CHAPTER VIII.

TO CALCUTTA.

The "Lancefield "-Entomology-Singapore-First View of Orientals-The ParseesMalays-Garrhees-Proas-Black Water-Torture-Crew of a Ship in the Indian Sea-Jolly Tars-An Indian Watering-place-The Hoogly-Bores-First View of Natives-Hubble-bubble-Fattening Shell-fish for Market.

THE steamer in which I made the passage from China to India was called the "Lancefield," and formed, with the "Fiery Cross," a sister ship, a monthly connection between Calcutta and Hong Kong. Both these boats belonged to an eminent English firm, and their great employment was carrying opium to China, for which purpose they had entirely supplanted the opium sailing clippers, formerly so numerous in the Eastern waters. They had, at that time, and, I suppose, have still, almost a monopoly of this most lucrative traffic. Their cargoes of opium were principally on account of the owners. The "Lancefield" and "Fiery Cross" were iron ships, of the best clipper models, fitted with screws, and most of the wood work was of teak. The cabin accommodations were exceedingly comfortable, the only drawback being the great quantities of centipedes and cock-roaches, which infest all ships in the India trade, but especially those which carry opium. These centipedes are insects, from three to seven inches in length, and shaped a little like the earwig. Their sting is very poisonous, and sometimes causes the loss of a limb-always fever and pain. The cock-roaches look much like the ordinary animal of that name, but are from an inch and a half to three inches long, and have the power of flying. Besides these specimens of the entomological kingdom, to which I had got somewhat accustomed in China, we had, on the "Lancefield," some remarkably fine varieties of monster

spiders. One of the hardest things for an Occidental to endure in the East, is the superabundance of animal life, particularly in the lower grades; and it was a long time before I got used to seeing two or three-inch cock-roaches walking calmly across the table, during dinner, as they do frequently, both in China and India. The annoyance of these beasts on the "Lancefield," was, however, intolerable. If I came down into the cabin, during the evening, it was quite impossible to go from the companion-way to my state-room, without crushing several cock-roaches under foot, and they flew in my face, caught in my hair, and walked up my trowsers during supper, until I was fairly disgusted. I only tried one night to sleep in the cabin. On that occasion, I awoke about midnight, and found a cock-roach on my face, several others about the bed, one or two on the wall, and an immense spider on my pillow. I jumped out of my bunk, dressed myself, and slept that night, and the rest of the passage, on deck. I found the deck cooler than below, and not a much harder bed than the mattrasses of bamboo chips which are mostly used in China. The only trouble was the rain, of which we had more or less the whole passage.

We arrived at Singapore, after a week's passage, on the 5th of October, and remained there twenty-four hours to coal.

Singapore is built on an island, the general surface of which is almost perfectly level, but a little way behind the town the ground rises in hillocks, on the tops of which the merchants have built their country houses or bungalows. The sloping grounds around the bungalows are frequently covered with nutmeg trees.

Singapore consists of three divisions. The first has the greatest resemblance to a city, consisting of large solid houses formerly inhabited by Europeans, and numerous streets of houses in the Indian style. This part of the town is mostly inhabited by Hindoos, Parsees, Malays, &c. There is, besides, the Chinese quarter, built and arranged like a Chinese town, and peopled by several thousand of this enterprising and industrious nation. The residences of the English merchants are in a line along the coast of the bay. They are generally large,

square, unarchitectural buildings, in roomy compounds, shaded by fine trees. As in China and Calcutta, these buildings were generally of brick stuccoed.

The hotel where we stayed was a very large establishment, consisting of three main buildings, and many outhouses in a great compound. We took our meals under a sort of shed in the open air. The servants were all Chinese, who make, I think, the best servants in the world. The house itself was uncomfortable, as are almost all houses in the East, even the best private ones, to people with European ideas. The great size of the apartments, the bare floors of the bed-rooms, the paucity and poverty of the furniture, with the fact that neither the doors nor the windows will close tightly, give a stranger anything but a feeling of comfort. All large houses in the East, are built with an open hall in the centre, to admit of a free passage of air. The rooms open on this hall, the doors of the sleeping apartments not being closed at night, but a curtain being drawn across the lower part instead.

Having been well seasoned by a summer in China, we did not find the heat oppressive at Singapore although it is nearly on the line.

