Meeting the Sun: a journey all round the world, through Egypt, China, Japan, and California ... With ... heliotype and other illustrations

Front matter

MEETING THE SUN LONDON : gilbert and rivington, heliotvpe and general printers, st. John's square. W. Simpson. 1'UJIYAIIA Hcliotypc. MEETING THE SUN: A JOURNEY ALL BOUND THE WOELD, THROUGH EGYPT, CHINA, JAPAN, AND CALIFORNIA, INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE CEREMONIES OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. BV AVILLIAM SIMPSON, F.R.G.S. 5IEMBEE OF SOC. BIB. ARCHÆOLOGY; AKTIST OP THE "CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST; "INDIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN;" "THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION," ETC, ETC. WITH NUMEROUS HELIOTTPE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. ttuiioun : LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER. 1874.

Preface

. There is a parental relationship between an author and his work ; but although it is the custom, in the case of babies, to repeat names, it is found to be very awkward in the matter of books. "All Round the World" was the title first selected for this volume, but it was discovered, although only at the last moment, that the words had been before appropriated; and it became necessary, in this case, to re-christen the child, even before it was born. Among many names " Meeting the Sun " was suggested ; and being rather inclined to believe in the solar myths of the East, where much of my travelling has been, I may say that I jumped at the phrase as an improvement on the original title. To this title the older words have been added, as they are descriptive of the whole journey. To me it seemed that the new name was peculiarly applicable, for as I went eastward I was every day " Meet ing the Sun." As I reached those lands from which, as child and boy, I believed the Sun rose, I found it still

PREFACE.

. VI rising from a region beyond. I was always " Meeting the Sun." When I reached what we call in England the lands of " the Far West," where the Sun is supposed to go to rest, even there I was still travelling eastward, and still " Meeting the Sun ;" and thus the new name seems to me appropriate, and the re-christening a happy event. Most of the illustrations in this volume are repro ductions by the Heliotype process. Here I find the Sun I have been meeting "All Round the World" turning up again as a friend. At the same time I have to acknow ledge my gratitude to the proprietors of the Illustrated London News — for which I had produced the original sketches during my journey — for their kindness in allowing me to repeat the woodcuts from that journal by the above-mentioned process. The binding of this book may perhaps be the better for a slight explanation.

Yellow is the Imperial colour in China, and Red the Nuptial. As the marriage was called, in official language, " The Union of the Dragon and the Phœnix," these mythic figures are given from Chinese forms of art. An empty circle represents in Chinese symbolism Hun-ytian, or Chaos; but when the Yin-yang are added, we have the dual powers, from which Cosmos was evolved. The design contains this, and sur rounding it is the Pah-Jcioah, or the " Eight Diagrams," another symbol of an equally profound signification. PEE FACE. VII Both of these figure largely in the ancient classic works, and may be found on the tablets where these books were engraved in the Confucian Temple at Peking, where they are given as the root of the whole religious, philo sophical, and political system of the Chinese Empire.

One Chinese character is repeated twice. It is the seal character of "Shih," and is used as a symbol of happiness. Here it is given in a twin form, as it was put on almost everything connected with the Imperial marriage, as ex pressive of " double bliss." London, January, 1874. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. — Introductory ........ 1 II. — London to Venice . . . . . . . 9 III. — Venice and the Adriatic ..... 16 IV. BrINDISI AND THE MEDITERRANEAN .... 27 V. — Alexandria and Egypt ...... 36 VI. — Suez ......... 44 VII.— The Red Sea 49 VIII.— Aden . . . 75 IX.— Ceylon 80 X. — Penang and Singapore ...... 88 XI. — Hongkong ........ 99 XII.— The China Seas 107 XIII. — Tientsing and the Pejho . . . . .117 XIV— Peking 131 XV. — Marriage of the Emperor of China . . .144 XVI. — The Temple of Heaven 175 XVII. — The Emperor's Assumption of Power . . 200 XVIII. — The Audience Question ...... 210 XIX.— The Great Wall of China 228 XX.— Literature and Education in China . . . 249 XXI. — Chinese Civilization 281 XXII.— The Yang-tse-kiang 298 XXIII.— Japan 309 XXIV.-The Pacific X CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE XXV— San Francisco 347 XXVI.— The Modoc War 356 XXVI !.— The Yosemite 384 XXVIIL— Salt Lake City 394 XXIX. — The Mammoth Caves of Kentucky .... 404 XXX.— The Atlantic LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Fuji-yama ......... Frontispiece.

