Peeps at the Far East. A familiar account of a visit to India

Front matter

THE TAJ, AGRA.

PEEPS AT THE FAR EAST gt Jfaintlt'ar Account of a Utstt to In&ta

By NORMAN

Preface

These reminiscences first appeared in the pages of “ Good Words,” and are now republished with several additions and alterations. In determining to write them at all, mjr desire was to increase the interest of people at home in that great country placed by Providence under the British Crown, and in the noble and trying labours there of so many of our countrymen ; and also to quicken a sense of our individual duty to aid to • the utmost of our power — if by intelligent sympathy only — in advancing the true civilisation of two hundred millions of the human race.

The object of my journey with Dr. Watson was to report to the Church of Scotland regarding her missions in India. That comparatively little is said here upon this subject, is due to the fact that it has been fully dealt with by both of us in other forms for the information of those who sent us. In these pages I confine myself to such topics as could not well find a place in an official Missionary Report.

I must here express my obligations to Messrs. Shepherd and Bourne, of Calcutta, for the right kindly accorded to me to copy from their large and splendid series of photographs — the best that exists of Bengal ;* and also to Mr. Grant for the privilege of making use of the fine pictures in his two interesting volumes,

“ Anglo-Indian Domestic Life,” and “ Rural Life in Bengal.” f

* Marion and Co., London.

t Thacker and Co., London.

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Contents

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I. EASTWARD HO! 1

II. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BOMBAY 19

I. Eastward Ho!

TX7HEN I sailed “Eastward” for the ’ ' first time, I went for mere pleasure, if by such a holiday phrase one can allude to a tour in Palestine. I said, when I published an account of my journey, that I did not go in gown and bands, with official responsibility, or with any weighty matters on hand to compel me to “ mark, learn, and inwardly digest.” But nothing, I feel, could have induced me to go to India on a tour of mere pleasure. As, however, the grounds for this feeling are wholly personal, arising out of many peculiar circumstances which do not concern the reader, they need not be stated. He must not suppose, however, that I consider India as being unworthy of a visit by the traveller for its own sake. Enough to state here that my Church did me the honour to request me to visit India, to inquire into the true state and prospects of Christian missions there, with special reference to those of the Church of Scotland, and that I felt it to be my duty, at all hazards, to accept the commission. Dr. Watson, an old and dear friend, was my fellow- deputy,

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and we sailed together from Marseilles on the 6th of November,

Just one word more of a semi-personal nature. I give these sketches, not in the formal character of the deputy from a Clrurch, but in the less dignified, although much more easy and untrammelled, character of the mere traveller. The weightier results of the tour, with details bearing on missions, have been given in other forms.* Nevertheless, the subject which most engaged my attention will naturally he touched upon now and again in these papers.

We chose the overland passage, and at Marseilles joined the Tanjorc for Malta. Our captain, like all his brother commanders under whom I have had the pleasure of sailing, was worthy of his ship and of the famous Peninsular and Oriental line to which she belonged. lie was good and kind as a man, and able as an officer. As far as I know, justice has not been done to the beauties of this route. It is looked upon very much as a mere drudgery, to he got over as speedily and as sulkily as possible. No doubt the journey to Marseilles is a long and tiresome one, but the scenery is extremely beautiful between Avignon and Marseilles, where, ever and anon, there are delightful glimpses of the Rhone, and views of the enclosing hills. Again, on leaving Marseilles the coast scenery towards Toulon is very fine, with the wild bare islands scattered, broken, and worn into strangest shapes bv the ceaseless attacks of winds and waves. And farther on, the Straits of Bonifacio are themselves worth a visit. Corsica reminds me of Arran in its general character. Both it and Sardinia, in their rugged boldness, their jagged peaks, and the broken, fantastic forms of their sky-line, are not surpassed by anything in our Western Highlands. I enjoyed the scene immensely, and not the

* “Address on Indian Missions” (Blackwood and Sons, Is.); Unpublished Report made to the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland.

less so from getting an excellent view of Caprera, and of Garibaldi’s home. It is a lonely spot, but I gazed on it witb affectionate interest, and witb as much respect as on any palace upon earth. The General was absent, seeking to gain Rome for Italy. When the Eternal City shall be free, and this chapter of the long history of Italy comes to be read by future generations, I venture to think that no man now in Rome, be he priest or abbot, Monsignor, Cardinal, or Pope, will excite as much interest or inspire as much respect as the poor exile of Caprera.

