UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
ZIG-ZAGGING
ROUND THE WORLD
OS!
ZIG-ZAGGING
ROUND THE WORLD
A record of three years' wandering
in the British Empire
and other lands
1919-1922
BY
ROBT. D. McEWAN frM
57081
WITH 78 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
HUTCHINSON & CO.
PATERNOSTER ROW
GLASGOW
JOHN SMITH & SON (Glasgow), Ltd.
ST. VINCENT STREET
To my companion during many years
and on many voyages, of which
the latest is recorded in these pages.
Copyright 102S by Rolf. D. McEtoan.
PREFACE
THE writer, accompanied by his wife, made the
journey recorded in this volume, the narrative
chapters being written during the tour.
The pictorial record cannot be fully reproduced, but a
selection has been made mostly to illustrate the special
chapters on visits to outstanding places.
The strongest argument for making any record of these
prolonged wanderings throughout the scattered British
Empire and many other lands is that they gave quite
unusual opportunities for comparisons. Many have
seen and written about some of the places included, but
few men and fewer women have seen, and seen at such
leisure, all the countries which were visited in the three
years of what has been called " Zig-zagging Round the
World." Over 80,000 miles were covered, and we
voyaged in forty-six different steamers of every variety
of size, accommodation, and method of propulsion. We
travelled also on railways of all gauges and rates of
progression, with luxurious equipment and extreme
simplicity ; with beds in which you could sleep and
others well planned to keep you awake. Motor cars of
even greater variety were utilised, and as for animal
traction, about the only beast of burden omitted was the
llama of South America. The itinerary is appended, and
a rough route sketch is made on the book cover.
ROBT. D. McEWAN.
9 EOLINTON DRIVE,
GLASGOW.
November, 102$.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER J'AfJK
I. Canada, 9
II. Western Seaboard of the United States, . . . . 17
III. The Imperial Valley, California, 31
IV. The South- Western States, 35
V. The West Indies, 41
VI. Jamaica and Federation of the British West Indies, 53
VII. South America — Eastern Seaboard, . . . . 57
VIII. A Visit to the Iguazu, 65
IX. South America— Western Seaboard, . . . . 71
X. The Panama Canal, Pacific Trade, and the
World War, 81
XI. The Hawaiian Islands, 85
XII. The Dominion of New Zealand, 95
XIII. The Commonwealth of Australia, 103
XIV. Australasia — its Social and Industrial Conditions,
Resources, and Needs, 113
XV. Japan, 119
XVI. Through Korea and Manchuria to China, .. 127
XVII. Pekin, the wonder city of the Far East, . . . . 133
XVIII. Manila and Java, 139
XIX. Malaya, 143
XX. Trade in the Far East, . . . 149
XXI. Burma and Ceylon, 155
XXII. The Buried Cities of Ceylon, 165
XXIII. India, 169
XXIV. Agra and its Neighbourhood, 183
XXV. Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, 187
XXVL The ^Egean, Bosphorus, and Levant, 197
XXVII. The Barbary Coast and Iberian Peninsula, .. 205
XXVIII. Geographical Facts and Fictions, . . . . 215
CHAPTER
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXIII.
XXXIV.
CONTENTS -continued.
The inner man — Food,
The outer man and woman — Dress,
Social conditions — the position of women and
children,
Builders,
Craftsmen and Artists,
The Oriental's Point of View,
INDEX, 243
PAGE
219
225
229
233
235
239
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TO FACE PAOE
1. Bow River, Banff, Canadian Rockies, 12
2. Lake Louise, Canadian Rockies, 12
3. Lake Agnes, Canadian Rockies, 13
4. Lake Louise, Canadian Rockies, . . . . . . . . 13
5. Pen Pin Rock, Union Point, Yosemite, California, . . 22
6. Cap of Liberty and Nevada Fall, California, . . . . 22
7. El Capitan and River Merced, California, . . . . 23
8. Grand Canyon, Arizona, . . . . . . . . . . 23
9. Rio de Janeiro by Moonlight, looking to the Atlantic, . . 60
10. El Congresso, Buenos Ayres, . . . . . . . . 60
11. La Paz and Illemani, Bolivia, . . . . . . . . 61
12. Casa de Torre Tagle, Lima, Peru 61
13. Sketch plan of the most beautiful Waterfalls in the World, 64
14. General View of the Falls of Tguazu, 65
15. Floriano Peixoto, . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
16. Tres Musquateiros, . . . . . . . . . . 64
17. Gargantua del Diablo, . . . . . . . . . . 65
18. Belgrano, Union and Gargantua del Diablo, . . . . 65
19. New Zealand Shipping Co.'s s.s. Ruahane approaching
from North 80
20. Pedro Miguel Lock, s.s. Ruahane and Gold Hill, . . . . 81
21. Roadway on the Great Wall of China, 128
22. Great Wall of China, Chinglungchiao, 128
23. Torii at Hakone, Japan, 129
24. Tjipannas, Garoet, Java, 129
25. Street Corner in Pekin, 132
26. P'ailou of Confucius Temple, Pekin, 132
27. The Forbidden City, Pekin, 133
28. Marble Bridge, Winter Palace, Pekin, 133
29. General View of the Summer Palace, Pekin 132
30. P'ailou in a Pekin Street 132
31. The Long Gallery, Summer Palace, Pekin, . . . . 133
32. Base of Stupa, Yellow Temple, Pekin 133
33. Utensil Shop in Pekin 132
34. Part of Great Llama Temple, Pekin, 132
35. Grand P'ailou, Ming Tombs, Pekin 133
36. Marble Bridge, Forbidden City, Pekin 133
37. Temple of Heaven, Pekin, 132
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -continued.
NO. TO FACE PAGE
38. Altar of Heaven, Pekin, 132
39. Ha-ta-men Gate, Pekin, 133
40. The Yellow Temple, Pekin, 133
41. Aracan Pagoda, near Mandalay, Burma, . . . . 164
42. Moonstone Monolith, King's Palace, Anaradhapura, . . 164
43. Ambustala Dagoba and Mahinda's Tomb, Mihintale, . . 165
44. Gal Vihara, Sitting Buddha, Polonarruwa, . . . . 165
45. Guard at Elephant Stable, Anaradhapura, . . . . 164
46. Thupurama Dagoba, Anaradhapura, 164
47. Eock Temple, Isurumaniya. Anaradhapura, . . . . 165
48. Moonstone Balustrade and Lion, Anaradhapura, . . 165
49. Himalayas, Mount Everest (distant peak in centre), . . 170
50. Himalayas, Kinchinjunga, 170
51. Unique Bridge at Jaunpur, India, 171
52. Guardian of Bridge at Jaunpur, .. .. 171
53. Golden Temple, Benares, 170
54. Hall of the Winds, Jaipur, India, . . 170
55. Thakurji Temple, Amber, Jaipur, 171
56. Pichola Lake, Udaipur, India, .. ..171
57. Dusasswamedh Ghat, Benares, 170
58. Punch Gunga Beni Nadno Ghat, Benares, . . . . 170
59. Prambannan, Djokjakarta, Java, 171
60. Interior Dargah Mosque, Fatepur Sikri, 171
61. The Taj Mahal, Agra, 184
62. The Lady of the Taj Mahal, 185
63. Interior of Taj Mahal, 184
64. Birbal's House, Fatepur Sikri, . . 184
65. Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra, Agra, 185
66. The Fort and Palace, Agra, 185
67. Gateway of Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra, 184
68. Jami Masjid, Agra, 184
69. Gateway of Taj Mahal, . . 185
70. Quadrangle of Dargah Mosque, Fatepur Sikri, . . . . 185
71. Tomb of I'timad u Dowlah, 184
72. Gate of Victory— Interior, Fatepur Sikri, . . . . 184
73. Sacred Bo Tree (said to be 2,200 years old), Anaradhapura, 185
74. Guru Pillar, Hall of Private Audience, Fatcpur Sikri, . . 185
75. Temple of Jupiter, Corinth, Greece, . . . . . . 204
76. Market Place, Casablanca, Morocco, . . . . . . 204
77. Cornice, Temple of Bacchus, Baalbec, Syria, . . . . 205
78. Interior of Villa Viciosa Chapel, Cordova, Spain, . . 205
1919
August -
September
October -
November
December
1920
January and
February
March -
April
May
June
July and
August -
September and\
October - -J
November
December
1921
January -
February
March
April
May
June
July
August and
September
October -
November
December
1922.
January -
February
March
April
May
and}
ITINERARY
Liverpool to Canada and over the prairies
to Banff.
Over the Rockies to Vancouver.
Victoria, B.C., and Seattle, U.S.A.
Oregon and California.
Los Angeles, Arizona, New Orleans, Cuba.
Jamaica.
New York and Brazil.
Argentina.
Iguazu Falls, Chile.
Bolivia, Peru, Panama, San Francisco.
Honolulu.
New Zealand.
Australia and Tasmania.
Sydney and Singapore.
Malay States, Burma.
Burma, Singapore to Japan.
Japan.
Japan, Korea, Manchuria, China.
China, Philippines, Singapore.
Java.
Malay States.
Ceylon, India.
North India.
Karwi, Gwalior, Agra.
Delhi, Rajputana, Bombay.
Egypt, Piraeus, Dardanelles, Levant.
Syria, Palestine.
Gibraltar, Morocco, Algiers.
Spain, Portugal, London.
I.
Canada.
NO ocean voyage is possible at the present time
without being seriously affected by war conditions.
Our experience of being called upon to sail from
an obscure dock in Liverpool on a Sunday forenoon
would certainly never have been dreamt of in pre-war
times, but the plan proved to be impossible owing to
labour troubles, and we were kept in the Mersey Basin
until the forenoon of the following day, when we sailed,
having as fellow-passengers about fourteen hundred
Canadian troops and their dependents.
One could not help comparing the experience of
sailing out to Cape Town during the Boer war, with
troops looking forward to battle, to that of the present
voyage with war-worn troops returning home. In the earlier
experience the men were fresh from civilian occupation,
many of them wholly untrained soldiers, enlisted as
Imperial Yeomanry, without any knowledge of horses,
and generally of an entirely different class from that
usually enlisted in that arm of military service. Our
fellow-voyagers on this occasion were veterans, although
in many cases they were not much more than youths, and
were going home to resume peaceful occupations after a
well-earned rest, their fighting days, let us hope, for ever
done.
Naturally the whole passage was affected by the
presence of the troops, and practically all the passengers
intermixed. There was great good feeling as well between
officers and men as between soldiers and the civilian
passengers. Much was done for the provision of exercise
and amusement for the troops, and the large number of
children was not overlooked. Entertainments were
arranged, including a baby show, for which no fewer
B 9
Zig-Zagging Round the World
than fifty babies were ranged on exhibition, the decision
of the two prizes being by a universal vote of all
passengers. Two additional voyagers of the baby class,
who were not on the books when the ship left Liverpool,
did not compete.
The passage was the first of the season to the north
of Newfoundland, and, as few on board had had the
experience of entering Belle Isle Strait, there was very
great interest. Fortunately, the weather was clear, as
for over twenty-four hours the ship was right among the
icebergs, many of which we passed quite closely. The
passage up the gulf was exceedingly attractive, latterly
with prominent outlines of land visible on each side, and
on two nights there was full moonlight, with a magnificent
display of northern lights.
All the troops disembarked at Quebec, a most
picturesque city, with, on the Heights of Abraham, the
Chateau Frontenac and Parliament buildings. An entire
day was spent sailing up the river to Montreal, finishing
there a very happy voyage.
Twelve years had passed since the writer had been in
Canada, and many changes had occurred in Montreal.
Building up the mountain had proceeded with extra-
ordinary rapidity, Mount Royal itself being now practically
encircled by dwellings. The problem of housing in a
country where there are no limits to the land available,
and the common material " lumber " is close at hand,
can never be as acute as in the old country ; but, never-
theless, there is in most of the cities of Canada, at the
present time, a dearth of house accommodation. All
that Canada has to do is to run a tram-car line where
ground is available, and houses spring up like mushrooms.
In recent years there has been large extension westwards
along the north bank of the St. Lawrence, and there had
been set down almost continuous villages and houses with
good grounds, beautiful surroundings, and golf courses.
Certainly, the Canadians are satisfied with conditions
10
Canada
of tram-car travelling which would never be tolerated at
home. Their lines are roughly laid, and the bed, as well
as the manipulation of brakes, constantly jolts the
passengers ; they, however, patiently submit, as they do
to conditions of railway travelling, which are certainly
not improved during the interval since the writer had last
experienced them. Night travelling via railway is still
mainly in the old Pullman pattern of coach, with upper
and lower berths. There are a few compartments some-
what like those of our home sleeping-cars, but with upper
and lower berths for two, and there are so-called drawing-
room ends, costly beds placed right over the pivot of the
bogie, which is, owing to the size, a good deal noisier
than on the home coaches ; but the main disadvantage
all through is that the last thing the railway staff seem
to consider is that passengers pay for a bed on purpose
to sleep.
The feeding arrangements can no more be commended
than the sleeping. In the old days there were fixed meals
provided ; now the food is served a la carte, and supposed
to be specially prepared when ordered. This really
means that all kinds of food come on board cooked or
half-cooked, and are put before the passengers when
they order, fresh from the heating stove, but certainly
not freshly cooked.
There was noticeable a marked advance in the street-
lighting system, particularly in Toronto residential
streets. These are lighted by closely-set electric lamps,
not over seven feet from the ground, and each lamp has
displayed the street number of the house situated most
nearly to it. The next best lighted city was Vancouver,
but the improvement is confined to certain streets ;
possibly the system is in course of extension.
In the neighbourhood of all the Canadian cities
visited there were dustless roads, on which it is possible
to have at any time of the year a pleasant motor outing,
and it is not, as with us, to the disadvantage of foot
ii
Zig-Zagging Round the World
travellers. Indeed, the motoring highway idea seems to
have so strongly caught on in Canada and the Western
cities that long-distance highways are now being planned
which will very seriously interfere with railway passenger
traffic.
It looks as if the future of transport would be, for all
but long-distance travellers, by motor or street car, and
that their baggage and light perishable goods would use
the same means, while to railways would be left only
through passengers and heavy freight. The question of
good roads is of very great interest in Canada for the
future, and it is occupying the attention of all public
bodies from the Dominion Parliament to small municipal
councils.
Toronto, twelve years ago, was a city on a plain, the
area occupied being almost a dead level, but there has
been a very happy outspreading northwards on rising and
undulating ground, which was covered with trees, and
there has been great wisdom in so placing the residences
as to necessitate very little disturbance of these trees,
consequently the appearance is of a well-shaded garden
city long established.
While comparisons of earlier visits can be made with
Eastern cities, Western Canada was wholly new to us.
The experience of one night's railway journey from
Montreal to Toronto made us desire to avoid a repetition,
and that we were able to do by taking a lake steamer
from Port Macnicol, on Lake Huron, to Fort William, on
Lake Superior. We were fortunate in having this
journey on a comfortable Fairfield boat, the Keewatin.
The commencement of the voyage was through what
was called " the ten thousand islands " with beautiful
scenery at each end, and during the middle of
the second day near Sault Ste. Marie, where a canal
is the means of passage from the one lake to the
other. A full day's journey from Fort William brought
us to Winnipeg, a thoroughly prairie city, but though
12
Canada
only a few years ago a Western outpost, now a meeting-
place of East and West. There was every appearance
that its situation would make this more and more an
exchange point of traders, with enormous possibilities
for the future. From Winnipeg we made a twenty-
seven hour continuous journey over plains, passing many
of the rising Western cities, including Calgary, just on
the eastern edge of the mountains, giving promise of
great importance in days to come.
Soon after Calgary continuous ascent begins towards
Banff, the gateway of the Rockies, which has the
misfortune of being now the popular resort of hurried
trippers from the plains and from the United States. All
the sights are planned for visits by motors ; they are so
numerous and the roads are so dusty that walkers or
" hikers " must take to the trails on the mountains.
Banff makes one acquainted with distant views, but
at Lake Louise a much closer and consequently more
impressive view is had. The isolated lake, with its
bluey-green shade and the mirroring in the waters of the
exact counterpart of everything above, is most impressive.
One view of it at the beginning of dawn, when the sun
just coloured the tips of the snow-covered mountains,
with every detail repeated conversely in the lake, is
a picture which we shall treasure in our memory.
The surroundings of Lake Louise rival, if they do not
excel, itself. Morain Lake and the Valley of the Ten
Peaks may well some day be more of a centre for tourists.
Paradise Valley, less accessible at present, gives an even
finer impression of a basin surrounded by giant mountains
than does the valley at the head of Lake Louise.
It was too late in the season to visit Glacier in the
Selkirks, but a few days spent in perfect weather at
Emerald Lake were most enjoyable. The Yoho Valley
and the Takakkaw Falls are certainly the finest excursion
which on this journey we were privileged to make, and
well repay the toil involved. One could write endlessly and
13
Zig-Zagging Round the World
always with enthusiasm regarding the Rockies of Canada.
It has to be remembered that the few show places
visited are only what are accidentally in the line of the
railway, and that there are many places equalling or
even surpassing them in interest throughout the
enormous long and deep stretch of mountains separating
Alberta from British Columbia.
Much has been published regarding the fruit-growing
possibilities of British Columbia, and as the season of the
year, the middle of their harvest, gave unique opportunity,
several days were spent visiting the Okanagan Valley
and lake. In all the southern part there is fruit-growing,
but the large centres are Vernon, Kelowna, and
Penticton. The great bulk of the growth is apples, but
plums, pears, peaches, prunes, melons, and tomatoes are
all grown, as well as celery and onions. It was very
impressive to see mile after mile of orchards, or
" ranches," as they are called out here, loaded with
fruit, the only difficulty being to find labour to pick and
to pack it, and it seemed as if this industry were only at
its beginning.
After thousands of miles of prairie and mountain it
is exceedingly interesting to come again to tidal waters.
The impression of Vancouver is, to an old-country mind,
very marked. Here the largest ocean steamers seem to
come alongside residential dwellings and gardens. In a
fairly large city you meet youths and children walking a
few blocks with their towels and bathing-dresses to have
a dip in the sea.
Stockholm, Hamburg, and many cities in Holland are
filled with waterways in lieu of streets, but Vancouver
has so many arms of the sea that it takes a stranger some
little time to know just where they lie, and he can always
be sure that there is deep sea at no great distance from
wherever he is. Owing to the lateness of our visit, it
was not possible to do more than see the Capilano Gorge,
among the mountains to the north of Vancouver, and to
14
Canada
sail one day up Howe Sound, a repetition of a Norwegian
fiord. These are only small and insignificant samples
of a limitless and largely unopened land of delights for
the mountaineer and the tourist who can do some walking.
Already the active, hard-working men and women of
British Columbia have tasted its merits for thorough
recuperation.
From Vancouver we crossed on a lovely day through
narrow passages between islands, like the Kyles of Bute on
a large scale, to Victoria the capital of British Columbia,
beautifully situated on an inlet of Vancouver Island.
Strangely, our furthest west point proves to be the most
British in appearance and ways. As in Vancouver,
there is some lumber industry, and, mostly created by the
war, a small shipbuilding plant. Yarrow have at
Esquimalt (pronounced Iskwimalt), near what remains of
the Government docks, a ship-repairing yard. The
prospect of iron shipbuilding in the Province depends on
the possibility of an iron and steel home production.
For this, nature has provided coal and iron ore within
easy water transport. Already there are many speculators
at work on the project. It only needs some hard-headed,
thoroughly practical man to take hold and see the dreams
realised.
Two questions friends at home will naturally ask.
What of the liquor question ? We were hardly conscious
that it had any serious concern for all but a small majority,
and these not the present-day brain and muscle of the
nation. Here and in the United States they won't ever
again have bars and saloons. The men who matter won't
waste time discussing the question, and, in spite of all
forebodings, everyone, distiller, liquor-seller, landlord of
property where a saloon was, and particularly the working-
man, his wife and children, are better off than ever before.
What about labour unrest ? There is no more of
that than is inevitable and possibly wholesome after the
turn up which the war has everywhere made. Much of
15
Zig-Zagging Round the World
it is caused by the returning soldiers, who frequently find
an entrenched shirker on their job. Instances were
heard of, in which men had returned to better positions,
and undoubtedly service men will soon show that the war
experience has made them a valuable asset to the country,
which it would be folly not to fully use.
This vast country, which, let us never forget, has a
greater area than that of the United States, with less than
a tenth of the population, has only made a beginning of
developing her resources. New areas are being opened
year by year, each more productive than the last.
Athabasca and the Peace River are in everyone's mouth
to-day. To-morrow other now unknown lands will be
opened out. What to do with and for the boys who have
fought for us is the question of the day. They have led
the Empire to victory. The Empire should let them lead
us to develop the resources of this most wonderful
Dominion.
16
II.
Western Seaboard of the
United States.
THE preceding notes on Canada were written on two
wet days experienced in Victoria. These were, as
often happens here, followed by several days of
very exceptional clearness of atmosphere, during which
we made a motor journey half way up Vancouver Island.
The roadway for many miles has a hard surface, is
dustless, and throughout it is good. After passing the
Malahat, a mountain road affording beautiful views of
inland and seawards scenery, we descended on a fairly
well-populated community — Duncans — which, in spite
of its Scottish name, is said to be more English than
even Victoria. In the evening, after a one hundred
and ten miles drive, we reached Cameron Lake,
a small gem-like sheet of water among wooded
mountains, with a small hotel on the railway station,
run by the Canadian Pacific. As there had been
no visitors during the week, advantage had been taken
to invite a party of convalescent soldiers from a
hospital at Qualicum, ten miles off. We found among
them two Scottish boys, one from Glasgow and another
from the Moray Firth. The following day we drove
through the heavy timber of Vancouver Island to
Alberni, a port at the head of an inlet from the western
side of the island, open to the Pacific Ocean. That
evening we learned that the engineer superintendent of
this section of the railway lived close by, and that he and
his wife, both Scottish, proposed for the last outing of
the season to climb Mount Arrowsmith, the best view-
point in the district. So the next morning early we
started to climb 5,700 feet on a good trail, which had many
Zig-Zagging Round the World
years before been marked off by our conductor. The
view amply rewarded the effort, as from above the clouds
every detail of the high mountains of British Columbia
mainland, along Georgian Sound, eighty to a hundred
miles away, was distinctly visible, while to the south the
prominent heights of Mount Baker and Mount Rainier,
in Washington State, about two hundred miles away,
were plainly seen, high above the clouds.
We passed into Uncle Sam's territory at Seattle,
Washington State, one of the most outstanding examples
of rapid growth in the new country of the north-west.
Here, within a few miles of virgin forest, are towering
many flatted office buildings, rivalling New York, and a
bewildering noise of clanging street cars and railways.
As in Vancouver, there is ample harbourage, deep water
ways of Nature's providing, which could accommodate,
with very simple wharf construction, many vessels and
enormous tonnage. During the war there has been exten-
sive shipbuilding here of wooden as well as steel ships. It
is quite recognised that only the exigencies of the war
warranted the latter, as the materials required were all
produced in the east. When the Armistice came, it was
accepted that the building of wooden ships was no longer
advisable, and the work was stopped as it reached suitable
stages, so there are now between forty and fifty vessels lying
in Union Lake, Seattle, which the U.S. Government has
wisely decided to sell as they are, believing that such a
realisation will be beneficial to the national purse. Are
there not some similar British war ventures on which it
would be advisable to face the loss and save our British
exchequer ? While Seattle's huge sky-scraper buildings
may be regretted, her most desirable residential suburbs
can only be admired and envied. The undulating ground,
with salt and fresh water areas interspersed, lends itself
to good sites. Almost without exception beautiful
gardens are left unfenced, and vandalism, such as our
town and suburban houses are subject to, is quite
18
Western Seaboard of the United States
unknown. All the roadways are of concrete, and every
householder seems to have his automobile, which is
allowed to stand or be " parked," as is the current term,
outside his lot. There is a most extensive municipal
market in Seattle, from which it was possible to estimate
the cost of living as regards food as being distinctly less
than in Great Britain. Possibly this is offset by the
greater cost of clothing, but even footwear did not seem
to exceed present home prices.
Tacoma and Portland, each older than Seattle, have
been surpassed in growth by the northmost city of the
United States Pacific slope, and it is a safe prophecy that
she is destined to become a huge hive of industry and the
avenue of large commerce with trans-Pacific countries.
Seattle and Tacoma share an industrial atmosphere which
was reminiscent of the Clyde Valley, soft coal being used
with imperfect combustion. Dull cloudy days succeeded
each other, so that it was not encouraging to make plans
for a visit to Mount Rainier, the outstanding feature of
Washington State landscape. From Seattle the distance
is greater than from Tacoma, but we finally planned to
motor right from there, which we did on an excellent
road, interesting as regards showing the industrial
development of both places, and beautiful as regards the
autumn foliage, but wholly unsuccessful as regards seeing
the mountain or its unique feature of the great number of
independent glaciers which originate on the slopes of
Mount Rainier.
Portland, which claims to be the city of roses, has a
much longer commercial and industrial history than
Seattle, and is said to be a much wealthier place. As
well for industry and commerce as for picturesquely
situated residences, it has a most favourable position on
the Willamette River (pronounced with marked accent
on the second syllable) before it joins the great Columbia
River. Lumber is the principal industry of all these
northern cities, the raw material being in abundant supply.
19
Zig-Zagging Round the World
The whole commerce of the United States with the
Orient must, in the course of this century, develop
enormously, and the influence of the Panama Canal on
the shipment to Europe and Africa has hardly begun to
be felt. These two considerations make one feel that
there is little uncertainty in forecasting for the ports of
the western seaboard vast progress in the immediate
future.
But we had yet to see the great gateway of the
Pacific, and on the way there we included, with the
world-famed Yosemite Valley, a less known but not less
remarkable work of nature, the Crater Lake. The season
was somewhat late and really had already closed for the
latter, which is situated near Medford, Oregon, and lies
at an altitude of 6,000 feet. Medford is the centre of the
Oregon fruit district, and particularly produces the
delightful apples, Newton Pippins and Spitzenbergs, which
were so popular in Britain when they were available
in pre-war times. The lake is approached by a road
eighty miles in length, of which only about a quarter is
as yet completed, with hard and dustless surface, the
remainder being in a transitional state and much of it
on service tracks, during regrading of the permanent road.
By the courtesy of the Commissioner for this national
park, we were not only allowed to make the journey, but
were personally conducted on this most interesting three
days trip, which, late as it was in the season, had ideal
weather conditions. After eight hours on the way, we
reached the superintendent's house in the dark of a frosty
starlit night, and woke next morning to find the sun
rising on a waning circlet of the moon and a single star.
We were still five miles from the Rim, and the scene
which, on reaching it, bursts on the eye is most impressive.
A lake in size about the area of Loch Katrine, surrounded
by irregular rocky hills, raggedly clad with patches of
pine trees, and its water of a vivid sapphire blue, bore on
its surface one island, which was really a crater, within
20
Western Seaboard of the United States
that which forms the lake itself, and a small island
closely resembling a ship, and so named the Phantom
Ship. Some hours were spent going around, part of one
side affording varying views, and after lunch, part of
which was a bear steak, we made a long detour to the
opposite side of the lake, and there an even more
impressive view was obtained. There is no visible outlet
from the lake. Within some of the river courses which
originate on the surrounding mountains, there are
remarkable groups of pinnacles, as they are called,
fantastical shapes of pillars, the lower part of which is
comparatively friable stone, but with coping of a harder
material which has protected and preserved the under
strata.
A railway journey of twenty-eight hours brought us
from the State of Oregon right into California. We
approached within forty miles of San Francisco to Porto
Costa, where the train is taken across an arm of the sea
in the largest train ferry in the world ; thence we travelled
southward to Merced, on the plain through which flows the
river which drains the Yosemite (pronounced Yosemity,
with accent on the second syllable), and the railway
journey ended with about seventy miles of a gradually
narrowing and heightening tortuous valley, while the last
hours of daylight were spent motoring among the huge,
weirdly-shaped masses of rock which are scattered over
the Yosemite Valley. These are of endless variety, and
are arbitrarily named by the impression they made on
the early visitors. The Dome and Half Dome, Sentinel,
Cathedral, Three Graces, Three Brothers, and El Captain are
the most striking. The other two characteristic features
of the Yosemite are the big trees and the waterfalls.
These last are only seen to advantage in early summer,
and the season had been so dry that many of the falls
were non-existent. Before the days of motors, much
of the characteristic American scenery must have been
exceedingly difficult to see, as distances are so enormous.
21
Zig-Zagging Round the World
Forty miles of mountain road brought us to Mariposa
Grove, where some of the largest trees in the world were
seen ; then a farther thirty miles or so landed us at
Glacier Point Hotel in time for the sunset over the valley,
3,000 feet above where the previous night had been spent.
The following day brought us, after seeing in detail the
endless variety of fantastically formed mountains, back
to our starting-point. After two days of perfect weather,
a suddenly arising snow-storm early the following
morning covered rocks, mountains, and trees with a veil
of white, but as suddenly, sunshine succeeded snow, and
in the afternoon of what seemed an unfortunate morning
for weather, we drove around the whole floor of the valley,
seeing it in a wholly different aspect, and that one of
incredible beauty. From hill to valley and thence to the
Golden Gate brought us to San Francisco, the wonder
centre of this wonderful State of California.
The original San Francisco occupied three hills,
known as Telegraph, Russian, and Nob Hills, and the
city gradually spread until, like Rome, there were
seven hills. Now both places have exceeded the
classical prototype, and their space on which to
spread is unrestricted. The features which at once
impress a stranger in San Francisco are the excellent
street car service and the Golden Gate Park of over one
thousand acres, within a ten minute journey of most of
the inhabitants. Here are provided recreations and
exercises of all kinds, art and curio collections, and miles
of roads suitable for all means of locomotion — auto roads,
riding roads, and walking roads arranged independently,
conveniently, and safely. The scheme of a civic centre
bids fair to surpass any other city, a beginning having
been made with the city hall, public library, and
auditorium, each worthy of its position, and ample vacant
ground, some of which it is hoped will remain open space
for a series of other public buildings, one of which is
expected to be a civic theatre. Even the business
22
CJ
Western Seaboard of the United States
portion of the city gives an impression of roominess, as it
is bounded by Market Street, the main artery of traffic,
a street of handsome width, mostly with four street car
lines.
The reputation of the hotels of San Francisco is world-
wide and well deserved. Nowhere else were we better
cared for, and their merits induce large numbers of the
inhabitants to reside in such convenient and comfortable
establishments. Yet, it must not be taken that this is
not a city of homes, as throughout the surroundings of
San Francisco and neighbouring cities there are beautiful,
large and small detached houses, with gardens profuse
with vegetation and lovely flowers. Twin Peaks, a
double mountain between older San Francisco and the
sea, has been pierced by a tunnel, as well as crossed by a
scenic drive, and the slope down to the Pacific has become
an attractive residential quarter, with abundant area for
growth.
Throughout California, as also in the two northern
coast States, we were much impressed by the school
accommodation. Wherever one remarked exceptionally
large premises, with ample space around, it was always
answered, " That is our school." Nothing seems too
good for that purpose.
The harbour of San Francisco, with its entrance by the
Golden Gate from the Pacific, is the largest land-locked
harbour area in the world, being four hundred and fifty
square miles, and there is ample room for docks, shipbuild-
ing, and residential accommodation. While we were there
the largest United States battleship, California, was,
without serious mishap, launched in a somewhat needlessly
restricted water space. While San Francisco proper is
confined to the southern bank of the Golden Gate entrance,
the whole residential surroundings — Oakland, Berkeley,
Richmond, and Alameda, on the east side of the bay, and
Sausilito, on the north side of the Golden Gate — make
one community of identical interests with San Francisco.
23
Zig-Zagging Round the World
Richmond bids fair to become the industrial centre of the
locality, as many huge works, such as the Pullman Car
Construction and the Standard Oil Works, are located there.
California University, beautifully situated right
opposite the Golden Gate in Berkeley, really shares in
the same common life. The pupils are drawn from the
High Schools throughout the State, and in all depart-
ments of life, commerce, manufacture, and agriculture, the
University has a place. The buildings, especially the
library, are boldly designed and impressive, while the
unique feature, made possible by the climate, the Greek
amphitheatre for large gatherings of all kinds, gives the
University quite a distinction. Accidentally, on the day
of our visit, the students were addressed by a Scottish
M.P., and the chairman, who was the Professor of English
Literature, made a special appeal on behalf of the English-
speaking Union as a strengthening influence in the good
understanding of the various branches of the English-
speaking race.
One of the most attractive features of our visit to
San Francisco was the glorious sunshine and the still
more glorious sunsets visible by a short street car journey
to the ocean, where, each evening, it was possible to see
the day end by the sun slowly dropping into the Pacific
Ocean. San Francisco has not the reputation of being a
church-going city, but we saw two well-filled churches on
successive Sundays, the First Presbyterian and the First
Congregational. We noticed a stream of markedly
expensively attired ladies entering a hall in the fashion-
able quarter, and learned that it was a Christian Science
Church. Later, in Los Angeles, we found that the
denomination owned one of the largest and handsomest
churches in the city.
The Dolores Mission in San Francisco was the first
we had seen of the interesting series of twenty-one
scattered throughout the State, in varied conditions of
preservation, mostly founded by Father Junipero Serra,
24
Western Seaboard of the United States
on his pilgrimage from 1769 to 1780. An active move-
ment had been started for restoration of all these missions.
The population of San Francisco, probably, consists
of a greater variety of races than any other city in the
world. At one time China Town had to be visited under
police protection, but now, in daylight or by dark, it is most
orderly, and a walk through it is extremely interesting.
In visiting the Eastern States one is always impressed
by the absence of elderly men, either in business houses
or public service departments. In the west, especially
in San Francisco, it did not seem a crime to look old, and
grey hairs were not concealed. Business men all down
the coast did not appear to be so engrossed as in the east,
and a week-end at golf or motoring was acknowledged
without hesitation.
What of the " dry " condition ? There are some
elderly men who speak of the deprivation generally to
tell that they have amply provided for their own needs,
but, as in Canada, the men who are carrying the burden
of the country's affairs look on the question as deter-
mined, and waste no time discussing it.
The first excursion outside the city is to Mount
Tamalpais, but it is really only a view-point for San
Francisco, her bay, and her affiliated cities. It is about
2,700 feet up, reached by what is described as the
crookedest railway in the world, which enables one also
to visit the Muir Park of big trees. Our friends on this
side like to do their sight-seeing without any large
expenditure of physical energy. They lead such strenuous
lives, that when they take a holiday it is the rest they
want. In such luxurious ease we get a bird's-eye view
of all that has been described, and the panorama was
wonderful. Although loath to do so, the time came to
leave San Francisco, which was only the beginning of this
well-favoured State.
A slow progress southward, mostly by the coast
route, enabled us to see Palo Alto with the Leland
c 25
Zig-Zagging Round the World
Stanford University ; Los Gatos, right in the heart of
the prune-growing country, and the famous Lick
Observatory on Mount Hamilton ; and we landed for a
lovely week-end at Del Monte, close to Monterey, Robert
Louis Stevenson's first love in his search for health, and
a place with much historic interest for Calif or nians.
Del Monte really consists of a hotel with extensive garden
grounds, also bathing, tennis courts, golf and polo fields ;
situated in what is by comparison an extremely flat
area. Monterey lives on visitors and fishing. We saw
one morning the municipal fish market, where the catch
of the previous night was on sale, and there were many
entirely different varieties of fish from those to which
we are accustomed. A great delicacy is the abalone
shell-fish, with which we are only familiar by seeing the
polished shells brought home by sailors. There was no
evidence of great care to preserve either the Stevenson
or Californian historical points of interest, and it rather
seemed that Pacific Grove and Carmel City, watering-
places where the scenic features are more marked, had
overshadowed the older place. Carmel has risen in very
recent years to be a resort of literary and artistic
Calif ornians, and has a magnificent bathing beach of pure
white sand and most wonderful sunsets. The beach is
flanked by bold rocky headlands, which afford endlessly
varying subjects for the landscape artists. Point Lobos,
to the south, is one of the finest rocky features of the
Californian coast. There is also a forest theatre, wherein
summer plays are produced entirely in the open air.
Inland from it is the Carmel Mission, where he the bones
of Father Junipero Serra. Passing several other
missions — these were planted as resting-places a day's
journey apart — we next stopped at Santa Barbara, or
rather in a suburb right on the beach, three miles beyond,
called Miramar. The hotel here gave us the first expe-
rience of bungalow life, as it consists of twenty or more
bungalows, varying in accommodation to suit travellers.
26
Western Seaboard of the United States
We had a sitting-room, bathroom, and bedroom, but for
meals all guests found their way to a large dining-room,
with adjoining sitting-rooms for social intercourse.
The Santa Barbara Mission is in a most perfect state of
preservation, and the town itself is most interesting,
having perfectly modern high-class shops, which one
never expects to see outside of a large city. The
explanation is that all around are residences of the
wealthiest people in the west, this being the Mecca of
millionaires from far east of California. The life at the
seaside was most enjoyable, warm during the day, like
the English watering places at midsummer. Inland, in
every direction, were richly-laden groves of oranges and
lemons. Off this coast lie four islands, the largest of
which is Santa Cruz, which forms a natural shelter within
which yachting can be enjoyed.
There are several large hotels of the usual order, but
one unique place, most artistically got up, with distinctive
bungalows and carefully tended gardens, called La
Mirasol (the sunflower), with its colours running through
every piece of furniture and decoration. The charges
are such that it is needless to say the place is known as
" for millionaires only." It would not be very wrong to
say that Santa Barbara is in the west of the United
States the equivalent of Newport in the east, but possibly
the former would claim to be the more refined and
exclusive.
Again, with great regret, we moved southward to the
wonderful metropolis of Southern California, Los Angeles.
It is a city, a great city, but unique in that its business
centre of high buildings, huge hotels, and stores, and
places of amusement only occupy about seven blocks
long by four blocks across, during the day swarming with
people, and at night ablaze with lights, but surrounded
in all directions by miles and miles of real homes, each
with its plot of garden, with wealth of flowers even in winter.
It is a model garden city if ever there was one. The key
27
Zlg'Zagging Round the World
to this condition in a land which claims to have sunshine
six days out of seven in the year is a huge scheme of water
supply, covering an area equal to the whole Clyde Valley*
The water has to be carried about five times as far as our
Loch Katrine supply, from Owens River in the Sierra
Nevada, and it is copiously utilised for gardening as well
as for domestic, industrial, and agricultural purposes,
thus making the whole district an all-the-year-round
Garden of Eden. There is one point of resemblance
between Glasgow and Los Angeles, often rather unkindly
put, "It is a remarkably good place to get out of."
The facilities for so doing are by road, street car, and
railroad, but that does not exhaust the subject, as
there are combination journeys by land and steamer.
One of these is to Catalina Island, which is not unlike the
journey via Ardrossan to Arran. Here one goes by
electric train to San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles, as
well as a naval station ; thence the journey is by screw
steamer, making the twenty-six miles crossing in two
hours. When we started the island was invisible, but
as we drew closer the atmosphere cleared, and we found
Avalon, where we landed, a seaside resort with the usual
accompaniments, as at Margate or Brighton. The clear
blue sea water and the growth below allowed one unusual
experience. On board small steamers, with glass bottoms,
we were able to see fish, shell-fish, and particularly most
beautiful sea shrubs, tree and flower growths, explained
by men who were as much at home in the water as in air.
There are numerous beach resorts within an hour's
journey by electric car. One of these is known as Venice,
which has canals like the original. Owing to the good
car service, many of the suburbs of Los Angeles are at
distances of from ten to fifteen miles, and among such
are what is known as Universal City at Hollywood,
Charlie Chaplin's home, where most of the films familiar
to "movie" patrons have been originally produced.
