CHAPTER XX

ANDAMAN AND COCHIN-CHINA

H.M.S. Sylvia - Sail for China and Japan - Shooting excursion in Trincomali - Migrating elephants - Narrow escape from wild boar - Temple of the Thousand Columns - A Dutch Sappho - Andaman Islands - Singapore and a great Chinaman - French Cochin-China - Marvellous adventures with French officers - Tigers and pythons - Tartarin not in it.

IN the autumn I was appointed First Lieutenant of the Sylvia, a vessel to be employed in the survey of Japan and China. If I had searched the Navy through with the exception of the royal yacht there was nothing I could have wished for more, giving me the chance of seeing two countries I had longed to visit from my boyhood.

The Sylvia was as pretty as her name, more resembling a large yacht than a man-of-war, with large deck-houses for chart work, and a broad bridge for taking astronomical and other observations. The Skipper was an amiable little person who gave himself no trouble about anything under the sun not even his " h's," which he left entirely to look after themselves, popping in and out of his mouth like rabbits in a warren. He was extraordinarily fortunate in his career: beginning as a master's assistant, and being transferred to our line and made Commander very young. The same thing occurred to a brother of his.

332

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MANY WATERS

They had a powerful patron in an Admiral of high social position, and anything was possible in those days.

To carry on the really serious part of the contemplated survey in China and Japan his first assistant had been carefully selected : a remarkable man of indefatigable energy Maxwell by name. There were also several other excellent surveyors under him, men who made their mark later on.

The next four years were amongst the most interesting of my life, visiting unknown islands, from the Atlantic to the Pacific : in the Straits of Malacca, the coasts of Indo-China, the marvels of Japan - still in the hands of the Tycoons - the beautiful Island of Formosa, the vast Chinese rivers, the Portuguese gambling-hells of Macao : Hongkong, Canton, Shanghai - all these places explored, with many others too numerous to mention. As to the ship herself, the Sylvia was conspicuously unfit for her special work, being a bad sailer and worse steamer, cramped for space, and her decks lumbered up with useless guns. It was the old system, which may go on still, for all I know, the hydrographer imploring the Lords of the Admiralty for a ship, the Lords grudgingly consenting to give him half a ship, the other half to be reserved to the fighting Navy, with the result that neither conditions were, or ever could be, satisfactorily fulfilled. Any business man sending out a costly scientific expedition would employ a steamer with plenty of room for everything, and no nonsensical attempt at combining fighting and science. But I need not dilate on this purely professional topic. It is an old-standing evil in the Service, generally productive of much friction between the Officer in command of the Survey and the Admiral on the Station, the first wanting to be left alone, the last wanting to interfere, or ordering him to do regular Service work. Fortunately, however, for us, our Admiral, in China, for a considerable

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MADEIRA

time, was the late " dear old Harry " - Sir Henry Keppel - a man ever kind and judicious, always ready to help any one, if it could be done without encroaching on the interests of his own relations or personal friends. Harry Stephenson, who had always been a great friend of mine, and has remained so - nephew of the Admiral - was his Flag-Lieutenant. He was a most popular man amongst us, with many of the qualities of his uncle extremely pleasant manners and genuine bonhomie. He has since risen to great distinction : become one of the King's personal friends, commanded the Channel Fleet, and is now Black Rod.

* * * * *

After encountering the usual gales of wind in the Channel - without which I never remember to have left the shores of England - we reached Madeira, under sail, and standing in to the anchorage with every hope of a run ashore, were hailed by the health officer to the effect that we should have to pass five days in quarantine.

"Sir," roared the black-faced Portuguee, standing up in the stern of his boat, "you cannot pratique haff for fife days ! "

A brief consultation between the Skipper, Maxwell, and myself, and then the order, "Hard a starboard ! Man the lee braces ! "

And in a minute we are heading for the open sea ; whilst slowly the lofty peaks of this exquisite island sink below the western horizon.

We next touched at the Island of St. Vincent, in the Cape Verd group, the very antipodes of Madeira in regard to vegetation. For the north-east trades blow so continuously and furiously that not a tree or shrub can live in the island : a dreary Inferno of black volcanic mountains and of blistering valleys of sand and scoria ; its inhabitants a multiple cross of Portuguese and West

335

MIGRATING HERD OF ELEPHANTS

African niggers, for ever grimed in coal dust their sole occupation coaling ships.

Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope, was our next stopping-place, and here we were once more in clover, I myself looking up many old friends of bygone days. From there on to Ceylon, an island of fascinating beauty, with its endless variety of trees and shrubs, with forests still teeming with large game.

