SCENTED ISLES AND
CORAL GARDENS
ANT-HILLS AND PANDANUS TREES. TORRES STRAITS.
(Frontispiece.)
Scented Isles and Coral Gardens
Torres Straits, German
New Guinea, and the
Dutch East Indies
By C. D. Mackellar
Author of "A Pleasure Pilgrim in South America"
" I AM haunted by numberless islands, and many a Danaan
shore,
Where Time would surely forget us, and Sorrow come near
us no more ;
Soon far from the rose and the lily, and fret of the flames
we would be,
Were we only white birds, my beloved, buoyed out on the
foam of the sea ! "
W. B. YEATS.
London
John Murray, Albemarle Street, W.
1912
PREFACE
THE letters contained in this volume were written
some years ago, and were not originally intended
for publication. They describe at first hand a
fascinating part of the world, which is visited
by few people, and under conditions which have
passed or are rapidly passing away.
It is curious to look back on the opinions ex-
pressed and the facts stated just as they happened
at the time, for if here and there, in brackets,
changes have been noted or comments made, it
has been best to leave it all as originally written.
People of intelligence can always discern where
real changes have taken place, or where time must
inevitably alter circumstances, things, and places.
There have been many changes, yet, curiously
enough, not nearly so many as one might have
expected, and Progress in places has made little
way. These letters are the flotsam and jetsam
of years gone by, but I have been encouraged to
publish them by those who are better able to
gauge their value and interest than I am. If in
places they may seem patchy and discursive this
is due to the circumstances in which, and the object
with which, they were written.
vi PREFACE
For the coloured pictures an apology is due.
The author, as is evident, is no artist, and they
are only published here to try and give even a
small and imperfect idea of the colour which the
pen can only tell of but never paint.
For the other illustrations I am indebted to
many sources to the Official Australian publica-
tions ; to my friends Jonkheer Carel van Haeften
and Jonkheer Francis van Haeften ; in some cases
to unknown photographers ; and lastly I wish to
express my most grateful thanks to Messrs. Ruys
& Co. of the " Rotter damsche Lloyd Royal Mail
Line " for their courtesy in placing me in com-
munication with the " Vereeniging Toeristenver-
keer te Batavia " or " Official Tourist Bureau " of
Weltevreden, Batavia, Java, and to the latter
for the very kind permission they gave me through
their Amsterdam representative to make use of
any illustrations in their publication Java the
Wonderland.
Any one contemplating a tour in what is so truly
called a Wonderland, can do no better than place
himself in the hands of the above-named com-
panies, from whose officials they will receive every
aid, courtesy, and information. They may wander
for months in the fascinating Dutch East Indies
and not exhaust their varied interests.
I also would here like to take the opportunity
of thanking all those people, personally unknown
to me, who, on reading another publication of mine,
did me the honour and the kindness to write me
PREFACE vii
such very pleasant and friendly letters. Especi-
ally did I appreciate those from invalids, and if I
did indeed afford them some hours of amusement
and interest I am grateful that I was allowed to
do it. I hope those same kind people will " Please
come again " and make another journey with me
in these pages. They have told me how they
laughed at this or enjoyed that situation, and I in
return say they cheer one on the way, and whether
it is at me or the incidents they laugh, what
matters is that they do laugh, as that is good for
them.
C. D. M.
December 1911.
CONTENTS
PAGE
TORRES STRAITS ... . . i
GERMAN NEW GUINEA .... 65
DUTCH EAST INDIES . . .216
CHINA AND JAPAN ... 280
L'ENVOi . . . 33 6
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN COLOUR
ANT-HILLS AND PANDANUS TREES, TORRES STRAITS Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
THE BARRIER REEF, QUEENSLAND . . . -50
FISH OF THE BARRIER REEF . . . . -54
MASK HOUSE AND MASKED NATIVES, NEW GUINEA. . no
THE OLD, OLD STORY, NEW GUINEA . . . .154
BIRD OF PARADISE (Pteridophora alberti) . . .158
NATIVE WITH MASK AND SHIELD, NEW GUINEA . .194
HOUSE NEAR MACASSAR IN CELEBES .... 234
IN BLACK AND WHITE
AUSTRALIAN NATIVE, TORRES STRAITS . . .14
KERAPUNA, BRITISH NEW GUINEA . . . .42
HUNSTEIN'S BIRD OF PARADISE (Diphyllodes hunsteini}, S.E.
NEW GUINEA . . . . . .92
TWELVE- WIRED BIRD OF PARADISE . . .
BENNET'S BIRD OF PARADISE (Drepanornis cervinicauda\ S.E.
NEW GUINEA . . . . . .
KING BIRD OF PARADISE (Cicinnurus regius\ ARU ISLES .
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
BRITISH NEW GUINEA CHIEFS . . . .98
NATIVES OF BRITISH NEW GUINEA . . . .108
CANOE ORNAMENTS . . . . . .116
BONITO FISH HUNG IN CANOE HOUSE, WITH SKULL .
CANOE ORNAMENT, SOLOMON ISLANDS. . . .130
PIPES AND FLUTE, NEW BRITAIN . . .
AN IDOL, NEW GUINEA .......
FLOAT FOR A FISHING NET, FROM SOLOMON ISLANDS .
WATER-JUG, NEW BRITAIN ...
TEMPLE AT SELEO, NEW GUINEA . . . .192
SULTAN OF SOLO AND ESCORT, JAVA . . . .216
SOLO NOBLES, JAVA . . . . . .
ON THE ROAD TO TELEGA BODAS, JAVA . . .21
PREPARING RICE, TERNATE . . . . .222
BUITENZORG, JAVA . . . . . 226
THE PIER AND QUAYS, MACASSAR, CELEBES,. . . 230
LIFE GUARD OF THE SULTAN OF DJOCJA, JAVA . . 232
NEW YEAR AT THE COURT OF DJOCJA, JAVA . .
THE WATER CASTLE, BRAMBANAN, JAVA . . .236
CHINAMAN'S HOUSE, SOLO, JAVA . . . .238
STREET IN B ATA VIA, JAVA . .
CRATER OF BROMO, TOSARI, JAVA .... 240
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
FACING PAGE
MOUNT BROMO, BATOK, AND SMEROE, WITH SAND SEA,
JAVA ........ 240
TDUDJONG PASS, SUMATRA ..... 244
WEAVING, JAVA ....... 248
PAINTING SARONGS, JAVA . . . .
RIVER AT PALEMBANG, SUMATRA . . . .250
PALACE AND GROUNDS OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL, BUIT-
ENZORG, JAVA ...... 252
GOING TO MARKET, FORT DE KOCK, SUMATRA . .256
ON THE WAY TO MARKET, FORT DE KOCK, SUMATRA .
BORO BOEDOER TEMPLE, JAVA .....
A BABOE, SOLO, JAVA ......
AT BORO BOEDOER, JAVA . . . .
BORO BOEDOER, JAVA ...... 268
STAIRCASE IN BORO BOEDOER, JAVA .... 272
THE BORO BOEDOER HINDU TEMPLE, JAVA . .
GRASS TREE; BORO BOEDOER, JAVA .... 276
TERRACE WITH CUPOLAS, BORO BOEDOER, JAVA . .
SINGAPORE ........ 290
TORRES STRAITS
THURSDAY ISLAND,
TORRES STRAITS, 1885.
I HAD returned to Rockhampton, in Queens-
land, from a visit to Raglan, a cattle station
near there, and it suddenly came into my mind
that here was an opportunity to carry out a long-
wished-for project of visiting Torres Straits and,
if possible, New Guinea. No one in Rockhampton
could give me any definite information about
either place. To make up my mind whether to
go or not, I did what was there regarded as an
extraordinary thing to do at any time, but especi-
ally in such heat I went for a walk ! No one
dreams of walking there, you ride or drive always.
Nevertheless I went for a walk out to Lake's
Creek on the Fitzroy River, where there is a huge
:< boiling-down " and meat-preserving factory,
and also a most excellent vegetable garden kept
by Chinese.
On my way back I passed a roadside hostelry
where I thought I would try to get some lunch.
Its doors opened directly on the road, and on
entering and exploring it I could find no one.
Even the bar-room was taking care of itself, and
I or any one might have helped himself to free
2 TORRES STRAITS
drinks. After a time I heard the sound of voices
and approaching footsteps at the back.
Suddenly in rushed a dog and stopped in petri-
fied surprise, to be followed by several children,
who all also struck the same attitude and gazed
at me in astonishment.
" Is this an hotel, or what is it ? " I asked of
the dog, who seemed to be the most intelligent
looking. " I want something to eat and drink."
The dog turned tail and fled, followed by the
children.
In a few minutes they returned accompanied
by the landlord and his wife Ould Oireland
written all over them. Of course I could have
lunch ; and the whole family, dog and all, set-to
at once to prepare ; and to say they were cordial is
to put it lightly, why such excitement I could not
think.
The luncheon put before me was cold salmon,
some of the Lake Creek corned beef, with a dish
of vegetables and a bowl of potatoes that would
have done for a regiment, a huge apple tart
with cream, and a quart bottle of Bass's Ale.
No danger of starving, anyway. Friendly and
attentive was no word for the family and the
dog, and their brogue for I am sure the dog
had a brogue too was as bountiful as their fare.
When finished, I asked what I had to pay. After
consulting the dog and the children and long
debating it, they said they had no idea what to
charge me, but did I think is. 6d. would be too
much ?
" But," I said, " that must be the price of the
beer alone," a quart bottle of Bass is not got
for nothing in Queensland.
" Sure, now, but ye've niver drunk it all at all! "
" That makes no difference," I said, " no one
else can drink it."
IRISH NEW-CHUMS 3
Explanations then ensued. They were newly
arrived Irish immigrants that was patent enough ;
had just started this hotel, and I was the first
customer ! We became bosom friends on the
spot. They all, including the dog, sat down
and regaled me with their whole history and
impressions of Queensland. Would I had a pen
that could record it ! Then I gave them a long
lecture, pointing out that they must look well
after their interests ; they were among no simple,
guileless people by any means. They would be
cheated right and left, and done out of everything
if they were not smart and careful. They thought
it all bate Bannagher, and Bannagher bate the
devil. Then we inspected the whole establishment,
discussing matters, and I advising on subjects
I knew nothing about, and they were genuinely put
out I had to go. The result of all this was that
they were quite hurt that I should want to pay.
" Sure 'twas the grand luck I was bringing
them,"- their first customer " a rale gintleman
and a friend, and was it the dirthy money they
would be afther taking from me at all ! It was
good luck that was coming to them," they were
sure. Another lecture from me this time with
the dog and one sticky child on my lap and then
I insisted on settling the bill according to what
I thought right and proper under the circum-
stances, and drank with them to the success of
their enterprise. Till I could see them no longer,
they were standing at the door waving adieux
and screaming Irish blessings and wishes for good
luck after me. Poor unsophisticated folk, they
would soon learn what sort of people they had
to deal with, and would have to look sharply
after their affairs. I hope their first customer did
bring them good luck.
At seven in the evening (26th August) I left
4 TORRES STRAITS
Rockhampton by the steam tender Dolphin, and
for four hours we steamed down the Fitzroy River,
which looked quite beautiful in the brilliant
moonlight. Such nights in Australia are lovely.
We anchored in Keppel Bay opposite to the
Golden Shore Hotel on Curtis Island. At 4 a.m.
the A.S.N. Co.'s s.s. Quirang arrived in the bay,
and I at once boarded her and went to bed.
She left at 6 a.m. When I emerged from my
cabin I found it was blowing rather stiffly, and
we were steaming close to the coast amidst pic-
turesque rocky islands and islets. Captain M'Lean
was a pleasant, cheery, kind old man, but he and
the passengers expressed the greatest wonder
that I should be bound for Thursday Island, and
evidently thought me " a freak " to want to go
to such a place for pleasure.
We stopped at Flat Top Island about midday,
it being only a small isle with a lighthouse.
We arrived in Cleveland Bay and anchored off
Townsville about n p.m. A steam tender took
passengers and baggage ashore. A bar keeps
large vessels from going to the wharf, and even the
tender could only enter at high tide, so we steamed
very slowly up the Ross Creek, and on arrival
at the wharf a sailor carried my things to the
Queen's Hotel. The islands we had passed all
the way up were beautiful, some very green and
wooded with fir trees scattered about. The
Whitsunday Group and Hook Island seemed
desirable places. They are, however, just now
useless for sheep, there being some plant that
poisons them, so they are unoccupied save for
some blacks.
I found the hotel very clean, and the meals
both good and abundant. There is never any-
thing niggardly in Australia about such matters.
With a population of 9000, Townsville seemed a
TOWNSVILLE 5
pleasant, prosperous place. A granite hill and
cliffs rise in the centre of the town, and are dotted
over with picturesque ramshackle houses, palm
trees, cacti, children all trying to break their necks
down the banks, goats, empty bottles and tin
cans giving quite a careless, homely aspect to it
all. Numbers of blacks were camped around ;
there were Chinese store-keepers ; wagonette
cabs and hansoms were dashing about, and a
tramway was in process of building.
Just at this time there is talk of dividing
Queensland into two colonies, and Townsville
has made up her mind she is to be the capital of
the new colony of " Alberta," and has even fixed
a site for the Government House, so bent are they
on separating from Southern Queensland. There
are two newspapers, and the advertisements of
the land sales are very high-flown, as for
instance :
' The scenery in the neighbourhood is of the
grandest description. Glorious nature (in her
varied form of imposing mountain grandeur,
limitless plain,- majestic cataracts, and maritime
scenery) is viewed from St. Kilda as the eye of
the denizen wanders to each point of the compass.
Lofty Mount Louisa rears its noble crest and
shelters St. Kilda from the keen and cutting
southerly blasts of winter, and its cloud-capped
summit causes copious and seasonable showers
to descend upon and refresh this much favoured
and naturally beautiful suburb."
This is still better :
" From the time of the advent into the world
of Adam and Eve
" Great changes have occurred."
"New Kingdoms have been founded."
" Mighty Empires have been swept away."
" New Cities have been formed."
6 TORRES STRAITS
" But the greatest event that has ever occurred
has happened in our Own Days, viz. :
"The Rise and Progress
of the
Great Empire of Britain,
With its immense Dependencies;
Its vast Colonies ;
Its Huge Centres of Commerce,
Amongst which can be numbered those
Great Emporiums of Trade, viz.,
London on the Thames
and
Townsville on the Ross."
I liked this town and its go-ahead spirit, and
could see fine possibilities before it. They have
had the bad taste to allow the rocks and cliffs to
be covered with huge painted advertisements of
somebody's sewing machines and the like.
I sat down on the rocks under an umbrella
sketching, surrounding by goats, children, dogs,
flies, and the empty tins and bottles. The dogs,
flies, children, and goats were deeply interested
in my work and gave me no peace ; the empty
tins and bottles were done with the vanities of
life and had no interest in Art. Now and again
goats and children fell over rocks for my benefit,
and then came to see if it was made historical in
the picture, and were quiteput out that their artistic
efforts had been in vain. The goats butted me
behind, and the children said I must " Go a-wy,
or else they would put me in the By," which
was quite poetical of them. (These sketches of
Townsville as the proposed capital of the new
colony were published in The Graphic, but neither
colony nor capital has come into existence. When
The Graphic returned me these sketches, after
using them, accompanied by a nice cheque, they
addressed the letter to " Victoria, New South
Wales, Australia." Victoria and New South
SYDNEY HUMOUR 7
Wales being at that time bitterly jealous rivals,
some one in the Sydney Post Office underlined
the 'Victoria" with blue; and wrote under it,
" Not known in New South Wales ! " These
sketches, and others I sent to The Graphic, I have
seen in many places since, helping to paper bed-
room walls and so on for where does not The
Graphic go ?)
Mount Cudtheringa (Castle Hill) rises over the
town, and away at the end of a long stretch of
sandy beach is Cape Pallaranda (Many Peaks).
On the 3ist I boarded the A.S.N. Co.'s City of
Melbourne, and we left at midday. I had Captain
Thompson's right hand at table; and we were soon
good friends. He at once made me free of his
deck cabin, which was most artistic and pretty,
with flowering plants and pale green creepers
trained over its white walls and ceiling.
Amongst our few passengers was Mr. H , the
travelling representative of an Assurance Company,
with his confrere, a young doctor all airs and graces,
bound for Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
An old sea-captain going as sailing master of a
dredger at Cooktown, yarned away to me all day,
giving me much information as to the islands and
coast where he has traded for long, as did also
a Mr. Macroarty, a Police Magistrate and Collector
of Customs at Normanton, and quite a quiet man,
despite his name. They all know who I am, and
feel sure I have designs in the way of land purchase
or some investment, and that my extraordinary
quest for pleasure is but a blind. I was not long
on board ere I found the City of Melbourne had
adopted me, and was bent on making me quite at
home, in which they entirely succeeded.
The Great Barrier Reef, which lies along this
coast " by the long wash of Australian seas," is most
interesting, though very intricate and dangerous
8 TORRES STRAITS
navigation. The islands and rocks are countless,
and its corals and fish of the most varied and
curious character. We steamed inside it all the way.
It is a great haunt of the beche-de-mer fishers.
This disagreeable looking thing is a sea-slug from
six to eight inches long and five inches in circum-
ference, but one variety is some feet long. They
are found frequently about coral reefs and shallow
waters, but also in deeper waters. Some of them
discharge long white filaments when touched, and
these blister the skin. As soon as caught they are
split open, cleaned, the body distended by sticks,
then smoked over a wood fire, when they shrivel
up and look like dry indiarubber. After being
left to dry in the sun for a time they are packed
in sacks and sold to the Chinese, who pay from 50
to 150 a ton for them, and make soup of them.
They may be obtained, as a delicacy, at Fortnum
& Mason's in London, by those who like such nasty
things. Tortoise-shell is also a Barrier product.
Shortly after leaving Townsville we passed the
Palm Islands, the largest of which is said to be one
of the best islands on the coast. It is inhabited
by cannibal blacks and by a white missionary.
The old sea-captain says the latter is " cranky,"
and that is why the blacks do not eat him. My
sympathy is with the blacks, as " cranky mis-
sionary served up with sea-slugs " does not sound
inviting. It is a large, thickly wooded, and pretty
island, with numerous adjacent smaller isles. The
Queensland Government, which has gone in for
Henry George's theory that the land belongs to the
people, will neither lease nor sell any of these islands.
[They do now (1909), I think, lease them.]
We next passed Hinchinbrook Island, the
largest up here, very high and with a bold picture-
esque outline. The Rockingham Channel lies
between it and the mainland.
THE CARL BRIG 9
Captain Thompson entertained me with many
yarns. I am fond of yarns, and believe every-
thing that is told me : it saves worry. He was
for some years in the South Sea Island trade,
and on board the Carl brig of such infamous
notoriety, and knew Dr. Murray, who was such an
unmitigated ruffian. The actual details of the
atrocious massacre which brought the doings of
Dr. Murray and the Carl to a climax, I forget.
They used to kidnap the natives in order to sell
them which was what it amounted to as in-
dentured slaves in Australia. On one occasion the
natives, having risen, were all driven down into the
hold, where Murray and his men fired down on them,
killing and wounding the helpless wretches. See-
ing one of H.M.'s ships bearing down on them and
knowing they would be overhauled, they threw
the dead and dying natives overboard, and quickly
whitewashed the floor and walls of the hold to hide
the blood stains. All was, however, discovered,
and these miscreants met with their just punish-
ment.
Captain Thompson related an amusing story
about Bishop Selwyn. Some man went to one
of the islands, and being attacked by the natives
put on a white robe and announcing that he was
Bishop Selwyn, whose fame had reached them,
commenced reading to them out of the Nautical
Almanac, not having a Bible handy. When the
real bishop turned up afterwards they would not
listen to him, regarding him as an impostor. The
Captain said that in those days in the islands he
never carried a revolver or any arms with him,
and was never molested, and his opinion was that
if you left their women alone, adopted none of
their vices or customs, but treated them in a
friendly manner, that they would never harm
you.
io TORRES STRAITS
After Hinchinbrook Island came Gould Island.
It was continually very warm and close, and
everything had a damp feeling.
We arrived at Cooktown on 1st September.
The ship lay a long way out, and the town was not
visible, as it lay behind Grassy Hill on the En-
deavour River. Mount Cook, 1500 feet high,
and a "great mountain" here, is near. Captain
Cook discovered the river in his ship the Endeavour,
hence its name.
It was in 1770 that Captain Cook beached
the Endeavour on the opposite side of the
harbour to where is now the town. This cele-
brated explorer, whose father was a farm servant
at Marton in Cleveland, a village a few miles from
Great Ayton in Yorkshire, was born there the
27th October 1728.
It was on the 6th May 1770 that he left Botany
Bay in New South Wales, afterwards called Port
Jackson, and after spending the evening in
Broken Bay named a high point Cape Byron, as he
sailed north. On the 27th he named Cape Mani-
fold, between which cape and the shore is Keppel
Bay and the island that then bore that name also.
They were greatly struck at this part with the
clouds of white butterflies which covered the
trees like snow, and the nests of the white ants
" as big as a bushel " hanging on the branches
of the gum trees.
On Trinity Sunday, after passing Cape Cleve-
land, they visited various islands and named
Trinity Bay then Cape Tribulation, as they ran
on a rock and were nearly wrecked, so had to seek
refuge for repairs in a harbour into which flowed
the river they named the Endeavour. When
aground on this reef near Cape Tribulation in
lat. 15 45' S., six or seven leagues from the main-
land, six guns were thrown overboard, and yet
CAPTAIN COOK n
probably encrusted with coral await rediscovery.
All attempts, so far, with the aid of divers, have
been unsuccessful.
Of course it was all new and wonderful to
them, and as there was no one to contradict them,
they saw many strange things. One of them saw
the devil, " as large as a i-gallon keg and very
like it ; he had horns and wings ; yet he crept
so slowly through the grass that if I had not been
aff eared I might have touched him." One does
not feel much surprised at the reference to a
gallon keg, as it probably accounted for the vision
the devil appears to have been a bat " as
large as a partridge." They were all seeing things :
a midshipman saw " a wolf " probably a dingo
and someone else " two straw-coloured animals
of the size of a hare, but shaped like a dog " ; also
other " mouse coloured animals," and we hear
about a cockle which was large enough for two men.
They also saw the nude natives, and felt much
shocked at them ; so Captain Cook gave one a shirt,
which he wore on his head as a turban, and no
doubt he meant to pay them honour in doing so.
The natives had tame dogs, and they saw also
" goats, wolves, and polecats," so it is evident
some one had been there before and introduced
these animals. In fact, it is evident that Australia
was a quite civilised place before Captain Cook
discovered it, and knew what was the " correct
thing," for he tells us they saw a kangaroo, and
" it was dressed for dinner," so evidently it
expected to dine on the Endeavour, instead of
the Endeavour dining on it ; and one can imagine
it coming forward with a polite society smile, its
hand in its pouch, its best white waistcoat on,
and the worry it had in the heat to tie its white
evening tie properly, and welcoming the strangers
with a " Captain Cook, I presume ? "
12 TORRES STRAITS
It seems to me it was Captain Cook who pre-
sumed, for he shot that high-toned kangaroo, and
that is how it went to dinner on the Endeavour.
Then they left, and I don't wonder at it. They
kept along the coast so as to find the straits be-
tween Australia and New Guinea, then passed
through Providence Channel, naming Weymouth
Cape and Bay where the cockles were so large
it took two men to lift them. This, however, is no
exaggeration, as it probably refers to the Giant
Clam (Tridacna gigas\ some of which are from
four to ten feet long and weigh a ton. Some
of the old shells are so covered with coral and
other growths as to be not easily discernible, and
it is said that some of the native beche-de-mer
fishermen, having trodden in these, their feet have
been seized by the clam with such force as to
hold them prisoners until the rising tide over-
whelmed and drowned them. The smaller or
Frilled Clams are ten to twelve inches in size and
are varied in colour, some having many markings
and others turquoise, blue, or green. On the
2 ist August they discovered and named York
Island, proclaiming the country New South Wales,
and hoisting the flag for the king. Then they
passed through what are now Endeavour Straits
to the Prince of Wales Island, and on for days till
they passed the islands of Rotti and Seman,
viewing the Aurora Borealis, and found themselves
at an island, Savu, where they must have been
surprised to see houses, flocks of sheep, and palms,
and from the ship beheld horsemen, one of whom
wore a gold-laced cocked hat, and coat and waist-
coat of the fashion of Europe. On landing they
found the inhabitants with chains of gold round
their necks, and " dressed in fine linen." The
Rajah and Lange, a Dutchman, the only white
person on the island, received them. They saw
5UDARAS 13
sheep, buffaloes, and ponies, and the natives then
as now wore the sarong. On the 2ist they left for
Java, meeting " the Dutch packet-boat " on their
way, which sounds up-to-date, and on the i6th
October we find them at Batavia, going out to
dinner with a Scotsman, Mr. Leith, the only
Briton in Java. As they did not shoot him he
was probably not " dressed for dinner," indeed,
more likely to be undressed, to judge from the
way they live there now. Even then Batavia
had its beautiful houses extending for miles into
the country, and Captain Cook remarks that the
lawyers or judges are very partial in dealing out
justice, and you get in that line what you pay for.
I remember a charming Dutch lady, daughter
of a Batavian judge, when visiting my Scottish
home, asking quite innocently how much we paid
the judge when we wanted to win a case, and she
evidently thought it a foolish arrangement that
our judges could not be bribed. Captain Cook
was disturbed about the Mohawks, those Malays
who ran " amuck " when they were drunk with
opium, killing every one they met quite a usual
thing. He tells us, too, that the people believed
that when a woman gave birth to a child she also
gave birth to a crocodile, which was put in the
river, but its twin brother or sister had throughout
life to go daily and feed it. The sudaras, as they
called these crocodiles, were different from others,
and had golden rings on their toes and rings in their
nose, and even on their ears, though they haven't
got any. There are still sudaras. Things don't
change much in the East Indies, and Captain Cook
would be quite at home there yet, if all tales
are true.
At Cooktown there was such a gale blowing
and such a heavy sea on that there was no going
ashore. The officer in command of the boat
14 TORRES STRAITS
which went to fetch the pilot wanted me to go
with him, but the Captain absolutely refused to
allow my precious life to be risked. They always
take a pilot here to get through Torres Straits.
They get 25 each way, that is 50 for the short
trip. The one we shipped is a well-known char-
acter, Captain B , a tall, good-looking man,
not at all the usual pilot type.
Of the new passengers we embarked at Cook-
town, one was a Professor Payne, an American,
and " champion shot of the world." He gives
performances, and had with him on tour a pale-
faced, seedy youth, off whose head he shoots glass
balls. The Professor was an interesting and
quaint character, and I found such favour in his
sight that he offered to shoot glass balls off my
head, assuring me there was not the slightest
danger. I was sure there was not, and thought
it most kind of him, but didn't want to
bore him when he was having a holiday, so I
declined !
Not long after leaving Cooktown, and when
steering our way through the countless islands
and rocks, we passed the island one of the Howick
group now famous as the one on which the heroic
Mrs. Watson underwent such great sufferings and
perished in such an awful way. She and her hus-
band, a beche-de-mer fisher, lived on Lizard
Island, which we passed early in the morning.
During his absence the blacks came over from the
mainland and attacked her. She was alone with
her baby and a Chinaman, but barricaded her
house and made such a determined resistance
that the blacks withdrew to the mainland for
reinforcements. Knowing that when they returned
certain death awaited her, she took the lid off an
iron tank, and with her child and the Chinaman
embarked on the sea in it. They in their strange
[Photo, Kerry, Sydney,
AUSTRALIAN NATIVE, TORRES STRAITS.
To face page 14.
AN AUSTRALIAN HEROINE 15
vessel eventually reached an island, where they
remained some time, but then removed to a
small barren rock farther away, which rock we
passed quite close. There they remained till
they perished of starvation.
When their remains were found, with them was
a diary kept by Mrs. Watson, written with her
blood, and in which she records from day to day
their horrible sufferings in the burning heat on
that unsheltered rock ; how her milk goes dry and
her baby perishes, and how the Chinaman went
mad and died of starvation the record of most
terrible sufferings, so nobly borne, set down in
short words. When the diary was found and
published, a wave of pity and grief, wonder and
admiration, swept through all Australia. To see
the spot made one shudder, but afraid to try and
realise it all. A monument to this brave woman
has been erected at Cooktown.
The blacks along that coast on the mainland,
the unexplored Cape York Peninsula, are very
dangerous and troublesome, and are reputed
cannibals. So little is known of this part that
the Captain told me that one day four sailors
suddenly appeared at the Palmer Gold Fields, and
being questioned as to where they had come from,
amazed every one by saying they had been cast
adrift at sea and their boat washed ashore at the
mouth of a fine river, up which they sailed with the
tide, landing at a short distance from the goldfields,
though no one there had any idea of the existence
of this river, and little dreamt there was such easy
communication with the sea. It was, I think,
the Kennedy River.
Off Cape Bathurst we passed close to the
Channel Rock Lightship. We had a quantity of
stores for her, but she refused to send her boat for
them, there being too heavy a sea on. It must
16 TORRES STRAITS
be a very lonely, dull life on these lightships. Not
long ago this one was attacked by the blacks
from the mainland, who were only repelled with
difficulty.
We also put stores on board the Clement Isle
Lightship. On it lived the master, his wife, and
three other men. They sent some fresh fish on
board, gorgeously coloured red-scaled things which
some one called Red Brim. We had to anchor
there all night, it is such dangerous navigation
inside the Barrier Reef. Many of the dangerous
reefs are covered all the year round, and some
others are only visible at abnormally low spring
tides. However, all this intricate coast-line has
been admirably charted and lighted with beacons
and lightships.
That night every one set to work to relate
marvellous tales of mysterious disappearances.
The Captain said that once the British Govern-
ment, before the days of steamboats, built four
or five brigs of war. They all sailed from England
on the same day for different parts of the world,
and not one was ever heard of again, and no
trace of their fate was ever discovered.
In the Red River Campaign in Canada the
Gordon Highlanders lost a whole company of men,
who disappearad entirely, not a rifle, a sword, or
trace of them of any sort being ever discovered,
nor could the wildest theories account for it. Is
this a mere yarn, or is it true ? I wish some one
would tell me.
Another case was that of a surveyor and
party of men who landed at some place in New
South Wales and have never been heard of since.
Their boat was found drawn up on the beach all
right, left just as if they were to return to it, and
in it was found a bullet, but though every search
was made nothing could be found to account for
ERNEST GILES 17
their disappearance. There were no natives
about, and at the time it was considered a most
extraordinary thing, and yet remains an unsolved
mystery. There is the mysterious fate, too, of
Leichardt, the explorer, no trace of whom has ever
been discovered. It is one of the great aims of
Baron von Mueller to send forth exploring parties
to search for traces of that expedition, and many
a time have I endeavoured to aid him by trying
to induce people to support the project financially.
The Baron always hopes that the remains of his
friend and comrade may yet be found, and with
them some record of his work. Then, too, there
is the disappearance of Gibson, a member of
Ernest Giles' expedition in the interior of Australia.
This happened quite near a place named Fort
Mackellar, after my father, who had been one of
the chief supporters of this expedition. It is
strange that no trace of his remains has ever been
found. I have heard Ernest Giles describe it all
when dining with my family, and how he himself
was so near starvation and so ravenous that seeing
a young kangaroo dropped from its mother's
pouch he fell upon it there and then, and ate it
up alive, fur and all ! I can hear yet the clatter
of falling knives and forks occasioned by this
anecdote !
The coast became more barren and uninviting
as we progressed, and the natives are said to be
most fierce and treacherous ; but towards the
north of this Cape York district there are a few
white settlers. We stopped at the Piper Bank
Lightship to provision it, but the old man in
charge was, for some reason, in such a towering
rage that he would scarcely wait with his boat to
get his stores. It was a ludicrous scene, and no one
understood what ailed him. There was a small
sailing boat tied on to the lightship, and it seems
i8 TORRES STRAITS
that two white b&che-de-mer fishermen, with some
Kanakas, had landed on an island to get water
and were attacked by the blacks : one man was
killed and the other, badly wounded by a spear,
was on board the lightship. (He also died later.)
We generally had to anchor at night, the strong
currents and countless reefs being most trouble-
some.
On the morning of the 4th, as I was dressing,
what was my surprise to see suddenly framed in
the porthole a beautiful picture of a large house
on an eminence with a flag flying, and below a
beautiful little cove with boats at anchor ! After
days journeying up the barren wild coast, inhabited
only by savages, this came as a surprise, and I
rushed on deck at once. We were passing through
the narrow straits between Albany and the main-
land. This was Mr. Jardine's house and cattle
station at the extremity of Cape York Peninsula.
His father had been the resident at the settle-
ment of Somerset here, and when it was abandoned
and removed to Thursday Island the Jar dine
family continued to live at this place. It is quite
a large two-storied house, surrounded by verandahs
and balconies a beautifully situated place. There
are said to be no men about it, and only black gins
(women) employed in the station work, and some
of these ladies we saw galloping about on horse-
back and I assure you a black gin galloping
astride on a barebacked horse is a sight to see.
What a freak the man must be to have nothing
but women's tongues around him ! Mr. Frank
Jar dine rendered most hospitable service to many
of the wrecked survivors of the ill-fated Quetta.
This vessel, a mailboat of the A.S.N. Co., of 3480
tons, on 28th February 1890 struck an uncharted
submerged coral reef between Albany and Adol-
phus Island, and sank in three minutes. Of the
ENTER TORRES STRAITS 19
282 persons on board, 120 were drowned and 162
escaped. Miss Lacy, a girl of sixteen years of age,
swam and floated for thirty-five hours until rescued
by a boat.
The Barrier Reef has claimed, one way or the
other, many victims, and many a good ship's
ribs lie coral-encrusted in its beautiful waters.
Danger lies there, but also mystery and even
romance.
All along the land visible rose the great pyra-
mids of earth ant-heaps which have such a
peculiar aspect amongst the palms and other
foliage. It was all very beautiful as we came
through the narrow straits and entered the waters
of Torres Straits, which separate New Guinea from
Australia, and which straits are about eighty
miles wide.
The Police Magistrate from Normanton who is
on board told me a tale which is not very pleasant.
You must understand that the natives are care-
fully protected by the Government ; that is,
if any one wrongs a native he is punished as
severely as if it had been a white man. But
people often live beyond the reach of the law, and
are, and have to be, a law unto themselves. They
treat the natives as they please, and say nothing
about it. There is, of course, but a small scattered
community in the north of Australia at all, settled
on or near the coast, with a hinterland of unex-
plored savage-peopled land.
This Police Magistrate was once riding, I pre-
sume somewhere in the neighbourhood of Nor-
manton, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and a man,
known to him, joining him, they rode on together.
After a time the Magistrate, looking down, was
horrified to see a pair of bleeding human hands
tied to his companion's stirrup.
"Oh," said the man coolly, "it was a black
20 TORRES STRAITS
gin I captured and was bringing along. I tied
her hands to my stirrup, but she howled and
made herself such a nuisance that I just took my
tomakawk and chopped off her hands at the wrists
to get rid of her ! "
He had been actually too lazy to untie her
hands, and had of course left the wretched woman
to bleed to death in the Bush ! The cool callous-
ness of it takes away one's breath.
Of course he was arrested and punished, but
I do not know what punishment he got.
I said the City of Melbourne adopted me :
it seems like it, for every soul on board, including
sailors, stokers, and the like, loaded me with kind-
ness, and all went out of their way to make me
feel at home, as I did. You do not know how
frank, open, and unreserved these people out here
are : there is no nonsense about them. They
are genuine; and have no idea that it is necessary
to hide anything. With their free, frank inde-
pendence, always combined with good-humoured
manners, they appeal to me strongly. Inde-
pendence, you know, is not bad manners as it
often is at home. There are no people like these
in Great Britain, so you will scarcely know what
I mean. They are no pattern saints or plaster
images, or anything like that far from it but most
of them have a good-comradeship feeling about
them. Every one on that ship came to me as a
matter of course with a cheerful " Well, Mister/'
and entertained me cabin-boys, stokers, and all.
Without the slightest mauvaise honte they begin
telling you all about themselves in their free, inde-
pendent, but perfectly polite way, paying you the
great compliment of being sure that they may do
so. Australians are often boastful absurdly so
at times and they think no place equals their
own land ; and of course this land holds much of
THE NORTHERN TERRITORY 21
the riff-raff of the world, the gone-under ones,
the adventurous ones, and the many whose past
is a mystery. Here, indeed, in the Gulf of Car-
pentaria is a place they call Dead Man's Land,
where many men who died, and some who were
even buried, are living I have heard many strange
tales.
But also Australia holds many of the fittest :
some born here, others who rose above their crip-
pling surroundings at home and escaped into an
atmosphere where they can breathe and where
there is space to move, and scope for the energies
and enterprise dormant at home.
These people on the ship meant only to be
friendly and kind, and were pleased when any-
thing interested or amused me. I am not likely
to forget it.
All is rather primitive up here, and people who
do not live amidst crowds or others are much more
natural and kindly, and are devoid of all airs and
affectations.
A great future probably awaits Port Darwin
in the Northern Territory, and all that Australian
coast. The harbour is a fine one, which large
ships may enter at any state of the tide. Palmer-
ston, the town, has large Government buildings,
and behind it lie great tracts of fine land. I wonder
how many people realise that the Northern Terri-
tory of South Australia is equal in size to Germany,
France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy
combined, and that it contains 335,116,800 acres,
and has but a very small population. Yet land
is obtained on very easy terms. It was annexed
by South Australia in 1863. Nor is this part of
North Australia without its history, there being
evidence that the coast was known as early as
1512 to the Portuguese, and it is claimed by some
that it was discovered by De Gonneville, who
22 TORRES STRAITS
sailed from Honfleur in 1503. A copy of an old
map in the British Museum would show that the
Portuguese Manoel Godinho Eredia was there in
i6or. Torres and Tasman were later than that.
Charles ii.'s Ambassador at the Hague, Sir William
Temple, reports that the Dutch East India Com-
pany had long known of the continent, though not
its extent, but concealed all knowledge, having
sufficient trade and not being desirous of other
nations going there ; and for centuries it would
appear that the Malays from Macassar and else-
where had been in the habit of going there for
trepang, pearls, pearl shell, etc. Captain Flinders,
on his voyage there in 1803, found many Malay
phraus, and was informed there were sometimes
sixty of them, armed with brass cannon and
muskets. These Malays had not seen a ship there
before, nor had they heard of Port Jackson
(Sydney). Military posts were established in 1824
at Fort Dundas and Raffles Bay in Melville Island,
and some time later at Port Essington in Arn-
heim's Land, the last of them being deserted, I
think, about 1849. The cattle and horses left on
the islands and mainland bred and multiplied
rapidly. The ruins of forts and entrenchments
still remain. With the troops, a certain number
of convicts were taken to these places, and pre-
sumably taken away again when the posts were
abandoned. It must have been a curious life
at that time. In later times have been strange
doings amongst the lawless characters who flocked
to this coast. When the Transcontinental Rail-
way is finished to Port Darwin, strong endeavours
should be made to develop the Northern Territory,
and Port Darwin and the Northern Coast should
be fortified and military forces re-established. For
the breeding and shipment of horses to India;
it is admirably suited.
ARRIVE AT THURSDAY ISLAND 23
THURSDAY ISLAND,
TORRES STRAITS, 1885.
I arrived here on the 4th September, and a
quaint place it is ! The wooded island looked
very pretty from the sea.
The Captain came ashore with me to see that I
was properly launched in local society, and first
installed me at the hotel which is kept by an
Irishwoman, Mrs. M'Nulty. There was much
" shouting " at the hotel bar, as every one asks
every one else to have drinks. The sailors who
carried my belongings to the hotel of course came
in for their share. I was then taken along and
introduced to the Collector or Sub-Collector of
Customs. The young airified doctor who came
up with me in the City of Melbourne is applying
for the post of Health Officer, a billet worth 800
a year, outside of any private practice, as a
hospital and a quarantine station are to be estab-
lished. Great things are expected of Thursday
Island ; they want it to be made a naval station,
and to be fortified, as then it would command
the whole Straits. (Something of this has since
been done, and a garrison is maintained there.)
Professor Payne rushed about distributing his
advertisement bills as " Champion Shot of the
World," and I suppose means to perform here
when he returns from Normanton. The Captain
gave Mrs. M'Nulty the strictest injunctions to
look after me well, and to see that this and that
person was introduced to me, and was more than
kind.
The ship then left for Normanton in the Gulf
of Carpentaria, and will be back here in a week,
when I rejoin her. They all said good-bye to
me as if they were leaving me on a desert isle,
though it is anything but that.
24 TORRES STRAITS
The town is not laid out with any regularity ;
the modern bungalows, surrounded by balconies
and verandahs, and all built on piles, are just
dotted down anywhere in the sand and inland
from it, a good many being drinking shanties
and billiard saloons. At the back rises a wooded
hill. This hotel is quite roomy and comfortable,
two-storied, and with broad verandah and balcony.
It too is planted on the sand near the sea and pier.
It is distinctly an Irish establishment. There
is no doubt about the nationality of Mrs. M'Nulty,
and still less about that of Bridget, her hand-
maiden. The big dining-room has a piano, pictures
of Emmet, Daniel O'Connell, and many other
patriots, and the bookcases contain Sir Charles
Gavan Duffy's works and those of numerous other
Irish writers. In the days when I knew Sir Charles
Gavan Duffy, I could not imagine how he could
inspire any one with enthusiasm, clever and cul-
tured though he was, for he could scarcely be
described as a sympathetic character.
Such of the houses as are not built of wood
are of corrugated iron. The house of the Govern-
ment Resident, the Hon. John Douglas, is at
a point, with a prominent flagstaff. He is
away just now; so I cannot see him. There is
another hotel; the Torres Straits, and as well I see
near here a boarding-house, kept by " Tommy
Japan."
There are about two hundred white people on
this and other islands scattered throughout the
Straits, and about two thousand people in all, count-
ing the mixed races of whites, Kanakas, Australian
aborigines, Malays, Japanese, Chinese, and half-
caste Manila men. There is a Queensland
National Bank, not so big as its name, and pro-
minent is the general store of Burns, Philp & Co.,
a well-known firm.
ISLAND SOCIETY 25
Mr. S told me that the Customs Revenue
returns from Thursday Island were last year over
11,000. Visible from here are many islands
Hammond, Prince of Wales, Friday, Wednesday,
Sunday Isles, and others, all hilly, well wooded,
and extremely pretty. It is; in fact; a beautiful
scene, and I am delighted with it all.
We dine at one o'clock, Mrs. M'Nulty and
Bridget not only waiting on us, but entertaining
us and entering fully into the conversation.
Both are most important ladies here, and Bridget
is the only respectable unattached white woman
in the community, and so has many admirers
and friends. The company comprises two pilots,
Captains H and L ; a youth, C , who
is postmaster, I think ; a young Irishman, the
banker here; and a miserable, fever-stricken,
drink-soddened man, and myself.
Then at supper in the evening were various
others all most friendly and kind, full of wonder
at what I can be doing here, and perfectly certain
that I mean to invest money in some scheme.
The sea beach in front is a fine stretch of firm sand,
and near there is a graceful group of palms with
a shady seat under them. The different natives
look quite picturesque going about, and some of
the Malays and Kanakas are fine-looking men.
Some of the Kanaka divers have white women
living with them.
As I strolled along exploring, I saw a golden-
haired lady in a pink silk tea-gown lying in a ham-
mock on a verandah, and being surprised at such
an apparition here, I suppose I stared somewhat,
for up jumped the lady, said " D n your eyes ! "
and flounced indoors. She belonged to one of the
Kanaka pearl-divers.
As soon as I went to stroll along the sands a
dog flew after me, appeared delighted, and has
26 TORRES STRAITS
never left me since. Whose dog it is I know not,
but it has simply adopted me right away, and is
my friend for the time being. Then down came
a tame cassowary, and after stalking all round me
once or twice, also joined in the walk. Then I saw
a boy run to a tree, climb it hastily, and come to
meet me with some of its fruit another friend !
So am I not in clover a nice, cheery, kind boy, a
dog, and a cassowary, all determined to be my
friends ? Besides this, at the hotel are two tame
pelicans and various other birds and animals, all
equally friendly, so there is not the slightest danger
of my being dull.
I ascended the hill behind the town, and amidst
some " scrub," as they call a tropical jungle in
Australia, came on some blacks camping and
having a sort of corroboree. From the hill
are perfectly lovely views of the green wooded
islands and coral reefs all round, with here and
there a glimpse of white houses, pearl-fishing
stations, and between the islands always lovely
stretches of sea of the most exquisite turquoise
blue, pale green and yellow in the shallows, and
amethyst purple where the shadows rest. At
each island " station " lies a group of sailing-boats,
and small white-sailed schooners are plying every-
where. Why, it is quite a lovely place, and the
more I have seen of it the more I have admired it.
I know no prettier spot anywhere about Australia-.
Sky, sea, and land, it is all beautiful. They are
astonished at my admiration, and I see them cast
surprised looks round.
" Scenery ! what's the good of scenery ?
There is nothing to be got out of that." That I
could be such a born idiot as to come here merely
to look at the scenery, they cannot, will not believe.
One day all these islands in the Straits are to
be the Sanatoria of Northern Australia and New
ISLAND VEGETATION 27
Guinea, as they are fever free and there is always
a cool breeze blowing ; are to be thickly populated,
and the whole Straits of the greatest importance.
But I am glad to see it as it is now. I have
wandered all over this island exploring it, studying
its interesting vegetation and its queer pinnacles
of clay. These high structures which are so strik-
ing are ant-hills, and some are of very large size and
height ; but, strange to say, I have not discovered
an ant in one of them. They and the pandanus
trees are most picturesque objects.
I have gathered many of those large beans out
of which matchboxes mounted with silver are so
often made. The huge pod holding many of
these dark-brown polished beans, grows on a
gigantic vine, and is of very great size. There
are most beautiful trees, beautiful as to their
high straight stems, and as to their crown of foliage
blazing with pink or scarlet blossom. I can tell
you nothing of what they are, as they are new to
me, and no one here knows or cares. There are
pandanus, banyan, and pawpaw trees. There
are quantities of ferns, palms, and beautiful orchids.
I wander about through all this quite happy, my
dog as content as I am. I think Captain Thompson
must have spoken to the dog ere he left, and bid
it take care of me, as I find that he left messages
for every one directing them to see after me.
Once when I was sketching on top of the hill
a cassowary suddenly appeared. At first I
thought it was my friend from below, and that it
had actually followed me up all the way ; but I
soon saw it was not the same, but a wild one, if
you can call such a bird " wild/' They are the
quaintest of birds. Have you ever seen them
dance at the Zoo in London ? If not, go at once
and try to see it ; it is too comical for words. Well,
this one stalked all round me, put its head over my
28 TORRES STRAITS
shoulder to look at the sketch, then walked round
in front and put its head over from that side,
without the slightest doubt deeply interested in
the sketch, or curious as to what it was all about.
They are always full of curiosity ; but I never met
one of this sort out in the scrub before. At first
I was greatly amused and tried hard to sketch it,
but at last I became quite frightened of the thing.
It seemed too human, too knowing, too uncanny.
I cannot describe it exactly, but somehow I
suddenly got a sort of disagreeable panic, absurd
as it seems, and looked round me as if there was
some sort of influence about, something almost
supernatural, and I was quite glad to get away !
The tame one at the hotel is different, and so
absurdly tame that one is not surprised at its
queerness, but that a wild one out in the scrub
should behave in this queer, familiar, uncanny
way does not seem natural. It brings to mind
the beautiful poem
" I would I were a Cassowary
On the plains of Timbuctoo ;
I would eat a missionary,
Skin and bones and hymn-book too ! "
I promised Baron von Mueller, the Govern-
ment Botanist of Victoria, and, as you know,
one of the most famous botanists in the world,
that I would collect plants for him when I was in
any out-of-the-way spot, and this I have been
trying to do, though without knowledge. It is
very interesting, and one discovers all sorts of
tiny curious weeds one would never be aware
of till one searched like this. I get them
with their fruit or seed, stalk and leaf, dry
them, and write down the place I find them,
so that he can judge of their distribution. He
tried to bribe me by saying that I may find some
new one, and that it will bear my name in a Latin
AMATEUR BOTANY 29
form ; but I regret to say that I always mean to
write down the place, but don't always do it, so
that already I have confused them, and that is
of no use. The Baron x is a very old family
friend, and I feel ashamed at my lazy method
of trying to oblige him, and always mean to do
better " in tyme coming."
There are many stunted eucalyptus trees, and
the ground everywhere, save in the scrub, is
strewn with granite rocks and stones. There are
both sheep and goats on the island.
For two or three days I noticed a man amongst
the trees continually throwing stones at nothing,
until he had made a heap ; then he went to that
heap and threw them back again, until he had
formed another heap it seemed the occupation
of a lunatic. Curiosity got the better of me, and
I asked him what he was doing. He told me
he was a digger detained a week in Thursday
Island waiting for the boat to go south, and he
found it the dullest, dreariest hole he had ever been
in (he used quite other words to these, but a long
line of blanks looks foolish), and so he was just
killing time, and he went on doing this for that
whole week ! I remonstrated with him at last,
and asked why he did not "go on the spree,"
and get dead drunk for the rest of the time ? He
yawned, and said he had done that so often it
bored him also. I pointed all round, and said it
was a pleasure to be alive and see all that, to
wonder at it and revel in it. He surveyed me
with unbounded astonishment.
' Well, I'm blanked ! " he gasped.
' You irritate me," I said. ' You are big and
strong, God made you so you may pass for a man,
but what are you passing on to ? Do you suppose
you will be of any use to yourself or any one else-
1 Long since passed away.
30 TORRES STRAITS
where, above or below, when you have ' passed
the time ' ? What's the good of you, anyhow ? "
' Well, I'm blanked ! "
" You are a stick, a stone,- a stupid animal,
a mere apology for a man. Can't you live ?
Can't you go and fight some one, or do something
to amuse some one ? You go on like a cranky
Chinaman I suppose the other diggers kicked
you out from where you were ; you must have
bored them to death. Go and get an island of
your own, where no one can see you, and be blanked
to you ! "
He scratched his head, surveyed me up and
down, and then burst out laughing.
" They don't grow your sort up here, Mister.
I'll be blanked if they do. Now what would you
have me do ? Just name it, and I'm your man,
and I'll not chuck another of them blanked
stones, I'll be blanked if I do ! "
" Stop blanking for one thing, you are wither-
ing up these already half -withered stunted trees.
Do as you please, only drop this silly nonsense
of chucking stones about. Why, look at me.
I grudge each minute of time that passes, and am
so ashamed that I did not get something out of
each of those lost minutes. They are gone,
absolutely gone, and can never come back. There
is not time to think, they go so quickly, and whilst
one debates what to do with them they are gone ;
and yet one can live in each of them, have life,
love, joy, laughter, what you will. I am never
dull, I have no time for it ; I want to do a hundred
things in each minute and you only want to
kill those minutes they are dying, dead as we
speak ! "
" Well I'm blanked ! " he said in a dazed
manner, as he by force of habit threw another
stone.
HOPELESS MEN 31
" You are blanked ! " I said, and strode away
and the wretch is at it still. Once I was strolling
up the hill and I saw him stop and come striding
towards me, but I waved him away scornfully,
and he stopped as if he had been shot ; and though
I did not hear him, I know well he was blanked
again. It seems he came to the hotel and asked
about me, and when told who I was and that I
had come for a week " to amuse myself," merely
to see the place, he was " struck of a heap," and
said he had never heard the like before, but " that's
the one for me," which I certainly was not and
am not ; the sight of the idiot sets my nerves on
edge. How can any one rouse such a being ? Yet
he is a big, strong, healthy-looking man, and does
not even look stupid.
" If he would only make love to you, Bridget,"
I said, " you would liven him up ! "
" Is it me ? Bad cess to ye ! Is it after me
ye'd be having him ? Sure 'tis niver a crathur
like that I'll be wanting."
In the hotel is living a man who is terribly
ill with the coast fever ; came here, where there is
none, to recruit, and has delirium tremens all the
time the wreck, the miserable wretch, is awful
to see. All day and night he calls without ceasing
on Mrs. M'Nulty or Bridget for drink, and they
are angels of goodness and patience with him, for
he is a terrific nuisance. I have heard Mrs.
M'Nulty rise up in the night, go to him and reason
with and chide him as if he were a child. She
is adamant in refusing him more, so now he some-
times comes to me on the verandah, goes down
on his knees praying, crying, and entreating that
I will order a drink whisky or brandy, of course
for myself and give it to him. My heart bleeds
with pity for him, but of course I cannot do it, and
Mrs. M'Nulty is quite worried at the time I am
32 TORRES STRAITS
having through this poor lost man. Every one
is full of pity but what can one do ? They are
so cunning, such people. He manages to get drink
somewhere, somehow no one can guess how.
I have an extraordinary housemaid attending
to my room. He for such servants are always
he's here is a Kanaka, a new arrival. On being
engaged he was furnished with a whole new rig-
out : a suit of thick blue pilot cloth, flannel
shirt, boots and socks, felt hat, and woollen muffler.
It is very hot, but all these he wears all day and
always. He has had, I suppose, his instructions
about sweeping out my room, and adheres rigidly
to them. When I am dressing, in he comes, ignores
me absolutely, sweeps out the room, often bringing
the broom over my toes, and continually sweeping
out socks, shoes, and anything which for a moment
lies on the ground. He pays no attention to my
remonstrances, not understanding awordof English,
and I am often to be seen darting out in scanty
attire to rescue something he has swept out ere
the cassowary and the pelicans eat it, and one
day found these creatures sampling a pair of braces
he had swept out. Luckily the pelicans were at
one end and the cassowary at the other, so I was
able to defeat both.
Bridget likes to come along and have a chat
with me, as of course I am the interesting visitor
to the island just now, and every one is curious
about my real motive for being here. It cannot
be pearl fishing ; what can it be ? They know I
have to go soon, so that really they are making
much of me here. But why Bridget likes to con-
fide in me is that I am no resident here, and she can
yarn away about all her admirers in safety. I
often tell her she will be the death of me ; but she
thinks there is no dying about me, and that I'll
" kape."
WELL ENTERTAINED 33
" Sure/' she says, " it's jist afther tellin' ye
everything I'd be, a gintleman like ye as thravels
for play sure, jist as the rale gintry does in the
ould counthry." Bridget is neither young nor
beautiful, but is a good soul with a very big heart
in her, and unalloyed enjoyment in her many
followers. She showed me a glass bottle of pearls,
some quite good ones, given to her one by one,
by her admirers. At all hours of the day I am
being offered refreshment, in case I should be tired,
or feeling the heat or something. Bridget pauses
as she goes by and has a little chat ; then I say
something impudent and she goes away giggling,
and saying the queerest Irish things to me that
keep me tittering for long. It really is a delightful
quality the Irish have, that of taking life cheer-
fully and ever being ready with a pointed repartee.
There is such a glare from the sand and the heat
is so great that one is forced to the hardship of
a chair in the shady verandah where the breeze
reaches one. I watch the Kanakas and other
natives ; there are even negroes in this menagerie,
and to see all these at play in the evening is a real
entertainment. They are very fond of a skipping-
rope, and to see the fat women skipping with
babies in their arms is simply killing. I nearly ex-
pire with laughter, and they are in the same state
themselves, and often roll on the ground shrieking
with laughter. Imagine a great fat black woman
dressed in one short garment or petticoat, or some-
times a long flowered calico one. She is probably
coy at first, and has to be urged on by the
others. Every time the rope comes round she
makes the most frantic leaps, but yards away
from it, till, emboldened by the encouragement of
the others, she gradually goes nearer, and at last
the rope does go over her, catches her on the back
of the ankles or somewhere, and down she comes
34 TORRES STRAITS
on the sand with a great display, amidst yells of
delight from the others, in which she herself joins.
What kills me is to see them leaping with frantic
energy yards away from the rope.
Then a gorgeously dressed Kanaka how
gorgeously dressed you cannot imagine comes
to the hotel bar. As he is seen approaching, others
rush out to meet him. They strike attitudes
of astonished admiration, walk all round him
just like the cassowary does round me, discuss
each article of his attire, he beaming with nattered
pride and consciousness/ Then they look inside
his purse all just like children link their arms
in his, and lead him into the bar in triumph. This
happens continually. They are merely happy,
simple, amiable, attractive children. Attractive
many of them are, for some are very good-looking,
and have got very taking manners. When well
treated they are happy people too.
It is curious, but all natives everywhere like
a person like me who is amongst them doing
nothing : I mean, that has no business or occupa-
tion with them, but is merely travelling and
idling. What exactly it is that appeals to them
I don't know, but I imagine the idea of the thing
to them is that you have attained what they
consider must be an earthly paradise, and that
you are some great rich chief above all need of
work, or something of that sort. Here they say
to me, " Oh, that man ! He no good, he common
man ; he no gentleman like you " ; or, " That man-
he only ' this or that ' ; he common man no
good." They have their own ideas, and are very
clever at seeing some things, though often very
childish otherwise. One said to me about a well-
known character on the island whom I did not
see, Mrs. M'Nulty not permitting it
" That man he no good. This what he do."
THE ISLAND POLICEMAN 35
Here it is described to me. u I black man, he
white man, but I think shame to do thing like
that. You no speak, you no see that man. He
speak black man, but no good for gentleman."
How tickled I was at this idea of even a native
thinking about whom I should know and whom
I should not, and their own idea that what was
good enough for a black man was not good enough
for a white one. They are all chaperoning me.
I know only the ones Captain Thompson and Mrs.
M'Nulty decree I should know. She deplores
the absence of the Resident, Mr. [afterwards Sir
John] Douglas, and explains to me I am not
seeing society properly in his absence. I am
very good, and do just as they wish me.
All these mingled natives get rather rowdy
at night time, and the one policeman of the
island has his work cut out for him ; and I must
tell you about that policeman, who is another
of my friends.
One night I was sitting out in the dark on
the sand at the edge of the sea, in front of the
hotel for the coolness. Some one came along
in the dark and said, " Please, sir, may I speak
to you ? "
" Certainly," I said; " what is it ? "
It turned out to be the policeman. He told
me he was so sad and lonely ; that he never had
any one to speak to, because he could not be
friendly with them, as he had to look after them,
keep his authority over them, and continually
interfere with them when they got drunk or
troublesome, which was very frequently. Hence
he had to keep entirely to himself, and he did feel
so solitary and lonely. But I was only a visitor,
and going away soon, and he did want to come
and speak to me.
" Sit down right away," I said, " and tell me
36 TORRES STRAITS
all about everything." And so he did, and opened
his heart and poured out all his grievances, wants,
feelings, and everything. I encouraged him and
let him talk on, knowing it was a real relief to
the poor man to be able to just say out everything.
I can quite understand it. If he is to keep any
authority over these turbulent people of all sorts
here, he has himself to be a very pattern of austerity
and the power of the law personified. I feel quite
sorry for him, and advised him to get married, so
that he might have his wife to talk to ; but there
is no one here for him to marry. I all but offered
to find him some one when I went south, and send
her up, but recollected in time that however
well-bred old maids' and old bachelors' children
are, the old maids and old bachelors can scarcely
be the ones to find husbands or wives for others
when they have found none for themselves. He,
however, brightens up now at the very sight of me,
and I give him plenty of opportunities for a chat
on the pier or the sands. I have faithful friends
here : the policeman, the boy, the dog, and the
cassowary, and I think Bridget too; but where
all are so friendly it is needless to discriminate.
And they thought I would find it dull here ! My
life has been a rich one these few days, and I enjoy-
ing every minute of it. Mrs. M'Nulty takes
complete care of me, warns off those she deems
undesirable, and tells me whom I am to know and
whom not !
Sometimes when by myself in my chair on the
verandah I laugh over it all, but I am sure I
shall always have a warm place in my heart for this
queer Thursday Island.
Mrs. M'Nulty brought in and introduced four
men one night, a sort of deputation of the bachelors
of the island. Two of them are in Burn Philp's
store; another, Captain D , is manager of a
AN INVITATION 37
pearl-fishing station ; and the fourth is the Second
Officer of Customs. They came to tell me that they
were going for a holiday cruise in a cutter to a lot of
islands ; that Captain B , the pilot, is also going,
he being here for a week as a guest of the bachelors
of " Thirsty Island/' as they call it, with reason,
and they had come to invite me to go with them.
Mrs. M'Nulty, who stood behind them, nodded
at me to say Yes, and I was delighted at the idea.
Nothing could exceed their kindness, as they are
eager for me to see everything and have a good
time. Of course, I accepted, and was about to
ask Mrs. M'Nulty to bring in drinks when Bridget
appeared with them all ready, giving me a knowing
secret wink as she plumped down the glasses, as
much as to say, " You don't need to tell us what
is necessary." If I am two minutes alone here,
they are afraid I am dull, and seek some way of
entertaining me.
THURSDAY ISLAND,
TORRES STRAITS, 1885.
I am back from my cruise, and alive to tell the
tale. On a lovely day, with a cool fresh breeze
blowing, we started on this holiday j aunt. We had
a schooner yacht belonging to a pearl fishery,
lent by Captain D - for the occasion. Two men
from the store, Captain B , the pilot, I, and
three blacks formed the pleasure party. One of
the blacks, Jack, is a great character and a most
intelligent man. We had a splendid sail, and
went first to Prince of Wales' Isle, which I admired
as much as did Captain Cook. Captain D
came over with us from " Thirsty Island " in the
boat, and we went first to his pearl-fishing station.
This was a charming place, most picturesque, and
lying at the bottom of a wooded hill ; the numerous
buildings, house, store, and men's quarters being
38 TORRES STRAITS
painted white, so that they looked cool amidst
the green cocoanut palms. All these stations
consist of quite a settlement of white houses ;
and the groups of gaily dressed natives standing
about, the white houses, green waving palms,
yellow sand, and the turquoise blue of the sea in
front, with the white-sailed boats lying at anchor,
always form a quite perfect picture. My com-
panions are amazed at my admiration, but glad I
am pleased.
Everything about this house was most tasteful.
The verandah had gay Chinese lanterns hang-
ing up, and the walls of the drawing-room were
lined with Japanese vases of the basket pattern,
each vase having a single orchid in it, whilst lovely
flowering orchids plucked wild outside were
thrown on the top of the pictures, where they
flourished without soil or water, long trails of ex-
quisite blossom hanging down. The effect was to
me quite novel and was most effective. Fancy
having a dado of living orchids all round your room.
The drawing-room was like that of any refined
Englishwoman anywhere : full of pictures, books,
flowers, and photographs, and as pretty and charm-
ing a room as you could see anywhere. Remember
this is a place separated from modern civilisation
by thousands of miles of unexplored land inhabited
only by savages.
At each station is a store for the convenience
of their Kanaka employees, to whom they sell
anything they want, including clothes and eat-
ables. Of course all the wages come back this
way, as the natives are perfect children and give
any price for anything that takes their fancy, and
cannot resist buying. They are very fond of
" music," or noise, if you like it better are not
the two words often synonymous ? They go in
wholesale for gorgeous concertinas, accordions,
CHINESE GAMBLERS 39
and musical-boxes, mostly constructed of paper,
it seemed to me, and not warranted to last. Any
one who can rise to possessing a barrel-organ
which they call a mangle is the envied and adored
of all . Coloured handkerchiefs are another thing in
great request.
We were all photographed on the verandah
here. Native men and women were posed about
in front, but every time the cap came off the
camera they bolted, vanishing into the shrubs
like streaks of lightning, and you saw grinning or
frightened faces peering out in every direction.
Then they would be posed again and assured no
one was going to be shot but off they went again.
We grew quite hysterical with laughter over this,
and whenever I think of those bare legs and feet
disappearing into the bushes in every direction
it sets me off. again.
We then walked to another station, where were
no ladies, and where Captain D was our
host. Here we remained for the night and
what a night ! Other men were there, and
they all went in for "a regular night of it." The
amount of liquor of every description consumed
was great. I kept secretly upsetting my glass
over the verandah edge, but it was always filled
again. Captain D took me to see the native
quarters and to get out into the fresh air and
quiet for a time. They had large numbers of
Kanakas and others, also Chinese. I looked into
one house, and three Chinese were sitting on the
floor, with a lamp beside them, playing cards and
gambling and forming the queerest of pictures in
the circle of light . They were so absorbed that they
neither heard nor saw me, and even when I went
in and stood beside them, watching, not one of them
noticed me. I was thankful when it came at last
to bedtime, and the drinking was over. We all
40 TORRES STRAITS
camped anywhere some on the verandah and
several in a room, a bed being made up for me on
the floor in one room.
On going in to breakfast in the morning it
turned out that this bachelor establishment had
run out of tea and coffee, and I was offered beer in
a cup ! I shudder yet when I think of it, for beer
the first thing on a broiling hot morning is not
in my line ; but beer in a cup ! This station
was almost demolished ere we left it, that being
the thing to do on such a holiday visit as this.
It would take them a week to put it right again.
However, it was expected, and no one seemed to
mind. I adapted myself as best I could to the
company and the ways.
We then went to a station on another island
a most lovely spot called Wai Weer ; here gin
was offered and had to be accepted, as they are
offended if you refuse. I was greatly taken with
this island, and could I have done so would have
purchased it on the spot. Then we embarked
again and had another glorious sail to Goode
Island, to S 's station. Here we found Mr.
S and Mrs. S , a very nice-looking, refined
lady a new arrival in this part of the world
also their children and a visitor. All we men
tramping in were taken as a matter of course, and
a good dinner was served at once. The house was
entirely built of corrugated iron, but painted in-
side and out with many coats of white paint,
which made it look quite nice ; and they had many
tasteful and pretty things about, and even some
old family portraits on the walls. I would have
liked to meet these pleasant people under other
circumstances ; the mixture of refinement, com-
fort, and primitiveness up here in the Straits is
rather quaint.
We then went on to Friday Island and I
FRIDAY ISLAND 41
wondered if we were going to do the whole week
and first to Moggs' station, where, much to
my relief, no one was at home ; so we walked on to
another, Muggins' ! Can you believe such a thing,
Moggs and Muggins living on an island side by
side ! Mr. Muggins, or whoever we saw there, had
no drink to offer and was roundly abused, he
returning it in kind, but all, of course, in good
humour.
I must say this sailing about in the broiling
sun, and tramping through these tropical islands,
made me as keen as any one for something " cool
and wet."
Then we came to F 's station, where we
were received by Mrs. F , young and good-
looking, and Mrs. Moggs, whose place we had been
at. The ladies were very nice, evidently used to
this inundation of men, taking it in a very matter-
of-fact way ; but I cannot say I liked this sort of
thing. My companions, however, were bent on
taking me everywhere, thought I must be de-
lighted, and, of course, I did not show I was not.
Naturally, in this small community of white people
living up here in these remote parts every one
knew every one else. In the evening we returned
to Thursday Island, Jack on the boat declaring
it was " a very dry picnic this," though that is
not what I would have called it. Sharks, venom-
ous water-snakes, and, I suppose, alligators infest
these waters, and I did not forget them ! Back
in the hotel, any amount of cool drinks were
procurable. Every one came to ask me how I
had enjoyed " the picnic," and, of course, I said
it had been delightful, as it certainly had been in
a way.
