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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, From Pole to Pole, by Sven Anders Hedin
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: From Pole to Pole
+       A Book for Young People
+
+
+Author: Sven Anders Hedin
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2007  [eBook #20709]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM POLE TO POLE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Susan Skinner, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original 40 illustrations.
+      See 20709-h.htm or 20709-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/7/0/20709/20709-h/20709-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/7/0/20709/20709-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+FROM POLE TO POLE
+
+A Book for Young People
+
+by
+
+SVEN HEDIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DR. SVEN HEDIN IN TIBETAN DRESS. _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+The MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
+Toronto
+
+MacMillan and Co., Limited
+St. Martin's Street, London
+1914
+
+Copyright
+First Edition 1912
+Reprinted 1914
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+
+
+    This translation of Dr. Sven Hedin's _Från Pol till Pol_ has, with
+    the author's permission, been abridged and edited for the use of
+    English-speaking young people.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+  I. ACROSS EUROPE--                                       PAGE
+
+    STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN                                       1
+    BERLIN                                                    4
+    BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE                                  8
+    CONSTANTINOPLE                                           13
+    THE CHURCH OF THE DIVINE WISDOM                          15
+    THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL                                   20
+
+  II. CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN (1905)--
+
+    THE BLACK SEA                                            26
+    TREBIZOND TO TEHERAN                                     29
+
+  III. THROUGH THE CAUCASUS, PERSIA, AND MESOPOTAMIA
+         (1885-6)--
+
+    ST. PETERSBURG TO BAKU                                   34
+    ACROSS PERSIA                                            37
+    ARABIA                                                   40
+    BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN                                       42
+
+  IV. THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)--
+
+    ACROSS THE KEVIR                                         46
+    THE OASIS OF TEBBES                                      51
+
+  V. ON THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE (1893-5)--
+
+    INTO ASIA FROM ORENBURG                                  55
+    SAMARCAND AND BUKHARA                                    59
+    THE PAMIR                                                62
+    "THE FATHER OF ICE-MOUNTAINS"                            66
+    A KIRGHIZ GYMKHANA                                       69
+
+  VI. FROM PERSIA TO INDIA (1906)--
+
+    TEBBES TO SEISTAN                                        72
+    A BALUCHI RAID                                           75
+    SCORPIONS                                                80
+    THE INDUS                                                82
+    KASHMIR AND LADAK                                        87
+
+  VII. EASTERN TURKESTAN (1895)--
+
+    THE TAKLA-MAKAN DESERT                                   89
+    ACROSS A SEA OF SAND                                     90
+    THE END OF THE CARAVAN                                   93
+    WATER AT LAST                                            97
+
+  VIII. THE DESERT WATERWAY (1899)--
+
+    DOWN THE YARKAND RIVER                                  102
+    THE TARIM                                               105
+    THE WANDERING LAKE                                      107
+    WILD CAMELS                                             109
+
+  IX. IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1901-2, 1906-8)--
+
+    THE PLATEAU OF TIBET                                    111
+    ATTEMPT TO REACH LHASA                                  115
+    THE TASHI LAMA                                          124
+    WILD ASSES AND YAKS                                     126
+
+  X.  INDIA--
+
+    FROM TIBET TO SIMLA                                     130
+    DELHI AND AGRA                                          131
+    BENARES AND BRAHMINISM                                  134
+    THE LIGHT OF ASIA                                       137
+    BOMBAY                                                  141
+    THE USEFUL PLANTS OF INDIA                              142
+    WILD ELEPHANTS                                          145
+    THE COBRA                                               148
+
+  XI. FROM INDIA TO CHINA (1908)--
+
+    THE INDIAN OCEAN                                        152
+    THE SUNDA ISLANDS                                       153
+    PENANG AND SINGAPORE                                    156
+    UP THE CHINA SEA                                        157
+
+  XII. CHINA--
+
+    TO SHANGHAI                                             161
+    "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM"                                    164
+    THE BLUE RIVER                                          169
+    IN NORTHERN CHINA                                       172
+    MONGOLIA                                                176
+    MARCO POLO                                              179
+
+  XIII. JAPAN (1908)--
+
+    NAGASAKI AND KOBE                                       185
+    FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO                                      190
+    NIKKO, NARA, AND KIOTO                                  193
+
+  XIV. BACK TO EUROPE--
+
+    KOREA                                                   197
+    MANCHURIA                                               199
+    THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY                              202
+    THE VOLGA AND MOSCOW                                    207
+    ST. PETERSBURG AND HOME                                 210
+
+
+  PART II
+
+
+  I. STOCKHOLM TO EGYPT--
+
+    TO LONDON AND PARIS                                     215
+    NAPOLEON'S TOMB                                         218
+    PARIS TO ROME                                           222
+    THE ETERNAL CITY                                        225
+    POMPEII                                                 229
+
+  II. AFRICA--
+
+    GENERAL GORDON                                          236
+    THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN                               247
+    OSTRICHES                                               250
+    BABOONS                                                 252
+    THE HIPPOPOTAMUS                                        253
+    MAN-EATING LIONS                                        256
+    DAVID LIVINGSTONE                                       261
+    HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE                           275
+    THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE                                282
+    STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY                                 287
+    TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA                                 297
+
+  III. NORTH AMERICA--
+
+    THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD                          306
+    NEW YORK                                                317
+    CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES                             326
+    THROUGH THE GREAT WEST                                  333
+
+  IV.  SOUTH AMERICA--
+
+    THE INCA EMPIRE                                         341
+    THE AMAZONS RIVER                                       351
+
+  V. IN THE SOUTH SEAS--
+
+    ALBATROSSES AND WHALES                                  358
+    ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND                                362
+    ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN                                365
+    ACROSS AUSTRALIA                                        372
+
+  VI. THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS--
+
+    SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE            377
+    THE VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA"                                386
+    NANSEN                                                  392
+
+  VII. THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS                              404
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    PLATE
+
+           Dr. Sven Hedin in Tibetan Dress             _Frontispiece_
+
+        I. Berlin                                                   6
+
+       II. Constantinople                                          13
+
+      III. Oil-Well at Balakhani                                   36
+
+       IV. A Persian Caravanserai                                  43
+
+        V. The Author's Riding Camel, with Gulam Hussein           46
+
+       VI. Tebbes                                                  51
+
+     VII.  A Baluchi Nomad Tent                                    76
+
+     VIII. Srinagar and the Jhelum River                           87
+
+      IX.  Digging for Water in the Takla-makan                    94
+
+        X. The Author's Boat on the Yarkand River                 102
+
+       XI. Tashi-lunpo                                            125
+
+      XII. Simla                                                  131
+
+     XIII. The Taj Mahal                                          134
+
+      XIV. Benares                                                136
+
+       XV. Tame Elephants and their Drivers                       147
+
+      XVI. On the Canton River                                    159
+
+     XVII. The Great Wall of China                                165
+
+    XVIII. Gate in the Walls of Peking                            176
+
+      XIX. A Japanese Ricksha                                     189
+
+       XX. Fujiyama                                               190
+
+      XXI. The Great Buddha at Kamakura                           192
+
+     XXII. A Sedan-Chair in Seoul                                 199
+
+    XXIII. The Kremlin, Moscow                                    208
+
+     XXIV. Paris                                                  216
+
+      XXV. Napoleon's Tomb                                        219
+
+     XXVI. The Colosseum, Rome                                    228
+
+    XXVII. Pompeii                                                233
+
+   XXVIII. The Great Pyramids at Ghizeh                           238
+
+     XXIX. A Hippopotamus                                         254
+
+      XXX. The Fight on the Congo                                 294
+
+     XXXI. A Group of Beduins                                     300
+
+    XXXII. "Sky-Scrapers" in New York                             323
+
+   XXXIII. Niagara Falls                                          331
+
+    XXXIV. Cañons on the Colorado River                           339
+
+     XXXV. Cotopaxi                                               344
+
+    XXXVI. Indian Huts on the Amazons River                       353
+
+   XXXVII. A Coral Strand                                         369
+
+  XXXVIII. Country near Lake Eyre                                 373
+
+    XXXIX. The "Fram"                                             393
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF MAPS
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  1. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Berlin                      2
+
+  2. Map showing journey from Berlin to Constantinople                10
+
+  3. Plan of Constantinople                                           13
+
+  4. Map showing journey from Constantinople to Teheran, latter
+       part of journey to Baku, and journey from Baku across
+       Persia to Baghdad and back to Teheran                          30
+
+  5. Map showing journey from Orenburg to the Pamir                   56
+
+  6. Map showing journey from Teheran to Baluchistan                  73
+
+  7. Map of Northern India, showing rivers and mountain ranges        82
+
+  8. Map of Eastern Turkestan                                         90
+
+  9. Tibet                                                           112
+
+  10. Map  of India, showing journey from Nushki to Leh, and
+        journey from Tibet through Simla, etc., to Bombay            132
+
+  11. The Sunda Islands                                              154
+
+  12. Map showing voyage from Bombay to Hong Kong                    158
+
+  13. Map of Northern China and Mongolia                             174
+
+  14. Map showing journey from Shanghai through Japan and
+        Korea to Dalny                                               184
+
+  15. The Trans-Siberian Railway                                     203
+
+  16. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Paris                    216
+
+  17. Map showing journey from Paris to Alexandria                   230
+
+  18. Map of North-Eastern Africa, showing Egypt and the Sudan       237
+
+  19. Livingstone's Journeys in Africa                               262
+
+  20. North-West Africa                                              298
+
+  21. Toscanelli's Map                                               308
+
+  22. North America                                                  325
+
+  23. South America                                                  343
+
+  24. The South Seas                                                 366
+
+  25. The North Polar Regions                                        378
+
+  26. The South Polar Regions                                        405
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+ACROSS EUROPE
+
+
+STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN
+
+Our journey begins at Stockholm, the capital of my native country.
+Leaving Stockholm by train in the evening, we travel all night in
+comfortable sleeping-cars and arrive next morning at the southernmost
+point of Sweden, the port of Trelleborg, where the sunlit waves sweep in
+from the Baltic Sea.
+
+Here we might expect to have done with railway travelling, and we rather
+look for the guard to come and open the carriage doors and ask the
+passengers to alight. Surely it is not intended that the train shall go
+on right across the sea? Yet that is actually what happens. The same
+train and the same carriages, which bore us out of Stockholm yesterday
+evening, go calmly across the Baltic Sea, and we need not get out before
+we arrive at Berlin. The section of the train which is to go on to
+Germany is run by an engine on to a great ferry-boat moored to the quay
+by heavy clamps and hooks of iron. The rails on Swedish ground are
+closely connected with those on the ferry-boat, and when the carriages
+are pushed on board by the engine, they are fastened with chains and
+hooks so that they may remain quite steady even if the vessel begins to
+roll. As the traveller lies dozing in his compartment, he will certainly
+hear whistles and the rattle of iron gear and will notice that the
+compartment suddenly becomes quite dark. But only when the monotonous
+groaning and the constant vibration of the wheels has given place to a
+gentle and silent heaving will he know that he is out on the Baltic Sea.
+
+We are by no means content, however, to lie down and doze. Scarcely
+have the carriages been anchored on the ferry-boat before we are on the
+upper deck with its fine promenade. The ferry-boat is a handsome vessel,
+370 feet long, brand-new and painted white everywhere. It is almost like
+a first-class hotel. In the saloon the tables are laid, and Swedish and
+German passengers sit in groups at breakfast. There are separate rooms
+for coffee and smoking, for reading and writing; and we find a small
+bookstall where a boy sells guidebooks, novels, and the Swedish and
+German newspapers of the day.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN.]
+
+The ferry-boat is now gliding out of the harbour, and every minute that
+passes carries us farther from our native land. Now the whole town of
+Trelleborg is displayed before our eyes, its warehouses and new
+buildings, its chimneys and the vessels in the harbour. The houses
+become smaller, the land narrows down to a strip on the horizon, and at
+last there is nothing to be seen but a dark cloud of smoke rising from
+the steamers and workshops. We steam along a fairway rich in memories,
+and over a sea which has witnessed many wonderful exploits and
+marvellous adventures. Among the wreckage and fragments at its bottom
+sleep vikings and other heroes who fought for their country; but to-day
+peace reigns over the Baltic, and Swedes, Danes, Russians, and Germans
+share in the harvest of the sea. Yet still, as of yore, the autumn
+storms roll the slate-grey breakers against the shores; and still on
+bright summer days the blue waves glisten, silvered by the sun.
+
+Four hours fly past all too quickly, and before we have become
+accustomed to the level expanses of the sea a strip of land appears to
+starboard. This is Rügen, the largest island of Germany, lifting its
+white chalk cliffs steeply from the sea, like surf congealed into stone.
+The ferry-boat swings round in a beautiful curve towards the land, and
+in the harbour of Sassnitz its rails are fitted in exactly to the
+railway track on German soil. We hasten to take our seats in the
+carriages, for in a few minutes the German engine comes up and draws the
+train on to the land of Rügen.
+
+The monotonous grind of iron on iron begins again, and the coast and the
+ferry-boat vanish behind us. Rügen lies as flat as a pancake on the
+Baltic Sea, and the train takes us through a landscape which reminds us
+of Sweden. Here grow pines and spruces, here peaceful roe-deer jump and
+roam about without showing the slightest fear of the noise of the engine
+and the drone of the carriages.
+
+Another ferry takes us over the narrow sound which separates Rügen from
+the mainland, and we see through the window the towers and spires and
+closely-packed houses of Stralsund. Every inch of ground around us has
+once been Swedish. In this neighbourhood Gustavus Adolphus landed with
+his army, and in Stralsund Charles XII. passed a year of his adventurous
+life.
+
+In the twilight the train carries us southwards through Pomerania, and
+before we reach Brandenburg the autumn evening has shrouded the North
+German lowland in darkness. The country is flat and monotonous; not a
+hill, hardly even an insignificant mound, rises above the level expanse.
+Yet the land has a peculiar attraction for the stranger from Sweden. He
+thinks of the time when Swedish gun-carriages splashed and dashed
+through the mud before the winter frost made their progress still more
+difficult and noisy. He thinks of heroic deeds and brave men, of early
+starts, and horses neighing with impatience at the reveille; of
+victories and honourable peaces, and of the captured flags at home.
+
+If he is observant he will find many other remembrances in the North
+German low country. Boulders of Swedish granite lie scattered over the
+plain. They stand out like milestones and mark the limits of the
+extension of the Scandinavian inland ice. During a colder period of the
+world's history all northern Europe was covered with a coat of ice, and
+this period is called the Ice Age. No one knows why the ice embraced
+Scandinavia and the adjacent countries and swept in a broad stream over
+the Baltic Sea. And no one knows why the climate afterwards became
+warmer and drier, and forced the ice to melt away and gradually to leave
+the ground bare. But we know for a fact that the boulders in northern
+Germany were carried there on the back of an immense ice stream, for
+they are composed of rocks which occur only in Scandinavia. The ice tore
+them away from the solid mountains; during its slow movement southwards
+it carried them with it, and when it melted the blocks were left on the
+spot.
+
+At last points of light begin to flash by like meteors in the night.
+They become more and more numerous, and finally come whole rows and
+clusters of electric lamps and lighted windows. We are passing through
+the suburbs of a huge city, one of the largest in the world and the
+third largest in Europe--Berlin.
+
+
+BERLIN
+
+If we spread out on the table a map of Europe on which all the railways
+are indicated by black lines, the map will look like a net with
+irregular meshes. At all the knots are towns, large centres of
+population which are in constant communication with one another by means
+of the railways. If we fix our eyes on North Germany, we see what looks
+like an enormous spider's web, and in the middle of it sits a huge
+spider. That spider is called Berlin. For as a spider catches its prey
+in an ingeniously spun net, so Berlin by its railways draws to itself
+life and movement not only from Germany but from all Europe--nay, from
+the whole world.
+
+If we could fly some hundreds of miles straight up into the air and had
+such sharp eyes that we could perceive all the coasts and boundaries of
+Europe, and plainly distinguish the fine lines of the railways, we
+should also see small, dark, short forms running backwards and forwards
+along them. We should see, as it were, a teeming ant-hill, and after
+every ant we should see a small puff of smoke. In Scandinavia and
+Russia the bustle would seem less lively, but in the centre of Europe
+the ants would scurry about with terrible activity.
+
+Whether it was winter or summer, day or night, the bustle would never
+grow less. From our elevated point of view we should see innumerable
+trains flying in the night like glow-worms in every direction.
+Ceaselessly they rush between cities and states, between the sea-coast
+and the inland districts, and to and from the heart of Europe. For
+during the last twenty years Berlin has become the heart of Europe.
+London is situated on an island, and Paris is too near the margin of the
+Continent. But in Berlin several of the greatest railway routes meet,
+and whether the traveller goes from Paris to St. Petersburg, from
+Stockholm to Rome, or from Hamburg to Vienna, he has always to pass
+through Berlin.
+
+In the city which is "the heart of Europe" we must expect to find the
+main thoroughfares crowded with foot-passengers of all nationalities,
+and vehicles of every conceivable kind--motor cars, electric trams,
+horse omnibuses, vans, cabs, carts, and so on. Yet in spite of their
+endless streams of traffic, the streets of Berlin are not noisy--not
+nearly so noisy as those of Stockholm--for they are paved with asphalt
+and wood, and most of the conveyances have rubber tyres on their wheels.
+As in other large cities, the streets are relieved of a great deal of
+traffic by trains which run right through the town and round its
+suburbs, either up in the air on viaducts, or underground in tunnels
+lighted by electricity. At the Frederick Street Station of the City
+Railway, which lies in the centre of the town, a train arrives or
+departs every other minute of the day and of a good part of the night as
+well.
+
+Not far off is a square--the "King's Place"--where a monument to
+commemorate the victory of the Germans over the French, in 1871, lifts
+its spire above the city, with three rows of cannon captured in France
+in its recesses. Close at hand, too, are the shady walks in the
+"Tiergarten" (Park), where all Berlin is wont to enjoy itself on
+Sundays. When we turn eastwards, we have to pass through a great
+colonnade, the Brandenburg Gate, with Doric pillars supporting the
+four-horsed chariot of the goddess of victory in beaten copper. Here the
+German army entered Berlin after the conquest of France and the founding
+of the German Empire.
+
+On the farther side of this gate stretches one of the most noted
+streets in Europe. For if Berlin is the heart of Germany, so is the
+street called "Unter den Linden" (Under the Lime-Trees) the centre and
+heart of Berlin. There are, indeed, streets which are longer, for this
+extends only two-thirds of a mile, but hardly any which are broader, for
+it is 66 yards across. Between its alternate carriage-roads and
+foot-walks four double rows of limes and chestnuts introduce a
+refreshing breath of open country right into the bosom of the great town
+of stone, with its straight streets and heavy, grey square houses. As we
+wander along "Unter den Linden" we pass the foreign embassies and the
+German government offices, and, farther on, the palace of the old Kaiser
+Wilhelm, which is unoccupied and has been left exactly as it was in his
+lifetime. He used to stand at a corner window on the ground floor, and
+look out at his faithful people.
+
+It is now just noon. Splendid carriages and motor cars sweep past, and
+the crush of people on the pavements is great. We hear the inspiriting
+music of a military band, and the Imperial Guard marches down the
+street, followed by crowds of eager sightseers. Keeping time with the
+music we march with them past the great Royal Library to where Frederick
+the Great looks down from his tall bronze horse on the children of
+to-day. On the one side is the Opera House, on the other is the
+University, with its ten thousand students, and farther on the Arsenal,
+with its large historical collections of engines of war. We cross over
+the "Schlossbrücke" (Palace Bridge), which throws its arch over the
+River Spree, and follow the parade into the "Lustgarten" (Pleasure
+Garden). The band halts at the foot of the statue of Frederick William
+III. and the people crowd round to listen, for now one piece is played
+after another. Thus the good citizens of Berlin are entertained daily.
+
+There are several noteworthy buildings round the Lustgarten, among them
+many art museums and picture galleries, as well as the Cathedral and the
+Royal Palace (Plate I.). It looks very grand, this palace, though it
+does not stand, as it should, in the middle of a great open space, but
+is hemmed in by the streets around it.
+
+Perhaps it would interest you to hear about a ball at the Imperial Court
+of Germany. At the stroke of nine our carriage drives in under the
+archway of the Palace. The carpeted staircases are lined by
+"Beef-eaters," in old-fashioned uniforms, as motionless as if they were
+cast in wax. They do not turn even their eyes as the guests pass, much
+less their heads. Now we are up in the state rooms, and move slowly
+over the brightly polished floor through a suite of brilliant apartments
+glittering with electric light. Pictures of the kings of Prussia stand
+out against the gilt leather tapestry. At last we reach the great
+throne-room, which takes its name from the black eagles on the ceiling.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE I. BERLIN.
+
+On the right is the Royal Palace, on the left the Cathedral, with the
+Lustgarten in front. In the foreground is the River Spree.]
+
+What a varied scene awaits us here! Great ladies in costly dresses
+adorned with precious stones of great value, diamonds flashing and
+sparkling wherever we look, generals and admirals in full dress, high
+officials, ambassadors from foreign lands, including those of China and
+Japan. Here comes a great man to whom all bow; it is the Imperial
+Chancellor.
+
+Chamberlains now request the guests to range themselves along the walls
+of the throne-room. A herald enters and strikes his silver staff against
+the floor, calling out aloud "His Majesty the Emperor!" All is silent as
+the grave. Followed by the Empress, the princes and princesses, William
+II. passes through the room and greets his guests with a manly
+handshake. He begins with the ladies and then passes on to the gentlemen
+and speaks to every one. The Swedish Minister presents me, and the
+Emperor begins immediately to ask about Asia. He speaks of Alexander's
+great campaign through the whole of western Asia, and expresses his
+astonishment that a man's name can live with undiminished renown through
+two thousand years. He points to the eagles on the ceiling, and asks if
+I do not see a resemblance to the Chinese dragon. He talks of Tibet and
+the Dalai Lama, and of the great stillness in the heart of the desert.
+
+Soon the orchestra strikes up and the guests begin to dance. The only
+one who seems unconcerned is the Emperor himself. An expression of deep
+seriousness lies like a mask on his powerful face. Is it not enough to
+be the Emperor of the German federation, with its four kingdoms,
+Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Würtemberg, its six grand duchies, its
+many duchies and electorates, its imperial territory, Alsace-Lorraine,
+and its three free towns, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen? Does he not rule
+over sixty-five million people, over 207 towns of more than 25,000
+inhabitants, and seven of more than half a million, namely Berlin,
+Hamburg, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, and Cologne? Has he not by
+the force of his own will created a fleet so powerful as to arouse
+uneasiness in England, the country which has the sole command of the
+sea? And is he not the commander-in-chief of an army which, on a war
+footing, is as large as the whole population of Scotland? All this
+might well make him serious.
+
+
+BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE
+
+The next stage of our journey is from Berlin to Vienna, the capital of
+Austria. The express train carries us rapidly southward through
+Brandenburg. To the west we have the Elbe, which flows into the North
+Sea at Hamburg; while to the east streams the Oder, which enters the
+Baltic Sea at Stettin. But we make closer acquaintance only with the
+Elbe, first when we pass Dresden, the capital of Saxony, and again when
+we have crossed the Austrian frontier into Bohemia, where in a beautiful
+and densely-peopled valley clothed with trees the railway follows the
+windings of the stream. When the guard calls out at a large and busy
+station "Prague," we are sorry that we have no time to stay a few days
+and stroll through the streets and squares of one of the finest and
+oldest towns of Europe. The engine's whistle sounds again and the train
+carries us swiftly onwards to Vienna, the capital of the Emperor Francis
+Joseph, who alone is more remarkable than all the sights of the city.
+
+Vienna is a fine and wealthy city, the fourth in Europe, and, like
+Berlin, is full of centres of human civilisation, science and art. Here
+are found relics of ancient times beside the grand palaces of the
+present day, the "Ring" is one of the finest streets in the world, and
+the tower of St. Stephen's Church rises up to the sky above the two
+million inhabitants of the town. Vienna to a greater extent than Berlin
+is a town of pleasure and merry genial life, a grand old aristocratic
+town, a town of theatres, concerts, balls, and cafés. The Danube canal,
+with its twelve bridges, passes right through Vienna, and outside the
+eastern outskirts the Danube itself, in an artificial bed, rolls its
+dark blue waters with a melodious murmur, providing an accompaniment to
+the famous Viennese waltzes.
+
+If Vienna is, then, one of the centres of human knowledge and
+refinement, and if there are a thousand wonderful things to behold
+within its walls, yet it contains nothing more remarkable than the old
+Emperor. Not because he is so old, or because he still survives as one
+of the last of an almost extinct generation, but because by his august
+personality he keeps together an empire composed of many different
+countries, races, and religious sects. Fifty millions of people are
+ranged under his sceptre. There are Germans in Austria, Chechs in
+Bohemia, Magyars in Hungary, Polacks in Galicia, and a crowd of other
+peoples; nay, even Mohammedans live under the protection of the Catholic
+throne.
+
+His life has abounded in cares and vicissitudes. He has lived through
+wars, insurrections, and revolutions, and with skill and tact has held
+in check all the contending factions which have striven and are still
+striving to rend asunder his empire. It is difficult to imagine the
+Austro-Hungarian monarchy without him. With him it perhaps stands or
+falls; therefore there is no one in the present day whose life is of
+greater importance to humanity. He has been the object of murderous
+attempts: his wife was assassinated, his only son perished by a violent
+death. He is now eighty-two years old, and he has worn the imperial
+crown for sixty-four years. Since 1867 he has been king of Hungary.
+During his reign the industry, trade, agriculture, and general
+prosperity of his dominions have been enormously developed. And the most
+remarkable of all is that he still carries his head high, is smart and
+upright, and works as hard as a labourer in the Danube valley.
+
+The fortunes of Austria and Hungary are still more closely united with
+and dependent on the great river Danube. Certainly in the north we have
+the Elbe and the Dniester, and in the south several small rivers which
+enter the Adriatic Sea. But otherwise all the rivers of the monarchy
+belong to the Danube, and collect from all directions to the main
+stream. The Volga is the largest river of Europe and has its own sea,
+the Caspian. The Danube is the next largest and has also its sea, the
+Black Sea. Its source is also "black," for it takes its rise in the
+mountains of the Black Forest in Baden, and from source to mouth it is
+little short of 1800 miles.
+
+The Danube flows through Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary, forms the
+boundary between Rumania and Bulgaria, and touches a small corner of
+Russian territory. It has sixty great tributaries, of which more than
+half are navigable. Step by step the volume of the main stream is
+augmented. We can see that for ourselves on our way through Europe. At
+Budapest, which is cut in two by the river, and where five handsome
+bridges connect the banks, we seem almost to be on a lake. The Elizabeth
+Bridge has a span of 950 feet. Farther down, on the frontier of
+Wallachia, the river is nearly two-thirds of a mile wide; but here the
+current is slow; creeks of stagnant water are formed, and marshes
+extend far along the banks. And at the point where the Rumanian railway
+crosses the Danube, we find at Chernovodsk a bridge over the river which
+is nearly 2-1/2 miles long and is the longest in all the world. Not far
+from here the waters of the Danube part into three arms and form a broad
+delta at the mouth. There grow dense reeds, twice as high as a man, on
+which large herds of buffaloes graze, where wolves still seek their
+prey, and where water-fowl breed in millions. If we look carefully at
+the map, we shall see that Central Europe is occupied mostly by the
+Danube valley, and that this valley, with its extensive lowlands, is
+bounded by the best-known mountains of Europe; in the north by the
+mountains of South Germany and Bohemia and the Carpathians, in the south
+by the Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+From Budapest the train takes us over the Hungarian plain, a very
+singular country, like a trough, for it is surrounded by mountains on
+all sides. There is abundance of rain, especially up on the mountain
+slopes. The winter is cold and the summer warm, as is always the case in
+countries far removed from the sea. Dust and sand storms are common, and
+in some parts blown sand collects into dunes. Formerly the Hungarian
+lowland was a fertile steppe, where Magyar nomads roamed about on
+horseback and tended their cattle and their enormous flocks of sheep.
+But now agriculture is extended more and more. Wheat, rye, barley,
+maize, rice, potatoes, and wine are produced in such quantities that
+they are not only sufficient for the country's needs, but also maintain
+a considerable export trade. Round the villages and homesteads grow
+oaks, elms, lime-trees, and beeches; poplars and willows are widely
+distributed, for their light seeds are carried long distances by the
+wind. But in the large steppe districts where marshes are so common the
+people have no other fuel but reeds and dried dung.
+
+Cattle-raising has always been an important occupation in Hungary. The
+breed of cows, oxen, and buffaloes is continually being improved by
+judicious selection, and all kinds of sheep, goats, and pigs are kept in
+great numbers, while the rearing of fowls, bee-keeping, the production
+of silk from silkworms, and the fishing industry are also highly
+developed. To the nomads, who wander from one locality to another with
+their herds, horses are necessary, and it is therefore quite natural
+that Hungary should be rich in horses--splendid animals of mixed Tatar
+and Arabian blood.
+
+This country, where all wealth grows and thrives, and where the land,
+well and uniformly watered, contributes in such a high degree to the
+well-being of man, is flat and monotonous when viewed from the train. We
+see herds with their mounted herdsmen, we see villages, roads and
+cottages, but these do not give us any very clear conception of the
+country. Therefore it is advisable to spend a few hours in the
+agricultural exhibition at Budapest, where we can see the most
+attractive models illustrating Hungarian rural life, from pastures and
+farmyards to churned butter and manufactured cheeses, from the silk-worm
+in the chrysalis to the valuable silken web. We can see the life of
+farmers in the country homesteads, in simple reed huts or tents, the
+various crops they grow on their fields, the yellow honeycombs taken
+from the hives in autumn, tanned leather and the straps, saddles, and
+trunks that are made of it. We can see the weapons, implements, and
+spoil of the Hungarian hunter and fisherman, and when we come out of the
+last room we realise that this country is wisely and affectionately
+nursed by its people, and therefore gives profit and prosperity in
+exchange.
+
+With unabated speed the train rushes on over the plain, and at length
+rattles across a bridge over the Danube into Belgrade, the capital of
+Servia. Here we bid good-bye to the Danube and follow the Morava valley
+upwards. The Servian villages of low white houses, with pyramidal roofs
+of tiles or thatch, are very pretty and picturesquely built; and above
+them, green heights, wooded slopes, flocks and herds, and peasants in
+bright-coloured motley clothes following the plough. Small murmuring
+brooks dance in merry leaps down to the Morava, and the Morava itself
+flows to the Danube. We are still in the drainage basin of this river,
+and, when we have crossed the whole of Servia, passed over a flat
+mountain ridge and left Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, behind us and
+have come to another stream, even this is one of the affluents of the
+Danube.
+
+During a large part of our journey we are therefore strongly impressed
+by this mighty stream, and perceive that it is a condition of existence
+to whole peoples and States. Innumerable boats navigate its
+channel--from rowing-boats, ferries, and barges to steamers of heavy
+freight. They maintain communication between the series of towns with
+walls and houses reflected in the gliding water. Their wharves are
+frequently in connection with trains; and many railways have been built
+with an eye to the traffic on the Danube. In early times, when the
+migrations of people from the east streamed over Europe, the Danube
+valley was generally utilized; and still at the present day the river
+affords an advantageous channel of communication between the western and
+eastern parts of the Continent.
+
+Night jealously conceals from our eyes the kingdom of Bulgaria, as we
+travel through its southern part along the river Maritza, which flows
+southwards. We do not leave its valley until we are beyond the Turkish
+frontier and Adrianople. Here we are in the broadest part of the Balkan
+Peninsula; and amidst the regular swaying of the train we lie thinking
+of the famous Balkan lands which extend to the south--Albania, with its
+warlike people among its mountains and dales; Macedonia, the country of
+Alexander the Great; Greece, in ancient times the centre of learning and
+art. When day dawns we are in Turkey, and the sun is high when the train
+comes to a standstill in Constantinople.
+
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE
+
+[Illustration: PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+From the highest platform of the lofty tower which rises from the square
+in the centre of the promontory of Stambul a wonderful view can be
+obtained of the city and its surroundings--a singular blending of great
+masses of houses and glittering sheets of blue water. Stambul is the
+Turkish quarter. It consists of a sea of closely-built wooden houses of
+many colours. Out of the confusion rise the graceful spires of minarets
+and the round domes of mosques (Plate II.). Just below your feet is the
+great bazaar--the merchants' town; and farther off is St. Sophia, the
+principal mosque. Like Rome, the city is built on seven hills. In the
+valleys between, shady trees and gardens have found a site. Far to the
+west are seen the towers on the old wall of Stambul.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+Before you to the north, on the point of a blunt promontory, stand the
+two quarters called Galata and Pera. There Europeans dwell, and there
+are found Greeks and Italians, Jews and Armenians, and other men of
+races living in the adjacent countries--in the Balkan Peninsula, in Asia
+Minor and Caucasia.
+
+Between this blunt peninsula and Stambul an inlet runs north-westwards
+deep into the land. Its name is the Golden Horn, and over its water
+priceless treasures have from time immemorial been transported in ships.
+
+Turn to the north-east. There you see a sound varying little in breadth.
+Its surface is as blue as sapphire, its shores are crowned by a whole
+chaplet of villages and white villas among luxuriant groves. This sound
+is the Bosporus, and through it is the way to the Black Sea. Due east,
+on the other side of the Bosporus, Scutari rises from the shore to the
+top of low hills. Scutari is the third of the three main divisions of
+Constantinople. You stand in Europe and look over the great city
+intersected by broad waterways and almost forget that Scutari is
+situated in Asia.
+
+Turn to the south. Before your eyes lies the Sea of Marmora, a curious
+sheet of water which is neither a lake nor a sea, neither a bay nor a
+sound. It is a link between the Black and Aegean Seas, connected by the
+Bosporus with the former, and by the Dardanelles, the Hellespont, with
+the latter. The Sea of Marmora is 130 miles long. Seven miles to the
+south the Princes' Islands float on the water like airy gardens, and
+beyond in the blue distance are seen the mountains of Asia Minor.
+
+You will acknowledge that this view is very wonderful. Your eyes wander
+over two continents and two seas. You are in Europe, but on the
+threshold of Asia; and when you look down on the Turks swarming below,
+and at the graceful white boats darting across the sound, you may almost
+fancy that you are in Asia rather than in Europe. You will also notice
+that this fairway is an important trade route. Innumerable vessels pass
+daily through the Bosporus to the coasts of Bulgaria, Rumania, Russia,
+and Asia Minor, and as many out through the Dardanelles to Greece and
+the Archipelago and to the coasts of the Mediterranean.
+
+Close beneath you all the colours and outlines are distinct. The water
+of the Bosporus is vividly blue, and the villas dazzlingly white. On the
+Asiatic side stand woods of dark-green cypresses, and outside the
+western wall Turks slumber in the deepest shade; cypresses, indeed, are
+the watchmen of the dead. And all round the horizon this charming
+landscape passes into fainter and lighter tones, light-blue and grey.
+You cannot perceive clearly where the land ends and sea and sky begin.
+But here and there the white wings of a sailing vessel flutter or a
+slight puff of smoke floats above a steamer.
+
+A continuous murmur reaches your ears. It is not wind, nor the song of
+waves. It is the combined voice of nature and human labour. It is like
+the buzzing round a beehive. Now and then you distinguish the cry of a
+porter, the bell of a tramcar, the whistle of a steamer, or the bark of
+a dog. But, as a rule, all melt together into a single sound. It is the
+ceaseless noise that always hovers over the chimneys of a great city.
+
+
+THE CHURCH OF THE DIVINE WISDOM
+
+Let us now go down to the great mosque on the point. On the top of the
+principal dome we see a huge gilded crescent. This has glittered up
+there for 450 years, but previously the cupola was adorned by the
+Christian Cross. How came the change about?
+
+Let us imagine that we are standing outside the church and let the year
+be 548 A.D. One of the finest temples of Christendom has just been
+completed by the first architect of his time from Asia Minor. The work
+has occupied sixteen years, and ten thousand workmen have been
+constantly engaged at it. But now it is finished at last, and the Church
+of the Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, is to be consecrated to-day.
+
+The great Emperor of the Byzantine realm, Justinian, drives up in a
+chariot drawn by four horses. He enters the temple attended by the
+Patriarch of Constantinople. The building is as large as a market-place,
+and the beautiful dome, round as the vault of heaven, is 180 feet above
+the floor. Justinian looks around and is pleased with his work. The
+great men of the church and empire, clad in costly robes, salute him. He
+examines the variegated marble which covers the walls, he admires the
+artistically arranged mosaic on the gold groundwork of the dome, he is
+amazed at the hundred columns which support the cupolas and galleries,
+some of dark-green marble, others of dark-red porphyry. The Emperor's
+wealth is inexhaustible. Has he not presented to the church seven
+crosses of gold, each weighing a hundred pounds? Does not the Church of
+the Divine Wisdom possess forty thousand chalice veils all embroidered
+with pearls and precious stones? Are there not in the sacristy
+twenty-four Bibles, which in their gold-studded cases weigh two hundred
+pounds each? Are not pictures of the Redeemer, of the Mother of God, of
+angels, prophets and evangelists suspended between the twelve columns of
+solid silver which are the Holy of Holies in the temple? Are not the
+faithful moved to tears at the sight of the crucifix and at the
+remembrance that the gilded cross of silver is an exact copy of that
+which, more than five hundred years ago, was set up by Roman barbarians
+at Jerusalem?
+
+Justinian turns round and examines the panels of the three doors which
+are said to have been made of wood from Noah's ark. The doors of the
+main entrance are of solid silver, the others are beautifully inlaid
+with cedar-wood, ivory, and amber. Above his head silver chandeliers
+swing in chains; some of them form together a cross, and are a symbol of
+the light of heaven hovering over the darkness of earthly life. The
+vault is flooded with light; and in the mosaic he sees the meek saints
+kneeling before God in silent supplication. Below the vault he sees the
+four cherubims with two pairs of wings. He thinks of the first chapter
+of Ezekiel: "And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the
+living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal ... and I
+heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters." He also
+calls to mind the book of Exodus, ch. xxxvii.: "Even to the
+mercy-seatward were the faces of the cherubims." It was the same here in
+his own church.
+
+Inspired by humility before God and pride before his fellowmen, the
+Emperor Justinian moves to his prie-dieu. He falls on his knees and
+exclaims: "God be praised who has thought me worthy to bring such a work
+to completion! I have surpassed thee, O Solomon."
+
+Then the pipes and drums strike up, and the glad songs of the people
+echo among the houses, which are decorated by webs of costly brocade
+hanging from the windows. The festival is prolonged for fourteen days;
+casksful of silver coins are distributed among the multitude, and the
+Emperor feasts the whole city.
+
+Then follow new centuries and new generations in the footsteps of the
+old. The bones of Christians moulder under the grave mounds, but still
+the temple remains as before. There priests and patriarchs and fathers
+of the Church assemble to Church Councils, and the great festivals of
+the year are celebrated under its vault. Nearly a thousand years of the
+stream of time have passed away, and we come to May 29, 1453.
+
+May is a fine month in Constantinople. The summer is in all its glory,
+the gardens are gorgeous in their fresh verdure, the clear waters of the
+Bosporus glitter like brightly polished metal. But what a day of
+humiliation and terror was this day of May, 1453! In the early morning
+tidings of misfortune were disseminated among the citizens. The Turkish
+Sultan had stormed in through the walls with his innumerable troops.
+Beside themselves with fright, men, women, and children fled to St.
+Sophia, leaving their homes and goods to be plundered. A hundred
+thousand persons rushed in and locked and barred all the church doors
+behind them. They trusted that the conqueror would not dare to desecrate
+so holy a place. Abashed before the holiness of God, he would bow down
+in the dust and leave them in peace. And according to a prophecy the
+angel of God would descend from heaven in the hour of need and rescue
+the church and the city.
+
+The Christians waited, praying and trembling. Then the wild fanfares of
+the Mohammedan trumpets were heard from the nearest hills. Piercing
+cries of anguish echoed from the vaulting, mothers pressed their
+children to their hearts, husbands and wives embraced each other, galley
+slaves with chains still on their wrists tried to hide themselves in the
+darkness behind the pillars.
+
+The axes of the Mohammedans ring against the doors. Splinters of costly
+wood fly before the blows. Here a gate cracks, there another is broken
+in. The janissaries rush in, thirsting for blood. The Prophet has
+commanded that his doctrines shall be spread over the earth by fire and
+sword. They are only too ready to obey this order. Already steeped in
+blood from the combat outside the walls, they continue to gather in the
+harvest with dripping scimitars. The defenceless are fastened together
+with chains and driven out like cattle.
+
+Then comes the turn of the holy edifice. The mosaics are hacked to
+pieces with swords and lances, the costly altar-cloths are taken from
+their store-room, the church is plundered of its gold and silver, and
+rows of camels and mules are led in on to the temple floor to be laden
+with the immense treasures. Full of fanatical religious hatred, swarms
+of black-bearded Turks rush up to the figure of the crucified Redeemer.
+A Mohammedan presses his janissary's cap over the crown of thorns. The
+image is carried with wild shrieks round the church, and presumptuous
+voices call out scornfully, "Here you see the God of the Christians."
+
+At the high altar a Greek bishop stood in pontifical robes and read mass
+over the Christians in a loud and clear voice. His voice never trembled
+for a moment. He wished to give his flock heavenly consolation in
+earthly troubles. At last he remained alone. Then he broke off the mass
+in the middle of a sentence, took the chalice, and ascended the steps
+leading to the upper galleries. The Turks caught sight of him and rushed
+after him like hungry hyænas.
+
+He is already up in the gallery. He is surrounded on all sides by
+soldiers with drawn swords and lowered spears. Next moment he must fall
+dead over the communion chalice. No escape, no rescue is possible.
+Before him stands the grey stone wall.
+
+But, lo! a door opens in the wall, and when the bishop has gone in the
+wall closes up again. The soldiers stand still in astonishment. Then
+they begin to attack the wall with spears and axes. But it is no use.
+They renew their efforts, but still in vain.
+
+Four centuries and a half have passed since then, and still the Greeks
+cherish a blind faith that the day will come when St. Sophia will be
+restored to Christian uses, when the wall will open again and the bishop
+will walk out with the chalice in his hand. Calm and dignified he will
+descend the stairs, cross the church, and mount up to the high altar to
+continue the mass from the point where he was interrupted by the Turks.
+
+Let us return to the savage soldiery. All the doors stand open, and the
+midday sun shines in through the arched windows. The pillage and tumult
+have reached their height when a fiery horse carries a rider up to the
+main entrance. He is attended by Mohammedan princes, generals, and
+pashas.[1] His name is Mohammed II., the Conqueror, the Sultan of the
+Turks. He is young and proud and has a will of iron, but he is solemn
+and melancholy. He dismounts and passes on foot over this floor, over
+the marble slabs trodden a thousand years ago by the Emperor Justinian.
+
+The first thing he sees is a janissary maliciously aiming his axe at the
+marble pavement. The Sultan goes up to him and asks, "Why?" "In the
+cause of the faith," answers the soldier. Then the Sultan draws his
+sabre, and, cutting the man down, exclaims, "Dogs, have you not loot
+enough? The buildings of the city are my property." And, kicking the
+dying man aside, he ascends a Christian pulpit, and in a thundering
+voice dedicates the Church of the Holy Wisdom to Islam.
+
+Four and a half centuries have passed down the stream of time since the
+day when the cross was removed and the crescent raised its horn above
+the Church of the Holy Wisdom. The Turks have erected four minarets
+round the dome, and every evening from the platforms of these minarets
+sounds the voice of the muezzin, summoning the faithful to prayer. He
+wears a white turban and a long mantle down to his feet. To all four
+quarters of the city the call rings out with long, silvery _a_-sounds
+and full, liquid _l_'s: "God is great (four times repeated). I bear
+witness that there is no god but God (twice repeated). I bear witness
+that Mohammed is the Apostle of God (twice repeated). Come to prayers!
+Come to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great.
+There is no god but God."
+
+Now the sun sinks below the horizon, and a cannon shot thunders forth.
+We are in the month of fasting, during which the Mohammedans do not eat,
+drink, or smoke each day so long as the sun is up. Thus the Prophet
+commands in the Koran, their holy book. The firing of the gun proclaims
+the end of the fast for to-day, and when the faithful have refreshed
+themselves with the smoking rissoles and rice puddings, or fruit,
+coffee, and water-pipes which stand ready, they turn their steps to the
+old Church of the Divine Wisdom, which still retains its Greek name.
+Round the minarets thousands of lamps are lighted, and between the
+towers the sacred names hang in flaming lights. Inside the mosque, on
+chains fifty feet long, hang chandeliers, full of innumerable oil-lamps
+in small round glass bowls, and on extended lines hang other lamps as
+close as the beads of a rosary. The floor of the mosque is a sea of
+light, but the interior of the dome is hid in gloom. Huge green shields
+affixed to the columns bear in golden letters the names of Allah,
+Mohammed and the saints, and the characters are thirty feet high.
+
+The faithful have already filled the floor, which is covered with straw
+matting. Shoes must be left outside on entering the mosque, and a man
+must wash his arms, hands, and face before he goes in. Now the Turks
+stand in long rows, white and green turbans and red fezes with black
+tassels all mixed together. All turn their faces towards Mecca. All
+hands go up together to the height of the face and are stretched out
+flat, the thumbs touching the tip of the ear. Then they bend the body
+forward, resting their hands on their knees. Next they fall on their
+knees and touch the floor with their foreheads. "Prayer is the key to
+Paradise," says the Koran, and every section of the prayer requires a
+certain posture.
+
+A priest stands in a pulpit and breaks in on the solemn silence with his
+clear musical voice. The last word dies away on his lips, but the echo
+lingers long in the dome, hovering like a restless spirit among the
+statues of the cherubim.
+
+Among us at home there are people who are ashamed of going to church. A
+Mohammedan may neglect his religious duties, but he always regards it as
+an honour to fulfil them. When we come to Persia or Turkestan we shall
+often see a caravan leader leave his camels in the middle of the march,
+spread out his prayer-mat on the ground, and recite his prayers. They do
+not do it thoughtlessly or slovenly: you might yell in the ear of a
+Mohammedan at prayer and he would take no notice.
+
+"There is no god but God!" The words sound like a trumpet-blast, as a
+summons over boundless regions of the Old World. From its cradle in
+Arabia, Islam has spread over all the west and centre of Asia, over the
+southern parts of the continent, over certain regions in south-eastern
+Europe, and over half Africa. It is no wonder that Mohammedan
+missionaries find it easy to convert the blacks of Africa. Mohammed
+promises them Paradise after death, and Paradise is only a continuation
+of worldly pleasures--a place where the blessed dwell under palms which
+continually bear fruit, where clear springs leap forth, and where flutes
+and stringed instruments make music in eternal summer.
+
+
+THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL
+
+As a child Fatima Hanum played in one of the narrow streets of Stambul.
+When she was old enough, her parents betrothed and married her to Emin
+Effendi, the son of an influential pasha. She knew little of him beyond
+that he was rich and was considered a good match. His house was situated
+in one of the larger streets of Scutari, and consisted of two wings
+completely cut off from each other. In the one the husband had his
+apartments, in the other lived the women. For Fatima is not alone; her
+husband has three other wives, and all four have male and female slaves
+who guard them strictly.
+
+Poor Fatima is thus unfortunate from the first. She cannot live happily
+with a man whose affection is not hers alone, and it is difficult for
+her to live in peace with the three other women who have the same rights
+as herself. Her life is empty and wearisome, and her days are passed in
+idleness. For hours she stands behind the lattice in the oriel window
+which projects over the street and watches the movement going on below.
+When she is tired of this she goes in again. Her room is not large. In
+the middle splashes a small fountain. Round the walls extend divans. She
+sinks moodily on to one of them and calls a female slave, who brings a
+small table, more like a stool. Fatima rolls a cigarette, and with
+dreamy eyes watches the blue rings as they rise to the ceiling. Again
+she calls the slave. A bowl of sweets is brought, she yawns, takes a bit
+of sweetmeat, and throws herself on the soft cushions.
+
+Then she drinks a glass of lemonade and crosses the room to a leather
+trunk, which she unlocks. In the trunk lie her ornaments: bracelets of
+gold, pearl necklaces, earrings of turquoise, and many cloths of
+coloured silk. She puts a necklace round her neck, adorns her fingers
+with rings, and winds thin silken veils round her head. When she is
+ready she goes up to the mirror and admires her own beauty. She is
+really handsome. Her skin is white and soft, her eyes are black, her
+hair falls in dark waves over her shoulders. She is not pleased with the
+colour of her lips. The slave brings out a small pot of porcelain and
+with a pencil paints Fatima's lips redder than the coral which the Hindu
+dealers sell in the bazaar. Then the eyebrows are not dark enough, so
+they are blackened with Indian ink.
+
+When Fatima is tired of examining her own features in the mirror she
+puts back her ornaments into the chest and locks it securely. A
+staircase leads down from her room to the garden. There she saunters for
+a time, enjoying the perfume of roses and jasmine, and stands before the
+cage of singing birds to amuse herself with them. One of the other wives
+comes down to the harem garden and calls out to her: "You are as ugly as
+a monkey, Fatima; you are old and wrinkled and your eyes are red. Not a
+man in all Stambul would care to look at you." Fatima answers: "If Emin
+Effendi had not been tired of you, old moth-eaten parrot, he would not
+have brought me to his harem." And then she hurries up to her room again
+to ask the mirror if it is true that her eyes are red.
+
+In order to forget her vexation she decides to go over to the great
+bazaar in Stambul. The slave envelops her in a voluminous _kaftan_[2]
+in which her white hands with yellow-stained nails disappear among the
+folds. She slips into her shoes, which are like slippers with turned-up
+points, and puts on the most important garment of all--the veil. Its
+upper part covers the head and the forehead down to the eyebrows, while
+the lower part hangs down over the chin, mouth, and part of the nose. A
+woman does not show her face to any man but her husband. Of late years
+many women transgress this rule and let the lower part of the veil fall
+so low that most of the face is seen. Fatima, however, does not go with
+the new fashion. She shows only her eyes, but her glances are enough to
+let the man in the street perceive that she is beautiful. None of them
+is so impertinent as to look at her or speak to her. Only Europeans she
+meets turn round.
+
+The slave does not go with her. She stops at the quay where the
+_caiques_, or long rowing-boats, lie. The boatmen rise and scream
+together. Each one extols with words and gestures the excellences of his
+boat. She makes her choice, and steps in and sits down on the cushions.
+The _caique_ is narrow and sharp as a canoe, painted white, with a gold
+border on the gunwale. Two powerful men take their oars, and the
+_caique_ darts over the blue waters of the Bosporus. Half-way between
+Scutari and Stambul, Fatima looks eagerly down the Sea of Marmora. She
+longs for an hour of freedom, and orders the boatmen to change the
+direction. The wind is fresh, so they pull in their oars and hoist the
+sail, and the boat glides southward at a rapid pace. But Fatima is
+capricious, and is soon tired of the Sea of Marmora, and orders the men
+to steer to the nearest quay in Stambul. She gives them two silver
+coins, which they take without a word of thanks or civility. She hastens
+up to the great bazaar and steps from the hot sunlight of the streets
+into cool shade and gloom.
+
+For the bazaars are like tunnels. They are streets and lanes covered
+with vaults of stone, where daylight penetrates sparingly through the
+cupolas in the roof. Here the heat of summer is not felt, and you can
+walk dry-shod on stormy and rainy days. You are soon accustomed to the
+darkness, but have great difficulty in finding the way unless you have
+been born in Stambul and have often passed through this labyrinth. The
+passages are quite narrow, but yet wide enough to allow _droshkies_[3]
+and carts to pass through.
+
+The bazaar, then, is an underground town in itself, a town of tradesmen
+and artisans. On either side of every street is an endless row of small
+open shops, the floors of which are raised a little above the level of
+the street, and serve also as counters or show stands. The shops are not
+mixed up together, but each industry, each class of goods, has its own
+street. In the shoemakers' street, for example, shoes of all kinds are
+set out, but the most common are slippers of yellow and red leather,
+embroidered and stitched with gold, for men, women, and children, for
+rich and poor. For a long distance you can see nothing but slippers and
+shoes right and left.
+
+You are very glad when the shoe department comes to an end and you come
+to a large street where rich shopkeepers sell brocades of silver, gold,
+and silk. It is best not to take much money with you to this street, or
+you will be tempted to buy everything you see. Here lie mats from
+Persia, embroidered silken goods from India, shawls from Kashmir, and
+the finest work of southern Asia and northern Africa. Poor Fatima! Her
+husband is wealthy enough, but he has no mind to let her scatter his
+money about in the great bazaar. With sad looks she gazes at the
+turquoises from Nishapur, the rubies from Badakshan, the pearls from the
+coast of Bahrein, and the corals from the Indian Ocean.
+
+When she has spent all the silver coins she has with her, she turns to
+leave, but it is a long way to the entrances of the bazaar. She passes
+through the street of the metalworkers and turns off at the armourers'
+lane. There the noise is deafening: sledge hammers and mallets hammer
+and beat, for the shops of the bazaar are workshops as well.
+
+Again she turns a corner. Evidently she has lost her way, for she stands
+and looks about in all directions. She has now come to a passage where
+water-pipes and all articles connected with smoking are sold. Then she
+turns in another direction. An odour tells her a long distance off that
+she is coming to the street of spice-dealers. She has to ask her way
+almost at every step.
+
+Not only in Constantinople but in all parts of the Turkish Empire, and
+all over the Mohammedan world, goods are bought and sold in these
+half-dark tunnels which are called bazaars. It is the same in the
+Mohammedan towns of North Africa, in Arabia, Asia Minor, Persia,
+Caucasia, Afghanistan, India, and Turkestan. Wherever minarets rise
+above the dwellings of men and the muezzin sings out his everlasting
+"There is no god but God," the exchange of wares and coin is carried on
+in dark bazaars. The great bazaar in Stambul is one of the richest, but
+even where the bazaars are small and insignificant the same order
+prevails, the same mode of life. Among Turkish men and women of high
+rank stroll poor ragamuffins and dervishes or begging monks. A caravan
+of camels moves slowly through the crowd, bringing fresh supplies to the
+tradesmen from a steamboat quay or from the railway station. The camels
+have scarcely disappeared in the darkness before a train of mules with
+heavy bales follows in their track. A loud-voiced man offers for sale
+grapes and melons he carries in a basket, while another bears a
+water-bottle of leather.
+
+And all the races which swarm here! The great majority are, of course,
+Turks, but we also see whole rows of shops where only Persians trade. We
+see Hindus from India, Egyptians from Cairo, Arabs from the coasts of
+the Red Sea, Circassians and Tatars from the Caucasus and the Crimea,
+Sarts from Samarkand and Bokhara, Armenians, Jews, and Greeks, and not
+infrequently we meet a negro from Zanzibar or a Chinaman from the
+farthest East.
+
+It is a confusion of shopmen and customers, brokers and thieves from all
+the East. A noise and bustle, a deafening roar which never ceases all
+day long, a hurrying, a striving and eagerness to clear the stock and
+gain money. If the prices were fixed, business would soon be done. But
+if you have taken a fancy to a Kurdish mat and ask the price, the
+tradesman demands a quite absurd sum. You shrug your shoulders and go
+your way. He calls out another, lower price. You go on quietly, and the
+man comes running after you and has dropped his price to the lowest. In
+every shop bargains are made vociferously in the same way. There is a
+continual buzz of voices, now and then interrupted by the bells of
+caravans.
+
+The illumination is dim. The noonday sun penetrates only through
+openings in the vault and forms patches of light. Dust floats about in
+the shafts of light, mixed with smoke from water-pipes. The greater the
+distance the dimmer this confined air appears. There is also an
+indescribable odour. The smell of men and animals, of dusty goods, of
+rank tobacco, of rotting refuse, strong spices, fresh, juicy fruit--all
+mixed together into a peculiar odour which is characteristic of all
+Oriental bazaars.
+
+The bazaar of Stambul contains a great deal besides. On the northern
+side is a line of old caravanserais, massive stone buildings of several
+storeys, with galleries, passages, and rooms, and with a large open
+court in the centre. Here resort the wholesale merchants, and here are
+their warehouses and stocks. Lastly, cafés and eating-houses are found
+in the tunnelled streets, baths and small oratories, so that a man can
+pass his whole day in the bazaar without needing to go home. He can
+obtain all he wants in the vicinity of his shop.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "Pasha" is an honorary title given to officials of high rank in
+Turkey and Egypt, as to governors of provinces, military commanders,
+etc.
+
+[2] A garment worn throughout the Levant, consisting of a long gown
+fastened by a girdle and having sleeves reaching below the hands.
+
+[3] A "droshky" is a low, four-wheeled, open carriage, plying for hire.
+The word is Russian.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN (1905)
+
+
+THE BLACK SEA
+
+Attended by the _cavass_[4] of the Swedish Embassy, old Ali, I drove
+down to the quay on a fresh, sunny October morning, loaded all my boxes
+on board a _caique_, and was rowed by four men out to the Bosporus
+between anchored sailing vessels, steamers, and yachts. On arriving at
+the gangway of a large Russian steamer, I waited until all my luggage
+was safe on board and then followed it.
+
+The anchor is weighed, the propeller begins to turn, and the vessel
+steers a course northwards through the Bosporus. With my field-glasses I
+settle down on a bench in the stern and take farewell of the Turkish
+capital. How grand, how unforgettable is this scene! The white, graceful
+minarets shoot up to heaven from the sea of houses, and the
+cypresses--tall, grave, and straight as kings--also seem to point out to
+the children of earth the way to Paradise. Everywhere the houses mount
+up the hills, ranged like the rows of seats in a theatre. The whole is
+like a gigantic circus with an auditorium for more than a million Turks,
+and the arena is the blue water of the Bosporus.
+
+The steamer carries us away relentlessly from this charming picture. As
+dreams fade away in the night, so the white city is concealed by the
+first promontories. Then I change my place and look ahead. Perhaps the
+view is even more beautiful in this direction. The sound is like a river
+between steep, rocky shores, but in the mouth of every valley, and
+wherever the margin of the shore is flat, stand white villas and
+mansions, villages, walls and ruins, gardens and groves. The Bosporus is
+barely twenty miles long. In some places its breadth is less than a
+third of a mile, in others two-thirds. Old plane-trees spread their
+crowns over fresh meadows, and laurels, chestnuts, walnuts, and oaks
+afford deep shade. White dolphins skim along the water, and a school of
+porpoises follows in the wake of the boat, waiting for the refuse from
+the cook's galley. They are dark, soft, and smooth, their backs shining
+like metal, and they can easily be seen several feet below the surface.
+A single flap of the tail fin gives them a tremendous impulse, and they
+come up to the surface like arrows discharged by the gods of the sea,
+and describe beautiful somersaults among the waves. They could easily
+overtake us if they liked, but they content themselves with following
+close behind us hour after hour.
+
+To the left we have the European coast, to the right the Asiatic. The
+distance is always so small that the Europeans can hear the bark of the
+Asiatic dogs. Here is Terapia, with the summer villas of Christians and
+the ambassadors' palaces. Turkish coffee-houses are erected on the
+shore, and their balconies hang over the water. Farther on there is a
+large valley with an ancient plane-tree with seven trunks which are
+called "the seven brothers." According to tradition Godfrey de Bouillon
+with his crusaders reposed under its shade in the winter of 1096-1097,
+when he marched to recover the holy sepulchre and win the sounding title
+of "King of Jerusalem."
+
+Now the channel widens out and the coasts of the two continents diverge
+from each other. We see the horizon of the Black Sea opening before us,
+and the vessel begins to pitch. Lighthouses stand on either side of the
+entrance, which is commanded by batteries high above it. We roll out
+into the sea, and half an hour later we can hardly see the break in the
+coast-line which marks the end of the Bosporus.
+
+We make straight for Sebastopol, near the southernmost point of the
+Crimea. This is the station of the Russian Black Sea fleet, but the
+Russians have little pride in it, for the Turks control the passage to
+the Mediterranean, and without the consent of the other great Powers the
+Russian warships cannot pass through. The Black Sea is, of course, open
+to the mercantile vessels of all nations.
+
+You know, of course, that Europe has four landlocked seas, the Baltic,
+the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian Seas. The Baltic is enclosed
+all round by European coasts; the Black and Caspian Seas belong to both
+Europe and Asia; while the Mediterranean lies between the three
+continents of the Old World--Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now the Baltic,
+Black, and Caspian Seas are of about the same size, each having an area
+about three times that of England and Wales. The Baltic is connected
+with the Atlantic by several sounds between the Danish islands and
+Scania. The Black Sea has only one outlet, the Bosporus. The Caspian Sea
+has no outlet at all, and is really a lake.
+
+The Baltic is very shallow, its maximum depth, south-east of the
+Landsort lighthouse, being 250 fathoms. Next comes the Caspian Sea with
+a depth of 600 fathoms. The singular feature of this, the largest lake
+in the world, is that its surface lies 85 feet below that of the Black
+Sea. This last is the deepest of the three, for in it a sounding of 1230
+fathoms has been taken.
+
+All three seas are salt, the Baltic least and the Caspian most. Four
+great rivers enter the Black Sea, the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, and
+Don. It therefore receives large volumes of fresh water. But along the
+bottom of the Bosporus an undercurrent of salt water passes into the
+Black Sea, which is compensated for by a surface stream of less salt and
+therefore lighter water flowing to the Mediterranean.
+
+The Black Sea is not blacker than any other sea, nor is the White Sea
+white, the Yellow Sea yellow, or the Red Sea red. And so no faith should
+be accorded to the story of a captain in the Mediterranean who wished to
+sail to the Red Sea but went to the Black Sea--because he was
+colour-blind!
+
+But now we can continue our heaving course, still accompanied by
+dolphins and porpoises. We look in at the harbour of Sebastopol, we
+anchor in open roadsteads off Caucasian towns, we moor our cables to the
+rings on the quay of Batum, and finally drop our anchor for the last
+time at a short distance from the coast of Asia Minor.
+
+Proud and bright, with forest-clad heights in the background, Trebizond
+bathes in the rays of the midday sun. Small rowing-boats come out from
+the land to take passengers and goods to the quay. The Turkish boatmen
+scream all together, but no one listens to them. Every one is glad to be
+landed safe and sound with his baggage.
+
+
+TREBIZOND TO TEHERAN
+
+Trebizond was a Greek colony seven hundred years before the birth of
+Christ, and from time immemorial Persian trade has made its way to the
+Black Sea by the road which still runs through Tabriz to Teheran, a
+distance of 800 miles. This traffic is now on the decline, for modern
+means of communication have taken the place of the old caravans, and
+most of their trade has been diverted to the Suez Canal and the
+Caucasian railways. Many large caravans, however, still journey to and
+fro along this road, which is so well made that one can drive not only
+to Tabriz, but still further to Teheran. It may, indeed, be softened by
+autumn rains or frozen hard on the high plateaus of Turkish Armenia, and
+the speed is not great when the same horses have to be used for
+distances of 160 miles.
+
+It was a lively cavalcade that pounded and rattled over the Turkish and
+Persian roads in November, 1905. I was by no means alone. The Governors
+of Trebizond and Erzerum were so good as to provide me with an escort of
+six armed troopers on sturdy horses. In front rides a Turkish soldier on
+a piebald horse, carrying his carbine in a sling over his back, his
+sabre and dagger hanging at his side, and wearing a red fez with a white
+_pagri_[5] wound round it as a protection from sun and wind. Then I come
+in my carriage, drawn by three horses. Old Shakir, the coachman, is
+already my friend; it is he who prepares my meals and looks after me
+generally. I am well wrapped up in a Caucasian cloak, with a
+_bashlik_[6] over my cap, and lean back comfortably and look at the
+country as we drive along. Behind the carriage ride two soldiers on
+brown horses, engaged in a lively conversation and wondering whether
+they will be well tipped. Then come two clumsy carts, on which all my
+baggage is firmly secured. They have their own drivers and men, and are
+escorted by three troopers.
+
+In this manner I travelled from Trebizond to Teheran. To the ceaseless
+rattle of the wheels and the heavy tramp of the horses' hoofs, I plunged
+day by day deeper into Asia. Soon the blue expanse of the Black Sea
+passed out of sight, as the road with many steep and sudden bends wound
+up to the top of a pass. On the other side it descended with as many
+windings to the bottom of a valley. And thus we went up and down till we
+were up at length on the level Armenian tableland.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING (_a_) JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN
+(pp. 26-33); (_b_) LATTER PART OF JOURNEY TO BAKU (pp. 34-35); AND (_c_)
+JOURNEY FROM BAKU ACROSS PERSIA TO BAGHDAD AND BACK TO TEHERAN (pp.
+37-45).]
+
+Here there is a complete change. During the first days after leaving the
+coast, we had driven through a beautiful and constantly changing
+landscape. We had passed through woods of coniferous trees and among
+rustling foliage of yellow leaves. Sometimes we had been hundreds of
+feet above an abyss, at the foot of which a bluish-green stream foamed
+between rounded rocks. Beside the road we had seen rows of villages and
+farms, with houses and verandahs of wood, where Turks sat comfortably in
+their shops and cafés; and we had met many small caravans of horses,
+asses, and oxen carrying hay, fruit, and bricks between the villages. We
+always began our day's march in the early morning, for the nights were
+mild and the sun had scarcely risen before it felt pleasant.
+
+But up here on the plateau it is different. No firs adorn the mountain
+flanks, no foliaged trees throw their shade over the road. No creaking
+carts, laden with timber and drawn by buffaloes and oxen, enliven the
+way. The villages are scattered, and the houses are low cabins of stone
+or sun-dried clay. The Turkish population is blended with Armenians. The
+road becomes worse and more neglected as the traffic falls off. The air
+is cool, and there are several degrees of frost in the night.
+
+When we have passed Erzerum, where the Christian churches of the
+Armenians stand side by side with the mosques of the Turks, we journey,
+as it were, on a flat roof sloping down slightly on three sides, each
+with a gutter leading into its own water-butt. These water-butts are the
+Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and they are always
+big enough to hold all the water, however hard it may rain on the stony
+roof which rises between Caucasia, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia. The
+gutters are, of course, the rivers, the greatest of which is the
+Euphrates.
+
+Now the road is very bad. There has been rain in the autumn; and now
+that it is freezing, the mud, all cut up by deep wheel-ruts, is as hard
+as stone. My vehicle shakes and jolts me hither and thither and up and
+down, and when we arrive at the village where we are to pass the night,
+I feel bruised all over. Shakir makes tea and boils eggs, and after
+supper I roll myself in my cloak and go to sleep.
+
+It is pitch-dark when I am called, and still dark when we make a start
+by the light of lanterns. After a little a curious sound is heard across
+the plain. The clang becomes louder, coming nearer to us, and tall, dark
+ghosts pass by with silent steps. Only bells are heard. The ghosts are
+camels coming from Persia with carpets, cotton, and fruit. There are
+more than three hundred of them, and it is a long time before the road
+is clear again. And all the time there is a ringing as from a chime of
+bells.
+
+For many thousands of years the same sound has been heard on the caravan
+routes. It is the same with the roar of the waters of the Euphrates and
+Tigris. Mighty powers have flourished and passed away on their banks,
+whole peoples have died out, of Babylon and Nineveh only ruins are left;
+but the waters of the rivers murmur just the same, and the caravan bells
+ring now as in the days when Alexander led the Macedonian army over the
+Euphrates and Tigris, when the Venetian merchant Marco Polo travelled
+620 years ago between Tabriz and Trebizond by the road we are now
+driving along, when Timur the Lame defeated the Turks and by this road
+carried the Sultan Bayazid in an iron cage to exhibit him like a wild
+beast in the towns of Asia.
+
+A white morning cloud seems to be floating over the grey mountains to
+the east, but when the sun rises it is seen to be a cone as regular as
+the roof of an Armenian church. It is the snow-capped top of Mount
+Ararat, where the ark landed when the great flood went down. The summit
+is always covered with snow, for the mountain is a thousand feet higher
+than Mont Blanc.
+
+Now we are not far from the frontier, where Kurdish brigands render the
+country unsafe, but once over the border into Persian territory there is
+no danger. We are now in the north-western corner of Persia, in the
+province of Azerbeijan, which is populated mainly by Tatars. The capital
+of the province is Tabriz, once the chief market for the trade of all
+northern Persia with Europe. Here goods were collected from far and
+near, packed in mats of bast and bound with ropes so as to form bales,
+which were laden on fresh camels and carried in fourteen days to
+Trebizond.
+
+Now not more than a fifth part of this trade remains, but still the
+caravan life is the same, and as varied as ever. The Tatar leader rides
+in front; beside every seventh camel walks a caravan man, who wears a
+black lambskin cap, a blue frockcoat, a girdle round the waist, and
+pointed shoes. Each is armed with a dagger, for the Tatars are often at
+feud with the Turks and Armenians, and the dagger has a groove on each
+side of the blade to allow the blood of the victim to run off. Many a
+caravan leader has spent the greater part of his life in travelling to
+and fro between Tabriz and Trebizond. On every journey he has seen
+Ararat to the north of the road, like a perpetually anchored vessel with
+its mainsail up; and he knows that the mountain is a gigantic frontier
+beacon which marks the spot where Russia, Turkey, and Persia meet.
+
+On December 13 I arrived at Teheran, having driven 800 miles in a month.
+India was still 1500 miles off, and the route lies almost entirely
+through deserts where only camels can travel. I therefore bought
+fourteen fine camels, and took six Persians and a Tatar into my
+service.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] A government servant or courier.
+
+[5] A light scarf wound round a hat or helmet in tropical countries,
+especially India.
+
+[6] A kind of cloth hood covering the ears.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THROUGH THE CAUCASUS, PERSIA, AND MESOPOTAMIA (1885-6)
+
+
+ST. PETERSBURG TO BAKU
+
+On August 15, 1885, I went by steamer to St. Petersburg. There I entered
+a train which ran south-eastwards through Moscow to Rostov, at the mouth
+of the Don, and thence on to the Caucasus; and for four days I sat in my
+compartment, letting my eyes rove over the immense steppes of Russia.
+Hour after hour the train rolled along. A shrill whistle startles the
+air when we come to a station, and equally sharply a bell rings once,
+twice, and thrice when our line of carriages begins to move on again
+over the flat country. In rapid course we fly past innumerable villages,
+in which usually a whitewashed church lifts up its tower with a green
+bulb-shaped roof. Homesteads and roads, rivers and brooks, fruitful
+fields and haystacks, windmills with long revolving arms, carts and
+wayfarers, all vanish behind us, and twilight and night four times
+envelop huge Russia in darkness.
+
+At last the mountains of the Caucasus appear in front of us, rising up
+to the clouds like a light-blue wall. The whole range seems so light and
+impalpable that we can scarcely believe that the very next day we shall
+be driving up its valleys and over heights which are more than 16,000
+feet above the sea-level. The distance is still great, but the white
+summit of Mount Kazbek shines out amidst the blue.
+
+At length we arrive at Vladikavkas, the end of the railway,[7] and begin
+our journey of 130 miles over the mountains. My travelling companions
+hired a carriage, and at every stage we had to change horses. I sat on
+the box, and at the turns I had to hold on lest I should be thrown off
+down into the abyss at the side of the road.
+
+We constantly meet peasants with asses, or shepherds with flocks of
+goats and sheep. Now comes a group of Caucasian horsemen in black
+sheepskin coats and armed to the teeth; then the post-cart, packed full
+of travellers; then again a load of hay drawn by oxen or grey buffaloes.
+
+The higher we ascend, the grander and wilder the mountains become.
+Sometimes the road is blasted out of perpendicular walls of rock, and
+heavy masses of mountain hang like a vault above us. At dangerous
+slopes, where the road is exposed to avalanches in spring, it runs
+through tunnels of masonry. When an avalanche dashes furiously down the
+mountain it leaps over these tunnels and continues down on the other
+side without doing the road any harm.
+
+We have now reached the highest point of the road, and after a journey
+of twenty-eight hours we arrive at Tiflis, the largest town in Caucasia,
+and one of the most curious towns I have seen. The houses hang like
+clusters of swallows' nests on the slopes on both sides of the Kura
+River, and the narrow, dirty streets are crowded with the fifteen
+different tribes who dwell in Caucasia.
+
+While the road leading to Tiflis over the mountains is grand, a more
+dreary country can hardly be conceived than that crossed by the railway
+between Tiflis and Baku: endless steppes and deserts, greyish-yellow and
+desolate, with occasionally a caravan of slowly moving camels. A violent
+storm arose as we drew near the sea. Dust rose up in clouds and
+penetrated through all the chinks of the compartment, the air became
+thick, heavy, and suffocating, and outside nothing could be seen but a
+universal grey veil of impenetrable mist. But the worst was that the
+storm struck the train on the side, and at last the engine was scarcely
+able to draw the carriages along. Twice we had to stop, and on an ascent
+the train even rolled back a little.
+
+However, in spite of all, we at last reached the shore of the Caspian
+Sea, where clear green billows rose as high as a house and thundered on
+the strand. At seven o'clock in the evening we were at Baku, and drove
+ten miles to Balakhani, where I remained seven months.
+
+I remember that time as if it were yesterday. I struggled hopelessly
+with the Russian grammar, but made great progress in Persian, and
+learned to talk the Tatar language without the least difficulty.
+Meanwhile I indulged in plans for a great journey to Persia. How it was
+to be managed I did not know, for my means were not large. But I made up
+my mind that through Persia I would travel, even if I went as a hired
+servant and drove other people's asses along the roads.
+
+The whole country round Baku is impregnated with petroleum, which
+collects in vast quantities in cavities in the earth. To reach the oil a
+tower of wood 50 to 65 feet high is erected, and a line with a powerful
+borer runs over a block at the top. A steam-engine keeps the line in
+constant motion, perpendicularly up and down, and the borer eats deeper
+and deeper into the earth. The first section of piping which is forced
+down into the bore-hole is about 40 inches in diameter. When this can go
+no farther the boring is continued with a smaller borer, and a narrower
+tube is thrust down within the first. And so the work is continued until
+the petroleum level is reached and the valuable oil can be pumped up.
+
+But it often happens that the oil is forced up through the pipe by the
+pressure of gas in the bowels of the earth, and when I was at Balakhani
+we often used to go out and look at this singular display. With a
+deafening roar, a thick greenish-brown jet shot up out of the ground and
+right through the derrick (Plate III.). It was visible from a long
+distance, for it might be as much as 200 feet high, and the oil was
+collected within dams thrown up around. If there was a strong wind the
+jet would be dispersed, and a dark mist would lie like a veil over the
+ground to leeward. In Balakhani one can hardly look out of the door
+without one's clothes being smeared with oil, and the odour can be
+perceived a dozen miles away. Not a blade of grass grows in this
+neighbourhood; all that one sees is a forest of derricks. Lines of pipes
+convey the oil from the borings to the "Black Town" of Baku, which is
+full of oil refineries (over 170 in all) emitting vast volumes of smoke,
+black and greasy buildings, and pools of oil refuse. When the crude
+natural oil is purified, it is distributed far and wide in special
+railway trucks like cisterns, and in special tank steamers, into which
+the petroleum is pumped, and which carry nothing else.
+
+In the Baku oil-fields there are now (1910) no fewer than 4094 bores, of
+which 2600 are productive. Last year they yielded about eight million
+tons of raw petroleum, some of them having sometimes given nearly 300
+tons in twenty-four hours by pumping, and 2000 when the oil shot out
+of the ground itself. The value on the spot is now about 20 shillings
+a ton. The deepest boring is sunk 2800 feet into the earth.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE III. OIL-WELL AT BALAKHANI.
+
+A fountain of oil forced up by natural pressure.]
+
+Late one evening in February, 1886, the dreadful cry of "Fire! Fire!"
+was heard outside our house. The very thought of fire is enough to raise
+terror and consternation throughout this oil-soaked district. We hurry
+out and find the whole neighbourhood illuminated with a weird, whitish
+light, as bright as day. The derricks stand out like ghosts against the
+light background. We make for the place and feel the heat increasing.
+Bright white flames shoot up fantastically into the air, sending off
+black clouds of smoke. One derrick is in flames and beside it a pool of
+raw petroleum is burning. A Tatar had gone to the derrick with a lantern
+to fetch a tool. He lost his lantern, and only just escaped with his
+life before the oil-soaked derrick took fire.
+
+It is vain to fight against such a fire. The fire-engine came, and all
+the hoses were at work, but what was the use when the jets of water were
+turned to steam before they reached the burning surface of the oil pool?
+The chief thing is to keep the fire from spreading, and if that is done,
+the oil is left to bubble and burn until not a drop is left.
+
+
+ACROSS PERSIA
+
+It was an adventurous journey that I commenced from Baku on April 6,
+1886. I had a travelling companion, a young Tatar, Baki Khanoff, about
+£30 in my pocket, two changes of clothes and underclothing, a warm
+coat, and a rug--all, except what I wore, packed in a Tatar bag. In a
+small leather bag suspended by a strap from the shoulder I kept a
+revolver, a sketch-book, a note-book, and two maps of Persia. Baki
+Khanoff had a large cloak, a silver-mounted gun, and a dagger. Half the
+money we had was sewed up in belts round our waists. The equipment was
+therefore small for a journey of 2000 miles, through Persia and back.
+
+For two days and a night we were compelled by a violent storm on the
+Caspian Sea to wait on board before the vessel could take us to the
+Persian coast. As soon as we landed we were surrounded by Persians, who,
+with loud voices and lively gestures, extolled the good qualities of
+their horses. After a cursory examination we chose two small, squat
+steeds, secured our baggage behind the saddles, mounted, and rode
+through dark woods and fragrant olive groves higher and higher towards
+the Elburz Mountains.
+
+We passed a night up on the heights in a village called Karzan. When we
+set out next day it was snowing fast, and had snowed so thickly all
+night that all the country was buried under deep drifts. We muffled
+ourselves up as well as we could, mounted our horses, and rode on,
+accompanied by their owner.
+
+The snow fell silently in large, whirling flakes. Down in the valley it
+melted off our clothes, but higher up on the open, windy heights it
+froze to a cake of ice, and before long our clothes on the windward side
+were converted into a thick cuirass which prevented every movement. At
+last we were practically frozen fast in the saddle. Our hands were
+benumbed, the reins fell on the horses' necks, our eyes were sore from
+the snowstorm which dashed straight into our faces. I was so stiff that
+I lost all feeling in my arms and legs, tumbled off my horse, and went
+on foot, but I had to hold on to the animal's tail lest I should lose my
+way in the blinding snow.
+
+We could not go on long in this way, for we could not see where we were
+going, so we decided to turn in at the first village on the road. Some
+squalid huts soon came in sight through the snow. Outside one of them we
+tied up our horses, shook off the snow, and entered a dark cabin with an
+earthen floor. Here a large fire was lighted, and we sat down beside it
+in a close circle with some other travellers who arrived at the same
+time. The place had a low roof and was small, damp, and full of vermin,
+but at any rate it was pleasant to warm ourselves and dry our clothes.
+When Baki Khanoff had made tea, cooked eggs, and brought out bread and
+salt, it was almost cosy. The company consisted of four Tatars, two
+Persians, and myself, and the seven of us had to share the space for the
+night. When the fire died down the close heat was succeeded by a damp
+coolness, but at twenty-one years of age one is not particular.
+
+Eventually we reached Teheran, the capital of Persia, safe and sound,
+and there I stayed a short time as the guest of a fellow-countryman.
+When I continued my journey southwards I had to travel alone, for Baki
+Khanoff had caught fever and had to turn back to Baku.
+
+Our journey to Teheran had been very expensive, but my good countryman
+replenished my purse, so that I had again about £30 sewed up in my
+waistbelt when I started off once more on April 27. The road is divided
+by stations where horses are changed and you can pass the night if you
+wish. A man accompanies you on every stage, and for a small silver coin
+you can buy eggs and bread, a chicken, melons and grapes.
+
+Sometimes the stable-boy who accompanies a traveller takes the best
+horse for himself and gives the other to the traveller. This happened to
+me on the road between the town of Kashan and the mountain village of
+Kuhrud. As soon as I became aware of the trick, I exchanged horses with
+my attendant, who dropped behind after some hours' journey, for his
+sorry jade could go no farther. For four hours I rode along narrow paths
+in complete darkness. I feared that I had gone astray, and, tired and
+sleepy, I was on the point of coming to a halt, intending to tie the
+horse to a tree and roll myself up in my rug for the night, when I saw a
+light gleam through the darkness. "Hurrah! that is the station-house of
+Kuhrud." But when I came nearer I perceived that the light came from a
+nomad's tent. I rode up and called out to the people. No one answered,
+but I could see by the shadows on the cloth that the tent was inhabited.
+After shouting again without receiving an answer, I tied up the horse,
+lifted up the tent-flap, and asked my way to Kuhrud. "Cannot one sleep
+in peace in the middle of the night?" came a voice from inside. "I am a
+European and you must show me the way," I returned sharply. Then a man
+came out; he was as silent as a dummy, but I understood that I was to
+follow him, leading my horse by the rein. He wound about in the dark
+among bushes, and when he had led me to a brook a foot deep, skirted on
+both sides by thick olive woods, he pointed uphill and vanished in the
+darkness without saying a word. I mounted again and let the horse take
+care of himself, and two hours later he stopped all right before the
+station-house. It was pleasant to have reached my journey's end at last,
+for I had been riding for fifteen hours, and the evening meal tasted
+better than usual. Then I lay down full length on the floor, with the
+saddle for a pillow and the rug over me. I made use of no other bed on
+this journey.
+
+A few days more on the great caravan road and we rode into the old
+capital of Persia, Ispahan, with its many memorials of departed
+greatness, its mosques with tall, graceful minarets, and its bazaars
+full of the products of Persian handicrafts and industries--carpets,
+silken materials, embroideries, shawls, lacquered work, water-pipes,
+porcelain, and bronze vessels representing peacocks and elephants.
+
+Farther south I came to Persepolis, so famous in ancient times, where
+the great Persian kings, Xerxes and Darius, had their palaces. The
+country round about is now inhabited only by some poor shepherds and
+their flocks, but fine remains of the palaces still stand, in spite of
+the 2400 years which have passed over them. Not far from Persepolis lies
+one of the most noted towns of Persia, Shiraz, abounding in rose gardens
+and country-houses, spring water and canals. The town is famous above
+all, because here the immortal poets of Persia sang their most beautiful
+songs.
+
+When we came near the Persian Gulf the climate became hotter, and one
+day the temperature was 102° in the room where I was staying. People
+therefore travel in the night. On the last stage the groom, who was an
+old man, could not keep up with me, for I rode fast; so I went on all
+night alone, keeping my revolver handy in case robbers showed
+themselves. I was glad when the sun rose, lighting up the smooth mirror
+of the Persian Gulf, and on May 22 I arrived at the town of Bushire, on
+its eastern coast.
+
+The Persian Gulf is an inlet of the Indian Ocean, and is enclosed
+between Persia and Arabia. The island of Bahrein on the Arabian coast is
+well known; it is under British protection, and here in summer and
+autumn pearl fishing is carried on, the annual export of these beautiful
+precious stones being now about £900,000. As many as a thousand boats,
+with crews of thirty thousand men, are engaged in the industry. The
+owner of each boat engages a number of divers, who work for him, and he
+sells his pearls to the Indian markets. The diver seldom goes down to a
+greater depth than seven fathoms, and remains at most fifty seconds
+under water. He has wax in his ears, his nose is closed by a clip, and
+with a stone at his feet and a rope round his waist he jumps overboard
+and disappears into the depths. When he reaches the bottom of the sea he
+gathers into a basket tied in front of him as many shells as he can get
+hold of, and at a given signal is hauled up by the rope to the surface
+again. Then the owner of the boat opens the shells and takes out the
+costly pearls, which are of different values, according to their size
+and other qualities.
+
+
+ARABIA
+
+Between the Persian Gulf on the north-east and the Red Sea on the
+south-west, the Mediterranean on the north-west and the Indian Ocean on
+the south-east, lies the long, bulky peninsula which is called Arabia,
+and is as large as a third of Europe. Most of the coast-land is subject
+to the Sultan of Turkey, but the people in the interior are practically
+independent. They are a wild and warlike pastoral people, called
+Beduins. Only certain parts of the country are inhabited, the rest being
+occupied by terrible deserts and wastes, where even now no European has
+set his foot.
+
+Near the coast of the Red Sea are two Arab towns which are as holy and
+full of memories to Mohammedans all over the world as Jerusalem and Rome
+to Christians. At Mecca the prophet Mohammed was born in the year
+A.D. 570, and at Medina he died and was buried in 632. He was
+the founder of the Mohammedan religion, and his doctrine, Islamism,
+which he proclaimed to the Arabs, has since spread over so many
+countries in the Old World that its adherents now number 217 millions.
+
+To all the followers of Islam a pilgrimage to Mecca is a most desirable
+undertaking. Whoever has once been there may die in peace, and in his
+lifetime he may attach the honourable title of Hajji to his name. From
+distant countries in Africa and from the innermost parts of Asia
+innumerable pilgrims flock annually to the holy towns.
+
+Adjoining Arabia on the north-east lies the country called Mesopotamia,
+through which flow the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. An English steamer
+carried me from Bushire up the turbid waters of the Tigris, and from the
+deck I could see copper-brown, half-naked Arabs riding barebacked on
+handsome horses. They feed their flocks of sheep on the steppe, holding
+long lances in their hands. Sometimes the steamer is invaded by a cloud
+of green grasshoppers, and one can only escape them by going into one's
+cabin and closing both door and windows. Round the funnel lie heaps of
+grasshoppers who have singed themselves or are stupefied by the smoke.
+
+After a voyage of a few days up the river I come to Baghdad, which
+retains little of its former magnificence. In the eleventh century
+Baghdad was the greatest city of the Mohammedans, and here were
+collected the Indian and Arabic tales which are called the _Thousand and
+one Nights_. Not far from Baghdad, but on the Euphrates, lay in early
+ages the great and brilliant Babylon, which had a hundred gates of
+brass. By the waters of Babylon the Jewish captives hung up their harps
+on the willows, and of Babylon Jeremiah prophesied: "And Babylon shall
+become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an
+hissing, without an inhabitant."
+
+
+BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN
+
+When I reached Baghdad I had only a little over £5 left, all in Persian
+silver _kran_, a _kran_ being worth about seven-pence; and I could not
+get any more money until I reached Teheran, 600 miles away. I knew that
+if I could only get as far as the town of Kermanshah, a distance of 200
+miles, I could then take service in a caravan; but it would be
+unpleasant to tramp on foot the whole way, and receive no pay other than
+a little bread and a few cucumbers and melons.
+
+Just in the nick of time, however, I made the acquaintance of a caravan
+owner who was starting immediately for Kermanshah with English
+merchandise. The goods were loaded on fifty asses, and were accompanied
+by ten Arab traders on horseback. Eight pilgrims and a Chaldean merchant
+had joined the party. I, too, might go with them on paying fifty _kran_
+for the hire of a mule; food and drink I must provide for myself.
+
+It was a pleasant journey which began at ten o'clock on the evening of
+June 6. Two Arabs led me on my mule slowly and solemnly through the
+narrow streets of Baghdad in the warm summer night. An oil lamp
+flickered dully here and there, but the bazaars were brisk and lively.
+Here sat thousands of Arabs, talking, eating, drinking, and smoking. It
+was the month of fasting, when nothing is eaten until after sunset.
+
+The two Arabs conducted me into the court of a caravanserai, where the
+traders were just making preparations to start. When I heard that they
+would not be ready before two o'clock in the morning, I lay down on a
+heap of bales and slept like a top.
+
+Two o'clock came much sooner than I wished. An Arab came and shook me,
+and, half asleep, I mounted my mule. To the shouts of the drivers, the
+tinkle of the small bells, and the ding-dong of the large camel-bells
+the long caravan passed out into the darkness. Soon we had the outermost
+courts and palm groves of Baghdad behind us, and before us the silent,
+sleeping desert.
+
+No one troubled himself about me; I had paid for the mule and might look
+after myself. Sometimes I rode in front, sometimes behind, and
+occasionally I almost went to sleep in the saddle. The body of a dead
+dromedary lay on the road, and a pack of hungry jackals and hyænas were
+feasting on the carcase. When we came near them they ran away
+noiselessly to the desert, only to return when we were past. Farther on
+some fat vultures kept watch round the body of a horse, and raised
+themselves on their heavy wings as we approached.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IV. A PERSIAN CARAVANSERAI.]
+
+After a ride of seven hours we reached a caravanserai, where the Arabs
+unloaded their animals and said that we were to stay there all day. It
+was as warm as in an oven, and there was nothing to do but lie and doze
+on the stone floor.
+
+Next night we rode eight hours to the town of Bakuba, which is
+surrounded by a wood of fine date-palms. Here we encamped in the court
+of a huge caravanserai (Plate IV.). I was sitting talking to one of my
+travelling companions when three Turkish soldiers came and demanded to
+see my passport. "I have no passport," I replied. "Well, then, pay us
+ten _kran_ apiece, and you shall pass the frontier all the same." "No, I
+will not pay you a farthing," was the answer they got. "Take that rug
+and the bag instead," they cried, and made for my things. This I could
+not stand, and gave the man who seized my bag such a blow on the chest
+that he dropped his booty, and the same with the man with the rug. The
+scoundrels were making to rush at me together, when two of my Arabs came
+up to my assistance. To avoid further unpleasantness I went to the
+governor, who for six _kran_ gave me a passport.
+
+I had now become so friendly with the Arabs that I obtained the loan of
+a horse instead of a mule. We set out again at nine o'clock, and rode
+all night in the most brilliant moonshine. I was so sleepy that
+sometimes I dozed in the saddle, and once, when the horse shied at a
+skeleton on the road, I was roused up and fell off, while the horse ran
+off over the steppe. After much trouble one of the caravan men caught
+him again, and I slept no more that night.
+
+As usual we stayed over the day at the next village. I was tired of
+travelling in this fashion, moving so slowly and seeing so little of the
+country. When, then, an old Arab belonging to the caravan came riding up
+from Baghdad on a fine Arab horse, I determined to try to get away from
+my party with his assistance. He consented to accompany me if I paid him
+twenty-five _kran_ a day. At first we kept near the caravan, but as
+soon as the moon had set we increased our pace, and when the sound of
+the bells grew faint behind us we trotted off quickly through the night.
+
+We arrived safely at Kermanshah on June 13. After paying the old Arab I
+had only sixpence left! I could not engage a room or buy anything to
+eat, and the prospect of going begging among Mohammedans was certainly
+not attractive. Fortunately I had heard of a rich Arab merchant, Agha
+Hassan, who lived in this town, and I directed my steps to his handsome
+house. In my dusty riding-boots, and whip in hand, I passed through many
+fine rooms until at last I found myself in the presence of Agha Hassan,
+who was sitting with his secretary in the midst of books and papers. He
+wore a white silk mantle embroidered with gold, a turban on his head and
+spectacles on his nose, and looked both friendly and dignified.
+
+"How are you, sir?" he asked. "Very well, thank you," I responded.
+"Where have you come from?" "From Baghdad." "And where are you going?"
+"To Teheran." "Are you an Englishman?" "No, I am a Swede." "Swede? What
+is that?" "Well, I come from a country called Sweden." "Whereabouts does
+it lie?" "Far away to the north-west, beyond Russia." "Ah, wait, I know!
+You are no doubt from Ironhead's country?" "Yes, I am from the country
+of Charles XII." "I am very glad to hear it; I have read of Charles the
+Twelfth's remarkable exploits; you must tell me about him. And you must
+tell me about Sweden, its king and army, and about your own home,
+whether your parents are still living, and if you have any sisters. But
+first you must promise to stay as my guest for six months. All that I
+have is yours. You have only to command." "Sir, I am very thankful for
+your kindness, but I cannot avail myself of your hospitality for more
+than three days." "You surely mean three weeks?" "No, you are too good,
+but I must go back to Teheran." "That is very tiresome, but, however,
+you can think it over."
+
+A servant conducted me to an adjoining building, which was to be mine
+during my stay, and where I made myself at home in a large apartment
+with Persian rugs and black silk divans. Two secretaries were placed at
+my disposal, and servants to carry out my slightest wish. If I desired
+to eat, they would bring in a piece of excellent mutton on a spit, a
+chicken boiled with rice, sour milk, cheese and bread, apricots, grapes,
+and melons, and at the end of the meal coffee and a water-pipe; if I
+wished to drink, a sweet liquor of iced date-juice was served; and if I
+thought of taking a ride in order to see the town and neighbourhood,
+pure-blooded Arab horses stood in the court awaiting me.
+
+Before the house lay a peaceful garden surrounded by a wall, and with
+its paths laid with marble slabs. Here lilacs blossomed, and here I
+could dream the whole day away amidst the perfume of roses. Gold-fishes
+swam in a basin of crystal-clear water, and a tiny jet shot up into the
+air glittering like a spider's web in the sunshine. I slept in this
+enchanting garden at night, and when I awoke in the morning I could
+hardly believe that all was real; it was so like an adventure from the
+_Thousand and one Nights_. My rich host and my secretaries did not
+suspect that I had only sixpence in my pocket.
+
+When the last day came I could no longer conceal my destitute condition.
+"I have something unpleasant to confide to you," I said to one of the
+secretaries. "Indeed," he answered, looking very astonished. "Yes, my
+money has come to an end. My journey has been longer than I expected,
+and now I am quite cleared out." "What does that matter? You can get as
+much money as you like from Agha Hassan."
+
+It had struck midnight when I went to take farewell of my kind host. He
+worked all night during the fasting month. "I am sorry that you cannot
+stay longer," he said. "Yes, I too am sorry that I must leave you, and
+that I can never repay your great kindness to me." "You know that the
+road through the hills is unsafe owing to robbers and footpads. I have
+therefore arranged that you shall accompany the post, which is escorted
+by three soldiers."
+
+Having thanked him once more, I took my leave. A secretary handed me a
+leather purse full of silver. The post rider and the soldiers were
+ready; we mounted, rode slowly through the dark, narrow streets of the
+town, at a smart trot when the houses were scattered, and then at full
+gallop when the desert stretched around us on all sides. We rode 105
+miles in sixteen hours, with three relays of horses and barely an hour's
+rest. We stayed a day at Hamadan, and then rode on to the capital, with
+nine relays of fresh horses. During the last fifty-five hours I never
+went to sleep, but often dozed in the saddle. At length the domes of
+Teheran, its poplars and plane-trees, stood out against the morning sky,
+and, half-dead with weariness, and ragged and torn, I rode through the
+south-western gate of the city.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] At the time of this journey, the railway ended at Vladikavkas. Since
+then, however, it has been extended to Baku along the northern side of
+the Caucasus and the coast of the Caspian (see map, p. 30).
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)
+
+
+ACROSS THE KEVIR
+
+We must now resume the journey to India. You will remember (see p. 33)
+that after arriving at Teheran from Trebizond I made up a caravan
+consisting of six Persians, one Tatar, and fourteen camels. On January 1
+everything is ready. The camels are all laden; thick rugs cover their
+backs to prevent them being rubbed sore by the loads, and the humps
+stick up through two round holes in the cloths in order that they may
+not be crushed and injured.
+
+The largest camels go first. Each has its head adorned with a red
+embroidered headstall, studded with shining plates of metal and red and
+yellow pompons, and a plume waves above its forehead. Round the chest is
+a row of brass sleigh-bells, and one large bell hangs round the neck.
+Two of these bells are like small church bells; they are so big that the
+camels would knock their knees against them if they were hung in the
+usual way, so they are fastened instead to the outer sides of a couple
+of boxes on the top of the loads. The camels are proud of being decked
+so finely; they are conscious of their own importance, and stalk with
+majestic, measured strides through the southern gate of Teheran.
+
+My riding camel is the largest in the caravan (Plate V.). He has thick
+brown wool, unusually long and plentiful on his neck and chest. His
+loads form a small platform between the humps and along his flanks, with
+a hollow in the middle, where I sit as in an armchair, with a leg on
+each side of the front hump. From there I can spy out the land, and with
+the help of a compass put down on my map everything I see--hills, sandy
+zones, and large ravines. Camels put out the two left legs at the same
+time, and then the two right legs. Their gait is therefore rolling, and
+the rider sits as in a small boat pitching and tossing in a broken sea.
+Some people become sea-sick from sitting all day bobbing between the
+humps, but one soon becomes accustomed to the motion. When the animal is
+standing up it is, of course, impossible to mount on his back without a
+ladder, so he has to lie down to let me get on him. But sometimes it
+happens that he is in too great a hurry to rise before I am settled in
+my place, and then I am flung back on to my head, for he lifts himself
+as quickly as a steel spring, first with the hind legs and then with the
+fore. But when I am up I am quite at home. Sometimes, on the march, the
+camel turns his long neck and lays his shaggy head on my knee. I pat his
+nose and stroke him over the eyes. It is impossible to be other than
+good friends with an animal which carries you ten hours a day for
+several months. In the morning he comes up to my tent, pushes his nose
+under the door-flap, and thrusts his shaggy head into the tent, which is
+not large, and is almost filled up when he comes on a visit. After he
+has been given a piece of bread he backs out again and goes away to
+graze.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE V. THE AUTHOR'S RIDING CAMEL, WITH GULAM HUSSEIN.]
+
+The ring of bells is continually in my ears. The large bells beat in
+time with the steps of the camels. Their strides are long and slow, and
+a caravan seldom travels more than twenty miles in a day.
+
+Our road runs south-eastwards. We have soon left behind us the districts
+at the foot of the Elburz Mountains, where irrigation canals from rivers
+are able to produce beautiful gardens and fruitful fields. The farther
+we proceed the smaller and more scattered are the villages. Only along
+their canals is the soil clothed with verdure, and we have scarcely left
+a village before we are out on the greyish-yellow desert, where withered
+steppe shrubs stand at wide intervals apart. Less and less frequently do
+we meet trains of asses bound for Teheran with great bundles of shrubs
+and bushes from the steppe to be used as fuel. The animals are small and
+miserable, and are nearly hidden by their loads. Their nostrils are
+cruelly pierced, so that they may be made to go quicker and keep up
+longer. They look sleepy and dejected, these small, obstinate donkeys
+which never move out of the way. Their long ears flap backwards and
+forwards, and their under-lips hang down like bags.
+
+At the very last village on the edge of the desert we stay two days to
+prepare ourselves for the dangers ahead of us. The headman of the
+village owns ten camels, which he will gladly hire us for a few days;
+they are to carry trusses of straw and water in leathern bags. Our own
+camels are already fully laden, and the hired camels are only to give us
+a start. When they turn back we shall have to shift for ourselves.
+
+After we have left this village not a sign of life is visible. Before us
+to the south-east small isolated hills stand up like islands in the sea,
+and beyond them the horizon of the desert lies as level as that of the
+ocean. Through this great sandy waste the caravans travel from oasis to
+oasis, but in the north there is a tract, called the Kevir, within which
+not the smallest oasis can be found. Not a clump of grass, not even a
+blade, is to be seen, for the desert is saturated with salt, and when it
+rains in winter the briny clay becomes as slippery as ice. And this is
+precisely the place we are making for.
+
+We travelled a whole month before we came to the point where we intended
+to make the attempt to cross the Kevir. Hitherto everything had
+continued in a steady course, and one day had been like another. It was
+winter and we had fully 25 degrees of frost in the night: one day it
+snowed so thickly that the foremost camels in the train were seen only
+as faint shadows. For several days mist lay so dense over the desert
+that we had to trust chiefly to the compass. Sometimes we travelled for
+four or five days without finding a drop of water, but we had all we
+needed in our leathern bags.
+
+At the edge of the sandy desert, where high dunes are piled up by the
+wind, tamarisks and saxauls were often growing. Both are steppe bushes
+which grow to a height of several feet; their stems are hard and
+provided us with excellent fuel. My servants gathered large faggots, and
+the camp fires flamed up brightly and grandly, throwing a yellow light
+over the silent waste.
+
+From a village called Jandak I set out with only two men and four
+camels, but we had to wait for four days on the edge of the salt desert
+because of rain. When rain falls in the Kevir the whole desert soon
+becomes a sea of slippery mud, and camels cannot walk without slipping
+and falling. Whole caravans have perished in this cruel desert by being
+overtaken by rain, and in many other cases the men only have managed to
+escape with the loss of their camels and their merchandise. It was
+therefore fortunate for us that we were overtaken by rain before we were
+out on the slippery clay. We waited till the desert had dried up again,
+and then we joined forces with a caravan which came from the south.
+
+It was pitch dark when we began to move. A fire was set going, and the
+camels were laden by its light. Then we started, the fire disappeared,
+and night and the desert lay before us. Only the ring of bells disturbed
+the silence. We could not see where we were going, but had to trust our
+riding camels. The Persians marched all the morning and most of the day
+without a halt; the strength of both men and camels is strained to the
+uttermost in order to get through the desert before the next rain
+comes--and it may come at any moment.
+
+After a short rest we hasten northwards again, for there is no question
+of halting for the night. The darkness seems interminable, but at length
+it begins to grow light again. Still the Persians do not stop, so there
+is nothing for me to do but to struggle to keep up with them. "Keep
+awake, sir!" shouts Gulam Hussein; "you can sleep when we get to the
+other side." Another day passes, and again we rest awhile to give the
+camels some straw and to drink a cup of tea ourselves. Scarcely have we
+begun to enjoy the rest, however, when the chimes of the bells ring out
+again. The caravan is already on the move, so we pack up and follow in
+its trail.
+
+The sky seems very unpromising, and is clouded all over. The desert is
+as level as a floor; not a mound as high as a kneeling camel. The sun
+sinks in the west. Like a red-hot cannon-ball it shines through a rift
+between dark clouds, and a shaft of dazzling red rays streams over the
+desert, the surface of which shines like a purple sea. To the north the
+sky is of a dark violet colour, and against this background the camels
+stand out brick-red.
+
+The sun sets, the colours grow pale, and the long shadows which the
+camels lately cast far away over the ground fade away. Another night
+rises up from the east. It grows darker and darker, the caravan is lost
+to view, but the bells ring out with a clear resonance. On we go without
+stop or rest. This night is more trying, for we had not a wink of sleep
+the night before.
+
+The clouds break in the zenith, and the moon looks down on our progress.
+The camels are seen again and shadows fall again over the desert. Here
+it is as bare and desolate as on the face of the moon.
+
+At midnight the sky becomes dark once more. The Persians have clambered
+up on to their camels, and the swaying motion soon carries them into the
+land of dreams. Soon no one is awake but the leader, who guides the
+first camel, and myself, who am riding on the last. Suddenly heavy
+drops begin to fall, and in a minute the rain pelts down on camels,
+loads, and sleepers.
+
+In a second the pace of the caravan is changed. Hear how hurriedly and
+anxiously the bells swing and beat! They peal as if to awaken soldiers
+and citizens in a burning town. Now the rain patters down on the level
+desert and the camels begin to slip. We must hasten if our lives are
+dear to us, or the desert will suck us in at the eleventh hour. The men
+shout to urge on the camels. Now the bells clang as though to wake up
+the dead to judgment.
+
+There goes a camel down in the mire. Poor animals, they are lost on such
+ground, for they have not hoofs like horses, but soft callous pads. When
+they slip they do so thoroughly and suddenly. All four legs fly up in
+one direction, and the heavy body with the loads thumps down in the
+other. It is bad enough for the camel, but still worse for his rider. A
+moment before he sat so well packed up, longing for the edge of the
+desert sea, and now he lies sprawling in the slush.
+
+One after another the camels fall and have to be helped up again. All
+this causes delay, and meanwhile the clay is gradually becoming softer.
+At every step the camels sink in deeper, the rain still pelts down, and
+the bells ring jerkily. If they cease to ring, it will be because the
+desert has conquered; at this very moment they stop.
+
+"What is the matter?" I call out.
+
+"We are at the Devil's ditch," answers a voice in the darkness.
+
+The bells ring slowly again as the camels wade one after the other
+through a trench full of salt water. I tighten my knees when my turn
+comes. I cannot see the water, but I hear it spurting and splashing
+round the legs of the camels in front of me. Now my camel slides down a
+nasty mud bank. He slithers and wriggles about to keep himself up, and
+then he, too, tramps through the water and scrambles up the other side.
+
+"Tamarisks," I hear some one shout. Welcome sound! It means that we are
+safe, for nothing grows in the salt desert. When we come to the first
+tamarisks we are again on sandy ground. Then all danger is past, and
+what does it matter if we are dead tired? Two more hours and we reach a
+village. There Gulam Hussein makes ready a chicken and some eggs, and
+then I lie down in a hut and sleep as I have never slept before.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VI. TEBBES.
+
+The tree in the foreground is a huge tamarisk.]
+
+
+THE OASIS OF TEBBES
+
+Any one who has not travelled himself for weeks together through the
+desert can scarcely conceive what it is to come at length to an oasis.
+An oasis is to the desert wanderer what a peaceful island with its
+sheltered anchorage is to mariners. Oases are like stars in the dark
+vault of heaven, like moments of happiness and prosperity in a man's
+life. If you had roamed for two months in the wilderness, like myself
+and my Persians, you would be able to understand our feelings when we at
+last saw the date-palms of Tebbes beckoning to us in the distance (see
+map, p. 73).
+
+A lofty minaret rises above the little town, which is surrounded by a
+wall (Plate VI.). Within are old buildings, mosques, and a fort with
+towers. Outside the town are tilled fields and palm groves.
+
+Spring had come when we pitched our tents on a meadow in the shade of
+thick dark-green palms. There was a rustle and pleasant whisper among
+the hard fronds when the spring storms swept over the country. We were
+tired of the everlasting dull yellow tint of the desert and were
+delighted with the fresh verdure. Outside my tent purled a brook of fine
+cool water, all the more agreeable after the intense drought of the
+desert. A nightingale sang in the crown of the palm above my tent. He
+plays an important part in Persian poetry under the name of _bulbul_.
+
+If you were in some mysterious manner transferred to Tebbes, you would
+on the very first evening wonder what was the curious serenade which you
+heard from the desert. If you sat at the fall of day reading at the door
+of your tent, you would look up from your book and listen. You would
+have an uneasy feeling and be uncomfortable at being alone in the tent.
+But after the same serenade had been repeated every evening as regular
+as the sunset, you would become accustomed to it, and at length trouble
+yourself no more about it.
+
+It is only the jackals singing their evening song. The word "jackal" is
+Persian, and the jackal is allied to the dog, the wolf, and the fox. He
+is a beast of prey and seeks his food at night. He is not large, is
+yellowish-grey in colour, has pointed ears and small, keen eyes, and
+holds his tail erect, not hanging down like the wolf's. Nothing edible
+comes amiss to him, but he prefers chickens and grapes to fallen caravan
+animals. If he can find nothing else, he steals dates in the palm
+gardens, especially when ripe fruits have fallen after heavy storms.
+The jackal is, indeed, a shameless, impudent little rascal. One night a
+pack of jackals sneaked into our garden and carried off our only cock
+under the very noses of the dogs. We were awakened by the noise of a
+terrible struggle between the two forces, but the jackals got the better
+of it and we heard the despairing cackle of the cock dying away in the
+desert.
+
+Heaven knows where the jackals remain as long as the sun is up! In
+zoological text-books it is stated that they dwell in holes, but I could
+see no holes round Tebbes, and yet jackals come in troops to the oasis
+every night. They are as mysterious as the desert; they are found
+everywhere and nowhere.
+
+As soon as the sun sinks below the horizon and the darkness spreads its
+veil over the silent desert, and the palms doze off, waiting for the
+return of the sun, then begins the jackals' serenade. It sounds like a
+short, sharp laugh rising and falling, a plaintive whine increasing in
+strength and dying away again, answered by another pack in another
+direction; a united cry of anguish from children in trouble and calling
+for help. They say to one another, "Comrades, we are hungry, let us seek
+about for food," and gather together from their unknown lairs. Then they
+steal cautiously to the skirts of the oasis, hop over walls and bars and
+thieve on forbidden ground.
+
+These insignificant noisy footpads live on the refuse and offal of the
+desert from Cape Verde in the uttermost west of the Old World to the
+interior of India; but their home is not in the silent desert alone.
+When the military bands strike up at the clubs in Simla, you have only
+to put your head out of the window to hear the mournful, piteous, and
+distressed howl of the jackals.
+
+They are not always to be treated lightly, for in 1882 jackals killed
+359 men in Bengal alone. Especially are they a terrible danger when
+hydrophobia rages among them, as the experiences of the last Boundary
+Commission in Seistan showed. A mad jackal sneaked into the camp one
+night and bit a sleeping man in the face. Within six weeks the man was
+dead. Others stole into the natives' huts and lay in ambush, waiting for
+an opportunity to bite. Perhaps the worst incident occurred on a dark
+winter's night, when a north wind was raging and sweeping the dust along
+the ground. A mad jackal came into the Englishmen's camp and crept into
+a tent where several men were sleeping. Fortunately he only set his
+teeth in a felt rug. This wakened the sleepers, however, and they at
+once started up and looked for weapons. The camp consisted of three
+sections, and more than a hundred tethered camels. In the pitchy
+darkness it was impossible to see where the jackal went, but the camels
+could be heard shrieking with fear, and thus it was only too clear where
+the brute was. When day broke seventy-eight bitten dromedaries were
+counted. They were isolated from the others, and killed as soon as they
+showed signs of sickness, while the dogs and goats which had been bitten
+by the jackal were shot at once.
+
+Twenty years ago I myself had a little adventure with jackals. I was
+riding with a couple of servants and some horses to the Caspian shore
+from the interior of Persia, and encamped one evening at a village in
+the Elburz Mountains. The caravanserai was notorious for its vermin, so
+I preferred to make myself comfortable in a garden with fruit trees and
+poplars, protected by a wall five feet high and without any gates. We
+had to climb over the wall in order to get in. I had a saddle for a
+pillow and lay wrapped in a felt rug and a cloak. The remains of my
+supper, bread, honey, and apples, stood on my two small leather trunks.
+When it grew dark my men went off to the village and I rolled myself up
+and went to sleep.
+
+Two hours later I was awakened by a scratching noise at the trunks and
+sat up to listen, but could hear nothing but the murmur of a small brook
+close at hand. The darkness was intense, only a little starlight passing
+faintly through the foliage. So I went to sleep again. A little later I
+was roused once more by the same noise, and heard a tearing and tugging
+at the straps. Then I jumped up and distinguished half a dozen jackals
+disappearing like shadows among the poplars. There was no more sleep for
+me that night. It was all I could do to keep the importunate beasts at a
+distance. If I kept quiet for a minute they were up again, tearing the
+leathern straps, and would not make off until I struck a box with my
+riding whip. They soon became accustomed even to this and drew back only
+a few steps. Then I remembered the apples, and as soon as the jackals
+crept up again, I threw one of them with all my strength into the ruck,
+and used them as missiles till the last apple had disappeared into the
+darkness. Most of my shots were misses, for I only once heard a howl
+from one of the impudent animals.
+
+The night seemed endless, but at length the day dawned between the
+poplars, and the jackals jumped quietly over the wall. Then I should
+have liked some breakfast, but there was not a bit of the supper left;
+the jackals had taken it all. However, I had a sound sleep instead. I
+heard afterwards that the jackals in that country are so vicious that
+two or three of them will attack a man, so in future I always had my
+servants sleeping near me.
+
+While speaking of jackals we must not forget the hyæna, for this animal
+is one of the denizens of the desert, though it is of another genus. The
+hyæna is a singular animal, neither dog nor cat, but a mixture of both
+and larger than either. It is of a dirty greyish-brown colour with black
+stripes or patches, has a rounded head with black muzzle and eyes, and
+short hind legs, so that the bristly back slopes downwards. It prowls
+about for food at night, and in western Persia comes down from its
+hiding-places in the mountains to the caravan roads in quest of fallen
+asses, horses and camels. If corpses are not buried deep enough it
+scratches them up from beneath the tombstones, for it lives almost
+exclusively on dead and corrupted flesh.
+
+Thus the four-footed inhabitants of the desert prowl around the
+outskirts of Tebbes and share the country with panthers, wild asses and
+graceful elegant gazelles. Tebbes itself lies lonely and forgotten like
+an island in the ocean.
+
+The principal caravan road connecting the oasis with the outer world
+runs north-eastwards to the holy town of Meshed, whither many pilgrims
+flock. From Meshed it is only a few days' journey through a mountainous
+tract to the frontier between Persia and Russian Asia. There lie
+Transcaspia, Samarcand, Bukhara, Turkestan, and the Kirghiz Steppe. This
+road would take us out of our way to India, but while we halt at Tebbes
+I can tell you something about the country it passes through.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+ON THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE (1893-5)
+
+
+INTO ASIA FROM ORENBURG
+
+I started my journey across the Kirghiz Steppe in November, 1893, from
+Orenburg on the Ural River, which for some distance forms the boundary
+between Asia and Europe. I travelled in a stout _tarantass_, the common
+means of conveyance on Russian country roads; it consists of a sort of a
+box on two bars between the wheel axles, with a hood but no seat. The
+bottom is filled with hay, on which are spread a mat, cushions and
+pillows, furs and felt rugs, for the cold is intense. There are
+ninety-nine stages and changes of horses between Orenburg and Tashkent,
+the capital of Russian Turkestan. At the post-houses nothing can be got
+but tea, so provisions for nineteen days had to be taken with us, as
+well as sawn wood, rope and tools in case anything should break, and a
+large pot of cart-grease to keep the wheels cool. My boxes and trunks
+are wrapped in bast-matting and secured with strong ropes to the
+driver's box and behind the _tarantass_. It takes time to get everything
+ready, and it is late in the afternoon before the first team of three
+post-horses is led out and harnessed to the vehicle. I take my largest
+fur coat and pack myself in among the cushions and felt rugs. The
+carriage is open in front and the whirling snow which sweeps round the
+corners flies straight into my face. The driver takes his seat on the
+box, shouts shrilly and cracks his whip, and we dash along the streets
+of Orenburg in the snow and twilight to the lively jingle of the bells.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM ORENBURG TO THE PAMIR (pp. 55-71).]
+
+The lights come to an end and the night is intensely dark when we come
+out to the high-road leading into Asia. The bells worn by the middle
+horse on a necklace round his neck ring in frequent beats. This horse
+always goes at a trot, being harnessed between the shafts with a high
+wooden arch above his neck, but the two outside horses go at a canter.
+The horses are accustomed to this pace and action, and a rapidly moving
+team is a fine sight. After three hours a yellow light is seen through
+the swirling snow, and the team dashes into a yard and comes to a halt
+at the steps of a house. As I have been already tossed about a good
+deal, I am glad to jump out and get a glass of tea. The horses are
+taken into the stable, and a fresh team is led out to take their place
+in the still warm harness.
+
+The _samovar_, or Russian tea-urn, is boiling in the great room. While I
+am drinking my first glass of tea the stamping and rattle is heard of
+two other teams which roll into the yard. It is the post; and the
+courier enters covered with snow and with icicles on his beard. He is a
+good fellow, and we become acquainted at once and travel together to
+Orsk. He has travelled for twenty years with the mails between the two
+towns and must have covered altogether a distance as far as from the
+earth to the moon and six thousand miles besides.
+
+My new driver now appears and calls out "The _troika_[8] is ready." Then
+I pack myself in again among the cushions and rugs and off we speed once
+more through the darkness and snow.
+
+After forty-eight hours we are in Orsk, which also stands on the Ural
+River; and when we leave this town with fresh horses and steer
+southwards we are on Asiatic ground, in the vast Kirghiz Steppe, which
+extends from Irkutsk to the Caspian Sea, from the Ural River to the
+Syr-darya.[9] It is extremely flat and looks like a frozen sea. Day
+after day we drive southwards, the horses ready to run away; there is
+nothing to drive over, no ditches to fall into, no stones to carry away
+a wheel. The hoofs hammer on the hard ground, the wheels creak, I and my
+things are shaken and thrown about in the carriage, the coachman plants
+his feet firmly against the foot-board lest he should tumble off, and on
+we go over the flat dreary steppe. As we drive on day and night the
+_tarantass_ seems always to be in the centre of the same unbroken
+landscape, always at the same distance from the horizon.
+
+Here live the Kirghizes, a fine race of graziers and horsemen. They
+support themselves by their large flocks of sheep, and also own numerous
+horses and camels, as well as cattle. Therefore they are dependent on
+the grass of the steppe, and wander like other nomads from pasture to
+pasture. When their flocks have eaten up the grass at one place, they
+roll up their black tents, pack all their belongings on camels and
+migrate to another spot. They are a freeborn, manly people and love the
+boundless steppe. Life in the open air and on the level country, which
+affords grazing to their flocks, has sharpened their intellect to a
+wonderful degree. They never forget a place they have once seen. If the
+steppe plants grow closer or thinner, if the ground shows the slightest
+inequality, if there is grey or black gravel of different
+coarseness--all these details serve as marks of recognition. When we
+rest a minute halfway between two post-houses to let the horses breathe,
+the Kirghiz driver turns round and says, "Yonder rides a Kirghiz on a
+dappled mare." Yet on directing my field-glass towards the indicated
+spot, I can only see a small dot, and cannot distinguish what it is.
+
+The stations on our road are usually small solid wooden houses with two
+lamp-posts at the door and a white board, on which are written the
+distances to the next stations in each direction. In some places there
+is no house at all but only a black Kirghiz tent, and instead of a
+stable fences of sticks and reeds afford the horses shelter. At one such
+station three camels are harnessed to the _tarantass_, and the clumsy
+animals waddle along so that their humps bob and roll on their backs.
+The reason for this change is that we are now on the shore of the Sea of
+Aral, where the soft yielding drifts make it impossible for horses to
+draw the _tarantass_. The two rivers, the Syr-darya (or Jaxartes) and
+the Amu-darya (or Oxus), which rise in the Pamir, flow into the Sea of
+Aral. The Cossacks carry on a profitable sturgeon fishery in this lake,
+which in area is not very much smaller than Scotland, and contains a
+great number of small islands--whence its name, for the word _aral_
+means "island."
+
+With fresh horses we speed along the bank of the Syr-darya. Here grow
+small woods and thickets where tigers stalk their prey, and in the dense
+reed beds wild boars dig up roots. The shy gazelles like the open
+country, hares spring over the shrubs, ducks and geese quack on the
+banks, and flocks of pheasants lure the traveller to sport. The setting
+sun sheds a gleam of fiery red over the steppe, and as it grows dim the
+stars begin to twinkle. The monotonous ring of the bells and the shouts
+of the driver never cease, whether we are near the river or far off in
+the dreary steppe. The ground becomes soft and swampy. The wheels cut
+like knives into the mud. We move more and more slowly and heavily, and
+at last stick fast in the mire. The driver shouts and scolds, and cracks
+his whip over the team. The middle horse rears, one of the outside
+horses jibs and the other gathers himself together for a spring which
+makes the traces break with a loud report. Then the driver jumps down
+and says, "You must wait here, sir, while I ride back for two more
+horses." And he trots off in the darkness. After waiting about two hours
+I hear the tramp of horses in the distance. Now the team is made ready,
+the two extra horses are attached in front, the coachman takes his place
+on the box, and with united strength our animals drag the heavy vehicle
+up out of the slough. We roll and jolt on again with lumps of wet clay
+dropping and splashing round the wheels.
+
+
+SAMARCAND AND BUKHARA
+
+Russian Central Asia has ten million inhabitants and an area twelve
+times as large as the British Isles. The part which is called Turkestan
+extends between Eastern Turkestan and the Caspian Sea, the Kirghiz
+Steppe, Afghanistan, and Persia. The greater part is occupied by blown
+sand, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand." Right through the desert flow
+the two rivers, the Syr-darya and Amu-darya. Two railway lines cross
+Turkestan, one from the Kirghiz Steppe to Tashkent, the other from the
+Caspian Sea to Tashkent and Ferghana. Ferghana is the most fruitful part
+of Turkestan and lies between mountains in its eastern portion.
+
+Tashkent, the capital of Turkestan, has 200,000 inhabitants, and is the
+headquarters of the governor-general. South-west of Tashkent is the
+district of Samarcand, with a capital of the same name. South-west of
+Samarcand again, on the north of the Amu-darya, stretches a country
+called Bukhara, ruled by an Emir, a prince under the supremacy of
+Russia.
+
+Close to the Caspian Sea, on the east, there is a large area of country
+called Transcaspia. Central Asia was conquered by Russia forty-five
+years ago, Transcaspia thirty years ago. Transcaspia is inhabited by
+Turkomans, a powerful and warlike people, who in former times used to
+make raids into northern Persia, carrying off men and women, whom they
+sold as slaves in the markets of Bukhara and Samarcand. General
+Skobeleff put a check to their domination when he invaded the country in
+1880. In order to convey troops and war material into the country a
+railway was laid down through the desert. It runs from one oasis to
+another, and hardy desert shrubs were planted or upright palings erected
+to protect the line from the drifting sand.
+
+When the Turkomans were attacked by the Russians, they withdrew within
+the walls of the large fortress which is called "The Green Hill." They
+numbered about 45,000 in all--men, women and children--and they
+believed that the fortress was impregnable. The Russian general,
+Skobeleff, had a mine carried under the wall. Inside the fortress the
+Turkomans heard the soldiers working underground with picks and
+crowbars, but did not understand what was intended. They supposed that
+the soldiers would crawl up out of a hole one after another and
+therefore they assembled with shining weapons above the place of danger.
+Consequently when the mine exploded a large number of unfortunates were
+killed, and the enemy stormed in over the ruins of the wall.
+
+A fearful massacre followed of all those who did not seek safety in
+flight. The Persian slaves and some thousands of women were spared.
+Twenty thousand bodies lay in heaps within and without the fortress. The
+Turkomans will never forget that day. The cavalry band played at the
+head of the columns during the fight. Old Turkomans still remember the
+strains. They cannot hear regimental bands without weeping for some
+relative who fell at "The Green Hill." Here was the death-bed of their
+freedom and they were swallowed up by mighty Russia.
+
+I have crossed Turkestan many times by rail, in _tarantass_, and on
+horseback. I have strolled for weeks through the narrow picturesque
+streets and the gloomy bazaars of the old town called Bukhara, the
+"Blessed." There silk is produced and carpets are woven; great caravans
+pass by laden with cotton; disfigured by sores, lepers sit begging in
+front of the mosques; mulberry trees raise their crowns above artificial
+ponds. From the summit of a tall minaret criminals used to be thrown
+down to be dashed to pieces on the street.
+
+Sixty years ago there ruled in Bukhara a cruel Emir who took a delight
+in torturing human beings. A mechanician from Italy fell into his
+clutches and was sentenced to death. The Italian promised that if his
+life were spared he would construct a machine wherewith the Emir could
+measure the flight of time. His prayer was granted and he made an
+ordinary clock. This called forth the Emir's astonishment and
+admiration, and the Italian lived in high favour for a time. Later on,
+however, the tyrant wished to force him to embrace Islamism, but he
+steadfastly refused. At that time there was in Bukhara a cave called
+"the bugs' hole," and into this the unfortunate man was thrown to be
+eaten up by vermin. Seventy years ago two Englishmen languished in this
+abominable place.
+
+There are towns in Asia with names which impress us as soon as we hear
+them, like Jerusalem, Mecca, Benares, Lhasa. Samarcand is one of these.
+It is not a place of pilgrimage, but it is an ancient town and famous
+among the Mohammedans of Asia. It was already in existence when
+Alexander the Great conquered Central Asia. Since then vast swarms of
+men and migrations of peoples have swept over this region. The Arabs
+have subdued it, countless hordes of Mongols have passed through it
+pillaging and devastating, and now at last it lies under the sceptre of
+the Tsar. Samarcand attained the height of its splendour during the rule
+of the powerful Timur. When he died in the year 1405 he had conquered
+all Central Asia, Persia, Mesopotamia, South Russia, Turkey, India and
+many other countries. This Timur the Lame was not only a great general
+but a man of culture, for he loved art and science, and listened
+willingly to the songs of the poets. He built his own mausoleum, which
+still rears its melon-shaped dome above Samarcand, and had carved in
+raised letters on a marble tablet the words: "If I still lived, mankind
+would tremble."
+
+Timur had a wife, Bibi, whom he dearly loved. She expressed a wish that
+her coffin should not be buried but should remain above ground, and
+therefore Timur caused to be erected the handsome mosque-tomb which
+still bears her name. When it was finished the Queen went, attended by
+her slaves, to inspect her last resting-place. A poisonous snake crept
+from under an arch. Those present wished to kill it, but the Queen
+forbade them and caressed the snake, which offered her no harm. When at
+length she died she was decked with all her jewels--costly pearls,
+necklaces, and gold bangles--and her coffin was placed in the vault. One
+night thieves broke into the tomb, opened the coffin and took all the
+Queen's ornaments; but when they were sneaking off with their booty the
+snake crept out and bit them so that they died immediately.
+
+The great market-place of Samarcand is one of the finest squares I have
+seen in Asia. There carts and caravans swarm, there fruit sellers and
+pitcher-makers take their stand, there dancing dervishes beg for alms.
+On all four sides stand stately buildings erected by Timur and his
+successors. Their façades, cupolas and minarets are covered with blue
+faïence, burned and glazed tiles in varied patterns and texts from the
+holy book of Islam, the Koran. It is worth while to ascend one of the
+lofty minarets to take a look over Samarcand. Hence we see innumerable
+gray mud houses with courts in the centre, pools, canals and gardens,
+and in the maze of streets, squares and lanes moves a stream of people
+of Turkish and Persian race. The dark-blue cupolas stand out against the
+light-blue sky, and are surrounded by luxuriant dark-green vegetation.
+In autumn the gardens assume a bright yellow tint. In winter the whole
+country is often buried in snow, and only the bright blue cupolas rise
+above the whiteness. Samarcand is the "blue" town, just as Jaipur in
+India is the "pink" town.
+
+
+THE PAMIR
+
+To the south-east of Samarcand stand the huge highlands of the Pamir,
+called by its inhabitants the "Roof of the World," for it seems to them
+to rise like a roof above all the rest of the earth. From this great
+centre run the lofty mountain ranges of the earth, the Himalayas, the
+Trans-himalaya, Karakorum, Kuen-lun, and the Tien-shan on the east, the
+Hindu-Kush on the west. If you examine the map you will see that most of
+the ranges of Asia and Europe, and the most important, are connected
+with it. The Tibetan ranges extend far into China and beyond the Indian
+peninsula. The Tien-shan is only the first link in a series of mountains
+which stretch north-eastwards throughout Asia. The continuation of the
+Hindu-Kush is found in the mountains of northern Persia, in the Caucasus
+and the chains of Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, the Alps and
+Pyrenees. The Pamir is like the body of a cuttlefish, which throws out
+arms in all directions. The Pamir and all the huge mountain ranges which
+have their roots in this ganglion are the skeleton of Asia, the
+framework round which the lowlands cling like masses of muscle. Rivers,
+streams, brooks, and rivulets, are the arteries and capillaries of the
+Asiatic body. The deserts of the interior are the sickly consumptive
+parts of the body where vitality is low, while the peninsulas are the
+limbs which facilitate communication between different peoples across
+the intervening seas.
+
+In the month of February, 1894, I was at Margelan, which is the capital
+of Ferghana, the granary of Central Asia, a rich and fruitful valley
+begirt on all sides by mountains. I had got together a small reliable
+caravan of eleven horses and three men, one of them being Islam Bay, who
+was afterwards to serve me faithfully for many years. We did not need
+to take tents with us, for the Governor gave orders to the Kirghizes,
+to set up two of their black felt tents wherever I wished to pass the
+night. We had a good supply of provisions in our boxes, straw and barley
+in sacks, and steel spades, axes, and alpenstocks, for we had to travel
+through deep snow, and over smooth, slippery ice. We forgot to procure a
+dog, but one came to us on the way, begging to be allowed to follow us.
+
+We march southwards up on to the Pamir, following a narrow valley where
+a foaming stream tumbles over ice-draped boulders. We cross it by
+narrow, shaking bridges of timber which look like matches when we gaze
+down on them in the valley bottom from the slopes above. It thaws in the
+sun, but freezes at night, and our path is like a channel of ice running
+along the edge of a vertical precipice. We have several Kirghizes with
+us to give assistance. One of them leads the first horse, which carries
+two large sacks of straw with my tent bed between them. The horse is
+shod and can keep his feet on ice, but at one place the path slopes to
+the edge. The horse stumbles, tries in vain to recover his foothold,
+rolls over the edge, falls into the chasm, and breaks his back on the
+bank of the river. The straw is scattered among the stones, my bed
+dances along the stream, and all the men rush down to save what they
+can.
+
+Now steps are cut in the ice and the path is strewn with sand. The
+higher we go the worse the travelling. A Kirghiz leads each horse by the
+bridle, while another holds on to his tail to help him if he stumbles.
+To ride is impossible; we crawl along on hands and feet. Darkness
+follows twilight; the rushing water of the stream gives forth a sound of
+metallic clearness. We have been travelling more than twelve hours when
+at last the valley opens, and we see blazing camp fires in front of
+Kirghiz tents.
+
+We mount higher day after day. We cross a pass, and at this giddy height
+I experience the unpleasant feelings of mountain sickness--splitting
+headache, nausea, and singing in the ears. On the further side one of
+the affluents of the Amu-darya flows westwards. This valley, the Alai,
+is broad and open, but full of snow in winter. We make our entry into
+the Alai valley in a howling snowstorm and wade and plunge through
+drifts. Two Kirghizes go in front with sticks to mark out the way, in
+order that the horses may not sink in the snow. Our little caravan moves
+slowly and painfully. One day the snow is so deep that we have to hire
+four camels, which are led in front of the caravan to tramp out a
+narrow path for the horses. Everything is white, sky and earth run into
+one another, and there is nothing black to be seen but the men, camels,
+and horses.
+
+At every camp we find excellent felt tents set up in readiness for us.
+Once we had only a short distance to go before reaching camp when we
+were stopped by a trench filled with snow ten feet deep. The first horse
+disappeared in a moment as though he had fallen through a trap-door. His
+load was taken off, and he was pulled up with ropes. Then the Kirghizes
+thought of a grand way of getting over the treacherous snow. They took
+the felt covers of the tent and spread them over the snow and led the
+horses one by one over this yielding bridge.
+
+All this journey we waded and plunged through snowdrifts. One day I sent
+a horseman on in front to examine the road, and only the horse's head
+and the rider could be seen above the snow. Another time there was no
+Kirghiz tent as usual, and we bivouacked round a fire behind a wall of
+snow in a temperature of 29° below freezing-point. The Kirghizes who
+should have furnished us with a tent had been delayed on a pass by an
+avalanche of snow which overwhelmed forty sheep. Six men had struggled
+on to meet us, but two had stuck fast and were abandoned in the snow. Of
+the four who arrived in a sorry condition, one had his foot frozen and
+another had become snow-blind. The Kirghizes usually protect their eyes
+by a long lock of horse-hair hanging down over the forehead from beneath
+the cap, or blacken the eye cavities and nose with charcoal.
+
+Wolves swarm in these mountains, and we often saw the spoor of these
+blood-thirsty robbers. Hunger makes them very daring, and they do great
+damage to the flocks of the Kirghizes, as they will kill even when they
+do not wish to eat. A single wolf had recently worried 180 sheep
+belonging to a Kirghiz. A travelling Kirghiz was attacked in this
+neighbourhood by a pack of wolves, and when the body was found a couple
+of days later only the skull and skeleton were left. Another Kirghiz,
+who was mounted, was attacked and killed, horse and all. Two of my
+guides had fallen in with twelve wolves the winter before, but
+fortunately they were armed and killed two of them, which were at once
+devoured by their comrades.
+
+It is not difficult to imagine the terrible plight of an unarmed Kirghiz
+attacked by wolves. They track him by scent and pursue him. Their
+wicked eyes glow with fury and blood-thirstiness. They wrinkle up their
+upper lips to leave their fangs exposed. Their dripping tongues hang out
+of their jaws. The traveller hears their sneaking steps behind him, and
+turning round can distinguish in the dusk their grey coats against the
+white snow. He grows cold with fright, and putting up a prayer to Allah,
+springs and dashes through the drifts in the hope of reaching the
+nearest village of tents.
+
+Every now and again the wolves halt and utter their awful prolonged
+howl, but in an instant they are after the man again. Every minute they
+become bolder. The man flies for his life. They know that he cannot hold
+out long. Now they catch hold of a corner of his fur coat, but let go
+when he throws his cap at them. They pounce upon it and tear it in
+pieces. This only whets their appetites. The poor man staggers on until
+he can hardly put one foot before another, and is almost at his last
+gasp. This is the moment, and the wolves throw themselves upon him from
+all sides. He screams, and fights with his hands; he draws out his knife
+and stabs into the pack in front of him, but a large wolf springs upon
+him from behind and brings him to the ground. There he has at any rate
+his back protected, but the eyes and teeth of the wolves gleam above him
+in the darkness, and he stabs at them with his knife. They know that he
+will tire of this game soon. Two wolves tear open his boots to get at
+his feet. He cannot reach them with his knife, so he sits up, and at the
+same moment the leader seizes him by the neck so that the blood spurts
+out over the white snow. The wolves have now tasted blood and nothing
+can restrain them. The man is beside himself and throws himself about
+thrusting desperately with his knife. The wolves attack him from behind
+and he falls again on his back. Now his knife moves more slowly. The
+wolves yelp, bark and pant, and the froth hangs round their teeth. The
+unfortunate man's eyes grow dim and he closes them, consciousness leaves
+him and he drops the knife from his hand, and the largest wolf is about
+to plunge his fangs into his throat. But suddenly the leader stops and
+utters a short bark, which in wolf's language is equivalent to an oath,
+for at the foot of an adjacent hill are seen two mounted Kirghizes, who
+have come out to seek their comrade. The wolves disappear like magic.
+The poor man lies quite motionless in his tattered furs, and the snow
+around is stained red with blood. He is unconscious, but is still
+breathing and his heart beats. His friends bind up his wounds with
+their girdles and carry him on the back of a horse to the tent, where he
+soon comes back to life beside the flames of the evening fire.
+
+Of course the Kirghiz must hate wolves. But the animals are cunning and
+seldom expose themselves to gunshot. Woe to the wolf that is wounded or
+caught! He is not killed, but the most cruel tortures are devised for
+him.
+
+When heavy winter snow falls in the Alai valley, the wolves return to
+the higher wilds of the Pamir where the snow lies less deep, and here
+they chase the wild sheep, _Ovis Poli_, as it is named after its
+discoverer, Marco Polo. It has large, round, elegantly curved horns and
+is somewhat larger than the wild sheep of Tibet. The wolves chase Marco
+Polo's sheep by a cunningly devised method. They hunt up a herd and
+single out some less cautious or less quick-footed member. This animal
+is forced by a watch posted ready beforehand to take refuge on a
+projecting rock which is surrounded by wolves. If they can get up to the
+sheep they take him easily, but if not, they wait till his legs give way
+with weariness and he falls into the jaws of his pursuers.
+
+Many a time I have met wolves in various parts of Asia, and many sheep,
+mules, and horses of mine have they destroyed. How often has their
+dismal howl sounded outside my tent, as though they were calling for my
+flesh and blood!
+
+We had ridden 300 miles when we came to a small Russian frontier fort
+which rears its simple walls on the middle of the "Roof of the World,"
+beside one of the headwaters of the Amu-darya. On the other side of the
+frontier lies the Eastern Pamir, in the dominion of the Emperor of
+China.
+
+
+"THE FATHER OF ICE-MOUNTAINS"
+
+Wherever one may be in the Eastern Pamir one sees the Mus-tagh-ata, the
+"Father of Ice-Mountains," rear its rounded summit above all the other
+peaks (see map, p. 56). Its height is 25,800 feet, and accordingly it is
+one of the loftiest mountains in the world. On its arched crest snow
+collects, and its under layers are converted by pressure into ice. The
+mountain is therefore crowned by a snow-covered ice-cap. Where there are
+flat hollows round the summit, in these also snow is piled up as in
+bowls. It glides slowly down with its own weight, and by pressure from
+above is here also converted into ice. Thus are produced great tongues
+of ice, which move downwards exceedingly slowly, perhaps only a few
+yards in the year. They are enclosed between huge steep ridges, from
+which time after time gravel and blocks of stone fall down on to the ice
+and are carried down to lower levels. The further the ice descends the
+warmer becomes the air, and then the ice melts in the sun. As it melts
+below, the stream of ice is forced down from above, so that its lowest
+margin is always to be found in the same place. The gravel and boulders
+are brought down thither and piled up together so as to form great
+mounds and ridges, which are called moraines. The ice-stream itself is
+called a glacier. Many such tongues of ice fringe Mus-tagh-ata on all
+sides. They are several miles long and half a mile to a mile broad. The
+surface is very uneven and consists of innumerable knobs and pyramids of
+clear ice.
+
+I made several excursions on the glaciers of Mus-tagh-ata on foot or on
+yaks. One must be well shod so as not to slip, and one must look out for
+crevasses. Once we were stopped by a crevasse several yards broad and
+forty-five feet deep. When we stooped over the brim and looked down, it
+had the appearance of a dark-blue grotto with walls of polished glass,
+and long icicles hung down from the edges. Streamlets of melted ice run
+over the surface of the glacier, sometimes flowing quietly and gently as
+oil in the greenish-blue ice channels, sometimes murmuring in lively
+leaps. The water can be heard trickling and bubbling at the bottom of
+the crevasses, and the surface brooks often form fine waterfalls which
+disappear into chasms of ice. On warm days when the sun shines, thawing
+proceeds everywhere, and the water trickles, bubbles, and runs all about
+the ice. But if the weather is dull, cold, and raw, the glaciers are
+quieter, and when winter comes with its severe cold they are quite hard
+and still, and the brooks freeze into ice.
+
+The yaks of the Kirghizes are wonderfully sure-footed, and one can ride
+on them over slippery hillocky ice where a man could not possibly walk.
+The yak thrusts down his hoofs so that the white powdered ice spurts up
+around him, and if the slope is so steep that he cannot get foothold, he
+stretches out all four legs and holds them stiff and rigid as iron and
+thus slides down without tumbling. Sometimes I rode over moraine heaps
+of huge granite blocks piled one upon another. Then I had to take a firm
+grip with my knees, for the yak springs and jumps about like a lunatic.
+
+Accompanied by specially selected Kirghizes, I tried four times to climb
+to the top of the "Father of Ice-Mountains," but always without success.
+Our camp was pitched high up among the moraines. Islam Bay, six
+Kirghizes, and ten yaks were in readiness before sunrise, and we took
+with us ample provisions, fur coats, spades and alpenstocks, food and a
+tent. At first we climbed up over gravel, and then over snow which
+became deeper the higher we went. As the air became rarer, respiration
+was more difficult, and even the yaks halted frequently to recover their
+breath. The Kirghizes walked on foot and urged the animals up towards
+the giddy heights. It took us the whole day to reach a point 20,700 feet
+above sea-level. At this point we halted for the night, intending to
+push on higher in the morning, but two of the Kirghizes were so overcome
+with weariness and headaches that they asked to be allowed to go down
+again. The others shovelled away the snow and pitched the little tent
+within a wall of snow. A fire was kindled and the tea-kettle put on, but
+our appetites were poor, as we were suffering from mountain sickness.
+The ten yaks stood tethered in the snow outside, and the Kirghizes
+curled themselves up in their skin coats like hedgehogs. The full moon
+soared like a silvery white balloon just above the top of the mountain,
+and I left the tent to enjoy this never-to-be-forgotten spectacle. The
+glacier below us lay in shadow in its deep bed, but the snow-fields were
+dazzling white. The yaks stood out jet black against the snow, their
+nostrils steaming, and the snow crunching under them. Light white clouds
+floated rapidly from the mountain under the moon. At last I returned to
+the tent. The fire had died down, and the recently melted snow had
+frozen into ice. There was a smell of damp and smoke inside, and the men
+groaned and complained of headache and singing in the ears. I crawled
+under my furs, but could not sleep. The night was quiet, but at times a
+dull report was heard when a crevasse was formed in the ice or a boulder
+fell from the mountain-side.
+
+When I crawled out from under my furs in the morning, a violent
+snowstorm was sweeping along the flanks of the mountain. Through the
+dense cloud of whirling snow we could not see our way, and it would have
+been death to mount to still higher regions. We might be glad if we
+could struggle down again alive in such weather, so down we started
+through the drifts, down headlong. We all needed a thorough rest after
+this experience.
+
+On another occasion we had a perilous adventure on the rounded ice-cap
+of Mus-tagh-ata. We were marching upwards as usual, suspecting no
+danger, when the foremost yak, which carried two large bundles of fuel,
+suddenly sank through the snow and disappeared. Fortunately he was held
+fast by his horns, a hind leg, and the faggots, and there he hung
+suspended over a dark yawning chasm. The snow had formed a treacherous
+bridge over a large crevasse in the ice, and this bridge gave way under
+the weight of the yak. We had all the trouble in the world to haul him
+up again with ropes.
+
+
+A KIRGHIZ GYMKHANA
+
+At the foot of Mus-tagh-ata there is a level and extensive valley, where
+grass thrives luxuriantly. The black tents of the Kirghizes stand
+scattered about like spots on a panther's skin. I hired one of these
+tents for the summer of 1904, and spent several very interesting months
+in studying the habits and mode of life of the people. If the weather
+was fine, I made long excursions on horseback or on a yak, and compiled
+a map of the surrounding country. If rain poured down, I kept inside my
+own tent, or visited my Kirghiz neighbours and talked with them, for by
+that time I had learned to speak their language.
+
+Round the large hive-shaped tents fierce dogs keep watch, and small
+naked sunburnt children tumble about in play. They are charmingly sweet,
+and it is hard to believe that they will grow up into tall rough
+half-wild Kirghizes. But all children are attractive and lovable before
+life and mankind have hardened them. In the tent sit the young women,
+spinning thread or weaving cloth; the older women are busy with the sour
+milk and butter behind a partition in the tent, or perhaps they are
+sitting round a pot, cooking meat. A fire is always burning in the
+middle of the tent, and the smoke finds its way out through a round
+opening in the top. The young men are out with the sheep or are looking
+after the yaks grazing in the mountains. The older men repair saddles
+and boots, make harness for horses or household utensils. Sometimes they
+go hunting after wild sheep and goats. When the sun sets the sheep are
+driven into folds near the tent; the women milk the ewes and yak-cows.
+During the night a watch is kept on account of the wolves. The Kirghizes
+are Mohammedans, and are often heard intoning Arabic prayers outside the
+tents.
+
+Not many days had passed before I was on friendly terms with all the
+Kirghizes. They perceived that I wished them well, and was glad to live
+among them. They came from far and near and gave me presents--sheep and
+milk, wild sheep they had shot, and mountain partridges. All my servants
+except Islam Bay were Kirghizes, and they followed me willingly wherever
+I chose to travel.
+
+One day the chiefs of the Kirghizes decided to hold a grand festival in
+my honour. It was to be a _baiga_, or gymkhana, and early in the morning
+small parties of horsemen were seen gathering to the great plain where
+the wild sport was to take place.
+
+When the sun was at its height I was escorted to the arena by forty-two
+Kirghizes, who rode beside and behind me. In their best clothes,
+coloured mantles with girdles and embroidered caps, and with their
+daggers and knives, fire steel, pipe and tobacco box rattling at their
+sides, they presented a stately and festal appearance. Among them might
+be noticed the chief of the Kirghizes who lived on the eastern side of
+Mus-tagh-ata. His long mantle was dark blue, his girdle light blue; on
+his head he had a violet cap with a gold border, and at his side dangled
+a scimitar in a black scabbard. The chief himself was tall, with a thin
+black beard, scanty moustaches, small oblique eyes and high cheek bones,
+like most Kirghizes.
+
+The plain in front of us was black with horsemen and horses; there was
+bustle, neighing, and stamping on all sides. Here the high chief, Khoat
+Bek, a hundred and eleven years old, sits firmly and surely in his
+saddle, though bent by the weight of years. His large aquiline nose
+points down to his short white beard, and on his head he wears a brown
+turban. He is surrounded by five sons, also grey-bearded old men,
+mounted on tall horses.
+
+Now the performance began. The spectators rode to one side, leaving an
+open space in front of us. A horseman dashed forward with a goat in his
+arms, dismounted, and let the poor animal loose near to us. Another
+Kirghiz seized the goat by the horn with his left hand, cut off its head
+with a single blow of his sharp knife, allowed the blood to flow, and
+then took the goat by the hind legs and rode at full speed round the
+plain. A troop of riders appeared in the distance and drew near at a
+furious pace. The hoofs of eighty horses beat the ground and the
+deafening noise was mingled with wild cries and the rattle of stirrup
+irons. They rushed swiftly past us in a cloud of dust, making a current
+of air like a storm of wind. The first rider threw the dead goat, which
+was still warm, in front of me, and then they whirled off like thunder
+over the plain.
+
+"Ride back a little, sir," called out some chiefs, "there will be wild
+work now." We had hardly time to draw back far enough before the excited
+troop came rushing along, with their horses in a lather, like an
+avalanche from the mountains. Round the goat there was an inextricable
+confusion of men and horses, only partially visible in the dust. They
+were struggling for the goat, and the one who gets it is the winner.
+They crush together and tear and push; horses shy, rear, or fall down,
+while other horses leap over them. Holding on to their saddles the
+horsemen bend down towards the ground and feel for the hide. Some have
+fallen off and are in danger of being tramped upon, while others are
+hanging half under their horses.
+
+Still worse becomes the tumult when a couple of men on yaks push
+themselves into the scrimmage. The yaks prod the horses' loins with
+their horns. The horses are irritated and kick, and the yaks defend
+themselves; then there is a perfect bullfight in full swing.
+
+A strong fellow has now succeeded in getting a firm hold of the goat.
+His horse knows what to do, and backs with his rider out of the
+scrimmage and flies swiftly as the wind in a wide course round the
+plain. The others pursue him, and as they turn back they look as if they
+mean to ride over us with irresistible force. At the last moment,
+however, the horses stop as if turned to stone; and then the struggle
+begins again. Many have their faces covered with blood, others have
+their clothes torn, caps and whips lie scattered over the arena, and one
+or two horses are lamed.
+
+"It is very well for us who are old that we are not in the crush," I
+said to Khoat Bek.
+
+"Ah, it is nearly a hundred years ago since I was as old as you are
+now," the old man answered with a smile.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] A team of three horses abreast.
+
+[9] The word "darya" means "river."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+FROM PERSIA TO INDIA (1906)
+
+
+TEBBES TO SEISTAN
+
+Now we can return to Tebbes and continue our journey to India.
+
+The camels are laden, we mount, the bells ring again, and our caravan
+travels through the desert for days and weeks towards the south-east. At
+length we come to the shore of a large lake called the Hamun, which lies
+on the frontier between Persia and Afghanistan. The Amu-darya forms the
+boundary between Bukhara and Afghanistan, the northern half of which is
+occupied by the Hindu-kush mountains. The name means "slaughterer of
+Hindus," because Hindus who venture up among the mountains after the
+heat of India have every prospect of being frozen to death in the
+eternal snow. Large quantities of winter snow are melted in spring, and
+then rivers and streams pour through the valleys to collect on the
+plains of southern Afghanistan into a large river called the Hilmend,
+which flows into the Hamun. As there are no proper boats or ferries on
+the lake, we had here to take farewell of the camels who had served us
+so faithfully and had carried us and our belongings through such long
+stretches of desert. We were sorry to part with them, but there was
+nothing for it but to sell them to the only dealer who would take them
+off our hands.
+
+Reeds and rushes grow in abundance along the flat shores of the Hamun,
+but no trees. The natives build their huts of reeds, and also a curious
+kind of boat. Handfuls of dry, yellow reeds of last year's growth are
+tied together into cigar-shaped bundles, and then a number of such
+bundles are bound together into a torpedo-like vessel several yards
+long. When laden this reed boat floats barely four inches above the
+water, but it can never be filled and made to sink by the waves. It is
+true that the bundles of reeds might be loosened and torn apart by a
+high sea, but the natives take good care not to go out in bad weather.
+
+It took fourteen of these reed boats to accommodate our party and its
+belongings. A half-naked Persian stood at the stern of each boat and
+pushed the vessel along by means of a long pole, for the lake though
+twelve miles broad is only five or six feet deep. A fresh breeze skimmed
+the surface when we came out of the reeds into the open lake, and it was
+very refreshing after weeks of the dry oppressive heat of the desert.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM TEHERAN TO BALUCHISTAN
+(pp. 46-54 and 72-81).]
+
+After crossing the Hamun we had not more than a couple of hours' ride to
+the capital of Seistan, Nasretabad. Five months before us another guest
+had arrived, the plague; and just at the time the black angel of death
+was going about in search of victims. He took the peasant from the
+plough and the shepherd from his flock; and the fisherman, who in the
+morning had gone cheerily to set his nets in the waters of the Hamun, in
+the evening lay groaning in his hut with a burning fever.
+
+Asia is the birth-place of the ruling peoples, the Aryans, and of the
+yellow race; it is the cradle of the great religions, Buddhism,
+Christianity, and Mohammedanism; and it is also the breeding-place of
+fearful epidemic diseases which from time to time sweep over mankind
+like devastating waves. Among these is the "Black Death," the plague
+which in the year 1350 carried off twenty-five millions of the people of
+Europe. Men thought that it was a divine punishment. Some repented and
+did penance; others gave themselves up to drunkenness and other
+excesses. They had then no notion of the deadly bacteria, and of the
+serum which renders the blood immune from their attacks.
+
+In 1894 a similar wave swept from China through Hong Kong to India,
+where three millions of human beings died in a few years. I remember a
+small house in the poor quarter of Bombay which I visited in 1902. The
+authorities had given orders that when any one died of the plague a red
+cross should be painted beside the doorpost of the house. And this small
+house alone had forty crosses.
+
+And now in 1906 the plague had reached Seistan. From the roof of the
+house where I lived with some English officers, we could see the
+unfortunate people carrying out their dear ones to the grave. We could
+see them wash the bodies in a pool outside the walls, and then resume
+their sad procession. The population of the small town seemed in danger
+of extermination, and at length the people fled in hundreds. An English
+doctor and his assistant wished to help them by means of serum
+injections, but the Mohammedan clergy, out of hatred of the Europeans,
+made the people believe that it was the Christians who had let loose the
+disease over the country. Deluded and excited, the natives gathered
+together and made an attack on the British Consulate, but were repulsed.
+Then they went back to their huts to die helplessly.
+
+They tried as far as possible to keep the cases of death secret and
+carried out the corpses at night. Soon the deaths were so frequent that
+it was impossible to dig proper graves. Those, therefore, who thought of
+the hyænas and jackals, digged their own graves beforehand. Processions
+round the mosque of the town were instituted, with black flags and a
+sacrificial goat at the head, and the mercy of Allah was implored. But
+Allah did not hear, and infection was spread among the people who
+flocked together to the processions.
+
+Under the microscope the deadly microbes appear only as quite small
+elongated dots, though they are magnified twelve hundred times. They
+live in the blood of rats, whose parasites communicate the infection to
+human beings. It is therefore most important to exterminate all rats
+when an outbreak of plague occurs. The disease is terribly infectious.
+In a house where the angel of death descends and carries off a victim,
+all the inmates die one after another. Stupidly blind, the natives did
+not understand what was good for them, and could not be induced to burn
+infected clothes and the whole contents of a plague-stricken house. They
+would not part with their worldly goods and preferred to perish with
+them.
+
+In one house dwelt a poor carpenter with his wife, two half-grown sons
+and a daughter. For two days the father had been oppressed by a feeling
+of weakness, and then, his body burning with fever, he lay raving in a
+corner on the floor of stamped earth. He was indifferent to everything
+and wished only to be left in peace. If his wife threw a rug over him he
+groaned, for the lymph glands, which swell up in large tumours, are
+exceedingly painful. In a couple of days the microbes penetrate from the
+tumour into the blood and the unfortunate man dies of blood poisoning.
+The vermin under the man's clothes leave the body as soon as the blood
+ceases to flow. Then is the danger greatest for the survivors who stand
+mourning round the deathbed, for the vermin seek circulating blood and
+carry infection from the corpse with them. It is useless to warn the
+natives of the danger, for they do not believe a word of it--and so die
+in their turn.
+
+
+A BALUCHI RAID
+
+We were glad to leave a country where the plague had taken up its abode
+and to hasten away to the desert tracts of Baluchistan, which still
+separated us from India. My old servants had taken their departure, and
+a new retinue, all Baluchis, accompanied me.
+
+We rode _jambas_, or swift-footed dromedaries, which for generations
+have been trained for speed. Their legs are long and thin, but strong,
+with large foot pads which strike the hard ground with a heavy tapping
+sound as they run. They carry their heads high and move more quickly
+than the majestic caravan camels; but when they run they lower their
+heads below the level of the hump and keep it always horizontal.
+
+Two men ride on each _jambas_, and therefore the saddle has two hollows
+and two pairs of stirrups. A peg is thrust through the cartilage of the
+nose and to its ends a thin cord is attached. By pulling this to one
+side or the other the dromedary may be turned in any direction. My
+courser had a swinging gait but did not jolt; and I sat comfortably and
+firmly in the saddle as we left mile after mile behind.
+
+It is not more than thirty or forty years ago since the Baluchis used to
+make raids into Persian territory, and although much better order is
+maintained now that the country is under British administration, an
+escort is still necessary--I had six men mounted on dromedaries and
+armed with modern rifles. This is how a raid is conducted.
+
+One evening Shah Sevar, or the "Riding King," the warlike chieftain of a
+tribe in western Baluchistan, sits smoking a pipe by the camp fire in
+front of his black tent, which is supported by tamarisk boughs (Plate
+VII.). The tale-teller has just finished a story, when two white-clad
+men with white turbans on their heads emerge from the darkness of the
+night. They tie up their dromedaries, humbly salute Shah Sevar, who
+invites them to sit down and help themselves to tea from an iron pot.
+Other men come up to the fire. All carry long guns, spears, swords, and
+daggers. Some lead two or three dromedaries each.
+
+Fourteen men are now gathered round the fire. There is a marked silence
+in the assembly, and Shah Sevar looks serious. At length he asks, "Is
+everything ready?"
+
+"Yes," is the reply from all sides.
+
+"Are the powder and shot horns filled?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the provisions packed in their bags?"
+
+"Yes--dates, sour cheese, and bread for eight days."
+
+"I told you the day before yesterday that this time we shall strike at
+Bam. Bam is a populous town. If we are discovered too early the fight
+may be hot. We must steal through the desert like jackals. The distance
+is three hundred miles, four days' journey."
+
+Again Shah Sevar stares into the fire for a while and then asks, "Are
+the _jambas_ in good condition?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And ten spare dromedaries for the booty?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VII. A BALUCHI NOMAD TENT.]
+
+Then he rises and all the others follow his example. Their wild, bold
+faces glow coppery-red in the light of the fire. They consider petty
+thieving a base occupation, but raiding and pillaging an honourable
+sport, and boast of the number of slaves they have captured in their
+day.
+
+"Mount," commands the chieftain in a subdued voice. Muskets are thrown
+over the shoulder and rattle against the hanging powder-horn and the
+leather bag for bullets, flint, steel, and tinder. Daggers are thrust
+into belts, and the men mount without examining the saddle-girths and
+bridles, for all has been carefully made ready beforehand. The spear is
+secured in front of the saddle. "In the name of Allah," calls out Shah
+Sevar, and the party rides off through the night at a steady pace.
+
+The path they follow is well known and the stars serve as guides. Day
+breaks, the sun rises, and the shadows of the dromedaries point towards
+Bam over the hard yellow sand where not a shrub grows. Not a word has
+been spoken during the night, but when the first seventy miles have been
+traversed the chief says, "We will rest a while at the Spring of White
+Water." On arriving at the spring they refill their water-skins and let
+the dromedaries drink. Then they go up into the neighbouring hills and
+wait till the hot hours of the day are over. They never encamp at the
+springs, for there they are likely to meet with other people.
+
+At dusk they are in the saddle again. They ride harder than during the
+first night and travel till they come to a salt spring. The third night
+the dromedaries begin to breathe more heavily, and when the sun rises
+flecks of white froth hang from their trembling lips. They are not tired
+but only a little winded, and they press on through clouds of dust
+without their riders having to urge them.
+
+Now the party leaves behind it the last desert path, which is only once
+in a while used by a caravan, and beyond it is a perfect wilderness of
+hardened salt-impregnated mud. Nothing living can be seen, not even a
+stray raven or vulture which might warn the people in Bam of their
+danger. Without rest the robber band pushes on all day, as silent as the
+desert, the only sounds being the long-drawn breathing of the
+dromedaries and the rasping sound of their foot-pads on the ground. When
+the reflection of the evening sky lies in purple shades over the desert,
+they have only ten or twelve miles more to go.
+
+Shah Sevar pulls up his dromedary and orders a halt in muffled tones,
+as though he feared that his voice might be heard in Bam. With a hissing
+noise the riders make their animals kneel and lie down, and then they
+spring out of the saddle, and tie the end of the cord round the
+dromedaries' forelegs to prevent the animals from getting up and making
+a noise and thus spoiling the plan. All are tired out and stretch
+themselves on the ground. Some sleep, others are kept awake by
+excitement, while four riders go scouting in different directions. Bam
+itself cannot be seen, but the hill is visible at the foot of which the
+town stands. The men long for night and the cover of darkness.
+
+The day has been calm and hot, but now the evening is cool and the
+shadows dense. A faint breeze comes from the north, and Shah Sevar
+smiles. If the wind were from the east, he would be obliged to make a
+detour in order not to rouse the dogs of the town. It is now nine
+o'clock and in an hour the people of Bam will be asleep. The men have
+finished their meal, and have wrapped up the remainder of the dates,
+cheese, and bread in their bundles and tied them upon the dromedaries.
+
+"Shall we empty the waterskins so as to make the loads lighter for the
+attack?" asks a Baluchi.
+
+"No," answers Shah Sevar; "keep all the water that is left, for we may
+not be able to fill the skins in the town before our retreat."
+
+"It is time," he says; "have your weapons ready." They mount again and
+ride slowly towards the town.
+
+"As soon as anything suspicious occurs I shall quicken my pace and you
+must follow. You three with the baggage camels keep in the rear."
+
+The robbers gaze in front like eagles on their prey, and the outlines of
+the hill gradually rise higher above the western horizon. Now only three
+miles remain, and their sight, sharpened by an outdoor life,
+distinguishes the gardens of Bam. They draw near. The bark of a dog is
+heard, another joins in--all the dogs of the town are barking; they have
+winded the dromedaries.
+
+"Come on," shouts the chief. With encouraging cries the dromedaries are
+urged forward; their heads almost touch the ground; they race along
+while froth and dust fly about them. The dogs bark furiously and some of
+them have already come out to meet the dromedaries. Now the wild chase
+reaches the entrance to the town. Cries of despair are heard as the
+inhabitants are wakened; and women and wailing children escape towards
+the hill. The time is too short for any organised defence. There is no
+one to take the command. The unfortunate inhabitants run over one
+another like scared chickens and the riders are upon them. Shah Sevar
+sits erect on his dromedary and leads the assault. Some jump down and
+seize three men, twelve women, and six children, who are hastily bound
+and put in charge of two Baluchis, while others quickly search some
+houses close at hand. They come out again with two youths who have made
+a useless resistance, a couple of sacks of grain, some household goods,
+and all the silver they could find.
+
+"How many slaves?" roars Shah Sevar.
+
+"Twenty-three," is answered from several directions.
+
+"That is enough; pack up." The slaves and the stolen goods are bound
+fast on dromedaries. "Quick, quick," shouts the chief. "Back the way we
+came." In the hurry and confusion some of the animals get entangled in
+one another's ropes. "Back! Back!" The chieftain's practised eye has
+detected a party of armed men coming up. Three shots are heard in the
+darkness, and Shah Sevar falls backwards out of the saddle, while his
+dromedary starts and flies off into the desert. The rider's left foot is
+caught fast in the stirrup and his head drags in the dust. A bullet has
+entered his forehead, but the blood is staunched by the dust of the
+road. His foot slips out of the stirrup, and the "Riding King" lies dead
+as a stone outside Bam.
+
+Another robber is severely wounded and is cut to pieces by the townsmen.
+Bam has waked up. The entangled dromedaries with their burdens of slaves
+and goods are captured, but the rest of the party, twelve riders with
+ten baggage camels, have vanished in the darkness, pursued by some
+infuriated dogs. Sixteen of the inhabitants of the town are missing. The
+whole thing has taken place in half an hour. Bam sleeps no more this
+night.
+
+Now the dromedaries are urged on to the uttermost; they have double
+loads to carry, but they travel as quickly as they came. The kidnapped
+children cease to cry, and fall asleep with weariness and the violent
+swaying motion. The party rides all night and all the next day without
+stopping, and the robbers often look round to see if they are pursued.
+They rest for the first time at the salt spring, posting a look-out on
+an adjacent mound. They eat and drink without losing a minute, and get
+ready for the rest of the ride. The captives are paralysed with fright;
+the young women are half choked with weeping, and a little lad in a
+tattered shirt goes about crying vainly for his mother. The eyes of the
+captives are blindfolded with white bandages that they may not notice
+the way they are travelling and try later to escape back to Bam. Then
+the headlong ride is resumed, and after eight days the troop of riders
+is back at home with their booty, but without their chief.
+
+Innumerable raids of this kind have scourged eastern Persia, and in the
+same way Turkomans have devastated Khorasan in the north-east. On the
+eastern frontier it is the Kurds who are the robbers. In this disturbed
+frontier region there is not a town without its small primitive mud fort
+or outlook tower.
+
+
+SCORPIONS
+
+On running dromedaries we now ride on eastwards through northern
+Baluchistan. Dry, burnt-up desert tracts, scantily clothed with thistles
+and shrubs, moving dunes of fine yellow sand, low hill ridges
+disintegrated by alternate heat and cold--such is the country where a
+few nomads wander about with their flocks, and the stranger often
+wonders how the animals find a living. In certain valleys, however,
+there is pasture and also water, and sometimes belts of thriving
+tamarisks are passed, and bushes of saxaul with green leafy branches,
+hard wood, and roots which penetrate down to the moisture beneath the
+surface.
+
+The great caravan road we are following is, however, exceedingly
+desolate. Only at the stations is water to be found, and even that is
+brackish; but the worst trial is the heat, which now, at the end of
+April, becomes more oppressive every day. The temperature rises nearly
+up to 105-1/2° in the shade, and to ride full in the face of the sun is
+like thrusting one's head into a blazing furnace. When there is a wind
+we are all right, and the sand whirls like yellow ghosts over the heated
+ground. But when the air is calm the outlines of the hills seem to
+quiver in the heat, and the barrel of a gun which has been out in the
+sun blisters the hands on being touched. In the height of the summer the
+Baluchis wrap strips of felt round their stirrup-irons to protect the
+dromedaries from burns on the flanks.
+
+This region is one of the hottest in the world. The sun stands so high
+at mid-day that the shadows of the dromedaries disappear beneath them.
+You long for sunset, when the shadows lengthen out and the worst of the
+heat is over. It is not really cool even at night, when, moreover, you
+are plagued with whole swarms of gnats.
+
+Baluchistan and Persia abound with scorpions, which are indeed to be
+found in all the hot regions of the five continents. About two hundred
+species have been distinguished. Some are quite small, others six inches
+long. Some are dark-brown, others reddish, and others again
+straw-yellow, as in Baluchistan. The body consists of a head and thorax
+without joints, and a hinder part of seven articulated rings, besides
+six tail rings. The last ring, the thirteenth, contains two poison
+glands and is furnished with a sting as fine as a needle. The poison is
+a fluid clear as water.
+
+Scorpions live in rotten tree-trunks, under stones, on walls, and as
+they like warmth they often enter houses and huts, and creep into
+clothes and beds.
+
+The scorpion leaves his dark den at night and sets out on the hunt. He
+holds his tail turned up over his back, in order to keep his sting from
+injury and to be ready at once for attack or defence. When he meets with
+a desirable victim, such as a large spider, he darts quickly forward,
+seizes it with his claws, which are like those of crabs, raises it above
+his head in order to examine it with his eyes, which are turned upwards,
+and gives it the death-stroke with his sting. Then he sucks up the
+softer parts and grinds the harder between his jaws.
+
+The young ones, which are active as soon as they are born, are like the
+old ones from the first day, but are light-coloured and soft. They crawl
+about their mother's back and legs and do not leave her body for some
+time. When that happens the mother dies, having meanwhile wasted away.
+
+The sting of large scorpions is dangerous even to human beings. Cases
+have been known of a man dying in great agony twelve hours after being
+stung. Others get cramp, fever, and pains before they begin to recover.
+A man who has often been stung becomes at last insensible to the poison.
+
+Many a time I have found scorpions in Asiatic huts, in my tent, on my
+bed, and under my boxes, but I have never been stung by one. On the
+other hand, it has been the fate of many of my servants, and they told
+me that it was difficult to find out where the scorpion had stung them,
+for their bodies sweated and burned equally intensely all over. In
+Eastern Turkestan it is the practice to catch the scorpion which has
+stung a man and crush him into a paste, which is laid over the puncture
+made by the sting. But whether this is a real cure I do not know.
+
+
+THE INDUS
+
+After travelling 1500 miles on camels and dromedaries, the whistle of an
+engine sounds like the sweetest music to the ear. At Nushki (see map, p.
+132), the furthermost station of the Indian railway, I took leave of my
+Baluchi servants, stepped into a train, and was carried past the
+garrison town of Quetta south-eastwards to the Indus. Here we find that
+one branch of the railway follows the river closely on its western bank
+to Karachi, one of the principal seaports of British India. Our train,
+however, carries us northwards along the eastern bank to Rawalpindi, an
+important military station near the borders of Kashmir.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF NORTHERN INDIA, SHOWING RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES.]
+
+In the large roomy compartment it is as warm as it was lately in
+Baluchistan, or nearly 107°. To shade the railway carriages from the
+burning sun overhead, they are provided with a kind of wooden cover with
+flaps falling down half over the windows. The glass is not white, as in
+European carriage windows, but dark blue or green, otherwise the
+reflexion of the sunlight from the ground would be too dazzling. On
+either side two windows have, instead of glass, a lattice of root
+fibres which are kept wet automatically night and day. Outside the
+window is a ventilator, which, set in action by the motion of the train,
+forces a rapid current of air through the wet network of fibres. Thereby
+the air is cooled some eighteen or twenty degrees, and it is pleasant to
+sit partly undressed in the draught.
+
+Look a moment at the map. South of the Himalayas the Indian peninsula
+forms an inverted triangle, the apex of which juts out into the Indian
+Ocean like a tooth, but the northern part, at the base, is broad. Here
+flow the three large rivers of India, the Indus, the Ganges, and the
+Bramaputra. The last mentioned waters the plains of Assam at the eastern
+angle of the triangle. On the banks of the Ganges stands a swarm of
+famous large towns, some of which we shall visit when we return from
+Tibet. The Ganges and Bramaputra have a delta in common, through which
+their waters pass by innumerable arms out into the Bay of Bengal.
+
+At the western angle of the triangle the Indus streams down to the
+Arabian Sea. The sources of the Indus and Bramaputra lie close to each
+other, up in Tibet, and the Himalayas are set like an immense jewel
+between the glistening silver threads of the two rivers. On the west the
+Indus cuts through a valley as much as 10,000 feet deep, and on the east
+the Bramaputra makes its way down to the lowlands through a deep-cut
+cleft not less wild and awesome.
+
+The Indus has several tributaries. In foaming waterfalls and roaring
+rapids they rush down from the mountains to meet their lord. The largest
+of them is called the Sutlej, and the lowlands through which it flows
+are called the Punjab, a Persian word signifying "five waters." The
+Indus has thirteen mouths scattered along 150 miles of coast, and the
+whole river is 2000 miles long, or somewhat longer than the Danube.
+
+In the month of July, 325 years before the birth of Christ, Aristotle's
+pupil, Alexander, King of Macedonia, floated down the Indus with a fleet
+of newly built ships and reached Pattala, where the arms of the delta
+diverge. He found the town deserted, for the inhabitants had fled
+inland, so he sent light troops after them to tell them that they might
+return in peace to their homes. A fortress was erected at the town, and
+several wharves on the river bank.
+
+He turned over great schemes in his mind. Had he not at twenty years of
+age taken over the government of the little country of Macedonia, and
+subdued the people of Thrace, Illyria, and Greece? Had he not led his
+troops over the Hellespont, defeated the Persians, and conquered the
+countries of Asia Minor, Lycia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, where with a
+blow of his sword he had severed the Gordian knot, a token of supremacy
+over Asia? At Issus, on the rectangular bay facing Cyprus, he had
+inflicted a crushing defeat on the great King of Persia, Darius
+Codomannus, who with the united forces of his kingdom had come to meet
+him. At Damascus he captured all the Persian war funds, and afterwards
+took the famous commercial towns of the Phoenicians, Tyre and Sidon.
+Palestine fell, and Jerusalem with the holy places. On the coast of
+Egypt he founded Alexandria, which now, after a lapse of 2240 years, is
+still a flourishing city. He marched through the Libyan desert to the
+oasis of Zeus Ammon, where the priests, after the old Pharaonic custom,
+consecrated him "Son of Ammon."
+
+He passed eastwards into Asia, crossed the Euphrates, defeated Darius
+again at the Tigris, and reduced proud Babylon and Shushan, where 150
+years previously King Ahasuerus, who reigned "from India even unto
+Ethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces," made a feast
+for his lords and "shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
+honour of his excellent majesty." Then he advanced to Persepolis and set
+on fire the palace of the Great King to show that the old empire had
+passed away. Pursuing Darius through Ispahan and Hamadan, he afterwards
+turned aside into Bactria, the present Russian Central Asia, and marched
+northwards to the Syr-darya and the land of the Scythians. Thence, with
+an army of more than a hundred thousand men, he proceeded southwards and
+conquered the Punjab and subdued all the people living west of the
+Indus.
+
+Now he had come to Pattala, and he thought of the victories he had
+gained and the countries he had annexed. He had appointed everywhere
+Greeks and Macedonians to rule in conjunction with the native princes
+and satraps.[10] The great empire must be knit together into a solid
+unity, and Babylon was to be its capital. Only in the west there was
+still an enormous gap to be conquered, the desert through which we have
+lately wandered on the way from Teheran through Tebbes and Seistan and
+Baluchistan.
+
+In order to reduce the people living here he despatched a part of his
+host by a northerly route through Seistan to north Persia. He himself
+led forty thousand men along the coast. Twelve thousand men were to sail
+and row the newly-built ships along the coast of the Arabian Sea,
+through the Straits of Hormuz, and along the northern coast of the
+Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates. No Greek had ever navigated
+this sea before, and with the vessels of the period the enterprise was a
+most dangerous one, as absolutely nothing was known about the coast to
+be followed. But it was necessary, for Alexander wished to secure for
+himself the command of the sea route between the mouths of the Euphrates
+and Indus, so as to connect the western and eastern parts of his
+kingdom. It was to supply the fleet with provisions and water that he
+chose for himself the dangerous desert route along the coast. Of the
+40,000 men who accompanied him on this march, no less than 30,000 died
+of thirst! The high admiral, Nearchus of Crete, performed his task with
+brilliant success. His voyage was one of the most remarkable ever
+achieved on the oceans of the globe. The chart he compiled is so exact
+that it may be used at the present day, though the coast has since then
+undergone changes in some places and has been further silted up with
+sand and made shallower.
+
+Alexander would not let his fleet start on its adventurous voyage before
+he was himself convinced of the navigability of the Indus and had
+acquainted himself with the aspect of the great ocean. Accordingly he
+sailed down the western arm of the Indus with the swiftest vessels of
+the fleet--thirty-oared boats, and small triremes, or vessels whereon
+the 150 naked oarsmen sat on three tiers of benches above one another
+with oars of different lengths projecting through port-holes in the
+hull. The vessels were protected by troops which followed them on the
+bank.
+
+In the midst of summer, when the river is at its highest level and
+overflows the banks for miles, it is no pleasure excursion to steer
+ungainly boats between banks of sand and silt without pilots. On the
+second day a strong southerly storm arose, and the dangerous waves in
+the whirlpools of the current capsized many vessels and damaged others.
+Alexander made for the bank to look for fishermen who might act as
+pilots, and under their guidance he continued his voyage. The river
+became wider and wider, and the fresh salt breeze from the ocean became
+ever more perceptible; but the wind increased, for the south-west
+monsoon was at its height. The grey turbid water rose in higher billows
+and made rowing difficult, for the oars either did not touch the water
+or dipped too deeply into it. It was the flood tide running up from the
+sea which impeded their progress, but the ebb and flow of the sea was
+new to them. Eventually Alexander sought the shelter of a creek, and the
+vessels were dragged ashore. Then came the ebb, and the water fell as
+though it were sucked out into the sea. The boats were left high and
+dry, and many of them sank deep in the mud. Astonished and bewildered,
+Alexander and his men could get neither forward nor backward. They had
+just made preparations to get the ships afloat, when the tide returned
+and lifted them.
+
+Now they went farther down-stream and came in contact with the raging
+surf of the monsoon, which advances in light-green foam-crowned waves
+far into the mouth and changes the colour of the river water. The
+collision of the Indus current with the rising tide fills the fairway
+with whirlpools and eddies, which are exceedingly dangerous even for the
+best of vessels of the present day. Several ships were lost, some being
+thrown up on the banks, while others dashed together and went to pieces.
+
+After they had taken note of the regular rise and fall of the tide, they
+could avoid danger, and the fleet arrived safely at an island where
+shelter could be obtained by the shore and where fresh water was
+abundant. From here the foaming, roaring surf at the very mouth of the
+Indus could be seen, and above the rolling breakers appeared the level
+horizon of the ocean.
+
+With the best of the vessels Alexander went out to ascertain whether the
+surf could be passed through without danger and the open sea be reached.
+The trial proved successful, and another island was found, begirt on all
+sides by open sea. The ships then returned in the dusk to the larger
+island, where a solemn sacrifice was made to Ammon to celebrate the
+first sight of the sea and of the margin of the inhabited world towards
+the south.
+
+Next day Alexander rowed right out to sea to convince himself that no
+more land existed, and when he had advanced so far that nothing but sky
+and rolling billows could be seen from the uppermost benches of the
+triremes, he offered sacrifices to Poseidon, the god of the sea, to the
+Nereids, and to the silver-footed sea-goddess Thetis, the mother of
+Achilles, father of his race. And he besought the favour of all the gods
+in the great enterprise which had brought him to the mouth of the
+Indus, and their protection for his fleet on its dangerous voyage to the
+Euphrates; and when his prayer was ended he cast a golden goblet into
+the sea.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VIII. SRINAGAR AND THE JHELUM RIVER.]
+
+Alexander died at Babylon at the age of thirty-three. His
+world-embracing campaign spread Greek enlightenment over all western
+Asia, and his eventful life did not pass like a meteor into the night of
+time without leaving a trace behind.
+
+
+KASHMIR AND LADAK
+
+When I arrived at Rawalpindi the first thing I did was to order a
+_tonga_ for the drive of 180 miles to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
+A _tonga_ is a two-wheeled tilted cart drawn by two horses, which are
+changed every half hour, for as long as the pair are on the way they go
+at full speed. The road was excellent, and we left the hot suffocating
+steam of India below us as we ascended along the bank of the Jhelum
+River. Sometimes we dashed at headlong speed over stretches of open road
+bathed in sunlight; sometimes through dark cool tunnels where the driver
+blew a sonorous signal with his brass horn; and then again through
+rustling woods of pine-trees.
+
+Srinagar is a beautiful city, intersected as it is by the rippling
+Jhelum River and winding canals (Plate VIII.). The houses on their banks
+rise up directly from the water, and long, narrow, graceful boats pass
+to and fro, propelled at a swift pace by broad-bladed oars in the hands
+of active and muscular white-clad Kashmiris.
+
+Kashmir is one of the native states of our Indian Empire, and its
+inhabitants number about three millions. Many of them are artistic and
+dexterous craftsmen, who make fine boxes and caskets inlaid with ivory,
+mother-of-pearl, and ebony; beautifully chased weapons; tankards, bowls,
+and vases of beaten silver with panthers and elephants on the sides,
+chasing one another through the jungle. The saddlery and leather work of
+all kinds cannot be surpassed, but most famous of all the manufactures
+are the soft, dainty Kashmir shawls, so fine that they can be drawn
+through a finger ring.
+
+Round about the Kashmir valley stand the ridges and snow-clad heights of
+the Himalayas, and among them lie innumerable valleys. Up one of these
+valleys toiled our caravan of thirty-six mules and a hundred horses, and
+after a journey of some 250 miles to the eastward we arrived again at
+the banks of the Indus and crossed it by a swaying bridge of wood. Two
+days later the poplars of Leh stood in front of us.
+
+This little town is nearly 11,500 feet above sea-level. It contains an
+open bazaar street, and a mound above the town is crowned by the old
+royal castle. Leh, as well as the whole of the district of Ladak, is
+subject to the Maharaja of Kashmir, but the people are mostly of Tibetan
+race and their religion is Lamaism.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] A "satrap" was originally a governor of a province in ancient
+Persia.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+EASTERN TURKESTAN (1895)
+
+
+THE TAKLA-MAKAN DESERT
+
+We are now on the high road between India and Eastern Turkestan, the
+most elevated caravan route in the world. Innumerable skeletons of
+transport animals lie there, marking where the road passes through snow.
+After a month's journey over the cold, lofty mountains we come to the
+town of Yarkand, in the spacious, flat, bowl-shaped hollow, surrounded
+on all sides except the east by mountains, which is called Eastern
+Turkestan.
+
+To the south stand the immense highlands of Tibet, where the great
+rivers of India and China take their rise. On the west is the Pamir, the
+"Roof of the World," where the two great rivers of the Sea of Aral begin
+their course. On the north lie the Tien-shan, or Mountains of Heaven,
+which are continued farther north-eastwards by the Altai and several
+other mountain systems, among which the gigantic rivers of Siberia have
+their origin. Within this ring of mountains, at the very heart of the
+great continent of Asia, lies this lowland of Eastern Turkestan, like a
+Tibetan sheepfold enclosed by enormous walls of rock.
+
+In its northern part a river called the Tarim flows from west to east.
+It is formed by the Yarkand-darya and the Khotan-darya on the south, and
+receives other affluents along its course, for water streams down from
+the snowfields and glaciers of the wreath of mountains enclosing Eastern
+Turkestan. The head-waters of the Tarim leap merrily down through narrow
+valleys among the mountains, but the great river is doomed never to
+reach the sea. It terminates and is lost in a desert lake named Lop-nor.
+
+Trees grow along this river, mostly small, stunted poplars, but the
+wooded belts along the banks are very narrow; soon the trees thin out
+and come to an end, steppe shrubs and tamarisks take their place, and
+only a mile or two from the river there is nothing but deep sand without
+a sign of vegetation. The greater part of Eastern Turkestan is occupied
+by the desert called Takla-makan, the most terrible and dangerous in the
+world.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF EASTERN TURKESTAN, SHOWING JOURNEYS
+DESCRIBED ON pp. 89-110.]
+
+A belt of desert runs through the whole of Asia and Africa, like a
+dried-up river bed. This belt includes the Gobi, which extends over most
+of Mongolia, the Takla-makan, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand" in
+Russian Turkestan, the Kevir and other deserts in Persia, the deserts of
+Arabia, and lastly the Sahara. In this succession of deserts extending
+over the Old World from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic the
+Takla-makan is, then, a link.
+
+
+ACROSS A SEA OF SAND
+
+In the beginning of April, 1895, I had reached the Yarkand-darya and had
+encamped at a village, Merket, on its eastern bank. My plan was to
+cross the Takla-makan desert, which stretches away to the eastward, and
+to reach the river Khotan-darya, which flows northwards, the distance
+being 180 miles. My caravan consisted of four servants and eight camels;
+and we took provisions for two months--for we intended afterwards to
+travel on to Tibet--and water for twenty-five days in four iron
+cisterns.
+
+We started on April 10. A white camel was led in front by a man we
+called the guide, because every one said that he had often been in the
+desert seeking for treasure. My riding camel was led by a white-bearded
+man named Muhamed Shah. Kasim came at the end of the file, and the
+faithful Islam Bay, who superintended the whole, was my confidential
+servant. We had also two dogs, Yolldash and Hamra, three sheep, ten
+hens, and a cock. The last did not like riding on a camel. He was always
+working his way out through the bars of his cage, and fluttering down to
+the ground with a loud crow.
+
+For the first few days all went on quietly and satisfactorily. At night
+we could always obtain water for the camels and other animals by
+digging, and thus we saved the fresh river-water in our tanks. But the
+sand became gradually higher and forced us to diverge to the north-east.
+On April 18 we came to a morass surrounded by wood so thick that we had
+to clear a way with the axe. Next day we encamped on the shore of a lake
+of beautiful blue water where ducks and geese were swimming about, and
+my tent was set up under a couple of poplars.
+
+Another day's march led us along the shore of a long lake with bare
+banks. We encamped at its southern extremity and rested a day, for here
+nothing could be seen towards the south and west but yellow sand. The
+guide asserted that it was four days' journey eastwards to the river
+Khotan-darya, and this statement agreed approximately with existing
+maps, but I took the precaution of ordering the men to take water for
+ten days.
+
+On April 23 we left the last bay of the last lake to plunge into the
+high sand. All vegetation came to an end, and only in some hollow a
+solitary tamarisk was still to be seen. The sandhills became ever
+higher, rising to as much as 100 feet.
+
+The next day we marched on in a violent storm. The sand swept down in
+clouds from the crests of the dunes, penetrating into our mouths, noses,
+and eyes. Islam Bay led our train and looked for the easiest way for the
+camels. We noticed, however, that they were already beginning to get
+tired. Sometimes they fell in the sand, and their loads had to be taken
+off before they could get up again. When the tent was set up we had made
+only eight miles. Now there was not a sign of life, not a moth fluttered
+round my candle, not a wind-borne leaf was seen in the boundless yellow
+sand.
+
+On the morning of the 25th I made a terrible discovery: two cisterns
+were empty and the other two contained only enough water for two days.
+Henceforth Islam Bay was put in charge of the cisterns. The water was
+treasured like gold and served out in driblets.
+
+I travelled on foot to spare my riding camel and encourage the men. The
+caravan moved more slowly through the murderous sands. One camel, called
+Old Man, lagged behind. We waited an hour, and gave him a mouthful of
+water and a handful of hay from his own pack-saddle. When we went on, he
+was led slowly after us by Muhamed Shah.
+
+With Islam I measured out the last drops of water on the night of the
+26th. There were about two small cups daily for each of us for three
+days. The next day we plunged again into terrible sand, the dunes being
+200 feet high. In the evening we saw dense rain-clouds in the west, and
+hoped that Heaven would have compassion on us. The clouds spread out and
+came still nearer. All our vessels were made ready, and the tent was
+stretched on the ground to collect the sweet water which was to save us.
+We waited in vain, for the clouds dispersed and yielded us not a drop.
+
+The two tired-out camels had been abandoned at the beginning of the day,
+and we had thrown away a stove, a carpet, my tent-bed, and two empty
+water cisterns.
+
+On April 28 we were awakened by a north-easterly storm, one of those
+"black storms" which stir up the drift-sand in dense clouds and turn day
+into night. All the camp was buried in sand. Only the nearest camels
+could be seen, and their track was immediately obliterated. We had to
+keep all together lest we should lose one another. It was quite possible
+to lose the caravan at a distance of a few paces, and that meant death.
+We were almost suffocated by the volumes of sand which whirled about us,
+and had to rest frequently to get our breath. The camels lay down with
+their heads to leeward, and we thrust our faces under them that we might
+not be choked with sand.
+
+Then we went on with faltering steps. A camel fell and I sent two men
+after him. They came back directly, saying that the track was smoothed
+out by the wind and that they dared not lose sight of us. That was the
+third victim. At the evening camp everything not absolutely
+indispensable was sorted out to be left behind, and a stick was set up
+on the nearest dune with a newspaper wrapped round it so that we might
+find the place again if we obtained water soon. There was still a little
+water left in the two cans, but next morning Islam came and told me that
+one of them was empty. There can be little doubt that the guide was the
+thief who had robbed us all. With failing steps we struggled on all day
+among the high sand dunes.
+
+On the morning of the 30th there was less than two-thirds of a pint of
+water left in the last can. While the others were engaged in loading the
+camels, Islam surprised the guide as he stood with the can to his mouth.
+Islam fell upon him furiously, threw him to the ground, and would have
+killed him if I had not come up in time. Only one-third of a pint was
+now left. At mid-day I moistened the men's lips with the corner of a
+handkerchief dipped in water. In the evening the last drops were to be
+distributed, but when the time came the can was found to be absolutely
+empty. Kasim and Muhamed, who led the camels, had drunk it all.
+
+
+THE END OF THE CARAVAN
+
+The night was cold, but the sun had not long risen on May 1 before the
+heat spread over the dunes. The men drank the last of some rancid
+vegetable oil which had been intended for the camels. I was tortured
+with thirst, as I had not drunk a drop of water the day before, and
+before that only a few mouthfuls. Thirst is a fearful thing, driving one
+to despair, and almost depriving one of reason. As the body dries up,
+the desire for water leaves one no peace. We had a flask of Chinese
+spirits which were intended for a cooking stove. I now drank about a
+tumblerful of it to give my body a little moisture, and then I threw the
+flask away and let its dangerous contents run out into the sand.
+
+The insidious liquor undermined my strength. When the caravan toiled on
+through the dunes I could not follow it. I crept and staggered in its
+track. The bells rang out clearly in the quiet air, but the sound became
+fainter, and at length died away in the distance. The silent desert lay
+around me--sand, sand, sand in all directions.
+
+Following slowly in the footsteps of the others, I came at last to the
+crest of a dune, where I saw that the camels of the caravan had laid
+themselves down. Muhamed Shah was on his knees imploring help from
+Allah. Kasim was sitting with his face in his hands, weeping and
+laughing alternately. Islam, who had been exploring in front, came back
+and proposed that we should look for a place where we could dig for
+water (Plate IX.). I therefore mounted the white camel, after his
+load--ammunition boxes, two European saddles, and a number of other
+articles--had been thrown away, but the animal would not get up. We then
+decided to stay where we were and wait for the cool of evening, and the
+tent was set up to afford us shade. Even Yolldash and the sheep came in.
+
+At mid-day a gentle breeze sprang up, and the air felt pleasant and
+refreshing. We killed the cock and drank its blood. Then Islam turned
+the head of the sheep towards Mecca, cut off its head, and collected the
+blood in a pail, but it was thick and smelt offensively, and not even
+the dog Yolldash would touch it.
+
+We now sorted out all our belongings, taking with us only what was
+absolutely necessary at the moment, and leaving everything else behind
+in the tent. The guide had lost his reason and filled his mouth with
+sand, thinking it was water. He and old Muhamed Shah, who was also
+dying, had to be left behind.
+
+At seven o'clock I mounted the white camel. Islam led the train and
+Kasim urged the animals on. The funeral bells, now rang for the last
+time. From a high sandy crest I turned a farewell glance at the death
+camp. The tent marked out a dark triangle against the lighter
+background, and then vanished behind the sand.
+
+The night descended sadly and silently over the earth. We tramped
+through loose sand, up and down, without seeing where we were going. I
+jumped down from my camel, lighted the lantern, and walked on in front
+to see where it was easiest for the camels to follow.
+
+Then Islam reeled up to me and whispered that he could go no farther. I
+bade him farewell, cheered him up, told him to rest and then follow in
+my track, abandoning everything. The camels were lying half-dead with
+necks stretched out. Kasim alone was fit to accompany me farther. He
+took a spade and a pail and the paunch of the sheep. I had only my
+watch, compass, a penknife, a pen, and a scrap of paper, two small
+tins of lobster and chocolate, a small box, matches and ten cigarettes.
+But the food gave us little satisfaction, for when the mouth, palate,
+and throat are as dry as the outer skin it is impossible to swallow.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IX. DIGGING FOR WATER IN THE TAKLA-MAKAN.]
+
+It was exactly twelve o'clock. We had been shipwrecked in the midst of
+the desert sea, and were now trying to reach a coast. The lantern stood
+burning beside Islam Bay, but the light was soon hidden by the dunes.
+
+We were clad as lightly as possible. Kasim had a thin jacket, wide
+trousers, and boots, but he had forgotten his cap, so I lent him my
+pocket handkerchief to wind round his head. I wore a white Russian cap,
+stiff Swedish shoes, woollen underclothing, and a white suit of thin
+cotton cloth. I had changed my clothes at the death camp that I might
+have a neat clean shroud if I died.
+
+We pushed on with the energy of despair, but after two hours we were so
+sleepy that we had to rest a while. The coolness of the night woke us up
+at four o'clock, and we kept on the march till nine. Then we rested
+again and walked on farther till twelve o'clock, when we were again
+overcome by weariness and the burning heat of the day. In a sandy slope
+facing northwards Kasim digged out cool sand in which we burrowed stark
+naked with only our heads out. To protect ourselves from sunstroke we
+made a screen by hanging up clothes on the spade. At six o'clock we got
+up again and walked for seven hours. Our strength was giving way, and we
+had to rest more frequently. At one o'clock we were slumbering on a
+dune.
+
+There we lay quite three hours, and then went on eastwards. I always
+held the compass in my hand. The next day had dawned, May 3, when Kasim
+stopped, caught hold of my shoulder, and pointed eastwards without
+saying a word. A small dark speck was seen in the distance; it was a
+green tamarisk! Its roots must go down to the water below the surface,
+or it could not live in the desert sea. We thanked God when we came up
+to it. We had now some hope of safety, and we chewed the soft needles of
+the tamarisks like beasts. We tarried a while under its slight shadow,
+and then walked till half-past nine, when we fell down with faintness at
+another bush.
+
+We again undressed and buried ourselves in sand, lying without speaking
+a word for quite nine hours. At dusk we dragged ourselves on again with
+halting steps. After three hours of march Kasim again stopped suddenly.
+Something dark peeped out from among the dunes--three fine poplars with
+sappy foliage. The leaves were too bitter to eat, but we rubbed them on
+the skin until it became moist.
+
+Here we tried to dig a well, but the spade fell out of our powerless
+hands. We then lay down and scraped with our hands, but could not do
+much. Instead we collected all the dry branches we could find and made a
+blazing fire as a beacon for Islam, and to attract attention from the
+east, for we knew that a caravan road ran along the Khotan river.
+
+At four o'clock on May 4 we moved on again, but after five hours we were
+utterly exhausted. We threw ourselves heedlessly on the sand, for Kasim
+was unable to dig the usual burrow. I wriggled naked into the cool dune
+and lay there ten hours without closing an eye.
+
+When at last the shadows spread over the earth and I was ready to set
+out, Kasim murmured that he could go no farther. I did not even remember
+to bid him farewell when I went on my way alone through the darkness and
+sand. Just after midnight I sank down by a tamarisk. The stars twinkled
+as usual, and not a sound was audible. Only the beat of my heart and the
+ticking of my watch broke the awful silence. Then I heard a rustling
+sound in the sand. "Is that you, Kasim?" I asked. "Yes, sir," he
+whispered back. "Let us go a little farther," I said, and he followed me
+with trembling legs.
+
+We were not troubled now so much by thirst, for our bodies had become as
+dry as parchment and seemed to have lost all feeling; but our strength
+was at an end. We crawled for a long distance on our hands and feet,
+dazed and indifferent, as if we were walking in our sleep.
+
+But soon we waked up into full consciousness. Dumb with astonishment we
+stopped before the trail of men. Shepherds from the river must have seen
+our fire the day before and have come to look for us. We followed the
+trail up a high dune where the sand was closely packed and the marks
+were more distinct. "It is our own trail," said Kasim in a despairing
+voice. We had gone round in a circle, and now we could do no more for a
+while. Sad and worn out, we fell down in the track.
+
+It was May 5. We had slept half an hour. It was four o'clock, and a
+vague light heralding the ruddy dawn rose up above the eastern horizon.
+Kasim looked dreadfully ill; his tongue was swollen, white and dry, his
+lips bluish. He complained of a spasmodic hiccough that shook his whole
+body, a sign of the approach of death. The thick blood flowed sluggishly
+in his veins. Even the eyes and joints were dry. We had struggled
+bravely, but now the end was near.
+
+But when the sun rose we saw a dark line on the eastern horizon. The
+sight filled us with thankfulness, for we knew that it must be the wood
+on the bank of the Khotan river. Now we exerted ourselves to the
+uttermost, for we must reach it before we sank with thirst and
+exhaustion. A number of poplars grew in a hollow. "Let us dig here; it
+is a long distance to the woods"; but the spade again slipped out of our
+hands, and we could only stumble and crawl on eastwards.
+
+At last we were there. I seemed to be roused from a fearful dream, a
+terrible nightmare. Green and luxuriant stood the trees in front of us,
+and between them grew grass and weeds where numerous spoors of wild
+animals were visible--tigers, wolves, foxes, stags, antelopes, gazelles,
+and hares. The birds were singing their morning song and insects buzzed
+in the air. Life and joyousness reigned everywhere.
+
+It could not now be far to the river. We tried to pass through the wood,
+but were stopped by impenetrable brushwood and fallen trunks. Then we
+came to a path with plain traces of men and horses. We decided to follow
+it, for surely it would lead to the bank, but not even the hope of a
+speedy deliverance could enable us to keep on our feet. At nine o'clock,
+when the day was already burning hot, we tumbled down in the shade of a
+couple of poplars. Kasim could not last much longer. His senses were
+clouded. He gasped for breath and stared with vacant eyes at the sky. He
+made no answer even when I shook him. I took off my clothes and crept
+down into a hole between the tree roots. Scorpions inhabited the dry
+trees and their marks were visible everywhere, but the poisonous
+reptiles left me in peace.
+
+
+WATER AT LAST
+
+I lay for ten hours wide awake. At seven o'clock I took the wooden haft
+of the spade and went alone through the wood, for Kasim could not move.
+I dropped down again and again on fallen trunks to rest; a few more
+staggering steps and again a rest on a stump. When I could not hold
+myself up, I crawled inch by inch through the brushwood, tearing my
+hands and clothes. It grew dusk and then dark in the wood. I felt sleep
+gradually creeping over me to rob me of life. For if I had fallen asleep
+now, I should never have awakened again. My last struggle was, then,
+against drowsiness.
+
+Then the wood suddenly came to an end and the bed of the Khotan river
+lay before me. But the bottom was dry, as dry as the sand in the desert!
+I was at the summer margin of the river, where water only flows when the
+snow melts on the mountains to the south. But I was not going to die on
+the bank; I would cross the whole bed before I gave myself up for lost.
+The bed was a mile and a quarter broad, a terrible distance for my
+strength. I walked slowly with the spade-handle for a stick, crawling
+for long distances and often resting and exerting all the force of my
+will to resist sleep. Hitherto we had been always making eastwards, but
+this night I walked involuntarily south-east. It was as though I were
+guided by an unseen hand.
+
+The crescent moon threw a pale light over the dry riverbed. I went
+towards the middle and expected to see a silvery streak glisten on a
+sheet of water. After an interval, which seemed endless, I descried the
+line of wood on the eastern bank. It became more distinct. A fallen
+poplar lay projecting over a hollow in the river-bed and on the bank
+were close thickets of bushes and reeds. I rested once more. Was it
+possible that the whole bed was dry? I felt that all my remaining
+strength would be needed to reach the bank. Was I to die of thirst in
+the middle of a river-bed? I rose painfully to walk the last bit, but I
+had not taken many steps before I stopped short. A duck rose on whirring
+wings, I heard the plashing sound of water, and the next moment I stood
+at the edge of a fresh, cool, beautiful pool.
+
+I fell on my knees and thanked God for my marvellous escape. Then I took
+out my watch and felt my feeble pulse, which beat forty-nine. Then I
+drank, slowly at first and then more freely. A deal of water was needed
+to slake such a thirst; I drank and drank until at length I was
+satisfied. Then I sat down to rest and felt that I was reviving quickly.
+After a few minutes my pulse had risen to fifty-six. My hands, which had
+just been withered and hard as wood, softened, the blood flowed more
+easily through my veins and my forehead became moist. Life seemed more
+desirable and delightful than ever. Then I drank again, and thought of
+my wonderful deliverance. If I had passed fifty steps to the right or
+left of the pool, I should probably never have found it, or if I had
+crawled on in the wrong direction, I should have had to walk six miles
+to the next pool, which I could not have done before sleep with the
+death trance in its train came and carried me off.
+
+Now my thoughts flew to the dying Kasim. He needed help at once, if his
+life was to be saved. Dipping my waterproof boots in the pool I filled
+them to the top, passed the straps over the ends of the spade shaft, and
+with this over my shoulder retraced my steps. It was pitch-dark in the
+wood and it was impossible to see the track. I called out "Kasim" with
+all the force of my lungs, but heard no answer. Then I sought out a
+dense clump of dried branches and brushwood and set it on fire. The
+flame shot up immediately, the pile of dry twigs crackled, burst and
+frizzled, the dried herbage was scorched by the draught from below,
+tongues of flame licked the poplar trunks, and it became as light as in
+the middle of the day, a yellowish red gleam illuminating the dark
+recesses of the wood. Kasim could not be far off, and must see the fire.
+Again I looked for the trail, but as I only got confused in the wood I
+stayed by the fire, propped the boots against a root, laid myself down
+where the flames could not reach me, but where I was safe from tigers
+and other wild beasts, and slept soundly.
+
+When day broke I found the trail. Kasim was lying where I left him. "I
+am dying," he whispered in a scarcely audible voice; but when I raised
+one of the boots to his lips, he roused himself up and drank, and
+emptied the other one also. Then we agreed to go together to the pool.
+It was impossible to turn back into the desert, for we had not eaten for
+a week, and now that our thirst was quenched we were attacked by hunger.
+Besides, we felt quite sure that the other men were dead some days ago.
+
+Kasim was so exhausted that he could not go with me. As he was at any
+rate on the right track, and it was now most important to find something
+to eat, I went alone to the pool, drank, bathed, and rested, and then
+walked southwards. At nine o'clock a violent westerly storm arose,
+driving clouds of sand along the ground. After wandering three hours it
+occurred to me that it was not wise to leave the beneficent pool. I
+therefore turned back, but after half an hour only found instead a very
+small pool with indifferent water. It was no use wandering about in such
+a storm, for I could not see where I was going; the wind roared and
+whistled through the wood, and I was half dead with fatigue and hunger.
+
+I therefore crept into a small thicket close to this pool, where I was
+out of reach of the storm, and making a pillow of my boots and cap,
+slept soundly and heavily. Since May 1 I had had no proper sleep. When I
+woke it was already dark, and the storm still howled through the wood. I
+was now so tortured by hunger that I began to eat grass, flowers, and
+reed shoots. There were numbers of young frogs in the pool. They were
+bitter, but I pinched their necks and swallowed them whole. After eating
+my supper I collected a store of branches to keep up a fire during the
+night, and then I crept into my lair in the thicket and gazed into the
+fire for a couple of hours while the storm raged outside. Then I went to
+sleep again.
+
+At dawn on May 7 I crept out of the thicket and decided to march
+southwards until I met with human beings. This time I took water with me
+in my boots, but after a few hours my feet were so sore and blistered
+that I had to bind them up in long strips of my shirt. At length to my
+delight I found a sheepfold on the bank; it had evidently not been used
+for a long time, but it showed that shepherds must live in the woods
+somewhere.
+
+At noon heat and fatigue drove me into the wood again, where I ate a
+breakfast of grass and reeds. After a rest I wandered on again hour
+after hour towards the south, but at eight o'clock I could go no
+farther, and before it became quite dark I tried to make myself
+comfortable on a small space sheltered by poplars and bushes, and there
+as usual I lighted my camp fire. I had nothing else to do but lie and
+stare into the flames and listen to the curious mournful sounds in the
+wood. Sometimes I heard tapping steps and dry twigs cracking. It might
+be tigers, but I trusted that they would not venture to attack me just
+when I had been saved in such a remarkable manner.
+
+I rose on May 8 while it was still dark, and sought for a path in the
+wood, but I had not gone far before the trees became scattered and came
+to an end, and the dismal yellow desert lay before me. I knew it only
+too well, and made haste back to the river-bed. I rested during the hot
+hours of the day in the shadow of a poplar and then set off again. I now
+followed the right bank of the river, and shortly before sunset stopped
+dead before a remarkable sight--the fresh track of two barefooted men
+who had driven four asses northwards.
+
+It was hopeless to try and overtake these wayfarers, and therefore I
+followed their track in the opposite direction. I travelled more quickly
+than usual, the evening was calm and still, twilight fell over the wood.
+At a jutting point of the bank I seemed to hear an unusual sound, and
+held my breath to listen. But the wood was still sad and dreary.
+"Perhaps it was a warbler or a thrush," I thought, and walked on. A
+little later I pulled up again. This time I heard quite plainly a man's
+voice and the low of a cow. I quickly pulled on my wet boots and rushed
+into the wood. A flock of sheep watched by its shepherd was feeding on
+an open glade among the trees. The man seemed petrified at first when he
+saw me, and then he turned on his heels and vanished among the
+brushwood.
+
+After a while he came back with an older shepherd, and I gave them an
+account of my adventures and begged for bread. They did not know what to
+believe, but they took me to their hut and gave me maize bread and ewe's
+milk.
+
+The best thing of all, however, was that three traders rode up next day,
+and I learned from them that some days previously they had discovered a
+dying man beside a white camel on the bank of the river. It was Islam
+Bay! They had given him water and food, and the following day both he
+and Kasim appeared in my hut. Our delight was great, though we mourned
+for our comrades who had died of thirst in the desert.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE DESERT WATERWAY (1899)
+
+
+DOWN THE YARKAND RIVER
+
+No doubt you remember the village of Merket, where we set out on pur
+fatal march through the Takla-makan desert in 1895. In September, 1899,
+I was again at this village with a large caravan and many servants, my
+plan on this occasion being to travel through the whole of Eastern
+Turkestan by water. The waterway I intended to use was the river which
+in its upper course is called the Yarkand, and in its lower the Tarim.
+
+At the village a great caravan route crosses the river, and flat
+ferry-boats convey travellers with their animals and goods from one bank
+to the other. I bought one of the ferry-boats, and had it converted into
+a floating home for our journey of more than a thousand miles (Plate
+X.). It was 36 feet long by 8-1/2 broad, and was like a huge trough
+built of rough planks. A floor of boards was laid in the bow
+sufficiently large to serve as a support for my tent. Behind this was
+built a cubical cabin of thin boards covered with sheets of black felt.
+Within it was furnished with a table and shelves, and window-frames with
+glass panes were let into the felt walls. Here I had all my photographic
+accessories, and here I intended to develop my plates.
+
+When all was ready the ferry-boat was rolled down on logs into the river
+again. The tent was set up and its folds were spiked fast to the edges
+of the flooring. My bed and my boxes were arranged in the tent, a carpet
+was spread on the floor, and at the front opening was placed my
+writing-table, consisting of two boxes, whereon paper, pens, compass,
+and watch, field-glass and other things always lay ready. For a stool I
+had a smaller hide trunk.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE X. THE AUTHOR'S BOAT ON THE YARKAND RIVER.
+
+The man with the white turban at the stern is Islam Bay.]
+
+Amidships our heavy baggage was piled up: sacks of flour and rice, boxes
+of sugar, tea, and groceries, saddles, weapons, and tools. The kitchen
+was at the stern, in charge of my faithful Islam Bay--for he was with me
+again.
+
+When the ferry-boat was fully fitted up and ready to sail, it drew nine
+inches of water. We had also a small auxiliary boat to pilot the larger
+and inform us where treacherous sand-banks were hidden below the
+surface. Fruit, vegetables, sheep, and fowls were carried on the smaller
+boat, which looked rather like a small farmyard. The heavy baggage that
+we did not need on the journey was packed on our camels, and their
+leader was ordered to meet me in three months' time near the termination
+of the river.
+
+Our voyage began on September 17, 1899, the crew numbering seven,
+including Islam Bay and myself. Kader was a youth who helped Islam Bay
+by peeling potatoes, laying table, and fetching water from clear pools
+on the banks cut off from the river. In the bow stood Palta with a long
+pole, watching to thrust off if the boat went too near the bank. At the
+stern stood two other polemen, who helped to handle the boat. The small
+boat was managed by one man, Kasim, and as I sat at my writing-table I
+could see him pushing his vessel with his pole to right or left in
+search of the channel where the water was deepest and the current most
+rapid. Then we had two four-legged passengers on the larger boat, Dovlet
+and Yolldash. Dovlet means the "lucky one" and Yolldash "travelling
+companion." The latter had succeeded to the name of the dog which died
+in the Takla-makan desert.
+
+The boat floats down with the current, following obediently the windings
+of the river, and the polemen are on the watch. On the banks grow small
+hawthorn bushes and tamarisks, interrupted by patches of reeds and small
+clumps of young trees, among which poplars always predominate. They are
+not the tall, slender poplars which tower proud as kings above other
+trees, but quite a dwarf kind with a round, irregular crown. When the
+day draws near to a close I give the order to stop. Palta thrusts his
+pole into the river bottom, and, throwing all his strength and weight on
+to it, forces the stern of the boat to swing round to the land, where
+another of the crew jumps out on to the bank with a rope. He makes it
+fast round a stump, and our day's voyage is ended.
+
+The gangway is pushed out and a fire is lighted in an open space among
+the trees, and soon the teapot and rice-pan are bubbling pleasantly. I
+remain sitting at my writing-table and see the moonlight playing in a
+streak on the surface of the river. All is quiet and silent around us,
+and even the midges have gone to rest. I hear only the brands crackling
+in the camp fire and the sand slipping down the neighbouring bank as the
+water laps against it. A dog barking in the distance is answered by
+Dovlet and Yolldash.
+
+Now steps are heard on board, and Islam Bay brings my supper. The
+writing-table is converted into a dining-table, and he serves me up rice
+pudding with onions, carrots, and minced mutton, fresh bread, eggs,
+cucumbers, melons, and grapes. What more could a man want? It was very
+different when we were wandering on the endless sands. If I want to
+drink I have only to let down a cup into the river which gently ripples
+past the boat. The dogs keep me company, sitting with cocked ears
+waiting for a titbit. Then Islam comes and clears the table, I close the
+tent, creep into my berth, and enjoy life afloat on my own vessel, where
+it is only necessary to loosen a rope to be on the way again.
+
+After a few days we come to a place where the river contracts and forces
+its way with great velocity between small islands and great heaps of
+stranded driftwood. Here Palta has plenty of work, for he has constantly
+to keep the boat off from some obstacle or other with the pole.
+Frequently we bump up against poplar trunks which do not show above the
+water, and then the boat swings round in a moment. Then all the crew
+jump into the river and shove the boat off again.
+
+A distant noise is heard, and soon becomes louder. In a moment we are in
+the midst of rapids, and it is too late to heave to. It is to be hoped
+that we shall not turn broadside on or we shall capsize. "Let her go
+down as she likes," I call out. All the poles are drawn up, and the boat
+flies along, gliding easily and smoothly over the boiling water.
+
+Below the rapids the river widened out, and became so shallow that we
+stuck fast in blue clay. We pushed and pulled, but all to no purpose.
+Then all the baggage was carried ashore, and with our united strength we
+swung the boat round until the clay was loosened, and then the things
+were brought on board again.
+
+Farther down, the river draws together again. The banks are lined with
+dense masses of fine old trees just beginning to turn yellow in the
+latter days of September. The boat seems as though it were gliding along
+a canal in a park. The woods are silent, not a leaf is moving, and the
+water flows noiselessly. The polemen have nothing to do. They sit
+cross-legged with one hand on the pole, which trails through the water;
+and only now and then have they to make a thrust to keep the boat in the
+middle of the stream.
+
+Weeks passed, and the ferry-boat drifted still farther and farther down
+the river. Autumn had come, and the woods turned yellow and russet, and
+the leaves fell. We had no time to spare if we did not want to be caught
+fast in the ice before reaching the place where we had arranged to meet
+the caravan. Therefore we started earlier in the morning and did not
+land until long after sunset each day. The solemn silence of a temple
+reigned around, only the quacking of a duck being heard occasionally or
+the noise of a fox stealing through the reeds. A herd of wild boars lay
+wallowing in the mud on the bank. When the boat glided noiselessly by
+they got up, looked at us a moment with the greatest astonishment, and
+dashed like a roaring whirlwind through the beds of cracking reeds. Deer
+grazed on the bank. They scented danger and turned round to make for
+their hiding-places in the wood. A roebuck swam across the stream a
+little in front of the boat. Islam lay with his gun in the bow ready to
+shoot, but the roebuck swam splendidly and, with a spring, was up on the
+bank and vanished like the wind. Sometimes we saw also fresh spoor of
+tigers at our camping-grounds, but we never succeeded in surprising one
+of them.
+
+One morning, when we had not seen any natives for a long time, the smoke
+of a fire was seen on the bank. Some shepherds were watching their
+flocks, and their dogs began to bark. The men gazed at the ferry-boat
+with wonder and alarm as it floated nearer, and no doubt thought that it
+was something ghostly, for they faced about and ran with the dust flying
+about their sheepskin sandals. I sent two men ashore, but it was quite
+impossible to catch up with the runaways.
+
+Farther down we passed through a district where several villages stood
+near the banks. They had learned of our coming through scouts, and when
+we arrived we were met by whole troops of horsemen. The village headmen
+were also present, and were invited on board, where they were regaled
+with tea on the after-deck.
+
+
+THE TARIM
+
+The farther we went the smaller became the river. The Yarkand-darya
+would never reach the lake, Lop-nor, where it discharges its water, if
+it did not receive a considerable tributary on the way. This tributary
+is called the Ak-su, or "White Water," and it comes foaming down from
+the Tien-shan, the high mountains to the north. After the rivers have
+mingled their waters, the united main stream is called the Tarim.
+
+The weather gradually became colder. One morning a dense mist lay like a
+veil between the wooded banks, and all the trees, bushes, and plants,
+and the whole boat, were white with hoar frost. After this it was not
+long before the frost began to spread thin sheets of ice over the pools
+on the banks and the small cut-off creeks of stagnant water, and we had
+to press on as fast as we could to escape being frozen in. Breakfast was
+no longer laid on land, but on the after-deck of the ferry-boat, where
+we built a fireplace of clay, and round this the men sat in turn to warm
+themselves. At night we travelled long distances in the dark. We had
+persuaded two natives to go with us in their long, narrow canoes, and
+they rowed in front of us in the darkness with large Chinese paper
+lanterns on poles to show us where the deep channel ran.
+
+The woods on the bank gradually thin out, and finally come to an end
+altogether, being replaced by huge sand-hills often as much as 200 feet
+high. This is the margin of the great sandy desert which occupies all
+the interior of Eastern Turkestan. The people in the country round about
+are called Lopliks, and live to a great extent on fish.
+
+During the last few days of November the temperature fell to 28.8° below
+freezing-point. The drift ice which floated down the river became
+thicker, and one morning the ferry-boat lay frozen in so fast we could
+walk on the ice around it. Out in the current, however, the water was
+open, and we broke asunder our fetters with axes and crowbars. A
+constant roar of grinding and scraping ice accompanied us all day long,
+and during the nights we had to anchor the ferry-boat out in the
+swiftest part of the current to prevent it being frozen in.
+
+On December 7 broad fringes of ice lay along both banks, and all day we
+danced among drifting ice as in a bath of broken crockery. At night we
+had a whole flotilla of canoes with lanterns and torches to clear the
+way, when suddenly the boat swung round with a bump, and we found that
+the river was frozen over right across. This did not disturb us, for on
+the bank we saw the flames of a wood fire, and found that it was burning
+at the camp of our camel caravan.
+
+
+THE WANDERING LAKE
+
+The place where the ferry-boat was frozen in for the winter is called
+New Lake (see map, p. 90). Just at this spot the Tarim bends southwards,
+falling farther down into a very shallow lake called Lop-nor. The whole
+country here is so flat that with the naked eye no inequalities can be
+detected. Therefore the river often changes its bed, sometimes for short
+and sometimes for long distances. Formerly the river did not bend
+southwards, but proceeded straight on eastwards, terminating in another
+lake also called Lop-nor, which lay in the northern part of the desert,
+and which is mentioned in old Chinese geographies.
+
+The peculiarity of Lop-nor is, then, that the lake moves about, and, in
+conjunction with the lower course of the Tarim, swings like a pendulum
+between north and south. I made many excursions in that part of the
+desert where the Lop-nor formerly lay, and mapped out the old river-bed
+and the old lake. There I discovered ruins of villages and farms,
+ancient canoes and household utensils, tree trunks dry as tinder and
+roots of reeds and rushes. In a mud house I found also a whole
+collection of Chinese manuscripts, which threw much light on the state
+of the country at the time when men could exist there. These writings
+were more than 1600 years old.
+
+The explanation of the lake's wanderings is this. At the time of high
+water the Tarim is always full of silt, and the old lake was very
+shallow. The lake, therefore, was silted up with mud and decaying
+vegetation, and by the same process the bed of the river was raised. At
+last came the time when the Tarim sought for an outlet to the south,
+where the country was somewhat lower. The old bed was dried up by
+degrees and the water in the lake evaporated. The sheet of water
+remained, indeed, for a long time, but it shrank up from year to year.
+At last there was not a drop of water left, and the whole country dried
+up. The poplar woods perished, and the reeds withered and were blown
+away by the wind. The men left their huts and moved down the new water
+channel to settle at the new lake, where they erected new huts. The
+Tarim and Lop-nor had swung like a pendulum to the south, and men,
+animals, and plants were obliged to follow. The same thing then occurred
+in the south. The new river and lake were silted up and the water
+returned northwards. Thus the water swung repeatedly from north to
+south, but of course many hundreds of years elapsed between the
+vibrations.
+
+At the present day the lake lies in the southern part of the desert; it
+is almost entirely overgrown with reeds, and the poplar woods grow only
+by the river. The few natives are partly herdsmen, partly fishermen;
+they are of Turkish race and profess the religion of Islam; they are
+kind-hearted and peaceable, and show great hospitality to strangers.
+Their huts are constructed of bundles of reeds bound together; the
+ground within is covered with reed mats, and the roof consists of boughs
+covered with reeds. The men spend a large part of their time in canoes,
+which are hollowed poplar trunks, and are therefore long, narrow, and
+round at the bottom. The oars have broad blades and drive the canoes at
+a rapid pace. Narrow passages are kept open through the reeds, and along
+these the canoes wind like eels. The men are very skilful in catching
+fish, and in spring they live also on eggs, which they collect from the
+nests of the wild geese among the reeds. The reeds grow so thickly that
+when they have been broken here and there by a storm one can walk on
+them with six feet of water beneath.
+
+Tigers were formerly common on the banks of Lop-nor, and the natives
+used to hunt them in a singular manner. When a tiger had done mischief
+among the cattle, the men would all assemble from the huts in the
+neighbourhood at the thickets on the bank of the river where they knew
+that the tiger was in hiding. They close up round him from the land
+side, leaving the river-bank open. Their only weapons are poles and
+sticks, so they set fire to the copse in order to make the beast leave
+his lair. When the tiger finds that there is no way out on the land
+side, he takes to the water to swim to some islet or to the other shore
+of the lake, but before he is far out half a dozen canoes cut through
+the water and surround him. The men are armed only with their oars. The
+canoes can move much faster than the tiger, and one shoots quickly past
+him, and the men in the bow push his head under water with their
+oar-blades. Before the tiger has risen again the canoe is out of reach.
+The tiger snorts and growls and puffs madly, but in a moment another
+canoe is upon him and another oar thrusts him down deeper than before.
+This time he has barely reached the surface before a third canoe glides
+up, and his head is again shoved under water. Soon the tiger begins to
+tire and to gasp for breath. He has no opportunity of using his fangs
+and claws, and can only struggle for his life by swimming. Now the
+first canoe has circled round again, and the man in the bow pushes the
+tiger down with all his strength and holds him under water as long as he
+can. This goes on until the tiger can struggle no longer and is drowned.
+Then a rope is tied round his neck, and with much jubilation he is towed
+to the shore.
+
+The climate at Lop-nor is very different in winter and summer. In winter
+the temperature falls to 22° below zero, and rises in summer to 104°.
+Large variations like this always occur in the interior of the great
+continents of the world, except in the heart of Africa, close to the
+equator, where it is always warm. On the coasts the variation is
+smaller, for the sea cools the air in summer and warms it in winter. In
+the Lop-nor country the rivers and lakes are frozen hard in winter, but
+in summer suffocating heat prevails. Men are tortured by great swarms of
+gnats, and cattle are devoured by gadflies. It has even happened that
+animals have been so seriously attacked by gadflies that they have died
+from loss of blood. Fortunately, the flies come out only as long as the
+sun is up, and therefore the animals are left in peace at night. During
+the day horses and camels must be kept among the reeds, where the flies
+do not come.
+
+Incredible numbers of wild geese and ducks, swans and other swimming
+birds breed at Lop-nor, and the open water is studded all over with
+chattering birds. In late autumn they fly southwards through Tibet, and
+in winter the lakes are quiet, with yellow reeds sticking up through the
+ice.
+
+
+WILD CAMELS
+
+The level region over which the Lop-nor has wandered for thousands of
+years from north to south is called the Lop desert. Its stillness is
+broken only from time to time by easterly storms which roll like thunder
+over the yellow clay ground. In the course of ages these strong spring
+storms have ploughed out channels and furrows in the clay, but otherwise
+the desert is as level as a frozen sea, the places where Lop-nor
+formerly spread out its water being marked only by pink mollusc shells.
+
+On the north the Lop desert is bounded by the easternmost chains of the
+Tien-shan, which the Chinese also call the "Dry Mountains." They deserve
+the name, for their sides are hardly ever washed by rain; but at their
+southern foot a few salt springs are to be found. Round them grow reeds
+and tamarisks, and even in other places near the mountains some
+vegetation struggles for existence.
+
+This is the country of wild camels. Wild camels live in herds of half a
+dozen head. The leader is a dark-brown stallion; the mares are lighter
+in colour. Their wool is so soft and fine that it is a pleasure to pass
+one's hand over it. Several herds or families are often seen grazing on
+the same spot. They look well-fed, and the two humps are firm and full
+of fat. In spring and summer they can go without water for eight days,
+in winter for two weeks. For innumerable generations they have known
+where to find the springs: the mothers take their young ones to them,
+and when the youngsters grow up they in their turn show the springs to
+their foals. They drink the water, however salt it may be, for they have
+no choice, but they do not stay long at the meadows by the springs, for
+their instinct tells them that where water is to be found there the
+danger is great that their enemies may also come to drink.
+
+Against danger they have no other protection than their sharply
+developed senses. They can scent men at a distance of twelve miles. They
+know the odour of a camping-ground long after the ashes have been swept
+away by the wind, and they avoid the spot. Tame camels passing through
+their country excite their suspicion; they do not smell like wild ones.
+They are shy and restless and do not remain long at one pasture, even if
+no danger threatens.
+
+In some districts they are so numerous that the traveller cannot march
+for two minutes without crossing a spoor. Where the tracks all converge
+towards a valley between two hills, they probably lead to a spring. On
+one occasion when our tame camels had not had water for eleven days,
+they were saved by following the tracks of their wild relations.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1901-2, 1906-8)
+
+
+THE PLATEAU OF TIBET
+
+South of Eastern Turkestan lies the huge upheaval of the earth's crust
+which is called Tibet. Its other boundaries are: on the east, China
+proper; on the south, Burma, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, and British India;
+on the west, Kashmir and Ladak. Political boundaries, however, are of
+little and only temporary importance. They seldom remain unchanged from
+century to century, for from the earliest times a nation as it increased
+in strength has always extended its domain at the expense of its
+neighbours.
+
+The earth's crust, on the other hand, remains unchanged--if we disregard
+the continual work performed by rain and streams, weather and wind,
+which tends to fill up the hollows with mud and sand, to cut the valleys
+ever deeper, and to diminish the mountain masses by weathering. However
+powerfully these forces may have acted, Tibet still remains the highest
+mountain land of the world.
+
+If you lay your left hand on a map of Tibet so that the part nearest the
+wrist touches the Pamir, the flat of the hand covers the region of
+central Tibet, where there is no drainage to the ocean, but where the
+country falls instead into a number of isolated lake basins. Your thumb
+will represent the Himalayas, the forefinger the Trans-Himalaya, the
+middle finger the Karakorum, the third finger the Arka-tagh, and the
+little finger the Kuen-lun. The highest mountain ranges of the world are
+under your fingers; and also, as the longest finger is the middle of the
+five, so the Karakorum is the central range of Tibetan mountains.
+
+Now let a little stream of water fall on the back of your hand as you
+hold it on a table with the fingers spread out. You will see that a tiny
+quantity remains on the back of the hand, but that the greater part runs
+away between the fingers. Thus it is in Tibet. The water poured on your
+hand represents the rain of the south-west monsoon, which falls more
+abundantly on the eastern part of the country than on the western. The
+water which stays on the back of the hand represents the small scattered
+salt lakes on the plateau country which has no drainage to the sea,
+while the large quantity which runs off between your fingers represents
+the large rivers which flow between the ranges.
+
+[Illustration: TIBET.]
+
+Of these rivers two stream eastwards: the Yellow River (the Hwang-ho),
+which falls into the Yellow Sea, and the Blue River (the
+Yang-tse-kiang), which empties its waters into the Eastern Sea. The
+others run southwards, the Mekong into the China Sea, the Salwin,
+Irawaddy, and Brahmaputra into the great inlet of the Indian Ocean which
+is called the Bay of Bengal. A large quantity of water runs off along
+the outer side of your thumb; this is the Ganges, which comes down from
+the upper valleys of the Himalayas. And, far to the west, nearest to the
+wrist, you find two rivers with which you are already acquainted: the
+Indus, which flows southwards into the Arabian Sea, and the Tarim, which
+runs north and east and falls into Lop-nor.
+
+The Himalayas are the loftiest range on earth, and among their crests
+rise the highest peaks in the world. Three of them should be remembered,
+for they are so well known: Mount Everest, which, with its 29,000 feet,
+is the very highest summit in the world; Kinchinjunga (28,200 feet), and
+Dhwalagiri (26,800 feet). Mount Godwin-Austen in the Karakorum is only
+about 650 feet lower than Mount Everest.
+
+The Himalayas present a grand spectacle when seen from the south. No
+other mountain region in the world can vie with it in awe-inspiring
+beauty. If we travel by rail from Calcutta up to Sikkim we see the
+snow-clad crest of the Himalayas in front and above us, and Kinchinjunga
+like a dazzling white pinnacle surmounting the whole. We see the sharply
+defined snow limit, and the steep, wooded slopes below. If it is early
+in the morning and the weather is fine, the jagged, snowy crest shines
+brightly in the sun, while the flanks and valleys are still hidden in
+dense shadow. And during the journey to the great heights we shall
+notice that the flora changes much in the same way as it does from South
+Italy to the North Cape. The last forms of vegetation to contend against
+the cold are mosses and lichens. Then we come to the snow limit, where
+the mountains and rocks are bare.
+
+North and Central Tibet have a mean elevation of 16,000 feet; that is to
+say, one is almost always at a greater height than the summit of Mont
+Blanc. Where the plateau country is so exceedingly high the mountain
+ranges seem quite insignificant. We have spoken of five great ranges,
+but between these He many smaller, all running east and west.
+
+What a fortunate thing it is for the people of Asia that the interior of
+the continent rises into the tremendous boss called Tibet! Against its
+heights the water vapour of the monsoon is cooled and condensed, so that
+it falls in the form of rain and feeds the great rivers. Were the
+country flat like northern India or Eastern Turkestan, immense tracts of
+the interior of Asia would be complete desert, as in the interior of
+Arabia; but as it is, the water is collected in the mountains and runs
+off in all directions. Along the rivers the population is densest;
+around them spring up cities and states, and from them canals branch off
+to water fields and gardens.
+
+You know, of course, that Asia is the largest division of land in the
+world, and that Europe is little more than a peninsula jutting out
+westwards from the trunk of Asia. Indeed, Asia is not much smaller than
+Europe, Africa, and Australia put together. Of the 1550 millions of men
+who inhabit the world, 830 millions, or more than half, live in Asia.
+If, now, you take out your atlas and compare southern Europe and
+southern Asia, you will find some very curious similarities. From both
+these continents three large peninsulas point southwards. The Iberian
+Peninsula, consisting of Spain and Portugal, corresponds to the Arabian
+Peninsula, both being quadrangular and massive. Italy corresponds to the
+Indian Peninsula, both having large islands near their extremities,
+Sicily and Ceylon. The Balkan Peninsula corresponds to Further India
+(the Malay Peninsula), both having irregular, deeply indented coasts
+with a world of islands to the south-east, the Archipelago and the Sunda
+Islands.
+
+Tibet may be likened to a fortress surrounded by mighty ramparts. To the
+south the ramparts are double, the Himalayas and the Trans-Himalaya, and
+between the two is a moat partly filled with water--the Upper Indus and
+the Upper Brahmaputra. And Tibet is really a fortress and a defence in
+the rear of China. It is easily conceivable that a country surrounded by
+such huge mountain ranges must be very difficult of access, and the
+number of Europeans who have crossed Tibet is very small.
+
+The inaccessible position of the country has also had an influence on
+the people. Isolated and without communication with their neighbours,
+the people have taken their own course and have developed in a peculiar
+manner within their own boundaries. The northern third of the country is
+uninhabited. I once travelled for three months, and on another occasion
+for eighty-one days, without seeing a single human being. The middle
+part is thinly peopled by herdsmen, who roam about with their flocks of
+sheep and yaks, and live in black tents. Many of them also are skilful
+hunters of yaks and antelopes. Others gather salt on the dried-up beds
+of lakes, pack it in double-ended bags, and carry it on sheep to barter
+it for barley in the southern districts, which are the home of the great
+majority of Tibet's two or three million inhabitants. There are to be
+found not only nomads, but also settled people, dwelling in small
+villages of stone huts in the deeper river valleys, especially that of
+the Brahmaputra, and cultivating barley. A few towns also exist here;
+they are all small, the largest being Lhasa and Shigatse.
+
+When our journey takes us to India again we shall have an opportunity of
+learning about the religion of Buddha, which is called Buddhism. In a
+different form this religious creed found its way into Tibet a thousand
+years ago. Before this time a sort of natural religion prevailed, which
+peopled the mountains, rivers, lakes, and air with demons and spirits.
+Much of the old superstition was absorbed into the new teaching, and the
+combination is known by the name of Lamaism. There are 620 millions of
+Christians in the world and 400 million Buddhists; and of the Buddhists
+all the Tibetans and Mongolians, the Buriats in eastern Siberia, the
+Kalmukhs on the Volga, the peoples of Ladak, northern Nepal, Sikkim, and
+Bhutan are Lamaists.
+
+They have a great number of monks and priests, each of whom is called a
+Lama. The principal one is the Dalai Lama, in Lhasa, but almost on a par
+with him is the Tashi Lama, the head of Tashi-lunpo, the large monastery
+at Shigatse. The third in rank is the High Lama at Urga in northern
+Mongolia. These three and some others are incarnated deities. The Dalai
+Lama never dies; the god that dwells in him merely changes his earthly
+body, just as a snake when it casts its skin. When a Dalai Lama dies it
+means that the divinity, his soul, sets out on its wanderings and passes
+into the body of a boy. When the boy is found he becomes the Dalai Lama
+of Lhasa. Lamaists believe, then, in the transmigration of souls, and
+the end, the fullest perfection, is peace in Nirvana.
+
+There are many monasteries and nunneries in the upper Brahmaputra
+valley. The temple halls are adorned with images of the gods in metal or
+gilded clay, and butter lamps burn day and night in front of them. Monks
+and nuns cannot marry, but among the ordinary people the singular custom
+prevails that a wife can have two or several husbands. Among Mohammedans
+the case is just the reverse: men can have several wives.
+
+
+ATTEMPT TO REACH LHASA
+
+It was from Lop-nor in the year 1901 that I penetrated into this lofty
+mountain land for the third time. The summer had just set in with its
+suffocating dust storms, and we longed to get up into the fresh, pure
+air. The caravan was large, for I had sixteen Mohammedan servants from
+Eastern Turkestan, two Russian and two Buriat Cossacks, and a Mongolian
+Lama from Urga. Provisions for seven months, tents, furs, beds, weapons,
+and boxes were carried by 39 camels, 45 horses and mules, and 60 asses;
+and we also had 50 sheep for food, several dogs, and a tame stag.
+
+When all was ready we set out towards the lofty mountains and crossed
+one range after another. When we reached the great heights the caravan
+lost strength day by day. The atmosphere is so rare that a man cannot
+breathe without an effort, and the slightest movement produces
+palpitation of the heart. The grazing becomes more scanty the higher you
+go, and many of the caravan animals succumbed. At last we seldom
+travelled more than twelve miles in a day.
+
+After forty-four days' march due southwards we came to a part of the
+country where footprints of men were seen in several places, and Lhasa
+was only 300 miles away. Up to this time all Europeans who had tried to
+reach the holy city had been forced by Tibetan horsemen to turn back.
+The Tibetans are at bottom a good-tempered, decent people, but they will
+not allow any European to enter their country. They have heard that
+India and Central Asia have been conquered by white men, and fear that
+the same fate may befall Tibet. Two hundred years ago, indeed, Catholic
+missionaries lived in Lhasa, and the town was visited in 1845 by the
+famous priests Huc and Gabet from France. Since then two Europeans who
+had made the attempt to reach the place had been murdered, and others
+had to turn back without success.
+
+Now it was my turn to try my luck. My plan was to travel in disguise
+with only two followers. One was the Mongolian Lama, the other the
+Buriat Cossack, Shagdur. The Buriats are of Mongol race, speak
+Mongolian, and are Lamaists. They have narrow, rather oblique eyes,
+prominent cheek-bones, and thick lips. The dress of both peoples is the
+same--a skin coat with long sleeves and a waistbelt, a cap, and a pair
+of boots with turned-up toes. My costume was of exactly the same kind,
+and everything we took with us--tent, boxes, cooking utensils, and
+provisions--was of Mongolian style and make. The European articles I
+required--instruments, writing materials, and a field-glass--were
+carefully packed in a box. For defence we had two Russian rifles and a
+Swedish revolver. Of the caravan animals, five mules and four horses, as
+well as two dogs, Tiger and Lilliput, were to go with us. I rode a
+handsome white horse, Shagdur a tall yellow horse, and the Lama a small
+greyish-yellow mule. The baggage animals were led by my men and I rode
+behind. During the first two days we had a Mohammedan with us, Ördek,
+but he was to go back to headquarters, where all the rest of the caravan
+were ordered to await our return.
+
+We were to ride south-eastwards and endeavour to strike the great
+Mongolian pilgrim route to Lhasa. Many Mongolians betake themselves
+annually in large armed caravans to the holy city to pay homage to the
+Dalai Lama, and obtain a blessing from him and the Tashi Lama. Perhaps
+it was wrong of me to give myself out for a Lamaist pilgrim, but there
+seemed no other means of getting to the forbidden city.
+
+We left the main camp on July 27, and those we left behind did not
+expect ever to see us again. The first day we did not see a living
+thing, and the second day we rode twenty-five miles farther without
+hindrance. Our camp that day was situated on open ground beside two
+lakes, and to the south-east stood some small hills, in the
+neighbourhood of which our animals grazed. Ördek was to watch them
+during the night in order that we might have a good sleep, for when he
+left us we should have to guard them ourselves.
+
+Here my disguise was improved. My head was shaved so that it shone like
+a billiard ball. Only the eyebrows were left. Then the Lama rubbed fat,
+soot, and brown colouring-matter into the skin, and when I looked in a
+small hand-glass I could hardly recognise myself; but I seemed to have a
+certain resemblance to my two Lamaist retainers.
+
+In the afternoon a storm broke out from the north, and we crept early
+into our little thin tent and slept quietly. At midnight Ördek crept
+into the tent and whispered in a trembling voice that robbers were
+about. We seized our weapons and rushed out. The storm was still raging,
+and the moon shone fitfully between the riven clouds. We were too late.
+With some difficulty we made out two horsemen on the top of the hills
+driving two loose horses before them--we found afterwards that one was
+my favourite white horse, the other Shagdur's yellow one. Shagdur sent a
+bullet after the scoundrels, but it only hastened their pace.
+
+It was still dark, but there was no more sleep for us. We settled
+ourselves round a small blaze, boiled rice and tea, and lighted our
+pipes. When the sun rose we were ready to go forward. First we examined
+the tracks of the thieves and found that they had come down on us with
+the wind, and had thus eluded the watchfulness of the dogs. One of the
+men had crept along a rain furrow right among the grazing horses, and,
+jumping up, had frightened the best two off to leeward. There a mounted
+Tibetan had taken them in hand and chased them on in front of him. The
+third had waited with his comrade's horse and his own, and then he also
+had made off. They had no doubt been watching us all day. Perhaps they
+already knew that we came from my headquarters, and they might even send
+a warning to Lhasa.
+
+Ördek was beside himself with fright at having to make the two days'
+journey back on foot and quite alone. We heard afterwards that he did
+not dare to go back on our trail, but sneaked like a wild cat along all
+the furrows, longing for night; but when darkness came he was still more
+terrified and thought that every stone was a lurking villain. A couple
+of wild asses nearly frightened him out of his senses, and made him
+scuttle like a hedgehog into a ravine. When he arrived in the darkness
+of night at the main camp, the night watchman took him for a stranger
+and raised his gun. But Ördek shouted and waved his arms, and when he
+got to his tent he lay down and slept heavily for two whole days.
+
+We three pilgrims rode on south-eastwards, and pitched our tent on open
+ground by a brook twenty-five miles farther on. Our positions were now
+reversed; Shagdur was the important man and I was only a mule-driver.
+With the Cossacks I always spoke Russian, but now no language must be
+used but Mongolian, which the Lama had been teaching me for a long time
+previously. After dinner I slept till eight o'clock in the evening, and
+when I awoke I found my two comrades in a state of the greatest anxiety,
+for they had seen three Tibetan horsemen spying upon us from a long
+distance. We must therefore expect fresh trouble at any moment.
+
+The night was divided into three watches, from nine o'clock to midnight,
+midnight to three o'clock, and three o'clock to six o'clock, and usually
+I took the first and the Lama the last. The animals were tethered to a
+rope fastened to the ground in the lee of the tent, and Tiger was tied
+up in front of them and Lilliput behind them.
+
+At half-past eight Shagdur and the Lama were asleep in the tent, and my
+first night watch began. I strolled backwards and forwards between Tiger
+and Lilliput, who whined with pleasure when I stroked them. The sky was
+covered with dense black clouds, lighted from within by flashes of
+lightning, while thunder rolled around us and rain streamed down in a
+perfect deluge. It beat and rang on the Mongolian stewpans left out at
+the fireplace. Sometimes I tried to get a little shelter in the tent
+opening, but as soon as the dogs growled I had to hurry out again.
+
+At last it is midnight and my watch is at an end; but Shagdur is
+sleeping so soundly that I cannot find it in my heart to waken him. I am
+just thinking of shortening his watch by half an hour when both dogs
+begin to bark furiously. The Lama wakes up and rushes out, and we steal
+off with our weapons in the direction in which we hear the tramp of a
+horse going away through the mud. In a little while all is quiet again,
+and the dogs cease to bark. I wake up Shagdur and creep into my berth in
+my wet coat.
+
+Next day we travel on under a sky as heavy as lead. No human beings or
+nomad tents are to be seen, but we find numerous tracks of flocks of
+sheep and yaks, and old camping-grounds. The danger of meeting people
+increased hourly, and so did my anxiety as to how the Tibetans would
+treat us when we were at last discovered.
+
+On July 31 the rain was still pouring down. We were following a clear,
+well-trodden path, along which a herd of yaks had recently been driven.
+After a while we came up with a party of Tangut pilgrims, with fifty
+yaks, two horses, and three dogs. The Tanguts are a nomadic people in
+northeastern Tibet, and almost every second Tangut is also a robber. We
+passed them safely, however, and for the first time encamped near a
+Tibetan nomad tent occupied by a young man and two women.
+
+While the Lama was talking with these people, the owner of the tent came
+up and was much astonished to find an unexpected visitor. He followed
+the Lama to our tent and sat down on the wet ground outside the
+entrance. His name was Sampo Singi, and he was the dirtiest fellow I
+ever saw in my life. The rain-water dropped from his matted hair on to
+the ragged cloak he wore; he wore felt boots but no trousers, which
+indeed almost all Tibetan nomads regard as quite, superfluous.
+
+Sampo Singi blew his nose with his fingers, making a loud noise, and he
+did it so often that I began to think that it was some form of
+politeness. To make sure I followed his example. He showed not the
+slightest suspicion, only looked at our things and gave us the
+information we wanted. We had a journey of eight days more to Lhasa, he
+assured us. Then Shagdur gave him a pinch of snuff which made him sneeze
+at least fifty times. We laughed at him when he asked whether we put
+pepper in our snuff, whereupon, in order to keep up our story, Shagdur
+roared at me, "Do not sit here and stare, boy; go and drive in the
+cattle." I started up at once, and had a terrible job to get the animals
+in to the camp.
+
+We had an undisturbed night, thanks to the neighbourhood of the nomads,
+for they too had fierce dogs and arms. Early in the morning Sampo came
+with another man and a woman to visit us. We had asked if we might buy
+some food from them, and they brought several choice things with them--a
+sheep, a large piece of fat, a bowl of sour milk, a wooden bowl of
+powdered cheese, a can of milk, and a lump of yellow cream cheese. Then
+came the question of payment. Our money consisted of Chinese silver
+pieces, which are valued by weight, and are weighed out with a pair of
+small scales. Sampo Singi, however, would take only silver coins from
+Lhasa, of which we had none. Fortunately I had provided myself with two
+packages of blue Chinese silken material in Turkestan, and a length of
+that is a substitute for silver of all kinds. The Tibetans became quite
+excited when they heard the rustle of the silk, and after the usual
+haggling and bargaining we came to an agreement.
+
+The sheep was then slaughtered, some fat pieces were fried over the
+fire, and after a solid breakfast, of which a share was bestowed on the
+dogs, we bade farewell to the Tibetans and rode on through the valley,
+still in pouring rain. Soon we came to the right bank of a broad river
+which was composed of about twenty arms, four of which were each as
+large as an ordinary stream. Without hesitation our courageous little
+Lama rode straight out into the rapid turbid current, and Shagdur and I
+followed. When we had crossed about half the river we rested a while on
+a small mud flat, from which neither bank could be seen owing to the
+rain. On all sides we were surrounded by swiftly flowing water, yet it
+seemed as if the water was standing still while the small sandbank
+rushed up the river at a terrific pace.
+
+The Lama again started off with his mule into the water, but he had not
+gone many steps before the water rose to the root of the animal's tail.
+He was also leading the mule which carried our two hide trunks, which
+until the water soaked into them acted like corks. In this way the mule
+lost her footing on the bottom of the river, swung round, and was
+quickly carried down-stream. We saw her disappear in the rain and
+thought that it was certainly her last journey, but she extricated
+herself in a marvellous manner. Near the left bank of the river she
+managed to get her hoofs on the bottom again, and clambered up; and what
+was most singular, the two trunks were still on her back.
+
+At length we all got safely across, and rode on. My boots squelched, and
+water dropped from the corners of the boxes. Our camp that evening was
+truly wretched--not a dry stitch on us, continuous rain, almost
+impossible to make a fire. At length, however, we succeeded in keeping
+alight a small smoking fire of dung. That night I did not keep watch a
+minute after midnight, but waked up Shagdur mercilessly and crept into
+bed.
+
+On August 2 we made only fifteen and a half miles. The road was now
+broad and easy to follow. On the slope of a hill was encamped a large
+tea caravan; its twenty-five men were sitting round their fires, while
+the three hundred yaks were grazing close at hand. The bales of tea were
+stacked up in huge piles; it was Chinese tea of poor quality compressed
+into cakes like bricks, and therefore called "brick-tea." Every cake is
+wrapped in red paper, and about twenty cakes are sewed up together into
+a hide tightly bound with rope. The caravan was bound for Shigatse. As
+we rode by, several of the men came up to us and put some impertinent
+and inconvenient questions. They were well armed and looked like
+robbers, so we politely refused their proposal that we should travel
+together southwards. We pitched our camp a little farther on, and next
+morning we saw this curious and singular caravan pass by. It was a great
+contrast to the fine camel caravans of Persia and Turkestan, for it
+marched like a regiment in separate detachments of thirty or forty yaks
+each. The men walked, whistling and uttering short sharp cries; ten of
+them carried guns slung on their backs, and all were bareheaded,
+sunburnt, and dirty.
+
+The whole of the next day we remained where we were in order to dry our
+things, and the Lama again stained my head down to the neck and in the
+ears. The critical moment was approaching.
+
+On August 4 we met a caravan of about a hundred yaks, accompanied by
+armed men in tall yellow hats; but they took us for ordinary pilgrims
+and did not trouble themselves about us. Then we rode past several
+tents, and when we reached the top of the next pass we saw that tents
+lay scattered about on the plain like black spots, fourteen together in
+one place. We were now on the great highway to Lhasa.
+
+The next day we came to a flat open valley, where there were twelve
+tents. Three Tibetans came to our tent there at dusk, and had a long
+conversation with the Lama, who was the only one of us who understood
+Tibetan. When he came back to us he was quite overcome with fright. One
+of the three men, who was a chief, had told him that information had
+come from yak-hunters in the north that a large European caravan was on
+the way. He had a suspicion that one of us might be a white man, and he
+ordered us on no account to move from where we were. In fact, we were
+prisoners, and with great anxiety we awaited the morning, when our fate
+would be decided. All night a watch was kept round our tent, as we knew
+by the fires, and next day we were visited by several parties, both
+influential chiefs and ordinary nomads, who warned us, if we valued our
+lives, to wait there till the Governor of the Province arrived.
+
+In the meantime they did all they could to frighten us. Troops of
+horsemen in close order dashed straight towards our tent, as if they
+meant to stamp us into the earth, and so finish us off at once. On they
+rushed, the horses' hoofs ringing on the bare ground and the riders
+brandishing their swords and lances above their heads and uttering the
+wildest shrieks. When they were so near that the mud was splashed on to
+the tent, they suddenly opened out to right and left, and returned in
+the same wild career to the starting-point. This martial manoeuvre was
+repeated several times.
+
+During the following days, however, they behaved in a more peaceful
+fashion, and eventually we came to be on quite a friendly footing with
+most of our neighbours. They visited us constantly, gave us butter,
+milk, and fat, and when it rained crept coolly into our tent, which
+became so crowded that we could hardly find room for ourselves. They
+informed us that the Dalai Lama had given orders that no harm should be
+done to us, and we saw that messengers on horseback rode off daily along
+the roads leading to Lhasa and the Governor's village. We did not know
+where our seven baggage and riding animals were, but we made it clear to
+the Tibetans that, as they had stopped us against our will, they must be
+answerable for the safety of our animals and possessions.
+
+On August 9 things at last began to look lively. A whole village of
+tents sprang up at some distance from us, and round the new tents
+swarmed Tibetans on foot and horseback. A Mongolian interpreter escorted
+by some horsemen came to our tent.
+
+"The Governor, Kamba Bombo, is here, and invites you to-day to a feast
+in his tent."
+
+"Greet Kamba Bombo," I answered, "but tell him that it is usual first to
+pay a visit to the guests one invites."
+
+"You must come," went on the interpreter; "a sheep roasted whole is
+placed in the middle of the tent, surrounded by bowls of roasted meal
+and tea. He awaits you."
+
+"We do not leave our camp. If Kamba Bombo wishes to see us he can come
+here."
+
+"If you will not come with me I cannot be responsible for you to the
+Governor. He has ridden day and night to talk with you. I beg you to
+come with me."
+
+"If Kamba Bombo has anything to say to us, he is welcome. We ask nothing
+from him, only to travel to Lhasa as peaceful pilgrims."
+
+Two hours later the Tibetans came back again in a long dark line of
+horsemen, the Governor riding on a large white mule in their midst. His
+retinue consisted of officials, priests, and officers in red and blue
+cloaks carrying guns, swords, and lances, wearing turbans or
+light-coloured hats, and riding on silver-studded saddles.
+
+When they came up, carpets and cushions were spread on the ground, and
+on these Kamba Bombo took his seat. I went out to him and invited him
+into our poor tent, where he occupied the seat of honour, a maize sack.
+He might be forty years old, looked merry and jovial, but also pale and
+tired. When he took off his long red cloak and his _bashlik_, he
+appeared in a splendid dress of yellow Chinese silk, and his boots were
+of green velvet.
+
+The interview began at once, and each of us did his best to talk the
+other down. The end of the matter was a clear declaration on his part
+that if we tried to move a step in the direction of Lhasa our heads
+should be cut off, no matter who we were. We did our best, both that day
+and the next, to get this decision altered, but it was no use and we had
+to yield to superior force.
+
+So we turned back on the long road through dreary Tibet, and eventually
+regained our headquarters in safety.
+
+
+THE TASHI LAMA
+
+Thus it was that we came back to the little town of Leh, the capital of
+Ladak, and again saw the winter caravans which come over the lofty
+mountains from Eastern Turkestan on their way with goods to Kashmir.
+Then several years passed, but in August, 1906, I was once more in Leh,
+having travelled (as has been described) across Europe to
+Constantinople, over the Black Sea, through Persia and Baluchistan, then
+by rail to Rawalpindi, in a tonga to Kashmir, and lastly on horseback to
+Leh. On this occasion the caravan consisted of twenty-seven men and
+nearly a hundred mules and horses, besides thirty hired horses, which
+were to turn back when the provisions they carried had been consumed.
+
+Our course lay over the lofty mountains in northern Tibet, and for
+eighty-one days we did not see a single human being. But when we turned
+off to the right and came to more southern districts of the country, we
+met with Tibetan hunters and nomads, from whom we purchased tame yaks
+and sheep, for the greater part of our animals had perished owing to the
+rarefied air, the poor and scanty pasture, and the cold and the wind.
+The temperature had on one occasion fallen as low as 40° below zero.
+
+After wandering for about six months we came to the Upper Brahmaputra,
+which is the only place where the Tibetans use boats, if indeed they can
+be called boats at all. They simply take four yak hides, stretch them
+over a framework of thin curved ribs and sew them together, and then the
+boat is ready; but it is buoyant and floats lightly on the water. When
+we were only a day's journey from Shigatse, the second town of Tibet,
+the caravan was ferried across the river. I myself with two of my
+servants took my seat in a hide boat, dexterously managed by a Tibetan,
+and we drifted down the Brahmaputra at a swinging pace.
+
+A number of other boats were following the same fine waterway. They were
+full of pilgrims flocking to the great Lama temple in Shigatse. Two days
+later was the New Year of the country, and then the Lamaists celebrate
+their greatest festival. Pilgrims stream from far and near to the holy
+town. Round their necks they wear small images of their gods or
+wonder-working charms written on paper and enclosed in small cases, and
+many of them turn small praying mills, which are filled inside with
+prayers written on long strips of paper. When the mills revolve all
+these prayers ascend up to the ears of the gods--so easy is it to pray
+in Tibet! All the time a man can continue his conversation with his
+fellow-travellers.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XI. TASHI-LUNPO.
+
+From a sketch by the Author.]
+
+Many of the pilgrims, however, like all Tibetans, murmur the sacred
+formula _Om mane padme hum_ over and over again. These four words
+contain the key to all faith and salvation. They signify "O, jewel in
+the lotus flower, amen." The jewel is Buddha, and in all images he is
+represented as rising up from the petals of a lotus flower. The more
+frequently a man repeats these four words, the greater chance has he of
+a happy existence when he dies and his soul passes into a new body.
+
+We reached Shigatse and pitched our tents in a garden on the outskirts
+of the town. Outside Shigatse stands the great monastery of Tashi-lunpo
+(Plate XI.), in which dwell 3800 monks of various grades, from fresh
+young novices to old, grey high priests. They all go bareheaded and
+bare-armed, and their dress consists of long red sheets wound round the
+body. The priest who is head of all is called the Tashi Lama; he is the
+primate of this part of Tibet and enjoys the same exalted rank and
+dignity as the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. He has a great reputation for
+sanctity and learning, and pilgrims stand for hours in a queue only to
+receive a word of blessing from him.
+
+This Tashi Lama was then a man of twenty-seven years of age, and had
+held the position since he was a small boy. He invited me to the great
+festival in the temple on New Year's Day. In the midst of the temple
+town is a long court surrounded by verandahs, balconies, and platforms.
+Round about are seen the gilded copper roofs over the sanctuaries and
+mausoleums where departed high priests repose. Everywhere the people are
+tightly packed, and the visitors from far and near are dressed in their
+holiday clothes, many-coloured and fine, and decorated with silver
+ornaments, coral and turquoise. The Tashi Lama has his seat in a balcony
+hung with silken draperies and gold tassels, but the holy countenance
+can be seen through a small square opening in the silk.
+
+The festival begins with the entry of the temple musicians. They carry
+copper bassoons ten feet long, so heavy that their bells have to rest on
+the shoulder of an acolyte. With deep, long-drawn blasts the monks
+proclaim the New Year, just as long ago the priests of Israel announced
+with trumpet notes the commencement of the year of jubilee. Then follow
+cymbals which clash in a slow, ringing measure, and drums which rouse
+echoes from the temple walls. The noise is deafening, but it sounds
+cheerful and impressive after the deep stillness in the valleys of
+Tibet.
+
+After the musicians have taken their places in the court the dancing
+monks enter. They are clad in costly garments of Chinese silk, and
+bright dragons embroidered in gold flash in the folds as the sunlight
+falls on them. The faces of the monks are covered by masks representing
+wild animals with open jaws and powerful tusks. The monks execute a slow
+circular dance. They believe, and so do all the people, that evil
+spirits may be kept at a distance and driven away by this performance.
+
+The next day I was summoned to the Tashi Lama. We passed along narrow
+paved lanes between the monastery walls, through narrow gloomy passages,
+up staircases of polished wood, and at last reached the highest floor of
+the monastery, where the Tashi Lama has his private apartments. I found
+him in a simple room, sitting cross-legged in a window recess from which
+he can see the temple roofs and the lofty mountains and the sinful town
+in the valley. He was beardless, with short-cut brown hair. His
+expression was singularly gentle and charming, almost shy. He held out
+his hands to me and invited me to take a seat beside him, and then for
+several hours we talked about Tibet, Sweden, and this vast, wonderful
+world.
+
+
+WILD ASSES AND YAKS
+
+If I had counted all the wild asses I saw during my travels in Tibet the
+number would amount to many, many thousands. Up in the north, in the
+very heart of the highland country, and down in the south, hardly a day
+passed without our seeing these proud, handsome animals, sometimes
+alone, sometimes in couples, and sometimes in herds of several hundred
+head.
+
+The Latin name for the wild ass, _Equus kiang_, indicates his close
+relationship to the horse, and "kiang" is what he is called by the
+people of Tibet. The wild ass is as large as an average mule, with
+well-developed ears, and a sharp sense of hearing; his tail is tufted at
+the end, and he is reddish-brown in colour, except on the legs and
+belly, where he is white. When he scents danger he snorts loudly, throws
+up his head, cocks his ears, and expands his nostrils; he is more like a
+fine ass than a horse, but when you see him wild and free on the salt
+plains of Tibet, the difference between him and an ass seems even
+greater than between an ass and a horse. My own horses and mules seemed
+sorry jades by the side of the "kiangs" of the desert.
+
+On one occasion my Cossacks caught two small foals which as yet had no
+experience of life and the dangers of the desert. They stood tied up
+between the tents and made no attempt to escape. We gave them meal mixed
+with water, which they supped up eagerly, and we hoped that they would
+thrive and stay with us. When I saw how they pined for freedom, however,
+I wanted to restore them to the desert and to their mother's care. But
+it was too late; the mothers would have nothing to do with them after
+they had been in the hands of men, so we had to kill them to save them
+from the wolves. Thus strict is the law of the wilderness: a human hand
+is enough to break the spell of its freedom.
+
+We cannot travel back to India without having become acquainted with the
+huge ox which runs wild over the loftiest mountains of Tibet. He is
+called "yak" in Tibetan, and the name has been transferred to most
+European languages. He is closely akin to the tame yak, but is larger
+and is always of a deep black colour; only when he is old does his head
+turn grey. The tame yak, on the other hand, is often white, brown, or
+mottled. Common to both are the peculiar form and the abundant wool.
+Seen from the side, the yak seems humpbacked. The back slopes down from
+the highest point, just over the forelegs, to the root of the tail,
+while the neck slopes down still more steeply to the scrag. The animal
+is exceedingly heavy, strong and ungainly, and the points of the thick
+horns are often worn and cracked in consequence of severe combats
+between the bulls.
+
+As the yak lives in a temperature which in winter falls below the
+freezing-point of mercury (-40°), he needs a close warm coat and a
+protective layer of fat under the hide; and he is, in fact, so well
+provided with these that no cold on earth can affect him. When his
+breath hangs in clouds of steam round his nostrils he is in his element.
+Singular, too, are the fringes of wool a foot long which skirt the lower
+parts of his flanks and the upper parts of his forelegs. They may grow
+so long as to touch the ground as the yak walks. When he lies down on
+the stone-hard, frozen, and pebbly ground, these thick fringes serve as
+cushions, and on them he lies soft and warm.
+
+On what do these huge fleshy animals live in a country where, broadly
+speaking, nothing grows and where a caravan may perish for want of
+fodder? It often happened that we would march for several days together
+without seeing a blade of grass. Then we might come to a valley with a
+little scanty hard yellow grass, but even if we stayed over a day the
+animals could not get nearly enough to eat. Not until we have descended
+to about 15,000 feet above sea-level do we find--and then only very
+seldom--a few small, miserable bushes; and to reach trees we must
+descend another 3000 feet lower. In the home of the wild yaks the ground
+is almost everywhere bare and barren, and yet these great beasts roam
+about and thrive excellently. They live on mosses and lichens, which
+they lick up with the tongue, and for this purpose their tongues are
+provided with hard, sharp, horny barbs like a thistle. In the same way
+they crop the velvety grass, less than half an inch high, which grows on
+the edges of the high alpine brooks, and which is so short that a horse
+cannot get hold of it.
+
+On one occasion I made an excursion of several days from the main
+caravan, accompanied by only two men. One was an Afghan named Aldat. He
+was an expert yak-hunter, and used to sell the hides to merchants of
+Eastern Turkestan to be made into saddles and boots. We had encamped
+about 600 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc, and the air was so
+rarefied that if we took even a few steps we suffered from difficulty in
+breathing and palpitation of the heart.
+
+When the camp was ready, Aldat came and asked me to look at a large yak
+bull grazing on a slope above my tent. As we needed flesh and fat, I
+gave him permission to shoot it and to keep the hide. The bull had not
+noticed us, for he was to windward, and thought of nothing but the juicy
+moss. Water melted from the snow trickled among the stones, the wind
+blew cold, and the sky was overcast--true yak weather. With his gun on
+his back, Aldat crept up a hollow. At last he pushed himself along on
+his elbows and toes, crouching on the ground like a cat prowling after
+prey. At a distance of thirty paces he stopped behind a scarcely
+perceptible ridge of stones and took careful aim. The yak did not look
+up, not suspecting any danger. He had roamed about for fifteen years on
+these peaceful heights near the snow-line and had never seen a man. The
+shot cracked out and echoed among the mountains. The yak jumped into the
+air, took a few uncertain steps, stopped, reeled, tried to keep his
+balance, fell, lifted himself, but fell again heavily and helplessly to
+the ground, and lay motionless. It was stone dead, and in an hour was
+skinned and cut up.
+
+This took place on September 9. On the 23rd of the same month the
+relations of the yak bull might have seen from a distance a strange
+procession. Some men carried a long object to the edge of a grave which
+had just been dug, lowered it into the trench, covered it with a skin
+coat, and filled in the grave with stones and earth. Into this simple
+mound was thrust a tent pole, with the wild yak's bushy tail fastened to
+the top; and the man who slumbered under the hillock was Aldat himself,
+the great yak-hunter.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+INDIA
+
+
+FROM TIBET TO SIMLA
+
+Right up in Tibet lie the sources of the Sutlej, the largest affluent of
+the Indus. With irresistible force it breaks through the Himalayas in
+order to get down to the sea, and its valley affords us an excellent
+road from the highlands of Tibet to the burning lowlands of India. On
+this journey we pass through a succession of belts of elevation, and
+find that various animals and plants are peculiar to different heights.
+The tiger does not go very high up on the southern flanks of the
+Himalayas, but the snow leopard is not afraid of cold. The tame yak
+would die if he were brought down to denser strata of air, and Marco
+Polo's sheep would waste away on the forest-clothed heights; but wolves,
+foxes and hares occur as frequently in India as in Tibet.
+
+The boundaries of the flora are more sharply defined. Below the limit of
+eternal snow (13,000 feet) ranunculus and anemones, pedicularis and
+primulas are found just as they are in our higher latitudes with
+corresponding conditions of temperature. At 12,000 feet lies the limit
+of forest, beyond which the birch does not go, but where pine-trees
+still thrive. Between 10,000 and 6000 feet are woods of the beautiful
+and charming conifer called the Himalayan cedar, which is allied to the
+cedar of Lebanon. At 7000 feet the limit of subtropical woods is
+crossed, and the oak and the climbing rose are seen. Just below 3500
+feet the tropical forest is entered, with acacias, palms, bamboos, and
+all the floral wealth of the Indian jungle.
+
+The Sutlej grows bigger and bigger the further we descend, and we ride
+on shaking bridges across innumerable tributaries. The atmosphere
+becomes denser, and breathing easier. We no longer have a singing in
+the ears, or palpitations or headache as on the great heights, and the
+cold has been left behind. Even in the early morning the air is warm,
+and soon come days when we look back with regret to the cool freshness
+up in Tibet. One of my dogs, a great shaggy Tibetan, suffered severely
+from the increasing heat, and one fine day he turned right about and
+went back to Tibet.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XII. SIMLA.]
+
+The first town that we come to is called Simla (Plate XII.). It is not
+large, having barely 15,000 inhabitants, but it is one of the most
+beautiful towns in the world, and one of the most powerful, for in its
+cedar groves stands a palace, and in the palace an Imperial throne. The
+Emperor is the King of England, whose power over India is entrusted to a
+Viceroy. In summer enervating heat prevails over the lowlands of India,
+and all Europeans who are not absolutely tied to their posts move up to
+the hills. The Viceroy and his staff, the government officials, the
+chief officers of the army, civil servants and military men all fly with
+their wives up to Simla, where the leaders of society live as gaily as
+in London. During this season the number of inhabitants rises to 30,000.
+
+The houses of Simla are built like swallows' nests on steep slopes. The
+streets, or rather roads, lie terraced one above another. The whole town
+is built on hills surrounded by dizzy precipices. Round about stand
+forests dark and dense; but between the cedars are seen far off to the
+southwest the plains of the Punjab and the winding course of the Sutlej,
+and to the north the masses of the Himalayas with their eternal
+snowfields. It is delightful to go up to Simla from the sultriness of
+India, and perhaps still more delightful to come down to Simla from the
+piercing cold of Tibet.
+
+
+DELHI AND AGRA
+
+From Simla we go down by train through hundreds of tunnels and round the
+sharpest curves, over countless bridges and along dizzy precipices, to
+the lowlands of the Punjab. It is exceedingly hot, and we long for a
+little breeze from Tibet's snowy mountains.
+
+Time flies by till we reach Delhi, situated on the Jumna, one of the
+affluents of the Ganges. Delhi was the capital of the empire of the
+Great Moguls,[11] and in the seventeenth century it was the most
+magnificent city in the world.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF INDIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM NUSHKI TO LEH (pp.
+82-88), AND THE JOURNEY FROM TIBET THROUGH SIMLA, ETC., TO BOMBAY
+(pp. 130-142).]
+
+Many proud monuments of this grandeur still remain, notably the splendid
+building of pure white marble called the Hall of Private Audience, where
+in the open space surrounded by a double colonnade the Great Mogul was
+wont to dispense justice and receive envoys. In the sunshine the marble
+columns seem to be translucent, and light-blue shadows fall on the
+marble floor. The walls and pillars are inlaid with costly stones of
+various shapes: lapis-lazuli and malachite, nephrite and agate. In the
+throne-room used to stand the famous "Peacock Throne" of the Great
+Mogul. The whole throne was covered with thick plates of gold and
+studded all over with diamonds. In the year 1749 the Persian king, Nadir
+Shah, came to Delhi, defeated the Great Mogul and carried off treasures
+to the value of fifty-six million pounds. Among other valuables he
+seized was the famous diamond called the "Koh-i-noor," or "Mountain of
+Light," now among the British crown jewels. He also carried off the
+Peacock Throne, which alone was worth eleven million pounds. It is to
+this day in the possession of the Shahs of Persia, but all the diamonds
+have been taken out one after another by the successors of Nadir Shah
+when they happened to be in difficulties. The gold plates are left,
+however, and on the back still glitter the golden peacocks which give
+the throne its name.
+
+If we stroll for some hours through the narrow streets and interesting
+bazaars of Delhi and push our way among bustling Hindus and Mohammedans,
+we can better appreciate the vaulted arches of the Hall of Private
+Audience and can also understand the Persian inscription to be read
+above the entrance: "If there be an Elysium on earth, it is here."
+
+Farther down the Jumna stands Agra, and here we make another break in
+our railway journey eastwards. Agra also was for a time the capital of
+the Great Mogul empire, and in the seventeenth century the emperor who
+bore the name of Shah Jehan erected here an edifice which is still
+regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world (Plate XIII.). It is
+called the "Taj Mahal," or "royal palace," and is a mausoleum in memory
+of Shah Jehan's favourite wife, Mumtaz, by whose side he himself reposes
+in the crypt of the mosque. It is constructed entirely of blocks of
+white marble, and took twenty-seven years to build and cost nearly two
+million pounds of our money.
+
+The garden which surrounds the sanctuary is entered through a large gate
+of red sandstone. In a long pool goldfish dart about under floating
+lotus blossoms, and all around is luxuriant verdure, the dwelling-place
+of countless singing birds; the air is filled with the odour of jasmine
+and roses, and tall, slender cypresses point to heaven.
+
+Straight in front the marble Taj Mahal rises from a terrace, dazzling
+white in the sunshine--a summer dream of white clouds turned to stone, a
+work of art which only love could conjure out of the rubbish of earth.
+The airy cupola, the arched portals, and bright white walls are
+reflected in the pool. At each of the four corners of the terrace stands
+a tall slender minaret, also of white marble, and in the centre the huge
+dome rises to a height of 240 feet. In the great octagonal hall below
+the dome, within an enclosure of marble filigree work, stand the
+monuments over Shah Jehan and his queen Mumtaz. The actual sarcophagi
+are preserved in the vault beneath.
+
+The four façades of this wonderful building are all alike, but the
+background of green vegetation and the changes of light seem always to
+be producing new effects. Sometimes a faint green reflection from the
+foliage can be seen in the white marble; in the full sunshine it is like
+snow; in shadow, light blue. When the sun sinks in the red glow of
+evening, the whole edifice is bathed in orange light; and later comes
+the moonlight, which is perhaps the most appropriate of all. Steamy and
+close, hot and silent, now lies the garden; the illumination is icy
+cold, the shadows deep black, the dome silvery white. The mysterious
+sounds of the jungle are heard around, and the Jumna rolls down its
+turbid waters to meet the sacred Ganges.
+
+
+BENARES AND BRAHMINISM
+
+In the drainage basin of the Ganges, through which the train is again
+carrying us south-eastwards, 100 million human beings, mostly Hindus,
+have their home. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and supports many
+large towns, several of them two or three thousand years old, besides
+innumerable villages. Here the Hindu peasants have their huts of
+bamboo-canes and straw-matting, and here they cultivate their wheat,
+rice, and fruits.
+
+Our next stay is at Benares--the holiest city in the world, if holiness
+be measured by the reverence shown by the children of men. Long before
+Jerusalem and Rome, Mecca and Lhasa, Benares was the home and heart of
+the ancient religion of India, and it still is the centre of
+Brahminism and Hinduism. There are more than 200 millions of Hindus in
+the world, and the thoughts of all of them turn to Benares. All Hindus
+long to make a pilgrimage to their holy city. The sick come to recover
+health in the waters of the sacred Ganges, the old travel hither to die,
+and the ashes of those who die in distant places are sent to Benares to
+be scattered over the waters of salvation. In Benares, moreover, Buddha
+preached 500 years before Christ, and at the present day he has more
+than 400 million followers; so to Buddhists also Benares is a holy
+place.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIII. THE TAJ MAHAL.]
+
+The Hindus have three principal gods: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the
+preserver; and Siva, the destroyer. From these all the others are
+derived: thus, for example, Kali represents only one of the attributes
+of Siva. To this goddess children were formerly sacrificed, and when
+this was forbidden by the British Government goats were substituted. But
+we have not yet done with divinities. The worship of the Hindus is not
+confined to their gods. Nearly all nature is divine, but above all, cows
+and bulls, apes and crocodiles, snakes and turtles, eagles, peacocks and
+doves. It is not forbidden to kill, steal and lie, but if a Hindu eats
+flesh, nay, if he by chance happens to swallow the hair of a cow, he is
+doomed to the hell of boiling oil. He becomes an object of horror to
+all, but above all to himself. For thousands of years this
+superstitution has been implanted in the race, and it remains as strong
+as ever.
+
+Ever since India, or, as the country is called in Persia, Hindustan, was
+conquered by the invading Aryans from the north-west--and this was quite
+4000 years ago--the Hindus have been divided into castes. The
+differences between the different castes are greater than that between
+the barons and the serfs in Europe during the Middle Ages. The two
+highest castes were the Brahmins (or priests) and the warriors. Now
+there are a thousand castes, for every occupation constitutes an
+especial caste: all goldsmiths, for example, are of the same caste, all
+sandal-makers of another, and men of different castes cannot eat
+together, or they become unclean.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in the morning, just before the day has begun to dawn in the east,
+let us hire a boat and have ourselves rowed up and down the Ganges. In
+this way we obtain an excellent view of this wonderful town as it
+stretches in front of us along the left bank of the river--a great heap
+of closely packed buildings, houses, walls and balconies, and an
+endless succession of pagodas with lofty towers (Plate XIV.). From the
+top of the bank, which is about 100 feet high, a broad flight of steps
+runs down to the river, and stone piers jut out like jetties into the
+water. Between these are wooden stages built over the surface of the
+river and covered with straw thatch and large parasols or awnings. This
+is the gathering place of the faithful. They come from every furthest
+corner of the city to the sacred river to greet the sun when it
+rises--brown, half-naked figures, with light clothing, often only a
+loincloth, of the gaudiest colours. The whole bank of the river teems
+with men.
+
+An elderly Brahmin comes down to a jetty and squats on his heels. His
+head is shaved, with the exception of a tuft on the crown. He dips his
+head in the river, scoops some water up and rinses his mouth with it. He
+calls on Ganges, daughter of Vishnu, and prays her to take away his
+sins, the impurity of his birth, and to protect him throughout his life.
+Then, after repeating the twenty-four names of Vishnu, he stands up and
+calls out the sacred syllable "Om," which includes Brahma, Vishnu, and
+Siva. Lastly he invokes the earth, air, sky, sun, moon, and stars, and
+pours water over his head.
+
+The rim of the rising sun is seen above the jungle on the right bank of
+the Ganges. Its appearance is saluted by all the thousands of pious
+pilgrims, who sprinkle water with their hands in the direction of the
+sun, wading out into the long shallow margin of the river. The old
+Brahmin has squatted down again and performs the most incomprehensible
+movements with his hands and fingers. He holds them in different
+positions, puts them up to the top of his head, his eyes, forehead,
+nose, and breast, to indicate the 108 different manifestations of
+Vishnu. If he forgets a single one of these gestures, all his worship is
+in vain. The same ceremony has to be repeated in the afternoon and
+evening, and in the intervals the devout Brahmin has other religious
+duties to perform in the temples.
+
+Here an old man lies stretched out on a bed of rags. He is so thin that
+his skin hangs loosely over his ribs, and though his body is brown, his
+beard is snow-white. He has come to Benares to die beside the holy
+Ganges, which flows from the foot of Vishnu. There stands a man in the
+prime of life, but a leper, eaten away with sores. He has come to
+Benares to seek healing in the waters of life. Here, again, is a young
+woman, who trips gracefully down the stone steps bearing a water jug
+on her head. She wades into the river until the water comes up to her
+waist; then she drinks from her hand, sprinkles water towards the sun,
+pours water over her hair, fills her pitcher, and goes slowly up again,
+while the holy Ganges water drips from the red wrap which is wound round
+her body. And all the other thousands who greet the sun with oblation of
+water from the sacred river are convinced that he who makes a pilgrimage
+to Benares and dies within the city walls obtains forgiveness for all
+his sins.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIV. BENARES.]
+
+Like the Buddhists, the Hindus believe in the transmigration of souls. A
+Hindu's soul must pass through more than eight million animal forms, and
+for all the sins he has committed in the earlier forms of his existence,
+he must suffer in the later. Therefore he makes offerings to the gods
+that he may soon be released from this eternal wandering and attain the
+heaven of the faithful. In the endless chain of existence this short
+morning hour of prayer on the banks of the Ganges is but a second
+compared to eternity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the evening, when the hottest hours of the day are past, let us again
+take a boat and drift down slowly past the stone steps and jetties of
+Benares. Noiseless, muddy, and grey the sacred river streams along its
+bed. What quantities of reeking impurities there are in this water of
+salvation! Whole bundles of crushed and evil-smelling marigolds, refuse,
+rags and bits, bubbles and scum, float on its surface.
+
+Down a steep lane a funeral procession approaches the bank at a quick
+pace. The strains of anything but melodious music disturb the quiet of
+the evening, and the noise of drums is echoed from the walls of the
+pagodas. The corpse is borne on a bier covered with a white sheet, and
+men of the caste of body-burners arrange it on the pyre, a pile of wood
+stacked up by the waterside. Then they set fire to the dry shavings, and
+the wood pile crackles. Thick clouds of smoke rise up and the smell of
+burned flesh is borne on the breeze.
+
+The body-burners have been sparing of fuel, however, and when the heap
+of wood has burned down to ashes, the half-consumed and blackened corpse
+still remains among the embers, and is then thrown out into the river.
+
+
+THE LIGHT OF ASIA
+
+In the sixth century before Christ, an Aryan tribe named Sakya dwelt in
+Kapilavastu, 120 miles north of Benares. The king of the country had a
+son, Siddharta, gifted with supernatural powers both of body and mind.
+When the prince had reached his eighteenth year he was allowed to choose
+his bride, and his choice fell on the beautiful Yasodara; but in order
+to obtain her hand he had to vanquish in open contest those of his
+people who were most proficient in manly exercises. First came the
+bowmen, who shot at a copper drum. Siddharta had the mark moved to
+double the distance, but the bow that was given him broke. Another was
+sent for from the temple--of unpolished steel, so stiff that no one
+could bend it to get the loop of the string into the groove. To
+Siddharta, however, this was child's play, and his arrow not only
+pierced the drum, but afterwards continued its flight over the plain.
+
+The second trial was with the sword. With a single stroke each of the
+other competitors cut through the trunk of a fine tree, but with
+lightning rapidity Siddharta's blade cut clean through two trunks
+standing side by side. As the trees remained unmoved, the other
+competitors were jubilant and scoffed at the prince's blunt sword, but a
+light puff of wind rustled through the tops of the trees and both fell
+to the ground.
+
+The last trial was to subdue a wild horse which no one could ride. Under
+Siddharta's powerful hand it became gentle and obedient as a lamb.
+
+Then the prince led his bride to the splendid palace of Kapilavastu. The
+king feared that the wickedness, poverty, and misfortune which prevailed
+in the world without might trouble the prince's mind, and he therefore
+had a high wall built round the palace, and guards posted at the gates.
+The prince was never to pass out through them.
+
+For some time the prince lived happily in his paradise, but one day he
+was seized with a desire to see the condition of men out in the world.
+The king gave him permission to leave the palace grounds, but issued
+orders that the town should be decorated as for a festival, and that all
+the poor, crippled, and sick people should be kept out of sight. The
+prince drove through the streets in his carriage drawn by bulls. There
+he saw an old man, worn and bent, who held out his withered hand,
+crying, "Give me an alms, to-morrow or the next day I shall die." The
+prince asked whether this hideous creature, so unlike all the others he
+had seen, was really a man, and his attendant replied that all men must
+grow old, feeble, and miserable like the one in front of them. Troubled
+and thoughtful Siddharta returned home.
+
+After some time he begged his father to let him see the town in its
+everyday state. Disguised as a merchant, and accompanied by the same
+attendant who was with him on the first occasion, he went through the
+streets on foot. Everywhere he saw prosperity and industry, but suddenly
+he heard a whining cry beside him: "I am suffering, help me home before
+I die." Siddharta stopped and found a plague-stricken man, unable to
+stir, his body covered with blotches. He asked his attendant what was
+the matter, and was told that the man was ill.
+
+"Can illness afflict all men?"
+
+"Yes, Sire, it comes sneaking like a tiger through the thicket, we know
+not when or wherefore, but all may be stricken down by it."
+
+"Can this unfortunate man live long in such misery, and what is the
+end?"
+
+"Death."
+
+"What is death?"
+
+"Look! here comes a funeral. The man who lies on the bamboo bier has
+ceased to live. Those who follow him are his mourning relations. See how
+he is now laid on a pyre, down there on the bank, and how he is burnt;
+soon all that is left of him will be a little heap of ashes."
+
+"Must all men die?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"Myself also?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+More sorrowful than ever he returned home, and in his soul a longing
+ripened to save mankind from suffering, care, and death. He heard a
+voice, "Choose between a royal crown and the beggar's staff, between
+worldly power and the lonely desolate paths which lead to the redemption
+of mankind."
+
+His resolution was soon taken. In the night he stole gently to
+Yasodara's couch, and looked his last on his young wife sleeping on a
+bed of roses, with her new-born son in her arms. Then he left behind all
+he loved, bade his groom saddle his horse, and rode to the copper gates,
+now watched by a treble guard. A magic wind passed over the watchmen,
+and they fell into a deep sleep, while the massive gates opened
+noiselessly of themselves.
+
+When he was far away from Kapilavastu, he sent his servant back with the
+horse and its royal trappings, changed clothes with a tattered beggar,
+and went on alone. Then he met the odious tempter, the power of evil,
+who offered him dominion over the four great continents if he would only
+abandon his purpose. He overcame the tempter, and continued his journey
+until he came to another kingdom, where he settled in a cave and
+attempted to convince the Brahmins that Brahma could not be a god, since
+he had created a wretched world. The Brahmins, however, received him
+with suspicion, so he retired to a lonely country where, with five
+disciples, he devoted himself to deep meditation and self-mortification.
+
+In time he came to see that it was no use to torture and enfeeble the
+body, which is after all the abode of the soul, and accordingly began to
+take food again. Then his disciples abandoned him, for at that time
+self-mortification was regarded as the only path to salvation. Siddharta
+was then alone, and under the sacred fig-tree still shown in India he
+gained wisdom and enlightenment, and became Buddha.
+
+Then he came to Benares, and won back his first disciples; and his
+society, the brotherhood of the yellow mendicant monks, spread ever more
+and more. In the rainy season, from June to October, he taught in
+Benares, and in the fine weather he wandered from village to village.
+"To abstain from all evil, to acquire virtue, to purify the heart--that
+is the religion of Buddha"; so he preached. At the age of eighty years
+he died in 480 B.C.
+
+Buddha was a reformer who wished to instil new life into the religious
+faith of the Hindus. Many of the leading brothers of his order were
+Brahmins. He rejected the Vedic books, self-mortification, and
+differences of caste, preached philanthropy, and taught that the way to
+Nirvana, the paradise of peace and perfection, is open to all. He left
+no writings behind, but his doctrines were preserved in the memory of
+his disciples, who long after wrote them down. The five chief precepts
+are, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit
+adultery, thou shalt not lie, and thou shalt not drink strong drinks."
+
+To-day, 2500 years after his death, the doctrine of Buddha has spread
+over immense regions of eastern Asia--over Japan, China, Korea,
+Mongolia, Tibet, Further India, and Ceylon--and the country north of the
+Caspian Sea. Innumerable are the images of Buddha to be found in the
+temples of eastern Asia, and he himself has been called the "Light of
+Asia."
+
+
+BOMBAY
+
+After we leave Benares the railway turns south-eastwards to the wide
+delta country where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra meet, and where
+Calcutta, the capital of India,[12] stands on one of the arms of the
+river. The town itself is flat and monotonous, but it is large and
+wealthy and contains more than a million inhabitants. The climate is
+very damp and hot, the temperature even in winter being about 95° in the
+shade. Accordingly in the summer the Viceroy and his government move up
+to Simla in the cool of the hills.
+
+From Calcutta we travel by train right across to the western coast of
+the Indian Peninsula, to a more beautiful and more pleasant city--indeed
+one of the most beautiful cities of the world. Bombay is the gate to
+India, for here the traveller ends his voyage from Europe through the
+Suez Canal and begins his railway journey to his destination. It is a
+great and wealthy commercial town, having about 800,000 inhabitants, and
+innumerable vessels lie loading or unloading in the splendid harbour.
+
+Here we find the last remnant of a people formerly great and powerful.
+About six or seven hundred years before the birth of Christ lived a man
+named Zoroaster. He founded a religion which spread over all Persia and
+the neighbouring lands, and under its auspices Xerxes led his immense
+armies against Greece. When the martial missionaries of Islam
+overwhelmed Persia in 650 A.D. many thousands of the followers of
+Zoroaster fled to India, and a remnant of this people still live in
+Bombay and are called Parsees.
+
+They are clever and prosperous merchants, many of them being
+multi-millionaires, and they own Bombay and control its trade. Their
+faith involves a boundless reverence for fire, earth, and water. As the
+earth would be polluted if corpses were buried in it, and as fire would
+be dishonoured by burning bodies, they deposit their dead within low
+round towers, called the Towers of Silence. There are five of these
+towers in Bombay. They all stand together on a high hill, rising from a
+peninsula which runs out into the sea. The body is laid naked within the
+walls of the tower. In the trees around large vultures perch, and in a
+few minutes nothing but the skeleton is left of the corpse. Under the
+cypresses and the fine foliage trees in the park round the Towers of
+Silence the family of the deceased may abandon themselves to their
+grief.
+
+
+THE USEFUL PLANTS OF INDIA
+
+In India we find a flora nearly allied to that which flourishes in
+tropical Africa, a soil which freely affords nourishment to both wild
+and cultivated plants, an irrigation either supplied directly by the
+monsoon rains or artificially conducted from the rivers. It is true that
+we travel for long distances, especially in north-western India, through
+true desert tracts, but other districts produce vegetation so dense and
+luxuriant that the air is filled with reeking, choking vapour as in a
+huge hothouse.
+
+First there are bananas, the cucumber-shaped fruits which are the food
+of millions of human beings. From India and the Sunda Islands this
+beneficent tree has spread to Africa and the Mediterranean coasts, to
+Mexico and Central America. Its floury-white flesh, juicy and
+saccharine, fragrant and well-flavoured, is an excellent article of
+food. The large leaves of the banana are useful for various
+purposes--sunshades, roof thatch, etc.
+
+When the hot season comes, how pleasant it is to dream in the shadow of
+the mango-tree! The tree is about sixty feet high, and the shadow
+beneath its bluish-grey leathery leaves is close and dense. The pulp of
+the fruit is golden yellow and juicy, rich in sugar and citric acid. It
+is difficult to describe the taste, for it is very peculiar; but it is
+certainly delicious.
+
+From their home in China and Cochin China the orange and its smaller
+brother, the mandarin, have spread over India and far around. Amongst
+the many other fruits which abound in India are grapes, melons, apples
+and pears, walnuts and figs. Figs are green before they ripen, and then
+they turn yellow. The fig-tree is distributed over the whole world
+wherever the heat is sufficient. It is mentioned both in the Old and the
+New Testament. Under a kind of fig-tree Buddha acquired wisdom in the
+paths of religion, and therefore the tree is called _Ficus religiosa_.
+_Nymphæa stellaris_, the lotus flower, which, like the water-lily,
+floats on water, is another plant of great renown among Buddhists. The
+lotus is an emblem of their religion, as the Cross is of Christianity.
+
+In India a large quantity of rice is cultivated. In the north-eastern
+angle of the Indian triangle, Bengal and Assam, in Burma, on the
+peninsula of Further India (the Malay Peninsula), as well as in the
+Deccan, the southern extremity of the triangle, rice cultivation is
+extensively developed. Wheat is grown in the north-west, and cotton in
+the inland parts of the country. The cotton bush has large yellow
+flowers, and when the fruit, which is as large as a walnut, opens, the
+inside shows a quantity of seeds closely covered with soft woolly hairs.
+The fruit capsules are plucked off and dried in the sun. The fibre is
+removed from the seeds by a machine, and is cleaned and packed in bales
+which are pressed together and confined by iron bands, and then the
+article is ready for shipping to the manufacturing towns, of which
+Manchester is the most important. In India and Arabia the cotton bush
+has been cultivated for more than 2000 years, and Alexander the Great
+introduced it into Greece. Now there are plantations all over the world,
+but nowhere has the cultivation reached such perfection as in the United
+States of America.
+
+Crops which during recent decades have shown enormous development are
+those known as india-rubber and gutta-percha, so much being demanded by
+the bicycle and motor industries. In the year 1830, 230 tons of rubber
+were imported into Europe; in 1896, 315,500 tons. The demand became so
+great that a reckless and barbarous exploitation took place of the
+trees, the inspissated and dried sap of which is rubber, this tough
+resisting and elastic gum which renders such valuable services to man.
+In Borneo ten trees were felled for every kilogramme of gutta-percha.
+Now more prudent and sensible methods have been introduced. In Ceylon,
+Java, and the Malay Peninsula there are large plantations which make
+their owners rich men. In India the Brazilian tree (_Hevea_) is the most
+productive of all the rubber-yielding varieties. A cross cut is made in
+the trunk of the tree, and the milky juice runs out and is collected
+into receptacles. Then it is boiled, stirred, compressed, and spread on
+tinned plates, rolled up and sent in balls into the market. At present
+Brazil supplies two-thirds of all the rubber used.
+
+Then we have all the various spices--cinnamon, which is the bark on the
+twigs of the cinnamon-tree; pepper, carried into Europe by Alexander;
+ginger, and cardamoms. There is sesamum, from the seeds of which a fine
+edible oil is pressed out, and then tea, coffee, and tobacco. A plant
+which is at once a blessing and a curse, and which is extensively
+cultivated in India, is the poppy. When the outer skin of the fruit
+capsule is slit with a knife, a milky juice oozes out which turns brown
+and coagulates in the air, and is called opium. The opium which Europe
+requires for medicinal purposes comes from Macedonia and Asia Minor. But
+the opium grown in Persia and India goes mostly to China, into which
+country it was introduced by the Tatars at the end of the seventeenth
+century. The Chinese smoke opium in specially-made pipes. A small pea of
+opium is pressed into the bowl of the pipe and held over the flame of a
+lamp. The smoke is inhaled in a couple of deep breaths. Another pellet
+is treated in the same way. Soon the opium-smoker falls into a trance
+full of dreams and beautiful visions. He forgets himself, his cares and
+his surroundings, and enjoys perfect bliss. He then sleeps soundly, but
+when he awakes the reality seems more gloomy and dreary than ever, and
+he suffers from excruciating headache. All he cares for is the opium
+pipe. Men who fall a victim to this vice are lost; they can only be
+cured when confined in homes. In Persia opium is usually smoked in
+secret dens, for there the habit is considered shameful, but in China
+both men and women smoke openly.
+
+The sugar-cane is also grown over immense fields in India. The juice
+contains 20 per cent of sugar. In Sanscrit, the old language of India,
+it is called _sakhara_. The Arabs, who introduced it to the
+Mediterranean coasts, called it _sukhar_. And thus it is called, with
+slight modifications, in all the languages of Europe and many of those
+of Asia.
+
+We must also not forget the countless palms which wave their crowns in
+the tepid winds of the monsoons. There are the date palms, the coconut
+palms, the sago palm, and a multitude of others. The sago palm, from the
+pith of which sago grains are prepared, is a remarkable plant. It
+flowers only once and then dies. This occurs at an age of twenty years
+at most.
+
+The soil of India supports many kinds of useful trees--sandalwood, which
+is employed in the construction of the finer kinds of furniture; ebony,
+with its dark wood; the teak-tree, which grows to a height of 130 feet,
+and forms immense forests in both the Indian peninsulas and in the Sunda
+Islands. It is hard and strong, like oak, and nails do not rust in it.
+It is therefore used in shipbuilding, and also frequently in the inside
+of modern warships. The sleeping and refreshment carriages of railway
+trains are usually built of teak.
+
+Lastly, there is the blue vegetable substance called indigo, which is
+obtained from small bushes or plants by a simple process of
+fermentation. It is mostly used to dye clothing, and has been known in
+Europe since the Indian campaign of Alexander.
+
+
+WILD ELEPHANTS
+
+The home of the wild elephant is the forests of India, the Malay
+Peninsula, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Borneo, while another species is found
+in Africa. They live in herds of thirty or forty, and every herd forms a
+separate community. The leader of the herd is a full-grown bull with
+large, strong tusks, whom all the others obey with the greatest
+docility. When they wander through the forest, however, or fly before
+danger, the females go in front and set the pace, for they alone know
+how fast their young ones can travel. Their senses of smell and hearing
+are remarkably acute; they are of a good-tempered and peaceable
+disposition, and do not care to expose themselves to unnecessary risks.
+They are therefore not very dangerous to man, unless when attacked; but
+man is their worst enemy.
+
+In India wild elephants are caught to be tamed and employed in labour.
+They are captured in various ways, but usually tame elephants are used
+to decoy the wild ones. Expert elephant-catchers hide themselves as well
+as they can on the backs of tame animals and drive them into a herd of
+their wild relations. When a full-grown male has been separated from the
+herd, he is beset on all sides by his pursuers and prevented from
+sharing in the flight of his companions. They do him no injury, but only
+try to tire him out. It may be two whole days before he is so exhausted
+that, come what may, he must lie down to sleep. Then the men drop down
+from the tame animals and wind ropes round his hind legs, and if there
+is a tree at hand they tie him to it.
+
+In Ceylon there are wonderfully smart and expert elephant-catchers who
+hunt their game in couples without the help of tame decoys. They search
+through the woods and thickets and follow a spoor when they come across
+it, being able to judge from the footprints how long ago the trail was
+tramped out, how many elephants there were, and whether they were going
+fast or slowly. The smallest mark or indication on the way, which a
+stranger would not notice, serves as a guide to them. When they have
+found the troop they follow it silently as shadows; they creep and
+crawl and sneak along the woodland paths as cautiously as leopards. They
+never tread on a twig which might crack, they never brush against a leaf
+which might rustle. The elephants, for all their fine scent and sharp
+hearing, have no suspicion of their proximity. The men lie in wait in a
+close thicket where the elephants can only move slowly, throw a noose of
+ox hide before the animal's hind leg, and draw it tight at the right
+moment. Then the elephant finds out his danger, and, trumpeting wildly,
+advances to attack, but the men scurry like rats through the brushwood
+and strengthen the snares time after time until the animal is fast.
+
+In India whole herds are also captured at once, and this is the most
+wonderful sight it is possible to conceive. A place is known in the
+forest where a herd of perhaps a hundred animals has made its home.
+Natives who are experienced in elephant-catching are called out, and all
+the tame elephants procurable are assembled. A chain of sentinels is
+posted round the herd, making a circle of several miles. The men
+construct a fence of bamboos as quickly and quietly as possible, and
+keep to their posts for nearly ten days. The elephants become restless
+and try to break through, but wherever they turn they are met with cries
+and shouts, blank gunshots and waving torches. They retire again to the
+middle of the enclosure. If they make an attempt in another direction,
+they are met in the same way, and at last, submitting to their fate,
+they stand in the middle where they are least disturbed.
+
+Meanwhile within the circle a very strong enclosure has been erected of
+poles, trunks, and sticks 12 feet high, with a diameter of 160 feet at
+most. The entrance, which is 12 feet broad, can be closed in a moment by
+a huge falling wicket or gate. Now it stands open, and from the two
+sideposts run out two long palisades of stakes, forming an open passage
+to the entrance. The two fences diverge outwards and are nearest to each
+other at the entrance.
+
+When all is ready the great ring of beaters closes up round the herd,
+and scares and chases them with shouts and noise towards the opening
+between the palings. Fresh parties of beaters rush up, and when the
+elephants can find no other way free they dash in between the fences and
+into the pen, whereupon the entrance is closed with the heavy gate. They
+are caught as in a trap. They may, indeed, gather up their strength and
+try to break through the fence of poles, but it is too stoutly built
+and the beaters outside scare them away.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XV. TAME ELEPHANTS AND THEIR DRIVERS.]
+
+The imprisoned animals are left in peace for forty-eight hours, and when
+they have become quiet the most difficult and dangerous part of the
+exploit begins. Mounted on well-trained tame elephants, the most expert
+and experienced elephant-catchers enter the enclosure. They are active
+as cats, quick in their movements, bold, courageous, and watchful. Ropes
+are hung round the tame elephants so that their riders may have
+something to hold on by in case they are attacked and have to lower
+themselves down the flanks of their animals. These know by the signs
+given to them by the riders what they have to do, and the rider holds in
+his hand a small iron spike which he presses against the elephant's neck
+to make him move forwards, backwards, to right or left. A rider
+approaches a selected victim. If he turns to attack, another tame
+elephant comes up and gives him a thrust with his tusks. Choosing his
+time, the rider throws a noose round the head of the wild animal. The
+tame one helps with his trunk to place the noose right. The other end is
+made fast round the trunk of a tree. When the animal is thus secured the
+rider slips down to the ground and throws another noose round his hind
+legs, and the end of this rope is also fastened to a tree. Thus he is
+rendered harmless, and he struggles and tugs in vain to get loose.
+Meanwhile the other tame elephants with their riders help to catch and
+fetter their wild relations.
+
+Then the captives, well and securely bound, are led one after another
+out of the enclosure and are fastened to trees in the forest. Here they
+have for a long time to accustom themselves to man and the society of
+tame elephants, and when they have lost all fear, spitefulness, and
+wildness they are led into the villages to be regularly broken in and
+trained to work in the service of their capturers.
+
+It is pleasant to see tame elephants at work, or bathing in the rivers
+with their drivers (Plate XV.). They carry timber, they carry goods
+along the high-roads, they are useful in many ways where great strength
+is needed. The Maharajas of India always keep a well-filled elephant
+stable, but employ the animals mostly for tiger-hunting and riding. The
+elephant is to them a show animal which is never absent on occasions of
+ceremony. Old well-trained animals which carry themselves with royal
+dignity fetch, therefore, a very high price.
+
+
+THE COBRA
+
+The cobra, or spectacled snake, is the most poisonous snake in India. It
+is very general in all parts of India, in Further India, in southern
+China, in the Sunda Islands, and Ceylon. Its colour is sometimes
+yellowish, shading into blue, sometimes brown, and dirty white on the
+under side. It is about five feet long. When it is irritated it raises
+up the front part of its body like a swan's neck, spreads out the eight
+foremost pairs of ribs at the sides, so that a hat or shield-shaped hood
+is formed below the head. The rest of the body is curled round, and
+gives the creature firm support when it balances the upper part of its
+body ready to inflict its poisonous bite with lightning speed. On the
+back of its hood are yellow markings like a pair of spectacles.
+
+The cobra lives in old walls or heaps of stone and timber, under roots,
+or in dead trunks in the forest, in fact anywhere where he can find a
+sheltered hole. He does not avoid human dwellings, and he may often be
+seen, heavy and motionless, rolled up before his hole. But as soon as a
+man approaches he glides quickly and noiselessly into his hole, and if
+attacked defends himself with a weapon which is as dangerous as a
+revolver.
+
+He is a day snake, but avoids sunshine and heat and prefers to seek his
+food after sunset. He should more properly be described as a snake of
+the twilight. He glides under the close brushwood of the jungle in
+pursuit of lizards and frogs, birds, eggs, and rats or other small
+animals that come in his way. On his roamings he also climbs up trees
+and creeping plants, and swims across large streams. It might be thought
+that a vessel anchored off the coast would be safe from cobras, but
+cases have been known of these snakes swimming out, crawling up the
+anchor chains, and creeping on board.
+
+The female lays a score of long eggs as large as a pigeon's, but with a
+soft shell. The male and female are believed to entertain a great
+affection for each other, for it has been noticed that when one of them
+is killed, the other is shortly seen at the same spot.
+
+The Hindus regard the cobra as a god, and are loath to kill him. Many
+cannot bring themselves to do so. If a cobra comes into a hut, the owner
+sets out milk for him and protects him in every way, and when the
+reptile becomes practically tame and finds that he is left undisturbed,
+he does his host no harm. But if the snake kills any one in the hut, he
+is caught, carried to a distance, and let loose. If he bites a man and
+then is killed, the bitten man must also die. If he meets with an
+unfriendly reception in a hut, he brings ruin to the inmates; but if he
+is hospitably entertained, he brings good fortune and prosperity. If a
+serpent-charmer kills a cobra, he loses for ever his power over snakes.
+It is natural that a creature which is treated with such reverence must
+multiply excessively. About twenty thousand men are killed annually in
+India by snakes.
+
+The cobra's poison is secreted in glands, and is forced out through the
+poison teeth when these pierce through the skin of a man or animal. Its
+effect is virulent when it enters the blood. If the bite pierces a large
+artery, death follows surely and rapidly. Otherwise the victim does not
+die for several hours, and may be saved by suitable remedies applied
+immediately. A dog when bitten begins to bark and howl, vomits, and
+jumps about in the greatest uneasiness and despair. In a short time he
+becomes weak and helpless and dies. If the same cobra bites several
+victims one after the other within a couple of hours, the first dies,
+the second becomes violently ill, while the third is less affected. This
+is, of course, due to the fact that the contents of the poison glands
+become gradually exhausted; but they soon collect again.
+
+When a man is bitten, his body becomes deadly cold, and every sign of
+life disappears. His breathing and pulse cannot be perceived at all. He
+loses consciousness and feeling and cannot even swallow. With judicious
+treatment the small spark of life still left may be preserved. For about
+ten days, however, the invalid remains very feeble, and then a slow
+improvement sets in. But as a rule the man dies, for in the Indian
+jungle help is seldom at hand, and the end soon comes. If the victim
+lies for two whole days as though dead, and yet does not actually die,
+it may be hoped that his body is throwing off the effect of the poison.
+
+There are many extraordinary men in India. In Benares especially, but
+also in any other town, the shrivelled self-torturers called "fakirs"
+may be seen in the streets. They are stark naked save for a small
+loin-cloth. They are miserable and thin as skeletons, and their whole
+bodies are smeared with ashes. They sit motionless at the street corners
+of Benares, always in the same posture. One sits cross-legged with his
+arms stretched up. Try to hold your arms straight up only for five
+minutes, and you will feel that they gradually grow numb. But this man
+always sits thus. His arms seem to become fixed in this unnatural
+position. As he never uses them they wither away in time. Compared with
+his large head they might belong to a child. Another purposely
+extinguishes the light of his eyes by staring day after day straight at
+the sun with wide-open eyes.
+
+Among the curiosities of India are also the snake-charmers. There are
+several varieties of them, and it seems difficult to distinguish exactly
+between them. Some appear to be themselves afraid of the snakes they
+exhibit, while others handle them with a remarkable contempt of danger.
+Some pull out the snake's poison fangs so that they may always be safe,
+while others leave them in, and then everything depends on the charmer's
+skill and dexterity and the quickness with which he avoids the bite of
+the snake. It frequently happens that the charmer is bitten and killed
+by his own snakes.
+
+It is not true, as was formerly believed, that the snake-charmer can
+entice snakes out of their holes by the soothing tones of his flute and
+make them dance to his piping. The dancing is a much simpler affair.
+When the captured snake rears up and sways the upper part of his body to
+and fro, the charmer holds out some hard object, perhaps a fragment of
+brick. The snake bites, but hurts himself, and after a while gives up
+biting. Then the charmer can put his hand in front of the snake's head
+without being bitten. But when the snake is irritated he still assumes
+the same attitude of defence, swaying to and fro, and thus he seems to
+be dancing to the sound of the flute.
+
+There are, however, some daring charmers who, by the strains of their
+instrument and the movements of their hands, seem to exercise a certain
+power over the cobra. They seem to throw the snake into a short faint or
+stupor, a kind of hypnotic sleep. The charmer takes his place in a
+courtyard, and the spectators gather round him at a safe distance. He
+has his cobra in a round, flat basket. The basket he places on the
+ground and raises the cover. Then he rouses and provokes the snake to
+make it lift up the upper part of its body and expand its hood with the
+spectacles. All the time he plays his flute with one hand. With the
+other he makes waving, mesmeric passes. The snake gradually becomes
+quiet and calm, and the charmer can press his lips against the scales of
+its forehead. Then the charmer throws it on one side with a sudden
+movement, for the snake may have waked up again and be just on the point
+of biting.
+
+All depends on the charmer's quickness and his knowledge of the snake's
+disposition. The slightest movement of its muscles and the expression of
+its eyes is sufficient to indicate the snake's intentions to the
+charmer. It is said that an expert charmer can play with a freshly
+caught snake as easily as with an old one. The art consists in lulling
+the snake to sleep and perceiving when the dangerous moment is coming.
+During the whole exhibition the monotonous squeak of the flute never
+ceases. Courage and presence of mind are necessary for such a dangerous
+game.
+
+Europeans who have seen these snake-men catch cobras say that their
+skilfulness and boldness are remarkable. They seize the snake with bare
+hands as it glides through the grass. This is a trick of legerdemain in
+which everything depends on the dexterity of the fingers and a quickness
+greater than that of the snake itself. The snake-catcher seizes the tail
+with his left hand and passes the right with lightning rapidity along
+the body up to the head, which he grips with the thumb and forefinger so
+that the snake is held as in a vice. Probably the trick consists in
+depriving the snake of support to its body with the left hand and
+producing undulations which annul those of the reptile itself.
+
+When charmers go out to catch snakes they are always in parties of two
+or three. Some of them take with them antidotes to snake bites. If a man
+is bitten, a bandage is wound tightly above the wound and the poison is
+sucked out. Then a small black stone, as large as an almond, is laid on
+the wound. This absorbs blood and some at least of the poison. Adhering
+fast to the wound, it does not fall off until it has finished its work.
+That so many men die of snake bites is, of course, because assistance
+comes too late.
+
+When the charmer begins to play with a cobra he fixes his eyes on it and
+never removes them for a second. And the same is true of the cobra, which
+keeps its eyes constantly on the charmer. It is like a duel in which
+one of the combatants is liable to be killed if he does not parry at
+the right moment. Still more watchful is a cobra when he fights with a
+mongoose. The mongoose is a small beast of prey of the Viverridæ family.
+It is barely as large as a cat, has a long body and short legs, and is
+the deadly enemy of the cobra. There is a splendid story in Mr. Kipling's
+_Jungle Book_ of how a pet mongoose--"Rikki-tikki-tavi"--killed two large
+cobras.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Delhi is again to be the capital of the Empire of British India
+(see footnote on p. 141).
+
+[12] At the great Durbar held at Delhi on December 12, 1911, King George
+V. announced that the capital of India would be transferred from
+Calcutta to Delhi.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+FROM INDIA TO CHINA (1908)
+
+
+THE INDIAN OCEAN
+
+On October 14, 1908, we leave Bombay in the steamer _Delhi_,[13] which
+is bound for Shanghai with passengers and cargo. The _Delhi_ is a fine
+steamer, 495 feet long, and of 8000 tons burden; it is one of the great
+fleet of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (usually
+known as the P. & O.), which receives an annual subsidy from the
+Government to carry the mails to India and Australia. We cast off from
+the quay, and in about an hour's time are slowly drawing out between the
+ends of the harbour breakwaters; then the steamer glides more quickly
+over the bay between innumerable vessels under different flags, and
+Bombay lies behind us with its large houses, its churches, towers, and
+chimneys, and its dense forest of ships' masts.
+
+Soon the city has disappeared and we are out on the Indian Ocean. The
+weather is fine; there is no sea on, only the faintest swell; sailing
+boats lie motionless waiting for a wind, and only a faint breeze renews
+the air under the awnings of the promenade deck. It is so warm and
+sultry that starched shirts and collars become damp and limp after a
+couple of hours. We gradually draw off from the coast, but still the
+mountain chain known as the Western Ghâts, which extends to the southern
+extremity of India, is visible.