PAGE St. Michel, with the Perron des Encombres ..... 9 Venice ........... 16 The Casa Virgile, Bvindisi ........ 27 Pillars at the end of the Appian Way ...... 29 Breakwater at Alexandria . ....... 36 Lake Menzaleh, Suez Canal ....... 39 Breakwater at Port Said, Suez Canal ...... 40 Poop of Peninsular and Oriental Steamer . . . . .56 The Holy Carpets leaving Cairo for Mecca ..... 66 Stoke-hole of the " Ellora " 74 Point de Galle 80 Diving Boys at Singajjore ........ 98 Plan of Peking 132 Midnight Procession — The Bride's Chair . . . . .144 Imperial Marriage — The Bride's Trousseau . , . . .153 The Bride's Palace, Peking 155 Imperial Marriage — Procession from Imperial Palace to Bride's Palace 159 How the Chinese saw the Marriage . . . . . .162 Midnight Procession — The Bride's Tablet, Sceptre, and Seal . . 164 The Temple of Heaven, Peking 175 Plan of the Temple of Heaven . . . . . . .176 Altars of Burnt Sacrifice, Temple of Heaven, Peking . . .179 North Altar, Temple of Heaven, Peking 187 The House of Nails 196 A God out of Repair . . . . . . . . .198 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Sculptured Figures, Ming Tombs . . . • ■ ■ -,*>3 Great Wall of China 243 Ancient Stone Drums ...... • 250 Boys' School, Peking 254 Examination Hall, Peking ........ 256 Competing Student, Examination Hall, Peking . . . .257 Tablets with the Classic Books engraved, Hall of the Classics, Peking 261 Girls' School, Peking 264 The Peking Gazette 269 Manchoo Archers, Peking ........ 292 Chinese Pawn Shop 296 Chinese Punch .......... 306 Assassination of General Canby and Dr. Thomas by Captain Jack . 356 Indian Scalp . . . . . . . . . .364 Mount Shasta . . . . . . . . . .371 Warm Spring Indian ......... 372 Medicine Flag, found in the Lava-Beds ..... 375 The Lava-Beds . . . . . . . . . .377 Modocs in the Lava- Beds . . . . . . . .379 Captain Jack's Cave ......... 380 " Mainstake," Modoc Indian Woman ...... 383 Fallen " Big Tree," Mariposa Group A JOURNEY ALL ROUND THE WORLD.

Chapter I. Inteoductoey

" In the Name of God Glorious and Allemyghty, He that wil passe over the See, to go to the City of Jerusalem, he may go by many Weyes, bothe on See and Londe, aftre the Contree that hee cometh fro : manye of hem comen to an ende. ■ But troweth not that I wil telle zou alle the Townes and Cytees and Castelles, that Men schulle go by ; for than scholde I make to longe a Tale : but alle only summe Contrees and most princypalle Stedes, that Men schulle gone thorgh, to gon the righte Way." Such are the words with which Sir John Maundevile, Kt., begins the first chapter of his travels. Although the reference here is to Jerusalem only, yet in his Prologue he states that he was born in the " Town of Seynt Albones," and " passed the See, in the Zeer of our Lord Jesu Christ mcccxxii., in the Day of Seynt Michelle ; and hidre to have ben longe tyme over the See, and have seyn and gon throghe manye dyverse Londes, and many Pro- B vynces and Kingdomes and lies, and have passed throghe Tartarye, Percye, Ermonye, the litylle and the gret; throghe Lybye, Caldee, and a gret partie of Ethiope, throghe Amazoyne, Inde the lasse and the more, a gret partie ; and thorghe out many othere lies, that ben abouten Inde ; where dwellen many dyverse Folkes, and of dyverse Maneres and Lawes, and of dyverse Schappes of Men."