I dined with the collector of customs one
night. A ycung man, S , lived with him and a
Captain H ; Captains H and C were
42 TORRES STRAITS
also there. Here, even, are " sets," and these
were amongst the " upper circles," and though
all meet and are friends they don't consider
themselves all on the same level. What the
difference is, or where the line is drawn, I know
not. I discovered all this when I proposed to
give a dinner a regular "spread" at the hotel
to them all, in return for their hospitality, but
found they did not all wish to be asked together,
and on Mrs. M'Nulty's advice left it alone. It
would have been rather difficult to fit in the
policeman, the boy, the cassowary, and the dog,
and in my eyes they were the most desirable, for
I was attached to them all.
The Irish banker was a pteasant man, always
hanging about, and he sometimes came and sat
on the verandah in the evenings. Every one
seemed to have a desire to get me to himself
and talk to me I suppose a stranger was a sort
of relief from the small circle where they all knew
each other so well.
I used to play the piano for Bridget's benefit
and to amuse the children, for Mrs. M'Nulty's
children were as friendly and cordial as every one
else. One night, stirred up by my Irish surround-
ings, I was playing the " Wearing of the Green "
when the door opened and the Irish banker
looked in and said most plaintively, " Oh, don't
don't play that, I cannot I cannot stand it ! "
What he meant may be doubtful ill-natured
people can take it as they please but I took
it that it awakened in him memories he could
not stand, and that he did not mean a severe
reflection on my musical talents. Lives are
lonely in such places, and men become very human
about things and no doubt let memory dwell
on brighter days of the past. This man then
came and sat beside me on the verandah and
SIR PETER SCRATCHLEY 43
said never a word for long, and then suddenly
began to talk about Ireland.
I have been hankering after New Guinea and
had vague ideas that I might be able from here to
pay it a flying visit, but it is not possible. Sir
Peter Scratchley is the High Commissioner; no
one is allowed to enter New Guinea without his
permission, and he is in New Guinea at this
moment. [He died there after a few months.]
Captain D says that if I return here and
get permission to go, he will arrange it all and
take me there in his schooner.
New Guinea, or Papua, is an island larger than
Borneo, and next to Australia which, however,
cannot be called an island is the largest island
in the world. It has an area of 319,000 square
miles ; is about 1500 miles long by 450 miles wide
at the broadest part. It was in 1883, two years
ago, that Sir Thomas M'llwraith, the Premier
of Queensland, annexed all that part of the
island which was not Dutch ; but Lord Derby
and the Home Government refused to sanction
it. But last year, 1884, a Protectorate was estab-
lished over 98,000 square miles of it, the Germans
having 71,000 and the Dutch 150,000 square
miles.
On the 6th November 1884 five British ships
of war at Port Moresby saluted the flag as the
Proclamation was made, and Captain James
Elphinstone Erskine, commodore of the Australian
Squadron, read out the declaration. Sir Peter
Scratchley was then appointed Commissioner,
and, as I said, is now in New Guinea, so I cannot
go. [He was succeeded by Sir John Douglas, and
owing to the discovery of gold it was declared no
longer a Protectorate but a British possession, and
on the 6th September 1888 an Administrator, Sir
William Macgregor, was appointed.] This is the
44 TORRES STRAITS
beginning almost of a new country up here, and I
am glad to see it in its early days, for how different
it will be thirty or forty years hence ! The
natives of New Guinea are Papuans, Polynesians,
and Malays. You can trace a connection from
Northern Australia right up to Japan, the races
having had some commingling, no doubt, for
centuries. These Straits are eighty miles wide
and full of islands, therefore some of the natives
must have found their way across.
In the early days of New Guinea much harm
was done by the disgraceful traffic in the labour
supply for Queensland. This was a scandal for
long known to every one. In 1883 there were
648 natives kidnapped and taken to Queensland.
The most notorious ships engaged in this traffic
were the Lizzie, Ceara, Hopeful, Sybil, Forest King,
and Heath. They visited New Guinea coasts
and islands, the Solomon Isles, and many South
Sea Isles, enticed natives on board, detained them,
pretended to engage them for three years the
natives never understanding what it meant and
took them off to practically sell them to the Queens-
landers, who pretended to believe it was all right.
The poor wretches coming on board these ships
to trade were thrown under hatches, and those
in the canoes threatened with death if they did
not come on board. A Royal Commission was
appointed to inquire into it at last. Two notorious
fiends were M'Neill and Williams, of the Hope-
ful. They seized natives everywhere and burnt
their villages. Once M'Neill having fired at and
killed a native, others jumped into the sea and
were pursued. Williams overtaking one in the
water near the shore, got hold of him by the hair,
bent back his head, and cut his throat. A boy
being of no use to them, they tied a couple of
cocoanuts under his arms, as floats, and threw
LABOUR TRAFFIC 45
him overboard. They watched him drown in the
surf. They frequently flogged them, and shot
them swimming in the water when they tried to
escape. They were tried for murder and got
penal servitude. Through the revelations made
before the Royal Commission this labour traffic
was brought to a close, and all the natives got
presents and were returned to their homes that
is to say, they were landed somewhere, as they
seldom knew anything but the native names of
their village and not the new name of their island,
and their fate often was to be killed and eaten by
a strange tribe. This prohibition of native labour
ruined the sugar planters, but some of them knew
how their labourers were obtained.
The sugar plantations cannot be worked well
by any but native labour, and had the Government
acted properly from the first any amount of native
labour could have been obtained in a fair and open
way, to the good and profit of the natives them-
selves ; but this disgraceful traffic was ignored
and winked at till it became a great scandal. The
wrongs they had suffered the natives naturally
revenged on every white man who came near their
islands. [By the Pacific Island Labourers Act,
1901, no Pacific Islanders were allowed to enter
Australia after March 1904, or to remain there
after 3ist December 1906.]
Of late years much of British New Guinea
has been explored. Sir William Macgregor
ascended Mount Victoria, 13,200 feet high, the
highest peak of the Owen Stanley Range ; and
British New Guinea is rapidly changing. At
Kwato is now a fine mission-house and a stone
church, and on Samarai or Dinner Island in the
beautiful China Straits are also good buildings.
But there has never been any settled policy pur-
sued, and British New Guinea will never have any
46 TORRES STRAITS
chance until it is removed from the Australian
Commonwealth jurisdiction. The Government
refused to give land to a syndicate which intro-
duced tobacco, and opposed all tobacco planta-
tions why, no one can understand whilst now
German New Guinea tobacco and cigars can be
had all over Germany. This possession of ours
is only four hundred miles by sea from Cooktown,
in Queensland, but it yet remains half unexplored
and without any definite aim in its government.
Once it is entirely separated from Australian inter-
ference if that can ever be now it will progress
as any other place does. May that day come soon.
At or near Triton Bay, on the west coast of
Dutch New Guinea, are remains of stone houses
and piers, said to have been an English settlement
many years ago in 1623 or so. Who these people
could have been, and on what grounds it is sup-
posed they were English, no one seems to have
any idea.
The pearl shell used for mother-o'-pearl art-
icles is the great industry here, not pearls, though
they sometimes find good ones. A fleet of perhaps
fifteen or twenty boats, mostly built in Sydney
and from 5 to 12 tons, is sent away to the fishing-
ground with only natives on board and the Kanaka
divers, who get 20 a month and so much per ton.
The divers now always use the diving-dress, though
formerly they worked without it. They are paid
by the results of the cruise, according to the amount
of shells they bring back. They tell me that
my desire to go away with the fleet for a week
or so is impossible of attainment, as, with only
natives, I would have a comfortless time ; but
all that could be arranged, and I know I would
enjoy it. However, it cannot be now, as I must
return south again when the City of Melbourne
comes in.
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES 47
I am quite forlorn at the thought of parting
with the policeman, the cassowary, and the dog
the latter does belong to the hotel, but evidently
thinks now I am its master, as it is devoted to me,
and, for the matter of that, I am to it. It really is
a funny place here, and I have become so attached
to it. I have been here but a week, but feel as
if I had been living here for years.
I can foresee a splendid future for Northern
Australia this island paradise in the Straits,
and British New Guinea it is far away, but it
is to come one day. To me it is inexplicable how
few people ever seem able to look beyond the
present. The Barrier Reef and Torres Straits
are mines of gold.
There are many Australian aborigines knock-
ing about. The North Australian black is a
much more intelligent and finer specimen than
those of the south were I have to say were, for
they are no more. As from time immemorial
the Malays from Macassar and elsewhere have
visited Northern Australia in their phraus intent
on pearl-fishing and trading for bche-de-mer,
dugong, and other things, it is probable that the
aborigines have benefited by an admixture of
Malay blood, as well as Papuan. Nevertheless,
their war-dances and such things I find very
tedious, though curious to see. The wild ones
who come amongst these islands behave them-
selves and are quite secondary to the Kanakas
and other natives. There certainly is some
Papuan blood in their veins these Straits with
their islands could not be bar enough to prevent
it. One Australian black here a chief was
quite striking in looks, a powerful, imposing person.
But soon they will vanish as they did in the south.
[All along the Australian coast, where there were
so many, absolutely savage, when I first passed
48 TORRES STRAITS
along it, are now very few indeed ; and though
they are " protected," ere many years are
gone there will be none. So great is the change
that it is curious to think how, on this very
trip I have written about, we were in danger
from them when ascending Mount Cook. It
seems to me but a short time ago yet they
are gone.]
They will destroy much of the beauty of these
islands in getting rid of the " scrubs," or tropical
jungles, which are so beautiful, and probably
many of the trees and plants will become extinct.
Some are of great beauty.
BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, 1885.
When the City of Melbourne came in I had to
bid quite a moving farewell to many. I eluded
the dog, and I suppose he is still hunting for me
and wondering where I am. The policeman and
the Irish banker wrung my hand and said nothing
I think I regretted the policeman more than
any one, but I am glad I was not " a ship that
passeth in the night."
I was received by the City of Melbourne as
if I had been the Prodigal Son. They did not
actually fall upon my neck, but I had to shake
hands with every one on the ship and retail all
my doings. The "blanked" man embarked, but
I did not trouble about him.
A very large number of Chinese arrived, and
learnt at Thursday Island that a new law had
been passed in Australia, and that they could
not land there without paying a certain sum
and having a sort of passport with their photo-
graph attached. Here was a dilemma. They
would all have had the great expense of returning
to Normanton, or perhaps China ; but a man in
A LUCKY PHOTOGRAPHER 49
the store who had a camera saw his chance and
offered to do their portraits at 5 a head ! They
jumped at it, and he reaped a harvest. As his
photographic work is of the poorest description,
and as every Chinaman to our eyes especially
in a portrait looks much like every other one,
the results cannot be of much use, but it is com-
plying with this ridiculous law. Some day China
will come to her own, and revenge on the Australians
the shameful treatment they have always meted
out to the Chinese, who have always been simply in-
valuable there in many ways and are most peace-
able, harmless people. It is only the pampered
European labourers who have been against them,
and but for the Chinese no labour of any sort
could have been undertaken in many parts of
Australia at all. I can remember, when in Mel-
bourne and Sydney, seeing a wretched Chinaman
pursued and ill-used for sport by a cowardly band
of larrikins, and no one even thought of interfering.
A Chinaman was not regarded as a human being.
There is only one other passenger on board, a
young Queenslander, very tall, distinguished-look-
ing, and handsome. Born in Queensland, he does
it honour, to judge by his appearance. He is a Mr.
Hungerford, has a station on the Mitchell River,
flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and, with his
brothers, other properties in South Australia and
New South Wales. He informed me that his
people once owned Farley Castle, in England
where it was he did not know but at one time
there were six barons of the name at the same
time. I fell greatly in his estimation because I
did not know all about it ; but I have since learnt
that Farley Castle was indeed a famous place, and
the Barons of Hungerford were all he painted
them. They would have no need to blush for
their Australian descendant.
50 TORRES STRAITS
The Captain had a fine collection of orchids,
which he was taking home, and I had collected
what specimens of plants and seeds I could for
Baron von Mueller, so we have compared notes.
But I am densely ignorant on the subject, and have
been even more careless than I thought I had
been, and on overlooking them on the ship was
ashamed. [The old Baron was greatly pleased
with them and me, found amongst them an un-
known plant, wrote me for full particulars as to
where exactly I had found it, and so on but
alas ! I could not say, and so it was useless !
He must have been enraged at my stupidity.]
The Great Barrier Reef, which stretches along
the coast for 1250 miles, is a wonderland in itself ;
and how much more marvellous it is when one
remembers it is a coral reef and the work of little
insects ! It has an area of something like 80,000
square miles. Parts of it are within a few miles
of the mainland coast, whilst other reefs lie as dis-
tant as 150 miles. From Torres Straits to Lady
Elliot Island it is 1250 miles long. The islands,
islets, rocks, and reefs form a sort of country of
themselves ; the navigation is most intricate, and
to those who are mere passers-by it is impossible
to grasp anything but a confused idea of it all.
One may fix the large islands, such as Hinchin-
brooke, in the memory, but the countless others,
beautiful as they are, become confusing, so that
I shall not attempt to say much about them.
Hinchinbrooke is 28 miles long by about 12
miles broad, is mountainous and altogether inter-
esting. The vegetation and the birds of these
islands must be fascinating for the naturalist.
They are haunts of the beautiful little sunbird
(Cinnyris frenata), which has an affection as, in-
deed, have most birds for the gorgeous nectar-
laden blossoms of the umkella tree, the flame tree,
THE BARRIER REEF, QUEENSLAND.
(To face page 50.)
CORAL GARDENS 51
and crimson hibiscus. The first named of these
trees (Brassaia actinophylla) has large dark green
shiny leaves and a slender trunk about forty feet
high with spikes of scarlet flowers. Moreton Bay
figs, large bloodwoods, pandanus palms, man-
groves, yellow and red flowered hibiscus, cassua-
rini, malaleuca, nutmeg, the blue quandong
(Elceocarpus grandis}, the Cape gooseberry, and
many other shrubs and trees grow in profusion
matted together with ropelike creepers trying to
strangle them; orchids, the beautiful climbing
fern, the famous Enlada scandens vine, thick as
a rope and bearing pods four feet long, containing
perhaps a dozen large beans all these and many
more running riot. Scented isles indeed !
But wonderful are the coral gardens coral
of every shape and sort, great branches of it,
big boulders of it, and the haunt of innumerable
strange brilliantly coloured fish and other creatures.
Sometimes when the tide goes out deep pools are
left in these coral gardens, the water being clear
as glass, revealing the most marvellously beautiful
creatures of every sort. There are scores of fish of
every shape, as brilliantly coloured as humming-
birds so brilliant in colour as to be quite uncanny.
The anemones and such denizens of the deep as
inhabit these pools and adorn the rocks are of
extraordinary beauty and colours, resembling
gardens of flowers. The organ-piped coral, with
expanded polyps, is astonishing in its variety and
beauty, and one wonders if there really is a divid-
ing line between such a thing and plant life. The
giant sea-anemone is sometimes fifteen or eighteen
feet in diameter, and it and other anemones are
always accompanied by, and sometimes inhabited
by, exquisitely beautiful little fish, so beautiful
that one can only think with awe of the Great
Designer and Creator of all this.
52 TORRES STRAITS
Then those coral gardens ! Here are islets all
of one form and colour; here others, or great fields
of variegated colours and forms pale grey, brown,
pink, red, blue, turquoise, green, and yellow !
Sometimes the animal retreating into its home
leaves the tips of its coral cell white ; but all these
living corals are something very different from the
dead, white-bleached things we see in our museums.
Great fish are in these waters, too, and they
are the haunt of the dugong (Halicore Australis),
that creature which, though no relation, somewhat
resembles a seal. They go in herds, are devoted
to their mates and their young, and the mother
tucks her babe to her breast with her fin. The
dugong may be more porpoise-like than seal-
like, as its skin is smooth. Besides the fore-
flippers it has atrophied hind ones no dorsal fin.
The head has a rounded muzzle, and the male has
projecting tusks. The females are more numerous
and raise their heads erect out of the water when
nursing their babies, and have been taken for mer-
maids ! They are from eight to ten or twelve feet
long, and a herd contains from half a dozen to
thirty or forty. In prehistoric times there was a
creature of this sort twenty-five feet long. The
natives go out in their canoes on moonlight nights
and catch them with a sort of harpoon dart at the
end of a long spear. The beche-de-mer is in abund-
ance and is of all sizes, from six inches long to three
or four feet long ; here it sometimes fetches 150
a ton, or more. There is also the horrible Synanceia
horrida, or stone fish, also called the sea-devil.
It is an atrocious-looking thing, covered with
slimy weeds, wart-like protuberances, and a row of
spikes along its spine. The spikes and its horrible
grey lumps emit a fluid poison when it is touched,
and this poison is said to produce death. The
Chinese, however, esteem it a delicacy for the table;
THE MOHA-MOHA 53
but if ever a people like to eat nasty things it is
the Chinese. The balloon fish (Tetraodon ocettalus)
has flesh that is said to be poisonous also. There
is as well on the islands a death-dealing tree, and
the wild cherry, as it is called, is said to produce
paralysis and blindness so that there are serpents
in this paradise. There are many sorts of sharks,
great blue-spotted octopuses, water-snakes, turtles,
tortoises, countless edible fishes, countless fish too
gorgeous in colour to seem desirable, such as the
parrot fish. There are wonderful sponges, pearl
shells with their pearls, and the before-mentioned
clams. The oysters are in huge quantities, and
even cover thickly the branches of the mangrove
trees which grow near or out of the water on
islands or mainland. Some day perhaps a great
revenue will be drawn from the canning of fish
and oysters, and the exploiting of all the Barrier
resources. Are there not millions of Chinese ready
to devour dried fish, dugong, trepang, shark's fins,
and other delicacies going to waste here ?
And there is the sea-serpent why not ? Any-
way, the Moha-Moha has been seen at close quarters
by eight or nine people, and received the name
ChelosauriaLovellijdiiterits discoverer Miss Lovell.
It was a sort of cross between a turtle, a tortoise,
and a sea-serpent. It has feet like an alligator,
a smooth grey carapace five feet high, a forked
tail, perhaps twelve feet long, and a neck to match,
neck and tail being glossy and shining with scales,
or markings, silver-grey shading to white. It
raises its head or tail five or six feet out of the
water. It was discovered on 8th June 1890, at
Sandy Cape, and viewed at a few feet distance.
There cannot be only one Moha-Moha, and I live
in hopes of seeing it stuffed in a museum yet.
I spoke of the mystery and romance of this
wonderful Barrier Reef. Once a boat, belonging
54 TORRES STRAITS
to Mr. Jardine of Somerset, in a cove of the reef
came on an old anchor, removed it, and there
lay a great heap of gold and silver Spanish dollars,
in good preservation, but welded together in a
mass, and worth several thousands of pounds.
It took more than one boatload to remove it.
Also fragments of coloured glass lay with it. What
ancient Spanish galleon found her end here ?
Would that yet we could learn.
The curious coral presented to me I regret to say
I left behind, as I did not know what to do with it.
Huge branches and almost bushes of coral are
cumbersome things, and in reality a nuisance unless
one has a real aquarium in which to place them.
I remember on another voyage being presented
with sacks full of wonderful coral at Diego Garcia
in the Chagos Archipelago remote coral atolls
lying away by themselves in the middle of the
Pacific and very seldom visited, but very interest-
ing and how I got to hate that coral ere I could
find people to accept it. It was a gift of gratitude
from the only two Europeans then living in those
solitary isles, and I appreciated the spirit of the
gift, but had to pass it on.
On the I4th September we dropped anchor
at Cooktown and I went ashore with some of the
officers of the ship, making myself very spruce
in case of there being any kangaroo " dressed for
dinner." As we approached the pier there was
a most offensive odour, which we wondered at,
and on landing I walked towards something
lying on the sand in the blazing sun, and was
horrified to find it was the much decomposed
body of a man, partly eaten by fish. Some
men just then arrived with a coffin in a cart and
the remains were shovelled in, but the coffin
lay there all day. The man had been drowned
some time previously.
FISH OF THE BARRIER REEF.
(To face page 54.)
CHINESE JOSS HOUSE 55
Cooktown was the usual Australian town of
a long street of verandahed buildings, most of
which seemed public-houses, with much drinking
going on. We visited the Chinese part and
their gorgeous Joss House, or temple, and were
much amused to find enthroned in the place of
honour above what we would call the altar,
amidst golden dragons and the like Randolph
Caldecott's coloured hunting sketches from The
Graphic \ The youthful priest was most proud
of them. Sometimes they have " Queenie Wicke-
toria " so enshrined ! The Chinese are certainly
quaint people.
As the City of Melbourne had to wait here for
the arrival of the China mail-boat, Captain Thomp-
son arranged on my behalf an expedition we had
discussed. Some rare plants grew on the top
of Mount Cook, and he and I were at one in a
desire to secure a specimen for Baron von Mueller.
He warned me that we might be in great danger
from the natives, who were most troublesome
indeed, two days before this, two white men had
been speared to death in sight of Cooktown but
I said I did not mind at all, and that we would
risk it. Then it came on a perfect gale, but I
begged that we should just go never mind any-
thing and chance all dangers.
So on the morning of the I5th we started
early in a ship's boat, the Captain, Webster
the first engineer, Warburton the third officer, two
sailors, Norman and Mack, and I forming the
party. We had a splendid sail seven or eight
miles down the coast to the far side of Mount
Cook. There was a terrific sea on, and I thought
each huge wave would swamp us, and wondered
sometimes if this was not something out of the
usual. But no one said anything couldn't have
been heard if they had and I, being only a land-
56 TORRES STRAITS
lubber, supposed these seafaring folk must know
more than I did, so I sat tight and held my tongue.
It was ticklish work tacking, and as each huge
wave rushed at us with apparent fury it seemed
as if we must be overwhelmed. But the way
a brave little boat battles against and overcomes
a gale is splendid, and somehow a sort of elation
rises in the blood. I love the fierceness of a gale
and to feel the salt spray battering on one's
face it is old Norse blood, I am sure, for I number
many old vikings, jarls, and kings of heroic days
amongst my ancestors, and want to shout and
sing (lucky for the other people I don't indulge
in the latter !) and ride upon those beautiful
white horses of the sea. We at last entered a
sheltered bay, and came to anchor in smooth
water at some distance from the shore.
Then Captain Thompson said, "Well, I never saw
a landsman take things so coolly before ; I never
thought we should ever reach land again." I
did not say I had thought the getting to land a
doubtful thing also, but had kept it to myself.
We anchored out in the bay on account of danger
from the blacks, and a sailor was left in the boat.
All the others took off their nether garments,
got into the sea up to their armpits, and waded
ashore ; but they would not hear of my doing
likewise, and Mack, the sailor, insisted I should
get on his back, and in this undignified way I
was carried, ashore, in fits of laughter, nearly
strangling Mack, as wet as any one else in reality,
but of course pretending I was not. I was in
white linen clothes and hat, and these dried up
in a few minutes in the broiling sun. We at once
" boiled the billy " and demolished the excellent
luncheon provided by the Captain.
Then the two officers with their guns went
off in one direction, with strict injunctions from
A GULLY OF MOUNT COOK 57
the Captain to make back for the boat at once
if they saw blacks, as he wanted no trouble. The
sailor in the boat was to fire a gun as a signal
if he saw any signs of the smoke of the China
mail. The Captain, Mack, and I, with pickaxes
and the like, set off to ascend Mount Cook, and
Mack carried a huge basket on his back to hold
the gleanings. He was so careful of and attentive
to me that I said I wondered he didn't put me
in the basket.
We soon began to ascend, and found ourselves
in a gully running down one side of the mountain
the most exquisitely beautiful spot one could
imagine. Down the mountain-side in this gully
came a beautiful, clear, crystal-like stream, splash-
ing down over great granite boulders, forming
waterfalls, or here and there a deep, clear pool
as cold as ice. Above our heads the trees rose to
a height of at least a hundred feet and completely
shut out the sky. Underneath this great dome it
was all a strange mystic green gloom, save where
here and there a shaft of sunlight struggled through,
flecking the foliage with gold and making a
slanting lane of golden rays. The effect was
extraordinary almost unreal in its beauty . Under-
neath the dome of tree-tops and bathed in this
iridescent pale green gloom was an intricate
matted jungle of tree ferns, palms, shrubs of
every sort, ropes of hanging creepers, and countless
beautiful flowering orchids a perfect riot of
beauty. The cable-like creepers matting all this
together, it was difficult going, and also very easy
to lose one another. My white clothes made
me, as the Captain said, a splendid target for a
spear.
We had to push and cut our way, climbing
up and scrambling through all this. I gathered
orchid after orchid, only to throw them away as
58 TORRES STRAITS
better came into view. I wondered all the time
if some of the unseen things that coiled round
my legs and held me were not snakes instead of
rope-like creepers for, of course, snakes swarm
in such a place but one had just to risk it.
The beauty and silence of the place was almost
unearthly, and there was something solemn about
the great stately tree-boles lifting their foliage
to the light and air high above us. It was simply
a Paradise a Garden of Eden. But not without
its serpent either many of them, indeed.
As we went climbing up like this the Captain
signed to us to halt and listen, whispering, " The
blacks ! " and sure enough we heard the crack-
ling of twigs near us, but it was too thick to see
anything. Every time we went on they followed
us, and stopped when we did. They always
track like that.
" Beware of a spear," whispered the Captain
when we came to any more open space. I was
far more concerned about the snakes of which
I am terrified, alive or dead and somehow a
sort of fierce enjoyment of the situation possessed
me. I liked the danger, actually delighted in it,
and was surprised to find an ardent desire waking
in me for a real fight. It was partly the intoxica-
tion of the wild riot of nature around us.
Suddenly I forgot all about blacks, for as
we swung ourselves up by the aid of the creeper
ropes over the great boulders, a difficult task,
laden as we were with orchids and plants, I came
right on the coils of a huge snake. The Captain
was above, Mack between, and I lowest down.
" A snake ! " I cried.
" Kill it," called back the Captain. It was
the last thing I thought of doing at the moment.
The snake began at once to try to escape up-
wards over a huge boulder.
A CARPET SNAKE 59
" Don't kill it, don't touch it ! " cried the
Captain. "It is a splendid one, let us get it
alive."
Get it alive, indeed ! How glad I was it was
getting away ! Every thought of the blacks
had gone out of our heads.
The snake it was over ten feet long and very
thick by this time had got up on top of a huge
boulder over the stream, and from this little
plateau rose another huge pinnacled boulder.
A shaft of sunlight just struck this spot and
brought out all the colours of the snake's skin,
and it certainly made a wonderful effect. Up
we went after it and were soon on top of the
boulder, which gave us a few flat feet of stone
to stand on. Directly beneath was a deep, clear
pool of the stream. It was simply an ideal spot
and stood out conspicuously amidst the luxuriant
vegetation. The snake had got round the pin-
nacled boulder which rose above us, its head one
side, its tail the other. We were all at such
close quarters that it was quite exciting. The
Captain made dashes at its head with the pick-
axe.
" Hold it by the tail," he cried excitedly,
fearful lest it should get away. I hesitated
I am not surprised I did. Had any one told me
that I should, under any circumstances, seize a
ten-foot-long snake by the tail I should have
said " Impossible," so great is my fear and repul-
sion for these brutes. Even a dead one gives me
cold shivers. Mack pushed me aside and, grasping
its tail, hauled lustily, and in the excitement I
forgot everything and pulled away too. It had
such a strong grip round the rock that, haul as
we would, we could only drag it back inch by
inch the Captain meanwhile giving it blows
on the head, not to injure it, but to make it
60 TORRES STRAITS
relax its hold. This so infuriated it that it snapped
like a mad dog, and the writhings and contortions
of its body were so strong as to fling us about.
Our orchids, borne on our heads, fell over our
faces and almost entangled us. We only had
a small space to stand on, and all the time in my
mind was the thought of what we were to do if
we did pull it round, or that if it let go suddenly
we that is, Mack, I, and the snake would in-
stantly go over the edge of the plateau into the
pool, twenty feet below us, together ! Bit by
bit, weakened probably by the blows, we dragged
it round, and as we got it clear of the stone, too
bewildered, I expect, to realise the situation, the
Captain dropped his pickaxe on its head and
pressed it down.
' Hold this," he said to me, so I let go its tail
and, seizing the pickaxe, pressed its head well
down. " Don't kill it," he said, seeing I was being
very energetic over it. Then he went and cut
a long stout wand, and, returning, I let its head
loose, but still kept its neck down with all my
strength, avoiding the writhing coils as best I could,
whilst Mack still hung on in the rear. The Captain
then tied its neck firmly to the end of the long
wand, and we had it !
" Well, I'm blessed ! " said Mack, staring at me,
for all this had taken place so unexpectedly, and
our tussle at the end of its tail had been so unpre-
meditated, that we only realised the whole thing
when it was over. As for me, I couldn't believe
I had done such a thing hung on to the tail of
an infuriated snake ! It was non-poisonous, a
" carpet snake," but there had been no time to
think of that. Of course it could have crushed
us in its folds had it had the chance.
Then Captain Thompson raised its head up at
the end of the wand, whilst he allowed its body to
THE BLACKS 61
coil twice round his waist and his legs. It was
too weak and its neck too tightly tied to permit
it to exercise its strength, or else it could have
crushed him. As it was, he said it was a horrid
sensation, and I can believe it. Neither Mack
nor I offered to relieve him of it ! He carried
it like this the rest of the day. Once when the
Captain lay down to drink out of a pool the snake
at the end of the wand drank also ! We gathered
up our orchids again ; I threw many round my hat,
where they clung on, and had scores of beautiful
blossoms trailing over my shoulders, as we needed
our hands for climbing. I have never seen a more
extraordinary picture than the Captain, with this
brute coiled round him, standing on a pinnacle of
rock and we orchid-laden people beside him.
Then our thoughts recurred to the blacks, as
we could hear that many were quite near, follow-
ing us though invisible ! They must have wit-
nessed this scene, and I wonder what they thought
of it ! What could we possibly be going to do with
the snake alive ? They would have killed and
eaten it.
Mack, who had climbed up ahead, suddenly
returned to say that there was a clearing, with their
gunyahs (bark huts) and fires burning. So the
Captain ordered an instant retreat, as he became
suddenly awake to the danger. Had these been
friendly blacks they would have been out assisting
us ; the mere fact of their remaining concealed and
tracking us showed they were to be avoided. Also,
just at this time they were most troublesome
about Mount Cook, and we were there, miles from
any one, at their mercy.
As we got lower down, scrambling and falling
through the mass of vegetation, I sometimes came
on the Captain's back, and each time I touched
the clammy folds of that snake I got a shock. I
62 TORRES STRAITS
purposely got separated from the others, as I wanted
to wait and conceal myself, to see how many blacks
were tracking us ; but I suddenly emerged into a
clear space with a circle of their gunyahs with the
fires still there. Seeing no one I walked into it.
I think that by suddenly turning back we had
somehow eluded them for the time being.
I examined the whole place, looked into every
gunyah, and in one I stuck conspicuously my visit-
ing card, thinking it only polite !
I joined the others lower down, and we at last
got back to the shore and saw the boat out at anchor,
and just then the sailor fired and the Captain
pointed out the far-away smoke of the China boat.
We hurried down, plunged out through the water
to the boat, which was brought nearer to meet us,
and then began hallooing for the others. The
wand and snake were thrown down in the bottom,
and the basket and an enormous pile of orchids
and other plants on top of it.
The Captain got impatient, for it was necessary
that he should be back ere the China boat reached
ours for the trans-shipment of mails, and he wanted
to go and leave the two officers to find their way
back overland to Cooktown, a long distance ; but
I begged for delay, and luckily they soon appeared,
and, grasping the situation, slipped off their boots
and trousers and came out to us as quickly as they
could. They scrambled into the boat, plump in
amidst our heap of orchids, and as their bare
feet and legs sunk through and came amidst the
slimy, moving coils of the snake there were loud
yells ! This quite restored us all, and we enjoyed
their consternation. They, too, had been tracked
by blacks they, however, were armed, we were not
and one of them had struck the black's encamp-
ment where I had been, and found my card, which
he took, and long after this showed me carefully
" CAPTAIN COOK " 63
preserved in his pocket-book as a souvenir of the
day.
We had a magnificent sail back and arrived in
good time, so all was well. Needless to say, the
snake which was christened " Captain Cook "
was the excitement of the ship. It was let loose
on deck for a time, whilst a box was being made,
and there measured. It was exactly ten feet long
it its quiescent state, but, of course, stretched out
to much more than that, and it was very thick.
They are often much larger than this, but it was
a particularly fine and powerful specimen. It
appeared somewhat dazed, which is not surprising,
as its experiences had been unusual . The stewards
and sailors were most amusing about it. One
steward insisted its " sting " was in the end of its
tail ! Then the ship's cat happened to come along,
and instantly a scene began. The snake suddenly
woke up and its eyes glittered, whilst its head kept
turning to watch the cat. The latter approached
gingerly, its back a magnificent arch, its tail as
stiff as a ramrod and every hair on end. Then
suddenly a sailor threw the cat right on the snake
it sprang a yard high in its fright ! But it was
fascinated and could not keep away. Again and
again the sailors who are such children at times
repeated this performance, which was really
too funny, and the whole ship was yelling with
laughter. The frantic leaps in the air of the
cat were killing ; it was so wary, but would come
near, and it is long since I have seen such a comic
scene.
" Well, Mack," I said, " who would have
thought that you and I would hang on to that
brute's tail as we did ! "
' Well, I'm blessed ! " he said wonderingly, as
he scratched his head.
" Suppose it had let go and we had all gone over
64 TORRES STRAITS
together into the pool/' I said. This was too
much for Mack and he sat down and thought it all
out. Then we all laughed together as we realised
it all.
" Captain Cook " soon had a long box ready
for him, took things very calmly, and was the
centre of attraction. [The Captain presented him
to the Zoological Gardens in Sydney, where, for all
I know, he still is, as they live for ages.]
Outside Bowen lies Gloucester Isle, where a
short time ago a boat's crew were murdered by the
blacks. There are many beautiful isles in the
Whitsunday Group. At Rockhampton I waited
a few days, quite sorry to bid " Good-bye " to all
on the City of Melbourne, where really I had
been overwhelmed with kindness ; and, indeed, we
were all sorry to part I was not like a passenger
at all, they said, and that was just what they had
made me feel.
A little later I came on here to Brisbane, and
have reviewed my little trip to Torres Straits
with much satisfaction.
II
GERMAN NEW GUINEA
S.S. Stettin, Dec. 1900.
How small a steamship on which you are about
to travel appears when you first view it, and how
impossibly confined and oppressively cooped-up its
cabins then use makes it seem spacious, and the
cabins, and even your narrow berth, become roomy
and comfortable. So it was that the German
boat of the Nord Deutscher Lloyd Co., the Stettin,
appeared to me when I first viewed her in Sydney
Harbour, and I wondered whether I was not
doing something foolish. But I had hankered
for years after New Guinea that unknown, unex-
plored, mysterious land. Only to gaze upon its
shores would be happiness to me, and I knew I
could do little more than that, as I must merely
pass by and had no time to linger.
Look at the map and you will see all those
countless islands lying between Australia and
Asia, including New Guinea, the Celebes, Borneo,
Java, Sumatra, and the Philippines thousands
of isles of all sizes and sorts. You dismiss them as
small unknown isles Great Britain amongst them
would be lost sight of almost, as compared to her
some of the others are very large. You will see how
near they all are to Australia, New Guinea being
separated from it only by, at one point, narrow
Straits. Look at it, study it all, and remember
5
66 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
that the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Germans,
and even the Americans are now all planted there
together, and must naturally have a say in the
destiny of that part of the world, and realise that
it is of overwhelming importance that British
influence should be paramount, whereas the con-
trary is now the case.
After all, why should I try to teach you
geography ? You are supposed to be educated,
are you not ? and so, of course, must know where
all these places are, though, as they are in some
cases almost not known to any one yet, you may
be excused if you know little about them. Feel-
ing that I am very ignorant and uneducated, I
am going to have a look for myself and to try to
learn something though I sigh to think there is
so much to learn in the world, and so little time to
do it in !
In Sydney they told me I was mad to want to
go to New Guinea ; the natives murdered and dined
on every one they could ; the coast fevers and
malarias killed off the remainder and German
New Guinea of all places ! The very idea of
visiting those Germans who had dared to set up a
colony of their own so near British possessions !
But, I said, they had as much right to do it
as we or any other power ; they never could have
been there but for the " wonderful wisdom " of my
Lord Derby, the Colonial Secretary of the day,
and the ignorance and insular limit of vision of the
so-called Imperial Government. So old a story,
so old a story !
Besides, they were there, and likely to remain,
and was it not more interesting, more sensible
and fair to go and see what they were making of
their new colony than howling like a dog in the
manger over an accomplished fact ?
So near to the Australian continent lies this
FUTILE WARNINGS 67
great island of New Guinea that it was only natural
Australians should not wish that any Foreign
Power should become interested in it and so lead
to complications and friction in the future. Part
of it had long belonged to the Dutch, since 1828, 1
think, and they had done nothing with it, neither
occupied nor explored the territory they had
annexed. The remainder, said Australia, must be
British ; it was necessary for the peace, well-being,
and safety of the Australians that it should be so.
Rumours had flown about that some Foreign
Power had designs on it. Strong representations
were made to the Home Government all were
ignored. Then Australia, or at least Queensland,
hoisted the British Flag on that part of the great
island which was not actually under her protection
and influence. " Down with that flag ! " cried the
indignant Lord Derby and the Home Government.
" How dare you, mere colonies, attempt such an
unconstitutional thing as hoist the British Flag
anywhere ? " " But the Germans or the French or
some one is coming to take it ! " " Nonsense ! "
cried the Wise Men in England, " there is not a
chance of such a thing ; you are ignorant and
foolish ; we know better."
So down came the British Flag and in a very
short space of time up went the German Flag in
the Desirable Land, and there it floats to this day,
is to be sometime the cause of serious contention,
and has given the happily sea-girt Australian
continent a possible enemy at her very doors, and
endowed her with a Foreign Question of her own
thanks again to the Wise Men of England.
Now, New Guinea is British, German, and Dutch.
There will be lots of playing about with questions
about boundaries, islands, and the like there have
been some already.
No one in Germany knew where New Guinea
68 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
was, or what it was ; but somewhere Germany
had got a colony wasn't that splendid ! near
Australia somewhere a quite wild country full
of cannibal savages and horrible fevers and things,
but admirable as a useful " pin-prick " for
Australia and Great Britain in order to obtain
concessions and seize upon trade. The people
in Germany who accomplished this swelled with
gratified pride and at once talked of " our new
Colonial Empire/' and eventually set to work
to form a New Guinea Company to develop
this desirable acquisition. These people sat round
tables in Berlin, smoked cigars, had many Krugs of
beer, and planned the whole thing out beautifully
on paper. True, they were a little consciously
shy "We are beginners," they said humbly,
though they did not really feel humble, and of
course they felt themselves even then the Coming
Race, the Successors of the Modern Roman Empire
so palpably on the decline, and really the stupid
Englander was stupid indeed. How silly was he
about his bit of New Guinea ! wanted to protect
the natives and their "rights" the rights of
cannibals, indeed and would not allow a white
man to enter the country without permission.
Here, indeed, was a chance a chance for many
things, for many a putting of the finger in the pie,
for many a request or demand, and, Gott in Himmel,
what fine markets in Australia for their trade !
The cigars gave forth volumes of smoke, the beer
went down wholesale, the " swelled heads "
nodded in chorus heavy nods, perhaps, for the
heads were not empty. They resolved to sub-
sidise steamboats to run to the new colony, and it
was unanimously agreed that not a single thing
required in the new possession should be pur-
chased in Australia or at any British port, if it
could be avoided.
PLEASANT PROSPECTS ALL ROUND 69
Of course Great Britain, badgered by the
Australians, had to have some say in matters,
and Germany was so complacent and ready to
agree to anything and everything as set forth in
the Agreement or Treaty, or whatever it was
that the two Great Powers signed. Oh ! of course
all British rights would be respected ; of course
there would always be the open door for her
dear friend and cousin and her subjects would
always enjoy every right and liberty in trading
or otherwise in common with the subjects of the
Fatherland, so long, of course, as they obeyed
German Laws. So little more was heard of the
matter then or now Australia was busy, Great
Britain indifferent, and, after all, they were only
Germans, and no doubt would eat cocoanuts and
play in musical bands happily for evermore ; and
then, of course, the cannibals would kill and eat
them all off, so all would be right and eventually
everything would be ours. So said indifferent
Britons.
Now and again came stories of murders by
natives, and vague paragraphs appeared in the
Australasian, the Sydney Morning Herald, or
the Bulletin or something but few heeded or
cared. Australia smiled, and her smile was just
a sort of smile you know any sort and " They're
eating up all the Germans in New Guinea," she
said.
In Sydney a few eyebrows went up. "Going
to New Guinea ? What a strange idea ! " some one
remonstrated with me. " They'll eat you, or you
will die of fever," said to me kind old Mr. Stud-
holme, one of the " Canterbury Pilgrims " who
founded Canterbury in New Zealand. I looked
at myself in the mirror and said I thought 1 was
safe I did not look appetising at all. Mrs. Stud-
holme, who was buying up all the curious opals
70 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
in Sydney for her collection, and who used nightly
to show me her new purchases, wondered if there
were any in New Guinea would I remember it ?
A distinguished clansman, who was a Member of
the Government, thought I ought not to do such
a risky thing. I was not strong enough to face
those terrible malarial fevers they struck you
suddenly, and you were dead perhaps in a few
hours. What pretty tales I was told. Miss
Lottie Collins of Tarrara-boom-de-ay fame said,
" Going to New Guinea really ? where' s that ? "
and thought Sydney " a lovely place." So I
took my passage via German New Guinea to
Singapore.
Sydney was in a fever of preparation for the
approaching visit of their Royal Highnesses the
Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York and the
Federation fetes, doing some needful cleaning
up and otherwise much occupied, and did not shed
a single tear when I left her shores on a lovely
day, perhaps to grace the dinner-table or side-
board of some New Guinea chief.
Es war ein schdner Sonntag Morgen, anyway a
beautiful morning, when I boarded the Stettin,
surveyed my white cabin, and found it, after all,
not so bad. It had a hanging cupboard and
drawers to bestow my belongings in. Then
suddenly the door opened and in walked the
skipper, Captain Niedermayer, shook hands and
welcomed me on board, offering to do all that he
could for my comfort in every way (and was as
good as his word always).
We steamed away down Sydney's famous
harbour, and there were great jokes made as we
passed the obsolete fort, for, shortly before this,
Sydney woke one morning to see the Boer Flag
floating from that fort ! Who put it there ?
was there no one to guard that fort ?
COSMOPOLITAN SOCIETY 71
We passed out through the Heads in brilliant
sunshine, and had time to sit down to one meal
and inspect each other ere mal de mer claimed
its tribute. I, being what is called " a good
sailor " with a passionate love of the sea, especially
in stormy weather, and, I confess with shame,
even liking the bilgy smell of a steamboat, do not
know this terrible sickness of the sea, and experi-
ence only an impatient scorn of, and an utter
lack of sympathy for, those who do. I really could
not condescend to make such a nasty exhibition
of myself as most others do, and, horrible as it
may seem, I appear callously at every meal with
a ravenous appetite, and am naturally regarded
as a cold-hearted brute devoid of pity for human
suffering. But how I hate those others who, after
a few days' debauch in utter moral and physical
degradation, appear at table again full of life and
spirits as if they had done something heroic!
Germans, too, are hopeless ; they have no powers
of resistance and go hopelessly, shamefully, to
pieces as much in public as in private.
The deck was covered with long cane chairs
under the awning, and one by one yellow, haggard,
feeble figures appeared and collapsed into them,
but this took some days ; our one lady in the
First Class was long of appearing.
We were a curious little community. In the
Second Class were few passengers two English-
men and two Englishwomen bound for Singa-
pore, and a few others. In the First Class we
had Monsignor Coupe, or Coppee, the French
Catholic Bishop of German New Guinea ; Captain
Dunbar, Commander of the German corvette,
Moewe (Seagull), which patrols these seas ;
the distinguished Hungarian naturalist, Pro-
fessor Biro Lajos (Ludwig Biro) ; Frau Wolff,
wife of a German planter in New Britain ; a
72 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
Danish pilot who takes the ship to New Guinea ;
and King Peter of the French Islands. I repre-
sent the British Empire.
What a mixture a French bishop, German
naval captain, Hungarian professor, Danish pilot,
German lady, a king, and a Scottish pleasure-
pilgrim ! but the lion lay down with the lamb ;
no one ate any one else, and we are all quite happy
and peaceable together. Captain Niedermayer is
kindness and consideration itself, all the officers
are friendly and pleasant, and to me personally
every one is most charming, and I am quite at home.
Germans and all their little ways are not strange
to me. I appreciate what is good and pleasant
in both, and there is much one can appreciate. I
am the stranger amongst them, but they make
much of me ; and then I am a Scotsman, not an
Englishman, and that makes much difference,
as it does amongst many peoples. For it must be
remembered that, ere our Scottish King added
the Estates of England to his Scottish Estates,
whilst England was often at war with some con-
tinental State, Scotland was usually on terms
of alliance or friendship with that same State.
Very close were the bonds that for centuries knit
Scotland with France, the Low Countries, Italy,
Poland, and even Russia. The Scotsman to this
day meets with a different welcome in those lands
to what the Englishman does ; moreover, he is not
so insular as the other, and consequently adapts
himself more naturally to the ways and customs
of a foreign nation.
The dining-saloon is not large, but we are only
a small party. We are waited on by three Chinese
stewards from Singapore, and two German
stewards. Captain Dunbar has also his blue-
jacket servant to wait on him a bright, clean,
active German boy. The cooks are also Singapore
NOAH'S ARK 73
Chinese. The five stewards are really hopeless ;
the two Germans seem to have no brains at all.
One is exactly like a wolf. As I came along the
deck one day this one suddenly thrust his head
out of the deck cabin window, gave me quite a
shock, and made me think I was Little Red Riding
Hood difficult as such a feat was.
These five stewards stand in a row with abso-
lutely blank faces ; I ask for something, and the
whole five rush out and return five minutes later
to be stormed at by the Captain having for-
gotten what they went for. I have got into the
way of signalling to Captain Dunbar's boy, who
has learned also to read in my eye what I want
without my asking for it ; so I had to apologise to
his master for so making use of him, with the
result that this bluejacket is made to do all sorts
of things for me, does everything beamingly, and
is by way of " taking care of me." It is wonderful
the amount of people who feel it necessary to take
care of this helpless being, who in reality is very
capable of taking care of himself, but does not like
to hurt their feelings by showing it. The only
time the inscrutable faces of the Chinese stewards
light up is when, with an insinuating smile, they
offer you " cully and lice," a dish always in favour
in hot climates. Why a Chinaman cannot
pronounce an " r " I do not know. They reply to
everything " Allee litee."
The crew are Malays, so that we are a sort of
Noah's Ark every sort of animal represented.
As deck passengers we have Indian coolies, Chinese,
Malays, Javanese, South Sea Islanders, and a
monkey.
This North German Lloyd boat is heavily sub-
sidised by the German Government, and is run
on certain lines. The Captain gets a lump sum
down, runs the whole ship on that, paying for
74 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
everything. Anything over the actual expenses
is profit for him. He does not, however, stint us
in any way, gives us a generous table, and has
been kind enough to come to me several times
to ask if I am satisfied and to consult my taste in
the feeding line, so that I may have what I please.
Then the Chinese cooks and I are friends wise
me ! They are all grins if I poke my head into
their galley and say, " Well, Cookie, you got 'em
something nicey for me to-day ? " " Allee what
you likee," they answer for be it remembered
they are my fellow-subjects from Singapore. The
crew get about thirty shillings a month.
The Chinese cooks often make me recall an old
picture in Punch or some such paper of a stout
old policeman with an astounded face, who is gazing
down into an area after signalling to the cook
for his daily love-token of chop, or perhaps " drip-
ping," whatever that may be, and is met by a round,
slit-eyed, pig-tailed, grinning Chinaman with " Me
am Cookie."
I told these ones that in my family we had
a Chinese cook for many, many years, called
" I Sing," and that we adored him. He had left
his wife in China, and when we frequently sug-
gested that she might have gone off with some
other man he always said cheerfully, !f Never
mind, me getee plenty more."
Going down the passage to my cabin one day,
I came on one of the Malay sailor boys on his knees
at some one's cabin door, peering through the key-
hole. My boot toe caught him exactly on the end
of his tail, and you should have seen that boy clap
his hand behind and go down the passage a yard
at a time. I did not tell, however, and he is duly
grateful, if sickly smiles mean gratitude. But,
when I see him sitting on the lower deck, it always
seems to me he sits sideways ; I wonder why ?
INTERESTING ANTS 75
This ship, however, is not particularly clean.
They cannot help it swarming with tiny white
ants, which are everywhere, even on one's plate at
dinner. I wage war with them in my cabin.
They are all over the white-painted wall, all so
fussy and busy, tearing about in long lines intent
on some destructive purpose. What it is all about
I do not know, but I take care they never " get
there." For long they were beyond me, but now
I have got them. I go to bed, put out the electric
light, and wait. Suddenly I turn it on again and
there they are in scores on the wall, scuttering along
as hard as they can go. I take a piece of odor-
iferous yellow soap some German product and
draw a line in front of them. They abhor it, and
start off on another tack I block them every-
where, and at last they retreat in disorder. Of
course I enjoy the smell of the soap also, but I
prefer it to the ants.
Then the pillows and mattresses have such an
extraordinary odour that I cannot use them. I
have complained, been assured they are perfectly
clean and that it is only the result of some disin-
fectant which is sehr gesund in hot weather, and
that, as nothing that can be avoided is ever pur-
chased in any British port, no new ones can be got
except at Bremen in Germany some months hence.
The German Government will fatten and batten
on us Free Traders, but endeavours not to let us
profit one sixpence by them.
We steamed up the Australian coast outside
the Great Barrier Reef, experiencing a great
thunderstorm. We made Moreton Island about
six o'clock one evening and shipped a pilot.
Moreton Bay is full of shifting sandbanks and
shoals. We were too late for the shorter entrance
and so had to go a long way, the route being two
sides of a triangle, the base of which ought to be
76 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
the route I inspected the chart with great dis-
approval.
It was 4 a.m. next morning when we
anchored at the wharf at Penankbar or some such
name on the Brisbane River, and I at once took
train for Brisbane for a few hours, there to do some
necessary shopping, and to buy new pillows and
pillow-cases. The pillows I carried in triumph
in my arms on board the Stettin, thinking some
one would see the point and take the hint.
They did not, however, and were quite indifferent.
At 3 p.m. we were off again, and it was good-
bye to Australia. The Customs House Officer
who boarded us was dead drunk, insisted on
lunching with us, drank King Peter's beer,
and wanted to save us all trouble in that way.
The Germans were maliciously amused with
him, but I resented him and literally drove him
ashore.
It was, and is, very hot even under the awning,
and, clad in white duck clothes, we all lie in long
chairs, have countless cool drinks, and I listen to
many yarns. The Germans are for ever im
gewohnten Tropenschldfchen ver sunken, but I am not
of the sleeping kind, so frequently stir them up. I
have big ears, which is the reason, I suppose, people
will pour all their confidences into them. Luckily
I like to hear what people have to say about them-
selves if they be not bores for every one has
something in him of interest, and I have no disdain
for all the little vanities and feeblenesses which
make people human. When the Captain, or Captain
Koch, the Danish pilot, or the other officers come
off duty and clean up, they generally make for me
with a Wie gehts furchtbar heiz, nicht wahr ? and
stretch themselves alongside and become full of
reminiscences about the Happy Fatherland and
the cool beer in this or that Keller in bygone
FELLOW-PASSENGERS 77
days. They know I understand their beautiful
Fatherland and the life there.
Captain Dunbar or Doonbar as the Germans
call it is of Scottish origin, but very German in
all his ways. His ancestors went to America in
1600, and his father and brothers are American,
he being the only German of the family. It is
curious to find this Scoto-American a German
naval captain. He is now bound for Europe, and
tells me his brother is in Scotland hunting out
the family genealogy, and I think the blood that
is thicker than water accounts for his occasional
lapses into confidential German communications ;
but I am sure none of the others here would talk
so freely about German desires and aims to other
people as they do to me.
Monsignor Coupe, the Bishop appointed
" Vicariat Apost clique " of the Bismarck Archi-
pelago, the Solomons, Admiralty Isles and New
Guinea, and head of the Sacred Heart Mission is
a very tall, strong, portly, energetic man with a
long black beard, and, though French, has little
of that nationality about him. The Mission was
re-established in New Britain in 1889, but for
over a year the New Guinea Co. would not
allow them to do anything or interfere with the
natives. At last permission came from Berlin,
and different spheres were allotted to the Catholic
and Protestant Missions. Bishop Coupe was long
in British New Guinea, but, as he laughingly
said to me, the Protestant missionaries there were
too much for him. He has now been seven
years in the German sphere, and has just returned
from a visit to Europe. The Governor of German
New Guinea did not see his way to letting him
have what land he desired for his Mission Stations,
so in Berlin he, map in hand, interviewed the
Foreign Office, talked them over, and got them to
78 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
concede his wishes, they naturally knowing
nothing about it.
You see, in Berlin, when they got this new
possession, they took the map, altered all the
names, ignoring what was due to the discoverers
and charters of these lands and seas, and then
put dots along the coast-line wherever it looked
pretty, and affixed a name to each dot. These
now are " ports," and the N.D.L. boat has to call
and remain a certain time at each, regard-
less of any lack of passengers or " trade " being
embarked or disembarked. Any one can civilise
and colonise a country like that ; it is quite
easy ; merely get a blank map, write down a few
names Frederick Williams, or Johann Charles,
or the like and there you are ! New Britain is
now Neu Pommern ; New Ireland is Neu Mecklen-
burg ; the mainland colony is Kaiser Wilhelm's
Land, and so weiter. Nevertheless, on this boat
we call them by their English or original names,
for, much to the annoyance of Germans, every
one speaks English it and "pidgin-English" are
universal amidst all natives throughout the East.
The Malays, Cingalese, and Chinese understand
and speak nothing but pidgin-English, so that
all orders on the ship and elsewhere have to be
given in that dialect.
The Bishop told me he had expended in
Berlin 40,000 marks in the purchase of a dynamo
and plant for felling, sawing, and moving timber,
and he is about to start a brewery, which
has created wondering admiration amongst the
Germans. He introduced forty head of cattle
into New Britain, but the tick killed off most of
them. A bull and cow, landed on the same day,
caught this disease and died in two weeks on the
same day and at the same hour ! Most touching
and romantic, was it not ? First romantic cow
GERMANS AND FRENCH 79
I ever heard of. Perhaps some one will write
an idyllic poem on the subject one day. I trust
the Bishop was not engaged in the undignified
amusement of " pulling my leg."
I ask most irritating questions at times, ones
that require a definite answer. This is not nice
of me, I know ; but then, you see, I want to know.
How do they convert the natives that is the
object of the Mission, I suppose ? They " adopt "
as many small children as possible, educate them,
and teach them agriculture and what they can,
and when of age marry them, help to start them
in villages with cocoanut trees, a house, cattle,
etc. They are obliged to teach these children to
read and write German.
Now and again when I hear much laudatory
talk over German colonisation the devil prompts
me to say, " How much do you pay for a child
there ? " or " How much for a girl ? " not that
I mean to buy many to take home with me.
This Frenchman is quite a power amongst the
Germans, and they treat him with much deference.
They hold their breath as they wonderingly
retail how he has introduced electric light at his
Mission, and about his brewery and wood-sawing.
They had not thought of such things themselves.
Germans are never more flattered than when
a Frenchman condescends to them. They cherish
a sort of hereditary idea that the French are a
distinguished, high-bred, cultured, elegant race.
In the Franco-Prussian War they gave France a
tremendous beating, one she has never recovered
from ; their Prussian king was proclaimed German
Emperor in the historic halls of Versailles, and
the German kings and princes bent before him in
homage. Would it be strange if Germany showed
symptoms of " swelled head " ? Yet for long it
was not so. In the German character is a strange
8o GERMAN NEW GUINEA
littleness and meanness a kleinlichkeit, an inability
to recognise anything really and truly great
so at first they did not even recognise their own
greatness or what it was they had really done.
They were a people with a feeling of humbleness.
They had done that mighty thing brought proud
France to the dust yet somehow no one, least of
all those cold, arrogant, haughty British whom
they always call English recognised it, and even
the beaten French still considered themselves
superior.
The Germans were troubled, self-conscious, shy,
but gradually growing resentful, and particularly
so towards the " English," who patronised,
snubbed, and looked down on them whilst using
their country as a cheap place to live in or to
educate their children in. There never was any
need of this " humbleness " on the part of Ger-
many ; there was too much greatness in the land ;
she had quite enough to place her on the level of
other great nations. Yet for long neither she nor
they saw it. She blushed shyly when you con-
descendingly praised her, burned with pained
resentment when you scorned or derided her, and
gradually in her people woke up and spread a
realisation of their latent power, a knowledge
that in them was the possibility of ranking with
the greatest nations, and deeper and deeper grew
the resentment, the jealous hatred particularly of
the arrogant, supercilious "English" who trod on
corns all round and rubbed salt into every sore
and bit by bit Germany came to her own.
Now it is another tale. It is her turn. No
longer is there any feeling of humility, any con-
sciousness of inferiority; it is just the contrary.
It has been instilled into the German people that
they are " the salt of the earth," the great Coming
Race, and are no longer to rank even alongside the
THE MODERN ROMAN EMPIRE 81
greatest Powers, but are to rise above, conquer, and
supplant them. They are educating their people
in this idea, and the idea has already grown into
an accepted truth. Neither Emperor, Statesman,
nor Socialist can now stay it the German people
are awake and eager. Their day is coming it is
near at hand they see the writing on the wall.
This is a strong race, a slow-thinking, heavy,
ponderous people ; not easily roused and moved,
but once roused, once fired with an idea,
their force is not far from being irresistible.
Already they see themselves the Successors of the
Modern Roman Empire; they point everywhere
to the signs of its decline ; they illustrate it by
the history of that other great Empire ; they are
growing stronger, prouder, more arrogant, openly
aggressive and boastful. Yet they have their
limitations ; their ardour is easily damped, their
aggressiveness checked, their spirit humbled, if
you understand them.
The Roman Empire was built and held by the
sword that is not the case with the British
Empire. The Germans, like the people of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, do not realise or under-
stand that now throughout the whole globe is
scattered in strong, rich communities the fittest
of the British Race, growing in numbers, in pride,
and in ambition full of almost pitying love for their
Motherland, ready and eager to stretch forth a
protecting and helping hand in any hour of stress
that comes to her, but sternly determined to guard
and cherish for .themselves the great lands they,
in but a short space of time, have made into
practically independent nations. Herein lies the
strength and the weakness of the British Empire.
Prince and People, Soldier and Sailor, Trader
and Empire -Builder have alike cried. "Oh, wake
up ! Wake up, old Motherland ! " but yet she
6
82 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
slumbers and heeds not. Rude indeed may be
that awakening, and maybe the day is not far
off that it comes. It is a struggle between races,
great forces, not between mere countries.
In the Homeland they sit down to their feeble
aims and amusements, unseeing and unheeding,
wrapped in their insular ignorance, regardless of
the restless, ambitious, capable blood flowing from
their shores to vivify the lone lands beyond
the seas. If they see or notice, " We did it
England did it," they cry complacently and with
smug satisfaction. Would only they would wake
up into comprehension as to what has happened,
what is happening. This great, huge, unwieldy
nation blundered on its way without opposition,
almost infallible in its own eyes. Now there is
opposition strong, strenuous opposition and it is
not realised, or where realised, it is with a howl
of angry, derisive scorn How dare the jackal
invade the den of the lion and worry, snap, and
snarl ! But why does the lion allow it ? Is
she chloroformed, and feels not the treading on
her tail ? is she suffering from sleeping sickness,
or what ? It is but a feeble roar when she does
roar, and it remains a feeble roar alone ; the still-
ness in the forest is no longer that of fear and awe,
it is that of a derisive pity. ' Wake up, mother ! "
cry unceasingly the lion cubs ; but she heeds not,
is peevish, fretful, bewildered ; is she afraid ?
In their handsome Gothic Club by the Thames
the representatives of the people play about with
catch phrases and tiresome closures, commissions,
regulations, and the like, imagining because they
write M.P. after their names that they are Wise
Men. They are Conservatives, Radicals, Socialists,
Labour Members, and the like, but they are
not Statesmen, Empire-Builders, or Patriots that
they most certainly are not. Perhaps some bad
THE BIRTH OF A WORLD POWER 83
drainage or effluvium from the " dear old dirty
Thames " affects them something is wrong with
that club anyway. Outside its walls the people
are playing with politics and visionary dreams,
driving, leading, or influencing into a seething
pond of bewildering waters the members of that
club, who are struggling and splashing to get
out of it, with no idea how to do it or where
to land.
The German people for long were feebly irritated
and distressed at the very name of German colonies,
at the very idea of being " a World Power " it
made them " nervous" ; they hated trouble, were
peaceable, and liked to sit down, drink beer, rumin-
ate, and argue incessantly over England und die
Englander. They had risen to a man when
needed with a strong, true burst of real patriotism,
fought for their country, and won. They wanted
peace, and to get back into their own quiet
old stodgy, peaceable ways. I remember long ago
how somehow I got amongst some of their far-
seeing ones bent on founding new German lands,
rebellious at seeing millions of Germans flocking
to America and Australia to be for ever lost to
their Fatherland. They wrote, spoke, urged, en-
treated, but no one listened.
It was all very interesting, but Bismarck would
not have it. Once they wrote me : " Find us a
London millionaire to come and invest his money
in our pretty cocoanut plantations in one of our
new African paradises, and we promise you a
decoration, a pretty ribbon and order." Of course
it was more explicit than that ; but whilst I was
not quite sure if the decoration was for me or the
millionaire, I could only say it was not good enough
for either, and most certainly it would not be our
money that developed any German land. Also
did I find a millionaire and could do it I would
84 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
keep him for my own use, and see that he invested
in my " cocoanut plantations."
I admired and sympathised with their far-
seeing, most natural, and patriotic aims the most
clever and far-seeing of all was a lady and my good
friend; but it was entirely their own business.
Of course they would not listen to the lady-
German women should sit down at home, wash
the babies, and look after the kitchen and such
things Empire-building is not in their line.
Now it is all another tale. The German people
are awake, and a simple little telegram of a few
words did it all. A telegram roused a mighty race
into fiercely patriotic activity, into jealous rage
against a neighbour who scorned them, and into
a strong determination to checkmate and browbeat
that neighbour whenever and wherever possible.
They lost control of themselves, gave themselves
away hopelessly, and because they were not
justified, because that neighbour was not humbled
and cast down into the dust, there rose and spread
amongst the whole Germanic Race a determination
to get even with the proud Islanders by every
means in their power. If colonies were good for
nothing else, at least they would be useful as
spots from which to irritate and pin-prick the
rival.
In far lands under another flag dwelt many
Germans, peaceable, contented, respected sub-
jects of that flag ; forgetting their Homeland,
or born under other skies, growing up in freedom
and independence, scorning the tales told by the
old of the heavy military and petty police tyranny
of their German days; but then came that tele-
gram the people around remembered these were
Germans ; made them play " God save the Queen"
from morning to night ! This last roused them
to say, "After all we are Germans; why should
PLAYING THE GAME 85
not this land, other lands, all lands, be ours ?
Why need we build empires for others why
should we not be the masters ? "
So the German spirit awoke it shows no sign
of sleeping again.
The world owes much to the German Race in
many ways, and its place always has and always
must be a great one ; but it is not the only great race
by any means; happily for the world it is not so. The
widely different human races leaven and balance
each other. What a terrible, insufferable world
it would be if it was all British, or all German !
Fancy having no other nation to grumble at, to
revile or scorn it is not to be thought of ! If
the British won every event in the Olympic
Games, what would be the use of holding them at
all ? It is good to be beaten and so stimulated
at times. Besides, it is all so amusing, this game
of politics, it is so interesting to push the figures on
the board about and see which gains an advantage
here or there ; there would be no " playing the
game " if one piece won every time. The nation
that is too fond of talking about " the sporting
thing to do " is beginning to have unpleasant ideas
as to what " the sporting thing " is, and is by no
means exciting universal admiration when it says,
:< It isn't cricket ! " it is thinking a great deal too
much about the gate-money.
Daring spirit, high ideals, the love of surmount-
ing difficulties, the desire to be first, but fairly
first, the spirit that will not be beaten, the steady
endurance that leads to the overcoming, and
trifles of that sort, are really not so useless and
ridiculous after all ; they do pay, they win empires
when you realise them.
I lie in my long chair and see the seas rush-
ing past and think of these things. Then I tumble
to earth, or the deck, again, for it is feeding-time
86 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
it always is feeding-time on a ship, and a time
always welcome. The early coffee or tea, the
hearty breakfast, the " something " at eleven to
support your feeble frame, the substantial
luncheon, the afternoon tea, the important dinner,
and the final sandwich before bed to say nothing
of the cool drinks between times keep one at
least from fainting, and not only serve to pass
the time but occupy all the time; what really
selfish greedy animals we are ! I include myself,
for I never miss any of these things and have no
call to scorn them. The truth is I am very lazy,
comfortable, and tolerably happy here bored
of course frequently; but I was born bored,
and people at present are too kind to me to give
me just cause for grumbling, and it is too hot to
invent grievances. This is our little world, this
boat out here on the Stille Meer ; we are all more
or less human, and don't aspire to be angels as yet,
especially in such hot weather.
This reference to angels brings me back to the
Bishop not that I can see any great resemblance
between bishops and angels; but somehow one
has an idea that some bishops became saints,
and saints and angels move, I believe, in the same
set, and go in for the same fashion in haloes,
though they don't look now as they did when
Cimabue, Botticelli, and the rest pretended to
know so much about them. I meet so few, it is
difficult to judge. Anyway the Bishop, though
he is a good man, does not look the least like an
angel, as he has got a long black beard, and I
never saw an angel with that, did you ?
He tells me many interesting things about this
land we are approaching, and I can see has a
quite worldly satisfaction at having outwitted
the Governor and got all the land he wants.
I have heard stories in Sydney that the Ger-
PROFESSOR LUDWIG BIRO 87
mans are very cruel and brutal to the natives ;
but the Bishop denies it, and says employers
are only allowed to give obstreperous natives ten
lashes, no more a good deal no doubt depends
on the lashes.
The Professor is also interesting, and has shown
me many publications of the Buda-Pesth National
Museum is delighted I have seen that mag-
nificent city ; but as these books are in Hungarian,
Latin, and other languages, I have not read them.
Many plants and insects bearing his name were
discovered by him two butterflies discovered
by him, the Queen Victoria and the Empress
Elizabeth, are very fine. He is enthusiastic about
his work, lived for a time in a clearing in the
forest in New Guinea, and has lived with King
Peter at Petershafen on Deslacs Island, where he
is now returning. He waxed enthusiastic over
the great and whole-hearted contributions to
Science of my old friend Baron von Mueller,
the Explorer and Government Botanist of Vic-
toria, and it would have done the poor old Baron's
heart good to hear how his work was known and
appreciated in Hungary as elsewhere. I re-
member once in Rome, when the Marchese Vitel-
leschi, President of the Geographical Society there,
invited me to the rooms of the Society, the
Secretary had in expectation of my coming
collected an enormous pile of the Baron's works,
and was quite flushed with excitement to meet
any one who had known him.
