diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-05-22 06:21:06 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-05-22 06:21:06 -0700 |
| commit | 927b84447330feff7f97b19a859a529d5f373a63 (patch) | |
| tree | 910df9e6529d1e6601c96a3fe63823828832b072 /old/orig2895-h/p7.htm | |
| parent | 45233bfff9932ead4e2bd82354ab2a7e0c915907 (diff) | |
Diffstat (limited to 'old/orig2895-h/p7.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/orig2895-h/p7.htm | 3328 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 3328 deletions
diff --git a/old/orig2895-h/p7.htm b/old/orig2895-h/p7.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 78ad8c7..0000000 --- a/old/orig2895-h/p7.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3328 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> -<html> -<head> -<title>FOLLOWING THE EQUATOR, Part 7</title> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> - - - -<style type="text/css"> - <!-- - body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} - P { text-indent: 1em; - margin-top: .75em; - margin-bottom: .75em; } - H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } - HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } - blockquote {font-size: 97% } - .figleft {float: left;} - .figright {float: right;} - .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} - CENTER { padding: 10px;} - --> -</style> - - - -</head> -<body> - - -<center> -<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> -<tr><td> - <a href="p6.htm">Previous Part</a> -</td><td> - <a href="2895-h.htm">Main Index</a> - - -</td></tr> -</table> -</center> - -<br><br><br><br> - -<center> - - - <h1>FOLLOWING</h1> - <h1>THE EQUATOR</h1> - <br><br><br> - <h3>Part 7.</h3> - <br><br><br> - <h2>A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD</h2> - <h2>BY</h2> - <h2>MARK TWAIN</h2> - <br><br><br> - <h3>SAMUEL L. CLEMENS</h3> - <h3>HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT</h3> - - -</center> - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="bookcover.jpg (131K)" src="images/bookcover.jpg" height="918" width="650"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<center><img alt="bookspine.jpg (70K)" src="images/bookspine.jpg" height="918" width="265"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<center><img alt="booktitle.jpg (53K)" src="images/booktitle.jpg" height="1051" width="619"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<center><img alt="bookfront.jpg (50K)" src="images/bookfront.jpg" height="978" width="650"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<center><img alt="bookdedicate.jpg (13K)" src="images/bookdedicate.jpg" height="329" width="575"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<center><img alt="bookmaxim.jpg (16K)" src="images/bookmaxim.jpg" height="367" width="627"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - - - -<br><br><br><br> - - <center><h2>CONTENTS OF PART 7.</h2></center> - -<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> -<h3><a href="#ch61">CHAPTER LXI.</a></h3> -<p> -Methods in American Deaf and Dumb Asylums—Methods in the Public -Schools—A Letter from a Youth in Punjab—Highly Educated Service—A Damage to -the Country—A Little Book from Calcutta—Writing Poor -English—Embarrassed by a Beggar Girl—A Specimen Letter—An Application for -Employment—A Calcutta School Examination—Two Samples of -Literature - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch62">CHAPTER LXII.</a></h3> -<p> -Sail from Calcutta to Madras—Thence to Ceylon—Thence for -Mauritius—The Indian Ocean—Our Captain's Peculiarity—The Scot Has one -too—The Flying-fish that Went Hunting in the Field—Fined for Smuggling—Lots of Pets on Board—The Color of the Sea—The Most Important Member of -Nature's Family—The Captain's Story of Cold Weather—Omissions in the -Ship's Library—Washing Decks—Pyjamas on Deck—The Cat's Toilet—No -Interest in the Bulletin—Perfect Rest—The Milky Way and the Magellan -Clouds—Mauritius—Port Louis—A Hot Country—Under French -Control—A Variety of People and Complexions—Train to Curepipe—A Wonderful -Office-holder—The Wooden Peg Ornament—The Prominent Historical Event of -Mauritius—"Paul and Virginia"—One of Virginia's Wedding Gifts—Heaven -Copied after Mauritius—Early History of -Mauritius—Quarantines—Population of all Kinds—What the World Consists of—Where Russia and -Germany are—A Picture of Milan Cathedral—Newspapers—The Language—Best -Sugar in the World—Literature of Mauritius - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch63">CHAPTER LXIII.</a></h3> -<p> -Port Louis—Matches no Good—Good Roads—Death Notices—Why European -Nations Rob Each Other—What Immigrants to Mauritius -Do—Population—Labor Wages—The Camaron—The Palmiste and other Eatables—Monkeys—The -Cyclone of 1892—Mauritius a Sunday Landscape - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch64">CHAPTER LXIV.</a></h3> -<p> -The Steamer "Arundel Castle"—Poor Beds in Ships—The Beds in Noah's -Ark—Getting a Rest in Europe—Ship in Sight—Mozambique Channel—The -Engineer and the Band—Thackeray's "Madagascar"—Africanders Going -Home—Singing on the After Deck—An Out-of-Place Story—Dynamite Explosion in -Johannesburg—Entering Delagoa Bay—Ashore—A Hot Winter—Small Town—No -Sights—No Carriages—Working Women—Barnum's Purchase of Shakespeare's -Birthplace, Jumbo, and the Nelson Monument—Arrival at Durban - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch65">CHAPTER LXV.</a></h3> -<p> -Royal Hotel Durban—Bells that Did not Ring—Early Inquiries for -Comforts—Change of Temperature after Sunset—Rickhaws—The Hotel -Chameleon—Natives not out after the Bell—Preponderance of Blacks in Natal—Hair -Fashions in Natal—Zulus for Police—A Drive round the Berea—The Cactus -and other Trees—Religion a Vital Matter—Peculiar Views about -Babies—Zulu Kings—A Trappist Monastery—Transvaal Politics—Reasons why the -Trouble came About - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch66">CHAPTER LXVI.</a></h3> -<p> -Jameson over the Border—His Defeat and Capture—Sent to England for -Trial—Arrest of Citizens by the Boers—Commuted Sentences—Final Release -of all but Two—Interesting Days for a Stranger—Hard to Understand -Either Side—What the Reformers Expected to Accomplish—How They Proposed -to Do it—Testimonies a Year Later—A "Woman's Part"—The Truth of the -South African Situation—"Jameson's Ride"—A Poem - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch67">CHAPTER LXVII.</a></h3> -<p> -Jameson's Raid—The Reform Committee's Difficult Task—Possible -Plans—Advice that Jameson Ought to Have—The War of 1881 and its -Lessons—Statistics of Losses of the Combatants—Jameson's Battles—Losses on Both -Sides—The Military Errors—How the Warfare Should Have Been Carried on -to Be Successful -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch68">CHAPTER LXVIII.</a></h3> -<p> -Judicious Mr. Rhodes—What South Africa Consists of—Johannesburg—The -Gold Mines—The Heaven of American Engineers—What the Author Knows about -Mining—Description of the Boer—What Should be Expected of Him—What Was -A Dizzy Jump for Rhodes—Taxes—Rhodesian Method of Reducing Native -Population—Journeying in Cape Colony—The Cars—The Country—The -Weather—Tamed Blacks—Familiar Figures in King William's Town—Boer -Dress—Boer Country Life—Sleeping Accommodations—The Reformers in Boer -Prison—Torturing a Black Prisoner - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#ch69">CHAPTER LXIX.</a></h3> -<p> -An Absorbing Novelty—The Kimberley Diamond Mines—Discovery of -Diamonds—The Wronged Stranger—Where the Gems Are—A Judicious Change of -Boundary—Modern Machinery and Appliances—Thrilling Excitement in -Finding a Diamond—Testing a Diamond—Fences—Deep Mining by Natives in -the Compound—Stealing—Reward for the Biggest Diamond—A Fortune in -Wine—The Great Diamond—Office of the De Beer Co.—Sorting the -Gems—Cape Town—The Most Imposing Man in British Provinces—Various Reasons -for his Supremacy—How He Makes Friends - -<br><br><br> -<h3><a href="#CONCLUSION">CONCLUSION.</a></h3> -<p> -Table Rock—Table Bay—The Castle—Government and Parliament—The -Club—Dutch Mansions and their Hospitality—Dr. John Barry and his Doings—On -the Ship Norman—Madeira—Arrived in Southampton - -</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> -<br><br> -<hr> -<br><br><br><br> - - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch61"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXI.</h2> - -<p><i>In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made -School Boards.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>Suppose we applied no more ingenuity to the instruction of deaf and dumb -and blind children than we sometimes apply in our American public schools -to the instruction of children who are in possession of all their -faculties? The result would be that the deaf and dumb and blind would -acquire nothing. They would live and die as ignorant as bricks and -stones. The methods used in the asylums are rational. The teacher -exactly measures the child's capacity, to begin with; and from thence -onwards the tasks imposed are nicely gauged to the gradual development of -that capacity, the tasks keep pace with the steps of the child's -progress, they don't jump miles and leagues ahead of it by irrational -caprice and land in vacancy—according to the average public-school plan. -In the public school, apparently, they teach the child to spell cat, then -ask it to calculate an eclipse; when it can read words of two syllables, -they require it to explain the circulation of the blood; when it reaches -the head of the infant class they bully it with conundrums that cover the -domain of universal knowledge. This sounds extravagant—and is; yet it -goes no great way beyond the facts. - -<p>I received a curious letter one day, from the Punjab (you must pronounce -it Punjawb). The handwriting was excellent, and the wording was -English—English, and yet not exactly English. The style was easy and smooth -and flowing, yet there was something subtly foreign about it—A something -tropically ornate and sentimental and rhetorical. It turned out to be -the work of a Hindoo youth, the holder of a humble clerical billet in a -railway office. He had been educated in one of the numerous colleges of -India. Upon inquiry I was told that the country was full of young -fellows of his like. They had been educated away up to the snow-summits -of learning—and the market for all this elaborate cultivation was -minutely out of proportion to the vastness of the product. This market -consisted of some thousands of small clerical posts under the -government—the supply of material for it was multitudinous. If this youth with the -flowing style and the blossoming English was occupying a small railway -clerkship, it meant that there were hundreds and hundreds as capable as -he, or he would be in a high place; and it certainly meant that there -were thousands whose education and capacity had fallen a little short, -and that they would have to go without places. Apparently, then, the -colleges of India were doing what our high schools have long been -doing—richly over-supplying the market for highly-educated service; and thereby -doing a damage to the scholar, and through him to the country. - -<p>At home I once made a speech deploring the injuries inflicted by the high -school in making handicrafts distasteful to boys who would have been -willing to make a living at trades and agriculture if they had but had -the good luck to stop with the common school. But I made no converts. -Not one, in a community overrun with educated idlers who were above -following their fathers' mechanical trades, yet could find no market for -their book-knowledge. The same mail that brought me the letter from the -Punjab, brought also a little book published by Messrs. Thacker, Spink & -Co., of Calcutta, which interested me, for both its preface and its -contents treated of this matter of over-education. In the preface occurs -this paragraph from the Calcutta Review. For "Government office" read -"drygoods clerkship" and it will fit more than one region of America: - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "The education that we give makes the boys a little less clownish in - their manners, and more intelligent when spoken to by strangers. On - the other hand, it has made them less contented with their lot in - life, and less willing to work with their hands. The form which - discontent takes in this country is not of a healthy kind; for, the - Natives of India consider that the only occupation worthy of an - educated man is that of a writership in some office, and especially - in a Government office. The village schoolboy goes back to the plow - with the greatest reluctance; and the town schoolboy carries the - same discontent and inefficiency into his father's workshop. - Sometimes these ex-students positively refuse at first to work; and - more than once parents have openly expressed their regret that they - ever allowed their sons to be inveigled to school." -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<p>The little book which I am quoting from is called "Indo-Anglian -Literature," and is well stocked with "baboo" English—clerkly English, -booky English, acquired in the schools. Some of it is very -funny,—almost as funny, perhaps, as what you and I produce when we try to write -in a language not our own; but much of it is surprisingly correct and -free. If I were going to quote good English—but I am not. India is -well stocked with natives who speak it and write it as well as the best -of us. I merely wish to show some of the quaint imperfect attempts at -the use of our tongue. There are many letters in the book; poverty -imploring help—bread, money, kindness, office—generally an office, a -clerkship, some way to get food and a rag out of the applicant's -unmarketable education; and food not for himself alone, but sometimes for -a dozen helpless relations in addition to his own family; for those -people are astonishingly unselfish, and admirably faithful to their ties -of kinship. Among us I think there is nothing approaching it. Strange -as some of these wailing and supplicating letters are, humble and even -groveling as some of them are, and quaintly funny and confused as a -goodly number of them are, there is still a pathos about them, as a rule, -that checks the rising laugh and reproaches it. In the following letter -"father" is not to be read literally. In Ceylon a little native -beggar-girl embarrassed me by calling me father, although I knew she was -mistaken. I was so new that I did not know that she was merely following -the custom of the dependent and the supplicant. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p601.jpg (43K)" src="images/p601.jpg" height="1005" width="549"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "SIR, - -<p> "I pray please to give me some action (work) for I am very poor boy - I have no one to help me even so father for it so it seemed in thy - good sight, you give the Telegraph Office, and another work what is - your wish I am very poor boy, this understand what is your wish you - my father I am your son this understand what is your wish. - -<p> "Your Sirvent, P. C. B." -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<p>Through ages of debasing oppression suffered by these people at the hands -of their native rulers, they come legitimately by the attitude and -language of fawning and flattery, and one must remember this in -mitigation when passing judgment upon the native character. It is common -in these letters to find the petitioner furtively trying to get at the -white man's soft religious side; even this poor boy baits his hook with a -macerated Bible-text in the hope that it may catch something if all else -fail. - -<p>Here is an application for the post of instructor in English to some -children: -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "My Dear Sir or Gentleman, that your Petitioner has much - qualification in the Language of English to instruct the young boys; - I was given to understand that your of suitable children has to - acquire the knowledge of English language." -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>As a sample of the flowery Eastern style, I will take a sentence or two -from a long letter written by a young native to the Lieutenant-Governor of -Bengal—an application for employment: -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "HONORED AND MUCH RESPECTED SIR, - -<p> "I hope your honor will condescend to hear the tale of this poor - creature. I shall overflow with gratitude at this mark of your - royal condescension. The bird-like happiness has flown away from my - nest-like heart and has not hitherto returned from the period whence - the rose of my father's life suffered the autumnal breath of death, - in plain English he passed through the gates of Grave, and from that - hour the phantom of delight has never danced before me." -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>It is all school-English, book-English, you see; and good enough, too, -all things considered. If the native boy had but that one study he would -shine, he would dazzle, no doubt. But that is not the case. He is -situated as are our public-school children—loaded down with an -over-freightage of other studies; and frequently they are as far beyond the -actual point of progress reached by him and suited to the stage of -development attained, as could be imagined by the insanest fancy. -Apparently—like our public-school boy—he must work, work, work, in -school and out, and play but little. Apparently—like our public-school -boy—his "education" consists in learning things, not the meaning of -them; he is fed upon the husks, not the corn. From several essays -written by native schoolboys in answer to the question of how they spend -their day, I select one—the one which goes most into detail: - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "66. At the break of day I rises from my own bed and finish my - daily duty, then I employ myself till 8 o'clock, after which I - employ myself to bathe, then take for my body some sweet meat, and - just at 9 1/2 I came to school to attend my class duty, then at - 2 1/2 P. M. I return from school and engage myself to do my natural - duty, then, I engage for a quarter to take my tiffin, then I study - till 5 P. M., after which I began to play anything which comes in - my head. After 8 1/2, half pass to eight we are began to sleep, - before sleeping I told a constable just 11 o' he came and rose us - from half pass eleven we began to read still morning." -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>It is not perfectly clear, now that I come to cipher upon it. He gets up -at about 5 in the morning, or along there somewhere, and goes to bed -about fifteen or sixteen hours afterward—that much of it seems straight; -but why he should rise again three hours later and resume his studies -till morning is puzzling. - -<p>I think it is because he is studying history. History requires a world -of time and bitter hard work when your "education" is no further advanced -than the cat's; when you are merely stuffing yourself with a mixed-up -mess of empty names and random incidents and elusive dates, which no one -teaches you how to interpret, and which, uninterpreted, pay you not a -farthing's value for your waste of time. Yes, I think he had to get up -at halfpast 11 P.M. in order to be sure to be perfect with his history -lesson by noon. With results as follows—from a Calcutta school -examination: - -<p>"Q. Who was Cardinal Wolsey? - -<p>"Cardinal Wolsey was an Editor of a paper named North Briton. No. 45 of -his publication he charged the King of uttering a lie from the throne. -He was arrested and cast into prison; and after releasing went to France. - -<p>"3. As Bishop of York but died in disentry in a church on his way to be -blockheaded. - -<p>"8. Cardinal Wolsey was the son of Edward IV, after his father's death -he himself ascended the throne at the age of (10) ten only, but when he -surpassed or when he was fallen in his twenty years of age at that time -he wished to make a journey in his countries under him, but he was -opposed by his mother to do journey, and according to his mother's -example he remained in the home, and then became King. After many times -obstacles and many confusion he become King and afterwards his brother." - -<p>There is probably not a word of truth in that. - -<p>"Q. What is the meaning of 'Ich Dien'? - -<p>"10. An honor conferred on the first or eldest sons of English -Sovereigns. It is nothing more than some feathers. - -<p>"11. Ich Dien was the word which was written on the feathers of the -blind King who came to fight, being interlaced with the bridles of the -horse. - -<p>"13. Ich Dien is a title given to Henry VII by the Pope of Rome, when he -forwarded the Reformation of Cardinal Wolsy to Rome, and for this reason -he was called Commander of the faith." - -<p>A dozen or so of this kind of insane answers are quoted in the book from -that examination. Each answer is sweeping proof, all by itself, that the -person uttering it was pushed ahead of where he belonged when he was put -into history; proof that he had been put to the task of acquiring history -before he had had a single lesson in the art of acquiring it, which is -the equivalent of dumping a pupil into geometry before he has learned the -progressive steps which lead up to it and make its acquirement possible. -Those Calcutta novices had no business with history. There was no excuse -for examining them in it, no excuse for exposing them and their teachers. -They were totally empty; there was nothing to "examine." - -<p>Helen Keller has been dumb, stone deaf, and stone blind, ever since she -was a little baby a year-and-a-half old; and now at sixteen years of age -this miraculous creature, this wonder of all the ages, passes the Harvard -University examination in Latin, German, French history, belles lettres, -and such things, and does it brilliantly, too, not in a commonplace -fashion. She doesn't know merely things, she is splendidly familiar with -the meanings of them. When she writes an essay on a Shakespearean -character, her English is fine and strong, her grasp of the subject is -the grasp of one who knows, and her page is electric with light. Has -Miss Sullivan taught her by the methods of India and the American public -school? No, oh, no; for then she would be deafer and dumber and blinder -than she was before. It is a pity that we can't educate all the children -in the asylums. - -<p>To continue the Calcutta exposure: - -<p>"What is the meaning of a Sheriff?" - -<p>"25. Sheriff is a post opened in the time of John. The duty of Sheriff -here in Calcutta, to look out and catch those carriages which is rashly -driven out by the coachman; but it is a high post in England. - -<p>"26. Sheriff was the English bill of common prayer. - -<p>"27. The man with whom the accusative persons are placed is called -Sheriff. - -<p>"28. Sheriff—Latin term for 'shrub,' we called broom, worn by the first -earl of Enjue, as an emblem of humility when they went to the pilgrimage, -and from this their hairs took their crest and surname. - -<p>"29. Sheriff is a kind of titlous sect of people, as Barons, Nobles, -etc. - -<p>"30. Sheriff; a tittle given on those persons who were respective and -pious in England." - -<p>The students were examined in the following bulky matters: Geometry, the -Solar Spectrum, the Habeas Corpus Act, the British Parliament, and in -Metaphysics they were asked to trace the progress of skepticism from -Descartes to Hume. It is within bounds to say that some of the results -were astonishing. Without doubt, there were students present who -justified their teacher's wisdom in introducing them to these studies; -but the fact is also evident that others had been pushed into these -studies to waste their time over them when they could have been -profitably employed in hunting smaller game. Under the head of Geometry, -one of the answers is this: - -<p>"49. The whole BD = the whole CA, and so-so-so-so-so-so-so." - -<p>To me this is cloudy, but I was never well up in geometry. That was the -only effort made among the five students who appeared for examination in -geometry; the other four wailed and surrendered without a fight. They -are piteous wails, too, wails of despair; and one of them is an eloquent -reproach; it comes from a poor fellow who has been laden beyond his -strength by a stupid teacher, and is eloquent in spite of the poverty of -its English. The poor chap finds himself required to explain riddles -which even Sir Isaac Newton was not able to understand: - -<p>"50. Oh my dear father examiner you my father and you kindly give a -number of pass you my great father. - -<p>"51. I am a poor boy and have no means to support my mother and two -brothers who are suffering much for want of food. I get four rupees -monthly from charity fund of this place, from which I send two rupees for -their support, and keep two for my own support. Father, if I relate the -unlucky circumstance under which we are placed, then, I think, you will -not be able to suppress the tender tear. - -<p>"52. Sir which Sir Isaac Newton and other experienced mathematicians -cannot understand I being third of Entrance Class can understand these -which is too impossible to imagine. And my examiner also has put very -tiresome and very heavy propositions to prove." - -<p>We must remember that these pupils had to do their thinking in one -language, and express themselves in another and alien one. It was a -heavy handicap. I have by me "English as She is Taught"—a collection of -American examinations made in the public schools of Brooklyn by one of -the teachers, Miss Caroline B. Le Row. An extract or two from its pages -will show that when the American pupil is using but one language, and -that one his own, his performance is no whit better than his Indian -brother's: - -<p>"ON HISTORY. - -<p>"Christopher Columbus was called the father of his Country. Queen -Isabella of Spain sold her watch and chain and other millinery so that -Columbus could discover America. - -<p>"The Indian wars were very desecrating to the country. - -<p>"The Indians pursued their warfare by hiding in the bushes and then -scalping them. - -<p>"Captain John Smith has been styled the father of his country. His life -was saved by his daughter Pochahantas. - -<p>"The Puritans found an insane asylum in the wilds of America. - -<p>"The Stamp Act was to make everybody stamp all materials so they should -be null and void. - -<p>"Washington died in Spain almost broken-hearted. His remains were taken -to the cathedral in Havana. - -<p>"Gorilla warfare was where men rode on gorillas." - -<p> -In Brooklyn, as in India, they examine a pupil, and when they find out he -doesn't know anything, they put him into literature, or geometry, or -astronomy, or government, or something like that, so that he can properly -display the assification of the whole system: - -<p>"ON LITERATURE. - -<p>"'Bracebridge Hall' was written by Henry Irving. - -<p>"Edgar A. Poe was a very curdling writer. - -<p>"Beowulf wrote the Scriptures. - -<p>"Ben Johnson survived Shakespeare in some respects. - -<p>"In the 'Canterbury Tale' it gives account of King Alfred on his way to -the shrine of Thomas Bucket. - -<p>"Chaucer was the father of English pottery. - -<p>"Chaucer was succeeded by H. Wads. Longfellow." - -<p> -We will finish with a couple of samples of "literature," one from -America, the other from India. The first is a Brooklyn public-school -boy's attempt to turn a few verses of the "Lady of the Lake" into prose. -You will have to concede that he did it: - -<p>"The man who rode on the horse performed the whip and an instrument made -of steel alone with strong ardor not diminishing, for, being tired from -the time passed with hard labor overworked with anger and ignorant with -weariness, while every breath for labor he drew with cries full of -sorrow, the young deer made imperfect who worked hard filtered in sight." - -<p> -The following paragraph is from a little book which is famous in -India—the biography of a distinguished Hindoo judge, Onoocool Chunder -Mookerjee; it was written by his nephew, and is unintentionally funny—in -fact, exceedingly so. I offer here the closing scene. If you would like -to sample the rest of the book, it can be had by applying to the -publishers, Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "And having said these words he hermetically sealed his lips not to - open them again. All the well-known doctors of Calcutta that could - be procured for a man of his position and wealth were - brought,—Doctors Payne, Fayrer, and Nilmadhub Mookerjee and others; they did - what they could do, with their puissance and knack of medical - knowledge, but it proved after all as if to milk the ram! His wife - and children had not the mournful consolation to hear his last - words; he remained sotto voce for a few hours, and then was taken - from us at 6.12 P.m. according to the caprice of God which passeth - understanding." -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p608.jpg (7K)" src="images/p608.jpg" height="222" width="429"> -</center> - - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch62"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXII.</h2> - -<p><i>There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined ones.</i> - <center> —Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>We sailed from Calcutta toward the end of March; stopped a day at Madras; -two or three days in Ceylon; then sailed westward on a long flight for -Mauritius. From my diary: - -<p>April 7. We are far abroad upon the smooth waters of the Indian Ocean, -now; it is shady and pleasant and peaceful under the vast spread of the -awnings, and life is perfect again—ideal. - -<p>The difference between a river and the sea is, that the river looks -fluid, the sea solid—usually looks as if you could step out and walk on -it. - -<p>The captain has this peculiarity—he cannot tell the truth in a plausible -way. In this he is the very opposite of the austere Scot who sits midway -of the table; he cannot tell a lie in an unplausible way. When the -captain finishes a statement the passengers glance at each other -privately, as who should say, "Do you believe that?" When the Scot -finishes one, the look says, "How strange and interesting." The whole -secret is in the manner and method of the two men. The captain is a -little shy and diffident, and he states the simplest fact as if he were a -little afraid of it, while the Scot delivers himself of the most -abandoned lie with such an air of stern veracity that one is forced to -believe it although one knows it isn't so. For instance, the Scot told -about a pet flying-fish he once owned, that lived in a little fountain in -his conservatory, and supported itself by catching birds and frogs and -rats in the neighboring fields. It was plain that no one at the table -doubted this statement. - -<p>By and by, in the course of some talk about custom-house annoyances, the -captain brought out the following simple everyday incident, but through -his infirmity of style managed to tell it in such a way that it got no -credence. He said: - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "I went ashore at Naples one voyage when I was in that trade, and - stood around helping my passengers, for I could speak a little - Italian. Two or three times, at intervals, the officer asked me if - I had anything dutiable about me, and seemed more and more put out - and disappointed every time I told him no. Finally a passenger whom - I had helped through asked me to come out and take something. I - thanked him, but excused myself, saying I had taken a whisky just - before I came ashore. - -<p> "It was a fatal admission. The officer at once made me pay sixpence - import-duty on the whisky-just from ship to shore, you see; and he - fined me L5 for not declaring the goods, another L5 for falsely - denying that I had anything dutiable about me, also L5 for - concealing the goods, and L50 for smuggling, which is the maximum - penalty for unlawfully bringing in goods under the value of - sevenpence ha'penny. Altogether, sixty-five pounds sixpence for a - little thing like that." -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<p>The Scot is always believed, yet he never tells anything but lies; -whereas the captain is never believed, although he never tells a lie, so -far as I can judge. If he should say his uncle was a male person, he -would probably say it in such a way that nobody would believe it; at the -same time the Scot could claim that he had a female uncle and not stir a -doubt in anybody's mind. My own luck has been curious all my literary -life; I never could tell a lie that anybody would doubt, nor a truth that -anybody would believe. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p610.jpg (10K)" src="images/p610.jpg" height="513" width="209"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Lots of pets on board—birds and things. In these far countries the -white people do seem to run remarkably to pets. Our host in Cawnpore had -a fine collection of birds—the finest we saw in a private house in -India. And in Colombo, Dr. Murray's great compound and commodious -bungalow were well populated with domesticated company from the woods: -frisky little squirrels; a Ceylon mina walking sociably about the house; -a small green parrot that whistled a single urgent note of call without -motion of its beak; also chuckled; a monkey in a cage on the back -veranda, and some more out in the trees; also a number of beautiful -macaws in the trees; and various and sundry birds and animals of breeds -not known to me. But no cat. Yet a cat would have liked that place. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p611.jpg (17K)" src="images/p611.jpg" height="685" width="311"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>April 9. Tea-planting is the great business in Ceylon, now. A passenger -says it often pays 40 per cent. on the investment. Says there is a boom. - -<p>April 10. The sea is a Mediterranean blue; and I believe that that is -about the divinest color known to nature. - -<p>It is strange and fine—Nature's lavish generosities to her creatures. -At least to all of them except man. For those that fly she has provided -a home that is nobly spacious—a home which is forty miles deep and -envelops the whole globe, and has not an obstruction in it. For those -that swim she has provided a more than imperial domain—a domain which is -miles deep and covers four-fifths of the globe. But as for man, she has -cut him off with the mere odds and ends of the creation. She has given -him the thin skin, the meagre skin which is stretched over the remaining -one-fifth—the naked bones stick up through it in most places. On the -one-half of this domain he can raise snow, ice, sand, rocks, and nothing -else. So the valuable part of his inheritance really consists of but a -single fifth of the family estate; and out of it he has to grub hard to -get enough to keep him alive and provide kings and soldiers and powder to -extend the blessings of civilization with. Yet man, in his simplicity -and complacency and inability to cipher, thinks Nature regards him as the -important member of the family—in fact, her favorite. Surely, it must -occur to even his dull head, sometimes, that she has a curious way of -showing it. - -<p>Afternoon. The captain has been telling how, in one of his Arctic -voyages, it was so cold that the mate's shadow froze fast to the deck and -had to be ripped loose by main strength. And even then he got only about -two-thirds of it back. Nobody said anything, and the captain went away. -I think he is becoming disheartened . . . . - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p613.jpg (92K)" src="images/p613.jpg" height="1035" width="593"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Also, to be fair, there -is another word of praise due to this ship's library: it contains no copy -of the Vicar of Wakefield, that strange menagerie of complacent -hypocrites and idiots, of theatrical cheap-john heroes and heroines, who -are always showing off, of bad people who are not interesting, and good -people who are fatiguing. A singular book. Not a sincere line in it, -and not a character that invites respect; a book which is one long -waste-pipe discharge of goody-goody puerilities and dreary moralities; a book -which is full of pathos which revolts, and humor which grieves the heart. -There are few things in literature that are more piteous, more pathetic, -than the celebrated "humorous" incident of Moses and the spectacles. -Jane Austen's books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one -omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that -hadn't a book in it. - -<p>Customs in tropic seas. At 5 in the morning they pipe to wash down the -decks, and at once the ladies who are sleeping there turn out and they -and their beds go below. Then one after another the men come up from the -bath in their pyjamas, and walk the decks an hour or two with bare legs -and bare feet. Coffee and fruit served. The ship cat and her kitten now -appear and get about their toilets; next the barber comes and flays us on -the breezy deck. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p615.jpg (38K)" src="images/p615.jpg" height="685" width="629"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Breakfast at 9.30, and the day begins. I do not know -how a day could be more reposeful: no motion; a level blue sea; nothing -in sight from horizon to horizon; the speed of the ship furnishes a -cooling breeze; there is no mail to read and answer; no newspapers to -excite you; no telegrams to fret you or fright you—the world is far, far -away; it has ceased to exist for you—seemed a fading dream, along in the -first days; has dissolved to an unreality now; it is gone from your mind -with all its businesses and ambitions, its prosperities and disasters, -its exultations and despairs, its joys and griefs and cares and worries. -They are no concern of yours any more; they have gone out of your life; -they are a storm which has passed and left a deep calm behind. The -people group themselves about the decks in their snowy white linen, and -read, smoke, sew, play cards, talk, nap, and so on. In other ships the -passengers are always ciphering about when they are going to arrive; out -in these seas it is rare, very rare, to hear that subject broached. In -other ships there is always an eager rush to the bulletin board at noon -to find out what the "run" has been; in these seas the bulletin seems to -attract no interest; I have seen no one visit it; in thirteen days I have -visited it only once. Then I happened to notice the figures of the day's -run. On that day there happened to be talk, at dinner, about the speed -of modern ships. I was the only passenger present who knew this ship's -gait. Necessarily, the Atlantic custom of betting on the ship's run is -not a custom here—nobody ever mentions it. - -<p>I myself am wholly indifferent as to when we are going to "get in"; if -any one else feels interested in the matter he has not indicated it in my -hearing. If I had my way we should never get in at all. This sort of -sea life is charged with an indestructible charm. There is no weariness, -no fatigue, no worry, no responsibility, no work, no depression of -spirits. There is nothing like this serenity, this comfort, this peace, -this deep contentment, to be found anywhere on land. If I had my way I -would sail on for ever and never go to live on the solid ground again. - -<p>One of Kipling's ballads has delivered the aspect and sentiment of this -bewitching sea correctly: - -<center> -<table summary=""> -<tr><td> - - "The Injian Ocean sets an' smiles<br> - So sof', so bright, so bloomin' blue;<br> - There aren't a wave for miles an' miles<br> - Excep' the jiggle from the screw."<br> - -</td></tr> -</table> -</center> - - - - -<p>April 14. It turns out that the astronomical apprentice worked off a -section of the Milky Way on me for the Magellan Clouds. A man of more -experience in the business showed one of them to me last night. It was -small and faint and delicate, and looked like the ghost of a bunch of -white smoke left floating in the sky by an exploded bombshell. - -<p>Wednesday, April 15. Mauritius. Arrived and anchored off Port Louis -2 A. M. Rugged clusters of crags and peaks, green to their summits; from -their bases to the sea a green plain with just tilt enough to it to make -the water drain off. I believe it is in 56 E. and 22 S.—a hot tropical -country. The green plain has an inviting look; has scattering dwellings -nestling among the greenery. Scene of the sentimental adventure of Paul -and Virginia. - -<p>Island under French control—which means a community which depends upon -quarantines, not sanitation, for its health. - -<p>Thursday, April 16. Went ashore in the forenoon at Port Louis, a little -town, but with the largest variety of nationalities and complexions we -have encountered yet. French, English, Chinese, Arabs, Africans with -wool, blacks with straight hair, East Indians, half-whites, -quadroons—and great varieties in costumes and colors. - -<p>Took the train for Curepipe at 1.30—two hours' run, gradually uphill. -What a contrast, this frantic luxuriance of vegetation, with the arid -plains of India; these architecturally picturesque crags and knobs and -miniature mountains, with the monotony of the Indian dead-levels. - -<p>A native pointed out a handsome swarthy man of grave and dignified -bearing, and said in an awed tone, "That is so-and-so; has held office of -one sort or another under this government for 37 years—he is known all -over this whole island and in the other countries of the world -perhaps—who knows? One thing is certain; you can speak his name anywhere in this -whole island, and you will find not one grown person that has not heard -it. It is a wonderful thing to be so celebrated; yet look at him; it -makes no change in him; he does not even seem to know it." - -<p>Curepipe (means Pincushion or Pegtown, probably). Sixteen miles (two -hours) by rail from Port Louis. At each end of every roof and on the -apex of every dormer window a wooden peg two feet high stands up; in some -cases its top is blunt, in others the peg is sharp and looks like a -toothpick. The passion for this humble ornament is universal. - -<p>Apparently, there has been only one prominent event in the history of -Mauritius, and that one didn't happen. I refer to the romantic sojourn -of Paul and Virginia here. It was that story that made Mauritius known -to the world, made the name familiar to everybody, the geographical -position of it to nobody. - -<p>A clergyman was asked to guess what was in a box on a table. It was a -vellum fan painted with the shipwreck, and was "one of Virginia's wedding -gifts." - -<p>April 18. This is the only country in the world where the stranger is -not asked "How do you like this place?" This is indeed a large -distinction. Here the citizen does the talking about the country -himself; the stranger is not asked to help. You get all sorts of -information. From one citizen you gather the idea that Mauritius was -made first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius. -Another one tells you that this is an exaggeration; that the two chief -villages, Port Louis and Curepipe, fall short of heavenly perfection; -that nobody lives in Port Louis except upon compulsion, and that Curepipe -is the wettest and rainiest place in the world. