From Pole To Pole Sven Hedin

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FROM POLE TO POLE
o.
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

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•
MELBOURNE
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THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO
1)1 <. SVEN HEDIN IN TIBETAN DRESS.
Frontispiei e.
FROM
POLE TO POLE
A BOOK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
• BY
SVEN HEDIN
M \CMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
19 I 2
COPYRIGHT
57
H35f
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Tins translation of Dr. Sven Hedin's Fran
Pol till Pol has, with the author's per-
mission, been abridged and edited for the

use of English-speaking- young people.
lCjajfWR
—
CONTENTS
PART I
Across Europe — page
....
I.
Stockholm to Berlin
....-4
. . .
i
.
Berlin
Berlin to Constantinople 8
Constantinople . . • • l 3
The Church of the Divine Wisdom . 15
The Bazaars of Stambul . .

• .20
II. Constantinople to Teheran (19° 5)—
The Black Sea . . .
• .26
Trebizond to Teheran . . • 29
III. Through the Caucasus, Persia, and Mesopotamia

(1885-6)—
Across Persi \
Arabia
....
St. Petersburg to Baku
...
. •
.
-34
-
.
37
40
Baghdad to Teheran . • 42
IV. The Persian Desert (1906)
Across the Kevir . . • •

46
The oasis of Tei bes . 5 1
V. On the Kirghiz Steppe (1893-5)—

Into Asia from Orenburg. . . -55
Samarcand and Bukhara . . -59
The Pamir . . .
• • .62
"The Father of Ice-Mountains • 66
A Kirghiz Gymkhana . • • -69
vii
— 1
Vlll FROM POLE TO POLE

VI. From Persia to India (1906)- PAGE
Tebees to Seistan . 72
A Baluchi Raid 75
Scorpions 80
The Indus .
82
Kashmir and Ladak 87
VII. Eastern Turkestan (1895)

The Takla-makan Desert .
Across a Sea of Sand 90

The End of the Caravan .
93
Water at Last 97
VIII. The Desert Waterway (1899)—
The Tarim ....

Down the Yarkand River
The Wandering Lake

102
105
107
Wild Camels 109
IX. In the Forbidden Land (1901-2, 1906-8)-

The Plateau of Tibet 1 1
Attempt to reach Lhasa . 115

The Tashi Lama 1 24
Wild Asses and Yaks 126
X. India —
From Tibet to Simla 130
Delhi and Agra 131
Benares and Brahminism . '34

The Light of Asia . 137
Bombay 141
The Useful Plants of India 142

Wild Elephants '45
The Cobra . 148
XI. From India to China (1908) —

The Indian Ocean . 152
The Sunda Islands '53
Penang and Singapori ,56
Up the China Sea . 157
XII. China —
To Shanghai 161
"The Middle Kingdom " . 164

—
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE I'.i.n Kivi i: 169
In Nor mi i rn Chin * 1 72
Mongolia I76
Marco POLO . 179
XIII. Japan (1908)

Nagasaki vnd K< u i
.8 S
Fujiyama and Tokio I90

NikkOj Xaka, and Kioto '93
XIV. Back to Europe-

Kori \ 197
Manchuria . 199
Tin. Trans-Siberian Railway 202
The Volga and Moscow 207
St. Petersburg and Home 2 IO
PART II
I. Stockholm to Egypt —
To London and Paris 215
Napoleon's Tomb 218
Paris to Komi:
The Eternal City .
Pompeii 129
II. Africa —
General Gordon 236
The Conqui st of i he Si dan 247
Ostriches 250
Baboons 252
The Hippopotamus 2 5 3
Man-eating Lions 256
David Livingstone 261
How Stanley found Livingstone -75

The I >ea 1 M < if Li\ ingst< ine 2S2
Stanley' Greai J01 rney
i . 287
Timbuktu and the Sahar \ 297
x FROM POLE TO POLE
III. North America — PAGE
The Discovery of the New World . . 306

New York . . . . • 3^7
Chicago and the Great Lakes . . . 326
Through the Great West . . .
333
IV. South America —

The Inca Empire . . . . 341
The Amazons River . . . .
351
V. In the South Seas —

Albatrosses and Whales
Robinson Crusoe's Island ....
....
. . . 358
362
VI.
Across the Pacific Ocean
Across Australia
The North Polar
.....
Regions —
365
372
and the North-West Passage
Nansen ......
Sir John Franklin
The Voyage of the "Vega
VII. The South Polar Regions ....

"
. . .
377
386
392
404
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACI
I.
II.
Dr.
Berlin
Sven Hedin
Constantinople
....in Tibetan Dress Frontispiece
'3
III. Oil-Well at Balakhani • 36
IV. A Persian Caravanserai 43

V.
VI. Tcbbes
VII. A Baluchi
....
The Author's Riding Camel,
Nomad Tent
with Gulam Ilu 46
5i
76
VIII. Srinagar and the Jhelum River 87
IX. Digging for Water in the Takla-makan 94

X. The Author's Boat on the Yarkand River 102
XI. Tashi-lunpo. '-5
XII. Simla 131
XIII. The Taj Mahal

XIV. Benares
XV. Tame Elephants and
.... their Drivers .
'34
136
•47
XVI. On the Canton River '59
XVII. The Great Wall of China . .65
XVIII. Gate in the Walls of Peking 176
XIX. A
XX. Fujiyama
XXI. The Great Buddha
....
Japanese Ricksha
at Kamakura
189
190
192
XXII. A Sedan-Chair in Seoul . . 199

XXI II. The Kremlin, Moscow 208
FROM POLE TO POLE
PLATE FACE PAGE
XXIV. Paris . • • • 216
XXV. Xapoleon's Tomb . 219
XXVI. The Colosseum, Rome 228
XXVII. Pompeii 233

XXVIII. The Great Pyramids at Ghizeh 233
XXIX. A Hippopotamus 254

XXX. The Fight on the Congo 294
XXXI. A Group of Beduins . 300
XXXII. " Sky-Scrapers" in New York 323

XXXIII. Niagara Falls 33*
XXXIV. Canons on the Colorado River 339

XXXV. Cotopaxi 344
XXXVI. Indian Huts on the Amazons River 353
XXXVII. A Coral Strand 369
XXXVIII. Country near Lake Eyre 373
"
XXXIX. The " Fram 393
LIST OF MAPS
l A.CB
i. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Berlin . . 2
2. Map showing journey from Berlin to Constantinople . 10
3. Plan of Constantinople . . . . 13
4. Map showing journey from Constantinople to Teheran, latter
part of journey to Baku, and journey from Baku across

Persia to Baghdad and back to Teheran . . 30
5. Map showing journey from Orenburg to the Pamir . . 56
6. Map showing journey from Teheran to Baluchistan . .

73
7. Map of Northern India, showing rivers and mountain ranges 82
8. Map of Eastern Turkestan . . . . .90

9. Tibet . . . . . . .112
10. Map of India, showing journey from Nushki to Leh, and
journey from Tibet through Simla, etc., to Bombay . 132
11. The Sunda Islands . . . . .154

12. Map showing voyage from Bombay to Hong Kong . .158
13. Map of Northern China and Mongolia . . .174
14. Map showing journey from Shanghai through Japan and
Korea to Dalny . . . . .186

15. The Trans-Siberian Railway . . . 203
16. Map showing journey from Stockholm to Paris . .216
17. Map showing journey from Paris to Alexandria . . 230
18. Map of North-Eastern Africa, showing Egypt and the Sudan 237
19.
20. North-West Africa ......

Livingstone's Journeys in Africa
xiii
. . 262
29S
FROM POLE TO POLE
TAGI*
2 i. Toscanelli's Map 308
22. North America 325
23. South America 343

24. The South Seas 366
25. The North Polar Regions 378

26. The South Polar Regions 405
PART I
XV
ACROSS EUROPE
Stockholm to Berlin
Our journey begins at Stockholm, the capital of my native
country. Leaving Stockholm by train in the evening, we
travel all night in comfortable sleeping-cars and arrive next
morning at the southernmost point of Sweden, the port of
Trelleborg, where the sunlit waxes sweep in from the Baltic
Sea.
Here we might expect to have done with railway travelling,
and we rather look for the guard to come and open the
carriage doors and ask the passengers to alight. Surely it is
not intended that the train shall go on right across the sea ?
Yet that is actually what happens. The same train and
the same carriages, which bore us out of Stockholm yesterday
evening, go calmly across the Baltic Sea, and we need not get
out before we arrive at Berlin. The section of the train which
is to go on to Germany is run by an engine on to a great
ferry-boat moored to the quay by heavy clamps and hooks of

iron. The rails on Swedish ground are closely connected
with those on the ferry-boat, and when the carriages are pushed
on board by the engine, they are fastened with chains and
hooks so that they may remain quite steady even if the vessel
begins to roll. As the traveller lies dozing in his compart-
ment, he will certainly hear whistles and the rattle of iron
gear and will notice that the compartment suddenly becomes
quite dark. But only when the monotonous groaning and the
constant vibration of the wheels has given place to a gentle
and silent heaving will he know that he is out on the Baltic
Sea.
We are by no means content, however, to lie down and
IE i B
2 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
doze. Scarcely have the carriages been anchored on the ferry-

boat before we are on the upper deck with its fine promenade.
The ferry-boat is a handsome vessel, 370 feet long, brand-new
and painted white everywhere. It is almost like a first-class
hotel. In the saloon the tables are laid, and Swedish and
German passengers sit in groups at breakfast. There are
separate rooms for coffee and smoking, for reading and
writing; and we find a small bookstall where a boy sells guide-
Scale, 1 : 10.750,000
EnglishMUes
o 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Longitude East 16 of Greenwich

EmeryWalker sc
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN.
books, novels, and the Swedish and German newspapers of

the day.
The ferry-boat is now gliding out of the harbour, and
every minute that passes carries us farther from our native
land. Now the whole town of Trelleborg is displayed before
our eyes, its warehouses and new buildings, its chimneys and
the vessels in the harbour. The houses become smaller, the
land narrows down to a strip on the horizon, and at last there
is nothing to be seen but a dark cloud of smoke rising from
the steamers and workshops. We steam along a fairway rich

in memories, and over a sea which has witnessed many
,
STOCKHOLM TO BERLIN 3
wonderful exploits and marvellous adventures. Among the

wreckage and fragments at its bottom sleep vikings and other
heroes who fought for their country but to-day peace reigns
;
over the Baltic, and Swedes, Danes, Russians, and Germans

share in the harvest of the sea. Yet still, as of yore, the
autumn storms roll the slate -grey breakers against the
shores and still on bright summer days the blue waves
;
glisten, silvered by the sun.

Four hours fly past all too quickly, and before we have
become accustomed to the level expanses of the sea a strip of
land appears to starboard. This is Rugen, the largest island
of Germany, lifting its white chalk cliffs steeply from the sea,
like surf congealed into stone. The ferry-boat swings round
in a beautiful curve towards the land, and in the harbour of
Sassnitz its rails are fitted in exactly to the railway track on
German soil. We hasten to take our seats in the carriages,
for in a few minutes the German engine comes up and draws
the train on to the land of Riigen.
The monotonous grind of iron on iron begins again, and
the coast and the ferry-boat vanish behind us. Riigen lies as
flat as a pancake on the Baltic Sea, and the train takes us
through a landscape which reminds us of Sweden. Here grow
pines and spruces, here peaceful roe-deer jump and roam about
without showing the slightest fear of the noise of the engine
and the drone of the carriages.
Another ferry takes us over the narrow sound which
separates Riigen from the mainland, and we see through the
window the towers and spires and closely-packed houses of
Stralsund. Every inch of ground around us has once been
Swedish. In this neighbourhood Gustavus Adolphus landed
with his army, and in Stralsund Charles XII. passed a year of
his adventurous life.
In the twilight the train carries us southwards through

Pomerania, and before we reach Brandenburg the autumn
evening has shrouded the North German lowland in darkness.
The country is flat and monotonous not a hill, hardly even
;
an insignificant mound, rises above the level expanse. Yet

the land has a peculiar attraction for the stranger from
Sweden. He thinks of the time when Swedish gun-carriages
splashed and dashed through the mud before the winter frost
made their progress still more difficult and noisy. He thinks
of heroic deeds and brave men, of early starts, and horses
neighing with impatience at the reveille of victories and
;
honourable peaces, and of the captured flags at home.

4 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . i
If he is observant he will find many other remembrances
in the North German low country. Boulders of Swedish

granite lie scattered over the plain. They stand out like
milestones and mark the limits of the extension of the
Scandinavian inland ice. During a colder period of the
world's history all northern Europe was covered with a coat of
ice, and this period is called the Ice Age. No one knows why
the ice embraced Scandinavia and the adjacent countries and
swept in a broad stream over the Baltic Sea. And no one
knows why the climate afterwards became warmer and drier,
and forced the ice to melt away and gradually to leave the
ground bare. But we know for a fact that the boulders in
northern Germany were carried there on the back of an
immense ice stream, for they are composed of rocks which
occur only in Scandinavia. The ice tore them away from the
solid mountains ; during its slow movement southwards it
carried them with it, and when it melted the blocks were left
on the spot.
At last points of light begin to flash by like meteors in the
night. They become more and more numerous, and finally
come whole rows and lamps and lighted
clusters of electric
windows. We are passing through the suburbs of a huge
city, one of the largest in the world and the third largest in
—
Europe Berlin.
Berlin
we spread out on the table a map of Europe on which
If
all the railways are indicated by black lines, the map will
look like a net with irregular meshes. At all the knots are
towns, large centres of population which are in constant com-
munication with one another by means of the railways. If
we fix our eyes on North Germany, we see what looks like an
enormous spider's web, and in the middle of it sits a huge
spider. That spider is called Berlin. For as a spider catches
its prey in an ingeniously spun net, so Berlin by its railways
draws to itself life and movement not only from Germany but
—
from all Europe nay, from the whole world.
If we could fly some hundreds of miles straight up into the
air and had such sharp eyes that we could perceive all the
coasts and boundaries of Europe, and plainly distinguish the
fine lines of the railways, we should also see small, dark,
short forms running backwards and forwards along them.
We should see, as it were, a teeming ant-hill, and after every
"
i
BERLIN 5
ant we should see a small puff of smoke. In Scandinavia

and Russia the bustle would seem less lively, but in the
centre of Europe the ants would scurry about with terrible
activity.
Whether it was winter or summer, clay or night, the
bustle would never grow less. From our elevated point of
view we should see innumerable trains flying in the night like
glow-worms in every direction. Ceaselessly they rush between
cities and states, between the sea-coast and the inland districts,
and to and from the heart of Europe. For during the last
twenty years Berlin has become the heart of Europe. London
is situated on an island, and Paris is too near the margin of
the Continent. But in Berlin several of the greatest railway

routes meet, and whether the traveller goes from Paris to St.
Petersburg, from Stockholm to Rome, or from Hamburg to
Vienna, he has always to pass through Berlin.
In the city which is "the heart of Europe" we must
expect to find the main thoroughfares crowded with foot-
passengers of all nationalities, and vehicles of every conceiv-
able kind —motor cars, electric trams, horse omnibuses, vans,
cabs, carts, and so on. Yet in spite of their endless streams
—
of traffic, the streets of Berlin are not noisy not nearly so
—
noisy as those of Stockholm for they are paved with asphalt
and wood, and most of the conveyances have rubber tyres on
their wheels. As in other large cities, the streets are relieved
of a great deal of traffic by trains which run right through the
town and round its suburbs, either up in the air on viaducts,
or underground in tunnels lighted by electricity. At the
Frederick Street Station of the City Railway, which lies in
the centre of the town, a train arrives or departs every other
minute of the day and of a good part of the night as well.
— —
Not far off is a square the " King's Place " where a
monument to commemorate the victory of the Germans over
the French, in 1871, lifts its spire above the city, with three
rows of cannon captured in France in its recesses. Close
at hand, too, are the shady walks in the "Tiergarten
(Park), where all Berlin is wont to enjoy itself on Sundays.
When we turn eastwards, we have to pass through a great
colonnade, the Brandenburg Gate, with Doric pillars support-
ing the four-horsed chariot of the goddess of victor}- in
beaten copper. Here the German army entered Berlin after
the conquest of France and the founding of the German
Empire.
On the farther side of this eate stretches one of the most
noted streets Europe.

in For if Berlin is the heart of
Germany, so the street called " Unter den Linden " (Under
is
the Lime-Trees) the centre and heart of Berlin. There are,
indeed, streets which are longer, for this extends only two-
thirds of a mile, but hardly any which are broader, for it is
66 yards across. Between its alternate carriage-roads and
foot-walks four double rows of limes and chestnuts introduce
a refreshing breath of open country right into the bosom of
the great town of stone, with its straight streets and heavy,
grey square houses. As we wander along " Unter den
Linden " we pass the foreign embassies and the German
government offices, and, farther on, the palace of the old
Kaiser Wilhelm, which is unoccupied and has been left exactly
as was in his lifetime. He used to stand at a corner window
it
on the ground floor, and look out at his faithful people.

It is now just noon. Splendid carriages and motor cars
sweep past, and the crush of people on the pavements is
great. We hear the inspiriting music of a military band, and
the Imperial Guard marches down the street, followed by
crowds of eager sightseers. Keeping time with the music we
march with them past the great Royal Library to where
Frederick the Great looks down from his tall bronze horse on
the children of to-day. On the one side is the Opera House,
on the other is the University, with its ten thousand students,
and farther on the Arsenal, with its large historical collections
"
of engines of war. We
cross over the " Schlossbriicke
(Palace Bridge), which throws its arch over the River Spree,
and follow the parade into the " Lustgarten " (Pleasure
Garden). The band halts at the foot of the statue of Frederick
William III. and the people crowd round to listen, for now
one piece is played after another. Thus the good citizens
of Berlin are entertained daily.
There are several noteworthy buildings round the Lust-
garten, among them many art museums and picture galleries,
as well as the Cathedral and the Royal Palace (Plate L).
It looks very grand, this palace, though it does not stand, as
it should, in the middle of a great open space, but is hemmed
in by the streets around it.

Perhaps it would interest you to hear about a ball at the
Imperial Court of Germany. At the stroke of nine our
carriage drives in under the archway of the Palace. The
carpeted staircases are lined by " Beef-eaters," in old-fashioned
uniforms, as motionless as if they were cast in wax. They
do not turn even their eyes as the guests pass, much less
i BERLIN 7
their heads. Now we are up in the state rooms, and move

slowly over the brightly polished floor through a suite of
brilliant apartments glittering with electric light. Pictures of
the kings of Prussia stand out against the gilt leather tapestry.
At last we reach the great throne-room, which takes its name
from the black eagles on the ceiling.
What a varied scene awaits us here Great ladies in costly
!
dresses adorned with precious stones of great value, diamonds

flashing and sparkling wherever we look, generals and
admirals in full dress, high officials, ambassadors from foreign
lands, including those of China- and Japan. Here comes a
great man to whom all bow ; it is the Imperial Chancellor.
Chamberlains now request the guests to range themselves

along the walls of the throne-room. A herald enters and
strikes his silver staff against the floor, calling out aloud " His
Majesty the Emperor " All is silent as the grave. Followed
!
by the Empress, the princes and princesses, William II. passes

through the room and greets his guests with a manly hand-
shake. He begins with the ladies and then passes on to the
gentlemen and speaks to every one. The Swedish Minister
presents me, and the Emperor begins immediately to ask
about Asia. He speaks of Alexander's great campaign
through the whole of western Asia, and expresses his
astonishment that a man's name can live with undiminished
renown through two thousand years. He points to the
eagles on the ceiling, and asks if I do not see a resemblance
to the Chinese dragon. He talks of Tibet and the Dalai
Lama, and of the great stillness in the heart of the desert.
Soon the orchestra strikes up and the guests begin to
dance. The only one who seems unconcerned is the Emperor
himself. An expression of deep seriousness lies like a mask
on his powerful face. Is it not enough to be the Emperor of
the German federation, with its four kingdoms, Prussia,
Bavaria, Saxony, and WLirtembcrg, its six grand duchies, its
many duchies and electorates, its imperial territory, Alsace-
Lorraine, and its three free towns, Hamburg, Liibeck, and
Bremen ? Does he not rule over sixty-five million people,
over 207 towns of more than 25,000 inhabitants, and seven
of more than half a million, namely Berlin, Hamburg, Munich,
Dresden, Leipzig, Brcslau, and Cologne ? Has he not by the
force of his own will created a fleet so powerful as to arouse
uneasiness in England, the country which has the sole
command of the sea? And is he not the commander-in-chief
of an army which, on a war footing, is as large as the whole
8 FROM POLE TO POLE ft. i
population of Scotland? All this might well make him

serious.
Berlin to Constantinople
The next stage of our journey is from Berlin to Vienna,
the capital of Austria. The express train carries us rapidly
southward through Brandenburg. To the west we have the
Elbe, which flows into the North Sea at Hamburg while ;
to the cast streams the Oder, which enters the Baltic Sea at
Stettin. But we make closer acquaintance only with the
Elbe, first when we pass Dresden, the capital of Saxony,
and again when we have crossed the Austrian frontier into
Bohemia, where in a beautiful and densely- peopled valley
clothed with trees the railway follows the windings of the
stream. When the guard calls out at a large and busy station
" Prague," we are sorry that we have no time to stay a few
days and stroll through the streets and squares of one of the
finest and oldest towns of Europe. The engine's whistle
sounds again and the train carries us swiftly onwards to
Vienna, the capital of the Emperor Francis Joseph, who alone
is more remarkable than all the sights of the city.
Vienna is a fine and wealthy city, the fourth in Europe,
and, like Berlin, is full of centres of human civilisation, science
and art. Here are found relics of ancient times beside the
grand palaces of the present day, the " Ring " is one of the
finest streets in the world, and the tower of St. Stephen's
Church rises up to the sky above the two million inhabitants
of the town. Vienna to a greater extent than Berlin is a
town of pleasure and merry genial life, a grand old aristocratic
town, a town of theatres, concerts, balls, and cafes. The
Danube canal, with its twelve bridges, passes right through
Vienna, and outside the eastern outskirts the Danube itself,
in an artificial bed, rolls its dark blue waters with a melodious
murmur, providing an accompaniment to the famous Viennese
waltzes.
If Vienna is, then, one of the centres of human knowledge
and refinement, and if there are a thousand wonderful things
to behold within its walls, yet it contains nothing more
remarkable than the old Emperor. Not because he is so old,
or because he still survives as one of the last of an almost
extinct generation, but because by his august personality he
keeps together an empire composed of many different
countries, races, and religious sects. Fifty millions of people
i BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE 9
are ranged under his sceptre. There are Germans in Austria,
Chechs in Bohemia, Magyars in Hungary, Polacks in Galicia,
and a crowd of other peoples nay, even Mohammedans
; live
under the protection of the Catholic throne.
has abounded in cares and vicissitudes.
II is life He has
lived through wars, insurrections, and revolutions, and with
skill and tact has held in check all the contending factions
which have striven and are still striving to rend asunder his
empire. It is difficult to imagine the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy without him. With him it perhaps stands or falls ;
therefore there is no one in the present day whose life is of

greater importance to humanity. He has been the object of
murderous attempts his wife was assassinated, his only son
:
perished by a violent death. He is now eighty-two years old,

and he has worn the imperial crown for sixty-four years.
Since 1867 he has been king of Hungary. During his reign
the industry, trade, agriculture, and general prosperity of his
dominions have been enormously developed. And the most
remarkable of all is that he still carries his head high, is
smart and upright, and works as hard as a labourer in the
Danube valley.
The Hungary are still more closely
fortunes of Austria and
united with and dependent on the great river Danube.
Certainly in the north we have the Elbe and the Dniester, and
in the south several small rivers which enter the Adriatic Sea.
But otherwise all the rivers of the monarchy belong to the
Danube, and collect from all directions to the main stream.
The Volga is the largest river of Europe and has its own sea,
the Caspian. The Danube is the next largest and has also
its sea, the Black Sea. Its source is also "black," for it
takes its rise in the mountains of the Black Forest in Baden,
and from source to mouth it is little short of 1800 miles.
The Danube flows through Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary,
forms the boundary between Rumania and Bulgaria, and
touches a small corner of Russian territory. It has sixty
great tributaries, of which more than half are navigable. Step
by step the volume of the main stream is augmented. We
can see that for ourselves on our way through Europe. At
Budapest, which is cut in two by the river, and where five
handsome bridges connect the banks, we seem almost to
be on a lake. The Elizabeth Bridge has a span of 950 feet,
farther down, on the frontier of Wallachia, the river is
nearly two-thirds of a mile wide but here the current is
;
slow creeks of stagnant water arc formed, and marshes

;
IO FROM POLE TO POLE
extend far along the banks. And at the point where the
Rumanian railway crosses the Danube, we find at Cherno-
vodsk a bridge over the river which is nearly i\ miles long
and is the longest in all the world. Not far from here
the waters of the Danube part into three arms and form a
broad delta at the mouth. There grow dense reeds, twice as
high as a man, on which large herds of buffaloes graze, where
wolves still seek their prey, and where water-fowl breed in
SE R-Xfe I h '
^'"(JR
•!.
•-•.
1N4 BULGAR L&3 \
cL
W&— >;
,/yjstAntinoDL
-*5y'Coiist,nritinopL
Emery Walker sc.
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE.
millions. If we look carefully at the map, we shall see that

Central Europe occupied mostly by the Danube valley,
is
and that this valley, with its extensive lowlands, is bounded

by the best-known mountains of Europe in the north by ;
the mountains of South Germany and Bohemia and the

Carpathians, in the south by the Alps and the mountains of
the Balkan Peninsula.
From Budapest the train takes us over the Hungarian
plain, a very singular country, like a trough, for it is sur-
rounded by mountains on all sides. There is abundance of
, BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE i i
rain, especially up on the mountain slopes. The winter is
cold and the summer warm, always the case in countries

as is
far removed from the sea. Dust and sand storms are common,
and in some parts blown sand collects into dunes. Formerly
the Hungarian lowland was a fertile steppe, where Magyar
nomads roamed about on horseback and tended their cattle
and their enormous flocks of sheep. But now agriculture is
extended more and more. Wheat, rye, barley, maize, rice,

potatoes, and wine arc produced in such quantities that they
are not only sufficient for the country's needs, but also main-
tain a considerable export trade. Round the villages and
homesteads grow oaks, elms, lime-trees, and beeches poplars ;
and willows arc widely distributed, for their light seeds are
carried long distances by the wind. But in the large steppe
districts where marshes are so common the people have no
other fuel but reeds and dried dung.
Cattle-raising has always been an important occupation in
Hungary. The breed of cows, oxen, and buffaloes is con-
tinually being improved by judicious selection, and all kinds
of sheep, goats, and pigs are kept in great numbers, while the
rearing of fowls, bee-keeping, the production of silk from silk-
worms, and the fishing industry are also highly developed.
To the nomads, who wander from one locality to another
with their herds, horses are necessary, and it is therefore
quite natural that Hungary should be rich in horses —
splendid
animals of mixed Tatar and Arabian blood.
This country, where all wealth grows and thrives, and
where the land, well and uniformly watered, contributes in
such a high degree to the well-being of man, is flat and
monotonous when viewed from the train. We
see herds with
their mounted herdsmen, we see villages, roads and cottages,
but these do not give us any very clear conception of the
country. Therefore it is advisable to spend a few hours in
the agricultural exhibition at Budapest, where we can see the
most attractive models illustrating Hungarian rural life, from
pastures and farmyards to churned butter and manufactured
cheeses, from the. silk-worm in the chrysalis to the valuable
silken web. We can see the life of farmers in the country
homesteads, in simple reed huts or tents, the various crops they
grow on their fields, the yellow honeycombs taken from the
hives in autumn, tanned leather and the straps, saddles, and
trunks that are made of it. We
can see the weapons,
implements, and spoil of the Hungarian hunter and fisherman,
and when we come out of the last room wc realise that this
country is wisely and affectionately nursed by its people, and
therefore gives profit and prosperity in exchange.

With unabated speed the train rushes on over the plain,
and at length rattles across a bridge over the Danube into
Belgrade, the capital of Servia. Here we bid good-bye to the
Danube and follow the Morava valley upwards. The Servian
villages of low white houses, with pyramidal roofs of tiles or
thatch, are very pretty and picturesquely built ; and above
them, green heights, wooded slopes, flocks and herds, and
peasants in bright - coloured motley clothes following the
plough. Small murmuring brooks dance in merry leaps
down to the Morava, and the Morava itself flows to the
Danube. We are still in the drainage basin of this river,
and, when we have crossed the whole of Servia, passed over
a fiat mountain ridge and left Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria,
behind us and have come to another stream, even this is one
of the affluents of the Danube.
During a large part of our journey we are therefore
strongly impressed by this mighty stream, and perceive that
it is a condition of existence to whole peoples and States.
—
Innumerable boats navigate its channel from rowing-boats,
ferries, and barges to steamers of heavy freight. They main-
tain communication between the series of towns with walls
and houses reflected in the gliding water. Their wharves are
frequently in connection with trains and many railways have
;
been built with an eye to the traffic on the Danube. In early

times, when the migrations of people from the east streamed
over Europe, the Danube valley was generally utilized and ;
still at the present day the river affords an advantageous

channel of communication between the western and eastern
parts of the Continent.
Night jealously conceals from our eyes the kingdom of
Bulgaria, as we travel through its southern part along the
river Maritza, which flows southwards. We do not leave its
valley until we are beyond the Turkish frontier and Adrianople.
Here we are in the broadest part of the Balkan Peninsula ;
and amidst the regular swaying of the train we lie thinking

of the famous Balkan lands which extend to the south-
Albania, with its warlike people among its mountains and
dales Macedonia, the country of Alexander the Great Greece,
; ;
in ancient times the centre of learning and art. When day

dawns we are in Turkey, and the sun is high when the train
comes to a standstill in Constantinople.
CONSTANTINOPLE '3
Constantinople
From the highest platform of the lofty tower which i
from the square in the centre of the promontory of Stambul

a wonderful view can be obtained of the city and its surround-
ings— a singular blending of great masses of houses and
glittering sheets of blue water. Stambul is the Turkish
quarter. It consists of a sea of closely-built wooden houses of
many colours. Out of the confusion rise the graceful spires
of minarets and the round domes of mosques (Plate II.). Just
Esjery U'iltcr sc.
PLAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
below your feet is the great —

bazaar the merchants' town and ;
farther off is Sophia, the principal mosque.

St. Like Rome,
the city is built on seven hills. In the valleys between, shady
trees and gardens have found a site. Far to the west are
seen the towers on the old wall of Stambul.
Before you to the north, on the point of a blunt pro-
montory, stand the two quarters called Galata and Pera.
There Europeans dwell and there are found Greeks and
Italians, Jews and Armenians, and other men of races living
*n the adjacent countries —in the Balkan Peninsula, in Asia
.vlinor and Caucasia.
Between this blunt peninsula and Stambul an inlet runs
north-westwards deep into the land. Its name is the Golden

Horn, and over its water priceless treasures have from time
immemorial been transported in ships.
Turn to the north-east. There you see a sound varying
little in breadth. Its surface is as blue as sapphire, its shores
are crowned by a whole chaplet of villages and white villas
among luxuriant groves. This sound is the Bosporus, and
through it is the way to the Black Sea. Due east, on the other
side of the Bosporus, Scutari rises from the shore to the top of
low hills. Scutari is the third of the three main divisions of
Constantinople. You stand in Europe and look over the
great city intersected by broad waterways and almost forget
that Scutari is situated in Asia.
Turn to the south. Before your eyes lies the Sea of
Marmora, a curious sheet of water which is neither a lake
nor a sea, neither a bay nor a sound. It is a link between
the Black and Aegean Seas, connected by the Bosporus with
the former, and by the Dardanelles, the Hellespont, with the
latter. The Sea of Marmora is 130 miles long. Seven miles
to the south the Princes' Islands float on the water like airy
gardens, and beyond in the blue distance are seen the
mountains of Asia Minor.
You will acknowledge that this view is very wonderful.
Your eyes wander over two continents and two seas. You
are in Europe, but on the threshold of Asia and when you
;
look down on the Turks swarming below, and at the graceful

white boats darting across the sound, you may almost fancy
that you are in Asia rather than in Europe. You will also
notice that this fairway is an important trade route. Innumer-
able vessels pass daily through the Bosporus to the coasts of
Bulgaria, Rumania, Russia, and Asia Minor, and as many
out through the Dardanelles to Greece and the Archipelago
and to the coasts of the Mediterranean.
Close beneath you all the colours and outlines are distinct.
The water of the Bosporus is vividly blue, and the villas
dazzlingly white. On the Asiatic side stand woods of dark-
green cypresses, and outside the western wall Turks slumber
in the deepest shade cypresses, indeed, are the watchmen of
;
the dead. And all round the horizon this charming landscape
passes into fainter and lighter tones, light -blue and grey.
You cannot perceive clearly where the land ends and sea and
sky begin. But here and there the white wings of a sailing
vessel flutter or a slight puff of smoke floats above a steamer.
A continuous murmur reaches your ears. It is not wind,
, CONSTANTINOPLE 15
nor the song of waves. It is the combined voice of nature
and human labour. It is like the buzzing round a beehive.

Now and then you distinguish the cry of a porter, the bell of
a tramcar, the whistle of a steamer, or the bark of a dog. But,
as a rule, all melt together into a single ound. It is the
ceaseless noise that always hovers over the chimneys of a

great city.
The Church of the Divine Wisdom

Let us now go down to the great mosque on the point.
On the top of the principal dome we see a huge gilded crescent.
This has glittered up there for 450 years, but previously the
cupola was adorned by the Christian Cross. How came the
change about ?
Let us imagine that we are standing outside the church
and let the year be 548 A.D. One of the finest temples of
Christendom has just been completed by the first architect of his
time from Asia Minor. The work has occupied sixteen years,
and ten thousand workmen have been constantly engaged
at it. But now it is finished at last, and the Church of the
Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, is to be consecrated to-day.
The great Emperor of the Byzantine realm, Justinian,
drives up in a chariot drawn by four horses. He enters the
temple attended by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The
building is as large as a market-place, and the beautiful
dome, round as the vault of heaven, is 180 feet above the
floor. Justinian looks around and is pleased with his work.
The great men of the church and empire, clad in costly
robes, salute him. He examines the variegated marble
which covers the walls, he admires the artistically arranged
mosaic on the gold groundwork of the dome, he is amazed at
the hundred columns which support the cupolas and galleries,
some of dark -green marble, others of dark -red porphyry.
The Emperor's wealth is inexhaustible. Has he not presented
to the church seven crosses of gold, each weighing a hundred
pounds ? Does not the Church of the Divine Wisdom possess
forty thousand chalice veils all embroidered with pearls and
precious stones? Are there not
in the sacristy twenty-four
Bibles, which gold-studded cases weigh two hundred
in their
pounds each ? Are not pictures of the Redeemer, of the
Mother of God, of angels, prophets and evangelists suspended
between the twelve columns of solid silver which are the
Holy of Holies in the temple? Are not the faithful mowd
6
1 FROM POLE TO POLE pi. i
to tears at the sight of the crucifix and at the remembrance

that the gilded cross of silver is an exact copy of that which,
more than five hundred years ago, was set up by Roman
barbarians at Jerusalem ?
Justinian turns round and examines the panels of the
three doors which are said to have been made of wood
from Noah's ark. The doors of the main entrance are of
solid silver, the others are beautifully inlaid with cedar-
wood, ivory, and amber. Above his head silver chandeliers
swing in chains ;some of them form together a cross, and
are a symbol of the light of heaven hovering over the dark-
ness of earthly life. The vault is flooded with light and ;
in the mosaic he sees the meek saints kneeling before God

in silent supplication. Below the vault he sees the four
cherubims with two pairs of wings. He thinks of the first
chapter of Ezekiel " And the likeness of the firmament
:
upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of

the terrible crystal . and I heard the noise of their wings,
. .
like the noise of great waters." He also calls to mind

the book of Exodus, ch. xxxvii. " Even to the mercy-seat-
:
ward were the faces of the cherubims." It was the same here
in his own church.
Inspired by humility before God and pride before his
fellowmen, the Emperor Justinian moves to his prie-dieu.
He falls on his knees and exclaims " God be praised who has
:
thought me worthy to bring such a work to completion I !
have surpassed thee, O Solomon."

Then the pipes and drums strike up, and the glad songs of
the people echo among the houses, which are decorated by
webs of costly brocade hanging from the windows. The
festival is prolonged for fourteen days casksful of silver
;
coins are distributed among the multitude, and the Emperor

feasts the whole city.
Then follow new centuries and new generations in the
footsteps of the old. The bones of Christians moulder under
the grave mounds, but still the temple remains as before.
There priests and patriarchs and fathers of the Church
assemble to Church Councils, and the great festivals of the year
are celebrated under its vault. Nearly a thousand years of
the stream of time have passed away, and we come to May
29, H5 3-
May is a fine month in Constantinople. The summer is in
all its glory, the gardens are gorgeous in their fresh verdure,
the clear waters of the Bosporus glitter like brightly polished
, CHURCH OF THE DIVINE WISDOM 17
metal. But what a day of humiliation and terror was this

day of May, 1453! In the early morning tidings of mis-
fortune were disseminated among the citizens. The Turkish
Sultan had stormed in through the walls with his innumerable
troops. Beside themselves with fright, men, women, and
children fled to St. Sophia, leaving their homes and goods to
be plundered. A hundred thousand persons rushed in and
locked and barred all the church doors behind them. They
trusted that the conqueror would not dare to desecrate so
holy a place. Abashed before the holiness of God, he would
bow down in the dust and leave them in peace. And accord-
ing to a prophecy the angel of God would descend from
heaven in the hour of need and rescue the church and the
city.
The Christians waited, praying and trembling. Then the
wild fanfares of the Mohammedan trumpets were heard from
the nearest hills. Piercing cries of anguish echoed from
the vaulting, mothers pressed their children to their hearts,
husbands and wives embraced each other, galley slaves with
chains still on their wrists tried to hide themselves in the
darkness behind the pillars.
The axes of the Mohammedans ring against the doors.
Splinters of costly wood fly before the blows. Here a gate
cracks, there another is broken in. The janissaries rush in,
thirsting for blood. The Prophet has commanded that his
doctrines shall be spread over the earth by fire and sword.
They are only too ready to obey this order. Already steeped
in blood from the combat outside the walls, they continue to
gather in the harvest with dripping scimitars. The defence-
less are fastened together with chains and driven out like
cattle.
Then comes the turn of the holy edifice. The mosaics
are hacked to pieces with swords and lances, the costly altar-
cloths are taken from their store-room, the church is plundered
of its gold and silver, and rows of camels and mules are led in
on to the temple floor to be laden with the immense treasures.
Full of fanatical religious hatred, swarms of black-bearded
Turks rush up to the figure of the crucified Redeemer. A
Mohammedan presses his janissary's cap over the crown of
thorns. The image is carried with wild shrieks round the
church, and presumptuous voices call out scornfully, " Here
you see the God of the Christians."
At the high altar a Greek bishop stood in pontifical robes
and read mass over the Christians in a loud and clear voice.
8
1 FROM POLE TO POLE n. i
His voice never trembled for a moment. He wished to give

his flock heavenly consolation in earthly troubles. At last he
remained alone. Then he broke off the mass in the middle
of a sentence, took the chalice, and ascended the steps leading
to the upper galleries. The Turks caught sight of him and
rushed after him like hungry hyaenas.
He is already up in the gallery. He is surrounded on all
sides by soldiers with drawn swords and lowered spears.
Next moment he must fall dead over the communion chalice.
No escape, no rescue is possible. Before him stands the grey
stone wall.
But, lo a door opens in the wall, and when the bishop has
!
gone in the wall closes up again. The soldiers stand still in

astonishment. Then they begin to attack the wall with
spears and axes. But it is no use. They renew their efforts,
but still in vain.
Four centuries and a half have passed since then, and still
the Greeks cherish a blind faith that the day will come when
St. Sophia will be restored to Christian uses, when the wall
will open again and the bishop will walk out with the chalice
in his hand. Calm and dignified he will descend the stairs,
cross the church, and mount up to the high altar to continue
the mass from the point where he was interrupted by the Turks.
Let us return to the savage soldiery. All the doors stand
open, and the midday sun shines in through the arched
windows. The pillage and tumult have reached their height
when a fiery horse carries a rider up to the main entrance.
He is attended by Mohammedan princes, generals, and pashas. 1
His name is Mohammed II., the Conqueror, the Sultan of
the Turks. He is young and proud and has a will of iron,
but he is solemn and melancholy. He dismounts and passes
on foot over this floor, over the marble slabs trodden a thousand
years ago by the Emperor Justinian.
The first thing he sees is a janissary maliciously aiming
his axe at the marble pavement. The Sultan goes up to him
and asks, " Why? " " In the cause of the faith," answers the
soldier. Then the Sultan draws his sabre, and, cutting the
man down, exclaims, " Dogs, have you not loot enough ?
The buildings of the city are my property." And, kicking
the dying man aside, he ascends a Christian pulpit, and in a
thundering voice dedicates the Church of the Holy Wisdom
to Islam.
1
" Pasha" is an honorary title given to officials of high rank in Turkey and
Egypt, as to governors of provinces, military commanders, etc.
CHURCH OF THE DIVINE WISDOM 19
Four and a half centuries have passed down the stream of

time since the day when the cross was removed and the
crescent raised its horn above the Church of the Holy
Wisdom. The Turks have erected four minarets round the
dome, and every evening from the platforms of these minarets
sounds the voice of the muezzin, summoning the faithful to
prayer. He wears a white turban and a long mantle down
to his feet. To all four quarters of the city the call rings out
with long, silvery ^-sounds and full, liquid /'s "God is great
:
(four times repeated). I bear witness that there is no god
but God (twice repeated). I bear witness that Mohammed

is the Apostle of God (twice repeated). Come to prayers !
Come to prayers !Come to salvation ! Come to salvation !
God is great. There is no god but God."