To Professor Ludwig Biro the dangers from
the natives were as nothing ; I am sure he would
willingly have sacrificed his life in pursuit of
some rare plant or insect. He told me a long
tale about a curious character who has been
living on one of the islands, but who is not there
just now, so I cannot have the honour of meeting
88 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
him. This man was a clever surgeon in the
French navy, did something embezzled money I
think and was sent to New Caledonia as a con-
vict. Though his time was up he managed to
escape in a small boat with four others. After
a time they were picked up by a trading vessel.
Two died, but this one was brought to an island,
where he became a trader. He lost his right
eye and arm in an explosion. He lived on an
island with quite a harem of women, and was
accused of having murdered his wife, or one of
them. The natives are terrified of him. Many
of the natives of New Hanover and New Ireland
have been on Queensland plantations, and since
then hate and fear white men.
Frau Wolff, our lady passenger, is a stout
German lady who feels the heat much, a good-
natured, homely person ; but she is of importance
in New Guinea, because she is the principal white
woman, and, so far as I can make out, there are
only two other white women, as the other ladies
are partly Samoan. Her husband has a planta-
tion of his own inland, and so is an actual colonist,
not an official.
There are also about eight German lay-
brothers going out to the Bishop's Mission. They
are very simple, very fond of getting sea-sick at
every ripple on the sea, and somewhat childish
in their ways. Perhaps they may convert
natives, but certainly no one else. But they are
going to do work which places their lives daily,
even hourly, in peril, and are facing the knowledge
cheerfully.' In addition there are several Sisters,
also bound for the Mission, some of whom are
Australians. There are two native New Guinea
boys whom the Bishop took to Germany as
specimens of his work. They are very amusing
and somewhat impudent, and if they are good
KING PETER 89
examples of the converted native, the fewer the
better, say I. [In 1904 Father Rascher, four
Brothers, and five of the good Sisters were all
massacred by the natives at the new mission
station of St. Paul's. Their bodies, however,
were left untouched.]
The most amusing of my fellow-passengers is,
however, King Peter, who is a great character,
and a great friend of mine. Not being a Society
personage, I number very few kings amongst my
friends. I don't meet them about much, so I sup-
pose we move in different sets. I remember ,
whose ambition it was to be taken for " a smart
woman in a smart set," saying once, " Yes, Queen
Victoria no doubt a very noble, good woman
and all that, don't you know but one never
meets her about, and she is not a bit in the smart
set." Anyway, I don't know many kings
which, I am sure, is a great pity for the kings
and so feel I have " riz " with having this one as a
daily companion. I always wanted to be a king
myself, but a real one that could cut off heads.
It must be so beautiful if any one bores you to be
able to say " Kopf ab ! " and there is no more
about it. The good kings do not interest me ;
I like the ones who " wade through seas of blood
to a Throne " and have no consciences. None
of them can possibly, like me, have a strain of dour
Scottish Covenanting blood in their veins, which
makes itself felt on the most inappropriate occa-
sions and spoils everything. It ought to be a
Royal recipe for flighty kings to inject some of
this Covenanting blood into their veins now and
again ; there would be little frivolity left in them.
My fortune has been told several times, and I am
always promised " a crown," but whether it is a
Royal crown or five shillings, it has not arrived
yet. I am, however, still waiting.
go GERMAN NEW GUINEA
King Peter, however, has no Covenanting
blood. He is a Dane by birth, but now a natural-
ised German subject. I think he was originally
working at Sydney, and somehow drifted to New
Guinea and entered the service of the New Guinea
Company. He eventually became the practical
owner of the fine group called the French Islands
off the coast of New Guinea, marrying a
native lady who had some claim to their sover-
eignty, and he lives now in one of them, Deslacs,
at Petershafen called after him where there is
a fine harbour. He trades in copra and b$che-de-
mer, etc., has several Europeans in his employ-
ment and many " tame " natives. His name is
Peter Hansen, but he is universally known as King
Peter. He has now been to Sydney, where he
purchased a small steamboat, the Mato, in
which he will return to Deslacs Island when she
reaches New Guinea. He has shown me the photo-
graph of this Royal yacht of his of which he is very
proud. He has also a flag of his own which he
hoists whenever he passes the plantation of a
rival of his on New Britain. The flag is a nigger
standing on a cocoanut with his thumb at his
nose and his fingers outspread in a vulgar manner
sometimes indulged in by schoolboys and the like.
King Peter has confided all his history, hopes,
and ambitions to me, and is most pressing in his
invitation to me to go and stay a long time with
him at Deslacs Island. I have promised to do
so "in tyme coming."
King Peter is rich, or would be if he realised.
The others tell me he must be worth several thou-
sands a year. The natural growth of his islands
is cocoanut. The natives, who have their own
plantations and rights of ownership in the land,
bring all the copra to him ; he buys it for a few
red beads, paint, cloth, and such "trade " ; a steam-
COPRA 91
boat comes out from the mainland and he sells
it at 7 a ton on the spot the profit, therefore,
is great ; with his own yacht, the Mato, he
expects to do wonders. He is naturally regarded
jealously by the Germans who do not own Royal
yachts. His yarns about his islands are unceasing.
They are not actually his ; I suppose he leases some
of them there are seven beautiful islands for he
tells me he wants to buy the splendid one Merite
for 75-
About a ton of copra goes to the acre, and the
trees come to maturity in eight years. [Copra
now sells at from 13 to 25 a ton.] The trees
are usually planted 30 feet apart, but now some
plant them closely. Labour costs 10 a month.
From 6000 to 7000 cocoanuts go to a ton of copra,
and each tree produces 50 or 60 nuts a year. King
Peter adopts girl children very young, trains them
to work, and, when old enough, marries them to
" wild " young natives who are thus enticed into
working for him ! He has brought back a new
stock of " trade " from Sydney beads, cloth,
mechanical toys, concertinas, and the like. These
big ears of mine, which appear so attractive to
others that they must pour things into them,
have the misfortune or merit of letting much
pass out the other side, so that my memory does
not retain all these yarns. Even if it did, I could
not tell them again ; aber " Leben und leben lassen "
is a saying always to be remembered.
S.S. Stettin,
THE STILLE MEEK, Dec. 1900.
It is very hot swelteringly so.
Pyjamas seem the most comfortable wear,
yet we conform to public opinion, and if in white
are still dressy. The Captain and officers are very
92 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
smart in white uniforms with gold-braided white
caps and tunics.
From our high deck I spend a long time daily
looking down on the doings of the deck passengers,
who include Indian coolies, Chinese, Japanese,
Cingalese, Kanakas, Malays, and Javanese. In this
hot weather they all sleep and live on deck under
the awning. The making of toilets in the morning
is wonderful. The Javanese and Malay women
are very good-looking and attractive, and are very
neat and clean. They wear the Sarong, a checked,
coloured cloth wrapped round the legs, and a
white dressing jacket. They use, even on deck,
pretty silken cushions and elaborately frilled
white pillows. All these mixed natives are really
well behaved, and very courteous, helpful, and
polite to one another, though there have been some
rows which nearly ended in knife business. The
monkey, which pervades the place, goes the round
every morning and cleans all their heads ! This
interesting operation always takes place in public.
There is a Chinese woman on board, but she never
leaves her cabin at least, I have never seen her.
The Chinese women, you know, are very gentle,
good, and refined the glory of their land.
We have another " personage " who cannot
be ignored. This is a large white cockatoo with
a yellow crest the beloved property of the first
officer. Captain Niedermayer is for ever giving
stern orders that it must on no account be allowed
on our deck. Nothing, however, will keep it away,
so he pretends not to see it. Not that it can
really be ignored, as it is most consequential, full
of character, and rather uncanny. It tyrannises
over us all. I never saw so much and such
varying expression on a bird's face before. It
reminds me somehow of the expression on the
faces of elderly relatives who get bills young
HUNSTEIN'S BIRD OF PARADISE
(Diphyllodes hunsteint),
S.E. NEW GUINEA.
TWELVE-WIRED BIRD OF PARADISE.
BENNET'S BIRD OK PARADISE
(Drepanornis cei"vinicattda),
S.E. NEW GUINEA.
KING BIRD OF PARADISE
( Cicinnurus regius),
AREI ISLES.
To face page 92.
" PRETTY COCKY " 93
hopefuls cannot pay. It has opinions on every
subject, and is not shy of expressing them, and, of
course, talks " pidgin-English," with German or
Malay words thrown in at random to suit the
occasion. The yarns that bird has told me !
He has seen much of life, does not think much of
human nature, but is determined to get as much
enjoyment, of a sort, as possible. He is tied up
with chains or ropes to an iron stanchion or the
skylight or something, but no bonds can keep
him. He gnaws through ropes, demolishes iron
chains, digs holes in the deck, and is a perfect
fiend of mischief. Once free, you see him
stalking along the deck chattering and chuckling
to himself, saying thunderous things in different
languages and looking exactly like one of those
stout, important, white-waistcoated old men who
are " something in the city."
This bird makes straight for some one, generally
for me, never goes round anything, but climbs
laboriously over everything in the way, up one
side of a chair, over it, and down the other side,
even if a dozen chairs are on the route. Once it
reaches you it climbs up and insists upon your
scratching its poll and under its wing for hours
without ceasing. An attempt to leave off, or a
hasty movement of your hand, and it turns
instantly and rends you. It has the most power-
ful beak, and we are all terrified of it as it hurts
considerably, and I am so tattered and torn that
I shall have to go into hospital to be mended. It
does not really like me ; I feel sure it despises me,
but it is quite aware I have a terrified respect for
it and have to go on scratching for hours. It is
quite a usual thing to see every one stretched out
in silence, overcome by heat and inertia then a
sudden yell some one has forgotten to go on
scratching. If you lean over the side of the ship
94 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
" Pretty Cocky," as we sarcastically call it,
attacks the calves of your legs. With all his talk
and orders I have seen the Captain trying to curry
favour with it.
It is generally very warm and close, yet we have
had sometimes very heavy seas, with waves
breaking over us. We passed Rossell and Adele
Isles, part of the Louisiade Archipelago off the
south-east coast of British New Guinea. Rossell
Isle is large and very hilly. A ship carrying
Chinese to Cooktown in Queensland was once
wrecked on it. Three hundred Chinese were
landed on the island. When, later, a steamer was
sent to fetch them away, only three survivors
were found, roaming about the rocks and quite
mad, the natives having killed and eaten the
rest. Adele Isle has great cocoanut palm groves.
The Germans call this sea the Stille Meer,
and it generally bears out its title, and some days
have been exquisite. Passing the Lauchlan
Isles, we, however, had a very sudden squall of
wind and rain. These Lauchlan Isles are a low-
lying group covered with palms. A friend of
King Peter's lived on them for a time, and at
present they are inhabited by three white men,
copra-growing. The natives are said to be a fine
race. I asked the Captain why he did not call at
these islands and get the trade, but he said it was
not their wish or intention to be of any use to
any British possession.
Copra is, as you doubtless know, cocoanut
cut up in strips. It is packed in bags and
sent to Europe, where it is pressed for oil,
the refuse making good manure. King Peter
told me he lately got 10, los. a ton for 300 tons
of his.
The ninth day out from Sydney, about mid-
day, we came in sight of the high, bold mountains
A MONSOON 95
of New Britain (Neu Pommern) on one side and
New Ireland (Neu Mecklenburg) on the other.
These mountains seem very high, and when first
seen were wreathed in clouds round their bases.
Between them is St. George's Channel and the
Duke of York Islands. Quite suddenly we entered
the zone of a monsoon, and had a terrific gale
with heavy squalls of wind and rain. This woke
us up it was no longer the Stille Meer and I
revelled in it, as I love a great gale at sea beyond
anything. A monsoon is no joke though, and
for a time it was terrific and left us breathless ;
we were buffeted about and wondered where we
would be driven to. Even as we entered St.
George's Channel and approached the Duke of
York Islands, behind which appeared the volcanoes
known as the Mother and Daughters, we were
still in the thick of the storm, which came at us
from every direction at once. As darkness came
on I wondered what island we should go ashore
on, but did not much care. My spirits always
become exuberant in a real gale, and I love the
thought of the brave little ship battling and
toiling in this fierce turmoil of wind and sea. The
blood of my Viking ancestors, of the old jarls of
Orkney and of Iceland, is strong in me at such
times. I look back with unalloyed delight to a
fierce gale off Iceland, where we lay-to and kept
our nose to it, and which drove me wild. How
much there is in blood after all ! I realised there
the brave and daring spirit of those old Scandin-
avian jarls which made them face such storms
in their small craft.
Here enjoyment was tempered by the horrible
mugginess of the air and the demoniacal way
the winds swept round us and at us from every
direction but a monsoon is a riot of devils.
Nevertheless, we did not think of missing our
96 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
dinner, though it was a topsy-turvy meal and the
" cully and lice " went everywhere but down our
throats.
In the Duke of York group is Mioko, a beautiful
spot and the oldest settlement of the Germans.
The island is one mile long by three-quarters
broad, and has a very good station on it. It con-
tains a graveyard full of the graves of murdered
white men. A notable feature is a huge tree,
150 feet high, which is a landmark for miles. On
an adjacent isle is an English Wesleyan mission
station. It is said there is a small fish here you
may prick yourself with, and if you do you may
die with symptoms like snake bite. Sounds nice,
doesn't it ? It is probably the stone fish. Now
I will tell you a story.
Once when Captain Niedermayer was in the
throes of a monsoon or typhoon he sighted a raft
bearing some Chinese. They seemed doomed to
destruction, but somehow he managed to rescue
them, and took them to Singapore, the port he was
bound for, and he thought no more of the incident.
One day, whilst in dock at Singapore, he saw a
number of Chinese come on board and begin
decorating the Stettin with lanterns, coloured
strips of paper, tinsel, and other Chinese frivolities
accompanied by the firing of squibs. Naturally
he asked what it meant, and found that the
Chinese of Singapore were so honouring him
because he had saved the lives of their compatriots,
and they forthwith presented him with an address
expressing their thanks and deep gratitude yet
people say they have no gratitude, just as they
malign them in many other ways. People never
take the Chinese seriously, so Captain Niedermayer
was more amused than touched.
What was his surprise, however, a* few weeks
after this, to receive suddenly an autograph letter
IMPERIAL WISDOM 97
of thanks and praise from the Emperor William,
commending him for his humanity and bravery
and for so keeping up the German name ! Accom-
panying it was a magnificent gold watch with an
inscription !
How did the Emperor know of such an incident,
and so soon ? His eye and his arm are far-reach-
ing. Nothing escapes him, and they tell me he
knows everything that goes on in the N.D.L.
Service, and takes a personal interest in it all.
How stimulating and encouraging it is to his far-
away subjects to know he is with them, as it were,
wherever they are, ready, and the first to reward
and praise them if they do anything to foster
the honour and interest of his empire ! How
wise this is ! It does not affect the recipient of
the favour alone, it stimulates and encourages
all his subjects to do well, and no wonder they
work together for their Fatherland. One knows
of many a wire-pulling, intriguing nobody in our
Government employ at home, who is paid, too, for
his badly done work, who gets titles and honours
for God knows what, simply because his party
is paying him by recommending his name to the
King but that affects the recipient alone and
passes unnoticed by the people in general. Queen
Victoria and our late and present King and Queen
often did, and do, personal things to recognise and
honour some one, and how doubly grateful that
is to the favoured one ! It makes them realise
that the King and Queen belong to every one and
are in touch with every one, and wakens in them
feelings of real attachment and devotion.
The German Emperor has this clever instinct
of personally and unsolicited seeking out those it
is useful for patriotic reasons to reward, people who
perhaps have never seen him and never dream he
can hear of them. It seems as spontaneous as
7
98 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
it is well thought out. It is so stimulating and
encouraging to people to know that, though what
they may do may escape public notice or recog-
nition, yet their Emperor, who belongs to each
one individually, may hear of it and appreciate it.
Every German in the East heard of and took note
of this little incident connected with Captain
Niedermayer, and you may be sure it stirred them
up to do anything they could to foster their
country's interests. No one cares what those
toadying, place-hunting brewers, grocers, and the
like at home get they give out of their millions
a sum here or there to advertise themselves for
reasons of personal ambition, and get paid in return
by a baronetcy or a C.B. or something. That is
all very well ; it no doubt encourages the next
rich aspirant to go and do likewise, but it has
nothing to do with one's country or stimulating
people to patriotic enterprise.
They cannot understand how the Emperor
knows of or hears of the things he does out here
in the East, but undoubtedly he knows well when
and where to give the vivifying touch that is
necessary and so doubly useful and welcome when
it comes unsolicited.
At nine o'clock at night, after a struggle, we
made the anchorage at Herbertshohe, the settle-
ment on the great island of New Britain, which
with New Ireland, New Hanover, and many others
forms the Bismarck Archipelago. Little was to
be seen at that hour, as the gale continued and the
Stettin tore at and struggled with her anchors and
see-sawed about like a mad thing. Though not the
mainland, actual New Guinea, these islands are
part of that land, and I felt with joy that I had
at last accomplished one of the desires of my life,
and when daylight came would set eyes on the
Desirable Land. I sat up late so as " to push
[Photo, Kerry, Sydney .
BRITISH NEW GUINEA CHIEFS.
To face page 98.
NEW BRITAIN 99
the night on " and not have so long to wait till
morning !
HERBERTSHOHE, NEW BRITAIN,
December 1900.
When I rose in the morning I hastened on deck
to see what this new land was like. The gale
still continued in heavy squalls alternating with
quiescent lulls, the dying throes of the great
monsoon. There was a very heavy swell and a
tumultuous surf. It was a beautiful scene. A
great mass of green cocoanut palms bordered the
high green bank which descended steeply to the
surf-beaten shore, and hills of considerable height
formed a background. Amongst the palms a few
wooden houses, looking neat and pretty from the
ship, but somewhat primitive, appeared irregularly,
and at one end, some distance from what was
actually Herbertshohe, rose the large Catholic
churchsurroundedbythemanywooden-verandahed
buildings of the Mission. The church appeared
to be a most substantial, almost imposing, building
of stone in reality it is of wood and corrugated
iron painted in imitation of stone.
We have come through the worst monsoon
that has been known for over seven years. The
damage it has done has been great. The small
piers have all been wrecked, the boats dashed
ashore and carried by the wind inland in a shattered
condition, and the small steamboat belonging to
the Mission is also ashore. The settlement has
been badly selected, and is open to every storm.
It is, however, a beautiful spot.
Such boats as could manage it were soon
battling through the surf to the Stettin, the
arrival of which with the mails is a great event.
As they approached, the occupants cried shrilly,
ioo GERMAN NEW GUINEA
" Was fur Bier haben sie ? " and their mouths
were all open in anticipation of long drinks at
new, cool beer. The second question as they
approached the gangway was, " Who is this stupid
Englishman you have on board ? " the words
" stupid " and " Englishman " are always used
by Germans together. The " dummer Englander "
himself met them all at the head of the gangway
with an amused smile, and how very foolish they
did look ! In a little while they were asking to be
presented.
You see, I had the pull on all these Germans ;
I knew more parts of their Homeland than they
did themselves. I had lived among or known
some of their countrymen whose names were
very familiar to them, but whom they could not
easily meet or know, and a person who had talked
with the great von Moltke was in their eyes no
mere " stupid Englishman." Had I not drunk
my beer in the Hofbrauerei at Miinchen, in Auer-
bach's Keller in Leipzig, in the Stalle in Koln ; with
students in Heidelberg and Bonn, with cavalry
officers in the Reitschule at Hanover, or in the
Cafe Robby there ? Had I not dined at Dressels
in Unter den Linden and the countless beer gardens
of Berlin ; hobnobbed with the peasants through-
out a whole winter in the Bavarian Alps, known
something of the life of Schloss and Dorf, and were
not their customs and ways very well known to
me ? Their prejudices vanish when they know
you understand them. Then I have seen colonies
grow and develop under my eyes, and have a right
to express an opinion on how it is done. My
valuable opinions have already been sought on
various things here, and, of course, I graciously
give them, whether I know anything about the
matter or not ! But at present I am too pleased
and interested to be as scornful and sarcastic as
GOVERNMENT HOUSE 101
my nationality requires |over r the endeavours of
Germany to found a colony, and people are much
too amiable and kind to me to make it possible
for me to be patriotically nasty. They are so
anxious one should be pleased and admire all
they have done, and in this hot weather it saves
trouble to be amiable and interested and I am
genuinely interested, for the colonisation of a
new land engages my sympathies too sincerely
to let me care whose land it is. It seems to me
it must be one of the finest and most fascinating
of positions to have the power to create a great
deal out of untouched Nature. The worst is, the
grain of salt one must apply to all tales is a large
one here.
On a height above the well, the few wooden
bungalows and sheds is the house of the Governor
of all these German possessions, Herr von Ben-
nigsen, son of the well-known statesman of that
name. I remembered meeting his distinguished
father many years ago in Hanover. He, the
Governor, however, resides in a four-roomed house
lower down, which also serves as Government
Buildings. [Dr. Hahl is now Governor, and has
about ninety officials under him in the German
Protectorate.] The new Government House, a
wooden bungalow of a few rooms, was made
in Germany and shipped out. When it got to
Singapore only half of it, and a builderlshipped
with it, could be taken by the Stettin, and the
other half had to lie in Singapore for some months
till the Stettin returned for it. The wood-
quite unsuitable for the climate was all warped
and strained, and now that at last they have got
it up the white ants are going to eat it down.
Here is the most magnificent timber in the world,
and quantities of it ; but the Wise Men of Berlin
knew better than the French bishop, and never
102 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
thought of doing what he has done in using the
natural advantages of this land itself. All this
is feverishly and apologetically retailed to me.
I tell them there are Wise Men in London capable
of the same absurdities, and that consoles them.
It is a most natural grievance here that Berlin
must have a say in every trifle, but for the present
it cannot well be otherwise. The Governor's
small steam vessel lay near us. He had just
returned from a visit to the remote Carolines, of
which he is also Governor, though no doubt in
Berlin they think it is but an hour or two across
in a small boat, they look so near on the map.
The Bishop was exceedingly put out at see-
ing his steamboat ashore. Then the Governor's
boat went to pull it off, though it dared not
approach too near the surf, and Captain Nieder-
mayer dared not risk the Stettin in aiding. A
long hawser was let out and affixed to the Mission
boat, and after strenuous efforts it was at last
launched and towed out into deep water. Then
it was found that they had placed only one native
on board, who either did not understand or was
unable to obey the orders yelled at him to let go
the anchor ; so, as both boats began to drift ashore,
the Captain of the Governor's boat in disgust
cast off the hawser and steamed out to safety,
whilst the poor Bishop who, whilst this was
going on, was not the least like a bishop in
language or manner had the mortification of
seeing his prized vessel again go ashore broadside
and become a wreck before his eyes. All this
was very exciting, and the Bishop had all our
sympathy. Then at the Mission a gun was fired,
a flag hoisted, and the people of the Mission
three hundred of them all in gala attire, which,
in the case of the men, meant merely a red loin-
cloth, were seen pouring down the steep bank
THE BISHOP LANDS 103
to the shore. A large boat, manned by many
natives, was launched and after much difficulty
approached the Stettin.
Then began an exciting scene. The swell was
so heavy that the boat was dashed high up against
the gangway, and then receded many yards with
a rush. It needed agile limbs, a steady head
and nerve to step in at the right moment as
it was dashed towards the ship. The Bishop,
absolutely furious, got in all right, but his eight
followers were terrified, had not courage for the
attempt, and clung frantically to the gangway,
whilst wave after wave dashed over them. They
were in actual danger and might easily have
been washed away, but I regret to say so comical
was the scene that we on the ship were speechless
with laughter. The poor men had not sense
enough left to ascend the gangway, but clung on
to it desperately at the bottom, dashed about by
every wave. At last, in disgust, the Bishop went
off alone, and we watched his progress to the
shore. Twice his boat was overwhelmed by the
surf, but natives rushed into the water and hauled
it to safety by main force, and we saw the Bishop,
after a very brief greeting to his flock, striding
off along the shore. The Mission Brethren were
at last also embarked all upside down, and when
they reached the surf were helpless, and wave
after wave broke over them, they having a near
shave of being drowned. From the ship it looked
very funny indeed : there are always different
ways of viewing things. Sister Amigunda, Sister
Ludwina, and the other Sisters had been un-
gallantly left behind to shift for themselves, so
when the boat came back for them one of the
officers and I rushed to the gangway to assist,
but were not needed. Headed by the two
Australian Sisters they all walked calmly and
104 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
coolly down the gangway, waited for the critical
moment, and stepped in safely. Then, when they
approached the surf, we saw one stand up direct-
ing and encouraging the rowers, and they passed
magnificently and safely to the shore, whilst we
on the ship cheered, though they could not hear us.
Amongst those who came on board were Mr.
Forsayth, Herr Walin, and others.
When the Germans took possession of their
part of New Guinea and its adjacent isles, they
found installed in New Britain a half-caste
American-Samoan family who had made large
plantations at Ralum, in New Britain, and else-
where. Of the two daughters of this family,
offspring of an American father and a Samoan
mother, one, Emma, married an American, Mr.
Forsayth, and the other married a German, Mr.
Parkinson. Mrs. Forsayth, as she then was, was
the practical owner of a fine stretch of country.
The Germans confirmed them in all their rights,
as also in rights they claimed inland and over some
islands. Later, after her first husband's death,
Mrs. Forsayth married a German, Herr Kolbe,
but he is merely Prince Consort, as Frau Kolbe
who is universally known as Queen Emma
with her son, Mr. Forsayth, and her connections
the Parkinsons, manages the large Ralum estate,
a store, and all the other plantations they own,
herself. The son, Forsayth, married a lady with
Samoan blood in her, so that the whole family
is of mixed blood ; but the Samoans being a hand-
some and a fine race there is little to regret in
that. Queen Emma, all her connections, and all
in her employment speak English, and as Ralum
is near Herbertshohe, and extends along the west
sea frontage for a long distance, the Germans
eventually found they were scarce masters in their
own land, and they do not like at all that this
PIDGIN-ENGLISH 105
important family should persist in using the
English language.
It is one of the great German ideas to force
their language on all natives throughout the
south seas, and to so kill all British influence.
In all the schools reading and writing in German
is compulsory, and the Germans are most scornful
about the " pidgin-English " the universal trade-
tongue of all natives everywhere. They want
the English Wesleyan missionaries on some islands
to learn and teach German. The natives, not only
on every different island, but almost in every village,
have different dialects, so that they do not under-
stand each other, and must use one language to
communicate with each other and with the white
people, and that is pidgin-English.
They call a person's head a cocoanut and
bestow names on the whites which they deem suit-
able, but which at times are not too complimentary.
Hence they call the Governor, Herr von Bennig-
sen, " big fellow master cocoanut belong him no
top grass/' in reference to His Excellency's bald-
ness.
One of the Stettin officers they call " short
man, big belly " ! Of course every important
man is " big fellow master," and a woman is
always, as in Australia, " Mary." They speak of
one of themselves when clothed as " white fellow
black man." But since they are all to learn and
speak German, the poor things must no longer call
the Stettin a " big war-canoe," but a " Drei-
tausendtonnendampfer," which will cure cannibal-
ism, as their jaws will soon wear out.
I remember once sitting in the hall of a German
hotel where two old English spinsters were busy
with their knitting. An American girl with a
young man came in ; they looked at her and sniffed.
Suddenly the young lady walked up to the time-
106 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
table on the wall and said in an emphatic way,
'We must look up that Dampfschiff" (steam-
boat). The old ladies turned on each other with
a horrified start, " What dreadful language these
awful Americans use ! "
King Peter is not friendly with Queen Emma,
and particularly with her son, Mr. Forsayth, and
it is when passing the house of the latter that he
hoists his flag of the nigger standing on the cocoa-
nut. King Peter has a very natural pride in the
success he has attained and his position as actual
king of a whole group of beautiful islands ; but
Queen Emma is the most important person in
German New Guinea, as, besides the great planta-
tions, she owns quite a fleet of schooners and other
craft for trading purposes, and has over a thousand
people in her employment, so that others have
cause to be jealous.
Trade with the natives is all done with goods
beads, cloth, paint, and various things, and the
native money cowrie shells strung on fibre and
worth so much a fathom ; but German money,
adorned with a bird of paradise, has been intro-
duced and is eventually to come into universal
use. It will be long ere the natives understand it.
The native tribes inhabiting the different
territories and islands, and, as I said, even villages,
differ in looks, customs, and language, so that there
are many dialects or languages. Some are more
Polynesian than Papuan in looks, but, speaking
generally, the Papuans are a very fine race, well
built and fine featured. They vary in colour,
some being dark brown and others much more fair.
The girls when young are tolerably attractive,
but become wrinkled old women at an early age,
and a really old woman is a terrible-looking old
hag, generally skinny with a protruding stomach
and long, hanging breasts. The men, however,
NATIVE CHARACTERISTICS 107
are sometimes quite handsome and most dignified
in bearing. They disfigure themselves in various
ways, according to the local fashion, with tattoo-
ing, painting in extraordinary manner face and
body in colours, enlarging the ear-lobes to such a
size that they hang down to the shoulders, wearing
all sorts of things in their ears and noses. The
women wear bunchy grass petticoats, a girdle of
leaves, a wisp of cloth, or nothing at all, except,
of course, their ornaments ; the men, a wisp of
cloth, a shell, the string costume a piece of string
passed round the waist and between the legs
or are absolutely nude. They too, however, wear
ornaments of various sorts, and often of great
interest and beauty, in the way of head adornments,
armlets, anklets, breast ornaments, and ear orna-
ments. Sometimes they carry their pipe and
other things in the ear or under the armlet. They
all appear, especially when nude, quite suitably
dressed. In fact, though really nude they never
appear so, as it seems quite natural and right.
Missionaries, with the idea of Christianising or
civilising them, sometimes compel them to go
half or fully dressed. The result is that they at
once contract all sorts of diseases and die off by
the score of pulmonary complaints. It is difficult
to explain, but numbers of nude natives seem so
naturally and suitably dressed that you never
realise they are not, and the only immodesty or
indecency there is about it is in the minds of those
who think otherwise. They have no feeling of
shame, for they know of no reason they should
feel any, nor is there any.
When the men get European clothes they wear
only part at a time, and that generally on the
head. A nude native with a hat, or some garment
wrapped round his head, is somewhat ridiculous,
and when they wear a shirt they look simply
io8 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
ludicrous. A willow-pattern plate, covered with
carved tortoiseshell, is a conspicuous and orna-
mental breastplate. The hair has many ornaments
shells, feathers, and red hibiscus flowers and
they often stick a flower in their armlet as well.
They are very fond of strong scents, not always
appreciated by others. They wear also in the hair
combs and head scratchers. In painting and
tattooing they now get new designs from coloured
calicoes. As to the hair, it is sometimes like a
mop in little ringlets, sometimes like a negro's,
sometimes combed out in a frizzy mass. It is often
stained light brown, or yellow, or red, with lime,
and sometimes it even approaches the extra-
ordinary colour of magenta. Their musical
instruments are flutes, pandean pipes, and the
drum, a hollowed-out wooden arrangement, which
they beat to distraction. They are fond also of
jews' harps, and the concertina is coming into
fashion.
They all carry a small net bag over the
shoulder, with their lime-pot and betel-nut. The
latter is the fruit of a palm, is, with the lime, hot
and nasty, and makes the teeth and gums red or
quite black.
Their food is yams, bread-fruit, taro, a root
like a turnip, sago, cocoanuts, canary nuts, and
so on, besides which they have plantains and
bananas. There are, I believe, about fifty different
sorts of bananas in New Britain. Various things
of this kind are placed in a wooden bowl, mashed
together, and hot stones dropped in to boil the
water. They then cover it with layers of leaves,
which retain the heat, and it is soon cooked.
Mashed taro, covered with cocoanut scrapings,
is a favourite dish. They also eat pig, dog,
lizards, etc., and like such food decomposed. Pig,
dog, and taro rnashed up together in a large bowl
SMART WOMEN IN NEW GUINEA 109
makes a delicious stew so I am told, but I am
never likely to know if it is true.
The women bring these fruits and roots to
market in baskets slung on their back by a band
across their foreheads. A young pig costs more
to buy than a young girl. [What do the " suffer-
it-yets " think of that ?] Smart women in New
Guinea do not go in for Pekinese or other little
wheezers, the fashion with them is young pigs.
These they nurse tenderly, and such a thing as
a woman suckling a pig has been seen ! The
young girls sow their wild oats before marriage
and carry on with whom they please, and " belong
all boys." After marriage they become the
property of their husbands. If one man takes
away another's wife, of course there is a row,
but it generally ends in his paying for her. The
old women have a great deal to say in matters ;
their weapon is the universal one of woman the
tongue. The young men have to go through all
sorts of tomfoolery when they attain puberty,
and there are many extraordinary and strict
customs which must be obeyed.
The sago palm supplies thatch for their houses,
ivory-nuts, and the sago they are so fond of. The
trees in some places, especially high and dry
ones, attain to 60 or 70 feet high. The tree is cut
down, pith extracted and torn up into small
pieces, placed in a trough made out of a hollowed
branch, the troughs tilted up so that water runs
from one to the other, and the fibrous part is
washed away, whilst the sago remains at the
bottom. It is dried over a fire and left in the
sun to let all moisture evaporate. They have
also pumpkins and sugar-cane, so can have a
varied menu, to say nothing of their passion for
human flesh.
Their houses are generally built of bamboo
no GERMAN NEW GUINEA
framework on posts, the roofs and sides thatched
with pandanus or cocoanut palms. Some are
small and conical, others large, high, and gabled,
and in places are built in trees or over the water.
They generally have a stage in front, are some-
times divided into two compartments, and the
sleeping-places are mats on the floor or on a low
ledge. A chief's house can be 80 feet long, 50 feet
in breadth, and 30 feet high, and some villages have
a street of quite imposing houses. Their ' ' temples/ '
or tambu houses, are decorated with carved and
painted figures, and sometimes the war-canoes,
most beautiful structures, are kept in them, and
often a large wooden shark with a human skull
inside it. Pigs' jawbones, human skulls, and
bones add to the decoration. The men lounge
about outside as a sort of club, but it is taboo
to the women.
When anything is tambu, or taboo, it is sacred
or holy, and they protect their houses or land by
sticking crossed sticks in the ground, or by erecting
tall, carved, painted posts. This is sufficient pro-
tection, and to be taboo covers everything.
On the coast they have, of course, fish, and
now sometimes fish with dynamite, thereby getting
quantities of fish.
They are, naturally, great believers in witch-
craft, ghosts, and spirits, and make a great fuss
over the Duk-Duk, a spirit which comes at certain
times. In the islands two Duk-Duks come, in
New Guinea itself a number. It is ' all stage-
managed by the old men for their own benefit.
The Duk-Duks arrive in canoes, yelling, shouting,
and dancing, dressed in conical plaited basket
arrangements which leave only the legs visible
sort of pantomime bogies. The young men
who are terrified are drawn up in rows. The
Duk-Duks come along and beat them, they show-
MASK HOUSE AND MASKED NATIVES. NEW GUINEA.
(To face page 110.)
MASKS AND MASK HOUSES in
ing no sign of pain, and this is repeated for days.
All the men have contributed to the food for the
" spirits," who dwell apart in houses arranged
for them. Sometimes they kill and eat a youth,
and, in fact, they do as they please. When they
depart, their house and everything left behind is
burnt, but the old men have had a real good time.
How the youths cannot see through it all is a
mystery. Their masked dances, and especially
the masks, are extraordinary and fantastic to a
degree. The mask Bouses standing in a tropical
jungle are weird but picturesque objects.
Some aristocratic families retain the hereditary
secret of making poisoned arrows. A wound from
one of these produces tetanus.
The canary tree grows much. It has a blue
plum with a nut : both plum and kernel are eaten.
The blue-crested pigeons are very fond of these
plums, but disgorge the nut, hence they spread
and sow it everywhere.
The borrolong is a beautiful tree with long,
pendant, yellow-spiked blooms ; but of course
the vegetation everywhere is as wonderful as it
is beautiful, and some of the timber, such as
sandalwood and cedar, is magnificent, and New
Guinea and its islands are paradises for the
botanist and the naturalist, and being as yet
mostly unexplored, offer for long an interesting
field to scientific men.
What may they not yet discover in those
unknown silent lands ! It is said there are apes
in the interior of some places, but nothing is
known about them or what is really there. There
are many snakes, poisonous and non-poisonous,
and lizards of all sorts, the monitor being of
great size. There are rumours of a new
animal having been seen, a large marsupial
ant-eater, I believe. But perhaps there is no
H2 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
foundation for this tale. [I think it was Pro-
fessor David of the Sydney University that
member of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition
who led a party to the South Magnetic Pole
whom I heard state that he had been informed
by some person connected with British New
Guinea that he had seen the spoor of some
such huge animal. Dr. H. A. Lorentz the well-
known Dutch explorer -says that he had in his
possession for a time the foot of some huge
creature.]
Of the birds of paradise and the beautiful blue
crown pigeons it is as unnecessary to speak as it
is of the exquisite butterflies and beetles.
The natives have well-defined rights in the
land, and have evolved for themselves a wonderful
system of social government with the strictest
laws, the infringement of some of which means
death. They are very treacherous, and murders
of whites are frequent, but on the coast are often
provoked by interference with their women. As
there are countless hordes of the natives, the few
Europeans are in constant danger. The natives,
however, cannot be judged as others ; they do
not understand our ideas, and naturally resent
the intrusion of the white man into their tropical
paradise, and his constant endeavours to rob them
of what they consider theirs. They are, of course,
nearly all cannibals. Just lately the Governor
was in a room at Herbertshohe with various others
when suddenly his own boy native servant-
drew a revolver, fired at him, but missed him,
though the bullet grazed Queen Emma's arm.
You never know at what moment such things
may occur. It is with their spears and axes they
attack the whites, and these are formidable
weapons.
Herr Walin and others had just returned with
SIMPSONSHAFEN 113
the Governor from his cruise to the Carolines ;
and I think Mrs. Parkinson, Queen Emma's sister,
was of the party, as she frequently accompanies
the Governor as interpreter, knowing many of the
dialects.
On account of the squalls and the abnormally
heavy swell the captain decided to leave Herbert-
shohe, and proceeded, as did also the Stephan,
the Governor's vessel, to the station of Matupi
in Blanche Bay, a beautiful little well-sheltered
anchorage. The life of the colony for the present
depends on the Stettin, so that it is necessary
to run no undue risks.
[At Simpsonshafen, in Blanche Bay, the N.D.L.
Co. have erected a pier and large building, and I
believe the Government Settlement is to be moved
there from Herbertshohe. The steamboat line
between Singapore and New Guinea has been
abandoned as it did not pay, and a boat now
runs from Hong-Kong by the Philippines to New
Guinea and Sydney. Blanche Bay and Simpsons-
hafen take their names from the visit there in
1872 of Captain Simpson in H.M.S. Blanche.']
MATUPI, NEW BRITAIN,
December 1900.
On arriving here at this beautiful little harbour
it looked quite animated, as, in addition to the
Stettin and the Stephan, there is here the large
white steam yacht Eberhardt, belonging to Herr
Bruno Mencke, a German millionaire. This yacht
formerly belonged to the Prince of Monaco. Her
present owner is said to have 35,000 a year
a large income for Germany and I believe his
father was a rich sugar merchant. This is his
second visit to New Guinea, and he has come now
for a three years' cruise amidst these beautiful
8
ii4 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
islands. They tell me he is most eccentric, has
few interests or tastes of his own, but has brought
out as his guests several scientific men.
Matupi is an island very near the mainland, with
which it is to be eventually joined by a bridge
[now completed]. It is quite a lovely spot, beauti-
fully situated in Blanche Bay, and is dominated
by the three volcanoes known as the Mother and
Daughters the North and the South Daughters.
The Mother is quite alive and very active at times,
but the Daughters are modest creatures, quiescent,
and clothed with vegetation to almost the very
top. There are hot springs in a river running
into the bay, which is itself a crater into which
the sea has broken.
In 1878 a volcano rose in Blanche Bay. At
Cape Gloucester, the extreme west point of New
Britain, is a nest of volcanoes found by Wilfrid
Powell to be in eruption in 1877. There were one
hundred craters, large and small, erupting fire,
smoke, and fine ashes. The Father (4000 ft.) and
the South Son (3000 ft.) are also volcanoes.
The sulphur fumes from the Mother are borne
over Matupi by the wind ; so it is quite free from
fever, and one has only to glance at its German
inhabitants to see how healthy it is. Herr Walin
is a fine bronzed specimen of what a German be-
comes under such conditions, and besides being a
handsome, vigorous man, is also most pleasant
and agreeable.
In Blanche Bay lie the two Bienenkorb Inseln,
or Beehive Islands, two perpendicular rocks 220 ft.
high, separated by a few feet of water and
surrounded by deep sea. These islands are of
ideal beauty. At the foot of one, on a coral ledge
amidst cocoanut palms, is a native village with
three hundred people who live by fishing. Some
day there will be a great upheaval here, and all
AN EARTHQUAKE 115
this*beauty may vanish. Earthquakes are most
frequent.
On or about nth September 1900 there was
an alarming earthquake. Early in the morning
the natives were seen collecting on the coast and
entering the water, and at 8.30 occurred a strange
noise, followed soon by terrific thunderous reports,
and the natives threw themselves into the sea
for safety. The houses shook and swayed, the
trees bent as before a gale, and it continued every
half -hour till next morning. The water receded
fifty feet, leaving quantities of fish high and dry,
and this sort of thing went on till the 27th of
September. The Stettin, at anchor at Herberts-
hohe, was in danger, and frequently touched
ground, dragging her anchors. To the relief,
however, of the people at Matupi the Mother
remained quite normal, though frequently she gave
forth volumes of sulphurous smoke.
Matupi is a trading station of Hermsheim and
Co. (or it may be Hernsheim), a German firm
having many stations and a large connection in
this part of the world and throughout the South
Sea Islands. The island is thickly clothed with
cocoa palms, amongst which, down to the very
edge of the water, are the countless little houses
of the natives surrounded by their cane stockades.
This, of course, should have been the site of the
settlement, and not Herbertshohe, which is so
exposed, and not free from fever. The earth-
quakes must be risked. The official capital of
German New Guinea is on the mainland of that
great island, but Herbertshohe, on New Britain,
is the residence of the Governor and other officials,
and so is practically the capital.
What is called the " Station " at Matupi is
a group of wooden houses of the bungalow type,
and various wooden and iron store sheds scattered
n6 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
about amidst the palms and other beautiful
foliage. The Germans are always neat and clean
about their houses, and the square in front of
these buildings is neatly planted with most
beautiful variegated croton plants of brilliant
aspect, with a somewhat uneven tennis-court in
the centre. Long cane chairs bestrew the ver-
andahs, which have also more or less artistic
curtains. It is all most pretty and charming,
and Matupi is a most desirable spot.
The blue sky and sea, the waving green palms,
the lovely islands, the white ships at anchor, make
quite a beautiful picture. I am in a fever to
come and live in this wonderful land and have an
island of my own ! The idea has already caught
on, and all are joking about my island. Amongst
the Germans who boarded the Stettin on our
arrival they all came to lunch as a matter of
course - - was an exceedingly pleasant young
fellow, Herr Cart ; but all were cheery, friendly,
and no longer the least put out at the advent of
this dummer Englander. Men may be wild and
unconventional in such parts of the world as this,
but they are also real and true and only too glad
to mix with other white men, so few are there here.
The German colonial possessions of New
Guinea, comprising Kaiser Wilhelm's Land (the
mainland), the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon
Isles, the Caroline, Marianne, and Marshall groups,
and Samoa, comprise 243,819 square kilometres,
with a native population estimated at 452,000;
but, of course, it is not known how many natives
there are. [The total white population (1904) is
said to be 1098.] Here, in these actual New Guinea
possessions, they tell me there are no more than
three hundred white people scattered about on
the mainland and the different islands. [In
1910 the white population had not increased.]
CANOE ORNAMENTS.
BONITO FISH HUNG IN CANOE HOUSE, WITH SKULL.
To face page 116.
GERMAN POSSESSIONS 117
The Caroline, Marianne, the Marshall Isles,
and Samoa are somewhat remote from New
Guinea, so that at present in these parts there
are only these few hundred whites scattered over
a very large area, including the mainland and
islands. Leaving out Queen Emma and Mrs.
Parkinson and her daughters, I can only hear at
present of three German women Frau Wolff,
the wife of a missionary, and the nurse at the
hospital at Stephansort on the mainland. There
may possibly be one or two wives of missionaries
on remote islands, but they tell me there are not.
Kaiser Wilhelm's Land the German part of
New Guinea is 181,650 square kilometres in
extent, with a given population of 11,000 natives
though probably there are three times that and
113 whites. I doubt very much if there are even
100 whites on the mainland ; they probably
count in the traders who occasionally visit it.
The Bismarck Archipelago that is, New Britain,
New Ireland, New Hanover, and the rest to-
gether with the Solomon Isles, comprises 57,000
square kilometres. New Britain is 350 miles
long, New Ireland 240 miles long by 15 broad,
and New Hanover 40 miles long by 20 wide.
Some of the Solomon Isles are within the
German sphere and some within the British.
With the same almost insane lack of foresight
which has characterised all the dealings of the
Home Government with these seas and isles,
they allowed the best part of them to fall to
Germany. This is a real misfortune, and it is a
great pity Germany has any of them. It would
have been better for herself also not to have
them, as will be seen in time. As much as she can
she shuts them against all traders save Germans ;
others must pay a large annual licence ; whereas
the British ones are open to any one. At the
n8 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
same time she gave a binding undertaking when
she acquired her possessions in these seas to
afford British subjects all the trading and other
facilities her own people had, and which we so
freely accord to any one. What, then, does
Germany expect ? Is it to be supposed when
she pursues the policy she does that she can
have the sympathy or friendship of any one ?
There are a certain number of traders, British,
Scandinavians, and so on, scattered amongst
these isles. Most of these men live alone at
their station, often a small isle, and frequently
have a regular native harem, besides the other
natives who work for them. Each is a little
king, but his life is in daily danger. The natives
of the Solomons have always been notorious as
head-hunters and cannibals, and are the same
to-day they go one hundred miles for heads.
Bougainville, the largest and most northern of the
isles, is 120 miles long by 30 wide, has a range
of mountains several thousand feet high, and
an active volcano. There are alligators, turtle,
and wild boar in the isles ; but, on account of
the natives, they are not yet explored. Rubiana
is a headquarter for British traders, and the
largest British isles are New Georgia, Guadal-
canar, Malaita, and San Christoval.
Nothing can be more interesting than to
picture the early endeavours of the Spaniards
in these seas, as related in the MS. of Hernando
Gallego, 1566, a copy of which is in the British
Museum. Don Philip n. of Spain ordered Lope
Garcio de Castro to equip two ships and set out
from Peru to " discover a continent " and Chris-
tianise it. I like the large order " just go and
find a continent " ; but they were elated with
their conquest of Peru.
On the I9th November 1566 they left Callao
SPANISH EXPLORERS 119
in Peru. Alvaro de Mendana was general,
Pedro de Ortega Valencia, commander of troops,
Fernando Enriquez was royal ensign, and Gallego
was chief pilot. They had four Franciscan friars,
and, with soldiers and sailors, the expedition
counted one hundred men. They felt capable
of conquering any amount of continents. They
sailed about thirty leagues a day, watching the
flight of birds and flying-fish. On the I5th January
they sighted and came to an island. Seven
canoes came out and then went back ; the natives
lit fires at night and hung up flags. Now whose
flags or what flag did they hang up ? These
people were nude and brown. This was named
the Isle of Jesus. On ist February they sighted
some islands and reefs, which they named " Los
Bajos de la Candelarea," thought to be identical
with those called " Ontong Java " by Tasman, in
1643, and seen by Le Maine and Schouten, 1616.
On 7th February, the eightieth day out from
Callao, these gallant little ships, the Almiranta
and the Capitana, sighted more land, and reached
it the next evening. Natives visited them, and
they inspected the shore. On the Qth, guided by
a star in daylight, they entered a harbour with an
island, and named it Santa Isabel de Estrella, and
the island Santa Isabel, though the natives called
it Camba. They disembarked, set up a cross,
and took possession in the name of the King,
and at once commenced building a brigantine.
Pedro de Ortega, with fifty-two men, comprising
soldiers, sailors, and negroes, went a seven days'
expedition inland, and, as they put it, burned
many heathen temples one soldier being wounded
and dying. On the I5th March fourteen canoes
came to Santa Isabel and sent the general as a
present a portion of a boy with hand and arm
he had it buried in their presence as a reproof.
120 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
By the 4th April their brigantine was ready
and launched, and on the yth it left with Gallego,
Ortega, eighteen soldiers, and twelve sailors, and
went coasting, having frequent tussles with the
natives, who seem to have been exactly then as
they are now. On the I2th they came to the
island of Malaita, where they bought a pig from the
natives where did they get their pigs from, I
wonder ? These natives had beads, the same as
those at Puerto Viego in the province of Quito (now
Ecuador) in South America. This was at Pala,
now called Gala. The natives were naked,
tattooed, had many villages, and they had many
fights with them. Gallego says they " reddened
their hair, eat human flesh, and have their towns
built over the water as in Mexico " it is exactly
so to-day. A large island with a volcano was
reached igth April, and then a fine harbour, called
by D'Urville in 1838 Astrolabe Harbour. They
named the islands of Jorge (St. George Isle), and
San Marcos (Choiseul Isle), and at Santa Isabel
de Estrella found their other ships.
All leaving together i7th May, they came to
Guadalcanar, set up a cross, and took possession
for Spain, fought the natives, and record that they
got " two hens and a cock." Some of the soldiers
were killed. They named and took San Chris-
toval ; then they visited and named nearly all the
Solomon Islands. Gallego says somewhere that
they thought they were at or near New Guinea,
and goes on to say, " Inigo Ortez de Retes dis-
covered it and no other ; but Bernardo de la Torre
did not see it ; " but it was not New Guinea.
Then they saw the Marshall Isles (as is supposed),
the Isle of San Francisco (Wake's Isle), and saw
by bits of rope and nails, etc., that a ship had been
there before them what ship, I wonder ? They
had terrible times, hoisted blankets for sails, and
" A STRANGE SCOTCH PEOPLE " 121
Gallego says : " We were much wearied, and
suffered from hunger and thirst, as they did not
allow us more than half a pint of stinking water
and eight ounces of biscuit, a few very black beans
and oil ; besides which there was nothing on the
ship. Many of our people from weakness were
unable to eat any more food." After terrific
storms the Capitana, on 24th January 1569, entered
the Mexican port of Santiago, and three days later,
by some strange chance, the Almiranta, without
masts, boats, and in the last extremity, and not
knowing where she was, joined her consort a
truly remarkable thing. They left on the loth
of March, sailed down the Mexican coast, and at
" Guatuleo " sent a boat ashore ; but all the people
fled, " because," he says, " they had heard in
Mexico that we were a strange Scotch people."
Now what do you make of that ? Here were
these people in Mexico, a country conquered by
the Spaniards, visited by other Spaniards belong-
ing to the other conquered country Peru, and
they run away in fear because they think they
are Scotch ! Even if they did wear kilts, that
could scarcely have shocked people who wear, some
of them, nothing at all ! Cortez and Pizarro, the
respective conquerors of Mexico and Peru, were
friends and relatives, and so you might imagine
they knew in Mexico about the expedition of the
Peruvian Spaniards, as they would hear of it from
Spain if no other way. The Germans have a
theory that the white people, or fair-haired, blue-
eyed people who came from Titicaca calling them-
selves the Sun and Moon, conquered all the Indians,
and became the famous Yncas of Peru, were
u Irish." I say they were just as likely to be
Scots, and these people in Mexico must have
had some traditional idea that the Peruvians
were Scots or else why imagine these Spanish
122 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
Peruvians were " a strange Scotch people " ?
There I leave it.
They beached their ship at a Nicaraguan port
for repairs, but got no help ; on I4th May reached
Santa Elena in Peru, and on the 26th Don Fer-
nando Enriquez left for Lima, with the news of
the discovery of land and islands. Laus Deo /
So ended this wonderful voyage, a marvel of
courage and endurance. They were extraordinary
people these old Spaniards.
But, strange to say, the isles they had dis-
covered were lost for two hundred years.
Mendana had named them the " Isles of Salo-
man," thought they were full of gold, and was
dying to get it. The Spaniards considered them
to be the Ophir of Solomon, from which he brought
the gold to build the temple at Jerusalem. When
Drake appeared on the scene and went " look-
seeing " about, the Spaniards concealed all know-
ledge they had, so that the English would not
benefit by their experiences.
In 1595 Mendana, an old man, accompanied
by his wife, Donna Isabella Baretto, sailed again
from Peru with four ships and four hundred
sailors, soldiers, and emigrants. Fernando de
Quiros, who had been with him before, was his
chief pilot, and San Christoval was their goal.
Half-way across the Pacific they came to the
Marquesas de Mendoza (now called the Marquesas),
but another month went by ere they sighted more
land. The Capitana signalled to the other ships,
but only two replied. The gallant Almiranta did
not answer ; she never has answered, and her fate
is a mystery. She had one hundred men, women,
and children on board. Who knows but some day
yet some trace of her may be found in those un-
known isles.
At Santa Cruz they tried to establish a colony,
"AUSTRALIA DEL ESPERITO SANTO" 123
but between natives and illness they came to grief.
Mendana and his brother-in-law died ; and when
only fifty miles from the Solomons, as is now
known, they turned back and made for Manilla in
the Philippines, but one ship, the Fragata, dis-
appeared. She was said to have been afterwards
discovered ashore somewhere " with all her sails
set and all her people dead and rotten."
Again, in 1605, Quiros left Callao with two ships
and Luis Vaez de Torres as second in command,
determined to find the Solomons, that Land of
Ophir. At last he came to San Christoval, but had
no idea it was one of the Solomons or that he had
seen it forty years previously. So, still looking
for it, he sailed on till he reached a great land,
anchored in a bay, and named it Australia del
Esperito Santo. A mutiny broke out, and he
sailed back to Mexico, leaving Torres and his ship
behind. The great land is said to have been an
island of the New Hebrides, now known as Esper-
itu Santo ; but several writers of to-day, amongst
them Cardinal Moran, the distinguished Arch-
bishop of Sydney, strive to prove that Quiros
really did reach Australia and that the harbour
and island he named were Gladstone Harbour
and Curtis Island in Queensland; and it would
seem as if there is good ground for this assertion.
Curtis Island is the lone isle where Mrs. Campbell
Praed, one of the most interesting of Australian
writers, spent part of her early married life, and
about which her novel, An Australian Heroine, is
written. I myself was once nearly becoming
part owner of this large island ; but that is long
ago now. Its owner, Mr. Paterson, used to swim
his horse across the Narrows which divide it from
the mainland and make his way to Raglan, where
I met him when on a visit there. Perhaps that was
Solomon's Land of Ophir, for gold enough is there,
124 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
as near by is the most remarkable gold quarry
it is scarcely a mine in the world, the famous
Mount Morgan.
When the town of Gladstone was surveyed and
laid out in 1853 it is said that at " South Tree
Point " there was found in the sand a brass cannon,
a pivot gun about 5 feet long, with a bore of
ij inches, in very good preservation and inscribed
"Santa Barbara, 1596" (Santa Barbara was patron
saint of artillery in Spain).
High up amongst the bush on the eastern side
of Facing Island the remains of a very ancient
ship with oaks growing through her gaping sides
were discovered. The existence of this interest-
ing relic was vouched for by Mr. Friend, the
oldest surviving resident of Gladstone, and it
was inspected by Mr. Richard Ware, one of
the original surveyors of Gladstone, and by Mr.
Colin Archer of Gracemere, a pioneer landowner.
Mr. Archer had been originally a shipwright and
shipbuilder he long after this designed the
Fram for Nansen and he pronounced the build
of the vessel to be Spanish.
They also found on a projecting detached
rock at Auckland Point a carving in stone of a
man's face with a partly obliterated date below.
At some remote period timber had been cleared
at South Tree Point, two wells sunk and lined
with " imported timber." There were traces of a
building, and " a stone erection had been founded
some feet in the loose soil." A large block of
stone with smooth sides was marked with crosses,
and was thought to have been an altar.
Mr. William Archer, the well-known author,
is a relative of the Mr. Archer of Gracemere whose
name is given.
[Mr. William Archer writes that his uncle, Mr.
Colin Archer, mentioned above, and now resident
A DOUBTFUL STORY 125
in Norway, has no knowledge of these facts, and,
if true, it must have been another member of the
family, now dead, who is referred to. The story
is given in official Queensland publications, but
is doubtful. Also the account given by De Quiros
in his memorial to the King of Spain goes far to
demolish the theory that his port of Vera Cruz
and Gladstone Harbour are identical, as he men-
tions the population being great and of various
colours " whites, yellow, mulattoes, and black,
and mixtures of each." They own no sovereign,
but group in tribes " little friendly towards each
other." Their fruits are six sorts of plantains,
almonds of four sorts, large strawberries of great
sweetness, ground nuts, oranges, and lemons ;
they have sugar-cane, pumpkins, beets, and beans,
and they have also pigs, goats, hens, geese, part-
ridges, turtle-doves, and pigeons this will never
do as a description of any part of the Queensland
coast at such a date. If there were white people, De
Quiros could have learnt something of their origin.]
Torres thought it was only an island, and left,
and, sailing through what is now called Torres
Straits, eventually arrived at Manilla.
Quiros had missed, as he thought, the Solomons,
and his Australia del Esperito Santo had been
declared to be no continent, but only an island,
yet he was not cast down. He went to Spain,
addressed fifty petitions to the King, and in 1614
set sail for Peru, but died at Panama. Then for
one hundred and fifty years the Solomons and
their natives were left to their own devices, strange
as it may seem.
In August 1766 the Dolphin and Swallow,
under Captains Wallis and Carteret, left Plymouth,
and after passing through the Straits of Magellan
lost each other. Carteret on the Swallow sailed
on, sighted and named various islands without
126 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
having the least idea they were the Solomons, as
has since been proved.
In 1790 Dalrymple, in his Historical Collection
of Voyages, declared that New Britain, discovered
by Dampier, and the lost Solomons were one and
the same. Captain Cook also believed this.
King Louis xvi. of France in 1785 ordered La
Perouse to go out and decide the question, but his
expedition came to disaster and he perished.
Then D'Entrecasteaux, in search of La Perouse,
visited these isles, but did not guess they were the
Solomons. It was Dumont d'Urville who in 1838
established their identity. Then came traders
and missionaries to be tilled, and in 1851 the
yacht Wanderer, with her owner, Mr. Boyd, went
cruising among them, but Boyd was killed and the
yacht eventually wrecked at Port Macquarie
in Australia.
Even now these mysterious isles are unexplored,
and almost uninhabited save for the head-hunting
cannibal savages who worry the traders. And
where is the gold ? No, I am afraid Solomon's
Ophir was not here, but was, after all, in Australia ;
and that Cardinal Moran is right as to its being
the Great Land of Quiros, but that there is some
confusion as to what places that explorer is refer-
ring to.
This is no doubt all very boring, but it is not
to me, for I seem to see those gallant little ships
of long ago sailing and tacking amidst this wonder-
land of beautiful isles, which to-day are almost
as they were then, and in most cases are un-
changed.
I wonder if there are any boys, real boys, left
now who ever read about such things and desire
to emulate them ? I once lived much near a
" crammer's," where scores of boys men, they
called themselves were preparing for their ex-
MATUPI 127
animations to be soldiers of the Queen, and saw
much of their life and heard much of what they
thought, but none of them seemed to care for
anything save the passing amusement of the
moment, and least of all did they know or care
anything about the military history of their
country or the profession they were going to
what is the word adorn, is it ? What do people
care about nowadays ? Bridge, golf, motors !
Let us get back to Matupi. With Captain
Niedermayer and the two Englishmen from the
second class I explored Matupi, we who were new
to it being deeply interested. The natives have
very small grass houses varying in appearance,
surrounded by fenced-in enclosures in which they
grow bananas. Even in this small island the
people seem to swarm, and there are hordes of
merry, mischievous, taking children all happily
clad in their own natural beauty and wide smiles.
Most of the men here have the lobes of their ears
enlarged to an enormous size ; a few wear a strip
of red cloth, but most are quite nude. All these
people suffer much from ringworm and other skin
diseases, especially the children. They seem all
to speak pidgin-English. There is a school with
a native teacher, a mere shed with packing-cases
for seats. Many magnificent bread-fruit trees
and cocoa-palms are scattered about ; but all
these islands are tropical jungles filled with palms,
ferns, orchids, and all sorts of beautiful plants and
trees unknown to me. I feel terribly, shamefully
ignorant when I look at them and don't know
what they are, but no one seems able to tell me.
At a point of the island we visited a store
belonging to a Chinaman, Ah Tarn, who is also
an excellent boat-builder, and the only one any-
where, so he is a valuable addition to the colonists
of this country. He has also a boarding-house
128 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
for Europeans, but no boarders in it. Chinese
are not allowed to own land here, yet they say
he is quite rich, as he deserves to be. What would
such lands do without these industrious, clever
Chinese, who are so quiet, peaceable, and orderly,
and invaluable in so many ways ? I bought
native money cowrie shells from this man, and
we all remained with him for some time, yarning.
Messrs. Walin and Kooman the latter married
to a niece of Queen Emma entertained us to a
whisky and soda at one bungalow. It was a most
comfortable and tastefully tended house. Herr
Walin told me he had just bought a " beautiful
group of islands " for his company, Hermsheim and
Co., from the natives for 7, los. in trade, which
meant about 3 in money ! Captain Nieder-
mayer burst out laughing at the look of desire and
greed that came into my face for my island or
group of islands is being much discussed. Walin
said it took him a whole day to bargain with the
natives, as they did not want to sell . He bargained
through an interpreter, and the natives said they
understood what they were doing !
The system of land purchase here, so far as I
understand it, is as follows : Permission is first
obtained from the Governor to bargain with the
natives for their land. They never want to part
with it, but are dazzled with the concertinas,
scarlet cloth, beads, and other "trade" displayed
to them, and cajoled into agreeing to sell. They
seldom understand what it is all about, but are
supposed to do so, and to agree to part with it for
a small sum in " trade." Having got your land,
island, or whatever it may be, for some trifle, as
little as you can, you then have to buy it again
from the Government. What you pay depends
on who you are and how the Governor likes you.
You may get it for almost nothing, or be asked a
KEEPING THE DOOR SHUT 129
prohibitive price. The same rule applies to a
British subject or one of any other nationality,
but as the Germans are strongly opposed to any
British coming amongst them, the Government
asks a price they know the applicant cannot give.
I do not think the Germans are much to blame
in doing this for the present as regards British
applicants. They are as yet a young and small
community, have trouble enough with the natives
as it is, and do not want complications with the
British, and fear that many British who would
probably be Australians would be difficult to
deal with. All this is true and from their point
of view very natural, but, of course, at a future time
it must be different. They are sensitive to criti-
cism at present and nervous as to losing full control,
and I sympathise with them. In years to come,
when the white population has increased and the
unknown lands and islands are explored and
opened up, they will be forced to keep the open
door for us as much as we do for them. Then it
must be remembered that at present many of the
British traders, beachcombers and the like, who
find their way in vessels to these little-known isles,
are often most undesirable characters who behave
badly to the natives, create trouble and bloodshed,
and it is the Germans who suffer. They do the
same themselves, of course, but if there is trouble
through Germans they are more easily dealt with.
This should be remembered and some latitude
accorded Germany in this new land as yet ; but,
none the less, we have the right to equal and fair
treatment with their own people. Was theirs not
such a mean and little " dog-in-the-manger "
policy in its entirety they would receive more
sympathy than they do. They have yet to find
their feet, and, since they are there, it is only right
we should be friendly and considerate and be on
9
130 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
good terms with them. Good colonists as they
are under us or America, they have not yet here,
at least learnt how to colonise for themselves.
Personally, no one ever resented or resents
the stupidity of our Home Government more in
ever making it possible for any Foreign Power to
be here at all than I do, as I can foresee the trouble
that will arise in the future should it long remain
a German possession ; but, since they are here, and
legitimately here, I feel a real interest in their
progress and much sympathy with their present
aims and endeavours to develop this land. Of
course, they have done little, wonderfully little,
since they gained this new territory, but then it
has all been done from Berlin, and the place has
not a chance. They all know that here. As
usual with Germany her colonists are officials,
mere paid servants dying to get back to Germany
and comfort, and often caring little about the
country here. It is themselves, their interests
and possible advancement, they think about
mostly. Till population increases it cannot be
otherwise. Fever and natives kill so many that
others are not tempted to come out.
What my friend, Baroness Frieda von Billow,
has written so much about in connection with the
German African colonies applies equally here.
How she would stimulate and wake up these
people in this colony !
We took on board the Stettin a large cargo of
huge shells which go to Germany for the making of
buttons. It gave me an opportunity of seeing how
the Papuans worked when engaged as labourers.
They entered into it with zest and apparent enjoy-
ment, but their antics and want of method created
much amusement. The noise they made was
infernal; they "sang," how I wish you could
have heard them ! chattered, and screamed in
CANOE ORNAMENT, SOLOMON ISLANDS.
PIPES AND FLUTE, NEW BRITAIN.
AN IDOL, NEW GUINEA.
FLOAT FOR A FISHING NET,
FROM SOLOMON ISLANDS.
WATER-JUG, NEW BRITAIN,
To face page 130.
A BILLIARD-ROOM 131
the most shrilly tones. Yet they could be trained
to work, and are strong and willing enough.
With the Captain, the Doctor, and Professor
Biro I escaped ashore from all this. We went to
Herr Thiele's house at one end of the island. He
is manager for the company, but is away just now.
The absence of a host made no difference, and his
boys rushed to attend to our wants. The house
fronts Blanche Bay, is the usual bungalow, but
very comfortable, and so were the chairs on the
broad, shady verandah. We spent a whole after-
noon there, our own hosts, and even entertaining
Herr Kooman to a drink when he came. A very
pretty garden full of Chinese vases and terraces
of brilliant flowers descended in front to the sea,
and around rose the volcanoes, the Mother and
Daughters. A lovely soft breeze cooled the air,
and it was all delightful. This seemed to me an
ideal spot surely one could dwell peacefully and
happily amidst these beautiful surroundings. Of
course, the volcano and the earthquakes are a draw-
back. A musical instrument played for us all the
time, and, it not being too strident, we quite en-
joyed its mechanical rendering of well-known airs.
Near by a detached wooden building was the
billiard -room. This room would have excited
admiration anywhere. Its white walls were
decorated artistically with native weapons and
ornaments. As these are most interesting in
design and artistic in their colours of red, brown,
black, and white, the effect was really beautiful.
The designs of these native productions are
wonderful ; many resemble the old Celtic designs
one finds on the Irish or West Highland crosses
and tombstones. The carving, too, is astonishing
when it is remembered they are all carved out of
solid wood with bits of hard shell or flint, for it is
only now the natives are entering into the Iron
I 3 2 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
Age. Their canoes, most beautifully decorated,
are hollowed out of tree trunks. But most people
are familiar with these things in museums.
Herren Walin and Cart later entertained us to
beer and whisky-and-soda at their residence.
