Glimpses of three continents; a series of travels in India, the Bible lands, and Europe

Front matter

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Preface

Tho present volume was written as a series of travels for a church weekly, “The Lutheran Companion” which fact at once explains some of its features of style and composition. It was, accordingly, written for a partic¬ ular class of readers, lout it is hoped that it may con¬ tain matters of sufficient range to interest the general reader as well.

It does not purpose to be an exhaustive treatise on the lands and places visited, but rather glimpses, or brief descriptions, of such prominent features of the various places as impress themselves at first sight upon the mind of the tourist or traveler. Care has been taken, however, to select such material as may be of general interest and of a representative and permanent character. In most cases the historical setting has been presented, but, as a rule, reflections and personal opin¬ ions have been omitted, leaving to the reader to form his own opinions and draw his own conclusions from the facts presented.

India and the Bible Lands have been treated more fully, as it has been assumed that the reader is less acquainted with the modes of life and general condi¬ tions in those more remote countries, while travel-worn Europe has been passed over more briefly.

It is hoped that the reader may derive some pleasure and profit from this little volume. I could wish it might bring him as much pleasure as the review of thost scenes and experiences has afforded us during the writ¬ ing of it with all the anxieties and dangers of travel eliminated.

C. W. Foss.

Rock Island, Illinois, October, 1912.

Contents

I. The Voyage .

On board the Carpathia — The Ocean — Gibraltar — Genoa — Naples — Port Said — The Suez Canal — The Red Sea — The Indian Ocean.

II. Colombo .

CHAPTER I. The Voyage

At its meeting in Buffalo, 1ST. Y., in 1907, the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America decided to send two commissioners to inspect its mission field in India. The original plan was to have them sail the same fall, but various delays occurred, and it was not before the fall of the next year that they were ready to start. The two commissioners se¬ lected by the Mission Board were Dr. C. Theodore Benze, then of Erie, Pa., and the present writer.

We arranged to leave New York in October by differ¬ ent steamers and to meet in Naples and then sail to¬ gether for Colombo in Ceylon. Dr. Benze sailed for Hamburg and spent a short time in Germany, while we sailed by the Cunard Line direct for Naples. I say “we” because I was accompanied by my wife and my niece, Miss Martha Foss.

Our steamer, the Carpathia, sailed from the pier in New York at noon on Thursday, October 22. Among the hundreds of people who stood waving their farewells to relatives and friends there were two who waved for us. They were Rev. A. B. Lilja and Rev. C. E. Hoffsten.

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

It was not without fear and misgivings that we entered upon this voyage. I had just recovered from a long illness and was not at all strong. Then there were the dangers and hardships of the climate in India and the political unrest there which the press had exaggerated into a threatened revolution. In addition to this I had a separate commission from our Synod to visit our mission field in Urmia, Persia, and there was a long and difficult journey of many days through the wild Kurdish moun¬ tains with their lawless inhabitants, and a real revolu¬ tion in progress in the very part of Persia to which we were sent. But as the commission had been accepted we felt it our duty to go, and we summoned courage from the fact that we went under the protection of Almighty God and with the earnest prayers of hundreds of our friends at home.

We had a pleasant voyage across the Atlantic with rough weather for only three days when the vessel rolled too much to keep dishes on the table without the so-called table-racks. An ocean voyage if of some duration is apt to become monotonous. Each day is like its yes¬ terday. There is the sky above and the sea beneath and aiound you, and though that sea is ever in motion it is always the same. That little vessel in the midst of the sea was all the world to us and our fellow passengers. It was a mere speck in the midst of a boundless ex¬ panse of waves, and we were made to realize more fully than ever before our dependence upon him who holds the waters in the hollow of his hands.

We were on an English vessel, and the services on Sunday were conducted by the captain according to the Anglican form and in a solemn and most impressive

THE VOYAGE.

manner. It was a singularly beautiful and comforting service. The audience was reverent and responsive, and many eyes were suffused with tears. We were all im¬ pressed with the feeling that God was with us in the midst of the sea.

After a sail of ten days from New York we saw. the first land. How cheering was the sight after ten days of only sky and sea! It was the southern coast of Spain with its hazy, vine-clad hills and mountains, with little villages and towns nestling in the valleys and along the broken coast. To the south of us land also appeared along the dim horizon. It was the African coast of Morocco. These two shores approach eacli other more and more, and by and by we are in the straits of Gibraltar. We anchored for a few hours in the har¬ bor by the Bock of Gibraltar, and passengers had a chance to land and to visit the quaint old Spanish town and to view from the same the strongest fortress in the world.

