.
Through the gate of St. Antonio most of the Chinese
funeral processions pass for the interment of the bodies
among the hills that rise so majestically without the walls
of the city, and between two of which, on the northwest-
ern part of the city, lies the Campo, stretching through the
deep defile, and forming the favorite walk for the foreign-
ers, more particularly when the sun has fallen so that the
rays are cut off by the high range of the hills on either
side of the ravine. Here, at an hour by sunset, you may
see the little groups of the English and Americans and the
Portuguese, strolling, (though the Praya Grande appears to
be the more favorite resort of the Portuguese,) or in single
couples they dot the different paths as so many specks in
relief with the high hills that surround them, or, perhaps,
up one of which they may be winding, lady and gentle-
man alike having deposited their hats at their homes,
as useless encumbrances in this climate, at this balmy
hour, but as a substitute, the one with a fan, the other with
his staff in hand. And here one is almost certain of meet-
ing one's friend, if he will stroll to the Campo at the sun-
set hour. It is a welcome breathing spot, after the heat
of the day, and the influence of the pure air, and the cool
breeze, and the soft sky, give a sweeter expression to the
smile of one's friend, and additional ingenuousness to the
cordial welcome at the meeting.
I took the circuit of the mount, on the high top of which
is the inwalled and picturesque Hermitage of Guia. The
mount separates the Campo from the sea, and the path of
the Campo, winding through the ravine, turns to the right
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 101
and reaches the beach, from which you have a view of the
far-out shipping that lie at their moorings in the Roads.
From this point, there is a path along the mountain-side by
which one may return rather than by the path of the Cam-
po, if one wishes a rougher walk as a variety and for
greater exercise. And this path, winding around this
conical hill, and passing between a notch of the mountain,
again descends the declivity to the path of the Campo. It
was already near sundown when we reached this notch in
the mountain which divides the same into two conical hills ;
and the pass lies at a near point immediately beneath the
little church or hermitage above. It was a soft hour as we
neared the level of the Campo, and others were enjoying
it as they were promenading the rural path, or reclining
upon the green area that spreads itself in the ravine. The
bell of the hermitage on the mount now struck its farewell
to the sun, seen at this moment from its wall to give back
its last ray from its upper edge. Two young priests were
lounging in their long black gowns and triangular hats on
the green sward near us. They rose at the stroke of the
sundown bell of the hermitage, both reverently uncovered,
crossed themselves, and again threw themselves upon the
green turf.
The display of radiants on the deep-blue sky at this sun-
set hour was peculiar. I have never marked a similar ex-
hibition in other than the climate of these seas, and at this
place I have marked it with interest as a peculiar and here
not unfrequent beauty. A point of the west sends forth
its streams of the most delicate pink, and saffron, and car-
mine, radiant from a common centre, as they lay their di-
vergent beams on the loveliest and softest sky-blue that ever
formed a cerulean field for colors to contrast themselves
upon. These elongated and rectilinear beams to-night
diverged from each other as they rose from their lowest
common point in the horizon, till their rising and evanescent
layers, spreading and blending, formed a soft and commin-
gled light of all their colors, nearly in the zenith of the
beholder. Such was the soft display of nature this even-
ing as we passed several of our friends, while we were
leaving the Campo for a cup of tea which was awaiting
our return. And the tea-table we found set on the top of
102 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
a spacious terrace, with a bright moon and bright stars
looking down from their pure halls above us, as we gath-
ered to our seats. It was an Oriental scene, enjoyed in the
improved way and conveniences of American arrange-
ment. The stars never scintillated more beautifully than
to-night. And we marked as we gazed at the southern
cross, and saw by a simple change the polar star in the
opposite direction, that, what is sometimes affirmed is not
true, like many other confidently asserted things, namely,
that there is no single point of the globe from which this
constellation of the southern cross and the north star may,
each at the same moment, be seen. And lyra, that blue
twinkling brilliant, high up above us, in a few hours more
will hang perpendicularly over our western homes. We
would be glad to give it a message. But it may not be
it may not be ; yet I know not but there are eyes there
that will read it and think of those half a world's circum-
ference distant from them.
Last evening I visited at Mr. G.'s. Found him and his
lady promenading on the open terraces of the garden, a
spacious area of ground, overlooking most of the southwest-
ern part of the city, and commanding a full view of the
inner harbor, the green and adjacent isles, and the high
grounds on the south of the tqwn. It is an elevated and
charming promenade, this terrace of the garden ; and the
establishment itself is one of the most imposing of the city.
The terraces rise one above another ; and the high waifs,
to form the level of what may be deemed hanging gar-
dens, are reached by granite steps the whole presenting
a position admirable for defence in a feudal age or times of
revolution. The spacious ruins around, of olden associa-
tions, where the thick walls and private and secret passa-
fes of monastery and fortification are seen, and the crum-
led buildings of the Jesuits, once splendid and massive,
stood, now afford abundant material for romance. The
ruins of St. Paul's are still standing, and its front forms one
of the most conspicuous specimens of architectural interest
to be found in the city. The church was founded by the
Jesuits ; and the inscription on the corner-stone of the re :
maining walls carries back the erection of the building to
1662. "Virgini magna3 matri, civitas macaensis lubens,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 103
Pasuit. An. 1662." This venerable structure was con-
sumed by fire in 1834. The front still stands, with its
chiselled decorations of saints who have gone through the
literal ordeal of fire with but partial blackening ; and the
walls being repaired, the whole has been turned into a
very respectable and very neat cemetery. Niches rise
one above the other, occupying the inner sides of the walls
as vaults. A terrace extends quite around the inner side
of the building, supported by the walls and the columns
within. At the inner end of the cemetery is a small chapel,
containing an altar, with an iron grating in front, through
which the eye contemplates a delineation of purgatory on
the inner wall, representing a number of spirits in different
attitudes escaping from the purifying flames some half-
way relieved, another with the whole body escaped with
the exception of a single foot ; and another with an angel's
hand triumphantly bearing him above ; while still other
sister spirits are extending their aid to the sufferers below,
and almost but not quite reach their elevated and extended
hands. Within the adjacent grounds, so late as the pres-
ent year, I am informed that the governor has caused exca-
vations to be made, in consequence of a traditional impres-
sion, which it is supposed has been handed down on very
good authority, that the Jesuits buried large treasures at the
time of their downfall and the sequestering of their estates.
The earth, yet retaining its freshness of excavation, is seen
near the walls of this once magnificent building ; but what
has been done only shows that enterprise was wanting to
develop the money even if the treasure is there, beyond
the labor that has already been expended. A private band
of villagers in our own land, have dug deeper and wider
for the deposited ingots of Captain Kyd.
We retired from the terraces of the garden to the house
at the dusk of twilight, when tea was served. One of the
nieces of Mrs. G. came in from her evening walk. Carna-
tion was glowing on her cheeks in deepness, and so blend-
ing with the lily of her complexion, that it made her an
object of interest as a fine specimen of that Anglo-German
style of face, so unlike the dark brunettes, and yet darker-
shaded faces, on which our eyes have so long been linger-
ing. She gave us music in the evening. As she sat at the
36
104 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
piano-forte, her wide brow of marble and luxuriant ring-
lets flowing in negligence and abundance on a neck of
Parian, and the large deep-blue eye, and lip that the free
and young blood dyed in coral, made her appear like a fine
specimen of a German princess, worthy of the throne of
England.
"Americans always do things so finely," said Mr. G.,
when alluding to some particulars connected with the navy.
Americans do things very ungracefully, often, I thought,
when they are unwilling to reciprocate a compliment in
praise of what is really meritorious in England, or would
wish to find fault with that which is uncensurable.
With the symphony of " I call on the spirits of the past"
full in my memory, I left the little coterie, with a polite
invitation to attend a musical party the succeeding evening,
to which invitations to some others should be extended,
they said, particularly on my account, presuming, with
accuracy, on my love of music.
The authorities at Canton seem to be slackening their
surveillance a little, or, at least, are behaving a little more
becomingly, as gentlemen, and have permitted our letters
to come down from Canton. It is as I thought it would
be with my kind friends at home ; and a real U. S. mail
has been awaiting me. It was my good fortune to receive
between forty and fifty letters, and papers piled like Alps
o'er Alps, in the number of packages my friends were so
thoughtful as to send me ; and all good news. I was
thankful ; and spent the night in wakeful communion with
my friends, as I read through their many epistles. I am
sure if those at home could but partially realize the exult-
ation which our officers manifest, and the happiness they
experience on the reception of letters when abroad, they
would be considerate in securing every opportunity in for-
warding letters to meet them.
The situation of my own friends at New- York has
enabled them to avail themselves of many opportunities
of forwarding letters. But other officers of the ship have
found the advantage of the existence of the Naval Lyceum
at Brooklyn Navy -Yard, a most worthy institution, which
will be justly appreciated, and valuable as it advances in
its action and continuance. Persons from any part of the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 105
Union, sending letters to their friends in the Navy who
are abroad, will have them particularly looked after and
forwarded by the first opportunity, if sent to the Naval
Lyceum. The information possessed of the destination
of foreign squadrons, where the ships are expected to
touch, and what vessels are sailing from the port of New-
York, or other ports of the United States for those places,
gives the officer who is in particular charge of the duty
of forwarding letters sent to the Lyceum, peculiar fa-
cilities for despatching them to foreign ports. Of course,
these letters, if sent by the mail, to the care of the Ly-
ceum at the Navy-Yard, Brooklyn, should be post-paid :
the institution gratuitously forwarding these letters, should
not be burdened with the postage in the United States.
SERVICE IN THE ENGLISH CHAPEL.
Yesterday, it being Sunday, I preached in the English
chapel. The Rev. Mr. Vachel, chaplain to the queen's
commission here, is now absent, on account of his health,
on a visit or permanent return to England. The chapel
is quite neatly fitted up, and sufficiently large for the
foreign community at Macao. The number of the foreign-
ers here is larger at this time than usual, in consequence
of the difficulties at Canton, and expected daily to be con-
siderably increased by the arrival of all the English mer-
chants and the government officers, with the Americans,
who it is said will leave the city when Captain Elliot, the
English superintendent of trade, shall retire from the city
to Macao.
In the services of the chapel I read the prayers, and I
am sure I very sincerely offered the petition for her Bri-
tannic Majesty, Victoria, Britain's most gracious queen
and governor. Whenever I had previously preached in
the English chapels, the chaplain, being present, has read
the service. Surely there are interests enough that are
mutual in the common welfare of England and America,
not only to make the subjects of the one and the citizens
of the other sincerely to wish the happiness of the rulers
of both nations, but also devoutly to pray that they may
alike be guided so as to preserve the harmony and the
106 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
prosperity of each government. The interests of the one,
when viewed in connection with those general and just
principles of political economy which are becoming more
universally understood, and aggrandizing the age, cannot
be otherwise than the ultimate interests of the other.
The politician, who legislates merely or principally for
some immediate advantage of his own times, is unworthy
a seat in the councils of his country. The greatest ulti-
mate good of the nation, and of the world, if you add
the character of the Christian to the politician, is the
inquiry that should guide the enlightened and liberal
mind. Washington acted with such a forecast ; and
Hamilton, by whom the country was retrieved from debt
and placed on her highway to national respect and prow-
ess. And England has many a bright name to class
among the philanthropic legislators of the nineteenth cen-
tury.
In the evening I heard the Rev. Mr. Shuck preach at
the house occupied by the Rev. Mr. Browne, where, on
Sunday evenings, it is usual for the American missionaries
at this place to have service, and, in turn, to officiate.
The Rev. Mr. Abeel, and Rev. Mr. Bridgman and Dr.
Parker are at Canton. The two former, at least, are ex-
pected to return to Macao, as soon as the foreign com-
munity leave Canton. Mr. Williams, connected with the
printing establishment of the mission here, (a young gen-
tleman of worth,) I have also met. The Rev. Mr. Ro-
berts, and Mr. Young, Baptist licenciate from Batavia, are
also resident at Macao. Mrs. Browne and Mrs. Shuck
are the only missionary ladies from America at Macao.
Mr. King having reached Macao in the morning, I was
introduced to him after the services this evening; and
having learned of our mutual acquaintances, I was glad
to meet him.
He is a young gentleman of intelligence and liberal
principles ; and, with the house to which he is attached,
has taken a decided stand against the trafficking in opium.
His estimate of the Chinese character is higher than others
rate it in the scale of morality and intellect and enterprise.
It is natural that his course, with so many opposing inter-
ests in commerce, against which, with great independence,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 107
the house of Oliphant, King, and Company seem to have
acted, should have awakened some jealousies. But the
result of the measures of the Chinese government will
place the cause which Mr. K. has advocated triumphant
in the end, as all liberal-minded men, wherever they may
think their interests lie, must acknowledge to be the de-
sirable course of events, in connection with the opium
trade, which has impoverished thousands, and threatened
the destruction of a nation, for the private emolument of
a few individuals and corporations.
I have read the views of Mr. K. in connection with
the establishment of a consulate general at Macao with
vice consulates for other positions corresponding with the
different European powers holding settlements in the East.
For example, a consul for the Spanish possessions should
be located at Manilla ; one for the Dutch possessions at
Batavia ; another at Singapore ; and another at Siam.
The consuls at these stations severally to report to the
consul-general at Macao, who also should be the consul
to the Chinese empire, and make reports of the different
consulates to the general government. And that this
general establishment for the East may be honorable to
the government of the U. S. and efficient in prompting
and protecting its interests of commerce and trade, the
consuls should be officers with fixed salaries, sufficient to
raise them above the necessities of their engaging in trade.
No one familiar with the East and the interests of
American commerce in these seas but will at once see
the utility of such an establishment, and its practicability.
Its expense, even with a liberal allowance to the consuls,
would be a saving to the government, and give it a credit
abroad which would be honorable to that administration
which shall carry such a measure into execution.
I met the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Browne, Monday evening,
at Mr. King's. It was a very agreeable tete-a-tete to re-
view home scenes with Mrs. B. Two of her brothers
were university acquaintances of myself, and she left the
United States after the sailing of our ships. We wan-
dered together, in imagination and review, through many
a town and village, and rested a good long while in that
exquisite specimen of rus in urbe, or rather, ui'bs in rure,
36*
108 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
which makes the elm-embowered city of NEW HAVEN
without a rival, for its rural pleasantness and beauty.
Who that has ever moved at moonlight among its groves
who that, at the evening hour as the sunset sent athwart
the city its level beams flooding the elm-tops of the city
in layers of gold, has threaded its streets thus arched with
domes of golden foliage, supported by Corinthian shafts of
nature though ranged in Gothic arch who that has there
watched the sunset scenes, rivalled nowhere else in the
world, so far as I have seen them who that has mingled
in its circles of cultivated and refined and modest minds,
chastened by their high appreciation of literature, morality,
and religion, but will pause enchanted at the mention of
thy name, beautiful, blest, beloved NEW HAVEN ?
I've roamed among the flowery isles afar,
And strolled, at night, 'neath west and eastern star ;
And I have loved the moon-lit scene in grove,
On lake, and where the throngs of cities move ;
And where the streams of lighted avenue
Their glare on palms and cloves and mangoes threw ;
And where the fair ones of a gentler clime
Unveiled, when bells of latest vespers chime,
Are seen to tread upon their verdant walk
To court the breeze and sport the evening talk :
But not within the range of this wide world,
(Roamed I the regions of the New or Old,)
Have I such moon-lit glory elsewhere known
As I have seen around those temples thrown,
Where Art and Nature join to render blest
This loved, THIS RURAL CITY OF THE WEST.
I have visited with interest in the family of Mr. Squire
and lady, from Plymouth, England. Mr. S. is some way
connected with the English society for the spread of the
gospel, and is in the East to convey home to the society
the information it may need to enable it judiciously to
make its selections for the stations of its laborers.
Mrs. S. is the daughter of the late George Harvey, of
literary titles and of literary fame. He is the writer of
several articles published in the Encyclopaedia Metropoli
tana, a work of great merit I understand, and extent, but
whether yet completed I am not informed. It was a mat-
ter of gratification to look over the volumes possessed by
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 109
Mrs. S., containing very beautiful specimens of plates il-
lustrating the articles on meteorology, many of them done
from sketches by her own pencil. And then, it was
amusing to hear some playful anecdote associated with
the drawing of that tree, which is a portrait that notch
in the hill that mystic fold in the sheet of that cloud
that globule of rain that has descended from the nimbus
or the cumulus that old-fashioned ship, that was standing
in by the breakwater ; and that unique Spanish craft which
had somehow wandered to the neighborhood ; and then
as another leaf was turned, to mark the angles in the flake
of snow or the mosaic of the hoar-frost, taken from the
window pane of the parlor, or the antique glass of that
old church, about which many a ghost story has been told.
How estimable, we justly think, is that family, where
science, and taste, and affection prevail ! No ennui, list-
lessness, and insipidity, hath to do*in such a circle. In the
education of his several daughters, the father of Mrs. S.
directed that one should pay her attention particularly to
music, another to drawing, another to painting, thus ren-
dering each skilful in her own department, and introdu-
cing into the family a variety of accomplishments, that
would not tire, and by consequence afford the greater
happiness to the whole circle.
In the little incidents of pleasure and disappointments
which Mrs. S. narrated to me as associated with these
beautiful plates, the scenes of which were all taken from
the neighborhood of her home, and sketched at her fa-
ther's, I thought how much was lost as we gaze on the
beautiful in art, in the absence of the story of its progress,
and its midst, and its ending. Often how often ! could
we learn the whole of the poor artist' s story as he spent
his hours over the print we admire, would the tears flood
our own eyes. And again, in tracing the history of other
pieces, which have been the result of indulging a taste
and accomplishment possessed, and contributing pleasure
from its conception to its perfection, how would our own
feelings often kindle, could we know of some of the inci-
dents and feelings that attended the artist ; and luxuriate,
as we traced the combinations of real life with the scenes
of the fictitious ! We know that we are delighted with
110 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the beautiful, and appreciate with most acceptable feelings
the effect of the combinations in a perfect painting. But
how those feelings would be augmented, did we know how
many hearts, and why they gushed amid those scenes de-
scribed or that beat with kindred feelings of love and
sentiment with our own when gazing on the same view
or sighed or smiled over the same prospect. Surely do I
think, if this description meets the eye of this amiable lady,
she will remember the hour so agreeable to myself, in
which she narrated the little domestic incidents connected
with the sketches of her porte-feuille, and the soft and
beautiful prints of the Encyclopedia.
After prayers I took my leave.
WOMAN.
Conversation is the source of the greatest happiness of
a social and rational being. And there can be few plea-
sures more unalloyed than man derives from the conver-
sation of an intelligent woman. And there is nothing that
sooner disgusts the virtuous mind than to listen to a cant
that often prevails among some circles of the other sex, to
the disparagement of the female character. Where I hear
it, I stay not to argue as to the elements of the character
of the coterie that will allow it, or the qualities of that
heart that can be pleased with the trifling and dispara-
ging remark, as associated with the female sex, to the
wreathing of the lip with a smile of satisfaction. It is to
woman, society owes its highest refinements and softest
civilities. The virtuous, and honorable, and high-minded
bearing of every community, is measured by the tone of
sentiment with which woman is regarded. The chivalric
age, when man would peril life for woman as freely as
courses the blood in his veins, and when her defence was
a profession, was a virtuous age. And the nations of the
world are characterized for their civilization, general in-
telligence, delicacy of feeling, liberty, and perhaps prowess,
in proportion as they are observed to treat the female sex
with deference, hold their personal rights in consideration,
and accord to them freedom in action, and unrestrained
intercourse in social life. And there is nothing that speaks
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. Ill
more in compliment of the American people, and assuredly
declares their advance in the dignity and moral worth of
a mighty and a Christian nation, than the deferential re-
spect with which they regard the female sex. And he
has been but a slight observer of mankind who does not
consider them, though the weaker, the better half of the
world, in all that is kind, benevolent, refined, and holy.
It is a beautiful paragraph in the works of Ledyard, the
indefatigable, and, to fame, immortal traveller, in which
he speaks of woman, as he has seen her in all quarters of
the globe. It makes one love his memory, saying every
thing as it does for the excellency of his heart ; and to the
critic in literature, presents a specimen of almost the per-
fect in style. He says :
" I have observed, among all nations, that the women
ornament themselves more than the men ; that wherever
found, they are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, ten-
der beings ; that they are ever inclined to be gay and
cheerful, timorous and modest. They do not hesitate, like
men, to perform a hospitable or generous action ; not
haughty, nor arrogant, nor superstitious; industrious, eco-
nomical, ingenuous ; more liable in general to err than man,
but in general also more virtuous and performing more
good actions than he. I never addressed myself in the
language of decency and friendship to woman, whether
civilized or savage, without receiving a decent and friend-
ly answer ; with men it has often been otherwise.
"In walking over the barren plains of inhospitable Den-
mark, through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and
churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread
regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet
or sick, woman has ever been friendly to me, and uniform-
ly so ; and to add to this virtue, so worthy of the appella-
tion of benevolence, these actions have been performed in
so free, and so kind a manner, that, if I was dry I drank
the sweet draught, and if hungry, ate the sweet morsel
with a double relish."
Sunday, May 26th, I again preached in the English,
chapel, and administered the communion. As most of the
foreigners had reached Macao from Canton during the
week, the house was well filled, and the number of persons
112 A VOYAGE AROU THE WORLu.
who communed was greater than I had anticipated. The
communion, in the absence of the chaplain, not having
been administered for some time, the services seemed to
gain additional interest to those who were present. And
it certainly was great satisfaction to me to unite with my
English friends of the same creed, in the services common
to the American and the English mother church. The
prayers of the morning service were read by Mr. Stanton,
a student of Cambridge, who is now preparing for orders,
and who, in the absence of the chaplain, usually reads a
sermon to the congregation on the Sabbath.
In the afternoon of the same day I attended a Bible
class at Mr. Squire's, where 1 met the Rev. Messrs. Bridg-
man and Abeel, who, having reached Macao Saturday
night, were at the services at the English chapel in the
morning, together with the other American missionaries,
resident here. At the Bible class were also the Rev. Mr.
Brown and lady, Mr. Williams and Mr. Stanton. Mr. Mor-
rison, son of the late Doctor Morrison, and first interpreter
to her Majesty's commission, came in, having arrived from
Canton, with Captain Elliot and others, during the morning.
After tea, I accompanied Mr. Squire to the missionaries'
services of the evening at Mr. Browne's, where a number
of the residents and all the missionaries usually attend, on
Sunday evening. I heard the Rev. Mr. Browne, and was
g'ad to listen to an exposition of the moral government of
od, that relieves his benevolence and mercy from charges
sometimes brought against it, by showing that the present
system of God's government is the best possible to him as a
Ruler over free moral beings, and the best conceivable, if
these free moral beings had acted their part, as their inte-
rests and their obligations of duty suggested.
I called at Captain Elliot's on Monday morning, Com-
modore Read and Captain Wyman making a call at the
same hour.
CAPTAIN ELLIOT AND CHINESE AFFAIRS.
Captain Elliot is the British superintendent of trade
here, empowered by her Majesty's government with cer-
tain authority, the extent of which, in the secrecy with
which he keeps his instructions, it is impossible to know:
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 113
but, as occasion requires, the decision with which he acts,
and the responsibility he assumes, declare that his powers
are equal to any exigency which has yet occurred. And
he affirms that his instructions are full ; and when occasion
requires it they shall be known. He has assumed the re-
sponsibility of requiring from the English captains the
delivery of opium, to the amount of some millions of dol-
lars in value, for which the English government becomes
the debtor ; and through him, as its agent, it is surrendered
to the Chinese authorities, according to the demand of
the Chinese government, as the condition of the liberation
of the foreigners held imprisoned at Canton. The amount
has now been surrendered, and the foreigners are mostly
in Macao beyond the further power of the Chinese, while
the trade is again opened, on certain conditions, into which
the captains of the ships are to enter. The English will
not accept these conditions. The Americans may play
their part differently, as their present interests lead them
to secure their home cargoes.
A crisis evidently has come ; and it will depend upon
the will of the English government, in a good degree, as
to what that crisis shall develop. If the ministry now in
power continue to hold their places, it is presumed that
Captain Elliot will be sustained in the course he has pur-
sued; and that England will demand the restitution of an
equivalent for the opium delivered, with expenses and in-
juries received by the detention of the English ships, and
every other real or supposed damage received. And the
Chinese government refusing to liquidate the amount, will
thus afford to the English a sufficient pretext, real or ima-
ginary, for the declaration of war, the conquest of the
island of Formosa or some other in the neighborhood of
Furkeen, the tea province, and reprisals be made on the
commerce of the Chinese coast. The ultimate end of all
measures to be, the securing a foothold in the Chinese em-
pire, and to effect a treaty with its government.
But all this is yet to be developed. The progress of
the drama, in its first act and several scenes, is long, even
so far only as it has already advanced, and would occupy
some pages to be repeated here, in the quotations of docu-
ments which have passed between the Chinese commis-
sioner and Captain Elliot on the part of the British gov-
114 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ernmont, and others, who, at Canton, represent other for-
eign powers. So far, however, as the subject is connect-
ed with our detention here, and the presentation of the
points in agitation and dispute between the Chinese and
the foreigners are concerned, I shall endeavor to give a
statement arid documents, briefly as possible, further on,
for the full understanding of the merits and the difficulties
of the circumstances, in which the parties are placed in
relation to each other.*
Captain Elliot is a gentleman of great ingenuousness of
manners. Too frank, some would think him, for a diplo-
mat. But there is a deeper management, sometimes, in
frankness, than is found in guarded reserve or mysticism ;
and a frank communication of what it is of no consequence
should lie concealed, may often form a veil for what it is
important should be preserved sub umbra. And I divine
that Captain E. understands this, while it is in his nature
to be open in his communications, and undisguised in his
actions. His ingenuous manner almost declares his pro-
fession, (and I should add, en passant, that he holds a post-
captain's commission in her Majesty's navy,) and he has
possessed himself of enough of all the languages of the
East, and the Portuguese, with a knowledge of the French,
to enable him sometimes to be amusing in the way of
narrative, and always to round an anecdote successfully.
Captain Elliot has done credit to himself in the difficult
circumstances in which he has been placed ; and his pass-
ing the Bogue on his hearing of the early measures at
Canton, in the endeavor of the mandarins to secure the
person of Mr. Dent ; his passing the flotilla of boats which
endeavored to prevent his landing by forming a barrier
to keep his small boat from approaching the landing-place
at Canton, is spoken of as a gallant act. Competent and
confident in his measures, and acquainted with the genius
of the people and bearing of the controversy, and the
* A statement, including public documents, and letters which
passed between our Consul at Canton, and Commodore Read, was
prepared by the author for the first edition of this work, but its extent
precluded the possibility of its insertion ; and the proposed size of
these volumes still prohibits any further details, than, incidentally,
have, been given.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 115
wishes of his government, he will succeed in carrying his
own plans through, if he gains, as he expects, the appro-
bation and further support of the ministry at home.
He brought with him from Canton a magnificent paint-
ing of George the Fourth, which has occupied the hall
in the British factory there. Its size, however, occupying
its present position, although a spacious room, reminded
me of the family picture of the Vicar of Wakefield, which
was found, after it had been finished, to be too large in
its proportions to occupy a perpendicular position in the
house. It is done by Laurence, and is deemed a master-
piece. I was less interested in it than I might other-
wise have been, had not Mrs. Elliot recalled me to view
a beautiful print of her Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria,
whom Mrs. E. appears to admire with much enthusiasm.
Certain it is that Mrs. E. herself is a queen in her way
possessing great interest as a lady of agreeable and easy
manners, clever, accomplished, quick at repartee, and with
a row of teeth that pearls may not equal.
On the succeeding Wednesday I dined with Captain
Elliot, it being the day that suited the engagements of
Commodore Read. All the gentlemen of the Queen's
commission were present Messrs. Johnson, Emsly, Mor-
rison, some of the India service, and several gentlemen of
the large mercantile houses, Mr. Jardin and others, and
our worthy consul, Mr. Snow.
I took my leave as Mrs. E. retired from the table, for
an engagement I had in the evening.
Among other places I had visited during the week is
Mr. BeaPs garden, possessing some attractions in its loca-
lities and arrangements and plants, but principally inter-
esting to the visiter on account of its magnificent aviary,
which contains a number of birds of the richest plumage
and most gorgeous colors, characteristic of the feathery
tribe of the tropics.
THE BIRD OF PARADISE.
The bird of Paradise that fairy creature, which we
have almost thought to be a thing of fable rather than of
real existence is there, now in his perfection of plumage
37
116 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and coloring. The Mohammedan places the souls of the
blessed, in their highest heaven, in the crops of green
pigeons. Had the bird of Paradise ever crossed the vision
of Mohammed, the green-plumage colomba would never
have shared the honor of bearing in its flight the souls of
good Mussulmans. I seem to see that beautiful creature,
again as my pen would describe it, hopping from perch
to perch, changing its position at every note it uttered, as
if, conscious of the perfection of its beauty, it would show
every feather of its long, and soft, and downy, and richest-
dyed plumage, and blue beak, and yellow eye, and ringed
and speckled claws. There have been many descriptions
of this identical beauty, nature's masterpiece of the fea-
thered creation. But nothing can do it justice in the ab-
sence of colors ; and its portrait even, which I possess.
and so well done as apparently to be regarded with all the
affection of self-esteem by the beautiful bird itself, reaches
not the spirit of the gay original. Its light-blue and
graceful bill, placed in its emerald green bed ; its choco-
late breast and pinions in contrast with its brilliant yellow
of the upper part of the head and back, darker shaded
towards the wings ; and then, its gorgeous tuft of white,
downy, and elongated plumage, tinged with saffron and
extending itself like a train of light, all harmonize, in their
blended colors, to form a perfect whole, which animated
nature nowhere else presents. Sweet thing ! it would
seem that it ought to have a sweeter voice that all the
symphonies of nature the ^Eolian strain the whisper of
the pine-top and notes, they say of old, that syrens used,
when they would throw a spell over the spirits of those
they enchanted, should be blended in the note of a thing
so fair and so perfect. Who can look on thee, thou beau-
tiful bird, and not be won by the beautiful Mind that con
ceived the harmonies of thy coloring, and painted thee as
thou art !
There are a great variety of other birds here, gorgeous
in their plumage, and surpassing, for their beauty, the
conceptions of one who has never seen them represented
in ornithological plates. Among these is the golden
pheasant, the silver pheasant, the Argus pheasant, and
more beautiful than all, the Tartar pheasant. They are
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 117
larger than the English or American pheasant ; and their
gorgeous plumage of yellow and crimson and silver, with
the hundred eyes of the Argus pheasant strewed upon its
feathers, make* the peacock almost a common bird beside
them as they attract the admiration of the lover of ani-
mated nature. The mandarin duck is a peculiar bird ;
and beautiful sparrows, green pigeons, red and white par-
rots, finches, and half a hundred variety of other birds
were seen, flying or hopping about within this spacious
wire cage, which covered an extent sufficient to embrace
the boughs and trunks of several well-grown trees, and
an artificial water-pond, giving to these winged idlers of
the tropics an evergreen grove through which to cut the
air, to build their nests, to lave their wings, and to sport
in harmony, shade, and song.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES TO CHINA.
The American Missionaries to China make Macao
their residence. Here, they can enjoy all the advantages
they need in acquiring a knowledge of the Chinese lan-
guage, printing their books, and an ample field for mis-
sionary labor among the extensive Chinese population of
Macao. The city is within a day's sail of Canton, and
passage-boats daily ply beween the two places. Here,
too, there is always more or less European society, being
the only place at which foreign females can reside. And
here they have the protection of the Portuguese laws, so
far as those laws are adequate to yield it. The Baptist
Society have three missionaries here, Mr. and Mrs. Shuck,
and Mr. Roberts. They each have a small school of
Chinese scholars ; and while giving them instruction, con-
tinue their own application to the acquisition of the Chi-
nese language. These missionaries have been in China
some time more than a year, and have accomplished a
knowledge of the language which enables them to com-
municate freely with the Chinese. It is the only language
in which they converse in their intercourse with their
pupils and domestics.
It is a vast work that opens before the missionary to the
Chinese empire ; and surely if there were no arm but that
118 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
of mortals on which to rely in the hoped-for revolutions
that are to be effected in the institutions of these people,
for the introduction of the principles of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, this small band, gathered at this point, might well
veil their expectations of a brighter day in the deep shades
that seem to hang thickly over the onward prospect of
three hundred and sixty millions of people. But there is
already a breaking away most assuredly observable in the
moral horizon of this extended nation. There are facilities
now existing which have not before existed for the acqui-
sition of the Chinese language. The genius of the people
is being developed to the perceptions of intelligent men ;
and a mighty revolution in the physical circumstances of
a people, thus surrounded by Christian powers, daily ap-
proaching nearer and nearer to them, and whose commer-
cial and political interests are beginning to come in sensi-
tive contact, is destined, ere long, to come. The age is
one of light, mental, moral, and philosophical inquiry,
which has characterized no other period of the world, and
which cannot let the Chinese empire remain unaffected by
its influence. China must be opened. The time is at
hand when a combination of nations more enlightened and
powerful in arms, science, and literature, shall WILL it; and
the Chinese cannot, in the nature of moral causes and
their effects, hinder it. In the mean time the missionary
is doing the right thing, in preparing the truth for the ac-
ceptance of the nation, when circumstances shall have so
conspired as to render it admissible and acceptable.
There are men who have acquired the Chinese language,
so as to write it with accuracy and considerable elegance.
The Bible has been translated into the Chinese character.
And the Chinese, when once the chain of olden habits and
institutions shall have been riven by the light of truer
science and philosophy, will be found a people with less in
their habits of thinking and systems opposing Christianity,
than exists among many other nations, and far less than
has and continues to be the influence of cast, or the op-
posing peculiarities of the creed of Mohammed.
The Christian world is becoming more and more inter-
ested in this people. They are a courteous and civilized
nation. They are a reasoning people among the higher
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 119
orders, who govern, unopposed, the lower classes. The
rulers are a literati nobility, or an aristocracy, to which
the acquaintance with books (such as they are) alone
makes them eligible. And thus they are prepared, and
will be prepared, in the revolutions that shall introduce to
their attention better principles, with the greater light and
knowledge of the European nations and systems, to ap-
preciate these principles. And with a government con-
structed as the Chinese government is, one Emperor might
spread Christianity, almost without opposition, throughout
the empire of China. His word is law ; and besides, the
Confucian system, to which the literati, who are the same
as the rulers, belong, has, according to their own senti-
ments, but little to do with the gods, about whom they
say they know but little, and ought to have but little to
do. The Confucian system is a system of political eco-
nomy, and its grand principle is that of obedience to the
powers that are, resulting from the first principle Con-
fucius inculcates, of veneration and obedience to parents.
The Emperor being the great father of the empire, the
same principle carried up secures to him the same, though
greater veneration and obedience, which, in the premises,
the Scriptures would not oppose, but inculcate. And
could the Bible be introduced into the literary course of
the Chinese as one of their classics, even alongside of
Confucius as their political code, their system, as it now
stands, would make the nation possessed of one of the most
enviable courses of education the world could know. It
would be the desideratum in systems, in Christian and na-
tional education, which good men can hardly hope for,
but which they most justly and devoutly might wish and
pray for. Of course, I suppose that the commentaries on
the different subjects of the Scriptures should be, and
would be, as extended and numerous in the illustration of
the text, as is the case now with the Chinese classics, in
the course of their graduates.
But I am rather anticipating the subject here, while it
is yet a very natural association to make mention of the
missionaries to China in this place, as they are resident at
Macao.
The Rev. Messrs. Bridgman, Abeel, Browne, Mr. Wil-
37*
120 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
liams and Mrs. Browne, are also here, connected with the
American Board or other Presbyterian missionary societies
in the U. S. Mr. and Mrs. B. have not long been in the
missionary field, having arrived some six months since.
Besides these American missionaries, the Rev. Mr. Gutz-
laff, of wide-spread reputation in England and America,
resides with his family, Mrs. G. and two nieces, at Macao.
It has been my pleasure to meet this agreeable gentleman
and his pleasant family. Mr. G. is a gentleman of much
vivacity of character, has acquired a very intimate know-
ledge of Chinese for a foreigner, and is now one of the
interpreters to the Queen's commission.
Surely it is no small task the missionary enters upon,
when he devotes himself to a cause which is to require the
efforts of his life ; and for years must secure from him un-
tiring industry, to enable him to acquire a foreign tongue,
without which his usefulness can be of little extent. It
can be no sinecure. There can be no cessation to effort ;
patience, application, and an untiring industry, must char-
acterize the labor of the missionary in such a field. And
I have witnessed it. And he who has gone through the
toil, in his early days of boyhood, in his course of studies
of the dead languages, can estimate the labor and the un-
tiring application that it must cost the Christian mission-
ary to gain the competent knowledge of a foreign tongue
for the discharge of successful labors. And there are
untold and unknown sorrows and difficulties and disap-
pointments that, in the nature of things, often meet these
devoted men and women, that none but those placed in
similar circumstances can justly estimate. Though of a
different denomination from all the missionaries whom I
have met at the different stations where our ships have
touched, I am happy of the opportunity of adding my tes-
timony to their untiring efforts, and in most cases, success-
ful action in behalf of the people to whom they have been
sent, and to whom they have given their Christian sym-
pathies. And while they are thus engaged in the service
of their Lord, we should not forget, in our estimate of
their sacrifices, that they lose not their sensibilities which
attach them to their native home. Indeed, the very fact
of their being on missionary ground, is presumptive evi-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 121
dence of a tender heart a heart that swells in benevo-
lence and pious devotion for others and strangers, and
with kindling devotion to the Saviour of mankind, who
sacrificed so much for their personal welfare. And so
the thoughts of the missionary do go home to their native
land. So they do revisit, with intenser love, the haunts
of their infancy and youth and friends and kindred, ren-
dered doubly dear, as the often loneliness and difficulties
around them contrast so vividly in their memories with
the circumstances and the associations which they left
behind them. And yet, they would not retreat from the
field they occupy. They but redouble their effort in their
devotion to the cause to which their voluntary act has
consecrated them, but not to the exclusion of those sensi-
bilities which make their sacrifices the greater, in propor-
tion to the depth of their feelings. And to show that it is
no sudden impulse of enthusiasm that actuates the devotee
of missions and the Christian friends who resign their
kindred to a living burial, as it has been to most who have
parted with friends, as to their hopes of again meeting in
this world ; but on the contrary, that there is judicious
and considerate thought, of considerate and intelligent and
calm minds, capable of seeing the relations of things and
their fitness, in the decisions which cause the missionary
to leave his or her home for life, and to devote himself
and herself to a foreign people, I introduce here a private
paper which was written by an affectionate father, whose
heart was then bleeding over the hourly-expected de-
parture of an affectionate daughter, for a life's devotion to
the cause of missions in a foreign land. The counsel
given is valuable in other stations, but shows that our
missionaries who go abroad are from among the sterling
families at home. The first paper I copy is addressed by
the father to his daughter in her new relations as a mis-
sionary's wife. The second is the father's farewell letter
to this daughter, at the hour of her leaving him.
" A few private thoughts for MARY.
" First, on the subject of your marriage.
" You will find in many books, rules, and good rules
for the government of your conduct in respect to your
husband ; but you may not meet with them, or if you do,
122 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
may not subscribe to them so entirely as to practise them.
You will find the sum and substance of your duty in this
respect in a volume which you will always, I trust, have
near you the Bible. If you observe strictly the direc-
tions therein contained, you will find your account in it.
Your happiness and usefulness, depend upon it, is inti-
mately connected with the manner in which you observe
these rules. One principle must, of necessity, be acted
on, and that is, you must yield to the will of your husband,
whenever the point is made. This must be the case, or
he must yield to you. I do not mean that it is necessary
to yield a forced obedience, but a willing one. God
has constituted the man, as the stronger in mind and body,
to have the government, and in proportion as you may
be disposed to usurp the authority which belongs to him,
you destroy the order of Providence and the harmony of
the connubial state. Never, therefore, oppose the will of
your husband. You may reason with, and persuade, but
do not attempt to dictate to him. * / will,' and * / will not'
are words which should never be found in a wife's vo-
cabulary. Never use them to your husband, or you may
force him to adopt such as he may lawfully do, but such
as he should never have reason for, * you shall, 9 and * you
shall not.'
" Do not fret at or quarrel with your husband, on any
occasion. He is fallible, and may sometimes err and may
speak unadvisedly, but on such occasions be silent and
affectionate, and you will reform him.
" Be always neat and cleanly in your person and dress,
and you will increase his love and respect for you. A
sluttish appearance in a wife distresses and may disgust
a husband. Little differences may, and will, sometimes
occur between man and wife. Should you find this your
case, take the earliest opportunity of making the first over-
ture of reconciliation. You will thereby heal the wound,
and increase the love of your husband.
" When you reach your place of destination, and your
husband is necessarily compelled to be often absent from
you, do not take it as evidence of his want of affection. If
he stays beyond the time expected, meet him on his return
with smiles and caresses ; and depend on it he will be
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 123
thereby induced to hasten home, when otherwise he might
not. Make home the quietest and happiest place, and he
will love it. But yet he must often leave it, and you must
consent that he should.
" Your husband may die before you. In that case, re-
member that if I am living you should take no important
step without my advice, however distant, if it can be
avoided. If it be impossible to get that advice, go to the
pious and experienced, with whom you may be associated
" Improve your handwriting. It needs it. Write all
your letters and journals with care as to penmanship, spell-
ing, and diction.
"Do not be impatient when sick. You are rather
predisposed that way. Take great care of your health.
Avoid the sun when hot, and the dews, and all improper
food ; and do not take medicine too freely, and without
great caution.
" Avoid careless habits in every thing.
" A place for every thing and every thing in its place."
" MY DEAR MARY,
" The time is at hand when you are to bid adieu to the
land of your birth, to enter upon a mission of mercy to a
distant and heathen portion of our race. If commissioned
upon this embassy of peace and salvation to perishing sin-
ners by the King of kings, I doubt not he will furnish you
with such instructions, and afford you such encourage-
ment and support as will enable you to accomplish the
object of your mission. God however will not speak au-
dibly in your ears, and you will have to receive his com-
munications through the medium of his word, his servants,
and by his Spirit operating upon your heart and moving
you in the path of duty.
" Placed in the endearing relation to you of a father, it
may not be contrary to the will of our heavenly Parent
that I should assume the duty of imparting some instruc-
tion to you, touching the important business upon which
you are about to enter.
" I have no reason to doubt the correctness of the mo-
tives which influence you. The sacrifice of all further
personal intercourse on earth with so many dear friends,
124 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to encounter the dangers of the ocean, and to live and die
among uncultivated heathen, would seem to be proof
enough of your disinterestedness, did we not know the
pride and deceitfulness of the human heart. The desire
of distinction, love of novelty, etc., are such insidious mo-
tives which sometimes assume the name of philanthropy,
that it requires great caution and much seli-examination
to detect them. On this point I need not enlarge. You
know that for these twelve months you have had my
thoughts upon it. You have, as I trust, prayerfully and
deliberately considered the subject in all its bearings ; and
you have decided to go. In making this decision, you
have subjected yourself to many unkind remarks from the
illiberal, the ignorant, and the wicked ; some of which
rnay have reached your ears, but by far the greater part
have been uttered out of your hearing. To say that I
have no fears whatever for you, would be untrue. It is
what. I presume, you would not venture to say for your-
self. We should distrust and jealously watch every mo-
tive which has so much to do with self. While I would
not myself, nor would I have you indulge a confident
boasting in regard to this matter, at the same time I am
free to express the opinion, that, so far as we can judge,
it is the will of God that you should take this step. If we
be mistaken, I trust that he will pardon our blindness and
overrule all for good.
" You have, my dear child, taken upon you the name
and office of a missionary a name and office which a Jud-
son, and Newell, and Morrison, and Gutzlaff, and others
have caused to be associated with honor ; but you must
remember that they are not necessarily thus associated.
The reputation which those missionaries which have pre-
ceded you have obtained, cannot be transferred to you.
By patient, continued, and faithful labor in the cause of
Christ, must you win and share the honors of a mission-
ary's life.
" While the result of your toils in the cause may con-
fer some degree of honor upon yourself, let it not be for-
' gotten that this is the least consideration which should
animate you. The glory of God and the good of souls
should move you to the same exertions, were you confi-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 125
dent that, in the world, your motives might be impugned
and your name be brought into disrepute. For the sake
of the cause, however, in which you are engaged, it should
be your care to gain a standing with the world at least
the Christian world for a degree of moral and religious
worth. Aim at high attainments in personal piety, not
such as will cause you to feel like the Pharisee when he
said, 'God, I thank thee,' &c., but rather, such as will
humble you and bring you to the foot of the cross, and
cause you to adopt the prayer of the publican, 'God be
merciful to me a sinner.'
" P. S. Since writing the above, we have attended the
meeting for the public designation of your company as
missionaries, and we have heard the official instructions of
the Board. Those instructions are the result of age and
experience, and contain all perhaps that is necessary for
your guidance ; and I shall, without repeating such thoughts
as are there suggested, only insist, with parental earnest-
ness, that you pay strict regard to them.
"There is one thought that I would impress deeply upon
your mind, and that is, that you have enlisted for life ;
and that, unless extraordinary occurrences of Providence
shall otherwise indicate, you are never to return to Ameri-
ca never, unless the Board here shall advise and require it.
" I part with you with all the feelings of nature, and
shall, when let down to the feeling point, (for I am above
it,) weep on account of our separation ; but I assure you
that I do not regret you are going. Assure me that all is
right in motive with us all, and that God requires it, and
I rejoice in the prospect of your living and dying on hea-
then ground. I should look upon it as a lasting stigma
were you to become tired of your vocation, and quit the
service in which you have engaged. Although you have
reflected on many trials and difficulties that may attend
you, after all you perhaps have not thought of half that
you will experience. Prepare your mind for the worst,
i ou should not however doubt the faithfulness of God
that he will be with you alway.
" In your intercourse with your fellow laborers in the
same service, I hope you will find much pleasure. Catch
all their virtues and avoid all their foibles, if they have any
126 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
" You will have much time during the voyage, and af-
terwards, it is probable, for devotion, reading, and reflec-
tion. Endeavor to improve it. Lay in a good stock of
useful knowledge, and do not consider your education as
yet completed. Take care of minutes, and have system
in all your affairs.
" Remember those you leave behind your brothers,
sisters, friends ! Pray for them, and write to them. We
part in a short time to meet no more on earth ! But we
shall meet again shortly, in heaven. Till then, fare-
well!!
" YOUR FATHER."
Owing to the prevalence of the typhoons in the China
seas during the months of July and August, occurring
sometimes sooner and sometimes later in the season, it is
deemed imprudent for a ship to lie longer than the latter
part of June in the Roads of Macao ; and the shipping,
consequently, generally change their anchorage for a har-
bor under the lee of Hong Kong, Tung Koo, or Lintin,
islands in the neighborhood. Either of the sheets of wa-
ter hemmed in by these with other clustering islands and
the main land adjacent to them, is deemed to afford a safe
anchorage during the prevalence of the hurricanes of the
China seas. The Columbia and the John Adams, there-
fore, will change their positions from Macao roads for
Tung Koo bay some time during the week. I have con-
sequently completed my visits to several spots in the city,
which I had before omitted to inspect with the minuteness
I desired.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND CATHOLIC PROCESSIONS.
The public buildings of Macao the senate house, the
churches, Santa Clara convent, St. Joseph's college, con-
vents of St. Francis and St. Augustine, and the hermitages
on their beautiful sites, flanking the city on either wing
are all buildings of interest in their olden associations and
present material, enough for poetry and fiction ; but, as
specimens of architecture, have nothing particular to at-
tract ; and their internal arrangements are like all Catholic
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 127
chapels, with their altars and their particular saints in
niches, and the paraphernalia of candlestick, taper, and
tinsel. I have never yet seen a respectable and tasteful
looking image in a Catholic church, of the hundreds I have
seen. They always have the appearance of dusty wax
figures, rendered doubly disagreeable for the priestly cos-
tume in which they are almost always attired, which could
never give grace to a piece of sculpture as true taste would
robe a statue, even of a Catholic saint. And then, above
all things, to hang a wreath of fresh flowers on such a
thing of antiquity, as is often the case, on festival days,
when the patron saint of a particular church is paraded
through the streets, makes one think that sacrilege is done
to the flowers ; and we turn from it as we would from a
matron of threescore and ten, who should put paint on her
cheeks, and gaudy decorations of gold about her neck and
pendants in her ears. A festoon of flowers hangs with
better taste on the intersecting bars of that beautiful em-
blem, the cross.
I love an old building. And I love to pace the silent
aisles of the olden cathedral, and move beneath the moss-
hung walls of the ruins of the convent and church, and
courts of the once spacious cloister. And I like, too, the
beauty and the freshness of the new and extended building,
where there is space and massiveness and proportion blend-
ed in harmonies, that bespeak taste and genius in the con-
struction. And I love to wander through olden fortifica-
tions that have many legends of the past associated with
them. And he must be miserably insensible indeed, and a
slave to the mere physical of his nature, who can trace
the early and later story of this far-settlement of the East,
ever in agitation in the furtherance of its own schemes of
aggrandizement, or ready to promote the ambitious views
of the court of Lisbon, or the high pretensions of the see
of Rome, and finds not quite enough to interest his imagi-
nation and his reflection as he treads the high steeps and
the deep ravines of the embattled and only asylum for for-
eigners in this region of the far East. Here it was, the
Jesuits fixed their point of rendezvous from which they
made their entree into the celestial empire, penetrated to
the imperial city, and had made the nation of the Chinese
38
128 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
a species of Christians had the Pope acted with the policy
of these his sworn adherents, and prevented the mendicant
monks, with their opposing tenets, to find their way to
China, to the discomfiture of the harmonious action of the
Jesuits and the final overthrow of the Catholic cause. And
here, the Jesuit, the Dominican, the Augustine and the Ca-
puchin, alike found a retreat and safety, when banishment
or death awaited them on the promulgation of edicts, more
powerful than the bulls of Popes resident half a sphere
from the shores of the " middle land."
I had prepared a sketch in connection with the Catholic
religion at Macao, to be introduced in this place. It were
a topic, of itself, in connection with collateral subjects
which have generally been associated by the Romanists
with the action of the Propagandists, sufficient to fill a
volume of historic facts, incidents, and reflections thereon
dissevered as that action has seldom been from com-
mercial and political associations. Nor would it have
been in my heart to do the Catholics injustice in this, or
ever. On the contrary, where I find that which harmo-
nizes with my own sentiment of truth and propriety, it is
a pleasure Tor me to compliment and to commend. But
this sketch, here, at least, must be omitted, while briefly
alluding, before leaving Macao, to some of the proces-
sions of the church, still continued in this olden Portuguese
settlement.
Christmas, Easterday, Whitsuntide, and other festival
days, are celebrated with much pomp, though probably
with less demonstration of show and veneration than in
former times. There are eighteen festivals devoted to the
Virgin Mary ; thirteen others to other saints, male and fe-
male, and each festival is continued, in its celebration, from
nine to thirteen days, and ends with processions through
the streets. A flag, or some other conspicuous emblem,
designating the saint, or some subject associated with the
action and story of the venerated patron, is seen displayed
near the church at which the multitude gather to worship ;
and sometimes at other places, in honor of the occasion,
flags are streaming ; while the public procession is attend-
ed by the clergy, in great numbers, chanting the praises
of the saint, as his image is borne in its car upon the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 129
shoulders of devotees. A detachment of the military, with
the accompaniment of music, gives martial solemnity to
the scene, and the fort of the mount discharges twenty-
one guns in honor of the day. The senate defrays, from
the royal chest, the expenses of the festival and procession
of "our Lady of Conception," who is the patroness of the
kingdom. Also, the charges of the festival of the "Guar-
dian Angel of the kingdom," of " St. John the Baptist,"
and of " Corpus Christi day," are defrayed from the public
coffers.