+
+Next morning we leave Goa behind, and at noon have the Laccadive group
+of islands to starboard. The coast of India is still in sight--a belt of
+sand, over which the surf rolls in from the sea, surmounted by a fringe
+of coco-palms. On the morning of October 17 we pass the southernmost
+point of India, Cape Comorin. Here our course is changed to southeast,
+and about midday the coast of Ceylon can be distinguished on the
+horizon. From a long distance we can see the white band of breakers
+dashing against the beach, and as we approach closer a forest of steamer
+funnels, sails, and masts, and beyond them a long row of Asiatic and
+European buildings. That is Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, and a very
+important port for all vessels which ply between Europe and the Far
+East. Gently the _Delhi_ enters the passage between the harbour moles,
+and is at once surrounded by a fleet of rowing boats from the shore.
+Singalese and Hindus swarm up the gangways, and throw themselves with
+much jabbering on the traveller's possessions. They are scantily clothed
+with only a shirt or a white sash round the loins and a cloth or a comb
+on the head.
+
+We go on shore and find in the principal streets of the town a curious
+jumble of copper-brown coloured people, carriages, tramways, and small,
+two-wheeled "rickshas" which are pulled by half-naked men. The huts of
+the natives and the dwelling-houses of the Europeans nestle among groves
+of the slender coco-palm.
+
+The next day the steamer _Moldavia_ (also belonging to the P. & O.)
+arrived from England, and was moored close to the _Delhi_ in order to
+transfer to her passengers and goods for the Far East, after which the
+_Moldavia_ was to continue her voyage for two weeks more to Australia.
+When all is ready the _Delhi_ swings out to sea again, the band of the
+_Moldavia_ playing a march and her crew and passengers cheering. In the
+evening we double the southern point of Ceylon, turning due east--a
+course we shall hold as far as the northern cape of Sumatra, 1000 miles
+away.
+
+
+THE SUNDA ISLANDS
+
+On the morning of October 21 all field-glasses are pointed eastwards.
+Two small, steep islands stand up out of the sea, a white ring of surf
+round their shores, and beyond them several other islands come into
+sight, their woods ever green in the perpetual summer of these hot
+regions. Now islands crop up on all sides, and we are in the midst of
+quite an archipelago. To the south-west we can see rain falling over
+Sumatra.
+
+Asia is the largest continent of the world. It has three other divisions
+of the world as its neighbours, Europe, Africa, and Australia, and Asia
+is more or less connected with these, forming with them the land of the
+eastern hemisphere, while America belongs to the western hemisphere.
+Europe is so closely and solidly connected with Asia that it may be said
+to be a peninsula of it. Africa is joined to Asia by an isthmus 70 miles
+broad, which since 1869 has been cut through by the Suez Canal. On the
+other hand, Australia is like an enormous island, and lies quite by
+itself; the only connection between it and Asia consists of the two
+series of large islands and innumerable small ones which rise above the
+surface of the intervening sea. The western chain consists of the Sunda
+Islands, the eastern of the Philippines and New Guinea. Sumatra is the
+first island of the immense pontoon bridge which extends south-eastwards
+from the Malay Peninsula. The next is Java, and then follows a row of
+medium-sized islands to the east.
+
+[Illustration: THE SUNDA ISLANDS.]
+
+The animal and vegetable life of these islands is very abundant. In
+their woods live elephants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; in the brushwood
+lurk tigers and panthers; and in the depths of their primeval forests
+dwell monkeys of various species. The largest is the orang-utang, which
+grows to a height of five feet, is very strong, savage and dangerous,
+and is almost always seen on trees. On these islands, too, grow many
+plants and trees which are invaluable to the use of man--sugar-cane,
+coffee and tea, rice and tobacco, spices, coco-palms, and the tree the
+bark of which yields the remedy for fever, quinine. This remedy is
+needed not least on the Sunda Islands themselves, for fever is general
+in the low-lying districts round the coasts, though the climate 4000 or
+5000 feet above sea-level, among the mountains which occupy the interior
+of the islands, is good and healthy.
+
+The equator passes through the middle of Sumatra and Borneo, and
+therefore perpetual summer with very moist heat prevails in these
+islands. The only seasons really distinguishable are the rainy and dry
+seasons, and the Sunda Islands constitute one of the rainiest regions in
+the world. The people are Malays and are heathen, but along the coasts
+Mohammedanism has acquired great influence. The savage tribes of the
+interior have a blind belief in spirits, which animate all lifeless
+objects, and the souls of the dead share in the joys and sorrows of the
+living.
+
+The larger Sunda islands are four: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes.
+Java, one of the most beautiful and most productive countries in the
+world, has an area nearly equal to that of England without Wales, and
+its population is also nearly the same--about 30 millions. Sumatra,
+which the _Delhi_ has just left to starboard, is three times the size of
+Java, but has only one-seventh of its population. The curiously shaped
+island of Celebes, again, is about half the size of Sumatra, while
+Borneo is the third largest island on the globe not ranking as a
+continent, its area being about 300,000 square miles. The Sunda Islands
+are subject to Holland, only the north-eastern part of Borneo belonging
+to England.
+
+In the strait between Sumatra and Java lies a very small volcanic
+island, Krakatau, which in the summer of 1883 was the scene of one of
+the most violent eruptions that have taken place in historic times. The
+island was uninhabited, and was only visited occasionally by fishermen
+from Sumatra; but if it had been inhabited, not a soul would have
+survived to relate what took place, for on two other islands which lay a
+few miles distant the inhabitants were killed to the last man.
+
+The outburst proper began on August 26, and the fire-breathing mountain
+cast out such quantities of ashes that a layer three feet thick was
+deposited on the deck of a vessel which happened at the time to be a
+considerable distance off. It lightened and thundered, the sea was
+disturbed, and many boats were sunk or hurled up on land. The next day
+the island fell in and was swallowed up by the sea, only a few
+fragments of it being left. Thereupon a huge wave, 100 feet high, poured
+over the neighbouring coasts of Sumatra and Java, washing away towns and
+villages, woods and railway lines, and when it retreated the country was
+swept bare, and corpses of men and animals lay all around. This wave was
+so tremendous that it was propagated as far as the coasts of Africa and
+America, and it was thus possible to calculate the speed with which it
+had traversed the oceans. The noise produced by the eruption was so
+great that it was heard even in Ceylon and Australia, at a distance of
+2000 miles. If this outburst had taken place in Vienna, it would have
+been heard all over Europe and a considerable distance beyond its
+limits. Loose ashes ejected from the volcano fell over the earth,
+covering an area considerably larger than France, and 40,000 persons
+perished.
+
+
+PENANG AND SINGAPORE
+
+The _Delhi_ holds her course for Penang, a town on a small island close
+to the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At length land is sighted straight
+ahead, and the letter-writers make haste to get their correspondence
+ready. We glide into a beautiful sound, the anchor rattles out, and we
+are at once surrounded by a swarm of curious boats which come to
+establish communication between the vessel and the town.
+
+The main street of Penang--with its large buildings, hotels, banks,
+clubs, and commercial houses--presents much the same appearance as
+almost always meets the eye in the port towns on the south coast of
+Asia. The small single-seated "ricksha" is drawn by a Chinaman in a
+loose blue blouse, bare-legged, and with a pointed straw hat on his
+head. We go out to the Botanical Gardens, and find them really
+wonderful. There are trees and plants from India, the Sunda Islands, and
+Australia, all labelled with their English and scientific names. Monkeys
+climb actively among the trees, and sit swinging on the boughs, and a
+high waterfall tumbles down a cliff surrounded by dense luxuriant
+vegetation.
+
+Darkness falls suddenly, as always in the tropics, and is accompanied by
+pelting rain. In a few moments all the roads are under water. The rain
+pours down, not in drops but in long streams of water, and we are wet
+through long before we reach the pier where the launch is waiting.
+
+Soon after we get on board, the _Delhi_ moves out into the night down
+the Strait of Malacca. Singapore is only thirty hours' voyage ahead, and
+the steamer follows closely the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At sunrise
+on October 24 we arrive. Singapore is the chief town of the Malay
+Peninsula, which is subject to Great Britain, and contains nearly a
+quarter of a million inhabitants--Europeans, Malays, Indians, but mostly
+Chinese. All steamers to and from the Far East call at Singapore, which
+is also the chief commercial emporium for the Sunda Islands and the
+whole of the Dutch Archipelago. It lies one degree of latitude north of
+the equator, and the consequence is that there is a difference of only
+three degrees of temperature between winter and summer. It is always
+warm, and rain falls almost every day.
+
+At five o'clock the same afternoon the _Delhi_ steams out again,
+accompanied by a swarm of light canoes rowed by naked copper-brown Malay
+boys. These boys swim like fishes, and they come out to the steamers to
+dive for silver coins which the passengers throw into the sea for them.
+When the _Delhi_ increases her pace, they drop behind and paddle back to
+the harbour with the proceeds of their diving feats. The sound gradually
+widens out, and as long as twilight lasts the land and islands are in
+sight. Then we turn off north-eastwards, leaving the equator behind us,
+and steer out over the Chinese Sea after having doubled the southernmost
+extremity of the Asiatic mainland.
+
+
+UP THE CHINA SEA
+
+In two days we had left Cochin-China, Saigon, and the great delta of the
+Mekong behind us, and when on October 27 we came into contact with the
+current from the north-east which sweeps along the coast of Annam, the
+temperature fell several degrees and the weather became fresher and more
+agreeable. The north-east monsoon had just set in, and the farther we
+sailed northwards the harder it would blow in our faces. We had then to
+choose between two routes--either out to sea with heavy surge and
+boisterous wind; or along the coast, where the current would similarly
+hinder us. Whichever way was chosen the vessel would lose a couple of
+knots in her speed. The captain chose the course along the coast.
+
+The eastern part of the peninsula of Further India consists of the
+French possessions, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Annam, and Tonkin. Hanoi,
+the capital of Tonkin, is the headquarters of the Governor-General of
+all French Indo-China. To the south Saigon is the most important town;
+it is situated in the Mekong delta, which is increasing in size every
+year by the addition of the vast quantities of silt carried down by the
+great river. The country abounds in wild animals, elephants, tigers,
+rhinoceroses, alligators, poisonous snakes, monkeys, parrots, and
+peacocks. In area the French possessions are about half as large again
+as France itself, and the population is about 20 millions.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING VOYAGE FROM BOMBAY TO HONG KONG (pp. 152-160).]
+
+A large part of Further India is occupied by the kingdom of Siam, which
+lies between the lower courses of the Mekong and the Salwin, both of
+which rise in eastern Tibet. Siam is about two-thirds the size of French
+Indo-China, but has only 9 million inhabitants of various
+races--Siamese, Chinese, Malays, and Laos. Bangkok, the capital of the
+King of Siam, contains half a million inhabitants, and is intersected by
+numerous canals, on which a large proportion of the people live in
+floating houses. There are many fine and famous pagodas, or temples,
+with statues of Buddha. Some of them are of gold. In Siam the Buddhist
+religion has been preserved pure and uncorrupted. The white elephant is
+considered sacred, and the flag of Siam exhibits a white elephant on a
+red field. The Siamese are of Mongolian origin, of medium, sturdy build,
+with a yellowish-brown complexion, but are not highly gifted. They are
+addicted to song, music, and games, and among their curious customs is
+that of colouring the teeth black.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XVI. ON THE CANTON RIVER.]
+
+On the morning of October 29 we steam past a fringe of islets, the
+beautiful and charming entrance to Hong Kong. The north-east monsoon is
+blowing freshly, and the salt foam hisses round the bow of the _Delhi_
+and falls on the deck in fine spray lighted by the sun. There is little
+sea, for we are in among the islands which check and subdue the violence
+of the waves. At noon we glide in between a small holm and the island
+into the excellent and roomy harbour of Hong Kong, well sheltered on all
+sides from wind and waves. A flotilla of steam launches comes out to
+meet us as we glide slowly among innumerable vessels to our anchorage
+and buoys. Here flutter in the wind the flags of all commercial nations;
+the English, Chinese, Japanese, American, and German colours fly side by
+side. The water in the harbour basin is so shallow that the turn of the
+propeller stirs up the greyish-brown mud from the bottom.
+
+Victoria is the chief town of Hong Kong, and contains nearly the half of
+the population, which amounts to 440,000 souls, most of them Chinese.
+
+There are five important points on the sea-route to the Far
+East--Gibraltar, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Hong Kong--and all of
+them are in the hands of England.
+
+Hong Kong has been a British Crown Colony since 1842, and it is now an
+extraordinarily important port. Vessels with an aggregate tonnage of
+nearly 20 millions pass through Hong Kong annually, and the little
+island surpasses in this respect even London, Hamburg, and New York.
+Regular lines of steamers connect Hong Kong with countless ports in
+Asia, America, Europe, and Australia, and the trade of the port is
+immense. It is also a station for the east Asiatic squadron of the Royal
+Navy--with fine docks and berths, a coal depôt, arsenal, and barracks.
+
+Ninety miles north-west of Hong Kong lies the second city of China,
+Canton (Plate XVI.). It stands near the mouths of two rivers which give
+access to the interior of the country, and Canton is therefore an
+important commercial town, surpassed only by Shanghai. The famous
+Chinese silk is exported from Canton in larger quantities than from any
+other town, and the industries of silk-weaving, porcelain, and other
+manufactures are flourishing. Canton is one of the thirty-seven Chinese
+"treaty ports"--that is, those which are open to foreign commerce. It
+has 900,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the southernmost of the
+eighteen provinces of China proper and the residence of a viceroy. Its
+streets are so narrow that no wheeled vehicle can pass through them. A
+large part of the inhabitants live on boats moored to posts on the
+river. A railway 1200 miles long connects Canton with the capital of the
+empire, Peking.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] This is the vessel which was wrecked on the coast of Morocco, near
+Cape Spartel, on December 13, 1911, having the Duke and Duchess of Fife
+(Princess Royal) on board.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+CHINA[14]
+
+
+TO SHANGHAI
+
+From Hong Kong the _Delhi_ ploughs her way along the Chinese coast, and
+next day (October 31) we are right out in the track of the north-east
+monsoon. The sea is high and dead against us, and the wind is so strong
+that we can hardly go up on deck. It becomes steadily cooler as we
+advance northwards.
+
+To the east we have now the large island of Formosa, which was annexed
+by Japan sixteen years ago. It is about twice the size of Wales, and
+marks the boundary between the China Sea and the Eastern Sea, which
+farther north passes into the Yellow Sea. The coast and its hills are
+sometimes seen close at hand, sometimes far off, and sometimes they
+disappear in the distance. With a glass we can distinguish the
+lighthouses, always erected on small islands off the mainland. The
+Chinese coast is dangerous, being full of reefs, holms, and shallows.
+
+Hong Kong and the adjoining seas are visited from the middle of July to
+the middle of September by the destructive whirlwinds called typhoons.
+The vortices, spinning round with tremendous rapidity, are usually
+formed far out in the Pacific Ocean, and gradually advance towards the
+mainland. They move at a rate of nine miles an hour, and therefore the
+weather stations on the Philippines, and other islands lying in the
+track of the typhoons, can send warnings by telegraph to the Chinese
+coast. Then the black triangle is hoisted on a tall mast in the harbour
+of Hong Kong, for instance, and is visible for a long distance. Every
+one knows what it means: a typhoon is on the way. The Chinese junks make
+in towards land, where they find shelter under the high coast, and all
+other vessels strengthen their moorings.
+
+On November 2 we know by the yellowish-brown colour of the water that we
+are off the mouth of the Blue River, as the Yang-tse-kiang is called by
+Europeans. A pilot comes on board to take us through the dangerous,
+uncertain fairway, and a little later we have flat land on both sides of
+us, and are in the estuary of the river.
+
+Shanghai is situated on a small affluent which runs into the
+Yang-tse-kiang close to its mouth, and large ocean steamers cannot go up
+to the town. After the _Delhi_ has dropped its anchor we proceed up the
+river in a steam tender. The low banks soon become more animated, the
+houses stand closer together, factories appear amongst them, and Chinese
+vessels lie moored on both sides, including two sorry warships of wood,
+relics of a time gone by. They are high in the bow and stern, and from
+the mast floats the blue dragon on its yellow field.[15] At length the
+stately "bund" of Shanghai comes into sight with a row of fine, tall
+houses. This is not China, but a bit of Europe, the white town in the
+yellow land, the great and wealthy Shanghai with its 12,000 Europeans,
+beside the Chinese town inhabited by 650,000 natives.
+
+Next day, November 3, occurred two noted birthdays, those of the Dowager
+Empress of China and of the Emperor of Japan. They were both remarkable
+for their powerful minds and wisdom, and have made their names immortal
+in the extreme East. The Consul-General of Japan held a reception, and
+the Governor of Shanghai a brilliant dinner.
+
+We saw much that was curious and interesting, and our time was fully
+occupied during our short stay in the largest shipping and commercial
+port of China. From the European streets with electric light and
+tramways, churches, clubs, merchants' offices, and public buildings,
+tidal docks and wharves, we reach in a few minutes the Chinese town,
+pure, unadulterated Asia. It swarms with yellow men in blue coats and
+black vests with small brass buttons, white stockings, black shoes with
+thick, flat soles, a small black skull-cap with a red button on the
+head, and a long pigtail behind. There dealers sit in their open shops,
+smoking long, small pipes while waiting for customers. The tea-houses
+are full. A noise and tumult beyond description, a constant going and
+coming, a continual exchange of coin and goods.
+
+The religion of the Chinese is a mixture of different doctrines and
+rules of wisdom. China has had more wise men than any other old country
+in the world. Foremost among them is Confucius, a contemporary of Buddha
+and Socrates. He wrote a book of three hundred odes, and called it
+_Purity of Thought_. Twelve disciples gathered round him, and a larger
+circle of three thousand. "Do not to others what you would not that they
+should do to you" was one of his precepts. When Confucius was asked how
+he had contrived to acquire deep knowledge of so many things, he
+replied, "Because I was born poor and had to learn." He considered
+wealth a misfortune and knowledge power. The Chinese reverence his
+memory, and regard him not as a god but as the wisest man of all ages.
+
+Along with Confucianism, Taoism exists in China. The sublime teaching of
+the founder has, however, been corrupted and degraded to jugglery and
+superstition. At the commencement of our era Buddhism was introduced
+into China, and now is spread over almost all the country. There is,
+however, no clearness in the religious conceptions of the Chinese. A
+Taoist may perform his devotions in the morning in a Buddhist temple and
+in the evening be deeply interested in the writings of Confucius. Many
+therefore have an equal respect for all three systems.
+
+The basis, however, of Chinese religious thought is ancestor worship.
+Whether they are Confucians, like most of the mandarins, or Taoists or
+Buddhists, like the common people, Chinamen always cherish the same
+reverence for the souls of their forefathers. An altar in their honour
+is raised in even the simplest house. The graves may not be disturbed,
+and nothing but respect is cherished for the memory of the departed. In
+the seventeenth century the Manchu emperor, Kang Hi, ruled China for
+sixty-one years with a power and wisdom which made him one of the
+greatest monarchs of any age. His grandson, Kien Lung, inherited all his
+excellent qualities, and when he had ruled China for nearly sixty-one
+years he abdicated simply in order that, out of respect to his ancestor,
+the years of his reign might not exceed his grandfather's.
+
+One consequence of this ancestor worship is that enormous areas of China
+are covered with graves. The Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, who reigned at
+the end of the thirteenth century, roused furious opposition by ordering
+that all the burial-grounds should be broken up and turned into fields.
+At the present time, when new railways are spreading mile after mile
+through China, the sanctity of the graveyards is one of the greatest
+obstacles to engineers. The Chinese will not disturb the slumbers of
+their forefathers, and therefore the railway has often to pass round a
+hallowed place or avoid it by means of a bridge. The Emperor himself
+travels to Mukden simply to make offerings at the graves of his
+ancestors. Kang Hi and Kien Lung are buried in Mukden, and their
+dynasty, the Manchu, still rules over the country.
+
+The Chinese feel this association with a past life more strongly than
+with the future, and the worship of their ancestors almost takes the
+place of affection for their fatherland. They certainly love their own
+homes, but what goes on in other parts of the country is a matter of
+indifference to them. To the Cantonese it matters not whether the
+Russians take Manchuria or the Japanese Korea, provided only that Canton
+is left in peace. Ancestor worship may be said, indeed, to be the true
+religion of the Chinese. For the rest they are filled with an
+unreasoning fear of spirits, and have recourse to many different gods
+who, they believe, can control these influences for good and evil. They
+are very superstitious. If any one falls sick of fever and becomes
+delirious, his relations believe that his soul has gone astray. They
+carry his clothes round the spot where he lost consciousness in order to
+bring his soul into the right track again; and at night they go up to
+the roof and wave a lantern to guide the soul home.
+
+
+"THE MIDDLE KINGDOM"
+
+The first things a Chinese schoolboy is taught are that the sky is
+round, the earth quadrangular, and that China is situated in the middle
+of the earth, and on that account is called the "Middle Kingdom." All
+other countries lie around China and are its vassals.
+
+The Emperor is called the "Son of Heaven," and holds the supreme
+spiritual and temporal power in his hands. On his accession he gives an
+arbitrary name to his reign, which also becomes his own. He chooses
+his successor himself from among his sons. If he is childless he chooses
+one of his nearest relations, but then he adopts his future successor
+that the latter may make offerings to the souls of himself and his
+ancestors. The yellow robe and the five-clawed dragon are the emblems of
+the imperial house. The Emperor is immeasurably superior to his people,
+and the mortals who may speak to him are easily counted. A few years ago
+the European ambassadors in Peking exacted the right to see the Emperor
+every New Year's Day. This they did, but had no talk with him.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XVII. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.]
+
+China is the oldest, the most populous, and the most conservative
+kingdom in the world. In the time of Nineveh and Babylon it had attained
+to a high civilization, and has remained the same through 4000 years. Of
+Nineveh and Babylon only rubbish heaps are left, but China still shows
+no sign of decay. Western Asia is like a vast graveyard with innumerable
+monuments of bygone times. There devastating migrations of peoples took
+place, and races and dynasties contended and succeeded one another. But
+China is still the same as ever. The isolated position of the country
+and the objection of the people to contact with foreigners have
+contributed to this. The reverence for the old state of things and for
+the memory of their forefathers makes a new generation similar to the
+preceding.
+
+During the twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ three
+imperial families ruled in China in succession. Two and a half centuries
+before our era a powerful and far-sighted emperor built the Great Wall,
+the mightiest erection ever completed by human hands (Plate XVII.). This
+wall is 1500 miles long, 50 feet high, and 26 thick at the bottom and 16
+at the top. Towers stand at certain intervals, and there are gates here
+and there. It is constructed of stone, brick, and earth. It is in parts
+much ruined, especially in the west, and in some places only heaps of
+earth are left.
+
+Why was this immense wall erected? The Chinese are a peaceful people,
+and they surrounded themselves with walls to prevent intrusion from
+outside. In China there are 1553 towns enclosed in massive stone walls,
+and the great emperor in the third century B.C. naturally
+thought of building a wall in the same way all round his extensive
+kingdom. It was principally from the north that danger threatened. There
+lived the nomads of Eastern Turkestan and Mongolia, savage, brave, and
+warlike horsemen. To them the Chinese wall was an insurmountable
+obstacle. But precisely on that account this wall has also affected the
+destiny of Europe, for the wild mounted hordes, finding the way
+southwards to China barred, advanced westwards instead, and in the
+fourth century, in conjunction with the Alans, overran extensive areas
+of Europe.
+
+The Great Wall, however, could not protect China for ever. In the year
+1280 the country was conquered by Jenghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan,
+Marco Polo's friend and patron. He, too, was a great builder. He
+constructed the Grand Canal (see map, p. 174) between Peking and
+Hang-chau, immediately to the south-west of Shanghai. His idea was that
+the rice harvest of the southern provinces should also benefit the
+northern parts of the country. Previously the rice had been freighted on
+junks and carried along the coast, where it was exposed to the attacks
+of Japanese pirates. Now the junks could pass safely through the country
+by the new canal. The imperial canal is 840 miles long, crosses the
+Yellow and Blue rivers, and is still in use. It is a memorial of the
+hundred years' rule of the Mongols.
+
+In 1644 China was conquered by the Manchu dynasty, which still reigns.
+Exactly a hundred years earlier the Portuguese had seized Macao, not far
+from Hong Kong. Since then, and particularly during recent decades,
+Europeans have encroached on Chinese soil. The French possessions on the
+peninsula of Further India were formerly under Chinese protection. The
+Great Powers have made themselves masters of some of the best harbours
+in China. On two occasions, the latter during the Boxer insurrection in
+1900, Peking has been entered by the combined troops of European
+nations.
+
+The "Middle Kingdom" is China proper, but the "Son of Heaven" also rules
+over four dependencies, Eastern Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and
+Tibet. The area of the Chinese Empire altogether is thirty-five times
+that of the British Isles, and its population is ten times as numerous,
+being about 433 millions; indeed, every third or fourth man in the world
+is a Chinaman.
+
+Owing to the situation of the country the climate is good and healthy.
+The differences of temperature between winter and summer are large; in
+the south reigns almost tropical heat; in the north, in the districts
+round Peking, the winter is bitterly cold. The soil is exceedingly
+fruitful. Tea, rice, millet, maize, oats, barley, beans, peas,
+vegetables, and many other crops are grown. In the southern provinces
+the fields are full of sugar-cane and cotton bushes. The whole country
+is intersected by large rivers, which serve for irrigation and the
+transport of goods. In the west rise lofty mountains, forming
+continuations of the Tibetan ranges. Eastwards they become lower. The
+greater part of China is a mountainous country, but lowlands extend
+along the coast. Six of the eighteen provinces border on the coast,
+which abounds in excellent harbours.
+
+The "Middle Kingdom" is, then, a fortunate country, one richly endowed
+by nature in every respect. In the mountains lies inexhaustible wealth
+of minerals, and China possesses larger coal-fields than any other land
+in the world. Its future is, therefore, secured, and China's development
+may some time surpass that of America.
+
+It is well known that a country which has deeply indented coasts gains
+an early and extensive development. Thus Greece was in old times the
+home of learning and art; and thus Europe now dominates the rest of the
+world. For a people which dwells within such coasts comes sooner and
+more easily than others into contact with its neighbours, and by
+commercial intercourse can avail itself of their resources and
+inventions. But in this, as in so many other respects, China is an
+exception. The Chinese have never made use of their coast. They have, on
+the contrary, avoided all contact with foreigners, and their development
+within their own boundaries has therefore been exceedingly peculiar.
+Their culture is different from anything else, and yet it is most
+estimable and refined.
+
+Two thousand years before Christ the Chinese had written characters.
+Later they invented the hair pencil, which is in use to this day. They
+grind down a jet-black ink, in which they dip the brush, and hold it
+vertically when they write. The manufacture of the ink is their secret,
+and the "Indian ink" which we use in Europe is obtained from them. A
+hundred years after Christ paper was made in China. In an ancient town
+at Lop-nor, where wild camels now roam, I found a collection of Chinese
+letters and documents on paper which had remained buried in the desert
+since A.D. 265. In A.D. 600 the Chinese had invented the art of
+printing, which in Europe was not invented until 850 years later.
+The Chinese were acquainted with the magnetic needle 1100 years
+before Christ, and made compasses, and they knew of gunpowder long
+before Europeans. Three thousand years ago the Chinese were proficient
+in the art of casting bronze. In the interior of the country are still
+to be found most beautiful objects in bronze--round bowls on feet
+decorated with lions and dragons, vases, dishes, cups, and jugs, all of
+dark, heavy bronze executed with the finest and most artistic detail.
+The porcelain manufacture attained its greatest excellence in the time
+of Kang Hi and Kien Lung. Then were made vases, bowls, and dishes of
+such exceeding perfection that neither the Chinese themselves nor any
+other people at the present time can produce their match. The
+arrangement of colours and the glaze excite the admiration of all
+connoisseurs. Porcelain articles of this period are now extremely rare,
+and fetch enormous prices. In Japan I saw a small green Chinese bowl on
+three feet, with a cover, which had cost eleven hundred pounds. Compared
+to the Kang Hi vases, the finest porcelain that can be produced nowadays
+is mere rubbish.
+
+The Chinese language is as singular as everything else in the great
+kingdom. Every word is unchangeable. While we say "go, went, gone, will
+go, should go, going," the Chinese always say simply "go." The precise
+meaning is shown by the position of the word in a sentence or by the
+help of certain auxiliary words, as, for example, "I morning go," "We
+yesterday go," where the future or past tense is indicated by the words
+"morning" and "yesterday." A single word, _li_, for instance, may have a
+number of different significations, and what it denotes in any
+particular case depends on the tone and pronunciation, on its position
+in the sentence, and on the word which comes before or after. The
+language is divided into many different dialects, of which the principal
+is the mandarin or the dialect of the educated. Every word has its
+particular written sign, and the Chinese language accordingly possesses
+24,000 different written characters; only one man in twenty and one
+woman in a hundred can read and write it.
+
+Chinese literature is exceedingly rich, almost inexhaustible. At a time
+when the bronze age still reigned in northern Europe, the Chinese had a
+highly cultivated literature. From the fifth century B.C. down
+to our own day it has run an uninterrupted course through centuries and
+ages. When the northern vikings were executing their plundering raids by
+sea and setting up their runic stones, a geographical hand-book was
+published in China called a "Description of all the Provinces" and
+abundantly illustrated by maps. Thanks to their chronicles we can follow
+the history of the Chinese for 4000 years back. And the most remarkable
+feature of these annals is that they are distinguished by the strictest
+accuracy and reliability. All kinds of subjects are alluded to, even the
+most insignificant events. Chinese books are very cheap, and every one
+who can read can provide himself with quite a large library. Of the
+numbers of books we can have some conception when we hear that the
+Emperor Kieng Lung had a library so large that the catalogue of his
+books filled 122 volumes.
+
+
+THE BLUE RIVER
+
+The Blue River, or Yang-tse-kiang, the Mekong, and the Salwin all rise
+in eastern Tibet and flow quite close to one another southwards through
+deeply excavated parallel valleys. But while the first two continue
+their southerly course all the way to the sea, the Blue River turns off
+sharply eastwards in western China and divides the Middle Kingdom in
+two.
+
+It is only Europeans who sometimes call the largest river of China the
+"Blue" River. The Chinese themselves call it the "Great" River, or the
+"Long" River, or, far up the country to the west, the "River of Golden
+Sand." Only three rivers in the world are longer, namely, the Nile, the
+Mississippi, and the Amazon. The Obi and Yenisei are about the same
+length, 3200 miles. The Blue River discharges 244 times the volume of
+water of the Thames.
+
+In one respect the Blue River is far superior to all the waterways of
+the world, for on this river and its tributaries, or, in short, in the
+area of its drainage basin, live not less than 180 millions of human
+beings, or an eighth of the total population of the world. The parts of
+China proper situated on the Blue River are called the River Provinces.
+The viceroy of two of these, namely Hupeh and Hunan, has more subjects
+than any country in Europe, except Russia. The most westerly province of
+China, Sze-chuan, traversed by the Blue River, is in area and population
+equal to France. Europe shrinks up to nothing before such comparisons.
+
+On the Blue River stands a series of famous old towns. Chungking is the
+capital of Sze-chuan, and thus far European steamers ascend the river.
+Hankow is the largest commercial town in the interior of China. Nanking,
+near the mouth, was formerly the capital of China. South-west of Hankow
+a large lake lies on the southern bank of the Blue River. _Hu_ means
+lake in Chinese, _king_ is a capital city, _pe_ signifies north, and
+_nan_ south. Peking, therefore, means the "northern capital," and
+Nanking the "southern capital"; Hupeh signifies "north of the lake," and
+Hunan "south of the lake."
+
+The province of Hunan, south of the lake, is one of the most noteworthy
+in all China. Its people are a vigorous and independent race, and make
+the best soldiers in China. They are more hostile to foreigners than
+other Chinese, and the capital of Hunan, Chang-sha, has been of old a
+centre of opposition to foreigners and of revolutionary agitations.
+
+Even large ocean liners ascend to Hankow, and smaller steamboats to the
+capital of Sze-chuan. The latter are formidable competitors to the
+junks, many thousands of which have from time immemorial provided for
+the transport and traffic on the great river. There are many different
+kinds of junk. Some are large, others small; some are built for the
+lower, quieter waters of the river, others for the rapids in Hupeh and
+Sze-chuan. But they are all well suited to their purpose, and are an
+ornament to the grand beauty of the constantly changing landscape
+through which the river has cut its valley.
+
+In some districts the junks are built of cypress wood, in others of
+oaken planks. This is to make the boats more elastic and supple, and to
+diminish the risk of springing a leak among the rapids. Where the danger
+is unusually great a pilot is taken on board, but still it is reckoned
+that one junk in ten runs aground, and one in twenty is totally wrecked.
+To go from Hankow to Chungking takes thirty-five days, and to come down
+in the opposite direction with the stream only nine days. The voyage
+down the river is much more dangerous, and on this voyage most of the
+shipwrecks occur.
+
+Every large junk has a small dinghy to convey passengers and goods to
+and from the shore. A large junk is 40 feet long. It is high at the
+stern, and here stands a kind of cabin roofed with plaited straw or
+grass matting. A junk going upstream carries a cargo of two and a half
+tons, one going down six tons. The vessel is propelled by oars, some of
+which are so large that they require eight men each. These are needed
+most in drifting with the current, when the boat must be controlled by
+the steering oars. The junk has also a mast and sail which is used in
+going upstream with a favourable wind, and is lowered when coming down
+with the current. Only the bow is decked.
+
+It may well be asked how it is possible to get such a large heavily
+laden boat up against the strong river current, for it is evident that
+however favourable the wind might be, the vessel would be carried down
+the rapids. A long rope of twisted bamboo a hundred yards long is
+fastened to the bow of the junk, and with this the vessel is dragged up
+by some sixty men who run along the bank. The bank, however, is usually
+steep, with dangerous rocks projecting out into the river, and over
+these the men have to scramble like monkeys, still pulling at their
+rope. Often neither the boat nor the river is visible from the rocky
+path, but the skipper of the boat is in constant communication with the
+towing men by means of drums on board. Six men are always ready to clear
+the rope if it catches against any projection, and others, who are stark
+naked, do the same work in the water. On the cliffs along the river,
+grooves and marks have been worn out by the ropes, for towing has here
+been practised for thousands of years. There is always a score of men on
+board to steer and fend off the boat with poles. They have also bamboo
+poles with hooks at the end to help in dragging the boat up against the
+current.
+
+These men work like galley-slaves, and their work is both dangerous and
+exhausting. Week after week they walk with bent backs struggling under
+the towing rope. They are covered with bruises, which scarcely heal up
+before they are torn open again, and especially on the shoulders the
+marks of the rope are visible. They have a hard life, and yet they are
+cheerful. They are treated like dogs, and yet they sing. And what wages
+do they receive for a journey of thirty-five days up the river? Three
+shillings, besides three meals of rice a day, and meat three times
+during the journey! For the down journey, when the work is much easier
+and the time only one-fourth, they receive only a shilling. These
+labourers earn about 1-1/4d. for ten hours' work.
+
+In February the river is lowest and the water clearest. Then the towns
+and villages stand 160 feet above the surface of the river. Their walls,
+staircases, gates, and pagodas stand up in the flat triangles of the
+valley openings. Every inch of hill and valley is covered with fields or
+woods. Later in the spring the river begins to rise, and in summer is a
+huge rolling volume of chocolate-brown or greyish water. At certain
+places where the valley is narrow the water may rise a hundred feet
+higher than in February. A voyage on it is then more dangerous, for
+banks, boulders, and reefs are covered with water and form whirlpools
+and seething eddies.
+
+Below the towns and villages shoals of junks lie moored waiting for
+work. Every cliff, every bend has its name--Yellow Hat, Sleeping Swine,
+Double Dragon, etc. Nor are pirates wanting. They have their haunts
+among the mountains, and fall upon the junks at convenient points.
+Sometimes large white notices are seen on projecting rocks. They may be
+"The waterway is not clear," or "Small junks should anchor here." Thus
+the boatowners are warned of danger.
+
+The earnings of a boatowner are not large, and he is glad enough if he
+can bring his boat back to Hankow in safety after a voyage up and down
+the river. With anything but pleasure he sees the large Russian vessels
+lying at Hankow and taking in tea. Hankow is the greatest tea port of
+China, and China is the home of the tea plant. It is not more than 250
+years since tea was first known in Europe, where it is now in general
+use, as also in many other parts of the world. In England and Russia it
+is a national drink, and the Russians used formerly to transport their
+tea to Europe by caravans through Mongolia and Siberia. Now the export
+of tea from China has declined, and the Middle Kingdom has been
+outstripped by India and Ceylon.
+
+
+IN NORTHERN CHINA
+
+In the north-westernmost province of the kingdom, Kansu, is a famous old
+town, named Si-ning, surrounded with a fine stone wall. I had completed
+my first journey through Tibet and came to Si-ning on November 23, 1896,
+accompanied by my servant, Islam Bay.
+
+When we left Si-ning we had a riding horse each, and six mules with
+their three drivers. They accompanied us for some days as far as a small
+town, where we exchanged them for two large, heavy carts on two wheels
+and covered with a tilt of straw matting. In one we packed all our
+things, in the other I took my seat, while Islam rode. Each cart was
+drawn by a mule and two horses, driven by a pleasant Chinaman. I had no
+interpreter, and had to get along with the few words I had managed to
+pick up.
+
+For six days we travelled northwards through the Kansu mountains, going
+up and down all the way over stony passes and over frozen rivers with or
+without neck-breaking bridges. The carts creaked and rocked through
+narrow hollow roads where it would have been impossible to pass a cart
+coming from the opposite direction. In such places, therefore, one of
+our drivers went on in front shouting to keep the road clear.
+Fortunately we were in the company of other carts. When two carts meet
+where the road is narrow, it is customary for the smaller one to back
+and leave the road open for the larger.
+
+We set out just after midnight, and drove on till noon. In spite of furs
+and rugs I was almost frozen through. Islam preferred to go on foot, and
+the drivers who ran beside the wagons also managed to keep themselves
+warm.
+
+At break of day on December 10 we came to the bank of a stream which
+falls into the Yellow River (Hwang-ho). It was frozen quite across, and
+a path of sand showed where the route crossed the river. Our companions
+were to go over first in one of their carts with a team of three horses.
+They dashed at full gallop out on to the ice, but had not gone far
+before a wheel cut through the ice and the cart was held fast as in a
+vice. The whole load had to be taken out and carried over to the farther
+bank, and after much trouble the empty cart was hoisted up.
+
+At a broader place the men cut up the thin ice in the middle of the bed
+where the water was three feet deep, and when another cart tried its
+luck it pitched suddenly down into the opening and remained fast. Two
+additional horses were attached, and all the men shouted and cracked
+their whips. The horses reared, fell, were nearly drowned under the ice,
+threw themselves about and jumped up on to the ice, only to drop back
+again into the hole. A young Chinaman then threw off every stitch of
+clothing and went into the water, 18° below freezing-point, to pull away
+the pieces of ice and stones which held back the wheels. I cannot tell
+how it was that he was not frozen to death. He afterwards warmed himself
+at a fire made by Islam Bay. We struggled for four hours before at last
+the irritating river was behind us.
+
+In Liang-chau, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, with a quadrangular wall,
+handsome gates, and broad, busy streets, we stayed with some
+missionaries. Here we had to wait twelve whole days before we could
+procure nine camels and two men who were willing to take us to the town
+Ning-hsia on the Yellow River, nearly 300 miles off. The missionaries
+had no other guest-room than their chapel, which was rather cold; on
+Christmas Eve the temperature inside was 3°.
+
+For twenty days we travelled through a country called Ala-shan, which
+for the most part is inhabited by Mongols. We followed a desert track
+and encamped at wells. Certain belts were buried in drift sand which
+formed wave-like dunes. Here we were outside China proper and the Great
+Wall, but we frequently met Chinese caravans. Two horsemen had been
+assigned to me as an escort by the last Chinese governor, for the
+country is unsafe owing to robbers. All, however, went well, and we came
+safely to Ning-hsia on the Yellow River.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF NORTHERN CHINA AND MONGOLIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM
+TIBET THROUGH SI-NING TO PEKING, AND FROM PEKING TO KANSK (pp. 172-179).
+
+At the time of Dr. Hedin's journey through Mongolia, the Trans-Siberian
+Railway did not extend east of Kansk.]
+
+From Ning-hsia we had 267 miles to the town Pao-te, and now we had to
+cross the Mongolian district of Ordos, between the Great Wall and the
+northern bend of the Yellow River. In summer it is better to travel by
+boat down the river, which rises in north-eastern Tibet and falls into
+the northern bay of the Yellow Sea after a course of 2500 miles. The
+river owes its name to its turbid yellow water, which makes the sea also
+yellow for some distance from the coast. Elsewhere the Yellow Sea is no
+yellower than any other.
+
+At that time, in January, the Yellow River was covered with thick ice,
+and where we crossed it with our nine camels its breadth was 380 yards.
+Then we made long days' marches through the desert, and had a very hard
+and troublesome journey. We had indeed with us enough mutton, bread, and
+rice, and there were wells along the road. One of them was 130 feet deep
+and was walled round. But we suffered from cold. Sometimes the
+temperature was only 1.5° at noon, -27° at night, and 16.5° in the tent.
+Besides, it blew steadily and with the velocity of a hurricane.
+Fortunately I had bought a small Chinese portable stove, which kept me
+from freezing. It is not larger than an ordinary teapot and has a
+perforated cover. A few pieces of glowing charcoal are embedded in ashes
+in the tin, which is thus kept warm all day. Up on the camel I had this
+little comforting contrivance on my knees, and at night I laid it among
+my rugs when I crept into bed. One day there was such a furious storm
+over the level and exposed country that we could not move from the spot.
+We sat wrapped up in our furs and rugs and simply froze.
+
+On arrival at Pao-te I had still 430 miles to travel to the capital of
+the kingdom, Peking. I was eager to be there, and resolved to hurry
+forward by forced marches. I hired a small two-wheeled cart, and had no
+servant with me but the Chinese driver. Islam with an interpreter was to
+follow slowly after with our baggage.
+
+On this route no fewer than sixty-one Swedish missionaries were at work,
+and I often stayed in their hospitable houses. At other times I put up
+in the country inns. They are incredibly dirty, full of noisy
+travellers, smoke, and vermin. The guest room where you sleep at night
+must be shared with others. Along the inner wall stands a raised ledge
+of bricks. It is built like an oven and is heated with cattle-dung
+beneath; and on the platform the sleeper, if not half suffocated, is at
+any rate half roasted.
+
+In Kalgan (Chang-kia-kau), where the Great Wall is passed, I exchanged
+my cart for a carrying chair on two long poles. It was borne by two
+mules which trotted along over the narrow mountain road leading to
+Peking. Sometimes we were high above the valley bottom, and met whole
+rows of caravans, carts, riders, and foot passengers, chairs with mules,
+and every one was in constant danger of being pushed over the edge.
+
+At last, on March 2, I arrived at Peking, after 1237 days of travelling
+through Asia, and passed through one of the fine gates in the city walls
+(Plate XVIII.).
+
+
+MONGOLIA
+
+Between China in the south and Eastern Siberia on the north, stretches
+the immense region of inner Asia which is called Mongolia. The Chinese
+call it the "grass country," but very large parts of it are waterless
+desert, where drift-sand is piled up into dunes, and caravan routes and
+wells are far apart. The belt of desert, one of the largest in the
+world, is called by the Mongols Gobi, a word which in their language
+denotes desert. The Chinese call it Shamo, which signifies sandy desert.
+
+Mongolia is subject to China, and the Mongols' spiritual superior or
+pope is the Dalai Lama. They have also a number of Lama monasteries, and
+make yearly pilgrimages in large parties to Lhasa. An extraordinary
+proportion of the male population of the country devote themselves to a
+religious life and become monks. The Chinese are glad of it, for the
+peaceful cloister life causes the formerly savage and warlike Mongol
+hordes to forget their own strength. Services before the image of Buddha
+in the temple halls lead their thoughts in other directions, and they
+forget that their people once held the sceptre over almost all Asia and
+half Europe. They do not remember that their forefathers, the Golden
+Horde, forced their way seven hundred years ago through the Caucasus,
+levied tribute throughout Russia, and alarmed all the rest of the West.
+They have forgotten that their fathers conquered all the Middle Kingdom
+and digged in yellow earth the Grand Canal on which the junks of the
+Chinese still ply. The sword has rusted fast in its sheath, and the
+Mongolian chiefs, whom the Chinese call vassals or dependent princes,
+encamp peacefully on the steppes under their eight _bans_.
+
+The Mongols are nomads. They own large flocks of sheep and goats, and
+live on mutton, milk, butter, and cheese. Among their domestic animals
+are also the two-humped camel and a small, hardy, strongly built horse.
+Their life is a perpetual wandering. They move with their flocks from
+one steppe to another. If the herbage is dried up in a district, or
+all the pasture is eaten up, they put their tents on camels and set out
+to find better grazing. Their tents are exactly the same as those of the
+Kirghizes of the Pamir and the Kirghiz Steppe. They are shaped like
+haycocks, and consist of a framework of tough ribs covered with black
+felt.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XVIII. GATE IN THE WALLS OF PEKING.]
+
+The Mongols are a good-tempered and amiable people. I made acquaintance
+with them on the outskirts of their wide domain, and once I travelled
+right through Mongolia. My starting-point was Peking, and my direction
+due north-west. It was in the end of March and the beginning of April,
+1897. At that time the Trans-Siberian Railway was not completed farther
+than to Kansk, a small town east of the Yenisei. That was the longest
+drive I ever took in my life, for from Peking to Kansk the distance is
+1800 miles, and I only rested a day on the whole journey, namely at
+Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia.
+
+In Peking I provided myself with all that was necessary for a journey to
+the Russian frontier. First and foremost a Chinese passport, which
+authorised me to call out Mongols and their horses, and, if I wished, to
+put up in their tents. Then provisions had to be bought--tinned meats,
+bread, tea, sugar, etc. From the Russian Legation I obtained an escort
+of two Cossacks, who were very delighted to have this chance of
+returning to their homes in Siberia after completing their time of
+service in Peking.
+
+In Mongolia the traveller does not drive in the usual way. There is no
+driver on the box, and you do not lean back comfortably in a
+four-wheeled carriage on springs. To begin with, there is no road at all
+and no rest-houses; but horses must be changed frequently, and this is
+done in the Mongolian villages. The Mongols, however, are nomads, and
+their villages are always on the move. Therefore you must know first of
+all where the villages happen to be, and in the second place must give
+the people notice to have a certain number of horses ready. A mounted
+messenger is sent on in advance for this purpose and then the horses are
+never wanting. Only the Mongols themselves know where the next villages
+are situated, and so at every village a fresh retinue of Mongols is
+provided. And because the villages are being constantly moved you can
+only travel in a straight line between them, and cannot follow any
+determined route. You drive along over desert and steppe, and usually
+see no vestige of an old wheel rut.
+
+The vehicle in which you travel is a very simple contrivance. It is a
+cart on two medium-sized wheels, closed all over with a rounded tilt
+covered with blue cloth. A small window in front and two side windows
+allow you to see over the steppe; the window glass is fixed into the
+stretched cloth so that it cannot be cracked by the jolting. The cart
+has no springs, and its bottom rests directly on the axles. There is no
+seat, and the traveller sits on cushions, furs, and rugs, and there is
+only room for one person. The cart is of the usual Chinese pattern with
+shafts for a mule or horse. In China the driver sits on one of the
+shafts or runs alongside. I had my bags strapped on to the base of the
+shafts. My large baggage was forwarded on camels, and it reached
+Stockholm six months after I did.
+
+The style of harnessing is the most curious of all. A loop of rope is
+fastened to the extreme end of each shaft, and a long, rounded cross-bar
+is passed through the two loops. Two mounted Mongols lay the bar across
+their knees in the saddle, but no draught animal is put between the
+shafts. A rope is fastened to each end of the cross-bar and two other
+riders wind these ropes twice round their bodies. They have all riding
+whips, and when all is ready the four riders dash at full speed over the
+steppe, dragging the cart after them.
+
+Twenty other Mongols ride on each side, half hidden in clouds of dust.
+Suddenly two of them ride up beside the men who hold the cross-bar on
+their knees. Of their own accord the two fresh horses slip their heads
+under the bar, letting it fall on to the riders' knees, while the men
+who are relieved hold in their horses and let the cart roll on. These
+then join the rest of the troop. The cart does not stop during this
+change of horses, which is accomplished in a couple of seconds, and a
+furious pace is always kept up. In the same way the two front riders and
+their horses are relieved without stopping. When one of them is tired, a
+fresh rider comes forward and winds the rope round his waist.
+
+After two or three hours a village of several tents is seen on the
+steppe ahead of us. About thirty horses are held in readiness by the
+headman of the village, who has been warned the day before by the
+messenger. At every stage a few roubles[16] are paid to the Mongol
+attendants. This payment has always to be made in silver roubles, for
+the Mongols will not take paper money or small coins.
+
+Thus we go on and on, it would seem interminably, over the boundless
+steppe--each day the same bumping and jolting, each day the same
+monotonous landscape. In northern Mongolia, however, snow lay deep on
+the ground, and here the cart was drawn by men on camels. By this time I
+was so bruised and worn out with the continual jolting that it was a
+pleasure to drive on the soft snow.
+
+
+MARCO POLO
+
+In 1162 was born in Mongolia a chief of the savage mounted hordes who
+bore the name of Jenghiz Khan. He subdued all the surrounding tribes,
+and the whole Mongol race was collected under his banner. The more his
+power increased, the more extensive regions he desired to conquer, and
+he did not rest till practically all Asia was reduced under his rule.
+His motto was "One God in heaven and one Great Khan on earth." He was
+not content with a kingdom as large as that of Alexander or Cæsar, but
+wished to reign over all the known world, and with this aim before his
+eyes he rode with his horsemen from country to country over the great
+continent. Everywhere he left sorrow and mourning, burnt and pillaged
+towns in his track. He was the greatest and most savage conqueror known
+in history. When he was at the height of his power he collected treasure
+from innumerable different peoples, from the peninsula of Further India
+to Novgorod, from Japan to Silesia. To his court came ambassadors from
+the French kings and the Turkish sultans, from the Russian Grand Dukes
+and the Khalifs and Popes of the time. No man before or since has caused
+such a stir among the sons of men, and brought such different peoples
+into involuntary communication with one another. Jenghiz Khan ruled over
+more than half the human race, and even in many of the countries which
+he pillaged and destroyed his memory is feared even to this day.
+
+At his death Jenghiz Khan was sixty-five years old, and he bequeathed
+his immense kingdom to his four sons. One of these was the father of
+Kublai Khan, who conquered China in 1280 and established the Mongolian
+dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. His court was even more brilliant than
+that of his grandfather, and an exact description both of the great Khan
+and his empire was given by the great traveller Marco Polo.
+
+In the year 1260 two merchants from Venice were dwelling in
+Constantinople. They were named Nicolo and Maffeo Polo. Their desire to
+open trade relations with Asia induced them to travel to the Crimea, and
+thence across the Volga and through Bukhara to the court of the Great
+Khan, Kublai. Up to that time only vague rumours of the great civilized
+empire far in the East had been spread by Catholic missionaries.
+
+The Great Khan, who had never seen Europeans, was pleased at the arrival
+of the Venetians, received them kindly, and made them tell of all the
+wonderful things in their own country. Finally he decided to send them
+back with a letter to the Pope, in which he begged him to send a hundred
+wise and learned missionaries out to the East. He wished to employ them
+in training and enlightening the rude tribes of the steppe.
+
+After nine years' absence the travellers returned to Venice. The Pope
+was dead, and they waited two years fruitlessly for a successor to be
+elected. As, then, they did not wish the Great Khan to believe them
+untrustworthy, they decided to return to the Far East, and on this
+journey they took with them Nicolo's son, Marco Polo, aged fifteen
+years.
+
+Our three travellers betook themselves from Syria to Mosul, quite close
+to the ruins of Nineveh on the Tigris, and thence to Baghdad and Hormuz,
+a town situated on the small strait between the Persian Gulf and the
+Arabian Sea. Then they proceeded northwards through the whole of Persia
+and northern Afghanistan, and along the Amu-darya to the Pamir,
+following routes which had to wait 600 years for new travellers from
+Europe. Past Yarkand, Khotan, and Lop-nor, and through the whole of the
+Gobi desert, they finally made their way to China.
+
+It was in the year 1275 that, after several years' wanderings, they came
+to the court of the Great Khan in eastern Mongolia. The potentate was so
+delighted with Marco Polo, who learned to read and write several Eastern
+languages, that he took him into his service. The first commission he
+entrusted to the young Venetian was an official journey to northern and
+western China. Polo had noticed that Kublai Khan liked to hear curious
+and extraordinary accounts from foreign countries, and he therefore
+treasured up in his memory all he saw and experienced in order to relate
+it to the Emperor on his return. Accordingly he steadily rose higher in
+the estimation of Kublai Khan, and was sent out on other official
+journeys, even as far as India and the borders of Tibet, was for three
+years governor of a large town, and was also employed at the capital,
+Peking.
+
+Marco Polo relates how the Emperor goes hunting. He sits in a palanquin
+like a small room, with a roof, and carried by four elephants. The
+outside of the palanquin is overlaid with plates of beaten gold and the
+inside is draped with tiger skins. A dozen of his best gerfalcons are
+beside him, and near at hand ride several of his attendant lords.
+Presently one of them will exclaim, "Look, Sire, there are some cranes."
+Then the Emperor has the roof opened and throws out one of the falcons
+to strike down the game; this sport gives him great satisfaction. Then
+he comes to his camp, which is composed of 10,000 tents. His own
+audience tent is so large that it can easily hold 1000 persons, and he
+has another for private interviews, and a third for sleeping. They are
+supported by three tent-poles, are covered outside with tiger skins, and
+inside with ermine and sable. Marco Polo says that the tents are so fine
+and costly that it is not every king who could pay for them.
+
+Only the most illustrious noblemen can wait on the Emperor at table.
+They have cloths of silk and gold wound over their mouths and noses that
+their breath may not pollute the dishes and cups presented to His
+Majesty. And every time the Emperor drinks, a powerful band of music
+strikes up, and all who are present fall on their knees.
+
+All merchants who come to the capital, and especially those who bring
+gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, must sell their valuables
+to the Emperor alone. Marco Polo thinks it quite natural that Kublai
+Khan should have greater treasures than all the kings of the world, for
+he pays only with paper money, which he makes as he likes, for notes
+were current at that time in China.
+
+So Marco Polo and his father and uncle lived for many long years in the
+Middle Kingdom, and by their cleverness and patient industry accumulated
+much property. But the Emperor, their protector, was old, and they
+feared that their position would be very different after his death. They
+longed, too, to go home to Venice, but whenever they spoke of setting
+out, Kublai Khan bade them stay a little longer.
+
+However, an event occurred which facilitated their departure. Persia
+also stood under the supremacy of the Mongols, and its prince or Khan
+was a close connection of Kublai Khan. The Persian Khan had lost his
+favourite wife, and now desired to carry out the wish she had expressed
+on her deathbed that he should marry a princess of her own race.
+Therefore he despatched an embassy to Kublai Khan. It was well received,
+and a young, beautiful princess was selected for the Khan of Persia. But
+the land journey of over 4000 miles from Peking to Tabriz was considered
+too trying for a young woman, so the ambassadors decided to return by
+sea.
+
+They had conceived a great friendship and respect for the three
+Venetians, and they requested Kublai Khan to send them with them, for
+they were skilful mariners, and Marco Polo had lately been in India, and
+could give them much valuable information about the sea route thither.
+At last Kublai Khan yielded, and equipped the whole party with great
+liberality. In the year 1292 they sailed southwards from the coast of
+China.
+
+Many misfortunes, storms, shipwreck, and fever befell them on the
+voyage. They tarried long on the coasts of Sumatra and India, a large
+part of the crew perished and two of the three ambassadors died, but the
+young lady and her Venetian cavaliers at last reached Persia safe and
+sound. As the Khan had died, the princess had to put up with his nephew,
+and she was much distressed when the Polos took leave of her to return
+home to Venice by way of Tabriz, Trebizond, the Bosporus, and
+Constantinople. There they arrived in the year 1295, having been absent
+for twenty-four years.
+
+Their relatives and friends had supposed them to be dead long before.
+They had almost forgotten their mother tongue, and appeared in their
+native city in shabby Asiatic clothes. The first thing they did was to
+go to the old house of their fathers and knock at the door; but their
+relations did not recognize them, would not believe their romantic
+story, and sent them about their business.
+
+The three Polos accordingly took another house and here made a great
+feast for all their family. When the guests were all seated round the
+table and the banquet was about to commence, the three hosts entered,
+dressed down to the feet in garments of costly crimson silk. And as
+water was taken round for the guests to wash their hands, they exchanged
+their dresses for Asiatic mantles of the finest texture, the silken
+dresses being cut into pieces and distributed among their retainers.
+Then they appeared in robes of the most valuable velvet, while the
+mantles were divided among the servants, and lastly the velvet went the
+same way.
+
+All the guests were astonished at what they saw. When the board was
+cleared and the servants were gone, Marco Polo brought in the shabby,
+tattered clothes the three travellers had worn when their relatives
+would not acknowledge them. The seams of these garments were ripped up
+with sharp knives, and out poured heaps of jewels on to the
+table--rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds. When
+Kublai Khan gave them leave to depart they exchanged all their wealth
+for precious stones, because they knew that they could not carry a heavy
+weight of gold such a long way. They had sewed the stones in their
+clothes that no one might suspect that they had them.
+
+When the guests saw these treasures scattered over the table their
+astonishment knew no bounds. And now all had to acknowledge that these
+three gentlemen were really the missing members of the Polo house. So
+they became the object of the greatest reverence and respect. When news
+about them spread through Venice the good citizens crowded to their
+house, all eager to embrace and welcome the far-travelled men and to pay
+them homage. "The young men came daily to visit and converse with the
+ever polite and gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about
+Cathay and the Great Can, all which he answered with such kindly
+courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his debtor." But when
+he talked of the Great Khan's immense wealth, and of other treasures
+accumulated in Eastern lands, he continually spoke of millions and
+millions, and therefore he was nicknamed by his countrymen Messer Marco
+Millioni.
+
+At that time, and for long afterwards, great envy and jealousy raged
+between the three great commercial republics, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
+In the year 1298 the Genoese equipped a mighty fleet which ravaged the
+Venetian territory on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Here it
+was met by the Venetian fleet, in which Marco Polo commanded a galley.
+After a hot fight the Genoese gained the victory, and with 7000
+prisoners sailed home to Genoa, where they made a grand procession
+through the city amidst the jubilation of the people. The prisoners were
+put in chains and cast into prison, and among them was Marco Polo.
+
+In the prison Marco had a companion in misfortune, the author Rusticiano
+from Pisa. It was he who recorded Marco Polo's remarkable adventures in
+Asia from his dictation, and therefore there is cause of satisfaction at
+the result of the battle, for otherwise the name of Marco Polo might
+perhaps have been unknown to posterity.
+
+After a year prisoners were exchanged and Marco Polo returned to Venice,
+where he married and had three daughters. In the year 1324 he died, and
+was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice.
+
+On his deathbed he was admonished to retract his extraordinary
+narrative. No reliance was placed on his words, and even at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century there were learned men who
+maintained that his whole story was an excellently planned romance. The
+narrative taken down in prison was, however, distributed in an
+innumerable number of manuscript copies. The great Christopher Columbus,
+discoverer of America, found in it a support to his conviction that by
+sailing west a man would at length come to India.
+
+There are many curious statements in Marco Polo's book. He speaks of the
+"Land of Darkness" in the north, and of islands in the northern sea
+which lie so far north that if a man travels thither he leaves the
+pole-star behind him. We miss also much that we should expect to find.
+Thus, for example, Marco Polo does not once mention the Great Wall,
+though he must have passed through it several times. Still his book is a
+treasure of geographical information, and most of his discoveries and
+reports were confirmed five hundred years later. His life was a long
+romance, and he occupies one of the most foremost places among
+discoverers of all ages.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Since this was written, China has become a republic, the Emperor
+P'u-yi (born February 11, 1906) having abdicated on February 12, 1912,
+in consequence of the success of a revolution which broke out in the
+autumn of 1911. He still retains the title of Manchu Emperor, but with
+his death the title will cease. A provisional President of the Republic
+was elected, and the first Cabinet was constituted on March 29, 1912.
+
+[15] The Republic has adopted a new flag consisting of five
+stripes--crimson, yellow, white, blue, and black--to denote the five
+principal races comprised in the Chinese people, Mongol, Chinese,
+Manchu, Mohammedan, and Tibetan.
+
+[16] A Russian coin, worth about 2s, 1 1/8d.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+JAPAN (1908)
+
+
+NAGASAKI AND KOBE
+
+Marco Polo was also the first European to make Japan known in Western
+countries. He called it Chipangu, and stated that it was a large, rich
+island in the sea east of China. Accordingly the Chinese call it the
+"Land of the Rising Sun," and Nippon, as the Japanese themselves call
+their islands, has the same poetical signification, derived from the
+rising of the sun out of the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The flag of
+Japan displays a red sun on a white field, and when it flies from the
+masts of warships the sun is surrounded by sixteen red rays.
+
+We leave Shanghai by the fine steamer _Tenyo Maru_, which is driven by
+turbines and makes 18 knots an hour. The _Tenyo Maru_ belongs to a line
+which plies between Hong-kong and San Francisco, calling at Shanghai,
+Japan, and the Sandwich Islands on the way. From Shanghai it is 470
+miles over the Eastern Sea to Nagasaki, a considerable town situated on
+Kiu-shiu, the southernmost of the four islands of Japan proper.
+
+As we near Japan the vessel crosses the great current called the "Kuro
+Shiwo," or the "Black Salt." It comes from the region immediately north
+of the equator, and flows northwards, washing the Japanese coast with
+its water, over 200 fathoms deep, and with a temperature of 72°, just as
+the Gulf Stream washes the east coast of Europe. Off Japan the sea is
+very deep, the lead sinking down to 4900 fathoms and more.
+
+In Nagasaki the visitor is astonished at the great shipbuilding yards
+and docks; they are the largest in Asia, and the _Tenyo Maru_, as well
+as other ships as big, have been, for the most part at any rate, built
+here. It is hard to believe that it is only forty years since the
+Japanese took to European civilization and the inventions of Western
+lands. In many respects they have surpassed their teachers.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM SHANGHAI THROUGH JAPAN AND KOREA
+TO DALNY (pp. 185-202).]
+
+After a whole day in Nagasaki we steam out to sea again and make
+northwards round Kiu-shiu to the beautiful narrow strait at Shimonoseki
+which leads to the Inland Sea. Unfortunately it is pitch dark when we
+pass Admiral Togo's fleet. He has just been engaged in manoeuvres with
+eighty-five of Japan's two hundred modern warships. In sea-power Japan
+is the fifth nation of the world, and is only surpassed by England,
+Germany, America, and France. A large number of their warships were
+captured from Russia during the war, and afterwards refitted and
+re-christened with Japanese names. On a peace footing the land army of
+Japan contains 250,000 men and 11,000 officers. In time of war, when all
+the reservists and landwehr troops are called out, the strength amounts
+to a million and a half; 120,000 men yearly are called out for active
+service. The Japanese make any sacrifice when it is a question of the
+defence of their fatherland. To them affection for Nippon is a
+religion.
+
+The area of Japan is about half as large again as that of the British
+Islands, and the population is, roughly, a quarter more. But if the
+recently acquired parts of the mainland, Korea and Kwan-tung, be
+included, 77,000 square miles must be added and the population increased
+to 65 millions.
+
+Early on the morning of November 9 we pass through the strait of
+Shimonoseki into the Inland Sea, the Mediterranean of Japan, which lies
+between the islands Hondo, Kiu-shiu, and Shikoku. The scenery which
+unfolds itself on all sides is magnificent, and is constantly changing.
+Close around us, away over the open passages and in among the dark
+islands, is the clear, green, salt water, edged with foaming surf and
+dotted with picturesque fishing-boats under full sail; and as a frame to
+the gently heaving sea we have the innumerable islands--some large, some
+small, some wooded, others bare, but all sloping steeply to the shore,
+where the breakers thunder eternally. A pleasant breeze is felt on the
+promenade deck of the _Tenyo Maru_, the air is fresh and pure, the day
+bright and cheerful, and from sea and coast comes a curious mixed odour
+of salt brine and pine needles.
+
+At dusk we cast anchor in the roadstead of Kobe, where the _Tenyo Maru_
+has to remain for twenty-four hours in order to take cargo on board. A
+launch takes us to the busy town, and we determine to spend the night on
+shore in a genuine Japanese hotel. At the entrance we are met by the
+landlord, in a garment like a petticoat and a thin mantle with short
+hanging sleeves. Two small waiting-maids take off our shoes and put a
+pair of slippers on our feet. We go up a narrow wooden staircase and
+along a passage with a brightly polished wooden floor. Outside a sliding
+door we take off our slippers and enter in stocking feet. Cleanliness is
+the first rule in a Japanese house, and it would be thought inexcusable
+to enter a room in shoes which had lately been in the dust and dirt of
+the lanes and streets.
+
+Our rooms are divided from one another by partitions of paper or the
+thinnest veneer, which can be partially drawn aside so that the rooms
+may be thrown into one. Here and there mottoes are inscribed on hanging
+shields, and we see that they are written in the same singular
+characters as are used in China. On one wall hangs a _kakemono_, or a
+long strip of paper with flowers painted in water-colours. On a small
+carved wooden stool below the painting stands a dwarf tree scarcely two
+feet in height. It is a cherry-tree which has been prevented from
+growing to its full size, but it is a real, living tree, perhaps twenty
+years old, and exactly like an ordinary cherry-tree, only so small that
+it might have come from Lilliput.
+
+The floor is laid with mats of rice straw with black borders. Each mat
+is 6 feet long and 3 wide, and when a house is built the areas of the
+rooms are always calculated in a certain number of mats; thus a room of
+six mats is spoken of, or one of eight mats. Not infrequently the rooms
+are so small that three or even two mats will cover the floor.
+
+We take our seats crossed-legged or on our heels on small, square, down
+cushions, the only furniture to be seen. A young Japanese maiden, also
+in stocking feet, enters and places a stove in the middle of our circle.
+There is no fireplace. This stove is shaped like a flower-pot, made of
+thick metal, and is filled with fine white ashes. The young woman builds
+the ashes up into a cone like the summit of Fujiyama and lays fresh
+glowing charcoal against it. Instead of tongs she uses a pair of small
+iron rods.
+
+Bedsteads are not used in Japan, and the bedding, which consists of
+thick padded quilts of rustling silk, is simply spread out on the mats
+on the floor. All the service and attendance is performed by women. They
+are dressed in their becoming and tasteful national costume, the
+"kimono," a close-fitting coloured garment, cut out round the neck, a
+broad sash of cloth round the waist, and a large rosette like a cushion
+at the back. Their hair is jet black, smooth, and shiny, and is arranged
+in tresses that look as if they were carved in ebony. Japanese women are
+always clean, neat, and dainty, and it is vain to look for a speck of
+dust on a silken cuff. If they did not giggle sometimes, you might think
+that they were dolls of wax or china. They are treated like princesses
+with the greatest politeness and consideration, for such is the custom
+of the country. They do their work conscientiously, and are always
+cheerful, contented, and friendly.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIX. A JAPANESE RICKSHA.]
+
+We sit down on our cushions for breakfast. The serving-girls bring in a
+small red-lacquered table, not larger or higher than a footstool. Every
+guest has his own table, and on each are five cups, bowls, and small
+dishes of porcelain and lacquer, all of them with lids like teapots.
+These contain raw fish and boiled fish in various forms, omelettes and
+macaroni, crab soup with asparagus in it, and many other strange
+viands. When we have partaken of the first five dishes, another table is
+brought in with fresh dishes; and if it is a great banquet, as many as
+four or five such tables may be placed before one before the dinner is
+over. We eat with two chopsticks of wood or ivory not larger than a
+penholder, drink pale, weak tea without sugar and cream, and a kind of
+weak rice spirit called _saké_. When a bowl of steaming rice cooked dry
+is brought in, it is a sign that the meal is ended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The streets of Kobe are not paved. They are narrow roads, too narrow for
+the large, clumsy vehicles, which are, however, few in number, and are
+mostly used for the transport of goods. The people ride in
+"rickshas"--neat, smart, two-wheeled gigs drawn by a running bare-legged
+man with a mushroom-shaped hat on his head (Plate XIX.). The road
+westwards along the coast runs through a succession of animated and busy
+villages, past open tea-houses and small country shops, homely,
+decorated wooden dwellings, temples, fields, and gardens. Everything is
+small, neat, and well kept. Each peasant cultivates his own property
+with care and affection, and the harvest from innumerable small plots
+constitutes the wealth of Japan. It is impossible to drive fast along
+the narrow road, for we are always meeting waggons and two-wheeled
+carts, porters, and travellers.
+
+At the "Beach of Dancing Girls" we stay a while under some old
+pine-trees. Here people bathe in summer, while the children play among
+the trees. But now in November it is cold rather than warm, and after a
+pleasant excursion we return to Kobe. On the way we look into a Shinto
+temple erected to the memory of a hero who six hundred years ago fell in
+a battle in the neighbourhood. In the temple court stands a large
+Russian cannon taken at Port Arthur, and also a part of the mast shot
+off the man-of-war _Mikasa_.
+
+Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century A.D., and more
+than half the population of the country profess this religion. The old
+faith of Japan, however, is Shintoism, to which about one-third of the
+people still belong. The sun is worshipped as a principal god and the
+powers of nature are adored as divinities. From the solar deity the
+imperial house derives its origin, and the Emperor is regarded with
+almost religious reverence. Respect is also paid to the memory of
+departed heroes, as in China. Of late Christianity has spread far and
+wide in Japan, and Christian churches are now numerous.
+
+
+FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO
+
+It is now November 11. During the night the _Tenyo Maru_ has passed out
+from Kobe into the Pacific Ocean, and is now steering north-east at a
+good distance from the coast of Hondo. The sky is gloomy, and the desert
+of water around us is a monotonous steely-grey expanse in every
+direction.
+
+The Mediterranean countries of Europe lie on the same parallel of
+latitude as Japan. But Japan lies in the domain of the monsoons or
+periodical winds, and when these blow in summer from the ocean, they
+bring rain with them, while the winter, when the wind comes from the
+opposite direction, is fairly dry. On the whole Japan is colder than the
+Mediterranean countries, but the difference in climate between the
+northern and southern parts is very great. On the northern island, Yezo,
+the winter lasts quite seven months.
+
+At noon Fujiyama[17] is first seen towards the north-east. Nothing of
+the coast is visible, only the snowy summit of the mountain floating
+white above the sea. Our course takes us straight towards it, and the
+imposing mountain becomes more distinct every quarter of an hour. Now
+also the coast comes in sight as a dark line, but only the summit of the
+mountain is visible, a singularly regular flat cone. The top looks as if
+it were cut off; that is the crater ring, for Fujiyama is a volcano,
+though it has been quiescent for the past two centuries.
+
+The snowfields in the gullies stand out more and more clearly, but still
+only the summit is visible, floating as it were free above the earth, a
+vision among the clouds. An hour later the whole contour comes into view
+and becomes sharper and sharper; and when we anchor off the shore the
+peak of Fujiyama rises right above us.
+
+Fujiyama is the highest mountain in Japan, and the crater ring of the
+slumbering volcano is 12,395 feet above the surface of the Pacific
+Ocean. Fujiyama is a holy mountain; the path up it is lined with small
+temples and shrines, and many pilgrims ascend to the top in summer when
+the snow has melted away. It is the pride of Japan and the grandest
+object of natural beauty the country possesses (Plate XX.). It would be
+vain to try to enumerate all the objects on which the cone of Fujiyama
+has been represented from immemorial times. It is always the same
+mountain with the truncated top--in silver and gold on the famous
+lacquered boxes, and on the rare choice silver and bronze caskets, on
+the valuable vases in cloisonne, on bowls, plaques, and dishes, on
+screens, parasols, everything.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XX. FUJIYAMA.]
+
+Painters also take a delight in devising various foregrounds to the
+white cone. I once saw a book of a hundred pictures of Fujiyama, each
+with a new foreground. Now the holy mountain was seen between the boughs
+of Japanese cedars, now between the tall trunks of trees, and again
+beneath their crowns. Once more it appeared above a foaming waterfall,
+or over a quiet lake, where the peak was reflected in the water; or
+above a swinging bridge, a group of playing children, or between the
+masts of fishing-boats. It peeped out through a temple gate or at the
+end of one of the streets of Tokio, between the ripening ears of a
+rice-field or the raised parasols of dancing girls.
+
+Thus Fujiyama has become the symbol of everything that the name Nippon
+implies, and its peak is the first point which catches the rays of the
+rising sun at the dawn of day.
+
+Singularly cold and pale the holy mountain stands out against the dark
+blue sky as we steer out again to sea in the moonlight night. It is our
+last night on the long sea voyage from Bombay. Close to starboard we
+have Oshima, the "great island," an active volcano with thin vapour
+floating above its flat summit; Japan has more than a hundred extinct
+and a score of still active volcanoes, and the country is also visited
+by frequent earthquakes. On an average 1200 are counted in the year,
+most of them, however, quite insignificant. Now and then, however, they
+are very destructive, carrying off thousands of victims, and it is on
+account of the earthquakes that the Japanese build their houses of wood
+and make them low.
+
+In the early morning the _Tenyo Maru_ glides into the large inlet on
+which Yokohama and Tokio are situated. Yokohama is an important
+commercial town, and is a port of call for a large number of steamboat
+lines from the four continents. Its population is about 400,000, of whom
+1000 are Europeans--merchants, consuls, and missionaries.
+
+A few miles south-west of Yokohama is the fishing-village of Kamakura,
+which was for many centuries the capital of the Shoguns. It has now
+little to show for its former greatness--at one time it was said to
+have over a million inhabitants--except the beautiful, colossal statue
+of Buddha, the Daibutsu (Plate XXI.). The figure, which is about 40 feet
+high, is cast in bronze, and dates from 1252.
+
+At the head of the bay lies Tokio, the capital, with over two million
+inhabitants. Here are many palaces surrounded by fine parks, but the
+people live in small, neat, wooden houses, most of them with garden
+enclosures. The grounds of the Japanese of rank are small masterpieces
+of taste and excellence. It is a great relief to come out of the bustle
+and dust of the roads into these peaceful retreats, where small canals
+and brooks murmur among blocks of grey stone and where trees bend their
+crowns over arched bridges.
+
+In Tokio the traveller can study both the old and the new Japan, There
+are museums of all kinds, picture galleries, schools, and a university
+organized on the European model. There is also a geological institution
+where very accurate geological maps are compiled of the whole country,
+and where in particular all the phenomena connected with volcanoes and
+earthquakes are investigated. In scientific inquiries the Japanese are
+on a par with Europeans. In the art of war they perhaps excel white
+peoples. In industrial undertakings they have appropriated all the
+inventions of our age, and in commerce they threaten to push their
+Western rivals out of Asia. Not many years ago, for example, some
+Japanese went to Sweden to study the manufacture of those safety matches
+which strike only on the box. Now they make safety matches themselves,
+and supply not only Japan but practically all the East. At Kobe one can
+often see a whole mountain of wooden boxes containing matches, waiting
+for shipment to China and Korea. So it is in all other branches of
+industry. The Japanese travel to Europe and study the construction of
+turbines, railway carriages, telephones, and soon they can dispense with
+Europe and produce all they want themselves.
+
+The present Emperor of Japan, Mutsuhito,[18] came to the throne in 1867.
+His reign is called _Mei-ji_, or the "Era of Enlightened Rule." During
+this period Japan has developed into a Great Power of the first rank,
+and it is in no small measure due to the wisdom and clear-sightedness of
+the Emperor that this great transformation has been accomplished.
+
+Formerly the country was divided into many small principalities under
+the rule of _daimios_ or feudal lords, who were often at war with one
+another, though they were all subject to the suzerainty of the Shogun,
+the nominal ruler of the whole country. Together with the _samurais_
+the _daimios_ constituted the feudal nobility. It is curious to think
+that little more than forty years ago the Japanese fought with bows and
+arrows, sword and spear, and that the _samurais_ went to battle in heavy
+harness with brassards and cuisses, helms and visors over the face. They
+were skilful archers, and wielded their great swords with both hands
+when they rushed on the foe.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXI. THE GREAT BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA.]
+
+Then the new period suddenly began. In 1872 universal service was
+introduced, and French and German officers were invited to organise the
+defensive force. Now Japan is so strong that no Great Power in the world
+cares to measure its strength with it.
+
+
+NIKKO, NARA, AND KIOTO
+
+From Tokio we travel northwards by train in two hours to Nikko. There
+are several villages, and we put up in one of them. In front of the inn
+ripples a clear stream, spanned by two bridges, one of which is arched
+and furnished with a red parapet. Only the Emperor and his family may
+step on to this bridge; other mortals must pass over another bridge near
+at hand. On the farther side we ascend a tremendously long avenue of
+grand cryptomerias rising straight up to the sky. It leads to a
+mausoleum erected to the memory of the first Shogun of the famous
+dynasty of Tokugawa. The first of them died in the year 1616.
+
+This mausoleum is considered to be the most remarkable sight in Japan.
+It is not huge and massive, like the Buddhist temple in Kioto, the old
+capital of Japan. It is somewhat small, but both outside and inside it
+displays unusually exquisite artistic skill. Granite steps lead up to
+it. A _torii_, or portal, is artistically carved in stone, and another
+is so perfect that the architect feared the envy of the gods, and
+therefore placed one of the pillars upside down. We see carved in wood
+three apes, one holding his hands before his eyes, another over his
+ears, and the third over his mouth. That means that they will neither
+see, hear, nor speak anything evil. A pagoda rises in five blood-red
+storeys. At all the projections of the roof hang round bells, which
+sound melodiously to the movement of the wind. In the interior of the
+temple the sightseer is lost in dark passages dimly illuminated by oil
+lamps carried by the priests. The walls are all covered with the finest
+paintings in gold and lacquer. A moss-grown stone staircase leads down
+to the tomb where the Shogun sleeps.
+
+Nara is situated immediately to the south of Kioto. Here are many famous
+temples, pagodas, and _torii_, and here also is the largest image of
+Buddha in Japan, twelve hundred years old. The finest thing of all,
+however, is the temple park of Nara, where silence and peace reign in a
+grove of tall cryptomerias. Along the walks are several rows of stone
+lamps placed on high pedestals of stone. They stand close together and
+may number a thousand. Each of these lamps is a gift of some wealthy man
+to the temple. On great festivals oil lamps are placed in them. Hundreds
+of roedeer live in the park of Nara. They are as tame as lambs, and
+wherever you go they come skipping up with easy, lively jumps. Barley
+cakes for them to eat are sold along the paths of the park, and you buy
+a whole basket of these. In a minute you are surrounded by roedeer,
+stretching out their delicate, pretty heads and gazing at the basket
+with their lovely brown eyes. Here a wonderful air of peace and
+happiness prevails. The steps of roedeer and pilgrims are heard on the
+sand of the paths, but otherwise there is complete silence and quiet.
+The feeling reminds one of that which is experienced at the Taj Mahal.
+
+All Japan is like a museum. You can travel about for years and daily
+find new gems of natural beauty and of the most perfect art. Everything
+seems so small and delicate. Even the people are small. The roads are
+narrow, and are chiefly used by rickshas and foot passengers. The houses
+are dolls' closets. The railways are of narrow gauge, and the carriages
+like our tramcars. But if you wish to see something large you can visit
+the Buddhist temple in Kioto. There we are received with boundless
+hospitality by the high priest, Count Otani, who leads us round and
+shows us the huge halls where Buddha sits dreaming, and his own palace,
+which is one of the most richly and expensively adorned in all Japan.
+
+If you wish to see something else which does not exactly belong to the
+small things of Japan you should visit a temple in Osaka, the chief
+manufacturing town of Japan. There hangs a bell which is 25 feet high
+and weighs 220 tons. In a frame beside the bell is suspended a beam, a
+regular battering-ram, which is set in motion up and down when the bell
+is sounded. And when the bell emits its heavy, deafening ring it sounds
+like thunder.
+
+Kioto is much handsomer than Tokio, for it has been less affected by the
+influence of Western lands, and lies amidst hills and gardens. Kioto is
+the genuine old Japan with attractive bazaars and bright streets. Shall
+we look into a couple of shops?
+
+Here is an art-dealer's. We enter from the street straight into a large
+room full of interesting things, but the dealer takes us into quite a
+small room, where he invites us to sit at a table. And now he brings out
+one costly article after another. First he shows us some gold lacquered
+boxes, on which are depicted trees and houses and the sun in gold, and
+golden boats sailing over water. One tiny box, containing several
+compartments and drawers, and covered all over with the finest gold
+inlaying, costs only three thousand _yen_, or about three hundred
+pounds. Then he shows us an old man in ivory lying on a carpet of ivory
+and reading a book, while a small boy in ivory has climbed on to his
+back. From a whole elephant tusk a number of small elephants have been
+carved, becoming smaller towards the point of the tusk, but all cut out
+in the same piece. You are tired of looking at them, they are so many,
+and they are all executed with such exact faithfulness to nature that
+you would hardly be surprised if they began to move.
+
+Then he sets on the table a dozen metal boxes exquisitely adorned with
+coloured lacquer. On the lid of a silver box an adventure of a monkey is
+represented in raised work. Pursued by a snake, the monkey has taken
+refuge in a cranny beneath a projecting rock. The snake sits on the top.
+He cannot see the monkey, but he catches sight of his reflection in the
+water below the stone. The monkey, too, sees the image of the snake, and
+each is now waiting for the other.
+
+Now the shopman comes with two tortoises in bronze. The Japanese are
+experts in metal-work, and there is almost life and movement in these
+creatures. Now he throws on to the table a snake three feet long. It is
+composed of numberless small movable rings of iron fastened together,
+and looks marvellously life-like. Just at the door stands a heavy copper
+bowl on a lacquered tripod, a gong that sounds like a temple bell when
+its edge is struck with a skin-covered stick. It is beaten out of a
+single piece, not cast, and therefore it has such a wonderful vibrating
+and long-continued ring.
+
+Let us also go into one of the famous large silk shops. Shining white
+silk with white embroidered chrysanthemum flowers on it--women's kimonos
+with clusters of blue flowers on the sleeves and skirt--landscapes,
+fishing-boats, ducks and pigeons, monkeys and tigers, all painted or
+embroidered on silk--herons and cranes in thick raised needlework on
+screens in black frames--everything is good and tasteful.
+
+Among the most exquisite, however, are the cloths of cut velvet. This is
+a wonderful art not found in any other country than Japan. The finest
+white silken threads are tightly woven over straight copper wires laid
+close together, making a white cloth of perhaps ten feet square,
+interwoven with copper wires. An artist paints in bright colours on the
+cloth a landscape, a rushing brook among red maples, a bridge, a
+mill-wheel, and a hut on the bank. When he has done, he cuts with a
+sharp knife along each of the numberless copper wires. Every time he
+cuts, the point of the knife follows one of the copper wires, and he
+cuts only over the coloured parts. The fine silk threads are thus
+severed and their ends stand up like a brush. Then the copper wires are
+drawn out, and there stand the red trees, hut, and bridge in close
+velvet on a foundation of silk.
+
+In all kinds of handicrafts and mechanical work the Japanese are
+experts. A workman will sit with inexhaustible patience and diligence
+for days, and even months and years, executing in ivory a boy carrying a
+fruit basket on his back. He strikes and cuts with his small hammers and
+knives, his chisels and files, and gives himself no rest until the boy
+is finished. Perhaps it may cost him a year's work, but the price is so
+high that all his expenses for the year are covered when the boy is sold
+to an art-dealer.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] "Fuji," without equal; "yama," mountain.
+
+[18] The Emperor Mutsuhito died on July 30, 1912, and was succeeded by
+his eldest son, Yoshihito, who was born in 1879.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+BACK TO EUROPE
+
+
+KOREA
+
+Our journey eastwards ends with Japan, and we turn westwards on our way
+back to Europe. The portion of the mainland of Asia which lies nearest
+to Japan is Korea, and the passage across the straits from Shimonoseki
+to Fu-san takes only about ten hours. The steamer sails in the morning,
+and late in the afternoon we see to larboard the Tsushima Islands rising
+out of the water like huge dolphins. Our course takes us almost over the
+exact place where, on May 27, 1905, Admiral Togo annihilated the
+squadron of the Russian Admiral Rozhdestvenski.
+
+The Russian fleet had sailed round Asia, and steamed up east of Formosa
+to the Strait of Korea. The Admiral hoped to be able to reach
+Vladivostock, on the Russian side of the Sea of Japan, without being
+attacked, and on May 27 his fleet was approaching the Tsushima Islands.
+But Admiral Togo, with the Japanese fleet, lay waiting off the southern
+coast of Korea. He had divided the straits into squares on a map, and
+his scouting boats were constantly on the look-out. They could always
+communicate with Togo's flagship by wireless telegraphy. And now
+currents passing through the air announced that the Russian fleet was in
+sight, and was in the square numbered 203. This number was considered a
+good omen by the Japanese, for the fate of the fortress of Port Arthur
+was sealed when the Japanese took a fort called "203-metre Hill" (Port
+Arthur, which lies on the coast of the Chinese mainland, had fallen into
+the hands of the Japanese on January 1, 1905).
+
+When the news came, Togo knew what to do. With his large ships and sixty
+torpedo boats he fell upon the Russian fleet, and the battle was
+decided within an hour. The Russian Admiral's flagship sank just on the
+spot where we are now on the way to Fu-san. The Admiral himself was
+rescued, sorely wounded, by the Japanese. His fleet was dispersed, and
+its various divisions were pursued, sunk, or captured. The Russians lost
+thirty-four ships and ten thousand men. It was a bloody encounter which
+took place on these usually so peaceful waters. The Japanese became
+masters of the sea, and could, unhindered, transport troops, provisions,
+and war material over to the mainland, where the war with Russia still
+raged in Manchuria.
+
+From Fu-san, which for two hundred years has been a Japanese town, the
+railway takes us northwards through the Korean peninsula. We ascend the
+beautiful valley of the Nak-tong-gang River. Side valleys opening here
+and there afford interesting views, and between them dark hills descend
+steeply to the river, which often spreads out and flows so gently that
+the surface of the water forms a smooth mirror. The sky is clear and
+turquoise-blue in colour, and spans its vault over greyish-brown bare
+mountains. Where the ground on the valley bottom is level it is occupied
+by rice and wheat fields. Every now and then we pass a busy village of
+grey thatched houses, where groups of women and children in coloured
+garments are seen outside the cabins. The men wear long white coats, and
+on the head a thin black hat in the form of a stunted cone with flat
+brim. Seldom are the eyes caught by a clump of trees; as a rule the
+country is bare. Innumerable small mounds are often seen on the slopes;
+these are Korean graves.
+
+The signs of Japan's peaceful conquest of Korea are everywhere apparent.
+Japanese guards, policemen, soldiers, and officials are seen at the
+stations; the country now contains more than 200,000 Japanese. Settlers
+from Japan, however, take up their residence only for a time in the
+foreign country. For example, a landowner in Japan will sell half his
+property there, and with the proceeds buy land in Korea three or four
+times as large as all his estate in the home country, and in fertility
+at least as good. There he farms for some years, and then returns home
+with the profits he has earned. Numbers of Japanese fishermen also come
+yearly to the coasts of Korea with their boats, and return home to Japan
+with their catch. Thus Korea is deluged with Japanese of all kinds. The
+army is Japanese, Japanese fortresses are erected along the northern
+frontier, the government and officials are Japanese, and soon Korea
+will become simply a part of the Land of the Rising Sun.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXII. A SEDAN-CHAIR IN SEOUL.]
+
+We cross the range of mountains which runs like a backbone all through
+Korea from north to south, and late in the evening we come to the
+capital, Seoul, which has 280,000 inhabitants, a fifth of whom are
+Japanese. The town is confined in a valley between bare cliffs, and from
+the heights all that can be seen is confusion of grey and white houses
+with gabled roofs covered with grey tiles. In the Japanese quarter life
+goes on exactly as in Japan; rows of coloured paper lanterns hang now,
+at night, before the open shops, and trade is brisk and lively. In the
+Korean quarters the lanes are narrow and dismal, but the principal
+streets are wider, with tramcars rattling amidst the varied Asiatic
+scenes. Here are sedan chairs (Plate XXII.), caravans of big oxen laden
+with firewood, heavy carts with goods, men carrying unusually heavy
+loads on a framework of wooden ribs on their backs, women sailing past
+in white garments and a veil over their smooth-plaited hair. A row of
+grown men and boys pass through the streets carrying boards with Korean
+inscriptions in red and white: those are advertisements. Before them
+marches a drum and flute band, filling the streets with a hideous noise.
+
+Korea has 13 million inhabitants, and in area is just about as large as
+Great Britain. It is now subject to Japan, and is administered by a
+Japanese Resident-General, whose headquarters are at Seoul.
+
+
+MANCHURIA
+
+From Seoul we travelled northwards by rail to Wi-ju, a small place on
+the left bank of the Yalu River, which forms the boundary between Korea
+and Manchuria. Opposite, on the right or north bank of the Yalu, stands
+An-tung, a town with 5000 Japanese and 40,000 Chinese inhabitants. The
+river had just begun to freeze over, and the ice was still so thin that
+it could be seen bending in great waves under the weight of our sledge,
+which a Chinaman pushed along at a great speed with a long iron-shod
+pole. However, we reached the other side in safety.
+
+From An-tung to Mukden is only 200 miles, but the journey takes two
+whole days. The little narrow-gauge railway was laid down during the
+Russo-Japanese War to enable the Japanese to transport provisions and
+material to the front. The small track goes up and down over the
+mountains in the most capricious curves and loops, and the train seldom
+accomplishes the whole journey without a mishap. The Japanese Consul at
+An-tung, who had made the journey eight times, had been in four railway
+accidents, and two days previously the train had rolled down a declivity
+with a general and his staff.
+
+The view through the carriage windows is magnificent. This part of
+Manchuria is mountainous, but in the depths of the valleys lie farms and
+fields. Manchus in long blue coats and black vests wind along the road
+tracks, some on foot, others mounted, while others again drive
+two-wheeled carts drawn by a horse and a pair of mules. All the
+watercourses are frozen, but there is no snow. It is sunny, clear, and
+calm in these valleys, where the thunder of battle has long died away
+among the mountains.
+
+Half-way to Mukden we halt for the night, and start next morning before
+daybreak in biting cold. Some Chinese merchants join the train, attended
+by servants bearing paper lanterns. A small party of Japanese soldiers
+also is here. They are in thick yellow coats with high collars,
+_bashliks_, red shoulder knots, caps with a red border, leather-covered
+felt boots, and are armed with cutlasses and rifles. They are sinewy and
+sturdy fellows, neat and clean, and always seem cheerful.
+
+At length the Christmas sun rises glowing red, and the ice flowers
+vanish from the windows. Here, where the winter cold is so piercing, it
+is oppressively hot in summer. Our little toy train crosses a river
+several times on fragile bridges of beams, which seem as though they
+might at any moment collapse like a house of cards. Small strips of
+tilled land, creaking ox-carts on the deeply rutted roads, tiny Buddhist
+oratories, primitive stations with long rows of trucks of fuel, a
+country house or two--that is all that is to be seen the whole day,
+until late in the evening we arrive at Mukden.
+
+Manchuria is one of the dependencies of China. The Russians constructed
+a railway through the country to the fortress of Port Arthur, but, as is
+well known, the Japanese succeeded in capturing the fortress during the
+war. By the peace of Portsmouth,[19] concluded in September 1905, the
+Japanese acquired Port Arthur, the adjacent commercial port of Dalny,
+with the surrounding district, the southern half of the large island
+Sakhalin, the supremacy over Korea, together with the South Manchurian
+Railway--so that the Russians had unknowingly built this railway for the
+benefit of their enemies.
+
+Round Mukden was fought the greatest battle of the whole Russo-Japanese
+War. The contest lasted twenty days; more than 850,000 men and 2500 guns
+were engaged, and 120,000 were left dead on the field. On March 1, 1905,
+the whole Japanese army began to move, and formed at last a ring round
+the Russians and Mukden. Thus the Japanese became for the time being the
+masters of Manchuria, but on the conclusion of peace the country was
+handed back to China.
+
+The life in the singular streets of Mukden is varied and attractive. The
+Manchus seem a vigorous and self-confident people; they are taller than
+the Chinese, but wear Chinese dress with fur caps on their heads. The
+women seldom appear out of doors; they wear their hair gathered up in a
+high knot on the crown, and, in contrast to the Chinese women, do not
+deform their feet. Among the swarming crowds one sees Chinamen,
+merchants, officers, and soldiers in semi-European fur-lined uniforms,
+policemen in smart costumes with bright buttons, Japanese, Mongols, and
+sometimes a European. Tramcars drawn by horses jingle through the
+broader streets. The houses are fine and solidly built, with carved
+dragons and painted sculpture, paper lanterns and advertisements, and a
+confusion of black Chinese characters on vertically hanging signs. At
+the four points of the compass there are great town gates in the noble
+Chinese architecture, but outside stretches a bare and dreary plain full
+of grave mounds.
+
+In Pe-ling, or "Northern Tomb," rests the first Chinese Emperor of the
+Manchu dynasty, and his son, the great Kang Hi, who reigned over the
+Middle Kingdom for sixty-one years. Pe-ling consists of several
+temple-like buildings. The visitor first enters a hall containing an
+enormous tortoise of stone, which supports a stone tablet inscribed with
+an epitaph extolling the deceased Emperor. At the farthest extremity of
+the walled park is the tomb itself, a huge mass of stone with a curved
+roof. In a pavilion just in front of this building the Emperor of China
+is wont to perform his devotions when he visits the graves of his
+fathers. Solemn peace reigns in the park, and under the pine-trees stone
+elephants, horses, and camels gaze solemnly at one another.
+
+From Mukden Port Arthur is an easy eight hours' railway journey
+south-westwards; and it is only an hour and a half more to Dalny, which
+in Japanese hands has grown to a large and important commercial town.
+
+
+THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY
+
+On December 28, 1908, we stepped into the train in Dalny, and commenced
+a railway journey which lasted without a break for eleven days.
+
+First we have to go back to Mukden, and then a somewhat shorter journey
+to the last Japanese station. At the next the stationmaster is a
+Russian, and Russian guards replace the Japanese. In the afternoon the
+train draws up at Kharbin on the Sungari River, a tributary of the great
+Amur. It was towards Kharbin that the Russians slowly retired after
+their defeat, and on this very platform Prince Ito, the first Japanese
+Resident-General of Korea, was murdered barely a year later.
+
+At Kharbin we have to wait two hours for the international express,
+which runs twice a week from Vladivostock to Moscow.
+
+Next morning we stay for two hours at a station in Manchuria, on the
+boundary between Manchuria and Siberia, between China and Russia, and
+here our luggage is examined by the Russian customs officers. We put our
+watches back one and a half hours--that is the difference of time
+between Kharbin and Irkutsk. We are now travelling from east to west, in
+the same direction as the sun. If the train went as fast as the sun we
+should enjoy perpetual day; but the train lags behind, and we only gain
+an hour in the twenty-four.
+
+The Trans-Siberian railway is the longest in the world, the distance
+from Dalny to Moscow being 5400 miles. The railway was completed just in
+time for the war, but as it had only one track, it taxed all the energy
+of the Russians to transport troops and war material to the battlefields
+in Manchuria. A second track is now being laid.
+
+By using this railway a traveller can go from London to Shanghai in
+fourteen days, the route being to Dover, across the Channel to Calais,
+by rail to Moscow, from Moscow to Vladivostock by the Trans-Siberian
+railway, and from Vladivostock to Shanghai by sea. The sea voyage from
+London by the P. and O.--calling at Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said,
+Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong--takes about six weeks,
+which can be reduced to a month by travelling by train across Europe to
+Brindisi (at the south-eastern corner of Italy), and thence by steamer
+to Port Said, where the liner is joined. There is still a third route,
+across the Atlantic to the United States or Canada, by rail to San
+Francisco or Vancouver, and then by steamer to Shanghai _via_ Japan.
+This journey can also be accomplished in a month.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.]
+
+On the last day of the year we pass through the Yablonoi Mountains and
+enter the region called Transbaikalia, because it lies on the farther,
+that is, the eastern, side of Lake Baikal. Here dwell Buriats, a
+Mongolian people--in winter in wooden huts surrounded by enclosures for
+domestic animals, in summer in tents. When we awoke on the morning of
+New Year's Day the train was passing along the southern shore of Lake
+Baikal, and one of the most enchanting scenes in the world was displayed
+to the eyes of the passengers. On the eastern shore the mountains stood
+clearly defined in the pure morning air, while the ranges to the west
+were lit up by the clear sunshine. Here and there the slopes were
+covered with northern pine and fir-trees. The line runs all the way
+along the lake shore, sometimes only a couple of yards from the water.
+This part of the Trans-Siberian railway was the most difficult and
+costly to make, and the last to be completed. During its construction
+traffic between the extremities of the line was provided for by great
+ferry-boats across the lake. The line winds in and out, following all
+the promontories and bays of the lake, and the train rolls on through
+narrow galleries where columns of rock are left to support a whole roof
+of mountain. Sometimes we run along a ledge blasted out of the side of
+the mountain, above a precipitous slope which falls headlong to the
+lake. We rush through an endless succession of tunnels, and on emerging
+from each are surprised by a new view of the mountainous shore.
+
+Baikal, or the "Rich Lake," is the third inland sea of Asia, only the
+Caspian and the Sea of Aral being larger. Its height above sea-level is
+1560 feet; the water is light-green in colour, sweet, and crystal clear,
+and abounds in fish, among them five species of salmon. There is also a
+kind of seal, and in general many of the animal forms of Baikal are
+allied to those of the salt sea. Baikal is the deepest lake in the
+world, soundings having been taken down to 5618 feet. Steamers cross the
+lake in various directions, and in winter sleighs are driven over the
+ice from shore to shore. At the beginning of January the whole of the
+deep lake is so cooled down that ice begins to form, and the lake is
+usually frozen over to the middle of April.
+
+We stop an hour at Irkutsk to change trains. Irkutsk is the largest town
+in Siberia, and has 100,000 inhabitants; it stands on the bank of the
+river Angara, which flows out of Lake Baikal, and thus forms the outlet
+of all the rivers and streams which empty themselves into the lake, the
+largest of which is the Selenga. Although the Angara is five times as
+large as the Yenisei, it is called a tributary of the latter. The
+Yenisei rises in Chinese territory, and, running northwards right
+through Siberia, falls into the Arctic Ocean. It receives a large number
+of affluents, most of them from the east. Its banks are clothed with
+forest, and from Minusinsk downwards the river is navigable.
+
+The Lena, the great river which passes through eastern Siberia
+north-east of Baikal, is not much smaller than the Yenisei. There stands
+the town of Yakutsk, where the temperature falls in winter down to-80°,
+and rises in summer to 95°. North of Yakutsk, on the river Yana, lies
+Verkhoiansk, the coldest place in the world, the centre of low
+temperature or pole of cold.
+
+In area Siberia is larger than the whole of Europe, but the population
+in this immense country is no greater than that of Greater London,
+_i.e._ about seven millions. Of these 60 per cent are Russians, 20 per
+cent Kirghizes, and the remainder is made up of Buriats, Yakuts,
+Tunguses, Manchus, Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Tatars, Chukchis, etc. No small
+part of the Russian population consists of convicts transported to
+Siberia, whose hard lot is to work under strict supervision in the gold
+mines. Their number is estimated at 150,000. Before the railway was made
+they had to travel tremendous distances on foot. They marched ten miles
+a day in rain and sunshine, storm and snow, through the terribly cold
+and gloomy Siberia. Before and behind them rode Cossacks, who would not
+let them rest as they dragged their chains through the mud and mire of
+the road. Frequently women and children followed of their own free will
+to share their husbands' and fathers' fate during their forced labour in
+the mines. Now there is a great improvement. The labour, indeed, is just
+as hard, but the journey out is less trying. The unfortunate people are
+now forwarded in special prison vans with gratings for windows. They are
+like travelling cells, and can often be seen on side tracks at a
+station.
+
+In the neighbourhood of the Lena River dwell Yakuts of the Turkish-Tatar
+race. They number only 230,000 men, are nominally Christians, and pursue
+agriculture and trade. East of the Yenisei are the Tunguses, a small
+people divided into "settled," "horse," "reindeer," and "dog" Tunguses,
+according to the domestic animal of most importance to their mode of
+life. In western Siberia, the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, live
+Ostiaks, a small Finnish tribe of 26,000 persons, who are poor fisher
+folk, hunters and nomads with reindeer. This tribe is rapidly dying out.
+North of them, in the northern parts of western Siberia and in
+north-eastern Europe, live the Samoyeds, of Ural-Altai origin, who are
+still fewer in number than the preceding tribe, and live by
+reindeer-breeding and fishing.
+
+All these Siberian tribes and many others are Shamanists, and are so
+called after their priests, Shamans. They believe in an intimate
+connection between living men and their long-deceased forefathers. They
+entertain a great dread of the dead, and do everything they can to
+exorcise and appease their souls, bringing them offerings. All this
+business is attended to with much black magic and witchcraft by the
+Shamans, who are also doctors. When any one dies the spirit of the dead
+must be driven out of the tent, so the Shaman is summoned. He comes
+decked out in a costly and curious dress, and with religious enthusiasm
+performs a dance which soon degenerates into a kind of ecstasy. He
+throws himself about, reels and groans, and is beside himself. And when
+he has carried on long enough he catches hold of a magic drum, whose
+soothing sounds calm him and bring him back to his senses. When he has
+finished his performance the soul is gone!
+
+Over white plains, over hills, and through valleys, the train bears us
+on farther north-westwards through the government of Irkutsk. At
+Krasnoiarsk we cross the Yenisei by a fine bridge nearly two-thirds of a
+mile long. In summer vessels can ascend as far as Minusinsk, in a
+district of southern Siberia, rich in gold and iron and productive soil.
+In general Siberia is a rich country. Gold, silver, and copper, lead,
+graphite, and coal occur, besides many other valuable minerals and
+stones in the mountains. The country has also good prospects of future
+development owing to its remarkably excellent agricultural land. Most of
+this is situated near the railway, and all Siberia is intersected by a
+net of waterways. From one of the tributaries of the Obi steamers can
+pass by canal to the Yenisei, and thence on to the Lena. Omsk, the third
+town of Siberia, with 89,000 inhabitants, is the centre of this water
+system. More than 6000 miles of river can be navigated by large
+steamers, and nearly 30,000 by smaller boats. In western Siberia, around
+Tomsk and Omsk, the agricultural produce increases year by year, and the
+time will certainly come when these regions will support a population
+many times as large as at present, and export large quantities of corn
+in addition. This is the only thing which will make this enormously long
+railway pay, for it cost somewhere about £11,000,000 to build.
+
+We have passed Tomsk and crossed the Obi by a fine massive bridge of
+stone and iron. The Obi is the largest river of Asia. In length it is
+equal to the Yenisei and Blue River, but its drainage basin is larger
+than that of either of the others. Where the great affluent, the Irtish,
+runs in from the west, the Obi has a breadth of nearly two miles, and at
+its mouth, in the Gulf of Obi on the Arctic Ocean, the breadth has
+increased to twelve miles. The Irtish also receives from the west a
+large tributary, the Tobol, and at the confluence stands the town of
+Tobolsk.
+
+One day passes after another, and one night after another rises up blue
+and cold from the east. We have left every mountain and hill behind us,
+and the boundless plains, like a frozen sea, lie buried under deep snow.
+Sometimes we travel for a whole hour without seeing a farm or village.
+Only occasionally do we see to the north a small patch of _taiga_, or
+the Siberian coniferous forest, silent and dark. A clump of birch-trees
+is a rare sight. The country is open, flat, monotonous, and dead-white
+as far as the horizon.
+
+Thus we travel on by degrees through Siberia, this immense country
+bounded on the south by the Altai, Sayan, the Yablonoi and Stanovoi
+Mountains, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Huge areas of northern
+Siberia are occupied by _tundras_--moss-grown, marshy steppes, with
+little animal life, frozen hard as stone in winter and thawed during the
+short summer into dangerous swamps.
+
+In the frozen ground of northern Siberia, and particularly in old flood
+plains, have been found complete specimens of the mammoth. This animal
+is an extinct species of elephant, which, during the diluvial period,
+was distributed over all northern Asia, Europe, and North America. The
+mammoth was larger than the elephant of the present day, had tusks as
+much as 13 feet long, a thick fur suitable for a cold climate, and quite
+a luxuriant mane on the back of the head and neck. That prehistoric man
+was a contemporary of the mammoth is proved by ancient rude drawings of
+this animal.
+
+Larches, pine and spruce, birch and willow, compose the forests of
+Siberia. The larch manages to exist even round the pole of cold. The
+Polar bear, the Arctic fox, the glutton, the lemming, the snow-hare, and
+the reindeer are the animals in the cold north. In the central parts of
+the country are to be found red deer, roedeer, wild swine, beaver, wolf,
+and lynx. Far away to the east, on the great Amur River, which is the
+boundary between the Amur province and Manchuria, as well as in the
+coast province of Ussuri, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, occur tigers
+and panthers. The most valuable animals, the furs of which constitute
+one of the resources of Siberia, are the sable, the ermine, and the grey
+squirrel. The south-eastern parts of this great country are a
+transitional region to the steppes of central Asia, and there are to be
+found antelopes, gazelles, and wild asses.
+
+At length, on January 5, we are up in the Ural Mountains, and the line
+winds among hills and valleys. Near the station of Zlatoust stands a
+granite column to mark the boundary between Asia and Europe.
+
+
+THE VOLGA AND MOSCOW
+
+From the boundary between Europe and Asia the train takes us onwards
+past Ufa to Samara. The hills of the Urals become lower and the country
+flattens out again. Snow lies everywhere in a continuous sheet, and
+peasants are seen on the roads with sledges laden with hay, fuel, or
+provisions. At Batraki we pass over the Volga by a bridge nearly a mile
+long. The Volga is the largest river in Europe; it is 2300 miles long,
+and has its source in the Valdai hills (between St. Petersburg and
+Moscow) at a height of only 750 feet above sea-level. It flows,
+therefore, through most of Russia in Europe, traversing twenty
+governments. The right bank is high and steep, the left flat; and at its
+mouth in the Caspian Sea it forms a very extensive delta. The Volga is
+navigable almost throughout its length, and has also forty navigable
+tributaries. The river is frozen over for about five months in the year,
+and when the ice breaks up in spring with thundering cracks it often
+causes great damage along the banks. Crowds of vessels, boats, and rafts
+pass up and down the sluggish stream, as well as passenger steamers
+built after the pattern of the American river boats. By the Volga and
+its canals one can travel by steamer from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea,
+and from the Caspian Sea by the Volga into the Dwina and out to the
+White Sea. The Volga is not only an important highway for goods and
+passengers, but also an inexhaustible fish preserve; indeed the sturgeon
+and sterlet fisheries constitute its greatest wealth.
+
+When the train has rattled heavily and slowly over the Volga, it
+proceeds west-north-west into the very heart of holy Russia, and late on
+January 7, 1909, we roll into the station of Moscow, the old capital of
+Russia.
+
+Moscow is a type of the old unadulterated Russia, a home of the simple,
+honest manners and customs of olden days, of faith and honour, of a
+child-like, pure-hearted belief in the religion of the country, the
+Catholic Greek Church. In its crooked, winding, badly-paved streets
+swarm Tatars, Persians, and Caucasians, among Slav citizens and
+countrymen, those inexterminable Russian peasants who suffer and toil
+like slaves, look too deep into the _vodka_[20] cup on Saturday, yet are
+always contented, good-tempered, and jovial.
+
+The town stands on both sides of the small Moskva River, which falls
+into the Oka, a tributary of the Volga, and is inhabited by more than a
+million souls. The Kremlin is the oldest part, and the heart of Moscow
+(Plate XXIII.). Its walls were erected at the end of the fifteenth
+century; they are 60 feet high, crenellated, and provided with
+eighteen towers and five gates. Within this irregular pentagon, a mile
+and a quarter in circumference, are churches, palaces, museums, and
+other public buildings. There stands the bell tower of Ivan Veliki, 270
+feet high, with five storeys. From the uppermost you can command the
+whole horizon, with Moscow beneath your feet, the streets diverging in
+every direction from the Kremlin like the spokes of a wheel, and crossed
+again by circular roads. Between the streets lie conglomerations of
+heavy stone houses, and from this sea of buildings emerge bulb-shaped
+cupolas with green roofs surmounted by golden Greek crosses. Large
+barracks, hospitals, palaces, and public buildings crop up here and
+there. Right through the town winds the Moskva in the figure of an S,
+and the walls of the Kremlin with their towers are reflected in the
+water.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW.]
+
+In the tower of Ivan Veliki hang thirty-three bells of various sizes. At
+its foot stands the fallen "Tsar" bell, which weighs 197 tons and is 65
+feet in circumference. In its fall a piece was broken out of the side,
+and it is therefore useless as a bell, but it is set up on a platform as
+an ornament.
+
+Within the walls of the Kremlin is also the Church of the Ascension of
+the Virgin, which is crowned by a dome 138 feet high, with smaller
+cupolas at the four corners. Standing in the centre of the Kremlin, this
+church is the heart not only of Moscow but of all Russia, for here the
+Tsars are crowned, while the bells of Ivan Veliki peal over the city.
+The interior of the cathedral presents an indescribable effect. The
+light from the narrow windows high up is very dim, and is further dulled
+by gilded banners with pictures of saints and crosses. The temple nave
+is crammed with religious objects, iconostases and icons, sacred
+portraits of solid gold with only the hands and faces coloured. Wax
+candles burn before them, from which the smoke rises up to the vaulted
+roof, floating about the banners in a greyish-blue mist.
+
+To the orthodox Russians the Kremlin is almost a holy place. They make
+pilgrimages to its temples and cloisters with the same reverence as
+Tibetans to the sanctuaries of Buddha. "Moscow is surpassed only by the
+Kremlin, and the Kremlin only by heaven," they say.
+
+Perhaps no year in the history of Moscow is so famous as the year 1812.
+Then the city was taken by Napoleon and the Grande Armée. The Russian
+army abandoned the city, and the citizens left their homes. Napoleon
+entered on September 14, and next day the city began to burn. The
+Russians had set fire to it themselves in several places. Three-fourths
+of the city lay in ashes when the French evacuated Moscow after an
+occupation of five weeks and the loss of 30,000 men. The remembrance of
+this dreadful time still survives among the populace.
+
+
+ST. PETERSBURG AND HOME
+
+From Moscow an express train takes us in eleven hours to the capital of
+Peter the Great, St. Petersburg, at the mouth of the Neva, in the Gulf
+of Finland. Here we are in the midst of very different scenes from those
+in Moscow. Here is no longer genuine uncontaminated Russia, but Western
+civilisation, which has come and washed away the Slavonic. The churches
+and monasteries indeed are built in the same style as in Moscow, and the
+eyes meet with the same types and costumes, and the same heavily laden
+waggons and carts rumble over the Neva bridges; but one feels and sees
+only too plainly that one is in Europe.
+
+The Neva is forty miles long and a third of a mile broad, and comes from
+Lake Ladoga. It is spanned by four fine bridges, always crowded with
+carriages and foot passengers, and in summer numerous small steamboats
+ply up and down. In winter thick ice lies on the river during four
+months.
+
+St. Petersburg has nearly two million inhabitants, which is rather more
+than a hundredth part of the population of the whole Russian empire. The
+appearance of the town shows that it is new, for the streets are
+straight and broad. The climate is very raw, damp, and disagreeable, and
+it rains or snows on 200 days in the year.
+
+A walk through the streets of St. Petersburg shows the traveller much
+that is strange. Tiny chapels are found everywhere--in the middle of a
+bridge or at a street corner. They contain only a picture of a saint
+with candles burning before it. Many persons stop as they pass by,
+uncover their heads, fall on their knees, cross themselves and murmur a
+prayer, and then vanish among the crowd in the streets. It is also
+noticeable that this city is full of uniforms. Not only do the soldiers
+of the large garrison wear uniforms, but civil officials, schoolboys,
+students, and many others are dressed in special costumes with bright
+buttons of brass or silver. But what especially attracts the stranger's
+attention are the vehicles. Persons of the upper classes drive in open
+sleighs and cover themselves with bearskins lined with blue, and are
+drawn by tall, dark, handsome trotters. Sometimes also a _troika_, or
+team of three horses abreast, is seen, one of the horses in the middle
+under the arch which keeps the shafts apart, while the other two, on
+either side, go at a gallop. The hackney sleighs are also common, so
+small that two persons can hardly find room to sit, and as there is no
+support or guard of any kind, they must cling to each other's waists in
+order not to be thrown off at sharp corners. These small sledges have no
+fixed stands, but they are drawn up in long rows outside hotels, banks,
+theatres, railway stations, and other much-frequented places, and may be
+found singly almost anywhere in the streets. The drivers are always
+merry and cheerful, and keep up a running conversation with their
+passenger or their horse, which they call "my little dove." All drive at
+the same reckless pace, as if they were running races through the
+streets.
+
+St. Petersburg is rich in art collections and museums,
+picture-galleries, churches, and fine palaces. The finest building in
+the city, however, is the Isaac Cathedral, with its high gilded dome,
+surrounded by four similar but smaller gilded cupolas. The cross at the
+top is 330 feet above the ground, and the great dome is the first thing
+in St. Petersburg to be seen on coming by steamer from the Gulf of
+Finland. When the Cathedral was built, it cost more than two and
+three-quarter million pounds. It was finished fifty years ago, but has
+never been in really sound condition, and is always undergoing extensive
+repairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The last stage of our journey is now at hand. One evening we drive in a
+_troika_, with much ringing of sleigh bells, to the station of the
+Finland Railway, whence the train takes us through Viborg to Abo, the
+old capital of Finland. Here a steamer is waiting to take us over to
+Stockholm, which was the starting-point of our long journey.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] A seaport of New Hampshire, U.S.A.
+
+[20] A Russian alcoholic liquor usually made from rye.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+STOCKHOLM TO EGYPT
+
+
+TO LONDON AND PARIS
+
+Again we set out from Stockholm in the evening by train, and the next
+morning we reach Malmö, a port on the west coast of Sweden, not many
+miles north of Trelleborg, from which we started on our journey
+eastwards across Asia. From Malmö a steamer soon takes us across the
+narrow sound to Copenhagen, the beautiful capital of Denmark, and then
+we take the train across the large, rich, and fertile island of Zealand.
+There farms are crowded close together among the tilled fields; there
+thriving cattle graze on the meadows, yielding Denmark a superfluity of
+milk and butter; there the productive soil spreads everywhere, leaving
+no room for unprofitable sandy downs and heaths, as on the west coast of
+Jutland. The Danes are a small people, but they make a brave struggle
+for existence. Their country is one of the smallest in Europe, but the
+first in utilising all its possibilities of opening profitable commerce
+with foreign lands. Much larger are its possessions in the Arctic Ocean,
+Greenland, and Iceland, but there the population is very scanty and the
+real masters of the islands are cold and ice.
+
+At Korsör, on the Great Belt, we again go on board a steamer which in a
+few hours takes us between Langeland and Laaland to Kiel, the principal
+naval port of Germany. Here we are on soil which was formerly Danish,
+for it was only during her last unfortunate war that Denmark lost the
+two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
+
+We travel by train from Kiel through fertile Holstein southwards to the
+free Hansa town of Hamburg on the Elbe, the greatest commercial emporium
+on the mainland of Europe, and, after London and New York, the third in
+the world.
+
+From Hamburg the train goes on through Hanover and Westphalia, across
+the majestic Rhine, through South Holland, not far north of the Belgian
+frontier, to the port of Flushing, which is situated on one of the
+islands in the delta of the Scheldt. Here another steamer is ready for
+us, and after a passage of a few hours we glide into the broad
+trumpet-shaped mouth of the Thames and land at Queenborough. There again
+we take a train which carries us through the thickly-peopled,
+well-cultivated country of Kent into the heart of London, the greatest
+city of the world.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO PARIS.]
+
+After a few days' stay in London we go on to Paris--by train to Dover,
+across the Channel at its narrowest part in a swift turbine steamer, and
+again by rail from Calais to Paris, through one of the most fruitful
+districts of France, vying with the valleys of the Rhone and Garonne in
+fertility. In a little over seven hours after leaving London we arrive
+at the great city (Plate XXIV.) where the Seine, crossed by thirty
+bridges, describes a bend, afterwards continuing in the most capricious
+meanderings to Rouen and Havre.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXIV. PARIS.
+
+Looking eastwards from Notre Dame.]
+
+The first thing the stranger notices in Paris is the boulevards--broad,
+handsome streets, with alleys of leafy trees between rows of large
+palatial houses, theatres, cafés, and shops. The oldest, the boulevards
+proper, were formerly the fortifications of the town with towers and
+walls; "boulevard" is, then, the same word as the English "bulwark."
+Louis XIII., who enlarged and beautified Paris, had these bulwarks
+pulled down, and the first boulevards laid out on their site. They are
+situated on the north side of the Seine, and form a continuous line
+under different names, Madeleine, des Capuchines, des Italiens, and
+Montmartre. This line of boulevards is one of the sights of Paris. In
+later times boulevards were also laid out where there had been no
+fortifications before. Under Louis XIV. and his successors Paris grew
+and increased in splendour and greatness; then it was the scene of the
+great Revolution and its horrors; then under Napoleon it became the
+heart of the mightiest empire of that time. With the fall of Napoleon
+Paris was twice entered by the forces of the Allies, and in 1871 it was
+besieged and captured by the Prussians. Since then Paris has been spared
+from disastrous misfortunes, and is, as it has been for many centuries,
+the gayest and most animated city in Europe.
+
+Let us take a rapid walk through the town, starting at the Place de la
+Bastille, on the north bank of the Seine, where formerly stood the
+fortress and prison of the Bastille. This prison was stormed and
+destroyed at the commencement of the Great Revolution, on July 14, 1789,
+and since that year July 14 has been the chief national festival-day. In
+the middle of the square stands the July Column, and from its summit a
+wonderful view of Paris can be obtained. We now follow the Rue de
+Rivoli, the largest and handsomest street in Paris. On the left hand is
+the Hôtel de Ville, a fine public building, where the city authorities
+meet, where brilliant entertainments are given, and where the galleries
+are adorned with canvases of famous masters.
+
+Farther along, on the same side, is the largest public building of the
+city, the palace of the Louvre. Like the British Museum, it would
+require months and years to see properly. Here are stored colossal
+collections, not only of objects of art and relics from great ancient
+kingdoms in Asia and Europe, but also of the finest works of European
+sculptors and painters of all periods.
+
+We walk on north-westwards through the luxuriant gardens of the
+Tuileries, and stop a moment in the Place de la Concorde to enjoy the
+charming views presented on all sides--the river with its quays and
+bridges, the parks and avenues, the huge buildings decorated with
+exquisite taste, the wide, open spaces adorned with glorious monuments,
+and the never-ending coming and going of pleasure-loving Parisians and
+Parisian ladies in costumes of the latest fashion.
+
+From the Place de la Concorde we direct our steps to the Champs Élysées,
+a magnificent park with a broad carriageway along which the fashionable
+world rides, walks, or drives in smart carriages and motor cars. At the
+northern side of the park lives the President of the Republic in the
+palace of the Élysées.
+
+If we now follow the double row of broad avenues northwards we come to
+the Place de l'Étoile, a "circus" where twelve avenues of large streets
+meet. One of them, a prolongation of the Champs Élysées, is named after
+the grand army of Napoleon and leads to the extensive Bois de Boulogne.
+In the middle of the Place de l'Étoile is erected a stately triumphal
+arch, 160 feet high, in memory of Napoleon's victories.
+
+From here we follow a busy street as far as the bridge of Jena, and on
+the opposite bank of the Seine rises the Eiffel Tower, dominating Paris
+with its immense pillar 1000 feet high. The Eiffel Tower is the highest
+structure ever reared by human hands, twice as high as the cathedral of
+Cologne and the tallest of the Egyptian pyramids. At the first platform
+we are more than 330 feet above the vast city, but the hills outside
+Paris close in the horizon. When the cage rises up to the third platform
+we are at a height of 864 feet above the ground, and see below us the
+Seine with its many bridges and the city with its innumerable streets
+and its 140 squares. A staircase leads up to the highest balcony, and at
+the very top a beacon is lighted at night visible 50 miles away. From
+the parapet we hardly dare allow our eyes to look down the perpendicular
+tower to the four sloping iron piers at its base, especially when it
+blows hard and the whole tower perceptibly swings. There is no need to
+go up in a balloon to obtain a bird's-eye view of Paris; from the top of
+the Eiffel Tower we have the town spread out before us like a map.
+
+
+NAPOLEON'S TOMB
+
+When we have safely descended from the giddy height, we make our way
+across the Champ de Mars to the Hôtel des Invalides. Formerly several
+thousand pensioners from the great French armies found a refuge in this
+huge building, but now it is used as a museum for military historic
+relics.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXV. NAPOLEON'S TOMB.
+
+Hôtel des Invalides, Paris.]
+
+We pass in under the glittering gilded dome, visible all over the city,
+and find ourselves in a round hall, the centre of which is occupied by a
+crypt, likewise round and several feet deep and open above. On the floor
+in mosaic letters are glorious names, Rivoli, Pyramids, Marengo,
+Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, Wagram, and Moscow. Twelve marble statues,
+representing as many victories, and sixty captured colours keep guard
+round the great sarcophagus of red porphyry from Finland which contains
+the remains of Napoleon (Plate XXV.).
+
+No one speaks in here. The deepest silence surrounds the ashes of the
+man who in his lifetime filled the world with the roar of his cannon and
+the thunder of his legions, and who within the space of a few years
+completely changed the map of Europe. Pale and subdued, the light falls
+over the crypt where the red porphyry speaks of irresistible power, and
+the white goddesses of victory are illumined as it were with a
+reflection of the years of glory.
+
+Unconsciously we listen for an echo of the clash of arms and the words
+of command. We seem to see a blue-eyed boy playing at his mother's knee
+at Ajaccio in Corsica; we seem to hear a youthful revolutionist, burning
+with enthusiasm, making fiery speeches at secret clubs in Paris. Pale
+and solemn, the shade of the twenty-six-year-old general floats before
+our mind's eye as he returns from a series of victories in northern
+Italy, where he rushed like a storm over the plains of Lombardy, made a
+triumphal entry into Milan, and for ever removed the ancient republic of
+Venice from the list of independent States.
+
+We recall the campaign of the French army against Egypt and the Holy
+Land. Napoleon takes his fleet out from the harbour of Toulon, escapes
+Nelson's ships of the line and frigates, seizes Malta, sails to the
+north of Crete and west of Cyprus, and lands 40,000 men at Alexandria.
+The soldiers languish in the desert sands on the way to Cairo, they
+approach the Nile to give battle to the Egyptian army, and at the foot
+of the pyramids the East is defeated by the West. The march is continued
+eastwards to Syria. Five centuries have passed since the crusaders
+attempted to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of unbelievers. Now
+again the weapons of Western lands clash in the valley of the Jordan
+and at the foot of Mount Tabor, and now the French General obtains a
+victory over the Turks outside Nazareth. In the meantime, however,
+Nelson has annihilated his fleet. The flower of the republican army is
+doomed to perish, and Napoleon's dream of an oriental dominion has
+vanished with the smoke of the last camp fire. He leaves Egypt with two
+frigates, sails along the coasts of Tripoli and Tunis, and passes at
+night with extinguished lights through the channel between Africa and
+Sicily.
+
+Again our eyes turn to the dim light under the cupola of the Invalides,
+and the marble columns and statues look white as snow. Then our thoughts
+wander off to the Alps, the Great St. Bernard, the St. Gotthard, Mont
+Cenis, and the Simplon, where the First Consul, like Hannibal before
+him, with four army corps bids defiance to the loftiest mountains of
+Europe. We seem to see the soldiers dragging the cannon through the
+frozen drifts and collecting together again on the Italian side. At
+Marengo, south of the Po, a new victory is added to the French laurels,
+and the most powerful man in France has the fate of Europe in his hands.
+
+Then various episodes of his marvellous career pass before us. Our eyes
+fall on the name Austerlitz down in the mosaic of the crypt. The Emperor
+of France has marched into Moravia and drawn up his legions under the
+golden eagles. A distant echo seems to sound round the crypt--it is
+Napoleon's cavalry riding down the Russian guards, it is the "grand
+army" annihilating the Austrian and Russian forces, it is the French
+artillery pounding the ice on the lake and drowning the fugitives, their
+guns and horses.
+
+A murmur passes through the crypt, an echo from the battle of Jena,
+where Prussia was crushed, its territory devastated from the Elbe to the
+Oder, and its fortresses surrendered, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Stettin,
+Lübeck, while the victor made his entry into Frederick the Great's
+capital, Berlin. We hear the tread of the columns and the tramp of
+horses through the mud on the roads in Poland, and we see the bloody
+battlefields of Pultusk, east of the Vistula, and Eylau in West Prussia,
+where heaps of bodies lie scattered over the deep snow. We see Napoleon
+on his white horse after the battle of Friedland in East Prussia, where
+the Russians were defeated. The guards and hussars rode through them
+with drawn swords. Their enthusiastic cry of "Long live the Emperor"
+still vibrates under the standards round the sarcophagus; and above the
+shouts of victory the beat of horse hoofs is heard on the roads of
+Europe; it is the courier between the headquarters of the army and
+Paris.
+
+The conqueror marches to Vienna, and threatens to crush Austria. He
+gains the bloody battle of Wagram, north-east of Vienna, he wipes out
+states and makes them dependencies of France and their rulers his
+obedient vassals, and he gives away royal crowns to his relations and
+generals. His dominion extends from Danzig to Cadiz, from the mouth of
+the Elbe to the Tiber; he has risen to a height of power and glory never
+attained since the golden age of Rome.
+
+Bayonets and sabres, cuirasses and helmets flash in the sunlight as the
+invincible army camps with band and music and song above the Niemen.
+Half a million of soldiers are on their way to the old capital of
+Russia, Moscow. The Russian roads from Vilna to Vitebsk are full of
+endless lines of troops, squadrons of cavalry in close formation, and
+enormous baggage trains. The Russians know that their freedom is in
+danger; they burn their own towns and villages, devastate their own
+provinces, and retire little by little, as they did a hundred years
+earlier when Charles XII. invaded Russia. At length there is a battle at
+Moscow, and the French army enters the town. We see in imagination the
+September nights lighted up far and wide by a blazing flame. Moscow is
+on fire. On the terrace of the Kremlin stands a little man in a grey
+military coat and a black cocked hat, watching the flame. Within a week
+the old holy city of the Muscovites lies in ashes.
+
+The early twilight of winter falls over Paris, and we see the shadows
+deepen round Napoleon's tomb. We fancy we see among them human figures
+fighting against hunger, cold, and weariness. The time of misfortune is
+come. The great army is retreating, the roads are lined with corpses and
+fragments. The cannon are left in the snow. The soldiers fall in
+regiments like a ripe crop. Packs of wolves follow in their tracks: they
+are contented with the dead, but the Cossack squadrons cut down the
+living. At the bridge over the Beresina, a tributary of the Dnieper,
+30,000 men are drowned and perish. All discipline is relaxed. The
+soldiers throw away their guns and knapsacks. Clothed in furs and with a
+birchen staff in his hand, the defeated emperor marches like a simple
+soldier in the front. Thanks to the severe climate of their country and
+its great extent, and thanks also to their own cautious conduct of the
+war, the Russians practically annihilated Napoleon's army.
+
+The darkness deepens. At Leipzig Russians, Austrians, Prussians, and
+Swedes oppose Napoleon. There his proud empire falls to pieces, even
+Paris is captured, and he loses his crown. He is carried a prisoner down
+the Rhone valley through Lyons, and shipped off to the island of Elba.
+
+Once more he fills the world with tumult. With a brig and seven small
+vessels he sails back to the coast of France. He has a force of only
+1100 men, but in his hands it is sufficient to reconquer France. He
+marches over the western offshoots of the Alps. At Grenoble his force
+has increased to 7000 men. In Lyons he is saluted as Emperor, and Paris
+opens its gates. He is ready to stake everything on a single throw. In
+Belgium is to be the decisive battle. Hostile armies gather round the
+frontiers of France, for Europe is tired of continual war. At Waterloo
+Napoleon fights his last battle, and his fate is sealed for ever.
+
+He leaves Paris for the last time. At the port of Rochefort, between the
+mouths of the Loire and the Garonne, he goes on board an English
+frigate. After seventy days' sail he is landed on the small basaltic
+island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic, where he is doomed to
+pass the last six years of his eventful life. Here also his grave is
+digged under the willows in the valley.
+
+Nineteen years after Napoleon's death the simple grave under the willows
+was uncovered, the coffins of wood, lead, and sheet-iron were opened in
+the presence of several who had shared his long imprisonment, the
+remains were taken on board a French frigate amid the roar of guns and
+flags waving half-mast high, the coffin was landed at Cherbourg in
+Normandy, and the conqueror of Europe once more made his entry into
+Paris with military pomp and ceremony, in which all France took part.
+Drawn by sixteen horses in funereal trappings and followed by veterans
+of Napoleon's campaigns, the hearse, adorned with imperial splendour,
+was escorted by soldiers under the triumphal arch of the Place de
+l'Étoile and through the Champs Élysées to the Hôtel des Invalides,
+where the coffin was deposited in the Finnish sarcophagus. Thus was
+fulfilled the last wish of the conqueror of the world: "I desire that my
+remains may rest on the banks of the Seine."
+
+
+PARIS TO ROME
+
+The stranger leaves Paris with regret, and is consoled only by the
+thought that he is on his way to sunny Italy. The train carries him
+eastwards, and he looks through the window at the hills and plains of
+Champagne, the home of sparkling wine. Around him spread tilled fields,
+villages, and farmhouses. Where the soil is not suitable for vines,
+wheat, or beet, it provides pasture for large flocks. Men are seen at
+work everywhere, and the traveller realises that France is so prosperous
+because all its small proprietors, peasants, and townspeople are so
+industrious and so thrifty. Now the frontier is reached. The great
+fortress of Belfort is the last French town passed, and a little later
+we are in Alsace.
+
+Another frontier is crossed, that between Germany and Switzerland, and
+the train halts at the fine town of Bâle, traversed by the mighty Rhine.
+Coming from the Lake of Constance, the clear waters of the river glide
+under the bridges of Bâle, and turn at right angles northwards between
+the Vosges and the Black Forest.
+
+From Bâle we go on south-westwards to Geneva. Along a narrow valley the
+railway follows the river Birs, which falls into the Rhine, and winds in
+curves along the mountain flanks, sometimes high above the foot of the
+valley, and sometimes by the river's bank. It is towards the end of
+January, and snow has been falling for several days on end. All the
+country is quite white, and the small villages in the valley are almost
+hidden.
+
+Now we come to three lakes in a row, the Lake of Bienne, the Lake of
+Neuchâtel, and the great Lake of Geneva, which we reach at the town of
+Lausanne. Here the snow has ceased to fall, and the beautiful Alps of
+Savoy are visible to the south. The sun is hidden behind clouds, but its
+rays are reflected by the clear mirror of the lake. This view is one of
+the finest in the world, and our eyes are glued to the carriage window
+as the train follows the shore of Geneva.
+
+In outline the lake is like a dolphin just about to dive. At the
+dolphin's snout lies Geneva, and here the river Rhone flows out of the
+lake to run to Lyons and debouch into the Mediterranean immediately to
+the west of the great port of Marseilles.
+
+Geneva is one of the finest, cleanest, and most charming towns in the
+world. Between its northern and southern halves the water of the lake,
+deep blue and clear as crystal, is drawn off into the Rhone as into a
+funnel. There the current is strong, and the river is divided into two
+by a long island.
+
+The finest sight, however, is the view south-eastwards when the weather
+is clear. There stand the mighty summits and crests of the Alps of
+Savoy, now covered with snow, and glittering in white, light blue, and
+steely grey tints. There also Mont Blanc is enthroned above the other
+mountains, nay, above all Europe, awesome and grand, the crown of the
+Alps, the frontier pillar between Switzerland, France, and Italy.
+
+From Geneva we go eastwards along the northern shore of the lake. The
+air is hazy, and the Alps of Savoy look like a light veil beneath the
+sun. In this light the water is of a bright green like malachite. Beyond
+Lausanne the mist disappears, and the Alps again appear dazzling white
+and steep as pyramids and towers. Towns, villages, and villas cast
+reflections of their white or coloured house-fronts and their light
+balconies on the lake. The shore is lined by a row of hotels surrounded
+by gardens and promenades. Travellers come hither from all countries in
+summer to feast their eyes on the Alps and strengthen their lungs by
+inhaling the fresh air.
+
+We leave the lake and mount gently up the Rhone valley between wild
+rocks. It becomes narrower as we ascend. The Rhone, a tumultuous stream,
+roars in its bed, now quite insignificant compared to the majestic river
+at Geneva. In the valley tilled fields are laid out, dark green spruces
+peep out of the snow on the slopes, while above all the snow-white
+summits of the Alps are enthroned.
+
+A few minutes beyond Brieg the train rushes at full speed straight into
+the mountain. The electric lamps are lighted and all the windows closed.
+The tunnel is filled with smoke, and a continuous reverberation dins our
+ears. The Simplon tunnel is the longest in the world, being 12-1/2 miles
+long. It is only a few years since it was completed. Work was begun from
+both sides of the mountain at the same time, and when the excavations
+met in the middle and a blasting charge burst the last sheet of rock, it
+was found that the calculations had not been an inch out. After fully
+twenty minutes it begins to grow light, and when the train rolls out of
+the tunnel we are on Italian ground.
+
+The train now descends a lovely valley to the shore of Lago Maggiore.
+Framed in steep mountains, the dark blue lake contains a small group of
+islands, full of white houses, palaces, and gardens. One of these is
+well known by the name of Isola Bella, or the Beautiful Island.
+
+Night hides from our eyes the plains of Lombardy, Milan with its famous
+cathedral, the bridge over the Po, and then a number of famous old
+towns, including Bologna with its university about fifteen hundred years
+old.
+
+Next morning, however, we see to the south-west something like a flaming
+beacon. It is the gilded dome of St. Peter's Church, which, caught by
+the rays of the rising sun, shines like a fire above the eternal city.
+
+
+THE ETERNAL CITY
+
+The King of Italy has 35 million subjects, but in Rome lives another
+mighty prince, the Pope, though his kingdom is not of this world. His
+throne is the chair of St. Peter, his arms the triple tiara and the
+crossed keys which open and close the gates of the kingdom of heaven. He
+has 270 million subjects, the Roman Catholics. For political reasons he
+is a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican, a collection of great palaces
+containing more than 10,000 halls and apartments. There also are
+installed museums, libraries, and collections of manuscripts of vast
+extent and value. The Vatican museum of sculpture is the richest in the
+world. In the Sistine Chapel, a sanctuary 450 years old, Michael Angelo
+adorned the roof with great pictures of the creation of the world and
+man, of the Fall and the Flood, and at the end wall an immense picture
+of the Last Judgment. To the west of the palace stands the Pope's
+gardens and park, and to the south the Church of St. Peter, the largest
+temple in Christendom. The whole forms a small town of itself; and this
+town is one of the greatest in the world, a seat of art and learning,
+and, above all, the focus of a great religion. For from here the Pope
+sends forth his bulls of excommunication against heretics and sinners,
+and here he watches over his flock, the Catholics, in accordance with
+the Saviour's thrice repeated injunction to Peter: "Feed my sheep."
+
+A drive through Rome is intensely interesting. The streets are mostly
+narrow and crooked, and we are always turning corners, driving across
+small triangular open places and in lanes where it is ticklish work to
+pass a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Yet no boulevards, no
+great streets in the world, can rival in beauty the streets of Rome.
+They are skirted by old grey palaces built thousands of years ago rather
+than centuries, decorated with the most splendid window frames, friezes,
+and colonnades. Every portal is a work of art; round every corner comes
+a new surprise, a fountain with sea-horses and deities, a mediæval
+well, a moss-grown ruin of Imperial times, or a church with a tower
+whence bells have rung for centuries over Rome.
+
+And what a commotion there is in all these narrow streets! Here comes a
+peasant driving his asses weighed down with baskets of melons and
+grapes. There a boy draws a handcart piled up with apricots, oranges,
+and nuts. Here we see men and women from the Campagna outside Rome, clad
+in their national costume, in which dirty white and red predominate, the
+men with black slouched hats, the women with white kerchiefs over their
+hair. They are of dark complexion, but on the cheeks of the younger ones
+the roses appear through the bronze. The patricians, the noble Romans
+who roll by lazily in fine carriages, are much fairer, and indeed the
+ladies are often as pale as if they had just left the cloister or were
+ready for the bier. Boys run begging after the carriage, and poor
+mothers with small infants in their arms beseech only a small coin.
+There are many in Rome who live from hand to mouth. But all are
+cheerful, all are comely.
+
+Now we reach the bridge of St. Angelo over the muddy Tiber, and before
+us stands the massive round tower of the castle of St. Angelo, which the
+Emperor Hadrian built 1800 years ago as a mausoleum for himself. On the
+left is the piazza of St. Peter, which, with its surrounding buildings,
+its curved arcades, St. Peter's Church and the Vatican, is one of the
+grandest in the world. Between its constantly playing fountains has
+stood for 300 years an obelisk which the Emperor Caligula brought from
+Egypt to adorn Rome. It witnessed wonderful events long before the time
+of Moses. At its foot the children of Israel sang the melodies of their
+country during their servitude. It was a decoration of Nero's circus,
+and saw thousands of Christian martyrs torn to pieces by Gallic hounds
+and African lions; and still it lifts itself 80 feet into the air in a
+single block, untouched by time and the strife of men.
+
+At the north side of the piazza is the gate of the Vatican, where the
+Swiss Guards keep watch in antique red and yellow uniforms. Before us
+are the great steps of St. Peter's Church. We enter the grand portico
+and pass through one of the bronze doors into the church. All the
+dimensions are so immensely great that we stop in astonishment. Now our
+eyes lose themselves in sky-high vaulting, glittering with colour, and
+now we admire the columns and their capitals, pictures in mosaic or
+monuments in marble. Rome was not built in a day, says the proverb, and
+St. Peter's Church alone was the work of 120 years and twenty Popes.
+Italy's foremost artists, including Raphael and Michael Angelo, put the
+best of their energies into the building of this temple, where is the
+tomb of the Apostle Peter. The great church contains a bronze statue of
+the Apostle Peter in a sitting position, and the right foot is worn and
+polished by the kisses of the faithful. High above in the vaulting over
+his head is to be seen the following inscription in Latin:--"Thou art
+Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and I will give unto
+thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."
+
+Paul has also a worthy memorial church in Rome, St. Paul's, which stands
+outside the walls. On the way thither we pass a small chapel where, it
+is said, Peter and Paul took leave of each other before they went to
+suffer martyrdom. On the façade the final words are inscribed. Paul
+said: "Peace be with you, thou foundation of the church and shepherd of
+Christ's lambs." And Peter: "Go forth in peace, thou preacher of the
+gospel, righteous guide to salvation." Paul's tomb is under the high
+altar of St. Paul's Church. In the interior of the church we notice
+portraits in mosaic of all the Popes from St. Peter to Leo XIII.
+
+Rome is inexhaustible. It has grown up during 2600 years, and each age
+has built on the ruins of the preceding. The city is piled up in strata
+like a geological deposit. What lies hidden at the bottom is scarcely
+known at all; that is from the time of the early kings of Rome. Then
+follows the city of the Republic, and upon it the Rome of the Emperors,
+the cosmopolitan city, where the Cæsars from their palace on the
+Palatine stretched their sceptre over all the known world from foggy
+Britain and the dark forests of Germany to the burning deserts of
+Africa, from the mountains of Spain to Galilee and Judæa. Many stately
+remains of this time of greatness are still preserved among the modern
+streets and houses. Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians have sacked
+Rome, monsters of the Imperial house have devastated the city to wipe
+out the remembrance of their predecessors and glorify themselves; but if
+Rome was not built in a day, so two thousand years have not sufficed to
+blot out its magnificence.
+
+Then follow new strata, the Christian age, the Middle Ages, and modern
+times, with their innumerable churches, monasteries, and massive solemn
+palaces. Christianity built on the ruins of paganism. Ancient and modern
+times are inextricably mixed. Up there on the Capitoline hill rides a
+Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, in bronze. Look round, and there on the
+farther bank of the Tiber another horseman looks over the eternal city,
+the brave champion of young Italy's liberty, Garibaldi. You ride through
+a street lined with grand shops in new buildings, and in a couple of
+minutes you are at the Forum Romanum, the Roman market-place, the heart
+of the world empire, the square for markets, popular assemblies, and
+judicial courts, a marble hall in the open air. Over its flags, victors,
+accompanied by their comrades in arms and their prisoners, marched up to
+the Capitol to sacrifice in the temple of Jupiter, where now only a few
+pillars and ruins remain of all the splendour Julius Cæsar and Augustus
+lavished upon it.
+
+At one time we are like pilgrims in the fine Church of St. Peter; at
+another we are strolling under the triumphal arch of Titus, erected in
+remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year A.D.
+70.
+
+The largest and grandest ruin in Rome is the Colosseum (Plate XXVI.), an
+amphitheatre which was built by the two Emperors, Vespasian and Titus,
+and which was finished eighty years after the birth of Christ. The
+outside walls are nearly 160 feet high. The tiers of benches, which
+could accommodate 85,000 spectators, were divided into four blocks, of
+which the outermost and highest was set apart for freedmen and slaves
+with their women. The tickets were of ivory, and indicated the different
+places so clearly that every one could easily find his way in the huge
+passages, colonnades, and staircases. The benches were covered with
+marble, and many statues of the same material adorned the upper walls of
+the amphitheatre. The spectacles were usually held in the daytime, and
+to abate the heat of the sun immense silken awnings were stretched over
+the arena and the auditorium. When the theatre was full, it presented a
+scene of dazzling splendour. In the best places sat senators in
+purple-bordered togas, the priests of the various temples, the Vestal
+virgins in black veils, warriors in gold-embroidered uniforms. There sat
+Roman citizens in white or coloured togas, bareheaded, beardless, and
+closely cropped, eagerly talking in a language as euphonious as French
+and Italian. All strangers who were staying in Rome were there,
+ambassadors from all the known countries of the world, statesmen,
+merchants, and travellers from Germany and Gaul, from Syria, Greece, and
+Egypt.
+
+A circus or theatre of our day is a toy compared to the Colosseum. The
+old Romans were masters in the arrangement of spectacles to satisfy the
+rude cravings of the masses. Woods and rocks were set up, in which
+bloody contests were fought, and where gladiators hunted lions and
+tigers with spears. The immense show-ground could be quickly filled with
+water, and on the artificial lake deadly sea battles were fought; and
+the bodies of the slain and drowned lying on the bottom were invisible
+when the water was dyed red with blood. The arena could be drained at
+once by ingenious channels, slaves dragged out the corpses through the
+gate of the Goddess of Death, and the theatre was made ready for the
+night performance. Then the arena was lighted up with huge torches and
+fires, and troops of Christians were crucified in long rows or thrown to
+the lions and bears. When a Roman emperor celebrated the thousandth
+anniversary of the founding of Rome, two thousand gladiators appeared in
+the Colosseum, thirty-two elephants, and numbers of wild animals.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXVI. THE COLOSSEUM, ROME.]
+
+Not far from the Colosseum begins one of the oldest and most famous
+roads ever trodden by the foot of man--the Appian Way. Here emperors and
+generals marched into Rome after successful wars; here their remains
+were carried out to be burned on pyres and deposited in urns in
+mausoleums and tombs. Here the Christians came out at night in silent
+ranks to consign the remains of their co-religionists, torn to pieces in
+the arena, to the catacombs of underground Rome. Here also St. Paul made
+his entry into Rome, escorted by troops of Christians, as recorded in
+the last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; and to-day we find on this
+road a small chapel which is called "Whither goest thou?" (_Quo vadis?_)
+at the point in the road where Peter saw his vision.
+
+
+POMPEII
+
+From Rome we go on to Naples, where to the east the regular volcanic
+cone of Vesuvius rears itself like a fire-breathing dragon over the bay,
+and where towns, villages, and white villas stand as thick on the shore
+as beads on a rosary. Our time is short; we drive rapidly through the
+lava-paved streets of Naples, and cannot feast our eyes long enough with
+the sight of these fine dark men in their motley dirty garments, and
+cannot hear enough of their melodious songs in honour of delightful
+Naples. Their warm affection for the famous city is quite natural, and
+one of their sayings, "See Naples and die," implies that life is
+worthless to any one who has not been there.
+
+During our wanderings we come to the National Museum, and there we are
+lost to everything outside. There we forget the bustling life of the
+streets, the blue bay and the green gardens; for here we are in the
+presence of antiquity--an immense collection of artistic objects,
+statues, and paintings from Pompeii.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA.]
+
+In the sixth century B.C. Pompeii was founded at the southern
+foot of Vesuvius, not far from the shore of the bay. About eighty years
+before our era Pompeii came under the rule of Rome, and during the
+succeeding 150 years it was changed into a genuine Roman town in all
+respects--in style of building, language, trade, and manner of life. A
+wall with towers enclosed this collection of streets and houses, and at
+night the eight town gates were closed and shut in 20,000 inhabitants.
+In its principal square, a place of popular assemblies and festivals,
+stood the Temple of Jupiter among porticoes, arcades, and rows of
+marble statues. In another square theatres were erected, and there also
+stood an old Greek temple.
+
+Many rich and eminent Romans loved Pompeii, and built costly villas in
+the town or its beautiful environs. One of these was the famous orator
+and author, Cicero, whose villa was situated near the north-eastern town
+gate. Again and again he went to Pompeii to rest after the noise and
+tumult of Rome, and the last time he is certainly known to have
+sojourned there was in the year 44 B.C., shortly after the
+murder of the great Cæsar.
+
+From the vicinity of Cicero's villa ran north-west the Street of Tombs,
+bordered with innumerable monuments like the Appian Way outside Rome.
+Some were quite simple, others resembled costly altars and temples, and
+all contained urns with the bones and ashes of the dead.
+
+Some streets were lined entirely with shops and stores. Most of the
+streets were straight and regular, some broad, others quite small; they
+were paved with flags of lava and had raised footpaths. Here and there
+stones were laid in a row across the street, whereon foot passengers
+could cross over dryshod after the heavy torrential rains, which then,
+as now, repeatedly converted these lanes into rivers and canals.
+
+Pompeii had several bath-houses, luxuriously and comfortably furnished,
+built of stone, dark and cool, and very attractive during the warm,
+sultry summer. In the _apodyterium_ the visitor took off his clothes,
+and then repaired to the various rooms for warm air, warm baths, and
+cold baths. The walls in the _frigidarium_ were decorated with paintings
+representing shady groves and dark forests; the vaulted roof was painted
+blue and strewn with stars, and through a small round opening the
+sunlight poured in. The basin itself was therefore like a small forest
+pool under the open sky. The bather was thoroughly scraped and shampooed
+by the attendants, and last of all smeared with odorous oils.
+
+The houses of wealthy citizens were decorated with exquisite taste and
+artistic skill. Towards the streets the houses showed little besides
+bare plain walls, for the old Romans did not like the private sanctity
+of their homes to be disturbed at all by the noise of the streets and
+the inquisitiveness of people on the public roads. So it is still, if
+not in Italy and Greece, at any rate over all the Asiatic East. Pomp and
+state were only displayed in the interior. There were seen statues and
+busts, flourishing flower-beds under open colonnades, and in the midst
+of the principal apartment, called the _atrium_, was a marble basin sunk
+in the mosaic pavement, and through a quadrangular opening in the roof
+above the sun and moon looked in and the rain often mingled its drops
+with the jets of the constantly playing fountain. When the master of the
+house gave an entertainment, tables were carried in by slaves, and the
+guests took their luxurious meal lying on long couches. They ate, and
+drank, and jested, listening from time to time to the tones of flutes,
+harps, and cymbals, and watched the lithe movements of dancers with eyes
+dull and heavy with wine.
+
+Happy days were spent in Pompeii in undisturbed peacefulness. People
+enjoyed the treasures of the forests, gardens, and sea, transacted their
+business or the duties of their posts, and assembled for discussion in
+the Forum, where the columns cast cool shadows over the stone flags. No
+one thought of Vesuvius. The volcano was supposed to have become for
+ever extinct ages ago. On the ancient lava-streams old trees grew, the
+most luscious grapes ripened on the flanks of the mountain, and from
+their descendants is pressed out at the present day a wine called
+Lachryma Christi. A legend relates that when the Saviour once went up
+Vesuvius and stood in mute astonishment at the beautiful landscape
+surrounding the Bay of Naples, He also wept from grief over this home of
+sin and vanity; and where His tears moistened the ground there grew up a
+tendril which has not its like on earth.
+
+The year before the burning of Rome, Pompeii was devastated by a fearful
+earthquake. The inhabitants soon took heart again, however, and built up
+their town better and more beautiful than ever. Sixteen years passed,
+and then the blow came, the most crushing and annihilating blow that
+ever befell any town since Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire
+from heaven.
+
+The elder Pliny, who left to the world an immortal work, was then in
+command of a Roman fleet anchored in the Bay of Naples, and lived with
+his family in a place not far from Pompeii. His adopted son, the younger
+Pliny, a youth of eighteen, spirited, quick, and talented, was also with
+him. Vesuvius broke into eruption on August 24 in the year 79, and in a
+few hours Pompeii and two other towns were buried under a downpour of
+pumice and ashes, and streams of lava and mud. Among the victims was the
+elder Pliny.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXVII. POMPEII.
+
+The Forum, with Vesuvius in the distance.]
+
+Several years afterwards, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote to the
+younger Pliny and asked him for information about the manner of his
+uncle's death. The two letters containing answers to this question are
+still extant. Pliny describes how his uncle was suffocated by ashes and
+sulphurous vapour on the shore. He had himself seen flames of fire shoot
+up out of the crater, which also vomited forth a black cloud spreading
+out above like the crown of a pine-tree. He went out with his mother to
+the forecourt of the house, but when the ground trembled and the air
+became full of ashes they hurried off, followed by a crowd of people.
+His mother, who was old, begged him to save himself by rapid flight, but
+he would not desert her. And he writes: "I looked round; a thick smoky
+darkness rolled threateningly over us from behind; it spread over the
+earth like an advancing flood and followed us. 'Let us move to one side
+while we can see,' I said,' so that we may not fall down on the road and
+be trampled down in the darkness by those behind.' We had scarcely got
+out of the crowd when we were involved in darkness, not such as when
+there is no moon or the sky is overcast, but such as prevails in a
+closed room when the lights are out." And he tells how the fugitives
+tied cushions over their heads so as not to be bruised by falling
+stones, and how they had repeatedly to shake off the ashes lest they
+should be weighed down by them. He was quite composed himself, and
+thought that the whole world was passing away.
+
+By this eruption Pompeii was buried under a layer of pumice and ashes 20
+feet thick. For a long period of years the inhabitants of the
+neighbourhood came hither and digged up with their spades one thing or
+another, but then Pompeii sank into the night of oblivion and slumbered
+under the earth for fifteen hundred years. At last the town was
+discovered again, and excavations were commenced. Country houses,
+fields, and clumps of mulberry trees had sprung up on the deep bed of
+ashes. Not till fifty years ago did modern investigation take Pompeii
+seriously in hand, and now more than half the town is laid bare.
+Strangers can ride unhindered through the streets, look into the shops
+and baths, and admire the fine wall-paintings in the palaces of the
+great. The columns of Jupiter's temple, so long buried in complete
+darkness, are again lighted by the sun, and cast their shadows as of old
+over the stone flags of the Forum (Plate XXVII.). The Street of Tombs is
+exposed, and young cypresses grow up among the monuments. The dead,
+which were already buried when Vesuvius scattered its ashes over them,
+listen now to strange footsteps on the road. But the unfortunates who
+were buried alive under the shower of ashes have decayed and turned to
+dust. And yet they may still be seen in the museums, with distorted
+limbs and their faces to the ground. We see them in the position they
+assumed when they fell and the ashes were bedded close to their sides.
+Thus they remained lying for eighteen hundred years, imbedded as in a
+mould. Their bodies returned to the earth, but the empty space remained.
+By pouring plaster into these forms, life-like figures of persons have
+been reproduced just as they were when death overtook them. Here lies a
+woman who fell outside her house and grasped with convulsive fingers a
+bag full of gold and silver. Here is a man resting his heavy head on his
+elbow, and here a dog which has curled itself up before it was at last
+suffocated.
+
+So the sleeping town has wakened to life again, and the dead have
+returned from the kingdom of shadows. The excavated pictures,
+sculptures, and art treasures of Pompeii, together with the whole
+arrangement of the town, the style of building and the inscriptions,
+have thrown an unexpected light on the life of antiquity. We can even
+read the passing conceits scribbled on the walls. At one corner a house
+is offered for hire from July I--"intending tenants should apply to the
+slave Primus." On another a jester advises an acquaintance: "Go and hang
+thyself." A citizen writes of a friend: "I have heard with sorrow that
+thou art dead--so adieu!" Another wall bears the following warning:
+"This is no place for idlers; go away, good-for-nothing." It is curious
+to read the names Sodom and Gomorrah, evidently scribbled by a Jew. Low
+down on the walls small schoolboys have practised writing the Greek
+alphabet, showing that Greek was included in their curriculum. And once
+were found written in charcoal, and only partly legible, the words,
+"Enjoy the fire, Christian," a scoff at the martyrs who, soaked in tar,
+were burned as torches in Nero's gardens.
+
+From Naples we take a steamer for Egypt. After crossing the Bay of
+Naples we have to starboard the charming island of Capri. On its
+northern side you may swim or row in a shallow boat, under an arch of
+rock three feet high, into the Blue Grotto. Inside is a quiet
+crystal-clear sheet of water which extends more than 50 yards into the
+hill. The roof over its mirror is more than 160 feet high. The only
+light comes in through the small entrance. Owing to the reflections of
+the sky and water, everything in the grotto is blue, and stalactites
+hang like icicles from the roof and walls. If you dip an oar or your
+hand into the water it shines white as silver, owing to the reflection
+from the sandy bottom. It is possible to enter only in calm weather, or
+the boat would be stoved in against the rocky archway.
+
+On a promontory to larboard appear the white houses and olive gardens of
+beautiful Sorrento, and then we steer out into the turquoise blue waters
+of the Tyrrhenian Sea. To the south the rocky island of Stromboli rises
+from the waves with its ever-burning volcano, like a beacon. In the
+Straits of Messina we skirt the shores of Sicily and Calabria, which
+have so frequently suffered from terrible earthquakes. At last we are
+out in the wide, open Mediterranean. Italy sinks below the horizon
+behind us, and we steam eastward to Alexandria, the port of the land of
+the Pharaohs.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+AFRICA
+
+
+GENERAL GORDON
+
+Seldom has the whole civilised world been so convulsed, so overwhelmed
+with sorrow, at the death of one man as it was when in January, 1885,
+the news flashed along the telegraph wires that Khartum had fallen, and
+that Gordon was dead.
+
+Gordon was of Scottish extraction, but was born in one of the suburbs of
+London in the year 1833, and as a young lieutenant of engineers heard
+the thunders of war below the walls of Sebastopol. As a major of thirty
+years of age he commanded the Imperial army in China, and suppressed the
+furious insurrection which raged in the provinces around the Blue River.
+"The Ever-Victorious Army" would have come to grief without a strong and
+practical leader, but in Gordon's hands it soon deserved its name. He
+made his plans quickly and clearly, brought his troops with wonderful
+rapidity to the most vulnerable points in the enemy's position, and
+dealt his blows with crushing force. In a year and a half he had cleared
+China of insurgents and restored peace.
+
+After several years of service at home and other wanderings in Eastern
+lands, Gordon accepted in 1874 an invitation to enter into the service
+of the Khedive of Egypt. The Khedive Ismail was a strong man with
+far-reaching projects. He wished to extend his dominion as far as the
+great lakes where the Nile takes its rise, and Gordon was to rule over a
+province named after the equator.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA, SHOWING EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.]
+
+Immediately to the south of Cairo begins a plateau which stretches from
+north to south through almost the whole continent. In Abyssinia it
+attains to a considerable height, and near the equator rises into the
+loftiest summits of Africa. These mountains screen off the rain from
+Egypt and large areas of the Sudan. The masses of vapour which are
+carried over Abyssinia in summer by the monsoon are precipitated as rain
+in these mountain tracts, and consequently the wind is dry when it
+reaches Nubia and Egypt; while the moisture which rises from the warm
+ocean on the east, and is borne north-westwards by the constant
+trade-wind, is converted into water during eight months of the year
+among the mountains on the equator.
+
+The rain which falls on the mountains of Abyssinia gives rise to the
+Atbara and Blue Nile, which produce abundant floods in the Nile during
+autumn; and during the rest of the year the White Nile, which comes from
+the great lakes on the equator, provides for the irrigation of Egypt.
+Thus the country is able to dispense with rain, and innumerable canals
+convey water to all parts of the Nile valley. Many kinds of grain are
+cultivated--wheat, maize, barley, rice, and durra (a kind of millet);
+vegetables, beans, and peas thrive, numerous date palms suck up their
+sap from the heavy, sodden silt on the river's banks, and sugar-cane and
+cotton are spreading more and more. Seen at a height from a balloon, the
+fields, palms, and fruit-trees would appear as a green belt along the
+river, while the rest of the country would look yellow and grey, for it
+is nothing but a dry, sandy desert.
+
+The Nile, then, is everything to Egypt, the condition of its existence,
+its father and mother, the source of the wealth by which the country has
+subsisted since the most remote antiquity. Now that we are about to
+follow Gordon along the Nile to the equator, we must not forget that we
+are passing through an ancient land. The first king of which there are
+records lived 3200 years before the Christian era, and the largest of
+the Great Pyramids at Ghizeh is 4600 years old (Plate XXVIII.). Its
+funeral crypt is cut out of the solid rock, and in it still stands the
+red granite sarcophagus of Cheops. Two million three hundred thousand
+dressed blocks, each measuring 40 cubic feet, were used in the
+construction of this memorial over a perishable king, and the pyramid is
+reckoned to be the largest edifice ever built by human hands. The
+buildings and works of the present time are nothing compared to it. Only
+the Great Wall of China can vie with it, and this is ruined and to a
+large extent obliterated, while the pyramid of Cheops still stands,
+scorched by the sun, or sharply defined in the moonlight, or dimly
+visible as a mysterious apparition in the dark, warm night.
+
+Twelve hundred miles south of the capital of modern Egypt the desert
+comes to an end, and the surface is covered by vast marshes and beds of
+waving reeds. This is the Sudan, "the Land of the Blacks." At the point
+where the White and Blue Niles mingle their waters lay the only town in
+the Sudan, Khartum, whither trade-routes converged from all directions,
+and where goods changed hands. Here were brought wares which never
+failed to find purchasers. The valuable feathers plucked from the
+swift-footed ostrich were needed to decorate the hats of European
+ladies; the wild elephants, larger and more powerful than their Indian
+congeners, were shot or caught in pitfalls in the woods for the sake of
+their precious ivory. But the most esteemed of all the wares that passed
+through Khartum were slaves--"black ivory," as they were called by their
+heartless Arab torturers. Elephants' tusks are heavy, and cannot be
+transported on horses or oxen from the depths of the forest, for draught
+animals are killed by the sting of the poisonous tsetse fly. Therefore
+the tusks had to be carried by men, and when these had finished their
+task they were themselves sold into Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. The
+forests and deserts were not inexhaustible; ivory and ostrich feathers
+might be worked out, but there would always be negroes.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII. THE GREAT PYRAMIDS AT GHIZEH.]
+
+When the Khedive Ismail invited Gordon to enter his service as governor
+of the new province not far from the sources of the Nile, Gordon
+accepted the post in the hope that he would be able to suppress
+slave-trading, or at least to check the hunting of black men and women.
+He left Cairo and travelled by the Red Sea to Suakin, rode to Berber on
+the Nile, and was received with much pomp and ceremony by the
+Governor-General at Khartum. Here he heard that the Nile was navigable
+for 900 miles southwards, and therefore he could continue his journey
+without delay.
+
+The Nile afforded an excellent passage for Gordon's small steamboat. But
+the Nile can also place an insurmountable obstacle in the traveller's
+way. After the rainy season the White Nile overflows its banks, forming
+an inextricable labyrinth of side branches, lakes, and marshes. The
+country lies under water for miles around. The waterway between
+impenetrable beds of reeds and papyrus is often as narrow as a lane. The
+roots of large plants are loosened from the mud at the bottom, and are
+compacted with stems and mud into large sheets which are driven
+northwards by the rushing water. They are caught fast in small openings
+and sudden bends, and other islets of vegetation are piled up against
+them. Thus the river course is blocked, and above these natural dams the
+water forms lakes. Such banks of drifting or arrested and decaying
+vegetation are called _sudd_, and the more it rains the greater are the
+quantities that come down. At length the _sudd_ becomes soft and yields
+to the pressure of the water, and then the Nile is navigable again.
+
+Gordon's small steamer glides gently up the river. He advances deeper
+and deeper into a world unknown to him, and around him seethes tropical
+Africa. On the banks papyrus stems wave their plumes above the reeds. It
+was from the pith of papyrus stems that the old Egyptians made a kind of
+paper on which they wrote their chronicles. Here and there swarthy
+natives are seen between the reed beds, and sometimes noisy troops of
+wandering monkeys gaze at the boat. The hippopotami look like floating
+islands, but show themselves only at night, wallowing in the shallow
+water. A little beyond the luxuriant vegetation of the banks extends the
+boundless grassland with its abundant animal life and thin scattered
+clumps of trees.
+
+After a journey of four days the steamer glided past an island. There
+dwelt in a grotto a dervish or mendicant monk named Mohamed Ahmed, who
+ten years later was to be Gordon's murderer.
+
+In the middle of April Gordon and his companions were in Gondokoro, a
+small place which now stands on the boundary between the Sudan and
+British East Africa, and here he took charge of his Equatorial Province.
+He forced the Egyptian soldiers, who garrisoned this and one or two
+other posts on the Nile and robbed on their own account, to plough and
+plant; he arrested all slave-hunters within reach and freed the slaves;
+he succoured the poor, protected the helpless, and sent durra to the
+hungry.
+
+The heat was excessive, and Gordon and his staff were pestered by crowds
+of gnats. It was still worse in September when the rain poured down and
+large tracts were converted into swamp, from which dangerous miasma was
+exhaled. In a month seven of Gordon's eight officers had died of fever,
+but he himself continued his work undismayed, and wrote in his diary:
+"God willing, I shall do much in this country."
+
+He soon perceived that the best districts of his province lay around the
+large lakes in the south. But the Equatorial Province was too far away
+from Egypt. It hung as it were on a long string, the Nile, and from the
+largest lake, the Victoria Nyanza, the distance to Cairo in a straight
+line was nearly 2200 miles. Much shorter was the route to Mombasa on the
+east coast, so Gordon advised the Khedive to occupy Mombasa and open a
+road to the Victoria Nyanza. Then it would be easier to contend against
+the slave-trade. He described the condition of the Sudan in forcible
+letters, and into the Khedive's ears were dinned truths such as he
+never heard from his servile pashas. He would first establish steam
+communication with the lakes, and a number of boats which could be taken
+to pieces were on the way to his province.
+
+The boats came up at the time when the Nile began to rise after rain,
+and then his plan was to advance farther southwards. The natives were
+opposed to this progress and feared the supremacy of Egypt, and
+therefore they tried to prevent the advance of the "White Pasha," who
+was loath to employ arms against them. All they wanted was to be left in
+peace in their grasslands and forests; and when now an intruder, whose
+aims they did not understand, penetrated into their country, they
+endeavoured whenever they could to bar his way, so that he was obliged,
+much against his will, to resort to force.
+
+After all kinds of troubles and difficulties he reached at last the
+northernmost of the Nile lakes, the Albert Nyanza, and it was a great
+feat to have brought a steamer even thus far. He did not succeed in
+reaching the Victoria Nyanza, for the ruler of the country between the
+lakes had resolved to oppose with all his power any intruder, were he
+white man or Arab.
+
+For three years Gordon was at work on the Upper Nile in the
+neighbourhood of the equator. During the next three years we find him in
+the deserts of the Sudan farther north. He was Governor-General of the
+whole of the Egyptian Sudan, and Khartum was his capital. His province
+was 1200 miles broad, from the Red Sea to the Sahara, and as long from
+north to south. The whole country was in a state of unrest. The Khedive
+had carried on an unsuccessful war against the Christian King of
+Abyssinia, and the Mohammedan states of Kordofan and Darfur were in
+revolt against Egypt. There half-savage Beduin tribes were scattered
+about over the deserts, and there some of the worst slave-dealers had
+their haunts.
+
+In May, 1877, Gordon mounted his swift dromedary to set out on a journey
+of 2000 miles. He wished to visit the villages and camps of the
+slave-dealers in distant Darfur. The hot season had set in. When the sun
+stood at its meridian altitude the shadow of the dromedary disappeared
+beneath the animal. A dreary desert extended on all sides,
+greyish-yellow, dusty, and dry.
+
+The White Pasha skims over the desert mile after mile. He has the finest
+dromedary in all the land, an animal that became famous throughout the
+Sudan. Some hundreds of Egyptian troopers follow him, but he leaves them
+all far behind and only a guide keeps up with him. He rushes over the
+desert like the wind, and suddenly and unexpectedly draws rein at the
+gates of an oasis before the guard can shoulder their arms. After giving
+his orders in the name of the Khedive, he disappears as mysteriously, no
+one knows whither. At another oasis, perhaps 300 miles away, the chief
+has been warned of his coming and has therefore posted watchmen to look
+out for him. Round about lies the desert, sandy and yellow, with a
+surface as level as a sea, where the approach of the White Pasha can be
+seen from a long distance. The watchman announces that two black specks
+are visible in the distance, which, it is supposed, are the Pasha's
+outriders, and some hours must pass before he arrives with his troops.
+The two specks grow larger and come rapidly nearer. The dromedaries
+swing their long legs over the ground, seeming to fly on invisible
+wings. Now the men have come to the margin of the oasis. The watchers
+can hardly believe their eyes. One of the riders wears the
+gold-embroidered uniform of an Egyptian pasha. Never had the Sudan seen
+a Governor-General travelling in this way--without flags and noisy
+music, and stripped of all the display appropriate to his rank.
+
+And as he came so he flew away again, mysteriously and incomprehensibly.
+Again and again he lost his armed force. In some districts he closed the
+paths leading to wells in order to bring the refractory tribes to
+submission. With inflexible severity he broke the power of the chiefs
+who still carried on trade in slaves. He freed numbers of black captives
+and drilled them as soldiers, for his own fighting men were the scum of
+Egypt and Syria. With a handful of men he dealt his blows at the weakest
+points of the enemy's defence and thus always gained the victory. In
+four months he suppressed the revolt and checked the power of the
+slave-dealers.
+
+Gordon had now cleared all the west of the Sudan, and only Dara in
+southern Darfur remained to be dealt with. There the most powerful
+slave-dealers had collected to offer resistance. He came down one day
+like lightning into their camp. They might easily have killed him--it
+was he who had ruined their trade in black ivory. He went unconcernedly
+among the tents, and they did not dare to touch him. And when his own
+troops arrived, he summoned all the chiefs to his tent and laid his
+conditions before them. They were to lay down their arms and be off each
+to his own home; and one by one they obeyed and went away without a
+word.
+
+But the slave-trade was a weed too deeply rooted in the soil to be
+eradicated in a single day, and the revolt and troubles which constantly
+arose out of this horrible traffic gave Gordon no peace. He left the
+Sudan at the end of 1879, and the next two years were occupied with work
+in India, China, Mauritius, and South Africa. Meanwhile remarkable
+events had occurred in Egypt. Great Britain had sent vessels and troops
+to the land of the Khedive, and had taken over the command and the
+responsibility. The chief of the dervishes, Mohamed Ahmed, whom we
+remember on the small island in the Nile, proclaimed that he was chosen
+by God to relieve the oppressed, that he was the Mahdi or Messiah of
+Islam. Discontent prevailed among the Mohammedans throughout the Sudan,
+for Egypt had at length prohibited the slave-trade, and the Mahdi
+collected all the discontented people and tribes under his banner. His
+aim was to throw off the yoke of Egypt. Proud and arrogant, he sent
+despatches through the whole of the Sudan, and his summons to a holy war
+flew like a prairie fire over North Africa.
+
+The British Government, which was now responsible for Egypt, was in a
+difficulty. The Sudan must either be conquered or evacuated, for the
+Egyptian garrisons were still at Khartum and at several places even down
+to the equator. The Government decided on evacuation, and Gordon was
+sent to perform the task of withdrawing all the garrisons. He accepted
+the mission and set out immediately for Cairo.
+
+Thus Gordon began his last journey up the Nile. At Korosko, just at the
+northern end of the great S-shaped bend of the Nile, he mounted his
+dromedary and followed the narrow winding path which has been worn out
+during thousands of years through the dry hollows of the Nubian desert,
+over scorched and weathered volcanic knolls and through dunes of
+suffocating sand.
+
+On February 18, 1884, Gordon, for the second time Governor-General of
+the Sudan, made his entry into Khartum, where he took up his quarters in
+his old palace. Cruelty and injustice had again sprung up during the
+years he had been absent. He opened the gates of the overcrowded gaols,
+and the prisoners were released and their fetters removed. All accounts
+of unpaid taxes were burned in front of the palace. All implements of
+punishment and torture were broken to pieces and thrown into the Nile.
+
+Then began the evacuation of the town. As many as 3000 women and
+children were sent to Abu Hamed and through the desert to Korosko. They
+got through without danger and were saved. Where women and children
+could travel, it would have been easy to lead troops from Egypt. Instead
+of this, however, England despatched an expedition to Suakin to secure
+an outlet on the Red Sea, whereupon the rebellious tribes of the Sudan
+were roused to fury, believing that the white men intended to come and
+take their country. Consequently they rallied all the more resolutely
+round the Mahdi, and their hatred extended to the dreaded Gordon and the
+few Europeans with him in Khartum.
+
+As long as the telegraph line was still available to Cairo, Gordon kept
+the authorities informed of the state of affairs and pointed out what
+should be done to ensure success. He asked especially that the road from
+Berber to Suakin should be held, for from this line also the Sudan could
+be controlled, but his advice was not attended to and Berber was
+eventually surrounded by the Mahdi's troops and captured. Several chiefs
+north and north-east of Khartum, who had previously been friendly
+disposed, now joined the Mahdi. News of fresh desertions came constantly
+to Khartum, and even in the town itself Gordon was surrounded by
+traitors. On March 10 the telegraph line was cut and then followed six
+months of silence, during which the world learned little or nothing of
+the brave soldier in the heart of Africa. On March 11 Arab war parties
+appeared on the bank of the Blue Nile, for the Mahdi was drawing his net
+ever closer round the unfortunate town.
+
+During the preceding years the Egyptian Government had caused Khartum to
+be fortified after a fashion, and during the earlier months of the siege
+Gordon worked day and night to strengthen the defences. His soldiers
+threw up earthern ramparts round the town, a network of wire
+entanglements was set up, and mines were laid at places where an assault
+might be expected. At the end of April the town was entirely blockaded,
+and only the river route to the north was still open. At the beginning
+of May the Arabs crossed the Blue Nile, suffering great losses from
+exploding mines and the guns of the town. In the early part of September
+there were still provisions for three months, and the Arabs, perceiving
+that they could not take the town by storm from the White Pasha,
+resolved to starve it out.
+
+The Nile was now at its highest, and huge grey turbid volumes of water
+hurried northwards. Now was the only chance for a small steamer to try
+to get to Dongola, where it would be in safety. On the night of
+September 9 a small steamer was made ready for starting, and Gordon's
+only English comrades, Colonel Stewart and Mr. Power, went on board,
+together with the French Consul, a number of Greeks, and fifty soldiers.
+They took with them accounts of the siege, correspondence, lists and
+details about provisions, ammunition, arms, men, and plans of defence,
+and everything else of particular value. Silently the steamer moved off
+from the bank, and when day dawned Gordon was alone. Alas, the little
+steamer never reached Dongola, for it was wrecked immediately below Abu
+Hamed. Every soul on board was murdered, and all papers of value fell
+into the hands of the Mahdi. On the other hand, Gordon's diary from
+September 10 to December 14, 1884, is still extant, and is wonderful
+reading.
+
+By this time the British Government had at last decided to send an
+expedition to relieve Khartum. River boats were built in great numbers,
+troops were equipped for the field, the famous general, Lord Wolseley,
+was in command, and by the middle of September the first infantry
+battalion was up at Dongola on the northern half of the great S of the
+Nile. But then the steamers had only just arrived at Alexandria, and had
+to be taken up the Nile and tediously dragged through the cataracts,
+while the desert column which was to make the final advance on Khartum
+had not yet left England. A long time would be required to get
+everything ready.
+
+In Khartum comparative quiet as yet prevailed. The dervishes bided their
+time patiently, encamping barely six miles from the outworks. Shots were
+exchanged only at a distance. On September 21 Gordon learned by a
+messenger that the relief expedition was on the way, and ten days later
+he sent his steamboats northwards to meet it and to hasten the
+forwarding of troops. But thereby he lost half of his own power of
+resistance.
+
+On October 21 the Mahdi himself arrived in the camp outside Khartum, and
+on the following day sent Gordon convincing proofs that Stewart's
+steamboat had sunk and that all on board had been slain. He added a list
+of all the journals and documents found on board. From these the Mahdi
+had learned almost to a day how long Khartum could hold out, the
+strength of the garrison, the scheme of defence, where the batteries
+stood and how long the ammunition would last. This was a terrible blow
+to the lonely soldier, but it did not break down his courage. The death
+of Stewart and his companions grieved him inexpressibly, but he sent an
+answer to the Mahdi that if 20,000 boats had been taken it would be all
+the same to him--"I am here like iron."
+
+In the relief expedition was a major named Kitchener, who was afterwards
+to become very famous. He tried to get into Khartum in disguise to carry
+information to Gordon, and he did succeed in sending him a letter with
+the news that the relieving force would set out from Dongola on November
+1. When the letter reached Gordon the corps had been two days on the
+march, but the distance from Dongola to Khartum is 280 miles in a
+straight line.
+
+By November 22 Gordon had lost nearly 1900 of his fighting men, but his
+diary shows that he was still hopeful. On December 10 there were still
+provisions for fifteen days. The entries in the diary now become
+shorter, and repeatedly speak of fugitives and deserters, and of the
+diminishing store of provisions. On December 14 Gordon had a last
+opportunity of sending news from Khartum, and the diary which the
+messenger took with him closes with these words: "I have done the best
+for the honour of our country. Good-bye."
+
+After the sending-off of the diary impenetrable darkness hides the
+occurrences of the last weeks in Khartum. One or two circumstances,
+however, were made known by deserters. During the forty days during
+which the town held out after December 14, 15,000 townspeople were sent
+over to the Mahdi's camp, and only 14,000 civilians and soldiers were
+left in the doomed city. Omdurman fell, and the Mahdi's troops pressed
+every day more closely on all sides. Actual starvation began, and rats
+and mice, hides and leather were eaten, and palms stripped to obtain the
+soft fibres inside. But the White Pasha rejected all proposals to
+surrender.
+
+Meanwhile the relief columns struggled southwards and on January 20,
+1885, reached Metemma, only a hundred miles from Khartum. There they
+fell in with Gordon's boats, which had lain waiting in vain for four
+months, and four days later two of the boats started for Khartum.
+
+Halfway they had to pass up the sixth cataract, there losing two days
+more, and not till the 28th had they left the rapids behind them. The
+noonday sun was shining brightly when the English soldiers and their
+officers saw Khartum straight in front of them on the point between the
+White and Blue Niles. All glasses were turned on the tall palace; every
+one was in the greatest excitement and dared hardly breathe, much less
+speak. There stood Gordon's palace, but no flag waved from the roof.
+
+The boats go on, but no shouts of gladness greet their crews as
+long-looked-for rescuers. When they are within range the dervishes open
+fire, and wild troops intoxicated with victory gather on the bank.
+Khartum is in the hands of the Mahdi, and help has come 48 hours too
+late.
+
+Two days before, January 26, the dervishes, furious at their continual
+losses and the obstinate resistance of the town, had flocked together
+for a final assault. The attack was made during the darkest hour of the
+night, after the moon had set. The defenders were worn out and rendered
+indifferent by the pangs of hunger. The dervishes rushed into the town,
+filling the streets and lanes with their savage howling. It was then
+that Gordon gathered together his twenty remaining faithful soldiers and
+servants, and dashed sword in hand out of the palace. It was growing
+light in the east, and the outlines of bushes and thickets on the Blue
+Nile were becoming clear. The small party took their way across an open
+square to the Austrian Mission church, which had previously been put in
+order for a last refuge. On the way they were met by a crowd of
+dervishes and were killed to the last man. Foremost among the slain was
+Gordon.
+
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN
+
+The Mahdi did not long enjoy the fruits of his victory, for he died five
+months to the day after the fall of Khartum. His successor, Abdullah,
+bore the title of Khalifa, and for thirteen years was a scourge to the
+unfortunate land. The tribes of the Sudan, tired of the oppression of
+Egypt, had welcomed the Mahdi as a deliverer, but they had only
+exchanged Turkish pashas for a tyrant unmatched in cruelty and
+shamelessness. Abdullah plundered and exhausted the country, but with
+the money and agricultural produce he extorted from the people he was
+able to maintain a splendid army always ready for the field. His capital
+was Omdurman, where the Mahdi was buried under a dome; but he did not
+fortify the town, for long before any Christian dogs could advance so
+far their bones would whiten in the sands of Nubia.
+
+Yet after many years the hour of vengeance was at hand. The British
+Government had taken the pacification of the Sudan in hand, and in 1898
+an army composed of British and Egyptian troops was advancing quietly
+and surely up the Nile. There was no need to hurry, and every step was
+made with prudence and consideration. The leader, General Kitchener, the
+last man to send a letter to Gordon, made his plans with such foresight
+and skill that he could calculate two years in advance almost the very
+day when Khartum and Omdurman would be in his hands.
+
+At the Atbara, the great tributary of the Nile which flows down from the
+mountains of Abyssinia, Kitchener inflicted his first great defeat on
+the Khalifa's army in a bloody battle. From Atbara the troops pushed on
+to Metemma without further fighting, and on August 28 they were only
+four days' march from Khartum.
+
+The green of acacia and mimosa is now conspicuous on the banks of the
+river, which is very high. The grey gunboats pass slowly up the Nile in
+the blazing sun, and the troops push on as steadily and as surely as
+they have from the start of the expedition. Small parties of mounted
+dervishes are seen in the far distance. The country becomes more
+diversified, and the route runs through clumps of bushes and between
+hillocks. A short distance in front are seen white tents, flags, and
+horsemen, and the roll of drums is heard. It is the Khalifa calling his
+men to the fight; but at the last moment the position is abandoned, the
+dervishes retire, and Kitchener's army continues its march.
+
+At length the vaulted dome over the Mahdi's grave beside the Nile bank
+rises above the southern horizon, and round about it are perceived the
+mud houses and walls of Omdurman. Between the town and the attacking
+army stretches a level sandy plain scantily clothed with yellow grass;
+and here took place a battle which will not be forgotten for centuries
+throughout the Sudan.
+
+On the morning of September 2, Kitchener's forces are drawn up in order
+of battle. Single horsemen emerge from the dust on the hillocks,
+increase in number, and then come in clouds like locusts--an army of
+50,000 dervishes. Their fanatical war-cry rises up to heaven, gathers
+strength, grows louder, and rolls along like a storm wind coming in
+from the sea. They charge at a furious pace in an unbroken line, and it
+looks as though they would ride like a crushing avalanche right over the
+enemy. But the moment they come within range fire issues from thousands
+of rifles, and the dervishes find themselves in a perfect hail of
+bullets. Their ranks are thinned, but they check their course only for a
+moment, and ride on in blind fury and with a bravery which only
+religious conviction can inspire. The English machine guns scatter their
+death-bolts so rapidly that a continuous roll of thunder is heard, and
+the dervishes fall in heaps like ripe corn before the scythe. The fallen
+ranks are constantly replaced by fresh reinforcements, but at last the
+dervishes have had enough and beat a retreat. At once Kitchener pressed
+on to Omdurman, but the bloody day is not yet at an end. The dervish
+horsemen rally yet once more. The Khalifa's standard is planted in the
+ground on a mound, and beside it the Prophet's green banner calls the
+faithful together for a last desperate struggle. The English and their
+Egyptian allies fight with admirable courage, and the dervishes strike
+with a bravery and contempt of death to which no words can do justice.
+Under the holy banner a detachment advances into the fire, wavers, is
+mown down, and falls, and almost before the smoke of the powder has
+cleared away, another presses forward on the track of the slain, only to
+meet the same fate and join their comrades in the happy hunting-grounds
+of eternity.
+
+At length the day was ended and the Khalifa's army annihilated--11,000
+killed, 16,000 wounded, and 4000 prisoners! The Khalifa himself escaped.
+His harem and servants deserted him, and he who in the morning had been
+absolute ruler over an immense kingdom, wandered about in the woods like
+an outlaw. He fled to the south-west and succeeded in collecting another
+army, which was completely cut to pieces the following year in a battle
+in which he himself also perished.
+
+When all was quiet in Omdurman, the victors had a solemn duty to fulfil.
+Thirteen and a half years had passed since the death of Gordon, and at
+last the obsequies of the hero were to be celebrated in a fitting
+manner. In the court in front of Gordon's palace the troops are drawn up
+on three sides of a square, and on the fourth stands the victor,
+surrounded by generals of divisions and brigades and by his staff.
+Kitchener raises his hand, and in a moment the Union Jack rises to the
+top of the flagstaff on the palace, while a thundering salute from the
+gunboats greets the new colours and the Guards' band plays the National
+Anthem. Another sign, and the flag of Egypt goes up beside the Union
+Jack and the Khedive's hymn is played. Then the belated funeral service
+is impressively conducted by four clergymen of different Christian
+denominations, the Sudanese band plays a hymn which Gordon loved, and
+lastly Kitchener is saluted with the greatest enthusiasm by the officers
+and men under his command.
+
+
+OSTRICHES
+
+Now all is changed in the Sudan. A railway runs from the Nile delta up
+to Khartum, and another connects Berber with the Red Sea. In Khartum
+there are schools, hospitals, churches, and other public buildings, and
+one can travel safely by steamboat up to the great lakes. Gordon's
+scheme to connect the Victoria Nyanza with Mombasa on the coast has been
+carried out, and a railway has been constructed through British East
+Africa. White men have advanced from all sides deeper and deeper into
+the Black Continent, and have made themselves masters of almost all
+Africa. Wild animals have suffered by this intrusion into their formerly
+peaceful domain, and their numbers have been diminished by the chase. In
+some districts game has quite disappeared, the animals having sought
+remoter regions where they can live undisturbed.
+
+In the Sahara, in the Libyan desert, on the open grasslands along the
+Upper Nile, on the veldt of South Africa, wherever the country is open
+and free, lives the ostrich; but it does not occur in the worst desert
+tracts, which it crosses only in case of necessity, for it likes to have
+water always near at hand.
+
+The appearance of the ostrich is no doubt familiar. It is powerfully
+built; its long bare neck supports a small flattened head with large
+bright eyes; the long legs rest on two toes; and the wings are so small
+that the animal is always restricted to the surface of the ground,
+where, however, it can move with remarkable swiftness. The valuable
+feathers grow on the wings. The ostrich attains a height of eight feet,
+and when full grown may weigh as much as 165 pounds.
+
+Ostriches live in small flocks of only five or six birds. They feed in
+the morning, chiefly on plants, but they also devour small animals and
+reptiles. By midday their stomachs are full, and they rest or play,
+leaping in circles over the sand, regardless of the blazing sun or the
+heated ground. Then they drink and wander about eating in the afternoon.
+In the evening they seek their roosting-places.
+
+Sight is the ostrich's acutest sense, but its scent and hearing are also
+sharp. When it is pursued, it darts off with fluttering wings, taking
+steps ten or twelve feet long. It is always on the look-out for danger,
+and the zebra likes to keep near it to avail itself of the bird's
+watchfulness. In North Africa the Arabs hunt the ostrich on swift horses
+or running dromedaries. Two or three horsemen follow a male, which after
+an hour's course is tired out, and gradually relaxes its pace. The
+horses also are tired after such a chase, but one of the riders urges on
+his steed to a last spurt, rushes past the ostrich, and hits it on the
+head so that it falls to the ground. The bird is then skinned, the skin
+being turned inside out so as to form a bag for the feathers. The
+feathers of the wild ostrich are much finer and more valuable than those
+of the tame. A full-grown ostrich has only fourteen of the largest white
+feathers.
+
+The hens lay their eggs in a shallow hollow in loamy or sandy soil, and
+it is the male bird which sits on the eggs. In the daytime the nest may
+be left for hours, but then the ostriches cover the eggs with sand. The
+young ones leave their shells after six weeks and go out into the
+desert. They are already as large as fowls, but then an ostrich egg
+weighs as much as twenty-four hen's eggs, and measures six inches along
+its greatest diameter.
+
+The ostrich is remarkably greedy, and turns away from nothing. The great
+zoologist, Brehm, who had tame ostriches under his care, reports that
+they ate rats and chickens and swallowed small stones and potsherds, and
+once or twice his bunch of keys disappeared down the stomach of an
+ostrich. In one ostrich's stomach was found nine pounds of
+"ballast"--stones, rags, buttons, bits of metal, coins, keys, etc.
+
+Some say that the ostrich is inconceivably stupid, but others will not
+accept such a severe condemnation. The traveller Schillings, who is
+noted for his photographs of big game in Africa taken at night by
+flashlight, once followed the spoor of some lions for several hours.
+Suddenly he came upon an ostrich's nest with newly hatched chickens, and
+he wondered where the parents were. To his astonishment, he found that
+the lion had not touched the defenceless creatures, and he soon
+discovered the reason. In the moonlight night the ostriches had
+perceived the danger in time and sprang up to lure the lion away from
+the nest. Their stratagem succeeded, for it was evident from the spoor
+that the lion had pursued the flying ostriches farther and farther from
+the nest. And when the pair of ostriches thought that they had enticed
+the king of animals far enough off, they returned home.
+
+
+BABOONS
+
+Baboons are monkeys which resemble dogs rather than human beings, and
+almost always remain on the ground, seldom climbing trees. They are
+cruel, malicious, and cunning, their expression is fierce and savage,
+and their eyes wicked. Among their allies they are surpassed in strength
+only by the gorilla; and they are bold and spirited, and do not shun a
+deadly struggle with the leopard. They have sharp and powerful teeth
+with which to defend themselves, and their tusks are very formidable.
+
+The old Egyptians paid deep homage to the sacred apes, which belong to
+the baboon tribe, and had them represented on their monuments as judges
+in the kingdom of death. They live in large companies among the cliffs
+of the Red Sea coast of Nubia and Abyssinia, but they also occur in the
+interior on high mountains. Roots, fruits, worms, and snails are their
+chief food. They are afraid of snakes, but they catch scorpions,
+carefully pinching off the poison gland before eating the reptiles. When
+durra fields are in the neighbourhood of the baboons' haunts, watchmen
+must be posted, or the animals work great havoc among the grain. And
+when they are out on a raid, they, too, have sentinels on the lookout in
+every direction.
+
+During the night and when it rains they sit huddled up among
+inaccessible rocks, whither they climb with wonderful activity. They
+sally forth in the morning to satisfy their hunger, returning to the
+high rocks at noon. Afterwards they go to the nearest brook or spring to
+drink, and after another meal retire for the night.
+
+If a party of such baboons, consisting perhaps of a hundred individuals,
+is sitting in a row near the edge of a cliff and suddenly becomes aware
+of a threatening danger--as, for instance, a prowling leopard--they all
+utter the most singular noises, grunting, shrieking, barking, and
+growling. The old males go to the edge and look down into the valley,
+fuss about and show their ugly tusks and strike their forepaws against
+the sides of the rock with a loud smack. The young ones seek their
+mother's protection and keep behind them.
+
+Brehm once surprised such a party huddled together on the margin of a
+cliff. The first shot that echoed through the valley roused the greatest
+commotion and displeasure, and the monkeys howled and bellowed in
+chorus. Then they began to move with astonishing activity and
+surefootedness. Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no
+damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh shot they
+halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks and yelled abuse at
+their disturbers. The front of the cliff seemed in some places to be
+vertical, but the baboons climbed about everywhere. At the next bend of
+the road the whole troop came down into the valley, intending to
+continue their flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting
+dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop of baboons,
+but before they could come up with it, the old baboons halted, turned
+round and presented such a terrible front to the dogs that these quickly
+turned back. When the dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time,
+most of the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few
+remaining in the valley, among them a small young one. Frightened at the
+onslaught of the dogs, the little creature fled shrieking up a boulder,
+while the dogs stood round its base. Brehm wished to catch the young one
+alive, but just then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no
+heed of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, controlling
+them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block, whispered some calming
+sound into the ear of the young one, and set out on his return with his
+protégé. The dogs were so cowed that they never attacked, and both the
+young baboon and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their
+friends.
+
+
+THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
+
+In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large, clumsy,
+and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred also in Lower Egypt,
+where it was called the river hog, but at the present day it is
+necessary to go a good distance south of Nubia in order to find it. In
+many rivers it migrates with the seasons. It descends the river as this
+falls in the dry season, and moves up again when the bed is filled by
+rain.
+
+The body of the hippopotamus is round and clumsy, and is supported by
+four short shapeless legs with four hoofed toes on each foot. The
+singular head is nearly quadrangular, the eyes and ears are small, the
+snout enormously broad and the nostrils wide (Plate XXIX.). The hairless
+hide, three-quarters of an inch thick, changes from grey to dark brown
+and dirty red according as it is dry or wet. The animal is thirteen feet
+long, without the small short tail, and weighs as much as thirty
+full-grown men.
+
+The hippopotamus spends most of his time in the water, but goes on land
+at night, especially in those districts where the rivers do not afford
+much food. Stealing carefully along a quiet river the traveller may
+often take him by surprise, and see two small jets of water rise from
+his nostrils when he comes up to breathe, snorting and puffing noisily.
+Then he dives again, and can remain under water three or four minutes.
+When he lies near the surface only six small knobs are seen above the
+water, the ears, eyes, and nostrils. If he is not quite sure of the
+neighbourhood, he thrusts only his nostrils above water and breathes as
+noiselessly as possible.
+
+Hippopotami often lie splashing in shallow water, or climb up on to the
+bank to sun themselves and have a quiet lazy time. Very frequently they
+are heard to make a grunting noise of satisfaction. When evening comes
+they seek the deeper parts of the river, where they swim up and down,
+chase one another, and roll about in the water with great nimbleness and
+activity. They swim with great speed, throwing themselves forward in
+jerks, and filling the air with their gurgling bellowing cry; yet if
+they like they can swim so quietly that not the least ripple is heard. A
+wounded hippopotamus stirs up the water so that a small canoe may
+capsize in the swell from his forequarters.
+
+When several old males are bellowing together, the din is heard for
+miles through the forest and rolls like thunder over the water. No other
+animal can make such a noise. Even the lion stops to listen.
+
+On the Upper Nile, above Khartum, where the most luxuriant vegetation
+struggles for room on the banks, and the river often loses itself in
+lakes and swamps, the hippopotamus, like the crocodile, seldom goes
+ashore. Here he lives under lotus plants and papyrus leaves, soft reeds
+and all the other juicy vegetation that thrives in water-logged ground.
+He dives and rummages for a couple of minutes, stirring up the water far
+around. When he has his huge mouth full of stems and leaves, he comes up
+to the surface again, and the water streams in cataracts off his rounded
+body.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXIX. A HIPPOPOTAMUS.]
+
+In districts where he goes on land to graze, he often works great damage
+among the corn and green crops, and may even attack the villagers. And
+he is not always to be trifled with if a canoe disturbs his repose. The
+most dangerous is a mother when her young ones are small. She carries
+them on her back as she swims and dives, sometimes to the bottom of the
+river. A gun must be heavily loaded if the shot is to have any effect on
+such a monster, and penetrate such a cuirass of hide. If the animal
+puffs and dives, he is lost to the hunter; but if he raises himself high
+out of the water and then falls again with a heavy thud, the wound is
+mortal and the hippopotamus sinks to the bottom. After an hour or two
+the body rises to the surface again.
+
+Some negro tribes on the White Nile dig pitfalls for hippopotami, and on
+the rivers which enter Lake Ngami (see map, p. 262) on its northern
+shore the natives hunt for them with harpoons, much in the same way as
+whales are killed in the northern and southern oceans. The harpoons have
+a sharp barbed blade of iron, and this point is secured by strong string
+to a stout shaft of wood, the end of which is attached by a line to a
+float. Two canoes are dragged on to a raft of bundles of reed tied
+together, and between them the black hunters crouch with harpoons and
+light javelins in their hands. When all is ready, the raft is pushed out
+into the current and drifts noiselessly down the river. The huge animals
+can be heard rolling and splashing in the water in the distance, but
+they are still hidden behind a bed of reeds. The raft glides gently past
+the point, but the hippopotami suspect no danger. One of them comes up
+close beside the raft. The harpooner stands up like a flash of lightning
+and drives his sharp weapon with all his strength into the animal's
+flank. The wounded hippopotamus dives immediately to the bottom, and the
+line runs out. The float follows the hippopotamus wherever he takes his
+flight, and the canoes, now in the water, follow. When the brute comes
+up again, he is received with a shower of javelins, and dives again,
+leaving a blood-red streak behind him. He may be irritated when he is
+attacked time after time by spears, and it may happen that he turns on
+his persecutors and crushes a too venturesome canoe with his great
+tusks, or gives it a blow underneath with his head. Sometimes the animal
+is not content with the canoes, but attacks the men, and many too daring
+hunters have lost their lives in this way. When the hippopotamus has
+been sufficiently tired out, the hunters pick up the float, and take
+the line ashore to wind it round a tree, and then they pull with all
+their might to draw the creature up out of the water.
+
+The flesh is eaten everywhere, especially that of the young animals, and
+the tongue and the fat of the older ones are considered delicacies.
+Riding-whips, shields, and many other articles are made out of the hide,
+and the large tusks are valuable. Hippopotami may be seen in some of the
+zoological gardens in Europe, but they do not thrive well in the care of
+man.
+
+
+MAN-EATING LIONS
+
+A terrible tale of man-eating lions is told by Colonel Patterson in his
+book _The Man-Eaters of Tsavo_.
+
+Colonel Patterson had been ordered for service on the Uganda Railway,
+which runs from Mombasa north-westwards through British East Africa to
+the great lake Victoria Nyanza, the largest source-lake of the Nile. But
+in 1898, when the Colonel arrived, the railway had not been carried
+farther than the Tsavo, a tributary of the Sabaki, which enters the sea
+north of Mombasa. Here at Tsavo (see map, p. 237) the Colonel had his
+headquarters, and in the neighbourhood were camped some thousands of
+railway coolies from India. A temporary wooden bridge crossed the Tsavo,
+and the Colonel was to build a permanent iron bridge over the river, and
+had besides the supervision of the railway works for thirty miles in
+each direction.
+
+Some days after his arrival at Tsavo the Colonel heard of two lions
+which made the country unsafe. He paid little heed to these reports
+until a couple of weeks later, when one of his own servants was carried
+off by a lion. A comrade, who had a bed in the same tent, had seen the
+lion steal noiselessly into the camp in the middle of the night, go
+straight to the tent, and seize the man by the throat. The poor fellow
+cried out "Let go," and threw his arms round the beast's neck, and then
+the silence of night again fell over the surroundings. Next morning the
+Colonel was able to follow the lion's spoor easily, for the victim's
+heels had scraped along the sand all the way. At the place where the
+lion had stopped to make his meal, only the clothes and head of the
+unfortunate man were found, with the eyes fixed in a stare of terror.
+
+Disturbed by this sight and the sorrowful occurrence, the Colonel made a
+solemn oath that he would give himself no rest until both the lions
+were dead. Gun in hand, he climbed up into a tree close by his servants'
+tent and waited. The night was quiet and dark. In the distance was heard
+a roar, which came nearer as the two man-eaters stole up in search of
+another victim. Then there was silence again, for lions always attack in
+silence, though when they start on their night prowl they utter their
+hoarse, awful cry, as though to give warning to the men and animals in
+the neighbourhood. The Colonel waited. Then he heard a cry of terror and
+despair from another camp a hundred yards away, and after that all was
+still again. A man had been seized and dragged away.
+
+Now the Colonel chose a waiting-place where the last man had been
+carried off, but here, too, he was disappointed. A heart-rending shriek
+rang through the night at still another part of the camp, and another
+workman was missing.
+
+The Indian workmen lay in several scattered camps, and evidently the
+lions chose a fresh camp every night to mislead the men. When they found
+that they could carry off a man with impunity every night or every other
+night, they grew bolder, and showed not the least fear of the camp
+fires, which were always kept alight. They paid no heed to the noise and
+tumult they caused, or even to gunshots fired at them in the darkness. A
+tall, thick fence of tough, thorny bushes was erected round each camp as
+a protection, but the lions always jumped over or broke through it when
+they wanted a man. In the daytime the Colonel followed their tracks,
+which were plainly visible through the thickets, but of course could not
+be perceived on stony ground.
+
+Things became still worse when the rails were laid farther up the
+country, and only a few hundred workmen remained with Colonel Patterson
+at the Tsavo bridge. He had unusually high and strong fences built up
+round his camp, and the fires were enlarged to blazing pyres, watchmen
+kept guard, guns were always ready, and within the enclosure empty oil
+tins were banged together to scare the beasts if possible. But it was
+all no use. Still more victims disappeared. The Indian workmen became so
+panic-stricken that they could not shoot, though the lion was often just
+in front of them. A patient was taken from the hospital tent, and the
+next victim was a water-carrier from another part of the camp. He had
+been lying with his head towards the middle of the tent and his legs
+outwards. The lion had sprung over the fence, seized the man by the
+foot, and dragged him out. In his despair he had grabbed at a box
+standing by the tent canvas, and instead had caught hold of a tent rope,
+which gave way. Then the lion, with his prey in his mouth, had run along
+the fence looking for a weak spot, and when he had found one, he dashed
+right through the fence. Next morning fragments of clothing and flesh
+were found on the paths. The other lion had waited outside, and they had
+consumed their prey together.
+
+Then followed an interval of quiet, during which the lions were engaged
+elsewhere. It was hoped that the tranquillity would continue, and the
+workmen began to sleep outside because of the heat. One night they were
+sitting round a fire, when a lion suddenly jumped noiselessly over the
+fence and stood gazing at them. They started up and threw stones, pieces
+of wood, and firebrands at the beast, but the lion sprang forward,
+seized his man, and dashed through the fence. His companion was waiting
+outside, and they were so impudent that they ate their victim only
+thirty yards off.
+
+The Colonel sat up at night for a whole week at the camp where a visit
+was expected. He says that nothing can be more trying to the nerves than
+such a watch, time after time in vain. He always heard the warning roar
+in the distance, and knew that it meant, "Look out; we are coming." The
+hungry cry sounded hoarser and stronger, and the Colonel knew that one
+of his men, or perhaps he himself, would never again see the sun rise
+over the jungle in the east, and there was always silence when the
+brutes were near. Then the watchmen in the various camps would call out,
+"Look out, brothers, the devil is coming." And shortly afterwards a wild
+scream of distress and the groans of a victim would proclaim that the
+lion's stratagem had been successful again. At last the lions became so
+daring that both cleared the fence at once, to seize a man apiece. Once
+one lion did not succeed in dragging his man through the fence, and had
+to leave him and content himself with a share of his comrade's booty.
+The man left behind was so badly mauled that he died before he could be
+carried to the hospital tent.
+
+No wonder that the poor workmen, wearied and worn by sleeplessness,
+excitement, and fear of death, decided that this state of affairs must
+come to an end. They struck. They said that they had come to Africa to
+work at the railway, and not to supply food for lions. One fine day they
+took a train by storm, put all their belongings into the carriages, took
+their seats themselves, and went off to the coast. The courageous men
+who remained with the Colonel passed the night in trees, in the station
+water-tank, or in covered holes digged down within their tents.
+
+On one occasion the Colonel had invited a friend to come up to Tsavo and
+help him against the lions. The train was late, and it was dark when the
+guest followed the path through the wood to the camp. He had a servant
+with him, who carried a lantern. Half-way a lion rushed down on them
+from a rise, tore four deep gashes in the Englishman's back, and would
+have carried him off if he had not fired his carbine. Dazed with the
+report, the lion loosed his hold and pounced on the servant. Next moment
+he had vanished in the darkness with his prey.
+
+A few days later a Suaheli came and said that the lion had seized an
+ass, and was engaged in his meal not far away. Guided by the Suaheli,
+the Colonel hastened up and could see from a distance the back of the
+lion above the bushes. Unfortunately the guide stepped on a twig, and
+the lion immediately vanished into impenetrable brushwood. Then the
+Colonel ran back and called out all his men. Provided with drums, sheets
+of metal and tin cans, they surrounded the thicket, and closed in with a
+great noise, while the Colonel kept watch at the place where the animal
+would probably come out. Quite right--there he came, huge and fierce,
+angry at being disturbed. He came forward slowly, halting frequently,
+and looking around. His attention was so taken up by the noise that he
+did not notice the sportsman. When he was about thirteen yards off the
+Colonel raised his double-barrelled rifle. The lion heard the movement,
+struck his front claws into the ground, drew back on to his hind paws as
+though to gather himself up for a spring, and snarled wickedly, showing
+his murderous fangs. Then the Colonel took aim at the head, pressed the
+trigger, and--the rifle missed fire!
+
+Fortunately the lion turned at that moment to go back into the thicket,
+and the other shot had no effect but to call forth a furious roar and
+hasten his flight. The untrustworthy gun had been borrowed for the
+occasion, and after this the Colonel determined to rely on his own
+weapon.
+
+The ass lay still untouched. A platform twelve feet high was erected on
+poles close to the carcase, and on this the Colonel took up his position
+at sunset. The twilight is very short on the equator, and the night soon
+grows dark when there is no moon. The nights in Africa's jungles are
+silent with an evil-foreboding and awesome silence, which conceals so
+many ambushes and costs so many lives. The inhabitants of the jungle may
+expect an ambush at any moment. The lonely Colonel waited, gripping his
+rifle hard. He relates himself that he felt more and more anxious as
+time went on. He knew that the lion would come to feed on the ass, for
+no cry of distress was heard from the adjacent camps.
+
+Hist! that sounds like a small twig breaking under a weight. Now it
+sounds like a large body crushing through the bushes. Then all is quiet
+again. No, a deep breath, a sure sign of hunger, betrays the proximity
+of the monster. A terrible roar breaks the stillness of the night. The
+lion has perceived the presence of a man. Will he fly? No, far from it,
+he scorns the ass and makes for the Colonel. For two hours he prowls
+about the platform in gradually diminishing circles. Now the lion has
+matured his plan of attack, and goes straight towards the platform for
+the decisive spring. The animal is just perceptible against the sandy
+ground. When he is quite close the first shot thunders through the
+night, the lion utters a frightened roar and plunges into the nearest
+bushes. He writhes, and bellows, and moans, but the sounds grow weaker,
+till after a few long-drawn breaths all is quiet again. The first
+man-eater has met his fate.
+
+Before the dawn of day the workmen came out with trumpets and drums,
+and, with shouts of rejoicing, carried the lion-killer round the dead
+animal. The other lion continued his visits, and when he too bit the
+dust a short time after, the men could quietly resume their work on the
+railway, and the Colonel, who had freed the neighbourhood from a scourge
+that had troubled it for nine months, became a general hero. The foreman
+composed a grand song in his honour, and presented a valuable
+testimonial from all the men.
+
+One day he dined with the postmaster Ryall in a railway carriage, little
+suspecting the fate that was to befall the latter in the same carriage a
+few months later. A man-eating lion had chosen a small station for his
+hunting-ground, and had carried off one man after another without
+distinction of rank and worth. Ryall travelled with two other Europeans
+up to the place to try and rid it of the lion. On their arrival they
+were told that the animal could not be far away, for it had been quite
+recently in the neighbourhood of the station. The three Europeans
+resolved to watch all night. Ryall's carriage was taken off the train
+and drawn on to a siding. Here the ground had not been levelled, so the
+carriage was tilted a little to one side. After dinner they were to keep
+watch in turns, and Ryall took the first watch. There was a sofa on
+either side of the carriage, one of them higher above the floor than the
+other. Ryall offered these to his guests, but one of them preferred to
+lie on the floor between the sofas. And when Ryall thought he had
+watched long enough without seeing the lion, he lay down to rest on the
+lower sofa.
+
+The carriage had a sliding door which slipped easily in its grooves, and
+was unfastened. When all was quiet the lion crept out of the bush,
+jumped on to the rear platform of the carriage, opened the door with his
+paws, and slipped in. But scarcely had he entered, when the door, in
+consequence of the slope of the carriage, slid to again and latched
+itself. And thus the man-eater was shut in with the three sleeping men.
+
+The sleeper on the higher sofa, awakened by a sharp cry of distress, saw
+the lion, which filled up most of the small space, standing with his
+hind legs on the man lying on the floor, and his forepaws on Ryall, on
+the lower sofa on the opposite side. He jumped down in a fright to try
+and reach the opposite door, but could not get past without putting his
+foot on the back of the lion. To his horror, he found that the servant,
+who had been alarmed by the noise, was leaning against the door outside;
+but, putting forth all his strength, he burst open the door and slipped
+out, whereupon it banged to again. At the same moment a loud crash was
+heard. The lion had sprung through the window with Ryall in his mouth,
+and as the aperture was too small, he had splintered the woodwork like
+paper. The remains of the man were found next day and buried. Shortly
+after the lion was caught in a trap, and was exhibited for several days
+before being shot.
+
+
+DAVID LIVINGSTONE
+
+In a poor but respectable workman's home in Blantyre, near Glasgow, was
+born a hundred years ago a little lad named David Livingstone, who was
+to make himself a great and famous name, not only as the discoverer of
+lakes and rivers, but also as one of the noblest men who ever offered
+their lives for the welfare of mankind.
+
+[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEYS IN AFRICA.]
+
+In the national school of the town he quickly learned to read and
+write. His parents could not afford to let him continue his studies, but
+sent him at ten years of age to a cotton mill, where he had to work from
+six o'clock in the morning till eight in the evening. The hard work did
+not break his spirit, but while the machines hummed around him and the
+thread jumped on the bobbins, his thoughts and his desires flew far
+beyond the close walls of the factory to life and nature outside. He did
+his work so well that his wages were raised, and he spent his gains in
+buying books, which kept him awake far into the night. To add to his
+knowledge he attended a night-school, and on holidays he made long
+excursions with his brothers.
+
+Years fled and the boy David grew up to manhood. One day he told his
+parents that he wished to be a medical missionary, and go to the people
+in the east and south, tend the sick, and preach to any who would
+listen. In order to procure means for his studies he had to save up his
+earnings at the factory, and when the time was come he went with his
+father to Glasgow, hired a room for half-a-crown a week, and read
+medicine. At the end of the session he went back to the factory to
+obtain money for the next winter course. Finally he passed his
+examination with distinction, and then came the last evening in the old
+home and the last morning dawned. His father went with him to Glasgow,
+took a long farewell of his son, and returned home sad and lonely.
+
+Livingstone sailed from England to the Cape, and betook himself to the
+northernmost mission-station, Kuruman in Bechuanaland. Even at this time
+he heard of a fresh-water lake far to the north. It was called Ngami,
+and he hoped to see it one day.
+
+From Kuruman he made several journeys in different directions to gain a
+knowledge of the tribes and their languages, to minister to their sick
+and win their confidence. Once when he was returning home from a journey
+and had still 150 miles to trek, a little black girl was found crouching
+under his waggon. She had run away from her owner because she knew that
+he intended to sell her as a slave as soon as she was full-grown, and as
+she did not wish to be sold she determined to follow the missionary's
+waggon on foot to Kuruman. The good doctor took up the frightened little
+creature and provided her with food and drink. Suddenly he heard her cry
+out. She had caught sight of a man with a gun who had been sent out to
+fetch her and who now came angrily to the waggon. It never occurred to
+Livingstone to leave the defenceless child in the hands of the wretch.
+He took the girl under his protection and told her that no danger would
+befall her henceforth. She was a symbol of Africa, the home of the
+slave-trade. And Africa's slaves needed the help of a great and strong
+man. Livingstone understood the call and worked to his last hour for the
+liberation of the slaves, as Gordon did many years later. He strove
+against the cruel and barbarous customs of the natives and their dark
+superstitions, and hoped in time to be able to train pupils who would
+be sent out to preach all over the country. In one tribe the
+medicine-men were also rainmakers. Livingstone pointed out to the people
+of the tribe that the rainmakers' jugglery was only a fraud and of no
+use, but offered, if they liked, himself to procure water for the
+irrigation of their fields, not by witchcraft but by conducting it along
+a canal from the neighbouring river. Some rough tools were first hewn
+out, and he had soon the whole tribe at work, and the canal and conduits
+were laid out among the crops. And there stood the witch-doctors put to
+shame, as they heard the water purling and filtering into the soil.
+
+In 1843 Livingstone started off to found a new mission-station, named
+Mabotsa. The chief of the place was quite willing to sell land, and he
+received glass beads and other choice wares in payment. Mabotsa lay not
+far from the present Mafeking, but seventy years ago the whole region
+was a wild. On one occasion a lion broke into the village and worried
+the sheep. The natives turned out with their weapons, and Livingstone
+took the lead. The disturber of the peace was badly wounded and retired
+to the bush. But suddenly he rushed out again, threw himself on
+Livingstone, buried his teeth in his shoulder, and crushed his left arm.
+The lion had his paw already on the missionary's head, when a Christian
+native ran up and struck and slashed at the brute. The lion loosed his
+hold in order to fly at his new assailant, who was badly hurt.
+Fortunately the animal was so sorely wounded that its strength was now
+exhausted, and it fell dead on the ground. Livingstone felt the effects
+of the lion's bite for thirty years after, and could never lift his arm
+higher than the shoulder; and when his course was run his body was
+identified by the broken and reunited arm bone. He had to keep quiet for
+a long time until his wound was healed. Then he built the new
+station-house with his own hands, and when all was ready he brought to
+it his young bride, the daughter of a missionary at Kuruman.
+
+Another missionary lived at Mabotsa and did all he could to render
+Livingstone's life miserable. The good doctor hated all quarrelling, and
+did not wish that white men should set a bad example to the blacks, so
+he gladly gave way and moved with his wife forty miles northwards. The
+house in Mabotsa had been built with his own savings, and as the London
+Missionary Society gave him a salary of only a hundred pounds a year,
+there could not be much over to build a house. When he left, the
+natives round Mabotsa were in despair. Even when the oxen were yoked to
+the waggon, they begged him to remain and promised to build him another
+house. It was in vain, however; they lost their friend and saw him drive
+off to the village of Chonuane, which was subject to the chief Sechele.
+
+From the new station Livingstone made a missionary journey eastwards to
+the country whither the Dutch Boers had trekked from the Cape. They had
+left the Cape because they were dissatisfied with the English
+administration of the country, for the English would not allow slavery
+and proclaimed the freedom of the Hottentots. The Boers, then, founded a
+republic of their own, the Transvaal, so named because it lay on the
+other side of the Vaal, a tributary of the Orange River. Here they
+thought they could compel the blacks to work as bondmen in their service
+without being interfered with. They took possession of all the springs,
+and the natives lived on sufferance in their own country. The Boers
+hated Livingstone because they knew that he was an enemy to the slave
+trade and a friend to the natives.
+
+Livingstone had plenty of work at the station. He built his house, he
+cultivated his garden, visited the sick, looked after his guns and
+waggons, made mats and shoes, preached, taught in his children's school,
+lectured on medicine, and instructed the natives who wished to become
+missionaries. In his leisure hours he collected natural history
+specimens, which he sent home, studied the poisonous tsetse fly and the
+deadly fever, and was always searching for remedies. He was never idle.
+
+His new place of abode had one serious defect--it was badly situated as
+regarded rain and irrigation, and therefore Livingstone decided to move
+again forty miles farther to the north, to Kolobeng, where for the third
+time he built himself a house. As before, his black friends were much
+disturbed at his departure, and when they could not induce him to
+remain, the whole tribe packed up their belongings and went with him.
+Then clearing, building, and planting went on again. At Kolobeng
+Livingstone had a fixed abode for quite five years, but this was his
+longest and last sojourn in one place, for his after-life was a
+continuous pilgrimage without rest and repose. As usual, he gained the
+confidence and friendship of the natives.
+
+The worst trouble was the vicinity of the Boers. They accused him of
+providing Sechele's tribe with weapons and exciting them against the
+Boers. They threatened to kill all black missionaries who ventured into
+the Transvaal, and devised plans for getting rid of Livingstone. Under
+such conditions his work could not be successful, and he longed to go
+farther north to countries where he could labour in peace without
+hindrance from white men who were nominally Christians, but treated the
+natives like beasts. Besides, hard times and famine now came to
+Kolobeng. The crops suffered from severe drought, and even the river
+failed. The natives went off to hunt, and the women gathered locusts for
+food. No child came to school, and the church was empty on Sunday.
+
+Then Livingstone resolved to move still farther northwards, and on June
+1, 1849, the party set out. An Englishman named Oswell, who was
+Livingstone's friend, went with them and bore all the expenses of the
+journey. He was a man of means, and so several waggons, eighty oxen,
+twenty horses, and twenty-five servants were provided.
+
+After two months' march they came to the shore of Lake Ngami, which was
+now seen for the first time by Europeans. The king, Lechulatebe, proved
+less friendly than was expected. When he heard that Livingstone intended
+to continue his journey northwards to the great chief Sebituane, he
+feared that the latter would obtain firearms from the white men and
+would come down slaying and pillaging to the country round the lake.
+Finally the expedition was obliged to turn back to Kolobeng.
+Livingstone, however, was not the man to give in, and he went twice more
+to the lake, taking his wife and children with him.
+
+On one of these journeys he came to the kingdom of the great and
+powerful Sebituane, and was received with the most generous hospitality.
+The chief gave him all the information he wished, and promised to help
+him in every way. A few days later, however, Sebituane fell ill of
+inflammation of the lungs and died.
+
+Livingstone then continued his journey north-eastward with Oswell to the
+large village of Linyanti, and shortly after discovered a river so large
+and mighty that it resembled one of the firths of Scotland. The river
+was called the Zambesi. Its lower course had long been known to
+Europeans, but no one knew whence it came. The climate was unhealthy,
+and was not suitable for the new mission-station that Livingstone
+intended to establish. The Makololo people, the tribe of the deceased
+chief, promised to give him land, huts, and oxen if he would stay with
+them, but his mind was now occupied with great schemes and he gave up
+all thoughts of a station. Honest, legitimate trade must first be made
+to flourish. The Makololo had begun to sell slaves simply to be able to
+buy firearms and other coveted wares from Europe. If they could be
+induced to sell ivory and ostrich feathers instead, they would be able
+to procure by barter all they wanted from European traders and need not
+sell any more human beings. But to start such a trade a convenient route
+must first be found to the coast of either the Atlantic or Indian Ocean.
+A country in which the black tribes were in continual war with one
+another simply for the purpose of obtaining slaves was not ripe for
+Christianity. Accordingly Livingstone's plan was clear: first to find a
+way to the coast, and then to foster an honest trade which would make
+the slave-trade unnecessary.
+
+Having sent his wife and children to England, Livingstone made his
+preparations, and in the year 1853 he was at Linyanti, in the country of
+the Makololo. Here began his remarkable journey to Loanda on the west
+coast, not far south of the mouth of the Congo. No European had ever
+travelled this way. His companions were twenty-seven Makololos, and his
+baggage was as light as possible, chiefly cloth and glass beads, which
+serve as currency in Africa. He took no provisions, as he thought he
+could live on what the country afforded.
+
+The journey was difficult and troublesome, through a multitude of savage
+tribes. First the Zambesi was followed upwards, and then the route ran
+along other rivers. In consequence of heavy rain, swollen watercourses
+and treacherous swamps had to be crossed continually. Livingstone rode
+an ox which carried him through the water after a small portable boat
+had been wrecked and abandoned. Swarms of mosquitoes buzzed over the
+moist ground, and Livingstone repeatedly caught fever from the damp,
+close exhalations, and was often so ill that he could not even sit on
+his ox. But amidst all these difficulties and hardships he never omitted
+to observe the natural objects around him and to work at his map of the
+route. His diary was a big volume in stout boards with lock and key, and
+he wrote as small and as neatly as print.
+
+Step by step he came nearer the sea. Most opportunely they met a
+Portuguese, and in his company the small troop entered the Portuguese
+territory on the west coast. The Portuguese received Livingstone with
+great hospitality, supplied him with everything he wanted, and rigged
+him out from top to toe.
+
+Some English cruisers were lying off Loanda, having come to try to put
+down the slave-trade, and Livingstone enjoyed a delightful rest with his
+countrymen and slept in a proper bed after having lain for half a year
+on wet ground. It would have been pleasant to have had a thorough
+holiday on a comfortable vessel on the voyage to England after so many
+years' wanderings in Africa, but Livingstone resisted the temptation. He
+could not send his faithful Makololos adrift; besides, he had found that
+the route to the west coast was not suitable for trade, and was now
+wondering whether the Zambesi might serve as a channel of communication
+between the interior and the east coast. So he decided to turn back in
+spite of fever and danger, bade good-bye to the English and Portuguese,
+and again entered the great solitude.
+
+Before Livingstone left Loanda he put together a large mass of
+correspondence, notes, maps, and descriptions of the newly discovered
+countries, but the English vessel which carried his letters sank at
+Madeira with all on board, and only one passenger was saved. News of the
+misfortune reached Livingstone when he was still near the coast, and he
+had to write and draw all his work again, a task that took him months.
+If he had left the Makololo men to their fate he would have travelled in
+the unfortunate vessel.
+
+Rain and sickness often delayed him, but on the whole his return journey
+was easier. He took with him from Loanda a large stock of presents for
+the chiefs, and they were no longer strangers. And when he came among
+the villages of the Makololo, the whole tribe turned out to welcome him,
+and the good missionary held a thanksgiving service in the presence of
+all the people. Oxen were killed round the fires at night, drums were
+beaten, and with dance and song the people filled the air far above the
+crowns of the bread-fruit trees with sounds of gladness. Sekeletu was
+still friendly, and was given a discarded colonel's uniform from Loanda.
+In this he appeared at church on Sunday, and attracted more attention
+than the preacher and the service. His gratitude was so great that when
+Livingstone set out to the east coast he presented his white friend with
+ten slaughter oxen, three of his best riding oxen, and provisions for
+the way. And more than that, he ordered a hundred and twenty warriors to
+escort him, and gave directions that, as far as his power extended over
+the forests and fields, all hunters and tillers of the ground should
+provide the white man and his retinue with everything they wanted. Not
+the least remarkable circumstance connected with Livingstone's travels
+was that he was able to carry them out without any material help from
+home. He was the friend of the natives, and travelled for long distances
+as their guest.
+
+Now his route ran along the bank of the Zambesi, an unknown road. During
+his earlier visit to Linyanti he had heard of a mighty waterfall on the
+river, and now he discovered this African Niagara, which he named the
+Victoria Falls. Above the falls the river is 1800 yards broad, and the
+huge volumes of water dash down foaming and roaring over a barrier of
+basalt 390 feet high to the depth beneath. The water boils and bubbles
+as in a kettle, and is confined in a rocky chasm in some places barely
+50 yards broad. Clouds of spray and vapour hover constantly above the
+fall, and the natives call it "the smoking water." Among the general
+public in Europe, Livingstone's description of the Victoria Falls made a
+deeper impression than any of his other discoveries, so thoroughly
+unexpected was the discovery in Africa of a waterfall which could match,
+nay in many respects surpass, Niagara in wild beauty and imposing power.
+Now a railway passes over the Falls, and a place has grown up which
+bears the name of Livingstone.
+
+The deafening roar of the water died away in the distance, and the party
+followed the forest paths from the territory of one tribe to that of the
+next. Steadfast as always, Livingstone met all danger and treachery with
+courage and contempt of death, a Titan among geographical explorers as
+well as among Christian missionaries. He drew the main outlines of this
+southern part of Darkest Africa and laid down the course of the Zambesi
+on his map. For a year he had been an explorer rather than a missionary.
+But the dominating thought in his dream of the future was always that
+the end of geographical exploration was only the beginning of missionary
+enterprise.
+
+At the first Portuguese station he left his Makololo men, promising to
+return and lead them back to their own villages. Then he travelled down
+the Zambesi to Quilimane on the sea. He had, therefore, crossed Africa
+from coast to coast, and was the first scientifically educated European
+to do so.
+
+After fifteen years in Africa he had earned a right to go home. An
+English ship carried him to Mauritius, and at the end of 1856 he
+reached England. He was received everywhere with boundless enthusiasm,
+and never was an explorer fêted as he was. He travelled from town to
+town, always welcomed as a hero. He always spoke of the slave-trade and
+the responsibility that rested on the white men to rescue the blacks.
+Africa, lying forgotten and misty beneath its moving rain-belts, became
+at once the object of attention of all the educated world.
+
+Detraction was not silent at the home-coming of the victor. The
+Missionary Society gave him to understand that he had not laboured
+sufficiently for the spread of the Gospel, and that he had been too much
+of an explorer and too little of a missionary. He therefore left the
+Society; and when, after a sojourn of more than a year at home, he
+returned to Africa, it was in the capacity of English Consul in
+Quilimane, and leader of an expedition for the exploration of the
+interior of Africa.
+
+We have no time to accompany Livingstone on his six years' journeys in
+East Africa. Among the most important discoveries he made was that of
+the great Lake Nyassa, from the neighbourhood of which 19,000 slaves
+were carried annually to Zanzibar, to say nothing of the far greater
+numbers who died on the way to the coast. One day Livingstone went down
+to the mouth of the Zambesi to meet an English ship. On board were his
+wife and a small specially built steamer called the _Lady Nyassa_,
+designed for voyages on rivers and lakes. Shortly afterwards his wife
+fell ill and died, and was buried under the leafy branches of a
+bread-fruit tree. In spite of his grief he went on with his work as
+diligently as before, and when the time came for him to sail home, he
+thought of selling the _Lady Nyassa_ to the Portuguese. But when he
+heard that the boat was to be used to transport slaves, he kept it,
+steered a course for Zanzibar, and then resolved to cross the Indian
+Ocean in the small open boat by the use of both sails and steam. This
+was one of Livingstone's most daring exploits, for the distance to
+Bombay was 2500 miles across the open sea, and in the beginning of
+January the south-west monsoon might be expected with its rough, stormy
+seas. He hoped, however, to reach Bombay before the monsoon broke, so
+with three white sailors and nine Africans, and only fourteen tons of
+coal, he steamed out of the harbour of Zanzibar, saw the coast of Africa
+fade away and the dreary waste of water close round him on all sides.
+
+Two of the white sailors fell ill and were unfit for work, and the bold
+missionary had to depend almost entirely on himself. Ocean currents
+hindered the progress of the _Lady Nyassa_, and for twenty-five days she
+was becalmed, for the coal had to be used sparingly, and when the sails
+hung limp from the mast there was nothing to be done but to exercise
+patience. Fortunately there was sufficient food and drinking water, and
+Livingstone was accustomed to opposition and useless waiting. He had to
+ride out two violent storms, and the _Lady Nyassa_ was within a hair's
+breadth of turning broadside to the high seas. In view of the immense
+watery waste that still lay before him he meditated making for the
+Arabian coast, but as a favourable wind got up and the sailing was good
+he kept on his course. At length the coast of India rose up out of the
+sea, and after a voyage of six weeks the _Lady Nyassa_ glided into the
+grand harbour of Bombay. The air was hazy and no one noticed the small
+boat, but when it was known that Livingstone was in the city, every one
+made haste to pay him homage.
+
+In the year 1866 Livingstone was again in Africa. We find him at the
+mouth of the Rovuma, a river which enters the sea to the east of Lake
+Nyassa. He had thirty-seven servants, many of them from India, and one
+of his men, Musa, had been with him before. He crossed the country to
+Lake Nyassa, but when he wished to pass over to the eastern shore in
+native boats, he was stopped by the Arabs, who knew that he was the most
+formidable opponent of the slave-trade. He had no choice but to go round
+the lake on foot, and little by little he made contributions to human
+knowledge, drew maps, and made notes and collections. He came to
+districts he already knew, where black women were carried off by
+crocodiles on the bank of the Shiré River, where he had lost his wife,
+and where all the missionaries sent out on his recommendation had died
+of fever.
+
+His staff of servants soon proved to be a worthless lot. The Indians
+were dismissed, and few of the others could be depended on. The best
+were Susi and Chuma, who by their faithfulness gained a great reputation
+both in Africa and Europe. Musa, on the contrary, was a scoundrel. He
+heard from an Arab slave-dealer that all the country through which
+Livingstone was about to travel was inhabited by a war-like tribe, who
+had lately fallen upon a party of forty-four Arabs and killed all but
+the narrator himself. Musa and most of his comrades were so frightened
+that they ran away. On his arrival at Zanzibar, Musa informed the
+British Consul that Livingstone had been attacked and murdered and all
+his goods plundered. The false account was so cleverly concocted and so
+thoroughly rehearsed that Musa could not be convicted of deceit. Every
+one believed him, and the English newspapers contained whole columns of
+reminiscences of the deceased. Only one friend of Livingstone, who had
+accompanied him on one of his journeys and knew Musa, had any doubts. He
+went himself to Africa, followed Livingstone's trail, and learned from
+the natives that the missionary had never been attacked as reported, but
+that he was on his way to Lake Tanganyika.
+
+The road thither was long and troublesome, and the great explorer
+suffered severe losses. Provisions ran short, and a hired porter ran
+away with the medicine chest. From this time Livingstone had no drugs to
+allay fever, and his health broke down. But he came to the southern
+extremity of Tanganyika, and the following year discovered Lake
+Bangweolo. He rowed out to the islands in the lake, and very much
+astonished the natives, who had never seen a white man before. Extensive
+swamps lay round the lake, and Livingstone believed that the
+southernmost sources of the Nile must be looked for in this region. This
+problem of the watershed of the Nile so fascinated him that he tarried
+year after year in Africa; but he never succeeded in solving it, and
+never knew that the river running out of Bangweolo is a tributary of the
+Lualaba or Upper Congo.
+
+Most of his men mutinied on the shore of Bangweolo. They complained of
+the hardships they endured and were tired of munching ears of maize, and
+demanded that their master should lead them to country where they could
+get sufficient food. Mild and gentle as always, Livingstone spoke to
+them kindly. He admitted that they were right, and confessed that he was
+himself tired of struggling on in want and hardship. They were so
+astonished at his gentleness that they begged to remain with him.
+
+Livingstone was dangerously ill on this journey and had to be carried on
+a litter. There he lay unconscious and delirious with fever, and lost
+entirely his count of time. The troop moved again towards Tanganyika,
+and was to cross the lake in canoes to the Ujiji country on the eastern
+shore. If he could only get so far, he could rest there, and receive new
+supplies and letters from home.
+
+Worn out and exhausted he at length reached Ujiji, a rendezvous for the
+Arab slave-dealers. But his fresh supplies had disappeared entirely. He
+wrote for more from the coast, and urged the Sultan of Zanzibar to see
+that nothing went astray. He wrote heaps of letters which never reached
+their destination. A packet of forty-two were sent off at one time, not
+one of which arrived, for at that time the tribes to the east of the
+lake were at war with one another.
+
+Livingstone did not allow his courage to fail. No difficulties were
+great enough to crush this man. With Susi and Chuma and a party of newly
+enlisted porters, he set out westwards across the lake, his aim being to
+visit the Manyuema country, through the outskirts of which flows the
+Lualaba. If Livingstone could prove in which direction this mighty river
+ran, whether to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, he could then return
+home with a good conscience. He had determined in his own mind that he
+would not leave the Dark Continent until he had solved the problem, and
+for this he sacrificed his life without result. The canoes sped over the
+lake, and on the western shore he continued his journey on foot to the
+land of the Manyuemas. He marched on westwards. When the rainy season
+came on he lost several months, and when he set out again on his next
+march he had only three companions, two of them being the faithful Susi
+and Chuma. In the dark thickets of the tropical forests he wounded his
+feet, dragged himself over fallen trunks and decaying rubbish, and waded
+across swollen rivers; and among the crowns of the lofty trees and in
+the dense undergrowth lurked malaria, an invisible miasma. He fell ill
+again and had to rest a long time in his miserable hut, where he lay on
+his bed of grass reading his tattered Bible, or listening to the
+native's tales of combats with men and apes, for gorillas lived in the
+forests.
+
+Thus year after year passed by, and not the faintest whisper from the
+noisy world reached his ears. The only thing that retained him was the
+Lualaba. Did its waters run in an inexhaustible stream to the western
+ocean, or did they flow gently through forests, swamps, and deserts to
+Egypt? If he could only answer that question, he would go by the nearest
+way to Zanzibar and thence home. He had heard nothing of his children
+and friends for years. The soil of Africa held him prisoner in a network
+of forests and lianas.
+
+In February 1871 he left Manyuema and came to Nyangwé on the bank of the
+Lualaba, one of the principal resorts of slave-dealers. The natives were
+hostile, believing that he was a slave-trader; and the slave-traders who
+knew him by sight hated him. He tried in vain to procure canoes for a
+voyage down the great river. He offered a chief, Dugumbé, a liberal
+reward if he would help him to prepare for this expedition. While
+Dugumbé was considering the offer, Livingstone witnessed an episode
+which surpassed in horror all that he had previously met with in Africa.
+It was a fine day in July on the bank of the Lualaba, and 1500 natives,
+mostly women, had flocked to market at a village on the bank.
+Livingstone was out for a stroll, when he saw two small cannon pointed
+at the crowd and fired. Many of the unfortunate people, doomed to death
+or the fetters of slavery, rushed to their canoes, but were met by a
+band of slave-hunters and surprised by a shower of arrows. Fifty canoes
+lay at the bank, but they were so closely packed that they could not be
+put out. The wounded shrieked and threw themselves on one another in
+wild despair. A number of black heads on the surface of the water showed
+that many swimmers were trying to reach an island about a mile away. The
+current was against them and their case was hopeless. Shot after shot
+was fired at them. Some sank quietly without a struggle, while others
+uttered cries of terror and raised their arms to heaven before they went
+down to the dark crystal halls of the crocodiles. Fugitives who
+succeeded in getting their canoes afloat forgot their paddles and had to
+paddle with their hands. Three canoes, the crews of which tried to
+rescue their unfortunate friends, filled and sank, and all on board were
+drowned. The heads in the water became gradually fewer, and only a few
+men were still struggling for life when Dugumbé took pity on them and
+allowed twenty-one to be saved. One brave woman refused to receive help,
+preferring the mercy of the crocodiles to that of the slave-king. The
+Arabs themselves estimated the dead at 400.
+
+This spectacle made Livingstone ill and depressed. The description of
+the scene which afterwards appeared in all the English journals awakened
+such a feeling of horror that a commission was appointed and sent out to
+Zanzibar to inquire into the slave-trade on the spot, and with the
+Sultan's help devise means of suppressing it. But we know that in
+Gordon's time the slave-trade still flourished in the Sudan, and several
+decades more passed before the power of the slave-dealers was broken. As
+for Livingstone, it was fortunate that he did not accompany Dugumbé, for
+the natives combined for defence, attacked the chiefs party and slew 200
+of the slave-dealing rabble.
+
+Thus the question of the Lualaba remained unsolved, but Livingstone
+began to suspect that his theory of the Nile sources was wrong. He heard
+a doubtful tale of the Lualaba bending off to the west, but he still
+hoped that it flowed northwards, and that therefore the ultimate source
+of the Nile was to be found among the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. When
+difficulties sprang up around him, his determination not to give in was
+only strengthened. But he could do nothing without a large and
+well-ordered caravan, and therefore he had to return to Ujiji, whither
+fresh supplies ought to have arrived from the coast. And amidst a
+thousand dangers and lurking treachery he effected his return through
+the disturbed country. Half dead of fever and in great destitution he
+arrived at Ujiji in October.
+
+There a fresh disappointment awaited him. His supplies had indeed come,
+but the Arabian scoundrel to whose care the goods had been consigned had
+sold them, including 2000 yards of cloth and several sacks of glass
+beads, the only current medium of exchange. The Arab coolly said that he
+thought the missionary was dead.
+
+We read in Livingstone's journal that in his helplessness he felt like
+the man who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves. Five days after
+his arrival at Ujiji he writes as follows: "But when my spirits were at
+their lowest ebb, the good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning
+Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out 'An Englishman!
+I see him!' and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head
+of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods,
+baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, etc., made me think
+'This must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end like
+me!'"
+
+
+HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE
+
+Now we must go back a little and turn to another story.
+
+Henry Stanley was a young journalist, who in October happened to be in
+Madrid. He was on the staff of the great newspaper, the _New York
+Herald_, which was owned by the wealthy Gordon Bennett. One morning
+Stanley was awakened by his servant with a telegram containing only the
+words: "Come to Paris on important business." Stanley travelled to Paris
+by the first train, and at once went to Bennett's hotel. Bennett asked
+him, "Where do you think Livingstone is?"
+
+"I really do not know, sir."
+
+"Do you think he is alive?"
+
+"He may be, and he may not be."
+
+"Well, I think he is alive," said Bennett, "and I am going to send you
+to find him."
+
+"What!" cried Stanley. "Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?"
+
+"Yes; I mean that you shall go and find him. The old man may be in want;
+take enough with you to help him, should he require it. Do what you
+think best--_but find Livingstone_."
+
+In great surprise Stanley suggested that such a journey would be very
+expensive, but Bennett answered, "Draw a thousand pounds now; and when
+you have gone through that, draw another thousand, and when that is
+spent, draw another thousand, and when you have finished that, draw
+another thousand, and so on; _but find Livingstone_."
+
+"Well," thought Stanley, "I will do my best, God helping me." And so he
+went off to Africa.
+
+He had, however, been charged by his employer to fulfil other missions
+on the way. He made a journey up the Nile, visited Jerusalem, travelled
+to Trebizond and Teheran and right through Persia to Bushire, and
+consequently did not arrive at Zanzibar until the beginning of January,
+1871.
+
+Here he made thorough preparations. He had never been before in the
+Africa of the Blacks, but he was a clever, energetic man, with a genius
+for organisation. He bought cloth enough for a hundred men for two
+years, glass beads, brass wire and other goods in request among the
+natives. He bought saddles and tents, guns and cartridges, boats,
+medicine, tools, provisions and asses. Two English sailors volunteered
+for the expedition, and he took them into his service, but both died in
+the fever country. Black porters were engaged, and twenty men he called
+his soldiers carried guns. After he had crossed over from Zanzibar to
+the African mainland, the equipment of the expedition was completed at
+Bagamoyo, and Stanley made haste to get away before the rainy season
+commenced.
+
+The great and well-found caravan of 192 men in all trooped westwards in
+five detachments. Stanley himself led the last detachment, and before
+them lay the wilderness, the interior of Africa with its dark recesses.
+At the first camping-ground tall maize was growing and manioc plants
+were cultivated in extensive fields. The latter is a plant with large
+root bulbs chiefly composed of starch, but also containing a poisonous
+milky juice which is deadly if the roots be eaten without preparation.
+When the sap has been removed by proper treatment, however, the roots
+are crushed into flour, from which a kind of bread is made. Round a
+swamp in the neighbourhood grew low fan-palms and acacias among
+luxuriant grass and reeds.
+
+Next day they marched under ebony and calabash trees, from the shells of
+which the natives make vessels of various shapes, for while they are
+growing the fruits can be forced by outward pressure into almost any
+desired form. Pheasants and quails, water-hens and pigeons flew up
+screaming when the black porters tramped along the path, winding in
+single file through the grass as high as a man. Hippopotami lay snorting
+unconcernedly in a stream that was crossed.
+
+Then came the forerunners of the rainy season, splashing and pelting
+over the country, and pouring showers pattered on the grass. Both the
+horses of the caravan succumbed, one or two fellows who found Bagamoyo
+more comfortable ran away, and a dozen porters fell ill of fever.
+Stanley was still full of energy, and beat the reveille in the morning
+himself with an iron ladle on an empty tin. On they went through dense
+jungle. Now a gang of slaves toils along, their chains clanking at every
+weary step. Here again is a river, and there the road runs up a hill.
+Here the country is barren, but soon after crops wave again round
+villages. Maize fields in a valley are agitated like the swell of the
+sea, and gentle breezes rustle through rain-bedewed sugar-cane. Bananas
+hang down like golden cucumbers, and in barren places tamarisks and
+mimosas perfume the air. Sometimes a halt is made in villages of
+well-built grass huts.
+
+Over swampy grasslands soaked by the continuous rains Stanley led his
+troop deeper and deeper into Africa. After having lasted forty days, the
+rainy season came to an end on the last day of April. The men marched
+through a forest of fine Palmyra palms, a tree which grows over almost
+all tropical Africa, in India, and on the Sunda Islands, and which is
+extolled in an old Indian poem because its fruits, leaves, and wood can
+be applied to eight hundred and one various uses. Afterwards the country
+became more hilly, and to the west one ridge and crest rose behind
+another. The porters and soldiers were glad to leave the damp coast-land
+behind and get into drier country, but the ridges made travelling
+harder. They encamped in villages of beehive-shaped huts covered with
+bamboos and bast, and surrounded by mud walls. Some tracts were so
+barren that only cactus, thistles, and thorny bushes could find support
+in the dry soil, and near a small lake were seen the tracks of wild
+animals, buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, wild boars, and antelopes, which
+came there to drink.
+
+Then the route ran through thickets of tamarisk, and under a canopy of
+monkey bread-fruit trees, till eventually at a village Stanley fell in
+with a large Arab caravan, with which he travelled through the dreaded
+warlike land of Ugogo. When they set out together the whole party
+numbered 400 men, who marched in Indian file along the narrow paths.
+
+"How are you, White Man?" called out a man at Ugogo in a thundering
+voice when Stanley arrived, and when he had set up his quarters in the
+chief's village the natives flocked around to gaze at the first white
+man they had ever seen. They were friendly and offered milk, honey,
+beans, maize, nuts, and water-melons in exchange for cloth and glass
+beads, but also demanded a heavy toll from the caravan for the privilege
+of passing through their country.
+
+The caravan proceeded through the avenues of the jungle, from time
+immemorial frequented by elephants and rhinoceroses. In one district the
+huts were of the same form as Kirghiz tents, and in another rocks rose
+up in the forest like ruins of a fairy palace. The porters were not
+always easy to manage, and on some occasions were refractory. But if
+they were given a young ox to feast on, they quickly calmed down and sat
+round the fire while strips of fresh meat frizzled over the embers.
+
+Now it was only one day's march to Tabora, the principal village in
+Unyamwezi, and the chief settlement of the Arabs in East Africa. The
+caravan set out with loud blasts of trumpets and horns, and on arrival
+discharged a salvo of guns, and Arabs in white dresses and turbans came
+out to welcome the explorer. Here Stanley found all his caravans, and
+the Arabs showed him every attention. They regaled him with wheaten
+loaves, chickens and rice, and presented him with five fat oxen, eight
+sheep, and ten goats. Round about they had cultivated ground and large
+herds, and it was difficult to believe that the stately well-grown men
+were base slave-traders.
+
+Just at this time the country of Unyamwezi was disturbed by a war which
+was raging with Mirambo, a great chief in the north-west, and
+consequently when Stanley left Tabora, now with only fifty-four men, he
+had to make a detour to the south to avoid the seat of war. At every
+step he took, his excitement and uncertainty increased. Where was this
+wonderful Livingstone, whom all the world talked about? Was he dead long
+ago, or was he still wandering about the forests as he had done for
+nearly thirty years?
+
+A bale or two of cloth had frequently to be left with a chief as toll.
+In return one chief sent provisions to last the whole caravan for four
+days, and came himself to Stanley's tent with a troop of black warriors.
+Here they were invited to sit down, and they remained silent for a
+while, closely examining the white man; then they touched his clothes,
+said something to one another, and burst out into unrestrained laughter.
+Then they must see the rifles and medicine chest. Stanley took out a
+bottle of ammonia, and told them that it was good for headaches and
+snake-bites. His black majesty at once complained of headache and wanted
+to try the bottle. Stanley held it under the chiefs nose, and of course
+it was so strong that he fell backwards, pulling a face. His warriors
+roared with laughter, clapped their hands, snapped their fingers,
+pinched one another, and behaved like clowns. When the king had
+recovered, he said, as the tears ran from his eyes, that he was quite
+cured and needed no more of the strong remedy.
+
+A river ran among hills, through a magnificent country abounding in
+game, and lotus leaves floated on the smooth water. The sun sinks and
+the moon soars above the mimosa trees, the river shines like a silver
+mirror, antelopes are on the watch for the dangers of the night. Within
+the enclosure of the camp the black men sit gnawing at the bones of a
+newly-shot zebra. But when it is time to set out again from the
+comfortable camp, the porters would rather remain where they are and
+enjoy themselves, and when the horn sounds they go sullenly and slowly
+to their loads. After half an hour's march they halt, throw down their
+loads, and begin to whisper in threatening groups. Two insubordinate
+ruffians lie in wait with their rifles aimed at Stanley, who at once
+raises his gun and threatens to shoot them on the spot if they do not
+immediately drop their rifles. The mutiny ends without bloodshed, and
+the men promise again to go on steadily to Lake Tanganyika, according to
+their agreement.
+
+Now Stanley is in a forest tract where cattle of all kinds are pestered
+by the tsetse fly, and where the small honey bird flies busily about
+among the trees. It is like the common grey sparrow, but somewhat
+larger, and has a yellow spot on each shoulder. It receives its name
+from its habit of flying in short flights just in front of the natives
+to guide them to the nests of wild bees, in order to get its share of
+the honey. When a man follows it, he must not make a noise to frighten
+it, but only whistle gently, that the bird may know that its intention
+is understood. As it comes nearer to the wild bees' nest, it takes
+shorter flights, and when it is come to the spot, it sits on a branch
+and waits. Stanley says that the honey bird is a great friend of the
+natives, and that they follow it at once when it calls them.
+
+Stanley now turned northwards to a river which flows into Lake
+Tanganyika. The caravan was carried over in small frail boats, and the
+asses which still survived had to swim. When the foremost of them came
+to the middle of the river he was seen to stop a moment, apparently
+struggling, and then he went down, a whirlpool forming above his head.
+He had been seized by a crocodile.
+
+A caravan which came from Ujiji reported that there was a white man in
+that country. "Hurrah, it is Livingstone! It must be Livingstone!"
+thought Stanley. His eagerness and zeal were stimulated to the
+uttermost, and he offered his porters extra pay to induce them to make
+longer marches. Eventually the last camp before Tanganyika was reached
+in safety, and here Stanley took out a new suit of clothes, had his
+helmet chalked, and made himself spruce, for the reports of a white
+man's presence at the lake became more definite.
+
+The 28th of October, 1871, was a beautiful day, and Stanley and his men
+marched for six hours south-westwards. The path ran through dense beds
+of bamboo, the glittering, silvery surface of Tanganyika was seen from a
+height, and blue, hazy mountains appeared afar off on the western shore.
+The whole caravan raised shouts of delight. At the last ridge the
+village of Ujiji came into sight, with its huts and palms and large
+canoes on the beach. Stanley gazed at it with eager eyes. Where was the
+white man's hut? Was Livingstone still alive, or was he a mere dream
+figure which vanished when approached?
+
+The villagers come streaming out to meet the caravan, and there is a
+deafening noise of greeting, enquiries, and shouts.
+
+From the midst of the crowd a black man in a white shirt and a turban
+calls out, "Good morning, sir!"
+
+"Who the mischief are you?" asks Stanley.
+
+"I am Susi, Dr. Livingstone's servant," replied the man.
+
+"What! Is Dr. Livingstone here?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"In this village? Run at once and tell the Doctor I am coming."
+
+When Livingstone heard the news he came out from his verandah and went
+into the courtyard, where all the Arabs of Ujiji had collected. Stanley
+made his way through the crush, and saw a small man before him, grey and
+pale, dressed in a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, a
+red-sleeved waistcoat, and grey trousers. Stanley would have run up to
+embrace him, but he felt ashamed in the presence of the crowd, so he
+simply took off his hat and said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
+
+"Yes," said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.
+
+"I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you."
+
+"I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They sat down on the verandah, and all the astonished natives stood
+round, looking on. The missionary related his experiences in the heart
+of Africa, and then Stanley gave him the general news of the world, for
+of course he knew nothing of what had taken place for years past. Africa
+had been separated from Asia by the Suez Canal. The Pacific Railway
+through North America had been completed. Prussia had taken
+Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, the German armies were besieging Paris,
+and Napoleon the Third was a prisoner. France was bleeding from wounds
+which would never be healed. What news for a man who had just come out
+of the forests of Manyuema!
+
+Evening drew on and still they sat talking. The shades of night spread
+their curtain over the palms, and darkness fell over the mountains where
+Stanley had marched, still in uncertainty, on this remarkable day. A
+heavy surf beat on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The night had travelled
+far over Africa before at last they went to rest.
+
+The two men were four months together. They hired two large canoes and
+rowed to the northern end of Tanganyika, and ascertained that the lake
+had no outlet there. Only two years later Lieutenant Cameron succeeded
+in finding the outlet of Tanganyika, the Lukuga, which discharges into
+the Lualaba; and when he found that Nyangwé on the Lualaba lies 160 feet
+lower than the Nile where it flows out of the Albert Nyanza, he had
+proof that the Lualaba could not belong to the Nile, and that
+Livingstone's idea that the farthest sources of the Nile must be looked
+for at Lake Bangweolo was only an idle dream. The Lualaba therefore must
+make its way to the Atlantic, and in fact this river is nothing but the
+Upper Congo. Lieutenant Cameron was also the first European to cross
+Central Africa from east to west.
+
+On the shores of the great lake the two travellers beheld a series of
+beautiful landscapes. There lay villages and fishing-stations in the
+shade of palms and mimosas, and round the villages grew maize and durra,
+manioc, yams, and sweet potatoes. In the glens round the lake grew tall
+trees from which the natives dig out their canoes. Baboons roared in the
+forests and dwelt in the hollow trunks. Elephants and rhinoceroses,
+giraffes and zebras, hippopotami and wild boars, buffaloes and antelopes
+occurred in large numbers, and the northern extremity of the lake
+swarmed with crocodiles. Sometimes the strangers were inhospitably
+received when they landed, and once when they were off their guard the
+natives plundered their canoes. Among other things they took a case of
+cartridges and bullets, and the travellers thought it would be bad for
+the thieves if the case exploded at some camp fire.
+
+It soon became time, however, for Stanley to return to Zanzibar and
+inform the world through the press that Livingstone was alive. They went
+to Tabora, for Livingstone expected fresh supplies, and in addition
+Stanley gave him forty men's loads of cloth, glass beads and brass-wire,
+a canvas boat, a waterproof tent, two breech-loaders and other weapons,
+ammunition, tools, and cooking utensils. All these things were
+invaluable to Livingstone, who was determined to remain in Africa at any
+cost until his task was accomplished.
+
+The day of parting came--March 14, 1872. Stanley was very depressed,
+believing that the parting was for ever. Livingstone went with him a
+little way and then bade him a hearty farewell, and while Stanley made
+haste towards the coast the Doctor turned back to Tabora and was again
+alone in the immense wilds of Africa. But he had still his faithful
+servants Susi and Chuma with him.
+
+
+THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE
+
+At Zanzibar Stanley was to engage a troop of stout, reliable porters and
+send them to Tabora, where Livingstone was to await their arrival. He
+had entrusted his journals, letters, and maps to Stanley's care, and
+that was fortunate, for when Stanley first arrived in England his
+narrative was doubted, and he was coldly received. Subsequently a
+revulsion of feeling set in, and it was generally recognised that he had
+performed a brilliant feat.
+
+In due time the new supply of porters turned up at Tabora, fifty-seven
+men. They were excellent and trustworthy, and in a letter to Stanley,
+Livingstone says that he did not know how to thank him sufficiently for
+this new service. At the end of August the indefatigable Doctor set off
+on his last journey. He made for Tanganyika, and on New Year's Day,
+1873, he was near Lake Bangweolo. It rained harder than ever, pouring
+down as if the flood-gates of heaven were opened. The caravan struggled
+slowly on through the wet, sometimes marching for hours through sheets
+of water, where only the eddies of the current distinguished the river
+from the adjoining swamps and flooded lands. The natives were
+unfriendly, refused to supply provisions, and led the strangers astray.
+Livingstone had never had such a difficult journey.
+
+His plan was to go round the south of Lake Bangweolo to the Luapula,
+which flows out of the lake and runs to the Lualaba. Then he meant to
+follow the water in its course to the north, and ascertain its direction
+and destination.
+
+But whichever way the mysterious river made its way to the ocean, the
+journey was long, and Livingstone's days were numbered. He had long been
+ill, and his condition was aggravated by the hardships of the journey.
+His body was worn out, and undermined by constant fever and insufficient
+nourishment. Yet he did not abandon hope of success and conscientiously
+wrote down his observations, and no Sunday passed without a service with
+his people.
+
+Month after month he dragged himself along, but his strength was no
+longer what it had been. On April 21 he wrote with trembling hand only
+the words, "Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down and they carried
+me back to vil. exhausted." A comfortable litter was made, and Susi and
+Chuma were always with him. Livingstone asked the chief of the village
+for a guide for the next day, and the chief answered, "Stay as long as
+you wish, and when you want guides to Kalunganjovu's you shall have
+them."
+
+The day after he was carried for two hours through marshy, grassy flats.
+During the next four days he was unable to write a line in his diary,
+but was carried by short stages from village to village along the
+southern shore of Lake Bangweolo. On April 27 he wrote in his diary,
+"Knocked up quite, and remain--recover--sent to buy milch goats. We are
+on the banks of the Molilamo." With these words his diary, which he had
+kept for thirty years, concluded. Milch goats were not to be had, but
+the chief of the place sent a present of food.
+
+Four days later the journey was resumed. The chief provided canoes for
+crossing the Molilamo, a stream which flows into the lake. The invalid
+was transferred from the litter to a canoe, and ferried over the swollen
+stream. On the farther bank Susi went on in advance to the village of
+Chitambo to get a hut ready. The other men followed slowly with the
+litter. Time after time the sick man begged his men to put the litter
+down on the ground and let him rest. A drowsiness seemed to come over
+him which alarmed his servants. At a bend of the path he begged them to
+stop again, for he could go no farther. But after an hour they went on
+to the village. Leaning on their bows, the natives flocked round the
+litter on which lay the man whose fame and reputation had reached them
+in previous years. A hut was made ready, and a bed of grass and sticks
+was set up against the wall, while his boxes were deposited along the
+other walls, and a large chest served as a table. A fire was lighted
+outside the entrance, and the boy Majwara kept watch.
+
+Early on April 20 the chief Chitambo came to pay a visit, but
+Livingstone was too weak to talk to him. The day passed, and at night
+the men sat round their fires and went to sleep when all was quiet.
+About eleven o'clock Susi was told to go to his master. Loud shouts were
+heard in the distance, and Livingstone asked Susi if it was their men
+who were making the noise. As the men were quiet in their huts, Susi
+replied, "I can hear from the cries that the people are scaring away a
+buffalo from their durra fields." A few minutes later he asked, "Is this
+the Luapula?" "No," answered Susi, "we are in Chitambo's village." Then
+again, "How many days is it to the Luapula?" "I think it is three days,
+master," answered Susi. Shortly after he murmured, "O dear, dear!" and
+dozed off again.
+
+At midnight Majwara came again to Susi's hut and called him to the sick
+man. Livingstone wished to take some medicine, and Susi helped him, and
+then he said, "All right, you can go now."
+
+About four o'clock on the morning of May 1 Majwara went to Susi again
+and said, "Come to Bwana, I am afraid; I don't know if he is alive."
+Susi waked Chuma and some of the other men, and they went to
+Livingstone's hut. Their master was kneeling beside the bed, leaning
+forward with his head buried in his hands. They had often seen him at
+prayer, and now drew back in reverential silence. But they felt ill at
+ease, for he did not move; and on going nearer they could not hear him
+breathe. One of them touched his cheek and found it was cold. The
+apostle of Africa was dead.
+
+In deep sorrow his servants laid him on the bed and went out into the
+damp night air to consult together. The cocks of the village had just
+begun to crow, and a new day was dawning over Africa. Then they went in
+to open his boxes and pack up everything. All the men were present so
+that all might be jointly responsible that nothing was lost. They
+carefully placed his diaries and letters, his Bible and instruments, in
+tin boxes so that they might be safe from wet and from white ants, which
+are very destructive.
+
+The men knew that they would have great difficulties to encounter. They
+knew that the natives had a horror of the dead, believing that spirits
+in the dark land of the departed thought of nothing but revenge and
+mischief. Therefore they perform ceremonies to propitiate departed
+spirits and dissuade them from plaguing the living with war, famine, or
+sickness.
+
+Susi and Chuma, who had been with their master for seven years, felt
+their responsibility. They spoke with the men whom Stanley had sent from
+the coast and asked their opinion. They answered, "You are old men in
+travelling and hardships; you must act as our chiefs, and we will
+promise to obey whatever you order us to do." Susi and Chuma accordingly
+took the command, and carried out an exploit which is unique in all the
+history of exploration.
+
+First of all a hut was erected at some little distance from the village,
+and in this they placed the body to prepare it for the long journey. The
+heart and viscera were removed, placed in a tin box, and reverently
+buried in the ground, one of Livingstone's Christian servants reading
+the Funeral Service. The body was then filled with salt and exposed for
+fourteen days to the sun in order to dry and thus be preserved from
+decay. The legs were bent back to make the package shorter, and the body
+was sewed up tightly in cotton. A cylinder of bark was cut from a tree
+and in this the body was enclosed. Round the whole a piece of canvas
+was bound, and the package was tied to a pole for convenience of
+carrying. On a tree near, Livingstone's name was cut and the date of his
+death, and Chitambo was asked to have the grass rooted up round the tree
+so that it should not at any time be destroyed by a bush fire.
+
+When all was ready two men lifted the precious burden from the ground,
+the others took their loads on their backs, and a journey was commenced
+which was to last nine months, a funeral procession the like of which
+the world had never seen before. The route ran sometimes through
+friendly, sometimes through hostile tribes. Once they had to fight in
+order to force their way through. News of the great missionary's death
+had preceded them. Like a grass fire on the prairie it spread over
+Africa from coast to coast, creeping silently through the forests. In
+some districts the people ran away from fear of the sad procession,
+while in others they came up to see it. Bread-fruit trees stretched
+their boughs over the road like a canopy over a victor returning home,
+and palms, the emblems of peace and resurrection, stood as sentinels by
+the way, which was left clear by the wild animals of the forest. And
+mile after mile the party marched eastwards under the green arches.
+
+In Tabora they met an English expedition sent out too late for the
+relief of Livingstone, and its members listened with emotion to the tale
+of the men. They wished to bury the corpse at Tabora, but Livingstone's
+servants would not hear of it. A few days later they met with serious
+opposition. A tribe refused to let them pass with a corpse. Then they
+made up a load resembling that containing the body, and gave out that
+they had decided to return to Tabora to bury their master there. Some of
+the men marched back with the false package, which they took to pieces
+at night and scattered among the bush. Then they returned to their
+comrades, who meanwhile had altered the real package so as to look like
+a bale of cloth. The natives were then satisfied and let them move on
+unmolested.
+
+In February, 1874, they arrived at Bagamoyo, and the remains were
+carried in a cruiser to Zanzibar and afterwards conveyed to England. In
+London there was a question whether the body was really Livingstone's,
+but his broken and reunited arm, which was crushed by the lion at
+Mabotsa, set all doubts at rest. He was interred in Westminster Abbey in
+the middle of the nave. The temple of honour was filled to overflowing,
+and among those who bore the pall was Henry Stanley. The grave was
+covered with a black stone slab, in which was cut the following
+inscription:--
+
+  "BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDS
+  OVER LAND AND SEA,
+  HERE RESTS
+  DAVID LIVINGSTONE,
+  MISSIONARY, TRAVELLER, PHILANTHROPIST.
+  BORN MARCH 19, 1813,
+  BLANTYRE, LANARKSHIRE.
+  DIED May 4th, 1873,
+  AT CHITAMBO'S VILLAGE, ILALA.
+  FOR THIRTY YEARS HIS LIFE WAS SPENT
+  IN AN UNWEARIED EFFORT TO EVANGELISE
+  THE NATIVE RACES, TO EXPLORE THE
+  UNDISCOVERED SECRETS,
+  AND ABOLISH THE DESOLATING SLAVE-TRADE
+  OF CENTRAL AFRICA...."
+
+The memory of the "Wise Heart" or the "Helper of Men," as they called
+Livingstone, is still handed down from father to son among the natives
+of Africa, and they are glad that his heart remains in African soil
+under the tree in Chitambo's village. His dream of finding the sources
+of the Nile, and of throwing light on the destination of the Lualaba,
+was not fulfilled, but he discovered Ngami and Nyassa and other lakes,
+the Victoria Falls and the upper course of the Zambesi, and mapped an
+enormous extent of unknown country.
+
+
+STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY
+
+In the autumn of 1874 Stanley was back in Zanzibar to try his fortune
+once more in Darkest Africa. He organised a caravan of three hundred
+porters, provided himself with cloth, beads, brass-wire, arms, boats
+which could be taken to pieces, tents, and everything else necessary for
+a journey of several years.
+
+He made first for the Victoria Nyanza, and circumnavigated the whole
+lake. He visited Uganda, came again to Ujiji, where Livingstone's hut
+had long been razed to the ground, and sailed all round Lake
+Tanganyika.
+
+Two years after he started he was at Nyangwé on the Lualaba. Livingstone
+and Cameron had been there before, and we can imagine Stanley's feelings
+when he at last found himself at this, the most westerly point ever
+reached by a European from the coast of the Indian Ocean. Behind him lay
+the known country and the great lakes; before him lay a land as large as
+Europe, completely unknown and appearing as a blank on maps. Travellers
+had come to its outskirts from all sides, but none knew what the
+interior was like. It was not even known whither the Lualaba ran.
+Livingstone had vainly questioned the natives and Arabs about it, and
+vainly Stanley also tried to obtain information. At Nyangwé the Arab
+slave-traders held their most western market. Thither corn, fruit, and
+vegetables were brought for sale; there were sold animals, fish, grass
+mats, brass-wire, bows, arrows, and spears; and thither were brought
+ivory and slaves from the interior. But though routes from all
+directions met at Nyangwé, the Arabs were as ignorant of the country as
+any one.
+
+The black continent, "Darkest Africa," lay before Stanley. He was a bold
+man, to whom difficulties were nothing. He had a will of iron. All
+opposition, all obstacles placed in his way, must go down before him. He
+had determined not to return eastwards, whence he had come, but to march
+straight westwards to the Atlantic coast, or die in the attempt.
+Accordingly, early on the morning of November 5, 1876, Stanley left
+Nyangwé in company with the rich and powerful Arab chief, Tippu Tib, and
+directed his way northwards towards the great forest. Tippu Tib's party
+consisted of 700 men, women, and children, while Stanley had 154
+followers armed with rifles, revolvers, and axes. "Bismillah--in the
+name of God!" cried the Mohammedan leaders of the company, as they took
+the first step on the dangerous road.
+
+The huge caravan, an interminable file of black men, entered the forest.
+There majestic trees stood like pillars in a colonnade; there palms
+struggled for room with wild vines and canes; there flourished ferns,
+spear-grass, and reeds, and there bushes in tropical profusion formed
+impenetrable brushwood; while through the whole was entangled a network
+of climbing plants, which ran up the trunks and hung down from the
+branches. Everything was damp and wet. Dew dropped from all the branches
+and leaves in a continuous trickle. The air was close and sultry, and
+heavy with the odour of plants and mould. It was deadly still, and
+seldom was the slightest breeze perceptible; storms might rage above
+the tree-tops, but no wind reached the ground, sheltered in the dimness
+of the undergrowth.
+
+The men struggle along over the slippery ground. Balancing their loads
+on their heads with their hands, they stoop under boughs, push saplings
+aside with their elbows, thrust their feet firmly into the mud in order
+not to slip. Those who are clothed have their clothes torn, while the
+naked black men graze their skins. Very slowly the caravan forces its
+way through the forest, and a passage has frequently to be cut for those
+who carry the sections of the boats.
+
+All who, after Stanley, have travelled through the great primeval forest
+in the heart of Africa have likewise described its suffocating hot-house
+air, the peaceful silence, only broken by the cries of monkeys and
+parrots, its deep, depressing gloom. If the journey is of long duration
+men get wearied, experiencing a feeling of confinement, and long for
+air, freedom, sun, and wind. It is like going through a tunnel, no
+country being visible on either side. The illumination is uniform,
+without shadows, without gleams, and the perpetual gloom, only
+interrupted by pitch-dark night, is exceedingly wearisome. Like polar
+explorers in the long winter night, the traveller longs for the sun and
+the return of light.
+
+The party travelled northwards at some distance east of the Lualaba.
+Stanley climbed up a tree which grew somewhat apart on a hillock. Here
+he found himself above the tree-tops, and saw the sunlit surface of the
+primeval forest of closely growing trees below him. A continuous sea of
+boughs and foliage fell like a swell down to the bank of the Lualaba. Up
+here there was a breeze and the leaves fluttered in the wind; but down
+below reigned darkness and silence and the exuberant life of the
+tropics.
+
+Even for such a man as Stanley this primeval forest was a hard nut to
+crack. Sickness, weariness, and insubordination prevailed in his troop.
+The great Tippu Tib considered it impossible to advance through such a
+country, and wished to turn back with all his black rabble, but after
+much hesitation he was at last persuaded to accompany Stanley for twenty
+days longer. So on they went once more, and after innumerable
+difficulties came again to the bank of the Lualaba.
+
+The huge volumes of water glided along silently and majestically. Brown
+and thick with decaying vegetation, the Lualaba flowed between dense
+woods to the unknown region inhabited by negro tribes never heard of by
+Europeans, and where no white man had ever set his foot. Here Stanley
+decided to leave the terrible forest and to make use of the waterway of
+the Lualaba. There were the boats in sections, and a whole fleet of
+canoes could soon be made from the splendid trees growing at hand. The
+whole caravan was accordingly assembled, and Stanley explained his
+purpose. At first the men grumbled loudly, but Stanley declared that he
+would make the voyage even if no one went with him but Frank Pocock, the
+only survivor of the three white men who had started with him from
+Zanzibar. He turned to his boat's crew and called out, "You have
+followed me and sailed round the great lakes with me. Shall I and my
+white brother go alone? Speak and show me those who dare follow me!" On
+this a few stepped forward, and then a few more, and in the end
+thirty-eight men declared themselves willing to take part in the voyage.
+
+At this juncture many canoes full of natives were observed at the
+opposite side of the river, so Stanley and Tippu Tib and some other
+Arabs entered the boat and rowed up to a small island in mid-stream.
+
+Here the black warriors were in swarms, and thirty canoes lay at the
+water's edge. At a safe distance, Stanley's interpreter called out that
+the white man only wished to see their country, that nothing belonging
+to them should be touched, and that they themselves should not be
+disturbed. They answered that if the white man would row out to the
+island in the morning with ten servants, their own chief would meet him
+with ten men, and would enter into blood-brotherhood with him. After
+that the strangers might cross the river and visit their villages.
+
+Suspecting treachery, however, Stanley sent twenty armed men by night to
+the island to hide themselves in the brushwood. Then in the morning
+Pocock and ten men rowed out to the meeting-place, near which Stanley
+waited in his boat. A swarm of canoes put out from the western bank, and
+when they came to the island the rowers raised their wild war-whoop,
+_Ooh-hu! Ooh-hu-hu!_ and rushed ashore with bows bent and raised spears.
+Then Stanley's twenty men came out of their hiding-place, the fight was
+short, and the savages dashed headlong into their boats and rowed away
+for their lives.
+
+The next morning, with thirty men on board his boat, Stanley began his
+journey down the river, while Tippu Tib and Pocock marched with all the
+rest of the troop along the bank. The natives had retired, but their cry
+of _Ooh-hu-hu!_ was still heard in the distance. On an island between
+the main river and a tributary Stanley's party landed to wait for the
+caravan and help it over the affluent. In the meantime Stanley made a
+short excursion up the tributary, the water of which was inky-black
+owing to the dark tree roots which wound about its bottom. On his return
+he found the camp island surrounded by hostile canoes and heard random
+shots, but when his boat drew near, the savages were frightened and
+rowed away.
+
+At length Tippu Tib straggled up with his party, and the journey could
+be continued. The boat was rowed near the bank, and the two divisions
+were kept in touch with each other by means of drums. All the villages
+they came to were deserted, but the natives were evidently keeping a
+close watch on these wonderful strangers, for one day when some of
+Stanley's men were out scouting on two captured canoes, they were
+attacked, and when they tried to escape they came among eddies and
+rapids, where their boats capsized and four rifles were lost. The men
+climbed up and sat astride the upturned canoes until they were rescued
+by their comrades.
+
+Then the expedition went on again. The river was usually half a mile
+broad or more, and frequently divided by long rows of islands and holms.
+The large village of Ikondu consisted of cage-like reed huts built in
+two long rows. All the inhabitants had fled, but pitchers full of wine
+were suspended from the palms, melons and bananas emitted their
+fragrance, and there was plenty of manioc plantations, ground-nuts, and
+sugar-cane. Near the place was found a large old canoe, cracked, leaky,
+and dilapidated, but it was patched up, put in the river, and used as a
+hospital. Smallpox and dysentery raged in the caravan, and two or three
+corpses were thrown daily into the river.
+
+Once, as the small flotilla was rowing quietly along not far from the
+bank, a man in the hospital canoe cried out. He had been hit in the
+chest by a poisoned barb, and this was followed by a whole shower of
+arrows. The boats were rowed out from the dangerous bank, and a camp was
+afterwards pitched on an old market-place. The usual fence was set up
+round the tents, and sentinels were posted in the bush. Then were heard
+shots, cries, and noise. The watchman ran in calling out, "Look out,
+they are coming," and immediately arrows and javelins rattled against
+the stockade, and the savages rushed on, singing their dreadful
+war-songs. But their arrows and javelins were little use against powder
+and ball, and they soon had to retire. They were reinforced, however,
+and returned again and again to the attack, and did not desist till the
+fight had lasted two hours and twilight had come on.
+
+After other combats, Stanley and Tippu Tib came to a country on the
+western bank densely peopled with hostile natives, where they had to
+fight again. The savages were repulsed, and rowed out to a long island,
+where they moored their canoes by ropes fastened round posts. They would
+certainly renew the attack next day. But this time they were to be
+thoroughly checkmated. Rain pelted down on the river, the night was
+pitch dark, and there was a fresh breeze. Stanley rowed to the island,
+and his boat stole silently and cautiously under the high tree-covered
+bank. He cut the ropes of every canoe he got hold of, and in a short
+time thirty canoes were sent adrift down the river, many of them being
+caught by boatmen posted farther down stream. Before dawn the men were
+back at the camp with their looted boats.
+
+The savages, who lay crouching in their grass hovels on the island, must
+certainly have felt foolish in the morning when they found that they had
+lost their canoes and were left helpless. Then an interpreter rowed out
+to them to put before them the conditions exacted by the white man. They
+had treacherously attacked his troop, killing four and wounding
+thirteen. Now they must furnish provisions, and then they would be paid
+for the captured canoes and peace would be established.
+
+It was important that the expedition should have a few days' rest at
+this place, for Tippu Tib had had enough, and refused to advance a step
+farther down the river with its warlike natives. Accordingly, he was to
+turn back with his black retinue, while Stanley was to continue the
+journey with a selected party, many of whom had their wives and children
+with them. The troop consisted of a hundred and fifty souls. Provisions
+were collected for twenty days. The canoes were fastened together in
+pairs by poles, that they might not capsize, and the flotilla consisted
+of twenty-three boats.
+
+It was one of the last days in December. A thick mist hung over the
+river and the nearest palms were scarcely visible, but a breeze sprang
+up and thinned the haze. Then the trumpets and drums sounded the signal
+for starting, and Stanley gave the order to get into the boats. The
+parting song of the sons of Unyamwezi was answered by Tippu Tib's
+returning troop, and the flotilla of canoes glided down the dark river
+towards unknown lands and destiny.
+
+Stanley believed that this mighty river, which he named after
+Livingstone, was none other than the Congo, the mouth of which had been
+known for more than four hundred years; but he did not reject the
+possibility that it might also unite with the Nile or be connected with
+the Niger far away to the north-west. The journey which was now to solve
+this problem will be famous for all time for its boldness and daring,
+for the dangers overcome and adventures experienced, and is quite
+comparable with the boat journeys of the Spaniards who discovered the
+Amazons and Mississippi rivers in America.
+
+Fourteen villages lie buried in the dense bush, and Stanley's flotilla
+makes for the bank to encamp for the first time after parting from Tippu
+Tib. Here the natives are friendly, but there is trouble a little
+farther on, where the woods echo with the noise of war-drums and the
+savages are drawn up with shield and spear. The drum signals are
+repeated from village to village, from the one bank to the other. Canoes
+are manned and put out from both banks and Stanley's flotilla is
+surrounded. The interpreters call out "Peace! Peace!" but the savages
+answer peremptorily, "Turn back or fight." Consultations and
+negotiations are held, while the river sweeps down the whole assemblage
+of friends and foes. More villages peep out from the trees where dwell
+enemies of the attacking savages, so the latter dip their oars in the
+water and row back without coming to blows.
+
+But soon there was a different scene. Javelins were thrown from other
+canoes and the dreadful poisoned arrows were discharged, so the
+death-dealing European firearms had to be used in self-defence. On this
+occasion Stanley's men succeeded in capturing a number of shields, of
+which indeed they had need.
+
+Again the war-drum is heard, just as the flotilla is passing a small
+island. Stanley orders his boats to keep in the middle of the river
+ready for action. Swarms of canoes shoot out from the bank like wild
+ducks, and the black warriors beat their spears against their shields.
+The interpreter gets up in the bow and shouts out "Peace! Take care or
+we strike!" Then the savages hesitate, and retire quietly under
+promontories and overhanging wooded banks. By the single word "Peace!"
+the interpreter could often check parties of warriors, but others
+answered the offer of peace with a scornful laugh, and their showers of
+arrows and assegais had to be met with a volley of rifle bullets.
+
+The New Year (1877) had already come, when a friendly tribe warned the
+travellers of dangerous falls and rapids, the roar of which they would
+shortly hear. The flotilla glided along the right bank, and all listened
+for the expected thunder. Suddenly savages appeared on the bank and
+hurled their assegais; then the war-drums were heard again, and a large
+number of long canoes approached (Plate XXX.). The warriors had painted
+one half of their bodies white and the other red, with broad black
+stripes, and looked hideous. Their howls and horn blasts betokened a
+serious attack. By this time Stanley's boats were out in the middle of
+the stream in order of battle, with the shields placed along the
+gunwales to protect the non-combatants. A canoe 80 feet long rowed
+straight for Stanley's boat, but was received by a rattling volley. Then
+it was Stanley's turn to attack, for the great canoe could not turn in
+time. Warriors and oarsmen jumped overboard to save themselves by
+swimming to land, and as the other boats vanished the expedition could
+go on towards the falls.
+
+Now was heard the roar of the water as it tumbled in wild commotion over
+the barriers in its bed. The natives thought that this was just the
+place to catch the strangers, and Stanley had to fight his way step by
+step, sometimes on land and sometimes on the river. In quiet water
+between the various falls the men could row, but in other places paths
+had to be cut through the brushwood on the bank and the canoes hauled
+over land. Often they had to fight from tree to tree. Once the savages
+tried to surround Stanley's whole party in a large net, and lost eight
+of their own men for their trouble. These captives were tattooed on the
+forehead and had their front teeth filed to a point. Like all the other
+people in the country, they were cannibals, and were eager for human
+flesh.
+
+One day at the end of January Stanley's boats crossed the equator, and
+the great river turned more and more towards the west, so that it
+evidently could not belong to the Nile. Here the party passed the
+seventh and last fall, where the brown water hurled itself in mad fury
+over the barrier. Thus the series of cascades afterwards known as the
+Stanley Falls was discovered and passed.
+
+Below the falls the river expands, sometimes to as much as two miles in
+breadth. The opposite bank could hardly be seen, and the boats came into
+a labyrinth of channels between islands. The rowers sang to the swing of
+their oars, and a sharp look-out had always to be kept. Sometimes
+canoes followed them, and occasionally ventured to attack. Wild warriors
+were seen with loathsome features, and red and grey parrots' feathers on
+their heads, and bangles of ivory round their arms.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXX. THE FIGHT ON THE CONGO.
+
+From Stanley's _Through the Dark Continent._]
+
+In one village was found a temple with a round roof supported on
+thirty-three elephants' tusks. In the middle was set up an idol carved
+in wood and painted red, with black eyes, hair, and beard. Knives,
+spears, and battle-axes were wrought with great skill, and were
+ornamented with bands of copper, iron, and bone. Among the refuse heaps
+were seen remains of horrible feasts, and human skulls were set up on
+posts round the huts.
+
+Interminable forests grew on the banks and islands, with the many-rooted
+mangrove-tree, tall, snake-like canes with drooping tufts of leaves, the
+dragon's-blood tree, the india-rubber, and many others.
+
+Danger and treachery lurked behind every promontory, and the men had to
+look out for currents, falls, rapids, and whirlpools. Hippopotami and
+crocodiles were plentiful. But the savages were the worst danger.
+Stanley and his men were worn out with running the gauntlet month after
+month.
+
+At the village of Rubunga, where the natives were friendly, Stanley
+heard for the first time that the river actually was the Congo. Here the
+traveller was able to replenish his stock of provisions, and when the
+drums of Rubunga were sounded it was not for battle but to summon the
+inhabitants to market, and from the surrounding villages the people came
+to offer for sale fish, snails, oysters, dried dog-flesh, goats,
+bananas, meal, and bread. As a rule, however, no trust could be placed
+in the natives. In their hideous tattooing, with strings of human teeth
+round their necks and their own teeth filed to a point like a wolf's,
+with a small belt of grass round their loins and spears and bows in
+their hands, they did not inspire confidence, and frequently the boats
+had barely put out from the bank where the people seemed friendly before
+the natives manned their canoes and pursued them. In this region they
+were armed with muskets procured from the coast. Once Stanley's small
+flotilla was surrounded by sixty-three canoes, and there was a hard
+fight with firearms on both sides. In the foremost canoe stood a young
+chief, handsome, calm, and dignified, directing the attack. He wore a
+head-covering and a mantle of goatskin, and on his arms, legs, and neck
+he had large rings of brass wire. A bullet struck him in the thigh. He
+quietly wound a rag round the wound and signed to his oarsmen to make
+for the bank. Then the others lost courage and followed their leader's
+canoe.
+
+They struggled southwards from one combat to another. The passage of the
+great curve of the Congo had cost thirty-two fights. Now remained a
+difficult stretch, where the mighty river breaks in foaming falls and
+rapids through the escarpment which follows the line of the west coast
+of Africa. These falls Stanley named after Livingstone; he was well
+aware that the river could never be called by any other name than the
+Congo, but the falls would preserve the great missionary's name.
+Innumerable difficulties awaited him here. On one occasion half a dozen
+men were drowned and several canoes were lost, and the party had to wait
+while others were cut out in the forest. One day Pocock drifted towards
+a fall, and was not aware of the danger until it was too late and he was
+swept over the barrier. Thus perished the last of Stanley's white
+companions.
+
+At another fall the coxswain and the carpenter went adrift in a newly
+excavated canoe. They had no oars. "Jump, man," called out the former,
+but the other answered, "I cannot swim." "Well, then, good-bye, my
+brother," said the quartermaster, and swam ashore. The other went over
+the fall. The canoe disappeared in the seething whirlpool, came up again
+with the man clinging fast to it, was sucked under once more, and rose
+again still with the carpenter. But when it reappeared for the third
+time in another whirlpool the man was gone.
+
+At last all the boats were abandoned and the men travelled by land. The
+party was entirely destitute, all were emaciated, miserable, and hungry.
+A black chief demanded toll for their passage through his country, and
+they had nothing to give. He would be satisfied with a bottle of rum he
+said. Rum, indeed, when they had been three years in the depths of
+Africa! Stanley was reasoning with the chief when the coxswain came and
+asked what was the matter. "There's rum for him," he said, and gave the
+chief a buffet which knocked him over and put his whole retinue to
+flight.
+
+Now it was only a couple of days' journey to Boma, near the mouth of the
+Congo, where there were trade factories and Europeans. Stanley wrote a
+letter to them, and was soon supplied with all necessaries; and after a
+short rest at Boma the party made the voyage round the south of Africa
+to Zanzibar, where Stanley dismissed his men.
+
+He then travelled home, and was, of course, fêted everywhere. For a
+thousand years the Arabs had travelled into the interior of Africa, but
+they did not know the course of the Congo. European explorers had for
+centuries striven to penetrate the darkness. The natives themselves did
+not know whither the Lualaba ran. All at once Stanley had filled up the
+blank and knit together the scattered meshes of the net; and now a
+railway runs beside the falls, and busy steamboats fly up and down the
+Congo. Well did Stanley deserve his native name of Bula Matadi, or "the
+breaker of stones," for no difficulty was too great for him to overcome.
+
+After a life of restless activity--including another great African
+journey to find Emin Pasha, the Governor of the Equatorial Province
+after Gordon's death--Stanley was gathered to his fathers in 1904. He
+was buried in a village churchyard outside London, and a block of rough
+granite was placed above the grave. Here may be read beneath a cross,
+"Henry Morton Stanley--Bula Matadi--1841-1904," and lastly the word that
+sums up all the work of his life, "Africa."
+
+
+TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA
+
+In the middle of north-western Africa, where the continent shoots a
+gigantic tongue out into the Atlantic, lies one of the world's most
+famous towns, Timbuktu.
+
+Compared with Cairo or Algiers, Timbuktu is a small town. Its three poor
+mosques cannot vie with the grand temples which under French, Turkish,
+or English dominion raise their graceful minarets on the Mediterranean
+shores of Africa. Not a building attracts the eye of the stranger amidst
+a confusion of greyish-yellow mud houses with flat roofs and without
+windows, and neglect and decay stare out from heaps of ruins. There is
+hardly a tottering caravanserai to invite the desert wanderer to rest.
+Some streets are abandoned, while in others the foot sinks over the
+ankle in blown sand from the Sahara.
+
+Timbuktu is not so famous as the sparkling jewels in the diadem of
+Asia--Jerusalem and Mecca, Benares and Lhasa. The very name of each of
+these is, as it were, a vital portion of a great religion, and indeed
+almost stands for the religion itself. Timbuktu has scarcely any
+religion, or, more correctly, too many. And yet this town has borne a
+proud name during its eight hundred years of existence--the great, the
+learned, the mysterious city. No pilgrims flock thither to fall down in
+prayer before a redeemer's grave or be blessed by a high priest. No
+pyramids, no marble temples, make Timbuktu one of the world's wonders.
+No wealth, no luxuriant vegetation exist to make it an outer court to
+Paradise.
+
+[Illustration: NORTH-WEST AFRICA.]
+
+And yet Timbuktu is an object of desire. Millions long to go there, and
+when they have been, long to get away again. Caravan men who have
+wandered for months through the desert long for the tones of the flute
+and the cithern, and the light swayings of the troops of dancers. Palms
+and mimosa grow sparsely round Timbuktu, but after the dangers of the
+desert the monotonous, dilapidated town with its dusty, dreary streets
+seems really like an entrance to Paradise. Travelling merchants who have
+risked their wealth in the Sahara among savage robbers, and have been
+fortunate to escape all dangers, are glad at the sight of Timbuktu, and
+think its grey walls more lovely than anything they can imagine.
+
+The remarkable features of Timbuktu are, then, its situation and its
+trade. We have only to take a look at the map to perceive that this town
+stands like a spider in its web. The web is composed of all the routes
+which start from the coast and converge on Timbuktu. They come from
+Tripoli and Tunis, from Algeria and Morocco, from Senegal and Sierra
+Leone, from the Pepper Coast, the Ivory Coast, and Slave Coast, the Gold
+Coast, and from the countries round the Gulf of Guinea, which have been
+annexed by France, England, and Germany. They come also from the heart
+of the Sahara, where savage and warlike nomad tribes still to this day
+maintain their freedom against foreign interference.
+
+In Timbuktu meet Arabs and negroes, Mohammedans and heathens from the
+deserts and fruitful lands of the Sahara and Sudan. Timbuktu stands on
+the threshold of the great wastes, and at the same time on the third in
+rank of the rivers of Africa. At the town the Niger is two and a half
+miles broad, and from its mouth it discharges more water than the Nile,
+but much less than the Congo. Like the Congo, the Niger makes a curve to
+the north, bidding defiance to the Sahara; but the desert wins in the
+end, and the river turns off towards the south.
+
+It is a struggle between life and death. The life-giving water washes
+the choking sand, and just where the strife is fiercest lies Timbuktu.
+From the north goods come on dromedaries to be transported farther in
+canoes or long, narrow boats with arched awnings of matting, or, where
+the river is not navigable, on oxen and asses or the backs of men.
+Dromedaries cannot endure the damp climate near the Niger, which
+especially in winter overflows its banks for a long distance. Therefore
+they are led back through the Sahara. They thrive on the dry deserts.
+The constantly blowing north-east trade-wind dries up the Sahara, and in
+certain regions years may pass without a drop of rain.
+
+The name Timbuktu has a singular sound. It stands for all the mystery
+and fascination connected with the Sahara It leads the thoughts to the
+greatest expanse of desert in the world, to long and lonely roads, to
+bloody feuds and treacherous ambushes, to the ring of caravan bells and
+the clank of the stirrups of the Beduins (Plate XXXI.). There seems to
+be a ring in the name itself, and we seem to hear the splash of the
+turbid waters of the Niger in its vowels. We seem to hear the plaintive
+howl of the jackal, the moan of the desert wind, the squealing of
+dromedaries outside the northern gateway, and the boatmen splashing with
+oars and poles in the creeks of the river.
+
+Caravans from the northern coast bring cloth, arms, powder, paper,
+tools, hardware, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, and a quantity of other
+articles to Timbuktu. But when they begin their journey through the
+Sahara, only half the camels are laden. The other half are loaded with
+blocks of salt on the way, for salt is in great demand at Timbuktu.
+Caravans may be glad if they come safely through the country of the
+Tuaregs, and at best they can only obtain an unmolested passage by the
+payment of a heavy toll. On the return journey northwards the
+dromedaries are laden with wares from the Sudan, rice, manioc, honey,
+nuts, monkey breadfruit, dried fish, ivory, ostrich feathers,
+india-rubber, leather, and many other things. A small number of black
+slaves also accompany them. The largest caravans contain five hundred or
+a thousand dromedaries and five hundred men at most. The goods they can
+transport may be worth twenty-eight thousand pounds or more. Five great
+caravan roads cross the Sahara from north to south.
+
+Let us set out on a journey from Timbuktu, and let us go first eastwards
+to the singular Lake Chad, which is half filled with islands, is shallow
+and swampy, choked with reeds, rises and falls with the discharge of the
+great rivers which flow into it, and has a certain similarity to Lop-nor
+in Central Asia. Nearly 17 cubic miles of water are estimated to enter
+Lake Chad in the year, and when we know that the lake on the whole
+remains much about the same size, we can conceive how great the
+evaporation must be.
+
+We have our own dromedaries and our own Arab guide on whom we can rely.
+We can therefore go where we like, and we steer our course from Lake
+Chad towards the eastern Sudan, where we have already been in the
+company of General Gordon. But before we come to the Nile we turn off
+northwards to cross the Libyan desert, the most inaccessible and
+desolate, and therefore the least known, part of the Sahara. On our way
+northwards we notice that animal and vegetation life becomes more
+scanty. Even in the Sudan the grasslands are more thinly clothed and
+the steppes more desert-like the farther we travel, and at last blown
+sand predominates. We must follow a well-known road which has been used
+for thousands of years by Arabs and Egyptians.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXI.
+
+A GROUP OF BEDUINS.]
+
+We are in the midst of the sea of sand. Here lie at certain places dunes
+of reddish-yellow drift sand as high as the tower of St. Paul's
+Cathedral. We see no path, for it has been swept away by the last storm;
+but the guide has his landmarks and does not lose his way. The sand
+becomes lower and the country more open. Then the guide points to a bare
+and barren ridge which rises out of the sand like a rock out of the sea,
+and says that he can find his way by this landmark, which remains in
+sight for several days, and is then replaced by another elevation.
+
+We encamp at a deep well, drink and water our camels. Next day we are
+out in the sandy sea again. The sky has assumed an unusual hue. It is
+yellow, and soon changes into bluish grey. The sun is a red disc. It is
+calm and sultry. The guide looks serious, and says in a low tone
+"samum." The hot, devastating desert storm which is the scourge of
+Arabia and Egypt is approaching.
+
+The guide stops and turns round. He is uncertain. But he goes on again
+when he sees that we cannot get back to the well before the storm is
+upon us. It is useless to look for shelter, for the dunes are too flat
+to protect us from the wind. And now the storm sweeps down, and it
+becomes suffocatingly close and hot. The dromedaries seem uneasy, halt,
+and turn away from the wind. We dismount. The dromedaries lie down and
+bury their muzzles in the sand. We wrap up our heads in cloths and lie
+on our faces beside our animals to get some shelter between them and the
+ground. And so we may lie by the hour panting for breath, and we may be
+glad if we get off with our lives from a _samum_ when we are out in the
+desert. Even in the oases it causes a feeling of anxiety and trouble,
+for the burning heat is most harmful to palms and crops. The temperature
+may rise to 120° in this dangerous storm, which justifies its name of
+"poison wind."
+
+The storm passes off, the air becomes clear and is quiet and calm, and
+the sun has again its golden yellow brilliance. It is warm, but not
+suffocating as it was. The heated air vibrates above the sand. Beside
+our road appears a row of palms and before them a silver streak of
+water. The guide, however, goes on in quite a different direction, and
+when we ask him why, he answers that what we see is a mirage, and that
+there is no oasis for many days' journey in the direction in which we
+see the palms.
+
+In the evening we come to a real oasis, and there we are glad to rest a
+couple of days. Here are a hundred wells, here the ground is cultivated
+in the shade of the palms, here we can enjoy to the full the moist
+coolness above the swards of juicy grass. The oasis is like an island in
+the desert sea, and between the palm trunks is seen the yellow level
+horizon, the dry, heated desert with its boundless sun-bathed wastes.
+
+If we now turn off towards the north-west, Fezzan is the next country
+which our route touches. It is a paradise of date palms. They occur in
+such profusion that even dromedaries, horses, and dogs are fed with the
+fruits. The surface of the ground also has undergone a great change, and
+is not so sterile and choked with sand as in the Libyan desert. Here and
+farther to the west the country becomes more hilly. Ridges and bosses of
+granite and sandstone, weathered and scorched by the sun, stand up here
+and there. Extensive plateaus covered with gravel are called _hammada_;
+they are ruins of former mountains which have burst asunder. In the
+Sahara the differences of temperature between day and night are very
+great. The dark, bare hill-slopes may be heated up to 140° or more when
+the sun bathes them, while during the night the radiation out to space
+is so intense that the temperature sinks to freezing-point. Through
+these continual alternations the rocks expand and contract repeatedly,
+fissures are formed and fragments are detached and fall down. The
+hardest rocks resist longest, and therefore they stand up like strange
+walls and towers amidst the great desolation.
+
+If we go another step westwards we come to the land of the Tuaregs.
+There, too, we find hilly tracts and _hammadas_, sandy deserts and
+oases, and in favourable spots excellent pastures. We have already
+noticed in Timbuktu this small, sturdy desert people, easily recognised
+by the veil which hides the lower part of the face. All Tuaregs wear
+such a veil, and call those who do not "fly-mouths." They are powerfully
+built, and of dark complexion, being of mixed negro blood from all the
+slaves they have kidnapped in the Sudan. They are as dry and lean as the
+ground on which they live, and nature in their country obliges them to
+lead a nomad life. Wide, simple, and dreary is the desert, and simple
+and free is the nomad's life. The hard struggle for existence has
+sharpened their senses. They are acute observers, clever, crafty, and
+artful. Distance is of no account to them, for they do not know what it
+is to be tired. They fly on their swift dromedaries over half the
+Sahara, and are a terror to their settled neighbours and to caravans. On
+their raids they cover immense distances in a short time. To ride from
+the heart of their country to the Sudan after booty is child's play to
+them. They have made existence in many oases quite unendurable. What use
+is it to till fields and rear palms when the Tuaregs always reap the
+harvest? The French have had many fights with the Tuaregs, and the
+railway which was to pass through their country and connect Algiers with
+Timbuktu is still only a cherished project. Yet this tribe which has so
+bravely defended its freedom against the stranger does not number more
+than half a million people. The Tuaregs are not born to be slaves, and
+we cannot but admire their thirst for freedom, their pride, and their
+courage.
+
+The desert here exhibits the difficult art of living. Even animals and
+plants which are assigned to the desert are provided with special
+faculties. Some of the animals, snakes and lizards for instance, can
+live without water. Dromedaries can go for many days without drinking.
+Ostriches cover great distances to reach water before it is too late.
+Plants are provided with huge roots that they may suck up as much
+moisture as possible, and many of them bear thorns and spikes instead of
+leaves so that the evaporation may be insignificant. Many of them are
+called to life by a single fall of rain, develop in a few weeks, and die
+when long drought sets in again. Then the seeds are left, waiting
+patiently for the next rain. Some desert plants seem quite dead, grey,
+dried-up, and buried in dust, but when rain comes they send out green
+shoots again.
+
+Every river bed is called in the Sahara a _wadi_. Very seldom does a
+trickle of water run down it after rain, but in these beds the
+vegetation is richer than elsewhere, for here moisture lingers longer
+than in other spots. Many caravans march along them, and gazelles and
+antelopes find pasture here.
+
+A European leaves Algeria to make his way into the Sahara with an
+incomprehensible feeling of fascination. In the French towns on the
+Mediterranean coast he has lived just as in Europe. He has been able to
+cross by train the forest-clad heights of the Atlas Mountains, where
+clear brooks murmur among the trees. He leaves the railway behind, and
+finds the hills barer the farther he travels south. At last the
+monotonous, slightly undulating desert stretches before him, and he
+feels the magical attraction of the Sahara drawing him deeper and deeper
+into its great silence and solitude. All the colours become subdued and
+greyish-yellow, like the lion's hide. Everything is yellow and grey,
+even the dromedaries which carry him, his tent and baggage, from well to
+well. He can hardly tell why he finds this country pleasanter than the
+forests and streams on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains; perhaps owing
+to the immense distances, the mysterious horizon afar off, the blood-red
+sunsets, the grand silence which prevails everywhere so that he hardly
+dares speak aloud. It is the magic of the desert that has got hold of
+him.
+
+Thirty years ago a large French expedition, under the command of Colonel
+Flatters, marched along this route from Algeria southwards through the
+Sahara. It consisted of a hundred men, including seven French officers
+and some non-commissioned officers, and its equipment and provisions
+were carried by three hundred dromedaries. The French Government had
+sent out the expedition to examine the Tuaregs' country, and to mark out
+a suitable route for a railway through the Sahara to connect the French
+possessions in the north and south. It was not the first time that the
+Colonel had travelled in the Sahara, and he knew the Tuaregs well.
+Therefore he was on his guard. Everything seemed most promising. The
+Frenchmen mapped parts of the Sahara which no European had ever
+succeeded in reaching before--even the great German traveller, who had
+crossed the Sahara in all directions, had not been there. The most
+dangerous tracts were left behind, and the Tuaregs had offered no
+resistance: indeed some of their chiefs had been friendly. In the last
+letters which reached France, Flatters expressed a hope that he would be
+able to complete his task without further trouble, and to advance even
+to the Sudan.
+
+Then the blow fell. The expedition was suddenly attacked at a well, and
+succumbed after a heroic defence against superior numbers. Most of the
+Frenchmen were cut down. Part of the caravan attempted to reach safety
+by hurrying northwards on forced marches, but was overtaken and
+annihilated. Many brave Frenchmen have met the same fate as Flatters in
+the struggle for dominion over the Sahara.
+
+If we travelled, as we have lately imagined, on swift-footed dromedaries
+in a huge circuit from Timbuktu through the Sudan, the Libyan desert,
+and the land of the Tuaregs, we should at last come to Morocco, "The
+Uttermost West," as this last independent Sultanate in Africa is called.
+Morocco is the restless corner of Africa, as the Balkan Peninsula is of
+Europe, Manchuria of Asia, and Mexico of North America--in South America
+all parts are unsettled.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD
+
+Now we must say farewell to Africa. We have in front of us the Straits
+of Gibraltar, little more than six miles broad, the blue belt that
+connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, the sharply defined
+boundary which separates the black continent from the white.
+
+We have but a step to take and we are in Spain. Here, also, a dying echo
+from the splendid period of Arab rule reaches our ears. We are reminded
+that twelve centuries have passed away since the Prophet's chosen people
+conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The sons of Islam were a thorn in the
+sides of the Christians. Little by little they were forced back
+southwards. Only Cordova and Granada still remained in the possession of
+the Arabs, or Moors as they were called, and when Ferdinand the Catholic
+married Queen Isabella of Castile in the year 1469, only Granada was
+left in the hands of the Moors. Their last king lived in his splendid
+palace, the Alhambra in Granada. In 1491 the Spanish army besieged the
+Moorish city. Barely forty years earlier the Mohammedans had taken
+Constantinople. Now other Mohammedans were to be turned out of western
+Europe. New Year's Day 1492 came and Granada fell. The Moorish king had
+to bend humbly on his knees before the victor ere he went on his way,
+and the Castilian flag waved from the towers and pinnacles of the
+Alhambra.
+
+This remarkable incident was witnessed by a mariner from Genoa,
+forty-six years old. His name was Christopher Columbus.
+
+At the time of the fall of Granada there was no one among the learned
+men of Europe who had any suspicion of the existence of a continent in
+the western ocean, and the Portuguese sought only a sea route to
+India--the rich land of spices, gold, pearls, and coral. But there was a
+learned mathematician, Toscanelli of Florence, who perceived that, as
+the world was round, a mariner must necessarily reach Japan, China, and
+India by sailing westwards from Europe, and as early as 1474 he produced
+maps and other proofs of the correctness of his theory. It was Columbus,
+by his boldness and ability, who converted this theory into fact.
+
+Christopher Columbus was the eldest of five children of a weaver in
+Genoa. He and his brothers also engaged in the weaving industry, but as
+their father's affairs were anything but flourishing, the sons decided
+to seek a living in foreign countries. Christopher became a sailor, and
+acquired all the qualifications necessary to handle a ship. He gained
+great experience and a thorough knowledge of his new profession. He once
+sailed on an English vessel to Thule or Iceland, the longest voyage
+which mariners of that time dared attempt. Then he tried his fortune in
+Portugal, earning a living by drawing sea-charts and serving as skipper
+on Portuguese vessels sailing to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean
+and to Guinea. In the Portuguese school he learned much which was to be
+of great importance in his future career. He made his home in Lisbon,
+where he married a lady of rank.
+
+It was at this time that he entered into correspondence with Toscanelli,
+who sent him a map of the route over the Atlantic to Japan, and gave him
+much information drawn from Marco Polo's descriptions. These letters
+made a deep impression on Columbus. He wrote back to Toscanelli that he
+thought of sailing westwards to Marco Polo's countries according to his
+instructions, and Toscanelli replied that he was glad to find his ideas
+were so well understood, and that such a voyage would bring great gain
+to Columbus, and an extraordinary reputation among all Christian
+peoples.
+
+Columbus tried in vain to obtain the support he needed for carrying out
+his plan. The King of Portugal and the learned men of the country
+listened to him, but treated him as a presumptuous dreamer. There were a
+few, however, who thought that he might be right, and on their advice
+the King sent a vessel over the ocean without telling Columbus. It soon
+returned without having seen land. When Columbus heard of this
+underhanded proceeding, he left Lisbon in disgust and travelled alone to
+Spain. His wife and children never saw him again, except his son Diego,
+who afterwards joined his father.
+
+For two years he travelled from town to town in that part of southern
+Spain which is called Andalusia, selling charts, which he drew with his
+own hand. At last he was received at Court, and was able to set forth
+his plan before an assembly of courtiers and ecclesiastics. But Castile
+was too much occupied with the war against the Moors in Granada and
+Malaga to venture on such a great enterprise, and Columbus had to wait
+for better times.
+
+[Illustration: TOSCANELLI'S MAP.]
+
+Two years more passed by and Columbus was again summoned to the Court,
+then in Cordova on the bank of the Guadalquivir. His eloquence and
+enthusiasm had little effect, however, and after two more years of
+useless waiting he resolved to turn his back on Spain and try his
+fortune in France.
+
+Sad and depressed, he followed the great highroad from Cordova. Being
+destitute he went up to a monastery beside the road, knocked at the
+gate, and begged for a piece of bread for his little son Diego, whom he
+held by the hand. While he was talking to the porter the prior came by,
+listened to his words, perceived by his accent that he came from Italy,
+and enquired into his story and his aims. The prior was a learned and
+benevolent man, and entered warmly into the plans of the Italian
+mariner, perceiving that such an opportunity of acquiring lands in
+eastern Asia should not be lost to Spain. He accordingly wrote to Queen
+Isabella, and at the end of 1491 Columbus spoke again before the learned
+men of the realm. Some of them treated him as an impostor, but others
+believed his words; and when, after the fall of Granada, the Court had a
+free hand, it was decided to equip Columbus for his first voyage over
+the Atlantic.
+
+All the negotiations nearly fell through at the last moment, owing to
+the demands of Columbus. He wished to be appointed High Admiral of the
+Ocean and Viceroy over all the savage countries he discovered, and he
+demanded for himself and his descendants an eighth part of all the
+revenues of the new lands. But when he declared that he intended to
+devote his gains to the recovery of Jerusalem from the Turks, his wishes
+were granted and funds were assigned for the equipment of three ships in
+the harbour of Palos.
+
+These vessels each had three masts, but they were far too small for such
+an adventurous enterprise. Only the Admiral's ship, the _Santa Maria_,
+was completely decked over. The other two, the _Pinta_ and _Niña_, had
+only decks fore and aft. The two brothers Pinzon, of noble extraction,
+at once volunteered for the voyage, but it was far from easy to enlist
+crews. Had it been a voyage along the coasts of Europe and Africa, there
+would have been no difficulty in finding men, but for a voyage straight
+out into the unknown ocean--with that the sailors would have nothing to
+do. At last it was necessary to open the prisons in order to procure
+ninety men, for only that number was needed for the whole three vessels.
+The lists of the crews are still extant, and show that most of the men
+were Castilians.
+
+Two doctors were taken, as well as a baptized Jew, who spoke Hebrew and
+Arabic, and might be useful as an interpreter when the expedition came
+over the ocean to India. Curiously enough, Columbus had no chaplain on
+board, but before he set sail his friend the prior administered the
+sacrament to all his men, who in the opinion of most were doomed to a
+watery death.
+
+Armed with a royal despatch to the Great Khan of Mongolia, Columbus
+stepped on board the _Santa Maria_, the moorings were cast off, and on
+August 3, 1492, the three ships steered under full sail out into the
+open sea.
+
+They kept on a south-westerly course, and in six days reached the Canary
+Islands, where the little fleet stayed a month to repair some damages
+and patch up the _Pinta's_ broken rudder.
+
+On September 8 a definite start was made, and when the lovely Canary
+Islands and the Peak of Teneriffe sank beneath the horizon, the sailors
+wept, believing that wind and sails would carry them from the world for
+ever, and that nothing but water and waves awaited them in the west.
+
+From the first day Columbus kept a very exact diary, which shows how
+thoroughly he embraced Toscanelli's theory and how implicitly he relied
+on his fellow-countryman's calculations. To his crews, however, he
+represented the distance as short, so that their fears should not be
+increased by the thought of the great interval that separated them from
+the Old World. They became more anxious as days came and went, and still
+nothing but boundless deserts of water spread in every direction.