Now the sun sinks below the horizon, and a cannon shot
thunders forth. We are in the month of fasting, during
which the Mohammedans do not eat, drink, or smoke each
day so long as the sun is up. Thus the Prophet commands
in the Koran, their holy book. The firing of the gun proclaims
the end of the fast for to-day, and when the faithful have
refreshed themselves with the smoking rissoles and rice
puddings, or fruit, coffee, and water-pipes which stand
ready, they turn their steps to the old Church of the Divine
Wisdom, which still retains its Greek name. Round the
minarets thousands of lamps are lighted, and between the
towers the sacred names hang in flaming lights. Inside the
mosque, on chains fifty feet long, hang chandeliers, full of
innumerable oil-lamps in small round glass bowls, and on
extended lines hang other lamps as close as the beads of a
rosary. The floor of the mosque is a sea of light, but the
interior of the dome is hid in gloom. Huge green shields
affixed to the columns bear in golden letters the names of
Allah, Mohammed and the saints, and the characters are
thirty feet high.
The faithful have already filled the floor, which is covered
with straw matting. Shoes must be left outside on entering
the mosque, and a man must wash his arms, hands, and face
before he goes in. Now the Turks stand in long rows, white
and green turbans and red fezes with black tassels all mixed
together. All turn their faces towards Mecca. All hands go
up together to the height of the face and are stretched out
flat, the thumbs touching the tip of the ear. Then they bend
the body forward, resting their hands on their knees. Next
they fall on their knees and touch the floor with their fore-
heads. " Prayer is the key to Paradise," says the Koran, and
every section of the prayer requires a certain posture.
A priest stands in a pulpit and breaks in on the solemn
silence with his clear musical voice. The last word dies
away on his lips, but the echo lingers long in the dome,
hovering like a restless spirit among the statues of the
cherubim.
Among us at home there are people who are ashamed of
going to church. A Mohammedan may neglect his religious
duties, but he always regards it as an honour to fulfil them.
When we come to Persia or Turkestan we shall often see
a caravan leader leave his camels in the middle of the march,
spread out his prayer-mat on the ground, and recite his
prayers. They do not do it thoughtlessly or slovenly you :
might yell in the ear of a Mohammedan at prayer and he

would take no notice.
" There is no god but God !
" The words sound like a
trumpet-blast, as a summons over boundless regions of the Old
World. From its cradle in Arabia, Islam has spread over all
the west and centre of Asia, over the southern parts of the
continent, over certain regions in south-eastern Europe, and
over half Africa. It is no wonder that Mohammedan mission-
aries find it easy to convert the blacks of Africa. Mohammed
promises them Paradise after death, and Paradise is only a
—
continuation of worldly pleasures a place where the blessed
dwell under palms which continually bear fruit, where clear
springs leap forth, and where flutes and stringed instruments
make music in eternal summer
The Bazaars of Stambul

As a child Fatima Hanum played in one of the narrow
streets of Stambul. When she was old enough, her parents
betrothed and married her to Emin Effendi, the son of an
influential pasha. She knew little of him beyond that he was
rich and was considered a good match. His house was
situated in one of the larger streets of Scutari, and consisted
of two wings completely cut off from each other. In the one
the husband had his apartments, in the other lived the
women. For Fatima is not alone her husband has three
;
other wives, and all four have male and female slaves who
guard them strictly.
Poor Fatima is thus unfortunate from the first. She
cannot live happily with a man whose affection is not hers
:
, THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL 21
alone, and it is difficult for her to live in peace with the three
other women who have the same rights as herself. Her
life is empty and wearisome, and her days are passed in
idleness. For hours she stands behind the lattice in the
oriel window which projects over the street and watches
the movement going on below. When she is tired of this
she goes in again. Her room is not large. In the middle
splashes a small fountain. Round the walls extend divans.
She sinks moodily on to one of them and calls a female slave,
who brings a small table, more like a stool. Fatima rolls
a cigarette, and with dreamy eyes watches the blue rings as
they rise to the ceiling. Again she calls the slave. A bowl
of sweets is brought, she yawns, takes a bit of sweetmeat, and
throws herself on the soft cushions.
Then she drinks a glass of lemonade and crosses the room
to a leather trunk, which she unlocks. In the trunk lie her
ornaments bracelets of gold, pearl necklaces, earrings of
:
turquoise, and many cloths of coloured silk. She puts a

necklace round her neck, adorns her fingers with rings, and
winds thin silken veils round her head. When she is ready
she goes up to the mirror and admires her own beauty. She
is really handsome. Her skin is white and soft, her eyes are
black, her hair falls in dark waves over her shoulders. She is
not pleased with the colour of her lips. The slave brings out
a small pot of porcelain and with a pencil paints Fatima's lips
redder than the coral which the Hindu dealers sell in the
bazaar. Then the eyebrows are not dark enough, so they are
blackened with Indian ink.
When Fatima is tired of examining her own features in
the mirror she puts back her ornaments into the chest and
locks it securely. A
staircase leads down from her room to
the garden. There she saunters for a time, enjoying the per-
fume of roses and jasmine, and stands before the cage of sing-
ing birds to amuse herself with them. One of the other wives
comes down to the harem garden and calls out to her
" You are as ugly as a monkey, Fatima you are old and ;
wrinkled and your eyes are red. Not a man in all Stambul
would care to look at you." Fatima answers " If Emin :
Effendi had not been tired of you, old moth-eaten parrot, he

would not have brought me to his harem." And then she
hurries up to her room again to ask the mirror if it is true that
her eyes are red.
In order to forget her vexation she decides to go over to
the great bazaar in Stambul. The slave envelops her in a
22 FROM POLE TO POLE PT. i
voluminous kaftan} in which her white hands with yellow-

stained nails disappear among the folds. She slips into her
shoes, which are like slippers with turned-up points, and puts
—
on the most important garment of all the veil. Its upper
part covers the head and the forehead down to the eyebrows,
while the lower part hangs down over the chin, mouth, and
part of the nose. A
woman does not show her face to any
man but her husband. Of late years many women transgress
this rule and let the lower part of the veil fall so low that
most of the face is seen. Fatima, however, does not go
with the new fashion. She shows only her eyes, but her
glances are enough to let the man in the street perceive
that she is beautiful. None of them is so impertinent as to
look at her or speak to her. Only Europeans she meets turn
round.
The slave does not go with her. She stops at the quay
where the caiques, or long rowing-boats, lie. The boatmen rise
and scream together. Each one extols with words and
gestures the excellences of his boat. She makes her choice,
and steps in and sits down on the cushions. The caique is
narrow and sharp as a canoe, painted white, with a gold
border on the gunwale. Two powerful men take their oars,
and the caique darts over the blue waters of the Bosporus.
Half-way between Scutari and Stambul, Fatima looks eagerly
down the Sea of Marmora. She longs for an hour of freedom,
and orders the boatmen to change the direction. The wind is
fresh, so they pull in their oars and hoist the sail, and the
boat glides southward at a rapid pace. But Fatima is
capricious, and is soon tired of the Sea of Marmora, and
orders the men to steer to the nearest quay in Stambul.
She gives them two silver coins, which they take without a
word of thanks or civility. She hastens up to the great
bazaar and steps from the hot sunlight of the streets into
cool shade and gloom.
For the bazaars are like tunnels. They are streets and
lanes covered with vaults of stone, where daylight pene-
trates sparingly through the cupolas in the roof. Here
the heat of summer is not felt, and you can walk dry-shod
on stormy and rainy days. You are soon accustomed to
the darkness, but have great difficulty in finding the way
unless you have been born in Stambul and have often
passed through this labyrinth. The passages are quite
1
A garment worn throughout the Levant, consisting of a long gown fastened
by a girdle and having sleeves reaching below the hands.
i THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL 23
narrow, but yet wide enough to allow drosJikies and carts to 1
pass through.
The bazaar, then, is an underground town in itself, a town
of tradesmen and artisans. On either side of every street is an
endless row of small open shops, the floors of which are
raised a little above the level of the street, and serve also as
counters or show stands. The shops are not mixed up
together, but each industry, each class of goods, has its own
street. In the shoemakers' street, for example, shoes of all
kinds are set out, but the most common are slippers of yellow
and red leather, embroidered and stitched with gold, for men,
women, and children, for rich and poor. For a long distance
you can see nothing but slippers and shoes right and left.
You are very glad when the shoe department comes to an
end and you come to a large street where rich shopkeepers
sell brocades of silver, gold, and silk. It is best not to take
much money with you to this street, or you will be tempted to
buy everything you see. Here lie mats from Persia, em-
broidered silken goods from India, shawls from Kashmir, and
the finest work of southern Asia and northern Africa. Poor
Fatima Her husband is wealthy enough, but he has no
!
mind to let her scatter his money about in the great bazaar.
With sad looks she gazes at the turquoises from Nishapur,
the rubies from Badakshan, the pearls from the coast of
Bahrein, and the corals from the Indian Ocean.
When she has spent all the silver coins she has with her,
she turns to leave, but it is a long way to the entrances
of the bazaar. She passes through the street of the metal-'
workers and turns off at the armourers' lane. There the
noise is deafening sledge hammers and mallets hammer and
:
beat, for the shops of the bazaar arc workshops as well.

Again she turns a corner. Evidently she has lost her way,
for she stands and looks about in all directions. She has
now come to a passage where water-pipes and all articles
connected with smoking are sold. Then she turns in another
direction. An odour tells her a long distance off that she
is coming to the street of spice-dealers. She has to ask her
way almost at every step.
Not only in Constantinople but in all parts of the Turkish
Empire, and all over the Mohammedan world, goods arc
bought and sold in these half-dark tunnels which arc called
bazaars. It is the same in the Mohammedan towns of North
1
A "droshky" i.^ a ! >w, four-wheeled, open carriage, plying for hire. The
word is Russian.
24 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . \
Africa, in Arabia, Asia Minor, Persia, Caucasia, Afghanistan,

India, and Turkestan. Wherever minarets rise above the
dwellings of men and the muezzin sings out his everlasting
" There is no god but God," the exchange of wares and coin
is carried on in dark bazaars. The great bazaar in Stambul
is one of the richest, but even where the bazaars are small
and insignificant the same order prevails, the same mode of

life. Among Turkish men and women of high rank stroll
poor ragamuffins and dervishes or begging monks. A caravan
of camels moves slowly through the crowd, bringing fresh
supplies to the tradesmen from a steamboat quay or from the
railway station. The camels have scarcely disappeared in the
darkness before a train of mules with heavy bales follows in
their track. A loud-voiced man offers for sale grapes and
melons he carries in a basket, while another bears a water-
bottle of leather.
And all the races which swarm here ! The great majority
are, of course, Turks, but we also see whole rows of shops
where only Persians trade. We see Hindus from India,
Egyptians from Cairo, Arabs from the coasts of the Red Sea,
Circassians and Tatars from the Caucasus and the Crimea,
Sarts from Samarkand and Bokhara, Armenians, Jews, and
Greeks, and not infrequently we meet a negro from Zanzibar
or a Chinaman from the farthest East.
It is a confusion of shopmen and customers, brokers and
thieves from all the East. A noise and bustle, a deafening roar
which never ceases all day long, a hurrying, a striving and
eagerness to clear the stock and gain money. If the prices
were fixed, business would soon be done. But if you have
taken a fancy to a Kurdish mat and ask the price, the trades-
man demands a quite absurd sum. You shrug your shoulders
and go your way. He calls out another, lower price. You
go on quietly, and the man comes running after you and has
dropped his price to the lowest. In every shop bargains are
made vociferously in the same way. There is a continual
buzz of voices, now and then interrupted by the bells of
caravans.
The illumination is dim. The noonday sun penetrates
only through openings in the vault and forms patches of light.
Dust floats about in the shafts of light, mixed with smoke
from water-pipes. The greater the distance the dimmer this
confined air appears. There is also an indescribable odour.
The smell of men and animals, of dusty goods, of rank
tobacco, of rotting refuse, strong spices, fresh, juicy fruit— all
i THE BAZAARS OF STAMBUL 25
mixed together into a peculiar odour which is characteristic of

all Oriental bazaars.
The bazaar of Stambul contains a great deal besides.
On the northern side is a line of old caravanserais, massive
stone buildings of several storeys, with galleries, passages, and
rooms, and with a large open court in the centre. Here
resort the wholesale merchants, and here are their warehouses
anil stocks. Lastly, cafes and eating-houses are found in the
tunnelled streets, baths and small oratories, so that a man
can pass his whole day in the bazaar without needing to
go home. He can obtain all he wants in the vicinity of
his shop.
II
CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN
(1905)
The Black Sea

ATTENDED by the cavass l of the Swedish Embassy, old Ali,
I drove down to the quay on a fresh, sunny October morning,
loaded all my boxes on board a caique, and was rowed by
four men out to the Bosporus between anchored sailing
vessels, steamers, and yachts. On arriving at the gangway
of a large Russian steamer, I waited until all my luggage was
safe on board and then followed it.
The anchor is weighed, the propeller begins to turn, and
the vessel steers a course northwards through the Bosporus.
With my field-glasses I settle down on a bench in the stern
and take farewell of the Turkish capital. How grand, how
unforgettable is this scene The white, graceful minarets
!
shoot up to heaven from the sea of houses, and the cypresses

— tall, grave, and straight as kings —
also seem to point out to
the children of earth the way to Paradise. Everywhere the
houses mount up the hills, ranged like the rows of seats in
a theatre. The whole is like a gigantic circus with an
auditorium for more than a million Turks, and the arena is
the blue water of the Bosporus.
The steamer carries us away relentlessly from this
charming picture. As dreams fade away in the night, so
the white city is concealed by the first promontories. Then
I change my place and look ahead. Perhaps the view is even
more beautiful in this direction. The sound is like a river
between steep, rocky shores, but in the mouth of every valley,
and wherever the margin of the shore is flat, stand white
1
A government servant or courier.
26
n THE BLACK SEA 27
villasand mansions, villages, walls and ruins, gardens and

groves. The Bosporus is barely twenty miles long. In
some places its breadth is less than a third of a mile, in
others two-thirds. Old plane-trees spread their crowns over
fresh meadows, and laurels, chestnuts, walnuts, and oaks
afford deep shade. White dolphins skim along the water,
and a school of porpoises follows in the wake of the boat,
waiting for the refuse from the cook's galley. They are dark,
soft, and smooth, backs shining like metal, and they can
their
easily be seen several feetbelow the surface. A single flap
of the tail fin gives them a tremendous impulse, and they
come up to the surface like arrows discharged by the gods
of the sea, and describe beautiful somersaults among the
waves. They could easily overtake us if they liked, but they
content themselves with following close behind us hour after
hour.
To the we have the European coast, to the right the
left
Asiatic. distance is always so small that the Europeans
The
can hear the bark of the Asiatic dogs. Here is Terapia, with
the summer villas of Christians and the ambassadors' palaces.
Turkish coffee-houses are erected on the shore, and their
balconies hang over the water. Farther on there is a large
valley with an ancient plane-tree with seven trunks which are
called " the seven brothers." According to tradition Godfrey
de Bouillon with his crusaders reposed under its shade in the
winter of 1096-1097, when he marched to recover the holy
sepulchre and win the sounding title of " King of Jerusalem."
Now the channel widens out and the coasts of the two
continents diverge from each other. We see the horizon of
the Black Sea opening before us, and the vessel begins to
pitch. Lighthouses stand on either side of the entrance,
which is commanded by batteries high above it. We roll out
into the sea, and half an hour later we can hardly see the
break in the coast-line which marks the end of the Bosporus.
We make straight for Sebastopol, near the southernmost
point of the Crimea. This is the station of the Russian
Black Sea fleet, but the Russians have little pride in it, for
the Turks control the passage to the Mediterranean, and
without the consent of the other great Powers the Russian
warships cannot pass through. The Black Sea is, of course,
open to the mercantile vessels of all nations.
You know, of course, that Europe has four landlocked
seas, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian
Seas. The Baltic is enclosed all round by European coasts ;
;
the Black and Caspian Seas belong to both Europe and Asia
while the Mediterranean lies between the three continents
of the Old World — Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now the
Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas are of about the same size,
each having an area about three times that of England and
Wales. The Baltic is connected with the Atlantic by several
sounds between the Danish islands and Scania. The Black
Sea has only one outlet, the Bosporus. The Caspian Sea
has no outlet at all, and is really a lake.
The Baltic is very shallow, its maximum depth, south-east
of the Landsort lighthouse, being 250 fathoms. Next comes
the Caspian Sea with a depth of 600 fathoms. The singular
feature of this, the largest lake in the world, is that its surface
lies 85 feet below that of the Black Sea. This last is the
deepest of the three, for in it a sounding of 1230 fathoms has
been taken.
All three seas are salt, the Baltic least and the Caspian
most. Four great rivers enter the Black Sea, the Danube,
Dniester, Dnieper, and Don. It therefore receives large
volumes of fresh water. But along the bottom of the
Bosporus an undercurrent of salt water passes into the
Black Sea, which is compensated for by a surface stream
of less salt and therefore lighter water flowing to the
Mediterranean.
The Black Sea is not blacker than any other sea, nor is
the White Sea white, the Yellow Sea yellow, or the Red Sea
red. And so no faith should be accorded to the story of a
captain in the Mediterranean who wished to sail to the Red
—
Sea but went to the Black Sea because he was colour-blind !
But now we can continue our heaving course, still accom-

panied by dolphins and porpoises. We look in at the
harbour of Sevastopol, we anchor in open roadsteads off
Caucasian towns, we moor our cables to the rings on the
quay of Batum, and finally drop our anchor for the last time
at a short distance from the coast of Asia Minor.
Proud and bright, with forest-clad heights in the back-
ground, Trebizond bathes in the rays of the midday sun.
Small rowing-boats come out from the land to take passengers
and goods to the quay. The Turkish boatmen scream all
together, but no one listens to them. Every one is glad to be
landed safe and sound with his baggage.
„ TREBIZOND TO TKHKRAN 29
Trebizond to Teheran
Trebizond was a Greek colony seven hundred years before
the birth of Christ, and from time immemorial Persian trade
has made its way to the Black Sea by the road which still
runs through Tabriz to Teheran, a distance of 800 miles.
This traffic is now on the decline, for modern means of com-
munication have taken the place of the old caravans, and most
of their trade has been diverted to the Suez Canal and the
Caucasian railways. Many large caravans,' however, still
journey to and fro along this road, which is so well made
that one can drive not only to Tabriz, but still further to
Teheran. It may, indeed, be softened by autumn rains or
frozen hard on the high plateaus of Turkish Armenia, and
the speed is not great when the same horses have to be
used for distances of 160 miles.
It was a lively cavalcade that pounded and rattled over
the Turkish and Persian roads in November, 1905. I was by
no means alone. The Governors of Trebizond and Erzerum

were so good as to provide me with an escort of six armed
troopers on sturdy horses. In front rides a Turkish soldier
on a piebald horse, carrying his carbine in a sling over his
back, his sabre and dagger hanging at his side, and wearing a
red fez with a white pagri x wound round it as a protection from
sun and wind. Then I come in my carriage, drawn by three
horses. Old Shakir, the coachman, is already my friend it ;
is he who prepares my meals and looks after me general ly.
I am well wrapped up in a Caucasian cloak, with a baslilik-
over my cap, and lean back comfortably and look at the

country as we drive along. Behind the carriage ride two
soldiers on brown horses, engaged in a lively conversation and
wondering whether they will be well tipped. Then come two
clumsy carts, on which all my baggage is firmly secured.
They have their own drivers and men, and are escorted by
three troopers.
In this manner I travelled from Trebizond to Teheran.
To the ceaseless rattle of the wheels and the heavy tramp of
the horses' hoofs, I plunged day by day deeper into Asia.
Soon the blue expanse of the Black Sea passed out of sight,
as the road with many steep and sudden bends wound up to
the top of a pass. On the other side it descended with as
1
A light scarf wound round a hat or helmet in tropical. countries, especially
India.
- A kind of cloth hood covtrinsj the ears.
-~W^ w\,B alakhani fc^
Emery Walker.sc.
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TEHERAN (pp. 26-33);

{a)
{i) LATTER PART OF JOURNEY TO BAKU (pp. 34~35)•
AN " (') JOURNEY
FROM BAKU ACROSS PERSIA TO BAGHDAD AND BACK TO TEHERAN (pp.
37-45)-
„ TREBIZOND TO TEHERAN 31
many windings to the bottom of a valley. And thus we went

up and down till \vc were up at length on the level Armenian
tableland.
is a complete change.
Here there During the first days
after leaving the coast, we had driven through a beautiful
and constantly changing landscape. Wehad passed through
woods of coniferous trees and among rustling foliage of
yellow leaves. Sometimes we had been hundreds of feet
above an abyss, at the foot of which a bluish-green stream
foamed between rounded rocks. Beside the road we had seen
rows of villages and farms, with houses and verandahs of
wood, where Turks sat comfortably in their shops and cafes ;
and we had met many small caravans of horses, asses, and

oxen carrying hay, fruit, and bricks between the villages.
We always began our day's march in the early morning, for
the nights were mild and the sun had scarcely risen before it
felt pleasant.
But up here on the plateau it is different. No firs adorn
the mountain flanks, no foliaged trees throw their shade over
the road. No creaking carts, laden with timber and drawn
by buffaloes and oxen, enliven the way. The villages are
scattered, and the houses are low cabins of stone or sun-dried
clay. The Turkish population is blended with Armenians.
The road becomes worse and more neglected as the traffic
falls off. The air is cool, and there are several degrees of frost
in the night.
When we have passed Erzerum, where the Christian
churches of the Armenians stand side by side with the
mosques of the Turks, we journey, as it were, on a flat roof
sloping down slightly on three sides, each with a gutter lead-
ing into its own water-butt. These water-butts arc the Black
Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and they are
always big enough to hold all the water, however hard it may
rain on the stony roof which rises between Caucasia, Asia
Minor, and Mesopotamia. The gutters are, of course, the
rivers, the greatest of which is the Euphrates.
Now the road is very bad. There has been rain in the
autumn and now that it is freezing, the mud, all cut up by
;
deep wheel-ruts, is as hard as stone. My vehicle shakes and

jolts me hither and thither and up and down, and when we
arrive at the village where we arc to pass the night, I feel
bruised all over. Shakir makes tea and boils eggs, and after
supper I roll myself in my cloak and go to sleep.
It is pitch-dark when am called, and still dark when we
I
make a start by the light of lanterns. After a little a

curious sound is heard across the plain. The clang becomes
louder, coming nearer to us, and tall, dark ghosts pass by with
silent steps. Only bells are heard. The ghosts are camels
coming from Persia with carpets, cotton, and fruit. There are
more than three hundred of them, and it is a long time before
the road is clear again. And all the time there is a ringing as
from a chime of bells.
For many thousands of years the same sound has been
heard on the caravan routes. It is the same with the roar of
the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris. Mighty powers
have flourished and passed away on their banks, whole
peoples have died out, of Babylon and Nineveh only ruins are
left; but the waters of the rivers murmur just the same, and
the caravan bells ring now as in the days when Alexander
led the Macedonian army over the Euphrates and Tigris,
when the Venetian merchant Marco Polo travelled 620 years
ago between Tabriz and Trebizond by the road we are now
driving along, when Timur the Lame defeated the Turks
and by this road carried the Sultan Bayazid in an iron cage
to exhibit him like a wild beast in the towns of Asia.
A white morning cloud seems to be floating over the grey
mountains to the east, but when the sun rises it is seen to be
a cone as regular as the roof of an Armenian church. It is
the snow-capped top of Mount Ararat, where the ark landed
when the great flood went down. The summit is always
covered with snow, for the mountain is a thousand feet
higher than Mont Blanc.
Now we are not far from the frontier, where Kurdish
brigands render the country unsafe, but once over the border
into Persian territory there is no danger. We are now in the
north-western corner of Persia, in the province of Azerbeijan,
which is populated mainly by Tatars. The capital of the
province is Tabriz, once the chief market for the trade of all
northern Persia with Europe. Here goods were collected
from far and near, packed in mats of bast and bound with
ropes so as to form bales, which were laden on fresh camels
and carried in fourteen days to Trebizond.
Now not more than a fifth part of this trade remains, but
still the caravan life is the same, and as varied as ever. The
Tatar leader rides in front ; beside every seventh camel
walks a caravan man, who wears a black lambskin cap, a blue
frockcoat, a girdle round the waist, and pointed shoes. Each
is armed with a dagger, for the Tatars are often at feud with
ii TREHIZOND TO TEHERAN 33
the Turks and Armenians, and the dagger has a groove on

each side of the blade to allow the blood of the victim to run
off. Many a caravan leader has spent the greater part of his
life in travelling to and fro between Tabriz and Trebizond.
On every journey he has seen Ararat to the north of the road,

like a perpetually anchored vessel with its mainsail up ;and
he knows that the mountain is a gigantic frontier beacon
which marks the spot where Russia, Turkey, and Persia meet.
On December 13 I arrived at Teheran, having driven
800 miles in a month. India was still 1500 miles off, and
the route lies almost entirely through deserts where only
camels can travel. I therefore bought fourteen fine camels,
and took six Persians and a Tatar into my service.
D
Ill
THROUGH THE CAUCASUS, PERSIA,

AND MESOPOTAMIA (1885-6)
St. Petersburg to Baku
On August 15, 1885, I went by steamer to St. Petersburg.

There entered a train which ran south-eastwards through
I
Moscow to Rostov, at the mouth of the Don, and thence on

to the Caucasus and for four days I sat in my compartment,
;
letting my eyes rove over the immense steppes of Russia. Hour

after hour the train rolled along. A
shrill whistle startlesthe
air when we come to a station, and equally sharply a bell rings
once, twice, and thrice when our line of carriages begins to move
on again over the flat country. In rapid course we fly past
innumerable villages, in which usually a whitewashed church
lifts up its tower with a green bulb-shaped roof. Home-
steads and roads, rivers and brooks, fruitful fields and hay-
stacks, windmills with long revolving arms, carts and
wayfarers, all vanish behind us, and twilight and night four
times envelop huge Russia in darkness.
At last the mountains of the Caucasus appear in front of
us, risingup to the clouds like a light-blue wall. The whole
range seems so light and impalpable that we can scarcely
believe that the very next day we shall be driving up its
valleys and over heights which are more than 16,000 feet
above the sea-level. The distance is still great, but the
white summit of Mount Kazbek shines out amidst the blue.
At length we arrive at Vladikavkas, the end of the railway, 1
and begin our journey of 130 miles over the mountains. My
travelling companions hired a carriage, and at every stage we
1
At the time of this journey, the railway ended at Vladikavkas. Since then,
however, it has been extended to Baku along the northern side of the Caucasus
and the coast of the Caspian (see map, p. 30).
34
in ST. PETERSBURG TO BAKU 35
had to change horses. I sat on the box, and at the turns

I had to hold on lest I should be thrown off down into the
abyss at the side of the road.
constantly meet peasants with asses, or shepherds
We
'
with flocks of goats and sheep. Now comes a group of

Caucasian horsemen in black sheepskin coats and armed to
the teeth then the post-cart, packed full of travellers
;
;then
again a load of hay drawn by oxen or grey buffaloes.
The higher we ascend, the grander and wilder the
mountains become. Sometimes the road is blasted out of
perpendicular walls of rock, and heavy masses of mountain
hang like a vault above us. At dangerous slopes, where the
road is exposed to avalanches in spring, it runs through
tunnels of masonry. When an avalanche dashes furiously
down the mountain it leaps over these tunnels and continues
down on the other side without doing the road any harm.
We have now reached the highest point of the road, and
after a journey of twenty-eight hours we arrive at Tiflis, the
largest town in Caucasia, and one of the most curious towns
I have seen. The houses hang like clusters of swallows' nests
on the slopes on both sides of the Kura River, and the narrow,
dirty streets are crowded with the fifteen different tribes who
dwell in Caucasia.
While the road leading to Tiflis over the mountains is
grand, a more dreary country can hardly be conceived than
that crossed by the railway between Tiflis and Baku endless
:
steppes and deserts, greyish - yellow and desolate, with

occasionally a caravan of slowly moving camels. A violent
storm arose as we drew near the sea. Dust rose up in clouds
and penetrated through all the chinks of the compartment,
the air became thick, heavy, and suffocating, and outside
nothing could be seen but a universal grey veil of impenetrable
mist. But the worst was that the storm struck the train on
the side, and at last the engine was scarcely able to draw the
carriages along. Twice we had to stop, and on an ascent the
train even rolled back a little.
However, in spite of all, we at last reached the shore of
the Caspian Sea, where clear green billows rose as high as a
house and thundered on the strand. At seven o'clock in the
evening we were at Baku, and drove ten miles to Balakhani,
where I remained seven months.
I remember that time as if it were yesterday. I struggled
hopelessly with the Russian grammar, but made great progress

in Persian, and learned to talk the Tatar language without
6
the least difficulty.Meanwhile I indulged in plans for a great

journey to How it was to be managed I did not
Persia.
know, for my means were not large. But I made up my
mind that through Persia I would travel, even if I went as a
hired servant and drove other people's asses along the roads.
The whole country round Baku is impregnated with
petroleum, which collects in vast quantities in cavities in
the earth. To reach the oil a tower of wood 50 to 65 feet
high is erected, and a line with a powerful borer runs over a
block at the top. A
steam-engine keeps the line in constant
motion, perpendicularly up and down, and the borer eats
deeper and deeper into the earth. The first section of piping
which is forced down into the bore-hole is about 40 inches in
diameter. When this can go no farther the boring is con-
tinued with a smaller borer, and a narrower tube is thrust
down within the first. And so the work is continued until
the petroleum level is reached and the valuable oil can be
pumped up.
But it often happens that the oil is forced up through the
pipe by the pressure of gas in the bowels of the earth, and
when I was at Balakhani we often used to go out and look at
this singular display. With a deafening roar, a thick greenish-
brown jet shot up out of the ground and right through the
derrick (Plate III.). It was visible from a long distance, for it
might be as much as 200 feet high, and the oil was collected
within dams thrown up around. If there was a strong wind the
jet would be dispersed, and a dark mist would lie like a veil over
the ground to leeward. In Balakhani one can hardly look
out of the door without one's clothes being smeared with oil,
and the odour can be perceived a dozen miles away. Not a
blade of grass grows in this neighbourhood all that one sees
;
is a forest of derricks. Lines of pipes convey the oil from the

borings to the " Black Town " of Baku, which is full of oil
refineries (over 170 in all) emitting vast volumes of smoke,
black and greasy buildings, and pools of oil refuse. When
the crude natural oil is purified, it is distributed far and wide
in special railway trucks like cisterns, and in special tank
steamers, into which the petroleum is pumped, and which
carry nothing else.
In the Baku oil-fields there are now (1910) no fewer than
4094 bores, of which 2600 are productive. Last year they
yielded about eight million tons of raw petroleum, some of
them having sometimes given nearly 300 tons in twenty-four
hours by pumping, and 2000 when the oil shot out of
PLATE lit.
( HI. \\ ELL AT BALAKH \\l.
\ i
iunl dn of oil forced up bj natural pressui
hi ST. PETERSBURG TO BAKU 37
the ground itself. The value on the spot is now about 20

shillings a ton. The deepest boring is sunk 2800 feet into
the earth.
Late one evening in February, 1886, the dreadful cry of
" Fire Fire " was heard outside our house.
! ! The very thought
of fire is enough to raise terror and consternation throughout
this oil-soaked district. We hurry out and find the whole
neighbourhood illuminated with a weird, whitish light, as bright
as day. The derricks stand out like ghosts against the light
background. We make for the place and feel the heat increas-
ing. Bright white flames shoot up fantastically into the air,
sending off black clouds of smoke. One derrick is in flames
and beside it a pool of raw petroleum is burning. A Tatar
had gone to the derrick with a lantern to fetch a tool. He
lost his lantern, and only just escaped with his life before the
oil-soaked derrick took fire.
It is vain to fight against such a fire. The fire-engine
came, and all the hoses were at work, but what was the use
when the jets of water were turned to steam before they
reached the burning surface of the oil pool ? The chief thing
is to keep the fire from spreading, and if that is done,
the oil
is left to bubble and burn until not a drop is left.
Across Persia
It was an adventurous journey that I commenced from Baku

on April 6, 1886. I had a travelling companion, a young
Tatar, Baki Khanoff, about £30 in my pocket, two changes of
clothes and underclothing, a warm coat, and a rug —
all, except
what I wore, packed in a Tatar bag. In a small leather bag

suspended by a strap from the shoulder I kept a revolver, a
sketch-book, a note-book, and two maps of Persia. Baki
Khanoff had a large cloak, a silver-mounted gun, and a
dagger. Half the money we had was sewed up in belts
round our waists. The equipment was therefore small for a
journey of 2000 miles, through Persia and back.
For two days and a night we were compelled by a violent
storm on the Caspian Sea to wait on board before the vessel
could take us to the Persian coast. As soon as we landed
we were surrounded by Persians, who, with loud voices and
lively gestures, extolled the good qualities of their horses.
After a cursory examination we chose two small, squat steeds,
secured our baggage behind the saddles, mounted, and rode
through dark woods and fragrant olive groves higher and

higher towards the Elburz Mountains.
We passed a night up on the heights in a village called
Karzan. When we set out next day it was snowing fast, and
had snowed so thickly all night that all the country was
buried under deep drifts. We muffled ourselves up as well as
we could, mounted our horses, and rode on, accompanied by
their owner.
The snow fell silently in large, whirling flakes. Down in
the valley it melted off our clothes, but'higher up on the open,
windy heights it froze to a cake of ice, and before long our
clothes on the windward side were converted into a thick
cuirass which prevented every movement. At last we were
practically frozen fast inthe saddle. Our hands were be-
numbed, the reins fell on the horses' necks, our eyes were
sore from the snowstorm which dashed straight into our faces.
I was so stiff that I lost all feeling in my arms and legs,
tumbled off my horse, and went on foot, but I had to hold on

to the animal's tail lest I should lose my way in the blinding
snow.
We could not go on long in this way, for we could not see
where we were going, so we decided to turn in at the first
village on the road. Some squalid huts soon came in sight
through the snow. Outside one of them we tied up our
horses, shook off the snow, and entered a dark cabin with an
earthen floor. Here a large fire was lighted, and we sat down
beside it in a close circle with some other travellers who
arrived at the same time. The place had a low roof and was
small, damp, and full of vermin, but at any rate it was
pleasant to warm ourselves and dry our clothes. When Baki
Khanoff had made tea, cooked eggs, and brought out bread
and salt, it was almost cosy. The company consisted of four
Tatars, two Persians, and myself, and the seven of us had
to share the space for the night. When the fire died down
the close heat was succeeded by a damp coolness, but at
twenty-one years of age one is not particular.
Eventually we reached Teheran, the capital of Persia, safe
and sound, and there I stayed a short time as the guest of a
fellow-countryman. When I continued my journey south-
wards I had to travel alone, for Baki Khanoff had caught
fever and had to turn back to Baku.
Our journey to Teheran had been very expensive, but my
good countryman replenished my purse, so that I had again
about £30 sewed up in my waistbelt when I started off once
i„ ACROSS PERSIA 39
more on April 27. The road is divided by stations where

horses are changed and you can pass the night if you wish.
A man accompanies you on every stage, and for a small silver
coin you can buy eggs and bread, a chicken, melons and grapes.
Sometimes the stable-boy who accompanies a traveller
takes the best horse for himself and gives the other to the
traveller. This happened to me on the road between the
town of Kashan and the mountain village of Kuhrud. As
soon as I became aware of the trick, I exchanged horses with
my attendant, who dropped behind after some hours' journey,
for his sorry jade could go no farther. For four hours I rode
along narrow paths in complete darkness. I feared that I
had gone astray, and, tired and sleepy, I was on the point of
coming to a halt, intending to tie the horse to a tree and roll
myself up in my rug for the night, when I saw a light gleam
through the darkness. " Hurrah that is the station-house of
!
Kuhrud." But when I came nearer I perceived that the light

came from a nomad's tent. I rode up and called out to the
people. No one answered, but I could see by the shadows on
the cloth that the tent was inhabited. After shouting again
without receiving an answer, I tied up the horse, lifted up the
tent-flap, and asked my way to Kuhrud. " Cannot one sleep
in peace in the middle of the night?" came a voice from
inside. " I am a European and you must show me the
way," I returned sharply. Then a man came out he was as
;
silent as a dummy, but I understood that I was to follow him,

leading my horse by the rein. He wound about in the dark
among bushes, and when he had led me to a brook a foot deep,
skirted on both sides by thick olive woods, he pointed uphill and
vanished in the darkness without saying a word. I mounted
again and let the horse take care of himself, and two hours
later he stopped all right before the station-house. It was
pleasant to have reached my journey's end at last, for I had
been riding for fifteen hours, and the evening meal tasted better
than usual. Then I lay down full length on the floor, with
the saddle for a pillow and the rug over me. I made use of
no other bed on this journey.