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p619.jpg (14K)" src="images/p619.jpg" height="709" width="339"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>An English citizen said: -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "In the early part of this century Mauritius was used by the French - as a basis from which to operate against England's Indian - merchantmen; so England captured the island and also the neighbor, - Bourbon, to stop that annoyance. England gave Bourbon back; the - government in London did not want any more possessions in the West - Indies. If the government had had a better quality of geography in - stock it would not have wasted Bourbon in that foolish way. A big - war will temporarily shut up the Suez Canal some day and the English - ships will have to go to India around the Cape of Good Hope again; - then England will have to have Bourbon and will take it. - -<p> "Mauritius was a crown colony until 20 years ago, with a governor - appointed by the Crown and assisted by a Council appointed by - himself; but Pope Hennessey came out as Governor then, and he worked - hard to get a part of the council made elective, and succeeded. So - now the whole council is French, and in all ordinary matters of - legislation they vote together and in the French interest, not the - English. The English population is very slender; it has not votes - enough to elect a legislator. Half a dozen rich French families - elect the legislature. Pope Hennessey was an Irishman, a Catholic, - a Home Ruler, M.P., a hater of England and the English, a very - troublesome person and a serious incumbrance at Westminster; so it - was decided to send him out to govern unhealthy countries, in hope - that something would happen to him. But nothing did. The first - experiment was not merely a failure, it was more than a failure. He - proved to be more of a disease himself than any he was sent to - encounter. The next experiment was here. The dark scheme failed - again. It was an off-season and there was nothing but measles here - at the time. Pope Hennessey's health was not affected. He worked - with the French and for the French and against the English, and he - made the English very tired and the French very happy, and lived to - have the joy of seeing the flag he served publicly hissed. His - memory is held in worshipful reverence and affection by the French. - -<p> "It is a land of extraordinary quarantines. They quarantine a ship - for anything or for nothing; quarantine her for 20 and even 30 days. - They once quarantined a ship because her captain had had the - smallpox when he was a boy. That and because he was English. - -<p> "The population is very small; small to insignificance. The - majority is East Indian; then mongrels; then negroes (descendants of - the slaves of the French times); then French; then English. There - was an American, but he is dead or mislaid. The mongrels are the - result of all kinds of mixtures; black and white, mulatto and white, - quadroon and white, octoroon and white. And so there is every shade - of complexion; ebony, old mahogany, horsechestnut, sorrel, - molasses-candy, clouded amber, clear amber, old-ivory white, new-ivory white, - fish-belly white—this latter the leprous complexion frequent with - the Anglo-Saxon long resident in tropical climates. - -<p> "You wouldn't expect a person to be proud of being a Mauritian, now - would you? But it is so. The most of them have never been out of - the island, and haven't read much or studied much, and they think - the world consists of three principal countries—Judaea, France, and - Mauritius; so they are very proud of belonging to one of the three - grand divisions of the globe. They think that Russia and Germany - are in England, and that England does not amount to much. They have - heard vaguely about the United States and the equator, but they - think both of them are monarchies. They think Mount Peter Botte is - the highest mountain in the world, and if you show one of them a - picture of Milan Cathedral he will swell up with satisfaction and - say that the idea of that jungle of spires was stolen from the - forest of peg-tops and toothpicks that makes the roofs of Curepipe - look so fine and prickly. - -<p> "There is not much trade in books. The newspapers educate and - entertain the people. Mainly the latter. They have two pages of - large-print reading-matter-one of them English, the other French. - The English page is a translation of the French one. The typography - is super-extra primitive—in this quality it has not its equal - anywhere. There is no proof-reader now; he is dead. -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p621.jpg (31K)" src="images/p621.jpg" height="629" width="363"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "Where do they get matter to fill up a page in this little island - lost in the wastes of the Indian Ocean? Oh, Madagascar. They - discuss Madagascar and France. That is the bulk. Then they chock - up the rest with advice to the Government. Also, slurs upon the - English administration. The papers are all owned and edited by - creoles—French. - -<p> "The language of the country is French. Everybody speaks it—has - to. You have to know French particularly mongrel French, the patois - spoken by Tom, Dick, and Harry of the multiform complexions—or you - can't get along. -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>"This was a flourishing country in former days, for it made then and -still makes the best sugar in the world; but first the Suez Canal severed -it from the world and left it out in the cold and next the beetroot sugar -helped by bounties, captured the European markets. Sugar is the life of -Mauritius, and it is losing its grip. Its downward course was checked by -the depreciation of the rupee—for the planter pays wages in rupees but -sells his crop for gold—and the insurrection in Cuba and paralyzation of -the sugar industry there have given our prices here a life-saving lift; -but the outlook has nothing permanently favorable about it. It takes a -year to mature the canes—on the high ground three and six months -longer—and there is always a chance that the annual cyclone will rip the -profit out of the crop. In recent times a cyclone took the whole crop, -as you may say; and the island never saw a finer one. Some of the -noblest sugar estates in the island are in deep difficulties. A dozen of -them are investments of English capital; and the companies that own them -are at work now, trying to settle up and get out with a saving of half -the money they put in. You know, in these days, when a country begins to -introduce the tea culture, it means that its own specialty has gone back -on it. Look at Bengal; look at Ceylon. Well, they've begun to introduce -the tea culture, here. - -<p>"Many copies of Paul and Virginia are sold every year in Mauritius. No -other book is so popular here except the Bible. By many it is supposed -to be a part of the Bible. All the missionaries work up their French on -it when they come here to pervert the Catholic mongrel. It is the -greatest story that was ever written about Mauritius, and the only one." - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch63"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXIII.</h2> - -<p><i>The principal difference between a cat and a lie is that the cat has only -nine lives.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>April 20.—The cyclone of 1892 killed and crippled hundreds of people; -it was accompanied by a deluge of rain, which drowned Port Louis and -produced a water famine. Quite true; for it burst the reservoir and the -water-pipes; and for a time after the flood had disappeared there was -much distress from want of water. - -<p>This is the only place in the world where no breed of matches can stand -the damp. Only one match in 16 will light. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p622.jpg (12K)" src="images/p622.jpg" height="591" width="277"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>The roads are hard and smooth; some of the compounds are spacious, some -of the bungalows commodious, and the roadways are walled by tall bamboo -hedges, trim and green and beautiful; and there are azalea hedges, too, -both the white and the red; I never saw that before. - -<p>As to healthiness: I translate from to-day's (April 20) Merchants' and -Planters' Gazette, from the article of a regular contributor, "Carminge," -concerning the death of the nephew of a prominent citizen: - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> "Sad and lugubrious existence, this which we lead in Mauritius; I - believe there is no other country in the world where one dies more - easily than among us. The least indisposition becomes a mortal - malady; a simple headache develops into meningitis; a cold into - pneumonia, and presently, when we are least expecting it, death is a - guest in our home." -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>This daily paper has a meteorological report which tells you what the -weather was day before yesterday. - -<p>One is never pestered by a beggar or a peddler in this town, so far as I -can see. This is pleasantly different from India. - -<p>April 22. To such as believe that the quaint product called French -civilization would be an improvement upon the civilization of New Guinea -and the like, the snatching of Madagascar and the laying on of French -civilization there will be fully justified. But why did the English -allow the French to have Madagascar? Did she respect a theft of a couple -of centuries ago? Dear me, robbery by European nations of each other's -territories has never been a sin, is not a sin to-day. To the several -cabinets the several political establishments of the world are -clotheslines; and a large part of the official duty of these cabinets is -to keep an eye on each other's wash and grab what they can of it as -opportunity offers. All the territorial possessions of all the political -establishments in the earth—including America, of course—consist of -pilferings from other people's wash. No tribe, howsoever insignificant, -and no nation, howsoever mighty, occupies a foot of land that was not -stolen. When the English, the French, and the Spaniards reached America, -the Indian tribes had been raiding each other's territorial clothes-lines -for ages, and every acre of ground in the continent had been stolen and -re-stolen 500 times. The English, the French, and the Spaniards went to -work and stole it all over again; and when that was satisfactorily -accomplished they went diligently to work and stole it from each other. -In Europe and Asia and Africa every acre of ground has been stolen -several millions of times. A crime persevered in a thousand centuries -ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, -and custom supersedes all other forms of law. Christian governments are -as frank to-day, as open and above-board, in discussing projects for -raiding each other's clothes-lines as ever they were before the Golden -Rule came smiling into this inhospitable world and couldn't get a night's -lodging anywhere. In 150 years England has beneficently retired garment -after garment from the Indian lines, until there is hardly a rag of the -original wash left dangling anywhere. In 800 years an obscure tribe of -Muscovite savages has risen to the dazzling position of -Land-Robber-in-Chief; she found a quarter of the world hanging out to dry on a hundred -parallels of latitude, and she scooped in the whole wash. She keeps a -sharp eye on a multitude of little lines that stretch along the northern -boundaries of India, and every now and then she snatches a hip-rag or a -pair of pyjamas. It is England's prospective property, and Russia knows -it; but Russia cares nothing for that. In fact, in our day land-robbery, -claim-jumping, is become a European governmental frenzy. Some have been -hard at it in the borders of China, in Burma, in Siam, and the islands of -the sea; and all have been at it in Africa. Africa has been as coolly -divided up and portioned out among the gang as if they had bought it and -paid for it. And now straightway they are beginning the old game -again—to steal each other's grabbings. Germany found a vast slice of Central -Africa with the English flag and the English missionary and the English -trader scattered all over it, but with certain formalities neglected—no -signs up, "Keep off the grass," "Trespassers-forbidden," etc.—and she -stepped in with a cold calm smile and put up the signs herself, and swept -those English pioneers promptly out of the country. - -<p>There is a tremendous point there. It can be put into the form of a -maxim: Get your formalities right—never mind about the moralities. - -<p>It was an impudent thing; but England had to put up with it. Now, in the -case of Madagascar, the formalities had originally been observed, but by -neglect they had fallen into desuetude ages ago. England should have -snatched Madagascar from the French clothes-line. Without an effort she -could have saved those harmless natives from the calamity of French -civilization, and she did not do it. Now it is too late. - -<p>The signs of the times show plainly enough what is going to happen. All -the savage lands in the world are going to be brought under subjection to -the Christian governments of Europe. I am not sorry, but glad. This -coming fate might have been a calamity to those savage peoples two -hundred years ago; but now it will in some cases be a benefaction. The -sooner the seizure is consummated, the better for the savages. - -<p>The dreary and dragging ages of bloodshed and disorder and oppression -will give place to peace and order and the reign of law. When one -considers what India was under her Hindoo and Mohammedan rulers, and what -she is now; when he remembers the miseries of her millions then and the -protections and humanities which they enjoy now, he must concede that the -most fortunate thing that has ever befallen that empire was the -establishment of British supremacy there. The savage lands of the world -are to pass to alien possession, their peoples to the mercies of alien -rulers. Let us hope and believe that they will all benefit by the -change. - -<p>April 23. "The first year they gather shells; the second year they -gather shells and drink; the third year they do not gather shells." (Said -of immigrants to Mauritius.) - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p625.jpg (30K)" src="images/p625.jpg" height="645" width="405"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Population 375,000. 120 sugar factories. - -<p>Population 1851, 185,000. The increase is due mainly to the introduction -of Indian coolies. They now apparently form the great majority of the -population. They are admirable breeders; their homes are always hazy -with children. Great savers of money. A British officer told me that in -India he paid his servant 10 rupees a month, and he had 11 cousins, -uncles, parents, etc., dependent upon him, and he supported them on his -wages. These thrifty coolies are said to be acquiring land a trifle at a -time, and cultivating it; and may own the island by and by. - -<p>The Indian women do very hard labor (for wages running from 40 one hundredths of a -rupee for twelve hours' work to 50 one hundredths of a rupee.) They carry mats of sugar on their heads (70 pounds) all day lading ships, for half a rupee, and work at gardening all day for less. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p626.jpg (11K)" src="images/p626.jpg" height="471" width="291"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>The camaron is a fresh water creature like a cray-fish. It is regarded -here as the world's chiefest delicacy—and certainly it is good. Guards -patrol the streams to prevent poaching it. A fine of Rs.200 or 300 -(they say) for poaching. Bait is thrown in the water; the camaron goes -for it; the fisher drops his loop in and works it around and about the -camaron he has selected, till he gets it over its tail; then there's a -jerk or something to certify the camaron that it is his turn now; he -suddenly backs away, which moves the loop still further up his person and -draws it taut, and his days are ended. - -<p>Another dish, called palmiste, is like raw turnip-shavings and tastes -like green almonds; is very delicate and good. Costs the life of a palm -tree 12 to 20 years old—for it is the pith. - -<p>Another dish—looks like greens or a tangle of fine seaweed—is a -preparation of the deadly nightshade. Good enough. - -<p>The monkeys live in the dense forests on the flanks of the toy mountains, -and they flock down nights and raid the sugar-fields. Also on other -estates they come down and destroy a sort of bean-crop—just for fun, -apparently—tear off the pods and throw them down. - -<p>The cyclone of 1892 tore down two great blocks of stone buildings in the -center of Port Louis—the chief architectural feature—and left the -uncomely and apparently frail blocks standing. Everywhere in its track -it annihilated houses, tore off roofs, destroyed trees and crops. The -men were in the towns, the women and children at home in the country -getting crippled, killed, frightened to insanity; and the rain deluging -them, the wind howling, the thunder crashing, the lightning glaring. -This for an hour or so. Then a lull and sunshine; many ventured out of -safe shelter; then suddenly here it came again from the opposite point -and renewed and completed the devastation. It is said the Chinese fed -the sufferers for days on free rice. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p628.jpg (35K)" src="images/p628.jpg" height="483" width="641"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Whole streets in Port Louis were laid flat—wrecked. During a minute and -a half the wind blew 123 miles an hour; no official record made after -that, when it may have reached 150. It cut down an obelisk. It carried -an American ship into the woods after breaking the chains of two anchors. -They now use four-two forward, two astern. Common report says it killed -1,200 in Port Louis alone, in half an hour. Then came the lull of the -central calm—people did not know the barometer was still going -down—then suddenly all perdition broke loose again while people were rushing -around seeking friends and rescuing the wounded. The noise was -comparable to nothing; there is nothing resembling it but thunder and -cannon, and these are feeble in comparison. - -<p>What there is of Mauritius is beautiful. You have undulating wide -expanses of sugar-cane—a fine, fresh green and very pleasant to the eye; -and everywhere else you have a ragged luxuriance of tropic vegetation of -vivid greens of varying shades, a wild tangle of underbrush, with -graceful tall palms lifting their crippled plumes high above it; and you -have stretches of shady dense forest with limpid streams frolicking -through them, continually glimpsed and lost and glimpsed again in the -pleasantest hide-and-seek fashion; and you have some tiny mountains, some -quaint and picturesque groups of toy peaks, and a dainty little -vest-pocket Matterhorn; and here and there and now and then a strip of sea -with a white ruffle of surf breaks into the view. - -<p>That is Mauritius; and pretty enough. The details are few, the massed -result is charming, but not imposing; not riotous, not exciting; it is a -Sunday landscape. Perspective, and the enchantments wrought by distance, -are wanting. There are no distances; there is no perspective, so to -speak. Fifteen miles as the crow flies is the usual limit of vision. -Mauritius is a garden and a park combined. It affects one's emotions as -parks and gardens affect them. The surfaces of one's spiritual deeps are -pleasantly played upon, the deeps themselves are not reached, not -stirred. Spaciousness, remote altitudes, the sense of mystery which -haunts apparently inaccessible mountain domes and summits reposing in the -sky—these are the things which exalt the spirit and move it to see -visions and dream dreams. - -<p>The Sandwich Islands remain my ideal of the perfect thing in the matter -of tropical islands. I would add another story to Mauna Loa's 16,000 -feet if I could, and make it particularly bold and steep and craggy and -forbidding and snowy; and I would make the volcano spout its lava-floods -out of its summit instead of its sides; but aside from these -non-essentials I have no corrections to suggest. I hope these will be -attended to; I do not wish to have to speak of it again. - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch64"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXIV.</h2> - -<p><i>When your watch gets out of order you have choice of two things to do: -throw it in the fire or take it to the watch-tinker. The former is the -quickest.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>The Arundel Castle is the finest boat I have seen in these seas. She is -thoroughly modern, and that statement covers a great deal of ground. She -has the usual defect, the common defect, the universal defect, the defect -that has never been missing from any ship that ever sailed—she has -imperfect beds. Many ships have good beds, but no ship has very good -ones. In the matter of beds all ships have been badly edited, ignorantly -edited, from the beginning. The selection of the beds is given to some -hearty, strong-backed, self-made man, when it ought to be given to a -frail woman accustomed from girlhood to backaches and insomnia. Nothing -is so rare, on either side of the ocean, as a perfect bed; nothing is so -difficult to make. Some of the hotels on both sides provide it, but no -ship ever does or ever did. In Noah's Ark the beds were simply -scandalous. Noah set the fashion, and it will endure in one degree of -modification or another till the next flood. - -<p>8 A.M. Passing Isle de Bourbon. Broken-up sky-line of volcanic -mountains in the middle. Surely it would not cost much to repair them, -and it seems inexcusable neglect to leave them as they are. - -<p>It seems stupid to send tired men to Europe to rest. It is no proper -rest for the mind to clatter from town to town in the dust and cinders, -and examine galleries and architecture, and be always meeting people and -lunching and teaing and dining, and receiving worrying cables and -letters. And a sea voyage on the Atlantic is of no use—voyage too -short, sea too rough. The peaceful Indian and Pacific Oceans and the -long stretches of time are the healing thing. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p631.jpg (25K)" src="images/p631.jpg" height="687" width="447"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>May 2, AM. A fair, great ship in sight, almost the first we have seen in -these weeks of lonely voyaging. We are now in the Mozambique Channel, -between Madagascar and South Africa, sailing straight west for Delagoa -Bay. - -<p>Last night, the burly chief engineer, middle-aged, was standing telling a -spirited seafaring tale, and had reached the most exciting place, where a -man overboard was washing swiftly astern on the great seas, and uplifting -despairing cries, everybody racing aft in a frenzy of excitement and -fading hope, when the band, which had been silent a moment, began -impressively its closing piece, the English national anthem. As simply -as if he was unconscious of what he was doing, he stopped his story, -uncovered, laid his laced cap against his breast, and slightly bent his -grizzled head. The few bars finished, he put on his cap and took up his -tale again, as naturally as if that interjection of music had been a part -of it. There was something touching and fine about it, and it was moving -to reflect that he was one of a myriad, scattered over every part of the -globe, who by turn was doing as he was doing every hour of the -twenty-four—those awake doing it while the others slept—those impressive bars -forever floating up out of the various climes, never silent and never -lacking reverent listeners. - -<p>All that I remember about Madagascar is that Thackeray's little Billie -went up to the top of the mast and there knelt him upon his knee, saying, -"I see - -<center> -<table summary=""> -<tr><td> - -<br> "Jerusalem and Madagascar, -<br> And North and South Amerikee."<br> - -</td></tr> -</table> -</center> - - -<p>May 3. Sunday. Fifteen or twenty Africanders who will end their voyage -to-day and strike for their several homes from Delagoa Bay to-morrow, sat -up singing on the afterdeck in the moonlight till 3 A.M. Good fun and -wholesome. And the songs were clean songs, and some of them were -hallowed by tender associations. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p633.jpg (41K)" src="images/p633.jpg" height="493" width="650"> -</center> -<a href="images/p633.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Finally, in a pause, a man asked, "Have -you heard about the fellow that kept a diary crossing the Atlantic?" -It was a discord, a wet blanket. The men were not in the mood for -humorous dirt. The songs had carried them to their homes, and in spirit -they sat by those far hearthstones, and saw faces and heard voices other -than those that were about them. And so this disposition to drag in an -old indecent anecdote got no welcome; nobody answered. The poor man -hadn't wit enough to see that he had blundered, but asked his question -again. Again there was no response. It was embarrassing for him. In -his confusion he chose the wrong course, did the wrong thing—began the -anecdote. Began it in a deep and hostile stillness, where had been such -life and stir and warm comradeship before. He delivered himself of the -brief details of the diary's first day, and did it with some confidence -and a fair degree of eagerness. It fell flat. There was an awkward -pause. The two rows of men sat like statues. There was no movement, no -sound. He had to go on; there was no other way, at least none that an -animal of his calibre could think of. At the close of each day's diary, -the same dismal silence followed. When at last he finished his tale and -sprung the indelicate surprise which is wont to fetch a crash of -laughter, not a ripple of sound resulted. It was as if the tale had been -told to dead men. After what seemed a long, long time, somebody sighed, -somebody else stirred in his seat; presently, the men dropped into a low -murmur of confidential talk, each with his neighbor, and the incident was -closed. There were indications that that man was fond of his anecdote; -that it was his pet, his standby, his shot that never missed, his -reputation-maker. But he will never tell it again. No doubt he will -think of it sometimes, for that cannot well be helped; and then he will -see a picture, and always the same picture—the double rank of dead men; -the vacant deck stretching away in dimming perspective beyond them, the -wide desert of smooth sea all abroad; the rim of the moon spying from -behind a rag of black cloud; the remote top of the mizzenmast shearing a -zigzag path through the fields of stars in the deeps of space; and this -soft picture will remind him of the time that he sat in the midst of it -and told his poor little tale and felt so lonesome when he got through. - -<p>Fifty Indians and Chinamen asleep in a big tent in the waist of the ship -forward; they lie side by side with no space between; the former wrapped -up, head and all, as in the Indian streets, the Chinamen uncovered; the -lamp and things for opium smoking in the center. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p636.jpg (31K)" src="images/p636.jpg" height="535" width="621"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>A passenger said it was ten 2-ton truck loads of dynamite that lately -exploded at Johannesburg. Hundreds killed; he doesn't know how many; -limbs picked up for miles around. Glass shattered, and roofs swept away -or collapsed 200 yards off; fragment of iron flung three and a half -miles. - -<p>It occurred at 3 p.m.; at 6, L65,000 had been subscribed. When this -passenger left, L35,000 had been voted by city and state governments and -L100,000 by citizens and business corporations. When news of the -disaster was telephoned to the Exchange L35,000 were subscribed in the -first five minutes. Subscribing was still going on when he left; the -papers had ceased the names, only the amounts—too many names; not enough -room. L100,000 subscribed by companies and citizens; if this is true, it -must be what they call in Australia "a record"—the biggest instance of a -spontaneous outpour for charity in history, considering the size of the -population it was drawn from, $8 or $10 for each white resident, babies -at the breast included. - -<p>Monday, May 4. Steaming slowly in the stupendous Delagoa Bay, its dim -arms stretching far away and disappearing on both sides. It could -furnish plenty of room for all the ships in the world, but it is shoal. -The lead has given us 3 1/2 fathoms several times and we are drawing -that, lacking 6 inches. - -<p>A bold headland—precipitous wall, 150 feet high, very strong, red color, -stretching a mile or so. A man said it was Portuguese blood—battle -fought here with the natives last year. I think this doubtful. Pretty -cluster of houses on the tableland above the red and rolling stretches of -grass and groups of trees, like England. - -<p>The Portuguese have the railroad (one passenger train a day) to the -border—70 miles—then the Netherlands Company have it. Thousands of -tons of freight on the shore—no cover. This is Portuguese -allover—indolence, piousness, poverty, impotence. - -<p>Crews of small boats and tugs, all jet black woolly heads and very -muscular. - -<p>Winter. The South African winter is just beginning now, but nobody but -an expert can tell it from summer. However, I am tired of summer; we -have had it unbroken for eleven months. We spent the afternoon on shore, -Delagoa Bay. A small town—no sights. No carriages. Three 'rickshas, -but we couldn't get them—apparently private. These Portuguese are a -rich brown, like some of the Indians. Some of the blacks have the long -horse heads and very long chins of the negroes of the picture books; but -most of them are exactly like the negroes of our Southern States round -faces, flat noses, good-natured, and easy laughers. - -<p>Flocks of black women passed along, carrying outrageously heavy bags of -freight on their heads. The quiver of their leg as the foot was planted -and the strain exhibited by their bodies showed what a tax upon their -strength the load was. They were stevedores and doing full stevedore's -work. They were very erect when unladden—from carrying heavy loads on -their heads—just like the Indian women. It gives them a proud fine -carriage. - -<p>Sometimes one saw a woman carrying on her head a laden and top-heavy -basket the shape of an inverted pyramid—its top the size of a soup-plate, -its base the diameter of a teacup. It required nice balancing—and got -it. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p638.jpg (57K)" src="images/p638.jpg" height="813" width="617"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>No bright colors; yet there were a good many Hindoos. - -<p>The Second Class Passenger came over as usual at "lights out" (11) and we -lounged along the spacious vague solitudes of the deck and smoked the -peaceful pipe and talked. He told me an incident in Mr. Barnum's life -which was evidently characteristic of that great showman in several ways: - -<p>This was Barnum's purchase of Shakespeare's birthplace, a quarter of a -century ago. The Second Class Passenger was in Jamrach's employ at the -time and knew Barnum well. He said the thing began in this way. One -morning Barnum and Jamrach were in Jamrach's little private snuggery back -of the wilderness of caged monkeys and snakes and other commonplaces of -Jamrach's stock in trade, refreshing themselves after an arduous stroke -of business, Jamrach with something orthodox, Barnum with something -heterodox—for Barnum was a teetotaler. The stroke of business was in -the elephant line. Jamrach had contracted to deliver to Barnum in New -York 18 elephants for $360,000 in time for the next season's opening. -Then it occurred to Mr. Barnum that he needed a "card". He suggested -Jumbo. Jamrach said he would have to think of something else—Jumbo -couldn't be had; the Zoo wouldn't part with that elephant. Barnum said -he was willing to pay a fortune for Jumbo if he could get him. Jamrach -said it was no use to think about it; that Jumbo was as popular as the -Prince of Wales and the Zoo wouldn't dare to sell him; all England would -be outraged at the idea; Jumbo was an English institution; he was part of -the national glory; one might as well think of buying the Nelson -monument. Barnum spoke up with vivacity and said: - -<p>"It's a first-rate idea. I'll buy the Monument." - -<p>Jamrach was speechless for a second. Then he said, like one ashamed -"You caught me. I was napping. For a moment I thought you were in -earnest." - -<p>Barnum said pleasantly— - -<p>"I was in earnest. I know they won't sell it, but no matter, I will not -throw away a good idea for all that. All I want is a big advertisement. -I will keep the thing in mind, and if nothing better turns up I will -offer to buy it. That will answer every purpose. It will furnish me a -couple of columns of gratis advertising in every English and American -paper for a couple of months, and give my show the biggest boom a show -ever had in this world." - -<p>Jamrach started to deliver a burst of admiration, but was interrupted by -Barnum, who said: - -<p>"Here is a state of things! England ought to blush." - -<p>His eye had fallen upon something in the newspaper. He read it through -to himself, then read it aloud. It said that the house that Shakespeare -was born in at Stratford-on-Avon was falling gradually to ruin through -neglect; that the room where the poet first saw the light was now serving -as a butcher's shop; that all appeals to England to contribute money (the -requisite sum stated) to buy and repair the house and place it in the -care of salaried and trustworthy keepers had fallen resultless. Then -Barnum said: - -<p>"There's my chance. Let Jumbo and the Monument alone for the -present—they'll keep. I'll buy Shakespeare's house. I'll set it up in my Museum -in New York and put a glass case around it and make a sacred thing of it; -and you'll see all America flock there to worship; yes, and pilgrims from -the whole earth; and I'll make them take their hats off, too. In America -we know how to value anything that Shakespeare's touch has made holy. -You'll see." - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p640.jpg (29K)" src="images/p640.jpg" height="513" width="601"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>In conclusion the S. C. P. said: - -<p>"That is the way the thing came about. Barnum did buy Shakespeare's -house. He paid the price asked, and received the properly attested -documents of sale. Then there was an explosion, I can tell you. England -rose! That, the birthplace of the master-genius of all the ages and all -the climes—that priceless possession of Britain—to be carted out of the -country like so much old lumber and set up for sixpenny desecration in a -Yankee show-shop—the idea was not to be tolerated for a moment. England -rose in her indignation; and Barnum was glad to relinquish his prize and -offer apologies. However, he stood out for a compromise; he claimed a -concession—England must let him have Jumbo. And England consented, but -not cheerfully." - -<p>It shows how, by help of time, a story can grow—even after Barnum has -had the first innings in the telling of it. Mr. Barnum told me the story -himself, years ago. He said that the permission to buy Jumbo was not a -concession; the purchase was made and the animal delivered before the -public knew anything about it. Also, that the securing of Jumbo was all -the advertisement he needed. It produced many columns of newspaper talk, -free of cost, and he was satisfied. He said that if he had failed to get -Jumbo he would have caused his notion of buying the Nelson Monument to be -treacherously smuggled into print by some trusty friend, and after he had -gotten a few hundred pages of gratuitous advertising out of it, he would -have come out with a blundering, obtuse, but warm-hearted letter of -apology, and in a postscript to it would have naively proposed to let the -Monument go, and take Stonehenge in place of it at the same price. - -<p>It was his opinion that such a letter, written with well-simulated -asinine innocence and gush would have gotten his ignorance and stupidity -an amount of newspaper abuse worth six fortunes to him, and not -purchasable for twice the money. - -<p>I knew Mr. Barnum well, and I placed every confidence in the account -which he gave me of the Shakespeare birthplace episode. He said he found -the house neglected and going-to decay, and he inquired into the matter -and was told that many times earnest efforts had been made to raise money -for its proper repair and preservation, but without success. He then -proposed to buy it. The proposition was entertained, and a price -named—$50,000, I think; but whatever it was, Barnum paid the money down, -without remark, and the papers were drawn up and executed. He said that -it had been his purpose to set up the house in his Museum, keep it in -repair, protect it from name-scribblers and other desecrators, and leave -it by bequest to the safe and perpetual guardianship of the Smithsonian -Institute at Washington. - -<p>But as soon as it was found that Shakespeare's house had passed into -foreign hands and was going to be carried across the ocean, England was -stirred as no appeal from the custodians of the relic had ever stirred -England before, and protests came flowing in—and money, too, to stop the -outrage. Offers of repurchase were made—offers of double the money that -Mr. Barnum had paid for the house. He handed the house back, but took -only the sum which it had cost him—but on the condition that an -endowment sufficient for the future safeguarding and maintenance of the -sacred relic should be raised. This condition was fulfilled. - -<p>That was Barnum's account of the episode; and to the end of his days he -claimed with pride and satisfaction that not England, but -America—represented by him—saved the birthplace of Shakespeare from destruction. - -<p>At 3 P.M., May 6th, the ship slowed down, off the land, and thoughtfully -and cautiously picked her way into the snug harbor of Durban, South -Africa. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p643.jpg (7K)" src="images/p643.jpg" height="239" width="459"> -</center> - - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch65"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXV.</h2> -<br><br> - -<p><i>In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the -moralities.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>FROM DIARY: - -<p>Royal Hotel. Comfortable, good table, good service of natives and -Madrasis. Curious jumble of modern and ancient city and village, -primitiveness and the other thing. Electric bells, but they don't ring. -Asked why they didn't, the watchman in the office said he thought they -must be out of order; he thought so because some of them rang, but most -of them didn't. Wouldn't it be a good idea to put them in order? He -hesitated—like one who isn't quite sure—then conceded the point. - -<p>May 7. A bang on the door at 6. Did I want my boots cleaned? Fifteen -minutes later another bang. Did we want coffee? Fifteen later, bang -again, my wife's bath ready; 15 later, my bath ready. Two other bangs; -I forget what they were about. Then lots of shouting back and forth, -among the servants just as in an Indian hotel. - -<p>Evening. At 4 P.M. it was unpleasantly warm. Half-hour after sunset -one needed a spring overcoat; by 8 a winter one. - -<p>Durban is a neat and clean town. One notices that without having his -attention called to it. - -<p>Rickshaws drawn by splendidly built black Zulus, so overflowing with -strength, seemingly, that it is a pleasure, not a pain, to see them -snatch a rickshaw along. They smile and laugh and show their teeth—a -good-natured lot. Not allowed to drink; 2s per hour for one person; 3s -for two; 3d for a course—one person. - -<p>The chameleon in the hotel court. He is fat and indolent and -contemplative; but is business-like and capable when a fly comes -about—reaches out a tongue like a teaspoon and takes him in. He gums his -tongue first. He is always pious, in his looks. And pious and thankful -both, when Providence or one of us sends him a fly. He has a froggy -head, and a back like a new grave—for shape; and hands like a bird's -toes that have been frostbitten. But his eyes are his exhibition -feature. A couple of skinny cones project from the sides of his head, -with a wee shiny bead of an eye set in the apex of each; and these cones -turn bodily like pivot-guns and point every-which-way, and they are -independent of each other; each has its own exclusive machinery. When I -am behind him and C. in front of him, he whirls one eye rearwards and the -other forwards—which gives him a most Congressional expression (one eye -on the constituency and one on the swag); and then if something happens -above and below him he shoots out one eye upward like a telescope and the -other downward—and this changes his expression, but does not improve it. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p645.jpg (18K)" src="images/p645.jpg" height="499" width="329"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Natives must not be out after the curfew bell without a pass. In Natal -there are ten blacks to one white. - -<p>Sturdy plump creatures are the women. They comb their wool up to a peak -and keep it in position by stiffening it with brown-red clay—half of -this tower colored, denotes engagement; the whole of it colored denotes -marriage. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p646.jpg (11K)" src="images/p646.jpg" height="463" width="341"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>None but heathen Zulus on the police; Christian ones not allowed. - -<p>May 9. A drive yesterday with friends over the Berea. Very fine roads -and lofty, overlooking the whole town, the harbor, and the sea-beautiful -views. Residences all along, set in the midst of green lawns with shrubs -and generally one or two intensely red outbursts of poinsettia—the -flaming splotch of blinding red a stunning contrast with the world of -surrounding green. The cactus tree—candelabrum-like; and one twisted -like gray writhing serpents. The "flat-crown" -(should be flat-roof)—half a dozen naked branches full of elbows, slant upward like artificial -supports, and fling a roof of delicate foliage out in a horizontal -platform as flat as a floor; and you look up through this thin floor as -through a green cobweb or veil. The branches are japanesich. All about -you is a bewildering variety of unfamiliar and beautiful trees; one sort -wonderfully dense foliage and very dark green—so dark that you notice it -at once, notwithstanding there are so many orange trees. The -"flamboyant"—not in flower, now, but when in flower lives up to its -name, we are told. Another tree with a lovely upright tassel scattered -among its rich greenery, red and glowing as a firecoal. Here and there a -gum-tree; half a dozen lofty Norfolk Island pines lifting their fronded -arms skyward. Groups of tall bamboo. - -<p>Saw one bird. Not many birds here, and they have no music—and the -flowers not much smell, they grow so fast. - -<p>Everything neat and trim and clean like the town. The loveliest trees -and the greatest variety I have ever seen anywhere, except approaching -Darjeeling. Have not heard anyone call Natal the garden of South Africa, -but that is what it probably is. - -<p>It was when Bishop of Natal that Colenso raised such a storm in the -religious world. The concerns of religion are a vital matter here yet. -A vigilant eye is kept upon Sunday. Museums and other dangerous resorts -are not allowed to be open. You may sail on the Bay, but it is wicked to -play cricket. For a while a Sunday concert was tolerated, upon condition -that it must be admission free and the money taken by collection. But -the collection was alarmingly large and that stopped the matter. They -are particular about babies. A clergyman would not bury a child -according to the sacred rites because it had not been baptized. The -Hindoo is more liberal. He burns no child under three, holding that it -does not need purifying. - -<p>The King of the Zulus, a fine fellow of 30, was banished six years ago -for a term of seven years. He is occupying Napoleon's old stand—St. -Helena. The people are a little nervous about having him come back, and -they may well be, for Zulu kings have been terrible people -sometimes—like Tchaka, Dingaan, and Cetewayo. - -<p>There is a large Trappist monastery two hours from Durban, over the -country roads, and in company with Mr. Milligan and Mr. Hunter, general -manager of the Natal government railways, who knew the heads of it, we -went out to see it. - -<p>There it all was, just as one reads about it in books and cannot believe -that it is so—I mean the rough, hard work, the impossible hours, the -scanty food, the coarse raiment, the Maryborough beds, the tabu of human -speech, of social intercourse, of relaxation, of amusement, of -entertainment, of the presence of woman in the men's establishment. -There it all was. It was not a dream, it was not a lie. And yet with -the fact before one's face it was still incredible. It is such a -sweeping suppression of human instincts, such an extinction of the man as -an individual. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p650.jpg (49K)" src="images/p650.jpg" height="1045" width="553"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>La Trappe must have known the human race well. The scheme which he -invented hunts out everything that a man wants and values—and withholds -it from him. Apparently there is no detail that can help make life worth -living that has not been carefully ascertained and placed out of the -Trappist's reach. La Trappe must have known that there were men who -would enjoy this kind of misery, but how did he find it out? - -<p>If he had consulted you or me he would have been told that his scheme -lacked too many attractions; that it was impossible; that it could never -be floated. But there in the monastery was proof that he knew the human -race better than it knew itself. He set his foot upon every desire that -a man has—yet he floated his project, and it has prospered for two -hundred years, and will go on prospering forever, no doubt. - -<p>Man likes personal distinction—there in the monastery it is obliterated. -He likes delicious food—there he gets beans and bread and tea, and not -enough of it. He likes to lie softly—there he lies on a sand mattress, -and has a pillow and a blanket, but no sheet. When he is dining, in a -great company of friends, he likes to laugh and chat—there a monk reads -a holy book aloud during meals, and nobody speaks or laughs. When a man -has a hundred friends about him, evenings, he likes to have a good time -and run late—there he and the rest go silently to bed at 8; and in the -dark, too; there is but a loose brown robe to discard, there are no -night-clothes to put on, a light is not needed. Man likes to lie abed -late—there he gets up once or twice in the night to perform some -religious office, and gets up finally for the day at two in the morning. -Man likes light work or none at all—there he labors all day in the -field, or in the blacksmith shop or the other shops devoted to the -mechanical trades, such as shoemaking, saddlery, carpentry, and so on. -Man likes the society of girls and women—there he never has it. He -likes to have his children about him, and pet them and play with -them—there he has none. He likes billiards—there is no table there. He -likes outdoor sports and indoor dramatic and musical and social -entertainments—there are none there. He likes to bet on things—I was -told that betting is forbidden there. When a man's temper is up he likes -to pour it out upon somebody there this is not allowed. A man likes -animals—pets; there are none there. He likes to smoke—there he cannot -do it. He likes to read the news—no papers or magazines come there. A -man likes to know how his parents and brothers and sisters are getting -along when he is away, and if they miss him—there he cannot know. A man -likes a pretty house, and pretty furniture, and pretty things, and pretty -colors—there he has nothing but naked aridity and sombre colors. A man -likes—name it yourself: whatever it is, it is absent from that place. - -<p>From what I could learn, all that a man gets for this is merely the -saving of his soul. - -<p>It all seems strange, incredible, impossible. But La Trappe knew the -race. He knew the powerful attraction of unattractiveness; he knew that -no life could be imagined, howsoever comfortless and forbidding, but -somebody would want to try it. - -<p>This parent establishment of Germans began its work fifteen years ago, -strangers, poor, and unencouraged; it owns 15,000 acres of land now, and -raises grain and fruit, and makes wines, and manufactures all manner of -things, and has native apprentices in its shops, and sends them forth -able to read and write, and also well equipped to earn their living by -their trades. And this young establishment has set up eleven branches in -South Africa, and in them they are christianizing and educating and -teaching wage-yielding mechanical trades to 1,200 boys and girls. -Protestant Missionary work is coldly regarded by the commercial white -colonist all over the heathen world, as a rule, and its product is -nicknamed "rice-Christians" (occupationless incapables who join the -church for revenue only), but I think it would be difficult to pick a -flaw in the work of these Catholic monks, and I believe that the -disposition to attempt it has not shown itself. - -<p>Tuesday, May 12. Transvaal politics in a confused condition. First the -sentencing of the Johannesburg Reformers startled England by its -severity; on the top of this came Kruger's exposure of the cipher -correspondence, which showed that the invasion of the Transvaal, with the -design of seizing that country and adding it to the British Empire, was -planned by Cecil Rhodes and Beit—which made a revulsion in English -feeling, and brought out a storm against Rhodes and the Chartered Company -for degrading British honor. For a good while I couldn't seem to get at -a clear comprehension of it, it was so tangled. But at last by patient -study I have managed it, I believe. As I understand it, the Uitlanders -and other Dutchmen were dissatisfied because the English would not allow -them to take any part in the government except to pay taxes. Next, as I -understand it, Dr. Kruger and Dr. Jameson, not having been able to make -the medical business pay, made a raid into Matabeleland with the -intention of capturing the capital, Johannesburg, and holding the women -and children to ransom until the Uitlanders and the other Boers should -grant to them and the Chartered Company the political rights which had -been withheld from them. They would have succeeded in this great scheme, -as I understand it, but for the interference of Cecil Rhodes and Mr. -Beit, and other Chiefs of the Matabele, who persuaded their countrymen to -revolt and throw off their allegiance to Germany. This, in turn, as I -understand it, provoked the King of Abyssinia to destroy the Italian army -and fall back upon Johannesburg; this at the instigation of Rhodes, to -bull the stock market. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p653.jpg (18K)" src="images/p653.jpg" height="481" width="499"> -</center> - - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch66"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXVI.</h2> - -<p><i>Every one is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>When I scribbled in my note-book a year ago the paragraph which ends the -preceding chapter, it was meant to indicate, in an extravagant form, two -things: the conflicting nature of the information conveyed by the citizen -to the stranger concerning South African politics, and the resulting -confusion created in the stranger's mind thereby. - -<p>But it does not seem so very extravagant now. Nothing could in that -disturbed and excited time make South African politics clear or quite -rational to the citizen of the country because his personal interest and -his political prejudices were in his way; and nothing could make those -politics clear or rational to the stranger, the sources of his -information being such as they were. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p655.jpg (48K)" src="images/p655.jpg" height="1019" width="541"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>I was in South Africa some little time. When I arrived there the -political pot was boiling fiercely. Four months previously, Jameson had -plunged over the Transvaal border with about 600 armed horsemen at his -back, to go to the "relief of the women and children" of Johannesburg; on -the fourth day of his march the Boers had defeated him in battle, and -carried him and his men to Pretoria, the capital, as prisoners; the Boer -government had turned Jameson and his officers over to the British -government for trial, and shipped them to England; next, it had arrested -64 important citizens of Johannesburg as raid-conspirators, condemned -their four leaders to death, then commuted the sentences, and now the 64 -were waiting, in jail, for further results. Before midsummer they were -all out excepting two, who refused to sign the petitions for release; 58 -had been fined $10,000 each and enlarged, and the four leaders had gotten -off with fines of $125,000 each with permanent exile added, in one case. - -<p>Those were wonderfully interesting days for a stranger, and I was glad -to be in the thick of the excitement. Everybody was talking, and I -expected to understand the whole of one side of it in a very little -while. - -<p>I was disappointed. There were singularities, perplexities, -unaccountabilities about it which I was not able to master. I had no -personal access to Boers—their side was a secret to me, aside from what -I was able to gather of it from published statements. My sympathies were -soon with the Reformers in the Pretoria jail, with their friends, and -with their cause. By diligent inquiry in Johannesburg I found -out—apparently—all the details of their side of the quarrel except one—what -they expected to accomplish by an armed rising. - -<p>Nobody seemed to know. - -<p>The reason why the Reformers were discontented and wanted some changes -made, seemed quite clear. In Johannesburg it was claimed that the -Uitlanders (strangers, foreigners) paid thirteen-fifteenths of the -Transvaal taxes, yet got little or nothing for it. Their city had no -charter; it had no municipal government; it could levy no taxes for -drainage, water-supply, paving, cleaning, sanitation, policing. There -was a police force, but it was composed of Boers, it was furnished by the -State Government, and the city had no control over it. Mining was very -costly; the government enormously increased the cost by putting -burdensome taxes upon the mines, the output, the machinery, the -buildings; by burdensome imposts upon incoming materials; by burdensome -railway-freight-charges. Hardest of all to bear, the government reserved -to itself a monopoly in that essential thing, dynamite, and burdened it -with an extravagant price. The detested Hollander from over the water -held all the public offices. The government was rank with corruption. -The Uitlander had no vote, and must live in the State ten or twelve years -before he could get one. He was not represented in the Raad -(legislature) that oppressed him and fleeced him. Religion was not free. -There were no schools where the teaching was in English, yet the great -majority of the white population of the State knew no tongue but that. -The State would not pass a liquor law; but allowed a great trade in cheap -vile brandy among the blacks, with the result that 25 per cent. of the -50,000 blacks employed in the mines were usually drunk and incapable of -working. - -<p>There—it was plain enough that the reasons for wanting some changes made -were abundant and reasonable, if this statement of the existing -grievances was correct. - -<p>What the Uitlanders wanted was reform—under the existing Republic. - -<p>What they proposed to do was to secure these reforms by, prayer, -petition, and persuasion. - -<p>They did petition. Also, they issued a Manifesto, whose very first note -is a bugle-blast of loyalty: "We want the establishment of this Republic -as a true Republic." - -<p>Could anything be clearer than the Uitlander's statement of the -grievances and oppressions under which they were suffering? Could -anything be more legal and citizen-like and law-respecting than their -attitude as expressed by their Manifesto? No. Those things were -perfectly clear, perfectly comprehensible. - -<p>But at this point the puzzles and riddles and confusions begin to flock -in. You have arrived at a place which you cannot quite understand. - -<p>For you find that as a preparation for this loyal, lawful, and in every -way unexceptionable attempt to persuade the government to right their -grievances, the Uitlanders had smuggled a Maxim gun or two and 1,500 -muskets into the town, concealed in oil tanks and coal cars, and had -begun to form and drill military companies composed of clerks, merchants, -and citizens generally. - -<p>What was their idea? Did they suppose that the Boers would attack them -for petitioning, for redress? That could not be. - -<p>Did they suppose that the Boers would attack them even for issuing a -Manifesto demanding relief under the existing government? - -<p>Yes, they apparently believed so, because the air was full of talk of -forcing the government to grant redress if it were not granted -peacefully. - -<p>The Reformers were men of high intelligence. If they were in earnest, -they were taking extraordinary risks. They had enormously valuable -properties to defend; their town was full of women and children; their -mines and compounds were packed with thousands upon thousands of sturdy -blacks. If the Boers attacked, the mines would close, the blacks would -swarm out and get drunk; riot and conflagration and the Boers together -might lose the Reformers more in a day, in money, blood, and suffering, -than the desired political relief could compensate in ten years if they -won the fight and secured the reforms. - -<p>It is May, 1897, now; a year has gone by, and the confusions of that day -have been to a considerable degree cleared away. Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Dr. -Jameson, and others responsible for the Raid, have testified before the -Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry in London, and so have Mr. Lionel -Phillips and other Johannesburg Reformers, monthly-nurses of the -Revolution which was born dead. These testimonies have thrown light. -Three books have added much to this light: - -<p>"South Africa As It Is," by Mr. Statham, an able writer partial to the -Boers; "The Story of an African Crisis," by Mr. Garrett, a brilliant -writer partial to Rhodes; and "A Woman's Part in a Revolution," by Mrs. -John Hays Hammond, a vigorous and vivid diarist, partial to the -Reformers. By liquifying the evidence of the prejudiced books and of the -prejudiced parliamentary witnesses and stirring the whole together and -pouring it into my own (prejudiced) moulds, I have got at the truth of -that puzzling South African situation, which is this: - -<p>1. The capitalists and other chief men of Johannesburg were fretting -under various political and financial burdens imposed by the State (the -South African Republic, sometimes called "the Transvaal") and desired to -procure by peaceful means a modification of the laws. - -<p>2. Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Premier of the British Cape Colony, millionaire, -creator and managing director of the territorially-immense and -financially unproductive South Africa Company; projector of vast schemes -for the unification and consolidation of all the South African States, -one imposing commonwealth or empire under the shadow and general -protection of the British flag, thought he saw an opportunity to make -profitable use of the Uitlander discontent above mentioned—make the -Johannesburg cat help pull out one of his consolidation chestnuts for -him. With this view he set himself the task of warming the lawful and -legitimate petitions and supplications of the Uitlanders into seditious -talk, and their frettings into threatenings—the final outcome to be -revolt and armed rebellion. If he could bring about a bloody collision -between those people and the Boer government, Great Britain would have to -interfere; her interference would be resisted by the Boers; she would -chastise them and add the Transvaal to her South African possessions. It -was not a foolish idea, but a rational and practical one. - -<p>After a couple of years of judicious plotting, Mr. Rhodes had his reward; -the revolutionary kettle was briskly boiling in Johannesburg, and the -Uitlander leaders were backing their appeals to the government—now -hardened into demands—by threats of force and bloodshed. By the middle -of December, 1895, the explosion seemed imminent. Mr. Rhodes was -diligently helping, from his distant post in Cape Town. He was helping -to procure arms for Johannesburg; he was also arranging to have Jameson -break over the border and come to Johannesburg with 600 mounted men at -his back. Jameson—as per instructions from Rhodes, perhaps—wanted a -letter from the Reformers requesting him to come to their aid. It was a -good idea. It would throw a considerable share of the responsibility of -his invasion upon the Reformers. He got the letter—that famous one -urging him to fly to the rescue of the women and children. He got it two -months before he flew. The Reformers seem to have thought it over and -concluded that they had not done wisely; for the next day after giving -Jameson the implicating document they wanted to withdraw it and leave the -women and children in danger; but they were told that it was too late. -The original had gone to Mr. Rhodes at the Cape. Jameson had kept a -copy, though. - -<p>From that time until the 29th of December, a good deal of the Reformers' -time was taken up with energetic efforts to keep Jameson from coming to -their assistance. Jameson's invasion had been set for the 26th. The -Reformers were not ready. The town was not united. Some wanted a fight, -some wanted peace; some wanted a new government, some wanted the existing -one reformed; apparently very few wanted the revolution to take place in -the interest and under the ultimate shelter of the Imperial -flag—British; yet a report began to spread that Mr. Rhodes's embarrassing -assistance had for its end this latter object. - -<p>Jameson was away up on the frontier tugging at his leash, fretting to -burst over the border. By hard work the Reformers got his starting-date -postponed a little, and wanted to get it postponed eleven days. -Apparently, Rhodes's agents were seconding their efforts—in fact wearing -out the telegraph wires trying to hold him back. Rhodes was himself the -only man who could have effectively postponed Jameson, but that would -have been a disadvantage to his scheme; indeed, it could spoil his whole -two years' work. - -<p>Jameson endured postponement three days, then resolved to wait no longer. -Without any orders—excepting Mr. Rhodes's significant silence—he cut -the telegraph wires on the 29th, and made his plunge that night, to go to -the rescue of the women and children, by urgent request of a letter now -nine days old—as per date,—a couple of months old, in fact. He read -the letter to his men, and it affected them. It did not affect all of -them alike. Some saw in it a piece of piracy of doubtful wisdom, and -were sorry to find that they had been assembled to violate friendly -territory instead of to raid native kraals, as they had supposed. - -<p>Jameson would have to ride 150 miles. He knew that there were suspicions -abroad in the Transvaal concerning him, but he expected to get through to -Johannesburg before they should become general and obstructive. But a -telegraph wire had been overlooked and not cut. It spread the news of -his invasion far and wide, and a few hours after his start the Boer -farmers were riding hard from every direction to intercept him. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p664.jpg (74K)" src="images/p664.jpg" height="1033" width="585"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>As soon as it was known in Johannesburg that he was on his way to rescue -the women and children, the grateful people put the women and children in -a train and rushed them for Australia. In fact, the approach of -Johannesburg's saviour created panic and consternation there, and a -multitude of males of peaceable disposition swept to the trains like a -sand-storm. The early ones fared best; they secured seats—by sitting in -them—eight hours before the first train was timed to leave. - -<p>Mr. Rhodes lost no time. He cabled the renowned Johannesburg letter of -invitation to the London press—the gray-headedest piece of ancient -history that ever went over a cable. - -<p>The new poet laureate lost no time. He came out with a rousing poem -lauding Jameson's prompt and splendid heroism in flying to the rescue of -the women and children; for the poet could not know that he did not fly -until two months after the invitation. He was deceived by the false date -of the letter, which was December 20th. - -<p>Jameson was intercepted by the Boers on New Year's Day, and on the next -day he surrendered. He had carried his copy of the letter along, and if -his instructions required him—in case of emergency—to see that it fell -into the hands of the Boers, he loyally carried them out. Mrs. Hammond -gives him a sharp rap for his supposed carelessness, and emphasizes her -feeling about it with burning italics: "It was picked up on the -battle-field in a leathern pouch, supposed to be Dr. Jameson's saddle-bag. <i>Why, -in the name of all that is discreet and honorable, didn't he eat it!</i>" - -<p>She requires too much. He was not in the service of the -Reformers—excepting ostensibly; he was in the service of Mr. Rhodes. It was the -only plain English document, undarkened by ciphers and mysteries, and -responsibly signed and authenticated, which squarely implicated the -Reformers in the raid, and it was not to Mr. Rhodes's interest that it -should be eaten. Besides, that letter was not the original, it was only -a copy. Mr. Rhodes had the original—and didn't eat it. He cabled it to -the London press. It had already been read in England and America and -all over Europe before Jameson dropped it on the battlefield. If the -subordinate's knuckles deserved a rap, the principal's deserved as many -as a couple of them. - -<p>That letter is a juicily dramatic incident and is entitled to all its -celebrity, because of the odd and variegated effects which it produced. -All within the space of a single week it had made Jameson an illustrious -hero in England, a pirate in Pretoria, and an ass without discretion or -honor in Johannesburg; also it had produced a poet-laureatic explosion of -colored fireworks which filled the world's sky with giddy splendors, and, -the knowledge that Jameson was coming with it to rescue the women and -children emptied Johannesburg of that detail of the population. For an -old letter, this was much. For a letter two months old, it did marvels; -if it had been a year old it would have done miracles. - -<<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch67"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXVII.</h2> - -<p><i>First catch your Boer, then kick him.