Pasadena can hardly be called a suburb of Los Angeles,
28
Western Seaboard of the United States
though it also is quickly reached by electric cars. Its
peculiar situation, nestling under and enclosed by hills
of about 6,000 feet high, make it warm even in midwinter,
and a favourite resort for health seekers from all over
the States and Canada. Here there are costly residences
with large and beautiful gardens. Originally there was a
" Millionaires' Row," but these have now become so
numerous that all Pasadena is a huge millionaires' park.
One of the overlooking heights is Mount Lowe, which has
a railroad almost to its summit, with the usual hotel.
The other is Mount Wilson, which is reached by a concrete
automobile road, with, at its end, an observatory provided
by Mr. Carnegie, including a one-hundred-inch reflector
telescope. All around the area to the north and east of
Los Angeles is orange-growing country, and in its midst
is Riverside, with a unique hotel, known as Glenwood
Mission Inn, the construction and apartments of which
reproduce and embody the old missions already referred
to, with, of course, all modern comfort added. It is
claimed by its proprietor, who himself acts as Master of
the Inn, that there is restfulness for the hustlers of this
age in the simplicity of construction and in the old-
world surroundings of Spanish ecclesiastical architecture.
The decorations, Spanish in style, furniture, hangings, and
pictures, were gathered with infinite pains from Spain
and Mexico, and above all there is a spirit of hospitality
without fussiness, that pervades the whole place. The
two parent navel orange trees, brought from Brazil in
1870, still grow : the one in Magnolia Avenue and the
other in the garden of the mission inn just described.
From these the vast citrus production of Southern
California has been propagated.
In a drive around the groves about the end of
November, we found on the higher ground the remains
of a snow-storm, being in the shape of snow figures made
by the children, a very unusual pastime here at any time,
but especially so early in the winter.
29
Zig-Zagging Round the World
From Los Angeles we went by auto service, as it is
called, to San Diego. This route is typical of others
where the automobiles run in competition with the railway
at fares hardly any higher. With well equipped motors,
holding seven passengers, there are announced five journeys
in each direction per day at suitable hours, and cars are ready
for dispatch to convey as many passengers as may present
themselves. The early part of the journey was through
orange and walnut groves to Capistrano or the San Juan
Mission. After that our road lay along successive
sandy beaches and headlands, where the good folks of
San Diego enjoy the summer. We stopped at another
unique hotel, Coronado Beach, right on the water's edge,
with all bathing and recreation facilities, including golf
course and polo grounds. San Diego was the first of the
series of missions founded by Father Junipera Serra on
16th July, 1769, known as San Diego de Alcala. The
Spanish influence increases as we go southward, and at
San Diego only a few miles separate us from the Mexican
border. It is now a thriving port with a good harbour and
a large naval station, and as it is the outlet from a most
productive hinterland, promises to make rapid progress
in development. From San Diego we made another
journey by automobile stage to El Centro, the capital of
Imperial Valley, which has, in Chapter III., been made
the subject of a special article. Here is another remark-
able hotel for a country which twenty years ago
was a carefully avoided barren wilderness. We spent
Thanksgiving Day, the great American home festival, at
this hotel, and left the valley by rail, passing through the
Coachella Valley, another creation of the irrigation
engineer, and after surmounting the San Gorgonio Pass
and passing San Gabriel, yet another famous mission,
reached Los Angeles once more, concluding our visit to
Southern California by passing Needles, its frontier town,,
on our journey to the Grand Canyon of Arizona.
III.
The Imperial Valley, California.
MIRACLES IRRIGATION IS WORKING.
TILL 1st December, 1919, the Imperial Valley only
had railway communication with Los Angeles,
but there has just been opened a direct line to
San Diego, the southernmost port in California, and the
natural outlet by sea to the larger world beyond the
Pacific. We entered by the road track from San Diego,
which is an interesting piece of engineering accomplished
about ten years ago. The Imperial Valley has been made
widely known in the States as one of the latest and most
fascinating enterprises of the irrigation engineers. The
story has been remarkably well told in a novel by Harold
Bell Wright, entitled, " The Winning of Barbara Worth,''
first published ten years ago. Men now living and still
actively guiding its destinies schemed and carried out
a conduit from the great Colorado River to be used for
irrigating the large area lying to the south-east of Salton
Sea, mostly under sea level, and which undoubtedly at
one time was part of the Gulf of California. This dream
of less than twenty years ago has so materialised that a
desert has become a fruitful valley. Anyone who goes
there expecting to see a " green and flowering valley,"
like Kent or Surrey, is sure to be disappointed, but if he
has eyes he will see a much more wonderful and
exceptional place. On 27th November, 1919, we there
saw vegetables well grown, particularly lettuce and
asparagus, intended to be marketed in January, 1920 ;
grape fruit and dates were eaten fully ripe from the trees ;
strawberries will be ripe in February ; peas, melons, and
apricots will be ready in April ; wheat early in May ;
and grapes in June. Alfalfa, closely resembling lucerne,
grown by our own farmers, was ready to yield its seventh
Zig-Zagging Round the World
crop for the year, and it was a delight to see the condition
of grazing, as well as of milk cattle, also sheep, feeding
upon the brown-looking fields of alfalfa stubble with its
dried hay spread over. There were newly-born lambs
and calves running in the fields, intended to be ready for
the table in early spring, and the wool fleece is so heavy
that sheep must be shorn twice each year. Sufficient
has been told to show that this wonderful place has no
limit of seasonal production, and a large part of its success
lies in the sale of off-season growths in the enormous and
ready markets of the United States.
It has been demonstrated that not only can cotton
be successfully grown, but that it is of particularly long
staple and good quality. Already there are markets
conveniently reached, such as Japan, but a local textile
industry now projected will be still more desirable.
There are many splendid dairy farms, and these have
started with accumulated experience, using modern
central creameries and large scale marketing. Last year,
seven million pounds of high-class butter were produced.
Honey yields with nominal trouble one and a half
million pounds ; and poultry, including turkeys and fowls,
lay eggs and hatch chickens all the year round. The
reason for this extraordinary latent fertility of the valley
is the rich composition of the soil, which is the accumu-
lation of centuries of gathering on its long course by the
forceful river, now brought into activity by irrigation.
This valley, of which the population is fully stated at
sixty thousand people, is producing from the soil in this
present year twelve millions sterling. Two hundred
pounds per head — man, woman and child. The area now
irrigated amounts to half a million acres : that gives
twenty-four pounds per acre ; and some of the half
million can hardly yet be doing its share. The valley
certainly benefits by modern ideas. The water supply,
before it reaches the fields, is used for generating
electricity, supply of which is general, not only for lighting,
32
The Imperial Valley, California
but for power. Telephones are at every steading, and the
motor car, as well as the motor truck, in general use.
The main roads are already concrete, but every farmer
wishes that to his own door, and is willing to pay for it
too, as he recognises the value of rapid marketing.
Science is in her right place and is fully appreciated.
The " bug doctor " is every farmer's friend, but even
more acceptable is the help of the highly qualified
botanist, under whom a large experimental station is
conducted, testing not only orders of plants, but their
individual species to discover the most suitable for the
soil and for food requirements of man and beast. As
instances, the following are given ; but no list can be
exhaustive. This shows how small the world is and how
far the scientist's arm can reach, as he has emissaries all
over the globe : —
Tepary bean from Arizona.
Currants and pomegranates from Greece.
Mulberries from Russia.
Rhodes and Sudan grasses from Africa.
Haliawi and Khadrawi dates from Persia.
Hemp from Manchuria.
Ramie fibre from China.
Alfalfas from Chile and Peru.
Naturally one asks, if there is such a Paradise in the
world, why only sixty thousand people are there ? Of
course, this is only a story of recent years and hardly yet
proven. The flaw is the trying climate for three months
of the year. The temperature is as high as 115 degrees
in the shade and the rainfall only averages annually a
little over an inch. Well, the drawback is admitted and
has to be endured, but there are compensations. There
are in this favoured community seventy schools, and
many of these have handsome, roomy buildings. There
33
Zig-Zagging Round the Wbr/c/
are already libraries in each town or city, as they are
called. There are churches in plenty and much social
intercourse, as neighbours, thanks to the motor car, can
foregather all over the valley. One could not but be
impressed by the fact that it is a place for the young
man and young woman. Their vitality was obvious,
and they also looked like people who were succeeding
in life.
34
IV.
The South- Western States.
SO Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are
named. Coming from the west and crossing the
Colorado River at Needles we entered Arizona
first. From Los Angeles, and even across the Mohave
desert with home summer heat, we experienced a sudden
drop into winter.
There was an equally striking change from the gay
dresses of whites at Pasadena and Glendale to the depot
at Needles, thronged with Indian women, picturesquely
attired in clan tartan shawls, selling their handiwork —
blankets, baskets, and bead articles. We retired to the
sleeper from a lovely starry but cold night to awake near
the Grand Canyon (see 8, facing p. %3) next morning,
with everything deeply covered by snow. There was
considerable disturbance in railway service, and we were
thankful to be less than an hour behind time.
In a movement which had been fostered during the
war to " See America First," good arrangements are made
to allow sightseers from all parts to be brought up to
the Canyon by a train of sleeping-cars. Baggage remains
in the car and the day is spent in seeing the Canyon.
At night the traveller resumes his sleeper and proceeds
on his way. In addition to the well-known El Tovar
Hotel, a less pretentious place is run for those of more
moderate means, while in summer there is tent accom-
modation and general catering, mostly for young people,
who walk to see the sights and live the simple life.
What is the Grand Canyon and how can it be
described ? Think of a stream, when in drought, of
volume like the Clyde above Glasgow, with banks of
bare rock instead of green-covered land ; of these banks
being not two to three hundred feet above the river,
35
Zig-Zagging Round the World
but all the height of Ben Nevis (4,400 feet) to half as much
more, and the area in which the river Colorado has its waver-
ing course about double the area of the Clyde above Glasgow.
Well, can an unknown thing so different from that which
is known be realised by any use of words, and when to
the picture is added that these towering rocks which
bound the river are in terrace after terrace of fantastic
forms and different colours, and that the aspects of these
change with every new day and vary incessantly every
hour of each day, it leaves the most vivid imagination
hopelessly overtaxed ? What is the colour impression
of the Canyon ? No artist can convey it, as it varies so
rapidly and endlessly.
How has this vast erosion of rocks taken place ? We
don't know. Theorise as we may, it only increases the
wonder and bewilderment. It was by no means a
misfortune to have the snow-covered landscape as the
framework of the picture.
Rapidly all snow in the actual Canyon disappeared,
as there the temperature in winter is always above that
of the surrounding country, but on the trees and the
plateau beyond the rim, the snow remained during the four
days we were there. About ten miles of the rim road
was available for seeing into the Canyon from the several
points of view. That road is roughly along the northern
edge of the plateau which lies to the south of the Canyon,
and in the section accessible to us there were five or six
viewpoints, all showing from different aspects the
magnificent spectacle which fancy has arbitrarily named
and mapped out as altar, amphitheatre, buttle, castle,
crest, peak, pyramid, ridge, shrine, temple terrace,
throne, and tower, associating these with the names of
all the gods, heroes and heroines of classical and Indian
mythology. Each viewpoint allows the eye of the visitor
to explore different areas of the Canyon, but however
long he may look he hasn't been able to exhaust the
desire to look and look again, and to return and return
36
The South-Western States
again to really try if he can manage to carry away a
satisfying impression of the scene. We drove and walked
backwards and forwards during four days, and the
spectacle increased in wonder all the time. The feeling
of reverence grew until one could only sum up all the
names as " God's Canyon." We left it unsatisfied and
wishing that yet again some other time in our lives we
might look on this, the greatest of nature's wonders it
had till now been our privilege to see.
Still within Arizona we were next to look on an
entirely different scene. The Apache (usually pro-
nounced Ahpatchy, though the Indians call it Appa-shay)
trail from Phoenix to Globe, in the middle of which is the
vast irrigation project known as the Roosevelt dam.
This involved a cross-country journey, with difficult
communications, and one of these failing cost us a day,
and gave us some experience of roadside hotels, which
was wholesome, and made us appreciate the accom-
modation available on main routes of travel.
All round Phoenix is the Salt River Valley, which has
benefited by the bold project of the irrigation engineer,
the creation of a great lake seventy-five miles away,
arresting the flow of two rivers by a huge barrier of
masonry and flooding permanently an area of twenty-
five square miles, with a catchment area of over 6,000
square miles. This work was completed in 1911, but
the lake took four years to completely fill, and now amply
supplies the whole valley and makes it possible to tell
of it the usual miracles of fruitfulness ; but the history
of the Salt River Valley differs entirely from that told
elsewhere of the Imperial Valley in California. Not
only was the valley formerly a white man's home, with a
certain measure of irrigation from early days of Arizona's
history as a State, but there are records which tell that
ancient people, before the advent of the Spanish
explorers, had canals here aggregating one hundred and
fifty miles in length and sufficient for the irrigation of
37
Zig-Zagging Round the World
250,000 acres of land. It is, however, within the last
decade, particularly its later years, that the produce
of the valley has so enormously increased in volume,
variety, quality, and value.
The fall of the outflow from the Roosevelt dam is
such that it can be frequently used for generating power,
and this is utilised for public service as well as for the
farmers and for various mining projects. The actual
journey from Phoenix to Globe was by auto-stage, at
first through the fertile valley on modern concrete roads,
but later through the mountains on the road surveyed
and carried out in connection with the building of the
dam. It rises to 3,470 feet, winding through weird
canyons among the boldly outlined rocky hills, until the
great artificial lake is reached, thence along its margin
until the descent begins into the mining valleys where
great copper ore deposits lie, and the working of which
is the principal industry of Globe and Miami.
Between the Roosevelt dam and Globe, on the hill
to the right, at a short distance from the former, there are
remarkable ruins of buildings within caves, which
antiquarians tell us belong to a forgotten race of earlier
days than either Indians or whites. Our journey just
touched New Mexico and traversed Texas, beginning at
San Antonio, a place of many historical associations.
One of these occurred in 1836, when, in the Alamo,
one hundred and eighty-two Texans, for eleven days,
withstood a siege by five thousand Mexicans, none
surviving. The Alamo building is preserved sacredly
as a memorial.
In the closing light of a winter afternoon we entered
Louisiana, the historic State, profoundly interesting as
well here as on our side of the water. Its great river
and port were seen in actual existence after being imagined
again and again throughout the years. What descrip-
tions of the levees, of old planters, Creole aristocrats,
we have all read and pictured for ourselves ! The city of
38
The South-Western States
New Orleans is a curious contrast of those days and the
modern days of luxury and prosperity. There are streets
comparing in width with Washington, D.C., and others
where traffic can only go one way. There are old
crumbling houses with wonderful forged grilles and
balconies, and modern millionaires' mansions, clumsy
-and tasteless. Many of the old canals have been put
underground as surface water conduits and the roofing
used for street car lines. Where sufficiently wide, these
have grass within the rails, affording a delightful relief
to the eye and also preventing dust. The harbour is
entirely a thing apart. There is nothing in the world
comparable, and its traffic has also some unique features.
We left its shores for the Island of Cuba with much
regret that it was not our lot to see the winter Capital of
America with less of the winter aspect and more sunshine.
39
V.
The West Indies.
(a) CUBA.
A FEW hours' sail from New Orleans on the broad
waters of the famous Mississippi river brought
us to the still more famous Caribbean Sea and the
innumerable and fascinating islands borne on its waters.
It was our first experience of a United States owned
steamer, the Saramacca, belonging to the United Fruit
Company of Boston. The sailing for a six hundred mile
passage to Havana was originally fixed for a Saturday
morning, which should have landed us on the following
Monday morning. On Friday we were warned that she
might sail that evening, but finally the departure was de-
layed till Sunday, 10 a.m., and we actually cast off at noon.
As soon as we entered the ocean, without any great sea,
she started to roll, and consistently did so till we entered
Havana harbour three days later. When fully at sea,
although nothing of the kind had been mentioned when
our passports were vised by the Cuban consul at New
Orleans, we were informed that all passengers who did
not hold certificates of recent vaccination must submit
to that operation or be returned to port of sailing.
Generally the travelling conditions were not comfortable,
and the food, especially the fruit supplied, left much to
be desired.
From the sea, Havana looks exceedingly well, and the
harbour is completely land-locked, with Morro Castle
on the outer arm. It and Casa Blanca, old Spanish
buildings, are said to be interesting, but the roadway
round is so bad that no motor would face it. We had
been recommended to a hotel in the western residential
suburb of Havana, the Vedado. From the harbour there
D 41
Zig-Zagging Round the World
was about four miles drive, at first through narrow and
rather unsavoury streets, where the traffic could only go
one way : the street cars are so arranged, and in the
denser part, close to the harbour, are elevated so as to
permit traffic there to have free passage. On emerging
from the older part of the city there are the remains of
what was an esplanade, but last autumn a severe storm
wrecked it, and extensive repairs now going on, along with
active building of handsome dwelling-houses on the Vedado
sea front, make the whole place look as if an earthquake
had occurred. There is, however, every promise that
ultimately there will be a very handsome and wholesome
addition to the metropolis of Cuba.
Our hotel looked exceedingly well, and no doubt
compared favourably with others in the island, but fell
far short of the comforts we had experienced in
California, and was roughly fifty per cent, more costly
than anything there. It was explained to us that, being
anything but a " dry " country, and having horse-racing,
cock-fighting, and such pastimes fully attended to, Cuba
attracts from the United States a class which can and
does spend the dollars freely, thus running up prices,
so that Havana now enjoys the reputation of being the
costliest place on the globe to live in. Unquestionably,
the island is exceedingly prosperous owing to war prices.
Sugar, not tobacco, is now the main growth, and the
price current is such that large fortunes are made without
effort. There have been already, and were while we were
on the island, serious labour troubles, and the people
are violent and lawless. The employers can afford, and
will yet be compelled to pay, largely increased wages to
attract the necessary labour from their own and adjacent
islands. It is clearly recognised that there is large
spending power on the island, and a wise appointment
of a very capable commercial secretary to the British
Embassy has just been made by the Board of Trade
and Foreign Office. Although the island has only a
42
The West Indies: Cuba
population of about two and a half millions of all racas,
and an area of about two-thirds that of Great Britain,
the spending ability per capita is possibly as great as ia
any tropical community in the world.
Of the landscape, as well in the neighbourhood of
Havana as in the eastern end of the island, which we
traversed as far as Santiago, one cannot speak in too
high terms. All the large crops grown — sugar, tobacco
and bananas — lend themselves to the picturesque, and the
country is all undulating with numerous fair-sized hills,
and at the eastern end of the island a decidedly
mountainous country, which Mount Tarquin tops with
its 14,000 feet rising right from the sea. At the western
end, and especially between Havana and Pinar del Rio,
most of the fine tobacco is grown, and we enjoyed a long
motor run right into the Vuelto Abajo, a country well
known by name to cigar lovers. The accommodation
for night travelling from Havana to Santiago is so limited
and so much in demand that it could only be attained
by booking a week ahead. So we decided to divide the
journey, which is by time-table twenty-eight hours and
frequently over thirty hours, into three or four stages.
We spent a week-end at Matanzas, an old Spanish town
and seaport on the northern coast, and a favourite day
excursion from Havana, as there are here large limestone
caves, such as those in Derbyshire, covering a great area
and lit by electricity. Here there is also a large plantation
of a cactus-like plant, known as henebique, and yielding
a fibre-like hemp, used for cables, ropes, and twine. There
is also in the neighbourhood the picturesque Yumuri
valley, mainly now in grazing farms, but just about to
be planted with sugar cane. This place has only recently
reached the importance of a street-car system, and it
was found to be more practicable and less costly to instal
storage batteries on the cars than standards and trolley
wires. It certainly was advantageous to the picturesque
old Spanish town that there were only the rails in the
43
Zig-Zagging Round the World
absence of the cars themselves to indicate that such a
system existed.
Our next stopping-place was at Santa Clara, about
the middle of the island, and the centre of a large sugar-
growing area. Here the accommodation was somewhat
primitive, but nothing like so much so as the roadway,
which could only be compared with the shell-pitted
streets of towns in Flanders. On departure our heavy
luggage, though duly registered, was discovered to have
gone astray, probably the work of a " non-dry " porter,
and we were assured by the station-master that it would
overtake us at Camaguey (pronounced Cammawhey),
our next stop. Here is the headquarters of the railway
system, and the hotel belonging to the railway company
is said to be the best on the island. Though only three
minutes' walk from the station, the roadway there
was in hopeless disrepair, and the hotel looked like, what
it was actually built for, a large barrack. There were no
roadways into the country which it would be other than
an endurance to attempt, and the three days we had to
spend waiting on our baggage — including Christmas Eve —
were rather a trial. Thanks to a courteous Englishman
connected with the railway, who interested himself on our
behalf, the baggage arrived safely, and we spent Christmas
en route from Camaguey to Santiago — familiar to us as
having been bombarded by Admiral Dewey in the Spanish-
American war. The city is situated on a steep incline,
with tolerable roadway and drainage in the immediate
neighbourhood of the hotel, which is on the principal open
space beside the cathedral, much damaged in the siege,
but now being restored on literally a commercial basis —
a facade of shops to yield a handsome revenue being in
course of construction on a lower level all round the church.
On our Christmas-day journey, where a stop was made
for lunch about four o'clock in the afternoon, we heard
alongside of us a conversation in unmistakable Scottish
accents, and on inquiring, discovered two boys who had
44
The West Indies: Cuba
come out through Jamaica to a colonial bank after dis-
charge from their war service, and we were the first
people from the old country they had met. They took
us to see the outskirts of the city and its general appear-
ance from the Boniato drive on the overlooking hills,
and we afterwards spent a very happy evening together.
Incidentally, when later we were in Jamaica, our own
island at Kingston, on Hogmanay, we asked the manager
of that bank if he had any more Scottish boys, but we
had been lucky enough to strike the only two of whom
he had any knowledge. The lower streets of Santiago,
around the harbour, are in a disgraceful and filthy
condition, and, instead of their chronic state of health-
panic being remarkable, it is a wonder that they are ever
free of epidemics. In Cuba we realised that we were
among a race less civilised than those of the same colour
in the United States, and one most significant indication
was that women are the burden-bearers, that they are
put to such unsuitable work as road-mending and stone-
breaking, and that frequently the males not only escape
the burden, but if a donkey or a mule is available the
male is mounted and his burdened mate walks behind.
There is no established steamer service, either Cuban
or British, from Santiago to Kingston. We had to wait
a whole day for a vessel which was said to be en route
from Kingston on the sixteen-hour journey of one hundred
and sixty miles, and when she did arrive were told that
she would sail at 9 a.m. the following day — Sunday.
We actually left two hours later. Here we had our first
experience of a Customs' examination on leaving a country,
and were glad to fee the hotel porter so that he might induce
the Customs authorities to leave our baggage unpillaged.
We were four first-class passengers on the dirtiest " tub "
any of us had ever seen and at the dearest passage money
for the distance any of us had ever paid. The only safe
place from dirt and worse was on deck. The food offered
was uneatable, and after a night on deck we were thankful
45
Zig-Zagging Round the World
to reach Port Royal at nine the following morning. After
five and a half hours delay for medical examination and
for disinfection at the quarantine station, we proceeded
to Kingston harbour and Customs' examination there,
escaping the fate of one of our fellow-passengers, who was-
detained for five days by vaccination at a very insanitary
quarantine station. Ultimately we reached a comfort-
able hotel on the sea front at Kingston, and felt that by
contrast we were in heaven.
(b) JAMAICA.
IN addition to national calamities, such as hurricanes
and the earthquake of 1907, Jamaica suffered severely
in what may be called the beet-sugar crisis. It is difficult
to say whether the Mother Country could have mitigated
that crisis by a preferential tariff, or whether a less
exhaustive policy and more adaptability, with pro-
gressive measures as regards machinery on the estates,
would have attained the same end on a sounder basis.
There is a distinct feeling on the part of Jamaicans
that the authorities at home are forgetting and neglecting
their oldest colony, and as certainly Jamaica is now
receiving much attention from the United States, possibly
more than is to her advantage, as, wherever in steamer
travelling and hotels the charges are outrageously high,
it is found that their capital is exploiting the situation
caused by the deficiency of accommodation.
One strong evidence of this position is the fact that
at a prominent hotel in Kingston the bills are made out
in United States currency and translated into sterling
at the New York rate of exchange, and a Bank of England
note is only accepted for a sterling payment at a discount.
Port Royal, geographically the sea entrance to the
island, has a history of extraordinary interest. In the
early days of English tenure it was the capital, and the
base of bold and lucrative buccaneering exploits, which
46
The West Indies: Jamaica
made it the richest spot of its size in the world. The
inhabitants lived a wild, reckless life, and until that was
suddenly ended by the earthquake of 1692, it was
reputed to be one of the wickedest places on the earth.
It is now only a small group of official buildings, though
under the waters are the remains of the extensive town
which was overwhelmed.
Kingston, the real port and capital of the island,
situated along the sea beach of the Liguanea Plain, has
not yet recovered from the earthquake of 1907. The
Government has reconstructed the official buildings on
handsome lines, and some business institutions, such as
banks, have reared corresponding buildings, but Kingston
itself is not able to face the large expenditure which would
be required to put her streets and sidewalks into order
and to erect worthy municipal and other buildings.
Really, many of the roadways throughout the island are
in better condition than the streets of the capital, and
except in the part of King Street reconstructed and a
small portion of Harbour Street, there is no proper
provision of sidewalks for foot traffic. As the city has
no industries to speak of, its assessable value, outside of
the Government and other central properties referred to,
gives a very poor yield at what is considered the maximum
rate the occupants can bear.
The area of Jamaica is about the same as that of
Wales. There is only a small proportion of level land,
the great bulk being undulating and much of it mountain-
ous country. Blue Mountain Peak is over 7,000 feet
above the not far distant sea. From end to end of the
island there are excellent roads, there being no less than
2,000 miles of good main and county roads, and 2,000
miles of parochial roads almost equally good, that is
4,000 miles of roads to the area of 4,200 square miles.
It is possible to visit the various quarters of the island,
staying at small hotels where the charges are com-
paratively reasonable and conditions unpretentious but
47
Zig-Zagging Round the World
endurable. The west of the island is worse off in this
respect, and for this reason we failed to see Montego Bay
and its neighbourhood. The railway service is as good
as can be expected under Government control, and when
unsuitable it is always possible locally to hire motor cars.
Our first Sunday was spent at Kingston, and we
found a large choice of even Presbyterian churches, while
the denominations of all the home countries seemed to be
fully represented. We attended the Scottish Presby-
terian Church, which is directly connected with our own
Established Church. Generally throughout the island
Anglicans and Baptists are the strong denominations,
but the darkies favour what the Highland sergeant-major
described as " fancy raeleedjins." There are no fewer
than 1,000 places of worship on the island, and while one
may ask what would be the state without these and their
influence, the present position as regards morality and
crime can only be described as deplorable. Of the
births, nearly seventy per cent, are illegitimate, an increase
of about ten per cent, since 1908, and theft and robbery
are so common that there is an outcry against the cost
of punishing the offenders.
There are two Government botanic gardens, one about
five miles from Kingston, known as Hope Gardens, and
another about fifteen miles farther inland, called
Castleton Gardens. They present an interesting and
instructive epitome of the productive power of the island,
but seem to come far short of such institutions as we had
seen in the Western States, where they are experimental
stations and training-schools for agricultural students.
Spanish Town, the old seat of Government, has a
cathedral and King's House in a somewhat dilapidated
condition, as are the houses of most of the inhabitants.
Generally the place would be greatly improved were it
possible, without loss of life, to have a conflagration.
The most interesting monument there was that to Admiral
Rodney, who in 1782 saved the island from the French.
The West Indies: Jamaica
There are located near here several important industries,
affording employment to comparatively large numbers,
notably the Central Sugar Mill, opened in February,
1920, and chemical works dealing with the extraction of
the dye products from logwood. On the way back to
Kingston we visited the extensive sugar plantation,
Caymanas, owned by an old Glasgow family, and saw a
large installation of machinery from Tradeston work-
shops, which although bearing a date well into last
century was still in excellent condition.
Our first visit outside the capital was to Moneague,
a pastoral district reached by rail to Ewarton, and a ten
mile drive over Mount Diablo, comparing favourably
with anything either in America or in the south of Europe.
Here we saw the beginning of efforts to rid the cattle of
the " tick " pest by frequent dipping in a suitable wash.
This movement is exceedingly desirable, as the presence
of these insects in the fields makes walking off the road-
ways dangerous to visitors. St. Ann's Bay is on the north
coast, about midway between Port Antonio to the east
and Montego Bay to the west, the extreme points of the
railway system. Here the dominance of the banana
and coco-nut trade by United States concerns became
evident. Sugar is still mostly in Jamaican hands, but
even in it, transactions are now taking place which point
to the beginning of the octopus grip.
St. Ann is known as the garden parish of the island ;
though now midwinter the title was justified. Ferns of
all kinds grow beautifully. There is a famous fern gully
extending for four miles inland from Ocho Rios. The
branched maidenhair on walls and banks by the road-
sides was easily the finest display we saw on the island.
Poinsettias, hibiscus, bougainvillea, and eucharist lilies
were in great profusion in gardens as well as growing
wild. On this coast there are numerous streams and
some quite substantial rivers, which have a considerable
volume of water throughout the year. This may account
49
Zig-Zagging Round the World
for the notable profusion of vegetation and be the real
reason for St. Ann being considered the garden of a garden
island. We travelled by motor right along the coast to
the north-eastern corner of the island, Port Antonio, in
Portland parish, which statistics show has the largest
rainfall on the island. It is the main port of shipment
of the United Fruit Company, and the whole country
round is devoted to banana growing. There are many
interesting excursions from this point, the broken coast
affording beautiful views, while inland the well- watered
valleys leading northwards from the Blue Mountain
range are most picturesque. There was here evidence of
coolie labour being used. Many of the parties seen on
the roadways and at the markets showed strongly
Oriental features, and the women wore their distinctive
dresses and metal decorations.
Our next visit was to Mandeville, an inland town at
an altitude of over 2,000 feet, the most popular health
resort for the residents of Kingston. The town is a real
English village, being openly built with many free spaces
and a characteristic Anglican Church, such as is seen in
the Yorkshire dales, and here, as the neighbourhood is
well populated, the Saturday market is the event of the
week. All kinds of fruit, vegetables, and poultry are
brought in for sale. Donkeys are indispensable, and are
purchasable as well as ranged up waiting for their
owner's call for returning laden with necessaries for
which the morning burden has yielded the needful funds.
In all directions there are good roads and beautiful
drives : that to Malvern, at a greater altitude than
Mandeville, and a resort for tuberculous patients, afforded
the finest view we saw on the island. In Canada and the
Western States we were greatly impressed by the school
buildings. Here the police station and lock-up building
is usually the best in the village. There is not the same
need here for substantial and durable structures, but it
would be very desirable that the children should have
50
The West Indies : Jamaica
an object lesson in airy and well-appointed classrooms
and sanitary accommodation. The great bulk of the
population live in dilapidated and untidy hovels, although
a small percentage of the houses, including the farms
of the United Fruit Company, do show the way by
having clean, well-kept houses and gardens. The rum
shop is much in evidence — every little group has one,
two, or more of these, and on market days there is more
consumed than is good for these excitable and not very
civilised natures. The male native has the reputation
of not being keen on work, and he has yet to learn how to
use wisely the increased wage which the war inflation
has given him. There is a big field for social education.
The future of the island depends on this. Anything
like self-government is out of the question, although the
Jamaican has a good case when he demands that the
appointments of Governor downwards should be made
from capable men specially trained for the duties.
There are drawbacks to tourist travel, of course.
Most of the hotels are primitive as regards water supply,
especially hot bath water, which is an indispensable for
travellers in a tropical climate ; mosquitoes and other
insects are troublesome though not dangerous. Such
arrangements as are now common elsewhere of wire gauze
windows and doors to all apartments are here unknown.
No doubt the influx of visitors this season, caused by
a prevailing impression in England and the United States,
that Jamaica has not, like everywhere else, gone to war
prices will in time bring better conditions. There are
possibilities of developing an ali-the-year-round tourist
centre, with accessibility to all America — east and west
coast of both continents as well as Australasia and the
Orient — but the provision of suitable hotel accom-
modation would need to be handled in a very far-
sighted and enterprising spirit. On the whole, the
visitor cannot leave the island without pleasant memories
of its hospitable people and lovely climate and scenery.
VI.
Jamaica and Federation of the
British West Indies.
THIS question had been much discussed for years
before the war, and it is felt that now peace has
come some action may be taken. In Britain
there is a want of definite knowledge as to what the term
" British West Indies " really means, and generally out
here the people think, possibly with very good reason,
that we at home know and care very little about them.
The colonies comprising the British West Indies are : —
ISLANDS Area— Sq. Miles. Population.
Jamaica and Turks and Caicos, 4,619 902,811
Bahamas, 4,403 58,484
Barbadoes, 166 184,259
Trinidad and Tobago, - - 1,868 371,876
Windward Islands (Grenada,
St. Lucia, and St. Vincent), 516 175,491
Leeward Islands (Antigua,
Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis,
and the Virgin Islands), 704 127,189
MAINLAND —
British Guiana (South America), 89,480 313,859
British Honduras (Central
America), 8,598 42,323
The continued disturbance of communication pre-
vented a visit to Trinidad, Barbadoes, and British Guiana,
53
Zig-Zagging Round the World
but a stay of nearly three months between Cuba and
Jamaica allowed one at least to get into the West Indian
atmosphere and absorb a little of the point of view of the
people.
Invariably the consideration of the opening of the
Panama Canal is put forward, but it is difficult to see why
that should affect federation. Britain's oldest colony
happens to be right in the course of every stream of
traffic caused by the canal. Jamaica is an island of
extraordinarily beautiful scenery, with a range of climate
which makes it an ideal stopping-place for health, and for
rest-seekers from the eastern and western coast of both
Americas, as well as from Europe, Africa, Australasia, and
the Orient. There are hints that the very proximity to the
canal zone makes it strategically important that Jamaica
should be controlled by the same power. Elsewhere the
United States influence in the island has been pointed out.
While we were there an extended visit was paid to
Kingston by a large flotilla of their torpedo-boats, and
officers and crew made a good impression on the
Jamaicans. United States learned societies take more
interest in the natural resources and history of Jamaica
than do the corresponding societies of Britain. There is
not the faintest desire for such a change, but our home
authorities should be awake to the possibilities.
The canal certainly increases the importance of
Jamaica, but that is rather an argument for improving
her Government and condition, and increasing her pro-
ductiveness, which would hardly be done by federating
her with a series of smaller colonies at distances up to
1,000 miles, and with a radius of nearly double that.
Comparisons, especially in such a question, are not
convincing. Circumstances vary so much that there
are no parallels, but it may be helpful to think of Britain's
difficulties with Ireland, only separated from her by a
narrow channel ; and the best wisdom of Parliament
after over two hundred years of union proposes two
54
Jamaica and the British West Indies
separate Parliaments on the one island. It is not
suggested that the Jamaicans are such hopeless irrecon-
cilables as are the Irish, neither is it suggested that they
have the resource and enterprise of the New Zealanders,
who were deliberately left out of the Australian
Commonwealth, though New Zealand has only a small
fraction of population and a comparatively insignificant
area, and is only three days' sail off the Australian coast.
The desire and purpose of home government and
colonial legislature alike is to do what is best for the
future of the island, and that certainly meantime lies
along the line of improving in every way possible the
Government and developing more and more fully the
resources of the country.
Our Colonial Civil Service, especially the higher
officials, needs much amendment, as these are largely
men whose only interest is income for a few years, and
then they pass off like knotless threads. There should be
a special training for such service that would secure men
capable of grasping and presenting development problems,
men with minds eager to do the utmost to benefit the
community which they direct or aid in administering.
There are good and strong arguments for the
federation of contiguous groups of the islands and even
adjoining mainland, and once that has been done and has
proved successful there would be a solid reason for
reconsideration of Jamaica's position. Meantime there
should be the fullest conference and co-operation in all
matters which equally affect all the colonies, such as
shipping, postal, telegraphic, cable facilities ; wireless
'phone and message service ; air communications ; inter-
change of labour ; removal of tariff barriers. Possibly
more satisfactory results in such matters can be attained
without official conjoining of the Governments. Earnest
efforts should be made conjointly really to inform the
moneyed public at home of the opportunities for invest-
ment there are here. The colonies may well do some
55
Zig-Zagging Round the World
advertising, but every shrewd advertiser makes sure that
his expenditure is on an article which has intrinsic merit,
and any attempt to let in the people at home will only
have disastrous results. Progress all round on well-
considered lines should be Jamaica's watchword.
VII.
South America.
EASTERN SEABOARD.
OUR voyage to South America had to be preceded
by rather an awkward sail of five days, from the
Tropics to New York under blizzard conditions,
as we had by cable been advised that our steamer for
South America would not call at Barbados. Until the
day before sailing that was the arrangement, but then the
exigencies of coal supply compelled a change of plan,
and our journey of two long sides of a triangle was
needless, as after all we sailed direct for Barbados.
It is a small but very interesting colony, having many
points of difference from the other British West Indian
islands, particularly a greater degree of self-government
than they have, also a greater proportion of cultivation.
Bridgetown, the capital, has large areas of native houses,
each with its little patch, and generally the people live
simply on what is grown there. The whole place is
interlaced by tramway lines, on which tiny horse-drawn
cars give quite a frequent service. There are ample
bathing facilities, and the natives, women as well as men,
all the time our steamer was in the bay, demonstrated
their proficiency in swimming and diving. Sugar,
bananas, and tobacco are the principal crops. The former
is crushed in local mills and marketed unrefined. There
are large growings of fruit of all kinds and some export
of bananas and oranges.
It is exceedingly difficult for stay-at-home Britons to
realise the enormous area of South America. We have
managed to get the idea into our heads that the United
States of North America include a vast territory, and that
E 57
Zig-Zagging Round the World
the area of Canada exceeds that of the United States,
but although a look at the map of the Western hemisphere
demonstrates it, we do not realise the fact that Brazil
alone has an area greater than that of the United States,
that South America has one other large State, the
Argentine, of about half the area of Brazil, and that the
total area of all the ten republics is considerably greater
than North America. There are in the latter large spaces
of waste land, but in Brazil especially there is no large
area which does not yield good pasturage or timber,
and there are enormous areas fit to add to the compara-
tively small proportion (less than one per cent.) now under
cultivation. Sailing along the coast of Brazil, from two
days after leaving Barbados until a day before arriving
at Montevideo, about 3,300 miles, one is all the time on
the skirts of Brazil. No other country in the world has
such a length of seaboard.
Again, we stay-at-home Anglo-Saxons do not realise
to what a large extent the Latins, especially the Spaniards
and Portuguese, have held their influence in South and
Central America. We are apt to think that, as the
parent nations have long lost the place which they held
among Europeans when these daughter nations in the
Americas were formed, these must come under Anglo-
Saxon leadership. This is no more true of the Latin
republics of the Americas than it would be of Britain's
Colonies and Dependencies were she to take even a
second place in the councils of Europe. Happily, the war
has made the beneficent leadership of Britain more
pronounced than ever. The Republics of South America,
under the lead of Argentina and Brazil, are rapidly
assimilating the inflowing population, and the various
nationalities have each pronounced and definite
characteristics. The Brazilians are punctiliously polite
and courteous ; abstemious, their most customary drink
being coffee — small quantities frequently. They love a
gamble ; indeed, all over South America there are local
58
South America: Eastern Seaboard
and State lotteries, and betting on horse-racing and other
sports is openly encouraged. Though nominally
Republican, the Latin dearly loves personal distinction,
and that now takes the form of a weakness for display of
academic titles and wearing of uniforms.
