Narrative of a journey round the world, comprising a winter passage across the Andes to Chili, with a visit to the Gold regions of California, and Australia, the South Sea Islands, Java, etc

Front matter

NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD. VOL. I. NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD, COMPRISING A WINTER-PASSAGE ACItOSS THE ANDES TO CHILI, WITH A VISIT TO THE GOLD REGIONS OP CALIFORNIA AND AUSTRALIA, THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS, JAVA, &C. BY F. GERSTAECKEE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HUEST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHEBS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1853. The Copyright of this Work is the exclusive Property of the Publishers, Messrs. Hurst and Blackest. LONDON : Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. TO HIS DEAB LITTLE PKTEND, SABAH MABY BICKAEDS, OF SYDNEY, THESE VOLUMES ABE INSCKIBED BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS TO THE FIBST VOLUME. SOUTH AMEEICA.

Chapter I. The Start

It excites a singular feeling to be on board a vessel, still at anchor in the harbour of your native country, but ready to start every minute on a long, long voyage. You no longer belong to your home, although, in fact, you have not yet left it, nor have you yet begun your new wandering life. You feel only this restless waiting, this not being able to leave the ship, and hour after hour passed without your moving a step. You find yourself for once in your life between the future and the past, without a present, and wish at last for that which you have so VOL. I. B ■2 FIVE YEARS' JOURNEY dreaded before — the moment when you shall bid farewell to your home. But emigrants are not always visited by these emotions. Most of them have closed their ac count with their old mother country — leaving mother country also not unfrequently in debt to them, and feeling now only suspense.

This spreads over the whole ship, and people walk about on deck with dissatisfied and peevish looks, grumbling and growling, and by no means in a humour for sentiment. New passengers arrive without intermission, and each seems to have thought of getting the whole of Noah's Ark to himself, so completely do they heap the decks with boxes, and trunks, and chests, and are quite astonished to find not the least possibility of stowing them away. But after awhile they and their boxes disappear in the lower hold, and all is arranged satisfactorily. The only quiet persons in this chaos of things and objects are the sailors. Used to the confusion, they look upon it as of too common occurrence even to deserve a thought, and step now with a really frightful indifference, through and over the passengers' goods, which for them seem hardly to exist.

Wet weather makes things, as the reader may think, only worse, and no wonder that many a poor wretch coming here with quite another expectation, looks in such a case down in those dark and sultry caves of tlie between-decks, which shall be to him for so many months a dreary and solitary home. How many intended emigrants, if they could throw down such a look into such a place, when their hearts were still wavering between their old home and all the splendid pictures others had given them of far-away lands, would shake their heads, and turn back from the Rubicon. But now it is too late, the die is cast, and onward they must go. But after a week at sea everything is changed. Incredible quantities of baggage have found a place where one would at first have thought that a carpet bag would fill up the room ; and even the pas sengers have got used to the air in their new abode, and if they do not find it pleasant, they feel at least that it is not so disagreeable.

Our passengers for California, on board the good barque ' Talisman,' consisted of a really interesting mass of people. They were chiefly young men, who had shipped with such golden dreams and hopes, as actuated the first Spanish adventurers in searching for the long-promised El Dorado. But we were a strange company. There was neither a woman nor child on board, and the passengers were all armed to the teeth. One man carried a long single-barrelled fowling piece, with a spade on his shoulder, and a blue B cotton umbrella under his arm. Many indeed had spades, and the arms displayed were of the most miscellaneous character, including swords, guns, dirks, muskets— ancient and modern — and forming, as a whole, such an assemblage, that they looked like the spoil of a curiosity-shop. In this strange crowd the most singular figure was a cutler from Magdeburg, a man of really Herculean proportions, with curled beard and hair, red cheeks, and kindly-looking grey eyes.

He wore a green hunting-shirt, or blouse, light pantaloons, and a white broad-brimmed felt hat. Round his waist was a white shining leather belt, nearly five inches broad, and swinging to this, first, a long straight sword, which rattled after him over the deck, secondly, a smaller hanger (Hirschfaenger) which, though of goodly dimensions, looked by the side of the sword hardly longer than a table-knife, and close to this Hirschfaenger he carried another still smaller rhaspdirk, about eighteen inches in length. On the other side he carried another long dirk, with two pistol barrels, and a proportional quantity of pistols and terzerols. This person was attended by three companions, whose passage he had paid, and whom he was taking with him to California. They were called his satellites, or the little giants, and were dressed exactly like himself, in the same green huntingshirt and white belt, the same broad-brimmed felt hat and large beard, only their arms, pistols and knives, were rather smaller in proportion to their own stature.