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>Those latter days were days of bitter worry and trouble for the harassed -Reformers. - -<p>From Mrs. Hammond we learn that on the 31st (the day after Johannesburg -heard of the invasion), "The Reform Committee repudiates Dr. Jameson's -inroad." - -<p>It also publishes its intention to adhere to the Manifesto. - -<p>It also earnestly desires that the inhabitants shall refrain from overt -acts against the Boer government. - -<p>It also "distributes arms" at the Court House, and furnishes horses "to -the newly-enrolled volunteers." - -<p>It also brings a Transvaal flag into the committee-room, and the entire -body swear allegiance to it "with uncovered heads and upraised arms." - -<p>Also "one thousand Lee-Metford rifles have been given out"—to rebels. - -<p>Also, in a speech, Reformer Lionel Phillips informs the public that the -Reform Committee Delegation has "been received with courtesy by the -Government Commission," and "been assured that their proposals shall be -earnestly considered." That "while the Reform Committee regretted -Jameson's precipitate action, they would stand by him." - -<p>Also the populace are in a state of "wild enthusiasm," and "can -scarcely be restrained; they want to go out to meet Jameson and bring him -in with triumphal outcry." - -<p>Also the British High Commissioner has issued a damnifying proclamation -against Jameson and all British abettors of his game. It arrives January -1st. - -<p>It is a difficult position for the Reformers, and full of hindrances and -perplexities. Their duty is hard, but plain: - -<p>1. They have to repudiate the inroad, and stand by the inroader. - -<p>2. They have to swear allegiance to the Boer government, and distribute -cavalry horses to the rebels. - -<p>3. They have to forbid overt acts against the Boer government, and -distribute arms to its enemies. - -<p>4. They have to avoid collision with the British government, but still -stand by Jameson and their new oath of allegiance to the Boer government, -taken, uncovered, in presence of its flag. - -<p>They did such of these things as they could; they tried to do them all; -in fact, did do them all, but only in turn, not simultaneously. In the -nature of things they could not be made to simultane. - -<p>In preparing for armed revolution and in talking revolution, were the -Reformers "bluffing," or were they in earnest? If they were in earnest, -they were taking great risks—as has been already pointed out. A -gentleman of high position told me in Johannesburg that he had in his -possession a printed document proclaiming a new government and naming its -president—one of the Reform leaders. He said that this proclamation had -been ready for issue, but was suppressed when the raid collapsed. -Perhaps I misunderstood him. Indeed, I must have misunderstood him, for -I have not seen mention of this large incident in print anywhere. - -<p>Besides, I hope I am mistaken; for, if I am, then there is argument that -the Reformers were privately not serious, but were only trying to scare -the Boer government into granting the desired reforms. - -<p>The Boer government was scared, and it had a right to be. For if Mr. -Rhodes's plan was to provoke a collision that would compel the -interference of England, that was a serious matter. If it could be shown -that that was also the Reformers' plan and purpose, it would prove that -they had marked out a feasible project, at any rate, although it was one -which could hardly fail to cost them ruinously before England should -arrive. But it seems clear that they had no such plan nor desire. If, -when the worst should come to the worst, they meant to overthrow the -government, they also meant to inherit the assets themselves, no doubt. - -<p>This scheme could hardly have succeeded. With an army of Boers at their -gates and 50,000 riotous blacks in their midst, the odds against success -would have been too heavy—even if the whole town had been armed. With -only 2,500 rifles in the place, they stood really no chance. - -<p>To me, the military problems of the situation are of more interest than -the political ones, because by disposition I have always been especially -fond of war. No, I mean fond of discussing war; and fond of giving -military advice. If I had been with Jameson the morning after he -started, I should have advised him to turn back. That was Monday; it was -then that he received his first warning from a Boer source not to violate -the friendly soil of the Transvaal. It showed that his invasion was -known. If I had been with him on Tuesday morning and afternoon, when he -received further warnings, I should have repeated my advice. If I had -been with him the next morning—New Year's—when he received notice that -"a few hundred" Boers were waiting for him a few miles ahead, I should -not have advised, but commanded him to go back. And if I had been with -him two or three hours later—a thing not conceivable to me—I should -have retired him by force; for at that time he learned that the few -hundred had now grown to 800; and that meant that the growing would go on -growing. - -<p>For, by authority of Mr. Garrett, one knows that Jameson's 600 were only -530 at most, when you count out his native drivers, etc.; and that the -530 consisted largely of "green" youths, "raw young fellows," not trained -and war-worn British soldiers; and I would have told Jameson that those -lads would not be able to shoot effectively from horseback in the scamper -and racket of battle, and that there would not be anything for them to -shoot at, anyway, but rocks; for the Boers would be behind the rocks, not -out in the open. I would have told him that 300 Boer sharpshooters -behind rocks would be an overmatch for his 500 raw young fellows on -horseback. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p670.jpg (31K)" src="images/p670.jpg" height="473" width="561"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>If pluck were the only thing essential to battle-winning, the English -would lose no battles. But discretion, as well as pluck, is required -when one fights Boers and Red Indians. In South Africa the Briton has -always insisted upon standing bravely up, unsheltered, before the hidden -Boer, and taking the results: Jameson's men would follow the custom. -Jameson would not have listened to me—he would have been intent upon -repeating history, according to precedent. Americans are not acquainted -with the British-Boer war of 1881; but its history is interesting, and -could have been instructive to Jameson if he had been receptive. I will -cull some details of it from trustworthy sources mainly from "Russell's -Natal." Mr. Russell is not a Boer, but a Briton. He is inspector of -schools, and his history is a text-book whose purpose is the instruction -of the Natal English youth. - -<p>After the seizure of the Transvaal and the suppression of the Boer -government by England in 1877, the Boers fretted for three years, and -made several appeals to England for a restoration of their liberties, but -without result. Then they gathered themselves together in a great -mass-meeting at Krugersdorp, talked their troubles over, and resolved to fight -for their deliverance from the British yoke. (Krugersdorp—the place -where the Boers interrupted the Jameson raid.) The little handful of -farmers rose against the strongest empire in the world. They proclaimed -martial law and the re-establishment of their Republic. They organized -their forces and sent them forward to intercept the British battalions. -This, although Sir Garnet Wolseley had but lately made proclamation that -"so long as the sun shone in the heavens," the Transvaal would be and -remain English territory. And also in spite of the fact that the -commander of the 94th regiment—already on the march to suppress this -rebellion—had been heard to say that "the Boers would turn tail at the -first beat of the big drum."—["South Africa As It Is," by F. Reginald -Statham, page 82. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1897.] - -<p>Four days after the flag-raising, the Boer force which had been sent -forward to forbid the invasion of the English troops met them at -Bronkhorst Spruit—246 men of the 94th regiment, in command of a colonel, -the big drum beating, the band playing—and the first battle was fought. -It lasted ten minutes. Result: - -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p>British loss, more than 150 officers and men, out of the 246. - Surrender of the remnant. - -<p> Boer loss—if any—not stated. -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>They are fine marksmen, the Boers. From the cradle up, they live on -horseback and hunt wild animals with the rifle. They have a passion for -liberty and the Bible, and care for nothing else. - -<p>"General Sir George Colley, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief in -Natal, felt it his duty to proceed at once to the relief of the loyalists -and soldiers beleaguered in the different towns of the Transvaal." He -moved out with 1,000 men and some artillery. He found the Boers encamped -in a strong and sheltered position on high ground at Laing's Nek—every -Boer behind a rock. Early in the morning of the 28th January, 1881, he -moved to the attack "with the 58th regiment, commanded by Colonel Deane, -a mounted squadron of 70 men, the 60th Rifles, the Naval Brigade with -three rocket tubes, and the Artillery with six guns." He shelled the -Boers for twenty minutes, then the assault was delivered, the 58th -marching up the slope in solid column. The battle was soon finished, -with this result, according to Russell— -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> British loss in killed and wounded, 174. - -<p> Boer loss, "trifling." -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<p>Colonel Deane was killed, and apparently every officer above the grade of -lieutenant was killed or wounded, for the 58th retreated to its camp in -command of a lieutenant. ("Africa as It Is.") - -<p>That ended the second battle. - -<p>On the 7th of February General Colley discovered that the Boers were -flanking his position. The next morning he left his camp at Mount -Pleasant and marched out and crossed the Ingogo river with 270 men, -started up the Ingogo heights, and there fought a battle which lasted -from noon till nightfall. He then retreated, leaving his wounded with -his military chaplain, and in recrossing the now swollen river lost some -of his men by drowning. That was the third Boer victory. Result, -according to Mr. Russell— -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> British loss 150 out of 270 engaged. - -<p> Boer loss, 8 killed, 9 wounded—17. -</blockquote></blockquote> - -<p>There was a season of quiet, now, but at the end of about three weeks Sir -George Colley conceived the idea of climbing, with an infantry and -artillery force, the steep and rugged mountain of Amajuba in the night—a -bitter hard task, but he accomplished it. On the way he left about 200 -men to guard a strategic point, and took about 400 up the mountain with -him. When the sun rose in the morning, there was an unpleasant surprise -for the Boers; yonder were the English troops visible on top of the -mountain two or three miles away, and now their own position was at the -mercy of the English artillery. The Boer chief resolved to retreat—up -that mountain. He asked for volunteers, and got them. - -<p>The storming party crossed the swale and began to creep up the steeps, -"and from behind rocks and bushes they shot at the soldiers on the -skyline as if they were stalking deer," says Mr. Russell. There was -"continuous musketry fire, steady and fatal on the one side, wild and -ineffectual on the other." The Boers reached the top, and began to put in -their ruinous work. Presently the British "broke and fled for their -lives down the rugged steep." The Boers had won the battle. Result in -killed and wounded, including among the killed the British General: -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> British loss, 226, out of 400 engaged. - -<p> Boer loss, 1 killed, 5 wounded. -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>That ended the war. England listened to reason, and recognized the Boer -Republic—a government which has never been in any really awful danger -since, until Jameson started after it with his 500 "raw young fellows." -To recapitulate: - -<p>The Boer farmers and British soldiers fought 4 battles, and the Boers won -them all. Result of the 4, in killed and wounded: -<blockquote><blockquote> -<p> British loss, 700 men. - -<p> Boer loss, so far as known, 23 men. -</blockquote></blockquote> -<p>It is interesting, now, to note how loyally Jameson and his several -trained British military officers tried to make their battles conform to -precedent. Mr. Garrett's account of the Raid is much the best one I have -met with, and my impressions of the Raid are drawn from that. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p675.jpg (62K)" src="images/p675.jpg" height="1031" width="585"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>When Jameson learned that near Krugersdorp he would find 800 Boers -waiting to dispute his passage, he was not in the least disturbed. He -was feeling as he had felt two or three days before, when he had opened -his campaign with a historic remark to the same purport as the one with -which the commander of the 94th had opened the Boer-British war of -fourteen years before. That Commander's remark was, that the Boers -"would turn tail at the first beat of the big drum." Jameson's was, that -with his "raw young fellows" he could kick the (persons) of the Boers -"all round the Transvaal." He was keeping close to historic precedent. - -<p>Jameson arrived in the presence of the Boers. They—according to -precedent—were not visible. It was a country of ridges, depressions, -rocks, ditches, moraines of mining-tailings—not even as favorable for -cavalry work as Laing's Nek had been in the former disastrous days. -Jameson shot at the ridges and rocks with his artillery, just as General -Colley had done at the Nek; and did them no damage and persuaded no Boer -to show himself. Then about a hundred of his men formed up to charge the -ridge-according to the 58th's precedent at the Nek; but as they dashed -forward they opened out in a long line, which was a considerable -improvement on the 58th's tactics; when they had gotten to within 200 -yards of the ridge the concealed Boers opened out on them and emptied 20 -saddles. The unwounded dismounted and fired at the rocks over the backs -of their horses; but the return-fire was too hot, and they mounted again, -"and galloped back or crawled away into a clump of reeds for cover, where -they were shortly afterward taken prisoners as they lay among the reeds. -Some thirty prisoners were so taken, and during the night which followed -the Boers carried away another thirty killed and wounded—the wounded to -Krugersdorp hospital. "Sixty per cent. of the assaulted force disposed -of"—according to Mr. Garrett's estimate. - -<p>It was according to Amajuba precedent, where the British loss was 226 out -of about 400 engaged. - -<p>Also, in Jameson's camp, that night, "there lay about 30 wounded or -otherwise disabled" men. Also during the night "some 30 or 40 young -fellows got separated from the command and straggled through into -Johannesburg." Altogether a possible 150 men gone, out of his 530. His -lads had fought valorously, but had not been able to get near enough to a -Boer to kick him around the Transvaal. - -<p>At dawn the next morning the column of something short of 400 whites -resumed its march. Jameson's grit was stubbornly good; indeed, it was -always that. He still had hopes. There was a long and tedious -zigzagging march through broken ground, with constant harassment from the -Boers; and at last the column "walked into a sort of trap," and the Boers -"closed in upon it." "Men and horses dropped on all sides. In the -column the feeling grew that unless it could burst through the Boer lines -at this point it was done for. The Maxims were fired until they grew too -hot, and, water failing for the cool jacket, five of them jammed and went -out of action. The 7-pounder was fired until only half an hour's -ammunition was left to fire with. One last rush was made, and failed, -and then the Staats Artillery came up on the left flank, and the game was -up." - -<p>Jameson hoisted a white flag and surrendered. - -<p>There is a story, which may not be true, about an ignorant Boer farmer -there who thought that this white flag was the national flag of England. -He had been at Bronkhorst, and Laing's Nek, and Ingogo and Amajuba, and -supposed that the English did not run up their flag excepting at the end -of a fight. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p678.jpg (33K)" src="images/p678.jpg" height="467" width="629"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>The following is (as I understand it) Mr. Garrett's estimate of Jameson's -total loss in killed and wounded for the two days: - -<p>"When they gave in they were minus some 20 per cent. of combatants. -There were 76 casualties. There were 30 men hurt or sick in the wagons. -There were 27 killed on the spot or mortally wounded." - -<p>Total, 133, out of the original 530. It is just 25 per cent.—[However, -I judge that the total was really 150; for the number of wounded carried -to Krugersdorp hospital was 53; not 30, as Mr. Garrett reports it. The -lady whose guest I was in Krugersdorp gave me the figures. She was head -nurse from the beginning of hostilities (Jan. 1) until the professional -nurses arrived, Jan. 8th. Of the 53, "Three or four were Boers"; I quote -her words.]—This is a large improvement upon the precedents established -at Bronkhorst, Laing's Nek, Ingogo, and Amajuba, and seems to indicate -that Boer marksmanship is not so good now as it was in those days. But -there is one detail in which the Raid-episode exactly repeats history. -By surrender at Bronkhorst, the whole British force disappeared from the -theater of war; this was the case with Jameson's force. - -<p>In the Boer loss, also, historical precedent is followed with sufficient -fidelity. In the 4 battles named above, the Boer loss, so far as known, -was an average of 6 men per battle, to the British average loss of 175. -In Jameson's battles, as per Boer official report, the Boer loss in -killed was 4. Two of these were killed by the Boers themselves, by -accident, the other by Jameson's army—one of them intentionally, the -other by a pathetic mischance. "A young Boer named Jacobz was moving -forward to give a drink to one of the wounded troopers (Jameson's) after -the first charge, when another wounded man, mistaking his intention; shot -him." There were three or four wounded Boers in the Krugersdorp -hospital, and apparently no others have been reported. Mr. Garrett, "on -a balance of probabilities, fully accepts the official version, and -thanks Heaven the killed was not larger." - -<p>As a military man, I wish to point out what seems to me to be military -errors in the conduct of the campaign which we have just been -considering. I have seen active service in the field, and it was in the -actualities of war that I acquired my training and my right to speak. -I served two weeks in the beginning of our Civil War, and during all that -time commanded a battery of infantry composed of twelve men. General -Grant knew the history of my campaign, for I told it him. I also told -him the principle upon which I had conducted it; which was, to tire the -enemy. I tired out and disqualified many battalions, yet never had a -casualty myself nor lost a man. General Grant was not given to paying -compliments, yet he said frankly that if I had conducted the whole war -much bloodshed would have been spared, and that what the army might have -lost through the inspiriting results of collision in the field would have -been amply made up by the liberalizing influences of travel. Further -endorsement does not seem to me to be necessary. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p681.jpg (65K)" src="images/p681.jpg" height="1039" width="597"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Let us now examine history, and see what it teaches. In the 4 battles -fought in 1881 and the two fought by Jameson, the British loss in killed, -wounded, and prisoners, was substantially 1,300 men; the Boer loss, as -far as is ascertainable, was about 30 men. These figures show that -there was a defect somewhere. It was not in the absence of courage. I -think it lay in the absence of discretion. The Briton should have done -one thing or the other: discarded British methods and fought the Boer -with Boer methods, or augmented his own force until—using British -methods—it should be large enough to equalize results with the Boer. - -<p>To retain the British method requires certain things, determinable by -arithmetic. If, for argument's sake, we allow that the aggregate of -1,716 British soldiers engaged in the 4 early battles was opposed by the -same aggregate of Boers, we have this result: the British loss of 700 and -the Boer loss of 23 argues that in order to equalize results in future -battles you must make the British force thirty times as strong as the -Boer force. Mr. Garrett shows that the Boer force immediately opposed to -Jameson was 2,000, and that there were 6,000 more on hand by the evening -of the second day. Arithmetic shows that in order to make himself the -equal of the 8,000 Boers, Jameson should have had 240,000 men, whereas he -merely had 530 boys. From a military point of view, backed by the facts -of history, I conceive that Jameson's military judgment was at fault. - -<p>Another thing.—Jameson was encumbered by artillery, ammunition, and -rifles. The facts of the battle show that he should have had none of -those things along. They were heavy, they were in his way, they impeded -his march. There was nothing to shoot at but rocks—he knew quite well -that there would be nothing to shoot at but rocks—and he knew that -artillery and rifles have no effect upon rocks. He was badly overloaded -with unessentials. He had 8 Maxims—a Maxim is a kind of Gatling, I -believe, and shoots about 500 bullets per minute; he had -one 12 1/2-pounder cannon and two 7-pounders; also, 145,000 rounds of ammunition. -He worked the Maxims so hard upon the rocks that five of them became -disabled—five of the Maxims, not the rocks. It is believed that upwards -of 100,000 rounds of ammunition of the various kinds were fired during -the 21 hours that the battles lasted. One man killed. He must have been -much mutilated. It was a pity to bring those futile Maxims along. -Jameson should have furnished himself with a battery of Pudd'nhead Wilson -maxims instead. They are much more deadly than those others, and they are -easily carried, because they have no weight. - -<p>Mr. Garrett—not very carefully concealing a smile—excuses the presence -of the Maxims by saying that they were of very substantial use because -their sputtering disordered the aim of the Boers, and in that way saved -lives. - -<p>Three cannon, eight Maxims, and five hundred rifles yielded a result -which emphasized a fact which had already been established—that the -British system of standing out in the open to fight Boers who are behind -rocks is not wise, not excusable, and ought to be abandoned for something -more efficacious. For the purpose of war is to kill, not merely to waste -ammunition. - -<p>If I could get the management of one of those campaigns, I would know -what to do, for I have studied the Boer. He values the Bible above every -other thing. The most delicious edible in South Africa is "biltong." -You will have seen it mentioned in Olive Schreiner's books. It is what -our plainsmen call "jerked beef." It is the Boer's main standby. He has -a passion for it, and he is right. - -<p>If I had the command of the campaign I would go with rifles only, no -cumbersome Maxims and cannon to spoil good rocks with. I would move -surreptitiously by night to a point about a quarter of a mile from the -Boer camp, and there I would build up a pyramid of biltong and Bibles -fifty feet high, and then conceal my men all about. In the morning the -Boers would send out spies, and then the rest would come with a rush. -I would surround them, and they would have to fight my men on equal -terms, in the open. There wouldn't be any Amajuba results. - -<p>—[Just as I am finishing this book an unfortunate dispute has sprung up -between Dr. Jameson and his officers, on the one hand, and Colonel Rhodes -on the other, concerning the wording of a note which Colonel Rhodes sent -from Johannesburg by a cyclist to Jameson just before hostilities began -on the memorable New Year's Day. Some of the fragments of this note were -found on the battlefield after the fight, and these have been pieced -together; the dispute is as to what words the lacking fragments -contained. Jameson says the note promised him a reinforcement of 300 men -from Johannesburg. Colonel Rhodes denies this, and says he merely -promised to send out "some" men "to meet you."] - -<p>[It seems a pity that these friends should fall out over so little a -thing. If the 300 had been sent, what good would it have done? In 21 -hours of industrious fighting, Jameson's 530 men, with 8 Maxims, 3 -cannon, and 145,000 rounds of ammunition, killed an aggregate of 1 -Boer. These statistics show that a reinforcement of 300 Johannesburgers, -armed merely with muskets, would have killed, at the outside, only a -little over a half of another Boer. This would not have saved the day. -It would not even have seriously affected the general result. The -figures show clearly, and with mathematical violence, that the only way -to save Jameson, or even give him a fair and equal chance with the enemy, -was for Johannesburg to send him 240 Maxims, 90 cannon, 600 carloads of -ammunition, and 240,000 men. Johannesburg was not in a position to do -this. Johannesburg has been called very hard names for not reinforcing -Jameson. But in every instance this has been done by two classes of -persons—people who do not read history, and people, like Jameson, who do -not understand what it means, after they have read it.] - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p684.jpg (59K)" src="images/p684.jpg" height="755" width="585"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch68"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXVIII.</h2> - -<p><i>None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its -cussedness; but we can try.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>The Duke of Fife has borne testimony that Mr. Rhodes deceived him. That -is also what Mr. Rhodes did with the Reformers. He got them into -trouble, and then stayed out himself. A judicious man. He has always -been that. As to this there was a moment of doubt, once. It was when he -was out on his last pirating expedition in the Matabele country. The -cable shouted out that he had gone unarmed, to visit a party of hostile -chiefs. It was true, too; and this dare-devil thing came near fetching -another indiscretion out of the poet laureate. It would have been too -bad, for when the facts were all in, it turned out that there was a lady -along, too, and she also was unarmed. - -<p>In the opinion of many people Mr. Rhodes is South Africa; others think he -is only a large part of it. These latter consider that South Africa -consists of Table Mountain, the diamond mines, the Johannesburg gold -fields, and Cecil Rhodes. The gold fields are wonderful in every way. -In seven or eight years they built up, in a desert, a city of a hundred -thousand inhabitants, counting white and black together; and not the -ordinary mining city of wooden shanties, but a city made out of lasting -material. Nowhere in the world is there such a concentration of rich -mines as at Johannesburg. Mr. Bonamici, my manager there, gave me a -small gold brick with some statistics engraved upon it which record the -output of gold from the early days to July, 1895, and exhibit the strides -which have been made in the development of the industry; in 1888 the -output was $4,162,440; the output of the next five and a half years was -(total) $17,585,894); for the single year ending with June, 1895, it was -$45,553,700. - -<p>The capital which has developed the mines came from England, the mining -engineers from America. This is the case with the diamond mines also. -South Africa seems to be the heaven of the American scientific mining -engineer. He gets the choicest places, and keeps them. His salary is -not based upon what he would get in America, but apparently upon what a -whole family of him would get there. - -<p>The successful mines pay great dividends, yet the rock is not rich, from -a Californian point of view. Rock which yields ten or twelve dollars a -ton is considered plenty rich enough. It is troubled with base metals to -such a degree that twenty years ago it would have been only about half as -valuable as it is now; for at that time there was no paying way of -getting anything out of such rock but the coarser-grained "free" gold; but -the new cyanide process has changed all that, and the gold fields of the -world now deliver up fifty million dollars' worth of gold per year which -would have gone into the tailing-pile under the former conditions. - -<p>The cyanide process was new to me, and full of interest; and among the -costly and elaborate mining machinery there were fine things which were -new to me, but I was already familiar with the rest of the details of the -gold-mining industry. I had been a gold miner myself, in my day, and -knew substantially everything that those people knew about it, except how -to make money at it. But I learned a good deal about the Boers there, -and that was a fresh subject. What I heard there was afterwards repeated -to me in other parts of South Africa. Summed up—according to the -information thus gained—this is the Boer: - -<p>He is deeply religious, profoundly ignorant, dull, obstinate, bigoted, -uncleanly in his habits, hospitable, honest in his dealings with the -whites, a hard master to his black servant, lazy, a good shot, good -horseman, addicted to the chase, a lover of political independence, a -good husband and father, not fond of herding together in towns, but -liking the seclusion and remoteness and solitude and empty vastness and -silence of the veldt; a man of a mighty appetite, and not delicate about -what he appeases it with—well-satisfied with pork and Indian corn and -biltong, requiring only that the quantity shall not be stinted; willing -to ride a long journey to take a hand in a rude all-night dance -interspersed with vigorous feeding and boisterous jollity, but ready to -ride twice as far for a prayer-meeting; proud of his Dutch and Huguenot -origin and its religious and military history; proud of his race's -achievements in South Africa, its bold plunges into hostile and uncharted -deserts in search of free solitudes unvexed by the pestering and detested -English, also its victories over the natives and the British; proudest of -all, of the direct and effusive personal interest which the Deity has -always taken in its affairs. He cannot read, he cannot write; he has one -or two newspapers, but he is, apparently, not aware of it; until latterly -he had no schools, and taught his children nothing, news is a term which -has no meaning to him, and the thing itself he cares nothing about. He -hates to be taxed and resents it. He has stood stock still in South -Africa for two centuries and a half, and would like to stand still till -the end of time, for he has no sympathy with Uitlander notions of -progress. He is hungry to be rich, for he is human; but his preference -has been for riches in cattle, not in fine clothes and fine houses and -gold and diamonds. The gold and the diamonds have brought the godless -stranger within his gates, also contamination and broken repose, and he -wishes that they had never been discovered. - -<p>I think that the bulk of those details can be found in Olive Schreiner's -books, and she would not be accused of sketching the Boer's portrait with -an unfair hand. - -<p>Now what would you expect from that unpromising material? What ought you -to expect from it? Laws inimical to religious liberty? Yes. Laws -denying, representation and suffrage to the intruder? Yes. Laws -unfriendly to educational institutions? Yes. Laws obstructive of gold -production? Yes. Discouragement of railway expansion? Yes. Laws heavily -taxing the intruder and overlooking the Boer? Yes. - -<p>The Uitlander seems to have expected something very different from all -that. I do not know why. Nothing different from it was rationally to be -expected. A round man cannot be expected to fit a square hole right -away. He must have time to modify his shape. The modification had begun -in a detail or two, before the Raid, and was making some progress. It -has made further progress since. There are wise men in the Boer -government, and that accounts for the modification; the modification of -the Boer mass has probably not begun yet. If the heads of the Boer -government had not been wise men they would have hanged Jameson, and thus -turned a very commonplace pirate into a holy martyr. But even their -wisdom has its limits, and they will hang Mr. Rhodes if they ever catch -him. That will round him and complete him and make him a saint. He has -already been called by all other titles that symbolize human grandeur, -and he ought to rise to this one, the grandest of all. It will be a -dizzy jump from where he is now, but that is nothing, it will land him in -good company and be a pleasant change for him. - -<p>Some of the things demanded by the Johannesburgers' Manifesto have been -conceded since the days of the Raid, and the others will follow in time, -no doubt. It was most fortunate for the miners of Johannesburg that the -taxes which distressed them so much were levied by the Boer government, -instead of by their friend Rhodes and his Chartered Company of -highwaymen, for these latter take half of whatever their mining victims -find, they do not stop at a mere percentage. If the Johannesburg miners -were under their jurisdiction they would be in the poorhouse in twelve -months. - -<p>I have been under the impression all along that I had an unpleasant -paragraph about the Boers somewhere in my notebook, and also a pleasant -one. I have found them now. The unpleasant one is dated at an interior -village, and says— - -<p>"Mr. Z. called. He is an English Afrikander; is an old resident, and has -a Boer wife. He speaks the language, and his professional business is -with the Boers exclusively. He told me that the ancient Boer families in -the great region of which this village is the commercial center are -falling victims to their inherited indolence and dullness in the -materialistic latter-day race and struggle, and are dropping one by one -into the grip of the usurer—getting hopelessly in debt—and are losing -their high place and retiring to second and lower. The Boer's farm does -not go to another Boer when he loses it, but to a foreigner. Some have -fallen so low that they sell their daughters to the blacks." - -<p>Under date of another South African town I find the note which is -creditable to the Boers: - -<p>"Dr. X. told me that in the Kafir war 1,500 Kafirs took refuge in a great -cave in the mountains about 90 miles north of Johannesburg, and the Boers -blocked up the entrance and smoked them to death. Dr. X. has been in -there and seen the great array of bleached skeletons—one a woman with -the skeleton of a child hugged to her breast." - -<p>The great bulk of the savages must go. The white man wants their lands, -and all must go excepting such percentage of them as he will need to do -his work for him upon terms to be determined by himself. Since history -has removed the element of guesswork from this matter and made it -certainty, the humanest way of diminishing the black population should be -adopted, not the old cruel ways of the past. Mr. Rhodes and his gang -have been following the old ways.—They are chartered to rob and slay, -and they lawfully do it, but not in a compassionate and Christian spirit. -They rob the Mashonas and the Matabeles of a portion of their territories -in the hallowed old style of "purchase!" for a song, and then they force -a quarrel and take the rest by the strong hand. They rob the natives of -their cattle under the pretext that all the cattle in the country -belonged to the king whom they have tricked and assassinated. They issue -"regulations" requiring the incensed and harassed natives to work for the -white settlers, and neglect their own affairs to do it. This is slavery, -and is several times worse than was the American slavery which used to -pain England so much; for when this Rhodesian slave is sick, -super-annuated, or otherwise disabled, he must support himself or starve—his -master is under no obligation to support him. - -<p>The reduction of the population by Rhodesian methods to the desired limit -is a return to the old-time slow-misery and lingering-death system of a -discredited time and a crude "civilization." We humanely reduce an -overplus of dogs by swift chloroform; the Boer humanely reduced an -overplus of blacks by swift suffocation; the nameless but right-hearted -Australian pioneer humanely reduced his overplus of aboriginal neighbors -by a sweetened swift death concealed in a poisoned pudding. All these -are admirable, and worthy of praise; you and I would rather suffer either -of these deaths thirty times over in thirty successive days than linger -out one of the Rhodesian twenty-year deaths, with its daily burden of -insult, humiliation, and forced labor for a man whose entire race the -victim hates. Rhodesia is a happy name for that land of piracy and -pillage, and puts the right stain upon it. - -<p>Several long journeys—gave us experience of the Cape Colony railways; -easy-riding, fine cars; all the conveniences; thorough cleanliness; -comfortable beds furnished for the night trains. It was in the first -days of June, and winter; the daytime was pleasant, the nighttime nice -and cold. Spinning along all day in the cars it was ecstasy to breathe -the bracing air and gaze out over the vast brown solitudes of the velvet -plains, soft and lovely near by, still softer and lovelier further away, -softest and loveliest of all in the remote distances, where dim -island-hills seemed afloat, as in a sea—a sea made of dream-stuff and flushed -with colors faint and rich; and dear me, the depth of the sky, and the -beauty of the strange new cloud-forms, and the glory of the sunshine, the -lavishness, the wastefulness of it! The vigor and freshness and -inspiration of the air and the sun—well, it was all just as Olive -Schreiner had made it in her books. - -<p>To me the veldt, in its sober winter garb, was surpassingly beautiful. -There were unlevel stretches where it was rolling and swelling, and -rising and subsiding, and sweeping superbly on and on, and still on and -on like an ocean, toward the faraway horizon, its pale brown deepening by -delicately graduated shades to rich orange, and finally to purple and -crimson where it washed against the wooded hills and naked red crags at -the base of the sky. - -<p>Everywhere, from Cape Town to Kimberley and from Kimberley to Port -Elizabeth and East London, the towns were well populated with tamed -blacks; tamed and Christianized too, I suppose, for they wore the dowdy -clothes of our Christian civilization. But for that, many of them would -have been remarkably handsome. These fiendish clothes, together with the -proper lounging gait, good-natured face, happy air, and easy laugh, made -them precise counterparts of our American blacks; often where all the -other aspects were strikingly and harmoniously and thrillingly African, a -flock of these natives would intrude, looking wholly out of place, and -spoil it all, making the thing a grating discord, half African and half -American. - -<p>One Sunday in King William's Town a score of colored women came mincing -across the great barren square dressed—oh, in the last perfection of -fashion, and newness, and expensiveness, and showy mixture of unrelated -colors,—all just as I had seen it so often at home; and in their faces -and their gait was that languishing, aristocratic, divine delight in -their finery which was so familiar to me, and had always been such a -satisfaction to my eye and my heart. I seemed among old, old friends; -friends of fifty years, and I stopped and cordially greeted them. They -broke into a good-fellowship laugh, flashing their white teeth upon me, -and all answered at once. I did not understand a word they said. I was -astonished; I was not dreaming that they would answer in anything but -American. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p693.jpg (25K)" src="images/p693.jpg" height="533" width="375"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>The voices, too, of the African women, were familiar to me sweet and -musical, just like those of the slave women of my early days. I followed -a couple of them all over the Orange Free State—no, over its -capital—Bloemfontein, to hear their liquid voices and the happy ripple of their -laughter. Their language was a large improvement upon American. Also -upon the Zulu. It had no Zulu clicks in it; and it seemed to have no -angles or corners, no roughness, no vile s's or other hissing sounds, but -was very, very mellow and rounded and flowing. - -<p>In moving about the country in the trains, I had opportunity to see a -good many Boers of the veldt. One day at a village station a hundred of -them got out of the third-class cars to feed. - -<p>Their clothes were very interesting. For ugliness of shapes, and for -miracles of ugly colors inharmoniously associated, they were a record. -The effect was nearly as exciting and interesting as that produced by the -brilliant and beautiful clothes and perfect taste always on view at the -Indian railway stations. One man had corduroy trousers of a faded -chewing gum tint. And they were new—showing that this tint did not come -by calamity, but was intentional; the very ugliest color I have ever -seen. A gaunt, shackly country lout six feet high, in battered gray -slouched hat with wide brim, and old resin-colored breeches, had on a -hideous brand-new woolen coat which was imitation tiger skin—wavy broad -stripes of dazzling yellow and deep brown. I thought he ought to be -hanged, and asked the station-master if it could be arranged. He said -no; and not only that, but said it rudely; said it with a quite -unnecessary show of feeling. Then he muttered something about my being a -jackass, and walked away and pointed me out to people, and did everything -he could to turn public sentiment against me. It is what one gets for -trying to do good. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p694.jpg (21K)" src="images/p694.jpg" height="525" width="369"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>In the train that day a passenger told me some more about Boer life out -in the lonely veldt. He said the Boer gets up early and sets his -"niggers" at their tasks (pasturing the cattle, and watching them); eats, -smokes, drowses, sleeps; toward evening superintends the milking, etc.; -eats, smokes, drowses; goes to bed at early candlelight in the fragrant -clothes he (and she) have worn all day and every week-day for years. I -remember that last detail, in Olive Schreiner's "Story of an African -Farm." And the passenger told me that the Boers were justly noted for -their hospitality. He told me a story about it. He said that his grace -the Bishop of a certain See was once making a business-progress through -the tavernless veldt, and one night he stopped with a Boer; after supper -was shown to bed; he undressed, weary and worn out, and was soon sound -asleep; in the night he woke up feeling crowded and suffocated, and found -the old Boer and his fat wife in bed with him, one on each side, with all -their clothes on, and snoring. He had to stay there and stand it—awake -and suffering—until toward dawn, when sleep again fell upon him for an -hour. Then he woke again. The Boer was gone, but the wife was still at -his side. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p696.jpg (48K)" src="images/p696.jpg" height="875" width="547"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>Those Reformers detested that Boer prison; they were not used to cramped -quarters and tedious hours, and weary idleness, and early to bed, and -limited movement, and arbitrary and irritating rules, and the absence of -the luxuries which wealth comforts the day and the night with. The -confinement told upon their bodies and their spirits; still, they were -superior men, and they made the best that was to be made of the -circumstances. Their wives smuggled delicacies to them, which helped to -smooth the way down for the prison fare. - -<p>In the train Mr. B. told me that the Boer jail-guards treated the black -prisoners—even political ones—mercilessly. An African chief and his -following had been kept there nine months without trial, and during all -that time they had been without shelter from rain and sun. He said that -one day the guards put a big black in the stocks for dashing his soup on -the ground; they stretched his legs painfully wide apart, and set him -with his back down hill; he could not endure it, and put back his hands -upon the slope for a support. The guard ordered him to withdraw the -support and kicked him in the back. "Then," said Mr. B., "'the powerful -black wrenched the stocks asunder and went for the guard; a Reform -prisoner pulled him off, and thrashed the guard himself." - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="ch69"></a><br><br>CHAPTER LXIX.</h2> - -<p><i>The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilsons's New Calendar</center> - -<p><i>There isn't a Parallel of Latitude but thinks it would have been the -Equator if it had had its rights.