That is a large portion of the world which he says he himself visited, but he adds farther on in his " Boke " that going all round the world was not unknown even before his time. He says, "And therefore hathe it befallen many tymes of o thing that I have herd cownted, when I was zong ; how a worthie man departed somtyme from oure contrees, for to go serche the World. And so he passed Ynde, and the Yles bezonde Ynde, where be mo than 5000 Yles ; and so longe he wente be See and Londe, and so enviround the World be many seysons." As Sir John bimself performed his journeyings more than a century and a half before the time of Columbus, one has a difficulty in accepting this last quotation. The " Worthi Man " may perhaps have made a very long circuit on the " Londe and See," but it may be doubted if he completed the tour du monde as we understand it in the present day.

Still, if we are to receive the enumera tion of places given by the Knyght of Seynt Albones, it would indicate that the facilities for eastern travelling were much greater in those early centuries than what are generally supposed. He mentions " many Weyes " which were practicable in his time, but the traveller in the present day wishing to go "All Round the World" has but few routes to choose from. INTRODUCTORY. It is an old saying that " the world is wide," yet the practical lines for a journey of this sort are very limited. There is the Siberian Overland Route, — leading by St. Petersburg, Moscow, from which it goes almost straight east through Siberia to Lake Baikal ; and then there is about a month's journey south, over the Mongolian desert to Peking. This is a long, and a very serious undertaking.

It has been done, however ; and Mr. Michie's account of it is a book worth reading, entering, as it does, so fully into details. Of course there are alternative lines through Mongolia, such, for instance, as the one lately passed over by Mr. Elias ; but these are not likely to be traversed by any except geographical explorers. The only other variety of the Asian part of the route is by the Euphrates, starting from the Syrian coast at Skenderoon, perhaps better known as Alexandretta, and the traveller arrives at Bombay : where he will have a variety of routes through India. When the Shah and Baron Reuter have made railways through Persia, it may add slightly to the choice. Per haps when Russia civilizes the whole of Central Asia, it may open up a new route as far as China; but till that happy period, unless the traveller is willing, and at the same time able, to become a Dervish, or something of that sort, like Mr. Vambery, he had better not take the chances of risk in these regions.

Many attempts have been made to pass from India to China, and vice versa; but as yet no one has succeeded. The difficulties of such an enterprise are very great, not so much from the races of people, as from the physical b character of that region of the earth. These difficulties can, however, be overcome, and in evidence of this, we have perhaps one of the most wonderful of all the wonderful expeditions of modern times in the journey of the two Jesuit Missionaries, Hue and Gabet, from Peking to Lhassa. When they were ordered to leave the capital of the Great Lama, they wished to do so in the direction of Calcutta, as being by far . the nearest, and at the same time the easiest, Avay; but in vain. By a policy rigidly insisted upon by the Chinese Government, no one is allowed to pass any where along the frontiers between China and India.

When travelling in Tibet, I heard of many parties who wished to cross the frontier in that quarter, with the purpose only of having a few days' shooting of some particular animal which they wanted to bring home ; but I never knew of any one who was able to gratify his wish. One man told me that he had taken some pieces of very bright red cloth and other tempting bribes for the officials on the Chinese side, but it was all to no purpose. All who have read of Major Mont gomerie's "Pundits," and their geographical explorations in Tibet, will remember the care they took to disguise themselves, and conceal the object they had in view. It is not easy to understand why this intense jealousy should exist, but about the fact there can be no doubt. It was not so in the early centuries of our era. In the seventh century Hiouen-Thsang, a Buddhist monk, visited India.

