Orient and Occident: a journey east from Lahore to Liverpool ... With illustrations, etc

Front matter

STREET OF BENEVOLENCE AND LOVE, CANTON. ORIENT AND OCCIDENT A JOURNEY EAST From Lahore to Liverpool, BY MAJOR-GENERAL R, C. W. REVELEY MITFORD, Author of " To Cabul with the Cavalry Brigade." WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR. it on turn : W. H. ALLEN & Co., 13, WATERLOO PLACE. "\JDCCCLXXXVIII. " 1 shall tell you A pretty tale ; it may be you have heard it. " But, since it 9erves my purpose, I will venture •• To scale't a little more." Coriolanus. Act l, Scene I. CONTENTS. Chapter I. — INDIA. page Lahore — Lucknow — Benares — Calcutta ... ... i Chapter II. — AT SEA. The Hooghly — Penang — Singapore — The " City of Fragrant Streams." ... ... ... ... 17 Chapter III.— CHINA. Hongkong — The Hotel — The Theatre — Victoria Peak — The Happy Valley ... ... ... 34 Chapter IV.— CHINA. Canton — The River — The City — Shops, Temples, and Pagodas — Fortifications — Horrors — Chinese Ladies ... ... ... ... ... 55 Chapter V.— JAPAN.

Nagasaki — The People — The Town — The Flowers — Pappenberg — The Inland Sea ... ... 83 Chapter VI.— JAPAN. Kobe — Arima — Hot Baths — Our First Tea House — Shops and Sights — Kioto ... ... ... 97 Chapter VII.— JAPAN. Ceramics — Embroideries — Bronzes — Theatres — Lake Biwa — Exhibition ... ... ... Chapter VIII.— JAPAN. Osaka — Nara — Daiboots — At Sea again ... ... 131 Chapter IX.— JAPAN. Yokohama — The Peerless Mountain — Nikko — Chiuzenji... ... ... ... ... ... 146 Chapter X.— JAPAN. Rough Travelling — Ikao — Tokio — Fetes — Tea ... 164 Chapter XL— JAPAN. The Tokaido — Miyanoshta and its Neighbourhood — Enoshima — Kamakura — A Japanese Fairy Tale 178 Chapter XII.— JAPAN. Tokio — The Castle — Asaksa — Varuna — Entertainments — Farewell to Japan ... ... ... 199 Chapter XIII.— CALIFORNIA. Pacific Ocean — San Francisco — The Palace Hotel — The Fire Brigade — Railway Peculiarities... 217 Chapter XIV.— CALIFORNIA.

The Yosemite Valley — The Big Trees — The Grand Army — A Ranche — Monterey... ... ... 237 Chapter XV.— THE STATES. San Francisco to Lake Tahoe — Tallack — Across the Desert — Salt Lake City — The Mormons at Home ... ... ... ... ... ... 264 Chapter XVI.— THE STATES. The Rockies — Manitou — Colorado Springs — Denver — Chicago ... ... ... ... 284 Chapter XVIL— CANADA. Niagara — Toronto — The St. Lawrence — Montreal Quebec Chapter XVIII.— THE STATES. Lake Champlain and Lake George — Saratoga — The Hudson — Arrival at New York — Boston 320 Chapter XIX.— NEW YORK. The City — Brooklyn — The Harbour — The Stock Exchange — The " Wild West " — Farewell to America — Home! ... ... ... ... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. A Street in Canton ... ... ... frontispiece. Tomb of Runjeet Singh ... ... ... .. 3 City Gate, Lahore ... ... ... ... 4 Scindiah's Ghat, Benares ... ... ... ... 12 Scene on the Ganges below Calcutta ... ... 19 Cocos Isles ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Penang, from the ship ... . ... ... ... 22 Singapore Harbour ... ... ... ... ... 24 The Traveller's Joy ... ... ... ... 26 A Chinese Sedan-chair ... ... ... ... 35 The Theatre, Hongkong... ... ... ... 40 A Theatrical General ... ... ... ... 43 The Hero ... ... ... ... ... ... 45 Hongkong Harbour ... ... ... ... ... 49 Victoria Peak from Kowloon ... ... ... 53 Hongkong Police ... ... ... ... ... 54 Canton River ... ... ... ... ... 56 Temple Gateway, Canton 70 A Slipper-boat 80 Japanese Flower-seller ... ... ... ... 88 " La Haute Politesse " ... ... ... ... 90 The Bronze Horse ...