Another three days' sail brought us to Genoa. Here we all landed and had a chance to see the most im¬ portant places in this great commercial city of mediae¬ val fame. One of our fellow passengers, a Genoese merchant returning home from a visit to America, served us as a guide. As we again visited Genoa on our return voyage and made a stay of several days there, I shall wait with my description of the place until then.

,Jt was upon reaching Genoa that we learned of the election of W. H. Taft as president of the United States. We had taken a vote on the vessel among the passengers on the day before and the vote stood in this order: “Debs, Taft, Bryan. We sailed from Genoa at

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

midnight and the following evening, just fifteen days from New York, we sailed into the beautiful bay oi Naples. It was, however, too late to effect a landing before the next morning.

Here we were to have met Dr. Benze. But instead of meeting him we received a letter from him stating that he had been unable to secure passage on our ship, the Omrah, and had, therefore, booked his passage to Colombo on a French steamer from Marseilles and would reach Colombo about the same time as the Omrah was due there. But we were doomed to still another disappointment. The Omrah was so over¬ crowded that we could not be received and had to wait sixteen days for the next ship of the line, the Orotava. What were we to do in the meantime? We could spend the time most profitably at sightseeing. There are thousands of interesting things to see in and around Naples, the city, the bay, Vesuvius, Pompeii, etc., and Rome is only four hours away. But the discouraging thing about it was that Mr. Benze would reach Colombo two weeks ahead of us. Would he wait for us at Colom¬ bo, or would he proceed to India? Where would we find him? Then, too, this was the best time for visiting India, and we were wasting it in worry and waiting. We spent these sixteen days, however, very profitably in vis¬ iting Naples and Rome. The description of this part of our trip I shall reserve until I describe the rest of our tour in Italy which we made the next year.

The Orotava arrived on Sunday, Nov. 22, and early the next morning we sailed away from Naples, past the beautiful island of Capri, and by and by all land faded from our view. We were again in the open sea. A thick

THE VOYAGE.

column of smoke rose before us and we were told that it was the volcano of Stromboli which we were approach¬ ing. Soon it came into view — a small cone-shaped island or mountain, rising abruptly from the sea to a great height, and belching forth immense columns of smoke from its summit. At sunset we sailed through the straits of Messina and past the city of the same name. Everything lay as quiet and peaceful as a dream in the golden light of the setting sun. No one would ever have supposed that in another month these peaceful shores would be the scene of one of the most dreadful convulsions of nature on record, and that quiet city turned into a heap of ruins.

The next morning we had doubled the southern point of Italy and were again beyond the sight of land. The air was raw and chilly, the heavens were overcast with leaden clouds, the wind blew a steady gale from the north, and the sea was somewhat rough. Some people think that the Mediterranean, being an inland sea, is comparatively free from dangerous storms and a heavy sea. Such, however, is far from being the case. The Mediterranean is an immense sea and dangerous storms are not uncommon. At some point in these waters we crossed the line of St. Paul's voyage to Rome when he was shipwrecked near the island of Malta. Our course lay a little too far to the south of Crete to see the shores, and after leaving Italy the first land we saw was the dull and uninviting coast of Egypt. For miles and miles the waters were of a cloudy, greenish tint, indicating that they were very shallow.

It was on the morning of Thanksgiving day that we entered the northern end of Suez Canal and anchored in

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

The Harbor of Port Said.

the harbor of Port Said. This city owes its origin and existence to the canal. It is built largely on ground made by the excavation of the harbor and the canal. It is said to be a rough and wicked city, and from what we saw of it we are not inclined to dispute the state¬ ment. We realized that we here entered the gateway to the Orient. The great mass of the people are no longer Europeans, but dark-skinned Arabs and other Orientals. Of the European languages used here French is the most common. This is partly due to the fact that the construction of the canal was a French enterprise.

The passage of the canal is one of the most interesting parts of the voyage to India. There are three consider¬ able places along the canal — Port Said at the northern end, Suez at the southern end, and about halfway be¬ tween them Ismailiya. The distance from north to south is 87 miles. The width varies from 300 to 500 feet. The depth is only 30 feet. Ocean vessels pass freely up

THE VOYAGE.

and down the canal, but when two vessels meet one of them has to ti^ up to the hank while the other one passes. The speed is limited to about six miles an hour. It takes about 18 hours to make the passage. The scenery is not interesting; low, reddish, sandy deserts stretch away on both sides as far as the eye can see. The deepest cut, near Ismailiya, is only 60 feet. It was at this point that the ancient roadway led from Egypt to Palestine, where the patriarchs passed in going down to Egypt or returning home.