At Trincomali I had a very pleasant excursion in quest of these last : a new experience for me, and not unproductive of adventure. I engaged a Shikari, recommended to me as a skilful hunter, and, in a native boat, crossed to a little-frequented place in the north-east corner of the bay. We pitched our camp on the side of one of those wonderful tanks whose remains are to be seen throughout Ceylon - stupendous monuments of the industry of bygone ages - twenty or thirty miles in circumference, with stone embankments broad enough on the top for a bullock cart. I had no great luck in finding game, beyond a shot at an elephant, which I must have missed, two or three deer, which I did not, and several hours spent on the track of a panther, which we, however, never overhauled.

In the night there was weird mystery about the jungle that impressed one most forcibly. It was not safe to go far away from one's camp fire, for wild animals were evidently afoot. Then a vast noise - which sent my beaters scampering up trees until the sound died away - was made by a migrating herd of elephants. Though only a sound, the sense of the weight of this moving mass was overpowering whilst the jungle men, creeping back, spent the rest of the night muttering and jabbering amongst themselves. The Shikari who spoke a little English, and was extremely intelligent in making himself understood by signs and pantomime when words failed, crouching in the attitudes of different animals and

336

TRINCOMALI

imitating their cries - told me that at certain times of the year elephants congregate in large herds and migrate to some distant part of the jungle, taking a perfectly straight line, from which nothing can turn them. He said he had often found wild animals that had been trampled to death in their track - bears, hyaenas, leopards, and huge snakes - all of them either caught in their sleep or, hearing the noise of the approaching rush, becoming terror-stricken and unable to move. He also said that he had often seen a particular bull elephant, heading a herd like the one we supposed had passed that night, and that he had a name known through all North Ceylon : that his (the hunter's) father and grandfather had seen him all their lives, and knew him to be more than a hundred years old, whilst many said he was between two and three hundred. Some years previously this great beast with a large herd had charged through the Shikari's own village, leaving scarcely a hut standing, when numbers of people had been crushed to death in the rush.

Next day I had a curious adventure. A large herd of boar had taken possession of a clearing in the jungle, looking for roots in the soft earth, which had been pounded and trampled by the migrating elephants. There must have been fifty or sixty boar roaming about, searching for food, and the Shikari told me that many animals follow in the wake of a rush of elephants, not only root eaters, but beasts of prey, with vultures and other birds, hoping to find something to suit their tastes. I determined to try and get one of these boar, and, making a detour to get to leeward of them, I crawled into the clearing - hiding behind any tufts of long grass that had been left standing - and reaching the fallen trunk of a large tree, discovered, to my delight, that there was a fine large boar within a few yards of my hiding-place.

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ADVENTURE WITH A BOAR

I was so close to him that I could see every bristle on his huge body, and, to my heated imagination, he looked as big as the Boar of Calydon, with an immense head, long tusks, and a fiery red eye. I was not particularly well equipped for big-game shooting, as I had only an ordinary double-barrelled 12-bore gun, with a bullet in one barrel and slug in the other, but I felt sure I could secure the animal, so near was I to him. He had not heard a sound, or scented me, and I took careful aim behind his fore leg and fired. But he must have caught sight of me, for that same instant he wheeled round apparently un wounded and charged, making straight for my log, on which he literally had his fore feet - his terrible tusks almost touching me - when I fired the second barrel right into his open red jaws, blowing off half his muzzle and stopping him dead short. He did not utter a sound, but lay there stone dead. I sprang to my feet, and, being ignorant of the ways of wild pigs, did not know whether I should be attacked by the rest of the herd or not ; so I loaded as rapidly as I could. But I need not have felt alarm, for almost before the echoes of the shots had died out in the jungle, there was not a vestige of a pig to be seen, the entire herd vanishing as completely as if the earth had swallowed them, though squealing and snorting lasted for some minutes. I then examined my game, and was astonished at his size. His body was covered with a kind of close woolly hair, out of which bristles protruded, and enormous tusks curled up over his jaw. My first shot had struck him in the flank, showing me that he had whisked round at the moment I fired, and I attribute to this the fact that he only got his fore feet up on the log and had not strength enough to lift his hindquarters Whatever it was, I had had a very narrow escape.