We passed Sicily with all sails set, and followed by a delicious breeze. Here again was a coast view of great beauty, with fine mountains, whose green sides, as well as the plains at their feet, were dotted with white hamlets and villages. Several islands broke the ocean line seawards.

Sailing in mild weather amid such scenes of beauty, with a large number of cheerful passengers to share the enjoyment, the overland journey is not the dull, monotonous affair which people going abroad for the first time assume it to be. It must be confessed, however, that our steamer was a wonderful adept in rolling, and this was not by any means agreeable to the miserable minority subject to sea-sickness. Nor was it less trying to myself or to my friend when we preached on deck upon Sunday. To be obliged suddenly to pause and embrace the capstan, or if not this, to roll in one’s canonicals under the lee bulwarks, looks undignified to a landsman. But at sea it excites only a good-natured smile of sympathy, and does not lessen the seriousness which I think almost every one feels during a Sunday service on shipboard.

As is my habit when at sea, I preached in the forecastle to the Jacks, whom I had all to myself, and whom I always like for an audience. One requires to know Jack thoroughly to appreciate him. There is a singular tenderness under his apparently rough nature. Our boatswain, an old man-of-war’s man, was

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a fair specimen of his class. Between forty and fifty years of age, he was short, round, and strong, like the stump of a mainmast. He had grizzly locks, and a voice which I believe would be heard above the loudest storm just as well as his shrill twittering whistle. From the way in which he issued the simplest orders to the crew, one would have supposed him to be in a constant passion. To slack or haul in a brace, or to set a foretopsail, seemed to inspire him with a wrath which nothing could appease. Indeed, a novice might have conjectured that the crew were ticket- of- leave men. But one day when he was in the midst of what seemed ungovernable fury, I noticed that he paused as he passed the goat, and, catching its white beard, stroked its face, with a gentle “ Chucky, chuck}', old Nan 1 ” On another occasion I saw him rolling along the deck, each arm moving like a turtle’s fin, when a little child, carried in a nurse’s arms, not only arrested him, but seemed to avert all his choler, while he smiled and cooed to the “ little darling,” gazing at the infant as an old black seal might look at a bit of white coral. This is Jack all over. He blows like a whale, and is as soft as blubber.

We had a little excitement in passing the bar at Alexandria, always a disagreeable bit of navigation with a south-west wind. One vessel, we heard afterwards, had been sunk, and another water-logged, upon it the previous night. Real danger there was none, except of our being kept out at sea idly poking about until it should calm. Our captain, glass in hand, with the Arab pilot beside him, and with four men at the wheel, besides half-a-dozen at each of its relieving tackles, steered cautiously down, “ just to take a look at the bar, and smell it.” Perceiving nothing vicious, we threaded our way along the narrow passage, swinging, as a screw boat alone can swing, and receiving on board a few tops of the seas, to the great amusement of all — save the sufferers ; and we were soon at anchor in smooth waters. We were received by the usual shoals of boats, with their motley screaming crews, who cer-

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tainly did not seem to liave improved in sweetness of voice or in gentleness of manner since I had paid them my first visit. The love of dramatic attitudinising in those excited Easterns is singularly ludicrous when contemplated quietly from the taffrails. The helmsman of a boat pulling against wind and sea will remove his hands from the tiller to brandish them about, or lift them over his head, to intensify the meaning of his words. He will then clench his fist, or point his finger to the bellowing crew, — with whom he is arguing in hard guttural agony, — as if to conduct towards them the electricity which he has generated, and which he knows would explode himself unless it were somehow discharged by hands and tongue.

We remained in the harbour for twenty-four hours! Why, no one could tell, except that so willed the railway officials. The mails and passengers could have been landed with perfect ease, as many small boats with two oars took on shore the passengers for Alexandria. The steamer from India had, moreover, arrived at Suez ; nevertheless the mails, not to speak of the passengers, were detained all this time, to the great annoyance of the captain. And what a picture of stupid incapacity was seen next day in the boarding and landing by the harbour steamer and its Egyptian crew ! It is yet an unexplained mystery how it happens that, in spite of all their experience, the Egyptians handle their craft in a way of which freshwater schoolboys would be ashamed. But the whole transit, from the custom-house in Alexandria to Suez — rails, carriages, stations, guards, and all — in spite of the influence of such a man as Betts Bey, with all his talent and courtesy, is unworthy of the high road between East and West. In going from Cairo to Suez, for example, we fancied, from sundry disagreeable noises and gratings under the floor of our carriage, that there was “ a screw loose,” or a wheel threatening mischief. But there was no one in charge who could speak English, and the attempt to get any explanations from Turks rushing about with