+
+After a week's sail their keels ploughed through whole fields of
+floating seaweed, and Columbus pacified his men by the suggestion that
+this was the first indication of their approach to land.
+
+The _Santa Maria_ was a broad and clumsy vessel, really intended to
+carry cargo. She was, therefore, a slow sailer, and the other two ships
+usually took the lead. They were of more graceful build and had large
+square sails, but were of barely half the tonnage of the flagship. But
+all three kept together and were often so close that shouts could be
+heard from one ship to the other. One day Pinzon, captain of the
+_Pinta_, called out to Columbus that he had seen birds flying westwards
+and expected to sight land before night. They therefore sailed
+cautiously lest they should run aground, but all their apprehension
+ceased when a sounding-line two hundred fathoms long, lowered through
+the floating sea-wrack, failed to reach the bottom.
+
+Their progress was stopped by several days of calm, and it was September
+22 before the sea-weed came to an end and the vessels rolled again out
+to the open bluish-green water.
+
+Through hissing surge the _Santa Maria_ and her two consorts cut their
+way due west. A more favourable breeze could not be wished. It was the
+trade wind which filled their sails. The sailors were afraid of the
+constant east wind, and when at length it veered round for a time,
+Columbus wrote in his journal: "This head-wind was very welcome, for my
+men were mightily afraid that winds never blew in these seas which would
+take them back to Spain."
+
+Toscanelli's map was sent backwards and forwards between Columbus and
+Pinzon, and they wondered where they really were, and how far it was to
+the islands of eastern Asia. On September 25, Pinzon ascended the poop
+of the _Pinta_ and called out to Columbus, "I see land." Then he fell on
+his knees with all his crew, and, with voices trembling with excitement
+and gratitude, the Castilian mariners sang "Glory to God in the
+Highest." This was the first time a Christian hymn had sounded over the
+waves of the Atlantic. The sailors of the _Santa Maria_ and _Niña_
+climbed up into the rigging, and also saw the land and raised the same
+song of praise as their comrades. But next day the longed-for land had
+vanished. It was only a mist which lay over the sea to leeward, a mirage
+in the boundless desert of water.
+
+At the beginning of October, Columbus began to suspect that he had
+already passed the islands laid down on Toscanelli's map, and he was
+glad that he had not been detained by them but could sail straight on to
+the mainland of India. By India was meant at that time the whole of
+eastern Asia.
+
+On October 7 the men on all the three vessels were sure that they saw
+land. Every sail was set. Each vessel thought it an honour to reach it
+first. The _Niña_ took the lead. At sunrise the flag of Castile was
+hoisted to the topmast and a shot thundered from its poop. During the
+day the land vanished again. But now flocks of birds were seen, all
+making south-westwards, and Columbus gave orders to follow in the same
+direction. He wrote in his diary: "The sea, thank God, lay like the
+river at Seville, the temperature was as mild as in April at Seville,
+and the air was so balmy that it was delightful to breathe it."
+
+But they sailed day after day and through the nights, and still there
+was nothing to be seen but water. The men had several times given vent
+to their discontent, and now began to grumble again. Columbus soothed
+them and reminded them of the reward that awaited them when they had
+attained their goal. "Besides, their complaints were useless, for I have
+sailed out to reach India, and intend to prolong my voyage until, with
+God's help, I have found it."
+
+On October 11 a log was seen floating in the sea with marks on it
+apparently cut by human hands; and shortly after, a branch with clusters
+of berries. Then the sailors became content, and the Admiral promised a
+reward to the man who first sighted land. All kept their eyes open and
+watched eagerly.
+
+In the evening Columbus thought he saw a flash of light as though a man
+were carrying a torch along a low shore, and later in the night one of
+the _Pinta's_ men swore that land was visible in front. Then all sails
+were taken in and they waited for the dawn.
+
+When the sun rose on October 12, 1492, its rays illumined, before the
+eyes of the Spaniards, a flat grass-covered island which Columbus called
+San Salvador or St. Saviour, after Him who had rescued them from the
+perils of the sea. This island evidently lay north of Japan--at any
+rate, it would appear so from Toscanelli's map. Little did Columbus and
+his men suspect that a whole unknown continent and the world's greatest
+ocean, the Pacific, still separated them from Japan. The small island
+was one of the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island. If the
+voyages of the Northmen five hundred years earlier be left out of
+account, this island was the first point of the New World reached by
+Europeans.
+
+The great day was begun with the _Te Deum_. The officers congratulated
+the Admiral, the sailors threw themselves at his feet and begged
+forgiveness for their insubordination. A boat was lowered, into which
+stepped Columbus with the flag of Castile in his hand, followed by the
+Pinzon brothers with the Banner of the Cross, and a few others. Without
+knowing it, Columbus stepped on to the soil of America. Solemnly he took
+possession of San Salvador on behalf of the crown of Castile. A cross
+was erected on an elevation on the shore in token that the island was in
+Christian hands.
+
+The natives must have been astonished when they saw the three wonderful
+ships arrive off their coast and white men come ashore. At first they
+held aloof, but with beads and other gifts the Spaniards soon gained
+their confidence. They had only wooden javelins for weapons, did not
+know iron, had long lanky hair, not woolly like the negroes, were naked,
+and painted their bodies red and white. They knew gold, and that was
+well, for it was gold, and gold above everything, that Columbus needed
+to free the Holy Sepulchre from the Turks. These savages had gold rings
+in their noses, and when the Spaniards inquired by signs where the gold
+came from, they pointed towards the south-west.
+
+Columbus, of course, called them Indians. Seven of them were taken on
+board. They were to go to Spain and "learn to talk," so that they might
+act as interpreters on subsequent voyages.
+
+Then the voyage of discovery was resumed. The ships had to be sailed
+with great caution, for dangerous reefs lay round the islands. According
+to the signs made by the savages two large islands lay to the south. One
+must be Japan, and when Columbus landed on the coast of Cuba and heard
+of a prince named Kami, he thought that this man must be the Great Khan,
+and that he was really on the mainland of eastern Asia. Accordingly he
+sent his Jew and two of his savages ashore to look for the Great Khan.
+They were four days away and searched as well as they could among the
+tent-like huts of the natives, but never saw a glimpse of any Mongolian
+Great Khan in Cuba.
+
+Exceedingly beautiful was this strange coast, reminding them of Sicily.
+Sweet song of birds was heard, there was an odour of fruits, and green
+foliage and palms waved like plumes in the breeze. The Spaniards were
+astonished to see the natives walking about smoking rolled-up leaves
+which they called tobacco, and had no notion what a source of wealth
+these leaves in the form of cigars would become in the future. Pinzon on
+the _Pinta_ must have been bewitched by all the wonders he saw, for he
+ran off with his vessel to seek the land of gold on his own account.
+Columbus himself sailed across to the large island of Haiti, which as
+usual he took possession of in the name of Castile. The natives received
+him everywhere with amazement and submission, believing that he was an
+emissary from the abode of the gods.
+
+On the northern coast of the island a great misfortune occurred on
+Christmas Eve. An inexperienced steersman was at the _Santa Maria's_
+rudder, and let the vessel run on a sandbank, where it became a wreck.
+The crew had to take refuge on the _Niña_. The natives helped to save
+all that was on board, and not even a pin was stolen.
+
+But the _Niña_ could not hold them all, and how were they to get back to
+Spain? Columbus found a way out of the difficulty. He decided to found a
+colony on the coast. Forty men were to be left behind to search for
+gold, and by the time Columbus returned from Spain they would no doubt
+have a tun full of the precious metal, and that would be enough for the
+conquest of Jerusalem. The sailors were only too glad to remain, for
+they found the natives accommodating and the climate good. It was in all
+respects much pleasanter than to endure hardship on the _Niña_, and
+perhaps founder with the wretched little ship.
+
+Accordingly, a blockhouse was built of wreckage from the _Santa Maria_,
+was surrounded by a wall and moat and provisioned, and after presenting
+the chief of the Indians with a shirt and a pair of gloves, Columbus
+weighed anchor and steered for home.
+
+He had not sailed far before he fell in with the _Pinta_, and took the
+independent Pinzon into favour again. Then they sailed eastwards across
+the Atlantic.
+
+On February 12 a storm arose. All the sails were furled and the two
+ships lost sight of one another for good. The _Niña_ pitched horribly
+and threatened to sink. All made ready for death. Columbus, fearing that
+his discoveries would perish with him, wrote a narrative on parchment,
+covered it with wax and placed it in a cask, which was entrusted to the
+angry waves. The sailors thought that it was an offering with which
+Columbus sought to allay the storm.
+
+A few days later the _Niña_ arrived safely at the southernmost island of
+the Azores, and thence continued her voyage to the mouth of the Tagus
+and Lisbon.
+
+On March 15 the inhabitants of Palos saw the most famous of all the
+ships of the world come into the harbour. The people streamed down with
+the wildest jubilation and all the church bells were rung. The same
+evening the _Pinta_ also sailed in, but was very differently received,
+for it was already known that Pinzon wished to usurp the honour of the
+discovery, being convinced that Columbus's vessel had been lost in the
+storm. No one took any notice of him, and he died a few days later,
+probably of chagrin and sorrow.
+
+In Seville Columbus received a summons from the King and Queen, who were
+staying in Barcelona. His journey through Spain was one great triumphal
+progress. He was feted as a conqueror in every town. He was conducted in
+a brilliant procession through the streets, six copper-brown "Indians"
+marching at the head with coloured feathers in their head-dresses. This
+was Christopher Columbus, who had given new lands to Spain, who had
+discovered a convenient sea route to India just at the time when the
+Portuguese were looking for a route thither round the coast of Africa.
+In Barcelona all his titles and privileges were solemnly confirmed. Now
+he was actually the Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of India. Now he
+had attained the height of worldly honour.
+
+Then began the time of adversity.
+
+On his second voyage, when he set out with seventeen ships, he
+discovered the northern Antilles as far as Porto Rico and came in
+contact with cannibals. At Haiti he found that the forty men whom he had
+left behind on his first voyage had been killed by the natives. He took
+it for granted that Cuba was the mainland of Asia, and that thence the
+journey to Spain might be made dryshod by following Marco Polo's
+footsteps. Discontent was rife among his men, the natives rose up
+against the intruders, rivals sprang up around him like mushrooms, and
+in the home country he was abused by high and low.
+
+He returned to Spain to put everything right; but this time he was no
+longer received with rejoicing, and found that he had now a formidable
+rival in Portugal. In the year 1497 Vasco da Gama discovered the real
+sea route to the real India by sailing round the south of Africa, an
+event which, in the eyes of that generation, quite eclipsed the
+discoveries of Columbus. In India inexhaustible riches were to be found,
+whereas the poor islands of Columbus had simply cost money, ships, and
+men.
+
+But the strong will of Columbus overcame all obstacles, and for the
+third time he sailed for his fictitious India. Now he held a more
+southerly course, and discovered the island Trinidad, and found that the
+water between it and the coast of Venezuela was fresh. There must then
+be a large river near. This river was the Orinoco.
+
+Disturbances broke out again in Haiti, and Columbus's opponents sent
+home complaints against him. A Royal Commission was sent out to hold an
+enquiry, and in the end arrested the Admiral and sent him in chains to
+Spain. The captain of the vessel wished to remove his fetters and leave
+him free as long as he was on board, but Columbus would not consent, for
+he wished to retain them as a "reminder of the reward he had got for his
+services."
+
+But when he was led in chains through the streets of Cadiz, the scene of
+his former triumph, the displeasure of the people was aroused, and at
+the Court Columbus met with a friendly reception. He even succeeded in
+fitting out a fourth expedition and crossed the Atlantic in nineteen
+days. The new Governor forbade him to land, and Columbus expressed his
+indignation that he, the discoverer, should not be allowed to set foot
+on his own islands. He then steered westwards and came to the coast of
+Honduras, and thence followed the coast of Nicaragua southwards. He
+fully and firmly believed that this was Malacca, and that farther south
+would be found a passage to India proper. He sailed back towards Cuba,
+but was driven by bad weather to Jamaica, where in great extremity he
+had to run his ship ashore. One of his trusty men rowed for four days in
+a canoe over the open sea to Haiti to beg for help. Meanwhile the
+shipwrecked men were in hard case. The natives threatened them, and
+refused them all help. Columbus knew that an eclipse of the moon would
+shortly occur, and told the natives that if they would not help them,
+the God of the Spaniards would for ever deprive them of the light of the
+moon. And when the shadow of the earth began to move over the moon's
+disc, the natives were terrified, fell at the feet of Columbus, and
+promised him everything. He pretended to consider the matter, but at
+last allowed himself to be persuaded and promised that they should keep
+their moon. And then the shadow moved off quietly into space, leaving
+the moon as bright as a silver shield.
+
+At last he received assistance, and in 1504 was back in Spain. No one
+now paid any attention to him. His property was confiscated, his titles
+were not restored to him, and even the outstanding pay of his followers
+was kept back. Ill with gout and vexation, he stayed at first in
+Seville. His former friends did not know him. Lonely and crushed down by
+grief and disappointment, he died in 1506 at Valladolid. No one took any
+notice of his decease, and not a chronicle of the time contains a word
+about his death. Even in the grave he seemed to find no rest. He was
+first interred quietly in Valladolid; then his remains were transferred
+to a monastery church in Seville; half a lifetime later his body was
+carried to San Domingo in Haiti, where it rested for 250 years until it
+was deposited in the cathedral of Havana in Cuba; and finally, when Cuba
+was lost to the United States, the remains of the great discoverer were
+again brought back to Spain.
+
+Columbus was a tall, powerfully built man, with an aquiline nose, a pink
+and freckled complexion, light-blue eyes and red hair, which early
+became white in consequence of much thought and great sorrows. During
+four centuries of admiration and detraction his life and character have
+been dissected and torn to bits. Some have seen in him a saint, a
+prophet; others have called him a crafty adventurer, who stole
+Toscanelli's plan in order to gain power, honour, and wealth for
+himself. But when, about twenty years ago, the fourth century since his
+discovery was completed, full amends were made to his memory and his
+achievements were celebrated throughout the world. He opened new fields
+for unborn generations, he extended the bounds of the earth, and guided
+the world's history into new channels.
+
+Four years before the death of Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci of Florence,
+who made four voyages across the ocean, suggested that the new lands had
+nothing to do with Asia, but were a "New World" in distinction to the
+Old; and a German schoolmaster, who wrote a geographical text-book,
+suggested in the introduction that as the fourth continent had been
+discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vesputius), there was no reason
+why it should not be called Amerigo or America after its discoverer. The
+proposal was accepted, and only too late was it realised that Columbia
+would have been the proper name.
+
+One discovery followed after another, and the coasts of America
+gradually assumed on charts and maps the form with which we are
+familiar. Let us for a moment dwell on another of the most striking
+voyages in the history of the world. In the year 1519 the Portuguese
+Magelhaens sailed along the east coast of South America and discovered
+the strait which still bears his name; and what is more, he found at
+last, through this strait, the western passage to India. He sailed over
+an immense ocean, where the weather was good and no storms threatened
+his ships; and accordingly he called it the Pacific Ocean. Other
+dangers, however, awaited him. The mariners sailed for four months over
+unbroken sea, suffering from hunger and disease. At last three of the
+vessels reached the Philippines. There Magelhaens landed with a small
+party, and was overpowered and slain by the natives. Only one of the
+ships, the _Victoria_, came home, but this was the first vessel which
+sailed round the world.
+
+During the succeeding centuries white men struck their claws ever firmer
+into America. The Indians were forced back into the backwoods, and in
+North America they have been almost exterminated. Under French, and
+later, under English rule, those parts of North America have developed
+an unexpected power and wealth which were despised by the Spaniards, who
+in their boundless greed of gain thought of nothing but gold.
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+In a house in a Swedish countryside sit an old man and woman talking
+seriously.
+
+"It is a great pity," says the old woman, "that Gunnar is beginning to
+think of America again."
+
+"Yes, he will never rest," replies the old man, "till we have given our
+consent and let him go. To-day he says that an emigration 'touter' has
+promised him gold and green forests if he will take a ticket for one of
+the Bremen line steamers. I reminded him that the farm is unencumbered,
+but he answered that it could not provide for both his brothers and
+himself. 'It was a very different thing for you, father,' he said, 'but
+there are three of us to divide the produce.' He thinks it is a hopeless
+task to grub in our poor stony hills, when boundless plains in the
+western states of North America are only waiting to be ploughed, and in
+any factory he can be earning wages so large as to yield a small income
+for several years."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I know, it is his cousins who have put this fancy in his
+head with their glowing letters. But I suppose we cannot prevent him
+going if his heart is set on it?"
+
+"What can we do? He is a free man and must go his own way."
+
+"Well, perhaps it is best. When he is home-sick he will come back
+again."
+
+"I am afraid it will be long enough before that happens. At starting all
+seems so fine. 'I shall soon come home with a small pile.' In reality
+all his memories will grow faint within a year, and the distance to the
+red cottage will seem to grow longer as time flies. I mourn for him as
+dead already; he will never come back."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days after this our emigrant Gunnar breaks all ties and tears up
+all the roots which since his birth have held him bound to the soil of
+Sweden. He travels by the shortest route to Bremen and steps on board an
+emigrant steamer for New York. During the long hours of the voyage the
+people sit on deck and talk of the great country to which they are all
+bound. Before the last lighthouse on the coast of Europe is lost to
+sight, Gunnar seems to have all America at his finger-ends. The same
+names are always ringing in his ears--New York, Philadelphia, Chicago,
+and San Francisco have become quite familiar, and he has only to insert
+between them a number of smaller towns, a few rivers, mountains, and
+lakes, to draw in a few railway lines, to remember the great country of
+Canada to the north and mountainous Mexico in the south, to place at
+three of the corners of the continent the peninsulas of Alaska,
+California, and Florida, and at the fourth the large island of
+Newfoundland, and then his map of North America is complete.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The voyage over the Atlantic draws to an end. One day a growing
+restlessness and excitement is perceptible, and the travellers cast
+inquiring glances ahead. It is said that the American coast will be
+visible in an hour. And so it is. An irregular line appears to
+starboard. That is Long Island. Two hours more, and the boat glides into
+the mouth of the Hudson River and comes alongside at Ellis Island in the
+harbour of New York. A row of other vessels lie moored at the quays.
+These also have brought immigrants to America and will soon return to
+fetch more. They must go backwards and forwards year out and year in to
+carry three thousand persons daily to the United States.
+
+Gunnar has packed his things in good time and takes up a favourable
+position from which he can observe his fellow-travellers. He has never
+heard such a noise and never seen such bustle. The people throng the
+gangways, call to one another, haul out their discoloured portmanteaus
+and their roped bundles. There are seen Swedes and Germans, Polish and
+Russian Jews, Galicians and Croats mingled together, some well dressed
+and with overcoats, others in tattered clothes and with a coarse
+handkerchief in place of a collar.
+
+Yonder, overlooking New York harbour, stands the colossal statue of
+Liberty, a female figure holding a torch in her right hand. When
+darkness lies over the earth she throws a dazzling beam of electric
+light out over the water, the quays, houses, and ships. But Gunnar
+experiences no feeling of freedom as he sets his foot on American soil.
+He and all his fellow-travellers are provided with numbered tickets and
+marshalled into long compartments in a huge hall. Then they are called
+out one after another to be questioned, and a doctor comes and examines
+them. Those who suffer from lung disease or other complaint, or being
+old and feeble have no prospect of gaining a livelihood, receive a
+peremptory order of exclusion on grey paper and must return by the next
+vessel to their fatherland. The others who pass the examination proceed
+in small steamers to the great city, where, among the four millions of
+New York, they vanish like chaff before the wind.
+
+From whatever land they may come they always find fellow-countrymen in
+New York, for this city is a conglomeration of all the peoples of the
+world, and seventy different languages are spoken in it. A third of its
+inhabitants have been born in foreign countries. In Brooklyn, the
+quarter on Long Island, there are whole streets where only Swedes live.
+In the "Little Italy" quarter live more Italians than there are in
+Naples, in the "Chinese Town" there are five thousand Chinese, and even
+Jews from Russia and Poland have their own quarter. Gunnar soon finds
+that New York is more complicated than he supposed when he was rolling
+out on the Atlantic.
+
+Meanwhile he decides to take it easy at first, and to learn his way
+about before plunging into the struggle for existence. In Brooklyn he
+soon meets with a fellow-countryman and gets a roof over his head. A
+pleasant, well-to-do railway employé from Stockholm takes pleasure in
+showing him about and impressing him with his knowledge of America.
+
+"This town must be old," says Gunnar, "or it could not have grown so
+large."
+
+"Old! No, certainly not. Compared to Stockholm it is a mere child. It is
+barely three hundred years old, and at the time of Gustavus Adolphus it
+did not contain a thousand inhabitants. But now it is second only to
+London."
+
+"That is wonderful. How can you account for New York becoming so large?
+Stockholm and Bremen are pigmies beside it. I have never seen the like
+in my life. There are forests of masts and steamboat funnels in all
+directions, and at the quays vessels are loaded and unloaded with the
+most startling speed."
+
+"Yes, but you must remember that the population of the United States
+increases at an extraordinary rate. During last century it doubled every
+twenty years. And remember also that nearly half the foreign trade of
+the Union passes through New York. Hence are exported grain, meat,
+tobacco, cotton, petroleum, manufactured goods, and many other things.
+It is, therefore, not remarkable that New York needs 36 miles of quays
+with warehouses, and that more than seventy steamboat lines sail to and
+from the port. And, besides, it is a great industrial town. Think of its
+position and its fine harbour! Eastward lies the Atlantic with routes to
+Europe; westwards run innumerable railway lines, five of which stretch
+right through to the Pacific coast."
+
+"Tell me something about the railways," exclaims Gunnar, who wants to go
+out west at the first favourable opportunity.
+
+"Yes, I can give you information about them, for I have been working on
+several lines. As far back as 1840 the United States had 2800 miles of
+railway, and twenty years later 30,000 miles. Now it has nearly two
+hundred and forty thousand miles of rails, a strip which would reach to
+the moon or ten times round the equator. The United States have more
+railways than all Europe, though the population is only a fifth that of
+Europe; but the area is about the same."
+
+"How do you explain this rapid development of railway enterprise?"
+
+"Well, the fact is that at first the aim was to fill up the gaps between
+the waterways. Rivers were relied on as long as possible, and the first
+railways were built in districts where there were no large rivers. Then
+in course of time various lines converged together, new railways were
+constructed, and now the forty-nine States are covered with a connected
+network of lines. Moreover, the country roads are so bad that they must
+be supplemented by railways."
+
+"A large number of bridges must be necessary across all the large
+rivers?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. The Americans are adepts in bridge-building, and the
+railway bridges over the Mississippi and Missouri and other rivers are
+masterpieces of the boldest art. Where lines cross deeply eroded
+valleys, bridges of timber were formerly built, like sky-scraping
+parapets with rails laid along the top; but such bridges are now fast
+disappearing and iron bridges are built, and the trains run at full
+speed over elegant erections which from a distance look just like a
+spider's web. Just look to your left. There you have one of the world's
+strongest bridges, the suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn.
+It is of colossal dimensions, and yet it looks so fine and delicate as
+it hangs between its two mighty piers. You see that vessels with the
+tallest masts can pass clear below, for it is poised 135 feet above high
+water. The length is nearly a mile and a quarter. It is wonderful that
+men have been able to stretch this huge span of iron above the water.
+Wait a little and you will see a kind of aerial railway."
+
+Then the Stockholm man takes his new friend to a station to travel on
+the elevated railway through New York. Gunnar's astonishment is beyond
+bounds as he rushes along on a framework, supported by innumerable iron
+pillars, over streets and squares, and sees the seething crowd moving in
+carriages and on foot below his feet.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXII. "SKY-SCRAPERS" IN NEW YORK.]
+
+"Here is the Central Park. Is it not delightful with its leafy trees and
+cool pools? In summer it is burning hot in the town, and it is
+refreshing to rest an hour or two in the shade of the trees. The winters
+are equally cold, and raw, biting winds blow from the east coast. Here
+is Fifth Avenue, the finest street of New York. In the row of palaces
+you see here live millionaires, railway kings, steel kings, petroleum
+kings, corn kings, a whole crop of kings. But I would rather we went to
+look at the rows of houses facing the Hudson River."
+
+"New York lies, then, on the Hudson River?"
+
+"That is so, but more properly speaking New York stands on the island of
+Manhattan in the mouth of the river. We are standing, then, on
+Manhattan, and it is interesting to recall the fact that this island was
+sold three hundred years ago by Indians to Dutchmen for the sum of four
+pounds. It is rather more valuable now! Just look at the hideous
+sky-scrapers with their twenty and thirty storeys" (Plate XXXII.).
+
+"I was just wondering why houses are built so enormously high."
+
+"That is owing to the tremendous value of the ground. When there is not
+space enough to build out laterally, the buildings are piled up
+heavenwards, where there is plenty of room. They are certainly not
+handsome. Look at this row of houses, some of moderate height, others as
+tall as chimneys. Are they not like a row of keys moved by invisible
+gigantic fingers?"
+
+"I should not like to live in such a building, I am sure. On the top
+floor I should be giddy with the height, and on the first I should
+expect the whole mass to tumble down on me."
+
+"We are better off in Brooklyn, where the houses are of moderate height.
+To-morrow I will show you something not less remarkable than the wealthy
+quarter of the city. I will take you to the Chinese town. There Chinese
+swarm in the dirty lanes; there the whole place reeks of onions and
+tobacco and spirits from the public-houses; there are vile gambling
+hells and opium dens; and there paper lanterns on fishing rods hang
+outside the tea-houses. Then we can take a look at 'Little Italy,' a
+purely Italian town in the midst of the New York of the Americans. There
+you will see only Italian books in the book-shops, there Italian
+newspapers are read, there wax candles burn round images of the Madonna
+in the churches, and black-haired, brown-eyed children from sunny Italy
+play in the gutters. And we must not forget 'Little Russia,' the Jews'
+quarter. The Jews are a remarkable people; you never see them drunk, and
+you never hear of any crime or felony committed by them. They live
+poorly, cheaply, and sparingly, and seem cheerful in their booths beside
+the streets."
+
+"All this is very well, but I do not understand where all the immigrants
+go. I am told that as many as three thousand persons land daily on Ellis
+Island. At this rate New York receives yearly an addition of a million
+souls."
+
+"Yes, but how many do you think remain in New York? Most of them go up
+country and out westwards. Some improve their position and then repair
+to other fields of work. But many also stay here and increase the slum
+population. The immigrants who are destitute on landing take work in
+factories at any wage they can get. The wages they receive seem very
+high compared to those in their own country, but they are low for
+America. Accordingly the immigrant Europeans thrust out the Americans,
+and therefore there are two millions out of work in the United States.
+And so there are failures, human wrecks, who are a burden to others. If
+you like we will try this evening to get to a midnight mission and see
+the poor wretches waiting in crowds for the doors to open. They have a
+worn, listless expression, but when the doors are open they wake up and
+rush in, fill all the benches in the large hall, and go to sleep in all
+imaginable positions."
+
+"What do they do there?"
+
+"A missionary preaches to them, but they are hungry and weary, and sleep
+soundly on their benches. Among them you will find tramps and vagabonds,
+professional beggars and thieves, idlers and men out of work. In the
+daytime they beg and steal, and now at night they take their sleep in
+the mission. When the preacher finishes, they file out and go to the
+bread stalls to get food. Such is their life day after day, and they
+sink ever deeper into misery."
+
+"They are the slag that remains after the precious metal has run off, of
+course. It is curious to think of a people that is increased by a
+never-failing stream of immigrants. What will be the end of it?"
+
+"No one can answer that question. Everything is possible with Americans.
+They are a mixture of English, Scandinavian, German, Dutch, Italian, and
+Russian blood, to name only the principal constituents of this complex
+blend, this huge incorporation. Out of all these elements one day an
+American race will emerge, when Ellis Island has closed its gates to
+emigrants from Europe."
+
+[Illustration: NORTH AMERICA.]
+
+"Tell me another thing, now. Why is not New York, the most important
+city, also the capital of the country?"
+
+"It was thought that the city which bears the name of the great
+Washington had a more convenient and more central position with regard
+to the States of the original federation. The population of Washington
+is only about 330,000, and there are fifteen larger cities in the United
+States, but it is the centre of government. There the President lives in
+White House, there Congress assembles in the Capitol, there stands the
+Washington monument surrounded by large national buildings, and there
+three universities are established."
+
+
+CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES
+
+After our friend Gunnar has seen as much as he wants of New York, he
+obtains a good post in a large factory, but he stays there only two
+months, for with other Swedes he receives an offer from Philadelphia
+which he does not hesitate to accept. His idea is to work his way
+gradually westward. If he can only get as far as Chicago he thinks it
+will not be difficult to go on to San Francisco.
+
+Now he works in a yard where more than a thousand locomotives are made
+annually. This yard seems to him quite a town in itself. Here the iron
+is made white hot in immense furnaces, there it is hammered and rolled,
+and with irresistible power human hands convert the hard steel into
+steam boilers, wheels, axles, and parts of machines which are put
+together to form engines. The workshop is traversed in all directions by
+rails, and the completed steam-horses are sent out all over the railway
+systems of the United States.
+
+Gunnar learns from his mates that Philadelphia is one of the largest
+cities of the world, with nearly a million and a half inhabitants, and
+that in America only New York and Chicago are larger.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After a while, however, Gunnar has had enough of Philadelphia, and takes
+a ticket for Pittsburg, the steel and iron capital, where immigrants
+never need be in want of a post. He travels without a change of
+carriages between the two towns, traversing the whole of Pennsylvania.
+Innumerable branch lines diverge in all directions, for towns and
+villages are everywhere. Here a railway runs to a mine, there another to
+a district rich in maize and tobacco, and here again a third to a timber
+yard. At the station stand long trains laden with grain, planks,
+petroleum, cotton, reaping machines, coal--in fact all the wares that
+the earth can produce by its fertility, and men by the labour of their
+hands.
+
+The country becomes hilly, and the train winds about through the
+northernmost part of the Alleghany Mountains. Gunnar lets his eyes rove
+with strained attention over the dark woods, the waving fields, and the
+smoke rising from villages and farmhouses, when an American comes and
+sits down on the seat just in front of him.
+
+"I see that you are a newcomer in America," says the stranger. "It may
+then interest you to know that the crest of the Alleghany Mountains,
+composed of granite, gneiss, and slates, is the watershed between the
+Atlantic and the Mississippi. You must not suppose that these mountains
+are everywhere as low as here; far down south-west, in North Carolina,
+there are summits more than six thousand feet high. Maize and fruit are
+grown in the valleys, and there are fine forests of pines and foliage
+trees. And there are places where you lose yourself in dense clumps of
+rhododendrons and climbing plants. And there are wild recesses where men
+never go, but where bears and wolves have their haunts among broken
+branches and twigs, fallen trunks and moss-grown granite boulders, and
+where nothing is changed since the time when the Indian tribes went on
+the war-path. But where are you bound for?"
+
+"I am going to Pittsburg to look for work, for I was a smith at home."
+
+"Oh, Pittsburg! I was foreman in some steel works there for two years,
+and I have never seen anything more wonderful. You know that this town
+has sprung up out of the earth as if by magic. When petroleum springs
+were discovered, it increased at double the rate, and now it is one of
+the world's largest industrial towns, and, as regards iron and steel,
+the first in America. Here materials are manufactured to the value of
+more than nineteen million pounds annually. Almost inexhaustible
+deposits of coal are found in the neighbourhood. More than twenty
+railway lines converge to Pittsburg, which also has the advantage of
+three navigable rivers, and a network of canals. And round about the
+town are suburbs full of machine factories, steel works, and glass
+works. The neighbourhood has a million of inhabitants, a third of them
+foreigners, mostly Slavs, Italians, and Hungarians. You have a kind of
+feeling of oppression when you see from a height this forest of reeking
+factory chimneys, and when you think of the unfortunate men that slave
+under this cloud of coal smoke. There is a hammering and beating
+everywhere, and a rumble of trains rolling over the rails. Overheated
+furnaces bubble and boil, and sparks fly out under the steam hammers. At
+night you might think you were in the bottom of a volcano, where lava
+boils under the ashes ready to roll out and destroy everything. A weird
+reddish-yellow light flames forth from thousands of fires, lighting up
+the under side of the thick smoke cloud. I am sorry for you if you are
+going to Pittsburg. You had much better travel straight on to Chicago.
+Not that Chicago is a paradise, but there are better openings there, and
+you will be nearer the great West with its inexhaustible resources."
+
+"Thanks for your advice. I am the more ready to follow it because I
+always intended to get to Chicago sometime."
+
+"From Pittsburg," continues the American, "a line runs direct to the
+large town of St. Louis on the Mississippi. St. Louis is a junction of
+great importance, for not only do a whole series of great railway lines
+meet there, but also innumerable steamboats ply from there up the
+Mississippi and Missouri, and to all the large towns on their
+tributaries. St. Louis is the centre of all the winding waterways which
+intersect all parts of the United States. And there you can travel on
+comfortable flat-bottomed steamers along the main river to New Orleans,
+a great harbour for the export of cotton. You can well conceive what a
+blessing and source of wealth this river is to our country. It is of
+immense extent, for it is the longest river in the world, if we take its
+length from the sources of the Missouri in the Rocky Mountains, and in
+the area of its basin it is second only to the Amazons. Its plain is
+exceedingly fruitful, and far around its banks grain shoots up out of
+the soil to feed many millions of human beings. And its waterways,
+ramifying like the nerves of a leaf, facilitate communication and the
+transport of goods between the different States.
+
+"You should just see how the great river rises in spring. You might
+think you were sailing on a large lake, and, as a matter of fact, it
+floods an area as large as Lake Superior. If the Mississippi is a
+blessing to men, on the other hand in spring it exacts a heavy tax from
+them. The vast volumes of brown, muddy water often cut off sharp bends
+from the river-bed and take short cuts through narrow promontories. By
+such tricks the length of the river is not infrequently shortened by ten
+or twelve miles here and there. But you can imagine the trouble this
+causes. A town standing on such a bend may one fine day find itself six
+miles from the bank. In another the inhabitants are in danger of being
+at any time drowned like cats. A railway bridge may suddenly be
+suspended over dry land, while the river has swept away rails and
+embankment a little farther off. Our engineers have great difficulty in
+protecting constructions from the capricious river in spring. Not a year
+passes without the Mississippi causing terrible destruction and
+inflicting great loss on those who dwell near its banks, especially in
+cattle.
+
+"You have only to see this water to comprehend what immense quantities
+of earth, sand, and mud are yearly carried down by it. And all this silt
+is deposited in the flat delta below New Orleans. Therefore the delta
+extends from year to year farther out into the Gulf of Mexico. This is
+an easy way of increasing our territory, but we would willingly
+sacrifice the gain if we could get rid of the terrible floods in
+spring."
+
+The train with our two travellers on board has now crossed the boundary
+of Pennsylvania, and is making its way westwards through the states of
+Ohio and Indiana. Boundless plains extend to north and south, planted
+with maize, wheat, oats, and tobacco. Maize fields, however, are the
+most frequent, and the harvest is just beginning. Gigantic reaping
+machines, drawn by troops of horses, mow down the grain and bind it into
+sheaves, while other machines throw it into waggons. The reapers have
+only to drive the horses; all the rest is done by the machines.
+Certainly men's hands could never be able to deal with all this grain;
+whole armies could be hidden under the ears of maize.
+
+Now the train skirts the shore of Lake Michigan, which stretches its
+blue surface northwards, and a little later halts at Chicago.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gunnar has been directed to an agency for Swedish workmen, and the first
+thing he does is to call there. In a day or two he obtains work in the
+timber business, and goes up to Canada in a large cargo steamer which
+carries timber from the forests of Canada to Chicago. Here the timber
+supplies seem to him inexhaustible when he sees the dark coniferous
+woods on the shores and hills, and when he notices that hundreds of
+steamboats are carrying the same freight. The workman beside him, an
+Englishman, boasts of the immense territory which occupies almost all
+the northern half of North America.
+
+"Canada is the most precious jewel in the crown of Great Britain, next
+to the mother-country and India."
+
+"Why is Canada so valuable? I always thought that its population was
+very small."
+
+"It has not many people; you are right there. Canada has only seven
+million inhabitants."
+
+"Oh, not more! That is just about as many as Greater London."
+
+"Yes; and yet Canada is as large as all Europe and as the United States
+of America. It stretches so far to east and west that it occupies a
+fourth part of the circuit of the earth, and if you travel from Montreal
+to Vancouver you have a journey of 2906 miles. But you can well
+understand that such an extensive country, even though it is thinly
+peopled, especially in its cold, northern parts, must yield much that is
+valuable to its owners."
+
+"Yes, certainly; so it is in Siberia, where the population is also
+scanty."
+
+"Just so. In Canada fields, mountains, forests, and water yield an
+immense revenue. Think only of all the agricultural produce which is
+shipped from here, not to speak of gold, fish, and furs. The wheat
+produced in Canada is alone worth over 22 million pounds sterling a
+year. There are also huge areas which are worthless. We get little
+advantage from the northern coasts, where the Eskimos live."
+
+"You are quite at home on these lakes?"
+
+"Oh yes. When a man has sailed to and fro over them for ten years, he
+knows all about the roadsteads and channels, and about when the ice
+forms and breaks up, and when there is a prospect of a storm."
+
+"But the storms cannot be very dangerous?"
+
+"Ah, you do not believe in them. All the same they may be just as
+dangerous as in the Atlantic, and when a real hurricane comes, the
+skipper will do well to seek shelter, or at the best he will lose his
+cargo. You will soon have opportunities of seeing, hearing, and feeling
+how the surge beats just as on the coast of the ocean. But then, all
+these lakes have an aggregate area more than half as large as the
+Baltic, and if we take the depth into account we shall find that the
+volume of water is the same as in the Baltic. Lake Superior is the
+largest lake in the world. Beyond the point yonder lies Lake Huron. You
+must acknowledge that this scenery is beautiful. Have you ever seen
+anything to equal this sheet of dark-blue water, the dark-green woods,
+and the grand peaceful shores? It is a pity that we do not go to Lake
+Erie, for at its eastern extremity is one of the wonders of the world
+and the most famous spectacle in North America."
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII. NIAGARA FALLS.]
+
+"You mean the Falls of Niagara, which I have heard described so many
+times?"
+
+"Yes. Think of a steamboat on Lake Erie sucked along by the stream that
+flows to Ontario. This lake lies 300 feet lower than Erie, and about
+half-way between the two lakes the water passes over a sharp bar and
+plunges with a thundering roar into the depth below (Plate XXXIII.). The
+barrier itself, which is a thousand yards broad, is formed of a huge
+stratum of sandstone, and the rocks under it are loose slates. Erosion
+proceeds more rapidly in the slates than in the hard limestone, which,
+therefore, overhangs like the projecting leaf of a table, and the
+collected volumes of water hurl themselves over it. But when the
+limestone is so far undermined that it is no longer able to bear the
+weight of the water, fragments break off from time to time from its edge
+and fall into the abyss with a deafening noise. Thus in time the fall
+wears away the barrier and Niagara is moving back in the direction of
+Lake Erie."
+
+"Moving, do you say? The movement can surely not be rapid."
+
+"Oh no; Niagara needs about seventeen thousand years to move half a mile
+nearer to Lake Erie."
+
+"That's all right, for now I can be sure it will be there when I visit
+it at some future opportunity."
+
+"Yes, and you would find it even if a crowd of railway lines did not run
+to it. You hear the roar of the 'thunder water' forty miles away, and
+when you come closer you see dense clouds of foam and spray rising from
+the ravine 150 feet below the threshold of the Fall. Yes, Niagara is the
+most wonderful thing I have seen. In all the world it is surpassed only
+by the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, discovered by Livingstone. One
+feels small and overawed when one ventures on the bridges above and
+below the Fall, and sees its 280,000 cubic feet of water gliding one
+moment smooth as oil over the barrier, and the next dashing into foam
+and spray below with a thundering noise."
+
+"It would not be pleasant to be sucked over the edge."
+
+"And yet a reckless fellow once made the journey. For safety he crept
+into a large, stout barrel, well padded inside with cushions. Packed in
+this way, he let the barrel drift with the stream, tip over the edge of
+the barrier, and fall perpendicularly into the pool below. As long as he
+floated in the quiet drift, and even when he fell with the column of
+water, he ran no danger. It was when he plumped down on to the water
+below and span round in the whirlpools, bumped against rocks rising up
+from the bottom, and was carried at a furious pace down under the watery
+vault. But the traveller got through and was picked up in quiet water."
+
+"I suppose that there are bridges over the Niagara River as over all the
+others in the country?"
+
+"Certainly. Among them is an arched bridge of steel below the Falls
+which has a single span of 270 yards, and is the most rigid bridge in
+the world."
+
+"Tell me, where does all this water go to below Niagara?"
+
+"Well, it flows out into Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, the largest
+town in Canada. Then it runs out of the lake's north-eastern corner,
+forming winding channels among a number of islands, which are called The
+Thousand Islands. Then the river, which is called the St. Lawrence, is
+sometimes narrow and rapid and sometimes expands into lake-like reaches.
+At the large town of Montreal begins the quiet course, and below Quebec
+the St. Lawrence opens out like a huntsman's horn. The river is frozen
+over every year, and in some places the ice is so thick that rails can
+be laid on it and heavy goods trains run over it. In spring, when the
+ice begins to break up, the neighbourhood of the river is dangerous, and
+sometimes mountains of ice thrust themselves over the lower parts of
+Montreal. It can be cold in Montreal--down to-30°. It is still worse in
+northern Canada. And the summer is short in this country."
+
+"You have just mentioned Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. Which is the
+capital?"
+
+"Oh, none of these is the capital of the Colony. That honour belongs to
+the small town of Ottawa. And now I will tell you something
+extraordinary. The Dominion of Canada is situated between two
+goldfields. In the extreme east is Newfoundland, in the extreme west
+Klondike. I shall never forget the gold fever which seized adventurers
+in nearly all countries when it was known that the precious metal
+occurred in large quantities in the gravel and sand-beds on the banks of
+the Yukon River. I was one of them myself. Men rushed wildly off to get
+there in time and stake out small claims in the auriferous soil. What a
+wild life! How we suffered! We had to pay a shilling for a biscuit and a
+dollar for a box of sardines. We were glad when a hunter shot elk and
+reindeer, and sold the meat for an exorbitant price in gold dust. We
+lived huddled up in wretched tents and were perished with cold. Furious
+snowstorms swept during winter over the dreary country and the
+temperature fell to-67°. And what a toil to get hold of the miserable
+gold! The ground is always frozen up there. To work in it you must first
+thaw the soil with fire. By degrees the situation improved and a small
+town grew up on the goldfield, and in a few years the gold won attained
+to the value of five millions sterling."
+
+"And the other gold mine, then?"
+
+"Newfoundland. A cold polar current brings yearly quantities of seal,
+cod, salmon, herring, and lobster down to the banks of Newfoundland,
+where more than fifty thousand fishermen are engaged in catching them.
+As the fish brings in yearly a revenue of several millions, this
+easternmost island of North America may well be called a gold mine too."
+
+
+THROUGH THE GREAT WEST
+
+After a few profitable voyages on Lakes Michigan and Huron, Gunnar has
+saved so much that he can carry out his plan of travelling to the
+extreme West. He intends to let his dollars fly in railway fares, and,
+after he has seen enough of the great cities of America, to settle down
+in the most attractive district. There he will stay and work until he
+has saved up enough to buy a farm of his own in his native country.
+
+He sets off from Chicago and leaves St. Louis behind him, and is carried
+by a train on the Pacific Railway through Missouri and Kansas westwards.
+In the latter State he flies over boundless prairies.
+
+Eventually a German naturalist enters Gunnar's carriage when the train
+stops at a large station. He is dusty and out of breath, and is glad to
+rest when he has seen his boxes and chests stowed away in the luggage
+van. Like all Germans he is alert and observant, agreeable and
+talkative, and the train has not crossed the boundary between Kansas and
+Colorado before he has learned all about Gunnar's experiences and
+plans.
+
+Soon the German on his part explains the business which has brought him
+out to the Far West.
+
+"I have received a grant from the University of Heidelberg to collect
+plants and animals in the western States, and I travel as cheaply as I
+can so that the money may last longer. I love this great America. Have
+you noticed how colossal everything is in this country, whether the good
+God or wicked man be the master-builder? If you cross a mountain range
+like the Rocky Mountains, or its South American continuation, the Andes,
+it is the longest in the world. If you roll over a river, as the
+Mississippi-Missouri, you hear that this also is the longest that
+exists. If you travel by steamboat over the Canadian lakes, you are told
+that no sheets of fresh water in the world surpass them. And think of
+all these innumerable large towns that have sprung up within a century
+or two. And these railways, these astonishing bridges, these
+inexhaustible natural resources, and this world-embracing commerce. How
+alert and industrious is this people, how quickly everything develops,
+how much more bustle and feverish haste there is than in the Old World!"
+
+"It is charming to see the Rocky Mountains become more and more
+distinct, and the different chains and ridges stand out more sharply as
+we approach."
+
+"Yes, indeed. You notice by the speed of the train that we are already
+mounting upwards. You see the prairies pass into the foot of the hills.
+We shall soon come into the zone of dwarf oaks and mahogany trees.
+Higher up are slopes covered with fine pine woods, and willows and
+alders grow along the banks of the streams."
+
+"You speak of trees. Is it true, as a skipper on Lake Michigan told me,
+that there are trees here in the west which are over three hundred feet
+high?"
+
+"Quite true. Your informant meant, of course, the two species of the
+coniferous family which are called mammoth trees, because they are the
+giants of the vegetable kingdom, as the mammoths were of the animal
+kingdom. They grow on the western flanks of the Sierra Nevada in
+California. When one sees these heaven-aspiring trees one is tempted to
+believe that their only aim in life is to rise so high that they may
+look over the crest of the coast range and have a free view of the
+Pacific Ocean. One of these giants which fell long ago had a height of
+435 feet and a girth of 110 feet at the base. It was called the 'Father
+of the Forest.' The trunk is hollow. There is also another fallen
+mammoth called the 'Riding School,' because a man on horseback can ride
+some way into the inside. These trees are supposed to be several
+thousand years old. The place in the Sierra Nevada where the last giants
+stand on their ancient roots is protected and is the property of the
+whole people. If the law did not protect the trees, they would go the
+same way as the bisons and Indians."
+
+"Is there not also a reserved area in the Rocky Mountains?"
+
+"Yes; the Yellowstone National Park in the state of Wyoming. It is a
+wonderful place, and whole books have been written about it. There are
+as many as four thousand hot springs and a hundred geysers in the lower
+part of the valley between the crests of the Rocky Mountains. The Giant
+Geyser shoots up to a height of 250 feet, and 'Old Faithful' spouts up
+once an hour. The Park contains many other natural wonders, and there
+are preserved herds of wild animals, such as elks, antelopes, and stags.
+Even beavers have found a refuge in its streams."
+
+"Are there dangerous beasts of prey in these mountains?" asks Gunnar
+while the train puffs and rolls heavily up a dark valley.
+
+"Yes; the grizzly bear is the largest of them. He is not so particularly
+dangerous, and at any rate is better than his reputation. If he is only
+left in peace he will not come near a man, and if he is attacked he
+almost always takes to flight. But if he is wounded at close quarters he
+may take a terrible revenge, and he is the strongest of all the animals
+in his native haunts. It was formerly considered a great honour to wear
+a necklace of a grizzly bear's teeth and claws.
+
+"It is a fine sight to see a grizzly bear roaming through the woods and
+thickets, where he considers himself absolute master of all the animals
+of the region. He is sometimes brownish, sometimes grey, and a grey bear
+is supposed to be more dangerous than a brown. He lives like all other
+bears, hibernates, eats berries, fruit, nuts, and roots, but he also
+kills animals and is said to be very expert in fishing. I will tell you
+a little hunting story.
+
+"A white hunter was once eager for an opportunity of killing a grizzly
+bear, and a young Indian undertook to lead him to a spot where he would
+not have to wait long. The two marksmen hid behind a small knoll, after
+having laid out a newly-killed deer as bait. The Indian, who knew the
+habits of bears, was not mistaken. Soon a huge bear came waddling out
+of the wood with such a ridiculous gait that the white hunter could
+hardly control his laughter, though the Indian remained silent and
+serious. The old fellow stopped frequently, lifted his nose in the air,
+and looked about to convince himself that no danger lurked around. Once
+he began to scratch in the ground, and then smelled his forepaws and lay
+down on his back and rolled. He wanted probably to rub his coat in some
+strongly smelling plant.
+
+"Then he went on again. After a time he sat and clawed his fur, looked
+at his paws, and licked his pads. Then he scratched himself behind the
+ears with his hind paws. And when his toilet was finished he trotted
+straight towards the place where the deer lay. When he saw the animal he
+was surprised, reared up on his hind legs to his full height, cocked his
+ears, wrinkled his forehead, and seemed perplexed. When he was sure that
+the stag was dead he went up to it and smelt it. Then he went round and
+nosed about on the other side to see if the animal were dead on that
+side also.
+
+"His meditations were here interrupted, for the white hunter fired and
+the bear fell, but raised himself again on his hind legs. The hunter
+followed his example, but the Indian, who saw that the bear was in an
+angry and revengeful mood, advised him to hide himself again quickly.
+Too late! The furious bear had seen his enemy, and rushed in a rolling
+gallop towards his hiding-place. The hunter found it best to run, and in
+a minute was with the Indian perched on the bough of an oak. Here they
+loaded their guns again, while the bear, limping on three legs, made for
+the tree. Hit by two bullets he fell down, tore up the earth and grass
+with his claws, and at last became still."
+
+"It is a shame," said Gunnar, "to kill these kings of the Rocky
+Mountains for amusement or to gain a name as a hunter. Probably they are
+fated to pass away like the bisons and Indians."
+
+"Oh no, not yet. They will long survive in inaccessible regions of the
+mountains and in the uninhabited parts of Canada. But certainly it is a
+shame to destroy them unnecessarily, particularly when we hear of such a
+deed of chivalry as the following.
+
+"A traveller took a young grizzly bear with him to Europe, and on board
+he was a general favourite. He drank and ate and played with the
+sailors, and, curiously enough, conceived a great friendship for a small
+antelope which travelled with him. When the vessel came into port and
+the antelope was being led along a street, a large bulldog fell on the
+defenceless animal. The bear, which was led behind the antelope by a
+chain, perceived his friend's danger, tore himself away from his keeper
+with a single jerk, threw himself on the bulldog, and mauled him so
+badly that he ran away howling with pain."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You may well declare," says Gunnar, "that everything in America is on a
+large scale, but all the same lions and tigers are not found here."
+
+"No, but there are jaguars and pumas instead. Both are more common in
+South than in North America, where the jaguar only comes as far north as
+the south-western States and Mexico. They are found in the outskirts of
+forests and in the tall grass of the pampas, where wild horsemen track
+them down, catch them in lassoes, and drag them after their horses till
+they are strangled. The jaguar also frequents thickets on the
+river-banks and marshes. He keeps to the ground, whereas the bold and
+agile puma even pursues monkeys in the trees. With shrill screams and
+cries of warning the monkeys fly from tree to tree, but the puma is
+after them, crawls out along a swaying branch and jumps over to another
+on the next tree. Both are bloodthirsty robbers, but the jaguar is the
+larger, stronger, and more savage. He can never be properly tamed, and
+never loses his innate treacherousness, but the puma becomes as tame as
+a dog.
+
+"The puma never attacks a man, but you must be on your guard against a
+jaguar. Both are enemies of flocks and herds, but while the puma never
+worries tame animals larger than sheep, the jaguar will often attack
+horses, mules, and young cattle. The jaguar hunts only at daybreak and
+twilight, or when the moon shines brightly; the puma only in the evening
+and at night. The puma is dark reddish-yellow, the jaguar orange with
+black spots and rings on his fur, a marking which reminds one of the
+colour of certain poisonous snakes. The puma's cubs are charming little
+creatures, like kittens, but larger. Their eyes do not open until they
+are ten days old; then they begin to crawl about very awkwardly,
+tumbling down at every other step, and climb up on their mother's back.
+They soon become sure on their feet and, like kittens, play with their
+mother's tail.
+
+"The jaguar is a keen and patient hunter. He crawls along on his belly
+like a cat, and from the recesses of the thicket watches his victim
+without moving an eye. He creeps nearer with wonderful agility and
+noiselessness, and when he is sure of success he makes his spring, tears
+open the throat of the antelope, sheep, or waterhog, and drags his booty
+into the thicket. Small animals he swallows hair and all. Of a horse he
+eats as much as he can, and then goes off to sleep in some concealed
+spot. When he awakes he goes back to his meal.
+
+"On one road in South America twenty Indians were killed by jaguars
+within a lifetime. If a man has presence of mind enough to shout and
+make a noise and go towards the brute, the latter withdraws. Otherwise
+he is lost, for even if he escapes with his life, the wounds inflicted
+by the jaguar's blunt claws and teeth are terrible and dangerous. There
+are Indians in South America who are said to hunt the jaguar in the
+following manner. They wrap a sheepskin round the left arm and in the
+right hand hold a sharp two-edged knife. Then they beat up the jaguar
+and set dogs at him. He gets up on his hind legs like a bear, and
+attacks one of the Indians. The man puts out his left arm for him to
+bite, and at the same time runs his knife into the beast's heart.
+
+"A traveller relates a very good jaguar tale. Some sailors from Europe
+had landed on the bank of a river in South America. Suddenly they saw a
+jaguar swimming over from the farther bank. They hurriedly seized their
+guns, manned their boat, and rowed out to meet the animal. A shot was
+fired and the jaguar was wounded, but instead of making off, he came
+straight for the boat. The sailors belaboured him with the oars, but he
+paid no attention and managed to drag himself on to the boat, when the
+crew all jumped out and swam to the bank. The jaguar remained, and
+drifted comfortably down the river. A little farther down came a boat of
+other sailors, and this time it was the jaguar who jumped out and
+disappeared among the thickets on the bank. It was a great feat to make
+his escape after tackling two boats' crews."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The train continues on its noisy course through the mountains. Dark,
+wild glens open on either side. The monotonous rumble of the wheels on
+the rails has a soothing effect, and the German, following the example
+of many other travellers, goes to sleep in his corner.
+
+But when the tireless locomotive draws its row of heavy carriages out on
+to a giddy bridge and the waves of sound sing in brighter tones than in
+the enclosed valleys, the compartment wakes to life again. People look
+out of the windows and gaze at the yawning depth beneath them. The
+train seems to be rolling out into space on the way to heaven.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXIV. CAÑONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER.]
+
+The German lights a cigar and begins another lecture to his
+fellow-traveller.
+
+"Here we are passing over one of the source streams of the Colorado
+River. You seem disinclined to admit that everything is grand in
+America, but I maintain that nothing in the world can compare with the
+great cañon of the Colorado. You may believe me or not. You may talk of
+fire-vomiting mountains and coral reefs, of the peak of Mount Everest
+and the great abysses of the ocean, of our light blue Alps in Europe and
+of the dark forests of Africa, nay, you may take me where you will in
+the world, but I shall still maintain that there is no stupendous
+overpowering beauty comparable to the cañons of the Colorado River
+(Plate XXXIV.).
+
+"Listen! This river which discharges its waters into the Gulf of
+California is fed by numerous streams in the rainy, elevated regions of
+the Rocky Mountains. But where the united river leaves Utah and passes
+into Arizona, it traverses a dry plateau country with little rain, where
+its waters have cut their way down through mountain limestone to a depth
+of 6000 feet. The strata are horizontal, and the whole series has been
+cleared away by the continued erosive power of water, aided by gravel
+and boulders. This work has been going on from the commencement of the
+period in the world's history known as the Pliocene Age, and it is
+reckoned that the interval which must have elapsed since then must have
+amounted to millions of years. And yet this space of time, from the
+Pliocene Age to our own, must, geologically speaking, be extremely
+insignificant compared to the length of the great geological periods.
+The six thousand years which we call the historical period is but the
+beat of a second on the clock of eternity, and what the historian calls
+primeval times is the latest and most recent period in the last of all
+the geologist's ages. For while the historian deals with revolutions of
+the sun of only 365 days, the geologist is only satisfied with thousands
+and millions of years. The Colorado River has presented him with one of
+the standards by which he is able to calculate lapse of time. You will
+acknowledge that it is no small feat for running water to cut its way
+down through solid rock to a depth of 6500 feet; and these cañons are
+more than 180 miles long and four to eleven miles broad.
+
+"By its work here the river has sculptured in the face of the earth a
+landscape which awes and astonishes the spectator. It is like nothing
+he has ever seen before. When he stood at the foot of the Alps he gazed
+up at the snow-clad wastes of the mighty mountain masses. When he stands
+at the edge of the cañons of the Colorado he looks down and sees a
+yawning chasm, and on the other side of the giddy ravine the walls rise
+perpendicular or sloping. He seems to stand before the artistically
+decorated facade of a gigantic house or palace in an immense town. He
+sees in the walls of the valley, niches and excavations like a Roman
+theatre, with benches rising in tiers. At their sides stand gables and
+projections of rock, like turrets and buttresses. Under huge cornices
+rise columns standing out or attached at the back, all planned on the
+same gigantic scale. The precipitous cliffs are dark, and the whole
+country is coloured in pink, yellow, red, and warm brown tones. The sun
+pours its gold over the majestic desolation. No grassy sward, no
+vegetation carpets the horizontal or vertical surfaces with green. Here
+and there a pine leans its crown over the chasm, and when the cones fall
+they go right down to the bottom.
+
+"In the early morning, when the air is still pure and clear after the
+coolness of the night, and when the sun is low, the cañon lies in deep
+gloom, and behind the brightly lighted tops of the columns the shadows
+lie as black as soot. Then the bold sculpturing stands out in all its
+glory. On a quiet night, when the moon holds its crescent above the
+earth, an oppressive silence prevails over this region. The roar of the
+river is not heard, for the distance is too great. A feeling of romance
+takes hold of the visitor. He fancies himself in a fairy world. Only a
+step over the edge and he would soar on invisible wings to a bright
+wonderland."
+
+At Salt Lake City the German leaves the train to begin his
+investigations round the Great Salt Lake and the Mormon capital. Gunnar
+travels on through the mountainous districts of Nevada and California,
+and when the train at last pulls up at San Francisco he has reached the
+goal of his hopes.
+
+Here is one of the finest cities in the world, situated on a peninsula
+in a deep and spacious inlet surrounded by mountains. Almost all traces
+of the terrible earthquake which a few years ago destroyed the city have
+disappeared, and splendid new buildings of iron and stone have sprung up
+from the rubbish heaps, for as a commercial emporium San Francisco has
+the same importance with relation to the great routes across the Pacific
+as New York has on the Atlantic side.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SOUTH AMERICA
+
+
+THE INCA EMPIRE
+
+A terrestrial globe naturally presents a better image of the earth than
+any map, for it shows plainly the continents and the configuration of
+the oceans, and exhibits clearly their position and relative size. If
+you examine such a globe, you notice that the North Pole lies in the
+midst of a sea, surrounded by great masses of land, whereas the South
+Pole is in an extensive land surrounded by a wide sea. Perhaps you
+wonder why all the continents send out peninsulas southwards? Just look
+at the Scandinavian Peninsula, and look at Spain, Italy, and Greece. Do
+not Kamtchatka and Korea, Arabia and the Indian Peninsula all point
+south? South America, Africa, and Australia are drawn out into wedges
+narrowing southwards. They are like stalactites in a grotto. But however
+much you may puzzle over the globe, and however much you may question
+learned men, you will never know why the earth's surface has assumed
+exactly the form it has and no other.
+
+On another occasion you may remark that Europe, Asia, Africa, and
+Australia lie in an almost continuous curve in the eastern hemisphere,
+while America has the western hemisphere all to itself. There it lies as
+a huge dividing wall between two oceans. You wonder why the New World
+has such a peculiar form stretching from pole to pole.
+
+Perhaps you think that the Creator must have changed His mind at the
+last moment, and decided to make two distinct continents of America. You
+seem to see the marks of His omnipotent hands. With the left He held
+North America, and in the right South America. Where Hudson Bay runs
+into the land lay His forefinger, and the Gulf of Mexico is the
+impression of His thumb. South America He gripped with the whole hand,
+and there is only a slight mark of the thumb just on the boundary
+between Peru and Chile. It almost looks as if He grasped the continent
+so tightly that its western border was crumpled into great wrinkles and
+folds which we men call the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. If we did not
+know that it is the ocean winds that feed the rivers with rain, we
+should be tempted to believe that the Mississippi, Amazons, Rio de la
+Plata, and other rivers were moisture still running out of the mountains
+under the pressure of the Creator's hands.
+
+And so He has divided America into two. In one place the connection
+broke, but the fragments still remain, and we call them the West Indies
+or Antilles. In other places the material was too tough. Mexico thins
+out southwards as though it were going to end in the sea, and Central
+America is stretched like a wrung-out cloth. Between Guatemala and
+Honduras it is almost torn through, and the large lake of Nicaragua is
+another weak point. But where Costa Rica passes into the Isthmus of
+Panama the connection between the two halves of the New World has been
+almost broken and hangs only by a hair. The peninsula, however, resisted
+the pull, and has held, though reduced to a breadth of forty miles.
+
+Then, of course, man must come and help the Creator to finish the work
+which He Himself found very good. It was long before men ventured on so
+gigantic an undertaking, but as they had succeeded in separating Africa
+from Asia, it was no doubt feasible to blast a canal through the hills
+of the Isthmus of Panama, 300 feet high. It has cost many years and many
+millions, but the great cutting will soon be ready which will sever
+South America from the northern half of the New World. It is surely a
+splendid undertaking to make it possible for a vessel to sail from
+Liverpool direct to San Francisco without rounding the whole of South
+America, and at a single blow to shorten the distance by near 6000
+miles.
+
+The bridge still stands unbroken, however, and we come dryshod over to
+South America just where the Andes begin their mighty march along all
+the west coast. Their ranges rise, here in double and there in many
+folds, like ramparts against the Pacific Ocean, and between the ranges
+lie plains at a height of 12,000 feet. Here also lift themselves on high
+the loftiest summits of the New World--Aconcagua in Argentina, the
+highest of all, an extinct volcano covered with eternal snow and
+glistening glaciers; Sorata in Bolivia; the extinct volcano Chimborazo
+in Ecuador, like a marble dome; and lastly, one of the earth's most
+noted mountains, Cotopaxi, the highest of all still active volcanoes
+(Plate XXXV.). Stand for a moment in the valley above the tree limit,
+where only scattered plants can find hold in the hard ground. You see a
+cone as regular as the peak of Fujiyama. The crater is 2500 feet in
+diameter, and from its edge, 19,600 feet high, the snow-cap falls down
+the mountain sides like the rays of a gigantic starfish. When the
+Spanish conquerors, nearly four hundred years ago, took possession of
+these formerly free countries, Cotopaxi had one of its fearful
+eruptions; and even in more recent times European travellers have seen
+the mantle of snow melt away as from a lighted furnace, while a
+brownish-red reflection from the glowing crater lighted up the
+devastation caused in the villages and valleys at the foot of the
+mountain by the flood of melted snow and streams of lava.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH AMERICA.]
+
+Even under the burning sun of the equator, then, these giants stand with
+mantles of eternal snow and glittering blue fields of ice in the
+bitterly cold atmosphere. Up there you would think that you were near
+the pole. There are no trees on the high crests, which seem to rise up
+from the depths of the Pacific Ocean; but the climate is good, and
+agriculture yields sustenance to men. On the eastern flanks, which are
+watered by abundant rains, the vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant, and
+here the traveller enters the primeval forests of the tropics. Here is
+the home of the cinchona tree, here orchids bloom among the tall trunks,
+and here whole woods are entangled in a network of lianas. Immense areas
+of Brazil and Bolivia are covered with impenetrable primeval forests,
+which even still present an obstacle to the advance of the explorer.
+
+Thus we find in the Andes all zones from the hot to the cold, from
+tropical forests to barren heights, from the equator to high southern
+latitudes.
+
+Among these mountains dwelled in former times a remarkable and
+law-abiding people, who under judicious and cautious kings attained a
+high standard of power and development. To the leading tribe several
+adjacent peoples allied themselves, and in time the mightiest and most
+highly-cultured kingdom of South America flourished among them.
+According to tradition, the ruling royal family took its rise where the
+icefields of some of the loftiest summits of the Andes are reflected in
+the mirror of Lake Titicaca. The king was called Inca, and when we speak
+of the Inca Kingdom we mean old Peru, whose people were crushed and
+annihilated by the Spaniards.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXV. COTOPAXI.]
+
+The Inca Empire extended from Colombia and Ecuador in the north far down
+to the present Chile. The Inca's power was unlimited, and after death he
+was honoured with divine rites. He was surrounded with wealth and
+grandeur. A red headband with white and black feathers was the sign of
+his royal dignity. By his side stood the High Priest, who had to inquire
+into and proclaim the will of the gods.
+
+In Cuzco, the holy city of the Indians, north-west of the Titicaca lake,
+the Inca people had erected a splendid temple to the sun and moon. The
+halls of the sun temple were overlaid with plates of the ruddiest gold,
+and the friezes and doors were of the same precious metal. In the
+principal hall was worshipped an image of the sun with a human face in
+the centre, surrounded by rays of precious stones. In another hall the
+image of the moon goddess glittered in silver.
+
+The sun and moon were, then, the objects of the deepest reverence. But
+the Inca people also prayed to the rainbow and to the god of thunder,
+and believed that certain inferior deities protected their herds,
+dwellings, fields, and canals. They wore on the neck amulets which
+shielded them from danger and sudden death, and were eventually buried
+with them.
+
+The dead were sewed up in hides or matting and interred under the
+dwelling-house, or, in the case of important men, in special funereal
+towers. On the coast the body was placed among boulders, in sand-banks,
+or in large vessels of earthenware. With a dead man were laid his
+weapons and implements, with women their utensils and handiwork, with
+children their playthings. To the dead, flowers and fruit were offered,
+and llamas were sacrificed. Dead Incas were deposited in the temple of
+the sun, and their wives in the hall of the moon.
+
+The Festival of the Sun was held at the winter solstice, and on this
+occasion the Inca himself officiated as High Priest in his capacity as
+the "son of the sun." Then was lighted a fire on the altar of the sun,
+which was kept in all the year by the virgins of the sun. These had a
+convent near the temple, the royal palace and the house of nobles. It
+was also their duty to make costly robes for the priests and princes, to
+brew maize beer for the festivals of the gods, and after victories or a
+change of Incas to offer themselves to the gods.
+
+The earlier history of the Inca people is lost in tradition and the mist
+of legends. We know more of their administration and social condition,
+for the Spanish conquerors saw all with their own eyes. The constitution
+was communistic. All the land, fields, and pastures was divided into
+three parts, of which two belonged to the Inca and the priesthood, and
+the third to the people. The cultivation of the land was supervised by a
+commissioner of the government, who had to see that the produce was
+equitably distributed, and that the ground was properly manured with
+guano from the islands on the west coast. Clothes and domestic animals
+were also distributed by the State to the people. All labour was
+executed in common for the good of the State; roads and bridges were
+made, mines worked, weapons forged, and all the men capable of bearing
+arms had to join the ranks when the kingdom was threatened by hostile
+tribes. The harvest was stored in government warehouses in the various
+provinces. An extremely accurate account was kept of all goods belonging
+to the State, such as provisions, clothes, and weapons. A register was
+kept of births and deaths. No one might change his place of abode
+without permission, and no one might engage in any other occupation than
+that of his father. Military order was maintained everywhere, and
+therefore the Inca people were able to subdue their neighbours.
+Everything was noted down, and yet this remarkable people had no written
+characters, but used cords instead, with knots and loops of various
+colours having different meanings. If the Inca wished to send an order
+to a distant province, he despatched a running messenger with a bundle
+of knotted strings. The recipient had only to look at the strings to
+find out the business on hand.
+
+To facilitate the movement of troops, the Incas constructed two
+excellent roads which met at Cuzco--one in the mountainous country, the
+other along the coast. Europeans have justly admired these grand
+constructions. The military roads were paved with stone, and had walls
+and avenues of trees. At certain intervals were inns where the
+swift-footed couriers could pass the night. The principal highway ran
+from Cuzco to Quito. When the Inca himself was on a journey, he sat on a
+golden throne carried on a litter by the great nobles of the empire.
+
+European explorers still discover grand relics of the Inca period. The
+people did not know the arch, and did not use bricks and mortar, yet
+their temples and fortresses, their gates, towers, and walls are real
+gems of architecture. The joins between the blocks are often scarcely
+visible, and some portals are hewn out of a single block with artistic
+and original chiselled figures and images of the sun god on the façades.
+
+Their skill in pottery was of equal excellence, and as workers in metal
+there was none to match them in the South American continent. They made
+clubs and axes of bronze, and vessels and ornaments of gold and silver.
+In their graves modern explorers have found many striking proofs of
+their proficiency in the art of weaving. They used the wool of llamas,
+alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. These species of animal, allied to the
+camel, still render great services to the Indians. The llama is
+distributed over the greater part of the Andes, and the male only is
+used as a transport animal. The llama is shy, stupid, and quiet, and his
+head is somewhat like a sheep's. The alpaca does not carry loads, but is
+kept as a domestic animal for the sake of its meat and wool. The vicuña
+and guanaco also do not work in the service of man. The latter is found
+chiefly on the steppes of Patagonia, where he meets the fate of the
+South American ostrich and falls to the arrows of the Indians.
+
+The Inca people wove clothes of the wool of these animals as well as of
+cotton. The chief garment of the men was a short shirt without sleeves,
+of the women a longer shirt with a belt round the waist. The men wore
+short hair with a black bandage round the head; and outside the bandage
+they wound a noose or lasso. The women wore their hair long. Sandals
+covered the feet, and in the ear-lobes were inserted round pegs. The
+people reared and grazed cattle, as we have seen, and were hunters and
+fishermen. They grew potatoes and many other root crops, bananas,
+tobacco, and cotton, and sowed extensive fields of maize. They had all
+the characteristics of the American race--a short skull, sharply cut
+features, and a powerfully built body.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For centuries the Inca people had lived in undisturbed repose in their
+beautiful valleys and on their sunlit tablelands between the mountain
+ranges--or _cordilleras_, as they are called--which compose the Andes.
+If their peace was occasionally disturbed by neighbouring tribes,
+messages in knotted signs flew through the country, and the roads were
+full of armed men; but the Inca kings dreamed of no serious danger. For
+several hundred years their power had passed from father to son, and no
+neighbour was strong enough to wrest the sceptre from the Inca king's
+hand. Not a whisper of such names as Chimborazo and Cotopaxi had
+reached Europe.
+
+A great Inca had recently died and bequeathed his power to his two sons,
+Huascar and Atahualpa. Just as always in the Old World, such a partition
+produced friction and disputes, and at length civil war broke out. After
+four hundred years, we read with sorrow the account of the suicidal
+strife which harried old Peru, divided the Inca people into two hostile
+factions, and thus made them an easy prey to the conquerors.
+
+Scarcely had the clash of arms died out after the brave and chivalrous
+Cortez had burned his ships on the coast of Mexico, subdued the kingdom
+of Montezuma, and placed it under the crown of Castille, before another
+Spanish conqueror, the rough, cruel, and treacherous Pizarro, cast his
+eyes southwards, covetous of new gold countries. With a handful of
+adventurers, he made his way down to Peru, but soon perceived that he
+could not succeed without help from the home country. The Emperor
+Charles V. listened to his tale of gold and green forests, and in the
+year 1531 Pizarro set out again, this time with a company of 180
+well-armed cavaliers. By degrees he gathered fresh reinforcements,
+landed on the coast of Peru, and marched into the Inca kingdom.
+
+Pizarro was clever and courageous, but, unlike Cortez, he was a base man
+and a scoundrel. He had no education or proper feeling, and could not
+even write his name, but he was cunning and knew how to take advantage
+of favourable circumstances. By means of scouts and ambassadors he soon
+made himself fully acquainted with the situation. He lulled the fears of
+Atahualpa by offers of peace, with the result that the Inca king
+requested his assistance to crush his brother Huascar. If the brothers
+had held together, they could have driven the Spanish pestilence out of
+the country. Now the fate of both was sealed.
+
+It was agreed that Atahualpa should come in person to Pizarro's camp,
+and he arrived in pomp and state, escorted by an army of 30,000 men. He
+naturally wished to impress his ally with his power. He sat raised on a
+litter of gold, and was surrounded by all his generals.
+
+Then Pizarro's military chaplain stepped forth, a Catholic priest. In
+one hand he held a crucifix, in the other a breviary. Raising his
+crucifix, he exhorted the Inca king in the name of Jesus to accept
+Christianity and to acknowledge the King of Castille as his master.
+Atahualpa retained his composure, and simply answered that no one could
+deprive him of the rights inherited from his fathers. He would not
+forswear his fathers' faith and did not understand what the priest said.
+"It is written here in this book," cried the priest, and handed the
+breviary to the king. Atahualpa held the book to his ear, listened, and
+said as he threw the breviary on the ground, "Your book does not speak."
+
+Without warning, a massacre was commenced. The cannon and muskets of the
+Spaniards ploughed red furrows in the ranks of the Peruvians. Protected
+by their helmets and harness of steel, and with halberts and lances
+lowered, the cavaliers swept irresistibly through the ranks of
+half-naked natives and spread terror and confusion around them. All that
+could be reached with sword, spear, or bullet were mercilessly
+slaughtered. Four thousand dead bodies lay scattered over the ground,
+among thousands wounded and bleeding. The rest of the army was
+completely scattered and took to flight. The Inca king himself had been
+early taken captive to be kept as a hostage. Enormous plunder fell into
+the hands of the victors. The report of a land of gold in the south had
+not been an empty tale; here was gold in heaps. The loot was generously
+divided between the officers and men, and, with the crucifix raised to
+heaven, the priest read mass while the other villains thanked God for
+victory.
+
+The captive Inca king begged and prayed to be set at liberty. But
+Pizarro promised to release him only after he had bound himself to fill
+a moderate-sized room with gold from the floor up to as high as he could
+reach with his hand. Then messages in knotted cords were carried through
+all the country which remained faithful to Atahualpa, and vessels,
+bowls, ornaments, and ingots of gold poured in from temples and palaces.
+In a short time the room was filled and the ransom paid, but the Inca
+king was still kept a prisoner. He reminded Pizarro of his promised
+word. The unscrupulous adventurer laughed in his black beard. Instead of
+keeping his promise, he accused Atahualpa of conspiracy, condemned him
+to death, and the innocent and pious Indian king was strangled in
+prison. By this abominable deed the whole Spanish conquest was covered
+with shame and disgrace.
+
+One of Pizarro's comrades in arms, Almagro, now arrived with
+reinforcements, and with an army of 500 men Pizarro marched on through
+the high lands to the capital, Cuzco, which he captured. Then he fell
+out with Almagro, and the latter determined to seek out other gold
+countries in the south on his own account. With a small party he marched
+up into the mountains of Bolivia, and then followed the coast southwards
+to the neighbourhood of Aconcagua. He certainly found no gold, but he
+achieved a great exploit, for he led his troop through the dreaded
+Atacama desert.
+
+Meanwhile Pizarro ruled in the conquered kingdom. Close to the coast he
+founded Lima, which was afterwards for a long period the residence of
+the Spanish viceroy, and is now, with nearly 150,000 inhabitants, still
+the capital of Peru. It has a large number of monasteries and churches,
+and a stately cathedral. The port town, Callao, was almost totally
+destroyed a hundred and sixty-six years ago by a tidal wave, which
+drowned the inhabitants and swept away the houses; but it gradually
+regained its prosperity, and now has 50,000 inhabitants.
+
+At length, however, Pizarro roused a formidable insurrection by his
+cruelty, and while he was besieged in Lima his three brothers were shut
+up in Cuzco. Just then Almagro returned from the Atacama desert,
+defeated the Peruvians, seized Cuzco, and made the three Pizarro
+brothers prisoners. But the fourth brother, the conqueror, succeeded in
+effecting their liberation and in capturing Almagro, who was at once
+sent to the gallows. A few years later, however, Almagro's friends
+wreaked vengeance on Pizarro; a score of conspirators rushed into the
+governor's palace and made their way with drawn swords into the room
+where Pizarro was surrounded by some friends and servants. Most of these
+jumped through the window; the rest were cut down. Pizarro defended
+himself bravely, but after killing four of his assailants he fell to the
+ground, and with a loud voice asked to be allowed to make his
+confession. While he was making the sign of the cross on the ground, a
+sword was thrust into his throat.
+
+The murdered Inca king is an emblem of bleeding South America. All was
+done, it was pretended, in order to spread enlightenment and
+Christianity, but in reality the children of the country were lured to
+destruction, deluded to fill Spanish coffers with gold, and then in
+requital were persecuted to death. Civilisation had no part in the
+matter; it was only a question of robbery and greed of gain, and when
+these desires were satisfied, the descendants of the Incas might be
+swept off the earth.
+
+
+THE AMAZONS RIVER
+
+In Peru the largest river of the world takes its source, and streams
+northwards among the verdant _cordilleras_ of the Andes. Wheat waves on
+its banks, and here and there stands a funereal tower or a ruin from
+Inca times. Small rafts take the place of bridges, and at high water the
+river rushes foaming furiously through the valley.
+
+And then it suddenly turns eastwards and cuts its way with unbridled
+fury through the eastern ridges of the Andes. The water forces itself
+through ravines barely 50 yards wide and dashes with a deafening roar
+over falls and rapids. Sometimes the river rests from its labours,
+expanding to a width of two or three furlongs. Crystal affluents hurry
+down from the snow-fields of the Andes to join it. It takes its tribute
+of water from mountain and forest, and is indeed a majestic stream when
+it leaves the last hills behind.
+
+The source of the Amazons was discovered in 1535 by Marañon, a Spanish
+soldier. Vicente Pinzon had discovered its mouth in the year 1500. But
+Marañon, on the one hand, had no notion where the river emerged into the
+sea, and Pinzon, on the other, knew not where the headwaters purled
+through the valley. It was reserved for another Spaniard to solve the
+problem. Let us follow Orellana on his adventurous journey.
+
+Gonzalo Pizarro served under his brother, the conqueror, in northern
+Peru. There he heard of rich gold countries in the east, and decided to
+seek them. With an army of 350 Spanish cavalry and infantry, as well as
+4000 Indians, he set out from Quito and marched over the Andes past the
+foot of Cotopaxi to the lowlands of the Napo River.
+
+It was a reckless enterprise. The Indians were frozen to death in crowds
+on the great heights. Instead of gold, nothing was found but wearisome
+savannahs and swamps, and dismal forests soaked with two months' rain.
+Instead of useful domestic animals, no creature was seen but the
+thick-skinned tapir, which, with a long beak-like nose, crops plants and
+leaves and frequents swampy tracts in the heart of the primeval forest.
+The few natives were hostile.
+
+When the troop reached the Napo River on New Year's Day, 1540, Pizarro
+decided to send the bold seaman Orellana on in front down the river to
+look for people and provisions, for famine with all its tortures
+threatened them.
+
+A camp was set up and a wharf constructed. A small brigantine for sails
+and oars was hastily put together, and Orellana stepped on board with a
+crew of fifty men, and the boat was borne down the strong current.
+
+Dark and silent woods stood on both sides. No villages, no human beings
+were seen. Tall trees stood on the bank like triumphal arches, and from
+their boughs hung lianas serving as rope ladders and swings for sportive
+monkeys with prehensile tails. Day after day the vessel glided farther
+into this humid land never before seen by white men. The Spaniards
+looked in vain for natives, and their eyes tried in vain to pierce the
+green murkiness between the tree trunks. The men showed increasing
+uneasiness; but Orellana sat quietly at the helm, gave his orders to the
+rowers, and had the sail hoisted to catch the breeze that swept over the
+water.
+
+No camping-places on points of the bank, no huts roofed with palm leaves
+or grass, no smoke indicated the vicinity of Indians. In a thicket by a
+brook lay a boa constrictor, a snake allied to the python of the Old
+World, in easy, elegant coils, digesting a small rodent somewhat like a
+hare and called an agouti. At the margin of the bank some water-hogs
+wallowed in the sodden earth full of roots, and under a vault of thorny
+bushes lay their worst enemy, the jaguar, in ambush, his eyes glowing
+like fire.
+
+At length the country became more open. Frightened Indians appeared on
+the bank, and their huts peeped through the forest avenues. Orellana
+moored his boat and landed with his men. The savages were quiet, and
+received the Spaniards trustingly, so the latter stayed for a time and
+collected all the provisions they could obtain. The Indians spoke of a
+great water in the south which could be reached in ten days.
+
+The fifty Spaniards were now in excellent spirits, and set to work
+eagerly to construct another smaller sailing vessel. When this was done,
+Orellana filled both his boats with provisions, manned the larger with
+thirty and the smaller with twenty men, and continued his wonderful
+journey, which was to furnish the explanation of the great river system
+of tropical America. Around him stretched the greatest tropical lowland
+of the world, before him ran the most voluminous river of the earth. He
+saw nothing but forest and water, a bewitched country. He had no
+equipment beyond that which was afforded by the Napo's banks, and his
+men grumbled daily at the long, dangerous voyage.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXVI. INDIAN HUTS ON THE AMAZONS RIVER.]
+
+After ten days the two boats came to the "great water," where the Napo
+yields its tribute to the Amazons River. The latter was then rising
+fast, and when it is at its height, in June and July, the water lies
+forty feet above its low water-level. Farther down the difference tends
+to disappear, for the northern tributaries come from the equator, where
+it rains at all seasons, while the southern rise at different times
+according to the widely separated regions where their sources lie. To
+travel from the foot of the _cordilleras_ to the mouth the high water of
+the main river takes two months.
+
+The Spaniards felt as if they were carried over a boundless lake. Where
+the banks are low the forests are flooded for miles, and the trees stand
+up out of the water. Then the wild animals fly to safer districts, and
+only water birds and forest birds remain, with such four-footed animals
+as spend all their lives in trees. The fifty men noticed that certain
+stretches on the banks were never reached by the high water, and it was
+only at these places that the Indians built their huts, just as the
+indiarubber gatherers do at the present day (Plate XXXIV.).
+
+When the high water retired, large patches of the loose, sodden banks
+were undermined, and fell into the river, weighed down by the huge trees
+they supported. Islands of timber, roots, earth, and lianas were carried
+away by the current. Some stranded on shallows in the middle of the
+river, others grounded at projections of the bank, and other rubbish was
+piled up against them till the whole mass broke away and danced down the
+river towards the sea. Here the men had to be careful, for at any moment
+the boats might capsize against a grounded tree trunk. Deep pools also
+were found, and the current ran at the rate of 2-1/2 feet a second, and
+they often had the help of the wind.
+
+They soon learned to know by the changed appearance of the forest where
+they could land. Where the royal crowns of foliaged trees reared their
+waving canopy above the palms they could be sure of finding dry ground;
+but if the palms with verdant luxuriance raised their plumes above low
+brushwood, they might be sure that the bank was flooded by the river.
+
+If the voyage on the capricious river was dangerous, the Spaniards were
+still more disturbed by Indians, who came paddling up in their canoes
+and showered poisoned arrows on the boats. To get through in safety, the
+explorers had to avoid the banks as much as possible.
+
+At the end of May they drifted past the mouth of the Rio Negro, which
+discharges a large volume of water, for it collects streams from
+Venezuela and Guiana, and from the wet _llanos_, or open plains, north
+of the Amazons River. Where the great tributary is divided by islands it
+attains a breadth of as much as thirty miles.
+
+Here Orellana stayed several weeks with friendly Indians, who lived in
+pretty huts under the boughs of bananas. The vessels were repaired, and
+provisions taken on board--maize, chickens, turtles, and fish. There
+were swarms of edible turtles, and the Indians caught them and collected
+their eggs; and the fish were abundant and various--no wonder, when two
+thousand species of fish live in the basin of the Amazons.
+
+Shortly afterwards they glided past the mouth of the Madeira, a mile and
+a half broad, which discharges a volume of water little inferior to that
+of the main river. For the Madeira has its sources far to the south, and
+descends partly from the _cordilleras_ of Peru and Bolivia, partly from
+the plateau of Brazil.
+
+Woods and no end of water, month after month! The heat is the same all
+the year round--not very excessive, seldom 104°, but still oppressive
+and enervating because of the humidity of the air. Yet the voyage was
+not monotonous. Leaning against the masts and gunwale, or leisurely
+moving the oars, the soldiers could observe the dolphins leaping in the
+river, the sudden darts of the alligators as they hunted the fish
+through the water, or the clumsy movements of the manati, one of the
+Sirenia, as it cropped grass at the edge of the bank, to the danger of
+the eel-like lung fish, which sometimes goes up on to dry land.
+Sometimes they saw the Indians in light canoes pursue manatis and
+alligators with harpoons for the sake of their flesh, and perhaps they
+felt a shiver at the sight of the huge water-snakes of the Amazons
+River.
+
+On they went through the immense forest which extends from the foot of
+the Andes and the sources of the Madeira to the mouths of the
+Orinoco--through this dense, rank carpet which covers all the lowlands
+of Brazil with its teeming and superabundant life, and which is so
+bountifully watered by tropical rains and flooded rivers. All the rain
+that falls on the _llanos_ and the _selvas_ (as the wooded plains are
+called) makes its way through innumerable affluents to the Amazons and
+enters the sea through its trumpet-shaped mouth. The river, with its
+forests, is like a cornucopia of vast, wild, irrepressible nature, where
+life breathes and pulsates, where it bubbles and ripples, seethes and
+ferments in the soft productive soil, where animals swarm, and beetles
+and butterflies are more numerous than anywhere else on our earth, and
+are clad in the most gorgeous hues of the tropics. There old trees on
+the bank are undermined and washed away, while others decay in the
+sultry recesses of the forest. There the earth is constantly fertilised
+by the manure of animals and their corpses and by dead vegetation, and
+there new generations are continually rising up from the graves in
+nature's inexhaustible kingdom.
+
+The Spaniards had no time to make excursions into the country from their
+camps. It is difficult to make one's way through this intricate, ragged
+network of climbing plants between trunks, boughs, bushes, and
+undergrowth. In the interior, far away from the waterways, and
+especially between some of the southern tributaries, lie forests unknown
+and untrodden since heathen times. Perhaps there are Indian tribes among
+them who have not yet heard that America has been discovered, and who
+may congratulate themselves that the forests are too much for the white
+men.
+
+There palms predominate in a peaceful Eden, and at their feet flourish
+ferns with stems as hard as wood. In the bamboo clumps the jaguars play
+with their cubs, and on the outskirts of the swamps the peccary, a sort
+of small pig, jumps on his long, supple legs. A dark-green gloom
+prevails under the tall bay-trees, and their stems stand under their
+crowns like the columns of a church nave. There thrive mimosas and
+various species of fig, and climbing palms are not ashamed of their
+inquisitiveness.
+
+See this tree 200 feet high, with its round, hard fruits as large as a
+child's head! When they are ripe they fall, and the shell opens to let
+out the triangular seeds which we call Brazil nuts.
+
+Look at the indiarubber tree with its light-coloured stem, its
+light-green foliage, and its white sap, which, when congealed, rolls
+round motor wheels through streets and roads.
+
+Here again is a tree that every one knows about. It grows to a height of
+50 feet, and bears large, smooth, leathery leaves, but its blossoms
+issue from the stem and not among the foliage. Its cucumber-shaped
+orange fruits ripen at almost all seasons in the perpetual summer of the
+Amazons. In the fruit the seeds lie in rows. The tree grows wild in the
+forests, but was cultivated by the Indians before the arrival of white
+men, and they prepared from it a drink which they called "chocolatl." It
+was bitter, but the addition of sugar and vanilla made it palatable.
+This tree is called the cocoa-tree.
+
+Still better known and more popular is another drink--coffee. The
+coffee-tree is not found in the primeval forests, but in plantations,
+and even there it is a guest, for its native country is Kaffa in
+Abyssinia, and coffee came from Arabia to Europe through Constantinople.
+Now Brazil produces three-fourths of all the world's coffee, and in all
+thousands of millions of pounds of coffee are consumed yearly.
+
+The vanilla plant, also, is one of the wonderful inmates of the forests.
+In order that the wild plants which are indigenous in the mountain
+forests of Mexico and Peru may produce fruit, the pollen must be carried
+by insects. Many years ago the plant was transported to the island of
+Réunion in the Indian Ocean, where it throve capitally, but bore no
+fruit. The helpful insects of its native country were absent. Then
+artificial fertilisation with pollen was successfully attempted, and now
+Réunion supplies most of the vanilla in the world's markets.
+
+Think again of all the animals which live in the forest and its
+outskirts towards the savannahs! There is the singular opossum, and
+there is the sluggish, scaly armadillo, which loves the detestable
+termites--those white ants which, with their sharp mandibles, gnaw to
+pieces paper, clothes, wood, the whole house in fact. Then there is the
+climbing sloth, with its round monkey head and large curved claws. All
+day long it remains sleepily hanging under a bough, and only wakes up
+when night falls. It lives only on trees and eats leaves. In far-back
+ages there were sloths as large as rhinoceroses and elephants. We have,
+too, the raccoon in a greyish-yellow coat, also a nocturnal animal,
+which sleeps during the day in a hollow tree. He lives on small mammals
+and birds, eggs and fruits, but before he swallows his food he cleans it
+well, generally in water.
+
+There is a perpetual gloom under the crowns of the foliaged trees and
+palms. It is the home of shadows. Only lianas, these parasites of the
+vegetable kingdom, raise their stems above the dusky vault to open their
+calyces in the sun. Round them flutter innumerable butterflies in gaudy
+colours. On the border between sunlight and shade scream droll parrots,
+and busy pigeons steer their way among the trees on rustling wings.
+There humming-birds dart like arrows through the air. They are small,
+dainty birds with breast, neck, and head shining like metal with the
+brightest, most vivid colouring. They build their nests carefully with
+vegetable fibres and moss, and their beaks are long and fine as a reed.
+There is a humming-bird which does not grow longer than an inch and a
+half, and weighs little more than fifteen grains.
+
+We must now go back to see how Orellana got on with his two brigantines.
+
+Below the mouth of the Madeira he landed once on the northern bank in a
+region inhabited only by tall Amazons, from whom the river received its
+name. But the tale of Amazons was really a sailor's romance, just as the
+Spaniards dreamed of Eldorado, or the land of gold.
+
+On they went and the river never ended. During their voyage they saw in
+lakes by the bank, well sheltered and exposed to the sun, the grandest
+of all flowers, the _Victoria regia_ of the water-lily family, floating
+on the water. Its leaves measure six feet in diameter, and the blossoms
+are more than a foot across. The flowers open only two evenings, first
+white and then purple.
+
+Between the mouths of the mighty tributaries Tapajos and Xingu the
+Spaniards saw the great grassy plains stretching up to the river. They
+only just escaped cannibals on the northern bank. Warned by friendly
+Indians, they were on their guard against the _piroroca_, the mysterious
+bore, fifteen feet high, which is connected with the flow of the tide
+and rushes up the river twice a month from the sea, devastating
+everything. Finally they came to the northern mouth of the Amazons
+River, having traversed 2500 out of the 3600 miles of its length.
+
+Here Orellana decked his vessels over and sailed out to sea, making for
+the West Indies along the coasts of Guiana and Venezuela. Even after the
+coast was lost to sight he still sailed in yellow, muddy, fresh water,
+and he was far to the north before he came to blue-green sea-water. For
+three hundred miles from the mouth the fresh river water overlies the
+salt. At Christmas he dropped his anchor on the coast of San Domingo,
+and his grand exploit was achieved.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+IN THE SOUTH SEAS
+
+
+ALBATROSSES AND WHALES
+
+Like the sting on the scorpion's poison gland, Tierra del Fuego, the
+most southern land of America, juts out into the southern sea. It is
+separated from the mainland by the sound which bears the name of the
+intrepid Magellan. In the primeval forests of the interior grow
+evergreen beeches, and there copper-brown Indians of the Ona tribe
+formerly held unlimited sway. Like their brethren all over the New
+World, they have been thrust out by white men and are doomed to
+extinction. They were only sojourners on the coasts of Tierra del Fuego,
+and their term has expired. Only a few now remain, but they still retain
+the old characteristics of their race, are powerfully built, warlike and
+brave, live at feud with their neighbours, and kindle their camp fires
+in the woods, on the shores of lakes, or on the coast.
+
+Many a sailing vessel has come to grief in the Straits of Magellan. The
+channel is dangerous, and has a bad reputation for violent squalls,
+which beat down suddenly over the precipitous cliffs. It is safer to
+keep to the open sea and sail to the south of the islands of Tierra del
+Fuego. Here the surges of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans roar together
+against the high cliffs of Cape Horn.
+
+Who listens to this song, who gazes with royal disdain down over the
+spray, who wonders why the breakers have been there for thousands of
+years pounding against gates that never open, who soars at this moment
+with outspread wings over Cape Horn--who but the albatross, the largest
+of all storm birds, the boldest and most unwearied of all the winged
+inhabitants of the realm of air?
+
+Look at him well, for in a second he will be gone. You see that he is
+as large as a swan, has a short, thick neck, a large head with a
+powerful pink and yellowish bill, and that he is quite white except
+where his wing feathers are black. His wings are wonders of creation.
+When he folds them, they cling close to the body and seem to disappear;
+but now he has spread them out, and they measure twelve feet from tip to
+tip. They are long and narrow, thin and finely formed as a sword blade.
+He moves them with amazing steadiness, and excels all other birds in
+strength and endurance. No bird has such an elegant and majestic flight.
+He spreads his wings like sails with taut sheets, and soars at a
+whistling pace up against the wind. Follow him with your eyes hour after
+hour in the hardest wind, and you will see that he makes a scarcely
+perceptible beat of his wings only every seventh minute, keeping them
+between whiles perfectly still. That is his secret. All his skill
+consists in his manner of holding his wings expanded and the inclination
+he gives to his excellent monoplane in relation to his body and the
+wind. Everything else, change of elevation, and movement forwards with
+or against the wind, is managed by the wind itself. When he wishes to
+rise from the surface of the sea he spreads his wings, turns towards the
+wind, and lets it lift him up. Then he soars in elegant curves and
+glides up the invisible hills of the atmosphere.
+
+Most noteworthy is the perfect freedom of the albatross. He shuns the
+mainland and breeds on solitary islands; he can scarcely move on the
+ground, and when he is forced to alight he waddles clumsily along like a
+swan. He comes in contact with the earth only at the nest, where the hen
+sits on her single egg and tucks her white head under her wing.
+Otherwise he does not touch the ground. He finds his food on the surface
+of the sea, and spends three-fourths of his life in the air. There he
+soars about from sea to sea like a satellite to the earth, moving freely
+and lightly round the heavy globe as it rolls through space.
+
+He is not restricted to any particular course, no distance is too great
+for him; he simply rests on his wings and sweeps easily from ocean to
+ocean. He is, however, rarer in the Atlantic than in the Pacific Ocean,
+and he avoids the heat of equatorial regions. He sails in any other
+direction he pleases, where he has most prospect of satisfying his
+voracious appetite.
+
+What do you think of an albatross which was caught on a vessel and
+marked so that it might be recognised again, and which then followed the
+vessel for six days and nights watching for any refuse thrown out? The
+ship was in the open sea and was sailing twelve knots an hour, but the
+albatross did not tire. Nay, he made circles of miles round the vessel
+at a considerable height. On board the ship the watch was changed time
+after time, for man must rest and sleep, but the albatross needed
+neither sleep nor rest. He had no one to whom he could entrust the
+management of his wings while he slept at night. He kept awake for a
+week without showing any signs of weariness. He flew on and on,
+sometimes disappearing astern, and an hour later appearing again and
+sweeping down on the vessel from the front. That it was the same
+albatross was proved by the mark painted on the breast. Only on the
+seventh day did he leave the ship, dissatisfied with the fare set before
+him. He was then hundreds of miles from the nearest coast.
+
+Just think of all the wonderful and remarkable sights he must witness on
+his airy course! He sees everything that takes place on the decks of
+large sailing vessels, and the smoke rising out of the steamers'
+funnels. He marks the clumsy movements of the twenty-feet-long
+sea-elephants on the gravel shore of the islands of South Georgia, east
+of Cape Horn, and sees the black or grey backs of whales rolling on the
+surface of the water.
+
+Perhaps he has some time wandered away northwards over the Atlantic and
+seen whalers attack the blue whale--the largest animal now living in the
+world, for it often attains to a length of 90 feet. At the present day
+whalers use strongly built, swift, and easily handled steam-launches,
+and shoot the harpoon out from the bow with a pivoted gun. In the head
+of the harpoon is a pointed shell which explodes in the body of the
+whale, dealing a mortal wound, and at the butt end a thick rope is
+secured. The vessel follows the whale until it is dead. Then it is
+hauled up with a steam winch and towed to a whaling station in some bay
+on the coast, where it is flitched. Then the oil is boiled out, poured
+into casks, and sent to market.
+
+Much more picturesque and more dangerous was the whaling witnessed in
+northern seas by the forefathers of the albatross, for man has been for
+a thousand years the worst enemy of the whale, and some species are
+almost exterminated. Then the whalers did not use a gun, but threw the
+harpoon by hand. Every vessel had several keelless whale-boats, pointed
+at both bow and stern, so that they could be rowed forwards or
+backwards. When a whale was seen in the distance the boats set out,
+each boat manned by six experienced whalers. One of them was the
+coxswain, another the harpooner, while the others sat at the oars. The
+harpoon line, an inch thick, lay carefully coiled up, and ran out
+through a brass eye in the bow. Every man knew from long experience what
+he had to do at any particular minute, and therefore there was silence
+on board, all working without orders.
+
+When all is ready one of the boats rows towards the whale, and the
+harpooner throws his sharp weapon with all his strength into the whale's
+flank. Almost before the harpoon has struck the boat is backed swiftly.
+Wild with pain, the whale may strike the boat from above with his
+powerful horizontal caudal fin and crush it at a blow, or he may dive
+below the boat and upset it, but usually he thinks only of making his
+escape. He makes for the depths in fright, and the harpoon line runs
+out, the strands producing a singing sound. Great care is necessary, for
+if the line curls round a man's leg he is carried overboard and is lost.
+The whale dives at once to a depth of a couple of hundred fathoms. There
+it is dark and quiet, and he remains there half an hour or an hour, till
+at length he is obliged to come up to breathe. The lie of the line in
+the water shows approximately where he will come up again, and another
+boat rows to the spot. As soon as he appears above the surface a second
+harpoon whistles through the air.
+
+The whale is now too breathless to dive. He swims along the surface and
+lashes the waves with his tail to free himself from his tormentors. He
+speeds along at a desperate pace, dashing the waves into spray around
+him and drawing the boats after him. The crews have hauled in the lines,
+and the boats are quite close to the whale, but they must be ready to
+pay out the lines if the whale dives. The boats' prows are tilted high
+up into the air and the water streams off them. They shoot forward like
+mad things through the foaming sea, whether it be day or night, and
+pitch up and down over the crests of the waves. With stretched muscles,
+clenched teeth, and glaring eyes the whale-hunters follow the movements
+of the whale and the boat.
+
+They notice that the pace slackens. The whale begins to tire, and at
+last is quite exhausted. Its movements become irregular, it stops and
+throws itself about so that the water spurts up round it. Then a boat
+rows up, and a long spear is thrust in three feet deep towards the
+animal's heart, and perhaps an explosive bullet is fired. If the
+lungs are pierced the whale sends up jets of blood from its
+nostrils--"hoisting the red flag," in the language of whalers. Its time
+is come; it gives up the struggle, and its death tremors show that
+another of the giants of the ocean has bid a last farewell to its
+boundless realm.
+
+
+ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
+
+On motionless wings an albatross hovers high above Cape Horn. His sharp
+eye takes in everything. Now he sees in the distance smoke from the
+funnel of a steamer, and in a couple of minutes he has tacked round the
+vessel and decided to follow it on its voyage to the north. To the east
+he has the coast of Chile, with its countless reefs and islands and deep
+fiords, and above it rises the snow-capped crest of the Andes. As soon
+as refuse is thrown overboard, the albatross swoops down like an arrow.
+A second before he touches the water he raises his wings, draws back his
+head, stretches out his large feet in front with expanded claws, and
+then plumps down screaming, into the water. He floats as lightly as a
+cork. In a moment he has swallowed all the scraps floating on the
+surface, and then, turning to the wind, rises to a giddy height.
+
+The vessel happens to be carrying goods to Santiago, the capital of
+Chile, and casts anchor at its port town, Valparaiso. In the background
+rises Aconcagua, the highest mountain of America.
+
+Then the albatross steers out to sea to try his luck elsewhere. Seventy
+miles from the coast he comes across the notable little island, Juan
+Fernandez, and circles round its volcanic cliffs. For him there are no
+frightful precipitous ascents and descents; from his height he can see
+all he wishes to see. It is otherwise with explorers. Some cliffs are
+inaccessible to their feet, as Carl Skottsberg found when he went out to
+the island three years ago in a Chilian vessel. He saw the cliffs 3000
+feet high, and heard the surf rolling in round the island. It was a
+perfect picture of wild desolation. He found it difficult to land in a
+small boat. He looked in vain for parrots, monkeys, and tortoises, but
+found, instead, that more than half the number of the plants on the
+island are such as grow on no other spot on the earth. Among them are
+palms, with bright, pale-green trunks, which have been recklessly
+destroyed by men to make walking-sticks. Here also are tree-ferns, and
+the small, delicate, climbing ferns which gracefully festoon trunks and
+boughs. And here also is the last specimen of a species of sandalwood
+which, wonderful to relate, has found its way hither from its home in
+Asia. A couple of hundred years ago it grew profusely on the island, but
+now it has been nearly exterminated by man's cupidity. The red, strongly
+scented wood was too much in demand for fine cabinet work and other
+purposes. Only one small branch now produces foliage on the last
+sandal-tree. In this case it is not the last tree among many, but the
+last specimen of a species which is vanishing from the earth.
+
+In a cave at the foot of a mountain, according to tradition, lived
+Robinson Crusoe, and from a saddle in the crest he threw longing, eager
+glances over the great ocean. A memorial tablet in the cave relates that
+the real Crusoe, a Scotch sailor named Selkirk, lived alone on the
+island for four years and four months in the years 1704-1709. He went on
+shore of his own accord, being dissatisfied with the officers of the
+ship to which he belonged. The climate was mild, the rainfall moderate,
+and wild goats and edible fruits served him for food.
+
+Such is the actual fact. How much more do we delight in the Robinson
+Crusoe whose story is so charmingly depicted in a romantic dress! His
+vessel foundered, and he was the only man who was thrown up by the
+stormy waves upon the island. There he made himself at home, wandered
+round the shore and through the woods, and filled a shooting-bag of
+banana leaves with oysters, turtle's eggs, and wild fruits. With his
+simple bow he shot the animals of the forest to make himself clothes of
+their skins, and wild goats, which he caught and tamed, yielded him
+milk, from which he churned butter and manufactured cheese. He became a
+fisherman, furrier, and potter, and on the height above his cave he had
+his chapel where he kept Sundays. He found wild maize, and sowed,
+reaped, and made bread. As years passed on, his prosperity increased,
+and he was a type of the whole human race, which from the rude
+simplicity of the savage has in the course of ages progressed to a
+condition of refinement and enlightenment. When he was most at a loss
+for fire to prepare his food, the lightning struck a tree and set it on
+fire, and we remember that he then kept up his fire for a long time,
+never letting it go out. He was very grieved when it at length expired,
+but a volcanic outbreak came to his assistance, and he lighted his fire
+again from the glowing lava. He made himself a bread oven of bricks,
+and built himself a hut and a boat.
+
+Once when he was away on an excursion, and lay asleep far from his
+dwelling, he started up in alarm at hearing some one call out his name.
+It was only his own parrot, which had learned to talk, and which had
+searched for him, and was sitting on a bough calling out "Poor Robinson
+Crusoe!"
+
+How well we remember his lonely walk to the other side of the island,
+when he stood petrified with fear before the print of a human foot in
+the sand! For eight years he had been alone, and now he found that there
+were other human beings, cannibals no doubt, in the neighbourhood. He
+stood, gazed, listened, hurried home, and prepared for defence. Here,
+also, he is a type of peoples and states, which sooner or later awake to
+a perception of the necessity of defence against hostile attacks. His
+suspicions give way to certainty when one day he sees a fire burning on
+the beach. He runs home, draws up the ladder over the fortification
+round his dwelling, makes ready his weapons, climbs up to his look-out,
+and sees ten naked savages roasting flesh round a fire. After a wild
+dance they push out their canoes and disappear. At the fire are left
+gnawed human bones and skulls, and Robinson is beside himself at the
+sight.
+
+At the end of the fourteenth year he is awakened one stormy night by a
+shot. His heart beats fast, for now the hour of deliverance is surely at
+hand. Another shot thunders through the night. Perhaps it is a signal of
+distress from a ship! He lights a huge fire to guide the crew. When
+morning dawns, he finds that a ship has run on to a submerged rock and
+been wrecked. No sign of the crew is visible. But yes, a sailor lies
+prostrate on the sand and a dog howls beside him. Crusoe runs up; he
+would like a companion in his loneliness; but however long he works with
+artificial respiration and other remedies, the dead will not come to
+life, and Robinson Crusoe sadly digs a grave for the unknown guest.
+
+Another year passes and all the days are alike. As he sits at his table,
+breaking his bread and eating fish and oysters, he has his dog, parrot,
+and goats as companions and gives them a share of his meal.
+
+One day he sees from his look-out hill five boats come to the island and
+put to shore, and thirty savages jump on land and light a fire. Then
+they bring two prisoners from a boat. One they kill with a club. The
+other runs away and makes straight towards Crusoe's dwelling. Only two
+men pursue him, and Crusoe runs up to help him. At a sign from his
+master, the dog rushes on one of the savages and holds him fast till he
+gets his death-blow, and the other meets the same fate. Then Crusoe by
+signs and kindly gestures makes the prisoner understand that he has
+found a friend. The poor fellow utters some incomprehensible words, and
+Crusoe, who has not heard a human voice for fifteen years, is delighted
+to hear him speak. The other savages make off as fast as they can.
+
+Robinson Crusoe's black friend receives the name of Friday, because he
+came to the island on a Friday. In time Friday learns to speak, and
+brightens and relieves the life of the solitary man. One day another
+wreck is stranded on the rocks, and Robinson and Friday fetch from its
+stores firearms and powder, tools and provisions, and many other useful
+things. When eighteen long years have expired, the hero of our childhood
+is rescued by an English ship.
+
+
+ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN
+
+The albatross is a knowing bird, or he would not follow vessels for
+weeks. He knows that there is food on board, and that edible fragments
+are often thrown out. But his power of observation and his knowledge are
+much greater than might be suspected. He knows also of old where small
+storm birds take their prey, and when he finds them flying along with
+their catch he shoots down like lightning among them, appropriates all
+he can find, and does not trouble himself in the least about the smaller
+birds' disappointment.
+
+But these vultures of the sea are still cleverer in other ways. Their
+forefathers have lived on the sea for thousands of years, and their
+senses have been developed to the greatest acuteness and perfection.
+They know the regular winds, and can perceive from the colour of the
+water if a cold or warm sea current sweeps along below them. If now our
+friend the albatross, travelling westwards over the islands of
+Polynesia, wishes to be carried along by the wind, he knows that he has
+only to keep between the Tropic of Capricorn and the equator in order to
+be in the belt of the south-east trade-wind. And no doubt he has also
+noticed that this wind gives rise to the equatorial current which, broad
+and strong, sets westwards across the Pacific Ocean. If he wishes to fly
+north of the equator, he receives the same help from the north-east
+trade-wind; but if he wanders far to the south or north of the equator,
+he will meet with head winds and find that the ocean current sets
+eastwards. In the northern half of the Pacific Ocean this north-easterly
+current is called the Kuroshiwo, or "Black Salt." It skirts the coast of
+Japan and runs right across to Canada. This current is one of the
+favourite haunts of the albatross.
+
+He knows further that the arrangement of winds and currents is just the
+same in the Atlantic. There, however, the current running north-east is
+called the Gulf Stream, and it is the warm water of this stream, coming
+from the equator, which makes the climate of north-western Europe so
+mild, and prevents even the northernmost fiords of Norway from freezing
+in winter.
+
+[Illustration: THE SOUTH SEAS.]
+
+Meanwhile the albatross is on its course westwards, careless of winds
+and currents. He heeds not the hardest storm, and, indeed, where could
+he hide himself from its violence? His dwelling is the air. The sea is
+high, and he skims just above the surface, rising to meet each wave and
+descending into every trough, and the tips of his wings seem to dip into
+the foam. The great ocean seems dreadfully dreary and deserted. The sun
+glistens on the spindrift, and the albatross is reflected in the
+smooth, bright roof of waves above the fairy crystal grottoes in the
+depths.
+
+He rises to see whether the island he is thinking about is visible above
+the horizon. Beneath him he sees the dark, white-tipped, roaring sea.
+From the west, bluish-black rain-clouds sweep up and open their
+sluice-gates. Is the albatross hindered in his flight by the rain which
+pelts violently down on his back and wings? Well, yes, he must certainly
+be delayed, but he can foretell the weather with certainty enough to
+keep clear, and he is swift enough on the wing to make his escape when
+overtaken by rain. And he can always descend, fold his pinions, and rest
+dancing on the waves.
+
+The rain over, he flies higher up again and now sees Easter Island,
+which from an immense depth rises above the water, terribly lonely in
+the great ocean. On a sloping beach he sees several monuments of stone,
+thirty feet high, in the form of human heads. They mark graves, and are
+memorials of a long-vanished settlement. Now there are only about 150
+natives on Easter Island, and even these are doomed to extinction. Three
+white men live on the island, but it is long since news was heard of
+them, for no vessel has touched there for several years. Of other living
+things only rats, goats, fowls, and sea birds exist on the island.
+
+At some distance to the north-east lies Sala-y-Gomez, a small island of
+perfectly bare rocks, only inhabited by sea-fowl, and there the
+albatross pays a passing visit. Now he rises again and continues his
+flight westwards. Soon he comes to a swarm of insignificant islands
+called the Low Archipelago. So we name the islands, but the dark-skinned
+natives who by some mysterious fortune have been banished to them call
+them Paumotu, or "Island Cloud." A poet could not have conceived a
+better name. There lie eighty-five groups of islands, each consisting of
+innumerable holms. They are really a cloud of islets, like a nebula or
+star mist in the sky, and this swarm is only one among many others
+studding all the western part of the Pacific Ocean.
+
+Now the albatross soars round the rocks of the "Island Cloud." He can
+see them easily from up above, but it is a harder matter for a vessel to
+make its way between the treacherous rocks and reefs. Though they are so
+many, the aggregate area amounts to less than four square miles. Almost
+all are formed of coral, and most of them are atolls. Reef--building
+corals are small animals which extract lime from the water. They
+multiply by budding, and every group forms a common clan where living
+and dead members rest side by side. Coral animalculæ demand for their
+existence a firm, hard sea bottom, crystal-clear water, sufficient
+nutriment brought to them by waves and currents, and lastly a water
+temperature not falling below 68°. Therefore they occur only in tropical
+seas and near the surface, for the water becomes colder with the depth.
+At depths greater than 160 feet they are rare. They die and increase
+again and again, and therefore the coral reefs grow in height and
+breadth, and only the height of water at ebb tide puts a limit to their
+upward growth. The continual surf of the sea and stormy waves often
+break off whole blocks of coral limestone, which roll down and break up
+into sand. With this all cavities are filled in, and thus the action of
+the sea helps to consolidate and strengthen the reef. Other
+lime-extracting animalculæ and also seaweeds establish themselves on the
+reef. In the course of time the waves throw up loose blocks on the top
+of the reef, so that parts of it are always above the water-level. When
+the water rises during flood-tide, white foaming surf indicates the
+position of the reef at a long distance. During the ebb the reef itself
+is exposed and the sea is quiet. Between ebb and flood the fairway is
+dangerous, for there is nothing to warn a vessel, and it may run right
+on to a coral reef and be lost.
+
+Reefs have various forms and lengths. The great Barrier Reef, which lies
+off the north-east coast of Australia, is 1200 miles long. When reefs
+form circles they are called atolls. By means of winds, birds, and ocean
+currents, seeds are carried about the ocean, and strike root on any
+parts of the reef which lie above the level of the flood-tide. In the
+fulness of time the atoll is completed, built up by animalculæ and
+plants. The "Island Cloud" is the largest continuous atoll region in all
+the world. There the circular coral islands lie like a collection of
+garlands thrown down upon the sea. Within them the water may be as much
+as 230 feet deep, and in the lagoons of some atolls all the fleets of
+the world could find room. The minute coral animalculæ have provided by
+their industrious labour shelter for the largest vessels.
+
+On many of the atolls grow cocoa palms, and only then are the
+ring-shaped islands inhabitable. How curious they look to one
+approaching on a vessel! Only the crowns of the palms are seen above the
+horizon; the island, being low, is out of sight. One might be coming to
+an oasis in the boundless Sahara. At last the solid coral ground of
+the island comes into sight (Plate XXXVII.). Breakers dash against the
+outer side of the ring, but the lagoon within is smooth as a mirror in
+the lea of the corals and palms.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXVII. A CORAL STRAND.]
+
+Four thousand natives of Polynesian race live on the holms of the
+"Island Cloud," a couple of hundred on each atoll. They gather pearls
+and mother-of-pearl, and barter them for European goods at a
+ridiculously low price. On some islands, bread-fruit trees, pineapples,
+and bananas are grown. Animal life is very poor--rats, parrots, pigeons,
+thrushes, and lizards--but all the richer is the life in the sea
+outside. The natives are most excellent seamen, and it is hard to
+believe that they are lifelong prisoners on their islands. They sail
+with sails of matting made by the women, and have outriggers which give
+stability to their boats, and they cross boldly from island to island.
+
+What does the albatross care if the French have hoisted their
+tricoloured flag over the atolls of the "Island Cloud" and their nearest
+neighbours to the west? He is absolute ruler over them all, and seizes
+his prey where he will.
+
+Now he makes for the Society Islands, and takes a circuit round the
+largest of them, Tahiti, the finest and best known of all the islands in
+the southern sea. There again he sees volcanoes long since extinct,
+grand wild cliffs thickly covered with wood, impenetrable clumps of
+ferns, and luxuriant grass, while down the slopes dance lively brooks to
+the lagoon separated from the sea by the breakwaters of the coral
+master-builders. On the strand grow the ever-present cocoa palms, as
+distinctive of the islands of the southern sea as the date palms are of
+the desert regions of the Old World. Here the weather is beautiful, a
+warm, equable, tropical sea climate with only three or four degrees
+difference between winter and summer. The south-east trade-wind blows
+all the year round, and storms are rare visitors. The rain is moderate,
+and fever is unknown.
+
+The natives take a bright and happy view of life. They deck their hair
+with wreaths of flowers, their gait is light and easy, and they knew no
+sorrow until the white man came and spoiled their life and liberty.
+
+Now the original inhabitants of Tahiti are dying out, and are being
+replaced by Chinamen, Europeans, and natives from other islands to the
+north-west. They still, however, till their fields, put out their
+fishing-canoes in the lagoon, and pull down cocoa-nuts in their season.
+They still wear wreaths of flowers in their hair, a last relic of a
+happier existence. Pigeons coo in the trees, and green and blue and
+white parrots utter their ear-piercing screams. Horses, cattle, sheep,
+goats, and swine are newcomers; lizards, scorpions, flies, and
+mosquitoes are indigenous. The luxuriant gardens with their natural
+charms Europeans have not been able to destroy, and the frigate bird,
+the eagle of the sea, with the tail feathers of which the chiefs of
+Tahiti used to decorate their heads, still roosts in the trees on the
+strand, and seeks its food far out in the sea. The albatross cannot but
+notice the frigate bird. He sees in him a rival. The latter does not
+make such long journeys, and does not venture so far out to sea; but he
+is a master in the art of flying, and he is an unconscionable thief. He
+follows dolphins and other fishes of prey to appropriate their catch,
+and forces other birds to relinquish their food when they are in the act
+of swallowing it. When fishermen are out drawing up their nets, he skims
+so low over the boat that he may be stunned with an oar, and he is so
+attracted by bright and gaudy colours that he will shoot down recklessly
+on to the pennants of ships as they flutter in the wind, swinging to and
+fro with the roll of the vessel. He soars to an immense height, like the
+eagle, and no telescope can match the sharpness of his eyesight. Up
+aloft he can see the smallest fish disporting itself on the surface of
+the water. Especially he looks out for flying-fish, and catches them in
+the air just as they are hovering on expanded fins above the waves, or
+else dives after them and seizes them down below. When he has caught a
+fish he soars aloft, and if the fish does not lie comfortably in his
+bill he drops it, and catches it again before it reaches the water; and
+he will do this repeatedly until the fish is in a convenient position
+for swallowing.
+
+Our far-travelled storm-bird continues his long journey westwards, and
+his next resting-place is the Samoa Islands, which he recognises by
+their lofty volcanic cliffs, their tuff and lava, their beautiful woods
+and waterfalls, as much as 650 feet high, and surrounded by the most
+luxuriant vegetation. Over the copses of ferns, and climbing plants, and
+shrubs, reminding one of India, flutter beautiful butterflies.
+
+Around their oval huts, with roof of sugar-cane leaves and the floor
+inside covered with cocoa mats, are seen the yellowish-brown
+Polynesians, of powerful build and proud bearing. The upper parts of
+their bodies are bare, and they wear necklaces of shells and teeth, deck
+themselves with flowers and feathers, smear their bodies with cocoa oil,
+and tattoo themselves. Of a peaceful and happy disposition, they, too,
+have been disturbed by white men, and have been forced to cede their
+islands to Germany and the United States.
+
+It rains abundantly on the Samoa Islands. Black clouds sink down towards
+the sea, violent waterspouts suck up the water in spiral columns which
+spread out above like the crowns of pine-trees, and deluges of rain come
+down, lasting sometimes for weeks. Everything becomes wet and sodden,
+and it is useless to try to light a fire with matches. Almost every year
+these islands are visited by sudden whirlwinds, which do great damage
+both on sea and land. Wreckage is thrown up on the shore, fields and
+plantations are destroyed, leaves fly like feathers from the cocoa
+palms, and if the storm is one of the worst kind, the trees themselves
+fall in long rows as if they had been mown down by a gigantic scythe.
+
+The albatross knows of old the course of the great steamboat liners. He
+sees several steamers at the Samoa Islands, and afterwards on his flight
+to the Fiji Islands, and if the weather is overcast and stormy he leaves
+his fishing-grounds in the great ocean deserts and makes for some
+well-known steamer route. For in stormy weather he can find no soft
+cephalopods, but from a vessel refuse is thrown out in all weathers. He
+knows that the Samoa Islands are in regular communication with the
+Sandwich Islands, and that from these navigation routes radiate out like
+a star to Asia, America, and Australia.
+
+He sails proudly past the Fiji Islands. He does not trouble himself to
+make an excursion to the Solomon Islands and the world of islands lying
+like piers of fallen bridges on the way to the coast of Asia. Though New
+Caledonia is so near on the west, he is not attracted to it, as the
+French use it as a penal settlement.
+
+Rather will he trim his wings for the south, and soon he sees the
+mountains on the northern island of New Zealand rise above the horizon.
+Among them stands Tongariro's active volcano with its seven craters, and
+north-east of it lies the crater lake Taupo among cliffs of
+pumice-stone. North of this lake are many smaller ones, round which
+steam rises from hot springs, and where many fine geysers shoot up,
+playing like fountains.
+
+He sees that on the southern island the mountains skirt the western
+coast just as in Scandinavia, that mighty glaciers descend from the
+eternal snow-fields, and that their streams lose themselves in most
+beautiful Alpine lakes. He gives a passing glance at the lofty mountain
+named after the great navigator Cook, which is 12,360 feet high. On the
+plains and slopes shepherds tend immense flocks of sheep. The woods are
+evergreen. In the north grow pines, whose trunks form long avenues, and
+whose crowns are like vaultings in a venerable cathedral. There grow
+beeches, and tree-ferns, and climbing plants; but the palms come to an
+end half-way down the southern island, for the southernmost part of the
+island is too cold for them.
+
+Formerly both islands were inhabited by Maoris. They tattooed the whole
+of their bodies in fine and tasteful patterns, but were cannibals and
+stuck their enemies' heads on poles round their villages. Now there are
+only forty thousand of them left, and even these are doomed to
+extinction through white men--as in the struggle between the brown and
+black rats. Formerly the Maoris stalked about with their war clubs over
+their shoulders; now they work as day labourers in the service of the
+whites.
+
+At last our albatross rises high above the coast and speeds swiftly
+southwards to the small island of Auckland. There he meets his mate, and
+for several days they are terribly busy in making ready their nest. They
+collect reeds, rushes, and dry grass, which they knit into a kind of
+high, round ball. The month of November is come and the summer has
+begun. In the southern hemisphere midsummer comes at Christmas and
+midwinter at the end of June. Then the albatrosses assemble in enormous
+flocks at Auckland and other small, lonely islands to breed.
+
+
+ACROSS AUSTRALIA
+
+There are still districts in the interior of the fifth continent which
+have never been visited by Europeans. There stretch vast sandy deserts
+and the country is very dry, for the rain of the south-east trade-wind
+falls on the mountain ranges of the east, where also the rivers flow.
+Fifty years ago very little was known of the interior of Australia, and
+a large reward was offered to the man who should first cross the
+continent from sea to sea.
+
+Accordingly a big expedition was set on foot. It was equipped by the
+colony of Victoria. Large sums of money were contributed, and Robert
+Burke was chosen as leader. He was a bold and energetic man, but wanting
+in cool-headedness and the quiet, sure judgment necessary to conduct an
+expedition through unknown and desolate country.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXVIII. COUNTRY NEAR LAKE EYRE.]
+
+Two dozen camels with their drivers were procured from north-west India.
+Provisions were obtained for a year, and all the articles purchased,
+even to the smallest trifles, were of the best quality money could buy.
+With such an equipment all Australia might have been explored little by
+little. When the expedition set out from Melbourne, the capital of
+Victoria, there was great enthusiasm; many people came out really to to
+look at the camels, for they had never seen this animal before, but most
+of them looked forward to a triumph in geographical exploration.
+
+Burke was not alone. He had as many as fifteen Europeans with him. Some
+of them were men of science, who were to investigate the peculiar
+vegetation of the country, and the singular marsupials, the character of
+the rocks, the climate, and so on. One of them was named Wills. Others
+were servants, and had to look after the horses and transport.
+
+The caravan started on August 20, 1860. That was the first mistake, for
+the heat and drought were then setting in. The men marched on
+undismayed, however, crossed Australia's largest river, the Murray, and
+came to its tributary, the Darling. There a permanent camp was pitched,
+and the larger part of the caravan was left there. Burke, Wills, and six
+other Europeans went on with five horses and sixteen camels towards the
+north-west, and in twenty-one days reached the river Cooper, which runs
+into Lake Eyre.
+
+Here another camp was set up, several excursions were made in the
+neighbourhood, and a messenger was sent to the Darling to hurry up the
+men left behind. The messenger loitered, however, one week passed after
+another, and when nothing was heard of the men, Burke decided to march
+northwards with only three companions, Wills and the two servants King
+and Gray, six camels, two horses, and provisions for three months, and
+cross the continent to the coast of Queensland on the Gulf of
+Carpentaria. The other four were to remain with their horses and camels
+where they were until Burke came back, and were to leave the place only
+if absolutely obliged to do so.
+
+All went well at first, but the country was troublesome and rough, wild
+and undulating (Plate XXXVIII.). As long as the explorers followed the
+sandy bed of the Cooper River they found pools of water in sufficient
+numbers. At midday the temperature in the shade was 97°, but it fell at
+night to 73°, when they felt quite cold.
+
+Then they passed from bed to bed of temporary streams, carrying water
+only in the rainy season, and there the usual pools of water remained in
+the shade of dense copses of grass-trees, boxwood and gum-trees or
+eucalyptus. The last named were evidently not of the same species as the
+world-renowned blue gum-tree which occurs in Victoria and Tasmania, for
+this dries up marshes and unhealthy tracts and grows to its height of 65
+feet in seven years. But the giant gum-tree is still more remarkable,
+for it attains a height of over 400 feet, and another species of
+eucalyptus has reached 500 feet.
+
+The party had also to cross dreary plains of sand and tracts of clay
+cracked by the drought, and there they had to have their leather sacks
+filled with water. Sometimes they saw flocks of pigeons flying
+northwards, and were sure of finding water soon if they followed in the
+same direction. At some places there had been rain, so that a little
+grass had sprung up; in others the saltbushes were perishing from
+drought.
+
+The animal life was very scanty. In the brief notes of the expedition
+few forms are mentioned except pigeons and ducks, wild geese, pelicans
+and certain other waders, parrots, snakes, fishes, and rats. They saw no
+kangaroos--those curious jumping and springing animals which carry their
+young for seven months in a pouch on the belly, and are as peculiar to
+Australia as the llama to South America; nor do the travellers speak of
+dingoes, the wild dogs of Australia, which are a terror to sheep
+farmers.
+
+They saw Australian blacks clad with shields, long spears, and
+boomerangs, and nothing else. These naked, low-typed savages sometimes
+gave them fish in exchange for beads, matches, and other trifles. They
+were active as monkeys in the trees when they were hunting the beasts of
+the forest, but when they saw the camels they usually took to their
+heels. They had never seen such kangaroos before, with long legs both
+back and front, and also humpbacked.
+
+After the travellers had crossed a hilly tract they had not far to go to
+the coast. From the last camp Burke and Wills marched through swamps and
+woods of palms and mangroves, but they never caught sight of the waters
+of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Forests hid them and swamps intervened when
+they were quite close to the shore. Burke had attained his aim: he had
+crossed Australia. But his exploit was of little use or satisfaction,
+least of all to himself, for his return was a succession of disasters,
+the most terrible journey ever undertaken in the fifth continent.
+Thunder, lightning, and deluges of rain marked the start southwards. The
+lightning flashes followed one another so closely that the palms and
+gum-trees were lighted up in the middle of the night as in the day. The
+ground was turned into a continuous swamp. In order to spare the camels,
+the tents had been left behind. Everything became moist, and the men
+grew languid; and when the rain ceased drought set in again and
+oppressive, suffocating heat, so that they longed for night as for a
+friend.
+
+An emaciated horse was left behind. A snake eight feet long was killed,
+and following the example of the savages they ate its flesh, but were
+sick after it. Once when they were encamping in a cave in a valley, a
+downpour of rain came, filled the valley, and threatened to carry away
+themselves and their camp. Mosquitoes tormented them, and sometimes they
+had to lose a day when the ground was turned into slough by the rain.
+
+One man sickened and died, but on April 21 the three men were in sight
+of the camp where their comrades had been ordered to await their return.
+Burke thought that he could see them in the distance. How eager they
+were to get there! Here they would find all necessaries, and, above all,
+would be saved from starvation, which had already carried off one of the
+four.
+
+But the spot was deserted. Not a living thing remained. There were only
+on a tree trunk the words "Dig. April 21." They digged and found a
+letter telling them that their comrades had left the place the same day,
+only a few hours before. Fortunately they found also a supply of flour,
+rice, sugar, and dried meat enough to last them until they reached a
+station inhabited by whites. But where were the clothes to replace their
+worn rags, which would scarcely hang together on their bodies? After
+four months of hard travelling and constant privations they were so
+overcome by weariness that every step was an effort, and now they had
+come to the camp only to find that their comrades had gone off the same
+day, neglecting their duty. Fate could not have treated them more
+cruelly.
+
+Burke asked Wills and King whether they thought that they could overtake
+their comrades, but both answered no. Their last two camels were worn
+out, whereas the animals of the other men were, according to the letter,
+in excellent condition. A sensible man would have tried to reach them,
+or at least have followed their trail, and this Wills and King wanted
+to do. But Burke proposed a more westerly route, which he expected would
+be better and safer, and which led to the town of Adelaide in South
+Australia. It ran past Mount Hopeless, an unlucky name.
+
+All went well at first, as long as they had flour and rice and could
+obtain from the natives fish and _nardoo_, ground seeds of the clover
+fern. They even ate rats, roasting them whole on the embers, skin and
+all, and found them well flavoured. One camel died, and the other soon
+refused to move. He supplied them with a store of meat. But their
+provisions came to an end, and, what was worse, water ceased on the way
+to Mount Hopeless.
+
+Then they decided to return to the abandoned camp. On the way they kept
+alive on fish which they sometimes procured from natives, having nothing
+else but _nardoo_ seeds plucked from the clover fern. Half dead with
+hunger and weariness they came back to the camp.
+
+Midwinter, the end of June, was come, and the nights were cold. It was
+decided that Burke and King should go out and look for natives. Wills
+was unable to go with them, and was given a small supply of seeds and
+water.
+
+After two days slow travelling Burke could go no farther. King shot a
+crow, which they ate, but Burke's strength was exhausted. One evening he
+said to his servant, "I hope that you will remain with me until I am
+really dead. Then leave me without burying me." Next morning he was
+dead.
+
+Then King hurried back to Wills and found him dead also. The last words
+he had entered, four days before, in his journal were: "Can live four or
+five days longer at most, if it keeps warm. Pulse 48, very weak."
+
+When the travellers were not heard of, the worst fears were entertained,
+and relief expeditions were despatched from Melbourne, Adelaide, and
+Brisbane, and in Sydney and other towns Burke's fate was discussed with
+anxiety. At length they found King, who had gained the confidence of the
+natives and had sojourned with them for two months, living as they did.
+He was unrecognisable and half out of his mind, but he recovered under
+the careful treatment he received. The two dead men were buried, Burke
+wrapped in the Union Jack. Later on his remains were carried to
+Melbourne, where a fine monument marks his grave. This is almost all
+that remains of an expedition which started out with such fair
+prospects, but which came to grief at the foot of Mount Hopeless.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS
+
+
+SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
+
+We have now surveyed the earth's mainland, islands, and seas. We have
+seen how man by his endurance and thirst for knowledge has penetrated
+everywhere, how he has wandered over the hottest deserts and the coldest
+mountains. The nearer we come to our own times, the more eager have
+explorers become, and we no longer suffer blank patches to exist on our
+maps. The most obstinate resistance to the advance of man has been
+presented by the Poles and their surroundings, where the margin of the
+eternal ice seems to call out a peremptory "Thus far shalt thou come,
+but no farther." But even the boundless ice-packs could not deter the
+bold and resolute seafarers. One vessel after another was lost, crew and
+all, but the icy sea was constantly ploughed by fresh keels. The North
+Pole naturally exercised the greater attraction, for it lies nearer to
+Europe, amidst the Arctic Ocean, which is enclosed between the coasts of
+Asia, Europe, and North America.
+
+In the "forties" of last century, English and American explorers were
+occupied in searching for a north-west passage, or a navigable channel
+for vessels making by the shortest route from the North Atlantic to the
+Pacific Ocean. Let us look at the story of a famous expedition which set
+out to find this passage.
+
+Sir John Franklin was an officer in the Royal Navy. He had led
+expeditions by land and sea, in both the northern and southern
+hemispheres, and in particular had mapped considerable areas of the
+north coast of America east of Behring Strait. Most of the coast of the
+mainland was thus known, and it remained only to find a channel between
+the large islands to the north of it. Such a passage must exist, but
+whether it was available for navigation was another question. A number
+of learned and experienced men decided to send out a large and
+well-furnished expedition for the purpose of effecting the north-west
+passage. The whole English people took up the scheme with enthusiasm.
+Hundreds of courageous men volunteered for the voyage, and Admiral Sir
+John Franklin was appointed leader of the expedition, from which neither
+he nor any of his subordinates was ever to return.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS.]
+
+The ships chosen were the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, which (as we shall see
+later) had already made a voyage to South Polar regions, and which were
+now refitted from keel to topmasts. Captain Crozier was the second in
+command and captain of the _Terror_, while Franklin hoisted his flag on
+the _Erebus_, where Captain James was under him. The members of the
+expedition were chosen with the greatest care, and when they were all
+mustered, the vessels had on board twenty-three officers and a hundred
+and eleven men. Provisions were taken for three years, and the vessels
+were fitted with small auxiliary engines, which had never before been
+tried in Polar seas.
+
+The constituted authorities drew up a plan which Franklin was to follow,
+but he was left free to act as he thought proper when circumstances
+demanded alterations. The main thing was to sail north of America from
+the Atlantic side and come out into the Pacific Ocean through Behring
+Strait.
+
+The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ left England on May 19, 1845. All officers and
+men were full of the most lively expectations of success, and were
+resolved to do all in their power to achieve the object of the
+expedition. They passed the Orkney Islands and on Midsummer Day saw the
+southern extremity of Greenland, Cape Farewell, disappear to windward.
+Next day they encountered the first ice, huge floating icebergs of wild,
+jagged form or washed into rounded lumps by the action of the waves, and
+ten days later the ships anchored near Disko Island, on the west coast
+of Greenland. Here they met another vessel which had come up north with
+an additional store of provisions and equipment. Its captain, the last
+man who spoke with Franklin and the members of the expedition, said that
+he had never seen a finer set of men so well prepared and so eager for
+their work. He thought that they could go anywhere.
+
+On July 26 the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were seen, for the last time, by an
+English whaler. After that day the fate of the most unfortunate of all
+Polar expeditions was involved in an obscurity much denser than that
+which surrounded Gordon in Khartum after the telegraph line was cut.
+What is known only came to light many years later through the relief
+expeditions that were sent out, or was communicated by parties of
+wandering Eskimos.
+
+Meanwhile the voyage was continued north-westwards between two large
+islands into Lancaster Sound. Soon progress was delayed by masses of
+pack ice, and the engines were found to be so weak that they could be
+used only in smooth, open water. In another sound, to the north, the
+water was open, and here the ships managed to sail 150 miles before the
+ice set fast again. Then they passed through another open sound back to
+the south. Early autumn had now come, and all the hills and mountains
+were covered with snow and fresh ice was forming in the sound. Here
+Franklin laid the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ up for the winter, having found
+fairly sheltered anchorage at a small island.
+
+What kind of life the men led on board during the long winter we do not
+know. We can only conjecture that the officers read and studied, and
+that the men were employed in throwing up banks of snow reaching up
+above the bulwarks to keep in the warmth; that snow huts were built on
+the ice and on land for scientific observations; and that a hole was
+kept open day and night that water might always be procurable in case of
+fire when the pumps were frozen into pillars of ice. When the long night
+was over and February came with a faint illumination to the south, and
+when the sky grew brighter day by day till at last the expedition
+welcomed the return of the sun, probably men and officers made
+excursions to the neighbouring islands to hunt. Their hopes revived with
+the increasing light. Only 260 miles of unknown coast remained of the
+north-west passage, and they believed that the New Year would see them
+return home. The sun remained longer and longer above the horizon, and
+at last the long Polar day commenced.
+
+When the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were released in late summer from their
+prison of ice, and the small island could at last be left, three sailors
+remained on the beach. Their gravestones, carved with a few simple
+words, were found five years later by a relief expedition, and they
+constitute the only proof that Franklin wintered at this particular
+spot.
+
+To the south lay an open channel, and this southern passage must in time
+bend to the west. Mile after mile the vessels sailed southwards,
+carefully avoiding the drifting ice. East and west were seen the coasts
+of islands, and in front, in the distance, could be descried King
+William Land, a large island which is the nearest neighbour to the
+mainland. The north-west passage was nearly accomplished, for it was now
+only about 120 miles westward to coasts already known. How hopelessly
+long this distance seemed, however, when the vessels were caught in the
+grip of the ice only a day or two later! Firmer and firmer the ice froze
+and heaped itself up round the _Erebus_ and _Terror_; the days became
+shorter, the second winter drew on with rapid strides, and preparations
+to meet it were made as in the preceding year. The vessels lay frozen in
+on the seventieth parallel, or a little south of the northernmost
+promontory of Scandinavia; but here there was no Gulf Stream to keep the
+sea open with its warm water. Little did the officers and crew suspect
+that the waves would never again splash round the hulls of the _Erebus_
+and _Terror_.
+
+We can well believe that they were not so cheerful this winter as in the
+former. The vessels were badly placed in the ice, in an open roadstead
+without the shelter of a coast. They lay as in a vice, and the hulls
+creaked and groaned under the constant pressure. Life on board such an
+imprisoned vessel must be full of unrest. The vessel seems to moan and
+complain, and pray that it may escape to the waves again. The men must
+wonder how long it will hold out, and must be always prepared for a
+deafening crash when the planks will give way and the ship, crushed like
+a nutshell, will sink at once. But worst of all is the darkness when the
+sun sets for the last time.
+
+However, the winter passed at last, and the sun came back. It grew
+gradually light in the passages below deck, and it was no longer
+necessary to light a candle to read by in the evening. Soon there was no
+night at all, but the sun shone the whole twenty-four hours, and all the
+brighter because the vessels were surrounded by nothing but ice and
+snow. Far to the south and east were seen the hills on King William
+Land. If only the ice would release its hold and begin to drift! But the
+pack-ice still remained to the westward, and it was possible of course
+that the vessels had been damaged by the pressure.
+
+Two officers with six men undertook a journey to the south coast of King
+William Land, whence the mainland of North America could be descried in
+clear weather. At their turning-point they deposited in a cairn a
+narrative of the most important events that had happened on board up to
+date. This small document was found many years after. The little party
+returned with good news and bright hopes, but found sorrow on the ships.
+Admiral Franklin lay on his deathbed. The suspense had lasted too long
+for him. He just heard that the north-west passage had been practically
+discovered, and died a few days later, in June, 1847. This was fortunate
+for him. His life had been a career of manliness and courage, and he
+might well go to sleep with a smile of victory on his lips. But we can
+imagine the gloom cast upon the expedition by the death of its leader.
+
+It was now the season when the ice begins to move, and open water may
+be expected. No doubt they made excursions in all directions to find out
+where the surge of the salt sea was nearest. Perhaps they resorted to
+ice saws and powder to get out, but in vain; the ice held them fast.
+However, they were delighted to find that the whole pack was moving
+southwards. Could they reach the mainland in this way? A great American
+company, named after Hudson's Bay, had small trading-posts far in the
+north. If they could only reach one of them they would be saved.
+
+Autumn came on, and their hope of getting free was disappointed. To try
+and reach the mainland now when winter was approaching was not to be
+thought of, for in winter no game is to be found in these endless
+wastes, and a journey southwards meant therefore death by starvation. In
+summer, on the other hand, there was a prospect of falling in with
+reindeer and musk oxen, those singular Polar animals as much like sheep
+as oxen, which live on lichens and mosses and do not wander farther
+south than the sixtieth parallel. In the western half of North America
+the southern limit of the musk ox coincides with the northern limit of
+trees. A herd of twenty or thirty musk oxen would have saved Franklin's
+distressed mariners. If they could only have found Polar bears, or, even
+better, seals or whales, with their thick layer of blubber beneath the
+hide; and Arctic hares would not have been despised if in sufficient
+numbers! But the season was too far advanced, and the wild animals had
+retreated before the cold and the abundant snow which covered their
+scanty food. No doubt the officers deliberated on the plan they should
+adopt. They had maps and books on board and knew fairly accurately how
+far they had to travel to the nearest trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and on the way they had every prospect of finding game and
+meeting Eskimos. It was decided to pass the third winter on board.
+
+The cold increased day by day, and the length of the days became
+shorter. The sun still rose, described a flat arch to the south, and
+sank after an hour and a half. Soon the days lasted only half an hour,
+until one day they had only a glimpse of the sun's upper curve
+glittering for a moment like a flashing ruby above the horizon. Next day
+there was twilight at noon, but at any rate there was a reflection of
+the sunset red. During the following weeks the gloominess became more
+and more intense. At noon, however, there was still a perceptible light,
+and the blood-red streak appeared to the south, throwing a dull purple
+tinge over the ice-pack. Then this dim illumination faded away also,
+and the Polar night, which at this latitude lasts sixty days and at the
+North Pole itself six months, was come, and the stars sparkled like
+torches on the bluish-black background even when the bell struck midday
+in the officers' mess.
+
+Those who for the first time winter in high northern latitudes find a
+wonderful charm even in the Polar night. They are astonished at the deep
+silence in the cold darkness, at the rushing, moaning howl of the
+snowstorms, and even at the overwhelming solitude and the total absence
+of life. Nothing, however, excites their astonishment and admiration so
+much as the "northern lights." We know that the magnetic and electric
+forces of the earth time after time envelop practically the whole globe
+in a mantle of light, but this mysterious phenomenon is still
+unexplained. Usually the aurora is inconstant. It flashes out suddenly,
+quivers for a moment in the sky, and then grows pale and vanishes. Most
+lasting are the bow-shaped northern lights, which sometimes stretch
+their milk-white arches high above the horizon. It may be that only one
+half of the arch is visible, rising like a pillar of light over the
+field of vision. Another time the aurora takes the form of flames and
+rays, red below and green above, and darting rapidly over the sky.
+Farther north the light is more yellowish. If groups of rays seem to
+converge to the same point, they are described as an auroral crown.
+Beautiful colours change quickly in these bundles of rays, but
+exceedingly seldom is the light as strong as that of the full moon. The
+light is grandest when it seems to fall like unrolled curtains
+vertically down, and is in undulating motion as though it fluttered in
+the wind.
+
+To the sailors in the ice-bound ships, however, the northern lights had
+lost their fascination. Enfeebled and depressed, disgusted with bad
+provisions, worn out with three years' hardships, they lay on their
+berths listening to the ticking of their watches. The only break in
+their monotonous existence was when a death occurred. The carpenter had
+plenty of work, and Captain Crozier knew the funeral service by heart.
+Nine officers and eleven of the crew died during the last two winters,
+and certainly a far greater number in the third. This we know from a
+small slip of paper well sealed up and deposited in a cairn on the
+coast, which was found eleven years afterwards.
+
+At length the months of darkness again came to an end. The red streak
+appeared once more in the south, and it gradually grew lighter.
+Twilight followed in the footsteps of darkness, and at last the first
+sun's rays glistened above the horizon. Then the men awakened once more
+to new hope; Brahmins on the bank of the Ganges never welcomed the
+rising sun with more delight.
+
+With increasing daylight came greater opportunity and disposition to
+work. Several sledges were made ready, heavy and clumsy, but strong.
+Three whale-boats, which for three years had hung fast frozen to the
+davits, were loosened and hauled on to the ice. The best of the
+provisions still remaining in the store-room were taken out, and great
+piles of things were raised round the boats. When everything to be taken
+was down on the ice, the stores, tents, instruments, guns, ammunition,
+and all the other articles were packed on the sledges. The three
+whale-boats were bound with ropes, each on a separate sledge, and a
+sledge with a comfortable bed was assigned to the invalids. During all
+this work the days had grown longer, and at last the men could no longer
+control their eagerness to set out. This early start sealed their fate,
+for neither game nor Eskimos come up so far north till the summer is
+well advanced, and even with the sledges fully laden, their provisions
+would last only forty days.
+
+On April 22, 1848, the signal for departure was given, and the heavy
+sledges creaked slowly and in jerks over the uneven snow-covered ice.
+Axes, picks, and spades were constantly in use to break to pieces the
+sharp ridges and blocks in the way. The distance to King William Land
+was only 15 miles, yet it took them three days to get there. The masts
+and hulls of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ grew smaller all too slowly, but
+they vanished at last. Captain Crozier perceived that it was impossible
+to proceed in this manner, so all the baggage was looked through again
+and every unnecessary article was discarded. At this place one of the
+relief expeditions found quantities of things, uniform decorations,
+brass buttons, metal articles, etc., which no doubt had been thought
+suitable for barter with Eskimos and Indians.
+
+With lightened sledges, they marched on along the west coast. They had
+not travelled far when John Irving, lieutenant on the _Terror_, died.
+Dressed in his uniform, wrapped in sailcloth, and with a silk
+handkerchief round his head, he was interred between stones set on end
+and covered with a flat slab. On his head was laid a silver medal with
+an inscription on the obverse side, "Second prize in Mathematics at the
+Royal Naval College. Awarded to John Irving, Midsummer, 1830." Owing to
+the medal the deceased officer was identified long after, and so in time
+was laid to rest in his native town.
+
+Two bays on the west coast of King William Land have been named after
+the unfortunate ships. At the shore of the northern, Erebus Bay, the
+strength of the English seamen was so weakened that they had to abandon
+two of the boats, together with the sledges on which they had been drawn
+so far uselessly. At their arrival at Terror Bay the bonds of
+comradeship were no longer strong enough to keep the party together, or
+it may be that they agreed to separate. They were now less than a
+hundred men. At any rate, they divided into two parties, probably of
+nearly equal strength. The one, which evidently consisted of the more
+feeble, turned back towards the ships, where at least they would obtain
+shelter against wind and weather, and where there were provisions left.
+The other continued along the south coast with the whale-boat, and
+intended to cross to the mainland and try to reach the Great Fish River.
+No doubt, when they had been succoured themselves, they meant to return
+to their distressed comrades.
+
+Terrible must have been the march of the returning party, and terrible
+also that of those who went on. Of the former we know next to nothing.
+The latter marched and marched, dragging their heavy sledges after them
+till they died one after another. There was no longer any thought of
+burying the dead. Every one had to take care of himself. If a dying man
+lagged behind, the others could not stop on his account. Some died as
+they were walking: this was proved afterwards by the skeletons which
+were found lying on their faces. Not a trace of game was found in May
+and June on the island, and they dragged their heavy ammunition boxes
+and guns to no purpose, not firing a shot.
+
+Now the small remnant waited only for open water to cross the sound to
+the mainland. At the beginning of June the ice broke up, and it may be
+taken for granted that at this time the survivors actually crossed, for
+the boat was afterwards found in a bay called Starvation Cove. If only
+the boat had been found here, it might have been drifted over by wind
+and waves; but skeletons and articles both in and outside the boat were
+found, showing that it was manned when it passed over the sound and when
+it landed.
+
+Many circumstances connected with this sad journey are mysterious. Why
+did the men drag the heavy whale-boat with them for two months when
+they must have seen the mainland to the south the year before, on the
+excursion which they undertook when the Admiral was lying on his
+deathbed? Where the sound is narrowest it is only three miles broad;
+and, besides, they could have crossed anywhere on the ice. But as all
+died and as not a line in a diary came to light, we know nothing about
+it.
+
+When no news was heard of Franklin after two years, the first relief
+expeditions were sent out. Time passed, and it became still more certain
+that he was in need of help. In the autumn of 1850 fifteen ships were on
+the outlook for him. The most courageous and energetic of all, who for
+years would not give up hope of seeing him again, was Franklin's wife.
+She spent all her means in relief work. In the course of six years the
+English Government disbursed £890,000 in relief expeditions. Most of
+them were useless, for when they set out the disaster had already taken
+place. One expedition which sailed in 1848 was caught in the ice, and
+resorted to a singular means of sending information to the distressed
+men, wherever they might be. About a hundred foxes were caught and
+fitted with brass collars, in which a short description of the position
+of the relief ship was engraved, and then the foxes were let loose
+again.
+
+In 1854 the names of Franklin, Crozier, and all the other men were
+removed from the muster roll of the Royal Navy. A statue of Franklin was
+set up in his native town, and a memorial of marble was erected in
+Westminster Abbey with the words of Tennyson:
+
+  Not here! the white North has thy bones; and thou
+        Heroic sailor-soul,
+  Art passing on thine happier voyage now
+        Toward no earthly pole.
+
+
+THE VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA"
+
+A brilliant remembrance of the Arctic Ocean is the pride of the Swedes.
+The north-west passage had been discovered by Englishmen; but the
+north-east passage, which for 350 years had been attempted by all
+seafaring nations, was not yet achieved. By a series of voyages to
+Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the Yenisei, Adolf Nordenskiöld had made
+himself an experienced Polar voyager. He perfected a scheme to sail
+along the north coasts of Europe and Asia and through the Behring
+Strait out into the Pacific Ocean. His plan, then, was nothing less than
+to circumnavigate Asia and Europe, an exploit which had never been
+performed and which the learned declared to be impossible. It was
+thought that the ice-pack always lay pressed up against the Siberian
+coast, rendering it impossible to get past; parts had been already
+sailed along and stretches of coasts were known, but to voyage all the
+way to the Behring Strait was out of the question.
+
+Now Nordenskiöld reasoned that the ice must begin to drift in summer,
+and leave an open channel close to the land. The great Siberian rivers,
+the Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena, bring down volumes of warm water
+from southern regions into the Arctic Ocean. As this water is fresh, it
+must spread itself over the heavier sea water, and must form a surface
+current which keeps the ice at a distance and the passage open. Along
+the ice-free coast a vessel could sail anywhere and pass out into the
+Pacific Ocean before the end of summer.
+
+Accordingly he made ready for a voyage in which the _Vega_ was to sail
+round Asia and Europe and carry his name to the ends of the earth. The
+_Vega_ was a whaler built to encounter drift ice in the northern seas. A
+staff of scientific observers was appointed, and a crew of seventeen
+Swedish men-of-war's men were selected. The _Vega_ was to be the home of
+thirty men, and provisions were taken for two years. Smaller vessels
+were to accompany her for part of the voyage, laden with coal.
+
+The _Vega_ left Carlskrona in June, 1878, and steamed along the coast of
+Norway, past the North Cape, towards the east. The islands of Novaia
+Zemlia were left behind, the waters of the Obi and Yenisei splashed
+against the hull, no drift ice opposed the passage of the Swedish
+vessel, and on August 19 Cape Cheliuskin, the most northern point of the
+Old World, was reached.
+
+Farther east the coast was followed to Nordenskiöld Sea. Great caution
+was necessary, for the fairway was shallow, and the _Vega_ often steamed
+across bays which were represented as land on maps. The delta of the
+Lena was left behind, and to the east of this only small rivers enter
+the sea. Nordenskiöld therefore feared that the last bit of the voyage
+would be the hardest, for open water along the coast could not be
+depended upon. At the end of August the most westerly of the group
+called the New Siberia Islands was sighted. The _Vega_ could not go at
+full speed, for the sea was shallow, and floating fragments of ice were
+in the way. The prospects became brighter again, however, open water
+stretching for a long distance eastwards.
+
+On September 6 two large skin boats appeared, full of fur-clad natives
+who had rowed out from land. All the men on the _Vega_, except the cook,
+hastened on deck to look at these unexpected visitors of Chukchi race.
+They rushed up the companion ladder, talking and laughing, and were well
+received, being given tobacco, Dutch clay pipes, old clothes, and other
+presents. None of the _Vega_ men understood a word they said, but the
+Chukchis chattered gaily all the same, and with their hands full of
+presents tumbled down to their boats again and rowed home.
+
+Two days later the _Vega_ was in the midst of ice and fog, and had to be
+moored to a floe near land. Then came more Chukchis, who pulled the
+Swedes by the collar and pointed to the skin tents on land. The
+invitation was accepted with pleasure by several of the _Vega_ men, who
+rowed to land and went from tent to tent. In one of them reindeer meat
+was boiling in a cast-iron pot over the fire. Outside another two
+reindeer were being cut up. Each tent contained an inner sleeping-room
+of deerskin, which was lighted and warmed by lamps of train oil. There
+played small stark-naked children, plump and chubby as little pigs, and
+sometimes they ran in the same light attire out over the rime between
+the tents. The tiniest were carried, well wrapped up in furs, on the
+backs of their fathers and mothers, and whatever pranks they played
+these small wild cats never heard a harsh word from their elders.
+
+The next day the _Vega_ tried to continue her voyage, but the fog was
+too dense, and the shelter of a mass of ground ice had again to be
+sought. Nordenskiöld was, however, sure of gaining the Pacific Ocean in
+a short time, and when fresh visitors came on board he distributed
+tobacco and other presents among them with a lavish hand. He also
+distributed a number of _krona_[21] pieces and fifty earrings which, if
+any misfortune happened to the _Vega_, would serve to show her course.
+
+During the following days the ice closed up and fog lay dense over the
+sea. Only now and then could the vessel sail a short distance, and then
+was stopped and had to moor again. On September 18 the vessel glided
+gently and cautiously between huge blocks of grounded ice like castle
+walls and towers of glass. Here patience and great care were necessary,
+for the coast was unknown and there was frequently barely a span of
+water beneath the keel. The captain stood on the bridge, and wherever
+there was a gap between the ice-blocks he made for it. It was only
+possible to sail in the daytime, and at night the _Vega_ lay fastened by
+her ice anchors. One calm and fine evening some of our seafarers went
+ashore and lighted an enormous bonfire of driftwood. Here they sat
+talking of the warm countries they would sail past for two months. They
+were only a few miles from the easternmost extremity of Asia at Behring
+Strait.
+
+The _Vega_ had anchored on the eastern side of Koliuchin Bay. It was
+September 28. Newly formed ice had stretched a tough sheet between the
+scattered blocks of ground ice, and to the east lay an ice-belt barely
+six miles broad. If only a south wind would spring up, the pack would
+drift northwards, and the last short bit of the north-east passage would
+be traversed.
+
+But the Fates decreed otherwise. No wind appeared, the temperature fell,
+and the ice increased in thickness. If the _Vega_ had come a few hours
+sooner, she would not have been stopped on the very threshold of the
+Pacific Ocean. And how easily might these few hours have been saved
+during the voyage! The _Vega_ was entrapped so unexpectedly in the ice
+that there was not even time to look for safe and sheltered winter
+quarters. She lay about a mile from the coast exposed to the northern
+storms. Under strong ice pressure she might easily drift southwards, run
+aground, capsize, or be crushed.
+
+The ice-pack became heavier in all directions, and by October 10 the
+Chukchis were able to come out on foot to the vessel. Preparations were
+made for the winter. High banks of snow were thrown up around, and on
+the deck a thick layer of snow was left to keep the heat in. From the
+bridge to the bow was stretched a large awning, under which the Chukchis
+were received daily. It was like a market-place, and here barter trade
+was carried on. A collection of household utensils, implements of the
+chase, clothes, and indeed everything which the northern people made
+with their own hands, was acquired during the winter.
+
+The _Vega_ soon became quite a rendezvous for the three hundred Chukchis
+living in the neighbourhood, and one team of dogs after another came
+daily rushing through the snow. They had small, light sledges drawn by
+six to ten dogs, shaggy and strong, but thin and hungry. The dogs had to
+lie waiting in the snow on the ice while their masters sat bargaining
+under the large awning. At every baking on board special loaves were
+made for the native visitors, who would sit by the hour watching the
+smith shaping the white hot iron on his anvil. Women and children were
+regaled with sugar and cakes, and all the visitors went round and looked
+about just as they liked on the deck, where a quantity of articles,
+weapons, and utensils lay about. Not the smallest trifle disappeared.
+The Chukchis were honest and decent people, and the only roguery they
+permitted themselves was to try and persuade the men of the _Vega_ that
+a skinned and decapitated fox was a hare. When it grew dusk the fur-clad
+Polar savages went down the staircase of ice from the deck, put their
+teams in order, took their seats in the sledges, and set off again over
+the ice to their tents of reindeer skins.
+
+The winter was stormy and severe. Clouds of snow swept over the ice,
+fine and dry as flour. Again and again the cold scene was lighted up by
+the arcs of the aurora. In the middle of December the planks in the
+sides of the _Vega_ cracked as the ice pressed against her. If the
+pressure had been bad, the vessel might have been broken to pieces and
+have sunk in a few minutes. It would not have been so serious for the
+crew as in the case of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, for here there were
+people far and near. But to ensure a safe retreat, the men of the _Vega_
+carried to the nearest shore provisions, guns, and ammunition to last a
+hundred men for thirty days. These things were all stacked up into a
+heap covered with sails and oars. No watch was kept at the depôt, and
+though the Chukchis knew that valuable goods lay under the sails, they
+never touched a thing.
+
+Near the _Vega_ two holes were kept always open. In one the captain
+observed the rise and fall of the tide; the other was for water in case
+of fire. A small seal splashed for a long time in one of the holes and
+came up on to the ice after fishing below. One day his retreat was cut
+off and he was caught and brought up on deck. When fish bought from the
+Chukchis had been offered him in vain, he was let loose in the hole
+again and he never came back.
+
+A house of ice was erected for the purpose of observing the wind and
+weather, and a thermometer cage was set up on the coast. Men took turns
+to go out, and each observer remained six hours at the ice-house and the
+cage to read off the various instruments. It was bitterly cold going out
+when the temperature fell to-51°, but the compulsory walk was
+beneficial. One danger was that a man might lose his way when snowstorms
+raged in the dark winter nights, so a line was stretched the whole way,
+supported on posts of ice, and with this guide it was impossible to go
+astray.
+
+Then came Christmas, when they slaughtered two fat pigs which had been
+brought on purpose. The middle deck was swept out, all the litter was
+cleared away, and flags were hung round the walls and ceiling. The
+Chukchis brought willow bushes from the valleys beyond the mountains to
+the south, and branches were fastened round a trunk of driftwood. This
+was the _Vega's_ Christmas tree, and it was decked with strips of
+coloured paper and small wax candles. Officers and men swung round in
+merry dance beneath flaming lanterns suspended from the roof. Two
+hundred Christmas boxes were found packed on board, parting gifts of
+friends and acquaintances. For these lots were drawn, and many amusing
+surprises excited general hilarity. So the polka was danced on the deck,
+while cold reigned outside and snow whizzed through the frozen rigging.
+For supper there was ham and Christmas ale, just as at home in Sweden.
+Old well-known songs echoed through the saloon, and toasts were given of
+king and country, officers and men, and the fine little vessel which had
+carried our Vikings from their home in the west to their captivity in
+the shore ice of Siberia.
+
+The winter ran its course and the days lengthened in the spring. Cold
+and continual storms were persistent. Even a Chukchi dog can have too
+much of them. One day at the end of February a Chukchi who had lost his
+way came on board, carrying a dog by the hind legs. The man had lost his
+way on the ice, and had slept out in the cold with his dog. A capital
+dinner was served for him on the middle deck, and the dog was rolled
+about and pommelled till he came to life again.
+
+During the spring the _Vega_ explorers made several longer or shorter
+excursions with dog sledges and visited all the villages in the country.
+Of course they became the best of friends with the Chukchis. The
+language was the difficulty at first, but somehow or other they learned
+enough of it to make themselves understood. Even the sailors struggled
+with the Chukchi vocabulary, and tried to teach their savage friends
+Swedish. One of the officers learned to speak Chukchi fluently, and
+compiled a dictionary of this peculiar language.
+
+Summer came on, but the ground was not free from ice until July. The
+_Vega_ still lay fast as in a vice. On July 18 Nordenskiöld made ready
+for another excursion on land. The captain had long had the engines
+ready and the boilers cleaned. Just as they were sitting at dinner in
+the ward-room they felt the _Vega_ roll a little. The captain rushed up
+on deck. The pack had broken up and left a free passage open. "Fire
+under the boilers!" was the order, and two hours later, at half-past
+three o'clock, the _Vega_ glided under steam and sail and a festoon of
+flags away from the home of the Chukchis.
+
+Farther east the sea was like a mirror and free of ice beneath the fog.
+Walruses raised their shiny wet heads above the water, in which numerous
+seals disported themselves. With the wildest delight the _Vega_
+expedition sailed southwards through Behring Strait. In the year 1553 a
+daring Englishman had commenced the quest of the north-east passage and
+had perished with all his men, and during the following centuries
+numberless other expeditions had tried to solve the problem, but always
+in vain; now it was solved by Swedes. The vessel glided out into the
+Pacific Ocean without a leak; not a man had been lost and not one had
+been seriously ill. It was one of the most fortunate and most brilliant
+Polar voyages that had ever been achieved.
+
+Yokohama was the first port, where the _Vega_ was welcomed with immense
+jubilation, and then the homeward journey _via_ the Suez Canal and
+Gibraltar became a continuous triumphal procession.
+
+
+NANSEN
+
+From many signs around the northern cap of the world a young Norwegian,
+Fridtjof Nansen, came to the conclusion that a constant current must
+flow from the neighbourhood of Behring Strait to the east coast of
+Greenland.
+
+Nansen resolved to make use of this current. Others had gone up from the
+Atlantic side and been driven back by the current. He would start from
+the opposite side and get the help of the current. Others had feared and
+avoided the pack-ice. He would make for it and allow himself to be
+caught in it. Others had sailed in unsuitable vessels which had been
+crushed like nut-shells among the floes. He would build a vessel with
+sides sloping inwards which would afford no hold to the ice. The more
+the ice pressed the more surely would this ship be lifted up out of the
+water and be borne safely on the ice with the current.
+
+The progress would be slow, no doubt, but the expedition would see
+regions of the world never before visited, and would have opportunities
+of investigating the depth of the sea, the weather and winds. To reach
+the small point called the North Pole was in Nansen's opinion of minor
+importance.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM."]
+
+Among the many who wished to go with him he chose the best twelve. The
+vessel was christened the _Fram_ (Plate XXXIX.), and the captain was
+named Sverdrup. He had been with Nansen before on an expedition when
+they crossed the inland ice of Greenland from coast to coast. They took
+provisions for five years and were excellently equipped.
+
+The first thing was to reach the New Siberia Islands. To those the
+_Vega_ had shown the way, and the _Fram_ had only to follow in her
+track. Just to the west of them a course was steered northwards, and
+soon the vessel was set fast in the ice and was lifted satisfactorily on
+to its surface without the smallest leak. So far everything had gone as
+Nansen anticipated, and the experienced Polar voyagers who had declared
+that the whole scheme was madness had to acknowledge that they were not
+so clever as they thought.
+
+We have unfortunately no time to accompany the voyagers on their slow
+journey. They got on well, and were comfortable on board. The ice
+groaned and cracked as usual, but within the heavy timbers of the _Fram_
+there was peace. The night came, long, dark, and silent. Polar bears
+stalked outside and were often shot. Before it became quite dark Nansen
+tried the dogs at drawing sledges. They were harnessed, but when he took
+his seat, off they went in the wildest career. They romped over blocks
+and holes, and Nansen was thrown backwards, but sat fast in the sledge
+and could not be thrown out. In time the driving went better, and the
+poor, faithful animals had always to go on sledge excursions. Two were
+seized by Polar bears and two were bitten to death by their comrades.
+One fine day, however, puppies came into the world in the midst of the
+deepest darkness. When they first saw the sun they barked furiously.
+
+The _Fram_ drifted north-west just as Nansen had foreseen, passing over
+great depths where the two thousand fathom line did not reach the
+bottom. Christmas was kept with a Norwegian festival, and when the
+eightieth parallel was crossed a tremendous feast was held; but the
+return of the sun on February 20 excited the greatest delight. The
+spring and summer passed without any remarkable events. Kennels were
+erected on the ice out of boxes, and more puppies came into the world.
+Possibly these were as much astonished at the winter darkness as their
+cousins had been at seeing the sun.
+
+Nansen had long been pondering on a bold scheme--namely, to advance with
+dog sledges as far as possible to the north and then turn southwards to
+Franz Josef Land. The ship was meanwhile to go on with the drift and the
+usual observations were to be taken on board. Only one man was to go
+with him, and he chose Lieutenant Johansen. He first spoke to him about
+the scheme in November, 1894. It was, of course, a matter of life or
+death, so he told Johansen to take a day or two to think it over before
+he gave his answer. But the latter said "Yes" at once without a moment's
+hesitation. "Then we will begin our preparations to-morrow," said
+Nansen.
+
+All the winter was spent in them. They made two "kayaks," each to hold a
+single man, somewhat larger and stronger than those the Eskimos use when
+they go fishing or seal-hunting. With a frame of ribs and covered with
+sailcloth these canoes weighed only thirty pounds. They were covered in
+all over, and when the boatman had taken his seat in the middle and made
+all tight around him, seas might sweep right over him and the kayak
+without doing any harm. A dog sledge, harness, a sleeping-bag for two,
+skis, staffs, provisions, oil cooking-stove--all was made ready.
+
+The start took place at the turn of the year, when the most terrible ice
+pressure broke loose on all sides threatening the _Fram_. Mountains of
+ice-blocks and snow were thrust against the vessel, which was in danger
+of being buried under them. The sea water was forced up over the ice and
+the dogs were nearly drowned in their kennels and had to be rescued
+quickly. Banks of ice were pushed against the vessel, rolled over the
+bulwarks, and weighed down the awning on the deck; and it was pitch
+dark, so that they could not find out where danger threatened. They had,
+however, stored provisions for two hundred days in a safe place. By
+degrees the ice came to rest again and the great rampart was digged
+away.
+
+Twice did Nansen and Johansen set out northwards, only to come back
+again. Once a sledge broke, and on the other occasion the load was too
+heavy. On March 14 they left the _Fram_ for the last time and directed
+their steps northward. They had three sledges and twenty-eight dogs, but
+they themselves walked on skis and looked after their teams. At first
+the ice was level and the pace was rapid, but afterwards it became lumpy
+and uneven, and travelling was slow, as first one sledge and then
+another stuck fast.
+
+After two marches the temperature fell to-45°, and it was very cold in
+the small silk tent. They were able to march for nine hours, and when
+the ice was level it seemed as if the endless white plains might extend
+up to the Pole. So long as they were travelling they did not feel the
+cold, but the perspiration from their bodies froze in their clothes, so
+that they were encased in a hauberk of ice which cracked at every step.
+Nansen's wrists were made sore by rubbing against his hard sleeves, and
+did not heal till far on in the summer.
+
+They always looked out for some sheltered crevice in the ice to camp in.
+Johansen looked after the dogs and fed them, while Nansen set up the
+tent and filled the pot with ice. The evening meal was the pleasantest
+in the day, for then at any rate they were warmed inside. After it they
+packed themselves in their sleeping bag, when the ice on their clothes
+melted and they lay all night as in a cold compress. They dreamed of
+sledges and dog teams, and Johansen would call out to the dogs in his
+sleep, urging them on. Then they would wake up again in the bitter
+morning, rouse up the dogs, lying huddled up together and growling at
+the cold, disentangle the trace lines, load the sledges, and off they
+would go through the great solitude.
+
+Only too frequently the ice was unfavourable, the sledges stuck fast,
+and had to be pushed over ridges and fissures. They struggle on
+northwards, however, and have travelled a degree of latitude. It is
+tiring work to march and crawl in this way, and sometimes they are so
+worn out that they almost go to sleep on their skis while the dogs
+gently trot beside them. The dogs too are tired of this toil, and two of
+them have to be killed. They are cut up and distributed among their
+comrades, some of whom refuse to turn cannibals.
+
+When the ice became still worse and the cold white desert looked like a
+heap of stones as far northwards as the eye could see, Nansen decided to
+turn back. It was impossible to find their way back to the _Fram_, for
+several snowstorms had swept over the ice obliterating their tracks. The
+only thing to do was to steer a course for the group of islands called
+Franz Josef Land. It was 430 miles off, and the provisions were coming
+to an end; but when the spring really set in they would surely find
+game, and they had for their two guns a hundred and eighty cartridges
+with ball and a hundred and fifty with shot. The dogs had the worst of
+it; for them it was a real "dog's life" up there. The stronger were
+gradually to eat up the weaker.
+
+So they turned back and made long marches over easy ice. One day they
+saw a complete tree trunk sticking up out of the ice. What singular
+fortunes it must have experienced since it parted from its root! At the
+end of April the spoor of two foxes was seen in the snow. Was land near,
+or what were these fellows doing out here on the ice-covered sea? Two
+days later a dog named Gulen was sacrificed. He was born on the _Fram_,
+and during his short life had never seen anything but snow and ice; now
+he was worn out and exhausted, and the travellers were sorry to part
+from the faithful soul.
+
+Open water, sunlit billows! How delightful to hear them splash against
+the edge of the ice! The sound seemed to speak of spring and summer, and
+to give them a greeting from the great ocean and the way back home. More
+tracks of foxes indicated land, and they looked out for it daily. They
+did not suspect that they had to travel for three months to the nearest
+island.
+
+At the beginning of May only sixteen dogs were left. Now the long summer
+day commenced in the Arctic Ocean, and when the temperature was only
+twenty degrees below freezing point they suffered from heat. But the ice
+was bad, and they had to force the sledges over deep channels and high
+hummocks thrust up by pressure. After great difficulties they staggered
+along on skis. The work became heavier for the dogs as fewer were left,
+but the provisions also diminished.
+
+A furious snowstorm compelled them to remain in a camp. There they left
+one of the sledges, and some broken skis were offered to the flames and
+made a grand fire. Six dogs could still be harnessed to each of the two
+remaining sledges.
+
+At the end of May they came to an expanse of ice intersected by a
+network of channels with open water, which blocked the way. Now animal
+life began to appear with the coming of summer. In a large opening were
+seen the grey backs of narwhals rolling over in the dark-blue water. A
+seal or two were seeking fish, and tracks of Polar bears made them long
+for fresh meat. Nansen often made long excursions in front to see where
+the ice was best. Then Johansen remained waiting by the sledges, and if
+the bold ski-runner were long away he began to fear that an accident had
+happened. He dared not pursue his thoughts to an end--he would then be
+quite alone.
+
+June comes. The scream of ivory gulls pierces the air. The two men
+remain a week in a camp to make their kayaks seaworthy. They have still
+bread for quite a month. Only six dogs are left; when only three remain
+they will have to harness themselves to the sledges.
+
+In a large strip of open water they shoved out the kayaks, fastened them
+together with skis, and paddled them along the margin of the ice. On the
+other side they shot two seals and three Polar bears, and therefore had
+meat for a long time. The last two dogs, too, could eat their fill.
+
+At last the land they longed for appeared to the south, and they
+hastened thither, a man and a dog to each sledge. Once they had again to
+cross a strip of open water in kayaks, Nansen was at the edge of the ice
+when he heard Johansen call out, "Get your gun." Nansen turned and saw
+that a large bear had knocked Johansen down and was sniffing at him.
+Nansen was about to take up his gun when the kayak slipped out into the
+water, and while he was hauling and pulling at it he heard Johansen say
+quite quietly, "You must look sharp if you want to be in time." So at
+last he got hold of his gun, and the bear received his death-wound.
+
+For five months they had struggled over the ice, when at the beginning
+of August they stood at the margin of the ice and had open water before
+them off the land. Now the sea voyage was to begin, and they had to part
+with their last two dogs. It was a bitter moment. Nansen took Johansen's
+dog and Johansen Nansen's, and a couple of bullets were the reward of
+their faithfulness.
+
+Now they travelled more easily and quickly. The kayaks were fastened
+together, and with masts and sails they skimmed past unknown islands.
+Heavy seas forced them to land on one of them. Just as they drew up
+their kayaks a white bear came waddling along, got scent of them, and
+began to sniff along their track. To our travellers his visit meant
+provisions for a long time. Nansen and his travelling companion took
+possession of their new territory, wandered over the island, and
+returned to their dinner of bear, which did them good. Next day they
+looked for a suitable dwelling-place. As they could not find a cave,
+they built a small stone cabin, which they roofed with skis and the silk
+tent. Light and wind came in on all sides, but it was comfortable enough
+and the meat pot bubbled over a fire of fat.
+
+Nansen decided to remain on this island for the winter. The islands they
+had hitherto seen were unlike any of the known parts of Franz Josef
+Land, and Nansen did not know exactly where he was. It was impossible
+to venture out on the open sea in the kayaks. It was better to lay in a
+supply of food for the winter, for when darkness came all the game would
+disappear. First of all they must build a comfortable hut. There was
+plenty of stone and moss, a trunk of driftwood found on the beach would
+form a roof ridge, and if they could only get hold of a couple of
+walruses, their roofing would be provided.
+
+A large male walrus was lying puffing out in the water. The kayaks were
+shoved out and lashed together, and from them the colossus was
+bombarded. He dived, but came up under the boats, and the whole
+contrivance was nearly capsized. At last he received his death-wound,
+but just as Nansen was about to strike his harpoon into him he sank.
+They had better luck, however, with two others which lay bellowing on
+the ice and gradually went to sleep, unconscious that their minutes were
+numbered. Nansen says that it seemed like murder to shoot them, and that
+he never forgot their brown, imploring, melancholy eyes as they lay
+supporting their heads on their tusks and coughing up blood. Then the
+great brutes were flayed, and their flesh, blubber, and hides carried
+into the hut. When they brought out the sledges and knives, Nansen
+thought it might be as well to take the kayaks with them also. And that
+was fortunate, for while they stood cutting up as in a slaughter-house,
+a strong, biting land wind sprang up, their ice-floe parted from the
+land ice and drifted away from the island. Dark-green water and white
+foaming surge yawned behind them. There was no time to think. They were
+drifting out to sea as fast as they could. But to go back empty-handed
+would have been too vexatious; so they cut off a quarter of a hide and
+dragged it with some lumps of blubber to the kayaks. They reached the
+land in safety, dead tired after an adventurous row, and sought the
+shelter of the hut.
+
+In the night came a bear mamma with two large cubs, and made a thorough
+inspection of the outside of the hut. The mother was shot and the cubs
+made off to the shore, plunged in, and swam out to a slab of ice which
+would just bear them, and scrambled up. There they stood moaning and
+whining, and wondering why their mother stayed so long on shore. One
+tumbled over the edge, but climbed up again on to the slippery floe and
+the clean salt water ran off his fur. They drifted away with the wind
+and soon looked like two white spots on the almost black water. Nansen
+and Johansen wanted their meat, the more because the bears had torn and
+mangled all the walrus meat lying outside the hut. The kayaks were
+pushed out and were soon on the farther side of the floe with the bear
+cubs. They were chased into the water and followed all the way to the
+beach, where they were shot.
+
+Things now began to look better--three bears all at once! Then the first
+walrus came to the surface again, and while he was being skinned another
+came to look on and had to join him. It was disgusting work to flay the
+huge brutes. Both the men had their worn clothes smeared with train-oil
+and blood, so that they were soaked right through. Ivory and glaucous
+gulls, noisy and greedy, collected from far and near and picked up all
+the offal. They would soon fly south, the sea would be covered with ice,
+and the Polar night would be so dismal and silent.
+
+It took a week to get the new hut ready. The shoulder blade of a walrus
+fastened to a ski served as spade. A walrus tusk tied to a broken ski
+staff made an excellent hoe. Then they raised the walls of the hut, and
+inside they dug into the ground and made a sort of couch for both of
+them, which they covered with bearskin. After two more walruses had been
+shot they had plenty of roofing material, which they laid over the trunk
+of driftwood. A bear came, indeed, and pulled down everything, but it
+cost him dear, and afterwards the roof was strengthened with a weight of
+stones. To make a draught through the open fireplace they set up on the
+roof a chimney of ice. Then they moved into the new hut, which was to be
+their abode through the long winter.
+
+On October 15 they saw the sun for the last time. The bears vanished,
+and did not return till the next spring. But foxes were left, and they
+were extremely inquisitive and thievish. They stole their sail thread
+and steel wire, their harpoon and line, and it was quite impossible to
+find the stolen goods again. What they wanted with a thermometer which
+lay outside it is hard to conceive, for it must have been all the same
+to the foxes how many degrees of temperature there were in their earths.
+All winter they were up on the roof pattering, growling, howling, and
+quarrelling. There was a pleasant rattling up above, and the two men
+really would not have been without their fox company.
+
+One can hardly say that the days passed slowly, for the whole winter
+was, of course, one long night. It was so silent and empty, and an
+oppressive, solemn stillness reigned during the calm night. Sometimes
+the aurora blazed in a mysterious crown in the sky, at other times so
+dark, and the stars glittered with inconceivable brilliance. The
+weather, however, was seldom calm. Usually the wind howled round the
+bare rocks lashed by millions of storms since the earliest times, and
+snow swished outside and built up walls close around the hut.
+
+The endlessly long night passed slowly on. The men ate and slept, and
+walked up and down in the darkness to stretch their limbs. Then came
+Christmas with its old memories. They clean up, sweep and brush, and
+take up a foot's depth of frozen refuse from the floor of the hut. They
+rummage for some of the last good things from the _Fram_, and then
+Nansen lies listening and fancies he hears the church bells at home.
+
+In the midst of the winter night comes New Year's Day, when it is so
+cold that they can only lie down and sleep, and look out of their
+sleeping-bag only to eat. Sometimes they do not put out their noses for
+twenty hours on end, but lie dosing just like bears in their lairs.
+
+On the last day of February the sun at last appears again. He is
+heartily welcome, and he is accompanied by some morning birds, Little
+Auks. The two men are frightened of each other when daylight shines on
+them, as their hair and beards have grown so long. They have not washed
+for a year or more, and are as black in the face as negroes. Nansen, who
+is usually extremely fair, has now jet-black hair. They may be excused
+for not bathing at a temperature of-40°.
+
+The first bear has come. Here he is scratching at the hut and wanting to
+get in; there is such a good smell from inside. A bullet meets him on
+the way. And as he runs off up a steep slope he gets another, and comes
+rolling down in wild bounces like a football. They lived on him for six
+weeks.
+
+While the days grew lighter they worked at a new outfit. They made
+trousers out of their blankets. Shoes were patched, rope was cut out of
+walrus hide, new runners were put on the sledges, the provisions were
+packed, and on May 19 they left their cabin and marched farther
+south-west.
+
+Time after time they had to rest on account of snowstorms. They had
+thrown away the tent, and instead they crept in between the sledges
+covered with the sail. Once Nansen came down when on skis, and would
+have been drowned if Johansen had not helped him up in time. The snow
+lying on this ice was soaked with water. They had always to keep their
+eyes open and look for firm ice. The provisions came to an end, but the
+sea swarmed with walruses. Sometimes the animals were so bold that
+Nansen could go up to them and take photographs. When a fine brute had
+been shot the others still lay quiet, and only by hitting them with
+their alpenstocks could the travellers get rid of them. Then the animals
+would waddle off in single file and plunge head first into the water,
+which seemed to boil up around them.
+
+Once they had such level ice and a good wind behind them that they
+hoisted sail on the sledges, stood on skis in front of them to steer,
+and flew along so that the snow was thrown up around them.
+
+Another time they sailed with the kayaks lashed together and went ashore
+on an island to get a better view. The kayak raft was moored with a
+walrus rope. As they were strolling round Johansen called out, "Hullo,
+the kayaks are adrift."
+
+They ran down. The wind was blowing off the land. Out on the fiord all
+they possessed in the world was being mercilessly carried away.
+
+"Take my watch," cried Nansen, and throwing off a few clothes he jumped
+into the ice-cold water, and swam after the kayaks. But they drifted
+more rapidly than Nansen swam, and the case seemed hopeless. He felt his
+limbs growing numb, but he thought he might as well drown as swim back
+without the boats. He struck out for his life, became tired, lay on his
+back, went on again, saw that the distance was lessening, and put out
+all his strength for a last spurt. He was quite spent and on the point
+of sinking when he caught hold of one of the canoes and could hang on
+and get his breath. Then he heaved himself up into the kayak, and rowed
+back shivering, with chattering teeth, benumbed, and frozen blue. When
+he reached the land Johansen put him in the sleeping-bag and laid over
+him everything he could find. And when he had slept a few hours he was
+as lively as a cricket and did justice to the supper.
+
+Farther and farther south they continued their daring journey over ice
+and waves. A walrus came up beside Nansen's canoe, and tried its
+solidity with his tusks, nearly taking kayak and oarsman down with him
+to the salt depths. When the animal went off, Nansen felt uncomfortably
+cold and wet about the legs. He rowed to the nearest ice, where the
+kayak sank in shallow water and all he possessed was wet and spoiled.
+Then they had to give themselves a good rest and repair all damages,
+while walruses grunted and snorted close beside them.
+
+This journey of Nansen's is a unique feat in the history of Polar
+travels. Of the crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, a hundred and
+thirty-four men, not one had escaped, though they had not lost their
+vessels and though they lay quite close to a coast where there were
+human beings and game. But these two Norwegians had now held out in the
+Polar sea for fifteen months, and had preserved their lives and limbs
+and were in excellent condition.
+
+Their hour of delivery was at hand. On June 17 Nansen ascended an ice
+hummock and listened to the commotion made by a whole multitude of
+birds. What now? He listens holding his breath. No, it is impossible!
+Yes, indeed, that is a dog's bark. It must surely be a bird with a
+peculiar cry. No, it _is_ a dog barking.
+
+He hurried back to the camp. Johansen thought it was a mistake. They
+bolted their breakfast. Then Nansen fastened skis on his feet, took his
+gun, field-glass, and alpenstock, and flew swiftly as the wind over the
+white snow.
+
+See, there are the footprints of a dog! Perhaps a fox? No, they would be
+much smaller. He flies over the ice towards the land. Now he hears a
+man's voice. He yells with all the power of his lungs and takes no heed
+of holes and lumps as he speeds along towards life, safety, and home.
+
+Then a dog runs up barking. Behind him comes a man. Nansen hurries to
+meet him, and both wave their caps. Whoever this traveller with the dog
+may be, he has good reason for astonishment at seeing a jet-black giant
+come jolting on skis straight from the North Pole.
+
+They meet. They put out their hands.
+
+"How do you do?" asks the Englishman.
+
+"Very well, thank you," says Nansen.
+
+"I am very glad to see you here."
+
+"So am I," cries Nansen.
+
+The Englishman with the dog is named Jackson, and has been for two years
+in Franz Joseph Land making sledge journeys and explorations. He
+concludes that the black man on skis is some one from the _Fram_, but
+when he hears that it is Nansen himself he is still more astonished and
+agreeably surprised.
+
+They went to Jackson's house, whither Johansen also was fetched. Both
+our explorers washed with soap and brush several times to get off the
+worst of the dirt, all that was not firmly set and imbedded in their
+skins. They scrubbed and scraped and changed their clothes from top to
+toe, and at last looked like human beings.
+
+Later in the summer a vessel came with supplies for Jackson. With this
+vessel Nansen and Johansen sailed home. At Vardö they received telegrams
+from their families, and their delight was unbounded. Only one thing
+troubled them. Where was the _Fram_? Some little time later Nansen was
+awakened at Hammerfest one morning by a telegraph messenger. The
+telegram he brought read: "_Fram_ arrived in good condition. All well on
+board. Shall start at once for Tromsö. Welcome home." The sender of the
+telegram was the captain of the _Fram_, the brave and faithful
+Sverdrup.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[21] A _krona_ is a Swedish coin worth about 1s. 1-1/2d.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS
+
+
+It is barely a hundred years since European mariners began to approach
+the coasts of the mysterious mainland which extends around the southern
+pole of the earth. Ross, who in 1831 discovered the north magnetic pole,
+sailed ten years later in two ships, the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_
+(afterwards to become so famous with Franklin), along the coast of the
+most southern of all seas, a sea which still bears his name. He
+discovered an active volcano, not much less than 13,000 feet high, and
+named it Erebus, while to another extinct volcano he gave the name of
+Terror. And he saw the lofty ice barrier, which in some places is as
+much as 300 feet high.
+
+At a much later time there was great rivalry among European nations to
+contribute to the knowledge of the world's sixth continent. In the year
+1901 an English expedition under Captain Scott was despatched to the sea
+and coasts first visited by Ross. Captain Scott made great and important
+discoveries on the coast of the sixth continent, and advanced nearer to
+the South Pole than any of his predecessors. One of the members of the
+expedition followed his example some years later. His name is
+Shackleton, and his journey is famous far and wide.
+
+Shackleton resolved to advance from his winter quarters as far as
+possible towards the South Pole, and with only three other men he set
+out at the end of October, 1908. His sledges were drawn by strong, plump
+ponies obtained from Manchuria. They were fed with maize, compressed
+fodder, and concentrated food, but when during the journey they had to
+be put on short commons they ate up straps, rope ends, and one another's
+tails. The four men had provisions for fully three months.
+
+While the smoke rose from the crater of Erebus, Shackleton marched
+southwards over snow-covered ice. Sometimes the snow was soft and
+troublesome, sometimes covered with a hard crust hiding dangerous
+crevasses in the mass of ice. At the camps the adventurers set up their
+two tents and crept into their sleeping-bags, while the ponies, covered
+with horse-cloths, stood and slept outside. Sometimes they had to remain
+stationary for a day or two when snowstorms stopped their progress.
+
+[Illustration: THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS.]
+
+When the sun was hidden by clouds the illumination was perplexing. No
+shadows revealed the unevenness of the snowfield, all was of the purest
+white, and where the men thought they were walking over level ground,
+they might quite unexpectedly come down on their noses down a small
+slope. Once they heard a thundering noise far away to the east. It
+sounded like a cannon shot, but probably was only the immense inland ice
+"calving." When the ice during its constant but slow motion towards the
+coast slides out into the sea, it is lifted up by the water and is
+broken up into huge, heavy blocks and icebergs which float about
+independently. When these pieces break away the inland ice is said to
+"calve."
+
+Shackleton advanced towards the pole at the rate of twelve to eighteen
+miles a day. His small party was lost like small specks in the endless
+desert of ice and snow. Only to the west was visible a succession of
+mountain summits like towers and pinnacles. The men seemed to be
+marching towards a white wall which they could never reach.
+
+On November 31 one of the ponies was shot, and its flesh was kept to be
+used as food. The sledge he had drawn was set up on end and propped up
+as a mark for the return journey. Five days later Shackleton came to
+Scott's farthest south, and the lofty mountains with dark, steep, rocky
+flanks which he afterwards had by the side of his route had never before
+been seen by man.
+
+A couple of days later a second pony was shot, and shortly afterwards a
+third, which could go no farther, had to be put out of his misery. The
+last pony seemed to miss his comrades, but he still struggled on with
+his sledge, while the four men dragged another.
+
+The mountain range which they had hitherto had on their right curved too
+much to the east, but fortunately it was cut through by a huge glacier,
+the great highway to the Pole. They ascended the glacier and crossed a
+small pass between great pillars of granite. Now they were surrounded by
+lofty mountains. The ice was intersected by dangerous crevasses, and
+only with the greatest caution and loss of time could they go round
+them. A bird flew over their heads, probably a gull. What could he be
+looking for here in the midst of the eternal ice?
+
+One day three of the explorers were drawing their sledge while the
+fourth was guiding the one drawn by the pony. Suddenly they saw the
+animal disappear, actually swallowed up by the ice. A snow bridge had
+given way under the weight of the pony, and the animal had fallen into a
+crevasse 1000 feet deep. When they bent over the edge of the dark chasm
+they could not hear a sound below. Fortunately the front cross-piece of
+the sledge had come away, so that the sledge and man were left on the
+brink of the chasm. If the precious provisions had gone down with the
+horse into the bowels of the ice, Shackleton would have been obliged to
+turn back.
+
+Now left without assistance in dragging the sledges, they had to
+struggle up the glacier between rocks and slates in which coal was
+imbedded. On Christmas Day the temperature was down to-47°--a fine
+midsummer!
+
+At length the four men had left all mountains behind, and now a plateau
+country of nothing but snow-covered ice stretched before them. But still
+the surface of the ice rose towards the heart of the South Polar
+continent, and the singing headaches from which they suffered were a
+consequence of the elevation. A flag on a bamboo pole was set up as a
+landmark.
+
+On January 7 and 8, 1909, they had to lie still in a hard snowstorm, and
+the temperature fell to-69°. When such is the summer of the South Pole,
+what must the winter be like? January 9 was the last day on their march
+southwards. Without loads or sledges they hurried on and halted at 88°
+23' south latitude.
+
+They were only 100 miles from the South Pole when they had to turn back
+from want of provisions. They might have gone on and might have reached
+the Pole, but they would never have come back.
+
+The height was more than 10,000 feet above sea-level, and before them,
+in the direction of the Pole, extended a boundless flat plateau of
+inland ice. The Union Jack was hoisted and a record of their journey
+deposited in a cylinder. Shackleton cast a last glance over the ice
+towards the Pole, and, sore at heart, gave the order to retreat.
+
+Happily he was able to follow his trail back and succeeded in reaching
+his winter quarters, whence his vessel carried him home again in safety.
+
+THE END
+
+_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+By Dr. SVEN HEDIN
+
+TRANS-HIMALAYA
+
+DISCOVERIES AND ADVENTURES IN TIBET
+
+8vo.
+
+Vols. I. and II. With 388 Illustrations and 10 Maps. 30s. net.
+
+Vol. III. With 156 Illustrations and Maps. 15s. net.
+
+_EVENING STANDARD._--"The great Swede has given his readers a rare
+treat.... A record of such perilous journeying and undaunted experiments
+as the world has rarely witnessed."
+
+Sir THOMAS HOLDICH in the _WORLD_.--"For all lovers of a good
+story of genuine travel and adventure it will be a most delightful book
+to read, and the fact that it deals with the hitherto untrodden region
+of India's great northern water-parting will render it doubly
+interesting."
+
+_WESTMINSTER GAZETTE._--"It is certainly a wonderful story that Dr.
+Hedin has to tell, and few journeys have called for more resource and
+courage.... A work of great value from a geographical point of view, and
+one which to the ordinary reader is full of interest."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OVERLAND TO INDIA
+
+With 308 Illustrations and 2 Maps.
+
+Two vols. 8vo. 30s. net.
+
+_TIMES._--"The narrative abounds in entertainment, and with his dramatic
+faculty, his genuine sympathy with all sorts and conditions of men, his
+happy gift of humour, and his trained observation, Dr. Hedin gives us a
+welcome and impressive picture of the present condition of things in a
+country teeming with racial hatreds and religious animosities."
+
+_EVENING STANDARD._--"The chronicle of these wanderings, compiled by a
+most skilled observer, gifted with an inexhaustible appetite for hard
+work, with a graphic touch in narration, and an artist's skill and
+delicacy in using the pencil, constitutes a magnificent addition to the
+library of travel as well as to the record of patient endurance of
+hardships."
+
+_SATURDAY REVIEW._--"Dr. Hedin's book teems with a variety of
+interesting topics. Of his photographs it is impossible to speak too
+highly."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A SELECTION OF
+
+WORKS OF TRAVEL, SPORT, Etc.
+
+MY LIFE WITH THE ESKIMO. By VILHJÁLMUR STEFÁNSSON. Illustrated.
+8vo. 17s. net.
+
+THE WILDS OF MAORILAND. By J. MACKINTOSH BELL, M.A., Ph.D.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 15s.
+
+ACROSS AUSTRALIA. By BALDWIN SPENCER, C.M.G., F.R.S., and
+F. J. GILLEN. Illustrated. Two vols. 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER. By JAMES SUTHERLAND.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA AND OTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF THIRTEEN
+YEARS' WANDERINGS. By Captain C. H. STIGAND. With Introduction
+by THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Illustrated. 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+SPORT ON THE NILGIRIS AND IN WYNAAD. By F. W. F. FLETCHER.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 12s. net.
+
+THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO, AND OTHER EAST AFRICAN ADVENTURES. By
+Lieut.-Colonel J. H. PATTERSON, D.S.O. Illustrated. With a
+Foreword by FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. Cheap
+Edition. Globe 8vo. 1s. net.
+
+IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA. Further Adventures in British East Africa. By
+Lieut.-Colonel J. H. PATTERSON, D.S.O. Illustrated. 8vo. 7s.
+6d. net.
+
+A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA. Nine Years amongst the Game of the Far
+Interior of South Africa. By FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS.
+Illustrated. Fifth Edition. Extra Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+AFRICAN NATURE NOTES AND REMINISCENCES. By FREDERICK COURTENEY
+SELOUS. With a Foreword by THEODORE ROOSEVELT and
+Illustrations by E. CALDWELL. 8vo. 10s. net.
+
+THE OLD NORTH TRAIL: or, Life, Legends, and Religion of the Blackfeet
+Indians. By WALTER MCCLINTOCK. Illustrated. 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA, FROM SUBALTERN TO COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. By
+Field-Marshal EARL ROBERTS, V.C. Illustrated. Popular Edition.
+Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. Library Edition. Two vols. 8vo. 36s.
+
+FROM SEA TO SEA. By RUDYARD KIPLING. Two vols. Extra Crown 8vo.
+6s. each. _Pocket Edition_. Fcap. 8vo, Limp Leather, 5s. net; Blue
+Cloth, 4s. 6d. net.
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's Note:                                                    |
+|                                                                       |
+|Illustrations, originally had a reference to '_facing page_', and have |
+|now been placed as close as possible to their original positions.      |
+|                                                                       |
+|All maps carried an acknowledgement for _Emery Walker sc._             |
+|                                                                       |
+|The following PLATE'S also carried acknowledgements.                   |
+|                                                                       |
+|Plate I. BERLIN _Photo. The Photocrom Co._                             |
+|PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE _Photo. The Photocrom Co._                    |
+|PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW _Photo. The Photocrom Co._            |
+|PLATE XXIV. PARIS _Photo. The Photocrom Co._                           |
+|PLATE XXVI. THE COLLOSEUM, ROME. _Photo. Underwood and Underwood._     |
+|PLATE XXVII. POMPEII. _Photo. Abteilung, Zurich._                      |
+|PLATE XXXIV. CAÑONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER. _Photo. Underwood and       |
+|Underwood._                                                            |
+|PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM". _Photo. The Record Press._                    |
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM POLE TO POLE***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, From Pole to Pole, by Sven Anders Hedin</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: From Pole to Pole</p>
+<p>       A Book for Young People</p>
+<p>Author: Sven Anders Hedin</p>
+<p>Release Date: February 28, 2007  [eBook #20709]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM POLE TO POLE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Susan Skinner, Janet Blenkinship,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net/c/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>FROM</h1>
+
+<h1>POLE TO POLE</h1>
+
+<h3>A BOOK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE</h3>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2>SVEN HEDIN<br /><br /></h2>
+<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/imgfrontis.jpg"  width="255" height="550" alt="DR. SVEN HEDIN IN TIBETAN DRESS" title="" /></div>
+<h4>DR. SVEN HEDIN IN TIBETAN DRESS.<br /><br /></h4>
+
+<p class='center'>MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited<br />
+LONDON &middot; BOMBAY &middot; CALCUTTA<br />
+  MELBOURNE<br /><br />
+  THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.<br />
+  TORONTO<br /><br />
+1914<br />
+
+<i>First Edition</i> 1912<br />
+
+<i>Reprinted</i> 1914</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>PUBLISHERS' NOTE</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="PUBLISHERS' NOTE">
+<tr><td align='left'>This translation of Dr. Sven Hedin's <i>Fr&aring;n Pol till Pol</i> has, with the</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>author's permission, been abridged and edited for the use of</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>English-speaking young people.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr><th colspan="2" align='center'>PART I</th></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>I. <span class="smcap">Across Europe</span>&mdash;</th><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Berlin to Constantinople</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_8'><b>8</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Constantinople</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_13'><b>13</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Church of the Divine Wisdom</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_15'><b>15</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Bazaars of Stambul</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_20'><b>20</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>II. <span class="smcap">Constantinople to Teheran</span>(1905)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Black Sea</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Trebizond to Teheran</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>III. <span class="smcap">Through the Caucasus, Persia, and Mesopotamia</span>(1885-6)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">St. Petersburg to Baku</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Across Persia</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Arabia</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_40'><b>40</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Baghdad to Teheran</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>IV. <span class="smcap">The Persian Desert</span>(1906)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Across the Kevir</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_46'><b>46</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Oasis of Tebbes</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>V. <span class="smcap">On the Kirghiz Steppe</span>(1893-5)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Into Asia from Orenburg</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Samarcand and Bukhara</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Pamir</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">The Father of Ice-Mountains</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_66'><b>66</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">A Kirghiz Gymkhana</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>VI. <span class="smcap">From Persia to India</span> (1906)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tebbes to Seistan</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">A Baluchi Raid</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Scorpions</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_80'><b>80</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Indus</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_82'><b>82</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Kashmir and Ladak</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_87'><b>87</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>VII. <span class="smcap">Eastern Turkestan</span> (1895)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Takla-makan Desert</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Across a Sea of Sand</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The End of the Caravan</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Water at Last</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>VIII. <span class="smcap">The Desert Waterway</span> (1899)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Down the Yarkand River</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Tarim</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Wandering Lake</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Wild Camels</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>IX. <span class="smcap">In the Forbidden Land</span> (1901-2, 1906-8)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Plateau of Tibet</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Attempt to reach Lhasa</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Tashi Lama</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Wild Asses and Yaks</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>X. <span class="smcap">India&mdash;</span></th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">From Tibet to Simla</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_130'><b>130</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Delhi and Agra</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_131'><b>131</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Benares and Brahminism</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Light of Asia</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Bombay</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Useful Plants of India</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Wild Elephants</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Cobra</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>XI. <span class="smcap">From India to China</span> (1908)&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Indian Ocean</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Sunda Islands</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Penang and Singapore</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_156'><b>156</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Up the China Sea</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>XII. <span class="smcap">China&mdash;</span></th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">To Shanghai</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">"The Middle Kingdom"</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Blue River</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">In Northern China</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Mongolia</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_176'><b>176</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Marco Polo</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">XIII. <span class="smcap">Japan</span> (1908)&mdash;</span></th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Nagasaki and Kobe</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_185'><b>185</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Fujiyama and Tokio</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Nikko, Nara, and Kioto</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_193'><b>193</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>XIV. <span class="smcap">Back to Europe</span>&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Korea</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Manchuria</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_199'><b>199</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Trans-Siberian Railway</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Volga and Moscow</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_207'><b>207</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">St. Petersburg and Home</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_210'><b>210</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th colspan="2" align='center'>PART II</th></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>I. <span class="smcap">Stockholm to Egypt</span>&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">To London and Paris</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_215'><b>215</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Napoleon's Tomb</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_218'><b>218</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Paris to Rome</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Eternal City</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_225'><b>225</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Pompeii</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_229'><b>229</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>II. <span class="smcap">Africa</span>&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">General Gordon</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Conquest of the Sudan</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_247'><b>247</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Ostriches</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_250'><b>250</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Baboons</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_252'><b>252</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Hippopotamus</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_253'><b>253</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Man-eating Lions</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_256'><b>256</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">David Livingstone</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_261'><b>261</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">How Stanley found Livingstone</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_275'><b>275</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Death of Livingstone</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_282'><b>282</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Stanley's Great Journey</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Timbuktu and the Sahara</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_297'><b>297</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>III. <span class="smcap">North America</span>&mdash;</th><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Discovery of the New World</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_306'><b>306</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">New York</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_317'><b>317</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Chicago and the Great Lakes</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_326'><b>326</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Through the Great West</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_333'><b>333</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>IV. <span class="smcap">South America</span>&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Inca Empire</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_341'><b>341</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Amazons River</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_351'><b>351</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>V. <span class="smcap">In the South Seas</span>&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Albatrosses and Whales</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_358'><b>358</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Robinson Crusoe's Island</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_362'><b>362</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Across the Pacific Ocean</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_365'><b>365</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Across Australia</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_372'><b>372</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>VI. <span class="smcap">The North Polar Regions</span>&mdash;</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Sir John Franklin and the North-West Passage</span></span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_377'><b>377</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Voyage of the "Vega"</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_386'><b>386</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Nansen</span></span></td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_392'><b>392</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th align='left'>VII. <span class="smcap">The South Polar Regions</span></th><td align="right"><a href='#Page_404'><b>404</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><br />LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Dr. Sven Hedin in Tibetan Dress</td><td align='right'><a href='#frontis'><b><i>Frontispiece</i></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>Berlin</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_6'><b>6</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Constantinople</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_13'><b>13</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Oil-Well at Balakhani</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>A Persian Caravanserai</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>The Author's Riding Camel, with Gulam Hussein</td><td align='right'><a href='#GULAM_HUSSEIN'><b>46</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>Tebbes</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>A Baluchi Nomad Tent</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>Srinagar and the Jhelum River</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_87'><b>87</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>Digging for Water in the Takla-makan</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>The Author's Boat on the Yarkand River</td><td align='right'><a href='#YARKAND_RIVER'><b>102</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'>Tashi-lunpo</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'>Simla</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_131'><b>131</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'>The Taj Mahal</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'>Benares</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.</td><td align='left'>Tame Elephants and their Drivers</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI.</td><td align='left'>On the Canton River</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_159'><b>159</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII.</td><td align='left'>The Great Wall of China</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII.</td><td align='left'>Gate in the Walls of Peking</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_176'><b>176</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX.</td><td align='left'>A Japanese Ricksha</td><td align='right'><a href='#RICKSHA'><b>189</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XX.</td><td align='left'>Fujiyama</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXI.</td><td align='left'>The Great Buddha at Kamakura</td><td align='right'><a href='#KAMAKURA'><b>192</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXII.</td><td align='left'>A Sedan-Chair in Seoul</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_199'><b>199</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIII.</td><td align='left'>The Kremlin, Moscow</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_208'><b>208</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIV.</td><td align='left'>Paris</td><td align='right'><a href='#PARIS'><b>216</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXV.</td><td align='left'>Napoleon's Tomb</td><td align='right'><a href='#NAPOLEON'><b>219</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVI.</td><td align='left'>The Colosseum, Rome</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_228'><b>228</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVII.</td><td align='left'>Pompeii</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_233'><b>233</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVIII.</td><td align='left'>The Great Pyramids at Ghizeh</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_238'><b>238</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIX.</td><td align='left'>A Hippopotamus</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_254'><b>254</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXX.</td><td align='left'>The Fight on the Congo</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXI.</td><td align='left'>A Group of Beduins</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXII.</td><td align='left'>"Sky-Scrapers" in New York</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_323'><b>323</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIII.</td><td align='left'>Niagara Falls</td><td align='right'><a href='#NIAGARA'><b>331</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIV.</td><td align='left'>Ca&ntilde;ons on the Colorado River</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_339'><b>339</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXV.</td><td align='left'>Cotopaxi</td><td align='right'><a href='#COTOPAXI'><b>344</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVI.</td><td align='left'>Indian Huts on the Amazons River</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_353'><b>353</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVII.</td><td align='left'>A Coral Strand</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_369'><b>369</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVIII.</td><td align='left'>Country near Lake Eyre</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_373'><b>373</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIX.</td><td align='left'>The "Fram"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_393'><b>393</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<h2><br /><br />LIST OF MAPS</h2>
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="LIST OF MAPS">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Berlin</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_2'><b>2</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>2. Map showing journey from Berlin to Constantinople</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_10'><b>10</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>3. Plan of Constantinople</td><td align='right'><a href='#CONSTANTINOPLE'><b>13</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align='left'>4. Map showing journey from Constantinople to Teheran, latter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">part of journey to Baku, and journey from Baku across</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Persia to Baghdad and back to Teheran</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>5. Map showing journey from Orenburg to the Pamir</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_56'><b>56</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>6. Map showing journey from Teheran to Baluchistan</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>7. Map of Northern India, showing rivers and mountain ranges</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_82'><b>82</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>8. Map of Eastern Turkestan</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>9. Tibet</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>10. Map of India, showing journey from Nushki to Leh, and</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">journey from Tibet through Simla, etc., to Bombay</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_132'><b>132</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>11. The Sunda Islands</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_154'><b>154</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12. Map showing voyage from Bombay to Hong Kong</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>13. Map of Northern China and Mongolia</td><td align='right'><a href='#CHINA'><b>174</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>14. Map showing journey from Shanghai through Japan and Korea to Dalny</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_184'><b>184</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>15. The Trans-Siberian Railway</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_203'><b>203</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>16. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Paris</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_216'><b>216</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>17. Map showing journey from Paris to Alexandria</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>18. Map of North-Eastern Africa, showing Egypt and the Sudan</td><td align='right'><a href='#SUDAN'><b>237</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>19. Livingstone's Journeys in Africa</td><td align='right'><a href='#LIVINGSTONE'><b>262</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>20. North-West Africa</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>21. Toscanelli's Map</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>22. North America</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_325'><b>325</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>23. South America</td><td align='right'><a href='#SOUTH_AMERICA'><b>343</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>24. The South Seas</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_366'><b>366</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>25. The North Polar Regions</td><td align='right'><a href='#NORTH_POLAR'><b>378</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>26. The South Polar Regions</td><td align='right'><a href='#SOUTH_POLAR'><b>405</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><br /><br />PART I<br /><br /></h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<h2>ACROSS EUROPE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Stockholm to Berlin</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Our journey begins at Stockholm, the capital of my native country.
+Leaving Stockholm by train in the evening, we travel all night in
+comfortable sleeping-cars and arrive next morning at the southernmost
+point of Sweden, the port of Trelleborg, where the sunlit waves sweep in
+from the Baltic Sea.</p>
+
+<p>Here we might expect to have done with railway travelling, and we rather
+look for the guard to come and open the carriage doors and ask the
+passengers to alight. Surely it is not intended that the train shall go
+on right across the sea? Yet that is actually what happens. The same
+train and the same carriages, which bore us out of Stockholm yesterday
+evening, go calmly across the Baltic Sea, and we need not get out before
+we arrive at Berlin. The section of the train which is to go on to
+Germany is run by an engine on to a great ferry-boat moored to the quay
+by heavy clamps and hooks of iron. The rails on Swedish ground are
+closely connected with those on the ferry-boat, and when the carriages
+are pushed on board by the engine, they are fastened with chains and
+hooks so that they may remain quite steady even if the vessel begins to
+roll. As the traveller lies dozing in his compartment, he will certainly
+hear whistles and the rattle of iron gear and will notice that the
+compartment suddenly becomes quite dark. But only when the monotonous
+groaning and the constant vibration of the wheels has given place to a
+gentle and silent heaving will he know that he is out on the Baltic Sea.</p>
+
+<p>We are by no means content, however, to lie down and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> doze. Scarcely
+have the carriages been anchored on the ferry-boat before we are on the
+upper deck with its fine promenade. The ferry-boat is a handsome vessel,
+370 feet long, brand-new and painted white everywhere. It is almost like
+a first-class hotel. In the saloon the tables are laid, and Swedish and
+German passengers sit in groups at breakfast. There are separate rooms
+for coffee and smoking, for reading and writing; and we find a small
+bookstall where a boy sells guidebooks, novels, and the Swedish and
+German newspapers of the day.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img001.jpg"  width="552" height="448" alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN." title="" /></div>
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN.</h4>
+
+<p>The ferry-boat is now gliding out of the harbour, and every minute that
+passes carries us farther from our native land. Now the whole town of
+Trelleborg is displayed before our eyes, its warehouses and new
+buildings, its chimneys and the vessels in the harbour. The houses
+become smaller, the land narrows down to a strip on the horizon, and at
+last there is nothing to be seen but a dark cloud of smoke rising from
+the steamers and workshops. We steam along a fairway rich in memories,
+and over a sea which has witnessed many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> wonderful exploits and
+marvellous adventures. Among the wreckage and fragments at its bottom
+sleep vikings and other heroes who fought for their country; but to-day
+peace reigns over the Baltic, and Swedes, Danes, Russians, and Germans
+share in the harvest of the sea. Yet still, as of yore, the autumn
+storms roll the slate-grey breakers against the shores; and still on
+bright summer days the blue waves glisten, silvered by the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Four hours fly past all too quickly, and before we have become
+accustomed to the level expanses of the sea a strip of land appears to
+starboard. This is R&uuml;gen, the largest island of Germany, lifting its
+white chalk cliffs steeply from the sea, like surf congealed into stone.
+The ferry-boat swings round in a beautiful curve towards the land, and
+in the harbour of Sassnitz its rails are fitted in exactly to the
+railway track on German soil. We hasten to take our seats in the
+carriages, for in a few minutes the German engine comes up and draws the
+train on to the land of R&uuml;gen.</p>
+
+<p>The monotonous grind of iron on iron begins again, and the coast and the
+ferry-boat vanish behind us. R&uuml;gen lies as flat as a pancake on the
+Baltic Sea, and the train takes us through a landscape which reminds us
+of Sweden. Here grow pines and spruces, here peaceful roe-deer jump and
+roam about without showing the slightest fear of the noise of the engine
+and the drone of the carriages.</p>
+
+<p>Another ferry takes us over the narrow sound which separates R&uuml;gen from
+the mainland, and we see through the window the towers and spires and
+closely-packed houses of Stralsund. Every inch of ground around us has
+once been Swedish. In this neighbourhood Gustavus Adolphus landed with
+his army, and in Stralsund Charles XII. passed a year of his adventurous
+life.</p>
+
+<p>In the twilight the train carries us southwards through Pomerania, and
+before we reach Brandenburg the autumn evening has shrouded the North
+German lowland in darkness. The country is flat and monotonous; not a
+hill, hardly even an insignificant mound, rises above the level expanse.
+Yet the land has a peculiar attraction for the stranger from Sweden. He
+thinks of the time when Swedish gun-carriages splashed and dashed
+through the mud before the winter frost made their progress still more
+difficult and noisy. He thinks of heroic deeds and brave men, of early
+starts, and horses neighing with impatience at the reveille; of
+victories and honourable peaces, and of the captured flags at home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If he is observant he will find many other remembrances in the North
+German low country. Boulders of Swedish granite lie scattered over the
+plain. They stand out like milestones and mark the limits of the
+extension of the Scandinavian inland ice. During a colder period of the
+world's history all northern Europe was covered with a coat of ice, and
+this period is called the Ice Age. No one knows why the ice embraced
+Scandinavia and the adjacent countries and swept in a broad stream over
+the Baltic Sea. And no one knows why the climate afterwards became
+warmer and drier, and forced the ice to melt away and gradually to leave
+the ground bare. But we know for a fact that the boulders in northern
+Germany were carried there on the back of an immense ice stream, for
+they are composed of rocks which occur only in Scandinavia. The ice tore
+them away from the solid mountains; during its slow movement southwards
+it carried them with it, and when it melted the blocks were left on the
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>At last points of light begin to flash by like meteors in the night.
+They become more and more numerous, and finally come whole rows and
+clusters of electric lamps and lighted windows. We are passing through
+the suburbs of a huge city, one of the largest in the world and the
+third largest in Europe&mdash;Berlin.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Berlin</span></h3>
+
+<p>If we spread out on the table a map of Europe on which all the railways
+are indicated by black lines, the map will look like a net with
+irregular meshes. At all the knots are towns, large centres of
+population which are in constant communication with one another by means
+of the railways. If we fix our eyes on North Germany, we see what looks
+like an enormous spider's web, and in the middle of it sits a huge
+spider. That spider is called Berlin. For as a spider catches its prey
+in an ingeniously spun net, so Berlin by its railways draws to itself
+life and movement not only from Germany but from all Europe&mdash;nay, from
+the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>If we could fly some hundreds of miles straight up into the air and had
+such sharp eyes that we could perceive all the coasts and boundaries of
+Europe, and plainly distinguish the fine lines of the railways, we
+should also see small, dark, short forms running backwards and forwards
+along them. We should see, as it were, a teeming ant-hill, and after
+every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> ant we should see a small puff of smoke. In Scandinavia and
+Russia the bustle would seem less lively, but in the centre of Europe
+the ants would scurry about with terrible activity.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it was winter or summer, day or night, the bustle would never
+grow less. From our elevated point of view we should see innumerable
+trains flying in the night like glow-worms in every direction.
+Ceaselessly they rush between cities and states, between the sea-coast
+and the inland districts, and to and from the heart of Europe. For
+during the last twenty years Berlin has become the heart of Europe.
+London is situated on an island, and Paris is too near the margin of the
+Continent. But in Berlin several of the greatest railway routes meet,
+and whether the traveller goes from Paris to St. Petersburg, from
+Stockholm to Rome, or from Hamburg to Vienna, he has always to pass
+through Berlin.</p>
+
+<p>In the city which is "the heart of Europe" we must expect to find the
+main thoroughfares crowded with foot-passengers of all nationalities,
+and vehicles of every conceivable kind&mdash;motor cars, electric trams,
+horse omnibuses, vans, cabs, carts, and so on. Yet in spite of their
+endless streams of traffic, the streets of Berlin are not noisy&mdash;not
+nearly so noisy as those of Stockholm&mdash;for they are paved with asphalt
+and wood, and most of the conveyances have rubber tyres on their wheels.
+As in other large cities, the streets are relieved of a great deal of
+traffic by trains which run right through the town and round its
+suburbs, either up in the air on viaducts, or underground in tunnels
+lighted by electricity. At the Frederick Street Station of the City
+Railway, which lies in the centre of the town, a train arrives or
+departs every other minute of the day and of a good part of the night as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>Not far off is a square&mdash;the "King's Place"&mdash;where a monument to
+commemorate the victory of the Germans over the French, in 1871, lifts
+its spire above the city, with three rows of cannon captured in France
+in its recesses. Close at hand, too, are the shady walks in the
+"Tiergarten" (Park), where all Berlin is wont to enjoy itself on
+Sundays. When we turn eastwards, we have to pass through a great
+colonnade, the Brandenburg Gate, with Doric pillars supporting the
+four-horsed chariot of the goddess of victory in beaten copper. Here the
+German army entered Berlin after the conquest of France and the founding
+of the German Empire.</p>
+
+<p>On the farther side of this gate stretches one of the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> noted
+streets in Europe. For if Berlin is the heart of Germany, so is the
+street called "Unter den Linden" (Under the Lime-Trees) the centre and
+heart of Berlin. There are, indeed, streets which are longer, for this
+extends only two-thirds of a mile, but hardly any which are broader, for
+it is 66 yards across. Between its alternate carriage-roads and
+foot-walks four double rows of limes and chestnuts introduce a
+refreshing breath of open country right into the bosom of the great town
+of stone, with its straight streets and heavy, grey square houses. As we
+wander along "Unter den Linden" we pass the foreign embassies and the
+German government offices, and, farther on, the palace of the old Kaiser
+Wilhelm, which is unoccupied and has been left exactly as it was in his
+lifetime. He used to stand at a corner window on the ground floor, and
+look out at his faithful people.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate1.jpg"  width="550" height="262" alt="PLATE I." title="" /></div>
+<h4>PLATE I. BERLIN.</h4>
+
+<p>It is now just noon. Splendid carriages and motor cars sweep past, and
+the crush of people on the pavements is great. We hear the inspiriting
+music of a military band, and the Imperial Guard marches down the
+street, followed by crowds of eager sightseers. Keeping time with the
+music we march with them past the great Royal Library to where Frederick
+the Great looks down from his tall bronze horse on the children of
+to-day. On the one side is the Opera House, on the other is the
+University, with its ten thousand students, and farther on the Arsenal,
+with its large historical collections of engines of war. We cross over
+the "Schlossbr&uuml;cke" (Palace Bridge), which throws its arch over the
+River Spree, and follow the parade into the "Lustgarten" (Pleasure
+Garden). The band halts at the foot of the statue of Frederick William
+III. and the people crowd round to listen, for now one piece is played
+after another. Thus the good citizens of Berlin are entertained daily.</p>
+
+<p>There are several noteworthy buildings round the Lustgarten, among them
+many art museums and picture galleries, as well as the Cathedral and the
+Royal Palace (Plate I.). It looks very grand, this palace, though it
+does not stand, as it should, in the middle of a great open space, but
+is hemmed in by the streets around it.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it would interest you to hear about a ball at the Imperial Court
+of Germany. At the stroke of nine our carriage drives in under the
+archway of the Palace. The carpeted staircases are lined by
+"Beef-eaters," in old-fashioned uniforms, as motionless as if they were
+cast in wax. They do not turn even their eyes as the guests pass, much
+less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> their heads. Now we are up in the state rooms, and move slowly
+over the brightly polished floor through a suite of brilliant apartments
+glittering with electric light. Pictures of the kings of Prussia stand
+out against the gilt leather tapestry. At last we reach the great
+throne-room, which takes its name from the black eagles on the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>On the right is the Royal Palace, on the left the Cathedral, with the
+Lustgarten in front. In the foreground is the River Spree.]</p>
+
+<p>What a varied scene awaits us here! Great ladies in costly dresses
+adorned with precious stones of great value, diamonds flashing and
+sparkling wherever we look, generals and admirals in full dress, high
+officials, ambassadors from foreign lands, including those of China and
+Japan. Here comes a great man to whom all bow; it is the Imperial
+Chancellor.</p>
+
+<p>Chamberlains now request the guests to range themselves along the walls
+of the throne-room. A herald enters and strikes his silver staff against
+the floor, calling out aloud "His Majesty the Emperor!" All is silent as
+the grave. Followed by the Empress, the princes and princesses, William
+II. passes through the room and greets his guests with a manly
+handshake. He begins with the ladies and then passes on to the gentlemen
+and speaks to every one. The Swedish Minister presents me, and the
+Emperor begins immediately to ask about Asia. He speaks of Alexander's
+great campaign through the whole of western Asia, and expresses his
+astonishment that a man's name can live with undiminished renown through
+two thousand years. He points to the eagles on the ceiling, and asks if
+I do not see a resemblance to the Chinese dragon. He talks of Tibet and
+the Dalai Lama, and of the great stillness in the heart of the desert.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the orchestra strikes up and the guests begin to dance. The only
+one who seems unconcerned is the Emperor himself. An expression of deep
+seriousness lies like a mask on his powerful face. Is it not enough to
+be the Emperor of the German federation, with its four kingdoms,
+Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and W&uuml;rtemberg, its six grand duchies, its
+many duchies and electorates, its imperial territory, Alsace-Lorraine,
+and its three free towns, Hamburg, L&uuml;beck, and Bremen? Does he not rule
+over sixty-five million people, over 207 towns of more than 25,000
+inhabitants, and seven of more than half a million, namely Berlin,
+Hamburg, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, and Cologne? Has he not by
+the force of his own will created a fleet so powerful as to arouse
+uneasiness in England, the country which has the sole command of the
+sea? And is he not the commander-in-chief of an army which, on a war
+footing, is as large as the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> population of Scotland? All this
+might well make him serious.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Berlin to Constantinople</span></h3>
+
+<p>The next stage of our journey is from Berlin to Vienna, the capital of
+Austria. The express train carries us rapidly southward through
+Brandenburg. To the west we have the Elbe, which flows into the North
+Sea at Hamburg; while to the east streams the Oder, which enters the
+Baltic Sea at Stettin. But we make closer acquaintance only with the
+Elbe, first when we pass Dresden, the capital of Saxony, and again when
+we have crossed the Austrian frontier into Bohemia, where in a beautiful
+and densely-peopled valley clothed with trees the railway follows the
+windings of the stream. When the guard calls out at a large and busy
+station "Prague," we are sorry that we have no time to stay a few days
+and stroll through the streets and squares of one of the finest and
+oldest towns of Europe. The engine's whistle sounds again and the train
+carries us swiftly onwards to Vienna, the capital of the Emperor Francis
+Joseph, who alone is more remarkable than all the sights of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Vienna is a fine and wealthy city, the fourth in Europe, and, like
+Berlin, is full of centres of human civilisation, science and art. Here
+are found relics of ancient times beside the grand palaces of the
+present day, the "Ring" is one of the finest streets in the world, and
+the tower of St. Stephen's Church rises up to the sky above the two
+million inhabitants of the town. Vienna to a greater extent than Berlin
+is a town of pleasure and merry genial life, a grand old aristocratic
+town, a town of theatres, concerts, balls, and caf&eacute;s. The Danube canal,
+with its twelve bridges, passes right through Vienna, and outside the
+eastern outskirts the Danube itself, in an artificial bed, rolls its
+dark blue waters with a melodious murmur, providing an accompaniment to
+the famous Viennese waltzes.</p>
+
+<p>If Vienna is, then, one of the centres of human knowledge and
+refinement, and if there are a thousand wonderful things to behold
+within its walls, yet it contains nothing more remarkable than the old
+Emperor. Not because he is so old, or because he still survives as one
+of the last of an almost extinct generation, but because by his august
+personality he keeps together an empire composed of many different
+countries, races, and religious sects. Fifty millions of people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> are
+ranged under his sceptre. There are Germans in Austria, Chechs in
+Bohemia, Magyars in Hungary, Polacks in Galicia, and a crowd of other
+peoples; nay, even Mohammedans live under the protection of the Catholic
+throne.</p>
+
+<p>His life has abounded in cares and vicissitudes. He has lived through
+wars, insurrections, and revolutions, and with skill and tact has held
+in check all the contending factions which have striven and are still
+striving to rend asunder his empire. It is difficult to imagine the
+Austro-Hungarian monarchy without him. With him it perhaps stands or
+falls; therefore there is no one in the present day whose life is of
+greater importance to humanity. He has been the object of murderous
+attempts: his wife was assassinated, his only son perished by a violent
+death. He is now eighty-two years old, and he has worn the imperial
+crown for sixty-four years. Since 1867 he has been king of Hungary.
+During his reign the industry, trade, agriculture, and general
+prosperity of his dominions have been enormously developed. And the most
+remarkable of all is that he still carries his head high, is smart and
+upright, and works as hard as a labourer in the Danube valley.</p>
+
+<p>The fortunes of Austria and Hungary are still more closely united with
+and dependent on the great river Danube. Certainly in the north we have
+the Elbe and the Dniester, and in the south several small rivers which
+enter the Adriatic Sea. But otherwise all the rivers of the monarchy
+belong to the Danube, and collect from all directions to the main
+stream. The Volga is the largest river of Europe and has its own sea,
+the Caspian. The Danube is the next largest and has also its sea, the
+Black Sea. Its source is also "black," for it takes its rise in the
+mountains of the Black Forest in Baden, and from source to mouth it is
+little short of 1800 miles.</p>
+
+<p>The Danube flows through Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary, forms the
+boundary between Rumania and Bulgaria, and touches a small corner of
+Russian territory. It has sixty great tributaries, of which more than
+half are navigable. Step by step the volume of the main stream is
+augmented. We can see that for ourselves on our way through Europe. At
+Budapest, which is cut in two by the river, and where five handsome
+bridges connect the banks, we seem almost to be on a lake. The Elizabeth
+Bridge has a span of 950 feet. Farther down, on the frontier of
+Wallachia, the river is nearly two-thirds of a mile wide; but here the
+current is slow; creeks of stagnant water are formed, and marshes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+extend far along the banks. And at the point where the Rumanian railway
+crosses the Danube, we find at Chernovodsk a bridge over the river which
+is nearly 2-1/2 miles long and is the longest in all the world. Not far
+from here the waters of the Danube part into three arms and form a broad
+delta at the mouth. There grow dense reeds, twice as high as a man, on
+which large herds of buffaloes graze, where wolves still seek their
+prey, and where water-fowl breed in millions. If we look carefully at
+the map, we shall see that Central Europe is occupied mostly by the
+Danube valley, and that this valley, with its extensive lowlands, is
+bounded by the best-known mountains of Europe; in the north by the
+mountains of South Germany and Bohemia and the Carpathians, in the south
+by the Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img002.jpg"  width="552" height="448" alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE.</h4>
+
+<p>From Budapest the train takes us over the Hungarian plain, a very
+singular country, like a trough, for it is surrounded by mountains on
+all sides. There is abundance of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> rain, especially up on the mountain
+slopes. The winter is cold and the summer warm, as is always the case in
+countries far removed from the sea. Dust and sand storms are common, and
+in some parts blown sand collects into dunes. Formerly the Hungarian
+lowland was a fertile steppe, where Magyar nomads roamed about on
+horseback and tended their cattle and their enormous flocks of sheep.
+But now agriculture is extended more and more. Wheat, rye, barley,
+maize, rice, potatoes, and wine are produced in such quantities that
+they are not only sufficient for the country's needs, but also maintain
+a considerable export trade. Round the villages and homesteads grow
+oaks, elms, lime-trees, and beeches; poplars and willows are widely
+distributed, for their light seeds are carried long distances by the
+wind. But in the large steppe districts where marshes are so common the
+people have no other fuel but reeds and dried dung.</p>
+
+<p>Cattle-raising has always been an important occupation in Hungary. The
+breed of cows, oxen, and buffaloes is continually being improved by
+judicious selection, and all kinds of sheep, goats, and pigs are kept in
+great numbers, while the rearing of fowls, bee-keeping, the production
+of silk from silkworms, and the fishing industry are also highly
+developed. To the nomads, who wander from one locality to another with
+their herds, horses are necessary, and it is therefore quite natural
+that Hungary should be rich in horses&mdash;splendid animals of mixed Tatar
+and Arabian blood.</p>
+
+<p>This country, where all wealth grows and thrives, and where the land,
+well and uniformly watered, contributes in such a high degree to the
+well-being of man, is flat and monotonous when viewed from the train. We
+see herds with their mounted herdsmen, we see villages, roads and
+cottages, but these do not give us any very clear conception of the
+country. Therefore it is advisable to spend a few hours in the
+agricultural exhibition at Budapest, where we can see the most
+attractive models illustrating Hungarian rural life, from pastures and
+farmyards to churned butter and manufactured cheeses, from the silk-worm
+in the chrysalis to the valuable silken web. We can see the life of
+farmers in the country homesteads, in simple reed huts or tents, the
+various crops they grow on their fields, the yellow honeycombs taken
+from the hives in autumn, tanned leather and the straps, saddles, and
+trunks that are made of it. We can see the weapons, implements, and
+spoil of the Hungarian hunter and fisherman, and when we come out of the
+last room we realise that this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> country is wisely and affectionately
+nursed by its people, and therefore gives profit and prosperity in
+exchange.</p>
+
+<p>With unabated speed the train rushes on over the plain, and at length
+rattles across a bridge over the Danube into Belgrade, the capital of
+Servia. Here we bid good-bye to the Danube and follow the Morava valley
+upwards. The Servian villages of low white houses, with pyramidal roofs
+of tiles or thatch, are very pretty and picturesquely built; and above
+them, green heights, wooded slopes, flocks and herds, and peasants in
+bright-coloured motley clothes following the plough. Small murmuring
+brooks dance in merry leaps down to the Morava, and the Morava itself
+flows to the Danube. We are still in the drainage basin of this river,
+and, when we have crossed the whole of Servia, passed over a flat
+mountain ridge and left Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, behind us and
+have come to another stream, even this is one of the affluents of the
+Danube.</p>
+
+<p>During a large part of our journey we are therefore strongly impressed
+by this mighty stream, and perceive that it is a condition of existence
+to whole peoples and States. Innumerable boats navigate its
+channel&mdash;from rowing-boats, ferries, and barges to steamers of heavy
+freight. They maintain communication between the series of towns with
+walls and houses reflected in the gliding water. Their wharves are
+frequently in connection with trains; and many railways have been built
+with an eye to the traffic on the Danube. In early times, when the
+migrations of people from the east streamed over Europe, the Danube
+valley was generally utilized; and still at the present day the river
+affords an advantageous channel of communication between the western and
+eastern parts of the Continent.</p>
+
+<p>Night jealously conceals from our eyes the kingdom of Bulgaria, as we
+travel through its southern part along the river Maritza, which flows
+southwards. We do not leave its valley until we are beyond the Turkish
+frontier and Adrianople. Here we are in the broadest part of the Balkan
+Peninsula; and amidst the regular swaying of the train we lie thinking
+of the famous Balkan lands which extend to the south&mdash;Albania, with its
+warlike people among its mountains and dales; Macedonia, the country of
+Alexander the Great; Greece, in ancient times the centre of learning and
+art. When day dawns we are in Turkey, and the sun is high when the train
+comes to a standstill in Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Constantinople</span></h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate2.jpg"  width="550" height="334" alt="PLATE II." title="" /></div>
+<h4>PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE.</h4>
+
+<p>From the highest platform of the lofty tower which rises from the square
+in the centre of the promontory of Stambul a wonderful view can be
+obtained of the city and its surroundings&mdash;a singular blending of great
+masses of houses and glittering sheets of blue water. Stambul is the
+Turkish quarter. It consists of a sea of closely-built wooden houses of
+many colours. Out of the confusion rise the graceful spires of minarets
+and the round domes of mosques (Plate II.). Just below your feet is the
+great bazaar&mdash;the merchants' town; and farther off is St. Sophia, the
+principal mosque. Like Rome, the city is built on seven hills. In the
+valleys between, shady trees and gardens have found a site. Far to the
+west are seen the towers on the old wall of Stambul.</p>
+<p><a name="CONSTANTINOPLE" id="CONSTANTINOPLE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img003.jpg"  width="550" height="372" alt="PLAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE.</h4>
+
+<p>Before you to the north, on the point of a blunt promontory, stand the
+two quarters called Galata and Pera. There Europeans dwell, and there
+are found Greeks and Italians, Jews and Armenians, and other men of
+races living in the adjacent countries&mdash;in the Balkan Peninsula, in Asia
+Minor and Caucasia.</p>
+
+<p>Between this blunt peninsula and Stambul an inlet runs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> north-westwards
+deep into the land. Its name is the Golden Horn, and over its water
+priceless treasures have from time immemorial been transported in ships.</p>
+
+<p>Turn to the north-east. There you see a sound varying little in breadth.
+Its surface is as blue as sapphire, its shores are crowned by a whole
+chaplet of villages and white villas among luxuriant groves. This sound
+is the Bosporus, and through it is the way to the Black Sea. Due east,
+on the other side of the Bosporus, Scutari rises from the shore to the
+top of low hills. Scutari is the third of the three main divisions of
+Constantinople. You stand in Europe and look over the great city
+intersected by broad waterways and almost forget that Scutari is
+situated in Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Turn to the south. Before your eyes lies the Sea of Marmora, a curious
+sheet of water which is neither a lake nor a sea, neither a bay nor a
+sound. It is a link between the Black and Aegean Seas, connected by the
+Bosporus with the former, and by the Dardanelles, the Hellespont, with
+the latter. The Sea of Marmora is 130 miles long. Seven miles to the
+south the Princes' Islands float on the water like airy gardens, and
+beyond in the blue distance are seen the mountains of Asia Minor.</p>
+
+<p>You will acknowledge that this view is very wonderful. Your eyes wander
+over two continents and two seas. You are in Europe, but on the
+threshold of Asia; and when you look down on the Turks swarming below,
+and at the graceful white boats darting across the sound, you may almost
+fancy that you are in Asia rather than in Europe. You will also notice
+that this fairway is an important trade route. Innumerable vessels pass
+daily through the Bosporus to the coasts of Bulgaria, Rumania, Russia,
+and Asia Minor, and as many out through the Dardanelles to Greece and
+the Archipelago and to the coasts of the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>Close beneath you all the colours and outlines are distinct. The water
+of the Bosporus is vividly blue, and the villas dazzlingly white. On the
+Asiatic side stand woods of dark-green cypresses, and outside the
+western wall Turks slumber in the deepest shade; cypresses, indeed, are
+the watchmen of the dead. And all round the horizon this charming
+landscape passes into fainter and lighter tones, light-blue and grey.
+You cannot perceive clearly where the land ends and sea and sky begin.
+But here and there the white wings of a sailing vessel flutter or a
+slight puff of smoke floats above a steamer.</p>
+
+<p>A continuous murmur reaches your ears. It is not wind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> nor the song of
+waves. It is the combined voice of nature and human labour. It is like
+the buzzing round a beehive. Now and then you distinguish the cry of a
+porter, the bell of a tramcar, the whistle of a steamer, or the bark of
+a dog. But, as a rule, all melt together into a single sound. It is the
+ceaseless noise that always hovers over the chimneys of a great city.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Church of the Divine Wisdom</span></h3>
+
+<p>Let us now go down to the great mosque on the point. On the top of the
+principal dome we see a huge gilded crescent. This has glittered up
+there for 450 years, but previously the cupola was adorned by the
+Christian Cross. How came the change about?</p>
+
+<p>Let us imagine that we are standing outside the church and let the year
+be 548 A.D. One of the finest temples of Christendom has just been
+completed by the first architect of his time from Asia Minor. The work
+has occupied sixteen years, and ten thousand workmen have been
+constantly engaged at it. But now it is finished at last, and the Church
+of the Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, is to be consecrated to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The great Emperor of the Byzantine realm, Justinian, drives up in a
+chariot drawn by four horses. He enters the temple attended by the
+Patriarch of Constantinople. The building is as large as a market-place,
+and the beautiful dome, round as the vault of heaven, is 180 feet above
+the floor. Justinian looks around and is pleased with his work. The
+great men of the church and empire, clad in costly robes, salute him. He
+examines the variegated marble which covers the walls, he admires the
+artistically arranged mosaic on the gold groundwork of the dome, he is
+amazed at the hundred columns which support the cupolas and galleries,
+some of dark-green marble, others of dark-red porphyry. The Emperor's
+wealth is inexhaustible. Has he not presented to the church seven
+crosses of gold, each weighing a hundred pounds? Does not the Church of
+the Divine Wisdom possess forty thousand chalice veils all embroidered
+with pearls and precious stones? Are there not in the sacristy
+twenty-four Bibles, which in their gold-studded cases weigh two hundred
+pounds each? Are not pictures of the Redeemer, of the Mother of God, of
+angels, prophets and evangelists suspended between the twelve columns of
+solid silver which are the Holy of Holies in the temple? Are not the
+faithful moved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> to tears at the sight of the crucifix and at the
+remembrance that the gilded cross of silver is an exact copy of that
+which, more than five hundred years ago, was set up by Roman barbarians
+at Jerusalem?</p>
+
+<p>Justinian turns round and examines the panels of the three doors which
+are said to have been made of wood from Noah's ark. The doors of the
+main entrance are of solid silver, the others are beautifully inlaid
+with cedar-wood, ivory, and amber. Above his head silver chandeliers
+swing in chains; some of them form together a cross, and are a symbol of
+the light of heaven hovering over the darkness of earthly life. The
+vault is flooded with light; and in the mosaic he sees the meek saints
+kneeling before God in silent supplication. Below the vault he sees the
+four cherubims with two pairs of wings. He thinks of the first chapter
+of Ezekiel: "And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the
+living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal ... and I
+heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters." He also
+calls to mind the book of Exodus, ch. xxxvii.: "Even to the
+mercy-seatward were the faces of the cherubims." It was the same here in
+his own church.</p>
+
+<p>Inspired by humility before God and pride before his fellowmen, the
+Emperor Justinian moves to his prie-dieu. He falls on his knees and
+exclaims: "God be praised who has thought me worthy to bring such a work
+to completion! I have surpassed thee, O Solomon."</p>
+
+<p>Then the pipes and drums strike up, and the glad songs of the people
+echo among the houses, which are decorated by webs of costly brocade
+hanging from the windows. The festival is prolonged for fourteen days;
+casksful of silver coins are distributed among the multitude, and the
+Emperor feasts the whole city.</p>
+
+<p>Then follow new centuries and new generations in the footsteps of the
+old. The bones of Christians moulder under the grave mounds, but still
+the temple remains as before. There priests and patriarchs and fathers
+of the Church assemble to Church Councils, and the great festivals of
+the year are celebrated under its vault. Nearly a thousand years of the
+stream of time have passed away, and we come to May 29, 1453.</p>
+
+<p>May is a fine month in Constantinople. The summer is in all its glory,
+the gardens are gorgeous in their fresh verdure, the clear waters of the
+Bosporus glitter like brightly polished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> metal. But what a day of
+humiliation and terror was this day of May, 1453! In the early morning
+tidings of misfortune were disseminated among the citizens. The Turkish
+Sultan had stormed in through the walls with his innumerable troops.
+Beside themselves with fright, men, women, and children fled to St.
+Sophia, leaving their homes and goods to be plundered. A hundred
+thousand persons rushed in and locked and barred all the church doors
+behind them. They trusted that the conqueror would not dare to desecrate
+so holy a place. Abashed before the holiness of God, he would bow down
+in the dust and leave them in peace. And according to a prophecy the
+angel of God would descend from heaven in the hour of need and rescue
+the church and the city.</p>
+
+<p>The Christians waited, praying and trembling. Then the wild fanfares of
+the Mohammedan trumpets were heard from the nearest hills. Piercing
+cries of anguish echoed from the vaulting, mothers pressed their
+children to their hearts, husbands and wives embraced each other, galley
+slaves with chains still on their wrists tried to hide themselves in the
+darkness behind the pillars.</p>
+
+<p>The axes of the Mohammedans ring against the doors. Splinters of costly
+wood fly before the blows. Here a gate cracks, there another is broken
+in. The janissaries rush in, thirsting for blood. The Prophet has
+commanded that his doctrines shall be spread over the earth by fire and
+sword. They are only too ready to obey this order. Already steeped in
+blood from the combat outside the walls, they continue to gather in the
+harvest with dripping scimitars. The defenceless are fastened together
+with chains and driven out like cattle.</p>
+
+<p>Then comes the turn of the holy edifice. The mosaics are hacked to
+pieces with swords and lances, the costly altar-cloths are taken from
+their store-room, the church is plundered of its gold and silver, and
+rows of camels and mules are led in on to the temple floor to be laden
+with the immense treasures. Full of fanatical religious hatred, swarms
+of black-bearded Turks rush up to the figure of the crucified Redeemer.
+A Mohammedan presses his janissary's cap over the crown of thorns. The
+image is carried with wild shrieks round the church, and presumptuous
+voices call out scornfully, "Here you see the God of the Christians."</p>
+
+<p>At the high altar a Greek bishop stood in pontifical robes and read mass
+over the Christians in a loud and clear voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> His voice never trembled
+for a moment. He wished to give his flock heavenly consolation in
+earthly troubles. At last he remained alone. Then he broke off the mass
+in the middle of a sentence, took the chalice, and ascended the steps
+leading to the upper galleries. The Turks caught sight of him and rushed
+after him like hungry hy&aelig;nas.</p>
+
+<p>He is already up in the gallery. He is surrounded on all sides by
+soldiers with drawn swords and lowered spears. Next moment he must fall
+dead over the communion chalice. No escape, no rescue is possible.
+Before him stands the grey stone wall.</p>
+
+<p>But, lo! a door opens in the wall, and when the bishop has gone in the
+wall closes up again. The soldiers stand still in astonishment. Then
+they begin to attack the wall with spears and axes. But it is no use.
+They renew their efforts, but still in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Four centuries and a half have passed since then, and still the Greeks
+cherish a blind faith that the day will come when St. Sophia will be
+restored to Christian uses, when the wall will open again and the bishop
+will walk out with the chalice in his hand. Calm and dignified he will
+descend the stairs, cross the church, and mount up to the high altar to
+continue the mass from the point where he was interrupted by the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>Let us return to the savage soldiery. All the doors stand open, and the
+midday sun shines in through the arched windows. The pillage and tumult
+have reached their height when a fiery horse carries a rider up to the
+main entrance. He is attended by Mohammedan princes, generals, and
+pashas.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> His name is Mohammed II., the Conqueror, the Sultan of the
+Turks. He is young and proud and has a will of iron, but he is solemn
+and melancholy. He dismounts and passes on foot over this floor, over
+the marble slabs trodden a thousand years ago by the Emperor Justinian.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing he sees is a janissary maliciously aiming his axe at the
+marble pavement. The Sultan goes up to him and asks, "Why?" "In the
+cause of the faith," answers the soldier. Then the Sultan draws his
+sabre, and, cutting the man down, exclaims, "Dogs, have you not loot
+enough? The buildings of the city are my property." And, kicking the
+dying man aside, he ascends a Christian pulpit, and in a thundering
+voice dedicates the Church of the Holy Wisdom to Islam.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Four and a half centuries have passed down the stream of time since the
+day when the cross was removed and the crescent raised its horn above
+the Church of the Holy Wisdom. The Turks have erected four minarets
+round the dome, and every evening from the platforms of these minarets
+sounds the voice of the muezzin, summoning the faithful to prayer. He
+wears a white turban and a long mantle down to his feet. To all four
+quarters of the city the call rings out with long, silvery <i>a</i>-sounds
+and full, liquid <i>l</i>'s: "God is great (four times repeated). I bear
+witness that there is no god but God (twice repeated). I bear witness
+that Mohammed is the Apostle of God (twice repeated). Come to prayers!
+Come to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great.
+There is no god but God."</p>
+
+<p>Now the sun sinks below the horizon, and a cannon shot thunders forth.
+We are in the month of fasting, during which the Mohammedans do not eat,
+drink, or smoke each day so long as the sun is up. Thus the Prophet
+commands in the Koran, their holy book. The firing of the gun proclaims
+the end of the fast for to-day, and when the faithful have refreshed
+themselves with the smoking rissoles and rice puddings, or fruit,
+coffee, and water-pipes which stand ready, they turn their steps to the
+old Church of the Divine Wisdom, which still retains its Greek name.
+Round the minarets thousands of lamps are lighted, and between the
+towers the sacred names hang in flaming lights. Inside the mosque, on
+chains fifty feet long, hang chandeliers, full of innumerable oil-lamps
+in small round glass bowls, and on extended lines hang other lamps as
+close as the beads of a rosary. The floor of the mosque is a sea of
+light, but the interior of the dome is hid in gloom. Huge green shields
+affixed to the columns bear in golden letters the names of Allah,
+Mohammed and the saints, and the characters are thirty feet high.</p>
+
+<p>The faithful have already filled the floor, which is covered with straw
+matting. Shoes must be left outside on entering the mosque, and a man
+must wash his arms, hands, and face before he goes in. Now the Turks
+stand in long rows, white and green turbans and red fezes with black
+tassels all mixed together. All turn their faces towards Mecca. All
+hands go up together to the height of the face and are stretched out
+flat, the thumbs touching the tip of the ear. Then they bend the body
+forward, resting their hands on their knees. Next they fall on their
+knees and touch the floor with their fore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>heads. "Prayer is the key to
+Paradise," says the Koran, and every section of the prayer requires a
+certain posture.</p>
+
+<p>A priest stands in a pulpit and breaks in on the solemn silence with his
+clear musical voice. The last word dies away on his lips, but the echo
+lingers long in the dome, hovering like a restless spirit among the
+statues of the cherubim.</p>
+
+<p>Among us at home there are people who are ashamed of going to church. A
+Mohammedan may neglect his religious duties, but he always regards it as
+an honour to fulfil them. When we come to Persia or Turkestan we shall
+often see a caravan leader leave his camels in the middle of the march,
+spread out his prayer-mat on the ground, and recite his prayers. They do
+not do it thoughtlessly or slovenly: you might yell in the ear of a
+Mohammedan at prayer and he would take no notice.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no god but God!" The words sound like a trumpet-blast, as a
+summons over boundless regions of the Old World. From its cradle in
+Arabia, Islam has spread over all the west and centre of Asia, over the
+southern parts of the continent, over certain regions in south-eastern
+Europe, and over half Africa. It is no wonder that Mohammedan
+missionaries find it easy to convert the blacks of Africa. Mohammed
+promises them Paradise after death, and Paradise is only a continuation
+of worldly pleasures&mdash;a place where the blessed dwell under palms which
+continually bear fruit, where clear springs leap forth, and where flutes
+and stringed instruments make music in eternal summer.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Bazaars of Stambul</span></h3>
+
+<p>As a child Fatima Hanum played in one of the narrow streets of Stambul.
+When she was old enough, her parents betrothed and married her to Emin
+Effendi, the son of an influential pasha. She knew little of him beyond
+that he was rich and was considered a good match. His house was situated
+in one of the larger streets of Scutari, and consisted of two wings
+completely cut off from each other. In the one the husband had his
+apartments, in the other lived the women. For Fatima is not alone; her
+husband has three other wives, and all four have male and female slaves
+who guard them strictly.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Fatima is thus unfortunate from the first. She cannot live happily
+with a man whose affection is not hers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> alone, and it is difficult for
+her to live in peace with the three other women who have the same rights
+as herself. Her life is empty and wearisome, and her days are passed in
+idleness. For hours she stands behind the lattice in the oriel window
+which projects over the street and watches the movement going on below.
+When she is tired of this she goes in again. Her room is not large. In
+the middle splashes a small fountain. Round the walls extend divans. She
+sinks moodily on to one of them and calls a female slave, who brings a
+small table, more like a stool. Fatima rolls a cigarette, and with
+dreamy eyes watches the blue rings as they rise to the ceiling. Again
+she calls the slave. A bowl of sweets is brought, she yawns, takes a bit
+of sweetmeat, and throws herself on the soft cushions.</p>
+
+<p>Then she drinks a glass of lemonade and crosses the room to a leather
+trunk, which she unlocks. In the trunk lie her ornaments: bracelets of
+gold, pearl necklaces, earrings of turquoise, and many cloths of
+coloured silk. She puts a necklace round her neck, adorns her fingers
+with rings, and winds thin silken veils round her head. When she is
+ready she goes up to the mirror and admires her own beauty. She is
+really handsome. Her skin is white and soft, her eyes are black, her
+hair falls in dark waves over her shoulders. She is not pleased with the
+colour of her lips. The slave brings out a small pot of porcelain and
+with a pencil paints Fatima's lips redder than the coral which the Hindu
+dealers sell in the bazaar. Then the eyebrows are not dark enough, so
+they are blackened with Indian ink.</p>
+
+<p>When Fatima is tired of examining her own features in the mirror she
+puts back her ornaments into the chest and locks it securely. A
+staircase leads down from her room to the garden. There she saunters for
+a time, enjoying the perfume of roses and jasmine, and stands before the
+cage of singing birds to amuse herself with them. One of the other wives
+comes down to the harem garden and calls out to her: "You are as ugly as
+a monkey, Fatima; you are old and wrinkled and your eyes are red. Not a
+man in all Stambul would care to look at you." Fatima answers: "If Emin
+Effendi had not been tired of you, old moth-eaten parrot, he would not
+have brought me to his harem." And then she hurries up to her room again
+to ask the mirror if it is true that her eyes are red.</p>
+
+<p>In order to forget her vexation she decides to go over to the great
+bazaar in Stambul. The slave envelops her in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> voluminous <i>kaftan</i><a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+in which her white hands with yellow-stained nails disappear among the
+folds. She slips into her shoes, which are like slippers with turned-up
+points, and puts on the most important garment of all&mdash;the veil. Its
+upper part covers the head and the forehead down to the eyebrows, while
+the lower part hangs down over the chin, mouth, and part of the nose. A
+woman does not show her face to any man but her husband. Of late years
+many women transgress this rule and let the lower part of the veil fall
+so low that most of the face is seen. Fatima, however, does not go with
+the new fashion. She shows only her eyes, but her glances are enough to
+let the man in the street perceive that she is beautiful. None of them
+is so impertinent as to look at her or speak to her. Only Europeans she
+meets turn round.</p>
+
+<p>The slave does not go with her. She stops at the quay where the
+<i>caiques</i>, or long rowing-boats, lie. The boatmen rise and scream
+together. Each one extols with words and gestures the excellences of his
+boat. She makes her choice, and steps in and sits down on the cushions.
+The <i>caique</i> is narrow and sharp as a canoe, painted white, with a gold
+border on the gunwale. Two powerful men take their oars, and the
+<i>caique</i> darts over the blue waters of the Bosporus. Half-way between
+Scutari and Stambul, Fatima looks eagerly down the Sea of Marmora. She
+longs for an hour of freedom, and orders the boatmen to change the
+direction. The wind is fresh, so they pull in their oars and hoist the
+sail, and the boat glides southward at a rapid pace. But Fatima is
+capricious, and is soon tired of the Sea of Marmora, and orders the men
+to steer to the nearest quay in Stambul. She gives them two silver
+coins, which they take without a word of thanks or civility. She hastens
+up to the great bazaar and steps from the hot sunlight of the streets
+into cool shade and gloom.</p>
+
+<p>For the bazaars are like tunnels. They are streets and lanes covered
+with vaults of stone, where daylight penetrates sparingly through the
+cupolas in the roof. Here the heat of summer is not felt, and you can
+walk dry-shod on stormy and rainy days. You are soon accustomed to the
+darkness, but have great difficulty in finding the way unless you have
+been born in Stambul and have often passed through this labyrinth. The
+passages are quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> narrow, but yet wide enough to allow <i>droshkies</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+and carts to pass through.</p>
+
+<p>The bazaar, then, is an underground town in itself, a town of tradesmen
+and artisans. On either side of every street is an endless row of small
+open shops, the floors of which are raised a little above the level of
+the street, and serve also as counters or show stands. The shops are not
+mixed up together, but each industry, each class of goods, has its own
+street. In the shoemakers' street, for example, shoes of all kinds are
+set out, but the most common are slippers of yellow and red leather,
+embroidered and stitched with gold, for men, women, and children, for
+rich and poor. For a long distance you can see nothing but slippers and
+shoes right and left.</p>
+
+<p>You are very glad when the shoe department comes to an end and you come
+to a large street where rich shopkeepers sell brocades of silver, gold,
+and silk. It is best not to take much money with you to this street, or
+you will be tempted to buy everything you see. Here lie mats from
+Persia, embroidered silken goods from India, shawls from Kashmir, and
+the finest work of southern Asia and northern Africa. Poor Fatima! Her
+husband is wealthy enough, but he has no mind to let her scatter his
+money about in the great bazaar. With sad looks she gazes at the
+turquoises from Nishapur, the rubies from Badakshan, the pearls from the
+coast of Bahrein, and the corals from the Indian Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>When she has spent all the silver coins she has with her, she turns to
+leave, but it is a long way to the entrances of the bazaar. She passes
+through the street of the metalworkers and turns off at the armourers'
+lane. There the noise is deafening: sledge hammers and mallets hammer
+and beat, for the shops of the bazaar are workshops as well.</p>
+
+<p>Again she turns a corner. Evidently she has lost her way, for she stands
+and looks about in all directions. She has now come to a passage where
+water-pipes and all articles connected with smoking are sold. Then she
+turns in another direction. An odour tells her a long distance off that
+she is coming to the street of spice-dealers. She has to ask her way
+almost at every step.</p>
+
+<p>Not only in Constantinople but in all parts of the Turkish Empire, and
+all over the Mohammedan world, goods are bought and sold in these
+half-dark tunnels which are called bazaars. It is the same in the
+Mohammedan towns of North<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> Africa, in Arabia, Asia Minor, Persia,
+Caucasia, Afghanistan, India, and Turkestan. Wherever minarets rise
+above the dwellings of men and the muezzin sings out his everlasting
+"There is no god but God," the exchange of wares and coin is carried on
+in dark bazaars. The great bazaar in Stambul is one of the richest, but
+even where the bazaars are small and insignificant the same order
+prevails, the same mode of life. Among Turkish men and women of high
+rank stroll poor ragamuffins and dervishes or begging monks. A caravan
+of camels moves slowly through the crowd, bringing fresh supplies to the
+tradesmen from a steamboat quay or from the railway station. The camels
+have scarcely disappeared in the darkness before a train of mules with
+heavy bales follows in their track. A loud-voiced man offers for sale
+grapes and melons he carries in a basket, while another bears a
+water-bottle of leather.</p>
+
+<p>And all the races which swarm here! The great majority are, of course,
+Turks, but we also see whole rows of shops where only Persians trade. We
+see Hindus from India, Egyptians from Cairo, Arabs from the coasts of
+the Red Sea, Circassians and Tatars from the Caucasus and the Crimea,
+Sarts from Samarkand and Bokhara, Armenians, Jews, and Greeks, and not
+infrequently we meet a negro from Zanzibar or a Chinaman from the
+farthest East.</p>
+
+<p>It is a confusion of shopmen and customers, brokers and thieves from all
+the East. A noise and bustle, a deafening roar which never ceases all
+day long, a hurrying, a striving and eagerness to clear the stock and
+gain money. If the prices were fixed, business would soon be done. But
+if you have taken a fancy to a Kurdish mat and ask the price, the
+tradesman demands a quite absurd sum. You shrug your shoulders and go
+your way. He calls out another, lower price. You go on quietly, and the
+man comes running after you and has dropped his price to the lowest. In
+every shop bargains are made vociferously in the same way. There is a
+continual buzz of voices, now and then interrupted by the bells of
+caravans.</p>
+
+<p>The illumination is dim. The noonday sun penetrates only through
+openings in the vault and forms patches of light. Dust floats about in
+the shafts of light, mixed with smoke from water-pipes. The greater the
+distance the dimmer this confined air appears. There is also an
+indescribable odour. The smell of men and animals, of dusty goods, of
+rank tobacco, of rotting refuse, strong spices, fresh, juicy fruit&mdash;all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+mixed together into a peculiar odour which is characteristic of all
+Oriental bazaars.</p>
+
+<p>The bazaar of Stambul contains a great deal besides. On the northern
+side is a line of old caravanserais, massive stone buildings of several
+storeys, with galleries, passages, and rooms, and with a large open
+court in the centre. Here resort the wholesale merchants, and here are
+their warehouses and stocks. Lastly, caf&eacute;s and eating-houses are found
+in the tunnelled streets, baths and small oratories, so that a man can
+pass his whole day in the bazaar without needing to go home. He can
+obtain all he wants in the vicinity of his shop.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Pasha" is an honorary title given to officials of high
+rank in Turkey and Egypt, as to governors of provinces, military
+commanders, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A garment worn throughout the Levant, consisting of a long
+gown fastened by a girdle and having sleeves reaching below the hands.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> A "droshky" is a low, four-wheeled, open carriage, plying
+for hire. The word is Russian.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h2>CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN (1905)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Black Sea</span></h3>
+
+<p>Attended by the <i>cavass</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> of the Swedish Embassy, old Ali, I drove
+down to the quay on a fresh, sunny October morning, loaded all my boxes
+on board a <i>caique</i>, and was rowed by four men out to the Bosporus
+between anchored sailing vessels, steamers, and yachts. On arriving at
+the gangway of a large Russian steamer, I waited until all my luggage
+was safe on board and then followed it.</p>
+
+<p>The anchor is weighed, the propeller begins to turn, and the vessel
+steers a course northwards through the Bosporus. With my field-glasses I
+settle down on a bench in the stern and take farewell of the Turkish
+capital. How grand, how unforgettable is this scene! The white, graceful
+minarets shoot up to heaven from the sea of houses, and the
+cypresses&mdash;tall, grave, and straight as kings&mdash;also seem to point out to
+the children of earth the way to Paradise. Everywhere the houses mount
+up the hills, ranged like the rows of seats in a theatre. The whole is
+like a gigantic circus with an auditorium for more than a million Turks,
+and the arena is the blue water of the Bosporus.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer carries us away relentlessly from this charming picture. As
+dreams fade away in the night, so the white city is concealed by the
+first promontories. Then I change my place and look ahead. Perhaps the
+view is even more beautiful in this direction. The sound is like a river
+between steep, rocky shores, but in the mouth of every valley, and
+wherever the margin of the shore is flat, stand white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> villas and
+mansions, villages, walls and ruins, gardens and groves. The Bosporus is
+barely twenty miles long. In some places its breadth is less than a
+third of a mile, in others two-thirds. Old plane-trees spread their
+crowns over fresh meadows, and laurels, chestnuts, walnuts, and oaks
+afford deep shade. White dolphins skim along the water, and a school of
+porpoises follows in the wake of the boat, waiting for the refuse from
+the cook's galley. They are dark, soft, and smooth, their backs shining
+like metal, and they can easily be seen several feet below the surface.
+A single flap of the tail fin gives them a tremendous impulse, and they
+come up to the surface like arrows discharged by the gods of the sea,
+and describe beautiful somersaults among the waves. They could easily
+overtake us if they liked, but they content themselves with following
+close behind us hour after hour.</p>
+
+<p>To the left we have the European coast, to the right the Asiatic. The
+distance is always so small that the Europeans can hear the bark of the
+Asiatic dogs. Here is Terapia, with the summer villas of Christians and
+the ambassadors' palaces. Turkish coffee-houses are erected on the
+shore, and their balconies hang over the water. Farther on there is a
+large valley with an ancient plane-tree with seven trunks which are
+called "the seven brothers." According to tradition Godfrey de Bouillon
+with his crusaders reposed under its shade in the winter of 1096-1097,
+when he marched to recover the holy sepulchre and win the sounding title
+of "King of Jerusalem."</p>
+
+<p>Now the channel widens out and the coasts of the two continents diverge
+from each other. We see the horizon of the Black Sea opening before us,
+and the vessel begins to pitch. Lighthouses stand on either side of the
+entrance, which is commanded by batteries high above it. We roll out
+into the sea, and half an hour later we can hardly see the break in the
+coast-line which marks the end of the Bosporus.</p>
+
+<p>We make straight for Sebastopol, near the southernmost point of the
+Crimea. This is the station of the Russian Black Sea fleet, but the
+Russians have little pride in it, for the Turks control the passage to
+the Mediterranean, and without the consent of the other great Powers the
+Russian warships cannot pass through. The Black Sea is, of course, open
+to the mercantile vessels of all nations.</p>
+
+<p>You know, of course, that Europe has four landlocked seas, the Baltic,
+the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian Seas. The Baltic is enclosed
+all round by European coasts;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> the Black and Caspian Seas belong to both
+Europe and Asia; while the Mediterranean lies between the three
+continents of the Old World&mdash;Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now the Baltic,
+Black, and Caspian Seas are of about the same size, each having an area
+about three times that of England and Wales. The Baltic is connected
+with the Atlantic by several sounds between the Danish islands and
+Scania. The Black Sea has only one outlet, the Bosporus. The Caspian Sea
+has no outlet at all, and is really a lake.</p>
+
+<p>The Baltic is very shallow, its maximum depth, south-east of the
+Landsort lighthouse, being 250 fathoms. Next comes the Caspian Sea with
+a depth of 600 fathoms. The singular feature of this, the largest lake
+in the world, is that its surface lies 85 feet below that of the Black
+Sea. This last is the deepest of the three, for in it a sounding of 1230
+fathoms has been taken.</p>
+
+<p>All three seas are salt, the Baltic least and the Caspian most. Four
+great rivers enter the Black Sea, the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, and
+Don. It therefore receives large volumes of fresh water. But along the
+bottom of the Bosporus an undercurrent of salt water passes into the
+Black Sea, which is compensated for by a surface stream of less salt and
+therefore lighter water flowing to the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>The Black Sea is not blacker than any other sea, nor is the White Sea
+white, the Yellow Sea yellow, or the Red Sea red. And so no faith should
+be accorded to the story of a captain in the Mediterranean who wished to
+sail to the Red Sea but went to the Black Sea&mdash;because he was
+colour-blind!</p>
+
+<p>But now we can continue our heaving course, still accompanied by
+dolphins and porpoises. We look in at the harbour of Sebastopol, we
+anchor in open roadsteads off Caucasian towns, we moor our cables to the
+rings on the quay of Batum, and finally drop our anchor for the last
+time at a short distance from the coast of Asia Minor.</p>
+
+<p>Proud and bright, with forest-clad heights in the background, Trebizond
+bathes in the rays of the midday sun. Small rowing-boats come out from
+the land to take passengers and goods to the quay. The Turkish boatmen
+scream all together, but no one listens to them. Every one is glad to be
+landed safe and sound with his baggage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Trebizond to Teheran</span></h3>
+
+<p>Trebizond was a Greek colony seven hundred years before the birth of
+Christ, and from time immemorial Persian trade has made its way to the
+Black Sea by the road which still runs through Tabriz to Teheran, a
+distance of 800 miles. This traffic is now on the decline, for modern
+means of communication have taken the place of the old caravans, and
+most of their trade has been diverted to the Suez Canal and the
+Caucasian railways. Many large caravans, however, still journey to and
+fro along this road, which is so well made that one can drive not only
+to Tabriz, but still further to Teheran. It may, indeed, be softened by
+autumn rains or frozen hard on the high plateaus of Turkish Armenia, and
+the speed is not great when the same horses have to be used for
+distances of 160 miles.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lively cavalcade that pounded and rattled over the Turkish and
+Persian roads in November, 1905. I was by no means alone. The Governors
+of Trebizond and Erzerum were so good as to provide me with an escort of
+six armed troopers on sturdy horses. In front rides a Turkish soldier on
+a piebald horse, carrying his carbine in a sling over his back, his
+sabre and dagger hanging at his side, and wearing a red fez with a white
+<i>pagri</i><a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> wound round it as a protection from sun and wind. Then I come
+in my carriage, drawn by three horses. Old Shakir, the coachman, is
+already my friend; it is he who prepares my meals and looks after me
+generally. I am well wrapped up in a Caucasian cloak, with a
+<i>bashlik</i><a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> over my cap, and lean back comfortably and look at the
+country as we drive along. Behind the carriage ride two soldiers on
+brown horses, engaged in a lively conversation and wondering whether
+they will be well tipped. Then come two clumsy carts, on which all my
+baggage is firmly secured. They have their own drivers and men, and are
+escorted by three troopers.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner I travelled from Trebizond to Teheran. To the ceaseless
+rattle of the wheels and the heavy tramp of the horses' hoofs, I plunged
+day by day deeper into Asia. Soon the blue expanse of the Black Sea
+passed out of sight, as the road with many steep and sudden bends wound
+up to the top of a pass. On the other side it descended with as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> many
+windings to the bottom of a valley. And thus we went up and down till we
+were up at length on the level Armenian tableland.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/img004.jpg"><img src="images/img004-tb.jpg"  width="345" height="550" alt="LATTER PART OF JOURNEY TO BAKU" title="" /></a></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING (<i>a</i>) JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN
+(pp. <a href='#Page_26'><b>26-33</b></a>); (<i>b</i>) LATTER PART OF JOURNEY TO BAKU (pp. <a href='#Page_34'><b>34-35</b></a>); AND (<i>c</i>)
+JOURNEY FROM BAKU ACROSS PERSIA TO BAGHDAD AND BACK TO TEHERAN (pp.
+<a href='#Page_37'><b>37-45</b></a>).</h4>
+
+<p>Here there is a complete change. During the first days after leaving the
+coast, we had driven through a beautiful and constantly changing
+landscape. We had passed through woods of coniferous trees and among
+rustling foliage of yellow leaves. Sometimes we had been hundreds of
+feet above an abyss, at the foot of which a bluish-green stream foamed
+between rounded rocks. Beside the road we had seen rows of villages and
+farms, with houses and verandahs of wood, where Turks sat comfortably in
+their shops and caf&eacute;s; and we had met many small caravans of horses,
+asses, and oxen carrying hay, fruit, and bricks between the villages. We
+always began our day's march in the early morning, for the nights were
+mild and the sun had scarcely risen before it felt pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>But up here on the plateau it is different. No firs adorn the mountain
+flanks, no foliaged trees throw their shade over the road. No creaking
+carts, laden with timber and drawn by buffaloes and oxen, enliven the
+way. The villages are scattered, and the houses are low cabins of stone
+or sun-dried clay. The Turkish population is blended with Armenians. The
+road becomes worse and more neglected as the traffic falls off. The air
+is cool, and there are several degrees of frost in the night.</p>
+
+<p>When we have passed Erzerum, where the Christian churches of the
+Armenians stand side by side with the mosques of the Turks, we journey,
+as it were, on a flat roof sloping down slightly on three sides, each
+with a gutter leading into its own water-butt. These water-butts are the
+Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and they are always
+big enough to hold all the water, however hard it may rain on the stony
+roof which rises between Caucasia, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia. The
+gutters are, of course, the rivers, the greatest of which is the
+Euphrates.</p>
+
+<p>Now the road is very bad. There has been rain in the autumn; and now
+that it is freezing, the mud, all cut up by deep wheel-ruts, is as hard
+as stone. My vehicle shakes and jolts me hither and thither and up and
+down, and when we arrive at the village where we are to pass the night,
+I feel bruised all over. Shakir makes tea and boils eggs, and after
+supper I roll myself in my cloak and go to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>It is pitch-dark when I am called, and still dark when we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> make a start
+by the light of lanterns. After a little a curious sound is heard across
+the plain. The clang becomes louder, coming nearer to us, and tall, dark
+ghosts pass by with silent steps. Only bells are heard. The ghosts are
+camels coming from Persia with carpets, cotton, and fruit. There are
+more than three hundred of them, and it is a long time before the road
+is clear again. And all the time there is a ringing as from a chime of
+bells.</p>
+
+<p>For many thousands of years the same sound has been heard on the caravan
+routes. It is the same with the roar of the waters of the Euphrates and
+Tigris. Mighty powers have flourished and passed away on their banks,
+whole peoples have died out, of Babylon and Nineveh only ruins are left;
+but the waters of the rivers murmur just the same, and the caravan bells
+ring now as in the days when Alexander led the Macedonian army over the
+Euphrates and Tigris, when the Venetian merchant Marco Polo travelled
+620 years ago between Tabriz and Trebizond by the road we are now
+driving along, when Timur the Lame defeated the Turks and by this road
+carried the Sultan Bayazid in an iron cage to exhibit him like a wild
+beast in the towns of Asia.</p>
+
+<p>A white morning cloud seems to be floating over the grey mountains to
+the east, but when the sun rises it is seen to be a cone as regular as
+the roof of an Armenian church. It is the snow-capped top of Mount
+Ararat, where the ark landed when the great flood went down. The summit
+is always covered with snow, for the mountain is a thousand feet higher
+than Mont Blanc.</p>
+
+<p>Now we are not far from the frontier, where Kurdish brigands render the
+country unsafe, but once over the border into Persian territory there is
+no danger. We are now in the north-western corner of Persia, in the
+province of Azerbeijan, which is populated mainly by Tatars. The capital
+of the province is Tabriz, once the chief market for the trade of all
+northern Persia with Europe. Here goods were collected from far and
+near, packed in mats of bast and bound with ropes so as to form bales,
+which were laden on fresh camels and carried in fourteen days to
+Trebizond.</p>
+
+<p>Now not more than a fifth part of this trade remains, but still the
+caravan life is the same, and as varied as ever. The Tatar leader rides
+in front; beside every seventh camel walks a caravan man, who wears a
+black lambskin cap, a blue frockcoat, a girdle round the waist, and
+pointed shoes. Each is armed with a dagger, for the Tatars are often at
+feud with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> the Turks and Armenians, and the dagger has a groove on each
+side of the blade to allow the blood of the victim to run off. Many a
+caravan leader has spent the greater part of his life in travelling to
+and fro between Tabriz and Trebizond. On every journey he has seen
+Ararat to the north of the road, like a perpetually anchored vessel with
+its mainsail up; and he knows that the mountain is a gigantic frontier
+beacon which marks the spot where Russia, Turkey, and Persia meet.</p>
+
+<p>On December 13 I arrived at Teheran, having driven 800 miles in a month.
+India was still 1500 miles off, and the route lies almost entirely
+through deserts where only camels can travel. I therefore bought
+fourteen fine camels, and took six Persians and a Tatar into my
+service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A government servant or courier.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A light scarf wound round a hat or helmet in tropical
+countries, especially India.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A kind of cloth hood covering the ears.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<h2>THROUGH THE CAUCASUS, PERSIA, AND MESOPOTAMIA (1885-6)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">St. Petersburg to Baku</span></h3>
+
+<p>On August 15, 1885, I went by steamer to St. Petersburg. There I entered
+a train which ran south-eastwards through Moscow to Rostov, at the mouth
+of the Don, and thence on to the Caucasus; and for four days I sat in my
+compartment, letting my eyes rove over the immense steppes of Russia.
+Hour after hour the train rolled along. A shrill whistle startles the
+air when we come to a station, and equally sharply a bell rings once,
+twice, and thrice when our line of carriages begins to move on again
+over the flat country. In rapid course we fly past innumerable villages,
+in which usually a whitewashed church lifts up its tower with a green
+bulb-shaped roof. Homesteads and roads, rivers and brooks, fruitful
+fields and haystacks, windmills with long revolving arms, carts and
+wayfarers, all vanish behind us, and twilight and night four times
+envelop huge Russia in darkness.</p>
+
+<p>At last the mountains of the Caucasus appear in front of us, rising up
+to the clouds like a light-blue wall. The whole range seems so light and
+impalpable that we can scarcely believe that the very next day we shall
+be driving up its valleys and over heights which are more than 16,000
+feet above the sea-level. The distance is still great, but the white
+summit of Mount Kazbek shines out amidst the blue.</p>
+
+<p>At length we arrive at Vladikavkas, the end of the railway,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and begin
+our journey of 130 miles over the mountains. My travelling companions
+hired a carriage, and at every stage we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> had to change horses. I sat on
+the box, and at the turns I had to hold on lest I should be thrown off
+down into the abyss at the side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>We constantly meet peasants with asses, or shepherds with flocks of
+goats and sheep. Now comes a group of Caucasian horsemen in black
+sheepskin coats and armed to the teeth; then the post-cart, packed full
+of travellers; then again a load of hay drawn by oxen or grey buffaloes.</p>
+
+<p>The higher we ascend, the grander and wilder the mountains become.
+Sometimes the road is blasted out of perpendicular walls of rock, and
+heavy masses of mountain hang like a vault above us. At dangerous
+slopes, where the road is exposed to avalanches in spring, it runs
+through tunnels of masonry. When an avalanche dashes furiously down the
+mountain it leaps over these tunnels and continues down on the other
+side without doing the road any harm.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the highest point of the road, and after a journey
+of twenty-eight hours we arrive at Tiflis, the largest town in Caucasia,
+and one of the most curious towns I have seen. The houses hang like
+clusters of swallows' nests on the slopes on both sides of the Kura
+River, and the narrow, dirty streets are crowded with the fifteen
+different tribes who dwell in Caucasia.</p>
+
+<p>While the road leading to Tiflis over the mountains is grand, a more
+dreary country can hardly be conceived than that crossed by the railway
+between Tiflis and Baku: endless steppes and deserts, greyish-yellow and
+desolate, with occasionally a caravan of slowly moving camels. A violent
+storm arose as we drew near the sea. Dust rose up in clouds and
+penetrated through all the chinks of the compartment, the air became
+thick, heavy, and suffocating, and outside nothing could be seen but a
+universal grey veil of impenetrable mist. But the worst was that the
+storm struck the train on the side, and at last the engine was scarcely
+able to draw the carriages along. Twice we had to stop, and on an ascent
+the train even rolled back a little.</p>
+
+<p>However, in spite of all, we at last reached the shore of the Caspian
+Sea, where clear green billows rose as high as a house and thundered on
+the strand. At seven o'clock in the evening we were at Baku, and drove
+ten miles to Balakhani, where I remained seven months.</p>
+
+<p>I remember that time as if it were yesterday. I struggled hopelessly
+with the Russian grammar, but made great progress in Persian, and
+learned to talk the Tatar language without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the least difficulty.
+Meanwhile I indulged in plans for a great journey to Persia. How it was
+to be managed I did not know, for my means were not large. But I made up
+my mind that through Persia I would travel, even if I went as a hired
+servant and drove other people's asses along the roads.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate3.jpg"  width="336" height="550" alt="PLATE III." title="" /></div>
+<h4>PLATE III. OIL-WELL AT BALAKHANI.<br />A fountain of oil forced up by natural pressure.</h4>
+
+
+<p>The whole country round Baku is impregnated with petroleum, which
+collects in vast quantities in cavities in the earth. To reach the oil a
+tower of wood 50 to 65 feet high is erected, and a line with a powerful
+borer runs over a block at the top. A steam-engine keeps the line in
+constant motion, perpendicularly up and down, and the borer eats deeper
+and deeper into the earth. The first section of piping which is forced
+down into the bore-hole is about 40 inches in diameter. When this can go
+no farther the boring is continued with a smaller borer, and a narrower
+tube is thrust down within the first. And so the work is continued until
+the petroleum level is reached and the valuable oil can be pumped up.</p>
+
+
+<p>But it often happens that the oil is forced up through the pipe by the
+pressure of gas in the bowels of the earth, and when I was at Balakhani
+we often used to go out and look at this singular display. With a
+deafening roar, a thick greenish-brown jet shot up out of the ground and
+right through the derrick (Plate III.). It was visible from a long
+distance, for it might be as much as 200 feet high, and the oil was
+collected within dams thrown up around. If there was a strong wind the
+jet would be dispersed, and a dark mist would lie like a veil over the
+ground to leeward. In Balakhani one can hardly look out of the door
+without one's clothes being smeared with oil, and the odour can be
+perceived a dozen miles away. Not a blade of grass grows in this
+neighbourhood; all that one sees is a forest of derricks. Lines of pipes
+convey the oil from the borings to the "Black Town" of Baku, which is
+full of oil refineries (over 170 in all) emitting vast volumes of smoke,
+black and greasy buildings, and pools of oil refuse. When the crude
+natural oil is purified, it is distributed far and wide in special
+railway trucks like cisterns, and in special tank steamers, into which
+the petroleum is pumped, and which carry nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>In the Baku oil-fields there are now (1910) no fewer than 4094 bores, of
+which 2600 are productive. Last year they yielded about eight million
+tons of raw petroleum, some of them having sometimes given nearly 300
+tons in twenty-four hours by pumping, and 2000 when the oil shot out
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> the ground itself. The value on the spot is now about 20 shillings
+a ton. The deepest boring is sunk 2800 feet into the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Late one evening in February, 1886, the dreadful cry of "Fire! Fire!"
+was heard outside our house. The very thought of fire is enough to raise
+terror and consternation throughout this oil-soaked district. We hurry
+out and find the whole neighbourhood illuminated with a weird, whitish
+light, as bright as day. The derricks stand out like ghosts against the
+light background. We make for the place and feel the heat increasing.
+Bright white flames shoot up fantastically into the air, sending off
+black clouds of smoke. One derrick is in flames and beside it a pool of
+raw petroleum is burning. A Tatar had gone to the derrick with a lantern
+to fetch a tool. He lost his lantern, and only just escaped with his
+life before the oil-soaked derrick took fire.</p>
+
+<p>It is vain to fight against such a fire. The fire-engine came, and all
+the hoses were at work, but what was the use when the jets of water were
+turned to steam before they reached the burning surface of the oil pool?
+The chief thing is to keep the fire from spreading, and if that is done,
+the oil is left to bubble and burn until not a drop is left.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Across Persia</span></h3>
+
+<p>It was an adventurous journey that I commenced from Baku on April 6,
+1886. I had a travelling companion, a young Tatar, Baki Khanoff, about
+&pound;30 in my pocket, two changes of clothes and underclothing, a warm
+coat, and a rug&mdash;all, except what I wore, packed in a Tatar bag. In a
+small leather bag suspended by a strap from the shoulder I kept a
+revolver, a sketch-book, a note-book, and two maps of Persia. Baki
+Khanoff had a large cloak, a silver-mounted gun, and a dagger. Half the
+money we had was sewed up in belts round our waists. The equipment was
+therefore small for a journey of 2000 miles, through Persia and back.</p>
+
+<p>For two days and a night we were compelled by a violent storm on the
+Caspian Sea to wait on board before the vessel could take us to the
+Persian coast. As soon as we landed we were surrounded by Persians, who,
+with loud voices and lively gestures, extolled the good qualities of
+their horses. After a cursory examination we chose two small, squat
+steeds, secured our baggage behind the saddles, mounted, and rode<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+through dark woods and fragrant olive groves higher and higher towards
+the Elburz Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>We passed a night up on the heights in a village called Karzan. When we
+set out next day it was snowing fast, and had snowed so thickly all
+night that all the country was buried under deep drifts. We muffled
+ourselves up as well as we could, mounted our horses, and rode on,
+accompanied by their owner.</p>
+
+<p>The snow fell silently in large, whirling flakes. Down in the valley it
+melted off our clothes, but higher up on the open, windy heights it
+froze to a cake of ice, and before long our clothes on the windward side
+were converted into a thick cuirass which prevented every movement. At
+last we were practically frozen fast in the saddle. Our hands were
+benumbed, the reins fell on the horses' necks, our eyes were sore from
+the snowstorm which dashed straight into our faces. I was so stiff that
+I lost all feeling in my arms and legs, tumbled off my horse, and went
+on foot, but I had to hold on to the animal's tail lest I should lose my
+way in the blinding snow.</p>
+
+<p>We could not go on long in this way, for we could not see where we were
+going, so we decided to turn in at the first village on the road. Some
+squalid huts soon came in sight through the snow. Outside one of them we
+tied up our horses, shook off the snow, and entered a dark cabin with an
+earthen floor. Here a large fire was lighted, and we sat down beside it
+in a close circle with some other travellers who arrived at the same
+time. The place had a low roof and was small, damp, and full of vermin,
+but at any rate it was pleasant to warm ourselves and dry our clothes.
+When Baki Khanoff had made tea, cooked eggs, and brought out bread and
+salt, it was almost cosy. The company consisted of four Tatars, two
+Persians, and myself, and the seven of us had to share the space for the
+night. When the fire died down the close heat was succeeded by a damp
+coolness, but at twenty-one years of age one is not particular.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually we reached Teheran, the capital of Persia, safe and sound,
+and there I stayed a short time as the guest of a fellow-countryman.
+When I continued my journey southwards I had to travel alone, for Baki
+Khanoff had caught fever and had to turn back to Baku.</p>
+
+<p>Our journey to Teheran had been very expensive, but my good countryman
+replenished my purse, so that I had again about &pound;30 sewed up in my
+waistbelt when I started off once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> more on April 27. The road is divided
+by stations where horses are changed and you can pass the night if you
+wish. A man accompanies you on every stage, and for a small silver coin
+you can buy eggs and bread, a chicken, melons and grapes.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the stable-boy who accompanies a traveller takes the best
+horse for himself and gives the other to the traveller. This happened to
+me on the road between the town of Kashan and the mountain village of
+Kuhrud. As soon as I became aware of the trick, I exchanged horses with
+my attendant, who dropped behind after some hours' journey, for his
+sorry jade could go no farther. For four hours I rode along narrow paths
+in complete darkness. I feared that I had gone astray, and, tired and
+sleepy, I was on the point of coming to a halt, intending to tie the
+horse to a tree and roll myself up in my rug for the night, when I saw a
+light gleam through the darkness. "Hurrah! that is the station-house of
+Kuhrud." But when I came nearer I perceived that the light came from a
+nomad's tent. I rode up and called out to the people. No one answered,
+but I could see by the shadows on the cloth that the tent was inhabited.
+After shouting again without receiving an answer, I tied up the horse,
+lifted up the tent-flap, and asked my way to Kuhrud. "Cannot one sleep
+in peace in the middle of the night?" came a voice from inside. "I am a
+European and you must show me the way," I returned sharply. Then a man
+came out; he was as silent as a dummy, but I understood that I was to
+follow him, leading my horse by the rein. He wound about in the dark
+among bushes, and when he had led me to a brook a foot deep, skirted on
+both sides by thick olive woods, he pointed uphill and vanished in the
+darkness without saying a word. I mounted again and let the horse take
+care of himself, and two hours later he stopped all right before the
+station-house. It was pleasant to have reached my journey's end at last,
+for I had been riding for fifteen hours, and the evening meal tasted
+better than usual. Then I lay down full length on the floor, with the
+saddle for a pillow and the rug over me. I made use of no other bed on
+this journey.</p>
+
+<p>A few days more on the great caravan road and we rode into the old
+capital of Persia, Ispahan, with its many memorials of departed
+greatness, its mosques with tall, graceful minarets, and its bazaars
+full of the products of Persian handicrafts and industries&mdash;carpets,
+silken materials, embroideries, shawls, lacquered work, water-pipes,
+porcelain, and bronze vessels representing peacocks and elephants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Farther south I came to Persepolis, so famous in ancient times, where
+the great Persian kings, Xerxes and Darius, had their palaces. The
+country round about is now inhabited only by some poor shepherds and
+their flocks, but fine remains of the palaces still stand, in spite of
+the 2400 years which have passed over them. Not far from Persepolis lies
+one of the most noted towns of Persia, Shiraz, abounding in rose gardens
+and country-houses, spring water and canals. The town is famous above
+all, because here the immortal poets of Persia sang their most beautiful
+songs.</p>
+
+<p>When we came near the Persian Gulf the climate became hotter, and one
+day the temperature was 102&deg; in the room where I was staying. People
+therefore travel in the night. On the last stage the groom, who was an
+old man, could not keep up with me, for I rode fast; so I went on all
+night alone, keeping my revolver handy in case robbers showed
+themselves. I was glad when the sun rose, lighting up the smooth mirror
+of the Persian Gulf, and on May 22 I arrived at the town of Bushire, on
+its eastern coast.</p>
+
+<p>The Persian Gulf is an inlet of the Indian Ocean, and is enclosed
+between Persia and Arabia. The island of Bahrein on the Arabian coast is
+well known; it is under British protection, and here in summer and
+autumn pearl fishing is carried on, the annual export of these beautiful
+precious stones being now about &pound;900,000. As many as a thousand boats,
+with crews of thirty thousand men, are engaged in the industry. The
+owner of each boat engages a number of divers, who work for him, and he
+sells his pearls to the Indian markets. The diver seldom goes down to a
+greater depth than seven fathoms, and remains at most fifty seconds
+under water. He has wax in his ears, his nose is closed by a clip, and
+with a stone at his feet and a rope round his waist he jumps overboard
+and disappears into the depths. When he reaches the bottom of the sea he
+gathers into a basket tied in front of him as many shells as he can get
+hold of, and at a given signal is hauled up by the rope to the surface
+again. Then the owner of the boat opens the shells and takes out the
+costly pearls, which are of different values, according to their size
+and other qualities.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Arabia</span></h3>
+
+<p>Between the Persian Gulf on the north-east and the Red Sea on the
+south-west, the Mediterranean on the north-west<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> and the Indian Ocean on
+the south-east, lies the long, bulky peninsula which is called Arabia,
+and is as large as a third of Europe. Most of the coast-land is subject
+to the Sultan of Turkey, but the people in the interior are practically
+independent. They are a wild and warlike pastoral people, called
+Beduins. Only certain parts of the country are inhabited, the rest being
+occupied by terrible deserts and wastes, where even now no European has
+set his foot.</p>
+
+<p>Near the coast of the Red Sea are two Arab towns which are as holy and
+full of memories to Mohammedans all over the world as Jerusalem and Rome
+to Christians. At Mecca the prophet Mohammed was born in the year
+<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 570, and at Medina he died and was buried in 632. He was
+the founder of the Mohammedan religion, and his doctrine, Islamism,
+which he proclaimed to the Arabs, has since spread over so many
+countries in the Old World that its adherents now number 217 millions.</p>
+
+<p>To all the followers of Islam a pilgrimage to Mecca is a most desirable
+undertaking. Whoever has once been there may die in peace, and in his
+lifetime he may attach the honourable title of Hajji to his name. From
+distant countries in Africa and from the innermost parts of Asia
+innumerable pilgrims flock annually to the holy towns.</p>
+
+<p>Adjoining Arabia on the north-east lies the country called Mesopotamia,
+through which flow the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. An English steamer
+carried me from Bushire up the turbid waters of the Tigris, and from the
+deck I could see copper-brown, half-naked Arabs riding barebacked on
+handsome horses. They feed their flocks of sheep on the steppe, holding
+long lances in their hands. Sometimes the steamer is invaded by a cloud
+of green grasshoppers, and one can only escape them by going into one's
+cabin and closing both door and windows. Round the funnel lie heaps of
+grasshoppers who have singed themselves or are stupefied by the smoke.</p>
+
+<p>After a voyage of a few days up the river I come to Baghdad, which
+retains little of its former magnificence. In the eleventh century
+Baghdad was the greatest city of the Mohammedans, and here were
+collected the Indian and Arabic tales which are called the <i>Thousand and
+one Nights</i>. Not far from Baghdad, but on the Euphrates, lay in early
+ages the great and brilliant Babylon, which had a hundred gates of
+brass. By the waters of Babylon the Jewish captives hung up their harps
+on the willows, and of Babylon Jeremiah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> prophesied: "And Babylon shall
+become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an
+hissing, without an inhabitant."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Baghdad to Teheran</span></h3>
+
+<p>When I reached Baghdad I had only a little over &pound;5 left, all in Persian
+silver <i>kran</i>, a <i>kran</i> being worth about seven-pence; and I could not
+get any more money until I reached Teheran, 600 miles away. I knew that
+if I could only get as far as the town of Kermanshah, a distance of 200
+miles, I could then take service in a caravan; but it would be
+unpleasant to tramp on foot the whole way, and receive no pay other than
+a little bread and a few cucumbers and melons.</p>
+
+<p>Just in the nick of time, however, I made the acquaintance of a caravan
+owner who was starting immediately for Kermanshah with English
+merchandise. The goods were loaded on fifty asses, and were accompanied
+by ten Arab traders on horseback. Eight pilgrims and a Chaldean merchant
+had joined the party. I, too, might go with them on paying fifty <i>kran</i>
+for the hire of a mule; food and drink I must provide for myself.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pleasant journey which began at ten o'clock on the evening of
+June 6. Two Arabs led me on my mule slowly and solemnly through the
+narrow streets of Baghdad in the warm summer night. An oil lamp
+flickered dully here and there, but the bazaars were brisk and lively.
+Here sat thousands of Arabs, talking, eating, drinking, and smoking. It
+was the month of fasting, when nothing is eaten until after sunset.</p>
+
+<p>The two Arabs conducted me into the court of a caravanserai, where the
+traders were just making preparations to start. When I heard that they
+would not be ready before two o'clock in the morning, I lay down on a
+heap of bales and slept like a top.</p>
+
+<p>Two o'clock came much sooner than I wished. An Arab came and shook me,
+and, half asleep, I mounted my mule. To the shouts of the drivers, the
+tinkle of the small bells, and the ding-dong of the large camel-bells
+the long caravan passed out into the darkness. Soon we had the outermost
+courts and palm groves of Baghdad behind us, and before us the silent,
+sleeping desert.</p>
+
+<p>No one troubled himself about me; I had paid for the mule and might look
+after myself. Sometimes I rode in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> front, sometimes behind, and
+occasionally I almost went to sleep in the saddle. The body of a dead
+dromedary lay on the road, and a pack of hungry jackals and hy&aelig;nas were
+feasting on the carcase. When we came near them they ran away
+noiselessly to the desert, only to return when we were past. Farther on
+some fat vultures kept watch round the body of a horse, and raised
+themselves on their heavy wings as we approached.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate4.jpg"  width="550" height="327" alt="PLATE IV." title="" /></div>
+<h4>PLATE IV. A PERSIAN CARAVANSERAI.</h4>
+
+
+<p>After a ride of seven hours we reached a caravanserai, where the Arabs
+unloaded their animals and said that we were to stay there all day. It
+was as warm as in an oven, and there was nothing to do but lie and doze
+on the stone floor.</p>
+
+<p>Next night we rode eight hours to the town of Bakuba, which is
+surrounded by a wood of fine date-palms. Here we encamped in the court
+of a huge caravanserai (Plate IV.). I was sitting talking to one of my
+travelling companions when three Turkish soldiers came and demanded to
+see my passport. "I have no passport," I replied. "Well, then, pay us
+ten <i>kran</i> apiece, and you shall pass the frontier all the same." "No, I
+will not pay you a farthing," was the answer they got. "Take that rug
+and the bag instead," they cried, and made for my things. This I could
+not stand, and gave the man who seized my bag such a blow on the chest
+that he dropped his booty, and the same with the man with the rug. The
+scoundrels were making to rush at me together, when two of my Arabs came
+up to my assistance. To avoid further unpleasantness I went to the
+governor, who for six <i>kran</i> gave me a passport.</p>
+
+<p>I had now become so friendly with the Arabs that I obtained the loan of
+a horse instead of a mule. We set out again at nine o'clock, and rode
+all night in the most brilliant moonshine. I was so sleepy that
+sometimes I dozed in the saddle, and once, when the horse shied at a
+skeleton on the road, I was roused up and fell off, while the horse ran
+off over the steppe. After much trouble one of the caravan men caught
+him again, and I slept no more that night.</p>
+
+<p>As usual we stayed over the day at the next village. I was tired of
+travelling in this fashion, moving so slowly and seeing so little of the
+country. When, then, an old Arab belonging to the caravan came riding up
+from Baghdad on a fine Arab horse, I determined to try to get away from
+my party with his assistance. He consented to accompany me if I paid him
+twenty-five <i>kran</i> a day. At first we kept near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the caravan, but as
+soon as the moon had set we increased our pace, and when the sound of
+the bells grew faint behind us we trotted off quickly through the night.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived safely at Kermanshah on June 13. After paying the old Arab I
+had only sixpence left! I could not engage a room or buy anything to
+eat, and the prospect of going begging among Mohammedans was certainly
+not attractive. Fortunately I had heard of a rich Arab merchant, Agha
+Hassan, who lived in this town, and I directed my steps to his handsome
+house. In my dusty riding-boots, and whip in hand, I passed through many
+fine rooms until at last I found myself in the presence of Agha Hassan,
+who was sitting with his secretary in the midst of books and papers. He
+wore a white silk mantle embroidered with gold, a turban on his head and
+spectacles on his nose, and looked both friendly and dignified.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, sir?" he asked. "Very well, thank you," I responded.
+"Where have you come from?" "From Baghdad." "And where are you going?"
+"To Teheran." "Are you an Englishman?" "No, I am a Swede." "Swede? What
+is that?" "Well, I come from a country called Sweden." "Whereabouts does
+it lie?" "Far away to the north-west, beyond Russia." "Ah, wait, I know!
+You are no doubt from Ironhead's country?" "Yes, I am from the country
+of Charles XII." "I am very glad to hear it; I have read of Charles the
+Twelfth's remarkable exploits; you must tell me about him. And you must
+tell me about Sweden, its king and army, and about your own home,
+whether your parents are still living, and if you have any sisters. But
+first you must promise to stay as my guest for six months. All that I
+have is yours. You have only to command." "Sir, I am very thankful for
+your kindness, but I cannot avail myself of your hospitality for more
+than three days." "You surely mean three weeks?" "No, you are too good,
+but I must go back to Teheran." "That is very tiresome, but, however,
+you can think it over."</p>
+
+<p>A servant conducted me to an adjoining building, which was to be mine
+during my stay, and where I made myself at home in a large apartment
+with Persian rugs and black silk divans. Two secretaries were placed at
+my disposal, and servants to carry out my slightest wish. If I desired
+to eat, they would bring in a piece of excellent mutton on a spit, a
+chicken boiled with rice, sour milk, cheese and bread, apricots, grapes,
+and melons, and at the end of the meal coffee and a water-pipe;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> if I
+wished to drink, a sweet liquor of iced date-juice was served; and if I
+thought of taking a ride in order to see the town and neighbourhood,
+pure-blooded Arab horses stood in the court awaiting me.</p>
+
+<p>Before the house lay a peaceful garden surrounded by a wall, and with
+its paths laid with marble slabs. Here lilacs blossomed, and here I
+could dream the whole day away amidst the perfume of roses. Gold-fishes
+swam in a basin of crystal-clear water, and a tiny jet shot up into the
+air glittering like a spider's web in the sunshine. I slept in this
+enchanting garden at night, and when I awoke in the morning I could
+hardly believe that all was real; it was so like an adventure from the
+<i>Thousand and one Nights</i>. My rich host and my secretaries did not
+suspect that I had only sixpence in my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>When the last day came I could no longer conceal my destitute condition.
+"I have something unpleasant to confide to you," I said to one of the
+secretaries. "Indeed," he answered, looking very astonished. "Yes, my
+money has come to an end. My journey has been longer than I expected,
+and now I am quite cleared out." "What does that matter? You can get as
+much money as you like from Agha Hassan."</p>
+
+<p>It had struck midnight when I went to take farewell of my kind host. He
+worked all night during the fasting month. "I am sorry that you cannot
+stay longer," he said. "Yes, I too am sorry that I must leave you, and
+that I can never repay your great kindness to me." "You know that the
+road through the hills is unsafe owing to robbers and footpads. I have
+therefore arranged that you shall accompany the post, which is escorted
+by three soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>Having thanked him once more, I took my leave. A secretary handed me a
+leather purse full of silver. The post rider and the soldiers were
+ready; we mounted, rode slowly through the dark, narrow streets of the
+town, at a smart trot when the houses were scattered, and then at full
+gallop when the desert stretched around us on all sides. We rode 105
+miles in sixteen hours, with three relays of horses and barely an hour's
+rest. We stayed a day at Hamadan, and then rode on to the capital, with
+nine relays of fresh horses. During the last fifty-five hours I never
+went to sleep, but often dozed in the saddle. At length the domes of
+Teheran, its poplars and plane-trees, stood out against the morning sky,
+and, half-dead with weariness, and ragged and torn, I rode through the
+south-western gate of the city.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> At the time of this journey, the railway ended at
+Vladikavkas. Since then, however, it has been extended to Baku along the
+northern side of the Caucasus and the coast of the Caspian (see map, p.
+30).</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>IV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Across the Kevir</span></h3>
+
+<p>We must now resume the journey to India. You will remember (see p. 33)
+that after arriving at Teheran from Trebizond I made up a caravan
+consisting of six Persians, one Tatar, and fourteen camels. On January 1
+everything is ready. The camels are all laden; thick rugs cover their
+backs to prevent them being rubbed sore by the loads, and the humps
+stick up through two round holes in the cloths in order that they may
+not be crushed and injured.</p>
+
+<p>The largest camels go first. Each has its head adorned with a red
+embroidered headstall, studded with shining plates of metal and red and
+yellow pompons, and a plume waves above its forehead. Round the chest is
+a row of brass sleigh-bells, and one large bell hangs round the neck.
+Two of these bells are like small church bells; they are so big that the
+camels would knock their knees against them if they were hung in the
+usual way, so they are fastened instead to the outer sides of a couple
+of boxes on the top of the loads. The camels are proud of being decked
+so finely; they are conscious of their own importance, and stalk with
+majestic, measured strides through the southern gate of Teheran.</p>
+
+<p><a name="GULAM_HUSSEIN" id="GULAM_HUSSEIN"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate5.jpg"  width="550" height="335" alt="PLATE V." title="" /></div>
+<h4>PLATE V. THE AUTHOR'S RIDING CAMEL, WITH GULAM HUSSEIN.</h4>
+
+<p>My riding camel is the largest in the caravan (Plate V.). He has thick
+brown wool, unusually long and plentiful on his neck and chest. His
+loads form a small platform between the humps and along his flanks, with
+a hollow in the middle, where I sit as in an armchair, with a leg on
+each side of the front hump. From there I can spy out the land, and with
+the help of a compass put down on my map everything I see&mdash;hills, sandy
+zones, and large ravines. Camels put out the two left legs at the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+time, and then the two right legs. Their gait is therefore rolling, and
+the rider sits as in a small boat pitching and tossing in a broken sea.
+Some people become sea-sick from sitting all day bobbing between the
+humps, but one soon becomes accustomed to the motion. When the animal is
+standing up it is, of course, impossible to mount on his back without a
+ladder, so he has to lie down to let me get on him. But sometimes it
+happens that he is in too great a hurry to rise before I am settled in
+my place, and then I am flung back on to my head, for he lifts himself
+as quickly as a steel spring, first with the hind legs and then with the
+fore. But when I am up I am quite at home. Sometimes, on the march, the
+camel turns his long neck and lays his shaggy head on my knee. I pat his
+nose and stroke him over the eyes. It is impossible to be other than
+good friends with an animal which carries you ten hours a day for
+several months. In the morning he comes up to my tent, pushes his nose
+under the door-flap, and thrusts his shaggy head into the tent, which is
+not large, and is almost filled up when he comes on a visit. After he
+has been given a piece of bread he backs out again and goes away to
+graze.</p>
+
+
+<p>The ring of bells is continually in my ears. The large bells beat in
+time with the steps of the camels. Their strides are long and slow, and
+a caravan seldom travels more than twenty miles in a day.</p>
+
+<p>Our road runs south-eastwards. We have soon left behind us the districts
+at the foot of the Elburz Mountains, where irrigation canals from rivers
+are able to produce beautiful gardens and fruitful fields. The farther
+we proceed the smaller and more scattered are the villages. Only along
+their canals is the soil clothed with verdure, and we have scarcely left
+a village before we are out on the greyish-yellow desert, where withered
+steppe shrubs stand at wide intervals apart. Less and less frequently do
+we meet trains of asses bound for Teheran with great bundles of shrubs
+and bushes from the steppe to be used as fuel. The animals are small and
+miserable, and are nearly hidden by their loads. Their nostrils are
+cruelly pierced, so that they may be made to go quicker and keep up
+longer. They look sleepy and dejected, these small, obstinate donkeys
+which never move out of the way. Their long ears flap backwards and
+forwards, and their under-lips hang down like bags.</p>
+
+<p>At the very last village on the edge of the desert we stay two days to
+prepare ourselves for the dangers ahead of us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> The headman of the
+village owns ten camels, which he will gladly hire us for a few days;
+they are to carry trusses of straw and water in leathern bags. Our own
+camels are already fully laden, and the hired camels are only to give us
+a start. When they turn back we shall have to shift for ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>After we have left this village not a sign of life is visible. Before us
+to the south-east small isolated hills stand up like islands in the sea,
+and beyond them the horizon of the desert lies as level as that of the
+ocean. Through this great sandy waste the caravans travel from oasis to
+oasis, but in the north there is a tract, called the Kevir, within which
+not the smallest oasis can be found. Not a clump of grass, not even a
+blade, is to be seen, for the desert is saturated with salt, and when it
+rains in winter the briny clay becomes as slippery as ice. And this is
+precisely the place we are making for.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled a whole month before we came to the point where we intended
+to make the attempt to cross the Kevir. Hitherto everything had
+continued in a steady course, and one day had been like another. It was
+winter and we had fully 25 degrees of frost in the night: one day it
+snowed so thickly that the foremost camels in the train were seen only
+as faint shadows. For several days mist lay so dense over the desert
+that we had to trust chiefly to the compass. Sometimes we travelled for
+four or five days without finding a drop of water, but we had all we
+needed in our leathern bags.</p>
+
+<p>At the edge of the sandy desert, where high dunes are piled up by the
+wind, tamarisks and saxauls were often growing. Both are steppe bushes
+which grow to a height of several feet; their stems are hard and
+provided us with excellent fuel. My servants gathered large faggots, and
+the camp fires flamed up brightly and grandly, throwing a yellow light
+over the silent waste.</p>
+
+<p>From a village called Jandak I set out with only two men and four
+camels, but we had to wait for four days on the edge of the salt desert
+because of rain. When rain falls in the Kevir the whole desert soon
+becomes a sea of slippery mud, and camels cannot walk without slipping
+and falling. Whole caravans have perished in this cruel desert by being
+overtaken by rain, and in many other cases the men only have managed to
+escape with the loss of their camels and their merchandise. It was
+therefore fortunate for us that we were overtaken by rain before we were
+out on the slippery clay. We waited till the desert had dried up again,
+and then we joined forces with a caravan which came from the south.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was pitch dark when we began to move. A fire was set going, and the
+camels were laden by its light. Then we started, the fire disappeared,
+and night and the desert lay before us. Only the ring of bells disturbed
+the silence. We could not see where we were going, but had to trust our
+riding camels. The Persians marched all the morning and most of the day
+without a halt; the strength of both men and camels is strained to the
+uttermost in order to get through the desert before the next rain
+comes&mdash;and it may come at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>After a short rest we hasten northwards again, for there is no question
+of halting for the night. The darkness seems interminable, but at length
+it begins to grow light again. Still the Persians do not stop, so there
+is nothing for me to do but to struggle to keep up with them. "Keep
+awake, sir!" shouts Gulam Hussein; "you can sleep when we get to the
+other side." Another day passes, and again we rest awhile to give the
+camels some straw and to drink a cup of tea ourselves. Scarcely have we
+begun to enjoy the rest, however, when the chimes of the bells ring out
+again. The caravan is already on the move, so we pack up and follow in
+its trail.</p>
+
+<p>The sky seems very unpromising, and is clouded all over. The desert is
+as level as a floor; not a mound as high as a kneeling camel. The sun
+sinks in the west. Like a red-hot cannon-ball it shines through a rift
+between dark clouds, and a shaft of dazzling red rays streams over the
+desert, the surface of which shines like a purple sea. To the north the
+sky is of a dark violet colour, and against this background the camels
+stand out brick-red.</p>
+
+<p>The sun sets, the colours grow pale, and the long shadows which the
+camels lately cast far away over the ground fade away. Another night
+rises up from the east. It grows darker and darker, the caravan is lost
+to view, but the bells ring out with a clear resonance. On we go without
+stop or rest. This night is more trying, for we had not a wink of sleep
+the night before.</p>
+
+<p>The clouds break in the zenith, and the moon looks down on our progress.
+The camels are seen again and shadows fall again over the desert. Here
+it is as bare and desolate as on the face of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight the sky becomes dark once more. The Persians have clambered
+up on to their camels, and the swaying motion soon carries them into the
+land of dreams. Soon no one is awake but the leader, who guides the
+first camel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> and myself, who am riding on the last. Suddenly heavy
+drops begin to fall, and in a minute the rain pelts down on camels,
+loads, and sleepers.</p>
+
+<p>In a second the pace of the caravan is changed. Hear how hurriedly and
+anxiously the bells swing and beat! They peal as if to awaken soldiers
+and citizens in a burning town. Now the rain patters down on the level
+desert and the camels begin to slip. We must hasten if our lives are
+dear to us, or the desert will suck us in at the eleventh hour. The men
+shout to urge on the camels. Now the bells clang as though to wake up
+the dead to judgment.</p>
+
+<p>There goes a camel down in the mire. Poor animals, they are lost on such
+ground, for they have not hoofs like horses, but soft callous pads. When
+they slip they do so thoroughly and suddenly. All four legs fly up in
+one direction, and the heavy body with the loads thumps down in the
+other. It is bad enough for the camel, but still worse for his rider. A
+moment before he sat so well packed up, longing for the edge of the
+desert sea, and now he lies sprawling in the slush.</p>
+
+<p>One after another the camels fall and have to be helped up again. All
+this causes delay, and meanwhile the clay is gradually becoming softer.