His route may have been over the north-western extremity of the Himalayan range, for he arrived by way of Peshawer; or perhaps he came by the line which INTRODUCTORY. 5 Marco Polo at a later date followed, and which we know was in those days a route for travellers and merchandize. From Siberia to Singapore is a great distance, but between these widely-situated points there is no place where the Ordinary, or even an Extra-Ordinary, " Glob trotter" can pass. The way round the Cape of Good Hope is not yet quite given up; but it has fallen into disuse since the opening of the Suez Canal. In 1859 I made the voyage to Calcutta round the Cape in a sailing-ship ; and with the exception of a very distant view of Madeira, we saw no land all the way from Start Point to the sand-heads at the mouth of the Hooghly.

We did the passage in ninety days, which was considered to be a quick voyage ; still it is not the line which would suit Puck, whose lightning speed we all covet so much now-a-days, when he puts his "Girdle round about the earth in forty minutes." Central Africa is not likely ever to be one of the favourite routes round the world, notwithstanding the explorations of Dr. Livingstone or Sir Samuel Baker. The modern traveller who skims round the earth's surface is not an Explorer ; as a rule he belongs to the 2-enus Tourist. He has no wish to risk his neck in attempting to go over impassable peaks, or to die of hunger and thirst in the burning deserts; painted savages with heavy clubs and poisoned arrows, or, Indians with scalping-knives, are a class of society he has no desire to mix with. Jungles with tigers or venomous snakes he marks as places to be avoided.

His plan is to go round the world as comfortably as possible, not diverging from those latitudes where the best hotels are to be found. His conversation has much to do with inquiries about accommodation in steamers— as to size, safety, and quality of the table ; taking first class on the railway, where there is one, and furnished with every appliance for comfort which the Strand or Bond Street can command. By this class, what I would call the Direct Route will be generally chosen, via Egypt. Till the Euphrates Valley Railway is made there will be no other way for ordinary traffic. Any one wishing to reach Egypt by the quickest means will go by the Mont Cenis Tunnel. Speed was my object, and so I propose to take my readers by this last route. An invitation to a marriage is not, I think, looked upon as a probable source of much satisfaction.

People generally go to such ceremonies as a duty, or a sort of punishment, rather than a pleasure. There is the chance of having to make a speech, the stiff formality of having to meet people you do not know, and perhaps don't want to know. There may be relatives to en counter with whom you are not on the best of 'terms, or to whom, it may be, you have not spoken for years. You may hate the bridegroom, and will have no feeling but that of envy at his prospects of happiness. Or, if the bride herself may have excited the opposite feelinoin •your heart, in that case the ceremonies of a funeral would be far more desirable to attend and p-o through. To proceed to Peking and be at the Emperor of China's marriage did not present the prospect of having to endure any of these unpleasant sensations.

It implied INTRODUCTORY. a long journey ; but what ought to be an agreeable one. It might be called a " Marriage Trip ;" but one where, to continue the cynical tone, there would be no lady, with band-boxes aud other impedimenta to be bothered with. During the last six or seven years I "had been to a good many parts of the world where — to use Abraham Lincoln's phrase — history was being made, in connexion with the Illustrated London News — such as the Abyssinian War, Jerusalem, the opening of the Suez Canal, Œcu menical Council at Rome, the Franco-German War, the rule of the Commune in Paris, the opening of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, &c, &c. Before my connexion with that journal, I had gone through the Crimean War, wdiich included a visit to Circassia, and had made a sketching tour, which occupied about three years, in India, at the close of the Sepoy rebellion.

With all these experiences — and much of it was oriental — I was asked if I should like to go to Peking and see the ceremonies of the Emperor of China's marriage. The expedition would include anything else beside in the Flowery Land wrhich I might consider worth doing. A visit to Japan was also hinted at ; and there, as I should be so nearly half way round the globe, it might be as well to return home by the New World, and thus put a girdle round about the whole. The proposal Avas large, and the time necessary would be long, and this came into competition with other objects I had in view ; but the chance of seeing the celestials and their country, Peking and the Great Wall, Japan and the changes going on there, and to be able to add " All Round the World " to my other travels, was a temptation to me in many ways, and I succumbed.