It was early Friday morning that we reached Suez at the southern end of the canal. Before us stretches to the southward the Gulf of Suez, the upper end of the Bed S'ea. At the extreme northern end of this gulf lies Suez in the midst of a great sandy desert. It is supplied with fresh water by means of a canal extending from the Nile. The scenery is not pretty nor inspiring, but the place is rich in historical associations. Some miles south on either side of the gulf the mountains begin to rise. It was no doubt at the foot of these mountains on the west side that Moses and the children of Israel stood hemmed in between the mountains and the sea with the hosts of Pharaoh behind them. Here they crossed the sea as on dry land. The width at this place appears to be some six to ten miles. On the opposite side are some fresh water fountains still called the Wells of Moses. May they not be the waters of Marah that Moses made sweet?

As you proceed down the gulf, which averages from 15 to 20 miles in width, you have majestic mountains towering on either side, those along the eastern side be¬ ing the most interesting both in appearance and from

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

historical associations. They are all of a reddish hue like the sands of the desert. It is no doubt this color of the surroundings that has given the name to the sea. The waters themselves are not different in appearance from those of the ocean in general.

Get a map of the Bed Sea and you will find that near the northern end it divides into two forks, the eastern being the Gulf of Akabah and the western the Gulf of Suez. Between these two waters lies the Sinaitic pen¬ insula in which the Children of Israel wandered for forty years. It was about sunset of the day we left Suez that we arrived opposite the highest mountains on the eastern side, the serrated peaks of Iloreb or Sinai. Here occurred one of the greatest events in human history. The Lord himself came down and touched the mountain and it smoked and trembled, and God spoke to all man¬ kind and gave the Law, the Ten Commandments. As the sun was sinking the lofty peaks of the mountain were bathed in the richest colors of purple and gold. But it was only for a moment. The sun dipped beneath the horizon, and the color changed into a deep blue, and as there is no twilight in these southern climes, darkness soon settled down over the whole scene.

The next morning we had passed the southern point of the Sinaitic Peninsula and were plowing through the waves of the Bed S'ea proper. We were now beyond the sight of land on all sides. The Bed Sea is a large body of water, stretching from Suez in the north to the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb in the south, a distance of about 1,400 miles. It has an average width of about 200 miles. It is said to be the hottest sailing in the world. As the sea is surrounded by burning deserts on all sides it

The Suez Canal.

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

makes little difference which direction the wind blows. Most of the passengers now donned white clothes and spent most of the time under awnings on deck. Though electric fans were going in every state room the air seemed hot and suffocating. Many of the passengers carried their bedding up on deck and slept there all night.

Our vessel was small and almost unseaworthy. It was making its last voyage to the Orient. The vessel that should have been sent on this voyage and for which the passengers had been booked was a new and much larger vessel, but it had met with an accident before starting out, and this old and smaller vessel was called into serv¬ ice. It took all the passengers booked for the larger ves¬ sel, which made it crowded, overloaded, and unsafe.

Of our passengers a large number were bound for Australia, some returning from visits in England, others going out as emigrants. Several were missionaries bound for India, some returning from furlough, and others go¬ ing out for the first time. Divine services were con¬ ducted on Sundays, morning and evening, by some of these missionaries and by the Bishop of Wellington, who was one of our passengers.

It took us nearly five days to sail from Suez to the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. By Tuesday morning we had reached the gulf of Aden. We sailed to the south of the island of Socotra. When we entered the Indian Ocean we felt a strong undercurrent, which made our vessel rock a great deal, and many of our passengers suffered from seasickness.

On the second Sunday morning after leaving Suez we sighted land. It was the low lying island of Minne-

THE VOYAGE.

coy, covered with a rich 'profusion of tropical growth. This was the first vegetation we had seen since we left Suez, for the shores and islands of the lied S’ea are all rocky, sandy, and barren.

CHAPTER II. Colombo

The following day, Monday, just two weeks after leaving Naples, we anchored in the hay at Colombo. The landing at this place is often difficult as there is no pro¬ tected harbor, and the sea is often rough. We were fortunate in having fine weather and a quiet sea. After some difficulty we secured the transfer of our baggage to a small boat and were rowed to shore.