The processions of " Corpus Christi" and of " St. An-
tonio" I have had the opportunity of witnessing here. The
mass was being repeated as I arrived at the church of St.
Domingos, standing at one extremity of the square, which
is fronted on the other extreme by the senate house. The
military were drawn up at rest, in a line extending from
the church on their left far down the wide street. The
church was filled to a jam, by Portuguese women, kneel-
ing in a mass, and most of them with the light shawl thrown
over their head, while the dark lace veil formed the head-
dress of the better class of the worshippers. The gover-
nor was kneeling near the altar, and other military offi-
cers occasionally entered, with a genuflection, and left
again, watching the progress of the service, and being in
readiness to move, at the signal, for the elevation of the
Host.
The mass was over ; and the sacred emblems, consecra-
ted and believed to be the body of Christ in verity, were
borne by four or six priests, and followed by the vicar gen-
eral, the governor, and priests numerous, in their clerical
robes, corresponding to their separate orders of Domini-
cans, Franciscans, and others, joined by the devout of the
multitude. As they passed on from the gate of the church,
the military, already formed, wheeled in platoons to the
left, uniting with the procession, and the band of music
struck up their solemn and fine music, as the procession
moved on in measured and martial step towards the sen-
ate house- passing through several streets, and back again
to the church. All were uncovered, the soldiers carrying
their caps in their hand, as their muskets were pressed at
their breast. The intense ray of the tropical sun beat alike
130 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
upon the venerable head of the governor and tonsure-
priest, and darker and thicker locks of the soldiery. But
the procession had soon performed its circuit, while min-
ute guns from the fort of the mount bore their testimony
of consciousness that the devotees were on their solemn
inarch ; which, with the circumstance and pomp and re-
spectful demeanor of the joiners in with the procession,
and the mass of spectators that crowded each side of the
street, or thronged the windows of the houses, presented,
at once, an imposing and impressive scene.
The procession in honor of St. Anthony was not dissimi-
lar to that of " Corpus Christi," though less imposing. In-
stead of the Host, the image of St. Anthony, who is the
patron saint of the kingdom, was borne in procession. I
was particularly well situated for witnessing this proces-
sion, as I occupied a position on the turret overlooking the
square, within which the procession moved to the strains
of martial music, and followed by the, various orders of
the brotherhoods. The figure of St. Anthony himself
was a small statue, wreathed with a garland of the sweet
little malati flowers, and his car decorated with tinsel.
The silver cross and other emblems were borne in pro-
cession.
It will appear a curious particular to those not familiar
in their associations with the peculiarities of Catholic wor-
shippers and system of saints, that this said St. Anthony,
considered the protector of Macao as he is of the king-
dom of Portugal, is declared by authentic documents to
have been enlisted as a soldier in 1725, and in 1783 he
obtained the rank of captain. On the eve of the proces-
sion the amount of a captain's annual pay is sent by the
senate to the curate, which is used for the expenses for
celebrating worship, and preserving the edifice and uten-
sils in neatness for the service of the patron's church.
There is another procession said to take place on the
Sunday of the Cross, yet more impressive than any other.
On this occasion, " the image of the Redeemer, clad in a
purple garment, wearing on his head a crown of thorns,
and on his shoulders bearing a heavy cross, bends his
knees on the bottom of a bier, supported by eight of the
most distinguished citizens. The bishop, with the secular
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 131
and regular clergy, the governor, nobility and military, and
the whole Roman Catholic population, it may be said, assist,
deeply affected by a scene which prognosticates a divine
sacrifice to be made for reconciling man with his Creator.
Young children of both clear and dark skins, arrayed in
fancy dresses of angels, with beautiful muslin wings at the
shoulders, carry, in a miniature shape, the instruments
which were required at the crucifixion. This procession
takes a range over almost the whole city. When finished,
the image of Christ is deposited in its shrine at the Con-
vent of St. Augustine."
But, the time had now come, June the 14th, when I was
to leave Macao. I had already sent my moveables to the
ship ; and this morning, as I took a walk on the Praya
Grande, I was accosted by Mr. Forbes, a gentleman of
great urbanity of feeling and manner. He said he under-
stood I desired to visit Canton a boat was going to-mor-
row morning, and he should be happy if I would form one
of the company. It was no longer deemed much risk of
detention by visiting Canton. I only waited the opportu-
nity, therefore, for visiting the city.
ON THE WAY TO CANTON.
If it did not offer from Macao, I presumed to find one
immediately after our ship reached her anchorage at Tung
Koo 'Bay. But this opportunity now presenting, my ar-
rangements were soon made for an early start on the
morning of the 15th, in the little Sylph, that mischief-
making little passage-boat, which it is supposed in former
times has carried much of the contraband narcotic to
Canton, but henceforward must make a living by being
employed in a more legitimate business. And so, on
board of this little clipper I was, in the morning, and with
the sunrise up came the anchor, and we were away.
"Away," and on my course to Canton. Perhaps we
should reach there the same night ; we did reach there the
next morning. Canton ! It is not the Doric temple, the
Corinthian pillar, the dome of mosque or the Gothic mas-
sive pile, that give interest to an inhabited or desolate city.
It is the associations of the past, whether there be lofty
38*
132 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
palace or crumbling ruin, stately buildings or but the cot-
tage-lodge which marks a locality, and throws a spell
around a place of desolation or of active and successful life.
And Canton, be it what it may in external appearance,
cannot disappoint the mind that has more to do with itself
than with external objects. What youth of either hemi-
sphere of the civilized world has not had his mind filled
with images of Chinese association ? He has read de-
scriptions of the celestial empire and its long-cue or braid
inhabitants ; and contemplated in drawings the delinea-
tions of their peculiar costume, and more than half-shaven
heads, and turn-up and thick-soled shoes, altogether ex-
hibiting a picture, which resembles the creature man as
found in no other part of the globe. And when the child's
inquisitiveness has first begun to develop itself, his curios-
ity has been replied to as he was told that the green leaves
of which his tea is made came from China. And the young
American, the first thing he learns of the history of his own
country, next to the stories of the Indian wars, from the lips
of his mother, is the narrative of the tea plot how certain
men in masks went on board of a tea-ship in the harbor
of Boston, and threw the chests overboard, because our
forefathers would not suffer themselves to be taxed by the
mother country. His imagination at once takes in the
whole scene of the maskers throwing the tea-chests to the
wave, and perhaps can hardly reconcile to his idea the
propriety of the waste, at the moment, while the mysteri-
ous occupies his young imagination, and he leaves the
comprehension of the great principles that were involved,
for the consideration of riper years. And then he has
wondered, as he has yielded to the conviction that the
world is round, what sort of people are they on that side
of the world opposite to him ! And while he has read
and become older, he still feels that his imagination has the
most to do in the origin of the feelings with which he
makes his deductions in connection with the people of the
eastern world. For myself, I should have cared not if the
city of Canton had been found built on a barren rock
her dwellings bamboo houses, could I but yet have found
her thousand boats lying in the stream with their crowded
families and chickens and ducks, which I had read of; and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 133
the junks, and the dragon-boats ; and on shore, the crowded
populace, the long cues of the men, and the small feet of
the women, and the trinkets, and the ivory things, and the
silks, and the shawls, and the crapes, and the teas.
But, our sails being set, and the wind favorable enough
for our gaff-topsail, the little schooner soon made her way
through the little islands, becoming more and more nume-
rous as Macao is left in the distance, and the Bogue begins
to open to the eye.
The Bogue, so often alluded to in the accounts of Can-
ton, and particularly in connection with difficulties which
have at different times occurred here in the English com-
merce, and within a few years back inducing the British men-
of-war to "force the Bogue," is formed by the near ap-
proach of two islands, through which the waters of the
river Tigris disgorge as its outlet, and from which, some
thirty to forty miles up the river, the city of Canton is
situated. There are two fortifications here of considera-
ble extent, one on either side. In the hands of other pow-
ers, and with fortifications properly constructed, this pass
would be impregnable. As it is, the range of cannon are
placed on immoveable carriages, and, by consequence, can
fire only in one line of direction. As they are now con-
structed, no man-of-war would deem the risk of the passage
of much account, although a cross-fire, in other hands,
would be brought to bear on the ship.
As we neared the Bogue we saw in the distance an ob-
ject drifting to the leeward. It was approaching dusk, and
though we made out the object to be a boat bottom up-
wards, and had consulted the propriety of putting about for
their rescue, as the waves were running rather high, and
the breeze fresh, we yet could not define the object with
much distinctness. Our captain, a dark Bengalese, said it
would be of no use to stand after the sufferers, as we had
no small boat to lower for their assistance. We should
probably have disagreed with him, even to his being put
out of his honorable command, had we not fortunately at
the same moment discerned a nearing junk, which had
evidently discovered the same boat, and was beating down
for her. We watched the junk on her several tacks, until,
while there was yet light enough to save us from mistake,
134 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
we saw her lower her sails as she hove to, near the object
in distress, and a small boat put off for their relief.
The Sylph having been examined at the Bogue, and the
passengers identified as per the chop, which had been fur-
nished at Macao, we passed on up the river. The first
object that met my eye as I awoke at early daylight, was
the towering nine-storied pagoda near Whampoa, reali-
zing in all its proportions and outline the drawings I had
seen of these octagonal and picturesque and mysterious
buildings.
The scenery now changed from the boldness that char-
acterizes the heights of the land views at the Bogue, and
about Whampoa, to the plain on the edges of the river,
where the paddy-fields were seen, and the banana trees
growing, and here and there the mulberry, with its light
green leaves, forming an interesting edging to the banks
of the Tigris.
The junks now began to increase in their numbers, and
the lesser boats to thicken in their clusters, and new war-
iunks swinging in the stream as we continued to near
the city. And now, the city itself, over a flotilla of boats,
came into view, the single pagoda within the walls of the
town, and the cupola of the Moormen's mosque, and the
embattlement, here and there, of the wall itself; while
the back-ground was filled up with high lands rising
in broken and receding outline. The Dutch and the
French folly next meet the eye, as the Sylph glided along,
now slowly against the rapid tide, dodging a clump of
boats here and a fleet of junks there, and lesser boats
everywhere, of every variety the mandarin, the passage,
the flower, and the tanka-boat all unique in their way,
some of them bearing about them the air of comfort and
neatness and space, with ornamental carved-work ; while
others looked as if they might have drifted there from
among the wrecks of Noah's flood.
Here was a scene of life that no other stream of the
world, probably, exhibits. Each shore of the river was
lined with varied boats several tiers thick, from the im-
mense deckers that bring the teas down the river, with
their varnished sides and roofs, to the smallest tanka, all
with any number of young celestials displaying themselves
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 135
at the openings in the sides, with older heads of men and
no less curiously inspecting women, gazing from these
water-castles and their homes sometimes indulging in
the shout agreeable to themselves, " Fanqui, Fanqui," to
attract the attention of the absent of their family to look
with themselves at the " foreign devils." And now, one
is almost indignant at the tone of humorous salutation and
sometimes derision with which the stranger is greeted,
who, however, quite as much pleased with himself in the
contrast before him, soon indulges in the better taste, and
smiles as he contemplates the scene, the curious scene
that now lies around him.
Having reached a point of the stream nearly opposite
the foreign factories, the Sylph let go her anchor. Small
boats were immediately alongside, eager to take us to the
shore ; and in a few moments more, with my trunks, I
was dodging from one line of junks to another, in a tanka-
boat propelled by two Chinese women, now with oars,
now with long bamboo poles, now with the hands, as they
seized the sides of a line of anchored vessels riding in the
stream, until, ere long, we reached the point of land in the
neighborhood of the American hong.
No one is more pleased than a Chinese with silver
coin ; none, the Chinese think, understand the value of a
dollar less than a Fanqui : hence they charge a foreigner
more than ten times the amount they would presume to
ask for doing the same thing for one of their fellow celes-
tials. But a visiter at Canton, at these times, values his
time more than money ; and at a trifling expense for the
amusement I experienced by the scenes occurring before
me, I found myself at the door of the American hong,
occupied by Messrs. Oliphant, King & Co., and Dr. Parker.
My inquiry for the latter gentleman soon brought me a
most cordial welcome to Canton, from Dr. Parker, in
person.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 137
SECTION V.
CANTON.
Dr. Parker. Bible of J. Brainerd Taylor. Residence at the American
Hong. Imprisonment of the foreigners. A stroll with Dr. Parker. Chi-
nese Temples. The dying beggars. Call on a wealthy Chinese. His
grounds. Dr. Parker no cash doctor. Ophthalmic Hospital. Cases.
The opinion of the Chinese of Dr. Parker. Temple of Longevity. Ce-
lebrated Budhist. Temple at Hanan. Sacred hogs. City of Canton.
Literary examinations. Poetry. The Chinese Language. Walk around
the city wall, and entrance into the city through a breach in the walls.
Variety. Teas. Leaving Canton.
WHILE at Macao I had heard from Dr. Parker, that he
believed he had seen me in America ; and an indistinct
impression was on my own mind that I had heard my
friends mention his name, as an acquaintance of theirs.
The familiar and cordial reception which Dr. Parker had
given me led to the expression of this idea. " Yes," Dr.
P. replied, with his agreeable smile, as he turned to the
bookcase behind him and took from it a small morocco-
covered Bible ; " yes ; and do you recognise this ? It was
given me by your sister, Mrs. K. T., at the moment of
my leaving New York." It was a melancholy recognition ;
but at such a moment, and under such circumstances, and
in such hands, it was a grateful pleasure to see the pocket
Bible of my lamented brother, JAMES BRAINERD TAYLOR,
whose story has been told for his devotion and love of
the Scriptures, and over which identical little volume I
had seen him, for hours, and daily, in absorbed and de-
lightful study. With such an incident occurring, we could
not long be strangers. I was soon afterwards introduced
to Mr. Morse, of the house of Messrs. O., K. & Co., at
whose table, with Dr. Parker, I am to be entertained
during my stay in Canton.
THE HONGS FOR THE FOREIGNERS.
The American hong is an extensive building, three
stories high, fronting the grounds on the river, and extend-
138 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ing back for some three or four hundred feet, with an open
passage-way, or narrow court, running through its centre
from the front to the back walls. The building is divided
into three compartments, commencing with number one
for the front, number two for the centre, and number
three for the rear part of the establishment. Within this
range of walls are the store-rooms, and rooms occupied
by the comprador coolies, and other servants attached to
the hong, comprising the basement stairs or ground-floor,
and the second story affording fine drawing-rooms and
chambers, both spacious and airy, two requisites for com-
fort in this climate. The top of the building is crowned
by a turret, affording an ample space for a promenade at
the edge of evening, for gaining the cool breeze, and from
which an extensive view is had of the inwalled city in the
rear, and in front, of the river with its thousand boats,
either lying in their dense rafts or passing and repassing
down and up the stream.
The other hongs, or as they are otherwise called, facto-
ries, which are no more nor less than extensive and con-
venient brick residences and store-houses for the foreigners,
according to their several nations, are similar to the Amer-
ican hong, and situated mostly on its left, others on its
right. The Chinese hong-merchants, by whom the prin-
cipal business is transacted with the foreigners, and who
legitimately enjoy the monopoly of the foreign trade, also
have their factories. They are the body of men, twelve
in number, through whom the Chinese government hold
communication with foreigners, it being deemed beneath
the dignity of the higher orders of the mandarins to hold
direct intercourse with " barbarians" of the outer land, of
to have any association with the " foreign devils."
It was within these buildings the foreign community
were confined during the late troubles ; the streets leading
from the area, and fronting the factories, were stopped
with brick and mortar, and the doors opening upon the
street from the rear of the hongs were also closed in the
same manner. A semicircular and triple tier of boats
were arranged on the river in front of the factories, so as
to intercept the passage of the foreigners, should they at-
tempt to make their escape by crossing the river. Thus
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 139
were they entirely surrounded, and escape impossible, as
long as the government so willed it.
The hongs are apparently deserted now, in comparison
to what has been unsual in times of mutual good under-
standing between the foreigners and the Chinese. All the
English have retired, with the Queen's commission, to
Macao. The Americans, most of them, had also left the
city, and all others of other nations ; while some one
member or more of each American house remains with
the purpose of accepting certain conditions for the conti-
nuance of their trade the English being the party most
particularly involved in the present disturbances. The
streets leading from the front grounds of the factories are
still closed, as they were when the foreigners were pri-
soners a few days since, with one exception. A strict
guard was kept during the imprisonment vile of the
foreigners, and many demonstrations still present them-
selves about the premises, which show, besides the ab-
sence of the stir of business, that there has been no small
change here, and that high-handed measures have charac-
terized the movements of the ill-informed and self-com-
placent mandarins ; for all which, if I prognosticate not
wrongly, a " pay-day" will come which shall bear with it
both information and demonstrations of foreign power
that will convince these celestials that their inner land of
the central kingdom possesses not all the might of all the
whole earth ; and that there is a right which the favored
son of heaven on his imperial throne at Pekin has never
dreamed of, and will learn to his once astonishment and
cost.
The front windows of the American hong overlook the
wide flagging running in front of the factories. From
the window of the second- story, therefore, in front of the
drawing-room, we have a fine view of the passers-by as
they come down in streams from old China-street. It is
amusing to witness the insuppressible and unbounded
curiosity of these celestials when they find us at the win-
dows. They make a full halt. The boys, who have
early been taught to repeat the term " Fanqui," in con-
tempt of the foreigner, gaze, where they are the better
bred, gravely, and then pass on ; while the more mischie-
39
140 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
vous cry aloud " Fanqui ! Fanqui ! " and, with a shout,
are again on their way. The elder pause, some with a
smile, while perhaps a thin and long-bearded old man ap-
proaches, and hesitates his step with grave reflections on
the past, and with undefined musings in connection with
the future. The late transactions here, make the foreigner
more than ever an object of curiosity both to the citizen
and to the visiters from the interior. While looking from
the window, among others we marked an aged Tartar,
evidently a stranger at Canton, while a citizen was ear-
nestly discoursing to him and pointing out the spot, a
little distant from the hong, where the Chinese was exe-
cuted in front of the factories, which led to the pulling
down of the different flags, by which the insult was in-
tended to be resented, and which finally led to the per-
sonal rencounter between the mob and the residents
of the factories. They also passed on, like hundreds of
others, some more grave, some less, some insultingly ;
while they all, at the distance of a story beneath us, in-
dulge their gaze with an insatiable and unrestrained
curiosity.
RAMBLE THROUGH CANTON.
Towards evening I took a stroll with Dr. Parker, pass-
ing up old China-street, one of the widest streets in the
city, and composed of respectable shops on either side ;
and in a short time, we had wandered through a number
of streets, presenting at once the variety of this extensive
mart of the East. The streets are narrow, serving only
for foot-passengers, flagged with quarried granite. The
shops are open in front; and as you look down these streets
you see a range of perpendicular tablets, designating the
different establishments in the picturesque character of the
Chinese, and generally in red letters. The scene is unique ;
and as you look still further on, the narrowing perspective
converges until your sight is entirely obstructed by these
gorgeous signs on either side and at every door, with the
appellation, or fancy name of the establishment, or the real
name of the proprietors, or flowery mottoes in their fan-
tastically arranged characters. We passed shops contain-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 141
ing extensive collections of grotesque figures and antiques,
in which the Chinese much delight in the ornamenting of
their houses and gardens ; valuable ware from Japan ;
ornamented tablets representing mountainous and rural
scenes in slabs of marble, having the appearance of mo-
saics, but said by the venders to be natural or immense
cameos ; shops hung with paintings, and filled with various
other curious things in the glass line, from chandelier to
beads of pearl and nob of mandarin ; the paintings, how-
ever, all being preposterous, with the exception of an oc-
casional copy of some European print; and the glass work
is of the roughest kind, save the beautiful and delicate
bead in imitation of the pearl, for the decoration of the
neck and hair of the Chinese maid and the bride.
Having wandered through lines of shops containing
every variety of valuables and trinkets, dry goods, por-
celain and silver ware, carved work in ivory, wood, and
shell, and streets that seemed everywhere to be piled on
each side with green ginger-roots, and pickles, and eat-
ables of every kind, we at length reached a Chinese temple ;
but were soon satisfied in contemplating the giant figures
occupying the portal of the entrance which opens into the
court containing the central building for the inner idols.
The priests gave us ready admission, while the crowd that
generally followed us were excluded.
The figures in the temples at Canton are immensely
larger than those in the Chinese temples at Macao. The
central god is generally sitting within a canopy with a
square altar surrounding him, on which are incense urns
and taper stands and flower jars, made of the "white
copper" of the country, in which severally the josh-sticks
are burned, the tapers placed, and the flowers arranged to
propitiate and do homage to the presiding deity. In this
temple the doctor assured me he had witnessed the ap-
proach of a female devotee to the altar. She lighted a
josh-stick and placed it in the censer. She then drew, at
hazard, a small tablet from a bamboo-cup, at the stand of
the priest ; again advanced to the altar, placed the palms
of her two hands together, and knocked her head, or made
three prostrations before the deity she worshipped. She
then returned to the priest, and handed him the small tab-
142 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
let made of the split bamboo, stamped with some Chinese
characters. Her husband had gone from home to travel,
and she desired in her anxiety to know if he would return
in safety. The priest, marking the character on the tablet,
turned to his printed book and made a comparison, and de-
duced his inferences. " He would soon return in safety,"
was the reply. The woman, with a relieved countenance,
presented the priest with the usual fee for the privilege of
learning from the god the desire of her heart, and turned
delighted from the temple.
We left the temple again, after declining the invitation
of the priest that we should worship his god, and repassed
the huge images at the portal of the court, on whose huge
toes were labels, assuring the multitude that the god would
grant to his worshippers various cures in the healing art,
and wealth, and male heirs to support the honor of his
house and to inherit the father's possessions.
We visited two other temples ; in front of the last was
a square, diverging from the street, into which, at night,
the beggars gather, after having spent their toil of the day,
either to sleep and drown their cares, or to linger out the
shaded hours in wakeful sorrow, or, in neglect, to die.
Never before have I witnessed such a scene as here was
presented to my view. I do not wish to see another like
it. The number of beggars to-night, (perhaps it was too
early for the return of many,) was not so large as Dr. P.
had seen it before. But on the hard flagging, in different
parts of this small area of some two hundred feet square,
were prostrated different objects of commiseration, lank,
lean, haggard. Some were in groups,* standing ; others
were beneath a little matting, which was sufficiently ele-
vated on sticks to enable two or three to gather under, to
shelter them from the sun at mid-day. Another was
stretched on the hard stone, with his head pressing on his
emaciated hand. He could not speak ; but, at our ap-
proach, as if by instinct, he seized his basket and extended
it with his skeleton arm for cash. We passed to another.
He was dying, as he lay with his head against the side-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 143
wall, down which was led a gutter, as if in his last ex-
tremity he had rolled his head there, to catch, it might be,
a drop of water, which none gave him, to quench his
fevered and dried lip. There was a collection of putrid
water here, in which his head had partially fallen. A rag-
ged mat concealed his face, and before the night-watch
was over, he would be a corpse, with no one to catch his
last word, which now, if he would speak it, he could not !
We passed on to another, whose face was uncovered. His
eye was turned upon us, but his articulation was gone,
his cheek fallen, his mouth partially opened, his body
naked, beside him lay his empty basin, and no one was
near him. Good God ! I thought, can man be brought to
this, houseless, pennyless, naked, breadless, dying, with
hundreds of the populace, well clad and smiling, passing
him, and abundance filling the neighboring streets, and no
eye of pity or hand of charity be found to alleviate such
distress, and pity such wretchedness ! I could not sleep
that night ; and I thought I would never again murmur
against the providence of God, in my allotments of earth.
We passed from the scene and the place where the police
come every morning to gather up the dead.
CALL ON TINGdUA.
We arrived opposite a range of private residences, in
better style than any we had before seen. We marked,
hanging at the entrance door of one of the principal build-
ings, two large blue lanterns, and at once knew, from the
custom of the Chinese, that some one of the inmates had
died, and that the family were in mourning. Dr. P. im-
mediately explained, and said that it was the residence of
Tingqua, late one of the principal Chinese hong-mer-
chants, who had died. He was a patient of Dr. P.'s ; and
his son had returned from Peking, where he was in office
of grade, for the purpose of attending to the obsequies
and to go through the three years' mourning, according
to the usage among the Chinese, on the death of a father.
"I should like to show you the grounds of Tingqua,"
added the doctor, " as a fine specimen of the residence ot
a Chinese gentleman of the higher orders."
39*
144 A VOYAGE AROUND .THE WORLD.
A servant was at the door, and Dr. P. sent in our names
to know if his friend were to be seen. A message was
soon returned, inviting us to enter. We were soon met
by the courteous proprietor, and when we had passed a
short distance through a narrow aisle, formed by the court
walls of the buildings, were immediately conducted to the
hall, where the tablets, which had been presented on the
demise of the father, were hanging. This spacious and
square room, opening in front upon picturesque grounds,
broken by water-ponds, was arranged with two rows of
seats favorably disposed for the guests to peruse the rich
tablets formed of Chinese large characters, in alabaster,
on a black ground, and suspended upon the walls as or-
namental hangings. We passed, after a few moments'
respectful contemplation of these testimonials to the virtues
of the dead, and complimentary expressions of sympathy
to the family, to a lovely bower, where, as we seated our-
selves at a round table, tea was brought and served in
small cups resting in silver stands, and with silver plates,
perforated with holes* confining the leaves of the tea to
the bottom of the cup. We then took a turn through the
grounds, embraced within a spacious court, and varied
by the intersections of water reservoirs, in which the mag-
nificent lotus, that sacred flower of Egypt and Asia and
all the East, was arranged in full blossom, in rows of por-
celain flower-pots. Here was a verandah beautifully
situated there, a little turret overlooking the grounds and
the water-ponds and here again a passage-way, with
water on either side leading to opposite parts of the
garden, and lined with shrubs and flowers, all arranged
in glazed flower-pots of porcelain and here again wound
a path through a verandah to the side-wall of the court,
by which we now reached a more elevated position, ar-
ranged with seats and shaded by trees, and commanding
the principal parts of the garden. A' Chinese book was
lying upon the small central stand, as if our literary friend
had just dropped his favorite classic for our reception, and
now returned with us to his favorite seat. We admired
the taste of the student in the selection of this point for his
readings, and passed on to a lower and open space nearly
surrounded by water, and lined with flower-pots, where
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 145
we were again seated around a table while tea was once
more served, with fruits of various kinds, and sweetmeats,
and other dishes, and flowers gathered for our pleasure.
But the sweetest flowers that presented themselves, with
their sunny smiles and perfect confidence and freedom,
were two pretty children^ one a sweet boy with a perfect
head, and the other a beautiful and smiling little girl, whom
you loved immediately for their artlessness, and they
were so neatly dressed, and ornamented with taste.
We talked of Peking had we been to Canton before
birds animals and winter. In Peking, said our fine
specimen of a Chinese gentleman, we have ice a foot thick,
and skating is an amusement. Have you ice in your
country 1 We replied that we had every variety of cli-
mate in America, the United States, extending through as
many degrees of latitude as the celestial empire ; and on
the northern rivers they sported with their horses and
sleighs, while in the far south ice is never known.
I know not that our friend was incredulous, with the
prevalent ideas of his nation as to the extent of their own
empire in contrast with all other lands, but having been
born at Canton, where ice is seldom or never seen, and
experiencing the cold weather at Peking, probably led
him to the remark he made, as if the facts stated might
be curious to us, if our country were situated within a
torrid zone.
My dark and tight dress, in contrast with his own gos-
samer and flowing robes of light and rich grass-cloth,
seemed to strike him as uncomfortable, and he asked if I
did not suffer from them.
I rightly complimented the rich Chinese on the superi-
ority, both in the quality of the material and taste in the
fashion, of the Chinese as to his costume for this climate
over our own ; but ours were for a cooler latitude. No
one can long have accustomed himself to the costume of
a Chinese gentleman, and not give it the preference to our
own for a warm climate. It is more graceful as well as
comfortable, in its flowing folds and gracefully loose pro-
portions.
We had lingered as long as politeness would allow ;
and kissing the little girl and boy, we took our leave of
146 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
this already successful aspirant for official and literary
rank, as he bowed us politely down the narrow court,
passing several of the well-dressed females of the house-
hold, who had placed themselves at the different doors or
windows to catch a glimpse at the foreigners as they left
the grounds. My estimate of the refinement and courtesy
of the higher class of the Chinese was very favorable, in
this interview with the affluent son of Tingqua. His
personal appearance was very fine his age, probably
about twenty-eight. His manners were sufficiently digni-
fied, easy, familiar, and graceful at once securing your
respect, and intuitively impressing you with the assurance
that you are in the presence of a well-bred gentleman,
who would be at his ease in any society, and grace its
circles.
On our return to the hong we found the water to have
retired, which was so high when we commenced our stroll,
owing to the freshet now in the river, that we left the door
in a boat, and were borne at several places on our course
on the proffered backs of the celestials. Otherwise our
excursion might have cost us wet feet, a thing of little
consequence to their unhosed insteps.
DR. PARKER AND THE OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL.
Dr. Parker, in his benevolent practice, in connection
with the Ophthalmic Hospital, has secured unbounded
confidence among the Chinese, who look upon him as
something superior to humanity, in connection with the
many cures he has effected, and operations he has per-
formed. " The Chinese think him," said one of their lin-
fuists to me, with a solemn air, " all same as one Josh."
had ample opportunity to witness the doctor's popularity,
and the impression he has made, as I walked with him
through the streets. He was often recognised, and an
undertone of respect would now and then be heard among
the crowd, saying, ** The good heart." " The doctor who
cures blind eyes." " The doctor with the pitiful heart."
" The TIO cask doctor ;" alluding to the circumstance that
Dr. P. takes no pay for his cures and practice. And the
doctor's large hands, too, seem here to attract very gene-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 147
ral attention, which (the noblesse of the west notwith-
standing) seem not only to ennoble our benevolent physi-
cian, but tend to add profoundness to the almost supersti-
tious veneration with which they regard his person.
" What hands !" the less instructed in decorum, as the
crowd gathers around, sometimes exclaim, in surprise and
astonishment, as if he were indeed of the race of the gods
they worship, which are in all their temples represented
in their huge proportions. And the amiable physician
hesitates not to let them compare their own tiny fingers
and palms with his, when their curiosity has surprised
from them the ejaculation.
The hospital building was closed during the difficulties ;
and while Dr. P. had private assurances of the high es-
teem with which he was regarded by the Chinese au-
thorities, no open demonstration of partiality could be
allowed to come before the observation of the foreign
community. His hospital therefore was closed his pa-
tients retired and he himself was cloistered within the
limits that held the other members of the foreign commu-
nity sharing with them their weal and wo. It is hoped
and believed that Dr. Parker will be able, in a few days,
again to enter on his benevolent action, which has so far
been attended with rich and even surprising success. At
the time I write, Dr. P. has a private communication, ex-
pressing it to be the wish of the commissioner, Lin, the
man who is acting with so much energy in the Chinese
difficulties, to consult him, and he may the next hour re-
ceive a request that he will make him a visit at his sta-
tion, where he is now attending to the destruction of the
seized opium.
It would not be uninteresting to the reader, were I to
give here some of the cases which have come under the
treatment of Dr. Parker, and have led to so high an ap-
preciation of his benevolence and skill among the Chinese,
as well as among all who know him. Indeed, his reputa-
tion " as the foreign physician who cures all things, and
particularly restores sight to the blind," has spread through-
out the empire, more or less, and has drawn from various
parts, and from the capital itself, patients seeking for re-
lief; and in some instances have they been desirous, in the
148 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
possession of the sought-for blessing, to do him homage,
and to proclaim his worth and virtues throughout the em-
pire. The Chinese hong-merchants and the magistrates
of Canton have indirectly countenanced the establishment
of the hospital ; and a number of official characters have
found relief for their maladies, and regained a sight long
lost, from the good foreigner ; while more than six thou-
sand patients, during the three years of the existence of
the establishment, have been recipients of its benevolent
intentions, and the doctor's unremitted and generous and
successful efforts. The scenes, many of them, which Dr.
Parker has described to me as having occurred during his
practice, have been of much interest, and developed much
of the Chinese character, while affording incident of the
most novel kind to the eye of the foreigner ; and nowhere
else, in the absence of the circumstances and the customs
of the Chinese, could such incident meet him.
A few facts, says Dr. Parker, will illustrate the eager-
ness of the people to avail themselves of the benefits of the
hospital. When it was the practice to admit patients
daily, I observed some of them, with lanterns, with which
they left their homes at two or three o'clock in the morn-
ing, in order that they might be at the hospital rooms in
season. When the days of admission were limited, they
sometimes came the preceding evening, and remained all
night, that they might secure a ticket in the morning.
And there have been applicants from other parts of the
province as well as from this vicinity. Numbers, from
Nanking and Peking, have called. Several tea merchants
from the north, or their friends, have been treated. When
obliged to close the doors against new admissions, per-
sons from a distance would avail themselves of the influ-
ence of some foreign gentleman or hong-merchant to in-
tercede for them. With but rare exceptions, unqualified
confidence has been manifested by the patients. A woman
of the Mohammedan faith, sixty-five years of age, who
had a cataract of both eyes, when I expressed a doubt
whether she could bear to have my knife put into her
eye, replied, " If you like, you may take them both out
and put them in again." Another patient had been blind
for forty years, but on couching the cataract I found the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 149
retina still sensible to the light. A few days after, when
I visited him, he seemed affected by the kindness shown
him, and stroking down his long white beard that reached
to his bosom, he said, " I am now old, and my beard is
long and heavy, but never before have I seen or heard of
such a man." He then enumerated the several favors
which I had done him, and added in conclusion, " You
must be a divine person" An old Tartar general who
had been some time in the hospital, and who was operated
upon for a cataract with which he was afflicted in both
eyes, as he was leaving, remarked, " I am now eighty
years old, my beard is very long ; (reaching to his breast ;)
I have been in office forty years ; I have been in all the
eighteen provinces of the empire, but never before have
known a man that does the things that you perform, and
for which you receive no reward. O, what virtue ! the
nation's great arm. Under heaven there is no other like
you." And more in the same adulatory strain.
The following is one among the cases which have been
treated by Dr. Parker.
" A young lady from Nanking, Le Awoo, aged nine-
teen, suffered from a disease of the left eye from her infan-
cy. At this time a white spot with a fleshy excrescence
covered the apex of the cornea, and the blood-vessels were
enlarged and passed over the cornea. She was the eldest
daughter of a silk merchant. The father was informed
that the eye at least might be prevented from becoming
worse, and perhaps the vision be improved. He said he
confided the case to my care had he not confidence, he
should not have applied. By repeated applications of
lunar caustic the fleshy excrescence was destroyed ; the
blood-vessels were divided at the union of the cornea and
sclerotica ; the general health was attended to, and after
applying leeches to the temples a blister was ordered.
New granulations filled up the depression in the cornea
made by the caustic The blood-vessels of the cornea
became indistinct and the sight improved, and at a little
distance a stranger could scarcely perceive that it differed
from the other eye. Just before the term of the hospital
closed, the father and two daughters came to take a final
leave, bringing presents, which were declined, saying that
150 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
it was abundant reward that the treatment of his daughter
had been successful ; but he would not take them away.
The patient and her little sister, aged thirteen years, then
came into the room, attended by a servant with a large
crimson blanket. The first impression was, this is a part
of the present. It was however spread at my feet, and
the two young ladies knelt upon it. They were authori-
tatively told that it was not required nor permitted to
Kow-tow. They heeded it not ; and though I took the
eldest by the collar to prevent it, both succeeded in bring-
ing their heads twice to the floor. This was done in the
presence of a large assembly of patients and several Eu-
ropeans. The father was dressed like an officer, and his
daughters wore splendid silk gowns, with the richest
embroidery."
In the thousands of cases which have come under the
doctor's treatment, many opportunities, of course, must
have occurred, and which the consideration of the grand
end at which Dr. P. is aiming in all that he does, would
lead him to improve, for turning the attention of the Chi-
nese to the true system of religion in opposition to the fan-
tasies and superstitions of the worshipper of Confucius,
Budha, and the thousand paternal gods of the celestial em-
pire. And when patients, with hearts overflowing with
gratitude, would have bowed in adoration before him, he
has raised them, and with the spirit of the humble Chris-
tian, pointed them to the true God, to whom only power
and praise belong. And even when success, in the advance
of the disease, could neither be expected, or relief be giv-
en, opportunities have offered when the disappointed pa-
tients have seen how truly the sympathy of a Christian
physician has been given them, as they have been pointed
to the Being who hath pity for the sorrowful. Such a case
we see in a patient by the name of Akeen, of whom Dr.
P. remarks, that he gave him but little encouragement
when he came to the hospital, and the day he dismissed
him, after kind treatment, which disclosed that the organs
of his eyes were so far destroyed that light again could
never be enjoyed, "the patient manifested much gratitude,"
said the doctor, " for what had been done in the improve-
ment of his health and for the attempt to restore sight. It
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 151
was a remark of one of my respected medical preceptors
to his students, that when the materia medicaof earth failed,
they might yet point their patients to that of heaven. I
have experienced this satisfaction in the case of this young
man. His eyes suffused with tears as I took him by the
hand ; and with several Chinese listening, told him through
my interpreter, of the world in which he may see, though
never again on earth that in heaven none were blind, none
deaf, none sick. I also endeavored to point out the way
for him to find admittance there."
A volume of interest might be written in connection
with Dr. Parker's action at Canton. But further space
cannot be given to it here. Dr. P. is every way the per-
son desirable for the location and the calling he occupies
and pursues.
On the 16th, the day succeeding my arrival in Canton,
being Sunday, I preached in the British chapel of the
Company's hong. The American missionaries supply the
pulpit here, generally, the chapel having been courteously
tendered them for that purpose. Dr. Parker,! believe, has
the charge of the services, and officiates regularly, or al-
ternately with Rev. Mr. Bridgman, when Mr. B. is here.
The Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal church of
America is used, with a few variations, to meet the pecu-
liarities of the mixed community. For instance, in the
prayer for the President of the United States, the word
" Kings and all others in authority" is substituted. The
gentlemen, not episcopal in their orders, generally use,
besides the service thus slightly altered, an extemporane-
ous prayer before the sermon. The Rev. Messrs. Hand-
son and Lockwood, when at Canton, officiated, in their
turn, in the same chapel.
TEMPLE OF LONGEVITY.
On Monday I visited, in company with Dr. Parker, the
Temple of Longevity, one of the principal establishments
of the Chinese Budhist priests. The priests welcomed us,
Dr. P. being already known to some of them. They con-
ducted us through the buildings of the Temple ; from the
top of the main one, a fine view presents itself of the great-
40
152 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
er part of the suburbs of the city the city walls, near which
the temple is situated and an extended view into the city
within the walls.
At the covered portal, forming an entrance into the court,
within which rises the principal and central building and
within a recess guarded by bars, are four statues, two on
either side, larger than life. On the toe of one of these sub-
lime personages, sitting with one foot elevated, quite" a num-
ber of Chinese labels were displayed, among other things
proffering to give his worshippers toe-nails when lost.
The opposite deities as confidently assured their votaries
that they would secure to them children of either sex, as
they might desire the one proffering male, the other fe-
male heirs. But both of them, I presume, on the condition
that the seekers of such gifts should reward the priests
who served at the altars of their godships, for their trouble
of throwing the tablets for them, and divining with their
bamboo-labels and sybil-leaves.
In the principal hall of the floor-rooms, the god, eleva-
ted on an altar some feet from the floor, was canopied
around by the usual fixtures, with openings for the expo-
sure of his most comfortable and gilded person on the four
sides of the altar. Incense urns, artificial flower stands,
and taper-supporters occupied the front of the altar where
the josh-sticks are burned, the flowers placed, and the ta-
pers lighted and melted away.
The temples of the Chinese, which are built regularly,
are two stories high, a piazza running quite around each
story, from which you enter the sacred rooms constituting
the centre of the building. The upper hall of this temple
is a spacious room, occupying the whole area of the sec-
ond floor ; and in the centre of this upper hall sits the
complacent, fat, and dimple-cheeked, corpulent, cross-leg-
ged, gilded, smiling, almost laughing god of longevity a
perfect contradiction in his air, of what one of my early
instructors would have guessed, whom I have more than
once heard, with an oblique allusion to a certain class of
persons, and with a spice of sarcasm on the lip, repeat the
words " slumbering fat." His deityship to-day was wide
awake. And there was a most expressive air of comfort
about the youthful-looking fat old gentleman, of whom,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 153
should an earthquake or any other convulsion of nature
happen to shake from his six or seven feet elevation, it
would puzzle his best serving priest, with all the revela-
tions he may have received in connection with his divin-
ing apparatus, to declare which way said youthful and
fleshy old gentleman would roll along the floor whether
from head to feet and from feet to head, and from head to
feet again, or like a pipe of wine, upon his bulging sides.
As for such legs as said old gentleman has, with all their
hundred weights of muscle, comfortable indeed for sitting
a la Turk, rather a la Budha, they are altogether too duck-
like to be thought of in any necessity of support for such
a rotundity of person as this godship of longevity, or to
be taken into any account which would estimate the
chances as to the probable course which his godship would
roll, in case of his being thrown from his present most com-
fortable attitude of rest.
This temple is apparently the most popular one, and cer-
tainly on the largest and most respectable scale of any of
the temples situated on the Canton side of the river. And
this upper hall of the Temple of Longevity affords a con-
venient and spacious apartment for the grandees to assem-
ble in, on their festive days of particular worship. The
god has lately been repaired, and his decayed person of
antiquity has given place for the newly gilded statue, in the
shape of a Chinese Lambert. The development of mus-
cles in this specimen of wood, cut into something of a form,
resembling the figure of a man, is superior to any thing
else in the way of statuary that I have seen in the Chinese
temples, and is not very discreditable to the artist, when
the idea designed to embody in wood is considered. The
figure, at once, strikes the visiter as a representation of a
comfortable portly old gentleman in retirement, living upon
the abundance of this life's good things, and as much good
ale as would render his yet unwrinkled cheeks rosy, and
his corpulent person a very prayer itself that one may have
rest. A smooth-faced and portly young priest, who ac-
companied us through the buildings, seemed alike enough
to the gilded god in his proportions and physiognomy,
though in miniature, to have been a near kin, or else had
sat as the model for the statue ; and only wanted size and
154 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
age to be its fac-simile. He was a good-natured, full
cheeked, shaven-headed priest, that flourished, in the best
keeping, as his rotund person seemed to declare.
We were joined by a thinner and taller member of the
body, while we were admiring the prospect from the upper
verandah of the temple, which, with its roofed and spacious
area, extends quite around the building. He was in black,
and is the principal of the establishment, more dignified
than the other, and at times not less communicative. They
both accompanied us through the grounds, which are not
in the best keeping ; and the abundance of a species of
cresses, in appearance covering almost the whole surface
of the water-ponds within the premises, gives a stagnant
aspect to these otherwise ornamental reservoirs. In these
ponds flocks of ducks were sailing, feeding upon this weed
upon the surface of the water ; and here, as elsewhere
throughout all the Chinese temples and the private resi-
dences of extent, the gorgeous and sacred water-lily pre-
vails, in porcelain pots. We were conducted to a small
square room, fronting the most pleasant part of the grounds,
and tea was served, with a tray of sweetmeats of various
kinds, each species of fruit occupying its division on the
same waiter, containing the lichee a very agreeable dried
fruit, and yet more delicious in its undried state dates,
dried melon-seeds, ginger, citron, Chinese olives, beech-
nuts, and last, but not least peculiar, as they seemed to us
of uncelestial tastes, roasted beans. We chatted for a
while, as we sipped the uncreamed and unsugared tea, and
partook of the variety of the waiter resting upon the cen-
tre-table about which we sat. It was inquired of the ab-
bot (we use terms known to designate stations with titles
unknown, as this person was at the head of some one hun-
dred priests of the establishment) if there were nunneries
embraced in their system. He answered no ; and I know
not the idea which seemed pleasantly to strike him, which
however led to the remark, as he placed his hand upon the
head of a fine-looking boy beside him, some twelve or thir-
teen years of age, " Budha sent me down this shaver in
an egg about a month since, which produced him." The
sweetmeats were very fine, some of them, and I so re-
marked complSnentary, but the abbot replied that " they
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 155
were very indifferent/' like some peculiar persons I have
known, who greatly regretted that they had not that which
was better to give, when they were giving, as they knew,
the very best in the world.
We returned through the streets, being the lions of the
way, and " Fanqui, Fanqui," ringing ever and anon in oui
ears, while a mob of children, both small and grown, sur-
rounded us, and the women rushed to their screened door-
ways to catch, as we passed, a view of the foreigners, which
seemed to be an era in their experience, and gleeful now
as unfrequent, as I had opportunity occasionally to observe,
while I lingered a short distance in the rear ; and the curi-
ous sex, in the indulgence of their inquisitive propensity,
suffered themselves to be drawn half way out beyond their
screens in their gaze after the receding stranger, and ap-
parently to the great surprise at their own presumption as
they found another " Fanqui' almost confronting them as
he came up so unexpectedly and near to them ; and in
again to their inner apartment they would dash, as rapidly
as their small feet and waddling gait would allow them.
The whole community are evidently on the qui vive
at this, moment, in connection with the late difficulties
between the foreigners and the Chinese authorities and
mobs.
We are the first of the foreigners who have ventured
far into the suburbs since the shutting up of the streets
which lead into the square of the factories. On my arrival
at Canton, it was not deemed prudent to wander too much
about town, but still it was believed a few days more
would secure as much freedom to the foreign residents as
they had ever enjoyed. For the present, however, the
small boats are prohibited from passing on the river ; and
the pleasure boats belonging to the different factories here,
are seen lying within the paling in front of the factories,
where they have been placed by the Chinese authorities
since the enclosures of the vacant lots have been made
between the river and the hong houses.
These areas in front of the foreign factories will form
pleasant promenades by and by, so soon as they become
coated with grass. But the boats alluded to are mostly
neglected, having been included in the estimate of the
40*
156 -V VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
English of their losses, and which, with the millions of
other damages they have, or think they have received,
will be demanded, including the amount of the opium
which they have resigned to the Chinese authorities, and
which demand either the Chinese will have to meet, or
suffer reprisals (so we think the future will say) upon their
commerce, and perhaps yield to the urgent request of
British arms a portion of their territory.
TEMPLE AT HANAN.
It was doubtful, in the present circumstances of the
times, whether I should be able to get over the river to
Hanan to visit the celebrated temple there, deemed the
most magnificent in the southern part of the empire, if not
equalling any within the celestial kingdom. So writers
have spoken of it ; and persons who have enjoyed oppor-
tunities assure me that it is a very creditable specimen of
the best order of the Budhist temples of China.
The story of its present prosperous circumstances, and
the high esteem with which it has been held, is this: After
the success of the first Tartar invader, his son was sent to
subdue the remaining opponents of the usurper, who held
out against his authority in the south. The general ar-
rived with his conquering army, and entirely subdued the
south Canton, and entered the town of Hanan with the
intention, agreeably to the royal mandate, to put to the
sword, without discrimination, the opposers of the con-
queror's power. An attempt upon an invulnerable priest
of the temple at Hanan caused the upraised arm of the
prince, who, in person, was about to take the priest's life,
to be withered in the attempt. The priest restored the
use of the arm to the astonished general, and petitioned
that the lives of all the people of Hanan, on condition of
submission to the new power, should be spared. This
was done. The prince petitioned his royal father. The
inhabitants, to evince their gratitude, brought gifts to the
temple, and royal beneficence enriched it, and the humble
establishment rose into distinction, as one of the most
richly endowed temples of the kingdom.
Dr. Parker's popularity among the Chinese and favorable
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 157
repute with the mandarins here would secure the privi-
lege of crossing to Hanan if it could be obtained by any
one. His wish was mentioned to a linguist, with the as-
surance that we did not wish to create any " bobbery,"
but very peacefully to visit Hanan and then to return.
The linguist said he would see, and came back the next
morning with the assurance that the boat of one of the
hong merchants, whom he was requested to consult, would
be ready for us immediately after dinner, which would
allow of our reaching the temple in time to see the priests
at their worship or afternoon vespers, at about half-past
four.
A number of the officers from the Columbia and John
Adams had arrived during the week, and an invitation
was extended to them by Dr. Parker to accompany us.
We crossed the river and were soon at the entrance to
the court of the temple. The first portal was character-
ized by two large statues, in better keeping and on a still
larger scale than those before seen, being some fifteen feet
in height. As you pass into the court you traverse a fine
wide pavement flagged with granite slabs and leading up
the gradual ascent to the portal, which forms the entrance
into the second court within which the various buildings
of the temple are placed. It is a spacious area which is
in walled, and passing the portal, with two immense statues
on either side of the entrance within their bowers, still
larger than the custodes at the portal of the outer court,
you advance by a gradual ascent to the main temple,
spacious, with its upper and lower hall surrounded with
its verandahs. The priests were already at their mystic
vespers within the lower hall, a spacious apartment, with
the altar of their Budha nearer to the furthest-in wall than
the front, but around which they were moving in solemn
and monotonous chant of the sacred name of their god.
Again they rested in front of the altar, while one of their
number performed the three times three knockings of the
head upon the floor, and the chant continuing in the most
monotonous under and even tone of " Fuh-o-me-ta-to o-
me-ta-to-Fuh," I ever heard. Again they marched to the
same monotonous sound as they circled the altar, with
the palms <? r , their hands pressed together, and held, with
158 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the fingers upward, against their breast, while a string of
beads rested between the thumbs and the edges of the hand.
They were a curious spectacle, robed in yellow garments
most of them, the rest in black, with shaven heads, and
faces as solemn as if the bell which one of their number
struck to mark their time, were the death-knell, or funeral
requiem recited in anticipation of their own obsequies,
which some spirit had told them would occur on the
morrow.
A priest showed us through the different divisions of
the buildings, one of the halls containing at either end
twelve gilded statues larger than life, some with black
beards, some with red beards, some with no beards at all.
In the hands of some were the instruments of war, in the
hands of others, instruments of peace; in others, the sword,
the spear, the hatchet, the knife, the rose, the palm, the
harp, together representing the ancient sages to whom
the hall is dedicated, with veneration and worship. The
hall is otherwise hung with tablets, the sages occupying
their places within a glass partition at either end of the
room, and the central altar of the hall arranged in front of
the god with the usual paraphernalia of the censer, the
flower-vase, and the taper-stand for the consuming of
josh-sticks, holding the fading flowers, and the light from
the melting wax.
All in lile is marked with change, and decay is stamped,
on all that is material. What a burlesque, I thought as I
stood in the Temple of Longevity, was the crumbled god
who offered long years to his votaries, while he could not
preserve his own person from the dust, but had lately
been supplanted by a new image, and yet still confided in
by a deluded and unthinking people ! And here, as I stood
looking on these statues and the god within the main"
altar, how cold seemed the religion that cherished such a
system ! The most it promised was, that when the soul
left the body it might become the resident of some animal,
and again pass through a series of other animals, in end-
less transmigrations; and as its chief blessedness, be finally
absorbed into the Budha they worshipped. Blessed reli-
gion of Jesus Christ! thou dost open before the wishful
spirit that longs after immortality, consistent hopes, meet-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 159
ing its wants, and pointing out the way to a blissful state
of endless life. The body may go back to its mother
dust, but the spirit shall enter on its course of thought
and action suitable to its being, in a state where it shall
enjoy the changeless friendship of its God, and of the good
and the holy, in the happy residence of the ransomed, the
intellectual, moral, and immortal spirits. God give me
gratitude in the possession of his Word and an education
in its precepts.