The same night there was a gathering at Herr
Thiele's billiard-room. Captain Fort of the yacht
Eberhardt, Captains Knut and Niedermayer, our
first officer, Dr. Dunckler of the Eberhardt, and the
Stettin doctor were all there, and later Captain
Dunbar, Walin, and others joined us, so it was a
large gathering. We played billiards, had many
drinks, many songs, and much music, and got back
to the Stettin very late. All these people, especi-
ally the Captains, were full of jokes, stories, and
reminiscences, so I was in very good and amus-
ing company. My recollections of Matupi and
Blanche Bay are likely to be pleasant and enduring.
Every one is amused and interested in my
desire for an island or group of islands, and in
hearing what I would do with them. It was the
universal verdict that the great Admiralty Group
would just suit me, and nothing, they thought,
would be easier than for me to acquire it !
These islands were discovered by Schouten in
1615, and were visited by the Challenger, but as
yet are little known, though now more visited.
A Scotsman called Donald Dow lived for a time
on them collecting beche-de-mer , but what became
of him in the end I do not know. They are a great
source of trouble, as the natives are very fierce
and warlike. Various whites have been attacked
and killed there, and the Moewe had to go and
retaliate and punish, killing many natives and
capturing others. So, of course, any white man
landing on them runs a good chance of being
killed and eaten.
" Now," I said, " do you think I do not see
A TRAGEDY 133
through your little game ? You would like me to
take these islands, establish stations on them all,
with Englishmen in charge. Then when we had
civilised and opened up the islands, decimated
as many natives as'we could, and been killed and
eaten ourselves, you Germans would step in and
reap the benefit." This was so exactly what they
had thought that they all burst out laughing and
owned up.
' No," I said, " I should put as many Germans
as I could get into all my stations, and when they
had done enough killing and been killed in their
turn, then I should introduce a number of British,
and where would you be then ? "
f< If ever you get those islands, or any islands,"
said young Cart, " just you engage me. I will
serve you faithfully, that I promise you, and I
never knew any one I would sooner serve than
you."
I said I would remember, that I believed him,
and made all due acknowledgments. Then I
said [I shall always remember those idle words
spoken in jest], "That would be splendid; you
could be killed and eaten instead of me. Prepare
yourself for it."
[Here I must insert what did happen, and
what has caused me to remember those idle words.
This young Herr Cart (I have read somewhere
that his name was not Cart, but Caro, but I am
not sure what it was) entered the service of Herr
Mencke, the millionaire. They went to the island
of St. Matthias in the yacht, and landing there
had a fight with the natives. Herr Mencke was
wounded and died two days later, Cart and many
of their escort were killed. The body of poor
young Cart was never found, and it is believed
he was eaten by the natives. Some say he was
not eaten, but how can they know ? I do not
134 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
know all the details, but the bare facts are suffi-
cient to show how every man carries his life in his
hands in these islands.]
In all these islands, especially in New Britain,
the natives are great cannibals [since 1900 many
whites have been killed]. They even organise man-
hunting expeditions. In 1897 a man was killed
and eaten at Ralum, Frau Kolbe's estate, and
quite near Herbertshohe. Fortunately they do
not like white man's flesh, as it is too salt and
tastes of tobacco and alcohol, and they are afraid
of his spirit. When a man is killed and eaten, part
of the flesh, wrapped in leaves, is sent round to
friends as a delicacy, the women generally getting
the breast, which they like much. One idea of
the natives is that when they eat a man his strength
and wisdom enters into them. It will be remem-
bered that in 1801 the well-known missionary,
Chalmers with another, Tomkins was killed in
British New Guinea and their steamer plundered.
When Queensland sent an expedition to avenge
this they found that thirteen of Chalmers' party
had been killed and eaten, and only a few parts of
the body of Chalmers were found. They burnt
eleven villages and blew up all the war-canoes
with dynamite.
Even fifty kilometres from Herbertshohe all
the country is unknown and the natives most
troublesome, and even that part called the Gaz-
ellenhalbinsel is not properly explored. In the
Solomons, or nearer at hand in New Hanover and
New Ireland, as well as on the mainland, it is just
the same.
It was on New Ireland that the famous expedi-
tion of the Marquis de Ray came to such a tragical
termination. This Frenchman, a Breton, got
peasants and others, mostly Bretons, to realise
all their possessions, placing all in his hands, to
MARQUIS DE RAY'S EXPLOIT 135
go to a wonderful paradise he described to them,
where they would all have the most beautiful
farms flowing with milk and honey. Having got
their money, he looked at a map and thought
New Ireland would do as well as any place,
chartered two crazy ships, the India and the
Genie, placed 300 emigrants men, women, and
children on each, and sent them off. This was
in 1880. They were landed at Cape Breton, in
New Ireland, and left there without food, clothes,
houses, or arms. Statues of de Ray and of the
Virgin were also landed and erected side by side !
Some got away in boats, many died of fever
and hunger, and, of course, the natives had a say
in matters. The survivors were eventually taken
to New Caledonia and later to Australia, where
some became farm labourers. A newspaper called
La Nouvelle France was published at Marseilles
and continued to be issued long after the colony
was extinct, always giving glowing details of its
progress and riches ! The Marquis de Ray was
sentenced to some years' imprisonment. (I believe
a survivor of this expedition is still resident in
New Britain.)
On Bougainville one member of the expedi-
tion, an Italian, who became imbecile, lived long
with the natives and became a cannibal. He
was eventually bought as a native for two toma-
hawks by the crew of a trading vessel, who thought
to sell him for 25 in Queensland, but on finding
he was an Italian left him at New Britain. This
did not happen in far back ages, but not very many
years ago.
I was sorry when we left Matupi, after some
days, and returned to Herbertshohe, where there
was still a heavy swell on and traces everywhere
of the great monsoon and the damage it had
done. Matupi was so sheltered we had scarcely
136 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
realised what was still going on. There was
scarcely a whole boat left in the place. Ah Tarn,
the Chinese boatbuilder, would have his hands full.
HERBERTSHOHE, NEW BRITAIN,
December 1900.
As soon as we returned here I went ashore
with King Peter and Professor Biro. I have such
peculiar tastes that I really enjoyed the tussle
through the surf. The night before one of the
missionaries coming in his boat from an outlying
station was upset in the surf, escaped with his
life, but lost boat and all else the Bishop would
be pleased !
The instant we landed on the beach my eyes fell
on a really characteristic German touch, for there
was a board with the well-known police notice,
"Fur Fussgdnger verboten." Fancy this familiar
sign out here in New Britain ! I remember an
officer's wife in Germany saying anent these
notices, " There is more forbidden than allowed
in Germany." [Herr von Hesse- Wartegg, who
was in New Guinea after I was, refers to this in
his book, excusing it, and says it was to prohibit
foot-passengers walking on " the little railway" ;
but this little railway is so small one could not
see it.]
I looked about the notice referred to a steep
little narrow path leading to the top of the bank,
so we obeyed the notice and walked up alongside
the path, not on it.
We went at once to the Catholic mission, which
is called Kuningunan, or Vunapope. We were
cordially received, and the Bishop entertained us
and showed us all his buildings. The church is
of iron and of good design, and, being painted
outside to look like stone, is quite imposing. The
THE CATHOLIC MISSION 137
heat inside under the iron roof was overpowering.
There is quite a village of buildings round it the
most imposing settlement in German New Guinea.
Quite a large new house was in process of building
for the Bishop's palace for the church is, pro-
perly speaking, the cathedral. There were various
separate buildings for the missionaries, Sisters,
and children, all very airy, bright, clean, and well
kept. The numerous children seemed very happy.
Sister Amigunda and the rest told me they were
quite delighted with their new home. The hos-
pital contained only one patient, a dear little boy,
a son of King Peter's. He has also a little
daughter being educated here, the dearest little
princess of the French Isles you ever saw ! She
was so delighted to see her father again, and
adopted me on the spot, coming of her own accord
to put her hand in mine, and sticking to me most
trustfully all the time. She had beautiful dark
eyes, was very pretty and taking, and I am so
terribly weak about children that I was taken
captive at once. Indeed, all these native or half-
caste children were very bright, pretty, and
graceful.
The Mother Superior and the Sisters several
of whom, from Sydney, were English or Australians
entertained us at their house and were all so
cheery. The schoolgirls nice, happy-looking girls
sang songs for us very well. The Sisters wore
cool and becoming white and blue robes, and
altogether it was hard to believe we were in wild,
remote New Guinea amongst the cannibals.
Here also were several native women captured
in the Admiralty Isles by the Moewe at the
time of the fight, and brought away as a punish-
ment for the murders done there. The Sisters
had clothed them fully, but the poor wretches
looked most unhappy and could not be reconciled
138 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
to the situation. Imagine these absolute savages
being suddenly brought into all this, and how
terrified and bewildered they must be ! No doubt
they awaited some dreadful death . Their strained,
anxious faces were not pleasant to see.
One of them had a little child with her, and
when I approached and held out my hand to it
she clasped it to her convulsively. I waited with
outstretched hand and the little mite suddenly
toddled to me with glee, gurgling all over with
delight, and put its little paw in mine at once.
The anguish on the mother's face was almost
startling she evidently thought I was going to
take it away, or kill and eat it perhaps probably
thought the arrival of us men meant her own
death who can say what was in her mind ?
But I knew just what to do to make her under-
stand I was no enemy. I moved beside her,
placed one of her little kiddy's hands in hers,
closing hers over it with a nod and a smile, but
still holding the other little paw. She gave a gasp
of relief, and the wannest of smiles broke through
the anguish on her face. Just then I could
see right down into that savage woman's heart,
so I just kept on looking, smiling and nodding
at her whilst I tickled the crowing child. In a
few minutes she was at ease with me, smiling
at the antics of the little one, whilst the Sisters
were absolutely delighted, as it was the first sign
she had given of any feeling in her stony despair
since they had had her. She perfectly understood,
as I knew she would, what I meant by closing her
hand over the child's that it was hers, and that
I did not mean to take it away. We left her
looking pleased and wondering. She and the
others did not know that after some time they
were to be returned safe and sound, laden with
presents, to their own island. I wonder what she
PRINCESS ANGELA 139
would tell her cronies at the first evening party
or afternoon " At Home " when she got back, as
to the strange people who had not eaten her ?
Then we saw the half-caste school for the
[< better classes " nice-looking, well-mannered
children, and amongst them a Parkinson boy.
Dear little Princess Angela Hansen belonged to
these, and was by way of showing me round
and not at all inclined to leave me, nor I to leave
her. They played the piano for us, sang, and
showed their needlework.
All this is very pretty, interesting, and nice
but what is to become of these educated half-caste
children ? The little girls when they grow up,
educated and taught refined ways and useful
things, can never marry Papuans, of course. Some
will doubtless become teachers, some may marry
Germans, but many will be sought as mistresses
for the European men. That must be their fate.
Many of these half-castes are the offspring of
the native or Malay girls who live with the Germans
no house, indeed, is without its half-caste child
on the verandah. The Germans " marry " these
girls young and get rid of them when tired of them ;
but some of the Malay girls are very attractive
and keep their lord's house in perfect order, and
the men get so attached to them that they do not
part with them. In some cases they have legally
married them, but that means that they can never
return to Germany with these wives and families.
It is all a great pity and a huge mistake, as the
first colonists born in the land are half-caste.
As to the real natives, the Mission " adopts"
small children, educates them, teaches them agri-
culture and other useful things, and proposes when
they are of suitable age to marry them to one
another, set them up in villages with some cocoa-
palms, cattle, and so on. All this has been tried
140 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
elsewhere and long ago, and the result has never
been satisfactory. The Mission claims to have
made many thousands of converts !
The Mission was first founded in 1845, when
Bishop Epal and twelve missionaries sailed from
Sydney for the Solomons most were killed and
eaten. A fresh start was made here in New Britain
in 1889. The Bishop has eleven other stations on
the islands and mainland. Archbishop Navarre
and two bishops are the heads of all the Catholic
missions in this part of the world. I believe Mr.
Parkinson presented them with 1000 acres here
or elsewhere. A Wesley an mission was founded
in 1875, and has now various stations in the Archi-
pelago.
It is to be hoped they will not take to clothing
the natives, or they will all die off of pneumonia
at once. A piece of red cloth which they can drape
about themselves as they please on gala days is
all that they want. These natives, when taken
away from their homes, frequently die of home-
sickness.
Let them send out from Europe a batch of
German girls, who will find eager husbands await-
ing them, and so people this colony with a white
race. A simple, homely bourgeois German girl
would here find herself a person of importance.
You cannot people a colony without women, and
they ought to be white women.
A deluded band of people men and women
set out from Germany to live here in this colony
:< the simple life," that is; to discard all raiment,
as the natives do, and live in the sun. Their
primitive Garden of Eden soon came to an end,
and such of them as survived returned to a more
conventional existence.
From the Mission a path no made road or
street wanders along the bank to Herbertshohe,
QUEEN EMMA 141
which is a mere scattered collection of a few wooden
houses and iron stores. It is not laid out in any
way as a sort of encouragement to people to
inhabit it or make a town of it. There are no
shops there is not a tailor, shoemaker, baker, or
any thing else in all the German possessions merely
here a store of the New Guinea Co. Every single
thing wanted must come from Singapore, Australia,
or from Germany. Anything to be repaired must
be sent away. It is surprising to find this, the
residence of the Government, such a primitive
place, and I do not understand the reason. There
has been time enough for the place to have become
a regular town. I believe some attempt has been
made at a road for a short distance inland, and
there is one through Ralum, but at Herberts-
hohe is nothing at all. There is a native hospital
a shed with bunks. I went through it and, dis-
regarding doctors, gave the few patients cigarettes,
and they were delighted. I then went into the
New Guinea Co.'s store, but could find nothing
to buy. Then I went to Frau Kolbe's store and
bought a collection of New Guinea weapons, idols,
and curios. These stores are full of red cloth, red
paint, and red beads for trading with the natives.
I walked about all over the place and amongst
the natives, then, joining the others, we lunched
at the hotel for there is one with Herr and Frau
Wolff, and had a long yarn about many things.
The market was going on in the road outside, so I
went out with Frau Wolff to inspect everything
they had and witness some bargaining. She, of
course; had to bargain like this for everything.
They have about sixty half -clad native police
and revel in drilling them.
Mr. Forsayth took me into his office to introduce
me to his mother, the famous Queen Emma, or
Frau Kolbe, to whom a presentation is de rigueur.
142 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
Her father and her first husband having been
Americans, she has a very assured position, not
lessened by the fact that she is the owner of Ralum
and so much other wealth. She owns, too, quite
a fleet of boats. She manages all her affairs
herself, queens it with a rod of iron over everybody,
and has at least twelve hundred people in her
employment. She is now the earliest European
resident.
[Miss Pullen-Burry, in her book In a German
Colony, says of Queen Emma : " She came to
these shores from Samoa in a small trading vessel,
with a few followers, and a revolver at her belt,
when she began operations by trading with the
natives in European goods." For particulars of
how Queen Emma marries and divorces the natives,
so settling their grievances, I must refer the reader
to Miss Pullen-Burry 's clever and amusing book.]
She is very stout, very dark, was dressed in red
and white flounced muslin, very busy at her bureau,
and smoking cigarettes when we entered. A glance
was sufficient to see that here was a capable,
clever woman, of marked power and character,
had I not already known it. She offered me a
cigarette, and was most gracious and condescend-
ing, as a royal lady should be ; but I expect she
regarded me as a necessary infliction. She told
me she had never had the fever which is an
unending topic of conversation here. A young
New Zealander in the Forsayth store told me she
had had it scores of times. I was interested in
seeing this famous and important lady who will
remain a marked figure in the history of this land
as I had heard so much of her, and she quite
impressed me. What is it not to have a personality,
to be distinct from others ! and how such a person-
ality leaves its mark everywhere and influences
others ! Yet how few have it ! Queen Emma
ROYAL POSSESSIONS 143
is perfectly capable, I am sure, of ruling all New
Guinea, and doing it well in fact, I believe it
would be the making of the country to let her
do it.
[I am told, 1910, that all the property and
plantations of Queen Emma and her company
are valued now at over 150,000, and are for sale.
These royal possessions are situated in many
desirable spots on various islands, and well worth
a large sum, as their value must increase with
population. It is probable that rubber will
become here, as elsewhere, a source of revenue.]
The young New Zealander a quiet, gentle-
manly, nice-looking youth I felt quite sorry for.
He was just a paid employee in the store. He
suffered terribly from the fever and the climate,
and was sick to death of New Britain and his life,
longing to get back amongst his own countrymen
again, but saw no chance of it. I invited him to
visit me on the ship for dinner and a chat, and he
accepted eagerly, but never turned up, and some
one told me afterwards that I had made him feel
more homesick than ever. I could understand
that.
Mr. Forsayth then took me to his own house
near by, and introduced me to his wife and chil-
dren. The lady was pleasant and good-looking,
also with a strain of Samoan blood in her. In
the dining-room were many beautiful native
curiosities well arranged. The dining- and billiard-
rooms are in a separate house, as all the staff dine
with them. It is pretty and well laid out, with
flower-beds amidst the palms. How the Germans
can see all this, and not make Herbertshohe better,
is curious. A young German who was there took
me back to the ship ; I forget his name, but he is
engaged to one of the Miss Parkinsons, a niece
of Queen Emma.
144 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
The next day half of the inhabitants came
on board Walin, Kortz, Forsayth, Kolbe (Queen
Emma's husband), and amongst them Mr. Parkin-
son, a most pleasant and gentlemanly man, who
is a great authority on all the islands and the
native ways and customs, and has written several
books on these subjects. From his name and
looks I took him for an Englishman, but he told
me he was a German, and that his family had been
German for generations.
[I might here recommend to any one interested
Mr. Parkinson's well-illustrated and most interest-
ing work, Dreizig Jahre in der Siidsee, though I do
not think it has ever been translated into English.
It teems with interesting information, and is cer-
tainly the most valuable book published on German
New Guinea.]
When I came in to lunch and found all this
crowd there, Captain Niedermayer asked me
would I mind for once taking a seat not my usual
one, which, of course, I did not mind, especially
as, being a Scottish Highlander, wherever I sit
is " the head of the table." Then King Peter
entered, gave a look at his hated rival, Mr. For-
sayth, seated in his place, and left the saloon. A
message was then brought to the Captain that
King Peter demanded his own seat, was a passenger,
and was not going to be so treated ! The Captain
repeated it out loud, got into a passion, and a
terrific uproar ensued. King Peter got his seat,
but the uproar went on, and was continued on
deck, where King Peter, the Captain, and Herr
Kolbe nearly came to blows ! It was a long,
simmering feud at last bursting into open flame.
Germans have no control over themselves, and
scream, shout, and shake their fists at each other
in a perfect passion of nervous rage. I regret to
say I coolly sat down and regarded it all as if it
A BEAUTIFUL DRIVE 145
was got up for my benefit, which exasperated
every one a naughty devil possessed me for the
moment. They annoyed me by all this nonsense,
so I took it out of them that way. Afterwards I
had to be peacemaker, calmed down the captain,
and gave King Peter a real talking to, which he
took like a lamb, and promised to be good for the
future !
Whilst the mailboat is in, the inhabitants all
come aboard to meals, and for a new atmosphere
and fresh beer, and there are high jinks. The deck
afterwards is strewn with rows and rows of dead
soldiers empty beer bottles. The captain does
not approve of this, but cannot and does not like
to prevent it, and says that some time he must end
it if more passengers begin to use this route. Very
few do so at present, as from Australia they take
the China mailboat via Torres Straits.
[Herr Hesse- Wartegg in his book says that
when he was at Herbertshohe the people all came
out crying for beer and ice, and asking, " Have the
English had another beating from the Boers ? "
They no doubt rejoiced heartily at news of every
disaster to the hated " English," just as they did
openly and continually in Germany itself, and, for
the matter of that, in France and in Belgium.]
After lunch this very stormy meal I went
ashore with Mr. Parkinson, who drove me in his
buggy for some miles through the beautiful planta-
tions. The Germans compelled Queen Emma to
make a road, though they made none themselves.
The road was merely turf or laid down with pumice
stone. It was a delightful and interesting drive
through a lovely scene. At places orange trees
were planted between the rows of cocoanut palms,
doing well and looking beautiful. Every year, I
was told, thirty thousand young cocoanuts are
planted, so that for a long period of time Queen
IO
146 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
Emma's estates must go on giving a handsome
profit. She imports cattle from Australia. Her
house, which we passed, is a bungalow gay with
flowers and plants. We went on to the Parkinson
bungalow, Raluna, or Raliuna, where we found
Mrs. Parkinson and one of her daughters. Mrs.
Parkinson is not like her stepsister Queen Emma
in looks. She is a very popular lady, very clever
and well read, and plays an important part in New
Guinea. There was a market going on. Mrs.
Parkinson was bargaining for fruit and vegetables
with a number of native women who sat outside
on the ground at one end of the verandah, where
she stood before a table laden with tobacco and
cloth, which they got in return for their produce.
The old women were more than hideous. Some
were in mourning, and had blackened their faces
and heads.
On one occasion the natives collected in
hundreds, and attacked Queen Emma and Mrs.
Parkinson at their respective houses. Mrs.
Parkinson managed to send a message to her
sister to hold out, as she meant to do. She boldly
faced these armed savages, revolver in hand, and
announced she would shoot any one who attacked ;
on their attempting to rush her she fired and killed
two men, when the rest immediately fled. The
natives were enormously impressed by this courage-
ous conduct of hers facing alone hundreds of
infuriated savages armed with spears and axes.
Mr. Parkinson told me that besides all this
property at Ralum they have 5000 acres in the
interior and 25,000 on Bougainville, and in fact
the Germans, when they first came, allowed them
to keep everything they claimed.
An English trader who came on board the
Stettin to see me, and who had come from New
Ireland (Neu Mecklenburg), told me curious stories
NATIVE TREACHERY 147
about the natives there and their ways. He told
me also that the Germans hated the very idea of
British coming in, which was perhaps natural. He
bought an island every one has got an island
but me, which is an outrageous shame of about
100 acres in extent from the natives for 8, but had
to pay the Government 50 for it.
You hear so much about the treachery of the
natives and the continual murders of the whites,
but somehow, as I walked about exploring, it never
struck me that anything could happen to me.
Native races I understand and am interested in, and
they know that by instinct. I cannot feel any
fear of them at all. Yet it is true that those who
live among them in confidence and security for
years, trusting them and trusted by them, are
frequently killed at a moment's notice. It always
seems to me so likely it may happen to the next
man, but impossible it could to me ! Anyway I
cannot get up the smallest fear of these savages,
and a mob together does not disturb me ; but I
think a mob of people anywhere is such a cowardly
thing, each protected by the others, that it allows
the worst and meanest human attributes full play.
A mob is more easily cowed than an individual.
History shows how true this is everywhere.
I admire these Papuans here for many things : I
like the air of self-reliance and dignity they so often
exhibit ; and they, like all native races, have an
instinct towards their friends. They are, however,
speaking generally and of the many various races,
doomed to a not distant extinction.
Ere we left Herbertshohe I went to bid adieu
to Frau Wolff, and we had a long talk. I asked
her if she was not afraid to live alone at their inland
plantation, but she said she had not the smallest
fear of the natives, and was sure they would never
harm her. She paid no heed to them, and though
148 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
often alone and, when her husband was away,
beyond help, yet she was sure she was perfectly
safe. " Mind you take care of yourself anyhow,"
were my last words, " and don't let those savages
kill you."
She only laughed as she waved adieu.
[Alas ! I must here insert the fate that befell
this poor woman. Their plantation was about
five miles inland from the coast, on the side of
Mount Beautemps Beaupre. On the morning of
2nd April 1902 Herr Wolff went out early to super-
intend the work of his plantation. Frau Wolff
had staying with her a half-caste Samoan lady,
Miss Coe. A number of natives approached the
front of the house with a pig for sale, and, whilst
the two ladies were bargaining with them, an armed
native suddenly rushed through from the back
of the house and dealt poor Frau Wolff a terrific
blow on the back of the head with his axe, which
felled her to the ground, and instantly struck Miss
Coe on the neck, and, as she was falling, gave her
another stroke on the back of the head ; but her
knot of hair caused the blade to glance aside, and
she fell off the verandah to the ground, seven feet
below, stunned, but still conscious. Thinking
her dead, they left her there. Then the savage
yelled, and hundreds of concealed natives rushed
forth, and to the house, actually springing over
Miss Coe's body. They were all yelling, and
killed any of the Wolff servants they came across,
including the native nurse and Frau Wolff's little
baby, and destroying everything they could.
Just as this commenced Herr Wolff rode up,
was fired at with his own guns, and, seeing he was
helpless to oppose them, rode off for assistance.
Meanwhile Miss Coe a young girl lay overcome
with terror awaiting death. Some one touched
her, and she found it was the brave and faithful
THE TRAGEDY OF FRAU WOLFF 149
cook-boy, who motioned to her to roll under the
house, which was built on piles raised above the
ground. Then he assisted her to his kitchen, or
some little outbuilding, where was his native wife,
and both the women took refuge in the rafters,
whilst he locked the door and stood outside on
guard. The natives missed her body, and, looking
through the window of this outhouse, saw the
women's skirts hanging down ; but the cook outside
and his wife inside both kept calling out that they
were only natives, and that the police and the
whites were already coming ; so the natives de-
camped in haste, and Miss Coe, on hands and
knees, escaped through the bush that is, the
thick undergrowth and eventually reached the
Mission building, where she found refuge with the
Sisters ; but whether this was at the Bishop's
Mission or another I do not know.
A native, escaping, met a German planter and
gave him the news ; he immediately galloped to
Herbert shohe, and in a short time the Judge
the Governor being ill at the head of twenty
armed whites, was hastening to the spot. When
they got there they found Frau Wolff's dead body
pierced with many spear wounds, and the head
and face hacked by tomahawks, lying in a pool of
blood, and near it the dead bodies of her six
months' old baby and its native nurse-girl. Just
then returned Herr Wolff, who was, of course, dis-
traught at the sight which met his view. Accord-
ing to the account written to me, the Germans,
capturing one of the tribe, made him lead them
to where the others were, and exterminated the
whole lot of them, killing more than two hundred ;
but the two principal culprits, one of whom was
the chief, or both were chiefs, I think, escaped.
Afterwards Dr. Hahl, the Governor, offered the
natives peace if they would deliver up these chiefs,
150 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
so one day a number of them brought in two heads,
supposed to be those of the culprits. It can be
imagined how roused were the feelings of the
whites by this brutal deed, and how determined
they were to inflict a just punishment.
It is a gruesome tale to hear of at any time,
but how much more dreadful it seems to those
who knew the poor, simple, good-natured woman
who so trusted these people and was in this
manner done to death. It shows how fully justified
are the whites in their distrust of the natives.
Remember, this occurred but a few miles from
the now long-established seat of Government.
Every one there, as these things show, is in daily,
hourly danger, and no one knows at what moment
the apparently friendly natives around may not
turn on them and kill them. The natives at once
vanish into the interior, and it is impossible to fol-
low them into that trackless, unknown wilderness.]
When we left Herbertshohe, and had got
outside Blanche Bay and past the Mother and
Daughters, which on that side look very steep
and have cocoanut plantations and native houses
at the foot, a regular gale set in and continued all
night, with downpours of rain, terrible flashes
of lightning, and the Ehrenlicht, or St. Elmo's
fire, as I think we call it, burning at the mast-
head it is a terribly uncanny thing to see those
electrical flames burning round the mast, and this
was a storm with a vengeance.
STEPHANSORT, NEW GUINEA,
December 1900.
On this morning, after we left Herbertshohe,
and whilst we still continued in sight of the New
Britain coast, we passed Deslac, one of the French
Islands, and of note as the home of King Peter.
NATIVE MONEY 151
It is about 8 miles long by 3 broad. There are
seven islands of this group, Merite being one, and
over all King Peter holds sway. He pointed out
everything to me with pride, though he was some-
what subdued after the talking to he had from me,
and he and the captain would not speak. Deslac
has two very good harbours ; one of them, Peters-
hafen, is the residence of King Peter.
Captain Jorgensen, whom we had embarked
at Herbertshohe, a Scandinavian, as his name
implies, had traded much in this region with his
schooner and was full of information. He used to
buy the cowrie shells from natives at one part of
New Britain in cocoanuts so much a cocoanutful
and sell them to natives of another part, who
strung them on string as money, a fathom of
this money being worth 4 marks, and at present
3 marks 50. It is called dewarra. Next year they
say this is to be done away with and the natives
taught to use the new bird of paradise coinage.
It will therefore be necessary for the British New
Guinea people to learn the use of our money also.
One side of Merite for some unknown reason
is fever free. Dampier Straits lie between New
Britain and New Guinea. The natives there are
noted for their cleverness with the sling, the stone
being put in with the toes. Dampier sailed
through these straits which bear his name in 1700.
Other straits between Waigou and Batanta are
also called Dampier Straits.
There was a most brilliant sunset, rendering
the scene simply superb. During it we passed
Long Isle, Pollin Isle, and others in fact went
through a sort of wonderland of sea and isles, all
aglow in roseate beauty and not easily to be
described.
Early next morning we lay at anchor off
Stephansort, in Astrolabe Bay, on the mainland
152 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
of New Guinea, which the Germans call Kaiser
Wilhelm's Land.
Baron Miklaho-Macleay, a Russian, came to
this port, was by his own desire landed at night
on the shore with his goods and chattels and
left there alone. When the natives found him he
pointed to the sky to signify he had come from
there, a heaven-sent gift to them. At first they
maltreated him, but eventually became friendly,
and he lived for two years amongst them as a
sacred person. Meteorites from the sky have been
common in the annals of wild lands, but, unluckily,
most of them found it boring to keep up a saintly
reputation, and soon exhibited signs of coveting
his neighbour's wife and all that was his.
Stephansort was founded 1888, and is the
largest and oldest settlement. Before that,
under the Astrolabe Bay Co., predecessors of
the New Guinea Co., were founded Finchhafen,
Hatzfeldthafen, Konstantinhafen, and Butaneng ;
but these were eventually deserted on account of
natives and fever. The mountains at the back of
Stephansort rise to a great height and are wooded
to the summit. Here they say they are 14,000 ft.
high, but I think a few thousand feet must be cut
off that ! There are, I believe, no less than twenty-
two species of birds of paradise found in this
district.
Really, New Guinea at last, and one of my
ambitions was attained ! I could gaze my fill on
those huge mountains of the Mysterious Land
where never has the foot of white man trodden.
Behind and beyond the mountains is an unex-
plored, unknown region. Stephansort from the
ship appeared merely a fringe of palms backed by
this coast range tree-clad to the top, and with here
and there a gigantic tree rising above the others
against the|skyline.
THE LADIES OF BOKAJIM 153
At one part of the shore a shed or two and a
pier were visible, called Erema, and from this a
" railway " runs through the forest to Stephansort
10 kilometres away. I had heard much of the
up-to-date attractions of the place of its club,
hospital, many plantations, and of the railway
and in my ignorance really imagined that there
was a regular town here, and that Herbertshohe
was nothing to it.
As soon as possible we made for the shore,
rowing, not to Erema, but some distance along
the coast. The party consisted of the four British
from the second cabin, the Professor, King Peter,
Mr. Hesse the purser, and myself.
On landing, we visited the native village of
Bokajim amidst the palms, our advent being
heralded by the rapid disappearance of all the
females into the houses in every direction, brown
legs and feet vanishing into every aperture. They
of course " keeked " at us through the chinks in
the walls. The old chief, who received us with
dignity, was very amusing. He graciously con-
descended to be photographed, and posed with
ease. This brought the ladies forth in huddled,
giggling groups, ready to bolt if we men showed
signs of aggressive gallantry, but somewhat re-
assured by the sight of the ladies with us.
When the men hugely delighted and full of
conscious affectation were photographed, the
dusky ladies could not resist drawing nearer. I
asked the chief's permission to give them cigarettes,
and he waved to them to come near, and they
thawed to me at once, giggling, coquetting, and
making eyes for all they were worth. They
smoked their cigarettes and strolled about full of
airs and graces, thoroughly reassured, and by no
means averse to a little flirtation one eye on the
chief all the same to see if he minded. However,
154 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
he was in high good humour, and this reflected
itself on them all. They wore a short, bunchy
skirt of grass, and some were comely. Of course
they were used to seeing people at this place, but
experience had taught them to beware of the
white man.
We then visited a store, and, after a walk by
a narrow path through the tropical jungle, called
at the house of a German Protestant missionary,
whose wife received us. I had to do all the
talking for us strangers, as the others knew no
German. The lady annoyed me because her
mouth was all red and black with chewing betel-
nut. Then, in company of Herr Muller, the
postmaster, we went to the club, or ' house
kai-kai " as the natives call it, kai-kai being
food. This is a roomy two-storied wooden
building with a large dining-room and a billiard-
room, with access to the roof which was of
matting or thatch from whence a view over the
green palm-tops to the distant mountains could
be had. Here we all had cool drinks.
I was impatient, though, to reach the town
and the railway station, so we did not linger.
There is no town ; the whole place is merely a
large plantation, and the different buildings are
scattered wide apart amidst the palms and other
trees. There are no shops of any sort every-
thing has to come from Singapore or elsewhere.
There are about eight European houses, and then
dwellings for the one hundred Malays, with forty
women, and one hundred and ninety Chinese.
We were then taken to the " railway," which
turned out to be a curtained cart drawn by two
small bullocks under charge of two Malay boys !
It is true it ran on rails, and so it was a railway.
I do not say this in depreciation of Stephansort,
but as an illustration of how the expectations
THE OLD. OLD STORY. NEW GUINEA.
(To face Page 154.)
STEPHANSORT 155
raised by foolish talk are bound to be disappointed.
We travelled in this through the cocoanut,
tobacco, coffee, and capuc or kapok plantations
all a very pretty scene. There were also cotton
bushes. The capuc trees produce a sort of wool
used for stuffing mattresses and the like.
We then inspected the tobacco factory, being
shown round by a young German who had only
been a few months in the country and had already
had fever several times. Everything was very clean
and in order. There were one hundred and sixty
employees at work, forty of whom were good-
looking Malay girls, and the rest strong, handsome
Chinese from Canton. Here, too, they had much of
the capuc. We then went to another building where
Malay girls were separating the seed from the
capuc, and the piles of capuc and cotton in heaps
looked exactly like wool. These girls, who showed
us everything and explained, were very handsome
and extremely well mannered. Really life at
Stephansort must be very bearable !
All these plantations belong to the New
Guinea Co., and there is much local wrath
and scorn because, owing to a partial failure
of one or two, due to some temporary climatic
cause, the Directors in Berlin had sent out orders
to place the plantations at other spots where they
had put dots on the map in the midst of swamps
and jungles ! All the governing powers of the
New Guinea Co. are now being taken over by
the Government, and henceforth they will be
a private company, but owning many choice
areas. I believe the company which became
the chartered New Guinea Co. . in 1884,
when the German flag was hoisted at Matupi,
had been in possession of some plantations
previously to that. On their governing powers
ceasing they received a sum of somewhere about
156 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
20,000 as compensation, and retained many
large areas and stations. In time, no doubt,
they will reap a fine reward with rubber and
other produce, though, as is always the case
in a new and tropical land, they have much to
contend with. The clearing of the ground and
the keeping it clear is no light task.
As there existed no hotel or house of enter-
tainment we were told that the club was free to
us, and that we were to go there to lunch. King
Peter said that the club in this manner entertained
every stranger who passed by free of charge.
This seemed bountiful hospitality, so we went
back to the club, and King Peter, the Professor,
and Herr Hesse having temporarily deserted
us, we five Britons made ourselves at home there.
Two Chinese servants were alone visible, and
after a time one announced that lunch was
ready, and we sat down to it. We were all in a
thirsty mood, but shy of actually ordering drinks,
debated the question, and were wondering what
we ought to do when Herr Hesse joined us,
and he having beer at once we also had some ;
but as we were our own hosts whilst being guests
of the club, it was somewhat embarrassing.
After lunch, as we sat smoking in the adjoining
room, the Chinese servant approached me with
the bill it is always to me bills are brought
and we found our luncheon was five shillings a
head ! This was perfectly right and proper, but
we wished we had not been deluded into the
idea that we were being entertained free by the
club, as then we could have ordered wine or what
drinks we wanted ;fandjl was} still more vexed
that I had not invited the purser who had
taken the trouble to show us round to lunch
and wined him well. We all looked at each
other and tittered over this, but were relieved,
THE HOSPITAL 157
and would not allow the ladies to pay their share.
I descended on King Peter for having led us
astray.
After lunch feeling bound, as one always does
on a first visit to a great city, to see the tire-
some sights we visited the hospital, which is a
moderate-sized building, but clean and airy. It
has an open space a clearing in the tropical
jungle in front of it, adorned with a monument
to the Landeshauptmann Curt von Hagen, whose
residence it had been, and who was murdered by
the natives. There were two fever patients,
Germans, both looking melancholy wrecks. The
nurse a very important personage was a very
fair, healthy-looking, handsome German, quite
imposing in her starched white attire, a really
handsome woman. She, the betel-nut mission-
ary's wife, and Frau Wolff were at this time, so
far as I could learn, the three German women in
this German colony. As she spoke no English,
I again had to make all the conversation, and be-
came quite irritated at having to translate to my
compatriots. The great Professor Koch lived
here for a time, conducting experiments in con-
nection with the coast fever or malaria which deci-
mates these lands. His theory was that the fever
microbes were carried about by the mosquitoes,
who, when they bit people, left a microbe behind.
It is very bad here, and people are sometimes
attacked suddenly and are dead in a few hours.
This theory of Koch's is now accepted by the
scientific world generally, but has some opponents.
The nurse, however, did not at all approve
of Professor Koch's theories or treatment, though,
of course, one can understand that quinine is of
service in a moderate way. I fancy they some-
times overdo it. She told me she had had the
fever several times herself, but she looked the
158 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
picture of health. The Germans seem to have
no stamina and to collapse at once. Many here
are quite wrecks. They think, however, that
Professor Koch did much good.
I am rather prepared to agree with the nurse.
All these sorts of countries, primeval lands, have
the same coast fevers. It is due to the partial
clearing of the tropical jungle, which lets loose
the fever microbes born of the accumulation of
decaying vegetation, which the sun never reaches
till the overgrowth is cleared away. The mos-
quitoes may carry it, but it exists without these
pests. In places where the fever no longer
exists, the mosquitoes still flourish and devour.
The whole Australian coast once suffered in the
same way, and it is yet so in Queensland, but
gradually the fever gives way to population and
the clearing of the lands. Two brothers of mine,
arriving at Rockhampton in Queensland, were
down with the fever the same day. Now, it is
not nearly so bad there as it used to be, and in
places has disappeared, and you hear little about
it. Moreover, the people lead such foolish sorts
of lives, drinking things most unsuitable to the
circumstances. I am a firm believer in tobacco
as a preventive, more particularly in the shape
of cigarettes, and in this I have every one against
me. A pipe, I think, is half poisonous in itself
on account of the nicotine, and, after experiment-
ing with pipe, cigar, and cigarette, I truly believe the
cigarette to be the least harmful, and, as a preven-
tive of malarial fevers, the best remedy. I felt par-
ticularly well amidst all these fever-stricken people.
We then took the " railway " for Erema.
After leaving the plantations it passes through a
track cut in the natural forest, a dense jungle of
gigantic, beautiful, and large-leaved trees, all
matted together with creepers, orchids, and palms.
BIRD OF PARADISE (PTERIDOPHORA ALBERTI).
(To face Page 15S.)
BIRDS OF PARADISE 159
The trees rise to 100 or 150 feet in height, and
underneath is a damp gloom, rather uncanny.
I do not know what these trees are, but there are
many banyan trees with great buttresses, and
canary trees (Canarium). The natives alone can
penetrate this labyrinth by narrow, winding paths ;
others must cut their way through. The wild
boars are ferocious, the boas harmless ; but there
are also many poisonous snakes, scores of lizards,
including the large monitor which the natives
are fond of eating, crocodiles in the waters, and,
of course, birds. The beautiful blue-crested
crown pigeon is as good to eat as to look at.
There are bush hens, which bury their eggs in the
sand to be hatched, and, of course, there are the
wonderful birds of paradise. The natives get
these latter by watching where they roost, hiding
in the tree, and shooting them with arrows. They,
however, often spoil the skins, and many of those
offered here for sale are useless. They cost here
much more than they do in London. It is really
only the natives who get them. We heard them
quite near, but could never see them. The Pro-
fessor could tell us which was the male or the
female by its note. Eight hundred species of
Papuan birds are now known, including ninety
species of pigeons and eighty species of parrots.
To enter into details about these would mean a
volume to itself. Very singular is the Pteri-
dophora alberti, a bird of paradise that has two
long, wiry strings from its head ornamented with
pale blue horny discs like shells.
I always had a vague feeling of disappoint-
ment that there were no wild beasts. There are
rumours of apes in the interior, but no one seems
to have seen any. You feel there ought to be
leopards or tigers to go with the scenery. They
might introduce a few to add to the attractions ;
160 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
they would look really well here, bounding about,
if that is what they do in their natural homes. I
only know them in zoological gardens or in
*/ \j o
cages here they would be charming, and add
quite a zest to an afternoon stroll.
One tiger story always lingers in my memory.
Once Cardinal Moran, the well-known Archbishop
of Sydney, was having tea on board ship with my
sisters and me. A man who was present related
a long story of the tiger-hunting adventures in
India of a friend of his. This person was in
an open space in the midst of a tiger-haunted
jungle, and, leaning his rifle against a tree, sat down
at its foot to have a smoke. Suddenly a tiger
appeared and the man swarmed up the tree, but
left his rifle behind him. The tiger seemed amused
and strolled about, smiling to itself, or perhaps
gambolled and tried to catch its own tail as you
see kittens do what does a tiger do under the cir-
cumstances ? Anyway, this tiger did the correct
thing. The man in the tree, however, liked dead
tigers better than live ones, so he threw his hat
into the jungle, and, when the tiger sprang after it,
he slid down and got his rifle. The next chapter-
but here His Eminence capped the story by rising
quietly, giving us all a smiling bow, and said
gently, as he sailed away, " I suppose the tiger put
on that hat ! "
Professor Biro only snorted when I asked him
whether he could not show us a tiger. He took us to
a place where he had had a house and lived in the
forest two years before this collecting his butter-
flies and things ; but in two years the jungle had
grown 20 feet high and was an impenetrable
mass, so we had to resign ourselves to believing
his former house was in the middle of it.
I walked nearly all the way, gathering beautiful
plant after beautiful plant, only to throw them
EREMA 161
away as I saw something better. Then I had
always to turn back to help the others to lift the
"railway" over the broken-down places, which
were frequent. Some streams were bridged, but
the car was always helped tenderly over, whilst
the bullocks were unyoked, led through the water,
and re-yoked the other side. It was not an
express, and we understood why the Germans had
complained about it having no sleeping carriage.
At last, however, I reached an open space near
Erema, where in a plantation some " long Marys"
that is, native women were working. One of
these, a particularly repulsive-looking lady, at once
began to flirt with me and made enticing invita-
tions that I should join her I, however, made
warning gestures to the approaching railway,
and the other women yelled with laughter. The
railway caught a glimpse of this, arrived in a
state of giggle, and then exploded at a near view
of the charming siren.
At Erema it was broilingly hot, and we all sat
on the end of the pier and waved frantically to the
Stettin for a boat. By the side of the small pier
a number of perfectly nude natives and some
Chinese were engaged in rolling huge heavy logs
of timber into the water. They formed a pictur-
esque group against the green palms behind. These
Chinese are Cantonese (they must be from the
province of Canton, as I saw none like them in
Canton city), and are very tall, well-made men,
their yellow smooth skin and blue loin-cloth making
a strong contrast with the brown of the natives.
One of these latter after being in the water lit a
small fire on the sand and stood astride over it,
having with manifest satisfaction a smoke bath.
He was a sight for the gods. Meanwhile, we
coo-ee-ed, shouted, and waved white umbrellas
to the Stettin for a boat, but they took no notice.
162 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
As we were all in white every one dresses in
white here we formed a brilliant patch on the
whole landscape, and wroth indeed were we as a
full hour went by. At last a boat came ashore,
though not for us, but despite remonstrances we
seized it, and when on board the ship nearly ate up
the officer in charge. He said he thought he had
noticed something white waving and had heard
strange sounds but he promised never so to
offend again.
The Finisterre Mountains are about 10 miles
from Stephansort. Captain Cayley- Webster, who
was here in 1893, tells in his book that he went
from Simbang, which was about 170 miles from
Stephansort, to visit missionaries, Mr. and Mrs.
Fleyd or Fleyel, at the Saddleberg, 12 miles in the
north-west direction in the interior. They lived
at the summit of the mountain, 3000 feet high.
They could see New Britain, and below them the
abandoned Finchhafen grown over with jungle,
and in the graveyard of which " lie the bodies of
many Europeans, their wives, and children." It
was there he got the Paradisea guilielmi one
of the most beautiful birds of paradise. [Amongst
the many others got in this district are the Para-
disea raggiana, and those other beautiful birds, the
cat-birds and the violet manucode, live specimens
of all of which may be seen in the Zoo in London.]
Captain Cayley-Webster tells of the arrival at
Stephansort of a case containing a piano for the
Governor, and how the natives kept dropping it
and rolling it along to hear the sound it made,
calling it the " box belong cry."
Various people, employees of the New Guinea
Co., came on board, all fever-stricken yellow wrecks.
Every one seemed upset and unwell, but I was
flourishing. It was very sultry and oppressive,
and every one collapsed under it. The Captain
SYSTEMS OF COLONISATION 163
and some of the officers are fever-stricken, and
quinine is the order of the day.
Certain things strike one forcibly here. There
is a great lack of enterprise and initiative amongst
the Germans. We and they adopt different
systems of colonisation. With us it is the in-
dividual full of enterprise and initiative who
goes ahead, so long as he has a free hand, carving
his way and his fortune out of the unknown land,
scarce at all helped or fortified by his Government,
which only follows reluctantly where he leads.
Our Governments do nothing until forced to do
so. They carry this to an extreme. Everything
at first with the Briton is utility ; he has no time
or inclination for comfort or for beautifying
his new home it must first be made to pay.
Hence the bare, ugly utilitarianism of new
Australian settlements, springing up in a short
time, a long street of verandahed shanties lining
a broad road. Once firmly established he begins
to improve the place and pay a little attention
to the adornment of it.
The Germans, on the contrary, look to their
Government for everything, do not strike out
boldly for themselves, and if the numerous
Government officials do nothing, the colonist sits
down and waits till they do, for he, the colonist,
has no free hand. Under direction he will do
well, but he waits for that direction, and hence
it is that a German colony is composed principally
of officials, all sick of the place, and dying to
get home again to the comforts of the happy
Fatherland. They make their official residences
neat and pretty, and go in for what comfort
they can get and as much sleep as can be included ;
hence initiative and enterprise are at a discount.
This comes from their long home training as
part of a great machine, where all thinking is done
164 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
for them. In a new country it is a wrong system.
There is a happy medium between the two
systems which neither nationality attains to.
The Germans are excellent, peaceable, industrious
colonists under us or in America. In their
own possessions they stagnate. They need more
freedom, and the surety of profiting by their
own enterprise.
Since the Government must do everything,
it is very obvious here in New Guinea that a duty
of the Government is to build roads straight out
into the interior from each port, gradually ex-
tending these roads, from which in time other
roads would branch off on either side. The
natives of the interior would gradually and
naturally avail themselves of these roads to
bring their " trade " to the coast, and they and
the roads would be constantly kept under ob-
servation and control. Gradually inland posts
are established along the roads, giving further
control over the natives, now hidden in impene-
trable forests and beyond restraint ; and so in time
the land and people are peacefully won. Only
the Government can do this ; it is no light and
easy task, and means money, but the system
repays itself in time in more than one way.
Once there is a controlled road, the telegraph
wire is a natural sequence, and so the interior
is linked with the coast.
We have been a small community on this
ship at very close quarters, and have got on
together wonderfully well. Now there appears
to be a little rift in the lute. For one thing,
almost every one is affected by the close, moist,
muggy, intense heat ; several have fever, and no
doubt the Troppenkoller , which gives title to one
of the Baroness Frieda von Billow's clever novels
on the German African colonies, has its counter-
EVIL SPIRITS 165
part here also. There is a sense of irritation in
the air, people are fretful and nervous, some
really ill. I am the well one, so , of course, irritating
to the others, as sick people do so hate the sight
of those who ought to be ill and are not.
I, too, I am guiltily conscious, have con-
tributed to the present want of harmony. I had
better be frank and say that I have been, and am,
in a vile humour, bored, snappy, and actually
pleased at hurting the feelings of others. Un-
fortunately, when I am in one of these vile moods
my ill-temper radiates from me to quite a distance.
The paint comes off the ship, the iron rusts,
and gloom and melancholy pervades every one.
I have always known this, but it is only since
studying Swedenborg that I have understood
the cause. The evil spirits Swedenborg tells us
about, who make their home in me uninvited
as they do in all of you, so don't imagine you are
better like hot, muggy, unbearable atmospheres,
are reminded no doubt of where they came from,
and so at present are very active.
But it is true. When I am bad-tempered
every one else is put out and there are gloomy
faces everywhere ; it extends even to the deck
passengers. Then I overcome it, and since it
is my pleasure to be amiable and cheerful again
every one else brisks up. I make an effort and
" buck up " every one even go amongst the
deck people, say things here or there, tickle the
babies, and all is rose-coloured again. But to be
conscious you can do this thing, and will not do
it, is really terrible.
Any instrument, if played on properly, will
respond sympathetically; but lately, through
various reasons, I have had to be thrown much
in company with my fellow-countrymen on this
ship they are all very good, quiet, and all right
166 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
but somehow they jangled the strings, played
false notes, and put me completely out of tune.
Therefore, it is not music I emit, but discord.
Then I have roused ire by being well and saying
a great deal about the effect on the fever-stricken
of the constant swilling at whisky and beer.
I might have been forgiven the whisky, but I
have wounded them on the tenderest spot by
railing against the unlimited beer, and that is an
outrage on their very nationality.
Nevertheless, I am right how could spirits
and sticky beer be anything but detrimental
in this overpoweringly hot, airless, moist
climate ?
Then my references to Troppenkoller have been
a little too acid perhaps, and, if true, are none the
better for that, for truth is so unpleasant to most
people.
How I wish Frieda von Billow was here ! How
deep would be her interest in this part of the
empire she loves so patriotically and has worked
so well for ! What discussions we would have, and
how her fine, frank, independent spirit would
rouse up these people here and they need
it!
[Since these words were written, the Baroness
Frieda von Biilow, so well known as a popular
authoress in Germany, has passed away. This
brilliant and gifted woman was in her younger
days, when I first knew her, as handsome as she
was clever, with a rather Byronic head. She
went to South Africa to organise a hospital in
one of the German colonies, and wrote several
interesting books dealing with that land. After
the death of her brother, Baron Albrecht Biilow,
an officer who was killed by the natives, she re-
turned there to manage for herself a plantation
acquired by him. Had she not been a woman,
FRIEDA VON BlJLOW 167
her high-minded, far-seeing, patriotic endeavours
to stir up interest in the Fatherland in German
colonisation would have met with public recog-
nition. As it is, I trust that yet some day Ger-
many will recognise her patriotic work, and that,
in that German South African possession she loved
so well and worked for, they will erect a monument
to her memory. A woman of many sorrows, she
once wrote to me, " You write tragedies ; I live
them " : and it was true.
It will not be forgotten in Germany how,
during the trial of Carl Peters, when the country
was roused to indignation at the public insult
offered " a noble woman " by the Socialists, she
bravely, in the face of the world, proclaimed her
feelings for Carl Peters and the friendship sub-
sisting between them for many years. Once
long years before this she had hoped to marry
him this is no indiscreet revelation, for she often
spoke of it but they mutually agreed that friend-
ship alone was all they cared for. Corresponding
with her through many years, I always knew and
saw that what really attracted her in Carl Peters
was not the man, but the position and power he
had; her one-time desire to join her fate with his
was the idea that, as the wife of the Governor of
a great province, she would be enabled to work
with him to accomplish some of her great aims for
the development and advancement of those new
German lands. By birth she was the social
superior of Carl Peters, as she was in other ways ;
but the power he one time exercised glamoured
her, and she saw herself, as we often jestingly
called her, " Queen of Africa." Every one who
knew her regretted deeply the untimely fate of
this gifted woman. She was for a short time
lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Roumania, in
succession to Mademoiselle Vacaresco ; but Africa
i68 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
always called her, and deep indeed was the wound
ingratitude dealt her.
Her gifted sister, Margarethe, and her two
brothers, Kuno and Albrecht, met tragic fates, and
I fear her own life was a tragedy in itself, but her
death came as an unwelcome thing to very many.
For many years indeed, from the first day I met
her in that old Hanoverian castle I enjoyed her
friendship, and we corresponded on many subjects
of interest, particularly political ones, just as I
corresponded for years with her cousin, Marie
von Biilow (now Madame von Scala), daughter of
the former Prussian Ambassador to the Vatican
at Rome. The Biilow family seems to have more
than its share of intellect.]
I can see Frieda von Biilow now coming into
the Gobelin Zimmer in that dear old Hanoverian
schloss and asking directly, giving you no loop-
hole for escape, " Do you think there is such a
thing as free will ? "
The beautiful old schloss why, it is winter
there now, and snow is deep everywhere, in the
Hof, on the lovely old gables, all over the porch.
The moat is frozen, and they are skating. I can hear
the jangle of sleigh-bells it is the Baron coming
home from the Wild Schwein Jagd, his old green
fur-lined coat well up over his ears, and Luke the
Cocker is clapping his arms over his chest to restore
the circulation, and nodding a cheery " Schones
Tag, Hen Baron " to you as you lean out of the
window. It is always " Schones Tag," and you
are always " Herr Baron," whether you are or
not, to Luke, if he likes you but I am havering !
There is no old snow-covered castle here it but
made me cool for the moment to recall it. I dare say
they are speaking of me at this minute my rooms
are vacant, my seat is vacant but they little
dream I am in a German colony amidst savage
DUMBFOUNDED NATIVES 169
cannibals. I doubt if they ever heard of this
place people in the Middle Ages, as they are,
could not. They want here to know what is
amusing me, because there is a smile on my
face.
" I am in Deutschland," I answer, " in the
happy Fatherland. There is snow and ice
everywhere, and the music of sleigh-bells, and
they are getting ready for the Weihnachtsbaum"
Then I wish I had not said it, for there is
silence and I have set them thinking it is well
for some of them not to think of such things
and wonder if they can ever see them again.
I look at the yellow, wasted faces yes, I wish I
had not said it.
I instantly make good resolutions to be amiable
and cheerful again if possible I have no reason
to be otherwise, after all, with these people, who
have been more than kind to me.
So I tell them as we lie there in our long
chairs a tale the Professor lately related to me
of a man who was in great danger amidst the
natives, and did not know what to do, till a happy
thought struck him, and he suddenly took out
his false teeth and dropped them with a clatter
into a pannikin. The natives were dumbfounded
and gazed at him with wondering respect, and one
old man said, " Thank God I have lived to see
this day!" not that any native ever said such
a thing really, but, anyway, every one is laughing,
so it is all right.
FRIEDRICH WILHELMS HAFEN,
NEW GUINEA, Dec. 1900.
We left Stephansort in the cool of the night
-if you can call it cool ! My good resolutions
170 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
are not yet paving the streets of a more tropical
place than this.
We got to Friedrich Wilhelms Hafen, which
is about 22 miles north of Stephansort, very early.
It was founded, 1891, as the capital, and still is
the official capital. It has a beautiful little land-
locked bay Sydney Harbour in miniature, but
much more beautiful. The boat lies alongside a
small wharf, where is a store and some sheds, so one
steps on land comfortably. It is all New Guinea
Co. here. The chief director is Herr Hansemann,
after whom a mountain, rising above, is named.
It is curious, but when they gave the inevitable
name of Bismarck to a range of mountains in-
land they had not noticed how Bismarck's face
in profile is limned against the skyline. Now
every one sees it and wonders it could have been
overlooked. Captain Cayley- Webster in his book
says that the Bismarck Mountains do not exist, and
that Friedrich Wilhelms Hafen was abandoned as
unhealthy, and nothing left but ruined houses.
What he means I do not know it is quite a mis-
take. There are some well-situated houses, especi-
ally that of the assessor, and of Herr Kohler, who
is a manager, or " big white fellow master," as
the natives say. The store-keeper, a very fair
German, entertained the Captain and me in
the store to champagne. There was a small
child, absolutely black, there. " Where did this
schwartzer Junger, this black thing, come from ? "
asked the Captain. ' That is my son," was the
answer. The child of a very fair German and
a brown woman had come out absolutely black !
I was conducted to the sights the post office
and then the prison. The latter is a wooden
building. The cells had plenty of air, a platform
bed, with blanket or mat, and a large water- jug-
quite palatial for a native. The doors were open
A FEVER SPOT 171
and the prisoners looking after the place them-
selves, and seemingly quite proud to belong
to it. We looked into the houses of the native
policemen, who wear a uniform, and greeted their
wives and children.
The fever is very bad here ; all Europeans
and natives get it. When Professor Koch was
here in this year he said the ships should not
remain at night it was too unhealthy.
A German, his wife, and two little girls were
going home to Germany. They were all packed
up and ready, but when the Stettin came in
they were all too ill to leave. When she called
again on the next trip, both the man and his
wife were dead. Even here are no shops and
nothing to be had. They must get everything
by the Stettin, and Captain Niedermayer is
a sort of universal provider for them all. Yet
they are very proud of their progress, and excuse
everything lacking by saying it takes four to five
months, or longer, to get things out from Germany
ignoring Australia and Singapore nearer at
hand. No one can have sympathy with nonsense
of that sort there is something so foolish, so
little, so mean about it. There are about twenty
Europeans and two or three hundred Malays
here, as well as some Chinese. The latter are
good workers and get fifteen marks a month,
whilst the Papuans get five to six a month. There
are good capuc plantations.
There is an hotel kept by a Chinaman. It
serves as a club and has a Kegelbahn, so is quite
Germanic.
We visited a building where live the Javanese
and Malay work-people. The married couples
and women's building contained many large beds
hung with mosquito curtains, and gay with frilled
pillow-cases tied up with ribbons, and all was
172 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
very clean and comfortable, though it seemed
odd to have a number of beds for married people
in the one room. Then we went to the boat-slip,
where a vessel was being repaired and the New
Guinea Co/s steamboat, the Johann Albrecht, was
lying. This latter has one of its masts as a funnel ;
I do not think I ever saw that before. They have
another boat, the Herzogin Elizabeth,
Then a visit to Herr Kohler, where we had cock-
tails on the verandah he had a nice, comfortable
house. Captain Dunbar, a Herr Markgraf, and
King Peter joined us there. King Peter greeted
the Captain with a joke, the first time they had
spoken since the row at Herbertshohe. There
was a momentary embarrassment, the Captain
responded but coolly, so, as the angels were nervous
about intruding, I rushed in with a silly question,
which created a laugh at my expense, and all was
right again. I trust the angels will remember
they owe me something, for why should I do their
work for nothing ? King Peter liked and respected
the Captain, I knew he was sore about having
to part on unfriendly terms, and I had all along
been trying to make peace without attracting
attention.
Herr Kohler looked very well, but his brother,
who is with us now as a passenger en route for a
change of climate, looks miserably ill. I used my
camera on every one and everything, and here
on the verandah on some natives laden with the
beautiful blue crown pigeons.
[I may as well say here that I took numbers
of the most interesting, and in some cases unique,
photographs whilst on this pilgrimage. When
they were developed at Singapore it was found
there was quite a small puncture in the camera,
but enough to let in light that spoilt them all !
This was a real disappointment and misfortune.]
A NATIVE GENTLEMAN 173
Whilst strolling about I saw a chief and his two
small sons approaching the shore in their canoe,
and on their landing went to interview them,
and if possible buy the chief's fine breastplate and
ornaments. This man was slim, but of good
figure, and bore himself with such stately dignity
that there was no mistaking he was " somebody."
He and his sons were quite nude, devoid even of
the string costume, but wore handsome ornaments
and beads, and so looked perfectly dressed. Their
want of clothes never seems a want ; it appears quite
natural, and,in fact, you never notice it. In manner,
bearing, and mode of speech this naked savage
was a polished, dignified gentleman. Many are
like that. They will kill and eat you boiled or
baked at a moment's notice, but that is a trivial
detail. * -I
In Sydney I had laid in a stock of beads to
trade with. In my ignorance I imagined that
pretty beads would be the thing, and some of my
strings of beads were really rosaries. I was not
aware that fashion is as great an autocrat in New
Guinea as elsewhere, and that certain sorts of beads
were alone in request, just as the fashion in nose or
earrings varies. When, therefore, after entering
into a polite conversation with this personage, I
intimated a desire to trade my pretty beads for his
shell ornaments, he drew himself up and intimated
haughtily that they were not for sale. I told him
how I liked such things and wanted some to carry
to my far-off land for my many wives there. He
gradually thawed, then became quite friendly,
and even condescended to laugh, joke, and smoke
with me. I asked if he would not like to have me
for dinner, but he laughed and said I was too salt
and would taste too much of tobacco, so I suppose
he had had experience in such dainties. He took
one of my rosaries, held it up, and pointed with
174 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
a scornful laugh at the tiny crucifix attached
to it. " All same missionary man that ! " His
boys liked the beads, and he graciously allowed me
to give them to them ; and that is what came of
my endeavours to " trade." A certain stony red
bead was high in favour and quite the fashion,
but the smartest of the smart, those who really
wish to shine in society, go in for keys. They have
just entered the Iron Age anything in iron is
precious to them. But the very highest mark of
fashion is to wear a huge bunch of heavy, rusty,
old iron doorkeys tied by a string round the waist
and dangling at one side. It implies that at home
they have countless large chests full of tobacco
and other wealth, even though they have none.
To see an absolutely naked savage come strutting
along full of pride and affectation with a huge
bunch of keys dangling at one side is very funny.
Matches, too, they would trade anything for. A
thing that quite fascinated them was my round
shaving-glass, one of those mirrors that make your
face look large or small according to the side you
use. I used to flash this out of the porthole at
them, and when they darted up in their canoes,
would reverse it, and their ecstasy at seeing their
faces broadened out was intense. They sighed
for this thing, offered me their very canoes and
all their contents in exchange. Unluckily I could
not do without it.
It is curious to think that any of these friendly,
interesting people you talk to with quite a liking
would think nothing, two minutes later, of striking
you dead with their axe, and then cutting you up
and eating you. Numbers of the natives of New
Guinea have probably partaken of human flesh.
Mr. Romilly saw, and has described in one of
his books, a cannibal feast. First, the women
wash the body and scrape the hair off, and cut the
CANNIBAL FEASTS 175
hair of the head, all laughing and joking. Then
the body is placed on a mat and cut up with
bamboo knives, the intestines being thrown to
the women, who merely warm them up and eat
them. The head is cut off and laid aside. Then
the pieces of the cut-up body are wrapped in
leaves and tied up ; these packets are piled into
the ovens and covered with hot stones. It is
cooked for three days, then they feast on it. The
brains, as a delicacy, are mixed with sago and
served as an entree. Of course the flesh is cooked
in various ways, and a good chef can serve up most
enticing dishes. They sometimes have long
wooden troughs almost as large as a bath for this
much-prized national dish.
Here, as elsewhere, I photographed on arrival
the usual scene of the white man kicking the
natives right and left out of his way. They did
not mind much, and only understand forcible
methods. The Germans, when blessed with a little
authority, are often not only autocratic, but some-
times a little coarse and even brutal ; but, though
in Sydney I heard tales of their cruelty and brut-
ality to the natives, I never saw a sign of it, have
heard nothing of it from any one here, and I am
assured, and am content to believe, there was no
truth in those tales. They are somewhat brutal
in method or manner at times, but not often in
action (despite the notorious ways of the Berlin
police), nor are they in any way cruel, and, on the
whole, treat the natives tolerably well. No one
ever does treat natives really properly ; but a
very small community of white people governing
many thousands of natives has to show frequently
that it is master and must be obeyed. The
natives understand force. At the same time
they are equally amenable to another style of
treatment and can reason, and they appreciate a
176 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
sympathetic, kindly method as much as any one.
They know by instinct their friends just as a
child or dog does and can become attached and
devoted followers.
But there is the native's point of view, which
must never be forgotten. The whites enter his
land, take it, kill him if he opposes, and just as
often take his wife too. He therefore defends his
home, life, and liberty as he sees an opportunity
to do so, and commits a meritorious action in slay-
ing the invader who would rob him of everything.
With Captain Niedermayer and the two English
ladies from the second cabin I made quite a nice
little excursion. The Captain got out a ship's
boat, with the Malays in their best rig-out, and
we rowed for a long time about the pretty harbour
before we could find the entrance to a river, as the
thick trees grew to the water's edge and over it.
On at last entering this river it was a very beautiful
and extraordinary sight. It was very winding,
with trees and palms meeting overhead and grow-
ing all round and out of the river itself, whilst the
fallen trees piled on top of each other were a mass
of parasitic foliage the whole a wonderland of
tropical beauty, bathed in a deep green gloom,
into which here and there stole shafts of sunlight.
The effect was extraordinary and almost unnatural.
We saw no alligators, but they must have been
there amidst the swampy margins and fallen
timber. Though so beautiful, it was uncanny, and
so much of it ! I quite expected to see some huge
prehistoric reptile dragging its slimy folds in and
out of the water and the riot of foliage. We
exclaimed at the beauty of it, but were glad
at length to get out of it. Our boat, with we
white-clad people and the scarlet of the Malays,
added to the effect of this curious scene.
We'emerged from all this at a tobacco planta-
A TOBACCO PLANTATION 177
tion called Jomba, where an Englishman, Mr.
Peacock, entertained us at his bungalow. He
was not in the least like an Englishman, and had
lived for many years in Sumatra ere coming to
New Guinea. The others returned in the boat,
but I remained with Mr. Peacock to see his planta-
tion. New Guinea cigars are now smoked all
over Germany. There were many bananas and
pineapples growing everywhere. He told me
he had a high opinion of the Dutch paternal
government in Sumatra and their other East
Indian possessions. He seemed a quaint char-
acter. Later in the day he drove me back in
his buggy by a tolerable track to Friedrich
Wilhelms Hafen. There is a grass which in the
distance looks green and inviting, but it spoils
everything and cannot be kept down. It grows
very quickly, and so high that a man on horseback
can be concealed by it. They may in time find
some method of exterminating it. There is no
getting far inland from the coast, as it is not per-
mitted, the whole country being unexplored and
peopled only by cannibal savages. Very little
exploration is for the present attempted or per-
mitted, and the reasons for this are sufficiently
good. It would mean murders by the natives,
who could not be reached or punished, and so
would breed much trouble. It is known that there
must be gold in the interior, as natives bring gold
dust to the coast. Several prospectors have been
about ; but if any large goldfield was discovered
and made known, what the Germans fear is that
there would be an inrush of diggers from Australia
which is exactly what would occur ; they would
come in hundreds, perhaps thousands. Every
one knows diggers are a turbulent lot, and the
small number of Germans would not be able to
protect, control, or manage them. Not to permit
12
178 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
this till population has increased and there is
adequate control is good and sensible government,
and quite the right thing. When, bit by bit, the
Germans have explored the land, established
tolerably secure relations with the natives, and
accustomed them to white folk and their ways,
it will be a different matter. Yet it is time that
Germany sent out some properly equipped scien-
tific expeditions to map out, survey, and explore
the land gradually a thing the settlers cannot
do themselves yet. There have been some ex-
plorers, but they have done little. Who knows
what may be discovered within those mysterious,
unknown recesses ? British New Guinea has now
been surveyed to a great extent, and it is time
Germany knew more about her part, but through
responsible people. It is so fascinating to gaze
at the forest-clad mountains and wonder and
wonder what is there perhaps some ruined
ancient monuments of an extinct race, some-
thing to throw light on the mysteries of the
past.