A few days more on the great caravan road and we rode
into the old capital of Persia, Ispahan, with its many memorials
of departed greatness, its mosques with tall, graceful minarets,
and its bazaars full of the products of Persian handicrafts
and industries —
carpets, silken materials, embroideries, shawls,
lacquered work, water-pipes, porcelain, and bronze vessels
representing peacocks and elephants.
4o FROM POLE TO POLE n. i
Farther south I came to Persepolis, so famous in ancient

times, where the great Persian kings, Xerxes and Darius, had
their palaces. The country round about is now inhabited
only by some poor shepherds and their flocks, but fine
remains of the palaces still stand, in spite of the 2400 years
which have passed over them. Not far from Persepolis lies
one of the most noted towns of Persia, Shiraz, abounding in
rose gardens and country-houses, spring water and canals. The
town is famous above all, because here the immortal poets of
Persia sang their most beautiful songs.
When we came near the Persian Gulf the climate became
hotter, and one day the temperature was 102 in the room
where I was staying. People therefore travel in the night.
On the last stage the groom, who was an old man, could not
keep up with me, for I rode fast so I went on all night alone,
;
keeping my revolver handy in case robbers showed themselves.

I was glad when the sun rose, lighting up the smooth mirror
of the Persian Gulf, and on May 22 I arrived at the town of

Bushire, on its eastern coast.
The Persian Gulf is an inlet of the Indian Ocean, and is
enclosed between Persia and Arabia. The island of Bahrein
on the Arabian coast is well known it is under British pro-
;
tection, and here in summer and autumn pearl fishing is

carried on, the annual export of these beautiful precious
stones being now about £900,000. As many as a thousand
boats, with crews of thirty thousand men, are engaged in the
industry. The owner of each boat engages a number of
divers, who work for him, and he sells his pearls to the
Indian markets. The diver seldom goes down to a greater
depth than seven fathoms, and remains at most fifty
seconds under water. He has wax in his ears, his nose
is closed by a clip, and with a stone at his feet and a rope
round his waist he jumps overboard and disappears into the

depths. When he reaches the bottom of the sea he gathers
into a basket tied in front of him as many shells as he can get
hold of, and at a given signal is hauled up by the rope to the
surface again. Then the owner of the boat opens the shells
and takes out the costly pearls, which are of different values,
according to their size and other qualities.
Arabia
Between the Persian Gulf on the north-east and the Red
Sea on the south-west, the Mediterranean on the north-west
m ARABIA 41
and the Indian Ocean on the south-east, lies the long, bulky
peninsula which is called Arabia, and is as large as a third of
Europe. Most of the coast-land is subject to the Sultan of
Turkey, but the people in the interior are practically inde-
pendent. They are a wild and warlike pastoral people, called
Beduins. Only certain parts of the country are inhabited,
the rest being occupied by terrible deserts and wastes, where
even now no European has set his foot.
Near the coast of the Red Sea are two Arab towns which
are as holy and full of memories to Mohammedans all over
the world as Jerusalem and Rome to Christians. At Mecca
the prophet Mohammed was born in the year A.D. 570,
and at Medina he died and was buried in 632. He was the
founder of the Mohammedan religion, and his doctrine,
Islamism, which he proclaimed to the Arabs, has since spread
over so many countries in the Old World that its adherents
now number 217 millions.
To the followers of Islam a pilgrimage to Mecca is a
all
most desirable undertaking. Whoever has once been there
may die in peace, and in his lifetime he may attach the
honourable title of Hajji to his name. From distant countries
in Africa and from the innermost parts of Asia innumerable
pilgrims flock annually to the holy towns.
Adjoining Arabia on the north-east lies the country called
Mesopotamia, through which flow the rivers Euphrates and
Tigris. An English steamer carried me from Bushire up the
turbid waters of the Tigris, and from the deck I could see
copper-brown, half-naked Arabs riding barebacked on hand-
some horses. They feed their flocks of sheep on the steppe,
holding long lances in their hands. Sometimes the steamer
is invaded by a cloud of green grasshoppers, and one can
only escape them by going into one's cabin and closing both
door and windows. Round the funnel lie heaps of grass-
hoppers who have singed themselves or are stupefied by the
smoke.
After a voyage of a few days up the river I come to
Baghdad, which retains little of its former magnificence. In
the eleventh century Baghdad was the greatest city of the
Mohammedans, and here were collected the Indian and Arabic
tales which are called the Tlion sand and one NigJits. Not far
from Baghdad, but on the Euphrates, lay in early ages the
great and brilliant Babylon, which had a hundred gates of
brass. By the waters of Babylon the Jewish captives hung
up their harps on the willows, and of Babylon Jeremiah
prophesied " And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling

:
place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without

an inhabitant."
Baghdad to Teheran
When I reached Baghdad I had only a little over £5 left,
all Persian silver kran, a kran being worth about seven-

in
pence and I could not get any more money until I reached
;
Teheran, 600 miles away. I knew that if I could only get as
far as the town of Kermanshah, a distance of 200 miles, I

could then take service in a caravan but it would be
;
unpleasant to tramp on foot the whole way, and receive no

pay other than a little bread and a few cucumbers and melons.
Just in the nick of time, however, I made the acquaintance
of a caravan owner who was starting immediately for
Kermanshah with English merchandise. The goods were
loaded on and were accompanied by ten Arab
fifty asses,
traders on horseback. Eight pilgrims and a Chaldean
merchant had joined the party. I, too, might go with them
on paying fifty kran for the hire of a mule food and drink I ;
must provide for myself.

It was a pleasant journey which began at ten o'clock on
the evening of June 6. Two Arabs led me on my mule
slowly and solemnly through the narrow streets of Baghdad
in the warm summer night. An oil lamp flickered dully here
and there, but the bazaars were brisk and lively. Here sat
thousands of Arabs, talking, eating, drinking, and smoking.
It was the month of fasting, when nothing is eaten until after
sunset.
The two Arabs conducted me into the court of a caravan-
serai, where the traders were just making preparations to
start. When I heard that they would not be ready before
two o'clock in the morning, I lay down on a heap of bales and

slept like a top.
Two o'clock came much sooner than I wished. An Arab
came and shook me, and, half asleep, I mounted my mule.
To the shouts of the drivers, the tinkle of the small bells, and
the ding-dong of the large camel-bells the long caravan passed
out into the darkness. Soon we had the outermost courts
and palm groves of Baghdad behind us, and before us the
silent, sleeping desert.
No one troubled himself about me I had paid for the
;
mule and might look after myself. Sometimes I rode in

c_>
in BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN 43
front, sometimes behind, and occasionally I almost went to
sleep in the saddle. The body of a dead dromedary lay on the
road, and a pack of hungry jackals and hyaenas were feasting
on the carcase. When we came near them they ran away
noiselessly to the desert, only to return when we were past.
Farther on some fat vultures kept watch round the body of a
horse, and raised themselves on their heavy wings as we
approached.
After a ride of seven hours we reached a caravanserai,
where the Arabs unloaded their animals and said that we
were to stay there all day. It was as warm as in an oven,
and there was nothing to do but lie and doze on the stone
floor.
Next night we rode eight hours to the town of Bakuba,
which is surrounded by a wood of fine date-palms. Here we
encamped in the court of a huge caravanserai (Plate IV.).
I was sitting talking to one of my travelling companions when
three Turkish soldiers came and demanded to see my passport.

" I have no passport," I replied. " Well, then, pay us ten
kran apiece, and you shall pass the frontier all the same."
" No, I will not pay you a farthing," was the answer they got.
" Take that rug and the bag instead," they cried, and made
for my things. This I could not stand, and gave the man
who seized my
bag such a blow on the chest that he dropped
his booty, and the same with the man with the rug. The
scoundrels were making to rush at me together, when two of
my Arabs came up to my assistance. To avoid further
unpleasantness I went to the governor, who for six kran gave
me a passport.
Ihad now become so friendly with the Arabs that I
obtained the loan of a horse instead of a mule. We set out
again at nine o'clock, and rode all night in the most brilliant
moonshine. I was so sleepy that sometimes I dozed in the
saddle, and once, when the horse shied at a skeleton on the
road, I was roused up and fell off, while the horse ran off
over the steppe. After much trouble one of the caravan men
caught him again, and I slept no more that night.
As usual we stayed over the day at the next village. I
was tired of travelling in this fashion, moving so slowly
and seeing so little of the country. When, then, an old Arab
belonging to the caravan came riding up from Baghdad on a
fine Arab horse, I determined to try to get away from my
party with his assistance. He consented to accompany me if
I paid him twenty-five kran a day. At first we kept near
the caravan, but as soon as the moon had set we increased

our pace, and when the sound of the bells grew faint behind
us we trotted off quickly through the night.
We arrived safely at Kermanshah on June 13. After
paying the old Arab I had only sixpence left I could not
!
engage a room or buy anything to eat, and the prospect of

eoine beecrincr among; Mohammedans was certainly not
attractive. Fortunately I had heard of a rich Arab merchant,
Agha Hassan, who lived in this town, and I directed my steps
to his handsome house. In my dusty riding-boots, and whip in
hand, I passed through many fine rooms until at last I found
myself in the presence of Agha Hassan, who was sitting with
his secretary in the midst of books and papers. He wore a
white silk mantle embroidered with gold, a turban on his
head and spectacles on his nose, and looked both friendly and
dignified.
"How are you, sir ? " he asked. " Very well, thank you," I
responded. " Where have you come from? " " From Bagh-
dad." " And where are you going ? " " To Teheran." " Are
you an Englishman ? " " No, I am a Swede." "Swede? What
is that?" "Well, I come from a country called Sweden."
" Whereabouts does it lie ? " " Far away to the north-west,
beyond Russia." " Ah, wait, I know ! You are no doubt
from Ironhead's country ? " "Yes, I am from the country of
Charles XII." "I am very glad to hear it I have read of
;
Charles the Twelfth's remarkable exploits you must tell me

;
about him. And you must tell me about Sweden, its king
and army, and about your own home, whether your parents
are still living, and if you have any sisters. But first you
must promise to stay as my guest for six months. All that
I have is yours. You have only to command." " Sir, I am
very thankful for your kindness, but I cannot avail myself of
your hospitality for more than three days." " You surely
mean three weeks ? " " No, you are too good, but I must go
back to Teheran." " That is very tiresome, but, however, you
can think it over."
A servant conducted me to an adjoining building, which was
to be mine during my stay, and where I made myself at home
in a large apartment with Persian rugs and black silk divans.
Two secretaries were placed at my disposal, and servants
to carry out my slightest wish. If I desired to eat, they would
bring in a piece of excellent mutton on a spit, a chicken boiled
with rice, sour milk, cheese and bread, apricots, grapes, and
melons, and at the end of the meal coffee and a water-pipe ;
,,. BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN 45
if I wished to drink, a sweet liquor of iced date-juice was
served ; and if I thought of taking a ride in order to see

the town and neighbourhood, pure-blooded Arab horses stood
in the court awaiting me.
Before the house lay a peaceful garden surrounded by a
wall, and with its paths laid with marble slabs. Here lilacs
blossomed, and here I could dream the whole day away
amidst the perfume of roses. Gold-fishes swam in a basin of
crystal-clear water, and a tiny jet shot up into the air glitter-
ing like a spider's web in the sunshine. I slept in this
enchanting garden at night, and when I awoke in the morning
I could hardly believe that all was real ;it was so like an
adventure from the Thousand and one Nights. My rich host

and my secretaries did not suspect that I had only sixpence
in my pocket.
When the last day came I could no longer conceal my
destitute condition. " I have something unpleasant to confide
to you," I said to one of the secretaries. " Indeed," he
answered, looking very astonished. "Yes, my money has come
to an end. My journey has been longer than I expected,
and now I am quite cleared out." " What does that matter?
You can get as much money as you like from Agha Hassan."
It had struck midnight when I went to take farewell of
my kind host. He worked all night during the fasting month.
" I am sorry that you cannot stay longer," he said. " Yes, I
too am sorry that I must leave you, and that I can never
repay your great kindness to me." " You know that the road
through the hills is unsafe owing to robbers and footpads. I
have therefore arranged that you shall accompany the post,

which is escorted by three soldiers."
Having thanked him once more, I took my leave. A
secretary handed me a leather purse full of silver. The post
rider and the soldiers were ready ; we mounted, rode slowly
through the dark, narrow streets of the town, at a smart trot
when the houses were scattered, and then at full gallop when
the desert stretched around us on all sides. We rode 105
miles in sixteen hours, with three relays of horses and
barely an hour's rest. We stayed a day at Hamadan, and
then rode on to the capital, with nine relays of fresh horses.
During the last fifty-five hours I never went to sleep, but
often dozed in the saddle. At length the domes of Teheran,
its- poplars and plane-trees, stood out against the morning
sky, and, half-dead with weariness, and ragged and torn, I
rode through the south-western gate of the city.
IV
THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)
Across the Kevir
We must now resume the journey to India. You will

remember (see p. 33) that after arriving at Teheran from
Trebizond I made up a caravan consisting of six Persians,
one Tatar, and fourteen camels. On January 1 everything
is ready. The camels are all laden thick rugs cover their
;
backs to prevent them being rubbed sore by the loads, and

the humps stick up through two round holes in the cloths
in order that they may not be crushed and injured.
The largest camels go first. Each has its head adorned
with a red embroidered headstall, studded with shining plates
of metal and red and yellow pompons, and a plume waves
above its forehead. Round the chest is a row of brass sleigh-
bells, and one large bell hangs round the neck. Two of these
bells are like small church bells ;they are so big that the
camels would knock their knees against them if they were
hung in the usual way, so they are fastened instead to the
outer sides of a couple of boxes on the top of the loads. The
camels are proud of being decked so finely ; they are
conscious of their own importance, and stalk with majestic,
measured strides through the southern gate of Teheran.
My riding camel is the largest in the caravan (Plate
V.). He has thick brown wool, unusually long and plentiful
on his neck and chest. His loads form a small plat-
form between the humps and along his flanks, with a
hollow in the middle, where I sit as in an armchair, with
a leg on each side of the front hump. From there I can
spy out the land, and with the help of a compass put
—
down on my map everything I see hills, sandy zones, and
large ravines. Camels put out the two left legs at the same
46
,v ACROSS THE KEVIR 47
time, and then the two right legs. Their gait is therefore
rolling, and the rider sits as in a small boat pitching and
tossing in a broken sea. Some people become sea-sick from
sitting all day bobbing between the humps, but one soon
becomes accustomed to the motion. When the animal is
standing up it is, of course, impossible to mount on his back

without a ladder, so he has to lie down me get on him.
to let
But sometimes it happens that he too great a hurry to
is in
rise before I am settled in my place, and then I am flung
back on to my head, for he lifts himself as quickly as a steel
spring, first with the hind legs and then with the fore. But
when I am up I am quite at home. Sometimes, on the march,
the camel turns his long neck and lays his shaggy head on my
knee. I pat his nose and stroke him over the eyes. It
is impossible to be other than good friends with an animal
which carries you ten hours a day for several months. In the
morning he comes up to my tent, pushes his nose under the
door-flap, and thrusts his shaggy head into the tent, which is
not large, and is almost filled up when he comes on a visit.
After he has been given a piece of bread he backs out again
and goes away to graze.
The ring of bells is continually in my ears. The large
bells beat in time with the steps of the camels. Their strides
are long and slow, and a caravan seldom travels more than
twenty miles in a day.
Our road runs south-eastwards. We
have soon left
behind us the districts at the foot of the Elburz Mountains,
where irrigation canals from rivers are able to produce beauti-
ful gardens and fruitful fields. The farther we proceed the
smaller and more scattered are the villages. Only along their
canals is the soil clothed with verdure, and we have scarcely
left a village before we are out on the greyish-yellow desert,
where withered steppe shrubs stand at wide intervals apart.
Less and less frequently do we meet trains of asses bound
for Teheran with great bundles of shrubs and bushes from the
steppe to be used as fuel. The animals are small and
miserable, and are nearly hidden by their loads. Their nostrils
are cruelly pierced, so that they may be made to go quicker
and keep up longer. They look sleepy and dejected, these
small, obstinate donkeys which never move out of the way.
Their long ears flap backwards and forwards, and their under-
lips hang down like bags.
At the very last village on the edge of the desert we stay
two days to prepare ourselves for the dangers ahead of us.
48 FROM POLE TO POLE p.. i
The headman of the village owns ten camels, which he will

gladly hire us for a few days ; they are to carry trusses
of straw and water in leathern bags. Our own camels are
already fully laden, and the hired camels are only to give us a
start. When they turn back we shall have to shift for ourselves.
After we have left this village not a sign of life is visible.
Before us to the south-east small isolated hills stand up like
islands in the sea, and beyond them the horizon of the desert
lies as level as that of the ocean. Through this great sandy
waste the caravans travel from oasis to oasis, but in the north
there is a tract, called the Kevir, within which not the
smallest oasis can be found. Not a clump of grass, not even
a blade, is to be seen, for the desert is saturated with salt, and
when it rains in winter the briny clay becomes as slippery as
ice. And this is precisely the place we are making for.
We travelled a whole month before we came to the point
where we intended to make the attempt to cross the Kevir.
Hitherto everything had continued in a steady course, and
one day had been like another. It was winter and we had
fully 25 degrees of frost in the night: one day it snowed so
thickly that the foremost camels in the train were seen only
as faint shadows. For several days mist lay so dense over
the desert that we had to trust chiefly to the compass. Some-
times we travelled for four or five days without finding a drop
of water, but we had all we needed in our leathern bags.
At the edge of the sandy desert, where high dunes are
piled up by the wind, tamarisks and saxauls were often
growing. Both are steppe bushes which grow to a height
of several feet ; their stems are hard and provided us with
excellent fuel. My servants gathered large faggots, and the
camp fires flamed up brightly and grandly, throwing a yellow
light over the silent waste.
From a village called Jandak I set out with only two men
and four camels, but we had to wait for four days on the edge
of the salt desert because of rain. When rain falls in the
Kevir the whole desert soon becomes a sea of slippery mud,
and camels cannot walk without slipping and falling. Whole
caravans have perished in this cruel desert by being overtaken
by rain, and in many other cases the men only have managed
to escape with the loss of their camels and their merchandise.
It was therefore fortunate for us that we were overtaken by
rain before we were out on the slippery clay. We waited till
the desert had dried up again, and then we joined forces with
a caravan which came from the south.
,v ACROSS THE KEVIR 49
was pitch dark when wc began to move. A fire was
It
set going, and the camels were laden by its light. Then we
started, the fire disappeared, and night and the desert lay
before US. Only the ring of bells disturbed the silence. We
could not see where we were going, but had to trust. our riding
camels. The Persians marched all the morning and most of
the day without a halt the strength of both men and camels
;
is strained to the uttermost in order to get through the desert

before the next rain comes —
and it may come at any moment.
After a short rest we hasten northwards again, for there
is no question of halting for the night. The darkness seems
interminable, but at length it begins to grow light again.
Still the Persians do not stop, so there is nothing for me to
do but to struggle to keep up with them. " Keep awake,
sir " shouts Gulam Hussein
!
" you can sleep when we get to
;
the other side." Another day passes, and again we rest

awhile to give the camels some straw and to drink a cup of tea
ourselves. Scarcely have we begun to enjoy the rest, how-
ever, when the chimes of the bells ring out again. The
caravan is already on the move, so we pack up and follow in
its trail.
The sky seems very unpromising, and is clouded all over.
The desert is as level as a floor not a mound as high as a
;
kneeling camel. The sun sinks in the west. Like a red-hot

cannon-ball it shines through a rift between dark clouds, and
a shaft of dazzling red rays streams over the desert, the
surface of which shines like a purple sea. To the north the
sky is of a dark violet colour, and against this background
the camels stand out brick-red.
The sun sets, the colours grow pale, and the long shadows
which the camels lately cast far away over the ground fade
away. Another night rises up from the east. It grows
darker and darker, the caravan is lost to view, but the bells
ring out with a clear resonance. On we go without stop or
rest. This night is more trying, for we had not a wink of
sleep the night before.
The clouds break in the zenith, and the moon looks down
on our progress. The camels are seen again and shadows fall
again over the desert. Here it is as bare and desolate as on
the face of the moon.
At midnight the sky becomes dark once more. The
Persians have clambered up on to their camels, and the sway-
ing motion soon carries them into the land of dreams. Soon
no one is awake but the leader, who guides the first camel,
E
50 FROM POLE TO POLE it. i
and myself, who am riding on the last. Suddenly heavy

drops begin to fall, and in a minute the rain pelts down on
camels, loads, and sleepers.
In a second the pace of the caravan is changed. Hear
how hurriedly and anxiously the bells swing and beat They
!
peal as if to awaken soldiers and citizens in a burning town.

Now the rain patters down on the level desert and the camels
begin to slip. We
must hasten if our lives are dear to us, or
the desert will suck us in at the eleventh hour. The men
shout to urge on the camels. Now the bells clang as though
to wake up the dead to judgment.
There goes a camel down in the mire. Poor animals,
they are lost on such ground, for they have not hoofs like
horses, but soft callous pads. When they slip they do so
thoroughly and suddenly. All four legs fly up in one direc-
tion, and the heavy body with the loads thumps down in the
other. It is bad enough for the camel, but still worse for his
rider. Amoment before he sat so well packed up, longing
for the edge of the desert sea, and now he lies sprawling in
the slush.
One another the camels fall and have to he helped
after
up again. All this causes delay, and meanwhile the clay is
gradually becoming softer. At every step the camels sink
in deeper, the rain still pelts down, and the bells ring jerkily.
If they cease to ring, it will be because the desert has con-
quered ; at this very moment they stop.
"What isthe matter?" I call out.
" We are at the Devil's ditch," answers a voice in the
darkness.
The bells ring slowly again as the camels wade one after
the other through a trench full of salt water. I tighten my
knees when my turn comes. I cannot see the water, but I
hear it spurting and splashing round the legs of the camels in

front of me. Now my camel slides down a nasty mud bank.
He slithers and wriggles about to keep himself up, and then he,
too, tramps through the water and scrambles up the other side.
" Tamarisks," I hear some one shout. Welcome sound !
It means that we are safe, for nothing grows in the salt desert.
When we come to the first tamarisks we are again on sandy
ground. Then all danger is past, and what does it matter if
we are dead tired ? Two more hours and we reach a village.
There Gulam Hussein makes ready a chicken and some
eggs, and then I lie down in a hut and sleep as I have never
slept before.
,v THE OASIS OF TEBBES 51
The Oasis of Tebbes

Any one who has not travelled himself for weeks together
through the desert can scarcely conceive what it is to come
at length to an oasis. An oasis is to the desert wanderer what
a peaceful island with its sheltered anchorage is to mariners.
Oases are like stars in the dark vault of heaven, like
moments of happiness and prosperity in a man's life. If you
had roamed for two months in the wilderness, like myself and
my Persians, you would be able to understand our feelings
when we at last saw the date-palms of Tebbes beckoning to
us in the distance (see map, p. 73).
A minaret rises above the little town, which is
lofty
surrounded by a wall (Plate VI.). Within are old buildings,
mosques, and a fort with towers. Outside the town are
tilled fields and palm groves.
Spring had come when we pitched our tents on a meadow
in the shade of thick dark-green palms. There was a rustle
and pleasant whisper among the hard fronds when the spring
storms swept over the country. We were tired of the ever-
lasting dull yellow tint of the desert and were delighted with
the fresh verdure. Outside my tent purled a brook of fine
cool water, all the more agreeable after the intense drought of
the desert. A nightingale sang in the crown of the palm
above my tent. He plays an important part in Persian poetry
under the name of bulbul.
If you were in some mysterious manner transferred to
Tebbes, you would on the very first evening wonder what was
the curious serenade which you heard from the desert. If you
sat at the fall of day reading at the door of your tent, you
would look up from your book and listen. You would have
an uneasy feeling and be uncomfortable at being alone in the
tent. But after the same serenade had been repeated every
evening as regular as the sunset, you would become accustomed
to it,'and at length trouble yourself no more about it.
It is only the jackals singing their evening song. The
word " jackal " is Persian, and the jackal is allied to the
dog, the wolf, and the fox. He is a beast of prey and seeks
his food at night. He is not large, is yellowish - grey in
colour, has pointed ears and small, keen eyes, and holds his
tail erect, not hanging down like the wolfs. Nothing edible
comes amiss to him, but he prefers chickens and grapes to
fallen caravan animals. If he can find nothing else, he steals
dates in the palm gardens, especially when ripe fruits have
52 FROM POLE TO POLE n . i
fallen after heavy storms. The jackal is, indeed, a shameless,

impudent little rascal. One night a pack of jackals sneaked into
our garden and carried off our only cock under the very noses
of the dogs. We were awakened by the noise of a terrible
struggle between the two forces, but the jackals got the
better of it and we heard the despairing cackle of the cock
dying away in the desert.
Heaven knows where the jackals remain as long as the
sun is up ! In zoological text-books it is stated that they
dwell in holes, but I could see no holes round Tebbes, and yet
jackals come in troops to the oasis every night. They are as
mysterious as the desert ; they are found everywhere and
nowhere.
As soon as the sun sinks below the horizon and the dark-
ness spreads its veil over the silent desert, and the palms
doze off, waiting for the return of the sun, then begins the
jackals' serenade. It sounds like a short, sharp laugh rising
and falling, a plaintive whine increasing in strength and dying
away again, answered by another pack in another direction ;
a united cry of anguish from children in trouble and calling

for help. They say to one another, " Comrades, we are
hungry, let us seek about for food," and gather together from
their unknown lairs. Then they steal cautiously to the skirts
of the oasis, hop over walls and bars and thieve on forbidden
ground.
These insignificant noisy footpads live on the refuse and
offal of the desert from Cape Verde in the uttermost west of
the Old World to the interior of India but their home is not
;
in the silent desert alone. When the military bands strike up

at the clubs in Simla, you have only to put your head out of
the window to hear the mournful, piteous, and distressed howl
of the jackals.
They are not always to be treated lightly, for in 1882
jackals killed 359 men in Bengal alone. Especially are they
a terrible danger when hydrophobia rages among them, as
the experiences of the last Boundary Commission in Seistan
showed. Amad jackal sneaked into the camp one night and
bit a sleeping man in the face. Within six weeks the man
was dead. Others stole into the natives' huts and lay in
ambush, waiting for an opportunity to bite. Perhaps the
worst incident occurred on a dark winter's night, when a
north wind was raging and sweeping the dust along the
ground. A mad jackal came into the Englishmen's camp
and crept into a tent where several men were sleeping.
iv THE OASIS OF TEBBES 5 3
Fortunately he only set his teeth in a felt rug. This wakened

the sleepers, however, and they at once started up and looked
for weapons. The c;mip consisted of three sections, and more
than a hundred tethered camels. In the pitchy darkness it
was impossible to sec where the jackal went, but the camels
could be heard shrieking with fear, and thus it was only too
clear where the brute was. When day broke seventy-eight
bitten dromedaries were counted. They were isolated from
the others, and killed as soon as they showed signs of sickness,
while the dogs and goats which had been bitten by the jackal
were shot at once.
Twenty years ago I myself had a little adventure with
jackals. I was riding with a couple of servants and some
horses to the Caspian shore from the interior of Persia, and
encamped one evening at a village in the Elburz Mountains.
The caravanserai was notorious for its vermin, so I preferred
to make myself comfortable in a garden with fruit trees and
poplars, protected by a wall five feet high and without any
gates. We had to climb over the wall in order to get in.
I had a saddle for a pillow and lay wrapped in a felt rug and
a cloak. The remains of my supper, bread, honey, and

apples, stood on my two small leather trunks. When it grew
dark my men went off to the village and I rolled myself up
and went to sleep.
Two hours later I was awakened by a scratching noise at
the trunks and sat up to listen, but could hear nothing but
the murmur of a small brook close at hand. The darkness
was intense, only a little starlight passing faintly through the
foliage. So I went to sleep again. A little later I was roused
once more by the same noise, and heard a tearing and tugging
at the straps. Then I jumped up and distinguished half a
dozen jackals disappearing like shadows among the poplars.
There was no more sleep for me that night. It was all I
could do to keep the importunate beasts at a distance. If I
kept quiet for a minute they were up again, tearing the leathern
straps, and would not make off until I struck a box with my
riding whip. They soon became accustomed even to this and
drew back only a few steps. Then I remembered the apples,
and as soon as the jackals crept up again, I threw one of them
with all my strength into the ruck, and used them as missiles
till the last apple had disappeared into the darkness. Most
of my shots were misses, for I only once heard a howl from
one of the impudent animals.
The ni«rht seemed endless, but at length the day dawned
between the poplars, and the jackals jumped quietly over the
wall. Then I should have liked some breakfast, but there
was not a bit of the supper left the jackals had taken it all.
;
However, I had a sound sleep instead. I heard afterwards

that the jackals in that country are so vicious that
two or
three of them will attack a man, so in future I always had my
servants sleeping near me.
While speaking of jackals we must not forget the hyaena,
for this animal is one of the denizens of the desert, though it
is of another genus. The hyaena is a singular animal, neither
dog nor cat, but a mixture of both and larger than either. It
is of a dirty greyish-brown colour with black stripes
or patches,
has a rounded head with black muzzle and eyes, and short
hind legs, so that the bristly back slopes downwards. It
prowls about for food at night, and in western Persia comes

down from its hiding-places in the mountains to the caravan
roads in quest of fallen asses, horses and camels. If corpses
are not buried deep enough it scratches them up from beneath
the tombstones, for it lives almost exclusively on dead and
corrupted flesh.
Thus the four-footed inhabitants of the desert prowl
around the outskirts of Tebbes and share the country with
panthers, wild asses and graceful elegant gazelles. Tebbes
itself lies lonely and forgotten like an island in the ocean.
The principal caravan road connecting the oasis with the
outer world runs north-eastwards to the holy town of Meshed,
whither many pilgrims flock. From Meshed it is only a few
days' journey through a mountainous tract to the frontier
between Persia and Russian Asia. There lie Transcaspia,
Samarcand, Bukhara, Turkestan, and the Kirghiz Steppe.
This road would take us out of our way to India, but while
we halt at Tebbes I can tell you something about the country
it passes through.
V
ON THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE (1893-5)
Into Asia from Orenburg
I STARTED my
journey across the Kirghiz Steppe in November,
1893, from Orenburg on the Ural River, which for some distance
forms the boundary between Asia and Europe. I travelled in a
stout tarantass, the common means of conveyance on Russian
country roads it consists of a sort of a box on two bars between
;
the wheel axles, with a hood but no seat. The bottom is

filled with hay, on which are spread a mat, cushions and
pillows, furs and felt rugs, for the cold is intense. There are
ninety-nine stages and changes of horses between Orenburg and
Tashkent, the capital of Russian Turkestan. At the post-houses
nothing can be got but tea, so provisions for nineteen days had
to be taken with us, as well as sawn wood, rope and tools in
case anything should break, and a large pot of cart-grease to
keep the wheels cool. My
boxes and trunks are wrapped in
bast-matting and secured with strong ropes to the driver's box
and behind the tarantass. It takes time to get everything
ready, and it is late in the afternoon before the first team of
three post-horses is led out and harnessed to the vehicle. I
take my largest fur coat and pack myself in among the

cushions and felt rugs. The carriage is open in front and the
whirling snow which sweeps round the corners flies straight
into my face. The driver takes his seat on the box, shouts
shrilly and cracks his whip, and we dash along the streets of
Orenburg in the snow and twilight to the lively jingle of
the bells.
The lights come to an end and the night is intensely
dark when we come out to the high-road leading into Asia.
The bells worn by the middle horse on a necklace round his
neck ring in frequent beats. This horse always goes at a trot,
55
5
r
> FROM POLE TO POLE
being harnessed between the shafts with a high wooden arch
above his neck, but the two outside horses go at a canter.
The horses are accustomed to this pace and action, and a
Scale, 1:15,000,000
English Miles
150 200 250 J
AFGHAN yS^T AN '
^{^pîN-~-lKl ~4
62 Longitude East 66 of Greenwich
Emery Walker so
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM ORENBURG TO THE PAMIR (pp. 55-71).
rapidly moving team is a fine sight. After three hours a

yellow light is seen through the swirling snow, and the team
dashes into a yard and comes to a halt at the steps of a
house. As I have been already tossed about a good deal, I
am glad to jump out and get a glass of tea. The horses are
v INTO ASIA FROM ORENBURG 57
taken into the stable, and a fresh team is led out to take their
place in the still warm
harness.
The samovar, or Russian tea-urn, is boiling in the great
room. While I drinking my first glass of tea the stamp-
am
ing and rattle is heard of two other teams which roll into the
yard. It is the post and the courier enters covered with snow
;
and with icicles on his beard. He is a good fellow, and we

become acquainted at once and travel together to Orsk. He
has travelled for twenty years with the mails between the two
towns and must have covered altogether a distance as far as
from the earth to the moon and six thousand miles besides.
My new driver now appears and calls out "The troika 1 is
ready." Then I pack myself in again among the cushions
and rugs and off we speed once more through the darkness
and snow.
After forty-eight hours we are in Orsk, which also stands
on the Ural River and when we leave this town with fresh
;
horses and steer southwards we are on Asiatic ground, in the

vast Kirghiz Steppe, which extends from Irkutsk to the
Caspian Sea, from the Ural River to the Syr-darya.- It is
extremely flat and looks like a frozen sea. Day after day we
drive southwards, the horses ready to run away there is ;
nothing to drive over, no ditches to fall into, no stones to

carry away a wheel. The hoofs hammer on the hard ground,
the wheels creak, I and my things are shaken and thrown
about in the carriage, the coachman plants his feet firmly
against the foot-board lest he should tumble off, and on we go
over the flat dreary steppe. As we drive on day and night
the tarantass seems always to be in the centre of the same
unbroken landscape, always at the same distance from the
horizon.
Here live the Kirghizes, a fine race of graziers and horse-
men. They support themselves by their large flocks of sheep,
and also own numerous horses and camels, as well as cattle.
Therefore they are dependent on the grass of the steppe, and
wander like other nomads from pasture to pasture. When
their flocks have eaten up the grass at one place, they roll
up their black tents, pack all their belongings on camels and
migrate to another spot. They are a freeborn, manly people
and love the boundless steppe. Life in the open air and on
the level country, which affords grazing to their flocks, has
sharpened their intellect to a wonderful degree. They never
1
A team of three horses abreast.
- The word "darya" means "river."
—
5 8 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
forget a place they have once seen. If the steppe plants grow
closer or thinner, if the ground shows the slightest inequality,
if there is grey or black gravel of different
coarseness— all
these details serve as marks of recognition. When we rest
a minute halfway between two post-houses to let the horses
" Yonder
breathe, the Kirghiz driver turns round and says,
rides a Kirghiz on a dappled mare." Yet on directing my
field-glass towards the indicated spot, I can only see a small
dot, and cannot distinguish what it is.
stations on our road are usually small solid wooden
The
houses with two lamp-posts at the door and a white board,
on which are written the distances to the next stations in each
direction. In some places there is no house at all but only
a black Kirghiz tent, and instead of a stable fences of sticks
and reeds afford the horses shelter. At one such station
three camels are harnessed to the tarantass, and the clumsy
animals waddle along so that their humps bob and roll on
their backs. The reason for this change is that we are now
on the shore of the Sea of Aral, where the soft yielding
drifts make it impossible for horses to draw the tarantass.
The two rivers, the Syr-darya (or Jaxartes) and the Arau-
darya (or Oxus), which rise in the Pamir, flow into the Sea
of Aral. The Cossacks carry on a profitable sturgeon fishery
in this lake, which in area is not very much smaller than
Scotland, and contains a great number of small islands
whence its name, for the word aral means " island."
With fresh horses we speed along the bank of the Syr-
darya. Here grow small woods and thickets where tigers
stalk their prey, and in the dense reed beds wild boars dig up
roots. The shy gazelles like the open country, hares spring
over the shrubs, ducks and geese quack on the banks, and
flocks of pheasants lure the traveller to sport. The setting
sun sheds a gleam of fiery red over the steppe, and as it
grows dim the stars begin to twinkle. The monotonous ring
of the bells and the shouts of the driver never cease, whether
we are near the river or far off in the dreary steppe. The
ground becomes soft and swampy. The wheels cut like
knives into the mud. We move more and more slowly and
heavily, and at last stick fast in the mire. The driver shouts
and scolds, and cracks his whip over the team. The middle
horse rears, one of the outside horses jibs and the other
gathers himself together for a spring which makes the traces
break with a loud report. Then the driver jumps down and
says, " You must wait here, sir, while I ride back for two
v INTO ASIA FROM ORENBURG 59
more horses." And he trots off in the darkness. After

waiting about two hours I hear the tramp of horses in the
distance. Now the team is made ready, the two extra
horses arc attached in front, the coachman takes his place
on the box, and with united strength our animals drag the
heavy vehicle up out of the slough. We roll and jolt on
again with lumps of wet clay dropping and splashing round
the wheels.
Samarcand and Bukhara

Russian Central Asia has ten million inhabitants and an
area twelve times as large as the British Isles. The part
which is called Turkestan extends between Eastern Turkestan
and the Caspian Sea, the Kirghiz Steppe, Afghanistan, and
Persia. The greater part is occupied by blown sand, the " Red
Sand " and the " Black Sand." Right through the desert flow
the two rivers, the Syr-darya and Amu-darya. Two railway
lines cross Turkestan, one from the Kirghiz Steppe to
Tashkent, the other from the Caspian Sea to Tashkent and
Ferghana. Ferghana is the most fruitful part of Turkestan
and lies between mountains in its eastern portion.
Tashkent, the capital of Turkestan, has 200,000 inhabitants,
and is the headquarters of the governor-general. South-west
of Tashkent is the district of Samarcand, with a capital of
the same name. South-west of Samarcand again, on the
north of the Amu-darya, stretches a country called Bukhara,
ruled by an Emir, a prince under the supremacy of Russia.
Close to the Caspian Sea, on the east, there is a large area
of country called Transcaspia. Central Asia was conquered
by Russia forty-five years ago, Transcaspia thirty years ago.
Transcaspia is inhabited by Turkomans, a powerful and
warlike people, who in former times used to make raids into
northern Persia, carrying off men and women, whom they
sold as slaves in the markets of Bukhara and Samarcand.
General Skobeleff put a check to their domination when he
invaded the country in 1880. In order to convey troops
and war material into the country a railway was laid down
through the desert. It runs from one oasis to another, and
hardy desert shrubs were planted or upright palings erected
to protect the line from the drifting sand.
When the Turkomans were attacked by the Russians, they
withdrew within the walls of the large fortress which is called
" The Green Hill." They numbered about 45,000 in all— men,
women and children —and they believed

that the fortress was
impregnable. The Russian
general, Skobeleff, had a mine
carried under the wall. Inside the fortress the Turkomans
heard the soldiers working underground with picks and crow-
bars, but did not understand what was intended. They
supposed that the soldiers would crawl up out of a hole one
after another and therefore they assembled with shining
weapons above the place of danger. Consequently when the
mine exploded a large number of unfortunates were killed,
and the enemy stormed in over the ruins of the wall.
A
fearful massacre followed of all those who did not seek
safety in flight. The Persian slaves and some thousands of
women were spared. Twenty thousand bodies lay in heaps
within and without the fortress. The Turkomans will never
forget that day. The cavalry band played at the head of the
columns during the fight. Old Turkomans still remember the
strains. They cannot hear regimental bands without weeping
for some relative who fell at "The Green Hill." Here was
the death-bed of their freedom and they were swallowed up by
mighty Russia.
I have crossed Turkestan many times by rail, in tarantass,
and on horseback. I have strolled for weeks through the

narrow picturesque streets and the gloomy bazaars of the old
town called Bukhara, the " Blessed." There silk is produced
and carpets are woven great caravans pass by laden with
;
cotton disfigured by sores, lepers sit begging in front of the