The sail along the Brazilian coast is monotonous
until Pernambuco is reached, but from there to Cape
Frio, a few hours from Rio, land is almost always in sight.
Our passengers were very anxious that the vessel should
be timed to enter Rio harbour by daylight. However,
we passed Cape Frio as the sun set behind the hills which
surround Rio harbour, and we made the approach under
full moonlight, gradually realising the outline of the coast
outside the harbour marked by thousands of lamps
like a special illumination to receive us, and about
eleven o'clock we anchored inside the bay under the
island fort.
The following morning was that of Easter Sunday,
and it is hard to imagine any more impressive scene in
nature than that which we witnessed during the hour
preceding sunrise. All round, but speciaUy to the east,
were these curious sugar-loaf forms of mountain. They
were at first in dark colours — purple, green, and brown,
with pale lemon and turquoise in the sky. Generally the
colours of the sky, though ever changing, increased in
brilliancy, while the rocky foreground, also changing,
became always lighter in the body of colour until, when
the sun rose, red and gold dominated land and sky.
We had as fellow-passengers two prominent members
of respectively the Uruguay and the Argentine Govern-
ments, and the importance of these gentlemen was
suitably acknowledged by guns from the fort. Then
deputations to receive each came out in State barges,
resplendent with flags, and bearing representatives in
highly decorative uniforms. The scene on deck when
these figures advanced with great ceremony and
enthusiastically embraced their returning chiefs made one
59
Zig-Zagging Round the World
realise the difference from our Anglo-Saxon stolidity in
similar circumstances.
There are three famous harbours in the world —
San Francisco, Sydney, and this. The first we could now
compare, and certainly Rio excels. The whole laying out
of the foreground of the city within and without the bay
is most impressive. The Avenida Beira Mar borders
the buildings within the bay, and outside to the south,
Leme, Capacabana, and Ipanema form a continuous
Atlantic boulevard. Within the city is the Avenida
Bio Branca, a handsome street of modern public and
business buildings, which may in time become the
shopping centre, though meantime the Regent Street of
Rio is the older and narrow Rua Ovidor. The Rua
Primeiro de Marco is the principal business street, having
the post office, exchanges, and most of the banks, with
the market close by. The view points of Rio are the
Sugarloaf , with an aerial railway to its top, from which
we enjoyed the marvellous sight of Rio and its suburbs
at night, all lit by electric lamps ; Corcovado, much
higher, reached by a rack railway, gives a beautiful view
of the city and its surroundings by day ; while Tijuca,
with a drive to it and beyond, including Gavea and the
remarkable botanic gardens, famous for the rows of royal
palms, gives a good idea of the tropical vegetation of
this part of Brazil.
The principal exports of Brazil, named in the order
of magnitude, are coffee, wild rubber, meat and hides,
cotton, yerba matte, sugar, tobacco, and wheat. There
are now considerable and increasing textile industries
for clothing, also coffee-bags of aramina, hammocks of
pitu, and lace making. Practically the mineral and
metal resources are untouched, the great bulk of the
country not having been surveyed. What of the river
which gives the name to the capital of Brazil, and the
silver which gives the name to the Argentine and the La
Plata ? It is a curious coincidence of the early Spanish
60
9 — Rio DE JANEIRO BY MOONLIGHT, LOOKING TO THE ATLANTIC.
10— EL CONGRESSO, BUENOS AYRES.
South America: Eastern Seaboard
naming, that in both countries the name was given with-
out ground, as there is no river at Rio and no silver in
the Argentine.
Our last evening in Rio was marred by a sharp rain-
storm, which however benefited us on the usually very
dusty ride of eleven and a half hours for over five hundred
kilometres to Sao Paulo. There is a continuous ascent till
at our destination we are about 3,000 feet above the sea,
and the whole journey is through fertile cultivated country,
coffee and sugar being the principal crops. The city is
not only very modern, but it grows so rapidly that before
many years it will rival Rio, and it is promising both as
an industrial and as a health centre. The air on the
upper parts, such as Hygienopolis and Avenida Paulista,
is most exhilarating, and even in summer the tem-
perature is moderate. We made our way down to
Santos, the port from which most of the Brazilian coffee
is shipped to all quarters of the world, by what is said
to be the costliest, but the best-paying railway in Brazil,
the drop to and ascent from sea level being made with a
series of five wire ropes operated by stationary engines.
Santos now has the reputation of being one of the
healthiest ports in the world as it is — being very modern —
one of the best appointed.
We were fortunate to get. without delay, a United
States steamer bound for Montevideo and Buenos
Ayres. The former we were able to see during the day
we lay in the port. Then the following morning we crossed
the La Plata to the largest city of South America. The
approach by a dredged channel across this pale brown
water to the flat bank covered with buildings is certainly,
after Rio, not impressive, but on getting ashore we found
Buenos Ayres a very well laid out city, with innumerable
open spaces and many fine buildings. The older part of
the city has narrow streets where traffic can only proceed
one way. An attempt has been made, as in Rio, to make
the wide handsome Avenida del Mayo the principal
61
Zig-Zagging Round the World
shopping street, but as yet public conservatism prefers
the old narrow Calle Florida, in which all the best shops
and stores are situated. This is a recognised promenade,
and all vehicular traffic is stopped during the afternoon.
The display in department stores rivals New York and
San Francisco in good taste. The car service is very
thorough and well managed, and the system of numbered
routes, with a publication listing these and the whole
route covered, is extremely helpful to visitors. A very
practical guide gives a printed plan, with the streets
named east and west, north and south, radiating from a
named well-marked centre, and the numbering of each
street, for which one hundred is used in each block.
There are eight such centres, but really the essential
one for a stranger is that in the centre of the city.
Traffic on streets and railways goes to the left, as in
Great Britain. There is an investment of more than
150 millions sterling of British capital in the Argentine
railways, and the stations are distinctly British in plan,
though the build of the ordinary coaches follows the
European continent and North America. Sleeping
accommodation is on the lines of the British system —
separate compartments. One very simple improvement
was noticeable on the Southern. The nameboards are set
back and at an angle to face the approaching train.
There is a curious habit of commemorating dates in
street and plaza names. One of the large railway
stations is situated on Plaza Once de Septembre
eleventh of September), but practical use has made this
" Once estacion " or " Once " (eleventh). " What's in a
name ? " All over South America our Saturday is
Sabado (" Day of Rest ") and our Sunday or Sabbath
is Domingo (The Lord's Day). Surely in both cases-
better names than ours for these days.
In Buenos Ayres the police wear a distinctly British
type of uniform, but that a sword-bayonet is carried, and
their most obvious duties are regulating the traffic in the
62
South America : Eastern Seaboard
older narrow streets. The navy follows entirely British
dress, and meantime the army is still wearing German
models of uniform, but that may now be reconsidered in
the Argentine as it has been in Chile.
There are large industries carried on in Buenos Ayres.
The meat freezing establishments called Frigorificos are
quite a feature in the city, at La Plata, and on the river
banks for convenience of shipping ; the market for wool
and hides is about the largest in the world. A beginning has
been made in textiles, especially of heavy woollen fabrics.
Buenos Ayres is a good place to get away from. There
are large and fine residential suburbs within easy reach.
El Tigre, situated among the delta network of rivers, is
one of the most delightful resorts, where many of the
business men reside throughout the year. Mar del Plata,
which we did not see, as the season was over, is a
distinctly summer seaside fashionable quarter, at too
great a distance for daily travelling.
Buenos Ayres gives its name to a large province, but
instead of its being the administrative centre, La Plata,
about two hours' railway journey southwards, is the
capital, where the provincial Council meets and law
courts and other central offices are centred. The city has
been planned with a long look ahead, with large buildings
and wide streets, wholly needless as regards traffic as yet.
There is, for instance, the bones of an extensive
cathedral, which has been abandoned meantime for want
of money. Such is the perversity of human affairs, that
where excessive foresight has been exercised, the
expansion prepared for does not materialise.
In Brazil and the Argentine there is ample room for
three or four times the population, and when that comes
all the spacious planning may be made useful.
Two days take one from east to west over the Andes,
and the record of that journey may be the introduction
to the elder Republics yet to see.
63
VIII.
A Visit to the Iguazu.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WATERFALLS IN THE WORLD.
THIS example, as yet little known, of Nature's
variety and profusion is situated about 1,000
miles from Buenos Ayres, and though rather
nearer as the crow flies from Rio de Janeiro is much less
accessible. The Indians gave the name, which is pro-
nounced Eeg-wah-su, and it means simply " Great
Waters."
Normally, it is possible to make the journey by river
in suitable steamers, taking, of course, up-stream a longer
time than by the railway, but owing to a strike, which
had lasted already three months, we had no choice but
to proceed by train to Posadas, about eight hundred
miles in thirty- six hours. For about three hours the
line was on the south bank of the La Plata, then the
train was run on board a large ferry at Zarate and
proceeded for about one hundred miles or so up
the Ibicuy arm of the river, where we were landed
at a town of the same name. The ferry had been built
on the Clyde in 1909, and was named the Maria Perera.
Our journey was through the province of Entre Rios,
with fertile lands and bearing evidence of great pro-
ductiveness. Large herds of cattle, sheep, and horses
were visible ; ostriches, which had been allowed to die
off during the war, were again being raised.
We reached Posadas on the second morning, to find
the steamer for Port Aguirre all ready to sail, and at
first no berths to be had. However, with a little
negotiation, room for the three tourists was found. The
cause of the pressure we found to be that a considerable
contingent of Britons were en route to a new settlement
65
Zig-Zagging Round the World
called El Dorado, well up towards our destination, in the
province of Misiones, at the north-east corner of Argentina.
For four days, covering a farther two hundred and twenty
miles, we sailed upwards, zig-zagging slowly against the
current of the Alto Parana river, which drains a large
part of Brazil, and the upper waters of which we had
passed en route from Rio to Sao Paulo some weeks before.
The whole journey was through picturesque scenery,
the well- wooded river banks bearing quite useful timber,
which was being freely cut and floated in rafts down to
Buenos Ayres. Our steamer was a stern- wheeler — heel-
kickers, the Yankees call them — built by Yarrow, at
Poplar, for British Government use at the time of
Tel-el-Kebir. She burned wood as fuel, and picked it up
from prepared piles as we went along. In addition to
cargo in her hold, she had a barge alongside which was
used for live stock, of which there was great variety.
One patriarch, a Brazilian, was moving his household,
family, servants, furniture, oxen, and horses several
days' journey up the river. Our cargo upwards was
largely gasoline and food, and returning the barge was
piled to its utmost with thousands of bags of " yerba
matte," the tea of the Argentine, which they use in
bombillas, bowls of hard wood, with a silver tube through
which the infusion is sucked morning, noon, and night,
and which, it is claimed, is food as well as drink, having
extraordinary sustaining power for physical exertion.
We landed just after daybreak at Port Aguirre,
situated where the Iguazu river joins the Alto Parana.
The Iguazu river is here the boundary between Brazil
and Misiones, the north-easterly province of the Argentine.
It drains the Parana province of Brazil between Santos
and Porto Alegre.
We were prepared for a rough journey of eighteen
kilometers overland to the hotel beside the waterfalls.
However, after coffee while our baggage was being
carried up the steep bank, we got on a Ford car, and
66
A Visit to the Iguazu
within an hour were looking right at the most wonderful
collection of waterfalls in the world. How does it com-
pare with Niagara and Victoria Falls ? The latter ^ I
have seen only in pictures, but comparison of either with
Iguazu is stupid. Nature does not repeat herself in
waterfalls. The other two are sheer drops at a change of
level ; here the river, while on a wide course, has struck
a blocking obstacle at almost a right angle, and has been
forced to turn aside and find its way over a broken,
rocky ledge, which has caused an echelon and succession
of falls, ending by the river continuing its original
direction in a much confined and deeper channel. It is
not one waterfall, but over a dozen spread over and
intermittent. From the Brazilian to the Argentine side
are nine named falls, some in groups, such as the " Tres
Musqueteros " and the " Dos Hermanos," and others,
like " San Martin " and " Floriana Peixoto," though
bearing one name in several streams, while the main
and dominating fall of the whole group, the " Gargantua
del Diabolo," is in pot-hook form, so varied are the
angles at which the river has had to force its ways.
Our first day was spent in walking quietly round the
near footpaths to get our bearings. We saw the wing
falls — Dos Hermanos (1), Bosetti (2), and San Martin (3) —
in accompanying plan (see 13, facing p. 64), and also the
gorge where the river has concentrated after all the falls,
which gorge affords a distant vista of the Gargantua. The
following day, as soon as the morning mists which prevail in
autumn had lifted, we set out for the grand tour in a canoe,
with three native guides, and had six hours of great interest.
They paddled to the nearest landing-place for each view-
point, and then two, and sometimes all three if the
portage was heavy, went ahead to drag the canoe up
rapids or over rocks to allow us to reach the next view-
point. Thus in succession we were able to command,
sometimes quite at close range, attractive views of each
fall or group of falls, and the longer and more thorough
Zig-Zagging Round the World
inspection only increased our admiration for the wonderful
spectacle. The vegetation was profuse, and though we
were in late autumn, there were many wild flowers,
dominant among which were the passion flower, just at
its fullest bloom. We were further fortunate enough to
have on both evenings a lovely sunset, followed by a
moon almost at the full.
In addition to the three falls already named, in order
from the Argentine side, there are Tres Musqueteros (4),
Comodore Rivadavia (5), Senor Belgrano (6), Salto
Union (7), and Floriana Peixoto (8), and, of course, the
dominant fall of all, Gargantua del Diabolo. At present
there is in preparation a complete survey of all the falls,
and a record of the volume of water at the different
seasons. It is stated that, roughly, the total volume in
November, believed to be the maximum period, is five
times that of Niagara.
About one hundred miles farther up the Alto Parana
there is the La Guayra Cascades, a succession of twelve
sloping descents of the river, irregularly echeloned over
several miles, and giving possibility of a very large power,
far exceeding anything presently utilised anywhere. There
is talk of such a use of Iguazu, and we saw plans drawn
for an Argentine and Brazilian scheme which, let us
hope, will have the full benefit of the " Manana "
(to-morrow) habit prevalent here.
We did not make this journey to La Guayra, as
already the time occupied was far beyond our expectations.
The Captain of our steamer had warned us to be back at
Port Aguirre two days after our landing, but we had to
wait patiently for other three days before she came for us
to make the return journey. The accommodation on
railway, steamer, and in hotels was of the simplest, and
not always so clean as we should have liked, but still we
did not regret the excursion, which was amply rewarded
by Iguazu.
Our return to Posadas was delayed by a severe
68
A Visit to the Iguazu
thunderstorm, so that we had to lie up for several hours,
during which the torrents found all the seams in our
cabins, and we were glad to get ashore in Posadas before
daybreak on the third day, with two days to wait for the
train. The situation of Posadas is favourable to sunsets,
and we had in the clear atmosphere, after the storm, two
most brilliant displays, each entirely different from the
other in character. Our journey by rail was slow, and
again the pleasantest part was on the ferry, which rival
railwaymen describe as the smoothest track of that line
of railway.
IX.
South America.
WESTERN SEABOARD.
THE day before we started for the west was one of
pouring rain, a condition which people at home
can hardly realise the advantage of, as otherwise
the long run over the pampas for twenty-two hours
would have been unbearably dusty.
Our first experience was one of the needless dis-
couragements to travellers, an exit examination by the
Argentine custom-house of the baggage we were carrying.
No explanation could be had of its object, but the officer
duly collected his tip for allowing some pieces to escape
disturbance and search. Brazil had no such search, but
there they made every passenger pay a tax of £6, regard-
less of distance. It is to be hoped that these war
measures will soon be only a memory.
The Pacific Railway has the reputation of being one
of the best laid and best managed roads on the continent,
and it is essentially a British concern. At daylight of
the second day we were near the foot-hills of the Andes
at Mendoza, the great wine-producing centre of the
Argentine. An accident had been avoided by the timely
discovery of a broken axle, causing a delay of an hour
and a half, but that did not prevent our arrival at
Santiago practically on time.
For the ascent the weather, while cold, was clear,
and excellent views were had on this our first acquaintance
with the Andes at close quarters. From near Las Cuevas
a distant view can be had of two of the outstanding
heights, Aconcagua (Aconcawa), about 23,000 feet, and
Tupungato, about 22,000 feet. The influence of this
prodigious mountain range, unparalleled in the world,
is felt all over the eastern republics ; but it is not until
Zig-Zagging Round the World
actually in the west that one fully realises how this
geographical feature affects every part of South America.
It is impossible to over-estimate the enormous resources
consequent on that bold ridge of 15,000 to 23,000 feet,
and all that is contained in its marvellous geological
formations — gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, sulphur, borax
are known to be there in large quantities. Who knows
what else there is ?
Chile has a shape unlike any other country in the
world, a narrow strip of 2,500 miles long and 100 to 150
miles broad, with an extraordinary variety of climate
and produce. In the south the weather is not unlike
Britain's : three months of summer, spring and autumn
temperate, and in winter a good deal of stormy wet
weather, but favourable alike for stock and crop raising.
The north end is bare, rocky land, but with an even more
profitable product, this being the great nitrate country,
which is supplying, and likely to supply to the whole
world for many generations, valuable stimulants to
agriculture.
The two principal cities of Chile, Santiago and
Valparaiso, are situated near the middle of the republic —
the former the seat of Government and the latter the
commercial capital and largest seaport. Arriving late
at night in Santiago, we had snow on the mountains and
rain in the city, the first for seven months, and within
a week the railway was impassable because of heavy snow.
The city is inland, in a pastoral country, well built and
laid out, with the dominating feature a hill like Edinburgh
Castle, of three to four hundred feet in height, Santa
Lucia hill, from which there are beautiful views of the
city and its mountainous surroundings, and especially
it gives a view-point for the lovely sunsets, which are a
feature of the western seaboard.
Chile, more than any of the republics, has followed
the German military training and uniforms ; but since
the war the cadets are all being clothed and trained on
72
South America: Western Seaboard
British lines, and gradually that will spread through all
branches of the army. The navy, now and always, has
followed Britain closely.
There are in Santiago good legislature buildings, and also
Government department buildings, mostly of recent con-
struction ; several public parks, and a very well conducted
agricultural school and experimental station. The journey
down to the sea is through fertile country, stock farms, and
fine fruit-growing land, a large area bearing grapes and
making the vineyard of Chile, where wine, quite equal in
quality though not in quantity to the Mendoza product,
is made. Before arriving at Valparaiso the large
suburb of Vina del Mar is reached. The name still
applies, but, while largely residential, many industries
are carried on, and the wine producing is only of small
proportions.
Valparaiso still shows the effect of the earthquake
ten years ago, and also shows how futile are man's efforts
to cope with the harbour problem. Millions have been
spent on trying to make a sheltered harbour, but as yet
it remains only an exposed roadstead. The limited area
of ground available has forced the residential part up
the hills, and has compelled the use of exceptional
appliances ; many of the car routes involve the sheer
lifting of the passengers up a mountain side. There
are well laid out plazas and parks, and some good office
and warehouse buildings of recent construction.
The divisions between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru are arbi-
trary, and indeed they can hardly be called stable, as there
are still questions of boundary between Peru and Chile,
and Bolivia has an admitted claim for a certain limited
seaboard. Let us take the three republics as a whole.
Roughly the combined populations are under ten millions,
a figure which it is claimed was, in Inca days, maintained
in remarkably favourable economic circumstances on,
approximately, only the area of Peru and Bolivia.
As well for agriculture as for development of the
* 73
Zig-Zagging Round the World
mineral resources, what is absolutely necessary is a big
influx of population, and there is no evidence of even the
beginning of that. Railways are now under con-
struction, which will do much to open up the mountain
region for mining, and for agriculture the vast area of
land between the navigable Amazon and the Andes,
known as the Selvas. Already the eastern parts of Peru
and Bolivia are attracting a few settlers, but that
occupation must become more general.
The first stage of an effort to see what was possible
to passing tourists of upper Chile, Bolivia, and Peru was
a steamer journey in a Clyde-built boat to Antofagasta,
beginning with, from the steamer, the most impressive
view we had of Valparaiso. All the three days' journey
was along the nitrate coast, where we had occasional
glimpses of bare rock with glistening white, as if snow
had just fallen. These are thin unworkable deposits
of the nitrate. About two hundred miles from
Valparaiso are Coquimbo and La Serena, small nitrate
ports, the latter with an interesting history as the scene
of fighting in old Spanish days.
We landed on the third day at Antofagasta, not by
any means an ideal port, but it has become the recognised
terminus of the Bolivia Railway, though Mejillones
(Mehilyones), fifty miles north, is a much better harbour.
Antofagasta very distinctly owes its prosperity to the
railway, as the comfort of existence there would be much
impaired but for the water supply brought down by the
railway company, a British concern, from the Loa River,
one hundred and ninety miles away, which not only is in
luse for domestic purposes and the nitrate works, but is
•used at Calama and other villages to irrigate the land,
producing ^vegetables and fruit for the barren region of
Antofagasta. The 'gauge of this line is thirty inches as
far as Uyuni, but it is in course of being altered to a
metre gauge corresponding to the other railways of
Bolivia and; Southern Peru.
74
South America: Western Seaboard
The journey for about two hundred miles is right
through nitrate country, where there are about twenty-
four officinas or factories preparing the valuable material
for shipment. The first big copper proposition is at
Chuquimata, where 30,000 tons of ore are soon to be
handled each day. Shortly after, the famous Loa
Viaduct carries the railway, by six lattice girder spans
of eighty feet each, over the river, three hundred and
thirty-six feet above its bed. The railway has now
attained an altitude of 10,000 feet from the sea, and
there are constantly changing views of bold, snow-capped
heights, many of which are volcanic. San Pedro and San
Paulo are passed, each about 18,000 feet. The summit of
the Antofagasta line is at Ascotan, 13,000 feet up, just
after which the extraordinary Borax Lake of Cebollar,
twenty-four miles long, is reached. This is entirely worked
by a British company.
There now comes into sight the enormous Ollague
(0-yah-way) mountain, over 20,000 feet high, perpetually
heavily snow-capped and its volcano always smoking.
On the mountain side there is a practically inexhaustible
mine of pure sulphur, owned by a Bolivian of Spanish
birth, whose means before its acquisition were very
limited. His possessions are now valued at over five
million sterling. The Collahuasi and Potosi (Potto-see)
copper mines are each worked by branch lines from this
railway. These rise to over 15,800 feet above sea level,
and are the highest railways in the world.
Bolivia is entered at Uyuni, 12,000 feet above the
sea, and as the gauge is altered to one metre, it is necessary
to change carriages under rather trying conditions, with
the temperature a good deal below freezing point. There
are two silver mines in this neighbourhood at Huanchaco
and Pulucayo. There is hardly any gold working at
present, either in Bolivia or Peru, but it is believed that
the eastern spurs of the Andes in both countries would,
if surveyed and railways connected, be very productive.
75
Zig-Zagging Round the World
After passing Poopo Lake, Oruro is reached, a modern
mining town, which, for a place of 8,000 inhabitants,
12,000 feet above the sea, is a wonderfully well-run
municipality. Soon after leaving Oruro, the country
changes from barren swamps to good grazing ground,
with herds of cattle and llamas. Just beyond Viachi
the full view of Illimani is suddenly disclosed. From the
majestic snow-covered height of 21,181 feet it keeps
guard of La Paz, apparently lying at its feet, though
forty miles away. La Paz is unique ; there is no possible
comparison with this city of 50,000 inhabitants, nearly
12,000 feet above the sea, lying in a fertile valley, basking
during the days of even midwinter in strong sunshine,
but the moment that heat is withdrawn, in an Arctic
temperature. We had felt the altitude and cold at
Uyuni, and did not resent the provision in our bedroom
at La Paz of an electric stove. Really, the comforts of
both railway and hotel accommodation were quite
unexpectedly good.
A few days made us familiar with the brilliant colours-
worn by the Bolivians ; the scene at the Sunday morning
market was quite the gayest we have yet seen. The
picturesqueness of the costumes is enhanced by the
appearance of the prevalent beast of burden, the llama.
Turning a corner, one comes on long pack-trains of these
graceful animals arriving with produce from the lower
valleys, or bearing back to these the needed supplies-
from the city. Robert Burns had not been to South
America, or he would even more strongly have
emphasised the frequency with which plans of " mice
and men gang aft agley." Ours were for going on to
Cuzco, the old Inca capital of Peru, but a telegram
intimated the withdrawal of a local sailing, and that,
unless we cut out Cu/co and travelled right down to-
Arequipa and Mollendo, we could not reach Callao in
time to get the steamer Anyo Maru, by which our passages
were taken to Honolulu. There was left to us one visit
South America: Western Seaboard
which had been since school days a dream, now about
to become a reality — Lake Titicaca.
We left La Paz in the early afternoon, about half an
hour after we were looking on a Bolivian golf course,
and an hour before dusk we were at Tiahuanaca
(Teeawanacca), where are large remains of the founda-
tions of Inca buildings, now carefully roofed over and
preserved. A few minutes later we were at Guaqui
(Wakee), on the borders of Lake Titicaca. We boarded
the Inca, a vessel of 1,500 tons, built by Earle's, at Hull,
about a dozen years ago, and brought out and carried
up in sections. The view of fifty miles of snow heights
about the same distance away to the north, with the rosy
tints of the setting sun on their western slopes, was most
impressive and will ever remain a memorable scene —
Illimani, Huayui Potosi, Milluni, and Illampu were
the four mountains, and the grandeur was rather
enhanced by the distance and the detachment.
We landed on the Peruvian side at Puno in the early
morning, with a lovely sunrise, and soon reached Juliaca
(Hooley-acca), where the railway to Cuzco branches,
and our line for the coast rose over the Andes, the cumber
or saddle being at Alto Crucero, 14,666 feet above sea
level. En route we passed streams, whose course to the
sea was 5,000 miles long, finishing when the Amazon
enters the Atlantic. Two lakes, Laginullas and
Sarococha, are passed shortly before reaching the summit,
from which there is a rapid descent of nearly 7,000 feet
to Arequipa. On the way down the dominating heights
are Coropuno and Ampato, each well over 20,000 feet,
and there are as guards over Arequipa to the south
Pichu Pichu, in the middle Al Misti (known as the Fuji
of Peru), and to the north Chachani.
We found ourselves most comfortably housed in
Arequipa, in a lovely garden just on the edge of the town,
with home food, home beds, and linen. The plaza and
cathedral are unusually well cared for, the latter filling
77
Zig'Zagging Round the World
one side of the surrounding square, and the piazza,
which fills the other [three sides, has hotels and the best
shops in the city.
,We had reluctantly to hurry away next morning to
make our steamer connection at Mollendo. The descent
of over 7,000 feet in about four hours is accomplished by
winding, easy grades. Most of the land is utterly barren,
but at Cachendo there is a small branch railway to the
Tambo Valley, where considerable areas are under sugar.
There is practically no harbour at Mollendo, and the
Pacific Ocean makes shipment without rough water a
rare occurrence.
The third day we landed at Callao, where there is a
well-protected harbour, and within an hour were at
Lima, the capital [of Peru, and much the most interesting
city of the west coast. There are many quaint old houses
with elaborately carved wood balconies to the outer
street, and galleries of similar work around the patios.
The cathedral is a most capacious building on the plaza,
and near by are the Hall of Inquisition, now used as the
Senate meeting-place, and a modern building used for
meetings of Congress. A group of other public buildings
is around the Paseo Colon, a recently laid-out drive and
promenade, where there are many fine residences. The
Exposition building and Zoological Gardens are here,
as also a small but interesting museum of Peruvian
antiquities. Inca mummies, and a textile collection,
also carved woodwork from old Peruvian houses in
Lima are the most interesting features.
We were anxious to see the famous Oroya railway,
and went up to Rio Blanco as far as was practicable to
go and return the same day. At Matucano we met the
usual Scot — the locomotive superintendent — originally
from Govan, who travelled with us in the queer little
oil-burning locomotive and carriage combined, stopping
wherever any feature made it desirable. The climb to
over 11,000 feet is accomplished by a succession of
South America: Western Seaboard
V turnings, and there are extraordinary views of the Inca
intensive agriculture in terrace-like Continental vine-
yards, but at altitudes of 10,000 to 12,000 feet.
We embarked at Callao on the Anyo Maru, a Japanese
turbine boat, mainly for freight, but with some good
passenger accommodation, and, after calling at Balboa,
the southern terminus of the Panama Canal, we proceed
by San Francisco to Honolulu.
79
19 — NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING Co.'s s.s. Ruahane APPROACHING FROM NORTH.
20 — PEDRO MIGUEL LOCK, s.s. Ruahane AND GOLD HILL.
X.
The Panama Canal, Pacific Trade, and
the World War.
LIKE many great works, the scheme of the Canal,
seen not on paper but in full operation, seems
simplicity itself. The approach from the Pacific
and from the south begins near Balboa, and, after eight
miles of entrance, a rise of fifty-five feet is negotiated by
two locks at Miraflores, and two miles farther on, at Pedro
Miguel, in what is almost a lake, caused by the dam at
Miraflores, a farther rise of thirty feet is made by one
lock. Then comes the necessary cut of about three
miles at Culebra, where, to avoid more locks, a huge
gash, two hundred and seventy-two feet deep, had to be
made in Gold Hill, and there follow five miles of compar-
atively simple canal cutting, making eight miles in all,
reaching to Gilboa. Here the artificial Gatun Lake
begins, caused by damming the Chagres River at Gatun,
and a deepened channel, twenty-four miles in length, with
a depth of from forty to eighty feet, reaches from Gilboa
to Gatun, where three contiguous locks lower vessels
eighty-five feet to the Atlantic level, and a straight
canal of eight miles to Colon completes the work. Very
few words in which to describe a magnificently-planned
and executed work, taking about ten years to do, and
costing about eighty millions sterling.
The locks are in duplicate throughout, and can take
in the largest vessels afloat or building. There is a large
generating station at the Gatun spillway, from which
current is supplied for operating the electric engines which
tow [the vessels through the locks and for the other
machinery of the canal.
81
Zig-Zagging Round the World
The landscape, especially at the southern end, is
picturesque, and there is not only profuse vegetation,
but evidence of ample fertility. The Gatun Lake is still
covered with rather ungainly stumps, but even these
Nature is utilising for an abundance of orchids, which in
time wih1 hide the bareness by lovely blossoms.
What is to be the effect of the realisation of this dream
of over a hundred years ? Who can tell ? There is
one sure direction of development, and that is in trans-
Pacific trade from the Eastern States of North America
and Europe to the populous communities whose countries
are on the western side of the Pacific. It is certain that
the Japanese will secure a large share of the additional
freight and passenger traffic. Before the war they were
easily the largest carriers in the Pacific, and during the
war have been steadily extending. Without the Canal,
the result of the war has left it that for a generation
neither Germany nor Austria can recover the large place
they held in the shipping trade of the Orient. Possibly
nations which were neutral may fill part of this gap.
British owners will no doubt seek their share of both
additional trade caused by the Canal and the trade of
the routes vacated by the losing nations. Competition
is, in the interests of the public, desirable, and our
powerful old British concerns would do well to remember
that their ultimate prosperity is measured by the
thoroughness of their public service. In pre-war days
the Germans and Austrians had demonstrated that, and
they deserve credit for it. There is much talk of a
United States Mercantile Marine. That will only be if
they give a service equal to the competitor. When
Uncle Sam and his wife, especially the lady, go a-traveUing
there is little sentiment. They choose the line which
makes them comfortable all the time.
What effect will the increased facilities for travelling
and intercourse have on the standard of living of the
Asiatic population ? Will they be the means of opening
82
The Panama Canal and Pacific Trade.
the world storehouse of mineral wealth in the Andes ?
Will closer knowledge make for further emigration from
China and Japan to South America ? Only time can
answer such questions, and the development of the
answers will be watched with much interest on both
sides of the Pacific.
XL
The Hawaiian Islands.
WE had [left South America in midwinter, and
landing at San Francisco early in July, when it
should have been midsummer, we found the
temperature much lower than that we had left in South
America and than it had been in California in the
previous November. In addition, there was a foggy
atmosphere most of the days. Having about a week to
spend while our steamer discharged and reloaded, we
went to a favourite seaside resort, Inverness, on an arm
of the sea, which ran out to Cape Reyes, near to Drake's
Bay, about forty miles north of the Golden Gate. Some
Scottish enthusiast saw a likeness in this place to our
northern capital, but really, away from the sea, it had
much more resemblance to Deeside. It was quite
interesting to see that the family man from the city
spent his holiday much as we do in Scotland, and while
he used his motor along the coast, such a thing as a ten
or fifteen mile family walk was quite frequently under-
taken, most of the girls being suitably dressed, like the
boys, in breeches and strong boots.
After a week's delay we continued our voyage to
Honolulu, the Charing Cross or half-way rest house of the
Pacific. One should study a large map of this remarkable
group of islands so placed as to be the natural stopping place
of any voyage from North American to Orient ports or
vice versa. The eight principal islands lie in a rough
diagonal line, the largest and newest island, Hawaii,
being at the south-east end, and the oldest island, Kauai,
being at the north-west end. Each island has bold
mountainous features, and all are volcanic, with rich
valleys between the mountains and coral reefs as out-
85
Zig-Zagging Round the World
guards to the coast. The combined area would make a
good-sized New England State or a European kingdom,
and no doubt in due course the present Territory of
Hawaii will take its place as one of the United States.
The total population of the group is about a quarter
of a million, with many races, of which the decided
preponderance is Japanese and the Hawaiians about
one-fifth. We arrived at Honolulu on Oahu, an island
in the middle of the group, at sunrise, and were at once
captivated by the remarkably beautiful setting of this
well-ordered truly garden city. A bold headland, like
Gibraltar, guards the eastern approach to the bay, and
while the well-distributed houses are embowered in
tropical vegetation, the feature of which is the number
of blossoming trees, the background is filled by a succession
of verdant and productive valleys.
Though within the tropics, the islands enjoy a remark-
ably equal temperature throughout the year, and are
blest by the prevalence of south-east winds, giving cool
nights.
It is claimed that the range of temperature during the
year is covered by thirty degrees Fahrenheit. Bathing
goes on all the year round, and the beach at Waikiki is
famed the world over for this as well as for the sport of
surf-boarding and riding the surf in outrigger canoes.
There is a series of beautifully situated hotels on this beach,
which is entirely protected by a coral reef, and a feature
of the outlook is the extraordinary brilliancy and variety
of the colouring of the sea. More than all the colours of
the rainbow are there, and the fishes of these waters are
as brilliantly coloured as the sea in which they swim.
There is an excellent collection of these fishes in a well-
equipped aquarium at Waikiki.
One asks why these islands should be a territory of
the United States. The answer is furnished at once by
a visit to the Mission House and Native Church on King
Street. The former is the oldest frame building in the
86
The Hawaiian Islands
islands, and the latter a substantial stone building of
more recent construction. Inscriptions on their walls
tell the story of the work of the mission. Just one
hundred years ago this year the first party from New
England arrived in the islands and was followed at
short intervals by other parties of clergy and teachers.
These and their descendants are really responsible for the
development and administration of the islands, and it
was only a natural sequence to their work that about
twenty years ago the inhabitants of the islands asked
the Federal Government of the United States to take
them under its protection. There are now established
on the islands important naval and military depots, and
much has been done to encourage industry and improve
roadways and sea communications, also generally to
develop the islands as a holiday resort for North
Americans, most of whom are within ten days' travel
of this gem of the Pacific.
Whatever the cause, the people of " The Islands,"
as they are now generally called, wear an aspect of
wholesome cheerfulness, which it is a delight to see.
They have in Honolulu an excellent street-car system,
and it has still the distinction of running on the
pre-war fare of five cents for any distance, with transfers .
Children are much in evidence : the Japanese go in for
large families, but the Portuguese more so, and these are
certainly Isles of the Blest in that respect. Further,
there is an excellent educational system co-ordinated
from day school to high schools, technical and science
colleges, and university. All classes of the community
are well-to-do, and look as if their lives were set in
pleasant places, economically as well as physically.
A good general view of Honolulu can be had from the
Punch Bowl, or higher up from Mount Tantalus, and an
•exceedingly good set of dioramic pictures by local artists,
of which this is one, has been set up within easy reach
of the Government buildings ; the other three are a
Zig-Zagging Round the World
most realistic showing of Kilauea the active volcano on
Hawaii Island, the extinct volcano Haleakala on Maui
Island, and the Waimea Canyon on Kauai Island.
It is possible to encircle Oahu by motor and railway
combined, and on this tour most of the features of
interest outside of Honolulu can be overtaken. We begin
with the Nuuani Valley, long a favourite suburb, but
now being a little displaced by Manoa Valley and Kahala.
Here are beautifully situated the golf course and county
club. At the head of the valley is the Pali, a precipice
of 2,000 feet drop, which was the scene of a huge
massacre about a hundred years ago. The descent leads-
to the windward side of the island, where large areas are
under pine-apples and rice. The former production is-
very large in " The Islands," and the fruit is markedly
superior to that produced elsewhere. It is mostly canned
for export to North America. The rice is consumed as
food by the Oriental inhabitants. Before reaching the
north-east corner of the island there is a large Mormon
settlement, non-polygamous, having a handsome temple
as the centre of their religious and social life. The
influence of this community is very favourably regarded
by the inhabitants generally.
In the centre of the north side of the islands i&
Haleiewa. There are extensive sugar plantations on
this side and along the railway by the route back to-
Honolulu. Opposite Haleiewa the sea is particularly
clear, and its bottom is covered by coral rocks of very
varied colour. There are glass -bottomed boats available,
and a fascinating time can be spent seeing these rock&
and the highly-coloured fish whose habitat they are.
There is a range of fairly high mountains on the north-
east face as well as on the north-west face of the island,
and an extensive plateau between these ranges, the upper
part of which is the best pine-apple land. Here has been
set down the Schofield Barracks for military forces, and
a few miles nearer Honolulu is the naval base of Pearl
Harbour. 88
The Hawaiian Islands
Like a famous " suburb " of Glasgow, Honolulu has
benefited much by the liberality of those who have been
already referred to as the real makers of the present
territory of Hawaii, the descendants of the original
missionaries and teachers. The Bishop Museum has a
unique collection of historical articles, the principal feature
of which is the royal robes of minute feathers, some of the
garments involving the lives of thousands of birds so as to
get enough of the colour desired. Many of the educational
institutions already referred to derive large revenues
from funds or lands bequeathed to them. The present
owner of Moanalua, a beautiful place just on the western
outskirts of Honolulu, has opened the unique Japanese
gardens there to well-conducted visitors, and, as usual,
we found the man in charge to be a Scot, who had
acquired his knowledge at a well-known garden in
Peeblesshire, belonging to an old Glasgow family.
Oahu, though the island of the group most frequently
visited (indeed, the great majority of tourists see only
the one island), is by no means the most interesting and
instructive of the islands. That position is undoubtedly
held by the largest and youngest of the islands, Hawaii,
where Nature's processes in the formation of land are
made evident. Sailing south-eastward from Oahu on the
left, Molokai is first passed, an island seldom visited by
tourists, and an area of which is set apart for the
isolation of lepers from all the islands, and where, it is
said, very satisfactory progress has been made with
curative treatment. Next, on same side, comes Maui
Island, with its port Lahina, where usually a call is made
to land tourists who desire to see its large extinct
volcano, Haleakala. To the right, two small islands,
Lanai and Kahoolawe, are passed before the coast of
Hawaii is reached, where on the windward side of the
island the steamer lands her passengers at Hilo.
The principal town of Hawaii does not begin to com-
pare with Honolulu, though there are a few blocks in
G 89
Zig-Zagging Round the World
the neighbourhood of the hotel and public buildings
which are quite impressive. There are two good water-
falls, the Rainbow and Make Falls, quite within the
town, and these give it a very picturesque appearance.