Here at Friedrich Wilhelms Hafen we had to
part from King Peter and Professor Biro, and I was
very, very sorry to do so. They remain here till
the royal yacht Mato arrives from Sydney, and
then she takes them to Deslacs Island. King
Peter promised to write to me, and I promised that
if ever it is possible I shall go and visit his kingdom.
He holds out all sorts of enticements to me, and
I can picture nothing I would like better than
cruising amongst those lovely isles. King Peter
is a strange little character, has many good points,
and an individuality of his own.
[When they arrived at Petershafen in Deslacs
Island, they found that the natives had risen and
massacred many of King Peter's " tame " natives,
that his wife and children and some employees were
KING PETER'S MISFORTUNE 179
all barricaded in their house defending themselves
and withstanding a siege. King Peter wrote me
an account of it, what he did, and how he " took
a bloody revenge/' killing so many of them with
his own hand ! He sent me a photograph of the
Mato in harbour there. Some time after this, on
my return to Europe, I saw a telegram in the
papers that all the white people at Petershafen
had been massacred, and the Mato seized, looted,
and burnt. I have never heard more details, and
I supposed King Peter perished with the others,
but I have recently heard that he is living and
well. I had sent out from Germany a box of
toys for his children. I wonder if little or big
savages are playing with them now ? It was a
great work to send that box, as no one in that
German town had heard of New Guinea, and the
post office people insisted it must be an iron-
bound case and that it must go by Africa even
when I showed them in their own post-book that
there was a parcel post to New Guinea, and that
it was quite simple to send anything from Bremen.
When I told the fat old Frau who sold these toys
something of the place they were going to she was
amazed, and sent for her children to hear also ; and
when I asked how they had never read about it,
she said in quite a shocked, reproving way, " We
German women never read ; only our husbands
do that ! "
This being at a time when all Germans were
abusing " England " and her colonies, as well
as her enormities to " the poor Boers," it gave
me a splendid chance of which I availed myself
frequently of saying, " From morning to night
you abuse and talk over ' England ' and her
colonies. You do not even know the names
of your own or where they are. How then can
you know about ours ? " This dumbfounded
i8o GERMAN NEW GUINEA
them, and " Es ist wahr ! " (" It is true ! ") they
cried in astonishment.
In winter; in Wiesbaden, whilst I was visiting a
dear kinswoman, a number of people were present
in her salon discussing the ways and means for
augmenting the subscription got up in Wiesbaden
for " the poor Boer widows and orphans being
frozen to death on the open veldt in South
Africa." I quietly remarked that it was very
sad, but there could not be much freezing about
it, as they were more likely to be broiled alive
by the great heat. Silence and consternation
fell on these people, for they had never thought
of that, and I am afraid that, so far as they were
concerned, that fund collapsed there and
then. My hostess beamed on me and rubbed
her hands with delight, as she had been tell-
ing me how much she resented the outrage-
ous way the Germans behaved during that
war.
Mr. Alan Burgoyne, M.P., who visited many
of these places, including the Admiralty and
French Islands, and who has many interesting
tales to relate, tells me that in the French Islands
dwelt a peculiar dwarf race who had character-
istics of their own. At Friedrich Wilhelms Hafen
at Jomba, I think he met a Baron del Abaca
who had been a friend of the missing Archduke
" Johann Orth."]
BERLINSHAFEN, NEW GUINEA,
December 1900.
We arrived at the important port of
Potsdamhafen early in the morning. You can
see it marked on the map.
It consists of one small house inhabited by
two Catholic missionaries only that and nothing
POTSDAMHAFEN 181
more. Yet here the Stettin is decreed to wait
always a whole day. It is nice and cheerful
for the missionaries. Except their little wants,
practically nothing comes on board and noth-
ing goes ashore. We brought with us from the
last place Herr Wilhelm Bruno, an agent of the
New Guinea Co. He inhabits by himself a small
island here lying at a little distance from the
mainland. He has a house on it, and no strange
native on the pain of death is allowed to set
foot on that island. He cleared and planted two
hectares of it with cocoanut, and had some natives
working on the island, but now, he tells me, there
is no one. At first the white cockatoos came
in crowds, and his trees were as if covered
by snow at times ; now he has driven them
away.
From the ship the very high mountains
rising abruptly from the sea presented a vividly
green and smooth appearance, looking quite like
good pasture for sheep. It turned out, however,
that the green smoothness was the terribly high,
useless, destructive latang grass. It is picturesque
with the one little house and the palms at the
foot of those steep mountains.
The captain said Herr Bruno could sell me
many native weapons and curios, so a boat was
got out and I accompanied him to the island
and his house, which, though very small, was
quite comfortable. He showed me what he had,
and, under the impression that I was buying
them, I picked out the best, rejecting the others,
and felt rather foolish when he insisted on giving
them all, and said he had never thought of selling
them ! What a lonely life he leads here and
always, too, in such danger from the natives
that he must shoot any who even attempt to
land on the island !
182 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
I never heard that Herr Bruno shot one of
them ; but it was well known to all natives that
the isle was taboo to them, so if they did
attempt to land it was for mischief and at their
own risk.
He wanted to return to the ship, so I begged
to be left on the island alone and fetched when
the boat brought him back in the evening. As
it was quite safe he agreed, and there they left
me, quite alone, with the run of a whole beauti-
ful idyllic island all to myself. I rejoiced in
this, and went about exploring, looking at the
plants, rambling about, and now and again
taking a photograph. It was a beautiful spot,
and I longed for such a place of my own.
You felt as if you could breathe in freedom
there, and that no care could come nigh, with
nothing but the sea around and the unexplored
mainland before you. Hours went by, but I did
not think of the time I was too much interested.
No thought of the natives or of possible danger
crossed my mind.
Far out at sea rose to a great height the
active volcano called Vulcan Isle. Rising from
the sea directly, a perfect cone, it perhaps looks
higher than it really is. We had passed not far
from it. It has trees almost to the crater, and
streams of old and new lava flowed down its
steep declivities, whilst it was emitting much
steam and smoke. At night it shows a dull red
light. There are said to be twenty-four native
villages on it, and the near island Aris is also
thickly populated. Vulcan Isle is a very strik-
ing feature in this part. Lesson Isle, not far
from it, has also a volcano. I believe no white
man has ever landed on Vulcan Isle, and its
native inhabitants are said to be so partic-
ularly savage and ferocious, and such ardent
HERR BRUNO'S ISLAND 183
cannibals, that they are greatly dreaded by even
the other natives. On the isth March 1888
Vulcan Isle was almost engulfed by the sea,
producing a tidal wave which caused much
damage and killed two German explorers, Von
Below and Hunstein, who were on the west coast
of New Britain.
As I said, no thought of danger crossed my
mind, alone, as I imagined I was, on Herr Bruno's
island. Picture then the start I got when, round-
ing a mass of rock, I came suddenly on three
of the most appalling-looking savages one could
conceive. They were sitting under a tree, and were
covered with blood streaming over them.
For a moment we gazed at each other in amaze-
ment. What could they be doing, I wondered
were they having a cannibal feast ? I walked
right up to them, too interested to think of possible
danger. They were got up in the most fantastic
style as to head-gear, their hair tousled out to an
enormous size ; the lobes of their ears hung down
to their shoulders with heavy ornaments thrust
through. They were streaked with paint, their
teeth were filed into sharp points fearful fangs
really and their mouths and gums were red and
black with betel-nut. They were quite nude, and,
as I said, streaming with blood. They really
outdid anything in the way of real savages I had
seen or conceived. " Well," I said, " you are
a pretty lot ; what are you doing here ? " I do
not suppose they understood the words, or rather
I know they did not, but they promptly showed
me what they were doing. They had found a
broken soda-water bottle, and, with pieces of jagged
glass, were shaving themselves, but tearing away
skin and flesh, the blood simply flowing down,
and so pleased with themselves ! For a moment
it gave me quite a turn, but then I burst out
184 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
laughing, and three great black caverns armed
with fangs opened at me, and I witnessed a fine
thing in the way of smiles. Something in the
situation struck me as funny when I remembered
that no native was allowed on this island, and
there was I a tourist with a kodak alone with
these three choice specimens. It really was an
appalling sight as they tore away at flesh and skin,
grinning all over. I talked away to them, and we
made signs and had quite an animated interview ;
but as we could not understand each other I
cannot retail what it was all about. They were so
pleased and I so amused, and suddenly I bethought
me of the camera ; here indeed was a chance not
to be missed. I raised it gingerly, but at the click
they all stopped and eyed it and me suspiciously.
However, I laughed and nodded as I rapidly
wound up the next number and pretended to show
it to them. Each time, however, it clicked they
looked disturbed. I showed them the landscape
in its glass, but they appeared to make nothing
of it. The sun was on them, they had a splendid
background, and, as the photographers say, they
" made a lovely picture."
[Alas for that camera ! I regret this spoilt
picture more than all the others put together .
It would have been quite unique.]
Having exhausted all attempts at conversation,
I wondered how I could withdraw gracefully,
wondering also what was to be the end of this
little episode. How easy for them to have seized
me and bundled me into their canoe ! However,
they were in high good humour. We parted with
many grins and waving of hands, and I strolled
back to the seashore, thinking it, all the same, as
well to be within sight of the Stettin. Presently
the boat came, and when they landed I said to Herr
Bruno that he had told me there was no one on the
THREE SAVAGES 185
island, and I had just been photographing three
terrific savages. They were all in a state of
excitement at once ; Herr Bruno rushed into his
house for his " gun," and there was a regular
stampede for the spot I indicated. I ran also,
but intent only on protecting my cannibal friends.
Fortunately whether they had seen the boat or
what I cannot say they had fled, were already
in their canoe, and well out at sea. Herr Bruno
called out things and made threatening gestures,
but to my relief there was no firing, and I explained
they had been perfectly friendly and " nice."
He said they came from the Vulcan Isle,
probably on mischief bent, and knew they had
no right to be on the island ; but I am sure they
were in the most harmless mood. He wondered
I was there to tell the tale. It might easily have
been that he and the others had found a tenantless
isle, whilst I was being borne over the sea to
dinner but not my dinner. I do not believe
they even thought of it ; we had been quite
pleased with one another, and, could I have spoken
their lingo, we would have had a fine yarn. There
is more than one volcanic isle simply marked on
the chart as " Vulcan Isle."
I then went ashore in the boat to the mainland,
where the two missionaries who lived in the one
house which represents this "port" joined us,
and we presently returned to the ship.
Leaving this place much reviled by the
captain, who hated the useless delay, and who,
poor man, was really very ill with fever we
passed other imposing islands, volcanoes active
and extinct. Bosseville, a very high, picturesque,
wood-clothed island with some enormous trees
and cocoanut palms, had apparently a house
perched on its summit. Looking through the
glass there seemed no doubt of it, and the captain
1 86 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
thought so too ; but he said nothing was known
of it, or of any one being there or having been
there. I wonder if it really was a house, and, if
so, how came it to be there, and who dwells in it ?
(Perhaps the missing archduke !)
We passed Lesson Isle and many others I,
however, confuse them all of this being most
beautiful, even fascinating.
Then a most extraordinary effect was caused
by the waters of the great Kaiserin Augusta River
which, 20 miles from land, rolled out in a broad,
green flood, clearly defined against the blue of
the sea, and actually the green waters were raised
above the sea. Giant logs and trees torn from
their place far inland were being dashed about like
corks ; enormous shoals of very large fish were
leaping out of the water ; whilst above hovered
flocks of birds. There was also a shoal of small
whales. The Stettin, on entering this flood,
swayed about like a cork herself. Truly it was a
strange and impressive sight.
This great river has been traced by the Germans
to within a few miles of the supposed source of
the Fly River, which flows through British New
Guinea into the sea in the south, and is navigable
for 500 or 600 miles. The Kaiserin Augusta, of
course, has its exit into the sea in the north.
Some gold miners have been prospecting about the
Kaiserin Augusta and have found gold. It and
the Raimu or Ottelie River are navigable for
small steamboats. Exploring expeditions under
Hauptmann Dallman, Von Schleinitz, and others in
1886-1887, and under Dr. Baumbach in 1896 and
Herr Tappenbeck in 1898, have been made about
this part. There are, or were, a few trading
stations about the Raimu the landing-place for
which is Potsdamhafen but that means one
white man here or there.
KAISERIN AUGUSTA RIVER 187
[Herr Fall in 1908 ascended the river for 200
miles. There is no bar at the mouth, which is
about a mile wide, and it is from 300 to 450 yards
wide for 200 miles. About 40 miles from the
coast it broadens into a lake with islands. The
navigation is unobstructed, there being a con-
tinuous channel of at least 50 ft. in depth. The
coast is swampy, tropical vegetation merges into
forest about 40 miles from the mouth, beyond
that are alluvial plains dotted with timber, and
wooded hills with plantations of cocoanut palms
and bread-fruit trees round the villages. The
natives had large houses and tobacco plantations,
were of a peaceable disposition, and, altogether,
it seems more than a country of promise. Whilst
in Berlin in 1911, Captain Vahsen, the captain
of the Deutschland, the ship of Lieutenant Filch-
ner's German Antarctic expedition, who had just
come from New Guinea, gave me an account of
some of the experiences of an exploring expedition
he had accompanied up the Kaiserin Augusta
River, and of a fight with the natives. Much
knowledge of this region has been quite lately
acquired by various explorers, including the
members of the German and Dutch Boundary
Commission, which completed its labours in
December 1910. Very much, however, remains
yet to be done.]
In Hansa Bay, near here, the natives destroyed
a NewGuinea Co. station,so an expedition was sent,
which killed some of them and burnt their villages ;
but it had no real result, as the natives merely
retired into the interior, and half the members
of the expedition were down with fever.
On many of the islands, Balise or Gilbert Isle,
Tarawae, Bertrand, and D'Urville Isles, the natives
have fine plantations, and they are all beautiful
isles. It is all dangerous navigation, as these seas
i88 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
are not properly charted, and there are no light-
houses or lightships.
These islands have native names as well as the
various ones given by different explorers, on top
of which the Germans have renamed them after
their princes, ministers, and such people, so that
it is confusing, and, looking at the map, one does
not spot them easily. Some of the smaller ones
are yet unnamed. As the natives know only the
native names, they can give little information
about them. Surely it would be wiser to stick to
such native names as have some interest or mean-
ing, or else to the names bestowed by the dis-
coverers, whose right to the nomenclature of their
discoveries should never be questioned. It is not
fair of the Germans, who discovered none of them,
to rename them in a somewhat unmeaning
fashion.
We passed very close to two, one low-lying
and full of natives, the other high and rugged.
How I longed to stay in them and not pass on
like this with merely a glimpse at them ! Far
out at sea, too, we saw a small native canoe with
two occupants, probably blown away from land
and drifting where they knew not or perhaps
they did know. We waved to them, but they
took no notice.
At dinner that night Captains Niedermayer and
Dunbar were very talkative, and became excited
on the subject of German aims. They said they
hoped the large island of Timor, which is partly
Dutch and partly Portuguese, would soon become
German ; one reason being that it lay near the
Australian continent. (To serve as a pin-prick,
of course.) They are most desirous of getting
by some means a footing in Borneo (again to be
near their " dear cousins "), then acquiring the
Dutch part of New Guinea, and they regard it as
AMBITIOUS IDEAS 189
a certainty that one day the whole of the Dutch
East Indies are to come under the German flag
all those enormously rich exploited and unex-
ploited islands with their harbours so useful as
coaling stations. This is to be attained by the
Netherlands being forced or cajoled into joining
the German Empire for her own preservation,
by picking a quarrel with her and simply adding
her to the empire, and then her famous ports
of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, as well as her rich
East Indian possessions; are theirs ! It is so
obviously desirable from the German point of
view that I wonder it is not constantly in the minds
of statesmen I mean politicians, for where are
the statesmen ? These ports and all these islands
under the German flag, her growing navy, her
great fleet of liners using these harbours this is
to be the beginning of the end for us. So they
think. Will it come ? It is a very obvious aim
just glance at the map to see what it really means.
What has Australia to say to it ? Nothing at all ;
she ignores the idea. She is obsessed with the fear
that she is to be eaten up by Japanese. There is
no sign of the British flag anywhere ; not a ship
or a schooner have we seen flying it on this direct
route to Hong-Kong and Singapore. I do not
wonder the Germans deem it easy of attainment,
despite British, Dutch, Portuguese, Americans,
and Japanese. [As yet none of these things
have come to pass ; but they are coming nearer.
The proposed fortification of Flushing, and the
establishment near there of Krupp's works, are
signs of what may be.]
I discuss all these things with them with
interest, but without heat, though my feelings
are strong on the subject. Indeed the aims and
ambitions of Germany in these seas are what
we talk and think most about. The Dutch make
igo GERMAN NEW GUINEA
nothing of many of their rich possessions ; unless
they wake up and do so, all may pass from them.
Yet a treaty with us by which the Netherlands
agreed never to part with an inch of territory
here save to us, on condition that we guaranteed
her safe possession of her over-seas lands and the
absolute integrity of the Netherlands, would for
ever crush all these German and other aspirations,
and render New Guinea valueless to Germany ;
to attain that we must also attain a really great
and powerful navy guarding our interests in every
part of the world. So rapidly is German trade
increasing and the augmentation of her navy and
mercantile marine going on, that harbours and coal-
ing stations are an absolute necessity to her. She
must have them, she will have them. Much of
the trade of the Dutch East Indies is practically
hers, and she is endeavouring to push the German
language everywhere, and the German flag is
displayed wherever she can to teach all the native
races what it is. From the German point of view
this is admirable and perfectly legitimate; I ad-
mire her splendid progress and her ambition, and
only wish we were as far-seeing. But, unluckily, it
does not suit our interests, and so each one of us
is bound to oppose these aims by every or any
means in his power.
[The latest German idea is to establish a forti-
fied harbour and coaling station at or near New
Britain. Look at the map, think over what it
means, and do not forget that the project has been
mooted. The idea of to-day is sometimes the
fact of to-morrow. Germany has come late into
the field of colonisation ; all the desirable parts,
or most of them, are in other hands, therefore to
attain her growing, rapidly growing ambition of
being a great World Power, she is undoubtedly
compelled to " hustle round " and achieve her
BERLINSHAFEN 191
purpose as she can. It is unfortunate for her in
a way, as naturally these aims are looked on
askance by others ; but she is not likely to desist
from them, and there is no reason she should.
It is almost naive the way she is, with a gracious
smile and her tongue in her cheek, insinuating
herself into the Holy Land. Surely there are
dreams somewhere of the crowning of a King in
Jerusalem, the creating of a great legend ? All
those fine buildings, all those gracious visits
already it would seem she thinks she is there !]
We arrived at Berlinshafen, which is 180
English miles from Potsdamhafen, at daybreak.
Since 1897 it has been a station of the New Guinea
Co. It was first started in 1894 by Ludwig
Karnbach. On Seleo he made the first plantation ;
he died 1897, and then the New Guinea Co. took it
over. Berlinshafen is only a bay, on the east
side of which lie the islands of Ali or Alij,
Seleo, and Angeli, quite near each other. In the
background is the thickly wooded mainland
coast.
At Ali there was a great fight with the natives.
The Germans came in the Moewe, and for some
purpose found it necessary to land a party to fell
and clear the thick trees and undergrowth at one
place. They did not know that this was taboo
that is, sacred ground and were at it unarmed,
when suddenly they were attacked by the natives
with spears, and many wounded ere they could
reach the boats. They then retaliated by burning
the native houses, killing many natives, and taking
some prisoners. Captain Dunbar, who was then
in command of the Moewe, is here to describe it.
They swamped many canoes, and shot the natives
swimming in the water. Hence here the Germans
are hated and distrusted. You are amongst
savages in a very wild state here. They come out
IQ2 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
from the mainland in their canoes very quickly.
Their thick hair is often bleached with lime, they
are gorgeous in big ears, feathers, shells, and nose
ornaments, and decorate their faces, bodies, and
legs with red, black, yellow, and white stripes, so
that they are ornamental adjuncts to the scenery.
On the mainland is, or was, a Mission Station,
Leming, but between natives and fever it does
not go ahead much. I am rather at sea here
as to where exactly the Mission is. Tumleo has a
Catholic Mission, but where Tumleo is I am not sure,
as there is an archipelago of islands and coral
reefs here.
Seleo is a flat coral reef clothed with cocoanut
palms, and is, as I said, a New Guinea Co. station.
Two Germans, Herr Behse and a carpenter, live on
it. They are clearing and planting it.
As we approached this island a house or two
and a small pier came into view. We went nearer
and nearer. I happened to be leaning over the side,
and looked first with surprise at the rickety little
pier, then at the clearly visible bottom of the sea
how shallow it was, and getting still more shallow !
surely we were not going to that pier why, we
were nearly ashore ! Suddenly there was a com-
motion on the bridge, wonder on every face, and
we went full speed astern. Another minute would
have seen us high and dry on Seleo ! Some one
on the bridge had been asleep, surely. We whis-
pered together, but said nothing openly. We came
to anchor quite a long way out. Next day I did
make a remark on this episode, but every one
grew so embarrassed that I changed the subject.
We had nearly gone ashore, and if we had we
would have been there for many months ere rescue
came ! The natives would have collected, done for
us all if they could, and burnt the Stettin. How-
ever, it did not happen.
TEMPLE AT SELEO, NEW GUINEA.
To face fiage 192.
SELEO 193
The two white men here collect the trepang,
copra, pearl-shell, etc., from the neighbouring
islands. They have cleared Seleo of much jungle
and planted it with cocoanuts, having some
Chinese and Malays, as well as natives, as workers.
They export much copra. I learnt here that the
natives all like to shave with bits of broken glass
when they can get it, instead of a bit of pearl-
shell.
The Captain took me ashore. Then a most
curious thing happened. The Captain in his
uniform, gold braid and buttons, and gold-laced
cap is in the eyes of the natives a person of enor-
mous importance; the "big fellow white master
of the big war canoe " is what they call him. Also
the Stettin is to them something very great indeed,
though it does not deal out death like the Moewe.
I was also in white, and carried a white umbrella ;
but I had no gold lace, and was nobody. Yet
the instant we stepped ashore the natives came
flocking from every direction, calling, " English-
man ! Englishman ! "
It was really strange. They knew my nation-
ality instantly, and, flocking round me, quite ignored
the Captain, who was half put out at it, half
amused. They see, of course, no English here,
save any stray ones who pass by in the
Stettin.
We first visited Herr Behse at his house, who
entertained us to wine and other refreshments,
and then the Captain and I, escorted by about
fifty naked natives, walked round the island. I
was the attraction, palpably and openly ; why or
wherefore I know not. Was it the white umbrella
a sort of ensign of royalty with natives or what ?
It could not be the umbrella, every one has them
here, and we heard a story of a native who had been
away and returned with a fortune in clothes and
13
I 9 4 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
goods, to be instantly deprived of all by his village,
with the exception of his umbrella, which none
of them wanted. The Captain was as puzzled
as I was at the welcome they gave me. If I
looked at a flower, a piece of coral, or a cocoanut,
they rushed to get it for me, and they hung on my
every movement, eager to anticipate my every
wish. They thrust things on me. The umbrella
had a defective catch, and every now and then
as I talked with the Captain it came down over my
head like an extinguisher. This was ludicrous, but
there was not a smile on the faces of our bodyguard;
only when the Captain and I burst out laughing at
each recurrence of this absurd thing, and they saw
they might laugh without being rude, then they
shrieked with delight. Then I gave one the
umbrella to carry, and he strutted in front simply
overwhelmed with pride, and the others full of
envy, so they had all to get it in turn. It was very
funny to see them striding along with the
umbrella, throwing glances over their shoulders
to see if I was pleased.
When we got to the end of the island we
found the two other Englishmen there. I asked
them if there had been the same excitement over
them, but they said they had passed unnoticed,
so that it was more puzzling than ever. Anyway,
I was the recipient of all the honours that day.
When we visited the village, where as usual no
women were visible, I was conducted to a house
and allowed to look in, and I am not quite sure
that the hospitality was meant to end there. The
women all giggled, and I am pretty sure were not
in seclusion through any wish of their own. They
had two " Temples," both very curious, with their
coloured wooden carvings of idols and the rest.
All these natives, though quite nude, were much
painted and decorated, wore nose-rings, ears en-
NATIVE WITH MASK AND SHIELD. NEW GUINEA.
(To face page 194.)
GIFTS FROM SELEO 195
larged enormously, red flowers and feathers in their
hair appeared overdressed ! They were good-
looking in a native way, of course and well
made, but rather slim, and many of the younger
ones somewhat weedy.
There was a fine, large, decorated war canoe,
arid into this we got, and were photographed by
Anderson, one of the Englishmen. This canoe
had a curious fibre chain affixed to the mast. The
two Englishmen went bathing, and wild was the
excitement over their white skins evidently the
Germans did not go in for sea-bathing and all
the natives must touch those skins and inspect
them closely.
On returning to the pier laden with rubbish
showered on me by the still accompanying body-
guard the German carpenter, whose name I am
sorry to say I have forgotten, showed me his house,
kept neat and clean for him by a Malay girl. This
man was a magnificent specimen of what a German
may come to here. Very fair, he was of course
bronzed by the sun, and his tall, broad-chested
figure seemed to be in the perfection of develop-
ment. In Germany so tall and strong a man
would have become fat and flabby ; here he was
the picture of health, and a striking advertisement
for the salubrity of Seleo. Possibly the island was
fever-free I do not know. Later, this man came
on board the ship and to my cabin, to present me
with most beautiful native breastplates and other
ornaments which I greatly prize. He was quite
shy about it at first, saying he hoped I did not
mind, but he had heard I liked such things, and
wanted me to have them. I was as delighted with
his gifts as I was with his kindness. It will be
seen I have no cause to revile Seleo.
The crew were trading boxes of matches for
cocoanuts, and we took on a good deal of copra
196 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
and trepang. The natives were very stupid at
loading the cargo much cry and little wool.
Timber and fittings for a house were what we
landed here.
Then we went to the island of Ali, which is also
a coral reef of much the same appearance as Seleo,
but has a little hill on it. There is a Catholic
Mission Station. A house was brought from
Germany, and cost 5000 marks ; the second house,
built by themselves, cost a quarter of that. There
are many natives about some hundreds on this
or the adjoining island. A missionary had been
killed lately by the natives, reason unknown, and
their spears were still sticking in the roof of his
house. Captain Dunbar described the fight the
Moewe had here, which I have already referred
to. It is curious that I can feel no sort of fear of
these natives, but, on the contrary, like them and
feel confidence in them, and it is perfectly patent
they take to me yet it has often been like this
with other people, and in the end they have been
suddenly attacked and killed. There must be
strange workings in the savage mind ; it has turns
and twists we do not grasp, I am afraid.
In the evening we left Berlinshafen, our last
port of call in New Guinea.
It is impossible not to wonder how all
these beautiful islands and lands are still so little
known. One would imagine that ships of many
nations would be here exploring and seeing what
was to be got. British enterprise is simply dead.
Where is the spirit that led the old Dutch and
Portuguese explorers in their quaint little ships
to brave such perils as they did in the unknown ?
In 1644 Commodore Abel Janzoon Tasman sailed
along the northern coast of New Guinea on his way
home to Batavia. In 1605-1606 the Dutch yacht
Duyphen made two exploring voyages to New
DUTCH EXPLORERS 197
Guinea, and on one trip the commander, after
coasting the island, sailed southward on through
the west side of Torres Straits to that part of
Australia to west and south of Cape York, marked
on modern maps as Duyphen Point, thus making
the first authentic discovery of that continent.
In 1623, Arnheim's Land, now the northern dis-
trict of the Northern Territory of South Australia,
was discovered by the Dutch ships Peso, and
Arnheim, and the master of the latter and eight
of his crew murdered by the natives.
John Evelyn in his Diary gives us a glimpse of
Dampier the explorer.
"August 6, 1698. I dined with Mr. Pepys,
where was Captain Dampier, who has been a
famous buccaneer, had brought hither the painted
Prince Job, and printed a relation of his very
strange adventures and his observations. He was
now going abroad again by the King's encourage-
ment, who furnished a ship of 290 tons. He
seemed a more modest man than one would
imagine by the relation of the crew he had con-
sorted with." I wonder did they have for dinner
" a hen with great content " ?
The Spaniards, the Dutch, and the Portuguese
did so much now, perhaps, it is the turn of the
Germans. The keys of the East are Singapore and
Hong-Kong. Between them and Australia lie all
these wonderful isles, yet not a single British ship
is ever seen. We, too, have our share in Borneo,
the largest island in the world next to New Guinea,
yet it might not exist for all sign here of our being
there. It is inexplicable.
I have always these brave old explorers in their
quaint little ships in my mind here. How little
has changed since they saw it, save where volcanic
disturbances have altered the aspect of the land !
and such catastrophes have not been infrequent.
198 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
There are the great mountain ranges does no
one want to learn their secrets ? Nothing is really
known of them, and their heights are mere matters
of conjecture. You see them piling up height
upon height into the distance, and they tell me
that sometimes snow-peaked ranges are visible.
[Viewed from the sea, which of course makes a
difference, they bore a more imposing aspect to me
than did many of the ranges of the Andes in
Ecuador, Peru, or Bolivia ; but, in the case of the
South American giants, I usually viewed them
from a considerable height above sea-level. I
saw no peak in New Guinea which, after all, could be
mentioned with magnificent Chimborazo as I saw
it from the sea at Guayaquil ; but none of them
anywhere can ever have the interest for me that
that untrodden snow-clad peak near the South
Pole, which bears my name, has and it, alas,
I shall never see !]
The Owen Stanley range in British New
Guinea we know something about, and its highest
peak, Mount Victoria, 13,150 feet, has been scaled
by Sir W. Macgregor : its other monarchs are
Mount Albert Edward, 12,550 feet ; Scratchley,
I2,25ofeet; Winter, Douglas, and Knutsford, 1 1, 882,
11,796, and 11,157 f ee t respectively. The Albert
Victor and Sir Arthur Gordon ranges appear to
join the Bismarck range, and it is believed a great
chain of monarchs stretches to the north, some of
them estimated to be 16,000 or 17,000 feet high
the Charles Louis range is supposed to attain a
still greater height. The Arfak Mountains, too, in
the north of New Guinea are of great height. All
practically remain unknown. [Mr. Pratt has
made expeditions amongst the Arfak Mountains.
He tells me they are very fine and the scenery
superb, and described some parts as being clothed
with beautiful rhododendrons. Mr. Pratt and
THE AMBERNO RIVER 199
his young son have made many very interesting
journeys in Dutch New Guinea.]
We continued along this unknown coast, and
eventually along that of the Dutch part of the
island. Countless bits of timber, branches, and
huge trees torn up by their roots passed us the
flotsam and jetsam borne down by the current of
the great Amberno River which drains Dutch
New Guinea. This current 13 miles out at sea
is a river, and very deep. It has a large delta, and
but only one of its mouths has been ascended
for about 60 miles by van Braam Morris. We
passed through its current in the night. An
enormous shark followed us for a long time at this
part.
The fascination of gazing into unknown lands is
extreme and draws one strongly. I sat and looked
at the Mysterious Land with a great craving
to penetrate its recesses. To make known the
unknown, to write names on the blank spaces of
the map of this globe, is a thing that has only been
done by men taking their lives in their hands and
risking everything ; and how countless are the
lives laid down in this cause ! But, had it not been
for such brave, self-controlled, enduring, and
fine-spirited men, how would the world ever have
been known ? To come nearer home, where, too,
would be the British Empire ? In my eyes the
bravest and most heroic of human beings are the
Antarctic and Arctic explorers, who have to
possess the very highest qualities in man physical
and moral courage, endurance under terrible
privations in terrible climates, resource, absolute
self - control, and unselfishness ; their daily life
when marching in that terrific cold is the con-
stant practice of the most heroic endurance and
bravery, beside which the most daring deeds of
bravery on the field of battle are but child's play.
200 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
[Since these words were written it has been
my happy fate to watch from behind the scenes
the preparations for a great Antarctic expedition ;
to be allowed to see and learn what it means to
bring such a work to the possibility of success ; to
have followed its fortunes with intense interest
and admiring affection and the greatest faith, to
be justified in every way by the brilliant success
of Ernest Shackleton and his gallant men. ' This
is the man, and this is the expedition," I said to
myself and others the very first time I met Ernest
Shackleton ; through storm and stress I never
wavered in my belief and my faith, and no one
could ever have rejoiced more sincerely than I
did when, the days of waiting and anxiety over,
the triumphant news of their safe return and great
success was flashed by cable from New Zealand.
A great, a big deed, so splendidly done ! Just the
sort of story I loved, and done, too, by men I knew
and believed in !
The world knows and has applauded the results,
and the British Empire is proud of those men who
planted their King's flag so far beyond where
mortal foot had ever been ; but it is only those
who know what led to that result who can guess
how really great was the deed. It is a story to
stir one how this young man conceived the idea
that he would himself raise the sum of 50,000
or 60,000 by his own exertions, find and buy a
suitable ship, find the men useful for his purpose,
equip his expedition thinking out beforehand
every possible detail and would then essay this
daring and difficult task of surpassing all that any
one, alive or dead, had done. Surely a bold and
ambitious dream ! Yet Ernest Shackleton did it-
did it in less time, on less money, and with greater
results than any other expedition, and brought his
ship and all his men home safe and sound ; his
SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON 201
men devoted to him now as then, and ready and
eager to follow him now whenever he calls upon
them. No weeping mothers, wives, or sweethearts
here only joyful women blessing his name no
great disasters, but a splendid and genuine success
due to the leader's great qualities, which almost
ensured success ere he left on his quest. Such
energy, spirit, imagination, foresight, and prac-
tical organisation were bound to take a man far.
He was the man, and it was the expedition !
As I write these lines I remember how last
night I sat in the drawing-room of his London
house whilst all Britain, nay, all the world, is
acknowledging in him the man and the conqueror
and looked at him whilst he stood on the hearth,
and, turning over the pages of the soiled little note-
book he carried with him on his famous Southern
march, read to his family and guests, here and
there, a page of notes as he had written them
daily under those terrible difficulties those short,
bald statements of those terrible days and hours
when the end seemed very near, and famine, sick-
ness, and fatigue held sway bringing so vividly
before us that awful time I looked at him and
round the pleasant, flower-decked, firelit room
yes, he was the man, and it was the expedition.
Brave men make brave women. Her ladyship
might be sitting there proud, happy, and at ease
now ; but I had seen and known what a woman's
brave and cheerful spirit can mean in days of
deep anxiety and waiting that waiting and
had known how splendidly some of those women
had played their part, which is no light one. If
we had little to say when that reading was done,
it was not that we were stupid, for thought and
memory were busy indeed, that success had
been well won indeed, it had all been well
done !
202 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
It is a beautiful story to those who know it
a thing like the gallant deeds of old ; and if they
laugh at me because I love their brave and sturdy
little old ship, and think her the " biggest ship
afloat " well, I do not mind ; and it is not only
the ship I love. I longed to see this thing done ;
these Britons did it, and in the very way I wished
it should be done no wonder, then, that Ernest
Shackleton, his merry men, and his brave little
ship have a particular hold on my heart they
realised for me a lifelong wish and to me it is a
joy I do not care to hide that they believed in me
all the time, and cared that I cared.
Those days, sailing through those gleaming
seas by unknown lands, I dreamed dreams of such a
thing as this, fearing that if it was to be I should
not be here to see it ; and, after all, the dreams
have come true, and those who made them come
true are men I believed in from the first it is a
beautiful, cheering, stimulating story for those
who love their land.
Our " decadent " Empire cannot be quite
dead there are men in it yet who can do great
things. I have a prophetic eye, and I look to the
day when those who have to guide the destinies of
our great Empire claim for the Empire the services
in some high position of such a man as Sir Ernest
Shackleton, with his unique combination of
qualities, so admirably fitted to guide a ship of
Empire to a safe and splendid harbour no " little
thing " is fit for a man who sees nothing in any-
thing that has not obstacles to be overcome,
rises in delight to tackle those obstacles, and goes
at it with unwavering energy, spirit, and zest.
May this wish come true !
It has been given to me also to hear the tales
of what they have done or hope to do from the lips
of other explorers the gallant and popular French
MY HEROES 203
Antarctic explorer, Dr. Jean Charcot, to whom I
have to give thanks for an honour that touched
me deeply ; my good friend, Lieutenant Wilhelm
Filchner, leader of the German Antarctic expedi-
tion with the ship Deutschland ; and many a talk
have I had with my friend, Dr. Douglas Mawson,
who is going to, I am sure, make the name of
Australia renowned in Polar annals also. My
best good wishes go with them all, and they know
it. Then we have Captain Scott at work also, and
a letter from his expedition when it touched the
Antarctic continent has reached me, so that my
interest never fades.
I have faith, too, that the secrets of the mys-
terious land, what lies hidden within the recesses
of unknown New Guinea, will ere long be revealed
to the world.]
Polar explorers are my heroes, and in a lesser
degree I honour those other explorers who have
made known to us the world, and particularly those
gallant men of long ago, who in their little frail
ships faced every danger and hardship with such
indomitable spirit. It is wonderful what they did,
simply wonderful, and it is for mankind in general
they did it. Dampier, Tasman, Cook; and all
those others are never out of one's thoughts here,
and yet in the long space of time since they lived
and died how very little has been done in these
regions and yet how much ! Think of Australia
alone parts of which I have seen grow under my
own eyes, and have even known some of the first
white men who ever set foot on a part of its shores
the now colony of Victoria and made of it in
such a short space of time so great a land. The
story of that fine race, the Hentys, ought to stimu-
late any one. Some of them I have known. They,
the first white settlers in Victoria, and one of whom
was the first white child born in that colony, did
204 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
such great work for it that it could not be what it
is now but for them and those others who did like
them,andyet who ever mentions or remembers them
now, or gives them a word of thanks ? The great
fathers of that colony are almost forgotten already,
yet their names are really written for ever in the
history of the land, and in far future ages countless
people will with pride try to trace their descent
from them, and they will be honoured as they are
not now. The man who explores and makes known
an unknown part of the world does work that lasts
for ever, for all who come after reap the results. No
man is a hero to his valet ; but that is not because
the man is not a hero, but because the valet is a
valet. So in the same way those who belittle
or disdain explorers are only showing what they
are themselves the " little ones " of the earth,
incapable of understanding anything beyond the
feeble vision of their feeble mind. We cannot all
rise to the great heights, but we can honour those
who do, or else we dishonour ourselves.
Here, though they never realise it, every man
is in almost daily, even hourly, peril of losing his
life. Many lives are always sacrificed to build
up a new country; it has always been so, and
always will be so. Few people realise it, least of
all those who long after reap the benefit of it. Yet
every trifle connected with a new land is of interest,
and each name mentioned is that of an Empire-
Builder. What would we not give to know more
of those Saxons who drove the Romans from our
shores their names, what they did, what they
saw, what they thought ? What would we not give
to know what race, if any, conquered the wild
aborigines of Scotland, lived with them, bred with
them, and made the race what it is ?
No one cares at the time, but one hundred, five
hundred, or one thousand years hence will they
THE FIRST MEN 205
not wonder about the people who first made known
these beautiful lands around me as I write ? To
me, each one of these First Men has, a surpassing
interest, unconscious as they often are that they
are doing or have done anything. Scarcely a
spot here have I seen but a white man's blood has
dyed the ground ; they are forgotten, uncared for,
yet each one in losing his life did something, and a
great deal, to make it a necessity that those who
come after should be in less peril, and so bit by
bit the land is won.
[Poor, simple Frau Wolff could never have
dreamt that in the annals of New Guinea she is
to be an historic character, one of the first white
women in the land, and whose life was lost for and
by it ; or how through her fate men said sternly
to one another, " It must never be again ; we are to
be masters here, and the lives of our women sacred."
For one white woman hundreds of black men die
in reality ; for it is never forgotten in such com-
munities, and is in the minds of men when they
wreak vengeance on their enemies, and it steels
their hands and hearts against mercy.]
In the colony of Victoria I have seen and
known the original black inhabitants of the land ;
where are they now ? Vanished, as if they had
never been ! Surely a strange and terrible thing
the work, was it, of wicked, ruthless, greedy
men, or simply the ordained will of God ? It is a
troublous thought. Here too it is to be the same ;
undoubtedly in no far distant time these Papuans
will cease to exist. Are such races the so degener-
ated descendants of some mighty race of the past
that the Creator will have no more of them and
decrees their extinction ? It is all perplexing.
As to the converting of them to Christianity by
methods entirely opposed to the teaching of Christ
the " civilising " of them, we all know it is a
206 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
mere farce. It is not to be ; it never will or can
be. The mere contact with the white man is the
beginning of their degradation and ultimate ex-
tinction. The natives of the Interior will likely
survive the longest, and those of the Admiralty
Group of forty islands seem to be a hardier and
more virile race ; but already, since the European
occupation, on many of the islands less than a
hundred survive out of thousands. Ere it is too
late it is to be hoped that ethnologists will make
thorough studies of the survivors, and all their
customs, ways, and beliefs be noted down.
[I have discussed this Papuan subject with Miss
Pullen-Burry, who is greatly interested in anthro-
pology, and who has written on these matters, and
what this clever lady and many others have
noted ought to be carefully preserved. I re-
member once when I was a guest of this lady
at a " travel dinner " in a London club where she
occupied the chair and made an excellent and
witty speech, she announced that she thought the
best employment for a ladies' club was " the
study of man " !]
We discuss these questions concerning the
origin and the ultimate fate of the natives here,
but never come to any satisfactory conclusion.
The " ferocious savages " are, after all, doing what
we all would do fighting for their very existence.
No wonder they massacre, when they can, the
people who would snatch it from them, and who
have seized upon their land. Yet, right or wrong,
the white man has to be master ; we know that.
As to making Christians of them, it is ridiculous ;
they may profess to be, but they never really
understand and never will ; there is nothing to
make them understand. They see the so-called
Christians, the Protestants and Catholics, jealous of
and hating each other, unable to work together
MISSIONARIES 207
and practising few of the Christian precepts they
profess to teach. The natives see through it all ;
they are clever enough for that ; but it pays them
to be on the right side of the " missionary man "
they in their hearts really scorn. It is truly
astounding to see a couple of missionaries in dead
earnest " converting " a mass of people not one
word of whose language they understand, and
actually thinking they are doing it ; what sorts
of minds can they have to so shut out all reason ?
I have seen missionaries give printed tracts to the
heathen, who cannot read, and if they could, do
not know the language in which the tract is printed;
and yet the givers really believe they are " doing
the Lord's work," and are unctuously satisfied
with themselves ! My brain cannot comprehend
such things. The teachings of Christ must be
borne in upon the heathen not by words but by
deeds, and it is in their own lives the Christians
are to exemplify what Christ taught. Many are
good men and women according to their lights
but how feeble the lights !
Yet it must not be supposed that in saying
this I mean to cast either ridicule or contempt
on the great band of missionaries, male and female,
and of all denominations, who in so many lands
have given up all they possess a very easy thing
to talk about, but a very difficult thing to do all
the joys, comforts, and pleasures of this world,
to go forth cheerfully and with steadfast and
enduring courage to carry out the mission they
felt themselves destined for, often perilling their
lives daily. I have seen enough of them to know
how great is sometimes their civilising influence,
how earnest and sincere they are, and what bene-
fits have resulted to their countries and the world
generally through their self-sacrifice. They sow
the seed perhaps at times in barren soil and it
208 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
never takes root ; but it is not always so, and if at
times mistaken in methods and deeds, and singu-
larly devoid of tact, the greater generality of them
are men and women who are worthy of all honour,
and are deeply in earnest over their work. Mission-
ary enterprise has played a very large part in the
progress of the British Empire and it should not
be forgotten, nor should those heroic lives and
deaths which have cast glory on their countries.
On the evening of the i8th we passed the
Traitor Islands, a fine group, flat and wooded ;
then through Geelvink Straits between the great
and fine Jappen Isle with Bulteg Isle at the end
of it and the Schouten or Mysory Isles. In the
ship chart Schouten is given as one great isle, with
a supposed passage cutting it in two ; but it appears
more like a group, and there are many small isles
with numerous inhabitants, as canoes and native
villages could be seen on shore, and at night many
native fires. All these are most beautiful and
desirable isles, and I transfer my affection from
one to the other.
[TheDutch have now a settlement at Merauke,on
the mainland, adjoining West British New Guinea.
There is there a barrack for one hundred and
fifty Dutch soldiers, the ten-roomed house of the
Resident, and also a house for the Comptroller.
Though this is a comparatively new place, built by
Javanese convicts, brought there to drain the
marsh, Dutch gardens have been laid out, lamp-
posts erected, and so on. Mr. Pratt describes it
in his book. When he was there it was all pro-
tected with barbed wire and a ring of block-houses.
He describes how one afternoon they heard a shout,
and found some Javanese workmen had been
decapitated by the natives with bamboo knives.
The Dutch are there to co-operate with the
British in dealing with the very fierce natives
DUTCH SETTLEMENTS 209
of that part. But that is far from where we
passed by.
At Sekar, Fak-Fak, and other places along the
coast from Merauke, the Dutch have established
settlements, and at some of these reside Arab,
Boutonese, and Chinese traders. Mr. A. E. Pratt
tells us that both the Tugari and Alifuroes tribes
are savage and troublesome. In his expedition in
1907 he was accompanied by his son. He states
that relics of bygone Portuguese visits to the
islands and coast are common, there being many
brass guns. As this part is only a day's sail from
Thursday Island in Torres Straits, and not distant
from Port Darwin, no doubt in olden days there
were more Portuguese and Dutch visits to North
Australia than we know of ; it is known the
Malays frequently went there in quite remote
days, and it therefore seems most possible that
interesting discoveries may yet be made in the
tropical jungles of New Guinea relating to by-
gone visits or occupation.]
In this part about the great Geelvink Bay there
are no white inhabitants save, I believe, one mission-
ary. They have gone there only to be murdered.
[To my great joy, these unknown lands of
Dutch New Guinea, which I merely looked
upon, have lately been visited by four or five
Dutch expeditions and, with the consent of the
Dutch Government, also by a British expedition.
Dr. Arthur Wiehmann led a Dutch expedition in
1903, the results of which have been published.
The present attack on the Mysterious Land will
surely result in much knowledge. The British
expedition was conveyed to New Guinea in a
Dutch gunboat, and was accompanied by a Dutch
officer commanding Javanese soldiers and con-
victs, the latter as carriers.
Three of the members of this British expedition
14
210 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
are known to me Captain Cecil Rawling, C.I.E.,
of the Somersetshire Regiment, the well-known
Tibetan explorer and author of On the Great
Plateau ; Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston, author of one
of the most readable and interesting books on
Africa, From Ruwenzori to the Congo ; and Mr. Eric
Marshall, who was one of Sir Ernest Shackleton's
three companions on his famous march to within
97 geographical miles of the South Pole.
This expedition underwent almost incredible
difficulties for many months in an " impossible "
part of the country. Dr. Lorentz, the well-known
Dutch explorer whom I also have the pleasure
of knowing made a most successful expedition
to a great altitude in the Snowy Range and
surveyed Wilhelmina Peak and the adjacent
country. The British expedition returned home
this year (1911), and the full account of the excellent
work it did will, I hope, soon be published.]
Jappen Isle lies across the entrance of Geelvink
Bay. It was in this bay that a Dutch ship visiting
the mainland sent some of her officers ashore and
they disappeared. On returning to Batavia, the
Governor sent the ship back with orders to search
everywhere for traces of the lost men, but with no
result. No trace of them has ever been found.
A Dutch boat sometimes runs to this bay and to
other parts of their New Guinea territory, but
there are no Dutch inhabitants.
The following day we were still passing along
the Dutch New Guinea coast. The bold, high,
rugged hills were clothed to the very top with
forest, some trees standing out so conspicuously
against the sky that they must be of enormous size.
Beyond them towered the cloud-wrapped summits
of huge mountains the Arfak Range, I suppose.
There was such a heavy swell on that the ship
took to rolling in the most annoying manner,
A CHINAMAN DIES 211
and rolled many tottery forms into a desirable
seclusion. We passed through immense shoals of
very fine large fish all springing out of the water,
and saw a horn pike, a large fish which skimmed
along the surface of the water like a flying-fish.
Captain Dunbar said they used to shoot them, and
no doubt they made good practice targets.
In the evening we entered Dampier Straits,
passing many islands, and about 9 p.m. steamed
through the narrow Pitt Straits between Batanta
and Salwatti ; but there are so many islands I
confuse them. It was the first time the Stettin
had passed through at night, and this "big white
fellow war canoe " must have been an imposing
sight to the natives, with all her electric lights
gleaming from her portholes. The native fires
sprang up at once on both sides of us, and were
so close and numerous that they looked like the
lights of towns.
It was on this night a Chinaman died, which
annoyed the captain ; and, of course, it was very
disobliging of him to do an inconvenient thing
like that, and at his age too ! The Chinese are so
fussy about taking their dead back to China that
they would probably insist on taking him. It was
out of the question under the circumstances, so the
captain went to the dead man's wife, and though
at first she howled and would hear no reason, he
at last got her to consent to keep it quiet and
to allow the body to be quietly buried in the sea
at night. Having once agreed, she set to work
composedly to dress the body first in white silk,
then in black, then in green lined with violet, and
the captain said she made him " quite beautiful."
When I came in to breakfast in the morning I was
invited to go and see him ; but a dead Chinaman
before breakfast on a very hot morning was not to
my taste, and I declined. He was quietly dropped
212 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
overboard the following night. The captain was
greatly taken with the Chinese widow ; I had
proposed that we should come to her aid financially,
but on speaking to her it was found that she had
plenty of money, that she thoroughly understood
all her dead husband's affairs, had all his papers,
knew all about banking, and investments, and so on
in fact was a most capable little business woman
and most sensible about everything. Once she
had had pointed out to her the danger of keeping
her husband's body on board in such heat on a
crowded ship she acted most reasonably ; but when
the doctor appeared and wanted to dissect the
body so like a doctor, always trying to get a
knife in somewhere she would have none of it,
and had our sympathy in that. She afterwards
seemed to feel a cheerful composure at finding
herself a rich and attractive widow, and no doubt
as to husbands, pictured how in China she would
get "plenty more."
None of our passengers the fever-stricken
ones from New Guinea were very lively, in fact
were just the opposite ; but we had Captain Jor-
gensen, who was going home to buy a new trading
ship for himself, and Dr. Dunckler, of the yacht
Eberhardt both interesting men and full of in-
formation. I missed King Peter and Professor
Biro, though the latter was so wrapped up in
his scientific work that we did not see much of
him. I remember somewhere a little bird came
on board when we were far out at sea and was
captured. We all cried out for the Professor to
come and tell us what it was, but when he came
he grabbed it and rushed away to kill and skin
it at once, we all streaming after him in loud
plaint, as that was not what we had intended
at all.
There are always little incidents on a ship of
A FAIRY ISLE 213
this sort to interest one. The captain came to
me one day half amused, half annoyed. " Just
look here," he said, " here is something for you
and your British pride. You know there are all
those Indian coolies on deck, and that they have
a flock of live sheep with them, which they kill
and cook for themselves in accordance with their
caste. They sent a deputation to me asking
that I should give orders that they were to have
the use of the deck cooking galley before any one
else. I asked why they should ; the others had
as much right as they had ; but they answered
in quite a surprised way that of course they must
have it because they were British subjects !
The best of it is," he went on, with a laugh, " that
on inquiry I found the others the Chinese, Malays,
and all those seemed to think it quite natural it
should be so ! "
" And what did you do ? " I asked.
" Oh," he said, with a grimace and a shrug
of his shoulders, " I said in that case they must
have it. You British think you are superior
to the rest of mankind and must have every-
thing."
" And you encourage us to think so," I
answered ; " you give way at once."
" It will not always be so," he said, with a nod.
Nor will it be. Already the signs are visible
that we do not know how to take strong opposi-
tion or rivalry, but get sulky under it.
Hearing my name called all over the ship one
day, I rushed on deck to find every one pointing
at the sea.
' Your island ! your island ! " they cried.
And there, all by itself out on the sea, was
the daintiest, dearest, cheekiest little mite of an
island you could imagine ! They all burst out
laughing as they saw the wonder and admiration
214 GERMAN NEW GUINEA
on my face. It was a tiny thing, a fairy isle
floating in those blue seas all by itself. It had
everything an island should have little curving
sandy bays, green trees, a tiny house with palms
waving over it, a little cliff in fact it was a
poem ! Who could live on it, or have thought
of building a house there ? In but a few minutes
it was a mere speck on the sea.
That infernal cockatoo gives us no peace.
It has been uncontrollable lately, and torn us to
pieces. I came along the deck one day to see it
on a rope which stretched from the yard-arm
to our high deck. . It was half-way along this,
upside down, and hanging by one claw. If it let
go it must drop into the sea. On the deck below
stood the three Chinese and two German stewards,
all their silly faces lifted in consternation as they
tried to entice it to come down with bits of sugar
and cake and much crying of " Cockay, preety
Cockay ! " but the wretch still hung on by one
claw in the most absurd manner. At last I
was about to unloose the rope and draw it across
the ship so that if the bird did fall it would be
on deck ; but it saw at once, came along quite
coolly, and on reaching the deck turned round,
deliberately winked at me, and strutted down
the deck convulsed with mirth and talking away
at a great rate. I really wonder who that bird
was in some former life ? They say I spoil it,
but they surely mean it spoils me, or what it
has left of me, for I have not a square inch of
unspoilt flesh about me.
Out at sea an empty canoe passed us. Some-
how it looked so lonely that I bent over the
side and called to it, " Where are you going, little
ship, little ship ; oh, where are you going ? "
But there was no answer, and in silence it passed
on into the unknown. Then I was sad, for some-
PASSING ON 215
how it seemed symbolical of its makers; where
are they going, the people of this poor brown race
against whom is the hand of the white man ?
Where are they going ? Only passing on silently
into the unknown ? Would they be happy with
us if we let them ? Does never into their minds
come the thought that if the strange, powerful
white people would but seek to know and under-
stand them, they need not be a lonely race who
in impotent silence must see all pass from them ?
These poor untaught savages see their lands
and homes torn from them, and if in their un-
tutored hearts they seek to defend or retaliate,
they are mowed down by the hundred ; is it an
equal contest? "Where are you going, little
ship ; oh, where are you going ? "
Ill
DUTCH EAST INDIES
MACASSAR, CELEBES, 2^th Dec. 1900.
HAVING once passed through the narrow Pitt
Straits, just south of the Equator, we were in
another world, and New Guinea was left behind.
It was almost with a pang that I realised it. No
longer were we in the savage cannibal Papuan
area, but had entered upon the pirate-haunted
seas of the Malays, the golden sphere of the famed
spice inlands.
How is one to speak of this great wonderland
of seas and islands ? thousands of isles of all
shapes, sorts, and sizes coral reefs, palm-clad
and bordered by veritable coral gardens full of
exquisite colour and beauty scented isles in an
azure sea.
" Beneath the spreading wings of purple morn,
Behold what isles these glist'ning seas adorn ! "
CAMOENS.
If you look at the map you will see nearest
to New Guinea, and stretching down in scattered
masses towards Australia, those many groups
known now collectively as the Moluccas and in-
cluding the great Celebes. North of these are
the Philippines the scorpion America has got hold
of by the tail and cannot leave go of. All these
216
SULTAN" OK SOLO AND ESCORT.
SOLO NOBLES.
JAVA.
To face page 216.
ARU ISLES 217
are in the deep seas, and some practically belong
more to the Australian system, through their
flora and fauna, than to the Malayan.
Then next to Celebes conies the great island of
Borneo, larger than France and Germany com-
bined, south of which, across the Java Sea, stretches
that long line of islands, over 1200 miles in length,
from Sumatra to Timor, the nearest to Australia,
and often called the Sunda Islands. Between
them and Borneo and the Malay Peninsula are the
shallow seas, and north-west of Borneo the China
Sea. The deep seas and the shallow make the real
division between the systems, though they merge
one into the other. Here, too, is the great volcanic
belt, for everywhere are volcanoes active and
extinct.
Leaving out Borneo and the Philippines, one
may start at the New Guinea end and mention
first the Aru Islands, which lie south of it, and
between Dutch New Guinea and Australia. They
are Papuan isles. There is one large island and
several small isles round it. They lie 150 miles
from the New Guinea coast, and probably once
formed part of it, as the seas between are shallow.
On one of them, the small island of Wamma, is
situated Dobbo, a famous native trading station,
on a spit of sand just wide enough for some rows
of houses, which are large thatched sheds. Every
house is a trading store full of all sorts of goods
beloved of natives, and often there are five hundred
traders there. They come from Macassar, Goram,
and elsewhere, and many of them are Chinese, for
these latter have for many centuries been at home
in these seas. No Europeans live at it, but a
Dutch Commissioner comes at long intervals to
hear complaints and adjust matters. [Some
Australians have now a pearl-shell fishing con-
cession. The pearls I have seen, and one of which
218 DUTCH EAST INDIES
was presented to me, are of great purity and
value.] Yet these Papuans, Malays, Chinese,
and Arabs trade peaceably together. Pearls,
pearl-shell, and tortoise-shell are exported to
Europe ; and to China, trepang and edible
birds' -nests. Sometimes, at long intervals, pirate
Malay phraus arrive from Sulu and elsewhere,
attack and burn the villages, murder the people,
and carry away the women. The Aru islanders
live in fear of them. The islands are a paradise
for the naturalist.
North of these are the beautiful Ke Islands.
They were not known till 1886, and are covered
with dense jungle and virgin forest. At Ellat,
on Great Ke, resides the Dutch controlleur and
one or two Germans in the timber trade. There
is a Jesuit Mission and a wooden church. Tocal,
the chief village, is on Little Ke. The population
is about 20,000, of whom 6000 are Mohammedans.
There are eighteen rajas, who bear as wands of
office the gold- and silver-mounted staffs presented
by the Dutch. At Nugu Roa, on the sea cliffs, are
ancient inscribed coloured paintings of natives
and their phraus, of which nothing is known,
but they are believed to be of great age. The
islands are very picturesque, mountainous, and
have bays of dazzling white sand. The most
magnificent butterflies and beetles, as well as many
species of pigeons and other birds, render the
islands more than attractive to naturalists.
Wooden bowls and pottery are items of export.
The timber is magnificent, and the Ke islanders
are noted boatbuilders. They build Papuan canoes
to hold sixty men ; and their great phraus of 20
or 30 tons burden, which sail on any sea and
trade to Singapore, are made without a nail or
piece of iron. The harbour is always full of
phraus.
TIMOR 219
Lying south of the Ke and Aru Isles is Timor,
the nearest to Australia.
"Fair are Timora's dales, with groves array'd,
Each riv'let murmurs in the fragrant shade,
And, in its crystal breath, displays the bowers
Of Sanders, blest with health-restoring powers."
CAMOENS.
It is 300 miles long by 50 miles wide, and com-
prises an area of 11,650 square miles. The highest
peak is Mount Alas, 12,250 feet, and others rise
from 5000 to 6000 feet, thinly wooded, and on the
side towards Australia quite sterile owing to the
hot winds blowing from that continent. Germany
has great desires towards acquiring Timor. It is
not known when the Portuguese first settled there.
In 1859 the boundary between them and the Dutch
part was settled. The Dutch capital is Kupang,
which has 7000 inhabitants : Malays, Chinese, Arabs,
and natives. It is a good, well-kept town, with neat
Dutch houses. In contrast to this is the Portuguese
capital, Delli, or Dilli, a miserable place and most
unhealthy, with a population of 3000. There are no
roads round it, and the Portuguese do nothing to
mend matters. Timor is full of divisions, each
with its " king," and of these there are forty-
seven "kings" in the Portuguese part alone ! At
Delli are Europeans, a garrison, and some officers,
but it is noted for crimes and disorder. It is said
some officers wanting to get rid of the husbands
of women they wished to live with, simply poisoned
the husbands and no one minded or took any
notice. There are few Europeans in the interior.
Wheat and potatoes grow well at a height of 3000
feet, but all round the town are swamps and mud-
flats. There are many eucalyptus trees, and it
reminds most people of Australia. It is a fre-
quent port of call for ships of different nationalities,
220 DUTCH EAST INDIES
and every one has heard of its ponies. At one
place in the island are some curious soap springs
which make a fine lather.
The islands of Semang, Rotti, and Savu, lying
near Timor, have large populations ; the Timor
Laut group is sparsely inhabited and little known.
Mr. H. O. Forbes and his wife spent some time in
these latter isles. Kambing belongs to Portugal,
and has small mud volcanoes on top of a high
peak. Goram has a native raja and a Dutch
" postholder."
Then comes the famous Banda Group.
" Here Banda's isles their fair embroid'ry spread
Of various fruitage, azure, white, and red ;
And birds of every beauteous plume display
Their glitt'ring radiance, as, from spray to spray,
From bower to bower, on busy wings they rove.
To seize the tribute of the spicy grove."
CAMOfiNS.
There is always a group of islands called by several
names, whilst the individual islands of the group
have also several names, and these groups form
part of a larger group, or system all these, however,
I mention here belong to the Moluccas. The
Banda Islands are considered the most beautiful
in the Moluccas, and as all are exceedingly beauti-
ful, that means a great deal. The three principal
ones are Banda Nera, on which is the town ; Banda
Lonta, clothed with forest ; and Gunong Api, the
famous volcano. They form a land-locked har-
bour, and are the great nutmeg gardens. Banda
Nera is 7J miles long, with a beautiful town, in
the centre of which is Fort Nassau, built by the
Dutch in 1609 ; and there is also a ruined Portu-
guese fort, whilst on a plateau above the town,
backed by a rock 800 feet high, is the massive Fort
Belgica, commenced in 1611, and which has sur-
vived many earthquakes.
THE SPICE ISLANDS 221
The volcano on Gunong Api, the " Mountain
of Fire/' is always active, and there have been
many eruptions ; its main crater is supposed
to be extinct by some, but no doubt it is merely
taking a rest. The Chinese are very important
here, and the agent of the N.D.L. Co. is, or was,
a Chinaman. The Residency and the Club are
good, and the whole town is a beautiful garden.
There are watch-towers for the police, and when a
Malay " runs amok " they beat drums to warn
the people, and sally forth to kill him, so it is said.
The vegetation is remarkably green, and the
water of the land-locked harbour, from which no
outlet is visible, is so clear that the coral and even
minute objects are seen at the bottom, at the
depth of eight fathoms, and the fish inhabiting these
exquisite coral groves are as rainbow hued as the
coral. The Dutch houses are roofed with red
tiles, which enhances the effect of this famously
beautiful spot. The nutmeg tree which grows
to 20 or 30 feet in height is always in bloom,
and fruit ripens all the year round, being in all
stages on the tree. It has dark green foliage, and
the fruit when yellow and ripe splits open and
shows the dark red mace and the nut. The
kernel of the nut is the nutmeg we use. The
great pigeons are very fond of it.
These are the far-famed Spice Islands the
scented isles of the East once drawing all the
world in search of their riches. Magnificent canary
trees overshadow the nutmeg groves, and the
perfumes of the Spice Islands are wafted far and
wide.
Near to the south of the large island of Ceram
is Amboyna, the capital of the Moluccas, on an
island of the same name. The town is situated
between two precipitous points, white houses
and a fort facing the sea and backed with hills.
222 DUTCH EAST INDIES
It is very beautiful, and laid out with shady
gardens. Here may be seen Malay phraus,
Chinese junks, and picturesque craft from the Aru
and Ke Islands. The natives are a mixture of
Dutch, Portuguese, Malay, Papuan, and Chinese
a queer mixture of blood. They live mostly
on sago and fish, both easily procured, and so
they are content and lazy. The women dress in
black and carry everything on their heads, and on
Sundays men and women don attempts at Euro-
pean clothes. Earthquakes are very frequent.
Amboyna is one of the oldest European settle-
ments in the East. It is 260 square miles in area,
and has a population of 32,000. The highest
point is 4010 ft. It has an imposing Government
House, and the Fort Victoria was enlarged by the
Dutch in 1609. It is a garrison town.
The cultivation of the clove and the quantity
of sago grown supply the inhabitants with much
they require, and the sea yields fish of various
sorts. The white houses of the Dutch mingle
with the palm- woven houses of the natives. A
favourite but exciting beverage is the sageroe,
made from the sugar palm. The coral reefs
and the creatures inhabiting them are of great
interest, as is the coral itself. Tropical flowers and
foliage, beautiful birds there being over twenty
species belonging to Amboyna shells, coral, fish-
there is no end to the interest here, and it is a
land of plenty.
Ceram is 216 miles long, with an area of 7000
square miles, and the highest point is 9612 feet.
There are no good harbours or navigable rivers,
and it is only known to Europeans at one part,
where it is only 15 miles across. It is clothed with
virgin forests, and the natives are still head-
hunters and probably pirates. The Dutch have
four stations, and at Wahai are European coffee
[Photo, Kerry, Sydney.
PREPARING RICE, TERNATE.
To face page 222.
TERNATE AND TIDORE 223
and cacao plantations. The population is about
226,000. Buru, near it, is 90 miles long, with a
population of 60,000, and the highest peak is
Mount Tumahu, 8530 feet, whilst others rise to
7000 feet. A Dutch Resident rules it. North of
it is Mysol, or Misol, about 50 miles away. It is
mountainous, about 50 miles long by 20 miles wide,
and has kangaroo, birds of paradise, and is akin
to the Papuan system. It is ruled by a native
raja, tributary to the Sultan of Tidore, but is
little known or visited.
On the Obi Group, the chief of which is
Obi Major, 45 miles long by 20 miles wide,
with mountains 5000 feet high, covered with
virgin forests, it is said there are no inhabitants
at all. There are ruins of an old Dutch fort.
According to the natives, Obi Major, or perhaps
the whole group, is haunted mysterious, beautiful
isles they are.
North of all these are the Moluccas proper,
the famous Spice Islands which one time caused
Spanish, Dutch, and British ships to crowd these
seas. The name Moluccas is now applied to all
the islands between Celebes and New Guinea,
but of the real Moluccas, Gilolo, Ternate, and
Tidore are the principal ones. The Resident of
Amboyna administers Ceram, Buru, Banda, Ke,
Aru, Timor Laut, and others ; but these ones are
ruled by the sultans of Ternate and Tidore. The
Portuguese rule was cruel and brutal. The Spanish
came from Manila but did not do much, and in 1613
the Dutch, by a treaty with the sultans, obtained
power, and by 1681 had crushed out all opposition.
They allow the sultans, who are subsidised, to
rule their own subjects, and the jurisdiction of
the Sultan of Tidore extends to New Guinea.