;
mosques ;
mulberry trees raise their crowns above artificial
ponds. From the summit of a tall minaret criminals used to
be thrown down to be dashed to pieces on the street.
Sixty years ago there ruled in Bukhara a cruel Emir who
took a delight in torturing human beings. A mechanician
from Italy fell into his clutches and was sentenced to death.
The Italian promised that if his life were spared he would
construct a machine wherewith the Emir could measure the
flight of time. His prayer was granted and he made an
ordinary clock. This called forth the Emir's astonishment
and admiration, and the Italian lived in high favour for a time.
Later on, however, the tyrant wished to force him to embrace
Islamism, but he steadfastly refused. At that time there was
in Bukhara a cave called " the bugs' hole," and into this the
unfortunate man was thrown to be eaten up by vermin.
Seventy years ago two Englishmen languished in this abomin-
able place.
There arc towns in Asia with names which impress us as
v SAMARCAND AND BUKHARA 61
soon as we hear them, like Jerusalem, Mecca, Benares, Lhasa,

Samarcand is one of these. It is not a place of pilgrimage,
but it is an ancient town and famous among the Mohammedans
of Asia. It was already in existence when Alexander the
Great conquered Central Asia. Since then vast swarms of
men and migrations of peoples have swept over this region.
The Arabs have subdued it, countless hordes of Mongols have
passed through it pillaging and devastating, and now at last
it lies under the sceptre of the Tsar. Samarcand attained
the height of its splendour during the rule of the powerful
Timur. When he died in the year 1405 he had conquered all
Central Asia, Persia, Mesopotamia, South Russia, Turkey,
India and many other countries. This Timur the Lame was
not only a great general but a man of culture, for he loved art
and science, and listened willingly to the songs of the poets.
He built his own mausoleum, which still rears its melon-
shaped dome above Samarcand, and had carved in raised
letters on a marble tablet the words :
" If I still lived, mankind
would tremble."
Timur had a wife, Bibi, whom he dearly loved. She
expressed a wish that her coffin should not be buried but
should remain above ground, and therefore Timur caused to
be erected the handsome mosque-tomb which still bears her
name. When it was finished the Queen went, attended by
her slaves, to inspect her last resting-place. A poisonous
snake crept from under an arch. Those present wished to
kill it, but the Queen forbade them and caressed the snake,
which offered her no harm. When at length she died she
—
was decked with all her jewels costly pearls, necklaces, and
—
gold bangles and her coffin was placed in the vault. One
night thieves broke into the tomb, opened the coffin and took
all the Queen's ornaments ; but when they were sneaking off
with their booty the snake crept out and bit them so that they
died immediately.
The great market-place of Samarcand is one of the finest
squares I have seen in Asia. There carts and caravans
swarm, there fruit sellers and pitcher-makers take their stand,
there dancing dervishes beg for alms. On all four sides
stand stately buildings erected by Timur and his successors.
Their facades, cupolas and minarets are covered with blue
faience, burned and glazed tiles in varied patterns and texts
from the holy book of Islam, the Koran. It is worth while
to ascend one of the lofty minarets to take a look over
Samarcand. Hence we see innumerable gray mud houses
with courts in the centre, pools, canals and gardens, and in

the maze of streets, squares and lanes moves a stream of
people of Turkish and Persian race. The dark-blue cupolas
stand out against the light-blue sky, and are surrounded by
luxuriant dark-green vegetation. In autumn the gardens
assume a bright yellow tint. In winter the whole country is
often buried in snow, and only the bright blue cupolas rise
above the whiteness. Samarcand is the " blue " town, just as
Jaipur in India is the "pink" town.
The Pamir
To the south-east of Samarcand stand the huge highlands
of the Pamir, called by its inhabitants the " Roof of the
World," for it seems to them to rise like a roof above all the
rest of the earth. From this great centre run the lofty
mountain ranges of the earth, the Himalayas, the Trans-
himalaya, Karakorum, Kuen-lun, and the Tien-shan on the
east, the Hindu-Kush on the west. If you examine the map
you will see that most of the ranges of Asia and Europe, and
the most important, are connected with it. The Tibetan
ranges extend far into China and beyond the Indian penin-
sula. The Tien-shan is only the first link in a series of
mountains which stretch north-eastwards throughout Asia.
The continuation of the Hindu - Kush is found in the
mountains of northern Persia, in the Caucasus and the
chains of Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, the Alps and
Pyrenees. The Pamir is like the body of a cuttlefish, which
throws out arms in all directions. The Pamir and all the
huge mountain ranges which have their roots in this ganglion
are the skeleton of Asia, the framework round which the low-
lands cling like masses of muscle. Rivers, streams, brooks,
and rivulets, are the arteries and capillaries of the Asiatic
body. The deserts of the interior are the sickly consumptive
parts of the body where vitality is low, while the penin-
sulas are the limbs which facilitate communication between
different peoples across the intervening seas.
In the month of February, 1894, I was at Margelan, which
is the capital of Ferghana, the granary of Central Asia, a rich
and fruitful valley begirt on all sides by mountains. I had

got together a small reliable caravan of eleven horses and
three men, one of them being Islam Bay, who was afterwards
to serve me faithfully for many years. We did not need to
v THE PAMIR 63
take tents with us, for the Governor gave orders to the
Kirghizes, to set up two of their black felt tents wherever I
wished to pass the night. We had a good supply of pro-
visions in our boxes, straw and barley in sacks, and steel
spades, axes, and alpenstocks, for we had to travel through
deep snow, and over smooth, slippery ice. Weforgot to
procure a dog, but one came to us on the way, begging to be
allowed to follow us.
We march southwards up on to the Pamir, following a
narrow valley where a foaming stream tumbles over ice-
draped boulders. We cross it by narrow, shaking bridges of
timber which look like matches when we gaze down on them
in the valley bottom from the slopes above. It thaws in
the sun, but freezes at night, and our path is like a channel
of ice running along the edge of a vertical precipice. We
have several Kirghizes with us to give assistance. One of
them leads the first horse, which carries two large sacks of
straw with my tent bed between them. The horse is shod
and can keep his feet on ice, but at one place the path slopes
to the edge. The horse stumbles, tries in vain to recover his
foothold, rolls over the edge, falls into the chasm, and breaks
his back on the bank of the river. The straw is scattered
among the stones, my bed dances along the stream, and all
the men rush down to save what they can.

Now steps are cut in the ice and the path is strewn with
sand. The higher we go the worse the travelling. A
Kirghiz leads each horse by the bridle, while another holds
on to his tail to help him if he stumbles. To ride is
impossible we crawl along on hands and feet. Darkness
;
follows twilight ;the rushing water of the stream gives forth

a sound of metallic clearness. We have been travelling more
than twelve hours when at last the valley opens, and we see
blazing camp fires in front of Kirghiz tents.
We mount higher day after day. We cross a pass, and at this
giddy height I experience the unpleasant feelings of mountain
sickness —splitting headache, nausea, and singing in the ears.
On the further side one of the affluents of the Amu-darya
flows westwards. This valley, the Alai, is broad and- open,
but full of snow in winter. We make our entry into the Alai
valley in a howling snowstorm and wade and plunge through
drifts. Two Kirghizes go in front with sticks to mark out
the way, in order that the horses may not sink in the snow.
Our little caravan moves slowly and painfully. One day the
snow is so deep that we have to hire four camels, which are
led in front of the caravan to tramp out a narrow path for

the horses. Everything is white, sky and earth run into one
another, and there is nothing black to be seen but the men,
camels, and horses.
At every camp we find excellent felt tents set up in
readiness for us. Once we had only a short distance to go
before reaching camp when we were stopped by a trench
filled with snow ten feet deep. The first horse disappeared
in a moment as though he had fallen through a trap-door.
His load was taken off, and he was pulled up with ropes.
Then the Kirghizes thought of a grand way of getting over
the treacherous snow. They took the felt covers of the tent
and spread them over the snow and led the horses one by
one over this yielding bridge.
All this journey we waded and plunged through snow-
drifts. One day I sent a horseman on in front to examine
the road, and only the horse's head and the rider could be
seen above the snow. Another time there was no Kirghiz
tent as usual, and we bivouacked round a fire behind a wall
of snow in a temperature of 29 below freezing-point. The
Kirghizes who should have furnished us with a tent had
been delayed on a pass by an avalanche of snow which over-
whelmed forty sheep. Six men had struggled on to meet us,
but two had stuck fast and were abandoned in the snow. Of
the four who arrived in a sorry condition, one had his foot
frozen and another had become snow-blind. The Kirghizes
usually protect their eyes by a long lock of horse-hair hang-
ing down over the forehead from beneath the cap, or blacken
the eye cavities and nose with charcoal.
Wolves swarm in these mountains, and we often saw the
spoor of these blood-thirsty robbers. Hunger makes them
very daring, and they do great damage to the flocks of the
Kirghizes, as they will kill even when they do not wish to
eat. A
single wolf had recently worried 180 sheep belonging
to a Kirghiz. A travelling Kirghiz was attacked in this
neighbourhood by a pack of wolves, and when the body was
found a couple of days later only the skull and skeleton were
left. Another Kirghiz, who was mounted, was attacked and
killed,horse and all. Two of my guides had fallen in with
twelve wolves the winter before, but fortunately they were
armed and killed two of them, which were at once devoured
by their comrades.
It is not difficult to imagine the terrible plight of
an unarmed Kirghiz attacked by wolves. They track him
v THE PAMIR 65
by scent and pursue him. Their wicked eyes glow with

fury and blood-thirstiness. They wrinkle up their upper lips
to leave their fangs exposed. Their dripping tongues hang
out of their jaws." The traveller hears their sneaking steps
behind him, and turning round can distinguish in the dusk
their grey coats against the white snow. lie grows cold with
fright, and putting up a prayer to Allah, springs and dashes
through the drifts in the hope of reaching the nearest village
of tents.
Every now and again the wolves halt and utter their
awful prolonged howl, but in an instant they are after the
man again. Every minute they become bolder. The man
flies for his life. They know that he cannot hold out long.
Now they catch hold of a corner of his fur coat, but let go
when he throws his cap at them. They pounce upon it and
tear it in pieces. This only whets their appetites. The poor
man staggers on until he can hardly put one foot before
another, and is almost at his last gasp. This is the moment,
and the wolves throw themselves upon him from all sides.
He screams, and fights with his hands he draws out his
;
knife and stabs into the pack in front of him, but a large wolf
springs upon him from behind and brings him to the ground.
There he has at any rate his back protected, but the eyes and
teeth of the wolves gleam above him in the darkness, and he
stabs at them with his knife. They know that he will tire of
this game soon. Two wolves tear open his boots to get at
his feet. He cannot reach them with his knife, so he sits up,
and at the same moment the leader seizes him by the neck
so that the blood spurts out over the white snow. The
wolves have now tasted blood and nothing can restrain them.
The man is beside himself and throws himself about thrusting
desperately with his knife. The wolves attack him from
behind and he falls again on his back. Now his knife moves
more slowly. The wolves yelp, bark and pant, and the froth
hangs round their teeth. The unfortunate man's eyes grow
dim and he closes them, consciousness leaves him and he
drops the knife from his hand, and the largest wolf is about to
plunge his fangs into his throat. But suddenly the leader stops
and utters a short bark, which in wolfs language is equivalent
to an oath, for at the foot of an adjacent hill are seen two
mounted Kirghizes, who have come out to seek their comrade.
The wolves disappear like magic. The poor man lies quite
motionless in his tattered furs, and the snow around is stained
red with blood. He is unconscious, but is still breathing and
F
his heart beats.His friends bind up his wounds with their

girdlesand carry him on the back of a horse to the tent,
where he soon comes back to life beside the flames of the
evening fire.
Of course the Kirghiz must hate wolves. But the animals

are cunning and seldom expose themselves to gunshot. Woe
to the wolf that is wounded or caught ! He is not killed, but
the most cruel tortures are devised for him.
When heavy winter snow falls in the Alai valley, the
wolves return to the higher wilds of the Pamir where the
snow lies less deep, and here they chase the wild sheep, Ovis
Poli, as it is named after its discoverer, Marco Polo. It has
large, round, elegantly curved horns and is somewhat larger
than the wild sheep of Tibet. The wolves chase Marco Polo's
sheep by a cunningly devised method. They hunt up a herd
and single out some less cautious or less quick-footed member.
This animal is forced by a watch posted ready beforehand to
take refuge on a projecting rock which is surrounded by
wolves. If they can get up to the sheep they take him easily,
but if not, they wait till his legs give way with weariness and
he falls into the jaws of his pursuers.
Many a time I have met wolves in various parts of Asia,
and many sheep, mules, and horses of mine have they
destroyed. How often has their dismal howl sounded outside
my though they were calling for my flesh and blood
tent, as !
We had ridden 300 miles when we came to a small

Russian frontier fort which rears its simple walls on the
middle of the " Roof of the World," beside one of the head-
waters of the Amu-darya. On the other side of the frontier
lies the Eastern Pamir, in the dominion of the Emperor of
China.
"The Father of Ice-Mountains"

Wherever one may be in the Eastern Pamir one sees the
Mus-tagh-ata, the " Father of Ice-Mountains," rear its rounded
summit above all the other peaks (see map, p. 56). Its height
is 25,800 feet, and accordingly it is one of the loftiest mountains
in the world. On its arched crest snow collects, and its under
layers are converted by pressure into ice. The mountain is
therefore crowned by a snow-covered ice-cap. Where there are
flat hollows round the summit, in these also snow is piled up as
in bowls. It glides slowly down with its own weight, and by
pressure from above is here also converted into ice. Thus
v "THE FATHER OF ICE-MOUNTAINS" 67
arc produced great tongues of ice, which move downwards

exceedingly slowly, perhaps only a few yards in the year.
They are enclosed between huge steep ridges, from which
time after time gravel and blocks of stone fall down on to the
ice and are carried down to lower levels. The further the ice
descends the warmer becomes the air, and then the ice melts
in the sun. As it melts below, the stream of ice is forced
down from above, so that its lowest margin is always to be
found in the same place. The gravel and boulders are
brought down thither and piled up together so as to form
great mounds and ridges, which are called moraines. The
ice-stream itself is called a glacier. Many such tongues of
ice fringe Mus-tagh-ata on all sides. They are several miles
long and half a mile to a mile broad. The surface is very
uneven and consists of innumerable knobs and pyramids of
clear ice.
I several excursions on the glaciers of Mus-tagh-ata
made
on foot or on yaks. One must be well shod so as not to slip,
and one must look out for crevasses. Once we were stopped
by a crevasse several yards broad and forty-five feet deep.
When we stooped over the brim and looked down, it had the
appearance of a dark-blue grotto with walls of polished glass,
and long icicles hung down from the edges. Streamlets of
melted ice run over the surface of the glacier, sometimes
flowing quietly and gently as oil in the greenish-blue ice
channels, sometimes murmuring in lively leaps. The water
can be heard trickling and bubbling at the bottom of the
crevasses, and the surface brooks often form fine waterfalls
which disappear into chasms of ice. On warm days when the
sun shines, thawing proceeds everywhere, and the water
trickles, bubbles, and runs all about the ice. But if the
weather is dull, cold, and raw, the glaciers are quieter, and
when winter comes with its severe cold they are quite hard
and still, and the brooks freeze into ice.
The yaks of the Kirghizes are wonderfully sure-footed,

and one can ride on them over slippery hillocky ice where a
man could not possibly walk. The yak thrusts down his
hoofs so that the white powdered ice spurts up around him,
and if the slope is so steep that he cannot get foothold, he
stretches out all four legs and holds them stiff ami rigid as
iron,and thus slides down without tumbling. Sometimes I
rode over moraine heaps of huge granite blocks piled one
upon another. Then I had to take a firm grip with my
knees, for the yak springs and jumps about like a lunatic.
Accompanied by specially selected Kirghizes, I tried four

times to climb to the top of the " Father of Ice-Mountains,"
but always without success. Our camp was pitched high up
among the moraines. Islam Bay, six Kirghizes, and ten yaks
were in readiness before sunrise, and we took with us ample
provisions, fur coats, spades and alpenstocks, food and a tent.
At first we climbed up over gravel, and then over snow which
became deeper the higher we went. As the air became rarer,
respiration was more difficult, and even the yaks halted
frequently to recover their breath. The Kirghizes walked on
foot and urged the animals up towards the giddy heights.
It took us the whole day to reach a point 20,700 feet above
sea-level. At this point we halted for the night, intending to
push on higher in the morning, but two of the Kirghizes were
so overcome with weariness and headaches that they asked to
be allowed to go down again. The others shovelled away
the snow and pitched the little tent within a wall of snow. A
fire was kindled and the tea-kettle put on, but our appetites
were poor, as we were suffering from mountain sickness. The
ten yaks stood tethered in the snow outside, and the Kirghizes
curled themselves up in their skin coats like hedgehogs. The
full moon soared like a silvery white balloon just above the
top of the mountain, and I left the tent to enjoy this never-to-
be-forgotten spectacle. The glacier below us lay in shadow
in its deep bed, but the snow-fields were dazzling white. The
yaks stood out jet black against the snow, their nostrils
steaming, and the snow crunching under them. Light white
clouds floated rapidly from the mountain under the moon.
At last I returned to the tent. The fire had died down, and
the recently melted snow had frozen into ice. There was a
smell of damp and smoke inside, and the men groaned and
complained of headache and singing in the ears. I crawled
under my furs, but could not sleep. The night was quiet, but
at times a dull report was heard when a crevasse was formed
in the ice or a boulder fell from the mountain-side.
When I crawled out from under my furs in the morning,
a violent snowstorm was sweeping along the flanks of the
mountain. Through the dense cloud of whirling snow we
could not see our way, and it would have been death to
mount to still higher regions. We might be glad if we could
struggle down again alive in such weather, so down we started
through the drifts, down headlong. We all needed a thorough
rest after this experience.

On another occasion we had a perilous adventure on the
v "THE FATHER OF ICE-MOUNTAINS" 69
rounded ice-cap of Mus-tagh-ata. Wcwere marching upwards

as usual, suspecting no danger, when the foremost yak, which
carried two large bundles of fuel, suddenly sank through the
snow and disappeared. Fortunately he was held last by his
horns, a hind leg, and the faggots, and there he hung
suspended over a dark yawning chasm. The snow had
formed a treacherous bridge over a large crevasse in the ice,
and this bridge gave way under the weight of the yak. We
had all the trouble in the world to haul him up again with
ropes.
A Kirghiz Gymkhana
At the foot of Mus-tagh-ata there is a level and extensive
valley,where grass thrives luxuriantly. The black tents of
the Kirghizes stand scattered about like spots on a panther's
skin. I hired one of these tents for the summer of 1904, and
spent several very interesting months in studying the habits

and mode of life of the people. If the weather was fine, I
made long excursions on horseback or on a yak, and compiled
a map of the surrounding country. If rain poured down, I
kept inside my own tent, or visited my Kirghiz neighbours
and talked with them, for by that time I had learned to speak
their language.
Round the large hive-shaped tents fierce dogs keep watch,
and small naked sunburnt children tumble about in play.
They are charmingly sweet, and it is hard to believe that they
will grow up into tall rough half-wild Kirghizes. But all
children are attractive and lovable before life and mankind
have hardened them. In the tent sit the young women,
spinning thread or weaving cloth the older women are busy
;
with the sour milk and butter behind a partition in the tent,
or perhaps they are sitting round a pot, cooking meat. A fire
is always burning in the middle of the tent, and the smoke
finds its way out through a round opening in the top. The
young men are out with the sheep or are looking after the
yaks grazing in the mountains. The older men repair saddles
and boots, make harness for horses or household utensils.
Sometimes they go hunting after wild sheep and goats.
When the sun sets the sheep are driven into folds near the
tent the women milk the ewes and yak-cows.
;
During the
night a watch is kept on account of the wolves. The
Kirghizes arc Mohammedans, and arc often heard intoning
Arabic prayers outside the tents.
Not many days had passed before I was on friendly terms
with allthe Kirghizes. They perceived that I wished them

well, and was glad to live among them. They came from
far and near and gave me presents — sheep and milk, wild
sheep they had shot, and mountain partridges. All my
servants except Islam Bay were Kirghizes, and they followed
me willingly wherever I chose to travel.
One day the chiefs of the Kirghizes decided to hold a
grand festival in my honour. It was to be a baiga, or
gymkhana, and early in the morning small parties of horse-
men were seen gathering to the great plain where the wild
sport was to take place.
When the sun was at its height I was escorted to the
arena by forty-two Kirghizes, who rode beside and behind
me. In their best clothes, coloured mantles with girdles and
embroidered caps, and with their daggers and knives, fire
steel, pipe and tobacco box rattling at their sides, they pre-
sented a stately and festal appearance. Among them might
be noticed the chief of the Kirghizes who lived on the eastern
side of Mus-tagh-ata. His long mantle was dark blue, his
girdle light blue on his head he had a violet cap with a gold
;
border, and at his side dangled a scimitar in a black scabbard.

The chief himself was tall, with a thin black beard, scanty
moustaches, small oblique eyes and high cheek bones, like
most Kirghizes.
The plain in front of us was black with horsemen and
horses there was bustle, neighing, and stamping on all sides.
;
Here the high chief, Khoat Bek, a hundred and eleven years
old, sits firmly and surely in his saddle, though bent by the
weight of years. His large aquiline nose points down to his
short white beard, and on his head he wears a brown turban.
He is surrounded by five sons, also grey-bearded old men,
mounted on tall horses.
Now the performance began. The spectators rode to one
side, leaving an open space in front of us. A horseman
dashed forward with a goat in his arms, dismounted, and let
the poor animal loose near to us. Another Kirghiz seized
the goat by the horn with his left hand, cut off its head with
a single blow of his sharp knife, allowed the blood to flow,
and then took the goat by the hind legs and rode at full
speed round the plain. A
troop of riders appeared in the
distance and drew near at a furious pace. The hoofs of eighty
horses beat the ground and the deafening noise was mingled
with wild cries and the rattle of stirrup irons. They rushed
v A KIRGHIZ GYMKHANA 71
swiftly past us in a cloud of dust, making a current of air like

a storm of wind. The first rider threw the dead goat, which
was still warm, in front of me, and then they whirled off like
thunder over the plain.
''
Ride back a little, sir," called out some chiefs, " there
will be wild work now." We had hardly time to draw back
far enough before the excited troop came rushing along, with
their horses in a lather, like an avalanche from the mountains.
Round the goat there was an inextricable confusion of men
and horses, only partially visible in the dust. They were
struggling for the goat, and the one who gets it is the winner.
They crush together and tear and push horses shy, rear, or
;
fall down, while other horses leap over them. Holding on to

their saddles the horsemen bend down towards the ground and
feel for the hide. Some have fallen off and are in danger of
being tramped upon, while others are hanging half under
their horses.
Still worse becomes the tumult when a couple of men on
yaks push themselves into the scrimmage. The yaks prod
the horses' loins with their horns. The horses are irritated
and kick, and the yaks defend themselves ;then there is a
perfect bullfight in full swing.
A strong fellow has now succeeded in getting a firm hold
of the goat. His horse knows what to do, and backs with his
rider out of the scrimmage and flies swiftly as the wind in a
wide course round the plain. The others pursue him, and as
they turn back they look as if they mean to ride over us with
irresistible force. At the last moment, however, the horses
stop as if turned to stone ; and then the struggle begins
again. Many have their faces covered with blood, others
have their clothes torn, caps and whips lie scattered over the
arena, and one or two horses are lamed.
" It is very well for us who are old that we are not in the
crush,"I said to Khoat Bck.
"
Ah, it is nearly a hundred years ago since I was as old
as you are now," the old man answered with a smile.
VI
FROM PERSIA TO INDIA (1906)
Tebbes to Seistan
Now we can return to Tebbes and continue our journey to

India.
The camels are laden, we mount, the bells ring again,
and our caravan travels through the desert for days and
weeks towards the south-east. At length we come to the
shore of a large lake called the Hamun, which lies on the
frontier between Persia and Afghanistan. The Amu-darya
forms the boundary between Bukhara and Afghanistan, the
northern half of which is occupied by the Hindu - kush
mountains. The name means "slaughterer of Hindus,"
because Hindus who venture up among the mountains after
the heat of India have every prospect of being frozen to death
in the eternal snow. Large quantities of winter snow are
melted in spring, and then rivers and streams pour through
the valleys to collect on the plains of southern Afghanistan
into a large river called the Hilmend, which flows into the
Hamun. As there are no proper boats or ferries on the lake,
we had here to take farewell of the camels who had served us
so faithfully and had carried us and our belongings through
such long stretches of desert. Wewere sorry to part with
them, but there was nothing for it but to sell them to the
only dealer who would take them off our hands.
Reeds and rushes grow in abundance along the flat shores
of the Hamun, but no trees. The natives build their huts of
reeds, and also a curious kind of boat. Handfuls of dry,
yellow reeds of last year's growth are tied together into cigar-
shaped bundles, and then a number of such bundles are
bound together into a torpedo-like vessel several yards long.
When laden this reed boat floats barely four inches above the
72
'
fEBBES TO SEISTAN 73
water, but it can never be filled and made to sink by the

waves. It true that the bundles of reeds might be loosened
is
and torn apart by a high sea, but the natives take good care-
not to go out in bad weather.
It took fourteen of these reed boats to accommodate our
party and its belongings. A half-naked Persian stood at the
stern of each boat and' pushed the vessel along by means of a
— — —'
Emervâlker SC.
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM TEHERAN To BALUCHISTAN (pp. 46-54 and 72-81).
long pole, for the lake though twelve miles broad is only five
or six feet deep. A fresh breeze skimmed the surface when
we came out of the reeds into the open lake, and it was very
refreshing after weeks of the dry oppressive heat of the desert.
After crossing the Ilamun we had not more than a couple
of hours' ride to the capital of Seistan, Nasrctabad. Five
months before us another guest had arrived, the plague ;
and just at the time the black angel of death was going
about in search of victims. He took the peasant from the
plough and the shepherd from his flock and the fisherman,
;
who in the morning had gone cheerily to set his nets in the
waters of the Hamun, in the evening lay groaning in his hut
with a burning fever.
Asia is the birth-place of the ruling peoples, the Aryans,
and of the yellow race ; it is the cradle of the great re-
ligions, Buddhism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism ;
and
it is also the breeding-place of fearful epidemic diseases which
from time to time sweep over mankind like devastating

waves. Among these is the " Black Death," the plague
which in the year 1350 carried off twenty -five millions of
the people of Europe. Men thought that it was a divine
punishment. Some repented and did penance others gave
;
themselves up to drunkenness and other excesses. They had

then no notion of the deadly bacteria, and of the serum which
renders the blood immune from their attacks.
In 1894 a similar wave swept from China through Hong
Kong to India, where three millions of human beings died in
a few years. I remember a small house in the poor quarter
of Bombay which I visited in 1902. The authorities had

given orders that when any one died of the plague a red cross
should be painted beside the doorpost of the house. And
this small house alone had forty crosses.
And now in 1906 the plague had reached Seistan. From
the roof of the house where I lived with some English officers,
we could see the unfortunate people carrying out their dear ones
to the grave. We could see them wash the bodies in a pool
outside the walls, and then resume their sad procession. The
population of the small town seemed in danger of extermina-
tion, and at length the people fled in hundreds. An English
doctor and his assistant wished to help them by means of
serum injections, but the Mohammedan clergy, out of hatred
of the Europeans, made the people believe that it was the
Christians who had let loose the disease over the country.
Deluded and excited, the natives gathered together and made
an attack on the British Consulate, but were repulsed. Then
they went back to their huts to die helplessly.
They tried as far as possible to keep the cases of death
secret and carried out the corpses at night. Soon the deaths
were so frequent that it was impossible to dig proper graves.
Those, therefore, who thought of the hyaenas and jackals,
digged their own graves beforehand. Processions round the
mosque of the town were instituted, with black flags and a
sacrificial goat at the head, and the mercy of Allah was
vi TEBBES TO SEISTAN 7 5
implored. But Allah did not hear, and infection was spread
among the people who flocked together to the processions.
Under the microscope the deadly microbes appear only as
quite small elongated dots, though they arc magnified twelve
hundred times. They live in the blood of rats, whose para-
sites communicate the infection to human beings. It is
therefore most important to exterminate all rats when an

outbreak of plague occurs. The disease is terribly infectious.
In a house where the angel of death descends and carries off
a victim, all the inmates die one after another. Stupidly blind,
the natives did not understand what was good for them, and
could not be induced to burn infected clothes and the whole
contents of a plague-stricken house. They would not part
with their worldly goods and preferred to perish with them.
In one house dwelt a poor carpenter with his wife, two
half-grown sons and a daughter. For two days the father had
been oppressed by a feeling of weakness, and then, his body
burning with fever, he lay raving in a corner on the floor of
stamped earth. He was indifferent to everything and wished
only to be left in peace. If his wife threw a rug over him he
groaned, for the lymph glands, which swell up in large
tumours, are exceedingly painful. In a couple of days the
microbes penetrate from the tumour into the blood and the
unfortunate man dies of blood poisoning. The vermin under
the man's clothes leave the body as soon as the blood ceases
to flow. Then is the danger greatest for the survivors who
stand mourning round the deathbed, for the vermin seek cir-
culating blood and carry infection from the corpse with them.
It is useless to warn the natives of the danger, for they do not
believe a word of it — and so die in their turn.
A Baluchi Raid
We were glad to leave a country where the plague had
taken up its abode and to hasten away to the desert tracts
of Baluchistan, which still separated us from India. My old
servants had taken their departure, and a new retinue, all
Baluchis, accompanied me.
We rode jam has, or swift-footed dromedaries, which for
generations have been trained for speed. Their legs are long
and thin, but strong, with large foot pads which strike the
hard ground with a heavy tapping sound as they run. They
carry their heads high ami move more quickly than the
majestic caravan camels but when they run they lower their
;
heads below the level of the hump and keep it always

horizontal.
Two men ride on each jambas, and therefore the saddle
has two hollows and two pairs of stirrups. A peg is thrust
through the cartilage of the nose and to its ends a thin cord
is attached. By pulling this to one side or the other the
dromedary may be turned in any direction. My
courser had
a swinging gait but did not jolt ; and I sat comfortably and
firmly in the saddle as we mile after mile behind.
left
It is not more than thirty or forty years ago since the

Baluchis used to make raids into Persian territory, and
although much better order is maintained now that the
country is under British administration, an escort is still
necessary — I had six men mounted on dromedaries and
armed with modern rifles. This is how a raid is conducted.
One evening Shah Sevar, or the " Riding King," the
warlike chieftain of a tribe in western Baluchistan, sits
smoking a pipe by the camp fire in front of his black
tent, which is supported by tamarisk boughs (Plate VIL).
The tale-teller has just finished a story, when two white-
clad men with white turbans on their heads emerge from
the darkness of the night. They tie up their dromedaries,
humbly salute Shah Sevar, who invites them to sit down and
help themselves to tea from an iron pot. Other men come
up to the fire. All carry long guns, spears, swords, and daggers.
Some lead two or three dromedaries each.
Fourteen men are now gathered round the fire. There is
a marked silence in the assembly, and Shah Sevar looks
serious. At length he asks, " Is everything ready?"
" Yes," is the reply from all sides.
"
" Are the powder and shot horns filled ?
" Yes."
"
" And the provisions packed in their bags ?
" Yes — dates, sour cheese, and bread for eight days."
" I told you the day before yesterday that this time we
shall strike at Bam. Bam is a populous town. If we are

discovered too early the fight may be hot. We
must steal
through the desert like jackals. The distance is three hundred
miles, four days' journey.
Again Shah Sevar stares into the fire for a while and then
asks, "Are the jambas in good condition?"
11
Yes."
" And ten spare dromedaries for the booty?"
" Yes."
vi A BALUCHI RAID 77
Then he rises and all the others follow his example.
Their wild, bold faces glow coppery-red in the light of the
fire. They consider petty thieving a base occupation, but
raiding and pillaging an honourable sport, and boast of the
number of slaves they have captured in their day.
" Mount," commands the chieftain in a subdued voice.
Muskets are thrown over the shoulder and rattle against the
hanging powder-horn and the leather bag for bullets, flint, steel,
and tinder. Daggers arc thrust into belts, and the men mount
without examining the saddle-girths and bridles, for all has
been carefully made ready beforehand. The spear is secured
in front of the saddle. " In the name of Allah," calls out
Shah Sevar, and the party rides off through the night at a
steady pace.
The path they follow is well known and the stars serve as
guides. Day breaks, the sun rises, and the shadows of the
dromedaries point towards Bam over the hard yellow sand where
not a shrub grows. Not a word has been spoken during the
night, but when the first seventy miles have been traversed the
chief says, "We will rest a while at the Spring of White Water."
On arriving at the spring they refill their water-skins and let
the dromedaries drink. Then they go up into the neighbour-
ing hills and wait till the hot hours of the day are over.
They never encamp at the springs, for there they are likely to
meet with other people.
At dusk they are in the saddle again. They ride harder
than during the first night and travel till they come to a salt
spring. The third night the dromedaries begin to breathe
more heavily, and when the sun rises flecks of white froth hang
from their trembling lips. They are not tired but only a
little winded, and they press on through clouds of dust
without their riders having to urge them.
Now the party leaves behind it the last desert path, which
is only once in a while used by a caravan, and beyond it is a
perfect wilderness of hardened salt-impregnated mud. Nothing

living can be seen, not even a stray raven or vulture which
might warn the people in Bam of their danger. Without rest
the robber band pushes on all day, as silent as the desert, the
only sounds being the long-drawn breathing of the dromedaries
and the rasping sound of their foot-pads on the ground.
When the reflection of the evening sky lies in purple
shades over the desert, they have only ten or twelve miles
more to go.
Shah Sevar pulls up his dromedary and orders a halt in
7S FROM POLE TO POLE it. i
muffled tones, as though he feared that his voice might be

heard in Bam. With a hissing noise the riders make their
animals kneel and lie down, and then they spring out of the
saddle, and tie the end of the cord round the dromedaries' fore-
legs to prevent the animals from getting up and making a noise
and thus spoiling the plan. All are tired out and stretch
themselves on the ground. Some sleep, others are kept
awake by excitement, while four riders go scouting in different
directions. Bam itself cannot be seen, but the hill is visible
at the foot of which the town stands. The men long for
night and the cover of darkness.
The day has been calm and hot, but now the evening is
cool and the shadows dense. A faint breeze comes from the
north, and Shah Sevar smiles. If the wind were from the east,
he would be obliged to make a detour in order not to rouse the
dogs of the town. It is now nine o'clock and in an hour the
people of Bam will be asleep. The men have finished their
meal, and have wrapped up the remainder of the dates, cheese,
and bread in their bundles and tied them upon the dromedaries.
" Shall we empty the waterskins so as to make the loads
lighter for the attack ? " asks a Baluchi.
" No," answers Shah Sevar " keep all the water that is left,
;
for we may not be able to fill the skins in the town before
our retreat."
" It
is time," he says;
" have your weapons ready." They
mount again and ride slowly towards the town.
" As soon as anything suspicious occurs I shall quicken
my pace and you must follow. You three with the baggage
camels keep in the rear."
The robbers gaze in front like eagles on their prey, and the
outlines of the hill gradually rise higher above the western
horizon. Now only three miles remain, and their sight,
sharpened by an outdoor life, distinguishes the gardens of
Bam. They draw near. The bark of a dog is heard, another
joins in —
all the dogs of the town are barking ;
they have
winded the dromedaries.
" Come on," shouts the chief. With encouraging cries the
dromedaries are urged forward their heads almost touch the
;
ground they race along while froth and dust fly about them.
;
The dogs bark furiously and some of them have already come
out to meet the dromedaries. Now the wild chase reaches the
entrance to the town. Cries of despair are heard as the in-
habitants are wakened and women and wailing children
;
escape towards the hill. The time is too short for any organised
vi A BALUCHI RAID 79
defence. There is no one to take the command. The unfortunate
inhabitants run over one another like scared chickens and the
riders arc upon them. Shah Sevar sits erect on his dromedary
and leads the assault. Some jump down and seize three men,
twelve women, and six children, who are hastily bound and
put in charge of two Baluchi's, while others quickly search
some houses close at hand. They come out again with two
youths who have made a useless resistance, a couple of sacks
of grain, some household goods, and all the silver they could
find.
" How many slaves ? " roars Shah Sevar.
" Twenty-three," is answered from several directions.
" That is enough pack up." The slaves and the stolen
;
goods are bound fast on dromedaries. " Quick, quick," shouts

the chief. " Back the way we came." In the hurry and
confusion some of the animals get entangled in one another's
ropes. " Back ! Back " The chieftain's practised eye has
!
detected a party of armed men coming up. Three shots are

heard in the darkness, and Shah Sevar falls backwards out of
the saddle, while his dromedary starts and flies off into the
desert. The rider's left foot is caught fast in the stirrup and
his head drags in the dust A bullet has entered his forehead,
but the blood is staunched by the dust of the road. His foot
slips out of the stirrup, and the " Riding King " lies dead as a
stone outside Bam.
Another robber is severely wounded and is cut to pieces
by the townsmen. Bam
has waked up. The entangled
dromedaries with their burdens of slaves and goods are
captured, but the rest of the party, twelve riders with ten
baggage camels, have vanished in the darkness, pursued by
some infuriated dogs. Sixteen of the inhabitants of the town
are missing. The whole thing has taken place in half an
hour. Bam sleeps no more this night.
Now the dromedaries are urged on to the uttermost they ;
have double loads to carry, but they travel as quickly as they

came. The kidnapped children cease to cry, and fall asleep
with weariness and the violent swaying motion. The party
rides all night and all the next day without stopping, and the
robbers often look round to see if they arc pursued. They
rest for the first time at the salt spring, posting a look-out
on an adjacent mound. They cat and drink without losing a
minute, and get ready for the rest of the ride. The captives
are paralysed with fright the young women arc half choked
;
with weeping, and a little lad in a tattered shirt goes about

8o FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
crying vainly for his mother. The eyes of the captives are
blindfolded with white bandages that they may not notice the
way they are travelling and try later to escape back to Bam.
Then the headlong ride is resumed, and after eight days the
troop of riders is back at home with their booty, but without
their chief.
Innumerable raids of this kind have scourged eastern
Persia, and in the same way Turkomans have devastated
Khorasan in the north-east. On the eastern frontier it is the
Kurds who are the robbers. In this disturbed frontier region
there is not a town without its small primitive mud fort or
outlook tower.
Scorpions
On running dromedaries we now ride on eastwards
through northern Baluchistan. Dry, burnt-up desert tracts,
scantily clothed with thistles and shrubs, moving dunes of
fine yellow sand, low hill ridges disintegrated by alternate heat
—
and cold such is the country where a few nomads wander
about with their flocks, and the stranger often wonders how
the animals find a living. In certain valleys, however, there
is pasture and also water, and sometimes belts of thriving
tamarisks are passed, and bushes of saxaul with green leafy
branches, hard wood, and roots which penetrate down to the
moisture beneath the surface.
The great caravan road we are following is, however,
exceedingly desolate. Only at the stations is water to be found,
and even that is brackish but the worst trial is the heat, which
;
now, at the end of April, becomes more oppressive every day.