+At every step the camels sink in deeper, the rain still pelts down, and
+the bells ring jerkily. If they cease to ring, it will be because the
+desert has conquered; at this very moment they stop.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" I call out.</p>
+
+<p>"We are at the Devil's ditch," answers a voice in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The bells ring slowly again as the camels wade one after the other
+through a trench full of salt water. I tighten my knees when my turn
+comes. I cannot see the water, but I hear it spurting and splashing
+round the legs of the camels in front of me. Now my camel slides down a
+nasty mud bank. He slithers and wriggles about to keep himself up, and
+then he, too, tramps through the water and scrambles up the other side.</p>
+
+<p>"Tamarisks," I hear some one shout. Welcome sound! It means that we are
+safe, for nothing grows in the salt desert. When we come to the first
+tamarisks we are again on sandy ground. Then all danger is past, and
+what does it matter if we are dead tired? Two more hours and we reach a
+village. There Gulam Hussein makes ready a chicken and some eggs, and
+then I lie down in a hut and sleep as I have never slept before.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Oasis of Tebbes</span></h3>
+
+<p>Any one who has not travelled himself for weeks together through the
+desert can scarcely conceive what it is to come at length to an oasis.
+An oasis is to the desert wanderer what a peaceful island with its
+sheltered anchorage is to mariners. Oases are like stars in the dark
+vault of heaven, like moments of happiness and prosperity in a man's
+life. If you had roamed for two months in the wilderness, like myself
+and my Persians, you would be able to understand our feelings when we at
+last saw the date-palms of Tebbes beckoning to us in the distance (see
+map, p. <a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a>).</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate6.jpg"  width="550" height="343"
+ alt="PLATE VI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE VI. TEBBES.<br />
+The tree in the foreground is a huge tamarisk.</h4>
+
+<p>A lofty minaret rises above the little town, which is surrounded by a
+wall (Plate VI.). Within are old buildings, mosques, and a fort with
+towers. Outside the town are tilled fields and palm groves.</p>
+
+<p>Spring had come when we pitched our tents on a meadow in the shade of
+thick dark-green palms. There was a rustle and pleasant whisper among
+the hard fronds when the spring storms swept over the country. We were
+tired of the everlasting dull yellow tint of the desert and were
+delighted with the fresh verdure. Outside my tent purled a brook of fine
+cool water, all the more agreeable after the intense drought of the
+desert. A nightingale sang in the crown of the palm above my tent. He
+plays an important part in Persian poetry under the name of <i>bulbul</i>.</p>
+
+<p>If you were in some mysterious manner transferred to Tebbes, you would
+on the very first evening wonder what was the curious serenade which you
+heard from the desert. If you sat at the fall of day reading at the door
+of your tent, you would look up from your book and listen. You would
+have an uneasy feeling and be uncomfortable at being alone in the tent.
+But after the same serenade had been repeated every evening as regular
+as the sunset, you would become accustomed to it, and at length trouble
+yourself no more about it.</p>
+
+<p>It is only the jackals singing their evening song. The word "jackal" is
+Persian, and the jackal is allied to the dog, the wolf, and the fox. He
+is a beast of prey and seeks his food at night. He is not large, is
+yellowish-grey in colour, has pointed ears and small, keen eyes, and
+holds his tail erect, not hanging down like the wolf's. Nothing edible
+comes amiss to him, but he prefers chickens and grapes to fallen caravan
+animals. If he can find nothing else, he steals dates in the palm
+gardens, especially when ripe fruits have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> fallen after heavy storms.
+The jackal is, indeed, a shameless, impudent little rascal. One night a
+pack of jackals sneaked into our garden and carried off our only cock
+under the very noses of the dogs. We were awakened by the noise of a
+terrible struggle between the two forces, but the jackals got the better
+of it and we heard the despairing cackle of the cock dying away in the
+desert.</p>
+
+<p>Heaven knows where the jackals remain as long as the sun is up! In
+zoological text-books it is stated that they dwell in holes, but I could
+see no holes round Tebbes, and yet jackals come in troops to the oasis
+every night. They are as mysterious as the desert; they are found
+everywhere and nowhere.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the sun sinks below the horizon and the darkness spreads its
+veil over the silent desert, and the palms doze off, waiting for the
+return of the sun, then begins the jackals' serenade. It sounds like a
+short, sharp laugh rising and falling, a plaintive whine increasing in
+strength and dying away again, answered by another pack in another
+direction; a united cry of anguish from children in trouble and calling
+for help. They say to one another, "Comrades, we are hungry, let us seek
+about for food," and gather together from their unknown lairs. Then they
+steal cautiously to the skirts of the oasis, hop over walls and bars and
+thieve on forbidden ground.</p>
+
+<p>These insignificant noisy footpads live on the refuse and offal of the
+desert from Cape Verde in the uttermost west of the Old World to the
+interior of India; but their home is not in the silent desert alone.
+When the military bands strike up at the clubs in Simla, you have only
+to put your head out of the window to hear the mournful, piteous, and
+distressed howl of the jackals.</p>
+
+<p>They are not always to be treated lightly, for in 1882 jackals killed
+359 men in Bengal alone. Especially are they a terrible danger when
+hydrophobia rages among them, as the experiences of the last Boundary
+Commission in Seistan showed. A mad jackal sneaked into the camp one
+night and bit a sleeping man in the face. Within six weeks the man was
+dead. Others stole into the natives' huts and lay in ambush, waiting for
+an opportunity to bite. Perhaps the worst incident occurred on a dark
+winter's night, when a north wind was raging and sweeping the dust along
+the ground. A mad jackal came into the Englishmen's camp and crept into
+a tent where several men were sleeping.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> Fortunately he only set his
+teeth in a felt rug. This wakened the sleepers, however, and they at
+once started up and looked for weapons. The camp consisted of three
+sections, and more than a hundred tethered camels. In the pitchy
+darkness it was impossible to see where the jackal went, but the camels
+could be heard shrieking with fear, and thus it was only too clear where
+the brute was. When day broke seventy-eight bitten dromedaries were
+counted. They were isolated from the others, and killed as soon as they
+showed signs of sickness, while the dogs and goats which had been bitten
+by the jackal were shot at once.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty years ago I myself had a little adventure with jackals. I was
+riding with a couple of servants and some horses to the Caspian shore
+from the interior of Persia, and encamped one evening at a village in
+the Elburz Mountains. The caravanserai was notorious for its vermin, so
+I preferred to make myself comfortable in a garden with fruit trees and
+poplars, protected by a wall five feet high and without any gates. We
+had to climb over the wall in order to get in. I had a saddle for a
+pillow and lay wrapped in a felt rug and a cloak. The remains of my
+supper, bread, honey, and apples, stood on my two small leather trunks.
+When it grew dark my men went off to the village and I rolled myself up
+and went to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours later I was awakened by a scratching noise at the trunks and
+sat up to listen, but could hear nothing but the murmur of a small brook
+close at hand. The darkness was intense, only a little starlight passing
+faintly through the foliage. So I went to sleep again. A little later I
+was roused once more by the same noise, and heard a tearing and tugging
+at the straps. Then I jumped up and distinguished half a dozen jackals
+disappearing like shadows among the poplars. There was no more sleep for
+me that night. It was all I could do to keep the importunate beasts at a
+distance. If I kept quiet for a minute they were up again, tearing the
+leathern straps, and would not make off until I struck a box with my
+riding whip. They soon became accustomed even to this and drew back only
+a few steps. Then I remembered the apples, and as soon as the jackals
+crept up again, I threw one of them with all my strength into the ruck,
+and used them as missiles till the last apple had disappeared into the
+darkness. Most of my shots were misses, for I only once heard a howl
+from one of the impudent animals.</p>
+
+<p>The night seemed endless, but at length the day dawned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> between the
+poplars, and the jackals jumped quietly over the wall. Then I should
+have liked some breakfast, but there was not a bit of the supper left;
+the jackals had taken it all. However, I had a sound sleep instead. I
+heard afterwards that the jackals in that country are so vicious that
+two or three of them will attack a man, so in future I always had my
+servants sleeping near me.</p>
+
+<p>While speaking of jackals we must not forget the hy&aelig;na, for this animal
+is one of the denizens of the desert, though it is of another genus. The
+hy&aelig;na is a singular animal, neither dog nor cat, but a mixture of both
+and larger than either. It is of a dirty greyish-brown colour with black
+stripes or patches, has a rounded head with black muzzle and eyes, and
+short hind legs, so that the bristly back slopes downwards. It prowls
+about for food at night, and in western Persia comes down from its
+hiding-places in the mountains to the caravan roads in quest of fallen
+asses, horses and camels. If corpses are not buried deep enough it
+scratches them up from beneath the tombstones, for it lives almost
+exclusively on dead and corrupted flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the four-footed inhabitants of the desert prowl around the
+outskirts of Tebbes and share the country with panthers, wild asses and
+graceful elegant gazelles. Tebbes itself lies lonely and forgotten like
+an island in the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>The principal caravan road connecting the oasis with the outer world
+runs north-eastwards to the holy town of Meshed, whither many pilgrims
+flock. From Meshed it is only a few days' journey through a mountainous
+tract to the frontier between Persia and Russian Asia. There lie
+Transcaspia, Samarcand, Bukhara, Turkestan, and the Kirghiz Steppe. This
+road would take us out of our way to India, but while we halt at Tebbes
+I can tell you something about the country it passes through.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>V</h2>
+
+<h2>ON THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE (1893-5)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Into Asia from Orenburg</span></h3>
+
+<p>I started my journey across the Kirghiz Steppe in November, 1893, from
+Orenburg on the Ural River, which for some distance forms the boundary
+between Asia and Europe. I travelled in a stout <i>tarantass</i>, the common
+means of conveyance on Russian country roads; it consists of a sort of a
+box on two bars between the wheel axles, with a hood but no seat. The
+bottom is filled with hay, on which are spread a mat, cushions and
+pillows, furs and felt rugs, for the cold is intense. There are
+ninety-nine stages and changes of horses between Orenburg and Tashkent,
+the capital of Russian Turkestan. At the post-houses nothing can be got
+but tea, so provisions for nineteen days had to be taken with us, as
+well as sawn wood, rope and tools in case anything should break, and a
+large pot of cart-grease to keep the wheels cool. My boxes and trunks
+are wrapped in bast-matting and secured with strong ropes to the
+driver's box and behind the <i>tarantass</i>. It takes time to get everything
+ready, and it is late in the afternoon before the first team of three
+post-horses is led out and harnessed to the vehicle. I take my largest
+fur coat and pack myself in among the cushions and felt rugs. The
+carriage is open in front and the whirling snow which sweeps round the
+corners flies straight into my face. The driver takes his seat on the
+box, shouts shrilly and cracks his whip, and we dash along the streets
+of Orenburg in the snow and twilight to the lively jingle of the bells.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img005.jpg"  width="438" height="550" alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM ORENBURG TO THE PAMIR" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM ORENBURG TO THE PAMIR (pp. <a href='#Page_55'><b>55-71</b></a>).</h4>
+
+<p>The lights come to an end and the night is intensely dark when we come
+out to the high-road leading into Asia. The bells worn by the middle
+horse on a necklace round his neck ring in frequent beats. This horse
+always goes at a trot, being harnessed between the shafts with a high
+wooden arch above his neck, but the two outside horses go at a canter.
+The horses are accustomed to this pace and action, and a rapidly moving
+team is a fine sight. After three hours a yellow light is seen through
+the swirling snow, and the team dashes into a yard and comes to a halt
+at the steps of a house. As I have been already tossed about a good
+deal, I am glad to jump out and get a glass of tea. The horses are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+taken into the stable, and a fresh team is led out to take their place
+in the still warm harness.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>samovar</i>, or Russian tea-urn, is boiling in the great room. While I
+am drinking my first glass of tea the stamping and rattle is heard of
+two other teams which roll into the yard. It is the post; and the
+courier enters covered with snow and with icicles on his beard. He is a
+good fellow, and we become acquainted at once and travel together to
+Orsk. He has travelled for twenty years with the mails between the two
+towns and must have covered altogether a distance as far as from the
+earth to the moon and six thousand miles besides.</p>
+
+<p>My new driver now appears and calls out "The <i>troika</i><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> is ready." Then
+I pack myself in again among the cushions and rugs and off we speed once
+more through the darkness and snow.</p>
+
+<p>After forty-eight hours we are in Orsk, which also stands on the Ural
+River; and when we leave this town with fresh horses and steer
+southwards we are on Asiatic ground, in the vast Kirghiz Steppe, which
+extends from Irkutsk to the Caspian Sea, from the Ural River to the
+Syr-darya.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is extremely flat and looks like a frozen sea. Day
+after day we drive southwards, the horses ready to run away; there is
+nothing to drive over, no ditches to fall into, no stones to carry away
+a wheel. The hoofs hammer on the hard ground, the wheels creak, I and my
+things are shaken and thrown about in the carriage, the coachman plants
+his feet firmly against the foot-board lest he should tumble off, and on
+we go over the flat dreary steppe. As we drive on day and night the
+<i>tarantass</i> seems always to be in the centre of the same unbroken
+landscape, always at the same distance from the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Here live the Kirghizes, a fine race of graziers and horsemen. They
+support themselves by their large flocks of sheep, and also own numerous
+horses and camels, as well as cattle. Therefore they are dependent on
+the grass of the steppe, and wander like other nomads from pasture to
+pasture. When their flocks have eaten up the grass at one place, they
+roll up their black tents, pack all their belongings on camels and
+migrate to another spot. They are a freeborn, manly people and love the
+boundless steppe. Life in the open air and on the level country, which
+affords grazing to their flocks, has sharpened their intellect to a
+wonderful degree. They never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> forget a place they have once seen. If the
+steppe plants grow closer or thinner, if the ground shows the slightest
+inequality, if there is grey or black gravel of different
+coarseness&mdash;all these details serve as marks of recognition. When we
+rest a minute halfway between two post-houses to let the horses breathe,
+the Kirghiz driver turns round and says, "Yonder rides a Kirghiz on a
+dappled mare." Yet on directing my field-glass towards the indicated
+spot, I can only see a small dot, and cannot distinguish what it is.</p>
+
+<p>The stations on our road are usually small solid wooden houses with two
+lamp-posts at the door and a white board, on which are written the
+distances to the next stations in each direction. In some places there
+is no house at all but only a black Kirghiz tent, and instead of a
+stable fences of sticks and reeds afford the horses shelter. At one such
+station three camels are harnessed to the <i>tarantass</i>, and the clumsy
+animals waddle along so that their humps bob and roll on their backs.
+The reason for this change is that we are now on the shore of the Sea of
+Aral, where the soft yielding drifts make it impossible for horses to
+draw the <i>tarantass</i>. The two rivers, the Syr-darya (or Jaxartes) and
+the Amu-darya (or Oxus), which rise in the Pamir, flow into the Sea of
+Aral. The Cossacks carry on a profitable sturgeon fishery in this lake,
+which in area is not very much smaller than Scotland, and contains a
+great number of small islands&mdash;whence its name, for the word <i>aral</i>
+means "island."</p>
+
+<p>With fresh horses we speed along the bank of the Syr-darya. Here grow
+small woods and thickets where tigers stalk their prey, and in the dense
+reed beds wild boars dig up roots. The shy gazelles like the open
+country, hares spring over the shrubs, ducks and geese quack on the
+banks, and flocks of pheasants lure the traveller to sport. The setting
+sun sheds a gleam of fiery red over the steppe, and as it grows dim the
+stars begin to twinkle. The monotonous ring of the bells and the shouts
+of the driver never cease, whether we are near the river or far off in
+the dreary steppe. The ground becomes soft and swampy. The wheels cut
+like knives into the mud. We move more and more slowly and heavily, and
+at last stick fast in the mire. The driver shouts and scolds, and cracks
+his whip over the team. The middle horse rears, one of the outside
+horses jibs and the other gathers himself together for a spring which
+makes the traces break with a loud report. Then the driver jumps down
+and says, "You must wait here, sir, while I ride back for two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> more
+horses." And he trots off in the darkness. After waiting about two hours
+I hear the tramp of horses in the distance. Now the team is made ready,
+the two extra horses are attached in front, the coachman takes his place
+on the box, and with united strength our animals drag the heavy vehicle
+up out of the slough. We roll and jolt on again with lumps of wet clay
+dropping and splashing round the wheels.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Samarcand and Bukhara</span></h3>
+
+<p>Russian Central Asia has ten million inhabitants and an area twelve
+times as large as the British Isles. The part which is called Turkestan
+extends between Eastern Turkestan and the Caspian Sea, the Kirghiz
+Steppe, Afghanistan, and Persia. The greater part is occupied by blown
+sand, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand." Right through the desert flow
+the two rivers, the Syr-darya and Amu-darya. Two railway lines cross
+Turkestan, one from the Kirghiz Steppe to Tashkent, the other from the
+Caspian Sea to Tashkent and Ferghana. Ferghana is the most fruitful part
+of Turkestan and lies between mountains in its eastern portion.</p>
+
+<p>Tashkent, the capital of Turkestan, has 200,000 inhabitants, and is the
+headquarters of the governor-general. South-west of Tashkent is the
+district of Samarcand, with a capital of the same name. South-west of
+Samarcand again, on the north of the Amu-darya, stretches a country
+called Bukhara, ruled by an Emir, a prince under the supremacy of
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Close to the Caspian Sea, on the east, there is a large area of country
+called Transcaspia. Central Asia was conquered by Russia forty-five
+years ago, Transcaspia thirty years ago. Transcaspia is inhabited by
+Turkomans, a powerful and warlike people, who in former times used to
+make raids into northern Persia, carrying off men and women, whom they
+sold as slaves in the markets of Bukhara and Samarcand. General
+Skobeleff put a check to their domination when he invaded the country in
+1880. In order to convey troops and war material into the country a
+railway was laid down through the desert. It runs from one oasis to
+another, and hardy desert shrubs were planted or upright palings erected
+to protect the line from the drifting sand.</p>
+
+<p>When the Turkomans were attacked by the Russians, they withdrew within
+the walls of the large fortress which is called "The Green Hill." They
+numbered about 45,000 in all&mdash;men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> women and children&mdash;and they
+believed that the fortress was impregnable. The Russian general,
+Skobeleff, had a mine carried under the wall. Inside the fortress the
+Turkomans heard the soldiers working underground with picks and
+crowbars, but did not understand what was intended. They supposed that
+the soldiers would crawl up out of a hole one after another and
+therefore they assembled with shining weapons above the place of danger.
+Consequently when the mine exploded a large number of unfortunates were
+killed, and the enemy stormed in over the ruins of the wall.</p>
+
+<p>A fearful massacre followed of all those who did not seek safety in
+flight. The Persian slaves and some thousands of women were spared.
+Twenty thousand bodies lay in heaps within and without the fortress. The
+Turkomans will never forget that day. The cavalry band played at the
+head of the columns during the fight. Old Turkomans still remember the
+strains. They cannot hear regimental bands without weeping for some
+relative who fell at "The Green Hill." Here was the death-bed of their
+freedom and they were swallowed up by mighty Russia.</p>
+
+<p>I have crossed Turkestan many times by rail, in <i>tarantass</i>, and on
+horseback. I have strolled for weeks through the narrow picturesque
+streets and the gloomy bazaars of the old town called Bukhara, the
+"Blessed." There silk is produced and carpets are woven; great caravans
+pass by laden with cotton; disfigured by sores, lepers sit begging in
+front of the mosques; mulberry trees raise their crowns above artificial
+ponds. From the summit of a tall minaret criminals used to be thrown
+down to be dashed to pieces on the street.</p>
+
+<p>Sixty years ago there ruled in Bukhara a cruel Emir who took a delight
+in torturing human beings. A mechanician from Italy fell into his
+clutches and was sentenced to death. The Italian promised that if his
+life were spared he would construct a machine wherewith the Emir could
+measure the flight of time. His prayer was granted and he made an
+ordinary clock. This called forth the Emir's astonishment and
+admiration, and the Italian lived in high favour for a time. Later on,
+however, the tyrant wished to force him to embrace Islamism, but he
+steadfastly refused. At that time there was in Bukhara a cave called
+"the bugs' hole," and into this the unfortunate man was thrown to be
+eaten up by vermin. Seventy years ago two Englishmen languished in this
+abominable place.</p>
+
+<p>There are towns in Asia with names which impress us as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> soon as we hear
+them, like Jerusalem, Mecca, Benares, Lhasa. Samarcand is one of these.
+It is not a place of pilgrimage, but it is an ancient town and famous
+among the Mohammedans of Asia. It was already in existence when
+Alexander the Great conquered Central Asia. Since then vast swarms of
+men and migrations of peoples have swept over this region. The Arabs
+have subdued it, countless hordes of Mongols have passed through it
+pillaging and devastating, and now at last it lies under the sceptre of
+the Tsar. Samarcand attained the height of its splendour during the rule
+of the powerful Timur. When he died in the year 1405 he had conquered
+all Central Asia, Persia, Mesopotamia, South Russia, Turkey, India and
+many other countries. This Timur the Lame was not only a great general
+but a man of culture, for he loved art and science, and listened
+willingly to the songs of the poets. He built his own mausoleum, which
+still rears its melon-shaped dome above Samarcand, and had carved in
+raised letters on a marble tablet the words: "If I still lived, mankind
+would tremble."</p>
+
+<p>Timur had a wife, Bibi, whom he dearly loved. She expressed a wish that
+her coffin should not be buried but should remain above ground, and
+therefore Timur caused to be erected the handsome mosque-tomb which
+still bears her name. When it was finished the Queen went, attended by
+her slaves, to inspect her last resting-place. A poisonous snake crept
+from under an arch. Those present wished to kill it, but the Queen
+forbade them and caressed the snake, which offered her no harm. When at
+length she died she was decked with all her jewels&mdash;costly pearls,
+necklaces, and gold bangles&mdash;and her coffin was placed in the vault. One
+night thieves broke into the tomb, opened the coffin and took all the
+Queen's ornaments; but when they were sneaking off with their booty the
+snake crept out and bit them so that they died immediately.</p>
+
+<p>The great market-place of Samarcand is one of the finest squares I have
+seen in Asia. There carts and caravans swarm, there fruit sellers and
+pitcher-makers take their stand, there dancing dervishes beg for alms.
+On all four sides stand stately buildings erected by Timur and his
+successors. Their fa&ccedil;ades, cupolas and minarets are covered with blue
+fa&iuml;ence, burned and glazed tiles in varied patterns and texts from the
+holy book of Islam, the Koran. It is worth while to ascend one of the
+lofty minarets to take a look over Samarcand. Hence we see innumerable
+gray mud houses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> with courts in the centre, pools, canals and gardens,
+and in the maze of streets, squares and lanes moves a stream of people
+of Turkish and Persian race. The dark-blue cupolas stand out against the
+light-blue sky, and are surrounded by luxuriant dark-green vegetation.
+In autumn the gardens assume a bright yellow tint. In winter the whole
+country is often buried in snow, and only the bright blue cupolas rise
+above the whiteness. Samarcand is the "blue" town, just as Jaipur in
+India is the "pink" town.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Pamir</span></h3>
+
+<p>To the south-east of Samarcand stand the huge highlands of the Pamir,
+called by its inhabitants the "Roof of the World," for it seems to them
+to rise like a roof above all the rest of the earth. From this great
+centre run the lofty mountain ranges of the earth, the Himalayas, the
+Trans-himalaya, Karakorum, Kuen-lun, and the Tien-shan on the east, the
+Hindu-Kush on the west. If you examine the map you will see that most of
+the ranges of Asia and Europe, and the most important, are connected
+with it. The Tibetan ranges extend far into China and beyond the Indian
+peninsula. The Tien-shan is only the first link in a series of mountains
+which stretch north-eastwards throughout Asia. The continuation of the
+Hindu-Kush is found in the mountains of northern Persia, in the Caucasus
+and the chains of Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, the Alps and
+Pyrenees. The Pamir is like the body of a cuttlefish, which throws out
+arms in all directions. The Pamir and all the huge mountain ranges which
+have their roots in this ganglion are the skeleton of Asia, the
+framework round which the lowlands cling like masses of muscle. Rivers,
+streams, brooks, and rivulets, are the arteries and capillaries of the
+Asiatic body. The deserts of the interior are the sickly consumptive
+parts of the body where vitality is low, while the peninsulas are the
+limbs which facilitate communication between different peoples across
+the intervening seas.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of February, 1894, I was at Margelan, which is the capital
+of Ferghana, the granary of Central Asia, a rich and fruitful valley
+begirt on all sides by mountains. I had got together a small reliable
+caravan of eleven horses and three men, one of them being Islam Bay, who
+was afterwards to serve me faithfully for many years. We did not need
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> take tents with us, for the Governor gave orders to the Kirghizes,
+to set up two of their black felt tents wherever I wished to pass the
+night. We had a good supply of provisions in our boxes, straw and barley
+in sacks, and steel spades, axes, and alpenstocks, for we had to travel
+through deep snow, and over smooth, slippery ice. We forgot to procure a
+dog, but one came to us on the way, begging to be allowed to follow us.</p>
+
+<p>We march southwards up on to the Pamir, following a narrow valley where
+a foaming stream tumbles over ice-draped boulders. We cross it by
+narrow, shaking bridges of timber which look like matches when we gaze
+down on them in the valley bottom from the slopes above. It thaws in the
+sun, but freezes at night, and our path is like a channel of ice running
+along the edge of a vertical precipice. We have several Kirghizes with
+us to give assistance. One of them leads the first horse, which carries
+two large sacks of straw with my tent bed between them. The horse is
+shod and can keep his feet on ice, but at one place the path slopes to
+the edge. The horse stumbles, tries in vain to recover his foothold,
+rolls over the edge, falls into the chasm, and breaks his back on the
+bank of the river. The straw is scattered among the stones, my bed
+dances along the stream, and all the men rush down to save what they
+can.</p>
+
+<p>Now steps are cut in the ice and the path is strewn with sand. The
+higher we go the worse the travelling. A Kirghiz leads each horse by the
+bridle, while another holds on to his tail to help him if he stumbles.
+To ride is impossible; we crawl along on hands and feet. Darkness
+follows twilight; the rushing water of the stream gives forth a sound of
+metallic clearness. We have been travelling more than twelve hours when
+at last the valley opens, and we see blazing camp fires in front of
+Kirghiz tents.</p>
+
+<p>We mount higher day after day. We cross a pass, and at this giddy height
+I experience the unpleasant feelings of mountain sickness&mdash;splitting
+headache, nausea, and singing in the ears. On the further side one of
+the affluents of the Amu-darya flows westwards. This valley, the Alai,
+is broad and open, but full of snow in winter. We make our entry into
+the Alai valley in a howling snowstorm and wade and plunge through
+drifts. Two Kirghizes go in front with sticks to mark out the way, in
+order that the horses may not sink in the snow. Our little caravan moves
+slowly and painfully. One day the snow is so deep that we have to hire
+four camels, which are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> led in front of the caravan to tramp out a
+narrow path for the horses. Everything is white, sky and earth run into
+one another, and there is nothing black to be seen but the men, camels,
+and horses.</p>
+
+<p>At every camp we find excellent felt tents set up in readiness for us.
+Once we had only a short distance to go before reaching camp when we
+were stopped by a trench filled with snow ten feet deep. The first horse
+disappeared in a moment as though he had fallen through a trap-door. His
+load was taken off, and he was pulled up with ropes. Then the Kirghizes
+thought of a grand way of getting over the treacherous snow. They took
+the felt covers of the tent and spread them over the snow and led the
+horses one by one over this yielding bridge.</p>
+
+<p>All this journey we waded and plunged through snowdrifts. One day I sent
+a horseman on in front to examine the road, and only the horse's head
+and the rider could be seen above the snow. Another time there was no
+Kirghiz tent as usual, and we bivouacked round a fire behind a wall of
+snow in a temperature of 29&deg; below freezing-point. The Kirghizes who
+should have furnished us with a tent had been delayed on a pass by an
+avalanche of snow which overwhelmed forty sheep. Six men had struggled
+on to meet us, but two had stuck fast and were abandoned in the snow. Of
+the four who arrived in a sorry condition, one had his foot frozen and
+another had become snow-blind. The Kirghizes usually protect their eyes
+by a long lock of horse-hair hanging down over the forehead from beneath
+the cap, or blacken the eye cavities and nose with charcoal.</p>
+
+<p>Wolves swarm in these mountains, and we often saw the spoor of these
+blood-thirsty robbers. Hunger makes them very daring, and they do great
+damage to the flocks of the Kirghizes, as they will kill even when they
+do not wish to eat. A single wolf had recently worried 180 sheep
+belonging to a Kirghiz. A travelling Kirghiz was attacked in this
+neighbourhood by a pack of wolves, and when the body was found a couple
+of days later only the skull and skeleton were left. Another Kirghiz,
+who was mounted, was attacked and killed, horse and all. Two of my
+guides had fallen in with twelve wolves the winter before, but
+fortunately they were armed and killed two of them, which were at once
+devoured by their comrades.</p>
+
+<p>It is not difficult to imagine the terrible plight of an unarmed Kirghiz
+attacked by wolves. They track him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> by scent and pursue him. Their
+wicked eyes glow with fury and blood-thirstiness. They wrinkle up their
+upper lips to leave their fangs exposed. Their dripping tongues hang out
+of their jaws. The traveller hears their sneaking steps behind him, and
+turning round can distinguish in the dusk their grey coats against the
+white snow. He grows cold with fright, and putting up a prayer to Allah,
+springs and dashes through the drifts in the hope of reaching the
+nearest village of tents.</p>
+
+<p>Every now and again the wolves halt and utter their awful prolonged
+howl, but in an instant they are after the man again. Every minute they
+become bolder. The man flies for his life. They know that he cannot hold
+out long. Now they catch hold of a corner of his fur coat, but let go
+when he throws his cap at them. They pounce upon it and tear it in
+pieces. This only whets their appetites. The poor man staggers on until
+he can hardly put one foot before another, and is almost at his last
+gasp. This is the moment, and the wolves throw themselves upon him from
+all sides. He screams, and fights with his hands; he draws out his knife
+and stabs into the pack in front of him, but a large wolf springs upon
+him from behind and brings him to the ground. There he has at any rate
+his back protected, but the eyes and teeth of the wolves gleam above him
+in the darkness, and he stabs at them with his knife. They know that he
+will tire of this game soon. Two wolves tear open his boots to get at
+his feet. He cannot reach them with his knife, so he sits up, and at the
+same moment the leader seizes him by the neck so that the blood spurts
+out over the white snow. The wolves have now tasted blood and nothing
+can restrain them. The man is beside himself and throws himself about
+thrusting desperately with his knife. The wolves attack him from behind
+and he falls again on his back. Now his knife moves more slowly. The
+wolves yelp, bark and pant, and the froth hangs round their teeth. The
+unfortunate man's eyes grow dim and he closes them, consciousness leaves
+him and he drops the knife from his hand, and the largest wolf is about
+to plunge his fangs into his throat. But suddenly the leader stops and
+utters a short bark, which in wolf's language is equivalent to an oath,
+for at the foot of an adjacent hill are seen two mounted Kirghizes, who
+have come out to seek their comrade. The wolves disappear like magic.
+The poor man lies quite motionless in his tattered furs, and the snow
+around is stained red with blood. He is unconscious, but is still
+breathing and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> his heart beats. His friends bind up his wounds with
+their girdles and carry him on the back of a horse to the tent, where he
+soon comes back to life beside the flames of the evening fire.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the Kirghiz must hate wolves. But the animals are cunning and
+seldom expose themselves to gunshot. Woe to the wolf that is wounded or
+caught! He is not killed, but the most cruel tortures are devised for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>When heavy winter snow falls in the Alai valley, the wolves return to
+the higher wilds of the Pamir where the snow lies less deep, and here
+they chase the wild sheep, <i>Ovis Poli</i>, as it is named after its
+discoverer, Marco Polo. It has large, round, elegantly curved horns and
+is somewhat larger than the wild sheep of Tibet. The wolves chase Marco
+Polo's sheep by a cunningly devised method. They hunt up a herd and
+single out some less cautious or less quick-footed member. This animal
+is forced by a watch posted ready beforehand to take refuge on a
+projecting rock which is surrounded by wolves. If they can get up to the
+sheep they take him easily, but if not, they wait till his legs give way
+with weariness and he falls into the jaws of his pursuers.</p>
+
+<p>Many a time I have met wolves in various parts of Asia, and many sheep,
+mules, and horses of mine have they destroyed. How often has their
+dismal howl sounded outside my tent, as though they were calling for my
+flesh and blood!</p>
+
+<p>We had ridden 300 miles when we came to a small Russian frontier fort
+which rears its simple walls on the middle of the "Roof of the World,"
+beside one of the headwaters of the Amu-darya. On the other side of the
+frontier lies the Eastern Pamir, in the dominion of the Emperor of
+China.</p>
+
+
+<h3>"<span class="smcap">The Father of Ice-Mountains</span>"</h3>
+
+<p>Wherever one may be in the Eastern Pamir one sees the Mus-tagh-ata, the
+"Father of Ice-Mountains," rear its rounded summit above all the other
+peaks (see map, p. 56). Its height is 25,800 feet, and accordingly it is
+one of the loftiest mountains in the world. On its arched crest snow
+collects, and its under layers are converted by pressure into ice. The
+mountain is therefore crowned by a snow-covered ice-cap. Where there are
+flat hollows round the summit, in these also snow is piled up as in
+bowls. It glides slowly down with its own weight, and by pressure from
+above is here also converted into ice. Thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> are produced great tongues
+of ice, which move downwards exceedingly slowly, perhaps only a few
+yards in the year. They are enclosed between huge steep ridges, from
+which time after time gravel and blocks of stone fall down on to the ice
+and are carried down to lower levels. The further the ice descends the
+warmer becomes the air, and then the ice melts in the sun. As it melts
+below, the stream of ice is forced down from above, so that its lowest
+margin is always to be found in the same place. The gravel and boulders
+are brought down thither and piled up together so as to form great
+mounds and ridges, which are called moraines. The ice-stream itself is
+called a glacier. Many such tongues of ice fringe Mus-tagh-ata on all
+sides. They are several miles long and half a mile to a mile broad. The
+surface is very uneven and consists of innumerable knobs and pyramids of
+clear ice.</p>
+
+<p>I made several excursions on the glaciers of Mus-tagh-ata on foot or on
+yaks. One must be well shod so as not to slip, and one must look out for
+crevasses. Once we were stopped by a crevasse several yards broad and
+forty-five feet deep. When we stooped over the brim and looked down, it
+had the appearance of a dark-blue grotto with walls of polished glass,
+and long icicles hung down from the edges. Streamlets of melted ice run
+over the surface of the glacier, sometimes flowing quietly and gently as
+oil in the greenish-blue ice channels, sometimes murmuring in lively
+leaps. The water can be heard trickling and bubbling at the bottom of
+the crevasses, and the surface brooks often form fine waterfalls which
+disappear into chasms of ice. On warm days when the sun shines, thawing
+proceeds everywhere, and the water trickles, bubbles, and runs all about
+the ice. But if the weather is dull, cold, and raw, the glaciers are
+quieter, and when winter comes with its severe cold they are quite hard
+and still, and the brooks freeze into ice.</p>
+
+<p>The yaks of the Kirghizes are wonderfully sure-footed, and one can ride
+on them over slippery hillocky ice where a man could not possibly walk.
+The yak thrusts down his hoofs so that the white powdered ice spurts up
+around him, and if the slope is so steep that he cannot get foothold, he
+stretches out all four legs and holds them stiff and rigid as iron and
+thus slides down without tumbling. Sometimes I rode over moraine heaps
+of huge granite blocks piled one upon another. Then I had to take a firm
+grip with my knees, for the yak springs and jumps about like a lunatic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by specially selected Kirghizes, I tried four times to climb
+to the top of the "Father of Ice-Mountains," but always without success.
+Our camp was pitched high up among the moraines. Islam Bay, six
+Kirghizes, and ten yaks were in readiness before sunrise, and we took
+with us ample provisions, fur coats, spades and alpenstocks, food and a
+tent. At first we climbed up over gravel, and then over snow which
+became deeper the higher we went. As the air became rarer, respiration
+was more difficult, and even the yaks halted frequently to recover their
+breath. The Kirghizes walked on foot and urged the animals up towards
+the giddy heights. It took us the whole day to reach a point 20,700 feet
+above sea-level. At this point we halted for the night, intending to
+push on higher in the morning, but two of the Kirghizes were so overcome
+with weariness and headaches that they asked to be allowed to go down
+again. The others shovelled away the snow and pitched the little tent
+within a wall of snow. A fire was kindled and the tea-kettle put on, but
+our appetites were poor, as we were suffering from mountain sickness.
+The ten yaks stood tethered in the snow outside, and the Kirghizes
+curled themselves up in their skin coats like hedgehogs. The full moon
+soared like a silvery white balloon just above the top of the mountain,
+and I left the tent to enjoy this never-to-be-forgotten spectacle. The
+glacier below us lay in shadow in its deep bed, but the snow-fields were
+dazzling white. The yaks stood out jet black against the snow, their
+nostrils steaming, and the snow crunching under them. Light white clouds
+floated rapidly from the mountain under the moon. At last I returned to
+the tent. The fire had died down, and the recently melted snow had
+frozen into ice. There was a smell of damp and smoke inside, and the men
+groaned and complained of headache and singing in the ears. I crawled
+under my furs, but could not sleep. The night was quiet, but at times a
+dull report was heard when a crevasse was formed in the ice or a boulder
+fell from the mountain-side.</p>
+
+<p>When I crawled out from under my furs in the morning, a violent
+snowstorm was sweeping along the flanks of the mountain. Through the
+dense cloud of whirling snow we could not see our way, and it would have
+been death to mount to still higher regions. We might be glad if we
+could struggle down again alive in such weather, so down we started
+through the drifts, down headlong. We all needed a thorough rest after
+this experience.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion we had a perilous adventure on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> rounded ice-cap
+of Mus-tagh-ata. We were marching upwards as usual, suspecting no
+danger, when the foremost yak, which carried two large bundles of fuel,
+suddenly sank through the snow and disappeared. Fortunately he was held
+fast by his horns, a hind leg, and the faggots, and there he hung
+suspended over a dark yawning chasm. The snow had formed a treacherous
+bridge over a large crevasse in the ice, and this bridge gave way under
+the weight of the yak. We had all the trouble in the world to haul him
+up again with ropes.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Kirghiz Gymkhana</span></h3>
+
+<p>At the foot of Mus-tagh-ata there is a level and extensive valley, where
+grass thrives luxuriantly. The black tents of the Kirghizes stand
+scattered about like spots on a panther's skin. I hired one of these
+tents for the summer of 1904, and spent several very interesting months
+in studying the habits and mode of life of the people. If the weather
+was fine, I made long excursions on horseback or on a yak, and compiled
+a map of the surrounding country. If rain poured down, I kept inside my
+own tent, or visited my Kirghiz neighbours and talked with them, for by
+that time I had learned to speak their language.</p>
+
+<p>Round the large hive-shaped tents fierce dogs keep watch, and small
+naked sunburnt children tumble about in play. They are charmingly sweet,
+and it is hard to believe that they will grow up into tall rough
+half-wild Kirghizes. But all children are attractive and lovable before
+life and mankind have hardened them. In the tent sit the young women,
+spinning thread or weaving cloth; the older women are busy with the sour
+milk and butter behind a partition in the tent, or perhaps they are
+sitting round a pot, cooking meat. A fire is always burning in the
+middle of the tent, and the smoke finds its way out through a round
+opening in the top. The young men are out with the sheep or are looking
+after the yaks grazing in the mountains. The older men repair saddles
+and boots, make harness for horses or household utensils. Sometimes they
+go hunting after wild sheep and goats. When the sun sets the sheep are
+driven into folds near the tent; the women milk the ewes and yak-cows.
+During the night a watch is kept on account of the wolves. The Kirghizes
+are Mohammedans, and are often heard intoning Arabic prayers outside the
+tents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Not many days had passed before I was on friendly terms with all the
+Kirghizes. They perceived that I wished them well, and was glad to live
+among them. They came from far and near and gave me presents&mdash;sheep and
+milk, wild sheep they had shot, and mountain partridges. All my servants
+except Islam Bay were Kirghizes, and they followed me willingly wherever
+I chose to travel.</p>
+
+<p>One day the chiefs of the Kirghizes decided to hold a grand festival in
+my honour. It was to be a <i>baiga</i>, or gymkhana, and early in the morning
+small parties of horsemen were seen gathering to the great plain where
+the wild sport was to take place.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun was at its height I was escorted to the arena by forty-two
+Kirghizes, who rode beside and behind me. In their best clothes,
+coloured mantles with girdles and embroidered caps, and with their
+daggers and knives, fire steel, pipe and tobacco box rattling at their
+sides, they presented a stately and festal appearance. Among them might
+be noticed the chief of the Kirghizes who lived on the eastern side of
+Mus-tagh-ata. His long mantle was dark blue, his girdle light blue; on
+his head he had a violet cap with a gold border, and at his side dangled
+a scimitar in a black scabbard. The chief himself was tall, with a thin
+black beard, scanty moustaches, small oblique eyes and high cheek bones,
+like most Kirghizes.</p>
+
+<p>The plain in front of us was black with horsemen and horses; there was
+bustle, neighing, and stamping on all sides. Here the high chief, Khoat
+Bek, a hundred and eleven years old, sits firmly and surely in his
+saddle, though bent by the weight of years. His large aquiline nose
+points down to his short white beard, and on his head he wears a brown
+turban. He is surrounded by five sons, also grey-bearded old men,
+mounted on tall horses.</p>
+
+<p>Now the performance began. The spectators rode to one side, leaving an
+open space in front of us. A horseman dashed forward with a goat in his
+arms, dismounted, and let the poor animal loose near to us. Another
+Kirghiz seized the goat by the horn with his left hand, cut off its head
+with a single blow of his sharp knife, allowed the blood to flow, and
+then took the goat by the hind legs and rode at full speed round the
+plain. A troop of riders appeared in the distance and drew near at a
+furious pace. The hoofs of eighty horses beat the ground and the
+deafening noise was mingled with wild cries and the rattle of stirrup
+irons. They rushed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> swiftly past us in a cloud of dust, making a current
+of air like a storm of wind. The first rider threw the dead goat, which
+was still warm, in front of me, and then they whirled off like thunder
+over the plain.</p>
+
+<p>"Ride back a little, sir," called out some chiefs, "there will be wild
+work now." We had hardly time to draw back far enough before the excited
+troop came rushing along, with their horses in a lather, like an
+avalanche from the mountains. Round the goat there was an inextricable
+confusion of men and horses, only partially visible in the dust. They
+were struggling for the goat, and the one who gets it is the winner.
+They crush together and tear and push; horses shy, rear, or fall down,
+while other horses leap over them. Holding on to their saddles the
+horsemen bend down towards the ground and feel for the hide. Some have
+fallen off and are in danger of being tramped upon, while others are
+hanging half under their horses.</p>
+
+<p>Still worse becomes the tumult when a couple of men on yaks push
+themselves into the scrimmage. The yaks prod the horses' loins with
+their horns. The horses are irritated and kick, and the yaks defend
+themselves; then there is a perfect bullfight in full swing.</p>
+
+<p>A strong fellow has now succeeded in getting a firm hold of the goat.
+His horse knows what to do, and backs with his rider out of the
+scrimmage and flies swiftly as the wind in a wide course round the
+plain. The others pursue him, and as they turn back they look as if they
+mean to ride over us with irresistible force. At the last moment,
+however, the horses stop as if turned to stone; and then the struggle
+begins again. Many have their faces covered with blood, others have
+their clothes torn, caps and whips lie scattered over the arena, and one
+or two horses are lamed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very well for us who are old that we are not in the crush," I
+said to Khoat Bek.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, it is nearly a hundred years ago since I was as old as you are
+now," the old man answered with a smile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A team of three horses abreast.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The word "darya" means "river."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>VI</h2>
+
+<h2>FROM PERSIA TO INDIA (1906)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Tebbes to Seistan</span></h3>
+
+<p>Now we can return to Tebbes and continue our journey to India.</p>
+
+<p>The camels are laden, we mount, the bells ring again, and our caravan
+travels through the desert for days and weeks towards the south-east. At
+length we come to the shore of a large lake called the Hamun, which lies
+on the frontier between Persia and Afghanistan. The Amu-darya forms the
+boundary between Bukhara and Afghanistan, the northern half of which is
+occupied by the Hindu-kush mountains. The name means "slaughterer of
+Hindus," because Hindus who venture up among the mountains after the
+heat of India have every prospect of being frozen to death in the
+eternal snow. Large quantities of winter snow are melted in spring, and
+then rivers and streams pour through the valleys to collect on the
+plains of southern Afghanistan into a large river called the Hilmend,
+which flows into the Hamun. As there are no proper boats or ferries on
+the lake, we had here to take farewell of the camels who had served us
+so faithfully and had carried us and our belongings through such long
+stretches of desert. We were sorry to part with them, but there was
+nothing for it but to sell them to the only dealer who would take them
+off our hands.</p>
+
+<p>Reeds and rushes grow in abundance along the flat shores of the Hamun,
+but no trees. The natives build their huts of reeds, and also a curious
+kind of boat. Handfuls of dry, yellow reeds of last year's growth are
+tied together into cigar-shaped bundles, and then a number of such
+bundles are bound together into a torpedo-like vessel several yards
+long. When laden this reed boat floats barely four inches above the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+water, but it can never be filled and made to sink by the waves. It is
+true that the bundles of reeds might be loosened and torn apart by a
+high sea, but the natives take good care not to go out in bad weather.</p>
+
+<p>It took fourteen of these reed boats to accommodate our party and its
+belongings. A half-naked Persian stood at the stern of each boat and
+pushed the vessel along by means of a long pole, for the lake though
+twelve miles broad is only five or six feet deep. A fresh breeze skimmed
+the surface when we came out of the reeds into the open lake, and it was
+very refreshing after weeks of the dry oppressive heat of the desert.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img006.jpg"  width="550" height="506"
+ alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM TEHERAN TO BALUCHISTAN" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM TEHERAN TO BALUCHISTAN<br />
+(pp. <a href='#Page_46'><b>46-54</b></a> and <a href='#Page_72'><b>72-81</b></a>).</h4>
+
+<p>After crossing the Hamun we had not more than a couple of hours' ride to
+the capital of Seistan, Nasretabad. Five months before us another guest
+had arrived, the plague; and just at the time the black angel of death
+was going about in search of victims. He took the peasant from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+plough and the shepherd from his flock; and the fisherman, who in the
+morning had gone cheerily to set his nets in the waters of the Hamun, in
+the evening lay groaning in his hut with a burning fever.</p>
+
+<p>Asia is the birth-place of the ruling peoples, the Aryans, and of the
+yellow race; it is the cradle of the great religions, Buddhism,
+Christianity, and Mohammedanism; and it is also the breeding-place of
+fearful epidemic diseases which from time to time sweep over mankind
+like devastating waves. Among these is the "Black Death," the plague
+which in the year 1350 carried off twenty-five millions of the people of
+Europe. Men thought that it was a divine punishment. Some repented and
+did penance; others gave themselves up to drunkenness and other
+excesses. They had then no notion of the deadly bacteria, and of the
+serum which renders the blood immune from their attacks.</p>
+
+<p>In 1894 a similar wave swept from China through Hong Kong to India,
+where three millions of human beings died in a few years. I remember a
+small house in the poor quarter of Bombay which I visited in 1902. The
+authorities had given orders that when any one died of the plague a red
+cross should be painted beside the doorpost of the house. And this small
+house alone had forty crosses.</p>
+
+<p>And now in 1906 the plague had reached Seistan. From the roof of the
+house where I lived with some English officers, we could see the
+unfortunate people carrying out their dear ones to the grave. We could
+see them wash the bodies in a pool outside the walls, and then resume
+their sad procession. The population of the small town seemed in danger
+of extermination, and at length the people fled in hundreds. An English
+doctor and his assistant wished to help them by means of serum
+injections, but the Mohammedan clergy, out of hatred of the Europeans,
+made the people believe that it was the Christians who had let loose the
+disease over the country. Deluded and excited, the natives gathered
+together and made an attack on the British Consulate, but were repulsed.
+Then they went back to their huts to die helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>They tried as far as possible to keep the cases of death secret and
+carried out the corpses at night. Soon the deaths were so frequent that
+it was impossible to dig proper graves. Those, therefore, who thought of
+the hy&aelig;nas and jackals, digged their own graves beforehand. Processions
+round the mosque of the town were instituted, with black flags and a
+sacrificial goat at the head, and the mercy of Allah was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> implored. But
+Allah did not hear, and infection was spread among the people who
+flocked together to the processions.</p>
+
+<p>Under the microscope the deadly microbes appear only as quite small
+elongated dots, though they are magnified twelve hundred times. They
+live in the blood of rats, whose parasites communicate the infection to
+human beings. It is therefore most important to exterminate all rats
+when an outbreak of plague occurs. The disease is terribly infectious.
+In a house where the angel of death descends and carries off a victim,
+all the inmates die one after another. Stupidly blind, the natives did
+not understand what was good for them, and could not be induced to burn
+infected clothes and the whole contents of a plague-stricken house. They
+would not part with their worldly goods and preferred to perish with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>In one house dwelt a poor carpenter with his wife, two half-grown sons
+and a daughter. For two days the father had been oppressed by a feeling
+of weakness, and then, his body burning with fever, he lay raving in a
+corner on the floor of stamped earth. He was indifferent to everything
+and wished only to be left in peace. If his wife threw a rug over him he
+groaned, for the lymph glands, which swell up in large tumours, are
+exceedingly painful. In a couple of days the microbes penetrate from the
+tumour into the blood and the unfortunate man dies of blood poisoning.
+The vermin under the man's clothes leave the body as soon as the blood
+ceases to flow. Then is the danger greatest for the survivors who stand
+mourning round the deathbed, for the vermin seek circulating blood and
+carry infection from the corpse with them. It is useless to warn the
+natives of the danger, for they do not believe a word of it&mdash;and so die
+in their turn.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Baluchi Raid</span></h3>
+
+<p>We were glad to leave a country where the plague had taken up its abode
+and to hasten away to the desert tracts of Baluchistan, which still
+separated us from India. My old servants had taken their departure, and
+a new retinue, all Baluchis, accompanied me.</p>
+
+<p>We rode <i>jambas</i>, or swift-footed dromedaries, which for generations
+have been trained for speed. Their legs are long and thin, but strong,
+with large foot pads which strike the hard ground with a heavy tapping
+sound as they run. They carry their heads high and move more quickly
+than the majestic caravan camels; but when they run they lower their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+heads below the level of the hump and keep it always horizontal.</p>
+
+<p>Two men ride on each <i>jambas</i>, and therefore the saddle has two hollows
+and two pairs of stirrups. A peg is thrust through the cartilage of the
+nose and to its ends a thin cord is attached. By pulling this to one
+side or the other the dromedary may be turned in any direction. My
+courser had a swinging gait but did not jolt; and I sat comfortably and
+firmly in the saddle as we left mile after mile behind.</p>
+
+<p>It is not more than thirty or forty years ago since the Baluchis used to
+make raids into Persian territory, and although much better order is
+maintained now that the country is under British administration, an
+escort is still necessary&mdash;I had six men mounted on dromedaries and
+armed with modern rifles. This is how a raid is conducted.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Shah Sevar, or the "Riding King," the warlike chieftain of a
+tribe in western Baluchistan, sits smoking a pipe by the camp fire in
+front of his black tent, which is supported by tamarisk boughs (Plate
+VII.). The tale-teller has just finished a story, when two white-clad
+men with white turbans on their heads emerge from the darkness of the
+night. They tie up their dromedaries, humbly salute Shah Sevar, who
+invites them to sit down and help themselves to tea from an iron pot.
+Other men come up to the fire. All carry long guns, spears, swords, and
+daggers. Some lead two or three dromedaries each.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate7.jpg"  width="550" height="339"
+ alt="PLATE VII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE VII. A BALUCHI NOMAD TENT.</h4>
+
+<p>Fourteen men are now gathered round the fire. There is a marked silence
+in the assembly, and Shah Sevar looks serious. At length he asks, "Is
+everything ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," is the reply from all sides.</p>
+
+<p>"Are the powder and shot horns filled?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And the provisions packed in their bags?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;dates, sour cheese, and bread for eight days."</p>
+
+
+<p>"I told you the day before yesterday that this time we shall strike at
+Bam. Bam is a populous town. If we are discovered too early the fight
+may be hot. We must steal through the desert like jackals. The distance
+is three hundred miles, four days' journey."</p>
+
+<p>Again Shah Sevar stares into the fire for a while and then asks, "Are
+the <i>jambas</i> in good condition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And ten spare dromedaries for the booty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then he rises and all the others follow his example. Their wild, bold
+faces glow coppery-red in the light of the fire. They consider petty
+thieving a base occupation, but raiding and pillaging an honourable
+sport, and boast of the number of slaves they have captured in their
+day.</p>
+
+<p>"Mount," commands the chieftain in a subdued voice. Muskets are thrown
+over the shoulder and rattle against the hanging powder-horn and the
+leather bag for bullets, flint, steel, and tinder. Daggers are thrust
+into belts, and the men mount without examining the saddle-girths and
+bridles, for all has been carefully made ready beforehand. The spear is
+secured in front of the saddle. "In the name of Allah," calls out Shah
+Sevar, and the party rides off through the night at a steady pace.</p>
+
+<p>The path they follow is well known and the stars serve as guides. Day
+breaks, the sun rises, and the shadows of the dromedaries point towards
+Bam over the hard yellow sand where not a shrub grows. Not a word has
+been spoken during the night, but when the first seventy miles have been
+traversed the chief says, "We will rest a while at the Spring of White
+Water." On arriving at the spring they refill their water-skins and let
+the dromedaries drink. Then they go up into the neighbouring hills and
+wait till the hot hours of the day are over. They never encamp at the
+springs, for there they are likely to meet with other people.</p>
+
+<p>At dusk they are in the saddle again. They ride harder than during the
+first night and travel till they come to a salt spring. The third night
+the dromedaries begin to breathe more heavily, and when the sun rises
+flecks of white froth hang from their trembling lips. They are not tired
+but only a little winded, and they press on through clouds of dust
+without their riders having to urge them.</p>
+
+<p>Now the party leaves behind it the last desert path, which is only once
+in a while used by a caravan, and beyond it is a perfect wilderness of
+hardened salt-impregnated mud. Nothing living can be seen, not even a
+stray raven or vulture which might warn the people in Bam of their
+danger. Without rest the robber band pushes on all day, as silent as the
+desert, the only sounds being the long-drawn breathing of the
+dromedaries and the rasping sound of their foot-pads on the ground. When
+the reflection of the evening sky lies in purple shades over the desert,
+they have only ten or twelve miles more to go.</p>
+
+<p>Shah Sevar pulls up his dromedary and orders a halt in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> muffled tones,
+as though he feared that his voice might be heard in Bam. With a hissing
+noise the riders make their animals kneel and lie down, and then they
+spring out of the saddle, and tie the end of the cord round the
+dromedaries' forelegs to prevent the animals from getting up and making
+a noise and thus spoiling the plan. All are tired out and stretch
+themselves on the ground. Some sleep, others are kept awake by
+excitement, while four riders go scouting in different directions. Bam
+itself cannot be seen, but the hill is visible at the foot of which the
+town stands. The men long for night and the cover of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The day has been calm and hot, but now the evening is cool and the
+shadows dense. A faint breeze comes from the north, and Shah Sevar
+smiles. If the wind were from the east, he would be obliged to make a
+detour in order not to rouse the dogs of the town. It is now nine
+o'clock and in an hour the people of Bam will be asleep. The men have
+finished their meal, and have wrapped up the remainder of the dates,
+cheese, and bread in their bundles and tied them upon the dromedaries.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we empty the waterskins so as to make the loads lighter for the
+attack?" asks a Baluchi.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answers Shah Sevar; "keep all the water that is left, for we may
+not be able to fill the skins in the town before our retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"It is time," he says; "have your weapons ready." They mount again and
+ride slowly towards the town.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as anything suspicious occurs I shall quicken my pace and you
+must follow. You three with the baggage camels keep in the rear."</p>
+
+<p>The robbers gaze in front like eagles on their prey, and the outlines of
+the hill gradually rise higher above the western horizon. Now only three
+miles remain, and their sight, sharpened by an outdoor life,
+distinguishes the gardens of Bam. They draw near. The bark of a dog is
+heard, another joins in&mdash;all the dogs of the town are barking; they have
+winded the dromedaries.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on," shouts the chief. With encouraging cries the dromedaries are
+urged forward; their heads almost touch the ground; they race along
+while froth and dust fly about them. The dogs bark furiously and some of
+them have already come out to meet the dromedaries. Now the wild chase
+reaches the entrance to the town. Cries of despair are heard as the
+inhabitants are wakened; and women and wailing children escape towards
+the hill. The time is too short for any organised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> defence. There is no
+one to take the command. The unfortunate inhabitants run over one
+another like scared chickens and the riders are upon them. Shah Sevar
+sits erect on his dromedary and leads the assault. Some jump down and
+seize three men, twelve women, and six children, who are hastily bound
+and put in charge of two Baluchis, while others quickly search some
+houses close at hand. They come out again with two youths who have made
+a useless resistance, a couple of sacks of grain, some household goods,
+and all the silver they could find.</p>
+
+<p>"How many slaves?" roars Shah Sevar.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-three," is answered from several directions.</p>
+
+<p>"That is enough; pack up." The slaves and the stolen goods are bound
+fast on dromedaries. "Quick, quick," shouts the chief. "Back the way we
+came." In the hurry and confusion some of the animals get entangled in
+one another's ropes. "Back! Back!" The chieftain's practised eye has
+detected a party of armed men coming up. Three shots are heard in the
+darkness, and Shah Sevar falls backwards out of the saddle, while his
+dromedary starts and flies off into the desert. The rider's left foot is
+caught fast in the stirrup and his head drags in the dust. A bullet has
+entered his forehead, but the blood is staunched by the dust of the
+road. His foot slips out of the stirrup, and the "Riding King" lies dead
+as a stone outside Bam.</p>
+
+<p>Another robber is severely wounded and is cut to pieces by the townsmen.
+Bam has waked up. The entangled dromedaries with their burdens of slaves
+and goods are captured, but the rest of the party, twelve riders with
+ten baggage camels, have vanished in the darkness, pursued by some
+infuriated dogs. Sixteen of the inhabitants of the town are missing. The
+whole thing has taken place in half an hour. Bam sleeps no more this
+night.</p>
+
+<p>Now the dromedaries are urged on to the uttermost; they have double
+loads to carry, but they travel as quickly as they came. The kidnapped
+children cease to cry, and fall asleep with weariness and the violent
+swaying motion. The party rides all night and all the next day without
+stopping, and the robbers often look round to see if they are pursued.
+They rest for the first time at the salt spring, posting a look-out on
+an adjacent mound. They eat and drink without losing a minute, and get
+ready for the rest of the ride. The captives are paralysed with fright;
+the young women are half choked with weeping, and a little lad in a
+tattered shirt goes about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> crying vainly for his mother. The eyes of the
+captives are blindfolded with white bandages that they may not notice
+the way they are travelling and try later to escape back to Bam. Then
+the headlong ride is resumed, and after eight days the troop of riders
+is back at home with their booty, but without their chief.</p>
+
+<p>Innumerable raids of this kind have scourged eastern Persia, and in the
+same way Turkomans have devastated Khorasan in the north-east. On the
+eastern frontier it is the Kurds who are the robbers. In this disturbed
+frontier region there is not a town without its small primitive mud fort
+or outlook tower.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Scorpions</span></h3>
+
+<p>On running dromedaries we now ride on eastwards through northern
+Baluchistan. Dry, burnt-up desert tracts, scantily clothed with thistles
+and shrubs, moving dunes of fine yellow sand, low hill ridges
+disintegrated by alternate heat and cold&mdash;such is the country where a
+few nomads wander about with their flocks, and the stranger often
+wonders how the animals find a living. In certain valleys, however,
+there is pasture and also water, and sometimes belts of thriving
+tamarisks are passed, and bushes of saxaul with green leafy branches,
+hard wood, and roots which penetrate down to the moisture beneath the
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>The great caravan road we are following is, however, exceedingly
+desolate. Only at the stations is water to be found, and even that is
+brackish; but the worst trial is the heat, which now, at the end of
+April, becomes more oppressive every day. The temperature rises nearly
+up to 105-1/2&deg; in the shade, and to ride full in the face of the sun is
+like thrusting one's head into a blazing furnace. When there is a wind
+we are all right, and the sand whirls like yellow ghosts over the heated
+ground. But when the air is calm the outlines of the hills seem to
+quiver in the heat, and the barrel of a gun which has been out in the
+sun blisters the hands on being touched. In the height of the summer the
+Baluchis wrap strips of felt round their stirrup-irons to protect the
+dromedaries from burns on the flanks.</p>
+
+<p>This region is one of the hottest in the world. The sun stands so high
+at mid-day that the shadows of the dromedaries disappear beneath them.
+You long for sunset, when the shadows lengthen out and the worst of the
+heat is over. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> not really cool even at night, when, moreover, you
+are plagued with whole swarms of gnats.</p>
+
+<p>Baluchistan and Persia abound with scorpions, which are indeed to be
+found in all the hot regions of the five continents. About two hundred
+species have been distinguished. Some are quite small, others six inches
+long. Some are dark-brown, others reddish, and others again
+straw-yellow, as in Baluchistan. The body consists of a head and thorax
+without joints, and a hinder part of seven articulated rings, besides
+six tail rings. The last ring, the thirteenth, contains two poison
+glands and is furnished with a sting as fine as a needle. The poison is
+a fluid clear as water.</p>
+
+<p>Scorpions live in rotten tree-trunks, under stones, on walls, and as
+they like warmth they often enter houses and huts, and creep into
+clothes and beds.</p>
+
+<p>The scorpion leaves his dark den at night and sets out on the hunt. He
+holds his tail turned up over his back, in order to keep his sting from
+injury and to be ready at once for attack or defence. When he meets with
+a desirable victim, such as a large spider, he darts quickly forward,
+seizes it with his claws, which are like those of crabs, raises it above
+his head in order to examine it with his eyes, which are turned upwards,
+and gives it the death-stroke with his sting. Then he sucks up the
+softer parts and grinds the harder between his jaws.</p>
+
+<p>The young ones, which are active as soon as they are born, are like the
+old ones from the first day, but are light-coloured and soft. They crawl
+about their mother's back and legs and do not leave her body for some
+time. When that happens the mother dies, having meanwhile wasted away.</p>
+
+<p>The sting of large scorpions is dangerous even to human beings. Cases
+have been known of a man dying in great agony twelve hours after being
+stung. Others get cramp, fever, and pains before they begin to recover.
+A man who has often been stung becomes at last insensible to the poison.</p>
+
+<p>Many a time I have found scorpions in Asiatic huts, in my tent, on my
+bed, and under my boxes, but I have never been stung by one. On the
+other hand, it has been the fate of many of my servants, and they told
+me that it was difficult to find out where the scorpion had stung them,
+for their bodies sweated and burned equally intensely all over. In
+Eastern Turkestan it is the practice to catch the scorpion which has
+stung a man and crush him into a paste, which is laid over the puncture
+made by the sting. But whether this is a real cure I do not know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Indus</span></h3>
+
+<p>After travelling 1500 miles on camels and dromedaries, the whistle of an
+engine sounds like the sweetest music to the ear. At Nushki (see map, p.
+132), the furthermost station of the Indian railway, I took leave of my
+Baluchi servants, stepped into a train, and was carried past the
+garrison town of Quetta south-eastwards to the Indus. Here we find that
+one branch of the railway follows the river closely on its western bank
+to Karachi, one of the principal seaports of British India. Our train,
+however, carries us northwards along the eastern bank to Rawalpindi, an
+important military station near the borders of Kashmir.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img007.jpg"  width="550" height="390"
+ alt="MAP OF NORTHERN INDIA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP OF NORTHERN INDIA, SHOWING RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES.</h4>
+
+<p>In the large roomy compartment it is as warm as it was lately in
+Baluchistan, or nearly 107&deg;. To shade the railway carriages from the
+burning sun overhead, they are provided with a kind of wooden cover with
+flaps falling down half over the windows. The glass is not white, as in
+European carriage windows, but dark blue or green, otherwise the
+reflexion of the sunlight from the ground would be too dazzling. On
+either side two windows have, instead of glass, a lattice of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> root
+fibres which are kept wet automatically night and day. Outside the
+window is a ventilator, which, set in action by the motion of the train,
+forces a rapid current of air through the wet network of fibres. Thereby
+the air is cooled some eighteen or twenty degrees, and it is pleasant to
+sit partly undressed in the draught.</p>
+
+<p>Look a moment at the map. South of the Himalayas the Indian peninsula
+forms an inverted triangle, the apex of which juts out into the Indian
+Ocean like a tooth, but the northern part, at the base, is broad. Here
+flow the three large rivers of India, the Indus, the Ganges, and the
+Bramaputra. The last mentioned waters the plains of Assam at the eastern
+angle of the triangle. On the banks of the Ganges stands a swarm of
+famous large towns, some of which we shall visit when we return from
+Tibet. The Ganges and Bramaputra have a delta in common, through which
+their waters pass by innumerable arms out into the Bay of Bengal.</p>
+
+<p>At the western angle of the triangle the Indus streams down to the
+Arabian Sea. The sources of the Indus and Bramaputra lie close to each
+other, up in Tibet, and the Himalayas are set like an immense jewel
+between the glistening silver threads of the two rivers. On the west the
+Indus cuts through a valley as much as 10,000 feet deep, and on the east
+the Bramaputra makes its way down to the lowlands through a deep-cut
+cleft not less wild and awesome.</p>
+
+<p>The Indus has several tributaries. In foaming waterfalls and roaring
+rapids they rush down from the mountains to meet their lord. The largest
+of them is called the Sutlej, and the lowlands through which it flows
+are called the Punjab, a Persian word signifying "five waters." The
+Indus has thirteen mouths scattered along 150 miles of coast, and the
+whole river is 2000 miles long, or somewhat longer than the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of July, 325 years before the birth of Christ, Aristotle's
+pupil, Alexander, King of Macedonia, floated down the Indus with a fleet
+of newly built ships and reached Pattala, where the arms of the delta
+diverge. He found the town deserted, for the inhabitants had fled
+inland, so he sent light troops after them to tell them that they might
+return in peace to their homes. A fortress was erected at the town, and
+several wharves on the river bank.</p>
+
+<p>He turned over great schemes in his mind. Had he not at twenty years of
+age taken over the government of the little country of Macedonia, and
+subdued the people of Thrace,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> Illyria, and Greece? Had he not led his
+troops over the Hellespont, defeated the Persians, and conquered the
+countries of Asia Minor, Lycia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, where with a
+blow of his sword he had severed the Gordian knot, a token of supremacy
+over Asia? At Issus, on the rectangular bay facing Cyprus, he had
+inflicted a crushing defeat on the great King of Persia, Darius
+Codomannus, who with the united forces of his kingdom had come to meet
+him. At Damascus he captured all the Persian war funds, and afterwards
+took the famous commercial towns of the Phoenicians, Tyre and Sidon.
+Palestine fell, and Jerusalem with the holy places. On the coast of
+Egypt he founded Alexandria, which now, after a lapse of 2240 years, is
+still a flourishing city. He marched through the Libyan desert to the
+oasis of Zeus Ammon, where the priests, after the old Pharaonic custom,
+consecrated him "Son of Ammon."</p>
+
+<p>He passed eastwards into Asia, crossed the Euphrates, defeated Darius
+again at the Tigris, and reduced proud Babylon and Shushan, where 150
+years previously King Ahasuerus, who reigned "from India even unto
+Ethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces," made a feast
+for his lords and "shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
+honour of his excellent majesty." Then he advanced to Persepolis and set
+on fire the palace of the Great King to show that the old empire had
+passed away. Pursuing Darius through Ispahan and Hamadan, he afterwards
+turned aside into Bactria, the present Russian Central Asia, and marched
+northwards to the Syr-darya and the land of the Scythians. Thence, with
+an army of more than a hundred thousand men, he proceeded southwards and
+conquered the Punjab and subdued all the people living west of the
+Indus.</p>
+
+<p>Now he had come to Pattala, and he thought of the victories he had
+gained and the countries he had annexed. He had appointed everywhere
+Greeks and Macedonians to rule in conjunction with the native princes
+and satraps.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The great empire must be knit together into a solid
+unity, and Babylon was to be its capital. Only in the west there was
+still an enormous gap to be conquered, the desert through which we have
+lately wandered on the way from Teheran through Tebbes and Seistan and
+Baluchistan.</p>
+
+<p>In order to reduce the people living here he despatched a part of his
+host by a northerly route through Seistan to north<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Persia. He himself
+led forty thousand men along the coast. Twelve thousand men were to sail
+and row the newly-built ships along the coast of the Arabian Sea,
+through the Straits of Hormuz, and along the northern coast of the
+Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates. No Greek had ever navigated
+this sea before, and with the vessels of the period the enterprise was a
+most dangerous one, as absolutely nothing was known about the coast to
+be followed. But it was necessary, for Alexander wished to secure for
+himself the command of the sea route between the mouths of the Euphrates
+and Indus, so as to connect the western and eastern parts of his
+kingdom. It was to supply the fleet with provisions and water that he
+chose for himself the dangerous desert route along the coast. Of the
+40,000 men who accompanied him on this march, no less than 30,000 died
+of thirst! The high admiral, Nearchus of Crete, performed his task with
+brilliant success. His voyage was one of the most remarkable ever
+achieved on the oceans of the globe. The chart he compiled is so exact
+that it may be used at the present day, though the coast has since then
+undergone changes in some places and has been further silted up with
+sand and made shallower.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander would not let his fleet start on its adventurous voyage before
+he was himself convinced of the navigability of the Indus and had
+acquainted himself with the aspect of the great ocean. Accordingly he
+sailed down the western arm of the Indus with the swiftest vessels of
+the fleet&mdash;thirty-oared boats, and small triremes, or vessels whereon
+the 150 naked oarsmen sat on three tiers of benches above one another
+with oars of different lengths projecting through port-holes in the
+hull. The vessels were protected by troops which followed them on the
+bank.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of summer, when the river is at its highest level and
+overflows the banks for miles, it is no pleasure excursion to steer
+ungainly boats between banks of sand and silt without pilots. On the
+second day a strong southerly storm arose, and the dangerous waves in
+the whirlpools of the current capsized many vessels and damaged others.
+Alexander made for the bank to look for fishermen who might act as
+pilots, and under their guidance he continued his voyage. The river
+became wider and wider, and the fresh salt breeze from the ocean became
+ever more perceptible; but the wind increased, for the south-west
+monsoon was at its height. The grey turbid water rose in higher billows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+and made rowing difficult, for the oars either did not touch the water
+or dipped too deeply into it. It was the flood tide running up from the
+sea which impeded their progress, but the ebb and flow of the sea was
+new to them. Eventually Alexander sought the shelter of a creek, and the
+vessels were dragged ashore. Then came the ebb, and the water fell as
+though it were sucked out into the sea. The boats were left high and
+dry, and many of them sank deep in the mud. Astonished and bewildered,
+Alexander and his men could get neither forward nor backward. They had
+just made preparations to get the ships afloat, when the tide returned
+and lifted them.</p>
+
+<p>Now they went farther down-stream and came in contact with the raging
+surf of the monsoon, which advances in light-green foam-crowned waves
+far into the mouth and changes the colour of the river water. The
+collision of the Indus current with the rising tide fills the fairway
+with whirlpools and eddies, which are exceedingly dangerous even for the
+best of vessels of the present day. Several ships were lost, some being
+thrown up on the banks, while others dashed together and went to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>After they had taken note of the regular rise and fall of the tide, they
+could avoid danger, and the fleet arrived safely at an island where
+shelter could be obtained by the shore and where fresh water was
+abundant. From here the foaming, roaring surf at the very mouth of the
+Indus could be seen, and above the rolling breakers appeared the level
+horizon of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>With the best of the vessels Alexander went out to ascertain whether the
+surf could be passed through without danger and the open sea be reached.
+The trial proved successful, and another island was found, begirt on all
+sides by open sea. The ships then returned in the dusk to the larger
+island, where a solemn sacrifice was made to Ammon to celebrate the
+first sight of the sea and of the margin of the inhabited world towards
+the south.</p>
+
+<p>Next day Alexander rowed right out to sea to convince himself that no
+more land existed, and when he had advanced so far that nothing but sky
+and rolling billows could be seen from the uppermost benches of the
+triremes, he offered sacrifices to Poseidon, the god of the sea, to the
+Nereids, and to the silver-footed sea-goddess Thetis, the mother of
+Achilles, father of his race. And he besought the favour of all the gods
+in the great enterprise which had brought him to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> mouth of the
+Indus, and their protection for his fleet on its dangerous voyage to the
+Euphrates; and when his prayer was ended he cast a golden goblet into
+the sea.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Alexander died at Babylon at the age of thirty-three. His
+world-embracing campaign spread Greek enlightenment over all western
+Asia, and his eventful life did not pass like a meteor into the night of
+time without leaving a trace behind.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Kashmir and Ladak</span></h3>
+
+<p>When I arrived at Rawalpindi the first thing I did was to order a
+<i>tonga</i> for the drive of 180 miles to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
+A <i>tonga</i> is a two-wheeled tilted cart drawn by two horses, which are
+changed every half hour, for as long as the pair are on the way they go
+at full speed. The road was excellent, and we left the hot suffocating
+steam of India below us as we ascended along the bank of the Jhelum
+River. Sometimes we dashed at headlong speed over stretches of open road
+bathed in sunlight; sometimes through dark cool tunnels where the driver
+blew a sonorous signal with his brass horn; and then again through
+rustling woods of pine-trees.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate8.jpg"  width="550" height="323"
+ alt="PLATE VIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE VIII. SRINAGAR AND THE JHELUM RIVER.</h4>
+
+<p>Srinagar is a beautiful city, intersected as it is by the rippling
+Jhelum River and winding canals (Plate VIII.). The houses on their banks
+rise up directly from the water, and long, narrow, graceful boats pass
+to and fro, propelled at a swift pace by broad-bladed oars in the hands
+of active and muscular white-clad Kashmiris.</p>
+
+<p>Kashmir is one of the native states of our Indian Empire, and its
+inhabitants number about three millions. Many of them are artistic and
+dexterous craftsmen, who make fine boxes and caskets inlaid with ivory,
+mother-of-pearl, and ebony; beautifully chased weapons; tankards, bowls,
+and vases of beaten silver with panthers and elephants on the sides,
+chasing one another through the jungle. The saddlery and leather work of
+all kinds cannot be surpassed, but most famous of all the manufactures
+are the soft, dainty Kashmir shawls, so fine that they can be drawn
+through a finger ring.</p>
+
+<p>Round about the Kashmir valley stand the ridges and snow-clad heights of
+the Himalayas, and among them lie innumerable valleys. Up one of these
+valleys toiled our caravan of thirty-six mules and a hundred horses, and
+after a journey of some 250 miles to the eastward we arrived again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> at
+the banks of the Indus and crossed it by a swaying bridge of wood. Two
+days later the poplars of Leh stood in front of us.</p>
+
+<p>This little town is nearly 11,500 feet above sea-level. It contains an
+open bazaar street, and a mound above the town is crowned by the old
+royal castle. Leh, as well as the whole of the district of Ladak, is
+subject to the Maharaja of Kashmir, but the people are mostly of Tibetan
+race and their religion is Lamaism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A "satrap" was originally a governor of a province in
+ancient Persia.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>VII</h2>
+
+<h2>EASTERN TURKESTAN (1895)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Takla-makan Desert</span></h3>
+
+<p>We are now on the high road between India and Eastern Turkestan, the
+most elevated caravan route in the world. Innumerable skeletons of
+transport animals lie there, marking where the road passes through snow.
+After a month's journey over the cold, lofty mountains we come to the
+town of Yarkand, in the spacious, flat, bowl-shaped hollow, surrounded
+on all sides except the east by mountains, which is called Eastern
+Turkestan.</p>
+
+<p>To the south stand the immense highlands of Tibet, where the great
+rivers of India and China take their rise. On the west is the Pamir, the
+"Roof of the World," where the two great rivers of the Sea of Aral begin
+their course. On the north lie the Tien-shan, or Mountains of Heaven,
+which are continued farther north-eastwards by the Altai and several
+other mountain systems, among which the gigantic rivers of Siberia have
+their origin. Within this ring of mountains, at the very heart of the
+great continent of Asia, lies this lowland of Eastern Turkestan, like a
+Tibetan sheepfold enclosed by enormous walls of rock.</p>
+
+<p>In its northern part a river called the Tarim flows from west to east.
+It is formed by the Yarkand-darya and the Khotan-darya on the south, and
+receives other affluents along its course, for water streams down from
+the snowfields and glaciers of the wreath of mountains enclosing Eastern
+Turkestan. The head-waters of the Tarim leap merrily down through narrow
+valleys among the mountains, but the great river is doomed never to
+reach the sea. It terminates and is lost in a desert lake named Lop-nor.</p>
+
+<p>Trees grow along this river, mostly small, stunted poplars,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> but the
+wooded belts along the banks are very narrow; soon the trees thin out
+and come to an end, steppe shrubs and tamarisks take their place, and
+only a mile or two from the river there is nothing but deep sand without
+a sign of vegetation. The greater part of Eastern Turkestan is occupied
+by the desert called Takla-makan, the most terrible and dangerous in the
+world.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img008a.jpg"  width="550" height="429"
+ alt="MAP OF EASTERN TURKESTAN" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP OF EASTERN TURKESTAN, SHOWING JOURNEYS
+DESCRIBED ON pp. <a href='#Page_89'><b>89-110</b></a>.</h4>
+
+<p>A belt of desert runs through the whole of Asia and Africa, like a
+dried-up river bed. This belt includes the Gobi, which extends over most
+of Mongolia, the Takla-makan, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand" in
+Russian Turkestan, the Kevir and other deserts in Persia, the deserts of
+Arabia, and lastly the Sahara. In this succession of deserts extending
+over the Old World from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic the
+Takla-makan is, then, a link.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Across a Sea of Sand</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the beginning of April, 1895, I had reached the Yarkand-darya and had
+encamped at a village, Merket, on its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> eastern bank. My plan was to
+cross the Takla-makan desert, which stretches away to the eastward, and
+to reach the river Khotan-darya, which flows northwards, the distance
+being 180 miles. My caravan consisted of four servants and eight camels;
+and we took provisions for two months&mdash;for we intended afterwards to
+travel on to Tibet&mdash;and water for twenty-five days in four iron
+cisterns.</p>
+
+<p>We started on April 10. A white camel was led in front by a man we
+called the guide, because every one said that he had often been in the
+desert seeking for treasure. My riding camel was led by a white-bearded
+man named Muhamed Shah. Kasim came at the end of the file, and the
+faithful Islam Bay, who superintended the whole, was my confidential
+servant. We had also two dogs, Yolldash and Hamra, three sheep, ten
+hens, and a cock. The last did not like riding on a camel. He was always
+working his way out through the bars of his cage, and fluttering down to
+the ground with a loud crow.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few days all went on quietly and satisfactorily. At night
+we could always obtain water for the camels and other animals by
+digging, and thus we saved the fresh river-water in our tanks. But the
+sand became gradually higher and forced us to diverge to the north-east.
+On April 18 we came to a morass surrounded by wood so thick that we had
+to clear a way with the axe. Next day we encamped on the shore of a lake
+of beautiful blue water where ducks and geese were swimming about, and
+my tent was set up under a couple of poplars.</p>
+
+<p>Another day's march led us along the shore of a long lake with bare
+banks. We encamped at its southern extremity and rested a day, for here
+nothing could be seen towards the south and west but yellow sand. The
+guide asserted that it was four days' journey eastwards to the river
+Khotan-darya, and this statement agreed approximately with existing
+maps, but I took the precaution of ordering the men to take water for
+ten days.</p>
+
+<p>On April 23 we left the last bay of the last lake to plunge into the
+high sand. All vegetation came to an end, and only in some hollow a
+solitary tamarisk was still to be seen. The sandhills became ever
+higher, rising to as much as 100 feet.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we marched on in a violent storm. The sand swept down in
+clouds from the crests of the dunes, penetrating into our mouths, noses,
+and eyes. Islam Bay led our train and looked for the easiest way for the
+camels. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> noticed, however, that they were already beginning to get
+tired. Sometimes they fell in the sand, and their loads had to be taken
+off before they could get up again. When the tent was set up we had made
+only eight miles. Now there was not a sign of life, not a moth fluttered
+round my candle, not a wind-borne leaf was seen in the boundless yellow
+sand.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 25th I made a terrible discovery: two cisterns
+were empty and the other two contained only enough water for two days.
+Henceforth Islam Bay was put in charge of the cisterns. The water was
+treasured like gold and served out in driblets.</p>
+
+<p>I travelled on foot to spare my riding camel and encourage the men. The
+caravan moved more slowly through the murderous sands. One camel, called
+Old Man, lagged behind. We waited an hour, and gave him a mouthful of
+water and a handful of hay from his own pack-saddle. When we went on, he
+was led slowly after us by Muhamed Shah.</p>
+
+<p>With Islam I measured out the last drops of water on the night of the
+26th. There were about two small cups daily for each of us for three
+days. The next day we plunged again into terrible sand, the dunes being
+200 feet high. In the evening we saw dense rain-clouds in the west, and
+hoped that Heaven would have compassion on us. The clouds spread out and
+came still nearer. All our vessels were made ready, and the tent was
+stretched on the ground to collect the sweet water which was to save us.
+We waited in vain, for the clouds dispersed and yielded us not a drop.</p>
+
+<p>The two tired-out camels had been abandoned at the beginning of the day,
+and we had thrown away a stove, a carpet, my tent-bed, and two empty
+water cisterns.</p>
+
+<p>On April 28 we were awakened by a north-easterly storm, one of those
+"black storms" which stir up the drift-sand in dense clouds and turn day
+into night. All the camp was buried in sand. Only the nearest camels
+could be seen, and their track was immediately obliterated. We had to
+keep all together lest we should lose one another. It was quite possible
+to lose the caravan at a distance of a few paces, and that meant death.
+We were almost suffocated by the volumes of sand which whirled about us,
+and had to rest frequently to get our breath. The camels lay down with
+their heads to leeward, and we thrust our faces under them that we might
+not be choked with sand.</p>
+
+<p>Then we went on with faltering steps. A camel fell and I sent two men
+after him. They came back directly, saying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> that the track was smoothed
+out by the wind and that they dared not lose sight of us. That was the
+third victim. At the evening camp everything not absolutely
+indispensable was sorted out to be left behind, and a stick was set up
+on the nearest dune with a newspaper wrapped round it so that we might
+find the place again if we obtained water soon. There was still a little
+water left in the two cans, but next morning Islam came and told me that
+one of them was empty. There can be little doubt that the guide was the
+thief who had robbed us all. With failing steps we struggled on all day
+among the high sand dunes.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 30th there was less than two-thirds of a pint of
+water left in the last can. While the others were engaged in loading the
+camels, Islam surprised the guide as he stood with the can to his mouth.
+Islam fell upon him furiously, threw him to the ground, and would have
+killed him if I had not come up in time. Only one-third of a pint was
+now left. At mid-day I moistened the men's lips with the corner of a
+handkerchief dipped in water. In the evening the last drops were to be
+distributed, but when the time came the can was found to be absolutely
+empty. Kasim and Muhamed, who led the camels, had drunk it all.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The End of the Caravan</span></h3>
+
+<p>The night was cold, but the sun had not long risen on May 1 before the
+heat spread over the dunes. The men drank the last of some rancid
+vegetable oil which had been intended for the camels. I was tortured
+with thirst, as I had not drunk a drop of water the day before, and
+before that only a few mouthfuls. Thirst is a fearful thing, driving one
+to despair, and almost depriving one of reason. As the body dries up,
+the desire for water leaves one no peace. We had a flask of Chinese
+spirits which were intended for a cooking stove. I now drank about a
+tumblerful of it to give my body a little moisture, and then I threw the
+flask away and let its dangerous contents run out into the sand.</p>
+
+<p>The insidious liquor undermined my strength. When the caravan toiled on
+through the dunes I could not follow it. I crept and staggered in its
+track. The bells rang out clearly in the quiet air, but the sound became
+fainter, and at length died away in the distance. The silent desert lay
+around me&mdash;sand, sand, sand in all directions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Following slowly in the footsteps of the others, I came at last to the
+crest of a dune, where I saw that the camels of the caravan had laid
+themselves down. Muhamed Shah was on his knees imploring help from
+Allah. Kasim was sitting with his face in his hands, weeping and
+laughing alternately. Islam, who had been exploring in front, came back
+and proposed that we should look for a place where we could dig for
+water (Plate IX.). I therefore mounted the white camel, after his
+load&mdash;ammunition boxes, two European saddles, and a number of other
+articles&mdash;had been thrown away, but the animal would not get up. We then
+decided to stay where we were and wait for the cool of evening, and the
+tent was set up to afford us shade. Even Yolldash and the sheep came in.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate9.jpg"  width="550" height="326"
+ alt="PLATE IX." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE IX. DIGGING FOR WATER IN THE TAKLA-MAKAN.</h4>
+
+<p>At mid-day a gentle breeze sprang up, and the air felt pleasant and
+refreshing. We killed the cock and drank its blood. Then Islam turned
+the head of the sheep towards Mecca, cut off its head, and collected the
+blood in a pail, but it was thick and smelt offensively, and not even
+the dog Yolldash would touch it.</p>
+
+<p>We now sorted out all our belongings, taking with us only what was
+absolutely necessary at the moment, and leaving everything else behind
+in the tent. The guide had lost his reason and filled his mouth with
+sand, thinking it was water. He and old Muhamed Shah, who was also
+dying, had to be left behind.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock I mounted the white camel. Islam led the train and
+Kasim urged the animals on. The funeral bells, now rang for the last
+time. From a high sandy crest I turned a farewell glance at the death
+camp. The tent marked out a dark triangle against the lighter
+background, and then vanished behind the sand.</p>
+
+<p>The night descended sadly and silently over the earth. We tramped
+through loose sand, up and down, without seeing where we were going. I
+jumped down from my camel, lighted the lantern, and walked on in front
+to see where it was easiest for the camels to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Then Islam reeled up to me and whispered that he could go no farther. I
+bade him farewell, cheered him up, told him to rest and then follow in
+my track, abandoning everything. The camels were lying half-dead with
+necks stretched out. Kasim alone was fit to accompany me farther. He
+took a spade and a pail and the paunch of the sheep. I had only my
+watch, compass, a penknife, a pen, and a scrap of paper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> two small
+tins of lobster and chocolate, a small box, matches and ten cigarettes.
+But the food gave us little satisfaction, for when the mouth, palate,
+and throat are as dry as the outer skin it is impossible to swallow.</p>
+
+
+<p>It was exactly twelve o'clock. We had been shipwrecked in the midst of
+the desert sea, and were now trying to reach a coast. The lantern stood
+burning beside Islam Bay, but the light was soon hidden by the dunes.</p>
+
+<p>We were clad as lightly as possible. Kasim had a thin jacket, wide
+trousers, and boots, but he had forgotten his cap, so I lent him my
+pocket handkerchief to wind round his head. I wore a white Russian cap,
+stiff Swedish shoes, woollen underclothing, and a white suit of thin
+cotton cloth. I had changed my clothes at the death camp that I might
+have a neat clean shroud if I died.</p>
+
+<p>We pushed on with the energy of despair, but after two hours we were so
+sleepy that we had to rest a while. The coolness of the night woke us up
+at four o'clock, and we kept on the march till nine. Then we rested
+again and walked on farther till twelve o'clock, when we were again
+overcome by weariness and the burning heat of the day. In a sandy slope
+facing northwards Kasim digged out cool sand in which we burrowed stark
+naked with only our heads out. To protect ourselves from sunstroke we
+made a screen by hanging up clothes on the spade. At six o'clock we got
+up again and walked for seven hours. Our strength was giving way, and we
+had to rest more frequently. At one o'clock we were slumbering on a
+dune.</p>
+
+<p>There we lay quite three hours, and then went on eastwards. I always
+held the compass in my hand. The next day had dawned, May 3, when Kasim
+stopped, caught hold of my shoulder, and pointed eastwards without
+saying a word. A small dark speck was seen in the distance; it was a
+green tamarisk! Its roots must go down to the water below the surface,
+or it could not live in the desert sea. We thanked God when we came up
+to it. We had now some hope of safety, and we chewed the soft needles of
+the tamarisks like beasts. We tarried a while under its slight shadow,
+and then walked till half-past nine, when we fell down with faintness at
+another bush.</p>
+
+<p>We again undressed and buried ourselves in sand, lying without speaking
+a word for quite nine hours. At dusk we dragged ourselves on again with
+halting steps. After three hours of march Kasim again stopped suddenly.
+Something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> dark peeped out from among the dunes&mdash;three fine poplars with
+sappy foliage. The leaves were too bitter to eat, but we rubbed them on
+the skin until it became moist.</p>
+
+<p>Here we tried to dig a well, but the spade fell out of our powerless
+hands. We then lay down and scraped with our hands, but could not do
+much. Instead we collected all the dry branches we could find and made a
+blazing fire as a beacon for Islam, and to attract attention from the
+east, for we knew that a caravan road ran along the Khotan river.</p>
+
+<p>At four o'clock on May 4 we moved on again, but after five hours we were
+utterly exhausted. We threw ourselves heedlessly on the sand, for Kasim
+was unable to dig the usual burrow. I wriggled naked into the cool dune
+and lay there ten hours without closing an eye.</p>
+
+<p>When at last the shadows spread over the earth and I was ready to set
+out, Kasim murmured that he could go no farther. I did not even remember
+to bid him farewell when I went on my way alone through the darkness and
+sand. Just after midnight I sank down by a tamarisk. The stars twinkled
+as usual, and not a sound was audible. Only the beat of my heart and the
+ticking of my watch broke the awful silence. Then I heard a rustling
+sound in the sand. "Is that you, Kasim?" I asked. "Yes, sir," he
+whispered back. "Let us go a little farther," I said, and he followed me
+with trembling legs.</p>
+
+<p>We were not troubled now so much by thirst, for our bodies had become as
+dry as parchment and seemed to have lost all feeling; but our strength
+was at an end. We crawled for a long distance on our hands and feet,
+dazed and indifferent, as if we were walking in our sleep.</p>
+
+<p>But soon we waked up into full consciousness. Dumb with astonishment we
+stopped before the trail of men. Shepherds from the river must have seen
+our fire the day before and have come to look for us. We followed the
+trail up a high dune where the sand was closely packed and the marks
+were more distinct. "It is our own trail," said Kasim in a despairing
+voice. We had gone round in a circle, and now we could do no more for a
+while. Sad and worn out, we fell down in the track.</p>
+
+<p>It was May 5. We had slept half an hour. It was four o'clock, and a
+vague light heralding the ruddy dawn rose up above the eastern horizon.
+Kasim looked dreadfully ill; his tongue was swollen, white and dry, his
+lips bluish. He complained of a spasmodic hiccough that shook his whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+body, a sign of the approach of death. The thick blood flowed sluggishly
+in his veins. Even the eyes and joints were dry. We had struggled
+bravely, but now the end was near.</p>
+
+<p>But when the sun rose we saw a dark line on the eastern horizon. The
+sight filled us with thankfulness, for we knew that it must be the wood
+on the bank of the Khotan river. Now we exerted ourselves to the
+uttermost, for we must reach it before we sank with thirst and
+exhaustion. A number of poplars grew in a hollow. "Let us dig here; it
+is a long distance to the woods"; but the spade again slipped out of our
+hands, and we could only stumble and crawl on eastwards.</p>
+
+<p>At last we were there. I seemed to be roused from a fearful dream, a
+terrible nightmare. Green and luxuriant stood the trees in front of us,
+and between them grew grass and weeds where numerous spoors of wild
+animals were visible&mdash;tigers, wolves, foxes, stags, antelopes, gazelles,
+and hares. The birds were singing their morning song and insects buzzed
+in the air. Life and joyousness reigned everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>It could not now be far to the river. We tried to pass through the wood,
+but were stopped by impenetrable brushwood and fallen trunks. Then we
+came to a path with plain traces of men and horses. We decided to follow
+it, for surely it would lead to the bank, but not even the hope of a
+speedy deliverance could enable us to keep on our feet. At nine o'clock,
+when the day was already burning hot, we tumbled down in the shade of a
+couple of poplars. Kasim could not last much longer. His senses were
+clouded. He gasped for breath and stared with vacant eyes at the sky. He
+made no answer even when I shook him. I took off my clothes and crept
+down into a hole between the tree roots. Scorpions inhabited the dry
+trees and their marks were visible everywhere, but the poisonous
+reptiles left me in peace.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Water at Last</span></h3>
+
+<p>I lay for ten hours wide awake. At seven o'clock I took the wooden haft
+of the spade and went alone through the wood, for Kasim could not move.
+I dropped down again and again on fallen trunks to rest; a few more
+staggering steps and again a rest on a stump. When I could not hold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+myself up, I crawled inch by inch through the brushwood, tearing my
+hands and clothes. It grew dusk and then dark in the wood. I felt sleep
+gradually creeping over me to rob me of life. For if I had fallen asleep
+now, I should never have awakened again. My last struggle was, then,
+against drowsiness.</p>
+
+<p>Then the wood suddenly came to an end and the bed of the Khotan river
+lay before me. But the bottom was dry, as dry as the sand in the desert!
+I was at the summer margin of the river, where water only flows when the
+snow melts on the mountains to the south. But I was not going to die on
+the bank; I would cross the whole bed before I gave myself up for lost.
+The bed was a mile and a quarter broad, a terrible distance for my
+strength. I walked slowly with the spade-handle for a stick, crawling
+for long distances and often resting and exerting all the force of my
+will to resist sleep. Hitherto we had been always making eastwards, but
+this night I walked involuntarily south-east. It was as though I were
+guided by an unseen hand.</p>
+
+<p>The crescent moon threw a pale light over the dry riverbed. I went
+towards the middle and expected to see a silvery streak glisten on a
+sheet of water. After an interval, which seemed endless, I descried the
+line of wood on the eastern bank. It became more distinct. A fallen
+poplar lay projecting over a hollow in the river-bed and on the bank
+were close thickets of bushes and reeds. I rested once more. Was it
+possible that the whole bed was dry? I felt that all my remaining
+strength would be needed to reach the bank. Was I to die of thirst in
+the middle of a river-bed? I rose painfully to walk the last bit, but I
+had not taken many steps before I stopped short. A duck rose on whirring
+wings, I heard the plashing sound of water, and the next moment I stood
+at the edge of a fresh, cool, beautiful pool.</p>
+
+<p>I fell on my knees and thanked God for my marvellous escape. Then I took
+out my watch and felt my feeble pulse, which beat forty-nine. Then I
+drank, slowly at first and then more freely. A deal of water was needed
+to slake such a thirst; I drank and drank until at length I was
+satisfied. Then I sat down to rest and felt that I was reviving quickly.
+After a few minutes my pulse had risen to fifty-six. My hands, which had
+just been withered and hard as wood, softened, the blood flowed more
+easily through my veins and my forehead became moist. Life seemed more
+desirable and delightful than ever. Then I drank again, and thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> of
+my wonderful deliverance. If I had passed fifty steps to the right or
+left of the pool, I should probably never have found it, or if I had
+crawled on in the wrong direction, I should have had to walk six miles
+to the next pool, which I could not have done before sleep with the
+death trance in its train came and carried me off.</p>
+
+<p>Now my thoughts flew to the dying Kasim. He needed help at once, if his
+life was to be saved. Dipping my waterproof boots in the pool I filled
+them to the top, passed the straps over the ends of the spade shaft, and
+with this over my shoulder retraced my steps. It was pitch-dark in the
+wood and it was impossible to see the track. I called out "Kasim" with
+all the force of my lungs, but heard no answer. Then I sought out a
+dense clump of dried branches and brushwood and set it on fire. The
+flame shot up immediately, the pile of dry twigs crackled, burst and
+frizzled, the dried herbage was scorched by the draught from below,
+tongues of flame licked the poplar trunks, and it became as light as in
+the middle of the day, a yellowish red gleam illuminating the dark
+recesses of the wood. Kasim could not be far off, and must see the fire.
+Again I looked for the trail, but as I only got confused in the wood I
+stayed by the fire, propped the boots against a root, laid myself down
+where the flames could not reach me, but where I was safe from tigers
+and other wild beasts, and slept soundly.</p>
+
+<p>When day broke I found the trail. Kasim was lying where I left him. "I
+am dying," he whispered in a scarcely audible voice; but when I raised
+one of the boots to his lips, he roused himself up and drank, and
+emptied the other one also. Then we agreed to go together to the pool.
+It was impossible to turn back into the desert, for we had not eaten for
+a week, and now that our thirst was quenched we were attacked by hunger.
+Besides, we felt quite sure that the other men were dead some days ago.</p>
+
+<p>Kasim was so exhausted that he could not go with me. As he was at any
+rate on the right track, and it was now most important to find something
+to eat, I went alone to the pool, drank, bathed, and rested, and then
+walked southwards. At nine o'clock a violent westerly storm arose,
+driving clouds of sand along the ground. After wandering three hours it
+occurred to me that it was not wise to leave the beneficent pool. I
+therefore turned back, but after half an hour only found instead a very
+small pool with indifferent water. It was no use wandering about in such
+a storm, for I could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> see where I was going; the wind roared and
+whistled through the wood, and I was half dead with fatigue and hunger.</p>
+
+<p>I therefore crept into a small thicket close to this pool, where I was
+out of reach of the storm, and making a pillow of my boots and cap,
+slept soundly and heavily. Since May 1 I had had no proper sleep. When I
+woke it was already dark, and the storm still howled through the wood. I
+was now so tortured by hunger that I began to eat grass, flowers, and
+reed shoots. There were numbers of young frogs in the pool. They were
+bitter, but I pinched their necks and swallowed them whole. After eating
+my supper I collected a store of branches to keep up a fire during the
+night, and then I crept into my lair in the thicket and gazed into the
+fire for a couple of hours while the storm raged outside. Then I went to
+sleep again.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn on May 7 I crept out of the thicket and decided to march
+southwards until I met with human beings. This time I took water with me
+in my boots, but after a few hours my feet were so sore and blistered
+that I had to bind them up in long strips of my shirt. At length to my
+delight I found a sheepfold on the bank; it had evidently not been used
+for a long time, but it showed that shepherds must live in the woods
+somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>At noon heat and fatigue drove me into the wood again, where I ate a
+breakfast of grass and reeds. After a rest I wandered on again hour
+after hour towards the south, but at eight o'clock I could go no
+farther, and before it became quite dark I tried to make myself
+comfortable on a small space sheltered by poplars and bushes, and there
+as usual I lighted my camp fire. I had nothing else to do but lie and
+stare into the flames and listen to the curious mournful sounds in the
+wood. Sometimes I heard tapping steps and dry twigs cracking. It might
+be tigers, but I trusted that they would not venture to attack me just
+when I had been saved in such a remarkable manner.</p>
+
+<p>I rose on May 8 while it was still dark, and sought for a path in the
+wood, but I had not gone far before the trees became scattered and came
+to an end, and the dismal yellow desert lay before me. I knew it only
+too well, and made haste back to the river-bed. I rested during the hot
+hours of the day in the shadow of a poplar and then set off again. I now
+followed the right bank of the river, and shortly before sunset stopped
+dead before a remarkable sight&mdash;the fresh track of two barefooted men
+who had driven four asses northwards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was hopeless to try and overtake these wayfarers, and therefore I
+followed their track in the opposite direction. I travelled more quickly
+than usual, the evening was calm and still, twilight fell over the wood.
+At a jutting point of the bank I seemed to hear an unusual sound, and
+held my breath to listen. But the wood was still sad and dreary.
+"Perhaps it was a warbler or a thrush," I thought, and walked on. A
+little later I pulled up again. This time I heard quite plainly a man's
+voice and the low of a cow. I quickly pulled on my wet boots and rushed
+into the wood. A flock of sheep watched by its shepherd was feeding on
+an open glade among the trees. The man seemed petrified at first when he
+saw me, and then he turned on his heels and vanished among the
+brushwood.</p>
+
+<p>After a while he came back with an older shepherd, and I gave them an
+account of my adventures and begged for bread. They did not know what to
+believe, but they took me to their hut and gave me maize bread and ewe's
+milk.</p>
+
+<p>The best thing of all, however, was that three traders rode up next day,
+and I learned from them that some days previously they had discovered a
+dying man beside a white camel on the bank of the river. It was Islam
+Bay! They had given him water and food, and the following day both he
+and Kasim appeared in my hut. Our delight was great, though we mourned
+for our comrades who had died of thirst in the desert.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE DESERT WATERWAY (1899)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Down the Yarkand River</span></h3>
+
+<p>No doubt you remember the village of Merket, where we set out on pur
+fatal march through the Takla-makan desert in 1895. In September, 1899,
+I was again at this village with a large caravan and many servants, my
+plan on this occasion being to travel through the whole of Eastern
+Turkestan by water. The waterway I intended to use was the river which
+in its upper course is called the Yarkand, and in its lower the Tarim.</p>
+<p><a name="YARKAND_RIVER" id="YARKAND_RIVER"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate10.jpg"  width="363" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE X." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE X. THE AUTHOR'S BOAT ON THE YARKAND RIVER.<br />The man with the white turban at the stern is Islam Bay.</h4>
+
+<p>At the village a great caravan route crosses the river, and flat
+ferry-boats convey travellers with their animals and goods from one bank
+to the other. I bought one of the ferry-boats, and had it converted into
+a floating home for our journey of more than a thousand miles (Plate
+X.). It was 36 feet long by 8-1/2 broad, and was like a huge trough
+built of rough planks. A floor of boards was laid in the bow
+sufficiently large to serve as a support for my tent. Behind this was
+built a cubical cabin of thin boards covered with sheets of black felt.
+Within it was furnished with a table and shelves, and window-frames with
+glass panes were let into the felt walls. Here I had all my photographic
+accessories, and here I intended to develop my plates.</p>
+
+<p>When all was ready the ferry-boat was rolled down on logs into the river
+again. The tent was set up and its folds were spiked fast to the edges
+of the flooring. My bed and my boxes were arranged in the tent, a carpet
+was spread on the floor, and at the front opening was placed my
+writing-table, consisting of two boxes, whereon paper, pens, compass,
+and watch, field-glass and other things always lay ready. For a stool I
+had a smaller hide trunk.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Amidships our heavy baggage was piled up: sacks of flour and rice, boxes
+of sugar, tea, and groceries, saddles, weapons, and tools. The kitchen
+was at the stern, in charge of my faithful Islam Bay&mdash;for he was with me
+again.</p>
+
+<p>When the ferry-boat was fully fitted up and ready to sail, it drew nine
+inches of water. We had also a small auxiliary boat to pilot the larger
+and inform us where treacherous sand-banks were hidden below the
+surface. Fruit, vegetables, sheep, and fowls were carried on the smaller
+boat, which looked rather like a small farmyard. The heavy baggage that
+we did not need on the journey was packed on our camels, and their
+leader was ordered to meet me in three months' time near the termination
+of the river.</p>
+
+<p>Our voyage began on September 17, 1899, the crew numbering seven,
+including Islam Bay and myself. Kader was a youth who helped Islam Bay
+by peeling potatoes, laying table, and fetching water from clear pools
+on the banks cut off from the river. In the bow stood Palta with a long
+pole, watching to thrust off if the boat went too near the bank. At the
+stern stood two other polemen, who helped to handle the boat. The small
+boat was managed by one man, Kasim, and as I sat at my writing-table I
+could see him pushing his vessel with his pole to right or left in
+search of the channel where the water was deepest and the current most
+rapid. Then we had two four-legged passengers on the larger boat, Dovlet
+and Yolldash. Dovlet means the "lucky one" and Yolldash "travelling
+companion." The latter had succeeded to the name of the dog which died
+in the Takla-makan desert.</p>
+
+<p>The boat floats down with the current, following obediently the windings
+of the river, and the polemen are on the watch. On the banks grow small
+hawthorn bushes and tamarisks, interrupted by patches of reeds and small
+clumps of young trees, among which poplars always predominate. They are
+not the tall, slender poplars which tower proud as kings above other
+trees, but quite a dwarf kind with a round, irregular crown. When the
+day draws near to a close I give the order to stop. Palta thrusts his
+pole into the river bottom, and, throwing all his strength and weight on
+to it, forces the stern of the boat to swing round to the land, where
+another of the crew jumps out on to the bank with a rope. He makes it
+fast round a stump, and our day's voyage is ended.</p>
+
+<p>The gangway is pushed out and a fire is lighted in an open space among
+the trees, and soon the teapot and rice-pan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> are bubbling pleasantly. I
+remain sitting at my writing-table and see the moonlight playing in a
+streak on the surface of the river. All is quiet and silent around us,
+and even the midges have gone to rest. I hear only the brands crackling
+in the camp fire and the sand slipping down the neighbouring bank as the
+water laps against it. A dog barking in the distance is answered by
+Dovlet and Yolldash.</p>
+
+<p>Now steps are heard on board, and Islam Bay brings my supper. The
+writing-table is converted into a dining-table, and he serves me up rice
+pudding with onions, carrots, and minced mutton, fresh bread, eggs,
+cucumbers, melons, and grapes. What more could a man want? It was very
+different when we were wandering on the endless sands. If I want to
+drink I have only to let down a cup into the river which gently ripples
+past the boat. The dogs keep me company, sitting with cocked ears
+waiting for a titbit. Then Islam comes and clears the table, I close the
+tent, creep into my berth, and enjoy life afloat on my own vessel, where
+it is only necessary to loosen a rope to be on the way again.</p>
+
+<p>After a few days we come to a place where the river contracts and forces
+its way with great velocity between small islands and great heaps of
+stranded driftwood. Here Palta has plenty of work, for he has constantly
+to keep the boat off from some obstacle or other with the pole.
+Frequently we bump up against poplar trunks which do not show above the
+water, and then the boat swings round in a moment. Then all the crew
+jump into the river and shove the boat off again.</p>
+
+<p>A distant noise is heard, and soon becomes louder. In a moment we are in
+the midst of rapids, and it is too late to heave to. It is to be hoped
+that we shall not turn broadside on or we shall capsize. "Let her go
+down as she likes," I call out. All the poles are drawn up, and the boat
+flies along, gliding easily and smoothly over the boiling water.</p>
+
+<p>Below the rapids the river widened out, and became so shallow that we
+stuck fast in blue clay. We pushed and pulled, but all to no purpose.
+Then all the baggage was carried ashore, and with our united strength we
+swung the boat round until the clay was loosened, and then the things
+were brought on board again.</p>
+
+<p>Farther down, the river draws together again. The banks are lined with
+dense masses of fine old trees just beginning to turn yellow in the
+latter days of September. The boat seems as though it were gliding along
+a canal in a park. The woods are silent, not a leaf is moving, and the
+water flows noiselessly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> The polemen have nothing to do. They sit
+cross-legged with one hand on the pole, which trails through the water;
+and only now and then have they to make a thrust to keep the boat in the
+middle of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Weeks passed, and the ferry-boat drifted still farther and farther down
+the river. Autumn had come, and the woods turned yellow and russet, and
+the leaves fell. We had no time to spare if we did not want to be caught
+fast in the ice before reaching the place where we had arranged to meet
+the caravan. Therefore we started earlier in the morning and did not
+land until long after sunset each day. The solemn silence of a temple
+reigned around, only the quacking of a duck being heard occasionally or
+the noise of a fox stealing through the reeds. A herd of wild boars lay
+wallowing in the mud on the bank. When the boat glided noiselessly by
+they got up, looked at us a moment with the greatest astonishment, and
+dashed like a roaring whirlwind through the beds of cracking reeds. Deer
+grazed on the bank. They scented danger and turned round to make for
+their hiding-places in the wood. A roebuck swam across the stream a
+little in front of the boat. Islam lay with his gun in the bow ready to
+shoot, but the roebuck swam splendidly and, with a spring, was up on the
+bank and vanished like the wind. Sometimes we saw also fresh spoor of
+tigers at our camping-grounds, but we never succeeded in surprising one
+of them.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, when we had not seen any natives for a long time, the smoke
+of a fire was seen on the bank. Some shepherds were watching their
+flocks, and their dogs began to bark. The men gazed at the ferry-boat
+with wonder and alarm as it floated nearer, and no doubt thought that it
+was something ghostly, for they faced about and ran with the dust flying
+about their sheepskin sandals. I sent two men ashore, but it was quite
+impossible to catch up with the runaways.</p>
+
+<p>Farther down we passed through a district where several villages stood
+near the banks. They had learned of our coming through scouts, and when
+we arrived we were met by whole troops of horsemen. The village headmen
+were also present, and were invited on board, where they were regaled
+with tea on the after-deck.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Tarim</span></h3>
+
+<p>The farther we went the smaller became the river. The Yarkand-darya
+would never reach the lake, Lop-nor, where it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> discharges its water, if
+it did not receive a considerable tributary on the way. This tributary
+is called the Ak-su, or "White Water," and it comes foaming down from
+the Tien-shan, the high mountains to the north. After the rivers have
+mingled their waters, the united main stream is called the Tarim.</p>
+
+<p>The weather gradually became colder. One morning a dense mist lay like a
+veil between the wooded banks, and all the trees, bushes, and plants,
+and the whole boat, were white with hoar frost. After this it was not
+long before the frost began to spread thin sheets of ice over the pools
+on the banks and the small cut-off creeks of stagnant water, and we had
+to press on as fast as we could to escape being frozen in. Breakfast was
+no longer laid on land, but on the after-deck of the ferry-boat, where
+we built a fireplace of clay, and round this the men sat in turn to warm
+themselves. At night we travelled long distances in the dark. We had
+persuaded two natives to go with us in their long, narrow canoes, and
+they rowed in front of us in the darkness with large Chinese paper
+lanterns on poles to show us where the deep channel ran.</p>
+
+<p>The woods on the bank gradually thin out, and finally come to an end
+altogether, being replaced by huge sand-hills often as much as 200 feet
+high. This is the margin of the great sandy desert which occupies all
+the interior of Eastern Turkestan. The people in the country round about
+are called Lopliks, and live to a great extent on fish.</p>
+
+<p>During the last few days of November the temperature fell to 28.8&deg; below
+freezing-point. The drift ice which floated down the river became
+thicker, and one morning the ferry-boat lay frozen in so fast we could
+walk on the ice around it. Out in the current, however, the water was
+open, and we broke asunder our fetters with axes and crowbars. A
+constant roar of grinding and scraping ice accompanied us all day long,
+and during the nights we had to anchor the ferry-boat out in the
+swiftest part of the current to prevent it being frozen in.</p>
+
+<p>On December 7 broad fringes of ice lay along both banks, and all day we
+danced among drifting ice as in a bath of broken crockery. At night we
+had a whole flotilla of canoes with lanterns and torches to clear the
+way, when suddenly the boat swung round with a bump, and we found that
+the river was frozen over right across. This did not disturb us, for on
+the bank we saw the flames of a wood fire, and found that it was burning
+at the camp of our camel caravan.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Wandering Lake</span></h3>
+
+<p>The place where the ferry-boat was frozen in for the winter is called
+New Lake (see map, p. 90). Just at this spot the Tarim bends southwards,
+falling farther down into a very shallow lake called Lop-nor. The whole
+country here is so flat that with the naked eye no inequalities can be
+detected. Therefore the river often changes its bed, sometimes for short
+and sometimes for long distances. Formerly the river did not bend
+southwards, but proceeded straight on eastwards, terminating in another
+lake also called Lop-nor, which lay in the northern part of the desert,
+and which is mentioned in old Chinese geographies.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiarity of Lop-nor is, then, that the lake moves about, and, in
+conjunction with the lower course of the Tarim, swings like a pendulum
+between north and south. I made many excursions in that part of the
+desert where the Lop-nor formerly lay, and mapped out the old river-bed
+and the old lake. There I discovered ruins of villages and farms,
+ancient canoes and household utensils, tree trunks dry as tinder and
+roots of reeds and rushes. In a mud house I found also a whole
+collection of Chinese manuscripts, which threw much light on the state
+of the country at the time when men could exist there. These writings
+were more than 1600 years old.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation of the lake's wanderings is this. At the time of high
+water the Tarim is always full of silt, and the old lake was very
+shallow. The lake, therefore, was silted up with mud and decaying
+vegetation, and by the same process the bed of the river was raised. At
+last came the time when the Tarim sought for an outlet to the south,
+where the country was somewhat lower. The old bed was dried up by
+degrees and the water in the lake evaporated. The sheet of water
+remained, indeed, for a long time, but it shrank up from year to year.
+At last there was not a drop of water left, and the whole country dried
+up. The poplar woods perished, and the reeds withered and were blown
+away by the wind. The men left their huts and moved down the new water
+channel to settle at the new lake, where they erected new huts. The
+Tarim and Lop-nor had swung like a pendulum to the south, and men,
+animals, and plants were obliged to follow. The same thing then occurred
+in the south. The new river and lake were silted up and the water
+returned northwards. Thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the water swung repeatedly from north to
+south, but of course many hundreds of years elapsed between the
+vibrations.</p>
+
+<p>At the present day the lake lies in the southern part of the desert; it
+is almost entirely overgrown with reeds, and the poplar woods grow only
+by the river. The few natives are partly herdsmen, partly fishermen;
+they are of Turkish race and profess the religion of Islam; they are
+kind-hearted and peaceable, and show great hospitality to strangers.
+Their huts are constructed of bundles of reeds bound together; the
+ground within is covered with reed mats, and the roof consists of boughs
+covered with reeds. The men spend a large part of their time in canoes,
+which are hollowed poplar trunks, and are therefore long, narrow, and
+round at the bottom. The oars have broad blades and drive the canoes at
+a rapid pace. Narrow passages are kept open through the reeds, and along
+these the canoes wind like eels. The men are very skilful in catching
+fish, and in spring they live also on eggs, which they collect from the
+nests of the wild geese among the reeds. The reeds grow so thickly that
+when they have been broken here and there by a storm one can walk on
+them with six feet of water beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Tigers were formerly common on the banks of Lop-nor, and the natives
+used to hunt them in a singular manner. When a tiger had done mischief
+among the cattle, the men would all assemble from the huts in the
+neighbourhood at the thickets on the bank of the river where they knew
+that the tiger was in hiding. They close up round him from the land
+side, leaving the river-bank open. Their only weapons are poles and
+sticks, so they set fire to the copse in order to make the beast leave
+his lair. When the tiger finds that there is no way out on the land
+side, he takes to the water to swim to some islet or to the other shore
+of the lake, but before he is far out half a dozen canoes cut through
+the water and surround him. The men are armed only with their oars. The
+canoes can move much faster than the tiger, and one shoots quickly past
+him, and the men in the bow push his head under water with their
+oar-blades. Before the tiger has risen again the canoe is out of reach.
+The tiger snorts and growls and puffs madly, but in a moment another
+canoe is upon him and another oar thrusts him down deeper than before.
+This time he has barely reached the surface before a third canoe glides
+up, and his head is again shoved under water. Soon the tiger begins to
+tire and to gasp for breath. He has no opportunity of using his fangs
+and claws, and can only struggle for his life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> by swimming. Now the
+first canoe has circled round again, and the man in the bow pushes the
+tiger down with all his strength and holds him under water as long as he
+can. This goes on until the tiger can struggle no longer and is drowned.
+Then a rope is tied round his neck, and with much jubilation he is towed
+to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>The climate at Lop-nor is very different in winter and summer. In winter
+the temperature falls to 22&deg; below zero, and rises in summer to 104&deg;.
+Large variations like this always occur in the interior of the great
+continents of the world, except in the heart of Africa, close to the
+equator, where it is always warm. On the coasts the variation is
+smaller, for the sea cools the air in summer and warms it in winter. In
+the Lop-nor country the rivers and lakes are frozen hard in winter, but
+in summer suffocating heat prevails. Men are tortured by great swarms of
+gnats, and cattle are devoured by gadflies. It has even happened that
+animals have been so seriously attacked by gadflies that they have died
+from loss of blood. Fortunately, the flies come out only as long as the
+sun is up, and therefore the animals are left in peace at night. During
+the day horses and camels must be kept among the reeds, where the flies
+do not come.</p>
+
+<p>Incredible numbers of wild geese and ducks, swans and other swimming
+birds breed at Lop-nor, and the open water is studded all over with
+chattering birds. In late autumn they fly southwards through Tibet, and
+in winter the lakes are quiet, with yellow reeds sticking up through the
+ice.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Wild Camels</span></h3>
+
+<p>The level region over which the Lop-nor has wandered for thousands of
+years from north to south is called the Lop desert. Its stillness is
+broken only from time to time by easterly storms which roll like thunder
+over the yellow clay ground. In the course of ages these strong spring
+storms have ploughed out channels and furrows in the clay, but otherwise
+the desert is as level as a frozen sea, the places where Lop-nor
+formerly spread out its water being marked only by pink mollusc shells.</p>
+
+<p>On the north the Lop desert is bounded by the easternmost chains of the
+Tien-shan, which the Chinese also call the "Dry Mountains." They deserve
+the name, for their sides are hardly ever washed by rain; but at their
+southern foot a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> few salt springs are to be found. Round them grow reeds
+and tamarisks, and even in other places near the mountains some
+vegetation struggles for existence.</p>
+
+<p>This is the country of wild camels. Wild camels live in herds of half a
+dozen head. The leader is a dark-brown stallion; the mares are lighter
+in colour. Their wool is so soft and fine that it is a pleasure to pass
+one's hand over it. Several herds or families are often seen grazing on
+the same spot. They look well-fed, and the two humps are firm and full
+of fat. In spring and summer they can go without water for eight days,
+in winter for two weeks. For innumerable generations they have known
+where to find the springs: the mothers take their young ones to them,
+and when the youngsters grow up they in their turn show the springs to
+their foals. They drink the water, however salt it may be, for they have
+no choice, but they do not stay long at the meadows by the springs, for
+their instinct tells them that where water is to be found there the
+danger is great that their enemies may also come to drink.</p>
+
+<p>Against danger they have no other protection than their sharply
+developed senses. They can scent men at a distance of twelve miles. They
+know the odour of a camping-ground long after the ashes have been swept
+away by the wind, and they avoid the spot. Tame camels passing through
+their country excite their suspicion; they do not smell like wild ones.
+They are shy and restless and do not remain long at one pasture, even if
+no danger threatens.</p>
+
+<p>In some districts they are so numerous that the traveller cannot march
+for two minutes without crossing a spoor. Where the tracks all converge
+towards a valley between two hills, they probably lead to a spring. On
+one occasion when our tame camels had not had water for eleven days,
+they were saved by following the tracks of their wild relations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h2>IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1901-2, 1906-8)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Plateau of Tibet</span></h3>
+
+<p>South of Eastern Turkestan lies the huge upheaval of the earth's crust
+which is called Tibet. Its other boundaries are: on the east, China
+proper; on the south, Burma, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, and British India;
+on the west, Kashmir and Ladak. Political boundaries, however, are of
+little and only temporary importance. They seldom remain unchanged from
+century to century, for from the earliest times a nation as it increased
+in strength has always extended its domain at the expense of its
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>The earth's crust, on the other hand, remains unchanged&mdash;if we disregard
+the continual work performed by rain and streams, weather and wind,
+which tends to fill up the hollows with mud and sand, to cut the valleys
+ever deeper, and to diminish the mountain masses by weathering. However
+powerfully these forces may have acted, Tibet still remains the highest
+mountain land of the world.</p>
+
+<p>If you lay your left hand on a map of Tibet so that the part nearest the
+wrist touches the Pamir, the flat of the hand covers the region of
+central Tibet, where there is no drainage to the ocean, but where the
+country falls instead into a number of isolated lake basins. Your thumb
+will represent the Himalayas, the forefinger the Trans-Himalaya, the
+middle finger the Karakorum, the third finger the Arka-tagh, and the
+little finger the Kuen-lun. The highest mountain ranges of the world are
+under your fingers; and also, as the longest finger is the middle of the
+five, so the Karakorum is the central range of Tibetan mountains.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now let a little stream of water fall on the back of your hand as you
+hold it on a table with the fingers spread out. You will see that a tiny
+quantity remains on the back of the hand, but that the greater part runs
+away between the fingers. Thus it is in Tibet. The water poured on your
+hand represents the rain of the south-west monsoon, which falls more
+abundantly on the eastern part of the country than on the western. The
+water which stays on the back of the hand represents the small scattered
+salt lakes on the plateau country which has no drainage to the sea,
+while the large quantity which runs off between your fingers represents
+the large rivers which flow between the ranges.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img008.jpg"  width="550" height="429"
+ alt="TIBET" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>TIBET.</h4>
+
+<p>Of these rivers two stream eastwards: the Yellow River (the Hwang-ho),
+which falls into the Yellow Sea, and the Blue River (the
+Yang-tse-kiang), which empties its waters into the Eastern Sea. The
+others run southwards, the Mekong into the China Sea, the Salwin,
+Irawaddy, and Brahmaputra into the great inlet of the Indian Ocean which
+is called the Bay of Bengal. A large quantity of water runs off along
+the outer side of your thumb; this is the Ganges,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> which comes down from
+the upper valleys of the Himalayas. And, far to the west, nearest to the
+wrist, you find two rivers with which you are already acquainted: the
+Indus, which flows southwards into the Arabian Sea, and the Tarim, which
+runs north and east and falls into Lop-nor.</p>
+
+<p>The Himalayas are the loftiest range on earth, and among their crests
+rise the highest peaks in the world. Three of them should be remembered,
+for they are so well known: Mount Everest, which, with its 29,000 feet,
+is the very highest summit in the world; Kinchinjunga (28,200 feet), and
+Dhwalagiri (26,800 feet). Mount Godwin-Austen in the Karakorum is only
+about 650 feet lower than Mount Everest.</p>
+
+<p>The Himalayas present a grand spectacle when seen from the south. No
+other mountain region in the world can vie with it in awe-inspiring
+beauty. If we travel by rail from Calcutta up to Sikkim we see the
+snow-clad crest of the Himalayas in front and above us, and Kinchinjunga
+like a dazzling white pinnacle surmounting the whole. We see the sharply
+defined snow limit, and the steep, wooded slopes below. If it is early
+in the morning and the weather is fine, the jagged, snowy crest shines
+brightly in the sun, while the flanks and valleys are still hidden in
+dense shadow. And during the journey to the great heights we shall
+notice that the flora changes much in the same way as it does from South
+Italy to the North Cape. The last forms of vegetation to contend against
+the cold are mosses and lichens. Then we come to the snow limit, where
+the mountains and rocks are bare.</p>
+
+<p>North and Central Tibet have a mean elevation of 16,000 feet; that is to
+say, one is almost always at a greater height than the summit of Mont
+Blanc. Where the plateau country is so exceedingly high the mountain
+ranges seem quite insignificant. We have spoken of five great ranges,
+but between these He many smaller, all running east and west.</p>
+
+<p>What a fortunate thing it is for the people of Asia that the interior of
+the continent rises into the tremendous boss called Tibet! Against its
+heights the water vapour of the monsoon is cooled and condensed, so that
+it falls in the form of rain and feeds the great rivers. Were the
+country flat like northern India or Eastern Turkestan, immense tracts of
+the interior of Asia would be complete desert, as in the interior of
+Arabia; but as it is, the water is collected in the mountains and runs
+off in all directions. Along the rivers the population is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> densest;
+around them spring up cities and states, and from them canals branch off
+to water fields and gardens.</p>
+
+<p>You know, of course, that Asia is the largest division of land in the
+world, and that Europe is little more than a peninsula jutting out
+westwards from the trunk of Asia. Indeed, Asia is not much smaller than
+Europe, Africa, and Australia put together. Of the 1550 millions of men
+who inhabit the world, 830 millions, or more than half, live in Asia.
+If, now, you take out your atlas and compare southern Europe and
+southern Asia, you will find some very curious similarities. From both
+these continents three large peninsulas point southwards. The Iberian
+Peninsula, consisting of Spain and Portugal, corresponds to the Arabian
+Peninsula, both being quadrangular and massive. Italy corresponds to the
+Indian Peninsula, both having large islands near their extremities,
+Sicily and Ceylon. The Balkan Peninsula corresponds to Further India
+(the Malay Peninsula), both having irregular, deeply indented coasts
+with a world of islands to the south-east, the Archipelago and the Sunda
+Islands.</p>
+
+<p>Tibet may be likened to a fortress surrounded by mighty ramparts. To the
+south the ramparts are double, the Himalayas and the Trans-Himalaya, and
+between the two is a moat partly filled with water&mdash;the Upper Indus and
+the Upper Brahmaputra. And Tibet is really a fortress and a defence in
+the rear of China. It is easily conceivable that a country surrounded by
+such huge mountain ranges must be very difficult of access, and the
+number of Europeans who have crossed Tibet is very small.</p>
+
+<p>The inaccessible position of the country has also had an influence on
+the people. Isolated and without communication with their neighbours,
+the people have taken their own course and have developed in a peculiar
+manner within their own boundaries. The northern third of the country is
+uninhabited. I once travelled for three months, and on another occasion
+for eighty-one days, without seeing a single human being. The middle
+part is thinly peopled by herdsmen, who roam about with their flocks of
+sheep and yaks, and live in black tents. Many of them also are skilful
+hunters of yaks and antelopes. Others gather salt on the dried-up beds
+of lakes, pack it in double-ended bags, and carry it on sheep to barter
+it for barley in the southern districts, which are the home of the great
+majority of Tibet's two or three million inhabitants. There are to be
+found not only nomads, but also settled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> people, dwelling in small
+villages of stone huts in the deeper river valleys, especially that of
+the Brahmaputra, and cultivating barley. A few towns also exist here;
+they are all small, the largest being Lhasa and Shigatse.</p>
+
+<p>When our journey takes us to India again we shall have an opportunity of
+learning about the religion of Buddha, which is called Buddhism. In a
+different form this religious creed found its way into Tibet a thousand
+years ago. Before this time a sort of natural religion prevailed, which
+peopled the mountains, rivers, lakes, and air with demons and spirits.
+Much of the old superstition was absorbed into the new teaching, and the
+combination is known by the name of Lamaism. There are 620 millions of
+Christians in the world and 400 million Buddhists; and of the Buddhists
+all the Tibetans and Mongolians, the Buriats in eastern Siberia, the
+Kalmukhs on the Volga, the peoples of Ladak, northern Nepal, Sikkim, and
+Bhutan are Lamaists.</p>
+
+<p>They have a great number of monks and priests, each of whom is called a
+Lama. The principal one is the Dalai Lama, in Lhasa, but almost on a par
+with him is the Tashi Lama, the head of Tashi-lunpo, the large monastery
+at Shigatse. The third in rank is the High Lama at Urga in northern
+Mongolia. These three and some others are incarnated deities. The Dalai
+Lama never dies; the god that dwells in him merely changes his earthly
+body, just as a snake when it casts its skin. When a Dalai Lama dies it
+means that the divinity, his soul, sets out on its wanderings and passes
+into the body of a boy. When the boy is found he becomes the Dalai Lama
+of Lhasa. Lamaists believe, then, in the transmigration of souls, and
+the end, the fullest perfection, is peace in Nirvana.</p>
+
+<p>There are many monasteries and nunneries in the upper Brahmaputra
+valley. The temple halls are adorned with images of the gods in metal or
+gilded clay, and butter lamps burn day and night in front of them. Monks
+and nuns cannot marry, but among the ordinary people the singular custom
+prevails that a wife can have two or several husbands. Among Mohammedans
+the case is just the reverse: men can have several wives.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Attempt to reach Lhasa</span></h3>
+
+<p>It was from Lop-nor in the year 1901 that I penetrated into this lofty
+mountain land for the third time. The summer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> had just set in with its
+suffocating dust storms, and we longed to get up into the fresh, pure
+air. The caravan was large, for I had sixteen Mohammedan servants from
+Eastern Turkestan, two Russian and two Buriat Cossacks, and a Mongolian
+Lama from Urga. Provisions for seven months, tents, furs, beds, weapons,
+and boxes were carried by 39 camels, 45 horses and mules, and 60 asses;
+and we also had 50 sheep for food, several dogs, and a tame stag.</p>
+
+<p>When all was ready we set out towards the lofty mountains and crossed
+one range after another. When we reached the great heights the caravan
+lost strength day by day. The atmosphere is so rare that a man cannot
+breathe without an effort, and the slightest movement produces
+palpitation of the heart. The grazing becomes more scanty the higher you
+go, and many of the caravan animals succumbed. At last we seldom
+travelled more than twelve miles in a day.</p>
+
+<p>After forty-four days' march due southwards we came to a part of the
+country where footprints of men were seen in several places, and Lhasa
+was only 300 miles away. Up to this time all Europeans who had tried to
+reach the holy city had been forced by Tibetan horsemen to turn back.
+The Tibetans are at bottom a good-tempered, decent people, but they will
+not allow any European to enter their country. They have heard that
+India and Central Asia have been conquered by white men, and fear that
+the same fate may befall Tibet. Two hundred years ago, indeed, Catholic
+missionaries lived in Lhasa, and the town was visited in 1845 by the
+famous priests Huc and Gabet from France. Since then two Europeans who
+had made the attempt to reach the place had been murdered, and others
+had to turn back without success.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was my turn to try my luck. My plan was to travel in disguise
+with only two followers. One was the Mongolian Lama, the other the
+Buriat Cossack, Shagdur. The Buriats are of Mongol race, speak
+Mongolian, and are Lamaists. They have narrow, rather oblique eyes,
+prominent cheek-bones, and thick lips. The dress of both peoples is the
+same&mdash;a skin coat with long sleeves and a waistbelt, a cap, and a pair
+of boots with turned-up toes. My costume was of exactly the same kind,
+and everything we took with us&mdash;tent, boxes, cooking utensils, and
+provisions&mdash;was of Mongolian style and make. The European articles I
+required&mdash;instruments, writing materials, and a field-glass&mdash;were
+carefully packed in a box. For defence we had two Russian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> rifles and a
+Swedish revolver. Of the caravan animals, five mules and four horses, as
+well as two dogs, Tiger and Lilliput, were to go with us. I rode a
+handsome white horse, Shagdur a tall yellow horse, and the Lama a small
+greyish-yellow mule. The baggage animals were led by my men and I rode
+behind. During the first two days we had a Mohammedan with us, &Ouml;rdek,
+but he was to go back to headquarters, where all the rest of the caravan
+were ordered to await our return.</p>
+
+<p>We were to ride south-eastwards and endeavour to strike the great
+Mongolian pilgrim route to Lhasa. Many Mongolians betake themselves
+annually in large armed caravans to the holy city to pay homage to the
+Dalai Lama, and obtain a blessing from him and the Tashi Lama. Perhaps
+it was wrong of me to give myself out for a Lamaist pilgrim, but there
+seemed no other means of getting to the forbidden city.</p>
+
+<p>We left the main camp on July 27, and those we left behind did not
+expect ever to see us again. The first day we did not see a living
+thing, and the second day we rode twenty-five miles farther without
+hindrance. Our camp that day was situated on open ground beside two
+lakes, and to the south-east stood some small hills, in the
+neighbourhood of which our animals grazed. &Ouml;rdek was to watch them
+during the night in order that we might have a good sleep, for when he
+left us we should have to guard them ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Here my disguise was improved. My head was shaved so that it shone like
+a billiard ball. Only the eyebrows were left. Then the Lama rubbed fat,
+soot, and brown colouring-matter into the skin, and when I looked in a
+small hand-glass I could hardly recognise myself; but I seemed to have a
+certain resemblance to my two Lamaist retainers.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon a storm broke out from the north, and we crept early
+into our little thin tent and slept quietly. At midnight &Ouml;rdek crept
+into the tent and whispered in a trembling voice that robbers were
+about. We seized our weapons and rushed out. The storm was still raging,
+and the moon shone fitfully between the riven clouds. We were too late.
+With some difficulty we made out two horsemen on the top of the hills
+driving two loose horses before them&mdash;we found afterwards that one was
+my favourite white horse, the other Shagdur's yellow one. Shagdur sent a
+bullet after the scoundrels, but it only hastened their pace.</p>
+
+<p>It was still dark, but there was no more sleep for us. We settled
+ourselves round a small blaze, boiled rice and tea, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> lighted our
+pipes. When the sun rose we were ready to go forward. First we examined
+the tracks of the thieves and found that they had come down on us with
+the wind, and had thus eluded the watchfulness of the dogs. One of the
+men had crept along a rain furrow right among the grazing horses, and,
+jumping up, had frightened the best two off to leeward. There a mounted
+Tibetan had taken them in hand and chased them on in front of him. The
+third had waited with his comrade's horse and his own, and then he also
+had made off. They had no doubt been watching us all day. Perhaps they
+already knew that we came from my headquarters, and they might even send
+a warning to Lhasa.</p>
+
+<p>&Ouml;rdek was beside himself with fright at having to make the two days'
+journey back on foot and quite alone. We heard afterwards that he did
+not dare to go back on our trail, but sneaked like a wild cat along all
+the furrows, longing for night; but when darkness came he was still more
+terrified and thought that every stone was a lurking villain. A couple
+of wild asses nearly frightened him out of his senses, and made him
+scuttle like a hedgehog into a ravine. When he arrived in the darkness
+of night at the main camp, the night watchman took him for a stranger
+and raised his gun. But &Ouml;rdek shouted and waved his arms, and when he
+got to his tent he lay down and slept heavily for two whole days.</p>
+
+<p>We three pilgrims rode on south-eastwards, and pitched our tent on open
+ground by a brook twenty-five miles farther on. Our positions were now
+reversed; Shagdur was the important man and I was only a mule-driver.
+With the Cossacks I always spoke Russian, but now no language must be
+used but Mongolian, which the Lama had been teaching me for a long time
+previously. After dinner I slept till eight o'clock in the evening, and
+when I awoke I found my two comrades in a state of the greatest anxiety,
+for they had seen three Tibetan horsemen spying upon us from a long
+distance. We must therefore expect fresh trouble at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>The night was divided into three watches, from nine o'clock to midnight,
+midnight to three o'clock, and three o'clock to six o'clock, and usually
+I took the first and the Lama the last. The animals were tethered to a
+rope fastened to the ground in the lee of the tent, and Tiger was tied
+up in front of them and Lilliput behind them.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past eight Shagdur and the Lama were asleep in the tent, and my
+first night watch began. I strolled backwards and forwards between Tiger
+and Lilliput, who whined with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> pleasure when I stroked them. The sky was
+covered with dense black clouds, lighted from within by flashes of
+lightning, while thunder rolled around us and rain streamed down in a
+perfect deluge. It beat and rang on the Mongolian stewpans left out at
+the fireplace. Sometimes I tried to get a little shelter in the tent
+opening, but as soon as the dogs growled I had to hurry out again.</p>
+
+<p>At last it is midnight and my watch is at an end; but Shagdur is
+sleeping so soundly that I cannot find it in my heart to waken him. I am
+just thinking of shortening his watch by half an hour when both dogs
+begin to bark furiously. The Lama wakes up and rushes out, and we steal
+off with our weapons in the direction in which we hear the tramp of a
+horse going away through the mud. In a little while all is quiet again,
+and the dogs cease to bark. I wake up Shagdur and creep into my berth in
+my wet coat.</p>
+
+<p>Next day we travel on under a sky as heavy as lead. No human beings or
+nomad tents are to be seen, but we find numerous tracks of flocks of
+sheep and yaks, and old camping-grounds. The danger of meeting people
+increased hourly, and so did my anxiety as to how the Tibetans would
+treat us when we were at last discovered.</p>
+
+<p>On July 31 the rain was still pouring down. We were following a clear,
+well-trodden path, along which a herd of yaks had recently been driven.
+After a while we came up with a party of Tangut pilgrims, with fifty
+yaks, two horses, and three dogs. The Tanguts are a nomadic people in
+northeastern Tibet, and almost every second Tangut is also a robber. We
+passed them safely, however, and for the first time encamped near a
+Tibetan nomad tent occupied by a young man and two women.</p>
+
+<p>While the Lama was talking with these people, the owner of the tent came
+up and was much astonished to find an unexpected visitor. He followed
+the Lama to our tent and sat down on the wet ground outside the
+entrance. His name was Sampo Singi, and he was the dirtiest fellow I
+ever saw in my life. The rain-water dropped from his matted hair on to
+the ragged cloak he wore; he wore felt boots but no trousers, which
+indeed almost all Tibetan nomads regard as quite, superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>Sampo Singi blew his nose with his fingers, making a loud noise, and he
+did it so often that I began to think that it was some form of
+politeness. To make sure I followed his example. He showed not the
+slightest suspicion, only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> looked at our things and gave us the
+information we wanted. We had a journey of eight days more to Lhasa, he
+assured us. Then Shagdur gave him a pinch of snuff which made him sneeze
+at least fifty times. We laughed at him when he asked whether we put
+pepper in our snuff, whereupon, in order to keep up our story, Shagdur
+roared at me, "Do not sit here and stare, boy; go and drive in the
+cattle." I started up at once, and had a terrible job to get the animals
+in to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>We had an undisturbed night, thanks to the neighbourhood of the nomads,
+for they too had fierce dogs and arms. Early in the morning Sampo came
+with another man and a woman to visit us. We had asked if we might buy
+some food from them, and they brought several choice things with them&mdash;a
+sheep, a large piece of fat, a bowl of sour milk, a wooden bowl of
+powdered cheese, a can of milk, and a lump of yellow cream cheese. Then
+came the question of payment. Our money consisted of Chinese silver
+pieces, which are valued by weight, and are weighed out with a pair of
+small scales. Sampo Singi, however, would take only silver coins from
+Lhasa, of which we had none. Fortunately I had provided myself with two
+packages of blue Chinese silken material in Turkestan, and a length of
+that is a substitute for silver of all kinds. The Tibetans became quite
+excited when they heard the rustle of the silk, and after the usual
+haggling and bargaining we came to an agreement.</p>
+
+<p>The sheep was then slaughtered, some fat pieces were fried over the
+fire, and after a solid breakfast, of which a share was bestowed on the
+dogs, we bade farewell to the Tibetans and rode on through the valley,
+still in pouring rain. Soon we came to the right bank of a broad river
+which was composed of about twenty arms, four of which were each as
+large as an ordinary stream. Without hesitation our courageous little
+Lama rode straight out into the rapid turbid current, and Shagdur and I
+followed. When we had crossed about half the river we rested a while on
+a small mud flat, from which neither bank could be seen owing to the
+rain. On all sides we were surrounded by swiftly flowing water, yet it
+seemed as if the water was standing still while the small sandbank
+rushed up the river at a terrific pace.</p>
+
+<p>The Lama again started off with his mule into the water, but he had not
+gone many steps before the water rose to the root of the animal's tail.
+He was also leading the mule which carried our two hide trunks, which
+until the water soaked into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> them acted like corks. In this way the mule
+lost her footing on the bottom of the river, swung round, and was
+quickly carried down-stream. We saw her disappear in the rain and
+thought that it was certainly her last journey, but she extricated
+herself in a marvellous manner. Near the left bank of the river she
+managed to get her hoofs on the bottom again, and clambered up; and what
+was most singular, the two trunks were still on her back.</p>
+
+<p>At length we all got safely across, and rode on. My boots squelched, and
+water dropped from the corners of the boxes. Our camp that evening was
+truly wretched&mdash;not a dry stitch on us, continuous rain, almost
+impossible to make a fire. At length, however, we succeeded in keeping
+alight a small smoking fire of dung. That night I did not keep watch a
+minute after midnight, but waked up Shagdur mercilessly and crept into
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>On August 2 we made only fifteen and a half miles. The road was now
+broad and easy to follow. On the slope of a hill was encamped a large
+tea caravan; its twenty-five men were sitting round their fires, while
+the three hundred yaks were grazing close at hand. The bales of tea were
+stacked up in huge piles; it was Chinese tea of poor quality compressed
+into cakes like bricks, and therefore called "brick-tea." Every cake is
+wrapped in red paper, and about twenty cakes are sewed up together into
+a hide tightly bound with rope. The caravan was bound for Shigatse. As
+we rode by, several of the men came up to us and put some impertinent
+and inconvenient questions. They were well armed and looked like
+robbers, so we politely refused their proposal that we should travel
+together southwards. We pitched our camp a little farther on, and next
+morning we saw this curious and singular caravan pass by. It was a great
+contrast to the fine camel caravans of Persia and Turkestan, for it
+marched like a regiment in separate detachments of thirty or forty yaks
+each. The men walked, whistling and uttering short sharp cries; ten of
+them carried guns slung on their backs, and all were bareheaded,
+sunburnt, and dirty.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the next day we remained where we were in order to dry our
+things, and the Lama again stained my head down to the neck and in the
+ears. The critical moment was approaching.</p>
+
+<p>On August 4 we met a caravan of about a hundred yaks, accompanied by
+armed men in tall yellow hats; but they took us for ordinary pilgrims
+and did not trouble themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> about us. Then we rode past several
+tents, and when we reached the top of the next pass we saw that tents
+lay scattered about on the plain like black spots, fourteen together in
+one place. We were now on the great highway to Lhasa.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we came to a flat open valley, where there were twelve
+tents. Three Tibetans came to our tent there at dusk, and had a long
+conversation with the Lama, who was the only one of us who understood
+Tibetan. When he came back to us he was quite overcome with fright. One
+of the three men, who was a chief, had told him that information had
+come from yak-hunters in the north that a large European caravan was on
+the way. He had a suspicion that one of us might be a white man, and he
+ordered us on no account to move from where we were. In fact, we were
+prisoners, and with great anxiety we awaited the morning, when our fate
+would be decided. All night a watch was kept round our tent, as we knew
+by the fires, and next day we were visited by several parties, both
+influential chiefs and ordinary nomads, who warned us, if we valued our
+lives, to wait there till the Governor of the Province arrived.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime they did all they could to frighten us. Troops of
+horsemen in close order dashed straight towards our tent, as if they
+meant to stamp us into the earth, and so finish us off at once. On they
+rushed, the horses' hoofs ringing on the bare ground and the riders
+brandishing their swords and lances above their heads and uttering the
+wildest shrieks. When they were so near that the mud was splashed on to
+the tent, they suddenly opened out to right and left, and returned in
+the same wild career to the starting-point. This martial manoeuvre was
+repeated several times.</p>
+
+<p>During the following days, however, they behaved in a more peaceful
+fashion, and eventually we came to be on quite a friendly footing with
+most of our neighbours. They visited us constantly, gave us butter,
+milk, and fat, and when it rained crept coolly into our tent, which
+became so crowded that we could hardly find room for ourselves. They
+informed us that the Dalai Lama had given orders that no harm should be
+done to us, and we saw that messengers on horseback rode off daily along
+the roads leading to Lhasa and the Governor's village. We did not know
+where our seven baggage and riding animals were, but we made it clear to
+the Tibetans that, as they had stopped us against our will, they must be
+answerable for the safety of our animals and possessions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On August 9 things at last began to look lively. A whole village of
+tents sprang up at some distance from us, and round the new tents
+swarmed Tibetans on foot and horseback. A Mongolian interpreter escorted
+by some horsemen came to our tent.</p>
+
+<p>"The Governor, Kamba Bombo, is here, and invites you to-day to a feast
+in his tent."</p>
+
+<p>"Greet Kamba Bombo," I answered, "but tell him that it is usual first to
+pay a visit to the guests one invites."</p>
+
+<p>"You must come," went on the interpreter; "a sheep roasted whole is
+placed in the middle of the tent, surrounded by bowls of roasted meal
+and tea. He awaits you."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not leave our camp. If Kamba Bombo wishes to see us he can come
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will not come with me I cannot be responsible for you to the
+Governor. He has ridden day and night to talk with you. I beg you to
+come with me."</p>
+
+<p>"If Kamba Bombo has anything to say to us, he is welcome. We ask nothing
+from him, only to travel to Lhasa as peaceful pilgrims."</p>
+
+<p>Two hours later the Tibetans came back again in a long dark line of
+horsemen, the Governor riding on a large white mule in their midst. His
+retinue consisted of officials, priests, and officers in red and blue
+cloaks carrying guns, swords, and lances, wearing turbans or
+light-coloured hats, and riding on silver-studded saddles.</p>
+
+<p>When they came up, carpets and cushions were spread on the ground, and
+on these Kamba Bombo took his seat. I went out to him and invited him
+into our poor tent, where he occupied the seat of honour, a maize sack.
+He might be forty years old, looked merry and jovial, but also pale and
+tired. When he took off his long red cloak and his <i>bashlik</i>, he
+appeared in a splendid dress of yellow Chinese silk, and his boots were
+of green velvet.</p>
+
+<p>The interview began at once, and each of us did his best to talk the
+other down. The end of the matter was a clear declaration on his part
+that if we tried to move a step in the direction of Lhasa our heads
+should be cut off, no matter who we were. We did our best, both that day
+and the next, to get this decision altered, but it was no use and we had
+to yield to superior force.</p>
+
+<p>So we turned back on the long road through dreary Tibet, and eventually
+regained our headquarters in safety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Tashi Lama</span></h3>
+
+<p>Thus it was that we came back to the little town of Leh, the capital of
+Ladak, and again saw the winter caravans which come over the lofty
+mountains from Eastern Turkestan on their way with goods to Kashmir.
+Then several years passed, but in August, 1906, I was once more in Leh,
+having travelled (as has been described) across Europe to
+Constantinople, over the Black Sea, through Persia and Baluchistan, then
+by rail to Rawalpindi, in a tonga to Kashmir, and lastly on horseback to
+Leh. On this occasion the caravan consisted of twenty-seven men and
+nearly a hundred mules and horses, besides thirty hired horses, which
+were to turn back when the provisions they carried had been consumed.</p>
+
+<p>Our course lay over the lofty mountains in northern Tibet, and for
+eighty-one days we did not see a single human being. But when we turned
+off to the right and came to more southern districts of the country, we
+met with Tibetan hunters and nomads, from whom we purchased tame yaks
+and sheep, for the greater part of our animals had perished owing to the
+rarefied air, the poor and scanty pasture, and the cold and the wind.
+The temperature had on one occasion fallen as low as 40&deg; below zero.</p>
+
+<p>After wandering for about six months we came to the Upper Brahmaputra,
+which is the only place where the Tibetans use boats, if indeed they can
+be called boats at all. They simply take four yak hides, stretch them
+over a framework of thin curved ribs and sew them together, and then the
+boat is ready; but it is buoyant and floats lightly on the water. When
+we were only a day's journey from Shigatse, the second town of Tibet,
+the caravan was ferried across the river. I myself with two of my
+servants took my seat in a hide boat, dexterously managed by a Tibetan,
+and we drifted down the Brahmaputra at a swinging pace.</p>
+
+<p>A number of other boats were following the same fine waterway. They were
+full of pilgrims flocking to the great Lama temple in Shigatse. Two days
+later was the New Year of the country, and then the Lamaists celebrate
+their greatest festival. Pilgrims stream from far and near to the holy
+town. Round their necks they wear small images of their gods or
+wonder-working charms written on paper and enclosed in small cases, and
+many of them turn small praying mills, which are filled inside with
+prayers written on long strips of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> paper. When the mills revolve all
+these prayers ascend up to the ears of the gods&mdash;so easy is it to pray
+in Tibet! All the time a man can continue his conversation with his
+fellow-travellers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate11.jpg"  width="550" height="387"
+ alt="PLATE XI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XI. TASHI-LUNPO.<br />
+From a sketch by the Author.</h4>
+
+<p>Many of the pilgrims, however, like all Tibetans, murmur the sacred
+formula <i>Om mane padme hum</i> over and over again. These four words
+contain the key to all faith and salvation. They signify "O, jewel in
+the lotus flower, amen." The jewel is Buddha, and in all images he is
+represented as rising up from the petals of a lotus flower. The more
+frequently a man repeats these four words, the greater chance has he of
+a happy existence when he dies and his soul passes into a new body.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Shigatse and pitched our tents in a garden on the outskirts
+of the town. Outside Shigatse stands the great monastery of Tashi-lunpo
+(Plate XI.), in which dwell 3800 monks of various grades, from fresh
+young novices to old, grey high priests. They all go bareheaded and
+bare-armed, and their dress consists of long red sheets wound round the
+body. The priest who is head of all is called the Tashi Lama; he is the
+primate of this part of Tibet and enjoys the same exalted rank and
+dignity as the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. He has a great reputation for
+sanctity and learning, and pilgrims stand for hours in a queue only to
+receive a word of blessing from him.</p>
+
+<p>This Tashi Lama was then a man of twenty-seven years of age, and had
+held the position since he was a small boy. He invited me to the great
+festival in the temple on New Year's Day. In the midst of the temple
+town is a long court surrounded by verandahs, balconies, and platforms.
+Round about are seen the gilded copper roofs over the sanctuaries and
+mausoleums where departed high priests repose. Everywhere the people are
+tightly packed, and the visitors from far and near are dressed in their
+holiday clothes, many-coloured and fine, and decorated with silver
+ornaments, coral and turquoise. The Tashi Lama has his seat in a balcony
+hung with silken draperies and gold tassels, but the holy countenance
+can be seen through a small square opening in the silk.</p>
+
+<p>The festival begins with the entry of the temple musicians. They carry
+copper bassoons ten feet long, so heavy that their bells have to rest on
+the shoulder of an acolyte. With deep, long-drawn blasts the monks
+proclaim the New Year, just as long ago the priests of Israel announced
+with trumpet notes the commencement of the year of jubilee. Then follow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+cymbals which clash in a slow, ringing measure, and drums which rouse
+echoes from the temple walls. The noise is deafening, but it sounds
+cheerful and impressive after the deep stillness in the valleys of
+Tibet.</p>
+
+<p>After the musicians have taken their places in the court the dancing
+monks enter. They are clad in costly garments of Chinese silk, and
+bright dragons embroidered in gold flash in the folds as the sunlight
+falls on them. The faces of the monks are covered by masks representing
+wild animals with open jaws and powerful tusks. The monks execute a slow
+circular dance. They believe, and so do all the people, that evil
+spirits may be kept at a distance and driven away by this performance.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I was summoned to the Tashi Lama. We passed along narrow
+paved lanes between the monastery walls, through narrow gloomy passages,
+up staircases of polished wood, and at last reached the highest floor of
+the monastery, where the Tashi Lama has his private apartments. I found
+him in a simple room, sitting cross-legged in a window recess from which
+he can see the temple roofs and the lofty mountains and the sinful town
+in the valley. He was beardless, with short-cut brown hair. His
+expression was singularly gentle and charming, almost shy. He held out
+his hands to me and invited me to take a seat beside him, and then for
+several hours we talked about Tibet, Sweden, and this vast, wonderful
+world.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Wild Asses and Yaks</span></h3>
+
+<p>If I had counted all the wild asses I saw during my travels in Tibet the
+number would amount to many, many thousands. Up in the north, in the
+very heart of the highland country, and down in the south, hardly a day
+passed without our seeing these proud, handsome animals, sometimes
+alone, sometimes in couples, and sometimes in herds of several hundred
+head.</p>
+
+<p>The Latin name for the wild ass, <i>Equus kiang</i>, indicates his close
+relationship to the horse, and "kiang" is what he is called by the
+people of Tibet. The wild ass is as large as an average mule, with
+well-developed ears, and a sharp sense of hearing; his tail is tufted at
+the end, and he is reddish-brown in colour, except on the legs and
+belly, where he is white. When he scents danger he snorts loudly, throws
+up his head, cocks his ears, and expands his nostrils; he is more like a
+fine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> ass than a horse, but when you see him wild and free on the salt
+plains of Tibet, the difference between him and an ass seems even
+greater than between an ass and a horse. My own horses and mules seemed
+sorry jades by the side of the "kiangs" of the desert.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion my Cossacks caught two small foals which as yet had no
+experience of life and the dangers of the desert. They stood tied up
+between the tents and made no attempt to escape. We gave them meal mixed
+with water, which they supped up eagerly, and we hoped that they would
+thrive and stay with us. When I saw how they pined for freedom, however,
+I wanted to restore them to the desert and to their mother's care. But
+it was too late; the mothers would have nothing to do with them after
+they had been in the hands of men, so we had to kill them to save them
+from the wolves. Thus strict is the law of the wilderness: a human hand
+is enough to break the spell of its freedom.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot travel back to India without having become acquainted with the
+huge ox which runs wild over the loftiest mountains of Tibet. He is
+called "yak" in Tibetan, and the name has been transferred to most
+European languages. He is closely akin to the tame yak, but is larger
+and is always of a deep black colour; only when he is old does his head
+turn grey. The tame yak, on the other hand, is often white, brown, or
+mottled. Common to both are the peculiar form and the abundant wool.
+Seen from the side, the yak seems humpbacked. The back slopes down from
+the highest point, just over the forelegs, to the root of the tail,
+while the neck slopes down still more steeply to the scrag. The animal
+is exceedingly heavy, strong and ungainly, and the points of the thick
+horns are often worn and cracked in consequence of severe combats
+between the bulls.</p>
+
+<p>As the yak lives in a temperature which in winter falls below the
+freezing-point of mercury (-40&deg;), he needs a close warm coat and a
+protective layer of fat under the hide; and he is, in fact, so well
+provided with these that no cold on earth can affect him. When his
+breath hangs in clouds of steam round his nostrils he is in his element.
+Singular, too, are the fringes of wool a foot long which skirt the lower
+parts of his flanks and the upper parts of his forelegs. They may grow
+so long as to touch the ground as the yak walks. When he lies down on
+the stone-hard, frozen, and pebbly ground, these thick fringes serve as
+cushions, and on them he lies soft and warm.</p>
+
+<p>On what do these huge fleshy animals live in a country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> where, broadly
+speaking, nothing grows and where a caravan may perish for want of
+fodder? It often happened that we would march for several days together
+without seeing a blade of grass. Then we might come to a valley with a
+little scanty hard yellow grass, but even if we stayed over a day the
+animals could not get nearly enough to eat. Not until we have descended
+to about 15,000 feet above sea-level do we find&mdash;and then only very
+seldom&mdash;a few small, miserable bushes; and to reach trees we must
+descend another 3000 feet lower. In the home of the wild yaks the ground
+is almost everywhere bare and barren, and yet these great beasts roam
+about and thrive excellently. They live on mosses and lichens, which
+they lick up with the tongue, and for this purpose their tongues are
+provided with hard, sharp, horny barbs like a thistle. In the same way
+they crop the velvety grass, less than half an inch high, which grows on
+the edges of the high alpine brooks, and which is so short that a horse
+cannot get hold of it.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion I made an excursion of several days from the main
+caravan, accompanied by only two men. One was an Afghan named Aldat. He
+was an expert yak-hunter, and used to sell the hides to merchants of
+Eastern Turkestan to be made into saddles and boots. We had encamped
+about 600 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc, and the air was so
+rarefied that if we took even a few steps we suffered from difficulty in
+breathing and palpitation of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>When the camp was ready, Aldat came and asked me to look at a large yak
+bull grazing on a slope above my tent. As we needed flesh and fat, I
+gave him permission to shoot it and to keep the hide. The bull had not
+noticed us, for he was to windward, and thought of nothing but the juicy
+moss. Water melted from the snow trickled among the stones, the wind
+blew cold, and the sky was overcast&mdash;true yak weather. With his gun on
+his back, Aldat crept up a hollow. At last he pushed himself along on
+his elbows and toes, crouching on the ground like a cat prowling after
+prey. At a distance of thirty paces he stopped behind a scarcely
+perceptible ridge of stones and took careful aim. The yak did not look
+up, not suspecting any danger. He had roamed about for fifteen years on
+these peaceful heights near the snow-line and had never seen a man. The
+shot cracked out and echoed among the mountains. The yak jumped into the
+air, took a few uncertain steps, stopped, reeled, tried to keep his
+balance, fell, lifted himself, but fell again heavily and helplessly to
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> ground, and lay motionless. It was stone dead, and in an hour was
+skinned and cut up.</p>
+
+<p>This took place on September 9. On the 23rd of the same month the
+relations of the yak bull might have seen from a distance a strange
+procession. Some men carried a long object to the edge of a grave which
+had just been dug, lowered it into the trench, covered it with a skin
+coat, and filled in the grave with stones and earth. Into this simple
+mound was thrust a tent pole, with the wild yak's bushy tail fastened to
+the top; and the man who slumbered under the hillock was Aldat himself,
+the great yak-hunter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h2>INDIA</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">From Tibet to Simla</span></h3>
+
+<p>Right up in Tibet lie the sources of the Sutlej, the largest affluent of
+the Indus. With irresistible force it breaks through the Himalayas in
+order to get down to the sea, and its valley affords us an excellent
+road from the highlands of Tibet to the burning lowlands of India. On
+this journey we pass through a succession of belts of elevation, and
+find that various animals and plants are peculiar to different heights.
+The tiger does not go very high up on the southern flanks of the
+Himalayas, but the snow leopard is not afraid of cold. The tame yak
+would die if he were brought down to denser strata of air, and Marco
+Polo's sheep would waste away on the forest-clothed heights; but wolves,
+foxes and hares occur as frequently in India as in Tibet.</p>
+
+<p>The boundaries of the flora are more sharply defined. Below the limit of
+eternal snow (13,000 feet) ranunculus and anemones, pedicularis and
+primulas are found just as they are in our higher latitudes with
+corresponding conditions of temperature. At 12,000 feet lies the limit
+of forest, beyond which the birch does not go, but where pine-trees
+still thrive. Between 10,000 and 6000 feet are woods of the beautiful
+and charming conifer called the Himalayan cedar, which is allied to the
+cedar of Lebanon. At 7000 feet the limit of subtropical woods is
+crossed, and the oak and the climbing rose are seen. Just below 3500
+feet the tropical forest is entered, with acacias, palms, bamboos, and
+all the floral wealth of the Indian jungle.</p>
+
+<p>The Sutlej grows bigger and bigger the further we descend, and we ride
+on shaking bridges across innumerable tributaries. The atmosphere
+becomes denser, and breathing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> easier. We no longer have a singing in
+the ears, or palpitations or headache as on the great heights, and the
+cold has been left behind. Even in the early morning the air is warm,
+and soon come days when we look back with regret to the cool freshness
+up in Tibet. One of my dogs, a great shaggy Tibetan, suffered severely
+from the increasing heat, and one fine day he turned right about and
+went back to Tibet.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate12.jpg"  width="550" height="320"
+ alt="PLATE XII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XII. SIMLA.</h4>
+
+<p>The first town that we come to is called Simla (Plate XII.). It is not
+large, having barely 15,000 inhabitants, but it is one of the most
+beautiful towns in the world, and one of the most powerful, for in its
+cedar groves stands a palace, and in the palace an Imperial throne. The
+Emperor is the King of England, whose power over India is entrusted to a
+Viceroy. In summer enervating heat prevails over the lowlands of India,
+and all Europeans who are not absolutely tied to their posts move up to
+the hills. The Viceroy and his staff, the government officials, the
+chief officers of the army, civil servants and military men all fly with
+their wives up to Simla, where the leaders of society live as gaily as
+in London. During this season the number of inhabitants rises to 30,000.</p>
+
+<p>The houses of Simla are built like swallows' nests on steep slopes. The
+streets, or rather roads, lie terraced one above another. The whole town
+is built on hills surrounded by dizzy precipices. Round about stand
+forests dark and dense; but between the cedars are seen far off to the
+southwest the plains of the Punjab and the winding course of the Sutlej,
+and to the north the masses of the Himalayas with their eternal
+snowfields. It is delightful to go up to Simla from the sultriness of
+India, and perhaps still more delightful to come down to Simla from the
+piercing cold of Tibet.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Delhi and Agra</span></h3>
+
+<p>From Simla we go down by train through hundreds of tunnels and round the
+sharpest curves, over countless bridges and along dizzy precipices, to
+the lowlands of the Punjab. It is exceedingly hot, and we long for a
+little breeze from Tibet's snowy mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Time flies by till we reach Delhi, situated on the Jumna, one of the
+affluents of the Ganges. Delhi was the capital of the empire of the
+Great Moguls,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and in the seventeenth century it was the most
+magnificent city in the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/img009.jpg"><img src="images/img009-tb.jpg" alt="MAP OF INDIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM NUSHKI TO LEH" title="" /></a></div>
+
+<h4>MAP OF INDIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM NUSHKI TO LEH (pp. <a href='#Page_82'><b>82-88</b></a>), AND THE JOURNEY FROM TIBET THROUGH SIMLA, ETC., TO BOMBAY
+(pp. <a href='#Page_130'><b>130-142</b></a>).</h4>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many proud monuments of this grandeur still remain, notably the splendid
+building of pure white marble called the Hall of Private Audience, where
+in the open space surrounded by a double colonnade the Great Mogul was
+wont to dispense justice and receive envoys. In the sunshine the marble
+columns seem to be translucent, and light-blue shadows fall on the
+marble floor. The walls and pillars are inlaid with costly stones of
+various shapes: lapis-lazuli and malachite, nephrite and agate. In the
+throne-room used to stand the famous "Peacock Throne" of the Great
+Mogul. The whole throne was covered with thick plates of gold and
+studded all over with diamonds. In the year 1749 the Persian king, Nadir
+Shah, came to Delhi, defeated the Great Mogul and carried off treasures
+to the value of fifty-six million pounds. Among other valuables he
+seized was the famous diamond called the "Koh-i-noor," or "Mountain of
+Light," now among the British crown jewels. He also carried off the
+Peacock Throne, which alone was worth eleven million pounds. It is to
+this day in the possession of the Shahs of Persia, but all the diamonds
+have been taken out one after another by the successors of Nadir Shah
+when they happened to be in difficulties. The gold plates are left,
+however, and on the back still glitter the golden peacocks which give
+the throne its name.</p>
+
+<p>If we stroll for some hours through the narrow streets and interesting
+bazaars of Delhi and push our way among bustling Hindus and Mohammedans,
+we can better appreciate the vaulted arches of the Hall of Private
+Audience and can also understand the Persian inscription to be read
+above the entrance: "If there be an Elysium on earth, it is here."</p>
+
+<p>Farther down the Jumna stands Agra, and here we make another break in
+our railway journey eastwards. Agra also was for a time the capital of
+the Great Mogul empire, and in the seventeenth century the emperor who
+bore the name of Shah Jehan erected here an edifice which is still
+regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world (Plate XIII.). It is
+called the "Taj Mahal," or "royal palace," and is a mausoleum in memory
+of Shah Jehan's favourite wife, Mumtaz, by whose side he himself reposes
+in the crypt of the mosque. It is constructed entirely of blocks of
+white marble, and took twenty-seven years to build and cost nearly two
+million pounds of our money.</p>
+
+<p>The garden which surrounds the sanctuary is entered through a large gate
+of red sandstone. In a long pool goldfish dart about under floating
+lotus blossoms, and all around<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> is luxuriant verdure, the dwelling-place
+of countless singing birds; the air is filled with the odour of jasmine
+and roses, and tall, slender cypresses point to heaven.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate13.jpg"  width="550" height="371"
+ alt="PLATE XIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XIII. THE TAJ MAHAL.</h4>
+
+<p>Straight in front the marble Taj Mahal rises from a terrace, dazzling
+white in the sunshine&mdash;a summer dream of white clouds turned to stone, a
+work of art which only love could conjure out of the rubbish of earth.
+The airy cupola, the arched portals, and bright white walls are
+reflected in the pool. At each of the four corners of the terrace stands
+a tall slender minaret, also of white marble, and in the centre the huge
+dome rises to a height of 240 feet. In the great octagonal hall below
+the dome, within an enclosure of marble filigree work, stand the
+monuments over Shah Jehan and his queen Mumtaz. The actual sarcophagi
+are preserved in the vault beneath.</p>
+
+
+<p>The four fa&ccedil;ades of this wonderful building are all alike, but the
+background of green vegetation and the changes of light seem always to
+be producing new effects. Sometimes a faint green reflection from the
+foliage can be seen in the white marble; in the full sunshine it is like
+snow; in shadow, light blue. When the sun sinks in the red glow of
+evening, the whole edifice is bathed in orange light; and later comes
+the moonlight, which is perhaps the most appropriate of all. Steamy and
+close, hot and silent, now lies the garden; the illumination is icy
+cold, the shadows deep black, the dome silvery white. The mysterious
+sounds of the jungle are heard around, and the Jumna rolls down its
+turbid waters to meet the sacred Ganges.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Benares and Brahminism</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the drainage basin of the Ganges, through which the train is again
+carrying us south-eastwards, 100 million human beings, mostly Hindus,
+have their home. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and supports many
+large towns, several of them two or three thousand years old, besides
+innumerable villages. Here the Hindu peasants have their huts of
+bamboo-canes and straw-matting, and here they cultivate their wheat,
+rice, and fruits.</p>
+
+<p>Our next stay is at Benares&mdash;the holiest city in the world, if holiness
+be measured by the reverence shown by the children of men. Long before
+Jerusalem and Rome, Mecca and Lhasa, Benares was the home and heart of
+the ancient religion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> of India, and it still is the centre of
+Brahminism and Hinduism. There are more than 200 millions of Hindus in
+the world, and the thoughts of all of them turn to Benares. All Hindus
+long to make a pilgrimage to their holy city. The sick come to recover
+health in the waters of the sacred Ganges, the old travel hither to die,
+and the ashes of those who die in distant places are sent to Benares to
+be scattered over the waters of salvation. In Benares, moreover, Buddha
+preached 500 years before Christ, and at the present day he has more
+than 400 million followers; so to Buddhists also Benares is a holy
+place.</p>
+
+
+<p>The Hindus have three principal gods: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the
+preserver; and Siva, the destroyer. From these all the others are
+derived: thus, for example, Kali represents only one of the attributes
+of Siva. To this goddess children were formerly sacrificed, and when
+this was forbidden by the British Government goats were substituted. But
+we have not yet done with divinities. The worship of the Hindus is not
+confined to their gods. Nearly all nature is divine, but above all, cows
+and bulls, apes and crocodiles, snakes and turtles, eagles, peacocks and
+doves. It is not forbidden to kill, steal and lie, but if a Hindu eats
+flesh, nay, if he by chance happens to swallow the hair of a cow, he is
+doomed to the hell of boiling oil. He becomes an object of horror to
+all, but above all to himself. For thousands of years this
+superstitution has been implanted in the race, and it remains as strong
+as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since India, or, as the country is called in Persia, Hindustan, was
+conquered by the invading Aryans from the north-west&mdash;and this was quite
+4000 years ago&mdash;the Hindus have been divided into castes. The
+differences between the different castes are greater than that between
+the barons and the serfs in Europe during the Middle Ages. The two
+highest castes were the Brahmins (or priests) and the warriors. Now
+there are a thousand castes, for every occupation constitutes an
+especial caste: all goldsmiths, for example, are of the same caste, all
+sandal-makers of another, and men of different castes cannot eat
+together, or they become unclean.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Early in the morning, just before the day has begun to dawn in the east,
+let us hire a boat and have ourselves rowed up and down the Ganges. In
+this way we obtain an excellent view of this wonderful town as it
+stretches in front of us along the left bank of the river&mdash;a great heap
+of closely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> packed buildings, houses, walls and balconies, and an
+endless succession of pagodas with lofty towers (Plate XIV.). From the
+top of the bank, which is about 100 feet high, a broad flight of steps
+runs down to the river, and stone piers jut out like jetties into the
+water. Between these are wooden stages built over the surface of the
+river and covered with straw thatch and large parasols or awnings. This
+is the gathering place of the faithful. They come from every furthest
+corner of the city to the sacred river to greet the sun when it
+rises&mdash;brown, half-naked figures, with light clothing, often only a
+loincloth, of the gaudiest colours. The whole bank of the river teems
+with men.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate14.jpg"  width="550" height="321"
+ alt="PLATE XIV." title="" /></div>
+
+ <h4>PLATE XIV. BENARES.</h4>
+
+<p>An elderly Brahmin comes down to a jetty and squats on his heels. His
+head is shaved, with the exception of a tuft on the crown. He dips his
+head in the river, scoops some water up and rinses his mouth with it. He
+calls on Ganges, daughter of Vishnu, and prays her to take away his
+sins, the impurity of his birth, and to protect him throughout his life.
+Then, after repeating the twenty-four names of Vishnu, he stands up and
+calls out the sacred syllable "Om," which includes Brahma, Vishnu, and
+Siva. Lastly he invokes the earth, air, sky, sun, moon, and stars, and
+pours water over his head.</p>
+
+<p>The rim of the rising sun is seen above the jungle on the right bank of
+the Ganges. Its appearance is saluted by all the thousands of pious
+pilgrims, who sprinkle water with their hands in the direction of the
+sun, wading out into the long shallow margin of the river. The old
+Brahmin has squatted down again and performs the most incomprehensible
+movements with his hands and fingers. He holds them in different
+positions, puts them up to the top of his head, his eyes, forehead,
+nose, and breast, to indicate the 108 different manifestations of
+Vishnu. If he forgets a single one of these gestures, all his worship is
+in vain. The same ceremony has to be repeated in the afternoon and
+evening, and in the intervals the devout Brahmin has other religious
+duties to perform in the temples.</p>
+
+<p>Here an old man lies stretched out on a bed of rags. He is so thin that
+his skin hangs loosely over his ribs, and though his body is brown, his
+beard is snow-white. He has come to Benares to die beside the holy
+Ganges, which flows from the foot of Vishnu. There stands a man in the
+prime of life, but a leper, eaten away with sores. He has come to
+Benares to seek healing in the waters of life. Here, again, is a young
+woman, who trips gracefully down the stone steps bearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> a water jug
+on her head. She wades into the river until the water comes up to her
+waist; then she drinks from her hand, sprinkles water towards the sun,
+pours water over her hair, fills her pitcher, and goes slowly up again,
+while the holy Ganges water drips from the red wrap which is wound round
+her body. And all the other thousands who greet the sun with oblation of
+water from the sacred river are convinced that he who makes a pilgrimage
+to Benares and dies within the city walls obtains forgiveness for all
+his sins.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Like the Buddhists, the Hindus believe in the transmigration of souls. A
+Hindu's soul must pass through more than eight million animal forms, and
+for all the sins he has committed in the earlier forms of his existence,
+he must suffer in the later. Therefore he makes offerings to the gods
+that he may soon be released from this eternal wandering and attain the
+heaven of the faithful. In the endless chain of existence this short
+morning hour of prayer on the banks of the Ganges is but a second
+compared to eternity.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>In the evening, when the hottest hours of the day are past, let us again
+take a boat and drift down slowly past the stone steps and jetties of
+Benares. Noiseless, muddy, and grey the sacred river streams along its
+bed. What quantities of reeking impurities there are in this water of
+salvation! Whole bundles of crushed and evil-smelling marigolds, refuse,
+rags and bits, bubbles and scum, float on its surface.</p>
+
+<p>Down a steep lane a funeral procession approaches the bank at a quick
+pace. The strains of anything but melodious music disturb the quiet of
+the evening, and the noise of drums is echoed from the walls of the
+pagodas. The corpse is borne on a bier covered with a white sheet, and
+men of the caste of body-burners arrange it on the pyre, a pile of wood
+stacked up by the waterside. Then they set fire to the dry shavings, and
+the wood pile crackles. Thick clouds of smoke rise up and the smell of
+burned flesh is borne on the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>The body-burners have been sparing of fuel, however, and when the heap
+of wood has burned down to ashes, the half-consumed and blackened corpse
+still remains among the embers, and is then thrown out into the river.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Light of Asia</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the sixth century before Christ, an Aryan tribe named Sakya dwelt in
+Kapilavastu, 120 miles north of Benares.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> The king of the country had a
+son, Siddharta, gifted with supernatural powers both of body and mind.
+When the prince had reached his eighteenth year he was allowed to choose
+his bride, and his choice fell on the beautiful Yasodara; but in order
+to obtain her hand he had to vanquish in open contest those of his
+people who were most proficient in manly exercises. First came the
+bowmen, who shot at a copper drum. Siddharta had the mark moved to
+double the distance, but the bow that was given him broke. Another was
+sent for from the temple&mdash;of unpolished steel, so stiff that no one
+could bend it to get the loop of the string into the groove. To
+Siddharta, however, this was child's play, and his arrow not only
+pierced the drum, but afterwards continued its flight over the plain.</p>
+
+<p>The second trial was with the sword. With a single stroke each of the
+other competitors cut through the trunk of a fine tree, but with
+lightning rapidity Siddharta's blade cut clean through two trunks
+standing side by side. As the trees remained unmoved, the other
+competitors were jubilant and scoffed at the prince's blunt sword, but a
+light puff of wind rustled through the tops of the trees and both fell
+to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The last trial was to subdue a wild horse which no one could ride. Under
+Siddharta's powerful hand it became gentle and obedient as a lamb.</p>
+
+<p>Then the prince led his bride to the splendid palace of Kapilavastu. The
+king feared that the wickedness, poverty, and misfortune which prevailed
+in the world without might trouble the prince's mind, and he therefore
+had a high wall built round the palace, and guards posted at the gates.
+The prince was never to pass out through them.</p>
+
+<p>For some time the prince lived happily in his paradise, but one day he
+was seized with a desire to see the condition of men out in the world.
+The king gave him permission to leave the palace grounds, but issued
+orders that the town should be decorated as for a festival, and that all
+the poor, crippled, and sick people should be kept out of sight. The
+prince drove through the streets in his carriage drawn by bulls. There
+he saw an old man, worn and bent, who held out his withered hand,
+crying, "Give me an alms, to-morrow or the next day I shall die." The
+prince asked whether this hideous creature, so unlike all the others he
+had seen, was really a man, and his attendant replied that all men must
+grow old, feeble, and miserable like the one in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> front of them. Troubled
+and thoughtful Siddharta returned home.</p>
+
+<p>After some time he begged his father to let him see the town in its
+everyday state. Disguised as a merchant, and accompanied by the same
+attendant who was with him on the first occasion, he went through the
+streets on foot. Everywhere he saw prosperity and industry, but suddenly
+he heard a whining cry beside him: "I am suffering, help me home before
+I die." Siddharta stopped and found a plague-stricken man, unable to
+stir, his body covered with blotches. He asked his attendant what was
+the matter, and was told that the man was ill.</p>
+
+<p>"Can illness afflict all men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Sire, it comes sneaking like a tiger through the thicket, we know
+not when or wherefore, but all may be stricken down by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Can this unfortunate man live long in such misery, and what is the
+end?"</p>
+
+<p>"Death."</p>
+
+<p>"What is death?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look! here comes a funeral. The man who lies on the bamboo bier has
+ceased to live. Those who follow him are his mourning relations. See how
+he is now laid on a pyre, down there on the bank, and how he is burnt;
+soon all that is left of him will be a little heap of ashes."</p>
+
+<p>"Must all men die?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Sire."</p>
+
+<p>"Myself also?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>More sorrowful than ever he returned home, and in his soul a longing
+ripened to save mankind from suffering, care, and death. He heard a
+voice, "Choose between a royal crown and the beggar's staff, between
+worldly power and the lonely desolate paths which lead to the redemption
+of mankind."</p>
+
+<p>His resolution was soon taken. In the night he stole gently to
+Yasodara's couch, and looked his last on his young wife sleeping on a
+bed of roses, with her new-born son in her arms. Then he left behind all
+he loved, bade his groom saddle his horse, and rode to the copper gates,
+now watched by a treble guard. A magic wind passed over the watchmen,
+and they fell into a deep sleep, while the massive gates opened
+noiselessly of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When he was far away from Kapilavastu, he sent his servant back with the
+horse and its royal trappings, changed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> clothes with a tattered beggar,
+and went on alone. Then he met the odious tempter, the power of evil,
+who offered him dominion over the four great continents if he would only
+abandon his purpose. He overcame the tempter, and continued his journey
+until he came to another kingdom, where he settled in a cave and
+attempted to convince the Brahmins that Brahma could not be a god, since
+he had created a wretched world. The Brahmins, however, received him
+with suspicion, so he retired to a lonely country where, with five
+disciples, he devoted himself to deep meditation and self-mortification.</p>
+
+<p>In time he came to see that it was no use to torture and enfeeble the
+body, which is after all the abode of the soul, and accordingly began to
+take food again. Then his disciples abandoned him, for at that time
+self-mortification was regarded as the only path to salvation. Siddharta
+was then alone, and under the sacred fig-tree still shown in India he
+gained wisdom and enlightenment, and became Buddha.</p>
+
+<p>Then he came to Benares, and won back his first disciples; and his
+society, the brotherhood of the yellow mendicant monks, spread ever more
+and more. In the rainy season, from June to October, he taught in
+Benares, and in the fine weather he wandered from village to village.
+"To abstain from all evil, to acquire virtue, to purify the heart&mdash;that
+is the religion of Buddha"; so he preached. At the age of eighty years
+he died in 480 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>Buddha was a reformer who wished to instil new life into the religious
+faith of the Hindus. Many of the leading brothers of his order were
+Brahmins. He rejected the Vedic books, self-mortification, and
+differences of caste, preached philanthropy, and taught that the way to
+Nirvana, the paradise of peace and perfection, is open to all. He left
+no writings behind, but his doctrines were preserved in the memory of
+his disciples, who long after wrote them down. The five chief precepts
+are, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit
+adultery, thou shalt not lie, and thou shalt not drink strong drinks."</p>
+
+<p>To-day, 2500 years after his death, the doctrine of Buddha has spread
+over immense regions of eastern Asia&mdash;over Japan, China, Korea,
+Mongolia, Tibet, Further India, and Ceylon&mdash;and the country north of the
+Caspian Sea. Innumerable are the images of Buddha to be found in the
+temples of eastern Asia, and he himself has been called the "Light of
+Asia."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Bombay</span></h3>
+
+<p>After we leave Benares the railway turns south-eastwards to the wide
+delta country where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra meet, and where
+Calcutta, the capital of India,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> stands on one of the arms of the
+river. The town itself is flat and monotonous, but it is large and
+wealthy and contains more than a million inhabitants. The climate is
+very damp and hot, the temperature even in winter being about 95&deg; in the
+shade. Accordingly in the summer the Viceroy and his government move up
+to Simla in the cool of the hills.</p>
+
+<p>From Calcutta we travel by train right across to the western coast of
+the Indian Peninsula, to a more beautiful and more pleasant city&mdash;indeed
+one of the most beautiful cities of the world. Bombay is the gate to
+India, for here the traveller ends his voyage from Europe through the
+Suez Canal and begins his railway journey to his destination. It is a
+great and wealthy commercial town, having about 800,000 inhabitants, and
+innumerable vessels lie loading or unloading in the splendid harbour.</p>
+
+<p>Here we find the last remnant of a people formerly great and powerful.
+About six or seven hundred years before the birth of Christ lived a man
+named Zoroaster. He founded a religion which spread over all Persia and
+the neighbouring lands, and under its auspices Xerxes led his immense
+armies against Greece. When the martial missionaries of Islam
+overwhelmed Persia in 650 A.D. many thousands of the followers of
+Zoroaster fled to India, and a remnant of this people still live in
+Bombay and are called Parsees.</p>
+
+<p>They are clever and prosperous merchants, many of them being
+multi-millionaires, and they own Bombay and control its trade. Their
+faith involves a boundless reverence for fire, earth, and water. As the
+earth would be polluted if corpses were buried in it, and as fire would
+be dishonoured by burning bodies, they deposit their dead within low
+round towers, called the Towers of Silence. There are five of these
+towers in Bombay. They all stand together on a high hill, rising from a
+peninsula which runs out into the sea. The body is laid naked within the
+walls of the tower. In the trees around large vultures perch, and in a
+few minutes nothing but the skeleton is left of the corpse. Under the
+cypresses and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> fine foliage trees in the park round the Towers of
+Silence the family of the deceased may abandon themselves to their
+grief.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Useful Plants of India</span></h3>
+
+<p>In India we find a flora nearly allied to that which flourishes in
+tropical Africa, a soil which freely affords nourishment to both wild
+and cultivated plants, an irrigation either supplied directly by the
+monsoon rains or artificially conducted from the rivers. It is true that
+we travel for long distances, especially in north-western India, through
+true desert tracts, but other districts produce vegetation so dense and
+luxuriant that the air is filled with reeking, choking vapour as in a
+huge hothouse.</p>
+
+<p>First there are bananas, the cucumber-shaped fruits which are the food
+of millions of human beings. From India and the Sunda Islands this
+beneficent tree has spread to Africa and the Mediterranean coasts, to
+Mexico and Central America. Its floury-white flesh, juicy and
+saccharine, fragrant and well-flavoured, is an excellent article of
+food. The large leaves of the banana are useful for various
+purposes&mdash;sunshades, roof thatch, etc.</p>
+
+<p>When the hot season comes, how pleasant it is to dream in the shadow of
+the mango-tree! The tree is about sixty feet high, and the shadow
+beneath its bluish-grey leathery leaves is close and dense. The pulp of
+the fruit is golden yellow and juicy, rich in sugar and citric acid. It
+is difficult to describe the taste, for it is very peculiar; but it is
+certainly delicious.</p>
+
+<p>From their home in China and Cochin China the orange and its smaller
+brother, the mandarin, have spread over India and far around. Amongst
+the many other fruits which abound in India are grapes, melons, apples
+and pears, walnuts and figs. Figs are green before they ripen, and then
+they turn yellow. The fig-tree is distributed over the whole world
+wherever the heat is sufficient. It is mentioned both in the Old and the
+New Testament. Under a kind of fig-tree Buddha acquired wisdom in the
+paths of religion, and therefore the tree is called <i>Ficus religiosa</i>.
+<i>Nymph&aelig;a stellaris</i>, the lotus flower, which, like the water-lily,
+floats on water, is another plant of great renown among Buddhists. The
+lotus is an emblem of their religion, as the Cross is of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>In India a large quantity of rice is cultivated. In the north-eastern
+angle of the Indian triangle, Bengal and Assam,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> in Burma, on the
+peninsula of Further India (the Malay Peninsula), as well as in the
+Deccan, the southern extremity of the triangle, rice cultivation is
+extensively developed. Wheat is grown in the north-west, and cotton in
+the inland parts of the country. The cotton bush has large yellow
+flowers, and when the fruit, which is as large as a walnut, opens, the
+inside shows a quantity of seeds closely covered with soft woolly hairs.
+The fruit capsules are plucked off and dried in the sun. The fibre is
+removed from the seeds by a machine, and is cleaned and packed in bales
+which are pressed together and confined by iron bands, and then the
+article is ready for shipping to the manufacturing towns, of which
+Manchester is the most important. In India and Arabia the cotton bush
+has been cultivated for more than 2000 years, and Alexander the Great
+introduced it into Greece. Now there are plantations all over the world,
+but nowhere has the cultivation reached such perfection as in the United
+States of America.</p>
+
+<p>Crops which during recent decades have shown enormous development are
+those known as india-rubber and gutta-percha, so much being demanded by
+the bicycle and motor industries. In the year 1830, 230 tons of rubber
+were imported into Europe; in 1896, 315,500 tons. The demand became so
+great that a reckless and barbarous exploitation took place of the
+trees, the inspissated and dried sap of which is rubber, this tough
+resisting and elastic gum which renders such valuable services to man.
+In Borneo ten trees were felled for every kilogramme of gutta-percha.
+Now more prudent and sensible methods have been introduced. In Ceylon,
+Java, and the Malay Peninsula there are large plantations which make
+their owners rich men. In India the Brazilian tree (<i>Hevea</i>) is the most
+productive of all the rubber-yielding varieties. A cross cut is made in
+the trunk of the tree, and the milky juice runs out and is collected
+into receptacles. Then it is boiled, stirred, compressed, and spread on
+tinned plates, rolled up and sent in balls into the market. At present
+Brazil supplies two-thirds of all the rubber used.</p>
+
+<p>Then we have all the various spices&mdash;cinnamon, which is the bark on the
+twigs of the cinnamon-tree; pepper, carried into Europe by Alexander;
+ginger, and cardamoms. There is sesamum, from the seeds of which a fine
+edible oil is pressed out, and then tea, coffee, and tobacco. A plant
+which is at once a blessing and a curse, and which is extensively
+cultivated in India, is the poppy. When the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> outer skin of the fruit
+capsule is slit with a knife, a milky juice oozes out which turns brown
+and coagulates in the air, and is called opium. The opium which Europe
+requires for medicinal purposes comes from Macedonia and Asia Minor. But
+the opium grown in Persia and India goes mostly to China, into which
+country it was introduced by the Tatars at the end of the seventeenth
+century. The Chinese smoke opium in specially-made pipes. A small pea of
+opium is pressed into the bowl of the pipe and held over the flame of a
+lamp. The smoke is inhaled in a couple of deep breaths. Another pellet
+is treated in the same way. Soon the opium-smoker falls into a trance
+full of dreams and beautiful visions. He forgets himself, his cares and
+his surroundings, and enjoys perfect bliss. He then sleeps soundly, but
+when he awakes the reality seems more gloomy and dreary than ever, and
+he suffers from excruciating headache. All he cares for is the opium
+pipe. Men who fall a victim to this vice are lost; they can only be
+cured when confined in homes. In Persia opium is usually smoked in
+secret dens, for there the habit is considered shameful, but in China
+both men and women smoke openly.</p>
+
+<p>The sugar-cane is also grown over immense fields in India. The juice
+contains 20 per cent of sugar. In Sanscrit, the old language of India,
+it is called <i>sakhara</i>. The Arabs, who introduced it to the
+Mediterranean coasts, called it <i>sukhar</i>. And thus it is called, with
+slight modifications, in all the languages of Europe and many of those
+of Asia.</p>
+
+<p>We must also not forget the countless palms which wave their crowns in
+the tepid winds of the monsoons. There are the date palms, the coconut
+palms, the sago palm, and a multitude of others. The sago palm, from the
+pith of which sago grains are prepared, is a remarkable plant. It
+flowers only once and then dies. This occurs at an age of twenty years
+at most.</p>
+
+<p>The soil of India supports many kinds of useful trees&mdash;sandalwood, which
+is employed in the construction of the finer kinds of furniture; ebony,
+with its dark wood; the teak-tree, which grows to a height of 130 feet,
+and forms immense forests in both the Indian peninsulas and in the Sunda
+Islands. It is hard and strong, like oak, and nails do not rust in it.
+It is therefore used in shipbuilding, and also frequently in the inside
+of modern warships. The sleeping and refreshment carriages of railway
+trains are usually built of teak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lastly, there is the blue vegetable substance called indigo, which is
+obtained from small bushes or plants by a simple process of
+fermentation. It is mostly used to dye clothing, and has been known in
+Europe since the Indian campaign of Alexander.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Wild Elephants</span></h3>
+
+<p>The home of the wild elephant is the forests of India, the Malay
+Peninsula, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Borneo, while another species is found
+in Africa. They live in herds of thirty or forty, and every herd forms a
+separate community. The leader of the herd is a full-grown bull with
+large, strong tusks, whom all the others obey with the greatest
+docility. When they wander through the forest, however, or fly before
+danger, the females go in front and set the pace, for they alone know
+how fast their young ones can travel. Their senses of smell and hearing
+are remarkably acute; they are of a good-tempered and peaceable
+disposition, and do not care to expose themselves to unnecessary risks.
+They are therefore not very dangerous to man, unless when attacked; but
+man is their worst enemy.</p>
+
+<p>In India wild elephants are caught to be tamed and employed in labour.
+They are captured in various ways, but usually tame elephants are used
+to decoy the wild ones. Expert elephant-catchers hide themselves as well
+as they can on the backs of tame animals and drive them into a herd of
+their wild relations. When a full-grown male has been separated from the
+herd, he is beset on all sides by his pursuers and prevented from
+sharing in the flight of his companions. They do him no injury, but only
+try to tire him out. It may be two whole days before he is so exhausted
+that, come what may, he must lie down to sleep. Then the men drop down
+from the tame animals and wind ropes round his hind legs, and if there
+is a tree at hand they tie him to it.</p>
+
+<p>In Ceylon there are wonderfully smart and expert elephant-catchers who
+hunt their game in couples without the help of tame decoys. They search
+through the woods and thickets and follow a spoor when they come across
+it, being able to judge from the footprints how long ago the trail was
+tramped out, how many elephants there were, and whether they were going
+fast or slowly. The smallest mark or indication on the way, which a
+stranger would not notice, serves as a guide to them. When they have
+found the troop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> they follow it silently as shadows; they creep and
+crawl and sneak along the woodland paths as cautiously as leopards. They
+never tread on a twig which might crack, they never brush against a leaf
+which might rustle. The elephants, for all their fine scent and sharp
+hearing, have no suspicion of their proximity. The men lie in wait in a
+close thicket where the elephants can only move slowly, throw a noose of
+ox hide before the animal's hind leg, and draw it tight at the right
+moment. Then the elephant finds out his danger, and, trumpeting wildly,
+advances to attack, but the men scurry like rats through the brushwood
+and strengthen the snares time after time until the animal is fast.</p>
+
+<p>In India whole herds are also captured at once, and this is the most
+wonderful sight it is possible to conceive. A place is known in the
+forest where a herd of perhaps a hundred animals has made its home.
+Natives who are experienced in elephant-catching are called out, and all
+the tame elephants procurable are assembled. A chain of sentinels is
+posted round the herd, making a circle of several miles. The men
+construct a fence of bamboos as quickly and quietly as possible, and
+keep to their posts for nearly ten days. The elephants become restless
+and try to break through, but wherever they turn they are met with cries
+and shouts, blank gunshots and waving torches. They retire again to the
+middle of the enclosure. If they make an attempt in another direction,
+they are met in the same way, and at last, submitting to their fate,
+they stand in the middle where they are least disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile within the circle a very strong enclosure has been erected of
+poles, trunks, and sticks 12 feet high, with a diameter of 160 feet at
+most. The entrance, which is 12 feet broad, can be closed in a moment by
+a huge falling wicket or gate. Now it stands open, and from the two
+sideposts run out two long palisades of stakes, forming an open passage
+to the entrance. The two fences diverge outwards and are nearest to each
+other at the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>When all is ready the great ring of beaters closes up round the herd,
+and scares and chases them with shouts and noise towards the opening
+between the palings. Fresh parties of beaters rush up, and when the
+elephants can find no other way free they dash in between the fences and
+into the pen, whereupon the entrance is closed with the heavy gate. They
+are caught as in a trap. They may, indeed, gather up their strength and
+try to break through the fence of poles, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> it is too stoutly built
+and the beaters outside scare them away.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate15.jpg"  width="550" height="328"
+ alt="PLATE XV." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XV. TAME ELEPHANTS AND THEIR DRIVERS.</h4>
+
+<p>The imprisoned animals are left in peace for forty-eight hours, and when
+they have become quiet the most difficult and dangerous part of the
+exploit begins. Mounted on well-trained tame elephants, the most expert
+and experienced elephant-catchers enter the enclosure. They are active
+as cats, quick in their movements, bold, courageous, and watchful. Ropes
+are hung round the tame elephants so that their riders may have
+something to hold on by in case they are attacked and have to lower
+themselves down the flanks of their animals. These know by the signs
+given to them by the riders what they have to do, and the rider holds in
+his hand a small iron spike which he presses against the elephant's neck
+to make him move forwards, backwards, to right or left. A rider
+approaches a selected victim. If he turns to attack, another tame
+elephant comes up and gives him a thrust with his tusks. Choosing his
+time, the rider throws a noose round the head of the wild animal. The
+tame one helps with his trunk to place the noose right. The other end is
+made fast round the trunk of a tree. When the animal is thus secured the
+rider slips down to the ground and throws another noose round his hind
+legs, and the end of this rope is also fastened to a tree. Thus he is
+rendered harmless, and he struggles and tugs in vain to get loose.
+Meanwhile the other tame elephants with their riders help to catch and
+fetter their wild relations.</p>
+
+<p>Then the captives, well and securely bound, are led one after another
+out of the enclosure and are fastened to trees in the forest. Here they
+have for a long time to accustom themselves to man and the society of
+tame elephants, and when they have lost all fear, spitefulness, and
+wildness they are led into the villages to be regularly broken in and
+trained to work in the service of their capturers.</p>
+
+<p>It is pleasant to see tame elephants at work, or bathing in the rivers
+with their drivers (Plate XV.). They carry timber, they carry goods
+along the high-roads, they are useful in many ways where great strength
+is needed. The Maharajas of India always keep a well-filled elephant
+stable, but employ the animals mostly for tiger-hunting and riding. The
+elephant is to them a show animal which is never absent on occasions of
+ceremony. Old well-trained animals which carry themselves with royal
+dignity fetch, therefore, a very high price.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Cobra</span></h3>
+
+<p>The cobra, or spectacled snake, is the most poisonous snake in India. It
+is very general in all parts of India, in Further India, in southern
+China, in the Sunda Islands, and Ceylon. Its colour is sometimes
+yellowish, shading into blue, sometimes brown, and dirty white on the
+under side. It is about five feet long. When it is irritated it raises
+up the front part of its body like a swan's neck, spreads out the eight
+foremost pairs of ribs at the sides, so that a hat or shield-shaped hood
+is formed below the head. The rest of the body is curled round, and
+gives the creature firm support when it balances the upper part of its
+body ready to inflict its poisonous bite with lightning speed. On the
+back of its hood are yellow markings like a pair of spectacles.</p>
+
+<p>The cobra lives in old walls or heaps of stone and timber, under roots,
+or in dead trunks in the forest, in fact anywhere where he can find a
+sheltered hole. He does not avoid human dwellings, and he may often be
+seen, heavy and motionless, rolled up before his hole. But as soon as a
+man approaches he glides quickly and noiselessly into his hole, and if
+attacked defends himself with a weapon which is as dangerous as a
+revolver.</p>
+
+<p>He is a day snake, but avoids sunshine and heat and prefers to seek his
+food after sunset. He should more properly be described as a snake of
+the twilight. He glides under the close brushwood of the jungle in
+pursuit of lizards and frogs, birds, eggs, and rats or other small
+animals that come in his way. On his roamings he also climbs up trees
+and creeping plants, and swims across large streams. It might be thought
+that a vessel anchored off the coast would be safe from cobras, but
+cases have been known of these snakes swimming out, crawling up the
+anchor chains, and creeping on board.</p>
+
+<p>The female lays a score of long eggs as large as a pigeon's, but with a
+soft shell. The male and female are believed to entertain a great
+affection for each other, for it has been noticed that when one of them
+is killed, the other is shortly seen at the same spot.</p>
+
+<p>The Hindus regard the cobra as a god, and are loath to kill him. Many
+cannot bring themselves to do so. If a cobra comes into a hut, the owner
+sets out milk for him and protects him in every way, and when the
+reptile becomes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> practically tame and finds that he is left undisturbed,
+he does his host no harm. But if the snake kills any one in the hut, he
+is caught, carried to a distance, and let loose. If he bites a man and
+then is killed, the bitten man must also die. If he meets with an
+unfriendly reception in a hut, he brings ruin to the inmates; but if he
+is hospitably entertained, he brings good fortune and prosperity. If a
+serpent-charmer kills a cobra, he loses for ever his power over snakes.
+It is natural that a creature which is treated with such reverence must
+multiply excessively. About twenty thousand men are killed annually in
+India by snakes.</p>
+
+<p>The cobra's poison is secreted in glands, and is forced out through the
+poison teeth when these pierce through the skin of a man or animal. Its
+effect is virulent when it enters the blood. If the bite pierces a large
+artery, death follows surely and rapidly. Otherwise the victim does not
+die for several hours, and may be saved by suitable remedies applied
+immediately. A dog when bitten begins to bark and howl, vomits, and
+jumps about in the greatest uneasiness and despair. In a short time he
+becomes weak and helpless and dies. If the same cobra bites several
+victims one after the other within a couple of hours, the first dies,
+the second becomes violently ill, while the third is less affected. This
+is, of course, due to the fact that the contents of the poison glands
+become gradually exhausted; but they soon collect again.</p>
+
+<p>When a man is bitten, his body becomes deadly cold, and every sign of
+life disappears. His breathing and pulse cannot be perceived at all. He
+loses consciousness and feeling and cannot even swallow. With judicious
+treatment the small spark of life still left may be preserved. For about
+ten days, however, the invalid remains very feeble, and then a slow
+improvement sets in. But as a rule the man dies, for in the Indian
+jungle help is seldom at hand, and the end soon comes. If the victim
+lies for two whole days as though dead, and yet does not actually die,
+it may be hoped that his body is throwing off the effect of the poison.</p>
+
+<p>There are many extraordinary men in India. In Benares especially, but
+also in any other town, the shrivelled self-torturers called "fakirs"
+may be seen in the streets. They are stark naked save for a small
+loin-cloth. They are miserable and thin as skeletons, and their whole
+bodies are smeared with ashes. They sit motionless at the street corners
+of Benares, always in the same posture. One sits cross-legged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> with his
+arms stretched up. Try to hold your arms straight up only for five
+minutes, and you will feel that they gradually grow numb. But this man
+always sits thus. His arms seem to become fixed in this unnatural
+position. As he never uses them they wither away in time. Compared with
+his large head they might belong to a child. Another purposely
+extinguishes the light of his eyes by staring day after day straight at
+the sun with wide-open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Among the curiosities of India are also the snake-charmers. There are
+several varieties of them, and it seems difficult to distinguish exactly
+between them. Some appear to be themselves afraid of the snakes they
+exhibit, while others handle them with a remarkable contempt of danger.
+Some pull out the snake's poison fangs so that they may always be safe,
+while others leave them in, and then everything depends on the charmer's
+skill and dexterity and the quickness with which he avoids the bite of
+the snake. It frequently happens that the charmer is bitten and killed
+by his own snakes.</p>
+
+<p>It is not true, as was formerly believed, that the snake-charmer can
+entice snakes out of their holes by the soothing tones of his flute and
+make them dance to his piping. The dancing is a much simpler affair.
+When the captured snake rears up and sways the upper part of his body to
+and fro, the charmer holds out some hard object, perhaps a fragment of
+brick. The snake bites, but hurts himself, and after a while gives up
+biting. Then the charmer can put his hand in front of the snake's head
+without being bitten. But when the snake is irritated he still assumes
+the same attitude of defence, swaying to and fro, and thus he seems to
+be dancing to the sound of the flute.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, some daring charmers who, by the strains of their
+instrument and the movements of their hands, seem to exercise a certain
+power over the cobra. They seem to throw the snake into a short faint or
+stupor, a kind of hypnotic sleep. The charmer takes his place in a
+courtyard, and the spectators gather round him at a safe distance. He
+has his cobra in a round, flat basket. The basket he places on the
+ground and raises the cover. Then he rouses and provokes the snake to
+make it lift up the upper part of its body and expand its hood with the
+spectacles. All the time he plays his flute with one hand. With the
+other he makes waving, mesmeric passes. The snake gradually becomes
+quiet and calm, and the charmer can press his lips against the scales of
+its forehead. Then the charmer throws it on one side with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> sudden
+movement, for the snake may have waked up again and be just on the point
+of biting.</p>
+
+<p>All depends on the charmer's quickness and his knowledge of the snake's
+disposition. The slightest movement of its muscles and the expression of
+its eyes is sufficient to indicate the snake's intentions to the
+charmer. It is said that an expert charmer can play with a freshly
+caught snake as easily as with an old one. The art consists in lulling
+the snake to sleep and perceiving when the dangerous moment is coming.
+During the whole exhibition the monotonous squeak of the flute never
+ceases. Courage and presence of mind are necessary for such a dangerous
+game.</p>
+
+<p>Europeans who have seen these snake-men catch cobras say that their
+skilfulness and boldness are remarkable. They seize the snake with bare
+hands as it glides through the grass. This is a trick of legerdemain in
+which everything depends on the dexterity of the fingers and a quickness
+greater than that of the snake itself. The snake-catcher seizes the tail
+with his left hand and passes the right with lightning rapidity along
+the body up to the head, which he grips with the thumb and forefinger so
+that the snake is held as in a vice. Probably the trick consists in
+depriving the snake of support to its body with the left hand and
+producing undulations which annul those of the reptile itself.</p>
+
+<p>When charmers go out to catch snakes they are always in parties of two
+or three. Some of them take with them antidotes to snake bites. If a man
+is bitten, a bandage is wound tightly above the wound and the poison is
+sucked out. Then a small black stone, as large as an almond, is laid on
+the wound. This absorbs blood and some at least of the poison. Adhering
+fast to the wound, it does not fall off until it has finished its work.
+That so many men die of snake bites is, of course, because assistance
+comes too late.</p>
+
+<p>When the charmer begins to play with a cobra he fixes his eyes on it and
+never removes them for a second. And the same is true of the cobra,
+which keeps its eyes constantly on the charmer. It is like a duel in
+which one of the combatants is liable to be killed if he does not parry
+at the right moment. Still more watchful is a cobra when he fights with
+a mongoose. The mongoose is a small beast of prey of the Viverrid&aelig;
+family. It is barely as large as a cat, has a long body and short legs,
+and is the deadly enemy of the cobra. There is a splendid story in Mr.
+Kipling's <i>Jungle Book</i> of how a pet
+mongoose&mdash;"Rikki-tikki-tavi"&mdash;killed two large cobras.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Delhi is again to be the capital of the Empire of British
+India (see footnote on p. 141).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> At the great Durbar held at Delhi on December 12, 1911,
+King George V. announced that the capital of India would be transferred
+from Calcutta to Delhi.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+<h2>FROM INDIA TO CHINA (1908)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Indian Ocean</span></h3>
+
+<p>On October 14, 1908, we leave Bombay in the steamer <i>Delhi</i>,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> which
+is bound for Shanghai with passengers and cargo. The <i>Delhi</i> is a fine
+steamer, 495 feet long, and of 8000 tons burden; it is one of the great
+fleet of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (usually
+known as the P. &amp; O.), which receives an annual subsidy from the
+Government to carry the mails to India and Australia. We cast off from
+the quay, and in about an hour's time are slowly drawing out between the
+ends of the harbour breakwaters; then the steamer glides more quickly
+over the bay between innumerable vessels under different flags, and
+Bombay lies behind us with its large houses, its churches, towers, and
+chimneys, and its dense forest of ships' masts.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the city has disappeared and we are out on the Indian Ocean. The
+weather is fine; there is no sea on, only the faintest swell; sailing
+boats lie motionless waiting for a wind, and only a faint breeze renews
+the air under the awnings of the promenade deck. It is so warm and
+sultry that starched shirts and collars become damp and limp after a
+couple of hours. We gradually draw off from the coast, but still the
+mountain chain known as the Western Gh&acirc;ts, which extends to the southern
+extremity of India, is visible.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we leave Goa behind, and at noon have the Laccadive group
+of islands to starboard. The coast of India is still in sight&mdash;a belt of
+sand, over which the surf rolls in from the sea, surmounted by a fringe
+of coco-palms. On the morning of October 17 we pass the southernmost
+point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> India, Cape Comorin. Here our course is changed to southeast,
+and about midday the coast of Ceylon can be distinguished on the
+horizon. From a long distance we can see the white band of breakers
+dashing against the beach, and as we approach closer a forest of steamer
+funnels, sails, and masts, and beyond them a long row of Asiatic and
+European buildings. That is Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, and a very
+important port for all vessels which ply between Europe and the Far
+East. Gently the <i>Delhi</i> enters the passage between the harbour moles,
+and is at once surrounded by a fleet of rowing boats from the shore.
+Singalese and Hindus swarm up the gangways, and throw themselves with
+much jabbering on the traveller's possessions. They are scantily clothed
+with only a shirt or a white sash round the loins and a cloth or a comb
+on the head.</p>
+
+<p>We go on shore and find in the principal streets of the town a curious
+jumble of copper-brown coloured people, carriages, tramways, and small,
+two-wheeled "rickshas" which are pulled by half-naked men. The huts of
+the natives and the dwelling-houses of the Europeans nestle among groves
+of the slender coco-palm.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the steamer <i>Moldavia</i> (also belonging to the P. &amp; O.)
+arrived from England, and was moored close to the <i>Delhi</i> in order to
+transfer to her passengers and goods for the Far East, after which the
+<i>Moldavia</i> was to continue her voyage for two weeks more to Australia.
+When all is ready the <i>Delhi</i> swings out to sea again, the band of the
+<i>Moldavia</i> playing a march and her crew and passengers cheering. In the
+evening we double the southern point of Ceylon, turning due east&mdash;a
+course we shall hold as far as the northern cape of Sumatra, 1000 miles
+away.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Sunda Islands</span></h3>
+
+<p>On the morning of October 21 all field-glasses are pointed eastwards.
+Two small, steep islands stand up out of the sea, a white ring of surf
+round their shores, and beyond them several other islands come into
+sight, their woods ever green in the perpetual summer of these hot
+regions. Now islands crop up on all sides, and we are in the midst of
+quite an archipelago. To the south-west we can see rain falling over
+Sumatra.</p>
+
+<p>Asia is the largest continent of the world. It has three other divisions
+of the world as its neighbours, Europe, Africa,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> and Australia, and Asia
+is more or less connected with these, forming with them the land of the
+eastern hemisphere, while America belongs to the western hemisphere.
+Europe is so closely and solidly connected with Asia that it may be said
+to be a peninsula of it. Africa is joined to Asia by an isthmus 70 miles
+broad, which since 1869 has been cut through by the Suez Canal. On the
+other hand, Australia is like an enormous island, and lies quite by
+itself; the only connection between it and Asia consists of the two
+series of large islands and innumerable small ones which rise above the
+surface of the intervening sea. The western chain consists of the Sunda
+Islands, the eastern of the Philippines and New Guinea. Sumatra is the
+first island of the immense pontoon bridge which extends south-eastwards
+from the Malay Peninsula. The next is Java, and then follows a row of
+medium-sized islands to the east.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img010.jpg"  width="550" height="355"
+ alt="THE SUNDA ISLANDS" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>THE SUNDA ISLANDS.</h4>
+
+<p>The animal and vegetable life of these islands is very abundant. In
+their woods live elephants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; in the brushwood
+lurk tigers and panthers; and in the depths of their primeval forests
+dwell monkeys of various species. The largest is the orang-utang, which
+grows to a height of five feet, is very strong, savage and dangerous,
+and is almost always seen on trees. On these islands, too, grow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> many
+plants and trees which are invaluable to the use of man&mdash;sugar-cane,
+coffee and tea, rice and tobacco, spices, coco-palms, and the tree the
+bark of which yields the remedy for fever, quinine. This remedy is
+needed not least on the Sunda Islands themselves, for fever is general
+in the low-lying districts round the coasts, though the climate 4000 or
+5000 feet above sea-level, among the mountains which occupy the interior
+of the islands, is good and healthy.</p>
+
+<p>The equator passes through the middle of Sumatra and Borneo, and
+therefore perpetual summer with very moist heat prevails in these
+islands. The only seasons really distinguishable are the rainy and dry
+seasons, and the Sunda Islands constitute one of the rainiest regions in
+the world. The people are Malays and are heathen, but along the coasts
+Mohammedanism has acquired great influence. The savage tribes of the
+interior have a blind belief in spirits, which animate all lifeless
+objects, and the souls of the dead share in the joys and sorrows of the
+living.</p>
+
+<p>The larger Sunda islands are four: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes.
+Java, one of the most beautiful and most productive countries in the
+world, has an area nearly equal to that of England without Wales, and
+its population is also nearly the same&mdash;about 30 millions. Sumatra,
+which the <i>Delhi</i> has just left to starboard, is three times the size of
+Java, but has only one-seventh of its population. The curiously shaped
+island of Celebes, again, is about half the size of Sumatra, while
+Borneo is the third largest island on the globe not ranking as a
+continent, its area being about 300,000 square miles. The Sunda Islands
+are subject to Holland, only the north-eastern part of Borneo belonging
+to England.</p>
+
+<p>In the strait between Sumatra and Java lies a very small volcanic
+island, Krakatau, which in the summer of 1883 was the scene of one of
+the most violent eruptions that have taken place in historic times. The
+island was uninhabited, and was only visited occasionally by fishermen
+from Sumatra; but if it had been inhabited, not a soul would have
+survived to relate what took place, for on two other islands which lay a
+few miles distant the inhabitants were killed to the last man.</p>
+
+<p>The outburst proper began on August 26, and the fire-breathing mountain
+cast out such quantities of ashes that a layer three feet thick was
+deposited on the deck of a vessel which happened at the time to be a
+considerable distance off. It lightened and thundered, the sea was
+disturbed, and many boats were sunk or hurled up on land. The next day
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> island fell in and was swallowed up by the sea, only a few
+fragments of it being left. Thereupon a huge wave, 100 feet high, poured
+over the neighbouring coasts of Sumatra and Java, washing away towns and
+villages, woods and railway lines, and when it retreated the country was
+swept bare, and corpses of men and animals lay all around. This wave was
+so tremendous that it was propagated as far as the coasts of Africa and
+America, and it was thus possible to calculate the speed with which it
+had traversed the oceans. The noise produced by the eruption was so
+great that it was heard even in Ceylon and Australia, at a distance of
+2000 miles. If this outburst had taken place in Vienna, it would have
+been heard all over Europe and a considerable distance beyond its
+limits. Loose ashes ejected from the volcano fell over the earth,
+covering an area considerably larger than France, and 40,000 persons
+perished.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Penang and Singapore</span></h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Delhi</i> holds her course for Penang, a town on a small island close
+to the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At length land is sighted straight
+ahead, and the letter-writers make haste to get their correspondence
+ready. We glide into a beautiful sound, the anchor rattles out, and we
+are at once surrounded by a swarm of curious boats which come to
+establish communication between the vessel and the town.</p>
+
+<p>The main street of Penang&mdash;with its large buildings, hotels, banks,
+clubs, and commercial houses&mdash;presents much the same appearance as
+almost always meets the eye in the port towns on the south coast of
+Asia. The small single-seated "ricksha" is drawn by a Chinaman in a
+loose blue blouse, bare-legged, and with a pointed straw hat on his
+head. We go out to the Botanical Gardens, and find them really
+wonderful. There are trees and plants from India, the Sunda Islands, and
+Australia, all labelled with their English and scientific names. Monkeys
+climb actively among the trees, and sit swinging on the boughs, and a
+high waterfall tumbles down a cliff surrounded by dense luxuriant
+vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>Darkness falls suddenly, as always in the tropics, and is accompanied by
+pelting rain. In a few moments all the roads are under water. The rain
+pours down, not in drops but in long streams of water, and we are wet
+through long before we reach the pier where the launch is waiting.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after we get on board, the <i>Delhi</i> moves out into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> the night down
+the Strait of Malacca. Singapore is only thirty hours' voyage ahead, and
+the steamer follows closely the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At sunrise
+on October 24 we arrive. Singapore is the chief town of the Malay
+Peninsula, which is subject to Great Britain, and contains nearly a
+quarter of a million inhabitants&mdash;Europeans, Malays, Indians, but mostly
+Chinese. All steamers to and from the Far East call at Singapore, which
+is also the chief commercial emporium for the Sunda Islands and the
+whole of the Dutch Archipelago. It lies one degree of latitude north of
+the equator, and the consequence is that there is a difference of only
+three degrees of temperature between winter and summer. It is always
+warm, and rain falls almost every day.</p>
+
+<p>At five o'clock the same afternoon the <i>Delhi</i> steams out again,
+accompanied by a swarm of light canoes rowed by naked copper-brown Malay
+boys. These boys swim like fishes, and they come out to the steamers to
+dive for silver coins which the passengers throw into the sea for them.
+When the <i>Delhi</i> increases her pace, they drop behind and paddle back to
+the harbour with the proceeds of their diving feats. The sound gradually
+widens out, and as long as twilight lasts the land and islands are in
+sight. Then we turn off north-eastwards, leaving the equator behind us,
+and steer out over the Chinese Sea after having doubled the southernmost
+extremity of the Asiatic mainland.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Up the China Sea</span></h3>
+
+<p>In two days we had left Cochin-China, Saigon, and the great delta of the
+Mekong behind us, and when on October 27 we came into contact with the
+current from the north-east which sweeps along the coast of Annam, the
+temperature fell several degrees and the weather became fresher and more
+agreeable. The north-east monsoon had just set in, and the farther we
+sailed northwards the harder it would blow in our faces. We had then to
+choose between two routes&mdash;either out to sea with heavy surge and
+boisterous wind; or along the coast, where the current would similarly
+hinder us. Whichever way was chosen the vessel would lose a couple of
+knots in her speed. The captain chose the course along the coast.</p>
+
+<p>The eastern part of the peninsula of Further India consists of the
+French possessions, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Annam, and Tonkin. Hanoi,
+the capital of Tonkin, is the headquarters of the Governor-General of
+all French Indo-China.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> To the south Saigon is the most important town;
+it is situated in the Mekong delta, which is increasing in size every
+year by the addition of the vast quantities of silt carried down by the
+great river. The country abounds in wild animals, elephants, tigers,
+rhinoceroses, alligators, poisonous snakes, monkeys, parrots, and
+peacocks. In area the French possessions are about half as large again
+as France itself, and the population is about 20 millions.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img011.jpg"  width="550" height="370"
+ alt="MAP SHOWING VOYAGE FROM BOMBAY TO HONG KONG" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING VOYAGE FROM BOMBAY TO HONG KONG (pp. 152-160).</h4>
+
+<p>A large part of Further India is occupied by the kingdom of Siam, which
+lies between the lower courses of the Mekong and the Salwin, both of
+which rise in eastern Tibet. Siam is about two-thirds the size of French
+Indo-China, but has only 9 million inhabitants of various
+races&mdash;Siamese, Chinese, Malays, and Laos. Bangkok, the capital of the
+King of Siam, contains half a million inhabitants, and is intersected by
+numerous canals, on which a large proportion of the people live in
+floating houses. There are many fine and famous pagodas, or temples,
+with statues of Buddha. Some of them are of gold. In Siam the Buddhist
+religion has been preserved pure and uncorrupted. The white elephant is
+considered sacred, and the flag of Siam exhibits a white elephant on a
+red field. The Siamese are of Mongolian origin, of medium, sturdy build,
+with a yellowish-brown complexion, but are not highly gifted. They are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+addicted to song, music, and games, and among their curious customs is
+that of colouring the teeth black.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate16.jpg"  width="550" height="329"
+ alt="PLATE XVI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XVI. ON THE CANTON RIVER.</h4>
+
+<p>On the morning of October 29 we steam past a fringe of islets, the
+beautiful and charming entrance to Hong Kong. The north-east monsoon is
+blowing freshly, and the salt foam hisses round the bow of the <i>Delhi</i>
+and falls on the deck in fine spray lighted by the sun. There is little
+sea, for we are in among the islands which check and subdue the violence
+of the waves. At noon we glide in between a small holm and the island
+into the excellent and roomy harbour of Hong Kong, well sheltered on all
+sides from wind and waves. A flotilla of steam launches comes out to
+meet us as we glide slowly among innumerable vessels to our anchorage
+and buoys. Here flutter in the wind the flags of all commercial nations;
+the English, Chinese, Japanese, American, and German colours fly side by
+side. The water in the harbour basin is so shallow that the turn of the
+propeller stirs up the greyish-brown mud from the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>Victoria is the chief town of Hong Kong, and contains nearly the half of
+the population, which amounts to 440,000 souls, most of them Chinese.</p>
+
+<p>There are five important points on the sea-route to the Far
+East&mdash;Gibraltar, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Hong Kong&mdash;and all of
+them are in the hands of England.</p>
+
+<p>Hong Kong has been a British Crown Colony since 1842, and it is now an
+extraordinarily important port. Vessels with an aggregate tonnage of
+nearly 20 millions pass through Hong Kong annually, and the little
+island surpasses in this respect even London, Hamburg, and New York.
+Regular lines of steamers connect Hong Kong with countless ports in
+Asia, America, Europe, and Australia, and the trade of the port is
+immense. It is also a station for the east Asiatic squadron of the Royal
+Navy&mdash;with fine docks and berths, a coal dep&ocirc;t, arsenal, and barracks.</p>
+
+<p>Ninety miles north-west of Hong Kong lies the second city of China,
+Canton (Plate XVI.). It stands near the mouths of two rivers which give
+access to the interior of the country, and Canton is therefore an
+important commercial town, surpassed only by Shanghai. The famous
+Chinese silk is exported from Canton in larger quantities than from any
+other town, and the industries of silk-weaving, porcelain, and other
+manufactures are flourishing. Canton is one of the thirty-seven Chinese
+"treaty ports"&mdash;that is, those which are open to foreign com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>merce. It
+has 900,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the southernmost of the
+eighteen provinces of China proper and the residence of a viceroy. Its
+streets are so narrow that no wheeled vehicle can pass through them. A
+large part of the inhabitants live on boats moored to posts on the
+river. A railway 1200 miles long connects Canton with the capital of the
+empire, Peking.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This is the vessel which was wrecked on the coast of
+Morocco, near Cape Spartel, on December 13, 1911, having the Duke and
+Duchess of Fife (Princess Royal) on board.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+<h2>CHINA<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">To Shanghai</span></h3>
+
+<p>From Hong Kong the <i>Delhi</i> ploughs her way along the Chinese coast, and
+next day (October 31) we are right out in the track of the north-east
+monsoon. The sea is high and dead against us, and the wind is so strong
+that we can hardly go up on deck. It becomes steadily cooler as we
+advance northwards.</p>
+
+<p>To the east we have now the large island of Formosa, which was annexed
+by Japan sixteen years ago. It is about twice the size of Wales, and
+marks the boundary between the China Sea and the Eastern Sea, which
+farther north passes into the Yellow Sea. The coast and its hills are
+sometimes seen close at hand, sometimes far off, and sometimes they
+disappear in the distance. With a glass we can distinguish the
+lighthouses, always erected on small islands off the mainland. The
+Chinese coast is dangerous, being full of reefs, holms, and shallows.</p>
+
+<p>Hong Kong and the adjoining seas are visited from the middle of July to
+the middle of September by the destructive whirlwinds called typhoons.
+The vortices, spinning round with tremendous rapidity, are usually
+formed far out in the Pacific Ocean, and gradually advance towards the
+mainland. They move at a rate of nine miles an hour, and therefore the
+weather stations on the Philippines, and other islands lying in the
+track of the typhoons, can send warnings by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> telegraph to the Chinese
+coast. Then the black triangle is hoisted on a tall mast in the harbour
+of Hong Kong, for instance, and is visible for a long distance. Every
+one knows what it means: a typhoon is on the way. The Chinese junks make
+in towards land, where they find shelter under the high coast, and all
+other vessels strengthen their moorings.</p>
+
+<p>On November 2 we know by the yellowish-brown colour of the water that we
+are off the mouth of the Blue River, as the Yang-tse-kiang is called by
+Europeans. A pilot comes on board to take us through the dangerous,
+uncertain fairway, and a little later we have flat land on both sides of
+us, and are in the estuary of the river.</p>
+
+<p>Shanghai is situated on a small affluent which runs into the
+Yang-tse-kiang close to its mouth, and large ocean steamers cannot go up
+to the town. After the <i>Delhi</i> has dropped its anchor we proceed up the
+river in a steam tender. The low banks soon become more animated, the
+houses stand closer together, factories appear amongst them, and Chinese
+vessels lie moored on both sides, including two sorry warships of wood,
+relics of a time gone by. They are high in the bow and stern, and from
+the mast floats the blue dragon on its yellow field.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> At length the
+stately "bund" of Shanghai comes into sight with a row of fine, tall
+houses. This is not China, but a bit of Europe, the white town in the
+yellow land, the great and wealthy Shanghai with its 12,000 Europeans,
+beside the Chinese town inhabited by 650,000 natives.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, November 3, occurred two noted birthdays, those of the Dowager
+Empress of China and of the Emperor of Japan. They were both remarkable
+for their powerful minds and wisdom, and have made their names immortal
+in the extreme East. The Consul-General of Japan held a reception, and
+the Governor of Shanghai a brilliant dinner.</p>
+
+<p>We saw much that was curious and interesting, and our time was fully
+occupied during our short stay in the largest shipping and commercial
+port of China. From the European streets with electric light and
+tramways, churches, clubs, merchants' offices, and public buildings,
+tidal docks and wharves, we reach in a few minutes the Chinese town,
+pure, unadulterated Asia. It swarms with yellow men in blue coats and
+black vests with small brass buttons, white stockings, black shoes with
+thick, flat soles, a small black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> skull-cap with a red button on the
+head, and a long pigtail behind. There dealers sit in their open shops,
+smoking long, small pipes while waiting for customers. The tea-houses
+are full. A noise and tumult beyond description, a constant going and
+coming, a continual exchange of coin and goods.</p>
+
+<p>The religion of the Chinese is a mixture of different doctrines and
+rules of wisdom. China has had more wise men than any other old country
+in the world. Foremost among them is Confucius, a contemporary of Buddha
+and Socrates. He wrote a book of three hundred odes, and called it
+<i>Purity of Thought</i>. Twelve disciples gathered round him, and a larger
+circle of three thousand. "Do not to others what you would not that they
+should do to you" was one of his precepts. When Confucius was asked how
+he had contrived to acquire deep knowledge of so many things, he
+replied, "Because I was born poor and had to learn." He considered
+wealth a misfortune and knowledge power. The Chinese reverence his
+memory, and regard him not as a god but as the wisest man of all ages.</p>
+
+<p>Along with Confucianism, Taoism exists in China. The sublime teaching of
+the founder has, however, been corrupted and degraded to jugglery and
+superstition. At the commencement of our era Buddhism was introduced
+into China, and now is spread over almost all the country. There is,
+however, no clearness in the religious conceptions of the Chinese. A
+Taoist may perform his devotions in the morning in a Buddhist temple and
+in the evening be deeply interested in the writings of Confucius. Many
+therefore have an equal respect for all three systems.</p>
+
+<p>The basis, however, of Chinese religious thought is ancestor worship.
+Whether they are Confucians, like most of the mandarins, or Taoists or
+Buddhists, like the common people, Chinamen always cherish the same
+reverence for the souls of their forefathers. An altar in their honour
+is raised in even the simplest house. The graves may not be disturbed,
+and nothing but respect is cherished for the memory of the departed. In
+the seventeenth century the Manchu emperor, Kang Hi, ruled China for
+sixty-one years with a power and wisdom which made him one of the
+greatest monarchs of any age. His grandson, Kien Lung, inherited all his
+excellent qualities, and when he had ruled China for nearly sixty-one
+years he abdicated simply in order that, out of respect to his ancestor,
+the years of his reign might not exceed his grandfather's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One consequence of this ancestor worship is that enormous areas of China
+are covered with graves. The Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, who reigned at
+the end of the thirteenth century, roused furious opposition by ordering
+that all the burial-grounds should be broken up and turned into fields.
+At the present time, when new railways are spreading mile after mile
+through China, the sanctity of the graveyards is one of the greatest
+obstacles to engineers. The Chinese will not disturb the slumbers of
+their forefathers, and therefore the railway has often to pass round a
+hallowed place or avoid it by means of a bridge. The Emperor himself
+travels to Mukden simply to make offerings at the graves of his
+ancestors. Kang Hi and Kien Lung are buried in Mukden, and their
+dynasty, the Manchu, still rules over the country.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese feel this association with a past life more strongly than
+with the future, and the worship of their ancestors almost takes the
+place of affection for their fatherland. They certainly love their own
+homes, but what goes on in other parts of the country is a matter of
+indifference to them. To the Cantonese it matters not whether the
+Russians take Manchuria or the Japanese Korea, provided only that Canton
+is left in peace. Ancestor worship may be said, indeed, to be the true
+religion of the Chinese. For the rest they are filled with an
+unreasoning fear of spirits, and have recourse to many different gods
+who, they believe, can control these influences for good and evil. They
+are very superstitious. If any one falls sick of fever and becomes
+delirious, his relations believe that his soul has gone astray. They
+carry his clothes round the spot where he lost consciousness in order to
+bring his soul into the right track again; and at night they go up to
+the roof and wave a lantern to guide the soul home.</p>
+
+
+<h3>"<span class="smcap">The Middle Kingdom</span>"</h3>
+
+<p>The first things a Chinese schoolboy is taught are that the sky is
+round, the earth quadrangular, and that China is situated in the middle
+of the earth, and on that account is called the "Middle Kingdom." All
+other countries lie around China and are its vassals.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor is called the "Son of Heaven," and holds the supreme
+spiritual and temporal power in his hands. On his accession he gives an
+arbitrary name to his reign, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> also becomes his own. He chooses
+his successor himself from among his sons. If he is childless he chooses
+one of his nearest relations, but then he adopts his future successor
+that the latter may make offerings to the souls of himself and his
+ancestors. The yellow robe and the five-clawed dragon are the emblems of
+the imperial house. The Emperor is immeasurably superior to his people,
+and the mortals who may speak to him are easily counted. A few years ago
+the European ambassadors in Peking exacted the right to see the Emperor
+every New Year's Day. This they did, but had no talk with him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate17.jpg"  width="550" height="333"
+ alt="PLATE XVII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XVII. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.</h4>
+
+<p>China is the oldest, the most populous, and the most conservative
+kingdom in the world. In the time of Nineveh and Babylon it had attained
+to a high civilization, and has remained the same through 4000 years. Of
+Nineveh and Babylon only rubbish heaps are left, but China still shows
+no sign of decay. Western Asia is like a vast graveyard with innumerable
+monuments of bygone times. There devastating migrations of peoples took
+place, and races and dynasties contended and succeeded one another. But
+China is still the same as ever. The isolated position of the country
+and the objection of the people to contact with foreigners have
+contributed to this. The reverence for the old state of things and for
+the memory of their forefathers makes a new generation similar to the
+preceding.</p>
+
+<p>During the twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ three
+imperial families ruled in China in succession. Two and a half centuries
+before our era a powerful and far-sighted emperor built the Great Wall,
+the mightiest erection ever completed by human hands (Plate XVII.). This
+wall is 1500 miles long, 50 feet high, and 26 thick at the bottom and 16
+at the top. Towers stand at certain intervals, and there are gates here
+and there. It is constructed of stone, brick, and earth. It is in parts
+much ruined, especially in the west, and in some places only heaps of
+earth are left.</p>
+
+<p>Why was this immense wall erected? The Chinese are a peaceful people,
+and they surrounded themselves with walls to prevent intrusion from
+outside. In China there are 1553 towns enclosed in massive stone walls,
+and the great emperor in the third century <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> naturally
+thought of building a wall in the same way all round his extensive
+kingdom. It was principally from the north that danger threatened. There
+lived the nomads of Eastern Turkestan and Mongolia, savage, brave, and
+warlike horsemen. To them the Chinese wall was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> an insurmountable
+obstacle. But precisely on that account this wall has also affected the
+destiny of Europe, for the wild mounted hordes, finding the way
+southwards to China barred, advanced westwards instead, and in the
+fourth century, in conjunction with the Alans, overran extensive areas
+of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Wall, however, could not protect China for ever. In the year
+1280 the country was conquered by Jenghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan,
+Marco Polo's friend and patron. He, too, was a great builder. He
+constructed the Grand Canal (see map, p. 174) between Peking and
+Hang-chau, immediately to the south-west of Shanghai. His idea was that
+the rice harvest of the southern provinces should also benefit the
+northern parts of the country. Previously the rice had been freighted on
+junks and carried along the coast, where it was exposed to the attacks
+of Japanese pirates. Now the junks could pass safely through the country
+by the new canal. The imperial canal is 840 miles long, crosses the
+Yellow and Blue rivers, and is still in use. It is a memorial of the
+hundred years' rule of the Mongols.</p>
+
+<p>In 1644 China was conquered by the Manchu dynasty, which still reigns.
+Exactly a hundred years earlier the Portuguese had seized Macao, not far
+from Hong Kong. Since then, and particularly during recent decades,
+Europeans have encroached on Chinese soil. The French possessions on the
+peninsula of Further India were formerly under Chinese protection. The
+Great Powers have made themselves masters of some of the best harbours
+in China. On two occasions, the latter during the Boxer insurrection in
+1900, Peking has been entered by the combined troops of European
+nations.</p>
+
+<p>The "Middle Kingdom" is China proper, but the "Son of Heaven" also rules
+over four dependencies, Eastern Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and
+Tibet. The area of the Chinese Empire altogether is thirty-five times
+that of the British Isles, and its population is ten times as numerous,
+being about 433 millions; indeed, every third or fourth man in the world
+is a Chinaman.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the situation of the country the climate is good and healthy.
+The differences of temperature between winter and summer are large; in
+the south reigns almost tropical heat; in the north, in the districts
+round Peking, the winter is bitterly cold. The soil is exceedingly
+fruitful. Tea, rice, millet, maize, oats, barley, beans, peas,
+vegetables, and many other crops are grown. In the southern provinces
+the fields<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> are full of sugar-cane and cotton bushes. The whole country
+is intersected by large rivers, which serve for irrigation and the
+transport of goods. In the west rise lofty mountains, forming
+continuations of the Tibetan ranges. Eastwards they become lower. The
+greater part of China is a mountainous country, but lowlands extend
+along the coast. Six of the eighteen provinces border on the coast,
+which abounds in excellent harbours.</p>
+
+<p>The "Middle Kingdom" is, then, a fortunate country, one richly endowed
+by nature in every respect. In the mountains lies inexhaustible wealth
+of minerals, and China possesses larger coal-fields than any other land
+in the world. Its future is, therefore, secured, and China's development
+may some time surpass that of America.</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that a country which has deeply indented coasts gains
+an early and extensive development. Thus Greece was in old times the
+home of learning and art; and thus Europe now dominates the rest of the
+world. For a people which dwells within such coasts comes sooner and
+more easily than others into contact with its neighbours, and by
+commercial intercourse can avail itself of their resources and
+inventions. But in this, as in so many other respects, China is an
+exception. The Chinese have never made use of their coast. They have, on
+the contrary, avoided all contact with foreigners, and their development
+within their own boundaries has therefore been exceedingly peculiar.
+Their culture is different from anything else, and yet it is most
+estimable and refined.</p>
+
+<p>Two thousand years before Christ the Chinese had written characters.
+Later they invented the hair pencil, which is in use to this day. They
+grind down a jet-black ink, in which they dip the brush, and hold it
+vertically when they write. The manufacture of the ink is their secret,
+and the "Indian ink" which we use in Europe is obtained from them. A
+hundred years after Christ paper was made in China. In an ancient town
+at Lop-nor, where wild camels now roam, I found a collection of Chinese
+letters and documents on paper which had remained buried in the desert
+since <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 265. In <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 600 the Chinese had invented
+the art of printing, which in Europe was not invented until 850 years
+later. The Chinese were acquainted with the magnetic needle 1100 years
+before Christ, and made compasses, and they knew of gunpowder long
+before Europeans. Three thousand years ago the Chinese were proficient
+in the art of casting bronze. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> the interior of the country are still
+to be found most beautiful objects in bronze&mdash;round bowls on feet
+decorated with lions and dragons, vases, dishes, cups, and jugs, all of
+dark, heavy bronze executed with the finest and most artistic detail.
+The porcelain manufacture attained its greatest excellence in the time
+of Kang Hi and Kien Lung. Then were made vases, bowls, and dishes of
+such exceeding perfection that neither the Chinese themselves nor any
+other people at the present time can produce their match. The
+arrangement of colours and the glaze excite the admiration of all
+connoisseurs. Porcelain articles of this period are now extremely rare,
+and fetch enormous prices. In Japan I saw a small green Chinese bowl on
+three feet, with a cover, which had cost eleven hundred pounds. Compared
+to the Kang Hi vases, the finest porcelain that can be produced nowadays
+is mere rubbish.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese language is as singular as everything else in the great
+kingdom. Every word is unchangeable. While we say "go, went, gone, will
+go, should go, going," the Chinese always say simply "go." The precise
+meaning is shown by the position of the word in a sentence or by the
+help of certain auxiliary words, as, for example, "I morning go," "We
+yesterday go," where the future or past tense is indicated by the words
+"morning" and "yesterday." A single word, <i>li</i>, for instance, may have a
+number of different significations, and what it denotes in any
+particular case depends on the tone and pronunciation, on its position
+in the sentence, and on the word which comes before or after. The
+language is divided into many different dialects, of which the principal
+is the mandarin or the dialect of the educated. Every word has its
+particular written sign, and the Chinese language accordingly possesses
+24,000 different written characters; only one man in twenty and one
+woman in a hundred can read and write it.</p>
+
+<p>Chinese literature is exceedingly rich, almost inexhaustible. At a time
+when the bronze age still reigned in northern Europe, the Chinese had a
+highly cultivated literature. From the fifth century <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> down
+to our own day it has run an uninterrupted course through centuries and
+ages. When the northern vikings were executing their plundering raids by
+sea and setting up their runic stones, a geographical hand-book was
+published in China called a "Description of all the Provinces" and
+abundantly illustrated by maps. Thanks to their chronicles we can follow
+the history of the Chinese for 4000 years back. And the most remarkable
+feature of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> annals is that they are distinguished by the strictest
+accuracy and reliability. All kinds of subjects are alluded to, even the
+most insignificant events. Chinese books are very cheap, and every one
+who can read can provide himself with quite a large library. Of the
+numbers of books we can have some conception when we hear that the
+Emperor Kieng Lung had a library so large that the catalogue of his
+books filled 122 volumes.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Blue River</span></h3>
+
+<p>The Blue River, or Yang-tse-kiang, the Mekong, and the Salwin all rise
+in eastern Tibet and flow quite close to one another southwards through
+deeply excavated parallel valleys. But while the first two continue
+their southerly course all the way to the sea, the Blue River turns off
+sharply eastwards in western China and divides the Middle Kingdom in
+two.</p>
+
+<p>It is only Europeans who sometimes call the largest river of China the
+"Blue" River. The Chinese themselves call it the "Great" River, or the
+"Long" River, or, far up the country to the west, the "River of Golden
+Sand." Only three rivers in the world are longer, namely, the Nile, the
+Mississippi, and the Amazon. The Obi and Yenisei are about the same
+length, 3200 miles. The Blue River discharges 244 times the volume of
+water of the Thames.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect the Blue River is far superior to all the waterways of
+the world, for on this river and its tributaries, or, in short, in the
+area of its drainage basin, live not less than 180 millions of human
+beings, or an eighth of the total population of the world. The parts of
+China proper situated on the Blue River are called the River Provinces.
+The viceroy of two of these, namely Hupeh and Hunan, has more subjects
+than any country in Europe, except Russia. The most westerly province of
+China, Sze-chuan, traversed by the Blue River, is in area and population
+equal to France. Europe shrinks up to nothing before such comparisons.</p>
+
+<p>On the Blue River stands a series of famous old towns. Chungking is the
+capital of Sze-chuan, and thus far European steamers ascend the river.
+Hankow is the largest commercial town in the interior of China. Nanking,
+near the mouth, was formerly the capital of China. South-west of Hankow
+a large lake lies on the southern bank of the Blue River. <i>Hu</i> means
+lake in Chinese, <i>king</i> is a capital city, <i>pe</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> signifies north, and
+<i>nan</i> south. Peking, therefore, means the "northern capital," and
+Nanking the "southern capital"; Hupeh signifies "north of the lake," and
+Hunan "south of the lake."</p>
+
+<p>The province of Hunan, south of the lake, is one of the most noteworthy
+in all China. Its people are a vigorous and independent race, and make
+the best soldiers in China. They are more hostile to foreigners than
+other Chinese, and the capital of Hunan, Chang-sha, has been of old a
+centre of opposition to foreigners and of revolutionary agitations.</p>
+
+<p>Even large ocean liners ascend to Hankow, and smaller steamboats to the
+capital of Sze-chuan. The latter are formidable competitors to the
+junks, many thousands of which have from time immemorial provided for
+the transport and traffic on the great river. There are many different
+kinds of junk. Some are large, others small; some are built for the
+lower, quieter waters of the river, others for the rapids in Hupeh and
+Sze-chuan. But they are all well suited to their purpose, and are an
+ornament to the grand beauty of the constantly changing landscape
+through which the river has cut its valley.</p>
+
+<p>In some districts the junks are built of cypress wood, in others of
+oaken planks. This is to make the boats more elastic and supple, and to
+diminish the risk of springing a leak among the rapids. Where the danger
+is unusually great a pilot is taken on board, but still it is reckoned
+that one junk in ten runs aground, and one in twenty is totally wrecked.
+To go from Hankow to Chungking takes thirty-five days, and to come down
+in the opposite direction with the stream only nine days. The voyage
+down the river is much more dangerous, and on this voyage most of the
+shipwrecks occur.</p>
+
+<p>Every large junk has a small dinghy to convey passengers and goods to
+and from the shore. A large junk is 40 feet long. It is high at the
+stern, and here stands a kind of cabin roofed with plaited straw or
+grass matting. A junk going upstream carries a cargo of two and a half
+tons, one going down six tons. The vessel is propelled by oars, some of
+which are so large that they require eight men each. These are needed
+most in drifting with the current, when the boat must be controlled by
+the steering oars. The junk has also a mast and sail which is used in
+going upstream with a favourable wind, and is lowered when coming down
+with the current. Only the bow is decked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It may well be asked how it is possible to get such a large heavily
+laden boat up against the strong river current, for it is evident that
+however favourable the wind might be, the vessel would be carried down
+the rapids. A long rope of twisted bamboo a hundred yards long is
+fastened to the bow of the junk, and with this the vessel is dragged up
+by some sixty men who run along the bank. The bank, however, is usually
+steep, with dangerous rocks projecting out into the river, and over
+these the men have to scramble like monkeys, still pulling at their
+rope. Often neither the boat nor the river is visible from the rocky
+path, but the skipper of the boat is in constant communication with the
+towing men by means of drums on board. Six men are always ready to clear
+the rope if it catches against any projection, and others, who are stark
+naked, do the same work in the water. On the cliffs along the river,
+grooves and marks have been worn out by the ropes, for towing has here
+been practised for thousands of years. There is always a score of men on
+board to steer and fend off the boat with poles. They have also bamboo
+poles with hooks at the end to help in dragging the boat up against the
+current.</p>
+
+<p>These men work like galley-slaves, and their work is both dangerous and
+exhausting. Week after week they walk with bent backs struggling under
+the towing rope. They are covered with bruises, which scarcely heal up
+before they are torn open again, and especially on the shoulders the
+marks of the rope are visible. They have a hard life, and yet they are
+cheerful. They are treated like dogs, and yet they sing. And what wages
+do they receive for a journey of thirty-five days up the river? Three
+shillings, besides three meals of rice a day, and meat three times
+during the journey! For the down journey, when the work is much easier
+and the time only one-fourth, they receive only a shilling. These
+labourers earn about 1-1/4d. for ten hours' work.</p>
+
+<p>In February the river is lowest and the water clearest. Then the towns
+and villages stand 160 feet above the surface of the river. Their walls,
+staircases, gates, and pagodas stand up in the flat triangles of the
+valley openings. Every inch of hill and valley is covered with fields or
+woods. Later in the spring the river begins to rise, and in summer is a
+huge rolling volume of chocolate-brown or greyish water. At certain
+places where the valley is narrow the water may rise a hundred feet
+higher than in February. A voyage on it is then more dangerous, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+banks, boulders, and reefs are covered with water and form whirlpools
+and seething eddies.</p>
+
+<p>Below the towns and villages shoals of junks lie moored waiting for
+work. Every cliff, every bend has its name&mdash;Yellow Hat, Sleeping Swine,
+Double Dragon, etc. Nor are pirates wanting. They have their haunts
+among the mountains, and fall upon the junks at convenient points.
+Sometimes large white notices are seen on projecting rocks. They may be
+"The waterway is not clear," or "Small junks should anchor here." Thus
+the boatowners are warned of danger.</p>
+
+<p>The earnings of a boatowner are not large, and he is glad enough if he
+can bring his boat back to Hankow in safety after a voyage up and down
+the river. With anything but pleasure he sees the large Russian vessels
+lying at Hankow and taking in tea. Hankow is the greatest tea port of
+China, and China is the home of the tea plant. It is not more than 250
+years since tea was first known in Europe, where it is now in general
+use, as also in many other parts of the world. In England and Russia it
+is a national drink, and the Russians used formerly to transport their
+tea to Europe by caravans through Mongolia and Siberia. Now the export
+of tea from China has declined, and the Middle Kingdom has been
+outstripped by India and Ceylon.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">In Northern China</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the north-westernmost province of the kingdom, Kansu, is a famous old
+town, named Si-ning, surrounded with a fine stone wall. I had completed
+my first journey through Tibet and came to Si-ning on November 23, 1896,
+accompanied by my servant, Islam Bay.</p>
+
+<p>When we left Si-ning we had a riding horse each, and six mules with
+their three drivers. They accompanied us for some days as far as a small
+town, where we exchanged them for two large, heavy carts on two wheels
+and covered with a tilt of straw matting. In one we packed all our
+things, in the other I took my seat, while Islam rode. Each cart was
+drawn by a mule and two horses, driven by a pleasant Chinaman. I had no
+interpreter, and had to get along with the few words I had managed to
+pick up.</p>
+
+<p>For six days we travelled northwards through the Kansu mountains, going
+up and down all the way over stony passes and over frozen rivers with or
+without neck-breaking bridges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> The carts creaked and rocked through
+narrow hollow roads where it would have been impossible to pass a cart
+coming from the opposite direction. In such places, therefore, one of
+our drivers went on in front shouting to keep the road clear.
+Fortunately we were in the company of other carts. When two carts meet
+where the road is narrow, it is customary for the smaller one to back
+and leave the road open for the larger.</p>
+
+<p>We set out just after midnight, and drove on till noon. In spite of furs
+and rugs I was almost frozen through. Islam preferred to go on foot, and
+the drivers who ran beside the wagons also managed to keep themselves
+warm.</p>
+
+<p>At break of day on December 10 we came to the bank of a stream which
+falls into the Yellow River (Hwang-ho). It was frozen quite across, and
+a path of sand showed where the route crossed the river. Our companions
+were to go over first in one of their carts with a team of three horses.
+They dashed at full gallop out on to the ice, but had not gone far
+before a wheel cut through the ice and the cart was held fast as in a
+vice. The whole load had to be taken out and carried over to the farther
+bank, and after much trouble the empty cart was hoisted up.</p>
+
+<p>At a broader place the men cut up the thin ice in the middle of the bed
+where the water was three feet deep, and when another cart tried its
+luck it pitched suddenly down into the opening and remained fast. Two
+additional horses were attached, and all the men shouted and cracked
+their whips. The horses reared, fell, were nearly drowned under the ice,
+threw themselves about and jumped up on to the ice, only to drop back
+again into the hole. A young Chinaman then threw off every stitch of
+clothing and went into the water, 18&deg; below freezing-point, to pull away
+the pieces of ice and stones which held back the wheels. I cannot tell
+how it was that he was not frozen to death. He afterwards warmed himself
+at a fire made by Islam Bay. We struggled for four hours before at last
+the irritating river was behind us.</p>
+
+<p>In Liang-chau, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, with a quadrangular wall,
+handsome gates, and broad, busy streets, we stayed with some
+missionaries. Here we had to wait twelve whole days before we could
+procure nine camels and two men who were willing to take us to the town
+Ning-hsia on the Yellow River, nearly 300 miles off. The missionaries
+had no other guest-room than their chapel, which was rather cold; on
+Christmas Eve the temperature inside was 3&deg;.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For twenty days we travelled through a country called Ala-shan, which
+for the most part is inhabited by Mongols. We followed a desert track
+and encamped at wells. Certain belts were buried in drift sand which
+formed wave-like dunes. Here we were outside China proper and the Great
+Wall, but we frequently met Chinese caravans. Two horsemen had been
+assigned to me as an escort by the last Chinese governor, for the
+country is unsafe owing to robbers. All, however, went well, and we came
+safely to Ning-hsia on the Yellow River.</p>
+
+<p><a name="CHINA" id="CHINA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img012.jpg"  width="550" height="503"
+ alt="MAP OF NORTHERN CHINA AND MONGOLIA" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<h4>MAP OF NORTHERN CHINA AND MONGOLIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM
+TIBET THROUGH SI-NING TO PEKING, AND FROM PEKING TO KANSK (pp. <a href='#Page_172'><b>172-179</b></a>).<br />
+At the time of Dr. Hedin's journey through Mongolia, the Trans-Siberian
+Railway did not extend east of Kansk.</h4>
+
+<p>From Ning-hsia we had 267 miles to the town Pao-te, and now we had to
+cross the Mongolian district of Ordos, between the Great Wall and the
+northern bend of the Yellow River. In summer it is better to travel by
+boat down the river, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> rises in north-eastern Tibet and falls into
+the northern bay of the Yellow Sea after a course of 2500 miles. The
+river owes its name to its turbid yellow water, which makes the sea also
+yellow for some distance from the coast. Elsewhere the Yellow Sea is no
+yellower than any other.</p>
+
+<p>At that time, in January, the Yellow River was covered with thick ice,
+and where we crossed it with our nine camels its breadth was 380 yards.
+Then we made long days' marches through the desert, and had a very hard
+and troublesome journey. We had indeed with us enough mutton, bread, and
+rice, and there were wells along the road. One of them was 130 feet deep
+and was walled round. But we suffered from cold. Sometimes the
+temperature was only 1.5&deg; at noon,-27&deg; at night, and 16.5&deg; in the tent.
+Besides, it blew steadily and with the velocity of a hurricane.
+Fortunately I had bought a small Chinese portable stove, which kept me
+from freezing. It is not larger than an ordinary teapot and has a
+perforated cover. A few pieces of glowing charcoal are embedded in ashes
+in the tin, which is thus kept warm all day. Up on the camel I had this
+little comforting contrivance on my knees, and at night I laid it among
+my rugs when I crept into bed. One day there was such a furious storm
+over the level and exposed country that we could not move from the spot.
+We sat wrapped up in our furs and rugs and simply froze.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival at Pao-te I had still 430 miles to travel to the capital of
+the kingdom, Peking. I was eager to be there, and resolved to hurry
+forward by forced marches. I hired a small two-wheeled cart, and had no
+servant with me but the Chinese driver. Islam with an interpreter was to
+follow slowly after with our baggage.</p>
+
+<p>On this route no fewer than sixty-one Swedish missionaries were at work,
+and I often stayed in their hospitable houses. At other times I put up
+in the country inns. They are incredibly dirty, full of noisy
+travellers, smoke, and vermin. The guest room where you sleep at night
+must be shared with others. Along the inner wall stands a raised ledge
+of bricks. It is built like an oven and is heated with cattle-dung
+beneath; and on the platform the sleeper, if not half suffocated, is at
+any rate half roasted.</p>
+
+<p>In Kalgan (Chang-kia-kau), where the Great Wall is passed, I exchanged
+my cart for a carrying chair on two long poles. It was borne by two
+mules which trotted along over the narrow mountain road leading to
+Peking. Sometimes we were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> high above the valley bottom, and met whole
+rows of caravans, carts, riders, and foot passengers, chairs with mules,
+and every one was in constant danger of being pushed over the edge.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate18.jpg"  width="550" height="335"
+ alt="PLATE XVIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XVIII. GATE IN THE WALLS OF PEKING.</h4>
+
+<p>At last, on March 2, I arrived at Peking, after 1237 days of travelling
+through Asia, and passed through one of the fine gates in the city walls
+(Plate XVIII.).</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Mongolia</span></h3>
+
+<p>Between China in the south and Eastern Siberia on the north, stretches
+the immense region of inner Asia which is called Mongolia. The Chinese
+call it the "grass country," but very large parts of it are waterless
+desert, where drift-sand is piled up into dunes, and caravan routes and
+wells are far apart. The belt of desert, one of the largest in the
+world, is called by the Mongols Gobi, a word which in their language
+denotes desert. The Chinese call it Shamo, which signifies sandy desert.</p>
+
+<p>Mongolia is subject to China, and the Mongols' spiritual superior or
+pope is the Dalai Lama. They have also a number of Lama monasteries, and
+make yearly pilgrimages in large parties to Lhasa. An extraordinary
+proportion of the male population of the country devote themselves to a
+religious life and become monks. The Chinese are glad of it, for the
+peaceful cloister life causes the formerly savage and warlike Mongol
+hordes to forget their own strength. Services before the image of Buddha
+in the temple halls lead their thoughts in other directions, and they
+forget that their people once held the sceptre over almost all Asia and
+half Europe. They do not remember that their forefathers, the Golden
+Horde, forced their way seven hundred years ago through the Caucasus,
+levied tribute throughout Russia, and alarmed all the rest of the West.
+They have forgotten that their fathers conquered all the Middle Kingdom
+and digged in yellow earth the Grand Canal on which the junks of the
+Chinese still ply. The sword has rusted fast in its sheath, and the
+Mongolian chiefs, whom the Chinese call vassals or dependent princes,
+encamp peacefully on the steppes under their eight <i>bans</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Mongols are nomads. They own large flocks of sheep and goats, and
+live on mutton, milk, butter, and cheese. Among their domestic animals
+are also the two-humped camel and a small, hardy, strongly built horse.
+Their life is a perpetual wandering. They move with their flocks from
+one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> steppe to another. If the herbage is dried up in a district, or
+all the pasture is eaten up, they put their tents on camels and set out
+to find better grazing. Their tents are exactly the same as those of the
+Kirghizes of the Pamir and the Kirghiz Steppe. They are shaped like
+haycocks, and consist of a framework of tough ribs covered with black
+felt.</p>
+
+<p>The Mongols are a good-tempered and amiable people. I made acquaintance
+with them on the outskirts of their wide domain, and once I travelled
+right through Mongolia. My starting-point was Peking, and my direction
+due north-west. It was in the end of March and the beginning of April,
+1897. At that time the Trans-Siberian Railway was not completed farther
+than to Kansk, a small town east of the Yenisei. That was the longest
+drive I ever took in my life, for from Peking to Kansk the distance is
+1800 miles, and I only rested a day on the whole journey, namely at
+Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>In Peking I provided myself with all that was necessary for a journey to
+the Russian frontier. First and foremost a Chinese passport, which
+authorised me to call out Mongols and their horses, and, if I wished, to
+put up in their tents. Then provisions had to be bought&mdash;tinned meats,
+bread, tea, sugar, etc. From the Russian Legation I obtained an escort
+of two Cossacks, who were very delighted to have this chance of
+returning to their homes in Siberia after completing their time of
+service in Peking.</p>
+
+<p>In Mongolia the traveller does not drive in the usual way. There is no
+driver on the box, and you do not lean back comfortably in a
+four-wheeled carriage on springs. To begin with, there is no road at all
+and no rest-houses; but horses must be changed frequently, and this is
+done in the Mongolian villages. The Mongols, however, are nomads, and
+their villages are always on the move. Therefore you must know first of
+all where the villages happen to be, and in the second place must give
+the people notice to have a certain number of horses ready. A mounted
+messenger is sent on in advance for this purpose and then the horses are
+never wanting. Only the Mongols themselves know where the next villages
+are situated, and so at every village a fresh retinue of Mongols is
+provided. And because the villages are being constantly moved you can
+only travel in a straight line between them, and cannot follow any
+determined route. You drive along over desert and steppe, and usually
+see no vestige of an old wheel rut.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The vehicle in which you travel is a very simple contrivance. It is a
+cart on two medium-sized wheels, closed all over with a rounded tilt
+covered with blue cloth. A small window in front and two side windows
+allow you to see over the steppe; the window glass is fixed into the
+stretched cloth so that it cannot be cracked by the jolting. The cart
+has no springs, and its bottom rests directly on the axles. There is no
+seat, and the traveller sits on cushions, furs, and rugs, and there is
+only room for one person. The cart is of the usual Chinese pattern with
+shafts for a mule or horse. In China the driver sits on one of the
+shafts or runs alongside. I had my bags strapped on to the base of the
+shafts. My large baggage was forwarded on camels, and it reached
+Stockholm six months after I did.</p>
+
+<p>The style of harnessing is the most curious of all. A loop of rope is
+fastened to the extreme end of each shaft, and a long, rounded cross-bar
+is passed through the two loops. Two mounted Mongols lay the bar across
+their knees in the saddle, but no draught animal is put between the
+shafts. A rope is fastened to each end of the cross-bar and two other
+riders wind these ropes twice round their bodies. They have all riding
+whips, and when all is ready the four riders dash at full speed over the
+steppe, dragging the cart after them.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty other Mongols ride on each side, half hidden in clouds of dust.
+Suddenly two of them ride up beside the men who hold the cross-bar on
+their knees. Of their own accord the two fresh horses slip their heads
+under the bar, letting it fall on to the riders' knees, while the men
+who are relieved hold in their horses and let the cart roll on. These
+then join the rest of the troop. The cart does not stop during this
+change of horses, which is accomplished in a couple of seconds, and a
+furious pace is always kept up. In the same way the two front riders and
+their horses are relieved without stopping. When one of them is tired, a
+fresh rider comes forward and winds the rope round his waist.</p>
+
+<p>After two or three hours a village of several tents is seen on the
+steppe ahead of us. About thirty horses are held in readiness by the
+headman of the village, who has been warned the day before by the
+messenger. At every stage a few roubles<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> are paid to the Mongol
+attendants. This payment has always to be made in silver roubles, for
+the Mongols will not take paper money or small coins.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we go on and on, it would seem interminably, over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the boundless
+steppe&mdash;each day the same bumping and jolting, each day the same
+monotonous landscape. In northern Mongolia, however, snow lay deep on
+the ground, and here the cart was drawn by men on camels. By this time I
+was so bruised and worn out with the continual jolting that it was a
+pleasure to drive on the soft snow.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Marco Polo</span></h3>
+
+<p>In 1162 was born in Mongolia a chief of the savage mounted hordes who
+bore the name of Jenghiz Khan. He subdued all the surrounding tribes,
+and the whole Mongol race was collected under his banner. The more his
+power increased, the more extensive regions he desired to conquer, and
+he did not rest till practically all Asia was reduced under his rule.
+His motto was "One God in heaven and one Great Khan on earth." He was
+not content with a kingdom as large as that of Alexander or C&aelig;sar, but
+wished to reign over all the known world, and with this aim before his
+eyes he rode with his horsemen from country to country over the great
+continent. Everywhere he left sorrow and mourning, burnt and pillaged
+towns in his track. He was the greatest and most savage conqueror known
+in history. When he was at the height of his power he collected treasure
+from innumerable different peoples, from the peninsula of Further India
+to Novgorod, from Japan to Silesia. To his court came ambassadors from
+the French kings and the Turkish sultans, from the Russian Grand Dukes
+and the Khalifs and Popes of the time. No man before or since has caused
+such a stir among the sons of men, and brought such different peoples
+into involuntary communication with one another. Jenghiz Khan ruled over
+more than half the human race, and even in many of the countries which
+he pillaged and destroyed his memory is feared even to this day.</p>
+
+<p>At his death Jenghiz Khan was sixty-five years old, and he bequeathed
+his immense kingdom to his four sons. One of these was the father of
+Kublai Khan, who conquered China in 1280 and established the Mongolian
+dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. His court was even more brilliant than
+that of his grandfather, and an exact description both of the great Khan
+and his empire was given by the great traveller Marco Polo.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1260 two merchants from Venice were dwelling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> in
+Constantinople. They were named Nicolo and Maffeo Polo. Their desire to
+open trade relations with Asia induced them to travel to the Crimea, and
+thence across the Volga and through Bukhara to the court of the Great
+Khan, Kublai. Up to that time only vague rumours of the great civilized
+empire far in the East had been spread by Catholic missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Khan, who had never seen Europeans, was pleased at the arrival
+of the Venetians, received them kindly, and made them tell of all the
+wonderful things in their own country. Finally he decided to send them
+back with a letter to the Pope, in which he begged him to send a hundred
+wise and learned missionaries out to the East. He wished to employ them
+in training and enlightening the rude tribes of the steppe.</p>
+
+<p>After nine years' absence the travellers returned to Venice. The Pope
+was dead, and they waited two years fruitlessly for a successor to be
+elected. As, then, they did not wish the Great Khan to believe them
+untrustworthy, they decided to return to the Far East, and on this
+journey they took with them Nicolo's son, Marco Polo, aged fifteen
+years.</p>
+
+<p>Our three travellers betook themselves from Syria to Mosul, quite close
+to the ruins of Nineveh on the Tigris, and thence to Baghdad and Hormuz,
+a town situated on the small strait between the Persian Gulf and the
+Arabian Sea. Then they proceeded northwards through the whole of Persia
+and northern Afghanistan, and along the Amu-darya to the Pamir,
+following routes which had to wait 600 years for new travellers from
+Europe. Past Yarkand, Khotan, and Lop-nor, and through the whole of the
+Gobi desert, they finally made their way to China.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1275 that, after several years' wanderings, they came
+to the court of the Great Khan in eastern Mongolia. The potentate was so
+delighted with Marco Polo, who learned to read and write several Eastern
+languages, that he took him into his service. The first commission he
+entrusted to the young Venetian was an official journey to northern and
+western China. Polo had noticed that Kublai Khan liked to hear curious
+and extraordinary accounts from foreign countries, and he therefore
+treasured up in his memory all he saw and experienced in order to relate
+it to the Emperor on his return. Accordingly he steadily rose higher in
+the estimation of Kublai Khan, and was sent out on other official
+journeys, even as far as India and the borders of Tibet, was for three
+years governor of a large town, and was also employed at the capital,
+Peking.</p>
+
+<p>Marco Polo relates how the Emperor goes hunting. He sits in a palanquin
+like a small room, with a roof, and carried by four elephants. The
+outside of the palanquin is overlaid with plates of beaten gold and the
+inside is draped with tiger skins. A dozen of his best gerfalcons are
+beside him, and near at hand ride several of his attendant lords.
+Presently one of them will exclaim, "Look, Sire, there are some cranes."
+Then the Emperor has the roof opened and throws out one of the falcons
+to strike down the game; this sport gives him great satisfaction. Then
+he comes to his camp, which is composed of 10,000 tents. His own
+audience tent is so large that it can easily hold 1000 persons, and he
+has another for private interviews, and a third for sleeping. They are
+supported by three tent-poles, are covered outside with tiger skins, and
+inside with ermine and sable. Marco Polo says that the tents are so fine
+and costly that it is not every king who could pay for them.</p>
+
+<p>Only the most illustrious noblemen can wait on the Emperor at table.
+They have cloths of silk and gold wound over their mouths and noses that
+their breath may not pollute the dishes and cups presented to His
+Majesty. And every time the Emperor drinks, a powerful band of music
+strikes up, and all who are present fall on their knees.</p>
+
+<p>All merchants who come to the capital, and especially those who bring
+gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, must sell their valuables
+to the Emperor alone. Marco Polo thinks it quite natural that Kublai
+Khan should have greater treasures than all the kings of the world, for
+he pays only with paper money, which he makes as he likes, for notes
+were current at that time in China.</p>
+
+<p>So Marco Polo and his father and uncle lived for many long years in the
+Middle Kingdom, and by their cleverness and patient industry accumulated
+much property. But the Emperor, their protector, was old, and they
+feared that their position would be very different after his death. They
+longed, too, to go home to Venice, but whenever they spoke of setting
+out, Kublai Khan bade them stay a little longer.</p>
+
+<p>However, an event occurred which facilitated their departure. Persia
+also stood under the supremacy of the Mongols, and its prince or Khan
+was a close connection of Kublai Khan. The Persian Khan had lost his
+favourite wife, and now desired to carry out the wish she had expressed
+on her deathbed that he should marry a princess of her own race.
+Therefore he despatched an embassy to Kublai Khan. It was well received,
+and a young, beautiful princess was selected for the Khan of Persia. But
+the land journey of over 4000 miles from Peking to Tabriz was considered
+too trying for a young woman, so the ambassadors decided to return by
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>They had conceived a great friendship and respect for the three
+Venetians, and they requested Kublai Khan to send them with them, for
+they were skilful mariners, and Marco Polo had lately been in India, and
+could give them much valuable information about the sea route thither.
+At last Kublai Khan yielded, and equipped the whole party with great
+liberality. In the year 1292 they sailed southwards from the coast of
+China.</p>
+
+<p>Many misfortunes, storms, shipwreck, and fever befell them on the
+voyage. They tarried long on the coasts of Sumatra and India, a large
+part of the crew perished and two of the three ambassadors died, but the
+young lady and her Venetian cavaliers at last reached Persia safe and
+sound. As the Khan had died, the princess had to put up with his nephew,
+and she was much distressed when the Polos took leave of her to return
+home to Venice by way of Tabriz, Trebizond, the Bosporus, and
+Constantinople. There they arrived in the year 1295, having been absent
+for twenty-four years.</p>
+
+<p>Their relatives and friends had supposed them to be dead long before.
+They had almost forgotten their mother tongue, and appeared in their
+native city in shabby Asiatic clothes. The first thing they did was to
+go to the old house of their fathers and knock at the door; but their
+relations did not recognize them, would not believe their romantic
+story, and sent them about their business.</p>
+
+<p>The three Polos accordingly took another house and here made a great
+feast for all their family. When the guests were all seated round the
+table and the banquet was about to commence, the three hosts entered,
+dressed down to the feet in garments of costly crimson silk. And as
+water was taken round for the guests to wash their hands, they exchanged
+their dresses for Asiatic mantles of the finest texture, the silken
+dresses being cut into pieces and distributed among their retainers.
+Then they appeared in robes of the most valuable velvet, while the
+mantles were divided among the servants, and lastly the velvet went the
+same way.</p>
+
+<p>All the guests were astonished at what they saw. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> the board was
+cleared and the servants were gone, Marco Polo brought in the shabby,
+tattered clothes the three travellers had worn when their relatives
+would not acknowledge them. The seams of these garments were ripped up
+with sharp knives, and out poured heaps of jewels on to the
+table&mdash;rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds. When
+Kublai Khan gave them leave to depart they exchanged all their wealth
+for precious stones, because they knew that they could not carry a heavy
+weight of gold such a long way. They had sewed the stones in their
+clothes that no one might suspect that they had them.</p>
+
+<p>When the guests saw these treasures scattered over the table their
+astonishment knew no bounds. And now all had to acknowledge that these
+three gentlemen were really the missing members of the Polo house. So
+they became the object of the greatest reverence and respect. When news
+about them spread through Venice the good citizens crowded to their
+house, all eager to embrace and welcome the far-travelled men and to pay
+them homage. "The young men came daily to visit and converse with the
+ever polite and gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about
+Cathay and the Great Can, all which he answered with such kindly
+courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his debtor." But when
+he talked of the Great Khan's immense wealth, and of other treasures
+accumulated in Eastern lands, he continually spoke of millions and
+millions, and therefore he was nicknamed by his countrymen Messer Marco
+Millioni.</p>
+
+<p>At that time, and for long afterwards, great envy and jealousy raged
+between the three great commercial republics, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
+In the year 1298 the Genoese equipped a mighty fleet which ravaged the
+Venetian territory on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Here it
+was met by the Venetian fleet, in which Marco Polo commanded a galley.
+After a hot fight the Genoese gained the victory, and with 7000
+prisoners sailed home to Genoa, where they made a grand procession
+through the city amidst the jubilation of the people. The prisoners were
+put in chains and cast into prison, and among them was Marco Polo.</p>
+
+<p>In the prison Marco had a companion in misfortune, the author Rusticiano
+from Pisa. It was he who recorded Marco Polo's remarkable adventures in
+Asia from his dictation, and therefore there is cause of satisfaction at
+the result of the battle, for otherwise the name of Marco Polo might
+perhaps have been unknown to posterity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After a year prisoners were exchanged and Marco Polo returned to Venice,
+where he married and had three daughters. In the year 1324 he died, and
+was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice.</p>
+
+<p>On his deathbed he was admonished to retract his extraordinary
+narrative. No reliance was placed on his words, and even at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century there were learned men who
+maintained that his whole story was an excellently planned romance. The
+narrative taken down in prison was, however, distributed in an
+innumerable number of manuscript copies. The great Christopher Columbus,
+discoverer of America, found in it a support to his conviction that by
+sailing west a man would at length come to India.</p>
+
+<p>There are many curious statements in Marco Polo's book. He speaks of the
+"Land of Darkness" in the north, and of islands in the northern sea
+which lie so far north that if a man travels thither he leaves the
+pole-star behind him. We miss also much that we should expect to find.
+Thus, for example, Marco Polo does not once mention the Great Wall,
+though he must have passed through it several times. Still his book is a
+treasure of geographical information, and most of his discoveries and
+reports were confirmed five hundred years later. His life was a long
+romance, and he occupies one of the most foremost places among
+discoverers of all ages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Since this was written, China has become a republic, the
+Emperor P'u-yi (born February 11, 1906) having abdicated on February 12,
+1912, in consequence of the success of a revolution which broke out in
+the autumn of 1911. He still retains the title of Manchu Emperor, but
+with his death the title will cease. A provisional President of the
+Republic was elected, and the first Cabinet was constituted on March 29,
+1912.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The Republic has adopted a new flag consisting of five
+stripes&mdash;crimson, yellow, white, blue, and black&mdash;to denote the five
+principal races comprised in the Chinese people, Mongol, Chinese,
+Manchu, Mohammedan, and Tibetan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> A Russian coin, worth about 2s, 1 1/8d.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+
+<h2>JAPAN (1908)</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Nagasaki and Kobe</span></h3>
+
+<p>Marco Polo was also the first European to make Japan known in Western
+countries. He called it Chipangu, and stated that it was a large, rich
+island in the sea east of China. Accordingly the Chinese call it the
+"Land of the Rising Sun," and Nippon, as the Japanese themselves call
+their islands, has the same poetical signification, derived from the
+rising of the sun out of the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The flag of
+Japan displays a red sun on a white field, and when it flies from the
+masts of warships the sun is surrounded by sixteen red rays.</p>
+
+<p>We leave Shanghai by the fine steamer <i>Tenyo Maru</i>, which is driven by
+turbines and makes 18 knots an hour. The <i>Tenyo Maru</i> belongs to a line
+which plies between Hong-kong and San Francisco, calling at Shanghai,
+Japan, and the Sandwich Islands on the way. From Shanghai it is 470
+miles over the Eastern Sea to Nagasaki, a considerable town situated on
+Kiu-shiu, the southernmost of the four islands of Japan proper.</p>
+
+<p>As we near Japan the vessel crosses the great current called the "Kuro
+Shiwo," or the "Black Salt." It comes from the region immediately north
+of the equator, and flows northwards, washing the Japanese coast with
+its water, over 200 fathoms deep, and with a temperature of 72&deg;, just as
+the Gulf Stream washes the east coast of Europe. Off Japan the sea is
+very deep, the lead sinking down to 4900 fathoms and more.</p>
+
+<p>In Nagasaki the visitor is astonished at the great shipbuilding yards
+and docks; they are the largest in Asia, and the <i>Tenyo Maru</i>, as well
+as other ships as big, have been, for the most part at any rate, built
+here. It is hard to believe that it is only forty years since the
+Japanese took to European<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> civilization and the inventions of Western
+lands. In many respects they have surpassed their teachers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img013.jpg"  width="550" height="428"
+ alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM SHANGHAI" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM SHANGHAI THROUGH JAPAN AND KOREA
+TO DALNY (pp. <a href='#Page_184'><b>184-202</b></a>).</h4>
+
+<p>After a whole day in Nagasaki we steam out to sea again and make
+northwards round Kiu-shiu to the beautiful narrow strait at Shimonoseki
+which leads to the Inland Sea. Unfortunately it is pitch dark when we
+pass Admiral Togo's fleet. He has just been engaged in manoeuvres with
+eighty-five of Japan's two hundred modern warships. In sea-power Japan
+is the fifth nation of the world, and is only surpassed by England,
+Germany, America, and France. A large number of their warships were
+captured from Russia during the war, and afterwards refitted and
+re-christened with Japanese names. On a peace footing the land army of
+Japan contains 250,000 men and 11,000 officers. In time of war, when all
+the reservists and landwehr troops are called out, the strength amounts
+to a million and a half; 120,000 men yearly are called out for active
+service. The Japanese make any sacrifice when it is a question of the
+defence of their fatherland. To them affection for Nippon is a
+religion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The area of Japan is about half as large again as that of the British
+Islands, and the population is, roughly, a quarter more. But if the
+recently acquired parts of the mainland, Korea and Kwan-tung, be
+included, 77,000 square miles must be added and the population increased
+to 65 millions.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of November 9 we pass through the strait of
+Shimonoseki into the Inland Sea, the Mediterranean of Japan, which lies
+between the islands Hondo, Kiu-shiu, and Shikoku. The scenery which
+unfolds itself on all sides is magnificent, and is constantly changing.
+Close around us, away over the open passages and in among the dark
+islands, is the clear, green, salt water, edged with foaming surf and
+dotted with picturesque fishing-boats under full sail; and as a frame to
+the gently heaving sea we have the innumerable islands&mdash;some large, some
+small, some wooded, others bare, but all sloping steeply to the shore,
+where the breakers thunder eternally. A pleasant breeze is felt on the
+promenade deck of the <i>Tenyo Maru</i>, the air is fresh and pure, the day
+bright and cheerful, and from sea and coast comes a curious mixed odour
+of salt brine and pine needles.</p>
+
+<p>At dusk we cast anchor in the roadstead of Kobe, where the <i>Tenyo Maru</i>
+has to remain for twenty-four hours in order to take cargo on board. A
+launch takes us to the busy town, and we determine to spend the night on
+shore in a genuine Japanese hotel. At the entrance we are met by the
+landlord, in a garment like a petticoat and a thin mantle with short
+hanging sleeves. Two small waiting-maids take off our shoes and put a
+pair of slippers on our feet. We go up a narrow wooden staircase and
+along a passage with a brightly polished wooden floor. Outside a sliding
+door we take off our slippers and enter in stocking feet. Cleanliness is
+the first rule in a Japanese house, and it would be thought inexcusable
+to enter a room in shoes which had lately been in the dust and dirt of
+the lanes and streets.</p>
+
+<p>Our rooms are divided from one another by partitions of paper or the
+thinnest veneer, which can be partially drawn aside so that the rooms
+may be thrown into one. Here and there mottoes are inscribed on hanging
+shields, and we see that they are written in the same singular
+characters as are used in China. On one wall hangs a <i>kakemono</i>, or a
+long strip of paper with flowers painted in water-colours. On a small
+carved wooden stool below the painting stands a dwarf tree scarcely two
+feet in height. It is a cherry-tree which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> has been prevented from
+growing to its full size, but it is a real, living tree, perhaps twenty
+years old, and exactly like an ordinary cherry-tree, only so small that
+it might have come from Lilliput.</p>
+
+<p>The floor is laid with mats of rice straw with black borders. Each mat
+is 6 feet long and 3 wide, and when a house is built the areas of the
+rooms are always calculated in a certain number of mats; thus a room of
+six mats is spoken of, or one of eight mats. Not infrequently the rooms
+are so small that three or even two mats will cover the floor.</p>
+
+<p>We take our seats crossed-legged or on our heels on small, square, down
+cushions, the only furniture to be seen. A young Japanese maiden, also
+in stocking feet, enters and places a stove in the middle of our circle.
+There is no fireplace. This stove is shaped like a flower-pot, made of
+thick metal, and is filled with fine white ashes. The young woman builds
+the ashes up into a cone like the summit of Fujiyama and lays fresh
+glowing charcoal against it. Instead of tongs she uses a pair of small
+iron rods.</p>
+
+<p>Bedsteads are not used in Japan, and the bedding, which consists of
+thick padded quilts of rustling silk, is simply spread out on the mats
+on the floor. All the service and attendance is performed by women. They
+are dressed in their becoming and tasteful national costume, the
+"kimono," a close-fitting coloured garment, cut out round the neck, a
+broad sash of cloth round the waist, and a large rosette like a cushion
+at the back. Their hair is jet black, smooth, and shiny, and is arranged
+in tresses that look as if they were carved in ebony. Japanese women are
+always clean, neat, and dainty, and it is vain to look for a speck of
+dust on a silken cuff. If they did not giggle sometimes, you might think
+that they were dolls of wax or china. They are treated like princesses
+with the greatest politeness and consideration, for such is the custom
+of the country. They do their work conscientiously, and are always
+cheerful, contented, and friendly.</p>
+
+<p><a name="RICKSHA" id="RICKSHA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate19.jpg"  width="550" height="320"
+ alt="PLATE XIX." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XIX. A JAPANESE RICKSHA.</h4>
+
+<p>We sit down on our cushions for breakfast. The serving-girls bring in a
+small red-lacquered table, not larger or higher than a footstool. Every
+guest has his own table, and on each are five cups, bowls, and small
+dishes of porcelain and lacquer, all of them with lids like teapots.
+These contain raw fish and boiled fish in various forms, omelettes and
+macaroni, crab soup with asparagus in it, and many other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> strange
+viands. When we have partaken of the first five dishes, another table is
+brought in with fresh dishes; and if it is a great banquet, as many as
+four or five such tables may be placed before one before the dinner is
+over. We eat with two chopsticks of wood or ivory not larger than a
+penholder, drink pale, weak tea without sugar and cream, and a kind of
+weak rice spirit called <i>sak&eacute;</i>. When a bowl of steaming rice cooked dry
+is brought in, it is a sign that the meal is ended.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The streets of Kobe are not paved. They are narrow roads, too narrow for
+the large, clumsy vehicles, which are, however, few in number, and are
+mostly used for the transport of goods. The people ride in
+"rickshas"&mdash;neat, smart, two-wheeled gigs drawn by a running bare-legged
+man with a mushroom-shaped hat on his head (Plate XIX.). The road
+westwards along the coast runs through a succession of animated and busy
+villages, past open tea-houses and small country shops, homely,
+decorated wooden dwellings, temples, fields, and gardens. Everything is
+small, neat, and well kept. Each peasant cultivates his own property
+with care and affection, and the harvest from innumerable small plots
+constitutes the wealth of Japan. It is impossible to drive fast along
+the narrow road, for we are always meeting waggons and two-wheeled
+carts, porters, and travellers.</p>
+
+<p>At the "Beach of Dancing Girls" we stay a while under some old
+pine-trees. Here people bathe in summer, while the children play among
+the trees. But now in November it is cold rather than warm, and after a
+pleasant excursion we return to Kobe. On the way we look into a Shinto
+temple erected to the memory of a hero who six hundred years ago fell in
+a battle in the neighbourhood. In the temple court stands a large
+Russian cannon taken at Port Arthur, and also a part of the mast shot
+off the man-of-war <i>Mikasa</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century A.D., and more
+than half the population of the country profess this religion. The old
+faith of Japan, however, is Shintoism, to which about one-third of the
+people still belong. The sun is worshipped as a principal god and the
+powers of nature are adored as divinities. From the solar deity the
+imperial house derives its origin, and the Emperor is regarded with
+almost religious reverence. Respect is also paid to the memory of
+departed heroes, as in China. Of late Christianity has spread far and
+wide in Japan, and Christian churches are now numerous.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Fujiyama and Tokio</span></h3>
+
+<p>It is now November 11. During the night the <i>Tenyo Maru</i> has passed out
+from Kobe into the Pacific Ocean, and is now steering north-east at a
+good distance from the coast of Hondo. The sky is gloomy, and the desert
+of water around us is a monotonous steely-grey expanse in every
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>The Mediterranean countries of Europe lie on the same parallel of
+latitude as Japan. But Japan lies in the domain of the monsoons or
+periodical winds, and when these blow in summer from the ocean, they
+bring rain with them, while the winter, when the wind comes from the
+opposite direction, is fairly dry. On the whole Japan is colder than the
+Mediterranean countries, but the difference in climate between the
+northern and southern parts is very great. On the northern island, Yezo,
+the winter lasts quite seven months.</p>
+
+<p>At noon Fujiyama<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> is first seen towards the north-east. Nothing of
+the coast is visible, only the snowy summit of the mountain floating
+white above the sea. Our course takes us straight towards it, and the
+imposing mountain becomes more distinct every quarter of an hour. Now
+also the coast comes in sight as a dark line, but only the summit of the
+mountain is visible, a singularly regular flat cone. The top looks as if
+it were cut off; that is the crater ring, for Fujiyama is a volcano,
+though it has been quiescent for the past two centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The snowfields in the gullies stand out more and more clearly, but still
+only the summit is visible, floating as it were free above the earth, a
+vision among the clouds. An hour later the whole contour comes into view
+and becomes sharper and sharper; and when we anchor off the shore the
+peak of Fujiyama rises right above us.</p>
+
+<p>Fujiyama is the highest mountain in Japan, and the crater ring of the
+slumbering volcano is 12,395 feet above the surface of the Pacific
+Ocean. Fujiyama is a holy mountain; the path up it is lined with small
+temples and shrines, and many pilgrims ascend to the top in summer when
+the snow has melted away. It is the pride of Japan and the grandest
+object of natural beauty the country possesses (Plate XX.). It would be
+vain to try to enumerate all the objects on which the cone of Fujiyama
+has been represented from immemorial times. It is always the same
+mountain with the truncated top&mdash;in silver and gold on the famous
+lacquered boxes, and on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> the rare choice silver and bronze caskets, on
+the valuable vases in cloisonne, on bowls, plaques, and dishes, on
+screens, parasols, everything.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate20.jpg"  width="550" height="322"
+ alt="PLATE XX." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XX. FUJIYAMA.</h4>
+
+<p>Painters also take a delight in devising various foregrounds to the
+white cone. I once saw a book of a hundred pictures of Fujiyama, each
+with a new foreground. Now the holy mountain was seen between the boughs
+of Japanese cedars, now between the tall trunks of trees, and again
+beneath their crowns. Once more it appeared above a foaming waterfall,
+or over a quiet lake, where the peak was reflected in the water; or
+above a swinging bridge, a group of playing children, or between the
+masts of fishing-boats. It peeped out through a temple gate or at the
+end of one of the streets of Tokio, between the ripening ears of a
+rice-field or the raised parasols of dancing girls.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Fujiyama has become the symbol of everything that the name Nippon
+implies, and its peak is the first point which catches the rays of the
+rising sun at the dawn of day.</p>
+
+<p>Singularly cold and pale the holy mountain stands out against the dark
+blue sky as we steer out again to sea in the moonlight night. It is our
+last night on the long sea voyage from Bombay. Close to starboard we
+have Oshima, the "great island," an active volcano with thin vapour
+floating above its flat summit; Japan has more than a hundred extinct
+and a score of still active volcanoes, and the country is also visited
+by frequent earthquakes. On an average 1200 are counted in the year,
+most of them, however, quite insignificant. Now and then, however, they
+are very destructive, carrying off thousands of victims, and it is on
+account of the earthquakes that the Japanese build their houses of wood
+and make them low.</p>
+
+<p>In the early morning the <i>Tenyo Maru</i> glides into the large inlet on
+which Yokohama and Tokio are situated. Yokohama is an important
+commercial town, and is a port of call for a large number of steamboat
+lines from the four continents. Its population is about 400,000, of whom
+1000 are Europeans&mdash;merchants, consuls, and missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles south-west of Yokohama is the fishing-village of Kamakura,
+which was for many centuries the capital of the Shoguns. It has now
+little to show for its former greatness&mdash;at one time it was said to
+have over a million inhabitants&mdash;except the beautiful, colossal statue
+of Buddha, the Daibutsu (Plate XXI.). The figure, which is about 40 feet
+high, is cast in bronze, and dates from 1252.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><a name="KAMAKURA" id="KAMAKURA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate21.jpg"  width="344" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE XXI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXI. THE GREAT BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA.</h4>
+
+<p>At the head of the bay lies Tokio, the capital, with over two million
+inhabitants. Here are many palaces surrounded by fine parks, but the
+people live in small, neat, wooden houses, most of them with garden
+enclosures. The grounds of the Japanese of rank are small masterpieces
+of taste and excellence. It is a great relief to come out of the bustle
+and dust of the roads into these peaceful retreats, where small canals
+and brooks murmur among blocks of grey stone and where trees bend their
+crowns over arched bridges.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>In Tokio the traveller can study both the old and the new Japan, There
+are museums of all kinds, picture galleries, schools, and a university
+organized on the European model. There is also a geological institution
+where very accurate geological maps are compiled of the whole country,
+and where in particular all the phenomena connected with volcanoes and
+earthquakes are investigated. In scientific inquiries the Japanese are
+on a par with Europeans. In the art of war they perhaps excel white
+peoples. In industrial undertakings they have appropriated all the
+inventions of our age, and in commerce they threaten to push their
+Western rivals out of Asia. Not many years ago, for example, some
+Japanese went to Sweden to study the manufacture of those safety matches
+which strike only on the box. Now they make safety matches themselves,
+and supply not only Japan but practically all the East. At Kobe one can
+often see a whole mountain of wooden boxes containing matches, waiting
+for shipment to China and Korea. So it is in all other branches of
+industry. The Japanese travel to Europe and study the construction of
+turbines, railway carriages, telephones, and soon they can dispense with
+Europe and produce all they want themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The present Emperor of Japan, Mutsuhito,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> came to the throne in 1867.
+His reign is called <i>Mei-ji</i>, or the "Era of Enlightened Rule." During
+this period Japan has developed into a Great Power of the first rank,
+and it is in no small measure due to the wisdom and clear-sightedness of
+the Emperor that this great transformation has been accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly the country was divided into many small principalities under
+the rule of <i>daimios</i> or feudal lords, who were often at war with one
+another, though they were all subject to the suzerainty of the Shogun,
+the nominal ruler of the whole country. Together with the <i>samurais</i>
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> <i>daimios</i> constituted the feudal nobility. It is curious to think
+that little more than forty years ago the Japanese fought with bows and
+arrows, sword and spear, and that the <i>samurais</i> went to battle in heavy
+harness with brassards and cuisses, helms and visors over the face. They
+were skilful archers, and wielded their great swords with both hands
+when they rushed on the foe.</p>
+
+
+<p>Then the new period suddenly began. In 1872 universal service was
+introduced, and French and German officers were invited to organise the
+defensive force. Now Japan is so strong that no Great Power in the world
+cares to measure its strength with it.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Nikko, Nara, and Kioto</span></h3>
+
+<p>From Tokio we travel northwards by train in two hours to Nikko. There
+are several villages, and we put up in one of them. In front of the inn
+ripples a clear stream, spanned by two bridges, one of which is arched
+and furnished with a red parapet. Only the Emperor and his family may
+step on to this bridge; other mortals must pass over another bridge near
+at hand. On the farther side we ascend a tremendously long avenue of
+grand cryptomerias rising straight up to the sky. It leads to a
+mausoleum erected to the memory of the first Shogun of the famous
+dynasty of Tokugawa. The first of them died in the year 1616.</p>
+
+<p>This mausoleum is considered to be the most remarkable sight in Japan.
+It is not huge and massive, like the Buddhist temple in Kioto, the old
+capital of Japan. It is somewhat small, but both outside and inside it
+displays unusually exquisite artistic skill. Granite steps lead up to
+it. A <i>torii</i>, or portal, is artistically carved in stone, and another
+is so perfect that the architect feared the envy of the gods, and
+therefore placed one of the pillars upside down. We see carved in wood
+three apes, one holding his hands before his eyes, another over his
+ears, and the third over his mouth. That means that they will neither
+see, hear, nor speak anything evil. A pagoda rises in five blood-red
+storeys. At all the projections of the roof hang round bells, which
+sound melodiously to the movement of the wind. In the interior of the
+temple the sightseer is lost in dark passages dimly illuminated by oil
+lamps carried by the priests. The walls are all covered with the finest
+paintings in gold and lacquer. A moss-grown stone staircase leads down
+to the tomb where the Shogun sleeps.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nara is situated immediately to the south of Kioto. Here are many famous
+temples, pagodas, and <i>torii</i>, and here also is the largest image of
+Buddha in Japan, twelve hundred years old. The finest thing of all,
+however, is the temple park of Nara, where silence and peace reign in a
+grove of tall cryptomerias. Along the walks are several rows of stone
+lamps placed on high pedestals of stone. They stand close together and
+may number a thousand. Each of these lamps is a gift of some wealthy man
+to the temple. On great festivals oil lamps are placed in them. Hundreds
+of roedeer live in the park of Nara. They are as tame as lambs, and
+wherever you go they come skipping up with easy, lively jumps. Barley
+cakes for them to eat are sold along the paths of the park, and you buy
+a whole basket of these. In a minute you are surrounded by roedeer,
+stretching out their delicate, pretty heads and gazing at the basket
+with their lovely brown eyes. Here a wonderful air of peace and
+happiness prevails. The steps of roedeer and pilgrims are heard on the
+sand of the paths, but otherwise there is complete silence and quiet.
+The feeling reminds one of that which is experienced at the Taj Mahal.</p>
+
+<p>All Japan is like a museum. You can travel about for years and daily
+find new gems of natural beauty and of the most perfect art. Everything
+seems so small and delicate. Even the people are small. The roads are
+narrow, and are chiefly used by rickshas and foot passengers. The houses
+are dolls' closets. The railways are of narrow gauge, and the carriages
+like our tramcars. But if you wish to see something large you can visit
+the Buddhist temple in Kioto. There we are received with boundless
+hospitality by the high priest, Count Otani, who leads us round and
+shows us the huge halls where Buddha sits dreaming, and his own palace,
+which is one of the most richly and expensively adorned in all Japan.</p>
+
+<p>If you wish to see something else which does not exactly belong to the
+small things of Japan you should visit a temple in Osaka, the chief
+manufacturing town of Japan. There hangs a bell which is 25 feet high
+and weighs 220 tons. In a frame beside the bell is suspended a beam, a
+regular battering-ram, which is set in motion up and down when the bell
+is sounded. And when the bell emits its heavy, deafening ring it sounds
+like thunder.</p>
+
+<p>Kioto is much handsomer than Tokio, for it has been less affected by the
+influence of Western lands, and lies amidst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> hills and gardens. Kioto is
+the genuine old Japan with attractive bazaars and bright streets. Shall
+we look into a couple of shops?</p>
+
+<p>Here is an art-dealer's. We enter from the street straight into a large
+room full of interesting things, but the dealer takes us into quite a
+small room, where he invites us to sit at a table. And now he brings out
+one costly article after another. First he shows us some gold lacquered
+boxes, on which are depicted trees and houses and the sun in gold, and
+golden boats sailing over water. One tiny box, containing several
+compartments and drawers, and covered all over with the finest gold
+inlaying, costs only three thousand <i>yen</i>, or about three hundred
+pounds. Then he shows us an old man in ivory lying on a carpet of ivory
+and reading a book, while a small boy in ivory has climbed on to his
+back. From a whole elephant tusk a number of small elephants have been
+carved, becoming smaller towards the point of the tusk, but all cut out
+in the same piece. You are tired of looking at them, they are so many,
+and they are all executed with such exact faithfulness to nature that
+you would hardly be surprised if they began to move.</p>
+
+<p>Then he sets on the table a dozen metal boxes exquisitely adorned with
+coloured lacquer. On the lid of a silver box an adventure of a monkey is
+represented in raised work. Pursued by a snake, the monkey has taken
+refuge in a cranny beneath a projecting rock. The snake sits on the top.
+He cannot see the monkey, but he catches sight of his reflection in the
+water below the stone. The monkey, too, sees the image of the snake, and
+each is now waiting for the other.</p>
+
+<p>Now the shopman comes with two tortoises in bronze. The Japanese are
+experts in metal-work, and there is almost life and movement in these
+creatures. Now he throws on to the table a snake three feet long. It is
+composed of numberless small movable rings of iron fastened together,
+and looks marvellously life-like. Just at the door stands a heavy copper
+bowl on a lacquered tripod, a gong that sounds like a temple bell when
+its edge is struck with a skin-covered stick. It is beaten out of a
+single piece, not cast, and therefore it has such a wonderful vibrating
+and long-continued ring.</p>
+
+<p>Let us also go into one of the famous large silk shops. Shining white
+silk with white embroidered chrysanthemum flowers on it&mdash;women's kimonos
+with clusters of blue flowers on the sleeves and skirt&mdash;landscapes,
+fishing-boats, ducks and pigeons, monkeys and tigers, all painted or
+embroidered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> on silk&mdash;herons and cranes in thick raised needlework on
+screens in black frames&mdash;everything is good and tasteful.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most exquisite, however, are the cloths of cut velvet. This is
+a wonderful art not found in any other country than Japan. The finest
+white silken threads are tightly woven over straight copper wires laid
+close together, making a white cloth of perhaps ten feet square,
+interwoven with copper wires. An artist paints in bright colours on the
+cloth a landscape, a rushing brook among red maples, a bridge, a
+mill-wheel, and a hut on the bank. When he has done, he cuts with a
+sharp knife along each of the numberless copper wires. Every time he
+cuts, the point of the knife follows one of the copper wires, and he
+cuts only over the coloured parts. The fine silk threads are thus
+severed and their ends stand up like a brush. Then the copper wires are
+drawn out, and there stand the red trees, hut, and bridge in close
+velvet on a foundation of silk.</p>
+
+<p>In all kinds of handicrafts and mechanical work the Japanese are
+experts. A workman will sit with inexhaustible patience and diligence
+for days, and even months and years, executing in ivory a boy carrying a
+fruit basket on his back. He strikes and cuts with his small hammers and
+knives, his chisels and files, and gives himself no rest until the boy
+is finished. Perhaps it may cost him a year's work, but the price is so
+high that all his expenses for the year are covered when the boy is sold
+to an art-dealer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "Fuji," without equal; "yama," mountain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The Emperor Mutsuhito died on July 30, 1912, and was
+succeeded by his eldest son, Yoshihito, who was born in 1879.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2>
+
+<h2>BACK TO EUROPE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Korea</span></h3>
+
+<p>Our journey eastwards ends with Japan, and we turn westwards on our way
+back to Europe. The portion of the mainland of Asia which lies nearest
+to Japan is Korea, and the passage across the straits from Shimonoseki
+to Fu-san takes only about ten hours. The steamer sails in the morning,
+and late in the afternoon we see to larboard the Tsushima Islands rising
+out of the water like huge dolphins. Our course takes us almost over the
+exact place where, on May 27, 1905, Admiral Togo annihilated the
+squadron of the Russian Admiral Rozhdestvenski.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian fleet had sailed round Asia, and steamed up east of Formosa
+to the Strait of Korea. The Admiral hoped to be able to reach
+Vladivostock, on the Russian side of the Sea of Japan, without being
+attacked, and on May 27 his fleet was approaching the Tsushima Islands.
+But Admiral Togo, with the Japanese fleet, lay waiting off the southern
+coast of Korea. He had divided the straits into squares on a map, and
+his scouting boats were constantly on the look-out. They could always
+communicate with Togo's flagship by wireless telegraphy. And now
+currents passing through the air announced that the Russian fleet was in
+sight, and was in the square numbered 203. This number was considered a
+good omen by the Japanese, for the fate of the fortress of Port Arthur
+was sealed when the Japanese took a fort called "203-metre Hill" (Port
+Arthur, which lies on the coast of the Chinese mainland, had fallen into
+the hands of the Japanese on January 1, 1905).</p>
+
+<p>When the news came, Togo knew what to do. With his large ships and sixty
+torpedo boats he fell upon the Russian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> fleet, and the battle was
+decided within an hour. The Russian Admiral's flagship sank just on the
+spot where we are now on the way to Fu-san. The Admiral himself was
+rescued, sorely wounded, by the Japanese. His fleet was dispersed, and
+its various divisions were pursued, sunk, or captured. The Russians lost
+thirty-four ships and ten thousand men. It was a bloody encounter which
+took place on these usually so peaceful waters. The Japanese became
+masters of the sea, and could, unhindered, transport troops, provisions,
+and war material over to the mainland, where the war with Russia still
+raged in Manchuria.</p>
+
+<p>From Fu-san, which for two hundred years has been a Japanese town, the
+railway takes us northwards through the Korean peninsula. We ascend the
+beautiful valley of the Nak-tong-gang River. Side valleys opening here
+and there afford interesting views, and between them dark hills descend
+steeply to the river, which often spreads out and flows so gently that
+the surface of the water forms a smooth mirror. The sky is clear and
+turquoise-blue in colour, and spans its vault over greyish-brown bare
+mountains. Where the ground on the valley bottom is level it is occupied
+by rice and wheat fields. Every now and then we pass a busy village of
+grey thatched houses, where groups of women and children in coloured
+garments are seen outside the cabins. The men wear long white coats, and
+on the head a thin black hat in the form of a stunted cone with flat
+brim. Seldom are the eyes caught by a clump of trees; as a rule the
+country is bare. Innumerable small mounds are often seen on the slopes;
+these are Korean graves.</p>
+
+<p>The signs of Japan's peaceful conquest of Korea are everywhere apparent.
+Japanese guards, policemen, soldiers, and officials are seen at the
+stations; the country now contains more than 200,000 Japanese. Settlers
+from Japan, however, take up their residence only for a time in the
+foreign country. For example, a landowner in Japan will sell half his
+property there, and with the proceeds buy land in Korea three or four
+times as large as all his estate in the home country, and in fertility
+at least as good. There he farms for some years, and then returns home
+with the profits he has earned. Numbers of Japanese fishermen also come
+yearly to the coasts of Korea with their boats, and return home to Japan
+with their catch. Thus Korea is deluged with Japanese of all kinds. The
+army is Japanese, Japanese fortresses are erected along the northern
+frontier, the government and officials are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> Japanese, and soon Korea
+will become simply a part of the Land of the Rising Sun.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate22.jpg"  width="550" height="353"
+ alt="PLATE XXII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXII. A SEDAN-CHAIR IN SEOUL.</h4>
+
+<p>We cross the range of mountains which runs like a backbone all through
+Korea from north to south, and late in the evening we come to the
+capital, Seoul, which has 280,000 inhabitants, a fifth of whom are
+Japanese. The town is confined in a valley between bare cliffs, and from
+the heights all that can be seen is confusion of grey and white houses
+with gabled roofs covered with grey tiles. In the Japanese quarter life
+goes on exactly as in Japan; rows of coloured paper lanterns hang now,
+at night, before the open shops, and trade is brisk and lively. In the
+Korean quarters the lanes are narrow and dismal, but the principal
+streets are wider, with tramcars rattling amidst the varied Asiatic
+scenes. Here are sedan chairs (Plate XXII.), caravans of big oxen laden
+with firewood, heavy carts with goods, men carrying unusually heavy
+loads on a framework of wooden ribs on their backs, women sailing past
+in white garments and a veil over their smooth-plaited hair. A row of
+grown men and boys pass through the streets carrying boards with Korean
+inscriptions in red and white: those are advertisements. Before them
+marches a drum and flute band, filling the streets with a hideous noise.</p>
+
+<p>Korea has 13 million inhabitants, and in area is just about as large as
+Great Britain. It is now subject to Japan, and is administered by a
+Japanese Resident-General, whose headquarters are at Seoul.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Manchuria</span></h3>
+
+<p>From Seoul we travelled northwards by rail to Wi-ju, a small place on
+the left bank of the Yalu River, which forms the boundary between Korea
+and Manchuria. Opposite, on the right or north bank of the Yalu, stands
+An-tung, a town with 5000 Japanese and 40,000 Chinese inhabitants. The
+river had just begun to freeze over, and the ice was still so thin that
+it could be seen bending in great waves under the weight of our sledge,
+which a Chinaman pushed along at a great speed with a long iron-shod
+pole. However, we reached the other side in safety.</p>
+
+<p>From An-tung to Mukden is only 200 miles, but the journey takes two
+whole days. The little narrow-gauge railway was laid down during the
+Russo-Japanese War to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> enable the Japanese to transport provisions and
+material to the front. The small track goes up and down over the
+mountains in the most capricious curves and loops, and the train seldom
+accomplishes the whole journey without a mishap. The Japanese Consul at
+An-tung, who had made the journey eight times, had been in four railway
+accidents, and two days previously the train had rolled down a declivity
+with a general and his staff.</p>
+
+<p>The view through the carriage windows is magnificent. This part of
+Manchuria is mountainous, but in the depths of the valleys lie farms and
+fields. Manchus in long blue coats and black vests wind along the road
+tracks, some on foot, others mounted, while others again drive
+two-wheeled carts drawn by a horse and a pair of mules. All the
+watercourses are frozen, but there is no snow. It is sunny, clear, and
+calm in these valleys, where the thunder of battle has long died away
+among the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Half-way to Mukden we halt for the night, and start next morning before
+daybreak in biting cold. Some Chinese merchants join the train, attended
+by servants bearing paper lanterns. A small party of Japanese soldiers
+also is here. They are in thick yellow coats with high collars,
+<i>bashliks</i>, red shoulder knots, caps with a red border, leather-covered
+felt boots, and are armed with cutlasses and rifles. They are sinewy and
+sturdy fellows, neat and clean, and always seem cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>At length the Christmas sun rises glowing red, and the ice flowers
+vanish from the windows. Here, where the winter cold is so piercing, it
+is oppressively hot in summer. Our little toy train crosses a river
+several times on fragile bridges of beams, which seem as though they
+might at any moment collapse like a house of cards. Small strips of
+tilled land, creaking ox-carts on the deeply rutted roads, tiny Buddhist
+oratories, primitive stations with long rows of trucks of fuel, a
+country house or two&mdash;that is all that is to be seen the whole day,
+until late in the evening we arrive at Mukden.</p>
+
+<p>Manchuria is one of the dependencies of China. The Russians constructed
+a railway through the country to the fortress of Port Arthur, but, as is
+well known, the Japanese succeeded in capturing the fortress during the
+war. By the peace of Portsmouth,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> concluded in September 1905, the
+Japanese acquired Port Arthur, the adjacent commercial port of Dalny,
+with the surrounding district, the southern half of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> the large island
+Sakhalin, the supremacy over Korea, together with the South Manchurian
+Railway&mdash;so that the Russians had unknowingly built this railway for the
+benefit of their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Round Mukden was fought the greatest battle of the whole Russo-Japanese
+War. The contest lasted twenty days; more than 850,000 men and 2500 guns
+were engaged, and 120,000 were left dead on the field. On March 1, 1905,
+the whole Japanese army began to move, and formed at last a ring round
+the Russians and Mukden. Thus the Japanese became for the time being the
+masters of Manchuria, but on the conclusion of peace the country was
+handed back to China.</p>
+
+<p>The life in the singular streets of Mukden is varied and attractive. The
+Manchus seem a vigorous and self-confident people; they are taller than
+the Chinese, but wear Chinese dress with fur caps on their heads. The
+women seldom appear out of doors; they wear their hair gathered up in a
+high knot on the crown, and, in contrast to the Chinese women, do not
+deform their feet. Among the swarming crowds one sees Chinamen,
+merchants, officers, and soldiers in semi-European fur-lined uniforms,
+policemen in smart costumes with bright buttons, Japanese, Mongols, and
+sometimes a European. Tramcars drawn by horses jingle through the
+broader streets. The houses are fine and solidly built, with carved
+dragons and painted sculpture, paper lanterns and advertisements, and a
+confusion of black Chinese characters on vertically hanging signs. At
+the four points of the compass there are great town gates in the noble
+Chinese architecture, but outside stretches a bare and dreary plain full
+of grave mounds.</p>
+
+<p>In Pe-ling, or "Northern Tomb," rests the first Chinese Emperor of the
+Manchu dynasty, and his son, the great Kang Hi, who reigned over the
+Middle Kingdom for sixty-one years. Pe-ling consists of several
+temple-like buildings. The visitor first enters a hall containing an
+enormous tortoise of stone, which supports a stone tablet inscribed with
+an epitaph extolling the deceased Emperor. At the farthest extremity of
+the walled park is the tomb itself, a huge mass of stone with a curved
+roof. In a pavilion just in front of this building the Emperor of China
+is wont to perform his devotions when he visits the graves of his
+fathers. Solemn peace reigns in the park, and under the pine-trees stone
+elephants, horses, and camels gaze solemnly at one another.</p>
+
+<p>From Mukden Port Arthur is an easy eight hours' railway journey
+south-westwards; and it is only an hour and a half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> more to Dalny, which
+in Japanese hands has grown to a large and important commercial town.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Trans-Siberian Railway</span></h3>
+
+<p>On December 28, 1908, we stepped into the train in Dalny, and commenced
+a railway journey which lasted without a break for eleven days.</p>
+
+<p>First we have to go back to Mukden, and then a somewhat shorter journey
+to the last Japanese station. At the next the stationmaster is a
+Russian, and Russian guards replace the Japanese. In the afternoon the
+train draws up at Kharbin on the Sungari River, a tributary of the great
+Amur. It was towards Kharbin that the Russians slowly retired after
+their defeat, and on this very platform Prince Ito, the first Japanese
+Resident-General of Korea, was murdered barely a year later.</p>
+
+<p>At Kharbin we have to wait two hours for the international express,
+which runs twice a week from Vladivostock to Moscow.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we stay for two hours at a station in Manchuria, on the
+boundary between Manchuria and Siberia, between China and Russia, and
+here our luggage is examined by the Russian customs officers. We put our
+watches back one and a half hours&mdash;that is the difference of time
+between Kharbin and Irkutsk. We are now travelling from east to west, in
+the same direction as the sun. If the train went as fast as the sun we
+should enjoy perpetual day; but the train lags behind, and we only gain
+an hour in the twenty-four.</p>
+
+<p>The Trans-Siberian railway is the longest in the world, the distance
+from Dalny to Moscow being 5400 miles. The railway was completed just in
+time for the war, but as it had only one track, it taxed all the energy
+of the Russians to transport troops and war material to the battlefields
+in Manchuria. A second track is now being laid.</p>
+
+<p>By using this railway a traveller can go from London to Shanghai in
+fourteen days, the route being to Dover, across the Channel to Calais,
+by rail to Moscow, from Moscow to Vladivostock by the Trans-Siberian
+railway, and from Vladivostock to Shanghai by sea. The sea voyage from
+London by the P. and O.&mdash;calling at Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said,
+Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong&mdash;takes about six weeks,
+which can be reduced to a month by travelling by train across Europe to
+Brindisi (at the south-eastern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> corner of Italy), and thence by steamer
+to Port Said, where the liner is joined. There is still a third route,
+across the Atlantic to the United States or Canada, by rail to San
+Francisco or Vancouver, and then by steamer to Shanghai <i>via</i> Japan.