Next day we shifted camp, taking up our quarters under a vast banyan, in the upper branches of which

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TRINCOMALl

were hundreds of flying foxes - old Australian friends of mine. But I left them in peace, for beyond their smell, which is not pleasant, they are harmless creatures, though I have seen the poor things show desperate fight when wounded. We next visited a great morass frequented by buffalo, but were unfortunate in this quest, for there were none: but I shot a very large crocodile, which was accused, by my Shikari, of having quite recently carried off and eaten a woman who had fallen asleep on her way to her village which lay the other side of the water. I have heard of entire villages being depopulated by a single monster of this kind, and the Shikari told me that he himself knew a place where six or seven persons, chiefly women and children, had disappeared in a very short time, through the ravages of these terrible Saurians.

Trincomali is one of the finest harbours in the world, and of great sacred interest to the Hindus. At one time the magnificent Temple of the Thousand Columns stood on the Saami Rock, a great crag rising three or four hundred feet sheer out of the sea. For centuries before Buddha it was a holy Brahmin shrine, but in time the Buddhists built a shrine here to Siva. Those peaceful colonists, the Portuguese, destroyed this great fane sometime in the seventeenth century. But it is some satisfaction to know that a righteous judgment overtook these bloodthirsty pirates, for their fate in Ceylon was terrible. The spot is still held in extreme veneration by the natives, and an annual pilgrimage, not only from Ceylon but from all parts of the Buddhist world, is made here at a certain time of the year. One of the columns of the temple is always inspected by Europeans. It stands on the very top of the rock, and bears an inscription in memory of an unhappy Dutch girl, Franeina Van Beede, who, like a second Sappho, flung herself into the

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CONVICTS' PARADISE

sea in despair when she saw her faithless lover sailing away in a vessel for Europe. I forget the date ; but it was somewhere in the seventeenth century : after the Dutch had kicked out the Portuguese.

From Ceylon we went to Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands, a convict establishment for our Indian possessions, where, with the usual sentimentality of England, the criminals were better off and happier than they had ever been before, pampered, overfed, and assigned the lightest of tasks : living in comfortable detached huts with their wives - or what passed for them - and their children, with goats, fowls, in fact in luxury and freedom : except that they could not leave the island. A few years after (1872) one of these amiable assassins murdered Lord Mayo, the Viceroy of India, in this same Port Blair. We visited many of this queer group of islands, endeavouring to land on one where the crew of a merchant ship (the Assam Valley) had been murdered, and some said eaten, though it is doubtful if the Andamanese are really cannibals. All we saw was a white man's boot and a boat's painter lying on the beach, and these we could not reach as the surf was too heavy to make landing practicable. In the fringe of forest, separated from the sea by a strip of thirty or forty feet of sand, groups of entirely naked savages were to be seen ; short, black and extremely shiny, their hair partly shaved and sticking up in frizzled tufts, their faces, which we could plainly distinguish with glasses, seemingly of the lowest type of human beings. None of the men were more than five feet high and the women about the same. AJ1 the men carried very large bows and the women sheaves of arrows.

As we could do nothing, and the solitary boot afforded no real evidence against them, we refrained from firing on them, and, returning to the ship, sailed for another

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THE NICOBARS

island, misnamed Barren - for it is exquisitely wooded - resembling Stromboli, in having a large extinct volcanic mountain, whilst springing up in the centre of its crater is a cone, nine hundred feet high, in active eruption, with springs of boiling water pouring out of its base into the sea.

Down through the beautiful Straits of Malacca - sounding for a line of submarine telegraph - and so to Singapore was our next voyage. Here I made the acquaintance of a wealthy Chinaman at whose house I dined several times, in European fashion. His wife and family did not appear on these occasions, though one met them casually about the place. He himself spoke English fluently, and was, one would have thought, greatly influenced by Western ideas. In reality he was absolutely rooted to everything Chinese : believed their civilisation, creeds, mode of life, laws, and literature superior to everything Western, and that his race is destined to over-run the world. It was most interesting to hear these views not only so plainly expressed but so ably defended, based on Chinese Conservatism and the Chinese system in general, which have not stood the strain of five or six thousand years unchanged by mere chance. His house was built on piles in a broad sheet of water where the great leaves of the Victoria Regia - twenty or thirty feet in circumference - spread themselves over its surface. Beautiful ducks, many of wild species but domesticated here, with black and white swans, sailed about in squadrons or came round the projecting balconies of the house to be fed : placid and soothing amusement for those who love these delightful birds. On the border of the lake grew every variety of bamboo, some delicate and feathery, others towering forty feet high, with stems nearly as large as a man's body, their exquisitely graceful fronds reflected in the

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A FRENCH COLONY

water below. In the grounds were all manner of flowering shrubs and exotic plants, whilst scores of tame pheasants and peacocks strutted about, their hoarse calls echoing down the bamboo glades.