Gilolo is as little known as Ceram, but has
125,000 inhabitants. It is very mountainous
224 DUTCH EAST INDIES
and rugged, has many volcanoes, and the highest
peak is 6500 feet. Only one or two Dutch live
in it. Ternate and Tidore, two volcanic isles
6000 feet in height, form a harbour. Tidore
rises from a mass of hills, but Ternate is the
most mountainous, and the volcano has had many
eruptions. The population is 9000, of whom
350 are Europeans, 500 Chinese, and 100 Arabs.
There is a Dutch garrison at Fort Oranje. Tidore
Peak is 5900 feet high, but it is now extinct ; and
Tidore has a population of 8000, a few Dutch sol-
diers, but no other European residents. Makian
is thickly populated and grows tobacco ; the
last eruption was in 1862, when 4000 people
perished. At Fort Barnewald, in Batian, erected
in 1615, is a small garrison, and coffee and cacao
are much grown. Batian, or Batchian, has its
own sultan, who travels in a gorgeous cabined
barge with gilded roof, fluttering flags, and bravely
clad rowers, and the island is said to contain
both gold, copper, and coal, as yet waiting
research.
" 'Mid hundreds yet unnamed Ternate behold !
By day, her hills in pitchy clouds inroll'd;
By night, like rolling waves, the sheets of fire
Blaze o'er the seas, and high to Heaven aspire.
For Lusian hands here blooms the fragrant clove,
But Lusian blood shall sprinkle every grove.
The golden birds * that ever sail the skies
Here to the sun display their shining dyes,
Each want supplied, on air they ever soar ;
The ground they touch not 'till they breathe no more."
CAMOENS.
Ternate is only one mile from Gilolo, and has
a mixed population of Arabs, Malays, and Chinese,
with an admixture of Portuguese and Dutch
1 Skins of birds of paradise brought to Europe had no feet,
hence it was supposed the bird lived in the air, and the young
were hatched on the male's back !
THE SULTAN OF TERNATE 225
blood. Ruined European dwellings, the result
of volcanic disturbances, stand amidst native
thatched dwellings, palms, and spice groves, and
amidst the scented scene wander the careless
happy people clothed in many colours. Fruits
such as the durian, mango, mangostan, etc., do
very well. Above the fruit-groves rises virgin
forest. The sultans of Ternate and Tidore were
once famous for their magnificence and power,
and were much courted by strangers. Though
now pensioned they retain full control of their
own subjects.
Drake in 1579 describes his visit to the Sultan
of Ternate : ' ' The king had a very rich canopy
with embossings of gold borne over him, and was
guarded with twelve lances. From the waist
to the ground was all cloth of gold, and that
very rich ; in the attire of his head were finely
wreathed in diverse rings of plaited gold, of an
inch or more in breadth, which made a fair and
princely show, somewhat resembling a crown in
form ; about his neck he had a chain of perfect
gold, the links very great and one fold double ;
on his left hand was a diamond, an emerald, a
ruby, and a turky ; on his right hand in one ring
a big and perfect turky, and in another ring many
diamonds of a smaller size."
[Nowadays the Sultan is poor and shorn of
his glory. When he drives out in state it is in
an ancient carriage, drawn not by horses but by
coolies. His soldiers are attired in uniforms of
the time of Napoleon. He dresses in white Euro-
pean clothes and wears a white turban. As a
background to the Kraton, as his palace is called,
rises the volcano Gamalama, which is over 5000
feet high.]
They became wealthy through spice. Ternate
is the native home of cloves. In former times
15
226 DUTCH EAST INDIES
people gave quantities of jewels and gold for the
desired spice. All about Ternate are ruins of
massive stone and brick buildings, arches and
gates, mostly destroyed by earthquakes. There
was a very bad one in 1840. When the slaves
here were emancipated they were quite content
to remain under their former masters. The
Dutch rule, somewhat paternal and despotic, is
a kindly one and suited to the people.
We passed Ceram in the distance, but Buru
very near ; it is crescent shaped, somewhat
neglected, and not as beautiful in appearance
as some of the others.
These were formerly the dreaded pirate-
haunted seas, and how thrilling were the tales
one used to read of the phraus and their evil
owners ! The countless Malay phraus we saw
around us here, though so exceedingly picturesque,
were not above suspicion, and it is easy to believe
there are many dangerous characters about.
It was fascinating to watch all these sails skim-
ming the lovely waters. We passed great shoals
of fish, saw many birds sitting on driftwood,
and the strange ships and their occupants were
of unfailing interest.
" The masts' tall shadows tremble o'er the deep,
The peaceful winds a holy silence keep ;
The watchman's carol, echo'd from the prows
Alone, at times, awakes the still repose."
CAMOENS.
Oif the south-east coast of the Celebes are
the islands of Muno and Bouton, the latter being
100 miles long. There are 20,000 inhabitants in
the two islands, and much cotton is grown. The
island of Salaier, south of Celebes, is 40 miles
long, has 50,000 inhabitants, and is a Dutch port
and settlement. There are deep seas all round
MACASSAR 227
these Celebian islands. It is not safe to venture
into the interior of Bouton, as the natives are
dangerous, as they also are in the Celebes.
When we passed Bouton, and were in sight
of the mountains of the Celebes, it was a curious
scene. All along the coast were low-lying, palm-
clothed lands and countless isles and coral islets,
and the latter were dotted about everywhere.
The waters were full of fish, and the large and small
phraus of the Malay fishermen were everywhere.
Some were very large, with huge square sails.
Long poles, looking like the masts of sunken
ships, are anchored in the sea, and to these
the fishing-boats are tied. Platforms are also
erected in this manner and each occupied by a
Malay, who sees the shoals of fish and signals
where they are.
The blue skies, green, blue, and amethyst sea,
the purple and pale blue mountains, the green
palm-clad coral islets, the brown- and red-sailed
phraus, with the touches of colour about their
Malay crew, formed a picture which is almost
indescribable. The rainy season, of which they
have months, has commenced, but so far we
have none of it. At Macassar, along the sea-beach,
the native houses are on long poles and sometimes
over the water, and this has the same curious
effect as the platforms out at sea.
We arrived at Macassar, the capital of Celebes,
in the morning, and lay beside the wharf, which
was crowded with a most picturesque and brilliant
group of Bugis, Macassars, Malays, and Chinese
in their various costumes of bright colours, and
some carrying Chinese umbrellas. Along the
shore stretched the "go-downs," or trading
sheds, of the Dutch and German merchants, each
with a rickety pier in front of it. Of course we
alljiurried ashore at once. It being Sunday all
228 DUTCH EAST INDIES
the European shops were closed, but there was
much to interest and amuse strangers.
As I stood on the wharf an impudent native
came up to me and said, " All German man now ;
Englishman no good now."
" Try the toe of an English boot," I answered,
" and see how you like that ! "
But mark the words. What is happening is
all summed up in them. Throughout the East,
where once we held sway, where once they knew
only of the Great White Queen, in their eyes
the greatest ruler on earth, where our name and
influence was spread far and wide, there is now
but one idea, and that is that our day is past,
our power and influence gone, and that Germany
has taken our place. How has this idea so quickly
spread and been accepted as true ? Partly
because it is true, and partly because the Germans
in the East and on their big liners are carefully,
quietly, zealously doing all they can to spread
the idea and make people believe it. As they
never see a British ship now, nor a British flag,
but everywhere the German flag and German
people, what can they do but believe it ? All
honour to Germany for her clever foresight and
her successful endeavours to push her fortunes ;
it is not Germany we are to blame but ourselves.
This is no little thing, no matter of slight import-
ance it is only by our name we hold India and
govern such countless varied races. The great
British Raj was everything, the name of it carried
weight everywhere now, not only is that name
on the wane, but in many places it is gone.
" All German man now ; Englishman no good
now."
We actually find a Chinese author of to-day,
Wang-shu, writing a thoughtful book on The
Decline and Fall of the Anglo-Saxon Race !
THIS MIGHTY EMPIRE 229
To what is all this really due ? Is it not
because many of our politicians are uneducated,
narrow-minded men who have no knowledge of
the needs of the Empire ? Have not the people
of Great Britain become afraid of risking anything
or opposing any one ; blatant in talk of Empire
(by which they mean England) yet with no under-
standing of it ; feeble-spirited and short-sighted
to a degree ? Thelack of spirit and of enterprise
is undeniable. In England is no loyalty to the
Empire.
[Surely it is but a temporary phase, and that
again we may be as of yore ? This mighty
Empire is the greatest the world has ever seen ;
its resources are greater than ever, yet nothing
almost is made of them, and the huge, unwieldy
Empire is drifting whither ? Is it to drift
apart, or are its people to wake up and realise
that together we stand, sundered we fall, and
that each individual part of the Empire, great
or small, is as important as any other. " England "
nor even Great Britain is not the Empire,
only part of it. Everything, every climate even,
that human beings need, is to be found within
this mighty Empire ; its splendid harbours, its
coaling stations, its mines and minerals, its
great lakes and rivers, its food-producing lands,
its forests of priceless timber nothing is lacking
save the touch of genius that is to weld it for all
time into one mighty whole.
In 1910 the world watched a great political
battle being waged in these isles, and during this
battle scarcely one understanding word was spoken
on either side of Imperial needs ; no one could
rise above parochial politics and the status of the
House of Lords, which, having stood for centuries,
could well stand till a more fitting time for the
calm revision of its constitution. Half this business
230 DUTCH EAST INDIES
was mere County Council business, and it was
almost impossible to believe that those men
engaged in this miserable spectacle were the
" great statesmen " of the British Empire !
Indeed, we have come to a pretty pass when the
high places of the Homeland are filled by mounte-
banks, clamouring and behaving like village
pot-house politicians. The world looks on with
contempt. Are these responsible thinking beings,
these unseeing, spluttering, carpet-bag nonentities?
Let them go to Holland, which, as the geography
book wickedly says, is " a low-lying country full
of dams." Not one sees the writing on the wall.
Please God they may yet all be swept away, and
in their stead rise the vigorous youth of the
Empire, coming from north and south, from
east and west, to save this tottering heritage
of ours from final disruption. They must come
from somewhere they are not in the Homeland.
And the silly, cowardly cry of, " Oh, the foreigner
is coming to take us ! " Our ancestors would have
laughed with glee, risen as one man, and let the
foreigner learn what British strength means.
They would have welcomed the chance of putting
the enemy in his proper place ; they never would
have sat down and cried, and moaned, and howled
with fear, whilst the amazed world looked on
and laughed them to derision. What a spectacle
we present ! Men bending from platforms, upon
which stand Cabinet Ministers, to strike women
who differ from them in ideas ; men who have
a vote and are too lazy and indifferent ever to
have used it, booing and hissing and fighting with
women who struggle for what they deem their
rights ; girl-scouts ; handsome young women in
uniform prancing about on horseback what
they mean, or of what use they are to any
one, no one can tell ; people of birth and posi-
MODERN ENGLAND 231
tion making guys of themselves on play-house
stages truly this modern England is a thing to
be proud of ! What have such people to do with
the brave and sturdy men and women, boys and
girls, who are doing their best to build up a mighty
Empire over the seas the real British ? Yes, it
must be from over the seas, from north and south
and east and west, that come those who are to
save our honour and our Flag, and to stir up the
slumbering ones here only slumbering, I hope and
believe nay, I feel sure of it for most certainly
the day is near when the people themselves will
demand that every citizen is trained to take his
share in the defence of his land. The hooligans,
the cricketers, the football players, the hunting
men, the " idle rich," all classes in fact, the very
loafers and dreamers of the land, are simply waiting
for the call, and then Britain is Britain once more.
But who is to give the call, who is to give the
touch that sets the mighty machine going again,
who is to clear away these black and yellow fogs
enveloping and choking the land ? There is no
sign yet of his coming. Is he to come after war
and fire and pestilence have devastated the
land ? Is he first to drive the doubtful foreigner
who sweats upon us from the door, and rid us of
those " naturalised " undesirable aliens who are
battening and fattening upon us those rich
nobodies who desert their own land to play mean
little parts in ours, and call themselves British ?
What have they to do with the holding together
and building of our Empire ? Is it already too
late ? I think not, if only the board were swept
of the place-hunting crew now infesting it, and
those who have a little of the vim and patriotism
of their ancestors come to the fore and take the
helm. Perhaps some one will publish The Wit,
Wisdom, Humour, and Brilliancy of the Hotise of
232 DUTCH EAST INDIES
Commons for Ten Years, and so sing its requiem,
ere the new Imperial Parliament rises in its place.
It would be too good to be true ! "At last !
at last ! " would cry the new lands over the seas.
" At last Britain comes to her own again ! " Will
it ever be ? How sick every one is of this party
system, which is so unpatriotic.
That the day of the British is over that is the
idea that is spread now through the Dutch East
Indies purposely spread and which has extended
to our own priceless possessions of Singapore and
Hong-Kong, that is spreading throughout the
whole East, and is it the East alone ? The natives
of all sorts believe it. We only hold India, Ceylon,
and our Eastern possessions through prestige
that gone, they go too.
That the day of the British is far from being
over, is not the point. It is, that the world, and
especially the East, must be shown that the idea
is a false one, and must learn that the British
Empire is as yet in its early days, and that the
British race has no intention of abandoning its
great destiny.]
Many of the Malays or Celebians are good-
looking, but often small and thin. The descend-
ants of the Arab pirates, whose deeds were once
notorious, they betray numerous traces of their
origin. The women cover their faces as they
pass you, just as the Arab women do. They are
dignified and well mannered, great sticklers for
etiquette, and abhor practical joking or vulgarity
compared to them a British hooligan is a brutal
savage. There are scores of Malay police and
Dutch soldiers about Macassar the latter in
Glengarry bonnets. Many of the children are
naked, but the general wear is coloured baggy
trousers and the sarong of various checks. Some
wear enormous coloured hats.
LIFE GUARD OF THE SULTAN OF DJOCJA.
NEW YEAR AT THE COURT OF DJOCJA.
JAVA.
To face page 232.
THE CELEBES 233
Celebes or with its satellite isle " the Cele-
bes " lies between the Philippines, Papua, and
the Sunda Islands, and is separated from Borneo
by the Macassar Straits ; it is larger than Norway
and Sweden combined. Not much of this large
island is known. The Dutch commenced trading
in 1607, and in 1660 a fleet under Van Dam took
it, expelling the Portuguese, who were allies of its
sovereign. It is healthy on the whole. There
are many lakes and mountains. Bantaeng is a
great but quiescent volcano ; Bonthian and
Koruve both exceed 10,000 feet in height. The
Bugis are a mercantile people and have done
much for the prosperity of the place. There are
Dutch officials in fifteen towns and villages. The
territory of the Raja of Goa extends to within
two miles of Macassar town. It is not safe to go
into the interior unguarded, but doubtless this
will soon be changed. At present the Alfours of
that part are head-hunters, and drink the blood
and eat the flesh of their victims. The people,
both Bugis and Macassars, wear little drawers about
twelve inches long, which do not come half-way
down the thigh, and do not look as much dressed
as the Papuans, who wore nothing ! They wear
the useful sarong in all sorts of ways and colours :
orange, purple, crimson, and in variegated checks.
Macassar has about 20,000 inhabitants. Its
trade is now almost entirely falling into the hands
of the Germans. One street of Chinese and other
shops and warehouses extends for about a mile
along the shore, and parallel with it are two others
the European quarter. Bales of merchandise
are piled up along the busy wharves. The Dutch
houses are very quaint, neat, and clean, with white
pillared porticoes and somewhat absurd prim
gardens full of stone vases. The Dutch have
strict regulations about keeping the houses white-
234 DUTCH EAST INDIES
washed, the streets watered, and so on. At the end
of these streets is Fort Rotterdam, the church,
Government House, and the residences of Dutch
officials.
It is quite strange to be thus suddenly in
a town again with civilisation round one, and it
seems quite grand. The houses nestle amidst
fine trees and old cocoanut palms, and have a
solid comfortable look as if they had been long
there and meant to stay. Near the old Dutch
fort is a broad grassy playground with a bandstand
and surrounded by straight avenues of old canary
and tamarind trees. Beautiful tall palms border
the fine broad roads.
The street life is most picturesque and inter-
esting. The long street full of Chinese and native
stores was crowded with vendors of all sorts of
things going about.
Why should one have tender memories here
of London lodging-house landladies ? On account
of the Macassar hair-oil, of course. Macassar for
the hair was once the rage, and greasy heads every-
where reposed on the grimy chair-backs in the
lodgings of London Town. The landladies there-
fore invented what they called " antimacassars,"
dreadful woollen, crocheted, and even " cruel "
or is it crewel ? arrangements they hung over
their grimy chair-backs to preserve them from the
Macassar hair-oil on your head, and whenever you
went out to see your best girl the antimacassar
stuck to your buttons and went with you, and so
you lost your dignity and your chance with that
girl, and you owed it all in reality to this place !
I visited the club-house, the church, and then
lunched at the M - Hotel, which was very bad.
The great, fat, bloated Dutch proprietress, dressed
in the usual white dressing-jacket and the sarong
a coloured checked cloth wrapped round her
HOUSE NEAR MACASSAR. IN CELEBES.
(To face page 234.)
A DRIVE AT MACASSAR 235
great bare legs was a perfect sight ! She did
not trouble about her hotel guests in the least.
Then I went for a most charming drive into the
country in a small pony-cart with two Malay boys
in attendance. It was a beautiful, well-kept road,
bordered with trees and countless native houses,
most pretty and quaint, all built of bamboo and
matting on bamboo poles, and varying in shape
and style, gay with flowers and plants, and with
groups of their occupants sitting in front. Some
of the houses are mere toys. The road was
crowded with cyclists, most of whom were Malays
or Chinese the latter are most prosperous here.
After the savage cannibals and the wildness of
New Guinea it all seems startlingly civilised here,
and the life so interesting. Strange-looking
bullocks are feeding about, and one hears bulls
roaring and can hardly believe they are only bull-
frogs !
I did some bargaining for any rubbish that took
my fancy. Gems of sorts are sold in the streets.
I was to have gone to visit the Sultan of Goa with
Captain Niedermayer ; but now he cannot go,
and there is, it seems, some trouble in Goa at
this moment. The Sultan's palace is about ten
miles from Macassar, and is a large ram-
shackly building with many galleries and
annexes.
[In 1909 the Sultan fell into disgrace through
intriguing against the Dutch.]
In the evening a number of Germans came on
board. We shipped a large cargo of bundles of
cane for Singapore for cane furniture making.
I visited a funny dilapidated old Japanese tea-
house, with two bridges and a houseboat a
reckless, dissipated, willow-pattern-plate look
about it. Every house seems crowded with
cockatoos and parrots. I had vague ideas of
236 DUTCH EAST INDIES
waiting here some time, but the Stettin had become
such a home to me that I did not like the thought
of leaving her.
We had a tremendous thunderstorm and
downpour of rain at night, as here the rainy season
sets in early in December.
The most interesting part of Celebes, for
various reasons, is at Menado in the Minahasa
district. It is a beautiful little town full of
gardens, with good roads from it to the country.
The people not so long ago were savages and
head-hunters. They are short, well-made, and
fair, and are said to bear traces of a supposed
Japanese origin. They are now very quiet,
peaceable, and gentle most attractive in every
way ; and are the best clothed, best housed,
fed, and educated, most industrious, peaceable,
and civilised people in the whole of the islands.
And all this was done by the missionaries and the
Dutch in a very short time ! In 1822 coffee
was introduced and roads and plantations made.
The system of government by the Dutch is good
and suits the people. Each district has a European
controlleur. The villages are very neat and clean,
with pretty houses, and all the well-kept hedges
are entirely of roses. The chiefs sons of savage
head-hunters are now quite European in their
ways, and entertain in proper fashion. All is
most interesting and reflects the very greatest
credit on the Dutch and on the people themselves.
Amocrang is also a pretty place.
At or near Soemalata are gold mines, as also
at Kivandang but Celebes is a land of the
future, full of undeveloped wealth of every descrip-
tion. On the eastern coast is Todak, with gold
mines and ebony plantations, and Gorontalo, near
which is the green, weedy Lake Linnbotto, through
the water-channels of which only the native
THE OLD MALAY 237
canoe finds its way. Off the coast lies the palm-
clad volcanic island of Oena-Oena. Paragi is
the home of somewhat restless and troublesome
natives ; but then, the interior of the country
is populated by savages who are cannibals and
slave-dealers, and who can only be brought under
control by degrees.
In the mountains in Celebes which are about
7000 feet high is found the sapi-utan, or wild
cow, half antelope and half buffalo, a small
animal ; and the babirusa, or pig-deer, peculiar
to this island, the Sulu Isles, and Bouru. It has
upper tusks curling back to its eyes, and is differ-
ent from all other animals. There are here, in
Macassar, all sorts of interesting birds, animals, and
things for sale but one cannot carry a menagerie
round with one.
Now I have here acquired a new friend and
made what is nothing less than a grand triumph,
which has surprised me quite as much as it has
the whole ship !
There is a rugged old Malay sailor on board who
is a great character, and whom we have often
discussed in the most unfavourable terms. He
is devoted to the Captain, whom he calls " the
old one," but rude and uncivil to a degree to all
the other officers and the passengers. He is such
a good sailor, always doing his work unordered,
that the officers excuse everything, and are
quite content that his devotion to the Captain
and his duty makes up for his ignoring of them.
Patently he regards the passengers as mere
encumbrances. When he comes along the deck
he pushes the chairs and their occupants out of
his way with surly grunts, and is deaf to the
abuse it evokes. We all knew he was as good
and honest as possible, and a great character,
but objected to his surly, rude ways. I had never
238 DUTCH EAST INDIES
spoken to him, but had noticed he never inter-
fered with me or my chair, so that I had no
occasion to come down on him. He, in fact,
spoke only to the Captain and ignored every one
else.
Imagine, then, my surprise when here at
Macassar he suddenly walked up to me on deck,
and tapping me on the breast began speaking.
I am quite unable to reproduce his English or what
he said properly, but it was something like this :
" Look here, sir, you English gentleman, I
poor old Malay sailor man. I see you here every
day. I no speak to you but I know you. Now
I want speak to you. I poor old Malay sailor
man, but I know you and I like you. Now here
to-day come one man and he say to me, ' Here,
you old Malay, you take these things under your
clothes, and smuggle them for me, and I give
you two shillings.' What I do that for ? I old
sailor man, but I honest man, I proud man. I no
do that. I no do what not honest no, never in
my life. Why that man him dare come insult me
because I poor old Malay sailor man ? " Here
another tap on the breast. " I come tell you
that ; you never do that. I know you, you real
gentleman, and I old sailor man not one bit afraid
to come and speak to you I know, I proud man
too ! I know you proud man ; I see you not
able to do like that. What you tell me say to
that one dam dishonest man ? "
You might have knocked me down with the
proverbial feather, I was so surprised at this
outburst.
" Take absolutely no notice of him," I said,
when I recovered my breath, which this onslaught
had utterly deprived me of. " He is not worth it."
" I know you say just what is right," he said.
" I old sailor man, but I like you and I know you."
CHINAMAN'S HOUSE, SOLO.
STREET IN BATAVIA.
JAVA.
To face page 238.
A LESSON IN LIFE 239
" Well," I said, absolutely overwhelmed with
this unexpected honour, '" you must smoke a
cigar ; these are very good ones."
" What," he said, in the most hurt tone, " you
think I come speak to you to get a cigar ? "
"Oh no ! " I exclaimed; "of course not.
But any man can smoke a cigar with a friend, can
he not ? You just light that, and I am going to
put these others in your pocket. Now you light
up at once."
Just then up came the Captain and stood
thunderstruck, then disappeared, to return with
some one else to point out this extraordinary sight.
There was the old Malay puffing away at a cigar,
tapping me on the chest, and discoursing volubly !
Such a thing had never been seen before.
After this he seldom took much notice of me,
never even saying "Good-morning," but sometimes,
as he passed my chair, he would give me a pat on
the shoulder, and that meant much. Now and
again I waylaid him and insisted on his having
a cigar always as a friend from a friend. The
strange old thing grunted, and gave me a nod that
spoke volumes. I understood him very well, and
knew I had a real friend. My chair was always
placed for me in the morning, and no one dared
shift it. The little pat on the shoulder he gave me
as he passedwas a sign of greatest favour, and was so
regarded by me and every one else ; it betokened
a secure friendship. I suppose this is a long tale
all about nothing it is not so to me a gift from
God it seemed to me, and it humbled me. Some-
how I felt as if I had been a selfish, unseeing idiot !
Such things are lessons in life. We were a
small community shut up together for some time
in the ship now and again I passed along the
lower deck and said a careless word here or there.
The Indian coolies were always most respectful to
240 DUTCH EAST INDIES
me and the other British, as one expects them to
be. I made a joking remark to the Chinese, such
as " How you likee this place ? New Guinea man
plenty eat 'em up here, Chinaman makee good
dinner." They would laugh uproariously over
such remarks, and answer, " Chinaman welly good,
but no good eatee too muchee smokee," and
so on. I would dig the Malay or Javanese babies
in the ribs now and again to make them crow, and
their mothers smile, as they are beautiful, irresist-
ible, dark-eyed little things the babies, I mean, of
course, not but what the mothers are very nice too.
But I recognise now I never troubled much about
any of them, and scarcely thought of the sailors
perhaps one could have done many things in little
ways for them been aware at least they were
human beings want of thought surely much of
the selfishness in the world comes from that ?
Now I feel I am a selfish pig, but I feel too
conscious to be different. What is spontaneous is
all right, what we force ourselves to do is a bore.
There is the monkey ought I to have con-
tributed to its ease and well-being also ? no,
really, that would be too much ! The deck
passengers give it its daily due ! " Preety
Cockay " ah ! he makes up for everything, and
no one can say I neglected him I never got the
chance. This introspective mood annoys me ; it
is so much better never to think. It is all the old
Malay ; he made me feel as if somehow I had been
so selfish and unthinking.
B ATA vi A, JAVA,
December 1900.
The Celebes seemed a strange place to spend
Christmas Eve, yet we had our Christmas tree
an artificial one. We had all subscribed a small
CRATER OF BKOMO, TOSARI.
MOUNT BROMO, BATOK, AND SMEROE, WITH SAND SEA.
JAVA.
To face page 240.
CHRISTMAS 241
sum, and out of this presents were bought which
we raffled for. The Captain invited the people
from the second class, and stood us all champagne.
The presents were drawn for, and I got a nail-brush
and a musical instrument you play with your
mouth in reality I think it was a dentist's instru-
ment, for all the " music " I ever got out of it gave
every one toothache a horrid thing to have in
hot weather. We all tried to be jovial and
" merry," which latter is an old-fashioned thing
long gone out of date ; the present generation knows
it not. The whole function fell terribly, awfully
flat, and the more cheerful we essayed to be the
flatter it became. All the deck passengers came
and gazed through the window at the strange
religious festival, as they took it to be, and were
quite subdued by our solemn faces.
We then migrated to the deck and our chairs,
and a Bohle was brought up ; we had more drinks,
sang the "Watch on the Rhine" and various
Volkslieder, and in the end all relapsed into a
most sulky silence and got away from each other.
I am afraid in every one's mind were thoughts of
the Christmas times in other climes, and we drank
to " absent friends " in a dismal silence. I could
picture them all in that chdteau in France all
round the fire with the dogs spread out on the rug
and knew how the Princess would speak of me and
wonder where I was and recall old times ; and
they would be off to Mass probably, and be glad
when the Christmas time was over. They would
have their tree for the children from the village, and
the old nuns would ask for " Monsieur I'Ecossais "
and throw up hands and eyes in amazement to
learn he had gone amongst cannibal savages in a
land they had never heard of. In Germany, in
Italy, in many lands they would speak of me
and wonder where I was, but they none of them
16
242 DUTCH EAST INDIES
could picture such surroundings as I was really
amidst. It is but a sad time, Christmas, when we
are no longer children. There seemed no Gluck-
liche Weihnachten about it somehow.
We discuss on the ship many subjects, ranging
from Goethe and Schiller to the politics of to-day.
And Bismarck he never dies even in this
hot weather he is with us. " Bismarck would
never do this or would have done that " ; but
there would have been no German Colonial Empire,
no dream of this WeUpolitik, had Bismarck had his
way. He was the man of his time, but his time
is not this time. And there is the Boer War !
How kind it was of us to present such an interesting
spectacle to the world, and how keen and sym-
pathetic towards us was the feeling displayed !
" All the world may wonder," they hum here,
but they do not wonder at the admirable way in
which we do it, but at the long time we take about
it, and what hard work we find it.
" Never mind," I say amiably, " now you
have got colonies and can show us how to manage
things properly just as you are doing now in
South Africa and in New Guinea."
This produces silence, but it does not seem a
pleased silence.
" But, you know," I go on, " you really must
make a road or two so that people can get about
and see how much you have colonised and all
you have done ; and how you use all that mag-
nificent timber for your public buildings but
it is the Bishop does that I forgot, of course
he is French how enterprising he is with his
sawmill, his electric light, and his brewery, or
whatever it is. I wish you would have a big war
and show us how it is done ; we know so little, you
know of course you have fighting in Africa
but somehow, you know well, somehow it does not
A WONDERLAND 243
seem to go well indeed " All the world is wonder-
ing " but you are surely feeling it very hot to-day,
you are quite flushed and panting let us have
another cool drink ? "
Here there is a yell and a general Donner-
wetter it is " Preety Cockay " who was forgotten
for a moment and brings himself to some one's
remembrance sharply !
[There comes here into my mind a remark I
heard a pretty English girl make to her German
husband as we entered the harbour of Hong-Kong
in the evening and saw all the harbour and the
island blazing with lights, and up a thousand
feet to the Peak a magnificent sight that did
make one feel proud. " Otto ! Otto ! " she cried,
" do come here. You must say it is beautiful
even if it is English ! "]
We crossed the Java sea with all its phraus
and beauty, the brown sails wafting the rich
merchandise to other lands how great a thing is
commerce in this world ; it makes or mars a land.
It is a wonderland, that long stretch of
mountainous volcanic islands reaching from the
Asiatic mainland to Timor Sumatra, Java, Bali,
Sumbawa, Flores, and Timor, to say nothing
of hundreds of lesser isles and islets. No wonder
the Germans, the Japanese, and others look upon
them with the lustful, greedy eye it is not for
me to revile them for that, since I am doing
the same myself. Let us glance a little at these
wonderful possessions of the Hollander.
" Lo, gleaming blue, o'er fair Sumatra's skies,
Another mountain's trembling flames arise ;
Here from the trees the gum * all fragrance swells,
And softest oil 2 a wondrous fountain wells.
Nor these alone the happy isle bestows
Fine is her gold, her silk resplendent glows."
1 Benzoin, a species of frankincense. 3 Petroleum.
244 DUTCH EAST INDIES
"Here from the shore by rolling earthquakes hurl'd,
Through waves all foam, Sumatra's isle was riv'n,
And, 'mid white whirlpools, down the ocean driv'n.
To this fair isle, the Golden Chersonese,
Some deem the sapient monarch plough' d the seas ;
Ophir its Tyrian name. In whirling roars
How fierce the tide boils down these clasping shores !
High from the strait the length'ning coast afar
Its moonlike curve points to the Northern Star,
Opening its bosom to the silver ray
When fair Aurora pours the infant day."
CAMOENS.
First comes Sumatra, embracing the neck of the
Malay Peninsula, which we have grabbed. It is
1062 miles long, 260 broad, and 162,000 square miles
in area. A chain of mountains runs from north to
south many are volcanoes. At the south it is
separated from Java by the Straits of Sunda, where
was the terrible Krakatau. The centre of the great
island is still unexplored. The only well-known
parts are Palembang, Benkulen, round Padang
and Deli, and the Lampongs. Marco Polo spent
five months here in 1291. When the Dutch
drove the English out of Java in 1685 the latter
built a fort and factory at Benkulen. In 1602
Queen Elizabeth sent a letter to the rich and
important King of Acheen by Sir James Lan-
caster, and made a treaty with him. The British
held Benkulen till 1824, when it was exchanged
for Malacca. Owing to a reef, landing is some-
what difficult with a sea on, but it is a pretty place
with a fort, and white houses shrouded in palms.
Luse, about 12,100 feet,in Acheen, is the highest
mountain. Lake Toba, an old crater, is 45 miles
long by 15 broad. On the Equator is Mount
Orphir, 9610 feet, a very conspicuous extinct
volcano. Merapi is not extinct. Korinchi, 12,000
feet, is active. Krakatau Island lay in the Sunda
Straits; when it disappeared 40,000 people per-
ished. On the 20th of May 1883 explosions
KRAKATAU 245
were heard at Batavia, 100 miles away, and dust
fell. Then columns of matter were vomited
forth to a height of perhaps 26,000 feet above
the mountain, and this lasted till 27th August.
In June pleasure parties were organised from
Batavia to see the great sight, and photographs
were taken. On the 26th things came to a crisis.
Fire, smoke, ashes, and lava poured forth, with
a tremendous roar and the rattle of artillery,
continuing till the 27th, but the whole scene was
wrapped in a terrible darkness. On the 28th all
was over and it was light again.
At i o a.m. on the 27th occurred the great wave
that overwhelmed all the coasts and rose from
78 to 115 feet. The Dutch man-of-war Berouw
was carried inland nearly 2 miles and left
30 feet above the normal level of the sea. Villages
and people were swept away. The mountain
itself was blown to bits and had vanished. This
great wave was felt in South Africa, 5000 miles
away, and at Cape Horn, 7500 miles away. The
great air wave went over the world and back
and forward. At the island of Rodriquez in
the Indian Ocean, 2968 miles distant, the noise
was heard, as also at Dorey in New Guinea, 2014
miles. Nearer at hand it was less audible. The
Chelsea artists tried to perpetuate the splendid
blood-red effects it gave us on Father Thames
and in my old notebooks I find to this day my
impressionist attempts, and so odd is memory
that I can recall a burly carter coming and looking
over my shoulder and saying, " I'm blowed,
mister, if I can tell which is the right end of your
picture, but that's the old bridge anyway."
To-morrow or to-day the same thing may
happen again I mean the earthquake, not the
carter's remark but who can look at the smiling
scenes around and think of it. What remains
246 DUTCH EAST INDIES
of Krakatau is less than half of it, with a
coned peak about 3000 feet high ; parts of it are
now covered with green foliage and plants, there
are even orchards at its base, though steam
still rises from its riven bulk, and now that the
imprisoned forces can find easy outlet there is
not likely ever to again occur at this spot so
terrific a catastrophe.
In Sumatra there are huge forests of four hundred
different sorts of trees, and over it roam elephants,
rhinoceroses, tigers, and many monkeys. We have
a description of the King of Acheen by Queen
Elizabeth's envoy in 1613, as " a proper gallant
man of warre, strong by sea and land, his country
populous and his elephants many." The Acheen-
ese cannot be said to be conquered by the Dutch
yet after thirty or forty years of warfare, but
they are better in hand. Sumatrans are supposed
to have a high and ancient descent, and to be
now divided into forty tribes or clans, and the
women are highly regarded. Though the heredi-
tary chiefs have seats in the Dutch councils,
they have no special privileges. There is much
mineral and other wealth awaiting development.
The Lake of Manindjoe, which has cliffs over
1000 feet in height, may be reached from the
garrison town of Fort de Kock, which is surrounded
by good roads.
It is interesting to recall Marco Polo's descrip-
tion of Sumatra in the thirteenth century. He
tells us there are eight kingdoms in the island,
each with a separate king and language. He
describes six of them. Some of the inhabitants
are followers of Mahomet, and some of them are
idolaters and cannibals. He describes how the
rhinoceros does not injure people with its horn,
but tramples on them and lacerates them with its
tongue, which was supposed to be armed with
SUMATRA 247
sharp spikes or, anyway, very rough. There were
men with tails " a span in length, like those of
the dog, but not covered with hair." He refers
to the ourang-utan, which means wild man.
We are also told that the natives caught monkeys,
shaved off the hair save in such places as it is
found on the human body, giving them the
appearance of little men. These they dried and
preserved with camphor and other drugs, and sent
them in little boxes to India and elsewhere as
specimens of a dwarf or pigmy race faking for
curio-hunters even then !
Marco Polo had 2000 men with him during his
stay in Sumatra, called by him Lesser Java.
Surely there never was such an amazing
history as his. In China now you see him en-
shrined in bronze amongst Buddhas in the temples.
Padang, the chief town of Sumatra, has 20,000
inhabitants Europeans, Arabs, Chinese, Malays,
etc. and is a beautiful place. At Ache, which has
a large garrison, there are 14,000 inhabitants, with
490 miles of railway. Benkulen, with 12,000, is now
rather desolate, and Palembang, 45 miles up a
river and accessible to large ships, has a garrison
and 60,000 inhabitants, of whom 100 are Europeans.
Sumatra boasts of wonderful mountains, lakes,
and forests, the most quaint of peaked houses, and
a varied race of Javanese, Malays, Klings, Batteks,
and so on. There is coal in quantity, as well as
most other minerals.
[At the north of Sumatra, about two days' sail
from Singapore, lies Sabang (Pulo Weh), which
eleven years ago, in 1900, was but a small place. A
depot for coal was established by the Dutch at Weh,
and Sabang possessing an excellent harbour and
climate, it has made remarkable progress. There
is deep water in the harbour, a large extent of
wharves and sheds capable of storing 25,000 tons of
248 DUTCH EAST INDIES
coal, and there is always a minimum stock of
10,000 tons. Ships are coaled at the rate of 80
tons an hour. There is a dry dock and repairing
slips, and coaling goes on during the night, an
enormous benefit to many vessels now using it,
and as well there is a large oil storage for their
benefit. Land is being reclaimed, and additional
wharfage and other facilities are in hand, and the
island of Wehwith its harbour, Sabang, is considered
one of the most beautiful, desirable, and valuable
places in the beautiful East yet we gave it back
to the Dutch ! Unless Singapore looks out for
herself, she will have more than a formidable
rival here. Its rise to importance shows what may
result from the development of the other islands.
I believe it was at Sabang that the Russian fleet
took refuge and coaled during the war.]
The narrowest part of the Straits of Sunda
separating Sumatra and Java is 14 miles wide,
but we will leave Java for the present, make for
its east end, and cross a strait not 2 miles wide to
Bali. It and the adjoining Lombok form one
Residency, have seven native princes, and the two
a total population of 1,042,000. Both are Hindu.
The women said to be beautiful sometimes sacri-
fice themselves by the dead bodies of their husbands,
being with much ceremony cut to pieces with aMalay
kris. Between Bali and Lombok is deep sea, and
Lombok presents quite other aspects to the more
Malayan islands, approaching more to Australian
features. It has no rhinoceroses, elephants, tigers,
or tapirs. It was in Lombok in 1893-94 that the
Sultan massacred a whole regiment of Dutch. It is
said that when they went to capture him and raze
his palace to the ground, he threw two million
English sovereigns into a lake I wonder if they
are there now, and if one could drain it and get
them ? It would be a beautiful find. Perhaps
PAINTING SARONGS.
JAVA.
To face page 248.
LOMBOK 249
some day when there is an earthquake they will
be left high and dry to be picked up on afternoon
walks. This Sultan was imprisoned and his son
committed suicide.
I am not sure whether it was in Lombok or
another isle that, after a revolution, the Sultan,
when defeated, agreed to surrender to the Dutch
troops. On the appointed day a great procession
'left the palace with the Sultan, and when the latter
arrived before the Dutch General he, the Sultan,
gave a signal, and instantly he and every single
member of the blood Royal drew his or her kris and
killed themselves !
A deed for the songs of poets the pity of it !
Lombok is 55 miles long by 45 broad. The
Peak of Lombok, or Gunong Ringani, is 12,375 feet
high, and nearly extinct. It has never been
ascended. A lake of some size lies at the height of
9000 feet. Coffee is much cultivated, and there
are many cattle and horses. The Rajah has a
good palace, and it is all very beautiful. The
population is about 540,000. Not many Europeans
are resident in it. Landing is difficult as there is
always a very heavy surf and swell.
Straits 10 miles wide separate Lombok and
Sumbawa, which is larger than Jamaica, but it
is not well known. Tambora, 9040 feet, is the
highest peak ; it is said to have been 13,000 feet
high before the bad eruption of 1815. The
present crater has a diameter of 7 miles. At
this eruption great whirlwinds carried away men,
cattle, and everything else, but where they were
carried to I do not know, and I should have liked
to have viewed the scene from a safe distance.
The sea was covered with fine ashes to a depth of
2 feet, and ships could scarcely get through it.
It rose 12 feet. No one can call these places
dull to live in ; you may have excitement at any
250 DUTCH EAST INDIES
moment. The town of Tamora sank 18 feet
under the sea, and out of 1200 people only 26 were
left ! This pleasant mountain is quiescent at
present, but who can say what it may do ?
Pirates still sally forth in their phraus from here,
and make for the Aru Isles and elsewhere. I
wish they had flown black flags with Death's
heads, so that we could have distinguished them,
as doubtless we saw some of their pirate craft.
There are two Sultans, they of Sumbawa and Bima,
and each of these towns has about 5000 inhabitants.
These Sultans rule, but there is a Dutch con-
trolleur and a garrison at Bima. The ponies of this
island are noted as being very good.
Numerous isles, many uninhabited, lie between
Sumbawa and Flores.
[A number of Dutch soldiers were ambushed
and massacred in Flores in August 1909.]
People at home, who talk vaguely of the
East Indies as well-known civilised islands, little
dream how far that is from being the case, or
what scope there is for trade and commerce with
their large populations, and what folly it is to
throw all this trade away to others we, too, at
Singapore at their door ! Even Singapore has
allowed a great part of her trade to fall to Germans,
and their flag is fluttering all over the place.
If the great manufacturing and trading cities
of Great Britain, such as Liverpool, Manchester,
Leeds, Glasgow, and so on, would wake up out of
their obsolete methods, and their great firms would
send out well-educated, clever, bright, energetic
young men to all these rich and populous places to
learn and see on the spot what the people want,
and then establish agencies and make for them
what they desire and send it out in British ships,
how splendid the gain to country and individuals
alike, and what an interesting employment for
PANDJONG PRIAK 251
clever young men for it is only the clever who
can do it.
We arrived at Pandjong Priak, the port of
Batavia in Java, about n a.m. on December 27th,
after passing various small islands. A mole of
some size is entered by a narrow passage, and
Pandjong Priak consists of wharves with great
rows of " godowns," or goods sheds, and the rail-
way station at the back. How horribly civilised
and ordinary ! Where have I got to ? Letters and
a telegram fancy a telegram awaited me from
Baron Carel van Haeften, who, they tell me, has
already been down to see if the Stettin had
arrived. I am asked to go to the telephone
a telephone ! and I have just been writing about
pirate phraus and Sultans chucking millions of
sovereigns into a lake and as I do so I see a ship
with the British flag, the first I have seen since
leaving Australia ! Think of it the first British
flag ! " All German man now ; Englishman no
good now " is it a wonder impudent natives say
and think that ? These rich, rich islands full of
;< trade " this splendid route all this lying
between our possessions of Singapore and Australia
and never a ship carrying our flag amidst it all.
There is such a strong^smelllof^bilge^water,,. or
bad drains the Dutch must \ have } forgotten\.,to
look after sanitary matters, or else it must be this
German ship the Germans again !
SINGAPORE, January 1901.
From Pandjong Priak I went by train up to
Batavia, and taking one of the small pony-carriages
plying for hire, drove to the Hotel de Nederlanden.
The way from Priak is through low marshy land,
thick with tropical vegetation and smelling to
heaven, so I wondered if, after all, it could have
252 DUTCH EAST INDIES
been the ship or the drains that had so offended me.
The heat was intense a moist, clammy heat. From
the station to the hotel is along a wide street with
a canal down the middle I thought it must be
that canal that was so odoriferous, as the smell
was as bad there as anywhere. It was all most
beautiful and a feast of colour, as the Chinese,
Malays, and Javanese were so picturesque in their
varied attire, and the whole town has its own
cachet. We passed through the large Chinese
town with its quaint buildings and teeming
population, all so busy, with their pigtails flying
about in every direction. I have always liked
Chinese servants, they are so quiet and glide about,
and you need never yell at them, you merely
pull the pigtail like a bell-rope as they pass, and
it rings inside them without undue tinkling, which
is so disturbing to the nerves.
Then the more Dutch town begins. Very hand-
some white stone houses white marble too with
tiled roofs and pillared porticoes, most of them
one-storeyed on account of earthquakes. The
large, handsome porticoes and the rooms beyond
are quite open, even the interiors of the bedrooms
visible. Quantities of beautiful flowering plants
in ornamental pots are placed about, and the
inhabitants are lolling in easy-chairs in scanty
attire a great air of freedom and ease pervades it
all. Beautiful grounds surround each house, and
there are no walls or fences at all sometimes. As
a visitor from honest Europe, one feels they are
not taking care of themselves and their possessions,
and wonders which house is best to burgle first.
The Hotel des Indes, with its dependencies, seems
a most imposing establishment.
But what extraordinary costumes ! Here are
great fat Dutchwomen walking about, bare-headed
and bare-legged, dressed in white dressing-jackets
'-,
AN HONEST PEOPLE 253
and the sarong, the checked coloured cloth wrapped
round their fat legs. They pace along ponderously
and indifferently under their parasols andumbrellas.
The costume is bearable on a young and pretty
woman but on a very fat old one !
The men in the morning, and as a sleeping suit,
wear hideous, wide, baggy trousers made out of
coloured sarongs.
The Hotel de Nederlanden is a huge building
with any amount of dependencies, in front of
which run long, wide verandahs. My bedroom
was in one of these, and my sitting-room in the
verandah in front of it.
Carel van Haeften soon j oined me, and what a
pleasure it was to see an old friend again and to
chat over old days in Germany and in Holland,
and about the van Lenneps, the van der Ouder-
muelens, and all his people at The Hague his kind
old father, his handsome, charming sisters, and his
brother, Pankie, so well known in London. I
found him looking thin and white, but well ; but
it must be a trying climate. He lives in one of
the dependencies of the hotel, and his sitting-room
is merely a large part of the wide verandah in front
of his other rooms, separated from the rest of the
verandah by screens. Here he has his writing-
table, books, photographs, ornaments, easy-chairs
in fact, a furnished room. It is quite open in
front and only separated from the garden and
road by a little railing. Any one passing has only
to stretch a hand over and take what they please.
He has a telephone there and a native servant
always in attendance. When I expressed my
astonishment at such confidence in the natives
and every one else, he told me that nothing was
ever touched, that no native or any one else would
ever dream of stealing anything. Day and night
it is open for them to do it if they wish, but they
254 DUTCH EAST INDIES
never do. I wonder what dreadfully honest sort
of place I have come to, and hope it won't hurt
my character.
"Is it really you, Carel, and is this really
Java ? " I ask, for it seems so strange to be
sitting opposite an old friend out here, smoking
and drinking but good it is to see again a friend,
and one whose face and name can only recall
such pleasant memories. I ask many questions,
and he tells me many interesting things but all
the time, delighted and charmed as I am with the
beauty and character of my surroundings, I am
only too conscious of that terrible odour. It
must be bad drains, is so strong, and has pervaded
every inch of Batavia I have seen since I arrived
at Pandjong Priak Wharf the train, the streets,
the canal, and now the hotel.
" It is a most interesting and beautiful place,"
I say, " but it must be unhealthy with such terrific
drainage or want of drainage."
" Drainage ? " queries Carel.
" Yes, this awful smell that pervades the
whole place how can you endure it ? "
Carel leaned back in his chair and laughed
till he was no longer pale, but quite rosy.
" It is not drains," he said, " it is the durian
our famous fruit ! "
Then he explains that this much-prized fruit,
a large thing with a hard rind, is perfectly delight-
ful and beloved by every one, only that it has this
awful smell. At first you cannot go near it I
can well believe that and when you do, it is long
ere you have the courage to attack it. You
generally give it up at first and fly from it, but
once you overcome the smell, and taste the fruit,
you are content. Perhaps so.
I, of course, asked to be shown the durian at
once, but it was so overpowering that I was never
BATAVIAN SOCIETY 255
brave enough to touch it. The smell is every-
where, and you cannot get away from it. And I
thought it was a bilgy ship, a marshy swamp, a
stagnant canal, or bad drains !
It ought to be introduced to London as a new
delicacy only, the Sanitary Inspector would be
sure to come to dinner !
I walked to the station with Car el to meet Mr.
and Mrs. Dunlop and their daughter, who was
his affianced bride. They are Dutch, in spite of
their Scottish name. Their smart carriage, with
liveried servants, was waiting for them.
In the evening we went to Vorsteegs Cafe,
opposite our hotel, and sat at a table in front of it,
separated only by a low wall from the street. This
is the fashionable meeting-place and evening drive.
All the smart world turned out in carriages of
various descriptions, drove up and down, halted
to speak to friends, or got out and entered the
cafe to greet others. Some of the carriages were
very smart, with liveried servants. Some people
had huge barouches, called " milords," with native
servants behind, four horses and postilions
quite overpoweringly grand. Some ladies, old
and young, had bare heads, which looked odd in
their carriages but then this was night, when
they all wake up and come out in the " coolth."
It was, for me, an original scene, and so reminded
me of pictures of old colonial days.
Miss Dunlop [now Baroness Carel van Haeften
and resident at The Hague] drove up in a smart
little English cart with a good pony and quite
English-looking dapper groom, and joined us for
a time. After naked savages all this was a great
change to be suddenly launched into the society
of smart ladies. Miss Dunlop knew every one, and
I admired then, as I have always done, the smart-
ness of the Dutch girls.
256 DUTCH EAST INDIES
We went back to the hotel to dine. There I
had put before me a huge bowl of white rice, with
here and there mysterious objects poking through
the rice. This is the great dish in Java. I set
to exploring at once. In your rice you find fish,
chicken, and I don't know what all ; you have
everything there in the same bowl, not mingled,
but nicely buried apart in the great heaps of rice.
I liked this very much, and discovered all sorts of
delicacies planted there which were to my taste.
This was, however, but one dish served at a very
good dinner.
Then we got into long chairs in Carel's verandah
room, with something to " smokee " and cool
drinks, and yarned for hours. The worst was that
the lights attracted simply myriads of flying ants,
beetles of every shape and size, and all sorts of
insects a cloud of them. You may get used to
this you have to but it is not agreeable at all.
Batavia was founded by the Dutch General
Koen, in 1619, on the ruins of a Javanese town,
and has a population (1900) of 115,890. It has
suffered much from volcanic eruptions and from
the continual malaria. It is said a million people
died between 1730-52. Probably the durian
did for them or am I prejudiced ? I must be,
for I read somewhere that in Sumatra at one
season are great durian feasts, in which men,
monkeys, and elephants join in amiable peace,
and that even the tigers come forth and devour
this fragrant fruit ! Who am I to disdain what
these interesting others so adore ? I am at least
generous enough to not even desire to deprive a
tiger of its durian.
Buitenzorg has the Governor-General's Palace
and the world-famed Botanical Gardens, the
beauty of which seems to astonish all travellers ;
and here is the tomb of the wife of Sir Stamford
GOING TO MARKET.
ON THE WAY TO MARKET.
FORT DE KOCK, SUMATRA.
To face page 256.
JAVA 257
Raffles, which the Netherlands Government are
bound by treaty to keep in order. Many people
reside at Buitenzorg, which is 45 miles from the
capital. The roads about it are excellent, and
both roads and railways in Java are good.
Java is 48,638 square miles in area, two-thirds
larger than Ireland, and is estimated to have a popu-
lation of twenty-nine millions so that it may well
be called a rich garden. It has no less than twenty
active volcanoes. The mountains rise to a height
of 10,000 feet, and Semeru, over 12,000 feet, is the
highest. It is 575 geographical miles long, and from
28 to 105 miles broad. According to some, Java was
the Garden of Eden, and here, too, rested the Ark
after the Flood, and still rests for ever petrified on
the mountain peaks. I looked about in the shops
for any relics of Noah, but could find none.
The antiquities of Java are amongst the most
remarkable in the world. These ancient Hindu
temples and ruins of great size and magnificence
are supposed to date from 600 A.D. The Hindu
influence was destroyed by the Arabs in 1478. Java
is mentioned by Marco Polo in 1290, and was
visited by the Italian traveller L. Varthema in
1505. The Dutch, under Houtman, landed in
1595, and in 1610 a fort was built by them at
Batavia. In 1677 the Dutch enlarged their
possessions, and went on acquiring territory by
war up till 1830 they had five great wars. From
1811 to 1815 it was occupied by the British, under
Sir Stamford Raffles, who did much in that short
time.
North and west shallow seas with islets separ-
ate it from Sumatra, Banka, and Blitong. The
volcanoes are mostly grouped together in a mass.
In 1699 Salak, 7266 feet, caused a great catas-
trophe ; it is now quiescent. By the sudden and
short eruption of Papandayang, 8611 feet, in
17
258 DUTCH EAST INDIES
1772, it is said 4000 people and 40 villages were
destroyed. Guntur the Mountain of Thunder-
is always up to mischief and doing damage ; it
is 7362 feet high. Then in 1822 Galunggung, a
quite placid apparently extinct mountain, 7313
feet high, without the slightest warning suddenly
gave vent to a thunderous roar and a dense cloud
of smoke poured forth, whilst hot water, stones,
and mud flowed down, destroying everything, and
stones and ashes covered a radius of twenty miles.
Not content with this it repeated the performance,
half the mountain was blown away, large stones
thrown seven miles, the country covered with
many feet of greenish-blue mud, 114 villages and
4000 people destroyed. There are also many
mud geysers and such things. The rivers, though
small, are many. At least a hundred bad thunder-
storms take place annually.
No one can call this a dull land, or one without
interest, with all this activity around. Apparently
you cannot sit down quietly for a moment with
everything popping off in this manner without a
word of warning.
A great part of this lively island is covered with
forest, but much of it is really a garden. There are
splendid trees, and the teak is famous. Rice,
coffee, chinchona, all sorts of fruit in fact, every-
thing grows. Two hundred and forty species of
birds are known, of which forty are peculiar to Java :
there are wild peacock, jungle fowl, pigeon, quail,
and tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses, wild dogs, and
wild pigs ; monkeys, wild oxen, and deer add to its
attractions, to say nothing of the durian, which
does not allow itself to be overlooked.
The Javanese are noted as being very truthful
and straightforward, are very docile, industrious,
and sober, and are also attractive in looks. They
are excellent workmen, good weavers and agri-
RUINED CITIES 259
culturists, and understand irrigation very well.
There are over 550,000 Chinese and about 30,000
Arabs ; they both intermarry with the Javanese.
There are various languages in the island. In 1900
there were 76,000 Europeans, and to-day 800 of
these are Germans, 274 Belgians, and 180 British.
The people, though professedly Mohammedans,
are in reality mostly pagans. This rich, beautiful,
populous land is a Garden of Eden, despite the
volcanoes, and the people are both contented and
happy under Dutch rule, which suits them ; and
long may they continue under it, despite some
present clouds in the sky.
The great buildings and cities of former days
seem to have been extraordinary in size and
magnificence. How strange, then, it seems that the
dwellers in Java of those days had not penetrated
south from island to island on to New Guinea and
Australia. Who knows but yet, in the unknown
interior of New Guinea, ancient Hindu ruins may be
found, showing they had been there. [The natives
of Macassar, in Celebes, in recent times have been
in the habit of going as far as Port Darwin and the
Northern Australian coast, and it is thought have
done so for a long period of time. I still think
that either in Dutch New Guinea, or even in
Northern Australia, traces of ancient habitation
may yet be found. When one remembers that
the huge Hindu ruins in Java lay for centuries
forgotten and concealed in tropical jungle, it is
quite possible the almost impenetrable jungles
of New Guinea may hide interesting secrets.]
The ruined city of Majapalut covers miles of
ground. The bricks used in construction are
of marvellous beauty, and appear to have been
welded together with some invisible cement.
Some of the brick architecture is very imposing.
At Brambanam, in the centre of the island, are
260 DUTCH EAST INDIES
great ruins built of stone ornamented with carv-
ings and mouldings. The temple of Borobodoer
is 520 feet square and 120 feet high, situated on
the summit of a hill, and has six terraces raised
one above the other, surmounted by a cupola
surrounded by seventy-two smaller temples in
triple rows, with 400 figures of Buddha in niches ;
and there are hundreds of such ruins.
Djokjacarta, which has its sultan's palace, is
famous for the wonderful architectural remains
in its vicinity.
Borobodoer, or Boro-boedoer, was erected about
twelve centuries ago ! For six hundred years it
lay unknown and forgotten, buried in a tropical
jungle. Under British domination was commenced
the clearing of this jungle, which is said to have
taken six weeks and to have employed hundreds
of labourers.
Sourabaya is, after Batavia, the important
port of Java. It contains Chinese houses and
temples, Arab mosques and Malay buildings, to
say nothing of the spotless white houses of the
Dutch ; the land is a brilliant garden, and has
an additional charm in its own active volcano
Bromo, which rejoices in the largest crater in the
world, three miles in diameter, a bottomless pit of
seething vapours and fiery floods, with volumes
of smoke and red-hot stones cast up to fall back
again. It seems strange that these wonderful
lands do not attract more tourists than they
do, and how little realisation there is in Europe
of their size. [Australians are at last beginning
to frequent them as holiday resorts.] Borneo,
for instance, is larger than France and Germany
combined. Java is 700 miles long ; Sumatra
is 1400. They are generally referred to in
Europe as little islands " somewhere out in the
East."
DRIVE ROUND BATAVIA 261
It is my great desire to return here to see all
these things, poke about these ruins, drop bits of
soap down the volcanoes to see if they will go off
as do the geysers in Iceland. This is in truth one
of the richest and most interesting countries in
the world, and so easily got to, so that I do hope
I can one day return for a long stay.
I was up at 5 a.m. in the morning, and at 6
o'clock Carel van Haeften took me for a drive with
a pair of fast ponies for miles all round Batavia,
or through it, perhaps, as we never appeared to
get away from beautiful houses and gardens. We
seemed, indeed, to pass countless houses, some of
which are really very fine, with huge white marble
pillared porticoes and marble floors, and each
house set in a lovely garden full of wonderful
trees, plants, and flowers. These white-pillared
porticoes are gay, too, with flowers in Chinese
and Japanese vases. Apparently these fine houses
spread out for miles, and many are without walls
or fences. It never struck me before how we wall
and bar ourselves into our domains at home ;
but no wonder when one thinks of the coarse, ill-
mannered, ungentle, unpleasant, dishonest people
we have to keep out of them ! For, in truth, when
you think it out and compare our " free-born
Britons " and other Europeans of the lower classes
with the same class of people in the East, it does
give one pause ! We are so used to it in Europe
it never strikes us, and that is the best, or the
worst, of travel you are for ever learning that
your own countryfolk are in no way superior to
the people of other lands, and often do not equal
them. Even among savages now and again a
sort of feeling of dismay comes over one as to what
our so-called civilisation really is, and if we are
not all blind mistaken idiots pursuing wrong ideals.
I suppose every one feels this in "uncivilised"
262 DUTCH EAST INDIES
lands at times. One remembers the hooligans of
London, of Paris, of Glasgow. What are they but
foul-mouthed, foul-thinking, foul-living savages ?
No "savage" land contains such beings but it
seldom strikes us to think about them in such a
light, we are so accustomed to them.
The roads here are a sight to see, splendid and
beautiful roads, crowded with streams of natives
pouring in with their produce to the market. There
were scores of cyclists, including Chinese and
Javanese ; many handsome carriages, and also
many well-dressed Chinese driving about, and in
some roads were trams. All this made an inter-
esting, beautiful picture in the cool morning air ;
it was a charming drive and my companion such
good company.
The palace of the Governor-General is a huge,
long, white-pillared house.
There is, of course, strong anti-British feeling
everywhere the Boer War so embittered the
people against us from the mistaken ideas pro-
mulgated among them. You see many remains
of old buildings built while we occupied Java
in fact, what the great Sir Stamford Raffles did
has left its mark on the place.
But the Dutch speak now quite calmly of
" when we come under the flag of Germany,"
as if it was an inevitable thing. There is no heir
to the House of Orange who is really Dutch, and
it seems inevitable to them that great changes
are to occur. But it is strange to hear these
Dutch so tenacious a people calmly speaking
as if it were an inevitable thing that one day
they must pass under the German flag.
In the Netherlands they have not arrived at
this idea by any means ; but the Dutch have ever
been noted for playing a mere selfish policy which
blinds them to outside things. What does it
QUEEN WILHELMINA 263
matter to them, they say, what happens to other
countries, so long as they are left in peace, they
quite forgetting that any war between two Great
Powers in Europe must affect them, and seriously.
Who can say what is coming ? For instance,
many Dutch people have said to me that, in the
supposition of a war between Germany and Great
Britain, the British would defend them. Per-
haps so let us hope the British could. But the
Netherlands must wake up and show where her
friendship lies if she wishes to secure that friendship
in time \ There is no use in locking the stable
door when the steed is stolen.
I can imagine nothing better for the Dutch
East Indies and their people, and for the Nether-
lands herself, than that Queen Wilhelmina should
come out and visit all her wonderful possessions
here. Hers would be the vivifying touch some-
what needed now ; she would be received with the
most unbounded enthusiasm and wildest joy, and
how proud, how rightly proud, she would be to see
the interesting races she rules over with both
wisdom and kindness, and the glorious rich lands
which hail her queen. Here she would make a
truly Royal triumphal progress, and it is just the
thing that is needed. May I be here to see if
it ever happens. I have had glimpses of that
young Queen when she was a mere child and as she
grew up, shouted myself hoarse as I stood amongst
her people at the time of her enthronement and
the heralds came out on the palace balcony at
Amsterdam to proclaim her titles, and saw the
young Queen herself in her Royal robes come out
and stand alone before her people the " phleg-
matic Dutch " how they cried, sang, shouted,
and went mad with joy ! It was a beautiful
sight, a stirring moment. Let the Queen come
and be honoured and acclaimed all her route till
264 DUTCH EAST INDIES
she reaches her own great possessions here she
will do what no one else can do. Were I a Dutch-
man I would entreat her to do it as it is, I do
entreat. What pleasure she herself would surely
derive from it all, and what is it but a few months'
change from Holland ? She is sovereign out here
over millions of people, and nowadays the empires
over the seas have claims uporf their sovereigns,
the day for indifference has gone by.
[Now things have changed. A baby has
done it. The coming of the child the hope of
the Netherlands has given new spirit to the
Dutch people, and is wakening them up ; there is
no longer any talk of coming under other flags.
But they must not fall asleep again ; they must no
longer leave their isles and seas to a lonely solitude.
The day has gone by when a nation can claim a land
as the Dutch did their part of New Guinea and
warn all others off, though they do not occupy
it themselves. Effective occupation alone can
make it theirs, and that gives promise now of
taking place. The House of Orange has an heir
that means much. The Princess Juliana is the
most important child in Europe. Nevertheless,
sovereigns of great empires can no longer remain
quietly at home as of yore ; the world and its
peoples have changed ; the over-seas peoples have
grown so rich and powerful that their claim upon
their monarchs is as great a one as that of the
home people. It is no longer a journey of time
and danger to get to the other side of the world ;
it is merely a short pleasure trip. The Germans
once called their sovereign " Gondel Willy " on
account of his partiality for making journeys ;
it was fatuous wit, for the journeys of the German
Emperor showed his wisdom and advertised his
country, and a consequence of them has been that
now all Germans want to travel and see things for
A BABOE, SOLO.
.-
AT BORO BOEDOER.
JAVA.
To face page 264.
IMPERIAL VOYAGES 265
themselves always the best way. The Emperor
William can scarcely be expected to visit Tsingtau
or Kaiser Wilhelm's Land " dots in the ocean "
out there but Queen Wilhelmina rules over great
and rich lands and millions of people who need
to see their sovereign and it is not Queen
Wilhelmina alone who should go travelling far
afield. The sovereign is the one real link between
widely scattered lands, and is the symbol of their
united nationality, and as so can no longer afford
to ignore the claims of far-away subjects. As well
it teaches the peoples of the homelands their
proper place, and that they are but parts of a
whole, and not the whole themselves.]
There are nations beyond the seas now not,
as before, mere scattered communities and those
nations will in time want a head for themselves
if they never see their hereditary crowned one.
The people at home must begin to realise that.
We are not the only nation that must " wake
up." [Now we hear the good tidings that the
great British King-Emperor will have himself
crowned in his Empire of India what a splendid
and striking fact it will be in history and we
may hope that other parts of his great Empire
may sometime also see their sovereigns it is the
most wise of proceedings.]
I wonder if this climate and the Durian will
exercise as enervating an effect on the German,
Japanese, or American activity as it has done on
that of others ? It certainly is not a climate
that permits of much energy. The people rise
very early, but by eleven or so retire to their
house, get into slipshod attire, repose all day,
and only come forth in the evening. They dine
about nine or so, and soon retire to bed. It
does not sound very lively, and seems a somewhat
slovenly life. It may be the only possible one.
266 DUTCH EAST INDIES
After this glimpse at Batavia and sniff at the
Durian a very long sniff, though I rejoined the
Stettin and we sailed at eleven in the morning.
Amongst new passengers was a young English-
man, Mr. Louis Wright, a Ceylon tea-planter,
connected also with tea-plantations in Java.
He had been in South Africa with the Ceylon
contingent, but was invalided home on account
of enteric fever.
The second day we had a fine, fresh, and most
welcome breeze. We passed through the Banca
Channel which is narrow and full of shoals and
sandbanks between the island of Banca and
Sumatra. All the shipping between Borneo and
Sumatra goes through the straits. Banca belonged
to the Sultan of Palembang. In 1811, when the
British got their Sumatra settlements, the Sultan
killed all the Dutch to please them, and they,
in the most ungrateful manner, dethroned him
for his trouble. In 1816 it was restored to the
Dutch. There are 375,000 Malays, 30,000 Chinese,
and 200 Europeans on it. Muntok, with a popula-
tion of 6000, is the chief town and is fortified and
garrisoned.
We were in crowded seas with many craft
around us, and we passed the French sailing
ship Sylvia from Havre, in full sail a most
beautiful sight. We discussed Sumatra and the
endless war the Dutch wage with the Achccnese,
which has gone on for somewhere about forty
years. The Acheenese say or once said they
would be content if the British got Sumatra, an
improbable thing now the Germans are simply
dying to possess it, and one of their much-dis-
cussed aims is to have a settlement on its shores
directly opposite Singapore, so as to render
that key to the East useless whilst we hold it.
Such a thing is out of the question. Singapore is
EASTERN QUESTIONS 267
now too important for us to allow any other
Power to interfere with it. [The rise of Sabang
has brought a new factor on the scene. Formid-
able rival though it may be to Singapore, whilst
it is in the hands of the Dutch we do not need to
regard it with anything but friendly interest.]
But if the Netherlands once join the German
Empire, or are forced to do so then good-bye to
us in the East and to India. However, there
is Japan ; she cannot hanker after new rivals in
the Germans, especially as she would like all
these islands herself. There are countless inter-
esting political questions here. Japan, Great
Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal,
and the United States have all parts to play, and
there is an awakened China to reckon with at some
not far distant date. It is the East that is to
become the burning question of the world. Though,
indeed, there is the Near East as well !
[Let those who should, remember and ponder
over the defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians,
and the defeat of the Russians by the Japanese,
and realise what it means to all Asiatic or Eastern
peoples, and what thoughts it has raised in them.