There was nothing of interest about these figures to the
eye of one who has formed any just notions of the natural
developments of the human form. The immense statues
at the portals are huge monsters of beings, neither divine
nor human, and' convey no positive sentiment save that of
power and anger, which is the result of their hugeness
and paint.
There was, however, one tasteful thing within the Hall
of the Sages, and it graces the spot wherever it may be
seen, for beautiful nature is always lovely. I allude to a
large vase of natural flowers, freshly gathered and placed
upon the altar of the god. Without the permission of the
oracle, but with the consent of one of his votaries, I
plucked a beautiful flower from the gorgeous bouquet, as
a thing that seemed to rebuke, with its soft loveliness, the
rough features of ugliness and disproportion everywhere
seen around, and now would do the kind office of soothing
a restless sensibility that ever attends me, on the per-
ception of unfitness in the combination of things or cir-
cumstances around me.
There is one curiosity odd enough about these premises
of the temple of Hanan. In one part of the court there
is a pen for some dozen fat hogs, kept with a sacred re-
spect for their lives and good health and luxurious living.
More in keeping I thought it would have been had their
swine-ships been attaches to the Temple of Longevity, so
nearly allied they seemed to be in proportions to the cor-
pulent knight of that establishment. But here they were,
and most comfortable specimens of the pork species they
certainly are, those twelve hogs. They die not, so far as
I learned, they were too lazy, or too dignified, or too
wilful to rise at our presence, though proper consideration
160 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ought to be had to the usual manners of that species of
animal, when treating of their responsibilities' on the re-
ception of visiters, knowing that their unsanctified race,
without these consecrated enclosures, act ever as a con-
tradiction and exception to that otherwise universal law
of motion, that a body moves in the line of direction in
which the face is impressed ; for a sailor well knows, that
to get a pig on board ship he must seize his tail and
pull him in an opposite direction. But, the laws of motion
apart, these swine (perhaps there were but eleven) have
a very comfortable house; the premises are kept clean,
and they themselves are fed, until, had they ever read
Shakspeare, they might cry out " Hold enough !" They
retain their incumbent position as long as they choose,
but, that they occupy a standing attitude, the length of
time they would choose, admits of a question as it
seems doubtful if such small legs could very long sup-
port such round hundreds of fat. My own opinion is
that they are not free agents in this matter, and, there-
fore, as it is said, "necessitas non>habet legs" I con-
clude that they yield, as good Budhists, to the law of
necessity, when they can stand no longer, and submit
themselves, as quiet fatalists, to the favorite doctrine of
most of the Orientals, and not less especially of the Chinese.
It is thought, I believe, that however immortal may be
the lives of these novel specimens of " otium cum digni-
tate," that, occasionally, one of their number disappears,
and as often is supplied by the lay devotees, without
charge to the fraternity.
We were conducted to the reception hall, after we had
gone the round of the buildings, through the grounds,
flower-garden, or an apology for what had once probably
been such when the grounds were in better keeping, and
saw at the extremity of the premises the reservoir, where
the ashes of the priests are consigned, after they have been
gathered from the funeral pyre. Here the principal priest
met us, and with considerable urbanity endeavored to
make our visit a pleasant one. His apparent amiable de-
sire commended him to our kind wishes, and Dr. P. desired
A-hoy to say to him, that when he crossed the river to Cnn-
ton, he would be pleased to see him. " Oh no, Meester
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 161
Parker," replied A-hoy, as he hesitated to interpret the
courteous invitation to the abbot ; " you would never cease
to have him present, Meester Parker, if you once invite
him. Best first know him, then invite." The shrewd
young Chinese was laughed at, and the invitation was
turned into thanks for the priest's politeness, with assurances
that we had been greatly gratified. And notwithstanding
A-hoy's pre-ad monition, Dr. P. himself assured the abbot
that he had medicines, and with pleasure would supply
him with any, in case he should need, if he would call at
the American hong. The dark-robed Budhist seemed
much pleased, and indicated that he should not be late in
his application.
And that same A-hoy I shall never forget the peculiar
and exquisite smile that graced his fine features. It was
the perfection of effeminate loveliness, without detracting
from the manly features of the young Chinese. I know
not how he may be esteemed in his place, but I do know
that there was an interest of expression about his face
which would immortalize a sculptor to fix it in marble.
We returned to the boat and found that the hong mer-
chant, whose politeness had furnished us with his fine boat,
had provided a variety of fruits also, to await us on our
return to re-occupy it. We ate of the fruits ; and A-hoy
asked, " Will you have water, gen-tle-mens ?" Some of
the party accepted the finger-bowls and laved their hands.
" My master knows enough of foreign manners," said A-
hoy, "to get the bowls of water, but I shall have to remind
him the next time of the napkins." The not witless remark,
in the absence of the napkins, secured another approbative
smile to A-hoy, for the penetration he showed on the occa-
sion for which, in this one particular, by an oversight, he
had not provided.
We returned unscathed by pebbles or in any other way
molested, although we were the first of the " foreign devils"
who have presumed to venture abroad on the side of the
river opposite Canton, since the prohibitory measures which
confined the Fanqui to their factories.
There is legend connected with the origin of the city
of Canton, and all as veritable as the fictions associated
with the foundation of the seven-hill city, once the empress
162 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
of the western world, which boasts the twins Romulus and
Remus for its founders. But it would be of little interest
to follow the story-tellers from the period when the inhab-
itants of the " southern regions" first commenced to bear
their tribute of " crabs and frogs and snakes and crickets"
to the " son of heaven, who received homage from the four
quarters of the earth," up to the different epochs when, in
one dynasty, the young Canton bore the name of " the
martial city of the south ;" or in another, " the city of
rams," after five genii, robed in as many different colored
vestments, who are said to have entered the city on as many
different colored rams, which were enabled, notwithstand-
ing each bore in his mouth a stalk of grain having five
ears, to exclaim audibly to the people,
" May famine and dearth never visit your markets ;"
thus giving the additional titles of " the city of genii" and
" the city of grain" to the famous capital of the southern
province. It will rather suffice to note that the rebellious
people of the south yielded to the prowess of the northern
arms ; and after many alternations of discontent and sub-
mission, finally gave their adherence to the founder of the
Han dynasty, some two centuries earlier than our own
era. In the sixth century the provincial city had become
a regular mart for foreign commerce, carrying on a con-
siderable trade with Cochin-China and India ; and for its
protection against the assaults of the first, the city wall
was raised about the year 1060. Internal contentions
drenched the south in blood on the accession of the new
dynasty in 1279 ; but commerce revived on the restora-
tion of quiet, and in 1300 "abundance of vessels," as wri-
ters narrate, *' came to Canton."
The pioneer of European commerce to China was De
Androde, who reached Canton in 1517. Other adventurers,
from the different European states, soon succeeded ; and
the trade, through the alternations of reverses and pros-
perity as the result of the internal broils on the fall of one
and the rise of a new dynasty which make the empire of
China less a thing of quiet than some of the admirers of its
political economy suppose has risen progressively, until
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 163
in 1837 its exports have reached the annual amount of
nearly forty millions of dollars.*
WALL ABOUT CANTON.
The city wall is about six miles in length, and may be
traversed by a walk of little less than two hours at rather
a quick pace. It varies in its height according to the un-
evenness of the surface at its base, from twenty-five to
forty feet, and in width fifteen feet at its top, widening to
twenty-five at its base. Its composition is stone and brick
filled in with earth on the interior. There are sixteen
gates four passing through an inner wall and twelve
forming entrances through the external bulwark, which runs
parallel, on the south, with the river, and winds circularly
back into the interior, resting on the brow of a hill in the
northern part of its circuit some two or three hundred feet
above the level of the river, which from this point it com-
mands, with a perfect view of the plain on which the city
is spread beneath it. " The gate of the five genii," " the
gate of eternal rest," " the gate of eternal purity," will
serve as a sufficient specimen of the names of these outlets
of a city of " the flowery nation," of a "flowery language ;"
and the " dragon street," " the flying dragon street," " the
martial dragon street," " the flowery street," " the golden
street," and " the golden flowery street," will more than
suffice for a specimen of the 1,000 and more or less ave-
nues of this in walled emporium of commerce, containing a
population with its suburbs of 1,236,000, as estimated on
the most credible data; and which, no one who has
walked through the crowded streets of Canton, gazed into
their one dense mass of shops, and viewed the fleet of
84,000 boats that float upon the stream in the neighbor-
hood, each with its family of man, wife, children, ducks,
geese, chickens, cooking utensils, chop-sticks and all, would
think of estimating that number less than 1,000,000 of
people. Surely it must be a blessing to the Chinese, as a
body, that they need no more household furniture than a
* In 1836-37, English Imports $34,900,662. Exports, 30,168,380.
In 1836-37, American Imports 83,678,696. Exports, 8,202,869.
41
164 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
stool to sit upon, and a bowl and chop-sticks for their table
furniture, and a kettle for their cooking apparatus. Other-
wise, broad as is their empire, 360,000,000 of people would
cry out that the space is too narrow for us. As it is, a
family of a dozen Chinese of both sexes can make out
with a house of three rooms one for their eating hall ;
and the floating gentry of the boats, I suppose, content
themselves with but two equal divisions, in their water
palaces.
It would be occupying more space than I have designed
to appropriate to these volumes, were I to give the partic-
ulars which I have written in my manuscript, connected
with the government of the city of Canton its officers
and police and what to myself is of deeper interest, a
general notice of the system of literary examinations which
prevails throughout the Chinese empire. It is a system
commendable in its arrangement ; but when considered in
connection with the books perused by the candidates for
distinction in literary fame, affluence, and elevation in of-
fice, it presents a miserable course of education philoso-
phy, science, and geography alike being absent from it
and the highest perfection aimed at is but a successful
imitation of an affected style in composition, and a logic
which starts with false premises.
But our ships have yet a long traverse to make in their
circuit of the globe, and I may not delay too long in the
provincial city of the south, or among the endless subjects
of interest associated with this peculiar people of the
celestial empire.
CHINESE POETRY.
POETRY is the language of nature, and nature exhibit-
ing herself in different circumstances. The American
Indian delights in the chase and the war-whoop ; and the
burden of his song is of war, as he dances around the war-
pole and shakes the scalps of his enemies, after his return
from the distant trail of his foe, whom he has left in his
blood. The revel grows louder, and the dance more
fierce, as the red chieftain narrates his deeds of triumph,
or the young warriors who have taken their first scalp
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 165
come forward to receive their war-name from the older
chiefs.
The Goth and the Vandal were not unlike the abori-
gines of the American forest, in developing their feelings
in rude song and music of the wild and heroic kind.
The refined nations of modern Europe, and the magnifi-
cent Grecian and Roman among the ancients, may all be
traced in their advance in civilization and the cultivation
of the arts and sciences and refinement of manners, in their
poetry. And while the ancients in their master-perform-
ances, sang of the deeds of heroic action, they left to mod-
ern times the developments of all the combinations of the
human heart, in its display of deep emotion and natural
action in connection with restless ambition, profound and
jealous love, and deeds correspondent to the universal pas-
sions of men.
We therefore should expect to find the poetry of the
Chinese, as we really do, characteristic of themselves.
They are essentially an agricultural people ; and their
whole system tends to quiescence, alike in their philosophy,
religion, and politics. Their philosophy inculcates the in-
fluencing of men by persuasion in argument, rather than
by force their religion embraces the sentiment, that the
destinies of men are woven indi visibly and irresistibly by
the fates and their principles of political economy require
unquestioned and unquestioning submission to the power
that rules. Patriotism with them is the inculcation of obe-
dience, by practice and precept, to the precedents of the
past religion is the veneration of a remembered ancestry,
and the preservation of their tombs, and the burning of
gold paper and garments to the manes of the departed
and fame of every kind, that is honorable in the estimation
of the Chinese, personal, political, present, and posthumous,
all depends not on originality of genius and acquisition of
true knowledge in the arts and sciences, and an indepen-
dent literature, but on a successful imitation of a false,
limited, past, but not obsolete standard of philosophy and
ethics, embraced in the collection of the " Four Books"
and the " Five Classics" of Confucius. To imitate these
in style to quote these in illustration to be guided by
these in action, and instructed by these in principle and
166 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
successfully to produce these in argument, secures appro-
bation, admiration, and reward, and is the only path to
preferment and distinction. Hence it is, that the mind of
the Chinese is only imitative, and incapable of invention.
We look not then for excellence in poetry connected with
any thing like originality, where the standard itself is a
book of indifferent odes of the preceding ages, collected
by Confucius five hundred years before the Christian era,
and adhered to as the model of perfection and for imita-
tion ; and we justly conclude that the Chinese, for sixteen
centuries, have made little advance in the poetic art,
otherwise than in the smoothness of the rhythm, in the in-
creasing refinement of the nation. They have no epic
poem, and their tragedies are melo-dramas, which seldom
reach the deep-natural of intense passion ; and as per-
formed on their bamboo stages, exhibit, at least to the
European eye, more of the burlesque and the masquerade,
than the natural scenes of dramatic life. I am aware that
some better qualified than myself to judge (their partiali-
ties aside) as to this branch of Chinese poetry, would dis-
sent from my opinion ; and only on one occasion, without
being fully aware of the scene I was about to witness, 1
had the opportunity of being present at the Chinese " Sing-
Song." The action of the players then seemed well to
comport with the wooden swords they used to do their
fatal deeds ; and of the thousand spectators, jammed en
masse to witness the performance, probably three-fourths
were incapable of appreciating a happy sentiment, and
manifested more pleasure at the regalia of the dresses and
the firing of the abundance of crackers than at the dra-
matic progress of the play.
But the Chinese are fond of flowers are a rural peo-
ple cultivators of the ground the emperor himself an-
nually, for the encouragement of agriculture, holding the
plough, that he may give the influence of his imperial
example to the empire all which, connected with the
system of literary examinations already alluded to, so cal-
culated to encourage a taste for literature, such as it is,
would lead us to expect that their best specimens of poetry
would be found in the descriptive, associated with calm
nature, as found in the painting of rural scenes, conveyed
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 167
in sententious thought. And such is the case. They
paint the garden the water-pond the lily the sacred
lotus, which fills their private grounds the ever occur-
ring peach-blossom and the plum, and their most plentiful
flower, the epidendrum ; while they applaud that rest of
which their own Confucius speaks with admiring par-
tiality, and which the Chinese looks to for his old age ;
and which certainly is grateful alike to every refined
mind, as the Latins have it, otium cum dignitate.
The measure of the Chinese poetry consists of different
feet, according to the number of characters which consti-
tute the line, varying from three to seven characters.
Each specimen is to be found in the Shee King, the book
of odes collected by Confucius, constituting one of the
classics, and which, I am informed, is being translated by
the Rev. Mr. Shuck into English, and, as soon as com-
pleted, will be published in America. Although rhyme
occasionally prevails, it is not frequent ; and owing to the
peculiar construction of the Chinese language, the sounds
are less perfect than words allow, which are formed of
alphabetical letters. The Chinese poetry, however, de-
pends principally for its contradistinction from prose, on
its regularly recurring rhythm, parallelism, and antithesis,
rendering it strikingly analogous in its construction to the
poetry of the Hebrews.
I am indebted to Mrs. Shuck, my missionary friend at
Macao, for several specimens of Chinese poetry. The neat
manuscripts in Chinese characters are beautiful specimens
of the written character. I copy the translation .of u
single piece the original containing five Chinese cha'rac-
ters in each line, and the piece itself composed of a stanza
of eight lines.
ON TAKING LEAVE OF A FRIEND.
" Ten years have elapsed since last we parted ;
And no sooner have we met, than we part again.
We bind ourselves by promises to renew this meeting,
But we shall never be so young as we are now.
The shadows of the passing cloud speedily vanish,
The falling leaf returns not to its branch ;
Should I fly like the wild bird to seek you in the south,
In what part of yon blue mountain shall we meet 1"
41*
168 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.
The Chinese language has been deemed a phenomenon
in philology ; and its formation, in its advance from its in-
fancy to its present magnificence and comparative merit,
as an oral and written medium of communication for three
hundred and sixty millions of people, seems to be regarded
as a matter of astonishment. On the contrary, so far as
a slight familiarity with its first principles will enable one
to judge, I should deem its construction to have been pre-
cisely as we would expect to be the origin of a written
language among a primitive people. The illiterate pea-
sant or huckster, unable to write, could yet draw hiero-
glyphics of straight and curved lines. And by way of
refreshing his recollection, had he an occasion to debit his
neighbor a cheese, he would naturally score upon the bark
of a tree or upon the door of his tent a circular mark ; and
if it chanced to be a grindstone instead of a cheese, he
would not forget to add a dot, for the sake of definiteness
and distinction, to the centre of the circle, all which first
attempts in the fine arts would be increased as necessity
and convenience required, and improved in their form as
the tyro-sketcher continued his practice. A combination
of these symbols becoming definitely associated with the
objects which they were used to represent, would at
length become the medium of communication between dif-
ferent individuals ; and, reduced to a written form, im-
prove in their shape as convenience for their rapid forma-
tion and agreeableness in their appearance to the eye
should suggest in their continued use. New symbols not
being readily found for every new idea, a combination of the
originally formed characters would naturally be suggested,
and eventually, the symbols or hieroglyphics becoming so
numerous, they would lose their visible resemblance to the
objects they were originally employed to represent, and at
length become mere arbitrary representatives of ideas.
Thus it precisely is, as it seems to me, with the hiero-
glyphic formation of the Chinese language. Their origi-
nal form, representing the idea of the sun, is a circle with
a dot in its centre ; the moon, by a crescent or segment
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 169
of a circle ; a child, by something resembling the first
attempt in the nursery to draw a man ; morning, by the
sun's rising ; above, by a dot over a straight line ; below,
by a dot beneath a straight line. Advancing to the com-
bination of symbols, the sun and moon together mean
brightness ; two trees mean a forest ; two men seated
upon the ground represent the idea of sitting; waved
lines, rivulets. And these symbolic representations of
ideas, a few of which are here alluded to, would be in-
creased ; and for the purpose of meeting the necessities
of a growing people and intercourse, a free combination
would take place, and the original characters be improved
upon, in the advance of refinement and taste, and yet more
particularly, for convenience and uniform appearance, as
the characters were used in writing ; and with the dis-
covery of the art of printing the characters would undergo
still a further modification for the beauty and agreeable
effect of the type or plates. This is seen in the fac-simile
below, illustrating the preceding remarks the upper line
exhibiting the original form of the Chinese character, the
lower one giving the form now used in their printing ;
and seen still more particularly in the plate further on,
exhibiting the improvement of the original form by the
beauty and uniformity of the character now in use.
O J ? -=- T-
sun, moon, child, above, below, bright. forest.
3-
The greatest wonder in the history of all written lan-
guages is, that an alphabet of twenty-five letters, repre-
senting the elementary sounds of the voice, should ever
have been discovered, and remains yet a question if it
were not originally a gift direct from heaven. If however
it be a discovery of man, we should be led to conclude that
it would be a result of after-times, when a people had
become more philosophical and given to analysis ; and
that it would be the result of a cumbersome system of
hieroglyphics and arbitrary characters, precisely like that
170 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
which we have presented to us in the pictorial language
of the Chinese, giving its literati to feel the necessity of
something by which the symbolic character of the lan-
guage might be simplified. And in the range of philoso-
phical analysis, there can be found no other example so
striking as the alphabet of articulation (save the ten Arabic
numerals) to illustrate the illimitable combination to which
a few simples, having their origin in nature, can be carried.
And the superiority of the alphabetic system to the sym-
bolical character of the Chinese, renders it not an improb-
able conjecture that, in the advance of philosophical litera-
ture in the East and the certainly to be expected advance
of Christianity, the language of the celestial empire will
one day, and not at a great time distant, be expressed in
an alphabetical character corresponding to the written
languages of the West.
But as it is, the Chinese character, in which their lan-
guage is embraced, is a magnificent structure when con-
sidered in its immense number of symbolic representa-
tions, which have now become arbitrary signs of ideas
rather than hieroglyphic characters ; and also, in view
of the extent of space over which the language has
spread and the number of people by whom it is spoken.
And notwithstanding it has been formed in a manner we
should deem the most natural, by a people advancing from
the rude state to that of high civilization, it becomes a won-
der in its solitary loneliness, in contrast with all other writ-
ten languages of the world, for its existence as a language
without an alphabet. The possibility of this at first seems
to the Western, from his usual mode of thinking, to be in-
credible, until he shall have become familiar with the prin-
ciples on which the Chinese characters have been formed.
As it is, there are some peculiarities which are curious and
interesting.
One particular character of the Chinese language, ex-
hibiting it strikingly in contradistinction with the Western
languages, is, that all its words are of one syllable. It is
true that there is often a coalescing of two or more vow-
el sounds, which give to the character, when reduced to
English orthography, the appearance of a dissylable or
polysyllable, and have it in the original enunciation. But
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
171
if this be recognised in the vowel sounds, then I do not
see why characters with certain elementary consonant
sounds, as ts, should not also be regarded as dissyllabic,
for there is here as distinctly an exhibition of two elemen-
tary articulations of the voice as in the case first supposed,
if not more so for tseen (t-seen) requires as distinctly the
enunciation of two elementary articulations of the voice
as t'ien. The effect of this monosyllabic form, were it not
for the different intonations given to the characters, would
be most monotonous, but with this variation of sound the
repetition of a lesson by the child at his daily task becomes
a song, containing more of the elements of true harmony
than I have been able to discover in the combinations of
any number of Chinese musical instruments. The mono-
syllabic character of the language may be seen by the fol-
lowing lines taken from the Trimetrical, and the Thousand-
character Classic, the first and third books put into the
hands of pupils in the elementary schools. Both of these
books are in measure the first being constituted with lines
of three characters each, the other with four characters
in each line. The Chinese read from the right to the left,
and from the top of the column downwards. The first
quotation contains five double lines from the Trimeter, the
second, eight lines of the Thousand-character Classic :
Fifth.
Fourth.
Third.
Second.
First.
Seih
Keaou
Kow
Sing
Jin
Mang
Che
Puh
Seang
Che
Moo
Taou
Keaou
Kin
Tsoo
Tsih
Kwei
Sing
Seih
Sing
Lin
E
Nae
Seang
Pung
Choo
Chuen
Tseen
Yuen
Shen
Eighth.
Seventh.
. Sixth.
Fifth.
Fourth.
Third.
Second.
Firrt.
Leuh
Jah
Tsew
Han
Shin
Jeih
Yu
Teen
Leu
Yu
Show
Lae
Suh
Yue
Chou
Te
Teaou
Ching
Tung
Shoo
Lee
Ying
Hung
Heuen
Yang
Suy
Tsang
Wang
Chang
Tsih
Hwang
Hwang
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Another peculiarity of this singular language is, that all
its consonant terminations are in n and ng, yet without giv-
ing it a disagreeable nasal enunciation.
But the most important consideration in connection with
the Chinese language is the extent to which it is used as a
medium of written communication. The extent of the
empire, and the early non-intercourse of the separate but
subjugated states now constituting the Chinese domain,
has originated many idioms, and such a departure has
there been from the court standard of pronunciation, that
the colloquial use of the language in some of the provinces
is utterly unintelligible to another province. And yet the
characters used by all are the same. Another cause of
this departure from a common standard of pronunciation
results from the circumstance that the sound of each charac-
ter in the Chinese language must be learned by being heard
from an oral teacher, as the Chinese have no system in the
absence of an alphabet, to designate the sounds of their
characters. Still the written characters remain the same
in all the provinces, and are universally understood over
the empire, including 360,000,000; and adding to this num-
ber the inhabitants of islands peopled by Chinese, and oth-
ers who have the Chinese character as their written lan-
guage, we may estimate the number by whom this char-
acter is used at 400,000,000 of people. The illustration,
showing how the written character of the Chinese may be
understood by this vast mass of people, while they yet, in
many parts, are unable to make themselves understood in
conversation, is simple. The idea expressed by the Eng-
lish word man, in French is homme ; Spanish, uomo ; Lat-
in, homo ; Greek, civdgwros (anthropos) ; Hebrew, ttJx (ish) ;
Chinese, /^ (jin). This Chinese character (jin) not being
formed upon the principle of sound, but as hieroglyphic,
addressed to the eye, might with equal propriety be pro-
nounced homme, uomo, homo, anthropos, or ish, as well as
jin, the present sound by which the Chinese distinguish
it. And if this same Chinese character entered into the
language of all these different nations, instead of their own
present words, and was called differently by the sounds
which each now use, for man, then the Greek would not
understand the Roman when he spoke the sound homo, nor
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 173
the Roman the Greek were he to use the sound anthropos ;
nor the Spaniard the French sound of homme. But all
having the character alike, though called by names of
different sounds, they would immediately understand each
other, should either of them take a pen and draw the char-
acter X O' 1 ' 71 )-
A better illustration is derived from the Arabic numer-
als used in common by the different nations of Europe
and America. Were the American to use the word thir-
ty to the Spaniard, who calls the same numeral trenta, he
would not comprehend the American ; nor would the
Frenchman, who calls the same numeral trente. But ei-
ther of these persons, taking a pen and writing the num-
ber in the Arabic numeral 30, and all immediately com-
prehend it, although each called it by a different sound.
Thus it is with the Chinese. Though the idioms in the
various provinces throughout the vast empire differ as to
the pronunciation of their character, the character itself
remains fixed as to its form and meaning, and, addressed
to the eye as a written communication, it is intelligible to
all. The court pronunciation has been called the manda-
rin dialect. And as the candidates for promotion to offices
from all parts of the empire have to pass their literary ex-
aminations in the mandarin or court idiom, the mandarin
dialect is spoken by the literati universally, and most ex-
tensively, while this course of examination, in connection
with their unchanging classics, keeps the language itself
unchangable.
Here then we see the field that opens, through the Chi-
nese language, for influencing four hundred millions of
people, or nearly one half of the inhabitants of the globe.
The whole system of the nation's literary course is such
as would secure to a work, written to thqir taste and once
admitted to their empire, the most rapid and universal pe-
rusal. And a Christian classic, once introduced into their
triennial course of examinations, would imbue the nation
at once with its principles. It is a high point from which
the Christian missionary may gaze, amid every discourage-
ment, in anticipation of the day when his books, or cer-
tainly those who come after him who shall have enjoyed
the assistance derived from his labors, shall find the way
174 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
into the hands of the reading part of the people of such
an extended nation, and, may be, form the classic which
shall become the means of giving this civilized but idola-
trous and comparatively unintelligent people, a better lit-
erature, science, and, above all, the happy institutions and
the immortal hopes of the blessed religion of Jesus Christ.
There are no inflections in the use of the Chinese charac-
ter in composition, the nouns, verbs, and particles remain-
ing invariably the same ; and the various sense of these
symbolical characters must be fixed by the position they
occupy in the forming of the sentence. Syntax, therefore,
is unknown, according to its application to alphabetic lan-
guages where there are changes in the termination of
nouns and conjugation of verbs and the variation of adjec-
tives for the expression of their different degrees of com-
parison and agreement. Grammar, connected with the
Chinese language, therefore, can only be a treatise of rhet-
oric, exhibiting the best usages of classical writers, and
other elucidations, for the formation of the best style in the
use and arrangement of unchangeable and unchanging but
definite and significant characters.
There are six different styles of character, more or less
varying from each other, now in use among the Chinese,
which are exhibited in the opposite plate.
The first is the most ancient style after the original
hieroglyphics, and by Europeans is called the seal charac-
ter.
The second is the style of official attendants, as formerly
used by writers in the public offices, and thence derives
its name. It is now used in inscriptions and prefaces of
books.
The third exhibits the pattern style, and is formed by
gradual improvements upon the others. No Chinese can
claim any consideration as a man of literature who cannot
correctly and neatly write in this character.
The fourth style is a running hand, to some extent, as
the pencil may, without being raised, pass from stroke to
stroke in the formation of the character, while no abbre-
viation is allowable in writing it.
The fifth is a still freer running hand, full of abbrevia-
tions, as will be seen by the comparison.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 175
Sixth. Fifth. Fourth. Third. Second. First.
2
tl
176 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The sixth is a beautifully formed character for its sym-
metry and uniformity, deriving its name, Shung Te, from
the dynasty during whose time it was introduced, as a more
elegant form of character for printing. This art, by means
of wooden plates, was introduced into China near the com-
mencement of the tenth century, and during the succeeding
forty years the Shung dynasty possessed the government,
under whose auspices this character received its modifica-
tions and improvements, and has remained and still contin-
ues to be the picturesque and beautiful character in which
the Chinese books are printed.
It would be interesting to give in this connection various
quotations from the prose works of the Chinese, which
would serve to illustrate their style, manners, domestic
economy, philosophy, and religion their impressions con-
nected with the power of charms, lucky days, festivals
aphorisms a few hobgoblin stories and freaks of fairies
who hold their court in the constellation of Ursa Major,
and greatly concern themselves in the government of the
Chinese people, making Mr. Bulwer's fairy action in guard-
ing the beautiful consumptive in the " Legends of the Rhine"
more natural, had the scenes been laid in China, than I
thought them when reading his book ; and though I now
forget whether he places their court in the same star-
palaces of the north but, to indulge on all these topics,
if it should not tire, it would too much extend this notice
of the celestial empire in connection with our pause in the
China seas.
It is certain, however, that in the literature of China,
with all its crudities, there is much of interest their books
abounding in sentences of formal etiquette and graceful
expressions, though deficient in tender sentiments. The
people have been acting according to a prescribed code
of rules in manners for centuries, which makes them the
most formal nation in their habits of intercourse among
themselves and with others, that exists on the face of the
earth. And yet there is a measured politeness, and an
ease too, with all the grave etiquette of the people, that
gives an agreeableness to their manners and a grace to their
formality, even to their attitudes in walking, bowing, and
their Stereotyped salutations ; and you feel, while your
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 177
heart melts in kindness towards the Chinese gentleman in
your association with him, that the " Board of Rites," at
Peking, however much they may have retarded the Chi-
nese nation in its advance in the scale of modern improve-
ment, have yet given to the nation a system of manners
towards their equals worthy of a refined people.
CHINESE SALUTATIONS.
Dr. Morrison has remarked, on the ceremonial forms of
China, that the " joining of hands and raising them before
the breast," is the lowest order of salutation known among
the Chinese. The next more deferential mark of consider-
ation is a low bow, with the hands joined as before. The
third, still more deferential, is bending the knee, as if about
to kneel. The fourth, kneeling. The fifth, to kneel and
strike the head against the ground. The sixth, to strike
the head three times against the ground previous to rising
from a kneeling position. The seventh, kneeling and strik-
ing the forehead three times, rising and again kneeling and
striking the head yet further three times before rising.
The climax, or the eighth ceremonial, the Chinese call the
kow-tow, and is required of all who enter the presence of
the Emperor, and invariably practised by the courtiers
around the person of his celestial majesty. It is kneeling
three successive times, and at each time knocking the
head against the ground. Some of the gods of China are
entitled only to the sixth and seventh degree of veneration,
while Heaven (Teen) and the Emperor receive the three
prostrations and the - three times three knockings of the
head, from him who would approach these deemed to be
equally sacred powers, in worship and for favor.
WALK AROUND THE WALL OF CANTON.
On the morning of one of the last three days I spent in
Canton, it was proposed to me to take a walk around the
city walls. This had been done, and it was deemed prac-
ticable now, though my kind friend Dr. Parker thought
that the adventurers who should attempt it would render
178 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
themselves liable to be pelted with mud and pebbles,
if nothing more serious should happen, before they re-
turned.
The principal inducement to myself was the probability
that the city might be entered through a breach in the
wall on the northwest extreme of the city, should the point
be reached at the break of day. For my own personal
safety I had but little apprehension, having already tra-
versed most of the town without the walls unmolested,
save the inconvenience of the crowds that gathered around
the Fanqui. It was also my desire to gain a view of the
country beyond the city. My young friend K. offered to
be my pilot, and we were to start at four o'clock in the
morning, expecting to reach the breach before the celes-
tials were moving. We were on our way at the moment
appointed, and found ourselves threading the narrow streets
at a quick pace, and with light enough just to discover to
us the way our course lay ; and now and then dark ob-
jects confronted us, which had begun to move earlier than
we anticipated, and to increase in numbers as we passed
from street to street. Occasionally a door of a shop open-
ed, and the occupant placed a lighted josh-stick in the urn
of the family god, at one side of the threshold of the door;
and now we glided by a sleeping sentry who had antici-
pated the hour of daybreak, and stretched himself on some
vacant stool to gain his morning nap, The faces of those
who were passing us became more and more distinct, and
began to awaken our fears that we should be too late to
pass the gate in a wing of the wall extending from the
main bulwark towards the river at the west corner of the
city, and formed the pass to the country. We had already
passed the southern gate, through which criminals are
conveyed from the inner city for decapitation a point we
had visited the preceding evening, and saw near a dozen
skulls occupying the manger-like reservoir attached to the
wall, for holding the heads as they fall from the body at
the stroke of the executioner. Labels of the names and
crimes were still adhering to some of these victims of a
merciless code ; and we trusted that our own heads would
not be perilled, though we were venturing beyond the
limits usual for foreigners in their rambles ; and in these
A VOYAGE AROUND THE ORLD. 179
times of excitement could rely, if ever, but little on the
good faith or forbearance of a Chinese mob.
As we had measured a good long distance through the
narrow streets, and daylight had already broken upon us,
we concluded that we had arrived at the gate leading
through the wing of the wall, and quickening our step,
advanced to sally through ; when the sentry from within
the guard-house raised a cry loud enough for the alarm,
if a hundred cities had been on fire, and the halloo was
repeated by numbers of the people already passing and
repassing this opening through the wall. I had advanced
and turned to hurry on my companion, without regarding
the twenty arms of the celestials that were beckoning me
to return, but we soon concluded that we had turned too
suddenly to the left, and were bolting directly 'through,
into the city. To the gratification of the sentry, who by
this time had come out of his establishment and neared
us with positive imperatives, we retraced our steps and
continued our course still south and east, and in a few
moments more passed the gate of the wing of the wall
which we supposed we were doing in our previous at-
tempt. We now followed a narrow lane lined on either
side by inferior houses directly under the main bulwarks
of the wall, and the crowds of the lower classes gazing
from their doors as we passed them with a rapid pace.
We soon stood in the country. The sun was just rising.
The green field a beautiful stream, purling along the deep
cut of the ravine and the ravine itself, were all objects of
acceptable contrast to the pent-up space through which
we had been threading our way by twilight.
The wall was on our left, rising high up some forty or
fifty feet here, and here again, on a more elevated point
of ground, not over twenty the battlements crowning
its top and ornamenting the heavy work by their regular
openings. The lower part of the wall is built principally
of stone, the upper part of brick. We saw more than
once persons walking upon the wall as they discovered
themselves to us through the openings of the battlements.
A half hour more of rapid walking brought us to the high
point where we doubled the southeastern corner of the
wall, with high grounds at our right in the distance crown-
42*
180 A VOYAGE AROUND THE "WORLD.
ed with lookout stations, and between them and the wall
runs a deep ravine, to the high edge of which the wall ex-
tends. A short distance brought us to the breach on the
northwestern part of the wall. We had left every object
of animated life out of sight as we turned the southeastern
corner of the wall ; and fearing that our time was too far
extended into the morning, the sun being already up, we
apprehended, as we ascended the ruins of the wall which
here occupied the highest point of ground within the city,
that we might at once be brought into a confronting posi-
tion with some of the frowning gentlemen of the long
braids. But we ascended cautiously, and in a moment or
two found ourselves standing on a spacious piece of table-
ground forming the brow of a hill that overlooks the whole
city. A single tree of forest dimensions is standing here,
and beneath it we reclined and contemplated the forbidden
city spread immediately beneath and before us, every part
of its wide area within distinct vision. It was a beautiful
field of perspective, surpassing all that I had anticipated,
supposing it to be crowded, like the suburbs, with shops
innumerable. But as it now spread before us, the spacious
courts exposed themselves to the eye, and the dwellings
being generally low but empaling spacious grounds for
gardens, exhibited more foliage and shrubbery than is
usual to be seen in an extensive city. Our eye reconnoi-
tering here and there, rapidly took in this view and that,
the elevation of another part, and the crowned spurs of the
hills over which the walls on the northwest run. A still
calm yet rested on the provincial city in its slumber of the
morning, as the sun was now sending over it his earliest
level beam.
But, another moment, and a halloo from a celestial,
who had just made us out, came forth from a high building
as his wail broke upon our ear. He advanced with an im-
mense bamboo-pole, elevating it over his head in a threaten-
ing attitude, while, with a gesture, he indicated that it was
his pleasure that we should walk over the wall again, and
adown the steep pile of ruins, by which we had ascended.
My friend, who had once before made the circuit of
the wall at the expense of some little inconvenience, re-
ceived from the erratic flights of mud and pebbles at a
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 181
point a little further on, now suggested that it might be
better for us to depart before the said threatening bamboo
came in too near an approximation to us. He therefore
stood with one foot on the edge of the aslant of the ruins,
ready to retreat with most expeditious despatch, while I
begged permission (as I like to have my own way on such
occasions) to take one more look at the silent city, sleep-
ing in its rest and shade of many shrub and tree.
I should have, felt less confident in my position had I
not possessed a spell in my pocket, which I well knew
would act as a charm upon the hero of the bamboo, so
long as he Jjeld the field single-handed. And therefore,
both for the amusement of trying his spirit, and to hold
my own place for a moment longer relying fully upon
my silver magic to quell any rising storm, however high
the anger of the celestial might rage I waved my very
substantially proportioned walking-stick over my head, as
much as to say that walking-stick and bamboo-pole might
forget all politeness, should they come, without timely
explanation, into juxtaposition. The Chinese now hesitated,
dropped his pole from above his head and held it with
his distended hand, and with his other began, by drawing
it across his throat, to make all manner of indicatives
that our heads might also be labelled and exposed in the
execution catch-all, in the neighborhood of the south-
eastern gate of the city, where we had visited, with
more disgust than trembling, the day before. Having
satisfied myself that the hero would not venture nearer
until reinforced, I took another view, and at length ad-
vanced towards him on seeing several others approaching
up the steep ; and now, by a slight and confidential touch
of the hand, assured him that I desired that we might be
friends ; and he having received a certificate of this de-
sire, as he extended his, simply begged that I would leave
the beautiful height as soon as possible with convenience
to myself. To give the now amiable celestial all the cre-
dit of having driven us out before the approaching brother
hood, who were rapidly gathering, should come up, I bid
the hero " chin-chin" and disappeared beneath the mound,
up which we had ascended to the most prominent point
of the whole enclosure within the walls of the city.
182 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Our path lying outside the wall, we were aware that
the party which had gathered as we left the wall might,
by a shorter route, anticipate us, and cause us incon-
venience as we reached the gate of the wing of the wall
on the northwest, corresponding with the wing on the
south, and where opposition had been experienced by
some others, on a previous expedition to circle the wall
of Canton city. But, while we quickened our pace we
met with no obstacles at the position where we mostly
apprehended it. By a sudden bend of the wall we were
shielded from view until we could come suddenly up to
the gate and pass it. We did so, and found a funeral
procession at the point, moving thus early out of the city.
We were suffered to pass without disturbance ; and en-
tering the narrow streets again of the city, called the
suburbs of the inwalled town, we soon had our attention
drawn to a number of butchers of dogs, which they were
now dressing, and which had the appearance of young pigs.
They reciprocated our smile, and wished to know if we
of the outer land ate dogs. No, we assured them, only
when shipwrecked, and would preserve life in our last
extremity. We had not advanced far ahead of these
gentry before they overtook us, and they trotted on with
two baskets slung, one at either end of a bamboo-pole,
bearing these identical and delicate specimens of the ca-
nine species to the market, for the gratification of the
taste of the celestial epicures.
We reached the American hong without being con-
veyed thither in a pig-basket, as we have been told of a
gentleman, who, it is said, having wandered too far from
the factories, was very charitably returned in such a vehi-
cle. Having taken a "bath and consulted our toilets, we
soon found ourselves seated at a fine breakfast, with ap-
petites improved by a walk of about six miles, accom-
plished in about two and a half hours.
STREETS OF CANTON.
The two streets of Canton, where the principal trade
with the foreigners is done, with the exception of the
regular trade with the Chinese hong merchants, called the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 183
cohong, which in times of good understanding are all
bustle and life, now exhibit the appearance of an " infected
district" in New- York, when the yellow fever chances to
be reported as prevailing. New China-street is almost
entirely forsaken, the original opening towards the river
having been shut up, lest, at the time, an illicit intercourse
should be held in supplying the foreigners during their
" durance vile" in their factories, communicating as that
street does with the grounds on which the factories front.
And old China-street, the only one now remaining open
as an outlet and inlet to the factories, presents the shops
with closed doors, or at least with closed shutters ; though
the Chinese shop-keepers are seen standing in their doors,
and cautiously but eagerly invite the European in to
trade, while, with fear and trembling lest they shall be
fined by the mandarins, if seen, they close their doors and
commence the display of their thousand varieties of goods,
curious and useful, to the stranger. Many of these shop-
keepers transported their goods within the city walls, ap-
prehending that there might be collisions between the Chi-
nese and the foreign population. But they soon re-supply
their counters ; and you may have trinkets of every species
valuables of great interest curiosities long to gratify
the eye and variety on variety, which gives the stranger
ever renewing interest in his observation for the first
few weeks of his residence at this extensive and only mart
of foreign trade in the celestial empire. There are many
expensive curiosities, which seldom reach the United
States, found in the .antique shops of the city, as they
would be called elsewhere ; scenic representations, fre-
quently of considerable beauty, exhibiting mountainous
scenery, and variety of pictorial representations resembling
extensive mosaics or cameo marble slabs, though affirmed,
by the venders, to be natural ; also Japan ware of costly
prices from Japan itself, though always in small quantities ;
figures in rock crystal, and crystallized quartz of dark,
opaque, translucent, and purest transparent specimens.
The lacquered-ware shops also present a great variety of
furniture and household wares; work-tables; round-tables;
dressing-tables; boxes of all kinds; waiters; chess-men;
card-cases ; card-baskets, &c., &c., of ivory and shell.
184 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
And the silver shops, though the work exhibited is inferior
in workmanship to the European, so far as plate is con-
cerned, yet present every variety ; and the per centage
on the work is lower than at home, the plainest patterns
in silver being wrought at twelve and a half per centum ;
and from this varying, according to the pattern, to thirty-
seven and a half per centum. One article of silver egg-
stands struck me as particularly tasteful, exhibiting an
originality of pattern I had not before seen. The filligrane
work in silver and gold bracelets, and frontlets and buckles,
would meet the taste of the lady delighting in finery, and
not be inappropriate, so far as some of the silver patterns
are concerned, to fillet the brow and to clasp the wrist
of the most fastidious in their selections. But I should tire
were I to enumerate more particularly, and shall be happy,
if, in my selections of Canton trifles or more valuable
things for distant friends, they shall be suited to their taste.
Every Chinese gentleman as well as lady wearing a
fan, at least in these southern parts, has caused particular
attention to be given to their manufacture ; and the va-
rieties of leather, paper, tortoise shell, ivory, silk, painted,
stamped, embroidered, brocaded, present to the purchaser all
he could wish for making a collection to please his fair
friends at home, that in the celestial's own " flowery lan-
guage" they may bear "the gale, scented with the perfume
of flowers, to the blushing cheek."* There is one specimen
made of the feathers of the Argus pheasant, some of them
more than three feet in diameter, very beautiful, and are
a light and pretty thing for a hand-screen.
A Chinese, generally, wears no cap or hat except on
official and ceremonious occasions, and the fan serves him
as he walks to protect his eyes from the sun. In the
shade the fan again serves him as a graceful nothing by
which his hands may be put at ease, as he moves the
gentle breeze or plays with it unfolded.
* A fan presented to Dr. Parker by one of his grateful patients,
has an extract from one of the old poets on one side of it and the
following note of the transcriber on the other : " Tsyng Mei, (a friend
of Ma, who sends the fan,) copies the tu-ng shoo, (the pine tree)
and presents his compliments, and desires Dr. Parker to refresh
himself with its breath."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 185
There is a peculiar swing about the gait of the Chi-
nese, which they deem to be both graceful and dignified.
It would be death to their pretensions to a knowledge of
the graces or the book of rites, did they move more
rapidly than a measured step would allow. And there is
certainly, with their flowing dress, something very grace-
ful in the swing of the mandarin's gait.
I might add a long disquisition on the various products
exhibited for sale at Canton, now I am alluding to some
few of its most curious specimens of the shops. I could
mention, with a page for each, first the amber ; which, by
the way, merits a more particular note when considered
as a beautiful thing of nature, and once so valuable as an
ornament and for the use of the temple in frankincense.
But more fragrant odors now rise to please the gods of
millions, that have eyes, and see not ; ears, and hear not ;
noses, and smell not. And then amomum, seeds of pun-
gent and aromatic taste ; and aniseed stars from the Phi-
lippines and Japan ; beeswax ; benzoin ; bezoar ; bicho de
mar ; and birds 9 nests, that peculiarly Chinese staple, for
soups, some of which I will exhibit to any of my friends,
but cannot afford them many specimens, as they cost more
than their weight in silver. And then, thirdly, carda-
mons, (elettaria et amomum cardamomum,) which the
Chinese use to give flavor to their dishes ; and cassia,
that sweet genus the laurus, which makes the name of
Laura, sweet, spicy, " gingerly," evergreen and beautiful,
like Mr. Willis's poetry, whose piece to little " Laura W."
is cassia-sweet, as is all he writes in rhythm. And then,
cloves, cochineal, coral, cubebs, the violet-dyeing cudbear.
And then, dragon's-blood, a resinous gum long known,
once a favorite substance with alchymists in their mix-
tures ; elephants' teeth ; fish maws ; gamboge ; ginseng,
that imperial monopoly when produced in Tartary, and
which the emperor of China yearly sells to his subjects at
the handsome price of just its weight in gold, and which
the duped Chinese believes to be a specific for every dis-
ease. India ink, too, plain, silvered, and rolled in gold
leaf, mace, mother of pearl shells, from which so many
decorations, trinkets, and various figures, and letters, and
stamps are made, and sometimes in Portuguese settle-
186 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ments of the East serve as window-lights, through which
the translucent ray streams in mellowed beam and rich-
ness ; and musk and myrrh, nankeens, nutmegs, olibanum
the frankincense of ancient times of the Israelites, the
Greeks, the Romans, Hindoos, and Budhists, still burned
in Chinese temples pepper, quicksilver, rattans, rhubarb,
without which the Chinese seem to think the Americans
and all the English and the world beside must perish, to
a certainty. Rice what would China and all the East
do without rice ? " Have you eaten rice V is the question
with the Chinese, if a friend comes in, near the hour of
the first or second meal, instead of, have you breakfasted
or dined. Sandal wood, sapan wood, shells from the sea
shores, sea-weed, sharks' fins, silks, skins, steel, sugar, (I
trust the reader marks that I recite alphabetically,) tea,
thread, tin, tortoise shell, turmeric, tutenague, vermilion,
woollens. Surely such a classification is not elsewhere
known, even in the wild systems of the Chinese, founded
on the analogy of their four elements, air, earth, fire,
water.
My mercantile friends would give me no credit for
acumen in the trading " lore and lucre," were I to dis-
course much on traffic, and therefore I must console my-
self with the knowledge that commercial dictionaries are
at their elbows when they would learn of commerce
and trade subjects I purposely avoid, together with all
statistics, measurements, plans of edifices, tonnage, etc. etc.,
only so far as it suits my purposes to do otherwise, or
would be inconvenient not to introduce them. The square
and compass are not convenient companions for a walk
numbers, my phrenological friend says, I do not particu-
larly excel in, though a very good mathematician, and yet
more given to metaphysics.*
* If any reader of these volumes should be disposed to think the
writer has indulged too little in statistics and local and commercial
information, connected with the places at which our squadron
touched during its cwiise, I have only to say, that such omission
has been intended. It were easy to compile volumes of tables,
notes of population, geographical boundaries, and such like, and
all this from books in one's own chamber and at home, as easily
and as accurately as abroad. It has already been done ; and the
A VOYAGE AUOPND THE WORLD. 187
And yet it would be neglectful of the memory of our
ever-to-be-venerated mothers of the revolution, who so
heroically practised abstinence from the folia of the China
shrub, were I so slightingly to pass over the tea plant,
with only the naming it as in the list above. And I should
do injustice, too, to the aromatic recollections of mine
hosts, Mr. Morse and Dr. P. of the American hong, did I
not allude to the ulong and poshong with which their table
was supplied ; the one giving forth the odor of the mari-
gold, (marigold? aye, the marigold some of my friends
will understand my allusion to the marigold,) and mixed,
yielding to the taste the flavor of roses, as their perfume
comes to the sense of smelling. Surely could the heroines
of those olden times, already alluded to, (blessed be their
memory !) when no sacrifice was too great for the freedom
of their sons, in whose liberties their own were identified,
have been regaled with the aroma of the fresh teas which
have been served to us here, the eventful scenes which
gave birth to a new power among the nations might have
been delayed. For it is a tempting draught, that cup of
fresh tea as it may be drank in China, united with the
American mode of serving it with cream and sugar, and
most certainly would have made some of the Boston whig
ladies notable tories, ere they would have sacrificed such
a beverage. But one must take a voyage to Canton, and
be an inmate of the hospitable hosts of the American
hong, before one can gain such a cup of tea as the world
nowhere else out of China knows. A sea voyage dissi-
pates, to a great extent, the rich flavor that characterizes
the fresh teas of the choicest kinds, as they are drunk by
tea-connoisseurs in China.
The time fixed for the duration of my stay in Canton
books with these particulars are on our shelves or in every library.
Descriptions of things one's self has seen, and emotions one's self
has felt at the time of mingling in the scenes where, for the time
being, he has moved, give him at least more acceptable topics for
writing upon, in his indulgence over his private journal, and will
be most likely to be acceptable to those whose sympathies he is so
fortunate as to have, whatever may be the approbation or disap-
probation of those (of less consequence to him) who enter not into
his feelings nor pardon their indulgence, or rather their expression,
as awakened amid the incidents and associations of his travels.
43
188 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
having been completed, and my observations hurriedly
made, commissions executed, and my own wishes very
nearly satisfied as to the length of my visit to the provin
cial city, I prepared to leave on Tuesday, the 25th of
June. My time had been rendered agreeable in its rapid
flight under the courteous attentions of Dr. Parker and
Mr. Morse, to whom I am particularly indebted for the
pleasantness of my visit at Canton. The hospitality of
these gentlemen was not only cordial at the time, but a
note from the latter assured me, after my return to the
Columbia, that a second visit would ensure me another
welcome to the American hong. I mention it to evince
my sense of the kindness of these gentlemen, and the
known liberality of the individuals composing the house
of O., K. & Co. At the other American houses I receiv-
ed the courtesies with which the American gentleman
visiting Canton is assured of meeting from his fellow
citizens while there ; and was happy to meet them at
their table, by whom several of our officers, who were
visiting Canton, were courteously entertained.