What is known as the Hamakua Coast Railway lies to
the north of Hilo, and from there to the terminus at Pauillo
there is a continuous succession of sugar plantations, with
the villages in which the workers live as stations. These
are so much under the management of Scots that this dis-
trict is often referred to as the ' ' Scottish ' ' Coast . We went
and came by rail, interesting because of the construction,
which has a succession of bridges over the gullies and
tunnels through the bluffs which divide these. The
railway was very costly to build, but, as it carries all the
sugar, the revenue gives a good return. The same
afternoon we motored to the south of Hilo, through more
sugar, and up about 4,000 feet to Volcano House, a hotel
overlooking the Kilauea Volcano. After dark had fallen,
we proceeded right down to the side of the fire pit, and
there looked at the most impressive sight in Nature
which has yet been met in our travels. Right at our feet
was a huge cauldron of fire. We were on the lip, about
three hundred feet above the pit, which looked like a huge
pot of molten metal crackling and surging up, the contents
contracting and changing but ever renewing and repeating
its movements. There was a constant output of steam
and fumes, and also frequent films of moisture and small
passing showers. The moon was two days past the full
and rose as we looked, and we were lucky enough to see
a lunar rainbow produced by these showers. It can
easily be understood that this impressive power has by
the superstitious natives been exalted into a dominating
position in their lives. The goddess of fire, Pele (pro-
nounced Pelly), ruled their lives till Christianity reached
them, and the boldness of Princess Kapiolani, who
disregarded the tabus, specially as regards women, and
declared these superstitions as idle fables, produced an
90
The Hawaiian Islands
•epoch in the lives of the natives. Tennyson has pre-
served this story in the poem bearing the name
" Kapiolani." By daylight we walked the three miles
over the great lava-crusted pit, the successive flows being
quite discernible, and again looked over on the boiling
pot, which is rarely without its curtain of steam, but
just for a few minutes a turn in the wind let us look down
on what seemed for all the world like a Titanic porridge-
pot boiling hard, and as each burst took place, flames
oame through from the mass of fire below. The natives
call it Halemanman — " House of Eternal Fire." We were
looking at a world in the making, as every few years miles
of this island are overrun by the molten stream, which
after a varying time is disintegrated into earth, which
becomes valuable soil to produce earth's choicest fruits.
In the two succeeding days we encircled the two large
mountains, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, each over
13,000 feet high, from which these lava flows have mostly
come, and we saw at various points, in addition to sugar,
crops of pine-apples, tobacco, and coffee.
We visited tree moulds, where a lava flow had burnt
out the tree and taken its place ; what remains of a city
of refuge, Honaunou, where the refugee was secure
whatever he had done or was accused of doing ; and at
Napoopoo the monument to Captain Cook, set up where
he was killed. For the night we landed at a hotel
named " Mahealani," which means " nearest to heaven,"
and it certainly was a very desirable haven. Next day
we continued to cross lava flows, then came to a large
tract of pastoral country, getting round to the sugar
plantations which we had passed by railway. The road
skirts the coast and loops round the bluffs, giving very
picturesque views and showing many waterfalls. We
landed at a plantation to rest and see sugar-cane growing,
and specially its conveyance by water shoots to the mill,
where heavy rollers make it yield the sweet juice which
becomes sugar. A very interesting day was spent
91
Zig-Zagging Round the World
visiting the south-eastern corner of the island, Kalapan*
Beach, and a small forest of lava trees, as well as a tepid
green lake near Kapoho. On the return journey to
Honolulu we saw by daylight the north portion of the
island, including the two extraordinarily steep valleys,
difficult of access, Waipu and Waimanu, and round past
Kahala, on the north-western side, the steamer called at
Malukone and Kawaihae.
After our return to Oahu, and a week more at
Honolulu, we visited Kauai, the north-western island,
known as the Garden Isle, and the most prolific and
beautiful of all the islands. The roads are said to be
remarkably good, but unfortunately our driver began
with what is called the Grand Canyon of the islands,
to which the road is about the roughest we have struck,
The Waimea Canyon has a good deal of resemblance to
that in Arizona, but of course a mere miniature in size,
and with much more vegetation. The drive round the
western shore to Barking sands by the sea is delightfully
fresh, and the sand when rubbed in the hands, emits
a sound slightly resembling a bark. The Spouting Horn,
caused by the wave motion operating on shelving rocks
with a large blow-hole, is an interesting phenomenon,
but the feature of this island is the long green valleys
running up to the high mountains and the magnificent
crops of sugar and pines on the broad plains between the
mountain ranges. Round the north side there are
successive beautiful bays with sandy beaches. Lihue,
where we spent a night, is the principal town on the
island. We also visited, by the kindness of yet another
Scot, whose parents had gone out from a popular Clyde
resort, Kukiolono Park, a most extensive garden with a
Bougainvillea hedge. Quite accidentally, we saw copies
of two privately printed books, one by David Douglas,
botanist, who classified the flora of the islands and lost
his life while occupied on that work, and the other by
Dr. Archibald Menzies, who was the medical man with
92
The Hawaiian Islands
Vancouver when he visited the islands twenty-eight
years before the first of the New England missionaries.
These two Scots did much good service to the inhabitants
of these lovely islands, which are bound to become more
and more holiday resorts for the English-speaking people
of the world.
On the voyage to New Zealand we spent a day at
Suva, in the Fiji Islands, and had the novel experience
of dropping a day out of the calendar, the only effect of
which seemed to be that instead of being half a day
behind Great Britain we became half a day ahead.
XII.
The Dominion of New Zealand.
ON a journey such as ours one realises that Britannia
does now, but did not always rule the waves.
Throughout both Americas the Spaniards were
undoubtedly the pioneers. We found their tracks all
over the western seaboard, from British Columbia to
Chile, while on the eastern side, right round the
Caribbean Sea and the coast of South America, they and
the Portuguese led the way. The traces of Dutch
navigators are only slightly in evidence on the most of
the Atlantic, though, of course, they occupied South
Africa from far back days. They had voyaged to the
neighbourhood of New York in very early times, but it
is on the western side of the Pacific that their enterprise
resulted in the acquisition of colonies, and there a few
outposts, such as New Zealand and Tasmania, which
they visited and named, but never occupied. Captain
Tasman called at but did not land on the islands in 1642,
and it was one hundred and twenty-seven years later
that they were explored by Captain Cook, and seventy-
one years later, in 1840, that the islands of New
Zealand were by treaty formally made part of the
British Colonial possessions. The North and South
Islands and Stewart Island have an area of 103,658
square miles, a little less than that of Great Britain.
It is 1,100 miles from the extreme points north to south,
and the coast line is an exceedingly irregular one,
measuring no less than 4,330 miles, while there is no point
in the interior further than seventy-five miles from the sea.
The population, occupying an area closely approaching
that of Great Britain, is roundly stated at one million,
and of these about 50,000 are Maoris, roughly one in
95
Zig-Zagging Round the World
twenty. It will be seen that the distribution of population
is much as if the people of Glasgow, Liverpool, or Bir-
mingham occupied the whole of England and Scotland.
While essentially an agrarian country, there are four
cities distributed equally between the two large islands,
and though they are alike in that each is a well spread
out gathering of human habitations, yet they are
curiously dissimilar. Auckland, the farthest north, and
with the largest population, is situated on the narrowest
part of the North Island, with a harbour on each seaboard,
east and west, on gently undulating ground and with
endless arms of the sea for suburbs. There is ample
room for expansion, but at present the city has few
impressive buildings. The great bulk of both the business
and residential parts is built of timber, conveying to
home minds an impression of temporary structure and
unfinishedness.
Wellington is also a seaport, situated right at the
south end of the North Island on Cook Straits, which
divide the two islands. There is only a small area of
level land, so that already the residential portion of the
city has been forced to high overlooking hills, and beyond
them to other bays and arms of the sea. Here a greater
proportion of the buildings is of cement, brick or stone,
and some placed, as are the new Houses of Parliament,
on really good sites.
Christchurch is the only one of the four cities
which is not itself a seaport ; Lyttleton, eight miles
away, with a tunnelled railway as link, is the port. All
four cities have colleges, composing together New Zealand
University, but Christchurch gives more than any of the
others an impression of an atmosphere of learning. It is,
with the winding river Avon in its midst, quite like an
English cathedral city, while only about two hundred
miles away, Dunedin, its sister city of the South Island, is
in name and everything else strongly Scottish. Most of the
public buildings, offices, and stores there are of good
The Dominion of New Zealand
dressed stone, while even the residential districts are
largely stone, brick, and cement. Christchurch, except the
Cashmir hills, is on level ground, while Dunedin is even
more hilly than its prototype in Scotland. It was heart
warming to walk along Princes Street, High Street,
Moray Place, and other places with familiar names, and
to find as suburbs Musselburgh, Portobello, and many
places recalling the names on the Firth of Forth. While
in 1,100 miles there is room for considerable variety of
climate, our experience was that, if rapid changes of
weather make the immigrant feel at home, he gets them.
Our visit was in what should have been spring and early
summer, but these were, as sometimes at home, long
delayed and difficult to recognise.
The whole urban population is about one-third of
the million, and even of these there is only a small
proportion occupied in industry, leaving about 700,000
whose work is on the Island producing food and raw
materials. Broadly the South Island raises sheep for
their fleeces and mutton, the North Island cattle for
dairy produce and for beef, and undoubtedly the war has
greatly benefited the whole community.
One of New Zealand's greatest assets is the attractive-
ness and the variety of her scenery, and her greatest
necessity is convenient access for her own and Australian
tourists, and the provision of good roads and comfortable
hotel accommodation.
There is room for more attention being given to these
matters, especially if it is expected to attract old country
and American tourists in large numbers.
We began with the so-called Hot Lakes districts, the
best-known centre of which is Rotorua, though since the
disaster of 1886, the principal interest is farther south at
Wairakei. The Government own Rotorua, but a private
enterprise has acquired the other more attractive centre.
In these regions the Maori is first met with in any
considerable numbers. There are three native settle-
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
merits in this neighbourhood, Whakarewarewa, Ohinematu
and Tikitere. Men and women are of good physique and
intelligent, but the occupation provided of exploiting the
tourist is not one calculated to stimulate industry and
independence, while the locality, with its constant heat
for the growth of a few necessary vegetables and natural
cooking facilities in the backyard, makes even domestic
labour only nominal. The whole region smells of sulphur,
and at Rotorua and elsewhere there are large bathing
establishments for the suitable treatment of rheumatism
and other ailments.
The most picturesque feature of Rotorua is its five
beautiful cold lakes, and such of the thermal features as-
remain may be visited. These last do not begin to
compare in interest with Wairakei, where a large series
of hot-water geysers and mud springs perform at definite
and named intervals. Here also there is beginning to
form a pink terrace, as yet on a smaller scale than that
destroyed by the eruption of Tarawera in 1886. The most
impressive sight in this neighbourhood, visited at night r
was Karapiti blow-hole, where a head of high-pressure
steam is, and has been from time immemorial in constant
action. This is declared by Sir James Hector, a
geological authority, to be the safety valve of New
Zealand. On the Waikato River, between Wairakei
Valley and Lake Taupo, are the Huka Falls and Aratiatia
Rapids, each outstandingly beautiful among much similar
scenery in New Zealand. Near Taupo one of the hotels
has in its grounds sulphur as well as iron waters, and we
found that, even when not physically required, the
experience of this treatment is a very pleasant one.
After crossing Lake Taupo, one of the best trout
fishing waters in New Zealand, though owing to its being
the close season, we did not have any opportunity of
testing their quality, we, by a short railway journey,
found ourselves at Taumananui, the starting-point for
going down the famous Wanganui river.
The Dominion of New Zealand
This is described as the " Rhine of New Zealand,"
but the term really has no meaning, as the river and its
scenery have not the least resemblance. The down
journey occupies the early half of three days, so as to
correspond with the up-river service against the current,
which can only make half the speed in its three full days'
run. The beginning is in open country, with pastoral
lands on the banks and low bush on the hills, but soon a
continuous series of gorges begins, and these last through
the second and beginning of the third day, at noon of
which the journey ends in scenery not unlike the Thames
about Henley, at a thriving town named from the River
Wanganui. Journeying westward and then northward,
we passed through the best dairy land in New Zealand,.
Taranaki, the garden province, where there is a very
large production for export of butter and cheese.
The scenic feature here is Mount Egmont, a beautiful-
snow-capped cone like Fuji Yama, the sacred mountain
of Japan, with which it closely compares. The mountain
is singular in that it stands up from the great plain and
is visible in its entirety from every point in the great
surrounding radius. New Plymouth, the chief town of
Taranaki, is a fairly old settlement, and was a consider-
able theatre of the Maori war sixty years ago. Lately
its harbour has been improved, and it is hoped that the
prosperity of the province may bring an increase of
shipping. The situation to the north of Mount Egmont
on the sea is a picturesque one, and the public park
would do credit to a much larger town. Hawera, and
other towns to the south, have grown rapidly in the dairy
produce boom, and these are literally " garden " towns,
being laid out on ample lines, with generous open spaces.
From Taranaki we made a daylight journey of nearly
twelve hours by rail right to the capital, Wellington, on
the North Island, at the point nearest to the South Island,
Cook's Straits, and across the narrow passage, only
slightly longer than that of the English Channel, Dover
99
Zig-Zagging Round the World
to Calais. We reached Picton on the South Island in
pouring rain and a stormy sea, bound for the Westland
district, where there is more mining than anywhere else
in ]New Zealand, but there is also some very fine scenery.
First we had a short railway journey to Blenheim,
then a beautiful drive through bush country, partly
cleared to Nelson, the principal town of Westland, and
the centre of a great fruit district. The apple-blossom
was over, but the roadsides were lined by hawthorns
twenty feet high, white and occasionally pink, just a
mass of blossom. From Nelson we had two days by
motor in the Buller gorge, a large river cut deep into
rock of two to three thousand feet high, well clad by bush.
Later in the year, rata, a scarlet blossom, is in great
profusion, but in November, the white clematis was
prominent, very lightly screening the foliage. Two
nights were spent on the sea coast in mining towns, the
main feature of which was the plentiful opportunities for
ardent liquid refreshment, but these towns had fallen on
«vil days, as both coal and metal mining, gold and copper
mainly, had passed their zenith. The third day we passed
by coach through the Otira gorge, a magnificent drive
over the ridges to the eastern side, finishing by a railway
journey across the Canterbury Plains, where the finest
sheep in the world are reared, to Christchurch.
From there we went to Timaru and Fairlie, from which
motors start for the journey to Mount Cook, the dominant
height of New Zealand, on which, at an altitude of 4,000
ieet, there is a most comfortable Hermitage Hotel. It
was too early for mountaineering, but we saw at close
quarters the Sefton and Hooker glaciers, and but for bad
weather would also have seen the great Tasman glacier.
We did have two very beautiful glimpses of the entire
great mountain, but most of the four days we spent at
its feet the summit was invisible. From there we
travelled to Dunedin, and found ourselves very much at
home. The Cold Lake district is well towards the south
100
The Dominion of New Zealand
end of the South Island, and in early November was still
wintry and arrangements incomplete for tourist-traffic,
but we managed to visit Wakatipu, the best known of
these lakes, spending Armistice Day, 1920, at Queenstown,
situated at the angle of the lake, about midway between
Kingstown, the railway terminus, and Glenorchy, at the
western end. Queenstown is an extremely popular
holiday resort, and has a golf course and an exceptionally
fine public park, with facilities for the playing of many
other games. We visited the west end of the lake, where,
about ten miles from Glenorchy, is situated Paradise,
one of the gems of New Zealand scenery. The four days
spent there roughly epitomised the four seasons, finishing
in glorious summer. Situated on Diamond Lake, the
hotel was a simple but comfortable extended farm-house,
with a good garden, good food, including rainbow trout
and the kindly hospitality of a Scottish household
originally from Fifeshire. Just under Mount Earnslaw
and lesser snow-covered heights, and with pleasant walks
in every direction, we spent some very enjoyable and
memorable days. The name Paradise proved warranted.
Returning right down the long lake, we travelled by
rail to Invercargill, a place which, like some in South
America, had been planned with such foresight that the
traffic could hardly be seen on the wide streets. From
its port, Bluff, at the south-east corner of the South
Island, we sailed to Melbourne. Had the season been
suitable we should like to have seen Milford Sound and
the fjord-like scenery of the south-west corner, but since
the withdrawal of steamers by the war that can only be
seen by six or seven days' walking, for which dry weather
is an absolute necessity. We did not see everything, but
claim to have seen the islands more thoroughly than any
New Zealander whom we have met, and every hour
spent there was enjoyable and interesting.
101
XIII.
The Commonwealth of Australia.
IT was with great interest that we landed in Britain's
great outpost in the Antipodes, a place which has
day while we have night, has winter while we have
summer, and whose sky at night is ruled by the Southern
Cross as ours is by the Plough. Our cousins actually eat
a heavy Christmas dinner at 80° to 100° in the shade.
There was an added interest in seeing again at their
homes the boys who had so magnificently come to take
their places alongside the home forces, not only in the
Great War, but also in South Africa twenty years ago.
This continent, only a little less in area than the
whole of Europe, carries a population much less than that
of London. It is not realised that in that population
{and New Zealand may be included) we have the most
purely British community on the face of the earth.
The old country has a much greater percentage of foreign
blood. Canada has French, South Africa has Dutch and
Huguenots. The United States is an agglomeration of
nationalities, while Australasia is ninety-seven per cent,
of United Kingdom births or descent.
Until twenty years ago these colonies were independent
of each other, and there were many disadvantages, so
the Commonwealth was formed, including, with the five
states of Australia, Tasmania, and the undeveloped area
at the north-west corner of Australia, now called the
Northern Territory, as well as a small area at Canberra,
to become ultimately the capital, on much the same lines
as the United States of America and Washington, D.C.
(*) TASMANIA.
ALTHOUGH practically the smallest unit, it is undoubt-
edly the most interesting from a tourist's point of view,
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
and is described as the " playground of Australia," being
only distant a night's journey by steamer from Melbourne
to Launceston, which lies about four hours' sail up the
River Tamar. About the area of Wales, there is hardly
any part of Tasmania which is not beautiful, and the
great charm is its infinite variety.
Launceston and its suburbs have about 30,000
inhabitants. It lies in a basin with surrounding hills,
and is skirted by the north and south Esk rivers before
they unite to form the Tamar. There are good public
buildings and many beautiful suburbs. The distinctive
feature of its scenery is the Cataract Gorge, by which the
South Esk, used for electric power, makes its way through
a rocky and picturesque valley laid out as a public park.
Northwards there is a beautiful drive to the Mole Creek
Caves, which are the usual collection of fantastic forms
of stalactite and stalagmites, rather poorly shown.
The north-west country to Davenport and Burnie is good
agricultural and pastoral land, largely raising potatoes
for Australia and also fruit. There is choice of roads
and railway for the journey to Hobart, and we decided
on four days by motor, via Springfield Sideling, Scottsdale,
and St. Helen, spending the first night at Scamander.
The most beautiful part of the drive is at Weldborough
Pass, one of the finest bits of bush scenery we had seen.
Next day by St. Mary's and Swansea to Triabunna,
mostly along the sea coast, with a succession of
picturesque bays. Here was passed the largest and best-
kept orchard we had seen, belonging to preserve makers
at Hobart. The next day's run brought us at midday
to the most interesting scenic group on the island,
Eaglehawk Neck, right on the rocky eastern coast, with
a curious basaltic tesselated pavement and several fine
breaks in the rocky parapet, named Tasman's Arch, the
Devil's Kitchen, and the Blow-Hole. For the night we
rested at Port Arthur, treasured as the historic spot of
Tasmania, but it commemorates an unfortunate episode
104
The Commonwealth of Australia
in her history, when it was used as a convict settlement
conducted on anything but humane lines. The drive
from Port Arthur retraced part of the previous day's road
until near Bellerive, from which a very beautiful view
of Hobart is had, and the actual approach to it is by
a " punt," the Colonial name for a vehicular ferry landing
right in the city. Though the amount of shipping tonnage
is comparatively small, the harbour of Hobart compares
favourably with many we have seen. There is ample
deep water for all the traffic likely to require it for many
years to come. The whole situation at the head of what
is a long firth of many arms, with bays and beaches of
beautiful sand from Point Pillar, fifteen miles up to
Hobart, is wonderfully picturesque. Mount Wellington
and many other considerable mountains give a back-
ground to the scene, and outside of Hobart proper, as
well as opposite it, there are many beautiful seaside
suburbs. The Huon Valley has the best timber in the
island, and in the same neighbourhood there are many
valleys cleared for fruit growing, mostly apples. There
are also many orchards in the Derwent Valley, and New
Norfolk there is famed as the place where Vincent
Wallace settled temporarily when he was beginning to
write the opera " Maritana." In this valley there are
great hop gardens, and the produce is said to compare
favourably with the home growth of Kent. In the same
direction are the Russell river and a new National Park
containing the Russell and Lady Barren Falls, as well as
much beautiful bush. Time did not allow us to visit
the west side of the island, which is less accessible and has
not such good roads, but it is reputed to be fully equal in
scenery to the east side, and has the Gordon River, which
many consider rivals the Wanganui in New Zealand.
It was well possible to understand that the temperate
climate of Tasmania must be very acceptable to
Australians during their hot and trying months of
summer.
H 105
Zig-Zagging Round the World
(b) VICTORIA.
OUR approach to Melbourne was by water, and as we
entered the Yarra-Yarra river, with a somewhat smoky
atmosphere and the waters not so pure as they might be,
there was a decidedly home-like feeling, which remained
while we were in the city. The whole surroundings
strongly recalled the Clyde, and the warm kindly recep-
tion by Scots and others deepened the impression. The
city has ample, wide streets and handsome buildings well
shown.
It was most interesting to see what had been a
familiar address for a life time — Flinders Lane — where
are grouped all the wholesale dry goods stores, not in the
original buildings, but in handsome, many-storied,
solidly-built structures. As in all great cities, there is
a tendency to hotel and apartment life on the outskirts
of the business section, but it is a trifling proportion
compared with London and the United States, and there
are widely spread-out beautiful suburbs inland as well
as by the sea. The larger houses are of brick, concrete
or stone, and besides the handsome public gardens and
buildings out St. Kilda road and its neighbourhood,
there are many beautiful homes with extensive and well-
kept grounds. There are efficient railway, electric, and
cable cars, as well as steamer services to collect and
distribute the residents morning and evening. Flinders
Street Station compares with the great depots of the
Eastern States of America and with London in the
numbers carried and the general handling of the traffic.
Victoria has the smallest area of any of the great
States, and has a density of seventeen persons per square
mile, whereas Western Australia has only one person to
three square miles, and the average of the Common-
wealth is under two persons per square mile. Yet there
is ample room for good settlers even in Victoria. A few
excursions to places distant from fifty to seventy miles
106
The Commonwealth of Australia
showed a small proportion of arable land as compared with
pastoral, and among the hills much uncleared bush country.
The beauty spots in the Dandenong Mountains are in
summer peopled by Melbourne citizens seeking coolness
and health. The Blacks spur between Healesville and
Maryville is one of the grandest drives we have seen in
Australia. It is said there are no song-birds in Australia,
but there was interest in seeing the albatross, that model
for airmen, as we traversed southern waters. Outside
Melbourne we first saw and heard the kookooburra, or
laughing jackass, whose cry resounds through the bush.
Here also we made our first acquaintance with the
kangaroo and the wallaby, graceful though, to our eyes,
unusual in their gait. We regretfully ended an all-too-
short stay in the most home-like of the Colonies.
(c) NEW SOUTH WALES.
THE mother Colony of the Commonwealth, and that
which carries forty per cent, of its population, is usually
approached, as we did, by Port Philip Heads. This had
peculiar interest for us, as we had already seen the other
two harbours usually bracketed with it as the three
finest in the world, San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro,
and now we were to see the third, and that which belongs
to our Empire. As in the case of the three waterfalls
referred to in an earlier paper, to compare the three
harbours is to compare things which are different in kind.
Rio presents a scenic aspect grander and more unusual
than either of the other two. Sydney has a wealth of
lovely bays and creeks which neither of the other two
approaches, while the Golden Gate, the opening to the
west, leading to the greatest ocean on earth, has a
majesty impossible to the other two. All three cities,
originally communities within a weather-protected area
of water, have overflown for residential purposes towards
the oceans from which they are refuges.
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From the Heads up to Sydney one sees the great bulk
of the city's outspreading, and the approach is very fine,
and all of the great harbour is of easy access to the
very heart of the city. The streets are somewhat narrow
in the older part, but a gradual rebuilding is going on and
ampler lines are being followed. As regards open spaces
and parks, especially the large-scale national spaces in a
state of Nature at Loft us and Kurang-gai, each over
35,000 acres in extent, over 1,000 square miles in all,
the provision is not equalled even by the Golden Gate
park, though, of course, that is contiguous to San
Francisco and serves a different purpose. The grounds of
Government House, the Botanic Gardens, the Domain,
and Hyde Park are all within five minutes' walk of the
business area, while the Centennial Park, Moore Park,
and the Common, with stadium, show, and cricket-ground,
are only a little farther off. The distinctive feature of
Sydney is its innumerable seaside suburbs and surf-
bathing beaches. Manly, Bondi, and Cougee are as
famous in Australia as Coney Island and Margate in the
Northern Hemisphere, and these are only three among
many. The endless arms and bays of the Paramatta
river and lower waters take more than a day merely to
sail round. For yachting these waters run the Firth of
Clyde hard. Botany Bay with La Perouse, Sandringham,
and Brighton-le-Sands lie beyond Port Jackson, and
enter directly from the ocean, but they are easily
accessible from Sydney by trolley-car in less than an hour.
Sydney University is like that of Glasgow, a some-
what heterogeneous cluster of buildings, with a nucleus
of pure Gothic, set down with great foresight over sixty
years ago, when the Colony had only 50,000 inhabitants,
but, unlike the condensed home conditions, there is space
available, and able minds are now planning a unification
and rearrangement to bring cosmos out of chaos. At
Clifton Gardens a large new zoological garden is open
and being extended. The animals are in as nearly
108
The Commonwealth of Australia
natural conditions as is practicable. At two to three
hours' distance by rail there is also as holiday ground
all the range of the Blue Mountains, and they are blue.
These are from two to four thousand feet high, undulating
land, with deep gorges and innumerable waterfalls, when
there is water. The bush is uncleared, and there are
numerous villages and towns with cottages, bungalows,
boarding-houses and hotels scattered over the forty miles
stretch, where Sydney people can spend the hot months
of summer.
Accessible to these places, about forty miles farther by
road, are the world-famous Jenolan Caves, where Govern-
ment owns a large hotel, and has also organised a staff
for showing and developing the caves as a resort. These
are on a large scale, with great variety grouped for
convenient access, all laid out with paths, ladders, boats,
where necessary, and electric lights suitably placed.
About forty miles north of Sydney is the Hawkesbury
River, down which one can go by steamer through some
lovely scenery to Newport-on-the-Sea, and return by a
series of ocean beaches to the city. A visit to the Bulli
Pass, about forty miles to the south of Sydney, along the
ocean, on a high terrace through fine bush, with glimpses
such as Sublime Point, overlooking the beaches and the
sea, is another unique outing, and on the return inland
through the National Park by Fresh Water River there is
also characteristic scenery.
(d) QUEENSLAND AND THE OTHER STATES
AND TERRITORIES.
QUEENSLAND is only second in area to Western
Australia, and has 670,500 square miles, just a trifle less
than her population, so she has roughly one person to
the square mile. The variety of climate is greater than
in any of the other States, about half being within the
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
temperate and half within the tropical zone. The
Darling Downs, south of Brisbane, have great stock-
carrying farms, while about Cairns there is sugar produced
for this and all the other States of the Commonwealth.
Brisbane, the capital, situated on the Brisbane River,
about twenty-five miles from the sea, has a population
of over 150,000. The situation is a very fine one, and
there are many handsome public buildings, substantially
built of stone and concrete. The residential part has
good sites, as the surrounding country is undulating, but
as yet the buildings themselves are mostly timber. Some
pleasant suburbs extend along the river bank, and towards
the sea there are attractive watering-places.
There is a large growth of sugar in the tropical part
of the State, as well as tropical fruits, which are exported
to the other States. The forests of Queensland yield
many beautiful hard woods, which are used for furniture
and for the finer work of wainscoting and fitments in
dwelling-houses. These are in demand, not only within
the State, but are exported to the south. The sail along
this coast, within the Great Barrier Reef, is very
picturesque. In succession, the Whitsunday Passage
and Hinchinbrook Channel are passed on the way to
Cairns. Inland from here is the finest waterfall in
Australia, the Barron Falls, and further inland the
Bellenden Ker Mountains which, while we were in
Australia, the retiring Governor-General referred to by
saying that were it only opened up by suitable labour
it would be found the most prolific area in Australia.
Farther north, shortly before reaching Thursday Island,
the steamer threads another most beautiful channel, the
Albany Passage.
Port Darwin, at the north-west corner of Australia,
the capital of the northern territory, is the last port of
call en route to the real Orient. If, as is expected, this
territory, at present administered directly by the
Commonwealth, develops into a great mining State,
no
The Commonwealth of Australia
then the access to it is already arranged, as the natural
harbour is one of the most perfect in the world.
We regretted not being able to see South Australia
and its beautiful capital, Adelaide, as well as Western
Australia, with its so recent history of gold rushes at
Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, but we had seen the best-
known States and cities of the Commonwealth, and with
that had to be content.
in
XIV.
Australasia.
ITS SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS,
RESOURCES, AND NEEDS.
WHEREIN do the lives of our cousins in the
Antipodes differ from ours who have stayed at
home ? Two-thirds at least are occupied on the
land, and the climate also encourages it, so their lives are
much more spent in the open air than ours. Every
little community has its racecourse, and both men's and
women's interest in sport is not confined to looking on.
All suitable games are well and keenly played, and the
players excel. Women have their hands full, and the
want of domestic help hits them hard — however, they
do not grouse, but just adapt themselves to it, and they
manage to have a pretty good time. Where we visited
the food was almost always prepared by the hostess
herself beforehand, and so arranged as to dispense with
table- waiting. The health record of cities, as well as
country places, is a very satisfactory one. Education,
especially in New Zealand, is well attended to, and the
higher schools and universities are open free of cost to
all. As everywhere else since the war, the cost of living
is constantly rising, and greater income only causes
greater expenditure. The strike habit is difficult to
overcome. Alien agitators have a harmful grip on labour
organisations. Many public services are under the State
and Federal Governments, and these are more liable to
have strikes than private enterprises. The railways are
Zig-Zagging Round the World
a case in point. They are mostly Government-owned
and operated. There are more miles per head of
population than in any other country, but it can hardly
be said that an efficient service is given. The trains are
slow. There is a confusion of gauges in Australia ; but
even in New Zealand, where there is very nearly
uniformity, they are far behind Canada, the Cape, or
the home railways, and do not progress.
What of the drink question ? There is no serious
consideration of restriction, let alone abolition. The bar
is everywhere, and " shouting " prevalent. Have the
churches and other religious organisations any strong
influence ? It was not evident, and Sunday seemed to
be for the great bulk of the people only a day for amuse-
ment. It was disappointing to find that the Roman
Catholic Church here, as in Ireland, exercises a strong
political power, which is not favourable to the community
as a whole. What of Government and politics ? They
are the occupation and means of livelihood for a large
class, but there are few statesmen among them, and many
whose sole motive is to serve their own ends and increase
their power to do so.
A favourite slogan is, " Australia for the Australians "
and " A White Australia," yet we found such an anomaly
as a community we saw in the northern territory at Port
Darwin within the tropics, where the trade is all in
Chinamen's hands, and the white men do the lumpers'
work at the wharf, and do it badly. However, these are
only indications ; such conditions are exceptional, and
affect but a small percentage of the population, the great
bulk of which is on the land.
Home folks do not realise the time it takes to clear
land. We saw farms which the present holders had taken
up thirty or forty years back. Field after field had been
cleared of bush, all suitable timber had been cut and
marketed, pasturage and cultivated land brought into
bearing, and the gain to the farmers had not been
114
Australasia
material. Hard work and a healthy life, the rearing of a
vigorous family to carry on, were about all there was to
the credit of the balance-sheet. There are land agents
out of all proportion to the needs, and undoubtedly
speculators have made more money off the land than
have farmers. Their influence is to inflate values, and
that does not benefit the real workers on the land. There
has been much using up of timber as well in New Zealand
as in Australia, and we heard little of it being replaced
for the generations to come by deliberate replanting.
A serious effort is being made by irrigation to overcome
the droughts which have been such a serious calamity
in some districts of Australia. A great scheme is in
course of being carried out in the south of New South
Wales at Murrumbidgee, where an expenditure of three
millions sterling is intended.
On suitable lands, both in the temperate and tropical
parts, fruit is being profitably grown, and it is hoped to
develop an export trade to the home markets as well as
to Northern Hemisphere lands, where a fruit supply
during their winter is acceptable. There is talk of
producing woollen manufactures for export, but a much
more likely field for Australasian export is produce 'of
all kinds, including beef, mutton, butter, and condensed
milk, all of which might find ready markets among the
great population of our own and other communities in
Asia. Especially in New Zealand, we heard much of
very high prices being given for land based on what
may be called the " butter boom." While we were there
the Government agreed to give a bounty of £600,000
(about 6d. per Ib.) to maintain the price of 2s. 9d. per Ib.
Such foolish class legislation can only lead to disaster,
and it is to be hoped that in 1921 the price will be left
subject only to the ordinary action of supply and demand.
We heard of fourth and later mortgages being granted
on land sold at very inflated prices, a course which can
only have one ending.
"5
Zig-Zagging Round the World
All over the States there are large mining enterprises
well known at home, such as Broken Hill in New South
Wales, Mount Morgan in Queensland, and Mount Lyell
in Tasmania ; but they are only a few of the sources of
Australasian mineral wealth.
In New South Wales there is practically unlimited
coal and ironstone, consequently there has risen at
Newcastle, in addition to the mining, quite a large
manufacturing industry. Steel is produced on the most
up-to-date lines. During the war, Sydney was able to
turn out large steamers entirely from New South Wales
materials.
Even the older States have not been fully surveyed,
but the possibilities of Western Australia are very great,
as all the indications are that gold, silver, copper, zinc,
tin, and lead are there in quantity for the working.
The use of water-power is subject, of course, to an
all-the-year-round supply of water. This is receiving
consideration by the States as well as the Federal Govern-
ment, but already Tasmania is beyond the experimental
stage. The hydro-electric department is generating
power on a large scale from the outflow of the Great Lake
situated nearly in the centre of the island, and available
practically at any point desired. Two large enterprises
are now in operation. At Risdon, near Hobart, the
Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australia is, from zinc ore,
extracting by sulphuric acid and electrically-charged lead
plates, the pure zinc, and preparing it for industry in
ingots and plates. This is the only plant of the kind
in the British Empire, the competitors being the United
States and Germany. At Electrona, on South- West Bay,
seventeen miles south of Hobart, there is a calcium-
carbide industry. Very pure limestone is found about
twenty miles farther south, and this is conveyed by water
to Electrona, where, at extraordinary heat, 6,000°
Fahrenheit, ,which could only be produced by electricity,
it is converted into the raw material for acetylene gas.
116
Australasia
The manufacture of electrodes for export is also carried
on here. A large preserve industry at Hobart also
uses largely the hydro-electric department's supply of
electricity, and is in course of rearranging the factory to
increase its use. Ground has been secured near Hobart
for a large cocoa and chocolate factory, to be run by
three old-country firms in co-operation. The possibilities
of electric-power for industries in Tasmania are really
unlimited, as is the supply of water-power to generate it.
Naturally, home people will ask, What about these
labour troubles ? Will they not wreck the industries of
the Colonies, as it is feared similar action will do the home
industries ?
Strikes are undesirable. They do no good to either
workers or employers, but what has been made evident
during the few months' visit here is that, as at home,
there is an over-mastering proportion of sound common
sense working-men who may need to be roused to make
their wills prevail, but they certainly will in the long run
make their influence felt.
But the greatest need of Australasia has not been
mentioned, and it strikes one hard all the time in every
State.
This land could carry in comfort ten times as many
people as are there now, and the need is population —
population — population.
117
XV.
Japan.
A I AHERE is an extraordinary interest in considering
JL the Japanese as having, until about fifty years
ago, a history of many centuries of self-contained-
ness, not an unprogressive people, but ambitious rather
to excel in arts and sciences than to accumulate money.
A change came, the land was thrown wide to foreign
influence, the people were naturally responsive and
susceptible, and to-day we have a country well advanced
in the transition stage of assimilating western civilisation,
with all its handicaps. The constitution of the country
has not changed — Japan remains practically an absolute
monarchy, with strong military predominancy. Her
policy compares more nearly with Germany before the
Great War than with that of any other European State,
yet the Japanese are undoubtedly a loyal, united, and
patriotic race. Generally it may be taken that State
and people are no more popular with their neighbours in
Asia and with the people and States of other countries
than were the Germans in 1914.
We landed at Kobe and saw there modern commerce
jostling old Japan in its main, busy street, Moto-machi ;
passed on to Osaka, with a few remnants of the old, but
mainly a very busy up-to-date textile and machinery
manufacturing city of greater population than Manchester ;
to Yokohama, the greatest port, with little of the old
about it ; and we landed in the capital, Tokio, for the
first real meeting with Japan of the present day. We
arrived there just as the much-hear d-of cherry-blossom
was in perfection. The large public park of Tokio, where
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Zig'Zagging Round the World
such buildings as the imperial museum and public library
are placed, Ueno Park, was for acres covered by cherry
trees in full blossom of just the faintest tinge of pink.
There were other parts of the city in which the blossom
was quite as fine, but no area so large. A few days'
rain in the ensuing week completely spoiled the show,
but we were fortunate in overtaking the display at
Nikko, further north, and again above Myanoshita,
where the altitude made the flowering two weeks later.
Undoubtedly the claims of Japan for the uniqueness of
the display are well founded. Children and grown-ups
unite in celebrating the occasion of the spring. In
Hibiya Park, the day we arrived in Tokio, 30,000
Buddhist children celebrated the flower festival by singing
the " Kimigayo," a Japanese national hymn, and made
offerings of flowers at a shrine symbolising the garden of
Lumbini, where Buddha was born. We saw many such
gatherings, which strike the western mind as slow and
meaningless, but they are typically Japanese. The curious
regard there is for the greater minds and stronger wills of
bygone days, takes concrete shape in processions and
pilgrimages to ancestral shrines at the cherry-blossom time.
Tokio, a rapidly-growing city, with even now about
two million people, is curiously struggling with the
traditional isolation and exclusiveness of the royal
family and the need for great high buildings in which to
conduct the vast commerce of the developing nation.
A modern railway station on ample lines, and with large
free space, has been provided, and now an extensive
estate is being covered with new bank and insurance
company premises, hotels and general office blocks,
intersected by wide avenues. Some of the high structures
may overlook the palace, but tradition will go before
modern needs. The Ginza, or great shopping street, is
rapidly being modernised, and there are in that quarter
two department stores quite comparable with those of
London or Chicago. Street traffic had such contrasts as
120
Japan
the Rolls-Royce car and a palanquin or Sedan chair
carried by four men. The Government owns and runs
all the railways and also auxiliary steamer services.
Officials are as numerous and as impressively uniformed
as in Germany. In many respects the service could be
improved, and no doubt will be. Two points impressed
the Westerns. The names of railway stations are displayed
prominently on elevated boards, angled to be visible to
passengers in the trains ; extensive washing-places, with
many basins, are open on the platforms, and are used
by the passengers to refresh themselves on a dusty
journey. Such provision was temporarily made for
troops at home during the war.