The temperature rises nearly up to 105 1-° in the shade, and to
ride full in the face of the sun is like thrusting one's head into
a blazing furnace. When there is a wind we are all right,
and the sand whirls like yellow ghosts over the heated
ground. But when the air is calm the outlines of the hills
seem to quiver in the heat, and the barrel of a gun which has
been out in the sun blisters the hands on being touched. In
the height of the summer the Baluchis wrap strips of felt
round their stirrup-irons to protect the dromedaries from
burns on the flanks.
This region is one of the hottest in the world. The sun
stands so high at mid-day that the shadows of the dromedaries
disappear beneath them. You long for sunset, when the
shadows lengthen out and the worst of the heat is over. It is
1
vi SCORPIONS 8
not really cool even at night, when, moreover, you arc plagued
with whole swarms of gnats.
Baluchistan and Persia abound with scorpions, which are
indeed to be found in all the hot regions of the five continents.
About two hundred species have been distinguished. Some
are quite small, others six inches long. Some are dark-brown,
others reddish, and others again straw-yellow, as in Baluchi-
stan. The body consists of a head and thorax without joints,
and a hinder part of seven articulated rings, besides six tail
rings. The last ring, the thirteenth, contains two poison
glands and is furnished with a sting as fine as a needle. The
poison is a fluid clear as water.
Scorpions live in rotten tree-trunks, under stones, on walls,
and as they like warmth they often enter houses and huts,
and creep into clothes and beds.
The scorpion leaves his dark den at night and sets out on
the hunt. He holds his tail turned up over his back, in order
to keep his sting from injury and to be ready at once for
attack or defence. When he meets with a desirable victim,
such as a large spider, he darts quickly forward, seizes it with
his claws, which are like those of crabs, raises it above his
head in order to examine it with his eyes, which are turned
upwards, and gives it the death-stroke with his sting. Then he
sucks up the softer parts and grinds the harder between his jaws.
The young ones, which are active as soon as they are born,
are like the old ones from the first day, but are light-coloured
and soft. They crawl about their mother's back and legs and
do not leave her body for some time. When that happens the
mother having meanwhile wasted away.
dies,
The is dangerous even to human
sting of large scorpions
beings. Cases have been known of a man dying in great
agony twelve hours after being stung. Others get cramp,
fever, and pains before they begin to recover. A man who
has often been stung becomes at last insensible to the poison.
Many a time I have found scorpions in Asiatic huts, in
my tent, on my bed, and under my boxes, but I have never
been stung by one. On the other hand, it has been the fate
of many of my servants, and they told me that it was difficult
to find out where the scorpion had stung them, for their
bodies sweated and burned equally intensely all over. In
Eastern Turkestan it is the practice to catch the scorpion
which has stung a man and crush him into a paste, which is
laid over the puncture made by the sting. But whether this
is a real cure I do not know.
G
82 FROM POLE TO POLE
The Indus
After travelling 1500 miles on camels and dromedaries,
the whistle of an engine sounds like the sweetest music to
the ear. At Nushki (see map, p. 132), the furthermost
station of the Indian railway, I took leave of my Baluchi
servants, stepped into a train, and was carried past the
garrison town of Quetta south-eastwards to the Indus. Here
we find that one branch of the railway follows the river
closely on its western bank to Karachi, one of the principal
S8 >/>'
%Mi^0^
Scale, 1:30,000,000
English Miles
o 100 200 300 400 500
Emery Walker sc
MAP OF NORTHERN INDIA, SHOWING RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES.
seaports of British India. Our train, however, carries us

northwards along the eastern bank to Rawalpindi, an im-
portant military station near the borders of Kashmir.
In the large roomy compartment it is as warm as it was
lately in Baluchistan, or nearly 107°. To shade the railway
carriages from the burning sun overhead, they are provided
with a kind of wooden cover with flaps falling down half over
the windows. The glass is not white, as in European carriage
windows, but dark blue or green, otherwise the reflexion of
the sunlight from the ground would be too dazzling. On
either side two windows have, instead of glass, a lattice of
VI THE INDUS 83
root fibres which arc kept wet automatically night and day.
Outside the window is a ventilator, which, set in action by the
motion of the train, forces a rapid current of air through the
wet network of fibres. Thereby the air is cooled some eighteen
or twenty degrees, and it is pleasant to sit partly undressed in
the draught.
Look a moment at the map. South of the Himalayas the
Indian peninsula forms an inverted triangle, the apex of
which juts out into the Indian Ocean like a tooth, but the
northern part, at the base, is broad. Here flow the three
large rivers of India, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brama-
putra. The last mentioned waters the plains of Assam at the
eastern angle of the triangle. On the banks of the Ganges
stands a swarm of famous large towns, some of which we
shall visit when we return from Tibet. The Ganges and
Bramaputra have a delta in common, through which their
waters pass by innumerable arms out into the Bay of Bengal.
At the western angle of the triangle the Indus streams
down to the Arabian Sea. The sources of the Indus and
Bramaputra lie close to each other, up in Tibet, and the
Himalayas are set like an immense jewel between the glisten-
ing silver threads of the two rivers. On the west the Indus
cuts through a valley as much as 10,000 feet deep, and
on the east the Bramaputra makes its way down to the low-
lands through a deep-cut cleft not less wild and awesome.
The Indus has several tributaries. In foaming waterfalls
and roaring rapids they rush down from the mountains to
meet their lord. The largest of them is called the Sutlej,
and the lowlands through which it flows are called the
Punjab, a Persian word signifying " five waters." The Indus
has thirteen mouths scattered along 1 50 miles of coast, and the
whole river is 2000 miles long, or somewhat longer than the
Danube.
In the month of July, 325 years before the birth of Christ,
Aristotle's pupil, Alexander, King of Macedonia, floated
down the Indus with a fleet of newly built ships and reached
Pattala, where the arms of the delta diverge. He found the
town deserted, for the inhabitants had fled inland, so he sent
light troops after them to tell them that they might return in
peace to their homes. A fortress was erected at the town,
and several wharves on the river bank.
He turned over great schemes in his mind. Had he not
at twenty years of age taken over the government of the little
country of Macedonia, and subdued the people of Thrace,
Illyria, and Greece? Had he not led his troops over the
Hellespont, defeated the Persians, and conquered the countries
of Asia Minor, Lycia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, where with a
blow of his sword he had severed the Gordian knot, a token
of supremacy over Asia ? At Issus, on the rectangular bay
facing Cyprus, he had inflicted a crushing defeat on the great
King of Persia, Darius Codomannus, who with the united
forces of his kingdom had come to meet him. At Damascus
he captured all the Persian war funds, and afterwards took
the famous commercial towns of the Phoenicians, Tyre and
Sidon. Palestine fell, and Jerusalem with the holy places.
On the coast of Egypt he founded Alexandria, which now,
after a lapse of 2240 years, is still a flourishing city. He
marched through the Libyan desert to the oasis of Zeus
Ammon, where the priests, after the old Pharaonic custom,
consecrated him " Son of Ammon."
He passed eastwards into Asia, crossed the Euphrates,
defeated Darius again at the Tigris, and reduced proud
Babylon and Shushan, where 150 years previously King
Ahasuerus, who reigned " from India even unto Ethiopia
over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces," made a
feast for his lords and " shewed the riches of his glorious
kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty." Then he
advanced to Persepolis and set on fire the palace of the Great
King to show that the old empire had passed away. Pursuing
Darius through Ispahan and Hamadan, he afterwards turned
aside into Bactria, the present Russian Central Asia, and
marched northwards to the Syr-darya and the land of the
Scythians. Thence, with an army of more than a hundred
thousand men, he proceeded southwards and conquered
the Punjab and subdued all the people living west of the
Indus.
Now he had come to Pattala, and he thought of the
victories he had gained and the countries he had annexed.
He had appointed everywhere Greeks and Macedonians to rule
in conjunction with the native princes and satraps. 1 The
great empire must be knit together into a solid unity, and
Babylon was to be its capital. Only in the west there was
still an enormous gap to be conquered, the desert through
which we have lately wandered on the way from Teheran

through Tebbes and Seistan and Baluchistan.
In order to reduce the people living here he despatched a
part of his host by a northerly route through Seistan to north
1
A "satrap" was originally a governor of a province in ancient Persia.
v, THE INDUS 85
Persia. He himself led forty thousand men along the

coast. Twelve thousand men were to sail and row the newly-
built ships along the coast of the Arabian Sea, through the
Straits of Hormuz, and along the northern coast of the
Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates. No Greek had
ever navigated this sea before, and with the vessels of the
period the enterprise was a most dangerous one, as absolutely
nothing was known about the coast to be followed. But it
was necessary, for Alexander wished to secure for himself
the command of the sea route between the mouths of the
Euphrates and Indus, so as to connect the western and
eastern parts of his kingdom. It was to supply the fleet
with provisions and water that he chose for himself the

dangerous desert route along the coast. Of the 40,000 men
who accompanied him on this march, no less than 30,000
died of thirst ! The high admiral, Nearchus of Crete, per-
formed his task with brilliant success. His voyage was one
of the most remarkable ever achieved on the oceans of the
globe. The chart he compiled is so exact that it may be
used at the present day, though the coast has since then
undergone changes in some places and has been further silted
up with sand and made shallower.
Alexander would not let his fleet start on its adventurous
voyage before he was himself convinced of the navigability
of the Indus and had acquainted himself with the aspect of
the great ocean. Accordingly he sailed down the western
—
arm of the Indus with the swiftest vessels of the fleet thirty-
oared boats, and small triremes, or vessels whereon the 1 50
naked oarsmen sat on three tiers of benches above one
another with oars of different lengths projecting through
port-holes in the hull. The vessels were protected by troops
which followed them on the bank.
In the midst of summer, when the river is at its highest
level and overflows the banks for miles, it is no pleasure
excursion to steer ungainly boats between banks of sand and
silt without pilots. On the second day a strong southerly
storm arose, and the dangerous waves in the whirlpools of
the current capsized many vessels and damaged others.
Alexander made for the bank to look for fishermen who
might act as pilots, and under their guidance he continued
his voyage. The river became wider and wider, and the
fresh salt breeze from the ocean became ever more perceptible ;
but the wind increased, for the south-west monsoon was at

its height. The grey turbid water rose in higher billows
and made rowing difficult, for the oars either did not touch
the water or dipped too deeply into it. It was the flood tide
running up from the sea which impeded their progress, but the
ebb and flow of the sea was new to them. Eventually
Alexander sought the shelter of a creek, and the vessels were
dragged ashore. Then came the ebb, and the water fell as
though it were sucked out into the sea. The boats were
left high and dry, and many of them sank deep in the mud.
Astonished and bewildered, Alexander and his men could
get neither forward nor backward. They had just made
preparations to get the ships afloat, when the tide returned
and them.
lifted
Now they went farther down-stream and came in contact
with the raging surf of the monsoon, which advances in light-
green foam-crowned waves far into the mouth and changes
the colour of the river water. The collision of the Indus
current with the rising tide fills the fairway with whirlpools
and eddies, which are exceedingly dangerous even for the
best of vessels of the present day. Several ships were lost,
some being thrown up on the banks, while others dashed
together and went to pieces.
After they had taken note of the regular rise and fall
of the tide, they could avoid danger, and the fleet arrived
safely at an island where shelter could be obtained by the
shore and where fresh water was abundant. From here the
foaming, roaring surf at the very mouth of the Indus could
be seen, and above the rolling breakers appeared the level
horizon of the ocean.
With the best of the vessels Alexander went out to
ascertain whether the surf could be passed through without
danger and the open sea be reached. The trial proved
successful, and another island was found, begirt on all sides
by open sea. The ships then returned in the dusk to the
larger island, where a solemn sacrifice was made to Ammon to
celebrate the first sight of the sea and of the margin of the
inhabited world towards the south.
Next day Alexander rowed right out to sea to convince
himself that no more land existed, and when he had advanced
so far that nothing but sky and rolling billows could be seen
from the uppermost benches of the triremes, he offered sacrifices
to Poseidon, the god of the sea, to the Nereids, and to the
silver-footed sea-goddess Thetis, the mother of Achilles,
father of his race. And he besought the favour of all the
gods in the great enterprise which had brought him to the
VI TIIK INDUS 87
mouth of the Indus, and their protection for his fleet on its
dangerous voyage to the Euphrates and when his prayer was
;
ended he cast a golden goblel into the sea.

Alexander died at Babylon at the age of thirty-three.
His world-embracing campaign spread Greek enlightenment
over all western Asia, and his eventful life did not pass like
a meteor into the night of time without leaving a trace
behind.
Kashmir and Ladak

When I arrived at Rawalpindi the first thing I did was
to order a tonga for the drive of 180 miles to Srinagar, the
capital of Kashmir. A tonga is a two-wheeled tilted cart
drawn by two horses, which are changed every half hour,
for as long as the pair are on the way they go at full speed.
The road was excellent, and we left the hot suffocating
steam of India below us as we ascended along the bank of the
Jhelum River. Sometimes we dashed at headlong speed over
stretches of open road bathed in sunlight; sometimes through
dark cool tunnels where the driver blew a sonorous signal
with his brass horn; and then again through rustling woods
of pine-trees.
Srinagaris a beautiful city, intersected as it is by the
rippling Jhelum River and winding canals (Plate VIII.).

The houses on their banks rise up directly from the water,
and long, narrow, graceful boats pass to and fro, propelled at
a swift pace by broad-bladed oars in the hands of active and
muscular white-clad Kashmiris.
Kashmir is one of the native states of our Indian Empire,
and its inhabitants number about three millions. Many of
them are artistic and dexterous craftsmen, who make fine
boxes and caskets inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl, and
ebony ; beautifully chased weapons tankards, bowls, and
;
vases of beaten silver with panthers and elephants on the

sides, chasing one another through the jungle. The saddlery
and leather work of all kinds cannot be surpassed, but most
famous of all the manufactures are the soft, dainty Kashmir
shawls, so fine that they can be drawn through a finger ring.
Round about the Kashmir valley stand the ridges and
snow-clad heights of the Himalayas, and among them lie
innumerable valleys. Up one of these valleys toiled our
caravan of thirty-six mules and a hundred horses, and after
a journey of some 250 miles to the eastward we arrived again
at the banks of the Indus and crossed it by a swaying bridge

of wood. Two days later the poplars of Leh stood in front
of us.
This little town is nearly 11,500 feet above sea-level. It
contains an open bazaar street, and a mound above the town

is crowned by the old royal castle. Leh, as well as the whole
of the district of Ladak, is subject to the Maharaja of
Kashmir, but the people are mostly of Tibetan race and
their religion is Lamaism.
VII
EASTERN TURKESTAN (1895)
The Takla-makan Desert

We arc now on the high road between India and Eastern
Turkestan, the most elevated caravan route in the world.
Innumerable skeletons of transport animals lie there, marking
where the road passes through snow. After a month's journey
over the cold, lofty mountains we come to the town of Yarkand,
in the spacious, fiat, bowl-shaped hollow, surrounded on all
sides except the east by mountains, which is called Eastern
Turkestan.
To the south stand the immense highlands of Tibet,
where the great rivers of India and China take their rise. On
the west is the Pamir, the " Roof of the World," where the
two great rivers of the Sea of Aral begin their course. On
the north lie the Ticn-shan, or Mountains of Heaven, which
are continued farther north-eastwards by the Altai and several
other mountain systems, among which the gigantic rivers of
Siberia have their origin. Within this ring of mountains, at
the very heart of the great continent of Asia, lies this lowland
of Eastern Turkestan, like a Tibetan sheepfold enclosed by
enormous walls of rock.
In its northern part a river called the Tarim flows from
west to east. It is formed by the Yarkand-darya and the
Khotan-darva on the south, and receives other affluents along
its course, for water streams down from the snowfields
and glaciers of the wreath of mountains enclosing Eastern
Turkestan. The head-waters of the Tarim leap merrily down
through narrow valleys among the mountains, but the great
river is doomed never to reach the sea. It terminates and is
lost in a desert lake named Lop-nor.
Trees grow along this river, mostly small, stunted poplars,
89
9o FROM POLE TO POLE PT. I
but the wooded belts along the banks are very narrow soon ;
the trees thin out and come to an end, steppe shrubs and
tamarisks take their place, and only a mile or two from the river
there is nothing but deep sand without a sign of vegetation.
The greater part of Eastern Turkestan is occupied by the
desert called Takla-makan, the most terrible and dangerous
in the world.
A belt of desert runs through the whole of Asia and
Africa, like a dried-up river bed. This belt includes the Gobi,
EmeryWalKet sc
MAP OF F.ASTEKN TURKESTAN, SHOWING JOURNEYS DESCRIBED ON pp. 89-IIO.
which extends over most of Mongolia, the Takla-makan, the

" Red Sand" and the " Black Sand" in Russian Turkestan,
the Kevir and other deserts in Persia, the deserts of Arabia,
and lastly the Sahara. In this succession of deserts extend-
ing over the Old World from the Pacific Ocean to the
Atlantic the Takla-makan is, then, a link.
Across a Sea of Sand

In the beginning of April, 1895, I had reached the
Yarkand-darya and had encamped at a village, Merket, on its
v.i ACROSS A SEA OF SAND 91
eastern bank. My plan was to cross the Takla-makan desert,

which stretches away to the eastward, and to reach the
river Khotan-darya, which flows northwards, the distance
being 180 miles. My caravan consisted of four servants and
eight camels ; and we took provisions for two months— for
—
we intended afterwards to travel on to Tibet and water for
twenty-five days in four iron cisterns.
We started on April 10. A white camel was led in front
by a man we called the guide, because every one said that he
had often been in the desert seeking for treasure. My riding
camel was led by a white-bearded man named Muhamed Shah.
Kasim came at the end of the file, and the faithful Islam Bay,
who superintended the whole, was my confidential servant.
We had also two dogs, Yolldash and Hamra, three sheep, ten
hens, and a cock. The last did not like riding on a camel.
He was always working his way out through the bars of his
cage, and fluttering down to the ground with a loud crow.
For the first few days all went on quietly and satis-
factorily. At night we could always obtain water for the
camels and other animals by digging, and thus we saved the
fresh river-water in our tanks. But the sand became gradually
higher and forced us to diverge to the north-east. On April
18 we came to a morass surrounded by wood so thick that
we had to clear a way with the axe. Next day we encamped
on the shore of a lake of beautiful blue water where ducks
and geese were swimming about, and my tent was set up
under a couple of poplars.
Another day's march led us along the shore of a long lake
with bare banks. We encamped at its southern extremity and
rested a day, for here nothing could be seen towards the south
and west but yellow sand. The guide asserted that it was
four days' journey eastwards to the river Khotan-darya, and
this statement agreed approximately with existing maps, but
I took the precaution of ordering the men to take water for
ten days.
On April 23 we left the last bay of the last lake to
plunge into the high sand. All vegetation came to an end,
and only in some hollow a solitary tamarisk was still to be
seen. The sandhills became ever higher, rising to as much as
100 feet.
The next day we marched on in a violent storm. The
sand swept down in clouds from the crests of the dunes,
penetrating into our mouths, noses, and eyes. Islam Bay led
our train and looked for the easiest way for the camels. W T
e
noticed, however, that they were already beginning to get

tired. Sometimes they fell in the sand, and their loads had
to be taken off before they could get up again. When the

tent was set up we had made only eight miles. Now there
was not a sign of life, not a moth fluttered round my candle,
not a wind-borne leaf was seen in the boundless yellow sand.
On the morning of the 25th I made a terrible discovery:
two cisterns were empty and the other two contained only
enough water for two days. Henceforth Islam Bay was put
in charge of the cisterns. The water was treasured like gold
and served out in driblets.
I travelled on foot to spare my riding camel and encourage
the men. The caravan moved more slowly through the

murderous sands. One camel, called Old Man, lagged
behind. We waited an hour, and gave him a mouthful of
water and a handful of hay from his own pack-saddle. When
we went on, he was led slowly after us by Muhamed Shah.
With Islam I measured out the last drops of water on the
night of the 26th. There were about two small cups daily for
each of us for three days. The next day we plunged again
into terrible sand, the dunes being 200 feet high. In the
evening we saw dense rain-clouds in the west, and hoped that
Heaven would have compassion on us. The clouds spread
out and came still nearer. All our vessels were made ready,
and the tent was stretched on the ground to collect the sweet
water which was to save us. We waited in vain, for the
clouds dispersed and yielded us not a drop.
The two tired-out camels had been abandoned at the
beginning of the day, and we had thrown away a stove, a
carpet, my tent-bed, and two empty water cisterns.
On April 28 we were awakened by a north-easterly
storm, one of those " black storms " which stir up the drift-sand
in dense clouds and turn day into night. All the camp was
buried in sand. Only the nearest camels could be seen, and
their track was immediately obliterated. We had to keep
all together lest we should lose one another. It was quite
possible to lose the caravan at a distance of a few paces, and

that meant death. We were almost suffocated by the volumes
of sand which whirled about us, and had to rest frequently to
get our breath. The camels lay down with their heads to
leeward, and we thrust our faces under them that we might
not be choked with sand.
Then we went on with faltering steps. A camel fell and
I sent two men after him. They came back directly, saying
—
vii ACROSS A SEA OF SAND 93
that the track was smoothed out by the wind and that they
dared not lose sight of us. That was the third victim. At
the evening camp everything not absolutely indispensable
was sorted out to be left behind, and a stick was set up on
the nearest dune with a newspaper wrapped round it so that
we might find the place again if we obtained water soon.
There was still a little water left in the two cans, but next
morning Islam came and told me that one of them was
empty. There can be little doubt that the guide was the
thief who had robbed us all. With failing steps we struggled
on all day among the high sand dunes.
On the morning of the 30th there was less than two-thirds
of a pint of water left in the last can. While the others were
engaged in loading the camels, Islam surprised the guide as
he stood with the can to his mouth. Islam fell upon him
furiously, threw him to the ground, and would have killed
him if I had not come up in time. Only one-third of a pint
was now left. At mid-day I moistened the men's lips with
the corner of a handkerchief dipped in water. In the evening
the last drops were to be distributed, but when the time came
the can was found to be absolutely empty. Kasim and
Muhamed, who led the camels, had drunk it all.
The End of the Caravan

The night was cold, but the sun had not long risen on
May 1 before the heat spread over the dunes. The men
drank the last of some rancid vegetable oil which had been
intended for the camels. I was tortured with thirst, as I
had not drunk a drop of water the day before, and before that
only a few mouthfuls. Thirst is a fearful thing, driving one
to despair, and almost depriving one of reason. As the body
dries up, the desire for water leaves one no peace. We
had
a flask of Chinese spirits which were intended for a cooking
stove. I now drank about a tumblerful of it to give my body
a little moisture, and then I threw the flask away and let its
dangerous contents run out into the sand.
The insidious liquor undermined my strength. When the
caravan toiled on through the dunes I could not follow it.
I crept and staggered in its track. The bells rang out clearly
in the quiet air, but the sound became fainter, and at length
died away in the distance. The silent desert lay around me
sand, sand, sand in all directions.
in the footsteps of the others, I came at

Following slowly
dune, where I saw that the camels of the
last to the crest of a
caravan had laid themselves down. Muhamed Shah was on
his knees imploring help from Allah. Kasim was sitting
with his face in his hands, weeping and laughing alternately.
Islam, who had been exploring in front, came back and
proposed that we should look for a place where we could
dig for water (Plate IX.). I therefore mounted the white
camel, after his load —
ammunition boxes, two European
saddles, and a number of other articles — had been thrown
away, but the animal would not get up. We then decided
to stay where we were and wait for the cool of evening, and
the tent was set up to afford us shade. Even Yolldash and
the sheep came in.
At mid-day a gentle breeze sprang up, and the air felt
pleasant and refreshing. Wekilled the cock and drank its
blood. Then Islam turned the head of the sheep towards
Mecca, cut off its head, and collected the blood in a pail, but
it was thick and smelt offensively, and not even the dog
Yolldash would touch it.
We now sorted out all our belongings, taking with us only
what was absolutely necessary at the moment, and leaving
everything else behind in the tent. The guide had lost his
reason and filled his mouth with sand, thinking it was water.
He and old Muhamed Shah, who was also dying, had to be
left behind.
o'clock I mounted the white camel.
At seven Islam led
the train and Kasim urged the animals on. The funeral bells
now rang for the last time. From a high sandy crest I turned
a farewell glance at the death camp. The tent marked out
a dark triangle against the lighter background, and then
vanished behind the sand.
The night descended sadly and silently over the earth.
We tramped through loose sand, up and down, without seeing
where we were going. I jumped down from my camel,
and walked on in front to see where it was
lighted the lantern,
camels to follow.
easiest for the
Then Islam reeled up to me and whispered that he could
go no farther. I bade him farewell, cheered him up, told him
to rest and then follow in my track, abandoning everything.
The camels were lying half-dead with necks stretched out.
Kasim alone was fit to accompany me farther. He took a
spade and a pail and the paunch of the sheep. I had only
my watch, compass, a penknife, a pen, and a scrap of paper,
I HE END OF THE CARAVAN 95
two small tins of lobster and chocolate, a small box, matches

and ten cigarettes. But the food gave us little satisfaction,
for when the mouth, palate, and throat are as dry as the
outer skin it is impossible to swallow.
It was exactly twelve o'clock. We had been shipwrecked
in the midst of the desert sea, and were now trying to reach
a coast. The lantern stood burning beside Islam Bay, but
the light was soon hidden by the dunes.
We were clad as lightly as possible. Kasim had a thin
jacket, wide trousers, and boots, but he had forgotten his cap,
so I lent him my pocket handkerchief to wind round his head.
I wore a white Russian cap, stiff Swedish shoes, woollen
underclothing, and a white suit of thin cotton cloth. I had
changed my clothes at the death camp that I might have
a neat clean shroud if I died.
We pushed on with the energy of despair, but after two
hours we were so sleepy that we had to rest a while. The
coolness of the night woke us up at four o'clock, and we
kept on the march till nine. Then we rested again and
walked on farther till twelve o'clock, when we were again over-
come by weariness and the burning heat of the day. In a sandy
slope facing northwards Kasim digged out cool sand in which
we burrowed stark naked with only our heads out. To pro-
tect ourselves from sunstroke we made a screen by hanging
up clothes on the spade. At six o'clock we got up again
and walked for seven hours. Our strength was giving way,
and we had to rest more frequently. At one o'clock we were
slumbering on a dune.
There we lay quite three hours, and then went on east-
wards. I always held the compass in my hand. The next
day had dawned, May 3, when Kasim stopped, caught hold
of my shoulder, and pointed eastwards without saying a word.
A small dark speck was seen in the distance it was a green ;
tamarisk Its roots must go down to the water below the

!
surface, or it could not live in the desert sea. We thanked

God when we came up to it. We had now some hope of
safety, and we chewed the soft needles of the tamarisks like
beasts. We tarried a while under its slight shadow, and then
walked till half-past nine, when we fell down with faintness
at another bush.
We again undressed and buried ourselves in sand, lying
without speaking a word for quite nine hours. At dusk we
dragged ourselves on again with halting steps. After three
hours of march Kasim again stopped suddenly. Something
—
dark peeped out from among the dunes three fine poplars
with sappy foliage. The leaves were too bitter to eat, but
we rubbed them on the skin until it became moist.
Here we tried to dig a well, but the spade fell out of our
powerless hands. We then lay down and scraped with our
hands, but could not do much. Instead we collected all the
dry branches we could find and made a blazing fire as a
beacon for Islam, and to attract attention from the east, for
we knew that a caravan road ran along the Khotan river.
At four o'clock on May 4 we moved on again, but after
five hours we were utterly exhausted. We threw ourselves
heedlessly on the sand, for Kasim was unable to dig the
usual burrow. I wriggled naked into the cool dune and lay
there ten hours without closing an eye.

When at last the shadows spread over the earth and I
was ready to set out, Kasim murmured that he could go
no farther. I did not even remember to bid him farewell
when I went on my way alone through the darkness and
sand. Just after midnight I sank down by a tamarisk. The
stars twinkled as usual, and not a sound was audible. Only
the beat of my heart and the ticking of my watch broke the
awful silence. Then I heard a rustling sound in the sand.
"Is that you, Kasim?" I asked. "Yes, sir," he whispered
back. " Let us go a little farther," I said, and he followed
me with trembling legs.
We were not troubled now so much by thirst, for our bodies
had become as dry as parchment and seemed to have lost all
feeling but our strength was at an end.
; We crawled for a
long distance on our hands and feet, dazed and indifferent.
as if we were walking in our sleep.
But soon we waked up into full consciousness. Dumb
with astonishment we stopped before the trail of men.
Shepherds from the. river must have seen our fire the day
before and have come to look for us. We followed the trail
up a high dune where the sand was closely packed and the
marks were more distinct. "It is our own trail," said Kasim
in a despairing voice. We had gone round in a circle, and
now we could do no more for a while. Sad and worn out,
we fell down in the track.
Itwas May 5. We had slept half an hour. It was four
o'clock, and a vague light heralding the ruddy dawn rose up
above the eastern horizon. Kasim looked dreadfully ill his;
tongue was swollen, white and dry, his lips bluish. He

complained of a spasmodic hiccough that shook his whole
vi, THE END OF THE CARAVAN 07
body, a sign of the approach of death. The thick blood

flowed sluggishly in his veins. Even the eyes and joints
were dry. We had struggled bravely, but now the end was
near.
But when the sun rose we saw a dark line on the eastern
horizon. sight filled us with thankfulness, for we knew
The
that it must be the wood on the bank of the Khotan river.
Now we exerted ourselves to the uttermost, for we must
reach before we sank with thirst and exhaustion.
it A
number of poplars grew in a hollow. " Let us dig here it is
;
a long distance to the woods " but the spade again slipped
;
out of our hands, and we could only stumble and crawl on

eastwards.
At last we were there. I seemed to be roused from a
fearful dream, a terrible nightmare. Green and luxuriant
stood the trees in front of us, and between them grew grass
and weeds where numerous spoors of wild animals were
visible —
tigers, wolves, foxes, stags, antelopes, gazelles, and
hares. The birds were singing their morning song and
insects buzzed in the air. Life and joyousness reigned
everywhere.
It could not now be far to the river. We tried to pass
through the wood, but were stopped by impenetrable brush-
wood and fallen trunks. Then we came to a path with plain
traces of men and horses. We decided to follow it, for surely
it would lead to the bank, but not even the hope of a speedy
deliverance could enable us to keep on our feet. At nine

o'clock, when the day was already burning hot, we tumbled
down in the shade of a couple of poplars. Kasim could not
last much longer. His senses were clouded. He gasped for
breath and stared with vacant eyes at the sky. He made no
answer even when I shook him. I took off my clothes and
crept down into a hole between the tree roots. Scorpions
inhabited the dry trees and their marks were visible every-
where, but the poisonous reptiles left me in peace.
Water at Last
lay for ten hours wide awake.
I At seven o'clock I took
the wooden haft of the spade and went alone through the
wood, for Kasim could not move. I dropped down again
and again on fallen trunks to rest a few more staggering
;
steps and again a rest on a stump. When I could not hold

II
myself up, I crawled inch by inch through the brushwood,

tearing my hands and clothes. It grew dusk and then dark
in the wood. I felt sleep gradually creeping over me to rob
me of life. For if I had fallen asleep now, I should never

have awakened again. My
last struggle was, then, against
drowsiness.
Then the wood suddenly came to an end and the bed of
the Khotan river lay before me. But the bottom was dry, as
dry as the sand in the desert I was at the summer margin
!
of the river, where water only flows when the snow melts on the
mountains to the south. But I was not going to die on the
bank I would cross the whole bed before I gave myself up
;
for lost. The bed was a mile and a quarter broad, a terrible
distance for my strength. I walked slowly with the spade-
handle for a stick, crawling for long distances and often

resting and exerting all the force of my will to resist sleep.
Hitherto we had been always making eastwards, but this
night 1 walked involuntarily south-east. It was as though
I were guided by an unseen hand.
The crescent moon threw a pale light over the dry river-
bed. I went towards the middle and expected to see a silvery
streak glisten on a sheet of water. After an interval, which
seemed endless, I descried the line of wood on the eastern
bank. It became more distinct. A
fallen poplar lay project-
ing over a hollow in the river-bed and on the bank were close
thickets of bushes and reeds. I rested once more. Was it
possible that the whole bed was dry? I felt that all my
remaining strength would be needed to reach the bank.
Was I to die of thirst in the middle of a river-bed ? I rose
painfully to walk the last bit, but I had not taken many steps
before I stopped short. A
duck rose on whirring wings, I
heard the plashing sound of water, and the next moment I
stood at the edge of a fresh, cool, beautiful pool.
I fell on my knees and thanked God for my marvellous
escape. Then I took out my watch and felt my feeble pulse,
which beat forty-nine. Then I drank, slowly at first and
then more freely. A deal of water was needed to slake such
a thirst I drank and drank until at length I was satisfied.
;
Then sat down to rest and felt that I was reviving quickly.
I
After a few minutes my pulse had risen to fifty-six. My

hands, which had just been withered and hard as wood,
softened, the blood flowed more easily through my veins and
my forehead became moist. Life seemed more desirable
and delightful than ever. Then I drank again, and thought
v„ WATER AT LAST 99
of my wonderful deliverance. If I had passed fifty steps to
the right or left of the pool, I should probably never have

found it, or if I had crawled on in the wrong direction, I
should have had to walk six miles to the next pool, which I
could not have done before sleep with the death trance in its
train came and carried me off.
Now my thoughts Hew to the dying Kasim. He needed
help at once, if his life was to be saved. Dipping my water-
proof boots in the pool I filled them to the top, passed the
straps over the ends of the spade shaft, and with this over my
shoulder retraced my steps. It was pitch-dark in the wood
"
and it was impossible to see the track. I called out " Kasim
with all the force of my lungs, but heard no answer. Then I
sought out a dense clump of dried branches and brushwood

and set it on fire. The flame shot up immediately, the pile
of dry twigs crackled, burst and frizzled, the dried herbage
was scorched by the draught from below, tongues of flame licked
the poplar trunks, and it became as light as in the middle of
the day, a yellowish red gleam illuminating the dark recesses
of the wood. Kasim could not be far off, and must see the
fire. Again I looked for the trail, but as I only got confused
in the wood I stayed by the fire, propped the boots against
a root, laid myself down where the flames could not reach mc,
but where I was safe from tigers and other wild beasts, and
slept soundly.
When day broke I found the trail. Kasim was lying
where him.
I left
" I am dying," he whispered in a scarcely
audible voice but when I raised one of the boots to his lips,
;
he roused himself up and drank, and emptied the other one

also. Then we agreed to go together to the pool. It was
impossible to turn back into the desert, for we had not eaten
for a week, and now that our thirst was quenched we were
attacked by hunger. Besides, we felt quite sure that the other
men were dead some days ago.
Kasim was so exhausted that he could not go with me.
As he was at any rate on the right track, and it was now
most important to find something to eat, I went alone to the
pool, drank, bathed, and rested, and then walked southwards.
At nine o'clock a violent westerly storm arose, driving clouds
of sand along the ground. After wandering three hours it
occurred to me that it was not wise to leave the beneficent
pool. I therefore turned back, but after half an hour only
found instead a very small pool with indifferent water. It
was no use wandering about in such a storm, for I could not

ioo FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
see where I was going the wind roared and whistled through
;
the wood, and I was half dead with fatigue and hunger.
I therefore crept into a small thicket close to
this pool,
where I was out of reach of the storm, and making a pillow
of myboots and cap, slept soundly and heavily. Since May I
I had had no proper sleep. When I woke it was already
dark, and the storm still howled through the wood. I was
now so tortured by hunger that I began to eat grass, flowers,

and reed shoots. There were numbers of young frogs in
the pool. They were bitter, but I pinched their necks and
swallowed them whole. After eating my supper I collected
a store of branches to keep up a fire during the night, and
then I crept into my lair in the thicket and gazed into the
fire for a couple of hours while the storm raged outside.
Then I went to sleep again.
At dawn on May 7 I crept out of the thicket and decided
to march southwards until I met with human beings. This
time took water with me in my boots, but after a few hours
I
my were so sore and blistered that I had to bind them up

feet
in long strips of my shirt. At length to my delight I found
a sheepfold on the bank it had evidently not been used for
;
a long time, but it showed that shepherds must live in the

woods somewhere.
At noon heat and fatigue drove me into the wood again,
where I ate a breakfast of grass and reeds. After a rest I
wandered on again hour after hour towards the south, but at
eight o'clock I could go no farther, and before it became
quite dark I tried to make myself comfortable on a small
space sheltered by poplars and bushes, and there as usual I
lighted my camp fire. I had nothing else to do but lie and
stare into the flames and listen to the curious mournful sounds
in the wood. Sometimes I heard tapping steps and dry
twigs cracking. It might be tigers, but I trusted that they
would not venture to attack me just when I had been saved
in such a remarkable manner.
I rose on May 8 while it was still dark, and sought for
a path in the wood, but I had not gone far before the trees
became scattered and came to an end, and the dismal yellow
desert lay before me. I knew it only too well, and made
haste back to the river-bed. I rested during the hot hours of
the day in the shadow of a poplar and then set off again. I
now followed the right bank of the river, and shortly before
—
sunset stopped dead before a remarkable sight the fresh track
of two barefooted men who had driven four asses northwards.
vii WATER AT LAST 101
It was hopeless to try and overtake these wayfarers, and

therefore I followed their track in the opposite direction. I
travelled more quickly than usual, the evening was calm and
still, twilight fell over the wood. At a jutting point of the
bank I seemed to hear an unusual sound, and held my breath
to listen. But the wood was still sad and dreary. " Perhaps
it was a warbler or a thrush," I thought, and walked on. A
little later I pulled up again. This time I heard quite
plainly a man's voice and the low of a cow. I quickly pulled
on my wet boots and rushed into the wood. A flock of

sheep watched by itsshepherd was feeding on an open glade
among the trees. The man seemed petrified at first when he
saw me, and then he turned on his heels and vanished among
the brushwood.
After a while he came back with an older shepherd, and I
gave them an account of my adventures and begged for bread.
They did not know what to believe, but they took me to
their hut and gave me maize bread and ewe's milk.
The best thing of all, however, was that three traders rode
up next day, and I learned from them that some days
previously they had discovered a dying man beside a white
camel on the bank of the river. It was Islam Bay ! They
had given him water and food, and the following day both
he and Kasim appeared in my hut. Our delight was great,
though we mourned for our comrades who had died of thirst
in the desert.
VIII
THE DESERT WATERWAY (1899)
Down the Yarkand River