The giant was a most good natured fellow, letting everybody take his sword and knives from their scabbards ; and he wore a continual smile on his broad and not unhandsome features. He could not, I was told, ride on horseback, and therefore had on board a small hand-waggon or cart, to be drawn by the little giants, when he got ashore. It was on Thursday, the 22nd of March, that we came first into green water, and left the last buoy of the Weser behind us. We skimmed along before a rattling breeze through the skipping waves. But the motion of the vessel, particularly right before the wind, was strong enough to make most of the passengers feel " very cheap," as Jonathan has it. Only some dozen could keep up their heads ; and while we passed the North Sea and Channel flying, all those who a few days before had been such unruly characters, and dreamt of nothing but gold and fortunes, were lying in their berths sea-sick, sighing and groan ing in the most distressing manner.

On Sunday, after a run of sixty hours, we made the longitude of the Scilly Isles, and were now at last in the open sea. vol. I. B 2 * The same splendid breeze that made us cross the path of many a poor homeward-bound vessel, working her way against the wind, carried us to Madeira, and there kindly gave us in charge of the north-east trade-winds, which wafted us with their balmy odours through smooth and sparkling water, to warmer and more genial climes. As long as we had a rough sea and cold and unfriendly weather, there existed no quieter and more peaceable people in the world, than our hundred and two passengers. No grumbling or quarrelling was heard all day, and at night the sounds under hatches were chiefly snores. But hardly did they feel the wind getting duller, the air warmer, and the waves settling down, than out they came again on deck to eat and drink, grumble and quarrel.

There was directly something the matter with the water, and something with the bread ; the meat smelled, and the coffee did not ; the berths were too small, and this one's trunk, and that one's carpet-bag were stowed away where they could not find them, which of course induced a request to the mate to break open the hold directly, and overhaul the boxes in quest of the missing articles. Cursing and swearing were sometimes drowned in laughing and singing, not unfrequently interrupted by quarrelling parties, who only agreed again in abusing the skipper, and the provisions and water. Our voyage in itself did not embrace many in cidents. On the 13th of April, we made the islands of Cape Verd, and passed right between them, leaving San Nicolas to larboard, and next morning having close on our lee-bow that gigantic and desolate-looking island Fogo.

The rocky face of this singular volcano seemed entirely barren, and we could not make out the least bush or shrub ; but the rising sun shed, from a clear and unbroken sky, her soft light upon rough and towering masses, and overspread them with a rosy trembling lustre. Among the noisy passengers — noisy in play or quarrel — there was one man, who took part in no play or game, and spoke with nobody, who hardly ever ate anything, and what little he did eat, took in such a way as to show plainly that he only regarded food as a necessity, and partook of it merely to keep himself alive. He always tried to find, in some corner of the deck, the most de serted part of the ship, and there he sat by him self, his head resting on his elbow, and his back turned to the life on board, while his eye searched the horizon, or hung listless on the blue and swelling deep.

This man was home-sick. One day, he came up to me, while I was leaning on the anchor stocks, watching a small shoal of bonitas, and addressing me, the tears glistening in his eyes, asked me, for God's sake, to speak to the captain, and obtain permission for him to leave the ship in the first homeward-bound vessel we should meet. He said — and he sobbed more than he spoke, though he tried to hide his emotion as much as possible — he had acted thoughtlessly in leaving a happy home, which, poor as it was, contained his wife and three lovely children. He said that he could not forget the moment when he bade farewell to his wife, and when his children hung crying round his neck, and begged him not to leave them. These thoughts would not let him rest, and he saw, he felt now, how wrong, how heartless, how cruel had been his conduct, in so relentlessly turning his face from home.

But they might meet a vessel, which would take him home again ; and if he had spent his small capital in paying his passage to Cali fornia, though he was only a weaver, and must now work hard day and night to make up for lost time, he would work cheerfully in his own home, and for his own wife and children. As the man found more and more words for the utterance of his grief, the tears — the soothing tears — chased each other down his pale and care worn cheeks. I tried everything in my power to give his thoughts another direction, and his heart some hope. I promised him, to be sure, to ask the captain for the permission he sought ; but what good could it do him, and where would he find in the open sea a vessel, homeward-bound, the cap tain of which would lay back to take a poor, homesick passenger on board with his baggage.