Chapter I. India

LAHORE LUCKNOW BENARES CALCUTTA. HE cold weather of 1885-86 was nearly over, and the troops which had gone to the great Camp at Delhi from the Upper Punjab and Trans-Indus had all passed back again by road or rail when we started from Lahore on our long-contemplated tour, which was to complete our journey round the world, and take us back to old England by routes hitherto little travelled, and which consequently added the charm of the unknown to the novelty of the unseen. What a contrast Lahore presents now to my first experience of it, more than thirty years ago ! Then there were mud walls and thatched roofs, where now rise fine public and private buildings of burnt brick E LAHORE. or grey sandstone — then there were few trees and no grass, where now are stately avenues and beautiful lawns and gardens — then the toys of the Sikh youngsters were wooden sword and shield, to be soon exchanged for steel and buffalo-hide ; now they play with pen and ink. and their one ambition is wealth — then the only means of reaching Lahore were marching, or slowly creeping along the dusty road in a " dooly " ; now the iron horse has not only reached Lahore, but even far Peshawur — then an English letter was six weeks or more on the road, while now it accomplishes its journey in three.

One thing only is unchanged ; the dreary, dismal canton ment of Meean Meer, with its baking hot weather and oven-like barracks, its boiling rainy-season and marrow-chilling winter, its sorry bungalows and brackish water, is still the dread of every regiment in the Bengal Presidency — with what good reason its teeming grave-yards and overflowing hospitals too sadly show. It can boast of the finest church and the most prosperous cemetery in India ! Tradition asserts that " Old Charley Napier," who selected the site for the cantonments, rode out one morning for the purpose, and that his favourite horse stumbled while cantering over the deserted Mahommedan grave-yard at Meean Meer. The hot-tempered old warrior swore he would go no farther, so this deadly TOME OP MAHARAJA RU.NJEET SINGH, LAHORE.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 3 spot became the home (in too many cases the last ! ) ofthe chief garrison ofthe Punjab. Lahore is one of the very few places in India in which any permanent trace of our occupancy would remain fifty years hence, supposing we were to leave the country to-morrow ; here the record would be kept by the fine cathedral which is rapidly approach ing completion under the fostering care and personal supervision ofthe Bishop ofthe Diocese, Dr. French, whose own career in the country is one long story of Christian courage and noble self-sacrifice. This building will divide the interest of future visitors with the old fort in the city, though I fear our western architecture cannot vie in beauty of conception or magnificence of material with the shrines enclosed in those battlemented walls.

The " Jumma Musjid," or Great Mosque, the beautiful armory, and, chief of all, the fairy-like tomb of Runjeet Sing, with its marble domes and gilded spires, mark an era in Indian architecture whose most glorious culmination is seen in the Jumma Musjid at Delhi and the unapproach able Taj Mahal at Agra. It is painful to turn from these grand edifices to the railway station, which, though well and solidly constructed of red sandstone, presents to the eye a hideous mixture of Eastern and Western styles — Norman towers and Indian minarets — the gateway of a county jail with the B of a Hindoo temple — a : -r-ss without „:;„.;.- .--:;^::: :: H ' -'- er. : st :; :: :r? uncouth appearance, it answers its purpose as a commodious and even comfortable point of departure. r going through the tedious ceremonies of takin-; i cfcets sigxisJ by the booking-office Baboo ! and booking luggage, we settled ourselves in the carriage, and at 6.1S p.m. a puff and snort from the e announced that we had actually started on oof long journey, taking with us from Meean Station the valued good wishes of old and dear frier: is.

We had plenty of room in the first class, but the second-class carriages are frequently, and the third- - always, crowded with nal - though by no means of the poorest orders. Many of the richest bankers and shop-keepers use them in order to save a small sum : while, on the other hand, chiefs like Holkar, Scindia and other princes, have their private saloon-carriages, and often engage special trains as well. The varied scenes at the different stations are always interesting and amusing: the brilliant colours of turbans and robes, quaint and cumbrous bundles of bedding or clothes, bedsteads, chairs, stacks of sugar-cane, hawkers cakes, fruit, or sweetmeats, shoes or slippers, brass ware or wood carvings, make an everchanging THE MOCHI-DUHWAZAH, LAHORE. RAILWAY TRAVELLING. 5 kaleidoscope by day ; while at night the never ceasing crowd stumbles about on the platforms under meagre oil-lamps placed at long intervals, that only make the darkness more felt ; and by day or night the harsh native voices, shouting to know where " brother Ram Singh," or " Imam Bux — ah !