No doubt you remember the village of Merket, where we set
out on our fatal march through the Takla-makan desert in
1895. In September, 1899, I was again at this village with a
large caravan and many servants, my plan on this occasion
being to travel through the whole of Eastern Turkestan by
water. The waterway I intended to use was the river which
in its upper course is called the Yarkand, and in its lower
the Tarim.
At the village a great caravan route crosses the river, and
flat ferry-boats convey travellers with their animals and goods
from one bank to the other. I bought one of the ferry-boats,
and had it converted into a floating home for our journey
of more than a thousand miles (Plate X.). It was 36 feet
long by 8| broad, and was like a huge trough built of rough

planks. A
floor of boards was laid in the bow sufficiently
large to serve as a support for my tent. Behind this
was built a cubical cabin of thin boards covered with sheets
of black felt. Within it was furnished with a table and
shelves, and window-frames with glass panes were let into the
felt walls. Here I had all my photographic accessories, and
here intended to develop my plates.
I
When all was ready the ferry-boat was rolled down on

logs into the river again. The tent was set up and its folds
were spiked fast to the edges of the flooring. Mybed and
my boxes were arranged in the tent, a carpet was spread on
the floor, and at the front opening was placed my writing-
table, consisting of two boxes, whereon paper, pens, compass,
and watch, field-glass and other things always lay ready.
For a stool I had a smaller hide trunk.
PLATE \.
v • !
"
1
,^
THE AUTHOR'S BOAT ON THE NARK. WD RIV] R.
["he man with the white turban al the stern is [slam Bay.
To face page 102.

vni DOWN THE YARKAND RIVER 103
Amidships our heavy baggage was piled up :sacks of

flour and rice, boxes of sugar, tea, and groceries, saddles,
weapons, and tools. The kitchen was at the stern, in charge
of my faithful Islam Bay — for he was with me again.
When the ferry-boat was fully fitted up and ready to sail,
it drew nine inches of water. We had also a small auxiliary
boat to pilot the larger and inform us where treacherous
and-banks were hidden below the surface. Fruit, vegetables,
sheep, and fowls were carried on the smaller boat, which looked
rather like a small farmyard. The heavy baggage that we
did not need on the journey was packed on our camels, and
their leader was ordered to meet me in three months' time
near the termination of the river.
Our voyage began on September 17, 1899, the crew
numbering seven, including Islam Bay and myself. Kader
was a youth who helped Islam Bay by peeling potatoes,
laying table, and fetching water from clear pools on the banks
cut off from the river. In the bow stood Palta with a long
pole, watching to thrust off if the boat went too near the
bank. At the stern stood two other polemen, who helped to
handle the boat. The small boat was managed by one man,
Kasim, and as I sat at my writing-table I could see him
pushing his vessel with his pole to right or left in search of
the channel where the water was deepest and the current
most rapid. Then we had two four-legged passengers on the
larger boat, Dovlct and Yolldash. Dovlet means the " lucky
one " and Yolldash "travelling companion." The latter had
succeeded to the name of the dog which died in the Takla-
makan desert.
The boat floats down with the current, following obediently
the windings of the river, and the polemen are on the watch.
On the banks grow small hawthorn bushes and tamarisks,
interrupted by patches of reeds and small clumps of young
trees, among which poplars always predominate. They are
not the tall, slender poplars which tower proud as kings above
other trees, but quite a dwarf kind with a round, irregular
crown. When the day draws near to a close I give the order
to stop. Palta thrusts his pole into the river bottom, and,
throwing all his strength and weight on to it, forces the stern
of the boat to swing round to the land, where another of the
crew jumps out on to the bank with a rope. He makes it
fast round a stump, and our day's voyage is ended.
The gangway is pushed out and a fire is lighted in an
open space among the trees, and soon the teapot and rice-pan
are bubbling pleasantly. I remain sitting at my writing-table
and see the moonlight playing in a streak on the surface of

the river. All is quiet and silent around us, and even the
midges have gone to rest. I hear only the brands crackling
in the camp fire and the sand slipping down the neighbouring
bank as the water laps against it. A dog barking in the
distance is answered by Dovlet and Yolldash.
Now steps are heard on board, and Islam Bay brings my
supper. The writing-table is converted into a dining-table,
and he serves me up rice pudding with onions, carrots, and
minced mutton, fresh bread, eggs, cucumbers, melons, and
grapes. What more could a man want ? It was very
different when we were wandering on the endless sands. If
I want to drink I have only to let down a cup into the river
which gently ripples past the boat. The dogs keep me com-
pany, sitting with cocked ears waiting for a titbit. Then
Islam comes and clears the table, I close the tent, creep into
my berth, and enjoy life afloat on my own vessel, where it is
only necessary to loosen a rope to be on the way again.
After a few days we come to a place where the river con-
tracts and forces its way with great velocity between small
islands and great heaps of stranded driftwood. Here Palta
has plenty of work, for he has constantly to keep the boat off
from some obstacle or other with the pole. Frequently we
bump up against poplar trunks which do not show above the
water, and then the boat swings round in a moment. Then
all the crew jump into the river and shove the boat off again.
A distant noise is heard, and soon becomes louder. In a
moment we are in the midst of rapids, and it is too late to
heave to. It is to be hoped that we shall not turn broadside
on or we shall capsize. " Let her go down as she likes," I
call out. All the poles are drawn up, and the boat flies along,
gliding easily and smoothly over the boiling water.
Below the rapids the river widened out, and became so
shallow that we stuck fast in blue clay. We pushed and
pulled, but all to no purpose. Then all the baggage was
carried ashore, and with our united strength we swung the
boat round until the clay was loosened, and then the things
were brought on board again.
Farther down, the river draws together again. The banks
are lined with dense masses of fine old trees just beginning to
turn yellow in the latter days of September. The boat seems
as though it were gliding along a canal in a park. The woods
are silent, not a leaf is moving, and the water flows noiselessly.
vm DOWN THE YARKAND RIVER 105
The polcmcn have nothing to do. They sit cross-legged

with <»nc hand on the pole, which through the water;
trails
and only now and then have they to make a thrust to keep
the boat in the middle of the stream.
Weeks passed, and the ferry-boat drifted still farther and
farther down the river. Autumn had come, and the woods
turned yellow and russet, and the leaves fell. We had no
time to spare if we did not want to be caught fast in the ice
before reaching the place where we had arranged to meet the
caravan. Therefore we started earlier in the morning and
did not land until long after sunset each day. The solemn
silence of a temple reigned around, only the quacking of a
duck being heard occasionally or the noise of a fox stealing
through the reeds. A herd of wild boars lay wallowing in
the mud on the bank. When the boat glided noiselessly by
they got up, looked at us a moment with the greatest
astonishment, and dashed like a roaring whirlwind through
the beds of cracking reeds. Deer grazed on the bank.
They scented danger and turned round to make for their
hiding-places in the wood. A roebuck swam across the

stream a little in front of the boat. Islam lay with his gun in
the bow ready to shoot, but the roebuck swam splendidly and,
with a spring, was up on the bank and vanished like the wind.
Sometimes we saw also fresh spoor of tigers at our camping-
grounds, but we never succeeded in surprising one of them.
One morning, when we had not seen any natives for a
long time, the smoke of a fire was seen on the bank. Some
shepherds were watching their flocks, and their dogs began to
bark. The men gazed at the ferry-boat with wonder and
alarm as it floated nearer, and no doubt thought that it was
something ghostly, for they faced about and ran with the dust
flying about their sheepskin sandals. I sent two men ashore,
but it was quite impossible to catch up with the runaways.

Farther down we passed through a district where several
villages stood near the banks. They had learned of our
coming through scouts, and when we arrived we were met by
whole troops of horsemen. The village headmen were also
present, and were invited on board, where they were regaled
with tea on the after-deck.
The Tarim
The farther we went the smaller became the river. 1 he
Yarkand-darya would never reach the lake, Lop-nor, where it
discharges its water, if

it did not receive a considerable
tributary on the way. This tributary is called the Ak-su, or
" White Water," and it comes foaming down from the Tien-
shan, the high mountains to the north. After the rivers have
mingled their waters, the united main stream is called the
Tarim.
The weather gradually became colder. One morning a
dense mist lay like a veil between the wooded banks, and all
the trees, bushes, and plants, and the whole boat, were white
with hoar frost. After this it was not long before the frost
began to spread thin sheets of ice over the pools on the banks
and the small cut-off creeks of stagnant water, and we had to
press on as fast as we could to escape being frozen in.
Breakfast was no longer laid on land, but on the after-deck of
the ferry-boat, where we built a fireplace of clay, and round
this the men sat in turn to warm themselves. At night we
travelled long distances in the dark. We
had persuaded two
natives to go with us in their long, narrow canoes, and they
rowed in front of us in the darkness with large Chinese paper
lanterns on poles to show us where the deep channel ran.
The woods on the bank gradually thin out, and finally
come to an end altogether, being replaced by huge sand-hills
often as much as 200 feet high. This is the margin of the
great sandy desert which occupies all the interior of Eastern
Turkestan. The people in the country round about are called
Lopliks, and live to a great extent on fish.
During the last few days of November the temperature fell
to 28. 8° below freezing-point. The drift ice which floated down
the river became thicker, and one morning the ferry-boat lay
frozen in so fast we could walk on the ice around it. Out
in the current, however, the water was open, and we broke
asunder our fetters with axes and crowbars. A
constant roar
of grinding and scraping ice accompanied us all day long,
and during the nights we had to anchor the ferry-boat out
in the swiftest part of the current to prevent it being frozen in.
On December 7 broad fringes of ice lay along both banks,
and all day we danced among drifting ice as in a bath of broken
crockery. At night we had a whole flotilla of canoes with
lanterns and torches to clear the way, when suddenly the boat
swung round with a bump, and we found that the river was
frozen over right across. This did not disturb us, for on the
bank we saw the flames of a wood fire, and found that it was
burning at the camp of our camel caravan.
THE WANDERING LAKE 107
The Wandering Lake

The place where the ferry-boat was frozen in for the winter
is calledNew Lake (see map, p. 90). Just at this spot the
Tarim bends southwards, falling farther down into a very
shallow lake called Lop-nor. The whole country here is so
flat that with the naked eye no inequalities can be detected.
Therefore the river often changes its bed, sometimes for short
and sometimes for long distances. Formerly the river did
not bend southwards, but proceeded straight on eastwards,
terminating in another lake also called Lop-nor, which lay in
the northern part of the desert, and which is mentioned in
old Chinese geographies.
The peculiarity of Lop-nor is, then, that the lake moves
about, and, in conjunction with the lower course of the Tarim,
swings like a pendulum between north and south. I made
many excursions in that part of the desert where the Lop-nor

formerly lay, and mapped out the old river-bed and the old
lake. There I discovered ruins of villages and farms, ancient
canoes and household utensils, tree trunks dry as tinder
and roots of reeds and rushes. In a mud house I found
also awhole collection of Chinese manuscripts, which threw
much light on the state of the country at the time when men
could exist there. These writings were more than 1600
years old.
The explanation of the lake's wanderings is this. At the
time of high water the Tarim is always full of silt, and the old
lake was very shallow. The lake, therefore, was silted up with
mud and decaying vegetation, and by the same process the
bed of the river was raised. At last came the time when the
Tarim sought for an outlet to the south, where the country
was somewhat lower. The old bed was dried up by degrees
and the water in the lake evaporated. The sheet of water
remained, indeed, for a long time, but it shrank up from year
to year. At last there was not a drop of water left, and the
whole country dried up. The poplar woods perished, and
the reeds withered and were blown away by the wind. The
men left their huts and moved down the new water channel
to settle at the new lake, where they erected new huts. The
Tarim and Lop-nor had swung like a pendulum to the south,
and men, animals, and plants were obliged to follow. The
same thing then occurred in the south. The new river and
lake were silted up and the water returned northwards. Thus
io8 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
the water swung repeatedly from north to south, but of course

many hundreds of years elapsed between the vibrations.
At the present day the lake lies in the southern part of
the desert it
; is almost entirely overgrown with reeds, and
the poplar woods grow only by the river. The few natives
are partly herdsmen, partly fishermen they
;
are of Turkish
race and profess the religion of Islam ;
they are kind-hearted
and peaceable, and show great hospitality to strangers. Their
huts are constructed of bundles of reeds bound together the ;
ground within is covered with reed mats, and the roof consists
of boughs covered with reeds. The men spend a large part
of their time in canoes, which are hollowed poplar trunks, and
are therefore long, narrow, and round at the bottom. The
oars have broad blades and drive the canoes at a rapid pace.
Narrow passages are kept open through the reeds, and along
these the canoes wind like eels. The men are very skilful in
catching fish, and in spring they live also on eggs, which they
collect from the nests of the wild geese among the reeds.
The reeds grow so thickly that when they have been broken
here and there by a storm one can walk on them with six feet
of water beneath.
Tigers were formerly common on the banks of Lop-nor,
and the natives used to hunt them in a singular manner.
When a tiger had done mischief among the cattle, the men
would all assemble from the huts in the neighbourhood at the
thickets on the bank of the river where they knew that the
tiger was in hiding. They close up round him from the land
side, leaving the river-bank open. Their only weapons are poles
and sticks, so they set fire to the copse in order to make the
beast leave his lair. When the tiger finds that there is no way
out on the land side, he takes to the water to swim to some
islet or to the other shore of the lake, but before he is far out
half a dozen canoes cut through the water and surround him.
The men are armed only with their oars. The canoes can
move much faster than the tiger, and one shoots quickly past
him, and the men in the bow push his head under water with
their oar-blades. Before the tiger has risen again the canoe is
out of reach. The tiger snorts and growls and puffs madly,
but in a moment another canoe is upon him and another oar
thrusts him down deeper than before. This time he has
barely reached the surface before a third canoe glides up, and
his head is again shoved under water. Soon the tiger begins
to tire and to gasp for breath. He has no opportunity of
using his fangs and claws, and can only struggle for his life
vni THE WANDERING LAKE 109
by swimming. Now the first canoe has circled round again,

and the man in the bow pushes the tiger down with all his
strength and holds him under water as long as he can. This
goes on until the tiger can struggle no longer and is drowned.
Then a rope is tied round his neck, and with much jubilation
he is towed to the shore.
The climate at Lop-nor is very different in winter and
summer. In winter the temperature falls to 22° below zero,
and rises in summer to 104°. Large variations like this
always occur in the interior of the great continents of the
world, except in the heart of Africa, close to the equator,
where it is always warm. On the coasts the variation is
smaller, for the sea cools the air in summer and warms it in
winter. In the Lop-nor country the rivers and lakes are
frozen hard in winter, but in summer suffocating heat prevails.
Men are tortured by great swarms of gnats, and cattle are
devoured by gadflies. It has even happened that animals
have been so seriously attacked by gadflies that they have
died from loss of blood. Fortunately, the flies come out only
as long as the sun is up, and therefore the animals are left in
peace at night. During the day horses and camels must be
kept among the reeds, where the flies do not come.
Incredible numbers of wild geese and ducks, swans and
other swimming birds breed at Lop-nor, and the open water
is studded all over with chattering birds. In late autumn they
fly southwards through Tibet, and in winter the lakes are
quiet, with yellow reeds sticking up through the ice.
Wild Camels
The level region over which the Lop-nor has wandered
for thousands of years from north to south is called the Lop
desert. Its stillness is broken only from time to time by
easterly storms which roll like thunder over the yellow clay
ground. In the course of ages these strong spring storms
have ploughed out channels and furrows in the clay, but
otherwise the desert is as level as a frozen sea, the places
where Lop-nor formerly spread out its water being marked
only by pink mollusc shells.
On the north the Lop desert is bounded by the eastern-
most chains of the Tien-shan, which the Chinese also call the
" Dry Mountains." They deserve the name, for their sides
are hardly ever washed by rain ;but at their southern foot a
no FROM POLE TO POLE PT . j
few salt springs are to be found. Round them grow reeds

and tamarisks, and even in other places near the mountains
some vegetation struggles for existence.
This is the country of wild camels. Wild camels live in
herds of half a dozen head. The leader is a dark-brown
stallion ; the mares are lighter in colour. Their wool is so
soft and fine that it is a pleasure to pass one's hand over it.
Several herds or families are often seen grazing on the same
spot. They look well-fed, and the two humps are firm and
full of fat. In spring and summer they can go without water
for eight days, in winter for two weeks. For innumerable
generations they have known where to find the springs the :
mothers take their young ones to them, and when the

youngsters grow up they in their turn show the springs to
their foals. They drink the water, however salt it may be,
for they have no choice, but they do not stay long at the
meadows by the springs, for their instinct tells them that
where water is to be found there the danger is great that their
enemies may also come to drink.
Against danger they have no other protection than their
sharply developed senses. They can scent men at a distance
of twelve miles. They know the odour of a camping-ground
long after the ashes have been swept away by the wind, and
they avoid the spot. Tame camels passing through their
country excite their suspicion they do not smell like wild
;
ones. They are shy and restless and do not remain long at
one pasture, even if no danger threatens.
In some districts they are so numerous that the traveller
cannot march for two minutes without crossing a spoor.
Where the tracks all converge towards a valley between two
hills, they probably lead to a spring. On one occasion when
our tame camels had not had water for eleven days, they were
saved by following the tracks of their wild relations.
—
IX
IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND

(19O I -2, I906-8)
The Plateau of Tibet

South of Eastern Turkestan lies the huge upheaval of the
which is called Tibet. Its other boundaries are
earth's crust :
on the east, China proper on the south, Burma, Bhutan,

;
Sikkim, Nepal, and British India on the west, Kashmir and

;
Ladak. Political boundaries, however, are of little and only

temporary importance. They seldom remain unchanged from
century to century, for from the earliest times a nation as it
increased in strength has always extended its domain at the
expense of its neighbours.
The earth's crust, on the other hand, remains unchanged
if we disregard the continual work performed by rain and
streams, weather and wind, which tends to fill up the hollows

with mud and sand, to cut the valleys ever deeper, and to
diminish the mountain masses by weathering. However
powerfully these forces may have acted, Tibet still remains
the highest mountain land of the world.
If you lay your left hand on a map of Tibet so that the
part nearest the wrist touches the Pamir, the flat of the hand
covers the region of central Tibet, where there is no drainage
to the ocean, but where the country falls instead into a
number of isolated lake basins. Your thumb will represent
the Himalayas, the forefinger the Trans-Himalaya, the middle
finger the Karakorum, the third finger the Arka-tagh, and the
little finger the Kuen-lun. The highest mountain ranges of
the world are under your fingers and also, as the longest
;
finger is the middle of the five, so the Karakorum is the

central ransre of Tibetan mountains.
I 12 FROM POLE TO EfiLE
Now let stream of water fall on the back of your
a little
hand as you hold on a table with the fingers spread out.
it
You will see that a tiny quantity remains on the back of the
hand, but that the greater part runs away between the fingers.
Thus it is in Tibet. The water poured on your hand re-
presents the rain of the south-west monsoon, which falls more
abundantly on the eastern part of the country than on the
western. The water which stays on the back of the hand
represents the small scattered salt lakes on the plateau country
^piop-nor 92
isiH Scale, 1:19.000,000
EASTERN TURKESTAN English Miles
f?
? 5p 19°
m$&
Emery Walker;
which has no drainage to the sea, while the large quantity

which runs off between your fingers represents the large rivers
which flow between the ranges.
Of these rivers two stream eastwards the Yellow River
:
(the Hwang-ho), which falls into the Yellow Sea, and the
Blue River (the Yang-tse-kiang), which empties its waters
into the Eastern
Sea. The others run southwards, the
Mekong the China Sea, the Salwin, Irawaddy, and
into
Brahmaputra into the great inlet of the Indian Ocean which
is called the Bay of Bengal. A
large quantity of water runs
off along the outer side of your thumb this is the Ganges,
;
ix THE PLATEAU OF TIBET i i
3
which comes down from the upper valleys of the Himalayas.

And, far to the west, nearest to the wrist, you find two rivers
with which you are already acquainted the Indus, which
:
flows southwards into the Arabian Sea, and the Tarim, which
runs north and east and falls into Lop-nor.
The Himalayas are the loftiest range on earth, and among
their crests rise the highest peaks in the world. Three of
them should be remembered, for they are so well known :
Mount Everest, which, with its 29,000 feet, is the very highest
summit in the world Kinchinjunga (28,200 feet), and
;
Dhwalagiri (26,800 feet). Mount Godwin-Austen in the

Karakorum is only about 650 feet lower than Mount Everest.
The Himalayas present a grand spectacle when seen from
the south. No other mountain region in the world can vie
with it in awe-inspiring beauty. If we travel by rail from
Calcutta up to Sikkim we see the snow-clad crest of the
Himalayas in front and above us, and Kinchinjunga like
a dazzling white pinnacle surmounting the whole. seeWe
the sharply defined snow limit, and the steep, wooded slopes
below. If it is early in the morning and the weather is fine,
the jagged, snowy crest shines brightly in the sun, while the
flanks and valleys are still hidden in dense shadow. And
during the journey to the great heights we shall notice that
the flora changes much in the same way as it does from South
Italy to the North Cape. The last forms of vegetation to
contend against the cold are mosses and lichens. Then we
come to the snow limit, where the mountains and rocks are
bare.
North and Central Tibet have a mean elevation of
16,000 feet that is to say, one is almost always at a
;
greater height than the summit of Mont Blanc. Where the

plateau country is so exceedingly high the mountain ranges
seem quite insignificant. We
have spoken of five great
ranges, but between these lie many smaller, all running
east and west.
What a fortunate thing it is for the people of Asia that
the interior of the continent rises into the tremendous boss
called Tibet Against its heights the water vapour of the
!
monsoon is cooled and condensed, so that it falls in the form

of rain and feeds the great rivers. Were the country flat like
northern India or Eastern Turkestan, immense tracts of the
interior of Asia would be complete desert, as in the interior of
Arabia; but as it is, the water is collected in the mountains and
runs off in all directions. Along the rivers the population is
I
n4 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
densest around them spring up cities and states, and from

;
them canals branch off to water fields and gardens.

You know, of course, that Asia is the largest division of
land in the world, and that Europe is little more than a
peninsula jutting out westwards from the trunk of Asia.
Indeed, Asia is not much smaller than Europe, Africa, and
Australia put together. Of the 1550 millions of men who
inhabit the world, 830 millions, or more than half, live in
Asia. If, now, you take out your atlas and compare southern
Europe and southern Asia, you will find some very curious
similarities. From both these continents three large pen-
insulas point southwards. The Iberian Peninsula, consisting
of Spain and Portugal, corresponds to the Arabian Peninsula,
both being quadrangular and massive. Italy corresponds to
the Indian Peninsula, both having large islands near their
extremities, Sicily and Ceylon. The Balkan Peninsula
corresponds to Further India (the Malay Peninsula), both
having irregular, deeply indented coasts with a world of
islands to the south-east, the Archipelago and the Sunda
Islands.
Tibet may be likened to
a fortress surrounded by mighty
ramparts. To the south the ramparts are double, the
Himalayas and the Trans-Himalaya, and between the two is
a moat partly filled with water — the Upper Indus and the
Upper Brahmaputra. And Tibet is really a fortress and a
defence in the rear of China. It is easily conceivable that a
country surrounded by such huge mountain ranges must be
very difficult of access, and the number of Europeans who
have crossed Tibet is very small.
The inaccessible position of the country has also had an
influence on the people. Isolated and without communication
with their neighbours, the people have taken their own course
and have developed in a peculiar manner within their own
boundaries. The northern third of the country is uninhabited.
I once travelled for three months, and on another occasion
for eighty-one days, without seeing a single human being. The

middle part is thinly peopled by herdsmen, who roam about
with their flocks of sheep and yaks, and live in black tents.
Many of them also are skilful hunters of yaks and antelopes.
Others gather salt on the dried-up beds of lakes, pack it in
double-ended bags, and carry it on sheep to barter it for
barley in the southern districts, which are the home of the
great majority of Tibet's two or three million inhabitants.
There are to be found not only nomads, but also settled
,x THE PLATEAU OF TIBET 115
people, dwelling in small villages of stone huts in the deeper

river valleys, especially that of the Brahmaputra, and culti-
vating barley. A i'cw towns also exist here; they are all
small, the largest being Lhasa and Shigatse.
When our journey takes us to India again we shall have
an opportunity of learning about the religion of Buddha,
which is called Buddhism. In a different form this religious
creed found its way into Tibet a thousand years ago. Before
this time a sort of natural religion prevailed, which peopled
the mountains, rivers, lakes, and air with demons and spirits.
Much of the old superstition was absorbed into the new
teaching, and the combination is known by the name of
Lamaism. There are 620 millions of Christians in the world
and 400 million Buddhists and of the Buddhists all the
;
Tibetans and Mongolians, the Buriats in eastern Siberia, the

Kalmukhs on the Volga, the peoples of Ladak, northern
Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan are Lamaists.
They have a great number of monks and priests, each of
whom is called a Lama. The principal one is the Dalai
Lama, in Lhasa, but almost on a par with him is the Tashi
Lama, the head of Tashi -lunpo, the large monastery at
Shigatse. The third in rank is the High Lama at Urga l'n
northern Mongolia. These three and some others are in-
carnated deities. The Dalai Lama never dies the god that
;
dwells in him merely changes his earthly body, just as a

snake when it casts its skin. When a Dalai Lama dies it
means that the divinity, his soul, sets out on its wanderings
and passes into the body of a boy. When the boy is found
he becomes the Dalai Lama of Lhasa. Lamaists believe,
then, in the transmigration of souls, and the end, the fullest
perfection, is peace in Nirvana.
There are many monasteries and nunneries in the upper
Brahmaputra valley. The temple halls are adorned with
images of the gods in metal or gilded clay, and butter lamps
burn day and night in front of them. Monks and nuns
cannot marry, but among the ordinary people the singular
custom prevails that a wife can have two or several husbands.
Among Mohammedans the case is just the reverse men can:
have several wives.
Attempt to reach Lhasa

It was from Lop-nor in the year 1901 that I penetrated
into this lofty mountain land for the third time. The summer
n6 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . i
had just set in with its suffocating dust storms, and we longed
to get up into the fresh, pure air. The caravan was large,
for I had sixteen Mohammedan
servants from Eastern
Turkestan, two Russian and two Buriat Cossacks, and a
Mongolian Lama from Urga. Provisions for seven months,
tents, furs, beds, weapons, and boxes were carried by 39
camels, 45 horses and mules, and 60 asses and we also had
;
50 sheep for food, several dogs, and a tame stag.

When all was ready we set out towards the lofty mountains
and crossed one range after another. When we reached the
great heights the caravan lost strength day by day. The
atmosphere is so rare that a man cannot breathe without an
effort, and the slightest movement produces palpitation of
the heart. The grazing becomes more scanty the higher
you go,and many of the caravan animals succumbed. At
last we seldom travelled more than twelve miles in a day.
After forty-four days' march due southwards we came to
a part of the country where footprints of men were seen in
several places, and Lhasa was only 300 miles away. Up to
this time all Europeans who had tried to reach the holy city
had been forced by Tibetan horsemen to turn back. The
Tibetans are at bottom a good-tempered, decent people, but
they will not allow any European to enter their country.
They have heard that India and Central Asia have been
conquered by white men, and fear that the same fate may
befall Tibet. Two hundred years ago, indeed, Catholic mis-
sionaries lived in Lhasa, and the town was visited in 1845 by
the famous priests Hue and Gabet from France. Since then
two Europeans who had made the attempt to reach the place
had been murdered, and others had to turn back without
success.
Now was my turn to try my luck.
it My
plan was to
travel disguise with only two followers.
in One was the
Mongolian Lama, the other the Buriat Cossack, Shagdur.
The Buriats are of Mongol race, speak Mongolian, and are
Lamaists. They have narrow, rather oblique eyes, prominent
cheek-bones, and thick lips. The dress of both peoples is the
—
same a skin coat with long sleeves and a waistbelt, a cap,
and a pair of boots with turned-up toes. My costume was
of exactly the same kind, and everything we took with us
— tent, boxes, cooking utensils, and provisions —
was of
Mongolian style and make. The European articles I required
— —
instruments, writing materials, and a field-glass were care-
fully packed in a box. For defence we had two Russian
ix ATTEMPT TO REACH LHASA 117
rifles and a Swedish revolver. Of the caravan animals, five

mules and four horses, as well as two dogs, Tiger and Lilliput,
were to go with us. I rode a handsome white horse, Shagdur
a tall yellow horse, and the Lama a small greyish -yellow

mule. The baggage animals were led by my men and I rode
behind. During the first two days we had a Mohammedan
with us, Ordek, but he was to go back to headquarters, where
all the rest of the caravan were ordered to await our return.
We were to ride south - eastwards and endeavour to
strike the great Mongolian pilgrim route to Lhasa. Many
Mongolians betake themselves annually in large armed
caravans to the holy city to pay homage to the Dalai Lama,
and obtain a blessing from him and the Tashi Lama. Perhaps
it was wrong of me to give myself out for a Lamaist pilgrim,
but there seemed no other means of getting to the forbidden

city.
We left the main camp on July 27, and those we left
behind did not expect ever to see us again. The first day
we did not see a living thing, and the second day we rode
twenty-five miles farther without hindrance. Our camp that
day was situated on open ground beside two lakes, and to
the south-east stood some small hills, in the neighbourhood
of which our animals grazed. Ordek was to watch them
during the night in order that we might have a good sleep,
for when he left us we should have to guard them ourselves.
Here my disguise was improved. My head was shaved
so that it shone like a billiard ball. Only the eyebrows were
left. Then the Lama rubbed fat, soot, and brown colouring-
matter into the skin, and when I looked in a small hand-glass
I could hardly recognise myself ; but I seemed to have a
certain resemblance to my two Lamaist retainers.
In the afternoon a storm broke out from the north, and wc
crept early into our little thin tent and slept quietly. At mid-
night Ordek crept into the tent and whispered in a trembling
voice that robbers were about. We seized our weapons
and rushed out. The storm was still raging, and the moon
shone fitfully between the riven clouds. We were too late.
With some difficulty we made out two horsemen on the top
of the hills driving two loose horses before them — we found
afterwards that one was my favourite white horse, the other
Shagdur's yellow one. Shagdur sent a bullet after the
scoundrels, but it only hastened their pace.
It was still dark, but there was no more sleep for us. Y\ e
settled ourselves round a small blaze, boiled rice and tea, and
n8 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . i
lighted our pipes. When the sun rose we were ready to go

forward. First we examined the tracks of the thieves and
found that they had come down on us with the wind, and had
thus eluded the watchfulness of the dogs. One of the men
had crept along a rain furrow right among the grazing horses,
and, jumping up, had frightened the best two off to leeward.
There a mounted Tibetan had taken them in hand and
chased them on in front of him. The third had waited with
his comrade's horse and his own, and then he also had made
off. They had no doubt been watching us all day. Perhaps
they already knew that we came from my headquarters, and
they might even send a warning to Lhasa.
Ordek was beside himself with fright at having to make
the two days' journey back on foot and quite alone. We
heard afterwards that he did not dare to go back on our trail,
but sneaked like a wild cat along all the furrows, longing for
night but when darkness came he was still more terrified and
;
thought that every stone was a lurking villain. A couple of

wild asses nearly frightened him out of his senses, and made
him scuttle like a hedgehog into a ravine. When he arrived
in the darkness of night at the main camp, the night watch-
man took him for a stranger and raised his gun. But Ordek
shouted and waved his arms, and when he got to his tent he
lay down and slept heavily for two whole days.
We three pilgrims rode on south-eastwards, and pitched
our tent on open ground by a brook twenty-five miles farther
on. Our positions were now reversed Shagdur was the
;
important man and I was only a mule-driver. With the

Cossacks I always spoke Russian, but now no language must
be used but Mongolian, which the Lama had been teaching
me for a long time previously. After dinner I slept till eight
o'clock in the evening, and when I awoke I found my two
comrades in a state of the greatest anxiety, for they had seen
three Tibetan horsemen spying upon us from a long distance.
We must therefore expect fresh trouble at any moment.
The night was divided into three watches, from nine
o'clock to midnight, midnight to three o'clock, and three
o'clock to six o'clock, and usually I took the first and the Lama
the last. The animals were tethered to a rope fastened to the
ground in the lee of the tent, and Tiger was tied up in front
of them and Lilliput behind them.
At half-past eight Shagdur and the Lama were asleep in
the tent, and my first night watch began. I strolled backwards
and forwards between Tiger and Lilliput, who whined with
pleasure when I stroked them. The sky was covered with
dense black clouds, lighted from within by flashes of lightning,
while thunder rolled around us and rain streamed down in a
perfect deluge. It beat and rang on the Mongolian stewpans
left out at the fireplace. Sometimes I tried to get a little

shelter in the tent opening, but as soon as the dogs growled I
had to hurry out again.
At last it is midnight and my watch is at an end but ;
Shagdur is sleeping so soundly that I cannot find it in my

heart to waken him. I am just thinking of shortening his
watch by half an hour when both dogs begin to bark furi-

ously. The Lama wakes up and rushes out, and we steal off
with our weapons inthe direction in which we hear the tramp
of a horse going away through the mud. In a little while
all is quiet again, and the dogs cease to bark. I wake up
Shagdur and creep into my berth in my wet coat.

Next day we travel on under a sky as heavy as lead.
No human beings or nomad tents are to be seen, but we find
numerous tracks of flocks of sheep and yaks, and old camping-
grounds. The danger of meeting people increased hourly,
and so did my anxiety as to how the Tibetans would treat
us when we were at last discovered.
On July 31 the rain was still pouring down. We were
following a clear, well-trodden path, along which a herd of
yaks had recently been driven. After a while we came up
with a party of Tangut pilgrims, with fifty yaks, two horses,
and three dogs. The Tanguts are a nomadic people in north-
eastern Tibet, and almost every second Tangut is also a
robber. We passed them safely, however, and for the first
time encamped near a Tibetan nomad tent occupied by a
young man and two women.
While the Lama was talking with these people, the owner
of the tent came up and was much astonished to find an un-
expected visitor. He followed the Lama to our tent and sat
down on the wet ground outside the entrance. His name was
Sampo Singi, and he was the dirtiest fellow I ever saw in my
life. Therain-water dropped from his matted hair on to the
ragged cloak he wore ; he wore felt boots but no trousers,
which indeed almost all Tibetan nomads regard as quite
superfluous.
Sampo Singi blew his nose with his fingers, making a loud
noise, and he did it so often that I began to think that it was
some form of politeness. To make sure I followed his
example. He showed not the slightest suspicion, only
a
1 20 FROM POLE TO POLE n. 1
looked at our things and gave us the information we wanted.

We had a journey of eight days more to Lhasa, he assured
us. Then Shagdur gave him a pinch of snuff which made
him sneeze at least fifty times. We laughed at him when he
asked whether we put pepper in our snuff, whereupon, in
order to keep up our story, Shagdur roared at me, " Do not
sit here and stare, boy ;
go and drive in the cattle." I started
up at once, and had a terrible job to get the animals in to the
camp.
We had an undisturbed night, thanks to the neighbourhood
of the nomads, for they too had fierce dogs and arms. Early
in the morning Sampo came with another man and a woman
to visit us. We had asked if we might buy some food from
them, and they brought several choice things with them —
sheep, a large piece of fat, a bowl of sour milk, a wooden
bowl of powdered cheese, a can of milk, and a lump of yellow
cream cheese. Then came the question of payment. Our
money consisted of Chinese silver pieces, which are valued by
weight, and are weighed out with a pair of small scales.
Sampo Singi, however, would take only silver coins from
Lhasa, of which we had none. Fortunately I had provided
myself with two packages of blue Chinese silken material in
Turkestan, and a length of that is a substitute for silver of all
kinds. The Tibetans became quite excited when they heard
the rustle of the silk, and after the usual haggling and
bargaining we came to an agreement.
The sheep was then slaughtered, some fat pieces were fried
over the fire, and after a solid breakfast, of which a share was
bestowed on the dogs, we bade farewell to the Tibetans and
rode on through the valley, still in pouring rain. Soon we
came to the right bank of a broad river which was composed
of about twenty arms, four of which were each as large as an
ordinary stream. Without hesitation our courageous little
Lama rode straight out into the rapid turbid current, and
Shagdur and I followed. When we had crossed about half
the river we rested a while on a small mud fiat, from which
neither bank could be seen owing to the rain. On all sides
we were surrounded by swiftly flowing water, yet it seemed
as if the water was standing still while the small sandbank
rushed up the river at a terrific pace.
The Lama again started off with his mule into the water,
but he had not gone many steps before the water rose to the
root of the animal's tail. He was also leading the mule which
carried our two hide trunks, which until the water soaked into
them acted like corks. In this way the mule lost her footing
on the bottom of the river, swung round, and was quickly
carried down-stream. We saw her disappear in the rain and
thought that it was certainly her last journey, but she
extricated herself in a marvellous manner. Near the left
bank of the river she managed to get her hoofs on the bottom
again, and clambered up and what was most singular, the
;
two trunks were still on her back.

At length we all got safely across, and rode on. My
boots squelched, and water dropped from the corners of the
boxes. Our camp that evening was truly wretched not a—
dry stitch on us, continuous rain, almost impossible to make
a fire. At length, however, we succeeded in keeping alight a
small smoking fire of dung. That night I did not keep watch
a minute after midnight, but waked up Shagdur mercilessly
and crept into bed.
On August 2 we made only fifteen and a half miles. The
road was now broad and easy to follow. On the slope of a
hill was encamped a large tea caravan ; its twenty-five men
were sitting round their fires, while the three hundred yaks
were grazing close at hand. The bales of tea were stacked up
in huge piles ; it was Chinese tea of poor quality compressed
into cakes like bricks, and therefore called " brick-tea."