He became calm, at last, and thanking me for the kind words I had spoken to him, as he said, went down into his berth, and I saw him no more that day. About eight days afterwards, coming nearer and nearer to the line, Neptune paid us a visit, and got paid very well for his trouble, finding a great number of greenhorns on board. The festivities created by this incident had hardly passed, when we saw a sail coming right up to us. It was the English packet ' Agincourt,' Captain Nisbett, who sent a boat to us to get, if possible, some German newspapers for a party of German and Dutch passengers, whom the ' Agincourt' had taken in at Cape Town. We gave the young officer, who came on board, all we could spare, and half-an-hour afterwards the large and beautiful craft was only a speck on the horizon.

My poor home-sick friend, who had been looking eight days before with painful hope for such an accident, though no ship would have waited to take him on board, stood on the gangway in his old place as long as she was in sight, silent and sad, and without moving a limb, never turning his eye for a second from the strange vessel ; and there he stood after the sun had sunk behind the b horizon, and spread darkness over the vast deep, with his eyes fixed on the point at which the ship had disappeared. He had spoken to me again the day before, but no longer wished to leave the vessel, having reconciled himself to going on to California. After a succession of most disagreeable calms, each of which laid us up for about a week, we had a good and refreshing breeze from the south-east, the common trade-wind in these latitudes ; and this breeze brought us some fine sport with por poises.

Though we speared several, however, we could never get them on deck. The fact was, that when the fish first showed themselves, there was, ten to one, no harpoon to be found, or the line was tangled or missing ; or, should this accidentally have be^n in order — and I for one did my best to keep it so — the ten or twelve stout fellows planted at the line, to pull altogether at the word, would get tired at the critical moment, and all our care would be thrown away. In the latitude of Cape Frio, and not far from the Brazilian coast, we got a touch of the tropics in a tolerably strong pampero. The proper place for these winds is the mouth of La Plata, but sometimes they reach up as high as this, and even higher, not unfrequently doing great damage among the shipping. A few days afterwards, in deed, we saw a Brazilian man-of-war, which had got dismasted in this very pampero, just before the entrance of the Bay of Rio de Janeiro.

For several days we lay under close-reefed top sails, and, at the same time, had the pleasure to know that we were driving considerably out of our course. A great many of the passengers became sea-sick again, but the storm did not last long, and on the 10th of May, we were once more able to set sail. On the 1 1 th, we made Cape Frio, and from thence kept the picturesque coast of the Brazils in sight all day, reaching on the morrow the entrance of the Sugar-loaf Mountain. Early in the afternoon, we beheld that beautiful panorama, which surrounds one of the most splendid harbours of the world, and the closer we neared the land, the more distinctly did the moun tainsand hills gain life and colour. Long and seemingly straight ranges grew up in single groups, showing separate peaks and ridges. We could mark the outlines of vegetation, and even of trees and shrubs ; and there, on those beautiful little island twins — Naya and Maya, as the Portuguese call them — rose the first cocoa-palms, with their slender stems and graceful leaves, nodding a wel come to the foreign visitors.

Chapter II. Rio De Janeiro

In the tropics, night follows immediately on the setting of the sun ; and entering soon after sun down the Sugar-loaf Gate, as the entrance to the harbour is called from the conical and most singular-shaped hill on the southern head, we could just see the lights shine out from the opposite coast, where the city lies, and the dark outlines of the nearest ships, the whole surrounded by high and towering masses of mountain ridges. Inside the entrance we were hailed from the northern shore — from the Fort Santa Cruz — but the voice sounded as if it came from the deep, and the words being, of course, Portuguese, we could not understand a word of it. But our super cargo spoke the language, having some time ago lived many years in the Brazils ; and he and the gentleman in the fort conversed a little while in such unintelligible roars, as are heard occasionally at sea, very much to the satisfaction of both parties, from two passing ships.

A few minutes afterwards we dropped our anchor not far from a brig we had nearly scraped in coming in, and which also had German pas sengers on board. She had come from Hamburgh, and brought emigrants to the Brazils. I waited impatiently for sunrise, and with day break I was up ; but could see nothing of the shore, as a thin fog or mist lay over the water, and even the nearest ridges of the mountains were but dimly visible. Soon, however, the sun arose ; I could see the red orb through the vapoury veil. Higher and higher it ascended ; the fog sunk down to the water's edge, and hills and valleys, palm crowned isles, white shining forts, and shady groves and villas, with hundreds and hundreds of ships and skimming boats rose as by magic into view. Where can I find words to picture the beauty, the grandeur of that scene, as it appeared at that moment ?