Is there not to be China for the Chinese and
India for the Indians ? The Western in their
eyes is no longer the infallible dominant race,
but, they have learnt, can be made to bow before
the Eastern. The coming questions in the East,
as in the rest of the world, entail unceasing vigil-
ance and thought are they receiving them ?
Korea has become an appanage of the Japanese
Empire what next ?
At Pearl Harbour, in the track of every line of
connection, the Americans are making an impreg-
nable fortified harbour. Why ? Could no British
statesman or politician look far enough ahead
to see what was coming, what was inevitable
268 DUTCH EAST INDIES
when the Sandwich Islands passed to America ?
Do they realise what the fortified Panama Canal
is going to mean ? Do they believe that the
Americans will let any temporary checks inter-
fere with their ultimate aim of fortifying that
canal and assuming full power ? Do they believe
that the Republic of Panama in reality a creation
of the Americans is destined to be anything but
a stopgap ? Mr. Roosevelt has already openly
proclaimed his ideas on the subject. To suppose
that it does not concern us is childish, for the
ultimate prosperity and fate of the British West
Indies is involved with Panama and there is
British South America and British Central America
for they exist and it therefore lies with the
British Government to look far ahead and guard
our interests. It would be well, too, for those
who look ahead to study the doings and aims
of the " International Bureau of American Re-
publics " that combination of, I think, twenty-
one Republics, banded together to foster their
own interests, but not to foster the interests of
Europe. Truly there are mighty problems facing
us in many parts of the globe ! Are we to
sit idle, do nothing, and imagine all the world
loves us so dearly that we are safe ? Is it only
the North Sea that is to see the grey hulls
of the British fleet ? In the East " things are
to happen " at no distant date.
What this land wants is war war here at
our doors war devastating our homes, destroying
our cities and our harbours only then will she
wake up too late !
In 1900 what was Kiaochou or its city of
Tsingtau ? a mere nothing. Here Germany has
indeed shown what she can do in this line if sup-
ported. In these ten years Tsingtau has risen into
a fine city, with magnificent Government House,
KIAOCHOU 269
Government buildings, naval hospital, schools
for Europeans and Chinese, and handsome private
residences. Roads and railways, electricity and
many industrial concerns have all been introduced.
There are afforested preserves with nurseries and
gardens kept up by a vote of 5000 a year. In
the harbour is the immense floating dock which
can lift a vessel of 16,000 tons. Within the dock-
yard enclosure are navy store yards, and there
is a staff of somewhere about fifty Europeans,
as well as the Chinese. Germans may well point
with pride at what has been achieved in a few
years but this is no colonisation for it must
be remembered that no money has been spared, and
that the Fatherland has devoted to this purpose well
over 6,500,000 sterling, and continues enormous
grants, not as loans, but as free grants. But how
wisely expended, as a rich return will be eventually
received. In striking contrast to this is the British
concession of Wei-hai-wei, the value of which is
great, but which, through vacillation and neglect of
the home Government, has in no way developed or
fulfilled its promise. Indeed, indeed, it is time
to "wake up!"]
What countless beautiful palm-clad islands we
steamed amongst 1001 of them, some one said
all valuable, all beautiful, and as yet with a
future before them, numbers of Malay phraus
and other craft plying these lovely waters.
Blitong, or Billiton, south-east of Banca, is 1800
square miles in area, and its highest point 3117
feet. Then there is Sinkop Isle, Lingga Isle,
and, with many others, Bintang, lying directly
opposite Singapore. This is called the Rhio-
Lingga Archipelago, a mass of reefs, shoals, and
islands at the end of the Malay Peninsula. The
Dutch have a prosperous port at Rhio Isle, where
many boats call, and which is full of Chinese and
270 DUTCH EAST INDIES
Malays. At Lingga a pretty town there are
8000 inhabitants. This archipelago is from its
situation an important one, and more than one
Power is casting longing eyes on Bintang, or one
of the others, so as to be directly opposite
Singapore.
On the evening of 3oth December we anchored
alongside the wharf at Singapore and I came
ashore to Raffles Hotel, a huge, imposing edifice
with two wings. With regret I left the Stettin
which for so long had been my pleasant home.
From Captain Niedermayer and from all connected
with her I had received nothing but continuous
kindness and attention, and I shall always bear
them all in grateful and kindly remembrance.
I was even sorry to say " good-bye " to " Preety
Cockay," and missed the daily attack pf his
terrible beak. May he live long to inflict it on
others is, I think, the most suitable wish I can
make him.
Quite a fracas occurred as I was leaving, and
I found my old Malay sailor-man had taken my
bag from the steward, insisted on carrying it and
escorting me down the gangway. Then we
solemnly shook hands I actually " choky " and
almost " weepy " and so our queer friendship
came to an end. I look back on those many weeks
on that German boat with unalloyed pleasure and
a little touch of sadness. I learnt many things and
was taught many things, and am grateful for all.
Singapore ways were new to me, though those
who have dwelt in the East will scorn my ignorance.
My bedroom opened on the long, wide balcony, and
the space in front, partly enclosed and furnished
with table and chairs, was my sitting-room. The
little swing-door of the bedroom reached neither
floor nor ceiling, so that it concealed little of the
room. There were two dressing-rooms and one of
CHINESE " BOYS " 271
these was my bathroom. It also had a little
swing-door opening into the inner hall. Chinese
" boys," as they are called, passed to and fro, in
and out, regardless of me or my state of apparel.
They paid no attention to anything I said, nor
could I bar them out anyway. When I wanted
them I had to go and call them, and it so happened
that I wanted many things, for I was discarding
all my garments worn on the voyage, so that
no New Guinea fever microbes should abide with
me, and what did on the ship would not do in
smart Singapore. After many appeals to passing
servants, a languid Englishman in the next balcony
compartment said to me, " Excuse me, but these
are my boys you are ordering about." I apologised
and asked how I could possibly know that, as
they seemed to use my room as a passage. He
said they were incorrigible that way, and explained
that here one engaged at once one's own Chinese
boys to wait on one they were not hotel servants
at all ! He sent for an hotel servant for me for the
meanwhile.
But now I am getting into the way of things
here. I could not get on without attention, so said
to the hotel people I must have boys to wait on
me, and to " put them in the bill." Now I appear
to have six. They all look the same and I no
longer lack attention or attendance. I live a life
of mingled laziness and overpowering energy,
half in my chair here and half tearing about
Singapore in " rickshaws." My neighbour next
door I do not see unless I advance to the front
of the balcony. He then takes his cigar out of his
mouth and says " Ah ! " He is always in his
chair in exactly the same attitude with apparently
the same cigar at the same stage. He never
smiles and seldom speaks. Once as I was leaving
the hotel my conscience pricked me and I
272 DUTCH EAST INDIES
thought perhaps he was ill and needed sympathy,
so I returned the length of the huge building
and along the balcony.
" Are you ill are you well are you all right ? "
I asked.
He looked astonished, then said, " All right."
" That's all right," I said, and departed, feeling
satisfied and quite unable to prolong this interest-
ing conversation. I have since discovered his
vocabulary is limited to " Ah ! " " Yes and No,"
"Pretty well," "Not bad," and "All right."
It simplifies life.
A suspicion has just dawned on me that two
of my attendants are his they seem familiar
somehow. But I don't know where any of them
come from if they are hotel servants, or his,
or mine, or whose. I just accept the situation-
it suits the climate. Anyway, already they are
by way of " taking care of me," and grinning
faces all the same and flying pigtails are
everywhere.
My programme is, after my morning tub, to
go and lie in my pyjamas with bare feet in my
long chair. My tea is there, fruit, smoking
material, books, and a Singapore newspaper. If
I want anything I pull the nearest passing bell-
rope I mean pigtail and point at something.
They are wonderful, though ; they know now
even without my pointing. I notice, too, they
have suddenly coiled their pigtails in an elegant
coronet round their heads. I wonder why ? I
never see any one attending to my neighbour
next door, but I can't help that. All my bag-
gage is unpacked, strewn about, and in process
of repair and cleaning. They did it all unasked,
so I don't worry.
The first night I got into a rickshaw, and
said I must be driven or whatever you say in a
A WASHING BILL 273
rickshaw very quickly all round the town. We
tore along, scattering every one right and left ; went
first through a crowded street, and I had visions
of painted ladies rising in balconies and rows of
Japanese girls calling out in chorus, but we tore
past unheeding and raced all over the place.
"Here hi ! " I cried at last; "not so fast
stop ! ' whereupon my coolies came to a dead
stop and nearly threw me out. I admire much the
fat, rich-looking Chinese driving about in grand
carriages with liveried Malay servants on the box,
and I saw three stout Chinamen packed into one
rickshaw, and their coolie nearly fainting with
the weight. These Chinese become rich and
prosperous under our Government, but if they
went to China would lose their wealth and their
heads but it will not be always so.
Captain Niedermayer, Captain Dunbar, and a
young German friend of theirs, apparently from
some house of business here, came to see me one
evening, and we sat on the verandah having whiskies
and sodas. At first all was right, but by degrees
the young German merged into his own language,
forgot me entirely, and commenced railing against
the misgovernment of Singapore, and the im-
becility of the British authorities. They even,
he said with scorn, had a Chinaman on the Town
Council. He let out all sorts of things, and I sat
taking them all in. Then he described how he
had been pulled up to Court for not paying his
washing bill, and how even his own Chinese boy
was called as a witness against him. " I, a Ger-
man," and here he thumped his breast, " actually
have my Chinese boy called against me ! "
Having had enough of it, I leant forward and
said calmly
" But why did you not pay your washing
bill ? "
18
274 DUTCH EAST INDIES
There was a dumbfounded silence as they
recalled where they were, and that I was their
host.
" I am sure we do dreadfully foolish things,"
I went on sweetly, "but now you have got a
colony of your own, you can show us what to do
and how to govern natives and yet this place
seems full of happy, prosperous people of
many nations. Even you Germans seem to do
nicely."
There were hasty good-nights and departures.
The next day when I met the two captains they
apologised for their friend, and put it down to
" wheesky-soda." I said it was of no conse-
quence and, really, what did that youth's opinion
matter ?
I seem to know scores of people how, I know
not. I went to a gala dinner, New Year's Eve,
danced vigorously at a ball, sang " Auld Lang
Syne " with every one else, with joined hands, as
the old year went out. People are most friendly,
kind, and amiable who they are I have not
grasped. I have been at the Cricket Club Pavilion,
and watched most interesting and amusing water
sports from the balcony of the other club-house,
which overhangs the sea. All the elite of Singa-
pore were there : smart ladies, the Governor and
suite, Lord Beauchamp, fresh from British New
Guinea and his Australian Governorship, and I
don't know who all. Wright and a pleasant man
called Harrison looked after me. I never saw
a more interesting, amusing, or pretty sight than
these sea sports. We lay in long chairs, had
cool drinks and cigarettes, and I laughed till I
was sore at that item where a long, greased pole
projected from the bow of a vessel with a prize
at the end of it, and competitors had to walk that
greased pole to get it. Of course, after wild
NEW YEAR'S DAY AT SINGAPORE 275
endeavours and frantic clutches at the air, they all
fell into the sea, amidst a perfect storm of laughter
and cheers. There were crowds of gaily dressed
Malays and other natives on the pier, and the
harbour was a mass of Chinese sampans and other
craft, the ships all decorated with flags, and the
scene of the most brilliant description, alive with
movement and colour. The Malay phraus and
Chinese sampans raced, and very beautiful and
exciting was the race between Malay kolehs with
crews of twenty men. Many of these and the
sampans were upset, but no one minded.
Then I was taken through various public build-
ings, including the Drill Hall, where my^cicerone
pointed out the maxim guns subscribed for by the
Chinese of Singapore. He was enthusiastic about
the Volunteers. By some strange fatality I com-
menced running down an article in a Singapore
paper, noticed the blank silence, received a nudge
from behind, and heard a whisper that my guide
was the editor ! So I quickly went on saying
worse things about the paper, awful things, and
then said I hoped he would not pillory me in his
paper for jesting about it and he was all smiles
again, evidently thinking I had known all the time
and was only chaffing !
Then in the afternoon were gorgeous and
amusing New Year's Day sports for the natives
really a fine scene, and every one in holiday
humour. What an intensely pleasant thing it is
to see people happy ! The funniest thing was
dipping heads in tubs of treacle to find money with
their mouths ; when they got it they bolted straight
for the sea, near by, to clean their heads, scattering
the shrieking crowd right and left. Then the tug-
of-war was most exciting, all sorts of natives,
Chinese, Javanese, Acheenese, Indian coolies, and
Indian soldiers, and so on took part ; it was eventu-
276 DUTCH EAST INDIES
ally won by the Chinese, who pulled every one over.
These sports, in which all participate, so please the
natives of all sorts, and make them fond of British
rule. To keep people happy and good-humoured
is everything. The pity is that they are learning
that there are other great nations coming forward
as rivals.
The Dallas Company is here playing in San
Toy and The Belle of New York. As I have
travelled with them elsewhere on a mail-boat they
receive me like an old friend when I see them about.
I have been at all sorts of things, and out in
the country, hoping to see a tiger eating four
Chinamen, as I am told they do daily. These
tigers swim over the Straits from Johore and come
quite near the town and lunch on the Chinese
perhaps so, but I have not seen it, and they might
have thought of arranging it for my benefit for one
day at least.
Wright has gone, and I went out with him
to the Japanese mail-boat to see him off. It lay
miles out at sea. We went out in a launch, and
as every one mounted the ship's gangway, I saw
them all speak to a gold-laced-capped individual
who stood at the top ; when I got up I barely
glanced at him, but said, " Steward, what time
does this launch go back to the shore ? "
" I am not the steward," he answered ; " I am
a British naval officer come to see a friend away."
Profuse apologies from me, but I added, " Well,
you should not stand at the top of the gangway
just as if you were going to show every one their
cabin." He laughed, said I was right, and moved
away.
Some important Chinese personage was leaving,
and his womenkind were on board to see him 08,
and were full of curiosity, running about poking
their noses in everywhere. Just as a dainty little
GRASS TREE.
TERRACE WITH CUPOLAS.
BORO BOEDOER, JAVA.
A SAIL IN A SAMPAN 277
Chinese woman looking like a porcelain figure
went to the top of the ladder to the lower deck
up came a little Japanese officer, and it was
quite amusing to watch the bows and smiles and
polite little flirtation between Japan and China.
Every one said there was plenty of time, and I
went to the saloon to have a glass of champagne
with Wright. When I came on deck the launch
was gone, so was every boat, and the anchor was
coming up the mail-boat actually starting. Here
was a situation, for I had no desire to be carried
off to Ceylon ! At last, by violent signalling and
holding up money, we induced a Chinese sampan
to come alongside, and I slid down a rope and
arrived in a heap on top of its crew ! I was just
in time, as the next minute the steamer was off.
Then I looked round at my situation. The
little sampan had a wet, slippery deck, half of
which was under water, with nothing to keep one
from slipping overboard. The crew consisted of
a Chinese woman and three tiny children, the
youngest being a baby. To the back of the baby
was tied a large chunk of wood. I soon saw the
use of it. W T hen it fell overboard it floated ; the
mother took a long pole with a hook, and just
hooked it back again ! They were all at first
frightened of me, but being alarmed about the
child (and myself, though I was not going to
show it for I had no log of wood on my back),
I took possession of its little wet body, and the
mother smiled, and signified it was quite safe.
She and the two other little mites managed that
boat marvellously, and soon we were all the best
of friends. I was sitting (and sitting tight, too)
on the wet, sloping deck nursing the wet baby,
whilst another little kiddie was hanging over my
back with its arms round my neck nearly thrott-
ling me but we were all beaming and joking.
278 DUTCH EAST INDIES
All the same, it was a long sail, as we had to tack
so much, and I simply marvelled at the cleverness
of that little woman. I was relieved when we got
to the pier at last, which was crowded with people,
who regarded our arrival with astonishment, as
they well might, for it is not the custom in Singa-
pore for European men to go out in small sampans
with Chinese women ! Moreover, I was dripping
wet, and took such an affectionate farewell of
that boat's crew that it seemed queerer than ever.
She was such a nice woman, and the tiny children
quite fascinating. I took care they did not bring
me ashore for nothing, and left them all waving
and smiling " Good-bye." Then I mounted the
steps to the top of the pier, shook the wet off me
like a dog over the gaping crowd, and walked
away without giving them any explanation.
I don't know when I am leaving for Hong-
Kong, China, Japan, and America just when I
am tired of Singapore, and that is not yet. People
are kind here, it is all very pleasant, I like the
gaiety and colour of it all, and feel quite loth to
commence travelling again. I have been back
to the Stettin for another farewell but already
New Guinea seems like a dream, and as if it were
long ago since I was there. My " little ship " that
is to bear me on is a big German liner, and I hear
that the goodwill of various distinguished German
naval and military officers, going sooner or later
by one of the boats to join the allied forces at
Pekin, has been bespoken for me, and that there
is no fear of my not being taken care of valu-
able me ! Both Captain Niedermayer and Captain
Dunbar have been most kind, and the latter in-
tends seeing me off when I go, and introducing
his distinguished compatriots.
I hate this continual saying of " Good-bye,"
and when I like people, wish they would just settle
MOVING ON 279
down round me for a time, but it is for ever
" Move on, please/' till we make the final move
without return tickets. Anyway, one has not
been " a ship that passeth in the night," and gave
no one greeting on the way, and that is some-
thing. Little memories linger ; a little gladness
here, a little sympathy there, a helpful word
that cheers and encourages, that lightens the
stony way all has been gain. We know what
has been in the past, can think of it, dream of it,
laugh over it, and maybe weep over it but the
future Where are you going, little ship ; little
ship, oh, where are you going ?
HONG-KONG,
22nd January 1901.
I CERTAINLY was very reluctant to leave Singa-
pore, but, after all, I was on my way home, if in
somewhat leisurely fashion, and I had to move
on ; so, on the evening of Saturday, 5th January,
I boarded the Hamburg, a large, high, gorgeously
decorated N.G.L. boat. We did not, however, sail
till i p.m. on the next day.
Captain Dunbar came on board to say " Good-
bye," and made a point of presenting me to the
Captain a big, burly, gruff German and also
to two German naval men, Captain Gadeke of
S.M.S. Irene, and Captain Gildermeister.
Being a newcomer on this ship I was placed
at a side-table at dinner, where the chief engineer,
the doctor, a young German, and two Dutchmen
had places, and I presumed I was breaking into
a friendly little party. The Dutchmen, however,
I soon discovered, never opened their lips to
any one.
It happens that on all these big German liners
in the East it is announced everywhere that
English is spoken, and it is even printed across
your ticket. I was placed between the chief
engineer and the young German, the doctor
occupying the end of the table. To be polite, I
ON A GERMAN BOAT 281
commenced speaking to the engineer in English,
but got nothing but Yes and No from him, and
after a time gave it up. At breakfast in the
morning it was the same, and no conversation
of any sort took place, they all ignoring my
presence.
But at last I heard the doctor say to his
neighbour, in German, that he ought to speak to
me, and in English. The other said he did not
see why he should. The doctor then said they
were supposed to speak English to any passengers,
as, of course, English people never knew German.
" It is a German boat," said the other; "let
him speak German."
I was secretly amused, and took no notice,
but presently, more by accident than intending
it, asked the steward for something in German
and ignored the little flutter that went round
the table.
When I went on deck after breakfast I was
joined by the two German naval men, and the
Captain came up to do the civil. Then a man
spoke to me and said he remembered meeting
me in Hanover at the famous Reitschule there
the Military Riding School, where so many cavalry
officers are trained and introduced himself as
Major Count Franz Anton Magnis of the 2nd Guard
Uhlan Regiment. I could not recall him, but
surprised him by saying I had known very well
his brother, Count Wilhelm Magnis of the Bonn
Hussars, and had met his cousin, Count Deym,
son of a former Austro-Hungarian Ambassador
in London, and of course we had other mutual
acquaintances in officer circles in Germany. This
Count Magnis was on his way to Pekin to join
Count Waldersee's staff.
My table companions thus beheld me seated
in " the highest circles " of the ship, and probably
282 CHINA AND JAPAN
made inquiries about me, for lo and behold ! when
I went down to lunch I was received with most
edifying politeness, and gushed over in English
by every one save the two Dutchmen. Nothing
was good enough for me then, and the doctor said
that a mistake had been made, and I ought to
have been placed beside the Captain ! I said I
was all right where I was ; but, strange to say,
and I am sure to their great wonderment, I devoted
all my conversation to the two Dutchmen opposite,
who gradually thawed, and afterwards confided
to me that they had been so ignored by their
table companions that they had ceased to speak
at all. As I am sometimes amiable, but not very
often, I at the next meal had them all talking and
arguing as if they were bosom friends but not
one word of German would I understand !
There was mean spite, wasn't it ?
It was quite late in the evening of Thursday
the loth when we entered the harbour of Hong-
Kong but what a magnificent sight ! All the
shipping in the harbour and the town right up to
the Peak blazing with electric lights it was like a
fairy illumination ! In the morning we moved
into the dock at Kowloon. Many warships of
various nations lay in the harbour, and it was
crowded with other craft, including Chinese junks
and sampans. Fine houses cluster above the
town right up to the Peak, 1000 feet high above it,
and the effect is very fine.
It was only last year that Kowloon Peninsula
with its Hinterland became British, but there is
quite a town at Kowloon, with forts, barracks,
an hotel, and wharfs. Now good roads run inland
on the mainland for six miles, and the mountains
which dominated Hong-Kong are ours, and not the
source of danger they were. Ferry-boats ply
across the harbour to Victoria, the town, though
HONG-KONG 283
I cannot say I ever heard it called Victoria, as
people merely speak of Hong-Kong.
How proud one feels when one remembers
that this was once merely a barren, fever-stricken
rock ; and behold what the British have made of
it a healthy, very beautiful, and most imposing
place ! I had not realised that it was really as
beautiful as I found it to be.
I was soon installed in a large room in that
well-known huge caravanseri, the Hong-Kong
Hotel, with three sprightly Chinese " boys " in
attendance. One " boy " was about sixty, the
others not quite so ancient. The town was full
of animation, people in " chairs " and rickshaws
trotting about in every direction, crowds of blue-
jackets and our Indian soldiers there was no
end to the variety of costumes or the play of
light and colour. There are very handsome
buildings and private houses. There is a railway
up to the Peak, but I liked toiling up the steep,
winding ways, watching the people and the lines
of coolies carrying up bricks on slings across their
shoulders. What loads they carry, men and
women, and how ceaseless the movement. I
amused myself very well, and explored as much
of Hong-Kong and the Kowloon mainland as I had
time for. When out in the country I once met
a Chinaman tearing along with a rickshaw in
which lolled a dead - drunk and sleeping blue-
jacket, whose face and clothes gave evidence
of a battle. As I could not see where the China-
man could be taking him in such a condition out
of Kowloon, I stopped him, woke up the blue-
jacket, who was quite incapable of understanding
anything, and insisted on their returning to the
town, and had the satisfaction later of seeing the
sailor being safely convoyed by some of his own
comrades.
284 CHINA AND JAPAN
A pretty little garden is perched above the
town at Hong-Kong, and I often sat there and
watched the things that went on round me.
There was a little smoking-room in the hotel,
upstairs, dedicated to the use of people staying in
the hotel, the public smoking, bar, and billiard
rooms being below. I usually had this room to
myself ; but one evening an officer in naval
uniform came in, and we remained talking till the
place was closed and he had to leave to go up to
the Peak where he was living but a more enter-
taining man I had not met for long, and we had
a charming evening. He told me some interesting
things about the operations at Tientsin and
elsewhere, and on my complaining that one never
saw our flag anywhere almost, even here in our
own possession, whilst the flags of other nations
were fluttering wherever they could hoist them,
and that surely it was a great mistake, he quite
agreed with me, and told me that when the allied
forces were engaged in operations and hoisting
their flags everywhere, even on mud-banks on the
river, actually our men had not sufficient flags
to hoist where needful. He had, he said, been
very severe with the officers on his ship over this.
But the smoking-room brought me other
acquaintances who afforded me great amusement.
On Sunday evening two small boys came in and
sat down at the other side of the table. Said one
to the other
" Have a drink, old chap ? "
' Don't mind if I do."
" What will you have the usual ? "
The bell was rung and the waiter loftily ordered
to bring " two lemonades " !
But when the lemonades came, alas ! they had
not between them sufficient money to pay for them!
So I asked if they would have a drink with me.
CHARMING ACTRESSES 285
1 You're very kind don't mind if we do. But
you must have a drink with us some other time."
" All right ; " and so over the lemonades we
became good friends, and I learnt they were the
two principal actors in the Children's Opera
Company then performing in the town, and
which was the rage, with good reason, as this
Children's Company in the Geisha and The
Belle of New York were really wonderful in
fact, quite fascinating. They gave two perform-
ances a day, both to huge audiences, the gallery
being packed with enthusiastic bluejackets. The
company, numbering somewhere about fifty, all
lived in the hotel, and were soon informed " He's
all right," and adopted me as one of themselves.
They were extremely well cared for and looked
after ; and the larger and older girls were most
important damsels. The golden youth of Hong-
Kong vowed these bigger girls were not really only
thirteen or fourteen years old, but much older,
but they were all genuine children despite their
coquettish grown-up airs, as I had plenty of
opportunity of learning, for they took possession
of me in a body and seemed to consider me to be
there for their benefit.
It was very hot, and I had found a long cane
chair in a cool corner of a balcony and.appropriated
it, and there they knew they could always find
me.
But, however charming and clever were these
children, what is one to say of that fairy little dot
of a thing who played The Belle of New York
a tiny, charming, fascinating person ? She was
a lovely child, and a real child, and on the stage
was too delightful for words. I lost my heart
completely, and worshipped her.
They had two performances a day, and a
rehearsal in that heat so she was always
286 CHINA AND JAPAN
tired and often had a headache. Whilst the
others flooded the staircases and rooms, always
full of boisterous spirits, she loved to come and
sit on the foot of my long chair, and she liked,
too, to take my hand and press it hard against
her aching brow, always declaring it sent the
headache away.
" It is so quiet round you," she often said.
Once in a London drawing-room a lady aston-
ished every one by suddenly rising and coming
towards me.
" Do you know," she said, " that you are
simply full of magnetism that you have a great
gift, and could even cure people by laying hands
on them ? "
" I have never been aware of it," I answered,
laughing, and of course surprised.
" Yes, indeed you have. But you have never
studied it or cultivated it, and, therefore, you have
misused a wonderful gift God has given you ! "
" But what am I to do ? " I asked helplessly,
believing the lady, whom I did not know, to be-
well odd !
" You must study the subject, and learn how
to cultivate this great gift. I felt it the minute
you came into the room. You extract the vitality
from other people."
" Doyoumean I bore andtirethem ? if so
" Oh no ! but people like you can, if they will,
draw vitality from others. You could live to be a
hundred. You are a most magnetic person."
The lady talked a lot more of this sort of thing,
and quite alarmed me, but stirred my curiosity,
so after this I was often to be seen in the Row
or at parties, sitting very close to healthy, rotund
old ladies endeavouring to will their exuberant
health out of them, but I cannot say I ever felt
successful ; and when it came to my hunting out
THE BELLE|OF NEW YORK 287
all the pretty girls I knew and saying, " Please,
may I lay hands on you ? " they only replied
indignantly (you see I am not young and attrac-
tive !), " Most certainly not ! " and when I
attempted to explain, they would say, " What
impudence ! don't you dare ! Try it on some-
body else ! "
So how am I to experiment with this great
gift ? I never thought it a bit nice of those
pretty girls, and no one wants to lay hands on an
ugly one.
But here was the little Belle of New York
who proved there was some truth in it, for when-
ever her head ached she loved to take my hand
and press her brow hard against it.
Now the young ladies of the troupe were
greatly run after by all the midshipmen of the fleet,
and the whole company was frequently invited
to tea on this or that warship. The midshipmen
came in bands to the hotel, laden with offerings,
and what flirtations went on ! My cool corner
was a favourite resort, and they treated me as if
I did not exist. The airs and graces of those
young ladies afforded me unending diversion. I
believe pretty and popular actresses receive many
offerings in the shape of jewels, fans, flowers,
gloves, and even silk stockings ! So I am told
and, indeed, I have seen it. But these very
youthful ones cared nothing for such things, and
the offerings brought them were bonbons and
chocolat'es. The staircases and corridors of the
hotel were daily strewn with empty chocolate
boxes and silver paper !
As a friend I came in for some of this, as now
and again some girl, bethinking herself of my
lonely state, would descend on me and try to
force a chocolate into my mouth ; but frequently
the delicacy looked as if it had been tried and
288 CHINA AND JAPAN
rejected, so I was always " so unselfish " and
refused to deprive them of one.
There was quite jealousy between the different
ships over these young ladies.
One day, however, they had been invited on
board a certain ship the whole company. They
always had to be fetched by the middies and
brought safely back. This day the gallant
sailors did not arrive at the proper time, and when
half an hour had gone by, a whole shoal of in-
dignant and offended damsels descended on me,
voicing loud complaints. How dared the middies
keep them waiting ! No, they would not go at
all no, not they !
I pleaded the cause of the absent, endeavoured
to reason to reason with women, and these
creatures were little women ! talked of duty
and how " England expected," and all the rest.
But when a full hour had gone, feeling rose to
tragic heights. I was urged, entreated, threatened,
cajoled, and I know not what, to go to the ship and
find out the reason of -this shocking desertion.
Only the Belle of New York, sitting quietly on the
foot of my long chair, was silent.
' But," said I, " if I went to the ship they
might be angry and hit me with a marline-spike."
" What was a marline-spike ? "
I had no idea.
" Oh ! one of those things sailors hit people
on the head with."
" Oh, do go ! " they screamed in chorus, and
they were wildly excited over this, and the un-
grateful little hussies nearly pulled me out of my
chair, imploring me to go and be marline-spiked !
They urged and entreated and said, " But you
are a man, and won't mind it."
Only the Belle of New York made dissenting
gestures, and threw me entreating looks which
MACAO 289
I did not understand. But I was thereby en-
couraged to resist going to be marline-spiked.
The midshipmen came at last hot, breathless,
flustered, laden with chocolates and apologies
but they were not listened to, were most haughtily
repulsed ; there were tossing heads and disdainful
pouts but sidelong glances at the chocolates
and the most emphatic " Noes," which were meant
to be " Yes-es " in the end. Real women these.
The midshipmen appealed to me, and after a
time I succeeded in making peace, and, by repre-
senting that unless they went at once it would
be too late, got rid of them all. Not all, though
for the Belle of New York was tired would
not go whispered, " I want to stay with you I "
So, when all was quiet, she smiled an ineffable
smile on me ; I moved to one side, and she crept up,
turned round and nestled into a corner of the
chair, placed my hand on her forehead, gave a
big sigh of relief and was sound asleep in a
minute ! Poor, tired little creature ; her head
rested on my outstretched arm, which grew per-
fectly numb and stiff, but it might have dropped
off ere I would have moved it. I do not believe
there is anything so beautiful in life as a little
child asleep and I just loved this one.
It is the thing to go from Hong-Kong to
Macao, the Portuguese place, for week-ends ;
but I went on a Tuesday. I left my room and all
my belongings in charge of my three Chinese boys.
The steamboat took three hours to reach Macao,
was clean and good, and Captain Clarke was most
entertaining. There were two English ladies on
board an elderly one and a young and pretty one.
In the dining-saloon hung cutlasses and loaded
guns for the use of the passengers should the
Chinese attempt anything, and Chinese sailors,
armed with sword, pistol, and gun, stood on guard
19
290 CHINA AND JAPAN
over the hatchways leading to the lower deck,
where hundreds of Chinese were padlocked down
for some of these might be pirates. This has
been the custom since an affair that occurred on
this or one of the other boats.
It happened that on one occasion the Captain
and passengers being at lunch, and only one sea-
sick passenger left on deck, a crowd of Chinese
pirates, disguised as passengers, rushed the deck,
shot the sea-sick passenger ere he could give the
alarm, and killed and wounded the Captain and
others as they rushed up, then imprisoned the
survivors and looted the ship. It was an arranged
thing, and they had junks in waiting, so they
escaped. Some were afterwards caught and be-
headed and some imprisoned.
Captain Clarke kept a sharp look-out on all
junks which came near us.
The harbour of Macao looked very pretty as
we entered it the sweep of it is supposed to
resemble a miniature Bay of Naples. As a harbour
it is now no use, as it is silting up. Macao is
a small, rocky peninsula connected by a sandy
causeway with the Island of Heung Shan, and is
on the west shore of the entrance of the estuary
of the Chu-kiang or Pearl River, which again is
joined farther north by the Si-kiang or West
River, which rises in Yunnan, flows east for 600
miles through Kwangsi province, and at Wuchan
Fu enters Kwantung, and then after 200 miles
forms the Chu-kiang. Now you know all about
it, and that " Kiang " means " river," so, like
me, you can speak a little Chinese.
Portuguese traders founded Macao in 1557 ;
the Dutch under Admiral Rezersy van Derzton
attacked it in 1622, but were repulsed. The
Portuguese paid the Chinese an annual rent of 500
taels up to 1848, but in that year Governor
BOA VISTA HOTEL 291
Ferreira Amaral refused any longer to continue
the payment, and drove the Chinese authorities
out of the place ; and in 1887 it was finally and
fully ceded to Portugal. After the foundation
of Hong-Kong in 1841 trade decreased.
At present it seems half moribund ; there is no
life in the streets, and it has a distinct air of having
seen better days. The Boa Vista Hotel is quite a
good building and has prettily laid out terraces
descending to the sea. Captain Clarke, of the boat
I came over in, owns and runs it, and he and his
wife seem to manage well though in truth it
seemed really to be managed by Chinese " boys."
My bedroom window had a pleasant outlook over
the town and harbour.
I referred to two English ladies who came over
in the same boat. They were the guests in Macao
of an English naval officer, who had with him a
junior officer, and they greeted the ladies on arrival.
Jinrickshas from the hotel were in waiting, and I,
entering one, was hauled to the hotel with these
other people. Chinese waiters received us, we all
registered our names at the same time, and we
and our baggage were carted upstairs together.
Arrived on the landing, the Chinese boy turned
to me and said
" Which lady belong you, sir ? "
" Neither ! " I gasped.
" What ! That man he got two ladies ! "
I fled into my room, the ladies into theirs, and
I heard stifled peals of laughter from the ladies'
room, and had a suspicion that the old one was
putting a pillow on the head of the younger !
But to return to Macao itself. The only
vehicles in the streets were rickshaws and chairs.
There were some quaint old houses, forts crowning
every eminence, and bits of picturesque walls
here and there.
292 CHINA AND JAPAN
The Praya Granda is the esplanade facing the
sea, and here is the Government House, a pale blue
house with white pillars, the Consulates, and some
handsome private houses, some of which are
painted in pale pink, blue, and green. It is cer-
tainly a pretty place, but seemed asleep.
After dinner that evening I did what is the
usual thing, and went to the Chinese fantan or
gambling-house. I walked down alone through
a street crowded with Chinese, lined with Chinese
shops, open to the street. Seeing some little bits
of porcelain I liked, I went in and bought them, but
in pretending to give me back my change the
Chinaman in the shop kept back most of it. On
my naturally objecting, he became most insolent
and called out things in Chinese to the others, and
instantly the shop filled and they began to hustle
me. I only realised then that I had done a silly
thing coming out at night alone into this Chinese
part. An old Chinaman, however, rushed in,
harangued the others, pulled me out, and simply
bundled me into the gambling-house, which was
opposite, warning me to be careful what I did, and
not to come out alone like that at night.
The fantan house was a dirty place, open in
the roof to a room above, a rail running round
this opening, and there above were the naval
officers and the ladies letting down their money in
a basket. I sat at the table amidst a mob of
Chinese, with other excited half-naked Chinese
sprawling over my back. The game was simple
enough. I loathe gambling, do not like winning
money (strange as it may seem !), and it does not
amuse me in the least. I was doing it this night
merely to see what the place was like and study
the gambling Chinese. Yet, strange to say, when-
ever I put my money down I won, and so I
scraped in quite a pile of dollars I found after-
SAN PAULO 293
wards I had enough to pay my total expenses in
Macao ! When tired of it, the heat, and the
Chinese perfume, I departed, and was quite
surprised that my former enemies in the street did
not see that that was the time to molest me, over-
flowing with ill-gotten wealth as I was. Every one
comes from Hong-Kong for the week-end or a few
days to indulge in this pastime, but, according to my
old-fashioned ideas, it is a strange taste that brings
ladies into such a place.
The following morning I hired a rickshaw
and two Chinese boys and explored Macao. The
streets of the town are narrow and often steep.
I dislike a rickshaw very much, and still more
do I dislike being drawn about by a panting and
perspiring runner ; but, of course, here it is the usual
thing.
I went first to the ruins of the church of San
Paulo, the fagade of which is alone remaining, and
it is a conspicuous object from every quarter. It
was destroyed by fire in 1835. It is approached
by long, steep flights of steps under which is said
to be a vault containing treasure, and subterranean
passages, leading to Guia fort, and under the sea
for a mile to Green Island.
I was not a bit impressed by this tale of treasure.
If it was there no one would have allowed me to
dig it up, and what is the good of treasure in a vault
anyway ?
I inspected a silk factory in a dirty Chinese
village, where numbers of women were spinning
a curious sight ; then to Porta di Cerco the
barrier on the causeway which joins Macao and the
island. Near this part are mud-flats in the sea-
shallows where oysters are cultivated. The men
go over the mud on planks with great ease and at
some pace. " Flora," the country residence of the
Governor, is also near a villa with a very charming
294 CHINA AND JAPAN
Chinese garden laid out in terraces with balustrades
of turquoise blue and green porcelain. There are
also public gardens, the paths and grass bordered
with miniature white railings a few inches high,
which had a quaint and pleasing effect.
I had made a long tour of the island and was
trundling along peacefully by the edge of the sea
when my coolies suddenly stopped, exchanged
remarks, and one said to me, " You killee me."
' Well, you silly old thing," I replied, " why
do you let yourself be killed ? "
So I alighted, gave them cigarettes, and we
all sat on the shore to rest. When we resumed
our return journey I told them to go quietly, and
the consequence was they walked all the way !
A rickshaw when the coolie walks is a foolish
business. We stopped near the town to watch
the funniest football match I had seen for long.
Portuguese, English, and a Chinaman were playing.
The latter, in his wide flapping trousers and his
pigtail flying, was very comical.
Then, as usual with me, I discarded the rickshaw
and walked everywhere I always thought it was
what legs were for. When strolling under the
banyan trees on the Praya Granda where, by
the by, there is a Military club and a Union club-
one of my coolies in attendance, a band of three
Portuguese police with a Chinese prisoner caught
up to us. The four of them and my coolie enter-
ing into an animated conversation, I asked what
it was about, and learnt that the Chinese prisoner
was being taken there and then to execution
to be beheaded. We accompanied them part of
the way, whilst I asked questions, I bestowing
cigarettes on them all, including the condemned
man who was perfectly at ease and quite cheer-
ful, and smiled upon me in the most friendly
way in thanking me for the cigarettes. They
A CHINESE MILLIONAIRE 295
were most anxious I should go with them I
believe even the prisoner wanted it but I was
horrified when I realised the thing, and that the
smiling, cigarette-smoking wretch was going to
his death ! To the great disappointment of my
coolie I turned back ere we reached the place.
There was something so careless and callous about
it all on this lovely, bright, sunshiny day, too.
But it is a fact that death has little terror for a
Chinaman, and this one did not seem to realise
what it meant.
On the Leal Senado (Municipal Chambers) is
an inscription " Cidade do nome de Deos nao ha
ontra mais leal," which is, " City of the name of
God, there is none more loyal." This inscription
was placed there by command of King Dom
Joao iv., at the time of the restoration of the
Portuguese Monarchy, as a recognition of the
loyalty of the Macaenses in giving their allegiance
to Portugal instead of to Spain.
Mr. Chun Fong, a Chinese millionaire, has a
fine house on the Praya Granda and a country
house at the village of Wong Mo-Tsai, which was
his native place. His history shows how much
the world is alike everywhere.
As a poor country lad he went to California,
and from there to the Sandwich Islands, where
he amassed a fortune, becoming, according to
the tale, the wealthiest man there. After forty
years' absence he returned to his native place,
purchased land, and built himself a beautiful
house surrounded by fine gardens, and no doubt
was ambitious of founding a family and becoming
a personage.
But the great attraction for me, and what
really had brought me to Macao, was Camoens'
garden and grotto. Here I spent many pleasant
hours with his great poem in my hand. The
296 CHINA AND JAPAN
gardens are quaint in themselves, with great
masses of granite boulders, and they were given
to the town by Lourengo Marques.
Luis de Camoens was born in Lisbon in 1524.
In 1545 he fell in love with Senhora Donna
Catherina de Athayde, one of Queen Catherine's
ladies of honour, and for that was banished by
King John n. to Santarem, on the Tagus, and
later was sent to Ceuta, in Africa, to serve as a
soldier. He lost his right eye in a fight with
pirates in Morocco. He went to the East in 1550,
and at Goa received news of the death of his
beloved Donna Catherina. He then became an
ardent patriot and commenced writing his famous
epic Os Lusiadis. He wrote a satire on the Por-
tuguese Government at Goa, was banished to
the Moluccas for a year, and was then made
Administrator of Estates of Absentees and Dead
at Macao ; but on his voyage there he was wrecked
off the coast of Cambodia, near the mouth of the
Wukong, and lost everything save the MS. of his
poem.
It was in the Holy City that is, Macao he
spent many hours in these gardens finishing the
Lusiad. The grotto where he wrote and
thought is formed of natural granite boulders,
amongst which is placed his bust. Sir John
Davis, Sir John Bowring, Rienzi, and others of
various nationalities have written poems in his
honour, and these, inscribed on tablets, are affixed
to the rocks.
He died at Lisbon, and is it necessary to say,
in great distress and poverty ?
I do not think his immortal work is much read
now in England or perhaps in Europe. But when
I first entered Camoens' garden I felt I had won
another great goal in my pilgrimage, and my face
was hot and my heart fluttering at the thought of it.
CAMOENS' GARDEN 297
That being so, it can be guessed what it meant
to me to saunter through those shady paths or sit
in that grotto, and read what he had written on
that spot. The scene I looked on he had looked
on, the very fragrance that was in the air he too
had inhaled, and there were his words composed
and written on the spot ! No wonder he is a very
real person to me, and that the music of his words
raises pictures for me others may not perhaps
see.
When he sailed for the East his last words of
reproach to Portugal were
" Ungrateful country ! thou shalt not even
possess my bones." But even in that he was
defeated. I believe it was an Englishman, Mr.
Fitz-Hugh, who at Macao did so much to make
these gardens a monument to the poet.
But his real monument is his undying poem,
and where his enemies have passed into oblivion
Camoens lives or, as he says himself in the charm-
ing lines of the epic
; ' The King or hero to the muse unjust
Sinks as the nameless slave, extinct in dust."
When I departed from Macao at eight o'clock
one morning, it was to enter into a dense fog, in
which the steamboat lay at rest for nearly two
hours, the Captain keeping a sharp look-out on
the junks, whose sails now and then loomed near
us through the grey blanket. It was a strange
experience lying motionless there in that grey
world, with hundreds of incessantly talking
Chinese padlocked down on the deck below us.
Suppose, in the fog, a swarm of yellow-faced figures
had suddenly boarded and overpowered us, and
liberated those hundreds below us ? it might
easily have been. And though I like the Chinese,
I have always said that I should have a horror
298 CHINA AND JAPAN
of being put to death by them. I do not know
why, but the repulsion at the idea is there.
When I reached the hotel at Hong- Kong I was
welcomed by my three Chinese boys, conducted
to my room, and there was surprised to find that,
quite unasked for, all my belongings had been
overhauled, my clothes washed and mended, and
everything arranged in perfect order !
How delighted the good creatures were that I
was pleased ! And not a thing would they let me
do for myself after that.
The day following my return, when walking in
the street, I saw a familiar face being trundled
past in a rickshaw, and on overhauling it
was amused and pleased to find it was Father
M'Clymont.
Before I had left England I had seen him, and
neither he nor I had had any idea of being in
China. Now I found he was R.C. Chaplain to the
Fleet. Having lunched together, I accompanied
him to the Naval Hospital and through its wards.
There were some wounded officers, midshipmen,
and bluejackets there. One of the midshipmen
showed me some of the Pekin loot which he had
purchased. One article was an elaborate diamond
encrusted watch. Dr. Keoch showed me every-
thing I wished to see.
We then went up to the Peak, where it was a
little cold and foggy ; but a magnificent scene lay
spread out below us.
It was the two hundredth anniversary of the
Prussian kingdom, and all the warships in the
harbour fired twenty-one guns in honour of
the event. The noise was terrific and it looked
as if a battle was going on.
With Father M'Clymont I went on board the
commodore's ship, the Tamar, to tea and met many
naval men. The commodore lived on board with
THE HONG-KONG PRISON 299
his family : the ship was a permanent institution
and was roofed in. Then to the club, a hand-
some and comfortable building, with a good
library, and had a game of billiards. From the club
balcony, too, I watched various cricket matches.
Another day we inspected the prison, which
was a clean, bright, airy place, cells and all being
very well kept. A little garden of palms in tubs
decorated the site of the scaffold, standing on the
trap-door, which opened, when there was an execu-
tion, to allow of the drop to the cavity below.
There were many prisoners, mostly Chinese, some
of whom were there for life, and many for nine
or seven years. Some of them were pirates,
supposed to be of those who had looted the Macao
boat, as I have related. Looking through the
little window in a cell door I was startled to
recognise in the European prisoner within who
was unconscious of my scrutiny a young English-
man who had been on the Hamburg with me. It
seems he had embezzled money in the Malay
States and had run away, being, of course, at
once arrested on arriving at Hong-Kong. He was
awaiting trial, and looked despairingly miserable,
poor youth. Naturally, there had been no escape
for him, as the people in the Malay States simply
wired to Hong- Kong to have him arrested.
What I did not like in this prison was to see
numbers of bluejackets there for trivial offences
such as breaches of discipline and the like
mingled with the Chinese thieves and murderers,
surely an unnecessary degradation for the sailors,
and in many ways a great mistake.
ENGLAND, 1901.
Canton has always been noted as being a tur-
bulent place, and just at this time, with all the
300 CHINA AND JAPAN
trouble in Pekin going on, it was not an abode of
roses. When the Chaplain and I proposed going,
the naval people made many objections. It was
not safe, they said ; we would probably (especially
His Reverence) be stoned and have mud thrown
at us, if nothing worse, and that would mean
trouble ; and the worst was that our Government
(so like it !) would permit no retaliation for insults
or attacks. Some naval men had been attacked,
but had just to put up with it, and no strangers
had gone up for some time.
Scottish and Irish blood is not damped by tales
of that sort, so we left at 5.30 one afternoon for
Canton, but such a thick fog came on that we were
anchored all night in the river, and only reached
our destination at eleven the next morning, seeing
very little on the way owing to the fog. We went to
the hotel on Shameen, and at once engaged Ah Cum
John, the third son of Ah Cum, the famous guide,
that family having the privilege of acting as guides
to strangers. Ah Cum John was very intelligent
and amusing, and looked after us very well. Hear-
ing that lunch had to be provided from the hotel,
I ordered two pint bottles of champagne to be
taken with it.
Shameen, the foreign settlement, is an island in
the river, formed out of a mud-flat, and is laid out
with handsome houses, trees, and promenades the
consulates and the hotel being there. The bridges
joining it to the city of Canton have gates, and are
guarded by Chinese soldiers. No Chinaman, save
the servants of the foreigners, is ever allowed on
the island. The gunboats of the different Powers
lie in the river on the other side, with their guns
trained across Shameen, on the city of Canton, ready
to fire if necessary.
But an enormous floating population lives en-
tirely on the river ; it is one mass of junks, sampans,
CANTON 301
and boats of all descriptions, so that, in the
event of trouble, the Chinese need only step across
this mass of craft and on to the island. Here, too,
are the " flower-boats," where gay, painted Chinese
ladies dispense tea, give concerts, and otherwise
provide all the pleasures dear to Chinese or
Europeans.
Preceded by Ah Cum John in a closed chair,
we set out in open ones, each borne by two
coolies, into the Chinese city. The streets are
about six feet wide, having a ditch in the centre,
the shops lining them are open to the street in
front ; banners of all sorts and colours hang from
above, completely shutting out what little air
could in any case penetrate into these dirty,
unsavoury little streets which " smell to heaven " !
Indeed, the smell of China which Captain
Niedermayer of the Stettin used to say you could
hear miles out at sea is an all-pervading thing,
which never leaves you, and which you seem to
carry away with you and even taste at all times.
Borne along thus in chairs through these
streets our brains became dizzy with the heat, smell,
and the phantasmagoria of the endless yellow
faces passing on either side without a break.
I had no idea what we were to do or see,
and was resigned to following our leader. We
went to see the rice-paper painting shop the
paper being really made from the pith of a tree
then to see the kingfisher feather workers.
The feathers of the blue major are cemented
into gold and silver filigree jewellery, giving the
appearance of delicate enamel. The designs are
small and intricate and the general effect very
beautiful. It is most delicate and trying work,
done by boys, and the result to them is often
blindness. It is said it is to be abolished ; if so,
the articles which exist will become of very great
302 CHINA AND JAPAN
value. I have always had the greatest admiration
for this beautiful work.
The temple of the five hundred genii has rows
of Buddhas, including Marco Polo, the famous
Italian traveller. It is said to have been founded
500 A.D., and the temple and courts are large.
Amongst its " treasures " are a white marble
pagoda given by the Emperor Kien Lung, and
an ordinary-looking blue and white porcelain jar
of priceless worth, given by " a rich man."
We had our kodaks, entered the temples with
our hats on and smoking cigarettes, as both
Ah Cum John and the interested crowd accom-
panying us insisted we should do so. Naturally
we would never have done so otherwise. It
was a friendly, amused, and interested crowd.
What was most curious was that, when we entered
a shop to buy things, strong bars were placed
across the entrance to keep the crowd out. But
the cameras and our purchases were left lying in
our chairs outside, for no one would touch them !
I should have said that we had no money with us.
Ah Cum John paid everything, and we settled with
him on our return to the hotel.
Chinamen, like most Eastern races, enjoy a
joke, and I had entirely got the right side of my
two coolies by proposing, when we once stopped
for a rest, they should get inside the chair and
that I should carry them. This seemed to them
too funny for words, and they kept relating it to
bystanders, who also seemed to think it excruciat-
ingly funny. Get people amused and they are very
ready to do anything for you.
We bargained for embroideries in a shop, and
had a most animated time with a very portly old
Chinaman who evidently enjoyed the bargaining ;
and soon he was in high good humour too. I
insisted I must take his photograph ; he was
THE SEVEN-STORIED PAGODA 303
immensely pleased and equally amused over the
posing. He shook all over with laughter when
I said he was a very fine-looking man, and, stretch-
ing out one finger, touched his waistcoat button
and added, " And so much of you ! " This he
considered a compliment.
But soon my brain was in a whirl with the
unending sea of faces, the heat, and closeness, and
I wanted to see no more. Men sitting in their
shops called out " Pekin ! Pekin ! " and made
the action of cutting off their heads. I always
responded, " Pekin you ! cut your head off,"
which again they thought quite funny.
At last we arrived at the walls of the city, where
were here and there a few friendly soldiers in their
quaint garb. We went along the walk on top
of the wall, which is decorated here and there with
obsolete old cannon. Looking beyond the walls
was a sea of graves, and here and there a mound
surmounted by a more imposing tomb. At last
we came to the foot of the seven-storied pagoda
which crowns a high point of the wall, and here
I went on strike and refused to leave the chair,
expressing myself indifferent to the view said to
be obtained from the top of the pagoda. When
Ah Cum John and my coolies entreated, I pro-
posed the latter should go up and see the view
for me a proposition that simply convulsed
them with mirth. They offered to carry me up
to the first storey, but at last I gave way and con-
sented to carry myself so far. Arrived there,
amidst shouts of laughter they began to cajole
and urge me on to the next floor, and in this manner
they badgered me, more to please them than
myself, to do the seven storeys. Arrived on top,
Ah Cum John, who was in high spirits, conducted
me to the balcony, and lo and behold ! there was a
neatly-set-out luncheon-table, tablecloth, napkins,
304 CHINA AND JAPAN
and all, not forgetting the two most welcome
little gold-necked bottles ! I had forgotten lunch
altogether and proud and delighted were our
attendants at the effect produced by this welcome
sight.
This pagoda on the wall is at the extreme north
of the city, and was erected over five hundred years
ago. The view was extensive, the White Cloud
Mountains and the river visible. The town was
just a sea of roofs with the R.C. Cathedral and the
towers of the pawnshops rising above it.
By the " Tartar General's Yamen " is the
Flowery Pagoda, nine-storied, 300 feet high, a little
off the perpendicular, and founded fourteen hun-
dred years ago ! China is no parvenu empire.
The north portion of this Yamen was formerly
the British Consulate, and is surrounded by high
walls. In 1859 it was used as a hospital for sick
members of the British contingent. Through
disuse it became the home of quantities of bats,
which were destroyed by the allied Commissioners.
The bat being of good omen, the Chinese regarded
this as sacrilege, and when later it was destroyed
by fire, they were sure it was a judgment.
We went to the temple of Confucius. He was
born 550 B.C., and was descended from the Im-
perial house of Shang, which once ruled over
China. He selected seventy-two disciples, whom
he divided into four bodies : the first to study
morals ; the second reasoning ; the third juris-
prudence and government ; and the fourth
teaching and preaching his doctrines.
Another temple is dedicated to the five genii
who, mounted on rams, visited Canton two thou-
sand years ago, and must have been worth seeing.
As they passed through the market they said,
" May famine never visit this place," and then
vanished. So Canton is called the " City of the
THE EXAMINATION HALL 305
Genii," or the " City of Rams." The great bell,
weighing 5 tons, and cast five hundred and fifty
years ago, is the largest in China. When this bell
strikes of its own accord a calamity befalls the
city.
A strange place was the Examination Hall [no
longer existing], where the triennial examinations
for the degree of " Bachelor of Arts " takes place.
It is entered by the Dragon gate, covers 20 acres,
and consists of rows upon rows of stone or brick cells
each 5 feet 6 inches long, 3x8 feet broad, and 6 feet
high, all open in front. Every male of any posi-
tion, from the age of eighteen to eighty, may com-
pete for the examination. They must spend two
whole days and nights shut into these cells, by a
wooden grating placed in front, preparing their
essays or poems, all their doings watched from a
tower. At the far end are apartments for the
Viceroy and Governor, and the two chief and ten
junior examiners, who come from Pekin, and whose
arrival is met with much noise, state ceremonies,
and great fetes. It was a most interesting place,
and the idea is curious. Our next halt was in a
small open space about 25 yards long by 10 broad,
ending in a point at one end, whence it is called
the Ma' Pan, or Horse's Head, from a fancied
resemblance in form to the latter. This turned
out to be the execution ground, one of the sights
for tourists, used as a pottery-drying ground when
not otherwise in use. I was half injured, half
relieved, to find no execution was in progress.
Except some skulls under a heap of rubbish, and
some signs of the execution of two victims the
previous day, nothing was to be seen. Other
strangers have often been more " lucky."
The prisoner is brought suddenly in a basket
carried by coolies. The magistrate sits at a
red-covered table. The victim kneels down, and
306 CHINA AND JAPAN
his head is cut off with a sword. Sometimes there
are rows of them to be executed, and it has been
described to me how the front row, kneeling and
smoking cigarettes, turns round and watches with
interest the heads of the other rows coming off.
Another form of execution is the Ling-chi, when
they are hacked to pieces alive.
Li Hung Chang, as a result of his European
tour, introduced another form by strangling, after
which the bodies are hung up in cages which stand
there. Not one of these '" tourist sights " did
we see.
The Clepsydra, or Water Clock, we did see.
Three copper vessels are placed on platforms one
over the other. In the bottom one is an indicator
scale which rises as the water fills it, and shows
the time, which is exhibited on a board outside.
It has been destroyed and repaired, and has been
in use over five hundred years.
A place that was curious, but not unpleasant
indeed, I liked it was the " City of the Dead."
There are small rooms, arranged and decorated
like chapels, in which rest the coffins of those who
die far from home, or whose families rent a room
till they decide where to bury them. The out-
side coffin is of fine black lacquer. Tea and rice
are placed every day on the " altar " for the
refreshment of the corpse. There was something
attractive about the place ; it was carefully laid
out and tended, and seemed to me an excellent
idea. Some tortured-feet Tartar ladies were
walking painfully about, with flowers in their
hands. I am so sympathetic that to my com-
panion's surprise I quite unconsciously went
walking painfully too !
As we sat outside the hotel in the evening, a
Chinese boy came and asked if we were not going
to the Flower Boats, and thinking we did not
THE CANTON RIVER 307
understand, ere he could be stopped, and regard-
less of my companion's cloth, proceeded to
explain in singularly plain language what the
Flower Boats were, much to my secret amusement,
and the chaplain's shocked indignation !
Not having been able to see the river on our
way up, we left in the Honam at 8 a.m.,
arriving at Hong- Kong at 4 p.m. There are
various more or less picturesque villages with high
towers which are pawnshops on the banks.
There are forts, some armed with modern guns,
and opposite to them the river is barred with iron
and wooden piles and chains, leaving two passages
for vessels to go through. Junks are sunk in
these openings in time of war. The water life
on the river is interesting, there being all sorts
of quaint craft. The large junks are all armed
with small cannon, and of course all Chinese boats
have the two eyes in the bows, to " look-see "
where they are going. We passed one junk filled
with children who had been kidnapped by pirates,
recaptured, and were being returned to their
homes. They were a curious spectacle.
The river abounds with creeks which are the
refuges of the numerous pirates, who sally forth
on plunder bent. We no doubt carried many
on the Honam, as thousands of Chinese pour in
and out of Hong-Kong every day, and most look
the same to us. There were also one or two
Chinese gentlemen's country seats on the banks
of the river one looked a very desirable place.
Captain Jones of the Honam, a very pleasant,
polite, and hospitable man, entertained us in his
cabin and showed us some of his valuable pieces
of Chinese porcelain of which he was a collector.
At my request he took us down to the lower deck
to see the live fish which were being brought
to the Hong-Kong market. There were ten
308 CHINA AND JAPAN
large tanks on either side of the ship each holding
half a ton of live fish Canton river salmon, a
sort of lamprey, and others ; water is always
being pumped in.
On arrival at Hong-Kong the sides of the
tanks, which are the side of the ship, are
thrown open, and out pours a silver flood of live
fish into the waiting boats, which race each
other to market, as the first boatload fetches a
higher price than the others. It was a wonderful
sight to see this silver flood issuing from the
ship's side. Another wonderful sight on this
lower deck was to see the seven hundred Chinese
passengers, packed there like sardines with all
their goods and gear. They sprawled about in
every attitude, and we had to step over them and
almost on them to see the tanks. They were,
many of them, smoking opium. Of course, all
these were kept padlocked down under heavy
gratings, above which stood heavily armed
Chinese guards ; and in the dining-saloon, as on
the Macao boat, were cutlasses and loaded guns
for the use of the passengers in case of emergency.
If they had wanted to they could easily have
" done for " the captain and us two whilst
amongst them. It is a curious state of affairs.
The naval people in Hong-Kong were at this
time all down on an indiscreetly tongued young
officer. At meals they are all waited on by their
Chinese " boys," and this youth one day re-
marked that he wondered the Chinese boys did
not at a given signal fall upon them and cut their
throats, much to the edification of the said Chinese
boys, who might thereby have been prompted to
doit.
On 23rd January I was standing in the
hall of the Hong-Kong hotel when an American,
with his hat in his hand, came up to me in a grave
THE PASSING OF THE GREAT QUEEN 309
manner and startled me by saying, " I am very
sorry that I have some very bad news to tell you
Queen Victoria is dead ! '
So it was I heard of the passing of the great
Queen.
The news spread like wildfire through Hong-
Kong ; excited groups were everywhere discuss-
ing it, and the Chinese were rushing about ex-
citedly, telling each other <( Queenie Wicket oria
is dead ! "
That day no official notice was taken of the
event, though flags were all at half-mast, but
quite suddenly a wonderful hush fell upon that
busy town, and its noisy teeming streets were
deserted and empty. The Chinese of their own
accord had closed every shop, and by nighttime
were draping them in crape. It was quite curious
to see the empty, quiet streets as I said, a sudden
hush fell on that town, and, indeed, on the whole
East.
Out in the East and through many far-away
lands and seas Queen Victoria was regarded as
almost a divine being she was the Queen of all
the white people, not merely of the British ; and
will rank through all ages in Oriental legends
and tales as a sort of half-mythical being, not as
a mere woman and ruler.
There was another great name that loomed
over the whole East in a curious way. It was a
name spoken with respect and bated breath by
every one, and one felt instinctively that here
must be real greatness, or how would one man's
name and personality so tower above all others ?
I was unable to reach Pekin, and so had no chance
of meeting the great Sir Robert Hart a dis-
appointment, as I had known his family for years.
But the way he was always spoken of, and the
universal agreement as to his strong personality
310 CHINA AND JAPAN
and the value of his wonderful work, would have
impressed any one out there. [Since those days
I have often met and talked with Sir Robert Hart,
and learnt to understand wherein his strong
personality lay. But now the day is done, the
great battle fought and won ; and the great man
of the East so gentle, simple, and unaffected in
manner spent his last days in quiet seclusion
in England. Lady Hart, it may be noted, is a
relative of the famous Elizabeth Patterson, who
was wife of Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia.
Sir Robert's name will for ever loom large in the
annals and legends of all Eastern peoples, in a
way given to few.]
The following day I went on board the German
mail-boat Sachsen, which left at 8.30 in the morn-
ing. From the heat of Hong-Kong we soon passed
into a quite cold evening. There were not many
passengers, but I found on board the Dallas
Theatrical Company, this being the third time
I had travelled on a boat with them. Mr. Dallas
and his wife and the two Misses de Worms and
some others were, therefore, quite old acquaint-
ances.
We had a cold, stormy passage along the
Chinese coast ; saw many islands and more
junks. The sea was a dirty tinted yellow the
colour, no doubt, washed off Chinese far inland
and even the bath was so yellow and muddy one
could not use the water.
We had left Hong-Kong on the morning of a
Tuesday and anchored at Woosung on the Yangtze-
kiang about eleven on the following Sunday
morning. The only Chinese thing visible here
was a village and gateway. All the German
ships were beflagged for their Emperor's birthday ;
all ours had flags at half-mast. There is a railway
from this place to Shanghai, but I went up the
SHANGHAI 311
river in a steam-launch. It was not interesting,
as there were only shipbuilding yards, docks, and
factories along its banks.
Shanghai presented the appearance of a very
large, handsome town, with fine buildings along
the Bund. I went to the Astor House Hotel.
There were cabs, chairs, and rickshaws plying the
streets. I explored many Chinese streets and the
British Concession where are the best buildings,
and which is the best-laid-out part of the town.
As in Hong-Kong there are three classes of police
the familiar British " Bobby," the Sikh, and the
Chinese. As you drive along the Bund in the
British part you come to a bridge, get out, walk
across it, and find yourself in the French Conces-
sion, and take another rickshaw, and there are
their houses, badly paved streets, and their police.
I visited, of course, the Chinese tea-house, which
is after the pattern of those you see pictured on
a "willow-pattern' 1 plate. The carriages have
Chinese servants in smart liveries. It was very
cold and snowed in the evening.
In the morning the town was white with snow,
the rickshaws and their coolies looking so odd ;
but soon the snow under foot was churned into
disgusting mud. Shanghai did not impress me
favourably at all but, of course, I only had a
glimpse of it under unfavourable aspects, and
know little about it.
I left about i p.m. on the steam-launch to
rejoin the Sachsen.
A rather noted man was a passenger, in the
person of Colonel Olcott, of Theosophist and
Madame Blavatsky fame ; and with this per-
sonage I had a long talk. He had white hair and
a long, flowing white beard and piercing eyes-
very sharp and very clever, and we had an interest-
ing enough conversation.
312 CHINA AND JAPAN
[Alas ! for Tibet and all its mysteries and
mahatmas and hidden wonders our British
soldiers and explorers have knocked all that on
the head.]
Colonel Olcott remembered very well Count
Carl Leiningen, now passed away, who had been
a Theosophist, and had himself told me that he had
entered the supposed mysterious Tibet, and had
been " beyond the portals " into the Unknown,
where I could not follow because I had not know-
ledge or faith enough. Colonel Olcott was much
interested in all I told him about that strange,
ghost-haunted, one-time monastery, Billigheim,
the home of the Leiningens (the head of which
family was Queen Victoria's half-brother), and
how the Erbgraf Carl had, I supposed, projected
his astral body over n miles into Schloss
Neuburg on the Neckar, where I was living. It
took my memory back to far other scenes to
strange days and people long passed away. [Bil-
ligheim, with its gay old Count so fat he could
scarcely get through the doors its ghost-haunted
rooms, and its more interesting, amiable young
Theosophist hereditary Count, are all gone wiped
out as if they had never been ! So strange is life !
So kaleidoscopic !]
After a night and two days all cold and wet
and dull we arrived late at Nagasaki, and I had
my first glimpse of Japan, which was looking its
worst, everything sodden with wet, and mud a foot
deep in the streets. It was from this place Jimmu
Tenno set out on his career of conquest, and from
here the expedition of the Empress Jingo Kogo
against Corea started.
Here, too, Mendez Pinto and the Portuguese
landed, and the still-powerful Satsuma Clan and
their Prince, before the new regime in 1868, held
sway. After the expulsion of the Portuguese and
NAGASAKI 313
Spaniards in 1637 only the Dutch and the Chinese
were allowed to trade here, until it was opened
for foreign trade in 1859. There are large British
and Russian colonies here. The three-mile-long
narrow harbour is a good one and also very
pretty.
The famous Jimmu Tenno was the first Mikado
and was born 660 B.C.
Before 7 a.m. we were aroused by the Japanese
Health Officers for inspection, and the ship-coaling
operations began. All the coaling was done by
men and young girls by passing quite small
baskets with great rapidity over their heads.
A C.P.R. boat had 1360 tons of coal put on board
by these girls in four hours ! They were ugly,
thick-set creatures, but very wonderful. They all
wore round their heads those cheap but wonder-
fully artistic towels, which you buy in rolls, and
cut off a bit as you want it, and which are
fascinating things.
A girl and man rowed me ashore in a sampan,
and I floundered about the streets in the detest-
able mud. The inscriptions on the shops were
in English and Russian. I had no opportunity
of trying the kin-gyoku-to the famous jelly made
out of seaweed.
Many of the men in Japan at the first glimpse
give one a shock, dressed as they are or were on
this day in long ulsters, and fearful pot-hats of
German origin !
A Scottish girl who had been a fellow-passenger
landed here to be married. The Captain went
with her to be a witness to the ceremony.
The picturesque islets which dot the harbour,
and that group of three islands outside it, are
known to the whole world by Japanese prints
and drawings, and struck one as being so like
those Japanese drawings, though one ought to
314 CHINA AND JAPAN
put it the other way. One of these, a pinnacle
of rock with an arched opening through it, is ideal
in beauty and form.