" has hidden himself, form a varied chorus in thorough keeping with the motley sight. I must say that our Indian subjects are wonderfully amenable to authority, and the head-man of a village, the owner of many rupees and acres, will allow himself to be pushed and pulled, ranted and raved at, by a jack-in-office holding the same position as an English porter ; but let the " chuprassies," as they are called, beware of a native soldier ! He is a " servant of the Queen," and heartily despises all who do not wear our Sovereign's uniform. We are off at last, and soon darkness sets in, and we make ourselves comfortable for the night. This consists in spreading blankets, sheets, and " rezais," or quilts, on the broad cushioned seats which slide out six or eight inches from the side so as to make wider couches, while others let down from the roof and form upper berths.

This is really the most comfortable way of travelling by night which I have ever met with, and is greatly superior to the much- SIKH PROPHECY. vaunted but insufferably stuffy Pullman sleeping cars used in America. The line as far as Saharunpore was very shaky from need of fresh ballasting — by-the-bye there is a strange story about the ballast used on this line. During the sanguinary conflicts between the Sikhs and Mussulmans, when the latter endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to crush the strange new faith, the two sons of one of the chief Gooroos, or religious leaders of the Sikhs, were given as hostages to the Mussulmans, by whom they were perfidiously put to death in the great city of Sirhind, not far from Umballa. When the news of their murder reached the Gooroo, he rose up in wrath and anguish and cursed the Mussulmans, saying that their power should be destroyed by a nation from beyond the sea, who would scatter the bricks of Sirhind from the Sutlej to the Indus.

At Delhi, in 1857, the English " from beyond the sea," destroyed the last remnant of Mussulman rule in India ; but the latter part of the prediction seemed as far from fulfilment as ever, (though our Sikh soldiers, when passing Sirhind on the march or on furlough, would always carry away a few bricks to throw on the road,) when in 1868, while the railway was being made from Umballa, close to the Sutlej, to Lahore, it was decided to use the ruins of Sirhind as ballast, and LUCKNOW. 7 the material was found sufficient to continue the line to Attock on the Indus. Thus the Gooroo's prediction has been literally carried out ! Passing Saharunpore with its famous mango-groves and horticultural gardens, Meerut, Allyghur, and other large cantonments and civil stations, including Cawnpore of sad and bloody memory, we at length reached our first resting-place, Lucknow.

Here a visit was paid to the grave of one of England's noblest sons and greatest soldier-heroes — llodson of Hodson's Horse — and we were much pleased to find this and other graves of those who fell during the siege in excellent order, each tomb surrounded on three sides by brick walls, the fourth, or front being filled in by an iron railing or wall with iron gate. Triple rows of palm-trees have been planted round each enclosure, and were now about a foot high. I hope others who, like myself, take a deep personal interest in these hallowed spots, may read these lines and know that the municipality of Lucknow shows such a just appreciation of those who died for their country in her hour of danger. The grave with which we were especially concerned is on the edge of the Martiniere park, and near the palace-tomb called La Martiniere after its builder, Claude Martine, who made a fortune in the service of the old Kings of Oude.

This fantastic building LUCKNOW. presents a curious mixture of Mussulman and Italian architecture, and consists of a central domed hall like a mosque, under which repose the bones of the founder, and two large wings semi-circular in shape, the facade ornamented by plaster casts of Roman and Grecian statues. It is approached by a broad flight of steps with lions at the angles of the balustrades, and reminds the visitor somewhat of St. Peter's at Rome. In front of the building is a large tank, from the centre of which rises a tall column as a special memorial of Claude Martine, who also left a considerable sum of money to endow a school for Eurasian children. This good work is still carried on in his palace under very able supervision, and many lads are annually sent into Government employ or private trade, with sound educations and fair chances of success in life.

We next visited the Wingfield Park, a public garden well laid out with verdant lawns, bright flower-beds, trees and shrubs. It was difficult to believe that this and other park-like open spaces, looking so green and peaceful now, had been occupied by the closely-packed, squalid huts and murderous scoundrels through whose midst I had often ridden during and after the siege in 1858. The famous Residency buildings have, with good taste, been preserved intact, save for a stanchion THE RESIDENCY. 9 here and there to support a falling arch or crumbling wall ; but the surrounding grounds are laid out in lawns and flower-beds and most carefully tended ; their trim beauty forms a strong contrast to the grim and war-worn ruins which looked down on the suffering and slaughter of so many brave men and noble women.