Even the most indifferent of our pas sengers stood on deck, without uttering a sound, and saw in mute astonishment a new and glorious world spring up around. Their first amazement overcome, their tongues again won utterance, and the words— " beautiful," "splendid," "glorious," were heard on every side. Our principal care now was, to get as soon as possible on shore ; but this could not be done till we were reported by the medical authorities to be free from any epidemic. The doctor came at last in his long yawl, pulled by eight negroes ; and as there was not a sick man on board, he gave per mission to crew and passengers to go ashore as soon and as long as they pleased. He had not left the ship — for we were all cocked and primed, and perfectly ready to go off — when down dropped our yawl; and four of our sailors carolling forth an old German song : " The Brazils are not far from here," pulled us ashore.

The city of Rio de Janeiro made a profound impression upon us, as long as we saw it from afar ; but it loses a great deal of its beauty — and with how many things upon this wide world is not that the case — on a nearer acquaintance. The streets are, with very few exceptions, narrow and dirty, and masses of slaves, with innumerable coloured variations, meet the eye wherever it wanders, exciting a painful feeling in the mind of the European, which even the beauty of sur rounding nature, hardly visible indeed in those high and narrow streets, cannot soften. But however much we might have been astonished at everything we saw — for nearly everything was new to us— we, on our part, could by no means astonish the natives. " California," was their invariable cry, wherever they met any one of our party ; and as the harbour was at the same time perfectly filled with emigrant ships for that country, the word was constantly ringing along the streets whenever any emigrants appeared.

One of our fellow-passengers, a little Jew from Berlin, who dressed exceedingly fine, and, as he thought, exactly in the fashion of Rio de Janeiro, became at last so annoyed by these incessant ex clamations, that he wished to free himself from them ; and thinking the broad-brimmed black hat he wore, the only possible mark by which his tor mentors could guess the place of his destination, bought himself a new and genuine Brazilian hat — not even trusting the one he had on board, though it was exactly of the same shape. He paid an extravagant price for a rather indifferent hat ; but as he smilingly stepped out from the store with this prize on his head, which was to class him among the sons of the soil, the first sound that reached his ear was the dreaded and detested greeting of " California."

A bull-fight being announced, some of us re paired to the arena, to view the spectacle. We found a pretty large arena surrounded by raised and guarded wooden benches and boxes, just whitewashed enough to soil our dark clothing, On one side were some large square boards, painted over and ornamented with homely pictures of men, behind which, as I found afterwards, the bull-fighter sought shelter when hard pressed ; and all round the ring were fastened long pieces of wood, to afford him the means of climbing up out of the reach of the enraged animals, when the other retreat was not accessible. A couple of very indifferent clowns tried to be funny in the centre of the arena — one of them, a counterfeit negro, executed also a few negro dances, but nobody laughed. The Spaniards looked on as sober as judges ; and an English sailor, a little the worse for liquor, jumped down, and tried to beat the clown ; but made off amidst roars of laughter and applause when he saw the doors suddenly thrown open, expecting, of course, that nothing less than a couple of ferocious bulls, or some other wild animals, were coming in.

But the bulls were not ready yet ; and the new-comers were only two of the fighters on horseback, followed by six or eight others on foot, all attired in gaudy and glittering dresses. Behind them sneaked another figure, which was no less a person than the fiend himself, who had been promised to the public in the large posting-bills with prominent letters, as El Diabo. He was dressed in his favourite colours, yellow and red, which run in long stripes, about three inches broad, from head to foot ; he sported besides a small pair of black and tolerably soft horns, and a long pliant tail of the same colour, which dragged behind through the sand. At first, we all thought he would be one of the most valorous combatants of the whole ; but as soon as he saw the bull coming, he slipped behind one of the screens, and appeared soon afterwards close to the main entrance behind the planks, and safe enough from all danger.

One of the horsemen, clad as a Spanish knight, and bearing an extraordinary resemblance to the Emperor Napoleon, opened the battle; but the bull showed the white feather, and would not fight. A second bull was forthcoming — a little lively animal ; it soon broke one of its horns, which were all guarded by round wooden or metal balls, and was unable to prolong the contest. A little black bull followed afterwards, but worried by a numberless crowd of men, and having his dulled horns rendered nearly harmless, he did Httle to enliven the scene, and soon tired out the spectators. Finally, a kind of small pavilion, made of thin lattice-work, pasted over with red paper, and having four open doors, was raised in the arena, and in this was placed a table and chairs, with some plates and knives and forks, when the whole party of men pretended to sit down to breakfast, while another wild bull was let into the arena.

