Travels of a Doctor and Madame Helfer in Syria, Mesopotamia, Burmah and other lands ... Rendered into English by Mrs. G. Sturge

Front matter

DOCTOR AND MADAME HELFER'S TRAVELS VOL. I. LONDON : miNTBD BT 8PCTTISWOODR AND CO., NKW-STREET SQCARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET TRAVELS OF DOCTOR AND MADAME HELFER IX SYRIA, MESOPOTAMIA, BURMAH AND OTHER LANDS NARRATED BY PAULINE, COUNTESS NOSTITZ {FORMERLY MADAME IIELFER), AND RENDERED INTO ENGLISH BY MRS GEOROE STURGE IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET jjublisbrrs in (OrOinari) to Btr JVtnjrstg tb/ 1878 All rights reserved PKEFACE. This unpretending work is intended as a tribute of well-deserved affection. Dr. Helfer was a young Austrian physician and naturalist, who, between the years 1830 and 1840, was impelled by an irresistible love of exploration and research to leave his country and travel in the East, until he met his death by the poisoned arrow of a savage off the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal.

Dr. Helfer had furnished reports to the East India Company, which were written and printed in English, ou his observations in India, particularly in the Tenasserim provinces, the Peninsula of Malacca, the Mergui Archipelago, and the Andamair Islands. They were afterwards translated into German by Count Marschall, in 1860, for the Imperial Geographical Society of Vienna. Most of his journals Avere unfortunately lost by shipwreck ; only a small portion of them appears in these volumes. Countess Pauline Nostitz, however, is the spirited and adventurous lady, Avho, then the Avife of Dr. Helfer, Preface. VI accompanied him in all his travels, and in these pages she now erects a monument over the grave of her first husband, the naturalist, who fell a victim to his ardent pursuit of knoAvledge. This memoir and autobiography derives increased interest from the exciting narrative of the Euphrates Expedition, under the late General, then Colonel Chesney, in which Helfer and his wife took part, as well as from the graphic and lively descriptions of the life of Oriental Avomen, into the mysteries of Avhich a lady traveller could obtain glimpses denied to a man.

We are therefore grateful to the Countess for not having longer withheld the memoirs of a meritorious Austrian naturalist and traveller, with whose destiny, during a series of eventful years, her own was bound up, and we doubt not that the public will welcome a Avork which contains so much that is instructive and entertaining. Ferdinand von Hochstetter. VlliNKA : July \V>7-1.

Preface

BT COUNTESS PAULINE NOSTITZ. Many were the exhortations that reached me, after my return from India, to publish my travels. Not only friends and acquaintances, but magnates in the scientific world, among whom were Alexander von Humboldt, and Karl Eitter, the latter publicly in his ' Geography,' have repeatedly urged me to give them to the world. But for long years I could not bring my mind to arrange my notes. Profound sadness overcame me whenever I took the pages in hand which carried me back to the past. The melancholy end obscured the bright scenes with which these memories are interwoven, and, sad at heart, I laid them aside again. There was, moreover, another reason for the delay. My husband promised Colonel Chesney, Commander of the Euphrates Expedition in 1835-6, not to publish any report of it until he had published his own.

But our share in the Expedition formed far too essential a part of our adventures to be omitted from the story of them. It was not, therefore, until Chesney 's ' Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition' appeared in 1868, that I felt released from that promise, and in a situation, by the publication of the following sketches of my beloved husband's life and travels, to raise a monument to him Preface by Countess Pauline Nostitz. VIII after his own heart, and at the same time to solace my self by the fulfilment of a sacred duty. The results of my husband's researches, which would have so greatly enriched science, are unfortunately lost. The greater part of his writings on Syria went down with the steamer Tigris in the Euphrates ; a second portion disappeared on its way to Europe, whither it was to have been conveyed in safety.