The marks of cannon-shot and bullet are thickly spread over and through the masonry ; and though much of the buildings is now clothed with creepers, enough still remains bare to show many a sign of the fierce struggle between the loyal few and the rebellious many — one side urged on by maddening lust and religious fury, the other grimly fighting for more than life, for the glory of our country and the honour of our women. Tablets let into the walls record the chief events of that ever-memorable defence on the very spots where they occurred : one shows the room in which good and brave Sir Henry Lawrence received his death-wound ; another points out the " tykhana," or underground cellar-like apartment in which the soldiers' wives of H.M.'s 32nd Regiment were placed for safety, though even here the deadly missiles found their victims, as is shown by the stones in the neighbouring cemetery, where the deaths from shot and shell of loving wives and sisters, of young mothers and tender babes, are all too frequently recorded.

It is a place filled with LUCKNOW. sad and noble memories of untold suffering and unrewarded heroism ; perhaps the most touching of all the epitaphs is the short, modest, soldierly line which, at his own request, alone marks the leader's tomb : " Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty." The chief public buildings of the King's time are in thorough repair, and infinitely cleaner than they ever were under their former masters ! Many are occupied by the Government, and one of the chief palaces, the Furhad Buksh, is used as a museum, where can be seen in carefully arranged cases specimens of local produce, handiwork and art ; the latter principally consist of poor imitations of Cashmere silver-gilt ware, and very good clay models of natives, fruit, leaves, &c. The royal emblem, which may be heraldically described as " two fish rampant," is seen on all the buildings, especially on the great Imambara in the Hooseinabad quarter, where also are found many of the royal standards — gilt or golden hands mounted on staves, like the old Roman eagles, and carried in front of the King on state occasions.

In this Imambara is an immense room, said to possess the widest flat ceiling, unsupported by pillars, in the world ; in the centre of the marble pavement are the representations of the tombs of Hussun and CHANGES. 11 Hoossein, the two sons of the Prophet killed at Kerbela ; these are covered with plates of solid silver, as also are the small table or stool for the Koran, and the pulpit from which the officiating priest thunders the dogmas of Mahomed. Near the silver railing which surrounds the tombs stand several very handsome candelabra of the same metal, offerings of the Mussulman grandees of Oude. The iron and stone bridges over the river Goomtee still remain, but the bridge of boats has disappeared, and in its stead (emblem of the new dispensation !) a massive railway-viaduct spans the stream, and stretches its arches over the low-lying ground on the left bank.

Other significant changes have also taken place : the Chutter Munzil Palace is now the Lucknow Club ; the enclosure of Secundra Bagh where over two thousand mutineers lay dead after the fierce onslaught of the 93rd Highlanders and Sikhs, is now a quiet corner for a picnic ; the wide dome ofthe Shah Nujjuf which re-echoed the shouts of Peel's victorious tars, now repeats the Moollah's murmured prayers ; and the corridors of the Kaiser Bagh, the royal palace of the King, deserted by their crowds of courtiers, nobles, jugglers, and courtezans, are rarely trodden save by the foot of some native care-taker or European traveller. After revisiting as many of the points of interest BENARES. as our time permitted, we quitted Hill's comfortable hotel, and started again by rail via Fyzabad, or Ajoodhia, the ancient capital of Oude, for Benares.

The train proceeded smoothly but slowly, so that we had ample time to glance at the many royal or saintly tombs, stately domes, graceful minarets and ruined mosques which are thickly scattered along the route, especially round Fyzabad itself, where they form beautiful pictures with back-grounds of fine tamarind-trees for which the locality is famous. Night soon came on, and when we again looked out at early dawn, it was to see the Hindoo spires of the Holy City instead of the Mussulman domes of Lucknow. The people of Benares are the very reverse of the "Great Unwashed," judging firom the countless swarms of bathers on the banks of the sacred Ganges, though I hardly think that washing in such muddy water can be altogether conducive to cleanliness ! The best view of the city is from the opposite (right) bank of the river, as seen by the traveller arriving from Calcutta and Allahabad.