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lanterns at night was impossible. So we had to go on in faith and patience — two virtues exceedingly difficult for one to practise among Easterns. If the link which unites India to the European world consists of two threads of iron rails — and if along these threads thousands of our people travel every year — governors of provinces, magistrates and judges, officers, brides and bridegrooms, to say nothing of the mails and competition Wallahs, — these rails, carriages, and all who attend them, ought to be of the best, and not of such a shaky and uncomfortable character as any sideshunting in England would be ashamed of. A little wholesome pressure in this direction might work wonders. If England, or the Peninsular and (Mental Company, had sufficient influence to get even one sober, steady, and intelligent English guard attached to each train, it would add greatly to the comfort of Mr. and Mrs. Bull.*

We parted from several passengers here who had greatly contributed to the happiness of the voyage. Among these were Colonel Staunton, our able and respected consul in Egypt, and the Duke and Duchess of St. Albans on their way to the Nile, with both of whom I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance ; the latter being the much-admired daughter of my honoured and dear friend General Grey. We had also on board a few most agreeable Americans.

Among other old acquaintances whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Alexandria was my Palestine dragoman, Hadji Ali Abu Halawa. The pleasure, I was glad to see, was mutual. He is now the cavass of Colonel Staunton. On asking Hadji about our old servants, I was pleased to learn that some advices which I had given in my notes on Palestine, as to the importance of travellers examining the backs of horses and mules before engaging them,

* The Suez Canal, successfully opened since this was written, will revolutionise all this in time.

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had not been wholly without effect ; nay, had been so conscientiously acted upon, that our old rascally mule-driver Meeki had been forced to give up his impositions and take to another trade. Whatever was the real cause of this change, travellers must he benefited by it. It was a pleasing whiff of the olden time to talk with Hadji over those happy days of travel — every feature, from his nose to his boots, recalling the journey.

Passing at once to Suez — for of Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids, the Nile, the Desert, I need not again write — we found the steamer full to the brim.

Our sail of twelve hundred miles down the Ped Sea was, on the whole, very agreeable, as far as heat was concerned. From all I could learn about this passage, the dangers of it seem to me to he exaggerated. The weather here, as everywhere else, varies much even at the same season. On my return in March, for example, when it was intensely hot in Ceylon, and when I expected to he broiled in the Ped Sea, the temperature was so low as to compel me for the first time to put on warm clothing. Some people never care what month they sail up or down it. As for the officers and crews of the steamers, they, as a matter of course, do so at all seasons without any special danger. The fact is, any man in robust health, and with care, can endure any kind of travel. It is only invalids from India or Europe, or those with weak or exhausted constitutions, who cannot stand the Ped Sea, any more than anything else which makes demands on their physical powers or nervous energies. In the months between October and March this passage is often very agreeable, the average heat in my cabin having been only about 80°. No doubt days, and even weeks, do occasionally occur when it is well-nigh intolerable and certainly disagreeable, and when the strongest can do little more than submit and evaporate. I must confess, indeed, that I did not feel it cool when preaching on Sunday to the large assemblage on deck, where the thermometer was then about 90°, and when I

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had to speak with force enough to be heard above the noise of waves, steam, and screw, to an audience of, I suppose, a hundred and fifty. I appreciated a few jugs of iced water which were poured over my head afterwards by considerate old Indians. Nor did my plucky fellow-deputy find it much more bearable when preaching in the evening.

The society one meets with in these Indian steamers during “ the season ” is as agreeable as is to be found anywhere. Almost every passenger occupies some position, either civil or military, implying superior education ; while not a few have acquired eminence in their professions, and from their peculiar experience are full of accurate information, with due store of interesting anecdote and incident. Here are men who served during the Mutiny, sharing in the weary marches, the excited adventures, and hairbreadth escapes of that memorable time ; others who played a part in the relief of Lucknow, stood to arms at the siege of Delhi, or poured over its breach with Nicholson. Here is one, an engineer, who has seen much of life in connection with the laying of the telegraph through Persia. Here are civilians who have governed provinces with a population as large as that of Scotland, or led for years a strange half-tent, half-horseback life among out-of-the-way tribes, as strange to us as the inhabitants of another sphere. Here are pious missionaries and missionaries’ wives, who have laboured long and nobly among the heathen, whom they seem to love as their own souls. Here are keen observers, politicians, critics, whose sword is the pen, whose bullets are printers’ types, and who keep alive the tardy public, otherwise disposed to slumber or to forget that “our” eye is upon them. Here also are young aspirants, both male and female, full of bright hopes as they pursue their course to the unknown land, wondering what they will do or be ere they sail over the Red Sea again. Here are some with medals, some with bairns, some with pensions, and all, it is to be hoped, with sound livers, and none