All that remains in his handwriting is a short extract from his diary, kept during the voyage doAvn the Euphrates, three scientific reports on the Tenasserim provinces and Malacca, and a number of botanical and entomological notes, but in so concise and unconnected a form, that they could only have been deciphered by himself by the aid of his excellent memory. What I have myself stated in these pages on the various races of Syria, their manners and mode of life is mainly based on cursory observations in the apartments of the Oriental Avomen, to which I had free access. The chief interest of the narrative of the voyage to India, and our residence there and in British Burmah, lies not so much in the descriptions of those countries, as in our personal adventures. Although my notes can scarcely form an essential contribution to geography or ethnology, I hope that this unpretending and faithful narrative of destinies and modes of life, not of every-day occurrence, may awaken sufficient interest in the travellers, even amongst those unknown to me, to ensure it an indulgent reception.

Countess Pauline Nostitz. NOTE BY THE TKANSLATOR. It may at first sight appear that the distance of time at which these travels were undertaken must detract from their interest ; but it has also some advantages, as it renders them to some extent historical, and has prevented too much detail in the record of them. Travelling in some parts of the East was also of course far more adventurous, especially for a lady, forty years ago than it is now. The date, however, must be borne in mind by the reader; manners and customs have doubtless changed among the English in India, as elseAvhere, and on some other subjects the state of things is very different from what it was then. More, for instance, is known of the Karens, and probably Christianity has spread to a wider extent among the Burmese than the authoress thought likely, although I believe missionaries have not found Burmah a very promising field.

The original work closed with Dr. Heifer's death, at the end of Chapter VII. of Vol. II. After the pub lication of it, the authoress was induced by the warm interest her narrative had excited in Germany, and the repeated solicitations of many friends, to publish, last year, vol. I. a Note by the Translator. X a small volume as a sequel, giving a sketch of her expe riences after her husband's death. This forms part of the present translation, from Chapter VHI. of Vol. II. to the end, as it was thought that those who had followed the fortunes of the authoress thus far cordd not fail to be interested in learning something of her subsequent history. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER PAUK I. Youth and Student Years ...... 1 II. From Prague to Smyrna. 16 III. Residence at Smyrna :i" IV. Through Beyrout to Latakieh (i(i V. Journey to Aleppo and Birejik ..... 96 VI. Excursion to the Salt Lake El-Malak . Ififi VII. With thb English Euphrates Expedition, under Colonel Chesney

Chapter I. Youth And Student Years

Johann Wilhelm Helfer was born at Prague on the 5th of February 1810. He was gifted with an active mind and an extraordinary memory, and, even in childhood, showed a special taste for the study of nature. Instead of joining in the sports of his companions, the boy occupied himself, in the spacious grounds and gardens of his parents' house, with the observation of plants and animals. In watching the various charac teristics of the latter he would amuse himself for hours together. The most minute beetles attracted his special attention — a taste which he preserved through life. From his ninth year he collected beetles and butterflies, and arranged them systematically. In the diary which he even then kept with con scientious punctuality, those were red-letter days on which he had been successful in collecting.

He invented methods of his own of collecting the smallest beetles, scarcely visible to the naked eye, from the vol. i. B shrubs and flowers, and of sifting and washing them from the decaying vegetation in the plantations. He Avas soon very expert at it, and surpassed his older companions. As he belonged to a family in good circumstances, he was allowed to cultivate his taste for music and modern languages. Music was a pleasant companion to him through life, and his fine voice and melodious phantasies on the piano made him everyAvhere Avelcome ; Avhile his unusual talent for languages Avas afterAvards of great service to him on his travels. At sixteen, he began his studies at the University of Prague. He devoted himself to medicine, the auxili ary branches of Avhich accorded with his tastes, though he had an aversion to the calling of a practising physician.