+This journey can also be accomplished in a month.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img014.jpg"  width="550" height="338"
+ alt="THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.</h4>
+
+<p>On the last day of the year we pass through the Yablonoi Mountains and
+enter the region called Transbaikalia, because it lies on the farther,
+that is, the eastern, side of Lake Baikal. Here dwell Buriats, a
+Mongolian people&mdash;in winter in wooden huts surrounded by enclosures for
+domestic animals, in summer in tents. When we awoke on the morning of
+New Year's Day the train was passing along the southern shore of Lake
+Baikal, and one of the most enchanting scenes in the world was displayed
+to the eyes of the passengers. On the eastern shore the mountains stood
+clearly defined in the pure morning air, while the ranges to the west
+were lit up by the clear sunshine. Here and there the slopes were
+covered with northern pine and fir-trees. The line runs all the way
+along the lake shore, sometimes only a couple of yards from the water.
+This part of the Trans-Siberian railway was the most difficult and
+costly to make, and the last to be completed. During its construction
+traffic between the extremities of the line was provided for by great
+ferry-boats across the lake. The line winds in and out, following all
+the promontories and bays of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the lake, and the train rolls on through
+narrow galleries where columns of rock are left to support a whole roof
+of mountain. Sometimes we run along a ledge blasted out of the side of
+the mountain, above a precipitous slope which falls headlong to the
+lake. We rush through an endless succession of tunnels, and on emerging
+from each are surprised by a new view of the mountainous shore.</p>
+
+<p>Baikal, or the "Rich Lake," is the third inland sea of Asia, only the
+Caspian and the Sea of Aral being larger. Its height above sea-level is
+1560 feet; the water is light-green in colour, sweet, and crystal clear,
+and abounds in fish, among them five species of salmon. There is also a
+kind of seal, and in general many of the animal forms of Baikal are
+allied to those of the salt sea. Baikal is the deepest lake in the
+world, soundings having been taken down to 5618 feet. Steamers cross the
+lake in various directions, and in winter sleighs are driven over the
+ice from shore to shore. At the beginning of January the whole of the
+deep lake is so cooled down that ice begins to form, and the lake is
+usually frozen over to the middle of April.</p>
+
+<p>We stop an hour at Irkutsk to change trains. Irkutsk is the largest town
+in Siberia, and has 100,000 inhabitants; it stands on the bank of the
+river Angara, which flows out of Lake Baikal, and thus forms the outlet
+of all the rivers and streams which empty themselves into the lake, the
+largest of which is the Selenga. Although the Angara is five times as
+large as the Yenisei, it is called a tributary of the latter. The
+Yenisei rises in Chinese territory, and, running northwards right
+through Siberia, falls into the Arctic Ocean. It receives a large number
+of affluents, most of them from the east. Its banks are clothed with
+forest, and from Minusinsk downwards the river is navigable.</p>
+
+<p>The Lena, the great river which passes through eastern Siberia
+north-east of Baikal, is not much smaller than the Yenisei. There stands
+the town of Yakutsk, where the temperature falls in winter down to-80&deg;,
+and rises in summer to 95&deg;. North of Yakutsk, on the river Yana, lies
+Verkhoiansk, the coldest place in the world, the centre of low
+temperature or pole of cold.</p>
+
+<p>In area Siberia is larger than the whole of Europe, but the population
+in this immense country is no greater than that of Greater London,
+<i>i.e.</i> about seven millions. Of these 60 per cent are Russians, 20 per
+cent Kirghizes, and the remainder is made up of Buriats, Yakuts,
+Tunguses, Manchus, Samoyeds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> Ostiaks, Tatars, Chukchis, etc. No small
+part of the Russian population consists of convicts transported to
+Siberia, whose hard lot is to work under strict supervision in the gold
+mines. Their number is estimated at 150,000. Before the railway was made
+they had to travel tremendous distances on foot. They marched ten miles
+a day in rain and sunshine, storm and snow, through the terribly cold
+and gloomy Siberia. Before and behind them rode Cossacks, who would not
+let them rest as they dragged their chains through the mud and mire of
+the road. Frequently women and children followed of their own free will
+to share their husbands' and fathers' fate during their forced labour in
+the mines. Now there is a great improvement. The labour, indeed, is just
+as hard, but the journey out is less trying. The unfortunate people are
+now forwarded in special prison vans with gratings for windows. They are
+like travelling cells, and can often be seen on side tracks at a
+station.</p>
+
+<p>In the neighbourhood of the Lena River dwell Yakuts of the Turkish-Tatar
+race. They number only 230,000 men, are nominally Christians, and pursue
+agriculture and trade. East of the Yenisei are the Tunguses, a small
+people divided into "settled," "horse," "reindeer," and "dog" Tunguses,
+according to the domestic animal of most importance to their mode of
+life. In western Siberia, the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, live
+Ostiaks, a small Finnish tribe of 26,000 persons, who are poor fisher
+folk, hunters and nomads with reindeer. This tribe is rapidly dying out.
+North of them, in the northern parts of western Siberia and in
+north-eastern Europe, live the Samoyeds, of Ural-Altai origin, who are
+still fewer in number than the preceding tribe, and live by
+reindeer-breeding and fishing.</p>
+
+<p>All these Siberian tribes and many others are Shamanists, and are so
+called after their priests, Shamans. They believe in an intimate
+connection between living men and their long-deceased forefathers. They
+entertain a great dread of the dead, and do everything they can to
+exorcise and appease their souls, bringing them offerings. All this
+business is attended to with much black magic and witchcraft by the
+Shamans, who are also doctors. When any one dies the spirit of the dead
+must be driven out of the tent, so the Shaman is summoned. He comes
+decked out in a costly and curious dress, and with religious enthusiasm
+performs a dance which soon degenerates into a kind of ecstasy. He
+throws himself about, reels and groans, and is beside himself. And when
+he has carried on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> long enough he catches hold of a magic drum, whose
+soothing sounds calm him and bring him back to his senses. When he has
+finished his performance the soul is gone!</p>
+
+<p>Over white plains, over hills, and through valleys, the train bears us
+on farther north-westwards through the government of Irkutsk. At
+Krasnoiarsk we cross the Yenisei by a fine bridge nearly two-thirds of a
+mile long. In summer vessels can ascend as far as Minusinsk, in a
+district of southern Siberia, rich in gold and iron and productive soil.
+In general Siberia is a rich country. Gold, silver, and copper, lead,
+graphite, and coal occur, besides many other valuable minerals and
+stones in the mountains. The country has also good prospects of future
+development owing to its remarkably excellent agricultural land. Most of
+this is situated near the railway, and all Siberia is intersected by a
+net of waterways. From one of the tributaries of the Obi steamers can
+pass by canal to the Yenisei, and thence on to the Lena. Omsk, the third
+town of Siberia, with 89,000 inhabitants, is the centre of this water
+system. More than 6000 miles of river can be navigated by large
+steamers, and nearly 30,000 by smaller boats. In western Siberia, around
+Tomsk and Omsk, the agricultural produce increases year by year, and the
+time will certainly come when these regions will support a population
+many times as large as at present, and export large quantities of corn
+in addition. This is the only thing which will make this enormously long
+railway pay, for it cost somewhere about &pound;11,000,000 to build.</p>
+
+<p>We have passed Tomsk and crossed the Obi by a fine massive bridge of
+stone and iron. The Obi is the largest river of Asia. In length it is
+equal to the Yenisei and Blue River, but its drainage basin is larger
+than that of either of the others. Where the great affluent, the Irtish,
+runs in from the west, the Obi has a breadth of nearly two miles, and at
+its mouth, in the Gulf of Obi on the Arctic Ocean, the breadth has
+increased to twelve miles. The Irtish also receives from the west a
+large tributary, the Tobol, and at the confluence stands the town of
+Tobolsk.</p>
+
+<p>One day passes after another, and one night after another rises up blue
+and cold from the east. We have left every mountain and hill behind us,
+and the boundless plains, like a frozen sea, lie buried under deep snow.
+Sometimes we travel for a whole hour without seeing a farm or village.
+Only occasionally do we see to the north a small patch of <i>taiga</i>, or
+the Siberian coniferous forest, silent and dark. A clump of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> birch-trees
+is a rare sight. The country is open, flat, monotonous, and dead-white
+as far as the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we travel on by degrees through Siberia, this immense country
+bounded on the south by the Altai, Sayan, the Yablonoi and Stanovoi
+Mountains, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Huge areas of northern
+Siberia are occupied by <i>tundras</i>&mdash;moss-grown, marshy steppes, with
+little animal life, frozen hard as stone in winter and thawed during the
+short summer into dangerous swamps.</p>
+
+<p>In the frozen ground of northern Siberia, and particularly in old flood
+plains, have been found complete specimens of the mammoth. This animal
+is an extinct species of elephant, which, during the diluvial period,
+was distributed over all northern Asia, Europe, and North America. The
+mammoth was larger than the elephant of the present day, had tusks as
+much as 13 feet long, a thick fur suitable for a cold climate, and quite
+a luxuriant mane on the back of the head and neck. That prehistoric man
+was a contemporary of the mammoth is proved by ancient rude drawings of
+this animal.</p>
+
+<p>Larches, pine and spruce, birch and willow, compose the forests of
+Siberia. The larch manages to exist even round the pole of cold. The
+Polar bear, the Arctic fox, the glutton, the lemming, the snow-hare, and
+the reindeer are the animals in the cold north. In the central parts of
+the country are to be found red deer, roedeer, wild swine, beaver, wolf,
+and lynx. Far away to the east, on the great Amur River, which is the
+boundary between the Amur province and Manchuria, as well as in the
+coast province of Ussuri, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, occur tigers
+and panthers. The most valuable animals, the furs of which constitute
+one of the resources of Siberia, are the sable, the ermine, and the grey
+squirrel. The south-eastern parts of this great country are a
+transitional region to the steppes of central Asia, and there are to be
+found antelopes, gazelles, and wild asses.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on January 5, we are up in the Ural Mountains, and the line
+winds among hills and valleys. Near the station of Zlatoust stands a
+granite column to mark the boundary between Asia and Europe.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Volga and Moscow</span></h3>
+
+<p>From the boundary between Europe and Asia the train takes us onwards
+past Ufa to Samara. The hills of the Urals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> become lower and the country
+flattens out again. Snow lies everywhere in a continuous sheet, and
+peasants are seen on the roads with sledges laden with hay, fuel, or
+provisions. At Batraki we pass over the Volga by a bridge nearly a mile
+long. The Volga is the largest river in Europe; it is 2300 miles long,
+and has its source in the Valdai hills (between St. Petersburg and
+Moscow) at a height of only 750 feet above sea-level. It flows,
+therefore, through most of Russia in Europe, traversing twenty
+governments. The right bank is high and steep, the left flat; and at its
+mouth in the Caspian Sea it forms a very extensive delta. The Volga is
+navigable almost throughout its length, and has also forty navigable
+tributaries. The river is frozen over for about five months in the year,
+and when the ice breaks up in spring with thundering cracks it often
+causes great damage along the banks. Crowds of vessels, boats, and rafts
+pass up and down the sluggish stream, as well as passenger steamers
+built after the pattern of the American river boats. By the Volga and
+its canals one can travel by steamer from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea,
+and from the Caspian Sea by the Volga into the Dwina and out to the
+White Sea. The Volga is not only an important highway for goods and
+passengers, but also an inexhaustible fish preserve; indeed the sturgeon
+and sterlet fisheries constitute its greatest wealth.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate23.jpg"  width="550" height="364"
+ alt="PLATE XXIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW.</h4>
+
+<p>When the train has rattled heavily and slowly over the Volga, it
+proceeds west-north-west into the very heart of holy Russia, and late on
+January 7, 1909, we roll into the station of Moscow, the old capital of
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Moscow is a type of the old unadulterated Russia, a home of the simple,
+honest manners and customs of olden days, of faith and honour, of a
+child-like, pure-hearted belief in the religion of the country, the
+Catholic Greek Church. In its crooked, winding, badly-paved streets
+swarm Tatars, Persians, and Caucasians, among Slav citizens and
+countrymen, those inexterminable Russian peasants who suffer and toil
+like slaves, look too deep into the <i>vodka</i><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> cup on Saturday, yet are
+always contented, good-tempered, and jovial.</p>
+
+
+<p>The town stands on both sides of the small Moskva River, which falls
+into the Oka, a tributary of the Volga, and is inhabited by more than a
+million souls. The Kremlin is the oldest part, and the heart of Moscow
+(Plate XXIII.). Its walls were erected at the end of the fifteenth
+century; they are 60 feet high, crenellated, and provided with
+eighteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> towers and five gates. Within this irregular pentagon, a mile
+and a quarter in circumference, are churches, palaces, museums, and
+other public buildings. There stands the bell tower of Ivan Veliki, 270
+feet high, with five storeys. From the uppermost you can command the
+whole horizon, with Moscow beneath your feet, the streets diverging in
+every direction from the Kremlin like the spokes of a wheel, and crossed
+again by circular roads. Between the streets lie conglomerations of
+heavy stone houses, and from this sea of buildings emerge bulb-shaped
+cupolas with green roofs surmounted by golden Greek crosses. Large
+barracks, hospitals, palaces, and public buildings crop up here and
+there. Right through the town winds the Moskva in the figure of an S,
+and the walls of the Kremlin with their towers are reflected in the
+water.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the tower of Ivan Veliki hang thirty-three bells of various sizes. At
+its foot stands the fallen "Tsar" bell, which weighs 197 tons and is 65
+feet in circumference. In its fall a piece was broken out of the side,
+and it is therefore useless as a bell, but it is set up on a platform as
+an ornament.</p>
+
+<p>Within the walls of the Kremlin is also the Church of the Ascension of
+the Virgin, which is crowned by a dome 138 feet high, with smaller
+cupolas at the four corners. Standing in the centre of the Kremlin, this
+church is the heart not only of Moscow but of all Russia, for here the
+Tsars are crowned, while the bells of Ivan Veliki peal over the city.
+The interior of the cathedral presents an indescribable effect. The
+light from the narrow windows high up is very dim, and is further dulled
+by gilded banners with pictures of saints and crosses. The temple nave
+is crammed with religious objects, iconostases and icons, sacred
+portraits of solid gold with only the hands and faces coloured. Wax
+candles burn before them, from which the smoke rises up to the vaulted
+roof, floating about the banners in a greyish-blue mist.</p>
+
+<p>To the orthodox Russians the Kremlin is almost a holy place. They make
+pilgrimages to its temples and cloisters with the same reverence as
+Tibetans to the sanctuaries of Buddha. "Moscow is surpassed only by the
+Kremlin, and the Kremlin only by heaven," they say.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps no year in the history of Moscow is so famous as the year 1812.
+Then the city was taken by Napoleon and the Grande Arm&eacute;e. The Russian
+army abandoned the city,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> and the citizens left their homes. Napoleon
+entered on September 14, and next day the city began to burn. The
+Russians had set fire to it themselves in several places. Three-fourths
+of the city lay in ashes when the French evacuated Moscow after an
+occupation of five weeks and the loss of 30,000 men. The remembrance of
+this dreadful time still survives among the populace.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">St. Petersburg and Home</span></h3>
+
+<p>From Moscow an express train takes us in eleven hours to the capital of
+Peter the Great, St. Petersburg, at the mouth of the Neva, in the Gulf
+of Finland. Here we are in the midst of very different scenes from those
+in Moscow. Here is no longer genuine uncontaminated Russia, but Western
+civilisation, which has come and washed away the Slavonic. The churches
+and monasteries indeed are built in the same style as in Moscow, and the
+eyes meet with the same types and costumes, and the same heavily laden
+waggons and carts rumble over the Neva bridges; but one feels and sees
+only too plainly that one is in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The Neva is forty miles long and a third of a mile broad, and comes from
+Lake Ladoga. It is spanned by four fine bridges, always crowded with
+carriages and foot passengers, and in summer numerous small steamboats
+ply up and down. In winter thick ice lies on the river during four
+months.</p>
+
+<p>St. Petersburg has nearly two million inhabitants, which is rather more
+than a hundredth part of the population of the whole Russian empire. The
+appearance of the town shows that it is new, for the streets are
+straight and broad. The climate is very raw, damp, and disagreeable, and
+it rains or snows on 200 days in the year.</p>
+
+<p>A walk through the streets of St. Petersburg shows the traveller much
+that is strange. Tiny chapels are found everywhere&mdash;in the middle of a
+bridge or at a street corner. They contain only a picture of a saint
+with candles burning before it. Many persons stop as they pass by,
+uncover their heads, fall on their knees, cross themselves and murmur a
+prayer, and then vanish among the crowd in the streets. It is also
+noticeable that this city is full of uniforms. Not only do the soldiers
+of the large garrison wear uniforms, but civil officials, schoolboys,
+students, and many others are dressed in special costumes with bright
+buttons of brass or silver. But what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> especially attracts the stranger's
+attention are the vehicles. Persons of the upper classes drive in open
+sleighs and cover themselves with bearskins lined with blue, and are
+drawn by tall, dark, handsome trotters. Sometimes also a <i>troika</i>, or
+team of three horses abreast, is seen, one of the horses in the middle
+under the arch which keeps the shafts apart, while the other two, on
+either side, go at a gallop. The hackney sleighs are also common, so
+small that two persons can hardly find room to sit, and as there is no
+support or guard of any kind, they must cling to each other's waists in
+order not to be thrown off at sharp corners. These small sledges have no
+fixed stands, but they are drawn up in long rows outside hotels, banks,
+theatres, railway stations, and other much-frequented places, and may be
+found singly almost anywhere in the streets. The drivers are always
+merry and cheerful, and keep up a running conversation with their
+passenger or their horse, which they call "my little dove." All drive at
+the same reckless pace, as if they were running races through the
+streets.</p>
+
+<p>St. Petersburg is rich in art collections and museums,
+picture-galleries, churches, and fine palaces. The finest building in
+the city, however, is the Isaac Cathedral, with its high gilded dome,
+surrounded by four similar but smaller gilded cupolas. The cross at the
+top is 330 feet above the ground, and the great dome is the first thing
+in St. Petersburg to be seen on coming by steamer from the Gulf of
+Finland. When the Cathedral was built, it cost more than two and
+three-quarter million pounds. It was finished fifty years ago, but has
+never been in really sound condition, and is always undergoing extensive
+repairs.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The last stage of our journey is now at hand. One evening we drive in a
+<i>troika</i>, with much ringing of sleigh bells, to the station of the
+Finland Railway, whence the train takes us through Viborg to Abo, the
+old capital of Finland. Here a steamer is waiting to take us over to
+Stockholm, which was the starting-point of our long journey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> A seaport of New Hampshire, U.S.A.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> A Russian alcoholic liquor usually made from rye.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><br /><br />PART II<br /><br /></h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<h2>STOCKHOLM TO EGYPT</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">To London and Paris</span></h3>
+
+<p>Again we set out from Stockholm in the evening by train, and the next
+morning we reach Malm&ouml;, a port on the west coast of Sweden, not many
+miles north of Trelleborg, from which we started on our journey
+eastwards across Asia. From Malm&ouml; a steamer soon takes us across the
+narrow sound to Copenhagen, the beautiful capital of Denmark, and then
+we take the train across the large, rich, and fertile island of Zealand.
+There farms are crowded close together among the tilled fields; there
+thriving cattle graze on the meadows, yielding Denmark a superfluity of
+milk and butter; there the productive soil spreads everywhere, leaving
+no room for unprofitable sandy downs and heaths, as on the west coast of
+Jutland. The Danes are a small people, but they make a brave struggle
+for existence. Their country is one of the smallest in Europe, but the
+first in utilising all its possibilities of opening profitable commerce
+with foreign lands. Much larger are its possessions in the Arctic Ocean,
+Greenland, and Iceland, but there the population is very scanty and the
+real masters of the islands are cold and ice.</p>
+
+<p>At Kors&ouml;r, on the Great Belt, we again go on board a steamer which in a
+few hours takes us between Langeland and Laaland to Kiel, the principal
+naval port of Germany. Here we are on soil which was formerly Danish,
+for it was only during her last unfortunate war that Denmark lost the
+two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.</p>
+
+<p>We travel by train from Kiel through fertile Holstein southwards to the
+free Hansa town of Hamburg on the Elbe, the greatest commercial emporium
+on the mainland of Europe, and, after London and New York, the third in
+the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From Hamburg the train goes on through Hanover and Westphalia, across
+the majestic Rhine, through South Holland, not far north of the Belgian
+frontier, to the port of Flushing, which is situated on one of the
+islands in the delta of the Scheldt. Here another steamer is ready for
+us, and after a passage of a few hours we glide into the broad
+trumpet-shaped mouth of the Thames and land at Queenborough. There again
+we take a train which carries us through the thickly-peopled,
+well-cultivated country of Kent into the heart of London, the greatest
+city of the world.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img015.jpg"  width="550" height="461"
+ alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO PARIS" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO PARIS.</h4>
+
+<p>After a few days' stay in London we go on to Paris&mdash;by train to Dover,
+across the Channel at its narrowest part in a swift turbine steamer, and
+again by rail from Calais to Paris, through one of the most fruitful
+districts of France, vying with the valleys of the Rhone and Garonne in
+fertility. In a little over seven hours after leaving London we arrive
+at the great city (Plate XXIV.) where the Seine, crossed by thirty
+bridges, describes a bend, afterwards continuing in the most capricious
+meanderings to Rouen and Havre.</p>
+
+<p><a name="PARIS" id="PARIS"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate24.jpg"  width="550" height="364"
+ alt="PLATE XXIV." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXIV. PARIS.<br />
+Looking eastwards from Notre Dame.</h4>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The first thing the stranger notices in Paris is the boulevards&mdash;broad,
+handsome streets, with alleys of leafy trees between rows of large
+palatial houses, theatres, caf&eacute;s, and shops. The oldest, the boulevards
+proper, were formerly the fortifications of the town with towers and
+walls; "boulevard" is, then, the same word as the English "bulwark."
+Louis XIII., who enlarged and beautified Paris, had these bulwarks
+pulled down, and the first boulevards laid out on their site. They are
+situated on the north side of the Seine, and form a continuous line
+under different names, Madeleine, des Capuchines, des Italiens, and
+Montmartre. This line of boulevards is one of the sights of Paris. In
+later times boulevards were also laid out where there had been no
+fortifications before. Under Louis XIV. and his successors Paris grew
+and increased in splendour and greatness; then it was the scene of the
+great Revolution and its horrors; then under Napoleon it became the
+heart of the mightiest empire of that time. With the fall of Napoleon
+Paris was twice entered by the forces of the Allies, and in 1871 it was
+besieged and captured by the Prussians. Since then Paris has been spared
+from disastrous misfortunes, and is, as it has been for many centuries,
+the gayest and most animated city in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a rapid walk through the town, starting at the Place de la
+Bastille, on the north bank of the Seine, where formerly stood the
+fortress and prison of the Bastille. This prison was stormed and
+destroyed at the commencement of the Great Revolution, on July 14, 1789,
+and since that year July 14 has been the chief national festival-day. In
+the middle of the square stands the July Column, and from its summit a
+wonderful view of Paris can be obtained. We now follow the Rue de
+Rivoli, the largest and handsomest street in Paris. On the left hand is
+the H&ocirc;tel de Ville, a fine public building, where the city authorities
+meet, where brilliant entertainments are given, and where the galleries
+are adorned with canvases of famous masters.</p>
+
+<p>Farther along, on the same side, is the largest public building of the
+city, the palace of the Louvre. Like the British Museum, it would
+require months and years to see properly. Here are stored colossal
+collections, not only of objects of art and relics from great ancient
+kingdoms in Asia and Europe, but also of the finest works of European
+sculptors and painters of all periods.</p>
+
+<p>We walk on north-westwards through the luxuriant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> gardens of the
+Tuileries, and stop a moment in the Place de la Concorde to enjoy the
+charming views presented on all sides&mdash;the river with its quays and
+bridges, the parks and avenues, the huge buildings decorated with
+exquisite taste, the wide, open spaces adorned with glorious monuments,
+and the never-ending coming and going of pleasure-loving Parisians and
+Parisian ladies in costumes of the latest fashion.</p>
+
+<p>From the Place de la Concorde we direct our steps to the Champs &Eacute;lys&eacute;es,
+a magnificent park with a broad carriageway along which the fashionable
+world rides, walks, or drives in smart carriages and motor cars. At the
+northern side of the park lives the President of the Republic in the
+palace of the &Eacute;lys&eacute;es.</p>
+
+<p>If we now follow the double row of broad avenues northwards we come to
+the Place de l'&Eacute;toile, a "circus" where twelve avenues of large streets
+meet. One of them, a prolongation of the Champs &Eacute;lys&eacute;es, is named after
+the grand army of Napoleon and leads to the extensive Bois de Boulogne.
+In the middle of the Place de l'&Eacute;toile is erected a stately triumphal
+arch, 160 feet high, in memory of Napoleon's victories.</p>
+
+<p>From here we follow a busy street as far as the bridge of Jena, and on
+the opposite bank of the Seine rises the Eiffel Tower, dominating Paris
+with its immense pillar 1000 feet high. The Eiffel Tower is the highest
+structure ever reared by human hands, twice as high as the cathedral of
+Cologne and the tallest of the Egyptian pyramids. At the first platform
+we are more than 330 feet above the vast city, but the hills outside
+Paris close in the horizon. When the cage rises up to the third platform
+we are at a height of 864 feet above the ground, and see below us the
+Seine with its many bridges and the city with its innumerable streets
+and its 140 squares. A staircase leads up to the highest balcony, and at
+the very top a beacon is lighted at night visible 50 miles away. From
+the parapet we hardly dare allow our eyes to look down the perpendicular
+tower to the four sloping iron piers at its base, especially when it
+blows hard and the whole tower perceptibly swings. There is no need to
+go up in a balloon to obtain a bird's-eye view of Paris; from the top of
+the Eiffel Tower we have the town spread out before us like a map.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Napoleon's Tomb</span></h3>
+
+<p>When we have safely descended from the giddy height, we make our way
+across the Champ de Mars to the H&ocirc;tel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> des Invalides. Formerly several
+thousand pensioners from the great French armies found a refuge in this
+huge building, but now it is used as a museum for military historic
+relics.</p>
+
+<p><a name="NAPOLEON" id="NAPOLEON"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate25.jpg"  width="369" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE XXV." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXV. NAPOLEON'S TOMB.<br />
+H&ocirc;tel des Invalides, Paris.</h4>
+
+<p>We pass in under the glittering gilded dome, visible all over the city,
+and find ourselves in a round hall, the centre of which is occupied by a
+crypt, likewise round and several feet deep and open above. On the floor
+in mosaic letters are glorious names, Rivoli, Pyramids, Marengo,
+Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, Wagram, and Moscow. Twelve marble statues,
+representing as many victories, and sixty captured colours keep guard
+round the great sarcophagus of red porphyry from Finland which contains
+the remains of Napoleon (Plate XXV.).</p>
+
+<p>No one speaks in here. The deepest silence surrounds the ashes of the
+man who in his lifetime filled the world with the roar of his cannon and
+the thunder of his legions, and who within the space of a few years
+completely changed the map of Europe. Pale and subdued, the light falls
+over the crypt where the red porphyry speaks of irresistible power, and
+the white goddesses of victory are illumined as it were with a
+reflection of the years of glory.</p>
+
+<p>Unconsciously we listen for an echo of the clash of arms and the words
+of command. We seem to see a blue-eyed boy playing at his mother's knee
+at Ajaccio in Corsica; we seem to hear a youthful revolutionist, burning
+with enthusiasm, making fiery speeches at secret clubs in Paris. Pale
+and solemn, the shade of the twenty-six-year-old general floats before
+our mind's eye as he returns from a series of victories in northern
+Italy, where he rushed like a storm over the plains of Lombardy, made a
+triumphal entry into Milan, and for ever removed the ancient republic of
+Venice from the list of independent States.</p>
+
+<p>We recall the campaign of the French army against Egypt and the Holy
+Land. Napoleon takes his fleet out from the harbour of Toulon, escapes
+Nelson's ships of the line and frigates, seizes Malta, sails to the
+north of Crete and west of Cyprus, and lands 40,000 men at Alexandria.
+The soldiers languish in the desert sands on the way to Cairo, they
+approach the Nile to give battle to the Egyptian army, and at the foot
+of the pyramids the East is defeated by the West. The march is continued
+eastwards to Syria. Five centuries have passed since the crusaders
+attempted to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of unbelievers. Now
+again the weapons of Western lands clash in the valley of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> Jordan
+and at the foot of Mount Tabor, and now the French General obtains a
+victory over the Turks outside Nazareth. In the meantime, however,
+Nelson has annihilated his fleet. The flower of the republican army is
+doomed to perish, and Napoleon's dream of an oriental dominion has
+vanished with the smoke of the last camp fire. He leaves Egypt with two
+frigates, sails along the coasts of Tripoli and Tunis, and passes at
+night with extinguished lights through the channel between Africa and
+Sicily.</p>
+
+<p>Again our eyes turn to the dim light under the cupola of the Invalides,
+and the marble columns and statues look white as snow. Then our thoughts
+wander off to the Alps, the Great St. Bernard, the St. Gotthard, Mont
+Cenis, and the Simplon, where the First Consul, like Hannibal before
+him, with four army corps bids defiance to the loftiest mountains of
+Europe. We seem to see the soldiers dragging the cannon through the
+frozen drifts and collecting together again on the Italian side. At
+Marengo, south of the Po, a new victory is added to the French laurels,
+and the most powerful man in France has the fate of Europe in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>Then various episodes of his marvellous career pass before us. Our eyes
+fall on the name Austerlitz down in the mosaic of the crypt. The Emperor
+of France has marched into Moravia and drawn up his legions under the
+golden eagles. A distant echo seems to sound round the crypt&mdash;it is
+Napoleon's cavalry riding down the Russian guards, it is the "grand
+army" annihilating the Austrian and Russian forces, it is the French
+artillery pounding the ice on the lake and drowning the fugitives, their
+guns and horses.</p>
+
+<p>A murmur passes through the crypt, an echo from the battle of Jena,
+where Prussia was crushed, its territory devastated from the Elbe to the
+Oder, and its fortresses surrendered, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Stettin,
+L&uuml;beck, while the victor made his entry into Frederick the Great's
+capital, Berlin. We hear the tread of the columns and the tramp of
+horses through the mud on the roads in Poland, and we see the bloody
+battlefields of Pultusk, east of the Vistula, and Eylau in West Prussia,
+where heaps of bodies lie scattered over the deep snow. We see Napoleon
+on his white horse after the battle of Friedland in East Prussia, where
+the Russians were defeated. The guards and hussars rode through them
+with drawn swords. Their enthusiastic cry of "Long live the Emperor"
+still vibrates under the standards round the sarcophagus; and above the
+shouts of victory the beat of horse hoofs is heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> on the roads of
+Europe; it is the courier between the headquarters of the army and
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The conqueror marches to Vienna, and threatens to crush Austria. He
+gains the bloody battle of Wagram, north-east of Vienna, he wipes out
+states and makes them dependencies of France and their rulers his
+obedient vassals, and he gives away royal crowns to his relations and
+generals. His dominion extends from Danzig to Cadiz, from the mouth of
+the Elbe to the Tiber; he has risen to a height of power and glory never
+attained since the golden age of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Bayonets and sabres, cuirasses and helmets flash in the sunlight as the
+invincible army camps with band and music and song above the Niemen.
+Half a million of soldiers are on their way to the old capital of
+Russia, Moscow. The Russian roads from Vilna to Vitebsk are full of
+endless lines of troops, squadrons of cavalry in close formation, and
+enormous baggage trains. The Russians know that their freedom is in
+danger; they burn their own towns and villages, devastate their own
+provinces, and retire little by little, as they did a hundred years
+earlier when Charles XII. invaded Russia. At length there is a battle at
+Moscow, and the French army enters the town. We see in imagination the
+September nights lighted up far and wide by a blazing flame. Moscow is
+on fire. On the terrace of the Kremlin stands a little man in a grey
+military coat and a black cocked hat, watching the flame. Within a week
+the old holy city of the Muscovites lies in ashes.</p>
+
+<p>The early twilight of winter falls over Paris, and we see the shadows
+deepen round Napoleon's tomb. We fancy we see among them human figures
+fighting against hunger, cold, and weariness. The time of misfortune is
+come. The great army is retreating, the roads are lined with corpses and
+fragments. The cannon are left in the snow. The soldiers fall in
+regiments like a ripe crop. Packs of wolves follow in their tracks: they
+are contented with the dead, but the Cossack squadrons cut down the
+living. At the bridge over the Beresina, a tributary of the Dnieper,
+30,000 men are drowned and perish. All discipline is relaxed. The
+soldiers throw away their guns and knapsacks. Clothed in furs and with a
+birchen staff in his hand, the defeated emperor marches like a simple
+soldier in the front. Thanks to the severe climate of their country and
+its great extent, and thanks also to their own cautious conduct of the
+war, the Russians practically annihilated Napoleon's army.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The darkness deepens. At Leipzig Russians, Austrians, Prussians, and
+Swedes oppose Napoleon. There his proud empire falls to pieces, even
+Paris is captured, and he loses his crown. He is carried a prisoner down
+the Rhone valley through Lyons, and shipped off to the island of Elba.</p>
+
+<p>Once more he fills the world with tumult. With a brig and seven small
+vessels he sails back to the coast of France. He has a force of only
+1100 men, but in his hands it is sufficient to reconquer France. He
+marches over the western offshoots of the Alps. At Grenoble his force
+has increased to 7000 men. In Lyons he is saluted as Emperor, and Paris
+opens its gates. He is ready to stake everything on a single throw. In
+Belgium is to be the decisive battle. Hostile armies gather round the
+frontiers of France, for Europe is tired of continual war. At Waterloo
+Napoleon fights his last battle, and his fate is sealed for ever.</p>
+
+<p>He leaves Paris for the last time. At the port of Rochefort, between the
+mouths of the Loire and the Garonne, he goes on board an English
+frigate. After seventy days' sail he is landed on the small basaltic
+island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic, where he is doomed to
+pass the last six years of his eventful life. Here also his grave is
+digged under the willows in the valley.</p>
+
+<p>Nineteen years after Napoleon's death the simple grave under the willows
+was uncovered, the coffins of wood, lead, and sheet-iron were opened in
+the presence of several who had shared his long imprisonment, the
+remains were taken on board a French frigate amid the roar of guns and
+flags waving half-mast high, the coffin was landed at Cherbourg in
+Normandy, and the conqueror of Europe once more made his entry into
+Paris with military pomp and ceremony, in which all France took part.
+Drawn by sixteen horses in funereal trappings and followed by veterans
+of Napoleon's campaigns, the hearse, adorned with imperial splendour,
+was escorted by soldiers under the triumphal arch of the Place de
+l'&Eacute;toile and through the Champs &Eacute;lys&eacute;es to the H&ocirc;tel des Invalides,
+where the coffin was deposited in the Finnish sarcophagus. Thus was
+fulfilled the last wish of the conqueror of the world: "I desire that my
+remains may rest on the banks of the Seine."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Paris to Rome</span></h3>
+
+<p>The stranger leaves Paris with regret, and is consoled only by the
+thought that he is on his way to sunny Italy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> The train carries him
+eastwards, and he looks through the window at the hills and plains of
+Champagne, the home of sparkling wine. Around him spread tilled fields,
+villages, and farmhouses. Where the soil is not suitable for vines,
+wheat, or beet, it provides pasture for large flocks. Men are seen at
+work everywhere, and the traveller realises that France is so prosperous
+because all its small proprietors, peasants, and townspeople are so
+industrious and so thrifty. Now the frontier is reached. The great
+fortress of Belfort is the last French town passed, and a little later
+we are in Alsace.</p>
+
+<p>Another frontier is crossed, that between Germany and Switzerland, and
+the train halts at the fine town of B&acirc;le, traversed by the mighty Rhine.
+Coming from the Lake of Constance, the clear waters of the river glide
+under the bridges of B&acirc;le, and turn at right angles northwards between
+the Vosges and the Black Forest.</p>
+
+<p>From B&acirc;le we go on south-westwards to Geneva. Along a narrow valley the
+railway follows the river Birs, which falls into the Rhine, and winds in
+curves along the mountain flanks, sometimes high above the foot of the
+valley, and sometimes by the river's bank. It is towards the end of
+January, and snow has been falling for several days on end. All the
+country is quite white, and the small villages in the valley are almost
+hidden.</p>
+
+<p>Now we come to three lakes in a row, the Lake of Bienne, the Lake of
+Neuch&acirc;tel, and the great Lake of Geneva, which we reach at the town of
+Lausanne. Here the snow has ceased to fall, and the beautiful Alps of
+Savoy are visible to the south. The sun is hidden behind clouds, but its
+rays are reflected by the clear mirror of the lake. This view is one of
+the finest in the world, and our eyes are glued to the carriage window
+as the train follows the shore of Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>In outline the lake is like a dolphin just about to dive. At the
+dolphin's snout lies Geneva, and here the river Rhone flows out of the
+lake to run to Lyons and debouch into the Mediterranean immediately to
+the west of the great port of Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>Geneva is one of the finest, cleanest, and most charming towns in the
+world. Between its northern and southern halves the water of the lake,
+deep blue and clear as crystal, is drawn off into the Rhone as into a
+funnel. There the current is strong, and the river is divided into two
+by a long island.</p>
+
+<p>The finest sight, however, is the view south-eastwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> when the weather
+is clear. There stand the mighty summits and crests of the Alps of
+Savoy, now covered with snow, and glittering in white, light blue, and
+steely grey tints. There also Mont Blanc is enthroned above the other
+mountains, nay, above all Europe, awesome and grand, the crown of the
+Alps, the frontier pillar between Switzerland, France, and Italy.</p>
+
+<p>From Geneva we go eastwards along the northern shore of the lake. The
+air is hazy, and the Alps of Savoy look like a light veil beneath the
+sun. In this light the water is of a bright green like malachite. Beyond
+Lausanne the mist disappears, and the Alps again appear dazzling white
+and steep as pyramids and towers. Towns, villages, and villas cast
+reflections of their white or coloured house-fronts and their light
+balconies on the lake. The shore is lined by a row of hotels surrounded
+by gardens and promenades. Travellers come hither from all countries in
+summer to feast their eyes on the Alps and strengthen their lungs by
+inhaling the fresh air.</p>
+
+<p>We leave the lake and mount gently up the Rhone valley between wild
+rocks. It becomes narrower as we ascend. The Rhone, a tumultuous stream,
+roars in its bed, now quite insignificant compared to the majestic river
+at Geneva. In the valley tilled fields are laid out, dark green spruces
+peep out of the snow on the slopes, while above all the snow-white
+summits of the Alps are enthroned.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes beyond Brieg the train rushes at full speed straight into
+the mountain. The electric lamps are lighted and all the windows closed.
+The tunnel is filled with smoke, and a continuous reverberation dins our
+ears. The Simplon tunnel is the longest in the world, being 12-1/2 miles
+long. It is only a few years since it was completed. Work was begun from
+both sides of the mountain at the same time, and when the excavations
+met in the middle and a blasting charge burst the last sheet of rock, it
+was found that the calculations had not been an inch out. After fully
+twenty minutes it begins to grow light, and when the train rolls out of
+the tunnel we are on Italian ground.</p>
+
+<p>The train now descends a lovely valley to the shore of Lago Maggiore.
+Framed in steep mountains, the dark blue lake contains a small group of
+islands, full of white houses, palaces, and gardens. One of these is
+well known by the name of Isola Bella, or the Beautiful Island.</p>
+
+<p>Night hides from our eyes the plains of Lombardy, Milan with its famous
+cathedral, the bridge over the Po, and then a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> number of famous old
+towns, including Bologna with its university about fifteen hundred years
+old.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, however, we see to the south-west something like a flaming
+beacon. It is the gilded dome of St. Peter's Church, which, caught by
+the rays of the rising sun, shines like a fire above the eternal city.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Eternal City</span></h3>
+
+<p>The King of Italy has 35 million subjects, but in Rome lives another
+mighty prince, the Pope, though his kingdom is not of this world. His
+throne is the chair of St. Peter, his arms the triple tiara and the
+crossed keys which open and close the gates of the kingdom of heaven. He
+has 270 million subjects, the Roman Catholics. For political reasons he
+is a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican, a collection of great palaces
+containing more than 10,000 halls and apartments. There also are
+installed museums, libraries, and collections of manuscripts of vast
+extent and value. The Vatican museum of sculpture is the richest in the
+world. In the Sistine Chapel, a sanctuary 450 years old, Michael Angelo
+adorned the roof with great pictures of the creation of the world and
+man, of the Fall and the Flood, and at the end wall an immense picture
+of the Last Judgment. To the west of the palace stands the Pope's
+gardens and park, and to the south the Church of St. Peter, the largest
+temple in Christendom. The whole forms a small town of itself; and this
+town is one of the greatest in the world, a seat of art and learning,
+and, above all, the focus of a great religion. For from here the Pope
+sends forth his bulls of excommunication against heretics and sinners,
+and here he watches over his flock, the Catholics, in accordance with
+the Saviour's thrice repeated injunction to Peter: "Feed my sheep."</p>
+
+<p>A drive through Rome is intensely interesting. The streets are mostly
+narrow and crooked, and we are always turning corners, driving across
+small triangular open places and in lanes where it is ticklish work to
+pass a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Yet no boulevards, no
+great streets in the world, can rival in beauty the streets of Rome.
+They are skirted by old grey palaces built thousands of years ago rather
+than centuries, decorated with the most splendid window frames, friezes,
+and colonnades. Every portal is a work of art; round every corner comes
+a new surprise, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> fountain with sea-horses and deities, a medi&aelig;val
+well, a moss-grown ruin of Imperial times, or a church with a tower
+whence bells have rung for centuries over Rome.</p>
+
+<p>And what a commotion there is in all these narrow streets! Here comes a
+peasant driving his asses weighed down with baskets of melons and
+grapes. There a boy draws a handcart piled up with apricots, oranges,
+and nuts. Here we see men and women from the Campagna outside Rome, clad
+in their national costume, in which dirty white and red predominate, the
+men with black slouched hats, the women with white kerchiefs over their
+hair. They are of dark complexion, but on the cheeks of the younger ones
+the roses appear through the bronze. The patricians, the noble Romans
+who roll by lazily in fine carriages, are much fairer, and indeed the
+ladies are often as pale as if they had just left the cloister or were
+ready for the bier. Boys run begging after the carriage, and poor
+mothers with small infants in their arms beseech only a small coin.
+There are many in Rome who live from hand to mouth. But all are
+cheerful, all are comely.</p>
+
+<p>Now we reach the bridge of St. Angelo over the muddy Tiber, and before
+us stands the massive round tower of the castle of St. Angelo, which the
+Emperor Hadrian built 1800 years ago as a mausoleum for himself. On the
+left is the piazza of St. Peter, which, with its surrounding buildings,
+its curved arcades, St. Peter's Church and the Vatican, is one of the
+grandest in the world. Between its constantly playing fountains has
+stood for 300 years an obelisk which the Emperor Caligula brought from
+Egypt to adorn Rome. It witnessed wonderful events long before the time
+of Moses. At its foot the children of Israel sang the melodies of their
+country during their servitude. It was a decoration of Nero's circus,
+and saw thousands of Christian martyrs torn to pieces by Gallic hounds
+and African lions; and still it lifts itself 80 feet into the air in a
+single block, untouched by time and the strife of men.</p>
+
+<p>At the north side of the piazza is the gate of the Vatican, where the
+Swiss Guards keep watch in antique red and yellow uniforms. Before us
+are the great steps of St. Peter's Church. We enter the grand portico
+and pass through one of the bronze doors into the church. All the
+dimensions are so immensely great that we stop in astonishment. Now our
+eyes lose themselves in sky-high vaulting, glittering with colour, and
+now we admire the columns and their capitals, pictures in mosaic or
+monuments in marble. Rome was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> built in a day, says the proverb, and
+St. Peter's Church alone was the work of 120 years and twenty Popes.
+Italy's foremost artists, including Raphael and Michael Angelo, put the
+best of their energies into the building of this temple, where is the
+tomb of the Apostle Peter. The great church contains a bronze statue of
+the Apostle Peter in a sitting position, and the right foot is worn and
+polished by the kisses of the faithful. High above in the vaulting over
+his head is to be seen the following inscription in Latin:&mdash;"Thou art
+Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and I will give unto
+thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."</p>
+
+<p>Paul has also a worthy memorial church in Rome, St. Paul's, which stands
+outside the walls. On the way thither we pass a small chapel where, it
+is said, Peter and Paul took leave of each other before they went to
+suffer martyrdom. On the fa&ccedil;ade the final words are inscribed. Paul
+said: "Peace be with you, thou foundation of the church and shepherd of
+Christ's lambs." And Peter: "Go forth in peace, thou preacher of the
+gospel, righteous guide to salvation." Paul's tomb is under the high
+altar of St. Paul's Church. In the interior of the church we notice
+portraits in mosaic of all the Popes from St. Peter to Leo XIII.</p>
+
+<p>Rome is inexhaustible. It has grown up during 2600 years, and each age
+has built on the ruins of the preceding. The city is piled up in strata
+like a geological deposit. What lies hidden at the bottom is scarcely
+known at all; that is from the time of the early kings of Rome. Then
+follows the city of the Republic, and upon it the Rome of the Emperors,
+the cosmopolitan city, where the C&aelig;sars from their palace on the
+Palatine stretched their sceptre over all the known world from foggy
+Britain and the dark forests of Germany to the burning deserts of
+Africa, from the mountains of Spain to Galilee and Jud&aelig;a. Many stately
+remains of this time of greatness are still preserved among the modern
+streets and houses. Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians have sacked
+Rome, monsters of the Imperial house have devastated the city to wipe
+out the remembrance of their predecessors and glorify themselves; but if
+Rome was not built in a day, so two thousand years have not sufficed to
+blot out its magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>Then follow new strata, the Christian age, the Middle Ages, and modern
+times, with their innumerable churches, monasteries, and massive solemn
+palaces. Christianity built on the ruins of paganism. Ancient and modern
+times are inextricably mixed. Up there on the Capitoline hill rides a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, in bronze. Look round, and there on the
+farther bank of the Tiber another horseman looks over the eternal city,
+the brave champion of young Italy's liberty, Garibaldi. You ride through
+a street lined with grand shops in new buildings, and in a couple of
+minutes you are at the Forum Romanum, the Roman market-place, the heart
+of the world empire, the square for markets, popular assemblies, and
+judicial courts, a marble hall in the open air. Over its flags, victors,
+accompanied by their comrades in arms and their prisoners, marched up to
+the Capitol to sacrifice in the temple of Jupiter, where now only a few
+pillars and ruins remain of all the splendour Julius C&aelig;sar and Augustus
+lavished upon it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate26.jpg"  width="550" height="341"
+ alt="PLATE XXVI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXVI. THE COLOSSEUM, ROME.</h4>
+
+<p>At one time we are like pilgrims in the fine Church of St. Peter; at
+another we are strolling under the triumphal arch of Titus, erected in
+remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year <span class="smcap">A.D.</span>
+70.</p>
+
+<p>The largest and grandest ruin in Rome is the Colosseum (Plate XXVI.), an
+amphitheatre which was built by the two Emperors, Vespasian and Titus,
+and which was finished eighty years after the birth of Christ. The
+outside walls are nearly 160 feet high. The tiers of benches, which
+could accommodate 85,000 spectators, were divided into four blocks, of
+which the outermost and highest was set apart for freedmen and slaves
+with their women. The tickets were of ivory, and indicated the different
+places so clearly that every one could easily find his way in the huge
+passages, colonnades, and staircases. The benches were covered with
+marble, and many statues of the same material adorned the upper walls of
+the amphitheatre. The spectacles were usually held in the daytime, and
+to abate the heat of the sun immense silken awnings were stretched over
+the arena and the auditorium. When the theatre was full, it presented a
+scene of dazzling splendour. In the best places sat senators in
+purple-bordered togas, the priests of the various temples, the Vestal
+virgins in black veils, warriors in gold-embroidered uniforms. There sat
+Roman citizens in white or coloured togas, bareheaded, beardless, and
+closely cropped, eagerly talking in a language as euphonious as French
+and Italian. All strangers who were staying in Rome were there,
+ambassadors from all the known countries of the world, statesmen,
+merchants, and travellers from Germany and Gaul, from Syria, Greece, and
+Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>A circus or theatre of our day is a toy compared to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Colosseum. The
+old Romans were masters in the arrangement of spectacles to satisfy the
+rude cravings of the masses. Woods and rocks were set up, in which
+bloody contests were fought, and where gladiators hunted lions and
+tigers with spears. The immense show-ground could be quickly filled with
+water, and on the artificial lake deadly sea battles were fought; and
+the bodies of the slain and drowned lying on the bottom were invisible
+when the water was dyed red with blood. The arena could be drained at
+once by ingenious channels, slaves dragged out the corpses through the
+gate of the Goddess of Death, and the theatre was made ready for the
+night performance. Then the arena was lighted up with huge torches and
+fires, and troops of Christians were crucified in long rows or thrown to
+the lions and bears. When a Roman emperor celebrated the thousandth
+anniversary of the founding of Rome, two thousand gladiators appeared in
+the Colosseum, thirty-two elephants, and numbers of wild animals.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the Colosseum begins one of the oldest and most famous
+roads ever trodden by the foot of man&mdash;the Appian Way. Here emperors and
+generals marched into Rome after successful wars; here their remains
+were carried out to be burned on pyres and deposited in urns in
+mausoleums and tombs. Here the Christians came out at night in silent
+ranks to consign the remains of their co-religionists, torn to pieces in
+the arena, to the catacombs of underground Rome. Here also St. Paul made
+his entry into Rome, escorted by troops of Christians, as recorded in
+the last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; and to-day we find on this
+road a small chapel which is called "Whither goest thou?" (<i>Quo vadis?</i>)
+at the point in the road where Peter saw his vision.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Pompeii</span></h3>
+
+<p>From Rome we go on to Naples, where to the east the regular volcanic
+cone of Vesuvius rears itself like a fire-breathing dragon over the bay,
+and where towns, villages, and white villas stand as thick on the shore
+as beads on a rosary. Our time is short; we drive rapidly through the
+lava-paved streets of Naples, and cannot feast our eyes long enough with
+the sight of these fine dark men in their motley dirty garments, and
+cannot hear enough of their melodious songs in honour of delightful
+Naples. Their warm affection for the famous city is quite natural, and
+one of their sayings, "See<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> Naples and die," implies that life is
+worthless to any one who has not been there.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img016.jpg"  width="550" height="454"
+ alt="MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA.</h4>
+
+<p>During our wanderings we come to the National Museum, and there we are
+lost to everything outside. There we forget the bustling life of the
+streets, the blue bay and the green gardens; for here we are in the
+presence of antiquity&mdash;an immense collection of artistic objects,
+statues, and paintings from Pompeii.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the sixth century <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> Pompeii was founded at the southern
+foot of Vesuvius, not far from the shore of the bay. About eighty years
+before our era Pompeii came under the rule of Rome, and during the
+succeeding 150 years it was changed into a genuine Roman town in all
+respects&mdash;in style of building, language, trade, and manner of life. A
+wall with towers enclosed this collection of streets and houses, and at
+night the eight town gates were closed and shut in 20,000 inhabitants.
+In its principal square, a place of popular assemblies and festivals,
+stood the Temple of Jupiter among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> porticoes, arcades, and rows of
+marble statues. In another square theatres were erected, and there also
+stood an old Greek temple.</p>
+
+<p>Many rich and eminent Romans loved Pompeii, and built costly villas in
+the town or its beautiful environs. One of these was the famous orator
+and author, Cicero, whose villa was situated near the north-eastern town
+gate. Again and again he went to Pompeii to rest after the noise and
+tumult of Rome, and the last time he is certainly known to have
+sojourned there was in the year 44 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>, shortly after the
+murder of the great C&aelig;sar.</p>
+
+<p>From the vicinity of Cicero's villa ran north-west the Street of Tombs,
+bordered with innumerable monuments like the Appian Way outside Rome.
+Some were quite simple, others resembled costly altars and temples, and
+all contained urns with the bones and ashes of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>Some streets were lined entirely with shops and stores. Most of the
+streets were straight and regular, some broad, others quite small; they
+were paved with flags of lava and had raised footpaths. Here and there
+stones were laid in a row across the street, whereon foot passengers
+could cross over dryshod after the heavy torrential rains, which then,
+as now, repeatedly converted these lanes into rivers and canals.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeii had several bath-houses, luxuriously and comfortably furnished,
+built of stone, dark and cool, and very attractive during the warm,
+sultry summer. In the <i>apodyterium</i> the visitor took off his clothes,
+and then repaired to the various rooms for warm air, warm baths, and
+cold baths. The walls in the <i>frigidarium</i> were decorated with paintings
+representing shady groves and dark forests; the vaulted roof was painted
+blue and strewn with stars, and through a small round opening the
+sunlight poured in. The basin itself was therefore like a small forest
+pool under the open sky. The bather was thoroughly scraped and shampooed
+by the attendants, and last of all smeared with odorous oils.</p>
+
+<p>The houses of wealthy citizens were decorated with exquisite taste and
+artistic skill. Towards the streets the houses showed little besides
+bare plain walls, for the old Romans did not like the private sanctity
+of their homes to be disturbed at all by the noise of the streets and
+the inquisitiveness of people on the public roads. So it is still, if
+not in Italy and Greece, at any rate over all the Asiatic East. Pomp and
+state were only displayed in the interior. There were seen statues and
+busts, flourishing flower-beds under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> open colonnades, and in the midst
+of the principal apartment, called the <i>atrium</i>, was a marble basin sunk
+in the mosaic pavement, and through a quadrangular opening in the roof
+above the sun and moon looked in and the rain often mingled its drops
+with the jets of the constantly playing fountain. When the master of the
+house gave an entertainment, tables were carried in by slaves, and the
+guests took their luxurious meal lying on long couches. They ate, and
+drank, and jested, listening from time to time to the tones of flutes,
+harps, and cymbals, and watched the lithe movements of dancers with eyes
+dull and heavy with wine.</p>
+
+<p>Happy days were spent in Pompeii in undisturbed peacefulness. People
+enjoyed the treasures of the forests, gardens, and sea, transacted their
+business or the duties of their posts, and assembled for discussion in
+the Forum, where the columns cast cool shadows over the stone flags. No
+one thought of Vesuvius. The volcano was supposed to have become for
+ever extinct ages ago. On the ancient lava-streams old trees grew, the
+most luscious grapes ripened on the flanks of the mountain, and from
+their descendants is pressed out at the present day a wine called
+Lachryma Christi. A legend relates that when the Saviour once went up
+Vesuvius and stood in mute astonishment at the beautiful landscape
+surrounding the Bay of Naples, He also wept from grief over this home of
+sin and vanity; and where His tears moistened the ground there grew up a
+tendril which has not its like on earth.</p>
+
+<p>The year before the burning of Rome, Pompeii was devastated by a fearful
+earthquake. The inhabitants soon took heart again, however, and built up
+their town better and more beautiful than ever. Sixteen years passed,
+and then the blow came, the most crushing and annihilating blow that
+ever befell any town since Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire
+from heaven.</p>
+
+<p>The elder Pliny, who left to the world an immortal work, was then in
+command of a Roman fleet anchored in the Bay of Naples, and lived with
+his family in a place not far from Pompeii. His adopted son, the younger
+Pliny, a youth of eighteen, spirited, quick, and talented, was also with
+him. Vesuvius broke into eruption on August 24 in the year 79, and in a
+few hours Pompeii and two other towns were buried under a downpour of
+pumice and ashes, and streams of lava and mud. Among the victims was the
+elder Pliny.</p>
+
+
+<p>Several years afterwards, the Roman historian Tacitus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> wrote to the
+younger Pliny and asked him for information about the manner of his
+uncle's death. The two letters containing answers to this question are
+still extant. Pliny describes how his uncle was suffocated by ashes and
+sulphurous vapour on the shore. He had himself seen flames of fire shoot
+up out of the crater, which also vomited forth a black cloud spreading
+out above like the crown of a pine-tree. He went out with his mother to
+the forecourt of the house, but when the ground trembled and the air
+became full of ashes they hurried off, followed by a crowd of people.
+His mother, who was old, begged him to save himself by rapid flight, but
+he would not desert her. And he writes: "I looked round; a thick smoky
+darkness rolled threateningly over us from behind; it spread over the
+earth like an advancing flood and followed us. 'Let us move to one side
+while we can see,' I said,' so that we may not fall down on the road and
+be trampled down in the darkness by those behind.' We had scarcely got
+out of the crowd when we were involved in darkness, not such as when
+there is no moon or the sky is overcast, but such as prevails in a
+closed room when the lights are out." And he tells how the fugitives
+tied cushions over their heads so as not to be bruised by falling
+stones, and how they had repeatedly to shake off the ashes lest they
+should be weighed down by them. He was quite composed himself, and
+thought that the whole world was passing away.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate27.jpg"  width="550" height="361"
+ alt="PLATE XXVII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXVII. POMPEII.<br />
+The Forum, with Vesuvius in the distance.</h4>
+
+<p>By this eruption Pompeii was buried under a layer of pumice and ashes 20
+feet thick. For a long period of years the inhabitants of the
+neighbourhood came hither and digged up with their spades one thing or
+another, but then Pompeii sank into the night of oblivion and slumbered
+under the earth for fifteen hundred years. At last the town was
+discovered again, and excavations were commenced. Country houses,
+fields, and clumps of mulberry trees had sprung up on the deep bed of
+ashes. Not till fifty years ago did modern investigation take Pompeii
+seriously in hand, and now more than half the town is laid bare.
+Strangers can ride unhindered through the streets, look into the shops
+and baths, and admire the fine wall-paintings in the palaces of the
+great. The columns of Jupiter's temple, so long buried in complete
+darkness, are again lighted by the sun, and cast their shadows as of old
+over the stone flags of the Forum (Plate XXVII.). The Street of Tombs is
+exposed, and young cypresses grow up among the monuments. The dead,
+which were already buried when Vesuvius scattered its ashes over them,
+listen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> now to strange footsteps on the road. But the unfortunates who
+were buried alive under the shower of ashes have decayed and turned to
+dust. And yet they may still be seen in the museums, with distorted
+limbs and their faces to the ground. We see them in the position they
+assumed when they fell and the ashes were bedded close to their sides.
+Thus they remained lying for eighteen hundred years, imbedded as in a
+mould. Their bodies returned to the earth, but the empty space remained.
+By pouring plaster into these forms, life-like figures of persons have
+been reproduced just as they were when death overtook them. Here lies a
+woman who fell outside her house and grasped with convulsive fingers a
+bag full of gold and silver. Here is a man resting his heavy head on his
+elbow, and here a dog which has curled itself up before it was at last
+suffocated.</p>
+
+<p>So the sleeping town has wakened to life again, and the dead have
+returned from the kingdom of shadows. The excavated pictures,
+sculptures, and art treasures of Pompeii, together with the whole
+arrangement of the town, the style of building and the inscriptions,
+have thrown an unexpected light on the life of antiquity. We can even
+read the passing conceits scribbled on the walls. At one corner a house
+is offered for hire from July I&mdash;"intending tenants should apply to the
+slave Primus." On another a jester advises an acquaintance: "Go and hang
+thyself." A citizen writes of a friend: "I have heard with sorrow that
+thou art dead&mdash;so adieu!" Another wall bears the following warning:
+"This is no place for idlers; go away, good-for-nothing." It is curious
+to read the names Sodom and Gomorrah, evidently scribbled by a Jew. Low
+down on the walls small schoolboys have practised writing the Greek
+alphabet, showing that Greek was included in their curriculum. And once
+were found written in charcoal, and only partly legible, the words,
+"Enjoy the fire, Christian," a scoff at the martyrs who, soaked in tar,
+were burned as torches in Nero's gardens.</p>
+
+<p>From Naples we take a steamer for Egypt. After crossing the Bay of
+Naples we have to starboard the charming island of Capri. On its
+northern side you may swim or row in a shallow boat, under an arch of
+rock three feet high, into the Blue Grotto. Inside is a quiet
+crystal-clear sheet of water which extends more than 50 yards into the
+hill. The roof over its mirror is more than 160 feet high. The only
+light comes in through the small entrance. Owing to the reflections of
+the sky and water, everything in the grotto is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> blue, and stalactites
+hang like icicles from the roof and walls. If you dip an oar or your
+hand into the water it shines white as silver, owing to the reflection
+from the sandy bottom. It is possible to enter only in calm weather, or
+the boat would be stoved in against the rocky archway.</p>
+
+<p>On a promontory to larboard appear the white houses and olive gardens of
+beautiful Sorrento, and then we steer out into the turquoise blue waters
+of the Tyrrhenian Sea. To the south the rocky island of Stromboli rises
+from the waves with its ever-burning volcano, like a beacon. In the
+Straits of Messina we skirt the shores of Sicily and Calabria, which
+have so frequently suffered from terrible earthquakes. At last we are
+out in the wide, open Mediterranean. Italy sinks below the horizon
+behind us, and we steam eastward to Alexandria, the port of the land of
+the Pharaohs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<h2>AFRICA</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">General Gordon</span></h3>
+
+<p>Seldom has the whole civilised world been so convulsed, so overwhelmed
+with sorrow, at the death of one man as it was when in January, 1885,
+the news flashed along the telegraph wires that Khartum had fallen, and
+that Gordon was dead.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon was of Scottish extraction, but was born in one of the suburbs of
+London in the year 1833, and as a young lieutenant of engineers heard
+the thunders of war below the walls of Sebastopol. As a major of thirty
+years of age he commanded the Imperial army in China, and suppressed the
+furious insurrection which raged in the provinces around the Blue River.
+"The Ever-Victorious Army" would have come to grief without a strong and
+practical leader, but in Gordon's hands it soon deserved its name. He
+made his plans quickly and clearly, brought his troops with wonderful
+rapidity to the most vulnerable points in the enemy's position, and
+dealt his blows with crushing force. In a year and a half he had cleared
+China of insurgents and restored peace.</p>
+
+<p>After several years of service at home and other wanderings in Eastern
+lands, Gordon accepted in 1874 an invitation to enter into the service
+of the Khedive of Egypt. The Khedive Ismail was a strong man with
+far-reaching projects. He wished to extend his dominion as far as the
+great lakes where the Nile takes its rise, and Gordon was to rule over a
+province named after the equator.</p>
+
+<p><a name="SUDAN" id="SUDAN"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img017.jpg"  width="447" height="550"
+ alt="MAP OF NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>MAP OF NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA, SHOWING EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Immediately to the south of Cairo begins a plateau which stretches from
+north to south through almost the whole continent. In Abyssinia it
+attains to a considerable height, and near the equator rises into the
+loftiest summits of Africa. These mountains screen off the rain from
+Egypt and large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> areas of the Sudan. The masses of vapour which are
+carried over Abyssinia in summer by the monsoon are precipitated as rain
+in these mountain tracts, and consequently the wind is dry when it
+reaches Nubia and Egypt; while the moisture which rises from the warm
+ocean on the east, and is borne north-westwards by the constant
+trade-wind, is converted into water during eight months of the year
+among the mountains on the equator.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate28.jpg"  width="550" height="348"
+ alt="PLATE XXVIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXVIII. THE GREAT PYRAMIDS AT GHIZEH.</h4>
+
+<p>The rain which falls on the mountains of Abyssinia gives rise to the
+Atbara and Blue Nile, which produce abundant floods in the Nile during
+autumn; and during the rest of the year the White Nile, which comes from
+the great lakes on the equator, provides for the irrigation of Egypt.
+Thus the country is able to dispense with rain, and innumerable canals
+convey water to all parts of the Nile valley. Many kinds of grain are
+cultivated&mdash;wheat, maize, barley, rice, and durra (a kind of millet);
+vegetables, beans, and peas thrive, numerous date palms suck up their
+sap from the heavy, sodden silt on the river's banks, and sugar-cane and
+cotton are spreading more and more. Seen at a height from a balloon, the
+fields, palms, and fruit-trees would appear as a green belt along the
+river, while the rest of the country would look yellow and grey, for it
+is nothing but a dry, sandy desert.</p>
+
+<p>The Nile, then, is everything to Egypt, the condition of its existence,
+its father and mother, the source of the wealth by which the country has
+subsisted since the most remote antiquity. Now that we are about to
+follow Gordon along the Nile to the equator, we must not forget that we
+are passing through an ancient land. The first king of which there are
+records lived 3200 years before the Christian era, and the largest of
+the Great Pyramids at Ghizeh is 4600 years old (Plate XXVIII.). Its
+funeral crypt is cut out of the solid rock, and in it still stands the
+red granite sarcophagus of Cheops. Two million three hundred thousand
+dressed blocks, each measuring 40 cubic feet, were used in the
+construction of this memorial over a perishable king, and the pyramid is
+reckoned to be the largest edifice ever built by human hands. The
+buildings and works of the present time are nothing compared to it. Only
+the Great Wall of China can vie with it, and this is ruined and to a
+large extent obliterated, while the pyramid of Cheops still stands,
+scorched by the sun, or sharply defined in the moonlight, or dimly
+visible as a mysterious apparition in the dark, warm night.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve hundred miles south of the capital of modern Egypt the desert
+comes to an end, and the surface is covered by vast marshes and beds of
+waving reeds. This is the Sudan, "the Land of the Blacks." At the point
+where the White and Blue Niles mingle their waters lay the only town in
+the Sudan, Khartum, whither trade-routes converged from all directions,
+and where goods changed hands. Here were brought wares which never
+failed to find purchasers. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> valuable feathers plucked from the
+swift-footed ostrich were needed to decorate the hats of European
+ladies; the wild elephants, larger and more powerful than their Indian
+congeners, were shot or caught in pitfalls in the woods for the sake of
+their precious ivory. But the most esteemed of all the wares that passed
+through Khartum were slaves&mdash;"black ivory," as they were called by their
+heartless Arab torturers. Elephants' tusks are heavy, and cannot be
+transported on horses or oxen from the depths of the forest, for draught
+animals are killed by the sting of the poisonous tsetse fly. Therefore
+the tusks had to be carried by men, and when these had finished their
+task they were themselves sold into Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. The
+forests and deserts were not inexhaustible; ivory and ostrich feathers
+might be worked out, but there would always be negroes.</p>
+
+
+<p>When the Khedive Ismail invited Gordon to enter his service as governor
+of the new province not far from the sources of the Nile, Gordon
+accepted the post in the hope that he would be able to suppress
+slave-trading, or at least to check the hunting of black men and women.
+He left Cairo and travelled by the Red Sea to Suakin, rode to Berber on
+the Nile, and was received with much pomp and ceremony by the
+Governor-General at Khartum. Here he heard that the Nile was navigable
+for 900 miles southwards, and therefore he could continue his journey
+without delay.</p>
+
+<p>The Nile afforded an excellent passage for Gordon's small steamboat. But
+the Nile can also place an insurmountable obstacle in the traveller's
+way. After the rainy season the White Nile overflows its banks, forming
+an inextricable labyrinth of side branches, lakes, and marshes. The
+country lies under water for miles around. The waterway between
+impenetrable beds of reeds and papyrus is often as narrow as a lane. The
+roots of large plants are loosened from the mud at the bottom, and are
+compacted with stems and mud into large sheets which are driven
+northwards by the rushing water. They are caught fast in small openings
+and sudden bends, and other islets of vegetation are piled up against
+them. Thus the river course is blocked, and above these natural dams the
+water forms lakes. Such banks of drifting or arrested and decaying
+vegetation are called <i>sudd</i>, and the more it rains the greater are the
+quantities that come down. At length the <i>sudd</i> becomes soft and yields
+to the pressure of the water, and then the Nile is navigable again.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's small steamer glides gently up the river. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> advances deeper
+and deeper into a world unknown to him, and around him seethes tropical
+Africa. On the banks papyrus stems wave their plumes above the reeds. It
+was from the pith of papyrus stems that the old Egyptians made a kind of
+paper on which they wrote their chronicles. Here and there swarthy
+natives are seen between the reed beds, and sometimes noisy troops of
+wandering monkeys gaze at the boat. The hippopotami look like floating
+islands, but show themselves only at night, wallowing in the shallow
+water. A little beyond the luxuriant vegetation of the banks extends the
+boundless grassland with its abundant animal life and thin scattered
+clumps of trees.</p>
+
+<p>After a journey of four days the steamer glided past an island. There
+dwelt in a grotto a dervish or mendicant monk named Mohamed Ahmed, who
+ten years later was to be Gordon's murderer.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of April Gordon and his companions were in Gondokoro, a
+small place which now stands on the boundary between the Sudan and
+British East Africa, and here he took charge of his Equatorial Province.
+He forced the Egyptian soldiers, who garrisoned this and one or two
+other posts on the Nile and robbed on their own account, to plough and
+plant; he arrested all slave-hunters within reach and freed the slaves;
+he succoured the poor, protected the helpless, and sent durra to the
+hungry.</p>
+
+<p>The heat was excessive, and Gordon and his staff were pestered by crowds
+of gnats. It was still worse in September when the rain poured down and
+large tracts were converted into swamp, from which dangerous miasma was
+exhaled. In a month seven of Gordon's eight officers had died of fever,
+but he himself continued his work undismayed, and wrote in his diary:
+"God willing, I shall do much in this country."</p>
+
+<p>He soon perceived that the best districts of his province lay around the
+large lakes in the south. But the Equatorial Province was too far away
+from Egypt. It hung as it were on a long string, the Nile, and from the
+largest lake, the Victoria Nyanza, the distance to Cairo in a straight
+line was nearly 2200 miles. Much shorter was the route to Mombasa on the
+east coast, so Gordon advised the Khedive to occupy Mombasa and open a
+road to the Victoria Nyanza. Then it would be easier to contend against
+the slave-trade. He described the condition of the Sudan in forcible
+letters, and into the Khedive's ears were dinned truths such as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+never heard from his servile pashas. He would first establish steam
+communication with the lakes, and a number of boats which could be taken
+to pieces were on the way to his province.</p>
+
+<p>The boats came up at the time when the Nile began to rise after rain,
+and then his plan was to advance farther southwards. The natives were
+opposed to this progress and feared the supremacy of Egypt, and
+therefore they tried to prevent the advance of the "White Pasha," who
+was loath to employ arms against them. All they wanted was to be left in
+peace in their grasslands and forests; and when now an intruder, whose
+aims they did not understand, penetrated into their country, they
+endeavoured whenever they could to bar his way, so that he was obliged,
+much against his will, to resort to force.</p>
+
+<p>After all kinds of troubles and difficulties he reached at last the
+northernmost of the Nile lakes, the Albert Nyanza, and it was a great
+feat to have brought a steamer even thus far. He did not succeed in
+reaching the Victoria Nyanza, for the ruler of the country between the
+lakes had resolved to oppose with all his power any intruder, were he
+white man or Arab.</p>
+
+<p>For three years Gordon was at work on the Upper Nile in the
+neighbourhood of the equator. During the next three years we find him in
+the deserts of the Sudan farther north. He was Governor-General of the
+whole of the Egyptian Sudan, and Khartum was his capital. His province
+was 1200 miles broad, from the Red Sea to the Sahara, and as long from
+north to south. The whole country was in a state of unrest. The Khedive
+had carried on an unsuccessful war against the Christian King of
+Abyssinia, and the Mohammedan states of Kordofan and Darfur were in
+revolt against Egypt. There half-savage Beduin tribes were scattered
+about over the deserts, and there some of the worst slave-dealers had
+their haunts.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1877, Gordon mounted his swift dromedary to set out on a journey
+of 2000 miles. He wished to visit the villages and camps of the
+slave-dealers in distant Darfur. The hot season had set in. When the sun
+stood at its meridian altitude the shadow of the dromedary disappeared
+beneath the animal. A dreary desert extended on all sides,
+greyish-yellow, dusty, and dry.</p>
+
+<p>The White Pasha skims over the desert mile after mile. He has the finest
+dromedary in all the land, an animal that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> became famous throughout the
+Sudan. Some hundreds of Egyptian troopers follow him, but he leaves them
+all far behind and only a guide keeps up with him. He rushes over the
+desert like the wind, and suddenly and unexpectedly draws rein at the
+gates of an oasis before the guard can shoulder their arms. After giving
+his orders in the name of the Khedive, he disappears as mysteriously, no
+one knows whither. At another oasis, perhaps 300 miles away, the chief
+has been warned of his coming and has therefore posted watchmen to look
+out for him. Round about lies the desert, sandy and yellow, with a
+surface as level as a sea, where the approach of the White Pasha can be
+seen from a long distance. The watchman announces that two black specks
+are visible in the distance, which, it is supposed, are the Pasha's
+outriders, and some hours must pass before he arrives with his troops.
+The two specks grow larger and come rapidly nearer. The dromedaries
+swing their long legs over the ground, seeming to fly on invisible
+wings. Now the men have come to the margin of the oasis. The watchers
+can hardly believe their eyes. One of the riders wears the
+gold-embroidered uniform of an Egyptian pasha. Never had the Sudan seen
+a Governor-General travelling in this way&mdash;without flags and noisy
+music, and stripped of all the display appropriate to his rank.</p>
+
+<p>And as he came so he flew away again, mysteriously and incomprehensibly.
+Again and again he lost his armed force. In some districts he closed the
+paths leading to wells in order to bring the refractory tribes to
+submission. With inflexible severity he broke the power of the chiefs
+who still carried on trade in slaves. He freed numbers of black captives
+and drilled them as soldiers, for his own fighting men were the scum of
+Egypt and Syria. With a handful of men he dealt his blows at the weakest
+points of the enemy's defence and thus always gained the victory. In
+four months he suppressed the revolt and checked the power of the
+slave-dealers.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon had now cleared all the west of the Sudan, and only Dara in
+southern Darfur remained to be dealt with. There the most powerful
+slave-dealers had collected to offer resistance. He came down one day
+like lightning into their camp. They might easily have killed him&mdash;it
+was he who had ruined their trade in black ivory. He went unconcernedly
+among the tents, and they did not dare to touch him. And when his own
+troops arrived, he summoned all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> the chiefs to his tent and laid his
+conditions before them. They were to lay down their arms and be off each
+to his own home; and one by one they obeyed and went away without a
+word.</p>
+
+<p>But the slave-trade was a weed too deeply rooted in the soil to be
+eradicated in a single day, and the revolt and troubles which constantly
+arose out of this horrible traffic gave Gordon no peace. He left the
+Sudan at the end of 1879, and the next two years were occupied with work
+in India, China, Mauritius, and South Africa. Meanwhile remarkable
+events had occurred in Egypt. Great Britain had sent vessels and troops
+to the land of the Khedive, and had taken over the command and the
+responsibility. The chief of the dervishes, Mohamed Ahmed, whom we
+remember on the small island in the Nile, proclaimed that he was chosen
+by God to relieve the oppressed, that he was the Mahdi or Messiah of
+Islam. Discontent prevailed among the Mohammedans throughout the Sudan,
+for Egypt had at length prohibited the slave-trade, and the Mahdi
+collected all the discontented people and tribes under his banner. His
+aim was to throw off the yoke of Egypt. Proud and arrogant, he sent
+despatches through the whole of the Sudan, and his summons to a holy war
+flew like a prairie fire over North Africa.</p>
+
+<p>The British Government, which was now responsible for Egypt, was in a
+difficulty. The Sudan must either be conquered or evacuated, for the
+Egyptian garrisons were still at Khartum and at several places even down
+to the equator. The Government decided on evacuation, and Gordon was
+sent to perform the task of withdrawing all the garrisons. He accepted
+the mission and set out immediately for Cairo.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Gordon began his last journey up the Nile. At Korosko, just at the
+northern end of the great S-shaped bend of the Nile, he mounted his
+dromedary and followed the narrow winding path which has been worn out
+during thousands of years through the dry hollows of the Nubian desert,
+over scorched and weathered volcanic knolls and through dunes of
+suffocating sand.</p>
+
+<p>On February 18, 1884, Gordon, for the second time Governor-General of
+the Sudan, made his entry into Khartum, where he took up his quarters in
+his old palace. Cruelty and injustice had again sprung up during the
+years he had been absent. He opened the gates of the overcrowded gaols,
+and the prisoners were released and their fetters removed. All accounts
+of unpaid taxes were burned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> in front of the palace. All implements of
+punishment and torture were broken to pieces and thrown into the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>Then began the evacuation of the town. As many as 3000 women and
+children were sent to Abu Hamed and through the desert to Korosko. They
+got through without danger and were saved. Where women and children
+could travel, it would have been easy to lead troops from Egypt. Instead
+of this, however, England despatched an expedition to Suakin to secure
+an outlet on the Red Sea, whereupon the rebellious tribes of the Sudan
+were roused to fury, believing that the white men intended to come and
+take their country. Consequently they rallied all the more resolutely
+round the Mahdi, and their hatred extended to the dreaded Gordon and the
+few Europeans with him in Khartum.</p>
+
+<p>As long as the telegraph line was still available to Cairo, Gordon kept
+the authorities informed of the state of affairs and pointed out what
+should be done to ensure success. He asked especially that the road from
+Berber to Suakin should be held, for from this line also the Sudan could
+be controlled, but his advice was not attended to and Berber was
+eventually surrounded by the Mahdi's troops and captured. Several chiefs
+north and north-east of Khartum, who had previously been friendly
+disposed, now joined the Mahdi. News of fresh desertions came constantly
+to Khartum, and even in the town itself Gordon was surrounded by
+traitors. On March 10 the telegraph line was cut and then followed six
+months of silence, during which the world learned little or nothing of
+the brave soldier in the heart of Africa. On March 11 Arab war parties
+appeared on the bank of the Blue Nile, for the Mahdi was drawing his net
+ever closer round the unfortunate town.</p>
+
+<p>During the preceding years the Egyptian Government had caused Khartum to
+be fortified after a fashion, and during the earlier months of the siege
+Gordon worked day and night to strengthen the defences. His soldiers
+threw up earthern ramparts round the town, a network of wire
+entanglements was set up, and mines were laid at places where an assault
+might be expected. At the end of April the town was entirely blockaded,
+and only the river route to the north was still open. At the beginning
+of May the Arabs crossed the Blue Nile, suffering great losses from
+exploding mines and the guns of the town. In the early part of September
+there were still provisions for three months, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> the Arabs, perceiving
+that they could not take the town by storm from the White Pasha,
+resolved to starve it out.</p>
+
+<p>The Nile was now at its highest, and huge grey turbid volumes of water
+hurried northwards. Now was the only chance for a small steamer to try
+to get to Dongola, where it would be in safety. On the night of
+September 9 a small steamer was made ready for starting, and Gordon's
+only English comrades, Colonel Stewart and Mr. Power, went on board,
+together with the French Consul, a number of Greeks, and fifty soldiers.
+They took with them accounts of the siege, correspondence, lists and
+details about provisions, ammunition, arms, men, and plans of defence,
+and everything else of particular value. Silently the steamer moved off
+from the bank, and when day dawned Gordon was alone. Alas, the little
+steamer never reached Dongola, for it was wrecked immediately below Abu
+Hamed. Every soul on board was murdered, and all papers of value fell
+into the hands of the Mahdi. On the other hand, Gordon's diary from
+September 10 to December 14, 1884, is still extant, and is wonderful
+reading.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the British Government had at last decided to send an
+expedition to relieve Khartum. River boats were built in great numbers,
+troops were equipped for the field, the famous general, Lord Wolseley,
+was in command, and by the middle of September the first infantry
+battalion was up at Dongola on the northern half of the great S of the
+Nile. But then the steamers had only just arrived at Alexandria, and had
+to be taken up the Nile and tediously dragged through the cataracts,
+while the desert column which was to make the final advance on Khartum
+had not yet left England. A long time would be required to get
+everything ready.</p>
+
+<p>In Khartum comparative quiet as yet prevailed. The dervishes bided their
+time patiently, encamping barely six miles from the outworks. Shots were
+exchanged only at a distance. On September 21 Gordon learned by a
+messenger that the relief expedition was on the way, and ten days later
+he sent his steamboats northwards to meet it and to hasten the
+forwarding of troops. But thereby he lost half of his own power of
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>On October 21 the Mahdi himself arrived in the camp outside Khartum, and
+on the following day sent Gordon convincing proofs that Stewart's
+steamboat had sunk and that all on board had been slain. He added a list
+of all the journals and documents found on board. From these the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> Mahdi
+had learned almost to a day how long Khartum could hold out, the
+strength of the garrison, the scheme of defence, where the batteries
+stood and how long the ammunition would last. This was a terrible blow
+to the lonely soldier, but it did not break down his courage. The death
+of Stewart and his companions grieved him inexpressibly, but he sent an
+answer to the Mahdi that if 20,000 boats had been taken it would be all
+the same to him&mdash;"I am here like iron."</p>
+
+<p>In the relief expedition was a major named Kitchener, who was afterwards
+to become very famous. He tried to get into Khartum in disguise to carry
+information to Gordon, and he did succeed in sending him a letter with
+the news that the relieving force would set out from Dongola on November
+1. When the letter reached Gordon the corps had been two days on the
+march, but the distance from Dongola to Khartum is 280 miles in a
+straight line.</p>
+
+<p>By November 22 Gordon had lost nearly 1900 of his fighting men, but his
+diary shows that he was still hopeful. On December 10 there were still
+provisions for fifteen days. The entries in the diary now become
+shorter, and repeatedly speak of fugitives and deserters, and of the
+diminishing store of provisions. On December 14 Gordon had a last
+opportunity of sending news from Khartum, and the diary which the
+messenger took with him closes with these words: "I have done the best
+for the honour of our country. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>After the sending-off of the diary impenetrable darkness hides the
+occurrences of the last weeks in Khartum. One or two circumstances,
+however, were made known by deserters. During the forty days during
+which the town held out after December 14, 15,000 townspeople were sent
+over to the Mahdi's camp, and only 14,000 civilians and soldiers were
+left in the doomed city. Omdurman fell, and the Mahdi's troops pressed
+every day more closely on all sides. Actual starvation began, and rats
+and mice, hides and leather were eaten, and palms stripped to obtain the
+soft fibres inside. But the White Pasha rejected all proposals to
+surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the relief columns struggled southwards and on January 20,
+1885, reached Metemma, only a hundred miles from Khartum. There they
+fell in with Gordon's boats, which had lain waiting in vain for four
+months, and four days later two of the boats started for Khartum.</p>
+
+<p>Halfway they had to pass up the sixth cataract, there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> losing two days
+more, and not till the 28th had they left the rapids behind them. The
+noonday sun was shining brightly when the English soldiers and their
+officers saw Khartum straight in front of them on the point between the
+White and Blue Niles. All glasses were turned on the tall palace; every
+one was in the greatest excitement and dared hardly breathe, much less
+speak. There stood Gordon's palace, but no flag waved from the roof.</p>
+
+<p>The boats go on, but no shouts of gladness greet their crews as
+long-looked-for rescuers. When they are within range the dervishes open
+fire, and wild troops intoxicated with victory gather on the bank.
+Khartum is in the hands of the Mahdi, and help has come 48 hours too
+late.</p>
+
+<p>Two days before, January 26, the dervishes, furious at their continual
+losses and the obstinate resistance of the town, had flocked together
+for a final assault. The attack was made during the darkest hour of the
+night, after the moon had set. The defenders were worn out and rendered
+indifferent by the pangs of hunger. The dervishes rushed into the town,
+filling the streets and lanes with their savage howling. It was then
+that Gordon gathered together his twenty remaining faithful soldiers and
+servants, and dashed sword in hand out of the palace. It was growing
+light in the east, and the outlines of bushes and thickets on the Blue
+Nile were becoming clear. The small party took their way across an open
+square to the Austrian Mission church, which had previously been put in
+order for a last refuge. On the way they were met by a crowd of
+dervishes and were killed to the last man. Foremost among the slain was
+Gordon.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Conquest of the Sudan</span></h3>
+
+<p>The Mahdi did not long enjoy the fruits of his victory, for he died five
+months to the day after the fall of Khartum. His successor, Abdullah,
+bore the title of Khalifa, and for thirteen years was a scourge to the
+unfortunate land. The tribes of the Sudan, tired of the oppression of
+Egypt, had welcomed the Mahdi as a deliverer, but they had only
+exchanged Turkish pashas for a tyrant unmatched in cruelty and
+shamelessness. Abdullah plundered and exhausted the country, but with
+the money and agricultural produce he extorted from the people he was
+able to maintain a splendid army always ready for the field. His capital
+was Omdurman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> where the Mahdi was buried under a dome; but he did not
+fortify the town, for long before any Christian dogs could advance so
+far their bones would whiten in the sands of Nubia.</p>
+
+<p>Yet after many years the hour of vengeance was at hand. The British
+Government had taken the pacification of the Sudan in hand, and in 1898
+an army composed of British and Egyptian troops was advancing quietly
+and surely up the Nile. There was no need to hurry, and every step was
+made with prudence and consideration. The leader, General Kitchener, the
+last man to send a letter to Gordon, made his plans with such foresight
+and skill that he could calculate two years in advance almost the very
+day when Khartum and Omdurman would be in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>At the Atbara, the great tributary of the Nile which flows down from the
+mountains of Abyssinia, Kitchener inflicted his first great defeat on
+the Khalifa's army in a bloody battle. From Atbara the troops pushed on
+to Metemma without further fighting, and on August 28 they were only
+four days' march from Khartum.</p>
+
+<p>The green of acacia and mimosa is now conspicuous on the banks of the
+river, which is very high. The grey gunboats pass slowly up the Nile in
+the blazing sun, and the troops push on as steadily and as surely as
+they have from the start of the expedition. Small parties of mounted
+dervishes are seen in the far distance. The country becomes more
+diversified, and the route runs through clumps of bushes and between
+hillocks. A short distance in front are seen white tents, flags, and
+horsemen, and the roll of drums is heard. It is the Khalifa calling his
+men to the fight; but at the last moment the position is abandoned, the
+dervishes retire, and Kitchener's army continues its march.</p>
+
+<p>At length the vaulted dome over the Mahdi's grave beside the Nile bank
+rises above the southern horizon, and round about it are perceived the
+mud houses and walls of Omdurman. Between the town and the attacking
+army stretches a level sandy plain scantily clothed with yellow grass;
+and here took place a battle which will not be forgotten for centuries
+throughout the Sudan.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of September 2, Kitchener's forces are drawn up in order
+of battle. Single horsemen emerge from the dust on the hillocks,
+increase in number, and then come in clouds like locusts&mdash;an army of
+50,000 dervishes. Their fanatical war-cry rises up to heaven, gathers
+strength, grows louder, and rolls along like a storm wind coming in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+from the sea. They charge at a furious pace in an unbroken line, and it
+looks as though they would ride like a crushing avalanche right over the
+enemy. But the moment they come within range fire issues from thousands
+of rifles, and the dervishes find themselves in a perfect hail of
+bullets. Their ranks are thinned, but they check their course only for a
+moment, and ride on in blind fury and with a bravery which only
+religious conviction can inspire. The English machine guns scatter their
+death-bolts so rapidly that a continuous roll of thunder is heard, and
+the dervishes fall in heaps like ripe corn before the scythe. The fallen
+ranks are constantly replaced by fresh reinforcements, but at last the
+dervishes have had enough and beat a retreat. At once Kitchener pressed
+on to Omdurman, but the bloody day is not yet at an end. The dervish
+horsemen rally yet once more. The Khalifa's standard is planted in the
+ground on a mound, and beside it the Prophet's green banner calls the
+faithful together for a last desperate struggle. The English and their
+Egyptian allies fight with admirable courage, and the dervishes strike
+with a bravery and contempt of death to which no words can do justice.
+Under the holy banner a detachment advances into the fire, wavers, is
+mown down, and falls, and almost before the smoke of the powder has
+cleared away, another presses forward on the track of the slain, only to
+meet the same fate and join their comrades in the happy hunting-grounds
+of eternity.</p>
+
+<p>At length the day was ended and the Khalifa's army annihilated&mdash;11,000
+killed, 16,000 wounded, and 4000 prisoners! The Khalifa himself escaped.
+His harem and servants deserted him, and he who in the morning had been
+absolute ruler over an immense kingdom, wandered about in the woods like
+an outlaw. He fled to the south-west and succeeded in collecting another
+army, which was completely cut to pieces the following year in a battle
+in which he himself also perished.</p>
+
+<p>When all was quiet in Omdurman, the victors had a solemn duty to fulfil.
+Thirteen and a half years had passed since the death of Gordon, and at
+last the obsequies of the hero were to be celebrated in a fitting
+manner. In the court in front of Gordon's palace the troops are drawn up
+on three sides of a square, and on the fourth stands the victor,
+surrounded by generals of divisions and brigades and by his staff.
+Kitchener raises his hand, and in a moment the Union Jack rises to the
+top of the flagstaff on the palace, while a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> thundering salute from the
+gunboats greets the new colours and the Guards' band plays the National
+Anthem. Another sign, and the flag of Egypt goes up beside the Union
+Jack and the Khedive's hymn is played. Then the belated funeral service
+is impressively conducted by four clergymen of different Christian
+denominations, the Sudanese band plays a hymn which Gordon loved, and
+lastly Kitchener is saluted with the greatest enthusiasm by the officers
+and men under his command.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Ostriches</span></h3>
+
+<p>Now all is changed in the Sudan. A railway runs from the Nile delta up
+to Khartum, and another connects Berber with the Red Sea. In Khartum
+there are schools, hospitals, churches, and other public buildings, and
+one can travel safely by steamboat up to the great lakes. Gordon's
+scheme to connect the Victoria Nyanza with Mombasa on the coast has been
+carried out, and a railway has been constructed through British East
+Africa. White men have advanced from all sides deeper and deeper into
+the Black Continent, and have made themselves masters of almost all
+Africa. Wild animals have suffered by this intrusion into their formerly
+peaceful domain, and their numbers have been diminished by the chase. In
+some districts game has quite disappeared, the animals having sought
+remoter regions where they can live undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>In the Sahara, in the Libyan desert, on the open grasslands along the
+Upper Nile, on the veldt of South Africa, wherever the country is open
+and free, lives the ostrich; but it does not occur in the worst desert
+tracts, which it crosses only in case of necessity, for it likes to have
+water always near at hand.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the ostrich is no doubt familiar. It is powerfully
+built; its long bare neck supports a small flattened head with large
+bright eyes; the long legs rest on two toes; and the wings are so small
+that the animal is always restricted to the surface of the ground,
+where, however, it can move with remarkable swiftness. The valuable
+feathers grow on the wings. The ostrich attains a height of eight feet,
+and when full grown may weigh as much as 165 pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Ostriches live in small flocks of only five or six birds. They feed in
+the morning, chiefly on plants, but they also devour small animals and
+reptiles. By midday their stomachs are full, and they rest or play,
+leaping in circles over the sand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> regardless of the blazing sun or the
+heated ground. Then they drink and wander about eating in the afternoon.
+In the evening they seek their roosting-places.</p>
+
+<p>Sight is the ostrich's acutest sense, but its scent and hearing are also
+sharp. When it is pursued, it darts off with fluttering wings, taking
+steps ten or twelve feet long. It is always on the look-out for danger,
+and the zebra likes to keep near it to avail itself of the bird's
+watchfulness. In North Africa the Arabs hunt the ostrich on swift horses
+or running dromedaries. Two or three horsemen follow a male, which after
+an hour's course is tired out, and gradually relaxes its pace. The
+horses also are tired after such a chase, but one of the riders urges on
+his steed to a last spurt, rushes past the ostrich, and hits it on the
+head so that it falls to the ground. The bird is then skinned, the skin
+being turned inside out so as to form a bag for the feathers. The
+feathers of the wild ostrich are much finer and more valuable than those
+of the tame. A full-grown ostrich has only fourteen of the largest white
+feathers.</p>
+
+<p>The hens lay their eggs in a shallow hollow in loamy or sandy soil, and
+it is the male bird which sits on the eggs. In the daytime the nest may
+be left for hours, but then the ostriches cover the eggs with sand. The
+young ones leave their shells after six weeks and go out into the
+desert. They are already as large as fowls, but then an ostrich egg
+weighs as much as twenty-four hen's eggs, and measures six inches along
+its greatest diameter.</p>
+
+<p>The ostrich is remarkably greedy, and turns away from nothing. The great
+zoologist, Brehm, who had tame ostriches under his care, reports that
+they ate rats and chickens and swallowed small stones and potsherds, and
+once or twice his bunch of keys disappeared down the stomach of an
+ostrich. In one ostrich's stomach was found nine pounds of
+"ballast"&mdash;stones, rags, buttons, bits of metal, coins, keys, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Some say that the ostrich is inconceivably stupid, but others will not
+accept such a severe condemnation. The traveller Schillings, who is
+noted for his photographs of big game in Africa taken at night by
+flashlight, once followed the spoor of some lions for several hours.
+Suddenly he came upon an ostrich's nest with newly hatched chickens, and
+he wondered where the parents were. To his astonishment, he found that
+the lion had not touched the defenceless creatures, and he soon
+discovered the reason. In the moonlight night the ostriches had
+perceived the danger in time and sprang up to lure the lion away from
+the nest. Their stratagem suc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>ceeded, for it was evident from the spoor
+that the lion had pursued the flying ostriches farther and farther from
+the nest. And when the pair of ostriches thought that they had enticed
+the king of animals far enough off, they returned home.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Baboons</span></h3>
+
+<p>Baboons are monkeys which resemble dogs rather than human beings, and
+almost always remain on the ground, seldom climbing trees. They are
+cruel, malicious, and cunning, their expression is fierce and savage,
+and their eyes wicked. Among their allies they are surpassed in strength
+only by the gorilla; and they are bold and spirited, and do not shun a
+deadly struggle with the leopard. They have sharp and powerful teeth
+with which to defend themselves, and their tusks are very formidable.</p>
+
+<p>The old Egyptians paid deep homage to the sacred apes, which belong to
+the baboon tribe, and had them represented on their monuments as judges
+in the kingdom of death. They live in large companies among the cliffs
+of the Red Sea coast of Nubia and Abyssinia, but they also occur in the
+interior on high mountains. Roots, fruits, worms, and snails are their
+chief food. They are afraid of snakes, but they catch scorpions,
+carefully pinching off the poison gland before eating the reptiles. When
+durra fields are in the neighbourhood of the baboons' haunts, watchmen
+must be posted, or the animals work great havoc among the grain. And
+when they are out on a raid, they, too, have sentinels on the lookout in
+every direction.</p>
+
+<p>During the night and when it rains they sit huddled up among
+inaccessible rocks, whither they climb with wonderful activity. They
+sally forth in the morning to satisfy their hunger, returning to the
+high rocks at noon. Afterwards they go to the nearest brook or spring to
+drink, and after another meal retire for the night.</p>
+
+<p>If a party of such baboons, consisting perhaps of a hundred individuals,
+is sitting in a row near the edge of a cliff and suddenly becomes aware
+of a threatening danger&mdash;as, for instance, a prowling leopard&mdash;they all
+utter the most singular noises, grunting, shrieking, barking, and
+growling. The old males go to the edge and look down into the valley,
+fuss about and show their ugly tusks and strike their forepaws against
+the sides of the rock with a loud smack. The young ones seek their
+mother's protection and keep behind them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Brehm once surprised such a party huddled together on the margin of a
+cliff. The first shot that echoed through the valley roused the greatest
+commotion and displeasure, and the monkeys howled and bellowed in
+chorus. Then they began to move with astonishing activity and
+surefootedness. Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no
+damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh shot they
+halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks and yelled abuse at
+their disturbers. The front of the cliff seemed in some places to be
+vertical, but the baboons climbed about everywhere. At the next bend of
+the road the whole troop came down into the valley, intending to
+continue their flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting
+dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop of baboons,
+but before they could come up with it, the old baboons halted, turned
+round and presented such a terrible front to the dogs that these quickly
+turned back. When the dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time,
+most of the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few
+remaining in the valley, among them a small young one. Frightened at the
+onslaught of the dogs, the little creature fled shrieking up a boulder,
+while the dogs stood round its base. Brehm wished to catch the young one
+alive, but just then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no
+heed of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, controlling
+them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block, whispered some calming
+sound into the ear of the young one, and set out on his return with his
+prot&eacute;g&eacute;. The dogs were so cowed that they never attacked, and both the
+young baboon and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their
+friends.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Hippopotamus</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large, clumsy,
+and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred also in Lower Egypt,
+where it was called the river hog, but at the present day it is
+necessary to go a good distance south of Nubia in order to find it. In
+many rivers it migrates with the seasons. It descends the river as this
+falls in the dry season, and moves up again when the bed is filled by
+rain.</p>
+
+<p>The body of the hippopotamus is round and clumsy, and is supported by
+four short shapeless legs with four hoofed toes on each foot. The
+singular head is nearly quadrangular,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> the eyes and ears are small, the
+snout enormously broad and the nostrils wide (Plate XXIX.). The hairless
+hide, three-quarters of an inch thick, changes from grey to dark brown
+and dirty red according as it is dry or wet. The animal is thirteen feet
+long, without the small short tail, and weighs as much as thirty
+full-grown men.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate29.jpg"  width="397" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE XXIX." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXIX. A HIPPOPOTAMUS.</h4>
+
+<p>The hippopotamus spends most of his time in the water, but goes on land
+at night, especially in those districts where the rivers do not afford
+much food. Stealing carefully along a quiet river the traveller may
+often take him by surprise, and see two small jets of water rise from
+his nostrils when he comes up to breathe, snorting and puffing noisily.
+Then he dives again, and can remain under water three or four minutes.
+When he lies near the surface only six small knobs are seen above the
+water, the ears, eyes, and nostrils. If he is not quite sure of the
+neighbourhood, he thrusts only his nostrils above water and breathes as
+noiselessly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Hippopotami often lie splashing in shallow water, or climb up on to the
+bank to sun themselves and have a quiet lazy time. Very frequently they
+are heard to make a grunting noise of satisfaction. When evening comes
+they seek the deeper parts of the river, where they swim up and down,
+chase one another, and roll about in the water with great nimbleness and
+activity. They swim with great speed, throwing themselves forward in
+jerks, and filling the air with their gurgling bellowing cry; yet if
+they like they can swim so quietly that not the least ripple is heard. A
+wounded hippopotamus stirs up the water so that a small canoe may
+capsize in the swell from his forequarters.</p>
+
+<p>When several old males are bellowing together, the din is heard for
+miles through the forest and rolls like thunder over the water. No other
+animal can make such a noise. Even the lion stops to listen.</p>
+
+<p>On the Upper Nile, above Khartum, where the most luxuriant vegetation
+struggles for room on the banks, and the river often loses itself in
+lakes and swamps, the hippopotamus, like the crocodile, seldom goes
+ashore. Here he lives under lotus plants and papyrus leaves, soft reeds
+and all the other juicy vegetation that thrives in water-logged ground.
+He dives and rummages for a couple of minutes, stirring up the water far
+around. When he has his huge mouth full of stems and leaves, he comes up
+to the surface again, and the water streams in cataracts off his rounded
+body.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In districts where he goes on land to graze, he often works great damage
+among the corn and green crops, and may even attack the villagers. And
+he is not always to be trifled with if a canoe disturbs his repose. The
+most dangerous is a mother when her young ones are small. She carries
+them on her back as she swims and dives, sometimes to the bottom of the
+river. A gun must be heavily loaded if the shot is to have any effect on
+such a monster, and penetrate such a cuirass of hide. If the animal
+puffs and dives, he is lost to the hunter; but if he raises himself high
+out of the water and then falls again with a heavy thud, the wound is
+mortal and the hippopotamus sinks to the bottom. After an hour or two
+the body rises to the surface again.</p>
+
+<p>Some negro tribes on the White Nile dig pitfalls for hippopotami, and on
+the rivers which enter Lake Ngami (see map, p. 262) on its northern
+shore the natives hunt for them with harpoons, much in the same way as
+whales are killed in the northern and southern oceans. The harpoons have
+a sharp barbed blade of iron, and this point is secured by strong string
+to a stout shaft of wood, the end of which is attached by a line to a
+float. Two canoes are dragged on to a raft of bundles of reed tied
+together, and between them the black hunters crouch with harpoons and
+light javelins in their hands. When all is ready, the raft is pushed out
+into the current and drifts noiselessly down the river. The huge animals
+can be heard rolling and splashing in the water in the distance, but
+they are still hidden behind a bed of reeds. The raft glides gently past
+the point, but the hippopotami suspect no danger. One of them comes up
+close beside the raft. The harpooner stands up like a flash of lightning
+and drives his sharp weapon with all his strength into the animal's
+flank. The wounded hippopotamus dives immediately to the bottom, and the
+line runs out. The float follows the hippopotamus wherever he takes his
+flight, and the canoes, now in the water, follow. When the brute comes
+up again, he is received with a shower of javelins, and dives again,
+leaving a blood-red streak behind him. He may be irritated when he is
+attacked time after time by spears, and it may happen that he turns on
+his persecutors and crushes a too venturesome canoe with his great
+tusks, or gives it a blow underneath with his head. Sometimes the animal
+is not content with the canoes, but attacks the men, and many too daring
+hunters have lost their lives in this way. When the hippopotamus has
+been sufficiently tired out, the hunters pick up the float, and take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+the line ashore to wind it round a tree, and then they pull with all
+their might to draw the creature up out of the water.</p>
+
+<p>The flesh is eaten everywhere, especially that of the young animals, and
+the tongue and the fat of the older ones are considered delicacies.
+Riding-whips, shields, and many other articles are made out of the hide,
+and the large tusks are valuable. Hippopotami may be seen in some of the
+zoological gardens in Europe, but they do not thrive well in the care of
+man.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Man-eating Lions</span></h3>
+
+<p>A terrible tale of man-eating lions is told by Colonel Patterson in his
+book <i>The Man-Eaters of Tsavo</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Patterson had been ordered for service on the Uganda Railway,
+which runs from Mombasa north-westwards through British East Africa to
+the great lake Victoria Nyanza, the largest source-lake of the Nile. But
+in 1898, when the Colonel arrived, the railway had not been carried
+farther than the Tsavo, a tributary of the Sabaki, which enters the sea
+north of Mombasa. Here at Tsavo (see map, p. 237) the Colonel had his
+headquarters, and in the neighbourhood were camped some thousands of
+railway coolies from India. A temporary wooden bridge crossed the Tsavo,
+and the Colonel was to build a permanent iron bridge over the river, and
+had besides the supervision of the railway works for thirty miles in
+each direction.</p>
+
+<p>Some days after his arrival at Tsavo the Colonel heard of two lions
+which made the country unsafe. He paid little heed to these reports
+until a couple of weeks later, when one of his own servants was carried
+off by a lion. A comrade, who had a bed in the same tent, had seen the
+lion steal noiselessly into the camp in the middle of the night, go
+straight to the tent, and seize the man by the throat. The poor fellow
+cried out "Let go," and threw his arms round the beast's neck, and then
+the silence of night again fell over the surroundings. Next morning the
+Colonel was able to follow the lion's spoor easily, for the victim's
+heels had scraped along the sand all the way. At the place where the
+lion had stopped to make his meal, only the clothes and head of the
+unfortunate man were found, with the eyes fixed in a stare of terror.</p>
+
+<p>Disturbed by this sight and the sorrowful occurrence, the Colonel made a
+solemn oath that he would give himself no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> rest until both the lions
+were dead. Gun in hand, he climbed up into a tree close by his servants'
+tent and waited. The night was quiet and dark. In the distance was heard
+a roar, which came nearer as the two man-eaters stole up in search of
+another victim. Then there was silence again, for lions always attack in
+silence, though when they start on their night prowl they utter their
+hoarse, awful cry, as though to give warning to the men and animals in
+the neighbourhood. The Colonel waited. Then he heard a cry of terror and
+despair from another camp a hundred yards away, and after that all was
+still again. A man had been seized and dragged away.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Colonel chose a waiting-place where the last man had been
+carried off, but here, too, he was disappointed. A heart-rending shriek
+rang through the night at still another part of the camp, and another
+workman was missing.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian workmen lay in several scattered camps, and evidently the
+lions chose a fresh camp every night to mislead the men. When they found
+that they could carry off a man with impunity every night or every other
+night, they grew bolder, and showed not the least fear of the camp
+fires, which were always kept alight. They paid no heed to the noise and
+tumult they caused, or even to gunshots fired at them in the darkness. A
+tall, thick fence of tough, thorny bushes was erected round each camp as
+a protection, but the lions always jumped over or broke through it when
+they wanted a man. In the daytime the Colonel followed their tracks,
+which were plainly visible through the thickets, but of course could not
+be perceived on stony ground.</p>
+
+<p>Things became still worse when the rails were laid farther up the
+country, and only a few hundred workmen remained with Colonel Patterson
+at the Tsavo bridge. He had unusually high and strong fences built up
+round his camp, and the fires were enlarged to blazing pyres, watchmen
+kept guard, guns were always ready, and within the enclosure empty oil
+tins were banged together to scare the beasts if possible. But it was
+all no use. Still more victims disappeared. The Indian workmen became so
+panic-stricken that they could not shoot, though the lion was often just
+in front of them. A patient was taken from the hospital tent, and the
+next victim was a water-carrier from another part of the camp. He had
+been lying with his head towards the middle of the tent and his legs
+outwards. The lion had sprung over the fence, seized the man by the
+foot, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> dragged him out. In his despair he had grabbed at a box
+standing by the tent canvas, and instead had caught hold of a tent rope,
+which gave way. Then the lion, with his prey in his mouth, had run along
+the fence looking for a weak spot, and when he had found one, he dashed
+right through the fence. Next morning fragments of clothing and flesh
+were found on the paths. The other lion had waited outside, and they had
+consumed their prey together.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed an interval of quiet, during which the lions were engaged
+elsewhere. It was hoped that the tranquillity would continue, and the
+workmen began to sleep outside because of the heat. One night they were
+sitting round a fire, when a lion suddenly jumped noiselessly over the
+fence and stood gazing at them. They started up and threw stones, pieces
+of wood, and firebrands at the beast, but the lion sprang forward,
+seized his man, and dashed through the fence. His companion was waiting
+outside, and they were so impudent that they ate their victim only
+thirty yards off.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel sat up at night for a whole week at the camp where a visit
+was expected. He says that nothing can be more trying to the nerves than
+such a watch, time after time in vain. He always heard the warning roar
+in the distance, and knew that it meant, "Look out; we are coming." The
+hungry cry sounded hoarser and stronger, and the Colonel knew that one
+of his men, or perhaps he himself, would never again see the sun rise
+over the jungle in the east, and there was always silence when the
+brutes were near. Then the watchmen in the various camps would call out,
+"Look out, brothers, the devil is coming." And shortly afterwards a wild
+scream of distress and the groans of a victim would proclaim that the
+lion's stratagem had been successful again. At last the lions became so
+daring that both cleared the fence at once, to seize a man apiece. Once
+one lion did not succeed in dragging his man through the fence, and had
+to leave him and content himself with a share of his comrade's booty.
+The man left behind was so badly mauled that he died before he could be
+carried to the hospital tent.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that the poor workmen, wearied and worn by sleeplessness,
+excitement, and fear of death, decided that this state of affairs must
+come to an end. They struck. They said that they had come to Africa to
+work at the railway, and not to supply food for lions. One fine day they
+took a train by storm, put all their belongings into the carriages, took
+their seats themselves, and went off to the coast. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> courageous men
+who remained with the Colonel passed the night in trees, in the station
+water-tank, or in covered holes digged down within their tents.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion the Colonel had invited a friend to come up to Tsavo and
+help him against the lions. The train was late, and it was dark when the
+guest followed the path through the wood to the camp. He had a servant
+with him, who carried a lantern. Half-way a lion rushed down on them
+from a rise, tore four deep gashes in the Englishman's back, and would
+have carried him off if he had not fired his carbine. Dazed with the
+report, the lion loosed his hold and pounced on the servant. Next moment
+he had vanished in the darkness with his prey.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later a Suaheli came and said that the lion had seized an
+ass, and was engaged in his meal not far away. Guided by the Suaheli,
+the Colonel hastened up and could see from a distance the back of the
+lion above the bushes. Unfortunately the guide stepped on a twig, and
+the lion immediately vanished into impenetrable brushwood. Then the
+Colonel ran back and called out all his men. Provided with drums, sheets
+of metal and tin cans, they surrounded the thicket, and closed in with a
+great noise, while the Colonel kept watch at the place where the animal
+would probably come out. Quite right&mdash;there he came, huge and fierce,
+angry at being disturbed. He came forward slowly, halting frequently,
+and looking around. His attention was so taken up by the noise that he
+did not notice the sportsman. When he was about thirteen yards off the
+Colonel raised his double-barrelled rifle. The lion heard the movement,
+struck his front claws into the ground, drew back on to his hind paws as
+though to gather himself up for a spring, and snarled wickedly, showing
+his murderous fangs. Then the Colonel took aim at the head, pressed the
+trigger, and&mdash;the rifle missed fire!</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the lion turned at that moment to go back into the thicket,
+and the other shot had no effect but to call forth a furious roar and
+hasten his flight. The untrustworthy gun had been borrowed for the
+occasion, and after this the Colonel determined to rely on his own
+weapon.</p>
+
+<p>The ass lay still untouched. A platform twelve feet high was erected on
+poles close to the carcase, and on this the Colonel took up his position
+at sunset. The twilight is very short on the equator, and the night soon
+grows dark when there is no moon. The nights in Africa's jungles are
+silent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> with an evil-foreboding and awesome silence, which conceals so
+many ambushes and costs so many lives. The inhabitants of the jungle may
+expect an ambush at any moment. The lonely Colonel waited, gripping his
+rifle hard. He relates himself that he felt more and more anxious as
+time went on. He knew that the lion would come to feed on the ass, for
+no cry of distress was heard from the adjacent camps.</p>
+
+<p>Hist! that sounds like a small twig breaking under a weight. Now it
+sounds like a large body crushing through the bushes. Then all is quiet
+again. No, a deep breath, a sure sign of hunger, betrays the proximity
+of the monster. A terrible roar breaks the stillness of the night. The
+lion has perceived the presence of a man. Will he fly? No, far from it,
+he scorns the ass and makes for the Colonel. For two hours he prowls
+about the platform in gradually diminishing circles. Now the lion has
+matured his plan of attack, and goes straight towards the platform for
+the decisive spring. The animal is just perceptible against the sandy
+ground. When he is quite close the first shot thunders through the
+night, the lion utters a frightened roar and plunges into the nearest
+bushes. He writhes, and bellows, and moans, but the sounds grow weaker,
+till after a few long-drawn breaths all is quiet again. The first
+man-eater has met his fate.</p>
+
+<p>Before the dawn of day the workmen came out with trumpets and drums,
+and, with shouts of rejoicing, carried the lion-killer round the dead
+animal. The other lion continued his visits, and when he too bit the
+dust a short time after, the men could quietly resume their work on the
+railway, and the Colonel, who had freed the neighbourhood from a scourge
+that had troubled it for nine months, became a general hero. The foreman
+composed a grand song in his honour, and presented a valuable
+testimonial from all the men.</p>
+
+<p>One day he dined with the postmaster Ryall in a railway carriage, little
+suspecting the fate that was to befall the latter in the same carriage a
+few months later. A man-eating lion had chosen a small station for his
+hunting-ground, and had carried off one man after another without
+distinction of rank and worth. Ryall travelled with two other Europeans
+up to the place to try and rid it of the lion. On their arrival they
+were told that the animal could not be far away, for it had been quite
+recently in the neighbourhood of the station. The three Europeans
+resolved to watch all night. Ryall's carriage was taken off the train
+and drawn on to a siding.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> Here the ground had not been levelled, so the
+carriage was tilted a little to one side. After dinner they were to keep
+watch in turns, and Ryall took the first watch. There was a sofa on
+either side of the carriage, one of them higher above the floor than the
+other. Ryall offered these to his guests, but one of them preferred to
+lie on the floor between the sofas. And when Ryall thought he had
+watched long enough without seeing the lion, he lay down to rest on the
+lower sofa.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage had a sliding door which slipped easily in its grooves, and
+was unfastened. When all was quiet the lion crept out of the bush,
+jumped on to the rear platform of the carriage, opened the door with his
+paws, and slipped in. But scarcely had he entered, when the door, in
+consequence of the slope of the carriage, slid to again and latched
+itself. And thus the man-eater was shut in with the three sleeping men.</p>
+
+<p>The sleeper on the higher sofa, awakened by a sharp cry of distress, saw
+the lion, which filled up most of the small space, standing with his
+hind legs on the man lying on the floor, and his forepaws on Ryall, on
+the lower sofa on the opposite side. He jumped down in a fright to try
+and reach the opposite door, but could not get past without putting his
+foot on the back of the lion. To his horror, he found that the servant,
+who had been alarmed by the noise, was leaning against the door outside;
+but, putting forth all his strength, he burst open the door and slipped
+out, whereupon it banged to again. At the same moment a loud crash was
+heard. The lion had sprung through the window with Ryall in his mouth,
+and as the aperture was too small, he had splintered the woodwork like
+paper. The remains of the man were found next day and buried. Shortly
+after the lion was caught in a trap, and was exhibited for several days
+before being shot.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">David Livingstone</span></h3>
+
+<p>In a poor but respectable workman's home in Blantyre, near Glasgow, was
+born a hundred years ago a little lad named David Livingstone, who was
+to make himself a great and famous name, not only as the discoverer of
+lakes and rivers, but also as one of the noblest men who ever offered
+their lives for the welfare of mankind.</p>
+
+<p><a name="LIVINGSTONE" id="LIVINGSTONE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img018.jpg"  width="415" height="550"
+ alt="LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEYS IN AFRICA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEYS IN AFRICA</h4>
+
+<p>In the national school of the town he quickly learned to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> read and
+write. His parents could not afford to let him continue his studies, but
+sent him at ten years of age to a cotton mill, where he had to work from
+six o'clock in the morning till eight in the evening. The hard work did
+not break his spirit, but while the machines hummed around him and the
+thread jumped on the bobbins, his thoughts and his desires flew far
+beyond the close walls of the factory to life and nature outside. He did
+his work so well that his wages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> were raised, and he spent his gains in
+buying books, which kept him awake far into the night. To add to his
+knowledge he attended a night-school, and on holidays he made long
+excursions with his brothers.</p>
+
+<p>Years fled and the boy David grew up to manhood. One day he told his
+parents that he wished to be a medical missionary, and go to the people
+in the east and south, tend the sick, and preach to any who would
+listen. In order to procure means for his studies he had to save up his
+earnings at the factory, and when the time was come he went with his
+father to Glasgow, hired a room for half-a-crown a week, and read
+medicine. At the end of the session he went back to the factory to
+obtain money for the next winter course. Finally he passed his
+examination with distinction, and then came the last evening in the old
+home and the last morning dawned. His father went with him to Glasgow,
+took a long farewell of his son, and returned home sad and lonely.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone sailed from England to the Cape, and betook himself to the
+northernmost mission-station, Kuruman in Bechuanaland. Even at this time
+he heard of a fresh-water lake far to the north. It was called Ngami,
+and he hoped to see it one day.</p>
+
+<p>From Kuruman he made several journeys in different directions to gain a
+knowledge of the tribes and their languages, to minister to their sick
+and win their confidence. Once when he was returning home from a journey
+and had still 150 miles to trek, a little black girl was found crouching
+under his waggon. She had run away from her owner because she knew that
+he intended to sell her as a slave as soon as she was full-grown, and as
+she did not wish to be sold she determined to follow the missionary's
+waggon on foot to Kuruman. The good doctor took up the frightened little
+creature and provided her with food and drink. Suddenly he heard her cry
+out. She had caught sight of a man with a gun who had been sent out to
+fetch her and who now came angrily to the waggon. It never occurred to
+Livingstone to leave the defenceless child in the hands of the wretch.
+He took the girl under his protection and told her that no danger would
+befall her henceforth. She was a symbol of Africa, the home of the
+slave-trade. And Africa's slaves needed the help of a great and strong
+man. Livingstone understood the call and worked to his last hour for the
+liberation of the slaves, as Gordon did many years later. He strove
+against the cruel and barbarous customs of the natives and their dark
+super<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>stitions, and hoped in time to be able to train pupils who would
+be sent out to preach all over the country. In one tribe the
+medicine-men were also rainmakers. Livingstone pointed out to the people
+of the tribe that the rainmakers' jugglery was only a fraud and of no
+use, but offered, if they liked, himself to procure water for the
+irrigation of their fields, not by witchcraft but by conducting it along
+a canal from the neighbouring river. Some rough tools were first hewn
+out, and he had soon the whole tribe at work, and the canal and conduits
+were laid out among the crops. And there stood the witch-doctors put to
+shame, as they heard the water purling and filtering into the soil.</p>
+
+<p>In 1843 Livingstone started off to found a new mission-station, named
+Mabotsa. The chief of the place was quite willing to sell land, and he
+received glass beads and other choice wares in payment. Mabotsa lay not
+far from the present Mafeking, but seventy years ago the whole region
+was a wild. On one occasion a lion broke into the village and worried
+the sheep. The natives turned out with their weapons, and Livingstone
+took the lead. The disturber of the peace was badly wounded and retired
+to the bush. But suddenly he rushed out again, threw himself on
+Livingstone, buried his teeth in his shoulder, and crushed his left arm.
+The lion had his paw already on the missionary's head, when a Christian
+native ran up and struck and slashed at the brute. The lion loosed his
+hold in order to fly at his new assailant, who was badly hurt.
+Fortunately the animal was so sorely wounded that its strength was now
+exhausted, and it fell dead on the ground. Livingstone felt the effects
+of the lion's bite for thirty years after, and could never lift his arm
+higher than the shoulder; and when his course was run his body was
+identified by the broken and reunited arm bone. He had to keep quiet for
+a long time until his wound was healed. Then he built the new
+station-house with his own hands, and when all was ready he brought to
+it his young bride, the daughter of a missionary at Kuruman.</p>
+
+<p>Another missionary lived at Mabotsa and did all he could to render
+Livingstone's life miserable. The good doctor hated all quarrelling, and
+did not wish that white men should set a bad example to the blacks, so
+he gladly gave way and moved with his wife forty miles northwards. The
+house in Mabotsa had been built with his own savings, and as the London
+Missionary Society gave him a salary of only a hundred pounds a year,
+there could not be much over to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> build a house. When he left, the
+natives round Mabotsa were in despair. Even when the oxen were yoked to
+the waggon, they begged him to remain and promised to build him another
+house. It was in vain, however; they lost their friend and saw him drive
+off to the village of Chonuane, which was subject to the chief Sechele.</p>
+
+<p>From the new station Livingstone made a missionary journey eastwards to
+the country whither the Dutch Boers had trekked from the Cape. They had
+left the Cape because they were dissatisfied with the English
+administration of the country, for the English would not allow slavery
+and proclaimed the freedom of the Hottentots. The Boers, then, founded a
+republic of their own, the Transvaal, so named because it lay on the
+other side of the Vaal, a tributary of the Orange River. Here they
+thought they could compel the blacks to work as bondmen in their service
+without being interfered with. They took possession of all the springs,
+and the natives lived on sufferance in their own country. The Boers
+hated Livingstone because they knew that he was an enemy to the slave
+trade and a friend to the natives.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone had plenty of work at the station. He built his house, he
+cultivated his garden, visited the sick, looked after his guns and
+waggons, made mats and shoes, preached, taught in his children's school,
+lectured on medicine, and instructed the natives who wished to become
+missionaries. In his leisure hours he collected natural history
+specimens, which he sent home, studied the poisonous tsetse fly and the
+deadly fever, and was always searching for remedies. He was never idle.</p>
+
+<p>His new place of abode had one serious defect&mdash;it was badly situated as
+regarded rain and irrigation, and therefore Livingstone decided to move
+again forty miles farther to the north, to Kolobeng, where for the third
+time he built himself a house. As before, his black friends were much
+disturbed at his departure, and when they could not induce him to
+remain, the whole tribe packed up their belongings and went with him.
+Then clearing, building, and planting went on again. At Kolobeng
+Livingstone had a fixed abode for quite five years, but this was his
+longest and last sojourn in one place, for his after-life was a
+continuous pilgrimage without rest and repose. As usual, he gained the
+confidence and friendship of the natives.</p>
+
+<p>The worst trouble was the vicinity of the Boers. They accused him of
+providing Sechele's tribe with weapons and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> exciting them against the
+Boers. They threatened to kill all black missionaries who ventured into
+the Transvaal, and devised plans for getting rid of Livingstone. Under
+such conditions his work could not be successful, and he longed to go
+farther north to countries where he could labour in peace without
+hindrance from white men who were nominally Christians, but treated the
+natives like beasts. Besides, hard times and famine now came to
+Kolobeng. The crops suffered from severe drought, and even the river
+failed. The natives went off to hunt, and the women gathered locusts for
+food. No child came to school, and the church was empty on Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>Then Livingstone resolved to move still farther northwards, and on June
+1, 1849, the party set out. An Englishman named Oswell, who was
+Livingstone's friend, went with them and bore all the expenses of the
+journey. He was a man of means, and so several waggons, eighty oxen,
+twenty horses, and twenty-five servants were provided.</p>
+
+<p>After two months' march they came to the shore of Lake Ngami, which was
+now seen for the first time by Europeans. The king, Lechulatebe, proved
+less friendly than was expected. When he heard that Livingstone intended
+to continue his journey northwards to the great chief Sebituane, he
+feared that the latter would obtain firearms from the white men and
+would come down slaying and pillaging to the country round the lake.
+Finally the expedition was obliged to turn back to Kolobeng.
+Livingstone, however, was not the man to give in, and he went twice more
+to the lake, taking his wife and children with him.</p>
+
+<p>On one of these journeys he came to the kingdom of the great and
+powerful Sebituane, and was received with the most generous hospitality.
+The chief gave him all the information he wished, and promised to help
+him in every way. A few days later, however, Sebituane fell ill of
+inflammation of the lungs and died.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone then continued his journey north-eastward with Oswell to the
+large village of Linyanti, and shortly after discovered a river so large
+and mighty that it resembled one of the firths of Scotland. The river
+was called the Zambesi. Its lower course had long been known to
+Europeans, but no one knew whence it came. The climate was unhealthy,
+and was not suitable for the new mission-station that Livingstone
+intended to establish. The Makololo people, the tribe of the deceased
+chief, promised to give him land, huts, and oxen if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> he would stay with
+them, but his mind was now occupied with great schemes and he gave up
+all thoughts of a station. Honest, legitimate trade must first be made
+to flourish. The Makololo had begun to sell slaves simply to be able to
+buy firearms and other coveted wares from Europe. If they could be
+induced to sell ivory and ostrich feathers instead, they would be able
+to procure by barter all they wanted from European traders and need not
+sell any more human beings. But to start such a trade a convenient route
+must first be found to the coast of either the Atlantic or Indian Ocean.
+A country in which the black tribes were in continual war with one
+another simply for the purpose of obtaining slaves was not ripe for
+Christianity. Accordingly Livingstone's plan was clear: first to find a
+way to the coast, and then to foster an honest trade which would make
+the slave-trade unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>Having sent his wife and children to England, Livingstone made his
+preparations, and in the year 1853 he was at Linyanti, in the country of
+the Makololo. Here began his remarkable journey to Loanda on the west
+coast, not far south of the mouth of the Congo. No European had ever
+travelled this way. His companions were twenty-seven Makololos, and his
+baggage was as light as possible, chiefly cloth and glass beads, which
+serve as currency in Africa. He took no provisions, as he thought he
+could live on what the country afforded.</p>
+
+<p>The journey was difficult and troublesome, through a multitude of savage
+tribes. First the Zambesi was followed upwards, and then the route ran
+along other rivers. In consequence of heavy rain, swollen watercourses
+and treacherous swamps had to be crossed continually. Livingstone rode
+an ox which carried him through the water after a small portable boat
+had been wrecked and abandoned. Swarms of mosquitoes buzzed over the
+moist ground, and Livingstone repeatedly caught fever from the damp,
+close exhalations, and was often so ill that he could not even sit on
+his ox. But amidst all these difficulties and hardships he never omitted
+to observe the natural objects around him and to work at his map of the
+route. His diary was a big volume in stout boards with lock and key, and
+he wrote as small and as neatly as print.</p>
+
+<p>Step by step he came nearer the sea. Most opportunely they met a
+Portuguese, and in his company the small troop entered the Portuguese
+territory on the west coast. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Portuguese received Livingstone with
+great hospitality, supplied him with everything he wanted, and rigged
+him out from top to toe.</p>
+
+<p>Some English cruisers were lying off Loanda, having come to try to put
+down the slave-trade, and Livingstone enjoyed a delightful rest with his
+countrymen and slept in a proper bed after having lain for half a year
+on wet ground. It would have been pleasant to have had a thorough
+holiday on a comfortable vessel on the voyage to England after so many
+years' wanderings in Africa, but Livingstone resisted the temptation. He
+could not send his faithful Makololos adrift; besides, he had found that
+the route to the west coast was not suitable for trade, and was now
+wondering whether the Zambesi might serve as a channel of communication
+between the interior and the east coast. So he decided to turn back in
+spite of fever and danger, bade good-bye to the English and Portuguese,
+and again entered the great solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Before Livingstone left Loanda he put together a large mass of
+correspondence, notes, maps, and descriptions of the newly discovered
+countries, but the English vessel which carried his letters sank at
+Madeira with all on board, and only one passenger was saved. News of the
+misfortune reached Livingstone when he was still near the coast, and he
+had to write and draw all his work again, a task that took him months.
+If he had left the Makololo men to their fate he would have travelled in
+the unfortunate vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Rain and sickness often delayed him, but on the whole his return journey
+was easier. He took with him from Loanda a large stock of presents for
+the chiefs, and they were no longer strangers. And when he came among
+the villages of the Makololo, the whole tribe turned out to welcome him,
+and the good missionary held a thanksgiving service in the presence of
+all the people. Oxen were killed round the fires at night, drums were
+beaten, and with dance and song the people filled the air far above the
+crowns of the bread-fruit trees with sounds of gladness. Sekeletu was
+still friendly, and was given a discarded colonel's uniform from Loanda.
+In this he appeared at church on Sunday, and attracted more attention
+than the preacher and the service. His gratitude was so great that when
+Livingstone set out to the east coast he presented his white friend with
+ten slaughter oxen, three of his best riding oxen, and provisions for
+the way. And more than that, he ordered a hundred and twenty warriors to
+escort him, and gave directions that, as far as his power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> extended over
+the forests and fields, all hunters and tillers of the ground should
+provide the white man and his retinue with everything they wanted. Not
+the least remarkable circumstance connected with Livingstone's travels
+was that he was able to carry them out without any material help from
+home. He was the friend of the natives, and travelled for long distances
+as their guest.</p>
+
+<p>Now his route ran along the bank of the Zambesi, an unknown road. During
+his earlier visit to Linyanti he had heard of a mighty waterfall on the
+river, and now he discovered this African Niagara, which he named the
+Victoria Falls. Above the falls the river is 1800 yards broad, and the
+huge volumes of water dash down foaming and roaring over a barrier of
+basalt 390 feet high to the depth beneath. The water boils and bubbles
+as in a kettle, and is confined in a rocky chasm in some places barely
+50 yards broad. Clouds of spray and vapour hover constantly above the
+fall, and the natives call it "the smoking water." Among the general
+public in Europe, Livingstone's description of the Victoria Falls made a
+deeper impression than any of his other discoveries, so thoroughly
+unexpected was the discovery in Africa of a waterfall which could match,
+nay in many respects surpass, Niagara in wild beauty and imposing power.
+Now a railway passes over the Falls, and a place has grown up which
+bears the name of Livingstone.</p>
+
+<p>The deafening roar of the water died away in the distance, and the party
+followed the forest paths from the territory of one tribe to that of the
+next. Steadfast as always, Livingstone met all danger and treachery with
+courage and contempt of death, a Titan among geographical explorers as
+well as among Christian missionaries. He drew the main outlines of this
+southern part of Darkest Africa and laid down the course of the Zambesi
+on his map. For a year he had been an explorer rather than a missionary.
+But the dominating thought in his dream of the future was always that
+the end of geographical exploration was only the beginning of missionary
+enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>At the first Portuguese station he left his Makololo men, promising to
+return and lead them back to their own villages. Then he travelled down
+the Zambesi to Quilimane on the sea. He had, therefore, crossed Africa
+from coast to coast, and was the first scientifically educated European
+to do so.</p>
+
+<p>After fifteen years in Africa he had earned a right to go home. An
+English ship carried him to Mauritius, and at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> end of 1856 he
+reached England. He was received everywhere with boundless enthusiasm,
+and never was an explorer f&ecirc;ted as he was. He travelled from town to
+town, always welcomed as a hero. He always spoke of the slave-trade and
+the responsibility that rested on the white men to rescue the blacks.
+Africa, lying forgotten and misty beneath its moving rain-belts, became
+at once the object of attention of all the educated world.</p>
+
+<p>Detraction was not silent at the home-coming of the victor. The
+Missionary Society gave him to understand that he had not laboured
+sufficiently for the spread of the Gospel, and that he had been too much
+of an explorer and too little of a missionary. He therefore left the
+Society; and when, after a sojourn of more than a year at home, he
+returned to Africa, it was in the capacity of English Consul in
+Quilimane, and leader of an expedition for the exploration of the
+interior of Africa.</p>
+
+<p>We have no time to accompany Livingstone on his six years' journeys in
+East Africa. Among the most important discoveries he made was that of
+the great Lake Nyassa, from the neighbourhood of which 19,000 slaves
+were carried annually to Zanzibar, to say nothing of the far greater
+numbers who died on the way to the coast. One day Livingstone went down
+to the mouth of the Zambesi to meet an English ship. On board were his
+wife and a small specially built steamer called the <i>Lady Nyassa</i>,
+designed for voyages on rivers and lakes. Shortly afterwards his wife
+fell ill and died, and was buried under the leafy branches of a
+bread-fruit tree. In spite of his grief he went on with his work as
+diligently as before, and when the time came for him to sail home, he
+thought of selling the <i>Lady Nyassa</i> to the Portuguese. But when he
+heard that the boat was to be used to transport slaves, he kept it,
+steered a course for Zanzibar, and then resolved to cross the Indian
+Ocean in the small open boat by the use of both sails and steam. This
+was one of Livingstone's most daring exploits, for the distance to
+Bombay was 2500 miles across the open sea, and in the beginning of
+January the south-west monsoon might be expected with its rough, stormy
+seas. He hoped, however, to reach Bombay before the monsoon broke, so
+with three white sailors and nine Africans, and only fourteen tons of
+coal, he steamed out of the harbour of Zanzibar, saw the coast of Africa
+fade away and the dreary waste of water close round him on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the white sailors fell ill and were unfit for work,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> and the bold
+missionary had to depend almost entirely on himself. Ocean currents
+hindered the progress of the <i>Lady Nyassa</i>, and for twenty-five days she
+was becalmed, for the coal had to be used sparingly, and when the sails
+hung limp from the mast there was nothing to be done but to exercise
+patience. Fortunately there was sufficient food and drinking water, and
+Livingstone was accustomed to opposition and useless waiting. He had to
+ride out two violent storms, and the <i>Lady Nyassa</i> was within a hair's
+breadth of turning broadside to the high seas. In view of the immense
+watery waste that still lay before him he meditated making for the
+Arabian coast, but as a favourable wind got up and the sailing was good
+he kept on his course. At length the coast of India rose up out of the
+sea, and after a voyage of six weeks the <i>Lady Nyassa</i> glided into the
+grand harbour of Bombay. The air was hazy and no one noticed the small
+boat, but when it was known that Livingstone was in the city, every one
+made haste to pay him homage.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1866 Livingstone was again in Africa. We find him at the
+mouth of the Rovuma, a river which enters the sea to the east of Lake
+Nyassa. He had thirty-seven servants, many of them from India, and one
+of his men, Musa, had been with him before. He crossed the country to
+Lake Nyassa, but when he wished to pass over to the eastern shore in
+native boats, he was stopped by the Arabs, who knew that he was the most
+formidable opponent of the slave-trade. He had no choice but to go round
+the lake on foot, and little by little he made contributions to human
+knowledge, drew maps, and made notes and collections. He came to
+districts he already knew, where black women were carried off by
+crocodiles on the bank of the Shir&eacute; River, where he had lost his wife,
+and where all the missionaries sent out on his recommendation had died
+of fever.</p>
+
+<p>His staff of servants soon proved to be a worthless lot. The Indians
+were dismissed, and few of the others could be depended on. The best
+were Susi and Chuma, who by their faithfulness gained a great reputation
+both in Africa and Europe. Musa, on the contrary, was a scoundrel. He
+heard from an Arab slave-dealer that all the country through which
+Livingstone was about to travel was inhabited by a war-like tribe, who
+had lately fallen upon a party of forty-four Arabs and killed all but
+the narrator himself. Musa and most of his comrades were so frightened
+that they ran away. On his arrival at Zanzibar, Musa informed the
+British Consul that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> Livingstone had been attacked and murdered and all
+his goods plundered. The false account was so cleverly concocted and so
+thoroughly rehearsed that Musa could not be convicted of deceit. Every
+one believed him, and the English newspapers contained whole columns of
+reminiscences of the deceased. Only one friend of Livingstone, who had
+accompanied him on one of his journeys and knew Musa, had any doubts. He
+went himself to Africa, followed Livingstone's trail, and learned from
+the natives that the missionary had never been attacked as reported, but
+that he was on his way to Lake Tanganyika.</p>
+
+<p>The road thither was long and troublesome, and the great explorer
+suffered severe losses. Provisions ran short, and a hired porter ran
+away with the medicine chest. From this time Livingstone had no drugs to
+allay fever, and his health broke down. But he came to the southern
+extremity of Tanganyika, and the following year discovered Lake
+Bangweolo. He rowed out to the islands in the lake, and very much
+astonished the natives, who had never seen a white man before. Extensive
+swamps lay round the lake, and Livingstone believed that the
+southernmost sources of the Nile must be looked for in this region. This
+problem of the watershed of the Nile so fascinated him that he tarried
+year after year in Africa; but he never succeeded in solving it, and
+never knew that the river running out of Bangweolo is a tributary of the
+Lualaba or Upper Congo.</p>
+
+<p>Most of his men mutinied on the shore of Bangweolo. They complained of
+the hardships they endured and were tired of munching ears of maize, and
+demanded that their master should lead them to country where they could
+get sufficient food. Mild and gentle as always, Livingstone spoke to
+them kindly. He admitted that they were right, and confessed that he was
+himself tired of struggling on in want and hardship. They were so
+astonished at his gentleness that they begged to remain with him.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone was dangerously ill on this journey and had to be carried on
+a litter. There he lay unconscious and delirious with fever, and lost
+entirely his count of time. The troop moved again towards Tanganyika,
+and was to cross the lake in canoes to the Ujiji country on the eastern
+shore. If he could only get so far, he could rest there, and receive new
+supplies and letters from home.</p>
+
+<p>Worn out and exhausted he at length reached Ujiji, a rendezvous for the
+Arab slave-dealers. But his fresh supplies had disappeared entirely. He
+wrote for more from the coast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> and urged the Sultan of Zanzibar to see
+that nothing went astray. He wrote heaps of letters which never reached
+their destination. A packet of forty-two were sent off at one time, not
+one of which arrived, for at that time the tribes to the east of the
+lake were at war with one another.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone did not allow his courage to fail. No difficulties were
+great enough to crush this man. With Susi and Chuma and a party of newly
+enlisted porters, he set out westwards across the lake, his aim being to
+visit the Manyuema country, through the outskirts of which flows the
+Lualaba. If Livingstone could prove in which direction this mighty river
+ran, whether to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, he could then return
+home with a good conscience. He had determined in his own mind that he
+would not leave the Dark Continent until he had solved the problem, and
+for this he sacrificed his life without result. The canoes sped over the
+lake, and on the western shore he continued his journey on foot to the
+land of the Manyuemas. He marched on westwards. When the rainy season
+came on he lost several months, and when he set out again on his next
+march he had only three companions, two of them being the faithful Susi
+and Chuma. In the dark thickets of the tropical forests he wounded his
+feet, dragged himself over fallen trunks and decaying rubbish, and waded
+across swollen rivers; and among the crowns of the lofty trees and in
+the dense undergrowth lurked malaria, an invisible miasma. He fell ill
+again and had to rest a long time in his miserable hut, where he lay on
+his bed of grass reading his tattered Bible, or listening to the
+native's tales of combats with men and apes, for gorillas lived in the
+forests.</p>
+
+<p>Thus year after year passed by, and not the faintest whisper from the
+noisy world reached his ears. The only thing that retained him was the
+Lualaba. Did its waters run in an inexhaustible stream to the western
+ocean, or did they flow gently through forests, swamps, and deserts to
+Egypt? If he could only answer that question, he would go by the nearest
+way to Zanzibar and thence home. He had heard nothing of his children
+and friends for years. The soil of Africa held him prisoner in a network
+of forests and lianas.</p>
+
+<p>In February 1871 he left Manyuema and came to Nyangw&eacute; on the bank of the
+Lualaba, one of the principal resorts of slave-dealers. The natives were
+hostile, believing that he was a slave-trader; and the slave-traders who
+knew him by sight hated him. He tried in vain to procure canoes for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
+voyage down the great river. He offered a chief, Dugumb&eacute;, a liberal
+reward if he would help him to prepare for this expedition. While
+Dugumb&eacute; was considering the offer, Livingstone witnessed an episode
+which surpassed in horror all that he had previously met with in Africa.
+It was a fine day in July on the bank of the Lualaba, and 1500 natives,
+mostly women, had flocked to market at a village on the bank.
+Livingstone was out for a stroll, when he saw two small cannon pointed
+at the crowd and fired. Many of the unfortunate people, doomed to death
+or the fetters of slavery, rushed to their canoes, but were met by a
+band of slave-hunters and surprised by a shower of arrows. Fifty canoes
+lay at the bank, but they were so closely packed that they could not be
+put out. The wounded shrieked and threw themselves on one another in
+wild despair. A number of black heads on the surface of the water showed
+that many swimmers were trying to reach an island about a mile away. The
+current was against them and their case was hopeless. Shot after shot
+was fired at them. Some sank quietly without a struggle, while others
+uttered cries of terror and raised their arms to heaven before they went
+down to the dark crystal halls of the crocodiles. Fugitives who
+succeeded in getting their canoes afloat forgot their paddles and had to
+paddle with their hands. Three canoes, the crews of which tried to
+rescue their unfortunate friends, filled and sank, and all on board were
+drowned. The heads in the water became gradually fewer, and only a few
+men were still struggling for life when Dugumb&eacute; took pity on them and
+allowed twenty-one to be saved. One brave woman refused to receive help,
+preferring the mercy of the crocodiles to that of the slave-king. The
+Arabs themselves estimated the dead at 400.</p>
+
+<p>This spectacle made Livingstone ill and depressed. The description of
+the scene which afterwards appeared in all the English journals awakened
+such a feeling of horror that a commission was appointed and sent out to
+Zanzibar to inquire into the slave-trade on the spot, and with the
+Sultan's help devise means of suppressing it. But we know that in
+Gordon's time the slave-trade still flourished in the Sudan, and several
+decades more passed before the power of the slave-dealers was broken. As
+for Livingstone, it was fortunate that he did not accompany Dugumb&eacute;, for
+the natives combined for defence, attacked the chiefs party and slew 200
+of the slave-dealing rabble.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the question of the Lualaba remained unsolved, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> Livingstone
+began to suspect that his theory of the Nile sources was wrong. He heard
+a doubtful tale of the Lualaba bending off to the west, but he still
+hoped that it flowed northwards, and that therefore the ultimate source
+of the Nile was to be found among the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. When
+difficulties sprang up around him, his determination not to give in was
+only strengthened. But he could do nothing without a large and
+well-ordered caravan, and therefore he had to return to Ujiji, whither
+fresh supplies ought to have arrived from the coast. And amidst a
+thousand dangers and lurking treachery he effected his return through
+the disturbed country. Half dead of fever and in great destitution he
+arrived at Ujiji in October.</p>
+
+<p>There a fresh disappointment awaited him. His supplies had indeed come,
+but the Arabian scoundrel to whose care the goods had been consigned had
+sold them, including 2000 yards of cloth and several sacks of glass
+beads, the only current medium of exchange. The Arab coolly said that he
+thought the missionary was dead.</p>
+
+<p>We read in Livingstone's journal that in his helplessness he felt like
+the man who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves. Five days after
+his arrival at Ujiji he writes as follows: "But when my spirits were at
+their lowest ebb, the good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning
+Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out 'An Englishman!
+I see him!' and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head
+of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods,
+baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, etc., made me think
+'This must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end like
+me!'"</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">How Stanley found Livingstone</span></h3>
+
+<p>Now we must go back a little and turn to another story.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Stanley was a young journalist, who in October happened to be in
+Madrid. He was on the staff of the great newspaper, the <i>New York
+Herald</i>, which was owned by the wealthy Gordon Bennett. One morning
+Stanley was awakened by his servant with a telegram containing only the
+words: "Come to Paris on important business." Stanley travelled to Paris
+by the first train, and at once went to Bennett's hotel. Bennett asked
+him, "Where do you think Livingstone is?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I really do not know, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he is alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may be, and he may not be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think he is alive," said Bennett, "and I am going to send you
+to find him."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Stanley. "Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I mean that you shall go and find him. The old man may be in want;
+take enough with you to help him, should he require it. Do what you
+think best&mdash;<i>but find Livingstone</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In great surprise Stanley suggested that such a journey would be very
+expensive, but Bennett answered, "Draw a thousand pounds now; and when
+you have gone through that, draw another thousand, and when that is
+spent, draw another thousand, and when you have finished that, draw
+another thousand, and so on; <i>but find Livingstone</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," thought Stanley, "I will do my best, God helping me." And so he
+went off to Africa.</p>
+
+<p>He had, however, been charged by his employer to fulfil other missions
+on the way. He made a journey up the Nile, visited Jerusalem, travelled
+to Trebizond and Teheran and right through Persia to Bushire, and
+consequently did not arrive at Zanzibar until the beginning of January,
+1871.</p>
+
+<p>Here he made thorough preparations. He had never been before in the
+Africa of the Blacks, but he was a clever, energetic man, with a genius
+for organisation. He bought cloth enough for a hundred men for two
+years, glass beads, brass wire and other goods in request among the
+natives. He bought saddles and tents, guns and cartridges, boats,
+medicine, tools, provisions and asses. Two English sailors volunteered
+for the expedition, and he took them into his service, but both died in
+the fever country. Black porters were engaged, and twenty men he called
+his soldiers carried guns. After he had crossed over from Zanzibar to
+the African mainland, the equipment of the expedition was completed at
+Bagamoyo, and Stanley made haste to get away before the rainy season
+commenced.</p>
+
+<p>The great and well-found caravan of 192 men in all trooped westwards in
+five detachments. Stanley himself led the last detachment, and before
+them lay the wilderness, the interior of Africa with its dark recesses.
+At the first camping-ground tall maize was growing and manioc plants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+were cultivated in extensive fields. The latter is a plant with large
+root bulbs chiefly composed of starch, but also containing a poisonous
+milky juice which is deadly if the roots be eaten without preparation.
+When the sap has been removed by proper treatment, however, the roots
+are crushed into flour, from which a kind of bread is made. Round a
+swamp in the neighbourhood grew low fan-palms and acacias among
+luxuriant grass and reeds.</p>
+
+<p>Next day they marched under ebony and calabash trees, from the shells of
+which the natives make vessels of various shapes, for while they are
+growing the fruits can be forced by outward pressure into almost any
+desired form. Pheasants and quails, water-hens and pigeons flew up
+screaming when the black porters tramped along the path, winding in
+single file through the grass as high as a man. Hippopotami lay snorting
+unconcernedly in a stream that was crossed.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the forerunners of the rainy season, splashing and pelting
+over the country, and pouring showers pattered on the grass. Both the
+horses of the caravan succumbed, one or two fellows who found Bagamoyo
+more comfortable ran away, and a dozen porters fell ill of fever.
+Stanley was still full of energy, and beat the reveille in the morning
+himself with an iron ladle on an empty tin. On they went through dense
+jungle. Now a gang of slaves toils along, their chains clanking at every
+weary step. Here again is a river, and there the road runs up a hill.
+Here the country is barren, but soon after crops wave again round
+villages. Maize fields in a valley are agitated like the swell of the
+sea, and gentle breezes rustle through rain-bedewed sugar-cane. Bananas
+hang down like golden cucumbers, and in barren places tamarisks and
+mimosas perfume the air. Sometimes a halt is made in villages of
+well-built grass huts.</p>
+
+<p>Over swampy grasslands soaked by the continuous rains Stanley led his
+troop deeper and deeper into Africa. After having lasted forty days, the
+rainy season came to an end on the last day of April. The men marched
+through a forest of fine Palmyra palms, a tree which grows over almost
+all tropical Africa, in India, and on the Sunda Islands, and which is
+extolled in an old Indian poem because its fruits, leaves, and wood can
+be applied to eight hundred and one various uses. Afterwards the country
+became more hilly, and to the west one ridge and crest rose behind
+another. The porters and soldiers were glad to leave the damp coast-land
+behind and get into drier country, but the ridges made travelling
+harder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> They encamped in villages of beehive-shaped huts covered with
+bamboos and bast, and surrounded by mud walls. Some tracts were so
+barren that only cactus, thistles, and thorny bushes could find support
+in the dry soil, and near a small lake were seen the tracks of wild
+animals, buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, wild boars, and antelopes, which
+came there to drink.</p>
+
+<p>Then the route ran through thickets of tamarisk, and under a canopy of
+monkey bread-fruit trees, till eventually at a village Stanley fell in
+with a large Arab caravan, with which he travelled through the dreaded
+warlike land of Ugogo. When they set out together the whole party
+numbered 400 men, who marched in Indian file along the narrow paths.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, White Man?" called out a man at Ugogo in a thundering
+voice when Stanley arrived, and when he had set up his quarters in the
+chief's village the natives flocked around to gaze at the first white
+man they had ever seen. They were friendly and offered milk, honey,
+beans, maize, nuts, and water-melons in exchange for cloth and glass
+beads, but also demanded a heavy toll from the caravan for the privilege
+of passing through their country.</p>
+
+<p>The caravan proceeded through the avenues of the jungle, from time
+immemorial frequented by elephants and rhinoceroses. In one district the
+huts were of the same form as Kirghiz tents, and in another rocks rose
+up in the forest like ruins of a fairy palace. The porters were not
+always easy to manage, and on some occasions were refractory. But if
+they were given a young ox to feast on, they quickly calmed down and sat
+round the fire while strips of fresh meat frizzled over the embers.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was only one day's march to Tabora, the principal village in
+Unyamwezi, and the chief settlement of the Arabs in East Africa. The
+caravan set out with loud blasts of trumpets and horns, and on arrival
+discharged a salvo of guns, and Arabs in white dresses and turbans came
+out to welcome the explorer. Here Stanley found all his caravans, and
+the Arabs showed him every attention. They regaled him with wheaten
+loaves, chickens and rice, and presented him with five fat oxen, eight
+sheep, and ten goats. Round about they had cultivated ground and large
+herds, and it was difficult to believe that the stately well-grown men
+were base slave-traders.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time the country of Unyamwezi was disturbed by a war which
+was raging with Mirambo, a great chief in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> the north-west, and
+consequently when Stanley left Tabora, now with only fifty-four men, he
+had to make a detour to the south to avoid the seat of war. At every
+step he took, his excitement and uncertainty increased. Where was this
+wonderful Livingstone, whom all the world talked about? Was he dead long
+ago, or was he still wandering about the forests as he had done for
+nearly thirty years?</p>
+
+<p>A bale or two of cloth had frequently to be left with a chief as toll.
+In return one chief sent provisions to last the whole caravan for four
+days, and came himself to Stanley's tent with a troop of black warriors.
+Here they were invited to sit down, and they remained silent for a
+while, closely examining the white man; then they touched his clothes,
+said something to one another, and burst out into unrestrained laughter.
+Then they must see the rifles and medicine chest. Stanley took out a
+bottle of ammonia, and told them that it was good for headaches and
+snake-bites. His black majesty at once complained of headache and wanted
+to try the bottle. Stanley held it under the chiefs nose, and of course
+it was so strong that he fell backwards, pulling a face. His warriors
+roared with laughter, clapped their hands, snapped their fingers,
+pinched one another, and behaved like clowns. When the king had
+recovered, he said, as the tears ran from his eyes, that he was quite
+cured and needed no more of the strong remedy.</p>
+
+<p>A river ran among hills, through a magnificent country abounding in
+game, and lotus leaves floated on the smooth water. The sun sinks and
+the moon soars above the mimosa trees, the river shines like a silver
+mirror, antelopes are on the watch for the dangers of the night. Within
+the enclosure of the camp the black men sit gnawing at the bones of a
+newly-shot zebra. But when it is time to set out again from the
+comfortable camp, the porters would rather remain where they are and
+enjoy themselves, and when the horn sounds they go sullenly and slowly
+to their loads. After half an hour's march they halt, throw down their
+loads, and begin to whisper in threatening groups. Two insubordinate
+ruffians lie in wait with their rifles aimed at Stanley, who at once
+raises his gun and threatens to shoot them on the spot if they do not
+immediately drop their rifles. The mutiny ends without bloodshed, and
+the men promise again to go on steadily to Lake Tanganyika, according to
+their agreement.</p>
+
+<p>Now Stanley is in a forest tract where cattle of all kinds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> are pestered
+by the tsetse fly, and where the small honey bird flies busily about
+among the trees. It is like the common grey sparrow, but somewhat
+larger, and has a yellow spot on each shoulder. It receives its name
+from its habit of flying in short flights just in front of the natives
+to guide them to the nests of wild bees, in order to get its share of
+the honey. When a man follows it, he must not make a noise to frighten
+it, but only whistle gently, that the bird may know that its intention
+is understood. As it comes nearer to the wild bees' nest, it takes
+shorter flights, and when it is come to the spot, it sits on a branch
+and waits. Stanley says that the honey bird is a great friend of the
+natives, and that they follow it at once when it calls them.</p>
+
+<p>Stanley now turned northwards to a river which flows into Lake
+Tanganyika. The caravan was carried over in small frail boats, and the
+asses which still survived had to swim. When the foremost of them came
+to the middle of the river he was seen to stop a moment, apparently
+struggling, and then he went down, a whirlpool forming above his head.
+He had been seized by a crocodile.</p>
+
+<p>A caravan which came from Ujiji reported that there was a white man in
+that country. "Hurrah, it is Livingstone! It must be Livingstone!"
+thought Stanley. His eagerness and zeal were stimulated to the
+uttermost, and he offered his porters extra pay to induce them to make
+longer marches. Eventually the last camp before Tanganyika was reached
+in safety, and here Stanley took out a new suit of clothes, had his
+helmet chalked, and made himself spruce, for the reports of a white
+man's presence at the lake became more definite.</p>
+
+<p>The 28th of October, 1871, was a beautiful day, and Stanley and his men
+marched for six hours south-westwards. The path ran through dense beds
+of bamboo, the glittering, silvery surface of Tanganyika was seen from a
+height, and blue, hazy mountains appeared afar off on the western shore.
+The whole caravan raised shouts of delight. At the last ridge the
+village of Ujiji came into sight, with its huts and palms and large
+canoes on the beach. Stanley gazed at it with eager eyes. Where was the
+white man's hut? Was Livingstone still alive, or was he a mere dream
+figure which vanished when approached?</p>
+
+<p>The villagers come streaming out to meet the caravan, and there is a
+deafening noise of greeting, enquiries, and shouts.</p>
+
+<p>From the midst of the crowd a black man in a white shirt and a turban
+calls out, "Good morning, sir!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who the mischief are you?" asks Stanley.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Susi, Dr. Livingstone's servant," replied the man.</p>
+
+<p>"What! Is Dr. Livingstone here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"In this village? Run at once and tell the Doctor I am coming."</p>
+
+<p>When Livingstone heard the news he came out from his verandah and went
+into the courtyard, where all the Arabs of Ujiji had collected. Stanley
+made his way through the crush, and saw a small man before him, grey and
+pale, dressed in a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, a
+red-sleeved waistcoat, and grey trousers. Stanley would have run up to
+embrace him, but he felt ashamed in the presence of the crowd, so he
+simply took off his hat and said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>They sat down on the verandah, and all the astonished natives stood
+round, looking on. The missionary related his experiences in the heart
+of Africa, and then Stanley gave him the general news of the world, for
+of course he knew nothing of what had taken place for years past. Africa
+had been separated from Asia by the Suez Canal. The Pacific Railway
+through North America had been completed. Prussia had taken
+Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, the German armies were besieging Paris,
+and Napoleon the Third was a prisoner. France was bleeding from wounds
+which would never be healed. What news for a man who had just come out
+of the forests of Manyuema!</p>
+
+<p>Evening drew on and still they sat talking. The shades of night spread
+their curtain over the palms, and darkness fell over the mountains where
+Stanley had marched, still in uncertainty, on this remarkable day. A
+heavy surf beat on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The night had travelled
+far over Africa before at last they went to rest.</p>
+
+<p>The two men were four months together. They hired two large canoes and
+rowed to the northern end of Tanganyika, and ascertained that the lake
+had no outlet there. Only two years later Lieutenant Cameron succeeded
+in finding the outlet of Tanganyika, the Lukuga, which discharges into
+the Lualaba; and when he found that Nyangw&eacute; on the Lualaba lies 160 feet
+lower than the Nile where it flows out of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> Albert Nyanza, he had
+proof that the Lualaba could not belong to the Nile, and that
+Livingstone's idea that the farthest sources of the Nile must be looked
+for at Lake Bangweolo was only an idle dream. The Lualaba therefore must
+make its way to the Atlantic, and in fact this river is nothing but the
+Upper Congo. Lieutenant Cameron was also the first European to cross
+Central Africa from east to west.</p>
+
+<p>On the shores of the great lake the two travellers beheld a series of
+beautiful landscapes. There lay villages and fishing-stations in the
+shade of palms and mimosas, and round the villages grew maize and durra,
+manioc, yams, and sweet potatoes. In the glens round the lake grew tall
+trees from which the natives dig out their canoes. Baboons roared in the
+forests and dwelt in the hollow trunks. Elephants and rhinoceroses,
+giraffes and zebras, hippopotami and wild boars, buffaloes and antelopes
+occurred in large numbers, and the northern extremity of the lake
+swarmed with crocodiles. Sometimes the strangers were inhospitably
+received when they landed, and once when they were off their guard the
+natives plundered their canoes. Among other things they took a case of
+cartridges and bullets, and the travellers thought it would be bad for
+the thieves if the case exploded at some camp fire.</p>
+
+<p>It soon became time, however, for Stanley to return to Zanzibar and
+inform the world through the press that Livingstone was alive. They went
+to Tabora, for Livingstone expected fresh supplies, and in addition
+Stanley gave him forty men's loads of cloth, glass beads and brass-wire,
+a canvas boat, a waterproof tent, two breech-loaders and other weapons,
+ammunition, tools, and cooking utensils. All these things were
+invaluable to Livingstone, who was determined to remain in Africa at any
+cost until his task was accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>The day of parting came&mdash;March 14, 1872. Stanley was very depressed,
+believing that the parting was for ever. Livingstone went with him a
+little way and then bade him a hearty farewell, and while Stanley made
+haste towards the coast the Doctor turned back to Tabora and was again
+alone in the immense wilds of Africa. But he had still his faithful
+servants Susi and Chuma with him.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Death of Livingstone</span></h3>
+
+<p>At Zanzibar Stanley was to engage a troop of stout, reliable porters and
+send them to Tabora, where Livingstone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> was to await their arrival. He
+had entrusted his journals, letters, and maps to Stanley's care, and
+that was fortunate, for when Stanley first arrived in England his
+narrative was doubted, and he was coldly received. Subsequently a
+revulsion of feeling set in, and it was generally recognised that he had
+performed a brilliant feat.</p>
+
+<p>In due time the new supply of porters turned up at Tabora, fifty-seven
+men. They were excellent and trustworthy, and in a letter to Stanley,
+Livingstone says that he did not know how to thank him sufficiently for
+this new service. At the end of August the indefatigable Doctor set off
+on his last journey. He made for Tanganyika, and on New Year's Day,
+1873, he was near Lake Bangweolo. It rained harder than ever, pouring
+down as if the flood-gates of heaven were opened. The caravan struggled
+slowly on through the wet, sometimes marching for hours through sheets
+of water, where only the eddies of the current distinguished the river
+from the adjoining swamps and flooded lands. The natives were
+unfriendly, refused to supply provisions, and led the strangers astray.
+Livingstone had never had such a difficult journey.</p>
+
+<p>His plan was to go round the south of Lake Bangweolo to the Luapula,
+which flows out of the lake and runs to the Lualaba. Then he meant to
+follow the water in its course to the north, and ascertain its direction
+and destination.</p>
+
+<p>But whichever way the mysterious river made its way to the ocean, the
+journey was long, and Livingstone's days were numbered. He had long been
+ill, and his condition was aggravated by the hardships of the journey.
+His body was worn out, and undermined by constant fever and insufficient
+nourishment. Yet he did not abandon hope of success and conscientiously
+wrote down his observations, and no Sunday passed without a service with
+his people.</p>
+
+<p>Month after month he dragged himself along, but his strength was no
+longer what it had been. On April 21 he wrote with trembling hand only
+the words, "Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down and they carried
+me back to vil. exhausted." A comfortable litter was made, and Susi and
+Chuma were always with him. Livingstone asked the chief of the village
+for a guide for the next day, and the chief answered, "Stay as long as
+you wish, and when you want guides to Kalunganjovu's you shall have
+them."</p>
+
+<p>The day after he was carried for two hours through marshy, grassy flats.
+During the next four days he was unable to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> write a line in his diary,
+but was carried by short stages from village to village along the
+southern shore of Lake Bangweolo. On April 27 he wrote in his diary,
+"Knocked up quite, and remain&mdash;recover&mdash;sent to buy milch goats. We are
+on the banks of the Molilamo." With these words his diary, which he had
+kept for thirty years, concluded. Milch goats were not to be had, but
+the chief of the place sent a present of food.</p>
+
+<p>Four days later the journey was resumed. The chief provided canoes for
+crossing the Molilamo, a stream which flows into the lake. The invalid
+was transferred from the litter to a canoe, and ferried over the swollen
+stream. On the farther bank Susi went on in advance to the village of
+Chitambo to get a hut ready. The other men followed slowly with the
+litter. Time after time the sick man begged his men to put the litter
+down on the ground and let him rest. A drowsiness seemed to come over
+him which alarmed his servants. At a bend of the path he begged them to
+stop again, for he could go no farther. But after an hour they went on
+to the village. Leaning on their bows, the natives flocked round the
+litter on which lay the man whose fame and reputation had reached them
+in previous years. A hut was made ready, and a bed of grass and sticks
+was set up against the wall, while his boxes were deposited along the
+other walls, and a large chest served as a table. A fire was lighted
+outside the entrance, and the boy Majwara kept watch.</p>
+
+<p>Early on April 20 the chief Chitambo came to pay a visit, but
+Livingstone was too weak to talk to him. The day passed, and at night
+the men sat round their fires and went to sleep when all was quiet.
+About eleven o'clock Susi was told to go to his master. Loud shouts were
+heard in the distance, and Livingstone asked Susi if it was their men
+who were making the noise. As the men were quiet in their huts, Susi
+replied, "I can hear from the cries that the people are scaring away a
+buffalo from their durra fields." A few minutes later he asked, "Is this
+the Luapula?" "No," answered Susi, "we are in Chitambo's village." Then
+again, "How many days is it to the Luapula?" "I think it is three days,
+master," answered Susi. Shortly after he murmured, "O dear, dear!" and
+dozed off again.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight Majwara came again to Susi's hut and called him to the sick
+man. Livingstone wished to take some medicine, and Susi helped him, and
+then he said, "All right, you can go now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>About four o'clock on the morning of May 1 Majwara went to Susi again
+and said, "Come to Bwana, I am afraid; I don't know if he is alive."
+Susi waked Chuma and some of the other men, and they went to
+Livingstone's hut. Their master was kneeling beside the bed, leaning
+forward with his head buried in his hands. They had often seen him at
+prayer, and now drew back in reverential silence. But they felt ill at
+ease, for he did not move; and on going nearer they could not hear him
+breathe. One of them touched his cheek and found it was cold. The
+apostle of Africa was dead.</p>
+
+<p>In deep sorrow his servants laid him on the bed and went out into the
+damp night air to consult together. The cocks of the village had just
+begun to crow, and a new day was dawning over Africa. Then they went in
+to open his boxes and pack up everything. All the men were present so
+that all might be jointly responsible that nothing was lost. They
+carefully placed his diaries and letters, his Bible and instruments, in
+tin boxes so that they might be safe from wet and from white ants, which
+are very destructive.</p>
+
+<p>The men knew that they would have great difficulties to encounter. They
+knew that the natives had a horror of the dead, believing that spirits
+in the dark land of the departed thought of nothing but revenge and
+mischief. Therefore they perform ceremonies to propitiate departed
+spirits and dissuade them from plaguing the living with war, famine, or
+sickness.</p>
+
+<p>Susi and Chuma, who had been with their master for seven years, felt
+their responsibility. They spoke with the men whom Stanley had sent from
+the coast and asked their opinion. They answered, "You are old men in
+travelling and hardships; you must act as our chiefs, and we will
+promise to obey whatever you order us to do." Susi and Chuma accordingly
+took the command, and carried out an exploit which is unique in all the
+history of exploration.</p>
+
+<p>First of all a hut was erected at some little distance from the village,
+and in this they placed the body to prepare it for the long journey. The
+heart and viscera were removed, placed in a tin box, and reverently
+buried in the ground, one of Livingstone's Christian servants reading
+the Funeral Service. The body was then filled with salt and exposed for
+fourteen days to the sun in order to dry and thus be preserved from
+decay. The legs were bent back to make the package shorter, and the body
+was sewed up tightly in cotton. A cylinder of bark was cut from a tree
+and in this the body was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> enclosed. Round the whole a piece of canvas
+was bound, and the package was tied to a pole for convenience of
+carrying. On a tree near, Livingstone's name was cut and the date of his
+death, and Chitambo was asked to have the grass rooted up round the tree
+so that it should not at any time be destroyed by a bush fire.</p>
+
+<p>When all was ready two men lifted the precious burden from the ground,
+the others took their loads on their backs, and a journey was commenced
+which was to last nine months, a funeral procession the like of which
+the world had never seen before. The route ran sometimes through
+friendly, sometimes through hostile tribes. Once they had to fight in
+order to force their way through. News of the great missionary's death
+had preceded them. Like a grass fire on the prairie it spread over
+Africa from coast to coast, creeping silently through the forests. In
+some districts the people ran away from fear of the sad procession,
+while in others they came up to see it. Bread-fruit trees stretched
+their boughs over the road like a canopy over a victor returning home,
+and palms, the emblems of peace and resurrection, stood as sentinels by
+the way, which was left clear by the wild animals of the forest. And
+mile after mile the party marched eastwards under the green arches.</p>
+
+<p>In Tabora they met an English expedition sent out too late for the
+relief of Livingstone, and its members listened with emotion to the tale
+of the men. They wished to bury the corpse at Tabora, but Livingstone's
+servants would not hear of it. A few days later they met with serious
+opposition. A tribe refused to let them pass with a corpse. Then they
+made up a load resembling that containing the body, and gave out that
+they had decided to return to Tabora to bury their master there. Some of
+the men marched back with the false package, which they took to pieces
+at night and scattered among the bush. Then they returned to their
+comrades, who meanwhile had altered the real package so as to look like
+a bale of cloth. The natives were then satisfied and let them move on
+unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1874, they arrived at Bagamoyo, and the remains were
+carried in a cruiser to Zanzibar and afterwards conveyed to England. In
+London there was a question whether the body was really Livingstone's,
+but his broken and reunited arm, which was crushed by the lion at
+Mabotsa, set all doubts at rest. He was interred in Westminster Abbey in
+the middle of the nave. The temple of honour was filled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> to overflowing,
+and among those who bore the pall was Henry Stanley. The grave was
+covered with a black stone slab, in which was cut the following
+inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<p class='center'>"Brought by faithful hands<br />
+Over land and sea,<br />
+Here Rests<br />
+DAVID LIVINGSTONE,<br />
+Missionary, Traveller, Philanthropist.<br />
+Born March 19, 1813,<br />
+Blantyre, Lanarkshire.<br />
+Died May 4th, 1873,<br />
+At Chitambo's Village, Ilala.<br />
+For thirty years his life was spent<br />
+in an unwearied effort to evangelise<br />
+the native races, to explore the<br />
+undiscovered secrets,<br />
+And abolish the desolating slave-trade<br />
+of Central Africa...."</p>
+
+
+<p>The memory of the "Wise Heart" or the "Helper of Men," as they called
+Livingstone, is still handed down from father to son among the natives
+of Africa, and they are glad that his heart remains in African soil
+under the tree in Chitambo's village. His dream of finding the sources
+of the Nile, and of throwing light on the destination of the Lualaba,
+was not fulfilled, but he discovered Ngami and Nyassa and other lakes,
+the Victoria Falls and the upper course of the Zambesi, and mapped an
+enormous extent of unknown country.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Stanley's Great Journey</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1874 Stanley was back in Zanzibar to try his fortune
+once more in Darkest Africa. He organised a caravan of three hundred
+porters, provided himself with cloth, beads, brass-wire, arms, boats
+which could be taken to pieces, tents, and everything else necessary for
+a journey of several years.</p>
+
+<p>He made first for the Victoria Nyanza, and circumnavigated the whole
+lake. He visited Uganda, came again to Ujiji, where Livingstone's hut
+had long been razed to the ground, and sailed all round Lake
+Tanganyika.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Two years after he started he was at Nyangw&eacute; on the Lualaba. Livingstone
+and Cameron had been there before, and we can imagine Stanley's feelings
+when he at last found himself at this, the most westerly point ever
+reached by a European from the coast of the Indian Ocean. Behind him lay
+the known country and the great lakes; before him lay a land as large as
+Europe, completely unknown and appearing as a blank on maps. Travellers
+had come to its outskirts from all sides, but none knew what the
+interior was like. It was not even known whither the Lualaba ran.
+Livingstone had vainly questioned the natives and Arabs about it, and
+vainly Stanley also tried to obtain information. At Nyangw&eacute; the Arab
+slave-traders held their most western market. Thither corn, fruit, and
+vegetables were brought for sale; there were sold animals, fish, grass
+mats, brass-wire, bows, arrows, and spears; and thither were brought
+ivory and slaves from the interior. But though routes from all
+directions met at Nyangw&eacute;, the Arabs were as ignorant of the country as
+any one.</p>
+
+<p>The black continent, "Darkest Africa," lay before Stanley. He was a bold
+man, to whom difficulties were nothing. He had a will of iron. All
+opposition, all obstacles placed in his way, must go down before him. He
+had determined not to return eastwards, whence he had come, but to march
+straight westwards to the Atlantic coast, or die in the attempt.
+Accordingly, early on the morning of November 5, 1876, Stanley left
+Nyangw&eacute; in company with the rich and powerful Arab chief, Tippu Tib, and
+directed his way northwards towards the great forest. Tippu Tib's party
+consisted of 700 men, women, and children, while Stanley had 154
+followers armed with rifles, revolvers, and axes. "Bismillah&mdash;in the
+name of God!" cried the Mohammedan leaders of the company, as they took
+the first step on the dangerous road.</p>
+
+<p>The huge caravan, an interminable file of black men, entered the forest.
+There majestic trees stood like pillars in a colonnade; there palms
+struggled for room with wild vines and canes; there flourished ferns,
+spear-grass, and reeds, and there bushes in tropical profusion formed
+impenetrable brushwood; while through the whole was entangled a network
+of climbing plants, which ran up the trunks and hung down from the
+branches. Everything was damp and wet. Dew dropped from all the branches
+and leaves in a continuous trickle. The air was close and sultry, and
+heavy with the odour of plants and mould. It was deadly still, and
+seldom was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> slightest breeze perceptible; storms might rage above
+the tree-tops, but no wind reached the ground, sheltered in the dimness
+of the undergrowth.</p>
+
+<p>The men struggle along over the slippery ground. Balancing their loads
+on their heads with their hands, they stoop under boughs, push saplings
+aside with their elbows, thrust their feet firmly into the mud in order
+not to slip. Those who are clothed have their clothes torn, while the
+naked black men graze their skins. Very slowly the caravan forces its
+way through the forest, and a passage has frequently to be cut for those
+who carry the sections of the boats.</p>
+
+<p>All who, after Stanley, have travelled through the great primeval forest
+in the heart of Africa have likewise described its suffocating hot-house
+air, the peaceful silence, only broken by the cries of monkeys and
+parrots, its deep, depressing gloom. If the journey is of long duration
+men get wearied, experiencing a feeling of confinement, and long for
+air, freedom, sun, and wind. It is like going through a tunnel, no
+country being visible on either side. The illumination is uniform,
+without shadows, without gleams, and the perpetual gloom, only
+interrupted by pitch-dark night, is exceedingly wearisome. Like polar
+explorers in the long winter night, the traveller longs for the sun and
+the return of light.</p>
+
+<p>The party travelled northwards at some distance east of the Lualaba.
+Stanley climbed up a tree which grew somewhat apart on a hillock. Here
+he found himself above the tree-tops, and saw the sunlit surface of the
+primeval forest of closely growing trees below him. A continuous sea of
+boughs and foliage fell like a swell down to the bank of the Lualaba. Up
+here there was a breeze and the leaves fluttered in the wind; but down
+below reigned darkness and silence and the exuberant life of the
+tropics.</p>
+
+<p>Even for such a man as Stanley this primeval forest was a hard nut to
+crack. Sickness, weariness, and insubordination prevailed in his troop.
+The great Tippu Tib considered it impossible to advance through such a
+country, and wished to turn back with all his black rabble, but after
+much hesitation he was at last persuaded to accompany Stanley for twenty
+days longer. So on they went once more, and after innumerable
+difficulties came again to the bank of the Lualaba.</p>
+
+<p>The huge volumes of water glided along silently and majestically. Brown
+and thick with decaying vegetation, the Lualaba flowed between dense
+woods to the unknown region inhabited by negro tribes never heard of by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+Europeans, and where no white man had ever set his foot. Here Stanley
+decided to leave the terrible forest and to make use of the waterway of
+the Lualaba. There were the boats in sections, and a whole fleet of
+canoes could soon be made from the splendid trees growing at hand. The
+whole caravan was accordingly assembled, and Stanley explained his
+purpose. At first the men grumbled loudly, but Stanley declared that he
+would make the voyage even if no one went with him but Frank Pocock, the
+only survivor of the three white men who had started with him from
+Zanzibar. He turned to his boat's crew and called out, "You have
+followed me and sailed round the great lakes with me. Shall I and my
+white brother go alone? Speak and show me those who dare follow me!" On
+this a few stepped forward, and then a few more, and in the end
+thirty-eight men declared themselves willing to take part in the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture many canoes full of natives were observed at the
+opposite side of the river, so Stanley and Tippu Tib and some other
+Arabs entered the boat and rowed up to a small island in mid-stream.</p>
+
+<p>Here the black warriors were in swarms, and thirty canoes lay at the
+water's edge. At a safe distance, Stanley's interpreter called out that
+the white man only wished to see their country, that nothing belonging
+to them should be touched, and that they themselves should not be
+disturbed. They answered that if the white man would row out to the
+island in the morning with ten servants, their own chief would meet him
+with ten men, and would enter into blood-brotherhood with him. After
+that the strangers might cross the river and visit their villages.</p>
+
+<p>Suspecting treachery, however, Stanley sent twenty armed men by night to
+the island to hide themselves in the brushwood. Then in the morning
+Pocock and ten men rowed out to the meeting-place, near which Stanley
+waited in his boat. A swarm of canoes put out from the western bank, and
+when they came to the island the rowers raised their wild war-whoop,
+<i>Ooh-hu! Ooh-hu-hu!</i> and rushed ashore with bows bent and raised spears.
+Then Stanley's twenty men came out of their hiding-place, the fight was
+short, and the savages dashed headlong into their boats and rowed away
+for their lives.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, with thirty men on board his boat, Stanley began his
+journey down the river, while Tippu Tib and Pocock marched with all the
+rest of the troop along the bank. The natives had retired, but their cry
+of <i>Ooh-hu-hu!</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> was still heard in the distance. On an island between
+the main river and a tributary Stanley's party landed to wait for the
+caravan and help it over the affluent. In the meantime Stanley made a
+short excursion up the tributary, the water of which was inky-black
+owing to the dark tree roots which wound about its bottom. On his return
+he found the camp island surrounded by hostile canoes and heard random
+shots, but when his boat drew near, the savages were frightened and
+rowed away.</p>
+
+<p>At length Tippu Tib straggled up with his party, and the journey could
+be continued. The boat was rowed near the bank, and the two divisions
+were kept in touch with each other by means of drums. All the villages
+they came to were deserted, but the natives were evidently keeping a
+close watch on these wonderful strangers, for one day when some of
+Stanley's men were out scouting on two captured canoes, they were
+attacked, and when they tried to escape they came among eddies and
+rapids, where their boats capsized and four rifles were lost. The men
+climbed up and sat astride the upturned canoes until they were rescued
+by their comrades.</p>
+
+<p>Then the expedition went on again. The river was usually half a mile
+broad or more, and frequently divided by long rows of islands and holms.
+The large village of Ikondu consisted of cage-like reed huts built in
+two long rows. All the inhabitants had fled, but pitchers full of wine
+were suspended from the palms, melons and bananas emitted their
+fragrance, and there was plenty of manioc plantations, ground-nuts, and
+sugar-cane. Near the place was found a large old canoe, cracked, leaky,
+and dilapidated, but it was patched up, put in the river, and used as a
+hospital. Smallpox and dysentery raged in the caravan, and two or three
+corpses were thrown daily into the river.</p>
+
+<p>Once, as the small flotilla was rowing quietly along not far from the
+bank, a man in the hospital canoe cried out. He had been hit in the
+chest by a poisoned barb, and this was followed by a whole shower of
+arrows. The boats were rowed out from the dangerous bank, and a camp was
+afterwards pitched on an old market-place. The usual fence was set up
+round the tents, and sentinels were posted in the bush. Then were heard
+shots, cries, and noise. The watchman ran in calling out, "Look out,
+they are coming," and immediately arrows and javelins rattled against
+the stockade, and the savages rushed on, singing their dreadful
+war-songs. But their arrows and javelins were little use against powder
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> ball, and they soon had to retire. They were reinforced, however,
+and returned again and again to the attack, and did not desist till the
+fight had lasted two hours and twilight had come on.</p>
+
+<p>After other combats, Stanley and Tippu Tib came to a country on the
+western bank densely peopled with hostile natives, where they had to
+fight again. The savages were repulsed, and rowed out to a long island,
+where they moored their canoes by ropes fastened round posts. They would
+certainly renew the attack next day. But this time they were to be
+thoroughly checkmated. Rain pelted down on the river, the night was
+pitch dark, and there was a fresh breeze. Stanley rowed to the island,
+and his boat stole silently and cautiously under the high tree-covered
+bank. He cut the ropes of every canoe he got hold of, and in a short
+time thirty canoes were sent adrift down the river, many of them being
+caught by boatmen posted farther down stream. Before dawn the men were
+back at the camp with their looted boats.</p>
+
+<p>The savages, who lay crouching in their grass hovels on the island, must
+certainly have felt foolish in the morning when they found that they had
+lost their canoes and were left helpless. Then an interpreter rowed out
+to them to put before them the conditions exacted by the white man. They
+had treacherously attacked his troop, killing four and wounding
+thirteen. Now they must furnish provisions, and then they would be paid
+for the captured canoes and peace would be established.</p>
+
+<p>It was important that the expedition should have a few days' rest at
+this place, for Tippu Tib had had enough, and refused to advance a step
+farther down the river with its warlike natives. Accordingly, he was to
+turn back with his black retinue, while Stanley was to continue the
+journey with a selected party, many of whom had their wives and children
+with them. The troop consisted of a hundred and fifty souls. Provisions
+were collected for twenty days. The canoes were fastened together in
+pairs by poles, that they might not capsize, and the flotilla consisted
+of twenty-three boats.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of the last days in December. A thick mist hung over the
+river and the nearest palms were scarcely visible, but a breeze sprang
+up and thinned the haze. Then the trumpets and drums sounded the signal
+for starting, and Stanley gave the order to get into the boats. The
+parting song of the sons of Unyamwezi was answered by Tippu Tib's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+returning troop, and the flotilla of canoes glided down the dark river
+towards unknown lands and destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Stanley believed that this mighty river, which he named after
+Livingstone, was none other than the Congo, the mouth of which had been
+known for more than four hundred years; but he did not reject the
+possibility that it might also unite with the Nile or be connected with
+the Niger far away to the north-west. The journey which was now to solve
+this problem will be famous for all time for its boldness and daring,
+for the dangers overcome and adventures experienced, and is quite
+comparable with the boat journeys of the Spaniards who discovered the
+Amazons and Mississippi rivers in America.</p>
+
+<p>Fourteen villages lie buried in the dense bush, and Stanley's flotilla
+makes for the bank to encamp for the first time after parting from Tippu
+Tib. Here the natives are friendly, but there is trouble a little
+farther on, where the woods echo with the noise of war-drums and the
+savages are drawn up with shield and spear. The drum signals are
+repeated from village to village, from the one bank to the other. Canoes
+are manned and put out from both banks and Stanley's flotilla is
+surrounded. The interpreters call out "Peace! Peace!" but the savages
+answer peremptorily, "Turn back or fight." Consultations and
+negotiations are held, while the river sweeps down the whole assemblage
+of friends and foes. More villages peep out from the trees where dwell
+enemies of the attacking savages, so the latter dip their oars in the
+water and row back without coming to blows.</p>
+
+<p>But soon there was a different scene. Javelins were thrown from other
+canoes and the dreadful poisoned arrows were discharged, so the
+death-dealing European firearms had to be used in self-defence. On this
+occasion Stanley's men succeeded in capturing a number of shields, of
+which indeed they had need.</p>
+
+<p>Again the war-drum is heard, just as the flotilla is passing a small
+island. Stanley orders his boats to keep in the middle of the river
+ready for action. Swarms of canoes shoot out from the bank like wild
+ducks, and the black warriors beat their spears against their shields.
+The interpreter gets up in the bow and shouts out "Peace! Take care or
+we strike!" Then the savages hesitate, and retire quietly under
+promontories and overhanging wooded banks. By the single word "Peace!"
+the interpreter could often check parties of warriors, but others
+answered the offer of peace with a scornful laugh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> and their showers of
+arrows and assegais had to be met with a volley of rifle bullets.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate30.jpg"  width="550" height="332"
+ alt="PLATE XXX." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXX. THE FIGHT ON THE CONGO.<br />
+From Stanley's <i>Through the Dark Continent.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The New Year (1877) had already come, when a friendly tribe warned the
+travellers of dangerous falls and rapids, the roar of which they would
+shortly hear. The flotilla glided along the right bank, and all listened
+for the expected thunder. Suddenly savages appeared on the bank and
+hurled their assegais; then the war-drums were heard again, and a large
+number of long canoes approached (Plate XXX.). The warriors had painted
+one half of their bodies white and the other red, with broad black
+stripes, and looked hideous. Their howls and horn blasts betokened a
+serious attack. By this time Stanley's boats were out in the middle of
+the stream in order of battle, with the shields placed along the
+gunwales to protect the non-combatants. A canoe 80 feet long rowed
+straight for Stanley's boat, but was received by a rattling volley. Then
+it was Stanley's turn to attack, for the great canoe could not turn in
+time. Warriors and oarsmen jumped overboard to save themselves by
+swimming to land, and as the other boats vanished the expedition could
+go on towards the falls.</p>
+
+<p>Now was heard the roar of the water as it tumbled in wild commotion over
+the barriers in its bed. The natives thought that this was just the
+place to catch the strangers, and Stanley had to fight his way step by
+step, sometimes on land and sometimes on the river. In quiet water
+between the various falls the men could row, but in other places paths
+had to be cut through the brushwood on the bank and the canoes hauled
+over land. Often they had to fight from tree to tree. Once the savages
+tried to surround Stanley's whole party in a large net, and lost eight
+of their own men for their trouble. These captives were tattooed on the
+forehead and had their front teeth filed to a point. Like all the other
+people in the country, they were cannibals, and were eager for human
+flesh.</p>
+
+<p>One day at the end of January Stanley's boats crossed the equator, and
+the great river turned more and more towards the west, so that it
+evidently could not belong to the Nile. Here the party passed the
+seventh and last fall, where the brown water hurled itself in mad fury
+over the barrier. Thus the series of cascades afterwards known as the
+Stanley Falls was discovered and passed.</p>
+
+<p>Below the falls the river expands, sometimes to as much as two miles in
+breadth. The opposite bank could hardly be seen, and the boats came into
+a labyrinth of channels between islands. The rowers sang to the swing of
+their oars, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> sharp look-out had always to be kept. Sometimes
+canoes followed them, and occasionally ventured to attack. Wild warriors
+were seen with loathsome features, and red and grey parrots' feathers on
+their heads, and bangles of ivory round their arms.</p>
+
+
+<p>In one village was found a temple with a round roof supported on
+thirty-three elephants' tusks. In the middle was set up an idol carved
+in wood and painted red, with black eyes, hair, and beard. Knives,
+spears, and battle-axes were wrought with great skill, and were
+ornamented with bands of copper, iron, and bone. Among the refuse heaps
+were seen remains of horrible feasts, and human skulls were set up on
+posts round the huts.</p>
+
+<p>Interminable forests grew on the banks and islands, with the many-rooted
+mangrove-tree, tall, snake-like canes with drooping tufts of leaves, the
+dragon's-blood tree, the india-rubber, and many others.</p>
+
+<p>Danger and treachery lurked behind every promontory, and the men had to
+look out for currents, falls, rapids, and whirlpools. Hippopotami and
+crocodiles were plentiful. But the savages were the worst danger.
+Stanley and his men were worn out with running the gauntlet month after
+month.</p>
+
+<p>At the village of Rubunga, where the natives were friendly, Stanley
+heard for the first time that the river actually was the Congo. Here the
+traveller was able to replenish his stock of provisions, and when the
+drums of Rubunga were sounded it was not for battle but to summon the
+inhabitants to market, and from the surrounding villages the people came
+to offer for sale fish, snails, oysters, dried dog-flesh, goats,
+bananas, meal, and bread. As a rule, however, no trust could be placed
+in the natives. In their hideous tattooing, with strings of human teeth
+round their necks and their own teeth filed to a point like a wolf's,
+with a small belt of grass round their loins and spears and bows in
+their hands, they did not inspire confidence, and frequently the boats
+had barely put out from the bank where the people seemed friendly before
+the natives manned their canoes and pursued them. In this region they
+were armed with muskets procured from the coast. Once Stanley's small
+flotilla was surrounded by sixty-three canoes, and there was a hard
+fight with firearms on both sides. In the foremost canoe stood a young
+chief, handsome, calm, and dignified, directing the attack. He wore a
+head-covering and a mantle of goatskin, and on his arms, legs, and neck
+he had large rings of brass wire. A bullet struck him in the thigh. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+quietly wound a rag round the wound and signed to his oarsmen to make
+for the bank. Then the others lost courage and followed their leader's
+canoe.</p>
+
+<p>They struggled southwards from one combat to another. The passage of the
+great curve of the Congo had cost thirty-two fights. Now remained a
+difficult stretch, where the mighty river breaks in foaming falls and
+rapids through the escarpment which follows the line of the west coast
+of Africa. These falls Stanley named after Livingstone; he was well
+aware that the river could never be called by any other name than the
+Congo, but the falls would preserve the great missionary's name.
+Innumerable difficulties awaited him here. On one occasion half a dozen
+men were drowned and several canoes were lost, and the party had to wait
+while others were cut out in the forest. One day Pocock drifted towards
+a fall, and was not aware of the danger until it was too late and he was
+swept over the barrier. Thus perished the last of Stanley's white
+companions.</p>
+
+<p>At another fall the coxswain and the carpenter went adrift in a newly
+excavated canoe. They had no oars. "Jump, man," called out the former,
+but the other answered, "I cannot swim." "Well, then, good-bye, my
+brother," said the quartermaster, and swam ashore. The other went over
+the fall. The canoe disappeared in the seething whirlpool, came up again
+with the man clinging fast to it, was sucked under once more, and rose
+again still with the carpenter. But when it reappeared for the third
+time in another whirlpool the man was gone.</p>
+
+<p>At last all the boats were abandoned and the men travelled by land. The
+party was entirely destitute, all were emaciated, miserable, and hungry.
+A black chief demanded toll for their passage through his country, and
+they had nothing to give. He would be satisfied with a bottle of rum he
+said. Rum, indeed, when they had been three years in the depths of
+Africa! Stanley was reasoning with the chief when the coxswain came and
+asked what was the matter. "There's rum for him," he said, and gave the
+chief a buffet which knocked him over and put his whole retinue to
+flight.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was only a couple of days' journey to Boma, near the mouth of the
+Congo, where there were trade factories and Europeans. Stanley wrote a
+letter to them, and was soon supplied with all necessaries; and after a
+short rest at Boma the party made the voyage round the south of Africa
+to Zanzibar, where Stanley dismissed his men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He then travelled home, and was, of course, f&ecirc;ted everywhere. For a
+thousand years the Arabs had travelled into the interior of Africa, but
+they did not know the course of the Congo. European explorers had for
+centuries striven to penetrate the darkness. The natives themselves did
+not know whither the Lualaba ran. All at once Stanley had filled up the
+blank and knit together the scattered meshes of the net; and now a
+railway runs beside the falls, and busy steamboats fly up and down the
+Congo. Well did Stanley deserve his native name of Bula Matadi, or "the
+breaker of stones," for no difficulty was too great for him to overcome.</p>
+
+<p>After a life of restless activity&mdash;including another great African
+journey to find Emin Pasha, the Governor of the Equatorial Province
+after Gordon's death&mdash;Stanley was gathered to his fathers in 1904. He
+was buried in a village churchyard outside London, and a block of rough
+granite was placed above the grave. Here may be read beneath a cross,
+"Henry Morton Stanley&mdash;Bula Matadi&mdash;1841-1904," and lastly the word that
+sums up all the work of his life, "Africa."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Timbuktu and the Sahara</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the middle of north-western Africa, where the continent shoots a
+gigantic tongue out into the Atlantic, lies one of the world's most
+famous towns, Timbuktu.</p>
+
+<p>Compared with Cairo or Algiers, Timbuktu is a small town. Its three poor
+mosques cannot vie with the grand temples which under French, Turkish,
+or English dominion raise their graceful minarets on the Mediterranean
+shores of Africa. Not a building attracts the eye of the stranger amidst
+a confusion of greyish-yellow mud houses with flat roofs and without
+windows, and neglect and decay stare out from heaps of ruins. There is
+hardly a tottering caravanserai to invite the desert wanderer to rest.
+Some streets are abandoned, while in others the foot sinks over the
+ankle in blown sand from the Sahara.</p>
+
+<p>Timbuktu is not so famous as the sparkling jewels in the diadem of
+Asia&mdash;Jerusalem and Mecca, Benares and Lhasa. The very name of each of
+these is, as it were, a vital portion of a great religion, and indeed
+almost stands for the religion itself. Timbuktu has scarcely any
+religion, or, more correctly, too many. And yet this town has borne a
+proud name during its eight hundred years of existence&mdash;the great, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>
+learned, the mysterious city. No pilgrims flock thither to fall down in
+prayer before a redeemer's grave or be blessed by a high priest. No
+pyramids, no marble temples, make Timbuktu one of the world's wonders.
+No wealth, no luxuriant vegetation exist to make it an outer court to
+Paradise.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img019.jpg"  width="532" height="550"
+ alt="NORTH-WEST AFRICA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>NORTH-WEST AFRICA.</h4>
+
+<p>And yet Timbuktu is an object of desire. Millions long to go there, and
+when they have been, long to get away again. Caravan men who have
+wandered for months through the desert long for the tones of the flute
+and the cithern, and the light swayings of the troops of dancers. Palms
+and mimosa grow sparsely round Timbuktu, but after the dangers of the
+desert the monotonous, dilapidated town with its dusty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> dreary streets
+seems really like an entrance to Paradise. Travelling merchants who have
+risked their wealth in the Sahara among savage robbers, and have been
+fortunate to escape all dangers, are glad at the sight of Timbuktu, and
+think its grey walls more lovely than anything they can imagine.</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable features of Timbuktu are, then, its situation and its
+trade. We have only to take a look at the map to perceive that this town
+stands like a spider in its web. The web is composed of all the routes
+which start from the coast and converge on Timbuktu. They come from
+Tripoli and Tunis, from Algeria and Morocco, from Senegal and Sierra
+Leone, from the Pepper Coast, the Ivory Coast, and Slave Coast, the Gold
+Coast, and from the countries round the Gulf of Guinea, which have been
+annexed by France, England, and Germany. They come also from the heart
+of the Sahara, where savage and warlike nomad tribes still to this day
+maintain their freedom against foreign interference.</p>
+
+<p>In Timbuktu meet Arabs and negroes, Mohammedans and heathens from the
+deserts and fruitful lands of the Sahara and Sudan. Timbuktu stands on
+the threshold of the great wastes, and at the same time on the third in
+rank of the rivers of Africa. At the town the Niger is two and a half
+miles broad, and from its mouth it discharges more water than the Nile,
+but much less than the Congo. Like the Congo, the Niger makes a curve to
+the north, bidding defiance to the Sahara; but the desert wins in the
+end, and the river turns off towards the south.</p>
+
+<p>It is a struggle between life and death. The life-giving water washes
+the choking sand, and just where the strife is fiercest lies Timbuktu.
+From the north goods come on dromedaries to be transported farther in
+canoes or long, narrow boats with arched awnings of matting, or, where
+the river is not navigable, on oxen and asses or the backs of men.
+Dromedaries cannot endure the damp climate near the Niger, which
+especially in winter overflows its banks for a long distance. Therefore
+they are led back through the Sahara. They thrive on the dry deserts.
+The constantly blowing north-east trade-wind dries up the Sahara, and in
+certain regions years may pass without a drop of rain.</p>
+
+<p>The name Timbuktu has a singular sound. It stands for all the mystery
+and fascination connected with the Sahara It leads the thoughts to the
+greatest expanse of desert in the world, to long and lonely roads, to
+bloody feuds and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> treacherous ambushes, to the ring of caravan bells and
+the clank of the stirrups of the Beduins (Plate XXXI.). There seems to
+be a ring in the name itself, and we seem to hear the splash of the
+turbid waters of the Niger in its vowels. We seem to hear the plaintive
+howl of the jackal, the moan of the desert wind, the squealing of
+dromedaries outside the northern gateway, and the boatmen splashing with
+oars and poles in the creeks of the river.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate31.jpg"  width="550" height="322"
+ alt="PLATE XXXI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXI. A GROUP OF BEDUINS.</h4>
+
+<p>Caravans from the northern coast bring cloth, arms, powder, paper,
+tools, hardware, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, and a quantity of other
+articles to Timbuktu. But when they begin their journey through the
+Sahara, only half the camels are laden. The other half are loaded with
+blocks of salt on the way, for salt is in great demand at Timbuktu.
+Caravans may be glad if they come safely through the country of the
+Tuaregs, and at best they can only obtain an unmolested passage by the
+payment of a heavy toll. On the return journey northwards the
+dromedaries are laden with wares from the Sudan, rice, manioc, honey,
+nuts, monkey breadfruit, dried fish, ivory, ostrich feathers,
+india-rubber, leather, and many other things. A small number of black
+slaves also accompany them. The largest caravans contain five hundred or
+a thousand dromedaries and five hundred men at most. The goods they can
+transport may be worth twenty-eight thousand pounds or more. Five great
+caravan roads cross the Sahara from north to south.</p>
+
+<p>Let us set out on a journey from Timbuktu, and let us go first eastwards
+to the singular Lake Chad, which is half filled with islands, is shallow
+and swampy, choked with reeds, rises and falls with the discharge of the
+great rivers which flow into it, and has a certain similarity to Lop-nor
+in Central Asia. Nearly 17 cubic miles of water are estimated to enter
+Lake Chad in the year, and when we know that the lake on the whole
+remains much about the same size, we can conceive how great the
+evaporation must be.</p>
+
+<p>We have our own dromedaries and our own Arab guide on whom we can rely.
+We can therefore go where we like, and we steer our course from Lake
+Chad towards the eastern Sudan, where we have already been in the
+company of General Gordon. But before we come to the Nile we turn off
+northwards to cross the Libyan desert, the most inaccessible and
+desolate, and therefore the least known, part of the Sahara. On our way
+northwards we notice that animal and vegetation life becomes more
+scanty. Even in the Sudan the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> grasslands are more thinly clothed and
+the steppes more desert-like the farther we travel, and at last blown
+sand predominates. We must follow a well-known road which has been used
+for thousands of years by Arabs and Egyptians.</p>
+
+
+<p>We are in the midst of the sea of sand. Here lie at certain places dunes
+of reddish-yellow drift sand as high as the tower of St. Paul's
+Cathedral. We see no path, for it has been swept away by the last storm;
+but the guide has his landmarks and does not lose his way. The sand
+becomes lower and the country more open. Then the guide points to a bare
+and barren ridge which rises out of the sand like a rock out of the sea,
+and says that he can find his way by this landmark, which remains in
+sight for several days, and is then replaced by another elevation.</p>
+
+<p>We encamp at a deep well, drink and water our camels. Next day we are
+out in the sandy sea again. The sky has assumed an unusual hue. It is
+yellow, and soon changes into bluish grey. The sun is a red disc. It is
+calm and sultry. The guide looks serious, and says in a low tone
+"samum." The hot, devastating desert storm which is the scourge of
+Arabia and Egypt is approaching.</p>
+
+<p>The guide stops and turns round. He is uncertain. But he goes on again
+when he sees that we cannot get back to the well before the storm is
+upon us. It is useless to look for shelter, for the dunes are too flat
+to protect us from the wind. And now the storm sweeps down, and it
+becomes suffocatingly close and hot. The dromedaries seem uneasy, halt,
+and turn away from the wind. We dismount. The dromedaries lie down and
+bury their muzzles in the sand. We wrap up our heads in cloths and lie
+on our faces beside our animals to get some shelter between them and the
+ground. And so we may lie by the hour panting for breath, and we may be
+glad if we get off with our lives from a <i>samum</i> when we are out in the
+desert. Even in the oases it causes a feeling of anxiety and trouble,
+for the burning heat is most harmful to palms and crops. The temperature
+may rise to 120&deg; in this dangerous storm, which justifies its name of
+"poison wind."</p>
+
+<p>The storm passes off, the air becomes clear and is quiet and calm, and
+the sun has again its golden yellow brilliance. It is warm, but not
+suffocating as it was. The heated air vibrates above the sand. Beside
+our road appears a row of palms and before them a silver streak of
+water. The guide, however, goes on in quite a different direction, and
+when we ask him why, he answers that what we see is a mirage, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> that
+there is no oasis for many days' journey in the direction in which we
+see the palms.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening we come to a real oasis, and there we are glad to rest a
+couple of days. Here are a hundred wells, here the ground is cultivated
+in the shade of the palms, here we can enjoy to the full the moist
+coolness above the swards of juicy grass. The oasis is like an island in
+the desert sea, and between the palm trunks is seen the yellow level
+horizon, the dry, heated desert with its boundless sun-bathed wastes.</p>
+
+<p>If we now turn off towards the north-west, Fezzan is the next country
+which our route touches. It is a paradise of date palms. They occur in
+such profusion that even dromedaries, horses, and dogs are fed with the
+fruits. The surface of the ground also has undergone a great change, and
+is not so sterile and choked with sand as in the Libyan desert. Here and
+farther to the west the country becomes more hilly. Ridges and bosses of
+granite and sandstone, weathered and scorched by the sun, stand up here
+and there. Extensive plateaus covered with gravel are called <i>hammada</i>;
+they are ruins of former mountains which have burst asunder. In the
+Sahara the differences of temperature between day and night are very
+great. The dark, bare hill-slopes may be heated up to 140&deg; or more when
+the sun bathes them, while during the night the radiation out to space
+is so intense that the temperature sinks to freezing-point. Through
+these continual alternations the rocks expand and contract repeatedly,
+fissures are formed and fragments are detached and fall down. The
+hardest rocks resist longest, and therefore they stand up like strange
+walls and towers amidst the great desolation.</p>
+
+<p>If we go another step westwards we come to the land of the Tuaregs.
+There, too, we find hilly tracts and <i>hammadas</i>, sandy deserts and
+oases, and in favourable spots excellent pastures. We have already
+noticed in Timbuktu this small, sturdy desert people, easily recognised
+by the veil which hides the lower part of the face. All Tuaregs wear
+such a veil, and call those who do not "fly-mouths." They are powerfully
+built, and of dark complexion, being of mixed negro blood from all the
+slaves they have kidnapped in the Sudan. They are as dry and lean as the
+ground on which they live, and nature in their country obliges them to
+lead a nomad life. Wide, simple, and dreary is the desert, and simple
+and free is the nomad's life. The hard struggle for existence has
+sharpened their senses. They are acute observers, clever, crafty, and
+artful. Distance is of no account<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> to them, for they do not know what it
+is to be tired. They fly on their swift dromedaries over half the
+Sahara, and are a terror to their settled neighbours and to caravans. On
+their raids they cover immense distances in a short time. To ride from
+the heart of their country to the Sudan after booty is child's play to
+them. They have made existence in many oases quite unendurable. What use
+is it to till fields and rear palms when the Tuaregs always reap the
+harvest? The French have had many fights with the Tuaregs, and the
+railway which was to pass through their country and connect Algiers with
+Timbuktu is still only a cherished project. Yet this tribe which has so
+bravely defended its freedom against the stranger does not number more
+than half a million people. The Tuaregs are not born to be slaves, and
+we cannot but admire their thirst for freedom, their pride, and their
+courage.</p>
+
+<p>The desert here exhibits the difficult art of living. Even animals and
+plants which are assigned to the desert are provided with special
+faculties. Some of the animals, snakes and lizards for instance, can
+live without water. Dromedaries can go for many days without drinking.
+Ostriches cover great distances to reach water before it is too late.
+Plants are provided with huge roots that they may suck up as much
+moisture as possible, and many of them bear thorns and spikes instead of
+leaves so that the evaporation may be insignificant. Many of them are
+called to life by a single fall of rain, develop in a few weeks, and die
+when long drought sets in again. Then the seeds are left, waiting
+patiently for the next rain. Some desert plants seem quite dead, grey,
+dried-up, and buried in dust, but when rain comes they send out green
+shoots again.</p>
+
+<p>Every river bed is called in the Sahara a <i>wadi</i>. Very seldom does a
+trickle of water run down it after rain, but in these beds the
+vegetation is richer than elsewhere, for here moisture lingers longer
+than in other spots. Many caravans march along them, and gazelles and
+antelopes find pasture here.</p>
+
+<p>A European leaves Algeria to make his way into the Sahara with an
+incomprehensible feeling of fascination. In the French towns on the
+Mediterranean coast he has lived just as in Europe. He has been able to
+cross by train the forest-clad heights of the Atlas Mountains, where
+clear brooks murmur among the trees. He leaves the railway behind, and
+finds the hills barer the farther he travels south. At last the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>
+monotonous, slightly undulating desert stretches before him, and he
+feels the magical attraction of the Sahara drawing him deeper and deeper
+into its great silence and solitude. All the colours become subdued and
+greyish-yellow, like the lion's hide. Everything is yellow and grey,
+even the dromedaries which carry him, his tent and baggage, from well to
+well. He can hardly tell why he finds this country pleasanter than the
+forests and streams on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains; perhaps owing
+to the immense distances, the mysterious horizon afar off, the blood-red
+sunsets, the grand silence which prevails everywhere so that he hardly
+dares speak aloud. It is the magic of the desert that has got hold of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty years ago a large French expedition, under the command of Colonel
+Flatters, marched along this route from Algeria southwards through the
+Sahara. It consisted of a hundred men, including seven French officers
+and some non-commissioned officers, and its equipment and provisions
+were carried by three hundred dromedaries. The French Government had
+sent out the expedition to examine the Tuaregs' country, and to mark out
+a suitable route for a railway through the Sahara to connect the French
+possessions in the north and south. It was not the first time that the
+Colonel had travelled in the Sahara, and he knew the Tuaregs well.
+Therefore he was on his guard. Everything seemed most promising. The
+Frenchmen mapped parts of the Sahara which no European had ever
+succeeded in reaching before&mdash;even the great German traveller, who had
+crossed the Sahara in all directions, had not been there. The most
+dangerous tracts were left behind, and the Tuaregs had offered no
+resistance: indeed some of their chiefs had been friendly. In the last
+letters which reached France, Flatters expressed a hope that he would be
+able to complete his task without further trouble, and to advance even
+to the Sudan.</p>
+
+<p>Then the blow fell. The expedition was suddenly attacked at a well, and
+succumbed after a heroic defence against superior numbers. Most of the
+Frenchmen were cut down. Part of the caravan attempted to reach safety
+by hurrying northwards on forced marches, but was overtaken and
+annihilated. Many brave Frenchmen have met the same fate as Flatters in
+the struggle for dominion over the Sahara.</p>
+
+<p>If we travelled, as we have lately imagined, on swift-footed dromedaries
+in a huge circuit from Timbuktu through the Sudan, the Libyan desert,
+and the land of the Tuaregs, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> should at last come to Morocco, "The
+Uttermost West," as this last independent Sultanate in Africa is called.
+Morocco is the restless corner of Africa, as the Balkan Peninsula is of
+Europe, Manchuria of Asia, and Mexico of North America&mdash;in South America
+all parts are unsettled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h2>NORTH AMERICA</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Discovery of the New World</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Now we must say farewell to Africa. We have in front of us the Straits
+of Gibraltar, little more than six miles broad, the blue belt that
+connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, the sharply defined
+boundary which separates the black continent from the white.</p>
+
+<p>We have but a step to take and we are in Spain. Here, also, a dying echo
+from the splendid period of Arab rule reaches our ears. We are reminded
+that twelve centuries have passed away since the Prophet's chosen people
+conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The sons of Islam were a thorn in the
+sides of the Christians. Little by little they were forced back
+southwards. Only Cordova and Granada still remained in the possession of
+the Arabs, or Moors as they were called, and when Ferdinand the Catholic
+married Queen Isabella of Castile in the year 1469, only Granada was
+left in the hands of the Moors. Their last king lived in his splendid
+palace, the Alhambra in Granada. In 1491 the Spanish army besieged the
+Moorish city. Barely forty years earlier the Mohammedans had taken
+Constantinople. Now other Mohammedans were to be turned out of western
+Europe. New Year's Day 1492 came and Granada fell. The Moorish king had
+to bend humbly on his knees before the victor ere he went on his way,
+and the Castilian flag waved from the towers and pinnacles of the
+Alhambra.</p>
+
+<p>This remarkable incident was witnessed by a mariner from Genoa,
+forty-six years old. His name was Christopher Columbus.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the fall of Granada there was no one among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> the learned
+men of Europe who had any suspicion of the existence of a continent in
+the western ocean, and the Portuguese sought only a sea route to
+India&mdash;the rich land of spices, gold, pearls, and coral. But there was a
+learned mathematician, Toscanelli of Florence, who perceived that, as
+the world was round, a mariner must necessarily reach Japan, China, and
+India by sailing westwards from Europe, and as early as 1474 he produced
+maps and other proofs of the correctness of his theory. It was Columbus,
+by his boldness and ability, who converted this theory into fact.</p>
+
+<p>Christopher Columbus was the eldest of five children of a weaver in
+Genoa. He and his brothers also engaged in the weaving industry, but as
+their father's affairs were anything but flourishing, the sons decided
+to seek a living in foreign countries. Christopher became a sailor, and
+acquired all the qualifications necessary to handle a ship. He gained
+great experience and a thorough knowledge of his new profession. He once
+sailed on an English vessel to Thule or Iceland, the longest voyage
+which mariners of that time dared attempt. Then he tried his fortune in
+Portugal, earning a living by drawing sea-charts and serving as skipper
+on Portuguese vessels sailing to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean
+and to Guinea. In the Portuguese school he learned much which was to be
+of great importance in his future career. He made his home in Lisbon,
+where he married a lady of rank.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this time that he entered into correspondence with Toscanelli,
+who sent him a map of the route over the Atlantic to Japan, and gave him
+much information drawn from Marco Polo's descriptions. These letters
+made a deep impression on Columbus. He wrote back to Toscanelli that he
+thought of sailing westwards to Marco Polo's countries according to his
+instructions, and Toscanelli replied that he was glad to find his ideas
+were so well understood, and that such a voyage would bring great gain
+to Columbus, and an extraordinary reputation among all Christian
+peoples.</p>
+
+<p>Columbus tried in vain to obtain the support he needed for carrying out
+his plan. The King of Portugal and the learned men of the country
+listened to him, but treated him as a presumptuous dreamer. There were a
+few, however, who thought that he might be right, and on their advice
+the King sent a vessel over the ocean without telling Columbus. It soon
+returned without having seen land. When Columbus heard of this
+underhanded proceeding, he left Lisbon in disgust and travelled alone to
+Spain. His wife and children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> never saw him again, except his son Diego,
+who afterwards joined his father.</p>
+
+<p>For two years he travelled from town to town in that part of southern
+Spain which is called Andalusia, selling charts, which he drew with his
+own hand. At last he was received at Court, and was able to set forth
+his plan before an assembly of courtiers and ecclesiastics. But Castile
+was too much occupied with the war against the Moors in Granada and
+Malaga to venture on such a great enterprise, and Columbus had to wait
+for better times.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img020.jpg"  width="550" height="354"
+ alt="TOSCANELLI'S MAP" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>TOSCANELLI'S MAP.</h4>
+
+<p>Two years more passed by and Columbus was again summoned to the Court,
+then in Cordova on the bank of the Guadalquivir. His eloquence and
+enthusiasm had little effect, however, and after two more years of
+useless waiting he resolved to turn his back on Spain and try his
+fortune in France.</p>
+
+<p>Sad and depressed, he followed the great highroad from Cordova. Being
+destitute he went up to a monastery beside the road, knocked at the
+gate, and begged for a piece of bread for his little son Diego, whom he
+held by the hand. While he was talking to the porter the prior came by,
+listened to his words, perceived by his accent that he came from Italy,
+and enquired into his story and his aims. The prior was a learned and
+benevolent man, and entered warmly into the plans of the Italian
+mariner, perceiving that such an opportunity of acquiring lands in
+eastern Asia should not be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> lost to Spain. He accordingly wrote to Queen
+Isabella, and at the end of 1491 Columbus spoke again before the learned
+men of the realm. Some of them treated him as an impostor, but others
+believed his words; and when, after the fall of Granada, the Court had a
+free hand, it was decided to equip Columbus for his first voyage over
+the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>All the negotiations nearly fell through at the last moment, owing to
+the demands of Columbus. He wished to be appointed High Admiral of the
+Ocean and Viceroy over all the savage countries he discovered, and he
+demanded for himself and his descendants an eighth part of all the
+revenues of the new lands. But when he declared that he intended to
+devote his gains to the recovery of Jerusalem from the Turks, his wishes
+were granted and funds were assigned for the equipment of three ships in
+the harbour of Palos.</p>
+
+<p>These vessels each had three masts, but they were far too small for such
+an adventurous enterprise. Only the Admiral's ship, the <i>Santa Maria</i>,
+was completely decked over. The other two, the <i>Pinta</i> and <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i>, had
+only decks fore and aft. The two brothers Pinzon, of noble extraction,
+at once volunteered for the voyage, but it was far from easy to enlist
+crews. Had it been a voyage along the coasts of Europe and Africa, there
+would have been no difficulty in finding men, but for a voyage straight
+out into the unknown ocean&mdash;with that the sailors would have nothing to
+do. At last it was necessary to open the prisons in order to procure
+ninety men, for only that number was needed for the whole three vessels.
+The lists of the crews are still extant, and show that most of the men
+were Castilians.</p>
+
+<p>Two doctors were taken, as well as a baptized Jew, who spoke Hebrew and
+Arabic, and might be useful as an interpreter when the expedition came
+over the ocean to India. Curiously enough, Columbus had no chaplain on
+board, but before he set sail his friend the prior administered the
+sacrament to all his men, who in the opinion of most were doomed to a
+watery death.</p>
+
+<p>Armed with a royal despatch to the Great Khan of Mongolia, Columbus
+stepped on board the <i>Santa Maria</i>, the moorings were cast off, and on
+August 3, 1492, the three ships steered under full sail out into the
+open sea.</p>
+
+<p>They kept on a south-westerly course, and in six days reached the Canary
+Islands, where the little fleet stayed a month to repair some damages
+and patch up the <i>Pinta's</i> broken rudder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On September 8 a definite start was made, and when the lovely Canary
+Islands and the Peak of Teneriffe sank beneath the horizon, the sailors
+wept, believing that wind and sails would carry them from the world for
+ever, and that nothing but water and waves awaited them in the west.</p>
+
+<p>From the first day Columbus kept a very exact diary, which shows how
+thoroughly he embraced Toscanelli's theory and how implicitly he relied
+on his fellow-countryman's calculations. To his crews, however, he
+represented the distance as short, so that their fears should not be
+increased by the thought of the great interval that separated them from
+the Old World. They became more anxious as days came and went, and still
+nothing but boundless deserts of water spread in every direction.</p>
+
+<p>After a week's sail their keels ploughed through whole fields of
+floating seaweed, and Columbus pacified his men by the suggestion that
+this was the first indication of their approach to land.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Santa Maria</i> was a broad and clumsy vessel, really intended to
+carry cargo. She was, therefore, a slow sailer, and the other two ships
+usually took the lead. They were of more graceful build and had large
+square sails, but were of barely half the tonnage of the flagship. But
+all three kept together and were often so close that shouts could be
+heard from one ship to the other. One day Pinzon, captain of the
+<i>Pinta</i>, called out to Columbus that he had seen birds flying westwards
+and expected to sight land before night. They therefore sailed
+cautiously lest they should run aground, but all their apprehension
+ceased when a sounding-line two hundred fathoms long, lowered through
+the floating sea-wrack, failed to reach the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>Their progress was stopped by several days of calm, and it was September
+22 before the sea-weed came to an end and the vessels rolled again out
+to the open bluish-green water.</p>
+
+<p>Through hissing surge the <i>Santa Maria</i> and her two consorts cut their
+way due west. A more favourable breeze could not be wished. It was the
+trade wind which filled their sails. The sailors were afraid of the
+constant east wind, and when at length it veered round for a time,
+Columbus wrote in his journal: "This head-wind was very welcome, for my
+men were mightily afraid that winds never blew in these seas which would
+take them back to Spain."</p>
+
+<p>Toscanelli's map was sent backwards and forwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> between Columbus and
+Pinzon, and they wondered where they really were, and how far it was to
+the islands of eastern Asia. On September 25, Pinzon ascended the poop
+of the <i>Pinta</i> and called out to Columbus, "I see land." Then he fell on
+his knees with all his crew, and, with voices trembling with excitement
+and gratitude, the Castilian mariners sang "Glory to God in the
+Highest." This was the first time a Christian hymn had sounded over the
+waves of the Atlantic. The sailors of the <i>Santa Maria</i> and <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i>
+climbed up into the rigging, and also saw the land and raised the same
+song of praise as their comrades. But next day the longed-for land had
+vanished. It was only a mist which lay over the sea to leeward, a mirage
+in the boundless desert of water.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of October, Columbus began to suspect that he had
+already passed the islands laid down on Toscanelli's map, and he was
+glad that he had not been detained by them but could sail straight on to
+the mainland of India. By India was meant at that time the whole of
+eastern Asia.</p>
+
+<p>On October 7 the men on all the three vessels were sure that they saw
+land. Every sail was set. Each vessel thought it an honour to reach it
+first. The <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i> took the lead. At sunrise the flag of Castile was
+hoisted to the topmast and a shot thundered from its poop. During the
+day the land vanished again. But now flocks of birds were seen, all
+making south-westwards, and Columbus gave orders to follow in the same
+direction. He wrote in his diary: "The sea, thank God, lay like the
+river at Seville, the temperature was as mild as in April at Seville,
+and the air was so balmy that it was delightful to breathe it."</p>
+
+<p>But they sailed day after day and through the nights, and still there
+was nothing to be seen but water. The men had several times given vent
+to their discontent, and now began to grumble again. Columbus soothed
+them and reminded them of the reward that awaited them when they had
+attained their goal. "Besides, their complaints were useless, for I have
+sailed out to reach India, and intend to prolong my voyage until, with
+God's help, I have found it."</p>
+
+<p>On October 11 a log was seen floating in the sea with marks on it
+apparently cut by human hands; and shortly after, a branch with clusters
+of berries. Then the sailors became content, and the Admiral promised a
+reward to the man who first sighted land. All kept their eyes open and
+watched eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening Columbus thought he saw a flash of light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> as though a man
+were carrying a torch along a low shore, and later in the night one of
+the <i>Pinta's</i> men swore that land was visible in front. Then all sails
+were taken in and they waited for the dawn.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun rose on October 12, 1492, its rays illumined, before the
+eyes of the Spaniards, a flat grass-covered island which Columbus called
+San Salvador or St. Saviour, after Him who had rescued them from the
+perils of the sea. This island evidently lay north of Japan&mdash;at any
+rate, it would appear so from Toscanelli's map. Little did Columbus and
+his men suspect that a whole unknown continent and the world's greatest
+ocean, the Pacific, still separated them from Japan. The small island
+was one of the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island. If the
+voyages of the Northmen five hundred years earlier be left out of
+account, this island was the first point of the New World reached by
+Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>The great day was begun with the <i>Te Deum</i>. The officers congratulated
+the Admiral, the sailors threw themselves at his feet and begged
+forgiveness for their insubordination. A boat was lowered, into which
+stepped Columbus with the flag of Castile in his hand, followed by the
+Pinzon brothers with the Banner of the Cross, and a few others. Without
+knowing it, Columbus stepped on to the soil of America. Solemnly he took
+possession of San Salvador on behalf of the crown of Castile. A cross
+was erected on an elevation on the shore in token that the island was in
+Christian hands.</p>
+
+<p>The natives must have been astonished when they saw the three wonderful
+ships arrive off their coast and white men come ashore. At first they
+held aloof, but with beads and other gifts the Spaniards soon gained
+their confidence. They had only wooden javelins for weapons, did not
+know iron, had long lanky hair, not woolly like the negroes, were naked,
+and painted their bodies red and white. They knew gold, and that was
+well, for it was gold, and gold above everything, that Columbus needed
+to free the Holy Sepulchre from the Turks. These savages had gold rings
+in their noses, and when the Spaniards inquired by signs where the gold
+came from, they pointed towards the south-west.</p>
+
+<p>Columbus, of course, called them Indians. Seven of them were taken on
+board. They were to go to Spain and "learn to talk," so that they might
+act as interpreters on subsequent voyages.</p>
+
+<p>Then the voyage of discovery was resumed. The ships<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> had to be sailed
+with great caution, for dangerous reefs lay round the islands. According
+to the signs made by the savages two large islands lay to the south. One
+must be Japan, and when Columbus landed on the coast of Cuba and heard
+of a prince named Kami, he thought that this man must be the Great Khan,
+and that he was really on the mainland of eastern Asia. Accordingly he
+sent his Jew and two of his savages ashore to look for the Great Khan.
+They were four days away and searched as well as they could among the
+tent-like huts of the natives, but never saw a glimpse of any Mongolian
+Great Khan in Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>Exceedingly beautiful was this strange coast, reminding them of Sicily.
+Sweet song of birds was heard, there was an odour of fruits, and green
+foliage and palms waved like plumes in the breeze. The Spaniards were
+astonished to see the natives walking about smoking rolled-up leaves
+which they called tobacco, and had no notion what a source of wealth
+these leaves in the form of cigars would become in the future. Pinzon on
+the <i>Pinta</i> must have been bewitched by all the wonders he saw, for he
+ran off with his vessel to seek the land of gold on his own account.
+Columbus himself sailed across to the large island of Haiti, which as
+usual he took possession of in the name of Castile. The natives received
+him everywhere with amazement and submission, believing that he was an
+emissary from the abode of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>On the northern coast of the island a great misfortune occurred on
+Christmas Eve. An inexperienced steersman was at the <i>Santa Maria's</i>
+rudder, and let the vessel run on a sandbank, where it became a wreck.
+The crew had to take refuge on the <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i>. The natives helped to save
+all that was on board, and not even a pin was stolen.</p>
+
+<p>But the <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i> could not hold them all, and how were they to get back to
+Spain? Columbus found a way out of the difficulty. He decided to found a
+colony on the coast. Forty men were to be left behind to search for
+gold, and by the time Columbus returned from Spain they would no doubt
+have a tun full of the precious metal, and that would be enough for the
+conquest of Jerusalem. The sailors were only too glad to remain, for
+they found the natives accommodating and the climate good. It was in all
+respects much pleasanter than to endure hardship on the <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i>, and
+perhaps founder with the wretched little ship.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, a blockhouse was built of wreckage from the <i>Santa Maria</i>,
+was surrounded by a wall and moat and pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>visioned, and after presenting
+the chief of the Indians with a shirt and a pair of gloves, Columbus
+weighed anchor and steered for home.</p>
+
+<p>He had not sailed far before he fell in with the <i>Pinta</i>, and took the
+independent Pinzon into favour again. Then they sailed eastwards across
+the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>On February 12 a storm arose. All the sails were furled and the two
+ships lost sight of one another for good. The <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i> pitched horribly
+and threatened to sink. All made ready for death. Columbus, fearing that
+his discoveries would perish with him, wrote a narrative on parchment,
+covered it with wax and placed it in a cask, which was entrusted to the
+angry waves. The sailors thought that it was an offering with which
+Columbus sought to allay the storm.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the <i>Ni&ntilde;a</i> arrived safely at the southernmost island of
+the Azores, and thence continued her voyage to the mouth of the Tagus
+and Lisbon.</p>
+
+<p>On March 15 the inhabitants of Palos saw the most famous of all the
+ships of the world come into the harbour. The people streamed down with
+the wildest jubilation and all the church bells were rung. The same
+evening the <i>Pinta</i> also sailed in, but was very differently received,
+for it was already known that Pinzon wished to usurp the honour of the
+discovery, being convinced that Columbus's vessel had been lost in the
+storm. No one took any notice of him, and he died a few days later,
+probably of chagrin and sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>In Seville Columbus received a summons from the King and Queen, who were
+staying in Barcelona. His journey through Spain was one great triumphal
+progress. He was feted as a conqueror in every town. He was conducted in
+a brilliant procession through the streets, six copper-brown "Indians"
+marching at the head with coloured feathers in their head-dresses. This
+was Christopher Columbus, who had given new lands to Spain, who had
+discovered a convenient sea route to India just at the time when the
+Portuguese were looking for a route thither round the coast of Africa.
+In Barcelona all his titles and privileges were solemnly confirmed. Now
+he was actually the Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of India. Now he
+had attained the height of worldly honour.</p>
+
+<p>Then began the time of adversity.</p>
+
+<p>On his second voyage, when he set out with seventeen ships, he
+discovered the northern Antilles as far as Porto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> Rico and came in
+contact with cannibals. At Haiti he found that the forty men whom he had
+left behind on his first voyage had been killed by the natives. He took
+it for granted that Cuba was the mainland of Asia, and that thence the
+journey to Spain might be made dryshod by following Marco Polo's
+footsteps. Discontent was rife among his men, the natives rose up
+against the intruders, rivals sprang up around him like mushrooms, and
+in the home country he was abused by high and low.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to Spain to put everything right; but this time he was no
+longer received with rejoicing, and found that he had now a formidable
+rival in Portugal. In the year 1497 Vasco da Gama discovered the real
+sea route to the real India by sailing round the south of Africa, an
+event which, in the eyes of that generation, quite eclipsed the
+discoveries of Columbus. In India inexhaustible riches were to be found,
+whereas the poor islands of Columbus had simply cost money, ships, and
+men.</p>
+
+<p>But the strong will of Columbus overcame all obstacles, and for the
+third time he sailed for his fictitious India. Now he held a more
+southerly course, and discovered the island Trinidad, and found that the
+water between it and the coast of Venezuela was fresh. There must then
+be a large river near. This river was the Orinoco.</p>
+
+<p>Disturbances broke out again in Haiti, and Columbus's opponents sent
+home complaints against him. A Royal Commission was sent out to hold an
+enquiry, and in the end arrested the Admiral and sent him in chains to
+Spain. The captain of the vessel wished to remove his fetters and leave
+him free as long as he was on board, but Columbus would not consent, for
+he wished to retain them as a "reminder of the reward he had got for his
+services."</p>
+
+<p>But when he was led in chains through the streets of Cadiz, the scene of
+his former triumph, the displeasure of the people was aroused, and at
+the Court Columbus met with a friendly reception. He even succeeded in
+fitting out a fourth expedition and crossed the Atlantic in nineteen
+days. The new Governor forbade him to land, and Columbus expressed his
+indignation that he, the discoverer, should not be allowed to set foot
+on his own islands. He then steered westwards and came to the coast of
+Honduras, and thence followed the coast of Nicaragua southwards. He
+fully and firmly believed that this was Malacca, and that farther south
+would be found a passage to India proper. He sailed back towards Cuba,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
+but was driven by bad weather to Jamaica, where in great extremity he
+had to run his ship ashore. One of his trusty men rowed for four days in
+a canoe over the open sea to Haiti to beg for help. Meanwhile the
+shipwrecked men were in hard case. The natives threatened them, and
+refused them all help. Columbus knew that an eclipse of the moon would
+shortly occur, and told the natives that if they would not help them,
+the God of the Spaniards would for ever deprive them of the light of the
+moon. And when the shadow of the earth began to move over the moon's
+disc, the natives were terrified, fell at the feet of Columbus, and
+promised him everything. He pretended to consider the matter, but at
+last allowed himself to be persuaded and promised that they should keep
+their moon. And then the shadow moved off quietly into space, leaving
+the moon as bright as a silver shield.</p>
+
+<p>At last he received assistance, and in 1504 was back in Spain. No one
+now paid any attention to him. His property was confiscated, his titles
+were not restored to him, and even the outstanding pay of his followers
+was kept back. Ill with gout and vexation, he stayed at first in
+Seville. His former friends did not know him. Lonely and crushed down by
+grief and disappointment, he died in 1506 at Valladolid. No one took any
+notice of his decease, and not a chronicle of the time contains a word
+about his death. Even in the grave he seemed to find no rest. He was
+first interred quietly in Valladolid; then his remains were transferred
+to a monastery church in Seville; half a lifetime later his body was
+carried to San Domingo in Haiti, where it rested for 250 years until it
+was deposited in the cathedral of Havana in Cuba; and finally, when Cuba
+was lost to the United States, the remains of the great discoverer were
+again brought back to Spain.</p>
+
+<p>Columbus was a tall, powerfully built man, with an aquiline nose, a pink
+and freckled complexion, light-blue eyes and red hair, which early
+became white in consequence of much thought and great sorrows. During
+four centuries of admiration and detraction his life and character have
+been dissected and torn to bits. Some have seen in him a saint, a
+prophet; others have called him a crafty adventurer, who stole
+Toscanelli's plan in order to gain power, honour, and wealth for
+himself. But when, about twenty years ago, the fourth century since his
+discovery was completed, full amends were made to his memory and his
+achievements were celebrated throughout the world. He opened new fields
+for unborn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> generations, he extended the bounds of the earth, and guided
+the world's history into new channels.</p>
+
+<p>Four years before the death of Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci of Florence,
+who made four voyages across the ocean, suggested that the new lands had
+nothing to do with Asia, but were a "New World" in distinction to the
+Old; and a German schoolmaster, who wrote a geographical text-book,
+suggested in the introduction that as the fourth continent had been
+discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vesputius), there was no reason
+why it should not be called Amerigo or America after its discoverer. The
+proposal was accepted, and only too late was it realised that Columbia
+would have been the proper name.</p>
+
+<p>One discovery followed after another, and the coasts of America
+gradually assumed on charts and maps the form with which we are
+familiar. Let us for a moment dwell on another of the most striking
+voyages in the history of the world. In the year 1519 the Portuguese
+Magelhaens sailed along the east coast of South America and discovered
+the strait which still bears his name; and what is more, he found at
+last, through this strait, the western passage to India. He sailed over
+an immense ocean, where the weather was good and no storms threatened
+his ships; and accordingly he called it the Pacific Ocean. Other
+dangers, however, awaited him. The mariners sailed for four months over
+unbroken sea, suffering from hunger and disease. At last three of the
+vessels reached the Philippines. There Magelhaens landed with a small
+party, and was overpowered and slain by the natives. Only one of the
+ships, the <i>Victoria</i>, came home, but this was the first vessel which
+sailed round the world.</p>
+
+<p>During the succeeding centuries white men struck their claws ever firmer
+into America. The Indians were forced back into the backwoods, and in
+North America they have been almost exterminated. Under French, and
+later, under English rule, those parts of North America have developed
+an unexpected power and wealth which were despised by the Spaniards, who
+in their boundless greed of gain thought of nothing but gold.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">New York</span></h3>
+
+<p>In a house in a Swedish countryside sit an old man and woman talking
+seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great pity," says the old woman, "that Gunnar is beginning to
+think of America again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he will never rest," replies the old man, "till we have given our
+consent and let him go. To-day he says that an emigration 'touter' has
+promised him gold and green forests if he will take a ticket for one of
+the Bremen line steamers. I reminded him that the farm is unencumbered,
+but he answered that it could not provide for both his brothers and
+himself. 'It was a very different thing for you, father,' he said, 'but
+there are three of us to divide the produce.' He thinks it is a hopeless
+task to grub in our poor stony hills, when boundless plains in the
+western states of North America are only waiting to be ploughed, and in
+any factory he can be earning wages so large as to yield a small income
+for several years."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I know, it is his cousins who have put this fancy in his
+head with their glowing letters. But I suppose we cannot prevent him
+going if his heart is set on it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do? He is a free man and must go his own way."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps it is best. When he is home-sick he will come back
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it will be long enough before that happens. At starting all
+seems so fine. 'I shall soon come home with a small pile.' In reality
+all his memories will grow faint within a year, and the distance to the
+red cottage will seem to grow longer as time flies. I mourn for him as
+dead already; he will never come back."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>A few days after this our emigrant Gunnar breaks all ties and tears up
+all the roots which since his birth have held him bound to the soil of
+Sweden. He travels by the shortest route to Bremen and steps on board an
+emigrant steamer for New York. During the long hours of the voyage the
+people sit on deck and talk of the great country to which they are all
+bound. Before the last lighthouse on the coast of Europe is lost to
+sight, Gunnar seems to have all America at his finger-ends. The same
+names are always ringing in his ears&mdash;New York, Philadelphia, Chicago,
+and San Francisco have become quite familiar, and he has only to insert
+between them a number of smaller towns, a few rivers, mountains, and
+lakes, to draw in a few railway lines, to remember the great country of
+Canada to the north and mountainous Mexico in the south, to place at
+three of the corners of the continent the peninsulas of Alaska,
+California, and Florida, and at the fourth the large island of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>
+Newfoundland, and then his map of North America is complete.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The voyage over the Atlantic draws to an end. One day a growing
+restlessness and excitement is perceptible, and the travellers cast
+inquiring glances ahead. It is said that the American coast will be
+visible in an hour. And so it is. An irregular line appears to
+starboard. That is Long Island. Two hours more, and the boat glides into
+the mouth of the Hudson River and comes alongside at Ellis Island in the
+harbour of New York. A row of other vessels lie moored at the quays.
+These also have brought immigrants to America and will soon return to
+fetch more. They must go backwards and forwards year out and year in to
+carry three thousand persons daily to the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar has packed his things in good time and takes up a favourable
+position from which he can observe his fellow-travellers. He has never
+heard such a noise and never seen such bustle. The people throng the
+gangways, call to one another, haul out their discoloured portmanteaus
+and their roped bundles. There are seen Swedes and Germans, Polish and
+Russian Jews, Galicians and Croats mingled together, some well dressed
+and with overcoats, others in tattered clothes and with a coarse
+handkerchief in place of a collar.</p>
+
+<p>Yonder, overlooking New York harbour, stands the colossal statue of
+Liberty, a female figure holding a torch in her right hand. When
+darkness lies over the earth she throws a dazzling beam of electric
+light out over the water, the quays, houses, and ships. But Gunnar
+experiences no feeling of freedom as he sets his foot on American soil.
+He and all his fellow-travellers are provided with numbered tickets and
+marshalled into long compartments in a huge hall. Then they are called
+out one after another to be questioned, and a doctor comes and examines
+them. Those who suffer from lung disease or other complaint, or being
+old and feeble have no prospect of gaining a livelihood, receive a
+peremptory order of exclusion on grey paper and must return by the next
+vessel to their fatherland. The others who pass the examination proceed
+in small steamers to the great city, where, among the four millions of
+New York, they vanish like chaff before the wind.</p>
+
+<p>From whatever land they may come they always find fellow-countrymen in
+New York, for this city is a conglomera<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>tion of all the peoples of the
+world, and seventy different languages are spoken in it. A third of its
+inhabitants have been born in foreign countries. In Brooklyn, the
+quarter on Long Island, there are whole streets where only Swedes live.
+In the "Little Italy" quarter live more Italians than there are in
+Naples, in the "Chinese Town" there are five thousand Chinese, and even
+Jews from Russia and Poland have their own quarter. Gunnar soon finds
+that New York is more complicated than he supposed when he was rolling
+out on the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile he decides to take it easy at first, and to learn his way
+about before plunging into the struggle for existence. In Brooklyn he
+soon meets with a fellow-countryman and gets a roof over his head. A
+pleasant, well-to-do railway employ&eacute; from Stockholm takes pleasure in
+showing him about and impressing him with his knowledge of America.</p>
+
+<p>"This town must be old," says Gunnar, "or it could not have grown so
+large."</p>
+
+<p>"Old! No, certainly not. Compared to Stockholm it is a mere child. It is
+barely three hundred years old, and at the time of Gustavus Adolphus it
+did not contain a thousand inhabitants. But now it is second only to
+London."</p>
+
+<p>"That is wonderful. How can you account for New York becoming so large?
+Stockholm and Bremen are pigmies beside it. I have never seen the like
+in my life. There are forests of masts and steamboat funnels in all
+directions, and at the quays vessels are loaded and unloaded with the
+most startling speed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but you must remember that the population of the United States
+increases at an extraordinary rate. During last century it doubled every
+twenty years. And remember also that nearly half the foreign trade of
+the Union passes through New York. Hence are exported grain, meat,
+tobacco, cotton, petroleum, manufactured goods, and many other things.
+It is, therefore, not remarkable that New York needs 36 miles of quays
+with warehouses, and that more than seventy steamboat lines sail to and
+from the port. And, besides, it is a great industrial town. Think of its
+position and its fine harbour! Eastward lies the Atlantic with routes to
+Europe; westwards run innumerable railway lines, five of which stretch
+right through to the Pacific coast."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me something about the railways," exclaims Gunnar, who wants to go
+out west at the first favourable opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can give you information about them, for I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> been working on
+several lines. As far back as 1840 the United States had 2800 miles of
+railway, and twenty years later 30,000 miles. Now it has nearly two
+hundred and forty thousand miles of rails, a strip which would reach to
+the moon or ten times round the equator. The United States have more
+railways than all Europe, though the population is only a fifth that of
+Europe; but the area is about the same."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you explain this rapid development of railway enterprise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the fact is that at first the aim was to fill up the gaps between
+the waterways. Rivers were relied on as long as possible, and the first
+railways were built in districts where there were no large rivers. Then
+in course of time various lines converged together, new railways were
+constructed, and now the forty-nine States are covered with a connected
+network of lines. Moreover, the country roads are so bad that they must
+be supplemented by railways."</p>
+
+<p>"A large number of bridges must be necessary across all the large
+rivers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly. The Americans are adepts in bridge-building, and the
+railway bridges over the Mississippi and Missouri and other rivers are
+masterpieces of the boldest art. Where lines cross deeply eroded
+valleys, bridges of timber were formerly built, like sky-scraping
+parapets with rails laid along the top; but such bridges are now fast
+disappearing and iron bridges are built, and the trains run at full
+speed over elegant erections which from a distance look just like a
+spider's web. Just look to your left. There you have one of the world's
+strongest bridges, the suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn.
+It is of colossal dimensions, and yet it looks so fine and delicate as
+it hangs between its two mighty piers. You see that vessels with the
+tallest masts can pass clear below, for it is poised 135 feet above high
+water. The length is nearly a mile and a quarter. It is wonderful that
+men have been able to stretch this huge span of iron above the water.
+Wait a little and you will see a kind of aerial railway."</p>
+
+<p>Then the Stockholm man takes his new friend to a station to travel on
+the elevated railway through New York. Gunnar's astonishment is beyond
+bounds as he rushes along on a framework, supported by innumerable iron
+pillars, over streets and squares, and sees the seething crowd moving in
+carriages and on foot below his feet.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here is the Central Park. Is it not delightful with its leafy trees and
+cool pools? In summer it is burning hot in the town, and it is
+refreshing to rest an hour or two in the shade of the trees. The winters
+are equally cold, and raw, biting winds blow from the east coast. Here
+is Fifth Avenue, the finest street of New York. In the row of palaces
+you see here live millionaires, railway kings, steel kings, petroleum
+kings, corn kings, a whole crop of kings. But I would rather we went to
+look at the rows of houses facing the Hudson River."</p>
+
+<p>"New York lies, then, on the Hudson River?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is so, but more properly speaking New York stands on the island of
+Manhattan in the mouth of the river. We are standing, then, on
+Manhattan, and it is interesting to recall the fact that this island was
+sold three hundred years ago by Indians to Dutchmen for the sum of four
+pounds. It is rather more valuable now! Just look at the hideous
+sky-scrapers with their twenty and thirty storeys" (Plate XXXII.).</p>
+
+<p>"I was just wondering why houses are built so enormously high."</p>
+
+<p>"That is owing to the tremendous value of the ground. When there is not
+space enough to build out laterally, the buildings are piled up
+heavenwards, where there is plenty of room. They are certainly not
+handsome. Look at this row of houses, some of moderate height, others as
+tall as chimneys. Are they not like a row of keys moved by invisible
+gigantic fingers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should not like to live in such a building, I am sure. On the top
+floor I should be giddy with the height, and on the first I should
+expect the whole mass to tumble down on me."</p>
+
+<p>"We are better off in Brooklyn, where the houses are of moderate height.
+To-morrow I will show you something not less remarkable than the wealthy
+quarter of the city. I will take you to the Chinese town. There Chinese
+swarm in the dirty lanes; there the whole place reeks of onions and
+tobacco and spirits from the public-houses; there are vile gambling
+hells and opium dens; and there paper lanterns on fishing rods hang
+outside the tea-houses. Then we can take a look at 'Little Italy,' a
+purely Italian town in the midst of the New York of the Americans. There
+you will see only Italian books in the book-shops, there Italian
+newspapers are read, there wax candles burn round images of the Madonna
+in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> churches, and black-haired, brown-eyed children from sunny Italy
+play in the gutters. And we must not forget 'Little Russia,' the Jews'
+quarter. The Jews are a remarkable people; you never see them drunk, and
+you never hear of any crime or felony committed by them. They live
+poorly, cheaply, and sparingly, and seem cheerful in their booths beside
+the streets."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate32.jpg"  width="365" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE XXXII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXII. "SKY-SCRAPERS" IN NEW YORK.</h4>
+
+
+<p>"All this is very well, but I do not understand where all the immigrants
+go. I am told that as many as three thousand persons land daily on Ellis
+Island. At this rate New York receives yearly an addition of a million
+souls."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but how many do you think remain in New York? Most of them go up
+country and out westwards. Some improve their position and then repair
+to other fields of work. But many also stay here and increase the slum
+population. The immigrants who are destitute on landing take work in
+factories at any wage they can get. The wages they receive seem very
+high compared to those in their own country, but they are low for
+America. Accordingly the immigrant Europeans thrust out the Americans,
+and therefore there are two millions out of work in the United States.
+And so there are failures, human wrecks, who are a burden to others. If
+you like we will try this evening to get to a midnight mission and see
+the poor wretches waiting in crowds for the doors to open. They have a
+worn, listless expression, but when the doors are open they wake up and
+rush in, fill all the benches in the large hall, and go to sleep in all
+imaginable positions."</p>
+
+<p>"What do they do there?"</p>
+
+<p>"A missionary preaches to them, but they are hungry and weary, and sleep
+soundly on their benches. Among them you will find tramps and vagabonds,
+professional beggars and thieves, idlers and men out of work. In the
+daytime they beg and steal, and now at night they take their sleep in
+the mission. When the preacher finishes, they file out and go to the
+bread stalls to get food. Such is their life day after day, and they
+sink ever deeper into misery."</p>
+
+<p>"They are the slag that remains after the precious metal has run off, of
+course. It is curious to think of a people that is increased by a
+never-failing stream of immigrants. What will be the end of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one can answer that question. Everything is possible with Americans.
+They are a mixture of English, Scandinavian, German, Dutch, Italian, and
+Russian blood, to name only the principal constituents of this complex
+blend, this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> huge incorporation. Out of all these elements one day an
+American race will emerge, when Ellis Island has closed its gates to
+emigrants from Europe."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img021.jpg"  width="368" height="550"
+ alt="NORTH AMERICA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>NORTH AMERICA.</h4>
+
+<p>"Tell me another thing, now. Why is not New York, the most important
+city, also the capital of the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was thought that the city which bears the name of the great
+Washington had a more convenient and more central position with regard
+to the States of the original federation. The population of Washington
+is only about 330,000, and there are fifteen larger cities in the United
+States, but it is the centre of government. There the President lives in
+White House, there Congress assembles in the Capitol, there stands the
+Washington monument surrounded by large national buildings, and there
+three universities are established."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chicago and the Great Lakes</span></h3>
+
+<p>After our friend Gunnar has seen as much as he wants of New York, he
+obtains a good post in a large factory, but he stays there only two
+months, for with other Swedes he receives an offer from Philadelphia
+which he does not hesitate to accept. His idea is to work his way
+gradually westward. If he can only get as far as Chicago he thinks it
+will not be difficult to go on to San Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>Now he works in a yard where more than a thousand locomotives are made
+annually. This yard seems to him quite a town in itself. Here the iron
+is made white hot in immense furnaces, there it is hammered and rolled,
+and with irresistible power human hands convert the hard steel into
+steam boilers, wheels, axles, and parts of machines which are put
+together to form engines. The workshop is traversed in all directions by
+rails, and the completed steam-horses are sent out all over the railway
+systems of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Gunnar learns from his mates that Philadelphia is one of the largest
+cities of the world, with nearly a million and a half inhabitants, and
+that in America only New York and Chicago are larger.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>After a while, however, Gunnar has had enough of Philadelphia, and takes
+a ticket for Pittsburg, the steel and iron capital, where immigrants
+never need be in want of a post. He travels without a change of
+carriages between the two towns, traversing the whole of Pennsylvania.
+Innumerable branch lines diverge in all directions, for towns and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
+villages are everywhere. Here a railway runs to a mine, there another to
+a district rich in maize and tobacco, and here again a third to a timber
+yard. At the station stand long trains laden with grain, planks,
+petroleum, cotton, reaping machines, coal&mdash;in fact all the wares that
+the earth can produce by its fertility, and men by the labour of their
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>The country becomes hilly, and the train winds about through the
+northernmost part of the Alleghany Mountains. Gunnar lets his eyes rove
+with strained attention over the dark woods, the waving fields, and the
+smoke rising from villages and farmhouses, when an American comes and
+sits down on the seat just in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that you are a newcomer in America," says the stranger. "It may
+then interest you to know that the crest of the Alleghany Mountains,
+composed of granite, gneiss, and slates, is the watershed between the
+Atlantic and the Mississippi. You must not suppose that these mountains
+are everywhere as low as here; far down south-west, in North Carolina,
+there are summits more than six thousand feet high. Maize and fruit are
+grown in the valleys, and there are fine forests of pines and foliage
+trees. And there are places where you lose yourself in dense clumps of
+rhododendrons and climbing plants. And there are wild recesses where men
+never go, but where bears and wolves have their haunts among broken
+branches and twigs, fallen trunks and moss-grown granite boulders, and
+where nothing is changed since the time when the Indian tribes went on
+the war-path. But where are you bound for?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Pittsburg to look for work, for I was a smith at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Pittsburg! I was foreman in some steel works there for two years,
+and I have never seen anything more wonderful. You know that this town
+has sprung up out of the earth as if by magic. When petroleum springs
+were discovered, it increased at double the rate, and now it is one of
+the world's largest industrial towns, and, as regards iron and steel,
+the first in America. Here materials are manufactured to the value of
+more than nineteen million pounds annually. Almost inexhaustible
+deposits of coal are found in the neighbourhood. More than twenty
+railway lines converge to Pittsburg, which also has the advantage of
+three navigable rivers, and a network of canals. And round about the
+town are suburbs full of machine factories, steel works, and glass
+works. The neighbourhood has a million of inhabitants,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> a third of them
+foreigners, mostly Slavs, Italians, and Hungarians. You have a kind of
+feeling of oppression when you see from a height this forest of reeking
+factory chimneys, and when you think of the unfortunate men that slave
+under this cloud of coal smoke. There is a hammering and beating
+everywhere, and a rumble of trains rolling over the rails. Overheated
+furnaces bubble and boil, and sparks fly out under the steam hammers. At
+night you might think you were in the bottom of a volcano, where lava
+boils under the ashes ready to roll out and destroy everything. A weird
+reddish-yellow light flames forth from thousands of fires, lighting up
+the under side of the thick smoke cloud. I am sorry for you if you are
+going to Pittsburg. You had much better travel straight on to Chicago.
+Not that Chicago is a paradise, but there are better openings there, and
+you will be nearer the great West with its inexhaustible resources."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks for your advice. I am the more ready to follow it because I
+always intended to get to Chicago sometime."</p>
+
+<p>"From Pittsburg," continues the American, "a line runs direct to the
+large town of St. Louis on the Mississippi. St. Louis is a junction of
+great importance, for not only do a whole series of great railway lines
+meet there, but also innumerable steamboats ply from there up the
+Mississippi and Missouri, and to all the large towns on their
+tributaries. St. Louis is the centre of all the winding waterways which
+intersect all parts of the United States. And there you can travel on
+comfortable flat-bottomed steamers along the main river to New Orleans,
+a great harbour for the export of cotton. You can well conceive what a
+blessing and source of wealth this river is to our country. It is of
+immense extent, for it is the longest river in the world, if we take its
+length from the sources of the Missouri in the Rocky Mountains, and in
+the area of its basin it is second only to the Amazons. Its plain is
+exceedingly fruitful, and far around its banks grain shoots up out of
+the soil to feed many millions of human beings. And its waterways,
+ramifying like the nerves of a leaf, facilitate communication and the
+transport of goods between the different States.</p>
+
+<p>"You should just see how the great river rises in spring. You might
+think you were sailing on a large lake, and, as a matter of fact, it
+floods an area as large as Lake Superior. If the Mississippi is a
+blessing to men, on the other hand in spring it exacts a heavy tax from
+them. The vast volumes of brown, muddy water often cut off sharp bends
+from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> river-bed and take short cuts through narrow promontories. By
+such tricks the length of the river is not infrequently shortened by ten
+or twelve miles here and there. But you can imagine the trouble this
+causes. A town standing on such a bend may one fine day find itself six
+miles from the bank. In another the inhabitants are in danger of being
+at any time drowned like cats. A railway bridge may suddenly be
+suspended over dry land, while the river has swept away rails and
+embankment a little farther off. Our engineers have great difficulty in
+protecting constructions from the capricious river in spring. Not a year
+passes without the Mississippi causing terrible destruction and
+inflicting great loss on those who dwell near its banks, especially in
+cattle.</p>
+
+<p>"You have only to see this water to comprehend what immense quantities
+of earth, sand, and mud are yearly carried down by it. And all this silt
+is deposited in the flat delta below New Orleans. Therefore the delta
+extends from year to year farther out into the Gulf of Mexico. This is
+an easy way of increasing our territory, but we would willingly
+sacrifice the gain if we could get rid of the terrible floods in
+spring."</p>
+
+<p>The train with our two travellers on board has now crossed the boundary
+of Pennsylvania, and is making its way westwards through the states of
+Ohio and Indiana. Boundless plains extend to north and south, planted
+with maize, wheat, oats, and tobacco. Maize fields, however, are the
+most frequent, and the harvest is just beginning. Gigantic reaping
+machines, drawn by troops of horses, mow down the grain and bind it into
+sheaves, while other machines throw it into waggons. The reapers have
+only to drive the horses; all the rest is done by the machines.
+Certainly men's hands could never be able to deal with all this grain;
+whole armies could be hidden under the ears of maize.</p>
+
+<p>Now the train skirts the shore of Lake Michigan, which stretches its
+blue surface northwards, and a little later halts at Chicago.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Gunnar has been directed to an agency for Swedish workmen, and the first
+thing he does is to call there. In a day or two he obtains work in the
+timber business, and goes up to Canada in a large cargo steamer which
+carries timber from the forests of Canada to Chicago. Here the timber
+supplies seem to him inexhaustible when he sees the dark coniferous
+woods on the shores and hills, and when he notices that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> hundreds of
+steamboats are carrying the same freight. The workman beside him, an
+Englishman, boasts of the immense territory which occupies almost all
+the northern half of North America.</p>
+
+<p>"Canada is the most precious jewel in the crown of Great Britain, next
+to the mother-country and India."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is Canada so valuable? I always thought that its population was
+very small."</p>
+
+<p>"It has not many people; you are right there. Canada has only seven
+million inhabitants."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not more! That is just about as many as Greater London."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and yet Canada is as large as all Europe and as the United States
+of America. It stretches so far to east and west that it occupies a
+fourth part of the circuit of the earth, and if you travel from Montreal
+to Vancouver you have a journey of 2906 miles. But you can well
+understand that such an extensive country, even though it is thinly
+peopled, especially in its cold, northern parts, must yield much that is
+valuable to its owners."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly; so it is in Siberia, where the population is also
+scanty."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so. In Canada fields, mountains, forests, and water yield an
+immense revenue. Think only of all the agricultural produce which is
+shipped from here, not to speak of gold, fish, and furs. The wheat
+produced in Canada is alone worth over 22 million pounds sterling a
+year. There are also huge areas which are worthless. We get little
+advantage from the northern coasts, where the Eskimos live."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite at home on these lakes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. When a man has sailed to and fro over them for ten years, he
+knows all about the roadsteads and channels, and about when the ice
+forms and breaks up, and when there is a prospect of a storm."</p>
+
+<p>"But the storms cannot be very dangerous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you do not believe in them. All the same they may be just as
+dangerous as in the Atlantic, and when a real hurricane comes, the
+skipper will do well to seek shelter, or at the best he will lose his
+cargo. You will soon have opportunities of seeing, hearing, and feeling
+how the surge beats just as on the coast of the ocean. But then, all
+these lakes have an aggregate area more than half as large as the
+Baltic, and if we take the depth into account we shall find that the
+volume of water is the same as in the Baltic. Lake Superior<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> is the
+largest lake in the world. Beyond the point yonder lies Lake Huron. You
+must acknowledge that this scenery is beautiful. Have you ever seen
+anything to equal this sheet of dark-blue water, the dark-green woods,
+and the grand peaceful shores? It is a pity that we do not go to Lake
+Erie, for at its eastern extremity is one of the wonders of the world
+and the most famous spectacle in North America."</p>
+
+<p><a name="NIAGARA" id="NIAGARA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate33.jpg"  width="359" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE XXXIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXIII. NIAGARA FALLS.</h4>
+
+<p>"You mean the Falls of Niagara, which I have heard described so many
+times?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Think of a steamboat on Lake Erie sucked along by the stream that
+flows to Ontario. This lake lies 300 feet lower than Erie, and about
+half-way between the two lakes the water passes over a sharp bar and
+plunges with a thundering roar into the depth below (Plate XXXIII.). The
+barrier itself, which is a thousand yards broad, is formed of a huge
+stratum of sandstone, and the rocks under it are loose slates. Erosion
+proceeds more rapidly in the slates than in the hard limestone, which,
+therefore, overhangs like the projecting leaf of a table, and the
+collected volumes of water hurl themselves over it. But when the
+limestone is so far undermined that it is no longer able to bear the
+weight of the water, fragments break off from time to time from its edge
+and fall into the abyss with a deafening noise. Thus in time the fall
+wears away the barrier and Niagara is moving back in the direction of
+Lake Erie."</p>
+
+<p>"Moving, do you say? The movement can surely not be rapid."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no; Niagara needs about seventeen thousand years to move half a mile
+nearer to Lake Erie."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, for now I can be sure it will be there when I visit
+it at some future opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you would find it even if a crowd of railway lines did not run
+to it. You hear the roar of the 'thunder water' forty miles away, and
+when you come closer you see dense clouds of foam and spray rising from
+the ravine 150 feet below the threshold of the Fall. Yes, Niagara is the
+most wonderful thing I have seen. In all the world it is surpassed only
+by the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, discovered by Livingstone. One
+feels small and overawed when one ventures on the bridges above and
+below the Fall, and sees its 280,000 cubic feet of water gliding one
+moment smooth as oil over the barrier, and the next dashing into foam
+and spray below with a thundering noise."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be pleasant to be sucked over the edge."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And yet a reckless fellow once made the journey. For safety he crept
+into a large, stout barrel, well padded inside with cushions. Packed in
+this way, he let the barrel drift with the stream, tip over the edge of
+the barrier, and fall perpendicularly into the pool below. As long as he
+floated in the quiet drift, and even when he fell with the column of
+water, he ran no danger. It was when he plumped down on to the water
+below and span round in the whirlpools, bumped against rocks rising up
+from the bottom, and was carried at a furious pace down under the watery
+vault. But the traveller got through and was picked up in quiet water."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that there are bridges over the Niagara River as over all the
+others in the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. Among them is an arched bridge of steel below the Falls
+which has a single span of 270 yards, and is the most rigid bridge in
+the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, where does all this water go to below Niagara?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it flows out into Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, the largest
+town in Canada. Then it runs out of the lake's north-eastern corner,
+forming winding channels among a number of islands, which are called The
+Thousand Islands. Then the river, which is called the St. Lawrence, is
+sometimes narrow and rapid and sometimes expands into lake-like reaches.
+At the large town of Montreal begins the quiet course, and below Quebec
+the St. Lawrence opens out like a huntsman's horn. The river is frozen
+over every year, and in some places the ice is so thick that rails can
+be laid on it and heavy goods trains run over it. In spring, when the
+ice begins to break up, the neighbourhood of the river is dangerous, and
+sometimes mountains of ice thrust themselves over the lower parts of
+Montreal. It can be cold in Montreal&mdash;down to-30&deg;. It is still worse in
+northern Canada. And the summer is short in this country."</p>
+
+<p>"You have just mentioned Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. Which is the
+capital?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, none of these is the capital of the Colony. That honour belongs to
+the small town of Ottawa. And now I will tell you something
+extraordinary. The Dominion of Canada is situated between two
+goldfields. In the extreme east is Newfoundland, in the extreme west
+Klondike. I shall never forget the gold fever which seized adventurers
+in nearly all countries when it was known that the precious metal
+occurred in large quantities in the gravel and sand-beds on the banks of
+the Yukon River. I was one of them myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> Men rushed wildly off to get
+there in time and stake out small claims in the auriferous soil. What a
+wild life! How we suffered! We had to pay a shilling for a biscuit and a
+dollar for a box of sardines. We were glad when a hunter shot elk and
+reindeer, and sold the meat for an exorbitant price in gold dust. We
+lived huddled up in wretched tents and were perished with cold. Furious
+snowstorms swept during winter over the dreary country and the
+temperature fell to-67&deg;. And what a toil to get hold of the miserable
+gold! The ground is always frozen up there. To work in it you must first
+thaw the soil with fire. By degrees the situation improved and a small
+town grew up on the goldfield, and in a few years the gold won attained
+to the value of five millions sterling."</p>
+
+<p>"And the other gold mine, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Newfoundland. A cold polar current brings yearly quantities of seal,
+cod, salmon, herring, and lobster down to the banks of Newfoundland,
+where more than fifty thousand fishermen are engaged in catching them.
+As the fish brings in yearly a revenue of several millions, this
+easternmost island of North America may well be called a gold mine too."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Through the Great West</span></h3>
+
+<p>After a few profitable voyages on Lakes Michigan and Huron, Gunnar has
+saved so much that he can carry out his plan of travelling to the
+extreme West. He intends to let his dollars fly in railway fares, and,
+after he has seen enough of the great cities of America, to settle down
+in the most attractive district. There he will stay and work until he
+has saved up enough to buy a farm of his own in his native country.</p>
+
+<p>He sets off from Chicago and leaves St. Louis behind him, and is carried
+by a train on the Pacific Railway through Missouri and Kansas westwards.
+In the latter State he flies over boundless prairies.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually a German naturalist enters Gunnar's carriage when the train
+stops at a large station. He is dusty and out of breath, and is glad to
+rest when he has seen his boxes and chests stowed away in the luggage
+van. Like all Germans he is alert and observant, agreeable and
+talkative, and the train has not crossed the boundary between Kansas and
+Colorado before he has learned all about Gunnar's experiences and
+plans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Soon the German on his part explains the business which has brought him
+out to the Far West.</p>
+
+<p>"I have received a grant from the University of Heidelberg to collect
+plants and animals in the western States, and I travel as cheaply as I
+can so that the money may last longer. I love this great America. Have
+you noticed how colossal everything is in this country, whether the good
+God or wicked man be the master-builder? If you cross a mountain range
+like the Rocky Mountains, or its South American continuation, the Andes,
+it is the longest in the world. If you roll over a river, as the
+Mississippi-Missouri, you hear that this also is the longest that
+exists. If you travel by steamboat over the Canadian lakes, you are told
+that no sheets of fresh water in the world surpass them. And think of
+all these innumerable large towns that have sprung up within a century
+or two. And these railways, these astonishing bridges, these
+inexhaustible natural resources, and this world-embracing commerce. How
+alert and industrious is this people, how quickly everything develops,
+how much more bustle and feverish haste there is than in the Old World!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is charming to see the Rocky Mountains become more and more
+distinct, and the different chains and ridges stand out more sharply as
+we approach."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. You notice by the speed of the train that we are already
+mounting upwards. You see the prairies pass into the foot of the hills.
+We shall soon come into the zone of dwarf oaks and mahogany trees.
+Higher up are slopes covered with fine pine woods, and willows and
+alders grow along the banks of the streams."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak of trees. Is it true, as a skipper on Lake Michigan told me,
+that there are trees here in the west which are over three hundred feet
+high?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true. Your informant meant, of course, the two species of the
+coniferous family which are called mammoth trees, because they are the
+giants of the vegetable kingdom, as the mammoths were of the animal
+kingdom. They grow on the western flanks of the Sierra Nevada in
+California. When one sees these heaven-aspiring trees one is tempted to
+believe that their only aim in life is to rise so high that they may
+look over the crest of the coast range and have a free view of the
+Pacific Ocean. One of these giants which fell long ago had a height of
+435 feet and a girth of 110 feet at the base. It was called the 'Father
+of the Forest.' The trunk is hollow. There is also another fallen
+mammoth called the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> 'Riding School,' because a man on horseback can ride
+some way into the inside. These trees are supposed to be several
+thousand years old. The place in the Sierra Nevada where the last giants
+stand on their ancient roots is protected and is the property of the
+whole people. If the law did not protect the trees, they would go the
+same way as the bisons and Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there not also a reserved area in the Rocky Mountains?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the Yellowstone National Park in the state of Wyoming. It is a
+wonderful place, and whole books have been written about it. There are
+as many as four thousand hot springs and a hundred geysers in the lower
+part of the valley between the crests of the Rocky Mountains. The Giant
+Geyser shoots up to a height of 250 feet, and 'Old Faithful' spouts up
+once an hour. The Park contains many other natural wonders, and there
+are preserved herds of wild animals, such as elks, antelopes, and stags.
+Even beavers have found a refuge in its streams."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there dangerous beasts of prey in these mountains?" asks Gunnar
+while the train puffs and rolls heavily up a dark valley.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the grizzly bear is the largest of them. He is not so particularly
+dangerous, and at any rate is better than his reputation. If he is only
+left in peace he will not come near a man, and if he is attacked he
+almost always takes to flight. But if he is wounded at close quarters he
+may take a terrible revenge, and he is the strongest of all the animals
+in his native haunts. It was formerly considered a great honour to wear
+a necklace of a grizzly bear's teeth and claws.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a fine sight to see a grizzly bear roaming through the woods and
+thickets, where he considers himself absolute master of all the animals
+of the region. He is sometimes brownish, sometimes grey, and a grey bear
+is supposed to be more dangerous than a brown. He lives like all other
+bears, hibernates, eats berries, fruit, nuts, and roots, but he also
+kills animals and is said to be very expert in fishing. I will tell you
+a little hunting story.</p>
+
+<p>"A white hunter was once eager for an opportunity of killing a grizzly
+bear, and a young Indian undertook to lead him to a spot where he would
+not have to wait long. The two marksmen hid behind a small knoll, after
+having laid out a newly-killed deer as bait. The Indian, who knew the
+habits of bears, was not mistaken. Soon a huge bear came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> waddling out
+of the wood with such a ridiculous gait that the white hunter could
+hardly control his laughter, though the Indian remained silent and
+serious. The old fellow stopped frequently, lifted his nose in the air,
+and looked about to convince himself that no danger lurked around. Once
+he began to scratch in the ground, and then smelled his forepaws and lay
+down on his back and rolled. He wanted probably to rub his coat in some
+strongly smelling plant.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he went on again. After a time he sat and clawed his fur, looked
+at his paws, and licked his pads. Then he scratched himself behind the
+ears with his hind paws. And when his toilet was finished he trotted
+straight towards the place where the deer lay. When he saw the animal he
+was surprised, reared up on his hind legs to his full height, cocked his
+ears, wrinkled his forehead, and seemed perplexed. When he was sure that
+the stag was dead he went up to it and smelt it. Then he went round and
+nosed about on the other side to see if the animal were dead on that
+side also.</p>
+
+<p>"His meditations were here interrupted, for the white hunter fired and
+the bear fell, but raised himself again on his hind legs. The hunter
+followed his example, but the Indian, who saw that the bear was in an
+angry and revengeful mood, advised him to hide himself again quickly.
+Too late! The furious bear had seen his enemy, and rushed in a rolling
+gallop towards his hiding-place. The hunter found it best to run, and in
+a minute was with the Indian perched on the bough of an oak. Here they
+loaded their guns again, while the bear, limping on three legs, made for
+the tree. Hit by two bullets he fell down, tore up the earth and grass
+with his claws, and at last became still."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a shame," said Gunnar, "to kill these kings of the Rocky
+Mountains for amusement or to gain a name as a hunter. Probably they are
+fated to pass away like the bisons and Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, not yet. They will long survive in inaccessible regions of the
+mountains and in the uninhabited parts of Canada. But certainly it is a
+shame to destroy them unnecessarily, particularly when we hear of such a
+deed of chivalry as the following.</p>
+
+<p>"A traveller took a young grizzly bear with him to Europe, and on board
+he was a general favourite. He drank and ate and played with the
+sailors, and, curiously enough, conceived a great friendship for a small
+antelope which travelled with him. When the vessel came into port and
+the antelope was being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> led along a street, a large bulldog fell on the
+defenceless animal. The bear, which was led behind the antelope by a
+chain, perceived his friend's danger, tore himself away from his keeper
+with a single jerk, threw himself on the bulldog, and mauled him so
+badly that he ran away howling with pain."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"You may well declare," says Gunnar, "that everything in America is on a
+large scale, but all the same lions and tigers are not found here."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but there are jaguars and pumas instead. Both are more common in
+South than in North America, where the jaguar only comes as far north as
+the south-western States and Mexico. They are found in the outskirts of
+forests and in the tall grass of the pampas, where wild horsemen track
+them down, catch them in lassoes, and drag them after their horses till
+they are strangled. The jaguar also frequents thickets on the
+river-banks and marshes. He keeps to the ground, whereas the bold and
+agile puma even pursues monkeys in the trees. With shrill screams and
+cries of warning the monkeys fly from tree to tree, but the puma is
+after them, crawls out along a swaying branch and jumps over to another
+on the next tree. Both are bloodthirsty robbers, but the jaguar is the
+larger, stronger, and more savage. He can never be properly tamed, and
+never loses his innate treacherousness, but the puma becomes as tame as
+a dog.</p>
+
+<p>"The puma never attacks a man, but you must be on your guard against a
+jaguar. Both are enemies of flocks and herds, but while the puma never
+worries tame animals larger than sheep, the jaguar will often attack
+horses, mules, and young cattle. The jaguar hunts only at daybreak and
+twilight, or when the moon shines brightly; the puma only in the evening
+and at night. The puma is dark reddish-yellow, the jaguar orange with
+black spots and rings on his fur, a marking which reminds one of the
+colour of certain poisonous snakes. The puma's cubs are charming little
+creatures, like kittens, but larger. Their eyes do not open until they
+are ten days old; then they begin to crawl about very awkwardly,
+tumbling down at every other step, and climb up on their mother's back.
+They soon become sure on their feet and, like kittens, play with their
+mother's tail.</p>
+
+<p>"The jaguar is a keen and patient hunter. He crawls along on his belly
+like a cat, and from the recesses of the thicket watches his victim
+without moving an eye. He creeps nearer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> with wonderful agility and
+noiselessness, and when he is sure of success he makes his spring, tears
+open the throat of the antelope, sheep, or waterhog, and drags his booty
+into the thicket. Small animals he swallows hair and all. Of a horse he
+eats as much as he can, and then goes off to sleep in some concealed
+spot. When he awakes he goes back to his meal.</p>
+
+<p>"On one road in South America twenty Indians were killed by jaguars
+within a lifetime. If a man has presence of mind enough to shout and
+make a noise and go towards the brute, the latter withdraws. Otherwise
+he is lost, for even if he escapes with his life, the wounds inflicted
+by the jaguar's blunt claws and teeth are terrible and dangerous. There
+are Indians in South America who are said to hunt the jaguar in the
+following manner. They wrap a sheepskin round the left arm and in the
+right hand hold a sharp two-edged knife. Then they beat up the jaguar
+and set dogs at him. He gets up on his hind legs like a bear, and
+attacks one of the Indians. The man puts out his left arm for him to
+bite, and at the same time runs his knife into the beast's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"A traveller relates a very good jaguar tale. Some sailors from Europe
+had landed on the bank of a river in South America. Suddenly they saw a
+jaguar swimming over from the farther bank. They hurriedly seized their
+guns, manned their boat, and rowed out to meet the animal. A shot was
+fired and the jaguar was wounded, but instead of making off, he came
+straight for the boat. The sailors belaboured him with the oars, but he
+paid no attention and managed to drag himself on to the boat, when the
+crew all jumped out and swam to the bank. The jaguar remained, and
+drifted comfortably down the river. A little farther down came a boat of
+other sailors, and this time it was the jaguar who jumped out and
+disappeared among the thickets on the bank. It was a great feat to make
+his escape after tackling two boats' crews."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The train continues on its noisy course through the mountains. Dark,
+wild glens open on either side. The monotonous rumble of the wheels on
+the rails has a soothing effect, and the German, following the example
+of many other travellers, goes to sleep in his corner.</p>
+
+<p>But when the tireless locomotive draws its row of heavy carriages out on
+to a giddy bridge and the waves of sound sing in brighter tones than in
+the enclosed valleys, the compartment wakes to life again. People look
+out of the windows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> and gaze at the yawning depth beneath them. The
+train seems to be rolling out into space on the way to heaven.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate34.jpg"  width="405" height="550"
+ alt="PLATE XXXIV." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXIV. CA&Ntilde;ONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER.</h4>
+
+<p>The German lights a cigar and begins another lecture to his
+fellow-traveller.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are passing over one of the source streams of the Colorado
+River. You seem disinclined to admit that everything is grand in
+America, but I maintain that nothing in the world can compare with the
+great ca&ntilde;on of the Colorado. You may believe me or not. You may talk of
+fire-vomiting mountains and coral reefs, of the peak of Mount Everest
+and the great abysses of the ocean, of our light blue Alps in Europe and
+of the dark forests of Africa, nay, you may take me where you will in
+the world, but I shall still maintain that there is no stupendous
+overpowering beauty comparable to the ca&ntilde;ons of the Colorado River
+(Plate XXXIV.).</p>
+
+<p>"Listen! This river which discharges its waters into the Gulf of
+California is fed by numerous streams in the rainy, elevated regions of
+the Rocky Mountains. But where the united river leaves Utah and passes
+into Arizona, it traverses a dry plateau country with little rain, where
+its waters have cut their way down through mountain limestone to a depth
+of 6000 feet. The strata are horizontal, and the whole series has been
+cleared away by the continued erosive power of water, aided by gravel
+and boulders. This work has been going on from the commencement of the
+period in the world's history known as the Pliocene Age, and it is
+reckoned that the interval which must have elapsed since then must have
+amounted to millions of years. And yet this space of time, from the
+Pliocene Age to our own, must, geologically speaking, be extremely
+insignificant compared to the length of the great geological periods.
+The six thousand years which we call the historical period is but the
+beat of a second on the clock of eternity, and what the historian calls
+primeval times is the latest and most recent period in the last of all
+the geologist's ages. For while the historian deals with revolutions of
+the sun of only 365 days, the geologist is only satisfied with thousands
+and millions of years. The Colorado River has presented him with one of
+the standards by which he is able to calculate lapse of time. You will
+acknowledge that it is no small feat for running water to cut its way
+down through solid rock to a depth of 6500 feet; and these ca&ntilde;ons are
+more than 180 miles long and four to eleven miles broad.</p>
+
+<p>"By its work here the river has sculptured in the face of the earth a
+landscape which awes and astonishes the spectator.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> It is like nothing
+he has ever seen before. When he stood at the foot of the Alps he gazed
+up at the snow-clad wastes of the mighty mountain masses. When he stands
+at the edge of the ca&ntilde;ons of the Colorado he looks down and sees a
+yawning chasm, and on the other side of the giddy ravine the walls rise
+perpendicular or sloping. He seems to stand before the artistically
+decorated facade of a gigantic house or palace in an immense town. He
+sees in the walls of the valley, niches and excavations like a Roman
+theatre, with benches rising in tiers. At their sides stand gables and
+projections of rock, like turrets and buttresses. Under huge cornices
+rise columns standing out or attached at the back, all planned on the
+same gigantic scale. The precipitous cliffs are dark, and the whole
+country is coloured in pink, yellow, red, and warm brown tones. The sun
+pours its gold over the majestic desolation. No grassy sward, no
+vegetation carpets the horizontal or vertical surfaces with green. Here
+and there a pine leans its crown over the chasm, and when the cones fall
+they go right down to the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>"In the early morning, when the air is still pure and clear after the
+coolness of the night, and when the sun is low, the ca&ntilde;on lies in deep
+gloom, and behind the brightly lighted tops of the columns the shadows
+lie as black as soot. Then the bold sculpturing stands out in all its
+glory. On a quiet night, when the moon holds its crescent above the
+earth, an oppressive silence prevails over this region. The roar of the
+river is not heard, for the distance is too great. A feeling of romance
+takes hold of the visitor. He fancies himself in a fairy world. Only a
+step over the edge and he would soar on invisible wings to a bright
+wonderland."</p>
+
+<p>At Salt Lake City the German leaves the train to begin his
+investigations round the Great Salt Lake and the Mormon capital. Gunnar
+travels on through the mountainous districts of Nevada and California,
+and when the train at last pulls up at San Francisco he has reached the
+goal of his hopes.</p>
+
+<p>Here is one of the finest cities in the world, situated on a peninsula
+in a deep and spacious inlet surrounded by mountains. Almost all traces
+of the terrible earthquake which a few years ago destroyed the city have
+disappeared, and splendid new buildings of iron and stone have sprung up
+from the rubbish heaps, for as a commercial emporium San Francisco has
+the same importance with relation to the great routes across the Pacific
+as New York has on the Atlantic side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h2>SOUTH AMERICA</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Inca Empire</span></h3>
+
+<p>A terrestrial globe naturally presents a better image of the earth than
+any map, for it shows plainly the continents and the configuration of
+the oceans, and exhibits clearly their position and relative size. If
+you examine such a globe, you notice that the North Pole lies in the
+midst of a sea, surrounded by great masses of land, whereas the South
+Pole is in an extensive land surrounded by a wide sea. Perhaps you
+wonder why all the continents send out peninsulas southwards? Just look
+at the Scandinavian Peninsula, and look at Spain, Italy, and Greece. Do
+not Kamtchatka and Korea, Arabia and the Indian Peninsula all point
+south? South America, Africa, and Australia are drawn out into wedges
+narrowing southwards. They are like stalactites in a grotto. But however
+much you may puzzle over the globe, and however much you may question
+learned men, you will never know why the earth's surface has assumed
+exactly the form it has and no other.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion you may remark that Europe, Asia, Africa, and
+Australia lie in an almost continuous curve in the eastern hemisphere,
+while America has the western hemisphere all to itself. There it lies as
+a huge dividing wall between two oceans. You wonder why the New World
+has such a peculiar form stretching from pole to pole.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps you think that the Creator must have changed His mind at the
+last moment, and decided to make two distinct continents of America. You
+seem to see the marks of His omnipotent hands. With the left He held
+North America, and in the right South America. Where Hudson Bay runs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>
+into the land lay His forefinger, and the Gulf of Mexico is the
+impression of His thumb. South America He gripped with the whole hand,
+and there is only a slight mark of the thumb just on the boundary
+between Peru and Chile. It almost looks as if He grasped the continent
+so tightly that its western border was crumpled into great wrinkles and
+folds which we men call the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. If we did not
+know that it is the ocean winds that feed the rivers with rain, we
+should be tempted to believe that the Mississippi, Amazons, Rio de la
+Plata, and other rivers were moisture still running out of the mountains
+under the pressure of the Creator's hands.</p>
+
+<p>And so He has divided America into two. In one place the connection
+broke, but the fragments still remain, and we call them the West Indies
+or Antilles. In other places the material was too tough. Mexico thins
+out southwards as though it were going to end in the sea, and Central
+America is stretched like a wrung-out cloth. Between Guatemala and
+Honduras it is almost torn through, and the large lake of Nicaragua is
+another weak point. But where Costa Rica passes into the Isthmus of
+Panama the connection between the two halves of the New World has been
+almost broken and hangs only by a hair. The peninsula, however, resisted
+the pull, and has held, though reduced to a breadth of forty miles.</p>
+
+<p>Then, of course, man must come and help the Creator to finish the work
+which He Himself found very good. It was long before men ventured on so
+gigantic an undertaking, but as they had succeeded in separating Africa
+from Asia, it was no doubt feasible to blast a canal through the hills
+of the Isthmus of Panama, 300 feet high. It has cost many years and many
+millions, but the great cutting will soon be ready which will sever
+South America from the northern half of the New World. It is surely a
+splendid undertaking to make it possible for a vessel to sail from
+Liverpool direct to San Francisco without rounding the whole of South
+America, and at a single blow to shorten the distance by near 6000
+miles.</p>
+
+<p>The bridge still stands unbroken, however, and we come dryshod over to
+South America just where the Andes begin their mighty march along all
+the west coast. Their ranges rise, here in double and there in many
+folds, like ramparts against the Pacific Ocean, and between the ranges
+lie plains at a height of 12,000 feet. Here also lift themselves on high
+the loftiest summits of the New World&mdash;Aconcagua in Argentina, the
+highest of all, an extinct volcano covered with eternal snow and
+glistening glaciers; Sorata in Bolivia;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> the extinct volcano Chimborazo
+in Ecuador, like a marble dome; and lastly, one of the earth's most
+noted mountains, Cotopaxi, the highest of all still active volcanoes
+(Plate XXXV.). Stand for a moment in the valley above the tree limit,
+where only scattered plants can find hold in the hard ground. You see a
+cone as regular as the peak of Fujiyama. The crater is 2500 feet in
+diameter, and from its edge, 19,600 feet high, the snow-cap falls down
+the mountain sides like the rays of a gigantic starfish. When the
+Spanish conquerors, nearly four hundred years ago, took possession of
+these formerly free countries, Cotopaxi had one of its fearful
+eruptions; and even in more recent times European travellers have seen
+the mantle of snow melt away as from a lighted furnace, while a
+brownish-red reflection from the glowing crater lighted up the
+devastation caused in the villages and valleys at the foot of the
+mountain by the flood of melted snow and streams of lava.</p>
+
+<p><a name="SOUTH_AMERICA" id="SOUTH_AMERICA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img022.jpg"  width="368" height="550"
+ alt="SOUTH AMERICA" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>SOUTH AMERICA.</h4>
+
+<p>Even under the burning sun of the equator, then, these giants stand with
+mantles of eternal snow and glittering blue fields of ice in the
+bitterly cold atmosphere. Up there you would think that you were near
+the pole. There are no trees on the high crests, which seem to rise up
+from the depths of the Pacific Ocean; but the climate is good, and
+agriculture yields sustenance to men. On the eastern flanks, which are
+watered by abundant rains, the vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant, and
+here the traveller enters the primeval forests of the tropics. Here is
+the home of the cinchona tree, here orchids bloom among the tall trunks,
+and here whole woods are entangled in a network of lianas. Immense areas
+of Brazil and Bolivia are covered with impenetrable primeval forests,
+which even still present an obstacle to the advance of the explorer.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we find in the Andes all zones from the hot to the cold,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> from
+tropical forests to barren heights, from the equator to high southern
+latitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Among these mountains dwelled in former times a remarkable and
+law-abiding people, who under judicious and cautious kings attained a
+high standard of power and development. To the leading tribe several
+adjacent peoples allied themselves, and in time the mightiest and most
+highly-cultured kingdom of South America flourished among them.
+According to tradition, the ruling royal family took its rise where the
+icefields of some of the loftiest summits of the Andes are reflected in
+the mirror of Lake Titicaca. The king was called Inca, and when we speak
+of the Inca Kingdom we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> mean old Peru, whose people were crushed and
+annihilated by the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p><a name="COTOPAXI" id="COTOPAXI"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate35.jpg"  width="550" height="327"
+ alt="PLATE XXXV." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXV. COTOPAXI.</h4>
+
+<p>The Inca Empire extended from Colombia and Ecuador in the north far down
+to the present Chile. The Inca's power was unlimited, and after death he
+was honoured with divine rites. He was surrounded with wealth and
+grandeur. A red headband with white and black feathers was the sign of
+his royal dignity. By his side stood the High Priest, who had to inquire
+into and proclaim the will of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>In Cuzco, the holy city of the Indians, north-west of the Titicaca lake,
+the Inca people had erected a splendid temple to the sun and moon. The
+halls of the sun temple were overlaid with plates of the ruddiest gold,
+and the friezes and doors were of the same precious metal. In the
+principal hall was worshipped an image of the sun with a human face in
+the centre, surrounded by rays of precious stones. In another hall the
+image of the moon goddess glittered in silver.</p>
+
+<p>The sun and moon were, then, the objects of the deepest reverence. But
+the Inca people also prayed to the rainbow and to the god of thunder,
+and believed that certain inferior deities protected their herds,
+dwellings, fields, and canals. They wore on the neck amulets which
+shielded them from danger and sudden death, and were eventually buried
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>The dead were sewed up in hides or matting and interred under the
+dwelling-house, or, in the case of important men, in special funereal
+towers. On the coast the body was placed among boulders, in sand-banks,
+or in large vessels of earthenware. With a dead man were laid his
+weapons and implements, with women their utensils and handiwork, with
+children their playthings. To the dead, flowers and fruit were offered,
+and llamas were sacrificed. Dead Incas were deposited in the temple of
+the sun, and their wives in the hall of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>The Festival of the Sun was held at the winter solstice, and on this
+occasion the Inca himself officiated as High Priest in his capacity as
+the "son of the sun." Then was lighted a fire on the altar of the sun,
+which was kept in all the year by the virgins of the sun. These had a
+convent near the temple, the royal palace and the house of nobles. It
+was also their duty to make costly robes for the priests and princes, to
+brew maize beer for the festivals of the gods, and after victories or a
+change of Incas to offer themselves to the gods.</p>
+
+<p>The earlier history of the Inca people is lost in tradition and the mist
+of legends. We know more of their administra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>tion and social condition,
+for the Spanish conquerors saw all with their own eyes. The constitution
+was communistic. All the land, fields, and pastures was divided into
+three parts, of which two belonged to the Inca and the priesthood, and
+the third to the people. The cultivation of the land was supervised by a
+commissioner of the government, who had to see that the produce was
+equitably distributed, and that the ground was properly manured with
+guano from the islands on the west coast. Clothes and domestic animals
+were also distributed by the State to the people. All labour was
+executed in common for the good of the State; roads and bridges were
+made, mines worked, weapons forged, and all the men capable of bearing
+arms had to join the ranks when the kingdom was threatened by hostile
+tribes. The harvest was stored in government warehouses in the various
+provinces. An extremely accurate account was kept of all goods belonging
+to the State, such as provisions, clothes, and weapons. A register was
+kept of births and deaths. No one might change his place of abode
+without permission, and no one might engage in any other occupation than
+that of his father. Military order was maintained everywhere, and
+therefore the Inca people were able to subdue their neighbours.
+Everything was noted down, and yet this remarkable people had no written
+characters, but used cords instead, with knots and loops of various
+colours having different meanings. If the Inca wished to send an order
+to a distant province, he despatched a running messenger with a bundle
+of knotted strings. The recipient had only to look at the strings to
+find out the business on hand.</p>
+
+<p>To facilitate the movement of troops, the Incas constructed two
+excellent roads which met at Cuzco&mdash;one in the mountainous country, the
+other along the coast. Europeans have justly admired these grand
+constructions. The military roads were paved with stone, and had walls
+and avenues of trees. At certain intervals were inns where the
+swift-footed couriers could pass the night. The principal highway ran
+from Cuzco to Quito. When the Inca himself was on a journey, he sat on a
+golden throne carried on a litter by the great nobles of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>European explorers still discover grand relics of the Inca period. The
+people did not know the arch, and did not use bricks and mortar, yet
+their temples and fortresses, their gates, towers, and walls are real
+gems of architecture. The joins between the blocks are often scarcely
+visible, and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> portals are hewn out of a single block with artistic
+and original chiselled figures and images of the sun god on the fa&ccedil;ades.</p>
+
+<p>Their skill in pottery was of equal excellence, and as workers in metal
+there was none to match them in the South American continent. They made
+clubs and axes of bronze, and vessels and ornaments of gold and silver.
+In their graves modern explorers have found many striking proofs of
+their proficiency in the art of weaving. They used the wool of llamas,
+alpacas, vicu&ntilde;as, and guanacos. These species of animal, allied to the
+camel, still render great services to the Indians. The llama is
+distributed over the greater part of the Andes, and the male only is
+used as a transport animal. The llama is shy, stupid, and quiet, and his
+head is somewhat like a sheep's. The alpaca does not carry loads, but is
+kept as a domestic animal for the sake of its meat and wool. The vicu&ntilde;a
+and guanaco also do not work in the service of man. The latter is found
+chiefly on the steppes of Patagonia, where he meets the fate of the
+South American ostrich and falls to the arrows of the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>The Inca people wove clothes of the wool of these animals as well as of
+cotton. The chief garment of the men was a short shirt without sleeves,
+of the women a longer shirt with a belt round the waist. The men wore
+short hair with a black bandage round the head; and outside the bandage
+they wound a noose or lasso. The women wore their hair long. Sandals
+covered the feet, and in the ear-lobes were inserted round pegs. The
+people reared and grazed cattle, as we have seen, and were hunters and
+fishermen. They grew potatoes and many other root crops, bananas,
+tobacco, and cotton, and sowed extensive fields of maize. They had all
+the characteristics of the American race&mdash;a short skull, sharply cut
+features, and a powerfully built body.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>For centuries the Inca people had lived in undisturbed repose in their
+beautiful valleys and on their sunlit tablelands between the mountain
+ranges&mdash;or <i>cordilleras</i>, as they are called&mdash;which compose the Andes.
+If their peace was occasionally disturbed by neighbouring tribes,
+messages in knotted signs flew through the country, and the roads were
+full of armed men; but the Inca kings dreamed of no serious danger. For
+several hundred years their power had passed from father to son, and no
+neighbour was strong enough to wrest the sceptre from the Inca king's
+hand. Not a whisper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> of such names as Chimborazo and Cotopaxi had
+reached Europe.</p>
+
+<p>A great Inca had recently died and bequeathed his power to his two sons,
+Huascar and Atahualpa. Just as always in the Old World, such a partition
+produced friction and disputes, and at length civil war broke out. After
+four hundred years, we read with sorrow the account of the suicidal
+strife which harried old Peru, divided the Inca people into two hostile
+factions, and thus made them an easy prey to the conquerors.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the clash of arms died out after the brave and chivalrous
+Cortez had burned his ships on the coast of Mexico, subdued the kingdom
+of Montezuma, and placed it under the crown of Castille, before another
+Spanish conqueror, the rough, cruel, and treacherous Pizarro, cast his
+eyes southwards, covetous of new gold countries. With a handful of
+adventurers, he made his way down to Peru, but soon perceived that he
+could not succeed without help from the home country. The Emperor
+Charles V. listened to his tale of gold and green forests, and in the
+year 1531 Pizarro set out again, this time with a company of 180
+well-armed cavaliers. By degrees he gathered fresh reinforcements,
+landed on the coast of Peru, and marched into the Inca kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Pizarro was clever and courageous, but, unlike Cortez, he was a base man
+and a scoundrel. He had no education or proper feeling, and could not
+even write his name, but he was cunning and knew how to take advantage
+of favourable circumstances. By means of scouts and ambassadors he soon
+made himself fully acquainted with the situation. He lulled the fears of
+Atahualpa by offers of peace, with the result that the Inca king
+requested his assistance to crush his brother Huascar. If the brothers
+had held together, they could have driven the Spanish pestilence out of
+the country. Now the fate of both was sealed.</p>
+
+<p>It was agreed that Atahualpa should come in person to Pizarro's camp,
+and he arrived in pomp and state, escorted by an army of 30,000 men. He
+naturally wished to impress his ally with his power. He sat raised on a
+litter of gold, and was surrounded by all his generals.</p>
+
+<p>Then Pizarro's military chaplain stepped forth, a Catholic priest. In
+one hand he held a crucifix, in the other a breviary. Raising his
+crucifix, he exhorted the Inca king in the name of Jesus to accept
+Christianity and to acknowledge the King of Castille as his master.
+Atahualpa retained his composure, and simply answered that no one could
+deprive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> him of the rights inherited from his fathers. He would not
+forswear his fathers' faith and did not understand what the priest said.
+"It is written here in this book," cried the priest, and handed the
+breviary to the king. Atahualpa held the book to his ear, listened, and
+said as he threw the breviary on the ground, "Your book does not speak."</p>
+
+<p>Without warning, a massacre was commenced. The cannon and muskets of the
+Spaniards ploughed red furrows in the ranks of the Peruvians. Protected
+by their helmets and harness of steel, and with halberts and lances
+lowered, the cavaliers swept irresistibly through the ranks of
+half-naked natives and spread terror and confusion around them. All that
+could be reached with sword, spear, or bullet were mercilessly
+slaughtered. Four thousand dead bodies lay scattered over the ground,
+among thousands wounded and bleeding. The rest of the army was
+completely scattered and took to flight. The Inca king himself had been
+early taken captive to be kept as a hostage. Enormous plunder fell into
+the hands of the victors. The report of a land of gold in the south had
+not been an empty tale; here was gold in heaps. The loot was generously
+divided between the officers and men, and, with the crucifix raised to
+heaven, the priest read mass while the other villains thanked God for
+victory.</p>
+
+<p>The captive Inca king begged and prayed to be set at liberty. But
+Pizarro promised to release him only after he had bound himself to fill
+a moderate-sized room with gold from the floor up to as high as he could
+reach with his hand. Then messages in knotted cords were carried through
+all the country which remained faithful to Atahualpa, and vessels,
+bowls, ornaments, and ingots of gold poured in from temples and palaces.
+In a short time the room was filled and the ransom paid, but the Inca
+king was still kept a prisoner. He reminded Pizarro of his promised
+word. The unscrupulous adventurer laughed in his black beard. Instead of
+keeping his promise, he accused Atahualpa of conspiracy, condemned him
+to death, and the innocent and pious Indian king was strangled in
+prison. By this abominable deed the whole Spanish conquest was covered
+with shame and disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>One of Pizarro's comrades in arms, Almagro, now arrived with
+reinforcements, and with an army of 500 men Pizarro marched on through
+the high lands to the capital, Cuzco, which he captured. Then he fell
+out with Almagro, and the latter determined to seek out other gold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>
+countries in the south on his own account. With a small party he marched
+up into the mountains of Bolivia, and then followed the coast southwards
+to the neighbourhood of Aconcagua. He certainly found no gold, but he
+achieved a great exploit, for he led his troop through the dreaded
+Atacama desert.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Pizarro ruled in the conquered kingdom. Close to the coast he
+founded Lima, which was afterwards for a long period the residence of
+the Spanish viceroy, and is now, with nearly 150,000 inhabitants, still
+the capital of Peru. It has a large number of monasteries and churches,
+and a stately cathedral. The port town, Callao, was almost totally
+destroyed a hundred and sixty-six years ago by a tidal wave, which
+drowned the inhabitants and swept away the houses; but it gradually
+regained its prosperity, and now has 50,000 inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>At length, however, Pizarro roused a formidable insurrection by his
+cruelty, and while he was besieged in Lima his three brothers were shut
+up in Cuzco. Just then Almagro returned from the Atacama desert,
+defeated the Peruvians, seized Cuzco, and made the three Pizarro
+brothers prisoners. But the fourth brother, the conqueror, succeeded in
+effecting their liberation and in capturing Almagro, who was at once
+sent to the gallows. A few years later, however, Almagro's friends
+wreaked vengeance on Pizarro; a score of conspirators rushed into the
+governor's palace and made their way with drawn swords into the room
+where Pizarro was surrounded by some friends and servants. Most of these
+jumped through the window; the rest were cut down. Pizarro defended
+himself bravely, but after killing four of his assailants he fell to the
+ground, and with a loud voice asked to be allowed to make his
+confession. While he was making the sign of the cross on the ground, a
+sword was thrust into his throat.</p>
+
+<p>The murdered Inca king is an emblem of bleeding South America. All was
+done, it was pretended, in order to spread enlightenment and
+Christianity, but in reality the children of the country were lured to
+destruction, deluded to fill Spanish coffers with gold, and then in
+requital were persecuted to death. Civilisation had no part in the
+matter; it was only a question of robbery and greed of gain, and when
+these desires were satisfied, the descendants of the Incas might be
+swept off the earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Amazons River</span></h3>
+
+<p>In Peru the largest river of the world takes its source, and streams
+northwards among the verdant <i>cordilleras</i> of the Andes. Wheat waves on
+its banks, and here and there stands a funereal tower or a ruin from
+Inca times. Small rafts take the place of bridges, and at high water the
+river rushes foaming furiously through the valley.</p>
+
+<p>And then it suddenly turns eastwards and cuts its way with unbridled
+fury through the eastern ridges of the Andes. The water forces itself
+through ravines barely 50 yards wide and dashes with a deafening roar
+over falls and rapids. Sometimes the river rests from its labours,
+expanding to a width of two or three furlongs. Crystal affluents hurry
+down from the snow-fields of the Andes to join it. It takes its tribute
+of water from mountain and forest, and is indeed a majestic stream when
+it leaves the last hills behind.</p>
+
+<p>The source of the Amazons was discovered in 1535 by Mara&ntilde;on, a Spanish
+soldier. Vicente Pinzon had discovered its mouth in the year 1500. But
+Mara&ntilde;on, on the one hand, had no notion where the river emerged into the
+sea, and Pinzon, on the other, knew not where the headwaters purled
+through the valley. It was reserved for another Spaniard to solve the
+problem. Let us follow Orellana on his adventurous journey.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalo Pizarro served under his brother, the conqueror, in northern
+Peru. There he heard of rich gold countries in the east, and decided to
+seek them. With an army of 350 Spanish cavalry and infantry, as well as
+4000 Indians, he set out from Quito and marched over the Andes past the
+foot of Cotopaxi to the lowlands of the Napo River.</p>
+
+<p>It was a reckless enterprise. The Indians were frozen to death in crowds
+on the great heights. Instead of gold, nothing was found but wearisome
+savannahs and swamps, and dismal forests soaked with two months' rain.
+Instead of useful domestic animals, no creature was seen but the
+thick-skinned tapir, which, with a long beak-like nose, crops plants and
+leaves and frequents swampy tracts in the heart of the primeval forest.
+The few natives were hostile.</p>
+
+<p>When the troop reached the Napo River on New Year's Day, 1540, Pizarro
+decided to send the bold seaman Orellana on in front down the river to
+look for people and provisions, for famine with all its tortures
+threatened them.</p>
+
+<p>A camp was set up and a wharf constructed. A small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> brigantine for sails
+and oars was hastily put together, and Orellana stepped on board with a
+crew of fifty men, and the boat was borne down the strong current.</p>
+
+<p>Dark and silent woods stood on both sides. No villages, no human beings
+were seen. Tall trees stood on the bank like triumphal arches, and from
+their boughs hung lianas serving as rope ladders and swings for sportive
+monkeys with prehensile tails. Day after day the vessel glided farther
+into this humid land never before seen by white men. The Spaniards
+looked in vain for natives, and their eyes tried in vain to pierce the
+green murkiness between the tree trunks. The men showed increasing
+uneasiness; but Orellana sat quietly at the helm, gave his orders to the
+rowers, and had the sail hoisted to catch the breeze that swept over the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>No camping-places on points of the bank, no huts roofed with palm leaves
+or grass, no smoke indicated the vicinity of Indians. In a thicket by a
+brook lay a boa constrictor, a snake allied to the python of the Old
+World, in easy, elegant coils, digesting a small rodent somewhat like a
+hare and called an agouti. At the margin of the bank some water-hogs
+wallowed in the sodden earth full of roots, and under a vault of thorny
+bushes lay their worst enemy, the jaguar, in ambush, his eyes glowing
+like fire.</p>
+
+<p>At length the country became more open. Frightened Indians appeared on
+the bank, and their huts peeped through the forest avenues. Orellana
+moored his boat and landed with his men. The savages were quiet, and
+received the Spaniards trustingly, so the latter stayed for a time and
+collected all the provisions they could obtain. The Indians spoke of a
+great water in the south which could be reached in ten days.</p>
+
+<p>The fifty Spaniards were now in excellent spirits, and set to work
+eagerly to construct another smaller sailing vessel. When this was done,
+Orellana filled both his boats with provisions, manned the larger with
+thirty and the smaller with twenty men, and continued his wonderful
+journey, which was to furnish the explanation of the great river system
+of tropical America. Around him stretched the greatest tropical lowland
+of the world, before him ran the most voluminous river of the earth. He
+saw nothing but forest and water, a bewitched country. He had no
+equipment beyond that which was afforded by the Napo's banks, and his
+men grumbled daily at the long, dangerous voyage.</p>
+
+
+<p>After ten days the two boats came to the "great water,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> where the Napo
+yields its tribute to the Amazons River. The latter was then rising
+fast, and when it is at its height, in June and July, the water lies
+forty feet above its low water-level. Farther down the difference tends
+to disappear, for the northern tributaries come from the equator, where
+it rains at all seasons, while the southern rise at different times
+according to the widely separated regions where their sources lie. To
+travel from the foot of the <i>cordilleras</i> to the mouth the high water of
+the main river takes two months.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate36.jpg"  width="550" height="334"
+ alt="PLATE XXXVI." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXVI. INDIAN HUTS ON THE AMAZONS RIVER.</h4>
+
+<p>The Spaniards felt as if they were carried over a boundless lake. Where
+the banks are low the forests are flooded for miles, and the trees stand
+up out of the water. Then the wild animals fly to safer districts, and
+only water birds and forest birds remain, with such four-footed animals
+as spend all their lives in trees. The fifty men noticed that certain
+stretches on the banks were never reached by the high water, and it was
+only at these places that the Indians built their huts, just as the
+indiarubber gatherers do at the present day (Plate XXXIV.).</p>
+
+<p>When the high water retired, large patches of the loose, sodden banks
+were undermined, and fell into the river, weighed down by the huge trees
+they supported. Islands of timber, roots, earth, and lianas were carried
+away by the current. Some stranded on shallows in the middle of the
+river, others grounded at projections of the bank, and other rubbish was
+piled up against them till the whole mass broke away and danced down the
+river towards the sea. Here the men had to be careful, for at any moment
+the boats might capsize against a grounded tree trunk. Deep pools also
+were found, and the current ran at the rate of 2-1/2 feet a second, and
+they often had the help of the wind.</p>
+
+<p>They soon learned to know by the changed appearance of the forest where
+they could land. Where the royal crowns of foliaged trees reared their
+waving canopy above the palms they could be sure of finding dry ground;
+but if the palms with verdant luxuriance raised their plumes above low
+brushwood, they might be sure that the bank was flooded by the river.</p>
+
+<p>If the voyage on the capricious river was dangerous, the Spaniards were
+still more disturbed by Indians, who came paddling up in their canoes
+and showered poisoned arrows on the boats. To get through in safety, the
+explorers had to avoid the banks as much as possible.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of May they drifted past the mouth of the Rio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> Negro, which
+discharges a large volume of water, for it collects streams from
+Venezuela and Guiana, and from the wet <i>llanos</i>, or open plains, north
+of the Amazons River. Where the great tributary is divided by islands it
+attains a breadth of as much as thirty miles.</p>
+
+<p>Here Orellana stayed several weeks with friendly Indians, who lived in
+pretty huts under the boughs of bananas. The vessels were repaired, and
+provisions taken on board&mdash;maize, chickens, turtles, and fish. There
+were swarms of edible turtles, and the Indians caught them and collected
+their eggs; and the fish were abundant and various&mdash;no wonder, when two
+thousand species of fish live in the basin of the Amazons.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards they glided past the mouth of the Madeira, a mile and
+a half broad, which discharges a volume of water little inferior to that
+of the main river. For the Madeira has its sources far to the south, and
+descends partly from the <i>cordilleras</i> of Peru and Bolivia, partly from
+the plateau of Brazil.</p>
+
+<p>Woods and no end of water, month after month! The heat is the same all
+the year round&mdash;not very excessive, seldom 104&deg;, but still oppressive
+and enervating because of the humidity of the air. Yet the voyage was
+not monotonous. Leaning against the masts and gunwale, or leisurely
+moving the oars, the soldiers could observe the dolphins leaping in the
+river, the sudden darts of the alligators as they hunted the fish
+through the water, or the clumsy movements of the manati, one of the
+Sirenia, as it cropped grass at the edge of the bank, to the danger of
+the eel-like lung fish, which sometimes goes up on to dry land.
+Sometimes they saw the Indians in light canoes pursue manatis and
+alligators with harpoons for the sake of their flesh, and perhaps they
+felt a shiver at the sight of the huge water-snakes of the Amazons
+River.</p>
+
+<p>On they went through the immense forest which extends from the foot of
+the Andes and the sources of the Madeira to the mouths of the
+Orinoco&mdash;through this dense, rank carpet which covers all the lowlands
+of Brazil with its teeming and superabundant life, and which is so
+bountifully watered by tropical rains and flooded rivers. All the rain
+that falls on the <i>llanos</i> and the <i>selvas</i> (as the wooded plains are
+called) makes its way through innumerable affluents to the Amazons and
+enters the sea through its trumpet-shaped mouth. The river, with its
+forests, is like a cornucopia of vast, wild, irrepressible nature, where
+life breathes and pulsates, where it bubbles and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> ripples, seethes and
+ferments in the soft productive soil, where animals swarm, and beetles
+and butterflies are more numerous than anywhere else on our earth, and
+are clad in the most gorgeous hues of the tropics. There old trees on
+the bank are undermined and washed away, while others decay in the
+sultry recesses of the forest. There the earth is constantly fertilised
+by the manure of animals and their corpses and by dead vegetation, and
+there new generations are continually rising up from the graves in
+nature's inexhaustible kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards had no time to make excursions into the country from their
+camps. It is difficult to make one's way through this intricate, ragged
+network of climbing plants between trunks, boughs, bushes, and
+undergrowth. In the interior, far away from the waterways, and
+especially between some of the southern tributaries, lie forests unknown
+and untrodden since heathen times. Perhaps there are Indian tribes among
+them who have not yet heard that America has been discovered, and who
+may congratulate themselves that the forests are too much for the white
+men.</p>
+
+<p>There palms predominate in a peaceful Eden, and at their feet flourish
+ferns with stems as hard as wood. In the bamboo clumps the jaguars play
+with their cubs, and on the outskirts of the swamps the peccary, a sort
+of small pig, jumps on his long, supple legs. A dark-green gloom
+prevails under the tall bay-trees, and their stems stand under their
+crowns like the columns of a church nave. There thrive mimosas and
+various species of fig, and climbing palms are not ashamed of their
+inquisitiveness.</p>
+
+<p>See this tree 200 feet high, with its round, hard fruits as large as a
+child's head! When they are ripe they fall, and the shell opens to let
+out the triangular seeds which we call Brazil nuts.</p>
+
+<p>Look at the indiarubber tree with its light-coloured stem, its
+light-green foliage, and its white sap, which, when congealed, rolls
+round motor wheels through streets and roads.</p>
+
+<p>Here again is a tree that every one knows about. It grows to a height of
+50 feet, and bears large, smooth, leathery leaves, but its blossoms
+issue from the stem and not among the foliage. Its cucumber-shaped
+orange fruits ripen at almost all seasons in the perpetual summer of the
+Amazons. In the fruit the seeds lie in rows. The tree grows wild in the
+forests, but was cultivated by the Indians before the arrival of white
+men, and they prepared from it a drink which they called "chocolatl." It
+was bitter, but the addition of sugar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> and vanilla made it palatable.
+This tree is called the cocoa-tree.</p>
+
+<p>Still better known and more popular is another drink&mdash;coffee. The
+coffee-tree is not found in the primeval forests, but in plantations,
+and even there it is a guest, for its native country is Kaffa in
+Abyssinia, and coffee came from Arabia to Europe through Constantinople.
+Now Brazil produces three-fourths of all the world's coffee, and in all
+thousands of millions of pounds of coffee are consumed yearly.</p>
+
+<p>The vanilla plant, also, is one of the wonderful inmates of the forests.
+In order that the wild plants which are indigenous in the mountain
+forests of Mexico and Peru may produce fruit, the pollen must be carried
+by insects. Many years ago the plant was transported to the island of
+R&eacute;union in the Indian Ocean, where it throve capitally, but bore no
+fruit. The helpful insects of its native country were absent. Then
+artificial fertilisation with pollen was successfully attempted, and now
+R&eacute;union supplies most of the vanilla in the world's markets.</p>
+
+<p>Think again of all the animals which live in the forest and its
+outskirts towards the savannahs! There is the singular opossum, and
+there is the sluggish, scaly armadillo, which loves the detestable
+termites&mdash;those white ants which, with their sharp mandibles, gnaw to
+pieces paper, clothes, wood, the whole house in fact. Then there is the
+climbing sloth, with its round monkey head and large curved claws. All
+day long it remains sleepily hanging under a bough, and only wakes up
+when night falls. It lives only on trees and eats leaves. In far-back
+ages there were sloths as large as rhinoceroses and elephants. We have,
+too, the raccoon in a greyish-yellow coat, also a nocturnal animal,
+which sleeps during the day in a hollow tree. He lives on small mammals
+and birds, eggs and fruits, but before he swallows his food he cleans it
+well, generally in water.</p>
+
+<p>There is a perpetual gloom under the crowns of the foliaged trees and
+palms. It is the home of shadows. Only lianas, these parasites of the
+vegetable kingdom, raise their stems above the dusky vault to open their
+calyces in the sun. Round them flutter innumerable butterflies in gaudy
+colours. On the border between sunlight and shade scream droll parrots,
+and busy pigeons steer their way among the trees on rustling wings.