It was at Singapore that I first saw something of oriental as distinguished from Chinese life. The population is, to be sure, one-half composed of Chinese emigrants, but most of the lower classes are Malays, who wear the graceful sarong, and this city is the temporary residence of traders from all parts. of the East, Parsees, Jews, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Indian Moosulmans, and representatives of other nationalities, the picturesqueness and variety of whose costume pleased and surprised me, as I had supposed that most of that show in dress, which we read about and see in pictures, had disappeared. None of these natives appeared to be at all Europeanized, except the Parsees, some of whom wore European trowsers and shoes.

The Parsees are the descendants of the old fire-worshippers of Persia, who were driven from their homes by the Mahommedan conquest, and took refuge in India a thousand years ago. They still follow the religion of Zerdoosht, and the ever

lasting fire, brought with them from Persia, still burns at Bombay, and wherever else they are settled. Their sacred language is still the Zend, and is the tongue in which their prayers are recited. But few, however, even of their priests, understand the liturgy, which, in truth, is very much mutilated, the largest part of it having been lost in their hurried flight from their Moosulman conquerors. Bombay is the chief settlement of this ancient people, and was their first place of refuge, but in late years their commercial enterprise has led them to settle in all the principal oriental ports. They always, however, look upon Bombay as their home, since it is the residence of their women, whom they do not take with them abroad, on account of the unavoidable publicity of travelling in public conveyances. The opium trade is now getting largely into the hands of the Parsees, of whom there are several, both in Shanghae and Canton. Their dress is a long, plain cassock of white cotton in summer, of black cloth in winter. They wear the loose Eastern panjama, or trowser, and a high circular turban, resembling a mitre in shape. They delight in imitating Occidentals in equipage, &c., and generally speak good English. They do not bury their dead, but expose them in towers, on hill tops, to be devoured by birds.

The Malays are a fine athletic race of men, with dark flashing eyes, clothed generally in nothing but an ample skirt which is tucked up behind, and thus made into a kind of trowser.

In all oriental countries some sort of conveyance is always employed, in going about, both on account of the heat and as a protection against the coup de soleil, which is supposed to arise from peculiar properties in the sun's rays quite separate from their heat. In China, I have said that people go about in sedan-chairs; in Singapore, they use, as a substitute, a little four-wheeled carriage, with room in the interior for two only, sitting facing one another. These little traps are called pálkee gárrhees, (the Hindoostanee word for a carriage being gárrhee) and are commonly drawn by one horse, the groom running by his side, as there is generally no box seat for a driver.

The Malay proas deserve the reputation they enjoy for beauty of model and speed. They are generally propelled by

oars, but the largest ones by sails. The evening before we left Singapore two other passengers and myself took one of these proas to go round by water to our steamer, which lay five or six miles from the hotel, and were caught in a tropical storm, which wet us through, and drove us among the coral reefs, where we nearly went to pieces. After escaping from the reefs, we got among the nets and fishing-stakes, which were almost as dangerous, as it continued to blow a gale, and our boat ran half way on the tops of the nets, and being very crank, came near being capsized several times. We got back after a couple of hours, and were heartily thankful to put our feet on terra firma again, although we had to walk six miles, by land, around to the ship, which started at six the next morning.

Singapore is a British settlement, and has only become a place of importance since the British occupation. It is under the jurisdiction of the East India Company, and is used by them as a convict settlement. I saw several chain-gangs of Indian convicts working on the roads. Transportation is in India a favourite penalty, since it is regarded by the natives as the most terrible of all punishments. By the religion of the Hindoos, all caste is lost by leaving India. The high caste Sepoys of the Bengal army have on several occasions mutinied rather than break through this rule of their religion, which forbids their leaving India-a rule the infringement of which is punished, according to their belief, by the perdition of the offender and of his ancestors and descendants for seven generations. For this and other reasons, "kala pánee" (black water), as the natives call transportation across the leaden sea, is looked upon as the last misfortune, and a calamity to which death is infinitely preferable.

During my stay in Singapore I went into the Court of Justice, and saw the judge in the same hot scarlet robe which is worn in England. He looked as if etiquette would be the death of him. In Australia, the judges wear the wig, and not the gown; in India, they wear the close robe and no wig: which of the two is the more oppressive, I suppose no one but the sufferers themselves can tell.