Even in his studies he followed his own devices : it was impossible to him to attend the academic lectures regularly ; monotony of every kind paralysed his mincl and repressed his energy. For weeks together he sometimes neglected to attend the lectures, thereby incurring the severe censure of the professors ; but he afterwards surprised them by passing a brilliant exami nation, having more than made up for what he had lost by cfiligent private study. The vacations were devoted to botanical and entomological excursions in Bohemia and the adjoining countries. Notwithstanding his aversion to the practice of medicine, he resolved, after his academic studies Avere finished, to attend clinical lectures at the most celebrated hospitals; for which purpose in 1830 he went to Vienna. Before this, however, he attended a meeting of German naturalists at Hamburg.

Still very young, and in no way entitled to enter the circle of savans as a Member of the Society, he succeeded, through friends, in making acquaintance with the most eminent men in his department; — a piece of good fortune to which he often recurred with pleasure. Many passages in his diary show that he was much occupied with the idea of travels in remote regions. But, singularly enough, forebodings of his fate are mingled with his projects. Thus on the 36th of Janu ary 1830, transplanted in imagination to Calcutta, and revelling in the idea of penetrating into the unexplored regions of India, he wrote in prophetic mood : ' But why draw aside the veil of futurity ? What is for my good will be allotted to me. Who knows, when I yield to the delight of dreaming of travelling in India as a naturalist, Avhether I might not start back in alarm if the future were unveiled to me ? ' His forebodings were only too surely fulfilled : — on that very day ten years, his love of research was the cause of his early and violent death.

The visit to Hamburg had a decisive influence on his after life in another respect. A curious combination of circumstances led to my first meeting with him. He who acknowledges a belief in a Hand that guides our destinies, will not fail to trace it in our involuntary meeting. Others may see only chance in it ; however that may be, it gave an undeniable direction to our lives. When Helfer, on his return from Hamburg to Prague, was about to enter the diligence at Berlin which went through Herzberg and Elsterwerda to b Dresden, he found all the seats occupied by the natural ists returning to Southern Germany. His holidays were at an end, he could not wait a day, and therefore resolved to take another diligence, which, in those days, when there were no high roads in that region, took its tedious way, twice a week, through the sands of Lusatia, by way of Baruth and Luckau to Dresden.

On that day I was intending to go, by the same opportunity, to visit a friend at Dresden. A letter from my friend, postponing my visit, had been lost while we were on a tour — the only one which we had missed. Thus, OAving to there being no room in the diligence at Berlin and the lost letter, Helfer and I, whose different positions and family circumstances Avould otherwise scarcely have made an acquaintance possible, met on our journey. I first saw Heifer's youthful and attractive form in the passengers' room in the little town of Sonnenwald, where I was Avaiting, Avith my escort, for the diligence from Luckau. When we got in, he gave me the front seat, which he had previously occupied, and took his seat opposite to me. The natural effect of a diligence dragging wearily through the sand is either to send the passengers to sleep or to make them beguile the time as best they can.

We chose the latter, and preferred to walk rather than be jolted over the roots of trees through an endless heath covered with firs ; and thus, wading in the sand and beneath the scanty shade of the stunted trees, we began the journey of life together, which was to end amidst the luxuriant verdure and under the palms of the tropics. Our conversation soon turned on Heifer's favourite schemes. Full of the impressions received at Hamburg, he spoke enthusiastically of projects of travel for the future, to which I listened with all the more attention, because from childhood I had ahvays felt the greatest interest in foreign lands, and travels were my favourite reading. Youthful enthusiasm for his pursuits lent a peculiar charm to Heifer's almost girlish appearance. I was greatly interested in his conversation, so different from that of most young men of his age.

I felt a sympathetic curiosity as to whether his schemes would ever be fulfilled. When I expressed this interest, flattered by the attention with which I had listened to him, he begged permission to inform me from time to time of what happened to him, which I readily granted. Amidst this talk Dresden was reached, Avhere we took a friendly leave, as Helfer immediately continued his journey to Prague. I little thought that this fleeting travelling acquaintance, to which I attached scarcely any importance, would have such lasting results, and was all the more agreeably surprised when, after some little time, I received Heifer's first letter. He told me that he was going to Vienna to continue his studies in practical medicine. But, accustomed to employ every leisure moment in entomological ex cursions, and not finding much booty in the neigh bourhood of Vienna, he left it before long to finish his studies at Pavia.