A number of people stood waiting on the pier as our boat approached. We looked anxiously about us for the sight of the one face which above all others in the world we were at that time the most anxious to see. And we did not have to look in vain, for in the first person we saw, we recognized the kindly, smiling face of Dr. Benze. He had waited for us at this place for two weeks. He had stood upon that pier many hours, watching each boat load that landed to see if he could find any traces of us. The joy of meeting was mutual, and our hearts went up in grateful thanks to God for his protecting care and for this manifestation of his goodness and grace.

"Now,”said Dr.Benze after we had landed and passed

Grand Oriental Hotel.

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

customs, “we will all go up to the G. 0. H. and have some tea.” The Grand Oriental Hotel was soon reached, and we found it indescribably sweet to sit down to rest in the spacious, airy halls of the hotel, decorated with palms and tropical plants, and to feel the cooling breezes soothing our heated brows. After resting here awhile we proceeded to the large English department store near by to buy us each a topee, a hat suited for the cli¬ mate of India. For in India it is impossible for Euro¬ peans to get along with an ordinary hat. The topees are made of a light, pithy substance, and though they are about an inch in thickness they are not heavy or un¬ comfortable to wear. Though the heat in India during the winter months is not greater than it often is in our country in July, the rays of the sun are so penetrating that Europeans would soon die of sunstroke if not pro¬ tected by the topee.

Equipped in this way, we set out to see the beautiful city. It seemed like an enchanted place to us, every¬ thing was so new and strange. The commonest objects of everyday life seemed so strange that we involuntarily stopped to look at them again and again. The pa¬ tient little zebu oxen, hitched to the two-wheeled carts or bandies, the chocolate colored people in their scant attire, the mothers carrying their children on their hips instead of in front as we do, and a thousand other things, all strange and new, arrest your attention on every side. Even the white people you meet look odd to you in their white attire and with topees on their heads. There was but one thing that looked natural and homelike to us, and that was the advertisement of the Singer Sewing Machine. It was a sweet reminder of home, and we

Road Scene in Ceylon.

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

greeted it as an old friend and acquaintance. It helped us to realize that after all we were still on earth and not on a new planet..

The men’s attire consists of a piece of cloth wound about the middle of the body and reaching down below the knees. The women’s, of a seven-yard cloth wound about the waist several times, with tucks here and there, and reaching to the ankles; a part is thrown over the shoulders covering both front and back, while the end hangs down the back; this end may be gathered up and placed as a covering for the head. Thus the women are dressed from head to foot with one piece of cloth with¬ out a stitch in it. When you see these native costumes you naturally wonder what use they can possibly have for the Singer sewing machine.

The little children, who recognize you as tourists, and who have learned a few English words, come smiling up to you and reaching out their little hands, say, “Me no mamma, me no papa, kind lady, kind mister, you my mamma, you my papa, give me a penny.”

A very common way of seeing Colombo is to take a rickshaw and ride around the city. This is a little two¬ wheeled carriage with buggy top and shafts. But be¬ tween the shafts you see a man instead of a horse. The rickshaw man offers to take you around the city for a few cents. At first we hesitated to ride behind a fellow human being as a horse. But when we had seen women and young girls of twelve or thirteen years at a building carrying brick and mortar in baskets on their heads up rope ladders to the third or fourth story, and when we learned that they worked twelve hours a day at four cents a day, our scruples vanished, for the rickshaw men

COLOMBO.

The Bristol Studio, Colombo.

were far better off. They had lighter work and received much better pay.

The rickshaw is an easy vehicle to ride in, and you never need to fear that your horse will take fright and run away. These rickshaw men are remarkable runners, and have a wonderful power of endurance. At a test made some time ago, it is said that thirteen horses were ridden to death, while the rickshaw men reached the goal in time and without feeling any the worse for the run.

We each took a rickshaw and had a delightful ride through the city. Ceylon has been called the Paradise of Adam, and certain it is that few places in the world are more charmingly beautiful than this lovely island. It is especially sweet to the weary voyager, who for weeks has traversed the hottest seas in the world, to rest in the shade of the tall palm groves, to feel the cooling breezes on his brow, and to inhale the sweet-scented air.

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

We were often reminded of Bishop Heber’s well known lines:

Where every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile.