+There humming-birds dart like arrows through the air. They are small,
+dainty birds with breast, neck, and head shining like metal with the
+brightest, most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> vivid colouring. They build their nests carefully with
+vegetable fibres and moss, and their beaks are long and fine as a reed.
+There is a humming-bird which does not grow longer than an inch and a
+half, and weighs little more than fifteen grains.</p>
+
+<p>We must now go back to see how Orellana got on with his two brigantines.</p>
+
+<p>Below the mouth of the Madeira he landed once on the northern bank in a
+region inhabited only by tall Amazons, from whom the river received its
+name. But the tale of Amazons was really a sailor's romance, just as the
+Spaniards dreamed of Eldorado, or the land of gold.</p>
+
+<p>On they went and the river never ended. During their voyage they saw in
+lakes by the bank, well sheltered and exposed to the sun, the grandest
+of all flowers, the <i>Victoria regia</i> of the water-lily family, floating
+on the water. Its leaves measure six feet in diameter, and the blossoms
+are more than a foot across. The flowers open only two evenings, first
+white and then purple.</p>
+
+<p>Between the mouths of the mighty tributaries Tapajos and Xingu the
+Spaniards saw the great grassy plains stretching up to the river. They
+only just escaped cannibals on the northern bank. Warned by friendly
+Indians, they were on their guard against the <i>piroroca</i>, the mysterious
+bore, fifteen feet high, which is connected with the flow of the tide
+and rushes up the river twice a month from the sea, devastating
+everything. Finally they came to the northern mouth of the Amazons
+River, having traversed 2500 out of the 3600 miles of its length.</p>
+
+<p>Here Orellana decked his vessels over and sailed out to sea, making for
+the West Indies along the coasts of Guiana and Venezuela. Even after the
+coast was lost to sight he still sailed in yellow, muddy, fresh water,
+and he was far to the north before he came to blue-green sea-water. For
+three hundred miles from the mouth the fresh river water overlies the
+salt. At Christmas he dropped his anchor on the coast of San Domingo,
+and his grand exploit was achieved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h2>IN THE SOUTH SEAS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Albatrosses and Whales</span></h3>
+
+<p>Like the sting on the scorpion's poison gland, Tierra del Fuego, the
+most southern land of America, juts out into the southern sea. It is
+separated from the mainland by the sound which bears the name of the
+intrepid Magellan. In the primeval forests of the interior grow
+evergreen beeches, and there copper-brown Indians of the Ona tribe
+formerly held unlimited sway. Like their brethren all over the New
+World, they have been thrust out by white men and are doomed to
+extinction. They were only sojourners on the coasts of Tierra del Fuego,
+and their term has expired. Only a few now remain, but they still retain
+the old characteristics of their race, are powerfully built, warlike and
+brave, live at feud with their neighbours, and kindle their camp fires
+in the woods, on the shores of lakes, or on the coast.</p>
+
+<p>Many a sailing vessel has come to grief in the Straits of Magellan. The
+channel is dangerous, and has a bad reputation for violent squalls,
+which beat down suddenly over the precipitous cliffs. It is safer to
+keep to the open sea and sail to the south of the islands of Tierra del
+Fuego. Here the surges of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans roar together
+against the high cliffs of Cape Horn.</p>
+
+<p>Who listens to this song, who gazes with royal disdain down over the
+spray, who wonders why the breakers have been there for thousands of
+years pounding against gates that never open, who soars at this moment
+with outspread wings over Cape Horn&mdash;who but the albatross, the largest
+of all storm birds, the boldest and most unwearied of all the winged
+inhabitants of the realm of air?</p>
+
+<p>Look at him well, for in a second he will be gone. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> see that he is
+as large as a swan, has a short, thick neck, a large head with a
+powerful pink and yellowish bill, and that he is quite white except
+where his wing feathers are black. His wings are wonders of creation.
+When he folds them, they cling close to the body and seem to disappear;
+but now he has spread them out, and they measure twelve feet from tip to
+tip. They are long and narrow, thin and finely formed as a sword blade.
+He moves them with amazing steadiness, and excels all other birds in
+strength and endurance. No bird has such an elegant and majestic flight.
+He spreads his wings like sails with taut sheets, and soars at a
+whistling pace up against the wind. Follow him with your eyes hour after
+hour in the hardest wind, and you will see that he makes a scarcely
+perceptible beat of his wings only every seventh minute, keeping them
+between whiles perfectly still. That is his secret. All his skill
+consists in his manner of holding his wings expanded and the inclination
+he gives to his excellent monoplane in relation to his body and the
+wind. Everything else, change of elevation, and movement forwards with
+or against the wind, is managed by the wind itself. When he wishes to
+rise from the surface of the sea he spreads his wings, turns towards the
+wind, and lets it lift him up. Then he soars in elegant curves and
+glides up the invisible hills of the atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Most noteworthy is the perfect freedom of the albatross. He shuns the
+mainland and breeds on solitary islands; he can scarcely move on the
+ground, and when he is forced to alight he waddles clumsily along like a
+swan. He comes in contact with the earth only at the nest, where the hen
+sits on her single egg and tucks her white head under her wing.
+Otherwise he does not touch the ground. He finds his food on the surface
+of the sea, and spends three-fourths of his life in the air. There he
+soars about from sea to sea like a satellite to the earth, moving freely
+and lightly round the heavy globe as it rolls through space.</p>
+
+<p>He is not restricted to any particular course, no distance is too great
+for him; he simply rests on his wings and sweeps easily from ocean to
+ocean. He is, however, rarer in the Atlantic than in the Pacific Ocean,
+and he avoids the heat of equatorial regions. He sails in any other
+direction he pleases, where he has most prospect of satisfying his
+voracious appetite.</p>
+
+<p>What do you think of an albatross which was caught on a vessel and
+marked so that it might be recognised again, and which then followed the
+vessel for six days and nights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> watching for any refuse thrown out? The
+ship was in the open sea and was sailing twelve knots an hour, but the
+albatross did not tire. Nay, he made circles of miles round the vessel
+at a considerable height. On board the ship the watch was changed time
+after time, for man must rest and sleep, but the albatross needed
+neither sleep nor rest. He had no one to whom he could entrust the
+management of his wings while he slept at night. He kept awake for a
+week without showing any signs of weariness. He flew on and on,
+sometimes disappearing astern, and an hour later appearing again and
+sweeping down on the vessel from the front. That it was the same
+albatross was proved by the mark painted on the breast. Only on the
+seventh day did he leave the ship, dissatisfied with the fare set before
+him. He was then hundreds of miles from the nearest coast.</p>
+
+<p>Just think of all the wonderful and remarkable sights he must witness on
+his airy course! He sees everything that takes place on the decks of
+large sailing vessels, and the smoke rising out of the steamers'
+funnels. He marks the clumsy movements of the twenty-feet-long
+sea-elephants on the gravel shore of the islands of South Georgia, east
+of Cape Horn, and sees the black or grey backs of whales rolling on the
+surface of the water.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he has some time wandered away northwards over the Atlantic and
+seen whalers attack the blue whale&mdash;the largest animal now living in the
+world, for it often attains to a length of 90 feet. At the present day
+whalers use strongly built, swift, and easily handled steam-launches,
+and shoot the harpoon out from the bow with a pivoted gun. In the head
+of the harpoon is a pointed shell which explodes in the body of the
+whale, dealing a mortal wound, and at the butt end a thick rope is
+secured. The vessel follows the whale until it is dead. Then it is
+hauled up with a steam winch and towed to a whaling station in some bay
+on the coast, where it is flitched. Then the oil is boiled out, poured
+into casks, and sent to market.</p>
+
+<p>Much more picturesque and more dangerous was the whaling witnessed in
+northern seas by the forefathers of the albatross, for man has been for
+a thousand years the worst enemy of the whale, and some species are
+almost exterminated. Then the whalers did not use a gun, but threw the
+harpoon by hand. Every vessel had several keelless whale-boats, pointed
+at both bow and stern, so that they could be rowed forwards or
+backwards. When a whale was seen in the distance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> the boats set out,
+each boat manned by six experienced whalers. One of them was the
+coxswain, another the harpooner, while the others sat at the oars. The
+harpoon line, an inch thick, lay carefully coiled up, and ran out
+through a brass eye in the bow. Every man knew from long experience what
+he had to do at any particular minute, and therefore there was silence
+on board, all working without orders.</p>
+
+<p>When all is ready one of the boats rows towards the whale, and the
+harpooner throws his sharp weapon with all his strength into the whale's
+flank. Almost before the harpoon has struck the boat is backed swiftly.
+Wild with pain, the whale may strike the boat from above with his
+powerful horizontal caudal fin and crush it at a blow, or he may dive
+below the boat and upset it, but usually he thinks only of making his
+escape. He makes for the depths in fright, and the harpoon line runs
+out, the strands producing a singing sound. Great care is necessary, for
+if the line curls round a man's leg he is carried overboard and is lost.
+The whale dives at once to a depth of a couple of hundred fathoms. There
+it is dark and quiet, and he remains there half an hour or an hour, till
+at length he is obliged to come up to breathe. The lie of the line in
+the water shows approximately where he will come up again, and another
+boat rows to the spot. As soon as he appears above the surface a second
+harpoon whistles through the air.</p>
+
+<p>The whale is now too breathless to dive. He swims along the surface and
+lashes the waves with his tail to free himself from his tormentors. He
+speeds along at a desperate pace, dashing the waves into spray around
+him and drawing the boats after him. The crews have hauled in the lines,
+and the boats are quite close to the whale, but they must be ready to
+pay out the lines if the whale dives. The boats' prows are tilted high
+up into the air and the water streams off them. They shoot forward like
+mad things through the foaming sea, whether it be day or night, and
+pitch up and down over the crests of the waves. With stretched muscles,
+clenched teeth, and glaring eyes the whale-hunters follow the movements
+of the whale and the boat.</p>
+
+<p>They notice that the pace slackens. The whale begins to tire, and at
+last is quite exhausted. Its movements become irregular, it stops and
+throws itself about so that the water spurts up round it. Then a boat
+rows up, and a long spear is thrust in three feet deep towards the
+animal's heart, and perhaps an explosive bullet is fired. If the lungs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>
+are pierced the whale sends up jets of blood from its
+nostrils&mdash;"hoisting the red flag," in the language of whalers. Its time
+is come; it gives up the struggle, and its death tremors show that
+another of the giants of the ocean has bid a last farewell to its
+boundless realm.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Robinson Crusoe's Island</span></h3>
+
+<p>On motionless wings an albatross hovers high above Cape Horn. His sharp
+eye takes in everything. Now he sees in the distance smoke from the
+funnel of a steamer, and in a couple of minutes he has tacked round the
+vessel and decided to follow it on its voyage to the north. To the east
+he has the coast of Chile, with its countless reefs and islands and deep
+fiords, and above it rises the snow-capped crest of the Andes. As soon
+as refuse is thrown overboard, the albatross swoops down like an arrow.
+A second before he touches the water he raises his wings, draws back his
+head, stretches out his large feet in front with expanded claws, and
+then plumps down screaming, into the water. He floats as lightly as a
+cork. In a moment he has swallowed all the scraps floating on the
+surface, and then, turning to the wind, rises to a giddy height.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel happens to be carrying goods to Santiago, the capital of
+Chile, and casts anchor at its port town, Valparaiso. In the background
+rises Aconcagua, the highest mountain of America.</p>
+
+<p>Then the albatross steers out to sea to try his luck elsewhere. Seventy
+miles from the coast he comes across the notable little island, Juan
+Fernandez, and circles round its volcanic cliffs. For him there are no
+frightful precipitous ascents and descents; from his height he can see
+all he wishes to see. It is otherwise with explorers. Some cliffs are
+inaccessible to their feet, as Carl Skottsberg found when he went out to
+the island three years ago in a Chilian vessel. He saw the cliffs 3000
+feet high, and heard the surf rolling in round the island. It was a
+perfect picture of wild desolation. He found it difficult to land in a
+small boat. He looked in vain for parrots, monkeys, and tortoises, but
+found, instead, that more than half the number of the plants on the
+island are such as grow on no other spot on the earth. Among them are
+palms, with bright, pale-green trunks, which have been recklessly
+destroyed by men to make walking-sticks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> Here also are tree-ferns, and
+the small, delicate, climbing ferns which gracefully festoon trunks and
+boughs. And here also is the last specimen of a species of sandalwood
+which, wonderful to relate, has found its way hither from its home in
+Asia. A couple of hundred years ago it grew profusely on the island, but
+now it has been nearly exterminated by man's cupidity. The red, strongly
+scented wood was too much in demand for fine cabinet work and other
+purposes. Only one small branch now produces foliage on the last
+sandal-tree. In this case it is not the last tree among many, but the
+last specimen of a species which is vanishing from the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In a cave at the foot of a mountain, according to tradition, lived
+Robinson Crusoe, and from a saddle in the crest he threw longing, eager
+glances over the great ocean. A memorial tablet in the cave relates that
+the real Crusoe, a Scotch sailor named Selkirk, lived alone on the
+island for four years and four months in the years 1704-1709. He went on
+shore of his own accord, being dissatisfied with the officers of the
+ship to which he belonged. The climate was mild, the rainfall moderate,
+and wild goats and edible fruits served him for food.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the actual fact. How much more do we delight in the Robinson
+Crusoe whose story is so charmingly depicted in a romantic dress! His
+vessel foundered, and he was the only man who was thrown up by the
+stormy waves upon the island. There he made himself at home, wandered
+round the shore and through the woods, and filled a shooting-bag of
+banana leaves with oysters, turtle's eggs, and wild fruits. With his
+simple bow he shot the animals of the forest to make himself clothes of
+their skins, and wild goats, which he caught and tamed, yielded him
+milk, from which he churned butter and manufactured cheese. He became a
+fisherman, furrier, and potter, and on the height above his cave he had
+his chapel where he kept Sundays. He found wild maize, and sowed,
+reaped, and made bread. As years passed on, his prosperity increased,
+and he was a type of the whole human race, which from the rude
+simplicity of the savage has in the course of ages progressed to a
+condition of refinement and enlightenment. When he was most at a loss
+for fire to prepare his food, the lightning struck a tree and set it on
+fire, and we remember that he then kept up his fire for a long time,
+never letting it go out. He was very grieved when it at length expired,
+but a volcanic outbreak came to his assistance, and he lighted his fire
+again from the glowing lava.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> He made himself a bread oven of bricks,
+and built himself a hut and a boat.</p>
+
+<p>Once when he was away on an excursion, and lay asleep far from his
+dwelling, he started up in alarm at hearing some one call out his name.
+It was only his own parrot, which had learned to talk, and which had
+searched for him, and was sitting on a bough calling out "Poor Robinson
+Crusoe!"</p>
+
+<p>How well we remember his lonely walk to the other side of the island,
+when he stood petrified with fear before the print of a human foot in
+the sand! For eight years he had been alone, and now he found that there
+were other human beings, cannibals no doubt, in the neighbourhood. He
+stood, gazed, listened, hurried home, and prepared for defence. Here,
+also, he is a type of peoples and states, which sooner or later awake to
+a perception of the necessity of defence against hostile attacks. His
+suspicions give way to certainty when one day he sees a fire burning on
+the beach. He runs home, draws up the ladder over the fortification
+round his dwelling, makes ready his weapons, climbs up to his look-out,
+and sees ten naked savages roasting flesh round a fire. After a wild
+dance they push out their canoes and disappear. At the fire are left
+gnawed human bones and skulls, and Robinson is beside himself at the
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the fourteenth year he is awakened one stormy night by a
+shot. His heart beats fast, for now the hour of deliverance is surely at
+hand. Another shot thunders through the night. Perhaps it is a signal of
+distress from a ship! He lights a huge fire to guide the crew. When
+morning dawns, he finds that a ship has run on to a submerged rock and
+been wrecked. No sign of the crew is visible. But yes, a sailor lies
+prostrate on the sand and a dog howls beside him. Crusoe runs up; he
+would like a companion in his loneliness; but however long he works with
+artificial respiration and other remedies, the dead will not come to
+life, and Robinson Crusoe sadly digs a grave for the unknown guest.</p>
+
+<p>Another year passes and all the days are alike. As he sits at his table,
+breaking his bread and eating fish and oysters, he has his dog, parrot,
+and goats as companions and gives them a share of his meal.</p>
+
+<p>One day he sees from his look-out hill five boats come to the island and
+put to shore, and thirty savages jump on land and light a fire. Then
+they bring two prisoners from a boat. One they kill with a club. The
+other runs away and makes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> straight towards Crusoe's dwelling. Only two
+men pursue him, and Crusoe runs up to help him. At a sign from his
+master, the dog rushes on one of the savages and holds him fast till he
+gets his death-blow, and the other meets the same fate. Then Crusoe by
+signs and kindly gestures makes the prisoner understand that he has
+found a friend. The poor fellow utters some incomprehensible words, and
+Crusoe, who has not heard a human voice for fifteen years, is delighted
+to hear him speak. The other savages make off as fast as they can.</p>
+
+<p>Robinson Crusoe's black friend receives the name of Friday, because he
+came to the island on a Friday. In time Friday learns to speak, and
+brightens and relieves the life of the solitary man. One day another
+wreck is stranded on the rocks, and Robinson and Friday fetch from its
+stores firearms and powder, tools and provisions, and many other useful
+things. When eighteen long years have expired, the hero of our childhood
+is rescued by an English ship.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Across the Pacific Ocean</span></h3>
+
+<p>The albatross is a knowing bird, or he would not follow vessels for
+weeks. He knows that there is food on board, and that edible fragments
+are often thrown out. But his power of observation and his knowledge are
+much greater than might be suspected. He knows also of old where small
+storm birds take their prey, and when he finds them flying along with
+their catch he shoots down like lightning among them, appropriates all
+he can find, and does not trouble himself in the least about the smaller
+birds' disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>But these vultures of the sea are still cleverer in other ways. Their
+forefathers have lived on the sea for thousands of years, and their
+senses have been developed to the greatest acuteness and perfection.
+They know the regular winds, and can perceive from the colour of the
+water if a cold or warm sea current sweeps along below them. If now our
+friend the albatross, travelling westwards over the islands of
+Polynesia, wishes to be carried along by the wind, he knows that he has
+only to keep between the Tropic of Capricorn and the equator in order to
+be in the belt of the south-east trade-wind. And no doubt he has also
+noticed that this wind gives rise to the equatorial current which, broad
+and strong, sets westwards across the Pacific Ocean. If he wishes to fly
+north<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> of the equator, he receives the same help from the north-east
+trade-wind; but if he wanders far to the south or north of the equator,
+he will meet with head winds and find that the ocean current sets
+eastwards. In the northern half of the Pacific Ocean this north-easterly
+current is called the Kuroshiwo, or "Black Salt." It skirts the coast of
+Japan and runs right across to Canada. This current is one of the
+favourite haunts of the albatross.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img023.jpg"  width="550" height="369"
+ alt="THE SOUTH SEAS" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>THE SOUTH SEAS.</h4>
+
+<p>He knows further that the arrangement of winds and currents is just the
+same in the Atlantic. There, however, the current running north-east is
+called the Gulf Stream, and it is the warm water of this stream, coming
+from the equator, which makes the climate of north-western Europe so
+mild, and prevents even the northernmost fiords of Norway from freezing
+in winter.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the albatross is on its course westwards, careless of winds
+and currents. He heeds not the hardest storm, and, indeed, where could
+he hide himself from its violence? His dwelling is the air. The sea is
+high, and he skims just above the surface, rising to meet each wave and
+descending into every trough, and the tips of his wings seem to dip into
+the foam. The great ocean seems dreadfully dreary and deserted. The sun
+glistens on the spindrift, and the albatross<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> is reflected in the
+smooth, bright roof of waves above the fairy crystal grottoes in the
+depths.</p>
+
+<p>He rises to see whether the island he is thinking about is visible above
+the horizon. Beneath him he sees the dark, white-tipped, roaring sea.
+From the west, bluish-black rain-clouds sweep up and open their
+sluice-gates. Is the albatross hindered in his flight by the rain which
+pelts violently down on his back and wings? Well, yes, he must certainly
+be delayed, but he can foretell the weather with certainty enough to
+keep clear, and he is swift enough on the wing to make his escape when
+overtaken by rain. And he can always descend, fold his pinions, and rest
+dancing on the waves.</p>
+
+<p>The rain over, he flies higher up again and now sees Easter Island,
+which from an immense depth rises above the water, terribly lonely in
+the great ocean. On a sloping beach he sees several monuments of stone,
+thirty feet high, in the form of human heads. They mark graves, and are
+memorials of a long-vanished settlement. Now there are only about 150
+natives on Easter Island, and even these are doomed to extinction. Three
+white men live on the island, but it is long since news was heard of
+them, for no vessel has touched there for several years. Of other living
+things only rats, goats, fowls, and sea birds exist on the island.</p>
+
+<p>At some distance to the north-east lies Sala-y-Gomez, a small island of
+perfectly bare rocks, only inhabited by sea-fowl, and there the
+albatross pays a passing visit. Now he rises again and continues his
+flight westwards. Soon he comes to a swarm of insignificant islands
+called the Low Archipelago. So we name the islands, but the dark-skinned
+natives who by some mysterious fortune have been banished to them call
+them Paumotu, or "Island Cloud." A poet could not have conceived a
+better name. There lie eighty-five groups of islands, each consisting of
+innumerable holms. They are really a cloud of islets, like a nebula or
+star mist in the sky, and this swarm is only one among many others
+studding all the western part of the Pacific Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Now the albatross soars round the rocks of the "Island Cloud." He can
+see them easily from up above, but it is a harder matter for a vessel to
+make its way between the treacherous rocks and reefs. Though they are so
+many, the aggregate area amounts to less than four square miles. Almost
+all are formed of coral, and most of them are atolls. Reef&mdash;building
+corals are small animals which extract lime from the water. They
+multiply by budding, and every group<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> forms a common clan where living
+and dead members rest side by side. Coral animalcul&aelig; demand for their
+existence a firm, hard sea bottom, crystal-clear water, sufficient
+nutriment brought to them by waves and currents, and lastly a water
+temperature not falling below 68&deg;. Therefore they occur only in tropical
+seas and near the surface, for the water becomes colder with the depth.
+At depths greater than 160 feet they are rare. They die and increase
+again and again, and therefore the coral reefs grow in height and
+breadth, and only the height of water at ebb tide puts a limit to their
+upward growth. The continual surf of the sea and stormy waves often
+break off whole blocks of coral limestone, which roll down and break up
+into sand. With this all cavities are filled in, and thus the action of
+the sea helps to consolidate and strengthen the reef. Other
+lime-extracting animalcul&aelig; and also seaweeds establish themselves on the
+reef. In the course of time the waves throw up loose blocks on the top
+of the reef, so that parts of it are always above the water-level. When
+the water rises during flood-tide, white foaming surf indicates the
+position of the reef at a long distance. During the ebb the reef itself
+is exposed and the sea is quiet. Between ebb and flood the fairway is
+dangerous, for there is nothing to warn a vessel, and it may run right
+on to a coral reef and be lost.</p>
+
+<p>Reefs have various forms and lengths. The great Barrier Reef, which lies
+off the north-east coast of Australia, is 1200 miles long. When reefs
+form circles they are called atolls. By means of winds, birds, and ocean
+currents, seeds are carried about the ocean, and strike root on any
+parts of the reef which lie above the level of the flood-tide. In the
+fulness of time the atoll is completed, built up by animalcul&aelig; and
+plants. The "Island Cloud" is the largest continuous atoll region in all
+the world. There the circular coral islands lie like a collection of
+garlands thrown down upon the sea. Within them the water may be as much
+as 230 feet deep, and in the lagoons of some atolls all the fleets of
+the world could find room. The minute coral animalcul&aelig; have provided by
+their industrious labour shelter for the largest vessels.</p>
+
+<p>On many of the atolls grow cocoa palms, and only then are the
+ring-shaped islands inhabitable. How curious they look to one
+approaching on a vessel! Only the crowns of the palms are seen above the
+horizon; the island, being low, is out of sight. One might be coming to
+an oasis in the boundless Sahara. At last the solid coral ground of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> island comes into sight (Plate XXXVII.). Breakers dash against the
+outer side of the ring, but the lagoon within is smooth as a mirror in
+the lea of the corals and palms.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate37.jpg"  width="550" height="338"
+ alt="PLATE XXXVII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXVII. A CORAL STRAND.</h4>
+
+<p>Four thousand natives of Polynesian race live on the holms of the
+"Island Cloud," a couple of hundred on each atoll. They gather pearls
+and mother-of-pearl, and barter them for European goods at a
+ridiculously low price. On some islands, bread-fruit trees, pineapples,
+and bananas are grown. Animal life is very poor&mdash;rats, parrots, pigeons,
+thrushes, and lizards&mdash;but all the richer is the life in the sea
+outside. The natives are most excellent seamen, and it is hard to
+believe that they are lifelong prisoners on their islands. They sail
+with sails of matting made by the women, and have outriggers which give
+stability to their boats, and they cross boldly from island to island.</p>
+
+<p>What does the albatross care if the French have hoisted their
+tricoloured flag over the atolls of the "Island Cloud" and their nearest
+neighbours to the west? He is absolute ruler over them all, and seizes
+his prey where he will.</p>
+
+<p>Now he makes for the Society Islands, and takes a circuit round the
+largest of them, Tahiti, the finest and best known of all the islands in
+the southern sea. There again he sees volcanoes long since extinct,
+grand wild cliffs thickly covered with wood, impenetrable clumps of
+ferns, and luxuriant grass, while down the slopes dance lively brooks to
+the lagoon separated from the sea by the breakwaters of the coral
+master-builders. On the strand grow the ever-present cocoa palms, as
+distinctive of the islands of the southern sea as the date palms are of
+the desert regions of the Old World. Here the weather is beautiful, a
+warm, equable, tropical sea climate with only three or four degrees
+difference between winter and summer. The south-east trade-wind blows
+all the year round, and storms are rare visitors. The rain is moderate,
+and fever is unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The natives take a bright and happy view of life. They deck their hair
+with wreaths of flowers, their gait is light and easy, and they knew no
+sorrow until the white man came and spoiled their life and liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Now the original inhabitants of Tahiti are dying out, and are being
+replaced by Chinamen, Europeans, and natives from other islands to the
+north-west. They still, however, till their fields, put out their
+fishing-canoes in the lagoon, and pull down cocoa-nuts in their season.
+They still wear wreaths of flowers in their hair, a last relic of a
+happier existence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> Pigeons coo in the trees, and green and blue and
+white parrots utter their ear-piercing screams. Horses, cattle, sheep,
+goats, and swine are newcomers; lizards, scorpions, flies, and
+mosquitoes are indigenous. The luxuriant gardens with their natural
+charms Europeans have not been able to destroy, and the frigate bird,
+the eagle of the sea, with the tail feathers of which the chiefs of
+Tahiti used to decorate their heads, still roosts in the trees on the
+strand, and seeks its food far out in the sea. The albatross cannot but
+notice the frigate bird. He sees in him a rival. The latter does not
+make such long journeys, and does not venture so far out to sea; but he
+is a master in the art of flying, and he is an unconscionable thief. He
+follows dolphins and other fishes of prey to appropriate their catch,
+and forces other birds to relinquish their food when they are in the act
+of swallowing it. When fishermen are out drawing up their nets, he skims
+so low over the boat that he may be stunned with an oar, and he is so
+attracted by bright and gaudy colours that he will shoot down recklessly
+on to the pennants of ships as they flutter in the wind, swinging to and
+fro with the roll of the vessel. He soars to an immense height, like the
+eagle, and no telescope can match the sharpness of his eyesight. Up
+aloft he can see the smallest fish disporting itself on the surface of
+the water. Especially he looks out for flying-fish, and catches them in
+the air just as they are hovering on expanded fins above the waves, or
+else dives after them and seizes them down below. When he has caught a
+fish he soars aloft, and if the fish does not lie comfortably in his
+bill he drops it, and catches it again before it reaches the water; and
+he will do this repeatedly until the fish is in a convenient position
+for swallowing.</p>
+
+<p>Our far-travelled storm-bird continues his long journey westwards, and
+his next resting-place is the Samoa Islands, which he recognises by
+their lofty volcanic cliffs, their tuff and lava, their beautiful woods
+and waterfalls, as much as 650 feet high, and surrounded by the most
+luxuriant vegetation. Over the copses of ferns, and climbing plants, and
+shrubs, reminding one of India, flutter beautiful butterflies.</p>
+
+<p>Around their oval huts, with roof of sugar-cane leaves and the floor
+inside covered with cocoa mats, are seen the yellowish-brown
+Polynesians, of powerful build and proud bearing. The upper parts of
+their bodies are bare, and they wear necklaces of shells and teeth, deck
+themselves with flowers and feathers, smear their bodies with cocoa oil,
+and tattoo themselves. Of a peaceful and happy disposition, they, too,
+have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> been disturbed by white men, and have been forced to cede their
+islands to Germany and the United States.</p>
+
+<p>It rains abundantly on the Samoa Islands. Black clouds sink down towards
+the sea, violent waterspouts suck up the water in spiral columns which
+spread out above like the crowns of pine-trees, and deluges of rain come
+down, lasting sometimes for weeks. Everything becomes wet and sodden,
+and it is useless to try to light a fire with matches. Almost every year
+these islands are visited by sudden whirlwinds, which do great damage
+both on sea and land. Wreckage is thrown up on the shore, fields and
+plantations are destroyed, leaves fly like feathers from the cocoa
+palms, and if the storm is one of the worst kind, the trees themselves
+fall in long rows as if they had been mown down by a gigantic scythe.</p>
+
+<p>The albatross knows of old the course of the great steamboat liners. He
+sees several steamers at the Samoa Islands, and afterwards on his flight
+to the Fiji Islands, and if the weather is overcast and stormy he leaves
+his fishing-grounds in the great ocean deserts and makes for some
+well-known steamer route. For in stormy weather he can find no soft
+cephalopods, but from a vessel refuse is thrown out in all weathers. He
+knows that the Samoa Islands are in regular communication with the
+Sandwich Islands, and that from these navigation routes radiate out like
+a star to Asia, America, and Australia.</p>
+
+<p>He sails proudly past the Fiji Islands. He does not trouble himself to
+make an excursion to the Solomon Islands and the world of islands lying
+like piers of fallen bridges on the way to the coast of Asia. Though New
+Caledonia is so near on the west, he is not attracted to it, as the
+French use it as a penal settlement.</p>
+
+<p>Rather will he trim his wings for the south, and soon he sees the
+mountains on the northern island of New Zealand rise above the horizon.
+Among them stands Tongariro's active volcano with its seven craters, and
+north-east of it lies the crater lake Taupo among cliffs of
+pumice-stone. North of this lake are many smaller ones, round which
+steam rises from hot springs, and where many fine geysers shoot up,
+playing like fountains.</p>
+
+<p>He sees that on the southern island the mountains skirt the western
+coast just as in Scandinavia, that mighty glaciers descend from the
+eternal snow-fields, and that their streams lose themselves in most
+beautiful Alpine lakes. He gives a passing glance at the lofty mountain
+named after the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> navigator Cook, which is 12,360 feet high. On the
+plains and slopes shepherds tend immense flocks of sheep. The woods are
+evergreen. In the north grow pines, whose trunks form long avenues, and
+whose crowns are like vaultings in a venerable cathedral. There grow
+beeches, and tree-ferns, and climbing plants; but the palms come to an
+end half-way down the southern island, for the southernmost part of the
+island is too cold for them.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly both islands were inhabited by Maoris. They tattooed the whole
+of their bodies in fine and tasteful patterns, but were cannibals and
+stuck their enemies' heads on poles round their villages. Now there are
+only forty thousand of them left, and even these are doomed to
+extinction through white men&mdash;as in the struggle between the brown and
+black rats. Formerly the Maoris stalked about with their war clubs over
+their shoulders; now they work as day labourers in the service of the
+whites.</p>
+
+<p>At last our albatross rises high above the coast and speeds swiftly
+southwards to the small island of Auckland. There he meets his mate, and
+for several days they are terribly busy in making ready their nest. They
+collect reeds, rushes, and dry grass, which they knit into a kind of
+high, round ball. The month of November is come and the summer has
+begun. In the southern hemisphere midsummer comes at Christmas and
+midwinter at the end of June. Then the albatrosses assemble in enormous
+flocks at Auckland and other small, lonely islands to breed.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Across Australia</span></h3>
+
+<p>There are still districts in the interior of the fifth continent which
+have never been visited by Europeans. There stretch vast sandy deserts
+and the country is very dry, for the rain of the south-east trade-wind
+falls on the mountain ranges of the east, where also the rivers flow.
+Fifty years ago very little was known of the interior of Australia, and
+a large reward was offered to the man who should first cross the
+continent from sea to sea.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly a big expedition was set on foot. It was equipped by the
+colony of Victoria. Large sums of money were contributed, and Robert
+Burke was chosen as leader. He was a bold and energetic man, but wanting
+in cool-headedness and the quiet, sure judgment necessary to conduct an
+expedition through unknown and desolate country.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate38.jpg"  width="550" height="352"
+ alt="PLATE XXXVIII." title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXVIII. COUNTRY NEAR LAKE EYRE.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Two dozen camels with their drivers were procured from north-west India.
+Provisions were obtained for a year, and all the articles purchased,
+even to the smallest trifles, were of the best quality money could buy.
+With such an equipment all Australia might have been explored little by
+little. When the expedition set out from Melbourne, the capital of
+Victoria, there was great enthusiasm; many people came out really to to
+look at the camels, for they had never seen this animal before, but most
+of them looked forward to a triumph in geographical exploration.</p>
+
+<p>Burke was not alone. He had as many as fifteen Europeans with him. Some
+of them were men of science, who were to investigate the peculiar
+vegetation of the country, and the singular marsupials, the character of
+the rocks, the climate, and so on. One of them was named Wills. Others
+were servants, and had to look after the horses and transport.</p>
+
+<p>The caravan started on August 20, 1860. That was the first mistake, for
+the heat and drought were then setting in. The men marched on
+undismayed, however, crossed Australia's largest river, the Murray, and
+came to its tributary, the Darling. There a permanent camp was pitched,
+and the larger part of the caravan was left there. Burke, Wills, and six
+other Europeans went on with five horses and sixteen camels towards the
+north-west, and in twenty-one days reached the river Cooper, which runs
+into Lake Eyre.</p>
+
+<p>Here another camp was set up, several excursions were made in the
+neighbourhood, and a messenger was sent to the Darling to hurry up the
+men left behind. The messenger loitered, however, one week passed after
+another, and when nothing was heard of the men, Burke decided to march
+northwards with only three companions, Wills and the two servants King
+and Gray, six camels, two horses, and provisions for three months, and
+cross the continent to the coast of Queensland on the Gulf of
+Carpentaria. The other four were to remain with their horses and camels
+where they were until Burke came back, and were to leave the place only
+if absolutely obliged to do so.</p>
+
+<p>All went well at first, but the country was troublesome and rough, wild
+and undulating (Plate XXXVIII.). As long as the explorers followed the
+sandy bed of the Cooper River they found pools of water in sufficient
+numbers. At midday the temperature in the shade was 97&deg;, but it fell at
+night to 73&deg;, when they felt quite cold.</p>
+
+<p>Then they passed from bed to bed of temporary streams,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> carrying water
+only in the rainy season, and there the usual pools of water remained in
+the shade of dense copses of grass-trees, boxwood and gum-trees or
+eucalyptus. The last named were evidently not of the same species as the
+world-renowned blue gum-tree which occurs in Victoria and Tasmania, for
+this dries up marshes and unhealthy tracts and grows to its height of 65
+feet in seven years. But the giant gum-tree is still more remarkable,
+for it attains a height of over 400 feet, and another species of
+eucalyptus has reached 500 feet.</p>
+
+<p>The party had also to cross dreary plains of sand and tracts of clay
+cracked by the drought, and there they had to have their leather sacks
+filled with water. Sometimes they saw flocks of pigeons flying
+northwards, and were sure of finding water soon if they followed in the
+same direction. At some places there had been rain, so that a little
+grass had sprung up; in others the saltbushes were perishing from
+drought.</p>
+
+<p>The animal life was very scanty. In the brief notes of the expedition
+few forms are mentioned except pigeons and ducks, wild geese, pelicans
+and certain other waders, parrots, snakes, fishes, and rats. They saw no
+kangaroos&mdash;those curious jumping and springing animals which carry their
+young for seven months in a pouch on the belly, and are as peculiar to
+Australia as the llama to South America; nor do the travellers speak of
+dingoes, the wild dogs of Australia, which are a terror to sheep
+farmers.</p>
+
+<p>They saw Australian blacks clad with shields, long spears, and
+boomerangs, and nothing else. These naked, low-typed savages sometimes
+gave them fish in exchange for beads, matches, and other trifles. They
+were active as monkeys in the trees when they were hunting the beasts of
+the forest, but when they saw the camels they usually took to their
+heels. They had never seen such kangaroos before, with long legs both
+back and front, and also humpbacked.</p>
+
+<p>After the travellers had crossed a hilly tract they had not far to go to
+the coast. From the last camp Burke and Wills marched through swamps and
+woods of palms and mangroves, but they never caught sight of the waters
+of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Forests hid them and swamps intervened when
+they were quite close to the shore. Burke had attained his aim: he had
+crossed Australia. But his exploit was of little use or satisfaction,
+least of all to himself, for his return was a succession of disasters,
+the most terrible journey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> ever undertaken in the fifth continent.
+Thunder, lightning, and deluges of rain marked the start southwards. The
+lightning flashes followed one another so closely that the palms and
+gum-trees were lighted up in the middle of the night as in the day. The
+ground was turned into a continuous swamp. In order to spare the camels,
+the tents had been left behind. Everything became moist, and the men
+grew languid; and when the rain ceased drought set in again and
+oppressive, suffocating heat, so that they longed for night as for a
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>An emaciated horse was left behind. A snake eight feet long was killed,
+and following the example of the savages they ate its flesh, but were
+sick after it. Once when they were encamping in a cave in a valley, a
+downpour of rain came, filled the valley, and threatened to carry away
+themselves and their camp. Mosquitoes tormented them, and sometimes they
+had to lose a day when the ground was turned into slough by the rain.</p>
+
+<p>One man sickened and died, but on April 21 the three men were in sight
+of the camp where their comrades had been ordered to await their return.
+Burke thought that he could see them in the distance. How eager they
+were to get there! Here they would find all necessaries, and, above all,
+would be saved from starvation, which had already carried off one of the
+four.</p>
+
+<p>But the spot was deserted. Not a living thing remained. There were only
+on a tree trunk the words "Dig. April 21." They digged and found a
+letter telling them that their comrades had left the place the same day,
+only a few hours before. Fortunately they found also a supply of flour,
+rice, sugar, and dried meat enough to last them until they reached a
+station inhabited by whites. But where were the clothes to replace their
+worn rags, which would scarcely hang together on their bodies? After
+four months of hard travelling and constant privations they were so
+overcome by weariness that every step was an effort, and now they had
+come to the camp only to find that their comrades had gone off the same
+day, neglecting their duty. Fate could not have treated them more
+cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>Burke asked Wills and King whether they thought that they could overtake
+their comrades, but both answered no. Their last two camels were worn
+out, whereas the animals of the other men were, according to the letter,
+in excellent condition. A sensible man would have tried to reach them,
+or at least have followed their trail, and this Wills and King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> wanted
+to do. But Burke proposed a more westerly route, which he expected would
+be better and safer, and which led to the town of Adelaide in South
+Australia. It ran past Mount Hopeless, an unlucky name.</p>
+
+<p>All went well at first, as long as they had flour and rice and could
+obtain from the natives fish and <i>nardoo</i>, ground seeds of the clover
+fern. They even ate rats, roasting them whole on the embers, skin and
+all, and found them well flavoured. One camel died, and the other soon
+refused to move. He supplied them with a store of meat. But their
+provisions came to an end, and, what was worse, water ceased on the way
+to Mount Hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>Then they decided to return to the abandoned camp. On the way they kept
+alive on fish which they sometimes procured from natives, having nothing
+else but <i>nardoo</i> seeds plucked from the clover fern. Half dead with
+hunger and weariness they came back to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>Midwinter, the end of June, was come, and the nights were cold. It was
+decided that Burke and King should go out and look for natives. Wills
+was unable to go with them, and was given a small supply of seeds and
+water.</p>
+
+<p>After two days slow travelling Burke could go no farther. King shot a
+crow, which they ate, but Burke's strength was exhausted. One evening he
+said to his servant, "I hope that you will remain with me until I am
+really dead. Then leave me without burying me." Next morning he was
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>Then King hurried back to Wills and found him dead also. The last words
+he had entered, four days before, in his journal were: "Can live four or
+five days longer at most, if it keeps warm. Pulse 48, very weak."</p>
+
+<p>When the travellers were not heard of, the worst fears were entertained,
+and relief expeditions were despatched from Melbourne, Adelaide, and
+Brisbane, and in Sydney and other towns Burke's fate was discussed with
+anxiety. At length they found King, who had gained the confidence of the
+natives and had sojourned with them for two months, living as they did.
+He was unrecognisable and half out of his mind, but he recovered under
+the careful treatment he received. The two dead men were buried, Burke
+wrapped in the Union Jack. Later on his remains were carried to
+Melbourne, where a fine monument marks his grave. This is almost all
+that remains of an expedition which started out with such fair
+prospects, but which came to grief at the foot of Mount Hopeless.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Sir John Franklin and the North-West Passage</span></h3>
+
+<p>We have now surveyed the earth's mainland, islands, and seas. We have
+seen how man by his endurance and thirst for knowledge has penetrated
+everywhere, how he has wandered over the hottest deserts and the coldest
+mountains. The nearer we come to our own times, the more eager have
+explorers become, and we no longer suffer blank patches to exist on our
+maps. The most obstinate resistance to the advance of man has been
+presented by the Poles and their surroundings, where the margin of the
+eternal ice seems to call out a peremptory "Thus far shalt thou come,
+but no farther." But even the boundless ice-packs could not deter the
+bold and resolute seafarers. One vessel after another was lost, crew and
+all, but the icy sea was constantly ploughed by fresh keels. The North
+Pole naturally exercised the greater attraction, for it lies nearer to
+Europe, amidst the Arctic Ocean, which is enclosed between the coasts of
+Asia, Europe, and North America.</p>
+
+<p>In the "forties" of last century, English and American explorers were
+occupied in searching for a north-west passage, or a navigable channel
+for vessels making by the shortest route from the North Atlantic to the
+Pacific Ocean. Let us look at the story of a famous expedition which set
+out to find this passage.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Franklin was an officer in the Royal Navy. He had led
+expeditions by land and sea, in both the northern and southern
+hemispheres, and in particular had mapped considerable areas of the
+north coast of America east of Behring Strait. Most of the coast of the
+mainland was thus known,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> and it remained only to find a channel between
+the large islands to the north of it. Such a passage must exist, but
+whether it was available for navigation was another question. A number
+of learned and experienced men decided to send out a large and
+well-furnished expedition for the purpose of effecting the north-west
+passage. The whole English people took up the scheme with enthusiasm.
+Hundreds of courageous men volunteered for the voyage, and Admiral Sir
+John Franklin was appointed leader of the expedition, from which neither
+he nor any of his subordinates was ever to return.</p>
+
+<p><a name="NORTH_POLAR" id="NORTH_POLAR"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img024.jpg"  width="550" height="545"
+ alt="THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS.</h4>
+
+<p>The ships chosen were the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i>, which (as we shall see
+later) had already made a voyage to South Polar regions, and which were
+now refitted from keel to topmasts. Captain Crozier was the second in
+command and captain of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> the <i>Terror</i>, while Franklin hoisted his flag on
+the <i>Erebus</i>, where Captain James was under him. The members of the
+expedition were chosen with the greatest care, and when they were all
+mustered, the vessels had on board twenty-three officers and a hundred
+and eleven men. Provisions were taken for three years, and the vessels
+were fitted with small auxiliary engines, which had never before been
+tried in Polar seas.</p>
+
+<p>The constituted authorities drew up a plan which Franklin was to follow,
+but he was left free to act as he thought proper when circumstances
+demanded alterations. The main thing was to sail north of America from
+the Atlantic side and come out into the Pacific Ocean through Behring
+Strait.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> left England on May 19, 1845. All officers and
+men were full of the most lively expectations of success, and were
+resolved to do all in their power to achieve the object of the
+expedition. They passed the Orkney Islands and on Midsummer Day saw the
+southern extremity of Greenland, Cape Farewell, disappear to windward.
+Next day they encountered the first ice, huge floating icebergs of wild,
+jagged form or washed into rounded lumps by the action of the waves, and
+ten days later the ships anchored near Disko Island, on the west coast
+of Greenland. Here they met another vessel which had come up north with
+an additional store of provisions and equipment. Its captain, the last
+man who spoke with Franklin and the members of the expedition, said that
+he had never seen a finer set of men so well prepared and so eager for
+their work. He thought that they could go anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>On July 26 the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> were seen, for the last time, by an
+English whaler. After that day the fate of the most unfortunate of all
+Polar expeditions was involved in an obscurity much denser than that
+which surrounded Gordon in Khartum after the telegraph line was cut.
+What is known only came to light many years later through the relief
+expeditions that were sent out, or was communicated by parties of
+wandering Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the voyage was continued north-westwards between two large
+islands into Lancaster Sound. Soon progress was delayed by masses of
+pack ice, and the engines were found to be so weak that they could be
+used only in smooth, open water. In another sound, to the north, the
+water was open, and here the ships managed to sail 150 miles before the
+ice set fast again. Then they passed through another open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> sound back to
+the south. Early autumn had now come, and all the hills and mountains
+were covered with snow and fresh ice was forming in the sound. Here
+Franklin laid the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> up for the winter, having found
+fairly sheltered anchorage at a small island.</p>
+
+<p>What kind of life the men led on board during the long winter we do not
+know. We can only conjecture that the officers read and studied, and
+that the men were employed in throwing up banks of snow reaching up
+above the bulwarks to keep in the warmth; that snow huts were built on
+the ice and on land for scientific observations; and that a hole was
+kept open day and night that water might always be procurable in case of
+fire when the pumps were frozen into pillars of ice. When the long night
+was over and February came with a faint illumination to the south, and
+when the sky grew brighter day by day till at last the expedition
+welcomed the return of the sun, probably men and officers made
+excursions to the neighbouring islands to hunt. Their hopes revived with
+the increasing light. Only 260 miles of unknown coast remained of the
+north-west passage, and they believed that the New Year would see them
+return home. The sun remained longer and longer above the horizon, and
+at last the long Polar day commenced.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> were released in late summer from their
+prison of ice, and the small island could at last be left, three sailors
+remained on the beach. Their gravestones, carved with a few simple
+words, were found five years later by a relief expedition, and they
+constitute the only proof that Franklin wintered at this particular
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>To the south lay an open channel, and this southern passage must in time
+bend to the west. Mile after mile the vessels sailed southwards,
+carefully avoiding the drifting ice. East and west were seen the coasts
+of islands, and in front, in the distance, could be descried King
+William Land, a large island which is the nearest neighbour to the
+mainland. The north-west passage was nearly accomplished, for it was now
+only about 120 miles westward to coasts already known. How hopelessly
+long this distance seemed, however, when the vessels were caught in the
+grip of the ice only a day or two later! Firmer and firmer the ice froze
+and heaped itself up round the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i>; the days became
+shorter, the second winter drew on with rapid strides, and preparations
+to meet it were made as in the preceding year. The vessels lay frozen in
+on the seventieth parallel, or a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> south of the northernmost
+promontory of Scandinavia; but here there was no Gulf Stream to keep the
+sea open with its warm water. Little did the officers and crew suspect
+that the waves would never again splash round the hulls of the <i>Erebus</i>
+and <i>Terror</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We can well believe that they were not so cheerful this winter as in the
+former. The vessels were badly placed in the ice, in an open roadstead
+without the shelter of a coast. They lay as in a vice, and the hulls
+creaked and groaned under the constant pressure. Life on board such an
+imprisoned vessel must be full of unrest. The vessel seems to moan and
+complain, and pray that it may escape to the waves again. The men must
+wonder how long it will hold out, and must be always prepared for a
+deafening crash when the planks will give way and the ship, crushed like
+a nutshell, will sink at once. But worst of all is the darkness when the
+sun sets for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>However, the winter passed at last, and the sun came back. It grew
+gradually light in the passages below deck, and it was no longer
+necessary to light a candle to read by in the evening. Soon there was no
+night at all, but the sun shone the whole twenty-four hours, and all the
+brighter because the vessels were surrounded by nothing but ice and
+snow. Far to the south and east were seen the hills on King William
+Land. If only the ice would release its hold and begin to drift! But the
+pack-ice still remained to the westward, and it was possible of course
+that the vessels had been damaged by the pressure.</p>
+
+<p>Two officers with six men undertook a journey to the south coast of King
+William Land, whence the mainland of North America could be descried in
+clear weather. At their turning-point they deposited in a cairn a
+narrative of the most important events that had happened on board up to
+date. This small document was found many years after. The little party
+returned with good news and bright hopes, but found sorrow on the ships.
+Admiral Franklin lay on his deathbed. The suspense had lasted too long
+for him. He just heard that the north-west passage had been practically
+discovered, and died a few days later, in June, 1847. This was fortunate
+for him. His life had been a career of manliness and courage, and he
+might well go to sleep with a smile of victory on his lips. But we can
+imagine the gloom cast upon the expedition by the death of its leader.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the season when the ice begins to move, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> open water may
+be expected. No doubt they made excursions in all directions to find out
+where the surge of the salt sea was nearest. Perhaps they resorted to
+ice saws and powder to get out, but in vain; the ice held them fast.
+However, they were delighted to find that the whole pack was moving
+southwards. Could they reach the mainland in this way? A great American
+company, named after Hudson's Bay, had small trading-posts far in the
+north. If they could only reach one of them they would be saved.</p>
+
+<p>Autumn came on, and their hope of getting free was disappointed. To try
+and reach the mainland now when winter was approaching was not to be
+thought of, for in winter no game is to be found in these endless
+wastes, and a journey southwards meant therefore death by starvation. In
+summer, on the other hand, there was a prospect of falling in with
+reindeer and musk oxen, those singular Polar animals as much like sheep
+as oxen, which live on lichens and mosses and do not wander farther
+south than the sixtieth parallel. In the western half of North America
+the southern limit of the musk ox coincides with the northern limit of
+trees. A herd of twenty or thirty musk oxen would have saved Franklin's
+distressed mariners. If they could only have found Polar bears, or, even
+better, seals or whales, with their thick layer of blubber beneath the
+hide; and Arctic hares would not have been despised if in sufficient
+numbers! But the season was too far advanced, and the wild animals had
+retreated before the cold and the abundant snow which covered their
+scanty food. No doubt the officers deliberated on the plan they should
+adopt. They had maps and books on board and knew fairly accurately how
+far they had to travel to the nearest trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and on the way they had every prospect of finding game and
+meeting Eskimos. It was decided to pass the third winter on board.</p>
+
+<p>The cold increased day by day, and the length of the days became
+shorter. The sun still rose, described a flat arch to the south, and
+sank after an hour and a half. Soon the days lasted only half an hour,
+until one day they had only a glimpse of the sun's upper curve
+glittering for a moment like a flashing ruby above the horizon. Next day
+there was twilight at noon, but at any rate there was a reflection of
+the sunset red. During the following weeks the gloominess became more
+and more intense. At noon, however, there was still a perceptible light,
+and the blood-red streak appeared to the south, throwing a dull purple
+tinge over the ice-pack.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> Then this dim illumination faded away also,
+and the Polar night, which at this latitude lasts sixty days and at the
+North Pole itself six months, was come, and the stars sparkled like
+torches on the bluish-black background even when the bell struck midday
+in the officers' mess.</p>
+
+<p>Those who for the first time winter in high northern latitudes find a
+wonderful charm even in the Polar night. They are astonished at the deep
+silence in the cold darkness, at the rushing, moaning howl of the
+snowstorms, and even at the overwhelming solitude and the total absence
+of life. Nothing, however, excites their astonishment and admiration so
+much as the "northern lights." We know that the magnetic and electric
+forces of the earth time after time envelop practically the whole globe
+in a mantle of light, but this mysterious phenomenon is still
+unexplained. Usually the aurora is inconstant. It flashes out suddenly,
+quivers for a moment in the sky, and then grows pale and vanishes. Most
+lasting are the bow-shaped northern lights, which sometimes stretch
+their milk-white arches high above the horizon. It may be that only one
+half of the arch is visible, rising like a pillar of light over the
+field of vision. Another time the aurora takes the form of flames and
+rays, red below and green above, and darting rapidly over the sky.
+Farther north the light is more yellowish. If groups of rays seem to
+converge to the same point, they are described as an auroral crown.
+Beautiful colours change quickly in these bundles of rays, but
+exceedingly seldom is the light as strong as that of the full moon. The
+light is grandest when it seems to fall like unrolled curtains
+vertically down, and is in undulating motion as though it fluttered in
+the wind.</p>
+
+<p>To the sailors in the ice-bound ships, however, the northern lights had
+lost their fascination. Enfeebled and depressed, disgusted with bad
+provisions, worn out with three years' hardships, they lay on their
+berths listening to the ticking of their watches. The only break in
+their monotonous existence was when a death occurred. The carpenter had
+plenty of work, and Captain Crozier knew the funeral service by heart.
+Nine officers and eleven of the crew died during the last two winters,
+and certainly a far greater number in the third. This we know from a
+small slip of paper well sealed up and deposited in a cairn on the
+coast, which was found eleven years afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>At length the months of darkness again came to an end. The red streak
+appeared once more in the south, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> gradually grew lighter.
+Twilight followed in the footsteps of darkness, and at last the first
+sun's rays glistened above the horizon. Then the men awakened once more
+to new hope; Brahmins on the bank of the Ganges never welcomed the
+rising sun with more delight.</p>
+
+<p>With increasing daylight came greater opportunity and disposition to
+work. Several sledges were made ready, heavy and clumsy, but strong.
+Three whale-boats, which for three years had hung fast frozen to the
+davits, were loosened and hauled on to the ice. The best of the
+provisions still remaining in the store-room were taken out, and great
+piles of things were raised round the boats. When everything to be taken
+was down on the ice, the stores, tents, instruments, guns, ammunition,
+and all the other articles were packed on the sledges. The three
+whale-boats were bound with ropes, each on a separate sledge, and a
+sledge with a comfortable bed was assigned to the invalids. During all
+this work the days had grown longer, and at last the men could no longer
+control their eagerness to set out. This early start sealed their fate,
+for neither game nor Eskimos come up so far north till the summer is
+well advanced, and even with the sledges fully laden, their provisions
+would last only forty days.</p>
+
+<p>On April 22, 1848, the signal for departure was given, and the heavy
+sledges creaked slowly and in jerks over the uneven snow-covered ice.
+Axes, picks, and spades were constantly in use to break to pieces the
+sharp ridges and blocks in the way. The distance to King William Land
+was only 15 miles, yet it took them three days to get there. The masts
+and hulls of the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i> grew smaller all too slowly, but
+they vanished at last. Captain Crozier perceived that it was impossible
+to proceed in this manner, so all the baggage was looked through again
+and every unnecessary article was discarded. At this place one of the
+relief expeditions found quantities of things, uniform decorations,
+brass buttons, metal articles, etc., which no doubt had been thought
+suitable for barter with Eskimos and Indians.</p>
+
+<p>With lightened sledges, they marched on along the west coast. They had
+not travelled far when John Irving, lieutenant on the <i>Terror</i>, died.
+Dressed in his uniform, wrapped in sailcloth, and with a silk
+handkerchief round his head, he was interred between stones set on end
+and covered with a flat slab. On his head was laid a silver medal with
+an inscription on the obverse side, "Second prize in Mathematics at the
+Royal Naval College. Awarded to John Irving,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> Midsummer, 1830." Owing to
+the medal the deceased officer was identified long after, and so in time
+was laid to rest in his native town.</p>
+
+<p>Two bays on the west coast of King William Land have been named after
+the unfortunate ships. At the shore of the northern, Erebus Bay, the
+strength of the English seamen was so weakened that they had to abandon
+two of the boats, together with the sledges on which they had been drawn
+so far uselessly. At their arrival at Terror Bay the bonds of
+comradeship were no longer strong enough to keep the party together, or
+it may be that they agreed to separate. They were now less than a
+hundred men. At any rate, they divided into two parties, probably of
+nearly equal strength. The one, which evidently consisted of the more
+feeble, turned back towards the ships, where at least they would obtain
+shelter against wind and weather, and where there were provisions left.
+The other continued along the south coast with the whale-boat, and
+intended to cross to the mainland and try to reach the Great Fish River.
+No doubt, when they had been succoured themselves, they meant to return
+to their distressed comrades.</p>
+
+<p>Terrible must have been the march of the returning party, and terrible
+also that of those who went on. Of the former we know next to nothing.
+The latter marched and marched, dragging their heavy sledges after them
+till they died one after another. There was no longer any thought of
+burying the dead. Every one had to take care of himself. If a dying man
+lagged behind, the others could not stop on his account. Some died as
+they were walking: this was proved afterwards by the skeletons which
+were found lying on their faces. Not a trace of game was found in May
+and June on the island, and they dragged their heavy ammunition boxes
+and guns to no purpose, not firing a shot.</p>
+
+<p>Now the small remnant waited only for open water to cross the sound to
+the mainland. At the beginning of June the ice broke up, and it may be
+taken for granted that at this time the survivors actually crossed, for
+the boat was afterwards found in a bay called Starvation Cove. If only
+the boat had been found here, it might have been drifted over by wind
+and waves; but skeletons and articles both in and outside the boat were
+found, showing that it was manned when it passed over the sound and when
+it landed.</p>
+
+<p>Many circumstances connected with this sad journey are mysterious. Why
+did the men drag the heavy whale-boat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> with them for two months when
+they must have seen the mainland to the south the year before, on the
+excursion which they undertook when the Admiral was lying on his
+deathbed? Where the sound is narrowest it is only three miles broad;
+and, besides, they could have crossed anywhere on the ice. But as all
+died and as not a line in a diary came to light, we know nothing about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>When no news was heard of Franklin after two years, the first relief
+expeditions were sent out. Time passed, and it became still more certain
+that he was in need of help. In the autumn of 1850 fifteen ships were on
+the outlook for him. The most courageous and energetic of all, who for
+years would not give up hope of seeing him again, was Franklin's wife.
+She spent all her means in relief work. In the course of six years the
+English Government disbursed &pound;890,000 in relief expeditions. Most of
+them were useless, for when they set out the disaster had already taken
+place. One expedition which sailed in 1848 was caught in the ice, and
+resorted to a singular means of sending information to the distressed
+men, wherever they might be. About a hundred foxes were caught and
+fitted with brass collars, in which a short description of the position
+of the relief ship was engraved, and then the foxes were let loose
+again.</p>
+
+<p>In 1854 the names of Franklin, Crozier, and all the other men were
+removed from the muster roll of the Royal Navy. A statue of Franklin was
+set up in his native town, and a memorial of marble was erected in
+Westminster Abbey with the words of Tennyson:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Not here! the white North has thy bones; and thou</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Heroic sailor-soul,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Art passing on thine happier voyage now</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Toward no earthly pole.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Voyage of the "Vega"</span></h3>
+
+<p>A brilliant remembrance of the Arctic Ocean is the pride of the Swedes.
+The north-west passage had been discovered by Englishmen; but the
+north-east passage, which for 350 years had been attempted by all
+seafaring nations, was not yet achieved. By a series of voyages to
+Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the Yenisei, Adolf Nordenski&ouml;ld had made
+himself an experienced Polar voyager. He perfected a scheme to sail
+along the north coasts of Europe and Asia and through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> the Behring
+Strait out into the Pacific Ocean. His plan, then, was nothing less than
+to circumnavigate Asia and Europe, an exploit which had never been
+performed and which the learned declared to be impossible. It was
+thought that the ice-pack always lay pressed up against the Siberian
+coast, rendering it impossible to get past; parts had been already
+sailed along and stretches of coasts were known, but to voyage all the
+way to the Behring Strait was out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Now Nordenski&ouml;ld reasoned that the ice must begin to drift in summer,
+and leave an open channel close to the land. The great Siberian rivers,
+the Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena, bring down volumes of warm water
+from southern regions into the Arctic Ocean. As this water is fresh, it
+must spread itself over the heavier sea water, and must form a surface
+current which keeps the ice at a distance and the passage open. Along
+the ice-free coast a vessel could sail anywhere and pass out into the
+Pacific Ocean before the end of summer.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly he made ready for a voyage in which the <i>Vega</i> was to sail
+round Asia and Europe and carry his name to the ends of the earth. The
+<i>Vega</i> was a whaler built to encounter drift ice in the northern seas. A
+staff of scientific observers was appointed, and a crew of seventeen
+Swedish men-of-war's men were selected. The <i>Vega</i> was to be the home of
+thirty men, and provisions were taken for two years. Smaller vessels
+were to accompany her for part of the voyage, laden with coal.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Vega</i> left Carlskrona in June, 1878, and steamed along the coast of
+Norway, past the North Cape, towards the east. The islands of Novaia
+Zemlia were left behind, the waters of the Obi and Yenisei splashed
+against the hull, no drift ice opposed the passage of the Swedish
+vessel, and on August 19 Cape Cheliuskin, the most northern point of the
+Old World, was reached.</p>
+
+<p>Farther east the coast was followed to Nordenski&ouml;ld Sea. Great caution
+was necessary, for the fairway was shallow, and the <i>Vega</i> often steamed
+across bays which were represented as land on maps. The delta of the
+Lena was left behind, and to the east of this only small rivers enter
+the sea. Nordenski&ouml;ld therefore feared that the last bit of the voyage
+would be the hardest, for open water along the coast could not be
+depended upon. At the end of August the most westerly of the group
+called the New Siberia Islands was sighted. The <i>Vega</i> could not go at
+full speed, for the sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> was shallow, and floating fragments of ice were
+in the way. The prospects became brighter again, however, open water
+stretching for a long distance eastwards.</p>
+
+<p>On September 6 two large skin boats appeared, full of fur-clad natives
+who had rowed out from land. All the men on the <i>Vega</i>, except the cook,
+hastened on deck to look at these unexpected visitors of Chukchi race.
+They rushed up the companion ladder, talking and laughing, and were well
+received, being given tobacco, Dutch clay pipes, old clothes, and other
+presents. None of the <i>Vega</i> men understood a word they said, but the
+Chukchis chattered gaily all the same, and with their hands full of
+presents tumbled down to their boats again and rowed home.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later the <i>Vega</i> was in the midst of ice and fog, and had to be
+moored to a floe near land. Then came more Chukchis, who pulled the
+Swedes by the collar and pointed to the skin tents on land. The
+invitation was accepted with pleasure by several of the <i>Vega</i> men, who
+rowed to land and went from tent to tent. In one of them reindeer meat
+was boiling in a cast-iron pot over the fire. Outside another two
+reindeer were being cut up. Each tent contained an inner sleeping-room
+of deerskin, which was lighted and warmed by lamps of train oil. There
+played small stark-naked children, plump and chubby as little pigs, and
+sometimes they ran in the same light attire out over the rime between
+the tents. The tiniest were carried, well wrapped up in furs, on the
+backs of their fathers and mothers, and whatever pranks they played
+these small wild cats never heard a harsh word from their elders.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the <i>Vega</i> tried to continue her voyage, but the fog was
+too dense, and the shelter of a mass of ground ice had again to be
+sought. Nordenski&ouml;ld was, however, sure of gaining the Pacific Ocean in
+a short time, and when fresh visitors came on board he distributed
+tobacco and other presents among them with a lavish hand. He also
+distributed a number of <i>krona</i><a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> pieces and fifty earrings which, if
+any misfortune happened to the <i>Vega</i>, would serve to show her course.</p>
+
+<p>During the following days the ice closed up and fog lay dense over the
+sea. Only now and then could the vessel sail a short distance, and then
+was stopped and had to moor again. On September 18 the vessel glided
+gently and cautiously between huge blocks of grounded ice like castle
+walls and towers of glass. Here patience and great care were necessary,
+for the coast was unknown and there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> frequently barely a span of
+water beneath the keel. The captain stood on the bridge, and wherever
+there was a gap between the ice-blocks he made for it. It was only
+possible to sail in the daytime, and at night the <i>Vega</i> lay fastened by
+her ice anchors. One calm and fine evening some of our seafarers went
+ashore and lighted an enormous bonfire of driftwood. Here they sat
+talking of the warm countries they would sail past for two months. They
+were only a few miles from the easternmost extremity of Asia at Behring
+Strait.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Vega</i> had anchored on the eastern side of Koliuchin Bay. It was
+September 28. Newly formed ice had stretched a tough sheet between the
+scattered blocks of ground ice, and to the east lay an ice-belt barely
+six miles broad. If only a south wind would spring up, the pack would
+drift northwards, and the last short bit of the north-east passage would
+be traversed.</p>
+
+<p>But the Fates decreed otherwise. No wind appeared, the temperature fell,
+and the ice increased in thickness. If the <i>Vega</i> had come a few hours
+sooner, she would not have been stopped on the very threshold of the
+Pacific Ocean. And how easily might these few hours have been saved
+during the voyage! The <i>Vega</i> was entrapped so unexpectedly in the ice
+that there was not even time to look for safe and sheltered winter
+quarters. She lay about a mile from the coast exposed to the northern
+storms. Under strong ice pressure she might easily drift southwards, run
+aground, capsize, or be crushed.</p>
+
+<p>The ice-pack became heavier in all directions, and by October 10 the
+Chukchis were able to come out on foot to the vessel. Preparations were
+made for the winter. High banks of snow were thrown up around, and on
+the deck a thick layer of snow was left to keep the heat in. From the
+bridge to the bow was stretched a large awning, under which the Chukchis
+were received daily. It was like a market-place, and here barter trade
+was carried on. A collection of household utensils, implements of the
+chase, clothes, and indeed everything which the northern people made
+with their own hands, was acquired during the winter.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Vega</i> soon became quite a rendezvous for the three hundred Chukchis
+living in the neighbourhood, and one team of dogs after another came
+daily rushing through the snow. They had small, light sledges drawn by
+six to ten dogs, shaggy and strong, but thin and hungry. The dogs had to
+lie waiting in the snow on the ice while their masters sat bargaining
+under the large awning. At every baking on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> board special loaves were
+made for the native visitors, who would sit by the hour watching the
+smith shaping the white hot iron on his anvil. Women and children were
+regaled with sugar and cakes, and all the visitors went round and looked
+about just as they liked on the deck, where a quantity of articles,
+weapons, and utensils lay about. Not the smallest trifle disappeared.
+The Chukchis were honest and decent people, and the only roguery they
+permitted themselves was to try and persuade the men of the <i>Vega</i> that
+a skinned and decapitated fox was a hare. When it grew dusk the fur-clad
+Polar savages went down the staircase of ice from the deck, put their
+teams in order, took their seats in the sledges, and set off again over
+the ice to their tents of reindeer skins.</p>
+
+<p>The winter was stormy and severe. Clouds of snow swept over the ice,
+fine and dry as flour. Again and again the cold scene was lighted up by
+the arcs of the aurora. In the middle of December the planks in the
+sides of the <i>Vega</i> cracked as the ice pressed against her. If the
+pressure had been bad, the vessel might have been broken to pieces and
+have sunk in a few minutes. It would not have been so serious for the
+crew as in the case of the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i>, for here there were
+people far and near. But to ensure a safe retreat, the men of the <i>Vega</i>
+carried to the nearest shore provisions, guns, and ammunition to last a
+hundred men for thirty days. These things were all stacked up into a
+heap covered with sails and oars. No watch was kept at the dep&ocirc;t, and
+though the Chukchis knew that valuable goods lay under the sails, they
+never touched a thing.</p>
+
+<p>Near the <i>Vega</i> two holes were kept always open. In one the captain
+observed the rise and fall of the tide; the other was for water in case
+of fire. A small seal splashed for a long time in one of the holes and
+came up on to the ice after fishing below. One day his retreat was cut
+off and he was caught and brought up on deck. When fish bought from the
+Chukchis had been offered him in vain, he was let loose in the hole
+again and he never came back.</p>
+
+<p>A house of ice was erected for the purpose of observing the wind and
+weather, and a thermometer cage was set up on the coast. Men took turns
+to go out, and each observer remained six hours at the ice-house and the
+cage to read off the various instruments. It was bitterly cold going out
+when the temperature fell to-51&deg;, but the compulsory walk was
+beneficial. One danger was that a man might lose his way when snowstorms
+raged in the dark winter nights, so a line<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> was stretched the whole way,
+supported on posts of ice, and with this guide it was impossible to go
+astray.</p>
+
+<p>Then came Christmas, when they slaughtered two fat pigs which had been
+brought on purpose. The middle deck was swept out, all the litter was
+cleared away, and flags were hung round the walls and ceiling. The
+Chukchis brought willow bushes from the valleys beyond the mountains to
+the south, and branches were fastened round a trunk of driftwood. This
+was the <i>Vega's</i> Christmas tree, and it was decked with strips of
+coloured paper and small wax candles. Officers and men swung round in
+merry dance beneath flaming lanterns suspended from the roof. Two
+hundred Christmas boxes were found packed on board, parting gifts of
+friends and acquaintances. For these lots were drawn, and many amusing
+surprises excited general hilarity. So the polka was danced on the deck,
+while cold reigned outside and snow whizzed through the frozen rigging.
+For supper there was ham and Christmas ale, just as at home in Sweden.
+Old well-known songs echoed through the saloon, and toasts were given of
+king and country, officers and men, and the fine little vessel which had
+carried our Vikings from their home in the west to their captivity in
+the shore ice of Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>The winter ran its course and the days lengthened in the spring. Cold
+and continual storms were persistent. Even a Chukchi dog can have too
+much of them. One day at the end of February a Chukchi who had lost his
+way came on board, carrying a dog by the hind legs. The man had lost his
+way on the ice, and had slept out in the cold with his dog. A capital
+dinner was served for him on the middle deck, and the dog was rolled
+about and pommelled till he came to life again.</p>
+
+<p>During the spring the <i>Vega</i> explorers made several longer or shorter
+excursions with dog sledges and visited all the villages in the country.
+Of course they became the best of friends with the Chukchis. The
+language was the difficulty at first, but somehow or other they learned
+enough of it to make themselves understood. Even the sailors struggled
+with the Chukchi vocabulary, and tried to teach their savage friends
+Swedish. One of the officers learned to speak Chukchi fluently, and
+compiled a dictionary of this peculiar language.</p>
+
+<p>Summer came on, but the ground was not free from ice until July. The
+<i>Vega</i> still lay fast as in a vice. On July 18 Nordenski&ouml;ld made ready
+for another excursion on land. The captain had long had the engines
+ready and the boilers cleaned. Just as they were sitting at dinner in
+the ward-room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> they felt the <i>Vega</i> roll a little. The captain rushed up
+on deck. The pack had broken up and left a free passage open. "Fire
+under the boilers!" was the order, and two hours later, at half-past
+three o'clock, the <i>Vega</i> glided under steam and sail and a festoon of
+flags away from the home of the Chukchis.</p>
+
+<p>Farther east the sea was like a mirror and free of ice beneath the fog.
+Walruses raised their shiny wet heads above the water, in which numerous
+seals disported themselves. With the wildest delight the <i>Vega</i>
+expedition sailed southwards through Behring Strait. In the year 1553 a
+daring Englishman had commenced the quest of the north-east passage and
+had perished with all his men, and during the following centuries
+numberless other expeditions had tried to solve the problem, but always
+in vain; now it was solved by Swedes. The vessel glided out into the
+Pacific Ocean without a leak; not a man had been lost and not one had
+been seriously ill. It was one of the most fortunate and most brilliant
+Polar voyages that had ever been achieved.</p>
+
+<p>Yokohama was the first port, where the <i>Vega</i> was welcomed with immense
+jubilation, and then the homeward journey <i>via</i> the Suez Canal and
+Gibraltar became a continuous triumphal procession.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Nansen</span></h3>
+
+<p>From many signs around the northern cap of the world a young Norwegian,
+Fridtjof Nansen, came to the conclusion that a constant current must
+flow from the neighbourhood of Behring Strait to the east coast of
+Greenland.</p>
+
+<p>Nansen resolved to make use of this current. Others had gone up from the
+Atlantic side and been driven back by the current. He would start from
+the opposite side and get the help of the current. Others had feared and
+avoided the pack-ice. He would make for it and allow himself to be
+caught in it. Others had sailed in unsuitable vessels which had been
+crushed like nut-shells among the floes. He would build a vessel with
+sides sloping inwards which would afford no hold to the ice. The more
+the ice pressed the more surely would this ship be lifted up out of the
+water and be borne safely on the ice with the current.</p>
+
+<p>The progress would be slow, no doubt, but the expedition would see
+regions of the world never before visited, and would have opportunities
+of investigating the depth of the sea, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> weather and winds. To reach
+the small point called the North Pole was in Nansen's opinion of minor
+importance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/plate39.jpg"  width="550" height="328"
+ alt="PLATE XXXVIX." title="Photo The Record Press" /></div>
+
+<h4>PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM."</h4>
+
+<p>Among the many who wished to go with him he chose the best twelve. The
+vessel was christened the <i>Fram</i> (Plate XXXIX.), and the captain was
+named Sverdrup. He had been with Nansen before on an expedition when
+they crossed the inland ice of Greenland from coast to coast. They took
+provisions for five years and were excellently equipped.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing was to reach the New Siberia Islands. To those the
+<i>Vega</i> had shown the way, and the <i>Fram</i> had only to follow in her
+track. Just to the west of them a course was steered northwards, and
+soon the vessel was set fast in the ice and was lifted satisfactorily on
+to its surface without the smallest leak. So far everything had gone as
+Nansen anticipated, and the experienced Polar voyagers who had declared
+that the whole scheme was madness had to acknowledge that they were not
+so clever as they thought.</p>
+
+<p>We have unfortunately no time to accompany the voyagers on their slow
+journey. They got on well, and were comfortable on board. The ice
+groaned and cracked as usual, but within the heavy timbers of the <i>Fram</i>
+there was peace. The night came, long, dark, and silent. Polar bears
+stalked outside and were often shot. Before it became quite dark Nansen
+tried the dogs at drawing sledges. They were harnessed, but when he took
+his seat, off they went in the wildest career. They romped over blocks
+and holes, and Nansen was thrown backwards, but sat fast in the sledge
+and could not be thrown out. In time the driving went better, and the
+poor, faithful animals had always to go on sledge excursions. Two were
+seized by Polar bears and two were bitten to death by their comrades.
+One fine day, however, puppies came into the world in the midst of the
+deepest darkness. When they first saw the sun they barked furiously.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Fram</i> drifted north-west just as Nansen had foreseen, passing over
+great depths where the two thousand fathom line did not reach the
+bottom. Christmas was kept with a Norwegian festival, and when the
+eightieth parallel was crossed a tremendous feast was held; but the
+return of the sun on February 20 excited the greatest delight. The
+spring and summer passed without any remarkable events. Kennels were
+erected on the ice out of boxes, and more puppies came into the world.
+Possibly these were as much astonished at the winter darkness as their
+cousins had been at seeing the sun.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nansen had long been pondering on a bold scheme&mdash;namely, to advance with
+dog sledges as far as possible to the north and then turn southwards to
+Franz Josef Land. The ship was meanwhile to go on with the drift and the
+usual observations were to be taken on board. Only one man was to go
+with him, and he chose Lieutenant Johansen. He first spoke to him about
+the scheme in November, 1894. It was, of course, a matter of life or
+death, so he told Johansen to take a day or two to think it over before
+he gave his answer. But the latter said "Yes" at once without a moment's
+hesitation. "Then we will begin our preparations to-morrow," said
+Nansen.</p>
+
+<p>All the winter was spent in them. They made two "kayaks," each to hold a
+single man, somewhat larger and stronger than those the Eskimos use when
+they go fishing or seal-hunting. With a frame of ribs and covered with
+sailcloth these canoes weighed only thirty pounds. They were covered in
+all over, and when the boatman had taken his seat in the middle and made
+all tight around him, seas might sweep right over him and the kayak
+without doing any harm. A dog sledge, harness, a sleeping-bag for two,
+skis, staffs, provisions, oil cooking-stove&mdash;all was made ready.</p>
+
+<p>The start took place at the turn of the year, when the most terrible ice
+pressure broke loose on all sides threatening the <i>Fram</i>. Mountains of
+ice-blocks and snow were thrust against the vessel, which was in danger
+of being buried under them. The sea water was forced up over the ice and
+the dogs were nearly drowned in their kennels and had to be rescued
+quickly. Banks of ice were pushed against the vessel, rolled over the
+bulwarks, and weighed down the awning on the deck; and it was pitch
+dark, so that they could not find out where danger threatened. They had,
+however, stored provisions for two hundred days in a safe place. By
+degrees the ice came to rest again and the great rampart was digged
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Twice did Nansen and Johansen set out northwards, only to come back
+again. Once a sledge broke, and on the other occasion the load was too
+heavy. On March 14 they left the <i>Fram</i> for the last time and directed
+their steps northward. They had three sledges and twenty-eight dogs, but
+they themselves walked on skis and looked after their teams. At first
+the ice was level and the pace was rapid, but afterwards it became lumpy
+and uneven, and travelling was slow, as first one sledge and then
+another stuck fast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After two marches the temperature fell to-45&deg;, and it was very cold in
+the small silk tent. They were able to march for nine hours, and when
+the ice was level it seemed as if the endless white plains might extend
+up to the Pole. So long as they were travelling they did not feel the
+cold, but the perspiration from their bodies froze in their clothes, so
+that they were encased in a hauberk of ice which cracked at every step.
+Nansen's wrists were made sore by rubbing against his hard sleeves, and
+did not heal till far on in the summer.</p>
+
+<p>They always looked out for some sheltered crevice in the ice to camp in.
+Johansen looked after the dogs and fed them, while Nansen set up the
+tent and filled the pot with ice. The evening meal was the pleasantest
+in the day, for then at any rate they were warmed inside. After it they
+packed themselves in their sleeping bag, when the ice on their clothes
+melted and they lay all night as in a cold compress. They dreamed of
+sledges and dog teams, and Johansen would call out to the dogs in his
+sleep, urging them on. Then they would wake up again in the bitter
+morning, rouse up the dogs, lying huddled up together and growling at
+the cold, disentangle the trace lines, load the sledges, and off they
+would go through the great solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Only too frequently the ice was unfavourable, the sledges stuck fast,
+and had to be pushed over ridges and fissures. They struggle on
+northwards, however, and have travelled a degree of latitude. It is
+tiring work to march and crawl in this way, and sometimes they are so
+worn out that they almost go to sleep on their skis while the dogs
+gently trot beside them. The dogs too are tired of this toil, and two of
+them have to be killed. They are cut up and distributed among their
+comrades, some of whom refuse to turn cannibals.</p>
+
+<p>When the ice became still worse and the cold white desert looked like a
+heap of stones as far northwards as the eye could see, Nansen decided to
+turn back. It was impossible to find their way back to the <i>Fram</i>, for
+several snowstorms had swept over the ice obliterating their tracks. The
+only thing to do was to steer a course for the group of islands called
+Franz Josef Land. It was 430 miles off, and the provisions were coming
+to an end; but when the spring really set in they would surely find
+game, and they had for their two guns a hundred and eighty cartridges
+with ball and a hundred and fifty with shot. The dogs had the worst of
+it; for them it was a real "dog's life" up there. The stronger were
+gradually to eat up the weaker.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So they turned back and made long marches over easy ice. One day they
+saw a complete tree trunk sticking up out of the ice. What singular
+fortunes it must have experienced since it parted from its root! At the
+end of April the spoor of two foxes was seen in the snow. Was land near,
+or what were these fellows doing out here on the ice-covered sea? Two
+days later a dog named Gulen was sacrificed. He was born on the <i>Fram</i>,
+and during his short life had never seen anything but snow and ice; now
+he was worn out and exhausted, and the travellers were sorry to part
+from the faithful soul.</p>
+
+<p>Open water, sunlit billows! How delightful to hear them splash against
+the edge of the ice! The sound seemed to speak of spring and summer, and
+to give them a greeting from the great ocean and the way back home. More
+tracks of foxes indicated land, and they looked out for it daily. They
+did not suspect that they had to travel for three months to the nearest
+island.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of May only sixteen dogs were left. Now the long summer
+day commenced in the Arctic Ocean, and when the temperature was only
+twenty degrees below freezing point they suffered from heat. But the ice
+was bad, and they had to force the sledges over deep channels and high
+hummocks thrust up by pressure. After great difficulties they staggered
+along on skis. The work became heavier for the dogs as fewer were left,
+but the provisions also diminished.</p>
+
+<p>A furious snowstorm compelled them to remain in a camp. There they left
+one of the sledges, and some broken skis were offered to the flames and
+made a grand fire. Six dogs could still be harnessed to each of the two
+remaining sledges.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of May they came to an expanse of ice intersected by a
+network of channels with open water, which blocked the way. Now animal
+life began to appear with the coming of summer. In a large opening were
+seen the grey backs of narwhals rolling over in the dark-blue water. A
+seal or two were seeking fish, and tracks of Polar bears made them long
+for fresh meat. Nansen often made long excursions in front to see where
+the ice was best. Then Johansen remained waiting by the sledges, and if
+the bold ski-runner were long away he began to fear that an accident had
+happened. He dared not pursue his thoughts to an end&mdash;he would then be
+quite alone.</p>
+
+<p>June comes. The scream of ivory gulls pierces the air.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> The two men
+remain a week in a camp to make their kayaks seaworthy. They have still
+bread for quite a month. Only six dogs are left; when only three remain
+they will have to harness themselves to the sledges.</p>
+
+<p>In a large strip of open water they shoved out the kayaks, fastened them
+together with skis, and paddled them along the margin of the ice. On the
+other side they shot two seals and three Polar bears, and therefore had
+meat for a long time. The last two dogs, too, could eat their fill.</p>
+
+<p>At last the land they longed for appeared to the south, and they
+hastened thither, a man and a dog to each sledge. Once they had again to
+cross a strip of open water in kayaks, Nansen was at the edge of the ice
+when he heard Johansen call out, "Get your gun." Nansen turned and saw
+that a large bear had knocked Johansen down and was sniffing at him.
+Nansen was about to take up his gun when the kayak slipped out into the
+water, and while he was hauling and pulling at it he heard Johansen say
+quite quietly, "You must look sharp if you want to be in time." So at
+last he got hold of his gun, and the bear received his death-wound.</p>
+
+<p>For five months they had struggled over the ice, when at the beginning
+of August they stood at the margin of the ice and had open water before
+them off the land. Now the sea voyage was to begin, and they had to part
+with their last two dogs. It was a bitter moment. Nansen took Johansen's
+dog and Johansen Nansen's, and a couple of bullets were the reward of
+their faithfulness.</p>
+
+<p>Now they travelled more easily and quickly. The kayaks were fastened
+together, and with masts and sails they skimmed past unknown islands.
+Heavy seas forced them to land on one of them. Just as they drew up
+their kayaks a white bear came waddling along, got scent of them, and
+began to sniff along their track. To our travellers his visit meant
+provisions for a long time. Nansen and his travelling companion took
+possession of their new territory, wandered over the island, and
+returned to their dinner of bear, which did them good. Next day they
+looked for a suitable dwelling-place. As they could not find a cave,
+they built a small stone cabin, which they roofed with skis and the silk
+tent. Light and wind came in on all sides, but it was comfortable enough
+and the meat pot bubbled over a fire of fat.</p>
+
+<p>Nansen decided to remain on this island for the winter. The islands they
+had hitherto seen were unlike any of the known parts of Franz Josef
+Land, and Nansen did not know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> exactly where he was. It was impossible
+to venture out on the open sea in the kayaks. It was better to lay in a
+supply of food for the winter, for when darkness came all the game would
+disappear. First of all they must build a comfortable hut. There was
+plenty of stone and moss, a trunk of driftwood found on the beach would
+form a roof ridge, and if they could only get hold of a couple of
+walruses, their roofing would be provided.</p>
+
+<p>A large male walrus was lying puffing out in the water. The kayaks were
+shoved out and lashed together, and from them the colossus was
+bombarded. He dived, but came up under the boats, and the whole
+contrivance was nearly capsized. At last he received his death-wound,
+but just as Nansen was about to strike his harpoon into him he sank.
+They had better luck, however, with two others which lay bellowing on
+the ice and gradually went to sleep, unconscious that their minutes were
+numbered. Nansen says that it seemed like murder to shoot them, and that
+he never forgot their brown, imploring, melancholy eyes as they lay
+supporting their heads on their tusks and coughing up blood. Then the
+great brutes were flayed, and their flesh, blubber, and hides carried
+into the hut. When they brought out the sledges and knives, Nansen
+thought it might be as well to take the kayaks with them also. And that
+was fortunate, for while they stood cutting up as in a slaughter-house,
+a strong, biting land wind sprang up, their ice-floe parted from the
+land ice and drifted away from the island. Dark-green water and white
+foaming surge yawned behind them. There was no time to think. They were
+drifting out to sea as fast as they could. But to go back empty-handed
+would have been too vexatious; so they cut off a quarter of a hide and
+dragged it with some lumps of blubber to the kayaks. They reached the
+land in safety, dead tired after an adventurous row, and sought the
+shelter of the hut.</p>
+
+<p>In the night came a bear mamma with two large cubs, and made a thorough
+inspection of the outside of the hut. The mother was shot and the cubs
+made off to the shore, plunged in, and swam out to a slab of ice which
+would just bear them, and scrambled up. There they stood moaning and
+whining, and wondering why their mother stayed so long on shore. One
+tumbled over the edge, but climbed up again on to the slippery floe and
+the clean salt water ran off his fur. They drifted away with the wind
+and soon looked like two white spots on the almost black water. Nansen
+and Johansen wanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> their meat, the more because the bears had torn and
+mangled all the walrus meat lying outside the hut. The kayaks were
+pushed out and were soon on the farther side of the floe with the bear
+cubs. They were chased into the water and followed all the way to the
+beach, where they were shot.</p>
+
+<p>Things now began to look better&mdash;three bears all at once! Then the first
+walrus came to the surface again, and while he was being skinned another
+came to look on and had to join him. It was disgusting work to flay the
+huge brutes. Both the men had their worn clothes smeared with train-oil
+and blood, so that they were soaked right through. Ivory and glaucous
+gulls, noisy and greedy, collected from far and near and picked up all
+the offal. They would soon fly south, the sea would be covered with ice,
+and the Polar night would be so dismal and silent.</p>
+
+<p>It took a week to get the new hut ready. The shoulder blade of a walrus
+fastened to a ski served as spade. A walrus tusk tied to a broken ski
+staff made an excellent hoe. Then they raised the walls of the hut, and
+inside they dug into the ground and made a sort of couch for both of
+them, which they covered with bearskin. After two more walruses had been
+shot they had plenty of roofing material, which they laid over the trunk
+of driftwood. A bear came, indeed, and pulled down everything, but it
+cost him dear, and afterwards the roof was strengthened with a weight of
+stones. To make a draught through the open fireplace they set up on the
+roof a chimney of ice. Then they moved into the new hut, which was to be
+their abode through the long winter.</p>
+
+<p>On October 15 they saw the sun for the last time. The bears vanished,
+and did not return till the next spring. But foxes were left, and they
+were extremely inquisitive and thievish. They stole their sail thread
+and steel wire, their harpoon and line, and it was quite impossible to
+find the stolen goods again. What they wanted with a thermometer which
+lay outside it is hard to conceive, for it must have been all the same
+to the foxes how many degrees of temperature there were in their earths.
+All winter they were up on the roof pattering, growling, howling, and
+quarrelling. There was a pleasant rattling up above, and the two men
+really would not have been without their fox company.</p>
+
+<p>One can hardly say that the days passed slowly, for the whole winter
+was, of course, one long night. It was so silent and empty, and an
+oppressive, solemn stillness reigned during the calm night. Sometimes
+the aurora blazed in a mysterious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> crown in the sky, at other times so
+dark, and the stars glittered with inconceivable brilliance. The
+weather, however, was seldom calm. Usually the wind howled round the
+bare rocks lashed by millions of storms since the earliest times, and
+snow swished outside and built up walls close around the hut.</p>
+
+<p>The endlessly long night passed slowly on. The men ate and slept, and
+walked up and down in the darkness to stretch their limbs. Then came
+Christmas with its old memories. They clean up, sweep and brush, and
+take up a foot's depth of frozen refuse from the floor of the hut. They
+rummage for some of the last good things from the <i>Fram</i>, and then
+Nansen lies listening and fancies he hears the church bells at home.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the winter night comes New Year's Day, when it is so
+cold that they can only lie down and sleep, and look out of their
+sleeping-bag only to eat. Sometimes they do not put out their noses for
+twenty hours on end, but lie dosing just like bears in their lairs.</p>
+
+<p>On the last day of February the sun at last appears again. He is
+heartily welcome, and he is accompanied by some morning birds, Little
+Auks. The two men are frightened of each other when daylight shines on
+them, as their hair and beards have grown so long. They have not washed
+for a year or more, and are as black in the face as negroes. Nansen, who
+is usually extremely fair, has now jet-black hair. They may be excused
+for not bathing at a temperature of-40&deg;.</p>
+
+<p>The first bear has come. Here he is scratching at the hut and wanting to
+get in; there is such a good smell from inside. A bullet meets him on
+the way. And as he runs off up a steep slope he gets another, and comes
+rolling down in wild bounces like a football. They lived on him for six
+weeks.</p>
+
+<p>While the days grew lighter they worked at a new outfit. They made
+trousers out of their blankets. Shoes were patched, rope was cut out of
+walrus hide, new runners were put on the sledges, the provisions were
+packed, and on May 19 they left their cabin and marched farther
+south-west.</p>
+
+<p>Time after time they had to rest on account of snowstorms. They had
+thrown away the tent, and instead they crept in between the sledges
+covered with the sail. Once Nansen came down when on skis, and would
+have been drowned if Johansen had not helped him up in time. The snow
+lying on this ice was soaked with water. They had always to keep their
+eyes open and look for firm ice. The provisions came to an end, but the
+sea swarmed with walruses. Sometimes the animals were so bold that
+Nansen could go up to them and take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> photographs. When a fine brute had
+been shot the others still lay quiet, and only by hitting them with
+their alpenstocks could the travellers get rid of them. Then the animals
+would waddle off in single file and plunge head first into the water,
+which seemed to boil up around them.</p>
+
+<p>Once they had such level ice and a good wind behind them that they
+hoisted sail on the sledges, stood on skis in front of them to steer,
+and flew along so that the snow was thrown up around them.</p>
+
+<p>Another time they sailed with the kayaks lashed together and went ashore
+on an island to get a better view. The kayak raft was moored with a
+walrus rope. As they were strolling round Johansen called out, "Hullo,
+the kayaks are adrift."</p>
+
+<p>They ran down. The wind was blowing off the land. Out on the fiord all
+they possessed in the world was being mercilessly carried away.</p>
+
+<p>"Take my watch," cried Nansen, and throwing off a few clothes he jumped
+into the ice-cold water, and swam after the kayaks. But they drifted
+more rapidly than Nansen swam, and the case seemed hopeless. He felt his
+limbs growing numb, but he thought he might as well drown as swim back
+without the boats. He struck out for his life, became tired, lay on his
+back, went on again, saw that the distance was lessening, and put out
+all his strength for a last spurt. He was quite spent and on the point
+of sinking when he caught hold of one of the canoes and could hang on
+and get his breath. Then he heaved himself up into the kayak, and rowed
+back shivering, with chattering teeth, benumbed, and frozen blue. When
+he reached the land Johansen put him in the sleeping-bag and laid over
+him everything he could find. And when he had slept a few hours he was
+as lively as a cricket and did justice to the supper.</p>
+
+<p>Farther and farther south they continued their daring journey over ice
+and waves. A walrus came up beside Nansen's canoe, and tried its
+solidity with his tusks, nearly taking kayak and oarsman down with him
+to the salt depths. When the animal went off, Nansen felt uncomfortably
+cold and wet about the legs. He rowed to the nearest ice, where the
+kayak sank in shallow water and all he possessed was wet and spoiled.
+Then they had to give themselves a good rest and repair all damages,
+while walruses grunted and snorted close beside them.</p>
+
+<p>This journey of Nansen's is a unique feat in the history of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> Polar
+travels. Of the crews of the <i>Erebus</i> and <i>Terror</i>, a hundred and
+thirty-four men, not one had escaped, though they had not lost their
+vessels and though they lay quite close to a coast where there were
+human beings and game. But these two Norwegians had now held out in the
+Polar sea for fifteen months, and had preserved their lives and limbs
+and were in excellent condition.</p>
+
+<p>Their hour of delivery was at hand. On June 17 Nansen ascended an ice
+hummock and listened to the commotion made by a whole multitude of
+birds. What now? He listens holding his breath. No, it is impossible!
+Yes, indeed, that is a dog's bark. It must surely be a bird with a
+peculiar cry. No, it <i>is</i> a dog barking.</p>
+
+<p>He hurried back to the camp. Johansen thought it was a mistake. They
+bolted their breakfast. Then Nansen fastened skis on his feet, took his
+gun, field-glass, and alpenstock, and flew swiftly as the wind over the
+white snow.</p>
+
+<p>See, there are the footprints of a dog! Perhaps a fox? No, they would be
+much smaller. He flies over the ice towards the land. Now he hears a
+man's voice. He yells with all the power of his lungs and takes no heed
+of holes and lumps as he speeds along towards life, safety, and home.</p>
+
+<p>Then a dog runs up barking. Behind him comes a man. Nansen hurries to
+meet him, and both wave their caps. Whoever this traveller with the dog
+may be, he has good reason for astonishment at seeing a jet-black giant
+come jolting on skis straight from the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>They meet. They put out their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do?" asks the Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, thank you," says Nansen.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad to see you here."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," cries Nansen.</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman with the dog is named Jackson, and has been for two years
+in Franz Joseph Land making sledge journeys and explorations. He
+concludes that the black man on skis is some one from the <i>Fram</i>, but
+when he hears that it is Nansen himself he is still more astonished and
+agreeably surprised.</p>
+
+<p>They went to Jackson's house, whither Johansen also was fetched. Both
+our explorers washed with soap and brush several times to get off the
+worst of the dirt, all that was not firmly set and imbedded in their
+skins. They scrubbed and scraped and changed their clothes from top to
+toe, and at last looked like human beings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Later in the summer a vessel came with supplies for Jackson. With this
+vessel Nansen and Johansen sailed home. At Vard&ouml; they received telegrams
+from their families, and their delight was unbounded. Only one thing
+troubled them. Where was the <i>Fram</i>? Some little time later Nansen was
+awakened at Hammerfest one morning by a telegraph messenger. The
+telegram he brought read: "<i>Fram</i> arrived in good condition. All well on
+board. Shall start at once for Troms&ouml;. Welcome home." The sender of the
+telegram was the captain of the <i>Fram</i>, the brave and faithful
+Sverdrup.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> A <i>krona</i> is a Swedish coin worth about 1s. 1-1/2d.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is barely a hundred years since European mariners began to approach
+the coasts of the mysterious mainland which extends around the southern
+pole of the earth. Ross, who in 1831 discovered the north magnetic pole,
+sailed ten years later in two ships, the <i>Erebus</i> and the <i>Terror</i>
+(afterwards to become so famous with Franklin), along the coast of the
+most southern of all seas, a sea which still bears his name. He
+discovered an active volcano, not much less than 13,000 feet high, and
+named it Erebus, while to another extinct volcano he gave the name of
+Terror. And he saw the lofty ice barrier, which in some places is as
+much as 300 feet high.</p>
+
+<p>At a much later time there was great rivalry among European nations to
+contribute to the knowledge of the world's sixth continent. In the year
+1901 an English expedition under Captain Scott was despatched to the sea
+and coasts first visited by Ross. Captain Scott made great and important
+discoveries on the coast of the sixth continent, and advanced nearer to
+the South Pole than any of his predecessors. One of the members of the
+expedition followed his example some years later. His name is
+Shackleton, and his journey is famous far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>Shackleton resolved to advance from his winter quarters as far as
+possible towards the South Pole, and with only three other men he set
+out at the end of October, 1908. His sledges were drawn by strong, plump
+ponies obtained from Manchuria. They were fed with maize, compressed
+fodder, and concentrated food, but when during the journey they had to
+be put on short commons they ate up straps, rope ends, and one another's
+tails. The four men had provisions for fully three months.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While the smoke rose from the crater of Erebus, Shackleton marched
+southwards over snow-covered ice. Sometimes the snow was soft and
+troublesome, sometimes covered with a hard crust hiding dangerous
+crevasses in the mass of ice. At the camps the adventurers set up their
+two tents and crept into their sleeping-bags, while the ponies, covered
+with horse-cloths, stood and slept outside. Sometimes they had to remain
+stationary for a day or two when snowstorms stopped their progress.</p>
+
+<p><a name="SOUTH_POLAR" id="SOUTH_POLAR"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img025.jpg"  width="542" height="550"
+ alt="THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS" title="" /></div>
+
+<h4>THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS.</h4>
+
+<p>When the sun was hidden by clouds the illumination was perplexing. No
+shadows revealed the unevenness of the snowfield, all was of the purest
+white, and where the men thought they were walking over level ground,
+they might quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> unexpectedly come down on their noses down a small
+slope. Once they heard a thundering noise far away to the east. It
+sounded like a cannon shot, but probably was only the immense inland ice
+"calving." When the ice during its constant but slow motion towards the
+coast slides out into the sea, it is lifted up by the water and is
+broken up into huge, heavy blocks and icebergs which float about
+independently. When these pieces break away the inland ice is said to
+"calve."</p>
+
+<p>Shackleton advanced towards the pole at the rate of twelve to eighteen
+miles a day. His small party was lost like small specks in the endless
+desert of ice and snow. Only to the west was visible a succession of
+mountain summits like towers and pinnacles. The men seemed to be
+marching towards a white wall which they could never reach.</p>
+
+<p>On November 31 one of the ponies was shot, and its flesh was kept to be
+used as food. The sledge he had drawn was set up on end and propped up
+as a mark for the return journey. Five days later Shackleton came to
+Scott's farthest south, and the lofty mountains with dark, steep, rocky
+flanks which he afterwards had by the side of his route had never before
+been seen by man.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of days later a second pony was shot, and shortly afterwards a
+third, which could go no farther, had to be put out of his misery. The
+last pony seemed to miss his comrades, but he still struggled on with
+his sledge, while the four men dragged another.</p>
+
+<p>The mountain range which they had hitherto had on their right curved too
+much to the east, but fortunately it was cut through by a huge glacier,
+the great highway to the Pole. They ascended the glacier and crossed a
+small pass between great pillars of granite. Now they were surrounded by
+lofty mountains. The ice was intersected by dangerous crevasses, and
+only with the greatest caution and loss of time could they go round
+them. A bird flew over their heads, probably a gull. What could he be
+looking for here in the midst of the eternal ice?</p>
+
+<p>One day three of the explorers were drawing their sledge while the
+fourth was guiding the one drawn by the pony. Suddenly they saw the
+animal disappear, actually swallowed up by the ice. A snow bridge had
+given way under the weight of the pony, and the animal had fallen into a
+crevasse 1000 feet deep. When they bent over the edge of the dark chasm
+they could not hear a sound below. Fortunately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> the front cross-piece of
+the sledge had come away, so that the sledge and man were left on the
+brink of the chasm. If the precious provisions had gone down with the
+horse into the bowels of the ice, Shackleton would have been obliged to
+turn back.</p>
+
+<p>Now left without assistance in dragging the sledges, they had to
+struggle up the glacier between rocks and slates in which coal was
+imbedded. On Christmas Day the temperature was down to-47&deg;&mdash;a fine
+midsummer!</p>
+
+<p>At length the four men had left all mountains behind, and now a plateau
+country of nothing but snow-covered ice stretched before them. But still
+the surface of the ice rose towards the heart of the South Polar
+continent, and the singing headaches from which they suffered were a
+consequence of the elevation. A flag on a bamboo pole was set up as a
+landmark.</p>
+
+<p>On January 7 and 8, 1909, they had to lie still in a hard snowstorm, and
+the temperature fell to-69&deg;. When such is the summer of the South Pole,
+what must the winter be like? January 9 was the last day on their march
+southwards. Without loads or sledges they hurried on and halted at 88&deg;
+23' south latitude.</p>
+
+<p>They were only 100 miles from the South Pole when they had to turn back
+from want of provisions. They might have gone on and might have reached
+the Pole, but they would never have come back.</p>
+
+<p>The height was more than 10,000 feet above sea-level, and before them,
+in the direction of the Pole, extended a boundless flat plateau of
+inland ice. The Union Jack was hoisted and a record of their journey
+deposited in a cylinder. Shackleton cast a last glance over the ice
+towards the Pole, and, sore at heart, gave the order to retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Happily he was able to follow his trail back and succeeded in reaching
+his winter quarters, whence his vessel carried him home again in safety.</p>
+
+<h4>THE END</h4>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">R. &amp; R. Clark, Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<blockquote><h2>By Dr. SVEN HEDIN</h2>
+
+<h1>TRANS-HIMALAYA</h1>
+
+<h3>DISCOVERIES AND ADVENTURES IN TIBET</h3>
+
+<p class='center'>8vo.</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Vols. I. and II. With 388 Illustrations and 10 Maps. 30s. net.</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Vol. III. With 156 Illustrations and Maps. 15s. net.</p>
+
+<p><i>EVENING STANDARD.</i>&mdash;"The great Swede has given his readers a rare
+treat.... A record of such perilous journeying and undaunted experiments
+as the world has rarely witnessed."</p>
+
+<p>Sir <span class="smcap">Thomas Holdich</span> in the <i>WORLD</i>.&mdash;"For all lovers of a good
+story of genuine travel and adventure it will be a most delightful book
+to read, and the fact that it deals with the hitherto untrodden region
+of India's great northern water-parting will render it doubly
+interesting."</p>
+
+<p><i>WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.</i>&mdash;"It is certainly a wonderful story that Dr.
+Hedin has to tell, and few journeys have called for more resource and
+courage.... A work of great value from a geographical point of view, and
+one which to the ordinary reader is full of interest."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1>OVERLAND TO INDIA</h1>
+
+<h4>With 308 Illustrations and 2 Maps.</h4>
+
+<p class='center'>Two vols. 8vo. 30s. net.</p>
+
+<p><i>TIMES.</i>&mdash;"The narrative abounds in entertainment, and with his dramatic
+faculty, his genuine sympathy with all sorts and conditions of men, his
+happy gift of humour, and his trained observation, Dr. Hedin gives us a
+welcome and impressive picture of the present condition of things in a
+country teeming with racial hatreds and religious animosities."</p>
+
+<p><i>EVENING STANDARD.</i>&mdash;"The chronicle of these wanderings, compiled by a
+most skilled observer, gifted with an inexhaustible appetite for hard
+work, with a graphic touch in narration, and an artist's skill and
+delicacy in using the pencil, constitutes a magnificent addition to the
+library of travel as well as to the record of patient endurance of
+hardships."</p>
+
+<p><i>SATURDAY REVIEW.</i>&mdash;"Dr. Hedin's book teems with a variety of
+interesting topics. Of his photographs it is impossible to speak too
+highly."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>A SELECTION OF</h3>
+
+<h2>WORKS OF TRAVEL, SPORT, Etc.</h2>
+
+<p>MY LIFE WITH THE ESKIMO. By <span class="smcap">Vilhj&aacute;lmur Stef&aacute;nsson</span>. Illustrated.
+8vo. 17s. net.</p>
+
+<p>THE WILDS OF MAORILAND. By <span class="smcap">J. Mackintosh Bell</span>, M.A., Ph.D.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 15s.</p>
+
+<p>ACROSS AUSTRALIA. By <span class="smcap">Baldwin Spencer</span>, C.M.G., F.R.S., and
+<span class="smcap">F. J. Gillen</span>. Illustrated. Two vols. 8vo. 21s. net.</p>
+
+<p>THE ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER. By <span class="smcap">James Sutherland</span>.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.</p>
+
+<p>HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA AND OTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF THIRTEEN
+YEARS' WANDERINGS. By Captain <span class="smcap">C. H. Stigand</span>. With Introduction
+by <span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>. Illustrated. 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.</p>
+
+<p>SPORT ON THE NILGIRIS AND IN WYNAAD. By <span class="smcap">F. W. F. Fletcher</span>.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 12s. net.</p>
+
+<p>THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO, AND OTHER EAST AFRICAN ADVENTURES. By
+Lieut.-Colonel <span class="smcap">J. H. Patterson</span>, D.S.O. Illustrated. With a
+Foreword by <span class="smcap">Frederick Courteney Selous</span>. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. Cheap
+Edition. Globe 8vo. 1s. net.</p>
+
+<p>IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA. Further Adventures in British East Africa. By
+Lieut.-Colonel <span class="smcap">J. H. Patterson</span>, D.S.O. Illustrated. 8vo. 7s.
+6d. net.</p>
+
+<p>A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA. Nine Years amongst the Game of the Far
+Interior of South Africa. By <span class="smcap">Frederick Courteney Selous</span>.
+Illustrated. Fifth Edition. Extra Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.</p>
+
+<p>AFRICAN NATURE NOTES AND REMINISCENCES. By <span class="smcap">Frederick Courteney
+Selous</span>. With a Foreword by <span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span> and
+Illustrations by <span class="smcap">E. Caldwell</span>. 8vo. 10s. net.</p>
+
+<p>THE OLD NORTH TRAIL: or, Life, Legends, and Religion of the Blackfeet
+Indians. By <span class="smcap">Walter McClintock</span>. Illustrated. 8vo. 15s. net.</p>
+
+<p>FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA, FROM SUBALTERN TO COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. By
+Field-Marshal <span class="smcap">Earl Roberts</span>, V.C. Illustrated. Popular Edition.
+Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. Library Edition. Two vols. 8vo. 36s.</p>
+
+<p>FROM SEA TO SEA. By <span class="smcap">Rudyard Kipling</span>. Two vols. Extra Crown 8vo.
+6s. each. <i>Pocket Edition</i>. Fcap. 8vo, Limp Leather, 5s. net; Blue
+Cloth, 4s. 6d. net.</p>
+
+<p class='center'>MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>, LONDON.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="trans-note">
+           <h4>Transcriber's Note:</h4>
+<p>Illustrations, originally had a reference to '<i>facing page</i>',
+and have now been placed as close as possible to their
+original positions.</p>
+
+<p>All maps carried an acknowledgement for  <i>Emery Walker sc.</i></p>
+
+<p>The following PLATE'S also carried acknowledgements.<br /><br />
+
+Plate I. BERLIN <i>Photo. The Photocrom Co.</i><br />
+PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE <i>Photo. The Photocrom Co.</i><br />
+PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW <i>Photo. The Photocrom Co.</i><br />
+PLATE XXIV. PARIS <i>Photo. The Photocrom Co.</i><br />
+PLATE XXVI. THE COLLOSEUM, ROME. <i>Photo. Underwood and Underwood.</i><br />
+PLATE XXVII. POMPEII. <i>Photo. Abteilung, Zurich.</i><br />
+PLATE XXXIV. CA&Ntilde;ONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER. <i>Photo. Underwood and Underwood.</i><br />
+PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM". <i>Photo. The Record Press.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, From Pole to Pole, by Sven Anders Hedin
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: From Pole to Pole
+       A Book for Young People
+
+
+Author: Sven Anders Hedin
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2007  [eBook #20709]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM POLE TO POLE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Susan Skinner, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original 40 illustrations.
+      See 20709-h.htm or 20709-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/7/0/20709/20709-h/20709-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/7/0/20709/20709-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+FROM POLE TO POLE
+
+A Book for Young People
+
+by
+
+SVEN HEDIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DR. SVEN HEDIN IN TIBETAN DRESS. _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+The MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
+Toronto
+
+MacMillan and Co., Limited
+St. Martin's Street, London
+1914
+
+Copyright
+First Edition 1912
+Reprinted 1914
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+
+
+    This translation of Dr. Sven Hedin's _Fran Pol till Pol_ has, with
+    the author's permission, been abridged and edited for the use of
+    English-speaking young people.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+  I. ACROSS EUROPE--                                       PAGE
+
+    STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN                                       1
+    BERLIN                                                    4
+    BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE                                  8
+    CONSTANTINOPLE                                           13
+    THE CHURCH OF THE DIVINE WISDOM                          15
+    THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL                                   20
+
+  II. CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN (1905)--
+
+    THE BLACK SEA                                            26
+    TREBIZOND TO TEHERAN                                     29
+
+  III. THROUGH THE CAUCASUS, PERSIA, AND MESOPOTAMIA
+         (1885-6)--
+
+    ST. PETERSBURG TO BAKU                                   34
+    ACROSS PERSIA                                            37
+    ARABIA                                                   40
+    BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN                                       42
+
+  IV. THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)--
+
+    ACROSS THE KEVIR                                         46
+    THE OASIS OF TEBBES                                      51
+
+  V. ON THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE (1893-5)--
+
+    INTO ASIA FROM ORENBURG                                  55
+    SAMARCAND AND BUKHARA                                    59
+    THE PAMIR                                                62
+    "THE FATHER OF ICE-MOUNTAINS"                            66
+    A KIRGHIZ GYMKHANA                                       69
+
+  VI. FROM PERSIA TO INDIA (1906)--
+
+    TEBBES TO SEISTAN                                        72
+    A BALUCHI RAID                                           75
+    SCORPIONS                                                80
+    THE INDUS                                                82
+    KASHMIR AND LADAK                                        87
+
+  VII. EASTERN TURKESTAN (1895)--
+
+    THE TAKLA-MAKAN DESERT                                   89
+    ACROSS A SEA OF SAND                                     90
+    THE END OF THE CARAVAN                                   93
+    WATER AT LAST                                            97
+
+  VIII. THE DESERT WATERWAY (1899)--
+
+    DOWN THE YARKAND RIVER                                  102
+    THE TARIM                                               105
+    THE WANDERING LAKE                                      107
+    WILD CAMELS                                             109
+
+  IX. IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1901-2, 1906-8)--
+
+    THE PLATEAU OF TIBET                                    111
+    ATTEMPT TO REACH LHASA                                  115
+    THE TASHI LAMA                                          124
+    WILD ASSES AND YAKS                                     126
+
+  X.  INDIA--
+
+    FROM TIBET TO SIMLA                                     130
+    DELHI AND AGRA                                          131
+    BENARES AND BRAHMINISM                                  134
+    THE LIGHT OF ASIA                                       137
+    BOMBAY                                                  141
+    THE USEFUL PLANTS OF INDIA                              142
+    WILD ELEPHANTS                                          145
+    THE COBRA                                               148
+
+  XI. FROM INDIA TO CHINA (1908)--
+
+    THE INDIAN OCEAN                                        152
+    THE SUNDA ISLANDS                                       153
+    PENANG AND SINGAPORE                                    156
+    UP THE CHINA SEA                                        157
+
+  XII. CHINA--
+
+    TO SHANGHAI                                             161
+    "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM"                                    164
+    THE BLUE RIVER                                          169
+    IN NORTHERN CHINA                                       172
+    MONGOLIA                                                176
+    MARCO POLO                                              179
+
+  XIII. JAPAN (1908)--
+
+    NAGASAKI AND KOBE                                       185
+    FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO                                      190
+    NIKKO, NARA, AND KIOTO                                  193
+
+  XIV. BACK TO EUROPE--
+
+    KOREA                                                   197
+    MANCHURIA                                               199
+    THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY                              202
+    THE VOLGA AND MOSCOW                                    207
+    ST. PETERSBURG AND HOME                                 210
+
+
+  PART II
+
+
+  I. STOCKHOLM TO EGYPT--
+
+    TO LONDON AND PARIS                                     215
+    NAPOLEON'S TOMB                                         218
+    PARIS TO ROME                                           222
+    THE ETERNAL CITY                                        225
+    POMPEII                                                 229
+
+  II. AFRICA--
+
+    GENERAL GORDON                                          236
+    THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN                               247
+    OSTRICHES                                               250
+    BABOONS                                                 252
+    THE HIPPOPOTAMUS                                        253
+    MAN-EATING LIONS                                        256
+    DAVID LIVINGSTONE                                       261
+    HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE                           275
+    THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE                                282
+    STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY                                 287
+    TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA                                 297
+
+  III. NORTH AMERICA--
+
+    THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD                          306
+    NEW YORK                                                317
+    CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES                             326
+    THROUGH THE GREAT WEST                                  333
+
+  IV.  SOUTH AMERICA--
+
+    THE INCA EMPIRE                                         341
+    THE AMAZONS RIVER                                       351
+
+  V. IN THE SOUTH SEAS--
+
+    ALBATROSSES AND WHALES                                  358
+    ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND                                362
+    ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN                                365
+    ACROSS AUSTRALIA                                        372
+
+  VI. THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS--
+
+    SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE            377
+    THE VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA"                                386
+    NANSEN                                                  392
+
+  VII. THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS                              404
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    PLATE
+
+           Dr. Sven Hedin in Tibetan Dress             _Frontispiece_
+
+        I. Berlin                                                   6
+
+       II. Constantinople                                          13
+
+      III. Oil-Well at Balakhani                                   36
+
+       IV. A Persian Caravanserai                                  43
+
+        V. The Author's Riding Camel, with Gulam Hussein           46
+
+       VI. Tebbes                                                  51
+
+     VII.  A Baluchi Nomad Tent                                    76
+
+     VIII. Srinagar and the Jhelum River                           87
+
+      IX.  Digging for Water in the Takla-makan                    94
+
+        X. The Author's Boat on the Yarkand River                 102
+
+       XI. Tashi-lunpo                                            125
+
+      XII. Simla                                                  131
+
+     XIII. The Taj Mahal                                          134
+
+      XIV. Benares                                                136
+
+       XV. Tame Elephants and their Drivers                       147
+
+      XVI. On the Canton River                                    159
+
+     XVII. The Great Wall of China                                165
+
+    XVIII. Gate in the Walls of Peking                            176
+
+      XIX. A Japanese Ricksha                                     189
+
+       XX. Fujiyama                                               190
+
+      XXI. The Great Buddha at Kamakura                           192
+
+     XXII. A Sedan-Chair in Seoul                                 199
+
+    XXIII. The Kremlin, Moscow                                    208
+
+     XXIV. Paris                                                  216
+
+      XXV. Napoleon's Tomb                                        219
+
+     XXVI. The Colosseum, Rome                                    228
+
+    XXVII. Pompeii                                                233
+
+   XXVIII. The Great Pyramids at Ghizeh                           238
+
+     XXIX. A Hippopotamus                                         254
+
+      XXX. The Fight on the Congo                                 294
+
+     XXXI. A Group of Beduins                                     300
+
+    XXXII. "Sky-Scrapers" in New York                             323
+
+   XXXIII. Niagara Falls                                          331
+
+    XXXIV. Canons on the Colorado River                           339
+
+     XXXV. Cotopaxi                                               344
+
+    XXXVI. Indian Huts on the Amazons River                       353
+
+   XXXVII. A Coral Strand                                         369
+
+  XXXVIII. Country near Lake Eyre                                 373
+
+    XXXIX. The "Fram"                                             393
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF MAPS
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  1. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Berlin                      2
+
+  2. Map showing journey from Berlin to Constantinople                10
+
+  3. Plan of Constantinople                                           13
+
+  4. Map showing journey from Constantinople to Teheran, latter
+       part of journey to Baku, and journey from Baku across
+       Persia to Baghdad and back to Teheran                          30
+
+  5. Map showing journey from Orenburg to the Pamir                   56
+
+  6. Map showing journey from Teheran to Baluchistan                  73
+
+  7. Map of Northern India, showing rivers and mountain ranges        82
+
+  8. Map of Eastern Turkestan                                         90
+
+  9. Tibet                                                           112
+
+  10. Map  of India, showing journey from Nushki to Leh, and
+        journey from Tibet through Simla, etc., to Bombay            132
+
+  11. The Sunda Islands                                              154
+
+  12. Map showing voyage from Bombay to Hong Kong                    158
+
+  13. Map of Northern China and Mongolia                             174
+
+  14. Map showing journey from Shanghai through Japan and
+        Korea to Dalny                                               184
+
+  15. The Trans-Siberian Railway                                     203
+
+  16. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Paris                    216
+
+  17. Map showing journey from Paris to Alexandria                   230
+
+  18. Map of North-Eastern Africa, showing Egypt and the Sudan       237
+
+  19. Livingstone's Journeys in Africa                               262
+
+  20. North-West Africa                                              298
+
+  21. Toscanelli's Map                                               308
+
+  22. North America                                                  325
+
+  23. South America                                                  343
+
+  24. The South Seas                                                 366
+
+  25. The North Polar Regions                                        378
+
+  26. The South Polar Regions                                        405
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+ACROSS EUROPE
+
+
+STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN
+
+Our journey begins at Stockholm, the capital of my native country.
+Leaving Stockholm by train in the evening, we travel all night in
+comfortable sleeping-cars and arrive next morning at the southernmost
+point of Sweden, the port of Trelleborg, where the sunlit waves sweep in
+from the Baltic Sea.
+
+Here we might expect to have done with railway travelling, and we rather
+look for the guard to come and open the carriage doors and ask the
+passengers to alight. Surely it is not intended that the train shall go
+on right across the sea? Yet that is actually what happens. The same
+train and the same carriages, which bore us out of Stockholm yesterday
+evening, go calmly across the Baltic Sea, and we need not get out before
+we arrive at Berlin. The section of the train which is to go on to
+Germany is run by an engine on to a great ferry-boat moored to the quay
+by heavy clamps and hooks of iron. The rails on Swedish ground are
+closely connected with those on the ferry-boat, and when the carriages
+are pushed on board by the engine, they are fastened with chains and
+hooks so that they may remain quite steady even if the vessel begins to
+roll. As the traveller lies dozing in his compartment, he will certainly
+hear whistles and the rattle of iron gear and will notice that the
+compartment suddenly becomes quite dark. But only when the monotonous
+groaning and the constant vibration of the wheels has given place to a
+gentle and silent heaving will he know that he is out on the Baltic Sea.
+
+We are by no means content, however, to lie down and doze. Scarcely
+have the carriages been anchored on the ferry-boat before we are on the
+upper deck with its fine promenade. The ferry-boat is a handsome vessel,
+370 feet long, brand-new and painted white everywhere. It is almost like
+a first-class hotel. In the saloon the tables are laid, and Swedish and
+German passengers sit in groups at breakfast. There are separate rooms
+for coffee and smoking, for reading and writing; and we find a small
+bookstall where a boy sells guidebooks, novels, and the Swedish and
+German newspapers of the day.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN.]
+
+The ferry-boat is now gliding out of the harbour, and every minute that
+passes carries us farther from our native land. Now the whole town of
+Trelleborg is displayed before our eyes, its warehouses and new
+buildings, its chimneys and the vessels in the harbour. The houses
+become smaller, the land narrows down to a strip on the horizon, and at
+last there is nothing to be seen but a dark cloud of smoke rising from
+the steamers and workshops. We steam along a fairway rich in memories,
+and over a sea which has witnessed many wonderful exploits and
+marvellous adventures. Among the wreckage and fragments at its bottom
+sleep vikings and other heroes who fought for their country; but to-day
+peace reigns over the Baltic, and Swedes, Danes, Russians, and Germans
+share in the harvest of the sea. Yet still, as of yore, the autumn
+storms roll the slate-grey breakers against the shores; and still on
+bright summer days the blue waves glisten, silvered by the sun.
+
+Four hours fly past all too quickly, and before we have become
+accustomed to the level expanses of the sea a strip of land appears to
+starboard. This is Ruegen, the largest island of Germany, lifting its
+white chalk cliffs steeply from the sea, like surf congealed into stone.
+The ferry-boat swings round in a beautiful curve towards the land, and
+in the harbour of Sassnitz its rails are fitted in exactly to the
+railway track on German soil. We hasten to take our seats in the
+carriages, for in a few minutes the German engine comes up and draws the
+train on to the land of Ruegen.
+
+The monotonous grind of iron on iron begins again, and the coast and the
+ferry-boat vanish behind us. Ruegen lies as flat as a pancake on the
+Baltic Sea, and the train takes us through a landscape which reminds us
+of Sweden. Here grow pines and spruces, here peaceful roe-deer jump and
+roam about without showing the slightest fear of the noise of the engine
+and the drone of the carriages.
+
+Another ferry takes us over the narrow sound which separates Ruegen from
+the mainland, and we see through the window the towers and spires and
+closely-packed houses of Stralsund. Every inch of ground around us has
+once been Swedish. In this neighbourhood Gustavus Adolphus landed with
+his army, and in Stralsund Charles XII. passed a year of his adventurous
+life.
+
+In the twilight the train carries us southwards through Pomerania, and
+before we reach Brandenburg the autumn evening has shrouded the North
+German lowland in darkness. The country is flat and monotonous; not a
+hill, hardly even an insignificant mound, rises above the level expanse.
+Yet the land has a peculiar attraction for the stranger from Sweden. He
+thinks of the time when Swedish gun-carriages splashed and dashed
+through the mud before the winter frost made their progress still more
+difficult and noisy. He thinks of heroic deeds and brave men, of early
+starts, and horses neighing with impatience at the reveille; of
+victories and honourable peaces, and of the captured flags at home.
+
+If he is observant he will find many other remembrances in the North
+German low country. Boulders of Swedish granite lie scattered over the
+plain. They stand out like milestones and mark the limits of the
+extension of the Scandinavian inland ice. During a colder period of the
+world's history all northern Europe was covered with a coat of ice, and
+this period is called the Ice Age. No one knows why the ice embraced
+Scandinavia and the adjacent countries and swept in a broad stream over
+the Baltic Sea. And no one knows why the climate afterwards became
+warmer and drier, and forced the ice to melt away and gradually to leave
+the ground bare. But we know for a fact that the boulders in northern
+Germany were carried there on the back of an immense ice stream, for
+they are composed of rocks which occur only in Scandinavia. The ice tore
+them away from the solid mountains; during its slow movement southwards
+it carried them with it, and when it melted the blocks were left on the
+spot.
+
+At last points of light begin to flash by like meteors in the night.
+They become more and more numerous, and finally come whole rows and
+clusters of electric lamps and lighted windows. We are passing through
+the suburbs of a huge city, one of the largest in the world and the
+third largest in Europe--Berlin.
+
+
+BERLIN
+
+If we spread out on the table a map of Europe on which all the railways
+are indicated by black lines, the map will look like a net with
+irregular meshes. At all the knots are towns, large centres of
+population which are in constant communication with one another by means
+of the railways. If we fix our eyes on North Germany, we see what looks
+like an enormous spider's web, and in the middle of it sits a huge
+spider. That spider is called Berlin. For as a spider catches its prey
+in an ingeniously spun net, so Berlin by its railways draws to itself
+life and movement not only from Germany but from all Europe--nay, from
+the whole world.
+
+If we could fly some hundreds of miles straight up into the air and had
+such sharp eyes that we could perceive all the coasts and boundaries of
+Europe, and plainly distinguish the fine lines of the railways, we
+should also see small, dark, short forms running backwards and forwards
+along them. We should see, as it were, a teeming ant-hill, and after
+every ant we should see a small puff of smoke. In Scandinavia and
+Russia the bustle would seem less lively, but in the centre of Europe
+the ants would scurry about with terrible activity.
+
+Whether it was winter or summer, day or night, the bustle would never
+grow less. From our elevated point of view we should see innumerable
+trains flying in the night like glow-worms in every direction.
+Ceaselessly they rush between cities and states, between the sea-coast
+and the inland districts, and to and from the heart of Europe. For
+during the last twenty years Berlin has become the heart of Europe.
+London is situated on an island, and Paris is too near the margin of the
+Continent. But in Berlin several of the greatest railway routes meet,
+and whether the traveller goes from Paris to St. Petersburg, from
+Stockholm to Rome, or from Hamburg to Vienna, he has always to pass
+through Berlin.
+
+In the city which is "the heart of Europe" we must expect to find the
+main thoroughfares crowded with foot-passengers of all nationalities,
+and vehicles of every conceivable kind--motor cars, electric trams,
+horse omnibuses, vans, cabs, carts, and so on. Yet in spite of their
+endless streams of traffic, the streets of Berlin are not noisy--not
+nearly so noisy as those of Stockholm--for they are paved with asphalt
+and wood, and most of the conveyances have rubber tyres on their wheels.
+As in other large cities, the streets are relieved of a great deal of
+traffic by trains which run right through the town and round its
+suburbs, either up in the air on viaducts, or underground in tunnels
+lighted by electricity. At the Frederick Street Station of the City
+Railway, which lies in the centre of the town, a train arrives or
+departs every other minute of the day and of a good part of the night as
+well.
+
+Not far off is a square--the "King's Place"--where a monument to
+commemorate the victory of the Germans over the French, in 1871, lifts
+its spire above the city, with three rows of cannon captured in France
+in its recesses. Close at hand, too, are the shady walks in the
+"Tiergarten" (Park), where all Berlin is wont to enjoy itself on
+Sundays. When we turn eastwards, we have to pass through a great
+colonnade, the Brandenburg Gate, with Doric pillars supporting the
+four-horsed chariot of the goddess of victory in beaten copper. Here the
+German army entered Berlin after the conquest of France and the founding
+of the German Empire.
+
+On the farther side of this gate stretches one of the most noted
+streets in Europe. For if Berlin is the heart of Germany, so is the
+street called "Unter den Linden" (Under the Lime-Trees) the centre and
+heart of Berlin. There are, indeed, streets which are longer, for this
+extends only two-thirds of a mile, but hardly any which are broader, for
+it is 66 yards across. Between its alternate carriage-roads and
+foot-walks four double rows of limes and chestnuts introduce a
+refreshing breath of open country right into the bosom of the great town
+of stone, with its straight streets and heavy, grey square houses. As we
+wander along "Unter den Linden" we pass the foreign embassies and the
+German government offices, and, farther on, the palace of the old Kaiser
+Wilhelm, which is unoccupied and has been left exactly as it was in his
+lifetime. He used to stand at a corner window on the ground floor, and
+look out at his faithful people.
+
+It is now just noon. Splendid carriages and motor cars sweep past, and
+the crush of people on the pavements is great. We hear the inspiriting
+music of a military band, and the Imperial Guard marches down the
+street, followed by crowds of eager sightseers. Keeping time with the
+music we march with them past the great Royal Library to where Frederick
+the Great looks down from his tall bronze horse on the children of
+to-day. On the one side is the Opera House, on the other is the
+University, with its ten thousand students, and farther on the Arsenal,
+with its large historical collections of engines of war. We cross over
+the "Schlossbruecke" (Palace Bridge), which throws its arch over the
+River Spree, and follow the parade into the "Lustgarten" (Pleasure
+Garden). The band halts at the foot of the statue of Frederick William
+III. and the people crowd round to listen, for now one piece is played
+after another. Thus the good citizens of Berlin are entertained daily.
+
+There are several noteworthy buildings round the Lustgarten, among them
+many art museums and picture galleries, as well as the Cathedral and the
+Royal Palace (Plate I.). It looks very grand, this palace, though it
+does not stand, as it should, in the middle of a great open space, but
+is hemmed in by the streets around it.
+
+Perhaps it would interest you to hear about a ball at the Imperial Court
+of Germany. At the stroke of nine our carriage drives in under the
+archway of the Palace. The carpeted staircases are lined by
+"Beef-eaters," in old-fashioned uniforms, as motionless as if they were
+cast in wax. They do not turn even their eyes as the guests pass, much
+less their heads. Now we are up in the state rooms, and move slowly
+over the brightly polished floor through a suite of brilliant apartments
+glittering with electric light. Pictures of the kings of Prussia stand
+out against the gilt leather tapestry. At last we reach the great
+throne-room, which takes its name from the black eagles on the ceiling.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE I. BERLIN.
+
+On the right is the Royal Palace, on the left the Cathedral, with the
+Lustgarten in front. In the foreground is the River Spree.]
+
+What a varied scene awaits us here! Great ladies in costly dresses
+adorned with precious stones of great value, diamonds flashing and
+sparkling wherever we look, generals and admirals in full dress, high
+officials, ambassadors from foreign lands, including those of China and
+Japan. Here comes a great man to whom all bow; it is the Imperial
+Chancellor.
+
+Chamberlains now request the guests to range themselves along the walls
+of the throne-room. A herald enters and strikes his silver staff against
+the floor, calling out aloud "His Majesty the Emperor!" All is silent as
+the grave. Followed by the Empress, the princes and princesses, William
+II. passes through the room and greets his guests with a manly
+handshake. He begins with the ladies and then passes on to the gentlemen
+and speaks to every one. The Swedish Minister presents me, and the
+Emperor begins immediately to ask about Asia. He speaks of Alexander's
+great campaign through the whole of western Asia, and expresses his
+astonishment that a man's name can live with undiminished renown through
+two thousand years. He points to the eagles on the ceiling, and asks if
+I do not see a resemblance to the Chinese dragon. He talks of Tibet and
+the Dalai Lama, and of the great stillness in the heart of the desert.
+
+Soon the orchestra strikes up and the guests begin to dance. The only
+one who seems unconcerned is the Emperor himself. An expression of deep
+seriousness lies like a mask on his powerful face. Is it not enough to
+be the Emperor of the German federation, with its four kingdoms,
+Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wuertemberg, its six grand duchies, its
+many duchies and electorates, its imperial territory, Alsace-Lorraine,
+and its three free towns, Hamburg, Luebeck, and Bremen? Does he not rule
+over sixty-five million people, over 207 towns of more than 25,000
+inhabitants, and seven of more than half a million, namely Berlin,
+Hamburg, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, and Cologne? Has he not by
+the force of his own will created a fleet so powerful as to arouse
+uneasiness in England, the country which has the sole command of the
+sea? And is he not the commander-in-chief of an army which, on a war
+footing, is as large as the whole population of Scotland? All this
+might well make him serious.
+
+
+BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE
+
+The next stage of our journey is from Berlin to Vienna, the capital of
+Austria. The express train carries us rapidly southward through
+Brandenburg. To the west we have the Elbe, which flows into the North
+Sea at Hamburg; while to the east streams the Oder, which enters the
+Baltic Sea at Stettin. But we make closer acquaintance only with the
+Elbe, first when we pass Dresden, the capital of Saxony, and again when
+we have crossed the Austrian frontier into Bohemia, where in a beautiful
+and densely-peopled valley clothed with trees the railway follows the
+windings of the stream. When the guard calls out at a large and busy
+station "Prague," we are sorry that we have no time to stay a few days
+and stroll through the streets and squares of one of the finest and
+oldest towns of Europe. The engine's whistle sounds again and the train
+carries us swiftly onwards to Vienna, the capital of the Emperor Francis
+Joseph, who alone is more remarkable than all the sights of the city.
+
+Vienna is a fine and wealthy city, the fourth in Europe, and, like
+Berlin, is full of centres of human civilisation, science and art. Here
+are found relics of ancient times beside the grand palaces of the
+present day, the "Ring" is one of the finest streets in the world, and
+the tower of St. Stephen's Church rises up to the sky above the two
+million inhabitants of the town. Vienna to a greater extent than Berlin
+is a town of pleasure and merry genial life, a grand old aristocratic
+town, a town of theatres, concerts, balls, and cafes. The Danube canal,
+with its twelve bridges, passes right through Vienna, and outside the
+eastern outskirts the Danube itself, in an artificial bed, rolls its
+dark blue waters with a melodious murmur, providing an accompaniment to
+the famous Viennese waltzes.
+
+If Vienna is, then, one of the centres of human knowledge and
+refinement, and if there are a thousand wonderful things to behold
+within its walls, yet it contains nothing more remarkable than the old
+Emperor. Not because he is so old, or because he still survives as one
+of the last of an almost extinct generation, but because by his august
+personality he keeps together an empire composed of many different
+countries, races, and religious sects. Fifty millions of people are
+ranged under his sceptre. There are Germans in Austria, Chechs in
+Bohemia, Magyars in Hungary, Polacks in Galicia, and a crowd of other
+peoples; nay, even Mohammedans live under the protection of the Catholic
+throne.
+
+His life has abounded in cares and vicissitudes. He has lived through
+wars, insurrections, and revolutions, and with skill and tact has held
+in check all the contending factions which have striven and are still
+striving to rend asunder his empire. It is difficult to imagine the
+Austro-Hungarian monarchy without him. With him it perhaps stands or
+falls; therefore there is no one in the present day whose life is of
+greater importance to humanity. He has been the object of murderous
+attempts: his wife was assassinated, his only son perished by a violent
+death. He is now eighty-two years old, and he has worn the imperial
+crown for sixty-four years. Since 1867 he has been king of Hungary.
+During his reign the industry, trade, agriculture, and general
+prosperity of his dominions have been enormously developed. And the most
+remarkable of all is that he still carries his head high, is smart and
+upright, and works as hard as a labourer in the Danube valley.
+
+The fortunes of Austria and Hungary are still more closely united with
+and dependent on the great river Danube. Certainly in the north we have
+the Elbe and the Dniester, and in the south several small rivers which
+enter the Adriatic Sea. But otherwise all the rivers of the monarchy
+belong to the Danube, and collect from all directions to the main
+stream. The Volga is the largest river of Europe and has its own sea,
+the Caspian. The Danube is the next largest and has also its sea, the
+Black Sea. Its source is also "black," for it takes its rise in the
+mountains of the Black Forest in Baden, and from source to mouth it is
+little short of 1800 miles.
+
+The Danube flows through Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary, forms the
+boundary between Rumania and Bulgaria, and touches a small corner of
+Russian territory. It has sixty great tributaries, of which more than
+half are navigable. Step by step the volume of the main stream is
+augmented. We can see that for ourselves on our way through Europe. At
+Budapest, which is cut in two by the river, and where five handsome
+bridges connect the banks, we seem almost to be on a lake. The Elizabeth
+Bridge has a span of 950 feet. Farther down, on the frontier of
+Wallachia, the river is nearly two-thirds of a mile wide; but here the
+current is slow; creeks of stagnant water are formed, and marshes
+extend far along the banks. And at the point where the Rumanian railway
+crosses the Danube, we find at Chernovodsk a bridge over the river which
+is nearly 2-1/2 miles long and is the longest in all the world. Not far
+from here the waters of the Danube part into three arms and form a broad
+delta at the mouth. There grow dense reeds, twice as high as a man, on
+which large herds of buffaloes graze, where wolves still seek their
+prey, and where water-fowl breed in millions. If we look carefully at
+the map, we shall see that Central Europe is occupied mostly by the
+Danube valley, and that this valley, with its extensive lowlands, is
+bounded by the best-known mountains of Europe; in the north by the
+mountains of South Germany and Bohemia and the Carpathians, in the south
+by the Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+From Budapest the train takes us over the Hungarian plain, a very
+singular country, like a trough, for it is surrounded by mountains on
+all sides. There is abundance of rain, especially up on the mountain
+slopes. The winter is cold and the summer warm, as is always the case in
+countries far removed from the sea. Dust and sand storms are common, and
+in some parts blown sand collects into dunes. Formerly the Hungarian
+lowland was a fertile steppe, where Magyar nomads roamed about on
+horseback and tended their cattle and their enormous flocks of sheep.
+But now agriculture is extended more and more. Wheat, rye, barley,
+maize, rice, potatoes, and wine are produced in such quantities that
+they are not only sufficient for the country's needs, but also maintain
+a considerable export trade. Round the villages and homesteads grow
+oaks, elms, lime-trees, and beeches; poplars and willows are widely
+distributed, for their light seeds are carried long distances by the
+wind. But in the large steppe districts where marshes are so common the
+people have no other fuel but reeds and dried dung.
+
+Cattle-raising has always been an important occupation in Hungary. The
+breed of cows, oxen, and buffaloes is continually being improved by
+judicious selection, and all kinds of sheep, goats, and pigs are kept in
+great numbers, while the rearing of fowls, bee-keeping, the production
+of silk from silkworms, and the fishing industry are also highly
+developed. To the nomads, who wander from one locality to another with
+their herds, horses are necessary, and it is therefore quite natural
+that Hungary should be rich in horses--splendid animals of mixed Tatar
+and Arabian blood.
+
+This country, where all wealth grows and thrives, and where the land,
+well and uniformly watered, contributes in such a high degree to the
+well-being of man, is flat and monotonous when viewed from the train. We
+see herds with their mounted herdsmen, we see villages, roads and
+cottages, but these do not give us any very clear conception of the
+country. Therefore it is advisable to spend a few hours in the
+agricultural exhibition at Budapest, where we can see the most
+attractive models illustrating Hungarian rural life, from pastures and
+farmyards to churned butter and manufactured cheeses, from the silk-worm
+in the chrysalis to the valuable silken web. We can see the life of
+farmers in the country homesteads, in simple reed huts or tents, the
+various crops they grow on their fields, the yellow honeycombs taken
+from the hives in autumn, tanned leather and the straps, saddles, and
+trunks that are made of it. We can see the weapons, implements, and
+spoil of the Hungarian hunter and fisherman, and when we come out of the
+last room we realise that this country is wisely and affectionately
+nursed by its people, and therefore gives profit and prosperity in
+exchange.
+
+With unabated speed the train rushes on over the plain, and at length
+rattles across a bridge over the Danube into Belgrade, the capital of
+Servia. Here we bid good-bye to the Danube and follow the Morava valley
+upwards. The Servian villages of low white houses, with pyramidal roofs
+of tiles or thatch, are very pretty and picturesquely built; and above
+them, green heights, wooded slopes, flocks and herds, and peasants in
+bright-coloured motley clothes following the plough. Small murmuring
+brooks dance in merry leaps down to the Morava, and the Morava itself
+flows to the Danube. We are still in the drainage basin of this river,
+and, when we have crossed the whole of Servia, passed over a flat
+mountain ridge and left Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, behind us and
+have come to another stream, even this is one of the affluents of the
+Danube.
+
+During a large part of our journey we are therefore strongly impressed
+by this mighty stream, and perceive that it is a condition of existence
+to whole peoples and States. Innumerable boats navigate its
+channel--from rowing-boats, ferries, and barges to steamers of heavy
+freight. They maintain communication between the series of towns with
+walls and houses reflected in the gliding water. Their wharves are
+frequently in connection with trains; and many railways have been built
+with an eye to the traffic on the Danube. In early times, when the
+migrations of people from the east streamed over Europe, the Danube
+valley was generally utilized; and still at the present day the river
+affords an advantageous channel of communication between the western and
+eastern parts of the Continent.
+
+Night jealously conceals from our eyes the kingdom of Bulgaria, as we
+travel through its southern part along the river Maritza, which flows
+southwards. We do not leave its valley until we are beyond the Turkish
+frontier and Adrianople. Here we are in the broadest part of the Balkan
+Peninsula; and amidst the regular swaying of the train we lie thinking
+of the famous Balkan lands which extend to the south--Albania, with its
+warlike people among its mountains and dales; Macedonia, the country of
+Alexander the Great; Greece, in ancient times the centre of learning and
+art. When day dawns we are in Turkey, and the sun is high when the train
+comes to a standstill in Constantinople.
+
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE
+
+[Illustration: PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+From the highest platform of the lofty tower which rises from the square
+in the centre of the promontory of Stambul a wonderful view can be
+obtained of the city and its surroundings--a singular blending of great
+masses of houses and glittering sheets of blue water. Stambul is the
+Turkish quarter. It consists of a sea of closely-built wooden houses of
+many colours. Out of the confusion rise the graceful spires of minarets
+and the round domes of mosques (Plate II.). Just below your feet is the
+great bazaar--the merchants' town; and farther off is St. Sophia, the
+principal mosque. Like Rome, the city is built on seven hills. In the
+valleys between, shady trees and gardens have found a site. Far to the
+west are seen the towers on the old wall of Stambul.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+Before you to the north, on the point of a blunt promontory, stand the
+two quarters called Galata and Pera. There Europeans dwell, and there
+are found Greeks and Italians, Jews and Armenians, and other men of
+races living in the adjacent countries--in the Balkan Peninsula, in Asia
+Minor and Caucasia.
+
+Between this blunt peninsula and Stambul an inlet runs north-westwards
+deep into the land. Its name is the Golden Horn, and over its water
+priceless treasures have from time immemorial been transported in ships.
+
+Turn to the north-east. There you see a sound varying little in breadth.
+Its surface is as blue as sapphire, its shores are crowned by a whole
+chaplet of villages and white villas among luxuriant groves. This sound
+is the Bosporus, and through it is the way to the Black Sea. Due east,
+on the other side of the Bosporus, Scutari rises from the shore to the
+top of low hills. Scutari is the third of the three main divisions of
+Constantinople. You stand in Europe and look over the great city
+intersected by broad waterways and almost forget that Scutari is
+situated in Asia.
+
+Turn to the south. Before your eyes lies the Sea of Marmora, a curious
+sheet of water which is neither a lake nor a sea, neither a bay nor a
+sound. It is a link between the Black and Aegean Seas, connected by the
+Bosporus with the former, and by the Dardanelles, the Hellespont, with
+the latter. The Sea of Marmora is 130 miles long. Seven miles to the
+south the Princes' Islands float on the water like airy gardens, and
+beyond in the blue distance are seen the mountains of Asia Minor.
+
+You will acknowledge that this view is very wonderful. Your eyes wander
+over two continents and two seas. You are in Europe, but on the
+threshold of Asia; and when you look down on the Turks swarming below,
+and at the graceful white boats darting across the sound, you may almost
+fancy that you are in Asia rather than in Europe. You will also notice
+that this fairway is an important trade route. Innumerable vessels pass
+daily through the Bosporus to the coasts of Bulgaria, Rumania, Russia,
+and Asia Minor, and as many out through the Dardanelles to Greece and
+the Archipelago and to the coasts of the Mediterranean.
+
+Close beneath you all the colours and outlines are distinct. The water
+of the Bosporus is vividly blue, and the villas dazzlingly white. On the
+Asiatic side stand woods of dark-green cypresses, and outside the
+western wall Turks slumber in the deepest shade; cypresses, indeed, are
+the watchmen of the dead. And all round the horizon this charming
+landscape passes into fainter and lighter tones, light-blue and grey.
+You cannot perceive clearly where the land ends and sea and sky begin.
+But here and there the white wings of a sailing vessel flutter or a
+slight puff of smoke floats above a steamer.
+
+A continuous murmur reaches your ears. It is not wind, nor the song of
+waves. It is the combined voice of nature and human labour. It is like
+the buzzing round a beehive. Now and then you distinguish the cry of a
+porter, the bell of a tramcar, the whistle of a steamer, or the bark of
+a dog. But, as a rule, all melt together into a single sound. It is the
+ceaseless noise that always hovers over the chimneys of a great city.
+
+
+THE CHURCH OF THE DIVINE WISDOM
+
+Let us now go down to the great mosque on the point. On the top of the
+principal dome we see a huge gilded crescent. This has glittered up
+there for 450 years, but previously the cupola was adorned by the
+Christian Cross. How came the change about?
+
+Let us imagine that we are standing outside the church and let the year
+be 548 A.D. One of the finest temples of Christendom has just been
+completed by the first architect of his time from Asia Minor. The work
+has occupied sixteen years, and ten thousand workmen have been
+constantly engaged at it. But now it is finished at last, and the Church
+of the Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, is to be consecrated to-day.
+
+The great Emperor of the Byzantine realm, Justinian, drives up in a
+chariot drawn by four horses. He enters the temple attended by the
+Patriarch of Constantinople. The building is as large as a market-place,
+and the beautiful dome, round as the vault of heaven, is 180 feet above
+the floor. Justinian looks around and is pleased with his work. The
+great men of the church and empire, clad in costly robes, salute him. He
+examines the variegated marble which covers the walls, he admires the
+artistically arranged mosaic on the gold groundwork of the dome, he is
+amazed at the hundred columns which support the cupolas and galleries,
+some of dark-green marble, others of dark-red porphyry. The Emperor's
+wealth is inexhaustible. Has he not presented to the church seven
+crosses of gold, each weighing a hundred pounds? Does not the Church of
+the Divine Wisdom possess forty thousand chalice veils all embroidered
+with pearls and precious stones? Are there not in the sacristy
+twenty-four Bibles, which in their gold-studded cases weigh two hundred
+pounds each? Are not pictures of the Redeemer, of the Mother of God, of
+angels, prophets and evangelists suspended between the twelve columns of
+solid silver which are the Holy of Holies in the temple? Are not the
+faithful moved to tears at the sight of the crucifix and at the
+remembrance that the gilded cross of silver is an exact copy of that
+which, more than five hundred years ago, was set up by Roman barbarians
+at Jerusalem?
+
+Justinian turns round and examines the panels of the three doors which
+are said to have been made of wood from Noah's ark. The doors of the
+main entrance are of solid silver, the others are beautifully inlaid
+with cedar-wood, ivory, and amber. Above his head silver chandeliers
+swing in chains; some of them form together a cross, and are a symbol of
+the light of heaven hovering over the darkness of earthly life. The
+vault is flooded with light; and in the mosaic he sees the meek saints
+kneeling before God in silent supplication. Below the vault he sees the
+four cherubims with two pairs of wings. He thinks of the first chapter
+of Ezekiel: "And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the
+living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal ... and I
+heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters." He also
+calls to mind the book of Exodus, ch. xxxvii.: "Even to the
+mercy-seatward were the faces of the cherubims." It was the same here in
+his own church.
+
+Inspired by humility before God and pride before his fellowmen, the
+Emperor Justinian moves to his prie-dieu. He falls on his knees and
+exclaims: "God be praised who has thought me worthy to bring such a work
+to completion! I have surpassed thee, O Solomon."
+
+Then the pipes and drums strike up, and the glad songs of the people
+echo among the houses, which are decorated by webs of costly brocade
+hanging from the windows. The festival is prolonged for fourteen days;
+casksful of silver coins are distributed among the multitude, and the
+Emperor feasts the whole city.
+
+Then follow new centuries and new generations in the footsteps of the
+old. The bones of Christians moulder under the grave mounds, but still
+the temple remains as before. There priests and patriarchs and fathers
+of the Church assemble to Church Councils, and the great festivals of
+the year are celebrated under its vault. Nearly a thousand years of the
+stream of time have passed away, and we come to May 29, 1453.
+
+May is a fine month in Constantinople. The summer is in all its glory,
+the gardens are gorgeous in their fresh verdure, the clear waters of the
+Bosporus glitter like brightly polished metal. But what a day of
+humiliation and terror was this day of May, 1453! In the early morning
+tidings of misfortune were disseminated among the citizens. The Turkish
+Sultan had stormed in through the walls with his innumerable troops.
+Beside themselves with fright, men, women, and children fled to St.
+Sophia, leaving their homes and goods to be plundered. A hundred
+thousand persons rushed in and locked and barred all the church doors
+behind them. They trusted that the conqueror would not dare to desecrate
+so holy a place. Abashed before the holiness of God, he would bow down
+in the dust and leave them in peace. And according to a prophecy the
+angel of God would descend from heaven in the hour of need and rescue
+the church and the city.
+
+The Christians waited, praying and trembling. Then the wild fanfares of
+the Mohammedan trumpets were heard from the nearest hills. Piercing
+cries of anguish echoed from the vaulting, mothers pressed their
+children to their hearts, husbands and wives embraced each other, galley
+slaves with chains still on their wrists tried to hide themselves in the
+darkness behind the pillars.
+
+The axes of the Mohammedans ring against the doors. Splinters of costly
+wood fly before the blows. Here a gate cracks, there another is broken
+in. The janissaries rush in, thirsting for blood. The Prophet has
+commanded that his doctrines shall be spread over the earth by fire and
+sword. They are only too ready to obey this order. Already steeped in
+blood from the combat outside the walls, they continue to gather in the
+harvest with dripping scimitars. The defenceless are fastened together
+with chains and driven out like cattle.
+
+Then comes the turn of the holy edifice. The mosaics are hacked to
+pieces with swords and lances, the costly altar-cloths are taken from
+their store-room, the church is plundered of its gold and silver, and
+rows of camels and mules are led in on to the temple floor to be laden
+with the immense treasures. Full of fanatical religious hatred, swarms
+of black-bearded Turks rush up to the figure of the crucified Redeemer.
+A Mohammedan presses his janissary's cap over the crown of thorns. The
+image is carried with wild shrieks round the church, and presumptuous
+voices call out scornfully, "Here you see the God of the Christians."
+
+At the high altar a Greek bishop stood in pontifical robes and read mass
+over the Christians in a loud and clear voice. His voice never trembled
+for a moment. He wished to give his flock heavenly consolation in
+earthly troubles. At last he remained alone. Then he broke off the mass
+in the middle of a sentence, took the chalice, and ascended the steps
+leading to the upper galleries. The Turks caught sight of him and rushed
+after him like hungry hyaenas.
+
+He is already up in the gallery. He is surrounded on all sides by
+soldiers with drawn swords and lowered spears. Next moment he must fall
+dead over the communion chalice. No escape, no rescue is possible.
+Before him stands the grey stone wall.
+
+But, lo! a door opens in the wall, and when the bishop has gone in the
+wall closes up again. The soldiers stand still in astonishment. Then
+they begin to attack the wall with spears and axes. But it is no use.
+They renew their efforts, but still in vain.
+
+Four centuries and a half have passed since then, and still the Greeks
+cherish a blind faith that the day will come when St. Sophia will be
+restored to Christian uses, when the wall will open again and the bishop
+will walk out with the chalice in his hand. Calm and dignified he will
+descend the stairs, cross the church, and mount up to the high altar to
+continue the mass from the point where he was interrupted by the Turks.
+
+Let us return to the savage soldiery. All the doors stand open, and the
+midday sun shines in through the arched windows. The pillage and tumult
+have reached their height when a fiery horse carries a rider up to the
+main entrance. He is attended by Mohammedan princes, generals, and
+pashas.[1] His name is Mohammed II., the Conqueror, the Sultan of the
+Turks. He is young and proud and has a will of iron, but he is solemn
+and melancholy. He dismounts and passes on foot over this floor, over
+the marble slabs trodden a thousand years ago by the Emperor Justinian.
+
+The first thing he sees is a janissary maliciously aiming his axe at the
+marble pavement. The Sultan goes up to him and asks, "Why?" "In the
+cause of the faith," answers the soldier. Then the Sultan draws his
+sabre, and, cutting the man down, exclaims, "Dogs, have you not loot
+enough? The buildings of the city are my property." And, kicking the
+dying man aside, he ascends a Christian pulpit, and in a thundering
+voice dedicates the Church of the Holy Wisdom to Islam.
+
+Four and a half centuries have passed down the stream of time since the
+day when the cross was removed and the crescent raised its horn above
+the Church of the Holy Wisdom. The Turks have erected four minarets
+round the dome, and every evening from the platforms of these minarets
+sounds the voice of the muezzin, summoning the faithful to prayer. He
+wears a white turban and a long mantle down to his feet. To all four
+quarters of the city the call rings out with long, silvery _a_-sounds
+and full, liquid _l_'s: "God is great (four times repeated). I bear
+witness that there is no god but God (twice repeated). I bear witness
+that Mohammed is the Apostle of God (twice repeated). Come to prayers!
+Come to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great.
+There is no god but God."
+
+Now the sun sinks below the horizon, and a cannon shot thunders forth.
+We are in the month of fasting, during which the Mohammedans do not eat,
+drink, or smoke each day so long as the sun is up. Thus the Prophet
+commands in the Koran, their holy book. The firing of the gun proclaims
+the end of the fast for to-day, and when the faithful have refreshed
+themselves with the smoking rissoles and rice puddings, or fruit,
+coffee, and water-pipes which stand ready, they turn their steps to the
+old Church of the Divine Wisdom, which still retains its Greek name.
+Round the minarets thousands of lamps are lighted, and between the
+towers the sacred names hang in flaming lights. Inside the mosque, on
+chains fifty feet long, hang chandeliers, full of innumerable oil-lamps
+in small round glass bowls, and on extended lines hang other lamps as
+close as the beads of a rosary. The floor of the mosque is a sea of
+light, but the interior of the dome is hid in gloom. Huge green shields
+affixed to the columns bear in golden letters the names of Allah,
+Mohammed and the saints, and the characters are thirty feet high.
+
+The faithful have already filled the floor, which is covered with straw
+matting. Shoes must be left outside on entering the mosque, and a man
+must wash his arms, hands, and face before he goes in. Now the Turks
+stand in long rows, white and green turbans and red fezes with black
+tassels all mixed together. All turn their faces towards Mecca. All
+hands go up together to the height of the face and are stretched out
+flat, the thumbs touching the tip of the ear. Then they bend the body
+forward, resting their hands on their knees. Next they fall on their
+knees and touch the floor with their foreheads. "Prayer is the key to
+Paradise," says the Koran, and every section of the prayer requires a
+certain posture.
+
+A priest stands in a pulpit and breaks in on the solemn silence with his
+clear musical voice. The last word dies away on his lips, but the echo
+lingers long in the dome, hovering like a restless spirit among the
+statues of the cherubim.
+
+Among us at home there are people who are ashamed of going to church. A
+Mohammedan may neglect his religious duties, but he always regards it as
+an honour to fulfil them. When we come to Persia or Turkestan we shall
+often see a caravan leader leave his camels in the middle of the march,
+spread out his prayer-mat on the ground, and recite his prayers. They do
+not do it thoughtlessly or slovenly: you might yell in the ear of a
+Mohammedan at prayer and he would take no notice.
+
+"There is no god but God!" The words sound like a trumpet-blast, as a
+summons over boundless regions of the Old World. From its cradle in
+Arabia, Islam has spread over all the west and centre of Asia, over the
+southern parts of the continent, over certain regions in south-eastern
+Europe, and over half Africa. It is no wonder that Mohammedan
+missionaries find it easy to convert the blacks of Africa. Mohammed
+promises them Paradise after death, and Paradise is only a continuation
+of worldly pleasures--a place where the blessed dwell under palms which
+continually bear fruit, where clear springs leap forth, and where flutes
+and stringed instruments make music in eternal summer.
+
+
+THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL
+
+As a child Fatima Hanum played in one of the narrow streets of Stambul.
+When she was old enough, her parents betrothed and married her to Emin
+Effendi, the son of an influential pasha. She knew little of him beyond
+that he was rich and was considered a good match. His house was situated
+in one of the larger streets of Scutari, and consisted of two wings
+completely cut off from each other. In the one the husband had his
+apartments, in the other lived the women. For Fatima is not alone; her
+husband has three other wives, and all four have male and female slaves
+who guard them strictly.
+
+Poor Fatima is thus unfortunate from the first. She cannot live happily
+with a man whose affection is not hers alone, and it is difficult for
+her to live in peace with the three other women who have the same rights
+as herself. Her life is empty and wearisome, and her days are passed in
+idleness. For hours she stands behind the lattice in the oriel window
+which projects over the street and watches the movement going on below.
+When she is tired of this she goes in again. Her room is not large. In
+the middle splashes a small fountain. Round the walls extend divans. She
+sinks moodily on to one of them and calls a female slave, who brings a
+small table, more like a stool. Fatima rolls a cigarette, and with
+dreamy eyes watches the blue rings as they rise to the ceiling. Again
+she calls the slave. A bowl of sweets is brought, she yawns, takes a bit
+of sweetmeat, and throws herself on the soft cushions.
+
+Then she drinks a glass of lemonade and crosses the room to a leather
+trunk, which she unlocks. In the trunk lie her ornaments: bracelets of
+gold, pearl necklaces, earrings of turquoise, and many cloths of
+coloured silk. She puts a necklace round her neck, adorns her fingers
+with rings, and winds thin silken veils round her head. When she is
+ready she goes up to the mirror and admires her own beauty. She is
+really handsome. Her skin is white and soft, her eyes are black, her
+hair falls in dark waves over her shoulders. She is not pleased with the
+colour of her lips. The slave brings out a small pot of porcelain and
+with a pencil paints Fatima's lips redder than the coral which the Hindu
+dealers sell in the bazaar. Then the eyebrows are not dark enough, so
+they are blackened with Indian ink.
+
+When Fatima is tired of examining her own features in the mirror she
+puts back her ornaments into the chest and locks it securely. A
+staircase leads down from her room to the garden. There she saunters for
+a time, enjoying the perfume of roses and jasmine, and stands before the
+cage of singing birds to amuse herself with them. One of the other wives
+comes down to the harem garden and calls out to her: "You are as ugly as
+a monkey, Fatima; you are old and wrinkled and your eyes are red. Not a
+man in all Stambul would care to look at you." Fatima answers: "If Emin
+Effendi had not been tired of you, old moth-eaten parrot, he would not
+have brought me to his harem." And then she hurries up to her room again
+to ask the mirror if it is true that her eyes are red.
+
+In order to forget her vexation she decides to go over to the great
+bazaar in Stambul. The slave envelops her in a voluminous _kaftan_[2]
+in which her white hands with yellow-stained nails disappear among the
+folds. She slips into her shoes, which are like slippers with turned-up
+points, and puts on the most important garment of all--the veil. Its
+upper part covers the head and the forehead down to the eyebrows, while
+the lower part hangs down over the chin, mouth, and part of the nose. A
+woman does not show her face to any man but her husband. Of late years
+many women transgress this rule and let the lower part of the veil fall
+so low that most of the face is seen. Fatima, however, does not go with
+the new fashion. She shows only her eyes, but her glances are enough to
+let the man in the street perceive that she is beautiful. None of them
+is so impertinent as to look at her or speak to her. Only Europeans she
+meets turn round.
+
+The slave does not go with her. She stops at the quay where the
+_caiques_, or long rowing-boats, lie. The boatmen rise and scream
+together. Each one extols with words and gestures the excellences of his
+boat. She makes her choice, and steps in and sits down on the cushions.
+The _caique_ is narrow and sharp as a canoe, painted white, with a gold
+border on the gunwale. Two powerful men take their oars, and the
+_caique_ darts over the blue waters of the Bosporus. Half-way between
+Scutari and Stambul, Fatima looks eagerly down the Sea of Marmora. She
+longs for an hour of freedom, and orders the boatmen to change the
+direction. The wind is fresh, so they pull in their oars and hoist the
+sail, and the boat glides southward at a rapid pace. But Fatima is
+capricious, and is soon tired of the Sea of Marmora, and orders the men
+to steer to the nearest quay in Stambul. She gives them two silver
+coins, which they take without a word of thanks or civility. She hastens
+up to the great bazaar and steps from the hot sunlight of the streets
+into cool shade and gloom.
+
+For the bazaars are like tunnels. They are streets and lanes covered
+with vaults of stone, where daylight penetrates sparingly through the
+cupolas in the roof. Here the heat of summer is not felt, and you can
+walk dry-shod on stormy and rainy days. You are soon accustomed to the
+darkness, but have great difficulty in finding the way unless you have
+been born in Stambul and have often passed through this labyrinth. The
+passages are quite narrow, but yet wide enough to allow _droshkies_[3]
+and carts to pass through.
+
+The bazaar, then, is an underground town in itself, a town of tradesmen
+and artisans. On either side of every street is an endless row of small
+open shops, the floors of which are raised a little above the level of
+the street, and serve also as counters or show stands. The shops are not
+mixed up together, but each industry, each class of goods, has its own
+street. In the shoemakers' street, for example, shoes of all kinds are
+set out, but the most common are slippers of yellow and red leather,
+embroidered and stitched with gold, for men, women, and children, for
+rich and poor. For a long distance you can see nothing but slippers and
+shoes right and left.
+
+You are very glad when the shoe department comes to an end and you come
+to a large street where rich shopkeepers sell brocades of silver, gold,
+and silk. It is best not to take much money with you to this street, or
+you will be tempted to buy everything you see. Here lie mats from
+Persia, embroidered silken goods from India, shawls from Kashmir, and
+the finest work of southern Asia and northern Africa. Poor Fatima! Her
+husband is wealthy enough, but he has no mind to let her scatter his
+money about in the great bazaar. With sad looks she gazes at the
+turquoises from Nishapur, the rubies from Badakshan, the pearls from the
+coast of Bahrein, and the corals from the Indian Ocean.
+
+When she has spent all the silver coins she has with her, she turns to
+leave, but it is a long way to the entrances of the bazaar. She passes
+through the street of the metalworkers and turns off at the armourers'
+lane. There the noise is deafening: sledge hammers and mallets hammer
+and beat, for the shops of the bazaar are workshops as well.
+
+Again she turns a corner. Evidently she has lost her way, for she stands
+and looks about in all directions. She has now come to a passage where
+water-pipes and all articles connected with smoking are sold. Then she
+turns in another direction. An odour tells her a long distance off that
+she is coming to the street of spice-dealers. She has to ask her way
+almost at every step.
+
+Not only in Constantinople but in all parts of the Turkish Empire, and
+all over the Mohammedan world, goods are bought and sold in these
+half-dark tunnels which are called bazaars. It is the same in the
+Mohammedan towns of North Africa, in Arabia, Asia Minor, Persia,
+Caucasia, Afghanistan, India, and Turkestan. Wherever minarets rise
+above the dwellings of men and the muezzin sings out his everlasting
+"There is no god but God," the exchange of wares and coin is carried on
+in dark bazaars. The great bazaar in Stambul is one of the richest, but
+even where the bazaars are small and insignificant the same order
+prevails, the same mode of life. Among Turkish men and women of high
+rank stroll poor ragamuffins and dervishes or begging monks. A caravan
+of camels moves slowly through the crowd, bringing fresh supplies to the
+tradesmen from a steamboat quay or from the railway station. The camels
+have scarcely disappeared in the darkness before a train of mules with
+heavy bales follows in their track. A loud-voiced man offers for sale
+grapes and melons he carries in a basket, while another bears a
+water-bottle of leather.
+
+And all the races which swarm here! The great majority are, of course,
+Turks, but we also see whole rows of shops where only Persians trade. We
+see Hindus from India, Egyptians from Cairo, Arabs from the coasts of
+the Red Sea, Circassians and Tatars from the Caucasus and the Crimea,
+Sarts from Samarkand and Bokhara, Armenians, Jews, and Greeks, and not
+infrequently we meet a negro from Zanzibar or a Chinaman from the
+farthest East.
+
+It is a confusion of shopmen and customers, brokers and thieves from all
+the East. A noise and bustle, a deafening roar which never ceases all
+day long, a hurrying, a striving and eagerness to clear the stock and
+gain money. If the prices were fixed, business would soon be done. But
+if you have taken a fancy to a Kurdish mat and ask the price, the
+tradesman demands a quite absurd sum. You shrug your shoulders and go
+your way. He calls out another, lower price. You go on quietly, and the
+man comes running after you and has dropped his price to the lowest. In
+every shop bargains are made vociferously in the same way. There is a
+continual buzz of voices, now and then interrupted by the bells of
+caravans.
+
+The illumination is dim. The noonday sun penetrates only through
+openings in the vault and forms patches of light. Dust floats about in
+the shafts of light, mixed with smoke from water-pipes. The greater the
+distance the dimmer this confined air appears. There is also an
+indescribable odour. The smell of men and animals, of dusty goods, of
+rank tobacco, of rotting refuse, strong spices, fresh, juicy fruit--all
+mixed together into a peculiar odour which is characteristic of all
+Oriental bazaars.
+
+The bazaar of Stambul contains a great deal besides. On the northern
+side is a line of old caravanserais, massive stone buildings of several
+storeys, with galleries, passages, and rooms, and with a large open
+court in the centre. Here resort the wholesale merchants, and here are
+their warehouses and stocks. Lastly, cafes and eating-houses are found
+in the tunnelled streets, baths and small oratories, so that a man can
+pass his whole day in the bazaar without needing to go home. He can
+obtain all he wants in the vicinity of his shop.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "Pasha" is an honorary title given to officials of high rank in
+Turkey and Egypt, as to governors of provinces, military commanders,
+etc.
+
+[2] A garment worn throughout the Levant, consisting of a long gown
+fastened by a girdle and having sleeves reaching below the hands.
+
+[3] A "droshky" is a low, four-wheeled, open carriage, plying for hire.
+The word is Russian.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN (1905)
+
+
+THE BLACK SEA
+
+Attended by the _cavass_[4] of the Swedish Embassy, old Ali, I drove
+down to the quay on a fresh, sunny October morning, loaded all my boxes
+on board a _caique_, and was rowed by four men out to the Bosporus
+between anchored sailing vessels, steamers, and yachts. On arriving at
+the gangway of a large Russian steamer, I waited until all my luggage
+was safe on board and then followed it.
+
+The anchor is weighed, the propeller begins to turn, and the vessel
+steers a course northwards through the Bosporus. With my field-glasses I
+settle down on a bench in the stern and take farewell of the Turkish
+capital. How grand, how unforgettable is this scene! The white, graceful
+minarets shoot up to heaven from the sea of houses, and the
+cypresses--tall, grave, and straight as kings--also seem to point out to
+the children of earth the way to Paradise. Everywhere the houses mount
+up the hills, ranged like the rows of seats in a theatre. The whole is
+like a gigantic circus with an auditorium for more than a million Turks,
+and the arena is the blue water of the Bosporus.
+
+The steamer carries us away relentlessly from this charming picture. As
+dreams fade away in the night, so the white city is concealed by the
+first promontories. Then I change my place and look ahead. Perhaps the
+view is even more beautiful in this direction. The sound is like a river
+between steep, rocky shores, but in the mouth of every valley, and
+wherever the margin of the shore is flat, stand white villas and
+mansions, villages, walls and ruins, gardens and groves. The Bosporus is
+barely twenty miles long. In some places its breadth is less than a
+third of a mile, in others two-thirds. Old plane-trees spread their
+crowns over fresh meadows, and laurels, chestnuts, walnuts, and oaks
+afford deep shade. White dolphins skim along the water, and a school of
+porpoises follows in the wake of the boat, waiting for the refuse from
+the cook's galley. They are dark, soft, and smooth, their backs shining
+like metal, and they can easily be seen several feet below the surface.
+A single flap of the tail fin gives them a tremendous impulse, and they
+come up to the surface like arrows discharged by the gods of the sea,
+and describe beautiful somersaults among the waves. They could easily
+overtake us if they liked, but they content themselves with following
+close behind us hour after hour.
+
+To the left we have the European coast, to the right the Asiatic. The
+distance is always so small that the Europeans can hear the bark of the
+Asiatic dogs. Here is Terapia, with the summer villas of Christians and
+the ambassadors' palaces. Turkish coffee-houses are erected on the
+shore, and their balconies hang over the water. Farther on there is a
+large valley with an ancient plane-tree with seven trunks which are
+called "the seven brothers." According to tradition Godfrey de Bouillon
+with his crusaders reposed under its shade in the winter of 1096-1097,
+when he marched to recover the holy sepulchre and win the sounding title
+of "King of Jerusalem."
+
+Now the channel widens out and the coasts of the two continents diverge
+from each other. We see the horizon of the Black Sea opening before us,
+and the vessel begins to pitch. Lighthouses stand on either side of the
+entrance, which is commanded by batteries high above it. We roll out
+into the sea, and half an hour later we can hardly see the break in the
+coast-line which marks the end of the Bosporus.
+
+We make straight for Sebastopol, near the southernmost point of the
+Crimea. This is the station of the Russian Black Sea fleet, but the
+Russians have little pride in it, for the Turks control the passage to
+the Mediterranean, and without the consent of the other great Powers the
+Russian warships cannot pass through. The Black Sea is, of course, open
+to the mercantile vessels of all nations.
+
+You know, of course, that Europe has four landlocked seas, the Baltic,
+the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian Seas. The Baltic is enclosed
+all round by European coasts; the Black and Caspian Seas belong to both
+Europe and Asia; while the Mediterranean lies between the three
+continents of the Old World--Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now the Baltic,
+Black, and Caspian Seas are of about the same size, each having an area
+about three times that of England and Wales. The Baltic is connected
+with the Atlantic by several sounds between the Danish islands and
+Scania. The Black Sea has only one outlet, the Bosporus. The Caspian Sea
+has no outlet at all, and is really a lake.
+
+The Baltic is very shallow, its maximum depth, south-east of the
+Landsort lighthouse, being 250 fathoms. Next comes the Caspian Sea with
+a depth of 600 fathoms. The singular feature of this, the largest lake
+in the world, is that its surface lies 85 feet below that of the Black
+Sea. This last is the deepest of the three, for in it a sounding of 1230
+fathoms has been taken.
+
+All three seas are salt, the Baltic least and the Caspian most. Four
+great rivers enter the Black Sea, the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, and
+Don. It therefore receives large volumes of fresh water. But along the
+bottom of the Bosporus an undercurrent of salt water passes into the
+Black Sea, which is compensated for by a surface stream of less salt and
+therefore lighter water flowing to the Mediterranean.
+
+The Black Sea is not blacker than any other sea, nor is the White Sea
+white, the Yellow Sea yellow, or the Red Sea red. And so no faith should
+be accorded to the story of a captain in the Mediterranean who wished to
+sail to the Red Sea but went to the Black Sea--because he was
+colour-blind!
+
+But now we can continue our heaving course, still accompanied by
+dolphins and porpoises. We look in at the harbour of Sebastopol, we
+anchor in open roadsteads off Caucasian towns, we moor our cables to the
+rings on the quay of Batum, and finally drop our anchor for the last
+time at a short distance from the coast of Asia Minor.
+
+Proud and bright, with forest-clad heights in the background, Trebizond
+bathes in the rays of the midday sun. Small rowing-boats come out from
+the land to take passengers and goods to the quay. The Turkish boatmen
+scream all together, but no one listens to them. Every one is glad to be
+landed safe and sound with his baggage.
+
+
+TREBIZOND TO TEHERAN
+
+Trebizond was a Greek colony seven hundred years before the birth of
+Christ, and from time immemorial Persian trade has made its way to the
+Black Sea by the road which still runs through Tabriz to Teheran, a
+distance of 800 miles. This traffic is now on the decline, for modern
+means of communication have taken the place of the old caravans, and
+most of their trade has been diverted to the Suez Canal and the
+Caucasian railways. Many large caravans, however, still journey to and
+fro along this road, which is so well made that one can drive not only
+to Tabriz, but still further to Teheran. It may, indeed, be softened by
+autumn rains or frozen hard on the high plateaus of Turkish Armenia, and
+the speed is not great when the same horses have to be used for
+distances of 160 miles.
+
+It was a lively cavalcade that pounded and rattled over the Turkish and
+Persian roads in November, 1905. I was by no means alone. The Governors
+of Trebizond and Erzerum were so good as to provide me with an escort of
+six armed troopers on sturdy horses. In front rides a Turkish soldier on
+a piebald horse, carrying his carbine in a sling over his back, his
+sabre and dagger hanging at his side, and wearing a red fez with a white
+_pagri_[5] wound round it as a protection from sun and wind. Then I come
+in my carriage, drawn by three horses. Old Shakir, the coachman, is
+already my friend; it is he who prepares my meals and looks after me
+generally. I am well wrapped up in a Caucasian cloak, with a
+_bashlik_[6] over my cap, and lean back comfortably and look at the
+country as we drive along. Behind the carriage ride two soldiers on
+brown horses, engaged in a lively conversation and wondering whether
+they will be well tipped. Then come two clumsy carts, on which all my
+baggage is firmly secured. They have their own drivers and men, and are
+escorted by three troopers.
+
+In this manner I travelled from Trebizond to Teheran. To the ceaseless
+rattle of the wheels and the heavy tramp of the horses' hoofs, I plunged
+day by day deeper into Asia. Soon the blue expanse of the Black Sea
+passed out of sight, as the road with many steep and sudden bends wound
+up to the top of a pass. On the other side it descended with as many
+windings to the bottom of a valley. And thus we went up and down till we
+were up at length on the level Armenian tableland.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING (_a_) JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN
+(pp. 26-33); (_b_) LATTER PART OF JOURNEY TO BAKU (pp. 34-35); AND (_c_)
+JOURNEY FROM BAKU ACROSS PERSIA TO BAGHDAD AND BACK TO TEHERAN (pp.
+37-45).]
+
+Here there is a complete change. During the first days after leaving the
+coast, we had driven through a beautiful and constantly changing
+landscape. We had passed through woods of coniferous trees and among
+rustling foliage of yellow leaves. Sometimes we had been hundreds of
+feet above an abyss, at the foot of which a bluish-green stream foamed
+between rounded rocks. Beside the road we had seen rows of villages and
+farms, with houses and verandahs of wood, where Turks sat comfortably in
+their shops and cafes; and we had met many small caravans of horses,
+asses, and oxen carrying hay, fruit, and bricks between the villages. We
+always began our day's march in the early morning, for the nights were
+mild and the sun had scarcely risen before it felt pleasant.
+
+But up here on the plateau it is different. No firs adorn the mountain
+flanks, no foliaged trees throw their shade over the road. No creaking
+carts, laden with timber and drawn by buffaloes and oxen, enliven the
+way. The villages are scattered, and the houses are low cabins of stone
+or sun-dried clay. The Turkish population is blended with Armenians. The
+road becomes worse and more neglected as the traffic falls off. The air
+is cool, and there are several degrees of frost in the night.
+
+When we have passed Erzerum, where the Christian churches of the
+Armenians stand side by side with the mosques of the Turks, we journey,
+as it were, on a flat roof sloping down slightly on three sides, each
+with a gutter leading into its own water-butt. These water-butts are the
+Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and they are always
+big enough to hold all the water, however hard it may rain on the stony
+roof which rises between Caucasia, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia. The
+gutters are, of course, the rivers, the greatest of which is the
+Euphrates.
+
+Now the road is very bad. There has been rain in the autumn; and now
+that it is freezing, the mud, all cut up by deep wheel-ruts, is as hard
+as stone. My vehicle shakes and jolts me hither and thither and up and
+down, and when we arrive at the village where we are to pass the night,
+I feel bruised all over. Shakir makes tea and boils eggs, and after
+supper I roll myself in my cloak and go to sleep.
+
+It is pitch-dark when I am called, and still dark when we make a start
+by the light of lanterns. After a little a curious sound is heard across
+the plain. The clang becomes louder, coming nearer to us, and tall, dark
+ghosts pass by with silent steps. Only bells are heard. The ghosts are
+camels coming from Persia with carpets, cotton, and fruit. There are
+more than three hundred of them, and it is a long time before the road
+is clear again. And all the time there is a ringing as from a chime of
+bells.
+
+For many thousands of years the same sound has been heard on the caravan
+routes. It is the same with the roar of the waters of the Euphrates and
+Tigris. Mighty powers have flourished and passed away on their banks,
+whole peoples have died out, of Babylon and Nineveh only ruins are left;
+but the waters of the rivers murmur just the same, and the caravan bells
+ring now as in the days when Alexander led the Macedonian army over the
+Euphrates and Tigris, when the Venetian merchant Marco Polo travelled
+620 years ago between Tabriz and Trebizond by the road we are now
+driving along, when Timur the Lame defeated the Turks and by this road
+carried the Sultan Bayazid in an iron cage to exhibit him like a wild
+beast in the towns of Asia.
+
+A white morning cloud seems to be floating over the grey mountains to
+the east, but when the sun rises it is seen to be a cone as regular as
+the roof of an Armenian church. It is the snow-capped top of Mount
+Ararat, where the ark landed when the great flood went down. The summit
+is always covered with snow, for the mountain is a thousand feet higher
+than Mont Blanc.
+
+Now we are not far from the frontier, where Kurdish brigands render the
+country unsafe, but once over the border into Persian territory there is
+no danger. We are now in the north-western corner of Persia, in the
+province of Azerbeijan, which is populated mainly by Tatars. The capital
+of the province is Tabriz, once the chief market for the trade of all
+northern Persia with Europe. Here goods were collected from far and
+near, packed in mats of bast and bound with ropes so as to form bales,
+which were laden on fresh camels and carried in fourteen days to
+Trebizond.
+
+Now not more than a fifth part of this trade remains, but still the
+caravan life is the same, and as varied as ever. The Tatar leader rides
+in front; beside every seventh camel walks a caravan man, who wears a
+black lambskin cap, a blue frockcoat, a girdle round the waist, and
+pointed shoes. Each is armed with a dagger, for the Tatars are often at
+feud with the Turks and Armenians, and the dagger has a groove on each
+side of the blade to allow the blood of the victim to run off. Many a
+caravan leader has spent the greater part of his life in travelling to
+and fro between Tabriz and Trebizond. On every journey he has seen
+Ararat to the north of the road, like a perpetually anchored vessel with
+its mainsail up; and he knows that the mountain is a gigantic frontier
+beacon which marks the spot where Russia, Turkey, and Persia meet.
+
+On December 13 I arrived at Teheran, having driven 800 miles in a month.
+India was still 1500 miles off, and the route lies almost entirely
+through deserts where only camels can travel. I therefore bought
+fourteen fine camels, and took six Persians and a Tatar into my
+service.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] A government servant or courier.
+
+[5] A light scarf wound round a hat or helmet in tropical countries,
+especially India.
+
+[6] A kind of cloth hood covering the ears.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THROUGH THE CAUCASUS, PERSIA, AND MESOPOTAMIA (1885-6)
+
+
+ST. PETERSBURG TO BAKU
+
+On August 15, 1885, I went by steamer to St. Petersburg. There I entered
+a train which ran south-eastwards through Moscow to Rostov, at the mouth
+of the Don, and thence on to the Caucasus; and for four days I sat in my
+compartment, letting my eyes rove over the immense steppes of Russia.
+Hour after hour the train rolled along. A shrill whistle startles the
+air when we come to a station, and equally sharply a bell rings once,
+twice, and thrice when our line of carriages begins to move on again
+over the flat country. In rapid course we fly past innumerable villages,
+in which usually a whitewashed church lifts up its tower with a green
+bulb-shaped roof. Homesteads and roads, rivers and brooks, fruitful
+fields and haystacks, windmills with long revolving arms, carts and
+wayfarers, all vanish behind us, and twilight and night four times
+envelop huge Russia in darkness.
+
+At last the mountains of the Caucasus appear in front of us, rising up
+to the clouds like a light-blue wall. The whole range seems so light and
+impalpable that we can scarcely believe that the very next day we shall
+be driving up its valleys and over heights which are more than 16,000
+feet above the sea-level. The distance is still great, but the white
+summit of Mount Kazbek shines out amidst the blue.
+
+At length we arrive at Vladikavkas, the end of the railway,[7] and begin
+our journey of 130 miles over the mountains. My travelling companions
+hired a carriage, and at every stage we had to change horses. I sat on
+the box, and at the turns I had to hold on lest I should be thrown off
+down into the abyss at the side of the road.
+
+We constantly meet peasants with asses, or shepherds with flocks of
+goats and sheep. Now comes a group of Caucasian horsemen in black
+sheepskin coats and armed to the teeth; then the post-cart, packed full
+of travellers; then again a load of hay drawn by oxen or grey buffaloes.
+
+The higher we ascend, the grander and wilder the mountains become.
+Sometimes the road is blasted out of perpendicular walls of rock, and
+heavy masses of mountain hang like a vault above us. At dangerous
+slopes, where the road is exposed to avalanches in spring, it runs
+through tunnels of masonry. When an avalanche dashes furiously down the
+mountain it leaps over these tunnels and continues down on the other
+side without doing the road any harm.
+
+We have now reached the highest point of the road, and after a journey
+of twenty-eight hours we arrive at Tiflis, the largest town in Caucasia,
+and one of the most curious towns I have seen. The houses hang like
+clusters of swallows' nests on the slopes on both sides of the Kura
+River, and the narrow, dirty streets are crowded with the fifteen
+different tribes who dwell in Caucasia.
+
+While the road leading to Tiflis over the mountains is grand, a more
+dreary country can hardly be conceived than that crossed by the railway
+between Tiflis and Baku: endless steppes and deserts, greyish-yellow and
+desolate, with occasionally a caravan of slowly moving camels. A violent
+storm arose as we drew near the sea. Dust rose up in clouds and
+penetrated through all the chinks of the compartment, the air became
+thick, heavy, and suffocating, and outside nothing could be seen but a
+universal grey veil of impenetrable mist. But the worst was that the
+storm struck the train on the side, and at last the engine was scarcely
+able to draw the carriages along. Twice we had to stop, and on an ascent
+the train even rolled back a little.
+
+However, in spite of all, we at last reached the shore of the Caspian
+Sea, where clear green billows rose as high as a house and thundered on
+the strand. At seven o'clock in the evening we were at Baku, and drove
+ten miles to Balakhani, where I remained seven months.
+
+I remember that time as if it were yesterday. I struggled hopelessly
+with the Russian grammar, but made great progress in Persian, and
+learned to talk the Tatar language without the least difficulty.
+Meanwhile I indulged in plans for a great journey to Persia. How it was
+to be managed I did not know, for my means were not large. But I made up
+my mind that through Persia I would travel, even if I went as a hired
+servant and drove other people's asses along the roads.
+
+The whole country round Baku is impregnated with petroleum, which
+collects in vast quantities in cavities in the earth. To reach the oil a
+tower of wood 50 to 65 feet high is erected, and a line with a powerful
+borer runs over a block at the top. A steam-engine keeps the line in
+constant motion, perpendicularly up and down, and the borer eats deeper
+and deeper into the earth. The first section of piping which is forced
+down into the bore-hole is about 40 inches in diameter. When this can go
+no farther the boring is continued with a smaller borer, and a narrower
+tube is thrust down within the first. And so the work is continued until
+the petroleum level is reached and the valuable oil can be pumped up.
+
+But it often happens that the oil is forced up through the pipe by the
+pressure of gas in the bowels of the earth, and when I was at Balakhani
+we often used to go out and look at this singular display. With a
+deafening roar, a thick greenish-brown jet shot up out of the ground and
+right through the derrick (Plate III.). It was visible from a long
+distance, for it might be as much as 200 feet high, and the oil was
+collected within dams thrown up around. If there was a strong wind the
+jet would be dispersed, and a dark mist would lie like a veil over the
+ground to leeward. In Balakhani one can hardly look out of the door
+without one's clothes being smeared with oil, and the odour can be
+perceived a dozen miles away. Not a blade of grass grows in this
+neighbourhood; all that one sees is a forest of derricks. Lines of pipes
+convey the oil from the borings to the "Black Town" of Baku, which is
+full of oil refineries (over 170 in all) emitting vast volumes of smoke,
+black and greasy buildings, and pools of oil refuse. When the crude
+natural oil is purified, it is distributed far and wide in special
+railway trucks like cisterns, and in special tank steamers, into which
+the petroleum is pumped, and which carry nothing else.
+
+In the Baku oil-fields there are now (1910) no fewer than 4094 bores, of
+which 2600 are productive. Last year they yielded about eight million
+tons of raw petroleum, some of them having sometimes given nearly 300
+tons in twenty-four hours by pumping, and 2000 when the oil shot out
+of the ground itself. The value on the spot is now about 20 shillings
+a ton. The deepest boring is sunk 2800 feet into the earth.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE III. OIL-WELL AT BALAKHANI.
+
+A fountain of oil forced up by natural pressure.]
+
+Late one evening in February, 1886, the dreadful cry of "Fire! Fire!"
+was heard outside our house. The very thought of fire is enough to raise
+terror and consternation throughout this oil-soaked district. We hurry
+out and find the whole neighbourhood illuminated with a weird, whitish
+light, as bright as day. The derricks stand out like ghosts against the
+light background. We make for the place and feel the heat increasing.
+Bright white flames shoot up fantastically into the air, sending off
+black clouds of smoke. One derrick is in flames and beside it a pool of
+raw petroleum is burning. A Tatar had gone to the derrick with a lantern
+to fetch a tool. He lost his lantern, and only just escaped with his
+life before the oil-soaked derrick took fire.
+
+It is vain to fight against such a fire. The fire-engine came, and all
+the hoses were at work, but what was the use when the jets of water were
+turned to steam before they reached the burning surface of the oil pool?
+The chief thing is to keep the fire from spreading, and if that is done,
+the oil is left to bubble and burn until not a drop is left.
+
+
+ACROSS PERSIA
+
+It was an adventurous journey that I commenced from Baku on April 6,
+1886. I had a travelling companion, a young Tatar, Baki Khanoff, about
+L30 in my pocket, two changes of clothes and underclothing, a warm
+coat, and a rug--all, except what I wore, packed in a Tatar bag. In a
+small leather bag suspended by a strap from the shoulder I kept a
+revolver, a sketch-book, a note-book, and two maps of Persia. Baki
+Khanoff had a large cloak, a silver-mounted gun, and a dagger. Half the
+money we had was sewed up in belts round our waists. The equipment was
+therefore small for a journey of 2000 miles, through Persia and back.
+
+For two days and a night we were compelled by a violent storm on the
+Caspian Sea to wait on board before the vessel could take us to the
+Persian coast. As soon as we landed we were surrounded by Persians, who,
+with loud voices and lively gestures, extolled the good qualities of
+their horses. After a cursory examination we chose two small, squat
+steeds, secured our baggage behind the saddles, mounted, and rode
+through dark woods and fragrant olive groves higher and higher towards
+the Elburz Mountains.
+
+We passed a night up on the heights in a village called Karzan. When we
+set out next day it was snowing fast, and had snowed so thickly all
+night that all the country was buried under deep drifts. We muffled
+ourselves up as well as we could, mounted our horses, and rode on,
+accompanied by their owner.
+
+The snow fell silently in large, whirling flakes. Down in the valley it
+melted off our clothes, but higher up on the open, windy heights it
+froze to a cake of ice, and before long our clothes on the windward side
+were converted into a thick cuirass which prevented every movement. At
+last we were practically frozen fast in the saddle. Our hands were
+benumbed, the reins fell on the horses' necks, our eyes were sore from
+the snowstorm which dashed straight into our faces. I was so stiff that
+I lost all feeling in my arms and legs, tumbled off my horse, and went
+on foot, but I had to hold on to the animal's tail lest I should lose my
+way in the blinding snow.
+
+We could not go on long in this way, for we could not see where we were
+going, so we decided to turn in at the first village on the road. Some
+squalid huts soon came in sight through the snow. Outside one of them we
+tied up our horses, shook off the snow, and entered a dark cabin with an
+earthen floor. Here a large fire was lighted, and we sat down beside it
+in a close circle with some other travellers who arrived at the same
+time. The place had a low roof and was small, damp, and full of vermin,
+but at any rate it was pleasant to warm ourselves and dry our clothes.
+When Baki Khanoff had made tea, cooked eggs, and brought out bread and
+salt, it was almost cosy. The company consisted of four Tatars, two
+Persians, and myself, and the seven of us had to share the space for the
+night. When the fire died down the close heat was succeeded by a damp
+coolness, but at twenty-one years of age one is not particular.
+
+Eventually we reached Teheran, the capital of Persia, safe and sound,
+and there I stayed a short time as the guest of a fellow-countryman.
+When I continued my journey southwards I had to travel alone, for Baki
+Khanoff had caught fever and had to turn back to Baku.
+
+Our journey to Teheran had been very expensive, but my good countryman
+replenished my purse, so that I had again about L30 sewed up in my
+waistbelt when I started off once more on April 27. The road is divided
+by stations where horses are changed and you can pass the night if you
+wish. A man accompanies you on every stage, and for a small silver coin
+you can buy eggs and bread, a chicken, melons and grapes.
+
+Sometimes the stable-boy who accompanies a traveller takes the best
+horse for himself and gives the other to the traveller. This happened to
+me on the road between the town of Kashan and the mountain village of
+Kuhrud. As soon as I became aware of the trick, I exchanged horses with
+my attendant, who dropped behind after some hours' journey, for his
+sorry jade could go no farther. For four hours I rode along narrow paths
+in complete darkness. I feared that I had gone astray, and, tired and
+sleepy, I was on the point of coming to a halt, intending to tie the
+horse to a tree and roll myself up in my rug for the night, when I saw a
+light gleam through the darkness. "Hurrah! that is the station-house of
+Kuhrud." But when I came nearer I perceived that the light came from a
+nomad's tent. I rode up and called out to the people. No one answered,
+but I could see by the shadows on the cloth that the tent was inhabited.
+After shouting again without receiving an answer, I tied up the horse,
+lifted up the tent-flap, and asked my way to Kuhrud. "Cannot one sleep
+in peace in the middle of the night?" came a voice from inside. "I am a
+European and you must show me the way," I returned sharply. Then a man
+came out; he was as silent as a dummy, but I understood that I was to
+follow him, leading my horse by the rein. He wound about in the dark
+among bushes, and when he had led me to a brook a foot deep, skirted on
+both sides by thick olive woods, he pointed uphill and vanished in the
+darkness without saying a word. I mounted again and let the horse take
+care of himself, and two hours later he stopped all right before the
+station-house. It was pleasant to have reached my journey's end at last,
+for I had been riding for fifteen hours, and the evening meal tasted
+better than usual. Then I lay down full length on the floor, with the
+saddle for a pillow and the rug over me. I made use of no other bed on
+this journey.
+
+A few days more on the great caravan road and we rode into the old
+capital of Persia, Ispahan, with its many memorials of departed
+greatness, its mosques with tall, graceful minarets, and its bazaars
+full of the products of Persian handicrafts and industries--carpets,
+silken materials, embroideries, shawls, lacquered work, water-pipes,
+porcelain, and bronze vessels representing peacocks and elephants.
+
+Farther south I came to Persepolis, so famous in ancient times, where
+the great Persian kings, Xerxes and Darius, had their palaces. The
+country round about is now inhabited only by some poor shepherds and
+their flocks, but fine remains of the palaces still stand, in spite of
+the 2400 years which have passed over them. Not far from Persepolis lies
+one of the most noted towns of Persia, Shiraz, abounding in rose gardens
+and country-houses, spring water and canals. The town is famous above
+all, because here the immortal poets of Persia sang their most beautiful
+songs.
+
+When we came near the Persian Gulf the climate became hotter, and one
+day the temperature was 102 deg. in the room where I was staying. People
+therefore travel in the night. On the last stage the groom, who was an
+old man, could not keep up with me, for I rode fast; so I went on all
+night alone, keeping my revolver handy in case robbers showed
+themselves. I was glad when the sun rose, lighting up the smooth mirror
+of the Persian Gulf, and on May 22 I arrived at the town of Bushire, on
+its eastern coast.
+
+The Persian Gulf is an inlet of the Indian Ocean, and is enclosed
+between Persia and Arabia. The island of Bahrein on the Arabian coast is
+well known; it is under British protection, and here in summer and
+autumn pearl fishing is carried on, the annual export of these beautiful
+precious stones being now about L900,000. As many as a thousand boats,
+with crews of thirty thousand men, are engaged in the industry. The
+owner of each boat engages a number of divers, who work for him, and he
+sells his pearls to the Indian markets. The diver seldom goes down to a
+greater depth than seven fathoms, and remains at most fifty seconds
+under water. He has wax in his ears, his nose is closed by a clip, and
+with a stone at his feet and a rope round his waist he jumps overboard
+and disappears into the depths. When he reaches the bottom of the sea he
+gathers into a basket tied in front of him as many shells as he can get
+hold of, and at a given signal is hauled up by the rope to the surface
+again. Then the owner of the boat opens the shells and takes out the
+costly pearls, which are of different values, according to their size
+and other qualities.
+
+
+ARABIA
+
+Between the Persian Gulf on the north-east and the Red Sea on the
+south-west, the Mediterranean on the north-west and the Indian Ocean on
+the south-east, lies the long, bulky peninsula which is called Arabia,
+and is as large as a third of Europe. Most of the coast-land is subject
+to the Sultan of Turkey, but the people in the interior are practically
+independent. They are a wild and warlike pastoral people, called
+Beduins. Only certain parts of the country are inhabited, the rest being
+occupied by terrible deserts and wastes, where even now no European has
+set his foot.
+
+Near the coast of the Red Sea are two Arab towns which are as holy and
+full of memories to Mohammedans all over the world as Jerusalem and Rome
+to Christians. At Mecca the prophet Mohammed was born in the year
+A.D. 570, and at Medina he died and was buried in 632. He was
+the founder of the Mohammedan religion, and his doctrine, Islamism,
+which he proclaimed to the Arabs, has since spread over so many
+countries in the Old World that its adherents now number 217 millions.
+
+To all the followers of Islam a pilgrimage to Mecca is a most desirable
+undertaking. Whoever has once been there may die in peace, and in his
+lifetime he may attach the honourable title of Hajji to his name. From
+distant countries in Africa and from the innermost parts of Asia
+innumerable pilgrims flock annually to the holy towns.
+
+Adjoining Arabia on the north-east lies the country called Mesopotamia,
+through which flow the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. An English steamer
+carried me from Bushire up the turbid waters of the Tigris, and from the
+deck I could see copper-brown, half-naked Arabs riding barebacked on
+handsome horses. They feed their flocks of sheep on the steppe, holding
+long lances in their hands. Sometimes the steamer is invaded by a cloud
+of green grasshoppers, and one can only escape them by going into one's
+cabin and closing both door and windows. Round the funnel lie heaps of
+grasshoppers who have singed themselves or are stupefied by the smoke.
+
+After a voyage of a few days up the river I come to Baghdad, which
+retains little of its former magnificence. In the eleventh century
+Baghdad was the greatest city of the Mohammedans, and here were
+collected the Indian and Arabic tales which are called the _Thousand and
+one Nights_. Not far from Baghdad, but on the Euphrates, lay in early
+ages the great and brilliant Babylon, which had a hundred gates of
+brass. By the waters of Babylon the Jewish captives hung up their harps
+on the willows, and of Babylon Jeremiah prophesied: "And Babylon shall
+become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an
+hissing, without an inhabitant."
+
+
+BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN
+
+When I reached Baghdad I had only a little over L5 left, all in Persian
+silver _kran_, a _kran_ being worth about seven-pence; and I could not
+get any more money until I reached Teheran, 600 miles away. I knew that
+if I could only get as far as the town of Kermanshah, a distance of 200
+miles, I could then take service in a caravan; but it would be
+unpleasant to tramp on foot the whole way, and receive no pay other than
+a little bread and a few cucumbers and melons.
+
+Just in the nick of time, however, I made the acquaintance of a caravan
+owner who was starting immediately for Kermanshah with English
+merchandise. The goods were loaded on fifty asses, and were accompanied
+by ten Arab traders on horseback. Eight pilgrims and a Chaldean merchant
+had joined the party. I, too, might go with them on paying fifty _kran_
+for the hire of a mule; food and drink I must provide for myself.
+
+It was a pleasant journey which began at ten o'clock on the evening of
+June 6. Two Arabs led me on my mule slowly and solemnly through the
+narrow streets of Baghdad in the warm summer night. An oil lamp
+flickered dully here and there, but the bazaars were brisk and lively.
+Here sat thousands of Arabs, talking, eating, drinking, and smoking. It
+was the month of fasting, when nothing is eaten until after sunset.
+
+The two Arabs conducted me into the court of a caravanserai, where the
+traders were just making preparations to start. When I heard that they
+would not be ready before two o'clock in the morning, I lay down on a
+heap of bales and slept like a top.
+
+Two o'clock came much sooner than I wished. An Arab came and shook me,
+and, half asleep, I mounted my mule. To the shouts of the drivers, the
+tinkle of the small bells, and the ding-dong of the large camel-bells
+the long caravan passed out into the darkness. Soon we had the outermost
+courts and palm groves of Baghdad behind us, and before us the silent,
+sleeping desert.
+
+No one troubled himself about me; I had paid for the mule and might look
+after myself. Sometimes I rode in front, sometimes behind, and
+occasionally I almost went to sleep in the saddle. The body of a dead
+dromedary lay on the road, and a pack of hungry jackals and hyaenas were
+feasting on the carcase. When we came near them they ran away
+noiselessly to the desert, only to return when we were past. Farther on
+some fat vultures kept watch round the body of a horse, and raised
+themselves on their heavy wings as we approached.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IV. A PERSIAN CARAVANSERAI.]
+
+After a ride of seven hours we reached a caravanserai, where the Arabs
+unloaded their animals and said that we were to stay there all day. It
+was as warm as in an oven, and there was nothing to do but lie and doze
+on the stone floor.
+
+Next night we rode eight hours to the town of Bakuba, which is
+surrounded by a wood of fine date-palms. Here we encamped in the court
+of a huge caravanserai (Plate IV.). I was sitting talking to one of my
+travelling companions when three Turkish soldiers came and demanded to
+see my passport. "I have no passport," I replied. "Well, then, pay us
+ten _kran_ apiece, and you shall pass the frontier all the same." "No, I
+will not pay you a farthing," was the answer they got. "Take that rug
+and the bag instead," they cried, and made for my things. This I could
+not stand, and gave the man who seized my bag such a blow on the chest
+that he dropped his booty, and the same with the man with the rug. The
+scoundrels were making to rush at me together, when two of my Arabs came
+up to my assistance. To avoid further unpleasantness I went to the
+governor, who for six _kran_ gave me a passport.
+
+I had now become so friendly with the Arabs that I obtained the loan of
+a horse instead of a mule. We set out again at nine o'clock, and rode
+all night in the most brilliant moonshine. I was so sleepy that
+sometimes I dozed in the saddle, and once, when the horse shied at a
+skeleton on the road, I was roused up and fell off, while the horse ran
+off over the steppe. After much trouble one of the caravan men caught
+him again, and I slept no more that night.
+
+As usual we stayed over the day at the next village. I was tired of
+travelling in this fashion, moving so slowly and seeing so little of the
+country. When, then, an old Arab belonging to the caravan came riding up
+from Baghdad on a fine Arab horse, I determined to try to get away from
+my party with his assistance. He consented to accompany me if I paid him
+twenty-five _kran_ a day. At first we kept near the caravan, but as
+soon as the moon had set we increased our pace, and when the sound of
+the bells grew faint behind us we trotted off quickly through the night.
+
+We arrived safely at Kermanshah on June 13. After paying the old Arab I
+had only sixpence left! I could not engage a room or buy anything to
+eat, and the prospect of going begging among Mohammedans was certainly
+not attractive. Fortunately I had heard of a rich Arab merchant, Agha
+Hassan, who lived in this town, and I directed my steps to his handsome
+house. In my dusty riding-boots, and whip in hand, I passed through many
+fine rooms until at last I found myself in the presence of Agha Hassan,
+who was sitting with his secretary in the midst of books and papers. He
+wore a white silk mantle embroidered with gold, a turban on his head and
+spectacles on his nose, and looked both friendly and dignified.
+
+"How are you, sir?" he asked. "Very well, thank you," I responded.
+"Where have you come from?" "From Baghdad." "And where are you going?"
+"To Teheran." "Are you an Englishman?" "No, I am a Swede." "Swede? What
+is that?" "Well, I come from a country called Sweden." "Whereabouts does
+it lie?" "Far away to the north-west, beyond Russia." "Ah, wait, I know!
+You are no doubt from Ironhead's country?" "Yes, I am from the country
+of Charles XII." "I am very glad to hear it; I have read of Charles the
+Twelfth's remarkable exploits; you must tell me about him. And you must
+tell me about Sweden, its king and army, and about your own home,
+whether your parents are still living, and if you have any sisters. But
+first you must promise to stay as my guest for six months. All that I
+have is yours. You have only to command." "Sir, I am very thankful for
+your kindness, but I cannot avail myself of your hospitality for more
+than three days." "You surely mean three weeks?" "No, you are too good,
+but I must go back to Teheran." "That is very tiresome, but, however,
+you can think it over."
+
+A servant conducted me to an adjoining building, which was to be mine
+during my stay, and where I made myself at home in a large apartment
+with Persian rugs and black silk divans. Two secretaries were placed at
+my disposal, and servants to carry out my slightest wish. If I desired
+to eat, they would bring in a piece of excellent mutton on a spit, a
+chicken boiled with rice, sour milk, cheese and bread, apricots, grapes,
+and melons, and at the end of the meal coffee and a water-pipe; if I
+wished to drink, a sweet liquor of iced date-juice was served; and if I
+thought of taking a ride in order to see the town and neighbourhood,
+pure-blooded Arab horses stood in the court awaiting me.
+
+Before the house lay a peaceful garden surrounded by a wall, and with
+its paths laid with marble slabs. Here lilacs blossomed, and here I
+could dream the whole day away amidst the perfume of roses. Gold-fishes
+swam in a basin of crystal-clear water, and a tiny jet shot up into the
+air glittering like a spider's web in the sunshine. I slept in this
+enchanting garden at night, and when I awoke in the morning I could
+hardly believe that all was real; it was so like an adventure from the
+_Thousand and one Nights_. My rich host and my secretaries did not
+suspect that I had only sixpence in my pocket.
+
+When the last day came I could no longer conceal my destitute condition.
+"I have something unpleasant to confide to you," I said to one of the
+secretaries. "Indeed," he answered, looking very astonished. "Yes, my
+money has come to an end. My journey has been longer than I expected,
+and now I am quite cleared out." "What does that matter? You can get as
+much money as you like from Agha Hassan."
+
+It had struck midnight when I went to take farewell of my kind host. He
+worked all night during the fasting month. "I am sorry that you cannot
+stay longer," he said. "Yes, I too am sorry that I must leave you, and
+that I can never repay your great kindness to me." "You know that the
+road through the hills is unsafe owing to robbers and footpads. I have
+therefore arranged that you shall accompany the post, which is escorted
+by three soldiers."
+
+Having thanked him once more, I took my leave. A secretary handed me a
+leather purse full of silver. The post rider and the soldiers were
+ready; we mounted, rode slowly through the dark, narrow streets of the
+town, at a smart trot when the houses were scattered, and then at full
+gallop when the desert stretched around us on all sides. We rode 105
+miles in sixteen hours, with three relays of horses and barely an hour's
+rest. We stayed a day at Hamadan, and then rode on to the capital, with
+nine relays of fresh horses. During the last fifty-five hours I never
+went to sleep, but often dozed in the saddle. At length the domes of
+Teheran, its poplars and plane-trees, stood out against the morning sky,
+and, half-dead with weariness, and ragged and torn, I rode through the
+south-western gate of the city.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] At the time of this journey, the railway ended at Vladikavkas. Since
+then, however, it has been extended to Baku along the northern side of
+the Caucasus and the coast of the Caspian (see map, p. 30).
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)
+
+
+ACROSS THE KEVIR
+
+We must now resume the journey to India. You will remember (see p. 33)
+that after arriving at Teheran from Trebizond I made up a caravan
+consisting of six Persians, one Tatar, and fourteen camels. On January 1
+everything is ready. The camels are all laden; thick rugs cover their
+backs to prevent them being rubbed sore by the loads, and the humps
+stick up through two round holes in the cloths in order that they may
+not be crushed and injured.
+
+The largest camels go first. Each has its head adorned with a red
+embroidered headstall, studded with shining plates of metal and red and
+yellow pompons, and a plume waves above its forehead. Round the chest is
+a row of brass sleigh-bells, and one large bell hangs round the neck.
+Two of these bells are like small church bells; they are so big that the
+camels would knock their knees against them if they were hung in the
+usual way, so they are fastened instead to the outer sides of a couple
+of boxes on the top of the loads. The camels are proud of being decked
+so finely; they are conscious of their own importance, and stalk with
+majestic, measured strides through the southern gate of Teheran.
+
+My riding camel is the largest in the caravan (Plate V.). He has thick
+brown wool, unusually long and plentiful on his neck and chest. His
+loads form a small platform between the humps and along his flanks, with
+a hollow in the middle, where I sit as in an armchair, with a leg on
+each side of the front hump. From there I can spy out the land, and with
+the help of a compass put down on my map everything I see--hills, sandy
+zones, and large ravines. Camels put out the two left legs at the same
+time, and then the two right legs. Their gait is therefore rolling, and
+the rider sits as in a small boat pitching and tossing in a broken sea.
+Some people become sea-sick from sitting all day bobbing between the
+humps, but one soon becomes accustomed to the motion. When the animal is
+standing up it is, of course, impossible to mount on his back without a
+ladder, so he has to lie down to let me get on him. But sometimes it
+happens that he is in too great a hurry to rise before I am settled in
+my place, and then I am flung back on to my head, for he lifts himself
+as quickly as a steel spring, first with the hind legs and then with the
+fore. But when I am up I am quite at home. Sometimes, on the march, the
+camel turns his long neck and lays his shaggy head on my knee. I pat his
+nose and stroke him over the eyes. It is impossible to be other than
+good friends with an animal which carries you ten hours a day for
+several months. In the morning he comes up to my tent, pushes his nose
+under the door-flap, and thrusts his shaggy head into the tent, which is
+not large, and is almost filled up when he comes on a visit. After he
+has been given a piece of bread he backs out again and goes away to
+graze.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE V. THE AUTHOR'S RIDING CAMEL, WITH GULAM HUSSEIN.]
+
+The ring of bells is continually in my ears. The large bells beat in
+time with the steps of the camels. Their strides are long and slow, and
+a caravan seldom travels more than twenty miles in a day.
+
+Our road runs south-eastwards. We have soon left behind us the districts
+at the foot of the Elburz Mountains, where irrigation canals from rivers
+are able to produce beautiful gardens and fruitful fields. The farther
+we proceed the smaller and more scattered are the villages. Only along
+their canals is the soil clothed with verdure, and we have scarcely left
+a village before we are out on the greyish-yellow desert, where withered
+steppe shrubs stand at wide intervals apart. Less and less frequently do
+we meet trains of asses bound for Teheran with great bundles of shrubs
+and bushes from the steppe to be used as fuel. The animals are small and
+miserable, and are nearly hidden by their loads. Their nostrils are
+cruelly pierced, so that they may be made to go quicker and keep up
+longer. They look sleepy and dejected, these small, obstinate donkeys
+which never move out of the way. Their long ears flap backwards and
+forwards, and their under-lips hang down like bags.
+
+At the very last village on the edge of the desert we stay two days to
+prepare ourselves for the dangers ahead of us. The headman of the
+village owns ten camels, which he will gladly hire us for a few days;
+they are to carry trusses of straw and water in leathern bags. Our own
+camels are already fully laden, and the hired camels are only to give us
+a start. When they turn back we shall have to shift for ourselves.
+
+After we have left this village not a sign of life is visible. Before us
+to the south-east small isolated hills stand up like islands in the sea,
+and beyond them the horizon of the desert lies as level as that of the
+ocean. Through this great sandy waste the caravans travel from oasis to
+oasis, but in the north there is a tract, called the Kevir, within which
+not the smallest oasis can be found. Not a clump of grass, not even a
+blade, is to be seen, for the desert is saturated with salt, and when it
+rains in winter the briny clay becomes as slippery as ice. And this is
+precisely the place we are making for.
+
+We travelled a whole month before we came to the point where we intended
+to make the attempt to cross the Kevir. Hitherto everything had
+continued in a steady course, and one day had been like another. It was
+winter and we had fully 25 degrees of frost in the night: one day it
+snowed so thickly that the foremost camels in the train were seen only
+as faint shadows. For several days mist lay so dense over the desert
+that we had to trust chiefly to the compass. Sometimes we travelled for
+four or five days without finding a drop of water, but we had all we
+needed in our leathern bags.
+
+At the edge of the sandy desert, where high dunes are piled up by the
+wind, tamarisks and saxauls were often growing. Both are steppe bushes
+which grow to a height of several feet; their stems are hard and
+provided us with excellent fuel. My servants gathered large faggots, and
+the camp fires flamed up brightly and grandly, throwing a yellow light
+over the silent waste.
+
+From a village called Jandak I set out with only two men and four
+camels, but we had to wait for four days on the edge of the salt desert
+because of rain. When rain falls in the Kevir the whole desert soon
+becomes a sea of slippery mud, and camels cannot walk without slipping
+and falling. Whole caravans have perished in this cruel desert by being
+overtaken by rain, and in many other cases the men only have managed to
+escape with the loss of their camels and their merchandise. It was
+therefore fortunate for us that we were overtaken by rain before we were
+out on the slippery clay. We waited till the desert had dried up again,
+and then we joined forces with a caravan which came from the south.
+
+It was pitch dark when we began to move. A fire was set going, and the
+camels were laden by its light. Then we started, the fire disappeared,
+and night and the desert lay before us. Only the ring of bells disturbed
+the silence. We could not see where we were going, but had to trust our
+riding camels. The Persians marched all the morning and most of the day
+without a halt; the strength of both men and camels is strained to the
+uttermost in order to get through the desert before the next rain
+comes--and it may come at any moment.
+
+After a short rest we hasten northwards again, for there is no question
+of halting for the night. The darkness seems interminable, but at length
+it begins to grow light again. Still the Persians do not stop, so there
+is nothing for me to do but to struggle to keep up with them. "Keep
+awake, sir!" shouts Gulam Hussein; "you can sleep when we get to the
+other side." Another day passes, and again we rest awhile to give the
+camels some straw and to drink a cup of tea ourselves. Scarcely have we
+begun to enjoy the rest, however, when the chimes of the bells ring out
+again. The caravan is already on the move, so we pack up and follow in
+its trail.
+
+The sky seems very unpromising, and is clouded all over. The desert is
+as level as a floor; not a mound as high as a kneeling camel. The sun
+sinks in the west. Like a red-hot cannon-ball it shines through a rift
+between dark clouds, and a shaft of dazzling red rays streams over the
+desert, the surface of which shines like a purple sea. To the north the
+sky is of a dark violet colour, and against this background the camels
+stand out brick-red.
+
+The sun sets, the colours grow pale, and the long shadows which the
+camels lately cast far away over the ground fade away. Another night
+rises up from the east. It grows darker and darker, the caravan is lost
+to view, but the bells ring out with a clear resonance. On we go without
+stop or rest. This night is more trying, for we had not a wink of sleep
+the night before.
+
+The clouds break in the zenith, and the moon looks down on our progress.
+The camels are seen again and shadows fall again over the desert. Here
+it is as bare and desolate as on the face of the moon.
+
+At midnight the sky becomes dark once more. The Persians have clambered
+up on to their camels, and the swaying motion soon carries them into the
+land of dreams. Soon no one is awake but the leader, who guides the
+first camel, and myself, who am riding on the last. Suddenly heavy
+drops begin to fall, and in a minute the rain pelts down on camels,
+loads, and sleepers.
+
+In a second the pace of the caravan is changed. Hear how hurriedly and
+anxiously the bells swing and beat! They peal as if to awaken soldiers
+and citizens in a burning town. Now the rain patters down on the level
+desert and the camels begin to slip. We must hasten if our lives are
+dear to us, or the desert will suck us in at the eleventh hour. The men
+shout to urge on the camels. Now the bells clang as though to wake up
+the dead to judgment.
+
+There goes a camel down in the mire. Poor animals, they are lost on such
+ground, for they have not hoofs like horses, but soft callous pads. When
+they slip they do so thoroughly and suddenly. All four legs fly up in
+one direction, and the heavy body with the loads thumps down in the
+other. It is bad enough for the camel, but still worse for his rider. A
+moment before he sat so well packed up, longing for the edge of the
+desert sea, and now he lies sprawling in the slush.
+
+One after another the camels fall and have to be helped up again. All
+this causes delay, and meanwhile the clay is gradually becoming softer.
+At every step the camels sink in deeper, the rain still pelts down, and
+the bells ring jerkily. If they cease to ring, it will be because the
+desert has conquered; at this very moment they stop.
+
+"What is the matter?" I call out.
+
+"We are at the Devil's ditch," answers a voice in the darkness.
+
+The bells ring slowly again as the camels wade one after the other
+through a trench full of salt water. I tighten my knees when my turn
+comes. I cannot see the water, but I hear it spurting and splashing
+round the legs of the camels in front of me. Now my camel slides down a
+nasty mud bank. He slithers and wriggles about to keep himself up, and
+then he, too, tramps through the water and scrambles up the other side.
+
+"Tamarisks," I hear some one shout. Welcome sound! It means that we are
+safe, for nothing grows in the salt desert. When we come to the first
+tamarisks we are again on sandy ground. Then all danger is past, and
+what does it matter if we are dead tired? Two more hours and we reach a
+village. There Gulam Hussein makes ready a chicken and some eggs, and
+then I lie down in a hut and sleep as I have never slept before.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VI. TEBBES.
+
+The tree in the foreground is a huge tamarisk.]
+
+
+THE OASIS OF TEBBES
+
+Any one who has not travelled himself for weeks together through the
+desert can scarcely conceive what it is to come at length to an oasis.
+An oasis is to the desert wanderer what a peaceful island with its
+sheltered anchorage is to mariners. Oases are like stars in the dark
+vault of heaven, like moments of happiness and prosperity in a man's
+life. If you had roamed for two months in the wilderness, like myself
+and my Persians, you would be able to understand our feelings when we at
+last saw the date-palms of Tebbes beckoning to us in the distance (see
+map, p. 73).
+
+A lofty minaret rises above the little town, which is surrounded by a
+wall (Plate VI.). Within are old buildings, mosques, and a fort with
+towers. Outside the town are tilled fields and palm groves.
+
+Spring had come when we pitched our tents on a meadow in the shade of
+thick dark-green palms. There was a rustle and pleasant whisper among
+the hard fronds when the spring storms swept over the country. We were
+tired of the everlasting dull yellow tint of the desert and were
+delighted with the fresh verdure. Outside my tent purled a brook of fine
+cool water, all the more agreeable after the intense drought of the
+desert. A nightingale sang in the crown of the palm above my tent. He
+plays an important part in Persian poetry under the name of _bulbul_.
+
+If you were in some mysterious manner transferred to Tebbes, you would
+on the very first evening wonder what was the curious serenade which you
+heard from the desert. If you sat at the fall of day reading at the door
+of your tent, you would look up from your book and listen. You would
+have an uneasy feeling and be uncomfortable at being alone in the tent.
+But after the same serenade had been repeated every evening as regular
+as the sunset, you would become accustomed to it, and at length trouble
+yourself no more about it.
+
+It is only the jackals singing their evening song. The word "jackal" is
+Persian, and the jackal is allied to the dog, the wolf, and the fox. He
+is a beast of prey and seeks his food at night. He is not large, is
+yellowish-grey in colour, has pointed ears and small, keen eyes, and
+holds his tail erect, not hanging down like the wolf's. Nothing edible
+comes amiss to him, but he prefers chickens and grapes to fallen caravan
+animals. If he can find nothing else, he steals dates in the palm
+gardens, especially when ripe fruits have fallen after heavy storms.
+The jackal is, indeed, a shameless, impudent little rascal. One night a
+pack of jackals sneaked into our garden and carried off our only cock
+under the very noses of the dogs. We were awakened by the noise of a
+terrible struggle between the two forces, but the jackals got the better
+of it and we heard the despairing cackle of the cock dying away in the
+desert.
+
+Heaven knows where the jackals remain as long as the sun is up! In
+zoological text-books it is stated that they dwell in holes, but I could
+see no holes round Tebbes, and yet jackals come in troops to the oasis
+every night. They are as mysterious as the desert; they are found
+everywhere and nowhere.
+
+As soon as the sun sinks below the horizon and the darkness spreads its
+veil over the silent desert, and the palms doze off, waiting for the
+return of the sun, then begins the jackals' serenade. It sounds like a
+short, sharp laugh rising and falling, a plaintive whine increasing in
+strength and dying away again, answered by another pack in another
+direction; a united cry of anguish from children in trouble and calling
+for help. They say to one another, "Comrades, we are hungry, let us seek
+about for food," and gather together from their unknown lairs. Then they
+steal cautiously to the skirts of the oasis, hop over walls and bars and
+thieve on forbidden ground.
+
+These insignificant noisy footpads live on the refuse and offal of the
+desert from Cape Verde in the uttermost west of the Old World to the
+interior of India; but their home is not in the silent desert alone.
+When the military bands strike up at the clubs in Simla, you have only
+to put your head out of the window to hear the mournful, piteous, and
+distressed howl of the jackals.
+
+They are not always to be treated lightly, for in 1882 jackals killed
+359 men in Bengal alone. Especially are they a terrible danger when
+hydrophobia rages among them, as the experiences of the last Boundary
+Commission in Seistan showed. A mad jackal sneaked into the camp one
+night and bit a sleeping man in the face. Within six weeks the man was
+dead. Others stole into the natives' huts and lay in ambush, waiting for
+an opportunity to bite. Perhaps the worst incident occurred on a dark
+winter's night, when a north wind was raging and sweeping the dust along
+the ground. A mad jackal came into the Englishmen's camp and crept into
+a tent where several men were sleeping. Fortunately he only set his
+teeth in a felt rug. This wakened the sleepers, however, and they at
+once started up and looked for weapons. The camp consisted of three
+sections, and more than a hundred tethered camels. In the pitchy
+darkness it was impossible to see where the jackal went, but the camels
+could be heard shrieking with fear, and thus it was only too clear where
+the brute was. When day broke seventy-eight bitten dromedaries were
+counted. They were isolated from the others, and killed as soon as they
+showed signs of sickness, while the dogs and goats which had been bitten
+by the jackal were shot at once.
+
+Twenty years ago I myself had a little adventure with jackals. I was
+riding with a couple of servants and some horses to the Caspian shore
+from the interior of Persia, and encamped one evening at a village in
+the Elburz Mountains. The caravanserai was notorious for its vermin, so
+I preferred to make myself comfortable in a garden with fruit trees and
+poplars, protected by a wall five feet high and without any gates. We
+had to climb over the wall in order to get in. I had a saddle for a
+pillow and lay wrapped in a felt rug and a cloak. The remains of my
+supper, bread, honey, and apples, stood on my two small leather trunks.
+When it grew dark my men went off to the village and I rolled myself up
+and went to sleep.
+
+Two hours later I was awakened by a scratching noise at the trunks and
+sat up to listen, but could hear nothing but the murmur of a small brook
+close at hand. The darkness was intense, only a little starlight passing
+faintly through the foliage. So I went to sleep again. A little later I
+was roused once more by the same noise, and heard a tearing and tugging
+at the straps. Then I jumped up and distinguished half a dozen jackals
+disappearing like shadows among the poplars. There was no more sleep for
+me that night. It was all I could do to keep the importunate beasts at a
+distance. If I kept quiet for a minute they were up again, tearing the
+leathern straps, and would not make off until I struck a box with my
+riding whip. They soon became accustomed even to this and drew back only
+a few steps. Then I remembered the apples, and as soon as the jackals
+crept up again, I threw one of them with all my strength into the ruck,
+and used them as missiles till the last apple had disappeared into the
+darkness. Most of my shots were misses, for I only once heard a howl
+from one of the impudent animals.
+
+The night seemed endless, but at length the day dawned between the
+poplars, and the jackals jumped quietly over the wall. Then I should
+have liked some breakfast, but there was not a bit of the supper left;
+the jackals had taken it all. However, I had a sound sleep instead. I
+heard afterwards that the jackals in that country are so vicious that
+two or three of them will attack a man, so in future I always had my
+servants sleeping near me.
+
+While speaking of jackals we must not forget the hyaena, for this animal
+is one of the denizens of the desert, though it is of another genus. The
+hyaena is a singular animal, neither dog nor cat, but a mixture of both
+and larger than either. It is of a dirty greyish-brown colour with black
+stripes or patches, has a rounded head with black muzzle and eyes, and
+short hind legs, so that the bristly back slopes downwards. It prowls
+about for food at night, and in western Persia comes down from its
+hiding-places in the mountains to the caravan roads in quest of fallen
+asses, horses and camels. If corpses are not buried deep enough it
+scratches them up from beneath the tombstones, for it lives almost
+exclusively on dead and corrupted flesh.
+
+Thus the four-footed inhabitants of the desert prowl around the
+outskirts of Tebbes and share the country with panthers, wild asses and
+graceful elegant gazelles. Tebbes itself lies lonely and forgotten like
+an island in the ocean.
+
+The principal caravan road connecting the oasis with the outer world
+runs north-eastwards to the holy town of Meshed, whither many pilgrims
+flock. From Meshed it is only a few days' journey through a mountainous
+tract to the frontier between Persia and Russian Asia. There lie
+Transcaspia, Samarcand, Bukhara, Turkestan, and the Kirghiz Steppe. This
+road would take us out of our way to India, but while we halt at Tebbes
+I can tell you something about the country it passes through.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+ON THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE (1893-5)
+
+
+INTO ASIA FROM ORENBURG
+
+I started my journey across the Kirghiz Steppe in November, 1893, from
+Orenburg on the Ural River, which for some distance forms the boundary
+between Asia and Europe. I travelled in a stout _tarantass_, the common
+means of conveyance on Russian country roads; it consists of a sort of a
+box on two bars between the wheel axles, with a hood but no seat. The
+bottom is filled with hay, on which are spread a mat, cushions and
+pillows, furs and felt rugs, for the cold is intense. There are
+ninety-nine stages and changes of horses between Orenburg and Tashkent,
+the capital of Russian Turkestan. At the post-houses nothing can be got
+but tea, so provisions for nineteen days had to be taken with us, as
+well as sawn wood, rope and tools in case anything should break, and a
+large pot of cart-grease to keep the wheels cool. My boxes and trunks
+are wrapped in bast-matting and secured with strong ropes to the
+driver's box and behind the _tarantass_. It takes time to get everything
+ready, and it is late in the afternoon before the first team of three
+post-horses is led out and harnessed to the vehicle. I take my largest
+fur coat and pack myself in among the cushions and felt rugs. The
+carriage is open in front and the whirling snow which sweeps round the
+corners flies straight into my face. The driver takes his seat on the
+box, shouts shrilly and cracks his whip, and we dash along the streets
+of Orenburg in the snow and twilight to the lively jingle of the bells.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM ORENBURG TO THE PAMIR (pp. 55-71).]
+
+The lights come to an end and the night is intensely dark when we come
+out to the high-road leading into Asia. The bells worn by the middle
+horse on a necklace round his neck ring in frequent beats. This horse
+always goes at a trot, being harnessed between the shafts with a high
+wooden arch above his neck, but the two outside horses go at a canter.
+The horses are accustomed to this pace and action, and a rapidly moving
+team is a fine sight. After three hours a yellow light is seen through
+the swirling snow, and the team dashes into a yard and comes to a halt
+at the steps of a house. As I have been already tossed about a good
+deal, I am glad to jump out and get a glass of tea. The horses are
+taken into the stable, and a fresh team is led out to take their place
+in the still warm harness.
+
+The _samovar_, or Russian tea-urn, is boiling in the great room. While I
+am drinking my first glass of tea the stamping and rattle is heard of
+two other teams which roll into the yard. It is the post; and the
+courier enters covered with snow and with icicles on his beard. He is a
+good fellow, and we become acquainted at once and travel together to
+Orsk. He has travelled for twenty years with the mails between the two
+towns and must have covered altogether a distance as far as from the
+earth to the moon and six thousand miles besides.
+
+My new driver now appears and calls out "The _troika_[8] is ready." Then
+I pack myself in again among the cushions and rugs and off we speed once
+more through the darkness and snow.
+
+After forty-eight hours we are in Orsk, which also stands on the Ural
+River; and when we leave this town with fresh horses and steer
+southwards we are on Asiatic ground, in the vast Kirghiz Steppe, which
+extends from Irkutsk to the Caspian Sea, from the Ural River to the
+Syr-darya.[9] It is extremely flat and looks like a frozen sea. Day
+after day we drive southwards, the horses ready to run away; there is
+nothing to drive over, no ditches to fall into, no stones to carry away
+a wheel. The hoofs hammer on the hard ground, the wheels creak, I and my
+things are shaken and thrown about in the carriage, the coachman plants
+his feet firmly against the foot-board lest he should tumble off, and on
+we go over the flat dreary steppe. As we drive on day and night the
+_tarantass_ seems always to be in the centre of the same unbroken
+landscape, always at the same distance from the horizon.
+
+Here live the Kirghizes, a fine race of graziers and horsemen. They
+support themselves by their large flocks of sheep, and also own numerous
+horses and camels, as well as cattle. Therefore they are dependent on
+the grass of the steppe, and wander like other nomads from pasture to
+pasture. When their flocks have eaten up the grass at one place, they
+roll up their black tents, pack all their belongings on camels and
+migrate to another spot. They are a freeborn, manly people and love the
+boundless steppe. Life in the open air and on the level country, which
+affords grazing to their flocks, has sharpened their intellect to a
+wonderful degree. They never forget a place they have once seen. If the
+steppe plants grow closer or thinner, if the ground shows the slightest
+inequality, if there is grey or black gravel of different
+coarseness--all these details serve as marks of recognition. When we
+rest a minute halfway between two post-houses to let the horses breathe,
+the Kirghiz driver turns round and says, "Yonder rides a Kirghiz on a
+dappled mare." Yet on directing my field-glass towards the indicated
+spot, I can only see a small dot, and cannot distinguish what it is.
+
+The stations on our road are usually small solid wooden houses with two
+lamp-posts at the door and a white board, on which are written the
+distances to the next stations in each direction. In some places there
+is no house at all but only a black Kirghiz tent, and instead of a
+stable fences of sticks and reeds afford the horses shelter. At one such
+station three camels are harnessed to the _tarantass_, and the clumsy
+animals waddle along so that their humps bob and roll on their backs.
+The reason for this change is that we are now on the shore of the Sea of
+Aral, where the soft yielding drifts make it impossible for horses to
+draw the _tarantass_. The two rivers, the Syr-darya (or Jaxartes) and
+the Amu-darya (or Oxus), which rise in the Pamir, flow into the Sea of
+Aral. The Cossacks carry on a profitable sturgeon fishery in this lake,
+which in area is not very much smaller than Scotland, and contains a
+great number of small islands--whence its name, for the word _aral_
+means "island."
+
+With fresh horses we speed along the bank of the Syr-darya. Here grow
+small woods and thickets where tigers stalk their prey, and in the dense
+reed beds wild boars dig up roots. The shy gazelles like the open
+country, hares spring over the shrubs, ducks and geese quack on the
+banks, and flocks of pheasants lure the traveller to sport. The setting
+sun sheds a gleam of fiery red over the steppe, and as it grows dim the
+stars begin to twinkle. The monotonous ring of the bells and the shouts
+of the driver never cease, whether we are near the river or far off in
+the dreary steppe. The ground becomes soft and swampy. The wheels cut
+like knives into the mud. We move more and more slowly and heavily, and
+at last stick fast in the mire. The driver shouts and scolds, and cracks
+his whip over the team. The middle horse rears, one of the outside
+horses jibs and the other gathers himself together for a spring which
+makes the traces break with a loud report. Then the driver jumps down
+and says, "You must wait here, sir, while I ride back for two more
+horses." And he trots off in the darkness. After waiting about two hours
+I hear the tramp of horses in the distance. Now the team is made ready,
+the two extra horses are attached in front, the coachman takes his place
+on the box, and with united strength our animals drag the heavy vehicle
+up out of the slough. We roll and jolt on again with lumps of wet clay
+dropping and splashing round the wheels.
+
+
+SAMARCAND AND BUKHARA
+
+Russian Central Asia has ten million inhabitants and an area twelve
+times as large as the British Isles. The part which is called Turkestan
+extends between Eastern Turkestan and the Caspian Sea, the Kirghiz
+Steppe, Afghanistan, and Persia. The greater part is occupied by blown
+sand, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand." Right through the desert flow
+the two rivers, the Syr-darya and Amu-darya. Two railway lines cross
+Turkestan, one from the Kirghiz Steppe to Tashkent, the other from the
+Caspian Sea to Tashkent and Ferghana. Ferghana is the most fruitful part
+of Turkestan and lies between mountains in its eastern portion.
+
+Tashkent, the capital of Turkestan, has 200,000 inhabitants, and is the
+headquarters of the governor-general. South-west of Tashkent is the
+district of Samarcand, with a capital of the same name. South-west of
+Samarcand again, on the north of the Amu-darya, stretches a country
+called Bukhara, ruled by an Emir, a prince under the supremacy of
+Russia.
+
+Close to the Caspian Sea, on the east, there is a large area of country
+called Transcaspia. Central Asia was conquered by Russia forty-five
+years ago, Transcaspia thirty years ago. Transcaspia is inhabited by
+Turkomans, a powerful and warlike people, who in former times used to
+make raids into northern Persia, carrying off men and women, whom they
+sold as slaves in the markets of Bukhara and Samarcand. General
+Skobeleff put a check to their domination when he invaded the country in
+1880. In order to convey troops and war material into the country a
+railway was laid down through the desert. It runs from one oasis to
+another, and hardy desert shrubs were planted or upright palings erected
+to protect the line from the drifting sand.
+
+When the Turkomans were attacked by the Russians, they withdrew within
+the walls of the large fortress which is called "The Green Hill." They
+numbered about 45,000 in all--men, women and children--and they
+believed that the fortress was impregnable. The Russian general,
+Skobeleff, had a mine carried under the wall. Inside the fortress the
+Turkomans heard the soldiers working underground with picks and
+crowbars, but did not understand what was intended. They supposed that
+the soldiers would crawl up out of a hole one after another and
+therefore they assembled with shining weapons above the place of danger.
+Consequently when the mine exploded a large number of unfortunates were
+killed, and the enemy stormed in over the ruins of the wall.
+
+A fearful massacre followed of all those who did not seek safety in
+flight. The Persian slaves and some thousands of women were spared.
+Twenty thousand bodies lay in heaps within and without the fortress. The
+Turkomans will never forget that day. The cavalry band played at the
+head of the columns during the fight. Old Turkomans still remember the
+strains. They cannot hear regimental bands without weeping for some
+relative who fell at "The Green Hill." Here was the death-bed of their
+freedom and they were swallowed up by mighty Russia.
+
+I have crossed Turkestan many times by rail, in _tarantass_, and on
+horseback. I have strolled for weeks through the narrow picturesque
+streets and the gloomy bazaars of the old town called Bukhara, the
+"Blessed." There silk is produced and carpets are woven; great caravans
+pass by laden with cotton; disfigured by sores, lepers sit begging in
+front of the mosques; mulberry trees raise their crowns above artificial
+ponds. From the summit of a tall minaret criminals used to be thrown
+down to be dashed to pieces on the street.
+
+Sixty years ago there ruled in Bukhara a cruel Emir who took a delight
+in torturing human beings. A mechanician from Italy fell into his
+clutches and was sentenced to death. The Italian promised that if his
+life were spared he would construct a machine wherewith the Emir could
+measure the flight of time. His prayer was granted and he made an
+ordinary clock. This called forth the Emir's astonishment and
+admiration, and the Italian lived in high favour for a time. Later on,
+however, the tyrant wished to force him to embrace Islamism, but he
+steadfastly refused. At that time there was in Bukhara a cave called
+"the bugs' hole," and into this the unfortunate man was thrown to be
+eaten up by vermin. Seventy years ago two Englishmen languished in this
+abominable place.
+
+There are towns in Asia with names which impress us as soon as we hear
+them, like Jerusalem, Mecca, Benares, Lhasa. Samarcand is one of these.
+It is not a place of pilgrimage, but it is an ancient town and famous
+among the Mohammedans of Asia. It was already in existence when
+Alexander the Great conquered Central Asia. Since then vast swarms of
+men and migrations of peoples have swept over this region. The Arabs
+have subdued it, countless hordes of Mongols have passed through it
+pillaging and devastating, and now at last it lies under the sceptre of
+the Tsar. Samarcand attained the height of its splendour during the rule
+of the powerful Timur. When he died in the year 1405 he had conquered
+all Central Asia, Persia, Mesopotamia, South Russia, Turkey, India and
+many other countries. This Timur the Lame was not only a great general
+but a man of culture, for he loved art and science, and listened
+willingly to the songs of the poets. He built his own mausoleum, which
+still rears its melon-shaped dome above Samarcand, and had carved in
+raised letters on a marble tablet the words: "If I still lived, mankind
+would tremble."
+
+Timur had a wife, Bibi, whom he dearly loved. She expressed a wish that
+her coffin should not be buried but should remain above ground, and
+therefore Timur caused to be erected the handsome mosque-tomb which
+still bears her name. When it was finished the Queen went, attended by
+her slaves, to inspect her last resting-place. A poisonous snake crept
+from under an arch. Those present wished to kill it, but the Queen
+forbade them and caressed the snake, which offered her no harm. When at
+length she died she was decked with all her jewels--costly pearls,
+necklaces, and gold bangles--and her coffin was placed in the vault. One
+night thieves broke into the tomb, opened the coffin and took all the
+Queen's ornaments; but when they were sneaking off with their booty the
+snake crept out and bit them so that they died immediately.
+
+The great market-place of Samarcand is one of the finest squares I have
+seen in Asia. There carts and caravans swarm, there fruit sellers and
+pitcher-makers take their stand, there dancing dervishes beg for alms.
+On all four sides stand stately buildings erected by Timur and his
+successors. Their facades, cupolas and minarets are covered with blue
+faience, burned and glazed tiles in varied patterns and texts from the
+holy book of Islam, the Koran. It is worth while to ascend one of the
+lofty minarets to take a look over Samarcand. Hence we see innumerable
+gray mud houses with courts in the centre, pools, canals and gardens,
+and in the maze of streets, squares and lanes moves a stream of people
+of Turkish and Persian race. The dark-blue cupolas stand out against the
+light-blue sky, and are surrounded by luxuriant dark-green vegetation.
+In autumn the gardens assume a bright yellow tint. In winter the whole
+country is often buried in snow, and only the bright blue cupolas rise
+above the whiteness. Samarcand is the "blue" town, just as Jaipur in
+India is the "pink" town.
+
+
+THE PAMIR
+
+To the south-east of Samarcand stand the huge highlands of the Pamir,
+called by its inhabitants the "Roof of the World," for it seems to them
+to rise like a roof above all the rest of the earth. From this great
+centre run the lofty mountain ranges of the earth, the Himalayas, the
+Trans-himalaya, Karakorum, Kuen-lun, and the Tien-shan on the east, the
+Hindu-Kush on the west. If you examine the map you will see that most of
+the ranges of Asia and Europe, and the most important, are connected
+with it. The Tibetan ranges extend far into China and beyond the Indian
+peninsula. The Tien-shan is only the first link in a series of mountains
+which stretch north-eastwards throughout Asia. The continuation of the
+Hindu-Kush is found in the mountains of northern Persia, in the Caucasus
+and the chains of Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, the Alps and
+Pyrenees. The Pamir is like the body of a cuttlefish, which throws out
+arms in all directions. The Pamir and all the huge mountain ranges which
+have their roots in this ganglion are the skeleton of Asia, the
+framework round which the lowlands cling like masses of muscle. Rivers,
+streams, brooks, and rivulets, are the arteries and capillaries of the
+Asiatic body. The deserts of the interior are the sickly consumptive
+parts of the body where vitality is low, while the peninsulas are the
+limbs which facilitate communication between different peoples across
+the intervening seas.
+
+In the month of February, 1894, I was at Margelan, which is the capital
+of Ferghana, the granary of Central Asia, a rich and fruitful valley
+begirt on all sides by mountains. I had got together a small reliable
+caravan of eleven horses and three men, one of them being Islam Bay, who
+was afterwards to serve me faithfully for many years. We did not need
+to take tents with us, for the Governor gave orders to the Kirghizes,
+to set up two of their black felt tents wherever I wished to pass the
+night. We had a good supply of provisions in our boxes, straw and barley
+in sacks, and steel spades, axes, and alpenstocks, for we had to travel
+through deep snow, and over smooth, slippery ice. We forgot to procure a
+dog, but one came to us on the way, begging to be allowed to follow us.
+
+We march southwards up on to the Pamir, following a narrow valley where
+a foaming stream tumbles over ice-draped boulders. We cross it by
+narrow, shaking bridges of timber which look like matches when we gaze
+down on them in the valley bottom from the slopes above. It thaws in the
+sun, but freezes at night, and our path is like a channel of ice running
+along the edge of a vertical precipice. We have several Kirghizes with
+us to give assistance. One of them leads the first horse, which carries
+two large sacks of straw with my tent bed between them. The horse is
+shod and can keep his feet on ice, but at one place the path slopes to
+the edge. The horse stumbles, tries in vain to recover his foothold,
+rolls over the edge, falls into the chasm, and breaks his back on the
+bank of the river. The straw is scattered among the stones, my bed
+dances along the stream, and all the men rush down to save what they
+can.
+
+Now steps are cut in the ice and the path is strewn with sand. The
+higher we go the worse the travelling. A Kirghiz leads each horse by the
+bridle, while another holds on to his tail to help him if he stumbles.
+To ride is impossible; we crawl along on hands and feet. Darkness
+follows twilight; the rushing water of the stream gives forth a sound of
+metallic clearness. We have been travelling more than twelve hours when
+at last the valley opens, and we see blazing camp fires in front of
+Kirghiz tents.
+
+We mount higher day after day. We cross a pass, and at this giddy height
+I experience the unpleasant feelings of mountain sickness--splitting
+headache, nausea, and singing in the ears. On the further side one of
+the affluents of the Amu-darya flows westwards. This valley, the Alai,
+is broad and open, but full of snow in winter. We make our entry into
+the Alai valley in a howling snowstorm and wade and plunge through
+drifts. Two Kirghizes go in front with sticks to mark out the way, in
+order that the horses may not sink in the snow. Our little caravan moves
+slowly and painfully. One day the snow is so deep that we have to hire
+four camels, which are led in front of the caravan to tramp out a
+narrow path for the horses. Everything is white, sky and earth run into
+one another, and there is nothing black to be seen but the men, camels,
+and horses.
+
+At every camp we find excellent felt tents set up in readiness for us.
+Once we had only a short distance to go before reaching camp when we
+were stopped by a trench filled with snow ten feet deep. The first horse
+disappeared in a moment as though he had fallen through a trap-door. His
+load was taken off, and he was pulled up with ropes. Then the Kirghizes
+thought of a grand way of getting over the treacherous snow. They took
+the felt covers of the tent and spread them over the snow and led the
+horses one by one over this yielding bridge.
+
+All this journey we waded and plunged through snowdrifts. One day I sent
+a horseman on in front to examine the road, and only the horse's head
+and the rider could be seen above the snow. Another time there was no
+Kirghiz tent as usual, and we bivouacked round a fire behind a wall of
+snow in a temperature of 29 deg. below freezing-point. The Kirghizes who
+should have furnished us with a tent had been delayed on a pass by an
+avalanche of snow which overwhelmed forty sheep. Six men had struggled
+on to meet us, but two had stuck fast and were abandoned in the snow. Of
+the four who arrived in a sorry condition, one had his foot frozen and
+another had become snow-blind. The Kirghizes usually protect their eyes
+by a long lock of horse-hair hanging down over the forehead from beneath
+the cap, or blacken the eye cavities and nose with charcoal.
+
+Wolves swarm in these mountains, and we often saw the spoor of these
+blood-thirsty robbers. Hunger makes them very daring, and they do great
+damage to the flocks of the Kirghizes, as they will kill even when they
+do not wish to eat. A single wolf had recently worried 180 sheep
+belonging to a Kirghiz. A travelling Kirghiz was attacked in this
+neighbourhood by a pack of wolves, and when the body was found a couple
+of days later only the skull and skeleton were left. Another Kirghiz,
+who was mounted, was attacked and killed, horse and all. Two of my
+guides had fallen in with twelve wolves the winter before, but
+fortunately they were armed and killed two of them, which were at once
+devoured by their comrades.
+
+It is not difficult to imagine the terrible plight of an unarmed Kirghiz
+attacked by wolves. They track him by scent and pursue him. Their
+wicked eyes glow with fury and blood-thirstiness. They wrinkle up their
+upper lips to leave their fangs exposed. Their dripping tongues hang out
+of their jaws. The traveller hears their sneaking steps behind him, and
+turning round can distinguish in the dusk their grey coats against the
+white snow. He grows cold with fright, and putting up a prayer to Allah,
+springs and dashes through the drifts in the hope of reaching the
+nearest village of tents.
+
+Every now and again the wolves halt and utter their awful prolonged
+howl, but in an instant they are after the man again. Every minute they
+become bolder. The man flies for his life. They know that he cannot hold
+out long. Now they catch hold of a corner of his fur coat, but let go
+when he throws his cap at them. They pounce upon it and tear it in
+pieces. This only whets their appetites. The poor man staggers on until
+he can hardly put one foot before another, and is almost at his last
+gasp. This is the moment, and the wolves throw themselves upon him from
+all sides. He screams, and fights with his hands; he draws out his knife
+and stabs into the pack in front of him, but a large wolf springs upon
+him from behind and brings him to the ground. There he has at any rate
+his back protected, but the eyes and teeth of the wolves gleam above him
+in the darkness, and he stabs at them with his knife. They know that he
+will tire of this game soon. Two wolves tear open his boots to get at
+his feet. He cannot reach them with his knife, so he sits up, and at the
+same moment the leader seizes him by the neck so that the blood spurts
+out over the white snow. The wolves have now tasted blood and nothing
+can restrain them. The man is beside himself and throws himself about
+thrusting desperately with his knife. The wolves attack him from behind
+and he falls again on his back. Now his knife moves more slowly. The
+wolves yelp, bark and pant, and the froth hangs round their teeth. The
+unfortunate man's eyes grow dim and he closes them, consciousness leaves
+him and he drops the knife from his hand, and the largest wolf is about
+to plunge his fangs into his throat. But suddenly the leader stops and
+utters a short bark, which in wolf's language is equivalent to an oath,
+for at the foot of an adjacent hill are seen two mounted Kirghizes, who
+have come out to seek their comrade. The wolves disappear like magic.
+The poor man lies quite motionless in his tattered furs, and the snow
+around is stained red with blood. He is unconscious, but is still
+breathing and his heart beats. His friends bind up his wounds with
+their girdles and carry him on the back of a horse to the tent, where he
+soon comes back to life beside the flames of the evening fire.
+
+Of course the Kirghiz must hate wolves. But the animals are cunning and
+seldom expose themselves to gunshot. Woe to the wolf that is wounded or
+caught! He is not killed, but the most cruel tortures are devised for
+him.
+
+When heavy winter snow falls in the Alai valley, the wolves return to
+the higher wilds of the Pamir where the snow lies less deep, and here
+they chase the wild sheep, _Ovis Poli_, as it is named after its
+discoverer, Marco Polo. It has large, round, elegantly curved horns and
+is somewhat larger than the wild sheep of Tibet. The wolves chase Marco
+Polo's sheep by a cunningly devised method. They hunt up a herd and
+single out some less cautious or less quick-footed member. This animal
+is forced by a watch posted ready beforehand to take refuge on a
+projecting rock which is surrounded by wolves. If they can get up to the
+sheep they take him easily, but if not, they wait till his legs give way
+with weariness and he falls into the jaws of his pursuers.
+
+Many a time I have met wolves in various parts of Asia, and many sheep,
+mules, and horses of mine have they destroyed. How often has their
+dismal howl sounded outside my tent, as though they were calling for my
+flesh and blood!
+
+We had ridden 300 miles when we came to a small Russian frontier fort
+which rears its simple walls on the middle of the "Roof of the World,"
+beside one of the headwaters of the Amu-darya. On the other side of the
+frontier lies the Eastern Pamir, in the dominion of the Emperor of
+China.
+
+
+"THE FATHER OF ICE-MOUNTAINS"
+
+Wherever one may be in the Eastern Pamir one sees the Mus-tagh-ata, the
+"Father of Ice-Mountains," rear its rounded summit above all the other
+peaks (see map, p. 56). Its height is 25,800 feet, and accordingly it is
+one of the loftiest mountains in the world. On its arched crest snow
+collects, and its under layers are converted by pressure into ice. The
+mountain is therefore crowned by a snow-covered ice-cap. Where there are
+flat hollows round the summit, in these also snow is piled up as in
+bowls. It glides slowly down with its own weight, and by pressure from
+above is here also converted into ice. Thus are produced great tongues
+of ice, which move downwards exceedingly slowly, perhaps only a few
+yards in the year. They are enclosed between huge steep ridges, from
+which time after time gravel and blocks of stone fall down on to the ice
+and are carried down to lower levels. The further the ice descends the
+warmer becomes the air, and then the ice melts in the sun. As it melts
+below, the stream of ice is forced down from above, so that its lowest
+margin is always to be found in the same place. The gravel and boulders
+are brought down thither and piled up together so as to form great
+mounds and ridges, which are called moraines. The ice-stream itself is
+called a glacier. Many such tongues of ice fringe Mus-tagh-ata on all
+sides. They are several miles long and half a mile to a mile broad. The
+surface is very uneven and consists of innumerable knobs and pyramids of
+clear ice.
+
+I made several excursions on the glaciers of Mus-tagh-ata on foot or on
+yaks. One must be well shod so as not to slip, and one must look out for
+crevasses. Once we were stopped by a crevasse several yards broad and
+forty-five feet deep. When we stooped over the brim and looked down, it
+had the appearance of a dark-blue grotto with walls of polished glass,
+and long icicles hung down from the edges. Streamlets of melted ice run
+over the surface of the glacier, sometimes flowing quietly and gently as
+oil in the greenish-blue ice channels, sometimes murmuring in lively
+leaps. The water can be heard trickling and bubbling at the bottom of
+the crevasses, and the surface brooks often form fine waterfalls which
+disappear into chasms of ice. On warm days when the sun shines, thawing
+proceeds everywhere, and the water trickles, bubbles, and runs all about
+the ice. But if the weather is dull, cold, and raw, the glaciers are
+quieter, and when winter comes with its severe cold they are quite hard
+and still, and the brooks freeze into ice.
+
+The yaks of the Kirghizes are wonderfully sure-footed, and one can ride
+on them over slippery hillocky ice where a man could not possibly walk.
+The yak thrusts down his hoofs so that the white powdered ice spurts up
+around him, and if the slope is so steep that he cannot get foothold, he
+stretches out all four legs and holds them stiff and rigid as iron and
+thus slides down without tumbling. Sometimes I rode over moraine heaps
+of huge granite blocks piled one upon another. Then I had to take a firm
+grip with my knees, for the yak springs and jumps about like a lunatic.
+
+Accompanied by specially selected Kirghizes, I tried four times to climb
+to the top of the "Father of Ice-Mountains," but always without success.
+Our camp was pitched high up among the moraines. Islam Bay, six
+Kirghizes, and ten yaks were in readiness before sunrise, and we took
+with us ample provisions, fur coats, spades and alpenstocks, food and a
+tent. At first we climbed up over gravel, and then over snow which
+became deeper the higher we went. As the air became rarer, respiration
+was more difficult, and even the yaks halted frequently to recover their
+breath. The Kirghizes walked on foot and urged the animals up towards
+the giddy heights. It took us the whole day to reach a point 20,700 feet
+above sea-level. At this point we halted for the night, intending to
+push on higher in the morning, but two of the Kirghizes were so overcome
+with weariness and headaches that they asked to be allowed to go down
+again. The others shovelled away the snow and pitched the little tent
+within a wall of snow. A fire was kindled and the tea-kettle put on, but
+our appetites were poor, as we were suffering from mountain sickness.
+The ten yaks stood tethered in the snow outside, and the Kirghizes
+curled themselves up in their skin coats like hedgehogs. The full moon
+soared like a silvery white balloon just above the top of the mountain,
+and I left the tent to enjoy this never-to-be-forgotten spectacle. The
+glacier below us lay in shadow in its deep bed, but the snow-fields were
+dazzling white. The yaks stood out jet black against the snow, their
+nostrils steaming, and the snow crunching under them. Light white clouds
+floated rapidly from the mountain under the moon. At last I returned to
+the tent. The fire had died down, and the recently melted snow had
+frozen into ice. There was a smell of damp and smoke inside, and the men
+groaned and complained of headache and singing in the ears. I crawled
+under my furs, but could not sleep. The night was quiet, but at times a
+dull report was heard when a crevasse was formed in the ice or a boulder
+fell from the mountain-side.
+
+When I crawled out from under my furs in the morning, a violent
+snowstorm was sweeping along the flanks of the mountain. Through the
+dense cloud of whirling snow we could not see our way, and it would have
+been death to mount to still higher regions. We might be glad if we
+could struggle down again alive in such weather, so down we started
+through the drifts, down headlong. We all needed a thorough rest after
+this experience.
+
+On another occasion we had a perilous adventure on the rounded ice-cap
+of Mus-tagh-ata. We were marching upwards as usual, suspecting no
+danger, when the foremost yak, which carried two large bundles of fuel,
+suddenly sank through the snow and disappeared. Fortunately he was held
+fast by his horns, a hind leg, and the faggots, and there he hung
+suspended over a dark yawning chasm. The snow had formed a treacherous
+bridge over a large crevasse in the ice, and this bridge gave way under
+the weight of the yak. We had all the trouble in the world to haul him
+up again with ropes.
+
+
+A KIRGHIZ GYMKHANA
+
+At the foot of Mus-tagh-ata there is a level and extensive valley, where
+grass thrives luxuriantly. The black tents of the Kirghizes stand
+scattered about like spots on a panther's skin. I hired one of these
+tents for the summer of 1904, and spent several very interesting months
+in studying the habits and mode of life of the people. If the weather
+was fine, I made long excursions on horseback or on a yak, and compiled
+a map of the surrounding country. If rain poured down, I kept inside my
+own tent, or visited my Kirghiz neighbours and talked with them, for by
+that time I had learned to speak their language.
+
+Round the large hive-shaped tents fierce dogs keep watch, and small
+naked sunburnt children tumble about in play. They are charmingly sweet,
+and it is hard to believe that they will grow up into tall rough
+half-wild Kirghizes. But all children are attractive and lovable before
+life and mankind have hardened them. In the tent sit the young women,
+spinning thread or weaving cloth; the older women are busy with the sour
+milk and butter behind a partition in the tent, or perhaps they are
+sitting round a pot, cooking meat. A fire is always burning in the
+middle of the tent, and the smoke finds its way out through a round
+opening in the top. The young men are out with the sheep or are looking
+after the yaks grazing in the mountains. The older men repair saddles
+and boots, make harness for horses or household utensils. Sometimes they
+go hunting after wild sheep and goats. When the sun sets the sheep are
+driven into folds near the tent; the women milk the ewes and yak-cows.
+During the night a watch is kept on account of the wolves. The Kirghizes
+are Mohammedans, and are often heard intoning Arabic prayers outside the
+tents.
+
+Not many days had passed before I was on friendly terms with all the
+Kirghizes. They perceived that I wished them well, and was glad to live
+among them. They came from far and near and gave me presents--sheep and
+milk, wild sheep they had shot, and mountain partridges. All my servants
+except Islam Bay were Kirghizes, and they followed me willingly wherever
+I chose to travel.
+
+One day the chiefs of the Kirghizes decided to hold a grand festival in
+my honour. It was to be a _baiga_, or gymkhana, and early in the morning
+small parties of horsemen were seen gathering to the great plain where
+the wild sport was to take place.
+
+When the sun was at its height I was escorted to the arena by forty-two
+Kirghizes, who rode beside and behind me. In their best clothes,
+coloured mantles with girdles and embroidered caps, and with their
+daggers and knives, fire steel, pipe and tobacco box rattling at their
+sides, they presented a stately and festal appearance. Among them might
+be noticed the chief of the Kirghizes who lived on the eastern side of
+Mus-tagh-ata. His long mantle was dark blue, his girdle light blue; on
+his head he had a violet cap with a gold border, and at his side dangled
+a scimitar in a black scabbard. The chief himself was tall, with a thin
+black beard, scanty moustaches, small oblique eyes and high cheek bones,
+like most Kirghizes.
+
+The plain in front of us was black with horsemen and horses; there was
+bustle, neighing, and stamping on all sides. Here the high chief, Khoat
+Bek, a hundred and eleven years old, sits firmly and surely in his
+saddle, though bent by the weight of years. His large aquiline nose
+points down to his short white beard, and on his head he wears a brown
+turban. He is surrounded by five sons, also grey-bearded old men,
+mounted on tall horses.
+
+Now the performance began. The spectators rode to one side, leaving an
+open space in front of us. A horseman dashed forward with a goat in his
+arms, dismounted, and let the poor animal loose near to us. Another
+Kirghiz seized the goat by the horn with his left hand, cut off its head
+with a single blow of his sharp knife, allowed the blood to flow, and
+then took the goat by the hind legs and rode at full speed round the
+plain. A troop of riders appeared in the distance and drew near at a
+furious pace. The hoofs of eighty horses beat the ground and the
+deafening noise was mingled with wild cries and the rattle of stirrup
+irons. They rushed swiftly past us in a cloud of dust, making a current
+of air like a storm of wind. The first rider threw the dead goat, which
+was still warm, in front of me, and then they whirled off like thunder
+over the plain.
+
+"Ride back a little, sir," called out some chiefs, "there will be wild
+work now." We had hardly time to draw back far enough before the excited
+troop came rushing along, with their horses in a lather, like an
+avalanche from the mountains. Round the goat there was an inextricable
+confusion of men and horses, only partially visible in the dust. They
+were struggling for the goat, and the one who gets it is the winner.
+They crush together and tear and push; horses shy, rear, or fall down,
+while other horses leap over them. Holding on to their saddles the
+horsemen bend down towards the ground and feel for the hide. Some have
+fallen off and are in danger of being tramped upon, while others are
+hanging half under their horses.
+
+Still worse becomes the tumult when a couple of men on yaks push
+themselves into the scrimmage. The yaks prod the horses' loins with
+their horns. The horses are irritated and kick, and the yaks defend
+themselves; then there is a perfect bullfight in full swing.
+
+A strong fellow has now succeeded in getting a firm hold of the goat.
+His horse knows what to do, and backs with his rider out of the
+scrimmage and flies swiftly as the wind in a wide course round the
+plain. The others pursue him, and as they turn back they look as if they
+mean to ride over us with irresistible force. At the last moment,
+however, the horses stop as if turned to stone; and then the struggle
+begins again. Many have their faces covered with blood, others have
+their clothes torn, caps and whips lie scattered over the arena, and one
+or two horses are lamed.
+
+"It is very well for us who are old that we are not in the crush," I
+said to Khoat Bek.
+
+"Ah, it is nearly a hundred years ago since I was as old as you are
+now," the old man answered with a smile.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] A team of three horses abreast.
+
+[9] The word "darya" means "river."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+FROM PERSIA TO INDIA (1906)
+
+
+TEBBES TO SEISTAN
+
+Now we can return to Tebbes and continue our journey to India.
+
+The camels are laden, we mount, the bells ring again, and our caravan
+travels through the desert for days and weeks towards the south-east. At
+length we come to the shore of a large lake called the Hamun, which lies
+on the frontier between Persia and Afghanistan. The Amu-darya forms the
+boundary between Bukhara and Afghanistan, the northern half of which is
+occupied by the Hindu-kush mountains. The name means "slaughterer of
+Hindus," because Hindus who venture up among the mountains after the
+heat of India have every prospect of being frozen to death in the
+eternal snow. Large quantities of winter snow are melted in spring, and
+then rivers and streams pour through the valleys to collect on the
+plains of southern Afghanistan into a large river called the Hilmend,
+which flows into the Hamun. As there are no proper boats or ferries on
+the lake, we had here to take farewell of the camels who had served us
+so faithfully and had carried us and our belongings through such long
+stretches of desert. We were sorry to part with them, but there was
+nothing for it but to sell them to the only dealer who would take them
+off our hands.
+
+Reeds and rushes grow in abundance along the flat shores of the Hamun,
+but no trees. The natives build their huts of reeds, and also a curious
+kind of boat. Handfuls of dry, yellow reeds of last year's growth are
+tied together into cigar-shaped bundles, and then a number of such
+bundles are bound together into a torpedo-like vessel several yards
+long. When laden this reed boat floats barely four inches above the
+water, but it can never be filled and made to sink by the waves. It is
+true that the bundles of reeds might be loosened and torn apart by a
+high sea, but the natives take good care not to go out in bad weather.
+
+It took fourteen of these reed boats to accommodate our party and its
+belongings. A half-naked Persian stood at the stern of each boat and
+pushed the vessel along by means of a long pole, for the lake though
+twelve miles broad is only five or six feet deep. A fresh breeze skimmed
+the surface when we came out of the reeds into the open lake, and it was
+very refreshing after weeks of the dry oppressive heat of the desert.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM TEHERAN TO BALUCHISTAN
+(pp. 46-54 and 72-81).]
+
+After crossing the Hamun we had not more than a couple of hours' ride to
+the capital of Seistan, Nasretabad. Five months before us another guest
+had arrived, the plague; and just at the time the black angel of death
+was going about in search of victims. He took the peasant from the
+plough and the shepherd from his flock; and the fisherman, who in the
+morning had gone cheerily to set his nets in the waters of the Hamun, in
+the evening lay groaning in his hut with a burning fever.
+
+Asia is the birth-place of the ruling peoples, the Aryans, and of the
+yellow race; it is the cradle of the great religions, Buddhism,
+Christianity, and Mohammedanism; and it is also the breeding-place of
+fearful epidemic diseases which from time to time sweep over mankind
+like devastating waves. Among these is the "Black Death," the plague
+which in the year 1350 carried off twenty-five millions of the people of
+Europe. Men thought that it was a divine punishment. Some repented and
+did penance; others gave themselves up to drunkenness and other
+excesses. They had then no notion of the deadly bacteria, and of the
+serum which renders the blood immune from their attacks.
+
+In 1894 a similar wave swept from China through Hong Kong to India,
+where three millions of human beings died in a few years. I remember a
+small house in the poor quarter of Bombay which I visited in 1902. The
+authorities had given orders that when any one died of the plague a red
+cross should be painted beside the doorpost of the house. And this small
+house alone had forty crosses.
+
+And now in 1906 the plague had reached Seistan. From the roof of the
+house where I lived with some English officers, we could see the
+unfortunate people carrying out their dear ones to the grave. We could
+see them wash the bodies in a pool outside the walls, and then resume
+their sad procession. The population of the small town seemed in danger
+of extermination, and at length the people fled in hundreds. An English
+doctor and his assistant wished to help them by means of serum
+injections, but the Mohammedan clergy, out of hatred of the Europeans,
+made the people believe that it was the Christians who had let loose the
+disease over the country. Deluded and excited, the natives gathered
+together and made an attack on the British Consulate, but were repulsed.
+Then they went back to their huts to die helplessly.
+
+They tried as far as possible to keep the cases of death secret and
+carried out the corpses at night. Soon the deaths were so frequent that
+it was impossible to dig proper graves. Those, therefore, who thought of
+the hyaenas and jackals, digged their own graves beforehand. Processions
+round the mosque of the town were instituted, with black flags and a
+sacrificial goat at the head, and the mercy of Allah was implored. But
+Allah did not hear, and infection was spread among the people who
+flocked together to the processions.
+
+Under the microscope the deadly microbes appear only as quite small
+elongated dots, though they are magnified twelve hundred times. They
+live in the blood of rats, whose parasites communicate the infection to
+human beings. It is therefore most important to exterminate all rats
+when an outbreak of plague occurs. The disease is terribly infectious.
+In a house where the angel of death descends and carries off a victim,
+all the inmates die one after another. Stupidly blind, the natives did
+not understand what was good for them, and could not be induced to burn
+infected clothes and the whole contents of a plague-stricken house. They
+would not part with their worldly goods and preferred to perish with
+them.
+
+In one house dwelt a poor carpenter with his wife, two half-grown sons
+and a daughter. For two days the father had been oppressed by a feeling
+of weakness, and then, his body burning with fever, he lay raving in a
+corner on the floor of stamped earth. He was indifferent to everything
+and wished only to be left in peace. If his wife threw a rug over him he
+groaned, for the lymph glands, which swell up in large tumours, are
+exceedingly painful. In a couple of days the microbes penetrate from the
+tumour into the blood and the unfortunate man dies of blood poisoning.
+The vermin under the man's clothes leave the body as soon as the blood
+ceases to flow. Then is the danger greatest for the survivors who stand
+mourning round the deathbed, for the vermin seek circulating blood and
+carry infection from the corpse with them. It is useless to warn the
+natives of the danger, for they do not believe a word of it--and so die
+in their turn.
+
+
+A BALUCHI RAID
+
+We were glad to leave a country where the plague had taken up its abode
+and to hasten away to the desert tracts of Baluchistan, which still
+separated us from India. My old servants had taken their departure, and
+a new retinue, all Baluchis, accompanied me.
+
+We rode _jambas_, or swift-footed dromedaries, which for generations
+have been trained for speed. Their legs are long and thin, but strong,
+with large foot pads which strike the hard ground with a heavy tapping
+sound as they run. They carry their heads high and move more quickly
+than the majestic caravan camels; but when they run they lower their
+heads below the level of the hump and keep it always horizontal.
+
+Two men ride on each _jambas_, and therefore the saddle has two hollows
+and two pairs of stirrups. A peg is thrust through the cartilage of the
+nose and to its ends a thin cord is attached. By pulling this to one
+side or the other the dromedary may be turned in any direction. My
+courser had a swinging gait but did not jolt; and I sat comfortably and
+firmly in the saddle as we left mile after mile behind.
+
+It is not more than thirty or forty years ago since the Baluchis used to
+make raids into Persian territory, and although much better order is
+maintained now that the country is under British administration, an
+escort is still necessary--I had six men mounted on dromedaries and
+armed with modern rifles. This is how a raid is conducted.
+
+One evening Shah Sevar, or the "Riding King," the warlike chieftain of a
+tribe in western Baluchistan, sits smoking a pipe by the camp fire in
+front of his black tent, which is supported by tamarisk boughs (Plate
+VII.). The tale-teller has just finished a story, when two white-clad
+men with white turbans on their heads emerge from the darkness of the
+night. They tie up their dromedaries, humbly salute Shah Sevar, who
+invites them to sit down and help themselves to tea from an iron pot.
+Other men come up to the fire. All carry long guns, spears, swords, and
+daggers. Some lead two or three dromedaries each.
+
+Fourteen men are now gathered round the fire. There is a marked silence
+in the assembly, and Shah Sevar looks serious. At length he asks, "Is
+everything ready?"
+
+"Yes," is the reply from all sides.
+
+"Are the powder and shot horns filled?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the provisions packed in their bags?"
+
+"Yes--dates, sour cheese, and bread for eight days."
+
+"I told you the day before yesterday that this time we shall strike at
+Bam. Bam is a populous town. If we are discovered too early the fight
+may be hot. We must steal through the desert like jackals. The distance
+is three hundred miles, four days' journey."
+
+Again Shah Sevar stares into the fire for a while and then asks, "Are
+the _jambas_ in good condition?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And ten spare dromedaries for the booty?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VII. A BALUCHI NOMAD TENT.]
+
+Then he rises and all the others follow his example. Their wild, bold
+faces glow coppery-red in the light of the fire. They consider petty
+thieving a base occupation, but raiding and pillaging an honourable
+sport, and boast of the number of slaves they have captured in their
+day.
+
+"Mount," commands the chieftain in a subdued voice. Muskets are thrown
+over the shoulder and rattle against the hanging powder-horn and the
+leather bag for bullets, flint, steel, and tinder. Daggers are thrust
+into belts, and the men mount without examining the saddle-girths and
+bridles, for all has been carefully made ready beforehand. The spear is
+secured in front of the saddle. "In the name of Allah," calls out Shah
+Sevar, and the party rides off through the night at a steady pace.
+
+The path they follow is well known and the stars serve as guides. Day
+breaks, the sun rises, and the shadows of the dromedaries point towards
+Bam over the hard yellow sand where not a shrub grows. Not a word has
+been spoken during the night, but when the first seventy miles have been
+traversed the chief says, "We will rest a while at the Spring of White
+Water." On arriving at the spring they refill their water-skins and let
+the dromedaries drink. Then they go up into the neighbouring hills and
+wait till the hot hours of the day are over. They never encamp at the
+springs, for there they are likely to meet with other people.
+
+At dusk they are in the saddle again. They ride harder than during the
+first night and travel till they come to a salt spring. The third night
+the dromedaries begin to breathe more heavily, and when the sun rises
+flecks of white froth hang from their trembling lips. They are not tired
+but only a little winded, and they press on through clouds of dust
+without their riders having to urge them.
+
+Now the party leaves behind it the last desert path, which is only once
+in a while used by a caravan, and beyond it is a perfect wilderness of
+hardened salt-impregnated mud. Nothing living can be seen, not even a
+stray raven or vulture which might warn the people in Bam of their
+danger. Without rest the robber band pushes on all day, as silent as the
+desert, the only sounds being the long-drawn breathing of the
+dromedaries and the rasping sound of their foot-pads on the ground. When
+the reflection of the evening sky lies in purple shades over the desert,
+they have only ten or twelve miles more to go.
+
+Shah Sevar pulls up his dromedary and orders a halt in muffled tones,
+as though he feared that his voice might be heard in Bam. With a hissing
+noise the riders make their animals kneel and lie down, and then they
+spring out of the saddle, and tie the end of the cord round the
+dromedaries' forelegs to prevent the animals from getting up and making
+a noise and thus spoiling the plan. All are tired out and stretch
+themselves on the ground. Some sleep, others are kept awake by
+excitement, while four riders go scouting in different directions. Bam
+itself cannot be seen, but the hill is visible at the foot of which the
+town stands. The men long for night and the cover of darkness.
+
+The day has been calm and hot, but now the evening is cool and the
+shadows dense. A faint breeze comes from the north, and Shah Sevar
+smiles. If the wind were from the east, he would be obliged to make a
+detour in order not to rouse the dogs of the town. It is now nine
+o'clock and in an hour the people of Bam will be asleep. The men have
+finished their meal, and have wrapped up the remainder of the dates,
+cheese, and bread in their bundles and tied them upon the dromedaries.
+
+"Shall we empty the waterskins so as to make the loads lighter for the
+attack?" asks a Baluchi.
+
+"No," answers Shah Sevar; "keep all the water that is left, for we may
+not be able to fill the skins in the town before our retreat."
+
+"It is time," he says; "have your weapons ready." They mount again and
+ride slowly towards the town.
+
+"As soon as anything suspicious occurs I shall quicken my pace and you
+must follow. You three with the baggage camels keep in the rear."
+
+The robbers gaze in front like eagles on their prey, and the outlines of
+the hill gradually rise higher above the western horizon. Now only three
+miles remain, and their sight, sharpened by an outdoor life,
+distinguishes the gardens of Bam. They draw near. The bark of a dog is
+heard, another joins in--all the dogs of the town are barking; they have
+winded the dromedaries.
+
+"Come on," shouts the chief. With encouraging cries the dromedaries are
+urged forward; their heads almost touch the ground; they race along
+while froth and dust fly about them. The dogs bark furiously and some of
+them have already come out to meet the dromedaries. Now the wild chase
+reaches the entrance to the town. Cries of despair are heard as the
+inhabitants are wakened; and women and wailing children escape towards
+the hill. The time is too short for any organised defence. There is no
+one to take the command. The unfortunate inhabitants run over one
+another like scared chickens and the riders are upon them. Shah Sevar
+sits erect on his dromedary and leads the assault. Some jump down and
+seize three men, twelve women, and six children, who are hastily bound
+and put in charge of two Baluchis, while others quickly search some
+houses close at hand. They come out again with two youths who have made
+a useless resistance, a couple of sacks of grain, some household goods,
+and all the silver they could find.
+
+"How many slaves?" roars Shah Sevar.
+
+"Twenty-three," is answered from several directions.
+
+"That is enough; pack up." The slaves and the stolen goods are bound
+fast on dromedaries. "Quick, quick," shouts the chief. "Back the way we
+came." In the hurry and confusion some of the animals get entangled in
+one another's ropes. "Back! Back!" The chieftain's practised eye has
+detected a party of armed men coming up. Three shots are heard in the
+darkness, and Shah Sevar falls backwards out of the saddle, while his
+dromedary starts and flies off into the desert. The rider's left foot is
+caught fast in the stirrup and his head drags in the dust. A bullet has
+entered his forehead, but the blood is staunched by the dust of the
+road. His foot slips out of the stirrup, and the "Riding King" lies dead
+as a stone outside Bam.
+
+Another robber is severely wounded and is cut to pieces by the townsmen.
+Bam has waked up. The entangled dromedaries with their burdens of slaves
+and goods are captured, but the rest of the party, twelve riders with
+ten baggage camels, have vanished in the darkness, pursued by some
+infuriated dogs. Sixteen of the inhabitants of the town are missing. The
+whole thing has taken place in half an hour. Bam sleeps no more this
+night.
+
+Now the dromedaries are urged on to the uttermost; they have double
+loads to carry, but they travel as quickly as they came. The kidnapped
+children cease to cry, and fall asleep with weariness and the violent
+swaying motion. The party rides all night and all the next day without
+stopping, and the robbers often look round to see if they are pursued.
+They rest for the first time at the salt spring, posting a look-out on
+an adjacent mound. They eat and drink without losing a minute, and get
+ready for the rest of the ride. The captives are paralysed with fright;
+the young women are half choked with weeping, and a little lad in a
+tattered shirt goes about crying vainly for his mother. The eyes of the
+captives are blindfolded with white bandages that they may not notice
+the way they are travelling and try later to escape back to Bam. Then
+the headlong ride is resumed, and after eight days the troop of riders
+is back at home with their booty, but without their chief.
+
+Innumerable raids of this kind have scourged eastern Persia, and in the
+same way Turkomans have devastated Khorasan in the north-east. On the
+eastern frontier it is the Kurds who are the robbers. In this disturbed
+frontier region there is not a town without its small primitive mud fort
+or outlook tower.
+
+
+SCORPIONS
+
+On running dromedaries we now ride on eastwards through northern
+Baluchistan. Dry, burnt-up desert tracts, scantily clothed with
+thistles and shrubs, moving dunes of fine yellow sand, low hill ridges
+disintegrated by alternate heat and cold--such is the country where a
+few nomads wander about with their flocks, and the stranger often
+wonders how the animals find a living. In certain valleys, however,
+there is pasture and also water, and sometimes belts of thriving
+tamarisks are passed, and bushes of saxaul with green leafy branches,
+hard wood, and roots which penetrate down to the moisture beneath the
+surface.
+
+The great caravan road we are following is, however, exceedingly
+desolate. Only at the stations is water to be found, and even that is
+brackish; but the worst trial is the heat, which now, at the end of
+April, becomes more oppressive every day. The temperature rises nearly
+up to 105-1/2 deg. in the shade, and to ride full in the face of the
+sun is like thrusting one's head into a blazing furnace. When there is
+a wind we are all right, and the sand whirls like yellow ghosts over
+the heated ground. But when the air is calm the outlines of the hills
+seem to quiver in the heat, and the barrel of a gun which has been out
+in the sun blisters the hands on being touched. In the height of the
+summer the Baluchis wrap strips of felt round their stirrup-irons to
+protect the dromedaries from burns on the flanks.
+
+This region is one of the hottest in the world. The sun stands so high
+at mid-day that the shadows of the dromedaries disappear beneath them.
+You long for sunset, when the shadows lengthen out and the worst of the
+heat is over. It is not really cool even at night, when, moreover, you
+are plagued with whole swarms of gnats.
+
+Baluchistan and Persia abound with scorpions, which are indeed to be
+found in all the hot regions of the five continents. About two hundred
+species have been distinguished. Some are quite small, others six inches
+long. Some are dark-brown, others reddish, and others again
+straw-yellow, as in Baluchistan. The body consists of a head and thorax
+without joints, and a hinder part of seven articulated rings, besides
+six tail rings. The last ring, the thirteenth, contains two poison
+glands and is furnished with a sting as fine as a needle. The poison is
+a fluid clear as water.
+
+Scorpions live in rotten tree-trunks, under stones, on walls, and as
+they like warmth they often enter houses and huts, and creep into
+clothes and beds.
+
+The scorpion leaves his dark den at night and sets out on the hunt. He
+holds his tail turned up over his back, in order to keep his sting from
+injury and to be ready at once for attack or defence. When he meets with
+a desirable victim, such as a large spider, he darts quickly forward,
+seizes it with his claws, which are like those of crabs, raises it above
+his head in order to examine it with his eyes, which are turned upwards,
+and gives it the death-stroke with his sting. Then he sucks up the
+softer parts and grinds the harder between his jaws.
+
+The young ones, which are active as soon as they are born, are like the
+old ones from the first day, but are light-coloured and soft. They crawl
+about their mother's back and legs and do not leave her body for some
+time. When that happens the mother dies, having meanwhile wasted away.
+
+The sting of large scorpions is dangerous even to human beings. Cases
+have been known of a man dying in great agony twelve hours after being
+stung. Others get cramp, fever, and pains before they begin to recover.
+A man who has often been stung becomes at last insensible to the poison.
+
+Many a time I have found scorpions in Asiatic huts, in my tent, on my
+bed, and under my boxes, but I have never been stung by one. On the
+other hand, it has been the fate of many of my servants, and they told
+me that it was difficult to find out where the scorpion had stung them,
+for their bodies sweated and burned equally intensely all over. In
+Eastern Turkestan it is the practice to catch the scorpion which has
+stung a man and crush him into a paste, which is laid over the puncture
+made by the sting. But whether this is a real cure I do not know.
+
+
+THE INDUS
+
+After travelling 1500 miles on camels and dromedaries, the whistle of an
+engine sounds like the sweetest music to the ear. At Nushki (see map, p.
+132), the furthermost station of the Indian railway, I took leave of my
+Baluchi servants, stepped into a train, and was carried past the
+garrison town of Quetta south-eastwards to the Indus. Here we find that
+one branch of the railway follows the river closely on its western bank
+to Karachi, one of the principal seaports of British India. Our train,
+however, carries us northwards along the eastern bank to Rawalpindi, an
+important military station near the borders of Kashmir.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF NORTHERN INDIA, SHOWING RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES.]
+
+In the large roomy compartment it is as warm as it was lately in
+Baluchistan, or nearly 107 deg. To shade the railway carriages from the
+burning sun overhead, they are provided with a kind of wooden cover with
+flaps falling down half over the windows. The glass is not white, as in
+European carriage windows, but dark blue or green, otherwise the
+reflexion of the sunlight from the ground would be too dazzling. On
+either side two windows have, instead of glass, a lattice of root
+fibres which are kept wet automatically night and day. Outside the
+window is a ventilator, which, set in action by the motion of the train,
+forces a rapid current of air through the wet network of fibres. Thereby
+the air is cooled some eighteen or twenty degrees, and it is pleasant to
+sit partly undressed in the draught.
+
+Look a moment at the map. South of the Himalayas the Indian peninsula
+forms an inverted triangle, the apex of which juts out into the Indian
+Ocean like a tooth, but the northern part, at the base, is broad. Here
+flow the three large rivers of India, the Indus, the Ganges, and the
+Bramaputra. The last mentioned waters the plains of Assam at the eastern
+angle of the triangle. On the banks of the Ganges stands a swarm of
+famous large towns, some of which we shall visit when we return from
+Tibet. The Ganges and Bramaputra have a delta in common, through which
+their waters pass by innumerable arms out into the Bay of Bengal.
+
+At the western angle of the triangle the Indus streams down to the
+Arabian Sea. The sources of the Indus and Bramaputra lie close to each
+other, up in Tibet, and the Himalayas are set like an immense jewel
+between the glistening silver threads of the two rivers. On the west the
+Indus cuts through a valley as much as 10,000 feet deep, and on the east
+the Bramaputra makes its way down to the lowlands through a deep-cut
+cleft not less wild and awesome.
+
+The Indus has several tributaries. In foaming waterfalls and roaring
+rapids they rush down from the mountains to meet their lord. The largest
+of them is called the Sutlej, and the lowlands through which it flows
+are called the Punjab, a Persian word signifying "five waters." The
+Indus has thirteen mouths scattered along 150 miles of coast, and the
+whole river is 2000 miles long, or somewhat longer than the Danube.
+
+In the month of July, 325 years before the birth of Christ, Aristotle's
+pupil, Alexander, King of Macedonia, floated down the Indus with a fleet
+of newly built ships and reached Pattala, where the arms of the delta
+diverge. He found the town deserted, for the inhabitants had fled
+inland, so he sent light troops after them to tell them that they might
+return in peace to their homes. A fortress was erected at the town, and
+several wharves on the river bank.
+
+He turned over great schemes in his mind. Had he not at twenty years of
+age taken over the government of the little country of Macedonia, and
+subdued the people of Thrace, Illyria, and Greece? Had he not led his
+troops over the Hellespont, defeated the Persians, and conquered the
+countries of Asia Minor, Lycia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, where with a
+blow of his sword he had severed the Gordian knot, a token of supremacy
+over Asia? At Issus, on the rectangular bay facing Cyprus, he had
+inflicted a crushing defeat on the great King of Persia, Darius
+Codomannus, who with the united forces of his kingdom had come to meet
+him. At Damascus he captured all the Persian war funds, and afterwards
+took the famous commercial towns of the Phoenicians, Tyre and Sidon.
+Palestine fell, and Jerusalem with the holy places. On the coast of
+Egypt he founded Alexandria, which now, after a lapse of 2240 years, is
+still a flourishing city. He marched through the Libyan desert to the
+oasis of Zeus Ammon, where the priests, after the old Pharaonic custom,
+consecrated him "Son of Ammon."
+
+He passed eastwards into Asia, crossed the Euphrates, defeated Darius
+again at the Tigris, and reduced proud Babylon and Shushan, where 150
+years previously King Ahasuerus, who reigned "from India even unto
+Ethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces," made a feast
+for his lords and "shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
+honour of his excellent majesty." Then he advanced to Persepolis and set
+on fire the palace of the Great King to show that the old empire had
+passed away. Pursuing Darius through Ispahan and Hamadan, he afterwards
+turned aside into Bactria, the present Russian Central Asia, and marched
+northwards to the Syr-darya and the land of the Scythians. Thence, with
+an army of more than a hundred thousand men, he proceeded southwards and
+conquered the Punjab and subdued all the people living west of the
+Indus.
+
+Now he had come to Pattala, and he thought of the victories he had
+gained and the countries he had annexed. He had appointed everywhere
+Greeks and Macedonians to rule in conjunction with the native princes
+and satraps.[10] The great empire must be knit together into a solid
+unity, and Babylon was to be its capital. Only in the west there was
+still an enormous gap to be conquered, the desert through which we have
+lately wandered on the way from Teheran through Tebbes and Seistan and
+Baluchistan.
+
+In order to reduce the people living here he despatched a part of his
+host by a northerly route through Seistan to north Persia. He himself
+led forty thousand men along the coast. Twelve thousand men were to sail
+and row the newly-built ships along the coast of the Arabian Sea,
+through the Straits of Hormuz, and along the northern coast of the
+Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates. No Greek had ever navigated
+this sea before, and with the vessels of the period the enterprise was a
+most dangerous one, as absolutely nothing was known about the coast to
+be followed. But it was necessary, for Alexander wished to secure for
+himself the command of the sea route between the mouths of the Euphrates
+and Indus, so as to connect the western and eastern parts of his
+kingdom. It was to supply the fleet with provisions and water that he
+chose for himself the dangerous desert route along the coast. Of the
+40,000 men who accompanied him on this march, no less than 30,000 died
+of thirst! The high admiral, Nearchus of Crete, performed his task with
+brilliant success. His voyage was one of the most remarkable ever
+achieved on the oceans of the globe. The chart he compiled is so exact
+that it may be used at the present day, though the coast has since then
+undergone changes in some places and has been further silted up with
+sand and made shallower.
+
+Alexander would not let his fleet start on its adventurous voyage before
+he was himself convinced of the navigability of the Indus and had
+acquainted himself with the aspect of the great ocean. Accordingly he
+sailed down the western arm of the Indus with the swiftest vessels of
+the fleet--thirty-oared boats, and small triremes, or vessels whereon
+the 150 naked oarsmen sat on three tiers of benches above one another
+with oars of different lengths projecting through port-holes in the
+hull. The vessels were protected by troops which followed them on the
+bank.
+
+In the midst of summer, when the river is at its highest level and
+overflows the banks for miles, it is no pleasure excursion to steer
+ungainly boats between banks of sand and silt without pilots. On the
+second day a strong southerly storm arose, and the dangerous waves in
+the whirlpools of the current capsized many vessels and damaged others.
+Alexander made for the bank to look for fishermen who might act as
+pilots, and under their guidance he continued his voyage. The river
+became wider and wider, and the fresh salt breeze from the ocean became
+ever more perceptible; but the wind increased, for the south-west
+monsoon was at its height. The grey turbid water rose in higher billows
+and made rowing difficult, for the oars either did not touch the water
+or dipped too deeply into it. It was the flood tide running up from the
+sea which impeded their progress, but the ebb and flow of the sea was
+new to them. Eventually Alexander sought the shelter of a creek, and the
+vessels were dragged ashore. Then came the ebb, and the water fell as
+though it were sucked out into the sea. The boats were left high and
+dry, and many of them sank deep in the mud. Astonished and bewildered,
+Alexander and his men could get neither forward nor backward. They had
+just made preparations to get the ships afloat, when the tide returned
+and lifted them.
+
+Now they went farther down-stream and came in contact with the raging
+surf of the monsoon, which advances in light-green foam-crowned waves
+far into the mouth and changes the colour of the river water. The
+collision of the Indus current with the rising tide fills the fairway
+with whirlpools and eddies, which are exceedingly dangerous even for the
+best of vessels of the present day. Several ships were lost, some being
+thrown up on the banks, while others dashed together and went to pieces.
+
+After they had taken note of the regular rise and fall of the tide, they
+could avoid danger, and the fleet arrived safely at an island where
+shelter could be obtained by the shore and where fresh water was
+abundant. From here the foaming, roaring surf at the very mouth of the
+Indus could be seen, and above the rolling breakers appeared the level
+horizon of the ocean.
+
+With the best of the vessels Alexander went out to ascertain whether the
+surf could be passed through without danger and the open sea be reached.
+The trial proved successful, and another island was found, begirt on all
+sides by open sea. The ships then returned in the dusk to the larger
+island, where a solemn sacrifice was made to Ammon to celebrate the
+first sight of the sea and of the margin of the inhabited world towards
+the south.
+
+Next day Alexander rowed right out to sea to convince himself that no
+more land existed, and when he had advanced so far that nothing but sky
+and rolling billows could be seen from the uppermost benches of the
+triremes, he offered sacrifices to Poseidon, the god of the sea, to the
+Nereids, and to the silver-footed sea-goddess Thetis, the mother of
+Achilles, father of his race. And he besought the favour of all the gods
+in the great enterprise which had brought him to the mouth of the
+Indus, and their protection for his fleet on its dangerous voyage to the
+Euphrates; and when his prayer was ended he cast a golden goblet into
+the sea.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VIII. SRINAGAR AND THE JHELUM RIVER.]
+
+Alexander died at Babylon at the age of thirty-three. His
+world-embracing campaign spread Greek enlightenment over all western
+Asia, and his eventful life did not pass like a meteor into the night of
+time without leaving a trace behind.
+
+
+KASHMIR AND LADAK
+
+When I arrived at Rawalpindi the first thing I did was to order a
+_tonga_ for the drive of 180 miles to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
+A _tonga_ is a two-wheeled tilted cart drawn by two horses, which are
+changed every half hour, for as long as the pair are on the way they go
+at full speed. The road was excellent, and we left the hot suffocating
+steam of India below us as we ascended along the bank of the Jhelum
+River. Sometimes we dashed at headlong speed over stretches of open road
+bathed in sunlight; sometimes through dark cool tunnels where the driver
+blew a sonorous signal with his brass horn; and then again through
+rustling woods of pine-trees.
+
+Srinagar is a beautiful city, intersected as it is by the rippling
+Jhelum River and winding canals (Plate VIII.). The houses on their banks
+rise up directly from the water, and long, narrow, graceful boats pass
+to and fro, propelled at a swift pace by broad-bladed oars in the hands
+of active and muscular white-clad Kashmiris.
+
+Kashmir is one of the native states of our Indian Empire, and its
+inhabitants number about three millions. Many of them are artistic and
+dexterous craftsmen, who make fine boxes and caskets inlaid with ivory,
+mother-of-pearl, and ebony; beautifully chased weapons; tankards, bowls,
+and vases of beaten silver with panthers and elephants on the sides,
+chasing one another through the jungle. The saddlery and leather work of
+all kinds cannot be surpassed, but most famous of all the manufactures
+are the soft, dainty Kashmir shawls, so fine that they can be drawn
+through a finger ring.
+
+Round about the Kashmir valley stand the ridges and snow-clad heights of
+the Himalayas, and among them lie innumerable valleys. Up one of these
+valleys toiled our caravan of thirty-six mules and a hundred horses, and
+after a journey of some 250 miles to the eastward we arrived again at
+the banks of the Indus and crossed it by a swaying bridge of wood. Two
+days later the poplars of Leh stood in front of us.
+
+This little town is nearly 11,500 feet above sea-level. It contains an
+open bazaar street, and a mound above the town is crowned by the old
+royal castle. Leh, as well as the whole of the district of Ladak, is
+subject to the Maharaja of Kashmir, but the people are mostly of Tibetan
+race and their religion is Lamaism.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] A "satrap" was originally a governor of a province in ancient
+Persia.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+EASTERN TURKESTAN (1895)
+
+
+THE TAKLA-MAKAN DESERT
+
+We are now on the high road between India and Eastern Turkestan, the
+most elevated caravan route in the world. Innumerable skeletons of
+transport animals lie there, marking where the road passes through snow.
+After a month's journey over the cold, lofty mountains we come to the
+town of Yarkand, in the spacious, flat, bowl-shaped hollow, surrounded
+on all sides except the east by mountains, which is called Eastern
+Turkestan.
+
+To the south stand the immense highlands of Tibet, where the great
+rivers of India and China take their rise. On the west is the Pamir, the
+"Roof of the World," where the two great rivers of the Sea of Aral begin
+their course. On the north lie the Tien-shan, or Mountains of Heaven,
+which are continued farther north-eastwards by the Altai and several
+other mountain systems, among which the gigantic rivers of Siberia have
+their origin. Within this ring of mountains, at the very heart of the
+great continent of Asia, lies this lowland of Eastern Turkestan, like a
+Tibetan sheepfold enclosed by enormous walls of rock.
+
+In its northern part a river called the Tarim flows from west to east.
+It is formed by the Yarkand-darya and the Khotan-darya on the south, and
+receives other affluents along its course, for water streams down from
+the snowfields and glaciers of the wreath of mountains enclosing Eastern
+Turkestan. The head-waters of the Tarim leap merrily down through narrow
+valleys among the mountains, but the great river is doomed never to
+reach the sea. It terminates and is lost in a desert lake named Lop-nor.
+
+Trees grow along this river, mostly small, stunted poplars, but the
+wooded belts along the banks are very narrow; soon the trees thin out
+and come to an end, steppe shrubs and tamarisks take their place, and
+only a mile or two from the river there is nothing but deep sand without
+a sign of vegetation. The greater part of Eastern Turkestan is occupied
+by the desert called Takla-makan, the most terrible and dangerous in the
+world.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF EASTERN TURKESTAN, SHOWING JOURNEYS
+DESCRIBED ON pp. 89-110.]
+
+A belt of desert runs through the whole of Asia and Africa, like a
+dried-up river bed. This belt includes the Gobi, which extends over most
+of Mongolia, the Takla-makan, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand" in
+Russian Turkestan, the Kevir and other deserts in Persia, the deserts of
+Arabia, and lastly the Sahara. In this succession of deserts extending
+over the Old World from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic the
+Takla-makan is, then, a link.
+
+
+ACROSS A SEA OF SAND
+
+In the beginning of April, 1895, I had reached the Yarkand-darya and had
+encamped at a village, Merket, on its eastern bank. My plan was to
+cross the Takla-makan desert, which stretches away to the eastward, and
+to reach the river Khotan-darya, which flows northwards, the distance
+being 180 miles. My caravan consisted of four servants and eight camels;
+and we took provisions for two months--for we intended afterwards to
+travel on to Tibet--and water for twenty-five days in four iron
+cisterns.
+
+We started on April 10. A white camel was led in front by a man we
+called the guide, because every one said that he had often been in the
+desert seeking for treasure. My riding camel was led by a white-bearded
+man named Muhamed Shah. Kasim came at the end of the file, and the
+faithful Islam Bay, who superintended the whole, was my confidential
+servant. We had also two dogs, Yolldash and Hamra, three sheep, ten
+hens, and a cock. The last did not like riding on a camel. He was always
+working his way out through the bars of his cage, and fluttering down to
+the ground with a loud crow.
+
+For the first few days all went on quietly and satisfactorily. At night
+we could always obtain water for the camels and other animals by
+digging, and thus we saved the fresh river-water in our tanks. But the
+sand became gradually higher and forced us to diverge to the north-east.
+On April 18 we came to a morass surrounded by wood so thick that we had
+to clear a way with the axe. Next day we encamped on the shore of a lake
+of beautiful blue water where ducks and geese were swimming about, and
+my tent was set up under a couple of poplars.
+
+Another day's march led us along the shore of a long lake with bare
+banks. We encamped at its southern extremity and rested a day, for here
+nothing could be seen towards the south and west but yellow sand. The
+guide asserted that it was four days' journey eastwards to the river
+Khotan-darya, and this statement agreed approximately with existing
+maps, but I took the precaution of ordering the men to take water for
+ten days.
+
+On April 23 we left the last bay of the last lake to plunge into the
+high sand. All vegetation came to an end, and only in some hollow a
+solitary tamarisk was still to be seen. The sandhills became ever
+higher, rising to as much as 100 feet.
+
+The next day we marched on in a violent storm. The sand swept down in
+clouds from the crests of the dunes, penetrating into our mouths, noses,
+and eyes. Islam Bay led our train and looked for the easiest way for the
+camels. We noticed, however, that they were already beginning to get
+tired. Sometimes they fell in the sand, and their loads had to be taken
+off before they could get up again. When the tent was set up we had made
+only eight miles. Now there was not a sign of life, not a moth fluttered
+round my candle, not a wind-borne leaf was seen in the boundless yellow
+sand.
+
+On the morning of the 25th I made a terrible discovery: two cisterns
+were empty and the other two contained only enough water for two days.
+Henceforth Islam Bay was put in charge of the cisterns. The water was
+treasured like gold and served out in driblets.
+
+I travelled on foot to spare my riding camel and encourage the men. The
+caravan moved more slowly through the murderous sands. One camel, called
+Old Man, lagged behind. We waited an hour, and gave him a mouthful of
+water and a handful of hay from his own pack-saddle. When we went on, he
+was led slowly after us by Muhamed Shah.
+
+With Islam I measured out the last drops of water on the night of the
+26th. There were about two small cups daily for each of us for three
+days. The next day we plunged again into terrible sand, the dunes being
+200 feet high. In the evening we saw dense rain-clouds in the west, and
+hoped that Heaven would have compassion on us. The clouds spread out and
+came still nearer. All our vessels were made ready, and the tent was
+stretched on the ground to collect the sweet water which was to save us.
+We waited in vain, for the clouds dispersed and yielded us not a drop.
+
+The two tired-out camels had been abandoned at the beginning of the day,
+and we had thrown away a stove, a carpet, my tent-bed, and two empty
+water cisterns.
+
+On April 28 we were awakened by a north-easterly storm, one of those
+"black storms" which stir up the drift-sand in dense clouds and turn day
+into night. All the camp was buried in sand. Only the nearest camels
+could be seen, and their track was immediately obliterated. We had to
+keep all together lest we should lose one another. It was quite possible
+to lose the caravan at a distance of a few paces, and that meant death.
+We were almost suffocated by the volumes of sand which whirled about us,
+and had to rest frequently to get our breath. The camels lay down with
+their heads to leeward, and we thrust our faces under them that we might
+not be choked with sand.
+
+Then we went on with faltering steps. A camel fell and I sent two men
+after him. They came back directly, saying that the track was smoothed
+out by the wind and that they dared not lose sight of us. That was the
+third victim. At the evening camp everything not absolutely
+indispensable was sorted out to be left behind, and a stick was set up
+on the nearest dune with a newspaper wrapped round it so that we might
+find the place again if we obtained water soon. There was still a little
+water left in the two cans, but next morning Islam came and told me that
+one of them was empty. There can be little doubt that the guide was the
+thief who had robbed us all. With failing steps we struggled on all day
+among the high sand dunes.
+
+On the morning of the 30th there was less than two-thirds of a pint of
+water left in the last can. While the others were engaged in loading the
+camels, Islam surprised the guide as he stood with the can to his mouth.
+Islam fell upon him furiously, threw him to the ground, and would have
+killed him if I had not come up in time. Only one-third of a pint was
+now left. At mid-day I moistened the men's lips with the corner of a
+handkerchief dipped in water. In the evening the last drops were to be
+distributed, but when the time came the can was found to be absolutely
+empty. Kasim and Muhamed, who led the camels, had drunk it all.
+
+
+THE END OF THE CARAVAN
+
+The night was cold, but the sun had not long risen on May 1 before the
+heat spread over the dunes. The men drank the last of some rancid
+vegetable oil which had been intended for the camels. I was tortured
+with thirst, as I had not drunk a drop of water the day before, and
+before that only a few mouthfuls. Thirst is a fearful thing, driving one
+to despair, and almost depriving one of reason. As the body dries up,
+the desire for water leaves one no peace. We had a flask of Chinese
+spirits which were intended for a cooking stove. I now drank about a
+tumblerful of it to give my body a little moisture, and then I threw the
+flask away and let its dangerous contents run out into the sand.
+
+The insidious liquor undermined my strength. When the caravan toiled on
+through the dunes I could not follow it. I crept and staggered in its
+track. The bells rang out clearly in the quiet air, but the sound became
+fainter, and at length died away in the distance. The silent desert lay
+around me--sand, sand, sand in all directions.
+
+Following slowly in the footsteps of the others, I came at last to the
+crest of a dune, where I saw that the camels of the caravan had laid
+themselves down. Muhamed Shah was on his knees imploring help from
+Allah. Kasim was sitting with his face in his hands, weeping and
+laughing alternately. Islam, who had been exploring in front, came back
+and proposed that we should look for a place where we could dig for
+water (Plate IX.). I therefore mounted the white camel, after his
+load--ammunition boxes, two European saddles, and a number of other
+articles--had been thrown away, but the animal would not get up. We then
+decided to stay where we were and wait for the cool of evening, and the
+tent was set up to afford us shade. Even Yolldash and the sheep came in.
+
+At mid-day a gentle breeze sprang up, and the air felt pleasant and
+refreshing. We killed the cock and drank its blood. Then Islam turned
+the head of the sheep towards Mecca, cut off its head, and collected the
+blood in a pail, but it was thick and smelt offensively, and not even
+the dog Yolldash would touch it.
+
+We now sorted out all our belongings, taking with us only what was
+absolutely necessary at the moment, and leaving everything else behind
+in the tent. The guide had lost his reason and filled his mouth with
+sand, thinking it was water. He and old Muhamed Shah, who was also
+dying, had to be left behind.
+
+At seven o'clock I mounted the white camel. Islam led the train and
+Kasim urged the animals on. The funeral bells, now rang for the last
+time. From a high sandy crest I turned a farewell glance at the death
+camp. The tent marked out a dark triangle against the lighter
+background, and then vanished behind the sand.
+
+The night descended sadly and silently over the earth. We tramped
+through loose sand, up and down, without seeing where we were going. I
+jumped down from my camel, lighted the lantern, and walked on in front
+to see where it was easiest for the camels to follow.
+
+Then Islam reeled up to me and whispered that he could go no farther. I
+bade him farewell, cheered him up, told him to rest and then follow in
+my track, abandoning everything. The camels were lying half-dead with
+necks stretched out. Kasim alone was fit to accompany me farther. He
+took a spade and a pail and the paunch of the sheep. I had only my
+watch, compass, a penknife, a pen, and a scrap of paper, two small
+tins of lobster and chocolate, a small box, matches and ten cigarettes.
+But the food gave us little satisfaction, for when the mouth, palate,
+and throat are as dry as the outer skin it is impossible to swallow.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IX. DIGGING FOR WATER IN THE TAKLA-MAKAN.]
+
+It was exactly twelve o'clock. We had been shipwrecked in the midst of
+the desert sea, and were now trying to reach a coast. The lantern stood
+burning beside Islam Bay, but the light was soon hidden by the dunes.
+
+We were clad as lightly as possible. Kasim had a thin jacket, wide
+trousers, and boots, but he had forgotten his cap, so I lent him my
+pocket handkerchief to wind round his head. I wore a white Russian cap,
+stiff Swedish shoes, woollen underclothing, and a white suit of thin
+cotton cloth. I had changed my clothes at the death camp that I might
+have a neat clean shroud if I died.
+
+We pushed on with the energy of despair, but after two hours we were so
+sleepy that we had to rest a while. The coolness of the night woke us up
+at four o'clock, and we kept on the march till nine. Then we rested
+again and walked on farther till twelve o'clock, when we were again
+overcome by weariness and the burning heat of the day. In a sandy slope
+facing northwards Kasim digged out cool sand in which we burrowed stark
+naked with only our heads out. To protect ourselves from sunstroke we
+made a screen by hanging up clothes on the spade. At six o'clock we got
+up again and walked for seven hours. Our strength was giving way, and we
+had to rest more frequently. At one o'clock we were slumbering on a
+dune.
+
+There we lay quite three hours, and then went on eastwards. I always
+held the compass in my hand. The next day had dawned, May 3, when Kasim
+stopped, caught hold of my shoulder, and pointed eastwards without
+saying a word. A small dark speck was seen in the distance; it was a
+green tamarisk! Its roots must go down to the water below the surface,
+or it could not live in the desert sea. We thanked God when we came up
+to it. We had now some hope of safety, and we chewed the soft needles of
+the tamarisks like beasts. We tarried a while under its slight shadow,
+and then walked till half-past nine, when we fell down with faintness at
+another bush.
+
+We again undressed and buried ourselves in sand, lying without speaking
+a word for quite nine hours. At dusk we dragged ourselves on again with
+halting steps. After three hours of march Kasim again stopped suddenly.
+Something dark peeped out from among the dunes--three fine poplars with
+sappy foliage. The leaves were too bitter to eat, but we rubbed them on
+the skin until it became moist.
+
+Here we tried to dig a well, but the spade fell out of our powerless
+hands. We then lay down and scraped with our hands, but could not do
+much. Instead we collected all the dry branches we could find and made a
+blazing fire as a beacon for Islam, and to attract attention from the
+east, for we knew that a caravan road ran along the Khotan river.
+
+At four o'clock on May 4 we moved on again, but after five hours we were
+utterly exhausted. We threw ourselves heedlessly on the sand, for Kasim
+was unable to dig the usual burrow. I wriggled naked into the cool dune
+and lay there ten hours without closing an eye.
+
+When at last the shadows spread over the earth and I was ready to set
+out, Kasim murmured that he could go no farther. I did not even remember
+to bid him farewell when I went on my way alone through the darkness and
+sand. Just after midnight I sank down by a tamarisk. The stars twinkled
+as usual, and not a sound was audible. Only the beat of my heart and the
+ticking of my watch broke the awful silence. Then I heard a rustling
+sound in the sand. "Is that you, Kasim?" I asked. "Yes, sir," he
+whispered back. "Let us go a little farther," I said, and he followed me
+with trembling legs.
+
+We were not troubled now so much by thirst, for our bodies had become as
+dry as parchment and seemed to have lost all feeling; but our strength
+was at an end. We crawled for a long distance on our hands and feet,
+dazed and indifferent, as if we were walking in our sleep.
+
+But soon we waked up into full consciousness. Dumb with astonishment we
+stopped before the trail of men. Shepherds from the river must have seen
+our fire the day before and have come to look for us. We followed the
+trail up a high dune where the sand was closely packed and the marks
+were more distinct. "It is our own trail," said Kasim in a despairing
+voice. We had gone round in a circle, and now we could do no more for a
+while. Sad and worn out, we fell down in the track.
+
+It was May 5. We had slept half an hour. It was four o'clock, and a
+vague light heralding the ruddy dawn rose up above the eastern horizon.
+Kasim looked dreadfully ill; his tongue was swollen, white and dry, his
+lips bluish. He complained of a spasmodic hiccough that shook his whole
+body, a sign of the approach of death. The thick blood flowed sluggishly
+in his veins. Even the eyes and joints were dry. We had struggled
+bravely, but now the end was near.
+
+But when the sun rose we saw a dark line on the eastern horizon. The
+sight filled us with thankfulness, for we knew that it must be the wood
+on the bank of the Khotan river. Now we exerted ourselves to the
+uttermost, for we must reach it before we sank with thirst and
+exhaustion. A number of poplars grew in a hollow. "Let us dig here; it
+is a long distance to the woods"; but the spade again slipped out of our
+hands, and we could only stumble and crawl on eastwards.
+
+At last we were there. I seemed to be roused from a fearful dream, a
+terrible nightmare. Green and luxuriant stood the trees in front of us,
+and between them grew grass and weeds where numerous spoors of wild
+animals were visible--tigers, wolves, foxes, stags, antelopes, gazelles,
+and hares. The birds were singing their morning song and insects buzzed
+in the air. Life and joyousness reigned everywhere.