The community of American merchants at Canton
preserve a style in living that does them credit as good
livers, while practising (I am told) a good degree of tem-
perance in their habits. Their tables were well furnished
their meals served in very creditable style, and the
system of domestic arrangements, including their com-
prador and servants, is among the most convenient if not
the very best in the world. The Chinese servants, too,
are the very pink of perfection in their way. I am sure
the officers of both ships will remember, with lasting
pleasure, the acquaintances they formed at Canton, and
the free courtesies they received from them, while there.
RETURN TO THE GOOD SHIPS.
With trunks, boxes, packages, silver-ware, lacquered-
ware, tea chests and tea caddies, crape shawls, grass
cloth in pieces, grass handkerchiefs, silk handkerchiefs,
silks, chessmen, silver, shell and ivory card-cases, seals,
canes, fans, some antiques, paintings, filligree work, etcas-
tera, a company of nine officers were on board of the
4
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 189
passage-boat Union, on the morning of the 25th, gliding
slowly down the Pearl river on which Canton is situated,
passing the raft of less than a million of tanka-boats,
flower-boats, passage-boats, tea-junks, merchant-junks,
war-junks the French and Dutch follies, Howqua's fort,
pagodas, Whampoa to the Boga Tigris, constituting, as
the Chinese deem, the mouth of the Pearl river. Here
a mandarin boarded, to see that all was right. Some
of the young gentlemen, seeming to doubt whether an
embargo might not be placed upon some of the contra-
band, were well away when once away from the easily
appeased, but sometimes disobliging officers of the cus-
toms. The wind breezing up during the night, the next
morning the Columbia and John Adams, lying in Tung
Koo Bay, hove in sight ; and the passengers of the little
clipper Union, with their disgorged chattels, were soon
on board of their respective ships, after a visit to the cu-
rious city of the south province of the most curious
nation of the world ; and with their curiosity abundantly
gratified, and their curious tastes sufficiently satisfied by
the medley of curiosities with which they had returned.
For myself, the young dreams occurring in my boy-
hood, associated with the far and near East, have been suf-
ficiently realized. I am quite ready for our return course.
It is thought, however, that occurrences may daily take
place to detain us here yet some time longer. But in the
present state of affairs it is the intention of Commodore
Read to leave China, so soon as a sufficient supply of
bread is on board. The merchants desire that the Adams
should be permitted to remain to protect the commerce
in any emergency that may occur, either in the policy of
the Chinese government, or as the result of any action
that may take place on the part of the Queen's commis-
sion, now awaiting despatches from the India Admiral,
who probably, however, will not re-appear on this station
until he shall have heard from the British government at
home, after its reception of intelligence of the present
state of affairs, into which the late difficulties in connec-
tion with the opium trade has thrown the foreign com-
merce in China. The English shipping are all lying at
Hong- Kong, and form quite a fleet ; and all are in rest
190 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
waiting for the action, dependent upon whatever intelli-
gence shall be received from the West as to the pleasure
of her Majesty, or her Majesty's ministers.
SECTION VI:
TUNG KOO BAY.
The ships at anchor. Sounds' beneath the hull of the ship. The bull-frogs'
serenade. Fourth of July. Ships in gala-dress. Revisit to Macao. Pic-
nic. Old walks renewed. Cassa gardens. Farewell to them. Incident.
Lines The lovely Maniac. Final leave of Macao.
As I had anticipated, at the time I left Macao, the two
ships moved from the roads to Tung Koo anchorage-
ground, nearer Canton, to ride safely during the typhoon
season. Here they are in their solitary but social position,
while all the merchant vessels have proceeded to Hong-
Kong. The bay is formed by the main land, the high
peak called the castle peak rising directly in front and
north of us, the large Lantow on our right, and the small
island of Tung Koo on our larboard quarter. The sce-
nery is bold, the high peaks of Lantow, generally capped
by a grayish cloud, throwing down the green mountain
side its yet darker and broad folds. Lintin island, so often
spoken of as the point where the " opium fleet" have usual-
ly concentrated, is seen over the little Tung Koo, daily
frowning in its mists, as they wreath in sombre dun the
high cliff of this to be future storied isle. But little of in-
terest is found here, save a quiet which all love after a
bustle for months. Our little schooner, the Rose, plies
regularly between our ships and Macao, bringing the
news and conveying requisitions, and forming a convey-
ance for letters and passage to and from the ships to the
city. She is almost the only thing that disturbs the mo-
notony that prevails around the ripnje of the-wave, the
going and return of the shore boats for water, bathing,
rambling, and sad as it has been all along burying the
dead. Since the ships arrived here the captain's clerk of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 191
the Adams has died. He was first interred on one of the
small islands ; since, in Macao burial-ground. On one oc-
casion, on the little island of Tung Koo, I repeated the
service over three sailors interred . at the same time, in
separate graves. It was a solemn echo that came from
each grave successively, as the earth crumbled with its
muffled sound of " earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to
dust," on their coffin-lids.
The tides here set strongly, flooding and ebbing, and
the waters rush like a mill-race by the sides of the ship.
At night a peculiar sound not unfrequently makes its
monotonous rumbling, which comes through my air-port
like the croakings of a million of frogs. I heard the same,
at night, on the west coast of Sumatra. Some say they
are fish around the bottom of the vessel. May they not
rather be millions of coral insects ? The boats and cable-
chains, with small coral palaces newly located upon them,
would seem to make the supposition a natural one. But
I did not care at first, though I were deceived, in deeming
these noises the serenading of that long and sleek-legged
gentry, which, in defiance of all their natural rights, are
conveyed by the dozen into the Canton markets as a gusto
for celestial tastes. These commingling sounds around the
ship brought to my recollection some lines intimately asso-
ciated with the rana brotherhood. I do not know to whom
I must accredit them, but avail myself, on the occasion of
introducing them, to say that I will thank any friend or
stranger to make known to me where I may find a song
called " The Dutchman's Bells," or something like it in
name, originated by the custom of the Dutch teamsters
decorating their horses' headstalls by these tinkling cym-
bals. But the serenade of the frogs ; certainly, were it
set to Chinese music, it might prove an effectual charm
for the Budhists to put to a distance beyond their present
court in the Ursa Major, the fairies, so much an object of
dread to the worshippers of Fuh.
THE BULL-FROGS' SERENADE.
" The night was warm, the pool was still,
No sound was heard from lake or hill,
Save where, upon a log decayed,
A bull-frog croaked his serenade :
43*
192 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Wake, frogess of my love, awake,
And listen to my song ;
The heron roosts far from the lake,
The pickerel his rest doth take
The water-weeds among.
The sun has put his fire out,
The daylight's hardly seen,
No enemy is round about ;
Then frogess poke thy lovely snout
Above the waters green.
For lonely I am sitting here
Upon a rotten log,
Oh cast away all idle fear,
And for a moment sweetly cheer
The sight of thy bull-frog.
Oh hop with me to other pools,
Where we may live and love ;
Where no cool winds the warm lake cools,
And where doth dwell no human fools,
Those two-legged things above."
FOURTH OF JULY, 1839 SHIPS IN GALA-DRESS.
This glorious Fourth has dawned upon us with a bright
sky, smiling in sunny keeping with the associations con-
nected with the birthday of a nation to its sovereignty
among the governments of the earth. And our ships,
they are now resting away from that western republic on
the waters of an imperial power, which claims all nations
of the world as tributaries ; and she, whom they represent,
alone of all the civilized powers of earth, has refused to
bear tribute, when seeking from the celestial and self-
complacent empire of the vaunted " inner land," the favors
of trade. And around them the placid waters of Tung
Koo, on this bright day, mirror back the green islets and
isles rimmed with their -beaches of golden sand; while
their elevated peaks, here and there, are lost in the blue
deep above, as one purple cloud only is seen lingering
above the mountain top, seemingly to say : " Though, this
day, your nation's privileges and homes and destinies are
bright as the sunny bay and blue skies and green isles that
surround you, there were clouds that overhung the nation
when your suffering forefathers, in a clouded hour, strug-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 193
gled for independence." And our ships, to-day, are ar-
rayed in all the gorgeous apparelling of the national flags
of every people, streaming in the gentle breeze as it qui-
vers by them just in sufficient freshness to lay open theii
graceful folds, and trace to the gazer's eye the emblems
of half a hundred nations. And Britain olden and honora-
ble Britain though she was the power the infant Colum-
bia contended with and overmatched, it was an honorable
contention of mighty powers ; and now, that nation's flag
is floating in honorable distinction at the main-yard oppo-
site the American ensign, at the first post of honor. And
under the considerate taste of Lieutenant Turk, while our
ships lie moored in the seas of the Celestial Empire, the
black and blue and red and white of the Imperial King-
dom stream at the maintopsail yard ; and Muscat and
Siam, our treaty-friends of the East, and Cochin-China
that would be our treaty- friend, occupy places of distinc-
tion, while the gems of Portugal, the gold of Spain, and
the stripes of France and Holland wave from their several
points, with corresponding jacks extending from the royal
yard-arms to the several trucks of the now gaudy-colored
ship. She is a beauty of no finical taste, but rich in her
decorations on this gala-day, displaying her attire of
varied dies to the astonishment of the hundred boats of
the celestials, who, in unusual numbers, this morning cover
the bay. And a few moments since, while the wonder-
ing Chinese were yet lingering in their undisguised ad-
miration of the strange and gaudy ships, our loud-mouthed
cannon spoke the notes of exultation in memory of the
glorious day that declared the American nation a free and
independent people.
The scene, in truth, is a beautiful one. The little
Johnny A. (pity her name does not correspond with her
sex, and she reminds me of a beautiful little girl I once
knew, by the name of Henry) lies but a short distance
from us, thinking that she has put on her prettiest holiday
dress. And she thinks not altogether wrongly either, for
she often has good taste ; and, coquette that she is, like
most beauties, is never backward in exhibiting her ac-
knowledged attractions.
And at home blessed home ! how are ye all there,
194 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WOJ L).
this day ? I think I see at least one happy-faced group,
smiling among the green lawns around them, where they
have gathered from the heated walls of that mart of the
western world. And would I were with ye, enjoying the
green fields and the luxurious shades of that sunny seat.
And surely, to-day, ye may well glory ifi your home, and
love the land of the brave and the free of the plentiful
and the happy. If it be true that political discord some-
times pervades the councils of your nation, and jealous and
intriguing ambition wakes the cry of discontent ; and dis-
union and degeneracy at times walk undisguised in your
public halls, with designs of treachery and treason, ye are
yet the happiest people of the earth the freest, and the
determined to be free. There is written on the brow of
each of your citizens the certificate of his birthright the
lines of independence and comfort. And afar from the
loud murmur of political strife rise your thousand homes,
throughout town, village, and villa, that tell you are yet,
and are long to continue to be, a happy nation. It is not
mere self-complacency that colors the picture of your do-
mestic and even political economy, which demagogues
and despots alike would traduce it is the reality of your
quiet homes, and comparatively peaceful rule, that height-
ens the intensity of the bright contrast in the compare
with almost every other nation of the earth, which your
pre-eminence leaves in shade and sorrow. Even your
own riots, that so defame the wisdom of your institutions
abroad, declare you to be a thinking people, and that the
voice of a community, that thinks for itself, shall rule, and
not the dictatorial power that forbids any other will than
its own to be heard. It was this independence of thought
that determined the actions of your forefathers ; and the
rich bequest of thinking for yourselves was the manly and
perpetual legacy they left to bless, in perpetuity, a free
and independent nation. God bless thee then, this day,
my happy country !
In the evening I strolled on the beach of the main
shore, with Lieutenants Turk and Pennock. The sun was
nearing its dip as our cutter shoved from the shore, and
the two ships still reposed in their quiet, with their flags
streaming in the level beam of a nearly setting sun. The
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 195
music was rolling off, as we neared the frigate ; and when
the sun's last ray glanced on the bosom of the still bay,
the flags of the two ships fell, in unison,' from lift, and stay,
and spar, to the decks.
REVISIT TO MACAO.
The time of our leaving the China seas rapidly ap-
proaching, I availed myself of the opportunity offered by
the Rose of revisiting Macao, to take a final leave of my
friends there, whose welcome I again received, after an
absence of a number of weeks to Canton and Tung Koo
retraced some of my old pleasant walks, called on friends,
enjoyed a moonlight pic-nic party with Mr. Gutzlaff and
family and others, who rambled to the heights that over-
look the bay and the distant roads, and constitute the op-
posite cone of the range of hills on which the hermitage
that flanks the eastern heights of Macao is located. The
eve of the pic-nic was a lovely night, and still, as the unrip-
pled surface of the bay, that drank the bright light pouring
softly from the silver moon, as she was seen peering in
more than her usual loveliness high up in the clear heaven.
The music of flutes, and the soft notes of lady- voices, broke
on the air of the still-calm scene, ever more mellow and
sweet when the intonations are vibrated on the soft eddies
of the moist atmosphere of eve ; and the sweet sounds were
borne on in the voice of song, along the green hill-side
and over the sleeping waters. " We met," was spoken to
the currents of the soft breeze ; and Scotland's airs, in all
that peculiar style of Highland melody, were heard from
the steep, for Scotia had her representative there. The
ground had been spread with mats ; and viands and va-
riety for various tastes had preceded us, to the elevated
and romantic spot. And surely a distant gazer would
have thought the fairies were holding their court, as they
contemplated the rural scene, graced by the flowing-haired
maiden and elder matron, seen by the soft light of the
smiling moon, who, herself, was abroad without her veil
to-night. Such scenes as these have a charm to the lover
of soft nature, and make the amiable more amiable ; the
lovely more lovely ; and the manlier brow, knit by mental
196 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
effort, to relax under the gentle influence of the soft breeze
and moonlight melody. The party returned by the Praya
Grande, that pleasant promenade at evening, and never
more pleasant than was that walk this night.
And I took my last of many rambles in the cassa-gar-
dens the succeeding day, which I had thought I should
find a place of welcome resort, during my stay at Macao.
It is not because Camoens sang in heroics the story of the
first adventurer around the cape of storms, amid these
shades and rocks it is the sweet retreat itself, where sol-
itude becomes a charm, and friendship lights the purest
flames upon her altar when strolling with those we esteem,
that will long secure to this retreat a place in the memo-
ries of the past, which come ever acceptably to the mind.
Association how ever-powerful and irresistible in the
human mind ! By it, life is relieved a thousand times, and
man's existence of earth becomes the space of ages. No-
thing is a trifle in its view, and trifles become worlds.
"A word, a leaf, a faded flower
Full oft possess a magic power ;
And wake, when gentlest memories flow,
The smile of joy or tear of wo."
Have we not heard, in the simple echo of our own step,
some peculiar sound, as we paced some spot, perhaps un-
der some peculiar circumstances, which, in after days, re-
peated in similarity of echo, has borne back our thought
to a far distant place, where we heard that sound before ;
and then, relieved in a moment, through scenes that were
months, perhaps years, in acting ? I have seen, at the re-
petition of a single word, an eye pearled in tears that had
not wept before for months. There is a whisper among
the foliage of the trees, we may distinguish as having been
breathed in other groves. No one may forget where he
first listened to the murmurs in the pine-tops with what
friend he has moved through the rustling leaves in the au-
tumnal forest, as, on some other forest-path, he re-stirs the
rustling messengers that wake the memories of the past.
Nor may I forget the cassa-groves the friends with whom
I have paced those avenues penetrated the wild bower,
and together sat on the high turret of the wall beneath the
embowering trees, and whose hands have plucked the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 19*"
bough and mingled it with gathered flowers as the offering
of friendship. There are, of whom it is poetry to think,
and piety to love. And though I eschew all sentimental-
ism, I estimate with delicacy and vividness the refined fe-
male character, always sweet, yet a thousand times more
sweet where religion is blended with its elements. Cassa,
and its light, and its shade, and rock and avenue, and Ca-
moens' olden cave of granite, and embowered turret, and
scenes among which, with friends or in solitude, I have
promenaded, adieu ! all, save one scene adieu !
And that one scene, how it lies in my memory ! I may
not, nor would I forget it if I might. I am not certain that
I should so freely narrate it. I had several times passed
an old gentleman in this garden, attended by his daughter,
on my evening walks. He is a Portuguese from Lisbon,
of some family consideration, and deemed a man of prop-
erty. He married an English lady, who was a Protestant
and died not long ago. The young lady, his daughter, is
a lignt brunette, with an exquisite head of hair, playing in
unconfined ringlets upon her neck. The Portuguese resi-
dents here, wear no bonnets. A little incident had made
me acquainted with the father, who speaks English, as did
his family. The young lady, for some months past, has
partially lost her mind, but not all her vivacity. Her father
said she did not perceive the change in herself, but thought
it to be in others.
I sat one evening on the elevated wall, to which I have
already alluded as the embowered turret, approached by
a flight of rustic steps. Mr. and his daughter came
near as I rose ; and the daughter placing her delicate hand
upon my arm, while her own still rested within her father's,
she said, " You, Senhor, are not among those who have
changed to me !" I could have wept, but only pitied and
admired. It was a subject worthy of a better composition
than the following, which it prompted:
THE LOVELY MANIAC.
They loved me once, but now they're changed,
And look with scornful eye,
Though oft with arm in arm we've ranged
When none seemed loved as I.
198 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
They listened to my plaintive song
When I would have them weep ;
And wished I would the glee prolong
When merry strings I'd sweep.
But all things now seem changed to me
Except old faithful Rove ;*
He shakes his shaggy ears in play,
And dearer seems to love.
E'en when I walk the garden-path
And seat me in the bower,
Less sweet I deem the perfume breath,
Nor find my favorite flower.
The birds that came with fluttering wing
Among the garden trees,
Less merrily their carols sing
Upon the evening breeze.
Oh what can be this fearful change
On all around I see 1
They said, though they the world should range.
The envied I should be.
But not as once I deem they love ;
They sometimes whisper low ;
And though they call me oft their dove,
'Twas once with smiles, not now.
And they would smooth my sunny hair
With fondness of caresses,
And say so soft, there's none so fair
As she with raven tresses.
My mother, wl*en she lived, would say,
" Sweet Mary, come to me,
Do you forget, thou dark-blue eye,
The kiss that's due from thee ?"
But she, some/ months ago, hath gone
Where spirits like her live,
She thought she left me not alone,
And oh, who could believe ?
But meekness is an angel's charm,
And beauty has its spells,
And I would not resent nor harm,
But win with playful smiles.
*The name of their old favorite dog is Pirato, Eng. Rover
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
And yet my heart will sometimes break,
They look so strange and cold !
And then my silent room I seek
And weep my woes untold.
For God is there alone to see
The sighs my bosom swell,
As I before Him bend the knee
And all my sorrows tell.
And he is all unlike to those
So strange that seem to me ;
And has a heart that feels my woes,
And says, He pities me ;
And if they all forsake me else,
Not He will Mary leave ;
And though the world is surely false,
None trusts in Him to grieve.
And when the summer months are o'er,
And they will dig my grave,
In heaven, He tells me, tears no more
My lilied cheek shall lave !
The Rose was to leave her anchorage in the bay for
Tung Koo, after dinner. It might be her last trip. I had
spent a very agreeable week in Macao, and was on board
the schooner at the time appointed. Towards sunset the
anchor was aweigh, and the Rose standing slowly out the
harbor ; and I, at least, am not again to visit Macao. At
the extreme end of Praya Grande was to be seen a single
couple a gentleman and lady on their evening prome-
nade. The schooner was known, and for a moment they
paused and a white handkerchief was waving. I took the
compliment and repeated the adieu.
44
200 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
SECTION VII.
Getting under way and leaving Tung Koo bay. Gale, and near shipwreck
on a lee shore. Entrance to the waters of the Pacific. Eclipse. Water-
spout. Crossing the 180 of longitude. Gaining a day. Melancholy loss
of men. In sight of the Sandwich Islands.
" I PRETEND not to be weather-wise, Mr. M.," I remark-
ed to the Purser as I joined him on the quarter-deck,
while our ship was just ready to trip her anchor on the
morning of our leaving Tung Koo bay; "but if all the
sailors' signs be true, we shall have more wind before we
have less."
The John Adams, lying in a different position from our-
selves, had already gotten under way, being towed through
a different pass, as her position was more favorable with
regard to the tide, which delayed us for an hour and more,
before we could double the head of Tung Koo island.
It was four bells or ten o'clock in the morning, as our
ship unmoored her last hold on the celestial empire. The
sky was deeply blue, and beautiful beyond any morning I
had before remarked it ; and on this field of calm loveli-
ness lay the soft and elongated cloud, with its spread train
and feathery edge, more enchanting in its pencilled fringe
than I had ever remarked that species of the airy coursers,
which the seamen call the mares' tails. They slumbered
in their unearthly and sweet rest as they lay, few and at
far distances from each other, with the mackerel backs, in
their checkered and broken layers, filling more closely the
higher up portions of the blue deeply blue concave.
Few mornings ever broke more fair few skies ever look-
ed more beautiful, as these clouds in the play of their elec-
tric points varied the rich and sunny heaven. One mystic
nimbus was alone to be seen amid all this rich beauty, as
it wreathed its dark folds around the highest peak of Lin-
tin, an island in the near distance, as if to say,." skies the
brightest are not always unclouded."
The breeze springing up, we stood down the Macao
Roads, under a gentle press of canvass, unable to take the
A VOYAtJE AROUND THE WORLD. 201
more northern and eastern pass ; and soon after dismissed
the pilot, with the hopes and the prospects of gaining, with
the increasing and favorable wind, a long stretch before
nightfall, from this island-bound coast.
All were congratulating themselves and each other on
their happy escape from Tung Koo. We had seen enough
of the celestials, at their homes ; and this point seemed
now, to us, the starting place of our return to our own
dear land ; while every benevolent heart looked forward
to our soon gaining a more northern latitude, which, it was
hoped and believed, would give substance to many of the
shadows which were moving, like so many ghosts, over
our decks, and add nerve to the decayed energies of the
ship's company. Every step now seemed to plant itself
more firmly on the deck, and every chest breathed already
more freely as the freshening breeze bore on our ships, until,
with the sunset, all apprehension of a lee shore escaped
the visions of the wary sailor.
" Stand by to furl the royals, I say !" cried the officer of
the deck, after the Commodore had taken a few rounds on
the quarter-deck, and scanned the prospects of the weather
for the night.
" Haul taught in royals !" was the next order ; and a
moment had not passed when those far-up sails, looking so
like the palm of a man's hand in their breadth, as they are
spread upon the highest spars of the ship, were gathered
to the slim and highest yards of the masts.
" We divined not wrongly, Purser, as we read that beau-
tiful sky this morning :
' Mackerel skies and mares' tails
Make lofty ships carry low sails.' "
The Purser and myself, at this pleasant hour, were tres-
passing, with other officers of the ward-room, on the arm-
chest of the quarter-deck, while these orders were being
given.
" Man the top-gallant clewlines weather-brace hand
by the lee-brace lay aloft to furl the top-gallant sails !"
again cried the officer, through his trumpet, as the breeze
continued to freshen, and the ship, under the impulsf of the
pressure upon her canvass now and ever met, with a bound
202 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
that bid defiance to the wave, the cleft surge, which the fresh
breeze of the day had begun to conjure up to a greater
magnitude each moment we had been deepening our water
in its blue and fathom.
" Haul taught let go the halliards and lee-sheet clew
down ! Let go the weather-sheet clew up !" A moment
only passed, and the top-gallant sails of the fore, main, and
mizzen, lay as snugly to their yards, as ever lady plaited
surplice over stomacher or roll on dress.
The ship was deemed snug for the night ; and as the
hours advanced, with the continuance of the fresh and
favorable breeze, all, save the watches in their turn, were
lost at the usual time in their hammocks, cot, or bed.
The hour had reached a little past the mid- watch of the
night, without awakening the apprehensions of the officer
of the deck beyond the attentive marking of the weather,
until a dark squall, as if magic had gained some new pow-
ers in rapidity of movement, came down upon the ship,
and with its heavy breath, shivered to ribands every sail
that was set upon the ship.
It was a sorry sight, as the day broke, to see the tattered
sails, that had been with difficulty gathered to the yards.
The squall had now given place to a steady gale, increasing
every hour in its force and fury ; and the ship was now
lying to under fore storm-staysail and the main and miz-
zen trysails. The royal and top-gallant yards had been
sent down, the topsail yards clewed down, and the Colum-
bia, in her storm-dress, now abided the war of elements,
the torrents of rain, and the hurricane of winds. The rains
for a while ceased, while the winds yet drove the sheets of
spray in their horizontal layers from the cleft tops of the
high waves in as drenching volumes through the cordage
of the nearly naked ship, as were the torrents themselves.
A new course was bent while the frigate lay to like a life-
boat on the billow, though the sea had now swollen to the
mountain-surge. The John Adams, under the same sail,
was seen at the windward, apparently with all things snug,
like a phantom craft, and at times under bare poles, as the
two ships rose together, or again sunk, so that the trucks
of either became for a moment invisible to the other, and
the next, rose with their hulls and every cord distinctly
A VOYAGE AROUND THE VDKLD.
203
traceable on the wild and dun sky. And then, those winds,
those howling winds of the gale, as they murmured with
a voice more doleful than could be the chant of a thou-
sand spirits of lost mariners engulfed by the raging storm,
came through our rigging, with omens of dark things to the
ship.
Thus the two cruisers stood on their parallel tracks for
the day, bounding from surge to surge, or drifting from
ravine of water to leeward ravine, while the roll of the sea
spread out its giant proportions, now tumbling from its
height to find its level as the top broke in its cataract of
foam to the deep and blue declivities of the billows ; or at
times, threw its broad sheet in a crystal river across the
bulwarks of our ship.
The wind in its fury fell not as the coming night shut in
44*
204 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
again upon the dark sea ; but its fearful impulses increased
as the night watches advanced. The ship was thoroughly
soaked by the driving surges which dashed against the
Columbia, now penetrating the partial openings of the
closed port-holes or coming from the hatchways of the
upper-deck ; and our ward-room was afloat from the sea
that drove with an irresistible force against the stern-ports,
and penetrated by the rudder coat. And the sick were
in their darkness, and distress, but delaying death. But
wet as was the ship, and shivered as were her sails, the
revelation of the morning had not been anticipated for its
fearful apprehension, and the critical circumstances in
which the gallant bark was found. The top-gallant masts,
notwithstanding the back-stays were well taught, bent like
a withe in the roll of the ship; and the morning discover-
e-d, as trifles in these circumstances, that the main-top-gal-
lant-mast had been carried away, together with the main-
trysail mast ; and one of the boats, without having been
heard in the loud roar of the winds as it was disengaged
by some surge from the davits, had gone on its wild buf-
fet of the waves.
With sea-room, and the gale might, if it please, blow its
worst in typhoon, hurricane, and tempest, and we would
trust the good Columbia to her stumps, evincing, as she did,
her stanch qualities, without admitting a drop of water
through her lower planks, and bounding and rebounding
like some light but solid trunk of a forest mammoth, which
the storm of ages might beat upon uninjured and unyield-
ing, in the tight work of her admirable mechanism. But
the rock, and the coral reef, and shoal, and sand bar, in
union with the surge of the open ocean, and the wild gale
that shows no pity in its madness, would make even a thing
so fair and faithful as the frigate that had so justly secured
our confidence and attachment, a mere cradle of bulrush-
es, were she once to strike upon them, in the tumult of the
elements that were now driving above, and raging around,
and rolling beneath us. But it was hoped that we had
gained an offing, the first twenty-four hours, of some hun-
dred and fifty miles ; and it must be a fearful drift of tides
and drive of winds, that could have borne us in danger-
ous nearness to the coast. The dark clouds had per-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 205
mitted no observation, and the log could not give us the
tides and the drift. The second morning broke, and the
storm had not lowered its voice ; and the hurricane in its
torrent-tempest now blended its fury with the heaviest roll
of the sea, heaving in its wildest commotion. None but
the mariner, then, could estimate the fearful development
of the daybreak, as the morn let fall its early light on a
suddenly changed sea in its color, from the deep blue of the
fathomless ocean, to the pale green of soundings. The
iead in its cast gave the shallow water of but twenty-five
fathoms, and in the drift of a few more casts, but twenty-
two fathoms, still decreasing, while the elements commin-
gled their continued and unabating furies.
All hands were called. Even the sick were summoned
from their hammocks. On a lee-shore no officer would
venture the ship within twenty fathoms, in so wild a blow ;
and the tide and the gale were sweeping her each mo-
ment nearer to the invisible land, now impossible to be
seen through the whirling mists a hundred lengths of the
ship. Our sails, then, seemed our only salvation ; and yet
they had all been riven to a useless mass of parcelling ;
while our anchors, in such a roll of the sea, would neces-
sarily be the last resort. New topsails therefore were
bent by the already far-spent and nearly exhausted crew,
while the Commodore, in a consultation with three of his
principal officers, decided that the anchors should not be
cast so long as twenty fathoms of water swept beneath
the ship. And yet no sails could stand in such a gale, to
enable the frigate to beat from off the shore ; and no ship
could tack in such a sea ; and no anchors, it was believed,
could hold a ship driven by such a commotion of the roll-
ing ocean ; or, if anchors held, the ship must swamp be-
neath the surge as it broke in its sweep above the decks,
and the masts, without a remedy, go by the board. And
yet the ship, in her drift of another fifteen minutes, might
strike ; and if the gale continued but a few hours longer,
and the wind held its point where it was, she must strike
on rock, or reef, or sand ; and in either case, in such a
swell, those who best knew the dangers, cherished least
the hope of rescue to a single soul of the frigate's crew.
Was it a miracle ? It served us the same as if the Al-
206 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
mighty had extended his arm from the cloud, and pointed
to the winds, whither, for our safety, to change their course!
The rain in its last torrents seemed to have pressed down
the sea to the ocean's level, by the weight of the cataracts
that fell in their last effort. A lull came in a moment
more. The crew, in their exhaustion, and drenched for
hours, without sustenance, had but just completed the
bending of the sails to supply the canvass riven in the
gale, when the wind, as if by enchantment, came out from
another quarter. In a moment more it fell upon our
courses and topsails, which had been braced around as
the ship wore, and on another tack she now lay several
points further from the land. With the change of wind
came a lifting of the mists ; and under our lee, within four
hours more drift of the gale, lay the high bluffs of an iron-
bound coast ! From this, in twelve hours more of light
and freshening and favorable breezes, we parted, beyond
solicitude or care.
For myself, I seldom experience much of the emotion
of fear, in circumstances of danger ; and in this instance
could but slightly estimate the critical circumstances of the
ship, compared with those who had made many voyages,
and encountered many dangers. No sign of alarm, how-
ever, marked the energetic action of the officers or the
unwearied efforts of the crew ; while a gravity, becoming
the circumstances of the ship, prevailed.
On the succeeding Sabbath, the attentive solemnity at
our usual services indicated that there was no heart pres-
ent that did not respond to the sentiment of the following
prayer, which a sincere emotion of gratitude, in my own
heart at least, had dictated, for the becoming thanksgiving
of the day:
" O God, who boldest the wave and the wind in thy
palm, and at whose command the gale awakes, and the
sea rages ; we give thee our thanks that our lives have
been spared, and that our ship has been preserved through
the dangers of the gale, which has swept, in its fury, so
lately by us. May we feel- that our lives are in thy hand ;
and that our breath is the gift of thy favor ; and attribute
the continuance of our mortal existence to the Providence
which has sustained us. When there was no hope in
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 207
mortal power when the winds and the tides were sweep-
ing us fast and fearfully upon apprehended dangers and
when the hour had nearly come, that would bear with it
destruction to our ship, and probably death to many of its
crew, thy voice was heard by the winds ; and at thy mer-
ciful mandate they changed their course. Oh God ! we
thank THEE, therefore, for our safety. We thank thee,
for ourselves, that our day of probation is continued to
us ; we thank thee, for our friends, that they will be spared
the sorrows of the tidings that our loss would have gath-
ered upon them. But may we always remember that our
last day, however long our lives may be protracted, will
come suddenly upon us. May we therefore use the days
that are continued to us in rightful repentance of the past,
and in solemn and devoted discipleship to thee for the
future ; that whether we die soon and suddenly, or live
yet for years and leave the world by a protracted illness,
we may be thine thine, through the eternal ages of thy
blessed kingdom, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Sa-
viour. Amen."
We lost sight of the John Adams on the second night
of the gale, but joined company again a few days after-
wards, and together, on the 16th day of August, entered
the Pacific ocean from the China seas. It was a brilliant
day over head and a deep blue sea beneath ; and the two
ships, with studdingsails set, glided gaily, after the storm,
through the pass between the Luzons and the Formosa to
the long-desired and bright waters of the Pacific. Such
a departure from the olden lands and treacherous seas of
the strange Sinices to the ocean of sunny isles is indeed a
welcome incident to the tempest-tossed, after having been
buffeted by the wild wave and dark winds, and threatened
shipwreck among the breakers of a leeward shore. We
leave ye, then, seas of the olden land, with willing hearts,
but with hearts that will not forget the scenes we there
have witnessed and mingled in. And it is with an elation
of spirit we enter the blue waters of the placid ocean, as
our visions take in the welcome combinations of hopes
and happy scenes and anticipated delights that await us,
on the re-meeting with our friends at home for, we are
now on our return-way to those who will not have forgot-
208 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ten who will give us welcome for, our own yearnings
assure us of the coming response of their affectionate
hearts. God be thanked for the past and trusted in for
the future and hoped in, in all the circumstances of this
world and loved through immortality.
WATER-SPOUT.
We have been fortunate in witnessing two eclipses, on
our voyage, which our friends at home will not have seen.
And a peculiar water-spout has added to the number of
sights and incidents, which have served, in some degree,
to vary the monotony of our tedious passage from the
China seas onward, to the port of Honolulu, lying five
thousand miles distant, at least, from Macao Roads. The
spout passed slowly across our wake, within a few fathoms
of our ship, sailing free at the moment, in a still ocean, but
with a gentle breeze filling her studdingsails. It descended
from a dark cloud in a bent column, apparently six or eight
feet in diameter, of a dark misty color, creating an appar-
ent commotion at the point of its contact with the blue
bosom of the deep.
I am confident there was no ascending or descending
current of water of greater density than a sudden conden-
sation of a small volume of air would produce, which
however, was sufficient, in this instance, to exhibit the ap-
pearance of descending currents. But they could only
have been strata of heavy mists. Had it been otherwise,
the column of water must have possessed a perpendicular
form, and ended suddenly, as the volume of water -spent
itself. On the contrary, the moving column broke nearly
in the centre contracting its ends to a point, and exhibit-
ing two cones, with the base of one in the clouds, the base
of the other on the sea, and each drifting to the leewara
like two narrow, elongated, and tapering clouds of mist.
But an incident of more interest than that of crossing
the equator, or looking the third time upon an eclipse, or
water-spout, was our crossing the 180th meridian of lon-
gitude ; where and when, unlike the " noble Roman" and
Dr. Ruschenberger, who each lamented that he had " lost
a day," we, on the contrary, exclaimed that " we had
A VOYAGE AHOUND THE WORLD. 209
gained a day ;" and, adding another Thursday to our
reckoning, evidenced the inaccuracy of another verbal
fallacy, " that two Thursdays never come together."
But the curious, the bright, and the terrible, that often
meet the voyager on the ocean, have not rendered our pas-
sage through the Pacific ocean, thus far, otherwise than a
very sad one. It was sincerely hoped, that, so soon as
our ship should reach a northern latitude, our sick-list
would diminish, and our apparently convalescent cases be-
come much improved in health. But the gale we had ex-
perienced, and the loss of fresh provisions which had been
laid in for the sick, as a consequence of the gale, and the
obstinacy and almost incurableness of the disease of the
dysentery of the East, made our ship a floating hospital.
We left the roads of Macao with more than a hundred
and twenty on the sick-list ; and death seemed the only
power that diminished the old numbers, while new cases or
the recurrence of old ones supplied the vacancies that this
perpetual comer among our numbers continued to reduce.
In one instance, three of our crew have been given to
the deep, at the same moment ; in another, two ; and on
two or three days at different times of the day, two others.
In all, since the time of our leaving the anchorage of Tung
Koo, and this day, the 10th of October, on nearing the
anchorage-ground, off Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, we
have lost twenty-six men.
But the sight of these fair isles, rising high up, from
the placid expanse of the wide and deep ocean, beneath
a sky so fair, and a climate so mild and sunny, as this day
presents, in the latitude and longitude, and in full sight of
the island of Oahu, cheers every heart and delights every
anxious mind, in the anticipation of supplying our ships
with the necessaries for the sick, and for the recruiting of
an exhausted, dwindling, dying crew.
For myself. I record it, in acknowledgment of the kind-
ness of a Providence I would never distrust, that after an
illness of three weeks, I am again convalescent, and, in
the opinion of our benevolent and Christian surgeon, pre-
pared rapidly to be reinstated to usual health, at our pause
of a few weeks at these islands, never more welcome to
the weather-beaten and distressed, than to us.
210 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
SECTION VIII.
SANDWICH ISLANDS.
HONOLULU.
Honolulu. Delightful climate. Courteous reception. Call at Mrs. L.'s.
Dr. R. and Rev. Mr. S. Rev. Mr. Bingham preaches on board the Co-
lumbia. Sixteen thousand natives members of the church. No milk on
Sunday. A still Sabbath, to America a national characteristic. Resi-
dence on shore. Houses of the missionaries. Natives on their way to
their meetings. Rev. Mr. Richards, interpreter to the king. Letter to
his Majesty Kammahamaha. Coral church. Native congregation at
worship. Tea at Mrs. Deill's. A marriage ; and the marriage party.
Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Sunday on shore. Address to the native con-
gregation. The native dress. The natives in the transition state from
savage to civilized life. Success of the mission. Disparagement of the
missionary action justly to be frowned upon. Tea at Rev. Mr. Bingham's.
Night-blooming ceres. Meet his Majesty Kammahamaha at Dr. Judd's,
at tea. The king forced to abrogate the temperance law, and admit French
brandy into the islands. Impolicy of reviving the ancient games. Messrs.
Castle, Knapp, Cook. Mr. Chamberlain and family. Lua at the Pari.
Salt lake. Success of the missionary enterprise at the Sandwich Islands.
Visit of the French frigate 1'Artemise. Manifesto of the French captain.
Protection offered to all foreign residents but the American missionaries
an insult to the American citizenship and American rights. Distress of
the mission families. Testimony of the officers of the squadron to the
disinterested and successful labors of the missionaries. Farewell to the
Sandwich Islands.
OUR ship anchored in the Roads of Honolulu, Thurs-
day morning, October the tenth. A sheet of beautiful
water spreads out itself between our ship and the coral
reefs, over which the surge in its roll curls its white lip,
and by a break in the cascading and coruscating foam of
the dashing and maddened breakers designates the narrow
and still pass between the jutting points of the two reefs,
to the inner bosom of the bay. The shore beyond sweeps
in a green aslant for miles to the northwest, while the
brown lava-peaks rise abruptly back of Honolulu, flanked
on the southeast by the truncated cone of Diamond Hill,
where once the fires and smoke and associate noise and
lava-streams disgorged themselves in volcanic eruptions.
Now it sleeps in its stillness and solitude as its rotund and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 211
brown sides lie against the horizon, separated from the
adjacent peaks, in its further-out position in the sea. And
then the valleys indenting these volcanic hills, as they
stretch their deep ravines across the island, here and there
develop their green sides, which retain their rich and
verdant coloring and luxuriousness, under the influence of
daily showers, descending from the misty clouds that hang
in their perpetual sombre on the highest peaks of the al-
'most perpendicular and lava-battlements which inwall
these deep cuts across the mountains. And the sun is out,
in its mild, and here, said to be innoxious beam, throwing
his enchantment of smiles over this yet different specimen
of the picturesque from what we have elsewhere seen ;
while the delicious atmosphere dilates the nostrils of the
invalid, at least, with acceptable and never more welcome
and revivifying breath. The shipping, including a number
of whalers and vessels of lesser tonage than a frigate, lie
in the inner harbor, hemmed in and protected seaward by
the coral reef; and the town stretches itself on the plain
of volcanic cinders and alluvial from the mountains, which
forms an extensive area between the base of the mountain
and beach, superincumbent on a coral bed.
I had not intended going on shore until the day or two
succeeding our arrival, being myself an invalid ; but an-
other death among our crew, making the twenty-seventh
since we left Tung Koo bay, occurring in the morning, I
accompanied the body a little before sunset to its burial-
place on shore. The dock we found crowded with ex-
pectant natives, who had learned from the men who dug
the grave, that a burial from the ship was to take place.
There where a hundred or more of all ages, sizes, and of
either sex, waiting the arrival of the boat. I was glad at
so early a moment to have an opportunity of seeing such
a promiscuous assembly of the natives, exhibiting so favor-
able a contrast in their dress and manners to the Malayan
population with which we have met in other parts of our
cruise. They accompanied the procession of the mariners
as they bore their comrade to his grave, advancing through
a wide street walled on either side by a line of parapet
formed of blocks of dried earth, giving a neat and regular
appearance to the street, while the dark material exhibits
45
212 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the sombre of a greater age than the formation of the ave-
nues, through which we passed to that part of the town,
where the grave-yard is situated.
There was an air of simplicity in the manners of this
good-natured people, which attracted my observation. Not
one unkind face was seen ; and here and there among
the group I marked, in the simple manner of expressing
their rude affection, several couples walking with the hand
of one within the other's, and all apparently enjoying the
scene with the natural curiosity of rude minds, but with
perfectly respectful demeanor. The grave was surround-
ed, as the body was lowered to its rest ; and while a hun-
dred voices were heard a moment before, a stillness per-
vaded the whole group, so that a whisper could have been
heard throughout their number, as I removed my hat and
recited the funeral service at the head of another of our
men, who first occupies his place here among the dead,
only as a forerunner of a number more who will for ever
sleep in the volcanic dust of the island we now are visiting.
The services at the burial being over, two strangers of
the foreign residents were introduced to me, one of them
handing me a note from an acquaintance, whom I had met
in Macao, and now assuring me of a welcome to Honolulu.
" Rest assured," says this kind and polite note, which I
quote here as evidence of the ever ready courtesies and
hospitality tendered by our Christian friends abroad, " I
can speak for myself and my missionary friends, that our
hearts and houses are always open to welcome the stran-
ger, as well as to sympathize with the distressed. It is
true we are deprived of the elegancies of life, but we have
ever had reason to rejoice in the belief that we were in the
way of duty marked out to us by our heavenly Father."
The same note informed me that a lady of the mission
was acquainted with some of my friends of New- York,
and insisted with her husband upon the right of claiming
me as their guest during the stay of our ships at the island.
On returning to the frigate our boat passed the John
Adams, lying at anchor. She arrived some hours later
than ourselves, this morning, after a separation of about
forty days, during which time both ships have been well
buffeted by boisterous seas. We were glad to see our
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 213
consort arriving in the offing, after we had been lying but
a few hours at our moorings.
Several of the gentlemen of the mission were on board
the day succeeding our arrival, leaving their names for the
Commodore, who had gone ashore to call on the king.
They left the ship at an early hour to visit, on their way
to the shore, the John Adams, where they were sure to
meet with a welcome reception from the gentlemanly of-
ficers of the Adams, who have manifested, in no equivo-
cal manner, their due appreciation of the missionary char-
acter in several of the ports at which we have called on
our cruise in the East. The name of the Rev. Mr. Bing-
ham has most frequently been before the public in connec-
tion with the Sandwich Islands missions, and my interview
with him to-day leads me to believe him a devoted, as he
has long and very meritoriously exhibited himself to be
an unflinching disciple of Jesus Christ.
The succeeding day, Saturday, I visited the shore,
making several calls and dining at Mrs. L.'s, who had
very kindly sent me an invitation to make her house my
home during our stay at this port ; but I deemed my mis-
sionary friends to have a prior claim upon me, and there-
fore accepted a previous invitation to make my home,
whenever I went on shore, at Mr. and Mrs. D.'s.
Dr. Ruschenberger's book in relation to the islands was
very naturally made the topic of conversation.
For my part, I assured my lady-host, that standing on
the high peaks of the mountains back of Honolulu, I
should willingly trust myself to the care of Dr. Ruschen-
berger, to save me from pitching headlong over the pre-
cipice as I gazed on the beautiful sea in the distance and
the island scenery about us ; but as for Mr. Stewart, not
to him should I trust me in such circumstances, lest to-
f ether we should pitch down the steep, to the breaking of
oth our necks. Dr. R. has but little imagination. Mr.
Stewart's mind glows in its perceptions of the beautiful
of nature. And yet this does not necessarily make Mr.
S.'s descriptions less accurate, or Dr. R.'s correct. They
might be both true to nature, so far as each, in his own
way and with his own eyes, viewed them. But one eye
would detect a light and a shade in coloring a tint and
114 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
convolution in a cloud ; a wave in the undulating surface
of a field or in the flexible bend of a meadow of grass,
and drink in the harmonies of nature through the sight,
as the ear taketh in the melodies of sound; while the
other saw not, heard not, felt not. And yet the more de-
licate eye and the more sensitive heart, in description,
would paint, and truly, what it actually did see, and the
emotions actually felt, in view of the perception ; while
the other, seeing only one half the first perceived, feels,
accordingly, only one half as much, and wonders that the
other should be such an enthusiast ; when, in fact, the
feelings of the first are only in the same ratio with his
perceptions, as were the other's, who saw with but half
an eye, and consequently felt with half a heart.
But delivering my sentiment, I believe, in fewer words
than I have employed in repeating it, I perceived an
agreeable smile to wreath the lip of Mrs. L., which in-
duced me to add, " But I have never seen Dr. R. ; were
you acquainted with him ?"
" He stayed with us when here," was the reply ; " and
we found him a very agreeable gentleman," continued
Mrs. L., with another of her characteristic and agreeable
expressions.
" Well, then," I continued, " I have no doubt but Dr.
R. told you that your boy" (a fine little fellow of three
years of age, then sitting at the table) " had a very fine
head."
" Yes, he said so," continued my lady-host ; when we
continued to discuss Dr. R.'s excellencies, phrenological
acquisitions, etc., very much to our own satisfaction, no
doubt, and certainly to the agreeable passing of a half
hour in analysis of Dr. R.'s merits as a writer.
But, in truth, I have not read Dr. Ruschenberger and
the Rev. Mr. Stewart's letters, originated by Dr. R.'s
work, and therefore, for the time being, excuse myself
from taking upon me the duties of an umpire in the case.
Mrs. L.'s situation is quite a pleasant one, in the cot-
tage style, and will be yet more pleasant when yet more
shrubbery and folia of taller trees cluster about it and
shade the grounds.
On Sunday, agreeably to an invitation which I had
A VOYAGE .ROUND THE WORLD. 215
presented to the gentleman of the mission, at the request
of Commodore Read, that one of their number should
officiate on board the Columbia, the Rev. Mr. Bingham
gave us a discourse, in which he stated a fact, which ought
to thrill the heart of Christendom and paralyze the tongue
of defamation, that about sixteen thousand of the inhabit-
ants of these islands have become communicants in the
churches, and exhibit evidences of sincerity, as the dis-
ciples of Jesus Christ. " Among this number are most of
the influential chiefs of the islands. And although the
nation is but partially enlightened in its advance from the
savage state to the civilized, the principles of the gospel
have become familiar to their minds and feelings ; and
the cases of discipline, regarded as puritanically strict by
some when associated with the sect of Christians which
is established here, are not more frequent than in the
churches of the same denomination, in the United States.
Ten thousand of this number have been gathered into the
churches, as the fruits of the more than unusual and in-
teresting state of feeling on the subject of religion, which
has pervaded the population of all the islands during the
last two years.
It was no unequivocal evidence of the change which
has been effected in the circumstances and habits of this
people, given us by an amusing little incident which oc-
curred this morning. In other parts, wherever we have
been, in the East, the Sabbath day has been to the people
generally, as any other day. The Arabian, the Hindoo,
the Singalese, the Malay, and the Chinese, give no consid-
eration to the Christian Sabbath ; and their tradesmen
work at their several employments. Their shopkeepers
deal in their merchandise on this day as much as on any
other of the week ; and in their engagements with the
European are often unable to tell when the Christian's
Sabbath comes, unless they are reminded of it in view of
engagements they may be making, and never take it into
account without being thus reminded. And the Roman
Catholic is not, one would think who has observed their
customs abroad, much or at all better in the reverence
due to this holy day, who, while they are supposed to re-
spect the sacred day of rest, yet turn it into a holiday for
45*
516 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
amusements and good cheer. In Catholic European
countries we know that it is the principal day for frequent-
ing the theatres and other places of amusement, par-
ticularly thrown open on Sunday for the supposed benefit
of the populace. And in South America and in the East
I have seen the Sabbath day, which terminated the gala
season of some favorite saint, devoted to the pomp of
parade, and concluded by an exhibition of fireworks the
discharge of sky-rockets and crackers for the amusement
and amid the carousal of the mob in front of the temple-
gates.
It was a delightful contrast, then, this Sabbath morn-
ing, which was presented to our ship, as she slept in her
loneliness and quiet on the bosom of these waters, amid
the calm and the rest of a Sabbath-day morning. Not
one native boat was alongside, and a stillness pervaded,
where heretofore, each Sunday morning we have been in
the ports of the East, the chatter of a hundred native
voices has greeted the ear.
Our market-boat, which had been sent to the shore,
ere long arrived alongside, and before I had left my room,
I heard a murmur of displeasure about " no milk having
been procured." As my boy called me to breakfast,
"Smith," I asked, "have you gotten no milk this morning?"
" No milk, sir, this morning the missionaries will not let
it come off."
" The missionaries, dunce !" I exclaimed, with a half-
suppressed smile, " what have the missionaries to do with
it r
" Don't know, sir, but they say the missionaries"
Here my boy seemed to perceive the ridiculousness of the
complaint against the missionaries, which, if true, the fact
told volumes in their favor, of the happy influence they
had brought to bear upon the public sentiment of this com-
munity, and he left his sentence unfinished.
The subject was a matter of remark at the table ; and
while it was proposed, either in ill-will or sport, that a
boat should be ordered off from the shore, it was conceded
that things were in fact as they should be, on the Sabbath
day, and that the influence of Christian principles here was
not only holy, but truly American, in contrast with scenes
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 211
that have attended us during our whole course, since we
left our native land. And it' there were no other consid-
eration than that of preserving a striking and beautiful na-
tional characteristic, the American should ever be an ad-
vocate for a quiet, restful, Christian Sabbath.
Our steward had relied on the shore-boats for milk, but
such has been, and is, the influence of the missionary ac-
tion at this island, that no boats are seen moving from the
shore on the Sabbath morning, or to it, save from the
ships, for attendance of religious services at the seamen's
chapel.
But not only is the observance of the Sabbath here
more purely American, as well as Christian, than we have
found it elsewhere since we left the United States ; it is
also true that other things harmonize with the unperverted
tastes of a citizen of the land of our homes. The very
beef, turkeys and other poultry, potatoes and other vegeta-
bles, taste like the same articles we have eaten in the
United States. All perceive this, and relish it accordingly,
in contrast with the less agreeably flavored articles pro-
cured in the Indies. Even for these four days, during
which we have been at the Sandwich Islands, we have
thus been often and agreeably carried back in our memo-
ries to the homes of our infancy.
On Monday I took up my residence on shore with my
stranger-friends, Mr. and Mrs. Dirnond, to the neglect of
invitations from others of the foreign residents, to whom
my acknowledgments are due, that I might be more im-
mediately in the neighborhood and circle of the missiona-
ry families.