Of course he was expected to break into the pavilion, and upset the table, and scatter the banquet ; but the bull was too well-bred to do any such thing, and nothing could induce him to disturb the convivial party. The public, wearied at last at seeing none of their hopes fulfilled, and the sun, at the same time, smking lower and lower in the west, turned their attention to the nameless gentleman in the red and yellow, and demanded with loud and clamorous shouts, his appearance on the stage. But Diabo did not seem to feel the least incli nation to accept the invitation, and as the uproar continued, disappeared behind the planks. But the spectators now grew exasperated, and after a perfect revolution, the manager was obliged to bring his satanic majesty to light again. The poor devil of a devil had to come forth, nolens, volens ; and hardly did the bull get a glimpse of his red and yellow figure, than he sunk his horns and made at him.

Diabo had no time to get out of his way, and was pitched by the infuriated animal bodily to the ground. The other performers now jumped between, and succeeded at last in turning the bull's attention from his victim ; but Diabo had had enough for that night, and left as quick as he could, limping away amidst a perfect hurricane of laughter and whistling. But the spectators soon grew weary of the new bull, though when we left, ten or twelve men were still tormenting the poor beast, now nearly in the dark, for the sun had set, and night was fast drawing on. Next morning we hired horses and gallopped out of town to see the green woods and plantations. The Brazilian horses are small, but lively and persevering animals, and nearly always move in a short and easy gallop. But the merchants and planters who live in the country on their plantations, and of whom we met a great many coming to town, chiefly ride mules, which, though they do not progress as quickly as horses, certainly go more easy.

The environs of Rio are really beautiful — the quiet, mirror-like bay with its forest of masts, and the boats darting to and fro, the nice and luxuriant gardens, with their orange and coffee-trees, bananas, palms, and blossom-covered bushes ; the high picturesque mountains and rocks, which raise their rough and broken heads over each other far in the distance ; formed a picture as striking as it was lovely. The scene, moreover, was animated in the extreme ; and the white population and the slaves were equally busy. The negroes carried their bur dens to market with a merry song ; the cattle driver passed along with his wild little ponies, the merchant and planter on his mule. I felt very sorry to be obliged to depart so soon from this beautiful country, but there was no remedy. I had paid my passage to California by the ' Talis man,' but I did not like the passage round Cape Horn ; not on account of its danger, as the ship was good and new, but I shrank from the idea of being boxed up in a ship for so long a time, cut off from the world, and without the least chance of seeing anything of interest.

I thought, therefore, of going over to Buenos Ayres, and crossing the Pampas on horseback, by which I might reach Valparaiso in time to get on board the ' Talisman,' at that port, and continue my journey in her to California. But I heard such a bad account in Rio Janeiro of the Argentine Republic, that at first it made me hesitate. I was told that the people themselves were of a false, treacherous, and blood thirsty disposition, and to make matters worse, the Pampas Indians, who had lately rebelled against Rosas, were now pouring across the Pampas in wild hordes, and spreading death and desolation wherever they showed themselves. Even should I escape these savages, and gain the foot of the Cordilleras, there I would be opposed by another, and, in fact, insurmountable obstacle, as at this season of the year, the Cordilleras were " snow locked," and no human being could pass them.

In this dilemma, I remembered that when I intended, in the winter of 1838, to walk by myself from Canada to Texas, everybody told me that it would be impossible ; but I made the journey, and got well and safe back again ; and this reminiscence now determined me to pursue the route I at first proposed, regardless of the terrible stories which everywhere met my ear. Preparations I needed hardly any, as I should take only the most necessary things with me, and it was only important to be well-armed. I provided myself, therefore, with a double-barrelled gun, a brace of pistols, and my old American bowie-knife, and then found myself perfectly equipped for the Pampas. I took also a good blanket, half-a-dozen shirts and socks, and a grey woollen-hunting shirt, with high water-boots and a black broad-brimmed hat.

Luckily there was at the time a small Hamburg schooner under the flag of the Argentine Republic, lying in the bay, ready to start for Buenos Ayres. She had come in from the Cape Verd Islands, loaded with salt, only to inquire the price and be off again, if she did not sell her cargo. The captain, a German, as jovial a little fellow as ever stamped a quarter-deck, having made up his mind to seek the Buenos Ayres market, I soon agreed with him for my passage. The fourth day after my arrival at Rio, we were to sail, and I was left to enjoy myself in the meantime as much as I could. It would at that time have troubled anybody to find enjoyment in Rio, the hotels and taverns being all crowded with passengers for California, and the most extravagant prices being asked for the humblest board and lodging, though it often did not include the accommodation of a bed.