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with those sad faces and dresses -which tell a tale often, alas ! to be repeated in India. And here, too, are young officers on their way to Magdala. They are full of spirit and energy, without pretence or display, and, I doubt not, have all the dash of our noble army. We have also representatives of high church, low church, broad church, every church, and no church — of Zoroaster and of Nothing. But one man there is who can he classed with none else. Who is he, with his leathern jacket ? Some say he is a great Nimrod, whose adventures are marvellous ; others that he is essential to the success of the Abyssinian expedition. He himself evidently feels his importance. He tells us that he expects a Government steamer to be in waiting near the island of Peirim, “ to take me to Massowa ; ” and then he adds -with becoming humility — “ and also the mails ! ”

The scene each evening was particularly pleasing. As every one knows, there is no twilight in the East, none of that witching hour in Scotland called “ gloaming,” and in Germany by as sweet and poetic a woi’d, “ dammerung.” “At one stride comes the dark.” So it is a long night from six till six, especially as after ten all the lights are extinguished. One requires a good conscience and a weary brain to get through these idle hours satisfactorily, and in oblivion of the existence of the screw and the heat. The awning which covers the quarter-deck conceals the glorious stars. But as a substitute for these, lamps are hung from the awning roof, which serve to reveal indistinct groups in the most favourable condition for talking. And beyond this nothing can be done, except — and the exception forms the delightful rule of these evenings — listening to music and singing. Thus the ladies, like the brilliant and beautiful stars, come out at night, or like the nightingale, “ sing darkling.” With a good pianoforte on deck, and many admirable voices, both male and female, our evening concerts were excellent, and received “ wellmerited applause ” from the unseen audience. Anyhow, no one c

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who wants amusement or instruction need spend a listless hour on board such a steamer, were the voyage to continue for months instead of weeks. He can choose his companion as he can a book, and read him and learn from him ; for every one is courteous and communicative when properly approached. I am glad to record my grateful and happy remembrance of our pleasant company. I never spent happier days amongst strangers than on this voyage. And here I cannot resist the desire — let the reader call it vanity if he will — to record what to us was most pleasing and encouraging. My friend and I, before landing, were very unexpectedly honoured by being presented with an address, signed by all the passengers, to encourage us in our mission, and to acknowledge our small services on the Sundays.

I here take the liberty of noticing the strange way in which, as I afterwards found, the Indian society in the steamer represented Indian society in general, in the vast variety of opinion held by its members on the same topic. There was hardly a subject of importance on which we desired information, about which in some of its details we did not receive the most contradictory statements, each man moreover holding with remarkable tenacity to his own opinions, so that even at this stage I began to despair of ever being able to come to a conclusion on any great Indian topic. It struck me then, as it did subsequently, that this is much more characteristic of India than of England. Hot only is there a wider divergence of opinion amongst intelligent, thoroughly well-informed and honest gentlemen on the same subject, but there is a more unhesitating, and, may I say, dogmatic determination on the part of each to hold his own.

This may be accounted for, possibly, by the vastness of the circle required to embrace Indian questions, and the impossibility of any one man being able from his isolated position to observe any more than a portion of the circle ; — the want, too, of a wellfounded public opinion expressing through the press results

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ii gathered up, not from a few sources, as in India, but from sources innumerable, as in England. To these causes must be added the official reserve of the local governments, and the absence of parliamentary discussion to ascertain and sift out the truth ; and also, the comparative ignorance of Europeans in general as to the views and opinions of the immense multitude of the governed body on any one subject whatever. But I cannot enter on such general questions here. I only further remark that even the phases of religious opinion among Europeans in India were also truly represented in the steamer, which, in this respect as well as in others, serves as a link to connect the two countries — exporting to Hindostan not only all Christian truth, but also every raving of theological mania found in England, and in return importing into England every similar specimen of the latter Indian product. But I am forgetting that I am only outward bound !

The sail from Suez to Ras Mohammed, at the Gulf of Akaba, is full of interest. We had a magnificent view, in the clear atmosphere, of the land on both sides. The most imposing sight on the Egyptian shore is Mount Akrab, which is about 10,000 feet high, and is somewhat of the form given in this rough sketch.