The residences of the missionaries are generally two-
story dwellings, built of coral-rock, with narrow piazzas
in front. The premises had been yet more pleasant had
the piazzas been wider, and the roofs of the buildings ex-
tended proportionally, for yielding an acceptable shade in
a warm climate. All the houses of the mission families
have more or less shrubbery in their yards, and shade,
from the very beautiful and gaudy mimosa, as I took the
plant to be, down to the favorite little rosa vincula, which
flourishes luxuriantly here, and without an abundance of
water, which is a consideration, as the soil is of such a
218 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
nature, in its capacity for absorption of moisture, that it
makes the irrigation of plants even of a small plot of
ground a considerable labor, with the few conveniences
and water advantages enjoyed for the purpose.
The ladies of the mission deserve credit for the beauti-
fying of the grounds about their houses so far as they have
gone, as I am informed that the praise of what has been
done is principally due to them ; and it is certainly a
thought worthy of consideration, that the lots possessed by
the mission should be thus improved and adorned by the
beauties of nature, tending, as such improvements do, to
the health of a family of children, the refinement of their
feelings, and the cultivation of their tastes. It is said that
flowers about the hut of a savage is a sure evidence that
there is some advance of civilization within, beyond that
of others of the tribe. And the garland of ferns and the
beetel flower, and other green and flowery chaplets that
are here sometimes seen to wreath the tawny brow of the
lowest of these Sandwich Islanders, while it may serve to
render the deficit costume of the poorer native yet more
glaring and laughable to the unphilosophic eye, yet de-
clares that the least civilized among these people have ad-
vanced one step on the scale of refinement in feeling and
of elevation in social life. And when each native shall
have a small bed of flowers, or a single flower-pot cher-
ishing a choice shrub at the door of his thatched hut, he
will exhibit proof of having taken an additional step in
the path of civilization and refinement of feeling, harmo-
nizing with the legitimate tendencies of Christian princi-
ples. And thus should the native be encouraged to have
his little border of the rosa vincula as well as his larger
patch of kalo.
From my window at Mr. D.'s the Columbia is seen
lying in full view, and near enough for her colors to be
designated by the naked eye, while between her anchorage
in the roads and the shore the surf breaks in its eternal
voice and monotony, and long line of untarnished white.
And in the heavy swell of the open roadstead, even at this
distance, the frigate is sometimes seen to lie in a state of
unrest, as her trucks mark their curve lines on the azure
above them.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 219
It is a more interesting view, however, to see, from my
window, the crowds of the natives on their way to the ear-
ly morning meeting, to which the church bell has summoned
them, at the break of day. One of the churches is a short
distance beyond the residence of Mr. D., and my window
commands it, with the intervening area. The building
itself is an immense thing for the space it covers, con-
structed of upright poles and cross-ribs, to which thatch-
work of grass is attached externally, of which material the
roof is likewise composed. This building inwalls an area
of twelve thousand square feet, and allowing three square
feet for each attendant, will give seats for four thousand
natives, as they place themselves upon their mats, which
constitute the floor. The introduction of seats in different
parts of the building diminishes the capacity of the build-
ing by some few hundreds. A number of doors form the
entrances into this spacious area, which also serve in this
mild climate for lighting the building. Thither, for morn-
ing prayers, the natives gather in large numbers ere the
sun has yet come up over the high peaks of the island-
mountains, though he may be shining on their eastern
ranges, and on the ocean beyond them. And here too,
during this week, in attendance on " a protracted meet-
ing," the natives are seen gathering twice at other hours
of the day. And when the services are over, they stream
in vast numbers, from every door of the spacious building,
in order and propriety, returning to their homes. No
noise, or the loud laugh is heard, but stillness and a gentle
demeanor, not often so universal in a higher state of civil-
ization, prevail, as the crowd floats along the streets to
their humble residences.
At dinner I met the Rev. Mr. Richards, who has ac-
cepted the appointment of interpreter- to the king and in-
structer of the adujt chiefs.
On a late visit to the United States, Mr. Richards con-
veyed proposals from the king and his chiefs, for some
Christian and philanthropic member of the bar to visit the
Sandwich Islands, for the purpose of giving instruction in
political economy and jurisprudence, and the general sci-
ence of law, for the benefit of the rulers of this nation, and
for the better organization of its laws and development of
220 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
its resources. Mr. Richards found it impossible, at the
time, to procure such a person, to the regret of the mission
and the disappointment of the chiefs. But, the chiefs said
on further consideration, " we are glad that you have been
unsuccessful in your application. It would have taken
such a person, had you found one, some years to acquire
such a knowledge of our language, as would enable us to
understand him. But you already have a knowledge of
the language, and we can converse with you and under-
stand you as one of our own number. You, therefore, must
take this duty upon yourself, and we will support you."
This was an entirely unexpected proposition to Mr. R.,
from the chiefs ; and not once dreaming of entering upon
such a task, he had brought no works with him which he
might need for this purpose from the United States ; and
besides, it being contrary to the instructions of the Board
of missions, that their missionaries should connect them-
selves at all with any government, near which they might
reside, Mr. R. still hesitated. But the subject being one
of great importance at this particular point of the nation's
circumstances, in their advance from the savage state to
the civilized, when the chiefs have felt the influences of
Christianity, and mostly become conscientious in their de-
sires of acting right and of advancing in civilization as
well as in morals, they need the light they now have not,
to inform their judgments, and for the suggestion of cor-
rect principles, to enable them to mature those plans which
shall most rapidly and successfully advance the nation in
civilization, and develop, for national and individual pros-
perity, the resources of the island.
In view of these considerations, Mr. R. was finally in-
duced to accede to the wishes of the chiefs ; and feeling
the embarrassment that the instructions of the Board to
their missionaries to abstain from all interference with the
affairs of the government might occasion him, or that he
might be deemed as transgressing the letter of these in-
structions by accepting the appointment, he sent in his
resignation to the Board on entering upon the duties of
his station. His connection therefore with the Board of
missions has ceased, while his sympathies necessarily con-
tinue with the missionaries ; and with them, in his present
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 221
situation, is he endeavoring to advance the people to the
possession of those institutions which characterize a Chris-
tian and civilized nation. His responsibility for his further
action is now to the chiefs, to his own country at home,
and to his God. And it is to be hoped that he will have
the independence, decision of character, and the wisdom
to act as the present necessities of the people or any
unforeseen circumstance of the nation may require. I
consider Mr. Richards a gentleman well qualified for the
position he occupies. His amiableness will secure his pop-
ularity with the chiefs ; his piety, a conscientious course ;
and his familiarity with the national circumstances, his
aptness to acquire from books the principles applicable to
a nation's greatest prosperity, together with his practical
knowledge of the character of the people and the motives
that will most successfully influence them, will all enable
him at once to comprehend the ground upon which he
stands the obstacles in the way the object to be aimed
at and the most successful means for securing it.
It was my privilege, after the period of which I am now
speaking, to have many conversations with Mr. R. And
in this connection, although I have as yet but simply men-
tioned the KING of the Sandwich Islands, with whom I
afterwards frequently met on occasions yet to be described,
I choose to introduce the following note, sent to his ma-
jesty just previous to our leaving his islands ; and after I
had enjoyed ample opportunity of seeing and becoming in-
terested in the action here put forth by the missionaries for
the Christian and intellectual improvement of his subjects.
HONOLULU, October 18th, 1839.
To His Majesty Kammahamaha III.
The American people have heard much of the king,
chiefs, and people of the Sandwich Islands. It is a high
gratification to the writer that he now has the pleasure of
visiting your majesty's possessions, and to mark the ad-
vance of institutions of which he has heard much and with
which he has not been disappointed, by his inspection of
them since his arrival at this place.
Your majesty will believe me when I assure you that,
at home, the missionaries to your possessions have the con-
222 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
fidence of the American nation ; and that the American
government gives your majesty its cordial wishes for the
advance of every valuable institution tending to the pro-
motion of intelligence, morals, and the Christian religion
among your subjects. That I may evince to your ma-
jesty my own feelings of interest, I herewith beg you to
accept " Kent's Commentaries," a work in four volumes,
which contain the collected knowledge of one of our
greatest men and most able jurists, who has, for his learn-
ing and his worth, the confidence and admiration of the
people of the United States.
The Rev. Mr. Richards, who I am happy to learn has
accepted the appointment as your majesty's interpreter,
will find these volumes of great service in illustrating
the great and general principles of the laws of civilized
nations ; and be enabled, so far as they may be applicable
in forming the jurisprudence of your majesty's government,
to present to your majesty's consideration the interesting
subjects on which these volumes treat.
Most assuredly and cordially, and with great respect,
Your friend,
FITCH W. TAYLOR,
Chaplain U. S. frigate Columbia.
P. S. The Rev. Mr. Taylor having heard that Mr.
Richards has just received a set of " Kent's Commenta-
ries,"* begs leave to substitute a set of English History,
in nine volumes, in the place of the Commentaries, which
he proposed to send as evidence of the assured interest he
takes in his majesty's happiness, and the mental and reli-
gious welfare of his majesty's people
Besides the large building already described, which
occupies the southern end of the town in the neighbor-
hood of the missionary residences, there is a newer and
better edifice, of equal dimensions, with neat dobie walls
and glazed windows in the northern part of the town,
* By an arrival of a vessel from the U. S. the day after writing
the preceding letter. The same vessel brought an account of the
Board's acceptance of Mr. R.'s resignation as a member of the mis-
sion.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 223
where a congregation usually gather at the same hours as
at the other. This congregation is under the care of the
Rev. Mr. Smith the other is under the pastoral charge
of the Rev. Mr. Bingham. The usual number of the con-
gregations attending at these two native churches, at the
same hour, varies from twenty-five hundred to three thou-
sand each.
A new church is being erected for Mr. Bingham's
congregation, on a large scale, and of durable materials.
The walls of heavy blocks of coral rock are already car-
ried up some twenty feet or more. The building is one
hundred and fifty-four feet by seventy-eight, and with gal-
leries will accommodate three to four thousand people.
It is no larger than is desirable for the congregation ; and
when finished will be a building very creditable to the
place, and do honor to this interesting island-nation, now
in its transition state from barbarism to civilized life. And
few things will tend more rapidly to advance the people
on the scale of civilization than such works, while they
add permanency to the Christian institutions which they
have adopted among them. For the erection of this
building, the king subscribed three thousand dollars, and
the chiefs and people twenty-five hundred dollars more.
The materials for building this spacious edifice are brought
from a coral formation, where the blocks are quarried.
At first it was proposed by the chie'fs that these blocks
should be conveyed as burdens generally are, or have
been, upon the shoulders of the natives, with the simple
use of the pole. But a simple invention of wheels, and
an experiment with the assistance of a yoke of oxen at-
tended by a boy, soon convinced the natives that a simple
dray would save them the labor of a thousand men.
And it is thus that this people are daily acquiring the
knowledge necessary for the advance of a community in
all improvements, and to appreciate the power of that
knowledge. And when this building shall have been
completed, it will have shown the king and chiefs, and
the Hawaiian people, that they have resources that they
never dreamed of; and advance them in self-possession
and dignity of character in proportion to this new con-
sciousness of their capabilities and power.
46
224 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
The progress in the erection of this building has been
interrupted by a late incident (the visit of the French fri-
gate FArtemise) at this place, which will receive the ani-
madversion, and I trust just censure, of the writer, in the
sequel of this sketch of his visit to the Sandwich Islands.
The site for this church edifice is a good one, though
occupying the plain ; and the proportions of the structure
are in keeping. I should have altered some particulars
in the model, but it is interesting as it now is, as showing
its paternity. The New Englander will at once recognise
its origin, in its walls broken by double rows of small
windows, instead of the continuous Gothic or elongated
Corinthian. The additional strength gained, and the char-
acteristic language of its model, would at once prevent
the suggestion of change, and at the same time render
undesirable any alteration in the proportions of the inter-
esting fabric.
I happened in to the native church, in the afternoon.
What a scene was that which I witnessed ! I never
dreamed of seeing such, though I had read and thought
much of missions, and seen much on our cruise around
the world. But here were before me near two- thousand
worshipping disciples of Jesus Christ, in their own native
building, which their own hands had erected and thatched.
It was one of the native prayer-meetings of the two churches,
during the session of a conference or protracted meeting
of this week. A native prayed, reverently, in the soft
and expressive language of the people, with a measured
intonation, and sometimes with a repetition of words that
struck the ear with the agreeableness of rhythm. A hymn
was sung. A number, twelve or more, of the female na-
tives were in front of the pulpit, and as many of the males,
constituting together a choir, on the level of the congre-
gation, without the usual separation and formalities. Their
singing was agreeable, and the performance creditable.
Having familiarized myself with the pronunciation of the
Hawaiian language, I joined in the tune. A second prayer
was offered by the Rev. Mr. Bingham, in the native lan-
guage. Having turned a leaf that I might remember the
hymn that was sung, I left the church at the conclusion
of the prayer. I came to my room, not far distant from
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
225
the church, to muse in memory of the scene I had left.
What hath not God done ! A nation become a religious
people, who were but late the worshippers of idols and
the advocates of human sacrifices and before me I had
just seen nearly two thousand of them worshipping the
God of Christians. Will that God forsake them, in their
attempts to please him, however rude may be their first
essays towards attainments in knowledge and reformation
in morals ? I think he will not.
In the evening I took tea with Mrs. Deill, the lady of
the seamen's chaplain, at the port of Honolulu.
The succeeding morning I called with Mrs. D. on the
families of the English and French consuls. Mrs. Dudoit,
the lady of the French consul, is deemed among the pret-
tiest of the foreign residents here, and is said to be as
amiable as pretty ; and Miss C., the sprightly daughter of
the English consul, is almost the only unmarried young
lady among the fair exotics of Honolulu, and has been but
a short time in the island from " home."
MARRIAGE AT HONOLULU.
Thursday evening was an era in the little world of the
foreign residents, I suppose, at least in that part of it over
which the nuptial divinities claim empire. A marriage in
Honolulu I should think an unfrequent occurrence among
the foreign population. The wedding party, then, of Mrs.
Little, now Mrs. Hooper, became an interesting incident,
and the parties most particularly concerned seem to have
timed the period of their union with some reference to the
visit of our squadron, which we certainly should appreciate
as a compliment. A. few particular friends, the American
consul, and Captain Wyman of the John Adams, were
present at the ceremony, performed by the chaplain of the
squadron. Nearly all the foreign residents, soon after,
were in the rooms. I was particularly pleased with the
entrance of the governor of the island, who advanced to
the bride and gave her his hand, and then, successively, to
the other ladies and gentlemen in the room, and with an
ease and a grace that was not surpassed by the entree of
any gentleman during the evening. There may have been
226 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the smallest spice imaginable of the hauteur militaire in his
movement, which however did not diminish his ease, but
in his circumstances of office and rank, and being the only
native present in the crowd of foreigners, with every eye
for a moment fixed upon him, did him credit. The king
was absent, on the plea of illness. The governor left
the rooms early, and Commodore Read, who is doing him-
self credit at these islands, also soon disappeared, with
the considerate dignity of his high command ; while the
party seemed to arrange themselves in groups of easy
guests, though, as is not unfrequently the case in many
parties, there may have been too much clustering of the
sexes into their separate classes.
The American Consul introduced the officers of the
squadron ; and with a degree of home feeling and famil-
iarity, did credit to himself and the position he holds. Ere
long he was absent, for attention to his ill family.
The bride, an interesting young widow lady, was pret-
ty, as all brides are, and more than what is true of all
other brides, in this instance, is a tasteful and clever wo-
man.
The succeeding evening I took tea with Mr. and Mrs.
Smith. Most of the missionary families were present dur-
ing the evening. The Rev. Mr. Bishop, from Ewa, ar-
rived to-day, from whom I had previously received a let-
ter. He was my early instructor in the academy at Lau-
renceville, N. J. He is a worthy man, well informed, and
has improved in interest, though here comparatively iso-
lated. There is sterling worth in intellect and feeling in
his character. The evening was spent in agreeable con-
versation. Scientific subjects are not unfamiliar to the
members of the mission, as well as the religious and the
intellectual of other departments. Several of the mission-
ary ladies here have handsome collections of shells, and
specimens in mineralogy and geology, with lavas and cu-
riosities associated with the islands of the Pacific. And
though there is but very little of the " azure hose or blue
stocking club" discernible in the conversation of these
women, occasionally they may venture to hint the scien-
tific name of some shell, when exhibited as a beautiful spe-
cimen in conchology. Some of them show themselves
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 227
creditably familiar with several branches in the natural
sciences ; and I have been told, otherwise I should not have
learned it from the retiring manners of the lady in ques-
tion, that one of their number, at least, is familiar with
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
Mrs. S., my interesting hostess of the evening, showed
me some pretty impressions of plants taken by herself,
and an orange cowry, a shell I have never before seen,
but have made many and unsuccessful inquiries for.
The residence of this missionary family is in the northern
part of the town near the church of the second congrega-
tion, of which the Rev. Mr. S. is pastor. It is a very plea-
sant situation, in full view of the luxuriant and beautiful
valley, which stretches quite across the island, terminating
at the further end, by the abrupt and storied precipice of
the Pari. Mrs. S., with her fine susceptibilities to the beau-
tiful in nature, appreciates and enjoys the view, and de-
scribes it with correspondent feelings. She would wonder
that any eye could behold it and not kindle equally with
her own.
The social interview was terminated by singing, prayer,
and a few remarks naturally awakened by the circum-
stances of the meeting. It was not the worship of mere
ceremony. It was the expression of mutual sympathies,
at a welcome and social moment, when hearts blended
their feelings in a thank-offering of worship to the God who
has made us religious, and intellectual, and social beings.
The more disinterested, and the more worthy, and the
more persecuted does this band of benevolent men and
women appear to me, the more I hear, and learn, and see
of them.
A SABBATH AT HONOLULU.
Sunday, the succeeding day but one, and the only Sab-
bath I spent on shore at Honolulu, may never be forgot-
ten by me. I preached twice in the seamen's chapel to
attentive congregations. The foreign residents and the
missionaries attend the services of the chapel the native
services being so arranged by the missionaries as to admit
of it. But the service the most peculiar, and which will
46*
228 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
leave the longest impression upon my self, was the meeting
I attended in the large church of the natives. The spa-
cious building was filled when I reached the house. 1
walked through a long range of these Hawaiians, as I as-
cended from the door, crowded thick upon the mats and
filling the whole area, or were arranged upon their seats
occupying the more central part of the building. As I
entered the pulpit, already occupied by the Rev. Mr. Bing-
ham and the Rev. Mr. Richards, I looked over a congre-
gation of near three thousand of these worshipping island-
ers. What a scene was this for a Christian to contem-
plate in a foreign land, where the same people a few years
before were a heathen and a savage nation ! And before
me, now, were some who had witnessed, and one, at least,
who had been the cause of human sacrifices, to propitiate
and atone for a broken tabu, which human blood alone
could satisfy. A hymn was sung ; after which I gave the
congregation an address, which was interpreted, sentence
by sentence, with such facility by Mr. Bingham, that there
seemed but a little break in the continuance of the discourse.
It was still throughout the house. Attention was arrested,
and held. I repeat not here even the substance of the ad-
dress, but I assured the islanders that it was happiness for
a stranger, from a far land, to witness them worshipping the
same God he worshipped the same Redeemer the same
sanctifying Spirit. " Their friends, the missionaries," I
continued, " who were also our friends, had told us much
in their letters sent from the islands, but they had not said
all that I, that day, beheld before me. In America, they
prayed for the Hawaiians. They prayed for the missiona-
ries among them. The missionaries had left their homes,
and friends, and many comforts for long years ; and we,
who in our ships have been absent from our homes, which
are in the same land they left, though but for one year and
a half, yet feel how dear that home is to us, and therefore
can estimate how much these our missionary friends have
been willing to leave for the love of Christ, to spend a life-
time of labor among you. In America, therefore, we give
them our prayers we give them our Christian love we
give them our confidence we give them, sometimes,
when we think of them so far away, our tears. But we
- A VOYAGL AROUND THE WORLD. 229
also are happy that they are among you, doing their duty
where they think God has directed them to come. Will
you not, therefore, more than ever, listen to their words ?
Will you not be more grateful that they have told you
of the immortal soul the thing within us which thinks,
and loves, and is happy, or is sad, and wishes to be happy
still and for ever, when the body shall have gone back to
its dust? Hawaiians, these missionaries have brought you
things worth more than gold more than gems more
than silver dollars more than pearls they have told you
how to save for ever this immortal pearl within you ; and
how, millions of years hence, if Christians, ye shall live
on and be happy with the undying saints in heaven, where
God shall give to them his friendship as he gives it to his
angels. Will ye not then hear them ?
" I am glad that I can talk with you, through my friend,
though I do not understand your language. But I must not
talk longer with you. Yet would I ask of you, who are
professors of religion, will you give me your prayers?
Our ships will soon again leave you, as we go on our way
around the world to our homes. We came not to disturb
you. We came to approve of your religious worship, and
to tell you so. And when I reach America, I shall tell the
Christians there that I have met those who love God among
the Hawaiians that I have heard them pray to our God
sing in our own hymns and tunes and that I have shed
my tears while I have beheld the sight, and thanked God
for permitting me to behold it. I shall never be with you
again. Christian Hawaiians, through this house ! here in
your temple I shall not meet you again, but hope to meet
you in heaven. Farewell ! But when I shall have reach-
ed America, I will not forget you. I will not forget how
I have heard you pray, sing, and worship. I will not for-
get your green valleys your home in the islands in the
seas. I will not forget these missionary friends ; but when
the sun wakes up over the hills, and when it goes down
in the ocean, I will pray for them and for you. Hawaii-
ans, farewell ! Hold fast the religion you love. Let a
world, if it will, rage. Still hold ye on to the religion of
Jesus Christ. The world will soon crumble to nothing.
These mountains and this ocean shall soon be burned up,
230 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and then you will want the friendship of Christ. Hold
on, then, to the religion of Jesus Christ ! And when hea-
ven and earth pass away, you shall find Him to be to you
more than an elder brother your Redeemer, and your
all. Hawaiians, farewell !"
I offer no apology for introducing this brief sketch of
part of the address alluded to, in the form I here present
it, and in which, amid the circumstances described, it was
delivered. It will more naturally paint the scene that was
presented before me, than otherwise could be done. When
I had ended my address, Mr. Richards spoke briefly and
feelingly to the congregation. A hymn was then sung, in
a melody that could not but touch the heart of him, with
any feeling, who for the first time looked on such a scene
as this. And while my own was melting, I thought if ever
there were a just cause for indignation, it was while hear-
ing flippant man, as sometimes he has been heard, decry-
ing the holy and self-denying men and women who have
here been laboring for years to produce the astonishing
and glorious effects which I now beheld before me. And
never did virtue more justly frown on vice, than wakes
the voice of benevolence in displeasure when contempla-
ting the vicious defamation which self-interest, jealous
traffic, and depravity of heart, at times indulge against
such demonstrations of the righteous work of God's chil-
dren, who advocate the religion of Jesus Christ in its pu-
rity and practice.
On attempting to leave the church, at the conclusion of
the services, I found it impossible to proceed for a while, as
the warm-hearted natives pressed around me to give me
their hands ; but moving slowly as I accepted the proffered
demonstration of their interest on either side of me, as 1
passed, I finally broke through their gathered numbers.
And when I had reached my room, but a short distance
from the church, which overlooks the grounds in the neigh-
borhood, I gazed, with a feasted eye and a full heart, on
the streams of men, women, and children, flowing from
every door of the large building, and directing their way
to their homes, in the quiet and orderly walk of the respect-
ful, who give consideration and conscientious observance
to the Sabbath day.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 231
All were decently clad, but in such a manner and variety
of costume, in coloring and in material, as to interest the
beholder, and to declare the transition state of the natives,
in their passage from their original savage to civilized life.
Here was a passing group, one of whom perhaps was clad
in a* deep orange-colored gown, with a bright yellow wrap-
per around the waist, knotted behind by the upper corners,
so as to form something like an apron, while the dark bushy
hair was filleted with a wreath of yellow flowers or a roll
of yellow feathers, constituting; a costly ornament for the
head or neck of the female native. Another, in the same
group, has thrown a large purple tappa around him, knot-
ted over one of his shoulders after the style of the Roman
toga, and discovering a white shirt beneath, with a chaplet
of ferns circling his head, while his dark neck and lower
limbs are left in the freeness and bareness of a Highland
chief's. Again, a light blue silk shawl covers a white
frock, with a small straw bonnet upon the head ; or a crim-
son shawl over a blue calico dress, with a similar hat.
Indeed, almost all the females wear a straw bonnet on the
Sabbath, which is manufactured upon the islands ; and I
am not certain but that the chaplet of leaves or flowers to
which I have alluded is only a week-day ornament. And
here, again, is seen an old man with a long staff in his
hand, and with feeble step, clad in a simple white dress of
tappa, the native material of the island, made often beau-
tifully from the bark of the mulberry, now wending his
way from a Christian temple, in deep thought and musings,
unlike those that attended him from the revel and the sac-
rifice of former days. And there, the light-hearted group
of children, in every color of stripe and figure of silk or
cotton, or tappa' of coarser or richer material, move on,
with free and bounding step. And there, the governor, in
his blue cloth frock-coat and white pantaloons, and straw
hat, is seen, attended by a little boy in his dress of frock-
coat and white trousers, and shoes and stockings ; and a
little girl, in black frock and white pantalettes and jockey
hat, all undistinguished from a well-dressed group of Eu-
ropeans, accompanied by a train of more indifferently clad
attendants. Many others were in European style, among
the males and females the loose gown, and shawl, and
232 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
bonnet being the common dress for the female natives.
And one group more may serve to fill up the picture. It
is the principal woman of the islands. She is drawn by
four or five natives, in a small hand-vehicle, with two
wheels, not unlike a porter's hand-cart, but a convenient
carriage on a plain and smooth path for the principal lady
of the islands, who is more than six feet high, and weighs
I know not how much. Her dress is European the
expression of her face good-natured and her signature
required to give validity to the acts of the king and his
chiefs. Her son is the adopted heir-apparent to the gov-
ernment of the islands, and she has in charge the infant
child, who holds, as queen, the same position in the govern-
ment as does his present majesty as king.
But as the eye lingers on this moving crowd, as they
are seen retiring from the house of worship to their homes,
presenting so great variety in their dress, they are yet all
decently clad, and move at their ease in stillness and pro-
priety, and exhibit evidences of great, though as yet a rude
contentment and happiness.
How great is the contrast ! How unlike the picture
the same people exhibited but a few years ago ! Another
congregation of equal size, at the other end of the town,
was dispersing from the house of worship to which they
had gathered, in like order, decency, and rude respecta-
bility. The wide avenue, extending for a half mile be-
tween the two churches, seemed crowded by the meeting
throng.
But it would require the Christian community at home
to see, as I have seen to-day, the worshipping thousands
of the Hawaiians, duly to appreciate the scene. Over the
same congregation of these islanders which I had addressed,
the eye of the Christian could look, in late months, as they
gathered for worship, and see, not as an unfrequent scene,
half the congregation in tears, as the preacher declared
to them the truths which have been borne to their under-
standings, through the labors of the devoted missionary,
during the few past years. They bowed their heads in
sorrow for their sinfulness with religious sympathies, in
view of the affecting story of the plan of salvation and
resolved to be the disciples of Jesus Christ. And to this
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 233
church, more than four hundred have been added, on pro-
fession of religion, during the last year ; and more than
six hundred to the communion in the second church ; and
more than ten thousand, in all, to the churches on the dif-
ferent islands. And the whole number of the communi-
cants in the different churches of the mission amounts to
more than sixteen thousand souls. The mission has thus
been blessed, by an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon
its churches, and the ingathering of thousands to the
communion. At Hilo, on a neighboring island, five thou-
sand two hundred and forty-four have, this last year,
joined the church. And at Waimea, on the same island
of Hawaii, twenty-three hundred more. Surely, the
heart that has any Christian sympathies for the cause of
Christ, or the eternal welfare of his fellow-men, must glow
in view of this statement ; and the lover of the mission-
ary cause may exult in gratitude to the Giver of all good,
for this triumphant exhibition of the success of Christ's
cause among the heathen. And tell me, Christian reader,
while the grateful tear wakes in memory of the goodness
of God to your own soul, and in boundless mercies to these
once and but lately benighted savages, can you feel other-
wise than an abhorrence at the slang of the infidel and
the opposer, who are sometimes heard, either from self-
interest or hate, to decry so worthy a cause and so wor-
thy a band of devoted men and women, who have bless-
ed, by their residence and efforts, at the sacrifice of friends
and home, the whole people of these islands ? Believe
me, this mission is worthy of the confidence of the Chris-
tian community at home ; and as surely as the smile of
God has rested so signally upon it, so surely it will receive
the confidence and the support of the Christians in Ameri-
ca. And I trust, as an Episcopalian, my testimony of
confidence and commendation and deep-felt interest in
behalf of this Congregational and Presbyterian mission
to the Sandwich Islands will not be regarded, under such
circumstances, the less unbiased and sincere.
234 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
VISITS TO THE DIFFERENT MISSIONARY FAMILIES.
On each succeeding evening of this week I took tea
with some one of the missionary families, accepting their
kind invitations in that way that would enable me to make
each an evening's visit before we left Honolulu. Usually
I met some of the officers of the squadron present, and
some of the gentlemen and ladies of the mission or of
the foreign residents. The families of the mission resi-
dent at Honolulu are sufficiently numerous to form an in-
teresting circle within themselves.
The day I first called on Mr. and Mrs. Bingham was
the twentieth anniversary of the day they together enter-
ed a stage coach at Hartford, Connecticut, for Boston,
whence they soon after took their departure for the Sand-
wich Islands. And this evening, Monday, when I was
taking tea with them, surrounded by other members of
the mission and officers from our ships, presents a change
indeed, which these two oldest missionaries alone can
justly contrast in all its shade and light.
Mrs. Judd brought in with her, after tea, the gorgeous
and indescribably delicate " night-blooming ceres." There
are things in nature which so affect one with their beau-
ties, that the mind feels its incapacity, by emblems and
comparisons, adequately to define them, and loves rather
to feel the effect of the beautiful than to attempt its deli-
neation. " How unearthly it looks," said Mrs. J. " How
unearthly it looks," I only repeated, and still gazed on the
exquisite and elongated white corollas within their yel-
lowish green calix, surrounding a thick fringe of stamens,
which, with their circle of tasseled, straw-colored and
flexible filaments, inlay this cup of more than alabaster
white and purity. The white pistil, too, tufted with a
yellow fringe, further ornamenting the centre of the cup,
harmonizes, in exquisite softness, with the surrounding
tassels, that wave or languish, as the beautiful cup may
.be turned, with the grace and mellowness of the softest
fringe on silken and richest scarf of lady. We took the
gorgeous and soft flower to its native element, the moon-
beam, to-night falling from a clear and bright heaven.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 235
And it drank in the soft ray so sweetly, and itself looked
so lovely, that nothing short of Moore's seolian euphony
in lyric rhythm, or Bailey's soft melancholy of song,
should, by any attempt at description, disturb the sweet
harmony "of this bright night, this exquisite climate, and a
thing so blended of the loveliness of the one and the soft-
ness of the other, as is this lovely " night-blooming ceres."
This beautiful plant of the cactus is plentiful and luxu-
riant here, overtopping the high palings of the garden
fences, and annually and prodigally displaying, in the soft
moonbeam of this delicious climate, its graceful flower,
which bends its modest neck, as it receives the approba-
ting and blessed smiles of the silvering queen, on her pas-
sage in her night-car through these serene heavens. The
flower is a thing to be thought of in connection with the
remembered friend with whom we have gazed at it, with
like appreciation of its harmonies in itself, and the moon-
lit scene of light and mellowed shade, in which it timidly
unfolded its modest and unequalled beauties to the sight.
The next evening I met the King, at tea, at Dr. Judd's.
I had before seen his Hawaiian majesty at his own resi-
dence near the fort, in company with the governor and
chief princess, and other chiefs who were present. The
king seemed interested in a description given him of the
proceedings of a court martial. And it was remarked to
him, that if the cause of temperance on our arrival had
prevailed, so that liquor could not have been procured
here, the case before the court then holding its sittings
would not have occurred.
" It is a pity," said the king, with an expression of coun-
tenance which indicated his deep sincerity of feeling. " I
am sorry the temperance rule prevails not entirely."
Where the king's mind was wandering at this moment,
no one at the table could doubt, though it would have
been impolite to urge the subject, to the recalling of the
late occurrences at this place, when, the king feels, and
all impartial judges feel, that he was necessitated by the
interests of a French consul, in near view of the guns of
the frigate PArtemise, and the threat that a larger French
force from the coast, ere long, should appear off the is-
lands to take possession of them unless proposals which
47
236 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
were made were complied with to sign an instrument,
which, if it made him not a vassal of the French king,
took from him the power of excluding from his posses-
sions, for the benefit of his subjects, French brandy and
French wines. And why ? Because M. Dudoit, the French
consul, would be a dealer in the articles, notwithstanding
the king had, a short time previously, to the great satis-
faction of the best wishers of the subjects of his majesty,
totally excluded, by law, the further importation of all dis-
tilled spirits whatever into any port of his possessions.
This was in accordance with the nearly unanimous voice
of the residents of the islands, and shipmasters visiting
these ports ; and after the king's own sincerity had been
manifested by the destruction of the whole (three in num-
ber) of his own distilleries in his islands. But, more of
this in its proper place, further on.
The king spoke of the ancient games of the people, and
their influence upon his subjects, and what would be their
effect if renewed. It would be the reviving of a system
of gambling, to continue from Monday morning till Sun-
day night. The exercise might be well enough, but the
dissipation and idleness consequent thereon would more
than counterbalance any good that may be supposed to
rise from the sports. He instanced the rolling of the disk ;
the name of the game is forgotten ; but it consists in roll-
ing a round and smooth stone, of about four inches in
diameter, and increasing, from its edge to its centre, from
one and a half to two inches thick. Were this game to
be revived, said the king, you would see the street, for
a half mile, crowded with people to witness the success
of the competitors in rolling this stone. The one who
rolls it the furthest is the victor. But the evil of the sys-
tem would be, that all this multitude would not only be
present to witness the rolling, but would be sitting up all
the succeeding nights, betting and in exciting conversa-
tion in connection with the sport, and this for several
succeeding days, to the neglect of all business, and end-
ing in disputes and revels. But as a substitution for these
things, the people are encouraged in agricultural pursuits,
raising the kalo and other vegetables and productions,
and it is to be hoped with increasing success, and to the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 237
cultivation of permanent habits of industry among the
great body of the natives.
The grounds about the house of Dr. Judd are well
filled with trees and shrubs, a very acceptable and plea-
sant thing always to the stranger as well as to the foreign
resident in view of the arid level on which the town of
Honolulu is situated. For all this, the doctor says, the
merit is due to Mrs. J., as he is often absent in his prac-
tice, as the physician to the mission, to different parts of
the island. Mrs. J. is a lady of taste, with a heart of
great kindness and benevolence. It will be acceptable
to the friends of midshipman Morris to know, that it is
within the bosom of such a family that he is now located
in his illness, and where he will be left, we would hope,
to recover ; but we fear that in his advanced stage of
pulmonary affection, that even this favorable climate, and
the nursing which the kindness and the sympathies of
those with whom he is staying in great tenderness and
care will secure to him, may not possess the power to
restore him to health. Young Morris is sensible that he
has fallen into kind hands, and is resigned and contented
as far as his circumstances of great debility admit. And
to me, in the apprehension that he may never again be
recovered to health, it is a consolation, though he sailed
in another ship, to know from my conversations with him,
that we shall leave him thoughtful of his future destiny,
and with hopes that he has made his peace with his God,
to whom he trusts he has (even since we have arrived at
these islands) committed himself, in resignation and dis-
cipleship.
The following day, Wednesday, the twenty-third, the
king visited the frigate, to whom an entertainment was
given by the Commodore. The chief princess of the
island, the governor, and other natives, constituting the
king's suit, the American, English, and French consuls,
the gentlemen of the mission, and the foreign residents
generally, were also on board.
The king was received with the yards manned and a
salute of twenty-one guns the officers and company being
on deck. I know not whether the dress of his majesty
was of the Windsor pattern or not, but it was a rich and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
every way an elegant suit. The coat was richly laced on
lapel, skirt, and collar, and is known to have cost eight
hundred dollars. His pantaloons white, and richly laced
at the sides, and his chapeau corresponding, in its lace,
for breadth and richness.
The king supported himself with propriety ; his man-
ners were easy and sufficiently dignified. His health was
drunk at the table, standing, while he retained his seat.
On drinking wine in comjpliment with the queen regent,
(as I suppose she may be called, having the cafe of the
infant queen in her minority, and acting in her stead,) to
whom I was near at the table, she remarked, as she was
further helped to a bunch of raisins, "this is the best wine"
wine and raisins being designated by the same word
in the Hawaiian language. She was dressed in a lilac-
colored silk, and is an immense woman more than six
feet high and proportionally large.
The company had strolled over the ship previously to
taking their seats at the table, and seemed at their ease,
and gratified. I left the ship with my missionary friends
at dusk, and the king and his party reached the shore at
about the same time. The entertainment passed off very
agreeably to the guests and creditably to the host. It was
a coincidence of sufficient interest to be noted by me, and
acceptable enough for the Christian community* at home,
perhaps to be repeated in connection with the religious
effort which has been put forth in behalf of these islanders,
whose king to-day was entertained under the circum-
stances described, that it was the twentieth anniversary day
of the departure of the first missionaries from Boston for
these islands. There is evidence written, everywhere we
move on shore, of the success of this early and Christian
enterprise, as we contemplate it in the advance of this
people thus far on the scale of civilization and Christianity,
however far they may be from the highest point of its
graduation.
The succeeding evening I visited at Mr. Knapp's, and
met, besides some of the officers as usual, at tea Mr. and
Mrs. Castle, Mrs. Walker and Miss Smith.
I was agreeably reminded by Mrs. Knapp of her hav-
ing seen me before her leaving the United States, in
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 239
Greenwich, Connecticut, whither, during my university
course at New Haven, I had wandered with a friend to
that border of the state. I was grateful for her memory,
as it enabled me to re-live over a very agreeable incident
among those hours of halcyon days, when the world had
a freshness in its scenes, which a few years only in its
broad walks reduces to common incident. Mr. and Mrs.
K. are a young couple who have not long been to the
islands. The same is true of Mr. and Mrs. Cook, at whose
house I visited the succeeding evening.
Mr. Chamberlain, whose interesting family I visited;
is the secular agent of the whole mission of the Sandwich
Islands, assisted by Mr. Castle, a gentleman of great worth,
already mentioned. Mr. Chamberlain is a person well
qualified for the position he occupies, and is beloved by
all the members of the mission, among whom there is one
harmonious feeling of agreement and kindness. The
children of Mr. and Mrs. C. are particularly interesting
for their fine and classic features, and the womanly man-
ners of the two little girls. I mention them here, that I
may also say that the children of the missionaries, gene-
rally, will not fail to interest the stranger for the precoci-
ty of their minds and manners. This is to be attributed,
in a good degree, to the fact that the parents make compan-
ions of their children, and that they are cut off from an
intercourse with numerous children of their own age.
And here, too, they are kept, as a matter of principle, from
acquiring the language of the natives, that their associa-
tion with native children may be prevented, lest their
minds might be corrupted by much in the Hawaiian lan-
guage deemed to be objectionable. Whatever may be
the policy of this course, it is certain that it throws the
children upon their parents as resources for their amuse-
ment and conversation. These two little girls of whom
1 speak, I take to be, the one six and the other eight years
of age ; and they entered into a conversation with me with
all the zest and vivacity of young ladies with the advanta-
ges of a number of more years. By some circumstance
the conversation fell upon noses, (I am half disposed to
think that the circumstance was originated by myself, as
their ?ioses were extremely fine and Grecian,) when I
47*
240 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
mentioned that Bonaparte, I believed, was in the habit of
selecting his body-guard by their noses. He always con-
sidered a man with a large nose, to be possessed of courage
and firmness.
" And I remember," said the little girl of six, with great
playfulness, " precisely what kind of nose my brother has,
who is in America."
" And what do you think of America ?"
" I think it must be a very fine country."
" And did you ever see any chestnuts from America ?"
" I think I have."
" And what were they like ?"
" They were like" I forget now the particular reply
of my little friend, otherwise than her chestnuts proved to
have been filberts, and I promised (and I intend to fulfil
^all my engagements to my little friends abroad) to send
her a parcel of chestnuts and other mementoes on my re-
turn to the United States.
The missionaries send most of their children home, so
soon as they reach the proper age and preparation for the
continuance of their education under more favorable ad-
vantages than they would receive here. They are con-
signed to the care of their kindred ; and I am told that
the proceeds of property committed to the care of the
American Board by some of the missionaries here, either
on the part of the mother or the father, more than yield a
sufficient income for the education of their children in the
United States, and in some instances, besides, defray the
amount of the nominal salary, in that case, which they re-
ceive from the Board at home.
LUA AT THE PARI.
We had heard much of the native manner of cooking
food and their mode of getting up things at a lua, which
is something after the manner of a southern barbecue.
Not having as yet ridden to the Pari, one of the curiosities
of this island, and the arrangement having been made to
have a lua at that point, I accepted an invitation to form
one of the numerous party on the occasion.
The ride to the Pari lies through a beautiful valley,
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 241
stretching quite across the island. Having mounted our
horses, which are all in good keeping on the island, but
ill-gaited, as the full canter seems to be the usual speed
for riding here, we passed over the level ground back of
the town by a track that soon conducted us through
patches of taro, (arum esculentum,) written kalo in the
Hawaiian. Crossing one or two bridges we soon found
ourselves threading a spacious ravine, which contracts as
one proceeds to its further extremity, a distance of some
six miles across the island, where it is abruptly terminated
by a precipice. The word precipice, in the language of
the island, is pari, and hence the name of this steep.
We first reached the residence of Dr. Roke, who has
a dwelling at the entrance of the valley. He joined our
party and we rode on. The doctor, who has been some
time resident on the island, seems familiar with its locali-
ties and productions, and many of its legends. On our left
as we advanced, high up among the peaks that rose in
their eminences above us, the doctor thinks to be a cave
of the ancient kings and chiefs. So the legends go, and
he has often and long looked for it, but has never yet struck
upon its mouth, though the natives point out a prominent
tree as designating its entrance. The present ruling family
have their royal mausoleum in the town of Honolulu, where
the coffins are retained with their coverings of velvet.
Having measured a mile or two further over the grad-
ually ascending plain of the ravine, we reached the cot-
tage of a Mr. Jrelly, agent of the Hudson Bay Company,
at this island. Below his house, and formed by a break in
the plain of the ravine, is a small but quite a pretty fall of
water. Having alighted, I chose to be interested in this
pretty exhibition of one of the forms which nature assumes,
on which no one can gaze without having his heart ren-
dered more pure in the communion, rather than to seek
the conversation of a man, with whose principles in morals
or actions as a gentleman, I could have no sympathies.
This Mr. P. constituted one of an honorable quincunx,
who, in the late visit of the frigate TArtemise to this
place, joined in an expression of thanks to her commander
for pursuing a course, which, in his public documents, ex-
patriated American citizens: and which, had his plans
242 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
been carried into execution on the non-compliance of the
government with the conditions dictated to it under the
guns of a man-of-war, would have exposed all the families
of this mission to the mercy of the crew of a French
cruiser. That this gentleman with his four compeers
may have all the glory that such a paper can confer, I
may, further on, quote the same for their especial benefit,
and to awaken the frown of every virtuous reader.
The rest of our way was by a less even path, though
not less interesting, as we pursued a narrower track through
the luxuriant undergrowth matted about the more elevated
hibiscus, among the boughs of which the convolvulus
wormed its spiral vine and let drop its trumpet cup to the
rider's view. A native was at my side, who kept pace
with our advance, and gathered for my pleasure whatever
I designated on tree or shrub or ferns, among the latter of
which (beautiful in their varieties and luxuriant in their
growth) we were now moving in our more elevated but
gradual ascent. We now passed on through the grandest
part of the ravine, formed by the perpendicular sides of
basalt lava, with the mystic cloud hanging upon the high-
est tops in their threatening shade and misty wreaths, as
if they sought to throw a gloom to the deeps below, to
heighten the sublimity of the threatening battlements that
rose, in their height and mists, above us. We came to a
space of clear ground, where the ravine had again nar-
rowed in correspondence with the termination of the per-
pendicular ranges of basalt at a point we had passed, and
thus forming an oval basin, as seen from either extreme of
the valley. We dismounted and gave our horses to the
care of the natives, while we walked up a short ascent to
a notch of the mountains which we had seen all the way
before us, and found ourselves suddenly on the brow of
the Pari a precipice, which terminated this end of the
ravine. The prospect overlooks a spacious level below,
luxuriant in its richness, and mellowed to the softness of
velvet ; while the curling breakers are seen dashing over
the coral reefs beyond, and the deep, deep blue sea is far
out as the eye can reach.
But the gale for a current of wind ever sets through
this gap almost choked me as I attempted to wind my
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 243
way across the pass, through which the currents of air
rush in their passage of the whole length of the valley,
and pour their currents over the town of Honolulu. We
proceeded a short distance on the side of the mountain, to
gain the path for descending the Pari. This we accom-
plished, though deemed in former times a difficult attempt.
By the assistance of an iron railing in the most difficult
part of the steep, the feat is not difficult, though very much
to the disturbing of the easy breathing of a plethoric man.
For myself I found the descent and return of little difficulty,
and at the expense of but little fatigue, and for a very good
reason it may be, as I had a native hold of my stick to
keep me from too rapid a progress down, and two of them
to draw me back again.
When already about to encounter the currents on the
top of the Pari, which drive in a hurricane through this
gorge of the ravine, two natives seized me to keep me
from being blown up the mountain-side, or point blank
into the broadside of a lava-rock my hat already having
been seized by a third native, and a fourth attempting to
secure my umbrella, all in the greatest kindness. I broke
from them all, and was met by a messenger from the party
at the bower, where the lua was to b,e spread, saying that
one oven had been retained unopened, to await me, that I
might see the mysteries of the native mode of roasting
pig, fish, and dog, and whatever else might be the ingre-
dients of the oven..
I hurried on, and found, in the neighborhood where
our horses had been left, that a bower had been raised
half a hundred natives gathered in different groups
several fires smoking and, within the temporary bower,
constructed of poles and bushes, ahd matted with the ki-
leaf, were seen his majesty Kammahamaha III., Commo-
dore Read, commanding the U. S. East India squadron,
H. B. M. Consul Captain Charlton, and some dozen, more
or less, of the officers of the squadron, comfortably that
may be questioned but certainly seated, at their leisure,
on the ki-leaves, beneath the bower. Here all had gath-
ered to the lua.
The eating of dogs was formerly a very common cus-
tom with the islanders, and 3 canine roaster was deemed
244 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
a delicious dish a royal dish. The dogs, however, are
of a particular species, so said, though I suppose it matters
little as to their kind. Those which are destined for the
lua are fed on poe, a dish made from the kalo, and form-
ing the principal food of the natives. Those who have
eaten of the dog, as cooked here, say it is fine. This is
the universal testimony ; and a person, not knowing to
what he was helped, with a piece of dog thus prepared
upon his plate, would pronounce it to be more than a
usually choice piece of pig. So say the epicures so say
the curious. The consequence is, that those who visit the
islands generally have a slight sensation of an inclination,
for eating dog for once. Consequently, the lua was
given to gratify the curiosity of the stranger-comers of
our squadron.
Behold, then, when I had reached the last oven, yet
remaining uncovered, behold the opening of its contents.
First, a play of fine wreaths of steam dissipating them-
selves in thin air above a hillock of green leaves, over
which the drops of vapor had condensed themselves, so
as to preserve the outer leaves of the little pile moist. Be-
hold ! A native, under the direction of Mr. Thompson, a
gentleman of travel, seeking health and pleasure, who
seemed to be the master of ceremonies to-day, removed
layer after layer of leaves, until some six inches thick of
these long and wide ki-folia were disposed of. Behold !
The removing of the next layer presented the proportions
fair to the hungry man, proportions tasteful to any man,
of a whole pig, from tongue to tail, from back to breast,
from toe to teeth. There he was, nearly as big as life,
quite as big as a whole roasted pig. And beside him lay,
in their white and clean appearances, the whole, and the
half, and three quarter pieces of kalo, reposing upon a
pavement of hot stones, which inlaid a circular and con-
cave hole, which had been scooped from the earth, about
twelve inches deep.
" Very fine," said his majesty's secretary, as he took a
piece of the kalo and broke it for me to taste. " Very
boo-tee-fool," he continued, as I tasted the mealy and de-
lightfully flavored vegetable, adding between the first and
second taste, " very fine, very beautiful," not at all dissent-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 245
ing from the secretary in the truth of his ideas, however
much we might differ, generally, in the application of
English words.
" Very fine, very fine indeed," said another, as he un-
veiled from the smoking and verdant wrapper of the ki-
leaf a fine fish, and submitted it to my examination and taste.
"Very fine, very fine indeed," I repeated; and there
could be no mistake as to the fine manner in which these
fish had thus been cooked. The pig had already been
borne to a distance, while we were tasting the various
articles besides those already specified, wrapped in their
separate coverings of the ki-leaf, save the fine taro.
" Do they cook the dog in square pieces, Mr. Thomp-
son ?" I asked, as I saw the natives take one or two such
proportioned packages from the oven.
Unaccountably, Mr. Thompson was called to see the
direction of some of the distant-going moveables, before
he gave the reply. I had asked one of the Hawaiians
previously, what the oven contained. He had replied, a
pig. But Mr. Thompson, on being asked if the dog were
in this last oven, had hinted that it was. I therefore drew
the inference that the object of particular curiosity had
been dissected, contrary to usual custom, as I had no
doubt but that the conspicuous, and well-baked, and very
delicate-looking animal, in all his indismembered propor-
tions before me, was, in truth, a pig.
I adjourned to the bower and took my position among
the guests, everywhere reposing "otium non cum digni-
tate," on the leaf-matted floor of the bower.
Ere long the various articles of the lua were making
their appearance on various dishes dog pig several
pigs fish various kinds of fish, and never better than at
these islands taro sweet potatoes, et cetera et cetera
and poe, as another characteristic dish of the natives, new
and old, the first sweet, the second sour.
" And which is the dog ?" was the general murmur of
interest, as that specific gentleman, in all his proportions,
which I had seen removed from the oven, was placed near
M.T. Thompson, in the neighborhood of tho King and the
Commodore. That is the dog, said one ; and that is the
dog, asserted another ; and I will take a piece of the dog,
246 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
said all in their turns. But are you sure that this is dog?
I could not refrain from asking, always having been con-
sidered somewhat incredulous without having positive evi-
dence for what I am to believe, if circumstantial evidence
rather prevails against the thing affirmed.
" Let me try a piece, I can tell," said Mr. S., a gentle-
man near me " Calo, here, will not eat it if it is dog,"
added Mr. S., as he pitched a small piece to his favorite
pointer. But Calo was a gentleman's dog, and it was not
his part to refuse aught that was set before him ; and
therefore Calo ate it without a murmur.
" Dog don't eat dog," they say, and incredulity, in our
neighborhood, seemed rather to prevail.
" Mr. T., will you take a piece of the dog ?" asked Mr.
Thompson " I do assure you this is the dog," reaffirmed
the amiable gentleman.
" Pass it, if you please, Mr. Thompson ;" and Calo was
treated to another small piece, perhaps from another dish,
but apparently from the one from which I had previously
been served.