For about a mile the northern (left) shore is considerably raised, so that the city appears to stand on a hill, and its river-face is buttressed by an almost unbroken succession of flights of stone steps descending from the town above to the water's edge, and forming the celebrated SCINBIA'S GHAT AND THE MUSSULMAN MOSQUE, BENARES. THE GHATS. 13 " Ghats." Above these steps tower the spires of many temples devoted to different members of the Hindoo Pantheon, some perfectly plain, others profusely carved and ornamented, whilst at frequent intervals the religious character of the buildings is profanely though most picturesquely broken by the intrusion of a noble's palace, or a wealthy banker's summer-house built out into, and frequently over hanging, the sacred stream ; these buildings, differing in style of architecture, material and colour, add their ever-varying effects to the scene — masonry, stucco, stone, and marble — red, white, blue, rich brown and lavish gold appear to vie with each other in producing a bewildering yet entrancing coup d'ceil on which we should never tire of gazing, did not the heat and glare of the sun drive us to seek cool rooms and shady verandahs.

At the Burning-Ghats, which are places specially set aside for purpose of cremation, are abundant stacks of wood, and attendants well skilled in the art of human cookery ; we saw several pyres in full blaze while the mourners sat round and discussed the virtues of the deceased, or, more probably, the amount of his estate. This holiest city of the Hindoos is characteristically dominated by a Mahomedan mosque, whose graceful minarets and swelling domes rise conspicuously above BENARES. the spires of the pagan temples ; certainly when the followers of the Prophet conquered a city they took good care to publish the fact, and admitted no doubt as to who had the upper hand ! It is a great pity that we do not learn the lesson from them. The river-side palaces are generally too new-looking ; and Scindia's, the finest of them all, shows this want of mellowness most conspicuously, even more than the handsome, but still newer Queen's College further inland.

Men and women bathe together indiscrimi nately, the brilliant dresses of the latter adding much to the beauty of the scene. Many large house-boats, called " budgerows," are moored along the bank, which is further ornamented (?) by fields of huge mushrooms ; on closer inspection, these turn out to be umbrellas of matting, under which the bathers sit and smoke between their dips. Many perform their ablutions on wooden piers projecting into the water, but these are probably residents ; most of the pilgrims prefer to stand in the sacred but muddy stream, where with closed eyes they mutter prayers to holy Mother Gunga, dashing handfuls of water over-head and chest to emphasize their invocations. The Rajah of Umraoti's bathing-ghat is flanked by two peculiar stone erections with projecting beaks, like the ancient Greek rostra ; Gao Ghat is so called from the stone figure of Siva's bull, "gao," which is CALCUTTA. 15 placed on the top step, and all the buildings are enlivened by the flights of blue pigeons, which nest in the holes left by the scaffold-poles, when these are not stopped up by nail-headed bosses of stone, projecting diamond-shaped from the walls.

Very few trees are visible, and these are invariably the sacred banyan. At some of the ghats are stacks of the red sandstone slabs used for facing the buildings. Near the lower (eastern) end of the town is a very graceful white temple, and a short way above it is a peculiar red one, built by the father ofthe infamous Nana. As the railway bridge was not yet open for traffic, we crossed the river by a bridge of boats, in itself one of the most peculiar and picturesque objects in an Indian river scene, and reached the railway station on the south bank ; this view of the city reminded us of Malta. From Benares an uninteresting railway journev of nearly twenty-four hours took us to the terminus at Howrah, and a short drive across the Hooghly Bridge landed us in Calcutta on the morning of March 13th.

We soon plunged into the divertissements of the capital. Fortunately the weather, though most unpleasantly hot, was not absolutely killing, and several sharp storms of wind and rain brought temporary relief. The view of Calcutta from the large park-like " Maidan" (Anglice, "pi .in,") is very CALCUTTA. striking. The wide stream of the Hooghly crowded with shipping stretches along one side of the green turfed expanse, with the barracks and bastions of Fort William to break the line of middle-distance ; next the fine buildings of the Bank of Bengal and Government offices show above the trees, with the long pillared front and domed roof of Government House as a central object ; thence the deep verandahs and walled gardens of Chowringhee (the fashionable quarter,) carry the eye to the tall spire of the Cathedral, rising from a fine group of trees at the end of the Maidan opposite to Government House ; near the Cathedral frowns the heavy block of moated masonry known as the Central Jail, and a line of trees forms a connecting link with the foliage on the river bank, and completes the panorama.