Every cake is wrapped in red paper, and about twenty cakes
are sewed up together into a hide tightly bound with rope.
The caravan was bound for Shigatse. As we rode by, several
of the men came up to us and put some impertinent and
inconvenient questions. They were well armed and looked
like robbers, so we politely refused their proposal that we
should travel together southwards. We pitched our camp a
little farther on, and next morning we saw this curious and
singular caravan pass by. It was a great contrast to the fine
camel caravans of Persia and Turkestan, for it marched like a
regiment in separate detachments of thirty or forty yaks each.
The men walked, whistling and uttering short sharp cries ;
ten of them carried guns slung on their backs, and all were
bareheaded, sunburnt, and dirty.
The whole of the next day we remained where we were in
order to dry our things, and the Lama again stained my head
down to the neck and in the ears. The critical moment was
approaching.
On August 4 we met a caravan of about a hundred yaks,
accompanied by armed men in tall yellow hats but they
;
took us for ordinary pilgrims and did not trouble themselves

about us. Then we rode past several tents, and when we

reached the top of the next pass we saw that tents lay
scattered about on the plain like black spots, fourteen
together in one place. We were now on the great highway
to Lhasa.
The next day we came to a fiat open valley, where there
were twelve tents. Three Tibetans came to our tent there at
dusk, and had a long conversation with the Lama, who was
the only one of us who understood Tibetan. When he came
back to us he was quite overcome with fright. One of the
three men, who was a chief, had told him that information
had come from yak-hunters in the north that a large European
caravan was on the way. He had a suspicion that one of us
might be a white man, and he ordered us on no account to
move from where we were. In fact, we were prisoners,
and with great anxiety we awaited the morning, when our
fate would be decided. All night a watch was kept round our
tent, as we knew by the fires, and next day we were visited by
several parties, both influential chiefs and ordinary nomads,
who warned us, if we valued our lives, to wait there till the
Governor of the Province arrived.
In the meantime they did all they could to frighten us.
Troops of horsemen in close order dashed straight towards
our tent, as if they meant to stamp us into the earth, and so
finish us off at once. On they rushed, the horses' hoofs ringing
on the bare ground and the riders brandishing their swords and
lances above their heads and uttering the wildest shrieks. When
they were so near that the mud was splashed on to the tent,
they suddenly opened out to right and left, and returned in
the same wild career to the starting-point. This martial
manoeuvre was repeated several times.
During the following days, however, they behaved in a
more peaceful fashion, and eventually we came to be on quite
a friendly footing with most of our neighbours. They visited
us constantly, gave us butter, milk, and fat, and when it
rained crept coolly into our tent, which became so crowded
that we could hardly find room for ourselves. They informed
us that the Dalai Lama had given orders that no harm should
be done to us, and we saw that messengers on horseback
rode off daily along the roads leading to Lhasa and the
Governor's village. We did not know where our seven
baggage and riding animals were, but we made it clear to the
Tibetans that, as they had stopped us against our will, they must
be answerable for the safety of our animals and possessions.
On August 9 things at last began to look lively. A

whole village of tents sprang up at some distance from us,
and round the new tents swarmed Tibetans on foot and
horseback. A Mongolian interpreter escorted by some horse-
men came to our tent.
" The Governor, Kamba Bombo, is here, and invites you
to-day to a feast in his tent."
"Greet Kamba Bombo,"
answered, "but tell him that
I
it is usual first to pay a

the guests one invites."
visit to
"You must come," went on the interpreter; "a sheep
roasted whole is placed in the middle of the tent, surrounded
by bowls of roasted meal and tea. He awaits you."
" We do not leave our camp. If Kamba Bombo wishes to
see us he can come here."
"If you will not come with me I cannot be responsible
for you to the Governor. He has ridden day and night to
talk with you. I beg you to come with me."
" If Kamba Bombo has anything to say to us, he is

welcome. We ask nothing from him, only to travel to Lhasa
as peaceful pilgrims."
Two hours later the Tibetans came back again in a long-
dark horsemen, the Governor riding on a large white
line of
mule in their midst. His retinue consisted of officials, priests,
and officers in red and blue cloaks carrying guns, swords,
and lances, wearing turbans or light-coloured hats, and riding
on silver-studded saddles.
When they came up, carpets and cushions were spread on
the ground, and on these Kamba Bombo took his seat. I
went out to him and invited him into our poor tent, where
he occupied the seat of honour, a maize sack. He might be
forty years old, looked merry and jovial, but also pale and
tired. When he took off his long red cloak and his bashlik,
he appeared in a splendid dress of yellow Chinese silk, and
his boots were of green velvet.
Theinterview began at once, and each of us did his best
to talk the other down. The end of the matter was a clear
declaration on his part that if we tried to move a step in the
direction of Lhasa our heads should be cut off, no matter
who we were. We
did our best, both that day and the
next, to get this decision altered, but it was no use and we
had to yield to superior force.
So we turned back on the long road through dreary
Tibet, and eventually regained our headquarters in safety.
The Tashi Lama

Thus was that we came back to the little town of Leh,
it
the capital of Ladak, and again saw the winter caravans

which come over the lofty mountains from Eastern Turkestan
on their way with goods to Kashmir. Then several years
passed, but in August, 1906, I was once more in Leh, having
travelled (as has been described) across Europe to Constanti-
nople, over the Black Sea, through Persia and Baluchistan,
then by rail to Rawalpindi, in a tonga to Kashmir, and lastly
on horseback to Leh. On this occasion the caravan consisted
of twenty-seven men and nearly a hundred mules and horses,
besides thirty hired horses, which were to turn back when
the provisions they carried had been consumed.
Our course lay over the lofty mountains in northern
Tibet, and for eighty-one days we did not see a single human
being. But when we turned off to the right and came to
more southern districts of the country, we met with Tibetan
hunters and nomads, from whom we purchased tame yaks
and sheep, for the greater part of our animals had perished
owing to the rarefied air, the poor and scanty pasture, and the
cold and the wind. The temperature had on one occasion
fallen as low as 40 below zero.
After wandering for about six months we came to the
Upper Brahmaputra, which is the only place where the Tibetans
use boats, if indeed they can be called boats at all. They
simply take four yak hides, stretch them over a framework of
thin curved ribs and sew them together, and then the boat is
ready but it is buoyant and floats lightly on the water.
;
When we were only a day's journey from Shigatse, the second

town of Tibet, the caravan was ferried across the river. I
myself with two of my servants took my seat in a hide boat,
dexterously managed by a Tibetan, and we drifted down the
Brahmaputra at a swinging pace.
A number of other boats were following the same fine
waterway. They were full of pilgrims flocking to the great
Lama temple in Shigatse. Two days later was the New Year
of the country, and then the Lamaists celebrate their greatest
festival. Pilgrims stream from far and near to the holy town.
Round their necks they wear small images of their gods or
wonder-working charms written on paper and enclosed in
small cases, and many of them turn small praying mills,
which arc filled inside with prayers written on long strips of
s
O
- 3
ix THE TASHI LAMA 125
paper. When the mills revolve all these prayers ascend up

to the ears of the gods —
so easy is it to pray in Tibet All
!
the time a man can continue his conversation with his fellow-
travellers.
Many of the pilgrims, however, like all Tibetans, murmur
the sacred formula Om mane padme hum over and over
again. These four words contain the key to all faith and
salvation. They signify " O, jewel in the lotus flower, amen."
The jewel is Buddha, and in all images he is represented as
rising up from the petals of a lotus flower. The more
frequently a man repeats these four words, the greater chance
has he of a happy existence when he dies and his soul passes
into a new body.
Wereached Shigatse and pitched our tents in a garden on
the outskirts of the town. Outside Shigatse stands the great
monastery of Tashi-lunpo (Plate XI.), in which dwell 3800
monks of various grades, from fresh young novices to old, grey
high priests. They all go bareheaded and bare-armed, and
their dress consists of long red sheets wound round the body.
The priest who is head of all is called the Tashi Lama ; he is
the primate of this part of Tibet and enjoys the same exalted
rank and dignity as the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. He has a
great reputation for sanctity and learning, and pilgrims stand
for hours in a queue only to receive a word of blessing
from him.
This Tashi Lama was then a man of twenty-seven years of
age, and had held the position since he was a small boy. He
invited me to the great festival in the temple on New Year's
Day. In the midst of the temple town is a long court
surrounded by verandahs, balconies, and platforms. Round
about are seen the gilded copper roofs over the sanctuaries
and mausoleums where departed high priests repose. Every-
where the people are tightly packed, and the visitors from far
and near are dressed in their holiday clothes, many-coloured
and fine, and decorated with silver ornaments, coral and
turquoise. The Tashi Lama has his seat in a balcony hung
with silken draperies and gold tassels, but the holy counte-
nance can be seen through a small square opening in the silk.
The festival begins with the entry of the temple musicians.
They carry copper bassoons ten feet long, so heavy that their
bells have to rest on the shoulder of an acolyte. With deep,
long-drawn blasts the monks proclaim the New Year, just as
long ago the priests of Israel announced with trumpet notes
the commencement of the year of jubilee. Then follow
cymbals which clash in a slow, ringing measure, and drums

which rouse echoes from the temple walls. The noise is
deafening, but it sounds cheerful and impressive after the
deep stillness in the valleys of Tibet.
. After the musicians have taken their places in the court
the dancing monks enter. They are clad in costly garments

of Chinese silk, and bright dragons embroidered in gold flash
in the folds as the sunlight falls on them. The faces of the
monks are covered by masks representing wild animals with
open jaws and powerful tusks. The monks execute a slow
circular dance. They believe, and so do all the people, that
evil spirits may be kept at a distance and driven away by
this performance.
The next day I was summoned to the Tashi Lama. We
passed along narrow paved lanes between the monastery
walls, through narrow gloomy passages, up staircases of
polished wood, and at last reached the highest floor of the
monastery, where the Tashi Lama has his private apartments.
I found him in a simple room, sitting cross-legged in a
window recess from which he can see the temple roofs and
the lofty mountains and the sinful town in the valley. He
was beardless, with short-cut brown hair. His expression was
singularly gentle and charming, almost shy. He held out his
hands to me and invited me to take a seat beside him, and
then for several hours we talked about Tibet, Sweden, and
this vast, wonderful world.
Wild Asses and Yaks

If I had counted all the wild asses I saw during my travels
inTibet the number would amount to many, many thousands.
Up in the north, in the very heart of the highland country,
and down in the south, hardly a day passed without our
seeing these proud, handsome animals, sometimes alone,
sometimes in couples, and sometimes in herds of several
hundred head.
The Latin name for the wild ass, Equus kiang, indicates
his close relationship to the horse, and "kiang" is what he is
called by the people of Tibet. The wild ass is as large as an

average mule, with well-developed ears, and a sharp sense of
hearing his tail is tufted at the end, and he is reddish-brown
;
in colour, except on the legs and belly, where he is white.

When he scents danger he snorts loudly, throws up his head,
cocks his ears, and expands his nostrils he is more like a fine
;
,x WILD ASSES AND YAKS 127
him wild and free on the

ass than a horse, but when you see
between him and an ass
salt plains of Tibet, the difference
seems even greater than between an ass and a horse. My
own horses and mules seemed sorry jades by the side of the
" kiangs " of the desert.
On one occasion my Cossacks caught two small foals
which as yet had no experience of life and the dangers of the
desert. They stood tied up between the tents and made no
attempt to escape. We gave them meal mixed with water,
which they supped up eagerly, and we hoped that they would
thrive and stay with us. When I saw how they pined for
freedom, however, I wanted to restore them to the desert and
to their mother's care. But it was too late the mothers
;
would have nothing to do with them after they had been in

the hands of men, so we had to kill them to save them from
the wolves. Thus strict is the law of the wilderness a :
human hand is enough to break the spell of its freedom.

We cannot travel back to India without having become
acquainted with the huge ox which runs wild over the loftiest
mountains of Tibet. He is called " yak " in Tibetan, and the
name has been transferred to most European languages. He
is closely akin to the tame yak, but is larger and is always of
a deep black colour only when he is old does his head turn
;
grey. The tame yak, on the other hand, is often white,

brown, or mottled. Common to both are the peculiar form
and the abundant wool. Seen from the side, the yak seems
humpbacked. The back slopes down from the highest
point, just over the forelegs, to the root of the tail, while
the neck slopes down still more steeply to the scrag. The
animal is exceedingly heavy, strong and ungainly, and the
points of the thick horns are often worn and cracked in
consequence of severe combats between the bulls.
A 5 the yak lives in a temperature which in winter falls below
the freezing-point of mercury ( - 40°), he needs a close warm
coat and a protective layer of fat under the hide and he is, in
;
fact, so well provided with these that no cold on earth can affect
him. When his breath hangs in clouds of steam round his
nostrils he is in his element. Singular, too, are the fringes of
wool a foot long which skirt the lower parts of his flanks and
the upper parts of his forelegs. They may grow so long as to
touch the ground as the yak walks. When he lies down on
the stone-hard, frozen, and pebbly ground, these thick fringes
serve as cushions, and on them he lies soft and warm.
On what do these huge fleshy animals live in a country
where, broadly speaking, nothing grows and where a caravan

may perish for want of fodder? It often happened that we
would march for several days together without seeing a blade
of grass. Then we might come to a valley with a little scanty
hard yellow grass, but even if we stayed over a day the
animals could not get nearly enough to eat. Not until we
have descended to about 15,000 feet above sea-level do we find
— —
and then only very seldom a few small, miserable bushes ;
and to reach trees we must descend another 3000 feet lower.

In the home of the wild yaks the ground is almost everywhere
bare and barren, and yet these great beasts roam about and
thrive excellently. They live on mosses and lichens, which
they lick up with the tongue, and for this purpose their
tongues are provided with hard, sharp, horny barbs like a
thistle. In the same way they crop the velvety grass, less
than half an inch high, which grows on the edges of the high
alpine brooks, and which is so short that a horse cannot get
hold of it.
On one occasion I made an excursion of several days from
the main caravan, accompanied by only two men. One was
an Afghan named Aldat. He was an expert yak-hunter, and
used to sell the hides to merchants of Eastern Turkestan to
be made into saddles and boots. We had encamped about
600 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc, and the air
was so rarefied that if we took even a few steps we suffered
from difficulty in breathing and palpitation of the heart.
When the camp was ready, Aldat came and asked me to
look at a large yak bull grazing on a slope above my tent.
As we needed flesh and fat, I gave him permission to shoot it
and to keep the hide. The bull had not noticed us, for he was
to windward, and thought of nothing but the juicy moss.
Water melted from the snow trickled among the stones, the
—
wind blew cold, and the sky was overcast true yak weather.
With his gun on his back, Aldat crept up a hollow. At
last he pushed himself along on his elbows and toes, crouching
on the ground like a cat prowling after prey. At a distance
of thirty paces he stopped behind a scarcely perceptible ridge
of stones and took careful aim. The yak did not look up,
not suspecting any danger. He had roamed about for fifteen
years on these peaceful heights near the snow-line and had
never seen a man. The shot cracked out and echoed among
the mountains. The yak jumped into the air, took a few
uncertain steps, stopped, reeled, tried to keep his balance, fell,
lifted himself, but fell again heavily and helplessly to the
ix WILD ASSES AND YAKS 129
ground, and lay motionless. It was stone dead, and in an

hour was skinned and cut up.
This took place on September 9. On the 23rd of the
same month the relations of the yak bull might have seen
from a distance a strange procession. Some men carried a
long object to the edge of a grave which had just been dug,
lowered it into the trench, covered it with a skin coat, and
filled in the grave with stones and earth. Into this simple
mound was thrust a tent pole, with the wild yak's bushy tail
fastened to the top and the man who slumbered under the
;
hillock was Aldat himself, the great yak-hunter.
K
X
INDIA
From Tibet to Simla
Right up in Tibet lie the sources of the Sutlej, the largest
affluent of the Indus. With irresistible force it breaks through
the Himalayas in order to get down to the sea, and its valley
affords us an excellent road from the highlands of Tibet to
the burning lowlands of India. On this journey we pass
through a succession of belts of elevation, and find that
various animals and plants are peculiar to different heights.
The tiger does not go very high up on the southern flanks of
the Himalayas, but the snow leopard is not afraid of cold.
The tame yak would die if he were brought down to denser
strata of air, and Marco Polo's sheep would waste away on
the forest-clothed heights but wolves, foxes and hares occur
;
as frequently in India as in Tibet.

The boundaries of the flora are more sharply defined.
Below the limit of eternal snow (13,000 feet) ranunculus and
anemones, pedicularis and primulas are found just as they are
in our higher latitudes with corresponding conditions of
temperature. At 12,000 feet lies the limit of forest, beyond
which the birch does not go, but where pine-trees still thrive.
Between 10,000 and 6000 feet are woods of the beautiful and
charming conifer called the Himalayan cedar, which is allied
to the cedar of Lebanon. At 7000 feet the limit of sub-
tropical woods is crossed, and the oak and the climbing rose
are seen. Just below 3500 feet the tropical forest is entered,
with acacias, palms, bamboos, and all the floral wealth of the
Indian jungle.
The Sutlej grows bigger and bigger the further we
descend, and we ride on shaking bridges across innumerable
tributaries. The atmosphere becomes denser, and breathing
130
FROM TIBET TO SIMLA 131
easier. We
no longer have a singing in the ars, or 1
palpitations or headache as on the great heights, and the

cold has been left behind. Even in the early morning the
air is warm, and soon come days when we look back with
regret to the cool freshness up in Tibet. One of my dogs, a
great shaggy Tibetan, suffered severely from the increasing
heat, and one fine day he turned right about and went back
to Tibet.
The first town that we come to is called Simla (Plate
XII.). It is not large, having barely 15,000 inhabitants, but it
is one of the most beautiful towns in the world, and one of
the most powerful, for in its cedar groves stands a palace, and
in the palace an Imperial throne. The Emperor is the King
of England, whose power over India is entrusted to a Viceroy.
In summer enervating heat prevails over the lowlands of
India, and all Europeans who are not absolutely tied to
their posts move up to the hills. The Viceroy and his staff,
the government officials, the chief officers of the army, civil
servants and military men all fly with their wives up to
Simla, where the leaders of society live as gaily as in London.
During this season the number of inhabitants rises to 30,000.
The houses of Simla are built like swallows' nests on
steep slopes. The streets, or rather roads, lie terraced one
above another. The whole town is built on hills surrounded
by dizzy precipices. Round about stand forests dark and
dense but between the cedars are seen far off to the south-
;
west the plains of the Punjab and the winding course of the
Sutlej, and to the north the masses of the Himalayas with
their eternal snowfields. It is delightful to go up to Simla
from the sultriness of India, and perhaps still more delightful
to come down to Simla from the piercing cold of Tibet.
Delhi and Agra

From Simla we go down by train through hundreds of
tunnels and round the sharpest curves, over countless bridges
and along dizzy precipices, to the lowlands of the Punjab. It
is exceedingly hot, and we long for a little breeze from Tibet's
snowy mountains.
Time flies by till we reach Delhi, situated on the Jumna,
one of the affluents of the Ganges. Delhi was the capital of
the empire of the Great Moguls, 1 and in the seventeenth
century it was the most magnificent city in the world.
1
Delhi is again to be the capital of the Empire of British India (see footnote
on p. 141).
'"
Laccucl'nie :
,
~?J
CaIicutV
Islands''- . '
'
CEYLON
/ N D I A N OCEAN
Scale, 1:30,000,000
English Miles
100 200 300 400 500
1 le East 80 of Gr. 88"
MAP OF INDIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM NUSHKI TO LEH (pp. 82-88), AND
THE JOURNEY FROM TIUET THROUGH SIMLA, ETC., TO UOMI3AY (pp. 130-142).
x DELHI AND AGRA 133
Many proud monuments of this grandeur still remain,

notably the splendid building of pure white marble called the
Hall of Private Audience, where in the open space surrounded
by a double colonnade the Great Mogul was wont to dispense
justice and receive envoys. In the sunshine the marble
columns seem to be translucent, and light-blue shadows fall on
the marble floor. The walls and pillars are inlaid with costly
stones of various shapes lapis-lazuli and malachite, nephrite
:
and agate. In the throne-room used to stand the famous

" Peacock Throne " of the Great Mogul. The whole throne
was covered with thick plates of gold and studded all over
with diamonds. In the year 1749 the Persian king, Nadir
Shah, came to Delhi, defeated the Great Mogul and carried
off treasures to the value of fifty-six million pounds. Among
other valuables he seized was the famous diamond called
the " Koh-i-noor," or " Mountain of Light," now among the
British crown jewels. He also carried off the Peacock
Throne, which alone was worth eleven million pounds. It is
to this day in the possession of the Shahs of Persia, but all
the diamonds have been taken out one after another by
the successors of Nadir Shah when they happened to be in
difficulties. The gold plates are left, however, and on the back
still glitter the golden peacocks which give the throne its name.
If we stroll for some hours through the narrow streets
and interesting bazaars of Delhi and push our way among
bustling Hindus and Mohammedans, we can better appreciate
the vaulted arches of the Hall of Private Audience and can
also understand the Persian inscription to be read above the
entrance " If there be an Elysium on earth, it is here."
:
Farther down the Jumna stands Agra, and here we make

another break in our railway journey eastwards. Agra also
was for a time the capital of the Great Mogul empire, and in
the seventeenth century the emperor who bore the name of
Shah Jchan erected here an edifice which is still regarded as
one of the most beautiful in the world (Plate XIII.). It is
called the " Taj Mahal," or " royal palace," and is a mausoleum
in memory of Shah Jehan's favourite wife, Mumtaz, by whose
side he himself reposes in the crypt of the mosque. It is
constructed entirely of blocks of white marble, and took
twenty-seven years to build and cost nearly two million
pounds of our money.
The garden which surrounds the sanctuary is entered
through a large gate of red sandstone. In a long pool gold-
fish dart about under floating lotus blossoms, and all around
134 FROM POLE TO POLE pt.i
is luxuriant verdure, the dwelling-place of countless singing
birds the air is filled with the odour of jasmine and roses, and
;
tall, slender cypresses point to heaven.
Straight in front the marble Taj Mahal rises from a

terrace, dazzling white in the sunshine — a summer dream of
white clouds turned to stone, a work of art which only love
could conjure out of the rubbish of earth. The airy cupola,
the arched portals, and bright white walls are reflected in the
pool. At each of the four corners of the terrace stands a tall
slender minaret, also of white marble, and in the centre the
huge dome rises to a height of 240 feet. In the great
octagonal hall below the dome, within an enclosure of marble
filigree work, stand the monuments over Shah Jehan and his
queen Mumtaz. The actual sarcophagi are preserved in the
vault beneath.
The four facades of this wonderful building are all alike,
but the background of green vegetation and the changes of
light seem always to be producing new effects. Sometimes a
faint green reflection from the foliage can be seen in the white
marble ;
the full sunshine it is like snow in shadow, light
in ;
blue. Whenthe sun sinks in the red glow of evening, the

whole edifice is bathed in orange light and later comes the
;
moonlight, which is perhaps the most appropriate of all.

Steamy and close, hot and silent, now lies the garden the ;
illumination is icy cold, the shadows deep black, the dome

silvery white. The mysterious sounds of the jungle are heard
around, and the Jumna rolls down its turbid waters to meet
the sacred Ganges.
Benares and Brahminism
In the drainage basin of the Ganges, through which the

train is again carrying us south-eastwards, 100 million human
beings, mostly Hindus, have their home. The soil is exceed-

ingly fertile, and supports many large towns, several of them
two or three thousand years old, besides innumerable villages.
Here the Hindu peasants have their huts of bamboo-canes
and straw-matting, and here they cultivate their wheat, rice,
and fruits.
—
Our next stay is at Benares the holiest city in the world,
if holiness be measured by the reverence shown by the children
of men. Long before Jerusalem and Rome, Mecca and

Lhasa, Benares was the home and heart of the ancient religion
•»
»«<f'
x BENARES AND BRAHMINISM 135
of India, and it still is the centre of Brahmin ism and Hinduism.

There are more than 200 millions of Hindus in the world,
and the thoughts of all of them turn to Benares. All Hindus
long to make a pilgrimage to their holy city. The sick come
to recover health in the waters of the sacred Ganges, the old
travel hither to die, and the ashes of those who die in distant
places arc sent to Benares to be scattered over the waters of
salvation. In Benares, moreover, Buddha preached 500 years
before Christ, and at the present day he has more than 400
million followers so to Buddhists also Benares is a holy
;
place.
The Hindus have three principal gods : Brahma, the
creator ; Vishnu, the preserver ; and Siva, the destroyer.
From these all the others are derived thus, for example,
:
Kali represents only one of the attributes of Siva. To this

goddess children were formerly sacrificed, and when this was
forbidden by the British Government goats were substituted.
But we have not yet done with divinities. The worship of
the Hindus is not confined to their gods. Nearly all nature is
divine, but above all, cows and bulls, apes and crocodiles,
snakes and turtles, eagles, peacocks and doves. It is not
forbidden to kill, steal and lie, but if a Hindu eats flesh, nay,
if he by chance happens to swallow the hair of a cow, he is
doomed to the hell of boiling oil. He becomes an object of

horror to all, but above all to himself. For thousands of years
this superstitution has been implanted in the race, and it
remains as strong as ever.
Ever since India, or, as the country is called in Persia,
Hindustan, was conquered by the invading Aryans from
the north-west — and this was quite 4000 years ago — the
1 1 indus have been divided into castes. The differences between
the different castes are greater than that between the barons
and the serfs in Europe during the Middle Ages. The two
highest castes were the Brahmins (or priests) and the warriors.
Now there are a thousand castes, for every occupation con-
stitutes an especial caste : all goldsmiths, for example, are
of the same caste, all sandal-makers of another, and men of
different castes cannot eat together, or they become unclean.
Early in the morning, just before the day has begun to

dawn the cast, let us hire a boat and have ourselves rowed
in
up and down the Ganges. In tin's way we obtain an
excellent view of this wonderful town as it stretches in front
—
of us along the left bank of the river a great heap of closely
packed buildings, houses, walls and balconies, and an end-

less succession of pagodas with lofty towers (Plate XIV.).
From the top of the bank, which is about ioo feet high,
a broad flight of steps runs down to the river, and stone piers
jut out like jetties into the water. Between these are wooden
stages built over the surface of the river and covered with
straw thatch and large parasols or awnings. This is the
gathering place of the faithful. They come from every
furthest corner of the city to the sacred river to greet the sun
—
when it rises brown, half-naked figures, with light clothing,
often only a loincloth, of the gaudiest colours. The whole
bank of the river teems with men.
An elderly Brahmin comes down to a jetty and squats on
his heels. His head is shaved, with the exception of a tuft
on the crown. He dips his head in the river, scoops some
water up and rinses his mouth with it. He calls on Ganges,
daughter of Vishnu, and prays her to take away his sins, the
impurity of his birth, and to protect him throughout his life.
Then, after repeating the twenty-four names of Vishnu, he
stands up and calls out the sacred syllable " Om," which in-
cludes Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Lastly he invokes the earth,
air, sky, sun, moon, and stars, and pours water over his head.
The rim of the rising sun is seen above the jungle on the
right bank of the Ganges. Its appearance is saluted by all
the thousands of pious pilgrims, who sprinkle water with
their hands in the direction of the sun, wading out into the
long shallow margin of the river. The old Brahmin has
squatted down again and performs the most incomprehensible
movements with his hands and fingers. He holds them in
different positions, puts them up to the top of his head, his
eyes, forehead, nose, and
breast, to indicate the 108 different
manifestations of Vishnu. If he forgets a single one of these
gestures, all his worship is in vain. The same ceremony has to
be repeated in the afternoon and evening, and in the intervals
the devout Brahmin has other religious duties to perform in
the temples.
Here an old man lies stretched out on a bed of rags. He
is so thin that his skin hangs loosely over his ribs, and though
his body is brown, his beard is snow-white. He has come to
Benares to die beside the holy Ganges, which flows from the
foot of Vishnu. There stands a man in the prime of life, but
a leper, eaten away with sores. He has come to Benares to
seek healing in the waters of life. Here, again, is a young
woman, who trips gracefully down the stone steps bearing
x BENARES AND BRAHMINISM 137
a water jug on her head. She wades into the river until
the water comes up to her waist ;
then she drinks from
her hand, sprinkles water towards the sun, pours water
over her hair, fills her pitcher, and goes slowly up again,
while the holy Ganges water drips from the red wrap which is
wound round her body. And all the other thousands who
greet the sun with oblation of water from the sacred river are
convinced that he who makes a pilgrimage to Benares and
dies within the city walls obtains forgiveness for all his sins.
Like the Buddhists, the Hindus believe in the transmigra-
tion of souls. A Hindu's soul must pass through more than
eight million animal forms, and for all the sins he has com-
mitted in the earlier forms of his existence, he must suffer in
the later. Therefore he makes offerings to the gods that he
may soon be released from this eternal wandering and attain
the heaven of the faithful. In the endless chain of existence
this short morning hour of prayer on the banks of the Ganges
is but a second compared to eternity.
In the evening, when the hottest hours of the day are

past, let us again take a boat and drift down slowly past
the stone steps and jetties of Benares. Noiseless, muddy, and
grey the sacred river streams along its bed. What quantities
of reeking impurities there are in this water of salvation !
Whole bundles of crushed and evil-smelling marigolds, refuse,

rags and bits, bubbles and scum, float on its surface.
Down a steep lane a funeral procession approaches the bank
at a quick pace. The strains of anything but melodious
music disturb the quiet of the evening, and the noise of drums
is echoed from the walls of the pagodas. The corpse is borne
on a bier covered with a white sheet, and men of the caste of
body-burners arrange it on the pyre, a pile of wood stacked
up by the waterside. Then they set fire to the dry shavings,
and the wood pile crackles. Thick clouds of smoke rise up
and the smell of burned flesh is borne on the breeze.
The body-burners have been sparing of fuel, however, and
when the heap of wood has burned down to ashes, the half-
consumed and blackened corpse still remains among the
embers, and is then thrown out into the river.
The Light of Asia

In the sixth century before Christ, an Aryan tribe named
Sakya dwelt in Kapilavastu, 120 miles north of Benares.
1 38 FROM POLE TO POLE „ml
The king of the country had a son, Siddharta, gifted with
supernatural powers both of body and mind. When the
prince had reached his eighteenth year he was allowed to
choose his bride, and his choice fell on the beautiful Yasodara;
but in order to obtain her hand he had to vanquish in open
contest those of his people who were most proficient in manly
exercises. First came the bowmen, who shot at a copper
drum. Siddharta had the mark moved to double the
distance, but the bow that was given him broke. Another
—
was sent for from the temple of unpolished steel, so stiff that
no one could bend it to get the loop of the string into the
groove. To Siddharta, however, this was child's play, and
his arrow not only pierced the drum, but afterwards continued
its flight over the plain.
The second trial was with the sword. With a single
stroke each of the other competitors cut through the trunk
of a fine tree, but with lightning rapidity Siddharta's blade
cut clean through two trunks standing side by side. As the
trees remained unmoved, the other competitors were jubilant
and scoffed at the prince's blunt sword, but a light puff of
wind rustled through the tops of the trees and both fell to the
ground.
The last trial was to subdue a wild horse which no one
could ride. Under Siddharta's powerful hand it became
gentle and obedient as a lamb.
Then the prince led his bride to the splendid palace of
Kapilavastu. The king feared that the wickedness, poverty, and
misfortune which prevailed in the world without might trouble
the prince's mind, and he therefore had a high wall built round
the palace, and guards posted at the gates. The prince was
never to pass out through them.
For some time the prince lived happily in his paradise,
but one day he was seized with a desire to see the condition
of men out in the world. The king gave him permission to
leave the palace grounds, but issued orders that the
town should be decorated as for a festival, and that all the
poor, crippled, and sick people should be kept out of sight.
The prince drove through the streets in his carriage drawn
by bulls. There he saw an old man, worn and bent, who
held out his withered hand, crying, " Give me an alms,
to-morrow or the next day I shall die." The prince asked
whether this hideous creature, so unlike all the others he had
seen, was really a man, and his attendant replied that all
men must grow old, feeble, and miserable like the one in
x THE LIGHT OF ASIA 139
front of them. Troubled and thoughtful Siddharta returned

home.
After some time he begged his father to let him see the
town in its everyday state. Disguised as a merchant, and
accompanied by the same attendant who was with him on the
first occasion, he went through the streets on foot. Every-
where he saw prosperity and industry, but suddenly he heard
a whining cry beside him " I am suffering, help me home
:
before I die." Siddharta stopped and found a plague-stricken

man, unable to stir, his body covered with blotches. He
asked his attendant what was the matter, and was told that
the man was ill.
" Can illness afflict all men ?"
" Yes, Sire, it comes sneaking like a tiger through the
thicket, we know not when or wherefore, but all may be
stricken down by it."
" Can this unfortunate man live long in such misery, and
what is the end ? "
" Death."
" What is death ? "
" Look here comes a funeral.
! The man who lies on the
bamboo bier has ceased to live. Those who follow him are
his mourning relations. See how he is now laid on a pyre,
down there on the bank, and how he is burnt; soon all
that is left of him will be a little heap of ashes."
" Must all men die?"
" Yes, Sire."
" Myself also?"
"
Yes."
More sorrowful than ever he returned home, and in his
soul a longing ripened to save mankind from suffering, care,
and death. He heard a voice, " Choose between a royal crown
and the beggar's staff, between worldly power and the lonely
desolate paths which lead to the redemption of mankind."
His resolution was soon taken. In the night he stole
gently to Yasodara's couch, and looked his last on his young
wife sleeping on a bed of roses, with her new - born son
in her arms. Then he left behind all he loved, bade his
groom saddle his horse, and rode to the copper gates, now
watched by a treble guard. A magic wind passed over the
watchmen, and they fell into a deep sleep, while the massive
gates opened noiselessly of themselves.
When he was far away from Kapilavastu, he sent his
servant back with the horse and its royal trappings, changed
clothes with a tattered beggar, and went on alone. Then he

met the odious tempter, the power of evil, who offered him
dominion over the four great continents if he would only
abandon his purpose. He overcame the tempter, and con-
tinued his journey until he came to another kingdom, where
he settled in a cave and attempted to convince the Brahmins
that Brahma could not be a god, since he had created a
wretched world. The Brahmins, however, received him with
suspicion, so he retired to a lonely country where, with five
disciples, he devoted himself to deep meditation and self-
mortification.
In time he came to see that it was no use to torture and
enfeeble the body, which is after all the abode of the soul,
and accordingly began to take food again. Then his disciples
abandoned him, for at that time self-mortification was regarded
as the only path to salvation. Siddharta was then alone,
and under the sacred fig-tree still shown in India he gained
wisdom and enlightenment, and became Buddha.
Then he came to Benares, and won back his first
disciples and his society, the brotherhood of the yellow
;
mendicant monks, spread ever more and more. In the rainy

season, from June to October, he taught in Benares, and in
the fine weather he wandered from village to village. " To
abstain from all evil, to acquire virtue, to purify the heart
— that is the religion of Buddha " ;so he preached. At
the age of eighty years he died in 480 B.C.
Buddha was a reformer who wished to instil new" life into
the religious faith of the Hindus. Many of the leading
brothers of his order were Brahmins. He rejected the Vedic
books, self-mortification, and differences of caste, preached
philanthropy, and taught that the way to Nirvana, the
paradise of peace and perfection, is open to all. He left no
writings behind, but his doctrines were preserved in the
memory of his disciples, who long after wrote them down.
The five chief precepts are, " Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not
steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not lie, and
thou shalt not drink strong drinks."
To-day, 2500 years after his death, the doctrine of
Buddha has spread over immense regions of eastern Asia
— over Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, Further India,
—
and Ceylon and the country north of the Caspian Sea.
Innumerable are the images of Buddha to be found in the
temples of eastern Asia, and he himself has been called the
" Light of Asia."
BOMBAY 141
Bombay
After \vc leave Benares the railway turns south-eastwards
to the wide delta country where the Ganges and the Brahma-
putra meet, and where Calcutta, the capital of India, 1
stands on one of the arms of the river. The town itself is

flatand monotonous, but it is large and wealthy and contains
more than a million inhabitants. The climate is very damp
and hot, the temperature even in winter being about 95 in
the shade. Accordingly in the summer the Viceroy and his
government move up to Simla in the cool of the hills.
From Calcutta we travel by train right across to the
western coast of the Indian Peninsula, to a more beautiful and
—
more pleasant city indeed one of the most beautiful cities of
the world. Bombay is the gate to India, for here the traveller
ends his voyage from Europe through the Suez Canal and
begins his railway journey to his destination. It is a great
and wealthy commercial town, having about 800,000 inhabit-
ants, and innumerable vessels lie loading or unloading in the
splendid harbour.
Here we find the last remnant of a people formerly great
and powerful. About six or seven hundred years before the
birth of Christ lived aman named Zoroaster. He founded a
religion which spread over all Persia and the neighbouring
lands, and under its auspices Xerxes led his immense armies
against Greece. When the martial missionaries of Islam
overwhelmed Persia 650 A.D. many thousands of the
in
followers of Zoroaster fled to India, and a remnant of this
people still live in Bombay and are called Parsees.
They arc clever and prosperous merchants, many of them
being multi-millionaires, and they own Bombay and control
its trade. Their boundless reverence for fire,
faith involves a
earth, and water. As
the earth would be polluted if corpses
were buried in it, and as fire would be dishonoured by burning
bodies, they deposit their dead within low round towers, called
the Towers of Silence. There are five of these towers in
Bombay. They all stand together on a high hill, rising from
a peninsula which runs out into the sea. The body is laid
naked within the walls of the tower. In the trees around
large vultures perch, and in a few minutes nothing but the
skeleton is left of the corpse. Under the cypresses and the
1
At the threat Durbar held at Delhi on December 12, 1911, King George V.
announced that the capital of India would be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi.
i
42 FROM POLE TO POLE ,,.,
fine foliage trees in the park round the Towers of Silence the
family of the deceased may abandon themselves to their
grief.
The Useful Plants of India
In India we a flora nearly allied to that which

find
flourishes in Africa, a soil which freely affords
tropical
nourishment to both wild and cultivated plants, an irrigation
either supplied directly by the monsoon rains or artificially
conducted from the rivers. It is true that we travel for long:
distances, especially in north-western India, through true
desert tracts, but other districts produce vegetation so dense
and luxuriant that the air is filled with reeking, choking
vapour as in a huge hothouse.
First there are bananas, the cucumber-shaped fruits which
are the food of millions of human beings. From India and
the Sunda Islands this beneficent tree has spread to Africa
and the Mediterranean coasts, to Mexico and Central America.
Its floury-white flesh, juicy and saccharine, fragrant and well-
flavoured, is an excellent article of food. The large leaves
—
of the banana are useful for various purposes sunshades, roof
thatch, etc.
When the hot season comes, how pleasant it is to dream in
the shadow of the mango-tree ! The tree is about sixty feet
high, and the shadow beneath its bluish-grey leathery leaves is
close and dense. The pulp of the fruit is golden yellow and
juicy, rich in sugar and citric acid. It is difficult to describe
the taste, for it is very peculiar but it is certainly delicious.
;
From their home in China and Cochin China the orange and
its smaller brother, the mandarin, have spread over India and
far around. Amongst the many other fruits which abound in
India are grapes, melons, apples and pears, walnuts and figs.
Figs are green before they ripen, and then they turn yellow.
The fig-tree is distributed over the whole world wherever the
heat is sufficient. It is mentioned both in the Old and the
New Testament. Under a kind of fig-tree Buddha acquired
wisdom in the paths of religion, and therefore the tree is
called Ficus religiosa. Nymphcsa stellaris, the lotus flower,
which, like the water-lily, floats on water, is another plant of
great renown among Buddhists. The lotus is an emblem of
their religion, as the Cross is of Christianity.
In India a large quantity of rice is cultivated. In the
north-eastern angle of the Indian triangle, Bengal and Assam,
x THE USEFUL 1'I.ANTS OF INDIA 143
in Burma, on the peninsula of Further India (the Malay

Peninsula), as well as in the Deccan, the southern extremity of
the triangle, rice cultivation is extensively developed. Wheat
is grown in the north-west, and cotton in the inland parts of
the country. The cotton bush has large yellow flowers, and
when the fruit, which is as large as a walnut, opens, the inside
shows a quantity of seeds closely covered with soft woolly hairs.
The fruit capsules arc plucked off and dried in the sun. The
fibre is removed from the seeds by a machine, and is cleaned
and packed in bales which are pressed together and confined
by iron bands, and then the article is ready for shipping to
the manufacturing towns, of which Manchester is the most
important. In India and Arabia the cotton bush has been
cultivated for more than 2000 years, and Alexander the Great
introduced it into Greece. Now there are plantations all
over the world, but nowhere has the cultivation reached such
perfection as in the United States of America.
Crops which during recent decades have shown enormous
development are those known as india-rubber and gutta-
percha, so much being demanded by the bicycle and motor
industries. In the year 1830, 230 tons of rubber were im-
ported into Europe; in 1896, 315,500 tons. The demand
became so great that a reckless and barbarous exploitation
took place of the trees, the inspissated and dried sap of which
is rubber, this tough resisting and elastic gum which renders
such valuable services to man. In Borneo ten trees were

felled for every kilogramme of gutta-percha. Now more
prudent and sensible methods have been introduced. In
Ceylon, Java, and the Malay Peninsula there are large
plantations which make their owners rich men. In India the
Brazilian tree (Hevea) is the most productive of all the rubber-
yielding varieties. A cross cut is made in the trunk of the
tree, and the milky juice runs out and is collected into
receptacles. Then it is boiled, stirred, compressed, and
spread on tinned plates, rolled up and sent in balls into the
market. At present Brazil supplies two-thirds of all the
rubber used.
—
Then we have all the various spices cinnamon, which is
the bark on the twigs of the cinnamon-tree pepper, carried
;
into Europe by Alexander ginger, and cardamoms. There

;
is scsamum, from the seeds of which a fine edible oil is

pressed out, and then tea, coffee, and tobacco. A plant
which is at once a blessing and a curse, and which is
extensively cultivated in India, is the poppy. When the
144 PROM POLE TO POLE PT .
outer skin of the fruit capsule is slit with a knife, a milky

juice oozes out which turns brown and coagulates in the air,
and is called opium. The opium which Europe requires for
medicinal purposes comes from Macedonia and Asia Minor.
But the opium grown in Persia and India goes mostly to China,
into which country it was introduced by the Tatars at the
end of the seventeenth century. The Chinese smoke opium in
specially-made pipes. A small pea of opium is pressed into
the bowl of the pipe and held over the flame of a lamp.
The smoke is inhaled in a couple of deep breaths. Another
pellet is treated in the same way. Soon the opium-smoker
falls into a trance full of dreams and beautiful visions. He
forgets himself, his cares and his surroundings, and enjoys
perfect bliss. He then sleeps soundly, but when he awakes
the reality seems more gloomy and dreary than ever, and he
suffers from excruciating headache. All he cares for is the
opium pipe. Men who a victim to this vice are lost
fall
they can only be cured when confined in homes. In Persia
opium is usually smoked in secret dens, for there the habit is
considered shameful, but in China both men and women
smoke openly.
The sugar-cane is also grown over immense fields in
India. The juice contains 20 per cent of sugar. In Sanscrit,
the old language of India, it is called sakJiara. The Arabs,
who introduced it to the Mediterranean coasts, called it
sukhar. And thus it is called, with slight modifications, in
all the languages of Europe and many of those of Asia.
We must also not forget the countless palms which wave
their crowns in the tepid winds of the monsoons. There are
the date palms, the coconut palms, the sago palm, and a
multitude of others. The sago palm, from the pith of which
sago grains are prepared, is a remarkable plant. It flowers
only once and then dies. This occurs at an age of twenty
years at most.
The soil of India supports many kinds of useful trees
sandalwood, which is employed in the construction of the
finer kinds of furniture ebony, with its dark wood
; the ;
teak-tree, which grows to a height of 130 feet, and forms

immense forests in both the Indian peninsulas and in the
Sunda Islands. It is hard and strong, like oak, and nails do
not rust in it. It is therefore used in shipbuilding, and also
frequently in the inside of modern warships. The sleeping
and refreshment carriages of railway trains are usually built
of teak.
x THE USEFUL PLANTS OF INDIA 145
is the blue vegetable substance called indigo,

Lastly, there
which obtained from small bushes or plants by a simple
is
process of fermentation. It is mostly used to dye clothing,
and has been known in Europe since the Indian campaign of

Alexander.
Wild Elephants
The home of the wild elephant is the forests of India,
the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Borneo, while
another species is found in Africa. They live in herds of
thirty or forty, and every herd forms a separate community.
The leader of the herd is a full-grown bull with large,
strong tusks, whom all the others obey with the greatest
docility. When they wander through the forest, however, or
fly before danger, the females go in front and set the pace,
for they alone know how fast their young ones can travel.
Their senses of smell and hearing are remarkably acute
they are of a good-tempered and peaceable disposition, and
do not care to expose themselves to unnecessary risks.
They are therefore not very dangerous to man, unless when
attacked but man is their worst enemy.
;
In India wild elephants are caught to be tamed and

employed in labour. They are captured in various ways,
but usually tame elephants are used to decoy the wild ones.
Expert elephant-catchers hide themselves as well as they can
on the backs of tame animals and drive them into a herd of
their wild relations. When a full-grown male has been
separated from the herd, he is beset on all sides by his
pursuers and prevented from sharing in the flight of his
companions. They do him no injury, but only try to tire
him out. It may be two whole days before he is so exhausted
that, come what may, he must lie down to sleep. Then the
men drop down from the tame animals and wind ropes round
his hind legs, and if there is a tree at hand they tie him to it.
In Ceylon there are wonderfully smart and expert
elephant-catchers who hunt their game in couples without
the help of tame decoys. They search through the woods
and thickets and follow a spoor when they come across it,
being able to judge from the footprints how long ago the
trail was tramped out, how many elephants there were, and
whether they were going fast or slowly. The smallest mark
or indication on the way, which a stranger would not notice,
serves as a guide to them. When they have found the troop
L
146 FROM POLE TO POLE ,,. i
they follow it silently as shadows they creep and crawl and

;
sneak along the woodland paths as cautiously as leopards.