His talent for languages soon enabled him to graduate in Italian. In November 1832, the faculty there bestowed on him the degree of Doctor of Medicine and Surgery. Like a bird escaped from a cage, he rejoiced to be released from scholastic fetters. He longed to go southwards, where he expected to reap a rich harvest for his studies and collections. The funds at his dis posal did not allow of any extensive projects, but he would not at any price give up his neAvly-acquired liberty ; he therefore declined an offer at Milan to accompany a wealthy English family as travelling phy sician, and set out alone. Passing through Genoa, Pisa, Florence, and Eome, in January 1833 he arrived at Naples. After a short stay there he sailed for Palermo, where he was very kindly received by the Austrian Consul, and proceeded to Malta.

Here he made acquaintance with John Morgan Leader, Esq., who took a great liking to him and invited him to join his travelling party, which consisted of artists and antiquarians. Helfer returned with them to Sicily. There the young men spent a highly enjoyable time together. Helfer also gave himself for a time to social pleasures, but never lost sight of the graver purposes of his life. During this Italian journey a regular correspond ence Avas kept up between us, which, as Heifer's diaries show, was not Avithout a beneficial influence on him. His glowing descriptions of Southern Italy were received with the greatest interest by me, and my sympathy with his aims and projects acted as a spur to him to carry them out and as a preservative against the allurements by which he was surrounded. His means did not allow of his remaining longer abroad, and as he did not choose to be dependent on Mr. Leader, they parted as warm friends.

He did not, however, refuse a challenge from him to accompany him the next year on a voyage to South America, for his doubts as to his vocation for the practice of medicine had increased. After a short excursion to the island of Pantellaria and the north coast of Africa, Helfer left Palermo on the 31st of July 1833, laden with ample collections. He landed at Marseilles, and did not take the direct route home from Paris, but came to pay me a visit at Dieppe, where I was then staying. During the three years of our acquaintance we had kept up a constant correspondence, but had only once been permitted to meet for a fortnight. His life was in great danger on his way to Dieppe. The heaA-y French diligence, on which he had taken an outside seat, was overturned and Helfer was thrown on the paved road and received a severe wound in his forehead.

He arrived at Dieppe with his head bound up, but so far recovered that nothing interfered with the pleasure of our meeting. Unfortunately it only lasted for a few days. Helfer received letters from home recalling him immediately. Family circumstances had occurred, which required that he should be declared of age and assume the guardianship of his younger brothers and sisters. These events also made a sudden change in his pro spects. His duties required that he should reside at Prague, and he saw that he must settle there and practise as a physician. The greater his antipathy to this calling, the more urgently he felt the need of endearing his home by domestic happiness, and of finding in it a substitute for the wishes he had renounced. No one, in his opinion, could confer this happiness on him but myself, who had shown so much sympathy with his aspirations.

In the spring of 1834 he opened his heart to me by letter, and prayed me to be his companion for life. I was long in making up my mind, for I foresaw that sooner or later Heifer's love of travel would assert itself, and I did not wish in that case to be an obstacle. I therefore at first declined his suit, while I encouraged him not to lose sight of his special aims in life. But I must confess that this duty, as 1 thought it, required great self-command. I loved and esteemed the suitor, and to be united to him was my heart's desire. But Helfer was not to be repulsed. Sure of my affection, he persuaded me that I was necessary to his happiness ; so I consented, and our marriage was celebrated in June 1834, at Dresden. After a considerable stay with my mother and brothers and sisters, whose affection Helfer quickly gained, he took me to his charming home.