The offer was accepted. Just before leaving, a communication from the Daily Neivs reached me, that if I should have time to send them letters from any places of special interest on my journey, and particularly about the marriage in Peking, they would be glad to receive them. It was thus that I started on my journey, as a kind of double-barrelled correspondent, or, to take an idea from Japan, a sort of two-sworded Daimio. By hard work, and to keep to the sporting metaphor, I may say that I bagged both my birds. On returning home again, friends recommended that a book should be the result ; that the letters and pictures ought to be preserved, &c. Well, here are the two birds preserved. I confess that Pictures and Books of Travel seem to me, when I have seen the people and the countries, to be all more or less like stuffed birds ; and I am conscious that mine can be no exception to the rule.

All I can say is, that in this preserved form the stuffing has been done to make them as like to nature as possible. HeWype. F,;„„ the IiTr-TtiiTi:,, London New st. miciiel witii int perron des encoubres.

Chapter II. London To Venice

In our general experience, places get fixed in the memory from events,' and I confess to a strong susceptibility in this way, and the Ludgate Hill Station of the London Chatham and Dover Railway is now associated in my mind as the starting-point of my journey round the world. Although thus memorable, at least to me, it will scarcely suit the pages of this book to introduce a com plete history of the locality. It might include the life of King Lud and the career of Sir Morton Peto, and the whole period betAveen. We will pass over all this and state that on the 5th of August, 1872 — it is as well to give dates in travelling — the night train carried me off from London. After a busy day in Paris, seeing friends, next night found me on the way to Macon, where I branched off vid Culoz and Chambery to Modane.

Near St. Michel a thunderstorm had brought down a vast mass of debris, filling up the railway tunnel and engulfing houses, so that little more than their roofs were visible. The passengers had to get out and Avalk about a quarter of a mile to reach the train on the other side. The mountains here are so steep that a thunderstorm may bring down an overwhelming mass at any time. The sketch of St. Michel, with high peak, covered with snow in winter, and of the " Perron des Encombres" towering behind, will explain as well as any description how such accidents take place. Hoav accurate in detail was Sterne ! He tells of his journey here, and it Avould faithfully describe events as they are at the present day. He says, " Let the wayworn traveller vent his complaints upon the sudden turns and dangers of your roads, your rocks, your precipices, the difficulties of getting up, the horrors of getting down, mountains impracticable, and cataracts which roll down great stones from their summits, and block up his road.

The peasants had been all day at work in removing a fragment of this kind between St. Michael and Modane." As I walked from the one train to the other I saAv them boring a hole in a great stone at the mouth of the tunnel in order to blast it, for it was far too large to be remoA7ed. In Sterne's days it was a voiture, now it is a train, a great change ; but there is no change in the character of the locality. I had spent Christmas Day of 1868 in St. Michel, and I remember it as a very pleasant time. There Avas then a small English colony composed of the gentlemen who managed the Fell Railway over Mont Cenis. We went to midnight mass on Christmas EATe in the parish church, over the altar of which is a large figure of St. Michael, the patron saint and godfather of the town, with scales in his hand, showing that he is a judge, as well as commander-in-chief of the armies of heaven.

The next evening, after dinner, the lady of the house and the whole of our party went down to the kitchen, where the servant-girl had collected a group of children from the village. They Avere performing a rondeau, in which we LONDON TO VENICE. all joined. The words were simple enough, and interested me. One verse will give a sufficient idea of them : — " Combien vendez-vous les oignons, la-Mere-la-Marionnette, Combien vendez-vous les oignons, la-Mere-la-Marion." All through the piece the lines ended with this refrain. As the song goes on the names of two persons present are introduced, and the rondeau ends with their marriage and — Un tour de France nous ferons, la-Mere-la-Marionnette, Un tour de France nous ferons, la-Mere-la-Marion." I hav7e seen a piece performed by children in Scotland almost the same in every detail, eA7en to the refrain at the end of each line, Avhich was " Merry-me-Tansie," probably a French importation of past times.