Chapter II. At Sea

THE HOOGHLY FAREWELL TO INDIA PENANG SINGAPORE. |p?p|SS3 UR preparations and other business occupied iwMi a fortnight, and it was not till the 28th iSfe-g^B. that we found ourselves on board the Taisang, and realised that we were bidding farewell to India. Our vessel was one of Jardine Mathison & Co.'s opium steamers, and was very comfortably fitted and well found ; her captain and other officers were pleasant companions and thorough sailors ; and, last but by no means least, she owned a bull-dog of most ferocious appearance and amiable temper. I say " she " owned the dog, for he did not seem to belong to anyone in particular, and only had Taisang on his collar. At 9 a.m. we left our moorings, and c GREAT CYCLONE. slowly steamed down the crowded river, the last sound audible from the city being that of the church bells ringing for the Sunday morning service.

We first passed Fort William on our left, the heavy guns frowning through the green-turfed embrasures, and the Union Jack waving from the flagstaff overhead. On our right lay the gorgeous flower-beds and tall palm-trees of the Botanical Gardens, where grows the largest banyan-tree in the world, though its mighty spread was sadly diminished by the great cyclone which visited Calcutta in 1864, destroying buildings, sinking vessels, tearing up trees by the roots, and hurling huge ships out of the river on to the mainland ; I remember a photograph of the P. and O. steam-ship Bengal lying high and dry in a field into which she had been carried over an embankment by the raging force of the wind, and out of which she had to be dug by hundreds of coolies with spades and mattocks. After passing the Gardens, attention was again diverted to the left bank by the gaudily-painted walls and fantastic gilt ornaments and kiosks of the King Oude's Palace, where that dethroned potentate led a life of effeminate debauchery in the midst of a rabble of courtiers, servants, and hangers-on of every shade of rascality.

This group of buildings was the Alsatia of Calcutta, the resort of every scoundrel who had ON THE HOOGHLEY, BELOW CALCUTTA. THE HOOGHLY. 19 reason to dread the police, and the consequence was that almost all the magnificent houses in the neighbouring suburb of Garden Reach were standing empty, though they used formerly to be the favorite residences of the official and mercantile grandees. While passing the palace we noticed several large flights of pigeons circling over its pinnacles ; these were great pets of the ex- King, and were regularly drilled by their keepers, advancing, wheeling, retiring, dispersing, and re-forming by word of command. It is said that a " field day " with 'these aerial troops was the only lure which could tempt the tottering old sensualist beyond the walls of his harem.

The ships decreased in numbers as we left the city farther behind us, hut we still passed crowds of barges for river navigation, all well protected by awnings ; also picturesque native boats with high poops and mat-built cabins, carrying maize, plantains and pump kins from the fertile but feverish Soonderbuns at the mouth of the river to the metropolitan market. Dark ness came on as we approached the wide mouth of the Hooghly, and we anchored for the night, as here were many dangers from treacherous current and from shifting sand. Next morning we weighed anchor at daylight, and stood out to sea ; nothing occured to break the restful monotony of the voyage down the Bay of Ben- C YOUNG CHINA. 20 gal until the 31st, when we passed the palm-covered shores of the Cocos Isles, an outlying part of the Andaman group, and our last glimpse of " India's coral strand."

Amongst our first-class passengers was a young Chinese merchant belonging to a Penang firm with three branch houses in Calcutta, trading in opium, saltpetre, and nutmegs. He wore his pigtail coiled round his head like a " basket-plait," was very quiet and unobtrusive, smoked horribly rank cigars, and read an extremely difficult melodrama with the frequent aid of an English dictionary, as the poor boy said that most of the words were " velly hard." I once asked him whether he still adhered to the religion of his ancestors ; his replv would have annihilated a missionary, it was, " We used to practise the Buddhist religion, but now that we have become civilized we have none I " By-the-bye, we always spoke of him as a boy, but found afterwards that he was a middle-aged man with a large family.

The diminutive stature, smooth faces, and delicate features of many of the upper class Chinese make them look absurdly young. The sea was calm and oily-looking and the heat oppressive until the 2nd of April, when we had heavy rain with thunder and high wind ; at 7 o'clock the next morning we anchored in Penang harbour, and COCOS JSLE. — LAST GLIMPSF, OF INDIA, PENANG. 21 the crew were busy and noisy taking in cargo up to midnight. The full name of this place is " Pulo Penang," which in Malay means " Beech-nut Island." It is fifteen miles along by nine in width, and rises in the centre to a height of 3,000 feet, forming a wood-crowned hill on which the European inhabitants have their dwellings, the business offices being in the town below : their houses are all of wood, and are raised several feet from the ground on piles — partly on account of the damp, and partly to prevent the inroads of snakes, scorpions, and other unwelcome visitors, of which the island contains a "large and varied assortment."