Our next halt was in the Camboja River - French Cochin-China - one of the mouths of the mighty Mekong River, which comes into the China Seas after following the most curious course of any river in the world : its sources - two thousand miles away in Tibet - only separated by a short distance from the Brahmaputra which flows into the Western Seas. The Mekong is a wonderful river, too shallow for the lightest craft for many hundred miles, and then for hundreds of miles a cataract, roaring - with deafening noise - through narrow mountain gorges. It had, at that time, never been thoroughly explored - though, in parts, fairly well known - and it was always an unrealised ambition of mine to do so.

With a French pilot on board, we ascended the river to Saigon, the one-time capital of Anam, and now the capital of French Cochin-China. Like every other colony of France, the chief, or rather only, product of it was the fonctionaire. Every man one saw was a naval, military or police official, with the exception of two or three small shopkeepers and about a dozen restaurant proprietors or owners of other places of resort. The town itself is flat, stagnant, and unhealthy, with scarcely any signs of life during the day, and what there was of it at night such as one might expect : the male inhabitants being chiefly French soldiers and sailors, and the female, recruits from the froth of Siam and Anam.

We were treated with great hospitality by the French officers, notably by the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Admiral de la Grandinière, during the few days we were at Saigon. I, myself, went for an excursion with some French officers a little distance up the river,

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THE CAMBOJA RIVER

and it was evident that the inhabitants felt no friendly disposition towards the French. But, if the trip in itself was fairly dull, the narration of the terrible encounters with the wild beasts of the country with which my travelling companions regaled me made up for it, for, from start to finish, my hair stood on end. There were four of these gentlemen, and every one had done deeds which would have immortalised them in any country and at any period of the world's history. Single-handed, and oft-times desperately wounded, these invincible sportsmen had attacked and defeated elephants, the great Cochin-China tiger - strongest and fiercest of his breed - wild buffaloes, boar and panthers: had wrestled with bears, had unwound themselves from the coils of cobra or that python which grows to such an enormous size in Anam. I heard, too, that these frightful beasts of all kinds were evidently in vast numbers within a few miles of Saigon, and that we should not go far before we fell in with them, which was fortunate, as I could only get away for a few hours. It was, therefore, rather disappointing that, as we made our way up the river, close in to the banks, we saw no signs of anything larger or fiercer than some razor-backed pigs, nor did the occasional shots which iny companions fired into the tall grass, serve to dislodge anything except a few natives, who naturally bolted up the banks under the fusillade. But though we saw nothing I was constantly assured that even here - out on the river - we were in some peril, for beasts had been known to swim off and lug men out of boats ; so it was necessary to be careful.

None the less it was with a calm mind - through complete confidence in the prowess and nerve of my friends - that I found myself on landing sallying forth with all four of them on a hunting expedition, with about one hundred Anamese men and women bringing

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DESPERATE TIGER SHOOTING

up the rear, some to act as beaters, others impelled by simple curiosity. As we climbed a long, steep ravine, these people, however, seemed to grow tired of the whole affair and gradually tailed off, until by the time we got to the top there were not twenty left, of whom six were women ; two carrying babies.

"Ils ont peur, les gredins ! " said the Major, the fiercest of all our company, as he looked back, and saw how few followed.

But we - without fear - marched on, for we were armed to the teeth - at least my friends were - with Service rifles and pistols, whilst one had a ship's cutlass in addition hanging down the middle of his back.

We were moving on cautiously, examining every bush big enough to hide a monkey and closely scrutinising the ground for spoors, when suddenly a frantic scream came from the Major - the most advanced of our party.

" On your stomachs ! for the love of God ! On your stomachs ! "

The three Frenchmen nearest me - evidently accustomed to these tactics - instantly obeyed the order, but I was so taken aback by it, or so puzzled at this kind of sport, that I remained standing and looking about. Not a human being was in sight; the shooters and the Anamese lying completely hidden in the long grass. But some two hundred yards above us I saw clouds of dust and stones rolling down, but not a vestige of an animal. So I came to the conclusion that it might have been a small pig, or possibly a native flying for life, who knew that, in a panic, a man may fire at anything. Anyhow, whatever it was, it was gone in a moment, and a great stillness settled down on the ravine : not a living thing stirring. So I shouted out,

" The beast has gone ! Have no fear ! there is no danger! "

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ANAM

Then one by one my companions rose to their knees, peered about cautiously and then got on their feet, when the Major as white as a sheet came back and joined us. He had been within fifty yards of a terrible monster of a tiger, which he saw lying asleep across the mouth of a cave, half hidden by brambles.