The French railway ended at that date at St. Michel, and the Fell line began. The morning after Christmas one of the gentlemen connected with the last-named line started with me, and Ave took three days to cross the Alps at this point. The first place we stopped at was Modane, the French end of the tunnel, where we inspected the process of compressing the air by Avhich the machinery for boring the tunnel was propelled. The ample stream of the valley was made to drive water-wheels ; these worked the pumps Avhich compress the air into receivers. The air was forced into about one-sixth of its own bulk, giving a pressure of eighty-four pounds to the square inch — a good high pressure. This was led into the tunnel by pipes being added as the Avork went on, and did the duty of steam in working the piercing apparatus.

The main advantage of this was not so much a saving of fuel as the ventilation of the tunnel, a point of increasing importance as the interior lengthened. Steam could not have been taken by pipes two or three miles into the tunnel, and had a boiler been used at that distance from the mouth all the smoke and gas produced would have had to be expelled. It being my plan to visit the tunnel and see the process of working from the Italian side, we did not spend much time at Mcdane. It is, however, worth noting that the principal hotel of Modane, Hotel du Lion d'Or, is the supposed locale where Sterne's Sentimental Journey comes to its sudden and strange conclusion. Any literary de\7otee wishing to visit this spot would require to stay over a train, for the hotel is at least a mile from the station.

It was beautiful crossing the top of the pass next day. We walked the most of the way. If you want to see scenery, this is by far the best mode of locomotion, and almost a necessity when sketching has to be done. Being mid-winter, it Avas all covered with snow. We looked in at the hospice where Napoleon slept, and got a glass of a delicious wine from the priest. We slept at La Grande Croix, and, being Sunday, there were many of the villagers in the hotel. They played loto, in which we joined. On asking one of the girls if that was the amusement every night, she replied, " Non, monsieur, c'est un plaisir seule ment pour le Dimanche." The answer expressed the ideas regarding Sunday obseiwance in this part of the world, and it must be recorded that they were all sober and well-behaved, a phenomenon not to be found in every part of the world.

At usa Sany one with archæological tendencies will LONDON TO A^ENICE. 13 go to the cathedral and the castle, to see an arch of the time of Cæsar in marble, in very good pre servation. From Susa it became my duty to visit Bardonneche, or Bardonecchia in Italian. It was a good day's journey, as I proposed to walk about fifteen miles, doing the rest by diligence. The route lay up the Dora. Valley, and a beautiful valley it is. I had a seat beside the driver of the diligence, and he talked all the way. I was much amused with his description of a wine produced from a vineyard he pointed out, " Un ATerre de ce Aan a-ous couperait les jambes;" one could imagine a cannon-ball cutting your legs, but it is hard to suppose such a result from a glass of wine. Still the words are very expressive of a state of drunkenness.

At Bardonneche my letters secured me access into the tunnel. At the opening there were some offices, and I was led into a room where the fitting costume was pro duced. It implied the ceremony known among the followers of the prize-ring as that of " peeling :" a pair of trowsers (after what seemed a naval pattern), a blouse, and then one of those hats with a long peak behind, which one only recollects through Seymour's caricatures of coal-heavers of a past generation ; then a blanket was put into my hands, and I was led out where a green painted waggon was waiting. In this I was driven into the tunnel. At that time the Italian end was the furthest advanced, but there were still two or three miles of solid granite to cut through. Nearly four miles of tunnel had to be passed before reaching the work.

I remember at last reaching the \7ery end, where the rods Avere banging away under the impulse of eighty-four pounds on the square inch, and I felt that I was looking upon a much greater "passage of the Alps" than any that had yet taken place. As I saw the process going on, the desire arose to be pre sent when the first opening should appear between the tAvo sides. Had I been a Napoleon or a Victor Emmanuel, the wish might have been gratified ; as it was, I realized it in part. I was at the opening ceremonies and went through with the first train on the 17th of September, 1871. On that occasion the train was long and Avent slow, taking forty minutes, though the distance is only about eight miles. Last August the time was only twenty-one minutes, and there was no smoke nor any of the disagreeables which French authorities had prophesied ; for it must be under stood that the Mont Cenis tunnel Avas wholly an Italian enterprise, and opposed to French interests, and hence the many myths respecting it AA7hile in progress, and even since it has been in working order.