Its arrangements were just to my taste — elegant and com fortable, but not luxurious. I was as happy as I could be in this pleasant little home, and devoted myself to it heart and soul. I thought I had run into port for life. Heifer's practice soon became considerable, and he had the pleasure of success in many a difficult case. But experience of it only increased his dislike to the medical profession. At the same time he began to feel that Prague, attached as he was to his native land, was not the soil in which his mental powers could thrive. There was a spirit of caste, which was an embargo on all free social intercourse. Even the scientific men had no acquaintance beyond their official intercourse. Such a life was opposed to all Heifer's intellectual requirements. It was impossible for him to endure it long ; but, tied by twofold duties, he tried to conceal his feelings.

His secret discontent, howeArer, did not escape the eyes of a loving wife : I observed that in unguarded moments a shade of melancholy beclouded his naturally cheerful countenance, and it caused me no little anxiety. During the early days of marriage a wife is only too ready to imagine that every uneasiness in her husband concerns herself and is a symptom of waning affection. For a long time I sought in vain to discover the cause of his depression. He evaded my questions, and would not allow that he was concealing anything from me. But at last, seeing that I was hurt by his silence and that my cheerfulness was failing me, he gave vent to his feelings, and exclaimed, ' I cannot endure the fatal constraint of the life here. I long to be out in the world and in the country.' As Lot's wife, driven from her home by angels of wrath, was turned into a pillar of salt when she turned and beheld the destruction of all her soul had delighted in, so for a moment did I stand petrified and speechless when I saw the quiet, cosy, domestic life, which had become so endeared to me, in ruins.

A future of end less wandering opened before my eyes. I was certain that only in this would Helfer find satisfaction ; and at the same moment I resolved that his longings should be gratified. I would accompany him on his travels. It was a happy thing for me that the elasticity with which nature had endowed me made the sudden revulsion more easy to me, and that the comforts of our pleasant home had not extinguished my own desire to see the world. I was able to answer at once, with a smile, ' Well, then, let us travel.' It was Heifer's turn to be astonished now. ' What ! ' he exclaimed, ' Avould you really leave your native land and follow me on arduous journeys ? ' ' Why not ? ' I replied. ' You know that I am as fond of travelling as you are. I should like far better to see the world than to be buried here in the monotony of everyday life.' He still hesitated to accept the sacrifice, as he called it, and it Avas only Avhen I playfully reminded him that our first acquaintance had been made on a journey, and assured him that an adventurous fife was also to my taste, that with beaming looks he agreed to it.

We resolved to leave Prague, and travel together in distant lands. When, and whither ? To America, Africa, or Asia ? These were the next questions, considered as cheerfully as if we had been discussing a party of pleasure. Heifer's preference for Asia, which had been so little explored, the land of his youthful dreams, carried the day. A totally different direction having been laughingly given to our lives in the course of a few minutes, we now devoted our attention to the project, and the mode of carrying it out, with all the serious ness which it demanded. His idea was to acquaint himself thoroughly with particular parts of the world and to turn them to account for his collections, which would require con siderable sojourns in one place. Then he did not wish, if possible, to diminish his patrimony by so costly an undertaking as a journey in the East : he wished to acquire means for it by turning his medical knowledge to account.

According to European notions, this was a singular idea, but a plan by no means impracticable in the East, where a hakim enjoys the greatest respect and is welcomed everywhere. The staff of Esculapius is a better weapon for the European traveller, a greater protection, and a more effectual aid in difficulties, than the best revolver or the most ample means. Helfer thought Smyrna the most suitable place to gain a footing on the soil of Asia. He could acclimatise himself in this half European, half Asiatic city — trans form himself into a semi- Asiatic, — and then, if fortune favoured, penetrate farther eastward. No sooner was this plan settled, than we proceeded to carry it out. The management of the family affairs, as well as of his own property, Helfer deputed to a legal friend ; and thus released from all ties of duty, he could devote all his energies to preparation for the journey.