The politeness of Calo did not fail him, even the second
time ; and the conclusion now inevitably was, that either
dog will eat dog, or else no dog graced the feast of the
Pari. And it is equally true, that if the piece to which I
was helped was dog, I did not distinguish it from the choice
rib part of a pig, though in the passing amusement of the
moment, I confess I did not particularly call into requisi-
tion my most particular powers of discrimination.
The officers were soon moving back on their return-
way to town, in separate groups. The lua had passed off
in great propriety, at least so far as I had seen, without
the rude noise of boisterous toast, which may be in taste
with bacchanalian carousals, but not with social and rural
repast of rational and colloquial beings. Who would not
forget a toast now on record, in that refined no, I will
not speak ironically in that scurrilous and disgraceful
penny-sheet paper, the S. I. Gazette as having been
given on a similar occasion, but very differently conducted
repast, in whidai there is neither wit, sentiment, nor sense,
and a thing to be regretted in the remembrance, because
it is destitute of all three of them.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 247
This is a region of rainbows. On leaving this beautiful
valley, the prismatic colors arranged themselves in an
arch that spanned the valley, with its bases resting on
either side of the ravine, advancing with its beautiful co-
lors to the very opening of the valley, and fading away as
if bidding us adieu, as we left that green ravine for ever.
The native custom of cooking dogs is diminishing rapidly
among the natives. It is desirable that it should, not
particularly so because there need be any fastidiousness
about eating this animal ; elsewhere, and particularly in
Canton, they are a regular article to be found in the mar-
kets. And one will in some measure, perhaps, have lost
his own fastidiousness upon this subject by the time he has
made a voyage around the world. But the particular
reason why the natives should dispense with the habit, is,
the expense of raising the animal in comparison with
others of greater value, when considered as an article of
food. And then, again, they are greatly destructive, where
their numbers are large, to the kid and the lamb, and
poultry. The same care and expense laid out in some other
species of production, would yield a greater profit, and con-
tribute to the support of a larger population. A town,
too, crowded with dogs, is always inconvenienced by the
nuisance ; and the bite of a rabid one is so terrible in its
consequences, as to render the diminution of the number,
in any given place, desirable. It is in view of the prin-
ciples of political economy, production, population, and
consequent wealth, that many of the customs and sports
of the natives are to be viewed ; and if so viewed, the si-
lent influence or the more positive and open action of the
missionaries, in the changing of the native customs, would
not only not be found fault with but highly approbated.
I reached my pleasant home, rendered such by my kind
hosts, a little after sunset, fatigued by the ride, but pleased
with the excursion.
SALT LAKE.
The salt lake, lying some four miles on the way to
Ewa from Honolulu, is a natural curiosity, mentioned to
the newly arrived as among the objects worthy of a visit
48
248 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
and a ride for pleasure and exercise. So I found it ; more
than counterbalancing the inconvenience of wet boots,
which one is sure of acquiring while crossing a field of
water in the first part of this ride from town. The ride
itself affords a variety in plain and occasional steep
flocks of goats a deep hollow covered with high and
crooked cocoa-nut trees Madam Boki's plantation to
whom, a*s I was told, some fine patches of taro and plan-
tain trees and other productions had belonged, as we were
passing through them, although the worthy woman's fune-
ral was celebrated but a short time previous to our arrival.
But the object of interest is the lake, some three or two
and a half miles in circumference, reposing in a low basin
among the broken hills of a lava formation, and one edge
of it is near the sea. As a body of water it possesses no
interest ; the edges around it are barren, and the broken
hills that hem it in are without verdure, and the Water is
shallow. Indeed, it is but a large natural basin, in which,
by the power of the sun's rays, reflected with additional
intensity by the surrounding hills, the salt water is evapo-
rated, and a process of crystallization is continually going
on. The lake is covered with a stratum of salt more or
less thick, from a few inches around its edges to a foot
and more, and I know not but two or three feet, as the
depth of the concavity of the basin increases towards its
centre. The stratum of salt is mostly overflowed by a few
inches of water which was excessively bitter to the taste,
and nearly of blood heat in temperature, judging from
the sensation of touch, not having a thermometer with me.
The article has been quarried, and considerable quantities
taken from the bed the excavations soon filling again in
the continual formation that is going on. The material is
deemed inexhaustible. As I stood upon the ridge of the
hills that surround this curious basin, I judged its level to
be lower than the adjacent sea, with which the water of
the sea must have some communication, either by oozing
through the soil on the side bordering on the shore, or else
by some more distinct subterraneous channel. The only
other supposition being, that it is fed by salt springs. The
most probable conclusion, however, is, that the region
being volcanic, and the basin itself deemed with great
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 249
probability to be an extinct crater, some subterranean
fissure leads from it to the sea, thus forming an inlet from
the sea by some opening in the lava-beds which in a for-
mer period poured in streams from this caldron. These
fissures are known to exist in great numbers in the craters
of the active volcanoes of the neighboring island of Ha-
waii ; and in digging a well at Honolulu, an instance is
known of a crowbar passing out of the hand of the work-
man as it pierced the crust through which it perforated,
and was lost, as it was heard to sink far down in a crevice
of the rock below. It is affirmed in the Hawaiian Spec-
tator, in a mere allusion to this lake, that it has a commu-
nication with the sea by a hole at its centre. But as the
same writer affirms, in the same passage, that the bottom
of the lake is above the level of the sea, we conclude that
his affirmation is mere conjecture, without positive exami-
nation, as it must be very obvious that such a communica-
tion, if the bottom of the lake were above the level of the
sea, would soon, by forming an outlet, drain the lake, and
leave it as dry as the arid lava-cliffs around it.
I secured some very choice specimens of the crystal-
line formation, continually in process here. The . wide
stratum covering the surface of these natural salt works,
is intersected by seams, resembling appearances in a field
of ice, resulting from the cracking of the main body ; pro-
duced here probably by the streams of fresh water, run-
ning, during the rainy season, into the lake, and creating,
by dissolution, these fissures in the riven stratum. In
these seams the crystals have space for shooting forth in
perfect formations, and fine specimens can be collected by
the hand, being easily detached, in small masses, from the
more compact stratum.
On returning, we took a different route from the one
that guided us to the lake ; and while crossing the hills
adjacent to this extensive and natural salt basin, we saw a
dog bearing a young kid in his mouth, and moving with
an apparent consciousness of his dereliction from all duty
of obedience to the laws, while the penalty, his conscience
seemed to tell him, would sorely be felt by him, if once
caught.
We next struck upon a little thatched dwelling, sur-
250 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
rounded, in an otherwise barren field, by immense clusters
of the prickly pear, overtopping, in their luxuriant growth,
the head of horse and rider, as he came up to their huge
and impenetrable clusters. And wo to him who shall at-
tempt to pluck the curious fruit from the prickly plant,
have he buckskins on or other gloves to save his palms.
A native, however, was soon near us, but too late to pre-
serve us from an experience that may serve us in the future,
and plucked, by a little noose upon the end of a stick, some
of the fruit for us, and, with the greatest care for the com-
fort of his own fingers, opened the outer rind and displayed
the gorgeously beautiful and rich fruit within, having the
color of the deepest crimson melon, with the consistency
and sparkling crystalline appearance of iced cream, to the
eye and taste, though possessing the property of the water-
melon without its liquid. We descended the hill and came
upon a cluster of small houses, from which the natives
poured, in a group of some six or eight, and one of them
more neatly clad in her white gown than the rest ; and
the cause of it was written as legibly in the thing she bore
in her hand, as the same said book narrated on its leaves,
stories in the Hawaiian language. How truly do letters,
from the A, B, C of the alphabet, to their must perfect and
learned combinations, produce a refinement upon the mind
as it becomes familiar with their powers and meaning in
composition ! Here, as everywhere, in its different degrees,
was seen the influence of the missionary abroad, as well
as the schoolmaster at home. These people seemed to be
on the plantation of Madam Boki, and were very kind, as
they knocked down at once, a passage-way, that had been
tightly boarded up with nails, for our convenience in tak-
ing a nearer course across the flats and taro fields. Home,
and a cup of tea at home to-night, were acceptable, after a
wet and late ride.
It is now twenty years since the first missionary to the
Sandwich Islands sailed from the city of Boston. During
this time the number of the missionaries has been in-
creased, from time to time. The nation was found a peo-
ple given to idolatry, superstition, and the general vices of
savage life. Human victims, at times, were sacrificed ;
and the conquered foe in war sometimes formed a feast for
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 251
the victors. Their language, barren in general terms but
copious in nominals, had but a verbal existence. The
contrast presented to us at this time, is a nation, who have
adopted, as a whole people, the Christian religion. An
idol, as a curiosity for a cabinet, can scarcely be found.
Missionary families are located on all the islands. Com-
mon schools have been established throughout the districts
on the different islands, under the care of native teachers,
more or less competent ; and station schools, at the differ-
ent residences of the missionaries, from which the native
teachers are principally supplied. Select schools and
boarding schools for boys and girls ; and a high school,
college, or seminary, as it may be called, in its infancy,
with a number of promising scholars, and with instructers
of liberal education to take them on in the different branches
of the sciences and arts, as their capacities, purposes, and
the course of improvement in the elevation of the people
in religion and civilization, shall demand and render prac-
ticable. The Hawaiian tongue has been reduced to a
written language ; the Bible translated into the native
tongue; a native newspaper printed ; elementary books, for
the schools, prepared and published, including Children's
Lessons, Children's Teacher, Hawaiian Grammar, Arith-
metic, Lineal Drawing, Algebra, Trigonometry, Surveying,
Hawaiian History, Scripture History and Geography,
Church History, Hymns, Tracts, Music, Nautical Almanac,
etc., etc. ; the printing of which, with other works not
mentioned, principally in the Hawaiian language, amount-
ed during the last thirteen months only, to eleven millions
four hundred and ninety-nine thousand six hundred and
thirty-six pages.
Eighteen native churches have been organized on the dif-
ferent islands. School-houses and church-edifices, several
of the latter large and stone buildings, have been erected.
And as the contemplated end of all these efforts has
been the religious and eternal welfare of this people, it
must cheer the heart of every true lover of his species, and
thrill the bosom of the Christian, to learn the hopeful ac-
complishment of this end even beyond the expectation of
the most sanguine, from the following additional facts.
During the last year ten thousand seven hundred and
48*
252 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD,
twenty-five persons of the native population of these islands
have been added, by profession, to the communion of these
Christian churches ; and sixteen thousand five hundred
and eighty-seven, from the commencement of the mission.
The language of the missionaries is this : " The past
has been a year of unexampled prosperity to the Redeem-
er's kingdom throughout the islands. At the close of the
last year, the work of the Holy Spirit was going on in a
most glorious manner at nearly all the stations ; and the
work so commenced has, to the praise of Divine grace,
advanced with steady progress. Persons of all ages have
been subjects of the gracious visitations of the Spirit, from
opening childhood to decrepit old age. The boarding
school and Sabbath school scholar, together with many
who had been neglected, have sought, and, it is hoped,
found a Saviour or rather, they have been found by him
and gathered into his fold. That every one apparently
renewed by grace will prove to have been born again,
cannot be expected ; but we may confidently hope that
great numbers of those who have this year professedly
turned to the Lord, will be found in the last day to be
truly his people."
FRENCH AFFAIR AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
I would willingly leave the reader of the foregoing
sketches of the date since our arrival at the island of Oahu,
to form his opinion of the merits and the success of the
Sandwich Islands mission, from the impression he has
gained in their perusal. I am sure it would not be too
vivid ; the light, however faintly as yet breaking over this
but lately benighted people, has been reflected in descrip-
tion, but dimly on these pages, in comparison with the
brightness of the divine beam which has been streaming
among the deep shades that enveloped the Hawaiian peo-
ple, when they were first contemplated by the eye of the
coming missionary. And he alone can draw the contrast
in its depth of shadow and welcome and relieving light.
And while the nation has far yet to go in its course to
reach the intelligence and refinement of a cultivated peo-
ple, what nation like this, in the history of civilization and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 253
Christianity, ever made so rapid a step from savage life
and heathen superstitions to the possession of civic and
Christian institutions ?
The story of our visit to the Sandwich Islands, how-
ever, would be incomplete were these notes in connection
with it to be ended here. My private feelings in connec-
tion with some who may be pained by the public exposure
of transactions which will reflect no honor on some of the
foreign residents, and particularly those in authority from
the English and French governments, would lead me to
pass over in silence the account of the late visit of the
French frigate 1'Artemise, and transactions connected
with it, and the associate action, equally discreditable to
the persons concerned, previously to her arrival. But
personal feelings are to be sacrificed to the cause of truth,
while the high-handed and vicious measures which are
now to be noticed, merit, and shall receive, rebuke.
We had heard much in connection with the action of
the American missionaries to- these islands before our arri-
val at Honolulu, and were assured that we should hear a
great deal more on our arrival ; that there had always
been a party here opposed to the influence exerted by the
American missionaries upon the native population, and that
this party was ever ready to repeat stories, and re-affirm
them, to the discredit of the mission. But the testimony
of all disinterested persons, and the inquiries of all our
national ships when touching here, after proper and con-
siderate examination of the state of things as they really
exist, and have been conducted, gave unqualified testi-
mony to the happy influence of the mission upon the na-
tives, and acquitted the missionaries of all just cause of
censure. We were prepared, therefore, to hear much de-
famation from one quarter, and expected to witness from
our own inspection the happy influences of Christian efforts
upon a population but lately a savage and heathen people.
And by making due allowance for the imperfection of
all human institutions, and the slow progress of all bar-
barous nations from their savage state to civil life, as de-
lineated in all history of the past, we believed we should
find evidence of even a remarkable and almost unhoped-
for success in the action of the mission.
254 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
But we were not prepared to hear, that, by misrepre-
sentations of religious hate and self-interest in contraband
merchandise, a French frigate had been secured to visit
this port, to redress falsely affirmed insults, and to secure
to a French consulate advantages in a nefarious trade.
And when the course pursued by the captain of the French
frigate, under the ex parte representations of the French
consul, towards this helpless people ; and yet more par-
ticularly towards an intelligent, devoted, and most worthy
band of Christian and American missionaries, was learned,
an indignant burst of honorable displeasure expressed it-
self in the feelings and from the lips of most of the officers
of the American squadron.
This French ship PArtemise, as she is called, arrived
off the harbor of Honolulu, Thursday, July 9, 1839, about
two months previous to our arrival, and her captain ad-
dressed the following manifesto (embracing, as will be
shown, affirmations contrary to facts in several particulars,
and where coincident with facts, in most particulars justi-
fiable on the part of the Sandwich Islands government) to
the king of these islands, on the same day of his anchoring.
MANIFESTO,
Addressed to the King of the Sandwich Islands, by Capt La Place,
commanding the French frigate 1'Artemise, in the name of his
Government.
" His majesty, the king of the French, having com-
manded me to come to Honolulu in order to put an end,
either by force or persuasion, to the ill treatment to which
the French have been victims at the Sandwich Islands, I
hasten, first, to employ this last means as the most confor-
mable to the political, noble, and liberal system pursued by
France against the powerless, hoping thereby that I shall
make the principal chiefs of these islands understand how
fatal the conduct which they pursue towards her will be to
their interests, and perhaps cause disasters to them and to
their country, should they be obstinate in their perseve-
rance. Misled by perfidious counsellors ; deceived by the
excessive indulgence which the French government has
extended towards them for several years, they are un-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 255
doubtedly ignorant how potent it is, and that in the world
there is not a power which is capable of preventing it
from punishing its enemies ; otherwise they would have
endeavored to merit its favor, or, not to incur its displea-
sure, as they have done in ill-treating the French. They
would have faithfully put into execution the treaties, in
place of violating them as soon as the fear disappeared,
as well as the ships of war which had caused it, whereby
bad intentions had been constrained. In fine, they will
comprehend that to persecute the Catholic religion, to
tarnish it with the name of idolatry, and to expel, under
this absurd pretext, the French from this archipelago, was
to offer an insult to France and to its sovereign.
" It is, without doubt, the formal intention of France
that the king of the Sandwich Islands be powerful, inde-
pendent of every foreign power which he considers his
ally ; but she also demands that he conform to the usages
of civilized nations. Now, amongst the latter there is not
even one which does not permit in its territory the free
toleration of all religions ; and yet, at the Sandwich Isl-
ands, the French are not allowed publicly the exercise of
theirs, while Protestants enjoy therein the most extensive
privileges ; for these all favors, for those the most cruel
persecutions. Such a state of affairs being contrary to the
laws of nations, insulting to those of Catholics, can no
longer continue, and I am sent o put an end to it. Con-
sequently I demand in the name of my government,
" 1st. That the Catholic worship be declared free
throughout all the dominions subject to the king of the
Sandwich Islands ; that the members of this religious faith
shall enjoy in them all the privileges granted to Protestants.
" 2d. That a site for a Catholic church be given by the
government at Honolulu, a port frequented by the French,
and that this church be ministered by priests of their nation.
" 3d. That all Catholics imprisoned on account of reli-
gion since the last persecution extended to the French
missionaries, be immediately set at liberty.
" 4th. That the king of the Sandwich Islands deposit in
the hands of the Captain of the 1'Artemise the sum of
twenty thousand dollars, as a guarantee of his future con-
duct towards France, which sum the government will
256 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
restore to him when it shall consider that the accompany-
ing treaty will be faithfully complied with.
" 5th. That the treaty signed by the king of the Sand-
wich Islands, as well as the sum above mentioned, be
conveyed on board the frigate 1'Artemise by one of the
principal chiefs of the country ; and also that the batte-
ries of Honolulu do salute the French flag with twenty-
one guns, which will be returned by the frigate.
" These are the equitable conditions, at the price of
which, the king of the Sandwich Islands shall conserve
friendship with France. I am induced to hope, that, un-
derstanding better how necessary it is for the prosperity
of his people and the preservation of his power, he will
remain in peace with the whole world, and hasten to
subscribe to them, and thus imitate the laudable example
which the queen of Tahiti has given in permitting the
free toleration of the Catholic religion in her dominions ;
but, if contrary to my expectations, it should be other-
wise, and the king and the principal chiefs of the Sand-
wich Islands, led on by bad counsellors, refuse to sign the
treaty which I present, war will immediately commence,
and all the devastations, all the calamities, which may be
the unhappy but necessary results, will be imputed to
themselves alone, and they must also pay the losses which
the aggrieved foreigners, in these circumstances, shall
have a right to reclaim.
" The 10th July, (9th according to date here,) 1839.
Captain of the French frigate 1'Artemise.
"C. LA PLACE."
At the same time, communications were sent to the
American and to the British consul. The following is a
translation of the note to the British consul :
Official letter from Captain La Place of the French frigate to the
British Consul.
TRANSLATION.
" MONSIEUR LE CONSUL,
" Having been sent by my government to put an end to
the ill treatment to which, under the false pretexts of Ca-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 257
tholicity, the French have been subjected for several years
in this archipelago, my intention is to commence hostili-
ties the 13th July, (which is the twelfth of your date,) at
12 A. M., against the king of the Sandwich Islands, should
he refuse to accede immediately to the just conditions of
the treaty presented by me, the clauses of which I explain
in the Manifesto of which I have the honor of sending
you a copy. Should this chief, contrary to my expecta-
tion, persist in his blindness, or to express myself more
plainly, to follow the advice of interested counsellors to
deceive himself, I will be constrained, in this case, to em-
ploy the strong means of force, which I have at my dis-
position. I consider it my duty to inform you, Monsieur
le Consul, that I offer asylum and protection on board
the frigate PArtemise to those of your compatriots who
may apprehend danger, under these circumstances, on
the part of the natives, either for their persons or pro-
perty.
" Receive, Monsieur le Consul, the assurance of the
very distinguished considerations of your devoted servant,
" Post-captain commanding the ship TArtemise,
"C. LAPLACE."
If Captain La Place had paused here, however the
Americans might have called in question his courtesy,
they would not legitimately have complained. But it
was not so. He sent a letter similar to the last to the
American Consul, offering him and some of his fellow
citizens protection, with the following additional clause,
excluding others from the offer, and marking them out as
the objects on which his vengeance and arms were to fall,
in the event of an attack upon the town.
" I do not, however, include in this class the individuals
who, although born, it is said, in the United States, make
a part of the Protestant clergy of the chief of this archi-
pelago, direct his councils, influence his conduct, and are
the true authors of the insults given by him to France.
FOR ME THEY COMPOSE A PART OF THE NATIVE POPULATION,
AND MUST UNDERGO THE UNHAPPY CONSEQUENCES OF A WAR
WHICH THEY SHALL HAVE BROUGHT ON THIS COUNTRY.'
258 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
What is the exhibition of things presented to us here ?
An armed French ship anchoring within cannon-shot dis-
tance of the town of Honolulu, with every means of com-
municating with a helpless and harmless government, but,
without asking for any explanation, presenting ex parte
accusations, and making peremptory demands of the sur-
render of the sovereign's prerogative, the cession of lands,
and the deposit of twenty thousand dollars as security for
the future obsequious obedience of his Hawaiian majesty,
Kammahamaha III., to the king of the French people !
Nor is this all nor is it one half. Along those streets of
Honolulu, and in full view and reach of the shotted guns
of a French ship of war, are a number of interesting fami-
lies, who, for their intelligence, urbanity, and generous
self-devotion to the cause of philanthropy and the Chris-
tian religion, would do honor to any Christian and civil-
ized nation, as they have abundantly honored, as American
citizens, the people of the United States ; but now they
are denounced, expatriated, proscribed, and pointed* out
by a French post-captain, as the specific mark, in case of
hostilities, for the " devastations," " calamities," insults and
horrors, threatened by cannonading, and by the landing
of a lawless crew from a French man-of-war. Vive le
roi ! Vive la belle nation ! Vive la France chevaleresque !
Here were women and children of inoffensive families,
comprising the greater part of the female population of
the foreign residents, to whom it was the part of a gallant
and brave officer to have hastened to offer his protection,
rather than to commit them to the merciless fortunes of
war not only, but, by a written manifesto, to mark them
out as the particular objects of displeasure, who are to
await the massacre and rapine of an attack which, it is
said, the French commander affirmed should be carried
" to the knife."
But, it was American citizens who were thus denoun-
ced, expatriated, proscribed, and threatened. Here, then,
the French commander and his consulate adviser have
trod on ground that will burn them before they are over
it. And what American citizen, looking upon such an
insult to the broad se'al affixed to the protections of his
fellow-citizens abroad, does not rise indignant, and de-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 259
mand that a proper investigation and reparation be made
for an indignity done to the citizenship of his nation?
And who, without a blush, can read the insulting para-
graph, addressed to the American consul by Captain La
Place, offering him and some of his " compatriots" a pro-
tection which was withheld from others of his fellow-
citizens? The insulting note should have been hurled
back with the proud declaration, that he accepted not,
and needed not, any protection which was withheld from
other American citizens ; and that neither they nor him-
self wished for any other shield than they would find be-
neath the known folds of their own nation's flag.
It requires that persons should be placed in similar cir-
cumstances of the American missionaries, rightly to esti-
mate their feelings, when suddenly appears in the harbor
a foreign man-of-war, threatening war to the nation, and
offering protection to all other foreign residents excepting
themselves ; and not only so, but particularly pointing them
out as criminally associated with the government, and the
legitimate authors of the insults which the foreign ship
came to redress ; and declaring that THEY would be to the
invading force as a part of the native population. The
missionaries feared nothing from the native populace it
was the bayonets, the rapine, and the insult of a French
crew, with themselves already pointed out as the game to
be hunted down, from which they wished protection. And
in the hour of their distress, they gathered with their fami-
lies wives and children to the rooms of the repository,
and with fasting and prayer asked the protection of heaven
for themselves, and the helpless mother and her offspring.
Agitated and distressed, away from the strong arm of the
nation whose protection-, although they bore the scroll of
their citizenship with them, they could not now seek
proscribed in a written document, and pointed out as the
particular objects of vengeance they offered up their de-
votion and reassured themselves in the protection of their
God. Behold them, citizens of the United States ! Has
't come to this, that the sealed protection of your country
avails you nothing ? Behold the gathered band, who have
left far behind them privileges, and friends, and refine-
ment, for a life of benevolent action among a benighted
49
260 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
people, who have learned to appreciate their action, but
are a small nation, with their inexperience and lively
imaginations depicting to themselves the terrors that may
soon await them. The mother looks upon her offspring
with the trembling heart of female dependence, and sheds
her tears over them as she thinks of the possibility of being
left to the mercies of an attacking enemy that has declared
them to be his foes. See it, American citizens ! your fel-
Jow compatriots not only, but women and children of fam-
ilies, than whom, in the connections of some of them,
America boasts not prouder in antiquity and influence,
marked out as objects of insult and massacre for a French
crew. Is this to be endured this to be passed over?
No ! there is not one of you, in whose bosom the pure
blood of American freemen courses, untainted in senti-
ment and alliance with a foreign and popish hierarch, but
will kindle at the insult, and ask due reparation for such
measures in high disregard of the rights of American citi-
zenship. Let a few examples like this pass unnoticed, and
your government parchment and your national bunting
shall both become, the one a useless scroll save only to
mortify and to disgrace, the other a floating emblem on the
breeze, for the taunt rather than for the respect and con-
siderate deference of other nations.
The visit of the French frigate 1'Artemise to the Sand-
wich Islands was an incident of deep interest, in its bear-
ing on the rights of American missionaries abroad ; and
it merits, in connection with the action of Captain La Place
and the principles and affirmations embraced in his mani-
festo, an extended consideration. I have therefore treated
at length the high-handed measures enacted at the islands,
which, at least, involve in disgrace the French consul, if
it touches not the honor of the post-captain. But it will
be impossible to condense my manuscript so as to intro-
duce it into these volumes. I shall therefore reserve it foi
a volume by itself, to follow as a sequel to the Flag Ship
It will contain various official papers of the island govern-
ment, correspondence of Commodore Read, the American
consul, and others, and an exposure of the facts in the
case all going to show the false positions assumed in the
manifesto, the unjustifiable measures of the French, and a
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 261
defence of the missionaries, and an assertion of their
rights, which will, or which should, exhibit these late trans-
actions to the disgrace of the opposers of the missionary
action at the islands, and show that, instead of exposure
to the force of a foreign power, to defamation, and to in-
sult, the missionaries merit the protection of their own gov-
ernment, and the approbation and the admiration of all the
good, and the world.
" For me," says the post-captain, "the missionaries com-
pose a part of the native population." " FOR ME !" Here
is proscription, with a vengeance ! A French post-captain
taking upon himself to identify American citizens abroad
with the nation towards which he threatens immediate hos-
tilities; and declaring that they are the particular persons
who have brought disaster on the people, and shall be given
up to the common ravages of a hostile attack. "For me,
they compose a part of the native population /" Let it be
known, to the honor of American female character, at
home and abroad, that when hostilities had ceased, and the
French commander had signified that he would pay his
compliments to the ladies of the mission, if invited, tltey
deemed it beneath the propriety of an American matron
to open their society to an officer who had used the lan-
guage contained in the letter to the American consul. It
is said that an English officer boasted to Franklin, at the
commencement of the revolution, that, with a thousand
men, he would march from Massachusetts Bay to Georgia.
"The women of America would whip you with their broom-
sticks" was P ranklin's reply. The daughters are not un-
worthy of their mothers.
But I shall pass from this subject, so far as these volumes
are concerned, by simply introducing a document signed
by the ward-room officers of our squadron, expressing their
sentiments towards the American missionaries, their unlim-
ited confidence in their sincerity, and their admiration of
their success. They felt a becoming displeasure towards
the parties concerned in furthering the measures of the
French consul, and of their own accord gave the mission-
aries the accompanying paper. It was to head a pamph-
let containing other documents, which, together, exhibit in
their true light the action of the French at the islands ; the
262 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
severe and cruel necessity of submission to which the na-
tive government was reduced ; the entire innocence of the
missionaries of the charges brought against them in the
manifesto ; and the hate and inveteracy of a miserable
clique, who have long been the persecutors of these worthy
and devoted men and women, whose praise is written in
their self-sacrificing, benevolent, and successful action.
"We, the undersigned, officers of the United States
East India squadron, having, upon our arrival at this
place, heard various rumors in relation and derogatory to
the American mission at these islands, feel it to be due, not
only to the missionaries themselves, but to the cause of
truth and justice, that the most unqualified testimony should
be given in the case ; and do, therefore,, order one thou-
sand copies of the annexed article and correspondence to
be printed for gratuitous distribution, as being the most
effectual mode of settling this agitated question in the
minds of an intelligent and liberal public.
"Being most decidedly of opinion that the persons
composing the Protestant mission of these islands are
American citizens, and, as such, entitled to the protection
which our government has never withheld ; and with un-
wavering confidence in the justice which has ever charac-
terized it, we rest assured that any insult offered to this
unoffending class will be promptly redressed.
" It is readily admitted that there may be in the opera-
tion of this, as in all other systems in which feeble man
has any agency, some objectionable peculiarities ; still, as a
system, it is deemed comparatively unexceptionable, and
believed to have been pursued in strict accordance with
the professed principles of the society which it represents;
and it would seem that the salutary influence exerted by
the mission on the native population, ought to commend
it to the confidence and kind feelings of all interested in
the dissemination of good principles.
GEORGE A. MAGRUDER, Lieutenant.
ANDREW H. FOOT, Lieutenant.
JOHN W. TURK, Lieutenant.
THOMAS TURNER, Lieutenant.
JAMES S. PALMER, Lieutenant.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 263
EDWARD R. THOMPSON, Lieutenant.
AUGUSTUS H. KELTY, Lieutenant.
GEORGE B. MINOR, Lieutenant.
JOHN HASLETT, Surgeon of the Feet.
JOHN A. LOCKWOOD, Surgeon.
DANGERFIELD FAUNTLEROY, Purser.
FITCH W. TAYLOR, Chaplain.
ROBERT P. PEGRAM, Master.
JOSEPH BEALE, Assistant Surgeon.
J. HENSHAW BELCHER, Prof, of Mathematics.
ALEXANDER G. PENDLETON, Prof of Math.
"Honolulu, Oahu November 1st, 1839."
The order that all officers should be on board Saturday
evening, the second of November, thirty days after our
reaching Honolulu Roads, gave to all the assurance that
our ships were again to move on their way to our next
stopping-place ; and that in a few hours more we were to
leave the island where we had paused for health, for
friendly intercourse, and reciprocated civilities. I had
taken leave of a number of friends during the day, and
notes of farewell went to others, who will very long be
remembered in the many and agreeable associations con-
nected with Honolulu. On Monday morning early, the
John Adams was standing out from the inner harbor, with
our own ship leading the way from the outer roads, to sea.
A few hours more, and the island of Oahu was lost in the
distance.
We are assured the visit of the East India squadron
will not soon be forgotten at Honolulu, nor throughout the
Sandwich Islands ; and are happy in the declaration of
the missionaries, in a kind farewell note sent to the Com-
modore, that the ships will bear with them more than the
kind wishes of those we are leaving, while they shall be
sailing on their course as the receding but remembered
objects of their prayers.
*49
264 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
SECTION IX.
SOCIETY ISLANDS.
Island of Tahiti. Papeete Bay. Queen Pomare. Captain Cook. Point
Venus. Ride to Mattavai Bay. Tea at Mr. Pritchard's. Sunday ashore.
Two Sundays come together. The Author addresses the Natives, and
the Chiefs respond. The Frigate 1'Artemise at the Society Islands. Letter
from the English Consul to the Author. Coral Forest. Ships leave the
Society Islands.
AFTER a passage of thirty-one days, we reached the
harbor of Papeete, island of Tahiti, without incident of
sufficient interest for record, save the crossing, for the third
time, the equator. It was a fair night, November the
twenty-seventh, and in longitude 141 W. We had been
previously beating to the windward, to make our easting,
and experienced much rainy weather. But this was all
now left behind us, as our ship was standing south with a
fine breeze and clear sky, and the band giving forth its
mellow strains as the beautiful Columbia was waltzing, in
grace and symmetry, across the line. Still getting easting,
in a few days we made one of the Marquesan islands, and
thence took our departure southwesterly for Tahiti. The
last three days was a fine run, and the " Queen of the
Pacific," as this green isle of the ocean has been called,
rose to our view, when we were still leagues at sea. We
approached it from -the northeast, passing Point Venus ;
and gaining a pilot at the report of our gun off the Bay
of Papeete, stood in through the narrow and fearful pass,
for a frigate, to the coral in-hemmed basin, on whose still
bosom the Columbia is now peacefully lying.
The ship having passed through the narrow break in
the reef, which forms the pass to the harbor, now rests at
her anchor near in to the shore, in deep water, with num-
bers of coral islets rising in different parts of the basin so
as to appear on the surface at low water ; while the outer
reef, with the exception of the narrow break, sweeps its
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 265
circular wall of protection, over which the foam breaks
in its beautiful line of white, like a bead of nature's filla-
gree work, inlaying its narrow silver line either way, on
the blue field of the deep.
The present queen, Pomare, sovereign of the Society
Islands, is residing some twenty or thirty miles fpom Pa-
peete. The late visit of the French frigate 1'Artemise
has made her alarmed at the approach of men-of-war,
and it is said that those in authority of our own nation
the present and the ex-consul have used language to her
majesty that has made her apprehend danger from the
visit of our squadron. But whatever may have been the
representations of these functionaries to the department
at home, the United States government has not thought it
fit to specify any grievances to be redressed by the arm
of power. The particular and the only object that called
our squadron to these islands, was, besides the showing
of a naval force in these seas, to inquire into the assault
made upon the persons of the late American consul and
his wife, with the intent to murder and of robbery, by
ruffians, who were to be dealt with as the circumstances
of the case in evidence should require.
The name of the lamented and gifted Cook will always
be associated with the islands of these seas, and most par-
ticularly with the Sandwich and the Society Islands, the
first as being their discoverer, and the spot where his life
was so abruptly terminated ; and the Society Islands, as
the point of his visits and scientific observations. It was
at Point Venus, seven miles from our anchorage, where
Captain Cook fixed his tent on shore for the purpose of
making his observations on the transit of Venus in 1769.
The point derives its name from this circumstance. A
beautiful ride and the residence of a missionary family at
the spot, with its many associations of interest, induced
me to accept the proffer of a horse from the English con-
sul and the company of Mr. Johnson for a visit to this
point. The road is an embowered way nearly its length,
save where it leads directly along the beach in view of
the tumbling surf, which curls its lip along every identa-
tion of the several bays, and gives forth a voice of thunder
as it rolls upon the beach. This magnificent display of
266 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the high surf where it comes in from the sea uninterrupted
by the reefs, and first breaks upon the beach, is of itself a
grand phenomenon that can never cease to interest the
eye and the ear, for its mingled beauty and grandeur.
The bread-fruit tree was everywhere abundant on our
way, and the yellow limes lay thick beneath many a luxu-
riant tree, like the apples of the north that have strewed
the orchard where they have ripened with the later days
of summer and the earliest sear of autumn. The green
orange-trees were clustered with bunches of the magnifi-
cent fruit in endless quantities ; and the guavas, in their
wild and rapid spread, are taking possession of the island ;
all presenting a supply of food for these islands, with their
native cocoa-nut, that will always keep them an indolent
people. They have but to raise their hands and pick their
food from the trees that wave above their heads, and live
and be happy, so long as life has no further charm to them
than eating and drinking, and sleeping, and sleeping again
and waking and eating and drinking.
Point Venus forms one horn of Mattavai bay, into which
many vessels enter instead of Papeete bay, where our ship
is anchored. The U. S. exploring squadron were anchored
there but a few months since, on their first reaching the
island, and Commodore Wilks (for so the young command-
er is styled, and with a pennant at his main is rightly so
addressed) pitched his tent for observation on the same spot
where Cook seventy years ago raised his. And here lay
the Bounty, whose story is one of romance, and origina-
ting the poem of the " Island," from Byron's pen. The
visit of the exploring squadron to this island is spoken
favorably of by the missionary families. Commodore
Wilks, Captain Hudson and officers inspected the schools,
and presents were distributed to the children and native
teachers. The ships, after spending a short time at Mat-
tavai bay, anchored where our own ships are moored, as
the more convenient and safe harbor.
We dined with the Rev. Mr. Wilson and family.
Our ride back from Point Venus, was alike pleasant
along the embowered road of the ever resounding beach,
passing the mausoleum of the ruling family, containing the
bodies of the Pomares; and amused at times by witnessing
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 267
the young Tahitians, whose element is the water, diving
beneath the surf as it rolled its immense swell above their
heads, and broke in foam and thunder on the shore.
I took tea with the Rev. Mr. Pritchard, who has the
appointment of British consul at these islands, and has been
long situated at Tahiti. Mrs. P. and Mrs. Joseph the wife
of the lately arrived missionary who is to occupy the field
at this place, are the only two European ladies resident at
Papeete whom I have met. There is no society here ; and
but little of interest, save the luxuriant display of nature in
the vegetable productions of the island. And these are not
numerous, so far as the trees of the plain are concerned.
The bread-fruit tree, the guava, lime, orange, and banana,
and a Chilian plum, a magnificent tree with the gran-
deur of a forest mammoth, are nearly all the variety that
meets the eye. These are all the natives need, with the
assistance of the taro and an indifferent sweet potato and
a mountain plantain. These trees bearing the year around,
serve to yield the necessaries of life to the indolent popu-
lation.
The natives are of a fairer complexion than the Sand-
wich Islanders, and some of them have interest of ex-
pression in their features. But they have generally (the
women) the high cheek bone and the flat nose and moon
face of the American Indian.
TWO SUNDAYS COME TOGETHER.
On Saturday the 13th I went ashore, to attend the re-
ligious services in the native church, and also, at a later
hour, at the seamen's chapel. It was the Sabbath at the
islands, their time differing from ours by one day, in con-
sequence of the missionaries not changing their reckoning,
as they should have done, on crossing the meridian of
180, having made their passage to these islands by the
way of the Cape of Good Hope and the Indies, like our-
selves.
The usual services on board the Columbia, the succeed-
ing day, exhibited this dissonance more strikingly than it
would otherwise have struck us. On their Sunday, the
preceding day, I addressed the natives, through the Rev.
268 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
Mr. Pritchard, as interpreter. When I had finished my
talk, a chief arose in his place and begged Mr. P. to inter-
pret his reply. My address, he said, he would wish me to
know was entirely understood, although I had spoken in
English, as it had been interpreted, sentence by sentence.
One illustration only (which was afterwards explained)
he had not fully comprehended. He had come down to
the church this morning not with the expectation of hear-
ing this speech, but he was glad that it had so happened.
They were glad to learn, as they had now been told, that
the religion which they had embraced was the same as
that of the English and the American people, and which the
American missionaries had borne to the Sandwich Islands,
as the English missionaries did to Tahiti. He knew not,
the chief continued, how it was with the rest, or rather he
could not answer for them in connection with one part of
my speech, where I urged them to " hold on to the reli-
gion they professed ;" but for one he would say that it
was his determination to do so. He believed in the sin-
cerity of our friendly visit, so different from some they had
lately received.
The manner of this chief was very easy, and his ap-
pearance, dressed in European style, was not different
from that of a Spaniard or Portuguese, in his summer dress
of thin white.
Another chief rose, with assurances that all feelings
of kindness for their religious welfare were reciprocated
to the stranger, and that their prayers would be given for
me. Indeed they prayed for all clergymen, he said, that
they may be prospered in their labors, except Romish
priests they could not pray that their labors might be
prospered. This was said with great gravity, in connec-
tion with the action of the Catholic priests and the French
man-of-war at these islands. No particular reference had
been made to Romanism in the address that had been de-
livered by myself.
Others spoke ; and the scene was entirely unique and
unexpected, not only to myself, but I believe to Mr. P.
also, as he seemed to have been taken by surprise. But
the greater interest was added to the meeting from this
spontaneous burst of feeling from the chiefs, in which th*
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 269
other natives of the congregation sympathized, to the oc-
casional audible expression of their interest, as the speak-
ing proceeded, in their rejoinders.
It is not within my purpose to extend my descriptions
in connection with the Society Islands, or reflections upon
measures lately pursued here. The islanders have been
forced, as at the Sandwich Islands, into a treaty with the
French, in connection with the Roman Catholic religion,
which was made in view of threatened war and conflagra-
tion, giving the natives no alternative but to accept the
conditions proposed. There is one particular, however,
that must strike the American. No public exception was
made, so far as I know, to the action of the English mis-
sionaries here, notwithstanding it is known, and not pre-
tended to be concealed, that the English missionaries have
advised the native government, and accepted judicial ap-
pointments under it. Why is this ? Did France feel that
it was a more delicate subject for her to meddle with Eng-
lishmen than^with Americans ; and when, too, there was
positive and acknowledged proof in the action of the Eng-
lish, and none, either acknowledged or in fact existing, in
the case of the American missionaries ? The course of
the two missions, in their policy, has been different the
American missionaries carefully abstaining from interfer-
ing with the acts of the native government, according to
their orders from the Board of missions at home and the
English missionaries, on the contrary, making it a point
openly to use their influence with the powers that are.
We leave the American citizen and the American govern-
ment to draw their conclusions on this subject, and con-
tent ourselves by quoting the following communication of
H. B. M. Consul Mr. rritchard, already several times
mentioned, and well known for his long residence at Ta-
hiti, and for the energetic action in his Christian efforts in
behalf of these people.
" Tahiti, December 20, 1839.
" REV. AND DEAR SIR,
" I hereby send you a copy of the letter sent by Du
Petit Thours, Commodore of the French frigate Venus, to
Pomare, Queen of Tahiti. Also a copy of the treaty
270 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
formed between A. Du Petit Thours, on the part of the
French government, and Queen Pomare. The requisitions
contained in the letter were fulfilled. As the natives were
not able to raise the money demanded, a few of us for-
eigners united, and paid the sum of $2000.
" At the time the treaty was formed a public meeting
was held in the large church. At this meeting the native
authorities stated that they were willing to receive French-
men, and to treat them well ; but suppose French priests
should come were they, the authorities, obliged to allow
them to teach the Roman Catholic religion ? The Com-
modore, A. Du Petit Thours, replied, No ; if they did not
wish the Roman Catholic religion to be taught in Queen
Pomare's dominions, they might enact a law to that effect.
Some little time after, when .the Legislature met, they en-
acted a law, prohibiting all except the Protestant religion
being taught in Queen Pomare's dominions.
" In a few months after this, the Artemise, Captain La
Place, came. I was from home at this time,imt since my
return I have been informed that the frigate struck upon
a rock on the north side of Tahiti, when, had it not been
for the timely assistance of the natives, the vessel would
have been lost. She was thoroughly repaired at Tahiti.
The Frenchmen were allowed to cut down timber where-
ever they pleased, by paying the owner of the land a cer-
tain sum for each tree. About four hundred natives were
employed for some weeks, pumping, who received twenty-
five cents for twenty-four hours' labor.
" After the Artemise had been repaired, and was all
ready for sea, the Frenchmen put themselves in a most
hostile position. The first thing demanded was, that the
law in reference to the Roman Catholic religion be abro-
gated. If the Tahitian government would not agree to
this, two hundred and fifty men, armed, were to be landed,
who would first set fire to the Protestant church, then the
queen's house, afterwards the houses of the chiefs and
common people, and thus destroy the town. The poor
Tahitians were frightened into a compliance. The law
was abrogated. They then insisted upon having a Ro-
man Catholic chapel built at this station, professedly for
the benefit of French seamen calling at this port. This
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
271
demand was accompanied with the same threats. At
length it was agreed that they should have a chapel, but
that service should be performed in the French language
only. This being settled, they then insisted upon having
a Roman Catholic chapel at every station wherever there
was a Protestant one. and the service performed in the
Tahitian language. Their threats were such as led the
natives to believe that there was no alternative ; that they
must agree to all demands made by Captain La Place, or
commence hostilities with a powerful nation, against which
they are not able to stand. Thus the French obtained all
they desired, and went away exulting in what they had
accomplished among the poor helpless natives.
" We are now daily expecting Roman Catholic priests
to enter in among us and sow the seeds of discord in this
field of missionary labor, which probably may terminate
in a civil war.
"I cannot now enlarge. Wishing you the best of
blessings,
" I remain, very affectionately yours,
"G. PRITCHARD.
" To the Rev. Fitch W. Taylor, Chaplain U. S. Frigate Columbia."
CORAL FORESTS.
I know not that Mrs. Stickney, in her Poetry of Na-
ture, or Mr. Montgomery, in his descriptions of things
which are poetical, has made mention of the coral forests
of the sea. There is not in nature a grouping of forms
and blending of colors more beautiful and gorgeous than
is presented in the fantastic variety of a coral field in the
deep. These islands of the Pacific are hemmed around
by one line of coral reef, broken here and there so as to
form inlets into the quiet basins, which constitute the har-
bors of the islands.
The sheet of water on which we are moored being per-
fectly calm, I jumped into a canoe paddled by a single
native, and told him to shoot the fragile thing towards the
outer reef, over which the breakers were tumbling so as
to leave their beautiful line of white, ever seen, dividing
the waters of the blue deep without from the deep waters
50
272 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
of the basin within. We came to the shoaling water of
one of the coral islets, whose submarine formation had
neared the surface of the basin. It was a beautiful sight
as I looked down to the submerged forests below, over
which the canoe rested without rippling the surface of the
still water, through which the eye gazed to the coral
groves below. And you might fancy them whatever you
chose forests, grottoes castle halls, with red rooms
and green rooms and all a gorgeous scene of beautiful
grouping and coloring. Here were fields of branching
ferns in all their beautiful regularity of frond and here,
the matted folia of more irregular shrub and here, the
mushroom, with its radia converging to their common
centre, and bounded at their diverging extremes by a
common curved line, and laying their oval and circular
forms among the shrub, or vine, or stem, or leaf, wherever
there seemed a vacancy, like a rose in the filling up of a
piece of carved fret-work, in ornamental architecture.
And here again branched off, in heavier proportions, the
resemblances of the cactus or prickly pear ; and then, still
higher, rise the antlers of leafless but spotless alabaster
boughs of a wider forest, overtopping the ferns and lower
shrubbery. And then, the colors and the grouping ! Here
was the delicate pink, that seemed to blush at its own con-
sciousness of loveliness ; and there the circular group
fringed with purple ; and again, a deep hall of azure ; and
the cactus arrayed in green, with its edges lightening to
a brilliant fringe of gold. Beautiful residences and forest-
rambles for the Peri of the deep ! My Tahitian, without
remorse of conscience, committed sacrilege upon these
golden, and azure, and sapphire halls, as he invaded the
submarine forests and replenished the canoe with speci-
mens of the different-colored sea gems for my pleasure.
We glided over to the Queen's Island, the little islet
studding the coral flat; and securing from its solitary
resident a variety of curious shells, were again returning
to the shore before the bay became sufficiently disturbed
to roll its mimic billows over the side of the canoe.
The wind being fair on the 19th of December, and
deemed sufficiently fresh to take the ships from the harbor
through the narrow opening in the reef, to sea, a signal to
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 273
the Adams was made for her to get under way the pilot
being on board of her, and directed to return for the frigate
after the Adams had been taken through the reef. The
beautiful corvette let fall her sails and was away, fearlessly
standing out through the pass, with the breakers foaming
on either bow, and apparently nearly tumbling into her
fore-chains, so closely do the ships stand to the edge of the
abruptly broken reef, whose extreme points nearly meeting
leave their position distinctly marked by the cessation of
the white line of the breakers, which loses itself in the
deep water of the narrow pass. The topsails of the Adams
were soon aback, awaiting for our own movements ; but
before the pilot was aboard the frigate, the wind had fallen
again, and as our sails, which had been loosened, were
furled, the Adams filled away and stood to sea for the night.
The next morning a sail was seen in the distance, and ere
long the full outline of our consort was made out, as she
stood on and off until another day passed ; and the wind
still failing to offer an opportunity for our getting to sea,
the Adams again sought her safety from a coral-bound
shore for the night, in the far offing.
The day had been mild, and hardly a handful of wind
had been poured over the unrippled bay on which we were
lying ; and all expectation of putting to sea during the
afternoon had again ceased. But the still day had been
favorable for Pomare, the queen, to make her passage
along within the reef, from the direction of Point Venus,
where it was supposed she might have spent the preceding
night ; and at four o'clock a line of whale-boats were seen
standing from that direction, and soon passed near the
stern of the Columbia. They bore her majesty, with her
train.
The experience we already had of the last two days,
showed the possibility of a longer detention than was
desired, and the propriety of securing the first wind that
should offer for getting to sea. The Commodore, there-
fore, made a call upon her majesty, the same afternoon of
her arrival, and repeated, in person, the substance of com-
munications which had been left for her.
The next morning a breeze from the land, before the
sun had looked over the hills of Tahiti, called forth the
274 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
summons of " all hands to get under way ;" and in safety,
and with a welcome that spoke still stronger than ever of
our nearing our yet distant home, we were again at sea.
A few hours more of light and of sailing from this Island-
Queen of the South Seas, and the Adams had come down
to us. Together we are now standing on our course, to
the west coast of South America.
SECTION X.
SOUTH AMERICA.
VALPARAISO AND SANTIAGO.
Land Ho ! South American coast. The sick at sea. Harbor of Valparai-
so. Letters from home. Dine with the American Consul. Christening
of his babe. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey and others. Preach at the
private chape], where the Protestants worship. An analogy. Santiago.
Great altar in the cathedral. The Sefiora Carmen Bargas de Alexandri.
Tertulia. Mass at the cathedral. Calls on different persons at Santiago.
The President, Joaquin Prie"to. American Charge d' Affaires. Return
to Valparaiso. Dine with Admiral Ross. Farewell leave of the Amer-
ican families. Getting under way, and away.
"LAND Ho!" was cried from the top yesterday, January
21, 1840 ; and we are to-day standing along the coast of
South America, having made our run from the Society
Islands in the unusually short passage of twenty-nine days
from land to land. We only wait a breeze to put us into
the harbor of Valparaiso, being a few miles south of the
city. The outline of the coast lies distinctly before us,
high land elevating itself in the interior, but less abrupt in
its distant appearance than the islands among which we
had been sailing in the Pacific. And this is the long ex-
pected west coast of South America. And how many, how
full, how thrilling are the more than ten thousand associ-
ations which rush to the mind ! How one re-lives over the
first days of his existence, as he gazes for the first time
on lands and on seas, about which he has read but before
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 275
has never seen ! He calls back all the feelings of romance
and adventurous longing with which he read, in his young
days, the stories of travel, heroism, chivalry, war, blood-
shed, tyranny, benevolence, adventurers singly and in
armies, the establishment and the overthrow of empires.
It makes one's life more than a double one. Pizarro, Mon-
tezuma, mines of silver and gold and other ores, and In-
dian toils, and Mexican and Peruvian wealth, are all words
which have originated ideas in our young days, and served
in their future combinations of the mind, in its imaginings
and analyses, to form the thinking and feeling being that
constitutes one's particular self.
THE SICK AND THE CHAPLAIN.
One of the sick men I visited this morning I found yet
more unwell. I had marked him often on the upper-deck,
and was always struck by the soft and subdued tone of his
voice. He was in the sick-bay this morning, and I sup-
posed he was improving. " How are you, Mathews ?" I
asked kindly, as I had often before spoken to him. "Your
cot being moved, I supposed you had gone to take a walk."
" I am very unwell, sir," he replied, in a plaintive tone,
as he placed his hand upon his side, indicating the point of
his pain. " I cannot move, sir. I wish God would be
pleased to take me out of this world, sir ; but I have been
so sinful, sir." And here the young sailor put the back of
his hand to his face, to wipe away the tears that flowed
successively down his cheek.