That night on the boat I found two new
arrivals placed beside me at table. One was
Lieutenant Dzjobek of the German Marines,
who had been wounded in a reconnaissance near
Kiaochou, where there is always a guerrilla warfare
going on. His account of the incident was rather
comical. He is near-sighted and wears glasses.
Seeing something which he could not quite make
out, he went right up to it, and too late discovered
it to be an ancient Chinese gun, loaded with bullets.
There were Chinese at the other end of it, and as
he peered at it, they naturally let it off, and he
received eight bullets in his body, some of which
were still there. A few extracted he had in a little
box, and I suggested that when all were recovered
they would make a nice bead chain for some young
lady, with a pearl between each.
He described a Chinaman coming at him with
a long lance, giving him no time to think, so he
could only shoot the man in the forehead, and he
tumbled dead at his feet. The Chinese fought
naked, their " buff " being an admirable colour
for khaki, as they were invisible against the back-
ground.
The other new arrival was Captain-Lieutenant
Heinrich of the German Navy, who had been four
months on a hospital ship, and was bound for the
hotel in Japan, where his Government had hired
rooms for the officers to recruit. We rose from
dinner friends.
So it was that Paul Heinrich came into my
life.
We had beautiful views of the famous Inland
Sea. The coast and islands were very pictur-
esque in outline, the colours of the landscape very
YOKOHAMA 315
soft ; and the beautiful, blue-green of the sea was
dotted with white-sailed vessels and fishing boats.
But it was both cold and wet when we arrived at
Kobe in the evening. We stayed there all night,
and left early in the morning. Kobe seems well
situated at the foot of a range of hills one peak
having still snow on it. There was at Kobe a
rumour of the death of Li Hung Chang, but it was
incorrect. This personage was constantly dying
and always being dug up again. But I wonder if
Chinese ever die ?
I had left Shanghai at about midday on a
Monday, and on Saturday evening was installed
at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, which town
at first view presents no interesting features. But
that day I had my first view of the world-famous
Fujiyama, or "Fuji," as every one calls it, and
its fame is well deserved.
As we approached Yokohama Pier I heard two
fellow-passengers, old Jews, talking. One pointed
out a female figure on the distant pier, and said,
" There is my wife."
"Oh no," said the other, "that is not your
wife ; it is mine."
They argued, each persisting he recognised his
wife, so I interfered.
' I have heard a great deal about marriages in
Japan," I said, ; ' but if men cannot recognise
their own wives, things must really be very odd.
Suppose I take the lady, and that will settle it ! "
They rolled about with laughter at this sug-
gestion, declaring I might have her ! But on
reaching the pier I changed my mind, and gener-
ously gave her up to her real owner.
Captain Heinrich and Lieutenant Dzjobek were
my frequent companions in Yokohama, and they
introduced me to other German officers. One of
these latter, Lieutenant K w from Kiaochou,
316 CHINA AND JAPAN
was very amusing and fond of relating wonderful
experiences. He described to me his first fight
with the Chinese. He and the other officers had
been fond of theorising as to how they would
proceed, and were agreed that in a hand-to-hand
fight they would strike off the heads of the Chinese
with their swords. But when the time came, and
Lieutenant K. was scaling a ladder at the head of
his men, revolver in one hand and sword in the other,
with a Chinese lance coming at him over the top,
there was no time to put theories into practice, and
he could only lunge at his enemy with his sword ;
and he described it as a most beautiful sensation
as the sword went right through, and " it was
just like putting your knife into butter " ! So
he managed to kill about twenty-five that way.
I went out sometimes to the German hospital
at Honemaku. The ground was granted by a
Japanese gentleman for two years, he receiving
a decoration from the German Emperor. The
hospital was built in Japanese style very cool,
clean, simple, and pleasant and would revert to
the owner of the land, who would find it a nice
country house. It was beautifully situated on
top of a high perpendicular cliff, with a fine out-
look over the sea, and, what the Japanese had over-
looked, with a good view of the Japanese naval
harbour. There were about twenty-five patients
in the hospital, wounded or fever-stricken, from
Pekin. Dr. Priesuhn, in charge, always had cool
beer for his visitors.
I also inspected the British Naval Hospital,
which occupies extensive grounds and an import-
ant position on the Bluff. The doctor in charge
was very cordial and showed me everything.
There were only three patients, one of whom was
a midshipman who had been wounded several
times and had had various operations, but re-
A FAMOUS TEA-HOUSE 317
mained extremely cheerful and happy under it all.
He will take a lot of killing, that youth. They had
there loot from the Imperial Palace at Pekin, in the
form of a tame deer, given by H.M.S. Endymion.
It used to follow the doctor through the wards,
but ate up all the flowers everywhere and did
constant mischief, so it had been relegated to an
enclosure, where it seemed very happy in the
company of some turkeys, with which it seemed
great friends. This naval hospital its grounds
overlooking the sea and its inhabitants all seemed
to me to be particularly bright and cheerful !
With the two German officers I made my first
visit to a tea-house that of the hundred and one
steps, so widely known. As we arrived at the top
of these steps the two little tea-house girls ran
out to greet us and put coverings over our boots.
As one of them I forget her name, but she is a
famous personage, known for years to people of
all nations stooped over my feet she exclaimed,
" Oh, you are English ! "
" How do you know that ? " I asked.
" I know by your shape," she replied ; but
whether she meant the shape of my feet or my
figure I don't know.
When we got inside and were sitting on the
floor, as is the custom, I told her I was not
English, and as she could not guess what I was,
I said I was a Scotsman.
" Oh, I can sing you a Scottish song," she
said ; and then she sang " Auld Lang Syne,"
and " Coming thro' the Rye," and then German,
French, and English songs ! This is the oldest
tea-house in Yokohama, and the albums kept
are full of signatures or visiting cards pasted in,
and this amusing young lady had something to
say about most of the people.
Of course there were the names of hundreds
318 CHINA AND JAPAN
of naval men of all nations, and it was curious
to come across here and there familiar names
which brought back old memories. There was the
Grand Duke Alexander Michaelovitch of Russia,
with Prince Nicholas Poutiatine and other officers
and old friends of the Russian corvette Rhynda
like a little friendly greeting looking out of those
pages. There was the Prince of Wales [late
King Edward] and two sons, Prince Edward and
Prince George [King George v.], and far too
many other names to mention. [During the
Russo-Japanese war this little tea-house girl was
able to give much information concerning the
numerous Russian officers she had known.]
I could not comfortably manage sitting on
the floor, much to her amusement. She trotted
out of the room and returned with a little stool
with a cushion on top of it, so I thanked her,
took it from her, and sat down on it, whereupon
she and the two officers simply rolled about with
laughter, the cause of which I could not guess ;
but feeling myself getting hotter and hotter, and
smoke arising on either side, I suddenly discovered
my seat was the little charcoal stove for tea,
the teapot being meant to rest on the cushion
on top !
As we sprawled on the ground this young
person came and sat on me, and, like a child,
began examining my scarf-pin, etc. At last she
said, " Oh, you are married ! ' :
" How do you know ? "
" Because you are so quiet ! "
Here was a revelation. Ladies may be con-
soled to think that when their husbands visit
tea-houses in Japan they are nice and quiet.
Because I was quiet she was sure I was married.
When I informed her I was still a lone, lorn
bachelor, she was undisturbed, and said she liked
YOKOHAMA FIRES 319
me better than Dzjobek, who she said was " a
rough-house man " ; but we were to remember
she was no " rough-house girl," and she proceeded
to give us a dissertation on things Japanese.
She was " middle class/' she said, and the middle
class were thoroughly respectable, but not in the
least nobility. She described the geisha girl, who
is trained up from a youthful age in all the arts
and graces to be a conversationalist and enter-
tainer. The geisha girls go out to Japanese
dinners to sit behind or beside the guests to enter-
tain them. Then there is the other nameless
class of girl, who plays such a part in Japan and
need not be further described, as all the world
knows how the Japanese have solved that ques-
tion, and the strange position occupied by the frail
ones of their land. But it was amusing to hear
this young person describing all these differences
with the utmost sang-froid, intent only on making
us realise that tea-house girls were thoroughly
respectable and " middle class." How she libelled
herself ! That such a gay and joyous, such a
bright and clever little person should be labelled
with such terrible epithets as " respectable " and
" middle class " is monstrous.
Nothing used to amuse me so much in Yoko-
hama as the constant fires which always seemed
to take place at night. The little wooden houses
burnt like matchboxes ; but they are all insured,
their whole contents can be removed in a few
minutes, and then the house can be easily re-
built. So one saw the burnt-out owners sitting
on their belongings at ease and appearing to en-
joy the spectacle ! The burning houses reflected
in the canals ; the chattering crowd all carrying
lighted paper lanterns and trotting in long lines
over the bridges really forms a wonderful picture.
One of these fires took place beside and partly in
320 CHINA AND JAPAN
the Yoshiwara, that part of the town containing
the best houses, wherein dwell apart the frail
ladies, and it was a curious sight to see these
painted little personages pouring out. But it
was a painful sight to behold amongst them,
and towering high above them, a tall, slim, fair-
headed American girl for, strange to say, it is
not unusual in such places to find educated
American girls lost to all sense of shame and
everything else.
Every one is now familiar with Japanese
houses so often seen in " Japanese Villages " in
exhibitions. But these houses in Japan were a
source of unfailing delight to me, so wonderfully
exact and beautiful is their workmanship every
sliding panel or window fitting to perfection,
everything perfect in its utter simplicity. Yet
en masse they are tiresome to behold, especially
as the wood, being all unpainted and unvarnished,
soon becomes grey and gives them a dilapidated
look. The general effect, then, of a Japanese town
is monotonous.
Everything is so perfectly clean. How charm-
ing that is ! Even the coolies who run before
your rickshaw have their daily hot bath nay,
are boiled daily ! Probably the Japanese are the
cleanest people existing. Bath-houses are every-
where, and the blind people act as shampooers,
go about the street making a noise with their
wooden stave, and can be called in as they pass
any house.
Shopping ! Need I tell any one what shopping
means in Japan what an irresistible occupation
it is, and what wonders even modern Japan
can display before you ?
But the children's streets whole streets given
up to nothing but shops full of children's toys !
And such toys ! They fascinated me each tiny
JAPANESE SHOPS 321
cheap very cheap little object was as perfectly
made as if it had been a priceless cabinet. Tiny
models of almost everything in Japan are to be
found in the toy-shops. I spent days amongst
these things, and if I had given way to my inclina-
tion would have had to carry home a whole shop-
ful of things. Equally interesting were the other
shops, with people at work in them on this or that,
sitting or squatting beside a brazier with a bit of
charcoal in it the only way they had of warm-
ing themselves. But the brazier was often desir-
able in itself. Then always, in the poorest shop,
the one perfect vase with its one beautiful flower
or plant there to satisfy the inborn artistic soul
of its owner !
The floor of the shop is a couple of feet or so
above the level of the street outside that is of the
real Japanese shop, not the up-to-date, European-
ised ones. The floor, of course, covered with the
beautiful matting, cannot be walked on by our
clumsy boots, as it is sat on by every one, and
is even their dining-table. But I used to sit on
the edge of the floor with my feet in the street
outside and chat to the inmates for hours. In
Yokohama almost every one knew a little English,
and many knew it well. But essays at each other's
languages and funny mistakes always produced
delighted laughter. These people were so per-
fectly courteous, so cheery and cordial that I
never could go by, and hour after hour would find
me sitting here or there. People say the Japanese
are not sincere, that all this is merely manner.
It is certainly very charming manner. Why
should it not be sincere ? You are asking nothing
of them, and they nothing of you they are
cheery, sociable, and charmingly mannered, seem to
enjoy friendly chatting. I think them the most
perfect-mannered people in the world. If you
21
322 CHINA AND JAPAN
are interested in them and their ways, they are
interested in you and yours, and they loved to
compare notes and laugh over our different views.
Who ever went to Japan that did not speak
of its great glory its women ! They are often quite
ugly or commonplace in feature, though sometimes,
especially in the higher classes (the difference being
marked), very delicately featured. It is their irre-
sistible charm, their delicate, refined ways, and
their beautiful, soft, low-toned voices which so
fascinate. A pretty, graceful, European girl looks
quite an awkward monster beside them. I do
not believe there is anything more charming in
the world than the " Saronayaf" the farewell
of the Japanese women, with the dear little
' Please come again," in English at the end of it.
What matters if it be but a polite, unmeaning
phrase ? it is music to hear and makes you want
to come again.
Quite insensibly you grow to adapt your
manner to theirs, speak gently, feel inclined to be
polite, and could not think of being loud-voiced
or boisterous. Even when full of romping and
high spirits it is in their own way.
Once, in a quiet street, I came across some
Japanese girls learning to ride a bicycle it is
at any time a rather amusing sight but those
quaint little figures careering wildly, bicycle and
all, into the arms of every passer-by, their peals
of soft laughter and little cries the gaiety of the
thing was so infectious that you felt it quite
natural to be as one of them and assist in the
lesson, just as you would with children ; and to
them it seemed quite natural too.
I loved also to go to the railway station, watch
a train come in and the people alight, and listen
to the musical clatter and clang of their little
wooden shoes.
JAPANESE WOMEN 323
I can understand some people not liking the
Japanese especially their men but all were to
me so charming in every way I never felt inclined
to do anything but respond, though I was not
blind to defects.
For instance, nothing was more disagreeable
and objectionable than the universal custom of
clearing their throats loudly and expectorating.
I shall never forget a charming little lady in
a first-class saloon in the train coming from Tokio.
Everything about her was so dainty, delicate, and
fascinating. Every single man all Europeans
in that long carriage was bending forward watch-
ing her, lost to everything but her charm. She
smoked her tiny cigarette out of her tiny case
the little demure witch perfectly conscious of the
interest she excited but all of a sudden she leant
forward and spat the whole length of the carriage
into the spittoon at the end ! Tableau ! But I
believe she did it on purpose, out of pure mischief.
Once I was buying photographs, and wanted
some coloured ones they did not have, so the
girl said they would colour them at once if I did
not mind waiting. I never did mind waiting in
Japan. She came to entertain me meanwhile,
and, with perfect taste, considered the best way
would be to tell me all about herself and her
family. They were Christians there are quite
old Christian families in Japan but yes, they
went to the temples to amuse themselves. She
had a sister studying at college in America. She
herself longed for the day when they had such
colleges in Japan for girls ; but they would some
day, as all Japanese wanted to improve them-
selves and learn. She told me all about her
family and friends and their doings in the most
simple and natural way and on departure must
pop in some tiny trifle with the photographs as
324 CHINA AND JAPAN
a souvenir, must shake hands and say, " Please
come again and talk more."
Japanese all study, learn, and want to improve
themselves that alone in itself is a wonderful
thing. Most Europeans are entirely satisfied
with themselves, don't want to learn anything,
and have no idea they could be improved. Think
over it, and you will understand many things.
But I spoke of the children's streets. What
am I to say of the children ? In those streets
they swarm, all at play ; so many you can scarce
get through them. But, if a little one is flying
a kite and the string accidentally comes across
you, the quaint little bow and apology delights
you. The stupidest man steps aside so as not to
interfere with them, or stands smiling to watch
them. As for me ! well, children anywhere
know me instantly as one of themselves, and one
that can be taken possession of at once. I love
their queer little minds, all their quibs and pranks,
their love of little secrets and mysteries, and their
unbounded imaginations. They see through me,
though and I am always a victim. So in Japan
I could never keep away from the children, and
might have been seen sitting for hours on the
ledge of a shop watching them.
Japan has many newspapers some in
Japanese, some in English and Japanese. These
are well known.
But there are others, sometimes tiny leaflets
only, also partly in English and partly in Japanese,
which circulate only amongst themselves. I got
them to collect a number of these for me, and
wonderful they were. They discuss their own
manners, defects, faults, ask questions on eti-
quette, ask to have this or that quotation from
an author or poet explained or verified all in such
a naive way, and the editor answers everything.
TOKIO 325
These are the little shop-keeping people, mind.
Could you imagine one of this class here, writing
to ask the meaning of some very involved lines
from Chaucer ? and from Browning also yet
those are the questions. There was even a dis-
cussion on the expectorating habit the Europeans
said it was disgusting, unhealthy, and so on
should they not abandon it if it was unpleasing
to others ?
Somehow all these little papers drew me very
closely to the Japanese revealed traits I might
not have known otherwise. There were, however,
many other things which gave me an insight into
the ideals some Japanese set before themselves.
I will here, too, quote some lines from a poem by
the Emperor of Japan
" The thing we want
Is hearts that rise above life's worries like
The sun at morn, rising above the clouds,
Splendid and strong."
Of course I went to Kawasaki and saw Kobo
Daishi's image carved by himself when in China,
thrown into the sea, drifted to Japan and caught
in a fisherman's net, and which then performed
miracles and the village fairs round the temples
under the trees formed like junks ; was con-
stantly on the Noge-yama full of its Shintu and
Buddhist shrines, and its gaily clothed girls saun-
tering amidst the cherry trees just coming into
blossom ; went walks and drives everywhere often
with Captain Heinrich and Lieutenant Dzjobek.
I went up and down to Tokio admired the
Mikado's fortress palace, and the beautiful
masonry of what remains of the Yasiki or mansions
of the great Daimyos ; went to this and that
temple ; disliked the unbuilt spaces here and
there in the town and the hideous public buildings
in the worst German taste ; marvelled at the
326 CHINA AND JAPAN
odd costumes of the men and their penchant
for impossible European hats and caps but it is
useless to attempt to describe the things scores
of books have been written about, and which
have been pictured thousands of times.
Shiba Park, with its temples and tombs, is by
now quite a familiar name in England. Strange
it is to think that Kei Ki, the last of the Tokugawa
Shoguns, still lives in retirement at Tokio. That
marvellous page of Japanese history has no equal
in any other land.
As I examined the Kamo-asi, the three-leaved
Asarum, which is the crest of the Shoguns, I was
rejoiced to think that I had acquired things that
bore that mark and there in the place of honour
in the great temple is a beautiful silken cover
with the Tokugawa crest, presented by the Em-
peror and I have its counterpart. The crest of
the Mikado is, of course, the sixteen-leaved chry-
santhemum. Shiba, Ueno, Asakusa, Kwannon
who does not know them now ? Ueno called
Kimon, or " the Devil's Gate," so famous for its
cherry blossom, is regarded as the most unlucky
part of the whole world. Here it was that a son of
the Mikado was kept in seclusion by the Shoguns
in case they should want him to reign.
In the museum the Christian relics are in-
teresting the rosaries and the medals of Christ and
the Virgin set in blocks of wood, on which sus-
pected Christians had to stand and deny their
faith or be killed ! They say the Dutch fre-
quently stood on them and swore they were not
Christians.
I never cared for the sake in the tea-houses,
and disliked the tea ; but swallowed gallons of
both for the sake of the beaux yeux and the silver
speech of the women of Japan and showed very
good taste in doing it !
"THE GLORY OF THEIR LAND" 327
When the Germans were first established at
Kiaochou, and in the full flush of their pride in
the achievement, they sent an order to Japan for
three hundred Japanese girls for the use of the
soldiers ! The answer they got surprised them !
The Japanese were furious ; told them the
Japanese women were not commodities to be
bought and sold a mere article of export but
were the honour and the glory of their land.
But about Japan I shall write no more. The
books about it are legion. I would only urge
others to go, look and learn for themselves ere
all the charm is gone ; for some of the modern
" improvements " are very conspicuous and not
at all artistic. The telegraph wires and poles, for
instance, are more than evident, and disfigure many
places, some of which seem all poles and wires.
Sufficient to say that I revelled in Japan, the
little I saw of it. It was very cold at times, and
Japanese inns inland were unbearably so at the
time. The heat of a charcoal brazier was never
sufficient for me, and I have always particularly
disliked charcoal fumes. All the trivialities that
amused me would be tedious to read and more,
Japan is not a country to read about ; it is a country
to see. Each one must see and judge for himself.
Europeans resident in Japan make many
complaints about the Japanese I dare say they
have cause. But the passer-by is not so affected,
and, if a mere pleasure-pilgrim like me, may as
well give himself or herself up to the charm and
ignore all else.
The hotel at Yokohama being rather full, a
young Scotsman was placed at my table one
night, who introduced himself, saying he had
known me by name and sight for years, had seen
me at German watering-places, in Scotland, in
London, more lately in Ceylon, and Hong-Kong,
328 CHINA AND JAPAN
and now found himself at my table in Yokohama !
So goes the world ! I had no recollection of seeing
him anywhere, but he knew all about me.
Again I had to move onwards, and to say
good-bye with regret to places and people.
.There was dear Paul Heinrich remaining out in
the East as flag-lieutenant to the German Admiral
in those seas ; when he came to say farewell as I
embarked we wondered when and where we were
to meet again, or if ever.
[Many have been the meetings since in
Berlin, on his ship at Kiel, on his ship at Corfu-
dinners and suppers here and there drives through
the old olive woods and orange groves of the fair
Ionian Isle, watching the peasants dance the
slow, rhythmical dance they danced in Old Greece
thousands of years ago and but the other day
when he was here with his Imperial master,
saunters in Piccadilly, dining at the Ritz
supping at the Royal Automobile Club what
different scenes and memories !]
I was returning to England by America and
Canada. My intention was to go from Japan
to San Francisco. At the last moment I felt
quite impelled to change my mind, and despite
remonstrances from every one, determined to go by
Vancouver, and could have given no reason. Every
time I thought of San Francisco something within
me said, " Don't go ! "' and I let myself be guided
by this feeling, this instinct what was it ?
The boat I was to have taken to San Francisco
was wrecked at the Golden Horn and most of her
passengers drowned !
Indeed, people at home, knowing I proposed
going by her, for a time thought I was one of the
victims. When I returned I told them I thought
them all looking very well in spite of their great loss !
So it was Saronaya to Japan and the last
S A RON AY A! 329
words were, " Please come back again " who
cares if they were meant, they were pleasant to
hear, pleasant to remember, and made me want
to go again.
Auf Wiedersehen you pleasant, kindly land of
gentle manners, of cherry blossoms, of quaint
little children you land of smiling, soft-voiced
women ! I liked you all I bear you in faithful
remembrance, and for your sake I am ever a
friend to Da Nippon. Saronaya !
On the 22nd of February I left for Vancouver
by the Empress of India. Usually the ship at
this date encountered a blizzard and was coated
with ice. This did not happen, so it was said to
be a wonderful trip but it was continually wet,
and icy winds blew down on us from Arctic lati-
tudes, and it was dull. Passengers were not
numerous some pleasant enough, and some I
had known before.
For hours I used to pace the wet deck with a
couple of Japanese gentlemen, Messrs. Sugawa
and Nishimura wonderfully clever, well-informed
men, knowing a great deal more about every
subject than I did about one. You could not
mention a country, a place, or a thing, but they
knew all about it. They talked to me even about
queer old feudal land laws and customs in the
Scottish Highlands which one would have im-
agined that no one but the unhappy lairds who
suffer under them would know.
Whilst I was in Japan and all the East was
full of the passing away of Queen Victoria, a
question was raised in the Japanese parliament
as to whether the Court and people should go
into complimentary mourning. It seems, when
the Emperor's mother died, no notice was taken
of it by our Court or people Japan was
hurt. But the people had settled the question
330 CHINA AND JAPAN
of mourning for Queen Victoria themselves, and
all Japan was in mourning. The shops were
hung with black, purple, and mauve crepe, and
Queen Victoria's portrait also so adorned, and
with often a green wreath laid across it, was in
every window. The sympathy, good feeling, and
taste the Japanese showed should not be forgotten.
There is another thing to remember. During
the long period during which the Boer War was
waged, Japan and her people took our side,
stuck to us through thick and thin, lauded our
successes, and minimised our mistakes. No nation
ever showed to another such loyal faith. We had
not many such friends. Why forget it ? Japan
simply stood for us and by us through it all.
There was an American, Mr. Duncan, on the
Empress of India, bound for San Francisco. Why
did he come by Vancouver ? I asked. Whilst he
could sail on a British ship with a British captain
there was no chance of his going with any other,
was his answer. He had crossed the Atlantic
sixty times without mishap.
There was also an American millionaire on
board, the Mr. Collbrand who played such a part
in Korea for a time. He was fully conscious of
the important part he had taken in things there,
or perhaps it was his millions he was conscious of.
It was spring almost when, on the 6th March,
we touched the shores of Canada in that part they
call British Columbia, of which the capital is
Victoria, with 25,000 inhabitants situated on
the southern extremity of Vancouver Island.
Esquimault Harbour in the vicinity is our naval
station on the North Pacific.
At a quarantine station all the Chinese on
board were landed, turned into a building, stripped,
fumigated, and their clothes were piled up out-
side and fumigated also. We passengers were
VANCOUVER 331
all leaning over the taffrail watching this, when
suddenly the doors of the fumigation room were
opened and out poured all the Chinese in their
natural khaki, much to our amusement.
Vancouver city, the terminus of the C.P.R.,
on the mainland, has 25,000 inhabitants (1901).
Until May 1886 its site was covered by a dense
forest. In two months it had grown quite a
town, then a fire destroyed every house save one.
It lies on the fine Coal Harbour, a widening of
Burrard Inlet. It is easy to see what a fine city
is to be here one day.
I found the Vancouver hotel large, comfort-
able enough, but ordinary. Stanley Park is the
Government reservation, and contains very old
and gigantic trees what a magnificent land,
another of the heritages of the British race.
Wonderful people ! how they attack every re-
mote wilderness and in no time make it theirs.
No wonder they are proud of their new land and
their work it makes the spectator proud to
belong to such a race. Only the fittest of a
nation could do what these people do.
Ere I left the ship I was summoned to the
baggage-room and pointed out all my numerous
trunks and cases ; shuddering at the thought of
what I should have to undergo in the Custom-
House. But having done that, and every one being
busy, I was handed a check for the things, told
it was all right, and bundled out.
When I boarded the famous trans-continental
railway on 7th March, bound for Montreal, every
one seemed surprised to find me wandering about
with that check asking for my baggage, and I was
told it was " all right " so I worried no more,
had nothing to do with any custom-house, and
embarked, wondering whether I was not leaving
my luggage behind. I had two companions on the
332 CHINA AND JAPAN
journey a Mr. Aitken and Captain Farquhar,
who had been A.D.C. to Lord Lamington in
Queensland. A fellow-passenger, who had some-
thing to do with the railway, came and ordered
the negro car-attendants, very brusque personages,
to look after us well, and I, particularly, was en-
trusted to their care. In fact, I was so looked
after at Vancouver that I was perfectly confused
as to where I was had not had time to even plan
out what I wanted to do, but somehow found
myself bound for Montreal. I really had had
ideas of staying at Vancouver for a time, but just
submitted to the attentions of others and allowed
myself to be taken about and eventually put on
the train, all my " Buts " being interrupted
with " That's all right you come along ! "
So at i p.m. we started. I soon had a view
of Mt. Baker, 14,000 feet high, and we were winding
about through tunnels and round spurs, always
ascending amidst rivers, forests of magnificent
trees, and wild scenery. At North Bend (425 feet)
we dined at 5.50 p.m. in the refreshment-room
turkey being the fare. It was very cold outside
and the train very warm inside. Till bedtime
we climbed about amidst forests and mountains.
It was when bedtime came that I first realised
that I really knew nothing about this famous
C.P.R. line or its ways. I had meant to make
myself acquainted with everything in Vancouver.
There was a little smoking-room. There were also
state rooms, for which you had to pay very large
sums, and my companions remonstrated with me
when I wanted to hire one of these ; so I did as
they did, and most reluctantly consented to
occupy one of the rows of berths in the long cars
formed by turning up the seats. Like berths
on a ship, there is one above the other, and I took
a top one. Curtains hung in front. You had
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 333
to get into this berth, undress and dress in it in
the most uncomfortable way; and all along the
car legs and arms every now and then protruded
out of the bulging curtains. The coloured attend-
ants would not permit us to undress outside these
curtains, though there were few people in the
long car. Of course, I could not sleep never
can under such circumstances.
How I hated that car and that weary journey !
At 7.25 in the morning we were at Glacier House
(41^,2 feet up), with the pyramidal peak named " Sir
Donald " after Lord Strathcona, rising above
the hotel, and the glacier near by. A little later
Rogers' Pass (4275 feet), discovered by Major A.
Rogers in 1883, before which time no human foot
is supposed to have penetrated to the summit
of the Selkirks. It is all very fine, but dreadfully
monotonous the spruce, Douglas firs, and cedars
grow to great heights it is grand, silent, still,
almost no sign of life. I called the car attendant
up and, much to his amusement, demanded why
stuffed Indians, grizzly bears and things were
not posed about to give local colour, and let us
photograph them from the train ? They would
make striking pictures ; you would not have time
to see they were not alive, and think how in-
teresting for the passengers ! I am astonished
the C.P.R. does not attend to this especially at
Six-Mile-Creek and Bear Creek and such places.
We lunched at Field, crossed the Great Divide
where a stream trickles down on one side to the
Pacific and on the other to Hudson's Bay, and
at 1.15 were at Stephen (5296 feet), the summit
station of the Rockies. Then at Laggan you
become an hour older or younger, according
to which way you are going, though I cannot say
I felt any different, and Captain Farquhar and
Aitken looked just the same so did the scenery
334 CHINA AND JAPAN
everywhere as we went on descending, and the
monotony was most boring.
Do not let it be supposed I did not realise the
grandeur of this human work and all it means, but
scenery viewed from an incessantly moving train-
scenery advancing on you and then receding
leaves no clear impression on the mind, I was
very tired of it, and there were few passengers
to vary the monotony. When we got to Brandon
(1150 feet) at 8 a.m. on the morning of the loth,
and I learnt we had done 1349 miles of the journey,
I rej oiced so much at least was over.
At Winnipeg we made a stop of some time.
The minute I alighted from the train I was greeted
by name by a stranger, who handed me an envelope
with a ticket, informed me my berth on the
Majestic, leaving New York on such a date, was
No. So-and-so, that I would find my baggage there
" all right," and vanished at once. I had not asked
any one to get me a berth on the Majestic, and was
perfectly blank as to what unseen person or persons
were doing everything for me. Then a newspaper
interviewer addressed me as Captain Farquhar,
so I referred him to that gentleman's valet, who
was standing by, and he gave the interview !
It was Sunday. Snow and slush were every-
where as I walked the melancholy-looking streets ;
the church bells ringing and crowds of Scottish
people in their Sunday best going to church with
just the same dismal Sabbath face they assume in
Scotland. I was depressed to the ground. I have
not the slightest idea what Winnipeg is really like
I saw only snow, slush, and dismal Sabbath
faces, so boarded the train and looked no more.
As it has 50,000 people, is the capital of Manitoba,
a chief port of the Hudson's Bay Company, and is
at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers,
both navigable for steamboats, it can be imagined
MONTREAL 335
my fleeting impression of Winnipeg does it in-
justice but that is all I saw of it. On nth March
we were passing along Lake Superior, and the
following day arrived at Montreal, I exceedingly
thankful those dreary six days in that train were
over ! As we passed through the great plains
impressive in their immensity one heard at every
station strong Scottish accents and saw Scottish
faces. It is surely the Scot who has made Canada
what she is.
Montreal was so deep in snow, houses covered,
great mounds of it piled high on either side of the
streets, which were so slippery one could scarce
keep one's feet, that I formed no definite idea of
this handsome city. The cold was terrific, and
really, after my 2906 miles of train, I could not
rise to any enthusiasm over the place. The
people tobogganing did not, however, seem to
mind the frigid atmosphere.
The hotel was large, overheated, and con-
tained a strange collection of beings, who afforded
some speculation and interest. The people in the
shops would not or could not speak English, and
as I declined to speak French in a British city I
only made one purchase, and was sorry afterwards
I made that. It had been my intention to visit
the " City of Mackellar," but learning it had only
500 inhabitants, and being pressed for time, I
decided to let it grow a little first.
So one night I left Montreal at 8 p.m., spent an
uncomfortable night in the train, and arrived at
New York at 8.55 in the morning.
I did not like New York, and merely remained
a week there till the Majestic sailed for England.
The passengers and the voyage were devoid of
interest ; and Liverpool, on arrival, was in the
throes of a blizzard, so that my home-coming was
not particularly cheerful.
L'ENVOI
IF there be any who have travelled with me
through all these lands I have written about, I
thank them for their good-nature, and their
endurance of my many moods.
I have treated them almost as if they were
intimate friends with whom one need not be
formal, because I know the world I live in, and
that there are still in it many kindly human
beings who respond to friendly greetings ; and
to them I now bid Farewell.
INDEX
Abaca, Baron del, 180.
Ache, 247.
Acheen, King of, 244, 246.
Adele Isle, 94.
Admiralty Islands, 132 ; native
women captured, 137-139.
Adolphus Island, 18.
Ah Cum John, 300.
Ah Tarn, the Chinaman boat-
builder, at Matupi, 127, 136.
Aitken, Mr., 332.
Alas, Mount, 219.
Albany, 18.
Albert Edward, Mount, 198.
Alberta, the new colony, 5.
Ali or Alij Island, 191, 196 ;
Catholic Mission Station, 196.
Alifuroe tribe, 209.
Almiranta, 119, 121 ; disappear-
ance, 122.
Amaral, Governor Ferreira, 291.
Amberno River, 199.
Amboyna Island, 221 ; the natives
of, 222 ; area, 222.
Amocrang, 236.
Andes, the, 198.
Angeli island, 191.
Ant-eater, spoor of, in.
Ant-hills, 19, 27.
Antimacassars, derivation of the
word, 234.
Archer, Mr. Colin, 124.
Archer, Mr. William, 124.
Arfak Mountains, 198, 210.
Aris island, 182.
Arnheim's Land, 22, 197.
Aru Islands, 217.
Assiniboine river, 334.
Astrolabe Bay, 151 ; Harbour,
120.
Athayde, Senhora Donna Gather-
ina de, 296.
Auckland Point, 124.
Australia, characteristics of the
people, 20 ; the aborigines, 47.
Australia del Esperito Santo,
123, 125.
Babirusa or pig-deer, 237.
Bajos de la Candelarea, Los, 119.
Baker, Mount, 332.
Bali, 243, 248.
Balise or Gilbert Isle, 187.
Balloon fish, 53.
Banca Channel, 266 ; Island, 266.
Banda Isles, 220.
Banda Lonta Island, 220.
Banda Nera Island, 220 ; forts,
220.
Banka, 257.
Bantaeng volcano, 233.
Baretto, Donna Isabella, 122.
Barnewald, Fort, 224.
Barrier Reef, the Great, 7, 19,
50 ; area, 50 ; vegetation, 50 ;
birds, 50 ; the coral gardens,
51 ; fish, 52.
Batanta, 211.
Batavia, 13, 245, 251 ; founded
in 1619, 256 ; houses, 261 ;
climate, 265.
Bathurst, Cape, 15.
Batian or Batchian, 224.
Baumbach, Dr., his expedition in
1896, 1 86.
Beads, fashion in, 173.
Beauchamp, Lord, at Singapore,
274.
Beautemps Beaupre, Mount, 148.
Beche-de-mer, 8, 52.
Behse, Herr, at Seleo, 192, 193.
Belle of New York, The, perform-
ance of, 285.
Benkulen, 244, 247.
Bennigsen, Herr von, 101, 105.
Berlinshafen, 191, 196.
338
INDEX
BerouiV) the Dutch man-of-war,
245 ; carried inland, 245.
Bertrand Island, 187.
Bienenkorb Inseln or Beehive
Islands, 114.
Billigheim monastery, 312.
Biltong or Billiton, 269.
Bima, 250.
Bintang Isle, 269.
Birds, Papuan, number of species,
152, 159.
Biro, Professor Ludwig, 71, 87 ;
his house in the jungle, 160.
Bismarck Archipelago, 98, 1 16 ;
area, 117.
Blanche Bay, 113, 114, 150.
Blitong, 257.
Bokajim, 153 ; natives of, 153.
Bonthian mountain, 233.
Borneo, island of, 217 ; size, 260.
Borobodoer, temple of, 260.
Borr along tree, 1 1 1.
Bosseville Island, 185.
Botany Bay, i o. See Port Jackson.
Bougainville, 118.
Bouton Island, 226.
Bowring, Sir John, 296.
Boyd, Mr., his cruises among the
Solomon Islands, 126.
Brambanam, ruins of, 259.
Brandon, 334.
Brassaia actinophyllia, 51.
Bridget, 24,25,31 ; her admirers,
33-
Brisbane, 76.
British Columbia, 330.
Broken Bay, 10.
Bromo volcano, 260.
Bruno, Herr Wilhelm, 181 ; his
collection of weapons and
curios, 181.
Bugis, the, 233.
Buitenzorg, 256.
Billow, Baron Albrecht, 166.
Billow, Baroness Frieda von,
130 ; her Troppenkoller, 164;
appearance, 166 ; works on
South Africa, 166 ; friendship
for Carl Peters, 167 ; lady-in
waiting to the Queen of Rou-
mania, 167.
Billow, Marie von, 168.
Bulteg Isle, 208.
Burgoyne, Mr. Alan, M.P., 1 80.
Burrard Inlet, 331.
Buru, 223, 226.
Byron, Cape, 10.
Callao, 1 1 8, 119.
Camoens, Luis de, lines from,
216, 219, 220, 224, 226, 243 ;
his garden and grotto at Macao,
295 ; career, 296 ; epic, Os
Lusiadis, 296 ; poems in his
honour, 296.
Canada, 330.
Canary trees, ur, 159, 221.
Cannibal feast, description of,
174.
Canton, 300 ; the rice-paper
painting shop, 301 ; kingfisher
feather workers, 301 ; temples,
302, 304 ; seven-storied pagoda,
303 ; the " City of the Genii,"
or the " City of Rams," 305 ;
Examination Hall, 305 ; place
of execution, 305 ; forms of,
306 ; the Clepsydra or Water
Clock, 306 ; the " City of the
Dead," 306 ; the Flower Boats,
306.
Capitana, 119, 121.
Capuc or Kapok plantations, 155.
Carl brig, the, 9.
Caroline Isles, 116, 117.
Carpentaria, Gulf of, 7, 19, 23,
49-
Cart, Herr, 116, 132; killed by
natives, 133.
Carteret, Captain, 125.
Cassowary, 26, 27 ; lines on, 28.
Castro, Lope Garcio de, 118.
Cayley- Webster, Captain, 162,
170.
Celebes, 216, 226, 233; position,
233 ; size, 233.
Ceram Island, 221, 222, 226.
Cerco, Porta di, 293.
Challenger expedition, 132.
Chalmers, the missionary, killed
and eaten by natives, 134.
Channel Rock Lightship, 15.
Charcot, Dr. Jean, 203.
Chelosanna Lovelli or sea-serpent,
5.3-
Chimborazo, 198.
China, the smell of, 301.
China Sea, 217 ; Straits, 45.
INDEX
339
Chinaman, death of a, on board
the Stettin^ 211.
Chinese, their treatment by Aus-
tralians, 49.
Christmas, mode of spending,
240-242.
Chu-Kiang or Pearl River, 290.
Cinnyris frenata, the sunbird, 50.
City of Melbourne, 7, 20, 48.
Clam, the Giant, 12 ; Frilled, 12.
Clarke, Captain, 289, 291.
Clement Isle Lightship, 16.
Clepsydra or Water Clock of
Canton, 306.
Cleveland Bay, 4 ; Cape, 10.
Coal Harbour, 331.
Coast fever or malaria, experi-
ments on, 157 ; causes of, 158 ;
tobacco a preventive, 158.
Cockatoo, a white, on board the
Stettin, 92 ; tyrannical charac-
ter, 92 ; opinions, 93 ; powerful
beak, 93, 270 ; tricks, 214.
Coe, Miss, attacked by natives,
148 ; her escape, 149.
Collbrand, Mr., 330.
Confucius, temple of, at Canton,
304-
Cook, Captain, his discovery of
the Endeavour River, 10 ; York
Island, 12 ; explorations, 203.
Cook, Mount, 10, 55 ; expedition
to, 55-63.
Cooktown, 10, 13, 54 ; the Chinese
Joss House, 55.
Copra, sale of, 91, 94.
Coral gardens of the Barrier
Reef, 51.
Cornwall and York, Duke and
Duchess of, their visit to
Sydney, 70.
Coupe, or Coppee, Monsignor,
French Catholic Bishop of
German New Guinea, 71 ;
head of the Sacred Heart
Mission, 77 ; wreck of his
steamboat, 102 ; his church,
136 ; palace, 137.
Cudtheringa, Mount (Castle Hill),
7-
Curtis Island, 4, 123.
Dallas Company, at Singapore,
276 ; on board the Sachsen, 310.
Dalrymple, his Historical Collec-
tion of Voyages, 126.
Dampier, Captain, the explorer,
197, 203.
Dampier Straits, 151, 211.
David, Professor, of the Sydney
University, 112.
Davis, Sir John, 296.
Dead Man's Land, 21.
Deli, 244.
Delli or Dilli, 219 ; soap springs,
220.
Derby, Lord, Colonial Secretary,
refuses to sanction annexation
of New Guinea, 43 ; result of
his policy, 67.
Derzton, Admiral Rezersy van,
his attack on Macao, 290.
Deslacs Island, 90, 150; mas-
sacre at, 178.
Deuuarra, meaning of the word,
151.
Deym, Count, 281.
Djokjacarta, 260.
Dobbo trading station, 217.
Dolphin, steam tender, 4.
Dolphin, the, 125.
Douglas, the Hon. John, Presi-
dent of Thursday Island, 24.
Douglas, Sir John, Commissioner
of New Guinea, 43.
Dow, Donald, 132.
Drake, Sir Francis, his descrip-
tion of the Sultan of Ternate,
225.
Dugong, the, 52.
Duk-Duks, custom of, no.
Duke of York Islands, 95.
Dunbar, Captain, Commander of
the Moewe, 71, 77, 132, 273
on the fight with natives at Ali
Island, 191, 196.
Duncan, Mr., 330.
Dunckler, Dr., 132, 212.
Dundas, Fort, 22.
Dunlop, Mr., Mrs., and Miss,
255.
Durian fruit, smell of, 254, 256.
Dutch East Indies, 216 ; system
of governing, 236 ; character
of their policy, 262.
Duyphen Point, 197.
Duyphen, the Dutch yacht, voy-
ages of exploration, 19.6.
340
INDEX
Dzjobek, Lieutenant, 314, 325 ;
wounded at Kiachou, 314.
Earthquake at Matupi, 115.
Eastern question, 267.
Eberhardt, steam yacht, 113.
Elceocarpiis grandis, 51.
Elizabeth, Queen, her treaty with
the King of Acheen, 244.
Ellat, 218.
Emma, Queen (Frau Kolbe),
her estate of Ralum, 104 ; posi-
tion in German New Guinea,
106, 142 ; her appearance, 142 ;
personality, 142 ; value of her
property, 143 ; house, 146.
Empress of India, 329.
Endeavour River, 10 ; Straits, 12.
Enlada scandens vine, 51.
Enriquez, Don Fernando, 119,
122.
Entrecasteaux, D., 126.
Epal, Bishop, 140.
Eredia, Manoel Godinho, 22.
Erema, 153, 161.
Erskine, Captain James Elphin-
stone, Commodore of the Aus-
tralian Squadron, 43.
Esperitu Santo, 123.
Esquimault Harbour, 330.
Essington, Port, 22.
Evelyn, John, extract from his
Diary, 197.
Facing Island, 124.
Fak-Fak settlement, 209.
Fall, Herr, ascends the Raimu
River, 187.
Farley Castle, 49.
Farquhar, Captain, 332.
Field, 333.
Filchner, Lieut. Wilhelm, 203.
Finchhafen, abandoned, 152, 162.
Finisterre Mountains, 162.
Fitz-Hugh, Mr., 297.
Fitzroy River, i, 4.
Flat Top Island, 4.
Fleyd or Fleyel, Mr. and Mrs.,
162.
Flinders, Captain, 22.
Flores, 243 ; massacre of Dutch
soldiers at, 250.
Flushing, proposed fortification
of, 189.
Fly River, 186.
Fong, Mr. Chun, his career, 295.
Forbes, H. O., 220.
Forsayth, Mr., 104, 141, 143 ;
Mrs., 104.
Fort, Captain, 132.
Fragata, disappearance of, 123.
French Islands, 90 ; dwarf race
in, 1 80.
French and Germans, relations
between, 79.
Friedrich Wilhelms Hafen, 170,
178.
Friend, Mr., 124.
Friday Island, 25, 40.
Fujiyama or " Fuji," 315.
Gadeke, Captain, 280.
Gala, 120.
Gallego, Hernando, his account
of the discoveries of Islands by
the Spaniards, 118-123.
Galunggung volcano, 258.
Gamalama volcano, 225.
Gazellenhalbinsel, 134.
Geelvink Bay, 209, 210; Straits,
208.
Geisha, performance of, 285.
George v., King-Emperor, his
visit to India, 265.
George's, St., Channel, 95.
Germans, relations with the
French, 79 ; characteristics,
80, 83 ; their hatred of the
English, 80, 84.
Germany hoists the flag in New
Guinea, 67 ; development of,
68 ; alteration of names, 78 ;
possessions comprised in New
Guinea, 116; policy towards,
117 ; system of land purchase,
128-130 ; character of the
colonists, 163 ; aims and ambi-
tions, 188-191 ; power and
influence, 228 ; wish to possess
Sumatra, 266.
Germany, Emperor William of,
his interest in the N. D. L.
Service, 97 ; method of reward-
ing 97-
Gibson, Mr., his disappearance,
. r 7-
Gildermeister, Captain, 280.
Giles, Ernest, his expedition, 17.
INDEX
Gilolo, 223.
Glacier House, 333.
Gladstone Harbour, 123.
Gloucester, Cape, 1 14 ; number
of craters, 114 ; Isle, 64.
Goa, Sultan of, 233, 235.
Gonneville, De, his discovery of
the Northern Territory, 21.
Goode Island, 40.
Goram, 220.
Gorontalo, 236.
Gould Island, 10.
Grassy Hill, 10.
Guadalcanar Isle, 118, 120.
Guatuleo, 121.
Guayaquil, 198.
Gunong Api, 220, 221.
Gunong Ringani, height of, 249.
Guntur, the Mountain of Thunder,
258.
Haeften, Baron Carl van, 251 ;
at Batavia, 253.
Hagen, Curt von, monument to,
157.
Hahl, Dr., 101, 149.
Haliure Aus traits, the dugong,
52.
Hamburg, 280.
Hammond Island, 25.
Hansa Bay, 187.
Hanseman, Herr, 170.
Hansen, Angela, 137, 139.
Hansen, Peter, 90. See Peter, King.
Hart, Lady, 310.
Hart, Sir Robert, his personality,
309-.
Heinrich, Captain - Lieutenant
Paul, 314, 325, 328.
Herbertshohe, 98, 135 ; Catholic
mission, 99, 136 ; landing, 103 ;
half-caste school, 139 ; mission
first founded, 140 ; native hospi-
tal, 141 ; police, 141.
Hesse-Wartegg, Herr von, 136,
145.
Heung Shan, island of, 290.
Hinchinbrook Island, 8, 50.
Honam, the, 307.
Honemaku, German hospital at,
316.
Hong -Kong, 282, 298, 307;
Children's Opera Company,
285-289 ; prison, 299.
Hook Island, 4.
Howick Islands, 14.
Hungerford, Mr., 49.
Inland sea, 314.
Irene, S.M.S., 280.
Isle of Jesus, 119.
Japan, first impressions of, 312 ;
the tea-houses, 318 ; uses of the
geisha girls, 319 ; houses, 320 ;
shopping, 320 ; toys, 320 ; char-
acteristics of the people, 321-
325 ; the children, 324 ; news-
papers, 324 ; Saronaya to, 328 ;
mourning for Queen Victoria,
330 ; loyalty to England, 330.
Japan, Emperor of, lines from
his poem, 325.
Jappen Isle, 208, 210.
Jardine, Mr. Frank, his house at
Albany, 18.
Java, 13, 243; area, 257, 260;
number of volcanoes, 257 ;
antiquities, 257 ; birds and
beasts, 258 ; character of the
natives, 258 ; population, 259 ;
buildings, 259.
Java Sea, 217, 243.
Jimmu Tenno, the first Mikado,
312, 313-
Jingo Kogo, Empress, her ex-
pedition against Corea, 312.
Johann Albrecht, steamboat, 172.
Jomba tobacco plantation, 177.
Jones, Captain, 307.
Jorge Island (St. George Isle), 120.
Jorgensen, Captain, 212 ; his
method of trading, 151.
Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, 116, 152 ;
area, 117 ; population, 117.
Kaiserin Augusta, river, 186.
Kambing, 220.
Kamo-asi, the three-leaved Asa-
rum, 326.
Kanaka pearl divers, 25, 46.
Kanakas, amusements, 33, 38 ;
characteristics, 34 ; musical
instruments, 38.
Karnbach, Ludwig, 191.
Kawasaki, 325.
Ke Islands, 218 ; Great, 218 ;
Little, 218.
342
INDEX
Kei Ki, the last of the Tokugawa
Shoguns, 326.
Kennedy River, 15.
Keoch, Dr., 298.
Keppel Bay, 4, 10.
Keys, natives' fashion of wearing,
174.
Kiaochou, 268.
Kin-gyoku-to, or seaweedjelly, 3 1 3.
Kivandang, gold mines at, 236.
Knut, Captain, 132.
Kobe, 315.
Kobo, Daishi, his image, 325.
Koch, Captain, 76.
Koch, Professor, his experiments
on the coast fever or malaria,
157.
Kock, Fort de, 246.
Koen, the Dutch general, founds
Batavia, 256.
Kohler, Herr, 170, 172.
Kolbe, Frau, 104. See Emma,
Queen.
Kolbe, Herr, 104.
Kooman, Herr, 128, 131.
Korea, 267.
Korinchi volcano, 244.
Koruve mountain, 233.
Kowloon 282.
Krakatau Island, 244 ; disappear-
ance, 244 ; destruction from a
wave, 245.
Kuningunan or Vunapope Mission
at Herbertshohe, 136.
Kupang, 219.
Kwantung, 290.
Kwato, 45.
Lacy, Miss, 19.
Laggan, 333.
Lake's Creek, i.
Lampongs, 244.
Lancaster, Sir James, 244.
Latang grass, 177, 181.
Lauchlan Isles, 94.
Leichardt, the explorer, his dis-
appearance, 17.
Leiningen, Count Carl, 312.
Leith, Mr., 13.
Leming Mission Station, 192.
Lesson Isle, 182, 186.
Li Hung Chang introduces death
by strangling, 306 ; rumours of
his death, 315.
Lingga Isle, 269, 270.
Linnbotto, Lake, 236.
Liverpool, 335.
Lizard Island, 14.
Lombok, 248 ; area, 249 ; Peak of,
249.
Long Isle, 151.
Lorentz, Dr. H. A., 112, 210.
Louisiade Archipelago, 94.
Lovell, Miss, her discovery of the
Moha-Moha, 53.
Luse mountain, 244.
Macao, 289 ; harbour, 290 ;
founded in 1557, 290; the
Chinese fantan or gambling
house, 292 ; the Praya Granda,
292, 294 ; inscription on the
Leal Senado, 295 ; the garden
and grotto of Camoens, 295.
Macassar, 227, 233 ; hair oil, 234.
MacGregor, SirWilliam, Adminis-
trator of New Guinea, 43 ;
ascends Mount Victoria, 45,
198.
Mack, the sailor, 55.
" MacKellar, City of," 335 ; Fort,
17.
Macquarie, Port, 126.
MacRoarty, Mr., Police Magi-
strate at Normanton, 7, 19.
Magellan, Straits of, 125.
Magnetism, the gift of, 286.
Magnis, Major Count Franz
Anton, 281.
Magnis, Count Wilhelm, 281.
Majapalut, ruined city of, 259.
Majestic, the, 335.
Makian, 224.
Malaita Isle, 118, 120.
Malaria or coast fever, experi-
ments on, 157 ; causes of, 158 ;
tobacco a preventive, 1 58.
Malay Peninsula, 217.
Malays, their phraus, 226 ; mode
of fishing, 227 ; characteristics,
232.
Manifold, Cape, 10.
Manindjoe, Lake of, 246.
Marianne Isles, 116, 117.
Marquesas de Mendoza (Mar-
quesas), 122.
Marshall, Eric, 210.
Marshall Isles, 117, 120.
INDEX
343
Mato, steamboat, go, 178.
Matthias Island, St., 133.
Matupi Island, 113, 114, 127, 135 ;
volcanoes, 114; earthquake,
"5;
Mawson, Dr. Douglas, 203.
M'Clymont, Father, at Hong-
Kong, 298.
Melville Island, 22.
Menado, 236 ; natives of, 236.
Mencke, Herr Bruno, his yacht
Eberhardt, 113; killed by
natives, 133.
Mendana, Alvaro de, General,
119.
Merapi volcano, 244.
Merauke, Dutch settlement, 208.
Merite Island, 151.
Mexico, 121.
Miklaho-Macleay, Baron, 152.
M'llwraith, Sir Thomas, Premier
of Queensland, 43.
Mioko Island, 96.
Missionaries, their method of con-
verting the natives, 205-208.
Mitchell River, 49.
M'Lean, Captain, 4.
M'Neill kidnaps natives, 44.
M'Nulty, Mrs., 23, 24, 31.
Moewe, 191.
Moggs, Mr. and Mrs., 41.
Moha-Moha, discovery of, 53.
Moluccas, the, 216, 220, 223.
Monsoon, enjoyment of a, 95.
Montreal, journey to, 332-335.
Moran, Cardinal, Archbishop of
Sidney, 123, 126, 160.
Moresby, Port, 43.
Moreton Island, 75 ; Bay, 75.
Morgan, Mount, 124.
Mueller, Baron von, Botanist of
Victoria, 17, 28, 50, 87.
Muggins, Mr., 41.
Muller, Herr, 154.
Muno Island, 226.
Muntok, 266.
Murray, Dr., kidnaps natives, 9.
Mysol or Misol, 223.
Nagasaki, 312.
Natives of Australia, their treat-
ment, 19.
Natives of New Britain, their
cannibalism, 134.
Natives of New Guinea, number
kidnapped, 44 ; their treachery,
112, 147, 150, 174.
Navarre, Archbishop, 140.
Netherlands, the, policy, 262.
Netherlands, Princess Juliana of,
264.
Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina,
proposal for her to visit the
Dutch East Indies, 263-265.
New Britain (Neu Pommeru), 78,
95, 98 ; the Sacred Heart
Mission, 77, 99 ; lay-brothers
and sisters, 88 ; landing at
Herbertshohe, 103; area, 117;
cannibalism of the natives, 134.
New Caledonia, 135.
New Georgia Isle, 118.
New Guinea or Papua, 43, 65 ;
area, 43 ; natives of, 44 ; traffic
in the labour supply, 44.
New Guinea, Dutch, 46, 199, 209 ;
settlements, 209 ; expeditions,
209.
New Guinea, German, 46, 66 ;
the flag hoisted, 67 ; alteration
of names, 78 ; the natives, 106-
1 1 1 ; their system of governing,
112 ; treachery to the whites,
112, 147, 150, 174; system of
land purchase, 128 ; fashion in
beads, 173 ; fashion of wearing
door-keys, 174; treatment by
the Germans, 175.
New Hanover, 98.
New Holland, area, 117.
New Ireland (Neu Mecklenburg),
78, 95, 98 ; area, 117 ; result of
sending French peasants to,
134-
New South Wales, 12.
New York, 335.
Niedermayer, Captain, 70, 132 ;
rescues Chinese, 96 ; mode of
showing their gratitude, 96 ;
commendation from the Em-
peror William, 97 ; his quarrel
with King Peter, 144 ; attack
of fever, 185 ; at Singapore,
273-
Niskimura, Mr., 329.
Noge-yama, 325.
Normanton, 7, 19, 23.
North Bend, 332.
344
INDEX
Northern Territory of South
Australia, size of, 21.
Nugu Roa, 218.
Nutmeg tree, 221.
Obi Islands, 223 ; Major, 223.
Oena-Oena, volcanic island, 237.
Olcott, Colonel, on board the
Sachsen, 311.
Orange, Fort, 224.
Orchids, dado of, 38.
Orphir, Mount, 244.
Ortega, Pedro de, 119
Owen Stanley Range, 45, 198.
Pacific Island Labourers' Act,
1901, 45.
Padang, 244 ; population, 247.
Palembang, 244, 247.
Pallaranda, Cape (Many Peaks),
7-
Palm Islands, 8.
Palmer Gold Fields, 15.
Palmerston, 21.
Panama Canal, 268 ; Republic of,
268.
Pandanus trees, 27.
Pandjong Priak, port of Batavia,
251.
Papandayang volcano, 257.
Papua 43. See New Guinea.
Papuan birds, number of species,
152, 159.
Papuans, 44 ; characteristics of
the women, 106 ; the men, 107 ;
dress, 107 ; ornaments, 107 ;
hair, 108 ; musical instruments,
108 ; food, 108 ; houses, 109 ;
temples, 1 10 ; belief in witch-
craft, no ; system of governing,
112; treachery to the whites,
112, 147, 150; method of work-
ing, 130 ; conversion to Chris-
tianity, 205-208 ; result of con-
tact with the white man, 206.
Paradisea guiltelmi, 162 ; rag-
giana, 162.
Paragi, 237.
Parkinson, Mr., 104, 144, 145 ;
Dreizig Jahre in der Siidsee,
144.
Parkinson, Mrs., 113; her popu-
larity, 146 ; attacked by natives,
146.
Paterson, Mr., 123.
Payne, Professor, on board the
City of Melbourne, 14 ; " Cham-
pion Shot of the world," 14, 23 ;
at Thursday Island, 23.
Peacock, Mr., his tobacco planta-
tion, 177.
Pearl Harbour, 267 ; River, 290.
Pearl shell industry, 46, 217.
Penankbar, 76.
Perouse, La, result of his expedi-
tion, 126.
Peru, conquest of, 1 1 8.
Peter, King, of the French
Islands, on board the Stettin,
72, 89 ; his mode of trading,
90 ; children, 1 37 ; quarrel with
Captain Niedermayer, 144 ; his
home at Deslac, 1 50 ; rising of
the natives, 178; his mode of
revenge, 179.
Peters, Carl, his friendship with
the Baroness Frieda von Biilow,
167.
Petershafen, massacres at, 178,
179.
Philippine Islands, 216.
Pinto, Mendez, 312.
Piper Bank Lightship, 17.
Pitt Straits, 211, 216.
Pollin Isle, 151.
Polo, Marco, at Sumatra, 244 ;
his description of it, 246.
Port Darwin, 21.
Port Jackson, 10.
Potsdamhafen, 180.
Powell, Wilfrid, 114.
Praed, Mrs. Campbell, at Curtis
Island, 123.
Pratt, Mr. A. E., 208, 209; his
expeditions amongst the Arfak
Mountains, 198.
Priesuhn, Dr., 316.
Prince of Wales Island, 12, 25,
37-
Providence Channel, 12.
Pteridophora alberti or bird of
paradise, 159.
Pullen-Burry, Miss, In a German
Colony, 142 ; her interest in
anthropology, 206.
Queensland, proposed division,
5 ; labour supply for, 44.
INDEX
345
Quetta, survivors of the, 18.
Quira.ng, S.S., 4.
Quiros, Fernando de, 122, 125.
Raffles, Lady Stamford, her tomb,
256.
Raffles, Sir Stamford, 257, 262.
Raffles Bay, 22.
Raglan, i.
Raimu or Otte'lie River, 186.
Ralum, 104.
Rascher, Father, massacre of, 89.
Rawling, Captain Cecil, C.I.E.,
On the Great Plateau, 210.
Ray, Marquis de, result of his
expedition to New Ireland, 134.
Red River, 334.
Rhio Isle, Dutch port at, 269.
Rhio-Lingga Archipelago, 269.
Rickshaw, riding in a, 293, 294.
Rienzi, 296.
Rockhampton, I, 4, 64.
Rockies, the, 333.
Rockingham Channel, 8.
Rogers, Major A., 333.
Rogers' Pass, 333.
Romilly, Mr., his description of a
cannibal feast, 174.
Roosevelt, T., 268.
Ross Creek, 4.
Rossell Isle, 94.
Rotti Island, 12, 220.
Rubiana, 118.
Sabang (Pulo Weh), 247, 267.
Sachsen, the German mail-boat,
310.
Saddleberg, 162.
Sageroe beverage, 222.
Sago palm, uses of, 109 ; height,
109.
Salaier Island, 226.
Salak, volcano, 257.
Salwatti, 211.
Samarai or Dinner Island, 45.
Samoa, 116, 117.
Sampan, sail on a, 277.
San Christoval Isle, 118, 120, 123.
San Francisco, 328 ; Isle oi
(Wake's Isle), 120.
San Marcos Island (Choisea
Isle), 120.
San Paulo, ruins of the church of
293-
Sandwich Islands, 268.
Sandy Cape, 53.
Santa Cruz, 122.
Santa Isabel de Estrella, 119, 120.
Santiago, 121.
Sapi-utan or wild cow, 237.
Sarong, meaning of the word, 92,
232, 233, 234.
Savu Island, 12, 220.
Schouten, his discovery of the
Admiralty Islands, 132.
Schouten or Mysory Isles, 208.
Scott, Captain, 203.
Scratchley, Sir Peter, High Com-
missioner of New Guinea, 43.
Sea-serpent, 53.
Sekar settlement, 209.
Seleo, 191, 192 ; natives of, 193-
195.
Selwyn, Bishop, story of, 9.
Seman Island, 220.
Semeru mountain, 257.
Shackleton, Sir Ernest, result of
his Antarctic expedition, 200-
202.
Shameen, 300.
Shanghai, 311.
Shiba Park, 326.
Shoguns, crest of the, 326.
Si-Kiang or West River, 290.
Simbang, 162.
Simpsonshafen, 113.
Singapore, 250, 266, 270; mode
of living in, 270-276 ; sports,
274-276.
Sinkop Isle, 269.
Skipping, pastime of, 33.
Smoke bath, a, 161.
Snake, a carpet, capture of, 58-
61 ; its size, 63 ; presented to
the Zoological Gardens, Sydney,
64.
Snowy Range, 210.
Soap springs of Delli, 220.
Soemalata, gold mines, 236.
Solomon Isles, 116; area, 117;
expeditions to discover, 118-
126.
Sourabaya, 260.
South Tree Point, 124.
Spain, expeditions to discover the
Solomon Islands, 118-123;
relics, 124.
Spice Islands, 221, 223.
346
INDEX
Stanley Park, Vancouver, 331.
Stephan, the, 113.
Stephansort, 151 ; founded in
1888, 152 ; the " railway," 154 ;
tobacco factory, 155 ; club, 156 ;
hospital, 157.
Stephen, the summit station of
the Rockies, 333.
Stettin, S.S., 65, 70, 113, 161,
211, 266, 270; passengers, 71 ;
stewards, 72 ; crew, 73 ; deck
passengers, 92.
Stone fish or the sea-devil, 52.
Studholme, Mr., 69.
Studholme, Mrs., her collection of
opals, 69.
Sudaras or crocodiles, 13.
Sugawa, Mr., 329.
Sumatra, 244, 246, 257, 266 ; size,
260.
Sumbawa, 243, 249.
Sunda Islands, 217 ; Straits of,
244, 248.
Sunday Island, 25.
Superior, Lake, 335.
Swallow ', the, 125.
Sydney, 70.
Sylvia, the French sailing ship,
266.
Synanceia horrida or stone fish,
52.
Tamar, the, 298.
Tambora, 249 ; eruption at, 249.
Tambu or taboo, meaning of the
word, no.
Tappenbeck, Herr, his expedition
in 1898, 1 86.
arawae Island, 187.
Tasman, Commodore Abel
Janzoon, 196, 203.
Temple, Sir William, 22.
Ternate Isle, 224 ; population,
224 ; cloves, 225.
Ternate, Sultan of, 225.
Tetraodan ocettalus or balloon
fish, 53.
Thiele, Herr, at Matupi, 131 ;
decorations of his billiard-room,
131-
Thompson, Captain, 7 ; his stories,
9 ; collection of orchids, 50 ;
expedition to Mount Cook, 55 ;
captures a snake, 58-61.
Thursday Island, 23 ; population,
24 ; scenery, 26 ; vegetation,
27 ; amusements of natives, 33 ;
the policeman, 35.
Tibet, 312.
Tidore Isle, 224 ; Peak, 224.
Tiger-hunting, story of, 160.
Timor, island of, 188, 243 ;
number of kings, 219 ; lines on,
219 ; area, 219.
Timor Laut Islands, 220.
Toba, Lake, 244.
Tobacco, a preventive of malaria,
158.
Tocal, 218.
Todak, 236.
Tokio, 325.
Torres, Luis Vaez de, 123, 125.
Torres Straits, 19.
Townsville, 4 ; proposed capita
of Alberta, 5 ; sketches of, 6.
Traitor Islands, 208.
Tribulation, Cape, 10.
Tridacnagigas, or Giant Clam, 12.
Trinity Bay, 10.
Triton Bay, 46 ; pearl shell in-
dustry at, 46.
Tsingtau, 268 ; development of,
269.
Tugari tribe, 209.
Tumahu, Mount, 223.
Tumleo Catholic Mission, 192.
Ueno, or " the Devil's Gate," 326.
Urville, Dumont d', establishes the
identity of the Solomon Islands,
126.
Urville Island, d', 187.
Vahsen, Captain, 187.
Van Dam, in command of the
Dutch fleet, 233.
Vancouver Island, 330 ; Stanley
Park, 331.
Varthema, L., 257.
Victoria, Queen, reception of the
news of her death in Hong-
Kong, 309.
Victoria, the colony of, 203, 205.
Victoria, British Columbia, 330.
Victoria, Mount, 45, 198.
Vulcan Isle, 182.
Wahai, 222.
INDEX
347
Wai Weer Island, 40.
Walin, Herr, 104, 112, 114, 128,
132.
Wallis, Captain, 125.
Wamma Island, 217.
Wanderer, the yacht, 126.
Wang-shu, The Decline and Fall
of the Anglo-Saxon Race, 228.
Ware, Mr. Richard, 124.
Watson, Mrs., attacked by blacks,
14 ; her sufferings and death,
IS-
Wednesday Island, 25.
Weh, 247 ; coal depot at, 247.
Wei-hai-wei, 269.
Weymouth Bay, 12 ; Cape, 12.
White Cloud Mountains, 304.
Whitsunday Group Island, 4.
Wiehmann, Dr. Arthur, his
expedition, 209.
Wilhelmina Peak, 210.
Williams, kidnaps natives, 44. '
Winnipeg, 334; impressions of, 334.
Wolff, Frau, 71, 88, 141 ; her trust
in the natives, 147 ; attacked
and murdered, 148-150; result
of her death, 205.
Wolff, Herr, 141.
Wollaston, A. F. R., From Ruwen-
zori to the Congo, 210.
Wong Mo-Tsai, 295.
Woosung, 310.
Worms, Misses de, 310.
Wright, Louis, 266.
Wuchan Fu, 290.
Yangtze-kiang, 310.
Yokohama, 315 ; British Naval
Hospital, 316 ; tea-house, 317-
319 ; albums of signatures, 317 ;
fires, 319.
York Island, 12.
York Peninsula, Cape, 15.
Yunnan, 290.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
"A PLEASURE PILGRIM IN SOUTH AMERICA"
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