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>Next to Mr. Rhodes, to me the most interesting convulsion of nature in -South Africa was the diamond-crater. The Rand gold fields are a -stupendous marvel, and they make all other gold fields small, but I was -not a stranger to gold-mining; the veldt was a noble thing to see, but it -was only another and lovelier variety of our Great Plains; the natives -were very far from being uninteresting, but they were not new; and as for -the towns, I could find my way without a guide through the most of them -because I had learned the streets, under other names, in towns just like -them in other lands; but the diamond mine was a wholly fresh thing, a -splendid and absorbing novelty. Very few people in the world have seen -the diamond in its home. It has but three or four homes in the world, -whereas gold has a million. It is worth while to journey around the -globe to see anything which can truthfully be called a novelty, and the -diamond mine is the greatest and most select and restricted novelty which -the globe has in stock. - -<p>The Kimberley diamond deposits were discovered about 1869, I think. When -everything is taken into consideration, the wonder is that they were not -discovered five thousand years ago and made familiar to the African world -for the rest of time. For this reason the first diamonds were found on -the surface of the ground. They were smooth and limpid, and in the -sunlight they vomited fire. They were the very things which an African -savage of any era would value above every other thing in the world -excepting a glass bead. For two or three centuries we have been buying -his lands, his cattle, his neighbor, and any other thing he had for sale, -for glass beads and so it is strange that he was indifferent to the -diamonds—for he must have picked them up many and many a time. It -would not occur to him to try to sell them to whites, of course, since -the whites already had plenty of glass beads, and more fashionably -shaped, too, than these; but one would think that the poorer sort of -black, who could not afford real glass, would have been humbly content to -decorate himself with the imitation, and that presently the white trader -would notice the things, and dimly suspect, and carry some of them home, -and find out what they were, and at once empty a multitude of -fortune-hunters into Africa. There are many strange things in human history; one -of the strangest is that the sparkling diamonds laid there so long -without exciting any one's interest. - -<p>The revelation came at last by accident. In a Boer's hut out in the wide -solitude of the plains, a traveling stranger noticed a child playing with -a bright object, and was told it was a piece of glass which had been -found in the veldt. The stranger bought it for a trifle and carried it -away; and being without honor, made another stranger believe it was a -diamond, and so got $125 out of him for it, and was as pleased with -himself as if he had done a righteous thing. In Paris the wronged -stranger sold it to a pawnshop for $10,000, who sold it to a countess for -$90,000, who sold it to a brewer for $800,000, who traded it to a king -for a dukedom and a pedigree, and the king "put it up the -spout."—I know these particulars to be correct. - - - -<br><br> -<center> -<img alt="p700.jpg (5K)" src="images/p700.jpg" height="117" width="419"> -</center> -<br><br> - - -<p>The news flew around, and the South African diamond-boom began. The -original traveler—the dishonest one—now remembered that he had once -seen a Boer teamster chocking his wagon-wheel on a steep grade with a -diamond as large as a football, and he laid aside his occupations and -started out to hunt for it, but not with the intention of cheating -anybody out of $125 with it, for he had reformed. - -<p>We now come to matters more didactic. Diamonds are not imbedded in rock -ledges fifty miles long, like the Johannesburg gold, but are distributed -through the rubbish of a filled-up well, so to speak. The well is rich, -its walls are sharply defined; outside of the walls are no diamonds. The -well is a crater, and a large one. Before it had been meddled with, its -surface was even with the level plain, and there was no sign to suggest -that it was there. The pasturage covering the surface of the Kimberley -crater was sufficient for the support of a cow, and the pasturage -underneath was sufficient for the support of a kingdom; but the cow did -not know it, and lost her chance. - -<p>The Kimberley crater is roomy enough to admit the Roman Coliseum; the -bottom of the crater has not been reached, and no one can tell how far -down in the bowels of the earth it goes. Originally, it was a -perpendicular hole packed solidly full of blue rock or cement, and -scattered through that blue mass, like raisins in a pudding, were the -diamonds. As deep down in the earth as the blue stuff extends, so deep -will the diamonds be found. - -<p>There are three or four other celebrated craters near by—a circle three -miles in diameter would enclose them all. They are owned by the De Beers -Company, a consolidation of diamond properties arranged by Mr. Rhodes -twelve or fourteen years ago. The De Beers owns other craters; they are -under the grass, but the De Beers knows where they are, and will open -them some day, if the market should require it. - -<p>Originally, the diamond deposits were the property of the Orange Free -State; but a judicious "rectification" of the boundary line shifted them -over into the British territory of Cape Colony. A high official of the -Free State told me that the sum of $400,000 was handed to his -commonwealth as a compromise, or indemnity, or something of the sort, and -that he thought his commonwealth did wisely to take the money and keep -out of a dispute, since the power was all on the one side and the -weakness all on the other. The De Beers Company dig out $400,000 worth -of diamonds per week, now. The Cape got the territory, but no profit; -for Mr. Rhodes and the Rothschilds and the other De Beers people own the -mines, and they pay no taxes. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p702.jpg (18K)" src="images/p702.jpg" height="491" width="321"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>In our day the mines are worked upon scientific principles, under the -guidance of the ablest mining-engineering talent procurable in America. -There are elaborate works for reducing the blue rock and passing it -through one process after another until every diamond it contains has -been hunted down and secured. I watched the "concentrators" at work big -tanks containing mud and water and invisible diamonds—and was told that -each could stir and churn and properly treat 300 car-loads of mud per day -1,600 pounds to the car-load—and reduce it to 3 car-loads of slush. I -saw the 3 carloads of slush taken to the "pulsators" and there reduced to -a quarter of a load of nice clean dark-colored sand. Then I followed it to -the sorting tables and saw the men deftly and swiftly spread it out and -brush it about and seize the diamonds as they showed up. I assisted, and -once I found a diamond half as large as an almond. It is an exciting -kind of fishing, and you feel a fine thrill of pleasure every time you -detect the glow of one of those limpid pebbles through the veil of dark -sand. I would like to spend my Saturday holidays in that charming sport -every now and then. Of course there are disappointments. Sometimes you -find a diamond which is not a diamond; it is only a quartz crystal or -some such worthless thing. The expert can generally distinguish it from -the precious stone which it is counterfeiting; but if he is in doubt he -lays it on a flatiron and hits it with a sledgehammer. If it is a -diamond it holds its own; if it is anything else, it is reduced to -powder. I liked that experiment very much, and did not tire of -repetitions of it. It was full of enjoyable apprehensions, unmarred by -any personal sense of risk. The De Beers concern treats 8,000 -carloads—about 6,000 tons—of blue rock per day, and the result is three pounds of -diamonds. Value, uncut, $50,000 to $70,000. After cutting, they will -weigh considerably less than a pound, but will be worth four or five -times as much as they were before. - -<p>All the plain around that region is spread over, a foot deep, with blue -rock, placed there by the Company, and looks like a plowed field. -Exposure for a length of time make the rock easier to work than it is -when it comes out of the mine. If mining should cease now, the supply of -rock spread over those fields would furnish the usual 8,000 car-loads per -day to the separating works during three years. The fields are fenced -and watched; and at night they are under the constant inspection of lofty -electric searchlight. They contain fifty or sixty million dollars' -worth' of diamonds, and there is an abundance of enterprising thieves -around. - -<p>In the dirt of the Kimberley streets there is much hidden wealth. Some -time ago the people were granted the privilege of a free wash-up. There -was a general rush, the work was done with thoroughness, and a good -harvest of diamonds was gathered. - -<p>The deep mining is done by natives. There are many hundreds of them. -They live in quarters built around the inside of a great compound. They -are a jolly and good-natured lot, and accommodating. They performed a -war-dance for us, which was the wildest exhibition I have ever seen. -They are not allowed outside of the compound during their term of service -three months, I think it is, as a rule. They go down the shaft, stand -their watch, come up again, are searched, and go to bed or to their -amusements in the compound; and this routine they repeat, day in and day -out. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p704.jpg (28K)" src="images/p704.jpg" height="453" width="579"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>It is thought that they do not now steal many diamonds successfully. -They used to swallow them, and find other ways of concealing them, but -the white man found ways of beating their various games. One man cut his -leg and shoved a diamond into the wound, but even that project did not -succeed. When they find a fine large diamond they are more likely to -report it than to steal it, for in the former case they get a reward, and -in the latter they are quite apt to merely get into trouble. Some years -ago, in a mine not owned by the De Beers, a black found what has been -claimed to be the largest diamond known to the world's history; and, as a -reward he was released from service and given a blanket, a horse, and -five hundred dollars. It made him a Vanderbilt. He could buy four -wives, and have money left. Four wives are an ample support for a -native. With four wives he is wholly independent, and need never do a -stroke of work again. - -<p>That great diamond weighs 97l carats. Some say it is as big as a piece -of alum, others say it is as large as a bite of rock candy, but the best -authorities agree that it is almost exactly the size of a chunk of ice. -But those details are not important; and in my opinion not trustworthy. -It has a flaw in it, otherwise it would be of incredible value. As it -is, it is held to be worth $2,000,000. After cutting it ought to be -worth from $5,000,000 to $8,000,000, therefore persons desiring to save -money should buy it now. It is owned by a syndicate, and apparently -there is no satisfactory market for it. It is earning nothing; it is -eating its head off. Up to this time it has made nobody rich but the -native who found it. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p705.jpg (18K)" src="images/p705.jpg" height="368" width="232"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>He found it in a mine which was being worked by contract. That is to -say, a company had bought the privilege of taking from the mine 5,000,000 -carloads of blue-rock, for a sum down and a royalty. Their speculation -had not paid; but on the very day that their privilege ran out that -native found the $2,000,000-diamond and handed it over to them. Even the -diamond culture is not without its romantic episodes. - -<p>The Koh-i-Noor is a large diamond, and valuable; but it cannot compete in -these matters with three which—according to legend—are among the crown -trinkets of Portugal and Russia. One of these is held to be worth -$20,000,000; another, $25,000,000, and the third something over -$28,000,000. - -<p>Those are truly wonderful diamonds, whether they exist or not; and yet -they are of but little importance by comparison with the one wherewith -the Boer wagoner chocked his wheel on that steep grade as heretofore -referred to. In Kimberley I had some conversation with the man who saw -the Boer do that—an incident which had occurred twenty-seven or -twenty-eight years before I had my talk with him. He assured me that that -diamond's value could have been over a billion dollars, but not under it. -I believed him, because he had devoted twenty-seven years to hunting for -it, and was in a position to know. - -<p>A fitting and interesting finish to an examination of the tedious and -laborious and costly processes whereby the diamonds are gotten out of the -deeps of the earth and freed from the base stuffs which imprison them is -the visit to the De Beers offices in the town of Kimberley, where the -result of each day's mining is brought every day, and, weighed, assorted, -valued, and deposited in safes against shipping-day. An unknown and -unaccredited person cannot get into that place; and it seemed apparent -from the generous supply of warning and protective and prohibitory signs -that were posted all about, that not even the known and accredited can -steal diamonds there without inconvenience. - -<p>We saw the day's output—shining little nests of diamonds, distributed a -foot apart, along a counter, each nest reposing upon a sheet of white -paper. That day's catch was about $70,000 worth. In the course of a -year half a ton of diamonds pass under the scales there and sleep on that -counter; the resulting money is $18,000,000 or $20,000,000. Profit, -about $12,000,000. - -<p>Young girls were doing the sorting—a nice, clean, dainty, and probably -distressing employment. Every day ducal incomes sift and sparkle through -the fingers of those young girls; yet they go to bed at night as poor as -they were when they got up in the morning. The same thing next day, and -all the days. - -<br><br><br><br> -<center><img alt="p707.jpg (15K)" src="images/p707.jpg" height="435" width="329"> -</center> -<br><br><br><br> - -<p>They are beautiful things, those diamonds, in their native state. They -are of various shapes; they have flat surfaces, rounded borders, and -never a sharp edge. They are of all colors and shades of color, from -dewdrop white to actual black; and their smooth and rounded surfaces and -contours, variety of color, and transparent limpidity make them look like -piles of assorted candies. A very light straw color is their commonest -tint. It seemed to me that these uncut gems must be more beautiful than -any cut ones could be; but when a collection of cut ones was brought out, -I saw my mistake. Nothing is so beautiful as a rose diamond with the -light playing through it, except that uncostly thing which is just like -it—wavy sea-water with the sunlight playing through it and striking a -white-sand bottom. - -<p>Before the middle of July we reached Cape Town, and the end of our -African journeyings. And well satisfied; for, towering above us was -Table Mountain—a reminder that we had now seen each and all of the great -features of South Africa except Mr. Cecil Rhodes. I realize that that is -a large exception. I know quite well that whether Mr. Rhodes is the -lofty and worshipful patriot and statesman that multitudes believe him to -be, or Satan come again, as the rest of the world account him, he is -still the most imposing figure in the British empire outside of England. -When he stands on the Cape of Good Hope, his shadow falls to the Zambesi. -He is the only colonial in the British dominions whose goings and comings -are chronicled and discussed under all the globe's meridians, and whose -speeches, unclipped, are cabled from the ends of the earth; and he is the -only unroyal outsider whose arrival in London can compete for attention -with an eclipse. - -<p>That he is an extraordinary man, and not an accident of fortune, not even -his dearest South African enemies were willing to deny, so far as I heard -them testify. The whole South African world seemed to stand in a kind of -shuddering awe of him, friend and enemy alike. It was as if he were -deputy-God on the one side, deputy-Satan on the other, proprietor of the -people, able to make them or ruin them by his breath, worshiped by many, -hated by many, but blasphemed by none among the judicious, and even by -the indiscreet in guarded whispers only. - -<p>What is the secret of his formidable supremacy? One says it is his -prodigious wealth—a wealth whose drippings in salaries and in other ways -support multitudes and make them his interested and loyal vassals; -another says it is his personal magnetism and his persuasive tongue, and -that these hypnotize and make happy slaves of all that drift within the -circle of their influence; another says it is his majestic ideas, his -vast schemes for the territorial aggrandizement of England, his patriotic -and unselfish ambition to spread her beneficent protection and her just -rule over the pagan wastes of Africa and make luminous the African -darkness with the glory of her name; and another says he wants the earth -and wants it for his own, and that the belief that he will get it and let -his friends in on the ground floor is the secret that rivets so many eyes -upon him and keeps him in the zenith where the view is unobstructed. - -<p>One may take his choice. They are all the same price. One fact is sure: -he keeps his prominence and a vast following, no matter what he does. He -"deceives" the Duke of Fife—it is the Duke's word—but that does not -destroy the Duke's loyalty to him. He tricks the Reformers into immense -trouble with his Raid, but the most of them believe he meant well. He -weeps over the harshly-taxed Johannesburgers and makes them his friends; -at the same time he taxes his Charter-settlers 50 per cent., and so wins -their affection and their confidence that they are squelched with despair -at every rumor that the Charter is to be annulled. He raids and robs and -slays and enslaves the Matabele and gets worlds of Charter-Christian -applause for it. He has beguiled England into buying Charter waste paper -for Bank of England notes, ton for ton, and the ravished still burn -incense to him as the Eventual God of Plenty. He has done everything he -could think of to pull himself down to the ground; he has done more than -enough to pull sixteen common-run great men down; yet there he stands, to -this day, upon his dizzy summit under the dome of the sky, an apparent -permanency, the marvel of the time, the mystery of the age, an Archangel -with wings to half the world, Satan with a tail to the other half. - -<p>I admire him, I frankly confess it; and when his time comes I shall buy a -piece of the rope for a keepsake. - -<br><br><br><br> -<h2><a name="CONCLUSION"></a>CONCLUSION.</h2> - -<p><i>I have traveled more than anyone else, and I have noticed that even the -angels speak English with an accent.</i> - <center>—Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center> - -<p>I saw Table Rock, anyway—a majestic pile. It is 3,000 feet high. It is -also 17,000 feet high. These figures may be relied upon. I got them in -Cape Town from the two best-informed citizens, men who had made Table -Rock the study of their lives. And I saw Table Bay, so named for its -levelness. I saw the Castle—built by the Dutch East India Company three -hundred years ago—where the Commanding General lives; I saw St. Simon's -Bay, where the Admiral lives. I saw the Government, also the Parliament, -where they quarreled in two languages when I was there, and agreed in -none. I saw the club. I saw and explored the beautiful sea-girt drives -that wind about the mountains and through the paradise where the villas -are: Also I saw some of the fine old Dutch mansions, pleasant homes of -the early times, pleasant homes to-day, and enjoyed the privilege of -their hospitalities. - -<p>And just before I sailed I saw in one of them a quaint old picture which -was a link in a curious romance—a picture of a pale, intellectual young -man in a pink coat with a high black collar. It was a portrait of Dr. -James Barry, a military surgeon who came out to the Cape fifty years ago -with his regiment. He was a wild young fellow, and was guilty of various -kinds of misbehavior. He was several times reported to headquarters in -England, and it was in each case expected that orders would come out to -deal with him promptly and severely, but for some mysterious reason no -orders of any kind ever came back—nothing came but just an impressive -silence. This made him an imposing and uncanny wonder to the town. - -<p>Next, he was promoted—away up. He was made Medical Superintendent -General, and transferred to India. Presently he was back at the Cape -again and at his escapades once more. There were plenty of pretty girls, -but none of them caught him, none of them could get hold of his heart; -evidently he was not a marrying man. And that was another marvel, -another puzzle, and made no end of perplexed talk. Once he was called in -the night, an obstetric service, to do what he could for a woman who was -believed to be dying. He was prompt and scientific, and saved both -mother and child. There are other instances of record which testify to -his mastership of his profession; and many which testify to his love of -it and his devotion to it. Among other adventures of his was a duel of a -desperate sort, fought with swords, at the Castle. He killed his man. - -<p>The child heretofore mentioned as having been saved by Dr. Barry so long -ago, was named for him, and still lives in Cape Town. He had Dr. -Barry's portrait painted, and gave it to the gentleman in whose old Dutch -house I saw it—the quaint figure in pink coat and high black collar. - -<p>The story seems to be arriving nowhere. But that is because I have not -finished. Dr. Barry died in Cape Town 30 years ago. It was then -discovered that he was <i>a woman</i>. - -<p>The legend goes that enquiries—soon silenced—developed the fact that -she was a daughter of a great English house, and that that was why her -Cape wildnesses brought no punishment and got no notice when reported to -the government at home. Her name was an alias. She had disgraced -herself with her people; so she chose to change her name and her sex and -take a new start in the world. - -<p>We sailed on the 15th of July in the Norman, a beautiful ship, perfectly -appointed. The voyage to England occupied a short fortnight, without a -stop except at Madeira. A good and restful voyage for tired people, and -there were several of us. I seemed to have been lecturing a thousand -years, though it was only a twelvemonth, and a considerable number of the -others were Reformers who were fagged out with their five months of -seclusion in the Pretoria prison. - -<p>Our trip around the earth ended at the Southampton pier, where we -embarked thirteen months before. It seemed a fine and large thing to -have accomplished—the circumnavigation of this great globe in that -little time, and I was privately proud of it. For a moment. Then came -one of those vanity-snubbing astronomical reports from the -Observatory-people, whereby it appeared that another great body of light had lately -flamed up in the remotenesses of space which was traveling at a gait -which would enable it to do all that I had done in a minute and a half. -Human pride is not worth while; there is always something lying in wait -to take the wind out of it. - - -<br><br> - -<br><br> - - -<center> -<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> -<tr><td> - <a href="p6.htm">Previous Part</a> -</td><td> - <a href="2895-h.htm">Main Index</a> - - -</td></tr> -</table> -</center> - -</body> -</html> - - |