After dinner, which is usually served at eight o’clock in the evening, we took a stroll along the beautiful ave¬ nue, skirting the surf-beaten shore, and lined with ma¬ jestic palms. The evening was ideal, as, indeed, the nights are in India and in the Orient in general. The heat of the day is past, the air is still, the sky is clear, and the stars shine with a peculiar luster. Amidst such delightful surroundings you could wish to stay out all night. No wonder that the Orientals were star-gazers from time immemorial, and that astronomy had its birth in the East. No wonder that the Bible abounds in such beautiful descriptions of the hosts of heaven, and that David bursts forth in lofty strain: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.”

It was about ten o’clock in the evening. The moon was almost full and shone with wonderful brightness over our heads. It was a little to the north of us, and our shadows fell to the south. Colombo is less than seven degrees north of the Equator. We were often told in India not to be out bareheaded in the moonlight, es¬ pecially when the moon was at its full. In this matter, as in so many other experiences in India, we were re¬ minded that the Bible has an Oriental setting, and we remembered the beautiful passage of the psalmist: “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.”

Colombo Museum.

GLTMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

The next day we took a carriage drive along the shores of Colombo Lake and through the celebrated Cinnamon Gardens, Victoria Park, and the Pettah, or native quar¬ ters, with their long lines of small shops, filled with Oriental products, and reeking with odors peculiar to the Orient. We also visited the magnificent museum, where specimens of all the varieties of the flora and the fauna of this wonderland may be seen.

The Island of Ceylon is a British possession, but it is not a part of the Indian Empire. It forms a separate colony. Its greatest length from north to south is about 280 miles, and its greatest width about 140 miles. In area it is nearly half the size of Illinois or Iowa. Twothirds of the population belong to the Sinhalese race; about one-fourth are Tamils, who invaded the country fiom India centuries ago; the rest are Moors, Malays, Europeans, and Eurasians, a mixed race largely descend¬ ed from the old Dutch and the natives. The Sinhalese are an orderly and well-behaved race. In dress and ap¬ pearance they are easily distinguished from the Tamils. The men let their hair grow long and do it up in a knot, crowning it with a semicircular tortoise shell comb, giv¬ ing them a distinctively feminine appearance.

The great mass of the people are Buddhists. This re¬ ligion was introduced by missionaries from India in the third century before Christ. There are also Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsees, and Christians. The greater part of the Christians are Catholics, their church dating from the Portuguese occupation of the land in the six¬ teenth century.

In regard to climate Ceylon is one of the most favored countries in the world. Though lying further south than

The Colpetty Bazar, Colombo.

GLIMPSES OF THREE CONTINENTS.

India, it has a milder and more equable climate. This is owing, in part, to its nearness to the sea; no part of the island is a hundred miles from the coast. The in¬ terior is high and mountainous and has a temperate cli¬ mate the year around, no scorching sun, no biting frost

We would have liked to have spent a week or two on this lovely island, and to have made a trip into the in¬ terior, to the old capital of Kandy, located on a moun¬ tain near the center of the island and said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Another point of interest to visit would have been the Peak of Adam, also located in the interior, but further south. The shadow of this peak may sometimes be seen at sunrise upon the clouds forming a fleecy background to the mountain. On the summit of the peak is a gigantic imprint of what appears to be a human foot. The Buddhists claim it as the footprint of Buddha, the Hindus as that of Siva, and the Mohammedans claim it for Adam. The tradi¬ tion of the latter is that after the fall, Adam was placed in Ceylon and Eve in Arabia. For two hundred years thev were separated, and after this period of expiation, they were permitted to meet near Mecca. The peak is, therefore, regarded as sacred and as a place of pilgrim¬ age by three great religions of the world, embracing over 900,000,000 people or more than half of the human family. A third point of interest for us to have visited would have been the buried city of Anuradhapura in the north, one of the celebrated ruins in the world, telling the story of an ancient civilization and of an age before the time of Christ.

But our duties called us to the mainland of India, and we were compelled to leave this charming place at once.

COLOMBO.

Before we left, however, we visited the mission of the Church of Sweden on this island. The work was in charge of a native pastor named T. Mnttiappen. We called at his home and met him and his wife and chil¬ dren. Here we heard for the first time the native greet¬ ing Salaam, to which we became so accustomed after¬ wards in India. The word is used both when you come and when you go. It is also used to express gratitude or thanks, for which some of the native languages have no equivalent. There are over 150 languages and dia¬ lects spoken in India, but the word Salaam is used in all of them. It is a Semitic word and means peace. It was probably introduced by the Mohammedan con¬ querors in the eleventh century.