The western influence has not touched the dress of
children. They wear gay colours ; babies move about
in kimonos of brilliant cardinal hues ; as they get older
the tints are more subdued ; footwear is untouched
until one comes among business men, when western
shoes and spring-side boots are fairly general. Students
all wear the wooden sole, with two props across, said to
be an absolute necessity for the muddy roads of
Tokio. The schools generally are well-equipped modern
buildings. It impressed us that much of the education
of young Japan was out of school ; large parties, under
masters and mistresses, were constantly met with by
road or rail going for object-lessons to factories, museums,
historical places, and public buildings, even hotels. We
saw the children of a school being; shown all over the
largest hotel in Tokio. Women's dress is as yet little
influenced by the western contact, but many men are to
be seen dressed entirely in European clothes. In the
large hotels and railway dining-cars European meals are
served, and it was obvious that a large proportion of
Japanese travellers, men and women, took readily to
such fare. In a large Japanese steamer by which we
travelled from South America to Honolulu the captain
and officers, with the exception of two evenings per week,
I 121
Zig-Zagging Round the World
when they had a purely Japanese dinner, partook of the
European meals. The Japanese use much less meat
than we do ; rice and fresh vegetables form the principal
part of their food ; among the latter, egg plant and
bamboo shoots were new to us. We found that a very
prevalent dress for men in broken weather was a Highland
cloak form of thin waterproof fabric, and this was a
habit of quite respectable antiquity, not of western origin.
The imperial museum as well as the fine Ugura
private collection, brought vividly home to us how
much of Japanese art was of Chinese and Korean origin.
We found evidence there that football was played in
China a thousand years ago, and that almost identical
playing-cards to those we use were common in China
seven hundred years ago. Later, in Pekin, we saw
drawings said to be eight hundred years old, representing
polo, something very like racquets, and a lawn game
with ball and holes, the player carrying an old-fashioned
spoon driver and a club like an old form of lady's cue
for billiards or bagatelle. A peculiarly interesting article
was a Chinese bronze bell, three thousand years old,
studded by bosses, which, when struck by hammer,
produced notes varying in pitch by the location of the
boss. This ancient civilisation showed that while our
ancestresses wore dyes and skins about a thousand years
ago the Chinese and Japanese ladies used vanity-boxes,
with powder, perfumes, and appliances supposed to
beautify the countenance. The collections of old costumes
showed that men as well as women wore highly-coloured
garments, and that even the warriors added to their
armour brilliantly coloured outer garments.
There were elaborate stringed musical instruments,
which must have been able to produce more attractive
combinations of sound than the monotonous drum and
tinkly sounds which now do duty for such a performance
as the cherry-blossom dances. The main impression of
their arts — painting, sculpture, ceramic, and metal work
122
Japan
— is the elaboration and slow production, the extreme of
which is shown by the saying that it was not uncommon
for the grandfather to conceive and begin the work,
hand it on to his son, who in turn passed it for com-
pletion to the grandson of its originator.
From Tokio we passed to Nikko, a small town devoted
to the culture of the memory of the great ones of the
nation. In a situation of much natural picturesqueness,
the approach to which in pre-railway times was an
avenue of cryptomerias over twenty miles long, are
placed a group of shrines, on which has been lavished
the most incredible amount of patient work. For over
a thousand years Nikko has been the mausoleum of
shoguns, but leyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa
dynasty, was buried there early in the seventeenth
century, and his son erected a shrine which to this day
is a wonder to the Japanese and Occidentals. The centre
piece is the Yomei-Men, called by the Japanese the
" Sunrise till dark gate," because an entire day is needed
to even look at its wonderful details. From here
Chusenji Lake and the Kegon Waterfall are reached,
both characteristic bits of Japanese scenery.
Our next visit was to Myanoshita, a beauty spot, where
the main natural features are Japan's sacred mountain
Fuji Yama, and Lake Hakone (see 23, facing p. 129), and
also a delightful place for a quiet rest from sight-seeing.
We had yet to visit Kyoto, the real old city of Japan,
where there is less of the western influence, and yet the
place is a busy hive of industry. Here the finest of
fabrics are woven and the most beautiful embroideries
produced. The best work of old days in Satsuma and
cloisonne is excelled, and a beautiful form of wholly
metal work, damascene, has been raised to a high degree
of perfection. The city of about 500,000 people is well
laid out on rectangular lines, and with wide avenues
occurring at given intervals among the narrower streets,
and these were so planned about 1,100 years ago by
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Zig'Zagging Round the World
Emperor Kwammu, who then moved his capital from
Nara to Kyoto. Certain districts are devoted to
particular industries, and broadly the man's workshop
is attached to his home very much like the weaver's
loom-shop in Scottish lowland villages fifty years ago.
Right in the centre are the palaces of the Mikado, one of
which is of extreme simplicity, and the other, the Nijo
Palace, a smaller but highly decorated residence. There
are also in this neighbourhood two simple summer
lodges, Shugaku-in and Katsura, of which the main
feature is the beautiful grounds.
Kyoto is also a place of many beautiful temples or
shrines, mostly with very fine situations, as they are
placed on elevated wooded ground. The Awata Palace
is one of these, while the Chion-in is the principal Buddhist
temple in Kyoto.
We found the actual getting beside the workman
fashioning the clay, and patiently applying his laborious
decoration, involving numberless firings, the repeated
processes which cloisonne work involves, likewise the
building up and then carving lacquer work, which some-
times takes years to complete, most fascinating, and we
felt great respect for the markedly artistic qualities of
the craftsman.
From Kyoto we visited Nara, an old capital, of which
the main feature is the extensive park with hundreds of
tame deer, in none the better condition because they
live on food got from visitors. Here there are several
shrines much visited by the Japanese.
There are what are described as the scenic trio of
Japan : Matsushima, away north of Nikko ; Amno-
hashidate, on the Sea of Japan, north from Kyoto ; and
Miyajima, 011 the inland sea. We could not manage the
other two, but resolved to see the last-named and to
spend our last day in Japan seeing the famous Arch or
Torii and its shrine, with lovely wooded surroundings ;
and our last impression is of a perfectly beautiful
124
Japan
afternoon and evening running along the lochs and bays
of the inland sea to Shimonoseki, where we arrived after
dusk, and boarded a steamer, which next morning landed
us in Korea. So ended a long-looked-forward-to journey,
which left pleasant impressions of this highly interesting
people and their fascinatingly beautiful land, especially
their rapid changes to western ways, giving them the
name of being the hustlers of the Orient.
125
XVI.
Through Korea and Manchuria
to China,
WE entered the land of mystery and seclusion by
the north, through two countries which have
long exercised an important influence on the Far
East — the one Korea, backward and conservative, and
now bearing very restively the dominance of their new
rulers, whom we heard over there described as the Huns
of Asia ; and the other, Manchuria, now part of China.
We landed at Fusan from Japan, and were agreeably
surprised to find, not, as described in a rather unreliable
guide-book, a land of brown earth and poor agriculture,
but of pleasing landscape, green and cultivated,
primitively, it is true, but giving every indication that
there would be ample return on the use of modern
implements and manures. The Korean in the fields
wears a long, loose white garment, and his head-gear is a
conical hat, with a wire fly-catcher on the top. We
spent two nights in great comfort at Seoul, beginning to be
modernised, the South Manchurian Railway being
obviously the main influence. The walls and gates were
almost intact and extremely picturesque. Unfortunately
for our getting about, there was a whole day of much-
needed rain. We saw the " Shotoku-Kyu," or Eastern
Palace, the most interesting relic of royalist times, and
now inhabited by Prince Li, son of the late king. The
abandoned palaces of Seoul and Pekin are each the refuge
of nominally voluntarily disinherited princes, main-
tained by the people over whom the respective imperial
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fathers had ruled, while that of the third Far-East Power,
Japan, was still occupied by the ruler. Prince Li has just
married a Japanese princess. This unchanging land has
greatly falsified its reputation in the last twenty years. It
may be that the young couple occupying the palace will
see yet further changes. The throne-room and reception-
rooms were rather gaudily furnished with modern wood-
work and upholstery. A large garden-space which these
buildings surrounded was of more interest to us than
the interiors, as it was covered by magnificent peonies of
all colours and in perfect bloom. The public museum,
in grounds adjoining, contained many Buddhas and
collections of ancient writings, and of peculiarly Korean
products, especially ceramic ware. In Japan we had seen
a markedly Korean influence at work in earlier days, and
certainly there was here much original and distinctive
work.
Next morning we stopped for some hours at
Mukden, double-walled, but now with many gaps, the
capital of Manchuria, and were able to see round a most
interesting city. Again, the railway is the westernising
power, but in this case it was set down entirely on fresh
ground beyond the walls, while the old Manchuria lay
within. Here is the birthplace of the dynasty which
ended with the beginning of the Republic. The principal
building of interest is the old palace of the Manchu
emperors. The walls are at many places broken down
and the gates disused and ruinous. The largest product
of the country is coal, largely used by the railway, but
now beginning to be exported.
At dusk of the first day on the journey from
Mukden to Pekin, we passed Shan-hai-kwan, where the
great wall ends at the sea. This wonder of the world
was erected 200 B.C. by Emperor Shih-Huang of the
Chin dynasty, for the defence of his country against
Mongolians and Manchurians, 1,400 miles long, much of
it of stone and bricks, but largely of hardened earth.
128
Through Korea and Manchuria to China
We saw it in detail about thirty-five miles from Pekin, at
Chinglungchiao, possibly the most interesting spot within
reach, as there it climbs hills and dips into the valleys
in such extraordinary fashion that it appears to crawl
all over the place. This emperor must have been a giant
in ideas as well as in their execution, as another of his
conceptions was to suppress and destroy all earlier
records so that history might begin with his achievements.
Before reaching Pekin we passed Tien-tsin, one of the great
business centres of China, coming next in importance to
Shanghai and Hankow. It has a European interest,
because here were gathered, during the Boxer trouble, the
international troops, which later relieved the legations
at Pekin. Li Hung-Chang, China's grand old man, lived
and ruled here, and his memory is green as is that of
Chinese Gordon, who after the Tai-ping rebellion drew
plans for the original British Settlement at Tien-tsin.
We soon arrived at Pekin, only eighty-seven miles farther
on, and were thus landed right in the outstanding interest
of China, its wonderful capital — far surpassing in import-
ance any other place in the world it had been our
privilege to visit. This unique city of the Far East has
been made the subject of a separate chapter.
While in Japan we had been advised not to go by
railway to Hankow as the line was disorganised, but we
made the journey in thirty-six hours, two nights and one
day in the train, more comfortably than on any railway
since leaving home. The organisation of this line is
French — locomotives, coaches, and personnel — and the
cleanliness and good food were quite unusual. Hankow is
the big river port of the Yangtze, and is much westernised.
It is often referred to as " The Triple Cities," Hanyang
and Wu-chang, the one on the right bank of the Han-
Shui River facing Hankow and the other on the opposite
bank of the Yangtze. The triple cities are great depots
for gathering and exporting the produce of the interior
and importing in exchange the productions of foreign
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
countries. The situation of Hankow makes it hardly a
prophecy to say that the future holds for it a rapidly
increasing prosperity.
For the three-day passage to Shanghai the steamer
accommodation and chow (as the food is called) were
excellent. We landed at Kiu-kiang and Nankin en
route, the one a large tea port and the other a real Chinese-
walled city, little influenced by the west. In this
neighbourhood there is a large production of fine
porcelain, also of rich damask silk. Shanghai is, of
course, the port of China, so far preponderating over any
other that her position is unassailable. Here is a
population of one and a half millions, with every modern
public service, a street-car system up-to-date, even to
railless extensions, under the capable guidance of a
Scottish born, educated, and trained man. What
impressed us most was that the Bund, or river frontage,
is practically being rebuilt on handsome lines, and that
in every direction extraordinary prosperity is indicated.
Shanghai, being a treaty port, and its foreign settlements
under a local self-government of land-renters about
two-thirds British, with moderate taxation, has attracted
a large native population, who are mostly hasting to be
rich, and many have no further need to do that.
Luxurious motor cars not by any means solely owned by
foreigners, throng the streets. The Nanking Road has
huge stores, loaded with the richest materials. Jewellers
and silversmiths rival those of the Palais Royal, and
there is a scale of living which even Havana and Buenos
Ayres did not reach in the war-boom years. The
uncertainty and apprehension of the earlier years of the
Chinese Republic have been a large factor in the abnormal
prosperity of Shanghai and Hong-Kong. While we were
there, Olympic games were going on, in which China,
Japan, and the Philippines met British and U.S.
Americans, of whom there are many in Shanghai. It was
a revelation to see how keen and excited the passive
130
Through Korea and Manchuria to China
Oriental could become, and how well he could acquit
himself in really western games.
We made a five hours' journey to Hangchow, a minor
port, which is almost in its primitive state, and found
its streets, as well as its suburbs on the West Lake, of
fascinating interest. There were many picturesque spots
on the banks of the West Lake, where we lived in a
comfortable modern hotel. We visited many dainty tea-
rooms, where there was no tariff, but visitors were
expected to recognise in their gift at parting the value
of the entertainment received. This is rapidly becoming
a health resort for Shanghai people, and its surroundings
are picturesque and mountainous, with a delightful
atmosphere.
Hong-Kong is easily the most attractive residential
place of China, and, of course, though the residents are
largely Chinese, the island, as well as a large area on the
mainland opposite, are British possessions. It is a free
port, and the Charing Cross of the Far East, as well for
freight as for passengers. Here we first met the Oriental
form of universal store. These places each bear a well-
chosen title, which must in no way reveal the identity
of the owner for fear of evil spirits assailing him. The
largest of these was " Sincere," a vast place, splendidly
managed, with a perfect army of attendants. Many
of these places in the east were equipped with cash-
registers, so that the purchaser did not have the irritating
delay of waiting for change. The Peak as a place of
residence is world-famed, but there are innumerable
bays and arms on the island and mainland, and the
tendency is to spread out by the sea. From here we
visited Canton, where real Chinese life is to be seen first
on the river, which is reputed to have a population of
150,000, who are born and die on boats and hardly ever
find their way ashore. The remainder live and work in
the densest congestion. We were carried miles in Sedan
chairs through passages where there was barely room to
Zig-Zagging Round the World
pass. It is a place of many industries, and the work
shops are, as in Pekin, at the worker's home. Weaving
of silks and embroideries, as well as many artistic crafts,
such as ivory carving and lacquer work, are extensively
carried on. The main pursuit of the district is, however,
agriculture, and the journey by water back to Hong-
Kong gave an opportunity of seeing what a fertile and
scenically attractive country it is. The drive round
Hong-Kong Island as well as that by Castle Peak from
Kowloon, each on most admirable roads, showed a well-
cultivated and fertile as well as a picturesque country-
There is an extensive building and repairing shipyard at
Taikoo, and in the other direction a model dairy, with
well-bred stock and the last word in appliances.
The Republic of China, as a political institution, is
an anomaly and a puzzle. It can only be hoped that the
present is a transition stage, and that strong, honest
men will yet come to the front and guide their fine country
and fine people to freedom and prosperity.
132
27— THE FORBIDDEN CITY, PEKIN.
28 — MARBLE BRIDGE, WINTER PALACE, PEKIN.
29 — GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUMMER PALACE, PEKIN.
30— P'AILOU IN A PEKIN STREET.
Copyright by D. ME\\Il-:} 1920.
1
35 — GRAND P'AILOU, MING TOMBS, PEKIN.
36— MARBLE BRIDGE, FORBIDDEN CITY, PEKIN.
37 — TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKIN.
38 — ALTAR OF HEAVEN, PEKIN.
39 — HA-TA-MEN GATE, PEKIN.
40— THE YELLOW TEMPLE, PEKIN.
XVII.
Pekin.
THE WONDER CITY OF THE FAR EAST.
ASIA is a continent of anomalies. From Japan, a
more absolute monarchy than any in Europe, we
had come to the Republic of China, where, as yet,
the people have little voice in its affairs, the Government
being in the hands of several self-elected despots, each
with his band of soldiery to enforce his decrees.
Strangely, the mass of the people goes on its way heedless
of these adventurers. We were now within the metropolis
of a people 400,000,000 in number, with a history of
4,000 years, and here were concentrated works of man
conceived with an originality and boldness, and executed
with a determination and thoroughness never yet
attained by any other race of men.
Quite apart from the Great Wall of China, of which
the nearest part to Pekin is twenty-five miles away at
Nankow, the walls of Pekin are a stupendous piece of
construction. The Tartar wall alone is nearly square, and
about thirteen miles long, forty feet high, and sixty-two
feet wide at its base, and has within it the wall of the
Imperial City, twenty feet high, enclosing about two
square miles, while yet again within that there is the
Purple Forbidden City of half a square mile, enclosed by
a formidable structure thirty feet thick at its base, with
a surrounding moat one hundred and twenty feet wide.
In addition there is tacked on to the Tartar wall, at its
southern base, a Chinese wall enclosing a space wider
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
by two-thirds of a mile, and extending two and a half
miles farther south. Roughly, this wall is three miles
long on its eastern and western side and six miles on its
southern side, while the north side is filled by the southern
Tartar wall. There are thus over thirty miles of walls
in the Imperial City, all of great massiveness, but com-
pletely overshadowed by the sixteen enormous structures
used as gates in the outer wall. Even the earliest works
in China are placed precisely accurately to the cardinal
points and to each other, and many of these demonstrate
how thorough was their knowledge of mathematics in
days much earlier than any western records.
Within the Tartar walls, but outside the Imperial
City, at its south-east corner, there is a small but to
aliens in China an important area, known as the Legation
quarter, which since the Boxer rising of 1900 has become
historic. The term Boxer is a free translation into
English of the first name by which the members of this
secret society were known, which is literally " harmonious
fists." They sought to overturn the Manchu dynasty,
and the movement was by that power ingeniously
diverted into a crusade against all foreigners, and was
finally suppressed with heavy penalties and an indemnity,
which the Chinese are still paying. One corner of the
British Legation has been left with the impact of the
Boxer missiles visible and with the carved inscription,
" Lest we forget." This Legation Quarter is a tiny area
and contains trifling numbers, and the millions of China
go their own ways unheeding the " foreign devils."
There must have been pretty general looting during the
rising, as we saw in Japan an important private collection,
the best part of which had come at that time from
the palaces in Pekin, no doubt by purchase.
Our time had to be carefully allotted to see the city
in eight days. In a large park directly south by the
Chien Men Road, to the right, is the Altar of Agriculture,
and to the left the Altar and Temple of Heaven, the last
134
Pekin
two easily the most impressive group of buildings in
Pekin. They are enclosed by walls three and a half
miles long, and are of remarkably durable construction.
The Altar of Heaven is the more impressive, being
entirely of marble, which, although the earliest part is
five hundred years old, looks as if newly built. The
central altar is approached by three tiers of balustrades,
and throughout the numeral nine and its multiples are
employed. There are in all three hundred and sixty
balustrades, that being the number of days in the Chinese
lunar year and the number of degrees in the Celestial
Circle. The Temple of Heaven has a similar but less
imposing substructure of marble balustrades, with a great
three- tiers building visible all over Pekin, rising from its
midst. This temple was used by the ruling emperor for
sacrifices and prayers in the first moon of the year, inter-
ceding for a happy and prosperous year, while the Altar of
Heaven, at the winter solstice, was used for prayers and
sacrifices by the emperor representing his people, imploring
heaven's forgiveness for the misdeeds of the past year,
followed by a communion service of a kind, implying
heaven's acceptance of the sacrifices and granting of
blessings for the future. The altar represented the dome
of heaven, where the supreme deity, called by the Chinese
" Old Grandfather Heaven," was approached. While
officiating there all things earthly were out of sight. This
ceremony was in the present century first conducted by
the then President of the Republic of China in the fifth
year of his presidency.
The Purple Forbidden City contains the imperial
palaces, parts of which are used for the Imperial Museum,
the residence of the young emperor and his family,
and for administrative and ceremonial purposes of
the Government. The Museum contains a unique col-
lection of artistic works of all ages and dynasties —
pictures, ceramics, cloisonne, lacquer, ivory and wood-
carvings, metal work and jewellery, clothing and armour.
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The value of these contents is estimated at seven millions
sterling.
The Summer Palace lies outside by the Hai Cheh
Men Gate, about seven miles from the city, and consists
of a group of palaces. Seen in detail, though there is
some beautiful marble work, they seem to be rather
dilapidated, but the general view from the K'un Ming
Lake is very effective. There is much bright-coloured
decoration, which distance subdues advantageously.
The Winter Palace lies around the North Lake to the
north-west of the Forbidden City, and the situation
rather than the buildings is attractive. In this group
is the temple Lui Tsu, dedicated to the Empress Hsi
Ling Shih, who lived 4,500 years ago, and introduced the
silk industry to China. As it was the emperor's duty to
lead his subjects in agriculture, so it was the duty of the
empress to set an example to the women of the nation
in the cultivation and manufacture of silk.
The Coal or Prospect Hill near here overlooks the
entire city, but the formalities necessary could not be
gone through in time for us to secure the permission
required. The Lama Temple is interesting as the head-
quarters of the Tibetan Buddhist Hierarchy. The
buildings originally formed the palace of the heir-apparent
to the throne, but about two hundred years ago were
presented to the Lamas by Emperor Ch'ien Lung. Since
then the temple has virtually been an embassy for
Tibet, the influence of which has been looked upon by
the Manchu dynasty as being of great value in Chinese
dealings with Mangolia and Tibet.
In close proximity are the Confucius buildings, entered
by an elaborate memorial archway, or p'ailou, one of the
handsomest in Pekin. The temple is dedicated to the
memory of K'ung Fa Tsu, a Chinese philosopher and
teacher of two thousand years ago, whose name is
westernised to Confucius. There are tablets epitomising
the essential precepts of the teacher, and these express
136
Pekin
an ideal which is equally applicable to eastern and
western life.
The Drum Tower is really a watch-tower from which
the hours were at one time announced, while the Chung
Lou or Bell Tower served the same purpose by a bell.
Pekin has possessed an observatory for at least six
hundred years, and undoubtedly from very early times
the Chinese have had a wonderful knowledge of the
heavens. Some of their old bronze instruments were
carried to Potsdam after the Boxer rising, but these have,
since the European war, been restored to Pekin.
There is a five-storied pagoda about a mile north-
west of Hsi Chih Men with a rather interesting history.
It was designed in the style of Indian architecture and
erected by the Chinese over five hundred years ago, to
house five gilded images of Buddha brought from Bengal
by a wealthy and pious Indian who lived in Pekin.
Such is hardly more than a catalogue of what we were
able to see in Pekin, but there are many other sights and
much on which more time could advantageously be spent.
There are innumerable temples and pagodas, many well
worth an examination. The p'ailous, or archways, on
the streets are frequent and no two alike. The very
traffic is so different from any other city that one can
easily absorb hours watching the pageant. Dusty,
scornful camels, vicious -looking mules, and scrubby-
looking horses wander alongside of Fords and Packhards.
The real living interest to westerns is Pekin itself and its
people. From end to end it is a seiies of busy workshops,
and the workmen to a great extent live there. Factories
in Pekin are as yet only a name. The occupations are
roughly located, the more skilled within the Imperial
City and the less skilled in the Chinese City. Generally
each class is grouped together, and it is well possible to
see the craftsmen at work on such work as cloisonne, red
carved lacquer, porcelain, metal work, and carpets.
Even such work as kingfisher feather jewellery, lanterns,
K 137
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fans, and artificial flowers have streets where the work-
shops are open to the public. Embroideries on mandarin
coats are all supposed to date back to empire days. The
merchants are practically all in one street, with queer back
passages leading to more and more living-places and
shops combined. The whole place has a growing fas-
cination and the people are likeable and interesting. We
could easily have spent as long again, and went on our way
hoping to return some day, but hardly confident that the
place will be the same.
138
XVIII.
Manila and Java.
FROM Shanghai we crossed to the Philippines by a
Japanese steamer, the Tenyo Maru. Most of the
third day out we sailed along the coast of Luzon,
with bold volcanic mountains and tropical vegetation
visible, and early the following morning we entered the
beautiful and well-sheltered Manila Bay and landed in
the modern city, with its open spaces and handsome
buildings. A very limited area is within what remains
of the old walls, but these are rapidly disappearing. The
names of streets, of course, are all Spanish and the
Roman Catholic religion remains. An occupation of
nearly four hundred years leaves its impress, although
the United States have, since 1898, done much for the
development of the islands, specially the education of
the children and the improvement of communication
within and between the islands. The population is
largely Filipinos, a much mixed race, Malay and
Mongolian prevailing, but European is there also. Their
main occupation is agriculture, though some industries,
such as hat-making and embroidery of locally-made
fabrics, are steadily increasing. There was some talk of
so-called political freedom and having the islands for
themselves, but they are a long way from being able to
go forward without the stronger and abler direction
which has produced the progress and prosperity of the
last ten years.
The well-known hill station, Baguio, is entirely the
creation of these years, and we enjoyed a long week-end
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there of delightful temperature, with some heavy rain
each afternoon but perfect mornings and forenoons.
There is here a population of about five thousand, largely
United States troops and their families. In this suitable
temperature there is a large production of vegetables
and flowers for the use of Manila. There are two good
motor roads from different points on the railway, which
serve the plains below, known as the Benguet and
Naguilian trails. Both are attractive, the former
penetrating valleys and latterly making a rapid ascent
to the high level, while the latter rises quickly and the
latter half of the way runs on ridges, which give mag-
nificent views of sea and land.
We regretted not seeing any other of the ports, and
inland only the part of Luzon Island between Manila
and Baguio. From what we saw there is no reason why
the trade of these islands with the outside world should
not expand even more rapidly in the future than it has
done in the last twenty years, during which it has
multiplied over six times.
From Singapore we set out for Java, the wonder
island of the east, about forty hours' sail south-east.
Batavia is the first place of call, but we went two days
farther to the eastern port, Sourabaya, during these days
seeing the island, with its background of volcanic
mountains, some of them constantly smoking, and its
foreground of rich vegetation, prominent among which is
the distinctive green of sugar-cane, with the great white
chimneys of the factories standing out like lighthouses.
On this island, equalling England in area, live 40,000,000
people, practically all on the land in small holdings.
The five large communities called cities do not, all told,
account for more than 1,000,000 of the people, and the
number employed on such industries as there are, is also
negligible. To all appearance the people are happy and
contented, and they certainly are fruitful and replenish
the earth, as obviously there is no birth-rate question
140
Manila and Java
there. Four-fifths of Java are said to be under culti-
vation and the remaining twenty per cent, is being trenched
upon. The ports are, even in the coldest time of the year,
extremely hot for Europeans. Our steamer called at
Semarang as well as Batavia. On landing we at once
made for the mountains, beginning with Tosari, 6,000 feet
up, to which we motored in three hours from Sourabaya.
From here we visited the Bromo and Sand Sea. Arriving
at the head of the Moengal Pass at daybreak, we saw the
mountains with the gradually increasing light of the
morning sun. An hour took us over the Sand Sea and
up the staircase, but the Bromo emitted so continuously
heavy volumes of smoke that the actual crater was never
once visible. The finest part of this excursion was
riding through the tjamara plantations, a feathery form
of pine tree, giving a grateful shade in the tropical sun.
After a few days at Tosari, where it rained heavily
each afternoon but was lovely in the early morning and
forenoon, we rode on to Nongkajadjar, ten miles away,
but 2,000 feet lower, and later motored to Poedjon,
farther west at about the same altitude, both very
pleasant centres, with bracing air. Then we had a long
motor run through the beautiful valley of the Kali
Konto to Ngantang and Kediri, from which we joined
the railway to Djokja.
At the eastern end of the island we passed through
many villages and saw the life there, which impressed us
as being well ordered with good sanitary conditions.
The centre of each village was the kentron, or village gong,
which was a hollowed tree trunk slightly open along one
side, like a C in outline, beaten by a wooden club. The
variations of sound are used to convey intimations to the
people or to call them to assemble under the head-
man, who represents law and order.
We had arrived now in the central part of the island,
which is much the most interesting historically. The
Kingdom of Mataram was here, with Djokja as capital.
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Though now Mahommedan, previous to the thirteenth
century Buddhism was the religion of Java, and the
remains, considerably injured by neglect and earth-
quakes, at Boroboedoer, Mendoet, and Prambannan are
all extraordinary examples of the patience and elaborate-
ness of Indian work. There are still a Sultan of Djokja
and of Solo, but their position is purely nominal and the
power is entirely in Dutch hands. This is the centre of
such industries as batok — that is printing hand-painted
calico, of which the design is marked off in wax to limit
the application of colour — and brass engraved work.
We made a day's railway journey to Garoet, the east-
most scenic centre of the western end of the island and
here visited Tjipannas (hot springs) (see 24, facing p. 129),
Leles, and Bagendit Lakes and the Kawah Mandoek Crater,
then passed on to Bandoeng, where we stayed at Lembang.
We were again up to 4,000 feet in lovely scenery, of which
the Tangkoeban Prahoe, a mountain and two craters
supposed to resemble in form an overturned vessel, is the
outstanding feature, and from there we went on to
Sindanglaya, a hill station from Batavia and Buitenzorg,
where there is a mountain section of the Botanic Gardens.
We drove by carriage over the Poentjak Pass by
Telaga Warna, a small crater lake situated in a large tea-
garden, down to Buitenzorg, famous for the well-known
and extensive Botanic Garden, said to be the best in the
east. It certainly is a wonderful forestry collection, and
as July is the nearest approach they can have here to
the dead of winter there were few flowers in evidence.
The Victoria Regia, or lotus flower, was in most beautiful
bloom, and that really is so most of the year. So ended
our visit to the garden island of the east, a vastly inter-
esting and memorably beautiful spot.
142
XIX.
Malaya.
THANKS to rubber, this outlying and comparatively
recent acquisition of Britain has become fairly
well known even to the man on the street. Our
holding of a considerable part can hardly be called
possession, but, in actual fact, we are responsible for and
control the administration of the Straits Settlements,
the Federated Malay States, and even the non-Federated
Malay States, which last are under British Protection.
The area of the whole peninsula, generally known as
Malaya, is equal to England, and the population is under
3,000,000, of whom only about 12,000, less than half
per cent., are Europeans.
There is little history, except the usual story of
internal wars, until Britain took hold one hundred years
ago and gradually introduced a settled government.
In 1819 Singapore was secured for Britain by agreement
with the then Sultan of Johore. Like many other
pioneers and statesmen of foresight beyond their fellows,
Sir Stamford Raffles, who carried through this trans-
action, was not in his lifetime appreciated, though now
he is amply recognised as the ideal hero and creator of
this Colony.
Singapore, the gateway of Malaya and meeting-place
of east and west, of north and south, is the most
fascinating city in the Eastern Hemisphere. On landing
there for the first time from Australia, early in 1921, we
could for a day or two do nothing but sit on the hotel
veranda looking at the endless moving picture of living
people of every Eastern and European race. It is said
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that twenty-six languages are daily spoken in Singapore.
On our drive to the hotel by motor from Tanjong Pagar
Dock, where we had landed, we met a continuous stream
of vehicles with passengers of all sorts and conditions.
Gharries, electric tramcars, and, above all, innumerable
rickshaws as well as motors fill up the roadway, and sorely
tax the efforts of the handsome Sikh policemen, who do
their best to control the traffic.
It certainly was hot in the sunshine, but considering
that we were only eighty miles north of the Equator it
was wonderfully bearable. Europeans are all the year
round suitably attired in white ducks and topees for the
men and the airiest of muslins for the women, while the
Orientals wear, as the Irishman put it, "As little as they
can avoid." The sea-front is laid out with plenty of
open spaces, cricket and football grounds are provided,
and the Government buildings, with a tall clock tower,
occupy the southern end of Raffles Plain and Reclamation,
as the open spaces are called. The Raffles Museum and
Library are on the way to the residential suburbs, which
lie on the higher ground back from the sea.
There are numerous markets in various parts. Along
the Beach Road the Chinese business quarter is passed,
the odours proclaiming it as dealing largely in dried fish,
after which a pleasant suburb is reached at Seaview.
There are tennis-courts everywhere and a race-course,
also used as a golf course, out east of Government House.
The railways are a State service and are well
organised. A main line runs from Singapore to Prai,
opposite the Island of Penang, which may be called the
back entrance to Malaya, and the line goes on northwards
through Kedah to Siam, with numerous branches to the
many ports and inland centres. The roads, of which
there are about 2,500 miles, form a network in all
directions ; they are well constructed and maintained,
and extensions are constantly being made. There is an
excellent service of steamers to State ports and those of
144
Malaya
neighbouring States by the Straits Steamship Company,
and in this climate no one would choose a hot and dusty
railway journey as against a comfortable, well-ordered
steamer, with cool sea breezes most of the year.
The provincial towns are quite a feature of Malaya.
Kuala Lumpur is a real garden city. The largest public
buildings, such as the railway station, administration
building, and the hotel, are handsomely planned, with
quite a distinctive note in their architecture. Smaller
towns, such as Ipoh, Taiping, and Kuala Kangsar also
do their designers credit, while Penang town and suburbs
form one of the most attractive pictures we have seen.
The two large products of Malaya are tin and rubber.
In all directions are open mining works, of which the
workers are almost all Chinese ; indeed, the smaller mines
are worked in old-fashioned methods of dredging by
Chinese on their own account, while larger concerns have
modern machinery, with Chinese workers under European
direction. The output of tin makes this the largest
source of supply of this metal in the world. Perak is the
State yielding the greatest quantity, and it has done so
from early times. The name means silver, and it is
supposed that the discoverers, as has frequently happened
elsewhere in the world, gave the name under a mis-
apprehension that the metal so visible was really silver.
Rubber plantations are everywhere. The profits
made from the early plantings were so great that every
acre possible has been put under rubber, and at the
present time there is such a glut in the supply and such
a slump in the price, that the whole peninsula is in helpless
despair. No doubt this situation will right itself. Costs
will be brought down and demand revive, but the powers
that be should learn the lesson and guide the planters to
suitable alternative crops, all of which would not suffer
simultaneous depression. The Philippines and Java have
a much greater range of output, and cannot be prostrated
by a slump on any one article. The plantations on the
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flatter ground become very monotonous, but farther north
the ground is undulating and has some really big
mountains of 5,000 to 7,000 feet high, which give feature
and make a very picturesque country. Some of these
have been utilised for hill stations, with footpaths up
to the bungalows, and no doubt motor roads will follow
and make it possible, as in Java, for Europeans to have
frequent changes to the hills. The lower, flatter ground
is liable to cause malaria ; but, again, the drainage of
swamps and construction of mosquito-proof houses will
in time, as in other parts of the world, eliminate this
danger.
The population of Malaya is made up of Malays about
one and a half, Chinese about a million, and Hindoos, or
Tamils as they really are, about a quarter of a million.
The real workers of the mines, as well as the plantations,
are the Chinese, and they do well. There are many very
well-to-do men in Singapore as well as in the country
centres ; indeed, the Chinaman generally does well away
from his own land. In Java, the Philippines, and Burmah
we came across many instances in which they were in
influential positions, wealthy and highly respected. The
workman is like some nearer home ; he has his relaxation
at the Chinese New Year time, about February ; it
takes the form of fireworks, and, if that way inclined,
getting too much drink. The Malays and Mohammedans
do not dissipate in that direction, but they also have a
weakness for fireworks. The Tamils had a great fire-
walking festival while we were in Perak, and had many
quaint religious ceremonies. The fire- walking was long
delayed — some wit said that they had got cold feet —
but eventually a space of about ten yards square was
covered with hot, charred wood, and eight or ten men
ran right across it. They are reputed to be gentle
workers, but honest and reliable. There is attachment to
their employers, and in general they are orderly and law-
abiding.
146
Malaya
This happy land used to be free of taxation, except the
export duty on produce, and even now it has hardly any
debt, as all the public works have been paid from revenue ;
but the war and less prosperous times have made an
income-tax necessary in the Straits Settlements, as well
as moderate taxes on spirits, tobacco, and petrol
collected throughout the peninsula. It is a well-governed
country and has had its good times, which will doubtless
come round again when the present overshadowings
have passed away.
XX.
Trade in the Far East.
THIS term is generally applied to the Malay
Peninsula and all lands to the east of it, and there
is appropriateness in the groupings, as there is a
certain homogeneity between China, Japan, the
Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, French Indo-China,
Siam, and Malaya. The population of these countries
is about one-third of that of the whole world, and over
half of that of Asia, while China herself, the country
among them least opened to outside trade, represents
about a quarter of the world's population. There is
large intercourse and much commerce between these
lands, and as manufactures develop that will inevitably
grow. Even Australasia has a place not fully occupied
in the supply of foods which the northern lands are not
suited to produce, as well as fruits grown in the reverse
seasons.
At any time notes by a mere visitor on such a large
proposition can do little more than give a very general
impression, and in the present circumstances of a world-
wide delayed but none the less accentuated slump, these
notes must be read with that reservation clearly in view.
The markets generally, owing to the large populations,
have enormous absorbing powers and conditions vary,
but there is a resiliency here which old countries, especially
those devastated by the Great War, cannot have.
Japan is a small country densely populated — she has
roughly the same area and population as Great Britain,
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86,000 square miles, with 38,000,000 people. Although
a military monarchy, it is the country most widely open
to western influences. Trading has been large, as Japan
secured much business during the war which Europe was
unable to attend to. Native merchants, when the
slump came, were heavily committed at high prices,
but there will be a rapid recovery. The increasing
momentum of the tendency towards European mode of
life is creating demand. Japan's agriculture is almost
wholly absorbed in supplying the needs of her people,
but much attention is being given to the manufacture of
goods for export, largely silk and cotton textures, although
other products, such as lacquer ware, pottery, and art
fabrics, are becoming important. The main factor for
the future is honest delivery to sample. If Japan amends
her ways in this respect she will become a great manu-
facturing nation.
China, nominally a republic, but really dominated by
various adventurers with troops at their command, is
only now beginning to open out to commerce. Though
the population of the country is large — the latest well-
grounded estimates place it at about 400,000,000 — so is
the area of the country, which is about 2,000,000 square
miles, and it is in the main very poorly off for transport
and communications. There can be no large progress
until the Government is under one control and has the
confidence of the people. The collection of customs is
under a European Commission. The income from this
source should be ample for all but large capital outlays.
These should be met by loans, and the people have means,
but will not lend these, as they distrust the integrity and
ability of the Governments. Proportionately, the native
traders had light commitments in the slump, and the
extension of trade by better internal distributing
facilities is what home manufacturers should keep a
watchful eye upon. The customs figures for 1920 show
large and rapid expansion, hardly checked by the slump.
150
Trade in the Far East
There is quite a steady capital outlay in machinery for
low-grade cotton manufacture, the product of which will
easily be absorbed without affecting imports of the
European article. Britain, if her resources and facilities
for the execution of large machinery installations were
better known to the Chinese, would be in a more
advantageous position for securing her share of orders
for what will certainly be required in the near future.
A scheme whereby Chinese students would be induced to
study in British technical colleges and workshops would
amply repay itself in days to come. The U.S.A. has just
arranged that their share of the Boxer indemnity will be
entirely devoted to this purpose, and it will prove a
splendid investment.
The Philippine Islands brings us for the first time in
contact with Spain's early enterprise as colonists, so
prominent in the Western Hemisphere, and here, as there,
it is past history. Under United States guidance a large
export of produce has been developed. Sugar is probably
produced here at a lower cost than anywhere in the world,
but these islands are by no means limited to one or two
articles of produce. Hemp is outstandingly, over a
period of years, the big article of export. Coco-nut oil
runs it closely, while sugar by its inflated value in war
years has taken the prominent place. Tobacco and
copra are large items. The variety of produce is great,
and the Government of the country has wisely guided
the introduction of suitable new growths. In twenty
years the volume of trading with the outside world has
multiplied over six times, and the growth of imports has
closely followed exports. The spending power of the
population shows a steady growth, and there is here a
large and growing market for machinery and textiles.