" Un tigre ! " gasped another; and I thought the entire party would dissolve into their natural elements. " Pas un vrai tigre? "

" Mais ! oui - un tigre - et de la sorte ! " and he spread his arms to indicate its gigantic size.

" Why didn't you fire, monsieur ? " I asked.

" Moi ! " he cried, slapping himself across the breast. " Moi ! tout seul : tirer sur un tigre ! "

But they all believed he had seen a tiger, except myself, for I felt sure no tiger was within hundreds of miles of the place. Moreover, in some mysterious way, they knew I did not believe a word of his story, though I carefully refrained from saying so. And I felt that the general feeling was against me, first, for holding so light the extreme peril in which their companion had stood ; and, secondly, because I had expected of him the reckless folly of firing at a tiger when out tiger shooting.

" Tirer sur un tigre, tout seul ! " I heard them muttering several times.

That finished the day's sport, but as we trudged back home the Major certainly made up for any lack of decision he may have betrayed, rolling along with a jaunty stride as if tiger-slaying were his ordinary pastime, advancing recklessly in front of us, throwing stones into bushes, clacking his tongue, crying out : " Oh là ! là ! la grosse bête ! Attends moi un peu, que je te flanque une balle dans la tête ! "

Nor is there a shadow of doubt that before night time he verily believed he had done something extraordinarily

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TARTARIN REDIVIVUS

brave, and that somehow, if any one had shown funk, it was I, being too panic-stricken to lie down, whilst he had displayed courage and presence of mind by warning his companions, and by setting the example of flinging himself down on his stomach.

The Anamites struck me as the ugliest and the most unprepossessing of all the Mongolian races, with the flattest noses to be seen outside a monkey-house. They are short and ill-shaped, with a peculiar formation about the hips which makes them walk with a ridiculously comical swagger. They are absolutely lacking in any moral sense and have all the vices and none of the virtues of either their Northern neighbours, the Chinese, or of their Southern neighbours, the Siamese. The women, as a rule, are even uglier than the men. Those we met, both men and women, took great liberties with my French companions, and when I remarked on it to the Major, he said--

"Mais, monsieur! que voulez vous? ce sont des gens qui ne savent pas se gener : surtout les dames ! " which seemed to me self-evident.

Before leaving for Saigon we were petitioned by the natives to go and destroy a gigantic python, which had become the terror of a place about four days' journey from where we were. It was most disappointing to my friends - who, one and all, seemed thirsting for the blood of this particular reptile - that it was imperative that they should return to their leave. So we reluctantly refused the venture and without any further incidents got back to the river, and, on its swift current, soon found ourselves safe once more in Saigon. The last night we spent in Saigon came pretty near being my last anywhere and that of two of my messmates - two of the best fellows that ever sailed - Haslewood and Pat Finlay. We had been going the round of the place with various

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SAIGON: COCHIN-CHINA

adventures, when towards one in the morning we stumbled across a particularly good fellow, chief mate of an English merchant ship lying in the river. He had a ship's boat waiting to take him on board, and was most pressing that we should allow him to put us alongside the Sylvia on his way off. But we thought we would not trouble him as it would take him a little out of his course, and so chartered a sanpan and went off in her. But his boat got athwart hawse some vessel's cable and in the rapid stream capsized. He was drowned and some of his crew as well, for the eddies in that river are miniature maelstroms.

But our departure from Saigon was somewhat hurried by an accident to myself, which I had overlooked, until recently reminded of it by Haslewood. On our way down to the boat that night, my unfortunate propensity for adventure induced me to climb on to a balcony, where I saw lights and heard sounds of revelry. A man came to the window, and somehow or other ran his eye against my stick. There was a frightful row, and a patrol happening to pass at that moment, I was captured and lugged off to the guardroom, my friends following me. The French officer on duty was very civil, and said that of course inquiry would be made next day on board my ship. I knew what this meant a very heavy fine or three months' imprisonment. So Brooker, who was the soul of good nature, on learning all the facts, weighed before daybreak, and we got as fast as we could down the river. I did not feel comfortable until we were well clear of its mouth, where there was a signal station. I have never been in Saigon again.

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