+
+It could not now be far to the river. We tried to pass through the wood,
+but were stopped by impenetrable brushwood and fallen trunks. Then we
+came to a path with plain traces of men and horses. We decided to follow
+it, for surely it would lead to the bank, but not even the hope of a
+speedy deliverance could enable us to keep on our feet. At nine o'clock,
+when the day was already burning hot, we tumbled down in the shade of a
+couple of poplars. Kasim could not last much longer. His senses were
+clouded. He gasped for breath and stared with vacant eyes at the sky. He
+made no answer even when I shook him. I took off my clothes and crept
+down into a hole between the tree roots. Scorpions inhabited the dry
+trees and their marks were visible everywhere, but the poisonous
+reptiles left me in peace.
+
+
+WATER AT LAST
+
+I lay for ten hours wide awake. At seven o'clock I took the wooden haft
+of the spade and went alone through the wood, for Kasim could not move.
+I dropped down again and again on fallen trunks to rest; a few more
+staggering steps and again a rest on a stump. When I could not hold
+myself up, I crawled inch by inch through the brushwood, tearing my
+hands and clothes. It grew dusk and then dark in the wood. I felt sleep
+gradually creeping over me to rob me of life. For if I had fallen asleep
+now, I should never have awakened again. My last struggle was, then,
+against drowsiness.
+
+Then the wood suddenly came to an end and the bed of the Khotan river
+lay before me. But the bottom was dry, as dry as the sand in the desert!
+I was at the summer margin of the river, where water only flows when the
+snow melts on the mountains to the south. But I was not going to die on
+the bank; I would cross the whole bed before I gave myself up for lost.
+The bed was a mile and a quarter broad, a terrible distance for my
+strength. I walked slowly with the spade-handle for a stick, crawling
+for long distances and often resting and exerting all the force of my
+will to resist sleep. Hitherto we had been always making eastwards, but
+this night I walked involuntarily south-east. It was as though I were
+guided by an unseen hand.
+
+The crescent moon threw a pale light over the dry riverbed. I went
+towards the middle and expected to see a silvery streak glisten on a
+sheet of water. After an interval, which seemed endless, I descried the
+line of wood on the eastern bank. It became more distinct. A fallen
+poplar lay projecting over a hollow in the river-bed and on the bank
+were close thickets of bushes and reeds. I rested once more. Was it
+possible that the whole bed was dry? I felt that all my remaining
+strength would be needed to reach the bank. Was I to die of thirst in
+the middle of a river-bed? I rose painfully to walk the last bit, but I
+had not taken many steps before I stopped short. A duck rose on whirring
+wings, I heard the plashing sound of water, and the next moment I stood
+at the edge of a fresh, cool, beautiful pool.
+
+I fell on my knees and thanked God for my marvellous escape. Then I took
+out my watch and felt my feeble pulse, which beat forty-nine. Then I
+drank, slowly at first and then more freely. A deal of water was needed
+to slake such a thirst; I drank and drank until at length I was
+satisfied. Then I sat down to rest and felt that I was reviving quickly.
+After a few minutes my pulse had risen to fifty-six. My hands, which had
+just been withered and hard as wood, softened, the blood flowed more
+easily through my veins and my forehead became moist. Life seemed more
+desirable and delightful than ever. Then I drank again, and thought of
+my wonderful deliverance. If I had passed fifty steps to the right or
+left of the pool, I should probably never have found it, or if I had
+crawled on in the wrong direction, I should have had to walk six miles
+to the next pool, which I could not have done before sleep with the
+death trance in its train came and carried me off.
+
+Now my thoughts flew to the dying Kasim. He needed help at once, if his
+life was to be saved. Dipping my waterproof boots in the pool I filled
+them to the top, passed the straps over the ends of the spade shaft, and
+with this over my shoulder retraced my steps. It was pitch-dark in the
+wood and it was impossible to see the track. I called out "Kasim" with
+all the force of my lungs, but heard no answer. Then I sought out a
+dense clump of dried branches and brushwood and set it on fire. The
+flame shot up immediately, the pile of dry twigs crackled, burst and
+frizzled, the dried herbage was scorched by the draught from below,
+tongues of flame licked the poplar trunks, and it became as light as in
+the middle of the day, a yellowish red gleam illuminating the dark
+recesses of the wood. Kasim could not be far off, and must see the fire.
+Again I looked for the trail, but as I only got confused in the wood I
+stayed by the fire, propped the boots against a root, laid myself down
+where the flames could not reach me, but where I was safe from tigers
+and other wild beasts, and slept soundly.
+
+When day broke I found the trail. Kasim was lying where I left him. "I
+am dying," he whispered in a scarcely audible voice; but when I raised
+one of the boots to his lips, he roused himself up and drank, and
+emptied the other one also. Then we agreed to go together to the pool.
+It was impossible to turn back into the desert, for we had not eaten for
+a week, and now that our thirst was quenched we were attacked by hunger.
+Besides, we felt quite sure that the other men were dead some days ago.
+
+Kasim was so exhausted that he could not go with me. As he was at any
+rate on the right track, and it was now most important to find something
+to eat, I went alone to the pool, drank, bathed, and rested, and then
+walked southwards. At nine o'clock a violent westerly storm arose,
+driving clouds of sand along the ground. After wandering three hours it
+occurred to me that it was not wise to leave the beneficent pool. I
+therefore turned back, but after half an hour only found instead a very
+small pool with indifferent water. It was no use wandering about in such
+a storm, for I could not see where I was going; the wind roared and
+whistled through the wood, and I was half dead with fatigue and hunger.
+
+I therefore crept into a small thicket close to this pool, where I was
+out of reach of the storm, and making a pillow of my boots and cap,
+slept soundly and heavily. Since May 1 I had had no proper sleep. When I
+woke it was already dark, and the storm still howled through the wood. I
+was now so tortured by hunger that I began to eat grass, flowers, and
+reed shoots. There were numbers of young frogs in the pool. They were
+bitter, but I pinched their necks and swallowed them whole. After eating
+my supper I collected a store of branches to keep up a fire during the
+night, and then I crept into my lair in the thicket and gazed into the
+fire for a couple of hours while the storm raged outside. Then I went to
+sleep again.
+
+At dawn on May 7 I crept out of the thicket and decided to march
+southwards until I met with human beings. This time I took water with me
+in my boots, but after a few hours my feet were so sore and blistered
+that I had to bind them up in long strips of my shirt. At length to my
+delight I found a sheepfold on the bank; it had evidently not been used
+for a long time, but it showed that shepherds must live in the woods
+somewhere.
+
+At noon heat and fatigue drove me into the wood again, where I ate a
+breakfast of grass and reeds. After a rest I wandered on again hour
+after hour towards the south, but at eight o'clock I could go no
+farther, and before it became quite dark I tried to make myself
+comfortable on a small space sheltered by poplars and bushes, and there
+as usual I lighted my camp fire. I had nothing else to do but lie and
+stare into the flames and listen to the curious mournful sounds in the
+wood. Sometimes I heard tapping steps and dry twigs cracking. It might
+be tigers, but I trusted that they would not venture to attack me just
+when I had been saved in such a remarkable manner.
+
+I rose on May 8 while it was still dark, and sought for a path in the
+wood, but I had not gone far before the trees became scattered and came
+to an end, and the dismal yellow desert lay before me. I knew it only
+too well, and made haste back to the river-bed. I rested during the hot
+hours of the day in the shadow of a poplar and then set off again. I now
+followed the right bank of the river, and shortly before sunset stopped
+dead before a remarkable sight--the fresh track of two barefooted men
+who had driven four asses northwards.
+
+It was hopeless to try and overtake these wayfarers, and therefore I
+followed their track in the opposite direction. I travelled more quickly
+than usual, the evening was calm and still, twilight fell over the wood.
+At a jutting point of the bank I seemed to hear an unusual sound, and
+held my breath to listen. But the wood was still sad and dreary.
+"Perhaps it was a warbler or a thrush," I thought, and walked on. A
+little later I pulled up again. This time I heard quite plainly a man's
+voice and the low of a cow. I quickly pulled on my wet boots and rushed
+into the wood. A flock of sheep watched by its shepherd was feeding on
+an open glade among the trees. The man seemed petrified at first when he
+saw me, and then he turned on his heels and vanished among the
+brushwood.
+
+After a while he came back with an older shepherd, and I gave them an
+account of my adventures and begged for bread. They did not know what to
+believe, but they took me to their hut and gave me maize bread and ewe's
+milk.
+
+The best thing of all, however, was that three traders rode up next day,
+and I learned from them that some days previously they had discovered a
+dying man beside a white camel on the bank of the river. It was Islam
+Bay! They had given him water and food, and the following day both he
+and Kasim appeared in my hut. Our delight was great, though we mourned
+for our comrades who had died of thirst in the desert.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE DESERT WATERWAY (1899)
+
+
+DOWN THE YARKAND RIVER
+
+No doubt you remember the village of Merket, where we set out on pur
+fatal march through the Takla-makan desert in 1895. In September, 1899,
+I was again at this village with a large caravan and many servants, my
+plan on this occasion being to travel through the whole of Eastern
+Turkestan by water. The waterway I intended to use was the river which
+in its upper course is called the Yarkand, and in its lower the Tarim.
+
+At the village a great caravan route crosses the river, and flat
+ferry-boats convey travellers with their animals and goods from one bank
+to the other. I bought one of the ferry-boats, and had it converted into
+a floating home for our journey of more than a thousand miles (Plate
+X.). It was 36 feet long by 8-1/2 broad, and was like a huge trough
+built of rough planks. A floor of boards was laid in the bow
+sufficiently large to serve as a support for my tent. Behind this was
+built a cubical cabin of thin boards covered with sheets of black felt.
+Within it was furnished with a table and shelves, and window-frames with
+glass panes were let into the felt walls. Here I had all my photographic
+accessories, and here I intended to develop my plates.
+
+When all was ready the ferry-boat was rolled down on logs into the river
+again. The tent was set up and its folds were spiked fast to the edges
+of the flooring. My bed and my boxes were arranged in the tent, a carpet
+was spread on the floor, and at the front opening was placed my
+writing-table, consisting of two boxes, whereon paper, pens, compass,
+and watch, field-glass and other things always lay ready. For a stool I
+had a smaller hide trunk.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE X. THE AUTHOR'S BOAT ON THE YARKAND RIVER.
+
+The man with the white turban at the stern is Islam Bay.]
+
+Amidships our heavy baggage was piled up: sacks of flour and rice, boxes
+of sugar, tea, and groceries, saddles, weapons, and tools. The kitchen
+was at the stern, in charge of my faithful Islam Bay--for he was with me
+again.
+
+When the ferry-boat was fully fitted up and ready to sail, it drew nine
+inches of water. We had also a small auxiliary boat to pilot the larger
+and inform us where treacherous sand-banks were hidden below the
+surface. Fruit, vegetables, sheep, and fowls were carried on the smaller
+boat, which looked rather like a small farmyard. The heavy baggage that
+we did not need on the journey was packed on our camels, and their
+leader was ordered to meet me in three months' time near the termination
+of the river.
+
+Our voyage began on September 17, 1899, the crew numbering seven,
+including Islam Bay and myself. Kader was a youth who helped Islam Bay
+by peeling potatoes, laying table, and fetching water from clear pools
+on the banks cut off from the river. In the bow stood Palta with a long
+pole, watching to thrust off if the boat went too near the bank. At the
+stern stood two other polemen, who helped to handle the boat. The small
+boat was managed by one man, Kasim, and as I sat at my writing-table I
+could see him pushing his vessel with his pole to right or left in
+search of the channel where the water was deepest and the current most
+rapid. Then we had two four-legged passengers on the larger boat, Dovlet
+and Yolldash. Dovlet means the "lucky one" and Yolldash "travelling
+companion." The latter had succeeded to the name of the dog which died
+in the Takla-makan desert.
+
+The boat floats down with the current, following obediently the windings
+of the river, and the polemen are on the watch. On the banks grow small
+hawthorn bushes and tamarisks, interrupted by patches of reeds and small
+clumps of young trees, among which poplars always predominate. They are
+not the tall, slender poplars which tower proud as kings above other
+trees, but quite a dwarf kind with a round, irregular crown. When the
+day draws near to a close I give the order to stop. Palta thrusts his
+pole into the river bottom, and, throwing all his strength and weight on
+to it, forces the stern of the boat to swing round to the land, where
+another of the crew jumps out on to the bank with a rope. He makes it
+fast round a stump, and our day's voyage is ended.
+
+The gangway is pushed out and a fire is lighted in an open space among
+the trees, and soon the teapot and rice-pan are bubbling pleasantly. I
+remain sitting at my writing-table and see the moonlight playing in a
+streak on the surface of the river. All is quiet and silent around us,
+and even the midges have gone to rest. I hear only the brands crackling
+in the camp fire and the sand slipping down the neighbouring bank as the
+water laps against it. A dog barking in the distance is answered by
+Dovlet and Yolldash.
+
+Now steps are heard on board, and Islam Bay brings my supper. The
+writing-table is converted into a dining-table, and he serves me up rice
+pudding with onions, carrots, and minced mutton, fresh bread, eggs,
+cucumbers, melons, and grapes. What more could a man want? It was very
+different when we were wandering on the endless sands. If I want to
+drink I have only to let down a cup into the river which gently ripples
+past the boat. The dogs keep me company, sitting with cocked ears
+waiting for a titbit. Then Islam comes and clears the table, I close the
+tent, creep into my berth, and enjoy life afloat on my own vessel, where
+it is only necessary to loosen a rope to be on the way again.
+
+After a few days we come to a place where the river contracts and forces
+its way with great velocity between small islands and great heaps of
+stranded driftwood. Here Palta has plenty of work, for he has constantly
+to keep the boat off from some obstacle or other with the pole.
+Frequently we bump up against poplar trunks which do not show above the
+water, and then the boat swings round in a moment. Then all the crew
+jump into the river and shove the boat off again.
+
+A distant noise is heard, and soon becomes louder. In a moment we are in
+the midst of rapids, and it is too late to heave to. It is to be hoped
+that we shall not turn broadside on or we shall capsize. "Let her go
+down as she likes," I call out. All the poles are drawn up, and the boat
+flies along, gliding easily and smoothly over the boiling water.
+
+Below the rapids the river widened out, and became so shallow that we
+stuck fast in blue clay. We pushed and pulled, but all to no purpose.
+Then all the baggage was carried ashore, and with our united strength we
+swung the boat round until the clay was loosened, and then the things
+were brought on board again.
+
+Farther down, the river draws together again. The banks are lined with
+dense masses of fine old trees just beginning to turn yellow in the
+latter days of September. The boat seems as though it were gliding along
+a canal in a park. The woods are silent, not a leaf is moving, and the
+water flows noiselessly. The polemen have nothing to do. They sit
+cross-legged with one hand on the pole, which trails through the water;
+and only now and then have they to make a thrust to keep the boat in the
+middle of the stream.
+
+Weeks passed, and the ferry-boat drifted still farther and farther down
+the river. Autumn had come, and the woods turned yellow and russet, and
+the leaves fell. We had no time to spare if we did not want to be caught
+fast in the ice before reaching the place where we had arranged to meet
+the caravan. Therefore we started earlier in the morning and did not
+land until long after sunset each day. The solemn silence of a temple
+reigned around, only the quacking of a duck being heard occasionally or
+the noise of a fox stealing through the reeds. A herd of wild boars lay
+wallowing in the mud on the bank. When the boat glided noiselessly by
+they got up, looked at us a moment with the greatest astonishment, and
+dashed like a roaring whirlwind through the beds of cracking reeds. Deer
+grazed on the bank. They scented danger and turned round to make for
+their hiding-places in the wood. A roebuck swam across the stream a
+little in front of the boat. Islam lay with his gun in the bow ready to
+shoot, but the roebuck swam splendidly and, with a spring, was up on the
+bank and vanished like the wind. Sometimes we saw also fresh spoor of
+tigers at our camping-grounds, but we never succeeded in surprising one
+of them.
+
+One morning, when we had not seen any natives for a long time, the smoke
+of a fire was seen on the bank. Some shepherds were watching their
+flocks, and their dogs began to bark. The men gazed at the ferry-boat
+with wonder and alarm as it floated nearer, and no doubt thought that it
+was something ghostly, for they faced about and ran with the dust flying
+about their sheepskin sandals. I sent two men ashore, but it was quite
+impossible to catch up with the runaways.
+
+Farther down we passed through a district where several villages stood
+near the banks. They had learned of our coming through scouts, and when
+we arrived we were met by whole troops of horsemen. The village headmen
+were also present, and were invited on board, where they were regaled
+with tea on the after-deck.
+
+
+THE TARIM
+
+The farther we went the smaller became the river. The Yarkand-darya
+would never reach the lake, Lop-nor, where it discharges its water, if
+it did not receive a considerable tributary on the way. This tributary
+is called the Ak-su, or "White Water," and it comes foaming down from
+the Tien-shan, the high mountains to the north. After the rivers have
+mingled their waters, the united main stream is called the Tarim.
+
+The weather gradually became colder. One morning a dense mist lay like a
+veil between the wooded banks, and all the trees, bushes, and plants,
+and the whole boat, were white with hoar frost. After this it was not
+long before the frost began to spread thin sheets of ice over the pools
+on the banks and the small cut-off creeks of stagnant water, and we had
+to press on as fast as we could to escape being frozen in. Breakfast was
+no longer laid on land, but on the after-deck of the ferry-boat, where
+we built a fireplace of clay, and round this the men sat in turn to warm
+themselves. At night we travelled long distances in the dark. We had
+persuaded two natives to go with us in their long, narrow canoes, and
+they rowed in front of us in the darkness with large Chinese paper
+lanterns on poles to show us where the deep channel ran.
+
+The woods on the bank gradually thin out, and finally come to an end
+altogether, being replaced by huge sand-hills often as much as 200 feet
+high. This is the margin of the great sandy desert which occupies all
+the interior of Eastern Turkestan. The people in the country round about
+are called Lopliks, and live to a great extent on fish.
+
+During the last few days of November the temperature fell to 28.8 deg.
+below freezing-point. The drift ice which floated down the river became
+thicker, and one morning the ferry-boat lay frozen in so fast we could
+walk on the ice around it. Out in the current, however, the water was
+open, and we broke asunder our fetters with axes and crowbars. A
+constant roar of grinding and scraping ice accompanied us all day long,
+and during the nights we had to anchor the ferry-boat out in the
+swiftest part of the current to prevent it being frozen in.
+
+On December 7 broad fringes of ice lay along both banks, and all day we
+danced among drifting ice as in a bath of broken crockery. At night we
+had a whole flotilla of canoes with lanterns and torches to clear the
+way, when suddenly the boat swung round with a bump, and we found that
+the river was frozen over right across. This did not disturb us, for on
+the bank we saw the flames of a wood fire, and found that it was burning
+at the camp of our camel caravan.
+
+
+THE WANDERING LAKE
+
+The place where the ferry-boat was frozen in for the winter is called
+New Lake (see map, p. 90). Just at this spot the Tarim bends southwards,
+falling farther down into a very shallow lake called Lop-nor. The whole
+country here is so flat that with the naked eye no inequalities can be
+detected. Therefore the river often changes its bed, sometimes for short
+and sometimes for long distances. Formerly the river did not bend
+southwards, but proceeded straight on eastwards, terminating in another
+lake also called Lop-nor, which lay in the northern part of the desert,
+and which is mentioned in old Chinese geographies.
+
+The peculiarity of Lop-nor is, then, that the lake moves about, and, in
+conjunction with the lower course of the Tarim, swings like a pendulum
+between north and south. I made many excursions in that part of the
+desert where the Lop-nor formerly lay, and mapped out the old river-bed
+and the old lake. There I discovered ruins of villages and farms,
+ancient canoes and household utensils, tree trunks dry as tinder and
+roots of reeds and rushes. In a mud house I found also a whole
+collection of Chinese manuscripts, which threw much light on the state
+of the country at the time when men could exist there. These writings
+were more than 1600 years old.
+
+The explanation of the lake's wanderings is this. At the time of high
+water the Tarim is always full of silt, and the old lake was very
+shallow. The lake, therefore, was silted up with mud and decaying
+vegetation, and by the same process the bed of the river was raised. At
+last came the time when the Tarim sought for an outlet to the south,
+where the country was somewhat lower. The old bed was dried up by
+degrees and the water in the lake evaporated. The sheet of water
+remained, indeed, for a long time, but it shrank up from year to year.
+At last there was not a drop of water left, and the whole country dried
+up. The poplar woods perished, and the reeds withered and were blown
+away by the wind. The men left their huts and moved down the new water
+channel to settle at the new lake, where they erected new huts. The
+Tarim and Lop-nor had swung like a pendulum to the south, and men,
+animals, and plants were obliged to follow. The same thing then occurred
+in the south. The new river and lake were silted up and the water
+returned northwards. Thus the water swung repeatedly from north to
+south, but of course many hundreds of years elapsed between the
+vibrations.
+
+At the present day the lake lies in the southern part of the desert; it
+is almost entirely overgrown with reeds, and the poplar woods grow only
+by the river. The few natives are partly herdsmen, partly fishermen;
+they are of Turkish race and profess the religion of Islam; they are
+kind-hearted and peaceable, and show great hospitality to strangers.
+Their huts are constructed of bundles of reeds bound together; the
+ground within is covered with reed mats, and the roof consists of boughs
+covered with reeds. The men spend a large part of their time in canoes,
+which are hollowed poplar trunks, and are therefore long, narrow, and
+round at the bottom. The oars have broad blades and drive the canoes at
+a rapid pace. Narrow passages are kept open through the reeds, and along
+these the canoes wind like eels. The men are very skilful in catching
+fish, and in spring they live also on eggs, which they collect from the
+nests of the wild geese among the reeds. The reeds grow so thickly that
+when they have been broken here and there by a storm one can walk on
+them with six feet of water beneath.
+
+Tigers were formerly common on the banks of Lop-nor, and the natives
+used to hunt them in a singular manner. When a tiger had done mischief
+among the cattle, the men would all assemble from the huts in the
+neighbourhood at the thickets on the bank of the river where they knew
+that the tiger was in hiding. They close up round him from the land
+side, leaving the river-bank open. Their only weapons are poles and
+sticks, so they set fire to the copse in order to make the beast leave
+his lair. When the tiger finds that there is no way out on the land
+side, he takes to the water to swim to some islet or to the other shore
+of the lake, but before he is far out half a dozen canoes cut through
+the water and surround him. The men are armed only with their oars. The
+canoes can move much faster than the tiger, and one shoots quickly past
+him, and the men in the bow push his head under water with their
+oar-blades. Before the tiger has risen again the canoe is out of reach.
+The tiger snorts and growls and puffs madly, but in a moment another
+canoe is upon him and another oar thrusts him down deeper than before.
+This time he has barely reached the surface before a third canoe glides
+up, and his head is again shoved under water. Soon the tiger begins to
+tire and to gasp for breath. He has no opportunity of using his fangs
+and claws, and can only struggle for his life by swimming. Now the
+first canoe has circled round again, and the man in the bow pushes the
+tiger down with all his strength and holds him under water as long as he
+can. This goes on until the tiger can struggle no longer and is drowned.
+Then a rope is tied round his neck, and with much jubilation he is towed
+to the shore.
+
+The climate at Lop-nor is very different in winter and summer. In winter
+the temperature falls to 22 deg. below zero, and rises in summer to 104
+deg. Large variations like this always occur in the interior of the great
+continents of the world, except in the heart of Africa, close to the
+equator, where it is always warm. On the coasts the variation is
+smaller, for the sea cools the air in summer and warms it in winter. In
+the Lop-nor country the rivers and lakes are frozen hard in winter, but
+in summer suffocating heat prevails. Men are tortured by great swarms of
+gnats, and cattle are devoured by gadflies. It has even happened that
+animals have been so seriously attacked by gadflies that they have died
+from loss of blood. Fortunately, the flies come out only as long as the
+sun is up, and therefore the animals are left in peace at night. During
+the day horses and camels must be kept among the reeds, where the flies
+do not come.
+
+Incredible numbers of wild geese and ducks, swans and other swimming
+birds breed at Lop-nor, and the open water is studded all over with
+chattering birds. In late autumn they fly southwards through Tibet, and
+in winter the lakes are quiet, with yellow reeds sticking up through the
+ice.
+
+
+WILD CAMELS
+
+The level region over which the Lop-nor has wandered for thousands of
+years from north to south is called the Lop desert. Its stillness is
+broken only from time to time by easterly storms which roll like thunder
+over the yellow clay ground. In the course of ages these strong spring
+storms have ploughed out channels and furrows in the clay, but otherwise
+the desert is as level as a frozen sea, the places where Lop-nor
+formerly spread out its water being marked only by pink mollusc shells.
+
+On the north the Lop desert is bounded by the easternmost chains of the
+Tien-shan, which the Chinese also call the "Dry Mountains." They deserve
+the name, for their sides are hardly ever washed by rain; but at their
+southern foot a few salt springs are to be found. Round them grow reeds
+and tamarisks, and even in other places near the mountains some
+vegetation struggles for existence.
+
+This is the country of wild camels. Wild camels live in herds of half a
+dozen head. The leader is a dark-brown stallion; the mares are lighter
+in colour. Their wool is so soft and fine that it is a pleasure to pass
+one's hand over it. Several herds or families are often seen grazing on
+the same spot. They look well-fed, and the two humps are firm and full
+of fat. In spring and summer they can go without water for eight days,
+in winter for two weeks. For innumerable generations they have known
+where to find the springs: the mothers take their young ones to them,
+and when the youngsters grow up they in their turn show the springs to
+their foals. They drink the water, however salt it may be, for they have
+no choice, but they do not stay long at the meadows by the springs, for
+their instinct tells them that where water is to be found there the
+danger is great that their enemies may also come to drink.
+
+Against danger they have no other protection than their sharply
+developed senses. They can scent men at a distance of twelve miles. They
+know the odour of a camping-ground long after the ashes have been swept
+away by the wind, and they avoid the spot. Tame camels passing through
+their country excite their suspicion; they do not smell like wild ones.
+They are shy and restless and do not remain long at one pasture, even if
+no danger threatens.
+
+In some districts they are so numerous that the traveller cannot march
+for two minutes without crossing a spoor. Where the tracks all converge
+towards a valley between two hills, they probably lead to a spring. On
+one occasion when our tame camels had not had water for eleven days,
+they were saved by following the tracks of their wild relations.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1901-2, 1906-8)
+
+
+THE PLATEAU OF TIBET
+
+South of Eastern Turkestan lies the huge upheaval of the earth's crust
+which is called Tibet. Its other boundaries are: on the east, China
+proper; on the south, Burma, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, and British India;
+on the west, Kashmir and Ladak. Political boundaries, however, are of
+little and only temporary importance. They seldom remain unchanged from
+century to century, for from the earliest times a nation as it increased
+in strength has always extended its domain at the expense of its
+neighbours.
+
+The earth's crust, on the other hand, remains unchanged--if we disregard
+the continual work performed by rain and streams, weather and wind,
+which tends to fill up the hollows with mud and sand, to cut the valleys
+ever deeper, and to diminish the mountain masses by weathering. However
+powerfully these forces may have acted, Tibet still remains the highest
+mountain land of the world.
+
+If you lay your left hand on a map of Tibet so that the part nearest the
+wrist touches the Pamir, the flat of the hand covers the region of
+central Tibet, where there is no drainage to the ocean, but where the
+country falls instead into a number of isolated lake basins. Your thumb
+will represent the Himalayas, the forefinger the Trans-Himalaya, the
+middle finger the Karakorum, the third finger the Arka-tagh, and the
+little finger the Kuen-lun. The highest mountain ranges of the world are
+under your fingers; and also, as the longest finger is the middle of the
+five, so the Karakorum is the central range of Tibetan mountains.
+
+Now let a little stream of water fall on the back of your hand as you
+hold it on a table with the fingers spread out. You will see that a tiny
+quantity remains on the back of the hand, but that the greater part runs
+away between the fingers. Thus it is in Tibet. The water poured on your
+hand represents the rain of the south-west monsoon, which falls more
+abundantly on the eastern part of the country than on the western. The
+water which stays on the back of the hand represents the small scattered
+salt lakes on the plateau country which has no drainage to the sea,
+while the large quantity which runs off between your fingers represents
+the large rivers which flow between the ranges.
+
+[Illustration: TIBET.]
+
+Of these rivers two stream eastwards: the Yellow River (the Hwang-ho),
+which falls into the Yellow Sea, and the Blue River (the
+Yang-tse-kiang), which empties its waters into the Eastern Sea. The
+others run southwards, the Mekong into the China Sea, the Salwin,
+Irawaddy, and Brahmaputra into the great inlet of the Indian Ocean which
+is called the Bay of Bengal. A large quantity of water runs off along
+the outer side of your thumb; this is the Ganges, which comes down from
+the upper valleys of the Himalayas. And, far to the west, nearest to the
+wrist, you find two rivers with which you are already acquainted: the
+Indus, which flows southwards into the Arabian Sea, and the Tarim, which
+runs north and east and falls into Lop-nor.
+
+The Himalayas are the loftiest range on earth, and among their crests
+rise the highest peaks in the world. Three of them should be remembered,
+for they are so well known: Mount Everest, which, with its 29,000 feet,
+is the very highest summit in the world; Kinchinjunga (28,200 feet), and
+Dhwalagiri (26,800 feet). Mount Godwin-Austen in the Karakorum is only
+about 650 feet lower than Mount Everest.
+
+The Himalayas present a grand spectacle when seen from the south. No
+other mountain region in the world can vie with it in awe-inspiring
+beauty. If we travel by rail from Calcutta up to Sikkim we see the
+snow-clad crest of the Himalayas in front and above us, and Kinchinjunga
+like a dazzling white pinnacle surmounting the whole. We see the sharply
+defined snow limit, and the steep, wooded slopes below. If it is early
+in the morning and the weather is fine, the jagged, snowy crest shines
+brightly in the sun, while the flanks and valleys are still hidden in
+dense shadow. And during the journey to the great heights we shall
+notice that the flora changes much in the same way as it does from South
+Italy to the North Cape. The last forms of vegetation to contend against
+the cold are mosses and lichens. Then we come to the snow limit, where
+the mountains and rocks are bare.
+
+North and Central Tibet have a mean elevation of 16,000 feet; that is to
+say, one is almost always at a greater height than the summit of Mont
+Blanc. Where the plateau country is so exceedingly high the mountain
+ranges seem quite insignificant. We have spoken of five great ranges,
+but between these He many smaller, all running east and west.
+
+What a fortunate thing it is for the people of Asia that the interior of
+the continent rises into the tremendous boss called Tibet! Against its
+heights the water vapour of the monsoon is cooled and condensed, so that
+it falls in the form of rain and feeds the great rivers. Were the
+country flat like northern India or Eastern Turkestan, immense tracts of
+the interior of Asia would be complete desert, as in the interior of
+Arabia; but as it is, the water is collected in the mountains and runs
+off in all directions. Along the rivers the population is densest;
+around them spring up cities and states, and from them canals branch off
+to water fields and gardens.
+
+You know, of course, that Asia is the largest division of land in the
+world, and that Europe is little more than a peninsula jutting out
+westwards from the trunk of Asia. Indeed, Asia is not much smaller than
+Europe, Africa, and Australia put together. Of the 1550 millions of men
+who inhabit the world, 830 millions, or more than half, live in Asia.
+If, now, you take out your atlas and compare southern Europe and
+southern Asia, you will find some very curious similarities. From both
+these continents three large peninsulas point southwards. The Iberian
+Peninsula, consisting of Spain and Portugal, corresponds to the Arabian
+Peninsula, both being quadrangular and massive. Italy corresponds to the
+Indian Peninsula, both having large islands near their extremities,
+Sicily and Ceylon. The Balkan Peninsula corresponds to Further India
+(the Malay Peninsula), both having irregular, deeply indented coasts
+with a world of islands to the south-east, the Archipelago and the Sunda
+Islands.
+
+Tibet may be likened to a fortress surrounded by mighty ramparts. To the
+south the ramparts are double, the Himalayas and the Trans-Himalaya, and
+between the two is a moat partly filled with water--the Upper Indus and
+the Upper Brahmaputra. And Tibet is really a fortress and a defence in
+the rear of China. It is easily conceivable that a country surrounded by
+such huge mountain ranges must be very difficult of access, and the
+number of Europeans who have crossed Tibet is very small.
+
+The inaccessible position of the country has also had an influence on
+the people. Isolated and without communication with their neighbours,
+the people have taken their own course and have developed in a peculiar
+manner within their own boundaries. The northern third of the country is
+uninhabited. I once travelled for three months, and on another occasion
+for eighty-one days, without seeing a single human being. The middle
+part is thinly peopled by herdsmen, who roam about with their flocks of
+sheep and yaks, and live in black tents. Many of them also are skilful
+hunters of yaks and antelopes. Others gather salt on the dried-up beds
+of lakes, pack it in double-ended bags, and carry it on sheep to barter
+it for barley in the southern districts, which are the home of the great
+majority of Tibet's two or three million inhabitants. There are to be
+found not only nomads, but also settled people, dwelling in small
+villages of stone huts in the deeper river valleys, especially that of
+the Brahmaputra, and cultivating barley. A few towns also exist here;
+they are all small, the largest being Lhasa and Shigatse.
+
+When our journey takes us to India again we shall have an opportunity of
+learning about the religion of Buddha, which is called Buddhism. In a
+different form this religious creed found its way into Tibet a thousand
+years ago. Before this time a sort of natural religion prevailed, which
+peopled the mountains, rivers, lakes, and air with demons and spirits.
+Much of the old superstition was absorbed into the new teaching, and the
+combination is known by the name of Lamaism. There are 620 millions of
+Christians in the world and 400 million Buddhists; and of the Buddhists
+all the Tibetans and Mongolians, the Buriats in eastern Siberia, the
+Kalmukhs on the Volga, the peoples of Ladak, northern Nepal, Sikkim, and
+Bhutan are Lamaists.
+
+They have a great number of monks and priests, each of whom is called a
+Lama. The principal one is the Dalai Lama, in Lhasa, but almost on a par
+with him is the Tashi Lama, the head of Tashi-lunpo, the large monastery
+at Shigatse. The third in rank is the High Lama at Urga in northern
+Mongolia. These three and some others are incarnated deities. The Dalai
+Lama never dies; the god that dwells in him merely changes his earthly
+body, just as a snake when it casts its skin. When a Dalai Lama dies it
+means that the divinity, his soul, sets out on its wanderings and passes
+into the body of a boy. When the boy is found he becomes the Dalai Lama
+of Lhasa. Lamaists believe, then, in the transmigration of souls, and
+the end, the fullest perfection, is peace in Nirvana.
+
+There are many monasteries and nunneries in the upper Brahmaputra
+valley. The temple halls are adorned with images of the gods in metal or
+gilded clay, and butter lamps burn day and night in front of them. Monks
+and nuns cannot marry, but among the ordinary people the singular custom
+prevails that a wife can have two or several husbands. Among Mohammedans
+the case is just the reverse: men can have several wives.
+
+
+ATTEMPT TO REACH LHASA
+
+It was from Lop-nor in the year 1901 that I penetrated into this lofty
+mountain land for the third time. The summer had just set in with its
+suffocating dust storms, and we longed to get up into the fresh, pure
+air. The caravan was large, for I had sixteen Mohammedan servants from
+Eastern Turkestan, two Russian and two Buriat Cossacks, and a Mongolian
+Lama from Urga. Provisions for seven months, tents, furs, beds, weapons,
+and boxes were carried by 39 camels, 45 horses and mules, and 60 asses;
+and we also had 50 sheep for food, several dogs, and a tame stag.
+
+When all was ready we set out towards the lofty mountains and crossed
+one range after another. When we reached the great heights the caravan
+lost strength day by day. The atmosphere is so rare that a man cannot
+breathe without an effort, and the slightest movement produces
+palpitation of the heart. The grazing becomes more scanty the higher you
+go, and many of the caravan animals succumbed. At last we seldom
+travelled more than twelve miles in a day.
+
+After forty-four days' march due southwards we came to a part of the
+country where footprints of men were seen in several places, and Lhasa
+was only 300 miles away. Up to this time all Europeans who had tried to
+reach the holy city had been forced by Tibetan horsemen to turn back.
+The Tibetans are at bottom a good-tempered, decent people, but they will
+not allow any European to enter their country. They have heard that
+India and Central Asia have been conquered by white men, and fear that
+the same fate may befall Tibet. Two hundred years ago, indeed, Catholic
+missionaries lived in Lhasa, and the town was visited in 1845 by the
+famous priests Huc and Gabet from France. Since then two Europeans who
+had made the attempt to reach the place had been murdered, and others
+had to turn back without success.
+
+Now it was my turn to try my luck. My plan was to travel in disguise
+with only two followers. One was the Mongolian Lama, the other the
+Buriat Cossack, Shagdur. The Buriats are of Mongol race, speak
+Mongolian, and are Lamaists. They have narrow, rather oblique eyes,
+prominent cheek-bones, and thick lips. The dress of both peoples is the
+same--a skin coat with long sleeves and a waistbelt, a cap, and a pair
+of boots with turned-up toes. My costume was of exactly the same kind,
+and everything we took with us--tent, boxes, cooking utensils, and
+provisions--was of Mongolian style and make. The European articles I
+required--instruments, writing materials, and a field-glass--were
+carefully packed in a box. For defence we had two Russian rifles and a
+Swedish revolver. Of the caravan animals, five mules and four horses, as
+well as two dogs, Tiger and Lilliput, were to go with us. I rode a
+handsome white horse, Shagdur a tall yellow horse, and the Lama a small
+greyish-yellow mule. The baggage animals were led by my men and I rode
+behind. During the first two days we had a Mohammedan with us, Oerdek,
+but he was to go back to headquarters, where all the rest of the caravan
+were ordered to await our return.
+
+We were to ride south-eastwards and endeavour to strike the great
+Mongolian pilgrim route to Lhasa. Many Mongolians betake themselves
+annually in large armed caravans to the holy city to pay homage to the
+Dalai Lama, and obtain a blessing from him and the Tashi Lama. Perhaps
+it was wrong of me to give myself out for a Lamaist pilgrim, but there
+seemed no other means of getting to the forbidden city.
+
+We left the main camp on July 27, and those we left behind did not
+expect ever to see us again. The first day we did not see a living
+thing, and the second day we rode twenty-five miles farther without
+hindrance. Our camp that day was situated on open ground beside two
+lakes, and to the south-east stood some small hills, in the
+neighbourhood of which our animals grazed. Oerdek was to watch them
+during the night in order that we might have a good sleep, for when he
+left us we should have to guard them ourselves.
+
+Here my disguise was improved. My head was shaved so that it shone like
+a billiard ball. Only the eyebrows were left. Then the Lama rubbed fat,
+soot, and brown colouring-matter into the skin, and when I looked in a
+small hand-glass I could hardly recognise myself; but I seemed to have a
+certain resemblance to my two Lamaist retainers.
+
+In the afternoon a storm broke out from the north, and we crept early
+into our little thin tent and slept quietly. At midnight Oerdek crept
+into the tent and whispered in a trembling voice that robbers were
+about. We seized our weapons and rushed out. The storm was still raging,
+and the moon shone fitfully between the riven clouds. We were too late.
+With some difficulty we made out two horsemen on the top of the hills
+driving two loose horses before them--we found afterwards that one was
+my favourite white horse, the other Shagdur's yellow one. Shagdur sent a
+bullet after the scoundrels, but it only hastened their pace.
+
+It was still dark, but there was no more sleep for us. We settled
+ourselves round a small blaze, boiled rice and tea, and lighted our
+pipes. When the sun rose we were ready to go forward. First we examined
+the tracks of the thieves and found that they had come down on us with
+the wind, and had thus eluded the watchfulness of the dogs. One of the
+men had crept along a rain furrow right among the grazing horses, and,
+jumping up, had frightened the best two off to leeward. There a mounted
+Tibetan had taken them in hand and chased them on in front of him. The
+third had waited with his comrade's horse and his own, and then he also
+had made off. They had no doubt been watching us all day. Perhaps they
+already knew that we came from my headquarters, and they might even send
+a warning to Lhasa.
+
+Oerdek was beside himself with fright at having to make the two days'
+journey back on foot and quite alone. We heard afterwards that he did
+not dare to go back on our trail, but sneaked like a wild cat along all
+the furrows, longing for night; but when darkness came he was still more
+terrified and thought that every stone was a lurking villain. A couple
+of wild asses nearly frightened him out of his senses, and made him
+scuttle like a hedgehog into a ravine. When he arrived in the darkness
+of night at the main camp, the night watchman took him for a stranger
+and raised his gun. But Oerdek shouted and waved his arms, and when he
+got to his tent he lay down and slept heavily for two whole days.
+
+We three pilgrims rode on south-eastwards, and pitched our tent on open
+ground by a brook twenty-five miles farther on. Our positions were now
+reversed; Shagdur was the important man and I was only a mule-driver.
+With the Cossacks I always spoke Russian, but now no language must be
+used but Mongolian, which the Lama had been teaching me for a long time
+previously. After dinner I slept till eight o'clock in the evening, and
+when I awoke I found my two comrades in a state of the greatest anxiety,
+for they had seen three Tibetan horsemen spying upon us from a long
+distance. We must therefore expect fresh trouble at any moment.
+
+The night was divided into three watches, from nine o'clock to midnight,
+midnight to three o'clock, and three o'clock to six o'clock, and usually
+I took the first and the Lama the last. The animals were tethered to a
+rope fastened to the ground in the lee of the tent, and Tiger was tied
+up in front of them and Lilliput behind them.
+
+At half-past eight Shagdur and the Lama were asleep in the tent, and my
+first night watch began. I strolled backwards and forwards between Tiger
+and Lilliput, who whined with pleasure when I stroked them. The sky was
+covered with dense black clouds, lighted from within by flashes of
+lightning, while thunder rolled around us and rain streamed down in a
+perfect deluge. It beat and rang on the Mongolian stewpans left out at
+the fireplace. Sometimes I tried to get a little shelter in the tent
+opening, but as soon as the dogs growled I had to hurry out again.
+
+At last it is midnight and my watch is at an end; but Shagdur is
+sleeping so soundly that I cannot find it in my heart to waken him. I am
+just thinking of shortening his watch by half an hour when both dogs
+begin to bark furiously. The Lama wakes up and rushes out, and we steal
+off with our weapons in the direction in which we hear the tramp of a
+horse going away through the mud. In a little while all is quiet again,
+and the dogs cease to bark. I wake up Shagdur and creep into my berth in
+my wet coat.
+
+Next day we travel on under a sky as heavy as lead. No human beings or
+nomad tents are to be seen, but we find numerous tracks of flocks of
+sheep and yaks, and old camping-grounds. The danger of meeting people
+increased hourly, and so did my anxiety as to how the Tibetans would
+treat us when we were at last discovered.
+
+On July 31 the rain was still pouring down. We were following a clear,
+well-trodden path, along which a herd of yaks had recently been driven.
+After a while we came up with a party of Tangut pilgrims, with fifty
+yaks, two horses, and three dogs. The Tanguts are a nomadic people in
+northeastern Tibet, and almost every second Tangut is also a robber. We
+passed them safely, however, and for the first time encamped near a
+Tibetan nomad tent occupied by a young man and two women.
+
+While the Lama was talking with these people, the owner of the tent came
+up and was much astonished to find an unexpected visitor. He followed
+the Lama to our tent and sat down on the wet ground outside the
+entrance. His name was Sampo Singi, and he was the dirtiest fellow I
+ever saw in my life. The rain-water dropped from his matted hair on to
+the ragged cloak he wore; he wore felt boots but no trousers, which
+indeed almost all Tibetan nomads regard as quite, superfluous.
+
+Sampo Singi blew his nose with his fingers, making a loud noise, and he
+did it so often that I began to think that it was some form of
+politeness. To make sure I followed his example. He showed not the
+slightest suspicion, only looked at our things and gave us the
+information we wanted. We had a journey of eight days more to Lhasa, he
+assured us. Then Shagdur gave him a pinch of snuff which made him sneeze
+at least fifty times. We laughed at him when he asked whether we put
+pepper in our snuff, whereupon, in order to keep up our story, Shagdur
+roared at me, "Do not sit here and stare, boy; go and drive in the
+cattle." I started up at once, and had a terrible job to get the animals
+in to the camp.
+
+We had an undisturbed night, thanks to the neighbourhood of the nomads,
+for they too had fierce dogs and arms. Early in the morning Sampo came
+with another man and a woman to visit us. We had asked if we might buy
+some food from them, and they brought several choice things with them--a
+sheep, a large piece of fat, a bowl of sour milk, a wooden bowl of
+powdered cheese, a can of milk, and a lump of yellow cream cheese. Then
+came the question of payment. Our money consisted of Chinese silver
+pieces, which are valued by weight, and are weighed out with a pair of
+small scales. Sampo Singi, however, would take only silver coins from
+Lhasa, of which we had none. Fortunately I had provided myself with two
+packages of blue Chinese silken material in Turkestan, and a length of
+that is a substitute for silver of all kinds. The Tibetans became quite
+excited when they heard the rustle of the silk, and after the usual
+haggling and bargaining we came to an agreement.
+
+The sheep was then slaughtered, some fat pieces were fried over the
+fire, and after a solid breakfast, of which a share was bestowed on the
+dogs, we bade farewell to the Tibetans and rode on through the valley,
+still in pouring rain. Soon we came to the right bank of a broad river
+which was composed of about twenty arms, four of which were each as
+large as an ordinary stream. Without hesitation our courageous little
+Lama rode straight out into the rapid turbid current, and Shagdur and I
+followed. When we had crossed about half the river we rested a while on
+a small mud flat, from which neither bank could be seen owing to the
+rain. On all sides we were surrounded by swiftly flowing water, yet it
+seemed as if the water was standing still while the small sandbank
+rushed up the river at a terrific pace.
+
+The Lama again started off with his mule into the water, but he had not
+gone many steps before the water rose to the root of the animal's tail.
+He was also leading the mule which carried our two hide trunks, which
+until the water soaked into them acted like corks. In this way the mule
+lost her footing on the bottom of the river, swung round, and was
+quickly carried down-stream. We saw her disappear in the rain and
+thought that it was certainly her last journey, but she extricated
+herself in a marvellous manner. Near the left bank of the river she
+managed to get her hoofs on the bottom again, and clambered up; and what
+was most singular, the two trunks were still on her back.
+
+At length we all got safely across, and rode on. My boots squelched, and
+water dropped from the corners of the boxes. Our camp that evening was
+truly wretched--not a dry stitch on us, continuous rain, almost
+impossible to make a fire. At length, however, we succeeded in keeping
+alight a small smoking fire of dung. That night I did not keep watch a
+minute after midnight, but waked up Shagdur mercilessly and crept into
+bed.
+
+On August 2 we made only fifteen and a half miles. The road was now
+broad and easy to follow. On the slope of a hill was encamped a large
+tea caravan; its twenty-five men were sitting round their fires, while
+the three hundred yaks were grazing close at hand. The bales of tea were
+stacked up in huge piles; it was Chinese tea of poor quality compressed
+into cakes like bricks, and therefore called "brick-tea." Every cake is
+wrapped in red paper, and about twenty cakes are sewed up together into
+a hide tightly bound with rope. The caravan was bound for Shigatse. As
+we rode by, several of the men came up to us and put some impertinent
+and inconvenient questions. They were well armed and looked like
+robbers, so we politely refused their proposal that we should travel
+together southwards. We pitched our camp a little farther on, and next
+morning we saw this curious and singular caravan pass by. It was a great
+contrast to the fine camel caravans of Persia and Turkestan, for it
+marched like a regiment in separate detachments of thirty or forty yaks
+each. The men walked, whistling and uttering short sharp cries; ten of
+them carried guns slung on their backs, and all were bareheaded,
+sunburnt, and dirty.
+
+The whole of the next day we remained where we were in order to dry our
+things, and the Lama again stained my head down to the neck and in the
+ears. The critical moment was approaching.
+
+On August 4 we met a caravan of about a hundred yaks, accompanied by
+armed men in tall yellow hats; but they took us for ordinary pilgrims
+and did not trouble themselves about us. Then we rode past several
+tents, and when we reached the top of the next pass we saw that tents
+lay scattered about on the plain like black spots, fourteen together in
+one place. We were now on the great highway to Lhasa.
+
+The next day we came to a flat open valley, where there were twelve
+tents. Three Tibetans came to our tent there at dusk, and had a long
+conversation with the Lama, who was the only one of us who understood
+Tibetan. When he came back to us he was quite overcome with fright. One
+of the three men, who was a chief, had told him that information had
+come from yak-hunters in the north that a large European caravan was on
+the way. He had a suspicion that one of us might be a white man, and he
+ordered us on no account to move from where we were. In fact, we were
+prisoners, and with great anxiety we awaited the morning, when our fate
+would be decided. All night a watch was kept round our tent, as we knew
+by the fires, and next day we were visited by several parties, both
+influential chiefs and ordinary nomads, who warned us, if we valued our
+lives, to wait there till the Governor of the Province arrived.
+
+In the meantime they did all they could to frighten us. Troops of
+horsemen in close order dashed straight towards our tent, as if they
+meant to stamp us into the earth, and so finish us off at once. On they
+rushed, the horses' hoofs ringing on the bare ground and the riders
+brandishing their swords and lances above their heads and uttering the
+wildest shrieks. When they were so near that the mud was splashed on to
+the tent, they suddenly opened out to right and left, and returned in
+the same wild career to the starting-point. This martial manoeuvre was
+repeated several times.
+
+During the following days, however, they behaved in a more peaceful
+fashion, and eventually we came to be on quite a friendly footing with
+most of our neighbours. They visited us constantly, gave us butter,
+milk, and fat, and when it rained crept coolly into our tent, which
+became so crowded that we could hardly find room for ourselves. They
+informed us that the Dalai Lama had given orders that no harm should be
+done to us, and we saw that messengers on horseback rode off daily along
+the roads leading to Lhasa and the Governor's village. We did not know
+where our seven baggage and riding animals were, but we made it clear to
+the Tibetans that, as they had stopped us against our will, they must be
+answerable for the safety of our animals and possessions.
+
+On August 9 things at last began to look lively. A whole village of
+tents sprang up at some distance from us, and round the new tents
+swarmed Tibetans on foot and horseback. A Mongolian interpreter escorted
+by some horsemen came to our tent.
+
+"The Governor, Kamba Bombo, is here, and invites you to-day to a feast
+in his tent."
+
+"Greet Kamba Bombo," I answered, "but tell him that it is usual first to
+pay a visit to the guests one invites."
+
+"You must come," went on the interpreter; "a sheep roasted whole is
+placed in the middle of the tent, surrounded by bowls of roasted meal
+and tea. He awaits you."
+
+"We do not leave our camp. If Kamba Bombo wishes to see us he can come
+here."
+
+"If you will not come with me I cannot be responsible for you to the
+Governor. He has ridden day and night to talk with you. I beg you to
+come with me."
+
+"If Kamba Bombo has anything to say to us, he is welcome. We ask nothing
+from him, only to travel to Lhasa as peaceful pilgrims."
+
+Two hours later the Tibetans came back again in a long dark line of
+horsemen, the Governor riding on a large white mule in their midst. His
+retinue consisted of officials, priests, and officers in red and blue
+cloaks carrying guns, swords, and lances, wearing turbans or
+light-coloured hats, and riding on silver-studded saddles.
+
+When they came up, carpets and cushions were spread on the ground, and
+on these Kamba Bombo took his seat. I went out to him and invited him
+into our poor tent, where he occupied the seat of honour, a maize sack.
+He might be forty years old, looked merry and jovial, but also pale and
+tired. When he took off his long red cloak and his _bashlik_, he
+appeared in a splendid dress of yellow Chinese silk, and his boots were
+of green velvet.
+
+The interview began at once, and each of us did his best to talk the
+other down. The end of the matter was a clear declaration on his part
+that if we tried to move a step in the direction of Lhasa our heads
+should be cut off, no matter who we were. We did our best, both that day
+and the next, to get this decision altered, but it was no use and we had
+to yield to superior force.
+
+So we turned back on the long road through dreary Tibet, and eventually
+regained our headquarters in safety.
+
+
+THE TASHI LAMA
+
+Thus it was that we came back to the little town of Leh, the capital of
+Ladak, and again saw the winter caravans which come over the lofty
+mountains from Eastern Turkestan on their way with goods to Kashmir.
+Then several years passed, but in August, 1906, I was once more in Leh,
+having travelled (as has been described) across Europe to
+Constantinople, over the Black Sea, through Persia and Baluchistan, then
+by rail to Rawalpindi, in a tonga to Kashmir, and lastly on horseback to
+Leh. On this occasion the caravan consisted of twenty-seven men and
+nearly a hundred mules and horses, besides thirty hired horses, which
+were to turn back when the provisions they carried had been consumed.
+
+Our course lay over the lofty mountains in northern Tibet, and for
+eighty-one days we did not see a single human being. But when we turned
+off to the right and came to more southern districts of the country, we
+met with Tibetan hunters and nomads, from whom we purchased tame yaks
+and sheep, for the greater part of our animals had perished owing to the
+rarefied air, the poor and scanty pasture, and the cold and the wind.
+The temperature had on one occasion fallen as low as 40 deg. below zero.
+
+After wandering for about six months we came to the Upper Brahmaputra,
+which is the only place where the Tibetans use boats, if indeed they can
+be called boats at all. They simply take four yak hides, stretch them
+over a framework of thin curved ribs and sew them together, and then the
+boat is ready; but it is buoyant and floats lightly on the water. When
+we were only a day's journey from Shigatse, the second town of Tibet,
+the caravan was ferried across the river. I myself with two of my
+servants took my seat in a hide boat, dexterously managed by a Tibetan,
+and we drifted down the Brahmaputra at a swinging pace.
+
+A number of other boats were following the same fine waterway. They were
+full of pilgrims flocking to the great Lama temple in Shigatse. Two days
+later was the New Year of the country, and then the Lamaists celebrate
+their greatest festival. Pilgrims stream from far and near to the holy
+town. Round their necks they wear small images of their gods or
+wonder-working charms written on paper and enclosed in small cases, and
+many of them turn small praying mills, which are filled inside with
+prayers written on long strips of paper. When the mills revolve all
+these prayers ascend up to the ears of the gods--so easy is it to pray
+in Tibet! All the time a man can continue his conversation with his
+fellow-travellers.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XI. TASHI-LUNPO.
+
+From a sketch by the Author.]
+
+Many of the pilgrims, however, like all Tibetans, murmur the sacred
+formula _Om mane padme hum_ over and over again. These four words
+contain the key to all faith and salvation. They signify "O, jewel in
+the lotus flower, amen." The jewel is Buddha, and in all images he is
+represented as rising up from the petals of a lotus flower. The more
+frequently a man repeats these four words, the greater chance has he of
+a happy existence when he dies and his soul passes into a new body.
+
+We reached Shigatse and pitched our tents in a garden on the outskirts
+of the town. Outside Shigatse stands the great monastery of Tashi-lunpo
+(Plate XI.), in which dwell 3800 monks of various grades, from fresh
+young novices to old, grey high priests. They all go bareheaded and
+bare-armed, and their dress consists of long red sheets wound round the
+body. The priest who is head of all is called the Tashi Lama; he is the
+primate of this part of Tibet and enjoys the same exalted rank and
+dignity as the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. He has a great reputation for
+sanctity and learning, and pilgrims stand for hours in a queue only to
+receive a word of blessing from him.
+
+This Tashi Lama was then a man of twenty-seven years of age, and had
+held the position since he was a small boy. He invited me to the great
+festival in the temple on New Year's Day. In the midst of the temple
+town is a long court surrounded by verandahs, balconies, and platforms.
+Round about are seen the gilded copper roofs over the sanctuaries and
+mausoleums where departed high priests repose. Everywhere the people are
+tightly packed, and the visitors from far and near are dressed in their
+holiday clothes, many-coloured and fine, and decorated with silver
+ornaments, coral and turquoise. The Tashi Lama has his seat in a balcony
+hung with silken draperies and gold tassels, but the holy countenance
+can be seen through a small square opening in the silk.
+
+The festival begins with the entry of the temple musicians. They carry
+copper bassoons ten feet long, so heavy that their bells have to rest on
+the shoulder of an acolyte. With deep, long-drawn blasts the monks
+proclaim the New Year, just as long ago the priests of Israel announced
+with trumpet notes the commencement of the year of jubilee. Then follow
+cymbals which clash in a slow, ringing measure, and drums which rouse
+echoes from the temple walls. The noise is deafening, but it sounds
+cheerful and impressive after the deep stillness in the valleys of
+Tibet.
+
+After the musicians have taken their places in the court the dancing
+monks enter. They are clad in costly garments of Chinese silk, and
+bright dragons embroidered in gold flash in the folds as the sunlight
+falls on them. The faces of the monks are covered by masks representing
+wild animals with open jaws and powerful tusks. The monks execute a slow
+circular dance. They believe, and so do all the people, that evil
+spirits may be kept at a distance and driven away by this performance.
+
+The next day I was summoned to the Tashi Lama. We passed along narrow
+paved lanes between the monastery walls, through narrow gloomy passages,
+up staircases of polished wood, and at last reached the highest floor of
+the monastery, where the Tashi Lama has his private apartments. I found
+him in a simple room, sitting cross-legged in a window recess from which
+he can see the temple roofs and the lofty mountains and the sinful town
+in the valley. He was beardless, with short-cut brown hair. His
+expression was singularly gentle and charming, almost shy. He held out
+his hands to me and invited me to take a seat beside him, and then for
+several hours we talked about Tibet, Sweden, and this vast, wonderful
+world.
+
+
+WILD ASSES AND YAKS
+
+If I had counted all the wild asses I saw during my travels in Tibet the
+number would amount to many, many thousands. Up in the north, in the
+very heart of the highland country, and down in the south, hardly a day
+passed without our seeing these proud, handsome animals, sometimes
+alone, sometimes in couples, and sometimes in herds of several hundred
+head.
+
+The Latin name for the wild ass, _Equus kiang_, indicates his close
+relationship to the horse, and "kiang" is what he is called by the
+people of Tibet. The wild ass is as large as an average mule, with
+well-developed ears, and a sharp sense of hearing; his tail is tufted at
+the end, and he is reddish-brown in colour, except on the legs and
+belly, where he is white. When he scents danger he snorts loudly, throws
+up his head, cocks his ears, and expands his nostrils; he is more like a
+fine ass than a horse, but when you see him wild and free on the salt
+plains of Tibet, the difference between him and an ass seems even
+greater than between an ass and a horse. My own horses and mules seemed
+sorry jades by the side of the "kiangs" of the desert.
+
+On one occasion my Cossacks caught two small foals which as yet had no
+experience of life and the dangers of the desert. They stood tied up
+between the tents and made no attempt to escape. We gave them meal mixed
+with water, which they supped up eagerly, and we hoped that they would
+thrive and stay with us. When I saw how they pined for freedom, however,
+I wanted to restore them to the desert and to their mother's care. But
+it was too late; the mothers would have nothing to do with them after
+they had been in the hands of men, so we had to kill them to save them
+from the wolves. Thus strict is the law of the wilderness: a human hand
+is enough to break the spell of its freedom.
+
+We cannot travel back to India without having become acquainted with the
+huge ox which runs wild over the loftiest mountains of Tibet. He is
+called "yak" in Tibetan, and the name has been transferred to most
+European languages. He is closely akin to the tame yak, but is larger
+and is always of a deep black colour; only when he is old does his head
+turn grey. The tame yak, on the other hand, is often white, brown, or
+mottled. Common to both are the peculiar form and the abundant wool.
+Seen from the side, the yak seems humpbacked. The back slopes down from
+the highest point, just over the forelegs, to the root of the tail,
+while the neck slopes down still more steeply to the scrag. The animal
+is exceedingly heavy, strong and ungainly, and the points of the thick
+horns are often worn and cracked in consequence of severe combats
+between the bulls.
+
+As the yak lives in a temperature which in winter falls below the
+freezing-point of mercury (-40 deg.), he needs a close warm coat and a
+protective layer of fat under the hide; and he is, in fact, so well
+provided with these that no cold on earth can affect him. When his
+breath hangs in clouds of steam round his nostrils he is in his element.
+Singular, too, are the fringes of wool a foot long which skirt the lower
+parts of his flanks and the upper parts of his forelegs. They may grow
+so long as to touch the ground as the yak walks. When he lies down on
+the stone-hard, frozen, and pebbly ground, these thick fringes serve as
+cushions, and on them he lies soft and warm.
+
+On what do these huge fleshy animals live in a country where, broadly
+speaking, nothing grows and where a caravan may perish for want of
+fodder? It often happened that we would march for several days together
+without seeing a blade of grass. Then we might come to a valley with a
+little scanty hard yellow grass, but even if we stayed over a day the
+animals could not get nearly enough to eat. Not until we have descended
+to about 15,000 feet above sea-level do we find--and then only very
+seldom--a few small, miserable bushes; and to reach trees we must
+descend another 3000 feet lower. In the home of the wild yaks the ground
+is almost everywhere bare and barren, and yet these great beasts roam
+about and thrive excellently. They live on mosses and lichens, which
+they lick up with the tongue, and for this purpose their tongues are
+provided with hard, sharp, horny barbs like a thistle. In the same way
+they crop the velvety grass, less than half an inch high, which grows on
+the edges of the high alpine brooks, and which is so short that a horse
+cannot get hold of it.
+
+On one occasion I made an excursion of several days from the main
+caravan, accompanied by only two men. One was an Afghan named Aldat. He
+was an expert yak-hunter, and used to sell the hides to merchants of
+Eastern Turkestan to be made into saddles and boots. We had encamped
+about 600 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc, and the air was so
+rarefied that if we took even a few steps we suffered from difficulty in
+breathing and palpitation of the heart.
+
+When the camp was ready, Aldat came and asked me to look at a large yak
+bull grazing on a slope above my tent. As we needed flesh and fat, I
+gave him permission to shoot it and to keep the hide. The bull had not
+noticed us, for he was to windward, and thought of nothing but the juicy
+moss. Water melted from the snow trickled among the stones, the wind
+blew cold, and the sky was overcast--true yak weather. With his gun on
+his back, Aldat crept up a hollow. At last he pushed himself along on
+his elbows and toes, crouching on the ground like a cat prowling after
+prey. At a distance of thirty paces he stopped behind a scarcely
+perceptible ridge of stones and took careful aim. The yak did not look
+up, not suspecting any danger. He had roamed about for fifteen years on
+these peaceful heights near the snow-line and had never seen a man. The
+shot cracked out and echoed among the mountains. The yak jumped into the
+air, took a few uncertain steps, stopped, reeled, tried to keep his
+balance, fell, lifted himself, but fell again heavily and helplessly to
+the ground, and lay motionless. It was stone dead, and in an hour was
+skinned and cut up.
+
+This took place on September 9. On the 23rd of the same month the
+relations of the yak bull might have seen from a distance a strange
+procession. Some men carried a long object to the edge of a grave which
+had just been dug, lowered it into the trench, covered it with a skin
+coat, and filled in the grave with stones and earth. Into this simple
+mound was thrust a tent pole, with the wild yak's bushy tail fastened to
+the top; and the man who slumbered under the hillock was Aldat himself,
+the great yak-hunter.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+INDIA
+
+
+FROM TIBET TO SIMLA
+
+Right up in Tibet lie the sources of the Sutlej, the largest affluent of
+the Indus. With irresistible force it breaks through the Himalayas in
+order to get down to the sea, and its valley affords us an excellent
+road from the highlands of Tibet to the burning lowlands of India. On
+this journey we pass through a succession of belts of elevation, and
+find that various animals and plants are peculiar to different heights.
+The tiger does not go very high up on the southern flanks of the
+Himalayas, but the snow leopard is not afraid of cold. The tame yak
+would die if he were brought down to denser strata of air, and Marco
+Polo's sheep would waste away on the forest-clothed heights; but wolves,
+foxes and hares occur as frequently in India as in Tibet.
+
+The boundaries of the flora are more sharply defined. Below the limit of
+eternal snow (13,000 feet) ranunculus and anemones, pedicularis and
+primulas are found just as they are in our higher latitudes with
+corresponding conditions of temperature. At 12,000 feet lies the limit
+of forest, beyond which the birch does not go, but where pine-trees
+still thrive. Between 10,000 and 6000 feet are woods of the beautiful
+and charming conifer called the Himalayan cedar, which is allied to the
+cedar of Lebanon. At 7000 feet the limit of subtropical woods is
+crossed, and the oak and the climbing rose are seen. Just below 3500
+feet the tropical forest is entered, with acacias, palms, bamboos, and
+all the floral wealth of the Indian jungle.
+
+The Sutlej grows bigger and bigger the further we descend, and we ride
+on shaking bridges across innumerable tributaries. The atmosphere
+becomes denser, and breathing easier. We no longer have a singing in
+the ears, or palpitations or headache as on the great heights, and the
+cold has been left behind. Even in the early morning the air is warm,
+and soon come days when we look back with regret to the cool freshness
+up in Tibet. One of my dogs, a great shaggy Tibetan, suffered severely
+from the increasing heat, and one fine day he turned right about and
+went back to Tibet.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XII. SIMLA.]
+
+The first town that we come to is called Simla (Plate XII.). It is not
+large, having barely 15,000 inhabitants, but it is one of the most
+beautiful towns in the world, and one of the most powerful, for in its
+cedar groves stands a palace, and in the palace an Imperial throne. The
+Emperor is the King of England, whose power over India is entrusted to a
+Viceroy. In summer enervating heat prevails over the lowlands of India,
+and all Europeans who are not absolutely tied to their posts move up to
+the hills. The Viceroy and his staff, the government officials, the
+chief officers of the army, civil servants and military men all fly with
+their wives up to Simla, where the leaders of society live as gaily as
+in London. During this season the number of inhabitants rises to 30,000.
+
+The houses of Simla are built like swallows' nests on steep slopes. The
+streets, or rather roads, lie terraced one above another. The whole town
+is built on hills surrounded by dizzy precipices. Round about stand
+forests dark and dense; but between the cedars are seen far off to the
+southwest the plains of the Punjab and the winding course of the Sutlej,
+and to the north the masses of the Himalayas with their eternal
+snowfields. It is delightful to go up to Simla from the sultriness of
+India, and perhaps still more delightful to come down to Simla from the
+piercing cold of Tibet.
+
+
+DELHI AND AGRA
+
+From Simla we go down by train through hundreds of tunnels and round the
+sharpest curves, over countless bridges and along dizzy precipices, to
+the lowlands of the Punjab. It is exceedingly hot, and we long for a
+little breeze from Tibet's snowy mountains.
+
+Time flies by till we reach Delhi, situated on the Jumna, one of the
+affluents of the Ganges. Delhi was the capital of the empire of the
+Great Moguls,[11] and in the seventeenth century it was the most
+magnificent city in the world.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF INDIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM NUSHKI TO LEH (pp.
+82-88), AND THE JOURNEY FROM TIBET THROUGH SIMLA, ETC., TO BOMBAY
+(pp. 130-142).]
+
+Many proud monuments of this grandeur still remain, notably the splendid
+building of pure white marble called the Hall of Private Audience, where
+in the open space surrounded by a double colonnade the Great Mogul was
+wont to dispense justice and receive envoys. In the sunshine the marble
+columns seem to be translucent, and light-blue shadows fall on the
+marble floor. The walls and pillars are inlaid with costly stones of
+various shapes: lapis-lazuli and malachite, nephrite and agate. In the
+throne-room used to stand the famous "Peacock Throne" of the Great
+Mogul. The whole throne was covered with thick plates of gold and
+studded all over with diamonds. In the year 1749 the Persian king, Nadir
+Shah, came to Delhi, defeated the Great Mogul and carried off treasures
+to the value of fifty-six million pounds. Among other valuables he
+seized was the famous diamond called the "Koh-i-noor," or "Mountain of
+Light," now among the British crown jewels. He also carried off the
+Peacock Throne, which alone was worth eleven million pounds. It is to
+this day in the possession of the Shahs of Persia, but all the diamonds
+have been taken out one after another by the successors of Nadir Shah
+when they happened to be in difficulties. The gold plates are left,
+however, and on the back still glitter the golden peacocks which give
+the throne its name.
+
+If we stroll for some hours through the narrow streets and interesting
+bazaars of Delhi and push our way among bustling Hindus and Mohammedans,
+we can better appreciate the vaulted arches of the Hall of Private
+Audience and can also understand the Persian inscription to be read
+above the entrance: "If there be an Elysium on earth, it is here."
+
+Farther down the Jumna stands Agra, and here we make another break in
+our railway journey eastwards. Agra also was for a time the capital of
+the Great Mogul empire, and in the seventeenth century the emperor who
+bore the name of Shah Jehan erected here an edifice which is still
+regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world (Plate XIII.). It is
+called the "Taj Mahal," or "royal palace," and is a mausoleum in memory
+of Shah Jehan's favourite wife, Mumtaz, by whose side he himself reposes
+in the crypt of the mosque. It is constructed entirely of blocks of
+white marble, and took twenty-seven years to build and cost nearly two
+million pounds of our money.
+
+The garden which surrounds the sanctuary is entered through a large gate
+of red sandstone. In a long pool goldfish dart about under floating
+lotus blossoms, and all around is luxuriant verdure, the dwelling-place
+of countless singing birds; the air is filled with the odour of jasmine
+and roses, and tall, slender cypresses point to heaven.
+
+Straight in front the marble Taj Mahal rises from a terrace, dazzling
+white in the sunshine--a summer dream of white clouds turned to stone, a
+work of art which only love could conjure out of the rubbish of earth.
+The airy cupola, the arched portals, and bright white walls are
+reflected in the pool. At each of the four corners of the terrace stands
+a tall slender minaret, also of white marble, and in the centre the huge
+dome rises to a height of 240 feet. In the great octagonal hall below
+the dome, within an enclosure of marble filigree work, stand the
+monuments over Shah Jehan and his queen Mumtaz. The actual sarcophagi
+are preserved in the vault beneath.
+
+The four facades of this wonderful building are all alike, but the
+background of green vegetation and the changes of light seem always to
+be producing new effects. Sometimes a faint green reflection from the
+foliage can be seen in the white marble; in the full sunshine it is like
+snow; in shadow, light blue. When the sun sinks in the red glow of
+evening, the whole edifice is bathed in orange light; and later comes
+the moonlight, which is perhaps the most appropriate of all. Steamy and
+close, hot and silent, now lies the garden; the illumination is icy
+cold, the shadows deep black, the dome silvery white. The mysterious
+sounds of the jungle are heard around, and the Jumna rolls down its
+turbid waters to meet the sacred Ganges.
+
+
+BENARES AND BRAHMINISM
+
+In the drainage basin of the Ganges, through which the train is again
+carrying us south-eastwards, 100 million human beings, mostly Hindus,
+have their home. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and supports many
+large towns, several of them two or three thousand years old, besides
+innumerable villages. Here the Hindu peasants have their huts of
+bamboo-canes and straw-matting, and here they cultivate their wheat,
+rice, and fruits.
+
+Our next stay is at Benares--the holiest city in the world, if holiness
+be measured by the reverence shown by the children of men. Long before
+Jerusalem and Rome, Mecca and Lhasa, Benares was the home and heart of
+the ancient religion of India, and it still is the centre of
+Brahminism and Hinduism. There are more than 200 millions of Hindus in
+the world, and the thoughts of all of them turn to Benares. All Hindus
+long to make a pilgrimage to their holy city. The sick come to recover
+health in the waters of the sacred Ganges, the old travel hither to die,
+and the ashes of those who die in distant places are sent to Benares to
+be scattered over the waters of salvation. In Benares, moreover, Buddha
+preached 500 years before Christ, and at the present day he has more
+than 400 million followers; so to Buddhists also Benares is a holy
+place.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIII. THE TAJ MAHAL.]
+
+The Hindus have three principal gods: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the
+preserver; and Siva, the destroyer. From these all the others are
+derived: thus, for example, Kali represents only one of the attributes
+of Siva. To this goddess children were formerly sacrificed, and when
+this was forbidden by the British Government goats were substituted. But
+we have not yet done with divinities. The worship of the Hindus is not
+confined to their gods. Nearly all nature is divine, but above all, cows
+and bulls, apes and crocodiles, snakes and turtles, eagles, peacocks and
+doves. It is not forbidden to kill, steal and lie, but if a Hindu eats
+flesh, nay, if he by chance happens to swallow the hair of a cow, he is
+doomed to the hell of boiling oil. He becomes an object of horror to
+all, but above all to himself. For thousands of years this
+superstitution has been implanted in the race, and it remains as strong
+as ever.
+
+Ever since India, or, as the country is called in Persia, Hindustan, was
+conquered by the invading Aryans from the north-west--and this was quite
+4000 years ago--the Hindus have been divided into castes. The
+differences between the different castes are greater than that between
+the barons and the serfs in Europe during the Middle Ages. The two
+highest castes were the Brahmins (or priests) and the warriors. Now
+there are a thousand castes, for every occupation constitutes an
+especial caste: all goldsmiths, for example, are of the same caste, all
+sandal-makers of another, and men of different castes cannot eat
+together, or they become unclean.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in the morning, just before the day has begun to dawn in the east,
+let us hire a boat and have ourselves rowed up and down the Ganges. In
+this way we obtain an excellent view of this wonderful town as it
+stretches in front of us along the left bank of the river--a great heap
+of closely packed buildings, houses, walls and balconies, and an
+endless succession of pagodas with lofty towers (Plate XIV.). From the
+top of the bank, which is about 100 feet high, a broad flight of steps
+runs down to the river, and stone piers jut out like jetties into the
+water. Between these are wooden stages built over the surface of the
+river and covered with straw thatch and large parasols or awnings. This
+is the gathering place of the faithful. They come from every furthest
+corner of the city to the sacred river to greet the sun when it
+rises--brown, half-naked figures, with light clothing, often only a
+loincloth, of the gaudiest colours. The whole bank of the river teems
+with men.
+
+An elderly Brahmin comes down to a jetty and squats on his heels. His
+head is shaved, with the exception of a tuft on the crown. He dips his
+head in the river, scoops some water up and rinses his mouth with it. He
+calls on Ganges, daughter of Vishnu, and prays her to take away his
+sins, the impurity of his birth, and to protect him throughout his life.
+Then, after repeating the twenty-four names of Vishnu, he stands up and
+calls out the sacred syllable "Om," which includes Brahma, Vishnu, and
+Siva. Lastly he invokes the earth, air, sky, sun, moon, and stars, and
+pours water over his head.
+
+The rim of the rising sun is seen above the jungle on the right bank of
+the Ganges. Its appearance is saluted by all the thousands of pious
+pilgrims, who sprinkle water with their hands in the direction of the
+sun, wading out into the long shallow margin of the river. The old
+Brahmin has squatted down again and performs the most incomprehensible
+movements with his hands and fingers. He holds them in different
+positions, puts them up to the top of his head, his eyes, forehead,
+nose, and breast, to indicate the 108 different manifestations of
+Vishnu. If he forgets a single one of these gestures, all his worship is
+in vain. The same ceremony has to be repeated in the afternoon and
+evening, and in the intervals the devout Brahmin has other religious
+duties to perform in the temples.
+
+Here an old man lies stretched out on a bed of rags. He is so thin that
+his skin hangs loosely over his ribs, and though his body is brown, his
+beard is snow-white. He has come to Benares to die beside the holy
+Ganges, which flows from the foot of Vishnu. There stands a man in the
+prime of life, but a leper, eaten away with sores. He has come to
+Benares to seek healing in the waters of life. Here, again, is a young
+woman, who trips gracefully down the stone steps bearing a water jug
+on her head. She wades into the river until the water comes up to her
+waist; then she drinks from her hand, sprinkles water towards the sun,
+pours water over her hair, fills her pitcher, and goes slowly up again,
+while the holy Ganges water drips from the red wrap which is wound round
+her body. And all the other thousands who greet the sun with oblation of
+water from the sacred river are convinced that he who makes a pilgrimage
+to Benares and dies within the city walls obtains forgiveness for all
+his sins.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIV. BENARES.]
+
+Like the Buddhists, the Hindus believe in the transmigration of souls. A
+Hindu's soul must pass through more than eight million animal forms, and
+for all the sins he has committed in the earlier forms of his existence,
+he must suffer in the later. Therefore he makes offerings to the gods
+that he may soon be released from this eternal wandering and attain the
+heaven of the faithful. In the endless chain of existence this short
+morning hour of prayer on the banks of the Ganges is but a second
+compared to eternity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the evening, when the hottest hours of the day are past, let us again
+take a boat and drift down slowly past the stone steps and jetties of
+Benares. Noiseless, muddy, and grey the sacred river streams along its
+bed. What quantities of reeking impurities there are in this water of
+salvation! Whole bundles of crushed and evil-smelling marigolds, refuse,
+rags and bits, bubbles and scum, float on its surface.
+
+Down a steep lane a funeral procession approaches the bank at a quick
+pace. The strains of anything but melodious music disturb the quiet of
+the evening, and the noise of drums is echoed from the walls of the
+pagodas. The corpse is borne on a bier covered with a white sheet, and
+men of the caste of body-burners arrange it on the pyre, a pile of wood
+stacked up by the waterside. Then they set fire to the dry shavings, and
+the wood pile crackles. Thick clouds of smoke rise up and the smell of
+burned flesh is borne on the breeze.
+
+The body-burners have been sparing of fuel, however, and when the heap
+of wood has burned down to ashes, the half-consumed and blackened corpse
+still remains among the embers, and is then thrown out into the river.
+
+
+THE LIGHT OF ASIA
+
+In the sixth century before Christ, an Aryan tribe named Sakya dwelt in
+Kapilavastu, 120 miles north of Benares. The king of the country had a
+son, Siddharta, gifted with supernatural powers both of body and mind.
+When the prince had reached his eighteenth year he was allowed to choose
+his bride, and his choice fell on the beautiful Yasodara; but in order
+to obtain her hand he had to vanquish in open contest those of his
+people who were most proficient in manly exercises. First came the
+bowmen, who shot at a copper drum. Siddharta had the mark moved to
+double the distance, but the bow that was given him broke. Another was
+sent for from the temple--of unpolished steel, so stiff that no one
+could bend it to get the loop of the string into the groove. To
+Siddharta, however, this was child's play, and his arrow not only
+pierced the drum, but afterwards continued its flight over the plain.
+
+The second trial was with the sword. With a single stroke each of the
+other competitors cut through the trunk of a fine tree, but with
+lightning rapidity Siddharta's blade cut clean through two trunks
+standing side by side. As the trees remained unmoved, the other
+competitors were jubilant and scoffed at the prince's blunt sword, but a
+light puff of wind rustled through the tops of the trees and both fell
+to the ground.
+
+The last trial was to subdue a wild horse which no one could ride. Under
+Siddharta's powerful hand it became gentle and obedient as a lamb.
+
+Then the prince led his bride to the splendid palace of Kapilavastu. The
+king feared that the wickedness, poverty, and misfortune which prevailed
+in the world without might trouble the prince's mind, and he therefore
+had a high wall built round the palace, and guards posted at the gates.
+The prince was never to pass out through them.
+
+For some time the prince lived happily in his paradise, but one day he
+was seized with a desire to see the condition of men out in the world.
+The king gave him permission to leave the palace grounds, but issued
+orders that the town should be decorated as for a festival, and that all
+the poor, crippled, and sick people should be kept out of sight. The
+prince drove through the streets in his carriage drawn by bulls. There
+he saw an old man, worn and bent, who held out his withered hand,
+crying, "Give me an alms, to-morrow or the next day I shall die." The
+prince asked whether this hideous creature, so unlike all the others he
+had seen, was really a man, and his attendant replied that all men must
+grow old, feeble, and miserable like the one in front of them. Troubled
+and thoughtful Siddharta returned home.
+
+After some time he begged his father to let him see the town in its
+everyday state. Disguised as a merchant, and accompanied by the same
+attendant who was with him on the first occasion, he went through the
+streets on foot. Everywhere he saw prosperity and industry, but suddenly
+he heard a whining cry beside him: "I am suffering, help me home before
+I die." Siddharta stopped and found a plague-stricken man, unable to
+stir, his body covered with blotches. He asked his attendant what was
+the matter, and was told that the man was ill.
+
+"Can illness afflict all men?"
+
+"Yes, Sire, it comes sneaking like a tiger through the thicket, we know
+not when or wherefore, but all may be stricken down by it."
+
+"Can this unfortunate man live long in such misery, and what is the
+end?"
+
+"Death."
+
+"What is death?"
+
+"Look! here comes a funeral. The man who lies on the bamboo bier has
+ceased to live. Those who follow him are his mourning relations. See how
+he is now laid on a pyre, down there on the bank, and how he is burnt;
+soon all that is left of him will be a little heap of ashes."
+
+"Must all men die?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"Myself also?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+More sorrowful than ever he returned home, and in his soul a longing
+ripened to save mankind from suffering, care, and death. He heard a
+voice, "Choose between a royal crown and the beggar's staff, between
+worldly power and the lonely desolate paths which lead to the redemption
+of mankind."
+
+His resolution was soon taken. In the night he stole gently to
+Yasodara's couch, and looked his last on his young wife sleeping on a
+bed of roses, with her new-born son in her arms. Then he left behind all
+he loved, bade his groom saddle his horse, and rode to the copper gates,
+now watched by a treble guard. A magic wind passed over the watchmen,
+and they fell into a deep sleep, while the massive gates opened
+noiselessly of themselves.
+
+When he was far away from Kapilavastu, he sent his servant back with the
+horse and its royal trappings, changed clothes with a tattered beggar,
+and went on alone. Then he met the odious tempter, the power of evil,
+who offered him dominion over the four great continents if he would only
+abandon his purpose. He overcame the tempter, and continued his journey
+until he came to another kingdom, where he settled in a cave and
+attempted to convince the Brahmins that Brahma could not be a god, since
+he had created a wretched world. The Brahmins, however, received him
+with suspicion, so he retired to a lonely country where, with five
+disciples, he devoted himself to deep meditation and self-mortification.
+
+In time he came to see that it was no use to torture and enfeeble the
+body, which is after all the abode of the soul, and accordingly began to
+take food again. Then his disciples abandoned him, for at that time
+self-mortification was regarded as the only path to salvation. Siddharta
+was then alone, and under the sacred fig-tree still shown in India he
+gained wisdom and enlightenment, and became Buddha.
+
+Then he came to Benares, and won back his first disciples; and his
+society, the brotherhood of the yellow mendicant monks, spread ever more
+and more. In the rainy season, from June to October, he taught in
+Benares, and in the fine weather he wandered from village to village.
+"To abstain from all evil, to acquire virtue, to purify the heart--that
+is the religion of Buddha"; so he preached. At the age of eighty years
+he died in 480 B.C.
+
+Buddha was a reformer who wished to instil new life into the religious
+faith of the Hindus. Many of the leading brothers of his order were
+Brahmins. He rejected the Vedic books, self-mortification, and
+differences of caste, preached philanthropy, and taught that the way to
+Nirvana, the paradise of peace and perfection, is open to all. He left
+no writings behind, but his doctrines were preserved in the memory of
+his disciples, who long after wrote them down. The five chief precepts
+are, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit
+adultery, thou shalt not lie, and thou shalt not drink strong drinks."
+
+To-day, 2500 years after his death, the doctrine of Buddha has spread
+over immense regions of eastern Asia--over Japan, China, Korea,
+Mongolia, Tibet, Further India, and Ceylon--and the country north of the
+Caspian Sea. Innumerable are the images of Buddha to be found in the
+temples of eastern Asia, and he himself has been called the "Light of
+Asia."
+
+
+BOMBAY
+
+After we leave Benares the railway turns south-eastwards to the wide
+delta country where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra meet, and where
+Calcutta, the capital of India,[12] stands on one of the arms of the
+river. The town itself is flat and monotonous, but it is large and
+wealthy and contains more than a million inhabitants. The climate is
+very damp and hot, the temperature even in winter being about 95 deg.
+in the shade. Accordingly in the summer the Viceroy and his government
+move up to Simla in the cool of the hills.
+
+From Calcutta we travel by train right across to the western coast of
+the Indian Peninsula, to a more beautiful and more pleasant city--indeed
+one of the most beautiful cities of the world. Bombay is the gate to
+India, for here the traveller ends his voyage from Europe through the
+Suez Canal and begins his railway journey to his destination. It is a
+great and wealthy commercial town, having about 800,000 inhabitants, and
+innumerable vessels lie loading or unloading in the splendid harbour.
+
+Here we find the last remnant of a people formerly great and powerful.
+About six or seven hundred years before the birth of Christ lived a man
+named Zoroaster. He founded a religion which spread over all Persia and
+the neighbouring lands, and under its auspices Xerxes led his immense
+armies against Greece. When the martial missionaries of Islam
+overwhelmed Persia in 650 A.D. many thousands of the followers of
+Zoroaster fled to India, and a remnant of this people still live in
+Bombay and are called Parsees.
+
+They are clever and prosperous merchants, many of them being
+multi-millionaires, and they own Bombay and control its trade. Their
+faith involves a boundless reverence for fire, earth, and water. As the
+earth would be polluted if corpses were buried in it, and as fire would
+be dishonoured by burning bodies, they deposit their dead within low
+round towers, called the Towers of Silence. There are five of these
+towers in Bombay. They all stand together on a high hill, rising from a
+peninsula which runs out into the sea. The body is laid naked within the
+walls of the tower. In the trees around large vultures perch, and in a
+few minutes nothing but the skeleton is left of the corpse. Under the
+cypresses and the fine foliage trees in the park round the Towers of
+Silence the family of the deceased may abandon themselves to their
+grief.
+
+
+THE USEFUL PLANTS OF INDIA
+
+In India we find a flora nearly allied to that which flourishes in
+tropical Africa, a soil which freely affords nourishment to both wild
+and cultivated plants, an irrigation either supplied directly by the
+monsoon rains or artificially conducted from the rivers. It is true that
+we travel for long distances, especially in north-western India, through
+true desert tracts, but other districts produce vegetation so dense and
+luxuriant that the air is filled with reeking, choking vapour as in a
+huge hothouse.
+
+First there are bananas, the cucumber-shaped fruits which are the food
+of millions of human beings. From India and the Sunda Islands this
+beneficent tree has spread to Africa and the Mediterranean coasts, to
+Mexico and Central America. Its floury-white flesh, juicy and
+saccharine, fragrant and well-flavoured, is an excellent article of
+food. The large leaves of the banana are useful for various
+purposes--sunshades, roof thatch, etc.
+
+When the hot season comes, how pleasant it is to dream in the shadow of
+the mango-tree! The tree is about sixty feet high, and the shadow
+beneath its bluish-grey leathery leaves is close and dense. The pulp of
+the fruit is golden yellow and juicy, rich in sugar and citric acid. It
+is difficult to describe the taste, for it is very peculiar; but it is
+certainly delicious.
+
+From their home in China and Cochin China the orange and its smaller
+brother, the mandarin, have spread over India and far around. Amongst
+the many other fruits which abound in India are grapes, melons, apples
+and pears, walnuts and figs. Figs are green before they ripen, and then
+they turn yellow. The fig-tree is distributed over the whole world
+wherever the heat is sufficient. It is mentioned both in the Old and the
+New Testament. Under a kind of fig-tree Buddha acquired wisdom in the
+paths of religion, and therefore the tree is called _Ficus religiosa_.
+_Nymphaea stellaris_, the lotus flower, which, like the water-lily,
+floats on water, is another plant of great renown among Buddhists. The
+lotus is an emblem of their religion, as the Cross is of Christianity.
+
+In India a large quantity of rice is cultivated. In the north-eastern
+angle of the Indian triangle, Bengal and Assam, in Burma, on the
+peninsula of Further India (the Malay Peninsula), as well as in the
+Deccan, the southern extremity of the triangle, rice cultivation is
+extensively developed. Wheat is grown in the north-west, and cotton in
+the inland parts of the country. The cotton bush has large yellow
+flowers, and when the fruit, which is as large as a walnut, opens, the
+inside shows a quantity of seeds closely covered with soft woolly hairs.
+The fruit capsules are plucked off and dried in the sun. The fibre is
+removed from the seeds by a machine, and is cleaned and packed in bales
+which are pressed together and confined by iron bands, and then the
+article is ready for shipping to the manufacturing towns, of which
+Manchester is the most important. In India and Arabia the cotton bush
+has been cultivated for more than 2000 years, and Alexander the Great
+introduced it into Greece. Now there are plantations all over the world,
+but nowhere has the cultivation reached such perfection as in the United
+States of America.
+
+Crops which during recent decades have shown enormous development are
+those known as india-rubber and gutta-percha, so much being demanded by
+the bicycle and motor industries. In the year 1830, 230 tons of rubber
+were imported into Europe; in 1896, 315,500 tons. The demand became so
+great that a reckless and barbarous exploitation took place of the
+trees, the inspissated and dried sap of which is rubber, this tough
+resisting and elastic gum which renders such valuable services to man.
+In Borneo ten trees were felled for every kilogramme of gutta-percha.
+Now more prudent and sensible methods have been introduced. In Ceylon,
+Java, and the Malay Peninsula there are large plantations which make
+their owners rich men. In India the Brazilian tree (_Hevea_) is the most
+productive of all the rubber-yielding varieties. A cross cut is made in
+the trunk of the tree, and the milky juice runs out and is collected
+into receptacles. Then it is boiled, stirred, compressed, and spread on
+tinned plates, rolled up and sent in balls into the market. At present
+Brazil supplies two-thirds of all the rubber used.
+
+Then we have all the various spices--cinnamon, which is the bark on the
+twigs of the cinnamon-tree; pepper, carried into Europe by Alexander;
+ginger, and cardamoms. There is sesamum, from the seeds of which a fine
+edible oil is pressed out, and then tea, coffee, and tobacco. A plant
+which is at once a blessing and a curse, and which is extensively
+cultivated in India, is the poppy. When the outer skin of the fruit
+capsule is slit with a knife, a milky juice oozes out which turns brown
+and coagulates in the air, and is called opium. The opium which Europe
+requires for medicinal purposes comes from Macedonia and Asia Minor. But
+the opium grown in Persia and India goes mostly to China, into which
+country it was introduced by the Tatars at the end of the seventeenth
+century. The Chinese smoke opium in specially-made pipes. A small pea of
+opium is pressed into the bowl of the pipe and held over the flame of a
+lamp. The smoke is inhaled in a couple of deep breaths. Another pellet
+is treated in the same way. Soon the opium-smoker falls into a trance
+full of dreams and beautiful visions. He forgets himself, his cares and
+his surroundings, and enjoys perfect bliss. He then sleeps soundly, but
+when he awakes the reality seems more gloomy and dreary than ever, and
+he suffers from excruciating headache. All he cares for is the opium
+pipe. Men who fall a victim to this vice are lost; they can only be
+cured when confined in homes. In Persia opium is usually smoked in
+secret dens, for there the habit is considered shameful, but in China
+both men and women smoke openly.
+
+The sugar-cane is also grown over immense fields in India. The juice
+contains 20 per cent of sugar. In Sanscrit, the old language of India,
+it is called _sakhara_. The Arabs, who introduced it to the
+Mediterranean coasts, called it _sukhar_. And thus it is called, with
+slight modifications, in all the languages of Europe and many of those
+of Asia.
+
+We must also not forget the countless palms which wave their crowns in
+the tepid winds of the monsoons. There are the date palms, the coconut
+palms, the sago palm, and a multitude of others. The sago palm, from the
+pith of which sago grains are prepared, is a remarkable plant. It
+flowers only once and then dies. This occurs at an age of twenty years
+at most.
+
+The soil of India supports many kinds of useful trees--sandalwood, which
+is employed in the construction of the finer kinds of furniture; ebony,
+with its dark wood; the teak-tree, which grows to a height of 130 feet,
+and forms immense forests in both the Indian peninsulas and in the Sunda
+Islands. It is hard and strong, like oak, and nails do not rust in it.
+It is therefore used in shipbuilding, and also frequently in the inside
+of modern warships. The sleeping and refreshment carriages of railway
+trains are usually built of teak.
+
+Lastly, there is the blue vegetable substance called indigo, which is
+obtained from small bushes or plants by a simple process of
+fermentation. It is mostly used to dye clothing, and has been known in
+Europe since the Indian campaign of Alexander.
+
+
+WILD ELEPHANTS
+
+The home of the wild elephant is the forests of India, the Malay
+Peninsula, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Borneo, while another species is found
+in Africa. They live in herds of thirty or forty, and every herd forms a
+separate community. The leader of the herd is a full-grown bull with
+large, strong tusks, whom all the others obey with the greatest
+docility. When they wander through the forest, however, or fly before
+danger, the females go in front and set the pace, for they alone know
+how fast their young ones can travel. Their senses of smell and hearing
+are remarkably acute; they are of a good-tempered and peaceable
+disposition, and do not care to expose themselves to unnecessary risks.
+They are therefore not very dangerous to man, unless when attacked; but
+man is their worst enemy.
+
+In India wild elephants are caught to be tamed and employed in labour.
+They are captured in various ways, but usually tame elephants are used
+to decoy the wild ones. Expert elephant-catchers hide themselves as well
+as they can on the backs of tame animals and drive them into a herd of
+their wild relations. When a full-grown male has been separated from the
+herd, he is beset on all sides by his pursuers and prevented from
+sharing in the flight of his companions. They do him no injury, but only
+try to tire him out. It may be two whole days before he is so exhausted
+that, come what may, he must lie down to sleep. Then the men drop down
+from the tame animals and wind ropes round his hind legs, and if there
+is a tree at hand they tie him to it.
+
+In Ceylon there are wonderfully smart and expert elephant-catchers who
+hunt their game in couples without the help of tame decoys. They search
+through the woods and thickets and follow a spoor when they come across
+it, being able to judge from the footprints how long ago the trail was
+tramped out, how many elephants there were, and whether they were going
+fast or slowly. The smallest mark or indication on the way, which a
+stranger would not notice, serves as a guide to them. When they have
+found the troop they follow it silently as shadows; they creep and
+crawl and sneak along the woodland paths as cautiously as leopards. They
+never tread on a twig which might crack, they never brush against a leaf
+which might rustle. The elephants, for all their fine scent and sharp
+hearing, have no suspicion of their proximity. The men lie in wait in a
+close thicket where the elephants can only move slowly, throw a noose of
+ox hide before the animal's hind leg, and draw it tight at the right
+moment. Then the elephant finds out his danger, and, trumpeting wildly,
+advances to attack, but the men scurry like rats through the brushwood
+and strengthen the snares time after time until the animal is fast.
+
+In India whole herds are also captured at once, and this is the most
+wonderful sight it is possible to conceive. A place is known in the
+forest where a herd of perhaps a hundred animals has made its home.
+Natives who are experienced in elephant-catching are called out, and all
+the tame elephants procurable are assembled. A chain of sentinels is
+posted round the herd, making a circle of several miles. The men
+construct a fence of bamboos as quickly and quietly as possible, and
+keep to their posts for nearly ten days. The elephants become restless
+and try to break through, but wherever they turn they are met with cries
+and shouts, blank gunshots and waving torches. They retire again to the
+middle of the enclosure. If they make an attempt in another direction,
+they are met in the same way, and at last, submitting to their fate,
+they stand in the middle where they are least disturbed.
+
+Meanwhile within the circle a very strong enclosure has been erected of
+poles, trunks, and sticks 12 feet high, with a diameter of 160 feet at
+most. The entrance, which is 12 feet broad, can be closed in a moment by
+a huge falling wicket or gate. Now it stands open, and from the two
+sideposts run out two long palisades of stakes, forming an open passage
+to the entrance. The two fences diverge outwards and are nearest to each
+other at the entrance.
+
+When all is ready the great ring of beaters closes up round the herd,
+and scares and chases them with shouts and noise towards the opening
+between the palings. Fresh parties of beaters rush up, and when the
+elephants can find no other way free they dash in between the fences and
+into the pen, whereupon the entrance is closed with the heavy gate. They
+are caught as in a trap. They may, indeed, gather up their strength and
+try to break through the fence of poles, but it is too stoutly built
+and the beaters outside scare them away.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XV. TAME ELEPHANTS AND THEIR DRIVERS.]
+
+The imprisoned animals are left in peace for forty-eight hours, and when
+they have become quiet the most difficult and dangerous part of the
+exploit begins. Mounted on well-trained tame elephants, the most expert
+and experienced elephant-catchers enter the enclosure. They are active
+as cats, quick in their movements, bold, courageous, and watchful. Ropes
+are hung round the tame elephants so that their riders may have
+something to hold on by in case they are attacked and have to lower
+themselves down the flanks of their animals. These know by the signs
+given to them by the riders what they have to do, and the rider holds in
+his hand a small iron spike which he presses against the elephant's neck
+to make him move forwards, backwards, to right or left. A rider
+approaches a selected victim. If he turns to attack, another tame
+elephant comes up and gives him a thrust with his tusks. Choosing his
+time, the rider throws a noose round the head of the wild animal. The
+tame one helps with his trunk to place the noose right. The other end is
+made fast round the trunk of a tree. When the animal is thus secured the
+rider slips down to the ground and throws another noose round his hind
+legs, and the end of this rope is also fastened to a tree. Thus he is
+rendered harmless, and he struggles and tugs in vain to get loose.
+Meanwhile the other tame elephants with their riders help to catch and
+fetter their wild relations.
+
+Then the captives, well and securely bound, are led one after another
+out of the enclosure and are fastened to trees in the forest. Here they
+have for a long time to accustom themselves to man and the society of
+tame elephants, and when they have lost all fear, spitefulness, and
+wildness they are led into the villages to be regularly broken in and
+trained to work in the service of their capturers.
+
+It is pleasant to see tame elephants at work, or bathing in the rivers
+with their drivers (Plate XV.). They carry timber, they carry goods
+along the high-roads, they are useful in many ways where great strength
+is needed. The Maharajas of India always keep a well-filled elephant
+stable, but employ the animals mostly for tiger-hunting and riding. The
+elephant is to them a show animal which is never absent on occasions of
+ceremony. Old well-trained animals which carry themselves with royal
+dignity fetch, therefore, a very high price.
+
+
+THE COBRA
+
+The cobra, or spectacled snake, is the most poisonous snake in India. It
+is very general in all parts of India, in Further India, in southern
+China, in the Sunda Islands, and Ceylon. Its colour is sometimes
+yellowish, shading into blue, sometimes brown, and dirty white on the
+under side. It is about five feet long. When it is irritated it raises
+up the front part of its body like a swan's neck, spreads out the eight
+foremost pairs of ribs at the sides, so that a hat or shield-shaped hood
+is formed below the head. The rest of the body is curled round, and
+gives the creature firm support when it balances the upper part of its
+body ready to inflict its poisonous bite with lightning speed. On the
+back of its hood are yellow markings like a pair of spectacles.
+
+The cobra lives in old walls or heaps of stone and timber, under roots,
+or in dead trunks in the forest, in fact anywhere where he can find a
+sheltered hole. He does not avoid human dwellings, and he may often be
+seen, heavy and motionless, rolled up before his hole. But as soon as a
+man approaches he glides quickly and noiselessly into his hole, and if
+attacked defends himself with a weapon which is as dangerous as a
+revolver.
+
+He is a day snake, but avoids sunshine and heat and prefers to seek his
+food after sunset. He should more properly be described as a snake of
+the twilight. He glides under the close brushwood of the jungle in
+pursuit of lizards and frogs, birds, eggs, and rats or other small
+animals that come in his way. On his roamings he also climbs up trees
+and creeping plants, and swims across large streams. It might be thought
+that a vessel anchored off the coast would be safe from cobras, but
+cases have been known of these snakes swimming out, crawling up the
+anchor chains, and creeping on board.
+
+The female lays a score of long eggs as large as a pigeon's, but with a
+soft shell. The male and female are believed to entertain a great
+affection for each other, for it has been noticed that when one of them
+is killed, the other is shortly seen at the same spot.
+
+The Hindus regard the cobra as a god, and are loath to kill him. Many
+cannot bring themselves to do so. If a cobra comes into a hut, the owner
+sets out milk for him and protects him in every way, and when the
+reptile becomes practically tame and finds that he is left undisturbed,
+he does his host no harm. But if the snake kills any one in the hut, he
+is caught, carried to a distance, and let loose. If he bites a man and
+then is killed, the bitten man must also die. If he meets with an
+unfriendly reception in a hut, he brings ruin to the inmates; but if he
+is hospitably entertained, he brings good fortune and prosperity. If a
+serpent-charmer kills a cobra, he loses for ever his power over snakes.
+It is natural that a creature which is treated with such reverence must
+multiply excessively. About twenty thousand men are killed annually in
+India by snakes.
+
+The cobra's poison is secreted in glands, and is forced out through the
+poison teeth when these pierce through the skin of a man or animal. Its
+effect is virulent when it enters the blood. If the bite pierces a large
+artery, death follows surely and rapidly. Otherwise the victim does not
+die for several hours, and may be saved by suitable remedies applied
+immediately. A dog when bitten begins to bark and howl, vomits, and
+jumps about in the greatest uneasiness and despair. In a short time he
+becomes weak and helpless and dies. If the same cobra bites several
+victims one after the other within a couple of hours, the first dies,
+the second becomes violently ill, while the third is less affected. This
+is, of course, due to the fact that the contents of the poison glands
+become gradually exhausted; but they soon collect again.
+
+When a man is bitten, his body becomes deadly cold, and every sign of
+life disappears. His breathing and pulse cannot be perceived at all. He
+loses consciousness and feeling and cannot even swallow. With judicious
+treatment the small spark of life still left may be preserved. For about
+ten days, however, the invalid remains very feeble, and then a slow
+improvement sets in. But as a rule the man dies, for in the Indian
+jungle help is seldom at hand, and the end soon comes. If the victim
+lies for two whole days as though dead, and yet does not actually die,
+it may be hoped that his body is throwing off the effect of the poison.
+
+There are many extraordinary men in India. In Benares especially, but
+also in any other town, the shrivelled self-torturers called "fakirs"
+may be seen in the streets. They are stark naked save for a small
+loin-cloth. They are miserable and thin as skeletons, and their whole
+bodies are smeared with ashes. They sit motionless at the street corners
+of Benares, always in the same posture. One sits cross-legged with his
+arms stretched up. Try to hold your arms straight up only for five
+minutes, and you will feel that they gradually grow numb. But this man
+always sits thus. His arms seem to become fixed in this unnatural
+position. As he never uses them they wither away in time. Compared with
+his large head they might belong to a child. Another purposely
+extinguishes the light of his eyes by staring day after day straight at
+the sun with wide-open eyes.
+
+Among the curiosities of India are also the snake-charmers. There are
+several varieties of them, and it seems difficult to distinguish exactly
+between them. Some appear to be themselves afraid of the snakes they
+exhibit, while others handle them with a remarkable contempt of danger.
+Some pull out the snake's poison fangs so that they may always be safe,
+while others leave them in, and then everything depends on the charmer's
+skill and dexterity and the quickness with which he avoids the bite of
+the snake. It frequently happens that the charmer is bitten and killed
+by his own snakes.
+
+It is not true, as was formerly believed, that the snake-charmer can
+entice snakes out of their holes by the soothing tones of his flute and
+make them dance to his piping. The dancing is a much simpler affair.
+When the captured snake rears up and sways the upper part of his body to
+and fro, the charmer holds out some hard object, perhaps a fragment of
+brick. The snake bites, but hurts himself, and after a while gives up
+biting. Then the charmer can put his hand in front of the snake's head
+without being bitten. But when the snake is irritated he still assumes
+the same attitude of defence, swaying to and fro, and thus he seems to
+be dancing to the sound of the flute.
+
+There are, however, some daring charmers who, by the strains of their
+instrument and the movements of their hands, seem to exercise a certain
+power over the cobra. They seem to throw the snake into a short faint or
+stupor, a kind of hypnotic sleep. The charmer takes his place in a
+courtyard, and the spectators gather round him at a safe distance. He
+has his cobra in a round, flat basket. The basket he places on the
+ground and raises the cover. Then he rouses and provokes the snake to
+make it lift up the upper part of its body and expand its hood with the
+spectacles. All the time he plays his flute with one hand. With the
+other he makes waving, mesmeric passes. The snake gradually becomes
+quiet and calm, and the charmer can press his lips against the scales of
+its forehead. Then the charmer throws it on one side with a sudden
+movement, for the snake may have waked up again and be just on the point
+of biting.
+
+All depends on the charmer's quickness and his knowledge of the snake's
+disposition. The slightest movement of its muscles and the expression of
+its eyes is sufficient to indicate the snake's intentions to the
+charmer. It is said that an expert charmer can play with a freshly
+caught snake as easily as with an old one. The art consists in lulling
+the snake to sleep and perceiving when the dangerous moment is coming.
+During the whole exhibition the monotonous squeak of the flute never
+ceases. Courage and presence of mind are necessary for such a dangerous
+game.
+
+Europeans who have seen these snake-men catch cobras say that their
+skilfulness and boldness are remarkable. They seize the snake with bare
+hands as it glides through the grass. This is a trick of legerdemain in
+which everything depends on the dexterity of the fingers and a quickness
+greater than that of the snake itself. The snake-catcher seizes the tail
+with his left hand and passes the right with lightning rapidity along
+the body up to the head, which he grips with the thumb and forefinger so
+that the snake is held as in a vice. Probably the trick consists in
+depriving the snake of support to its body with the left hand and
+producing undulations which annul those of the reptile itself.
+
+When charmers go out to catch snakes they are always in parties of two
+or three. Some of them take with them antidotes to snake bites. If a man
+is bitten, a bandage is wound tightly above the wound and the poison is
+sucked out. Then a small black stone, as large as an almond, is laid on
+the wound. This absorbs blood and some at least of the poison. Adhering
+fast to the wound, it does not fall off until it has finished its work.
+That so many men die of snake bites is, of course, because assistance
+comes too late.
+
+When the charmer begins to play with a cobra he fixes his eyes on it and
+never removes them for a second. And the same is true of the cobra, which
+keeps its eyes constantly on the charmer. It is like a duel in which
+one of the combatants is liable to be killed if he does not parry at
+the right moment. Still more watchful is a cobra when he fights with a
+mongoose. The mongoose is a small beast of prey of the Viverridae family.
+It is barely as large as a cat, has a long body and short legs, and is
+the deadly enemy of the cobra. There is a splendid story in Mr. Kipling's
+_Jungle Book_ of how a pet mongoose--"Rikki-tikki-tavi"--killed two large
+cobras.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Delhi is again to be the capital of the Empire of British India
+(see footnote on p. 141).
+
+[12] At the great Durbar held at Delhi on December 12, 1911, King George
+V. announced that the capital of India would be transferred from
+Calcutta to Delhi.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+FROM INDIA TO CHINA (1908)
+
+
+THE INDIAN OCEAN
+
+On October 14, 1908, we leave Bombay in the steamer _Delhi_,[13] which
+is bound for Shanghai with passengers and cargo. The _Delhi_ is a fine
+steamer, 495 feet long, and of 8000 tons burden; it is one of the great
+fleet of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (usually
+known as the P. & O.), which receives an annual subsidy from the
+Government to carry the mails to India and Australia. We cast off from
+the quay, and in about an hour's time are slowly drawing out between the
+ends of the harbour breakwaters; then the steamer glides more quickly
+over the bay between innumerable vessels under different flags, and
+Bombay lies behind us with its large houses, its churches, towers, and
+chimneys, and its dense forest of ships' masts.
+
+Soon the city has disappeared and we are out on the Indian Ocean. The
+weather is fine; there is no sea on, only the faintest swell; sailing
+boats lie motionless waiting for a wind, and only a faint breeze renews
+the air under the awnings of the promenade deck. It is so warm and
+sultry that starched shirts and collars become damp and limp after a
+couple of hours. We gradually draw off from the coast, but still the
+mountain chain known as the Western Ghats, which extends to the southern
+extremity of India, is visible.
+
+Next morning we leave Goa behind, and at noon have the Laccadive group
+of islands to starboard. The coast of India is still in sight--a belt of
+sand, over which the surf rolls in from the sea, surmounted by a fringe
+of coco-palms. On the morning of October 17 we pass the southernmost
+point of India, Cape Comorin. Here our course is changed to southeast,
+and about midday the coast of Ceylon can be distinguished on the
+horizon. From a long distance we can see the white band of breakers
+dashing against the beach, and as we approach closer a forest of steamer
+funnels, sails, and masts, and beyond them a long row of Asiatic and
+European buildings. That is Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, and a very
+important port for all vessels which ply between Europe and the Far
+East. Gently the _Delhi_ enters the passage between the harbour moles,
+and is at once surrounded by a fleet of rowing boats from the shore.
+Singalese and Hindus swarm up the gangways, and throw themselves with
+much jabbering on the traveller's possessions. They are scantily clothed
+with only a shirt or a white sash round the loins and a cloth or a comb
+on the head.
+
+We go on shore and find in the principal streets of the town a curious
+jumble of copper-brown coloured people, carriages, tramways, and small,
+two-wheeled "rickshas" which are pulled by half-naked men. The huts of
+the natives and the dwelling-houses of the Europeans nestle among groves
+of the slender coco-palm.
+
+The next day the steamer _Moldavia_ (also belonging to the P. & O.)
+arrived from England, and was moored close to the _Delhi_ in order to
+transfer to her passengers and goods for the Far East, after which the
+_Moldavia_ was to continue her voyage for two weeks more to Australia.
+When all is ready the _Delhi_ swings out to sea again, the band of the
+_Moldavia_ playing a march and her crew and passengers cheering. In the
+evening we double the southern point of Ceylon, turning due east--a
+course we shall hold as far as the northern cape of Sumatra, 1000 miles
+away.
+
+
+THE SUNDA ISLANDS
+
+On the morning of October 21 all field-glasses are pointed eastwards.
+Two small, steep islands stand up out of the sea, a white ring of surf
+round their shores, and beyond them several other islands come into
+sight, their woods ever green in the perpetual summer of these hot
+regions. Now islands crop up on all sides, and we are in the midst of
+quite an archipelago. To the south-west we can see rain falling over
+Sumatra.
+
+Asia is the largest continent of the world. It has three other divisions
+of the world as its neighbours, Europe, Africa, and Australia, and Asia
+is more or less connected with these, forming with them the land of the
+eastern hemisphere, while America belongs to the western hemisphere.
+Europe is so closely and solidly connected with Asia that it may be said
+to be a peninsula of it. Africa is joined to Asia by an isthmus 70 miles
+broad, which since 1869 has been cut through by the Suez Canal. On the
+other hand, Australia is like an enormous island, and lies quite by
+itself; the only connection between it and Asia consists of the two
+series of large islands and innumerable small ones which rise above the
+surface of the intervening sea. The western chain consists of the Sunda
+Islands, the eastern of the Philippines and New Guinea. Sumatra is the
+first island of the immense pontoon bridge which extends south-eastwards
+from the Malay Peninsula. The next is Java, and then follows a row of
+medium-sized islands to the east.
+
+[Illustration: THE SUNDA ISLANDS.]
+
+The animal and vegetable life of these islands is very abundant. In
+their woods live elephants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; in the brushwood
+lurk tigers and panthers; and in the depths of their primeval forests
+dwell monkeys of various species. The largest is the orang-utang, which
+grows to a height of five feet, is very strong, savage and dangerous,
+and is almost always seen on trees. On these islands, too, grow many
+plants and trees which are invaluable to the use of man--sugar-cane,
+coffee and tea, rice and tobacco, spices, coco-palms, and the tree the
+bark of which yields the remedy for fever, quinine. This remedy is
+needed not least on the Sunda Islands themselves, for fever is general
+in the low-lying districts round the coasts, though the climate 4000 or
+5000 feet above sea-level, among the mountains which occupy the interior
+of the islands, is good and healthy.
+
+The equator passes through the middle of Sumatra and Borneo, and
+therefore perpetual summer with very moist heat prevails in these
+islands. The only seasons really distinguishable are the rainy and dry
+seasons, and the Sunda Islands constitute one of the rainiest regions in
+the world. The people are Malays and are heathen, but along the coasts
+Mohammedanism has acquired great influence. The savage tribes of the
+interior have a blind belief in spirits, which animate all lifeless
+objects, and the souls of the dead share in the joys and sorrows of the
+living.
+
+The larger Sunda islands are four: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes.
+Java, one of the most beautiful and most productive countries in the
+world, has an area nearly equal to that of England without Wales, and
+its population is also nearly the same--about 30 millions. Sumatra,
+which the _Delhi_ has just left to starboard, is three times the size of
+Java, but has only one-seventh of its population. The curiously shaped
+island of Celebes, again, is about half the size of Sumatra, while
+Borneo is the third largest island on the globe not ranking as a
+continent, its area being about 300,000 square miles. The Sunda Islands
+are subject to Holland, only the north-eastern part of Borneo belonging
+to England.
+
+In the strait between Sumatra and Java lies a very small volcanic
+island, Krakatau, which in the summer of 1883 was the scene of one of
+the most violent eruptions that have taken place in historic times. The
+island was uninhabited, and was only visited occasionally by fishermen
+from Sumatra; but if it had been inhabited, not a soul would have
+survived to relate what took place, for on two other islands which lay a
+few miles distant the inhabitants were killed to the last man.
+
+The outburst proper began on August 26, and the fire-breathing mountain
+cast out such quantities of ashes that a layer three feet thick was
+deposited on the deck of a vessel which happened at the time to be a
+considerable distance off. It lightened and thundered, the sea was
+disturbed, and many boats were sunk or hurled up on land. The next day
+the island fell in and was swallowed up by the sea, only a few
+fragments of it being left. Thereupon a huge wave, 100 feet high, poured
+over the neighbouring coasts of Sumatra and Java, washing away towns and
+villages, woods and railway lines, and when it retreated the country was
+swept bare, and corpses of men and animals lay all around. This wave was
+so tremendous that it was propagated as far as the coasts of Africa and
+America, and it was thus possible to calculate the speed with which it
+had traversed the oceans. The noise produced by the eruption was so
+great that it was heard even in Ceylon and Australia, at a distance of
+2000 miles. If this outburst had taken place in Vienna, it would have
+been heard all over Europe and a considerable distance beyond its
+limits. Loose ashes ejected from the volcano fell over the earth,
+covering an area considerably larger than France, and 40,000 persons
+perished.
+
+
+PENANG AND SINGAPORE
+
+The _Delhi_ holds her course for Penang, a town on a small island close
+to the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At length land is sighted straight
+ahead, and the letter-writers make haste to get their correspondence
+ready. We glide into a beautiful sound, the anchor rattles out, and we
+are at once surrounded by a swarm of curious boats which come to
+establish communication between the vessel and the town.
+
+The main street of Penang--with its large buildings, hotels, banks,
+clubs, and commercial houses--presents much the same appearance as
+almost always meets the eye in the port towns on the south coast of
+Asia. The small single-seated "ricksha" is drawn by a Chinaman in a
+loose blue blouse, bare-legged, and with a pointed straw hat on his
+head. We go out to the Botanical Gardens, and find them really
+wonderful. There are trees and plants from India, the Sunda Islands, and
+Australia, all labelled with their English and scientific names. Monkeys
+climb actively among the trees, and sit swinging on the boughs, and a
+high waterfall tumbles down a cliff surrounded by dense luxuriant
+vegetation.
+
+Darkness falls suddenly, as always in the tropics, and is accompanied by
+pelting rain. In a few moments all the roads are under water. The rain
+pours down, not in drops but in long streams of water, and we are wet
+through long before we reach the pier where the launch is waiting.
+
+Soon after we get on board, the _Delhi_ moves out into the night down
+the Strait of Malacca. Singapore is only thirty hours' voyage ahead, and
+the steamer follows closely the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At sunrise
+on October 24 we arrive. Singapore is the chief town of the Malay
+Peninsula, which is subject to Great Britain, and contains nearly a
+quarter of a million inhabitants--Europeans, Malays, Indians, but mostly
+Chinese. All steamers to and from the Far East call at Singapore, which
+is also the chief commercial emporium for the Sunda Islands and the
+whole of the Dutch Archipelago. It lies one degree of latitude north of
+the equator, and the consequence is that there is a difference of only
+three degrees of temperature between winter and summer. It is always
+warm, and rain falls almost every day.
+
+At five o'clock the same afternoon the _Delhi_ steams out again,
+accompanied by a swarm of light canoes rowed by naked copper-brown Malay
+boys. These boys swim like fishes, and they come out to the steamers to
+dive for silver coins which the passengers throw into the sea for them.
+When the _Delhi_ increases her pace, they drop behind and paddle back to
+the harbour with the proceeds of their diving feats. The sound gradually
+widens out, and as long as twilight lasts the land and islands are in
+sight. Then we turn off north-eastwards, leaving the equator behind us,
+and steer out over the Chinese Sea after having doubled the southernmost
+extremity of the Asiatic mainland.
+
+
+UP THE CHINA SEA
+
+In two days we had left Cochin-China, Saigon, and the great delta of the
+Mekong behind us, and when on October 27 we came into contact with the
+current from the north-east which sweeps along the coast of Annam, the
+temperature fell several degrees and the weather became fresher and more
+agreeable. The north-east monsoon had just set in, and the farther we
+sailed northwards the harder it would blow in our faces. We had then to
+choose between two routes--either out to sea with heavy surge and
+boisterous wind; or along the coast, where the current would similarly
+hinder us. Whichever way was chosen the vessel would lose a couple of
+knots in her speed. The captain chose the course along the coast.
+
+The eastern part of the peninsula of Further India consists of the
+French possessions, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Annam, and Tonkin. Hanoi,
+the capital of Tonkin, is the headquarters of the Governor-General of
+all French Indo-China. To the south Saigon is the most important town;
+it is situated in the Mekong delta, which is increasing in size every
+year by the addition of the vast quantities of silt carried down by the
+great river. The country abounds in wild animals, elephants, tigers,
+rhinoceroses, alligators, poisonous snakes, monkeys, parrots, and
+peacocks. In area the French possessions are about half as large again
+as France itself, and the population is about 20 millions.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING VOYAGE FROM BOMBAY TO HONG KONG (pp. 152-160).]
+
+A large part of Further India is occupied by the kingdom of Siam, which
+lies between the lower courses of the Mekong and the Salwin, both of
+which rise in eastern Tibet. Siam is about two-thirds the size of French
+Indo-China, but has only 9 million inhabitants of various
+races--Siamese, Chinese, Malays, and Laos. Bangkok, the capital of the
+King of Siam, contains half a million inhabitants, and is intersected by
+numerous canals, on which a large proportion of the people live in
+floating houses. There are many fine and famous pagodas, or temples,
+with statues of Buddha. Some of them are of gold. In Siam the Buddhist
+religion has been preserved pure and uncorrupted. The white elephant is
+considered sacred, and the flag of Siam exhibits a white elephant on a
+red field. The Siamese are of Mongolian origin, of medium, sturdy build,
+with a yellowish-brown complexion, but are not highly gifted. They are
+addicted to song, music, and games, and among their curious customs is
+that of colouring the teeth black.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XVI. ON THE CANTON RIVER.]
+
+On the morning of October 29 we steam past a fringe of islets, the
+beautiful and charming entrance to Hong Kong. The north-east monsoon is
+blowing freshly, and the salt foam hisses round the bow of the _Delhi_
+and falls on the deck in fine spray lighted by the sun. There is little
+sea, for we are in among the islands which check and subdue the violence
+of the waves. At noon we glide in between a small holm and the island
+into the excellent and roomy harbour of Hong Kong, well sheltered on all
+sides from wind and waves. A flotilla of steam launches comes out to
+meet us as we glide slowly among innumerable vessels to our anchorage
+and buoys. Here flutter in the wind the flags of all commercial nations;
+the English, Chinese, Japanese, American, and German colours fly side by
+side. The water in the harbour basin is so shallow that the turn of the
+propeller stirs up the greyish-brown mud from the bottom.
+
+Victoria is the chief town of Hong Kong, and contains nearly the half of
+the population, which amounts to 440,000 souls, most of them Chinese.
+
+There are five important points on the sea-route to the Far
+East--Gibraltar, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Hong Kong--and all of
+them are in the hands of England.
+
+Hong Kong has been a British Crown Colony since 1842, and it is now an
+extraordinarily important port. Vessels with an aggregate tonnage of
+nearly 20 millions pass through Hong Kong annually, and the little
+island surpasses in this respect even London, Hamburg, and New York.
+Regular lines of steamers connect Hong Kong with countless ports in
+Asia, America, Europe, and Australia, and the trade of the port is
+immense. It is also a station for the east Asiatic squadron of the Royal
+Navy--with fine docks and berths, a coal depot, arsenal, and barracks.
+
+Ninety miles north-west of Hong Kong lies the second city of China,
+Canton (Plate XVI.). It stands near the mouths of two rivers which give
+access to the interior of the country, and Canton is therefore an
+important commercial town, surpassed only by Shanghai. The famous
+Chinese silk is exported from Canton in larger quantities than from any
+other town, and the industries of silk-weaving, porcelain, and other
+manufactures are flourishing. Canton is one of the thirty-seven Chinese
+"treaty ports"--that is, those which are open to foreign commerce. It
+has 900,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the southernmost of the
+eighteen provinces of China proper and the residence of a viceroy. Its
+streets are so narrow that no wheeled vehicle can pass through them. A
+large part of the inhabitants live on boats moored to posts on the
+river. A railway 1200 miles long connects Canton with the capital of the
+empire, Peking.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] This is the vessel which was wrecked on the coast of Morocco, near
+Cape Spartel, on December 13, 1911, having the Duke and Duchess of Fife
+(Princess Royal) on board.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+CHINA[14]
+
+
+TO SHANGHAI
+
+From Hong Kong the _Delhi_ ploughs her way along the Chinese coast, and
+next day (October 31) we are right out in the track of the north-east
+monsoon. The sea is high and dead against us, and the wind is so strong
+that we can hardly go up on deck. It becomes steadily cooler as we
+advance northwards.
+
+To the east we have now the large island of Formosa, which was annexed
+by Japan sixteen years ago. It is about twice the size of Wales, and
+marks the boundary between the China Sea and the Eastern Sea, which
+farther north passes into the Yellow Sea. The coast and its hills are
+sometimes seen close at hand, sometimes far off, and sometimes they
+disappear in the distance. With a glass we can distinguish the
+lighthouses, always erected on small islands off the mainland. The
+Chinese coast is dangerous, being full of reefs, holms, and shallows.
+
+Hong Kong and the adjoining seas are visited from the middle of July to
+the middle of September by the destructive whirlwinds called typhoons.
+The vortices, spinning round with tremendous rapidity, are usually
+formed far out in the Pacific Ocean, and gradually advance towards the
+mainland. They move at a rate of nine miles an hour, and therefore the
+weather stations on the Philippines, and other islands lying in the
+track of the typhoons, can send warnings by telegraph to the Chinese
+coast. Then the black triangle is hoisted on a tall mast in the harbour
+of Hong Kong, for instance, and is visible for a long distance. Every
+one knows what it means: a typhoon is on the way. The Chinese junks make
+in towards land, where they find shelter under the high coast, and all
+other vessels strengthen their moorings.
+
+On November 2 we know by the yellowish-brown colour of the water that we
+are off the mouth of the Blue River, as the Yang-tse-kiang is called by
+Europeans. A pilot comes on board to take us through the dangerous,
+uncertain fairway, and a little later we have flat land on both sides of
+us, and are in the estuary of the river.
+
+Shanghai is situated on a small affluent which runs into the
+Yang-tse-kiang close to its mouth, and large ocean steamers cannot go up
+to the town. After the _Delhi_ has dropped its anchor we proceed up the
+river in a steam tender. The low banks soon become more animated, the
+houses stand closer together, factories appear amongst them, and Chinese
+vessels lie moored on both sides, including two sorry warships of wood,
+relics of a time gone by. They are high in the bow and stern, and from
+the mast floats the blue dragon on its yellow field.[15] At length the
+stately "bund" of Shanghai comes into sight with a row of fine, tall
+houses. This is not China, but a bit of Europe, the white town in the
+yellow land, the great and wealthy Shanghai with its 12,000 Europeans,
+beside the Chinese town inhabited by 650,000 natives.
+
+Next day, November 3, occurred two noted birthdays, those of the Dowager
+Empress of China and of the Emperor of Japan. They were both remarkable
+for their powerful minds and wisdom, and have made their names immortal
+in the extreme East. The Consul-General of Japan held a reception, and
+the Governor of Shanghai a brilliant dinner.
+
+We saw much that was curious and interesting, and our time was fully
+occupied during our short stay in the largest shipping and commercial
+port of China. From the European streets with electric light and
+tramways, churches, clubs, merchants' offices, and public buildings,
+tidal docks and wharves, we reach in a few minutes the Chinese town,
+pure, unadulterated Asia. It swarms with yellow men in blue coats and
+black vests with small brass buttons, white stockings, black shoes with
+thick, flat soles, a small black skull-cap with a red button on the
+head, and a long pigtail behind. There dealers sit in their open shops,
+smoking long, small pipes while waiting for customers. The tea-houses
+are full. A noise and tumult beyond description, a constant going and
+coming, a continual exchange of coin and goods.
+
+The religion of the Chinese is a mixture of different doctrines and
+rules of wisdom. China has had more wise men than any other old country
+in the world. Foremost among them is Confucius, a contemporary of Buddha
+and Socrates. He wrote a book of three hundred odes, and called it
+_Purity of Thought_. Twelve disciples gathered round him, and a larger
+circle of three thousand. "Do not to others what you would not that they
+should do to you" was one of his precepts. When Confucius was asked how
+he had contrived to acquire deep knowledge of so many things, he
+replied, "Because I was born poor and had to learn." He considered
+wealth a misfortune and knowledge power. The Chinese reverence his
+memory, and regard him not as a god but as the wisest man of all ages.
+
+Along with Confucianism, Taoism exists in China. The sublime teaching of
+the founder has, however, been corrupted and degraded to jugglery and
+superstition. At the commencement of our era Buddhism was introduced
+into China, and now is spread over almost all the country. There is,
+however, no clearness in the religious conceptions of the Chinese. A
+Taoist may perform his devotions in the morning in a Buddhist temple and
+in the evening be deeply interested in the writings of Confucius. Many
+therefore have an equal respect for all three systems.
+
+The basis, however, of Chinese religious thought is ancestor worship.
+Whether they are Confucians, like most of the mandarins, or Taoists or
+Buddhists, like the common people, Chinamen always cherish the same
+reverence for the souls of their forefathers. An altar in their honour
+is raised in even the simplest house. The graves may not be disturbed,
+and nothing but respect is cherished for the memory of the departed. In
+the seventeenth century the Manchu emperor, Kang Hi, ruled China for
+sixty-one years with a power and wisdom which made him one of the
+greatest monarchs of any age. His grandson, Kien Lung, inherited all his
+excellent qualities, and when he had ruled China for nearly sixty-one
+years he abdicated simply in order that, out of respect to his ancestor,
+the years of his reign might not exceed his grandfather's.
+
+One consequence of this ancestor worship is that enormous areas of China
+are covered with graves. The Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, who reigned at
+the end of the thirteenth century, roused furious opposition by ordering
+that all the burial-grounds should be broken up and turned into fields.
+At the present time, when new railways are spreading mile after mile
+through China, the sanctity of the graveyards is one of the greatest
+obstacles to engineers. The Chinese will not disturb the slumbers of
+their forefathers, and therefore the railway has often to pass round a
+hallowed place or avoid it by means of a bridge. The Emperor himself
+travels to Mukden simply to make offerings at the graves of his
+ancestors. Kang Hi and Kien Lung are buried in Mukden, and their
+dynasty, the Manchu, still rules over the country.
+
+The Chinese feel this association with a past life more strongly than
+with the future, and the worship of their ancestors almost takes the
+place of affection for their fatherland. They certainly love their own
+homes, but what goes on in other parts of the country is a matter of
+indifference to them. To the Cantonese it matters not whether the
+Russians take Manchuria or the Japanese Korea, provided only that Canton
+is left in peace. Ancestor worship may be said, indeed, to be the true
+religion of the Chinese. For the rest they are filled with an
+unreasoning fear of spirits, and have recourse to many different gods
+who, they believe, can control these influences for good and evil. They
+are very superstitious. If any one falls sick of fever and becomes
+delirious, his relations believe that his soul has gone astray. They
+carry his clothes round the spot where he lost consciousness in order to
+bring his soul into the right track again; and at night they go up to
+the roof and wave a lantern to guide the soul home.
+
+
+"THE MIDDLE KINGDOM"
+
+The first things a Chinese schoolboy is taught are that the sky is
+round, the earth quadrangular, and that China is situated in the middle
+of the earth, and on that account is called the "Middle Kingdom." All
+other countries lie around China and are its vassals.
+
+The Emperor is called the "Son of Heaven," and holds the supreme
+spiritual and temporal power in his hands. On his accession he gives an
+arbitrary name to his reign, which also becomes his own. He chooses
+his successor himself from among his sons. If he is childless he chooses
+one of his nearest relations, but then he adopts his future successor
+that the latter may make offerings to the souls of himself and his
+ancestors. The yellow robe and the five-clawed dragon are the emblems of
+the imperial house. The Emperor is immeasurably superior to his people,
+and the mortals who may speak to him are easily counted. A few years ago
+the European ambassadors in Peking exacted the right to see the Emperor
+every New Year's Day. This they did, but had no talk with him.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XVII. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.]
+
+China is the oldest, the most populous, and the most conservative
+kingdom in the world. In the time of Nineveh and Babylon it had attained
+to a high civilization, and has remained the same through 4000 years. Of
+Nineveh and Babylon only rubbish heaps are left, but China still shows
+no sign of decay. Western Asia is like a vast graveyard with innumerable
+monuments of bygone times. There devastating migrations of peoples took
+place, and races and dynasties contended and succeeded one another. But
+China is still the same as ever. The isolated position of the country
+and the objection of the people to contact with foreigners have
+contributed to this. The reverence for the old state of things and for
+the memory of their forefathers makes a new generation similar to the
+preceding.
+
+During the twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ three
+imperial families ruled in China in succession. Two and a half centuries
+before our era a powerful and far-sighted emperor built the Great Wall,
+the mightiest erection ever completed by human hands (Plate XVII.). This
+wall is 1500 miles long, 50 feet high, and 26 thick at the bottom and 16
+at the top. Towers stand at certain intervals, and there are gates here
+and there. It is constructed of stone, brick, and earth. It is in parts
+much ruined, especially in the west, and in some places only heaps of
+earth are left.
+
+Why was this immense wall erected? The Chinese are a peaceful people,
+and they surrounded themselves with walls to prevent intrusion from
+outside. In China there are 1553 towns enclosed in massive stone walls,
+and the great emperor in the third century B.C. naturally
+thought of building a wall in the same way all round his extensive
+kingdom. It was principally from the north that danger threatened. There
+lived the nomads of Eastern Turkestan and Mongolia, savage, brave, and
+warlike horsemen. To them the Chinese wall was an insurmountable
+obstacle. But precisely on that account this wall has also affected the
+destiny of Europe, for the wild mounted hordes, finding the way
+southwards to China barred, advanced westwards instead, and in the
+fourth century, in conjunction with the Alans, overran extensive areas
+of Europe.
+
+The Great Wall, however, could not protect China for ever. In the year
+1280 the country was conquered by Jenghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan,
+Marco Polo's friend and patron. He, too, was a great builder. He
+constructed the Grand Canal (see map, p. 174) between Peking and
+Hang-chau, immediately to the south-west of Shanghai. His idea was that
+the rice harvest of the southern provinces should also benefit the
+northern parts of the country. Previously the rice had been freighted on
+junks and carried along the coast, where it was exposed to the attacks
+of Japanese pirates. Now the junks could pass safely through the country
+by the new canal. The imperial canal is 840 miles long, crosses the
+Yellow and Blue rivers, and is still in use. It is a memorial of the
+hundred years' rule of the Mongols.
+
+In 1644 China was conquered by the Manchu dynasty, which still reigns.
+Exactly a hundred years earlier the Portuguese had seized Macao, not far
+from Hong Kong. Since then, and particularly during recent decades,
+Europeans have encroached on Chinese soil. The French possessions on the
+peninsula of Further India were formerly under Chinese protection. The
+Great Powers have made themselves masters of some of the best harbours
+in China. On two occasions, the latter during the Boxer insurrection in
+1900, Peking has been entered by the combined troops of European
+nations.
+
+The "Middle Kingdom" is China proper, but the "Son of Heaven" also rules
+over four dependencies, Eastern Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and
+Tibet. The area of the Chinese Empire altogether is thirty-five times
+that of the British Isles, and its population is ten times as numerous,
+being about 433 millions; indeed, every third or fourth man in the world
+is a Chinaman.
+
+Owing to the situation of the country the climate is good and healthy.
+The differences of temperature between winter and summer are large; in
+the south reigns almost tropical heat; in the north, in the districts
+round Peking, the winter is bitterly cold. The soil is exceedingly
+fruitful. Tea, rice, millet, maize, oats, barley, beans, peas,
+vegetables, and many other crops are grown. In the southern provinces
+the fields are full of sugar-cane and cotton bushes. The whole country
+is intersected by large rivers, which serve for irrigation and the
+transport of goods. In the west rise lofty mountains, forming
+continuations of the Tibetan ranges. Eastwards they become lower. The
+greater part of China is a mountainous country, but lowlands extend
+along the coast. Six of the eighteen provinces border on the coast,
+which abounds in excellent harbours.
+
+The "Middle Kingdom" is, then, a fortunate country, one richly endowed
+by nature in every respect. In the mountains lies inexhaustible wealth
+of minerals, and China possesses larger coal-fields than any other land
+in the world. Its future is, therefore, secured, and China's development
+may some time surpass that of America.
+
+It is well known that a country which has deeply indented coasts gains
+an early and extensive development. Thus Greece was in old times the
+home of learning and art; and thus Europe now dominates the rest of the
+world. For a people which dwells within such coasts comes sooner and
+more easily than others into contact with its neighbours, and by
+commercial intercourse can avail itself of their resources and
+inventions. But in this, as in so many other respects, China is an
+exception. The Chinese have never made use of their coast. They have, on
+the contrary, avoided all contact with foreigners, and their development
+within their own boundaries has therefore been exceedingly peculiar.
+Their culture is different from anything else, and yet it is most
+estimable and refined.
+
+Two thousand years before Christ the Chinese had written characters.
+Later they invented the hair pencil, which is in use to this day. They
+grind down a jet-black ink, in which they dip the brush, and hold it
+vertically when they write. The manufacture of the ink is their secret,
+and the "Indian ink" which we use in Europe is obtained from them. A
+hundred years after Christ paper was made in China. In an ancient town
+at Lop-nor, where wild camels now roam, I found a collection of Chinese
+letters and documents on paper which had remained buried in the desert
+since A.D. 265. In A.D. 600 the Chinese had invented the art of
+printing, which in Europe was not invented until 850 years later.
+The Chinese were acquainted with the magnetic needle 1100 years
+before Christ, and made compasses, and they knew of gunpowder long
+before Europeans. Three thousand years ago the Chinese were proficient
+in the art of casting bronze. In the interior of the country are still
+to be found most beautiful objects in bronze--round bowls on feet
+decorated with lions and dragons, vases, dishes, cups, and jugs, all of
+dark, heavy bronze executed with the finest and most artistic detail.
+The porcelain manufacture attained its greatest excellence in the time
+of Kang Hi and Kien Lung. Then were made vases, bowls, and dishes of
+such exceeding perfection that neither the Chinese themselves nor any
+other people at the present time can produce their match. The
+arrangement of colours and the glaze excite the admiration of all
+connoisseurs. Porcelain articles of this period are now extremely rare,
+and fetch enormous prices. In Japan I saw a small green Chinese bowl on
+three feet, with a cover, which had cost eleven hundred pounds. Compared
+to the Kang Hi vases, the finest porcelain that can be produced nowadays
+is mere rubbish.
+
+The Chinese language is as singular as everything else in the great
+kingdom. Every word is unchangeable. While we say "go, went, gone, will
+go, should go, going," the Chinese always say simply "go." The precise
+meaning is shown by the position of the word in a sentence or by the
+help of certain auxiliary words, as, for example, "I morning go," "We
+yesterday go," where the future or past tense is indicated by the words
+"morning" and "yesterday." A single word, _li_, for instance, may have a
+number of different significations, and what it denotes in any
+particular case depends on the tone and pronunciation, on its position
+in the sentence, and on the word which comes before or after. The
+language is divided into many different dialects, of which the principal
+is the mandarin or the dialect of the educated. Every word has its
+particular written sign, and the Chinese language accordingly possesses
+24,000 different written characters; only one man in twenty and one
+woman in a hundred can read and write it.
+
+Chinese literature is exceedingly rich, almost inexhaustible. At a time
+when the bronze age still reigned in northern Europe, the Chinese had a
+highly cultivated literature. From the fifth century B.C. down
+to our own day it has run an uninterrupted course through centuries and
+ages. When the northern vikings were executing their plundering raids by
+sea and setting up their runic stones, a geographical hand-book was
+published in China called a "Description of all the Provinces" and
+abundantly illustrated by maps. Thanks to their chronicles we can follow
+the history of the Chinese for 4000 years back. And the most remarkable
+feature of these annals is that they are distinguished by the strictest
+accuracy and reliability. All kinds of subjects are alluded to, even the
+most insignificant events. Chinese books are very cheap, and every one
+who can read can provide himself with quite a large library. Of the
+numbers of books we can have some conception when we hear that the
+Emperor Kieng Lung had a library so large that the catalogue of his
+books filled 122 volumes.
+
+
+THE BLUE RIVER
+
+The Blue River, or Yang-tse-kiang, the Mekong, and the Salwin all rise
+in eastern Tibet and flow quite close to one another southwards through
+deeply excavated parallel valleys. But while the first two continue
+their southerly course all the way to the sea, the Blue River turns off
+sharply eastwards in western China and divides the Middle Kingdom in
+two.
+
+It is only Europeans who sometimes call the largest river of China the
+"Blue" River. The Chinese themselves call it the "Great" River, or the
+"Long" River, or, far up the country to the west, the "River of Golden
+Sand." Only three rivers in the world are longer, namely, the Nile, the
+Mississippi, and the Amazon. The Obi and Yenisei are about the same
+length, 3200 miles. The Blue River discharges 244 times the volume of
+water of the Thames.
+
+In one respect the Blue River is far superior to all the waterways of
+the world, for on this river and its tributaries, or, in short, in the
+area of its drainage basin, live not less than 180 millions of human
+beings, or an eighth of the total population of the world. The parts of
+China proper situated on the Blue River are called the River Provinces.
+The viceroy of two of these, namely Hupeh and Hunan, has more subjects
+than any country in Europe, except Russia. The most westerly province of
+China, Sze-chuan, traversed by the Blue River, is in area and population
+equal to France. Europe shrinks up to nothing before such comparisons.
+
+On the Blue River stands a series of famous old towns. Chungking is the
+capital of Sze-chuan, and thus far European steamers ascend the river.
+Hankow is the largest commercial town in the interior of China. Nanking,
+near the mouth, was formerly the capital of China. South-west of Hankow
+a large lake lies on the southern bank of the Blue River. _Hu_ means
+lake in Chinese, _king_ is a capital city, _pe_ signifies north, and
+_nan_ south. Peking, therefore, means the "northern capital," and
+Nanking the "southern capital"; Hupeh signifies "north of the lake," and
+Hunan "south of the lake."
+
+The province of Hunan, south of the lake, is one of the most noteworthy
+in all China. Its people are a vigorous and independent race, and make
+the best soldiers in China. They are more hostile to foreigners than
+other Chinese, and the capital of Hunan, Chang-sha, has been of old a
+centre of opposition to foreigners and of revolutionary agitations.
+
+Even large ocean liners ascend to Hankow, and smaller steamboats to the
+capital of Sze-chuan. The latter are formidable competitors to the
+junks, many thousands of which have from time immemorial provided for
+the transport and traffic on the great river. There are many different
+kinds of junk. Some are large, others small; some are built for the
+lower, quieter waters of the river, others for the rapids in Hupeh and
+Sze-chuan. But they are all well suited to their purpose, and are an
+ornament to the grand beauty of the constantly changing landscape
+through which the river has cut its valley.
+
+In some districts the junks are built of cypress wood, in others of
+oaken planks. This is to make the boats more elastic and supple, and to
+diminish the risk of springing a leak among the rapids. Where the danger
+is unusually great a pilot is taken on board, but still it is reckoned
+that one junk in ten runs aground, and one in twenty is totally wrecked.
+To go from Hankow to Chungking takes thirty-five days, and to come down
+in the opposite direction with the stream only nine days. The voyage
+down the river is much more dangerous, and on this voyage most of the
+shipwrecks occur.
+
+Every large junk has a small dinghy to convey passengers and goods to
+and from the shore. A large junk is 40 feet long. It is high at the
+stern, and here stands a kind of cabin roofed with plaited straw or
+grass matting. A junk going upstream carries a cargo of two and a half
+tons, one going down six tons. The vessel is propelled by oars, some of
+which are so large that they require eight men each. These are needed
+most in drifting with the current, when the boat must be controlled by
+the steering oars. The junk has also a mast and sail which is used in
+going upstream with a favourable wind, and is lowered when coming down
+with the current. Only the bow is decked.
+
+It may well be asked how it is possible to get such a large heavily
+laden boat up against the strong river current, for it is evident that
+however favourable the wind might be, the vessel would be carried down
+the rapids. A long rope of twisted bamboo a hundred yards long is
+fastened to the bow of the junk, and with this the vessel is dragged up
+by some sixty men who run along the bank. The bank, however, is usually
+steep, with dangerous rocks projecting out into the river, and over
+these the men have to scramble like monkeys, still pulling at their
+rope. Often neither the boat nor the river is visible from the rocky
+path, but the skipper of the boat is in constant communication with the
+towing men by means of drums on board. Six men are always ready to clear
+the rope if it catches against any projection, and others, who are stark
+naked, do the same work in the water. On the cliffs along the river,
+grooves and marks have been worn out by the ropes, for towing has here
+been practised for thousands of years. There is always a score of men on
+board to steer and fend off the boat with poles. They have also bamboo
+poles with hooks at the end to help in dragging the boat up against the
+current.
+
+These men work like galley-slaves, and their work is both dangerous and
+exhausting. Week after week they walk with bent backs struggling under
+the towing rope. They are covered with bruises, which scarcely heal up
+before they are torn open again, and especially on the shoulders the
+marks of the rope are visible. They have a hard life, and yet they are
+cheerful. They are treated like dogs, and yet they sing. And what wages
+do they receive for a journey of thirty-five days up the river? Three
+shillings, besides three meals of rice a day, and meat three times
+during the journey! For the down journey, when the work is much easier
+and the time only one-fourth, they receive only a shilling. These
+labourers earn about 1-1/4d. for ten hours' work.
+
+In February the river is lowest and the water clearest. Then the towns
+and villages stand 160 feet above the surface of the river. Their walls,
+staircases, gates, and pagodas stand up in the flat triangles of the
+valley openings. Every inch of hill and valley is covered with fields or
+woods. Later in the spring the river begins to rise, and in summer is a
+huge rolling volume of chocolate-brown or greyish water. At certain
+places where the valley is narrow the water may rise a hundred feet
+higher than in February. A voyage on it is then more dangerous, for
+banks, boulders, and reefs are covered with water and form whirlpools
+and seething eddies.
+
+Below the towns and villages shoals of junks lie moored waiting for
+work. Every cliff, every bend has its name--Yellow Hat, Sleeping Swine,
+Double Dragon, etc. Nor are pirates wanting. They have their haunts
+among the mountains, and fall upon the junks at convenient points.
+Sometimes large white notices are seen on projecting rocks. They may be
+"The waterway is not clear," or "Small junks should anchor here." Thus
+the boatowners are warned of danger.
+
+The earnings of a boatowner are not large, and he is glad enough if he
+can bring his boat back to Hankow in safety after a voyage up and down
+the river. With anything but pleasure he sees the large Russian vessels
+lying at Hankow and taking in tea. Hankow is the greatest tea port of
+China, and China is the home of the tea plant. It is not more than 250
+years since tea was first known in Europe, where it is now in general
+use, as also in many other parts of the world. In England and Russia it
+is a national drink, and the Russians used formerly to transport their
+tea to Europe by caravans through Mongolia and Siberia. Now the export
+of tea from China has declined, and the Middle Kingdom has been
+outstripped by India and Ceylon.
+
+
+IN NORTHERN CHINA
+
+In the north-westernmost province of the kingdom, Kansu, is a famous old
+town, named Si-ning, surrounded with a fine stone wall. I had completed
+my first journey through Tibet and came to Si-ning on November 23, 1896,
+accompanied by my servant, Islam Bay.
+
+When we left Si-ning we had a riding horse each, and six mules with
+their three drivers. They accompanied us for some days as far as a small
+town, where we exchanged them for two large, heavy carts on two wheels
+and covered with a tilt of straw matting. In one we packed all our
+things, in the other I took my seat, while Islam rode. Each cart was
+drawn by a mule and two horses, driven by a pleasant Chinaman. I had no
+interpreter, and had to get along with the few words I had managed to
+pick up.
+
+For six days we travelled northwards through the Kansu mountains, going
+up and down all the way over stony passes and over frozen rivers with or
+without neck-breaking bridges. The carts creaked and rocked through
+narrow hollow roads where it would have been impossible to pass a cart
+coming from the opposite direction. In such places, therefore, one of
+our drivers went on in front shouting to keep the road clear.
+Fortunately we were in the company of other carts. When two carts meet
+where the road is narrow, it is customary for the smaller one to back
+and leave the road open for the larger.
+
+We set out just after midnight, and drove on till noon. In spite of furs
+and rugs I was almost frozen through. Islam preferred to go on foot, and
+the drivers who ran beside the wagons also managed to keep themselves
+warm.
+
+At break of day on December 10 we came to the bank of a stream which
+falls into the Yellow River (Hwang-ho). It was frozen quite across, and
+a path of sand showed where the route crossed the river. Our companions
+were to go over first in one of their carts with a team of three horses.
+They dashed at full gallop out on to the ice, but had not gone far
+before a wheel cut through the ice and the cart was held fast as in a
+vice. The whole load had to be taken out and carried over to the farther
+bank, and after much trouble the empty cart was hoisted up.
+
+At a broader place the men cut up the thin ice in the middle of the bed
+where the water was three feet deep, and when another cart tried its
+luck it pitched suddenly down into the opening and remained fast. Two
+additional horses were attached, and all the men shouted and cracked
+their whips. The horses reared, fell, were nearly drowned under the ice,
+threw themselves about and jumped up on to the ice, only to drop back
+again into the hole. A young Chinaman then threw off every stitch of
+clothing and went into the water, 18 deg. below freezing-point, to pull
+away the pieces of ice and stones which held back the wheels. I cannot
+tell how it was that he was not frozen to death. He afterwards warmed
+himself at a fire made by Islam Bay. We struggled for four hours before
+at last the irritating river was behind us.
+
+In Liang-chau, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, with a quadrangular wall,
+handsome gates, and broad, busy streets, we stayed with some
+missionaries. Here we had to wait twelve whole days before we could
+procure nine camels and two men who were willing to take us to the town
+Ning-hsia on the Yellow River, nearly 300 miles off. The missionaries
+had no other guest-room than their chapel, which was rather cold; on
+Christmas Eve the temperature inside was 3 deg.
+
+For twenty days we travelled through a country called Ala-shan, which
+for the most part is inhabited by Mongols. We followed a desert track
+and encamped at wells. Certain belts were buried in drift sand which
+formed wave-like dunes. Here we were outside China proper and the Great
+Wall, but we frequently met Chinese caravans. Two horsemen had been
+assigned to me as an escort by the last Chinese governor, for the
+country is unsafe owing to robbers. All, however, went well, and we came
+safely to Ning-hsia on the Yellow River.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF NORTHERN CHINA AND MONGOLIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM
+TIBET THROUGH SI-NING TO PEKING, AND FROM PEKING TO KANSK (pp. 172-179).
+
+At the time of Dr. Hedin's journey through Mongolia, the Trans-Siberian
+Railway did not extend east of Kansk.]
+
+From Ning-hsia we had 267 miles to the town Pao-te, and now we had to
+cross the Mongolian district of Ordos, between the Great Wall and the
+northern bend of the Yellow River. In summer it is better to travel by
+boat down the river, which rises in north-eastern Tibet and falls into
+the northern bay of the Yellow Sea after a course of 2500 miles. The
+river owes its name to its turbid yellow water, which makes the sea also
+yellow for some distance from the coast. Elsewhere the Yellow Sea is no
+yellower than any other.
+
+At that time, in January, the Yellow River was covered with thick ice,
+and where we crossed it with our nine camels its breadth was 380 yards.
+Then we made long days' marches through the desert, and had a very hard
+and troublesome journey. We had indeed with us enough mutton, bread, and
+rice, and there were wells along the road. One of them was 130 feet deep
+and was walled round. But we suffered from cold. Sometimes the
+temperature was only 1.5 deg. at noon, -27 deg. at night, and 16.5 deg.
+in the tent. Besides, it blew steadily and with the velocity of a
+hurricane. Fortunately I had bought a small Chinese portable stove, which
+kept me from freezing. It is not larger than an ordinary teapot and has a
+perforated cover. A few pieces of glowing charcoal are embedded in ashes
+in the tin, which is thus kept warm all day. Up on the camel I had this
+little comforting contrivance on my knees, and at night I laid it among
+my rugs when I crept into bed. One day there was such a furious storm
+over the level and exposed country that we could not move from the spot.
+We sat wrapped up in our furs and rugs and simply froze.
+
+On arrival at Pao-te I had still 430 miles to travel to the capital of
+the kingdom, Peking. I was eager to be there, and resolved to hurry
+forward by forced marches. I hired a small two-wheeled cart, and had no
+servant with me but the Chinese driver. Islam with an interpreter was to
+follow slowly after with our baggage.
+
+On this route no fewer than sixty-one Swedish missionaries were at work,
+and I often stayed in their hospitable houses. At other times I put up
+in the country inns. They are incredibly dirty, full of noisy
+travellers, smoke, and vermin. The guest room where you sleep at night
+must be shared with others. Along the inner wall stands a raised ledge
+of bricks. It is built like an oven and is heated with cattle-dung
+beneath; and on the platform the sleeper, if not half suffocated, is at
+any rate half roasted.
+
+In Kalgan (Chang-kia-kau), where the Great Wall is passed, I exchanged
+my cart for a carrying chair on two long poles. It was borne by two
+mules which trotted along over the narrow mountain road leading to
+Peking. Sometimes we were high above the valley bottom, and met whole
+rows of caravans, carts, riders, and foot passengers, chairs with mules,
+and every one was in constant danger of being pushed over the edge.
+
+At last, on March 2, I arrived at Peking, after 1237 days of travelling
+through Asia, and passed through one of the fine gates in the city walls
+(Plate XVIII.).
+
+
+MONGOLIA
+
+Between China in the south and Eastern Siberia on the north, stretches
+the immense region of inner Asia which is called Mongolia. The Chinese
+call it the "grass country," but very large parts of it are waterless
+desert, where drift-sand is piled up into dunes, and caravan routes and
+wells are far apart. The belt of desert, one of the largest in the
+world, is called by the Mongols Gobi, a word which in their language
+denotes desert. The Chinese call it Shamo, which signifies sandy desert.
+
+Mongolia is subject to China, and the Mongols' spiritual superior or
+pope is the Dalai Lama. They have also a number of Lama monasteries, and
+make yearly pilgrimages in large parties to Lhasa. An extraordinary
+proportion of the male population of the country devote themselves to a
+religious life and become monks. The Chinese are glad of it, for the
+peaceful cloister life causes the formerly savage and warlike Mongol
+hordes to forget their own strength. Services before the image of Buddha
+in the temple halls lead their thoughts in other directions, and they
+forget that their people once held the sceptre over almost all Asia and
+half Europe. They do not remember that their forefathers, the Golden
+Horde, forced their way seven hundred years ago through the Caucasus,
+levied tribute throughout Russia, and alarmed all the rest of the West.
+They have forgotten that their fathers conquered all the Middle Kingdom
+and digged in yellow earth the Grand Canal on which the junks of the
+Chinese still ply. The sword has rusted fast in its sheath, and the
+Mongolian chiefs, whom the Chinese call vassals or dependent princes,
+encamp peacefully on the steppes under their eight _bans_.
+
+The Mongols are nomads. They own large flocks of sheep and goats, and
+live on mutton, milk, butter, and cheese. Among their domestic animals
+are also the two-humped camel and a small, hardy, strongly built horse.
+Their life is a perpetual wandering. They move with their flocks from
+one steppe to another. If the herbage is dried up in a district, or
+all the pasture is eaten up, they put their tents on camels and set out
+to find better grazing. Their tents are exactly the same as those of the
+Kirghizes of the Pamir and the Kirghiz Steppe. They are shaped like
+haycocks, and consist of a framework of tough ribs covered with black
+felt.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XVIII. GATE IN THE WALLS OF PEKING.]
+
+The Mongols are a good-tempered and amiable people. I made acquaintance
+with them on the outskirts of their wide domain, and once I travelled
+right through Mongolia. My starting-point was Peking, and my direction
+due north-west. It was in the end of March and the beginning of April,
+1897. At that time the Trans-Siberian Railway was not completed farther
+than to Kansk, a small town east of the Yenisei. That was the longest
+drive I ever took in my life, for from Peking to Kansk the distance is
+1800 miles, and I only rested a day on the whole journey, namely at
+Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia.
+
+In Peking I provided myself with all that was necessary for a journey to
+the Russian frontier. First and foremost a Chinese passport, which
+authorised me to call out Mongols and their horses, and, if I wished, to
+put up in their tents. Then provisions had to be bought--tinned meats,
+bread, tea, sugar, etc. From the Russian Legation I obtained an escort
+of two Cossacks, who were very delighted to have this chance of
+returning to their homes in Siberia after completing their time of
+service in Peking.
+
+In Mongolia the traveller does not drive in the usual way. There is no
+driver on the box, and you do not lean back comfortably in a
+four-wheeled carriage on springs. To begin with, there is no road at all
+and no rest-houses; but horses must be changed frequently, and this is
+done in the Mongolian villages. The Mongols, however, are nomads, and
+their villages are always on the move. Therefore you must know first of
+all where the villages happen to be, and in the second place must give
+the people notice to have a certain number of horses ready. A mounted
+messenger is sent on in advance for this purpose and then the horses are
+never wanting. Only the Mongols themselves know where the next villages
+are situated, and so at every village a fresh retinue of Mongols is
+provided. And because the villages are being constantly moved you can
+only travel in a straight line between them, and cannot follow any
+determined route. You drive along over desert and steppe, and usually
+see no vestige of an old wheel rut.
+
+The vehicle in which you travel is a very simple contrivance. It is a
+cart on two medium-sized wheels, closed all over with a rounded tilt
+covered with blue cloth. A small window in front and two side windows
+allow you to see over the steppe; the window glass is fixed into the
+stretched cloth so that it cannot be cracked by the jolting. The cart
+has no springs, and its bottom rests directly on the axles. There is no
+seat, and the traveller sits on cushions, furs, and rugs, and there is
+only room for one person. The cart is of the usual Chinese pattern with
+shafts for a mule or horse. In China the driver sits on one of the
+shafts or runs alongside. I had my bags strapped on to the base of the
+shafts. My large baggage was forwarded on camels, and it reached
+Stockholm six months after I did.
+
+The style of harnessing is the most curious of all. A loop of rope is
+fastened to the extreme end of each shaft, and a long, rounded cross-bar
+is passed through the two loops. Two mounted Mongols lay the bar across
+their knees in the saddle, but no draught animal is put between the
+shafts. A rope is fastened to each end of the cross-bar and two other
+riders wind these ropes twice round their bodies. They have all riding
+whips, and when all is ready the four riders dash at full speed over the
+steppe, dragging the cart after them.
+
+Twenty other Mongols ride on each side, half hidden in clouds of dust.
+Suddenly two of them ride up beside the men who hold the cross-bar on
+their knees. Of their own accord the two fresh horses slip their heads
+under the bar, letting it fall on to the riders' knees, while the men
+who are relieved hold in their horses and let the cart roll on. These
+then join the rest of the troop. The cart does not stop during this
+change of horses, which is accomplished in a couple of seconds, and a
+furious pace is always kept up. In the same way the two front riders and
+their horses are relieved without stopping. When one of them is tired, a
+fresh rider comes forward and winds the rope round his waist.
+
+After two or three hours a village of several tents is seen on the
+steppe ahead of us. About thirty horses are held in readiness by the
+headman of the village, who has been warned the day before by the
+messenger. At every stage a few roubles[16] are paid to the Mongol
+attendants. This payment has always to be made in silver roubles, for
+the Mongols will not take paper money or small coins.
+
+Thus we go on and on, it would seem interminably, over the boundless
+steppe--each day the same bumping and jolting, each day the same
+monotonous landscape. In northern Mongolia, however, snow lay deep on
+the ground, and here the cart was drawn by men on camels. By this time I
+was so bruised and worn out with the continual jolting that it was a
+pleasure to drive on the soft snow.
+
+
+MARCO POLO
+
+In 1162 was born in Mongolia a chief of the savage mounted hordes who
+bore the name of Jenghiz Khan. He subdued all the surrounding tribes,
+and the whole Mongol race was collected under his banner. The more his
+power increased, the more extensive regions he desired to conquer, and
+he did not rest till practically all Asia was reduced under his rule.
+His motto was "One God in heaven and one Great Khan on earth." He was
+not content with a kingdom as large as that of Alexander or Caesar, but
+wished to reign over all the known world, and with this aim before his
+eyes he rode with his horsemen from country to country over the great
+continent. Everywhere he left sorrow and mourning, burnt and pillaged
+towns in his track. He was the greatest and most savage conqueror known
+in history. When he was at the height of his power he collected treasure
+from innumerable different peoples, from the peninsula of Further India
+to Novgorod, from Japan to Silesia. To his court came ambassadors from
+the French kings and the Turkish sultans, from the Russian Grand Dukes
+and the Khalifs and Popes of the time. No man before or since has caused
+such a stir among the sons of men, and brought such different peoples
+into involuntary communication with one another. Jenghiz Khan ruled over
+more than half the human race, and even in many of the countries which
+he pillaged and destroyed his memory is feared even to this day.
+
+At his death Jenghiz Khan was sixty-five years old, and he bequeathed
+his immense kingdom to his four sons. One of these was the father of
+Kublai Khan, who conquered China in 1280 and established the Mongolian
+dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. His court was even more brilliant than
+that of his grandfather, and an exact description both of the great Khan
+and his empire was given by the great traveller Marco Polo.
+
+In the year 1260 two merchants from Venice were dwelling in
+Constantinople. They were named Nicolo and Maffeo Polo. Their desire to
+open trade relations with Asia induced them to travel to the Crimea, and
+thence across the Volga and through Bukhara to the court of the Great
+Khan, Kublai. Up to that time only vague rumours of the great civilized
+empire far in the East had been spread by Catholic missionaries.
+
+The Great Khan, who had never seen Europeans, was pleased at the arrival
+of the Venetians, received them kindly, and made them tell of all the
+wonderful things in their own country. Finally he decided to send them
+back with a letter to the Pope, in which he begged him to send a hundred
+wise and learned missionaries out to the East. He wished to employ them
+in training and enlightening the rude tribes of the steppe.
+
+After nine years' absence the travellers returned to Venice. The Pope
+was dead, and they waited two years fruitlessly for a successor to be
+elected. As, then, they did not wish the Great Khan to believe them
+untrustworthy, they decided to return to the Far East, and on this
+journey they took with them Nicolo's son, Marco Polo, aged fifteen
+years.
+
+Our three travellers betook themselves from Syria to Mosul, quite close
+to the ruins of Nineveh on the Tigris, and thence to Baghdad and Hormuz,
+a town situated on the small strait between the Persian Gulf and the
+Arabian Sea. Then they proceeded northwards through the whole of Persia
+and northern Afghanistan, and along the Amu-darya to the Pamir,
+following routes which had to wait 600 years for new travellers from
+Europe. Past Yarkand, Khotan, and Lop-nor, and through the whole of the
+Gobi desert, they finally made their way to China.
+
+It was in the year 1275 that, after several years' wanderings, they came
+to the court of the Great Khan in eastern Mongolia. The potentate was so
+delighted with Marco Polo, who learned to read and write several Eastern
+languages, that he took him into his service. The first commission he
+entrusted to the young Venetian was an official journey to northern and
+western China. Polo had noticed that Kublai Khan liked to hear curious
+and extraordinary accounts from foreign countries, and he therefore
+treasured up in his memory all he saw and experienced in order to relate
+it to the Emperor on his return. Accordingly he steadily rose higher in
+the estimation of Kublai Khan, and was sent out on other official
+journeys, even as far as India and the borders of Tibet, was for three
+years governor of a large town, and was also employed at the capital,
+Peking.
+
+Marco Polo relates how the Emperor goes hunting. He sits in a palanquin
+like a small room, with a roof, and carried by four elephants. The
+outside of the palanquin is overlaid with plates of beaten gold and the
+inside is draped with tiger skins. A dozen of his best gerfalcons are
+beside him, and near at hand ride several of his attendant lords.
+Presently one of them will exclaim, "Look, Sire, there are some cranes."
+Then the Emperor has the roof opened and throws out one of the falcons
+to strike down the game; this sport gives him great satisfaction. Then
+he comes to his camp, which is composed of 10,000 tents. His own
+audience tent is so large that it can easily hold 1000 persons, and he
+has another for private interviews, and a third for sleeping. They are
+supported by three tent-poles, are covered outside with tiger skins, and
+inside with ermine and sable. Marco Polo says that the tents are so fine
+and costly that it is not every king who could pay for them.
+
+Only the most illustrious noblemen can wait on the Emperor at table.
+They have cloths of silk and gold wound over their mouths and noses that
+their breath may not pollute the dishes and cups presented to His
+Majesty. And every time the Emperor drinks, a powerful band of music
+strikes up, and all who are present fall on their knees.
+
+All merchants who come to the capital, and especially those who bring
+gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, must sell their valuables
+to the Emperor alone. Marco Polo thinks it quite natural that Kublai
+Khan should have greater treasures than all the kings of the world, for
+he pays only with paper money, which he makes as he likes, for notes
+were current at that time in China.
+
+So Marco Polo and his father and uncle lived for many long years in the
+Middle Kingdom, and by their cleverness and patient industry accumulated
+much property. But the Emperor, their protector, was old, and they
+feared that their position would be very different after his death. They
+longed, too, to go home to Venice, but whenever they spoke of setting
+out, Kublai Khan bade them stay a little longer.
+
+However, an event occurred which facilitated their departure. Persia
+also stood under the supremacy of the Mongols, and its prince or Khan
+was a close connection of Kublai Khan. The Persian Khan had lost his
+favourite wife, and now desired to carry out the wish she had expressed
+on her deathbed that he should marry a princess of her own race.
+Therefore he despatched an embassy to Kublai Khan. It was well received,
+and a young, beautiful princess was selected for the Khan of Persia. But
+the land journey of over 4000 miles from Peking to Tabriz was considered
+too trying for a young woman, so the ambassadors decided to return by
+sea.
+
+They had conceived a great friendship and respect for the three
+Venetians, and they requested Kublai Khan to send them with them, for
+they were skilful mariners, and Marco Polo had lately been in India, and
+could give them much valuable information about the sea route thither.
+At last Kublai Khan yielded, and equipped the whole party with great
+liberality. In the year 1292 they sailed southwards from the coast of
+China.
+
+Many misfortunes, storms, shipwreck, and fever befell them on the
+voyage. They tarried long on the coasts of Sumatra and India, a large
+part of the crew perished and two of the three ambassadors died, but the
+young lady and her Venetian cavaliers at last reached Persia safe and
+sound. As the Khan had died, the princess had to put up with his nephew,
+and she was much distressed when the Polos took leave of her to return
+home to Venice by way of Tabriz, Trebizond, the Bosporus, and
+Constantinople. There they arrived in the year 1295, having been absent
+for twenty-four years.
+
+Their relatives and friends had supposed them to be dead long before.
+They had almost forgotten their mother tongue, and appeared in their
+native city in shabby Asiatic clothes. The first thing they did was to
+go to the old house of their fathers and knock at the door; but their
+relations did not recognize them, would not believe their romantic
+story, and sent them about their business.
+
+The three Polos accordingly took another house and here made a great
+feast for all their family. When the guests were all seated round the
+table and the banquet was about to commence, the three hosts entered,
+dressed down to the feet in garments of costly crimson silk. And as
+water was taken round for the guests to wash their hands, they exchanged
+their dresses for Asiatic mantles of the finest texture, the silken
+dresses being cut into pieces and distributed among their retainers.
+Then they appeared in robes of the most valuable velvet, while the
+mantles were divided among the servants, and lastly the velvet went the
+same way.
+
+All the guests were astonished at what they saw. When the board was
+cleared and the servants were gone, Marco Polo brought in the shabby,
+tattered clothes the three travellers had worn when their relatives
+would not acknowledge them. The seams of these garments were ripped up
+with sharp knives, and out poured heaps of jewels on to the
+table--rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds. When
+Kublai Khan gave them leave to depart they exchanged all their wealth
+for precious stones, because they knew that they could not carry a heavy
+weight of gold such a long way. They had sewed the stones in their
+clothes that no one might suspect that they had them.
+
+When the guests saw these treasures scattered over the table their
+astonishment knew no bounds. And now all had to acknowledge that these
+three gentlemen were really the missing members of the Polo house. So
+they became the object of the greatest reverence and respect. When news
+about them spread through Venice the good citizens crowded to their
+house, all eager to embrace and welcome the far-travelled men and to pay
+them homage. "The young men came daily to visit and converse with the
+ever polite and gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about
+Cathay and the Great Can, all which he answered with such kindly
+courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his debtor." But when
+he talked of the Great Khan's immense wealth, and of other treasures
+accumulated in Eastern lands, he continually spoke of millions and
+millions, and therefore he was nicknamed by his countrymen Messer Marco
+Millioni.
+
+At that time, and for long afterwards, great envy and jealousy raged
+between the three great commercial republics, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
+In the year 1298 the Genoese equipped a mighty fleet which ravaged the
+Venetian territory on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Here it
+was met by the Venetian fleet, in which Marco Polo commanded a galley.
+After a hot fight the Genoese gained the victory, and with 7000
+prisoners sailed home to Genoa, where they made a grand procession
+through the city amidst the jubilation of the people. The prisoners were
+put in chains and cast into prison, and among them was Marco Polo.
+
+In the prison Marco had a companion in misfortune, the author Rusticiano
+from Pisa. It was he who recorded Marco Polo's remarkable adventures in
+Asia from his dictation, and therefore there is cause of satisfaction at
+the result of the battle, for otherwise the name of Marco Polo might
+perhaps have been unknown to posterity.
+
+After a year prisoners were exchanged and Marco Polo returned to Venice,
+where he married and had three daughters. In the year 1324 he died, and
+was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice.
+
+On his deathbed he was admonished to retract his extraordinary
+narrative. No reliance was placed on his words, and even at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century there were learned men who
+maintained that his whole story was an excellently planned romance. The
+narrative taken down in prison was, however, distributed in an
+innumerable number of manuscript copies. The great Christopher Columbus,
+discoverer of America, found in it a support to his conviction that by
+sailing west a man would at length come to India.
+
+There are many curious statements in Marco Polo's book. He speaks of the
+"Land of Darkness" in the north, and of islands in the northern sea
+which lie so far north that if a man travels thither he leaves the
+pole-star behind him. We miss also much that we should expect to find.
+Thus, for example, Marco Polo does not once mention the Great Wall,
+though he must have passed through it several times. Still his book is a
+treasure of geographical information, and most of his discoveries and
+reports were confirmed five hundred years later. His life was a long
+romance, and he occupies one of the most foremost places among
+discoverers of all ages.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Since this was written, China has become a republic, the Emperor
+P'u-yi (born February 11, 1906) having abdicated on February 12, 1912,
+in consequence of the success of a revolution which broke out in the
+autumn of 1911. He still retains the title of Manchu Emperor, but with
+his death the title will cease. A provisional President of the Republic
+was elected, and the first Cabinet was constituted on March 29, 1912.
+
+[15] The Republic has adopted a new flag consisting of five
+stripes--crimson, yellow, white, blue, and black--to denote the five
+principal races comprised in the Chinese people, Mongol, Chinese,
+Manchu, Mohammedan, and Tibetan.
+
+[16] A Russian coin, worth about 2s, 1 1/8d.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+JAPAN (1908)
+
+
+NAGASAKI AND KOBE
+
+Marco Polo was also the first European to make Japan known in Western
+countries. He called it Chipangu, and stated that it was a large, rich
+island in the sea east of China. Accordingly the Chinese call it the
+"Land of the Rising Sun," and Nippon, as the Japanese themselves call
+their islands, has the same poetical signification, derived from the
+rising of the sun out of the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The flag of
+Japan displays a red sun on a white field, and when it flies from the
+masts of warships the sun is surrounded by sixteen red rays.
+
+We leave Shanghai by the fine steamer _Tenyo Maru_, which is driven by
+turbines and makes 18 knots an hour. The _Tenyo Maru_ belongs to a line
+which plies between Hong-kong and San Francisco, calling at Shanghai,
+Japan, and the Sandwich Islands on the way. From Shanghai it is 470
+miles over the Eastern Sea to Nagasaki, a considerable town situated on
+Kiu-shiu, the southernmost of the four islands of Japan proper.
+
+As we near Japan the vessel crosses the great current called the "Kuro
+Shiwo," or the "Black Salt." It comes from the region immediately north
+of the equator, and flows northwards, washing the Japanese coast with
+its water, over 200 fathoms deep, and with a temperature of 72 deg.,
+just as the Gulf Stream washes the east coast of Europe. Off Japan the
+sea is very deep, the lead sinking down to 4900 fathoms and more.
+
+In Nagasaki the visitor is astonished at the great shipbuilding yards
+and docks; they are the largest in Asia, and the _Tenyo Maru_, as well
+as other ships as big, have been, for the most part at any rate, built
+here. It is hard to believe that it is only forty years since the
+Japanese took to European civilization and the inventions of Western
+lands. In many respects they have surpassed their teachers.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM SHANGHAI THROUGH JAPAN AND KOREA
+TO DALNY (pp. 185-202).]
+
+After a whole day in Nagasaki we steam out to sea again and make
+northwards round Kiu-shiu to the beautiful narrow strait at Shimonoseki
+which leads to the Inland Sea. Unfortunately it is pitch dark when we
+pass Admiral Togo's fleet. He has just been engaged in manoeuvres with
+eighty-five of Japan's two hundred modern warships. In sea-power Japan
+is the fifth nation of the world, and is only surpassed by England,
+Germany, America, and France. A large number of their warships were
+captured from Russia during the war, and afterwards refitted and
+re-christened with Japanese names. On a peace footing the land army of
+Japan contains 250,000 men and 11,000 officers. In time of war, when all
+the reservists and landwehr troops are called out, the strength amounts
+to a million and a half; 120,000 men yearly are called out for active
+service. The Japanese make any sacrifice when it is a question of the
+defence of their fatherland. To them affection for Nippon is a
+religion.
+
+The area of Japan is about half as large again as that of the British
+Islands, and the population is, roughly, a quarter more. But if the
+recently acquired parts of the mainland, Korea and Kwan-tung, be
+included, 77,000 square miles must be added and the population increased
+to 65 millions.
+
+Early on the morning of November 9 we pass through the strait of
+Shimonoseki into the Inland Sea, the Mediterranean of Japan, which lies
+between the islands Hondo, Kiu-shiu, and Shikoku. The scenery which
+unfolds itself on all sides is magnificent, and is constantly changing.
+Close around us, away over the open passages and in among the dark
+islands, is the clear, green, salt water, edged with foaming surf and
+dotted with picturesque fishing-boats under full sail; and as a frame to
+the gently heaving sea we have the innumerable islands--some large, some
+small, some wooded, others bare, but all sloping steeply to the shore,
+where the breakers thunder eternally. A pleasant breeze is felt on the
+promenade deck of the _Tenyo Maru_, the air is fresh and pure, the day
+bright and cheerful, and from sea and coast comes a curious mixed odour
+of salt brine and pine needles.
+
+At dusk we cast anchor in the roadstead of Kobe, where the _Tenyo Maru_
+has to remain for twenty-four hours in order to take cargo on board. A
+launch takes us to the busy town, and we determine to spend the night on
+shore in a genuine Japanese hotel. At the entrance we are met by the
+landlord, in a garment like a petticoat and a thin mantle with short
+hanging sleeves. Two small waiting-maids take off our shoes and put a
+pair of slippers on our feet. We go up a narrow wooden staircase and
+along a passage with a brightly polished wooden floor. Outside a sliding
+door we take off our slippers and enter in stocking feet. Cleanliness is
+the first rule in a Japanese house, and it would be thought inexcusable
+to enter a room in shoes which had lately been in the dust and dirt of
+the lanes and streets.
+
+Our rooms are divided from one another by partitions of paper or the
+thinnest veneer, which can be partially drawn aside so that the rooms
+may be thrown into one. Here and there mottoes are inscribed on hanging
+shields, and we see that they are written in the same singular
+characters as are used in China. On one wall hangs a _kakemono_, or a
+long strip of paper with flowers painted in water-colours. On a small
+carved wooden stool below the painting stands a dwarf tree scarcely two
+feet in height. It is a cherry-tree which has been prevented from
+growing to its full size, but it is a real, living tree, perhaps twenty
+years old, and exactly like an ordinary cherry-tree, only so small that
+it might have come from Lilliput.
+
+The floor is laid with mats of rice straw with black borders. Each mat
+is 6 feet long and 3 wide, and when a house is built the areas of the
+rooms are always calculated in a certain number of mats; thus a room of
+six mats is spoken of, or one of eight mats. Not infrequently the rooms
+are so small that three or even two mats will cover the floor.
+
+We take our seats crossed-legged or on our heels on small, square, down
+cushions, the only furniture to be seen. A young Japanese maiden, also
+in stocking feet, enters and places a stove in the middle of our circle.
+There is no fireplace. This stove is shaped like a flower-pot, made of
+thick metal, and is filled with fine white ashes. The young woman builds
+the ashes up into a cone like the summit of Fujiyama and lays fresh
+glowing charcoal against it. Instead of tongs she uses a pair of small
+iron rods.
+
+Bedsteads are not used in Japan, and the bedding, which consists of
+thick padded quilts of rustling silk, is simply spread out on the mats
+on the floor. All the service and attendance is performed by women. They
+are dressed in their becoming and tasteful national costume, the
+"kimono," a close-fitting coloured garment, cut out round the neck, a
+broad sash of cloth round the waist, and a large rosette like a cushion
+at the back. Their hair is jet black, smooth, and shiny, and is arranged
+in tresses that look as if they were carved in ebony. Japanese women are
+always clean, neat, and dainty, and it is vain to look for a speck of
+dust on a silken cuff. If they did not giggle sometimes, you might think
+that they were dolls of wax or china. They are treated like princesses
+with the greatest politeness and consideration, for such is the custom
+of the country. They do their work conscientiously, and are always
+cheerful, contented, and friendly.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XIX. A JAPANESE RICKSHA.]
+
+We sit down on our cushions for breakfast. The serving-girls bring in a
+small red-lacquered table, not larger or higher than a footstool. Every
+guest has his own table, and on each are five cups, bowls, and small
+dishes of porcelain and lacquer, all of them with lids like teapots.
+These contain raw fish and boiled fish in various forms, omelettes and
+macaroni, crab soup with asparagus in it, and many other strange
+viands. When we have partaken of the first five dishes, another table is
+brought in with fresh dishes; and if it is a great banquet, as many as
+four or five such tables may be placed before one before the dinner is
+over. We eat with two chopsticks of wood or ivory not larger than a
+penholder, drink pale, weak tea without sugar and cream, and a kind of
+weak rice spirit called _sake_. When a bowl of steaming rice cooked dry
+is brought in, it is a sign that the meal is ended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The streets of Kobe are not paved. They are narrow roads, too narrow for
+the large, clumsy vehicles, which are, however, few in number, and are
+mostly used for the transport of goods. The people ride in
+"rickshas"--neat, smart, two-wheeled gigs drawn by a running bare-legged
+man with a mushroom-shaped hat on his head (Plate XIX.). The road
+westwards along the coast runs through a succession of animated and busy
+villages, past open tea-houses and small country shops, homely,
+decorated wooden dwellings, temples, fields, and gardens. Everything is
+small, neat, and well kept. Each peasant cultivates his own property
+with care and affection, and the harvest from innumerable small plots
+constitutes the wealth of Japan. It is impossible to drive fast along
+the narrow road, for we are always meeting waggons and two-wheeled
+carts, porters, and travellers.
+
+At the "Beach of Dancing Girls" we stay a while under some old
+pine-trees. Here people bathe in summer, while the children play among
+the trees. But now in November it is cold rather than warm, and after a
+pleasant excursion we return to Kobe. On the way we look into a Shinto
+temple erected to the memory of a hero who six hundred years ago fell in
+a battle in the neighbourhood. In the temple court stands a large
+Russian cannon taken at Port Arthur, and also a part of the mast shot
+off the man-of-war _Mikasa_.
+
+Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century A.D., and more
+than half the population of the country profess this religion. The old
+faith of Japan, however, is Shintoism, to which about one-third of the
+people still belong. The sun is worshipped as a principal god and the
+powers of nature are adored as divinities. From the solar deity the
+imperial house derives its origin, and the Emperor is regarded with
+almost religious reverence. Respect is also paid to the memory of
+departed heroes, as in China. Of late Christianity has spread far and
+wide in Japan, and Christian churches are now numerous.
+
+
+FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO
+
+It is now November 11. During the night the _Tenyo Maru_ has passed out
+from Kobe into the Pacific Ocean, and is now steering north-east at a
+good distance from the coast of Hondo. The sky is gloomy, and the desert
+of water around us is a monotonous steely-grey expanse in every
+direction.
+
+The Mediterranean countries of Europe lie on the same parallel of
+latitude as Japan. But Japan lies in the domain of the monsoons or
+periodical winds, and when these blow in summer from the ocean, they
+bring rain with them, while the winter, when the wind comes from the
+opposite direction, is fairly dry. On the whole Japan is colder than the
+Mediterranean countries, but the difference in climate between the
+northern and southern parts is very great. On the northern island, Yezo,
+the winter lasts quite seven months.
+
+At noon Fujiyama[17] is first seen towards the north-east. Nothing of
+the coast is visible, only the snowy summit of the mountain floating
+white above the sea. Our course takes us straight towards it, and the
+imposing mountain becomes more distinct every quarter of an hour. Now
+also the coast comes in sight as a dark line, but only the summit of the
+mountain is visible, a singularly regular flat cone. The top looks as if
+it were cut off; that is the crater ring, for Fujiyama is a volcano,
+though it has been quiescent for the past two centuries.
+
+The snowfields in the gullies stand out more and more clearly, but still
+only the summit is visible, floating as it were free above the earth, a
+vision among the clouds. An hour later the whole contour comes into view
+and becomes sharper and sharper; and when we anchor off the shore the
+peak of Fujiyama rises right above us.
+
+Fujiyama is the highest mountain in Japan, and the crater ring of the
+slumbering volcano is 12,395 feet above the surface of the Pacific
+Ocean. Fujiyama is a holy mountain; the path up it is lined with small
+temples and shrines, and many pilgrims ascend to the top in summer when
+the snow has melted away. It is the pride of Japan and the grandest
+object of natural beauty the country possesses (Plate XX.). It would be
+vain to try to enumerate all the objects on which the cone of Fujiyama
+has been represented from immemorial times. It is always the same
+mountain with the truncated top--in silver and gold on the famous
+lacquered boxes, and on the rare choice silver and bronze caskets, on
+the valuable vases in cloisonne, on bowls, plaques, and dishes, on
+screens, parasols, everything.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XX. FUJIYAMA.]
+
+Painters also take a delight in devising various foregrounds to the
+white cone. I once saw a book of a hundred pictures of Fujiyama, each
+with a new foreground. Now the holy mountain was seen between the boughs
+of Japanese cedars, now between the tall trunks of trees, and again
+beneath their crowns. Once more it appeared above a foaming waterfall,
+or over a quiet lake, where the peak was reflected in the water; or
+above a swinging bridge, a group of playing children, or between the
+masts of fishing-boats. It peeped out through a temple gate or at the
+end of one of the streets of Tokio, between the ripening ears of a
+rice-field or the raised parasols of dancing girls.
+
+Thus Fujiyama has become the symbol of everything that the name Nippon
+implies, and its peak is the first point which catches the rays of the
+rising sun at the dawn of day.
+
+Singularly cold and pale the holy mountain stands out against the dark
+blue sky as we steer out again to sea in the moonlight night. It is our
+last night on the long sea voyage from Bombay. Close to starboard we
+have Oshima, the "great island," an active volcano with thin vapour
+floating above its flat summit; Japan has more than a hundred extinct
+and a score of still active volcanoes, and the country is also visited
+by frequent earthquakes. On an average 1200 are counted in the year,
+most of them, however, quite insignificant. Now and then, however, they
+are very destructive, carrying off thousands of victims, and it is on
+account of the earthquakes that the Japanese build their houses of wood
+and make them low.
+
+In the early morning the _Tenyo Maru_ glides into the large inlet on
+which Yokohama and Tokio are situated. Yokohama is an important
+commercial town, and is a port of call for a large number of steamboat
+lines from the four continents. Its population is about 400,000, of whom
+1000 are Europeans--merchants, consuls, and missionaries.
+
+A few miles south-west of Yokohama is the fishing-village of Kamakura,
+which was for many centuries the capital of the Shoguns. It has now
+little to show for its former greatness--at one time it was said to
+have over a million inhabitants--except the beautiful, colossal statue
+of Buddha, the Daibutsu (Plate XXI.). The figure, which is about 40 feet
+high, is cast in bronze, and dates from 1252.
+
+At the head of the bay lies Tokio, the capital, with over two million
+inhabitants. Here are many palaces surrounded by fine parks, but the
+people live in small, neat, wooden houses, most of them with garden
+enclosures. The grounds of the Japanese of rank are small masterpieces
+of taste and excellence. It is a great relief to come out of the bustle
+and dust of the roads into these peaceful retreats, where small canals
+and brooks murmur among blocks of grey stone and where trees bend their
+crowns over arched bridges.
+
+In Tokio the traveller can study both the old and the new Japan, There
+are museums of all kinds, picture galleries, schools, and a university
+organized on the European model. There is also a geological institution
+where very accurate geological maps are compiled of the whole country,
+and where in particular all the phenomena connected with volcanoes and
+earthquakes are investigated. In scientific inquiries the Japanese are
+on a par with Europeans. In the art of war they perhaps excel white
+peoples. In industrial undertakings they have appropriated all the
+inventions of our age, and in commerce they threaten to push their
+Western rivals out of Asia. Not many years ago, for example, some
+Japanese went to Sweden to study the manufacture of those safety matches
+which strike only on the box. Now they make safety matches themselves,
+and supply not only Japan but practically all the East. At Kobe one can
+often see a whole mountain of wooden boxes containing matches, waiting
+for shipment to China and Korea. So it is in all other branches of
+industry. The Japanese travel to Europe and study the construction of
+turbines, railway carriages, telephones, and soon they can dispense with
+Europe and produce all they want themselves.
+
+The present Emperor of Japan, Mutsuhito,[18] came to the throne in 1867.
+His reign is called _Mei-ji_, or the "Era of Enlightened Rule." During
+this period Japan has developed into a Great Power of the first rank,
+and it is in no small measure due to the wisdom and clear-sightedness of
+the Emperor that this great transformation has been accomplished.
+
+Formerly the country was divided into many small principalities under
+the rule of _daimios_ or feudal lords, who were often at war with one
+another, though they were all subject to the suzerainty of the Shogun,
+the nominal ruler of the whole country. Together with the _samurais_
+the _daimios_ constituted the feudal nobility. It is curious to think
+that little more than forty years ago the Japanese fought with bows and
+arrows, sword and spear, and that the _samurais_ went to battle in heavy
+harness with brassards and cuisses, helms and visors over the face. They
+were skilful archers, and wielded their great swords with both hands
+when they rushed on the foe.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXI. THE GREAT BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA.]
+
+Then the new period suddenly began. In 1872 universal service was
+introduced, and French and German officers were invited to organise the
+defensive force. Now Japan is so strong that no Great Power in the world
+cares to measure its strength with it.
+
+
+NIKKO, NARA, AND KIOTO
+
+From Tokio we travel northwards by train in two hours to Nikko. There
+are several villages, and we put up in one of them. In front of the inn
+ripples a clear stream, spanned by two bridges, one of which is arched
+and furnished with a red parapet. Only the Emperor and his family may
+step on to this bridge; other mortals must pass over another bridge near
+at hand. On the farther side we ascend a tremendously long avenue of
+grand cryptomerias rising straight up to the sky. It leads to a
+mausoleum erected to the memory of the first Shogun of the famous
+dynasty of Tokugawa. The first of them died in the year 1616.
+
+This mausoleum is considered to be the most remarkable sight in Japan.
+It is not huge and massive, like the Buddhist temple in Kioto, the old
+capital of Japan. It is somewhat small, but both outside and inside it
+displays unusually exquisite artistic skill. Granite steps lead up to
+it. A _torii_, or portal, is artistically carved in stone, and another
+is so perfect that the architect feared the envy of the gods, and
+therefore placed one of the pillars upside down. We see carved in wood
+three apes, one holding his hands before his eyes, another over his
+ears, and the third over his mouth. That means that they will neither
+see, hear, nor speak anything evil. A pagoda rises in five blood-red
+storeys. At all the projections of the roof hang round bells, which
+sound melodiously to the movement of the wind. In the interior of the
+temple the sightseer is lost in dark passages dimly illuminated by oil
+lamps carried by the priests. The walls are all covered with the finest
+paintings in gold and lacquer. A moss-grown stone staircase leads down
+to the tomb where the Shogun sleeps.
+
+Nara is situated immediately to the south of Kioto. Here are many famous
+temples, pagodas, and _torii_, and here also is the largest image of
+Buddha in Japan, twelve hundred years old. The finest thing of all,
+however, is the temple park of Nara, where silence and peace reign in a
+grove of tall cryptomerias. Along the walks are several rows of stone
+lamps placed on high pedestals of stone. They stand close together and
+may number a thousand. Each of these lamps is a gift of some wealthy man
+to the temple. On great festivals oil lamps are placed in them. Hundreds
+of roedeer live in the park of Nara. They are as tame as lambs, and
+wherever you go they come skipping up with easy, lively jumps. Barley
+cakes for them to eat are sold along the paths of the park, and you buy
+a whole basket of these. In a minute you are surrounded by roedeer,
+stretching out their delicate, pretty heads and gazing at the basket
+with their lovely brown eyes. Here a wonderful air of peace and
+happiness prevails. The steps of roedeer and pilgrims are heard on the
+sand of the paths, but otherwise there is complete silence and quiet.
+The feeling reminds one of that which is experienced at the Taj Mahal.
+
+All Japan is like a museum. You can travel about for years and daily
+find new gems of natural beauty and of the most perfect art. Everything
+seems so small and delicate. Even the people are small. The roads are
+narrow, and are chiefly used by rickshas and foot passengers. The houses
+are dolls' closets. The railways are of narrow gauge, and the carriages
+like our tramcars. But if you wish to see something large you can visit
+the Buddhist temple in Kioto. There we are received with boundless
+hospitality by the high priest, Count Otani, who leads us round and
+shows us the huge halls where Buddha sits dreaming, and his own palace,
+which is one of the most richly and expensively adorned in all Japan.
+
+If you wish to see something else which does not exactly belong to the
+small things of Japan you should visit a temple in Osaka, the chief
+manufacturing town of Japan. There hangs a bell which is 25 feet high
+and weighs 220 tons. In a frame beside the bell is suspended a beam, a
+regular battering-ram, which is set in motion up and down when the bell
+is sounded. And when the bell emits its heavy, deafening ring it sounds
+like thunder.
+
+Kioto is much handsomer than Tokio, for it has been less affected by the
+influence of Western lands, and lies amidst hills and gardens. Kioto is
+the genuine old Japan with attractive bazaars and bright streets. Shall
+we look into a couple of shops?
+
+Here is an art-dealer's. We enter from the street straight into a large
+room full of interesting things, but the dealer takes us into quite a
+small room, where he invites us to sit at a table. And now he brings out
+one costly article after another. First he shows us some gold lacquered
+boxes, on which are depicted trees and houses and the sun in gold, and
+golden boats sailing over water. One tiny box, containing several
+compartments and drawers, and covered all over with the finest gold
+inlaying, costs only three thousand _yen_, or about three hundred
+pounds. Then he shows us an old man in ivory lying on a carpet of ivory
+and reading a book, while a small boy in ivory has climbed on to his
+back. From a whole elephant tusk a number of small elephants have been
+carved, becoming smaller towards the point of the tusk, but all cut out
+in the same piece. You are tired of looking at them, they are so many,
+and they are all executed with such exact faithfulness to nature that
+you would hardly be surprised if they began to move.
+
+Then he sets on the table a dozen metal boxes exquisitely adorned with
+coloured lacquer. On the lid of a silver box an adventure of a monkey is
+represented in raised work. Pursued by a snake, the monkey has taken
+refuge in a cranny beneath a projecting rock. The snake sits on the top.
+He cannot see the monkey, but he catches sight of his reflection in the
+water below the stone. The monkey, too, sees the image of the snake, and
+each is now waiting for the other.
+
+Now the shopman comes with two tortoises in bronze. The Japanese are
+experts in metal-work, and there is almost life and movement in these
+creatures. Now he throws on to the table a snake three feet long. It is
+composed of numberless small movable rings of iron fastened together,
+and looks marvellously life-like. Just at the door stands a heavy copper
+bowl on a lacquered tripod, a gong that sounds like a temple bell when
+its edge is struck with a skin-covered stick. It is beaten out of a
+single piece, not cast, and therefore it has such a wonderful vibrating
+and long-continued ring.
+
+Let us also go into one of the famous large silk shops. Shining white
+silk with white embroidered chrysanthemum flowers on it--women's kimonos
+with clusters of blue flowers on the sleeves and skirt--landscapes,
+fishing-boats, ducks and pigeons, monkeys and tigers, all painted or
+embroidered on silk--herons and cranes in thick raised needlework on
+screens in black frames--everything is good and tasteful.
+
+Among the most exquisite, however, are the cloths of cut velvet. This is
+a wonderful art not found in any other country than Japan. The finest
+white silken threads are tightly woven over straight copper wires laid
+close together, making a white cloth of perhaps ten feet square,
+interwoven with copper wires. An artist paints in bright colours on the
+cloth a landscape, a rushing brook among red maples, a bridge, a
+mill-wheel, and a hut on the bank. When he has done, he cuts with a
+sharp knife along each of the numberless copper wires. Every time he
+cuts, the point of the knife follows one of the copper wires, and he
+cuts only over the coloured parts. The fine silk threads are thus
+severed and their ends stand up like a brush. Then the copper wires are
+drawn out, and there stand the red trees, hut, and bridge in close
+velvet on a foundation of silk.
+
+In all kinds of handicrafts and mechanical work the Japanese are
+experts. A workman will sit with inexhaustible patience and diligence
+for days, and even months and years, executing in ivory a boy carrying a
+fruit basket on his back. He strikes and cuts with his small hammers and
+knives, his chisels and files, and gives himself no rest until the boy
+is finished. Perhaps it may cost him a year's work, but the price is so
+high that all his expenses for the year are covered when the boy is sold
+to an art-dealer.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] "Fuji," without equal; "yama," mountain.
+
+[18] The Emperor Mutsuhito died on July 30, 1912, and was succeeded by
+his eldest son, Yoshihito, who was born in 1879.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+BACK TO EUROPE
+
+
+KOREA
+
+Our journey eastwards ends with Japan, and we turn westwards on our way
+back to Europe. The portion of the mainland of Asia which lies nearest
+to Japan is Korea, and the passage across the straits from Shimonoseki
+to Fu-san takes only about ten hours. The steamer sails in the morning,
+and late in the afternoon we see to larboard the Tsushima Islands rising
+out of the water like huge dolphins. Our course takes us almost over the
+exact place where, on May 27, 1905, Admiral Togo annihilated the
+squadron of the Russian Admiral Rozhdestvenski.
+
+The Russian fleet had sailed round Asia, and steamed up east of Formosa
+to the Strait of Korea. The Admiral hoped to be able to reach
+Vladivostock, on the Russian side of the Sea of Japan, without being
+attacked, and on May 27 his fleet was approaching the Tsushima Islands.
+But Admiral Togo, with the Japanese fleet, lay waiting off the southern
+coast of Korea. He had divided the straits into squares on a map, and
+his scouting boats were constantly on the look-out. They could always
+communicate with Togo's flagship by wireless telegraphy. And now
+currents passing through the air announced that the Russian fleet was in
+sight, and was in the square numbered 203. This number was considered a
+good omen by the Japanese, for the fate of the fortress of Port Arthur
+was sealed when the Japanese took a fort called "203-metre Hill" (Port
+Arthur, which lies on the coast of the Chinese mainland, had fallen into
+the hands of the Japanese on January 1, 1905).
+
+When the news came, Togo knew what to do. With his large ships and sixty
+torpedo boats he fell upon the Russian fleet, and the battle was
+decided within an hour. The Russian Admiral's flagship sank just on the
+spot where we are now on the way to Fu-san. The Admiral himself was
+rescued, sorely wounded, by the Japanese. His fleet was dispersed, and
+its various divisions were pursued, sunk, or captured. The Russians lost
+thirty-four ships and ten thousand men. It was a bloody encounter which
+took place on these usually so peaceful waters. The Japanese became
+masters of the sea, and could, unhindered, transport troops, provisions,
+and war material over to the mainland, where the war with Russia still
+raged in Manchuria.
+
+From Fu-san, which for two hundred years has been a Japanese town, the
+railway takes us northwards through the Korean peninsula. We ascend the
+beautiful valley of the Nak-tong-gang River. Side valleys opening here
+and there afford interesting views, and between them dark hills descend
+steeply to the river, which often spreads out and flows so gently that
+the surface of the water forms a smooth mirror. The sky is clear and
+turquoise-blue in colour, and spans its vault over greyish-brown bare
+mountains. Where the ground on the valley bottom is level it is occupied
+by rice and wheat fields. Every now and then we pass a busy village of
+grey thatched houses, where groups of women and children in coloured
+garments are seen outside the cabins. The men wear long white coats, and
+on the head a thin black hat in the form of a stunted cone with flat
+brim. Seldom are the eyes caught by a clump of trees; as a rule the
+country is bare. Innumerable small mounds are often seen on the slopes;
+these are Korean graves.
+
+The signs of Japan's peaceful conquest of Korea are everywhere apparent.
+Japanese guards, policemen, soldiers, and officials are seen at the
+stations; the country now contains more than 200,000 Japanese. Settlers
+from Japan, however, take up their residence only for a time in the
+foreign country. For example, a landowner in Japan will sell half his
+property there, and with the proceeds buy land in Korea three or four
+times as large as all his estate in the home country, and in fertility
+at least as good. There he farms for some years, and then returns home
+with the profits he has earned. Numbers of Japanese fishermen also come
+yearly to the coasts of Korea with their boats, and return home to Japan
+with their catch. Thus Korea is deluged with Japanese of all kinds. The
+army is Japanese, Japanese fortresses are erected along the northern
+frontier, the government and officials are Japanese, and soon Korea
+will become simply a part of the Land of the Rising Sun.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXII. A SEDAN-CHAIR IN SEOUL.]
+
+We cross the range of mountains which runs like a backbone all through
+Korea from north to south, and late in the evening we come to the
+capital, Seoul, which has 280,000 inhabitants, a fifth of whom are
+Japanese. The town is confined in a valley between bare cliffs, and from
+the heights all that can be seen is confusion of grey and white houses
+with gabled roofs covered with grey tiles. In the Japanese quarter life
+goes on exactly as in Japan; rows of coloured paper lanterns hang now,
+at night, before the open shops, and trade is brisk and lively. In the
+Korean quarters the lanes are narrow and dismal, but the principal
+streets are wider, with tramcars rattling amidst the varied Asiatic
+scenes. Here are sedan chairs (Plate XXII.), caravans of big oxen laden
+with firewood, heavy carts with goods, men carrying unusually heavy
+loads on a framework of wooden ribs on their backs, women sailing past
+in white garments and a veil over their smooth-plaited hair. A row of
+grown men and boys pass through the streets carrying boards with Korean
+inscriptions in red and white: those are advertisements. Before them
+marches a drum and flute band, filling the streets with a hideous noise.
+
+Korea has 13 million inhabitants, and in area is just about as large as
+Great Britain. It is now subject to Japan, and is administered by a
+Japanese Resident-General, whose headquarters are at Seoul.
+
+
+MANCHURIA
+
+From Seoul we travelled northwards by rail to Wi-ju, a small place on
+the left bank of the Yalu River, which forms the boundary between Korea
+and Manchuria. Opposite, on the right or north bank of the Yalu, stands
+An-tung, a town with 5000 Japanese and 40,000 Chinese inhabitants. The
+river had just begun to freeze over, and the ice was still so thin that
+it could be seen bending in great waves under the weight of our sledge,
+which a Chinaman pushed along at a great speed with a long iron-shod
+pole. However, we reached the other side in safety.
+
+From An-tung to Mukden is only 200 miles, but the journey takes two
+whole days. The little narrow-gauge railway was laid down during the
+Russo-Japanese War to enable the Japanese to transport provisions and
+material to the front. The small track goes up and down over the
+mountains in the most capricious curves and loops, and the train seldom
+accomplishes the whole journey without a mishap. The Japanese Consul at
+An-tung, who had made the journey eight times, had been in four railway
+accidents, and two days previously the train had rolled down a declivity
+with a general and his staff.
+
+The view through the carriage windows is magnificent. This part of
+Manchuria is mountainous, but in the depths of the valleys lie farms and
+fields. Manchus in long blue coats and black vests wind along the road
+tracks, some on foot, others mounted, while others again drive
+two-wheeled carts drawn by a horse and a pair of mules. All the
+watercourses are frozen, but there is no snow. It is sunny, clear, and
+calm in these valleys, where the thunder of battle has long died away
+among the mountains.
+
+Half-way to Mukden we halt for the night, and start next morning before
+daybreak in biting cold. Some Chinese merchants join the train, attended
+by servants bearing paper lanterns. A small party of Japanese soldiers
+also is here. They are in thick yellow coats with high collars,
+_bashliks_, red shoulder knots, caps with a red border, leather-covered
+felt boots, and are armed with cutlasses and rifles. They are sinewy and
+sturdy fellows, neat and clean, and always seem cheerful.
+
+At length the Christmas sun rises glowing red, and the ice flowers
+vanish from the windows. Here, where the winter cold is so piercing, it
+is oppressively hot in summer. Our little toy train crosses a river
+several times on fragile bridges of beams, which seem as though they
+might at any moment collapse like a house of cards. Small strips of
+tilled land, creaking ox-carts on the deeply rutted roads, tiny Buddhist
+oratories, primitive stations with long rows of trucks of fuel, a
+country house or two--that is all that is to be seen the whole day,
+until late in the evening we arrive at Mukden.
+
+Manchuria is one of the dependencies of China. The Russians constructed
+a railway through the country to the fortress of Port Arthur, but, as is
+well known, the Japanese succeeded in capturing the fortress during the
+war. By the peace of Portsmouth,[19] concluded in September 1905, the
+Japanese acquired Port Arthur, the adjacent commercial port of Dalny,
+with the surrounding district, the southern half of the large island
+Sakhalin, the supremacy over Korea, together with the South Manchurian
+Railway--so that the Russians had unknowingly built this railway for the
+benefit of their enemies.
+
+Round Mukden was fought the greatest battle of the whole Russo-Japanese
+War. The contest lasted twenty days; more than 850,000 men and 2500 guns
+were engaged, and 120,000 were left dead on the field. On March 1, 1905,
+the whole Japanese army began to move, and formed at last a ring round
+the Russians and Mukden. Thus the Japanese became for the time being the
+masters of Manchuria, but on the conclusion of peace the country was
+handed back to China.
+
+The life in the singular streets of Mukden is varied and attractive. The
+Manchus seem a vigorous and self-confident people; they are taller than
+the Chinese, but wear Chinese dress with fur caps on their heads. The
+women seldom appear out of doors; they wear their hair gathered up in a
+high knot on the crown, and, in contrast to the Chinese women, do not
+deform their feet. Among the swarming crowds one sees Chinamen,
+merchants, officers, and soldiers in semi-European fur-lined uniforms,
+policemen in smart costumes with bright buttons, Japanese, Mongols, and
+sometimes a European. Tramcars drawn by horses jingle through the
+broader streets. The houses are fine and solidly built, with carved
+dragons and painted sculpture, paper lanterns and advertisements, and a
+confusion of black Chinese characters on vertically hanging signs. At
+the four points of the compass there are great town gates in the noble
+Chinese architecture, but outside stretches a bare and dreary plain full
+of grave mounds.
+
+In Pe-ling, or "Northern Tomb," rests the first Chinese Emperor of the
+Manchu dynasty, and his son, the great Kang Hi, who reigned over the
+Middle Kingdom for sixty-one years. Pe-ling consists of several
+temple-like buildings. The visitor first enters a hall containing an
+enormous tortoise of stone, which supports a stone tablet inscribed with
+an epitaph extolling the deceased Emperor. At the farthest extremity of
+the walled park is the tomb itself, a huge mass of stone with a curved
+roof. In a pavilion just in front of this building the Emperor of China
+is wont to perform his devotions when he visits the graves of his
+fathers. Solemn peace reigns in the park, and under the pine-trees stone
+elephants, horses, and camels gaze solemnly at one another.
+
+From Mukden Port Arthur is an easy eight hours' railway journey
+south-westwards; and it is only an hour and a half more to Dalny, which
+in Japanese hands has grown to a large and important commercial town.
+
+
+THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY
+
+On December 28, 1908, we stepped into the train in Dalny, and commenced
+a railway journey which lasted without a break for eleven days.
+
+First we have to go back to Mukden, and then a somewhat shorter journey
+to the last Japanese station. At the next the stationmaster is a
+Russian, and Russian guards replace the Japanese. In the afternoon the
+train draws up at Kharbin on the Sungari River, a tributary of the great
+Amur. It was towards Kharbin that the Russians slowly retired after
+their defeat, and on this very platform Prince Ito, the first Japanese
+Resident-General of Korea, was murdered barely a year later.
+
+At Kharbin we have to wait two hours for the international express,
+which runs twice a week from Vladivostock to Moscow.
+
+Next morning we stay for two hours at a station in Manchuria, on the
+boundary between Manchuria and Siberia, between China and Russia, and
+here our luggage is examined by the Russian customs officers. We put our
+watches back one and a half hours--that is the difference of time
+between Kharbin and Irkutsk. We are now travelling from east to west, in
+the same direction as the sun. If the train went as fast as the sun we
+should enjoy perpetual day; but the train lags behind, and we only gain
+an hour in the twenty-four.
+
+The Trans-Siberian railway is the longest in the world, the distance
+from Dalny to Moscow being 5400 miles. The railway was completed just in
+time for the war, but as it had only one track, it taxed all the energy
+of the Russians to transport troops and war material to the battlefields
+in Manchuria. A second track is now being laid.
+
+By using this railway a traveller can go from London to Shanghai in
+fourteen days, the route being to Dover, across the Channel to Calais,
+by rail to Moscow, from Moscow to Vladivostock by the Trans-Siberian
+railway, and from Vladivostock to Shanghai by sea. The sea voyage from
+London by the P. and O.--calling at Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said,
+Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong--takes about six weeks,
+which can be reduced to a month by travelling by train across Europe to
+Brindisi (at the south-eastern corner of Italy), and thence by steamer
+to Port Said, where the liner is joined. There is still a third route,
+across the Atlantic to the United States or Canada, by rail to San
+Francisco or Vancouver, and then by steamer to Shanghai _via_ Japan.
+This journey can also be accomplished in a month.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.]
+
+On the last day of the year we pass through the Yablonoi Mountains and
+enter the region called Transbaikalia, because it lies on the farther,
+that is, the eastern, side of Lake Baikal. Here dwell Buriats, a
+Mongolian people--in winter in wooden huts surrounded by enclosures for
+domestic animals, in summer in tents. When we awoke on the morning of
+New Year's Day the train was passing along the southern shore of Lake
+Baikal, and one of the most enchanting scenes in the world was displayed
+to the eyes of the passengers. On the eastern shore the mountains stood
+clearly defined in the pure morning air, while the ranges to the west
+were lit up by the clear sunshine. Here and there the slopes were
+covered with northern pine and fir-trees. The line runs all the way
+along the lake shore, sometimes only a couple of yards from the water.
+This part of the Trans-Siberian railway was the most difficult and
+costly to make, and the last to be completed. During its construction
+traffic between the extremities of the line was provided for by great
+ferry-boats across the lake. The line winds in and out, following all
+the promontories and bays of the lake, and the train rolls on through
+narrow galleries where columns of rock are left to support a whole roof
+of mountain. Sometimes we run along a ledge blasted out of the side of
+the mountain, above a precipitous slope which falls headlong to the
+lake. We rush through an endless succession of tunnels, and on emerging
+from each are surprised by a new view of the mountainous shore.
+
+Baikal, or the "Rich Lake," is the third inland sea of Asia, only the
+Caspian and the Sea of Aral being larger. Its height above sea-level is
+1560 feet; the water is light-green in colour, sweet, and crystal clear,
+and abounds in fish, among them five species of salmon. There is also a
+kind of seal, and in general many of the animal forms of Baikal are
+allied to those of the salt sea. Baikal is the deepest lake in the
+world, soundings having been taken down to 5618 feet. Steamers cross the
+lake in various directions, and in winter sleighs are driven over the
+ice from shore to shore. At the beginning of January the whole of the
+deep lake is so cooled down that ice begins to form, and the lake is
+usually frozen over to the middle of April.
+
+We stop an hour at Irkutsk to change trains. Irkutsk is the largest town
+in Siberia, and has 100,000 inhabitants; it stands on the bank of the
+river Angara, which flows out of Lake Baikal, and thus forms the outlet
+of all the rivers and streams which empty themselves into the lake, the
+largest of which is the Selenga. Although the Angara is five times as
+large as the Yenisei, it is called a tributary of the latter. The
+Yenisei rises in Chinese territory, and, running northwards right
+through Siberia, falls into the Arctic Ocean. It receives a large number
+of affluents, most of them from the east. Its banks are clothed with
+forest, and from Minusinsk downwards the river is navigable.
+
+The Lena, the great river which passes through eastern Siberia
+north-east of Baikal, is not much smaller than the Yenisei. There stands
+the town of Yakutsk, where the temperature falls in winter down to-80 deg.,
+and rises in summer to 95 deg. North of Yakutsk, on the river Yana, lies
+Verkhoiansk, the coldest place in the world, the centre of low
+temperature or pole of cold.
+
+In area Siberia is larger than the whole of Europe, but the population
+in this immense country is no greater than that of Greater London,
+_i.e._ about seven millions. Of these 60 per cent are Russians, 20 per
+cent Kirghizes, and the remainder is made up of Buriats, Yakuts,
+Tunguses, Manchus, Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Tatars, Chukchis, etc. No small
+part of the Russian population consists of convicts transported to
+Siberia, whose hard lot is to work under strict supervision in the gold
+mines. Their number is estimated at 150,000. Before the railway was made
+they had to travel tremendous distances on foot. They marched ten miles
+a day in rain and sunshine, storm and snow, through the terribly cold
+and gloomy Siberia. Before and behind them rode Cossacks, who would not
+let them rest as they dragged their chains through the mud and mire of
+the road. Frequently women and children followed of their own free will
+to share their husbands' and fathers' fate during their forced labour in
+the mines. Now there is a great improvement. The labour, indeed, is just
+as hard, but the journey out is less trying. The unfortunate people are
+now forwarded in special prison vans with gratings for windows. They are
+like travelling cells, and can often be seen on side tracks at a
+station.
+
+In the neighbourhood of the Lena River dwell Yakuts of the Turkish-Tatar
+race. They number only 230,000 men, are nominally Christians, and pursue
+agriculture and trade. East of the Yenisei are the Tunguses, a small
+people divided into "settled," "horse," "reindeer," and "dog" Tunguses,
+according to the domestic animal of most importance to their mode of
+life. In western Siberia, the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, live
+Ostiaks, a small Finnish tribe of 26,000 persons, who are poor fisher
+folk, hunters and nomads with reindeer. This tribe is rapidly dying out.
+North of them, in the northern parts of western Siberia and in
+north-eastern Europe, live the Samoyeds, of Ural-Altai origin, who are
+still fewer in number than the preceding tribe, and live by
+reindeer-breeding and fishing.
+
+All these Siberian tribes and many others are Shamanists, and are so
+called after their priests, Shamans. They believe in an intimate
+connection between living men and their long-deceased forefathers. They
+entertain a great dread of the dead, and do everything they can to
+exorcise and appease their souls, bringing them offerings. All this
+business is attended to with much black magic and witchcraft by the
+Shamans, who are also doctors. When any one dies the spirit of the dead
+must be driven out of the tent, so the Shaman is summoned. He comes
+decked out in a costly and curious dress, and with religious enthusiasm
+performs a dance which soon degenerates into a kind of ecstasy. He
+throws himself about, reels and groans, and is beside himself. And when
+he has carried on long enough he catches hold of a magic drum, whose
+soothing sounds calm him and bring him back to his senses. When he has
+finished his performance the soul is gone!
+
+Over white plains, over hills, and through valleys, the train bears us
+on farther north-westwards through the government of Irkutsk. At
+Krasnoiarsk we cross the Yenisei by a fine bridge nearly two-thirds of a
+mile long. In summer vessels can ascend as far as Minusinsk, in a
+district of southern Siberia, rich in gold and iron and productive soil.
+In general Siberia is a rich country. Gold, silver, and copper, lead,
+graphite, and coal occur, besides many other valuable minerals and
+stones in the mountains. The country has also good prospects of future
+development owing to its remarkably excellent agricultural land. Most of
+this is situated near the railway, and all Siberia is intersected by a
+net of waterways. From one of the tributaries of the Obi steamers can
+pass by canal to the Yenisei, and thence on to the Lena. Omsk, the third
+town of Siberia, with 89,000 inhabitants, is the centre of this water
+system. More than 6000 miles of river can be navigated by large
+steamers, and nearly 30,000 by smaller boats. In western Siberia, around
+Tomsk and Omsk, the agricultural produce increases year by year, and the
+time will certainly come when these regions will support a population
+many times as large as at present, and export large quantities of corn
+in addition. This is the only thing which will make this enormously long
+railway pay, for it cost somewhere about L11,000,000 to build.
+
+We have passed Tomsk and crossed the Obi by a fine massive bridge of
+stone and iron. The Obi is the largest river of Asia. In length it is
+equal to the Yenisei and Blue River, but its drainage basin is larger
+than that of either of the others. Where the great affluent, the Irtish,
+runs in from the west, the Obi has a breadth of nearly two miles, and at
+its mouth, in the Gulf of Obi on the Arctic Ocean, the breadth has
+increased to twelve miles. The Irtish also receives from the west a
+large tributary, the Tobol, and at the confluence stands the town of
+Tobolsk.
+
+One day passes after another, and one night after another rises up blue
+and cold from the east. We have left every mountain and hill behind us,
+and the boundless plains, like a frozen sea, lie buried under deep snow.
+Sometimes we travel for a whole hour without seeing a farm or village.
+Only occasionally do we see to the north a small patch of _taiga_, or
+the Siberian coniferous forest, silent and dark. A clump of birch-trees
+is a rare sight. The country is open, flat, monotonous, and dead-white
+as far as the horizon.
+
+Thus we travel on by degrees through Siberia, this immense country
+bounded on the south by the Altai, Sayan, the Yablonoi and Stanovoi
+Mountains, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Huge areas of northern
+Siberia are occupied by _tundras_--moss-grown, marshy steppes, with
+little animal life, frozen hard as stone in winter and thawed during the
+short summer into dangerous swamps.
+
+In the frozen ground of northern Siberia, and particularly in old flood
+plains, have been found complete specimens of the mammoth. This animal
+is an extinct species of elephant, which, during the diluvial period,
+was distributed over all northern Asia, Europe, and North America. The
+mammoth was larger than the elephant of the present day, had tusks as
+much as 13 feet long, a thick fur suitable for a cold climate, and quite
+a luxuriant mane on the back of the head and neck. That prehistoric man
+was a contemporary of the mammoth is proved by ancient rude drawings of
+this animal.
+
+Larches, pine and spruce, birch and willow, compose the forests of
+Siberia. The larch manages to exist even round the pole of cold. The
+Polar bear, the Arctic fox, the glutton, the lemming, the snow-hare, and
+the reindeer are the animals in the cold north. In the central parts of
+the country are to be found red deer, roedeer, wild swine, beaver, wolf,
+and lynx. Far away to the east, on the great Amur River, which is the
+boundary between the Amur province and Manchuria, as well as in the
+coast province of Ussuri, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, occur tigers
+and panthers. The most valuable animals, the furs of which constitute
+one of the resources of Siberia, are the sable, the ermine, and the grey
+squirrel. The south-eastern parts of this great country are a
+transitional region to the steppes of central Asia, and there are to be
+found antelopes, gazelles, and wild asses.
+
+At length, on January 5, we are up in the Ural Mountains, and the line
+winds among hills and valleys. Near the station of Zlatoust stands a
+granite column to mark the boundary between Asia and Europe.
+
+
+THE VOLGA AND MOSCOW
+
+From the boundary between Europe and Asia the train takes us onwards
+past Ufa to Samara. The hills of the Urals become lower and the country
+flattens out again. Snow lies everywhere in a continuous sheet, and
+peasants are seen on the roads with sledges laden with hay, fuel, or
+provisions. At Batraki we pass over the Volga by a bridge nearly a mile
+long. The Volga is the largest river in Europe; it is 2300 miles long,
+and has its source in the Valdai hills (between St. Petersburg and
+Moscow) at a height of only 750 feet above sea-level. It flows,
+therefore, through most of Russia in Europe, traversing twenty
+governments. The right bank is high and steep, the left flat; and at its
+mouth in the Caspian Sea it forms a very extensive delta. The Volga is
+navigable almost throughout its length, and has also forty navigable
+tributaries. The river is frozen over for about five months in the year,
+and when the ice breaks up in spring with thundering cracks it often
+causes great damage along the banks. Crowds of vessels, boats, and rafts
+pass up and down the sluggish stream, as well as passenger steamers
+built after the pattern of the American river boats. By the Volga and
+its canals one can travel by steamer from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea,
+and from the Caspian Sea by the Volga into the Dwina and out to the
+White Sea. The Volga is not only an important highway for goods and
+passengers, but also an inexhaustible fish preserve; indeed the sturgeon
+and sterlet fisheries constitute its greatest wealth.
+
+When the train has rattled heavily and slowly over the Volga, it
+proceeds west-north-west into the very heart of holy Russia, and late on
+January 7, 1909, we roll into the station of Moscow, the old capital of
+Russia.
+
+Moscow is a type of the old unadulterated Russia, a home of the simple,
+honest manners and customs of olden days, of faith and honour, of a
+child-like, pure-hearted belief in the religion of the country, the
+Catholic Greek Church. In its crooked, winding, badly-paved streets
+swarm Tatars, Persians, and Caucasians, among Slav citizens and
+countrymen, those inexterminable Russian peasants who suffer and toil
+like slaves, look too deep into the _vodka_[20] cup on Saturday, yet are
+always contented, good-tempered, and jovial.
+
+The town stands on both sides of the small Moskva River, which falls
+into the Oka, a tributary of the Volga, and is inhabited by more than a
+million souls. The Kremlin is the oldest part, and the heart of Moscow
+(Plate XXIII.). Its walls were erected at the end of the fifteenth
+century; they are 60 feet high, crenellated, and provided with
+eighteen towers and five gates. Within this irregular pentagon, a mile
+and a quarter in circumference, are churches, palaces, museums, and
+other public buildings. There stands the bell tower of Ivan Veliki, 270
+feet high, with five storeys. From the uppermost you can command the
+whole horizon, with Moscow beneath your feet, the streets diverging in
+every direction from the Kremlin like the spokes of a wheel, and crossed
+again by circular roads. Between the streets lie conglomerations of
+heavy stone houses, and from this sea of buildings emerge bulb-shaped
+cupolas with green roofs surmounted by golden Greek crosses. Large
+barracks, hospitals, palaces, and public buildings crop up here and
+there. Right through the town winds the Moskva in the figure of an S,
+and the walls of the Kremlin with their towers are reflected in the
+water.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW.]
+
+In the tower of Ivan Veliki hang thirty-three bells of various sizes. At
+its foot stands the fallen "Tsar" bell, which weighs 197 tons and is 65
+feet in circumference. In its fall a piece was broken out of the side,
+and it is therefore useless as a bell, but it is set up on a platform as
+an ornament.
+
+Within the walls of the Kremlin is also the Church of the Ascension of
+the Virgin, which is crowned by a dome 138 feet high, with smaller
+cupolas at the four corners. Standing in the centre of the Kremlin, this
+church is the heart not only of Moscow but of all Russia, for here the
+Tsars are crowned, while the bells of Ivan Veliki peal over the city.
+The interior of the cathedral presents an indescribable effect. The
+light from the narrow windows high up is very dim, and is further dulled
+by gilded banners with pictures of saints and crosses. The temple nave
+is crammed with religious objects, iconostases and icons, sacred
+portraits of solid gold with only the hands and faces coloured. Wax
+candles burn before them, from which the smoke rises up to the vaulted
+roof, floating about the banners in a greyish-blue mist.
+
+To the orthodox Russians the Kremlin is almost a holy place. They make
+pilgrimages to its temples and cloisters with the same reverence as
+Tibetans to the sanctuaries of Buddha. "Moscow is surpassed only by the
+Kremlin, and the Kremlin only by heaven," they say.
+
+Perhaps no year in the history of Moscow is so famous as the year 1812.
+Then the city was taken by Napoleon and the Grande Armee. The Russian
+army abandoned the city, and the citizens left their homes. Napoleon
+entered on September 14, and next day the city began to burn. The
+Russians had set fire to it themselves in several places. Three-fourths
+of the city lay in ashes when the French evacuated Moscow after an
+occupation of five weeks and the loss of 30,000 men. The remembrance of
+this dreadful time still survives among the populace.
+
+
+ST. PETERSBURG AND HOME
+
+From Moscow an express train takes us in eleven hours to the capital of
+Peter the Great, St. Petersburg, at the mouth of the Neva, in the Gulf
+of Finland. Here we are in the midst of very different scenes from those
+in Moscow. Here is no longer genuine uncontaminated Russia, but Western
+civilisation, which has come and washed away the Slavonic. The churches
+and monasteries indeed are built in the same style as in Moscow, and the
+eyes meet with the same types and costumes, and the same heavily laden
+waggons and carts rumble over the Neva bridges; but one feels and sees
+only too plainly that one is in Europe.
+
+The Neva is forty miles long and a third of a mile broad, and comes from
+Lake Ladoga. It is spanned by four fine bridges, always crowded with
+carriages and foot passengers, and in summer numerous small steamboats
+ply up and down. In winter thick ice lies on the river during four
+months.
+
+St. Petersburg has nearly two million inhabitants, which is rather more
+than a hundredth part of the population of the whole Russian empire. The
+appearance of the town shows that it is new, for the streets are
+straight and broad. The climate is very raw, damp, and disagreeable, and
+it rains or snows on 200 days in the year.
+
+A walk through the streets of St. Petersburg shows the traveller much
+that is strange. Tiny chapels are found everywhere--in the middle of a
+bridge or at a street corner. They contain only a picture of a saint
+with candles burning before it. Many persons stop as they pass by,
+uncover their heads, fall on their knees, cross themselves and murmur a
+prayer, and then vanish among the crowd in the streets. It is also
+noticeable that this city is full of uniforms. Not only do the soldiers
+of the large garrison wear uniforms, but civil officials, schoolboys,
+students, and many others are dressed in special costumes with bright
+buttons of brass or silver. But what especially attracts the stranger's
+attention are the vehicles. Persons of the upper classes drive in open
+sleighs and cover themselves with bearskins lined with blue, and are
+drawn by tall, dark, handsome trotters. Sometimes also a _troika_, or
+team of three horses abreast, is seen, one of the horses in the middle
+under the arch which keeps the shafts apart, while the other two, on
+either side, go at a gallop. The hackney sleighs are also common, so
+small that two persons can hardly find room to sit, and as there is no
+support or guard of any kind, they must cling to each other's waists in
+order not to be thrown off at sharp corners. These small sledges have no
+fixed stands, but they are drawn up in long rows outside hotels, banks,
+theatres, railway stations, and other much-frequented places, and may be
+found singly almost anywhere in the streets. The drivers are always
+merry and cheerful, and keep up a running conversation with their
+passenger or their horse, which they call "my little dove." All drive at
+the same reckless pace, as if they were running races through the
+streets.
+
+St. Petersburg is rich in art collections and museums,
+picture-galleries, churches, and fine palaces. The finest building in
+the city, however, is the Isaac Cathedral, with its high gilded dome,
+surrounded by four similar but smaller gilded cupolas. The cross at the
+top is 330 feet above the ground, and the great dome is the first thing
+in St. Petersburg to be seen on coming by steamer from the Gulf of
+Finland. When the Cathedral was built, it cost more than two and
+three-quarter million pounds. It was finished fifty years ago, but has
+never been in really sound condition, and is always undergoing extensive
+repairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The last stage of our journey is now at hand. One evening we drive in a
+_troika_, with much ringing of sleigh bells, to the station of the
+Finland Railway, whence the train takes us through Viborg to Abo, the
+old capital of Finland. Here a steamer is waiting to take us over to
+Stockholm, which was the starting-point of our long journey.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] A seaport of New Hampshire, U.S.A.
+
+[20] A Russian alcoholic liquor usually made from rye.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+STOCKHOLM TO EGYPT
+
+
+TO LONDON AND PARIS
+
+Again we set out from Stockholm in the evening by train, and the next
+morning we reach Malmoe, a port on the west coast of Sweden, not many
+miles north of Trelleborg, from which we started on our journey
+eastwards across Asia. From Malmoe a steamer soon takes us across the
+narrow sound to Copenhagen, the beautiful capital of Denmark, and then
+we take the train across the large, rich, and fertile island of Zealand.
+There farms are crowded close together among the tilled fields; there
+thriving cattle graze on the meadows, yielding Denmark a superfluity of
+milk and butter; there the productive soil spreads everywhere, leaving
+no room for unprofitable sandy downs and heaths, as on the west coast of
+Jutland. The Danes are a small people, but they make a brave struggle
+for existence. Their country is one of the smallest in Europe, but the
+first in utilising all its possibilities of opening profitable commerce
+with foreign lands. Much larger are its possessions in the Arctic Ocean,
+Greenland, and Iceland, but there the population is very scanty and the
+real masters of the islands are cold and ice.
+
+At Korsoer, on the Great Belt, we again go on board a steamer which in a
+few hours takes us between Langeland and Laaland to Kiel, the principal
+naval port of Germany. Here we are on soil which was formerly Danish,
+for it was only during her last unfortunate war that Denmark lost the
+two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
+
+We travel by train from Kiel through fertile Holstein southwards to the
+free Hansa town of Hamburg on the Elbe, the greatest commercial emporium
+on the mainland of Europe, and, after London and New York, the third in
+the world.
+
+From Hamburg the train goes on through Hanover and Westphalia, across
+the majestic Rhine, through South Holland, not far north of the Belgian
+frontier, to the port of Flushing, which is situated on one of the
+islands in the delta of the Scheldt. Here another steamer is ready for
+us, and after a passage of a few hours we glide into the broad
+trumpet-shaped mouth of the Thames and land at Queenborough. There again
+we take a train which carries us through the thickly-peopled,
+well-cultivated country of Kent into the heart of London, the greatest
+city of the world.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO PARIS.]
+
+After a few days' stay in London we go on to Paris--by train to Dover,
+across the Channel at its narrowest part in a swift turbine steamer, and
+again by rail from Calais to Paris, through one of the most fruitful
+districts of France, vying with the valleys of the Rhone and Garonne in
+fertility. In a little over seven hours after leaving London we arrive
+at the great city (Plate XXIV.) where the Seine, crossed by thirty
+bridges, describes a bend, afterwards continuing in the most capricious
+meanderings to Rouen and Havre.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXIV. PARIS.
+
+Looking eastwards from Notre Dame.]
+
+The first thing the stranger notices in Paris is the boulevards--broad,
+handsome streets, with alleys of leafy trees between rows of large
+palatial houses, theatres, cafes, and shops. The oldest, the boulevards
+proper, were formerly the fortifications of the town with towers and
+walls; "boulevard" is, then, the same word as the English "bulwark."
+Louis XIII., who enlarged and beautified Paris, had these bulwarks
+pulled down, and the first boulevards laid out on their site. They are
+situated on the north side of the Seine, and form a continuous line
+under different names, Madeleine, des Capuchines, des Italiens, and
+Montmartre. This line of boulevards is one of the sights of Paris. In
+later times boulevards were also laid out where there had been no
+fortifications before. Under Louis XIV. and his successors Paris grew
+and increased in splendour and greatness; then it was the scene of the
+great Revolution and its horrors; then under Napoleon it became the
+heart of the mightiest empire of that time. With the fall of Napoleon
+Paris was twice entered by the forces of the Allies, and in 1871 it was
+besieged and captured by the Prussians. Since then Paris has been spared
+from disastrous misfortunes, and is, as it has been for many centuries,
+the gayest and most animated city in Europe.
+
+Let us take a rapid walk through the town, starting at the Place de la
+Bastille, on the north bank of the Seine, where formerly stood the
+fortress and prison of the Bastille. This prison was stormed and
+destroyed at the commencement of the Great Revolution, on July 14, 1789,
+and since that year July 14 has been the chief national festival-day. In
+the middle of the square stands the July Column, and from its summit a
+wonderful view of Paris can be obtained. We now follow the Rue de
+Rivoli, the largest and handsomest street in Paris. On the left hand is
+the Hotel de Ville, a fine public building, where the city authorities
+meet, where brilliant entertainments are given, and where the galleries
+are adorned with canvases of famous masters.
+
+Farther along, on the same side, is the largest public building of the
+city, the palace of the Louvre. Like the British Museum, it would
+require months and years to see properly. Here are stored colossal
+collections, not only of objects of art and relics from great ancient
+kingdoms in Asia and Europe, but also of the finest works of European
+sculptors and painters of all periods.
+
+We walk on north-westwards through the luxuriant gardens of the
+Tuileries, and stop a moment in the Place de la Concorde to enjoy the
+charming views presented on all sides--the river with its quays and
+bridges, the parks and avenues, the huge buildings decorated with
+exquisite taste, the wide, open spaces adorned with glorious monuments,
+and the never-ending coming and going of pleasure-loving Parisians and
+Parisian ladies in costumes of the latest fashion.
+
+From the Place de la Concorde we direct our steps to the Champs Elysees,
+a magnificent park with a broad carriageway along which the fashionable
+world rides, walks, or drives in smart carriages and motor cars. At the
+northern side of the park lives the President of the Republic in the
+palace of the Elysees.
+
+If we now follow the double row of broad avenues northwards we come to
+the Place de l'Etoile, a "circus" where twelve avenues of large streets
+meet. One of them, a prolongation of the Champs Elysees, is named after
+the grand army of Napoleon and leads to the extensive Bois de Boulogne.
+In the middle of the Place de l'Etoile is erected a stately triumphal
+arch, 160 feet high, in memory of Napoleon's victories.
+
+From here we follow a busy street as far as the bridge of Jena, and on
+the opposite bank of the Seine rises the Eiffel Tower, dominating Paris
+with its immense pillar 1000 feet high. The Eiffel Tower is the highest
+structure ever reared by human hands, twice as high as the cathedral of
+Cologne and the tallest of the Egyptian pyramids. At the first platform
+we are more than 330 feet above the vast city, but the hills outside
+Paris close in the horizon. When the cage rises up to the third platform
+we are at a height of 864 feet above the ground, and see below us the
+Seine with its many bridges and the city with its innumerable streets
+and its 140 squares. A staircase leads up to the highest balcony, and at
+the very top a beacon is lighted at night visible 50 miles away. From
+the parapet we hardly dare allow our eyes to look down the perpendicular
+tower to the four sloping iron piers at its base, especially when it
+blows hard and the whole tower perceptibly swings. There is no need to
+go up in a balloon to obtain a bird's-eye view of Paris; from the top of
+the Eiffel Tower we have the town spread out before us like a map.
+
+
+NAPOLEON'S TOMB
+
+When we have safely descended from the giddy height, we make our way
+across the Champ de Mars to the Hotel des Invalides. Formerly several
+thousand pensioners from the great French armies found a refuge in this
+huge building, but now it is used as a museum for military historic
+relics.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXV. NAPOLEON'S TOMB.
+
+Hotel des Invalides, Paris.]
+
+We pass in under the glittering gilded dome, visible all over the city,
+and find ourselves in a round hall, the centre of which is occupied by a
+crypt, likewise round and several feet deep and open above. On the floor
+in mosaic letters are glorious names, Rivoli, Pyramids, Marengo,
+Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, Wagram, and Moscow. Twelve marble statues,
+representing as many victories, and sixty captured colours keep guard
+round the great sarcophagus of red porphyry from Finland which contains
+the remains of Napoleon (Plate XXV.).
+
+No one speaks in here. The deepest silence surrounds the ashes of the
+man who in his lifetime filled the world with the roar of his cannon and
+the thunder of his legions, and who within the space of a few years
+completely changed the map of Europe. Pale and subdued, the light falls
+over the crypt where the red porphyry speaks of irresistible power, and
+the white goddesses of victory are illumined as it were with a
+reflection of the years of glory.
+
+Unconsciously we listen for an echo of the clash of arms and the words
+of command. We seem to see a blue-eyed boy playing at his mother's knee
+at Ajaccio in Corsica; we seem to hear a youthful revolutionist, burning
+with enthusiasm, making fiery speeches at secret clubs in Paris. Pale
+and solemn, the shade of the twenty-six-year-old general floats before
+our mind's eye as he returns from a series of victories in northern
+Italy, where he rushed like a storm over the plains of Lombardy, made a
+triumphal entry into Milan, and for ever removed the ancient republic of
+Venice from the list of independent States.
+
+We recall the campaign of the French army against Egypt and the Holy
+Land. Napoleon takes his fleet out from the harbour of Toulon, escapes
+Nelson's ships of the line and frigates, seizes Malta, sails to the
+north of Crete and west of Cyprus, and lands 40,000 men at Alexandria.
+The soldiers languish in the desert sands on the way to Cairo, they
+approach the Nile to give battle to the Egyptian army, and at the foot
+of the pyramids the East is defeated by the West. The march is continued
+eastwards to Syria. Five centuries have passed since the crusaders
+attempted to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of unbelievers. Now
+again the weapons of Western lands clash in the valley of the Jordan
+and at the foot of Mount Tabor, and now the French General obtains a
+victory over the Turks outside Nazareth. In the meantime, however,
+Nelson has annihilated his fleet. The flower of the republican army is
+doomed to perish, and Napoleon's dream of an oriental dominion has
+vanished with the smoke of the last camp fire. He leaves Egypt with two
+frigates, sails along the coasts of Tripoli and Tunis, and passes at
+night with extinguished lights through the channel between Africa and
+Sicily.
+
+Again our eyes turn to the dim light under the cupola of the Invalides,
+and the marble columns and statues look white as snow. Then our thoughts
+wander off to the Alps, the Great St. Bernard, the St. Gotthard, Mont
+Cenis, and the Simplon, where the First Consul, like Hannibal before
+him, with four army corps bids defiance to the loftiest mountains of
+Europe. We seem to see the soldiers dragging the cannon through the
+frozen drifts and collecting together again on the Italian side. At
+Marengo, south of the Po, a new victory is added to the French laurels,
+and the most powerful man in France has the fate of Europe in his hands.
+
+Then various episodes of his marvellous career pass before us. Our eyes
+fall on the name Austerlitz down in the mosaic of the crypt. The Emperor
+of France has marched into Moravia and drawn up his legions under the
+golden eagles. A distant echo seems to sound round the crypt--it is
+Napoleon's cavalry riding down the Russian guards, it is the "grand
+army" annihilating the Austrian and Russian forces, it is the French
+artillery pounding the ice on the lake and drowning the fugitives, their
+guns and horses.
+
+A murmur passes through the crypt, an echo from the battle of Jena,
+where Prussia was crushed, its territory devastated from the Elbe to the
+Oder, and its fortresses surrendered, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Stettin,
+Luebeck, while the victor made his entry into Frederick the Great's
+capital, Berlin. We hear the tread of the columns and the tramp of
+horses through the mud on the roads in Poland, and we see the bloody
+battlefields of Pultusk, east of the Vistula, and Eylau in West Prussia,
+where heaps of bodies lie scattered over the deep snow. We see Napoleon
+on his white horse after the battle of Friedland in East Prussia, where
+the Russians were defeated. The guards and hussars rode through them
+with drawn swords. Their enthusiastic cry of "Long live the Emperor"
+still vibrates under the standards round the sarcophagus; and above the
+shouts of victory the beat of horse hoofs is heard on the roads of
+Europe; it is the courier between the headquarters of the army and
+Paris.
+
+The conqueror marches to Vienna, and threatens to crush Austria. He
+gains the bloody battle of Wagram, north-east of Vienna, he wipes out
+states and makes them dependencies of France and their rulers his
+obedient vassals, and he gives away royal crowns to his relations and
+generals. His dominion extends from Danzig to Cadiz, from the mouth of
+the Elbe to the Tiber; he has risen to a height of power and glory never
+attained since the golden age of Rome.
+
+Bayonets and sabres, cuirasses and helmets flash in the sunlight as the
+invincible army camps with band and music and song above the Niemen.
+Half a million of soldiers are on their way to the old capital of
+Russia, Moscow. The Russian roads from Vilna to Vitebsk are full of
+endless lines of troops, squadrons of cavalry in close formation, and
+enormous baggage trains. The Russians know that their freedom is in
+danger; they burn their own towns and villages, devastate their own
+provinces, and retire little by little, as they did a hundred years
+earlier when Charles XII. invaded Russia. At length there is a battle at
+Moscow, and the French army enters the town. We see in imagination the
+September nights lighted up far and wide by a blazing flame. Moscow is
+on fire. On the terrace of the Kremlin stands a little man in a grey
+military coat and a black cocked hat, watching the flame. Within a week
+the old holy city of the Muscovites lies in ashes.
+
+The early twilight of winter falls over Paris, and we see the shadows
+deepen round Napoleon's tomb. We fancy we see among them human figures
+fighting against hunger, cold, and weariness. The time of misfortune is
+come. The great army is retreating, the roads are lined with corpses and
+fragments. The cannon are left in the snow. The soldiers fall in
+regiments like a ripe crop. Packs of wolves follow in their tracks: they
+are contented with the dead, but the Cossack squadrons cut down the
+living. At the bridge over the Beresina, a tributary of the Dnieper,
+30,000 men are drowned and perish. All discipline is relaxed. The
+soldiers throw away their guns and knapsacks. Clothed in furs and with a
+birchen staff in his hand, the defeated emperor marches like a simple
+soldier in the front. Thanks to the severe climate of their country and
+its great extent, and thanks also to their own cautious conduct of the
+war, the Russians practically annihilated Napoleon's army.
+
+The darkness deepens. At Leipzig Russians, Austrians, Prussians, and
+Swedes oppose Napoleon. There his proud empire falls to pieces, even
+Paris is captured, and he loses his crown. He is carried a prisoner down
+the Rhone valley through Lyons, and shipped off to the island of Elba.
+
+Once more he fills the world with tumult. With a brig and seven small
+vessels he sails back to the coast of France. He has a force of only
+1100 men, but in his hands it is sufficient to reconquer France. He
+marches over the western offshoots of the Alps. At Grenoble his force
+has increased to 7000 men. In Lyons he is saluted as Emperor, and Paris
+opens its gates. He is ready to stake everything on a single throw. In
+Belgium is to be the decisive battle. Hostile armies gather round the
+frontiers of France, for Europe is tired of continual war. At Waterloo
+Napoleon fights his last battle, and his fate is sealed for ever.
+
+He leaves Paris for the last time. At the port of Rochefort, between the
+mouths of the Loire and the Garonne, he goes on board an English
+frigate. After seventy days' sail he is landed on the small basaltic
+island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic, where he is doomed to
+pass the last six years of his eventful life. Here also his grave is
+digged under the willows in the valley.
+
+Nineteen years after Napoleon's death the simple grave under the willows
+was uncovered, the coffins of wood, lead, and sheet-iron were opened in
+the presence of several who had shared his long imprisonment, the
+remains were taken on board a French frigate amid the roar of guns and
+flags waving half-mast high, the coffin was landed at Cherbourg in
+Normandy, and the conqueror of Europe once more made his entry into
+Paris with military pomp and ceremony, in which all France took part.
+Drawn by sixteen horses in funereal trappings and followed by veterans
+of Napoleon's campaigns, the hearse, adorned with imperial splendour,
+was escorted by soldiers under the triumphal arch of the Place de
+l'Etoile and through the Champs Elysees to the Hotel des Invalides,
+where the coffin was deposited in the Finnish sarcophagus. Thus was
+fulfilled the last wish of the conqueror of the world: "I desire that my
+remains may rest on the banks of the Seine."
+
+
+PARIS TO ROME
+
+The stranger leaves Paris with regret, and is consoled only by the
+thought that he is on his way to sunny Italy. The train carries him
+eastwards, and he looks through the window at the hills and plains of
+Champagne, the home of sparkling wine. Around him spread tilled fields,
+villages, and farmhouses. Where the soil is not suitable for vines,
+wheat, or beet, it provides pasture for large flocks. Men are seen at
+work everywhere, and the traveller realises that France is so prosperous
+because all its small proprietors, peasants, and townspeople are so
+industrious and so thrifty. Now the frontier is reached. The great
+fortress of Belfort is the last French town passed, and a little later
+we are in Alsace.
+
+Another frontier is crossed, that between Germany and Switzerland, and
+the train halts at the fine town of Bale, traversed by the mighty Rhine.
+Coming from the Lake of Constance, the clear waters of the river glide
+under the bridges of Bale, and turn at right angles northwards between
+the Vosges and the Black Forest.
+
+From Bale we go on south-westwards to Geneva. Along a narrow valley the
+railway follows the river Birs, which falls into the Rhine, and winds in
+curves along the mountain flanks, sometimes high above the foot of the
+valley, and sometimes by the river's bank. It is towards the end of
+January, and snow has been falling for several days on end. All the
+country is quite white, and the small villages in the valley are almost
+hidden.
+
+Now we come to three lakes in a row, the Lake of Bienne, the Lake of
+Neuchatel, and the great Lake of Geneva, which we reach at the town of
+Lausanne. Here the snow has ceased to fall, and the beautiful Alps of
+Savoy are visible to the south. The sun is hidden behind clouds, but its
+rays are reflected by the clear mirror of the lake. This view is one of
+the finest in the world, and our eyes are glued to the carriage window
+as the train follows the shore of Geneva.
+
+In outline the lake is like a dolphin just about to dive. At the
+dolphin's snout lies Geneva, and here the river Rhone flows out of the
+lake to run to Lyons and debouch into the Mediterranean immediately to
+the west of the great port of Marseilles.
+
+Geneva is one of the finest, cleanest, and most charming towns in the
+world. Between its northern and southern halves the water of the lake,
+deep blue and clear as crystal, is drawn off into the Rhone as into a
+funnel. There the current is strong, and the river is divided into two
+by a long island.
+
+The finest sight, however, is the view south-eastwards when the weather
+is clear. There stand the mighty summits and crests of the Alps of
+Savoy, now covered with snow, and glittering in white, light blue, and
+steely grey tints. There also Mont Blanc is enthroned above the other
+mountains, nay, above all Europe, awesome and grand, the crown of the
+Alps, the frontier pillar between Switzerland, France, and Italy.
+
+From Geneva we go eastwards along the northern shore of the lake. The
+air is hazy, and the Alps of Savoy look like a light veil beneath the
+sun. In this light the water is of a bright green like malachite. Beyond
+Lausanne the mist disappears, and the Alps again appear dazzling white
+and steep as pyramids and towers. Towns, villages, and villas cast
+reflections of their white or coloured house-fronts and their light
+balconies on the lake. The shore is lined by a row of hotels surrounded
+by gardens and promenades. Travellers come hither from all countries in
+summer to feast their eyes on the Alps and strengthen their lungs by
+inhaling the fresh air.
+
+We leave the lake and mount gently up the Rhone valley between wild
+rocks. It becomes narrower as we ascend. The Rhone, a tumultuous stream,
+roars in its bed, now quite insignificant compared to the majestic river
+at Geneva. In the valley tilled fields are laid out, dark green spruces
+peep out of the snow on the slopes, while above all the snow-white
+summits of the Alps are enthroned.
+
+A few minutes beyond Brieg the train rushes at full speed straight into
+the mountain. The electric lamps are lighted and all the windows closed.
+The tunnel is filled with smoke, and a continuous reverberation dins our
+ears. The Simplon tunnel is the longest in the world, being 12-1/2 miles
+long. It is only a few years since it was completed. Work was begun from
+both sides of the mountain at the same time, and when the excavations
+met in the middle and a blasting charge burst the last sheet of rock, it
+was found that the calculations had not been an inch out. After fully
+twenty minutes it begins to grow light, and when the train rolls out of
+the tunnel we are on Italian ground.
+
+The train now descends a lovely valley to the shore of Lago Maggiore.
+Framed in steep mountains, the dark blue lake contains a small group of
+islands, full of white houses, palaces, and gardens. One of these is
+well known by the name of Isola Bella, or the Beautiful Island.
+
+Night hides from our eyes the plains of Lombardy, Milan with its famous
+cathedral, the bridge over the Po, and then a number of famous old
+towns, including Bologna with its university about fifteen hundred years
+old.
+
+Next morning, however, we see to the south-west something like a flaming
+beacon. It is the gilded dome of St. Peter's Church, which, caught by
+the rays of the rising sun, shines like a fire above the eternal city.
+
+
+THE ETERNAL CITY
+
+The King of Italy has 35 million subjects, but in Rome lives another
+mighty prince, the Pope, though his kingdom is not of this world. His
+throne is the chair of St. Peter, his arms the triple tiara and the
+crossed keys which open and close the gates of the kingdom of heaven. He
+has 270 million subjects, the Roman Catholics. For political reasons he
+is a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican, a collection of great palaces
+containing more than 10,000 halls and apartments. There also are
+installed museums, libraries, and collections of manuscripts of vast
+extent and value. The Vatican museum of sculpture is the richest in the
+world. In the Sistine Chapel, a sanctuary 450 years old, Michael Angelo
+adorned the roof with great pictures of the creation of the world and
+man, of the Fall and the Flood, and at the end wall an immense picture
+of the Last Judgment. To the west of the palace stands the Pope's
+gardens and park, and to the south the Church of St. Peter, the largest
+temple in Christendom. The whole forms a small town of itself; and this
+town is one of the greatest in the world, a seat of art and learning,
+and, above all, the focus of a great religion. For from here the Pope
+sends forth his bulls of excommunication against heretics and sinners,
+and here he watches over his flock, the Catholics, in accordance with
+the Saviour's thrice repeated injunction to Peter: "Feed my sheep."
+
+A drive through Rome is intensely interesting. The streets are mostly
+narrow and crooked, and we are always turning corners, driving across
+small triangular open places and in lanes where it is ticklish work to
+pass a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Yet no boulevards, no
+great streets in the world, can rival in beauty the streets of Rome.
+They are skirted by old grey palaces built thousands of years ago rather
+than centuries, decorated with the most splendid window frames, friezes,
+and colonnades. Every portal is a work of art; round every corner comes
+a new surprise, a fountain with sea-horses and deities, a mediaeval
+well, a moss-grown ruin of Imperial times, or a church with a tower
+whence bells have rung for centuries over Rome.
+
+And what a commotion there is in all these narrow streets! Here comes a
+peasant driving his asses weighed down with baskets of melons and
+grapes. There a boy draws a handcart piled up with apricots, oranges,
+and nuts. Here we see men and women from the Campagna outside Rome, clad
+in their national costume, in which dirty white and red predominate, the
+men with black slouched hats, the women with white kerchiefs over their
+hair. They are of dark complexion, but on the cheeks of the younger ones
+the roses appear through the bronze. The patricians, the noble Romans
+who roll by lazily in fine carriages, are much fairer, and indeed the
+ladies are often as pale as if they had just left the cloister or were
+ready for the bier. Boys run begging after the carriage, and poor
+mothers with small infants in their arms beseech only a small coin.
+There are many in Rome who live from hand to mouth. But all are
+cheerful, all are comely.
+
+Now we reach the bridge of St. Angelo over the muddy Tiber, and before
+us stands the massive round tower of the castle of St. Angelo, which the
+Emperor Hadrian built 1800 years ago as a mausoleum for himself. On the
+left is the piazza of St. Peter, which, with its surrounding buildings,
+its curved arcades, St. Peter's Church and the Vatican, is one of the
+grandest in the world. Between its constantly playing fountains has
+stood for 300 years an obelisk which the Emperor Caligula brought from
+Egypt to adorn Rome. It witnessed wonderful events long before the time
+of Moses. At its foot the children of Israel sang the melodies of their
+country during their servitude. It was a decoration of Nero's circus,
+and saw thousands of Christian martyrs torn to pieces by Gallic hounds
+and African lions; and still it lifts itself 80 feet into the air in a
+single block, untouched by time and the strife of men.
+
+At the north side of the piazza is the gate of the Vatican, where the
+Swiss Guards keep watch in antique red and yellow uniforms. Before us
+are the great steps of St. Peter's Church. We enter the grand portico
+and pass through one of the bronze doors into the church. All the
+dimensions are so immensely great that we stop in astonishment. Now our
+eyes lose themselves in sky-high vaulting, glittering with colour, and
+now we admire the columns and their capitals, pictures in mosaic or
+monuments in marble. Rome was not built in a day, says the proverb, and
+St. Peter's Church alone was the work of 120 years and twenty Popes.
+Italy's foremost artists, including Raphael and Michael Angelo, put the
+best of their energies into the building of this temple, where is the
+tomb of the Apostle Peter. The great church contains a bronze statue of
+the Apostle Peter in a sitting position, and the right foot is worn and
+polished by the kisses of the faithful. High above in the vaulting over
+his head is to be seen the following inscription in Latin:--"Thou art
+Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and I will give unto
+thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."
+
+Paul has also a worthy memorial church in Rome, St. Paul's, which stands
+outside the walls. On the way thither we pass a small chapel where, it
+is said, Peter and Paul took leave of each other before they went to
+suffer martyrdom. On the facade the final words are inscribed. Paul
+said: "Peace be with you, thou foundation of the church and shepherd of
+Christ's lambs." And Peter: "Go forth in peace, thou preacher of the
+gospel, righteous guide to salvation." Paul's tomb is under the high
+altar of St. Paul's Church. In the interior of the church we notice
+portraits in mosaic of all the Popes from St. Peter to Leo XIII.
+
+Rome is inexhaustible. It has grown up during 2600 years, and each age
+has built on the ruins of the preceding. The city is piled up in strata
+like a geological deposit. What lies hidden at the bottom is scarcely
+known at all; that is from the time of the early kings of Rome. Then
+follows the city of the Republic, and upon it the Rome of the Emperors,
+the cosmopolitan city, where the Caesars from their palace on the
+Palatine stretched their sceptre over all the known world from foggy
+Britain and the dark forests of Germany to the burning deserts of
+Africa, from the mountains of Spain to Galilee and Judaea. Many stately
+remains of this time of greatness are still preserved among the modern
+streets and houses. Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians have sacked
+Rome, monsters of the Imperial house have devastated the city to wipe
+out the remembrance of their predecessors and glorify themselves; but if
+Rome was not built in a day, so two thousand years have not sufficed to
+blot out its magnificence.
+
+Then follow new strata, the Christian age, the Middle Ages, and modern
+times, with their innumerable churches, monasteries, and massive solemn
+palaces. Christianity built on the ruins of paganism. Ancient and modern
+times are inextricably mixed. Up there on the Capitoline hill rides a
+Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, in bronze. Look round, and there on the
+farther bank of the Tiber another horseman looks over the eternal city,
+the brave champion of young Italy's liberty, Garibaldi. You ride through
+a street lined with grand shops in new buildings, and in a couple of
+minutes you are at the Forum Romanum, the Roman market-place, the heart
+of the world empire, the square for markets, popular assemblies, and
+judicial courts, a marble hall in the open air. Over its flags, victors,
+accompanied by their comrades in arms and their prisoners, marched up to
+the Capitol to sacrifice in the temple of Jupiter, where now only a few
+pillars and ruins remain of all the splendour Julius Caesar and Augustus
+lavished upon it.
+
+At one time we are like pilgrims in the fine Church of St. Peter; at
+another we are strolling under the triumphal arch of Titus, erected in
+remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year A.D.
+70.
+
+The largest and grandest ruin in Rome is the Colosseum (Plate XXVI.), an
+amphitheatre which was built by the two Emperors, Vespasian and Titus,
+and which was finished eighty years after the birth of Christ. The
+outside walls are nearly 160 feet high. The tiers of benches, which
+could accommodate 85,000 spectators, were divided into four blocks, of
+which the outermost and highest was set apart for freedmen and slaves
+with their women. The tickets were of ivory, and indicated the different
+places so clearly that every one could easily find his way in the huge
+passages, colonnades, and staircases. The benches were covered with
+marble, and many statues of the same material adorned the upper walls of
+the amphitheatre. The spectacles were usually held in the daytime, and
+to abate the heat of the sun immense silken awnings were stretched over
+the arena and the auditorium. When the theatre was full, it presented a
+scene of dazzling splendour. In the best places sat senators in
+purple-bordered togas, the priests of the various temples, the Vestal
+virgins in black veils, warriors in gold-embroidered uniforms. There sat
+Roman citizens in white or coloured togas, bareheaded, beardless, and
+closely cropped, eagerly talking in a language as euphonious as French
+and Italian. All strangers who were staying in Rome were there,
+ambassadors from all the known countries of the world, statesmen,
+merchants, and travellers from Germany and Gaul, from Syria, Greece, and
+Egypt.
+
+A circus or theatre of our day is a toy compared to the Colosseum. The
+old Romans were masters in the arrangement of spectacles to satisfy the
+rude cravings of the masses. Woods and rocks were set up, in which
+bloody contests were fought, and where gladiators hunted lions and
+tigers with spears. The immense show-ground could be quickly filled with
+water, and on the artificial lake deadly sea battles were fought; and
+the bodies of the slain and drowned lying on the bottom were invisible
+when the water was dyed red with blood. The arena could be drained at
+once by ingenious channels, slaves dragged out the corpses through the
+gate of the Goddess of Death, and the theatre was made ready for the
+night performance. Then the arena was lighted up with huge torches and
+fires, and troops of Christians were crucified in long rows or thrown to
+the lions and bears. When a Roman emperor celebrated the thousandth
+anniversary of the founding of Rome, two thousand gladiators appeared in
+the Colosseum, thirty-two elephants, and numbers of wild animals.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXVI. THE COLOSSEUM, ROME.]
+
+Not far from the Colosseum begins one of the oldest and most famous
+roads ever trodden by the foot of man--the Appian Way. Here emperors and
+generals marched into Rome after successful wars; here their remains
+were carried out to be burned on pyres and deposited in urns in
+mausoleums and tombs. Here the Christians came out at night in silent
+ranks to consign the remains of their co-religionists, torn to pieces in
+the arena, to the catacombs of underground Rome. Here also St. Paul made
+his entry into Rome, escorted by troops of Christians, as recorded in
+the last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; and to-day we find on this
+road a small chapel which is called "Whither goest thou?" (_Quo vadis?_)
+at the point in the road where Peter saw his vision.
+
+
+POMPEII
+
+From Rome we go on to Naples, where to the east the regular volcanic
+cone of Vesuvius rears itself like a fire-breathing dragon over the bay,
+and where towns, villages, and white villas stand as thick on the shore
+as beads on a rosary. Our time is short; we drive rapidly through the
+lava-paved streets of Naples, and cannot feast our eyes long enough with
+the sight of these fine dark men in their motley dirty garments, and
+cannot hear enough of their melodious songs in honour of delightful
+Naples. Their warm affection for the famous city is quite natural, and
+one of their sayings, "See Naples and die," implies that life is
+worthless to any one who has not been there.
+
+During our wanderings we come to the National Museum, and there we are
+lost to everything outside. There we forget the bustling life of the
+streets, the blue bay and the green gardens; for here we are in the
+presence of antiquity--an immense collection of artistic objects,
+statues, and paintings from Pompeii.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA.]
+
+In the sixth century B.C. Pompeii was founded at the southern
+foot of Vesuvius, not far from the shore of the bay. About eighty years
+before our era Pompeii came under the rule of Rome, and during the
+succeeding 150 years it was changed into a genuine Roman town in all
+respects--in style of building, language, trade, and manner of life. A
+wall with towers enclosed this collection of streets and houses, and at
+night the eight town gates were closed and shut in 20,000 inhabitants.
+In its principal square, a place of popular assemblies and festivals,
+stood the Temple of Jupiter among porticoes, arcades, and rows of
+marble statues. In another square theatres were erected, and there also
+stood an old Greek temple.
+
+Many rich and eminent Romans loved Pompeii, and built costly villas in
+the town or its beautiful environs. One of these was the famous orator
+and author, Cicero, whose villa was situated near the north-eastern town
+gate. Again and again he went to Pompeii to rest after the noise and
+tumult of Rome, and the last time he is certainly known to have
+sojourned there was in the year 44 B.C., shortly after the
+murder of the great Caesar.
+
+From the vicinity of Cicero's villa ran north-west the Street of Tombs,
+bordered with innumerable monuments like the Appian Way outside Rome.
+Some were quite simple, others resembled costly altars and temples, and
+all contained urns with the bones and ashes of the dead.
+
+Some streets were lined entirely with shops and stores. Most of the
+streets were straight and regular, some broad, others quite small; they
+were paved with flags of lava and had raised footpaths. Here and there
+stones were laid in a row across the street, whereon foot passengers
+could cross over dryshod after the heavy torrential rains, which then,
+as now, repeatedly converted these lanes into rivers and canals.
+
+Pompeii had several bath-houses, luxuriously and comfortably furnished,
+built of stone, dark and cool, and very attractive during the warm,
+sultry summer. In the _apodyterium_ the visitor took off his clothes,
+and then repaired to the various rooms for warm air, warm baths, and
+cold baths. The walls in the _frigidarium_ were decorated with paintings
+representing shady groves and dark forests; the vaulted roof was painted
+blue and strewn with stars, and through a small round opening the
+sunlight poured in. The basin itself was therefore like a small forest
+pool under the open sky. The bather was thoroughly scraped and shampooed
+by the attendants, and last of all smeared with odorous oils.
+
+The houses of wealthy citizens were decorated with exquisite taste and
+artistic skill. Towards the streets the houses showed little besides
+bare plain walls, for the old Romans did not like the private sanctity
+of their homes to be disturbed at all by the noise of the streets and
+the inquisitiveness of people on the public roads. So it is still, if
+not in Italy and Greece, at any rate over all the Asiatic East. Pomp and
+state were only displayed in the interior. There were seen statues and
+busts, flourishing flower-beds under open colonnades, and in the midst
+of the principal apartment, called the _atrium_, was a marble basin sunk
+in the mosaic pavement, and through a quadrangular opening in the roof
+above the sun and moon looked in and the rain often mingled its drops
+with the jets of the constantly playing fountain. When the master of the
+house gave an entertainment, tables were carried in by slaves, and the
+guests took their luxurious meal lying on long couches. They ate, and
+drank, and jested, listening from time to time to the tones of flutes,
+harps, and cymbals, and watched the lithe movements of dancers with eyes
+dull and heavy with wine.
+
+Happy days were spent in Pompeii in undisturbed peacefulness. People
+enjoyed the treasures of the forests, gardens, and sea, transacted their
+business or the duties of their posts, and assembled for discussion in
+the Forum, where the columns cast cool shadows over the stone flags. No
+one thought of Vesuvius. The volcano was supposed to have become for
+ever extinct ages ago. On the ancient lava-streams old trees grew, the
+most luscious grapes ripened on the flanks of the mountain, and from
+their descendants is pressed out at the present day a wine called
+Lachryma Christi. A legend relates that when the Saviour once went up
+Vesuvius and stood in mute astonishment at the beautiful landscape
+surrounding the Bay of Naples, He also wept from grief over this home of
+sin and vanity; and where His tears moistened the ground there grew up a
+tendril which has not its like on earth.
+
+The year before the burning of Rome, Pompeii was devastated by a fearful
+earthquake. The inhabitants soon took heart again, however, and built up
+their town better and more beautiful than ever. Sixteen years passed,
+and then the blow came, the most crushing and annihilating blow that
+ever befell any town since Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire
+from heaven.
+
+The elder Pliny, who left to the world an immortal work, was then in
+command of a Roman fleet anchored in the Bay of Naples, and lived with
+his family in a place not far from Pompeii. His adopted son, the younger
+Pliny, a youth of eighteen, spirited, quick, and talented, was also with
+him. Vesuvius broke into eruption on August 24 in the year 79, and in a
+few hours Pompeii and two other towns were buried under a downpour of
+pumice and ashes, and streams of lava and mud. Among the victims was the
+elder Pliny.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXVII. POMPEII.
+
+The Forum, with Vesuvius in the distance.]
+
+Several years afterwards, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote to the
+younger Pliny and asked him for information about the manner of his
+uncle's death. The two letters containing answers to this question are
+still extant. Pliny describes how his uncle was suffocated by ashes and
+sulphurous vapour on the shore. He had himself seen flames of fire shoot
+up out of the crater, which also vomited forth a black cloud spreading
+out above like the crown of a pine-tree. He went out with his mother to
+the forecourt of the house, but when the ground trembled and the air
+became full of ashes they hurried off, followed by a crowd of people.
+His mother, who was old, begged him to save himself by rapid flight, but
+he would not desert her. And he writes: "I looked round; a thick smoky
+darkness rolled threateningly over us from behind; it spread over the
+earth like an advancing flood and followed us. 'Let us move to one side
+while we can see,' I said,' so that we may not fall down on the road and
+be trampled down in the darkness by those behind.' We had scarcely got
+out of the crowd when we were involved in darkness, not such as when
+there is no moon or the sky is overcast, but such as prevails in a
+closed room when the lights are out." And he tells how the fugitives
+tied cushions over their heads so as not to be bruised by falling
+stones, and how they had repeatedly to shake off the ashes lest they
+should be weighed down by them. He was quite composed himself, and
+thought that the whole world was passing away.
+
+By this eruption Pompeii was buried under a layer of pumice and ashes 20
+feet thick. For a long period of years the inhabitants of the
+neighbourhood came hither and digged up with their spades one thing or
+another, but then Pompeii sank into the night of oblivion and slumbered
+under the earth for fifteen hundred years. At last the town was
+discovered again, and excavations were commenced. Country houses,
+fields, and clumps of mulberry trees had sprung up on the deep bed of
+ashes. Not till fifty years ago did modern investigation take Pompeii
+seriously in hand, and now more than half the town is laid bare.
+Strangers can ride unhindered through the streets, look into the shops
+and baths, and admire the fine wall-paintings in the palaces of the
+great. The columns of Jupiter's temple, so long buried in complete
+darkness, are again lighted by the sun, and cast their shadows as of old
+over the stone flags of the Forum (Plate XXVII.). The Street of Tombs is
+exposed, and young cypresses grow up among the monuments. The dead,
+which were already buried when Vesuvius scattered its ashes over them,
+listen now to strange footsteps on the road. But the unfortunates who
+were buried alive under the shower of ashes have decayed and turned to
+dust. And yet they may still be seen in the museums, with distorted
+limbs and their faces to the ground. We see them in the position they
+assumed when they fell and the ashes were bedded close to their sides.
+Thus they remained lying for eighteen hundred years, imbedded as in a
+mould. Their bodies returned to the earth, but the empty space remained.
+By pouring plaster into these forms, life-like figures of persons have
+been reproduced just as they were when death overtook them. Here lies a
+woman who fell outside her house and grasped with convulsive fingers a
+bag full of gold and silver. Here is a man resting his heavy head on his
+elbow, and here a dog which has curled itself up before it was at last
+suffocated.
+
+So the sleeping town has wakened to life again, and the dead have
+returned from the kingdom of shadows. The excavated pictures,
+sculptures, and art treasures of Pompeii, together with the whole
+arrangement of the town, the style of building and the inscriptions,
+have thrown an unexpected light on the life of antiquity. We can even
+read the passing conceits scribbled on the walls. At one corner a house
+is offered for hire from July I--"intending tenants should apply to the
+slave Primus." On another a jester advises an acquaintance: "Go and hang
+thyself." A citizen writes of a friend: "I have heard with sorrow that
+thou art dead--so adieu!" Another wall bears the following warning:
+"This is no place for idlers; go away, good-for-nothing." It is curious
+to read the names Sodom and Gomorrah, evidently scribbled by a Jew. Low
+down on the walls small schoolboys have practised writing the Greek
+alphabet, showing that Greek was included in their curriculum. And once
+were found written in charcoal, and only partly legible, the words,
+"Enjoy the fire, Christian," a scoff at the martyrs who, soaked in tar,
+were burned as torches in Nero's gardens.
+
+From Naples we take a steamer for Egypt. After crossing the Bay of
+Naples we have to starboard the charming island of Capri. On its
+northern side you may swim or row in a shallow boat, under an arch of
+rock three feet high, into the Blue Grotto. Inside is a quiet
+crystal-clear sheet of water which extends more than 50 yards into the
+hill. The roof over its mirror is more than 160 feet high. The only
+light comes in through the small entrance. Owing to the reflections of
+the sky and water, everything in the grotto is blue, and stalactites
+hang like icicles from the roof and walls. If you dip an oar or your
+hand into the water it shines white as silver, owing to the reflection
+from the sandy bottom. It is possible to enter only in calm weather, or
+the boat would be stoved in against the rocky archway.
+
+On a promontory to larboard appear the white houses and olive gardens of
+beautiful Sorrento, and then we steer out into the turquoise blue waters
+of the Tyrrhenian Sea. To the south the rocky island of Stromboli rises
+from the waves with its ever-burning volcano, like a beacon. In the
+Straits of Messina we skirt the shores of Sicily and Calabria, which
+have so frequently suffered from terrible earthquakes. At last we are
+out in the wide, open Mediterranean. Italy sinks below the horizon
+behind us, and we steam eastward to Alexandria, the port of the land of
+the Pharaohs.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+AFRICA
+
+
+GENERAL GORDON
+
+Seldom has the whole civilised world been so convulsed, so overwhelmed
+with sorrow, at the death of one man as it was when in January, 1885,
+the news flashed along the telegraph wires that Khartum had fallen, and
+that Gordon was dead.
+
+Gordon was of Scottish extraction, but was born in one of the suburbs of
+London in the year 1833, and as a young lieutenant of engineers heard
+the thunders of war below the walls of Sebastopol. As a major of thirty
+years of age he commanded the Imperial army in China, and suppressed the
+furious insurrection which raged in the provinces around the Blue River.
+"The Ever-Victorious Army" would have come to grief without a strong and
+practical leader, but in Gordon's hands it soon deserved its name. He
+made his plans quickly and clearly, brought his troops with wonderful
+rapidity to the most vulnerable points in the enemy's position, and
+dealt his blows with crushing force. In a year and a half he had cleared
+China of insurgents and restored peace.
+
+After several years of service at home and other wanderings in Eastern
+lands, Gordon accepted in 1874 an invitation to enter into the service
+of the Khedive of Egypt. The Khedive Ismail was a strong man with
+far-reaching projects. He wished to extend his dominion as far as the
+great lakes where the Nile takes its rise, and Gordon was to rule over a
+province named after the equator.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA, SHOWING EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.]
+
+Immediately to the south of Cairo begins a plateau which stretches from
+north to south through almost the whole continent. In Abyssinia it
+attains to a considerable height, and near the equator rises into the
+loftiest summits of Africa. These mountains screen off the rain from
+Egypt and large areas of the Sudan. The masses of vapour which are
+carried over Abyssinia in summer by the monsoon are precipitated as rain
+in these mountain tracts, and consequently the wind is dry when it
+reaches Nubia and Egypt; while the moisture which rises from the warm
+ocean on the east, and is borne north-westwards by the constant
+trade-wind, is converted into water during eight months of the year
+among the mountains on the equator.
+
+The rain which falls on the mountains of Abyssinia gives rise to the
+Atbara and Blue Nile, which produce abundant floods in the Nile during
+autumn; and during the rest of the year the White Nile, which comes from
+the great lakes on the equator, provides for the irrigation of Egypt.
+Thus the country is able to dispense with rain, and innumerable canals
+convey water to all parts of the Nile valley. Many kinds of grain are
+cultivated--wheat, maize, barley, rice, and durra (a kind of millet);
+vegetables, beans, and peas thrive, numerous date palms suck up their
+sap from the heavy, sodden silt on the river's banks, and sugar-cane and
+cotton are spreading more and more. Seen at a height from a balloon, the
+fields, palms, and fruit-trees would appear as a green belt along the
+river, while the rest of the country would look yellow and grey, for it
+is nothing but a dry, sandy desert.
+
+The Nile, then, is everything to Egypt, the condition of its existence,
+its father and mother, the source of the wealth by which the country has
+subsisted since the most remote antiquity. Now that we are about to
+follow Gordon along the Nile to the equator, we must not forget that we
+are passing through an ancient land. The first king of which there are
+records lived 3200 years before the Christian era, and the largest of
+the Great Pyramids at Ghizeh is 4600 years old (Plate XXVIII.). Its
+funeral crypt is cut out of the solid rock, and in it still stands the
+red granite sarcophagus of Cheops. Two million three hundred thousand
+dressed blocks, each measuring 40 cubic feet, were used in the
+construction of this memorial over a perishable king, and the pyramid is
+reckoned to be the largest edifice ever built by human hands. The
+buildings and works of the present time are nothing compared to it. Only
+the Great Wall of China can vie with it, and this is ruined and to a
+large extent obliterated, while the pyramid of Cheops still stands,
+scorched by the sun, or sharply defined in the moonlight, or dimly
+visible as a mysterious apparition in the dark, warm night.
+
+Twelve hundred miles south of the capital of modern Egypt the desert
+comes to an end, and the surface is covered by vast marshes and beds of
+waving reeds. This is the Sudan, "the Land of the Blacks." At the point
+where the White and Blue Niles mingle their waters lay the only town in
+the Sudan, Khartum, whither trade-routes converged from all directions,
+and where goods changed hands. Here were brought wares which never
+failed to find purchasers. The valuable feathers plucked from the
+swift-footed ostrich were needed to decorate the hats of European
+ladies; the wild elephants, larger and more powerful than their Indian
+congeners, were shot or caught in pitfalls in the woods for the sake of
+their precious ivory. But the most esteemed of all the wares that passed
+through Khartum were slaves--"black ivory," as they were called by their
+heartless Arab torturers. Elephants' tusks are heavy, and cannot be
+transported on horses or oxen from the depths of the forest, for draught
+animals are killed by the sting of the poisonous tsetse fly. Therefore
+the tusks had to be carried by men, and when these had finished their
+task they were themselves sold into Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. The
+forests and deserts were not inexhaustible; ivory and ostrich feathers
+might be worked out, but there would always be negroes.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII. THE GREAT PYRAMIDS AT GHIZEH.]
+
+When the Khedive Ismail invited Gordon to enter his service as governor
+of the new province not far from the sources of the Nile, Gordon
+accepted the post in the hope that he would be able to suppress
+slave-trading, or at least to check the hunting of black men and women.
+He left Cairo and travelled by the Red Sea to Suakin, rode to Berber on
+the Nile, and was received with much pomp and ceremony by the
+Governor-General at Khartum. Here he heard that the Nile was navigable
+for 900 miles southwards, and therefore he could continue his journey
+without delay.
+
+The Nile afforded an excellent passage for Gordon's small steamboat. But
+the Nile can also place an insurmountable obstacle in the traveller's
+way. After the rainy season the White Nile overflows its banks, forming
+an inextricable labyrinth of side branches, lakes, and marshes. The
+country lies under water for miles around. The waterway between
+impenetrable beds of reeds and papyrus is often as narrow as a lane. The
+roots of large plants are loosened from the mud at the bottom, and are
+compacted with stems and mud into large sheets which are driven
+northwards by the rushing water. They are caught fast in small openings
+and sudden bends, and other islets of vegetation are piled up against
+them. Thus the river course is blocked, and above these natural dams the
+water forms lakes. Such banks of drifting or arrested and decaying
+vegetation are called _sudd_, and the more it rains the greater are the
+quantities that come down. At length the _sudd_ becomes soft and yields
+to the pressure of the water, and then the Nile is navigable again.
+
+Gordon's small steamer glides gently up the river. He advances deeper
+and deeper into a world unknown to him, and around him seethes tropical
+Africa. On the banks papyrus stems wave their plumes above the reeds. It
+was from the pith of papyrus stems that the old Egyptians made a kind of
+paper on which they wrote their chronicles. Here and there swarthy
+natives are seen between the reed beds, and sometimes noisy troops of
+wandering monkeys gaze at the boat. The hippopotami look like floating
+islands, but show themselves only at night, wallowing in the shallow
+water. A little beyond the luxuriant vegetation of the banks extends the
+boundless grassland with its abundant animal life and thin scattered
+clumps of trees.
+
+After a journey of four days the steamer glided past an island. There
+dwelt in a grotto a dervish or mendicant monk named Mohamed Ahmed, who
+ten years later was to be Gordon's murderer.
+
+In the middle of April Gordon and his companions were in Gondokoro, a
+small place which now stands on the boundary between the Sudan and
+British East Africa, and here he took charge of his Equatorial Province.
+He forced the Egyptian soldiers, who garrisoned this and one or two
+other posts on the Nile and robbed on their own account, to plough and
+plant; he arrested all slave-hunters within reach and freed the slaves;
+he succoured the poor, protected the helpless, and sent durra to the
+hungry.
+
+The heat was excessive, and Gordon and his staff were pestered by crowds
+of gnats. It was still worse in September when the rain poured down and
+large tracts were converted into swamp, from which dangerous miasma was
+exhaled. In a month seven of Gordon's eight officers had died of fever,
+but he himself continued his work undismayed, and wrote in his diary:
+"God willing, I shall do much in this country."
+
+He soon perceived that the best districts of his province lay around the
+large lakes in the south. But the Equatorial Province was too far away
+from Egypt. It hung as it were on a long string, the Nile, and from the
+largest lake, the Victoria Nyanza, the distance to Cairo in a straight
+line was nearly 2200 miles. Much shorter was the route to Mombasa on the
+east coast, so Gordon advised the Khedive to occupy Mombasa and open a
+road to the Victoria Nyanza. Then it would be easier to contend against
+the slave-trade. He described the condition of the Sudan in forcible
+letters, and into the Khedive's ears were dinned truths such as he
+never heard from his servile pashas. He would first establish steam
+communication with the lakes, and a number of boats which could be taken
+to pieces were on the way to his province.
+
+The boats came up at the time when the Nile began to rise after rain,
+and then his plan was to advance farther southwards. The natives were
+opposed to this progress and feared the supremacy of Egypt, and
+therefore they tried to prevent the advance of the "White Pasha," who
+was loath to employ arms against them. All they wanted was to be left in
+peace in their grasslands and forests; and when now an intruder, whose
+aims they did not understand, penetrated into their country, they
+endeavoured whenever they could to bar his way, so that he was obliged,
+much against his will, to resort to force.
+
+After all kinds of troubles and difficulties he reached at last the
+northernmost of the Nile lakes, the Albert Nyanza, and it was a great
+feat to have brought a steamer even thus far. He did not succeed in
+reaching the Victoria Nyanza, for the ruler of the country between the
+lakes had resolved to oppose with all his power any intruder, were he
+white man or Arab.
+
+For three years Gordon was at work on the Upper Nile in the
+neighbourhood of the equator. During the next three years we find him in
+the deserts of the Sudan farther north. He was Governor-General of the
+whole of the Egyptian Sudan, and Khartum was his capital. His province
+was 1200 miles broad, from the Red Sea to the Sahara, and as long from
+north to south. The whole country was in a state of unrest. The Khedive
+had carried on an unsuccessful war against the Christian King of
+Abyssinia, and the Mohammedan states of Kordofan and Darfur were in
+revolt against Egypt. There half-savage Beduin tribes were scattered
+about over the deserts, and there some of the worst slave-dealers had
+their haunts.
+
+In May, 1877, Gordon mounted his swift dromedary to set out on a journey
+of 2000 miles. He wished to visit the villages and camps of the
+slave-dealers in distant Darfur. The hot season had set in. When the sun
+stood at its meridian altitude the shadow of the dromedary disappeared
+beneath the animal. A dreary desert extended on all sides,
+greyish-yellow, dusty, and dry.
+
+The White Pasha skims over the desert mile after mile. He has the finest
+dromedary in all the land, an animal that became famous throughout the
+Sudan. Some hundreds of Egyptian troopers follow him, but he leaves them
+all far behind and only a guide keeps up with him. He rushes over the
+desert like the wind, and suddenly and unexpectedly draws rein at the
+gates of an oasis before the guard can shoulder their arms. After giving
+his orders in the name of the Khedive, he disappears as mysteriously, no
+one knows whither. At another oasis, perhaps 300 miles away, the chief
+has been warned of his coming and has therefore posted watchmen to look
+out for him. Round about lies the desert, sandy and yellow, with a
+surface as level as a sea, where the approach of the White Pasha can be
+seen from a long distance. The watchman announces that two black specks
+are visible in the distance, which, it is supposed, are the Pasha's
+outriders, and some hours must pass before he arrives with his troops.
+The two specks grow larger and come rapidly nearer. The dromedaries
+swing their long legs over the ground, seeming to fly on invisible
+wings. Now the men have come to the margin of the oasis. The watchers
+can hardly believe their eyes. One of the riders wears the
+gold-embroidered uniform of an Egyptian pasha. Never had the Sudan seen
+a Governor-General travelling in this way--without flags and noisy
+music, and stripped of all the display appropriate to his rank.
+
+And as he came so he flew away again, mysteriously and incomprehensibly.
+Again and again he lost his armed force. In some districts he closed the
+paths leading to wells in order to bring the refractory tribes to
+submission. With inflexible severity he broke the power of the chiefs
+who still carried on trade in slaves. He freed numbers of black captives
+and drilled them as soldiers, for his own fighting men were the scum of
+Egypt and Syria. With a handful of men he dealt his blows at the weakest
+points of the enemy's defence and thus always gained the victory. In
+four months he suppressed the revolt and checked the power of the
+slave-dealers.
+
+Gordon had now cleared all the west of the Sudan, and only Dara in
+southern Darfur remained to be dealt with. There the most powerful
+slave-dealers had collected to offer resistance. He came down one day
+like lightning into their camp. They might easily have killed him--it
+was he who had ruined their trade in black ivory. He went unconcernedly
+among the tents, and they did not dare to touch him. And when his own
+troops arrived, he summoned all the chiefs to his tent and laid his
+conditions before them. They were to lay down their arms and be off each
+to his own home; and one by one they obeyed and went away without a
+word.
+
+But the slave-trade was a weed too deeply rooted in the soil to be
+eradicated in a single day, and the revolt and troubles which constantly
+arose out of this horrible traffic gave Gordon no peace. He left the
+Sudan at the end of 1879, and the next two years were occupied with work
+in India, China, Mauritius, and South Africa. Meanwhile remarkable
+events had occurred in Egypt. Great Britain had sent vessels and troops
+to the land of the Khedive, and had taken over the command and the
+responsibility. The chief of the dervishes, Mohamed Ahmed, whom we
+remember on the small island in the Nile, proclaimed that he was chosen
+by God to relieve the oppressed, that he was the Mahdi or Messiah of
+Islam. Discontent prevailed among the Mohammedans throughout the Sudan,
+for Egypt had at length prohibited the slave-trade, and the Mahdi
+collected all the discontented people and tribes under his banner. His
+aim was to throw off the yoke of Egypt. Proud and arrogant, he sent
+despatches through the whole of the Sudan, and his summons to a holy war
+flew like a prairie fire over North Africa.
+
+The British Government, which was now responsible for Egypt, was in a
+difficulty. The Sudan must either be conquered or evacuated, for the
+Egyptian garrisons were still at Khartum and at several places even down
+to the equator. The Government decided on evacuation, and Gordon was
+sent to perform the task of withdrawing all the garrisons. He accepted
+the mission and set out immediately for Cairo.
+
+Thus Gordon began his last journey up the Nile. At Korosko, just at the
+northern end of the great S-shaped bend of the Nile, he mounted his
+dromedary and followed the narrow winding path which has been worn out
+during thousands of years through the dry hollows of the Nubian desert,
+over scorched and weathered volcanic knolls and through dunes of
+suffocating sand.
+
+On February 18, 1884, Gordon, for the second time Governor-General of
+the Sudan, made his entry into Khartum, where he took up his quarters in
+his old palace. Cruelty and injustice had again sprung up during the
+years he had been absent. He opened the gates of the overcrowded gaols,
+and the prisoners were released and their fetters removed. All accounts
+of unpaid taxes were burned in front of the palace. All implements of
+punishment and torture were broken to pieces and thrown into the Nile.
+
+Then began the evacuation of the town. As many as 3000 women and
+children were sent to Abu Hamed and through the desert to Korosko. They
+got through without danger and were saved. Where women and children
+could travel, it would have been easy to lead troops from Egypt. Instead
+of this, however, England despatched an expedition to Suakin to secure
+an outlet on the Red Sea, whereupon the rebellious tribes of the Sudan
+were roused to fury, believing that the white men intended to come and
+take their country. Consequently they rallied all the more resolutely
+round the Mahdi, and their hatred extended to the dreaded Gordon and the
+few Europeans with him in Khartum.
+
+As long as the telegraph line was still available to Cairo, Gordon kept
+the authorities informed of the state of affairs and pointed out what
+should be done to ensure success. He asked especially that the road from
+Berber to Suakin should be held, for from this line also the Sudan could
+be controlled, but his advice was not attended to and Berber was
+eventually surrounded by the Mahdi's troops and captured. Several chiefs
+north and north-east of Khartum, who had previously been friendly
+disposed, now joined the Mahdi. News of fresh desertions came constantly
+to Khartum, and even in the town itself Gordon was surrounded by
+traitors. On March 10 the telegraph line was cut and then followed six
+months of silence, during which the world learned little or nothing of
+the brave soldier in the heart of Africa. On March 11 Arab war parties
+appeared on the bank of the Blue Nile, for the Mahdi was drawing his net
+ever closer round the unfortunate town.
+
+During the preceding years the Egyptian Government had caused Khartum to
+be fortified after a fashion, and during the earlier months of the siege
+Gordon worked day and night to strengthen the defences. His soldiers
+threw up earthern ramparts round the town, a network of wire
+entanglements was set up, and mines were laid at places where an assault
+might be expected. At the end of April the town was entirely blockaded,
+and only the river route to the north was still open. At the beginning
+of May the Arabs crossed the Blue Nile, suffering great losses from
+exploding mines and the guns of the town. In the early part of September
+there were still provisions for three months, and the Arabs, perceiving
+that they could not take the town by storm from the White Pasha,
+resolved to starve it out.
+
+The Nile was now at its highest, and huge grey turbid volumes of water
+hurried northwards. Now was the only chance for a small steamer to try
+to get to Dongola, where it would be in safety. On the night of
+September 9 a small steamer was made ready for starting, and Gordon's
+only English comrades, Colonel Stewart and Mr. Power, went on board,
+together with the French Consul, a number of Greeks, and fifty soldiers.
+They took with them accounts of the siege, correspondence, lists and
+details about provisions, ammunition, arms, men, and plans of defence,
+and everything else of particular value. Silently the steamer moved off
+from the bank, and when day dawned Gordon was alone. Alas, the little
+steamer never reached Dongola, for it was wrecked immediately below Abu
+Hamed. Every soul on board was murdered, and all papers of value fell
+into the hands of the Mahdi. On the other hand, Gordon's diary from
+September 10 to December 14, 1884, is still extant, and is wonderful
+reading.
+
+By this time the British Government had at last decided to send an
+expedition to relieve Khartum. River boats were built in great numbers,
+troops were equipped for the field, the famous general, Lord Wolseley,
+was in command, and by the middle of September the first infantry
+battalion was up at Dongola on the northern half of the great S of the
+Nile. But then the steamers had only just arrived at Alexandria, and had
+to be taken up the Nile and tediously dragged through the cataracts,
+while the desert column which was to make the final advance on Khartum
+had not yet left England. A long time would be required to get
+everything ready.
+
+In Khartum comparative quiet as yet prevailed. The dervishes bided their
+time patiently, encamping barely six miles from the outworks. Shots were
+exchanged only at a distance. On September 21 Gordon learned by a
+messenger that the relief expedition was on the way, and ten days later
+he sent his steamboats northwards to meet it and to hasten the
+forwarding of troops. But thereby he lost half of his own power of
+resistance.
+
+On October 21 the Mahdi himself arrived in the camp outside Khartum, and
+on the following day sent Gordon convincing proofs that Stewart's
+steamboat had sunk and that all on board had been slain. He added a list
+of all the journals and documents found on board. From these the Mahdi
+had learned almost to a day how long Khartum could hold out, the
+strength of the garrison, the scheme of defence, where the batteries
+stood and how long the ammunition would last. This was a terrible blow
+to the lonely soldier, but it did not break down his courage. The death
+of Stewart and his companions grieved him inexpressibly, but he sent an
+answer to the Mahdi that if 20,000 boats had been taken it would be all
+the same to him--"I am here like iron."
+
+In the relief expedition was a major named Kitchener, who was afterwards
+to become very famous. He tried to get into Khartum in disguise to carry
+information to Gordon, and he did succeed in sending him a letter with
+the news that the relieving force would set out from Dongola on November
+1. When the letter reached Gordon the corps had been two days on the
+march, but the distance from Dongola to Khartum is 280 miles in a
+straight line.
+
+By November 22 Gordon had lost nearly 1900 of his fighting men, but his
+diary shows that he was still hopeful. On December 10 there were still
+provisions for fifteen days. The entries in the diary now become
+shorter, and repeatedly speak of fugitives and deserters, and of the
+diminishing store of provisions. On December 14 Gordon had a last
+opportunity of sending news from Khartum, and the diary which the
+messenger took with him closes with these words: "I have done the best
+for the honour of our country. Good-bye."
+
+After the sending-off of the diary impenetrable darkness hides the
+occurrences of the last weeks in Khartum. One or two circumstances,
+however, were made known by deserters. During the forty days during
+which the town held out after December 14, 15,000 townspeople were sent
+over to the Mahdi's camp, and only 14,000 civilians and soldiers were
+left in the doomed city. Omdurman fell, and the Mahdi's troops pressed
+every day more closely on all sides. Actual starvation began, and rats
+and mice, hides and leather were eaten, and palms stripped to obtain the
+soft fibres inside. But the White Pasha rejected all proposals to
+surrender.
+
+Meanwhile the relief columns struggled southwards and on January 20,
+1885, reached Metemma, only a hundred miles from Khartum. There they
+fell in with Gordon's boats, which had lain waiting in vain for four
+months, and four days later two of the boats started for Khartum.
+
+Halfway they had to pass up the sixth cataract, there losing two days
+more, and not till the 28th had they left the rapids behind them. The
+noonday sun was shining brightly when the English soldiers and their
+officers saw Khartum straight in front of them on the point between the
+White and Blue Niles. All glasses were turned on the tall palace; every
+one was in the greatest excitement and dared hardly breathe, much less
+speak. There stood Gordon's palace, but no flag waved from the roof.
+
+The boats go on, but no shouts of gladness greet their crews as
+long-looked-for rescuers. When they are within range the dervishes open
+fire, and wild troops intoxicated with victory gather on the bank.
+Khartum is in the hands of the Mahdi, and help has come 48 hours too
+late.
+
+Two days before, January 26, the dervishes, furious at their continual
+losses and the obstinate resistance of the town, had flocked together
+for a final assault. The attack was made during the darkest hour of the
+night, after the moon had set. The defenders were worn out and rendered
+indifferent by the pangs of hunger. The dervishes rushed into the town,
+filling the streets and lanes with their savage howling. It was then
+that Gordon gathered together his twenty remaining faithful soldiers and
+servants, and dashed sword in hand out of the palace. It was growing
+light in the east, and the outlines of bushes and thickets on the Blue
+Nile were becoming clear. The small party took their way across an open
+square to the Austrian Mission church, which had previously been put in
+order for a last refuge. On the way they were met by a crowd of
+dervishes and were killed to the last man. Foremost among the slain was
+Gordon.
+
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN
+
+The Mahdi did not long enjoy the fruits of his victory, for he died five
+months to the day after the fall of Khartum. His successor, Abdullah,
+bore the title of Khalifa, and for thirteen years was a scourge to the
+unfortunate land. The tribes of the Sudan, tired of the oppression of
+Egypt, had welcomed the Mahdi as a deliverer, but they had only
+exchanged Turkish pashas for a tyrant unmatched in cruelty and
+shamelessness. Abdullah plundered and exhausted the country, but with
+the money and agricultural produce he extorted from the people he was
+able to maintain a splendid army always ready for the field. His capital
+was Omdurman, where the Mahdi was buried under a dome; but he did not
+fortify the town, for long before any Christian dogs could advance so
+far their bones would whiten in the sands of Nubia.
+
+Yet after many years the hour of vengeance was at hand. The British
+Government had taken the pacification of the Sudan in hand, and in 1898
+an army composed of British and Egyptian troops was advancing quietly
+and surely up the Nile. There was no need to hurry, and every step was
+made with prudence and consideration. The leader, General Kitchener, the
+last man to send a letter to Gordon, made his plans with such foresight
+and skill that he could calculate two years in advance almost the very
+day when Khartum and Omdurman would be in his hands.
+
+At the Atbara, the great tributary of the Nile which flows down from the
+mountains of Abyssinia, Kitchener inflicted his first great defeat on
+the Khalifa's army in a bloody battle. From Atbara the troops pushed on
+to Metemma without further fighting, and on August 28 they were only
+four days' march from Khartum.
+
+The green of acacia and mimosa is now conspicuous on the banks of the
+river, which is very high. The grey gunboats pass slowly up the Nile in
+the blazing sun, and the troops push on as steadily and as surely as
+they have from the start of the expedition. Small parties of mounted
+dervishes are seen in the far distance. The country becomes more
+diversified, and the route runs through clumps of bushes and between
+hillocks. A short distance in front are seen white tents, flags, and
+horsemen, and the roll of drums is heard. It is the Khalifa calling his
+men to the fight; but at the last moment the position is abandoned, the
+dervishes retire, and Kitchener's army continues its march.
+
+At length the vaulted dome over the Mahdi's grave beside the Nile bank
+rises above the southern horizon, and round about it are perceived the
+mud houses and walls of Omdurman. Between the town and the attacking
+army stretches a level sandy plain scantily clothed with yellow grass;
+and here took place a battle which will not be forgotten for centuries
+throughout the Sudan.
+
+On the morning of September 2, Kitchener's forces are drawn up in order
+of battle. Single horsemen emerge from the dust on the hillocks,
+increase in number, and then come in clouds like locusts--an army of
+50,000 dervishes. Their fanatical war-cry rises up to heaven, gathers
+strength, grows louder, and rolls along like a storm wind coming in
+from the sea. They charge at a furious pace in an unbroken line, and it
+looks as though they would ride like a crushing avalanche right over the
+enemy. But the moment they come within range fire issues from thousands
+of rifles, and the dervishes find themselves in a perfect hail of
+bullets. Their ranks are thinned, but they check their course only for a
+moment, and ride on in blind fury and with a bravery which only
+religious conviction can inspire. The English machine guns scatter their
+death-bolts so rapidly that a continuous roll of thunder is heard, and
+the dervishes fall in heaps like ripe corn before the scythe. The fallen
+ranks are constantly replaced by fresh reinforcements, but at last the
+dervishes have had enough and beat a retreat. At once Kitchener pressed
+on to Omdurman, but the bloody day is not yet at an end. The dervish
+horsemen rally yet once more. The Khalifa's standard is planted in the
+ground on a mound, and beside it the Prophet's green banner calls the
+faithful together for a last desperate struggle. The English and their
+Egyptian allies fight with admirable courage, and the dervishes strike
+with a bravery and contempt of death to which no words can do justice.
+Under the holy banner a detachment advances into the fire, wavers, is
+mown down, and falls, and almost before the smoke of the powder has
+cleared away, another presses forward on the track of the slain, only to
+meet the same fate and join their comrades in the happy hunting-grounds
+of eternity.
+
+At length the day was ended and the Khalifa's army annihilated--11,000
+killed, 16,000 wounded, and 4000 prisoners! The Khalifa himself escaped.
+His harem and servants deserted him, and he who in the morning had been
+absolute ruler over an immense kingdom, wandered about in the woods like
+an outlaw. He fled to the south-west and succeeded in collecting another
+army, which was completely cut to pieces the following year in a battle
+in which he himself also perished.
+
+When all was quiet in Omdurman, the victors had a solemn duty to fulfil.
+Thirteen and a half years had passed since the death of Gordon, and at
+last the obsequies of the hero were to be celebrated in a fitting
+manner. In the court in front of Gordon's palace the troops are drawn up
+on three sides of a square, and on the fourth stands the victor,
+surrounded by generals of divisions and brigades and by his staff.
+Kitchener raises his hand, and in a moment the Union Jack rises to the
+top of the flagstaff on the palace, while a thundering salute from the
+gunboats greets the new colours and the Guards' band plays the National
+Anthem. Another sign, and the flag of Egypt goes up beside the Union
+Jack and the Khedive's hymn is played. Then the belated funeral service
+is impressively conducted by four clergymen of different Christian
+denominations, the Sudanese band plays a hymn which Gordon loved, and
+lastly Kitchener is saluted with the greatest enthusiasm by the officers
+and men under his command.
+
+
+OSTRICHES
+
+Now all is changed in the Sudan. A railway runs from the Nile delta up
+to Khartum, and another connects Berber with the Red Sea. In Khartum
+there are schools, hospitals, churches, and other public buildings, and
+one can travel safely by steamboat up to the great lakes. Gordon's
+scheme to connect the Victoria Nyanza with Mombasa on the coast has been
+carried out, and a railway has been constructed through British East
+Africa. White men have advanced from all sides deeper and deeper into
+the Black Continent, and have made themselves masters of almost all
+Africa. Wild animals have suffered by this intrusion into their formerly
+peaceful domain, and their numbers have been diminished by the chase. In
+some districts game has quite disappeared, the animals having sought
+remoter regions where they can live undisturbed.
+
+In the Sahara, in the Libyan desert, on the open grasslands along the
+Upper Nile, on the veldt of South Africa, wherever the country is open
+and free, lives the ostrich; but it does not occur in the worst desert
+tracts, which it crosses only in case of necessity, for it likes to have
+water always near at hand.
+
+The appearance of the ostrich is no doubt familiar. It is powerfully
+built; its long bare neck supports a small flattened head with large
+bright eyes; the long legs rest on two toes; and the wings are so small
+that the animal is always restricted to the surface of the ground,
+where, however, it can move with remarkable swiftness. The valuable
+feathers grow on the wings. The ostrich attains a height of eight feet,
+and when full grown may weigh as much as 165 pounds.
+
+Ostriches live in small flocks of only five or six birds. They feed in
+the morning, chiefly on plants, but they also devour small animals and
+reptiles. By midday their stomachs are full, and they rest or play,
+leaping in circles over the sand, regardless of the blazing sun or the
+heated ground. Then they drink and wander about eating in the afternoon.
+In the evening they seek their roosting-places.
+
+Sight is the ostrich's acutest sense, but its scent and hearing are also
+sharp. When it is pursued, it darts off with fluttering wings, taking
+steps ten or twelve feet long. It is always on the look-out for danger,
+and the zebra likes to keep near it to avail itself of the bird's
+watchfulness. In North Africa the Arabs hunt the ostrich on swift horses
+or running dromedaries. Two or three horsemen follow a male, which after
+an hour's course is tired out, and gradually relaxes its pace. The
+horses also are tired after such a chase, but one of the riders urges on
+his steed to a last spurt, rushes past the ostrich, and hits it on the
+head so that it falls to the ground. The bird is then skinned, the skin
+being turned inside out so as to form a bag for the feathers. The
+feathers of the wild ostrich are much finer and more valuable than those
+of the tame. A full-grown ostrich has only fourteen of the largest white
+feathers.
+
+The hens lay their eggs in a shallow hollow in loamy or sandy soil, and
+it is the male bird which sits on the eggs. In the daytime the nest may
+be left for hours, but then the ostriches cover the eggs with sand. The
+young ones leave their shells after six weeks and go out into the
+desert. They are already as large as fowls, but then an ostrich egg
+weighs as much as twenty-four hen's eggs, and measures six inches along
+its greatest diameter.
+
+The ostrich is remarkably greedy, and turns away from nothing. The great
+zoologist, Brehm, who had tame ostriches under his care, reports that
+they ate rats and chickens and swallowed small stones and potsherds, and
+once or twice his bunch of keys disappeared down the stomach of an
+ostrich. In one ostrich's stomach was found nine pounds of
+"ballast"--stones, rags, buttons, bits of metal, coins, keys, etc.
+
+Some say that the ostrich is inconceivably stupid, but others will not
+accept such a severe condemnation. The traveller Schillings, who is
+noted for his photographs of big game in Africa taken at night by
+flashlight, once followed the spoor of some lions for several hours.
+Suddenly he came upon an ostrich's nest with newly hatched chickens, and
+he wondered where the parents were. To his astonishment, he found that
+the lion had not touched the defenceless creatures, and he soon
+discovered the reason. In the moonlight night the ostriches had
+perceived the danger in time and sprang up to lure the lion away from
+the nest. Their stratagem succeeded, for it was evident from the spoor
+that the lion had pursued the flying ostriches farther and farther from
+the nest. And when the pair of ostriches thought that they had enticed
+the king of animals far enough off, they returned home.
+
+
+BABOONS
+
+Baboons are monkeys which resemble dogs rather than human beings, and
+almost always remain on the ground, seldom climbing trees. They are
+cruel, malicious, and cunning, their expression is fierce and savage,
+and their eyes wicked. Among their allies they are surpassed in strength
+only by the gorilla; and they are bold and spirited, and do not shun a
+deadly struggle with the leopard. They have sharp and powerful teeth
+with which to defend themselves, and their tusks are very formidable.
+
+The old Egyptians paid deep homage to the sacred apes, which belong to
+the baboon tribe, and had them represented on their monuments as judges
+in the kingdom of death. They live in large companies among the cliffs
+of the Red Sea coast of Nubia and Abyssinia, but they also occur in the
+interior on high mountains. Roots, fruits, worms, and snails are their
+chief food. They are afraid of snakes, but they catch scorpions,
+carefully pinching off the poison gland before eating the reptiles. When
+durra fields are in the neighbourhood of the baboons' haunts, watchmen
+must be posted, or the animals work great havoc among the grain. And
+when they are out on a raid, they, too, have sentinels on the lookout in
+every direction.
+
+During the night and when it rains they sit huddled up among
+inaccessible rocks, whither they climb with wonderful activity. They
+sally forth in the morning to satisfy their hunger, returning to the
+high rocks at noon. Afterwards they go to the nearest brook or spring to
+drink, and after another meal retire for the night.
+
+If a party of such baboons, consisting perhaps of a hundred individuals,
+is sitting in a row near the edge of a cliff and suddenly becomes aware
+of a threatening danger--as, for instance, a prowling leopard--they all
+utter the most singular noises, grunting, shrieking, barking, and
+growling. The old males go to the edge and look down into the valley,
+fuss about and show their ugly tusks and strike their forepaws against
+the sides of the rock with a loud smack. The young ones seek their
+mother's protection and keep behind them.
+
+Brehm once surprised such a party huddled together on the margin of a
+cliff. The first shot that echoed through the valley roused the greatest
+commotion and displeasure, and the monkeys howled and bellowed in
+chorus. Then they began to move with astonishing activity and
+surefootedness. Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no
+damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh shot they
+halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks and yelled abuse at
+their disturbers. The front of the cliff seemed in some places to be
+vertical, but the baboons climbed about everywhere. At the next bend of
+the road the whole troop came down into the valley, intending to
+continue their flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting
+dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop of baboons,
+but before they could come up with it, the old baboons halted, turned
+round and presented such a terrible front to the dogs that these quickly
+turned back. When the dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time,
+most of the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few
+remaining in the valley, among them a small young one. Frightened at the
+onslaught of the dogs, the little creature fled shrieking up a boulder,
+while the dogs stood round its base. Brehm wished to catch the young one
+alive, but just then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no
+heed of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, controlling
+them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block, whispered some calming
+sound into the ear of the young one, and set out on his return with his
+protege. The dogs were so cowed that they never attacked, and both the
+young baboon and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their
+friends.
+
+
+THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
+
+In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large, clumsy,
+and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred also in Lower Egypt,
+where it was called the river hog, but at the present day it is
+necessary to go a good distance south of Nubia in order to find it. In
+many rivers it migrates with the seasons. It descends the river as this
+falls in the dry season, and moves up again when the bed is filled by
+rain.
+
+The body of the hippopotamus is round and clumsy, and is supported by
+four short shapeless legs with four hoofed toes on each foot. The
+singular head is nearly quadrangular, the eyes and ears are small, the
+snout enormously broad and the nostrils wide (Plate XXIX.). The hairless
+hide, three-quarters of an inch thick, changes from grey to dark brown
+and dirty red according as it is dry or wet. The animal is thirteen feet
+long, without the small short tail, and weighs as much as thirty
+full-grown men.
+
+The hippopotamus spends most of his time in the water, but goes on land
+at night, especially in those districts where the rivers do not afford
+much food. Stealing carefully along a quiet river the traveller may
+often take him by surprise, and see two small jets of water rise from
+his nostrils when he comes up to breathe, snorting and puffing noisily.
+Then he dives again, and can remain under water three or four minutes.
+When he lies near the surface only six small knobs are seen above the
+water, the ears, eyes, and nostrils. If he is not quite sure of the
+neighbourhood, he thrusts only his nostrils above water and breathes as
+noiselessly as possible.
+
+Hippopotami often lie splashing in shallow water, or climb up on to the
+bank to sun themselves and have a quiet lazy time. Very frequently they
+are heard to make a grunting noise of satisfaction. When evening comes
+they seek the deeper parts of the river, where they swim up and down,
+chase one another, and roll about in the water with great nimbleness and
+activity. They swim with great speed, throwing themselves forward in
+jerks, and filling the air with their gurgling bellowing cry; yet if
+they like they can swim so quietly that not the least ripple is heard. A
+wounded hippopotamus stirs up the water so that a small canoe may
+capsize in the swell from his forequarters.
+
+When several old males are bellowing together, the din is heard for
+miles through the forest and rolls like thunder over the water. No other
+animal can make such a noise. Even the lion stops to listen.
+
+On the Upper Nile, above Khartum, where the most luxuriant vegetation
+struggles for room on the banks, and the river often loses itself in
+lakes and swamps, the hippopotamus, like the crocodile, seldom goes
+ashore. Here he lives under lotus plants and papyrus leaves, soft reeds
+and all the other juicy vegetation that thrives in water-logged ground.
+He dives and rummages for a couple of minutes, stirring up the water far
+around. When he has his huge mouth full of stems and leaves, he comes up
+to the surface again, and the water streams in cataracts off his rounded
+body.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXIX. A HIPPOPOTAMUS.]
+
+In districts where he goes on land to graze, he often works great damage
+among the corn and green crops, and may even attack the villagers. And
+he is not always to be trifled with if a canoe disturbs his repose. The
+most dangerous is a mother when her young ones are small. She carries
+them on her back as she swims and dives, sometimes to the bottom of the
+river. A gun must be heavily loaded if the shot is to have any effect on
+such a monster, and penetrate such a cuirass of hide. If the animal
+puffs and dives, he is lost to the hunter; but if he raises himself high
+out of the water and then falls again with a heavy thud, the wound is
+mortal and the hippopotamus sinks to the bottom. After an hour or two
+the body rises to the surface again.