I had the pain of parting from my beloved mother and brothers and sisters before me, and of course wished, before so long a separation, to see them again. Although Helfer dreaded my mother's disapproval of our plans, he readily accompanied me to her estate of Zinnitz, in Lusatia. He was agreeably surprised to find that she not only did not oppose our project, but even encouraged us to carry it out. My mother, no doubt, felt the parting painful, but she did not let us see it. Endowed with a strength of mind seldom given to our sex, and, with all her affection for her children, having ahvays kept up a lively interest in passing events and the world at large, she forgot the temporary grief in her interest in Heifer's schemes. She followed us already in thought into unknown regions, and often became so deeply engrossed in it that the present was forgotten.

Helfer employed our stay at Zinnitz in carefully testing the successful homœopathic treatment of our medical man. Although he was, from his medical studies, an allopathist, he perceived the great advantage of homœopathy for countries where there are no druggists, or only bad ones, and where the most skilled allopathist is often poAverless from want of the necessary medicaments. Having convinced himself of the efficacy of homœopathic treatment, he studied it thoroughly, provided himself with a complete stock of homœopathic medicines, and thus enabled himself to treat the sick without the druggist — an invaluable power in the East, to which we were afterAvards much indebted. Accompanied by my good mother's blessing, we went first to Berlin, whither I had been summoned by the Princess Marianne, Consort of Prince Wflliam, brother of Frederic William III., that I might introduce my husband to her.

I had had the pleasure, as a young girl, of receiving great kindness from this lady, who was equally distinguished by goodness of heart and mental endowments. I had had the privilege of spend ing many morning hours with her alone in her boudoir, and owe much to her stimulating influence. She showed the greatest interest in our plans of travel. I had to engage to send her reports from time to time and especially to give her the results of my persona. observations on the condition of Christians in the East I also took leave of another no less distinguished lady in Berlin — Madame Levy, who, I am proud to say, had been a motherly friend to me. Her inter course with the distinguished men from far and near, who met at her house, had kept her mind bright up to a late age. In order to forward our project she gave us an introduction to her sister, the Baroness Eskeles, at Vienna, which, in many cases, was a real talisman to us.

This interest shown in our plans by estimable people could not fail to encourage us. We hastened back to Prague and made our preparations with great energy. As we intended to settle for a considerable time at Smyrna, we thought it desirable to take with us all portable articles for housekeeping. In the arduous task of packing these I was assisted by my faithful Lotty — a servant such as I wish every household possessed, especially every newly-founded one. Brisk and active, she performed her duties amidst singing and laughter. She surprised me one morning with a chest packed in the night, as she said she could not bear to see me troubling myself with it. One day I observed with astonishment that she was packing up her OAvn things too. When asked about it, she declared modestly, but firmly, that she was going with us, whether we Avould or not.

This was unex pected. Hoav could I have imagined this devotion in the pretty, lively girl who had only lived with us ten months ? I tried to dissuade her — represented to her the difficulties, the absence of pleasures of every kind, the impossibility of conversation even, amongst foreigners: it Avas all in vain ; she persisted that she would not leave me, not even if she were a burden to me. That, hoAvever, she could not be, for she was not only an indefatigable servant, but had become a true friend. Touched by her affection, I embraced her, and told her that I gladly accepted her offer. Great was her delight ; more diligently than ever, early and late, she pursued her labours. I cannot refrain from giving a feAv particulars of so unusual a character — our most helpful, assiduous, and ever cheerful companion.

During the war which desolated Saxony in 1813, Charlotte lost her home and parents, and, with about three hundred other orphans, was committed to the care of strangers. She was taken by a country clergyman near Leipzig and brought up with his own children. She shared their lessons, and thus received an education far above that of a servant. When the needs of a <*row ing family made the support of a stranger a burden to the pastor, she resolved to earn her own living and, recommended by friends at Dresden, entered my service. As our only servant, she performed the numerous duties required in every household, however small. After spending the morning in washing, cooking, and cleaning, and the afternoon in needlework, she employed the evening in writing to her friends, or in her diary. I should only be giving expression to my gratitude to Charlotte if I devoted more time to describing her ; but the purpose of these pages does not permit it.