The range of the Sinai Peninsula is also very grand. Sinai itself cannot be seen from any part of the Red Sea traversed by the steamers ; and only at one spot along the shore is a portion of the summit visible. The general outline of the range opposite the town of Tur, seen at sunrise, is something like the illustration on the next page. The rocks wore that redbrown look, when seen at sunset, which is given with such mar-

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I 2 vellous fidelity in Herbert’s splendid fresco of tlie Desert, in the House of Lords. We saw in many places the plain of sand,

stretching for about fifteen miles between the sea and the mountains.

Its very look made one hot and thirsty, at the mere thought of oscillating like a pendulum, perched high on a camel’s back — the said camel pacing with noiseless step along the burning sands, beneath the furnace glare, and accompanied by the mummified Bedouins, with their filthy caffias, and long guns and spears. For young aspirants, such a life has its joys ; but for the venerable and sedate, the Peninsular and Oriental steamer is to be preferred.

And yet even a luxurious steamer has its trials, against some of which I beg to warn all voyagers. Beginning with the least : there is the impossibility of recovering any articles left on deck at night. I have, for example, to deplore the loss of a large ivory paper-cutter, and a dear old travelling friend, a Turkish fez. They disappeared, and in spite of advertisements on the companion stair, and the honest agency, I assume, of the stewards, they never were recovered, nor was there any prospect of their ever being so. The Lascars, or some of the Oriental crew, got the blame, as usual. A very pretty collection must thus be made by somebody for sale at the termination of each voyage.

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Now, might not something he clone by the company to warn the passengers that everything left on (leek at night is likely to be stolen ? Possibly also a few better police arrangements might be made to detect the pilferers. For grievance No. 2 : a remarkable arrangement, or rather want of arrangement, in the Peninsular and Oriental steamers, which it has defied my ingenuity to account for, is the necessity laid upon every passenger, who wishes to have a comfortable seat on deck, to purchase his own chair at Marseilles, and convey it with him to India. Why this ? I can understand all chairs being prohibited because of lumbering the decks ; hut, every passenger being permitted to bring his chair, I cannot understand why a great company should not provide thoroughly comfortable ones, and in sufficient number. They might as well insist upon each person bringing his own bedding, or his own crockeiy. And now for grievance No. 3 : I warn all voyagers to prepare as best they can for much indigestible food between Suez and Calcutta. The menu of the steamers is excellent. One actually stares at the variety and prodigality of the programme. But a few days’ experience, alas ! teaches the great fact that the food is, with the exception possibly of one or two dishes, tough and indigestible, — so at least we found it. There are some people, I am aware, who seem to be provided by Nature with a gizzard, or a muscular apparatus, approaching the power of nut-crackers. All food consigned to this kind of mill is equally acceptable, because equally easily ground. But others are compelled to depend upon ordinary organs, and these often weak, and made still weaker by a hot climate. Woe be to all such, male or female, old or young, in a steamer on the Indian Ocean ! Hunger will prove only a snare to lead them more eagerly into the trap. No doubt this may be so far accounted for by the fact of the climate making it impossible to keep meat till it is tender, and rendering it necessary that the bleating sheep and gobbling

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ducks of to-day should appear as roast or boil to-morrow ; and it may be that in spite even of preserved meats there is no adequate remedy for this death amidst life ; but all persons should be warned of the fact, so that they may make such arrangements as in their wisdom they deem most expedient. Children, at least, should have crisp biscuits, and such other dainties as can be easily carried, provided for them.

And let me here give a friendly hint to the stewards, if this should ever meet their eye : it is to assure them that they would not be less agreeable or obliging if, when arranging the saloon in the morning, they talked and laughed a little less ; to beg them to remember that every word they speak — all the bantering, joking, and chaffing between Bill and Joe and half-a-dozen more — is heard by dozens of passengers, who are tossing in berths, using every means to get a little sleep, and who, moreover, have not the taste to relish these early morning exercises.

Being very anxious to see that great sign of the tropics, the Southern Cross, and having been told that it was visible about three in the morning from the forecastle, I managed to awake about that time. Dressed in a white Damascus camel-hair dressing-gown, — the original of the surplice, and therefore appropriate,— I clambered on deck. It is strange to contemplate a native crew lying asleep. They are all covered up, including their heads, in the sacks used for loading the ship, and they lie side by side in rows, as if dead. Their dreams, if they have any, must have some ethnographical, and, in the case of the Africans especially, geographical interest. I carefully picked my steps between the rows, and with difficulty ascended the fore-deck. Beaching the heel of the bowsprit as the ship was pitching against a head sea, I discovered the Cross, but was rather disappointed with it when compared with many other constellations glittering with brilliancy in the depth of that unfathomable sky ; and I hope those who are most sensitive to symptoms of pro-