+
+Some negro tribes on the White Nile dig pitfalls for hippopotami, and on
+the rivers which enter Lake Ngami (see map, p. 262) on its northern
+shore the natives hunt for them with harpoons, much in the same way as
+whales are killed in the northern and southern oceans. The harpoons have
+a sharp barbed blade of iron, and this point is secured by strong string
+to a stout shaft of wood, the end of which is attached by a line to a
+float. Two canoes are dragged on to a raft of bundles of reed tied
+together, and between them the black hunters crouch with harpoons and
+light javelins in their hands. When all is ready, the raft is pushed out
+into the current and drifts noiselessly down the river. The huge animals
+can be heard rolling and splashing in the water in the distance, but
+they are still hidden behind a bed of reeds. The raft glides gently past
+the point, but the hippopotami suspect no danger. One of them comes up
+close beside the raft. The harpooner stands up like a flash of lightning
+and drives his sharp weapon with all his strength into the animal's
+flank. The wounded hippopotamus dives immediately to the bottom, and the
+line runs out. The float follows the hippopotamus wherever he takes his
+flight, and the canoes, now in the water, follow. When the brute comes
+up again, he is received with a shower of javelins, and dives again,
+leaving a blood-red streak behind him. He may be irritated when he is
+attacked time after time by spears, and it may happen that he turns on
+his persecutors and crushes a too venturesome canoe with his great
+tusks, or gives it a blow underneath with his head. Sometimes the animal
+is not content with the canoes, but attacks the men, and many too daring
+hunters have lost their lives in this way. When the hippopotamus has
+been sufficiently tired out, the hunters pick up the float, and take
+the line ashore to wind it round a tree, and then they pull with all
+their might to draw the creature up out of the water.
+
+The flesh is eaten everywhere, especially that of the young animals, and
+the tongue and the fat of the older ones are considered delicacies.
+Riding-whips, shields, and many other articles are made out of the hide,
+and the large tusks are valuable. Hippopotami may be seen in some of the
+zoological gardens in Europe, but they do not thrive well in the care of
+man.
+
+
+MAN-EATING LIONS
+
+A terrible tale of man-eating lions is told by Colonel Patterson in his
+book _The Man-Eaters of Tsavo_.
+
+Colonel Patterson had been ordered for service on the Uganda Railway,
+which runs from Mombasa north-westwards through British East Africa to
+the great lake Victoria Nyanza, the largest source-lake of the Nile. But
+in 1898, when the Colonel arrived, the railway had not been carried
+farther than the Tsavo, a tributary of the Sabaki, which enters the sea
+north of Mombasa. Here at Tsavo (see map, p. 237) the Colonel had his
+headquarters, and in the neighbourhood were camped some thousands of
+railway coolies from India. A temporary wooden bridge crossed the Tsavo,
+and the Colonel was to build a permanent iron bridge over the river, and
+had besides the supervision of the railway works for thirty miles in
+each direction.
+
+Some days after his arrival at Tsavo the Colonel heard of two lions
+which made the country unsafe. He paid little heed to these reports
+until a couple of weeks later, when one of his own servants was carried
+off by a lion. A comrade, who had a bed in the same tent, had seen the
+lion steal noiselessly into the camp in the middle of the night, go
+straight to the tent, and seize the man by the throat. The poor fellow
+cried out "Let go," and threw his arms round the beast's neck, and then
+the silence of night again fell over the surroundings. Next morning the
+Colonel was able to follow the lion's spoor easily, for the victim's
+heels had scraped along the sand all the way. At the place where the
+lion had stopped to make his meal, only the clothes and head of the
+unfortunate man were found, with the eyes fixed in a stare of terror.
+
+Disturbed by this sight and the sorrowful occurrence, the Colonel made a
+solemn oath that he would give himself no rest until both the lions
+were dead. Gun in hand, he climbed up into a tree close by his servants'
+tent and waited. The night was quiet and dark. In the distance was heard
+a roar, which came nearer as the two man-eaters stole up in search of
+another victim. Then there was silence again, for lions always attack in
+silence, though when they start on their night prowl they utter their
+hoarse, awful cry, as though to give warning to the men and animals in
+the neighbourhood. The Colonel waited. Then he heard a cry of terror and
+despair from another camp a hundred yards away, and after that all was
+still again. A man had been seized and dragged away.
+
+Now the Colonel chose a waiting-place where the last man had been
+carried off, but here, too, he was disappointed. A heart-rending shriek
+rang through the night at still another part of the camp, and another
+workman was missing.
+
+The Indian workmen lay in several scattered camps, and evidently the
+lions chose a fresh camp every night to mislead the men. When they found
+that they could carry off a man with impunity every night or every other
+night, they grew bolder, and showed not the least fear of the camp
+fires, which were always kept alight. They paid no heed to the noise and
+tumult they caused, or even to gunshots fired at them in the darkness. A
+tall, thick fence of tough, thorny bushes was erected round each camp as
+a protection, but the lions always jumped over or broke through it when
+they wanted a man. In the daytime the Colonel followed their tracks,
+which were plainly visible through the thickets, but of course could not
+be perceived on stony ground.
+
+Things became still worse when the rails were laid farther up the
+country, and only a few hundred workmen remained with Colonel Patterson
+at the Tsavo bridge. He had unusually high and strong fences built up
+round his camp, and the fires were enlarged to blazing pyres, watchmen
+kept guard, guns were always ready, and within the enclosure empty oil
+tins were banged together to scare the beasts if possible. But it was
+all no use. Still more victims disappeared. The Indian workmen became so
+panic-stricken that they could not shoot, though the lion was often just
+in front of them. A patient was taken from the hospital tent, and the
+next victim was a water-carrier from another part of the camp. He had
+been lying with his head towards the middle of the tent and his legs
+outwards. The lion had sprung over the fence, seized the man by the
+foot, and dragged him out. In his despair he had grabbed at a box
+standing by the tent canvas, and instead had caught hold of a tent rope,
+which gave way. Then the lion, with his prey in his mouth, had run along
+the fence looking for a weak spot, and when he had found one, he dashed
+right through the fence. Next morning fragments of clothing and flesh
+were found on the paths. The other lion had waited outside, and they had
+consumed their prey together.
+
+Then followed an interval of quiet, during which the lions were engaged
+elsewhere. It was hoped that the tranquillity would continue, and the
+workmen began to sleep outside because of the heat. One night they were
+sitting round a fire, when a lion suddenly jumped noiselessly over the
+fence and stood gazing at them. They started up and threw stones, pieces
+of wood, and firebrands at the beast, but the lion sprang forward,
+seized his man, and dashed through the fence. His companion was waiting
+outside, and they were so impudent that they ate their victim only
+thirty yards off.
+
+The Colonel sat up at night for a whole week at the camp where a visit
+was expected. He says that nothing can be more trying to the nerves than
+such a watch, time after time in vain. He always heard the warning roar
+in the distance, and knew that it meant, "Look out; we are coming." The
+hungry cry sounded hoarser and stronger, and the Colonel knew that one
+of his men, or perhaps he himself, would never again see the sun rise
+over the jungle in the east, and there was always silence when the
+brutes were near. Then the watchmen in the various camps would call out,
+"Look out, brothers, the devil is coming." And shortly afterwards a wild
+scream of distress and the groans of a victim would proclaim that the
+lion's stratagem had been successful again. At last the lions became so
+daring that both cleared the fence at once, to seize a man apiece. Once
+one lion did not succeed in dragging his man through the fence, and had
+to leave him and content himself with a share of his comrade's booty.
+The man left behind was so badly mauled that he died before he could be
+carried to the hospital tent.
+
+No wonder that the poor workmen, wearied and worn by sleeplessness,
+excitement, and fear of death, decided that this state of affairs must
+come to an end. They struck. They said that they had come to Africa to
+work at the railway, and not to supply food for lions. One fine day they
+took a train by storm, put all their belongings into the carriages, took
+their seats themselves, and went off to the coast. The courageous men
+who remained with the Colonel passed the night in trees, in the station
+water-tank, or in covered holes digged down within their tents.
+
+On one occasion the Colonel had invited a friend to come up to Tsavo and
+help him against the lions. The train was late, and it was dark when the
+guest followed the path through the wood to the camp. He had a servant
+with him, who carried a lantern. Half-way a lion rushed down on them
+from a rise, tore four deep gashes in the Englishman's back, and would
+have carried him off if he had not fired his carbine. Dazed with the
+report, the lion loosed his hold and pounced on the servant. Next moment
+he had vanished in the darkness with his prey.
+
+A few days later a Suaheli came and said that the lion had seized an
+ass, and was engaged in his meal not far away. Guided by the Suaheli,
+the Colonel hastened up and could see from a distance the back of the
+lion above the bushes. Unfortunately the guide stepped on a twig, and
+the lion immediately vanished into impenetrable brushwood. Then the
+Colonel ran back and called out all his men. Provided with drums, sheets
+of metal and tin cans, they surrounded the thicket, and closed in with a
+great noise, while the Colonel kept watch at the place where the animal
+would probably come out. Quite right--there he came, huge and fierce,
+angry at being disturbed. He came forward slowly, halting frequently,
+and looking around. His attention was so taken up by the noise that he
+did not notice the sportsman. When he was about thirteen yards off the
+Colonel raised his double-barrelled rifle. The lion heard the movement,
+struck his front claws into the ground, drew back on to his hind paws as
+though to gather himself up for a spring, and snarled wickedly, showing
+his murderous fangs. Then the Colonel took aim at the head, pressed the
+trigger, and--the rifle missed fire!
+
+Fortunately the lion turned at that moment to go back into the thicket,
+and the other shot had no effect but to call forth a furious roar and
+hasten his flight. The untrustworthy gun had been borrowed for the
+occasion, and after this the Colonel determined to rely on his own
+weapon.
+
+The ass lay still untouched. A platform twelve feet high was erected on
+poles close to the carcase, and on this the Colonel took up his position
+at sunset. The twilight is very short on the equator, and the night soon
+grows dark when there is no moon. The nights in Africa's jungles are
+silent with an evil-foreboding and awesome silence, which conceals so
+many ambushes and costs so many lives. The inhabitants of the jungle may
+expect an ambush at any moment. The lonely Colonel waited, gripping his
+rifle hard. He relates himself that he felt more and more anxious as
+time went on. He knew that the lion would come to feed on the ass, for
+no cry of distress was heard from the adjacent camps.
+
+Hist! that sounds like a small twig breaking under a weight. Now it
+sounds like a large body crushing through the bushes. Then all is quiet
+again. No, a deep breath, a sure sign of hunger, betrays the proximity
+of the monster. A terrible roar breaks the stillness of the night. The
+lion has perceived the presence of a man. Will he fly? No, far from it,
+he scorns the ass and makes for the Colonel. For two hours he prowls
+about the platform in gradually diminishing circles. Now the lion has
+matured his plan of attack, and goes straight towards the platform for
+the decisive spring. The animal is just perceptible against the sandy
+ground. When he is quite close the first shot thunders through the
+night, the lion utters a frightened roar and plunges into the nearest
+bushes. He writhes, and bellows, and moans, but the sounds grow weaker,
+till after a few long-drawn breaths all is quiet again. The first
+man-eater has met his fate.
+
+Before the dawn of day the workmen came out with trumpets and drums,
+and, with shouts of rejoicing, carried the lion-killer round the dead
+animal. The other lion continued his visits, and when he too bit the
+dust a short time after, the men could quietly resume their work on the
+railway, and the Colonel, who had freed the neighbourhood from a scourge
+that had troubled it for nine months, became a general hero. The foreman
+composed a grand song in his honour, and presented a valuable
+testimonial from all the men.
+
+One day he dined with the postmaster Ryall in a railway carriage, little
+suspecting the fate that was to befall the latter in the same carriage a
+few months later. A man-eating lion had chosen a small station for his
+hunting-ground, and had carried off one man after another without
+distinction of rank and worth. Ryall travelled with two other Europeans
+up to the place to try and rid it of the lion. On their arrival they
+were told that the animal could not be far away, for it had been quite
+recently in the neighbourhood of the station. The three Europeans
+resolved to watch all night. Ryall's carriage was taken off the train
+and drawn on to a siding. Here the ground had not been levelled, so the
+carriage was tilted a little to one side. After dinner they were to keep
+watch in turns, and Ryall took the first watch. There was a sofa on
+either side of the carriage, one of them higher above the floor than the
+other. Ryall offered these to his guests, but one of them preferred to
+lie on the floor between the sofas. And when Ryall thought he had
+watched long enough without seeing the lion, he lay down to rest on the
+lower sofa.
+
+The carriage had a sliding door which slipped easily in its grooves, and
+was unfastened. When all was quiet the lion crept out of the bush,
+jumped on to the rear platform of the carriage, opened the door with his
+paws, and slipped in. But scarcely had he entered, when the door, in
+consequence of the slope of the carriage, slid to again and latched
+itself. And thus the man-eater was shut in with the three sleeping men.
+
+The sleeper on the higher sofa, awakened by a sharp cry of distress, saw
+the lion, which filled up most of the small space, standing with his
+hind legs on the man lying on the floor, and his forepaws on Ryall, on
+the lower sofa on the opposite side. He jumped down in a fright to try
+and reach the opposite door, but could not get past without putting his
+foot on the back of the lion. To his horror, he found that the servant,
+who had been alarmed by the noise, was leaning against the door outside;
+but, putting forth all his strength, he burst open the door and slipped
+out, whereupon it banged to again. At the same moment a loud crash was
+heard. The lion had sprung through the window with Ryall in his mouth,
+and as the aperture was too small, he had splintered the woodwork like
+paper. The remains of the man were found next day and buried. Shortly
+after the lion was caught in a trap, and was exhibited for several days
+before being shot.
+
+
+DAVID LIVINGSTONE
+
+In a poor but respectable workman's home in Blantyre, near Glasgow, was
+born a hundred years ago a little lad named David Livingstone, who was
+to make himself a great and famous name, not only as the discoverer of
+lakes and rivers, but also as one of the noblest men who ever offered
+their lives for the welfare of mankind.
+
+[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEYS IN AFRICA.]
+
+In the national school of the town he quickly learned to read and
+write. His parents could not afford to let him continue his studies, but
+sent him at ten years of age to a cotton mill, where he had to work from
+six o'clock in the morning till eight in the evening. The hard work did
+not break his spirit, but while the machines hummed around him and the
+thread jumped on the bobbins, his thoughts and his desires flew far
+beyond the close walls of the factory to life and nature outside. He did
+his work so well that his wages were raised, and he spent his gains in
+buying books, which kept him awake far into the night. To add to his
+knowledge he attended a night-school, and on holidays he made long
+excursions with his brothers.
+
+Years fled and the boy David grew up to manhood. One day he told his
+parents that he wished to be a medical missionary, and go to the people
+in the east and south, tend the sick, and preach to any who would
+listen. In order to procure means for his studies he had to save up his
+earnings at the factory, and when the time was come he went with his
+father to Glasgow, hired a room for half-a-crown a week, and read
+medicine. At the end of the session he went back to the factory to
+obtain money for the next winter course. Finally he passed his
+examination with distinction, and then came the last evening in the old
+home and the last morning dawned. His father went with him to Glasgow,
+took a long farewell of his son, and returned home sad and lonely.
+
+Livingstone sailed from England to the Cape, and betook himself to the
+northernmost mission-station, Kuruman in Bechuanaland. Even at this time
+he heard of a fresh-water lake far to the north. It was called Ngami,
+and he hoped to see it one day.
+
+From Kuruman he made several journeys in different directions to gain a
+knowledge of the tribes and their languages, to minister to their sick
+and win their confidence. Once when he was returning home from a journey
+and had still 150 miles to trek, a little black girl was found crouching
+under his waggon. She had run away from her owner because she knew that
+he intended to sell her as a slave as soon as she was full-grown, and as
+she did not wish to be sold she determined to follow the missionary's
+waggon on foot to Kuruman. The good doctor took up the frightened little
+creature and provided her with food and drink. Suddenly he heard her cry
+out. She had caught sight of a man with a gun who had been sent out to
+fetch her and who now came angrily to the waggon. It never occurred to
+Livingstone to leave the defenceless child in the hands of the wretch.
+He took the girl under his protection and told her that no danger would
+befall her henceforth. She was a symbol of Africa, the home of the
+slave-trade. And Africa's slaves needed the help of a great and strong
+man. Livingstone understood the call and worked to his last hour for the
+liberation of the slaves, as Gordon did many years later. He strove
+against the cruel and barbarous customs of the natives and their dark
+superstitions, and hoped in time to be able to train pupils who would
+be sent out to preach all over the country. In one tribe the
+medicine-men were also rainmakers. Livingstone pointed out to the people
+of the tribe that the rainmakers' jugglery was only a fraud and of no
+use, but offered, if they liked, himself to procure water for the
+irrigation of their fields, not by witchcraft but by conducting it along
+a canal from the neighbouring river. Some rough tools were first hewn
+out, and he had soon the whole tribe at work, and the canal and conduits
+were laid out among the crops. And there stood the witch-doctors put to
+shame, as they heard the water purling and filtering into the soil.
+
+In 1843 Livingstone started off to found a new mission-station, named
+Mabotsa. The chief of the place was quite willing to sell land, and he
+received glass beads and other choice wares in payment. Mabotsa lay not
+far from the present Mafeking, but seventy years ago the whole region
+was a wild. On one occasion a lion broke into the village and worried
+the sheep. The natives turned out with their weapons, and Livingstone
+took the lead. The disturber of the peace was badly wounded and retired
+to the bush. But suddenly he rushed out again, threw himself on
+Livingstone, buried his teeth in his shoulder, and crushed his left arm.
+The lion had his paw already on the missionary's head, when a Christian
+native ran up and struck and slashed at the brute. The lion loosed his
+hold in order to fly at his new assailant, who was badly hurt.
+Fortunately the animal was so sorely wounded that its strength was now
+exhausted, and it fell dead on the ground. Livingstone felt the effects
+of the lion's bite for thirty years after, and could never lift his arm
+higher than the shoulder; and when his course was run his body was
+identified by the broken and reunited arm bone. He had to keep quiet for
+a long time until his wound was healed. Then he built the new
+station-house with his own hands, and when all was ready he brought to
+it his young bride, the daughter of a missionary at Kuruman.
+
+Another missionary lived at Mabotsa and did all he could to render
+Livingstone's life miserable. The good doctor hated all quarrelling, and
+did not wish that white men should set a bad example to the blacks, so
+he gladly gave way and moved with his wife forty miles northwards. The
+house in Mabotsa had been built with his own savings, and as the London
+Missionary Society gave him a salary of only a hundred pounds a year,
+there could not be much over to build a house. When he left, the
+natives round Mabotsa were in despair. Even when the oxen were yoked to
+the waggon, they begged him to remain and promised to build him another
+house. It was in vain, however; they lost their friend and saw him drive
+off to the village of Chonuane, which was subject to the chief Sechele.
+
+From the new station Livingstone made a missionary journey eastwards to
+the country whither the Dutch Boers had trekked from the Cape. They had
+left the Cape because they were dissatisfied with the English
+administration of the country, for the English would not allow slavery
+and proclaimed the freedom of the Hottentots. The Boers, then, founded a
+republic of their own, the Transvaal, so named because it lay on the
+other side of the Vaal, a tributary of the Orange River. Here they
+thought they could compel the blacks to work as bondmen in their service
+without being interfered with. They took possession of all the springs,
+and the natives lived on sufferance in their own country. The Boers
+hated Livingstone because they knew that he was an enemy to the slave
+trade and a friend to the natives.
+
+Livingstone had plenty of work at the station. He built his house, he
+cultivated his garden, visited the sick, looked after his guns and
+waggons, made mats and shoes, preached, taught in his children's school,
+lectured on medicine, and instructed the natives who wished to become
+missionaries. In his leisure hours he collected natural history
+specimens, which he sent home, studied the poisonous tsetse fly and the
+deadly fever, and was always searching for remedies. He was never idle.
+
+His new place of abode had one serious defect--it was badly situated as
+regarded rain and irrigation, and therefore Livingstone decided to move
+again forty miles farther to the north, to Kolobeng, where for the third
+time he built himself a house. As before, his black friends were much
+disturbed at his departure, and when they could not induce him to
+remain, the whole tribe packed up their belongings and went with him.
+Then clearing, building, and planting went on again. At Kolobeng
+Livingstone had a fixed abode for quite five years, but this was his
+longest and last sojourn in one place, for his after-life was a
+continuous pilgrimage without rest and repose. As usual, he gained the
+confidence and friendship of the natives.
+
+The worst trouble was the vicinity of the Boers. They accused him of
+providing Sechele's tribe with weapons and exciting them against the
+Boers. They threatened to kill all black missionaries who ventured into
+the Transvaal, and devised plans for getting rid of Livingstone. Under
+such conditions his work could not be successful, and he longed to go
+farther north to countries where he could labour in peace without
+hindrance from white men who were nominally Christians, but treated the
+natives like beasts. Besides, hard times and famine now came to
+Kolobeng. The crops suffered from severe drought, and even the river
+failed. The natives went off to hunt, and the women gathered locusts for
+food. No child came to school, and the church was empty on Sunday.
+
+Then Livingstone resolved to move still farther northwards, and on June
+1, 1849, the party set out. An Englishman named Oswell, who was
+Livingstone's friend, went with them and bore all the expenses of the
+journey. He was a man of means, and so several waggons, eighty oxen,
+twenty horses, and twenty-five servants were provided.
+
+After two months' march they came to the shore of Lake Ngami, which was
+now seen for the first time by Europeans. The king, Lechulatebe, proved
+less friendly than was expected. When he heard that Livingstone intended
+to continue his journey northwards to the great chief Sebituane, he
+feared that the latter would obtain firearms from the white men and
+would come down slaying and pillaging to the country round the lake.
+Finally the expedition was obliged to turn back to Kolobeng.
+Livingstone, however, was not the man to give in, and he went twice more
+to the lake, taking his wife and children with him.
+
+On one of these journeys he came to the kingdom of the great and
+powerful Sebituane, and was received with the most generous hospitality.
+The chief gave him all the information he wished, and promised to help
+him in every way. A few days later, however, Sebituane fell ill of
+inflammation of the lungs and died.
+
+Livingstone then continued his journey north-eastward with Oswell to the
+large village of Linyanti, and shortly after discovered a river so large
+and mighty that it resembled one of the firths of Scotland. The river
+was called the Zambesi. Its lower course had long been known to
+Europeans, but no one knew whence it came. The climate was unhealthy,
+and was not suitable for the new mission-station that Livingstone
+intended to establish. The Makololo people, the tribe of the deceased
+chief, promised to give him land, huts, and oxen if he would stay with
+them, but his mind was now occupied with great schemes and he gave up
+all thoughts of a station. Honest, legitimate trade must first be made
+to flourish. The Makololo had begun to sell slaves simply to be able to
+buy firearms and other coveted wares from Europe. If they could be
+induced to sell ivory and ostrich feathers instead, they would be able
+to procure by barter all they wanted from European traders and need not
+sell any more human beings. But to start such a trade a convenient route
+must first be found to the coast of either the Atlantic or Indian Ocean.
+A country in which the black tribes were in continual war with one
+another simply for the purpose of obtaining slaves was not ripe for
+Christianity. Accordingly Livingstone's plan was clear: first to find a
+way to the coast, and then to foster an honest trade which would make
+the slave-trade unnecessary.
+
+Having sent his wife and children to England, Livingstone made his
+preparations, and in the year 1853 he was at Linyanti, in the country of
+the Makololo. Here began his remarkable journey to Loanda on the west
+coast, not far south of the mouth of the Congo. No European had ever
+travelled this way. His companions were twenty-seven Makololos, and his
+baggage was as light as possible, chiefly cloth and glass beads, which
+serve as currency in Africa. He took no provisions, as he thought he
+could live on what the country afforded.
+
+The journey was difficult and troublesome, through a multitude of savage
+tribes. First the Zambesi was followed upwards, and then the route ran
+along other rivers. In consequence of heavy rain, swollen watercourses
+and treacherous swamps had to be crossed continually. Livingstone rode
+an ox which carried him through the water after a small portable boat
+had been wrecked and abandoned. Swarms of mosquitoes buzzed over the
+moist ground, and Livingstone repeatedly caught fever from the damp,
+close exhalations, and was often so ill that he could not even sit on
+his ox. But amidst all these difficulties and hardships he never omitted
+to observe the natural objects around him and to work at his map of the
+route. His diary was a big volume in stout boards with lock and key, and
+he wrote as small and as neatly as print.
+
+Step by step he came nearer the sea. Most opportunely they met a
+Portuguese, and in his company the small troop entered the Portuguese
+territory on the west coast. The Portuguese received Livingstone with
+great hospitality, supplied him with everything he wanted, and rigged
+him out from top to toe.
+
+Some English cruisers were lying off Loanda, having come to try to put
+down the slave-trade, and Livingstone enjoyed a delightful rest with his
+countrymen and slept in a proper bed after having lain for half a year
+on wet ground. It would have been pleasant to have had a thorough
+holiday on a comfortable vessel on the voyage to England after so many
+years' wanderings in Africa, but Livingstone resisted the temptation. He
+could not send his faithful Makololos adrift; besides, he had found that
+the route to the west coast was not suitable for trade, and was now
+wondering whether the Zambesi might serve as a channel of communication
+between the interior and the east coast. So he decided to turn back in
+spite of fever and danger, bade good-bye to the English and Portuguese,
+and again entered the great solitude.
+
+Before Livingstone left Loanda he put together a large mass of
+correspondence, notes, maps, and descriptions of the newly discovered
+countries, but the English vessel which carried his letters sank at
+Madeira with all on board, and only one passenger was saved. News of the
+misfortune reached Livingstone when he was still near the coast, and he
+had to write and draw all his work again, a task that took him months.
+If he had left the Makololo men to their fate he would have travelled in
+the unfortunate vessel.
+
+Rain and sickness often delayed him, but on the whole his return journey
+was easier. He took with him from Loanda a large stock of presents for
+the chiefs, and they were no longer strangers. And when he came among
+the villages of the Makololo, the whole tribe turned out to welcome him,
+and the good missionary held a thanksgiving service in the presence of
+all the people. Oxen were killed round the fires at night, drums were
+beaten, and with dance and song the people filled the air far above the
+crowns of the bread-fruit trees with sounds of gladness. Sekeletu was
+still friendly, and was given a discarded colonel's uniform from Loanda.
+In this he appeared at church on Sunday, and attracted more attention
+than the preacher and the service. His gratitude was so great that when
+Livingstone set out to the east coast he presented his white friend with
+ten slaughter oxen, three of his best riding oxen, and provisions for
+the way. And more than that, he ordered a hundred and twenty warriors to
+escort him, and gave directions that, as far as his power extended over
+the forests and fields, all hunters and tillers of the ground should
+provide the white man and his retinue with everything they wanted. Not
+the least remarkable circumstance connected with Livingstone's travels
+was that he was able to carry them out without any material help from
+home. He was the friend of the natives, and travelled for long distances
+as their guest.
+
+Now his route ran along the bank of the Zambesi, an unknown road. During
+his earlier visit to Linyanti he had heard of a mighty waterfall on the
+river, and now he discovered this African Niagara, which he named the
+Victoria Falls. Above the falls the river is 1800 yards broad, and the
+huge volumes of water dash down foaming and roaring over a barrier of
+basalt 390 feet high to the depth beneath. The water boils and bubbles
+as in a kettle, and is confined in a rocky chasm in some places barely
+50 yards broad. Clouds of spray and vapour hover constantly above the
+fall, and the natives call it "the smoking water." Among the general
+public in Europe, Livingstone's description of the Victoria Falls made a
+deeper impression than any of his other discoveries, so thoroughly
+unexpected was the discovery in Africa of a waterfall which could match,
+nay in many respects surpass, Niagara in wild beauty and imposing power.
+Now a railway passes over the Falls, and a place has grown up which
+bears the name of Livingstone.
+
+The deafening roar of the water died away in the distance, and the party
+followed the forest paths from the territory of one tribe to that of the
+next. Steadfast as always, Livingstone met all danger and treachery with
+courage and contempt of death, a Titan among geographical explorers as
+well as among Christian missionaries. He drew the main outlines of this
+southern part of Darkest Africa and laid down the course of the Zambesi
+on his map. For a year he had been an explorer rather than a missionary.
+But the dominating thought in his dream of the future was always that
+the end of geographical exploration was only the beginning of missionary
+enterprise.
+
+At the first Portuguese station he left his Makololo men, promising to
+return and lead them back to their own villages. Then he travelled down
+the Zambesi to Quilimane on the sea. He had, therefore, crossed Africa
+from coast to coast, and was the first scientifically educated European
+to do so.
+
+After fifteen years in Africa he had earned a right to go home. An
+English ship carried him to Mauritius, and at the end of 1856 he
+reached England. He was received everywhere with boundless enthusiasm,
+and never was an explorer feted as he was. He travelled from town to
+town, always welcomed as a hero. He always spoke of the slave-trade and
+the responsibility that rested on the white men to rescue the blacks.
+Africa, lying forgotten and misty beneath its moving rain-belts, became
+at once the object of attention of all the educated world.
+
+Detraction was not silent at the home-coming of the victor. The
+Missionary Society gave him to understand that he had not laboured
+sufficiently for the spread of the Gospel, and that he had been too much
+of an explorer and too little of a missionary. He therefore left the
+Society; and when, after a sojourn of more than a year at home, he
+returned to Africa, it was in the capacity of English Consul in
+Quilimane, and leader of an expedition for the exploration of the
+interior of Africa.
+
+We have no time to accompany Livingstone on his six years' journeys in
+East Africa. Among the most important discoveries he made was that of
+the great Lake Nyassa, from the neighbourhood of which 19,000 slaves
+were carried annually to Zanzibar, to say nothing of the far greater
+numbers who died on the way to the coast. One day Livingstone went down
+to the mouth of the Zambesi to meet an English ship. On board were his
+wife and a small specially built steamer called the _Lady Nyassa_,
+designed for voyages on rivers and lakes. Shortly afterwards his wife
+fell ill and died, and was buried under the leafy branches of a
+bread-fruit tree. In spite of his grief he went on with his work as
+diligently as before, and when the time came for him to sail home, he
+thought of selling the _Lady Nyassa_ to the Portuguese. But when he
+heard that the boat was to be used to transport slaves, he kept it,
+steered a course for Zanzibar, and then resolved to cross the Indian
+Ocean in the small open boat by the use of both sails and steam. This
+was one of Livingstone's most daring exploits, for the distance to
+Bombay was 2500 miles across the open sea, and in the beginning of
+January the south-west monsoon might be expected with its rough, stormy
+seas. He hoped, however, to reach Bombay before the monsoon broke, so
+with three white sailors and nine Africans, and only fourteen tons of
+coal, he steamed out of the harbour of Zanzibar, saw the coast of Africa
+fade away and the dreary waste of water close round him on all sides.
+
+Two of the white sailors fell ill and were unfit for work, and the bold
+missionary had to depend almost entirely on himself. Ocean currents
+hindered the progress of the _Lady Nyassa_, and for twenty-five days she
+was becalmed, for the coal had to be used sparingly, and when the sails
+hung limp from the mast there was nothing to be done but to exercise
+patience. Fortunately there was sufficient food and drinking water, and
+Livingstone was accustomed to opposition and useless waiting. He had to
+ride out two violent storms, and the _Lady Nyassa_ was within a hair's
+breadth of turning broadside to the high seas. In view of the immense
+watery waste that still lay before him he meditated making for the
+Arabian coast, but as a favourable wind got up and the sailing was good
+he kept on his course. At length the coast of India rose up out of the
+sea, and after a voyage of six weeks the _Lady Nyassa_ glided into the
+grand harbour of Bombay. The air was hazy and no one noticed the small
+boat, but when it was known that Livingstone was in the city, every one
+made haste to pay him homage.
+
+In the year 1866 Livingstone was again in Africa. We find him at the
+mouth of the Rovuma, a river which enters the sea to the east of Lake
+Nyassa. He had thirty-seven servants, many of them from India, and one
+of his men, Musa, had been with him before. He crossed the country to
+Lake Nyassa, but when he wished to pass over to the eastern shore in
+native boats, he was stopped by the Arabs, who knew that he was the most
+formidable opponent of the slave-trade. He had no choice but to go round
+the lake on foot, and little by little he made contributions to human
+knowledge, drew maps, and made notes and collections. He came to
+districts he already knew, where black women were carried off by
+crocodiles on the bank of the Shire River, where he had lost his wife,
+and where all the missionaries sent out on his recommendation had died
+of fever.
+
+His staff of servants soon proved to be a worthless lot. The Indians
+were dismissed, and few of the others could be depended on. The best
+were Susi and Chuma, who by their faithfulness gained a great reputation
+both in Africa and Europe. Musa, on the contrary, was a scoundrel. He
+heard from an Arab slave-dealer that all the country through which
+Livingstone was about to travel was inhabited by a war-like tribe, who
+had lately fallen upon a party of forty-four Arabs and killed all but
+the narrator himself. Musa and most of his comrades were so frightened
+that they ran away. On his arrival at Zanzibar, Musa informed the
+British Consul that Livingstone had been attacked and murdered and all
+his goods plundered. The false account was so cleverly concocted and so
+thoroughly rehearsed that Musa could not be convicted of deceit. Every
+one believed him, and the English newspapers contained whole columns of
+reminiscences of the deceased. Only one friend of Livingstone, who had
+accompanied him on one of his journeys and knew Musa, had any doubts. He
+went himself to Africa, followed Livingstone's trail, and learned from
+the natives that the missionary had never been attacked as reported, but
+that he was on his way to Lake Tanganyika.
+
+The road thither was long and troublesome, and the great explorer
+suffered severe losses. Provisions ran short, and a hired porter ran
+away with the medicine chest. From this time Livingstone had no drugs to
+allay fever, and his health broke down. But he came to the southern
+extremity of Tanganyika, and the following year discovered Lake
+Bangweolo. He rowed out to the islands in the lake, and very much
+astonished the natives, who had never seen a white man before. Extensive
+swamps lay round the lake, and Livingstone believed that the
+southernmost sources of the Nile must be looked for in this region. This
+problem of the watershed of the Nile so fascinated him that he tarried
+year after year in Africa; but he never succeeded in solving it, and
+never knew that the river running out of Bangweolo is a tributary of the
+Lualaba or Upper Congo.
+
+Most of his men mutinied on the shore of Bangweolo. They complained of
+the hardships they endured and were tired of munching ears of maize, and
+demanded that their master should lead them to country where they could
+get sufficient food. Mild and gentle as always, Livingstone spoke to
+them kindly. He admitted that they were right, and confessed that he was
+himself tired of struggling on in want and hardship. They were so
+astonished at his gentleness that they begged to remain with him.
+
+Livingstone was dangerously ill on this journey and had to be carried on
+a litter. There he lay unconscious and delirious with fever, and lost
+entirely his count of time. The troop moved again towards Tanganyika,
+and was to cross the lake in canoes to the Ujiji country on the eastern
+shore. If he could only get so far, he could rest there, and receive new
+supplies and letters from home.
+
+Worn out and exhausted he at length reached Ujiji, a rendezvous for the
+Arab slave-dealers. But his fresh supplies had disappeared entirely. He
+wrote for more from the coast, and urged the Sultan of Zanzibar to see
+that nothing went astray. He wrote heaps of letters which never reached
+their destination. A packet of forty-two were sent off at one time, not
+one of which arrived, for at that time the tribes to the east of the
+lake were at war with one another.
+
+Livingstone did not allow his courage to fail. No difficulties were
+great enough to crush this man. With Susi and Chuma and a party of newly
+enlisted porters, he set out westwards across the lake, his aim being to
+visit the Manyuema country, through the outskirts of which flows the
+Lualaba. If Livingstone could prove in which direction this mighty river
+ran, whether to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, he could then return
+home with a good conscience. He had determined in his own mind that he
+would not leave the Dark Continent until he had solved the problem, and
+for this he sacrificed his life without result. The canoes sped over the
+lake, and on the western shore he continued his journey on foot to the
+land of the Manyuemas. He marched on westwards. When the rainy season
+came on he lost several months, and when he set out again on his next
+march he had only three companions, two of them being the faithful Susi
+and Chuma. In the dark thickets of the tropical forests he wounded his
+feet, dragged himself over fallen trunks and decaying rubbish, and waded
+across swollen rivers; and among the crowns of the lofty trees and in
+the dense undergrowth lurked malaria, an invisible miasma. He fell ill
+again and had to rest a long time in his miserable hut, where he lay on
+his bed of grass reading his tattered Bible, or listening to the
+native's tales of combats with men and apes, for gorillas lived in the
+forests.
+
+Thus year after year passed by, and not the faintest whisper from the
+noisy world reached his ears. The only thing that retained him was the
+Lualaba. Did its waters run in an inexhaustible stream to the western
+ocean, or did they flow gently through forests, swamps, and deserts to
+Egypt? If he could only answer that question, he would go by the nearest
+way to Zanzibar and thence home. He had heard nothing of his children
+and friends for years. The soil of Africa held him prisoner in a network
+of forests and lianas.
+
+In February 1871 he left Manyuema and came to Nyangwe on the bank of the
+Lualaba, one of the principal resorts of slave-dealers. The natives were
+hostile, believing that he was a slave-trader; and the slave-traders who
+knew him by sight hated him. He tried in vain to procure canoes for a
+voyage down the great river. He offered a chief, Dugumbe, a liberal
+reward if he would help him to prepare for this expedition. While
+Dugumbe was considering the offer, Livingstone witnessed an episode
+which surpassed in horror all that he had previously met with in Africa.
+It was a fine day in July on the bank of the Lualaba, and 1500 natives,
+mostly women, had flocked to market at a village on the bank.
+Livingstone was out for a stroll, when he saw two small cannon pointed
+at the crowd and fired. Many of the unfortunate people, doomed to death
+or the fetters of slavery, rushed to their canoes, but were met by a
+band of slave-hunters and surprised by a shower of arrows. Fifty canoes
+lay at the bank, but they were so closely packed that they could not be
+put out. The wounded shrieked and threw themselves on one another in
+wild despair. A number of black heads on the surface of the water showed
+that many swimmers were trying to reach an island about a mile away. The
+current was against them and their case was hopeless. Shot after shot
+was fired at them. Some sank quietly without a struggle, while others
+uttered cries of terror and raised their arms to heaven before they went
+down to the dark crystal halls of the crocodiles. Fugitives who
+succeeded in getting their canoes afloat forgot their paddles and had to
+paddle with their hands. Three canoes, the crews of which tried to
+rescue their unfortunate friends, filled and sank, and all on board were
+drowned. The heads in the water became gradually fewer, and only a few
+men were still struggling for life when Dugumbe took pity on them and
+allowed twenty-one to be saved. One brave woman refused to receive help,
+preferring the mercy of the crocodiles to that of the slave-king. The
+Arabs themselves estimated the dead at 400.
+
+This spectacle made Livingstone ill and depressed. The description of
+the scene which afterwards appeared in all the English journals awakened
+such a feeling of horror that a commission was appointed and sent out to
+Zanzibar to inquire into the slave-trade on the spot, and with the
+Sultan's help devise means of suppressing it. But we know that in
+Gordon's time the slave-trade still flourished in the Sudan, and several
+decades more passed before the power of the slave-dealers was broken. As
+for Livingstone, it was fortunate that he did not accompany Dugumbe, for
+the natives combined for defence, attacked the chiefs party and slew 200
+of the slave-dealing rabble.
+
+Thus the question of the Lualaba remained unsolved, but Livingstone
+began to suspect that his theory of the Nile sources was wrong. He heard
+a doubtful tale of the Lualaba bending off to the west, but he still
+hoped that it flowed northwards, and that therefore the ultimate source
+of the Nile was to be found among the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. When
+difficulties sprang up around him, his determination not to give in was
+only strengthened. But he could do nothing without a large and
+well-ordered caravan, and therefore he had to return to Ujiji, whither
+fresh supplies ought to have arrived from the coast. And amidst a
+thousand dangers and lurking treachery he effected his return through
+the disturbed country. Half dead of fever and in great destitution he
+arrived at Ujiji in October.
+
+There a fresh disappointment awaited him. His supplies had indeed come,
+but the Arabian scoundrel to whose care the goods had been consigned had
+sold them, including 2000 yards of cloth and several sacks of glass
+beads, the only current medium of exchange. The Arab coolly said that he
+thought the missionary was dead.
+
+We read in Livingstone's journal that in his helplessness he felt like
+the man who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves. Five days after
+his arrival at Ujiji he writes as follows: "But when my spirits were at
+their lowest ebb, the good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning
+Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out 'An Englishman!
+I see him!' and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head
+of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods,
+baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, etc., made me think
+'This must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end like
+me!'"
+
+
+HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE
+
+Now we must go back a little and turn to another story.
+
+Henry Stanley was a young journalist, who in October happened to be in
+Madrid. He was on the staff of the great newspaper, the _New York
+Herald_, which was owned by the wealthy Gordon Bennett. One morning
+Stanley was awakened by his servant with a telegram containing only the
+words: "Come to Paris on important business." Stanley travelled to Paris
+by the first train, and at once went to Bennett's hotel. Bennett asked
+him, "Where do you think Livingstone is?"
+
+"I really do not know, sir."
+
+"Do you think he is alive?"
+
+"He may be, and he may not be."
+
+"Well, I think he is alive," said Bennett, "and I am going to send you
+to find him."
+
+"What!" cried Stanley. "Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?"
+
+"Yes; I mean that you shall go and find him. The old man may be in want;
+take enough with you to help him, should he require it. Do what you
+think best--_but find Livingstone_."
+
+In great surprise Stanley suggested that such a journey would be very
+expensive, but Bennett answered, "Draw a thousand pounds now; and when
+you have gone through that, draw another thousand, and when that is
+spent, draw another thousand, and when you have finished that, draw
+another thousand, and so on; _but find Livingstone_."
+
+"Well," thought Stanley, "I will do my best, God helping me." And so he
+went off to Africa.
+
+He had, however, been charged by his employer to fulfil other missions
+on the way. He made a journey up the Nile, visited Jerusalem, travelled
+to Trebizond and Teheran and right through Persia to Bushire, and
+consequently did not arrive at Zanzibar until the beginning of January,
+1871.
+
+Here he made thorough preparations. He had never been before in the
+Africa of the Blacks, but he was a clever, energetic man, with a genius
+for organisation. He bought cloth enough for a hundred men for two
+years, glass beads, brass wire and other goods in request among the
+natives. He bought saddles and tents, guns and cartridges, boats,
+medicine, tools, provisions and asses. Two English sailors volunteered
+for the expedition, and he took them into his service, but both died in
+the fever country. Black porters were engaged, and twenty men he called
+his soldiers carried guns. After he had crossed over from Zanzibar to
+the African mainland, the equipment of the expedition was completed at
+Bagamoyo, and Stanley made haste to get away before the rainy season
+commenced.
+
+The great and well-found caravan of 192 men in all trooped westwards in
+five detachments. Stanley himself led the last detachment, and before
+them lay the wilderness, the interior of Africa with its dark recesses.
+At the first camping-ground tall maize was growing and manioc plants
+were cultivated in extensive fields. The latter is a plant with large
+root bulbs chiefly composed of starch, but also containing a poisonous
+milky juice which is deadly if the roots be eaten without preparation.
+When the sap has been removed by proper treatment, however, the roots
+are crushed into flour, from which a kind of bread is made. Round a
+swamp in the neighbourhood grew low fan-palms and acacias among
+luxuriant grass and reeds.
+
+Next day they marched under ebony and calabash trees, from the shells of
+which the natives make vessels of various shapes, for while they are
+growing the fruits can be forced by outward pressure into almost any
+desired form. Pheasants and quails, water-hens and pigeons flew up
+screaming when the black porters tramped along the path, winding in
+single file through the grass as high as a man. Hippopotami lay snorting
+unconcernedly in a stream that was crossed.
+
+Then came the forerunners of the rainy season, splashing and pelting
+over the country, and pouring showers pattered on the grass. Both the
+horses of the caravan succumbed, one or two fellows who found Bagamoyo
+more comfortable ran away, and a dozen porters fell ill of fever.
+Stanley was still full of energy, and beat the reveille in the morning
+himself with an iron ladle on an empty tin. On they went through dense
+jungle. Now a gang of slaves toils along, their chains clanking at every
+weary step. Here again is a river, and there the road runs up a hill.
+Here the country is barren, but soon after crops wave again round
+villages. Maize fields in a valley are agitated like the swell of the
+sea, and gentle breezes rustle through rain-bedewed sugar-cane. Bananas
+hang down like golden cucumbers, and in barren places tamarisks and
+mimosas perfume the air. Sometimes a halt is made in villages of
+well-built grass huts.
+
+Over swampy grasslands soaked by the continuous rains Stanley led his
+troop deeper and deeper into Africa. After having lasted forty days, the
+rainy season came to an end on the last day of April. The men marched
+through a forest of fine Palmyra palms, a tree which grows over almost
+all tropical Africa, in India, and on the Sunda Islands, and which is
+extolled in an old Indian poem because its fruits, leaves, and wood can
+be applied to eight hundred and one various uses. Afterwards the country
+became more hilly, and to the west one ridge and crest rose behind
+another. The porters and soldiers were glad to leave the damp coast-land
+behind and get into drier country, but the ridges made travelling
+harder. They encamped in villages of beehive-shaped huts covered with
+bamboos and bast, and surrounded by mud walls. Some tracts were so
+barren that only cactus, thistles, and thorny bushes could find support
+in the dry soil, and near a small lake were seen the tracks of wild
+animals, buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, wild boars, and antelopes, which
+came there to drink.
+
+Then the route ran through thickets of tamarisk, and under a canopy of
+monkey bread-fruit trees, till eventually at a village Stanley fell in
+with a large Arab caravan, with which he travelled through the dreaded
+warlike land of Ugogo. When they set out together the whole party
+numbered 400 men, who marched in Indian file along the narrow paths.
+
+"How are you, White Man?" called out a man at Ugogo in a thundering
+voice when Stanley arrived, and when he had set up his quarters in the
+chief's village the natives flocked around to gaze at the first white
+man they had ever seen. They were friendly and offered milk, honey,
+beans, maize, nuts, and water-melons in exchange for cloth and glass
+beads, but also demanded a heavy toll from the caravan for the privilege
+of passing through their country.
+
+The caravan proceeded through the avenues of the jungle, from time
+immemorial frequented by elephants and rhinoceroses. In one district the
+huts were of the same form as Kirghiz tents, and in another rocks rose
+up in the forest like ruins of a fairy palace. The porters were not
+always easy to manage, and on some occasions were refractory. But if
+they were given a young ox to feast on, they quickly calmed down and sat
+round the fire while strips of fresh meat frizzled over the embers.
+
+Now it was only one day's march to Tabora, the principal village in
+Unyamwezi, and the chief settlement of the Arabs in East Africa. The
+caravan set out with loud blasts of trumpets and horns, and on arrival
+discharged a salvo of guns, and Arabs in white dresses and turbans came
+out to welcome the explorer. Here Stanley found all his caravans, and
+the Arabs showed him every attention. They regaled him with wheaten
+loaves, chickens and rice, and presented him with five fat oxen, eight
+sheep, and ten goats. Round about they had cultivated ground and large
+herds, and it was difficult to believe that the stately well-grown men
+were base slave-traders.
+
+Just at this time the country of Unyamwezi was disturbed by a war which
+was raging with Mirambo, a great chief in the north-west, and
+consequently when Stanley left Tabora, now with only fifty-four men, he
+had to make a detour to the south to avoid the seat of war. At every
+step he took, his excitement and uncertainty increased. Where was this
+wonderful Livingstone, whom all the world talked about? Was he dead long
+ago, or was he still wandering about the forests as he had done for
+nearly thirty years?
+
+A bale or two of cloth had frequently to be left with a chief as toll.
+In return one chief sent provisions to last the whole caravan for four
+days, and came himself to Stanley's tent with a troop of black warriors.
+Here they were invited to sit down, and they remained silent for a
+while, closely examining the white man; then they touched his clothes,
+said something to one another, and burst out into unrestrained laughter.
+Then they must see the rifles and medicine chest. Stanley took out a
+bottle of ammonia, and told them that it was good for headaches and
+snake-bites. His black majesty at once complained of headache and wanted
+to try the bottle. Stanley held it under the chiefs nose, and of course
+it was so strong that he fell backwards, pulling a face. His warriors
+roared with laughter, clapped their hands, snapped their fingers,
+pinched one another, and behaved like clowns. When the king had
+recovered, he said, as the tears ran from his eyes, that he was quite
+cured and needed no more of the strong remedy.
+
+A river ran among hills, through a magnificent country abounding in
+game, and lotus leaves floated on the smooth water. The sun sinks and
+the moon soars above the mimosa trees, the river shines like a silver
+mirror, antelopes are on the watch for the dangers of the night. Within
+the enclosure of the camp the black men sit gnawing at the bones of a
+newly-shot zebra. But when it is time to set out again from the
+comfortable camp, the porters would rather remain where they are and
+enjoy themselves, and when the horn sounds they go sullenly and slowly
+to their loads. After half an hour's march they halt, throw down their
+loads, and begin to whisper in threatening groups. Two insubordinate
+ruffians lie in wait with their rifles aimed at Stanley, who at once
+raises his gun and threatens to shoot them on the spot if they do not
+immediately drop their rifles. The mutiny ends without bloodshed, and
+the men promise again to go on steadily to Lake Tanganyika, according to
+their agreement.
+
+Now Stanley is in a forest tract where cattle of all kinds are pestered
+by the tsetse fly, and where the small honey bird flies busily about
+among the trees. It is like the common grey sparrow, but somewhat
+larger, and has a yellow spot on each shoulder. It receives its name
+from its habit of flying in short flights just in front of the natives
+to guide them to the nests of wild bees, in order to get its share of
+the honey. When a man follows it, he must not make a noise to frighten
+it, but only whistle gently, that the bird may know that its intention
+is understood. As it comes nearer to the wild bees' nest, it takes
+shorter flights, and when it is come to the spot, it sits on a branch
+and waits. Stanley says that the honey bird is a great friend of the
+natives, and that they follow it at once when it calls them.
+
+Stanley now turned northwards to a river which flows into Lake
+Tanganyika. The caravan was carried over in small frail boats, and the
+asses which still survived had to swim. When the foremost of them came
+to the middle of the river he was seen to stop a moment, apparently
+struggling, and then he went down, a whirlpool forming above his head.
+He had been seized by a crocodile.
+
+A caravan which came from Ujiji reported that there was a white man in
+that country. "Hurrah, it is Livingstone! It must be Livingstone!"
+thought Stanley. His eagerness and zeal were stimulated to the
+uttermost, and he offered his porters extra pay to induce them to make
+longer marches. Eventually the last camp before Tanganyika was reached
+in safety, and here Stanley took out a new suit of clothes, had his
+helmet chalked, and made himself spruce, for the reports of a white
+man's presence at the lake became more definite.
+
+The 28th of October, 1871, was a beautiful day, and Stanley and his men
+marched for six hours south-westwards. The path ran through dense beds
+of bamboo, the glittering, silvery surface of Tanganyika was seen from a
+height, and blue, hazy mountains appeared afar off on the western shore.
+The whole caravan raised shouts of delight. At the last ridge the
+village of Ujiji came into sight, with its huts and palms and large
+canoes on the beach. Stanley gazed at it with eager eyes. Where was the
+white man's hut? Was Livingstone still alive, or was he a mere dream
+figure which vanished when approached?
+
+The villagers come streaming out to meet the caravan, and there is a
+deafening noise of greeting, enquiries, and shouts.
+
+From the midst of the crowd a black man in a white shirt and a turban
+calls out, "Good morning, sir!"
+
+"Who the mischief are you?" asks Stanley.
+
+"I am Susi, Dr. Livingstone's servant," replied the man.
+
+"What! Is Dr. Livingstone here?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"In this village? Run at once and tell the Doctor I am coming."
+
+When Livingstone heard the news he came out from his verandah and went
+into the courtyard, where all the Arabs of Ujiji had collected. Stanley
+made his way through the crush, and saw a small man before him, grey and
+pale, dressed in a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, a
+red-sleeved waistcoat, and grey trousers. Stanley would have run up to
+embrace him, but he felt ashamed in the presence of the crowd, so he
+simply took off his hat and said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
+
+"Yes," said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.
+
+"I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you."
+
+"I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They sat down on the verandah, and all the astonished natives stood
+round, looking on. The missionary related his experiences in the heart
+of Africa, and then Stanley gave him the general news of the world, for
+of course he knew nothing of what had taken place for years past. Africa
+had been separated from Asia by the Suez Canal. The Pacific Railway
+through North America had been completed. Prussia had taken
+Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, the German armies were besieging Paris,
+and Napoleon the Third was a prisoner. France was bleeding from wounds
+which would never be healed. What news for a man who had just come out
+of the forests of Manyuema!
+
+Evening drew on and still they sat talking. The shades of night spread
+their curtain over the palms, and darkness fell over the mountains where
+Stanley had marched, still in uncertainty, on this remarkable day. A
+heavy surf beat on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The night had travelled
+far over Africa before at last they went to rest.
+
+The two men were four months together. They hired two large canoes and
+rowed to the northern end of Tanganyika, and ascertained that the lake
+had no outlet there. Only two years later Lieutenant Cameron succeeded
+in finding the outlet of Tanganyika, the Lukuga, which discharges into
+the Lualaba; and when he found that Nyangwe on the Lualaba lies 160 feet
+lower than the Nile where it flows out of the Albert Nyanza, he had
+proof that the Lualaba could not belong to the Nile, and that
+Livingstone's idea that the farthest sources of the Nile must be looked
+for at Lake Bangweolo was only an idle dream. The Lualaba therefore must
+make its way to the Atlantic, and in fact this river is nothing but the
+Upper Congo. Lieutenant Cameron was also the first European to cross
+Central Africa from east to west.
+
+On the shores of the great lake the two travellers beheld a series of
+beautiful landscapes. There lay villages and fishing-stations in the
+shade of palms and mimosas, and round the villages grew maize and durra,
+manioc, yams, and sweet potatoes. In the glens round the lake grew tall
+trees from which the natives dig out their canoes. Baboons roared in the
+forests and dwelt in the hollow trunks. Elephants and rhinoceroses,
+giraffes and zebras, hippopotami and wild boars, buffaloes and antelopes
+occurred in large numbers, and the northern extremity of the lake
+swarmed with crocodiles. Sometimes the strangers were inhospitably
+received when they landed, and once when they were off their guard the
+natives plundered their canoes. Among other things they took a case of
+cartridges and bullets, and the travellers thought it would be bad for
+the thieves if the case exploded at some camp fire.
+
+It soon became time, however, for Stanley to return to Zanzibar and
+inform the world through the press that Livingstone was alive. They went
+to Tabora, for Livingstone expected fresh supplies, and in addition
+Stanley gave him forty men's loads of cloth, glass beads and brass-wire,
+a canvas boat, a waterproof tent, two breech-loaders and other weapons,
+ammunition, tools, and cooking utensils. All these things were
+invaluable to Livingstone, who was determined to remain in Africa at any
+cost until his task was accomplished.
+
+The day of parting came--March 14, 1872. Stanley was very depressed,
+believing that the parting was for ever. Livingstone went with him a
+little way and then bade him a hearty farewell, and while Stanley made
+haste towards the coast the Doctor turned back to Tabora and was again
+alone in the immense wilds of Africa. But he had still his faithful
+servants Susi and Chuma with him.
+
+
+THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE
+
+At Zanzibar Stanley was to engage a troop of stout, reliable porters and
+send them to Tabora, where Livingstone was to await their arrival. He
+had entrusted his journals, letters, and maps to Stanley's care, and
+that was fortunate, for when Stanley first arrived in England his
+narrative was doubted, and he was coldly received. Subsequently a
+revulsion of feeling set in, and it was generally recognised that he had
+performed a brilliant feat.
+
+In due time the new supply of porters turned up at Tabora, fifty-seven
+men. They were excellent and trustworthy, and in a letter to Stanley,
+Livingstone says that he did not know how to thank him sufficiently for
+this new service. At the end of August the indefatigable Doctor set off
+on his last journey. He made for Tanganyika, and on New Year's Day,
+1873, he was near Lake Bangweolo. It rained harder than ever, pouring
+down as if the flood-gates of heaven were opened. The caravan struggled
+slowly on through the wet, sometimes marching for hours through sheets
+of water, where only the eddies of the current distinguished the river
+from the adjoining swamps and flooded lands. The natives were
+unfriendly, refused to supply provisions, and led the strangers astray.
+Livingstone had never had such a difficult journey.
+
+His plan was to go round the south of Lake Bangweolo to the Luapula,
+which flows out of the lake and runs to the Lualaba. Then he meant to
+follow the water in its course to the north, and ascertain its direction
+and destination.
+
+But whichever way the mysterious river made its way to the ocean, the
+journey was long, and Livingstone's days were numbered. He had long been
+ill, and his condition was aggravated by the hardships of the journey.
+His body was worn out, and undermined by constant fever and insufficient
+nourishment. Yet he did not abandon hope of success and conscientiously
+wrote down his observations, and no Sunday passed without a service with
+his people.
+
+Month after month he dragged himself along, but his strength was no
+longer what it had been. On April 21 he wrote with trembling hand only
+the words, "Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down and they carried
+me back to vil. exhausted." A comfortable litter was made, and Susi and
+Chuma were always with him. Livingstone asked the chief of the village
+for a guide for the next day, and the chief answered, "Stay as long as
+you wish, and when you want guides to Kalunganjovu's you shall have
+them."
+
+The day after he was carried for two hours through marshy, grassy flats.
+During the next four days he was unable to write a line in his diary,
+but was carried by short stages from village to village along the
+southern shore of Lake Bangweolo. On April 27 he wrote in his diary,
+"Knocked up quite, and remain--recover--sent to buy milch goats. We are
+on the banks of the Molilamo." With these words his diary, which he had
+kept for thirty years, concluded. Milch goats were not to be had, but
+the chief of the place sent a present of food.
+
+Four days later the journey was resumed. The chief provided canoes for
+crossing the Molilamo, a stream which flows into the lake. The invalid
+was transferred from the litter to a canoe, and ferried over the swollen
+stream. On the farther bank Susi went on in advance to the village of
+Chitambo to get a hut ready. The other men followed slowly with the
+litter. Time after time the sick man begged his men to put the litter
+down on the ground and let him rest. A drowsiness seemed to come over
+him which alarmed his servants. At a bend of the path he begged them to
+stop again, for he could go no farther. But after an hour they went on
+to the village. Leaning on their bows, the natives flocked round the
+litter on which lay the man whose fame and reputation had reached them
+in previous years. A hut was made ready, and a bed of grass and sticks
+was set up against the wall, while his boxes were deposited along the
+other walls, and a large chest served as a table. A fire was lighted
+outside the entrance, and the boy Majwara kept watch.
+
+Early on April 20 the chief Chitambo came to pay a visit, but
+Livingstone was too weak to talk to him. The day passed, and at night
+the men sat round their fires and went to sleep when all was quiet.
+About eleven o'clock Susi was told to go to his master. Loud shouts were
+heard in the distance, and Livingstone asked Susi if it was their men
+who were making the noise. As the men were quiet in their huts, Susi
+replied, "I can hear from the cries that the people are scaring away a
+buffalo from their durra fields." A few minutes later he asked, "Is this
+the Luapula?" "No," answered Susi, "we are in Chitambo's village." Then
+again, "How many days is it to the Luapula?" "I think it is three days,
+master," answered Susi. Shortly after he murmured, "O dear, dear!" and
+dozed off again.
+
+At midnight Majwara came again to Susi's hut and called him to the sick
+man. Livingstone wished to take some medicine, and Susi helped him, and
+then he said, "All right, you can go now."
+
+About four o'clock on the morning of May 1 Majwara went to Susi again
+and said, "Come to Bwana, I am afraid; I don't know if he is alive."
+Susi waked Chuma and some of the other men, and they went to
+Livingstone's hut. Their master was kneeling beside the bed, leaning
+forward with his head buried in his hands. They had often seen him at
+prayer, and now drew back in reverential silence. But they felt ill at
+ease, for he did not move; and on going nearer they could not hear him
+breathe. One of them touched his cheek and found it was cold. The
+apostle of Africa was dead.
+
+In deep sorrow his servants laid him on the bed and went out into the
+damp night air to consult together. The cocks of the village had just
+begun to crow, and a new day was dawning over Africa. Then they went in
+to open his boxes and pack up everything. All the men were present so
+that all might be jointly responsible that nothing was lost. They
+carefully placed his diaries and letters, his Bible and instruments, in
+tin boxes so that they might be safe from wet and from white ants, which
+are very destructive.
+
+The men knew that they would have great difficulties to encounter. They
+knew that the natives had a horror of the dead, believing that spirits
+in the dark land of the departed thought of nothing but revenge and
+mischief. Therefore they perform ceremonies to propitiate departed
+spirits and dissuade them from plaguing the living with war, famine, or
+sickness.
+
+Susi and Chuma, who had been with their master for seven years, felt
+their responsibility. They spoke with the men whom Stanley had sent from
+the coast and asked their opinion. They answered, "You are old men in
+travelling and hardships; you must act as our chiefs, and we will
+promise to obey whatever you order us to do." Susi and Chuma accordingly
+took the command, and carried out an exploit which is unique in all the
+history of exploration.
+
+First of all a hut was erected at some little distance from the village,
+and in this they placed the body to prepare it for the long journey. The
+heart and viscera were removed, placed in a tin box, and reverently
+buried in the ground, one of Livingstone's Christian servants reading
+the Funeral Service. The body was then filled with salt and exposed for
+fourteen days to the sun in order to dry and thus be preserved from
+decay. The legs were bent back to make the package shorter, and the body
+was sewed up tightly in cotton. A cylinder of bark was cut from a tree
+and in this the body was enclosed. Round the whole a piece of canvas
+was bound, and the package was tied to a pole for convenience of
+carrying. On a tree near, Livingstone's name was cut and the date of his
+death, and Chitambo was asked to have the grass rooted up round the tree
+so that it should not at any time be destroyed by a bush fire.
+
+When all was ready two men lifted the precious burden from the ground,
+the others took their loads on their backs, and a journey was commenced
+which was to last nine months, a funeral procession the like of which
+the world had never seen before. The route ran sometimes through
+friendly, sometimes through hostile tribes. Once they had to fight in
+order to force their way through. News of the great missionary's death
+had preceded them. Like a grass fire on the prairie it spread over
+Africa from coast to coast, creeping silently through the forests. In
+some districts the people ran away from fear of the sad procession,
+while in others they came up to see it. Bread-fruit trees stretched
+their boughs over the road like a canopy over a victor returning home,
+and palms, the emblems of peace and resurrection, stood as sentinels by
+the way, which was left clear by the wild animals of the forest. And
+mile after mile the party marched eastwards under the green arches.
+
+In Tabora they met an English expedition sent out too late for the
+relief of Livingstone, and its members listened with emotion to the tale
+of the men. They wished to bury the corpse at Tabora, but Livingstone's
+servants would not hear of it. A few days later they met with serious
+opposition. A tribe refused to let them pass with a corpse. Then they
+made up a load resembling that containing the body, and gave out that
+they had decided to return to Tabora to bury their master there. Some of
+the men marched back with the false package, which they took to pieces
+at night and scattered among the bush. Then they returned to their
+comrades, who meanwhile had altered the real package so as to look like
+a bale of cloth. The natives were then satisfied and let them move on
+unmolested.
+
+In February, 1874, they arrived at Bagamoyo, and the remains were
+carried in a cruiser to Zanzibar and afterwards conveyed to England. In
+London there was a question whether the body was really Livingstone's,
+but his broken and reunited arm, which was crushed by the lion at
+Mabotsa, set all doubts at rest. He was interred in Westminster Abbey in
+the middle of the nave. The temple of honour was filled to overflowing,
+and among those who bore the pall was Henry Stanley. The grave was
+covered with a black stone slab, in which was cut the following
+inscription:--
+
+  "BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDS
+  OVER LAND AND SEA,
+  HERE RESTS
+  DAVID LIVINGSTONE,
+  MISSIONARY, TRAVELLER, PHILANTHROPIST.
+  BORN MARCH 19, 1813,
+  BLANTYRE, LANARKSHIRE.
+  DIED May 4th, 1873,
+  AT CHITAMBO'S VILLAGE, ILALA.
+  FOR THIRTY YEARS HIS LIFE WAS SPENT
+  IN AN UNWEARIED EFFORT TO EVANGELISE
+  THE NATIVE RACES, TO EXPLORE THE
+  UNDISCOVERED SECRETS,
+  AND ABOLISH THE DESOLATING SLAVE-TRADE
+  OF CENTRAL AFRICA...."
+
+The memory of the "Wise Heart" or the "Helper of Men," as they called
+Livingstone, is still handed down from father to son among the natives
+of Africa, and they are glad that his heart remains in African soil
+under the tree in Chitambo's village. His dream of finding the sources
+of the Nile, and of throwing light on the destination of the Lualaba,
+was not fulfilled, but he discovered Ngami and Nyassa and other lakes,
+the Victoria Falls and the upper course of the Zambesi, and mapped an
+enormous extent of unknown country.
+
+
+STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY
+
+In the autumn of 1874 Stanley was back in Zanzibar to try his fortune
+once more in Darkest Africa. He organised a caravan of three hundred
+porters, provided himself with cloth, beads, brass-wire, arms, boats
+which could be taken to pieces, tents, and everything else necessary for
+a journey of several years.
+
+He made first for the Victoria Nyanza, and circumnavigated the whole
+lake. He visited Uganda, came again to Ujiji, where Livingstone's hut
+had long been razed to the ground, and sailed all round Lake
+Tanganyika.
+
+Two years after he started he was at Nyangwe on the Lualaba. Livingstone
+and Cameron had been there before, and we can imagine Stanley's feelings
+when he at last found himself at this, the most westerly point ever
+reached by a European from the coast of the Indian Ocean. Behind him lay
+the known country and the great lakes; before him lay a land as large as
+Europe, completely unknown and appearing as a blank on maps. Travellers
+had come to its outskirts from all sides, but none knew what the
+interior was like. It was not even known whither the Lualaba ran.
+Livingstone had vainly questioned the natives and Arabs about it, and
+vainly Stanley also tried to obtain information. At Nyangwe the Arab
+slave-traders held their most western market. Thither corn, fruit, and
+vegetables were brought for sale; there were sold animals, fish, grass
+mats, brass-wire, bows, arrows, and spears; and thither were brought
+ivory and slaves from the interior. But though routes from all
+directions met at Nyangwe, the Arabs were as ignorant of the country as
+any one.
+
+The black continent, "Darkest Africa," lay before Stanley. He was a bold
+man, to whom difficulties were nothing. He had a will of iron. All
+opposition, all obstacles placed in his way, must go down before him. He
+had determined not to return eastwards, whence he had come, but to march
+straight westwards to the Atlantic coast, or die in the attempt.
+Accordingly, early on the morning of November 5, 1876, Stanley left
+Nyangwe in company with the rich and powerful Arab chief, Tippu Tib, and
+directed his way northwards towards the great forest. Tippu Tib's party
+consisted of 700 men, women, and children, while Stanley had 154
+followers armed with rifles, revolvers, and axes. "Bismillah--in the
+name of God!" cried the Mohammedan leaders of the company, as they took
+the first step on the dangerous road.
+
+The huge caravan, an interminable file of black men, entered the forest.
+There majestic trees stood like pillars in a colonnade; there palms
+struggled for room with wild vines and canes; there flourished ferns,
+spear-grass, and reeds, and there bushes in tropical profusion formed
+impenetrable brushwood; while through the whole was entangled a network
+of climbing plants, which ran up the trunks and hung down from the
+branches. Everything was damp and wet. Dew dropped from all the branches
+and leaves in a continuous trickle. The air was close and sultry, and
+heavy with the odour of plants and mould. It was deadly still, and
+seldom was the slightest breeze perceptible; storms might rage above
+the tree-tops, but no wind reached the ground, sheltered in the dimness
+of the undergrowth.
+
+The men struggle along over the slippery ground. Balancing their loads
+on their heads with their hands, they stoop under boughs, push saplings
+aside with their elbows, thrust their feet firmly into the mud in order
+not to slip. Those who are clothed have their clothes torn, while the
+naked black men graze their skins. Very slowly the caravan forces its
+way through the forest, and a passage has frequently to be cut for those
+who carry the sections of the boats.
+
+All who, after Stanley, have travelled through the great primeval forest
+in the heart of Africa have likewise described its suffocating hot-house
+air, the peaceful silence, only broken by the cries of monkeys and
+parrots, its deep, depressing gloom. If the journey is of long duration
+men get wearied, experiencing a feeling of confinement, and long for
+air, freedom, sun, and wind. It is like going through a tunnel, no
+country being visible on either side. The illumination is uniform,
+without shadows, without gleams, and the perpetual gloom, only
+interrupted by pitch-dark night, is exceedingly wearisome. Like polar
+explorers in the long winter night, the traveller longs for the sun and
+the return of light.
+
+The party travelled northwards at some distance east of the Lualaba.
+Stanley climbed up a tree which grew somewhat apart on a hillock. Here
+he found himself above the tree-tops, and saw the sunlit surface of the
+primeval forest of closely growing trees below him. A continuous sea of
+boughs and foliage fell like a swell down to the bank of the Lualaba. Up
+here there was a breeze and the leaves fluttered in the wind; but down
+below reigned darkness and silence and the exuberant life of the
+tropics.
+
+Even for such a man as Stanley this primeval forest was a hard nut to
+crack. Sickness, weariness, and insubordination prevailed in his troop.
+The great Tippu Tib considered it impossible to advance through such a
+country, and wished to turn back with all his black rabble, but after
+much hesitation he was at last persuaded to accompany Stanley for twenty
+days longer. So on they went once more, and after innumerable
+difficulties came again to the bank of the Lualaba.
+
+The huge volumes of water glided along silently and majestically. Brown
+and thick with decaying vegetation, the Lualaba flowed between dense
+woods to the unknown region inhabited by negro tribes never heard of by
+Europeans, and where no white man had ever set his foot. Here Stanley
+decided to leave the terrible forest and to make use of the waterway of
+the Lualaba. There were the boats in sections, and a whole fleet of
+canoes could soon be made from the splendid trees growing at hand. The
+whole caravan was accordingly assembled, and Stanley explained his
+purpose. At first the men grumbled loudly, but Stanley declared that he
+would make the voyage even if no one went with him but Frank Pocock, the
+only survivor of the three white men who had started with him from
+Zanzibar. He turned to his boat's crew and called out, "You have
+followed me and sailed round the great lakes with me. Shall I and my
+white brother go alone? Speak and show me those who dare follow me!" On
+this a few stepped forward, and then a few more, and in the end
+thirty-eight men declared themselves willing to take part in the voyage.
+
+At this juncture many canoes full of natives were observed at the
+opposite side of the river, so Stanley and Tippu Tib and some other
+Arabs entered the boat and rowed up to a small island in mid-stream.
+
+Here the black warriors were in swarms, and thirty canoes lay at the
+water's edge. At a safe distance, Stanley's interpreter called out that
+the white man only wished to see their country, that nothing belonging
+to them should be touched, and that they themselves should not be
+disturbed. They answered that if the white man would row out to the
+island in the morning with ten servants, their own chief would meet him
+with ten men, and would enter into blood-brotherhood with him. After
+that the strangers might cross the river and visit their villages.
+
+Suspecting treachery, however, Stanley sent twenty armed men by night to
+the island to hide themselves in the brushwood. Then in the morning
+Pocock and ten men rowed out to the meeting-place, near which Stanley
+waited in his boat. A swarm of canoes put out from the western bank, and
+when they came to the island the rowers raised their wild war-whoop,
+_Ooh-hu! Ooh-hu-hu!_ and rushed ashore with bows bent and raised spears.
+Then Stanley's twenty men came out of their hiding-place, the fight was
+short, and the savages dashed headlong into their boats and rowed away
+for their lives.
+
+The next morning, with thirty men on board his boat, Stanley began his
+journey down the river, while Tippu Tib and Pocock marched with all the
+rest of the troop along the bank. The natives had retired, but their cry
+of _Ooh-hu-hu!_ was still heard in the distance. On an island between
+the main river and a tributary Stanley's party landed to wait for the
+caravan and help it over the affluent. In the meantime Stanley made a
+short excursion up the tributary, the water of which was inky-black
+owing to the dark tree roots which wound about its bottom. On his return
+he found the camp island surrounded by hostile canoes and heard random
+shots, but when his boat drew near, the savages were frightened and
+rowed away.
+
+At length Tippu Tib straggled up with his party, and the journey could
+be continued. The boat was rowed near the bank, and the two divisions
+were kept in touch with each other by means of drums. All the villages
+they came to were deserted, but the natives were evidently keeping a
+close watch on these wonderful strangers, for one day when some of
+Stanley's men were out scouting on two captured canoes, they were
+attacked, and when they tried to escape they came among eddies and
+rapids, where their boats capsized and four rifles were lost. The men
+climbed up and sat astride the upturned canoes until they were rescued
+by their comrades.
+
+Then the expedition went on again. The river was usually half a mile
+broad or more, and frequently divided by long rows of islands and holms.
+The large village of Ikondu consisted of cage-like reed huts built in
+two long rows. All the inhabitants had fled, but pitchers full of wine
+were suspended from the palms, melons and bananas emitted their
+fragrance, and there was plenty of manioc plantations, ground-nuts, and
+sugar-cane. Near the place was found a large old canoe, cracked, leaky,
+and dilapidated, but it was patched up, put in the river, and used as a
+hospital. Smallpox and dysentery raged in the caravan, and two or three
+corpses were thrown daily into the river.
+
+Once, as the small flotilla was rowing quietly along not far from the
+bank, a man in the hospital canoe cried out. He had been hit in the
+chest by a poisoned barb, and this was followed by a whole shower of
+arrows. The boats were rowed out from the dangerous bank, and a camp was
+afterwards pitched on an old market-place. The usual fence was set up
+round the tents, and sentinels were posted in the bush. Then were heard
+shots, cries, and noise. The watchman ran in calling out, "Look out,
+they are coming," and immediately arrows and javelins rattled against
+the stockade, and the savages rushed on, singing their dreadful
+war-songs. But their arrows and javelins were little use against powder
+and ball, and they soon had to retire. They were reinforced, however,
+and returned again and again to the attack, and did not desist till the
+fight had lasted two hours and twilight had come on.
+
+After other combats, Stanley and Tippu Tib came to a country on the
+western bank densely peopled with hostile natives, where they had to
+fight again. The savages were repulsed, and rowed out to a long island,
+where they moored their canoes by ropes fastened round posts. They would
+certainly renew the attack next day. But this time they were to be
+thoroughly checkmated. Rain pelted down on the river, the night was
+pitch dark, and there was a fresh breeze. Stanley rowed to the island,
+and his boat stole silently and cautiously under the high tree-covered
+bank. He cut the ropes of every canoe he got hold of, and in a short
+time thirty canoes were sent adrift down the river, many of them being
+caught by boatmen posted farther down stream. Before dawn the men were
+back at the camp with their looted boats.
+
+The savages, who lay crouching in their grass hovels on the island, must
+certainly have felt foolish in the morning when they found that they had
+lost their canoes and were left helpless. Then an interpreter rowed out
+to them to put before them the conditions exacted by the white man. They
+had treacherously attacked his troop, killing four and wounding
+thirteen. Now they must furnish provisions, and then they would be paid
+for the captured canoes and peace would be established.
+
+It was important that the expedition should have a few days' rest at
+this place, for Tippu Tib had had enough, and refused to advance a step
+farther down the river with its warlike natives. Accordingly, he was to
+turn back with his black retinue, while Stanley was to continue the
+journey with a selected party, many of whom had their wives and children
+with them. The troop consisted of a hundred and fifty souls. Provisions
+were collected for twenty days. The canoes were fastened together in
+pairs by poles, that they might not capsize, and the flotilla consisted
+of twenty-three boats.
+
+It was one of the last days in December. A thick mist hung over the
+river and the nearest palms were scarcely visible, but a breeze sprang
+up and thinned the haze. Then the trumpets and drums sounded the signal
+for starting, and Stanley gave the order to get into the boats. The
+parting song of the sons of Unyamwezi was answered by Tippu Tib's
+returning troop, and the flotilla of canoes glided down the dark river
+towards unknown lands and destiny.
+
+Stanley believed that this mighty river, which he named after
+Livingstone, was none other than the Congo, the mouth of which had been
+known for more than four hundred years; but he did not reject the
+possibility that it might also unite with the Nile or be connected with
+the Niger far away to the north-west. The journey which was now to solve
+this problem will be famous for all time for its boldness and daring,
+for the dangers overcome and adventures experienced, and is quite
+comparable with the boat journeys of the Spaniards who discovered the
+Amazons and Mississippi rivers in America.
+
+Fourteen villages lie buried in the dense bush, and Stanley's flotilla
+makes for the bank to encamp for the first time after parting from Tippu
+Tib. Here the natives are friendly, but there is trouble a little
+farther on, where the woods echo with the noise of war-drums and the
+savages are drawn up with shield and spear. The drum signals are
+repeated from village to village, from the one bank to the other. Canoes
+are manned and put out from both banks and Stanley's flotilla is
+surrounded. The interpreters call out "Peace! Peace!" but the savages
+answer peremptorily, "Turn back or fight." Consultations and
+negotiations are held, while the river sweeps down the whole assemblage
+of friends and foes. More villages peep out from the trees where dwell
+enemies of the attacking savages, so the latter dip their oars in the
+water and row back without coming to blows.
+
+But soon there was a different scene. Javelins were thrown from other
+canoes and the dreadful poisoned arrows were discharged, so the
+death-dealing European firearms had to be used in self-defence. On this
+occasion Stanley's men succeeded in capturing a number of shields, of
+which indeed they had need.
+
+Again the war-drum is heard, just as the flotilla is passing a small
+island. Stanley orders his boats to keep in the middle of the river
+ready for action. Swarms of canoes shoot out from the bank like wild
+ducks, and the black warriors beat their spears against their shields.
+The interpreter gets up in the bow and shouts out "Peace! Take care or
+we strike!" Then the savages hesitate, and retire quietly under
+promontories and overhanging wooded banks. By the single word "Peace!"
+the interpreter could often check parties of warriors, but others
+answered the offer of peace with a scornful laugh, and their showers of
+arrows and assegais had to be met with a volley of rifle bullets.
+
+The New Year (1877) had already come, when a friendly tribe warned the
+travellers of dangerous falls and rapids, the roar of which they would
+shortly hear. The flotilla glided along the right bank, and all listened
+for the expected thunder. Suddenly savages appeared on the bank and
+hurled their assegais; then the war-drums were heard again, and a large
+number of long canoes approached (Plate XXX.). The warriors had painted
+one half of their bodies white and the other red, with broad black
+stripes, and looked hideous. Their howls and horn blasts betokened a
+serious attack. By this time Stanley's boats were out in the middle of
+the stream in order of battle, with the shields placed along the
+gunwales to protect the non-combatants. A canoe 80 feet long rowed
+straight for Stanley's boat, but was received by a rattling volley. Then
+it was Stanley's turn to attack, for the great canoe could not turn in
+time. Warriors and oarsmen jumped overboard to save themselves by
+swimming to land, and as the other boats vanished the expedition could
+go on towards the falls.
+
+Now was heard the roar of the water as it tumbled in wild commotion over
+the barriers in its bed. The natives thought that this was just the
+place to catch the strangers, and Stanley had to fight his way step by
+step, sometimes on land and sometimes on the river. In quiet water
+between the various falls the men could row, but in other places paths
+had to be cut through the brushwood on the bank and the canoes hauled
+over land. Often they had to fight from tree to tree. Once the savages
+tried to surround Stanley's whole party in a large net, and lost eight
+of their own men for their trouble. These captives were tattooed on the
+forehead and had their front teeth filed to a point. Like all the other
+people in the country, they were cannibals, and were eager for human
+flesh.
+
+One day at the end of January Stanley's boats crossed the equator, and
+the great river turned more and more towards the west, so that it
+evidently could not belong to the Nile. Here the party passed the
+seventh and last fall, where the brown water hurled itself in mad fury
+over the barrier. Thus the series of cascades afterwards known as the
+Stanley Falls was discovered and passed.
+
+Below the falls the river expands, sometimes to as much as two miles in
+breadth. The opposite bank could hardly be seen, and the boats came into
+a labyrinth of channels between islands. The rowers sang to the swing of
+their oars, and a sharp look-out had always to be kept. Sometimes
+canoes followed them, and occasionally ventured to attack. Wild warriors
+were seen with loathsome features, and red and grey parrots' feathers on
+their heads, and bangles of ivory round their arms.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXX. THE FIGHT ON THE CONGO.
+
+From Stanley's _Through the Dark Continent._]
+
+In one village was found a temple with a round roof supported on
+thirty-three elephants' tusks. In the middle was set up an idol carved
+in wood and painted red, with black eyes, hair, and beard. Knives,
+spears, and battle-axes were wrought with great skill, and were
+ornamented with bands of copper, iron, and bone. Among the refuse heaps
+were seen remains of horrible feasts, and human skulls were set up on
+posts round the huts.
+
+Interminable forests grew on the banks and islands, with the many-rooted
+mangrove-tree, tall, snake-like canes with drooping tufts of leaves, the
+dragon's-blood tree, the india-rubber, and many others.
+
+Danger and treachery lurked behind every promontory, and the men had to
+look out for currents, falls, rapids, and whirlpools. Hippopotami and
+crocodiles were plentiful. But the savages were the worst danger.
+Stanley and his men were worn out with running the gauntlet month after
+month.
+
+At the village of Rubunga, where the natives were friendly, Stanley
+heard for the first time that the river actually was the Congo. Here the
+traveller was able to replenish his stock of provisions, and when the
+drums of Rubunga were sounded it was not for battle but to summon the
+inhabitants to market, and from the surrounding villages the people came
+to offer for sale fish, snails, oysters, dried dog-flesh, goats,
+bananas, meal, and bread. As a rule, however, no trust could be placed
+in the natives. In their hideous tattooing, with strings of human teeth
+round their necks and their own teeth filed to a point like a wolf's,
+with a small belt of grass round their loins and spears and bows in
+their hands, they did not inspire confidence, and frequently the boats
+had barely put out from the bank where the people seemed friendly before
+the natives manned their canoes and pursued them. In this region they
+were armed with muskets procured from the coast. Once Stanley's small
+flotilla was surrounded by sixty-three canoes, and there was a hard
+fight with firearms on both sides. In the foremost canoe stood a young
+chief, handsome, calm, and dignified, directing the attack. He wore a
+head-covering and a mantle of goatskin, and on his arms, legs, and neck
+he had large rings of brass wire. A bullet struck him in the thigh. He
+quietly wound a rag round the wound and signed to his oarsmen to make
+for the bank. Then the others lost courage and followed their leader's
+canoe.
+
+They struggled southwards from one combat to another. The passage of the
+great curve of the Congo had cost thirty-two fights. Now remained a
+difficult stretch, where the mighty river breaks in foaming falls and
+rapids through the escarpment which follows the line of the west coast
+of Africa. These falls Stanley named after Livingstone; he was well
+aware that the river could never be called by any other name than the
+Congo, but the falls would preserve the great missionary's name.
+Innumerable difficulties awaited him here. On one occasion half a dozen
+men were drowned and several canoes were lost, and the party had to wait
+while others were cut out in the forest. One day Pocock drifted towards
+a fall, and was not aware of the danger until it was too late and he was
+swept over the barrier. Thus perished the last of Stanley's white
+companions.
+
+At another fall the coxswain and the carpenter went adrift in a newly
+excavated canoe. They had no oars. "Jump, man," called out the former,
+but the other answered, "I cannot swim." "Well, then, good-bye, my
+brother," said the quartermaster, and swam ashore. The other went over
+the fall. The canoe disappeared in the seething whirlpool, came up again
+with the man clinging fast to it, was sucked under once more, and rose
+again still with the carpenter. But when it reappeared for the third
+time in another whirlpool the man was gone.
+
+At last all the boats were abandoned and the men travelled by land. The
+party was entirely destitute, all were emaciated, miserable, and hungry.
+A black chief demanded toll for their passage through his country, and
+they had nothing to give. He would be satisfied with a bottle of rum he
+said. Rum, indeed, when they had been three years in the depths of
+Africa! Stanley was reasoning with the chief when the coxswain came and
+asked what was the matter. "There's rum for him," he said, and gave the
+chief a buffet which knocked him over and put his whole retinue to
+flight.
+
+Now it was only a couple of days' journey to Boma, near the mouth of the
+Congo, where there were trade factories and Europeans. Stanley wrote a
+letter to them, and was soon supplied with all necessaries; and after a
+short rest at Boma the party made the voyage round the south of Africa
+to Zanzibar, where Stanley dismissed his men.
+
+He then travelled home, and was, of course, feted everywhere. For a
+thousand years the Arabs had travelled into the interior of Africa, but
+they did not know the course of the Congo. European explorers had for
+centuries striven to penetrate the darkness. The natives themselves did
+not know whither the Lualaba ran. All at once Stanley had filled up the
+blank and knit together the scattered meshes of the net; and now a
+railway runs beside the falls, and busy steamboats fly up and down the
+Congo. Well did Stanley deserve his native name of Bula Matadi, or "the
+breaker of stones," for no difficulty was too great for him to overcome.
+
+After a life of restless activity--including another great African
+journey to find Emin Pasha, the Governor of the Equatorial Province
+after Gordon's death--Stanley was gathered to his fathers in 1904. He
+was buried in a village churchyard outside London, and a block of rough
+granite was placed above the grave. Here may be read beneath a cross,
+"Henry Morton Stanley--Bula Matadi--1841-1904," and lastly the word that
+sums up all the work of his life, "Africa."
+
+
+TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA
+
+In the middle of north-western Africa, where the continent shoots a
+gigantic tongue out into the Atlantic, lies one of the world's most
+famous towns, Timbuktu.
+
+Compared with Cairo or Algiers, Timbuktu is a small town. Its three poor
+mosques cannot vie with the grand temples which under French, Turkish,
+or English dominion raise their graceful minarets on the Mediterranean
+shores of Africa. Not a building attracts the eye of the stranger amidst
+a confusion of greyish-yellow mud houses with flat roofs and without
+windows, and neglect and decay stare out from heaps of ruins. There is
+hardly a tottering caravanserai to invite the desert wanderer to rest.
+Some streets are abandoned, while in others the foot sinks over the
+ankle in blown sand from the Sahara.
+
+Timbuktu is not so famous as the sparkling jewels in the diadem of
+Asia--Jerusalem and Mecca, Benares and Lhasa. The very name of each of
+these is, as it were, a vital portion of a great religion, and indeed
+almost stands for the religion itself. Timbuktu has scarcely any
+religion, or, more correctly, too many. And yet this town has borne a
+proud name during its eight hundred years of existence--the great, the
+learned, the mysterious city. No pilgrims flock thither to fall down in
+prayer before a redeemer's grave or be blessed by a high priest. No
+pyramids, no marble temples, make Timbuktu one of the world's wonders.
+No wealth, no luxuriant vegetation exist to make it an outer court to
+Paradise.
+
+[Illustration: NORTH-WEST AFRICA.]
+
+And yet Timbuktu is an object of desire. Millions long to go there, and
+when they have been, long to get away again. Caravan men who have
+wandered for months through the desert long for the tones of the flute
+and the cithern, and the light swayings of the troops of dancers. Palms
+and mimosa grow sparsely round Timbuktu, but after the dangers of the
+desert the monotonous, dilapidated town with its dusty, dreary streets
+seems really like an entrance to Paradise. Travelling merchants who have
+risked their wealth in the Sahara among savage robbers, and have been
+fortunate to escape all dangers, are glad at the sight of Timbuktu, and
+think its grey walls more lovely than anything they can imagine.
+
+The remarkable features of Timbuktu are, then, its situation and its
+trade. We have only to take a look at the map to perceive that this town
+stands like a spider in its web. The web is composed of all the routes
+which start from the coast and converge on Timbuktu. They come from
+Tripoli and Tunis, from Algeria and Morocco, from Senegal and Sierra
+Leone, from the Pepper Coast, the Ivory Coast, and Slave Coast, the Gold
+Coast, and from the countries round the Gulf of Guinea, which have been
+annexed by France, England, and Germany. They come also from the heart
+of the Sahara, where savage and warlike nomad tribes still to this day
+maintain their freedom against foreign interference.
+
+In Timbuktu meet Arabs and negroes, Mohammedans and heathens from the
+deserts and fruitful lands of the Sahara and Sudan. Timbuktu stands on
+the threshold of the great wastes, and at the same time on the third in
+rank of the rivers of Africa. At the town the Niger is two and a half
+miles broad, and from its mouth it discharges more water than the Nile,
+but much less than the Congo. Like the Congo, the Niger makes a curve to
+the north, bidding defiance to the Sahara; but the desert wins in the
+end, and the river turns off towards the south.
+
+It is a struggle between life and death. The life-giving water washes
+the choking sand, and just where the strife is fiercest lies Timbuktu.
+From the north goods come on dromedaries to be transported farther in
+canoes or long, narrow boats with arched awnings of matting, or, where
+the river is not navigable, on oxen and asses or the backs of men.
+Dromedaries cannot endure the damp climate near the Niger, which
+especially in winter overflows its banks for a long distance. Therefore
+they are led back through the Sahara. They thrive on the dry deserts.
+The constantly blowing north-east trade-wind dries up the Sahara, and in
+certain regions years may pass without a drop of rain.
+
+The name Timbuktu has a singular sound. It stands for all the mystery
+and fascination connected with the Sahara It leads the thoughts to the
+greatest expanse of desert in the world, to long and lonely roads, to
+bloody feuds and treacherous ambushes, to the ring of caravan bells and
+the clank of the stirrups of the Beduins (Plate XXXI.). There seems to
+be a ring in the name itself, and we seem to hear the splash of the
+turbid waters of the Niger in its vowels. We seem to hear the plaintive
+howl of the jackal, the moan of the desert wind, the squealing of
+dromedaries outside the northern gateway, and the boatmen splashing with
+oars and poles in the creeks of the river.
+
+Caravans from the northern coast bring cloth, arms, powder, paper,
+tools, hardware, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, and a quantity of other
+articles to Timbuktu. But when they begin their journey through the
+Sahara, only half the camels are laden. The other half are loaded with
+blocks of salt on the way, for salt is in great demand at Timbuktu.
+Caravans may be glad if they come safely through the country of the
+Tuaregs, and at best they can only obtain an unmolested passage by the
+payment of a heavy toll. On the return journey northwards the
+dromedaries are laden with wares from the Sudan, rice, manioc, honey,
+nuts, monkey breadfruit, dried fish, ivory, ostrich feathers,
+india-rubber, leather, and many other things. A small number of black
+slaves also accompany them. The largest caravans contain five hundred or
+a thousand dromedaries and five hundred men at most. The goods they can
+transport may be worth twenty-eight thousand pounds or more. Five great
+caravan roads cross the Sahara from north to south.
+
+Let us set out on a journey from Timbuktu, and let us go first eastwards
+to the singular Lake Chad, which is half filled with islands, is shallow
+and swampy, choked with reeds, rises and falls with the discharge of the
+great rivers which flow into it, and has a certain similarity to Lop-nor
+in Central Asia. Nearly 17 cubic miles of water are estimated to enter
+Lake Chad in the year, and when we know that the lake on the whole
+remains much about the same size, we can conceive how great the
+evaporation must be.
+
+We have our own dromedaries and our own Arab guide on whom we can rely.
+We can therefore go where we like, and we steer our course from Lake
+Chad towards the eastern Sudan, where we have already been in the
+company of General Gordon. But before we come to the Nile we turn off
+northwards to cross the Libyan desert, the most inaccessible and
+desolate, and therefore the least known, part of the Sahara. On our way
+northwards we notice that animal and vegetation life becomes more
+scanty. Even in the Sudan the grasslands are more thinly clothed and
+the steppes more desert-like the farther we travel, and at last blown
+sand predominates. We must follow a well-known road which has been used
+for thousands of years by Arabs and Egyptians.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXI.
+
+A GROUP OF BEDUINS.]
+
+We are in the midst of the sea of sand. Here lie at certain places dunes
+of reddish-yellow drift sand as high as the tower of St. Paul's
+Cathedral. We see no path, for it has been swept away by the last storm;
+but the guide has his landmarks and does not lose his way. The sand
+becomes lower and the country more open. Then the guide points to a bare
+and barren ridge which rises out of the sand like a rock out of the sea,
+and says that he can find his way by this landmark, which remains in
+sight for several days, and is then replaced by another elevation.
+
+We encamp at a deep well, drink and water our camels. Next day we are
+out in the sandy sea again. The sky has assumed an unusual hue. It is
+yellow, and soon changes into bluish grey. The sun is a red disc. It is
+calm and sultry. The guide looks serious, and says in a low tone
+"samum." The hot, devastating desert storm which is the scourge of
+Arabia and Egypt is approaching.
+
+The guide stops and turns round. He is uncertain. But he goes on again
+when he sees that we cannot get back to the well before the storm is
+upon us. It is useless to look for shelter, for the dunes are too flat
+to protect us from the wind. And now the storm sweeps down, and it
+becomes suffocatingly close and hot. The dromedaries seem uneasy, halt,
+and turn away from the wind. We dismount. The dromedaries lie down and
+bury their muzzles in the sand. We wrap up our heads in cloths and lie
+on our faces beside our animals to get some shelter between them and the
+ground. And so we may lie by the hour panting for breath, and we may be
+glad if we get off with our lives from a _samum_ when we are out in the
+desert. Even in the oases it causes a feeling of anxiety and trouble,
+for the burning heat is most harmful to palms and crops. The temperature
+may rise to 120 deg. in this dangerous storm, which justifies its name of
+"poison wind."
+
+The storm passes off, the air becomes clear and is quiet and calm, and
+the sun has again its golden yellow brilliance. It is warm, but not
+suffocating as it was. The heated air vibrates above the sand. Beside
+our road appears a row of palms and before them a silver streak of
+water. The guide, however, goes on in quite a different direction, and
+when we ask him why, he answers that what we see is a mirage, and that
+there is no oasis for many days' journey in the direction in which we
+see the palms.
+
+In the evening we come to a real oasis, and there we are glad to rest a
+couple of days. Here are a hundred wells, here the ground is cultivated
+in the shade of the palms, here we can enjoy to the full the moist
+coolness above the swards of juicy grass. The oasis is like an island in
+the desert sea, and between the palm trunks is seen the yellow level
+horizon, the dry, heated desert with its boundless sun-bathed wastes.
+
+If we now turn off towards the north-west, Fezzan is the next country
+which our route touches. It is a paradise of date palms. They occur in
+such profusion that even dromedaries, horses, and dogs are fed with the
+fruits. The surface of the ground also has undergone a great change, and
+is not so sterile and choked with sand as in the Libyan desert. Here and
+farther to the west the country becomes more hilly. Ridges and bosses of
+granite and sandstone, weathered and scorched by the sun, stand up here
+and there. Extensive plateaus covered with gravel are called _hammada_;
+they are ruins of former mountains which have burst asunder. In the
+Sahara the differences of temperature between day and night are very
+great. The dark, bare hill-slopes may be heated up to 140 deg. or more when
+the sun bathes them, while during the night the radiation out to space
+is so intense that the temperature sinks to freezing-point. Through
+these continual alternations the rocks expand and contract repeatedly,
+fissures are formed and fragments are detached and fall down. The
+hardest rocks resist longest, and therefore they stand up like strange
+walls and towers amidst the great desolation.
+
+If we go another step westwards we come to the land of the Tuaregs.
+There, too, we find hilly tracts and _hammadas_, sandy deserts and
+oases, and in favourable spots excellent pastures. We have already
+noticed in Timbuktu this small, sturdy desert people, easily recognised
+by the veil which hides the lower part of the face. All Tuaregs wear
+such a veil, and call those who do not "fly-mouths." They are powerfully
+built, and of dark complexion, being of mixed negro blood from all the
+slaves they have kidnapped in the Sudan. They are as dry and lean as the
+ground on which they live, and nature in their country obliges them to
+lead a nomad life. Wide, simple, and dreary is the desert, and simple
+and free is the nomad's life. The hard struggle for existence has
+sharpened their senses. They are acute observers, clever, crafty, and
+artful. Distance is of no account to them, for they do not know what it
+is to be tired. They fly on their swift dromedaries over half the
+Sahara, and are a terror to their settled neighbours and to caravans. On
+their raids they cover immense distances in a short time. To ride from
+the heart of their country to the Sudan after booty is child's play to
+them. They have made existence in many oases quite unendurable. What use
+is it to till fields and rear palms when the Tuaregs always reap the
+harvest? The French have had many fights with the Tuaregs, and the
+railway which was to pass through their country and connect Algiers with
+Timbuktu is still only a cherished project. Yet this tribe which has so
+bravely defended its freedom against the stranger does not number more
+than half a million people. The Tuaregs are not born to be slaves, and
+we cannot but admire their thirst for freedom, their pride, and their
+courage.
+
+The desert here exhibits the difficult art of living. Even animals and
+plants which are assigned to the desert are provided with special
+faculties. Some of the animals, snakes and lizards for instance, can
+live without water. Dromedaries can go for many days without drinking.
+Ostriches cover great distances to reach water before it is too late.
+Plants are provided with huge roots that they may suck up as much
+moisture as possible, and many of them bear thorns and spikes instead of
+leaves so that the evaporation may be insignificant. Many of them are
+called to life by a single fall of rain, develop in a few weeks, and die
+when long drought sets in again. Then the seeds are left, waiting
+patiently for the next rain. Some desert plants seem quite dead, grey,
+dried-up, and buried in dust, but when rain comes they send out green
+shoots again.
+
+Every river bed is called in the Sahara a _wadi_. Very seldom does a
+trickle of water run down it after rain, but in these beds the
+vegetation is richer than elsewhere, for here moisture lingers longer
+than in other spots. Many caravans march along them, and gazelles and
+antelopes find pasture here.
+
+A European leaves Algeria to make his way into the Sahara with an
+incomprehensible feeling of fascination. In the French towns on the
+Mediterranean coast he has lived just as in Europe. He has been able to
+cross by train the forest-clad heights of the Atlas Mountains, where
+clear brooks murmur among the trees. He leaves the railway behind, and
+finds the hills barer the farther he travels south. At last the
+monotonous, slightly undulating desert stretches before him, and he
+feels the magical attraction of the Sahara drawing him deeper and deeper
+into its great silence and solitude. All the colours become subdued and
+greyish-yellow, like the lion's hide. Everything is yellow and grey,
+even the dromedaries which carry him, his tent and baggage, from well to
+well. He can hardly tell why he finds this country pleasanter than the
+forests and streams on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains; perhaps owing
+to the immense distances, the mysterious horizon afar off, the blood-red
+sunsets, the grand silence which prevails everywhere so that he hardly
+dares speak aloud. It is the magic of the desert that has got hold of
+him.
+
+Thirty years ago a large French expedition, under the command of Colonel
+Flatters, marched along this route from Algeria southwards through the
+Sahara. It consisted of a hundred men, including seven French officers
+and some non-commissioned officers, and its equipment and provisions
+were carried by three hundred dromedaries. The French Government had
+sent out the expedition to examine the Tuaregs' country, and to mark out
+a suitable route for a railway through the Sahara to connect the French
+possessions in the north and south. It was not the first time that the
+Colonel had travelled in the Sahara, and he knew the Tuaregs well.
+Therefore he was on his guard. Everything seemed most promising. The
+Frenchmen mapped parts of the Sahara which no European had ever
+succeeded in reaching before--even the great German traveller, who had
+crossed the Sahara in all directions, had not been there. The most
+dangerous tracts were left behind, and the Tuaregs had offered no
+resistance: indeed some of their chiefs had been friendly. In the last
+letters which reached France, Flatters expressed a hope that he would be
+able to complete his task without further trouble, and to advance even
+to the Sudan.
+
+Then the blow fell. The expedition was suddenly attacked at a well, and
+succumbed after a heroic defence against superior numbers. Most of the
+Frenchmen were cut down. Part of the caravan attempted to reach safety
+by hurrying northwards on forced marches, but was overtaken and
+annihilated. Many brave Frenchmen have met the same fate as Flatters in
+the struggle for dominion over the Sahara.
+
+If we travelled, as we have lately imagined, on swift-footed dromedaries
+in a huge circuit from Timbuktu through the Sudan, the Libyan desert,
+and the land of the Tuaregs, we should at last come to Morocco, "The
+Uttermost West," as this last independent Sultanate in Africa is called.
+Morocco is the restless corner of Africa, as the Balkan Peninsula is of
+Europe, Manchuria of Asia, and Mexico of North America--in South America
+all parts are unsettled.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD
+
+Now we must say farewell to Africa. We have in front of us the Straits
+of Gibraltar, little more than six miles broad, the blue belt that
+connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, the sharply defined
+boundary which separates the black continent from the white.
+
+We have but a step to take and we are in Spain. Here, also, a dying echo
+from the splendid period of Arab rule reaches our ears. We are reminded
+that twelve centuries have passed away since the Prophet's chosen people
+conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The sons of Islam were a thorn in the
+sides of the Christians. Little by little they were forced back
+southwards. Only Cordova and Granada still remained in the possession of
+the Arabs, or Moors as they were called, and when Ferdinand the Catholic
+married Queen Isabella of Castile in the year 1469, only Granada was
+left in the hands of the Moors. Their last king lived in his splendid
+palace, the Alhambra in Granada. In 1491 the Spanish army besieged the
+Moorish city. Barely forty years earlier the Mohammedans had taken
+Constantinople. Now other Mohammedans were to be turned out of western
+Europe. New Year's Day 1492 came and Granada fell. The Moorish king had
+to bend humbly on his knees before the victor ere he went on his way,
+and the Castilian flag waved from the towers and pinnacles of the
+Alhambra.
+
+This remarkable incident was witnessed by a mariner from Genoa,
+forty-six years old. His name was Christopher Columbus.
+
+At the time of the fall of Granada there was no one among the learned
+men of Europe who had any suspicion of the existence of a continent in
+the western ocean, and the Portuguese sought only a sea route to
+India--the rich land of spices, gold, pearls, and coral. But there was a
+learned mathematician, Toscanelli of Florence, who perceived that, as
+the world was round, a mariner must necessarily reach Japan, China, and
+India by sailing westwards from Europe, and as early as 1474 he produced
+maps and other proofs of the correctness of his theory. It was Columbus,
+by his boldness and ability, who converted this theory into fact.
+
+Christopher Columbus was the eldest of five children of a weaver in
+Genoa. He and his brothers also engaged in the weaving industry, but as
+their father's affairs were anything but flourishing, the sons decided
+to seek a living in foreign countries. Christopher became a sailor, and
+acquired all the qualifications necessary to handle a ship. He gained
+great experience and a thorough knowledge of his new profession. He once
+sailed on an English vessel to Thule or Iceland, the longest voyage
+which mariners of that time dared attempt. Then he tried his fortune in
+Portugal, earning a living by drawing sea-charts and serving as skipper
+on Portuguese vessels sailing to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean
+and to Guinea. In the Portuguese school he learned much which was to be
+of great importance in his future career. He made his home in Lisbon,
+where he married a lady of rank.
+
+It was at this time that he entered into correspondence with Toscanelli,
+who sent him a map of the route over the Atlantic to Japan, and gave him
+much information drawn from Marco Polo's descriptions. These letters
+made a deep impression on Columbus. He wrote back to Toscanelli that he
+thought of sailing westwards to Marco Polo's countries according to his
+instructions, and Toscanelli replied that he was glad to find his ideas
+were so well understood, and that such a voyage would bring great gain
+to Columbus, and an extraordinary reputation among all Christian
+peoples.
+
+Columbus tried in vain to obtain the support he needed for carrying out
+his plan. The King of Portugal and the learned men of the country
+listened to him, but treated him as a presumptuous dreamer. There were a
+few, however, who thought that he might be right, and on their advice
+the King sent a vessel over the ocean without telling Columbus. It soon
+returned without having seen land. When Columbus heard of this
+underhanded proceeding, he left Lisbon in disgust and travelled alone to
+Spain. His wife and children never saw him again, except his son Diego,
+who afterwards joined his father.
+
+For two years he travelled from town to town in that part of southern
+Spain which is called Andalusia, selling charts, which he drew with his
+own hand. At last he was received at Court, and was able to set forth
+his plan before an assembly of courtiers and ecclesiastics. But Castile
+was too much occupied with the war against the Moors in Granada and
+Malaga to venture on such a great enterprise, and Columbus had to wait
+for better times.
+
+[Illustration: TOSCANELLI'S MAP.]
+
+Two years more passed by and Columbus was again summoned to the Court,
+then in Cordova on the bank of the Guadalquivir. His eloquence and
+enthusiasm had little effect, however, and after two more years of
+useless waiting he resolved to turn his back on Spain and try his
+fortune in France.
+
+Sad and depressed, he followed the great highroad from Cordova. Being
+destitute he went up to a monastery beside the road, knocked at the
+gate, and begged for a piece of bread for his little son Diego, whom he
+held by the hand. While he was talking to the porter the prior came by,
+listened to his words, perceived by his accent that he came from Italy,
+and enquired into his story and his aims. The prior was a learned and
+benevolent man, and entered warmly into the plans of the Italian
+mariner, perceiving that such an opportunity of acquiring lands in
+eastern Asia should not be lost to Spain. He accordingly wrote to Queen
+Isabella, and at the end of 1491 Columbus spoke again before the learned
+men of the realm. Some of them treated him as an impostor, but others
+believed his words; and when, after the fall of Granada, the Court had a
+free hand, it was decided to equip Columbus for his first voyage over
+the Atlantic.
+
+All the negotiations nearly fell through at the last moment, owing to
+the demands of Columbus. He wished to be appointed High Admiral of the
+Ocean and Viceroy over all the savage countries he discovered, and he
+demanded for himself and his descendants an eighth part of all the
+revenues of the new lands. But when he declared that he intended to
+devote his gains to the recovery of Jerusalem from the Turks, his wishes
+were granted and funds were assigned for the equipment of three ships in
+the harbour of Palos.
+
+These vessels each had three masts, but they were far too small for such
+an adventurous enterprise. Only the Admiral's ship, the _Santa Maria_,
+was completely decked over. The other two, the _Pinta_ and _Nina_, had
+only decks fore and aft. The two brothers Pinzon, of noble extraction,
+at once volunteered for the voyage, but it was far from easy to enlist
+crews. Had it been a voyage along the coasts of Europe and Africa, there
+would have been no difficulty in finding men, but for a voyage straight
+out into the unknown ocean--with that the sailors would have nothing to
+do. At last it was necessary to open the prisons in order to procure
+ninety men, for only that number was needed for the whole three vessels.
+The lists of the crews are still extant, and show that most of the men
+were Castilians.
+
+Two doctors were taken, as well as a baptized Jew, who spoke Hebrew and
+Arabic, and might be useful as an interpreter when the expedition came
+over the ocean to India. Curiously enough, Columbus had no chaplain on
+board, but before he set sail his friend the prior administered the
+sacrament to all his men, who in the opinion of most were doomed to a
+watery death.
+
+Armed with a royal despatch to the Great Khan of Mongolia, Columbus
+stepped on board the _Santa Maria_, the moorings were cast off, and on
+August 3, 1492, the three ships steered under full sail out into the
+open sea.
+
+They kept on a south-westerly course, and in six days reached the Canary
+Islands, where the little fleet stayed a month to repair some damages
+and patch up the _Pinta's_ broken rudder.
+
+On September 8 a definite start was made, and when the lovely Canary
+Islands and the Peak of Teneriffe sank beneath the horizon, the sailors
+wept, believing that wind and sails would carry them from the world for
+ever, and that nothing but water and waves awaited them in the west.
+
+From the first day Columbus kept a very exact diary, which shows how
+thoroughly he embraced Toscanelli's theory and how implicitly he relied
+on his fellow-countryman's calculations. To his crews, however, he
+represented the distance as short, so that their fears should not be
+increased by the thought of the great interval that separated them from
+the Old World. They became more anxious as days came and went, and still
+nothing but boundless deserts of water spread in every direction.
+
+After a week's sail their keels ploughed through whole fields of
+floating seaweed, and Columbus pacified his men by the suggestion that
+this was the first indication of their approach to land.
+
+The _Santa Maria_ was a broad and clumsy vessel, really intended to
+carry cargo. She was, therefore, a slow sailer, and the other two ships
+usually took the lead. They were of more graceful build and had large
+square sails, but were of barely half the tonnage of the flagship. But
+all three kept together and were often so close that shouts could be
+heard from one ship to the other. One day Pinzon, captain of the
+_Pinta_, called out to Columbus that he had seen birds flying westwards
+and expected to sight land before night. They therefore sailed
+cautiously lest they should run aground, but all their apprehension
+ceased when a sounding-line two hundred fathoms long, lowered through
+the floating sea-wrack, failed to reach the bottom.
+
+Their progress was stopped by several days of calm, and it was September
+22 before the sea-weed came to an end and the vessels rolled again out
+to the open bluish-green water.
+
+Through hissing surge the _Santa Maria_ and her two consorts cut their
+way due west. A more favourable breeze could not be wished. It was the
+trade wind which filled their sails. The sailors were afraid of the
+constant east wind, and when at length it veered round for a time,
+Columbus wrote in his journal: "This head-wind was very welcome, for my
+men were mightily afraid that winds never blew in these seas which would
+take them back to Spain."
+
+Toscanelli's map was sent backwards and forwards between Columbus and
+Pinzon, and they wondered where they really were, and how far it was to
+the islands of eastern Asia. On September 25, Pinzon ascended the poop
+of the _Pinta_ and called out to Columbus, "I see land." Then he fell on
+his knees with all his crew, and, with voices trembling with excitement
+and gratitude, the Castilian mariners sang "Glory to God in the
+Highest." This was the first time a Christian hymn had sounded over the
+waves of the Atlantic. The sailors of the _Santa Maria_ and _Nina_
+climbed up into the rigging, and also saw the land and raised the same
+song of praise as their comrades. But next day the longed-for land had
+vanished. It was only a mist which lay over the sea to leeward, a mirage
+in the boundless desert of water.
+
+At the beginning of October, Columbus began to suspect that he had
+already passed the islands laid down on Toscanelli's map, and he was
+glad that he had not been detained by them but could sail straight on to
+the mainland of India. By India was meant at that time the whole of
+eastern Asia.
+
+On October 7 the men on all the three vessels were sure that they saw
+land. Every sail was set. Each vessel thought it an honour to reach it
+first. The _Nina_ took the lead. At sunrise the flag of Castile was
+hoisted to the topmast and a shot thundered from its poop. During the
+day the land vanished again. But now flocks of birds were seen, all
+making south-westwards, and Columbus gave orders to follow in the same
+direction. He wrote in his diary: "The sea, thank God, lay like the
+river at Seville, the temperature was as mild as in April at Seville,
+and the air was so balmy that it was delightful to breathe it."
+
+But they sailed day after day and through the nights, and still there
+was nothing to be seen but water. The men had several times given vent
+to their discontent, and now began to grumble again. Columbus soothed
+them and reminded them of the reward that awaited them when they had
+attained their goal. "Besides, their complaints were useless, for I have
+sailed out to reach India, and intend to prolong my voyage until, with
+God's help, I have found it."
+
+On October 11 a log was seen floating in the sea with marks on it
+apparently cut by human hands; and shortly after, a branch with clusters
+of berries. Then the sailors became content, and the Admiral promised a
+reward to the man who first sighted land. All kept their eyes open and
+watched eagerly.
+
+In the evening Columbus thought he saw a flash of light as though a man
+were carrying a torch along a low shore, and later in the night one of
+the _Pinta's_ men swore that land was visible in front. Then all sails
+were taken in and they waited for the dawn.
+
+When the sun rose on October 12, 1492, its rays illumined, before the
+eyes of the Spaniards, a flat grass-covered island which Columbus called
+San Salvador or St. Saviour, after Him who had rescued them from the
+perils of the sea. This island evidently lay north of Japan--at any
+rate, it would appear so from Toscanelli's map. Little did Columbus and
+his men suspect that a whole unknown continent and the world's greatest
+ocean, the Pacific, still separated them from Japan. The small island
+was one of the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island. If the
+voyages of the Northmen five hundred years earlier be left out of
+account, this island was the first point of the New World reached by
+Europeans.
+
+The great day was begun with the _Te Deum_. The officers congratulated
+the Admiral, the sailors threw themselves at his feet and begged
+forgiveness for their insubordination. A boat was lowered, into which
+stepped Columbus with the flag of Castile in his hand, followed by the
+Pinzon brothers with the Banner of the Cross, and a few others. Without
+knowing it, Columbus stepped on to the soil of America. Solemnly he took
+possession of San Salvador on behalf of the crown of Castile. A cross
+was erected on an elevation on the shore in token that the island was in
+Christian hands.
+
+The natives must have been astonished when they saw the three wonderful
+ships arrive off their coast and white men come ashore. At first they
+held aloof, but with beads and other gifts the Spaniards soon gained
+their confidence. They had only wooden javelins for weapons, did not
+know iron, had long lanky hair, not woolly like the negroes, were naked,
+and painted their bodies red and white. They knew gold, and that was
+well, for it was gold, and gold above everything, that Columbus needed
+to free the Holy Sepulchre from the Turks. These savages had gold rings
+in their noses, and when the Spaniards inquired by signs where the gold
+came from, they pointed towards the south-west.
+
+Columbus, of course, called them Indians. Seven of them were taken on
+board. They were to go to Spain and "learn to talk," so that they might
+act as interpreters on subsequent voyages.
+
+Then the voyage of discovery was resumed. The ships had to be sailed
+with great caution, for dangerous reefs lay round the islands. According
+to the signs made by the savages two large islands lay to the south. One
+must be Japan, and when Columbus landed on the coast of Cuba and heard
+of a prince named Kami, he thought that this man must be the Great Khan,
+and that he was really on the mainland of eastern Asia. Accordingly he
+sent his Jew and two of his savages ashore to look for the Great Khan.
+They were four days away and searched as well as they could among the
+tent-like huts of the natives, but never saw a glimpse of any Mongolian
+Great Khan in Cuba.
+
+Exceedingly beautiful was this strange coast, reminding them of Sicily.
+Sweet song of birds was heard, there was an odour of fruits, and green
+foliage and palms waved like plumes in the breeze. The Spaniards were
+astonished to see the natives walking about smoking rolled-up leaves
+which they called tobacco, and had no notion what a source of wealth
+these leaves in the form of cigars would become in the future. Pinzon on
+the _Pinta_ must have been bewitched by all the wonders he saw, for he
+ran off with his vessel to seek the land of gold on his own account.
+Columbus himself sailed across to the large island of Haiti, which as
+usual he took possession of in the name of Castile. The natives received
+him everywhere with amazement and submission, believing that he was an
+emissary from the abode of the gods.
+
+On the northern coast of the island a great misfortune occurred on
+Christmas Eve. An inexperienced steersman was at the _Santa Maria's_
+rudder, and let the vessel run on a sandbank, where it became a wreck.
+The crew had to take refuge on the _Nina_. The natives helped to save
+all that was on board, and not even a pin was stolen.
+
+But the _Nina_ could not hold them all, and how were they to get back to
+Spain? Columbus found a way out of the difficulty. He decided to found a
+colony on the coast. Forty men were to be left behind to search for
+gold, and by the time Columbus returned from Spain they would no doubt
+have a tun full of the precious metal, and that would be enough for the
+conquest of Jerusalem. The sailors were only too glad to remain, for
+they found the natives accommodating and the climate good. It was in all
+respects much pleasanter than to endure hardship on the _Nina_, and
+perhaps founder with the wretched little ship.
+
+Accordingly, a blockhouse was built of wreckage from the _Santa Maria_,
+was surrounded by a wall and moat and provisioned, and after presenting
+the chief of the Indians with a shirt and a pair of gloves, Columbus
+weighed anchor and steered for home.
+
+He had not sailed far before he fell in with the _Pinta_, and took the
+independent Pinzon into favour again. Then they sailed eastwards across
+the Atlantic.
+
+On February 12 a storm arose. All the sails were furled and the two
+ships lost sight of one another for good. The _Nina_ pitched horribly
+and threatened to sink. All made ready for death. Columbus, fearing that
+his discoveries would perish with him, wrote a narrative on parchment,
+covered it with wax and placed it in a cask, which was entrusted to the
+angry waves. The sailors thought that it was an offering with which
+Columbus sought to allay the storm.
+
+A few days later the _Nina_ arrived safely at the southernmost island of
+the Azores, and thence continued her voyage to the mouth of the Tagus
+and Lisbon.
+
+On March 15 the inhabitants of Palos saw the most famous of all the
+ships of the world come into the harbour. The people streamed down with
+the wildest jubilation and all the church bells were rung. The same
+evening the _Pinta_ also sailed in, but was very differently received,
+for it was already known that Pinzon wished to usurp the honour of the
+discovery, being convinced that Columbus's vessel had been lost in the
+storm. No one took any notice of him, and he died a few days later,
+probably of chagrin and sorrow.
+
+In Seville Columbus received a summons from the King and Queen, who were
+staying in Barcelona. His journey through Spain was one great triumphal
+progress. He was feted as a conqueror in every town. He was conducted in
+a brilliant procession through the streets, six copper-brown "Indians"
+marching at the head with coloured feathers in their head-dresses. This
+was Christopher Columbus, who had given new lands to Spain, who had
+discovered a convenient sea route to India just at the time when the
+Portuguese were looking for a route thither round the coast of Africa.
+In Barcelona all his titles and privileges were solemnly confirmed. Now
+he was actually the Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of India. Now he
+had attained the height of worldly honour.
+
+Then began the time of adversity.
+
+On his second voyage, when he set out with seventeen ships, he
+discovered the northern Antilles as far as Porto Rico and came in
+contact with cannibals. At Haiti he found that the forty men whom he had
+left behind on his first voyage had been killed by the natives. He took
+it for granted that Cuba was the mainland of Asia, and that thence the
+journey to Spain might be made dryshod by following Marco Polo's
+footsteps. Discontent was rife among his men, the natives rose up
+against the intruders, rivals sprang up around him like mushrooms, and
+in the home country he was abused by high and low.
+
+He returned to Spain to put everything right; but this time he was no
+longer received with rejoicing, and found that he had now a formidable
+rival in Portugal. In the year 1497 Vasco da Gama discovered the real
+sea route to the real India by sailing round the south of Africa, an
+event which, in the eyes of that generation, quite eclipsed the
+discoveries of Columbus. In India inexhaustible riches were to be found,
+whereas the poor islands of Columbus had simply cost money, ships, and
+men.
+
+But the strong will of Columbus overcame all obstacles, and for the
+third time he sailed for his fictitious India. Now he held a more
+southerly course, and discovered the island Trinidad, and found that the
+water between it and the coast of Venezuela was fresh. There must then
+be a large river near. This river was the Orinoco.
+
+Disturbances broke out again in Haiti, and Columbus's opponents sent
+home complaints against him. A Royal Commission was sent out to hold an
+enquiry, and in the end arrested the Admiral and sent him in chains to
+Spain. The captain of the vessel wished to remove his fetters and leave
+him free as long as he was on board, but Columbus would not consent, for
+he wished to retain them as a "reminder of the reward he had got for his
+services."
+
+But when he was led in chains through the streets of Cadiz, the scene of
+his former triumph, the displeasure of the people was aroused, and at
+the Court Columbus met with a friendly reception. He even succeeded in
+fitting out a fourth expedition and crossed the Atlantic in nineteen
+days. The new Governor forbade him to land, and Columbus expressed his
+indignation that he, the discoverer, should not be allowed to set foot
+on his own islands. He then steered westwards and came to the coast of
+Honduras, and thence followed the coast of Nicaragua southwards. He
+fully and firmly believed that this was Malacca, and that farther south
+would be found a passage to India proper. He sailed back towards Cuba,
+but was driven by bad weather to Jamaica, where in great extremity he
+had to run his ship ashore. One of his trusty men rowed for four days in
+a canoe over the open sea to Haiti to beg for help. Meanwhile the
+shipwrecked men were in hard case. The natives threatened them, and
+refused them all help. Columbus knew that an eclipse of the moon would
+shortly occur, and told the natives that if they would not help them,
+the God of the Spaniards would for ever deprive them of the light of the
+moon. And when the shadow of the earth began to move over the moon's
+disc, the natives were terrified, fell at the feet of Columbus, and
+promised him everything. He pretended to consider the matter, but at
+last allowed himself to be persuaded and promised that they should keep
+their moon. And then the shadow moved off quietly into space, leaving
+the moon as bright as a silver shield.
+
+At last he received assistance, and in 1504 was back in Spain. No one
+now paid any attention to him. His property was confiscated, his titles
+were not restored to him, and even the outstanding pay of his followers
+was kept back. Ill with gout and vexation, he stayed at first in
+Seville. His former friends did not know him. Lonely and crushed down by
+grief and disappointment, he died in 1506 at Valladolid. No one took any
+notice of his decease, and not a chronicle of the time contains a word
+about his death. Even in the grave he seemed to find no rest. He was
+first interred quietly in Valladolid; then his remains were transferred
+to a monastery church in Seville; half a lifetime later his body was
+carried to San Domingo in Haiti, where it rested for 250 years until it
+was deposited in the cathedral of Havana in Cuba; and finally, when Cuba
+was lost to the United States, the remains of the great discoverer were
+again brought back to Spain.
+
+Columbus was a tall, powerfully built man, with an aquiline nose, a pink
+and freckled complexion, light-blue eyes and red hair, which early
+became white in consequence of much thought and great sorrows. During
+four centuries of admiration and detraction his life and character have
+been dissected and torn to bits. Some have seen in him a saint, a
+prophet; others have called him a crafty adventurer, who stole
+Toscanelli's plan in order to gain power, honour, and wealth for
+himself. But when, about twenty years ago, the fourth century since his
+discovery was completed, full amends were made to his memory and his
+achievements were celebrated throughout the world. He opened new fields
+for unborn generations, he extended the bounds of the earth, and guided
+the world's history into new channels.
+
+Four years before the death of Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci of Florence,
+who made four voyages across the ocean, suggested that the new lands had
+nothing to do with Asia, but were a "New World" in distinction to the
+Old; and a German schoolmaster, who wrote a geographical text-book,
+suggested in the introduction that as the fourth continent had been
+discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vesputius), there was no reason
+why it should not be called Amerigo or America after its discoverer. The
+proposal was accepted, and only too late was it realised that Columbia
+would have been the proper name.
+
+One discovery followed after another, and the coasts of America
+gradually assumed on charts and maps the form with which we are
+familiar. Let us for a moment dwell on another of the most striking
+voyages in the history of the world. In the year 1519 the Portuguese
+Magelhaens sailed along the east coast of South America and discovered
+the strait which still bears his name; and what is more, he found at
+last, through this strait, the western passage to India. He sailed over
+an immense ocean, where the weather was good and no storms threatened
+his ships; and accordingly he called it the Pacific Ocean. Other
+dangers, however, awaited him. The mariners sailed for four months over
+unbroken sea, suffering from hunger and disease. At last three of the
+vessels reached the Philippines. There Magelhaens landed with a small
+party, and was overpowered and slain by the natives. Only one of the
+ships, the _Victoria_, came home, but this was the first vessel which
+sailed round the world.
+
+During the succeeding centuries white men struck their claws ever firmer
+into America. The Indians were forced back into the backwoods, and in
+North America they have been almost exterminated. Under French, and
+later, under English rule, those parts of North America have developed
+an unexpected power and wealth which were despised by the Spaniards, who
+in their boundless greed of gain thought of nothing but gold.
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+In a house in a Swedish countryside sit an old man and woman talking
+seriously.
+
+"It is a great pity," says the old woman, "that Gunnar is beginning to
+think of America again."
+
+"Yes, he will never rest," replies the old man, "till we have given our
+consent and let him go. To-day he says that an emigration 'touter' has
+promised him gold and green forests if he will take a ticket for one of
+the Bremen line steamers. I reminded him that the farm is unencumbered,
+but he answered that it could not provide for both his brothers and
+himself. 'It was a very different thing for you, father,' he said, 'but
+there are three of us to divide the produce.' He thinks it is a hopeless
+task to grub in our poor stony hills, when boundless plains in the
+western states of North America are only waiting to be ploughed, and in
+any factory he can be earning wages so large as to yield a small income
+for several years."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I know, it is his cousins who have put this fancy in his
+head with their glowing letters. But I suppose we cannot prevent him
+going if his heart is set on it?"
+
+"What can we do? He is a free man and must go his own way."
+
+"Well, perhaps it is best. When he is home-sick he will come back
+again."
+
+"I am afraid it will be long enough before that happens. At starting all
+seems so fine. 'I shall soon come home with a small pile.' In reality
+all his memories will grow faint within a year, and the distance to the
+red cottage will seem to grow longer as time flies. I mourn for him as
+dead already; he will never come back."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days after this our emigrant Gunnar breaks all ties and tears up
+all the roots which since his birth have held him bound to the soil of
+Sweden. He travels by the shortest route to Bremen and steps on board an
+emigrant steamer for New York. During the long hours of the voyage the
+people sit on deck and talk of the great country to which they are all
+bound. Before the last lighthouse on the coast of Europe is lost to
+sight, Gunnar seems to have all America at his finger-ends. The same
+names are always ringing in his ears--New York, Philadelphia, Chicago,
+and San Francisco have become quite familiar, and he has only to insert
+between them a number of smaller towns, a few rivers, mountains, and
+lakes, to draw in a few railway lines, to remember the great country of
+Canada to the north and mountainous Mexico in the south, to place at
+three of the corners of the continent the peninsulas of Alaska,
+California, and Florida, and at the fourth the large island of
+Newfoundland, and then his map of North America is complete.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The voyage over the Atlantic draws to an end. One day a growing
+restlessness and excitement is perceptible, and the travellers cast
+inquiring glances ahead. It is said that the American coast will be
+visible in an hour. And so it is. An irregular line appears to
+starboard. That is Long Island. Two hours more, and the boat glides into
+the mouth of the Hudson River and comes alongside at Ellis Island in the
+harbour of New York. A row of other vessels lie moored at the quays.
+These also have brought immigrants to America and will soon return to
+fetch more. They must go backwards and forwards year out and year in to
+carry three thousand persons daily to the United States.
+
+Gunnar has packed his things in good time and takes up a favourable
+position from which he can observe his fellow-travellers. He has never
+heard such a noise and never seen such bustle. The people throng the
+gangways, call to one another, haul out their discoloured portmanteaus
+and their roped bundles. There are seen Swedes and Germans, Polish and
+Russian Jews, Galicians and Croats mingled together, some well dressed
+and with overcoats, others in tattered clothes and with a coarse
+handkerchief in place of a collar.
+
+Yonder, overlooking New York harbour, stands the colossal statue of
+Liberty, a female figure holding a torch in her right hand. When
+darkness lies over the earth she throws a dazzling beam of electric
+light out over the water, the quays, houses, and ships. But Gunnar
+experiences no feeling of freedom as he sets his foot on American soil.
+He and all his fellow-travellers are provided with numbered tickets and
+marshalled into long compartments in a huge hall. Then they are called
+out one after another to be questioned, and a doctor comes and examines
+them. Those who suffer from lung disease or other complaint, or being
+old and feeble have no prospect of gaining a livelihood, receive a
+peremptory order of exclusion on grey paper and must return by the next
+vessel to their fatherland. The others who pass the examination proceed
+in small steamers to the great city, where, among the four millions of
+New York, they vanish like chaff before the wind.
+
+From whatever land they may come they always find fellow-countrymen in
+New York, for this city is a conglomeration of all the peoples of the
+world, and seventy different languages are spoken in it. A third of its
+inhabitants have been born in foreign countries. In Brooklyn, the
+quarter on Long Island, there are whole streets where only Swedes live.
+In the "Little Italy" quarter live more Italians than there are in
+Naples, in the "Chinese Town" there are five thousand Chinese, and even
+Jews from Russia and Poland have their own quarter. Gunnar soon finds
+that New York is more complicated than he supposed when he was rolling
+out on the Atlantic.
+
+Meanwhile he decides to take it easy at first, and to learn his way
+about before plunging into the struggle for existence. In Brooklyn he
+soon meets with a fellow-countryman and gets a roof over his head. A
+pleasant, well-to-do railway employe from Stockholm takes pleasure in
+showing him about and impressing him with his knowledge of America.
+
+"This town must be old," says Gunnar, "or it could not have grown so
+large."
+
+"Old! No, certainly not. Compared to Stockholm it is a mere child. It is
+barely three hundred years old, and at the time of Gustavus Adolphus it
+did not contain a thousand inhabitants. But now it is second only to
+London."
+
+"That is wonderful. How can you account for New York becoming so large?
+Stockholm and Bremen are pigmies beside it. I have never seen the like
+in my life. There are forests of masts and steamboat funnels in all
+directions, and at the quays vessels are loaded and unloaded with the
+most startling speed."
+
+"Yes, but you must remember that the population of the United States
+increases at an extraordinary rate. During last century it doubled every
+twenty years. And remember also that nearly half the foreign trade of
+the Union passes through New York. Hence are exported grain, meat,
+tobacco, cotton, petroleum, manufactured goods, and many other things.
+It is, therefore, not remarkable that New York needs 36 miles of quays
+with warehouses, and that more than seventy steamboat lines sail to and
+from the port. And, besides, it is a great industrial town. Think of its
+position and its fine harbour! Eastward lies the Atlantic with routes to
+Europe; westwards run innumerable railway lines, five of which stretch
+right through to the Pacific coast."
+
+"Tell me something about the railways," exclaims Gunnar, who wants to go
+out west at the first favourable opportunity.
+
+"Yes, I can give you information about them, for I have been working on
+several lines. As far back as 1840 the United States had 2800 miles of
+railway, and twenty years later 30,000 miles. Now it has nearly two
+hundred and forty thousand miles of rails, a strip which would reach to
+the moon or ten times round the equator. The United States have more
+railways than all Europe, though the population is only a fifth that of
+Europe; but the area is about the same."
+
+"How do you explain this rapid development of railway enterprise?"
+
+"Well, the fact is that at first the aim was to fill up the gaps between
+the waterways. Rivers were relied on as long as possible, and the first
+railways were built in districts where there were no large rivers. Then
+in course of time various lines converged together, new railways were
+constructed, and now the forty-nine States are covered with a connected
+network of lines. Moreover, the country roads are so bad that they must
+be supplemented by railways."
+
+"A large number of bridges must be necessary across all the large
+rivers?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. The Americans are adepts in bridge-building, and the
+railway bridges over the Mississippi and Missouri and other rivers are
+masterpieces of the boldest art. Where lines cross deeply eroded
+valleys, bridges of timber were formerly built, like sky-scraping
+parapets with rails laid along the top; but such bridges are now fast
+disappearing and iron bridges are built, and the trains run at full
+speed over elegant erections which from a distance look just like a
+spider's web. Just look to your left. There you have one of the world's
+strongest bridges, the suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn.
+It is of colossal dimensions, and yet it looks so fine and delicate as
+it hangs between its two mighty piers. You see that vessels with the
+tallest masts can pass clear below, for it is poised 135 feet above high
+water. The length is nearly a mile and a quarter. It is wonderful that
+men have been able to stretch this huge span of iron above the water.
+Wait a little and you will see a kind of aerial railway."
+
+Then the Stockholm man takes his new friend to a station to travel on
+the elevated railway through New York. Gunnar's astonishment is beyond
+bounds as he rushes along on a framework, supported by innumerable iron
+pillars, over streets and squares, and sees the seething crowd moving in
+carriages and on foot below his feet.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXII. "SKY-SCRAPERS" IN NEW YORK.]
+
+"Here is the Central Park. Is it not delightful with its leafy trees and
+cool pools? In summer it is burning hot in the town, and it is
+refreshing to rest an hour or two in the shade of the trees. The winters
+are equally cold, and raw, biting winds blow from the east coast. Here
+is Fifth Avenue, the finest street of New York. In the row of palaces
+you see here live millionaires, railway kings, steel kings, petroleum
+kings, corn kings, a whole crop of kings. But I would rather we went to
+look at the rows of houses facing the Hudson River."
+
+"New York lies, then, on the Hudson River?"
+
+"That is so, but more properly speaking New York stands on the island of
+Manhattan in the mouth of the river. We are standing, then, on
+Manhattan, and it is interesting to recall the fact that this island was
+sold three hundred years ago by Indians to Dutchmen for the sum of four
+pounds. It is rather more valuable now! Just look at the hideous
+sky-scrapers with their twenty and thirty storeys" (Plate XXXII.).
+
+"I was just wondering why houses are built so enormously high."
+
+"That is owing to the tremendous value of the ground. When there is not
+space enough to build out laterally, the buildings are piled up
+heavenwards, where there is plenty of room. They are certainly not
+handsome. Look at this row of houses, some of moderate height, others as
+tall as chimneys. Are they not like a row of keys moved by invisible
+gigantic fingers?"
+
+"I should not like to live in such a building, I am sure. On the top
+floor I should be giddy with the height, and on the first I should
+expect the whole mass to tumble down on me."
+
+"We are better off in Brooklyn, where the houses are of moderate height.
+To-morrow I will show you something not less remarkable than the wealthy
+quarter of the city. I will take you to the Chinese town. There Chinese
+swarm in the dirty lanes; there the whole place reeks of onions and
+tobacco and spirits from the public-houses; there are vile gambling
+hells and opium dens; and there paper lanterns on fishing rods hang
+outside the tea-houses. Then we can take a look at 'Little Italy,' a
+purely Italian town in the midst of the New York of the Americans. There
+you will see only Italian books in the book-shops, there Italian
+newspapers are read, there wax candles burn round images of the Madonna
+in the churches, and black-haired, brown-eyed children from sunny Italy
+play in the gutters. And we must not forget 'Little Russia,' the Jews'
+quarter. The Jews are a remarkable people; you never see them drunk, and
+you never hear of any crime or felony committed by them. They live
+poorly, cheaply, and sparingly, and seem cheerful in their booths beside
+the streets."
+
+"All this is very well, but I do not understand where all the immigrants
+go. I am told that as many as three thousand persons land daily on Ellis
+Island. At this rate New York receives yearly an addition of a million
+souls."
+
+"Yes, but how many do you think remain in New York? Most of them go up
+country and out westwards. Some improve their position and then repair
+to other fields of work. But many also stay here and increase the slum
+population. The immigrants who are destitute on landing take work in
+factories at any wage they can get. The wages they receive seem very
+high compared to those in their own country, but they are low for
+America. Accordingly the immigrant Europeans thrust out the Americans,
+and therefore there are two millions out of work in the United States.
+And so there are failures, human wrecks, who are a burden to others. If
+you like we will try this evening to get to a midnight mission and see
+the poor wretches waiting in crowds for the doors to open. They have a
+worn, listless expression, but when the doors are open they wake up and
+rush in, fill all the benches in the large hall, and go to sleep in all
+imaginable positions."
+
+"What do they do there?"
+
+"A missionary preaches to them, but they are hungry and weary, and sleep
+soundly on their benches. Among them you will find tramps and vagabonds,
+professional beggars and thieves, idlers and men out of work. In the
+daytime they beg and steal, and now at night they take their sleep in
+the mission. When the preacher finishes, they file out and go to the
+bread stalls to get food. Such is their life day after day, and they
+sink ever deeper into misery."
+
+"They are the slag that remains after the precious metal has run off, of
+course. It is curious to think of a people that is increased by a
+never-failing stream of immigrants. What will be the end of it?"
+
+"No one can answer that question. Everything is possible with Americans.
+They are a mixture of English, Scandinavian, German, Dutch, Italian, and
+Russian blood, to name only the principal constituents of this complex
+blend, this huge incorporation. Out of all these elements one day an
+American race will emerge, when Ellis Island has closed its gates to
+emigrants from Europe."
+
+[Illustration: NORTH AMERICA.]
+
+"Tell me another thing, now. Why is not New York, the most important
+city, also the capital of the country?"
+
+"It was thought that the city which bears the name of the great
+Washington had a more convenient and more central position with regard
+to the States of the original federation. The population of Washington
+is only about 330,000, and there are fifteen larger cities in the United
+States, but it is the centre of government. There the President lives in
+White House, there Congress assembles in the Capitol, there stands the
+Washington monument surrounded by large national buildings, and there
+three universities are established."
+
+
+CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES
+
+After our friend Gunnar has seen as much as he wants of New York, he
+obtains a good post in a large factory, but he stays there only two
+months, for with other Swedes he receives an offer from Philadelphia
+which he does not hesitate to accept. His idea is to work his way
+gradually westward. If he can only get as far as Chicago he thinks it
+will not be difficult to go on to San Francisco.
+
+Now he works in a yard where more than a thousand locomotives are made
+annually. This yard seems to him quite a town in itself. Here the iron
+is made white hot in immense furnaces, there it is hammered and rolled,
+and with irresistible power human hands convert the hard steel into
+steam boilers, wheels, axles, and parts of machines which are put
+together to form engines. The workshop is traversed in all directions by
+rails, and the completed steam-horses are sent out all over the railway
+systems of the United States.
+
+Gunnar learns from his mates that Philadelphia is one of the largest
+cities of the world, with nearly a million and a half inhabitants, and
+that in America only New York and Chicago are larger.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After a while, however, Gunnar has had enough of Philadelphia, and takes
+a ticket for Pittsburg, the steel and iron capital, where immigrants
+never need be in want of a post. He travels without a change of
+carriages between the two towns, traversing the whole of Pennsylvania.
+Innumerable branch lines diverge in all directions, for towns and
+villages are everywhere. Here a railway runs to a mine, there another to
+a district rich in maize and tobacco, and here again a third to a timber
+yard. At the station stand long trains laden with grain, planks,
+petroleum, cotton, reaping machines, coal--in fact all the wares that
+the earth can produce by its fertility, and men by the labour of their
+hands.
+
+The country becomes hilly, and the train winds about through the
+northernmost part of the Alleghany Mountains. Gunnar lets his eyes rove
+with strained attention over the dark woods, the waving fields, and the
+smoke rising from villages and farmhouses, when an American comes and
+sits down on the seat just in front of him.
+
+"I see that you are a newcomer in America," says the stranger. "It may
+then interest you to know that the crest of the Alleghany Mountains,
+composed of granite, gneiss, and slates, is the watershed between the
+Atlantic and the Mississippi. You must not suppose that these mountains
+are everywhere as low as here; far down south-west, in North Carolina,
+there are summits more than six thousand feet high. Maize and fruit are
+grown in the valleys, and there are fine forests of pines and foliage
+trees. And there are places where you lose yourself in dense clumps of
+rhododendrons and climbing plants. And there are wild recesses where men
+never go, but where bears and wolves have their haunts among broken
+branches and twigs, fallen trunks and moss-grown granite boulders, and
+where nothing is changed since the time when the Indian tribes went on
+the war-path. But where are you bound for?"
+
+"I am going to Pittsburg to look for work, for I was a smith at home."
+
+"Oh, Pittsburg! I was foreman in some steel works there for two years,
+and I have never seen anything more wonderful. You know that this town
+has sprung up out of the earth as if by magic. When petroleum springs
+were discovered, it increased at double the rate, and now it is one of
+the world's largest industrial towns, and, as regards iron and steel,
+the first in America. Here materials are manufactured to the value of
+more than nineteen million pounds annually. Almost inexhaustible
+deposits of coal are found in the neighbourhood. More than twenty
+railway lines converge to Pittsburg, which also has the advantage of
+three navigable rivers, and a network of canals. And round about the
+town are suburbs full of machine factories, steel works, and glass
+works. The neighbourhood has a million of inhabitants, a third of them
+foreigners, mostly Slavs, Italians, and Hungarians. You have a kind of
+feeling of oppression when you see from a height this forest of reeking
+factory chimneys, and when you think of the unfortunate men that slave
+under this cloud of coal smoke. There is a hammering and beating
+everywhere, and a rumble of trains rolling over the rails. Overheated
+furnaces bubble and boil, and sparks fly out under the steam hammers. At
+night you might think you were in the bottom of a volcano, where lava
+boils under the ashes ready to roll out and destroy everything. A weird
+reddish-yellow light flames forth from thousands of fires, lighting up
+the under side of the thick smoke cloud. I am sorry for you if you are
+going to Pittsburg. You had much better travel straight on to Chicago.
+Not that Chicago is a paradise, but there are better openings there, and
+you will be nearer the great West with its inexhaustible resources."
+
+"Thanks for your advice. I am the more ready to follow it because I
+always intended to get to Chicago sometime."
+
+"From Pittsburg," continues the American, "a line runs direct to the
+large town of St. Louis on the Mississippi. St. Louis is a junction of
+great importance, for not only do a whole series of great railway lines
+meet there, but also innumerable steamboats ply from there up the
+Mississippi and Missouri, and to all the large towns on their
+tributaries. St. Louis is the centre of all the winding waterways which
+intersect all parts of the United States. And there you can travel on
+comfortable flat-bottomed steamers along the main river to New Orleans,
+a great harbour for the export of cotton. You can well conceive what a
+blessing and source of wealth this river is to our country. It is of
+immense extent, for it is the longest river in the world, if we take its
+length from the sources of the Missouri in the Rocky Mountains, and in
+the area of its basin it is second only to the Amazons. Its plain is
+exceedingly fruitful, and far around its banks grain shoots up out of
+the soil to feed many millions of human beings. And its waterways,
+ramifying like the nerves of a leaf, facilitate communication and the
+transport of goods between the different States.
+
+"You should just see how the great river rises in spring. You might
+think you were sailing on a large lake, and, as a matter of fact, it
+floods an area as large as Lake Superior. If the Mississippi is a
+blessing to men, on the other hand in spring it exacts a heavy tax from
+them. The vast volumes of brown, muddy water often cut off sharp bends
+from the river-bed and take short cuts through narrow promontories. By
+such tricks the length of the river is not infrequently shortened by ten
+or twelve miles here and there. But you can imagine the trouble this
+causes. A town standing on such a bend may one fine day find itself six
+miles from the bank. In another the inhabitants are in danger of being
+at any time drowned like cats. A railway bridge may suddenly be
+suspended over dry land, while the river has swept away rails and
+embankment a little farther off. Our engineers have great difficulty in
+protecting constructions from the capricious river in spring. Not a year
+passes without the Mississippi causing terrible destruction and
+inflicting great loss on those who dwell near its banks, especially in
+cattle.
+
+"You have only to see this water to comprehend what immense quantities
+of earth, sand, and mud are yearly carried down by it. And all this silt
+is deposited in the flat delta below New Orleans. Therefore the delta
+extends from year to year farther out into the Gulf of Mexico. This is
+an easy way of increasing our territory, but we would willingly
+sacrifice the gain if we could get rid of the terrible floods in
+spring."
+
+The train with our two travellers on board has now crossed the boundary
+of Pennsylvania, and is making its way westwards through the states of
+Ohio and Indiana. Boundless plains extend to north and south, planted
+with maize, wheat, oats, and tobacco. Maize fields, however, are the
+most frequent, and the harvest is just beginning. Gigantic reaping
+machines, drawn by troops of horses, mow down the grain and bind it into
+sheaves, while other machines throw it into waggons. The reapers have
+only to drive the horses; all the rest is done by the machines.
+Certainly men's hands could never be able to deal with all this grain;
+whole armies could be hidden under the ears of maize.
+
+Now the train skirts the shore of Lake Michigan, which stretches its
+blue surface northwards, and a little later halts at Chicago.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gunnar has been directed to an agency for Swedish workmen, and the first
+thing he does is to call there. In a day or two he obtains work in the
+timber business, and goes up to Canada in a large cargo steamer which
+carries timber from the forests of Canada to Chicago. Here the timber
+supplies seem to him inexhaustible when he sees the dark coniferous
+woods on the shores and hills, and when he notices that hundreds of
+steamboats are carrying the same freight. The workman beside him, an
+Englishman, boasts of the immense territory which occupies almost all
+the northern half of North America.
+
+"Canada is the most precious jewel in the crown of Great Britain, next
+to the mother-country and India."
+
+"Why is Canada so valuable? I always thought that its population was
+very small."
+
+"It has not many people; you are right there. Canada has only seven
+million inhabitants."
+
+"Oh, not more! That is just about as many as Greater London."
+
+"Yes; and yet Canada is as large as all Europe and as the United States
+of America. It stretches so far to east and west that it occupies a
+fourth part of the circuit of the earth, and if you travel from Montreal
+to Vancouver you have a journey of 2906 miles. But you can well
+understand that such an extensive country, even though it is thinly
+peopled, especially in its cold, northern parts, must yield much that is
+valuable to its owners."
+
+"Yes, certainly; so it is in Siberia, where the population is also
+scanty."
+
+"Just so. In Canada fields, mountains, forests, and water yield an
+immense revenue. Think only of all the agricultural produce which is
+shipped from here, not to speak of gold, fish, and furs. The wheat
+produced in Canada is alone worth over 22 million pounds sterling a
+year. There are also huge areas which are worthless. We get little
+advantage from the northern coasts, where the Eskimos live."
+
+"You are quite at home on these lakes?"
+
+"Oh yes. When a man has sailed to and fro over them for ten years, he
+knows all about the roadsteads and channels, and about when the ice
+forms and breaks up, and when there is a prospect of a storm."
+
+"But the storms cannot be very dangerous?"
+
+"Ah, you do not believe in them. All the same they may be just as
+dangerous as in the Atlantic, and when a real hurricane comes, the
+skipper will do well to seek shelter, or at the best he will lose his
+cargo. You will soon have opportunities of seeing, hearing, and feeling
+how the surge beats just as on the coast of the ocean. But then, all
+these lakes have an aggregate area more than half as large as the
+Baltic, and if we take the depth into account we shall find that the
+volume of water is the same as in the Baltic. Lake Superior is the
+largest lake in the world. Beyond the point yonder lies Lake Huron. You
+must acknowledge that this scenery is beautiful. Have you ever seen
+anything to equal this sheet of dark-blue water, the dark-green woods,
+and the grand peaceful shores? It is a pity that we do not go to Lake
+Erie, for at its eastern extremity is one of the wonders of the world
+and the most famous spectacle in North America."
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII. NIAGARA FALLS.]
+
+"You mean the Falls of Niagara, which I have heard described so many
+times?"
+
+"Yes. Think of a steamboat on Lake Erie sucked along by the stream that
+flows to Ontario. This lake lies 300 feet lower than Erie, and about
+half-way between the two lakes the water passes over a sharp bar and
+plunges with a thundering roar into the depth below (Plate XXXIII.). The
+barrier itself, which is a thousand yards broad, is formed of a huge
+stratum of sandstone, and the rocks under it are loose slates. Erosion
+proceeds more rapidly in the slates than in the hard limestone, which,
+therefore, overhangs like the projecting leaf of a table, and the
+collected volumes of water hurl themselves over it. But when the
+limestone is so far undermined that it is no longer able to bear the
+weight of the water, fragments break off from time to time from its edge
+and fall into the abyss with a deafening noise. Thus in time the fall
+wears away the barrier and Niagara is moving back in the direction of
+Lake Erie."
+
+"Moving, do you say? The movement can surely not be rapid."
+
+"Oh no; Niagara needs about seventeen thousand years to move half a mile
+nearer to Lake Erie."
+
+"That's all right, for now I can be sure it will be there when I visit
+it at some future opportunity."
+
+"Yes, and you would find it even if a crowd of railway lines did not run
+to it. You hear the roar of the 'thunder water' forty miles away, and
+when you come closer you see dense clouds of foam and spray rising from
+the ravine 150 feet below the threshold of the Fall. Yes, Niagara is the
+most wonderful thing I have seen. In all the world it is surpassed only
+by the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, discovered by Livingstone. One
+feels small and overawed when one ventures on the bridges above and
+below the Fall, and sees its 280,000 cubic feet of water gliding one
+moment smooth as oil over the barrier, and the next dashing into foam
+and spray below with a thundering noise."
+
+"It would not be pleasant to be sucked over the edge."
+
+"And yet a reckless fellow once made the journey. For safety he crept
+into a large, stout barrel, well padded inside with cushions. Packed in
+this way, he let the barrel drift with the stream, tip over the edge of
+the barrier, and fall perpendicularly into the pool below. As long as he
+floated in the quiet drift, and even when he fell with the column of
+water, he ran no danger. It was when he plumped down on to the water
+below and span round in the whirlpools, bumped against rocks rising up
+from the bottom, and was carried at a furious pace down under the watery
+vault. But the traveller got through and was picked up in quiet water."
+
+"I suppose that there are bridges over the Niagara River as over all the
+others in the country?"
+
+"Certainly. Among them is an arched bridge of steel below the Falls
+which has a single span of 270 yards, and is the most rigid bridge in
+the world."
+
+"Tell me, where does all this water go to below Niagara?"
+
+"Well, it flows out into Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, the largest
+town in Canada. Then it runs out of the lake's north-eastern corner,
+forming winding channels among a number of islands, which are called The
+Thousand Islands. Then the river, which is called the St. Lawrence, is
+sometimes narrow and rapid and sometimes expands into lake-like reaches.
+At the large town of Montreal begins the quiet course, and below Quebec
+the St. Lawrence opens out like a huntsman's horn. The river is frozen
+over every year, and in some places the ice is so thick that rails can
+be laid on it and heavy goods trains run over it. In spring, when the
+ice begins to break up, the neighbourhood of the river is dangerous, and
+sometimes mountains of ice thrust themselves over the lower parts of
+Montreal. It can be cold in Montreal--down to-30 deg. It is still worse in
+northern Canada. And the summer is short in this country."
+
+"You have just mentioned Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. Which is the
+capital?"
+
+"Oh, none of these is the capital of the Colony. That honour belongs to
+the small town of Ottawa. And now I will tell you something
+extraordinary. The Dominion of Canada is situated between two
+goldfields. In the extreme east is Newfoundland, in the extreme west
+Klondike. I shall never forget the gold fever which seized adventurers
+in nearly all countries when it was known that the precious metal
+occurred in large quantities in the gravel and sand-beds on the banks of
+the Yukon River. I was one of them myself. Men rushed wildly off to get
+there in time and stake out small claims in the auriferous soil. What a
+wild life! How we suffered! We had to pay a shilling for a biscuit and a
+dollar for a box of sardines. We were glad when a hunter shot elk and
+reindeer, and sold the meat for an exorbitant price in gold dust. We
+lived huddled up in wretched tents and were perished with cold. Furious
+snowstorms swept during winter over the dreary country and the
+temperature fell to-67 deg. And what a toil to get hold of the miserable
+gold! The ground is always frozen up there. To work in it you must first
+thaw the soil with fire. By degrees the situation improved and a small
+town grew up on the goldfield, and in a few years the gold won attained
+to the value of five millions sterling."
+
+"And the other gold mine, then?"
+
+"Newfoundland. A cold polar current brings yearly quantities of seal,
+cod, salmon, herring, and lobster down to the banks of Newfoundland,
+where more than fifty thousand fishermen are engaged in catching them.
+As the fish brings in yearly a revenue of several millions, this
+easternmost island of North America may well be called a gold mine too."
+
+
+THROUGH THE GREAT WEST
+
+After a few profitable voyages on Lakes Michigan and Huron, Gunnar has
+saved so much that he can carry out his plan of travelling to the
+extreme West. He intends to let his dollars fly in railway fares, and,
+after he has seen enough of the great cities of America, to settle down
+in the most attractive district. There he will stay and work until he
+has saved up enough to buy a farm of his own in his native country.
+
+He sets off from Chicago and leaves St. Louis behind him, and is carried
+by a train on the Pacific Railway through Missouri and Kansas westwards.
+In the latter State he flies over boundless prairies.
+
+Eventually a German naturalist enters Gunnar's carriage when the train
+stops at a large station. He is dusty and out of breath, and is glad to
+rest when he has seen his boxes and chests stowed away in the luggage
+van. Like all Germans he is alert and observant, agreeable and
+talkative, and the train has not crossed the boundary between Kansas and
+Colorado before he has learned all about Gunnar's experiences and
+plans.
+
+Soon the German on his part explains the business which has brought him
+out to the Far West.
+
+"I have received a grant from the University of Heidelberg to collect
+plants and animals in the western States, and I travel as cheaply as I
+can so that the money may last longer. I love this great America. Have
+you noticed how colossal everything is in this country, whether the good
+God or wicked man be the master-builder? If you cross a mountain range
+like the Rocky Mountains, or its South American continuation, the Andes,
+it is the longest in the world. If you roll over a river, as the
+Mississippi-Missouri, you hear that this also is the longest that
+exists. If you travel by steamboat over the Canadian lakes, you are told
+that no sheets of fresh water in the world surpass them. And think of
+all these innumerable large towns that have sprung up within a century
+or two. And these railways, these astonishing bridges, these
+inexhaustible natural resources, and this world-embracing commerce. How
+alert and industrious is this people, how quickly everything develops,
+how much more bustle and feverish haste there is than in the Old World!"
+
+"It is charming to see the Rocky Mountains become more and more
+distinct, and the different chains and ridges stand out more sharply as
+we approach."
+
+"Yes, indeed. You notice by the speed of the train that we are already
+mounting upwards. You see the prairies pass into the foot of the hills.
+We shall soon come into the zone of dwarf oaks and mahogany trees.
+Higher up are slopes covered with fine pine woods, and willows and
+alders grow along the banks of the streams."
+
+"You speak of trees. Is it true, as a skipper on Lake Michigan told me,
+that there are trees here in the west which are over three hundred feet
+high?"
+
+"Quite true. Your informant meant, of course, the two species of the
+coniferous family which are called mammoth trees, because they are the
+giants of the vegetable kingdom, as the mammoths were of the animal
+kingdom. They grow on the western flanks of the Sierra Nevada in
+California. When one sees these heaven-aspiring trees one is tempted to
+believe that their only aim in life is to rise so high that they may
+look over the crest of the coast range and have a free view of the
+Pacific Ocean. One of these giants which fell long ago had a height of
+435 feet and a girth of 110 feet at the base. It was called the 'Father
+of the Forest.' The trunk is hollow. There is also another fallen
+mammoth called the 'Riding School,' because a man on horseback can ride
+some way into the inside. These trees are supposed to be several
+thousand years old. The place in the Sierra Nevada where the last giants
+stand on their ancient roots is protected and is the property of the
+whole people. If the law did not protect the trees, they would go the
+same way as the bisons and Indians."
+
+"Is there not also a reserved area in the Rocky Mountains?"
+
+"Yes; the Yellowstone National Park in the state of Wyoming. It is a
+wonderful place, and whole books have been written about it. There are
+as many as four thousand hot springs and a hundred geysers in the lower
+part of the valley between the crests of the Rocky Mountains. The Giant
+Geyser shoots up to a height of 250 feet, and 'Old Faithful' spouts up
+once an hour. The Park contains many other natural wonders, and there
+are preserved herds of wild animals, such as elks, antelopes, and stags.
+Even beavers have found a refuge in its streams."
+
+"Are there dangerous beasts of prey in these mountains?" asks Gunnar
+while the train puffs and rolls heavily up a dark valley.
+
+"Yes; the grizzly bear is the largest of them. He is not so particularly
+dangerous, and at any rate is better than his reputation. If he is only
+left in peace he will not come near a man, and if he is attacked he
+almost always takes to flight. But if he is wounded at close quarters he
+may take a terrible revenge, and he is the strongest of all the animals
+in his native haunts. It was formerly considered a great honour to wear
+a necklace of a grizzly bear's teeth and claws.
+
+"It is a fine sight to see a grizzly bear roaming through the woods and
+thickets, where he considers himself absolute master of all the animals
+of the region. He is sometimes brownish, sometimes grey, and a grey bear
+is supposed to be more dangerous than a brown. He lives like all other
+bears, hibernates, eats berries, fruit, nuts, and roots, but he also
+kills animals and is said to be very expert in fishing. I will tell you
+a little hunting story.
+
+"A white hunter was once eager for an opportunity of killing a grizzly
+bear, and a young Indian undertook to lead him to a spot where he would
+not have to wait long. The two marksmen hid behind a small knoll, after
+having laid out a newly-killed deer as bait. The Indian, who knew the
+habits of bears, was not mistaken. Soon a huge bear came waddling out
+of the wood with such a ridiculous gait that the white hunter could
+hardly control his laughter, though the Indian remained silent and
+serious. The old fellow stopped frequently, lifted his nose in the air,
+and looked about to convince himself that no danger lurked around. Once
+he began to scratch in the ground, and then smelled his forepaws and lay
+down on his back and rolled. He wanted probably to rub his coat in some
+strongly smelling plant.
+
+"Then he went on again. After a time he sat and clawed his fur, looked
+at his paws, and licked his pads. Then he scratched himself behind the
+ears with his hind paws. And when his toilet was finished he trotted
+straight towards the place where the deer lay. When he saw the animal he
+was surprised, reared up on his hind legs to his full height, cocked his
+ears, wrinkled his forehead, and seemed perplexed. When he was sure that
+the stag was dead he went up to it and smelt it. Then he went round and
+nosed about on the other side to see if the animal were dead on that
+side also.
+
+"His meditations were here interrupted, for the white hunter fired and
+the bear fell, but raised himself again on his hind legs. The hunter
+followed his example, but the Indian, who saw that the bear was in an
+angry and revengeful mood, advised him to hide himself again quickly.
+Too late! The furious bear had seen his enemy, and rushed in a rolling
+gallop towards his hiding-place. The hunter found it best to run, and in
+a minute was with the Indian perched on the bough of an oak. Here they
+loaded their guns again, while the bear, limping on three legs, made for
+the tree. Hit by two bullets he fell down, tore up the earth and grass
+with his claws, and at last became still."
+
+"It is a shame," said Gunnar, "to kill these kings of the Rocky
+Mountains for amusement or to gain a name as a hunter. Probably they are
+fated to pass away like the bisons and Indians."
+
+"Oh no, not yet. They will long survive in inaccessible regions of the
+mountains and in the uninhabited parts of Canada. But certainly it is a
+shame to destroy them unnecessarily, particularly when we hear of such a
+deed of chivalry as the following.
+
+"A traveller took a young grizzly bear with him to Europe, and on board
+he was a general favourite. He drank and ate and played with the
+sailors, and, curiously enough, conceived a great friendship for a small
+antelope which travelled with him. When the vessel came into port and
+the antelope was being led along a street, a large bulldog fell on the
+defenceless animal. The bear, which was led behind the antelope by a
+chain, perceived his friend's danger, tore himself away from his keeper
+with a single jerk, threw himself on the bulldog, and mauled him so
+badly that he ran away howling with pain."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You may well declare," says Gunnar, "that everything in America is on a
+large scale, but all the same lions and tigers are not found here."
+
+"No, but there are jaguars and pumas instead. Both are more common in
+South than in North America, where the jaguar only comes as far north as
+the south-western States and Mexico. They are found in the outskirts of
+forests and in the tall grass of the pampas, where wild horsemen track
+them down, catch them in lassoes, and drag them after their horses till
+they are strangled. The jaguar also frequents thickets on the
+river-banks and marshes. He keeps to the ground, whereas the bold and
+agile puma even pursues monkeys in the trees. With shrill screams and
+cries of warning the monkeys fly from tree to tree, but the puma is
+after them, crawls out along a swaying branch and jumps over to another
+on the next tree. Both are bloodthirsty robbers, but the jaguar is the
+larger, stronger, and more savage. He can never be properly tamed, and
+never loses his innate treacherousness, but the puma becomes as tame as
+a dog.
+
+"The puma never attacks a man, but you must be on your guard against a
+jaguar. Both are enemies of flocks and herds, but while the puma never
+worries tame animals larger than sheep, the jaguar will often attack
+horses, mules, and young cattle. The jaguar hunts only at daybreak and
+twilight, or when the moon shines brightly; the puma only in the evening
+and at night. The puma is dark reddish-yellow, the jaguar orange with
+black spots and rings on his fur, a marking which reminds one of the
+colour of certain poisonous snakes. The puma's cubs are charming little
+creatures, like kittens, but larger. Their eyes do not open until they
+are ten days old; then they begin to crawl about very awkwardly,
+tumbling down at every other step, and climb up on their mother's back.
+They soon become sure on their feet and, like kittens, play with their
+mother's tail.
+
+"The jaguar is a keen and patient hunter. He crawls along on his belly
+like a cat, and from the recesses of the thicket watches his victim
+without moving an eye. He creeps nearer with wonderful agility and
+noiselessness, and when he is sure of success he makes his spring, tears
+open the throat of the antelope, sheep, or waterhog, and drags his booty
+into the thicket. Small animals he swallows hair and all. Of a horse he
+eats as much as he can, and then goes off to sleep in some concealed
+spot. When he awakes he goes back to his meal.
+
+"On one road in South America twenty Indians were killed by jaguars
+within a lifetime. If a man has presence of mind enough to shout and
+make a noise and go towards the brute, the latter withdraws. Otherwise
+he is lost, for even if he escapes with his life, the wounds inflicted
+by the jaguar's blunt claws and teeth are terrible and dangerous. There
+are Indians in South America who are said to hunt the jaguar in the
+following manner. They wrap a sheepskin round the left arm and in the
+right hand hold a sharp two-edged knife. Then they beat up the jaguar
+and set dogs at him. He gets up on his hind legs like a bear, and
+attacks one of the Indians. The man puts out his left arm for him to
+bite, and at the same time runs his knife into the beast's heart.
+
+"A traveller relates a very good jaguar tale. Some sailors from Europe
+had landed on the bank of a river in South America. Suddenly they saw a
+jaguar swimming over from the farther bank. They hurriedly seized their
+guns, manned their boat, and rowed out to meet the animal. A shot was
+fired and the jaguar was wounded, but instead of making off, he came
+straight for the boat. The sailors belaboured him with the oars, but he
+paid no attention and managed to drag himself on to the boat, when the
+crew all jumped out and swam to the bank. The jaguar remained, and
+drifted comfortably down the river. A little farther down came a boat of
+other sailors, and this time it was the jaguar who jumped out and
+disappeared among the thickets on the bank. It was a great feat to make
+his escape after tackling two boats' crews."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The train continues on its noisy course through the mountains. Dark,
+wild glens open on either side. The monotonous rumble of the wheels on
+the rails has a soothing effect, and the German, following the example
+of many other travellers, goes to sleep in his corner.
+
+But when the tireless locomotive draws its row of heavy carriages out on
+to a giddy bridge and the waves of sound sing in brighter tones than in
+the enclosed valleys, the compartment wakes to life again. People look
+out of the windows and gaze at the yawning depth beneath them. The
+train seems to be rolling out into space on the way to heaven.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXIV. CANONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER.]
+
+The German lights a cigar and begins another lecture to his
+fellow-traveller.
+
+"Here we are passing over one of the source streams of the Colorado
+River. You seem disinclined to admit that everything is grand in
+America, but I maintain that nothing in the world can compare with the
+great canon of the Colorado. You may believe me or not. You may talk of
+fire-vomiting mountains and coral reefs, of the peak of Mount Everest
+and the great abysses of the ocean, of our light blue Alps in Europe and
+of the dark forests of Africa, nay, you may take me where you will in
+the world, but I shall still maintain that there is no stupendous
+overpowering beauty comparable to the canons of the Colorado River
+(Plate XXXIV.).
+
+"Listen! This river which discharges its waters into the Gulf of
+California is fed by numerous streams in the rainy, elevated regions of
+the Rocky Mountains. But where the united river leaves Utah and passes
+into Arizona, it traverses a dry plateau country with little rain, where
+its waters have cut their way down through mountain limestone to a depth
+of 6000 feet. The strata are horizontal, and the whole series has been
+cleared away by the continued erosive power of water, aided by gravel
+and boulders. This work has been going on from the commencement of the
+period in the world's history known as the Pliocene Age, and it is
+reckoned that the interval which must have elapsed since then must have
+amounted to millions of years. And yet this space of time, from the
+Pliocene Age to our own, must, geologically speaking, be extremely
+insignificant compared to the length of the great geological periods.
+The six thousand years which we call the historical period is but the
+beat of a second on the clock of eternity, and what the historian calls
+primeval times is the latest and most recent period in the last of all
+the geologist's ages. For while the historian deals with revolutions of
+the sun of only 365 days, the geologist is only satisfied with thousands
+and millions of years. The Colorado River has presented him with one of
+the standards by which he is able to calculate lapse of time. You will
+acknowledge that it is no small feat for running water to cut its way
+down through solid rock to a depth of 6500 feet; and these canons are
+more than 180 miles long and four to eleven miles broad.
+
+"By its work here the river has sculptured in the face of the earth a
+landscape which awes and astonishes the spectator. It is like nothing
+he has ever seen before. When he stood at the foot of the Alps he gazed
+up at the snow-clad wastes of the mighty mountain masses. When he stands
+at the edge of the canons of the Colorado he looks down and sees a
+yawning chasm, and on the other side of the giddy ravine the walls rise
+perpendicular or sloping. He seems to stand before the artistically
+decorated facade of a gigantic house or palace in an immense town. He
+sees in the walls of the valley, niches and excavations like a Roman
+theatre, with benches rising in tiers. At their sides stand gables and
+projections of rock, like turrets and buttresses. Under huge cornices
+rise columns standing out or attached at the back, all planned on the
+same gigantic scale. The precipitous cliffs are dark, and the whole
+country is coloured in pink, yellow, red, and warm brown tones. The sun
+pours its gold over the majestic desolation. No grassy sward, no
+vegetation carpets the horizontal or vertical surfaces with green. Here
+and there a pine leans its crown over the chasm, and when the cones fall
+they go right down to the bottom.
+
+"In the early morning, when the air is still pure and clear after the
+coolness of the night, and when the sun is low, the canon lies in deep
+gloom, and behind the brightly lighted tops of the columns the shadows
+lie as black as soot. Then the bold sculpturing stands out in all its
+glory. On a quiet night, when the moon holds its crescent above the
+earth, an oppressive silence prevails over this region. The roar of the
+river is not heard, for the distance is too great. A feeling of romance
+takes hold of the visitor. He fancies himself in a fairy world. Only a
+step over the edge and he would soar on invisible wings to a bright
+wonderland."
+
+At Salt Lake City the German leaves the train to begin his
+investigations round the Great Salt Lake and the Mormon capital. Gunnar
+travels on through the mountainous districts of Nevada and California,
+and when the train at last pulls up at San Francisco he has reached the
+goal of his hopes.
+
+Here is one of the finest cities in the world, situated on a peninsula
+in a deep and spacious inlet surrounded by mountains. Almost all traces
+of the terrible earthquake which a few years ago destroyed the city have
+disappeared, and splendid new buildings of iron and stone have sprung up
+from the rubbish heaps, for as a commercial emporium San Francisco has
+the same importance with relation to the great routes across the Pacific
+as New York has on the Atlantic side.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SOUTH AMERICA
+
+
+THE INCA EMPIRE
+
+A terrestrial globe naturally presents a better image of the earth than
+any map, for it shows plainly the continents and the configuration of
+the oceans, and exhibits clearly their position and relative size. If
+you examine such a globe, you notice that the North Pole lies in the
+midst of a sea, surrounded by great masses of land, whereas the South
+Pole is in an extensive land surrounded by a wide sea. Perhaps you
+wonder why all the continents send out peninsulas southwards? Just look
+at the Scandinavian Peninsula, and look at Spain, Italy, and Greece. Do
+not Kamtchatka and Korea, Arabia and the Indian Peninsula all point
+south? South America, Africa, and Australia are drawn out into wedges
+narrowing southwards. They are like stalactites in a grotto. But however
+much you may puzzle over the globe, and however much you may question
+learned men, you will never know why the earth's surface has assumed
+exactly the form it has and no other.
+
+On another occasion you may remark that Europe, Asia, Africa, and
+Australia lie in an almost continuous curve in the eastern hemisphere,
+while America has the western hemisphere all to itself. There it lies as
+a huge dividing wall between two oceans. You wonder why the New World
+has such a peculiar form stretching from pole to pole.
+
+Perhaps you think that the Creator must have changed His mind at the
+last moment, and decided to make two distinct continents of America. You
+seem to see the marks of His omnipotent hands. With the left He held
+North America, and in the right South America. Where Hudson Bay runs
+into the land lay His forefinger, and the Gulf of Mexico is the
+impression of His thumb. South America He gripped with the whole hand,
+and there is only a slight mark of the thumb just on the boundary
+between Peru and Chile. It almost looks as if He grasped the continent
+so tightly that its western border was crumpled into great wrinkles and
+folds which we men call the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. If we did not
+know that it is the ocean winds that feed the rivers with rain, we
+should be tempted to believe that the Mississippi, Amazons, Rio de la
+Plata, and other rivers were moisture still running out of the mountains
+under the pressure of the Creator's hands.
+
+And so He has divided America into two. In one place the connection
+broke, but the fragments still remain, and we call them the West Indies
+or Antilles. In other places the material was too tough. Mexico thins
+out southwards as though it were going to end in the sea, and Central
+America is stretched like a wrung-out cloth. Between Guatemala and
+Honduras it is almost torn through, and the large lake of Nicaragua is
+another weak point. But where Costa Rica passes into the Isthmus of
+Panama the connection between the two halves of the New World has been
+almost broken and hangs only by a hair. The peninsula, however, resisted
+the pull, and has held, though reduced to a breadth of forty miles.
+
+Then, of course, man must come and help the Creator to finish the work
+which He Himself found very good. It was long before men ventured on so
+gigantic an undertaking, but as they had succeeded in separating Africa
+from Asia, it was no doubt feasible to blast a canal through the hills
+of the Isthmus of Panama, 300 feet high. It has cost many years and many
+millions, but the great cutting will soon be ready which will sever
+South America from the northern half of the New World. It is surely a
+splendid undertaking to make it possible for a vessel to sail from
+Liverpool direct to San Francisco without rounding the whole of South
+America, and at a single blow to shorten the distance by near 6000
+miles.
+
+The bridge still stands unbroken, however, and we come dryshod over to
+South America just where the Andes begin their mighty march along all
+the west coast. Their ranges rise, here in double and there in many
+folds, like ramparts against the Pacific Ocean, and between the ranges
+lie plains at a height of 12,000 feet. Here also lift themselves on high
+the loftiest summits of the New World--Aconcagua in Argentina, the
+highest of all, an extinct volcano covered with eternal snow and
+glistening glaciers; Sorata in Bolivia; the extinct volcano Chimborazo
+in Ecuador, like a marble dome; and lastly, one of the earth's most
+noted mountains, Cotopaxi, the highest of all still active volcanoes
+(Plate XXXV.). Stand for a moment in the valley above the tree limit,
+where only scattered plants can find hold in the hard ground. You see a
+cone as regular as the peak of Fujiyama. The crater is 2500 feet in
+diameter, and from its edge, 19,600 feet high, the snow-cap falls down
+the mountain sides like the rays of a gigantic starfish. When the
+Spanish conquerors, nearly four hundred years ago, took possession of
+these formerly free countries, Cotopaxi had one of its fearful
+eruptions; and even in more recent times European travellers have seen
+the mantle of snow melt away as from a lighted furnace, while a
+brownish-red reflection from the glowing crater lighted up the
+devastation caused in the villages and valleys at the foot of the
+mountain by the flood of melted snow and streams of lava.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH AMERICA.]
+
+Even under the burning sun of the equator, then, these giants stand with
+mantles of eternal snow and glittering blue fields of ice in the
+bitterly cold atmosphere. Up there you would think that you were near
+the pole. There are no trees on the high crests, which seem to rise up
+from the depths of the Pacific Ocean; but the climate is good, and
+agriculture yields sustenance to men. On the eastern flanks, which are
+watered by abundant rains, the vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant, and
+here the traveller enters the primeval forests of the tropics. Here is
+the home of the cinchona tree, here orchids bloom among the tall trunks,
+and here whole woods are entangled in a network of lianas. Immense areas
+of Brazil and Bolivia are covered with impenetrable primeval forests,
+which even still present an obstacle to the advance of the explorer.
+
+Thus we find in the Andes all zones from the hot to the cold, from
+tropical forests to barren heights, from the equator to high southern
+latitudes.
+
+Among these mountains dwelled in former times a remarkable and
+law-abiding people, who under judicious and cautious kings attained a
+high standard of power and development. To the leading tribe several
+adjacent peoples allied themselves, and in time the mightiest and most
+highly-cultured kingdom of South America flourished among them.
+According to tradition, the ruling royal family took its rise where the
+icefields of some of the loftiest summits of the Andes are reflected in
+the mirror of Lake Titicaca. The king was called Inca, and when we speak
+of the Inca Kingdom we mean old Peru, whose people were crushed and
+annihilated by the Spaniards.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXV. COTOPAXI.]
+
+The Inca Empire extended from Colombia and Ecuador in the north far down
+to the present Chile. The Inca's power was unlimited, and after death he
+was honoured with divine rites. He was surrounded with wealth and
+grandeur. A red headband with white and black feathers was the sign of
+his royal dignity. By his side stood the High Priest, who had to inquire
+into and proclaim the will of the gods.
+
+In Cuzco, the holy city of the Indians, north-west of the Titicaca lake,
+the Inca people had erected a splendid temple to the sun and moon. The
+halls of the sun temple were overlaid with plates of the ruddiest gold,
+and the friezes and doors were of the same precious metal. In the
+principal hall was worshipped an image of the sun with a human face in
+the centre, surrounded by rays of precious stones. In another hall the
+image of the moon goddess glittered in silver.
+
+The sun and moon were, then, the objects of the deepest reverence. But
+the Inca people also prayed to the rainbow and to the god of thunder,
+and believed that certain inferior deities protected their herds,
+dwellings, fields, and canals. They wore on the neck amulets which
+shielded them from danger and sudden death, and were eventually buried
+with them.
+
+The dead were sewed up in hides or matting and interred under the
+dwelling-house, or, in the case of important men, in special funereal
+towers. On the coast the body was placed among boulders, in sand-banks,
+or in large vessels of earthenware. With a dead man were laid his
+weapons and implements, with women their utensils and handiwork, with
+children their playthings. To the dead, flowers and fruit were offered,
+and llamas were sacrificed. Dead Incas were deposited in the temple of
+the sun, and their wives in the hall of the moon.
+
+The Festival of the Sun was held at the winter solstice, and on this
+occasion the Inca himself officiated as High Priest in his capacity as
+the "son of the sun." Then was lighted a fire on the altar of the sun,
+which was kept in all the year by the virgins of the sun. These had a
+convent near the temple, the royal palace and the house of nobles. It
+was also their duty to make costly robes for the priests and princes, to
+brew maize beer for the festivals of the gods, and after victories or a
+change of Incas to offer themselves to the gods.
+
+The earlier history of the Inca people is lost in tradition and the mist
+of legends. We know more of their administration and social condition,
+for the Spanish conquerors saw all with their own eyes. The constitution
+was communistic. All the land, fields, and pastures was divided into
+three parts, of which two belonged to the Inca and the priesthood, and
+the third to the people. The cultivation of the land was supervised by a
+commissioner of the government, who had to see that the produce was
+equitably distributed, and that the ground was properly manured with
+guano from the islands on the west coast. Clothes and domestic animals
+were also distributed by the State to the people. All labour was
+executed in common for the good of the State; roads and bridges were
+made, mines worked, weapons forged, and all the men capable of bearing
+arms had to join the ranks when the kingdom was threatened by hostile
+tribes. The harvest was stored in government warehouses in the various
+provinces. An extremely accurate account was kept of all goods belonging
+to the State, such as provisions, clothes, and weapons. A register was
+kept of births and deaths. No one might change his place of abode
+without permission, and no one might engage in any other occupation than
+that of his father. Military order was maintained everywhere, and
+therefore the Inca people were able to subdue their neighbours.
+Everything was noted down, and yet this remarkable people had no written
+characters, but used cords instead, with knots and loops of various
+colours having different meanings. If the Inca wished to send an order
+to a distant province, he despatched a running messenger with a bundle
+of knotted strings. The recipient had only to look at the strings to
+find out the business on hand.
+
+To facilitate the movement of troops, the Incas constructed two
+excellent roads which met at Cuzco--one in the mountainous country, the
+other along the coast. Europeans have justly admired these grand
+constructions. The military roads were paved with stone, and had walls
+and avenues of trees. At certain intervals were inns where the
+swift-footed couriers could pass the night. The principal highway ran
+from Cuzco to Quito. When the Inca himself was on a journey, he sat on a
+golden throne carried on a litter by the great nobles of the empire.
+
+European explorers still discover grand relics of the Inca period. The
+people did not know the arch, and did not use bricks and mortar, yet
+their temples and fortresses, their gates, towers, and walls are real
+gems of architecture. The joins between the blocks are often scarcely
+visible, and some portals are hewn out of a single block with artistic
+and original chiselled figures and images of the sun god on the facades.
+
+Their skill in pottery was of equal excellence, and as workers in metal
+there was none to match them in the South American continent. They made
+clubs and axes of bronze, and vessels and ornaments of gold and silver.
+In their graves modern explorers have found many striking proofs of
+their proficiency in the art of weaving. They used the wool of llamas,
+alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos. These species of animal, allied to the
+camel, still render great services to the Indians. The llama is
+distributed over the greater part of the Andes, and the male only is
+used as a transport animal. The llama is shy, stupid, and quiet, and his
+head is somewhat like a sheep's. The alpaca does not carry loads, but is
+kept as a domestic animal for the sake of its meat and wool. The vicuna
+and guanaco also do not work in the service of man. The latter is found
+chiefly on the steppes of Patagonia, where he meets the fate of the
+South American ostrich and falls to the arrows of the Indians.
+
+The Inca people wove clothes of the wool of these animals as well as of
+cotton. The chief garment of the men was a short shirt without sleeves,
+of the women a longer shirt with a belt round the waist. The men wore
+short hair with a black bandage round the head; and outside the bandage
+they wound a noose or lasso. The women wore their hair long. Sandals
+covered the feet, and in the ear-lobes were inserted round pegs. The
+people reared and grazed cattle, as we have seen, and were hunters and
+fishermen. They grew potatoes and many other root crops, bananas,
+tobacco, and cotton, and sowed extensive fields of maize. They had all
+the characteristics of the American race--a short skull, sharply cut
+features, and a powerfully built body.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For centuries the Inca people had lived in undisturbed repose in their
+beautiful valleys and on their sunlit tablelands between the mountain
+ranges--or _cordilleras_, as they are called--which compose the Andes.
+If their peace was occasionally disturbed by neighbouring tribes,
+messages in knotted signs flew through the country, and the roads were
+full of armed men; but the Inca kings dreamed of no serious danger. For
+several hundred years their power had passed from father to son, and no
+neighbour was strong enough to wrest the sceptre from the Inca king's
+hand. Not a whisper of such names as Chimborazo and Cotopaxi had
+reached Europe.
+
+A great Inca had recently died and bequeathed his power to his two sons,
+Huascar and Atahualpa. Just as always in the Old World, such a partition
+produced friction and disputes, and at length civil war broke out. After
+four hundred years, we read with sorrow the account of the suicidal
+strife which harried old Peru, divided the Inca people into two hostile
+factions, and thus made them an easy prey to the conquerors.
+
+Scarcely had the clash of arms died out after the brave and chivalrous
+Cortez had burned his ships on the coast of Mexico, subdued the kingdom
+of Montezuma, and placed it under the crown of Castille, before another
+Spanish conqueror, the rough, cruel, and treacherous Pizarro, cast his
+eyes southwards, covetous of new gold countries. With a handful of
+adventurers, he made his way down to Peru, but soon perceived that he
+could not succeed without help from the home country. The Emperor
+Charles V. listened to his tale of gold and green forests, and in the
+year 1531 Pizarro set out again, this time with a company of 180
+well-armed cavaliers. By degrees he gathered fresh reinforcements,
+landed on the coast of Peru, and marched into the Inca kingdom.
+
+Pizarro was clever and courageous, but, unlike Cortez, he was a base man
+and a scoundrel. He had no education or proper feeling, and could not
+even write his name, but he was cunning and knew how to take advantage
+of favourable circumstances. By means of scouts and ambassadors he soon
+made himself fully acquainted with the situation. He lulled the fears of
+Atahualpa by offers of peace, with the result that the Inca king
+requested his assistance to crush his brother Huascar. If the brothers
+had held together, they could have driven the Spanish pestilence out of
+the country. Now the fate of both was sealed.
+
+It was agreed that Atahualpa should come in person to Pizarro's camp,
+and he arrived in pomp and state, escorted by an army of 30,000 men. He
+naturally wished to impress his ally with his power. He sat raised on a
+litter of gold, and was surrounded by all his generals.
+
+Then Pizarro's military chaplain stepped forth, a Catholic priest. In
+one hand he held a crucifix, in the other a breviary. Raising his
+crucifix, he exhorted the Inca king in the name of Jesus to accept
+Christianity and to acknowledge the King of Castille as his master.
+Atahualpa retained his composure, and simply answered that no one could
+deprive him of the rights inherited from his fathers. He would not
+forswear his fathers' faith and did not understand what the priest said.
+"It is written here in this book," cried the priest, and handed the
+breviary to the king. Atahualpa held the book to his ear, listened, and
+said as he threw the breviary on the ground, "Your book does not speak."
+
+Without warning, a massacre was commenced. The cannon and muskets of the
+Spaniards ploughed red furrows in the ranks of the Peruvians. Protected
+by their helmets and harness of steel, and with halberts and lances
+lowered, the cavaliers swept irresistibly through the ranks of
+half-naked natives and spread terror and confusion around them. All that
+could be reached with sword, spear, or bullet were mercilessly
+slaughtered. Four thousand dead bodies lay scattered over the ground,
+among thousands wounded and bleeding. The rest of the army was
+completely scattered and took to flight. The Inca king himself had been
+early taken captive to be kept as a hostage. Enormous plunder fell into
+the hands of the victors. The report of a land of gold in the south had
+not been an empty tale; here was gold in heaps. The loot was generously
+divided between the officers and men, and, with the crucifix raised to
+heaven, the priest read mass while the other villains thanked God for
+victory.
+
+The captive Inca king begged and prayed to be set at liberty. But
+Pizarro promised to release him only after he had bound himself to fill
+a moderate-sized room with gold from the floor up to as high as he could
+reach with his hand. Then messages in knotted cords were carried through
+all the country which remained faithful to Atahualpa, and vessels,
+bowls, ornaments, and ingots of gold poured in from temples and palaces.
+In a short time the room was filled and the ransom paid, but the Inca
+king was still kept a prisoner. He reminded Pizarro of his promised
+word. The unscrupulous adventurer laughed in his black beard. Instead of
+keeping his promise, he accused Atahualpa of conspiracy, condemned him
+to death, and the innocent and pious Indian king was strangled in
+prison. By this abominable deed the whole Spanish conquest was covered
+with shame and disgrace.
+
+One of Pizarro's comrades in arms, Almagro, now arrived with
+reinforcements, and with an army of 500 men Pizarro marched on through
+the high lands to the capital, Cuzco, which he captured. Then he fell
+out with Almagro, and the latter determined to seek out other gold
+countries in the south on his own account. With a small party he marched
+up into the mountains of Bolivia, and then followed the coast southwards
+to the neighbourhood of Aconcagua. He certainly found no gold, but he
+achieved a great exploit, for he led his troop through the dreaded
+Atacama desert.
+
+Meanwhile Pizarro ruled in the conquered kingdom. Close to the coast he
+founded Lima, which was afterwards for a long period the residence of
+the Spanish viceroy, and is now, with nearly 150,000 inhabitants, still
+the capital of Peru. It has a large number of monasteries and churches,
+and a stately cathedral. The port town, Callao, was almost totally
+destroyed a hundred and sixty-six years ago by a tidal wave, which
+drowned the inhabitants and swept away the houses; but it gradually
+regained its prosperity, and now has 50,000 inhabitants.
+
+At length, however, Pizarro roused a formidable insurrection by his
+cruelty, and while he was besieged in Lima his three brothers were shut
+up in Cuzco. Just then Almagro returned from the Atacama desert,
+defeated the Peruvians, seized Cuzco, and made the three Pizarro
+brothers prisoners. But the fourth brother, the conqueror, succeeded in
+effecting their liberation and in capturing Almagro, who was at once
+sent to the gallows. A few years later, however, Almagro's friends
+wreaked vengeance on Pizarro; a score of conspirators rushed into the
+governor's palace and made their way with drawn swords into the room
+where Pizarro was surrounded by some friends and servants. Most of these
+jumped through the window; the rest were cut down. Pizarro defended
+himself bravely, but after killing four of his assailants he fell to the
+ground, and with a loud voice asked to be allowed to make his
+confession. While he was making the sign of the cross on the ground, a
+sword was thrust into his throat.
+
+The murdered Inca king is an emblem of bleeding South America. All was
+done, it was pretended, in order to spread enlightenment and
+Christianity, but in reality the children of the country were lured to
+destruction, deluded to fill Spanish coffers with gold, and then in
+requital were persecuted to death. Civilisation had no part in the
+matter; it was only a question of robbery and greed of gain, and when
+these desires were satisfied, the descendants of the Incas might be
+swept off the earth.
+
+
+THE AMAZONS RIVER
+
+In Peru the largest river of the world takes its source, and streams
+northwards among the verdant _cordilleras_ of the Andes. Wheat waves on
+its banks, and here and there stands a funereal tower or a ruin from
+Inca times. Small rafts take the place of bridges, and at high water the
+river rushes foaming furiously through the valley.
+
+And then it suddenly turns eastwards and cuts its way with unbridled
+fury through the eastern ridges of the Andes. The water forces itself
+through ravines barely 50 yards wide and dashes with a deafening roar
+over falls and rapids. Sometimes the river rests from its labours,
+expanding to a width of two or three furlongs. Crystal affluents hurry
+down from the snow-fields of the Andes to join it. It takes its tribute
+of water from mountain and forest, and is indeed a majestic stream when
+it leaves the last hills behind.
+
+The source of the Amazons was discovered in 1535 by Maranon, a Spanish
+soldier. Vicente Pinzon had discovered its mouth in the year 1500. But
+Maranon, on the one hand, had no notion where the river emerged into the
+sea, and Pinzon, on the other, knew not where the headwaters purled
+through the valley. It was reserved for another Spaniard to solve the
+problem. Let us follow Orellana on his adventurous journey.
+
+Gonzalo Pizarro served under his brother, the conqueror, in northern
+Peru. There he heard of rich gold countries in the east, and decided to
+seek them. With an army of 350 Spanish cavalry and infantry, as well as
+4000 Indians, he set out from Quito and marched over the Andes past the
+foot of Cotopaxi to the lowlands of the Napo River.
+
+It was a reckless enterprise. The Indians were frozen to death in crowds
+on the great heights. Instead of gold, nothing was found but wearisome
+savannahs and swamps, and dismal forests soaked with two months' rain.
+Instead of useful domestic animals, no creature was seen but the
+thick-skinned tapir, which, with a long beak-like nose, crops plants and
+leaves and frequents swampy tracts in the heart of the primeval forest.
+The few natives were hostile.
+
+When the troop reached the Napo River on New Year's Day, 1540, Pizarro
+decided to send the bold seaman Orellana on in front down the river to
+look for people and provisions, for famine with all its tortures
+threatened them.
+
+A camp was set up and a wharf constructed. A small brigantine for sails
+and oars was hastily put together, and Orellana stepped on board with a
+crew of fifty men, and the boat was borne down the strong current.
+
+Dark and silent woods stood on both sides. No villages, no human beings
+were seen. Tall trees stood on the bank like triumphal arches, and from
+their boughs hung lianas serving as rope ladders and swings for sportive
+monkeys with prehensile tails. Day after day the vessel glided farther
+into this humid land never before seen by white men. The Spaniards
+looked in vain for natives, and their eyes tried in vain to pierce the
+green murkiness between the tree trunks. The men showed increasing
+uneasiness; but Orellana sat quietly at the helm, gave his orders to the
+rowers, and had the sail hoisted to catch the breeze that swept over the
+water.
+
+No camping-places on points of the bank, no huts roofed with palm leaves
+or grass, no smoke indicated the vicinity of Indians. In a thicket by a
+brook lay a boa constrictor, a snake allied to the python of the Old
+World, in easy, elegant coils, digesting a small rodent somewhat like a
+hare and called an agouti. At the margin of the bank some water-hogs
+wallowed in the sodden earth full of roots, and under a vault of thorny
+bushes lay their worst enemy, the jaguar, in ambush, his eyes glowing
+like fire.
+
+At length the country became more open. Frightened Indians appeared on
+the bank, and their huts peeped through the forest avenues. Orellana
+moored his boat and landed with his men. The savages were quiet, and
+received the Spaniards trustingly, so the latter stayed for a time and
+collected all the provisions they could obtain. The Indians spoke of a
+great water in the south which could be reached in ten days.
+
+The fifty Spaniards were now in excellent spirits, and set to work
+eagerly to construct another smaller sailing vessel. When this was done,
+Orellana filled both his boats with provisions, manned the larger with
+thirty and the smaller with twenty men, and continued his wonderful
+journey, which was to furnish the explanation of the great river system
+of tropical America. Around him stretched the greatest tropical lowland
+of the world, before him ran the most voluminous river of the earth. He
+saw nothing but forest and water, a bewitched country. He had no
+equipment beyond that which was afforded by the Napo's banks, and his
+men grumbled daily at the long, dangerous voyage.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXVI. INDIAN HUTS ON THE AMAZONS RIVER.]
+
+After ten days the two boats came to the "great water," where the Napo
+yields its tribute to the Amazons River. The latter was then rising
+fast, and when it is at its height, in June and July, the water lies
+forty feet above its low water-level. Farther down the difference tends
+to disappear, for the northern tributaries come from the equator, where
+it rains at all seasons, while the southern rise at different times
+according to the widely separated regions where their sources lie. To
+travel from the foot of the _cordilleras_ to the mouth the high water of
+the main river takes two months.
+
+The Spaniards felt as if they were carried over a boundless lake. Where
+the banks are low the forests are flooded for miles, and the trees stand
+up out of the water. Then the wild animals fly to safer districts, and
+only water birds and forest birds remain, with such four-footed animals
+as spend all their lives in trees. The fifty men noticed that certain
+stretches on the banks were never reached by the high water, and it was
+only at these places that the Indians built their huts, just as the
+indiarubber gatherers do at the present day (Plate XXXIV.).
+
+When the high water retired, large patches of the loose, sodden banks
+were undermined, and fell into the river, weighed down by the huge trees
+they supported. Islands of timber, roots, earth, and lianas were carried
+away by the current. Some stranded on shallows in the middle of the
+river, others grounded at projections of the bank, and other rubbish was
+piled up against them till the whole mass broke away and danced down the
+river towards the sea. Here the men had to be careful, for at any moment
+the boats might capsize against a grounded tree trunk. Deep pools also
+were found, and the current ran at the rate of 2-1/2 feet a second, and
+they often had the help of the wind.
+
+They soon learned to know by the changed appearance of the forest where
+they could land. Where the royal crowns of foliaged trees reared their
+waving canopy above the palms they could be sure of finding dry ground;
+but if the palms with verdant luxuriance raised their plumes above low
+brushwood, they might be sure that the bank was flooded by the river.
+
+If the voyage on the capricious river was dangerous, the Spaniards were
+still more disturbed by Indians, who came paddling up in their canoes
+and showered poisoned arrows on the boats. To get through in safety, the
+explorers had to avoid the banks as much as possible.
+
+At the end of May they drifted past the mouth of the Rio Negro, which
+discharges a large volume of water, for it collects streams from
+Venezuela and Guiana, and from the wet _llanos_, or open plains, north
+of the Amazons River. Where the great tributary is divided by islands it
+attains a breadth of as much as thirty miles.
+
+Here Orellana stayed several weeks with friendly Indians, who lived in
+pretty huts under the boughs of bananas. The vessels were repaired, and
+provisions taken on board--maize, chickens, turtles, and fish. There
+were swarms of edible turtles, and the Indians caught them and collected
+their eggs; and the fish were abundant and various--no wonder, when two
+thousand species of fish live in the basin of the Amazons.
+
+Shortly afterwards they glided past the mouth of the Madeira, a mile and
+a half broad, which discharges a volume of water little inferior to that
+of the main river. For the Madeira has its sources far to the south, and
+descends partly from the _cordilleras_ of Peru and Bolivia, partly from
+the plateau of Brazil.
+
+Woods and no end of water, month after month! The heat is the same all
+the year round--not very excessive, seldom 104 deg., but still oppressive
+and enervating because of the humidity of the air. Yet the voyage was
+not monotonous. Leaning against the masts and gunwale, or leisurely
+moving the oars, the soldiers could observe the dolphins leaping in the
+river, the sudden darts of the alligators as they hunted the fish
+through the water, or the clumsy movements of the manati, one of the
+Sirenia, as it cropped grass at the edge of the bank, to the danger of
+the eel-like lung fish, which sometimes goes up on to dry land.
+Sometimes they saw the Indians in light canoes pursue manatis and
+alligators with harpoons for the sake of their flesh, and perhaps they
+felt a shiver at the sight of the huge water-snakes of the Amazons
+River.
+
+On they went through the immense forest which extends from the foot of
+the Andes and the sources of the Madeira to the mouths of the
+Orinoco--through this dense, rank carpet which covers all the lowlands
+of Brazil with its teeming and superabundant life, and which is so
+bountifully watered by tropical rains and flooded rivers. All the rain
+that falls on the _llanos_ and the _selvas_ (as the wooded plains are
+called) makes its way through innumerable affluents to the Amazons and
+enters the sea through its trumpet-shaped mouth. The river, with its
+forests, is like a cornucopia of vast, wild, irrepressible nature, where
+life breathes and pulsates, where it bubbles and ripples, seethes and
+ferments in the soft productive soil, where animals swarm, and beetles
+and butterflies are more numerous than anywhere else on our earth, and
+are clad in the most gorgeous hues of the tropics. There old trees on
+the bank are undermined and washed away, while others decay in the
+sultry recesses of the forest. There the earth is constantly fertilised
+by the manure of animals and their corpses and by dead vegetation, and
+there new generations are continually rising up from the graves in
+nature's inexhaustible kingdom.
+
+The Spaniards had no time to make excursions into the country from their
+camps. It is difficult to make one's way through this intricate, ragged
+network of climbing plants between trunks, boughs, bushes, and
+undergrowth. In the interior, far away from the waterways, and
+especially between some of the southern tributaries, lie forests unknown
+and untrodden since heathen times. Perhaps there are Indian tribes among
+them who have not yet heard that America has been discovered, and who
+may congratulate themselves that the forests are too much for the white
+men.
+
+There palms predominate in a peaceful Eden, and at their feet flourish
+ferns with stems as hard as wood. In the bamboo clumps the jaguars play
+with their cubs, and on the outskirts of the swamps the peccary, a sort
+of small pig, jumps on his long, supple legs. A dark-green gloom
+prevails under the tall bay-trees, and their stems stand under their
+crowns like the columns of a church nave. There thrive mimosas and
+various species of fig, and climbing palms are not ashamed of their
+inquisitiveness.
+
+See this tree 200 feet high, with its round, hard fruits as large as a
+child's head! When they are ripe they fall, and the shell opens to let
+out the triangular seeds which we call Brazil nuts.
+
+Look at the indiarubber tree with its light-coloured stem, its
+light-green foliage, and its white sap, which, when congealed, rolls
+round motor wheels through streets and roads.
+
+Here again is a tree that every one knows about. It grows to a height of
+50 feet, and bears large, smooth, leathery leaves, but its blossoms
+issue from the stem and not among the foliage. Its cucumber-shaped
+orange fruits ripen at almost all seasons in the perpetual summer of the
+Amazons. In the fruit the seeds lie in rows. The tree grows wild in the
+forests, but was cultivated by the Indians before the arrival of white
+men, and they prepared from it a drink which they called "chocolatl." It
+was bitter, but the addition of sugar and vanilla made it palatable.
+This tree is called the cocoa-tree.
+
+Still better known and more popular is another drink--coffee. The
+coffee-tree is not found in the primeval forests, but in plantations,
+and even there it is a guest, for its native country is Kaffa in
+Abyssinia, and coffee came from Arabia to Europe through Constantinople.
+Now Brazil produces three-fourths of all the world's coffee, and in all
+thousands of millions of pounds of coffee are consumed yearly.
+
+The vanilla plant, also, is one of the wonderful inmates of the forests.
+In order that the wild plants which are indigenous in the mountain
+forests of Mexico and Peru may produce fruit, the pollen must be carried
+by insects. Many years ago the plant was transported to the island of
+Reunion in the Indian Ocean, where it throve capitally, but bore no
+fruit. The helpful insects of its native country were absent. Then
+artificial fertilisation with pollen was successfully attempted, and now
+Reunion supplies most of the vanilla in the world's markets.
+
+Think again of all the animals which live in the forest and its
+outskirts towards the savannahs! There is the singular opossum, and
+there is the sluggish, scaly armadillo, which loves the detestable
+termites--those white ants which, with their sharp mandibles, gnaw to
+pieces paper, clothes, wood, the whole house in fact. Then there is the
+climbing sloth, with its round monkey head and large curved claws. All
+day long it remains sleepily hanging under a bough, and only wakes up
+when night falls. It lives only on trees and eats leaves. In far-back
+ages there were sloths as large as rhinoceroses and elephants. We have,
+too, the raccoon in a greyish-yellow coat, also a nocturnal animal,
+which sleeps during the day in a hollow tree. He lives on small mammals
+and birds, eggs and fruits, but before he swallows his food he cleans it
+well, generally in water.
+
+There is a perpetual gloom under the crowns of the foliaged trees and
+palms. It is the home of shadows. Only lianas, these parasites of the
+vegetable kingdom, raise their stems above the dusky vault to open their
+calyces in the sun. Round them flutter innumerable butterflies in gaudy
+colours. On the border between sunlight and shade scream droll parrots,
+and busy pigeons steer their way among the trees on rustling wings.
+There humming-birds dart like arrows through the air. They are small,
+dainty birds with breast, neck, and head shining like metal with the
+brightest, most vivid colouring. They build their nests carefully with
+vegetable fibres and moss, and their beaks are long and fine as a reed.
+There is a humming-bird which does not grow longer than an inch and a
+half, and weighs little more than fifteen grains.
+
+We must now go back to see how Orellana got on with his two brigantines.
+
+Below the mouth of the Madeira he landed once on the northern bank in a
+region inhabited only by tall Amazons, from whom the river received its
+name. But the tale of Amazons was really a sailor's romance, just as the
+Spaniards dreamed of Eldorado, or the land of gold.
+
+On they went and the river never ended. During their voyage they saw in
+lakes by the bank, well sheltered and exposed to the sun, the grandest
+of all flowers, the _Victoria regia_ of the water-lily family, floating
+on the water. Its leaves measure six feet in diameter, and the blossoms
+are more than a foot across. The flowers open only two evenings, first
+white and then purple.
+
+Between the mouths of the mighty tributaries Tapajos and Xingu the
+Spaniards saw the great grassy plains stretching up to the river. They
+only just escaped cannibals on the northern bank. Warned by friendly
+Indians, they were on their guard against the _piroroca_, the mysterious
+bore, fifteen feet high, which is connected with the flow of the tide
+and rushes up the river twice a month from the sea, devastating
+everything. Finally they came to the northern mouth of the Amazons
+River, having traversed 2500 out of the 3600 miles of its length.
+
+Here Orellana decked his vessels over and sailed out to sea, making for
+the West Indies along the coasts of Guiana and Venezuela. Even after the
+coast was lost to sight he still sailed in yellow, muddy, fresh water,
+and he was far to the north before he came to blue-green sea-water. For
+three hundred miles from the mouth the fresh river water overlies the
+salt. At Christmas he dropped his anchor on the coast of San Domingo,
+and his grand exploit was achieved.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+IN THE SOUTH SEAS
+
+
+ALBATROSSES AND WHALES
+
+Like the sting on the scorpion's poison gland, Tierra del Fuego, the
+most southern land of America, juts out into the southern sea. It is
+separated from the mainland by the sound which bears the name of the
+intrepid Magellan. In the primeval forests of the interior grow
+evergreen beeches, and there copper-brown Indians of the Ona tribe
+formerly held unlimited sway. Like their brethren all over the New
+World, they have been thrust out by white men and are doomed to
+extinction. They were only sojourners on the coasts of Tierra del Fuego,
+and their term has expired. Only a few now remain, but they still retain
+the old characteristics of their race, are powerfully built, warlike and
+brave, live at feud with their neighbours, and kindle their camp fires
+in the woods, on the shores of lakes, or on the coast.
+
+Many a sailing vessel has come to grief in the Straits of Magellan. The
+channel is dangerous, and has a bad reputation for violent squalls,
+which beat down suddenly over the precipitous cliffs. It is safer to
+keep to the open sea and sail to the south of the islands of Tierra del
+Fuego. Here the surges of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans roar together
+against the high cliffs of Cape Horn.
+
+Who listens to this song, who gazes with royal disdain down over the
+spray, who wonders why the breakers have been there for thousands of
+years pounding against gates that never open, who soars at this moment
+with outspread wings over Cape Horn--who but the albatross, the largest
+of all storm birds, the boldest and most unwearied of all the winged
+inhabitants of the realm of air?
+
+Look at him well, for in a second he will be gone. You see that he is
+as large as a swan, has a short, thick neck, a large head with a
+powerful pink and yellowish bill, and that he is quite white except
+where his wing feathers are black. His wings are wonders of creation.
+When he folds them, they cling close to the body and seem to disappear;
+but now he has spread them out, and they measure twelve feet from tip to
+tip. They are long and narrow, thin and finely formed as a sword blade.
+He moves them with amazing steadiness, and excels all other birds in
+strength and endurance. No bird has such an elegant and majestic flight.
+He spreads his wings like sails with taut sheets, and soars at a
+whistling pace up against the wind. Follow him with your eyes hour after
+hour in the hardest wind, and you will see that he makes a scarcely
+perceptible beat of his wings only every seventh minute, keeping them
+between whiles perfectly still. That is his secret. All his skill
+consists in his manner of holding his wings expanded and the inclination
+he gives to his excellent monoplane in relation to his body and the
+wind. Everything else, change of elevation, and movement forwards with
+or against the wind, is managed by the wind itself. When he wishes to
+rise from the surface of the sea he spreads his wings, turns towards the
+wind, and lets it lift him up. Then he soars in elegant curves and
+glides up the invisible hills of the atmosphere.
+
+Most noteworthy is the perfect freedom of the albatross. He shuns the
+mainland and breeds on solitary islands; he can scarcely move on the
+ground, and when he is forced to alight he waddles clumsily along like a
+swan. He comes in contact with the earth only at the nest, where the hen
+sits on her single egg and tucks her white head under her wing.
+Otherwise he does not touch the ground. He finds his food on the surface
+of the sea, and spends three-fourths of his life in the air. There he
+soars about from sea to sea like a satellite to the earth, moving freely
+and lightly round the heavy globe as it rolls through space.
+
+He is not restricted to any particular course, no distance is too great
+for him; he simply rests on his wings and sweeps easily from ocean to
+ocean. He is, however, rarer in the Atlantic than in the Pacific Ocean,
+and he avoids the heat of equatorial regions. He sails in any other
+direction he pleases, where he has most prospect of satisfying his
+voracious appetite.
+
+What do you think of an albatross which was caught on a vessel and
+marked so that it might be recognised again, and which then followed the
+vessel for six days and nights watching for any refuse thrown out? The
+ship was in the open sea and was sailing twelve knots an hour, but the
+albatross did not tire. Nay, he made circles of miles round the vessel
+at a considerable height. On board the ship the watch was changed time
+after time, for man must rest and sleep, but the albatross needed
+neither sleep nor rest. He had no one to whom he could entrust the
+management of his wings while he slept at night. He kept awake for a
+week without showing any signs of weariness. He flew on and on,
+sometimes disappearing astern, and an hour later appearing again and
+sweeping down on the vessel from the front. That it was the same
+albatross was proved by the mark painted on the breast. Only on the
+seventh day did he leave the ship, dissatisfied with the fare set before
+him. He was then hundreds of miles from the nearest coast.
+
+Just think of all the wonderful and remarkable sights he must witness on
+his airy course! He sees everything that takes place on the decks of
+large sailing vessels, and the smoke rising out of the steamers'
+funnels. He marks the clumsy movements of the twenty-feet-long
+sea-elephants on the gravel shore of the islands of South Georgia, east
+of Cape Horn, and sees the black or grey backs of whales rolling on the
+surface of the water.
+
+Perhaps he has some time wandered away northwards over the Atlantic and
+seen whalers attack the blue whale--the largest animal now living in the
+world, for it often attains to a length of 90 feet. At the present day
+whalers use strongly built, swift, and easily handled steam-launches,
+and shoot the harpoon out from the bow with a pivoted gun. In the head
+of the harpoon is a pointed shell which explodes in the body of the
+whale, dealing a mortal wound, and at the butt end a thick rope is
+secured. The vessel follows the whale until it is dead. Then it is
+hauled up with a steam winch and towed to a whaling station in some bay
+on the coast, where it is flitched. Then the oil is boiled out, poured
+into casks, and sent to market.
+
+Much more picturesque and more dangerous was the whaling witnessed in
+northern seas by the forefathers of the albatross, for man has been for
+a thousand years the worst enemy of the whale, and some species are
+almost exterminated. Then the whalers did not use a gun, but threw the
+harpoon by hand. Every vessel had several keelless whale-boats, pointed
+at both bow and stern, so that they could be rowed forwards or
+backwards. When a whale was seen in the distance the boats set out,
+each boat manned by six experienced whalers. One of them was the
+coxswain, another the harpooner, while the others sat at the oars. The
+harpoon line, an inch thick, lay carefully coiled up, and ran out
+through a brass eye in the bow. Every man knew from long experience what
+he had to do at any particular minute, and therefore there was silence
+on board, all working without orders.
+
+When all is ready one of the boats rows towards the whale, and the
+harpooner throws his sharp weapon with all his strength into the whale's
+flank. Almost before the harpoon has struck the boat is backed swiftly.
+Wild with pain, the whale may strike the boat from above with his
+powerful horizontal caudal fin and crush it at a blow, or he may dive
+below the boat and upset it, but usually he thinks only of making his
+escape. He makes for the depths in fright, and the harpoon line runs
+out, the strands producing a singing sound. Great care is necessary, for
+if the line curls round a man's leg he is carried overboard and is lost.
+The whale dives at once to a depth of a couple of hundred fathoms. There
+it is dark and quiet, and he remains there half an hour or an hour, till
+at length he is obliged to come up to breathe. The lie of the line in
+the water shows approximately where he will come up again, and another
+boat rows to the spot. As soon as he appears above the surface a second
+harpoon whistles through the air.
+
+The whale is now too breathless to dive. He swims along the surface and
+lashes the waves with his tail to free himself from his tormentors. He
+speeds along at a desperate pace, dashing the waves into spray around
+him and drawing the boats after him. The crews have hauled in the lines,
+and the boats are quite close to the whale, but they must be ready to
+pay out the lines if the whale dives. The boats' prows are tilted high
+up into the air and the water streams off them. They shoot forward like
+mad things through the foaming sea, whether it be day or night, and
+pitch up and down over the crests of the waves. With stretched muscles,
+clenched teeth, and glaring eyes the whale-hunters follow the movements
+of the whale and the boat.
+
+They notice that the pace slackens. The whale begins to tire, and at
+last is quite exhausted. Its movements become irregular, it stops and
+throws itself about so that the water spurts up round it. Then a boat
+rows up, and a long spear is thrust in three feet deep towards the
+animal's heart, and perhaps an explosive bullet is fired. If the
+lungs are pierced the whale sends up jets of blood from its
+nostrils--"hoisting the red flag," in the language of whalers. Its time
+is come; it gives up the struggle, and its death tremors show that
+another of the giants of the ocean has bid a last farewell to its
+boundless realm.
+
+
+ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
+
+On motionless wings an albatross hovers high above Cape Horn. His sharp
+eye takes in everything. Now he sees in the distance smoke from the
+funnel of a steamer, and in a couple of minutes he has tacked round the
+vessel and decided to follow it on its voyage to the north. To the east
+he has the coast of Chile, with its countless reefs and islands and deep
+fiords, and above it rises the snow-capped crest of the Andes. As soon
+as refuse is thrown overboard, the albatross swoops down like an arrow.
+A second before he touches the water he raises his wings, draws back his
+head, stretches out his large feet in front with expanded claws, and
+then plumps down screaming, into the water. He floats as lightly as a
+cork. In a moment he has swallowed all the scraps floating on the
+surface, and then, turning to the wind, rises to a giddy height.
+
+The vessel happens to be carrying goods to Santiago, the capital of
+Chile, and casts anchor at its port town, Valparaiso. In the background
+rises Aconcagua, the highest mountain of America.
+
+Then the albatross steers out to sea to try his luck elsewhere. Seventy
+miles from the coast he comes across the notable little island, Juan
+Fernandez, and circles round its volcanic cliffs. For him there are no
+frightful precipitous ascents and descents; from his height he can see
+all he wishes to see. It is otherwise with explorers. Some cliffs are
+inaccessible to their feet, as Carl Skottsberg found when he went out to
+the island three years ago in a Chilian vessel. He saw the cliffs 3000
+feet high, and heard the surf rolling in round the island. It was a
+perfect picture of wild desolation. He found it difficult to land in a
+small boat. He looked in vain for parrots, monkeys, and tortoises, but
+found, instead, that more than half the number of the plants on the
+island are such as grow on no other spot on the earth. Among them are
+palms, with bright, pale-green trunks, which have been recklessly
+destroyed by men to make walking-sticks. Here also are tree-ferns, and
+the small, delicate, climbing ferns which gracefully festoon trunks and
+boughs. And here also is the last specimen of a species of sandalwood
+which, wonderful to relate, has found its way hither from its home in
+Asia. A couple of hundred years ago it grew profusely on the island, but
+now it has been nearly exterminated by man's cupidity. The red, strongly
+scented wood was too much in demand for fine cabinet work and other
+purposes. Only one small branch now produces foliage on the last
+sandal-tree. In this case it is not the last tree among many, but the
+last specimen of a species which is vanishing from the earth.
+
+In a cave at the foot of a mountain, according to tradition, lived
+Robinson Crusoe, and from a saddle in the crest he threw longing, eager
+glances over the great ocean. A memorial tablet in the cave relates that
+the real Crusoe, a Scotch sailor named Selkirk, lived alone on the
+island for four years and four months in the years 1704-1709. He went on
+shore of his own accord, being dissatisfied with the officers of the
+ship to which he belonged. The climate was mild, the rainfall moderate,
+and wild goats and edible fruits served him for food.
+
+Such is the actual fact. How much more do we delight in the Robinson
+Crusoe whose story is so charmingly depicted in a romantic dress! His
+vessel foundered, and he was the only man who was thrown up by the
+stormy waves upon the island. There he made himself at home, wandered
+round the shore and through the woods, and filled a shooting-bag of
+banana leaves with oysters, turtle's eggs, and wild fruits. With his
+simple bow he shot the animals of the forest to make himself clothes of
+their skins, and wild goats, which he caught and tamed, yielded him
+milk, from which he churned butter and manufactured cheese. He became a
+fisherman, furrier, and potter, and on the height above his cave he had
+his chapel where he kept Sundays. He found wild maize, and sowed,
+reaped, and made bread. As years passed on, his prosperity increased,
+and he was a type of the whole human race, which from the rude
+simplicity of the savage has in the course of ages progressed to a
+condition of refinement and enlightenment. When he was most at a loss
+for fire to prepare his food, the lightning struck a tree and set it on
+fire, and we remember that he then kept up his fire for a long time,
+never letting it go out. He was very grieved when it at length expired,
+but a volcanic outbreak came to his assistance, and he lighted his fire
+again from the glowing lava. He made himself a bread oven of bricks,
+and built himself a hut and a boat.
+
+Once when he was away on an excursion, and lay asleep far from his
+dwelling, he started up in alarm at hearing some one call out his name.
+It was only his own parrot, which had learned to talk, and which had
+searched for him, and was sitting on a bough calling out "Poor Robinson
+Crusoe!"
+
+How well we remember his lonely walk to the other side of the island,
+when he stood petrified with fear before the print of a human foot in
+the sand! For eight years he had been alone, and now he found that there
+were other human beings, cannibals no doubt, in the neighbourhood. He
+stood, gazed, listened, hurried home, and prepared for defence. Here,
+also, he is a type of peoples and states, which sooner or later awake to
+a perception of the necessity of defence against hostile attacks. His
+suspicions give way to certainty when one day he sees a fire burning on
+the beach. He runs home, draws up the ladder over the fortification
+round his dwelling, makes ready his weapons, climbs up to his look-out,
+and sees ten naked savages roasting flesh round a fire. After a wild
+dance they push out their canoes and disappear. At the fire are left
+gnawed human bones and skulls, and Robinson is beside himself at the
+sight.
+
+At the end of the fourteenth year he is awakened one stormy night by a
+shot. His heart beats fast, for now the hour of deliverance is surely at
+hand. Another shot thunders through the night. Perhaps it is a signal of
+distress from a ship! He lights a huge fire to guide the crew. When
+morning dawns, he finds that a ship has run on to a submerged rock and
+been wrecked. No sign of the crew is visible. But yes, a sailor lies
+prostrate on the sand and a dog howls beside him. Crusoe runs up; he
+would like a companion in his loneliness; but however long he works with
+artificial respiration and other remedies, the dead will not come to
+life, and Robinson Crusoe sadly digs a grave for the unknown guest.
+
+Another year passes and all the days are alike. As he sits at his table,
+breaking his bread and eating fish and oysters, he has his dog, parrot,
+and goats as companions and gives them a share of his meal.
+
+One day he sees from his look-out hill five boats come to the island and
+put to shore, and thirty savages jump on land and light a fire. Then
+they bring two prisoners from a boat. One they kill with a club. The
+other runs away and makes straight towards Crusoe's dwelling. Only two
+men pursue him, and Crusoe runs up to help him. At a sign from his
+master, the dog rushes on one of the savages and holds him fast till he
+gets his death-blow, and the other meets the same fate. Then Crusoe by
+signs and kindly gestures makes the prisoner understand that he has
+found a friend. The poor fellow utters some incomprehensible words, and
+Crusoe, who has not heard a human voice for fifteen years, is delighted
+to hear him speak. The other savages make off as fast as they can.
+
+Robinson Crusoe's black friend receives the name of Friday, because he
+came to the island on a Friday. In time Friday learns to speak, and
+brightens and relieves the life of the solitary man. One day another
+wreck is stranded on the rocks, and Robinson and Friday fetch from its
+stores firearms and powder, tools and provisions, and many other useful
+things. When eighteen long years have expired, the hero of our childhood
+is rescued by an English ship.
+
+
+ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN
+
+The albatross is a knowing bird, or he would not follow vessels for
+weeks. He knows that there is food on board, and that edible fragments
+are often thrown out. But his power of observation and his knowledge are
+much greater than might be suspected. He knows also of old where small
+storm birds take their prey, and when he finds them flying along with
+their catch he shoots down like lightning among them, appropriates all
+he can find, and does not trouble himself in the least about the smaller
+birds' disappointment.
+
+But these vultures of the sea are still cleverer in other ways. Their
+forefathers have lived on the sea for thousands of years, and their
+senses have been developed to the greatest acuteness and perfection.
+They know the regular winds, and can perceive from the colour of the
+water if a cold or warm sea current sweeps along below them. If now our
+friend the albatross, travelling westwards over the islands of
+Polynesia, wishes to be carried along by the wind, he knows that he has
+only to keep between the Tropic of Capricorn and the equator in order to
+be in the belt of the south-east trade-wind. And no doubt he has also
+noticed that this wind gives rise to the equatorial current which, broad
+and strong, sets westwards across the Pacific Ocean. If he wishes to fly
+north of the equator, he receives the same help from the north-east
+trade-wind; but if he wanders far to the south or north of the equator,
+he will meet with head winds and find that the ocean current sets
+eastwards. In the northern half of the Pacific Ocean this north-easterly
+current is called the Kuroshiwo, or "Black Salt." It skirts the coast of
+Japan and runs right across to Canada. This current is one of the
+favourite haunts of the albatross.
+
+He knows further that the arrangement of winds and currents is just the
+same in the Atlantic. There, however, the current running north-east is
+called the Gulf Stream, and it is the warm water of this stream, coming
+from the equator, which makes the climate of north-western Europe so
+mild, and prevents even the northernmost fiords of Norway from freezing
+in winter.
+
+[Illustration: THE SOUTH SEAS.]
+
+Meanwhile the albatross is on its course westwards, careless of winds
+and currents. He heeds not the hardest storm, and, indeed, where could
+he hide himself from its violence? His dwelling is the air. The sea is
+high, and he skims just above the surface, rising to meet each wave and
+descending into every trough, and the tips of his wings seem to dip into
+the foam. The great ocean seems dreadfully dreary and deserted. The sun
+glistens on the spindrift, and the albatross is reflected in the
+smooth, bright roof of waves above the fairy crystal grottoes in the
+depths.
+
+He rises to see whether the island he is thinking about is visible above
+the horizon. Beneath him he sees the dark, white-tipped, roaring sea.
+From the west, bluish-black rain-clouds sweep up and open their
+sluice-gates. Is the albatross hindered in his flight by the rain which
+pelts violently down on his back and wings? Well, yes, he must certainly
+be delayed, but he can foretell the weather with certainty enough to
+keep clear, and he is swift enough on the wing to make his escape when
+overtaken by rain. And he can always descend, fold his pinions, and rest
+dancing on the waves.
+
+The rain over, he flies higher up again and now sees Easter Island,
+which from an immense depth rises above the water, terribly lonely in
+the great ocean. On a sloping beach he sees several monuments of stone,
+thirty feet high, in the form of human heads. They mark graves, and are
+memorials of a long-vanished settlement. Now there are only about 150
+natives on Easter Island, and even these are doomed to extinction. Three
+white men live on the island, but it is long since news was heard of
+them, for no vessel has touched there for several years. Of other living
+things only rats, goats, fowls, and sea birds exist on the island.
+
+At some distance to the north-east lies Sala-y-Gomez, a small island of
+perfectly bare rocks, only inhabited by sea-fowl, and there the
+albatross pays a passing visit. Now he rises again and continues his
+flight westwards. Soon he comes to a swarm of insignificant islands
+called the Low Archipelago. So we name the islands, but the dark-skinned
+natives who by some mysterious fortune have been banished to them call
+them Paumotu, or "Island Cloud." A poet could not have conceived a
+better name. There lie eighty-five groups of islands, each consisting of
+innumerable holms. They are really a cloud of islets, like a nebula or
+star mist in the sky, and this swarm is only one among many others
+studding all the western part of the Pacific Ocean.
+
+Now the albatross soars round the rocks of the "Island Cloud." He can
+see them easily from up above, but it is a harder matter for a vessel to
+make its way between the treacherous rocks and reefs. Though they are so
+many, the aggregate area amounts to less than four square miles. Almost
+all are formed of coral, and most of them are atolls. Reef--building
+corals are small animals which extract lime from the water. They
+multiply by budding, and every group forms a common clan where living
+and dead members rest side by side. Coral animalculae demand for their
+existence a firm, hard sea bottom, crystal-clear water, sufficient
+nutriment brought to them by waves and currents, and lastly a water
+temperature not falling below 68 deg. Therefore they occur only in
+tropical seas and near the surface, for the water becomes colder with
+the depth. At depths greater than 160 feet they are rare. They die and
+increase again and again, and therefore the coral reefs grow in height
+and breadth, and only the height of water at ebb tide puts a limit to
+their upward growth. The continual surf of the sea and stormy waves
+often break off whole blocks of coral limestone, which roll down and
+break up into sand. With this all cavities are filled in, and thus the
+action of the sea helps to consolidate and strengthen the reef. Other
+lime-extracting animalculae and also seaweeds establish themselves on the
+reef. In the course of time the waves throw up loose blocks on the top
+of the reef, so that parts of it are always above the water-level. When
+the water rises during flood-tide, white foaming surf indicates the
+position of the reef at a long distance. During the ebb the reef itself
+is exposed and the sea is quiet. Between ebb and flood the fairway is
+dangerous, for there is nothing to warn a vessel, and it may run right
+on to a coral reef and be lost.
+
+Reefs have various forms and lengths. The great Barrier Reef, which lies
+off the north-east coast of Australia, is 1200 miles long. When reefs
+form circles they are called atolls. By means of winds, birds, and ocean
+currents, seeds are carried about the ocean, and strike root on any
+parts of the reef which lie above the level of the flood-tide. In the
+fulness of time the atoll is completed, built up by animalculae and
+plants. The "Island Cloud" is the largest continuous atoll region in all
+the world. There the circular coral islands lie like a collection of
+garlands thrown down upon the sea. Within them the water may be as much
+as 230 feet deep, and in the lagoons of some atolls all the fleets of
+the world could find room. The minute coral animalculae have provided by
+their industrious labour shelter for the largest vessels.
+
+On many of the atolls grow cocoa palms, and only then are the
+ring-shaped islands inhabitable. How curious they look to one
+approaching on a vessel! Only the crowns of the palms are seen above the
+horizon; the island, being low, is out of sight. One might be coming to
+an oasis in the boundless Sahara. At last the solid coral ground of
+the island comes into sight (Plate XXXVII.). Breakers dash against the
+outer side of the ring, but the lagoon within is smooth as a mirror in
+the lea of the corals and palms.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXVII. A CORAL STRAND.]
+
+Four thousand natives of Polynesian race live on the holms of the
+"Island Cloud," a couple of hundred on each atoll. They gather pearls
+and mother-of-pearl, and barter them for European goods at a
+ridiculously low price. On some islands, bread-fruit trees, pineapples,
+and bananas are grown. Animal life is very poor--rats, parrots, pigeons,
+thrushes, and lizards--but all the richer is the life in the sea
+outside. The natives are most excellent seamen, and it is hard to
+believe that they are lifelong prisoners on their islands. They sail
+with sails of matting made by the women, and have outriggers which give
+stability to their boats, and they cross boldly from island to island.
+
+What does the albatross care if the French have hoisted their
+tricoloured flag over the atolls of the "Island Cloud" and their nearest
+neighbours to the west? He is absolute ruler over them all, and seizes
+his prey where he will.
+
+Now he makes for the Society Islands, and takes a circuit round the
+largest of them, Tahiti, the finest and best known of all the islands in
+the southern sea. There again he sees volcanoes long since extinct,
+grand wild cliffs thickly covered with wood, impenetrable clumps of
+ferns, and luxuriant grass, while down the slopes dance lively brooks to
+the lagoon separated from the sea by the breakwaters of the coral
+master-builders. On the strand grow the ever-present cocoa palms, as
+distinctive of the islands of the southern sea as the date palms are of
+the desert regions of the Old World. Here the weather is beautiful, a
+warm, equable, tropical sea climate with only three or four degrees
+difference between winter and summer. The south-east trade-wind blows
+all the year round, and storms are rare visitors. The rain is moderate,
+and fever is unknown.
+
+The natives take a bright and happy view of life. They deck their hair
+with wreaths of flowers, their gait is light and easy, and they knew no
+sorrow until the white man came and spoiled their life and liberty.
+
+Now the original inhabitants of Tahiti are dying out, and are being
+replaced by Chinamen, Europeans, and natives from other islands to the
+north-west. They still, however, till their fields, put out their
+fishing-canoes in the lagoon, and pull down cocoa-nuts in their season.
+They still wear wreaths of flowers in their hair, a last relic of a
+happier existence. Pigeons coo in the trees, and green and blue and
+white parrots utter their ear-piercing screams. Horses, cattle, sheep,
+goats, and swine are newcomers; lizards, scorpions, flies, and
+mosquitoes are indigenous. The luxuriant gardens with their natural
+charms Europeans have not been able to destroy, and the frigate bird,
+the eagle of the sea, with the tail feathers of which the chiefs of
+Tahiti used to decorate their heads, still roosts in the trees on the
+strand, and seeks its food far out in the sea. The albatross cannot but
+notice the frigate bird. He sees in him a rival. The latter does not
+make such long journeys, and does not venture so far out to sea; but he
+is a master in the art of flying, and he is an unconscionable thief. He
+follows dolphins and other fishes of prey to appropriate their catch,
+and forces other birds to relinquish their food when they are in the act
+of swallowing it. When fishermen are out drawing up their nets, he skims
+so low over the boat that he may be stunned with an oar, and he is so
+attracted by bright and gaudy colours that he will shoot down recklessly
+on to the pennants of ships as they flutter in the wind, swinging to and
+fro with the roll of the vessel. He soars to an immense height, like the
+eagle, and no telescope can match the sharpness of his eyesight. Up
+aloft he can see the smallest fish disporting itself on the surface of
+the water. Especially he looks out for flying-fish, and catches them in
+the air just as they are hovering on expanded fins above the waves, or
+else dives after them and seizes them down below. When he has caught a
+fish he soars aloft, and if the fish does not lie comfortably in his
+bill he drops it, and catches it again before it reaches the water; and
+he will do this repeatedly until the fish is in a convenient position
+for swallowing.
+
+Our far-travelled storm-bird continues his long journey westwards, and
+his next resting-place is the Samoa Islands, which he recognises by
+their lofty volcanic cliffs, their tuff and lava, their beautiful woods
+and waterfalls, as much as 650 feet high, and surrounded by the most
+luxuriant vegetation. Over the copses of ferns, and climbing plants, and
+shrubs, reminding one of India, flutter beautiful butterflies.
+
+Around their oval huts, with roof of sugar-cane leaves and the floor
+inside covered with cocoa mats, are seen the yellowish-brown
+Polynesians, of powerful build and proud bearing. The upper parts of
+their bodies are bare, and they wear necklaces of shells and teeth, deck
+themselves with flowers and feathers, smear their bodies with cocoa oil,
+and tattoo themselves. Of a peaceful and happy disposition, they, too,
+have been disturbed by white men, and have been forced to cede their
+islands to Germany and the United States.
+
+It rains abundantly on the Samoa Islands. Black clouds sink down towards
+the sea, violent waterspouts suck up the water in spiral columns which
+spread out above like the crowns of pine-trees, and deluges of rain come
+down, lasting sometimes for weeks. Everything becomes wet and sodden,
+and it is useless to try to light a fire with matches. Almost every year
+these islands are visited by sudden whirlwinds, which do great damage
+both on sea and land. Wreckage is thrown up on the shore, fields and
+plantations are destroyed, leaves fly like feathers from the cocoa
+palms, and if the storm is one of the worst kind, the trees themselves
+fall in long rows as if they had been mown down by a gigantic scythe.
+
+The albatross knows of old the course of the great steamboat liners. He
+sees several steamers at the Samoa Islands, and afterwards on his flight
+to the Fiji Islands, and if the weather is overcast and stormy he leaves
+his fishing-grounds in the great ocean deserts and makes for some
+well-known steamer route. For in stormy weather he can find no soft
+cephalopods, but from a vessel refuse is thrown out in all weathers. He
+knows that the Samoa Islands are in regular communication with the
+Sandwich Islands, and that from these navigation routes radiate out like
+a star to Asia, America, and Australia.
+
+He sails proudly past the Fiji Islands. He does not trouble himself to
+make an excursion to the Solomon Islands and the world of islands lying
+like piers of fallen bridges on the way to the coast of Asia. Though New
+Caledonia is so near on the west, he is not attracted to it, as the
+French use it as a penal settlement.
+
+Rather will he trim his wings for the south, and soon he sees the
+mountains on the northern island of New Zealand rise above the horizon.
+Among them stands Tongariro's active volcano with its seven craters, and
+north-east of it lies the crater lake Taupo among cliffs of
+pumice-stone. North of this lake are many smaller ones, round which
+steam rises from hot springs, and where many fine geysers shoot up,
+playing like fountains.
+
+He sees that on the southern island the mountains skirt the western
+coast just as in Scandinavia, that mighty glaciers descend from the
+eternal snow-fields, and that their streams lose themselves in most
+beautiful Alpine lakes. He gives a passing glance at the lofty mountain
+named after the great navigator Cook, which is 12,360 feet high. On the
+plains and slopes shepherds tend immense flocks of sheep. The woods are
+evergreen. In the north grow pines, whose trunks form long avenues, and
+whose crowns are like vaultings in a venerable cathedral. There grow
+beeches, and tree-ferns, and climbing plants; but the palms come to an
+end half-way down the southern island, for the southernmost part of the
+island is too cold for them.
+
+Formerly both islands were inhabited by Maoris. They tattooed the whole
+of their bodies in fine and tasteful patterns, but were cannibals and
+stuck their enemies' heads on poles round their villages. Now there are
+only forty thousand of them left, and even these are doomed to
+extinction through white men--as in the struggle between the brown and
+black rats. Formerly the Maoris stalked about with their war clubs over
+their shoulders; now they work as day labourers in the service of the
+whites.
+
+At last our albatross rises high above the coast and speeds swiftly
+southwards to the small island of Auckland. There he meets his mate, and
+for several days they are terribly busy in making ready their nest. They
+collect reeds, rushes, and dry grass, which they knit into a kind of
+high, round ball. The month of November is come and the summer has
+begun. In the southern hemisphere midsummer comes at Christmas and
+midwinter at the end of June. Then the albatrosses assemble in enormous
+flocks at Auckland and other small, lonely islands to breed.
+
+
+ACROSS AUSTRALIA
+
+There are still districts in the interior of the fifth continent which
+have never been visited by Europeans. There stretch vast sandy deserts
+and the country is very dry, for the rain of the south-east trade-wind
+falls on the mountain ranges of the east, where also the rivers flow.
+Fifty years ago very little was known of the interior of Australia, and
+a large reward was offered to the man who should first cross the
+continent from sea to sea.
+
+Accordingly a big expedition was set on foot. It was equipped by the
+colony of Victoria. Large sums of money were contributed, and Robert
+Burke was chosen as leader. He was a bold and energetic man, but wanting
+in cool-headedness and the quiet, sure judgment necessary to conduct an
+expedition through unknown and desolate country.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXVIII. COUNTRY NEAR LAKE EYRE.]
+
+Two dozen camels with their drivers were procured from north-west India.
+Provisions were obtained for a year, and all the articles purchased,
+even to the smallest trifles, were of the best quality money could buy.
+With such an equipment all Australia might have been explored little by
+little. When the expedition set out from Melbourne, the capital of
+Victoria, there was great enthusiasm; many people came out really to to
+look at the camels, for they had never seen this animal before, but most
+of them looked forward to a triumph in geographical exploration.
+
+Burke was not alone. He had as many as fifteen Europeans with him. Some
+of them were men of science, who were to investigate the peculiar
+vegetation of the country, and the singular marsupials, the character of
+the rocks, the climate, and so on. One of them was named Wills. Others
+were servants, and had to look after the horses and transport.
+
+The caravan started on August 20, 1860. That was the first mistake, for
+the heat and drought were then setting in. The men marched on
+undismayed, however, crossed Australia's largest river, the Murray, and
+came to its tributary, the Darling. There a permanent camp was pitched,
+and the larger part of the caravan was left there. Burke, Wills, and six
+other Europeans went on with five horses and sixteen camels towards the
+north-west, and in twenty-one days reached the river Cooper, which runs
+into Lake Eyre.
+
+Here another camp was set up, several excursions were made in the
+neighbourhood, and a messenger was sent to the Darling to hurry up the
+men left behind. The messenger loitered, however, one week passed after
+another, and when nothing was heard of the men, Burke decided to march
+northwards with only three companions, Wills and the two servants King
+and Gray, six camels, two horses, and provisions for three months, and
+cross the continent to the coast of Queensland on the Gulf of
+Carpentaria. The other four were to remain with their horses and camels
+where they were until Burke came back, and were to leave the place only
+if absolutely obliged to do so.
+
+All went well at first, but the country was troublesome and rough, wild
+and undulating (Plate XXXVIII.). As long as the explorers followed the
+sandy bed of the Cooper River they found pools of water in sufficient
+numbers. At midday the temperature in the shade was 97 deg., but it fell at
+night to 73 deg., when they felt quite cold.
+
+Then they passed from bed to bed of temporary streams, carrying water
+only in the rainy season, and there the usual pools of water remained in
+the shade of dense copses of grass-trees, boxwood and gum-trees or
+eucalyptus. The last named were evidently not of the same species as the
+world-renowned blue gum-tree which occurs in Victoria and Tasmania, for
+this dries up marshes and unhealthy tracts and grows to its height of 65
+feet in seven years. But the giant gum-tree is still more remarkable,
+for it attains a height of over 400 feet, and another species of
+eucalyptus has reached 500 feet.
+
+The party had also to cross dreary plains of sand and tracts of clay
+cracked by the drought, and there they had to have their leather sacks
+filled with water. Sometimes they saw flocks of pigeons flying
+northwards, and were sure of finding water soon if they followed in the
+same direction. At some places there had been rain, so that a little
+grass had sprung up; in others the saltbushes were perishing from
+drought.
+
+The animal life was very scanty. In the brief notes of the expedition
+few forms are mentioned except pigeons and ducks, wild geese, pelicans
+and certain other waders, parrots, snakes, fishes, and rats. They saw no
+kangaroos--those curious jumping and springing animals which carry their
+young for seven months in a pouch on the belly, and are as peculiar to
+Australia as the llama to South America; nor do the travellers speak of
+dingoes, the wild dogs of Australia, which are a terror to sheep
+farmers.
+
+They saw Australian blacks clad with shields, long spears, and
+boomerangs, and nothing else. These naked, low-typed savages sometimes
+gave them fish in exchange for beads, matches, and other trifles. They
+were active as monkeys in the trees when they were hunting the beasts of
+the forest, but when they saw the camels they usually took to their
+heels. They had never seen such kangaroos before, with long legs both
+back and front, and also humpbacked.
+
+After the travellers had crossed a hilly tract they had not far to go to
+the coast. From the last camp Burke and Wills marched through swamps and
+woods of palms and mangroves, but they never caught sight of the waters
+of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Forests hid them and swamps intervened when
+they were quite close to the shore. Burke had attained his aim: he had
+crossed Australia. But his exploit was of little use or satisfaction,
+least of all to himself, for his return was a succession of disasters,
+the most terrible journey ever undertaken in the fifth continent.
+Thunder, lightning, and deluges of rain marked the start southwards. The
+lightning flashes followed one another so closely that the palms and
+gum-trees were lighted up in the middle of the night as in the day. The
+ground was turned into a continuous swamp. In order to spare the camels,
+the tents had been left behind. Everything became moist, and the men
+grew languid; and when the rain ceased drought set in again and
+oppressive, suffocating heat, so that they longed for night as for a
+friend.
+
+An emaciated horse was left behind. A snake eight feet long was killed,
+and following the example of the savages they ate its flesh, but were
+sick after it. Once when they were encamping in a cave in a valley, a
+downpour of rain came, filled the valley, and threatened to carry away
+themselves and their camp. Mosquitoes tormented them, and sometimes they
+had to lose a day when the ground was turned into slough by the rain.
+
+One man sickened and died, but on April 21 the three men were in sight
+of the camp where their comrades had been ordered to await their return.
+Burke thought that he could see them in the distance. How eager they
+were to get there! Here they would find all necessaries, and, above all,
+would be saved from starvation, which had already carried off one of the
+four.
+
+But the spot was deserted. Not a living thing remained. There were only
+on a tree trunk the words "Dig. April 21." They digged and found a
+letter telling them that their comrades had left the place the same day,
+only a few hours before. Fortunately they found also a supply of flour,
+rice, sugar, and dried meat enough to last them until they reached a
+station inhabited by whites. But where were the clothes to replace their
+worn rags, which would scarcely hang together on their bodies? After
+four months of hard travelling and constant privations they were so
+overcome by weariness that every step was an effort, and now they had
+come to the camp only to find that their comrades had gone off the same
+day, neglecting their duty. Fate could not have treated them more
+cruelly.
+
+Burke asked Wills and King whether they thought that they could overtake
+their comrades, but both answered no. Their last two camels were worn
+out, whereas the animals of the other men were, according to the letter,
+in excellent condition. A sensible man would have tried to reach them,
+or at least have followed their trail, and this Wills and King wanted
+to do. But Burke proposed a more westerly route, which he expected would
+be better and safer, and which led to the town of Adelaide in South
+Australia. It ran past Mount Hopeless, an unlucky name.
+
+All went well at first, as long as they had flour and rice and could
+obtain from the natives fish and _nardoo_, ground seeds of the clover
+fern. They even ate rats, roasting them whole on the embers, skin and
+all, and found them well flavoured. One camel died, and the other soon
+refused to move. He supplied them with a store of meat. But their
+provisions came to an end, and, what was worse, water ceased on the way
+to Mount Hopeless.
+
+Then they decided to return to the abandoned camp. On the way they kept
+alive on fish which they sometimes procured from natives, having nothing
+else but _nardoo_ seeds plucked from the clover fern. Half dead with
+hunger and weariness they came back to the camp.
+
+Midwinter, the end of June, was come, and the nights were cold. It was
+decided that Burke and King should go out and look for natives. Wills
+was unable to go with them, and was given a small supply of seeds and
+water.
+
+After two days slow travelling Burke could go no farther. King shot a
+crow, which they ate, but Burke's strength was exhausted. One evening he
+said to his servant, "I hope that you will remain with me until I am
+really dead. Then leave me without burying me." Next morning he was
+dead.
+
+Then King hurried back to Wills and found him dead also. The last words
+he had entered, four days before, in his journal were: "Can live four or
+five days longer at most, if it keeps warm. Pulse 48, very weak."
+
+When the travellers were not heard of, the worst fears were entertained,
+and relief expeditions were despatched from Melbourne, Adelaide, and
+Brisbane, and in Sydney and other towns Burke's fate was discussed with
+anxiety. At length they found King, who had gained the confidence of the
+natives and had sojourned with them for two months, living as they did.
+He was unrecognisable and half out of his mind, but he recovered under
+the careful treatment he received. The two dead men were buried, Burke
+wrapped in the Union Jack. Later on his remains were carried to
+Melbourne, where a fine monument marks his grave. This is almost all
+that remains of an expedition which started out with such fair
+prospects, but which came to grief at the foot of Mount Hopeless.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS
+
+
+SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
+
+We have now surveyed the earth's mainland, islands, and seas. We have
+seen how man by his endurance and thirst for knowledge has penetrated
+everywhere, how he has wandered over the hottest deserts and the coldest
+mountains. The nearer we come to our own times, the more eager have
+explorers become, and we no longer suffer blank patches to exist on our
+maps. The most obstinate resistance to the advance of man has been
+presented by the Poles and their surroundings, where the margin of the
+eternal ice seems to call out a peremptory "Thus far shalt thou come,
+but no farther." But even the boundless ice-packs could not deter the
+bold and resolute seafarers. One vessel after another was lost, crew and
+all, but the icy sea was constantly ploughed by fresh keels. The North
+Pole naturally exercised the greater attraction, for it lies nearer to
+Europe, amidst the Arctic Ocean, which is enclosed between the coasts of
+Asia, Europe, and North America.
+
+In the "forties" of last century, English and American explorers were
+occupied in searching for a north-west passage, or a navigable channel
+for vessels making by the shortest route from the North Atlantic to the
+Pacific Ocean. Let us look at the story of a famous expedition which set
+out to find this passage.
+
+Sir John Franklin was an officer in the Royal Navy. He had led
+expeditions by land and sea, in both the northern and southern
+hemispheres, and in particular had mapped considerable areas of the
+north coast of America east of Behring Strait. Most of the coast of the
+mainland was thus known, and it remained only to find a channel between
+the large islands to the north of it. Such a passage must exist, but
+whether it was available for navigation was another question. A number
+of learned and experienced men decided to send out a large and
+well-furnished expedition for the purpose of effecting the north-west
+passage. The whole English people took up the scheme with enthusiasm.
+Hundreds of courageous men volunteered for the voyage, and Admiral Sir
+John Franklin was appointed leader of the expedition, from which neither
+he nor any of his subordinates was ever to return.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS.]
+
+The ships chosen were the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, which (as we shall see
+later) had already made a voyage to South Polar regions, and which were
+now refitted from keel to topmasts. Captain Crozier was the second in
+command and captain of the _Terror_, while Franklin hoisted his flag on
+the _Erebus_, where Captain James was under him. The members of the
+expedition were chosen with the greatest care, and when they were all
+mustered, the vessels had on board twenty-three officers and a hundred
+and eleven men. Provisions were taken for three years, and the vessels
+were fitted with small auxiliary engines, which had never before been
+tried in Polar seas.
+
+The constituted authorities drew up a plan which Franklin was to follow,
+but he was left free to act as he thought proper when circumstances
+demanded alterations. The main thing was to sail north of America from
+the Atlantic side and come out into the Pacific Ocean through Behring
+Strait.
+
+The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ left England on May 19, 1845. All officers and
+men were full of the most lively expectations of success, and were
+resolved to do all in their power to achieve the object of the
+expedition. They passed the Orkney Islands and on Midsummer Day saw the
+southern extremity of Greenland, Cape Farewell, disappear to windward.
+Next day they encountered the first ice, huge floating icebergs of wild,
+jagged form or washed into rounded lumps by the action of the waves, and
+ten days later the ships anchored near Disko Island, on the west coast
+of Greenland. Here they met another vessel which had come up north with
+an additional store of provisions and equipment. Its captain, the last
+man who spoke with Franklin and the members of the expedition, said that
+he had never seen a finer set of men so well prepared and so eager for
+their work. He thought that they could go anywhere.
+
+On July 26 the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were seen, for the last time, by an
+English whaler. After that day the fate of the most unfortunate of all
+Polar expeditions was involved in an obscurity much denser than that
+which surrounded Gordon in Khartum after the telegraph line was cut.
+What is known only came to light many years later through the relief
+expeditions that were sent out, or was communicated by parties of
+wandering Eskimos.
+
+Meanwhile the voyage was continued north-westwards between two large
+islands into Lancaster Sound. Soon progress was delayed by masses of
+pack ice, and the engines were found to be so weak that they could be
+used only in smooth, open water. In another sound, to the north, the
+water was open, and here the ships managed to sail 150 miles before the
+ice set fast again. Then they passed through another open sound back to
+the south. Early autumn had now come, and all the hills and mountains
+were covered with snow and fresh ice was forming in the sound. Here
+Franklin laid the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ up for the winter, having found
+fairly sheltered anchorage at a small island.
+
+What kind of life the men led on board during the long winter we do not
+know. We can only conjecture that the officers read and studied, and
+that the men were employed in throwing up banks of snow reaching up
+above the bulwarks to keep in the warmth; that snow huts were built on
+the ice and on land for scientific observations; and that a hole was
+kept open day and night that water might always be procurable in case of
+fire when the pumps were frozen into pillars of ice. When the long night
+was over and February came with a faint illumination to the south, and
+when the sky grew brighter day by day till at last the expedition
+welcomed the return of the sun, probably men and officers made
+excursions to the neighbouring islands to hunt. Their hopes revived with
+the increasing light. Only 260 miles of unknown coast remained of the
+north-west passage, and they believed that the New Year would see them
+return home. The sun remained longer and longer above the horizon, and
+at last the long Polar day commenced.
+
+When the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were released in late summer from their
+prison of ice, and the small island could at last be left, three sailors
+remained on the beach. Their gravestones, carved with a few simple
+words, were found five years later by a relief expedition, and they
+constitute the only proof that Franklin wintered at this particular
+spot.
+
+To the south lay an open channel, and this southern passage must in time
+bend to the west. Mile after mile the vessels sailed southwards,
+carefully avoiding the drifting ice. East and west were seen the coasts
+of islands, and in front, in the distance, could be descried King
+William Land, a large island which is the nearest neighbour to the
+mainland. The north-west passage was nearly accomplished, for it was now
+only about 120 miles westward to coasts already known. How hopelessly
+long this distance seemed, however, when the vessels were caught in the
+grip of the ice only a day or two later! Firmer and firmer the ice froze
+and heaped itself up round the _Erebus_ and _Terror_; the days became
+shorter, the second winter drew on with rapid strides, and preparations
+to meet it were made as in the preceding year. The vessels lay frozen in
+on the seventieth parallel, or a little south of the northernmost
+promontory of Scandinavia; but here there was no Gulf Stream to keep the
+sea open with its warm water. Little did the officers and crew suspect
+that the waves would never again splash round the hulls of the _Erebus_
+and _Terror_.
+
+We can well believe that they were not so cheerful this winter as in the
+former. The vessels were badly placed in the ice, in an open roadstead
+without the shelter of a coast. They lay as in a vice, and the hulls
+creaked and groaned under the constant pressure. Life on board such an
+imprisoned vessel must be full of unrest. The vessel seems to moan and
+complain, and pray that it may escape to the waves again. The men must
+wonder how long it will hold out, and must be always prepared for a
+deafening crash when the planks will give way and the ship, crushed like
+a nutshell, will sink at once. But worst of all is the darkness when the
+sun sets for the last time.
+
+However, the winter passed at last, and the sun came back. It grew
+gradually light in the passages below deck, and it was no longer
+necessary to light a candle to read by in the evening. Soon there was no
+night at all, but the sun shone the whole twenty-four hours, and all the
+brighter because the vessels were surrounded by nothing but ice and
+snow. Far to the south and east were seen the hills on King William
+Land. If only the ice would release its hold and begin to drift! But the
+pack-ice still remained to the westward, and it was possible of course
+that the vessels had been damaged by the pressure.
+
+Two officers with six men undertook a journey to the south coast of King
+William Land, whence the mainland of North America could be descried in
+clear weather. At their turning-point they deposited in a cairn a
+narrative of the most important events that had happened on board up to
+date. This small document was found many years after. The little party
+returned with good news and bright hopes, but found sorrow on the ships.
+Admiral Franklin lay on his deathbed. The suspense had lasted too long
+for him. He just heard that the north-west passage had been practically
+discovered, and died a few days later, in June, 1847. This was fortunate
+for him. His life had been a career of manliness and courage, and he
+might well go to sleep with a smile of victory on his lips. But we can
+imagine the gloom cast upon the expedition by the death of its leader.
+
+It was now the season when the ice begins to move, and open water may
+be expected. No doubt they made excursions in all directions to find out
+where the surge of the salt sea was nearest. Perhaps they resorted to
+ice saws and powder to get out, but in vain; the ice held them fast.
+However, they were delighted to find that the whole pack was moving
+southwards. Could they reach the mainland in this way? A great American
+company, named after Hudson's Bay, had small trading-posts far in the
+north. If they could only reach one of them they would be saved.
+
+Autumn came on, and their hope of getting free was disappointed. To try
+and reach the mainland now when winter was approaching was not to be
+thought of, for in winter no game is to be found in these endless
+wastes, and a journey southwards meant therefore death by starvation. In
+summer, on the other hand, there was a prospect of falling in with
+reindeer and musk oxen, those singular Polar animals as much like sheep
+as oxen, which live on lichens and mosses and do not wander farther
+south than the sixtieth parallel. In the western half of North America
+the southern limit of the musk ox coincides with the northern limit of
+trees. A herd of twenty or thirty musk oxen would have saved Franklin's
+distressed mariners. If they could only have found Polar bears, or, even
+better, seals or whales, with their thick layer of blubber beneath the
+hide; and Arctic hares would not have been despised if in sufficient
+numbers! But the season was too far advanced, and the wild animals had
+retreated before the cold and the abundant snow which covered their
+scanty food. No doubt the officers deliberated on the plan they should
+adopt. They had maps and books on board and knew fairly accurately how
+far they had to travel to the nearest trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and on the way they had every prospect of finding game and
+meeting Eskimos. It was decided to pass the third winter on board.
+
+The cold increased day by day, and the length of the days became
+shorter. The sun still rose, described a flat arch to the south, and
+sank after an hour and a half. Soon the days lasted only half an hour,
+until one day they had only a glimpse of the sun's upper curve
+glittering for a moment like a flashing ruby above the horizon. Next day
+there was twilight at noon, but at any rate there was a reflection of
+the sunset red. During the following weeks the gloominess became more
+and more intense. At noon, however, there was still a perceptible light,
+and the blood-red streak appeared to the south, throwing a dull purple
+tinge over the ice-pack. Then this dim illumination faded away also,
+and the Polar night, which at this latitude lasts sixty days and at the
+North Pole itself six months, was come, and the stars sparkled like
+torches on the bluish-black background even when the bell struck midday
+in the officers' mess.
+
+Those who for the first time winter in high northern latitudes find a
+wonderful charm even in the Polar night. They are astonished at the deep
+silence in the cold darkness, at the rushing, moaning howl of the
+snowstorms, and even at the overwhelming solitude and the total absence
+of life. Nothing, however, excites their astonishment and admiration so
+much as the "northern lights." We know that the magnetic and electric
+forces of the earth time after time envelop practically the whole globe
+in a mantle of light, but this mysterious phenomenon is still
+unexplained. Usually the aurora is inconstant. It flashes out suddenly,
+quivers for a moment in the sky, and then grows pale and vanishes. Most
+lasting are the bow-shaped northern lights, which sometimes stretch
+their milk-white arches high above the horizon. It may be that only one
+half of the arch is visible, rising like a pillar of light over the
+field of vision. Another time the aurora takes the form of flames and
+rays, red below and green above, and darting rapidly over the sky.
+Farther north the light is more yellowish. If groups of rays seem to
+converge to the same point, they are described as an auroral crown.
+Beautiful colours change quickly in these bundles of rays, but
+exceedingly seldom is the light as strong as that of the full moon. The
+light is grandest when it seems to fall like unrolled curtains
+vertically down, and is in undulating motion as though it fluttered in
+the wind.
+
+To the sailors in the ice-bound ships, however, the northern lights had
+lost their fascination. Enfeebled and depressed, disgusted with bad
+provisions, worn out with three years' hardships, they lay on their
+berths listening to the ticking of their watches. The only break in
+their monotonous existence was when a death occurred. The carpenter had
+plenty of work, and Captain Crozier knew the funeral service by heart.
+Nine officers and eleven of the crew died during the last two winters,
+and certainly a far greater number in the third. This we know from a
+small slip of paper well sealed up and deposited in a cairn on the
+coast, which was found eleven years afterwards.
+
+At length the months of darkness again came to an end. The red streak
+appeared once more in the south, and it gradually grew lighter.
+Twilight followed in the footsteps of darkness, and at last the first
+sun's rays glistened above the horizon. Then the men awakened once more
+to new hope; Brahmins on the bank of the Ganges never welcomed the
+rising sun with more delight.
+
+With increasing daylight came greater opportunity and disposition to
+work. Several sledges were made ready, heavy and clumsy, but strong.
+Three whale-boats, which for three years had hung fast frozen to the
+davits, were loosened and hauled on to the ice. The best of the
+provisions still remaining in the store-room were taken out, and great
+piles of things were raised round the boats. When everything to be taken
+was down on the ice, the stores, tents, instruments, guns, ammunition,
+and all the other articles were packed on the sledges. The three
+whale-boats were bound with ropes, each on a separate sledge, and a
+sledge with a comfortable bed was assigned to the invalids. During all
+this work the days had grown longer, and at last the men could no longer
+control their eagerness to set out. This early start sealed their fate,
+for neither game nor Eskimos come up so far north till the summer is
+well advanced, and even with the sledges fully laden, their provisions
+would last only forty days.
+
+On April 22, 1848, the signal for departure was given, and the heavy
+sledges creaked slowly and in jerks over the uneven snow-covered ice.
+Axes, picks, and spades were constantly in use to break to pieces the
+sharp ridges and blocks in the way. The distance to King William Land
+was only 15 miles, yet it took them three days to get there. The masts
+and hulls of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ grew smaller all too slowly, but
+they vanished at last. Captain Crozier perceived that it was impossible
+to proceed in this manner, so all the baggage was looked through again
+and every unnecessary article was discarded. At this place one of the
+relief expeditions found quantities of things, uniform decorations,
+brass buttons, metal articles, etc., which no doubt had been thought
+suitable for barter with Eskimos and Indians.
+
+With lightened sledges, they marched on along the west coast. They had
+not travelled far when John Irving, lieutenant on the _Terror_, died.
+Dressed in his uniform, wrapped in sailcloth, and with a silk
+handkerchief round his head, he was interred between stones set on end
+and covered with a flat slab. On his head was laid a silver medal with
+an inscription on the obverse side, "Second prize in Mathematics at the
+Royal Naval College. Awarded to John Irving, Midsummer, 1830." Owing to
+the medal the deceased officer was identified long after, and so in time
+was laid to rest in his native town.
+
+Two bays on the west coast of King William Land have been named after
+the unfortunate ships. At the shore of the northern, Erebus Bay, the
+strength of the English seamen was so weakened that they had to abandon
+two of the boats, together with the sledges on which they had been drawn
+so far uselessly. At their arrival at Terror Bay the bonds of
+comradeship were no longer strong enough to keep the party together, or
+it may be that they agreed to separate. They were now less than a
+hundred men. At any rate, they divided into two parties, probably of
+nearly equal strength. The one, which evidently consisted of the more
+feeble, turned back towards the ships, where at least they would obtain
+shelter against wind and weather, and where there were provisions left.
+The other continued along the south coast with the whale-boat, and
+intended to cross to the mainland and try to reach the Great Fish River.
+No doubt, when they had been succoured themselves, they meant to return
+to their distressed comrades.
+
+Terrible must have been the march of the returning party, and terrible
+also that of those who went on. Of the former we know next to nothing.
+The latter marched and marched, dragging their heavy sledges after them
+till they died one after another. There was no longer any thought of
+burying the dead. Every one had to take care of himself. If a dying man
+lagged behind, the others could not stop on his account. Some died as
+they were walking: this was proved afterwards by the skeletons which
+were found lying on their faces. Not a trace of game was found in May
+and June on the island, and they dragged their heavy ammunition boxes
+and guns to no purpose, not firing a shot.
+
+Now the small remnant waited only for open water to cross the sound to
+the mainland. At the beginning of June the ice broke up, and it may be
+taken for granted that at this time the survivors actually crossed, for
+the boat was afterwards found in a bay called Starvation Cove. If only
+the boat had been found here, it might have been drifted over by wind
+and waves; but skeletons and articles both in and outside the boat were
+found, showing that it was manned when it passed over the sound and when
+it landed.
+
+Many circumstances connected with this sad journey are mysterious. Why
+did the men drag the heavy whale-boat with them for two months when
+they must have seen the mainland to the south the year before, on the
+excursion which they undertook when the Admiral was lying on his
+deathbed? Where the sound is narrowest it is only three miles broad;
+and, besides, they could have crossed anywhere on the ice. But as all
+died and as not a line in a diary came to light, we know nothing about
+it.
+
+When no news was heard of Franklin after two years, the first relief
+expeditions were sent out. Time passed, and it became still more certain
+that he was in need of help. In the autumn of 1850 fifteen ships were on
+the outlook for him. The most courageous and energetic of all, who for
+years would not give up hope of seeing him again, was Franklin's wife.
+She spent all her means in relief work. In the course of six years the
+English Government disbursed L890,000 in relief expeditions. Most of
+them were useless, for when they set out the disaster had already taken
+place. One expedition which sailed in 1848 was caught in the ice, and
+resorted to a singular means of sending information to the distressed
+men, wherever they might be. About a hundred foxes were caught and
+fitted with brass collars, in which a short description of the position
+of the relief ship was engraved, and then the foxes were let loose
+again.
+
+In 1854 the names of Franklin, Crozier, and all the other men were
+removed from the muster roll of the Royal Navy. A statue of Franklin was
+set up in his native town, and a memorial of marble was erected in
+Westminster Abbey with the words of Tennyson:
+
+  Not here! the white North has thy bones; and thou
+        Heroic sailor-soul,
+  Art passing on thine happier voyage now
+        Toward no earthly pole.
+
+
+THE VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA"
+
+A brilliant remembrance of the Arctic Ocean is the pride of the Swedes.
+The north-west passage had been discovered by Englishmen; but the
+north-east passage, which for 350 years had been attempted by all
+seafaring nations, was not yet achieved. By a series of voyages to
+Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the Yenisei, Adolf Nordenskioeld had made
+himself an experienced Polar voyager. He perfected a scheme to sail
+along the north coasts of Europe and Asia and through the Behring
+Strait out into the Pacific Ocean. His plan, then, was nothing less than
+to circumnavigate Asia and Europe, an exploit which had never been
+performed and which the learned declared to be impossible. It was
+thought that the ice-pack always lay pressed up against the Siberian
+coast, rendering it impossible to get past; parts had been already
+sailed along and stretches of coasts were known, but to voyage all the
+way to the Behring Strait was out of the question.
+
+Now Nordenskioeld reasoned that the ice must begin to drift in summer,
+and leave an open channel close to the land. The great Siberian rivers,
+the Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena, bring down volumes of warm water
+from southern regions into the Arctic Ocean. As this water is fresh, it
+must spread itself over the heavier sea water, and must form a surface
+current which keeps the ice at a distance and the passage open. Along
+the ice-free coast a vessel could sail anywhere and pass out into the
+Pacific Ocean before the end of summer.
+
+Accordingly he made ready for a voyage in which the _Vega_ was to sail
+round Asia and Europe and carry his name to the ends of the earth. The
+_Vega_ was a whaler built to encounter drift ice in the northern seas. A
+staff of scientific observers was appointed, and a crew of seventeen
+Swedish men-of-war's men were selected. The _Vega_ was to be the home of
+thirty men, and provisions were taken for two years. Smaller vessels
+were to accompany her for part of the voyage, laden with coal.
+
+The _Vega_ left Carlskrona in June, 1878, and steamed along the coast of
+Norway, past the North Cape, towards the east. The islands of Novaia
+Zemlia were left behind, the waters of the Obi and Yenisei splashed
+against the hull, no drift ice opposed the passage of the Swedish
+vessel, and on August 19 Cape Cheliuskin, the most northern point of the
+Old World, was reached.
+
+Farther east the coast was followed to Nordenskioeld Sea. Great caution
+was necessary, for the fairway was shallow, and the _Vega_ often steamed
+across bays which were represented as land on maps. The delta of the
+Lena was left behind, and to the east of this only small rivers enter
+the sea. Nordenskioeld therefore feared that the last bit of the voyage
+would be the hardest, for open water along the coast could not be
+depended upon. At the end of August the most westerly of the group
+called the New Siberia Islands was sighted. The _Vega_ could not go at
+full speed, for the sea was shallow, and floating fragments of ice were
+in the way. The prospects became brighter again, however, open water
+stretching for a long distance eastwards.
+
+On September 6 two large skin boats appeared, full of fur-clad natives
+who had rowed out from land. All the men on the _Vega_, except the cook,
+hastened on deck to look at these unexpected visitors of Chukchi race.
+They rushed up the companion ladder, talking and laughing, and were well
+received, being given tobacco, Dutch clay pipes, old clothes, and other
+presents. None of the _Vega_ men understood a word they said, but the
+Chukchis chattered gaily all the same, and with their hands full of
+presents tumbled down to their boats again and rowed home.
+
+Two days later the _Vega_ was in the midst of ice and fog, and had to be
+moored to a floe near land. Then came more Chukchis, who pulled the
+Swedes by the collar and pointed to the skin tents on land. The
+invitation was accepted with pleasure by several of the _Vega_ men, who
+rowed to land and went from tent to tent. In one of them reindeer meat
+was boiling in a cast-iron pot over the fire. Outside another two
+reindeer were being cut up. Each tent contained an inner sleeping-room
+of deerskin, which was lighted and warmed by lamps of train oil. There
+played small stark-naked children, plump and chubby as little pigs, and
+sometimes they ran in the same light attire out over the rime between
+the tents. The tiniest were carried, well wrapped up in furs, on the
+backs of their fathers and mothers, and whatever pranks they played
+these small wild cats never heard a harsh word from their elders.
+
+The next day the _Vega_ tried to continue her voyage, but the fog was
+too dense, and the shelter of a mass of ground ice had again to be
+sought. Nordenskioeld was, however, sure of gaining the Pacific Ocean in
+a short time, and when fresh visitors came on board he distributed
+tobacco and other presents among them with a lavish hand. He also
+distributed a number of _krona_[21] pieces and fifty earrings which, if
+any misfortune happened to the _Vega_, would serve to show her course.
+
+During the following days the ice closed up and fog lay dense over the
+sea. Only now and then could the vessel sail a short distance, and then
+was stopped and had to moor again. On September 18 the vessel glided
+gently and cautiously between huge blocks of grounded ice like castle
+walls and towers of glass. Here patience and great care were necessary,
+for the coast was unknown and there was frequently barely a span of
+water beneath the keel. The captain stood on the bridge, and wherever
+there was a gap between the ice-blocks he made for it. It was only
+possible to sail in the daytime, and at night the _Vega_ lay fastened by
+her ice anchors. One calm and fine evening some of our seafarers went
+ashore and lighted an enormous bonfire of driftwood. Here they sat
+talking of the warm countries they would sail past for two months. They
+were only a few miles from the easternmost extremity of Asia at Behring
+Strait.
+
+The _Vega_ had anchored on the eastern side of Koliuchin Bay. It was
+September 28. Newly formed ice had stretched a tough sheet between the
+scattered blocks of ground ice, and to the east lay an ice-belt barely
+six miles broad. If only a south wind would spring up, the pack would
+drift northwards, and the last short bit of the north-east passage would
+be traversed.
+
+But the Fates decreed otherwise. No wind appeared, the temperature fell,
+and the ice increased in thickness. If the _Vega_ had come a few hours
+sooner, she would not have been stopped on the very threshold of the
+Pacific Ocean. And how easily might these few hours have been saved
+during the voyage! The _Vega_ was entrapped so unexpectedly in the ice
+that there was not even time to look for safe and sheltered winter
+quarters. She lay about a mile from the coast exposed to the northern
+storms. Under strong ice pressure she might easily drift southwards, run
+aground, capsize, or be crushed.
+
+The ice-pack became heavier in all directions, and by October 10 the
+Chukchis were able to come out on foot to the vessel. Preparations were
+made for the winter. High banks of snow were thrown up around, and on
+the deck a thick layer of snow was left to keep the heat in. From the
+bridge to the bow was stretched a large awning, under which the Chukchis
+were received daily. It was like a market-place, and here barter trade
+was carried on. A collection of household utensils, implements of the
+chase, clothes, and indeed everything which the northern people made
+with their own hands, was acquired during the winter.
+
+The _Vega_ soon became quite a rendezvous for the three hundred Chukchis
+living in the neighbourhood, and one team of dogs after another came
+daily rushing through the snow. They had small, light sledges drawn by
+six to ten dogs, shaggy and strong, but thin and hungry. The dogs had to
+lie waiting in the snow on the ice while their masters sat bargaining
+under the large awning. At every baking on board special loaves were
+made for the native visitors, who would sit by the hour watching the
+smith shaping the white hot iron on his anvil. Women and children were
+regaled with sugar and cakes, and all the visitors went round and looked
+about just as they liked on the deck, where a quantity of articles,
+weapons, and utensils lay about. Not the smallest trifle disappeared.
+The Chukchis were honest and decent people, and the only roguery they
+permitted themselves was to try and persuade the men of the _Vega_ that
+a skinned and decapitated fox was a hare. When it grew dusk the fur-clad
+Polar savages went down the staircase of ice from the deck, put their
+teams in order, took their seats in the sledges, and set off again over
+the ice to their tents of reindeer skins.
+
+The winter was stormy and severe. Clouds of snow swept over the ice,
+fine and dry as flour. Again and again the cold scene was lighted up by
+the arcs of the aurora. In the middle of December the planks in the
+sides of the _Vega_ cracked as the ice pressed against her. If the
+pressure had been bad, the vessel might have been broken to pieces and
+have sunk in a few minutes. It would not have been so serious for the
+crew as in the case of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, for here there were
+people far and near. But to ensure a safe retreat, the men of the _Vega_
+carried to the nearest shore provisions, guns, and ammunition to last a
+hundred men for thirty days. These things were all stacked up into a
+heap covered with sails and oars. No watch was kept at the depot, and
+though the Chukchis knew that valuable goods lay under the sails, they
+never touched a thing.
+
+Near the _Vega_ two holes were kept always open. In one the captain
+observed the rise and fall of the tide; the other was for water in case
+of fire. A small seal splashed for a long time in one of the holes and
+came up on to the ice after fishing below. One day his retreat was cut
+off and he was caught and brought up on deck. When fish bought from the
+Chukchis had been offered him in vain, he was let loose in the hole
+again and he never came back.
+
+A house of ice was erected for the purpose of observing the wind and
+weather, and a thermometer cage was set up on the coast. Men took turns
+to go out, and each observer remained six hours at the ice-house and the
+cage to read off the various instruments. It was bitterly cold going out
+when the temperature fell to-51 deg., but the compulsory walk was
+beneficial. One danger was that a man might lose his way when snowstorms
+raged in the dark winter nights, so a line was stretched the whole way,
+supported on posts of ice, and with this guide it was impossible to go
+astray.
+
+Then came Christmas, when they slaughtered two fat pigs which had been
+brought on purpose. The middle deck was swept out, all the litter was
+cleared away, and flags were hung round the walls and ceiling. The
+Chukchis brought willow bushes from the valleys beyond the mountains to
+the south, and branches were fastened round a trunk of driftwood. This
+was the _Vega's_ Christmas tree, and it was decked with strips of
+coloured paper and small wax candles. Officers and men swung round in
+merry dance beneath flaming lanterns suspended from the roof. Two
+hundred Christmas boxes were found packed on board, parting gifts of
+friends and acquaintances. For these lots were drawn, and many amusing
+surprises excited general hilarity. So the polka was danced on the deck,
+while cold reigned outside and snow whizzed through the frozen rigging.
+For supper there was ham and Christmas ale, just as at home in Sweden.
+Old well-known songs echoed through the saloon, and toasts were given of
+king and country, officers and men, and the fine little vessel which had
+carried our Vikings from their home in the west to their captivity in
+the shore ice of Siberia.
+
+The winter ran its course and the days lengthened in the spring. Cold
+and continual storms were persistent. Even a Chukchi dog can have too
+much of them. One day at the end of February a Chukchi who had lost his
+way came on board, carrying a dog by the hind legs. The man had lost his
+way on the ice, and had slept out in the cold with his dog. A capital
+dinner was served for him on the middle deck, and the dog was rolled
+about and pommelled till he came to life again.
+
+During the spring the _Vega_ explorers made several longer or shorter
+excursions with dog sledges and visited all the villages in the country.
+Of course they became the best of friends with the Chukchis. The
+language was the difficulty at first, but somehow or other they learned
+enough of it to make themselves understood. Even the sailors struggled
+with the Chukchi vocabulary, and tried to teach their savage friends
+Swedish. One of the officers learned to speak Chukchi fluently, and
+compiled a dictionary of this peculiar language.
+
+Summer came on, but the ground was not free from ice until July. The
+_Vega_ still lay fast as in a vice. On July 18 Nordenskioeld made ready
+for another excursion on land. The captain had long had the engines
+ready and the boilers cleaned. Just as they were sitting at dinner in
+the ward-room they felt the _Vega_ roll a little. The captain rushed up
+on deck. The pack had broken up and left a free passage open. "Fire
+under the boilers!" was the order, and two hours later, at half-past
+three o'clock, the _Vega_ glided under steam and sail and a festoon of
+flags away from the home of the Chukchis.
+
+Farther east the sea was like a mirror and free of ice beneath the fog.
+Walruses raised their shiny wet heads above the water, in which numerous
+seals disported themselves. With the wildest delight the _Vega_
+expedition sailed southwards through Behring Strait. In the year 1553 a
+daring Englishman had commenced the quest of the north-east passage and
+had perished with all his men, and during the following centuries
+numberless other expeditions had tried to solve the problem, but always
+in vain; now it was solved by Swedes. The vessel glided out into the
+Pacific Ocean without a leak; not a man had been lost and not one had
+been seriously ill. It was one of the most fortunate and most brilliant
+Polar voyages that had ever been achieved.
+
+Yokohama was the first port, where the _Vega_ was welcomed with immense
+jubilation, and then the homeward journey _via_ the Suez Canal and
+Gibraltar became a continuous triumphal procession.
+
+
+NANSEN
+
+From many signs around the northern cap of the world a young Norwegian,
+Fridtjof Nansen, came to the conclusion that a constant current must
+flow from the neighbourhood of Behring Strait to the east coast of
+Greenland.
+
+Nansen resolved to make use of this current. Others had gone up from the
+Atlantic side and been driven back by the current. He would start from
+the opposite side and get the help of the current. Others had feared and
+avoided the pack-ice. He would make for it and allow himself to be
+caught in it. Others had sailed in unsuitable vessels which had been
+crushed like nut-shells among the floes. He would build a vessel with
+sides sloping inwards which would afford no hold to the ice. The more
+the ice pressed the more surely would this ship be lifted up out of the
+water and be borne safely on the ice with the current.
+
+The progress would be slow, no doubt, but the expedition would see
+regions of the world never before visited, and would have opportunities
+of investigating the depth of the sea, the weather and winds. To reach
+the small point called the North Pole was in Nansen's opinion of minor
+importance.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM."]
+
+Among the many who wished to go with him he chose the best twelve. The
+vessel was christened the _Fram_ (Plate XXXIX.), and the captain was
+named Sverdrup. He had been with Nansen before on an expedition when
+they crossed the inland ice of Greenland from coast to coast. They took
+provisions for five years and were excellently equipped.
+
+The first thing was to reach the New Siberia Islands. To those the
+_Vega_ had shown the way, and the _Fram_ had only to follow in her
+track. Just to the west of them a course was steered northwards, and
+soon the vessel was set fast in the ice and was lifted satisfactorily on
+to its surface without the smallest leak. So far everything had gone as
+Nansen anticipated, and the experienced Polar voyagers who had declared
+that the whole scheme was madness had to acknowledge that they were not
+so clever as they thought.
+
+We have unfortunately no time to accompany the voyagers on their slow
+journey. They got on well, and were comfortable on board. The ice
+groaned and cracked as usual, but within the heavy timbers of the _Fram_
+there was peace. The night came, long, dark, and silent. Polar bears
+stalked outside and were often shot. Before it became quite dark Nansen
+tried the dogs at drawing sledges. They were harnessed, but when he took
+his seat, off they went in the wildest career. They romped over blocks
+and holes, and Nansen was thrown backwards, but sat fast in the sledge
+and could not be thrown out. In time the driving went better, and the
+poor, faithful animals had always to go on sledge excursions. Two were
+seized by Polar bears and two were bitten to death by their comrades.
+One fine day, however, puppies came into the world in the midst of the
+deepest darkness. When they first saw the sun they barked furiously.
+
+The _Fram_ drifted north-west just as Nansen had foreseen, passing over
+great depths where the two thousand fathom line did not reach the
+bottom. Christmas was kept with a Norwegian festival, and when the
+eightieth parallel was crossed a tremendous feast was held; but the
+return of the sun on February 20 excited the greatest delight. The
+spring and summer passed without any remarkable events. Kennels were
+erected on the ice out of boxes, and more puppies came into the world.
+Possibly these were as much astonished at the winter darkness as their
+cousins had been at seeing the sun.
+
+Nansen had long been pondering on a bold scheme--namely, to advance with
+dog sledges as far as possible to the north and then turn southwards to
+Franz Josef Land. The ship was meanwhile to go on with the drift and the
+usual observations were to be taken on board. Only one man was to go
+with him, and he chose Lieutenant Johansen. He first spoke to him about
+the scheme in November, 1894. It was, of course, a matter of life or
+death, so he told Johansen to take a day or two to think it over before
+he gave his answer. But the latter said "Yes" at once without a moment's
+hesitation. "Then we will begin our preparations to-morrow," said
+Nansen.
+
+All the winter was spent in them. They made two "kayaks," each to hold a
+single man, somewhat larger and stronger than those the Eskimos use when
+they go fishing or seal-hunting. With a frame of ribs and covered with
+sailcloth these canoes weighed only thirty pounds. They were covered in
+all over, and when the boatman had taken his seat in the middle and made
+all tight around him, seas might sweep right over him and the kayak
+without doing any harm. A dog sledge, harness, a sleeping-bag for two,
+skis, staffs, provisions, oil cooking-stove--all was made ready.
+
+The start took place at the turn of the year, when the most terrible ice
+pressure broke loose on all sides threatening the _Fram_. Mountains of
+ice-blocks and snow were thrust against the vessel, which was in danger
+of being buried under them. The sea water was forced up over the ice and
+the dogs were nearly drowned in their kennels and had to be rescued
+quickly. Banks of ice were pushed against the vessel, rolled over the
+bulwarks, and weighed down the awning on the deck; and it was pitch
+dark, so that they could not find out where danger threatened. They had,
+however, stored provisions for two hundred days in a safe place. By
+degrees the ice came to rest again and the great rampart was digged
+away.
+
+Twice did Nansen and Johansen set out northwards, only to come back
+again. Once a sledge broke, and on the other occasion the load was too
+heavy. On March 14 they left the _Fram_ for the last time and directed
+their steps northward. They had three sledges and twenty-eight dogs, but
+they themselves walked on skis and looked after their teams. At first
+the ice was level and the pace was rapid, but afterwards it became lumpy
+and uneven, and travelling was slow, as first one sledge and then
+another stuck fast.
+
+After two marches the temperature fell to-45 deg., and it was very cold in
+the small silk tent. They were able to march for nine hours, and when
+the ice was level it seemed as if the endless white plains might extend
+up to the Pole. So long as they were travelling they did not feel the
+cold, but the perspiration from their bodies froze in their clothes, so
+that they were encased in a hauberk of ice which cracked at every step.
+Nansen's wrists were made sore by rubbing against his hard sleeves, and
+did not heal till far on in the summer.
+
+They always looked out for some sheltered crevice in the ice to camp in.
+Johansen looked after the dogs and fed them, while Nansen set up the
+tent and filled the pot with ice. The evening meal was the pleasantest
+in the day, for then at any rate they were warmed inside. After it they
+packed themselves in their sleeping bag, when the ice on their clothes
+melted and they lay all night as in a cold compress. They dreamed of
+sledges and dog teams, and Johansen would call out to the dogs in his
+sleep, urging them on. Then they would wake up again in the bitter
+morning, rouse up the dogs, lying huddled up together and growling at
+the cold, disentangle the trace lines, load the sledges, and off they
+would go through the great solitude.
+
+Only too frequently the ice was unfavourable, the sledges stuck fast,
+and had to be pushed over ridges and fissures. They struggle on
+northwards, however, and have travelled a degree of latitude. It is
+tiring work to march and crawl in this way, and sometimes they are so
+worn out that they almost go to sleep on their skis while the dogs
+gently trot beside them. The dogs too are tired of this toil, and two of
+them have to be killed. They are cut up and distributed among their
+comrades, some of whom refuse to turn cannibals.
+
+When the ice became still worse and the cold white desert looked like a
+heap of stones as far northwards as the eye could see, Nansen decided to
+turn back. It was impossible to find their way back to the _Fram_, for
+several snowstorms had swept over the ice obliterating their tracks. The
+only thing to do was to steer a course for the group of islands called
+Franz Josef Land. It was 430 miles off, and the provisions were coming
+to an end; but when the spring really set in they would surely find
+game, and they had for their two guns a hundred and eighty cartridges
+with ball and a hundred and fifty with shot. The dogs had the worst of
+it; for them it was a real "dog's life" up there. The stronger were
+gradually to eat up the weaker.
+
+So they turned back and made long marches over easy ice. One day they
+saw a complete tree trunk sticking up out of the ice. What singular
+fortunes it must have experienced since it parted from its root! At the
+end of April the spoor of two foxes was seen in the snow. Was land near,
+or what were these fellows doing out here on the ice-covered sea? Two
+days later a dog named Gulen was sacrificed. He was born on the _Fram_,
+and during his short life had never seen anything but snow and ice; now
+he was worn out and exhausted, and the travellers were sorry to part
+from the faithful soul.
+
+Open water, sunlit billows! How delightful to hear them splash against
+the edge of the ice! The sound seemed to speak of spring and summer, and
+to give them a greeting from the great ocean and the way back home. More
+tracks of foxes indicated land, and they looked out for it daily. They
+did not suspect that they had to travel for three months to the nearest
+island.
+
+At the beginning of May only sixteen dogs were left. Now the long summer
+day commenced in the Arctic Ocean, and when the temperature was only
+twenty degrees below freezing point they suffered from heat. But the ice
+was bad, and they had to force the sledges over deep channels and high
+hummocks thrust up by pressure. After great difficulties they staggered
+along on skis. The work became heavier for the dogs as fewer were left,
+but the provisions also diminished.
+
+A furious snowstorm compelled them to remain in a camp. There they left
+one of the sledges, and some broken skis were offered to the flames and
+made a grand fire. Six dogs could still be harnessed to each of the two
+remaining sledges.
+
+At the end of May they came to an expanse of ice intersected by a
+network of channels with open water, which blocked the way. Now animal
+life began to appear with the coming of summer. In a large opening were
+seen the grey backs of narwhals rolling over in the dark-blue water. A
+seal or two were seeking fish, and tracks of Polar bears made them long
+for fresh meat. Nansen often made long excursions in front to see where
+the ice was best. Then Johansen remained waiting by the sledges, and if
+the bold ski-runner were long away he began to fear that an accident had
+happened. He dared not pursue his thoughts to an end--he would then be
+quite alone.
+
+June comes. The scream of ivory gulls pierces the air. The two men
+remain a week in a camp to make their kayaks seaworthy. They have still
+bread for quite a month. Only six dogs are left; when only three remain
+they will have to harness themselves to the sledges.
+
+In a large strip of open water they shoved out the kayaks, fastened them
+together with skis, and paddled them along the margin of the ice. On the
+other side they shot two seals and three Polar bears, and therefore had
+meat for a long time. The last two dogs, too, could eat their fill.
+
+At last the land they longed for appeared to the south, and they
+hastened thither, a man and a dog to each sledge. Once they had again to
+cross a strip of open water in kayaks, Nansen was at the edge of the ice
+when he heard Johansen call out, "Get your gun." Nansen turned and saw
+that a large bear had knocked Johansen down and was sniffing at him.
+Nansen was about to take up his gun when the kayak slipped out into the
+water, and while he was hauling and pulling at it he heard Johansen say
+quite quietly, "You must look sharp if you want to be in time." So at
+last he got hold of his gun, and the bear received his death-wound.
+
+For five months they had struggled over the ice, when at the beginning
+of August they stood at the margin of the ice and had open water before
+them off the land. Now the sea voyage was to begin, and they had to part
+with their last two dogs. It was a bitter moment. Nansen took Johansen's
+dog and Johansen Nansen's, and a couple of bullets were the reward of
+their faithfulness.
+
+Now they travelled more easily and quickly. The kayaks were fastened
+together, and with masts and sails they skimmed past unknown islands.
+Heavy seas forced them to land on one of them. Just as they drew up
+their kayaks a white bear came waddling along, got scent of them, and
+began to sniff along their track. To our travellers his visit meant
+provisions for a long time. Nansen and his travelling companion took
+possession of their new territory, wandered over the island, and
+returned to their dinner of bear, which did them good. Next day they
+looked for a suitable dwelling-place. As they could not find a cave,
+they built a small stone cabin, which they roofed with skis and the silk
+tent. Light and wind came in on all sides, but it was comfortable enough
+and the meat pot bubbled over a fire of fat.
+
+Nansen decided to remain on this island for the winter. The islands they
+had hitherto seen were unlike any of the known parts of Franz Josef
+Land, and Nansen did not know exactly where he was. It was impossible
+to venture out on the open sea in the kayaks. It was better to lay in a
+supply of food for the winter, for when darkness came all the game would
+disappear. First of all they must build a comfortable hut. There was
+plenty of stone and moss, a trunk of driftwood found on the beach would
+form a roof ridge, and if they could only get hold of a couple of
+walruses, their roofing would be provided.
+
+A large male walrus was lying puffing out in the water. The kayaks were
+shoved out and lashed together, and from them the colossus was
+bombarded. He dived, but came up under the boats, and the whole
+contrivance was nearly capsized. At last he received his death-wound,
+but just as Nansen was about to strike his harpoon into him he sank.
+They had better luck, however, with two others which lay bellowing on
+the ice and gradually went to sleep, unconscious that their minutes were
+numbered. Nansen says that it seemed like murder to shoot them, and that
+he never forgot their brown, imploring, melancholy eyes as they lay
+supporting their heads on their tusks and coughing up blood. Then the
+great brutes were flayed, and their flesh, blubber, and hides carried
+into the hut. When they brought out the sledges and knives, Nansen
+thought it might be as well to take the kayaks with them also. And that
+was fortunate, for while they stood cutting up as in a slaughter-house,
+a strong, biting land wind sprang up, their ice-floe parted from the
+land ice and drifted away from the island. Dark-green water and white
+foaming surge yawned behind them. There was no time to think. They were
+drifting out to sea as fast as they could. But to go back empty-handed
+would have been too vexatious; so they cut off a quarter of a hide and
+dragged it with some lumps of blubber to the kayaks. They reached the
+land in safety, dead tired after an adventurous row, and sought the
+shelter of the hut.
+
+In the night came a bear mamma with two large cubs, and made a thorough
+inspection of the outside of the hut. The mother was shot and the cubs
+made off to the shore, plunged in, and swam out to a slab of ice which
+would just bear them, and scrambled up. There they stood moaning and
+whining, and wondering why their mother stayed so long on shore. One
+tumbled over the edge, but climbed up again on to the slippery floe and
+the clean salt water ran off his fur. They drifted away with the wind
+and soon looked like two white spots on the almost black water. Nansen
+and Johansen wanted their meat, the more because the bears had torn and
+mangled all the walrus meat lying outside the hut. The kayaks were
+pushed out and were soon on the farther side of the floe with the bear
+cubs. They were chased into the water and followed all the way to the
+beach, where they were shot.
+
+Things now began to look better--three bears all at once! Then the first
+walrus came to the surface again, and while he was being skinned another
+came to look on and had to join him. It was disgusting work to flay the
+huge brutes. Both the men had their worn clothes smeared with train-oil
+and blood, so that they were soaked right through. Ivory and glaucous
+gulls, noisy and greedy, collected from far and near and picked up all
+the offal. They would soon fly south, the sea would be covered with ice,
+and the Polar night would be so dismal and silent.
+
+It took a week to get the new hut ready. The shoulder blade of a walrus
+fastened to a ski served as spade. A walrus tusk tied to a broken ski
+staff made an excellent hoe. Then they raised the walls of the hut, and
+inside they dug into the ground and made a sort of couch for both of
+them, which they covered with bearskin. After two more walruses had been
+shot they had plenty of roofing material, which they laid over the trunk
+of driftwood. A bear came, indeed, and pulled down everything, but it
+cost him dear, and afterwards the roof was strengthened with a weight of
+stones. To make a draught through the open fireplace they set up on the
+roof a chimney of ice. Then they moved into the new hut, which was to be
+their abode through the long winter.
+
+On October 15 they saw the sun for the last time. The bears vanished,
+and did not return till the next spring. But foxes were left, and they
+were extremely inquisitive and thievish. They stole their sail thread
+and steel wire, their harpoon and line, and it was quite impossible to
+find the stolen goods again. What they wanted with a thermometer which
+lay outside it is hard to conceive, for it must have been all the same
+to the foxes how many degrees of temperature there were in their earths.
+All winter they were up on the roof pattering, growling, howling, and
+quarrelling. There was a pleasant rattling up above, and the two men
+really would not have been without their fox company.
+
+One can hardly say that the days passed slowly, for the whole winter
+was, of course, one long night. It was so silent and empty, and an
+oppressive, solemn stillness reigned during the calm night. Sometimes
+the aurora blazed in a mysterious crown in the sky, at other times so
+dark, and the stars glittered with inconceivable brilliance. The
+weather, however, was seldom calm. Usually the wind howled round the
+bare rocks lashed by millions of storms since the earliest times, and
+snow swished outside and built up walls close around the hut.
+
+The endlessly long night passed slowly on. The men ate and slept, and
+walked up and down in the darkness to stretch their limbs. Then came
+Christmas with its old memories. They clean up, sweep and brush, and
+take up a foot's depth of frozen refuse from the floor of the hut. They
+rummage for some of the last good things from the _Fram_, and then
+Nansen lies listening and fancies he hears the church bells at home.
+
+In the midst of the winter night comes New Year's Day, when it is so
+cold that they can only lie down and sleep, and look out of their
+sleeping-bag only to eat. Sometimes they do not put out their noses for
+twenty hours on end, but lie dosing just like bears in their lairs.
+
+On the last day of February the sun at last appears again. He is
+heartily welcome, and he is accompanied by some morning birds, Little
+Auks. The two men are frightened of each other when daylight shines on
+them, as their hair and beards have grown so long. They have not washed
+for a year or more, and are as black in the face as negroes. Nansen, who
+is usually extremely fair, has now jet-black hair. They may be excused
+for not bathing at a temperature of-40 deg.
+
+The first bear has come. Here he is scratching at the hut and wanting to
+get in; there is such a good smell from inside. A bullet meets him on
+the way. And as he runs off up a steep slope he gets another, and comes
+rolling down in wild bounces like a football. They lived on him for six
+weeks.
+
+While the days grew lighter they worked at a new outfit. They made
+trousers out of their blankets. Shoes were patched, rope was cut out of
+walrus hide, new runners were put on the sledges, the provisions were
+packed, and on May 19 they left their cabin and marched farther
+south-west.
+
+Time after time they had to rest on account of snowstorms. They had
+thrown away the tent, and instead they crept in between the sledges
+covered with the sail. Once Nansen came down when on skis, and would
+have been drowned if Johansen had not helped him up in time. The snow
+lying on this ice was soaked with water. They had always to keep their
+eyes open and look for firm ice. The provisions came to an end, but the
+sea swarmed with walruses. Sometimes the animals were so bold that
+Nansen could go up to them and take photographs. When a fine brute had
+been shot the others still lay quiet, and only by hitting them with
+their alpenstocks could the travellers get rid of them. Then the animals
+would waddle off in single file and plunge head first into the water,
+which seemed to boil up around them.
+
+Once they had such level ice and a good wind behind them that they
+hoisted sail on the sledges, stood on skis in front of them to steer,
+and flew along so that the snow was thrown up around them.
+
+Another time they sailed with the kayaks lashed together and went ashore
+on an island to get a better view. The kayak raft was moored with a
+walrus rope. As they were strolling round Johansen called out, "Hullo,
+the kayaks are adrift."
+
+They ran down. The wind was blowing off the land. Out on the fiord all
+they possessed in the world was being mercilessly carried away.
+
+"Take my watch," cried Nansen, and throwing off a few clothes he jumped
+into the ice-cold water, and swam after the kayaks. But they drifted
+more rapidly than Nansen swam, and the case seemed hopeless. He felt his
+limbs growing numb, but he thought he might as well drown as swim back
+without the boats. He struck out for his life, became tired, lay on his
+back, went on again, saw that the distance was lessening, and put out
+all his strength for a last spurt. He was quite spent and on the point
+of sinking when he caught hold of one of the canoes and could hang on
+and get his breath. Then he heaved himself up into the kayak, and rowed
+back shivering, with chattering teeth, benumbed, and frozen blue. When
+he reached the land Johansen put him in the sleeping-bag and laid over
+him everything he could find. And when he had slept a few hours he was
+as lively as a cricket and did justice to the supper.
+
+Farther and farther south they continued their daring journey over ice
+and waves. A walrus came up beside Nansen's canoe, and tried its
+solidity with his tusks, nearly taking kayak and oarsman down with him
+to the salt depths. When the animal went off, Nansen felt uncomfortably
+cold and wet about the legs. He rowed to the nearest ice, where the
+kayak sank in shallow water and all he possessed was wet and spoiled.
+Then they had to give themselves a good rest and repair all damages,
+while walruses grunted and snorted close beside them.
+
+This journey of Nansen's is a unique feat in the history of Polar
+travels. Of the crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, a hundred and
+thirty-four men, not one had escaped, though they had not lost their
+vessels and though they lay quite close to a coast where there were
+human beings and game. But these two Norwegians had now held out in the
+Polar sea for fifteen months, and had preserved their lives and limbs
+and were in excellent condition.
+
+Their hour of delivery was at hand. On June 17 Nansen ascended an ice
+hummock and listened to the commotion made by a whole multitude of
+birds. What now? He listens holding his breath. No, it is impossible!
+Yes, indeed, that is a dog's bark. It must surely be a bird with a
+peculiar cry. No, it _is_ a dog barking.
+
+He hurried back to the camp. Johansen thought it was a mistake. They
+bolted their breakfast. Then Nansen fastened skis on his feet, took his
+gun, field-glass, and alpenstock, and flew swiftly as the wind over the
+white snow.
+
+See, there are the footprints of a dog! Perhaps a fox? No, they would be
+much smaller. He flies over the ice towards the land. Now he hears a
+man's voice. He yells with all the power of his lungs and takes no heed
+of holes and lumps as he speeds along towards life, safety, and home.
+
+Then a dog runs up barking. Behind him comes a man. Nansen hurries to
+meet him, and both wave their caps. Whoever this traveller with the dog
+may be, he has good reason for astonishment at seeing a jet-black giant
+come jolting on skis straight from the North Pole.
+
+They meet. They put out their hands.
+
+"How do you do?" asks the Englishman.
+
+"Very well, thank you," says Nansen.
+
+"I am very glad to see you here."
+
+"So am I," cries Nansen.
+
+The Englishman with the dog is named Jackson, and has been for two years
+in Franz Joseph Land making sledge journeys and explorations. He
+concludes that the black man on skis is some one from the _Fram_, but
+when he hears that it is Nansen himself he is still more astonished and
+agreeably surprised.
+
+They went to Jackson's house, whither Johansen also was fetched. Both
+our explorers washed with soap and brush several times to get off the
+worst of the dirt, all that was not firmly set and imbedded in their
+skins. They scrubbed and scraped and changed their clothes from top to
+toe, and at last looked like human beings.
+
+Later in the summer a vessel came with supplies for Jackson. With this
+vessel Nansen and Johansen sailed home. At Vardoe they received telegrams
+from their families, and their delight was unbounded. Only one thing
+troubled them. Where was the _Fram_? Some little time later Nansen was
+awakened at Hammerfest one morning by a telegraph messenger. The
+telegram he brought read: "_Fram_ arrived in good condition. All well on
+board. Shall start at once for Tromsoe. Welcome home." The sender of the
+telegram was the captain of the _Fram_, the brave and faithful
+Sverdrup.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[21] A _krona_ is a Swedish coin worth about 1s. 1-1/2d.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS
+
+
+It is barely a hundred years since European mariners began to approach
+the coasts of the mysterious mainland which extends around the southern
+pole of the earth. Ross, who in 1831 discovered the north magnetic pole,
+sailed ten years later in two ships, the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_
+(afterwards to become so famous with Franklin), along the coast of the
+most southern of all seas, a sea which still bears his name. He
+discovered an active volcano, not much less than 13,000 feet high, and
+named it Erebus, while to another extinct volcano he gave the name of
+Terror. And he saw the lofty ice barrier, which in some places is as
+much as 300 feet high.
+
+At a much later time there was great rivalry among European nations to
+contribute to the knowledge of the world's sixth continent. In the year
+1901 an English expedition under Captain Scott was despatched to the sea
+and coasts first visited by Ross. Captain Scott made great and important
+discoveries on the coast of the sixth continent, and advanced nearer to
+the South Pole than any of his predecessors. One of the members of the
+expedition followed his example some years later. His name is
+Shackleton, and his journey is famous far and wide.
+
+Shackleton resolved to advance from his winter quarters as far as
+possible towards the South Pole, and with only three other men he set
+out at the end of October, 1908. His sledges were drawn by strong, plump
+ponies obtained from Manchuria. They were fed with maize, compressed
+fodder, and concentrated food, but when during the journey they had to
+be put on short commons they ate up straps, rope ends, and one another's
+tails. The four men had provisions for fully three months.
+
+While the smoke rose from the crater of Erebus, Shackleton marched
+southwards over snow-covered ice. Sometimes the snow was soft and
+troublesome, sometimes covered with a hard crust hiding dangerous
+crevasses in the mass of ice. At the camps the adventurers set up their
+two tents and crept into their sleeping-bags, while the ponies, covered
+with horse-cloths, stood and slept outside. Sometimes they had to remain
+stationary for a day or two when snowstorms stopped their progress.
+
+[Illustration: THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS.]
+
+When the sun was hidden by clouds the illumination was perplexing. No
+shadows revealed the unevenness of the snowfield, all was of the purest
+white, and where the men thought they were walking over level ground,
+they might quite unexpectedly come down on their noses down a small
+slope. Once they heard a thundering noise far away to the east. It
+sounded like a cannon shot, but probably was only the immense inland ice
+"calving." When the ice during its constant but slow motion towards the
+coast slides out into the sea, it is lifted up by the water and is
+broken up into huge, heavy blocks and icebergs which float about
+independently. When these pieces break away the inland ice is said to
+"calve."
+
+Shackleton advanced towards the pole at the rate of twelve to eighteen
+miles a day. His small party was lost like small specks in the endless
+desert of ice and snow. Only to the west was visible a succession of
+mountain summits like towers and pinnacles. The men seemed to be
+marching towards a white wall which they could never reach.
+
+On November 31 one of the ponies was shot, and its flesh was kept to be
+used as food. The sledge he had drawn was set up on end and propped up
+as a mark for the return journey. Five days later Shackleton came to
+Scott's farthest south, and the lofty mountains with dark, steep, rocky
+flanks which he afterwards had by the side of his route had never before
+been seen by man.
+
+A couple of days later a second pony was shot, and shortly afterwards a
+third, which could go no farther, had to be put out of his misery. The
+last pony seemed to miss his comrades, but he still struggled on with
+his sledge, while the four men dragged another.
+
+The mountain range which they had hitherto had on their right curved too
+much to the east, but fortunately it was cut through by a huge glacier,
+the great highway to the Pole. They ascended the glacier and crossed a
+small pass between great pillars of granite. Now they were surrounded by
+lofty mountains. The ice was intersected by dangerous crevasses, and
+only with the greatest caution and loss of time could they go round
+them. A bird flew over their heads, probably a gull. What could he be
+looking for here in the midst of the eternal ice?
+
+One day three of the explorers were drawing their sledge while the
+fourth was guiding the one drawn by the pony. Suddenly they saw the
+animal disappear, actually swallowed up by the ice. A snow bridge had
+given way under the weight of the pony, and the animal had fallen into a
+crevasse 1000 feet deep. When they bent over the edge of the dark chasm
+they could not hear a sound below. Fortunately the front cross-piece of
+the sledge had come away, so that the sledge and man were left on the
+brink of the chasm. If the precious provisions had gone down with the
+horse into the bowels of the ice, Shackleton would have been obliged to
+turn back.
+
+Now left without assistance in dragging the sledges, they had to
+struggle up the glacier between rocks and slates in which coal was
+imbedded. On Christmas Day the temperature was down to-47 deg.--a fine
+midsummer!
+
+At length the four men had left all mountains behind, and now a plateau
+country of nothing but snow-covered ice stretched before them. But still
+the surface of the ice rose towards the heart of the South Polar
+continent, and the singing headaches from which they suffered were a
+consequence of the elevation. A flag on a bamboo pole was set up as a
+landmark.
+
+On January 7 and 8, 1909, they had to lie still in a hard snowstorm, and
+the temperature fell to-69 deg. When such is the summer of the South Pole,
+what must the winter be like? January 9 was the last day on their march
+southwards. Without loads or sledges they hurried on and halted at 88 deg.
+23' south latitude.
+
+They were only 100 miles from the South Pole when they had to turn back
+from want of provisions. They might have gone on and might have reached
+the Pole, but they would never have come back.
+
+The height was more than 10,000 feet above sea-level, and before them,
+in the direction of the Pole, extended a boundless flat plateau of
+inland ice. The Union Jack was hoisted and a record of their journey
+deposited in a cylinder. Shackleton cast a last glance over the ice
+towards the Pole, and, sore at heart, gave the order to retreat.
+
+Happily he was able to follow his trail back and succeeded in reaching
+his winter quarters, whence his vessel carried him home again in safety.
+
+THE END
+
+_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+By Dr. SVEN HEDIN
+
+TRANS-HIMALAYA
+
+DISCOVERIES AND ADVENTURES IN TIBET
+
+8vo.
+
+Vols. I. and II. With 388 Illustrations and 10 Maps. 30s. net.
+
+Vol. III. With 156 Illustrations and Maps. 15s. net.
+
+_EVENING STANDARD._--"The great Swede has given his readers a rare
+treat.... A record of such perilous journeying and undaunted experiments
+as the world has rarely witnessed."
+
+Sir THOMAS HOLDICH in the _WORLD_.--"For all lovers of a good
+story of genuine travel and adventure it will be a most delightful book
+to read, and the fact that it deals with the hitherto untrodden region
+of India's great northern water-parting will render it doubly
+interesting."
+
+_WESTMINSTER GAZETTE._--"It is certainly a wonderful story that Dr.
+Hedin has to tell, and few journeys have called for more resource and
+courage.... A work of great value from a geographical point of view, and
+one which to the ordinary reader is full of interest."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OVERLAND TO INDIA
+
+With 308 Illustrations and 2 Maps.
+
+Two vols. 8vo. 30s. net.
+
+_TIMES._--"The narrative abounds in entertainment, and with his dramatic
+faculty, his genuine sympathy with all sorts and conditions of men, his
+happy gift of humour, and his trained observation, Dr. Hedin gives us a
+welcome and impressive picture of the present condition of things in a
+country teeming with racial hatreds and religious animosities."
+
+_EVENING STANDARD._--"The chronicle of these wanderings, compiled by a
+most skilled observer, gifted with an inexhaustible appetite for hard
+work, with a graphic touch in narration, and an artist's skill and
+delicacy in using the pencil, constitutes a magnificent addition to the
+library of travel as well as to the record of patient endurance of
+hardships."
+
+_SATURDAY REVIEW._--"Dr. Hedin's book teems with a variety of
+interesting topics. Of his photographs it is impossible to speak too
+highly."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A SELECTION OF
+
+WORKS OF TRAVEL, SPORT, Etc.
+
+MY LIFE WITH THE ESKIMO. By VILHJALMUR STEFANSSON. Illustrated.
+8vo. 17s. net.
+
+THE WILDS OF MAORILAND. By J. MACKINTOSH BELL, M.A., Ph.D.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 15s.
+
+ACROSS AUSTRALIA. By BALDWIN SPENCER, C.M.G., F.R.S., and
+F. J. GILLEN. Illustrated. Two vols. 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER. By JAMES SUTHERLAND.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA AND OTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF THIRTEEN
+YEARS' WANDERINGS. By Captain C. H. STIGAND. With Introduction
+by THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Illustrated. 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+SPORT ON THE NILGIRIS AND IN WYNAAD. By F. W. F. FLETCHER.
+Illustrated. 8vo. 12s. net.
+
+THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO, AND OTHER EAST AFRICAN ADVENTURES. By
+Lieut.-Colonel J. H. PATTERSON, D.S.O. Illustrated. With a
+Foreword by FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. Cheap
+Edition. Globe 8vo. 1s. net.
+
+IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA. Further Adventures in British East Africa. By
+Lieut.-Colonel J. H. PATTERSON, D.S.O. Illustrated. 8vo. 7s.
+6d. net.
+
+A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA. Nine Years amongst the Game of the Far
+Interior of South Africa. By FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS.
+Illustrated. Fifth Edition. Extra Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+AFRICAN NATURE NOTES AND REMINISCENCES. By FREDERICK COURTENEY
+SELOUS. With a Foreword by THEODORE ROOSEVELT and
+Illustrations by E. CALDWELL. 8vo. 10s. net.
+
+THE OLD NORTH TRAIL: or, Life, Legends, and Religion of the Blackfeet
+Indians. By WALTER MCCLINTOCK. Illustrated. 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA, FROM SUBALTERN TO COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. By
+Field-Marshal EARL ROBERTS, V.C. Illustrated. Popular Edition.
+Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. Library Edition. Two vols. 8vo. 36s.
+
+FROM SEA TO SEA. By RUDYARD KIPLING. Two vols. Extra Crown 8vo.
+6s. each. _Pocket Edition_. Fcap. 8vo, Limp Leather, 5s. net; Blue
+Cloth, 4s. 6d. net.
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's Note:                                                    |
+|                                                                       |
+|Illustrations, originally had a reference to '_facing page_', and have |
+|now been placed as close as possible to their original positions.      |
+|                                                                       |
+|All maps carried an acknowledgement for _Emery Walker sc._             |
+|                                                                       |
+|The following PLATE'S also carried acknowledgements.                   |
+|                                                                       |
+|Plate I. BERLIN _Photo. The Photocrom Co._                             |
+|PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE _Photo. The Photocrom Co._                    |
+|PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW _Photo. The Photocrom Co._            |
+|PLATE XXIV. PARIS _Photo. The Photocrom Co._                           |
+|PLATE XXVI. THE COLLOSEUM, ROME. _Photo. Underwood and Underwood._     |
+|PLATE XXVII. POMPEII. _Photo. Abteilung, Zurich._                      |
+|PLATE XXXIV. CANONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER. _Photo. Underwood and       |
+|Underwood._                                                            |
+|PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM". _Photo. The Record Press._                    |
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
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