The total area of these islands is 115,000 square miles,
and the latest census gives a population of 9,000,000.
Naturally, the United States have a predominant position,
but Britain has always held and retains an important
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place. Japan, from her proximity, is taking a good share
in both export and import trade.
The Dutch East Indies are the islands of the Malay
Archipelago, of which Java is the most valuable possession,
and carries the bulk of the population. Although the
area of Java is practically equal to England, the
population is about 40,000,000, while Sumatra, Celebes,
and Borneo have about 440,000 square miles, and a total
population of 9,000,000. The minor islands, with
242,000 square miles, have 3,000,000 of a population.
The Dutch are older colonists than we are, and preceded
us in the holding of Ceylon and the Cape, and their record
is a good one, with Java as the most advanced example.
At the present time she is hit by the big drop in the value
of her produce much more than by excessive purchases
at high prices. Her cost of production is low and she
will rapidly recover. The figures for 1919, which, of
course, are inflated by the war value of sugar, show an
export of 1,400,000,000 guilders — more than half of
which is sugar — but coffee, rubber, vegetable oils, tobacco,
tin, tea, copra, quinine, and spices, in order named, show
quite important amounts, while her imports are
420,000,000 guilders, of which the large items are textiles
and iron and machinery. A community which exports
three and a half times the amount of its imports is in an
enviable position.
French Indo-China was not visited, but may be
included in a review. Here is one of France's oldest
colonies, a country of 280,000 square miles and
18,000,000 people, wholly occupied in agriculture. Her
export is mainly rice, and she imports textiles largely,
the totals following each other closely with a margin of
about twelve and a half per cent, greater exports than
imports.
Siam is the sole instance in the East of an independent
community without constitution ruled successfully as an
absolute monarchy. It has an area of 200,000 square
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Trade in the Far East
miles and 8,500,000 inhabitants, and is also occupied
mainly in agriculture. The principal exports are rice
and timber.
Last, we come to Malaya, including the Federated
and non-Federated as well as the independent States,
altogether an area of 52,500 square miles, with 2,700,000
of population.
Being a free port, Singapore ranks high in the world's
records for its outward and inward tonnage. Its figures
of purely peninsular exports and imports it is rather
difficult to obtain, but undoubtedly tin and rubber are
far and away the large articles of produce, while textiles,
beverages, oil, coal, and iron utensils and machinery are
the main imports. The trade for the population normally
is very large, being in 1918 about 170,000,000 sterling.
The simultaneous slump in the two main articles has
hit Malaya hard. Tin shows signs of recovery, but in
rubber it will be necessary to so control production that
the output may be sold without actual loss, and in
the long run to so reduce the cost of production as
to compete with any other country growing rubber.
There must also be a greater variety of suitable produce
introduced by planters. The success with rubber came
too easily, and the best result the present depression
can have will be compelling attention to economy of
production.
Trade in the Far East is only at its beginning, and
generations of Britons yet to come may, if they wish it,
develop what will make the progress of the last fifty
years look small by comparison.
153
XXI.
Burma and Ceylon.
(a) BURMA.
THESE are really, as regards situation and population,
outlying parts of India, but from the different
circumstances of their coming under British power,
Burma is administered as a province of India under that
department, and Ceylon as Crown Colony under the
Colonial Office. Both countries impress a visitor as being
more prosperous and contented than India proper, and
the people, especially in Burma, have a buoyancy and
cheerfulness which are not evident in the larger and
older possession. We visited Burma in February, a
good time of the year for weather. The approach to the
Delta-land of the Irrawaddy and to Rangoon naturally
is very featureless, but a long way down the river the huge
gilded cone of the Shwe Dagon (pronounced Shway
Dag-own) Pagoda comes into view and remains the
dominant feature, and is constantly so in Rangoon, the
bright and crowded present capital of Burma. It is an
outstanding instance of a rapidly-formed port, entirely
the outcome of the opening to trading of a conservative
and isolated country, having been seventy years ago
only a small fishing village ; and now, with a population
of over 300,000, it has become the third Indian port in
point of volume of trade.
Burma has had many capitals, mostly inland, and well
up in the fertile and closely populated part of the land,
and her history was, like most Eastern countries, one of
feuds, raids, and general unsett lenient until Britain took
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hold. Communications are more by water than rail,
there being in addition to the Irrawaddy other four large
rivers. There are also now several main lines of railway
within Burma, but not having any external connections.
Rangoon, Moulmein, and Bassein are linked, and there
is a trunk line from Rangoon almost to the northern
boundary.
There is a population of over 12,000,000 to an area
of 262,000 square miles, so the country is far from being
over populated. The large exports are rice, timber, and
oil, while the imports are generally textiles and iron work,
and the country is in the prosperous position of usually
exporting a value much in excess of that of the imports.
There is much that is novel to the visitor in Rangoon.
The brilliant colours of the garments worn by both sexes
make the streets a perfect kaleidoscope. There are tram-
cars used almost entirely by natives. The customs as
regards public conveyances of the various eastern
communities of Europeans are curious. In Singapore
rickshaws are used by all classes. In Rangoon tram-
cars and rickshaws are unusual. It is infra dig. to use a
clean rickshaw or tikka gharry, while any dirty thing
propelled by petrol is quite all right.
A most interesting visit can be paid to the teak yards,
where the handling is mostly done by teams of elephants
working in concert. A beginning has been made in the
timber yards of doing this work by power, the logs being
taken from the river by running platforms driven by
electricity and brought right up to the saws.
The other big industries of Rangoon are rice milling,
there being over one hundred and fifty factories, and at
Syriam, across the river, the earliest European settlement
in Burma made by the Portuguese, large oil works owned
like the Irrawaddy Flotilla in Scotland.
Throughout Burma the Scottish element is prominent
in industry and commerce, the legend " Incorporated in
Scotland " being of frequent occurrence in Rangoon.
156
Burma and Ceylon
In the neighbourhood there are many good drives,
that round the Royal Lake being the fashionable outing
after the hottest of the day is over. In the good resi-
dential quarter there are palatial mansions owned by
Chinamen, who take a good share in the commerce of the
city. Burma abounds in pagodas, and a good Scottish
Presbyterian assured us that the expenditure on their
religion far exceeds relatively that of any white race on
Christianity. At the time of our visit an edict had come
from India forbidding the admission to the Shwe Dagon
of Europeans wearing coverings to their feet, the practice
having previously been that Europeans should show
respect for the sacred place in their usual fashion of
uncovering the head. We were content to see the exterior,
having ample opportunity of seeing the interior of other
large pagodas in the upper country. Usually the pagodas
have no interior ; the thousands which one sees in
journeying by railway and steamer are of solid masonry.
It is only the large and historic buildings, kept up by
visitors from Burma and beyond, at Pegu the Shweh-
mandau, at Prome the Shwesandau, and at Mandalay the
Arakan, which have large surroundings for the sale of
merchandise of all kinds to the pilgrims, and small shrines
right in the innermost parts, generally with reputed
fragments of Buddha's body.
We took a railway journey by night to Katha, the
point farthest north where one can get steamer to
Bhamo, the highest navigable point on the Irrawaddy,
and were able to see the most picturesque second defile
late in the afternoon before landing. Comfortable
sleeping accommodation and good food are available on
the steamers in port as well as while steaming. The
banks and beyond are densely covered by good timber,
and we were constantly meeting huge rafts, on which the
lumbermen had quite good houses for the long journey
down to the ports. Brightness was given to this land-
scape by frequent isolated trees or groups of what is here
157
Zig-Zagging Round the World
called " Flame of the Forest," very much like an acacia
we had seen largely in Honolulu, there called Ponciana
Regia.
On landing in Bhamo one instantly realised how close
we were to China, the people, called Kachins and Shans,
having flat features, and indeed many are genuine
Chinese, the frontier of their land being only thirty miles
away. There is a regular caravan route to the Chinese
province of Yunnan, silk and fruit being large articles
of import, while in return Burmese produce is carried to
China. The most interesting building in the town is a
Chinese joss-house, and there are also cantonments and
clubs in an old Burman fort for the British troops holding
the frontier. We returned to Katha by steamer, but had
from there to go on by rail to Mandalay as the river was
too low for navigation.
Mandalay we found exceedingly interesting, as King
Thibau's forts and palaces were all in good preservation ,
although constructed mainly of teak, plentifully gilded.
The front wall is of red brick, and on the outside of it
there is a moat seventy-five yards in width, constantly
filled. The Queen's Golden Monastery is a most elabor-
ately carved and decorated building, occupied by Burmese
priests, called pongyi. There is an extensive market
in Mandalay, the Zegyo bazaar, where all kinds of
goods and foods are sold, and where one can see that
women take the leading place in the conduct of commerce.
The silk-weaving industry of Burma, with materials
brought over the hills from China, is largely carried on
near Mandalay at Amarapura. There are said to be
five thousand weavers, and it was interesting to see many
houses with looms accommodated in outhouses open to
the air, with that exception much like Scottish lowland
villages in the hand-loom weaving days of last century.
They had also a weaving school under Government
where power looms are set up, and their operation is
being taught with a view to the construction later of a
158
Burma and Ceylon
factory. The other industry of this place is the manu-
facture of stone and marble images of Buddha, which
are turned out by the hundred and shipped to all over
the Far East.
On the road back to Mandalay we visited the great
Arakan Pagoda, and were able to see it completely. It
covers as great an area as the Shwe Dagon, and has many
thousands of visitors throughout the year, being regarded
by Upper Burmans as not inferior in sanctity to the great
Rangoon building. Three days sailing by day only, the
steamer tying-up at suitable places as night comes, took
us back to Prome. The various growths, rice easily the
largest product, but cotton and ground nuts are quite
considerable, can be well seen from the upper deck of the
steamer. The officers and crew are on a lower deck,
leaving a well-elevated space and uninterrupted view for
the passengers.
At Pagan (pronounced pah-gan), an early capital,
there are about twenty miles of ruins, mainly pagodos.
The oil deposits are in the neighbourhood of a place
rejoicing in the unharmonious name of Yenangyaung,
from which over 200,000,000 gallons are annually raised
and sent down by pipe line to Rangoon. There are many
factories for pressing the oil from ground nuts, and much
of this product finds its way to Italy, the largest
producer of olive oil. There is a special lacquer ware
produced here, the lac basis of which is found in the
forests bordering on the river. The rail journey from
Prome to Rangoon we made by night. The accom-
modation is not very luxurious and the line very rough.
In Burma we had our first experience of a " bearer " as
servant to attend to us, make up our beds, and look after
our baggage, an arrangement which is general all over
India and is quite a necessity.
As we sailed down the river, clouds gathered for the
first time in our five weeks' sojourn in Burma, and we saw,
but escaped, the much-needed rain. We enjoyed every
159
Zig-Zagging Round the World
hour in this fascinating land, where there is equality of the
sexes even as regards the large cigars consumed by man,
woman, and child.
(b) CEYLON.
CEYLON is remarkable even among tropical lands for its
great physical beauty, caused by its bold mountainous
formation and well-conserved rainfall. The southern
half of the island rises steadily from the sea to over
8,000 feet, and the principal mountain resort, Nuwara
Eliya (pronounced as one word, Newraylia), stands at 6,200
feet above the sea. There is a constant supply of water
in most of the rivers and streams which rise in these
mountains, and the country is well-wooded, besides being
now largely planted by tea on the higher and rubber on
the lower land.
We arrived at Colombo from Penang, whence we had
come very comfortably and remarkably steadily by motor
steamer of the Glen Line, owned in Glasgow. We were
at once impressed by the elaborate breakwaters, which
were of heavy masonry and must have involved large
outlay. On landing in the city one gets a first impression
of a densely-populated place, as the buildings are high
and concentrated, but that congestion applies only to a
limited area, as the suburbs are widely spread out and
interspersed with many open spaces. The Galle Face
Hotel is about a mile out, right on the sea, and looks on
the Galle Face esplanade, practically park ground all the
way from the city proper. Several public buildings,
including the Colombo Club, face this open space.
In going round the city one is promptly reminded that
we are comparatively late-comers to Ceylon, as the
Portuguese held the coast parts of the island over four
hundred years ago for about one hundred and fifty years ;
the Dutch thereafter till about the end of the eighteenth
century, when the British took over from them, adding
160
Burma and Ceylon
twenty years later the mountainous district of the island,
including the Kandyan kingdom, thus bringing the entire
island under British rule. In the Pettah or native town
district there is an old Dutch belfry near the market-
place, and also Wolfendahl Street, leading to a large
old church of the same name, where there are many
monuments and tablets recording the services of Dutch
officials.
A favourite afternoon drive of Colombo residents is
to Mount Lavinia, a slightly elevated rocky point on the
beach about seven miles south. The ideal way to see
the interior of Ceylon is by motor ; the roads are good
and every mile of the way is picturesque. We began by
visiting some rubber and tea-plantations on the southern
and lower slopes of the mountainous country. The
whole road was through beautiful, wooded landscape,
Kaduwella and Avisawella were choice spots on the way
to Ratnapura, which means " gem town," that being
the centre of a district the gravel beds of which, on
washing, yield sapphires, topazes, and cats-eyes ;
plumbago is also mined in this neighbourhood. Here we
visited a tea and rubber estate interplanted, and already
the growth of the rubber seriously overshadowed the tea,
and to an ignorant layman that seemed only to indicate
how much more serious was the underground interference
of the big and dominant trees with the small and delicate
tea shrubs.
We passed on, and spent the night at another rubber
and tea-plantation where the growths are separated,
and if all plantation bungalows are equally comfortable,
the planter's life has extremely pleasant conditions.
Here were beautiful surroundings, lovely flower and rock
gardens, and every possible comfort ; a good water
supply and electric light. The growths seemed much
more satisfactory ; each was planted on an aspect of
land considered most suitable, and in the factory we were
initiated into the mysteries of the many different
161
Zig-Zagging Round the World
qualities of tea being produced from one plant and from
one picking of that plant. The road proceeds by
Heldummula and Haputale, rising steadily to about
5,000 feet, with magnificent views southwards over the
broad plain, which extends right to the sea, and
traversing a small plateau of lower level than the ridge,
Bandarawella, about 4,000 feet above the sea, is reached.
This is claimed to be the most equable climate in Ceylon,
and is really a favourite mountain resort for Colombo
residents, with a hill station for European troops.
We proceeded next day by Welimada, rising rapidly
to Nuwara Eliya, passing on the way the small Hakgala
Botanic Garden, a subsidiary of the large Peradeniya
Gardens near Kandy. The reputation of Nuwara Eliya
is well deserved. It is well spread out, with no idea of
crowding, as every house has extensive grounds and there
are many good roads, well-planned drives, and a golf
course of eighteen holes, kept in good condition and much
played upon. On leaving for Kandy, we passed right
through Dimbula Valley, a great tract of beautiful land
almost wholly covered by tea, the finest of which is
produced on these high lands between 4,000 and 6,000
feet above the sea. We stopped at one garden for tiffin
in a delightful bungalow, and at another for tea, where
the bungalow had surroundings of beautiful lawns,
garden, and orchards, and continued our way right on
to Kandy by Nawalpitiya and Gampola.
Here we were right back to crowded humanity, a
teeming population in closely-set houses. We visited
yet another garden a few miles from Kandy, where very
high-class tea is produced, and the manager was good
enough to pass us on to the curator of Peradeniya Botanic
Gardens, who made our visit there extremely interesting.
He demonstrated that the reputation of Ceylon in our
children's missionary hymn was well founded, as we there
saw and smelt every spicy growth we had ever heard of
and many others which were unknown to us. The
162
Burma and Ceylon
Temple of the Tooth, said to be Buddha's, is a show-place
in Kandy, but the tooth has to be imagined, as it is not
on view. It is described as two inches long and under
one in diameter, hardly a likely article ever to have been
in the mouth of a human being.
In the Mahaweli gunga, about two miles out of Kandy,
we saw the sacred elephants bathing, and here also, as
well as between Kandy and Matale, we saw many cacao
plantations, the large red pods of which make a beautiful
show by the roadsides. The beans from these afford
cocoa and chocolate, also largely grown in the West
Indies. This finished our visiting of modern Ceylon, and
our next experience of seeing, in these days, what Ceylon
of two thousand years ago was like proved extraordinarily
interesting, and has been dealt with in a separate
chapter.
We returned to Colombo by Puttalam and from there,
along the west coast of the island, which is almost wholly
in coco palm plantations, the produce of which is prepared
into copra and cocoanut-oil and shipped largely to
Britain.
Ceylon has learnt the lesson of fifty years ago, at
which time the main product of the island was coffee,
but a new fungus then attacked the plants, and within
ten years their main industry was gone and ruin faced
the planters. Now there are produced tea, rubber,
coco-nuts, cacao, and spices, and no danger of the
recurrence of a similar calamity, as insect and vegetable
enemies are eagerly watched by a capable scientific
staff.
This junction-place of eastern and southern passage
has much to interest travellers and to benefit health-
seekers, and the facilities and accommodation provided
compare very favourably with that of any other part
of the Orient.
XXII.
The Buried Cities of Ceylon.
ONE of the many extraneous services rendered from
time to time by the Indian and Colonial Civil
Services was, nearly a hundred years ago, per-
formed by George Turnour, who translated into English
a record of Cingalese history from about 500 B.C., written
in the fifth century A.D. by a Buddhist priest, and called
the Mahanama. This history is curiously confirmed and
amplified by the ^wonderful remains at Anaradhapura
Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, which have during recent
years been gradually freed from the coverings which
have kept them in such marvellous preservation. There
is yet much to do in this way.
In our three days' stay we saw in succession
Polonnaruwa, Mihintale, and Anaradhapura, the two last
parts of one large capital city, sixteen miles square, of
2,300 years back, the first a capital of much later date,
probably about eight hundred years ago. These, along
with some smaller places which we did not visit, are
known as the " Buried Cities of Ceylon," and there is
quite an extensive literature on the subject. Most of
the ruins, reached by a paved stairway, at Mihintale are
on the hill around Mahinda's bed and tomb in the
Ambasthale Dagoba adjoining. He lived about 300 B.C.,
and was the son of King Asoka, Emperor of India. He
became the apostle of Buddhism from India to Ceylon,
where Dewanampia Tissa was king. They were great
builders in those days, and much of their bunding remains
Zig-Zagging Round the World
though the lapse of unheeding centuries had put them
many feet under the present surface. Under skilled
guidance, before the war, work was proceeding in removing
this covering, and, though then interrupted, has now been
resumed, so each year progress is being made in clearing
the outlines of this great city of pre-Christian times.
Brick and wood parts have all gone, but granite remains,
and of this many of the important parts, and especially
the decorative parts, of the structures were made. The
term " moonstones " is applied to the large semi-circular
base steps of stairways, and there are many of these
exposed now, with beautiful concentric rings of carving
of animals in succession, usually elephant, horse, bullock,
and lion ; of geese in flight, of acanthus or lotus flower,
with a centre of lotus leaf. The condition of these and
the other sculptured parts is wonderful, and the per-
fection of forms and workmanship is still more so.
There are at Anaradhapura three great dagobas —
Kuanweli, Abhayagiri, and Jetawanarama — enormous
mounds of brick and earth now overgrown by vegetation,
which form prominent features in the wooded landscape.
There are also two tanks or reservoirs, which enhance the
beauty of the scene. The main interest centres round the
Sacred Bo Tree (see 73, facing p. 186), believed to be 2,200
years old, and the Lohopasada or Brazen Palace, of which
only sixteen hundred upholding granite pillars remain.
Thupurama is a masonry pagoda with many elaborately-
carved structures around it. The king's palace and
elephant stables are near this. All the names given are
arbitrary and tentative, as only a fraction of the area
of a city like the present London has been unearthed,
and the walls of most of the prominent buildings are
yet to discover.
At Polonnaruwa there are some large structures which
need no excavation, particularly the Thupurama Temple.
From the underground parts a sitting and a sleeping
Buddha, with guardian, have been cleared, but on the
166
The Buried Cities of Ceylon
day of our visit the light was difficult and only dim
pictures were possible.
What is already visible is of extraordinary interest,
but successive years will steadily increase the attraction
of this chapter of long past history.
iby
XXIII.
India.
WE entered India by the unusual route for tourists
from Talai Manaar at the north end of Ceylon
to Dharushkodi, where the land connection with
India is so nearly continuous that it is planned, and no
doubt will be carried out, to have a causeway with a
railway from the island to the mainland. The journey
is mostly through featureless country with occasional
hills, but it is a land teeming with historical associations
and old Hindu temples.
There are many indications that here, as more or
less throughout India, the air is filled by the spirits of the
millions whose lives have made the present India. We
were now passing through the region where Britain
unconsciously began her contact with the land, the story
of her influence on which was to form one of the most
fascinating pages of human history.
Madura, Trichinopoly, and Tan j ore are full of interest
to the archaeological student. We passed right on to
Madras, the earliest municipal corporation in India, and
a city of wide roadways and large open spaces, with a
fine harbour. There is a population of over half a million,
mostly Hindus, a considerable amount of industry, and
a steadily increasing commerce by sea. Proceeding by
rail to Calcutta, we made our first journey on wide-
gauge railway, over one thousand miles in about forty
hours. At Godavari, over a river of the same name,
there was a bridge about one and a half miles long in
fifty-six spans. On this journey there was a pleasing
M 169
Zig-Zagging Round the World
and wholly unexpected greenness over the landscape,
largely from paddy-fields. In the neighbourhood of
Vizianagram we first saw what is a familiar sight nearer
Calcutta, fields of ripe jute, which 13 an attractive feature
in the landscape, the stems being of a red-brown colour
with small white flowers. The spinning and weaving of
this product, on a small scale in this quarter, is the large
industry of Bengal.
Landing in Calcutta at Howrah on the right bank of
the Hooghly, the first impression of the late capital, and
the newest of India's large cities, is not favourable, but,
on crossing the pontoon bridge to the left bank and getting
through the maze of narrow streets to Dalhousie Square,
the impression of handsome structures and open spaces
is received, and on reaching the Maidan, with its surround-
ing public and private buildings and ample roadways,
it is felt that here is something really worthy of a city
with over a million inhabitants and an enormous trading
intercourse with the whole world. The history of
Calcutta is, for Indian cities, a brief one, as before the
British occupancy it did not exist. Jute and tea are the
two products on which Calcutta depends and her imports
are largely British manufactures, for which she is the
convenient entry port for a large internal distribution.
The residential parts of Calcutta have mostly spacious
grounds around the houses, and only four miles out we
saw golf played on greens as well grown as any inland
home course.
There are in the business circles here about as large a
proportion of Scottish men and women as we had found
in Rangoon, and life appeared to be very congenial in
the cold weather months.
The nearest resort for hot weather is Darjeeling, which
we reached by an overnight journey on three different
gauges, the last of which, twenty-four inches, rises to
about 7,000 feet in full view of the Himalayas, with
Kinchinjanga right opposite, and Mount Everest, over
170
Jl
57 — DUSASSWAMEDH GHAT, BENARES.
'..ff* f ' ' • j ' '!
, , f* ^ ^wii*t'A ^
58— PUNCH GUNGA BENI NADNO GHAT, BENARES.
59— PRAMBANNAN. DJOKJAKARTA, JAVA.
60— INTERIOR DARGAH MOSQUE, FATEPUR SIKRI.
India
.-29,000 feet, visible from Tiger Hill. To go there involved
getting out of bed at 2 a.m., and reaching the summit
while the sky had only star-light, but that of a brilliancy
unknown in our land or even on the Indian plains ; then
slowly the eastern sky lightened and the stars paled.
Before the sun was visible the tips of Kinchin janga
became touched with rosy light, then the sun broke the
horizon line and showed on the tips of Everest and the
two neighbouring mountains, and very quickly there-
after we had the full light of glorious day. We were
simply rewarded for our early start by a remarkably fine
display and a perfect view of the world's highest tip on
•earth's highest mountain.
The whole surroundings of Darjeeling are agreeable.
Tea-gardens come quite close to the residences, and give
employment to about 50,000 coolies. The population
outside of European visitors is of very varied hill races,
who attend the week-end markets in picturesque, highly-
coloured costumes.
Returning to Calcutta, instead of taking a cross-
country journey, we started from there direct to Benares,
beginning a round of the historic cities of the United
Provinces. Some visitors to India select a few cities
.and take these as being representative of India. No two
places we saw in any way resembled each other, and
though we spent four months there, and travelled over
three thousand miles, seeing twenty cities and as many
villages, our first-hand knowledge of India does not cover
one-twentieth part of the country.
Benares is called the religious capital of India, and the
feature of the place is the ghats or masonry stair-banks,
which afford approaches to the sacred River Ganges.
There are about twenty of these. At all times they have
many pilgrims bathing from the steps, but iat certain
phases of the moon, and at other special festival times,
there are multitudes by hundreds of thousands, not only
bathing, but making on foot the Panch Kosi pilgrimage
171
Zig'Zagging Round the World
of thirty-six miles, usually occupying six days, around the
sacred city. The interior of Benares can hardly be called
clean and the roadways are mostly narrow lanes.
Workers in the main industry of ornamental brasswork
are producing much inferior work, and the brocades and
embroideries are also inferior to those of earlier days.
It was exceedingly interesting to stand alongside the hand-
looms producing elaborate designs with most primitive
mechanism, jacquard machines not yet having been
adopted here. Benares has a reputation as a place of
learning, and the new university, now in course of building
on two square miles of land gifted by the Maharajah,
promises to be one of the most important centres of
education in India. The mechanical section, now open,
is splendidly equipped and already thronged by students.
At Sarnath, where Buddha first preached, there are
many Hindu shrines and a museum containing, among,
other sculptures, an Asoka sandstone column, with
Gupta transcription of one of his edicts. At Queen's
College there is erected another monolith with similar
inscription, which was found near Ghazipur. A few miles-
out the Maharajah has a palace and fort at Ramnagar,
the most attractive feature of which is its situation above
a fine ghat, overlooking the river front at Benares.
From here we visited Jaunpur, one of the quaintest
places in India, its main attraction being a stone bridge
over the Gumti, with sixteen spans and shops con-
tinuously on each side of the roadway. At the south end
is a gigantic stone lion as guardian of the bridge. There
are many fine mosques here, especially the Jami Musjid,
erected about five hundred years ago, soon after the
place was founded, by Firoz Shah in memory of his
predecessor, Juna Khan or Mohammed Bui Tulak.
Our next visit was to Lucknow, the place of pre-
ponderating interest in the Mutiny story. The city is
cleaner than Benares and has good wide roads, but the
depth of dust, even in the parks, is unbelievable. There
172
India
are no important industries and the public buildings are
not impressive, either as regards their architecture or
construction. For India, it has only a short history,
about two hundred years, and but for the associations
with its distinguished defenders and the relief forces, the
buildings which one views with such pathetic interest—
the Residency, Dilkusha, Martiniere, and Alambagh, —
would be little regarded. The Jami Musjid is easily the
most impressive building in Lucknow, being placed on a
prominent site, with boldly-designed domes and minarets.
Cawnpore has also tragic memories of heroic but
costly defence and a capitulation to Nana Sahib, which
was even more tragic because of his dastardly treachery.
The memorials in Cawnpore are most carefully preserved,
and their concentration facilitates a mental recon-
struction of the events. Cawnpore is quite the most
progressive industrial city in India. There are large
textile factories, well equipped with modern machinery,
as well as great tanneries and factories making up their
product for home distribution and export. There are
here also technical schools and an agricultural college,
with an extensive Government experimental farm.
The administrative centre of the United Provinces is
at present Allahabad, and it is laid out on such ample
lines, covering such a large area, that it gives one the
impression of being an ideal garden city. Even business
premises are usually great bungalows with surrounding
gardens. The well-known Pioneer newspaper has an
establishment more like the residence of a prosperous
merchant than our home idea of what is suitable for the
direction and issue of an influential daily paper. The
city's history goes back over two thousand years, and the
fort built by Akbar is a most interesting group of
buildings, including an Asoka Pillar, the Akshai Bat, or
undying banyan tree, and a much-pillared zenana
building underground. The Tribeni Ghat marks the
confluence of Ganges, Jumna, and Saraswati, and this
173
Zig-Zagging Round the World
is the scene of what is now, and has been held from time
immemorial, a great religious fair called the Magh Mela.
We now left the cities, and made our way to a small
station in the Bundelkhand district, called Karwi or
Karwi Tarawhan. The name is sometimes spelt Kirwee,
but always pronounced Kurwi. Here we were living
with the magistrate's household, first in a bungalow and
later, for three weeks, in a travelling camp around the
district. This gave an opportunity of coming in close
contact with real Indian life practically away from other
Europeans. In the immediate neighbourhood of Karwi
is Chitrakot, a great place of pilgrimage for devout
Hindus, as it is said to be where Sita Rama and Laksdman
came to live after their exile from Ajudhia. There is a
dilapidated temple, known as the Ganesh Bagh, and the
ruins of the large Bara Palace, in which, after the Mutiny,
a famous treasure was kept, known as the Karwi and
Banda prize money. Here the Peshwa had lived in
great state, but the present representative is a ward of
the magistrate, and his means are so attenuated that
these possessions cannot even be kept in repair. At
Karwi we saw day by day the village life under its-
Lumbardar (headman) and Panchiat (council of five),
and its revenue collection under the Tehsildar, also the
courts with chuprassis (officers) and chaukidars
(policemen). At one of the stopping -places, when on
tour, there was an old fort, with moat and dungeons very
like many of the castles in the West Highlands of
Scotland.
At another place the arrival of the Prince of Wales
in the province was celebrated by a gathering in the
evening, to which the magistrate and his party were
invited. After dark, a group of men from the village,
with torches, escorted us on an elephant from camp to
an enclosure marked off by torches, and our arrival was
the signal for a salvo of guns, after which the headman
spoke a welcome and an old poet recited his composition
174
India
of many verses. There was a distribution of food to the
poor and sweets to the children of the school, who then
sang several pieces. More singing and speeches followed,
and the magistrate concluded the proceedings by a lengthy
speech, in which he took occasion to tell much as to the
Prince and his journey to see for himself the peoples of
India and his great desire to know thoroughly all about
them. A most loyal gathering concluded by the usual
anthems, and from beginning to end it was a well-managed
show. The people know how to do that kind of thing.
Most of these camps were in well-chosen groves of
mango trees, and incidentally there were many oppor-
tunities of seeing the beasts of the fields and the fowls
of the air. Our camp was moved every three or four days
eight or ten miles, the move mainly taking place in the
cool night, except the sleeping-tents. Camels and a few
bullock carts carried the baggage, and the party moved
between chota hazri and breakfast, the magistrate and
his mem-sahib on horses often diverging to inspect a
school, office, or pound ; the burra sahib and burra mem-
sahib, with the baby on an elephant and the other live
stock, including a cow and calf, a dog and two puppies,
and three baby camels, by road or on wagons. The
family was increased by one baby camel, which when two
hours old tried to walk like its seniors. The camp was
pitched for breakfast, and the sleeping tents arrived and
were put up in the afternoon. It is an interesting and
healthy life and undoubtedly beneficial to the Govern-
ment, as the courts held are only a small part of the work.
All kinds of questions as to roads, property, schools, and
other public buildings are dealt with satisfactorily by the
magistrate on the spot. These country people look to
the powers-that-be with the reverence of children, and
respect a sensible practical decision of their affairs.
We started westwards before Christmas, spending a
night at Jhansi, the capital of Bundelkhand, on the way
to Gwalior, where we were to pass the holidays, living in
Zig-Zagging Round the World
the Maharajah's guest-house, giving us our first experience
of a great native State. We were welcomed by a young
Rajput in an A.D.C. smart uniform, and quickly found
ourselves quite at home. The Maharajah's secretary
was a medical who had qualified in Edinburgh, his old
tutor was a good Scot, now retired, who had come out for
the cold weather to India, and he acted as host, while
the majority of the other guests were young officers
from the Renown, then lying at Bombay, among whom
was Prince Charles of Belgium, a young midshipman,
who had been educated at Eton and spoke English
without a trace of an accent. The whole staff of servants
at the guest-house were in a brightly-coloured uniform,
in colours not unlike the beefeaters at the Tower, even to
the head-dress. We spent Christmas there, and had our
turkey and plum-pudding, with the usual accompaniments,
regardless of the temperature. The Maharajah holds a
leading place among native princes, being highly educated
and determined to have his State in the forefront, but he
does not spare himself, as he is said to work fourteen
hours per day. There are many State enterprises,
including several light railways, mechanical workshops,
boot and saddlery factory, and a pottery, also an
agricultural college. The Maharajah's palace is quite
modern and furnished on western lines. The Prince of
Wales' visit was yet to come, and the whole place was
lively with preparations, as four days were to be spent
in the State.
The outstanding interest is the fort, which has a
unique situation on a rocky eminence about three hundred
feet above the plain, one and three-quarter miles long and
from two hundred yards to half a mile in breadth. This
is completely enclosed by a wall thirty to thirty-five feet
high, with six gates, and as our visit was paid mounted
on an elephant, we were appropriately admitted by the
elephant gate, and began our tour with the most inter-
esting place, the Man Singh Palace, full of beautiful
176
India
stone-work decoration, particularly open screen work.
The Tali ka-Mandir, a temple of the eleventh century,
and the Jain or Sas Bahu Temples are marvels of minute
sculpture. The descent from the fort is made extra-
ordinarily interesting by a succession of rock sculptures,
made by Jains in the fifteenth century, gigantic figures
are visible from the road, and there are many interior
excavations ; in all over twenty figures, twenty to thirty
feet in height.
We were now to visit the one place acknowledged to
be the centre of a visitor's interest in India, Agra, and we
were not disappointed. This and its neighbourhood has
been made the subject of a special chapter.
The whole country around Delhi has for westerns
extraordinary interest as the scene, not of one or two, but
of a succession of at least seven Delhi's, and at the present
time there are visible two more, the temporary city out
northwards of the present walled town and the great
capital that is to be, in the opposite direction, with the
outlines of New Government House and the Secretariat
well defined. Southwards especially there are extensive
remains of old buildings, and generally these have been
rugged and enormously strong buildings. Tuklak's tomb
is typical, and the race was, like their buildings, robust,
rugged, and determined.
The fort is beautifully situated on the right bank of
the Jumna river, and its gardens, with the surrounding
buildings, are the outstanding feature. There are public
and private audience chambers, baths, various women's
palaces, and particularly a life-giving garden court, all
of elaborately carved marble work ; but the distinctive
object of interest at Delhi stands outside the present
city, the Kutab Minar and surroundings. This structure,
erected in various stages by successive rulers, is believed
to have been a tower to commemorate the victory of the
Mohammedans. Begun in the twelfth century, and added
to in the two succeeding centuries, it is a monument
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worthy of the intention. The Kuwwat-ul-Mam Mosque
is a fitting part of the group ; the screen and cloisters
are remarkably impressive. Within stands the famous
Iron Pillar, chronicling the deeds of King Chandra, who
reigned about 460 A.D. The tomb of Altamsh, dating
back to the thirteenth century, stands outside the mosque
at the north-west corner, and is remarkable for the
beautiful carved marble work.
The fort of Tuklakbad is almost wholly in ruins ,
there being only the remains of the great wall without
any structures within it, but the rugged tomb of this
warrior is kept in good preservation, and reminds one of
the Inca remains in Peru and Cecil Rhodes' last resting-
place in the Matoppo Hills in South Africa. The
mausoleums of Eiro Shah, nearer Delhi, as well as those
of Humayun, the second great Mughul ruler, and Nawab
Safdar Jang, are handsome buildings, with the surround-
ings well kept, but nothing distinctive in their architecture.
Many British Government representatives have helped
in the restoration and preservation of historical Indian
buildings and sites, but it will be readily acknowledged
that if Lord Curzon had no other monument of his work
there, he has written deep for posterity in the part he
has borne in this valuable work. There are two beautiful
marble doors on the tombs of the Muhammad Shah
and Prince Jahangir, son of Akbar, beside the shrine of
Nizam-ud-din-ulah. Delhi has also its interest as the
scene of the greatest siege in the Mutiny, a costly but
successful effort which may be said to have ended the
crisis.
We now turned southwards with regret, there being
many interesting areas in the Punjab and beyond,
especially Kashmir, the ideal hot-weather refuge in the
great north-west ; but Rajputana called us, and we saw
in succession the two great natives States, Jaipur and
Udaipur. Again, these are entirely different from each
other and also from Gwalior. Jaipur, within its
India
crenellated walls, with seven gates, has roomy main
streets over one hundred feet wide. It is a centre of
varied manufactures and a live, prosperous place. The
Maharajah's palace is within the walls and is not remark-
able. The observatory, built by Jai Singh in the open
air two hundred years ago, is a curious gathering of
extraordinary instruments. There are some fine modern
buildings outside the wall, especially the Albert Hall and
Museums. The old capital, about six miles out at
Amber (pronounced Am-bare), is of great interest, having
many fine buildings in a remarkably fine situation. At
Galta, about two miles off, there is a curious ruined temple
to the Sun God, on the way to which, from a hill, an
excellent view of the present city, with the Tiger Fort
watching over it, is to be had.
Udaipur is easily the most picturesque place we saw
in India. Situated on a ridge among surrounding hills,
the succession of white palaces is the central figure and
the city surrounding it is an accessory. In the morning
this aspect gets the full blaze of the sun, while from the
west side in the evening it is seen with the large full
Pichola Lake as foreground, studded with gem-like
islets, mainly covered by dainty marble structures, and
on the ridge behind, the same palaces on their other side
lit by the setting sun. It is an eastern dream city,
embodied. The Maharana of Udaipur is the representa-
tive of the premier ruling house in India, and, as he is
now an aged man, his rule is shared by his son, by whom
we were received when visiting the palace. It is an
interesting pile of buildings of very varied age and has
much modern fitting. At the Resident's reception we
met many of the rajahs, who all spoke fluent English and
many played a good game of lawn-tennis. The city
outside of the palace is rather smelly and its roadways
are hardly more than passages. Certainly, the view of
the city from Pitchola Lake and the Fateh Sagar is much
the finest thing in Udaipur. At Arh, near the railway
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station, are the mausoleums of the maharanas, many of
which are beautiful marble structures in good preservation.
We returned northwards to Ajmer, a large railway
centre, which is also the cold weather location of the
administration of Rajputana. It is a place with a long
history of many changes. There is a fine mosque, the
Arhai-din-ka-jonpra, with a remarkable massive screen.
The city within the walls can hardly be said to have
streets. They are only narrow passages, and we did not
wonder that epidemics are rarely absent.
On our way to the suburbs we stopped at a modern
Jain temple, called the Naseyan or Red Temple, a large
four-storey building which had in its two upper storeys a
representation, in brass and gilt work, of scenes illus-
trating the birth and life of Adinath, the first propagator
of the Jain religion. These scenes were laid at Ajodhya
and Allahabad, including the Tribeni Ghat there. This
structure was not yet completed. Outside the wall
there are roomy parks and what remains of the almost
dry Ana Sagar, with a series of five beautiful marble
pavilions, erected by Shah Jahan, but allowed to fall into
disrepair and now restored.
The Mayo College is a fine handsome building of
modern construction, and of remarkable and charac-
teristic Indian architecture.
In the summer the administrative centre for Rajputana
is at Mount Abu, where we spent a few days. The road
from Abu Road station is a fine piece of engineering, with
beautiful views, ascending 4,000 feet to Mount Abu,
where are the Dilwarra Temples, the finest marble work
in India ; again Jain sculptures, this time entirely interiors,
pillars, and elaborate arches and roofs. Most of the
Rajput States have vakils or agents here, and these have
residences of varied grandeur, some with large mansions
and extensive grounds.
We now proceeded to Bombay, our port of embarka-
tion, which we again found to be entirely different from
180
India
Calcutta, Colombo, or Madras. It has the advantage in
situation, being on an island which is practically a
peninsula, with many bays and undulations, on one arm
having Government House in a beautiful setting, almost
surrounded by the sea. It is a place of large industries
and much commerce, with fine clubs and many beautiful
residences, the most pretentious of which do not always
belong to Europeans.