I could hardly restrain my own tears as I marked his
sunken spirits, and his tone of voice so mild and suppressed,
while I sat beside him and continued my conversation.
The Saviour, I assured him, came to save sinners, not
those who deemed themselves righteous. It was the broken
heart he asked. He showed his love towards us, in this,
that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He
willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that all should
come to repentance. I doubted not but that he had been
very sinful ; but it was well if he so felt it, and a conscious-
ness of it had brought him to feel that he had nothing to
recommend him to the favor of his God, and that he need-
50*
276 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ed his pardon. I endeavored to guide his mind, while he
continued to weep. And as I asked of his education, I
learned, as is usually the case where these feelings are
found, that his "mother used to read good books and had
talked to him of religion." And that mother, I thought
whatever might be her situation in life was yet a mothei
with a mother's feelings ; and what would be the swellings
of her bosom could she look upon her dying son !
I returned to my room and wept over the scene of the
sadness and stricken spirit of this young man, so humble,
so mild, so indescribably gentle in the expression of his
voice, and penitent in the appreciation of his own charac-
ter and un worthiness. How unlike another to whom I had
spoken but a moment before, who said he had long been
suffering, and wished he was out of the world ! I asked
what he considered would be his situation were he at once
removed, according to his expressed wish ? " It could not
be much worse, sir, anyhow," he replied, with as much
grumness of voice as the technical deference of the ship
service would allow. But, I continued, if your suffering
here for so short a time is so distressing, how painful would
it be if that suffering were to continue for ever ! And if
you would wish to be relieved from your present suffering,
should you not strive, by a proper preparation to leave this
life, to be for ever free from that which will pain and ren-
der unhappy ?
The scenes often presented to the chaplain on board a
man-of-war are peculiar, and frequently they are feeling
beyond description. It must be so, where there are con-
gregated among the crew so many whose lives have been
reckless and immoral, and yet in their early days instruct-
ed in the principles of a Christian education. I have been
sent for by one who had declared himself an atheist, and
endeavored to spread his opinions among his messmates,
but on his dying cot desired to make a public declaration
of his folly. His forced convictions would not serve him,
he said, to die by, and he renounced them, and warned
others against a like folly of his own. It is to the chaplain
many a poor tar confides his last words, and tells, as a re-
lief to his own spirit, the incidents that led him from the
parental roof. " My father once struck me," said a young
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 277
man who first opened his feelings to me, as the tears in-
voluntarily traced their way down his cheeks, after I had
expressed my sympathy for his situation; "I could not brook
it my spirit was too haughty and I left home for ever.
But I would desire that they might hear from me." I as-
sured him that I would write, as he gave me their address,
a family in creditable circumstances of connection and pro-
perty. " I must die," he continued, after he had made
known all his wishes to me, and confided in my promise
to communicate with his family; "but now I can die more
willingly." He was a sensible man, and I trust possessed
at this hour the proper frame of mind for a being hourly
expecting to leave this for another world.
These are but a few of the many cases which have pre-
sented themselves in the sad mortality, which, at one time,
attended our crew. " I have sinned with an uplifted hand
and an outstretched arm," said another, " but it is too late
to remedy the past, and I can only supplicate my God to
forgive." I may never forget the prayers that this man
offered as I stood beside his dying hammock. His per-
sonal appearance, when in health, had attracted my inter-
est for his fine proportions and enviable figure. He died,
leaving a message for his wife, who constituted all his
family.
I have reason to believe that the presence of a chaplain
is always appreciated by the crew of a man-of-war.
They feel that they can speak to him as they cannot to a
watch-officer. And his Christian sympathies are often ap-
pealed to in his rounds among the sick, and other inter-
course with the men, when it can be known only to himself;
and the longest sea-going tar, whatever may have been
his course, feels it to be a consolation in his last hours to
know, that the service shall be performed, in decency and
solemnity, by the chaplain ever his remains, at their inter-
ment, on land or in the deep.
HARBOR OF VALPARAISO.
The frigate's eight o'clock gun has been fired, and we
are at anchor in the harbor of Valparaiso. The music
from different ships of war, from three of the most power-
278
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
VALPARAISO.
ful nations of the globe, is now hushed, and the bay sleeps
again in its stillness. A long bank of dark hills throw their
deep shade upon the water, as they sweep their crescent
battlement around the bay ; and here and there the lights
of the shore and from the inner shipping gleam sparklingly,
while the stars in the heavens twinkle from a pure and deep
sky, as the moon yet lingers behind the high Cordilleras.
The whole scene emblems forth much of the varied feel-
ings which swell different hearts on board our ship to-
night, after the perusal of the hundreds of letters which
were awaiting us at this port. Joy, grief, delight, sadness,
affectionate solicitudes answered, and fearful apprehensions
confirmed, bright hopes realized, dreams of happy intelli-
gence more than insured, all vary the mingled emotions,
which to-night hold many hearts in alternate happiness
and sorrow. Some have heard of the death of fathers
one, of a child some, of brothers others, of other kindred
and friends. Marriages, joyous incidents, and happy intel-
ligence crowd the letters of others. Here are things that
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 279
wake music mingled of the heart, as it breathes forth from
the line of joyous narrative, or swells in the ^Eolian strain
of plaintive intelligence, or lingers in the slow elegiac over
the memory of departed friends. A year has passed since
our last intelligence from home. My own letters contain
the mention of thirteen deaths of acquaintances and friends.
What a world of change is this ! But we would learn
even the worst, and end our suspense. And there will
ever be mingled, in all the circumstances of this existence,
the shade with the sunshine ; and the aching heart is never
far away from the outgushings of the most unalloyed en-
joyment.
The day succeeding our arrival at Valparaiso, I dined
with our consul, George G. Hobson, Esq., and his estimable
family. Their residence, with the other American fami-
lies, is delightfully situated on one of the hills immediately
overlooking the town, and commanding a full view of the
bay and its shipping, with the wide ocean extending fur-
ther out and bounding the distant horizon. The promenade
in front of the low cottage-formed houses is like a quar-
ter-deck, extending in length some two or three hundred
rods and three or four wide. The houses are constructed
with reference to earthquakes, not unfrequently occurring
here, though of late years unattended by the catastrophes
of earlier times. There are ruins of buildings yet to be
seen in the town, which have crumbled beneath the unrest
of these trembling regions.
Mrs. H. is an interesting lady from Maryland, and blessed
with a charming little group of daughters and one sweet
babe, who is their only and cherished boy. I record his
name in full here, and with interest, as a lovely child, whom
I baptized on the succeeding Sunday. May kind blessings
always attend the path of this same smiling little GEORGE
HOBSON. I met at Mr. Hobson's, at the christening of his
infant son, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey, who occupy an adja-
cent building of the same cluster of houses. Mrs. C. was
a Miss A., of Middletown, Connecticut, and claims for the
young ladies of her native town a pre-eminence in beauty,
a particular, from which I was far from dissenting, having
had an opportunity, from personal observation, to confirm
the correctness of her estimate and taste. Two English
280 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
young ladies were present, and several American and Eng-
lish gentlemen.
I had preached in the Protestant chapel in the morning,
which is fitted up in very good style, and, by sufferance,
allowed to exist as a private building in outward appear-
ance, being joined to a private dwelling as a part of it. The
government of the city say that they will not interfere, so
long as there shall exist no appearance externally of a Prot-
estant house of worship, though I have been informed that
an order from the ecclesiastical authority at Santiago has
been received at Valparaiso to have the doors of this build-
ing closed, and the congregation suppressed. The reply
of the governor was, that he should not put the order into
execution ; if required, however, to do it, he should hand
in his resignation. That every precaution on the part of
the Protestant community is adopted to enable them to re-
tain their little place of worship, may be inferred from the
circumstance of my proposing to wear my gown from the
consulate to the room fitted up as the chapel ; and it was
suggested, for the reasons already alluded to, that it might
be as well for the servant to take it, though a short distance,
to the chapel. What a pity that the Protestant frigate now
in the harbor of Valparaiso should not send ashore a mani-
festo to this Catholic community, demanding a site for the
building of a Protestant chapel and the free and open wor-
ship of the Protestant faith, or else, as the alternative, to
fire upon their town. And more suppose the American
frigate should proscribe the Catholic frenchmen in Valpa-
raiso as identified with the religion of the government,
and without proof affirm that they sanctioned the Catholic
illiberality towards the Protestants, and in case of hostili-
ties, assure them that they should receive no quarters, but
meet the fate intended for the enemies of Protestant Amer-
ica. We run not further the parallel for the reader of the
action of the 1'Artemise at the Sandwich Islands. But we
do call upon the sensitive and sensible Frenchmen to dis-
own the conduct of Captain La Place and the French con-
sul at the Sandwich Islands. And we do further call upon
the government of the United States to look at the trans-
actions of the 1'Artemise at the Sandwich Islands, in the
light in which the present state of things in this Catholic
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 281
republic presents them, and to express its feelings in all
charity and justice for a Protestant cause, and rights of
American citizens abroad.
SANTIAGO.
Santiago, the capital of the republic of Chili, is some
ninety miles in the interior from Valparaiso. A visit to
the capital we were assured would more than repay for the
necessary exertion which it would cost us to reach it the
scenery on the way presenting some of the grandest moun-
tain views, and Santiago itself possessing the best Chilian
society. We therefore determined to take the earliest mo-
ment for making the excursion ; and on the Tuesday after
our arrival at Valparaiso were on our way over the Cor-
dilleras to the elevated city, in a something of an I-don't-
know-what-d'ye-call-it, mostly resembling a stout country
gig, accommodating two passengers in its ample propor-
tions of width, having one horse in its shafts, and two oth-
ers, one on each side with his postillion, attached by hide
ropes, leading from the cross-piece of the gig to the girth
of the rider.- Thus, with three horses abreast, and twice
three ahead ready to be lassoed for a like convenience when
the others were tired, we advanced on our course from
Valparaiso of the sea-coast to the city of Santiago on the
elevated plains in the interior.
We accomplished half the journey after twelve o'clock
the first day, and reached Santiago in time for dinner the
next. We crossed two ranges of mountains, or spurs of
the Andes, by ascending a mountain road which would be
deemed almost impracticable in a land where horse-flesh
is of much value; but here, where a very respectable draw-
horse may be purchased for a doubloon, we accomplished
the zig-zag pathway, if not like a streak of lightning,
\* hich the track would resemble if delineated on canvass,
we yet made the ascent every way comfortably to ourselves,
save the dust that enveloped us in a cloud ; and descended
again to the speed of a full spring, to the great excitement
of weak nerves, lest the suddenness of the turns should
prove our destruction, by our being precipitated, volante,
horses, horsemen and all, down a thousand feet, before the
282 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
horses could be checked, and bent to the winding path.
But the Spanish bit, that terrible thing for a horse's mouth,
enabled the postillion always to check the animals on the
brink of the precipice, and to guide them at his pleasure,
rendering our descent of the Cordilleras at full speed as
safe, while the harness proved true, as our passage over
the plains. Santiago is said to be more than a thousand
feet above the level of the ocean ; and beyond it rise the
snow-capped Andes, which, at the last pass of the Cordil-
leras, burst in full view upon the gaze of the traveller, be-
fore he descends to the extensive plain between the two,
on which the capital is situated. To us, who have been
so long cruising within the tropics, and looking at the
ever green hill-side, and mountains covered with fadeless
foliage, the view of our old acquaintance in those piles of
snow had nothing in it to chill, but every thing to delight.
It carried us back immediately, in our home associations,
to the winter-scenes of our own northern land, and made
us think how gladly we would once again welcome the
sight of a northeast snow-storm.
We entered the city through a double range of mud
houses, low and apparently crammed with many occu-
pants, presenting, as the suburbs of all cities do, little of
interest and much one would choose to avoid. Among
the many faces, however, which gazed at the caballeros
as they passed, a beautiful young woman, with her neck
and arms naked, seemed luxuriating in the zephyrs that
had just begun to move at this early hour after the greater
heat of the day. Our postillion guided our establishment
by some creditable ranges of buildings into the Plaza,
and in a few moments more we were at halt, in front of
the Fonda Inglesa. The spurs of the postillion upon the
pebbled pavements of the court of the hotel, as he dis-
mounted, sounded like the clanking of some yards of iron
chain-cable, while the elongated proportions of his spurs
resembled the arms of two capacious wind-mills. Mine
host of the Fonda soon accommodated us with comfort-
able rooms ; and an equally comfortable warm-bath, after
our dusty but interesting ride, made us in good humor
with all the world again.
Four o'clock was the time for dining, and we had hit
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 283
upon the hour quite apropos with a spare interim of forty-
five minutes for bathing and the toilet.
Two officers of the squadron (Dr. Hazlett and Lieut.
Turner) had preceded us ; and as we entered the dining
hall we found them with fork, con carnero balanceando,
which they readily dropped to give us welcome for old
acquaintance' sake.
The next morning we called on the American charge
d'affaires, Richard Pollard, Esq., to whom our considerate
friend, the American consul at Valparaiso, gave us let-
ters, and we at once found in Mr. P. a friend, ready in
every way in his power to contribute to the pleasure of
our stay at Santiago.
In the morning we promenaded, marked the localities
of the city, gazed, as strangers without impoliteness may
gaze, on the passing citizens, senores, senoras, senoritas,
padres in white, and padres in black. One of these pa-
dres, in his white robes, at a point where the inside of
the walk by accident had become disputed and the wall
side was tendered to him, declined it with so much native
politeness and grace, as he raised his broad-brimmed hat
and added, " No Senor, pase usted," that it caused me to
feel kindly towards all his fraternity, during my whole
stay at Santiago. At sunset we walked on the Alameda,
a beautiful promenade, bordered on either side with a
double row of poplars, and extending a half mile or more
in length, with stone settees occupying either side of the
main walk nearly its whole length, as an acceptable lounge
to those who prefer sitting and chatting to chatting and
walking. Here the elite gather at the late hour of the day,
and the mob or populace, soldiers, priests, merchants, lov-
ers and the loved, and whomever it pleaseth. Children are
sent out with their nurses, and friend expects to meet friend.
It is an interesting spectacle, presented here. We have
not seen it in its greatest interest, as many of the first fami-
lies, we learn, are out of town, at their quintas, at this time
of the year ; others at Valparaiso and other points for sea
bathing. But many families of interest are still in town ;
here we have seen several pretty native Chilenas passing,
in dress for their evening walk, without bonnet, with their
fine suits of hair arranged with care and tastefully.
51
284 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
At night, after nine o'clock, we were introduced to the
family of General Lastra. His lady is la Senora Carmen
Izquierdo, called, after the Spanish custom of the country.
la Carmen Izquierdo de Lastra. The General is absent
on duty. The pretty daughters whom we saw were the
Senoritas Cardina, Carmen, and Rosa. The eldest re-
minded me of a young friend I had left in the United
States. There was the same oval and white brow, long
lashes and delicately pencilled eyebrow, and deeply speak-
ing blue eye ; with a nose not truly Grecian, but yet more
expressive for its variation, and characteristic of its interest-
ing possessor. It seemed amusement for the party to com-
pare Spanish words with English ; and though I professed
not to speak the Spanish language, I yet couH well admire
a beautiful Spanish woman. So I assured the young Chi-
lena, in great sincerity, as much perhaps on account of
her resemblance to my North American friend, as for the
personal attractions of my Chilian acquaintance herself.
I am sure I shall not forget the peculiar intonations with
which she pronounced " Si Serior," "No Senor." The
Spanish language on the lip of a Chilian lady is indescri-
bably sweet. But more of this elsewhere. La Senora
Carmen Izquierdo de Lastra spoke of the North Ameri-
cans who had visited Santiago, and thought the North
American women very beautiful. She remembered Mrs.
A. and sister. The evening was spent very agreeably,
though none of the family spoke English. Las Senoritas
Carmen and Rosa, sisters of Carolina, were sprightly, the
one with ringlets in the neck, the other with a golden fil-
let, confining the hair, smoothly and plainly parted on the
brow. We left at twelve o'clock, receiving the assuran-
ces of Mrs. Lastra, that as we had now formed the ac-
quaintance, her house was always open to us, whenever
it should be convenient for us to call.
THE CATHEDRAL AT SANTIAGO.
The next morning I rose early for matins, being desi-
rous of visiting the cathedral, which is deemed the finest
church edifice of Santiago.
Besides the twenty altars decorating the sides of this
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 285
extensive building, is the main altar located centrally,
nearly at the further end of the building, and on an eleva-
ted platform, to which you ascend in front and on two
sides by flights of steps. This central altar is the most
gorgeous one in the building. The front is of massive
silver; rather it is a heavy plate of chase- work with
groups of figures in relievo, being some four feet in height
by ten to fifteen in length. The massive candlesticks are
of similar materials ; and the different furniture, usual for
the altar, is of the same costly and rich article. Above
this, rises a doric canopy of eight columns, supporting a
dome, the pillars being an imitation of marble, and the differ-
ent parts of the canopy in proper proportion, exhibiting the
beautiful harmony, though on a small scale, of Grecian
architecture. Within this canopy rises the top of a cen-
tral pillar, with its capital, so constructed as to rise or fall
at pleasure ; and on this capital rests a plated globe seve-
ral feet in dimensions. Still behind it, on the same level,
is the orchestra.
As I stood in front of this altar, on a succeeding day,
when a polite priest had gone with me through the build-
ing, and showed me its inner rooms, the richly laced
dresses, and silver and golden utensils for the altar and
the procession, as well as its public halls, I could well
imagine the effect capable of being produced upon the
worshippers, whose imagination and devotion harmonized
with the display of the scene before them. Imagine the
full choir, chanting high mass a hundred priests* in their
rich and varied canonicals the recitative of their sono-
rous and full voices, when, for a moment, the music ceases,
and the cloud of incense rises and rolls in evolving per-
fume and fragrance from the silver censer again the full
chorus fills the cloister, rolling from arch to arch, from
recess to recess, from dome to pavement, when all is still-
ed again in the hush of death, as the priest is about to
elevate the host. The low tinkling of a single bell is now
heard throughout the vast building, and all prostrate them-
selves upon their knees, while the pillar that supports the
* It is said there are fifteen hundred priests in Santiago, of three
different orders.
286 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
plated globe is seen suddenly to settle, leaving the globe
suspended apparently in mid-air ; but now it is seen to
begin to spread itself longitudinally ; and now, the lower
parts of the meridians curve outward and yet more ex-
pand, until the whole, opening, spreads itself as a spacious
cerulean heaven, studded with stars, on which a row of
lighted tapers throw their sparkling light. And there,"
upon this column, in a golden vase, stands the eucharist.
All behold, bow, and worship !
I saw not this gilded globe open even on the succeed-
ing Sunday, which was a feast of great interest in the
church ; but the priest, already alluded to, exhibited for
my pleasure this holy phantasmagoria, which is opened
only on occasions of great solemnity. It is a French
piece of mechanism, connected with the silver altar, all a
beautiful piece of workmanship, and said to be a present
to the cathedral.
LA SENORA CARMEN BARGAS TURTULIAS.
An engagement was made for us for each evening of
our stay in Santiago. At ten o'clock in the evening of
the same day of my morning visit to the cathedral, our
party entered the drawing-rooms of la Senora Carmen
Bargas de Alexandri, which had already been well lighted
up and filled with Chilians of both sexes, in anticipation
of the visit of the Americanos del Norte. We were in-
troduced to the Senora Carmen Bargas, the interesting
lady of the Senor Alexandri, who rose from the sofa and
received us with the grace of an accomplished woman.
Among the company there were several interesting young
ladies some officers of the Chilian army ; and an ease
characterized the association of the different members of
the party, which divested the company of every appear-
ance of embarrassing formality. One of the young ladies
gave us music, and sang with feeling that evinced the sus-
ceptibility of her nature ; and though occasionally too
loud in the strains of her voice for the rooms, at times
her intonations sunk with most agreeable effect, to the
pathos and thrill of the sentiment of the stanzas she sang.
The dance is a universal accomplishment in Chili, and
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 287
is a part of the education of every child, as much so as
the learning of the letters ; and excellence in the accom-
plishment receives rewards equally with superiority in
the departments of drawing and lessons in reading and
writing. " My eldest daughter," said the Seiiora, on a
succeeding evening, " received the prize at her school for
drawing, my youngest daughter, for dancing." She has
two daughters, who are both young. The dance this
evening was a matter of course, and is introduced infor-
mally and as pastime in the same way as music is, though,
in the one case, politeness would induce the visiter to lis-
ten in silence to the music, while he is at liberty to observe
the dance and continue or not his conversation, during its
performance. The grace with which many of the little
girls go through the dances peculiar to the Spanish coun-
try, called " bayles de galpe," is very engaging. After a
few quadrilles, in which I marked the eye of la Seiiora
Bargas follow her elder daughter with an interest that
seemed to cause the mother, for a moment, to forget even
herself and others, though she too was in the dance ; her
younger and charming little girl, about eight years of age,
performed with a Chilian officer the native dances, very
much to our gratification. The guitar, accompanied by
the voices of lady and gentleman, afforded the music as
they sung the love ditty, and the dance served as the
graceful pantomime. The little girl was applauded for the
grace with which she performed her part, and I am sure
each one would willingly have given her a kiss additional,
had it been admissible, for her own loveliness' sake.
The succeeding evening la Senora Bargas repeated
the little party or tertulia, in compliment to ourselves,
when the company was varied by the presence of others
whom we had not seen. A Miss Cortez, however, a
young lady of much grace in her manners and in the
dance, and la Senorita Mariquita, a diminutive endear-
ment for Maria, and whose family name I am unfortunate
not to possess, were present from among our acquaintances
of the preceding evening the one walking like a queen,
the other smiling as if the soul, which lighted up the sweet
expression of her countenance, had never dreamed that
the dark wing of sorrow could once throw its shadow
51*
288 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
within the circle of her consciousness. May it never,
reach a countenance so purely expressive of a happy and
innocent heart.
La Senora Carmen Bargas de Alexandri is an interest-
ing specimen of a Spanish lady. Her husband is said to
be rich and in high standing with the government, to
which he has afforded at different times the essential,
which is necessary to add efficiency to the executive.
Youth still favors this lady with most expressive features,
an elasticity of step, and a personal appearance which
would forbid a North American from supposing her the
mother of the elder of the two daughters, as together the
child and the mother moved in the same waltz. Her step
pressed gently on the down of the flowered Wilton that
carpeted the hall, as one would think of that mental ab-
straction, the muse of music, treading the golden edge of
a sunset cloud. There was indeed music in all this grace-
ful woman did, and more than English music in all she
said, in the inimitable intonations of her voice while speak-
ing in that combination of all harmonies, the Spanish lan-
guage, when articulated from a Spanish lady's lip.
"The Americans are very amiable," she said, and looked
the sincerity of her sentiment, as I occupied a privileged
seat upon the sofa during the evening.
" Si Senora, they should be so ; and it is certain they
give the Chilians their best wishes for their political hap-
piness ; and when they form their acquaintance here, it is
said they are never less willing to return to their northern
home than from Chili."
La Senora Bargas joined not in the dance this even-
ing ; and I thought seemed a little curious to know the
reason why I should not have partaken of the amusement,
so much the matter of course in these and European
countries.
" Porque no baila usted, Sefior?" she asked in a tone
so soft, and a cadence sufficiently deferential to indicate
that she almost feared she had put a question I might
choose should have been left unasked.
I had presumed, and rightly, that my profession was
known to this interesting lady, which would have been a
sufficient reply to the question why I did not dance, to one
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
in our own country. But here, I am told, it is the usual
habit of the Catholic clergy to dance at the parties they
may attend, and to play at cards, without a supposition
on the part of the community that either is contrary to the
highest propriety of the order.
I assured the Senora that the sentiment was different
in our own country, and that I myself deemed the dignity
of the clerical profession to be such, as to render it an un-
desirable exhibition for a clergyman to join in the dance.
" Y-e-s," said this beautiful woman, smiling at her own
pronunciation of this one English word, which she seemed
delighted to have learned during the evening.
" Very well" I repeated, as one other English expres-
sion, which she had seized upon for their " muy bueno,"
and for the meaning of which, together with "good-night,"
I had the pleasure to learn previous to my leaving she
considered she was indebted to myself; while they con-
stituted the amount of her knowledge of the English
language.
" And will you be with us to-morrow evening, Senor ?"
she asked, as if she could not be denied.
" No, Senora," I replied, without immediately giving a
reason.
" What ! not to-morrow evening, a feast day, Senor !"
It would be Sunday, which is the greatest holiday in
Chili, and on which their largest parties are generally
given ; and the Senora had been anticipating a greater
display of elegance, and a larger entertainment, on Sun-
day evening, for the pleasure of her North American
friends. After the services of the morning on Sunday, the
day is deemed to be especially a day for visiting, prome-
nade, inspection of the troops ; and the evening univer-
sally regarded as the period of the week for their parties.
This is the habit of the country, and probably no suspi-
cion, even in the mind of the best Catholic here, ever
awakes, that this can be infringing upon the proper obser-
vance of the Christian Sabbath. And such must be the
sentiment of the Catholic priesthood. The astonishment
of la Senora Bargas, therefore, was undisguised, at my
hesitation, and probably the first time in her life did this
question, as one of Christian propriety, present itself to her
290 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
mind, if indeed it was entertained long enough to gain a
definite shape.
The evening had already advanced, and I had assured
our interesting hostess that it was probable I should not
be able again to call, and would therefore have to take
my final leave of her to-night. She was polite and kind
enough to dissuade, and hoped that another call, at least,
would be given; with particular inquiries when again
should I visit Chili.
My regrets were sincere as I answered these expres-
sions of good will, so gently expressed.
The lady rose from the sofa, and entered an interior
room, and had been gone but a short time when she re-
appeared. Her delicate hand bore a beautiful flower
that richest of all nature's sweet perfumers, the white jes-
samine. She tastefully arranged the leaf and blossoms,
and extended it to me, with a silent smile, that said more
than words speak of woman's compliment ; and then added
a sweet lemon, an equally choice gift from a lady in Chili
to a gentleman. She had gathered them from her own
shrubs. I took them as I added, that " they were greatly
valued on account of their own sweetness, but gained their
greatest interest to me from the hand that presented
them."
The compliment was to a Chilian lady, and perhaps
expected. In this instance it was most sincerely paid.
The lady bowed in acknowledgment.
The presentation of flowers to a gentleman by a lady
in Chili, is a token of marked respect. The gift of a sweet
lemon, an additional expression of kindness ; the presen-
tation of the hand, a familiar assurance of regard. I was
happy, while aware of the custom of the Chilian society,
to receive these evidences that my acquaintance had not
proved unacceptable.
As my purpose in relation to visiting on the succeed-
ing evening might not be changed, I took my final leave
of my brief acquaintances, at this time. And having
made my parting compliments to some others of the com-
pany, I added, as I received the extended hand of the
graceful and beautiful woman who had entertained us,
" Adios, Senora."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 291
It was rumored during the week, that a company
of French singers, who had arrived at Santiago, would
be present at the cathedral on Sunday, and join in the or-
chestra during the performance of mass. It was the fes-
tival of " La Purificacion de Maria Sanctissima."* The
occasion, it was presumed, would gather a large number
of the people to the cathedral.
We had expected that some of the friends whom we
had met would be present, and were interested, in the
novelty of the scene presented to us, to mark them in their
worshipping attire.
We had not long been in the seat we occupied, while
the area before us had been filled, when I observed a
graceful figure walking up the distant space, between us
and the entrances of the cathedral, attended by a female
friend and a maid bearing behind them a beautiful rug.
She approached by the central division of the building.
Her mantilla consisted of a dark lace veil, thrown over
her tastefully plaited hair and clasped with a gold brooch
on the left side of her head. It was the air and the per-
son of la Senora Carmen Bargas. The maid had spread
her mat, and the Senora knelt. Her ungloved hands re-
posed across each other, upon the bosom of her dark
dress, as she prayed.
There are no sympathies of the human bosom more
sacred and deeply felt, than those which awake in con-
nection with religion. Its associations relate to all that is
most dear in the long welfare of one's self, and one's
friend.
Not long where she worshipped, the Senora knelt, but
in another moment she rose, and, attended by her friend,
and followed by her maid, passed along the side altars, to
gain a more convenient and nearer position to the main
altar than she possessed in front. Her eye had not seen
us ; and as ; she moved lightly by the side altar opposite to
us, she presented to me my last view of the graceful
Senora of Santiago.
* In the Chilian Almanac for 1840, the following note is attached
to the notice of this feast, opposite Feb. 2d : " Idulgencia plenoria
en Santo Domingo y la catedral."
292 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
I have already alluded to the circumstance that quite a
number of the best families of Santiago were out of town,
at their country residences. It is usual for them to retire
from the city in the summer season, more or less, to these
situations, many of which are said to be very pleasantly
located. They are called quintas, chacras, haciendas,
respectively, as they may be larger or smaller farms or
estates. Our short stay at Santiago prevented us from
accepting proffered courtesies, which would have gratified
us much, could we have availed ourselves of them, to
visit some of these country residences. We however
visited the quinta of one of the principal families of the
capita], situated on the borders of the city. The family's
name is Alcade. The estate of this family is said to be
entailed, and its possessions to be very large, if not the
richest of any family in Chili. These entails have ceased
to exist in all cases in Chili, except where the elder sons
were born before the year when the law of primogeni'
ture was abrogated by the Chilian congress. The family
name of la Senora Alcade is Velasco. We had the plea
sure of seeing this lady, and her two daughters, las Se
noritas Carmen and Carolina.
We were introduced to several other families, of some of
which, as evidence of acceptable memories of our calls, J
here make mention.
La Senora Gamera was at home, who is a lady of com
manding appearance. She has a son in the Chilian navy
which led her to express an interest she felt towards offi
cers of the same profession of other nations, and particu
larly the American. Her two daughters were out, but it
we could in our short stay at Santiago (on account ol
which she politely expressed regrets) find it convenient to
call, her daughters would give us music. As we rose to
take our leave, she said, with an air of great kindness, and
after the custom which characterizes the polite manners
of the Chilians, " Mi casa esta a su disposicion," equiva-
lent to our English, " You may be assured that you will
always be welcomed at my house ;" literally, " my house
is at your disposition." A similar assurance was given us
by the lady of each family, on which we had been privi-
leged to call during our brief stay at the capital.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 293
At Mrs. Castilla's we were favored with music from
the eldest of the daughters, la Senorita Carmen ; and the
youngest sister, Amadora, presented us a beautiful bouquet
from their garden. The names of the other two sisters
are Transita and Juana. The family has some French
blood in its lineage ; and the Castilian and the Gallic pre-
sented, in the exhibition of the four daughters, a combina-
tion of vivacity and sentiment that seemed the union of
the characteristics of the two nations. The floating eye
of la Senorita Carmen spoke not more sensitively than the
delicate flush of the cheek, which came and went like
mimic floods and ebbs over her fine brunette features, to
tell the changing passage of her thoughts and sentiments.
The complexions of the other sisters were lighter, one with
lily cheeks, the other two with cheeks of roseate.
We also had the pleasure of making our compliments
to the family of Mr. Ochagania, resident at the mint, who
is himself its superintendent. Mr. O. was once in the
United States as an attache to a Chilian legation, and
seems a very worthy gentleman. His wife and two daugh-
ters struck us as most worthy, and more intellectual than
others whom we had met. They served for us a great
variety of fruit ; and there seemed an air of domestic
kindness in the family that 1 greatly admired. The
younger of the daughters, la Senorita Manuela, spoke
French, and possessed some knowledge of the Italian ;
and the elder, la Senorita Rosa, I should deem a pattern
of goodness. We left this family, impressed with a high
consideration for their worth.
THE PRESIDENT OF CHILI.
The name of the President of Chili is Joaquin Prieto.
Our attentive Charge accompanied us to the President's
house, which fronts the public plaza. There are always
more or less of the guards seen at the portal that opens to
the court through which one passes to the President's
apartments. In the same pile of buildings with the Presi-
dent's residence, forming nearly one complete side of the
plaza, are the Senate Chamber, the House of Representa-
tives, and the public prison. We were received by the
294 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
President's Aid, and soon the President presented himself.
His manners are courteous and dignified, though easy ; and
his personal appearance the finest of any Chilian gentle-
man I have met. He has served nearly two terms ; and
according to the constitution of Chili is ineligible to another
election. His second term expires in a few months. Ru-
mor says the office of President here is regarded too
much as a post for making money, rather than a position
that excites in its occupant a laudable ambition to promote
his country's best welfare. The government of Chili,
however, it is supposed, has become more settled and per-
manent in stability, both as to its measures and political
tranquillity, under the administration of the present occu-
pant of the presidency, than has characterized its former
existence. The party now in power and the priesthood
are united ; and while they remain so, public tranquillity
is to be expected. The interests of the church are so
great, that any measures against its privileges will con-
tinue to agitate the internal peace of the state. The Chi-
lians are high in the estimate of their own prowess at the
present moment, in consequence of their late successes in
their expedition against Lima.
The time for our leaving the agreeable capital of Chili
had come. And though we had spent but a few days at
Santiago, I had occasion to make many notes of interest,
to myself at least, in connection with my visit. But the
necessity of closing this volume with the addition of but a
few more pages, will prevent me from extending my no-
tices of the capital of Chili. The same will be true of
Valparaiso and Lima, to which a volume should be devoted
to do justice to the interest which these places, at a time
beyond the moment of which I am now writing, secured
in my own feelings, and gratified curiosity, and experience.
I therefore of necessity shall delay, for another place, more
extended notices of these cities, and incidents connected
with them, on the west coast of South America. I pro-
ceed, however, to occupy the brief space yet remaining
to me, in completing the pages of these two volumes.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
RETURN FROM SANTIAGO.
Having taken leave of our attentive Charge d' Affaires,
to whom we were greatly indebted for much of the plea-
sure which attended our visit to the capital of Chili, we
left Santiago on Monday evening, the third of February,
and were in fair prospect of making half way of our dis-
tance in very good humor with ourselves, when, by some
spite of our postillion, and the injured sensibilities of the
spirited steed within the shafts, said steed took it into his
head that, with the assistance of his heels, he would clear
himself from all further connection with the establishment.
He therefore commenced his alto relievo gesticulation of
the hind feet, to the great endangerment of the heads of
the passengers, and to the demolishment of the washboard
of the gig, and the fracturing of the first bow of the calash-
top, an inch and a half square, as if it had been a stick of
bamboo. I took counsel with myself to throw myself out
of the gig at one of the intervals when his feet and the
calash-top were furthest apart from each other ; and with
concern cast back a look the moment I had landed upon
the ground, for my friend, the professor of mathematics.
To my considerable alarm I found, that instead of throw-
ing himself out the opposite side from myself, he had pre-
ferred my own, and by some means of delay was tripped
as the horses began to wheel in the road ; and though the
professor performed several evolutions by rolling in the
dust, the tramp of the horses' feet neared him faster than
the circles and quadrants he performed distanced their
proximity. Fortunately the shaft-horse, at this instant,-
cleared himself from all encumbrances of the establish-
ment, and the two riders snapped the hide-cords which
attached their horses to the same vehicle. The frightened
animal of the shafts was in full speed on the road, while
his harness served to goad him on. One of the riders in
an instant put off in chase, as he swung the lasso around
his head. In another moment the curls of the swinging
coil elongated themselves as the rope straightened, and
the noose, true to the cast, dropped over the neck of the
runaway. The animal was soon brought to a halt, and
52
296 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
returned to the vehicle. The irritated Chilian belabored
the trembling beast until I bespoke mercy for him, when
he was again affixed to the shafts ; and the two riders,
with horses on either side, advanced again on our way.
We soon reached the foot of the first mountain, and were
at the top of the pass of the Cuesta del Prado a short time
after, from which we descended with a fearful rapidity,
as the night had already come upon us, while the bright
stars, in the absence of the moon, looked still benignantly
from their deep blue above us.
We reached Valparaiso the succeeding evening, in time
for tea.
DINNER AT THE ENGLISH ADMIRAL*S.
The English Admiral, on the Pacific station, is Charles
Ross, Rear- Admiral of the white. Mrs. Ross and her two
sisters, the Misses Ball, are the ladies of his family. They
have a house on the Almendral, surrounded by a consid-
erable collection of flowers and shrubs. The residence is
fitted up under the directions and taste of Mrs. Ross, and
called " The Admiralty House." Here Mrs. Ross gives
her soirees, once a fortnight. The day succeeding my
return from Santiago I dined at the Admiral's. Commo-
dore Read was too unwell, with a cold taken in his ride
from Santiago, to comply with the invitation of the Ad-
miral. The officers of the Admiral's fleet, at dinner, were
Captain Mainwaring of the Electra, the Admiral's Secre-
tary, and Captain Shepherd, of the Sparrowhawk, whom
I had previously had the pleasure of meeting at Rio de
Janeiro.
Miss Price was one of the pretty ladies at the table,
possessed of a face that interests for its expression, and
one that leaves its memory traced in the mind for future
days, without an effort on the part of another to place it
there, as a treasure among the interesting visions one
would wish to retain.
The Admiral's lady is as worthy of admiration for her
fine personal appearance as the Admiral himself evidently
believes her to be. Mrs. Ross was dressed in a rich black
velvet, with its bosom cut low and edged with wide lace.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 297
She reminded me of our fair countrywoman, who has
awakened interest at home and admiration abroad, and
formed a beautiful subject for the imitative and successful
chisel of Greenough, in Florence.
Mrs. R. gave us music, and executes with taste, and
sung with a voice of much sweetness. " But I would
much rather paint well," she said, " than excel in music,
for I could give a friend a drawing that would long serve
to recall me in memory, when the song that is sung is soon
forgotten." This was a very pretty but unintentional in-
troduction to the display of a valued scrap-book, which
Mrs. R. opened for me, containing several pretty sketches.
But I have forgotten them all, while I yet retain the me-
mory of the air she gave us :
" O sing not to me thy song, sweet bird."
The two sisters performed a duet ; and, at my request,
added,
" The minute-gun at sea."
Mrs. C. and two daughters, residents of Santiago, joined
the party in the evening. I talked of Wales with Miss B.,
a country of no little interest, for its picturesque in scene-
ry and other associations. Miss B. admired the land of
her young associations ; and it is worthy of all admira-
tion for the truth of its people, when it gives birth to
such a character as Miss Clarendon, of romantic associa-
tion.
The stars were bright this evening, as I attended Miss
Price from the Admiral's, while the party, together, were
moving along the Almendral.
"I often read the beautiful skies with my father at
night," she said, " when we were coming from England
here." She had been to England for her education. Her
mother was a Spanish woman of Santiago. " And the
Southern Cross, do you say that is it?" she asked, as it
was pointed out to her. "I wish I could have had confi-
dence enough to insist that it was there, when a gentleman
assured me a few days since, that it was not seen in this
latitude. But I could not pretend to be so much of the
astronomer as himself, though I thought I knew it ;" and
298 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the pretty and modest young lady at the same moment
dropped her diamond ear-rings and bracelet, which glit-
tered like the night brilliants above us, into my hand,
while she adjusted the shawl over her dress of short sleeves,
heavily laced. We were soon at the residence which
they occupy during the warm season, when many of the
Santiago families visit the coast for sea beathing, of which
they are extravagantly fond.
The captains, whom I now accompanied to the dock,
politely offered me a passage to the frigate in their boat,
which was waiting for them, but I excused myself for a
room on shore, already engaged for the night.
TAKING LEAVE OF VALPARAISO.
The following day it was expected we would sail. I
therefore made my last calls upon the American families to
whose courtesies I had been indebted during my occasional
visits to the shore at Valparaiso. These families were
ever free in the proffers of their politeness, in my own case
at least, beyond the power of my accepting it.
Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey are about to return to America,
with the reputation of having secured a handsome amount
of the sine qui non for living comfortably and genteelly
after the estimates of modern times, which have strangely
varied in many particulars from the days of our plainer
forefathers.
He who rightly reads the human mind, will at once
detect that gentleness of character which constitutes, in
woman, one of the greatest charms of female excellence.
It matters not where it is found, among the highest and
most refined, or the humbler and impoverished. We give
it our deference in respect, and affection in association.
So I thought as I said adieu to Mrs. W., a lady of piety
and worth.
The family of our consul was the last I called upon, to
say adieu. We had learned to esteem them, and felt
regret that we should so soon be deprived of their amiable
society. I had on a previous occasion casually remarked,
that I had omitted to secure some curiosities which I in-
tended to purchase at the nunneries in Santiago. As I
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 299
was now about to leave the consul's, Mrs. H. called my
attention to the pier-table, on the marble slab of which were
a collection of the particular articles I desired. " Take these,
Mr. T. ; you hurried away so soon the other day that I
had no opportunity to offer them to you." I saw my di-
lemma, in which the unintentional notice of my omission
while at Santiago and Mrs. H.'s generous benevolence
placed me, for I have always felt a delicacy in accepting
what I know to have been secured by others as curiosities
for themselves. I therefore availed myself of two or three
of these handiwork oddities of the Santiago nuns. " Take
them all, Mr. T., we can get any quantity of them we
wish." The command was repeated, and could not be
avoided when coming with so much sincerity and generous
good feeling, which had often displayed itself from the
same amiable source, connected with that lady-like deli-
cacy of manner which so certainly secures one's deferen-
tial consideration and kindness of feeling in the social in-
tercourse-. Mrs. Hobson has a tasteful collection of a
variety of curiosities, arranged, as they should be, in small
private collections, for the purpose of giving pleasure to
the curious rather than for the instruction of the scientific,
shells, and minerals, and vases, et caetera. While I was
yet lingering over the pier-table, delaying the final adieu
to this amiable family, the sun had thrown the broad sha-
dow of the hill-side far out on the bay, as his rays still fell,
in their slant, on the inner side of the frigate. The ship-
ping, with their hulls, like the houses of the city, lay in the
shadows of the Altos de Valparaiso, while the tops of their
highest spars were yet gilded by his beams. The pennant
of the frigate still waved ; showing that the sundown hour
had not yet come, though the sun himself was lost to the
citizens below. The frigate's boat was seen pulling for
the shore, and in another moment, was at the pier. I said
adieu to my friends, and wound down the hill on which
the American residences are seen overlooking the city and
the harbor, and in a moment more was in the boat. " Shove
off," was the order of the officer. " Let fall together,"
was his second command. The oars fell into their places,
and the dip of their blades soon sent the cutter clear from
the dock. As I cast back a look to the city, which now
52*
300 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
I cared not again to see, my eye rested on the most pro-
minent and the most pleasant site of the American dwell-
ings. Our friends were on their charming promenade,
full in view, and in front of their elevated houses. Their
eyes were a moment upon us ; and we fancied they gave
us a second and final farewell, as the boat to the regular
dip of the oars now rapidly glided over the waters of the
bay to the frigate, lying at her moorings without the ship-
ping of the inner harbor.
SECTION XI.
CALLAO AND LIMA.
The Carnival. Ride to Lima. The city deserted. Ride to Chorillos.
Lirnanian lady on horseback. A man beguiled of his rest. A wet mid-
shipman. Ash- Wednesday in Lima. Saya y manto. The beautiful Se-
norita receiving the dark cross on her brow. Descriptions of Lima neces-
sarily brief. Cathedral vault containing Pizarro's remains. Evening walk.
Host for the Infirmo. The cry of the night-watch.
A PASSAGE of eleven days found us in the harbor of Cal-
lao, where we anchored at midnight on February 27th,
1840. The succeeding morning I took a ramble on shore
to inspect the town of Callao, but found nothing there of
interest save the*castles. Of these, and their thrilling as-
sociations, I defer my descriptions.
The carnival, the bacchanalia before Lent in Catholic
countries, occurs here during the next three days of Sun-
day, Monday, and Tuesday ; and all advised that our in-
tended excursion to Lima should be postponed beyond the
latter day, as we might be subjected to the inconvenience
of frequently changing our dresses, as all persons, stran-
gers, priest, president, and every passer-by, are deemed
just objects for a shower-bath, whenever a boy from the
street or mischief-making girl from the balcony, or playful
friends or ill-disposed enemies choose to throw water upon
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 301
the wanderer in the street. But we chose to witness the
manners of the people, even at the expense of a few wet
jackets.
RIDE FROM CALLAO TO LIMA.
On Monday morning, therefore, in company with Com-
modore Read, Captain Bigelow of the Shark, and Prof.
Bejcher, I started for Lima. Once it was deemed pru-
dent for the passenger between Callao and Lima, though
a distance of only seven or nine miles, to bear his arms
for self-defence, if he would save his purse-strings from
being drawn by the Salteadores, a certain class of neces-
sitous gentlemen, dwellers on the road, who deem them-
selves at liberty to take from the peaceable traveller not
only his money but his clothes also, if he. should happen
to have the presumption to make any complaint of the
manner of their salutation.
The topics of olden thieves, robbers, and murderers,
and the olden carnival, afforded subjects of conversation
as our coach rolled on, and each one adjusted himself in
preparation for the sudden appearance in the atmosphere
of any gathering water-spouts ; while it was conceded, if
an unexpected attack from the Salteadores should make
opposition to our advance, our protection would devolve
upon the Commodore, who alone wore a weapon of de-
fence. We wheeled up to the half-way house, where,
formerly, in consequence of these lawless brigands frequent-
ing the road, a guard was stationed by the government.
A church is its only neighboring building. The Lima
coach having anticipated us a few moments, was already
at the stand, filled with passengers on their holiday ride
to Callao. Another three quarters of an hour's ride
brought us to the entrance of the city, the road leading to
the gate being lined without the walls with willows, on
either side, presenting a welcome and beautiful relief to
the eye in contrast to the parched and dusty road, which
we had passed over from Callao. From this avenue,
called the Alameda de Fa Portada, we passed beneath a
heavy arched gateway into the storied city of Pizarro,
"the city of kings," with its "thousand towers and hundred
302 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
gates." A.nd this is Lima, " the city of the free," the field
of Pizarro's dreams and proud success, and the spot of his
assassination and burial. Story, as delineated on the his-
toric page, has thrown much that is romantic, tragic, and
poetic about this olden city of the new world. Its super-
stitions and manners have continued to perpetuate the
mystic interest of other days, while the grandeur of its
silver and golden age has passed away, and the powers
of a once unquestioned priesthood waned, in the levelling
process of revolutions and the introduction of the privilege
of freer thought.
We found the city like a deserted hall, where the
throng have been threading their way and the buzz of
many voices heard, but when the muffled step and the
mingled accents of the crowd have passed away. All
the shops were closed scarcely an individual was seen
moving through the streets the "saya y manto" was
nowhere moving abroad the cowled priest .retained his
cell the curvetting steed gnawed in his stall, and his rich
laced rider lounged in the sala upon settee, enjoying his
cigarros, while the Senorita forgot herself in the dreams
of the siesta or rambled in the private grounds of the gar-
den all alike unwilling to venture beyond the puertecalle
of their houses ; while the boys, now sole heirs and exclu-
sive possessors of the streets of the city, were gathered
here and there in groups, and carrying on a warfare of
water. Occasionally a group of figures might be seen in
some balcony raising a shout of glee, as they poured the
shower of water upon the head of some solitary and un-
wary wight who had ventured beyond discretion in his
rambles on this, one of the days of the carnival.
Our rooms having been secured, I ventured forth on a
stroll through the city, notwithstanding the caution re-
ceived, and the assurance that neither stranger nor inti-
mate could rely on any favors or deference. But I wan-
dered unmolested, though I passed by many a suspicious
balcony, window, and portal, and saw others, the occa-
sionally few that were moving, deriving all the benefits
of the season.
I reached the Plaza de la Independencia, or principal
public square of Lima. On the north side is the palace of
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 303
Pizarro ; on the east, the spacious cathedral ; on the south
and west, two portales, or covered walks, their arches
and colonnades supporting irregular balconies, where are
several public offices, the house of the municipality, the
prison, and some private residences ; while the centre of
the plaza contains a brazen fountain, forty feet high,
crowned with the goddess of fame, with the trumpet in
her hand, and the tube to her lip for the blast. The
streams of water are pouring from many mouths of masked
faces, falling from two capacious and elevated basins into
the general reservoir, seventy-two feet in circumference,
whose upper rim is ornamented with lions and lizards.
The whole is a cast of bell-metal ; and, from an inscrip-
tion upon the pedestal, was placed in its present position
one hundred and ninety years ago. As I entered the plaza
there were no sounds of the busy multitude, here usually
heard in mingled hum the shops were closed the
traders' stands removed, and only one group of moving
beings before the portal of the palace seen, while the drip-
ping of the fountain, and the purling of its many running
spouts, gave forth their refreshing sound as they mingled
together in the common reservoir beneath. It was like
the still reign of a Sabbath at home not like a Sabbath
abroad. At this moment, however, a blast from French
horns at a point diagonally from the corner of the plaza
where I had entered and still stood, came across the square,
and the bugle and clarion joined in the strain, as the blast
swelled louder and louder, when, immediately opposite
me a coach and four, preceded by a herald and two lan-
cers, and followed by a dozen other mounted lancers,
entered the plaza. The heel of the lance of the out-riders
rested on the right stirrup of each, as the right hand
clasped the perpendicular shaft, to which was attached a
red streamer, that quivered in the breeze as they passed
on. It was the coach of the President of Peru, the Ga-
mara, whose position and story I envy not. Like many
of the citizens who had preceded him to the country, the
President was on his way to Miraflores, a neighboring
village, to escape the town during the remaining days of
the carnival. Again the strain from the bugles came over
the plaza on the still and hushed air, as the noble steeds
304 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
passed on in their measured trot, when all was still again,
and the buglers dispersed to the palace.
DRIVE TO CHORILLOS.
All Lima, or the genteeler part of it, having vacated
the capital, (so we were told,) and a great proportion of
the Lima society being at Chorillos, a bathing-place seven
or eight miles from the city, we were willing to take a
ride to this watering-place, to spend the succeeding and
last day of the carnival. It was supposed a favorable
opportunity for seeing the Limanians, in the short time
we should have to spend, and we started sufficiently early
to take breakfast at the hotel in Chorillos, which is kept
by the same individual at whose house we were stopping
in Lima.
The morning was delightful. We had passed by some
rich meadows in the neighborhood of Lima, reminding
us, in the similarity of their grasses, of our own meadows
at home ; and a short distance without the gate of the
city, a genteel calesa, which had preceded us with a young
Limanian lady returning from mass, turned into the pre-
mises of one of the largest but now litigated estates of
Peru. The birds, along the early part of our drive, were
up and regaling the early passenger on the road with their
songs, more than ever sweet to one who has so long been
listening only to the sea-moan and the storm-dirge, as it
wails through the cordage of the ship. We soon found
ourselves not the only persons abroad, while we were
pleased with ourselves for having taken the early ride,
and came up with a party on horseback, on the same
course with ourselves. The principal object of interest in
the group was a young Limanian lady, mounted upon a
spirited and well-groomed steed, which she managed W 7 ith
perfect ease and confidence, while her maid was riding
near her, and her father and others of the company some
rods in the rear. Her light straw hat, with its brim free,
sat lightly upon her head, as her hair, in a long and auburn
braid, fell over her white poncho, which hung like a shawl
over her shoulders low to the saddle, and prettily edged
with a border of worked flowers. She sat easily in her
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 305
pillioned saddle, as the toe of her satin slipper, which
graced a small foot, occupied a morocco stirrup, display-
ing an ankle encased in a silk stocking and half concealed
in the ruffles of a pantalette. The bridle of her horse was
heavily silvered, with a crescent ornament of the same
material floating freely beneath the throat of her noble
animal. A light and ornamented collar and breeching, a
la Espanola. was attached to the saddle, preserving it
steadily in front and behind ; and the reins of the bridle
terminated in a braided lash that swept to the ground.