Well, and what of the future of India ? Its history
is of such duration that the British occupancy may only
prove a little incident, but with such judgment as a
transitory visitor may venture to apply, I do not think
the time has yet come for India to go her own way.
The native States give little indication of desire to do
this, and the present agitation is only a demonstration
of how unfit its present leaders would be to guide in the
event of the movement succeeding.
India may yet do great things under the British Raj.
181
XXIV.
Agra and its Neighbourhood.
AGRA is for India a modern place. Delhi and
Allahabad have comparatively long back
histories. Agra was built by Akbar and his
immediate successors, and the buildings were all con-
structed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. All
the world knows of the Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan
in memory of Arjmand Banu, his favourite queen, known
as Mumtaz Mahal, "Pride of the Palace." It is of
Indo-Persian architecture and white marble, with black
lines, scrolls and lettering, and the inlay of coloured
precious stones, known as " pietra dura," has been
exquisitely used for decoration. We saw it daily for five
days in varied lights from sunrise to sunset, and each
time the impression grew on us that it was a building
nobly planned and perfectly carried out — the most
sublime monument of human devotion in existence.
The setting and amplitude of the surroundings are worthy
of it. The small tomb on the left bank of the Jumna
to Mirza Ghiyas Beg, grandfather of the lady of the Taj,
is an even more perfect work than the Taj itself. Each
feature of the marble screens and coloured inlay work is
absolutely perfect, and the whole dainty tomb is the
most pleasing and impressive grave in India. It was
built by the Emperor Jahangir for the father of his wife,
Nur Jahan. The Jami Musjid, a large mosque also
built by Shah Jahan, adjoins the fort. It has three
enormous domes of red sandstone, marked by bands of
white marble and a noble courtyard of ample spacious-
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ness. The fort is an unrivalled collection of magnificent
buildings, mostly built by Shah Jahan in the seventeenth
century. The Moti Musjid or Pearl Mosque, Shish
Mahal or Mirror Palace, and the Diwan-i-Khas or Hall of
Private Audience are the most important.
These do not complete the attractive buildings of
Agra, as Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra, of red sandstone and
white marble, is a most wonderful structure. The
approach is by a magnificent gateway, a monument by
itself of red sandstone with marble and much elaborate
patterning and four tall minarets at the corners. The
approach gives scope for an impressive view of the
mausoleum, the lower part of which is red sandstone.
The fine terrace on the top, with its white marble
lattice-work cloisters arid cenotaph, where, it is said, the
Koh-i-noor, on a beautiful pillar, was a constantly
naturally-lighted guard, fitly completes the memorial
of one of India's greatest rulers.
Fatepur-sikri, Akbar's abandoned capital, has such a
multitude of fine structures that it would need many visits
to carry away their various distinctions. The general
impression is that nowhere in the world is there a group
of buildings each so distinctive, not only in general design,
but in detail. The gem is the Dargah or tomb of Sheikh
Salem Chisti, one of six brothers, Persians, who all gave
their lives to the religious service of India, and whose
memory and burying-places are venerated equally by
Mohammedans and Hindus. It has marble lattice- work
screens all round and peculiar brackets supporting the
roof. The doors are of solid ebony, with brass decoration,
and the canopy over the tomb is inlaid with mother-of-
pearl. The Diwan-i-Khas or Hall of Private Audience
is full of original work, especially one circular corbelled
pillar supporting the roof. There is a small canopied
structure in a corner known as the " Guru's House,"
with remarkable struts of elaborate carved work under
the architraves. In the mosque itself are some beautiful
184
62 — THE LADY OF THE TAJ MAHAL.
63— INTERIOR OF TAJ MAHAL.
64 — BIRBAL'S HOUSE, FATEPUR SIKRI.
65— AKBAR'S TOMB, SIKANDRA, AGRA.
66— THE FORT AND PALACE, AGRA.
67 — GATEWAY OF AKBAR'S TOMB, SIKANDRA.
68 — JAMI MASJID, AGRA.
iMMMMMMl
' " * I ft •
69— GATEWAY OF TAJ MAHAL.
70— QUADRANGLE OF DARGAH MOSQUE, FATEPUR SIKRI.
71 — TOMB OF I'TIMAD u DOWLAH.
72 — GATE OF VICTORY — INTERIOR, FATEPUR SIKRI.
i .
T
Agra and its Neighbourhood
inlaid doorways beside the pulpit. The quadrangle
round which these buildings are placed is approached by
the Buland Darwaza or Gate of Victory, with a vast
stairway outwards, increasing the impressiveness. Mr.
Ferguson, the authority on Indian architecture, considers
it " noble beyond that of any portal attached to any
mosque in India, perhaps in the whole world."
The Palace of Birbal teems with beautifully carved
work, externally and internally. Words of Victor Hugo
have been applied to it, " If it were not the most minute
of palaces, it was the most gigantic of jewel-cases."
Agra itself is a case full of jewels of architecture,
only a few of wliich it has been possible to faintly
describe.
XXV.
Egypt, Syria, and Palestine.
AT the beginning of February, in lovely sunshine,
we had our first view of the Red Sea, and saw
nothing to warrant the name, as the waters were
a vivid blue and the land when visible was yellow. The
Canal is very featureless as compared with Panama,
and generally seeing Suez, Ismalia, and Port Said after
the East and Far East is an anti-climax, and does not
give the usual impression described by travellers in the
opposite direction.
Even the landing place is a disillusion, as Port Said
under modern hygienic conditions has none of the char-
acteristics of dirt, disorder, and untidiness one is led to
expect. The journey to Cairo is at first alongside the
Canal, and little of the productiveness, so evident on the
delta lands between Cairo and Alexandria, is seen. Again,
in Cairo, there is about Shepheard's Hotel an absence
of the desert atmosphere and picturesque Arabs of many
novels. It is modern of the modern, with bathroom suites
and daily tea dances inside, and outside cars galore. We
were not a day in Cairo till we had met accidentally
several Glasgow friends, and, better still, we began to
get home letters only a week old.
On seeing the river for the first time it was difficult
to realise clearly how much it is and has always been
to Egypt and to the Egyptians. The early Egyptian
worship was of Nature and Nature's powers, and had
that continued till now developments of the last
forty years would only have placed the " RIVER " as
Zig-Zagging Round the World
more outstandingly the fons et origo of all the enormously
increased production which have so benefited the
fellaheen.
Neither in upper nor in lower Egypt is there rainfall
to fully utilise the fertility of the land, and that want
has now been supplied by an extensive irrigation system,
which conserves excessive water supply until it can be
yielded to supply deficiencies. Four great dams have
for this purpose been built, that at Cairo being the oldest,
opened after reconstruction in 1891 ; but there are two
others, one at Assiout, opened in 1903, and another at
Esnah, opened in 1909, besides the great dam at Assouan,
the largest work of all, finally opened as it now exists
in 1912. These, with improved drainage in the delta,
are the real cause of the great prosperity in Egypt of
recent years, and they have not yet attained their
possibilities.
Cairo is young, as ages go in Egypt, not being yet
one thousand years old ; its features are mosques and
markets within, and tombs without the city. The most
remarkable tombs are the pyramids. They look huge
masses of rough masonry and there is nothing beautiful
about them ; indeed, the whole impression of old Egyptian
architecture is its gigantic scale and massiveness.
The rugged stones of the pyramids, we are told, were
once covered by dressed granite slabs which have been
largely used to build the mosques of Cairo, of which there
are over three hundred. At the top of the second
pyramid at Ghizeh enough of this casing has been left
to show what was originally the condition generally.
The Sphinx, a huge figure, partly hewn from solid
rock and partly masonry, with a human head and animal
forebody, crouches pensively regarding the surrounding
desert. Antiquarians consider this the oldest structure .
in Egypt, and it is surmised that costly investigation, by
clearing the enveloping sand, might yield evidence that
here have lain for seven thousand years the remains of
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Egypt, Syria, and Palestine
the earliest rulers of Egypt. The smaller Sphinx at
Memphis is much less damaged and consequently a more
impressive figure, but the most interesting part of the
tombs is the interiors, with graphic wall sculptures
illustrating the lives of the occupants and their surround-
ings. This is well seen at Sakkara in the tombs of Ti,
Ptahhotep, and Mera, about five thousand years old,
as well as in the Serapeum, the mausoleum of the sacred
bulls, of about half that age.
The tombs within Cairo of the Caliphs and Mamelukes
are interesting only as mosque buildings of Saracenic
style, and generally they have been little cared for and
are in poor repair. The mosques at the citadel have a
very fine situation, and in this flat country are visible
far beyond the city; and conversely, the view from the
southern rampart is the finest in Cairo. The mosque of
Mehemet Ali, in which he is buried, is both outside and
inside remarkably fine, while those of Mohammed Nasr
and Suleiman Pasha are interesting, but without dis-
tinctive feature. Of the many others scattered through
the city that of Sultan Hassan has fine proportions and a
beautiful minaret, but it is in poor repair, as is Ibu Talun,
The University mosque, El-Azhar, is of quite extra-
ordinary interest, being the largest Moslem teaching
institution in the world. A vast area of floorage, with
hundreds of pillars carrying its roof, is covered by little
groups of students, each, with their teacher and individual
as well as collective voices, make a noise that to western
ears would be very disturbing, if not unbearable. There
were many groups of older children among the adults,
and instead of resenting the presence of unbelievers,
these young followers of the prophet smiled pleasantly
and used a few words of English to us.
The one place in Cairo where one unmistakably
recognises the east is the mooski or bazaar, and there is
nothing precisely like it either in Europe or Asia. A
large area with mostly narrow lanes is densely occupied
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
by tiny shops generally, though sometimes a minute
entrance leads to extensive warehouses behind, and all
are crowded by wares of every description. There is a
rough classification, such as carpets, jewellery, and per-
fumes, each having its own district. There are also
sections devoted to various countries, such as Algeria
and the Sudan. It is recommended that the bazaars
should be visited without dragoman, but we found that,
if the right man was chosen and used only as a guide, he
earned his pay by keeping off beggars and other would-
be guides. The museums, Arabic as well as Egyptian,
are well worth visiting. The lamps in the former and
in the other the mummies, as well as other articles from
the tombs, are unequalled elsewhere.
Early in our visit we strayed into the Esbekiya
Gardens, near the opera house, and heard an excellent
bagpipe band, evidently much appreciated, but the pipers
turned out to be Gurkhas from India.
Recently there has been much exploration of remains
between Memphis and Luxor, and great discoveries have
been made, but we were content to go right south to the
recognised centres of sights in Upper Egypt, Luxor, and
Assouan. Here stood, four thousand years ago, one of
the earliest and most extensive capitals of Upper Egypt.
The temples on the east bank at Luxor and Karnak
are magnificent ruins, while the Thebes side, on which
the larger part of the city must have been placed, has
both above and underground fascinatingly interesting
human records of three to four thousand years ago. The
Karnak ruins include an avenue of Sphinxes and an
enormous gateway, while the great hall is a vast structure,
with over one hundred massive pillars, and this is only
the nucleus for innumerable subsidiary buildings. The
Luxor temple, beautifully situated close to the river,
right among the houses of the town, is much smaller,
but its plan is more intelligible, aided as it has been by
restoration. The fellow of the famous obelisk now in
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Egypt, Syria, and Palestine
the Place de la Concorde in Paris stands here. We were
fortunate in being able to see these two temples, not
only by day, but by the light of the full moon, and the
impression will not easily fade.
Two full days were spent in seeing the surface
remains on the west side, Medinet Habu, Der-el-Bahari,
Kurnah, the Rameseum, as well as the excavated tombs
of the kings and queens in different valleys. We visited
the recently-found tomb of the chief gardener to an early
monarch, and found the coloured pictorial record of his
life even more interesting than those of royalty.
Adjoining the Medinet Habu Temple is the palace of
Rarneses III., the only dwelling-house of which we saw
the remains, showing a living-place of over three thousand
years ago. Weeks could easily be spent here instead of
days. A sail by dahabiyeh on the river to see an orange
grove and eat its produce right from the trees was a
welcome relief from desert sand and dusty tombs.
Assouan is the only place we visited which could be
called picturesque, with much vegetation and groves of
palms and other trees set against bold, rocky headlands,
and the river with many islands below the rapids, taking
quick curves, becomes quite interesting. The only
remains are the Rock Tombs on the eastern bank, two
of which graves are of high court officials, with pictorial
records of their lives. Elephantine Island has an
interesting little museum, while Kitchener's Island, with
its musical sakkiyehs, raising Nile water, demonstrates
what fertility is in suitably watered mud.
Here are the granite quarries from which the huge
blocks of buildings hundreds of miles away were cut and
transported, and one obelisk of over one hundred feet
in length lies unsevered in the quarry, from which its
fellows were taken to see the outer world thousands of
years ago. Here we had the opportunity of seeing genuine
native life in a Bisharin village near the quarries. It did
not strike us as very desirable.
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While we were in Egypt, Lord Allenby was at home
on the mission which resulted in the abolition of the
protectorate. If the Egyptians are wise, they will secure
the continuance of the guidance which has done so much
for their material benefit in the last forty years.
We arrived at Syria from the west, approaching in
early morning the Gulf of Iskenderun, right in the north-
east corner of the Mediterranean at the fort of
Alexandrette, which is the nearest point to Aleppo.
We did not get ashore as the stoppage was very brief,
but it was entirely a modern town.
Sailing southwards we passed Latakiah, of tobacco
fame, the modern form of Laodicea, and next called at
Tripoli, with a really good harbour and many memorials
of Phoenician times. The mountains of Lebanon were
now well in view, with Jebel Makmel, of over 10,000 feet
directly inland, and we landed shortly afterwards at
Beyrout, a large seaport, with many Christian missionary
institutions and with railway to Damascus, being the
natural port for that city. We crossed the Lebanon
range by a well-engineered road, passing many summer
resorts for the dwellers in Beyrout and Damascus. The
scenery is magnificent right over the mountains to
Zahleh, where the road to Baalbec goes off across the plain.
These ruins of what was the marvel of its age, the
Temple of Heliopolis — City of the Sun — are of all such
structures in the east in the most perfect condition.
There are four distinct buildings, the outer court in
hexagonal form, the great court almost square, with many
subsidiary and later structures in its area, particularly
those of a Christian basilica. These were but the
approaches to the great Temple of Jupiter or of the Sun,
of which a colonnade is the most important survival.
Last there is, on a lower level, the Temple of Bacchus, an
independent building on which the sculptor's brain and
chisel have lavished decoration, especially on its arched
roof, and much of that remains. Some of the pillars are
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Syria, and Palestine
vast monoliths, and one end of the substructure of the
Great Temple has enormous stones of such weight to
move as would tax modern resources. This comparatively
compact ruin was beautifully set among apricot groves
in full bloom, giving a scene of great beauty.
The drive from Baalbec retraces to Zahleh, and then
the way is again over the mountains, the Anti-Lebanon.
For much of the way Mount Hermon affords a glorious
view, snow-capped, and, though about 1,000 feet lower
than Makmel, impressive from its being more isolated.
The descent on Damascus is very beautiful, and the first
impression of this, the most unquestionably Oriental city
of the Near East, is a very favourable one. What a
history if stones could speak. We know it has been a
place of importance since Abraham's time ; how much
longer we cannot tell, and, in spite of the railway, it
remains an avenue of commerce to Bagdad and Mecca
by the primitive ship of the desert.
The situation is in a well-watered plain. The Abana
rises in Anti-Lebanon, and runs through the city in good
volume, carrying its benefits to the surrounding area,
where blossoms and fruits of every kind are produced in
abundance. The old Citadel is now occupied by French
troops as a barrack. The Great Mosque was destroyed
by fire about thirty years ago, but rebuilt promptly under
Syrian direction by Syrian workmen, and the whole work
is creditable to the present-day craftsman.
The bazaar is peculiar, being classified and largely
roofed over. The wares show little originality. In a
manufactory there was good modern brass ware being
turned out and also marqueterie work in furniture. There
is one handsome boulevard, the gift of a pasha, and on
Saturday evening the population of about 300,000 was
well represented there. The street, which is called
" Straight," goes right through the bazaar and beyond,
about a mile in all. Recently there has been literally
" unearthed " a house which an archaeologist declares to
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be that of the Ananias referred to in Acts ix. as having
restored Paul's sight.
There is a most interesting old library, where we saw
a manuscript book on paper, 1,500 years old, and many
beautifully illuminated parchments. We had the
privilege of seeing several Syrian dwelling-houses,
beautifully decorated by pietra dura work on their marble
walls, and in perfect condition though hundreds of year*
old. One of these had been occupied by Germans early
in the war and they left the ballroom a perfect wreck.
The railway journey to Palestine begins with fine
views of Hermon for some hours, then is featureless over
the table-land of Bashan, but, about two hours before
Semakh, enters the Yarmuk ravine with several cascades r
and quite a remarkable engineering construction to reach
the low level of Tiberias Lake, about seven hundred feet
below the sea.
We left the train at the south end of the lake, and
proceeded by a small launch to the town of Tiberias of
Roman times, with walls enclosing the older part and a
miniature bazaar. What is believed to be the site of
Capernaum lies to the north and is in ruins, while on the
opposite side of the lake is Gadara, and still Mount Hermon,.
in white-robed majesty, overlooks the landscape though
over thirty miles distant. There is at Tiberias a most
efficient medical mission of the United Free Church,,
with a Glasgow man at its head.
We had our first experience of Palestine roads in
going via Kafr Kanna (Cana of the Gospel) to Nazareth,
and they do credit to our nation, as, with one exception
at Jericho in pre-war state, which just served to show
the improvement, we had as good roads as any one could
wish. Those through the towns and villages have not
yet been brought up to the Public Works Department
standard, but that will no doubt come. Nazareth has a
most beautiful situation on the hill-side and is a fertile
spot. Here we first meet the nominally Christian
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Egypt, Syria, and Palestine
factions striving for possession of dubious sites of events
of the Saviour's life and the gaudy equipment of these
places. Protestants have taken little part in this
scramble, but have contented themselves with recognition
that the whole country where Christ spent his earthly
life is holy ground.
The view from the hill above Nazareth commands a
large part of Palestine, including Mount Tabor of the
transfiguration, the great plain of Esdraelon and Mount
Carmel. Our road to Jerusalem was by Jenin (En-
gannim of Joshua xix.). Here we rested for lunch by
the roadside, with a perfect carpet of wild flowers, a
crimson anemone and cyclamens being the most
prominent. We were literally "going up to Jerusalem,"
though the usual route of tourists is the reverse.
Through Bireh, with Bethel about three miles off, to
Ramah Gibeah and Nob, we entered Jerusalem from
Mount Scopus by the Damascus gate and breathed the
air of the Holy City.
There are two classes of sights here, specific places
which are at the best possibilities and general localities
which are certainly places with which our Saviour was
familiar in His daily life. We did the round of the former
class with hesitation and sometimes with revulsion at the
impudent humbug practised, but such places as the
Mount of Olives, Bethany, Bethlehem, Jericho, and
Jordan were of surprising interest and great helpfulness
by defining the mental picture of the environment of our
Lord's life. We saw the husbandmen at work exactly
as described in Christ's parables, the shepherd on the hills-
always with sheep and goats. The temple has dis-
appeared, but traffickers abounded in the precincts of
the reputed sacred places.
We were unfortunate enough to be in Jerusalem
simultaneously with several hundred tourists from the
United States, and, in spite of our efforts to avoid the
crowds going round, met them several times, and
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
certainly the experience must have been very distasteful
to most of these good people. There was a satisfaction
in knowing that our own Scottish churches have con-
fined themselves to bodily help in medical missions and
training of the young in schools, and have no part in the
ownership of dubious shrines.
It is a wonderful land of hills and valleys. Even in
March there were signs of its extraordinary productive-
ness. The flocks and herds have increased under the
security of British rule, and the natives appreciate the
beneficence of our presence diffusing justice and equity.
The variety of races there makes a strong and determined
rule necessary.
196
XXVI.
The ^Egean, Bosphorus, and Levant.
IN perfect weather, and with Alexandria, of dirty and
ill-paved streets, looking very attractive in the
afternoon sun, we set out for the classic isles and
mountains of Greece. Two days brought us to Candia
or Crete, and after three calls on the north side of this
picturesque island, we headed for the Piraeus, with rather
a pitchy sea, which prolonged our journey by a day.
From Piraeus we drove along Phaleron Bay to the
city of the Violet Crown. We arrived on the Carnival
Sunday and saw Athens in holiday garb, with great crowds
of good-natured citizens and country visitors. The
first impression is of clean, white marble, unlike any other
city ; even Aberdeen is grey comparatively.
We approached by University Street of ample width,
with the library, university, and academy gleaming
white along its eastern side ; Lycobetti Hill behind
and the Acropolis Hill with its wonderful ruins in front,
and it made a noble picture, of which the impression will
always remain. The city has a series of surrounding
hills — Hymettus, Parnes, and Pentelicon. Here we
realised, after over a year among populations of whom
Europeans were only a trifling percentage, that we were
again with people like ourselves. Faces and figures, as
well as clothing, were like our own. The shops were for
everyone, not for the foreigners.
While the Acropolis is the principal interest, there
are remains of ancient buildings scattered all over the
city. The Temple of Jupiter shows the outlines of what
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must have been a handsome pile, and in its portico are
the best examples remaining of Corinthian pillars. The
stadion has only fragmentary old parts, and looks entirely
modern and it cannot be called beautiful. The Arch of
Hadrian was placed to divide the old Greek city from the
new Roman part. The most complete ancient building
in Athens is the Temple of Theseus, and it is in wonderful
preservation after having withstood tempest and earth-
quake for two thousand years. The Mars Hill has few
remains, and may be the identical spot from which St.
Paul addressed the Athenians, as recorded in the New
Testament.
There are other buildings of interest, such as the Tower
of the Winds, the monument of Lysicrates, and the Stoa
of Hadrian, but the Acropolis contains what absorbs
attention and can bear several visits. There is as base
for these buildings a natural rocky platform or citadel ;
this has been strengthened by buttresses on the less
precipitous sides. A gate and stairway leads to the small
Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylsea, both beautiful
even as ruins, of Pentelic marble, the temple with
Ionic and the porticoes with Doric columns. These form
the entrance way and lead to an upper platform, around
which the great classic buildings of the Parthenon, the
Erechtheion, and what remains of the Temple of Athena
Nike are grouped. The outline of the Parthenon is
familiar all the world over, but its friezes and pediments
are more difficult to see, as they are partly in the
Acropolis Museum, the British Museum, and in the
original position. Some day, it is to be hoped, these will
be restored and replaced. On the Erechtheion the
portico of the Maidens is remarkably complete, two of
the figures having been restored. The Acropolis Museum,
as well as the National Archaeological Museum, have each
very valuable collections of great interest. There is no
gallery of paintings, either ancient or modern, in Athens.
The palace is quite a modern building, with garden
198
The /Egean, Bosphoms, and Levant
open to the public, and stands at the high end of
Constitution Square. We saw with interest members of
the Evzon Regiment, which forms the royal bodyguard,
handsome looking men in as curious a dress to us as our
kilts must look to them — white tights and stockings,
gartered and a drooping tassel, with a white frilled shirt
like a ballet dancer's, dark blue jacket, red nightcap
with a black tassel, and curious clumsy slippers, with a
lump of woolly black stuff on the toes. The towns-
people, men and women, do not suggest a race which
gave models for the old statuary, but in the country
districts we saw many fine figures and beautiful faces of
men and women, and the children especially gave promise
of a handsome race.
We visited Eleusis and Corinth, each of which has
extensive remains of temples. The roads were bad
beyond all believing. We passed Megara, once an
important place, and famous yet for its dancers and their
annual festival of dancing. On the way to Corinth,
which is the great currant-growing district of Greece,
the name of which fruit is said to be a corruption of the
place name, we had glorious views of snow-clad mountains,
particularly Parnassus and Helicon, which overlook
Delphi.
Leaving the Piraeus for Salonica, we, for a whole day,
looked on Pelion, Ossa, and Olympus, and these snow-
clad monarchs looked quite as worthy of being sung as
did the isles of Greece, which during the ensuing days
charmed our eyes. We passed eastwards towards the
Dardanelles, north of Lemnos and south of Imbros, and
entered the passage so full of interest now to all Britons,
but especially to the friends of the Scottish West Country
Territorials as the burial place of many.
Cape Helles came first, with several wrecks still there.
The River Clyde, we are told, has now been removed.
Then Achi Baba, Gallipoli, Lampaski, and Chanak. From
the steamer many graveyards, with modest head-boards,
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
were visible. Suvla Bay was hidden by the peninsula.
We crossed the Sea of Marmora overnight, and approached
Constantinople in a glorious sunrise, with its mosques and
minarets brilliantly visible through an early morning haze,
and at once we succumbed to its charm. Approaching,
we clearly saw the three cities of which it is formed.
On the left Stamboul ; then the narrowing waters of the
Golden Horn, Pera and Galata, respectively on the hill
and on the water, are on the left bank of the Bosphorus ;
and on the right is Scutari (pronounced Scoot-ah-ree).
What is the charm of the place ? It bears ill any kind of
analysis. What are the mosques when you pick them to
pieces ? Ungainly bodies externally very much alike,
with a varying number of slender needle-like spires
again very much alike, except that some of them seem to
spring from the parent building and others are on their
own.
We had been looking from the water said to be the
ideal way to Constantinople. We landed and explored
the streets to find them dirty and irregular, sometimes
with side walks of a kind, sometimes without. Part of the
water supply of Stamboul is from underground cisterns,
which are really built reservoirs, and one of these, Yere
Batan, has been lit by electricity, so that, with a boat, it
is possible to see the structure with its hundreds of pillars.
We saw the principal mosques in detail. St. Sophia is
less gaudy than St. Peter's, Rome, but crowded with
distractions, and does not feel like a place of worship.
We Christians may learn from the Turk's devoutness.
He is intensely religious, and has implicit belief in and obeys
to the utmost of his ability the rules for life laid down
in the Koran. The Hippodrome Square is a delightful
relief to the eye in its greenness, and is a resting-place in
the noisy city. We saw in being that which last century
symbolised to westerns the Ottoman Empire, and was
referred to with great respect as " The Sublime Porte,"
and if the Turkish Government, to which it formed the
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The /Egean, Bosphorus, and Levant
material access, is in no better repair, its condition is poor
indeed.
There are in Stamboul remains of the walls, especially
along the banks of the Sea of Marmora, but these have
been allowed to fall into disrepair, and what remains has
the anachronism of a railway along its inner side. The
Bazaar is attractive and characteristic, largely roofed
over. The wares, after the East and Far East, were
generally not distinctive. Our day in the city concluded
by a visit to the park, where are the museum in the Old
Seraglio, the Bagdad Kiosk, and specially the best view-
point of the whole city at the end of Stamboul, which
overlooks Pera, the Bosphorus, and Scutari.
There are here an extraordinary mixture of
nationalities ; normally Turk, Greek, Armenian, and Jew,
the war has brought Russians in large numbers, and the
Armistice has put British, French, and Italian soldiers
in occupation, our own taking the lead. It will be a
misfortune for Turkey if the Indian and labour outcry
against our military occupation causes withdrawal, and
the demand shows an entire misapprehension of the
position. Tommy is not an aggressive, conquering hero,
but a living example of clean, active work and orderliness,
and the population has discovered him and appreciate
his influence. He is like a London policeman dealing
with the traffic problem as compared with the chaos
which would ensue were he withdrawn. It was not
possible for a stranger to distinguish the nationalities
with certainty, but the impression conveyed was that the
Turk here is not the placid and passive person we conceive
him to be. He gesticulates freely and disputes zealously.
In street and market constantly we saw what looked like
the beginning of a fight in raised voices and combative
attitude, but just when one expected action the crisis
passed over.
After a full day ashore, we returned to our ship
anchored off the Custom House at Galata, and here saw
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
another aspect of the city, the sun setting over the park
at Stamboul and the Sea of Marmora beyond, with a
wonderful effect of an orange into crimson horizon, a
rich, dark blue sky, and the pale half moon overhead.
Next morning we went by launch up the Bosphorus to
the Black Sea ; again the colour description was
inaccurate, as it was decidedly blue. From the water we
saw Dolma Bagtch, the present palace of the Sultan,
Ortakuey and Bebek, where the local tram-line finishes.
Here the Robert College, a large group of buildings, with
fine grounds and endowment for the teaching of English,
occupies a prominent situation. Then comes a curious
fortress with bold towers and massive walls, Rumeli
Hissar, with, on the opposite side, a modern castle,
Anadoli Hissar, of which the gateway is considered a
remarkably fine example of wrought-iron work. Beyond
are a succession of summer resorts, of which the largest
is Therapia, almost at the entrance of the Black Sea.
We returned in mid-stream, seeing well the Asiatic
or Scutari side, then passed under the Galata Bridges
to the Golden Horn, a historic water which is really a
small tongue dividing, until it terminates at Eyoub,
Stamboul from Galata. On the Galata side are the
Turkish navy buildings , and the remains of the navy are
afloat there. Beside these relics lie dilapidated vessels
of all shapes and forms, some very like old Clyde steamers.
The Horn is the harbour for all small trading craft,
sailers or with motor auxiliary, and they are mostly
picturesque and very varied in build and rig. We landed
at Eyoub, called after the Prophet's standard-bearer who
fell and was buried there. It is the quiet resting-place
of many generations of the best of Turkey's rulers. The
outer courtyard has a canopy of great plane trees and a
large fountain in its centre. The inner courtyard has
beautiful blue tiling, while the mosque itself is of interest
as being visited annually by the Sultan to have girded
on him the sword of Osman.
202
The AZgean, Bosphorus, and Levant
The view of Constantinople on returning to the Galata
"bridge is extraordinarily fine, and sailing once more down
the Marmora, past Yedi Coule and the seven towers, we
looked to the last on this great historic city and thought,
$ic transit gloria mundi.
The Levant is a loose name for the north-eastern end
of the Mediterranean, and generally is held to include
the west and south sides of Asia Minor, with the island
fringe, Cyprus and the Syrian Coast. There is a perfect
jumble of nationalities in these parts. Smyrna is Greek,
but uses Turkish money ; Wathy (Samos) is purely Greek ;
Rhodes is Italian ; Adalia when we were there was
Kemalist ; Mersina, now Turkish, was French in 1921;
and the Syrian ports, Alexandrette, Tripoli, and Beyrout,
are French. The war is still unfinished (March, 1922)
in this quarter, and it needs decided concentration by the
Allies to enforce the settlements of the Paris Conference.
The combatants would welcome such action.
After leaving the Dardanelles, we called at Mityleni,
and landed at Smyrna to see the city of carpets and figs.
It has narrow streets and an interesting bazaar. There
is an old fort on an overlooking hill and remains of
extensive aqueducts. There are well-spread-out modern
suburbs and an air of general prosperity. Wathy is
extremely modern and clean, with good roads, which
compare favourably with those of Attica around Athens.
The people — men, women, and children — are a fine race,
and walking through the town to a ruined fort on an
•eminence behind it, we had nothing but courtesy and
good will.
Rhodes, our next stopping-place, is full of interest ;
its walls and battlements are remarkably complete.
There are many relics of the times when Venice was
mistress of the Mediterranean. The Rue de Chevaliers is
like old parts of Edinburgh, evidently the town mansions
of the nobles of an earlier time. There is quite a quaint
bazaar and a Jewish quarter, which is remarkably clean.
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
At Adalia we were not allowed to land. A day or
two before there had been a fanatical attack by Moslems
on the graveyards of the French soldiers, when all crosses
were destroyed.
Mersina, the last port eastwards in Asia Minor, is
quite near to Tarsus of St. Paul, and from here a railway
connects at Adana with that to Bagdad, presently without
a train service.
The Levant on the sea and the Balkans on land run
each other closely as to which has given more sleepless-
nights to European Statesmen.
204
77.— CORNICE, TEMPLE OF BACCHUS, BAALBEC, SYRIA.
78— INTERIOR OF VILLA VICIOSA CHAPEL, CORDOVA, SPAIN
XXVII.
The Barbary Coast and Iberian
Peninsula.
^ I ^HE eastern end of the Mediterranean had already
been visited, the scene of Europe's earliest
civilisation, where Phoenicians, Greek, Roman,
•and Turk had in turn the ascendency, and now we
proceeded to the western end, where Romans, Moors,
and Spaniards were the rivals. The voyage was without
feature, except that our steamer made a little detour to
show us Stromboli in slight eruption, and the last day
down the south-east coast of Spain we had fine views of
its bold outline.
We landed in Gibraltar early in April to find abundant
blossoms in gardens as well as growing wild, and the
atmosphere distinctly cooler than at the east-end of the
great inland sea, but incessant sunshine. A day or two
sufficed to see the very limited surroundings of " the
Rock," exploring the galleries and driving round the
coast so far as military considerations permitted that to
civilians. Sentiment is the main influence in continuing
to hold this British outpost. It and the neighbourhood,
Trafalgar Bay being just round the corner, have glorious
-associations, but even as a fuel supply and repairing
station it has little military value. Our record as holders
of such slight possessions as we do have in this " sea
between " the continents is a recent one, but the history
of successive dominations in this world's fairway, of which
the records are the oldest in the history of navigation,
is a fascinating one. Phoenicians, Romans, and Moors
have each in succession played their part, and it is barely
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a century since a large part of the area was freed from the
lawless hordes of pirates, who, with Algiers as their base,
worked their will on merchant shipping of all nationalities,
We found it possible to proceed by a British ship
with a Moorish name, Gibel (pronounced Jeebel) Sarsarr
or Mount Starling, from Gibraltar to Tangiers and
Casablanca, in Morocco, and later to Oran and Algiers,
ports in Algeria. The hour or two of dividing sea brings
one to an entirely different environment. Tangiers and
Gibraltar are in violent contrast, but even the less than
a mile between Gibraltar and Spain completely changes
the surroundings. Cricket and football are replaced by
the bull-ring and the casino, and these are only indications
of the different outlook on life. The activity and smart-
ness of a British military station is replaced by an
atmosphere of leisure and the reign of manana (to-morrow)
which pervades Spain.
We landed at Tangiers, where the ways are narrow,
steep, and crooked, and followed the usual procedure of
tourists by mounting sure-footed donkeys accustomed
to the slippery cobbles. A market was being held and
picturesque figures wearing brilliant colours were all
around. Vegetables and fruits were brought in by the
country people, also some live-stock, and they carried
back clothing and household utensils. Tangiers has
lately become a summer resort, with villas on the higher
ground and sandy bathing beaches along the coast.
Casablanca is more decidedly African, being on sand
and flat, and evidently with better inland communication,
giving it much more importance as a port of outlet for
the productions of the interior and inlet for the commodities
of the outer world required by the community. There
were Easter holidays, or their Moorish equivalent, being
held, and our steamer was crowded far beyond her sleep-
ing accommodation. The variety of races and the babel of
tongues made an interesting journey. There, again, we saw
a market on a more extensive scale and indications of a
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The Barbary Coast and Iberian Peninsula
larger and farther drawn population. Rabat and Fez
must be extraordinarily interesting places to visit, and are
obviously the centres of a productive and prosperous
country.
Good Friday would ordinarily have been the day for
our steamer to return to Gibraltar, but the officers and
crew decided to arrange so as to arrive the day before
and leave the day after for Algeria, making our first call
there at Oran (pronounced 0-ran) the following day.
This is a quite modern town, and was en fete for the arrival
of the French President a day later. The port has a large
traffic in copper ore and in wines, being accessible to a
country of large, well-cultivated vineyards mostly held
by Spaniards.
Again, on reaching Algiers we found the whole place
decorated for the President's visit. The bay is out-
standing, even among the many lovely spots on the
Mediterranean, comparing with Naples and Palermo.
The city is mostly of modern construction, and the style
of buildings resembles Paris, but the Kasbah or Moorish
quarter is a place apart of narrow passages and foul
odours, with old city walls and many curious doorways.
There are two noticeable mosques, Sidi Abder Rahman
and Djama-el-Kebir. There is a considerable carpet
industry and also some characteristic embroideries.
Algiers has a very mixed population — French, Spanish
Turks, Jews, Moors, and Kabyles — and the city is
thoroughly cosmopolitan. Women wear the latest
Parisian fashion, and a large proportion of the men are
in uniforms. The troops in evidence are largely Zouaves
and Spahis, and they wear brilliantly-coloured clothing.
We happened to meet the arriving President and his
escort near the gate of the Summer Palace at Mustapha
Superieur, a residential suburb, and it was a most
brilliant scene, but without the enthusiastic and vociferous
crowd which such an occasion produces in Britain or her
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The surroundings of Algiers are very attractive, being
undulating or even mountainous. Bouzariah is a view-
point commanding the city and its main suburbs, with
Cape Matifou to the east and westwards Sidi-Ferruch,
where a landing of French troops was effected in 1832,
making the beginning of the tenure which has resulted
so satisfactorily for the country and its people. Farther
afield there is some beautiful country, Blidah and the
Gorges of Chiffa, a haunt of monkeys, which we visited
by a good motoring road.
By a long drive through most thoroughly cultivated
grape-growing country we were able to get right into the
Kabyle mountain country, visiting Fort National and
Michelet. The natives are of quite a pale complexion
for Africans, and are a hardy and industrious race. We
motored back the same day, spending the night at
Tizi-ouzou, connected by railway with Algiers and
Constantine.
On returning to Gibraltar after this glimpse of the
Barbary coast, we set out to see Spain by motoring to
Cadiz, an important and interesting seaport of narrow
streets, placed on a tongue of land pointing northwards,
with the sea on three of its sides. The road goes past
Algeciras and Tarif a through beautiful and fertile country,
and for the last few miles has curious pyramid-form piles
of salt, recovered from sea-marshes by evaporation.
We passed on to Seville, and there saw ten minutes
of our first and last bull-fight. The cathedral is a most
interesting Gothic building, with fine organs, stained-
glass windows and carved wood- work, and the adjoining
Giralda Tower, Moorish work, easily climbed to the top
by a continuous inclined plane winding up its inside,
is quite a unique building. It has an enormous vane,
perfectly balanced, and commands a splendid view of
the surrounding country. The Alcazar, or Moorish Palace,
is similar to the Alhambra on a smaller scale, but the
garden here is much finer than anything at Granada.
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The Barbary Coast and Iberian Peninsula
A few miles out at Italica there is a Roman amphi-
theatre in good preservation. It is evident that Seville
has greatly prospered during the war. The Delicias, a
small park in the centre of the city, was supposed to be
the rendezvous of fashion only a few years ago, but now
that has changed to the new Spanish- American Exhibition
buildings and the Avenida Reina Victoria, and instead
of a promenade or drive for carriages it is now in the
afternoon crowded by expensive motor-cars. There are
many quaint, narrow streets in Seville, and the favoured
shopping-place is the Sierpes, a paved way without
vehicles, in the afternoon crowded by the people, among
whom are many ladies in elaborate high comb and
mantilla and men in Andalusian headgear, with bright
belt under a short jacket.
We passed via Badajos (pronounced Badahos) to
Portugal, arriving in Lisbon, which is largely a modern
city and easily seen in one day. The most interesting
building is St. Geronimo Cathedral and Monastery, of
which the cloisters are the most characteristic feature.
Lisbon is rapidly spreading out, and, as in Spain, there
is much new building. A large Avenida de Republique
has been begun, and it was expected to become the main
shopping centre, but as yet the three old ruas — Aurea,
Garrett, and Carmo — hold place. We saw a very inter-
esting exhibition of old carriages, coaches, and harness,
mainly from the royal stables. A collection of the
present-day harness would be interesting as a
revelation of the resourcefulness of the Portuguese
" jarvey." The reign of the motor is not so advanced
in Portugal as in Spain, and the traction is still very
generally by donkeys, mules, and bullocks. We did not
see a bull-fight in Portugal, but were repeatedly informed
that it was a much less brutal spectacle than across the
border. Lisbon has an easy access to desirable suburbs,
by sea as well as on land.