She rode sideways,, unlike most of the Limanian belles,
who, like their brunette sisters of the Sandwich Islands,
mostly ride a calif our chons. We paused a moment, after
having slowly passed this party in our calesa, and had
come up to a little chacra on the road-side. The young
lady curvetted by us, but, as the voice of her father
reached her, she changed the direction of her horse, as
he caracalled, and with the rest of the party, gracefully
came up to the stand. The father dismounted and passed
refreshments to the party.
" Strangers in Lima, Senores, we presume," said the
easy Spaniard, addressing ourselves. " Will you join us
in Italia de Pisco," filling the small glasses, from which the
mother and daughter had but slightly moistened their lips,
and which, in comparison with our larger wine glasses, in
size, were like the tea-cups of our grandmothers, in con-
trast with our modern and larger proportioned dishes.
" Four days in Peru, Senor," we replied. " We came
to see Lima yesterday, but found the city deserted. Learn-
ing that the better part of Lima had escaped to Chorillos,
we are pursuing them to the baths."
Our postillion was again in his place, and the party bent
with a smile of kindness, as we wheeled into the road
again. An unexpected incident, hereafter to be narrated,
made us acquainted with these interesting strangers.
We reached Chorillos (having passed Miraflores a half
hour before on the right) just in time for breakfast, which
was served at half-past nine o'clock. The rooms were all
full, but the landlady showed us to her own apartment,
just vacated by the ladies for breakfast ; and we found a
laving in cold water to be acceptable after our morning
306 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
ride. A vacant seat was reserved for us at the table, at
which we placed ourselves in a few moments more. Some
fifty persons were at the table as we took our seats.
Most of the families who resort here for bathing take
up their residences among the families of the town or hire
vacant houses for the season. The bank edging the
plain on which the town, a miserable collection of low
houses, is built, is high above the sea, which here makes
a beautiful indentation constituting the bay. The sea rolls
in with heavy breakers, and the surf tumbles in grandeur
and beauty. The surface of the water seen from the high
bluff is clear; and during the morning we saw a number
of porpoises sporting beneath the extended sweep of the
curve lines of the inrolling swell, which here beautifully
bends in conformity to the curvature of the shore of the
bay in its roll almost the whole width of the spacious
basin. These fish were seen several feet beneath the
surface, as distinctly as if they had been on the shore, as
the rays of the sun sent down their perpendicular beams :
and they glided along now in parallel lines, occasionally
changing their horizontal and elevating their noses above
the water, and again gliding on together, curvetting be-
neath the bosom of the bay in imitation of the magnificem
surges that rolled in above them. A hundred eyes from
the porticoes overlooking the bay were on those graceful
sporters in the deep, as they glided at their pleasure across
and around the bay.
The ladies mostly ride down the steep bluff to the
beach, where the bathing houses are located, and again
ascend the bluff on horseback. The bathing establishment
consists of slight houses formed of cane and mats, where
the women and men adjust their bathing dresses and re-
attire themselves after sporting in the surf. Both sexes
bathe promiscuously together, and some of the Limanian
women venture far out beyond the breakers, and are cra-
dled in handsome style and on a grand scale upon the un-
combing surge of the far-out rollers. To reach this posi-
tion, however, it is essential to dive beneath the heavy
crests of the same surges, which break in foam and cas-
cades and overwhelming and whirling currents, as they
reach nearer in to the beach.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 307
We met here several Americans from Lima. The Com-
modore, with Mr. Provost, our consul, arrived soon after
breakfast, also to spend the day. A gentlemanly young
Englishman, Mr. R., offered us his attentions, with whom
we afterwards dined in Lima.
After the morning bath we dressed for dinner ; and I was
much amused by the animated manner of a Limanian near
me at the table, who was narrating to the landlady his luck-
less misfortunes of the preceding night, and the villanous
manner in which he had been deprived of his cot, which
with several others occupied the same room. The gentle-
man narrating had retired rather late, having calculated
on the luxury of a bed in this crowded place ; but on his
reaching the chamber he perceived, to his surprise and dis-
pleasure, that his cot was already occupied. Not knowing
but there had been some mistake, and that the interloper
was blameless, " I found the maid," said the gentleman,
" and desired that she should wake her mistress, and ascer-
tain if she had allowed any one to occupy my cot. But
she was unwilling to wake you (the narrator was address-
ing the landlady) as you were quite unwell ; I therefore,
as the only resort, took a blanket upon the floor, and made
the best of the remaining part of the night."
In the morning, he continued, he awoke and found the
stranger still soundly taking his rest. This he could not
longer endure, in view of his own comfortless spent night.
" Up, Senor !" cried the Limanian ; " up ! the sun is on
the bay, and men who have deprived others of their rest
should be moving."
This however did not move the sleeper, but additionally
irritated the gentleman who had been robbed of his cot.
He therefore gathered all the shoes adrift in the room, and
began by tossing one into the neighborhood of the sleeper's
night-cap. The irritated Limanian had exhausted his
quantity of shoes, and began to levy on the straggling canes
in the room.
" I say, sleeper, arise !" cried the Limanian again, as he
pitched his bundle of half a dozen sticks upon the cot, " an
earthquake could have but little effect on such ears."
But, to the utter astonishment of the provoked Limanian,
tne dozer moved not ; and he therefore walked up to the cot
53
308 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
to rouse the gentleman by rocking him with his own hands
from his dreams ; when he found, instead of the presump-
tuous strangef whom he supposed had occupied his bed,
that some one had so arranged the pillows as to exhibit
the appearance of a person in bed.
The clever landlady, who speaks several languages with
fluency, enjoyed, with others, the joke, as she laughed quite
interestingly in Spanish, French, and English.
Many of the Lima ladies I saw at Chorillos were inter-
esting in their personal appearance, but few strikingly pret-
ty. We were pressed to attend a party where all the belles
were to be assembled, in the evening, but our arrange-
ments had been made to return to Lima, and, with the
Commodore, we left Chorillos at sunset.
We found at our hotel, on our reaching the city, that
several of the officers of the squadron had arrived in Lima
from Callao, and some of them had ventured to ride out
on horseback. To the considerable inconvenience of one
of them, his horse, after leaving town, was found too soon
to have spent his vitality of muscle and sensitiveness of
nerve, and, like a ship in distress, he was obliged to put
back. In doing this he re-entered the city, and his sorry
steed took his own time, as he measured his slow steps
through the streets. Whip nor spur could get him out of
a walk. What object so suitable for the water-spouts from
the windows and balconies? It was not undiscovered, and
the amiable young gentleman (he must have been amiable,
even on the last day of the carnival, to have endured it)
arrived at the Fonda as wet as he could have been, had
he been two hours overboard at sea.
ASH-WEDNESDAY IN LIMA.
The early bells, on the morning succeeding our visit
to Chorillos, were summoning, as usual, the Limanians to
confession at matins. But this was the morning of ASH-
WEDNESDAY, and the first day of Lent a season when
there is more than usual attention to church duties, and fre-
quenting of the confessional. I had risen early to take a
walk to several of the churches, as they are kept open two
or three hours in the morning the great bell of the cathe-
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 309
dral, by its peal above all others, generally announcing the
elevation of the Host in that church about nine o'clock in
the morning. Already the city had put on a new appear-
ance. The streets were alive with hundreds passing to and
fro the shops were open the plaza exhibiting a scene
of preparation for the sales and the business of the day
LIMANIAN LADY IN HER SAVA Y MANTO.
and what more than aught else attracts the stranger's eye,
the saya y manlo was abroad, worn by the female wor-
shippers, now hurrying to their early prayers. No -ne
310 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
longer cast an anxious glance at the balcony, or watched
the suspicious group of sporting boys, or thought of the
mischief-making multitude of the three days of the carnival.
It was passed ; and the season had come when it was ex-
pected by the church that all its members, small and great,
would address themselves to the practice of the graver
duties of the season of Lent.
As I stood a few moments in the puertecalle, or large
doorway, that leads from the outer court of the hotel to
the street, to mark the passers-by, several females moved
along the walk in their sayas y mantos, presenting masked
figures, whom no one could know while they kept the
manto over their faces, but whose graceful step all would
admire. The saya y manto is the dress in which all fe-
males frequent the churches and promenade the streets.
It is a dress peculiar to the city of Lima, being found, it
is said, in no other part of the world. The present fash-
ion in the cut of the saya differs from the older one, giv-
ing greater freedom to the step of the wearer, and not ma-
terially differing in appearance to many quilted silk win-
ter-dresses worn as an over-garment by our own country-
women. The olden saya, however, sat tighter to the per-
son, developing more strikingly the contour of the figure.*
Many of these are still worn, and the style of each is faith-
fully exhibited in the two accompanying prints. But it is
the manto which effectually serves as the mask, and en-
tirely disguises the wearer if she chooses, though the least
imaginable slip of the finger will most accidentally discov-
er the features of the face to a friend. The saya is no
more nor less than a quilted silk petticoat, of any color,
which ties about the waist. The manto is simply a plain
piece of black silk, hemmed at either end. A cord pass-
ing through the hem of one end of it, and around the
waist, confines it in a gather at the back, over which the
saya is sufficiently elevated to conceal the cord. The
loose end of the black silk veil, or manto, is then thrown
up the back, over the head, and the two corners so gath-
ered by the hand over the face as to conceal all the fea-
tures but one eye, which contemplates at discretion the
* See the second cut, further on.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 311
objects that may secure its interest, as the lady-masker
passes on to the cathedral, or the shop, or promenades, on
her errand of pleasure, or business, or devotion.
I first entered the cathedral, the finest building of the
city, but the naves of this spacious church were still va-
cant as the eye extended through the long aisles, while in
a lesser building immediately at its side, and constituting
a part of the same pile, numbers were kneeling. I paused
but a moment, as I saw several of the worshippers advance
to the altar and receive upon their brow the mark of a cross,
drawn by the finger of the priest, dipped in a jet-black fluid,
as the emblem characteristic of the day ; and which I af-
terwards saw on the foreheads of many who suffered their
mantos to lie back from the brow as they were returning
from their prayers, while. I still pursued my way to seve-
ral others of the church edifices. I was now at a third
church ; and though I had not then familiarized myself
with the names of the buildings, I believe this was the
Compania de Jesus. There was more shadow than usual in
the mellowed light that held the side altars of this church in
solemn and poetic effect ; and, unlike the others, the priest
stood near the door beside a table, on which rested the sil-
ver basin containing the dark fluid resembling a mixture
of lampblack. Here the priest crossed the worshippers,
as they knelt in the light of the door before him. I had
entered, passing the priest, and a little surprised myself to
step so suddenly upon the different arrangement met with
at this church, and as I was advancing to ascend the side
aisle, I surprised a beautiful young woman turning the cor-
ner of the buttress of a heavy arch with her manto thrown
from her face, with the light from the door falling full upon
her features, as she seemed on her way to depart. There
were a few persons kneeling in the neighborhood, at the
first altar near the door. I paused as she passed, and stood
uncovered, with an irresistible curiosity to see if this beau-
tiful Senorita would kneel at the table and receive the cross
upon her pure brow. She evidently herself was a little
surprised at first by recognising a stranger, and next at
the memory that her manto discovered fully her features ;
and the first impulse seemed to be to gather her manto
over her face, but she as suddenly smiled and recovered
53*
312 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
herself as she stepped with a foot of air, inimitably light,
to the confessional at which an elderly woman was sit-
ting, and whispered a few words, with her manto still dis-
covering a face more beautiful than I had before met, either
in Lima or at Chorillos. Her hair was a blond, her eye a
dark blue, and her complexion that of a lily. She knew
that she was beautiful. No woman with such a face and
with such a smile could be ignorant of such possessions.
She paused but a moment already a piece of mingled
surprise and a slight affectation when she stepped from
the confessional towards the door. That step was purely
Limanian, though more airy than others, as her form was
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 313
more sylph-like than most of her sisters. She paused
turned with the precision and the ease of a double step in
the waltz, and knelt with her face towards myself. A
sunbeam fell upon her brow so purely white her eyes
were turned gently upward the smile of complacency
had not yet left her slightly curled lip and the man of
God put the emblem of the cross upon a brow, than which
nothing could be more fair, blending in with features, than
which nothing could be more innocent and sweet, if aught
could ever be more beautifully classic than was there.
She rose, gathered the manto with a beautiful hand over
her face, turned towards the door, and was gone.
I stepped forward a few paces and leaned, in the
shadow, against the heavy base of the arch, and for a
moment listened to another priest who was repeating the
mass at the only lighted altar, by the door. Another
moment, and I left this for another church in the neigh-
borhood, where I found a large number collected before
different side altars with officiating priests at each, while
a body of clerigos and canonigos were celebrating high
mass in the central nave of the church. There were ap-
parently forty or fifty of these tonsured personages whose
full voices filled the surrounding arches of the spacious
house. But every now and then the full-toned organ
would join in the chant, or swell alone in strains of wor-
ship. I moved up the . central nave near the balustrade
of the chancel at the further end, on the right of which a
temporary figure of the Saviour was elevated upon a
square altar, representing him in sadness and sorrow.
Before his bent figure a carpet had been spread of a few
feet square, where the worshippers had knelt singly of in
groups. I occupied a seat at this position during the con-
tinuance of the service ; at the close of which the priests
advanced. in double file to the chancel from the further
end of the church. They knelt according to their stand-
ing in precedence of office, and were crossed, as I had
seen others, with a black cross. But the cross, instead of
being placed upon their brow, was traced upon the crown
of their head, or the small circular and bare spot which
all Catholic priests abroad have shaven on the top of the
head, called the tonsure. Wflen the priests had received
314 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the emblem, the crowd promiscuously advanced to the
chancel, and the crossing continued until the dark sign
had been imprinted on many brows. I advanced to one
side of the chancel and witnessed the scene, as the women
threw back their mantos now discovering the face of a
matron, who received the emblem with gravity now a
younger and smiling countenance and greater gentility of
mien and person and now a brunette a bronze or black
the last apparently constituting the vast majority, while
many crowded here, and not a few smiled there as they
were huddling together around the chancel, exhibiting a
peculiar scene as four or five of the priests continued their
services in drawing the dark emblem upon the advancing
and receding mass. It seemed rather a holiday scene
than one of particular solemnity connected with a day of
mourning. Some children also received the cross, but
scarcely a male adult besides the priests was there. I
know not the intention of the ceremony, but suppose it
emblematic of the " ashes and sackcloth" of other times ;
and as I marked the multitude here, and the passers-by in
the streets as I returned to the hotel, I was forcibly car-
ried back to the Hindoo, the Bramin, the Banyan, and the
Gentoo, who draw their various marks of various colors
upon the brow, when they pay their visits to the temples.
CATHEDRAL VAULT, AND BONES OF PJZARRO.
But I must abruptly close the account of my visit to
Lima, where so many scenes of other days have occurred ;
and about which, associations of the deepest interest cluster;
and where my own wanderings have been through the
palace of Pizarro through the hundred and more monas-
teries and churches and nunneries, all buildings of interest
for the space they cover, and many for the style of their
architecture, though now crumbling in their solitude and
dust ; and the plaza the alameda the arena for the bull-
fights the ruins of the inquisition the views from the
high steeples of St. Domingo and the Franciscan Convent
and garden walks and some pleasant acquaintances
formed and the cathedral all, here, must be omitted,
save a single scene in theSspacious buildings of the last
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 315
named pile, whose corner-stone was placed by Pizarro,
the founder of the empire and the conqueror of Peru. I
had several times entered this noble building, the fit mau-
soleum of its founder, but now sought it for the purpose
of entering the vault where the bones of Pizarro repose,
in their slumber of years. I found the doors of the
cathedral closed, but soon a person whom I had not before
seen presented himself, who had been directed to attend
me, should I finally make my appearance. I was later
than the hour of my appointment with one of the priests,
owing to my delay at the palace. We advanced to the
great altar, from which my attendant took a key. The
doors of the immense building were closed. The sombre
of mellow light threw its solemn effect over the more
than twenty altars that lined the sides of the spacious
building, rendered still more shaded by the heavy bars of
the doors that shut in these altars, forming for each a side
chapel with a space of many feet square. And in this
solemn house, three hundred and twenty feet deep and a
hundred and eighty-six feet in width, there stood, in their
shaded recesses and sacred niches, upon their altars, a
thousand images of saints of every age, the apostles, che-
rubs, angels, the Saviour, the holy family and canonized
santas some arrayed in gaudy tinsel, some in sorrow
and sackcloth some exhibiting the Saviour crowned with
thorns and pierced by spear ; but here they wer-e, at this
moment, in their silence and shade and solemnity. The
lightest step upon the tiled pavement could be heard
throughout the massive pile, and a whisper would find its
way in distinctness to the furthest corner of the walls and
the highest curve of the ceiling. We walked down from
the great altar, along the middle nave of the building,
which is elevated several feet above the floor of the side
aisles, and beneath which is the vault said to contain, with
others of the great in church and state of olden times, the
relics of Pizarro.
We descended from the spacious platform or central
terrace, where the high mass is chanted ; and as we came
upon the floor of the side nave, my guide placed his heavy
key in the door that opened beneath the platform which
we had left. The iron hinges grated as the door opened
316 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
inward to the vault ; and the rays of a lighted taper, that
the guide bore in his hand, struggled to overcome the
thick darkness that here seemed to have reigned so long,
that the shades had condensed to a materiality of blackness
that could be felt, as we entered among them. We de-
scended slowly several steps that brought us to the ground
floor of a room, on the left side of which were closed
vaults, comparatively of modern construction, sealed with
mortar ; and the rubbish of useless lumber, such as broken
column and capital of olden altars, and their various orna-
ments and accompaniments, filled the space with their
heaps. We turned to the right through a low and short
passage which ended in an inner room, lined with two tiers
of boxes, three high, on three sides. The outer edges of
some of them had fallen in, discovering their enclosed
skeletons crumbling to slow but final decay. Having
examined several on the right, the guide directed me to
pass to the opposite side, pointing out to me several loose
boards in the centre of the floor, which he cautioned me
to avoid. I did not inquire the secret of the dark well
they covered, as I well knew that it was the charnel
house for the bones of hundreds, for whose souls the
masses how many masses ! have been offered up from
the altars that were above us, that their spirits might
ascend from purgatory to a happier region. The guide now
followed me, and holding low down his taper to a box occu-
pying the further side of the wall, he added, "Este, Senor,es
el cuerpo de Pizarro." " This, sir, is the body of Pizarro."
The edge of the box was broken, and the top gone,
showing the dusty and crumbling skeleton, said to be the
remaining bones of the conqueror of Peru. The flesh had
gone. The skull was naked, showing that it was once
the inhabited of a spirit of many years tarry upon earth, as
only a few teeth remained in the jaw, while the alveola
process, save in two or three spots, had been absorbed.
His hands lay crossed upon his breast exhibiting the
skeleton of a remarkably small hand and his feet cor-
responding in size. Quicklime, that covered parts of the
body, had hardened into white lumps, and was dry.
Such is the arid property of the atmosphere here, that all
fluids are soon evaporated, and no moisture remains in the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 317
deepest cells. And to this circumstance is attributed the
long preservation of the relics of the departed. For now,
it is three centuries, wanting less than a year, since
Pizarro fell. Parts of a dingy linen shroud still wrapped
portions of the relics, and a knotted button clasped a
worked thread-lace wristband around the ulna bone of the
skeleton. It was a dark place, that depository of the
olden dead ; and the unlabelled boxes bore the dust of
centuries upon their crumbling slabs. I now held in my
hand a small relic from the shroud of Pizarro, which lay
loose in the skeleton box, and was returning over the
planks that covered the well in the centre of the low and
narrow room. The guide following my steps, trod upon
a rolling block, which canted him against the wall. The
taper affixed to the end of a wooden handle which he
carried in his hand, brushed against the buttress that sup-
ports the terrace of the altar above, and was extinguished,
and we were left in darkness. Not a ray from a crevice
or crack penetrated the shades of the vault ; but we were
already in the narrow passage that formed the only outlet
into the first room of the lumbered vault. My guide was
too familiar with the dead to become alarmed at our situation,
and we carefully and safely groped our way to the door.
We passed from the silent vault, by the flight of six or
seven steps, to the side nave of the church. The guide
closed again the grating door, and turned the key upon
that dark and silent repository of the dead !
NIGHT-WALK TO THE RIMAC.
In the evening I was again passing through the plaza,
having proposed a walk with a friend over- the bridge,
spanning the Rimac. We had reached the plaza, the
centre of interest, whatever may be going on by day or
by night intended to attract public attention, when a pro-
cession of a long train of lanterns was seen advancing
from the direction of the cathedral towards us, headed
by a bareheaded priest in his canonicals, while the plain-
tive voices of three females broke on the still air in the
strains of a most affecting dirge. A crowd followed with
waxen tapers and painted lanterns, all uncovered ; and
318 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
as they advanced, the gazers-on fell upon their knees, .as
the melancholy procession in slow and solemn step went
on their course. It was a striking scene. The night was
dark. Not a whisper was heard around the plaza as the
procession moved on, and every head was bare, while
many crossed themselves, and others told their beads as
they knelt on the pavement. It was the Host, moving to
the house of the Infirmo. The procession moved on, the
plaintive dirge dying away in the distance, as the lanterns
became more and more dim ; and the hushed crowd, that
had paused on their steps till the procession had passed,
now moved again upon their separate ways.
We walked on to the bridge and listened to the mur-
mur of the waters, that, at this season, roar in their rapid
course beneath the arches of this fine structure. We
thought that we could fancy the scene before us, when
Holla, with the rescued child of Alonzo and his once affi-
anced Cora, rushed across the wooden bridge, with Pi-
zarro's emissaries full in pursuit. And there, in the dim
shade, were the rocks by which the retreating hero passed
and evaded his pursuers, though a shot had pierced his
noble heart. My friend seemed in like musing mood with
myself, as we together leaned over the side parapet of the
bridge, practically illustrating the sentiment of the dra-
matist, that
" They only babble who practise not reflection."
But my friend soon discovered the drift of his thoughts,
by asking if I believed Elvira, in Pizarro, to have been a
real character.
" I believe, at least, the truth of her language? was the
reply. " To laugh or weep without a reason, is one of
the few privileges poor women have :" which recalls to
my mind an expression of a lady more interesting than
Elvira was, when asked for the reason of a sentiment
she had advanced. " Ladies," she said, are not required
to give their reasons," all a very convenient response.
My friend, I concluded, had not followed me quite to
the end of my answer, exhibiting my preferences in cha-
racters, as he now soliloquized, in the language of Elvira,
" O men ! men ! ungrateful and perverse,
O women, still affectionate, though wronged."
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 319
.When we had reached the lower side of the plaza, on
our return, the procession which had been to bear the
Host to the house of the sick woman, said to be at the
point of death, was just entering the square again. They
advanced along the cathedral, to the smaller chapel at its
side, as the plaintive dirge or chanted mass for the Infirmo
came again to us over the plaza, in its soft and affecting
wail. The lights streamed in the distance through the
painted lanterns or from tapers that were borne over the
heads of the female singers, the cross, and the priest.
We passed into the chapel while the last strain from the
female voices was ending ; and the priest added his Do-
minus Vobiscum et finem. The lights were extinguished,
and the crowd dispersed.
LAST NIGHT IN LIMA.
I sat until a late hour, this night, in the balcony that
jutted slightly out from the windows of my room over
the side-walk of the street. The city was wrapped in
silence ; and the tapers that but dimly lighted the city in
the early part of the night had gone out. The moisture
of the night-fall rendered more distinct the step of the
watchman, the shrill sound of whose thrice-blowed whis-
tle, and salutation to the Virgin, recurred at every hour.
Nowhere have I heard the watch-cry of the hour so
sweetly sung as here, succeeding the shrill pipe, which
comes to the ear, with its pauses, as a prelude to the sono-
rous and clear voice, waking after it, in the words of
" Ave Maria Sanctissima las doce handado,
Viva Peru y sereno."
Hail Maria, virgin most pure,
By the night-watch twelve is the hour ;
Long live Peru, home of the free,
The night is serene, peace be with thee.
To our fathers of the revolution, the cry of the old
watchman at Philadelphia on one occasion, as he passed
upon his midnight round, may have been yet more sweet,
if not equally sonorous. The town clock struck twelve ;
and the old watchman regained his youth as his cry re-
peated the time, and the welcome news,
" Twelve o'clock all's well and Cornwallis is taken."
5
320 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
As we entered Callao, on our return from Lima, we
passed our amiable First Lieutenant and two or three
other officers, who were taking a stroll on shore. They
soon came up to the neighborhood of our landing, and
Lieutenant P. introduced to me the Rev. Mr. Small, chap-
lain of H.,B. M. ship President, who had left his card on
board the Columbia during my absence to Lima. He
waived his invitation to me to dine w r ith him on board the
President the succeeding day, and did me the pleasure of
taking dinner with myself and the ward-room mess, on
board the Columbia.
" But you have not seen the first beauty of Lima, Mr.
T.," said an officer very partial in his estimate of Miss
Vivero, as the interest of my visit at the capital was dis-
cussed at the mess-table, in the morning. " I have found
an old acquaintance on shore, and you must see her."
I had a high opinion of the fine taste of my friend, and
consented to make my compliments to the family. Mrs.
Vivero received us with the ease of one of the old Spanish
ladies of the country ; and in a few moments more, her
interesting daughter, la Senorita Gertrudes, made her ap-
pearance, with a step that recalled to me the vision of the
Lady of the Lake, in whose path
"Even the light hair-bell raised its head
Elastic from her airy tread ;"
and yet, with a becoming reserve that greatly added to
her lady-like manner. Her dark eye floated in its clear-
ness and light, correspondent in its shade with the tresses
of a suit of fine hair, which since the morning bath had
been gathered, a I'abandon, in rolls upon the head. The
perfect mouth, and fine teeth, and brow so purely fair and
womanly, constituted, in their blended features, a face
that delayed not to interest, and left its image distinctly
traced in the memory. She was in her morning dress
and silk slippers, so purely Limanian ; and few beautiful
women lose interest to their charms in their dishabille of
the morning, when adjusted with a negligent air of neat-
ness and taste. La Senorita Gertrudes is an interesting
specimen of a Limanian beauty. She preferred Choril-
los, she said, to Callao as a bathing-place, to which I as-
sented, as all would that love the beauty of the inrolling
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 321
surf in its finest magnificence, and the grander view there,
than at Callao, of the majestic sea. And the North
American cities, she thought, she would like to visit, but
from the descriptions she had received, would prefer Phi-
ladelphia to New- York ; to which I demurred, presuming
that some interested Philadelphian had prepossessed the
young lady by the colorings of partiality he had used, in
his graphic delineations of these rival emporiums. I left
this family, with regret that our immediate sailing would
prevent me from renewing my calls upon them, agreeably
to the very polite invitation of Mrs. Vivero, as we made
them our adieus.
The religious services of the succeeding day were over.
The breeze came in, and our two ships got under way
together ; and under a press of canvass stood out to sea.
More than ever before, do we now feel, that we are on
our way to blessed home.
SECTION XII.
DOUBLING CAPE HORN. RIO DE JANEIRO. HOME.
The two ships part company. Gale off Cape Horn. Piece of a wreck.
Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, the point of our last departure from the West
for the Eastern world. Rest. Story of the second visit to Rio delayed.
Leaving the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Difficulty in regaining the impres-
sion that we are nearing home, after a long voyage abroad. Off Cape
Hatteras. Reflections. Things seen in the cruise. Anticipated wel-
come. Lines The Traveller's return to his own dear Home.
THE Columbia parted company with her consort, the
John Adams, when but two or three days out of Callao,
and the two ships stood separately on their track, to
double Cape Horn.
The Cape is ever regarded as a disagreeable necessity
to be encountered, in making the passage from the Atlan-
tic to the Pacific ; and the return, though less dreaded, is
still formidable in the apprehensions of seamen. For our-
selves, after a voyage of near two years in the tropics, we
322 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
anticipated some suffering from cold ; with some severe
weather, though the season of the year was favorable for
doubling a point, which had been more appropriately call-
ed by the early appellative of the sister promontory of the
Eastern hemisphere, the " Cape of all Terrors."
The winds continued to freshen as we made our south-
ing, until a gale and snow-storm and hail greeted us as
boon companions, on our course. But our ship, under
close-reefed topsail and reefed foresail drove before it, and
with the exception of laying to for some five hours, con-
tinued on our course, with a traverse of ten or eleven
knots the hour. On the seventh of April, we reached our
southernmost point the winds blowing, at times the pre-
ceding night, a hurricane, and on one occasion during the
mid-watch a sea was shipped, in which the men, for a
moment, were swimming as if overboard ; and though the
officer of the deck thought the quarter-boats, for the in-
stant, must have gone, no injury was sustained. The gale
continued during the day, the sea running higher than we
had before seen it, and the snow drifting in its dark
sheets, as seen at sea, before the driving tempest. The
hour had reached near the meridian, and a sight of the
sun was desirable in view of his absence for the few pre-
ceding days ; and it was a fortunate, as it was a beautiful
coincidence of the hour, that precisely at twelve o'clock,
the clouds, as if conscious of our necessities, and in kind-
ness for our solicitudes, gathered up their dark folds. The
sun, for one moment, came forth. The next, he was again
shut in, and the clouds, in their wild drift again through
the heavens, were on their dark and fleet wing. We see
how utterly impossible it would be to make headway
against such a sea as was this day prevailing, with the
winds ahead. But our lively bark drives on before it,
buoyant in her own element on the surge, as is the alba-
tros on his wing as he strikes with his pinion his own na-
tive air. How terrible would be a wreck in these tumul-
tuous waters, amid the tempest and the cold and the wild
rage of the ocean ! No hope could long be cherished.
We thought of the schooner, belonging to the exploring
expedition, which we supposed must have been swamped
somewhere near our present position. And in the heigM
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 323
of the storm of this day a piece of a wreck drove by us.
The first view gave the appearance of three persons, upon
a few spars. The First Lieutenant sprang into the rig-
ging, but the drift, in a moment more, was out of sight,
though a second glance at it had been sufficient to assure
us that no living person was upon it.
The succeeding day we were standing on our course
with studdingsails set, and our passage continued to be
favorable. In forty-six days from the time of our weigh-
ing anchor in Callao Roads, we were moored, once more,
in the beautiful and romantic harbor of Rio de Janeiro.
We passed through the narrow entrance of the bay, as a
figure upon the ramparts of the fortress hailed us through
his trumpet; and having learned the port we last left and
the number of days out, he waved his trumpet, adding,
" Thank you, sir ; good luck to you."
RE-ANCHORED IN THE HARBOR OF RIO.
And now we felt, and with a strangely mingling emo-
tion, that we could say, we had made the circuit of the
globe. From this point we weighed our anchors nearly
two years since, for our long traverse around the world.
We have accomplished it ; and our noble ship, that has
proved us kindly and true, rests again in the waters of this
sleeping and lovely bay, after having cut with her keel,
almost every sea and ocean of the globe. And there has
been much which we have marked, thought, felt, hoped,
feared, and realized, which, at this hour, calls for a re-
membrance of the Power which has presided over us
directed the winds stilled the tempest arrested disease
and preserved the lives of those, who again re-greet the
point from which we took our last departure from the
western hemisphere, for the eastern world. And it is
grateful to the eye, and a cordial to the heart, again to
look upon these well-known views, the picturesque bay
and surrounding mountains, organ peaks, and abrupt pre-
cipices, and mellowing of the granite mountains by the
evergreen of the luxurious tropics. And Rio de Janeiro
itself, with its white walls and tiled roofs of houses, occu-
pying the hills and plains and ravines and the beach, di-
. 54*
324 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLJ).
minutive in their distant proportions in contrast with the
giant elevations of nature around them, yet presents a
beautiful whole, which has retained its outline of loveli-
ness in our vision the wide world around. And here we
rest, for a moment at least. The English and French
men-of-war are numerous in the harbor. And what is
worth a thousand men-of-war, letters from those we love
have been awaiting us, which we devour with weeping
eyes and heaving hearts.
We delayed a number of days at Rio, and the time
spent there was agreeably occupied many objects of in-
terest presenting themselves new acquaintances formed
rides and walks taken conversations enjoyed and
reflections made ; but all these and the story of our second
call at Rio de Janeiro, must be elsewhere told, if told at all.
Thursday morning, May the 6th, was the time fixed for
our sailing. I had taken leave of my friends. The land
breeze came early over the bay, and all hands, to get under
way, were in their stations at daybreak. The ship was
cast from her moorings, and fell off gracefully from our
nearest neighbor, H. B. M. ship Stag, and with the John
Adams already following our motions, we glided towards
the mouth of the harbor, passing the two U. S. sloops, the
Falmouth and the Decatur, as yet but just awake as we
moved near them. The breeze was favorable ; but just
before we had entered the narrow pass of the harbor the
fog fell heavily upon our decks, and the two ships, now
abeam, were no longer seen by each other. But the boats
were on each side of us, and a hail from one of them soon
cried, "The fort is directly ahead, sir." "Ay, ay," was the
response, and " Port the helm," was an accompanying
order, which, with a knowledge of the bearings, carried th(
frigate safely through the narrow passage. The fog lift
ed, and the John Adams was seen at the windward of us.
having, unperceived, crossed our bows; and, together,
once more we are at sea, on the sixth morning of May, it
being the anniversary morning of our leaving the United
States, for our cruise of the world, two years ago.
Our track was now to be a direct one for the homes
which we had left so many months before, and after
having accomplished so long a traverse around the world.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 325
It seemed, however, a difficulty to realize the fact that
our next anchorage-ground would be within the waters
of the United States so long and so often had we left
foreign ports for still other foreign ports. But the fre-
quent congratulations that were passing the daily reckon-
ing up of the distance' from the port we anticipated to
make and the frequent sound of "Home, sweet, sweet
home," on the band, and flute, and in vocal solo from ward-
room, state-room, and steerage, began to make their im-
pression, until incredulity itself was forced to yield to the
conviction, that it was even so our next port would be
Boston or New- York Boston, if winds favored New-
York, if they opposed.
THE REVIEW.
And now, while I am writing this page, on the ninth
of June, we are off Cape Hatteras, some hundred miles
east of it. The passage from Rio de Janeiro has been
favorable thus far, with the exception of the first ten days
out ; and it has been a time for leisurely reviewing some of
the incidents of the cruise. Many of them have been
pleasant. Great varieties of the human species have been
seen. Greater variety of incident, perhaps, has also been
attendant on the cruise, than is usual for a peace-ship to
witness. The olden East has been seen the thousand
casts that go to make up the medley mass of the brown,
and bronzed, and ebony faces of Africa, Arabia, and Hin-
doostan, the lighter-complexioned millions of the Tartars
and the Chinese, and the yellow and copper-featured isl-
anders of the north and southern oceans. The beautiful
lands of the tropics delight, for a season at least, the gaze
of the voyager, as they spread out to his view the luxuri-
ousness of their foliage, and delight his taste with the vari-
eties and deliciousness of their fruits. The adventurous
Europeans and Americans abroad, have also been seen.
The Englishman, in his wide rule, ambition, wealth and
taste, beautifying whatever his nation touches, and possess-
ing whatever his nation can frame apology for securing
and holding. The Portuguese, those first voyagers on the
seas, have left their traces everywhere, but all now with
326 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
them is decay, evidencing the wreck of superstitious insti-
tutions, and the passing away of the intolerance and the
arbitrary rule of the earliest possessors of the East, of
which we read in the goings and in the actions of their
first viceroys ; but their impressions, their language, and
their descendants, still remain as 'monuments, though in
decay, of early enterprise, dominion, and power. And
the indolent and not unchivalric Spaniard has left, on the
western shore of Southern America, a race that has cover-
ed the many and beautiful provinces on the coasts washed
by the Pacific, whose gold and silver and superstitions
have been their ruin, but who are beginning to exhibit the
evidences of more than recovering their downfall, and
elevating themselves to dignity and worth among the in-
dependent nations of the world. And France, though her
foreign possessions are few, her citizens are everywhere
abroad, and amalgamate, with all their native flexibility
and frugality, with the descendants of their European
neighbors. And Americans, those everywhere enterpris-
ing and adventurous people, have been seen in every cor-
ner of the globe, careless alike what revolutions take place,
or tumults in morals, politics, or physics occur, provided
they all contribute, as they often do, to fill their treasures
with the precious materials from the mines of the earth.
And yet money-making as they are, they show themselves
to be a race capable of feeling and acting for the advance-
ment of their species universally, in all that is intellectual
and moral, as evidenced by the numbers of American mis-
sionaries abroad, on every foreign strand of the main in
each hemisphere, and almost on every island of every sea
men and women too, who do credit to American intel-
lect, and American Christianity. And the superstitions
of heathen nations, in their thousand-formed variety, cruel-
ty, deformity, and absurdity, have passed before our ob-
servation, in contrast with the benevolent, and lovely, and
elevating, and fit system of the religion of the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And we trust, in the review, that the movements of the
squadron have been attended by the acquisition of some
addition of honorable consideration, for the nation, whose
flag it has borne, in courtesy and dignity, around the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 327
world. The ships have everywhere done themselves
credit, as fine models of their class for the order and
neatness in which they have invariably been kept and
the courteous and honorable bearing they have preserved,
wherever they have been. Their civilities have been re-
ciprocated with apparent cordiality and sincerity of feel-
ing. And while foreign nations have spoken kind things
of the good ships and the nation whose courtesies they have
borne, they have also served, as one of the chief purposes
for which they went, to re-assure the American abroad,
that he has a protecting government at home, which feels
a care for the interests of its citizens in other lands.
But on this cruise, many of those who commenced it
have been left, in their different places, to their long re-
pose of mortality. Of the frigate's crew more than sev-
enty have died mostly with diseases attendant on the
climates of the East.
But it is known that the crew of a man-of-war is often
and most generally made up of men whose constitutions
have been broken by previous dissipation, which renders
them ready victims of the diseases of tropical climates.
The scenes which have been presented to myself, on my
rounds among the ill and the dying, have often been affect-
ing. The complaint with which most have died, left the
mind clear to the last ; and the approaches to the last hour
were generally known to the patients themselves. The
tear of regret, I have often seen to line the emaciated
cheek of the departing sailor, as he confessed his wander-
ings and lamented his delay of repentance till so late an
hour. Again, I have witnessed the trace of despair on the
gravely settled features, as a hopelessness possessed the
sunken bosom. And again, I have, sometimes, marked
the relieving light of hope throwing its brightness on the
confiding features, as the spirit left the body for ever.
The cruise of the world will have afforded the lover of
the natural sciences many opportunities for gratifying his
curiosity, and for illustrating and confirming his theories
of the phenomena of the earth and the universe. He has
seen the sun and the moon on his south and on his north ;
and the northern and the southern constellations alternately
to go down and come up, as he receded from or neared
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
the equator. The earth he has measured by his own track.
Ours, on reaching Boston, will have been nearly f fly thou-
sand miles, on our traverse from port to port, as we have
accomplished the circuit of the globe.
And to regain a view of the north star, an old familiar
friend, whom we have several times lost on our winding
way around the world having five times crossed the
equator, on our cruise is indeed a welcome incident.
And now, to read again the stars of the northern hemis-
phere is most acceptable, many of them having been for
so long a time lost on our southern course. They awaken
their thousand associations of other days, and look down
from their blue halls upon one again, with smiles, that
seem to re-assure him of a welcome that shall be sincere,
to the climes on which they for ever shine. And we will
trust these bright omens, as we continue to near the land
of our homes. We know that warm hearts await us, if
the life-stream is still coursing them. Solicitudes awake,
however, in the changes every epistle bears to us, that
others yet nearer of our kindred and choicest friends may
have gone, before we shall re-greet them. But the Provi-
dence which has been so favorably directing, towards us,
so far, is worthy of our trust ; and whatever may be its
metings-out, of good or ill for this life, we will confide in
the assurance that " God doeth all things well."
THE LINER.
So had I written, a few days since. Our ship has urged
on her way, until to-day, the llth, she lies on the parallel
of New- York, distant some two hundred mile^ ; and this
evening, while the sea was as smooth as a lake the sun
mild and a gentle breeze filling the sails, a large ship,
supposed to be one of the " liners" out of New- York, was
seen to be standing on, with her studdingsails set ; while
close-hauled ourselves, we were laying across her track.
The '* liner" coming on, with the fair breeze filling her
canvass under an easy pressure, was anticipated by the
courteous frigate, as the men, already at their stations,
furled the royals, run up the courses, and hauled down and
stowed the flying-jib. Another moment the yards of the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 329
main were braced aback, and the frigate slept on the
waters, as if she were a fairy ship, that, like some bird
of passage, had, for one moment, so bent its pinions as to
rest over some object, which attracted the gaze of its
peering eye.
Every eye from the " liner" was on the man-of-war.
Long ranges of passengers were gazing ladies in their
bonnets and gentlemen in their hats as if some phantom-
ship, by some magic, and in her beauty, had suddenly
woke to their sight for not a head aboard the frigate was
seen above the bulwarks, and the distant eye, as it gazed
on the war-ship, could find no living being among her
rigging, while she was yet held in her place obedient to
the will, and every movement seemed but the volition of
her own unread and quiet bosom. Not a whisper was
heard aboard the frigate, as the " liner" was gliding by,
and stillness deep as a death-sleep possessed her decks.
No hail was given as the vessels were now abeam nor
on board the frigate could a being have been seen, to an-
swer the hail. Not even the ripple beneath the bows of
the frigate was heard, as the two ships glided so stilly by,
on their slow and opposite and even way, until they now
began to recede from each other, while the flag of the
Columbia floated, as her only recognition, in its gentle
waves on the breeze.
I know not why, but the scene had in it, to me, the
height of the melancholy. There were ranges of faces on
the decks of the passing ship which I felt I would gladly
have recognised and spoken with. And yet no word was
heard, and they passed on and not by uneven steps and
varied motion that destroys the spell of enchantment ; but
as a cloud sails through the deep blue of heaven, on its
soft and monotonous passage, which causes the tide of
sadness to flow uninterruptedly out from the bosom of him
who gazes upon its even course, with a broken heart.
The ship had borne home my own thoughts, as her name
and hull were known to me. And in the combinations of
the magic scene, I almost fancied that I -had reached my
home, and found it all as a deserted hall or, rather, that
I dreamed that I was there, and my friends that loved and
whom I loved came and gazed kindly on me, but spoke
330 A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
not, and passed on and away for ever. I gazed upon the
slowly receding ship, with emotions that each moment
continued to deepen, until I leaned my head upon the net-
tings as I stood upon the arm-chest of the quarter-deck,
and, burying my face in my handkerchief, gave freedom
to the strangely mingling emotions of my heart. Surely,
man's bosom is a strange thing, in the ebb and flow of its
tides of joyous and melancholy emotions:
No scale hath measure for its bounding joy,
No number tells its bitterest alloy ;
And light and shade no quicker come and go,
Than are the changes which our bosoms know.
Our boat had been lowered as the " liner" approached ;
and with the First Lieutenant in her, she pulled across the
bows of the nearing ship, and boarded her for the news.
The Lieutenant brought us back papers almost wet from
the press, and reported the delight which our frigate had
created on board the packet-ship. In the language of her
captain, " his ship's company were all crazed, even to his
own steward," most of them never having before met an
American man-of-war at sea.
The breeze freshened, after we had parted with the
" liner," and our ship stood on her course during the night
and the succeeding day, our excitement increasing each
league our good frigate reached on towards our port of
destination, until, this morning, the thirteenth of June,
twenty-eight days from Rio de Janeiro, the sandy shore
of Cape Cod is seen to stretch along its golden rim gold-
en to us, however barren to those who till it, for it is the
long hoped-for strand of our native land, that was destined
to give us welcome again to the shores of our western
homes. Nor could those same banks, with here and there
the fields of turf and distant hamlet and church, in con-
trast with their sandy sides, have been more grateful to
the sight of the weather-beaten pilgrims of the May-
Flower, than to the vision of ourselves, on our return to
end our pilgrimage around the world. And it has now
been accomplished. The ship still stood in the Boston
light loomed on the view a hundred sails were seen
gliding along the coast the pilot received on board
and, while I write, the nine o'clock music is heard, as the
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 331
tattoo rolls through the ship, now lying at her rest and
anchors, off the lighthouse of Boston harbor.*
The boat has gone with our letters, telling our friends
that we are again in the waters of the United States, and
that we soon will present ourselves for their cordial wel-
come and affectionate embrace.
And it is to this re-greeting of friends and kindred, that
the returning voyager gives his thoughts, with concen-
trating feelings, as the anchors of his ship drop again in
the waters of his own beloved country. The memories
of enjoyed scenes among those friends, now fill his fancies
with visions more dear than any foreign recollections can
awaken. And with his friends again he will rest, after a
succession of changes which have begun to tire, however
interesting they may have been, in the variety they have
presented. And it will be a welcome rest, amid welcome
circumstances. Such, at least, are the emotions of my
own bosom, such the combinations of my own fancies.
And I wait but the coming of the orders from the depart-
ment, which will bear the leaves of absence to the offi-
cers of the ship, to realize all that fancy dreams and
bosoms feel, on the return of one with warm attachments
to kindred, than whom none can be more endeared ; and
to a home, than which none can be more beloved. At
such a moment and with such feelings, it is fit to termi-
nate this manuscript. And though all the associations of
the following line's may not be" exclusively connected with
the descriptions of these volumes, now ending, they yet
emblem forth the present feelings of the writer, as
THE TRAVELLER'S RETURN TO HIS OWN DEAR HOME.
I've wandered 'mid palaces where pleasures are known.
And I've traversed the ocean where the blue waves foam ;
I've mingled with great ones, seen the gay earth,
But found nought so dear as my own native hearth :
Home, home, yes, I come,
Oh welcome me back again, my own dear home.
I've strolled on the sea-shores, 'neath suns ever mild ;
And I've trailed with the Indian his dark wooded wild ;
I've wandered on mountain tops, in valleys below,
But the warm-gush of home-love dearer would flow.
* The corvette arrived in safety a day or two after us
A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD.
I've breathed with the Zenian* in his own inner land,
The aroma of his teas, and the flowers from his hand ;
But the cup and the flower have a richness more dear
Round the board and the mantel where my kindred are near.
I've read the bright night-lights that fairer have shown
From a deeper blue vault than smiles o'er my home ;
But longest I've gazed on a pale northern star,
That pointed to the land where my home lay afar.
I've gazed on the disk of the pale beaming moon,
As she rode in her cloud-car high in her noon ;
But her wake on the wave as she waned to her rest,
Bore on my sad thoughts to my home in the West.
I've sat by the gifted, as the fair one hath swept
The strings of the lyre while the paean slept ;
But the spell of the lyre that thrilled the fond breast,
Hath served but to bear me to my home in the West
At far distant altars in worship I've bowed,
But not as a stranger I prayed with the crowd ;
For the same hallowed prayers,f my heart oft would melt
In the ever-loved temple, at home, as I knelt.
And on my lone cot when my pulses ran low,
And the fever's wild beat hath throbbed my pale brow,
I've heard, in my dream, the death-plunge to the deep,
But I prayed, with my kindred, at last, I might sleep.
However kind strangers in splendor have come
To proffer the traveller their friendship and home,
The smile of the wise, the caress of the gay,
Withheld not his thoughts from the dearer than they.
In shadows of evening when day melts away,
And memories of home o'er the heart hold their sway,
Affection's fond tears their barriers o'ercome,
And the spell that is on me cries back to my home.
No more then I'll roam from the land of my birth
To gaze on the world in its splendor or mirth ;
'Twill more than suffice that I've learned its false glare,
As the days of my future with loved ones I share :
Home, home, ay, I come,
And ever I'll cling to thee, my own dear home.
* Zenia is the ancient name of China. T Service of the Episcopal Church.
THE END.
A FEW NOTICES OF THE WORK,
INSERTED AS SPECIMENS OF THE OPINIONS OF THE PRE SS, FROM THE
FOLLOWING POPULAR AND ABLY CONDUCTED PERIODICALS.
From Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review.
The work covers a wide ground. Treating, as it does, of the vari-
ous nations along the track of this expedition, it presents us a bird's-
eye view of their various characters, as they would naturally impress
a single mind. The distinctions in character presented by the vari-
ous nations here described, must convince us that one of the most
interesting objects of contemplation, is man in the various phases
which he assumes from the difference in climate, constitution, and
laws. We know of no work better calculated to furnish matter for
this sort of contemplation than the present. It presents us, in a
single picture, the manners, habits, and appearances of races as
widely separated in character as if they belonged to different species;
and, moreover, they appear so accurately drawn and well colored,
that the figures seem to stand out and breathe upon the page. The
work is illustrated with appropriate embellishments, and we doubt
not will have a wide circulation.
From the New York Evangelist Presbyterian paper.
If in consequence of our late notice of this work, it shall afford to
any reader the very great pleasure and profit which its perusal has
given us, we are sure he will think it better late than never. The
records of a voyage around the world, made by a man, who, in
mingling with the various and wonderful scenes it must present, has
had his eyes open, could not fail to be interesting. Facts and real
occurrences are things of which we never grow weary. Its literary
character is certainly very respectable, and the benevolent spirit and
Christian interest with which the varied incidents of a visit to almost
every nation on the globe were regarded, give the book an unwont-
ed value. We wish it might have an extensive circulation.
From the Baptist Advocate, New York.
The book will undoubtedly be very popular from the attractiveness
of the narrative, and the freespoken simplicity with which the authot
has, according to Stephens' mode, interested us in himself, as if by
a personal acquaintance. His intercourse especially with our Baptist
missionaries at Macao, appears to have been intimately friendly.
From the Brother Jonathan.
This work is contained in two beautifully printed volumes, emula-
ting in their style of typographical execution, the best specimens of
the art. The author has given us a very pleasant journal, enliven-
ed by that sure guarantee of interest, the egotism of the writer. As
a traveller should, he makes his personal adventure and experience
the connecting thread of his book ; and has succeeded in producing
an exceedingly interesting work.
From the New Yorker.
We have before noticed this work as in press. It is a journal
kept by the author on board the U. S. ship Columbia, Commodore
Read, on her voyage round the world ; and the known abilities of
Mr. Taylor warrant the belief that it will prove a most interesting
and instructive work.
From the Episcopal Witness, Boston.
We have read this work %ith much pleasure. We are glad to
learn that large editions of it have been issued. Did our limits per-
mit, we should make extracts from both the volumes, and give a
more extensive notice of them. The work is highly spoken of in
the leading journals in different parts of the country, and cannot fail,
we think, to repay the attention of the reader.
From the Methodist Christian Advocate, New York.
Those who have read Anson's and Cook's Voyages, must call to
mind the all-absorbing interest with which they accompanied these
navigators in their perilous adventures, in order to form a just con-
ception of the gratification they will enjoy in the perusal of this book.
Indeed, they will hardly make a just estimate then, for this voyage
was performed by Americans, in American ships of war ; and withal
so recently as to portray the present condition of the many nations and
countries they visited. The writer has a very felicitous way of de-
scribing what he sees, and preserves the attention of his reader as
much by his vivacity of manner, as by the nature of the adventures
he describes.
It contains several cuts and a handsomely executed likeness of the
Emperor of China, from an original Chinese painting obtained by the
late and lamented Dr. Morrison. We know of no recent publication
better calculated to beguile a long winter evening ; while it imparts
as much useful information, as it gives pleasure to the reader.
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