We spent agreeably a few days at Mont Estoril (Sterile
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
Mountain), described as the "Portuguese Riviera," on
the Atlantic seaboard, less than an hour by rail from
Lisbon. The adoption of the French and Italian name
challenges comparison. Certainly early in May there
was brilliant sunshine and enough warmth some days
to sit on the beach, but the very name of the place is
a contradiction. The Mediterranean resort is one of the
most fertile places of the earth, with luxurious growths
of trees, shrubs, and flowers. The Portuguese place is
so remarkable for sterility that it is so named. A great
scheme was begun before the war to have a huge hotelr
and it is now built ; a casino on a large scale, the
building of which has been suspended ; and an extensive
garden, and that is in existence and being maintained,
while a maze of roadways and a tree-planting scheme
are still requiring considerable outlay for completion.
Cascaes (pronounced Cashkize) adjoins Mont Estoril,
and is at present the terminus of the railway, which has
small watering-places at the numerous stoppages from
Lisbon outwards. So far as an outsider can judge, the
support of this scheme, necessary to make it a successful
venture, will need to come from the Portuguese themselves,
as there cannot be the easy accessibility to Spaniards and
farther afield Europeans, which would bring them to
Estoril in sufficiently large numbers to ensure success.
Cintra, an inland and elevated summer resort, which
was much favoured by the royal family, has its own
railway direct from Lisbon. It can also be reached by
road from Estoril, and an interesting day was spent there
seeing in the town itself the Maria Pia Palace, and on the
top of the overlooking hill the Palaza Pena (pronounced
Penna), a quaint building, with a lot of strange Moorish
defensive buildings also on surrounding hill-tops. Here
the ex-king and his mother were living in 1910 when the
revolution occurred, and the place remains as they then
left it.
On the coast, a few miles north of Cascaes, is first Cabo
21 o
The Barbary Coast and Iberian Peninsula
Raso, with a lighthouse and siren, and a little farther on
Cabo de Roca, the westmost point of Europe. Leaving
Portugal to return to Spain for some hours the route is
along the right bank of the Tagus, through a very
productive country. The journey from the one capital
to the other occupies sixteen hours for the same
distance as separates Edinburgh from London, and that
is in a three days each week de luxe express train at a
heavy extra charge. The track is rough and the plant
in poor repair. All we could say is that this journey was
less uncomfortable than from Seville to Lisbon.
Madrid is a city well advanced in the rebuilding.
There is little actually within the city which is not
extremely modern. Apparently the war has greatly
benefited the people of Spain, and the capital shows
every sign of much wealth — luxurious houses lavishly
furnished, the most expensive motor-cars, and a gay
community which turns night into day. There are
several readily accessible parks, which were, in the month
of May, full of blossoming trees. The Royal Palace, a
a most extensive, but as commonplace a building as our
own royalties inhabit, is right in the heart of the city.
An interesting armoury and the royal chapel are well
worth a visit. The zenith of Spain's power occurred when
mail-coats and steel-blades were also in their greatest
state of perfection. The wealth of the Romish Church
and the liberality of her supporters are demonstrated in
the limited but valuable collection of vessels and vest-
ments shown in the treasury of the chapel.
Though the capital has little of historical interest,
there are two most important national monument
centres within easy reach, Toledo and the Escorial.
Toledo is quite the most ancient city of Spain, with a
history of over 2,000 years. It has a commanding
situation, and in old days, with the natural protection of
the river Tagus on three sides and the walls and gates,
of which there are extensive remains, must have been
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quite a formidable fortress. This may be the reason it
was so frequently the subject of attacks and sieges.
Romans, Goths, Vandals, Moors and Spaniards in turn
fought for and against it, but still the destroyers' hands
were stayed and many old buildings remain. Its
situation on elevated ground, with the loop of the river
cutting it off, is most impressive. That and the walls,
with several gates, the bridge in the foreground, with
the cathedral and Alcazar on the sky line, make it the
most picturesque view of a city we found in Spain. The
cathedral is externally a magnificent Gothic building,
with a fine spire, as well as a large dome, while the interior
will bear comparison with any ecclesiastical building in
the world, and is well worthy of being Spain's national
church. The choir has beautiful carved walnut stalls
and screens of marble and agate. The Sagrario Chapel
is one of the richest storehouses in the world, containing
priceless pictures, magnificent vessels and caskets, with
wonderful jewels and vestments of incredible richness,
all showing the enormous wealth of the Roman Catholic
Church in Spain. There are eight doorways, each of
extraordinary elaborate sculpture and wood-carving.
Spain may well be proud of her Metropolitan church.
The Escorial is a unique building, sometimes described
as the eighth wonder of the world. It covers an area
of [over 50,000 square yards, and includes a palace, a
church, a monastery, a library, and a mausoleum in one
scheme, the last-named being the most gorgeous of its
kind in existence. The buildings are filled with art
treasures, among which the tapestries are outstanding.
The Casita del Principe, built about one hundred and
fifty years ago, forms a lodge from which the great
building is approached by a long avenue. It was a
living palace, but at the same time a museum of the finest
artistic work of its time, mainly oil paintings, frescoes,
ivory reliefs, and porcelains.
Cordova is also of great antiquity, and has its main
212
The Barbary Coast and Iberian Peninsula
interest to visitors in easy compass. The mosque has
little outward show, but its interior presents as remarkable
a building as any in the world. An enormous area,,
densely covered by columns bearing horse-shoe arches
a vast Moslem temple, has planted right in its centre a
Gothic Christian church of handsome proportions, and,
instead of complete enclosing walls, the church is open
all round towards the mosque buildings, and this out-
rageous conception has been so carried out that the
result is not unpleasing. In the mosque there are some
wonderful mosaics in splendid preservation, especially
in three chapels of the Mihrab, while in the cathedral
the reredos of bronze and jasper and the carved stalls
are notable. The view of the Moorish bridge, and of the
city and Calahorra, from the far side of the Guadalquivir
are, especially at sunset, very fine.
We passed on to Malaga, an important seaport with
little of historical interest. The profuse vegetation,
largely tropical, and general fertility show what a
rich country Spain is. Many great orange groves, their
blossoms just over, are in the neighbourhood, and at the
time of our visit the pomegranates were in their full
bloom of a rich, clear, blood red — a glorious sight. Malaga
is a place of beautiful residences and lovely gardens,
mostly skirting the sea. At present it is a railway
terminus and little visited by tourists, but next year
(1923) a railway direct to Granada is to be opened for
traffic. We had to detour about seven hours, again
through this veritable garden of Spain, succeeded by
some arid valleys back into the well-watered valley of
the Darro, to the old Moorish capital, the great centre of
interest in which is the world-famous Alhambra.
Granada stands nearly 3,000 feet above the sea, and
all the year round has a good climate. From the hill
on which the Alhambra is placed, a magnificent view is
had of the Sierra Nevada with snow-clad mountains, and
of a great fertile plain. The main features of the group
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of buildings known as the Alhambra are, the elaborate
detail of the ornamentation and the richness of the
colouring. The most beautiful parts are the Court of
the Lions, Court of the Fishpond, the Halls of the
Ambassadors, Justice, and the baths. The Generalife
is a summer residence, with beautiful gardens and
fine views. The cathedral is of no great interest
compared with the Capilla Real, in which lie the
greatest Spanish king and queen — Ferdinand and
Isabella. The Church of the Cartuja, founded in 1516
by the " Gran Capitan," Granada's hero, Gonzalo
Hernandez de Aguilar, is an extraordinary building. Of
highly-coloured marbles, with the most wonderful inlaid
work ever seen, ebony, cedar, mother-of-pearl, and
tortoise-shell in profusion ; such materials and workman-
ship as one would expect in a tiny cabinet, but spread
into a good-sized church. The impression is a dazzling
one and again unique, but purposeless, and one says,
" Wherefore this waste ? "
We stopped at Honda on our way back to Gibraltar,
our starting-point. It is in a most romantic situation,
right on the edge of a cliff pierced by a gorge, the two
portions connected by a bridge spanning the gorge, with
two earlier bridges, one Moorish and the other Roman,
far below. From the terrace there is a magnificent and
wonderful prospect.
There is room for much improvement in hotels,
specially in sanitary matters, and the railways are by no
means ideal, but when these deficiencies are remedied it
will be a less interesting Spain, as inevitably other less
acceptable modernisations will also come along.
214
XXVIII.
Geographical Facts and Fictions.
WE had many unexpected experiences as regards
temperatures, as changes of latitude are by no
means the only cause producing these.
Beginning our wanderings by the voyage from Liverpool,
via the northern passage of Newfoundland to Montreal,
in August, we had extremely cold weather for a day
before entering the Straits of Belle Isle and even going up
the St. Lawrence almost to Quebec, but between that and
Montreal we had full summer heat, and on arrival there
the men were mostly in whites and women in the lightest
of muslins. When within the tropics, at Jamaica and
also in Asia, each thousand feet above the sea make a
decided difference, and at 4,000 to 6,000 feet up warmer
clothing was a necessity.
Great mountain ranges such as the Rockies, the Andes,
and Himalayas affect the temperatures far beyond their
actual location. The last-named makes for the north
of India, though well within the temperate zone, a
tropical temperature. In Bolivia, at La Paz, we lived
at an altitude of 12,000 feet, and found it necessary to
do as the residents there do, walk slowly to avoid any
strain on the heart. When the sun was up there was no
want of warmth, but at sunset the temperature got
below freezing-point, and even indoors some heating was
required. We crossed the Andes several times at over
15,000 feet without any physical inconvenience, and we
sailed overnight from Bolivia to Peru on Lake Titicaca,
the highest navigable water in the world, 12,000 feet
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Zig-Zagging Round the World
above the sea, without any unusual sensation. In
contrast later on, we crossed the Sea of Tiberias, 680 feet
below sea-level, and the Jordan and Dead Sea are at a still
lower level, the latter 1,300 feet. At Darjeeling we were
about 7,000 feet above sea-level, but from near there we
looked on Kinchinjanga, 28,178 feet, and Mount Everest r
29,002 feet high. |
^he Spaniards were responsible for much of the
nomenclature in the Americas. There are Spanish name&
of places right along the Pacific coast, from Vancouver
Island to the south of Chile. Some interesting
inaccuracies were observed. Rio de Janeiro (river of
January) has no river. The Argentine and its main
river, the La Plata (both meaning silver), have not and
never had any silver. The outstanding misnomer of the
Spaniards is, of course, the Pacific Ocean, that place of
hurricanes and typhoons. But the Spaniards are not
alone. In New Zealand the Bay of Plenty is a place of
poor crops and scanty pastures, while the Bay of Poverty
is fine land and richly fertile. The richest of the Malay
States is Perak, meaning silver. Its main product is
tin, which was mistaken for the more valuable metal.
The distribution of the winds seriously affects the
temperature as well as the rainfall, especially among
islands. For instance, in Java, at the eastern end of the
island, in the month of July we had fine mornings and
forenoons, but rain regularly each afternoon, while at
the western end of the island the weather was continuously
fine. Britain is not the only place where temperatures
are uncertain. We crossed the equator six times, and
two of these times the temperature was decidedly cool,,
by no means tropical. San Francisco we visited twice :
in early November with delightful and clear summer
weather, late in June with cold fogs and sunless sky.
South America is geographically a most unusual
formation. It has, about one hundred miles from the
coast along its western side, the largest mountain range
216
Geographical Facts and Fictions
in the world. This causes the extraordinary shape of
Chile, over two thousand miles long and about one
hundred miles broad. On the eastern side of the Andes,
in Bolivia and Peru, the streams flowing eastwards were
the head- waters of the Amazon, and ran a course of five
thousand miles before reaching the Atlantic.
There are many widely-spread misconceptions as to
geographical locations : one of the most prevalent of
these is that Honolulu is an island in the South Seas,
whereas it is the largest town of the Hawaiian Islands,
an American territory north of the equator, nearly on the
Tropic of Cancer, and situated on Oahu Island, one of
the smaller islands of the eight which form the group.
Possibly the change of name from Sandwich Islands,
made about twenty years ago, when the United States
took over the islands, has caused this misconception.
One of the most striking facts we had impressed upon us
was the accurate geographic knowledge which was common
in China, when Europe upon such matters was in the
Dark Ages.
217
XXIX.
The Inner Man — Food.
THE European traveller finds a strongly cosmopolitan
tendency throughout the world, on steamers, and
in hotels, but even that has a local modification
from the supplies available and the practices of the
inhabitants. Where Latins and Teutons were the
original settlers, light breakfast, early and formidable
lunch, of which hors d'ceuwes are an important part
(in South America it amounted to a good cold lunch),
and late dinner or supper, sometimes as late as nine
o'clock, prevails, while in Anglo-Saxon Colonies, British
ways are customary. As a breakfast dish, North America
has adopted and even improved on the Scottish porridge
habit, now much less prevalent at home than it was fifty
years ago. It is varied in America under the term
" cereals," and that, along with fruit, is the introduction
to the Anglo-Saxon breakfast — a substantial meal,
followed by a light lunch (in some hot climates omitted),
afternoon tea (a growing habit), and dinner follows as
evening meal.
Hindus, much the larger proportion of the population
of India, by religion are vegetarians, and generally in the
east animal food is much less used than among westerns.
Cooked rice, boiled or steamed, really forms the staple
food of the natives throughout Asia and even, among
the foreign populations there, is largely used. It replaces
potatoes not only with curries, frequently vegetarian,
which appear so largely in eastern menus, but in Java
is the main part of the lunch, there known as " rice tafel."
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On a Japanese steamer, with mostly European passengers,
the officers had a vegetarian dinner every other day,
but on trains in their own country the meals were like
our own, and seemed to be quite generally taken by the
Japanese. Our agglomerations in cities has obliterated
the hospitable customs of earlier days, which still prevail
to the east of Suez and even in Egypt. In India and
China a necessary part of even an initial social reception
is tea and slight cakes. Frequently these are produced
as a preliminary to business, also at entertainments such
as the Cherry-blossom dance in Japan.
For Europeans in the east there are no cooks superior
to a Chinaman or an Indian, preferably a Goanese. On
one Japanese steamer, where every one of the crew from
commander to cabin boy was Japanese, the cook could
completely hold his own with Americans on pies, Indians
on curries, Russians on soups, and French on ragouts.
No housewife at home can be more cleanly about cooking
vessels or the food than are the Orientals, and much of
their practice in India is governed by religious rules.
The eastern lives lightly as regards food. A powerful
Arab living on a few dates and water is no traveller's
tale. Fish is a large article of diet, for natives as well as
travellers, wherever we went, but especially in the East
and Far East. Poultry and eggs were also very general.
Peacock in India and bear in Oregon were two unusual
diets we happened upon, the former a sacred bird no
Indian would touch.
If Scotland has given the world a breakfast dish, our
national beverage has attained equal cosmopolitanism,
as whisky has penetrated every land we visited. Coffee
is in general use in Latin and Teutonic countries and
largely in the United States, while tea is in common
use in the east, but, dominant as it is nowhere else in
Australasia, being there the accompaniment of every meal.
In the east it is usually taken without either milk or sugar.
A large part of the population of South America uses-
220
The Inner Man— Food
" Yerba matte," a decoction from the leaves of a shrub
growing wild in Paraguay and Argentina, which is said
to be meat and drink and on which sustained labour can
be undertaken. It acts as a stimulant without
intoxication. It is infused individually by freshly-boiled
water from a small kettle poured on the leaves in a
calabash cup, then the liquid is drawn free of leaves
through a silver tube, with perforated bulb at the end
(called a bombilla). placed in the cup. Milk is, of course,
all the world over, a natural food for the young. The
liquid in fresh coconuts is also used, and frequently we
had the pulped white of the nuts served like a custard.
The Japanese have become adepts at brewing a
Pilsener beer, largely used as mineral waters are by
themselves, but also exported westwards to what we call
the Orient.
Imported wines and other spirits than whisky are
comparatively little used abroad. Wines of local pro-
duction in South America and Australia are generally
consumed locally. There are also locally-made spirits
used by many native races in the east, such as " toddi,"
a fermented coco-nut water among the Malays, and
" saki," distilled from rice, in Japan. Vegetable
anodynes, " hasheesh " or " bhang," from Indian hemp,
in the middle east, and opium in the far east, are chewed
or smoked to soothe the nerves and to produce pleasant
dreams. The Moslems by their religion abstain from all
alcoholic drinks.
Fruit is an important part of the food of all Orientals,
and in various countries, according to the period of the
year, we had opportunity of eating many varieties,
which even cold storage does not open to the western
market. Mangoes, chicos or naseberries, mangosteen,
soursop, sweetsop, durian are some of these. Pine-
apples, paupau or papiya we do get at home carried in
freezers, but they do not taste like the freshly-gathered
fruit, and, indeed, the same applies to bananas, which have
221
Zig-Zagging Round the World
always to be green when shipped home. Jamaica is the
great producer of bananas, but there we had the experience
of almost every tropical fruit. Many of our common
fruits we had in great perfection in Canada and the
United States. Peaches, prunes as a particular plum is.
called, and apricots just ripe, picked when eaten, have a
lusciousness which carried fruit has not. We had straw-
berries in Australia and China, but not equal to home
grown. Californian oranges are unequalled, but those of
Jaffa compared closely, and even on the Nile, at Luxor,
we had delightful refreshing fruit pulled from the trees f
grateful in the extreme heat. California has given great
attention to melon growing. Canteloupe and honey-dew
melons, when obtainable, made a good preliminary to
breakfast. Tomatoes, of course, were available every-
where, but seldom equal to those grown at home. An
avocada pear, alligator pear or palka, as it was called in
South America, frequently was served before dinner
with vinegar and pepper, eaten with a spoon. It had a
dark green exterior wrapping, not edible, with a firm,
butter-like interior. Another appetiser was grape-fruit,
the best of which was grown in Florida. We heard of
birds' nests, very ancient eggs and fattened puppies,
being eaten by the Chinese as delicacies, but were satisfied
not to share their enjoyment ; neither did we try eating
from a family bowl or experiment on the use of chop-
sticks.
Salads have, in the east, to be eaten with discrimination,
but cooked vegetables are safe and the variety available
is endless. Most of our home varieties are to be had
where Europeans live ; some of them are grown and
eaten by the natives all over the east. Yams and bread-
fruit are available in tropical lands. Bamboo shoot &
are a delicacy. We thought them tasteless. Sweet
potatoes, egg plant (like an aubergine), sayor putch (a
big white radish), ladies' fingers (like a small cucumber,
with tiny peas inside) were all eaten in tropical lands and
222
The Inner Man— Food
were regularly used by Chinese, Tamils, and Malays.
Certainly such food is more suitable than meat for hot
countries, though the Briton travelling, when he gets
among compatriots, does not resent their efforts to let
him have a real home meal. We had three New Years'
days abroad : in Jamaica, Sydney, and Agra, and in
each case temperature of over 90°, but that did not
preclude the usual turkey and plum-pudding fare.
223
XXX.
The Outer Man and Woman — Dress.
OUR western idea is that where clothes are concerned
man's part in the play is a very subsidiary one,
but in the east the case is entirely different.
From highly-placed dignitaries of the Roman and Greek
Churches in Europe to the princes of India, the mandarins
of China, and the Mikado of Japan is no great leap.
The elaborateness of the robes is part of and an important
part of the official dress, as, in a less degree, are our
European navy, army, and diplomatic services parade
uniforms. When it comes to a question of dressing the
part, the east has it all the time. The garments of the
higher ecclesiastics, worn on rare occasions, do run the
Indian royalties hard, but the jewelled adornments added
to their silks and embroideries completely eclipse the
churchmen, and we may concede that the Indian prince
is the most gorgeously dressed male human in the world.
Western travellers, men especially, have little oppor-
tunity of seeing the indoor dress of Indian women.
Though their complexions are darker and their features
different from western women their natures are very
much alike. They love dress and even enjoy adorning
themselves. The coiffure gets much attention without
perhaps the variety of their Occidental sisters. Vanity-
boxes, cosmetics, and mirrors were used in the Far East
when our ladies wore skins and applied woad to their
bodies. A partiality for flowers and jewellery as adorn-
ment goes back as far as history. Our ladies begin to
affect divided skirts and even undisguised trousers, but
225
Zig-Zagging Round the World
these have been common in the east for hundreds of years,
from Persia to Japan. We saw in Japan girl cadets in tunic
and trousers being drilled there, and such dress and drill were
no western innovation, but had been worn and practised
for generations by the women of Saumarai families, who,
when their men were fighting their country's battles, had
to defend their ancestral homes. Out of doors the non-
purdah women of Ceylon and Burmah wore brilliant
colours daringly, but not disturbingly contrasted. Many
wore handsome and costly jewellery. Some races, such
as the Javanese and Malays, carry their wealth in that
form. The women wore garments of a peculiar locally-
made cotton print, called Batok. The designs are marked
off with hot, fluent wax at the point where the colour
being applied is to stop ; the pigment is painted on, dried,
and the wax removed ; the process is repeated for each
colour, and the effect when completed is quite unique.
This is largely women's work in the towns around
Djokjakarta, the oldest city in Java. While we were in
Calcutta, the wife of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal
held a reception of Indian ladies, and the descriptions of
dress published, amply bore out the claim that they are
elaborate and costly to a degree which far surpasses
anything in the west. Indoors there were only a few
exceptional opportunities of seeing Indian ladies' dress,
and these showed larger proportionate expenditure than
on the other items of cost of living, housing and food ;
also good taste in the selection of materials and colours.
In China and Japan we had many opportunities of seeing
both outdoor and indoor dress, which may be described
as handsome and heavy in the one case, graceful and
elegant in the other.
There are no season's fashions in frocks in the east,
so the " last word " has no meaning. Anyone can, and
it is well recognised as being done, wear mother's, grand-
mother's, or earlier ancestor's frock without hesitation.
In the south-west of India, at midday, ladies go even
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The Outer Man and Woman — Dress
more decolktte than in any British ballroom, and have
done so for hundreds of years.
There is a tendency more marked in Japan than
farther west for both sexes to wear European clothes.
In neither case did it seem a change for the better. It is
to be hoped that the Orientals will realise that here, if
anywhere, is there reason for conservatism. Of the
suitability and gracefulness of the time-honoured dress
habits in the east there can be no question.
227
XXXI.
Social Conditions— The Position of
Women and Children.
RELIGION seriously affects social conditions in all
Asiatic countries. Mahommedanism ignores
women and Hinduism does not allow women to
to take any active part in its public ritual, yet in both
cases women have an important place. They cannot by
any rule of man be excluded from their natural first
place in the upbringing of the next generation. In
Burmah there are no caste restrictions, while in Ceylon
they are practically abandoned. Obviously, the position
is entirely different in these two countries, as the population
generally has the sexes mixing as freely as in Europe.
Further east, in Malaya and Java, the position is like that
of Ceylon. In China the women seem less in evidence ;
the position there is not so much one of inferiority as of
a sacred seclusion, yet at outdoor work, agricultural as
well as labourer's work, they seem to preponderate.
Undoubtedly women's position in the east is on the
whole inferior, and undesirably so. They themselves
generally are conservative ; more opposed than men to
change of long-established conditions. They are also
credulous and superstitious, and only the slow movement
of education will alter these defects. In China the pig-
tail custom of the men and binding the feet of the women
are gradually going. There were very few of either
visible in Pekin. The unchanging east is now moving.
Nature is stronger than man-made rules. China has
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hardly forgotten the great Empress-Dowager. India's
greatest memorial structure, admittedly the finest
monument of human devotion in the world, is to a woman.
Among the Hindus the woman is the ruler in all domestic
affairs. She prompts the pilgrimage plans. She
officiates at the daily offering, lights the lamp before the
shrine, and chants the hymn ; reads to the children the
sacred books telling the deeds of the gods ; teaches the
children to prostrate themselves in prayer. So well is
her place recognised that a current proverb is, " A man is
a lion abroad, but a jackal in his own home." It reminds
one of " John Grumlie " and other classics at home.
Although the British Raj is most guarded in interfering
with any religious practices, suttee is now practically
abandoned and the age of actual marriage raised to
maturity. Medical missions have done much for women,
and there is a steady increase in the number of native
qualified medical men and women in India and Japan.
The races of India vary enormously in degree of colour,
from the Kashmiri, very much like ourselves, to the
Goanese, like negroes, while in their range of intelligence
and practices they are certainly fully as different as the
various races in Europe. The people approaching most
nearly to ourselves is the small but influential body of
Parsees, mostly in Bombay Province. They have no
caste and no early marriage.
Children in the east have a very good time. What
strikes a western is their early maturity, enhanced by the
common practice of dressing them like their elders.
Working women constantly carry round their babies in
India, generally astride on their sides ; farther east, on
their backs, but they are soon handed over to members
of the family only a little older. Everywhere there are
only a few years between the infants and their nurses.
Men in all the countries delighted in the young life,
especially the fathers with their little girls. One
Englishman, whom we met just as he came from China
230
Social Conditions— Women and Children
to Japan, had been most strongly impressed by the
absence of pocket-handkerchiefs, thejieed for which was
most noticeable among the children, and he suggested
that Mr. Rockefeller might be well-advised to inaugurate
the great Health Institute in Pekin, now building and
bearing his name, by a free distribution of these by the
million. Japan and China are great on children's toys.
Kite-flying is universal, and we were constantly coming
across strange forms of kites. The children in the east
are very happy creatures. Burmah and Japan take the
lead in ideas for giving them pleasure — possibly the
freedom of the women is an important factor.
231
XXXII.
Builders.
THE houses we live in, the roads we make, the walls
which enclose and protect us, and our shrines
or places of worship are the most characteristic
manifestation of a people's ideals. The religious and
philosophic Greeks built temples, the masterful Romans
constructed roads, but by that time the Near, Middle,
and Far East had each made their manifestation. The
pyramids and sphinx then were antique ; even Thebes
was aged. Many of the finest Hindu temples were
contemporary, while the greater part of China's Great
Wall was serving the purpose of its builders. Asia and
North Africa were middle-aged ; Europe was still a
lusty, growing youth. What are the outstanding
features of these manifestations ? In massive solidity,
austere strength, rarely with gracefulness, the pyramids
and temples of Egypt are remarkable ; rugged masses of
stone crudely wrought ; huge, hard and strong. The
Inca remains in Bolivia, and Peru may be placed in the
same category. In patient work, time unlimited and
freely given, minute and beautiful and accurate in detail,
the most perfect examples are the Hindu work in India,
Ceylon, and Java of about two thousand years ago.
The remains in Greece, as well as in Italy and at Baalbec,
well illustrate the Greek and Roman expression of bold
and graceful outline with fine detail, the temple of
Bacchus at Baalbec being an outstanding example.
Religious motives have largely inspired the finest
structures in east and west. The Shwe Dagon Pagoda
in Rangoon, the Altar of Heaven and the Temple of
Heaven in Pekin (both magnificent examples of enduring
work) ; the Dilwarra Temples at Mount Abu in Rajputana ;
the mosques of Constantinople and Cairo, as well as the
R 233
Zig-Zagging Round the World
Christian fanes, Gothic and Renaissance, of Europe, are
all of this class, each in its own way giving expression to
high religious feeling.
Japan is disappointing as regards buildings. There
are few really impressive. The shrines are mostly of
wood, and gaudily painted. Some of the palaces are of
stone, mostly very simply furnished. The wonderful
Indo-Persian creations in and around Agra, the Taj
Mahal, the tomb of Itimad-ad-Dowlah, Akbar's tomb at
Sikandra, and the abandoned capital at Fatipur Sikri are
the finest and most perfect examples of architectural
expression in the east, and we can hardly find anything
in western countries which can be compared with them.
The Moorish work of Southern Spain is of the same order,
but falls far short in design and execution.
What of modern work ? In the east, and especially
in Malay a, there were some interesting and not unsuccessful
efforts to adapt eastern outlines to public service
buildings. Modern Athens has in her perfect material —
Pentelicon pure white marble — a great advantage, and
University Street there is on a small scale a creditable
effort. America does not profess to do more than copy
classical forms. The Capitol at Washington and the
Pennsylvania Station in New York do this successfully,
but generally in Europe and America, Government and
other public buildings, hotels, libraries, and railway
stations are sadly wanting in originality or expression of
other than utilitarian ugliness. The new Delhi will test
Britain. What is visible promises well, but of course
this is not an Indian expression but a British. The
temporary Delhi looks like Earl's Court. We had several
opportunities of seeing good class dwelling-houses in the
Near East — i.e., around the Mediterranean — and were
surprised at their handsomeness. That of course was all
within, as no portion of such houses is visible from
without. Decoration and furniture were luxurious and
in good taste.
234
XXXIII.
Craftsmen and Artists.
THERE is much of what may be called hereditary
craft in the east. In India the caste system
lends itself to the son following his father's
occupation until his skill becomes almost a hereditary
instinct. In China there are very ancient craft guilds
still operative on lines very similar to those of
Continental and British institutions, now only of historical
interest or surviving in their benign work of helping
disabled brothers. Does the Oriental workman know
how to exercise his craft, and, if so, does he turn out a
creditable article ? Take house furniture. The Japanese
do not cumber their houses with much, but that little is
well-contrived, daintily made, and artistically decorated.
The Chinaman, possibly because he uses it more, makes a
stronger article of more perfect workmanship. He sits
on a chair ; most Orientals sit or squat on the floor.
Some of his cabinet work, with mother-of-pearl decoration
and the component parts firmly held together by wooden
angles and keys, is perfectly marvellous. The workshops
of Canton, all in one quarter, were crowded with good
work, evidently for home consumption. Seoul in Korea,
was a great curiosity shop. We saw one private house
there filled with beautiful old pieces, the feature of which
was brass work combined with well-grained hard wood,
dimly polished. The collection of highly artistic furniture
in the Imperial Museum, Pekin, is unique. Generally
metal work is carried to greater perfection in India than
further east. There were in the old days of constant
s 235
Zig-Zagging Round the World
fighting a race of armourers with great skill in supplying
the elaborately decorated weapons, and the skill of the
descendants has been turned to household decorative
work, especially combining metals, such as " bidri " work,
which is ground-work of gun-metal, with silver designs
hammered in, and engraving and inlaying on brass, as at
Benares, Moradabad, and Jaipur. We saw extra-
ordinarily fine brass work of the present day in Java at
Djokjakarta. Damascus work, gold on gun-metal, is
carried on in the north-west of India ; but we saw the
finest work of this kind in Kyoto, Japan.
There was no mosaic work in the east at all comparable
with that in Spain, particularly in the mosque at
Cordova. The Chinese shoemaker, entirely by hand,
does work well equal to the costliest London makers, and
his leather endures. On decorative work, such as lacquer,
combined metal and porcelain, or cloisonne, the
Chinamen excel in every way, and their work is not
contrived or designed by a master and executed by a
mechanical servant-worker, but throughout embodies the
thought, taste, and skill of one man, a creative artist.
In India the mason and smith wrought together as early
as the thirteenth century on the forged structural iron-
work as instanced in the Black Pagoda at Kanarak, in
the north-east of Madras Presidency.
In jewellery India has long been predominant ; the
availability of precious stones is a factor, and there are
also very highly skilled silversmiths. The productions
of these craftsmen are favourite forms of investment
among the simple Indians, who prefer the compactly
material form to incomprehensible " scraps of paper."
To some extent the same preference applies to China,
but the bank idea has long been familiar there. The skill
and artistic work of their silversmiths competes credit-
ably with the whole world.
The weaver's craft has certainly as long a history in
the Orient as those already referred to, and it is no
236
Craftsmen and Artists
exaggeration to say that, with only the most primitive
appliances, there has been produced as fine work as by
machinery in modern times. Largely working in silk, as
we saw them doing in each country visited, and with great
natural taste, both for design and colouring, and of course
with weather conditions encouraging brilliant colours
and dainty fabrics, the Oriental weaver produces articles
of the very highest class. The embroiderer, often a man,
though it is also woman's work, has an important part in
decorating the fabric which the weaver has produced,
and from India to Japan they vie with each other, not
only in making work for men's and women's dress, but
in draperies, table decoration, and hangings. Dyeing is a
familiar household occupation in the east, and the dye-stuffs
give not only beautiful but durable colours. The finest
of carpets are produced in Persia as prayer rugs of silk
and wool, but the luxury of women's quarters in India
and further east is responsible for the production of floor-
rugs and carpets of wonderful design and colouring, all
hand work, generally of young boys and girls under an
adult's guidance. Sculpture is dormant in the east.
The only output which came under our notice was Buddhas
in the neighbourhood of Mandalay, which seemed to be
exported all over the East and Far East.
Drawing and painting are more vital arts. Curiously,
there was no indication that painting in oils was ever
practised in the East. Japan excelled in water-colour
painting, but both they and the Chinese have marvel-
lously vigorous and lifelike black-and-white work, as well
by brush as by pen and pencil. The skill required to
make their written ideographs is also applied to figure-
drawing.
We could discover no charm in eastern music.
237
XXXIV.
The Oriental's Point of View.
IN intercourse with the peoples of the two Americas
we had many opportunities of hearing their point
of view of the British, specially the English,
plainly put to us. They do not accept us at our own
valuation. No doubt they see us from a different angle,
and their view was not always complimentary, but it was
wholesome for us. We are not the only people who may
be seen by different people from diametrically opposite
points of view. A droll experience we had in finding at
Seattle, Washington State, a Japanese noble meta-
phorically on his knees doing penance on behalf of his
nation to the Americans over deli veries inferior to sample
during the war ; and when we got down to Buenos Ayres
a similar scene was staged, but the Argentines were the
plaintiffs and the North Americans were in the dock on
exactly the same charge.
In judging of Asia it is of transcendent importance
that we should know the point of view of its inhabitants,
who are nearly two-thirds of the human race, and none
of the 300,000,000 of India and few of the 400,000,000
of China but are of an earlier civilisation than our own.
In India one begins to realise how many different races
there are, quite as varied as the extremes of the European
nationalities, and, no doubt, though the western cannot
discern it, there are equal differences among the 400,000,000
of China, but one thing is certain that only a small
percentage of that 700,000,000 are primitive and
uncivilised. They have acute minds and fine ideals.
239
Zig-Zagging Round the World
The Moslem with his obeyed Koran and call to prayer,
heard and heeded five times a day, comes nearer to being
religious than many so-called Christians. The Hindu,
with his many gods, reincarnations, pilgrimages, and
well-kept rules of life, often has good reason to despise
what he sees in nominal Christians. The Confucians have
all the religion of Christ except the Redemption as their
daily guide ; they cannot fairly be described as heathen.
The Christian faith they hear of and admire, but the bulk
of its visible examples are mighty poor arguments for
our faith. The uppermost and most visible motives of
the great bulk of the Europeans in India are desire of
wealth and position. All honour to the small body of
earnest missionaries who toil on hopefully among such an
unimpressionable multitude.
Two interesting writers in recently published works
make comments on the Chinese : —
Emile Hovelaque, in "La Chine" (1920), writes:
" The civilisation of China has stood its tests. It has
provided countless generations of men with food, not
only for the body, but for the soul. It has been a school
of moral beauty and virtue, of gentleness and wisdom.
It has given to China a degree of happiness, and to the
life of her people a stability and harmony which have
never been excelled (the Chinese would say ' never
equalled') by any other civilisation."
J. 0. Bland, in his "China, Japan, and Korea"
(1921), refers to present-day conditions in these countries
in the following words : " Never has there been a race
more worthily deserving of protection at the hands of
humanity. For, say what you will, that very passive
philosophy which exposes China to the rapacity of earth-
hungry Powers, approaches more nearly to the essential
principles of Christianity as laid down in the Sermon
on the Mount than the every-day practice of most
Christian nations."
The Great War between Christian nations, each
240
The Oriental's Point of View
invoking the same Divine aid, causing a slaughter com-
pared with which all Asiatic figures are insignificant,
quite reasonably makes the Oriental pause and ask whether
a, civilisation and religion under which such things can
be is desirable for them. The war has certainly aroused
expression of desire on the part of the Orientals, now under
foreign powers, to have independence or more voice in
the government of their countries.
We had opportunities of seeing two other European
powers as Colonists, the French and the Dutch, and
undoubtedly they identify themselves with their colonies
as our people do not. They live for and die in the Colonies,
and frequently intermarry with the people among whom
their lot is cast. The British attitude is that of a superior
race only there for a term, earning a pension or amassing
a fortune, on which they retire to the Old Country. The
mean of these two attitudes is the desirable course.
Similarly there are plenty of stories, well substantiated, of
stupid young swankers ill-treating Indian princes, and
there are undoubtedly hundreds of cases where British
officials and soldiers are admired, trusted, and loved by
highly-educated and highly-placed Indians. In the Native
States one hears little of disaffection or disloyalty, possibly
because it is well known that any such open expression
would at once be sharply dealt with. Indian aspirations
for taking increased responsibility in governing their
own land are being encouraged, and a gradual progress in
that direction has been forecasted by the Home Govern-
ment. Even among themselves there are indications
that there would not generally be that confidence in the
purity of the services which has characterised the past.
It is a difficult position and the solution lies in going
cautiously, and the Indian will be well advised not to
press for rapid progress. Japan, an absolute military
monarchy, seems to make more progress towards western
civilisation than does China — a chaotic Republic. The
United States gave Cuba her independence to the dis-
241
Zig-Zagging Round the World
advantage of that people, and in the Philippines are not
likely to take the same course. The whole interest of
Britain and the European powers generally is to make
strong stable communities throughout the Orient. Study
of the Oriental's point of view is the essential preparation
for enabling the European to assist and guide the millions
of Asia to this goal.
Many lands were visited, and we had much intercourse
with many peoples. All were interesting, but we shared
the fate of many travellers in that we thoroughly
succumbed to the charm and fascination of the East
and Far East. Indelible impressions of India and
China we shall carry through all our days here and
possibly even to the hereafter.
242
INDEX
PAGE
JSgean, Bosphorus, and Levant, The, 197
Algeria 206
Australasia : its Social and Industrial Conditions, Resources,
and Needs, 113
Australia, 103
A Visit to the Iguazu — the most beautiful waterfalls in the
world, 65
Barbary Coast and Iberian Peninsula, The 205
Bosphorus, 202
Builders, 233
Burma, . . . . . . . . . . . • • • • • 155
Canada, 9
Ceylon, 160
China, 128
Commonwealth of Australia, . . . . . . . . . . 103
Craftsmen and Artists 235
Cuba, 41
Dominion of New Zealand, The, 95
Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, . . . . . . . . . . 187
Federation of the British West Indies. 53
Geographical Facts and Fictions, 215
Hawaii, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 85
Hawaiian Islands, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Hong Kong, 131
Honolulu, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 87
Iguazu, The, 65
Imperial Valley, California, The, 31
India, 169
Inner Man, The— Food, 210
Jamaica, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 46
Jamaica and Federation of the British West Indies, . . . . 53
Japan, 119
Java, 140
INDEX— continued.
PAGE
Korea, 127
Levant, 203
Malaya, 143
Manchuria, 128
Manila, 139
Morocco, 206
New Zealand, 95
Oriental Point of View, The, 239
Outer Man and Woman, The — Dress, 225
Palestine, 194
Panama Canal, Pacific Trade, and the World War 81
Portugal, 209
Rocky Mountains, Canada, 13
Social Conditions — the Position of Women and Children, . . 229
South America, Eastern Seaboard, 57
South America, Western Seaboard, 71
South-Western States, The, 35
Spain, 208
Syria, 192
Through Korea and Manchuria to China, 127
Trade in the Far East, 149
Western Seaboard of the United States, .. 17
West Indies, The, Cuba and Jamaica, 41
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