They never tread on a twig which might crack, they never
brush against a leaf which might rustle. The elephants, for
all their fine scent and sharp hearing, have no suspicion of
their proximity. The men lie in wait in a close thicket
where the elephants can only move slowly, throw a noose of
ox hide before the animal's hind leg, and draw it tight at the
right moment. Then the elephant finds out his danger, and,
trumpeting wildly, advances to attack, but the men scurry
like rats through the brushwood and strengthen the snares
time after time until the animal is fast.
In India whole herds are also captured at once, and this is
the most wonderful sight it is possible to conceive. A place
is known in the forest where a herd of perhaps a hundred
animals has made its home. Natives who are experienced in
elephant-catching are called out, and all the tame elephants
procurable are assembled. A chain of sentinels is posted
round the herd, making a circle of several miles. The men
construct a fence of bamboos quickly and quietly as
as
possible, and keep to their posts for nearly ten days. The
elephants become restless and try to break through, but
wherever they turn they are met with cries and shouts, blank
gunshots and waving torches. They retire again to the
middle of the enclosure. If they make an attempt in another
direction, they are met in the same way, and at last, sub-
mitting to their fate, they stand in the middle where they are
least disturbed.
Meanwhile within the circle a very strong enclosure has
been erected of poles, trunks, and sticks 12 feet high, with
a diameter of 160 feet at most. The entrance, which is
12 feet broad, can be closed in a moment by a huge
falling wicket or gate. Now it stands open, and from the
two sideposts run out two long palisades of stakes, forming
an open passage to the entrance. The two fences diverge
outwards and are nearest to each other at the entrance.
When all is ready the great ring of beaters closes up
round the herd, and scares and chases them with shouts and
noise towards the opening between the palings. Fresh parties
of beaters rush up, and when the elephants can find no other
way free they dash in between the fences and into the pen,
whereupon the entrance is closed with the heavy gate. They
are caught as in a trap. They may, indeed, gather up their
strength and try to break through the fence of poles, but
x WILD ELEPHANTS 147
it is too stoutly built and the beaters outside scare them
away.
The imprisoned animals are left peace for forty-eight
in
hours, and when they have become quiet the most difficult
and dangerous part of the exploit begins. Mounted on
well-trained tame elephants, the most expert and experienced
elephant-catchers enter the enclosure. They are active as
cats, in their movements, bold, courageous, and watch-
quick
ful. Ropes are hung round the tame elephants so that their
riders may have something to hold on by in case they are
attacked and have to lower themselves down the flanks of
their animals. These know by the signs given to them by
the riders what they have to do, and the rider holds in his
hand a small iron spike which he presses against the elephant's
neck to make him move forwards, backwards, to right or left.
A rider approaches a selected victim. If he turns to attack,
another tame elephant comes up and gives him a thrust with
his tusks. Choosing his time, the rider throws a noose round
the head of the wild animal. The tame one helps with his
trunk to place the noose right. The other end is made fast
round the trunk of a tree. When the animal is thus secured
the rider slips down to the ground and throws another
noose round his hind legs, and the end of this rope is also
fastened to a tree. Thus he is rendered harmless, and he
struggles and tugs in vain to get loose. Meanwhile the other
tame elephants with their riders help to catch and fetter their
wild relations.
Then the captives, well and securely bound, are led one
after another out of the enclosure and are fastened to trees
in the forest. Here they have for a long time to accustom
themselves to man and the society of tame elephants, and
when they have lost all fear, spitefulness, and wildness they
are led into the villages to be regularly broken in and trained
to workin the service of their capturers.
pleasant to see tame elephants at work, or bathing in
It is
the rivers with their drivers (Plate XV.). They carry timber,
they carry goods along the high-roads, they are useful in many
ways where great strength is needed. The Maharajas of India
always keep a well-filled elephant stable, but employ the
animals mostly for tiger-hunting and riding. The elephant is
to them a show animal which is never absent on occasions of
ceremony. Old well-trained animals which carry themselves
with royal dignity fetch, therefore, a very high price.
1 48 FROM POLE TO POLE
The Cobra
The cobra, or spectacled snake, is the most poisonous
snake in India. It is very general in all parts of India, in
Further India, in southern China, in the Sunda Islands, and
Ceylon. Its colour is sometimes yellowish, shading into blue,
sometimes brown, and dirty white on the under side. It is
about five feet long. When it is irritated it raises up the
front part of its body like a swan's neck, spreads out the eight
foremost pairs of ribs at the sides, so that a hat or shield-
shaped hood is formed below the head. The rest of the body
iscurled round, and gives the creature firm support when it
balances the upper part of its body ready to inflict its
poisonous bite with lightning speed. On the back of its hood
are yellow markings like a pair of spectacles.
The cobra lives in old walls or heaps of stone and timber,
under roots, or in dead trunks in the forest, in fact anywhere
where he can find a sheltered hole. He does not avoid
human dwellings, and he may often be seen, heavy and
motionless, rolled up before his hole. But as soon as a man
approaches he glides quickly and noiselessly into his hole,
and if attacked defends himself with a weapon which is as
dangerous as a revolver.
Hea day snake, but avoids sunshine and heat and
is
prefers seek his food after sunset.

to He should more
properly be described as a snake of the twilight. He glides
under the close brushwood of the jungle in pursuit of lizards
and frogs, birds, eggs, and rats or other small animals that
come in his way. On his roamings he also climbs up trees
and creeping plants, and swims across large streams. It
might be thought that a vessel anchored off the coast would

be safe from cobras, but cases have been known of these
snakes swimming out, crawling up the anchor chains, and
creeping on board.
The female lays a score of long eggs as large as a pigeon's,
but with a soft shell. The male and female are believed to
entertain a great affection for each other, for it has been
noticed that when one of them is killed, the other is shortly
seen at the same spot.
The Hindus regard the cobra as a god, and are loath to
kill him. Many cannot bring themselves to do so. If a
cobra comes into a hut, the owner sets out milk for him and
protects him in every way, and when the reptile becomes
x THE COBRA 149
practically tame and finds that he is left undisturbed, he d<

his host no harm. But if the snake kills any one in the hut,
he is caught, carried to a distance, and let loose. If he bites
a man and then is killed, the bitten man must also die. If he
meets with an unfriendly reception in a hut, he brings ruin to
the inmates ;
but if he is hospitably entertained, he brings
good fortune and prosperity. If a serpent-charmer kills a
cobra, he loses for ever his power over snakes. It is natural
that a creature which is treated with such reverence must

multiply excessively. About twenty thousand men arc killed
annually in India by snakes.
The cobra's poison is secreted in glands, and is forced out
through the poison teeth when these pierce through the skin
of a man or animal. Its effect is virulent when it enters the
blood. If the bite pierces a large artery, death follows surely
and rapidly. Otherwise the victim does not die for several
hours, and may be saved by suitable remedies applied im-
mediately. A dog when bitten begins to bark and howl,
vomits, and jumps about in the greatest uneasiness and
despair. In a short time he becomes weak and helpless and
dies. If the same cobra bites several victims one after the
other within a couple of hours, the first dies, the second
becomes violently ill, while the third is less affected. This is,
of course, due to the fact that the contents of the poison
glands become gradually exhausted but they soon collect
;
again.
When a man is bitten, his body becomes deadly cold, and
every sign of life disappears. His breathing and pulse cannot
be perceived at all. He loses consciousness and feeling and
cannot even swallow. With judicious treatment the small
spark of life still left may be preserved. For about ten days,
however, the invalid remains very feeble, and then a slow
improvement sets in. But as a rule the man dies, for in the
Indian jungle help is seldom at hand, and the end soon comes.
If the victim lies for two whole days as though dead, and yet
does not actually die, it may be hoped that his body is throw-
ing off the effect of the poison.
There are many extraordinary men in India. In Benares
especially, but also in any other town, the shrivelled self-
torturers called "fakirs" may be seen in the streets. They
are stark naked save for a small loin-cloth. They arc miser-
able and thin as skeletons, and their whole bodies are smeared
with ashes. They sit motionless at the street corners of
Benares, always in the same posture. One sits cross-legged
with his arms stretched up. Try to hold your arms straight
up only for five minutes, and you will feel that they gradually
grow numb. But this man always sits thus. His arms seem
to become fixed in this unnatural position. As he never uses
them they wither away in time. Compared with his large
head they might belong to a child. Another purposely
extinguishes the light of his eyes by staring day after day
straight at the sun with wide-open eyes.
Among the curiosities of India are also the snake-charmers.
There are several varieties of them, and it seems difficult to
distinguish exactly between them. Some appear to be them-
selves afraid of the snakes they exhibit, while others handle
them with a remarkable contempt of danger. Some pull out
the snake's poison fangs so that they may always be safe,
while others leave them in, and then everything depends on
the charmer's skill and dexterity and the quickness with
which he avoids the bite of the snake. It frequently happens
that the charmer is bitten and killed by his own snakes.
It is not true, as was formerly believed, that the snake-
charmer can entice snakes out of their holes by the soothing
tones of his flute and make them dance to his piping. The
dancing is a much simpler affair. When the captured snake
rears up and sways the upper part of his body to and fro, the
charmer holds out some hard object, perhaps a fragment of
brick. The snake bites, but hurts himself, and after a while
gives up biting. Then the charmer can put his hand in front
of the snake's head without being bitten. But when the
snake is irritated he still assumes the same attitude of defence,
swaying to and fro, and thus he seems to be dancing to the
sound of the flute.
There are, however, some daring charmers who, by the
strains of their instrument and the movements of their hands,
seem to exercise a certain power over the cobra. They seem
to throw the snake into a short faint or stupor, a kind of
hypnotic sleep. The charmer takes his place in a courtyard,
and the spectators gather round him at a safe distance. He has
his cobra in a round, flat basket. The basket he places on the
ground and raises the cover. Then he rouses and provokes
the snake to make it lift up the upper part of its body and
expand its hood with the spectacles. All the time he plays
his flute with one hand. With the other he makes waving,
mesmeric passes. The snake gradually becomes quiet and
calm, and the charmer can press his lips against the scales of
its forehead. Then the charmer throws it on one side with a
x THE COBRA 151
sudden movement, for the snake may have waked up again

and be just on the point of biting.
All depends on the charmer's quickness and his know-
ledge of the snake's disposition. The slightest movement of
its muscles and the expression of its eyes is sufficient to
indicate the snake's intentions to the charmer. It is said that
an expert charmer can play with a freshly caught snake as

easily as with an old one. The art consists in lulling the
snake to sleep and perceiving when the dangerous moment is
coming. During the whole exhibition the monotonous squeak
of the flute never ceases. Courage and presence of mind are
necessary for such a dangerous game.
Europeans who have seen these snake-men catch cobras
say that their skilfulness and boldness are remarkable. They
seize the snake with bare hands as it glides through the grass.
This is a trick of legerdemain in which everything depends
on the dexterity of the fingers and a quickness greater than
that of the snake itself. The snake-catcher seizes the tail
with his left hand and passes the right with lightning rapidity
along the body up to the head, which he grips with the thumb
and forefinger so that the snake is held as in a vice. Prob-
ably the trick consists in depriving the snake of support to
its body with the left hand and producing undulations which
annul those of the reptile itself.
When charmers go out to catch snakes they are always in
parties of two or three. Some of them take with them
antidotes to snake bites. If a man is bitten, a bandage is
wound tightly above the wound and the poison is sucked out.
Then a small black stone, as large as an almond, is laid on
the wound. This absorbs blood and some at least of the
poison. Adhering fast to the wound, it does not fall off until
it has finished its work. That so many men die of snake
bites is, of course, because assistance comes too late.
When the charmer begins to play with a cobra he fixes
his eyes on it and never removes them for a second. And the
same is true of the cobra, which keeps its eyes constantly on
the charmer. It is like a duel in which one of the combatants
is liable to be killed if he does not parry at the right moment.
Still more watchful is a cobra when he fights with a mon-

goose. The mongoose is a small beast of prey of the
Viverridae family. It is barely as large as a cat, has a long
body and short legs, and is the deadly enemy of the cobra.
There is a splendid story in Mr. Kipling's Jungle Book of how
a pet mongoose — " Rikki-tikki-tavi " — killed two large cobras.
XI
FROM INDIA TO CHINA (1908)
The Indian Ocean

On October 14, 1908, we leave Bombay in the steamer
Delhi, 1 which is bound for Shanghai with passengers and
cargo. The Delhi is a fine steamer, 495 feet long, and of
8000 tons burden it is one of the great fleet of the Peninsular
;
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (usually known as the

P. & O.), which receives an annual subsidy from the Govern-
ment to carry the mails to India and Australia. cast off We
from the quay, and in about an hour's time are slowly
drawing out between the ends of the harbour breakwaters
then the steamer glides more quickly over the bay between
innumerable vessels under different flags, and Bombay lies
behind us with its large houses, its churches, towers, and
chimneys, and its dense forest of ships' masts.
Soon the city has disappeared and we are out on the
Indian Ocean. The weather is fine there is no sea on, only
;
the faintest swell sailing boats lie motionless waiting for a

;
wind, and only a faint breeze renews the air under the
awnings of the promenade deck. It is so warm and sultry
that starched shirts and collars become damp and limp after
a couple of hours. We
gradually draw off from the coast,
but still the mountain chain known as the Western Ghats,
which extends to the southern extremity of India, is visible.
Next morning we leave Goa behind, and at noon have the
Laccadive group of islands to starboard. The coast of India
is still in sight —
a belt of sand, over which the surf rolls in
from the sea, surmounted by a fringe of coco-palms. On the
morning of October 17 we pass the southernmost point of
1
This the vessel which was wrecked on the coast of Morocco, near Cape
is
Spartel, on 13, 191 1, having the Duke and Duchess of Fife (Princess
December
Royal) on board.
IS2
XI THE INDIAN OCEAN 153
India, Cape Comorin. Here our course is changed to south-

east, and about midday the coast of Ceylon can be distinguished
on the horizon. From a long distance we can see the white
band of breakers dashing against the beach, and as we
approach closer a forest of steamer funnels, sails, and masts,
and beyond them a long row of Asiatic and European build-
in.^. That is Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, and a very
important port for all vessels which ply between Europe and
the Far East. Gently the Delhi enters the passage between
the harbour moles, and is at once surrounded by a fleet of
rowing boats from the shore. Singalese and Hindus swarm
up the gangways, and throw themselves with much jabbering
on the traveller's possessions. They are scantily clothed
with only a shirt or a white sash round the loins and a cloth
or a comb on the head.
We go on shore and find in the principal streets of the town
a curious jumble of copper-brown coloured people, carriages,
tramways, and small, two-wheeled " rickshas " which are
pulled by half-naked men. The huts of the natives and the
dwelling-houses of the Europeans nestle among groves of the
slender coco-palm.
The next day the steamer Moldavia (also belonging to
the P. & O.) arrived from England, and was moored close to
the DelJii in order to transfer to her passengers and goods for
the Far East, after which the Moldavia was to continue her
voyage for two weeks more to Australia. When all is
ready the Delhi swings out to sea again, the band of the
Moldavia playing a march and her crew and passengers
cheering. In the evening we double the southern point of
—
Ceylon, turning due east a course we shall hold as far as the
northern cape of Sumatra, 1000 miles away.
The Sunda Islands

On the morning of October 21 all field-glasses are
pointed eastwards. Two small, steep islands stand up out of
the sea, a white ring of surf round their shores, and beyond
them several other islands come into sight, their woods ever
green in the perpetual summer of these hot regions. Now
islands crop up on all sides, and we are in the midst of quite
an archipelago. To the south-west we can see rain falling
over Sumatra.
Asia is the largest continent of the world. It has three
other divisions of the world as its neighbours, Europe, Africa,

and Australia, and Asia is more or less connected with these,
forming with them the land of the eastern hemisphere, while
America belongs to the western hemisphere. Europe is so
closely and solidly connected with Asia that it may be said
to be a peninsula of it. Africa is joined to Asia by an
isthmus 70 miles broad, which since 1869 has been cut
through by the Suez Canal. On the other hand, Australia is
like an enormous island, and lies quite by itself; the only
connection between it and Asia consists of the two series of
large islands and innumerable small ones which rise above the
11
j.ongitude East i lo of Greenwich

Emery Walker sc
THE SUNDA ISLANDS.
surface of the intervening sea. The western chain consists of

the Sunda Islands, the eastern of the Philippines and New
Guinea. Sumatra is the first island of the immense pontoon
bridge which extends south-eastwards from the Malay Penin-
sula. The next is Java, and then follows a row of medium-
sized islands to the east.
The animal and vegetable life of these islands is very
abundant. In their woods live elephants, rhinoceroses, and
tapirs in the brushwood lurk tigers and panthers and in the
; ;
depths of their primeval forests dwell monkeys of various

species. The largest is the orang-utang, which grows to a
height of five feet, is very strong, savage and dangerous, and
is almost always seen on trees. On these islands, too, grow
xi THE SUNDA ISLANDS 155
many plants and trees which invaluable to the use of

are
man — sugar-cane, coffee and rice and tobacco, spices,
tea,
coco-palms, and the tree the bark of which yields the remedy
for fever, quinine. This remedy is needed not least on the
Sunda Islands themselves, for fever is general in the low-lying
districts round the coasts, though the climate 4000 or 5000
feet above sea-level, among the mountains which occupy the
interior of the islands, is good and health)'.
The equator passes through the middle of Sumatra and
Borneo, and therefore perpetual summer with very moist
heat prevails in these islands. The only seasons really dis-
tinguishable are the rainy and dry seasons, and the Sunda
Islands constitute one of the rainiest regions in the world.
The people arc Malays and are heathen, but along the coasts
Mohammedanism has acquired great influence. The savage
tribes of the interior have a blind belief in spirits, which
animate all lifeless objects, and the souls of the dead share in
the joys and sorrows of the living.
The larger Sunda islands are four Sumatra, Java, Borneo,
:
and Celebes. Java, one of the most beautiful and most pro-
ductive countries in the world, has an area nearly equal to
that of England without Wales, and its population is also
nearly the same — about 30 millions. Sumatra, wdiich the
Delhi has just left to starboard, is three times the size of
Java, but has only one-seventh of its population. The
curiously shaped island of Celebes, again, is about half the
size of Sumatra, while Borneo is the third largest island on the
globe not ranking as a continent, its area being about 300,000
square miles. The Sunda Islands are subject to Holland, only
the north-eastern part of Borneo belonging to England.
In the strait between Sumatra and Java lies a very small
volcanic island, Krakatau, which in the summer of 1883 was
the scene of one of the most violent eruptions that have taken
place in historic times. The island was uninhabited, and was
only visited occasionally by fishermen from Sumatra but if it
;
had been inhabited, not a soul would have survived to relate

what took place, for on two other islands which lay a few miles
distant the inhabitants were killed to the last man.
The outburst proper began on August 26, and the fire-
breathing mountain cast out such quantities of ashes that a
layer three feet thick was deposited on the deck of a vessel
which happened at the time to be a considerable distance off.
It lightened and thundered, the sea was disturbed, and many
boats were sunk or hurled up on land. The next day the
i
island in and was swallowed up by the sea, only a few

fell
fragments of it being left. Thereupon a huge wave, ioo feet

high, poured over the neighbouring coasts of Sumatra and
Java, washing away towns and villages, woods and railway
lines, and when it retreated the country was swept bare, and
corpses of men and animals lay all around. This wave was so
tremendous that it was propagated as far as the coasts of
Africa and America, and it was thus possible to calculate the
speed with which it had traversed the oceans. The noise
produced by the eruption was so great that it was heard even
in Ceylon and Australia, at a distance of 2000 miles. If this
outburst had taken place in Vienna, it would have been heard
all over Europe and a considerable distance beyond its limits.
Loose ashes ejected from the volcano fell over the earth,
covering an area considerably larger than France, and 40,000
persons perished.
Penang and Singapore

The Delhi holds her course for Penang, a town on a small
island close to the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At length
land is sighted straight ahead, and the letter-writers make haste
to get their correspondence ready. We
glide into a beautiful
sound, the anchor rattles out, and we are at once surrounded
by a swarm of curious boats which come to establish com-
munication between the vessel and the town.
—
The main street of Penang with its large buildings, hotels,
—
banks, clubs, and commercial houses presents much the same
appearance as almost always meets the eye in the port towns "
on the south coast of Asia. small single-seated " ricksha
The
is drawn by a Chinaman in a loose blue blouse, bare-legged,
and with a pointed straw hat on his head. We
go out to the
Botanical Gardens, and find them really wonderful. There
are trees and plants from India, the Sunda Islands, and
Australia, labelled with their English and scientific names.
all
Monkeys climbactively among the trees, and sit swinging
on the boughs, and a high waterfall tumbles down a cliff
surrounded by dense luxuriant vegetation.
Darkness falls suddenly, as always in the tropics, and is
accompanied by pelting rain. In a few moments all the roads
are under water. The rain pours down, not in drops but in
long streams of water, and we are wet through long before we
reach the pier where the launch is waiting.
Soon after we get on board, the Delhi moves out into
x, PENANG AND SINGAPORE 157
the night down the Strait of Malacca. Singapore is only

thirty hours' voyage ahead, and the steamer follows closely
the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At sunrise on October
24 we arrive. Singapore is the chief town of the Malay
Peninsula, which is subject to Great Britain, and contains nearly
a quarter of a million inhabitants —Europeans, Malays, Indians,
but mostly Chinese. All steamers to and from the Far East
call at Singapore, which is also the chief commercial emporium
for the Sunda Islands and the whole of the Dutch Archipelago.
It lies one degree of latitude north of the equator, and the
consequence is that there is a difference of only three degrees
of temperature between winter and summer. It is always
warm, and rain falls almost every day.
At five o'clock the same afternoon the Delhi steams out
again, accompanied by a swarm of light canoes rowed by naked
copper-brown Malay boys. These boys swim like fishes, and
they come out to the steamers to dive for silver coins which
the passengers throw into the sea for them. When the Delhi
increases her pace, they drop behind and paddle back to the
harbour with the proceeds of their diving feats. The sound
gradually widens out, and as long as twilight lasts the land and
islands are in sight. Then we turn off north-eastwards, leaving
the equator behind us, and steer out over the Chinese Sea after
having doubled the southernmost extremity of the Asiatic
mainland.
Up the China Sea

In two days we had left Cochin-China, Saigon, and the
great delta of the Mekong behind us, and when on October
27 we came into contact with the current from the north-east
which sweeps along the coast of Annam, the temperature fell
several degrees and the weather became fresher and more
agreeable. The north-east monsoon had just set in, and the
farther we sailed northwards the harder it would blow in our
faces. We —
had then to choose between two routes either out
to sea with heavy surge and boisterous wind or along the coast,
;
where the current would similarly hinder us. Whichever way

was chosen the vessel would lose a couple of knots in her
speed. The captain chose the course along the coast.
Theeastern part of the peninsula of Further India consists
of the French possessions, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Annam,
and Tonkin. Hanoi, the capital of Tonkin, is the head-
quarters of the Governor-General of all French Indo-China.
i 58 FROM POLE TO POLE
To the south Saigon is the most important town it is ;
situated in the Mekong delta, which is increasing in size every

year by the addition of the vast quantities of silt carried down
by the great river. The country abounds in wild animals,
elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, alligators, poisonous snakes,
monkeys, parrots, and peacocks. In area the French posses-
sions are about half as large again as France itself, and the
population is about 20 millions.
A large part of Further India is occupied by the kingdom

of Siam, which lies between the lower courses of the Mekong and
Longitude East 90 of Greenwich

Emery Walker so
MAP SHOWING VOYAGE FROM BOMBAY TO HONG KONG (pp. 152-160).
the Salwin, both of which rise in eastern Tibet. Siam is about

two-thirds the size of French Indo-China, but has only 9 million
inhabitants of various races —
Siamese, Chinese, Malays, and
Laos. Bangkok, the capital of the King of Siam, contains half
a million inhabitants, and is intersected by numerous canals,
on which a large proportion of the people live in floating
houses. There are many fine and famous pagodas, or temples,
with statues of Buddha. Some of them are of gold. In Siam
the Buddhist religion has been preserved pure and uncorrupted.
The white elephant is considered sacred, and the flag of Siam
exhibits a white elephant on a red field. The Siamese are of
Mongolian origin, of medium, sturdy build, with a yellowish-
brown complexion, but are not highly gifted. They are
x, UP THE (NINA SEA 159
addicted to song, music, and games, and among their curious

customs is thai of colouring the teeth black.
On the morning of October 29 we steam past a fringe ol

islets, the beautiful and charming entrance to Hong Kong.
The north-east monsoon is blowing freshly, and the salt
foam hisses round the bow of the Delhi and falls on the
deck in fine spray lighted by the sun. There is little sea,
for we are in among the islands which check and subdue
the violence of the waves. At noon we glide in between
a small holm and the island into the excellent and roomy
harbour of Hong Kong, well sheltered on all sides from
wind and waves. A flotilla of steam launches comes out
to meet us as we glide slowly among innumerable vessels
to our anchorage and buoys. Here flutter in the wind
the flags of all commercial nations ; the English, Chinese,
Japanese, American, and German colours fly side by side.
The water in the harbour basin is so shallow that the turn
of the propeller stirs up the greyish-brown mud from the
bottom.
Victoria is the chief town of Hong Kong, and contains
nearly the half of the population, which amounts to 440,000
souls, most of them Chinese.
There are five important points on the sea-route to the
—
Far East Gibraltar, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Hong
—
Kong and all of them are in the hands of England.
Hong Kong has been a British Crown Colony since 1842,
and it is now an extraordinarily important port. Vessels
with an aggregate tonnage of nearly 20 millions pass
through Hong Kong annually, and the little island surpasses
in thisrespect even London, Hamburg, and New York.
Regular lines of steamers connect Hong Kong with countless
ports in Asia, America, Europe, and Australia, and the trade
of the port is immense. It is also a station for the east
Asiatic squadron of the Royal Navy —with fine docks and
berths, a coal depot, arsenal, and barracks.
Ninety miles north-west of Hong Kong lies the second city
of China, Canton (Plate XVI.). It stands near the mouths
of two rivers which give access to the interior of the country,
and Canton is therefore an important commercial town, sur-
passed only by Shanghai. The famous Chinese silk is exported
from Canton in larger quantities than from any other town, and
the industries of silk-weaving, porcelain, and other manufactures
arc flourishing. Canton is one of the thirty-seven Chinese
—
" treat)- ports " that is, those which are open to foreign com-
mcrcc. It has 900,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the

southernmost of the eighteen provinces of China proper and
the residence of a viceroy. Its streets are so narrow that no
wheeled vehicle can pass through them. A large part of the
inhabitants live on boats moored to posts on the river. A
railway 1200 miles long connects Canton with the capital of
the empire, Peking.
XII
CHINA 1
To Shanghai
From Hong Kong the Delhi ploughs her way along the
Chinese coast, and next day (October 31) we are right out
in the track of the north-east monsoon. The sea is high
and dead against us, and the wind is so strong that we can
hardly go up on deck. It becomes steadily cooler as wc
advance northwards.
To the east we have now the large island of Formosa, which
was annexed by Japan sixteen years ago. It is about twice
the size of Wales, and marks the boundary between the
China Sea and the Eastern Sea, which farther north passes
into the Yellow Sea. The coast and its hills are sometimes
seen close at hand, sometimes far off, and sometimes they
disappear in the distance. With a glass we can distinguish
the lighthouses, always erected on small islands off the
mainland. The Chinese coast is dangerous, being full of
reefs,holms, and shallows.
Hong Kong and the adjoining seas are visited from the
middle of July to the middle of September by the destructive
whirlwinds called typhoons. The vortices, spinning round
with tremendous rapidity, are usually formed far out in the
Pacific Ocean, and gradually advance towards the mainland.
They move at a rate of nine miles an hour, and therefore
the weather stations on the Philippines, and other islands
lying in the track of the typhoons, can send warnings by
1
Since this was written, China has become a republic, the Emperor P'u-yi
(born February II, 19061 having abdicated on February 12, 1912, in consequence
<>f the success of a revolution which broke out in the autumn of 1911. He still
retains the title of Manehu Emperor, but with his death the title will cease. A
Provisional President of the Republic was elected, and the first Cabinet was con-
stituted on March 29, 1912.
161 M
telegraph to the Chinese coast. Then the black triangle is

hoisted on a tall mast in the harbour of Hong Kong, for
instance, and is visible for a long distance. Every one knows
what it means a typhoon is on the way. The Chinese
:
junks make in towards land, where they find shelter under the
high coast, and all other vessels strengthen their moorings.
On November 2 we know by the yellowish- brown
colour of the water that we are off the mouth of the Blue
River, as the Yang-tse-kiang is called by Europeans. A
pilot comes on board to take us through the dangerous,
uncertain fairway, and a little later we have flat land on both
sides of us, and are in the estuary of the river.
Shanghai is situated on a small affluent which runs into
the Yang-tse-kiang close to its mouth, and large ocean
steamers cannot go up to the town. After the Delhi has
dropped its anchor we proceed up the river in a steam tender.
The low banks soon become more animated, the houses stand
closer together, factories appear amongst them, and Chinese
vessels lie moored on both sides, including two sorry war-
ships of wood, relics of a time gone by. They are high in
the bow and stern, and from the mast floats the blue dragon
on its yellow field. 1 At length the stately " bund " of Shanghai
comes into sight with a row of fine, tall houses. This is not
China, but a bit of Europe, the white town in the yellow land,
the great and wealthy Shanghai with its 12,000 Europeans,
beside the Chinese town inhabited by 650,000 natives.
Next day, November 3, occurred two noted birthdays,
those of the Dowager Empress of China and of the Emperor
of Japan. They were both remarkable for their powerful
minds and wisdom, and have made their names immortal
in the extreme East. The Consul-General of Japan held a
reception, and the Governor of Shanghai a brilliant dinner.
We saw much that was curious and interesting, and our
time was fully occupied during our short stay in the largest
shipping and commercial port of China. From the European
streets with electric light and tramways, churches, clubs,
merchants' offices, and public buildings, tidal docks and
wharves, we reach in a few minutes the Chinese town, pure,
unadulterated Asia. It swarms with yellow men in blue
coats and black vests with small brass buttons, white
stockings, black shoes with thick, flat soles, a small- black
1
The Republic has adopted a new flag consisting of five stripes—crimson,
yellow, white, blue, and black—to denote the five principal races comprised in the
Chinese people, Mongol, Chinese, Manchu, Mohammedan, and Tibetan.
XII TO SHANGHAI 163
skull-cap with a red button on the head, and a long pigtail

behind. There dealers sit in their open shops, smoking long,
small pipes while waiting for customers. The tea-houses are
full. A noise and tumult beyond description, a constant
going and coming, a continual exchange of coin and goods.
The religion of the Chinese is a mixture of different
doctrines and rules of wisdom. China has had more wise
men than any other old country in the world. Foremost
amoii^ them is Confucius, a contemporary of Buddha and
Socrates. lie wrote a book of three hundred odes, and
called it Purity of Thought. Twelve disciples gathered round
him, and a larger circle of three thousand. " Do not to
others what you would not that they should do to you " was
one of his precepts. When Confucius was asked how he had
contrived to acquire deep knowledge of so many things, he
replied, " Because I was born poor and had to learn." He
considered wealth a misfortune and knowledge power. The
Chinese reverence his memory, and regard him not as a god
but as the wisest man of all ages.
Along with Confucianism, Taoism exists in China. The
sublime teaching of the founder has, however, been corrupted
and degraded to jugglery and superstition. At the com-
mencement of our era Buddhism was introduced into China,
and now is spread over almost all the country. There is,
however, no clearness in the religious conceptions of the
Chinese. A Taoist may perform his devotions in the morning
in a Buddhist temple and in the evening be deeply interested
in the writings of Confucius. Many therefore have an equal
respect for all three systems.
The basis, however, of Chinese religious thought is
ancestor worship. Whether they are Confucians, like most
of the mandarins, or Taoists or Buddhists, like the common
people, Chinamen always cherish the same reverence for the
souls of their forefathers. An altar in their honour is raised in
even the simplest house. The graves may not be disturbed,
and nothing but respect is cherished for the memory of the
departed. In the seventeenth century the Manchu emperor,
Kang Hi, ruled China for sixty-one years with a power and
wisdom which made him one of the greatest monarchs of any
age. His grandson, Kien Lung, inherited all his excellent
qualities, and when he had ruled China for nearly sixty-one
years he abdicated simply in order that, out of respect to his
ancestor, the years of his reign might not exceed his grand-
father's.
1 64 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . i
One consequence of this ancestor worship is that enormous

areas of China are covered with graves. The Mongol
emperor, Kublai Khan, who reigned at the end of the
thirteenth century, roused furious opposition by ordering
that all the burial-grounds should be broken up and turned
into fields. At the present time, when new railways are
spreading mile after mile through China, the sanctity of the
graveyards is one of the greatest obstacles to engineers. The
Chinese will not disturb the slumbers of their forefathers, and
therefore the railway has often to pass round a hallowed place
or avoid it by means of a bridge. The Emperor himself
travels to Mukden simply to make offerings at the graves
of his ancestors. Kang Hi and Kien Lung are buried in
Mukden, and their dynasty, the Manchu, still rules over the
country.
The Chinese feel this association with a past life more
strongly than with the future, and the worship of their
ancestors almost takes the place of affection for their father-
land. They certainly love their own homes, but what goes
on in other parts of the country is a matter of indifference to
them. To the Cantonese it matters not whether the Russians
take Manchuria or the Japanese Korea, provided only that
Canton is left in peace. Ancestor worship may be said,
indeed, to be the true religion of the Chinese. For the rest they
are filled with an unreasoning fear of spirits, and have recourse
to many different gods who, they believe, can control these
influences for good and evil. They are very superstitious.
If any one falls sick of fever and becomes delirious, his rela-
tions believe that his soul has gone astray. They carry his
clothes round the spot where he lost consciousness in order to
bring his soul into the right track again and at night they
;
go up to the roof and wave a lantern to guide the soul home.
"The Middle Kingdom"

The things a Chinese schoolboy is taught are that
first
the sky round, the earth quadrangular, and that China is
is
situated in the middle of the earth, and on that account is

called the " Middle Kingdom." All other countries lie around
China and are its vassals.
is called the " Son of Heaven," and holds
The Emperor
the supreme spiritual and temporal power in his hands. On
his accession he gives an arbitrary name to his reign, which
xii "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 165
also becomes his own. He

chooses his successor himself from
among his sons. Ifchildless he chooses one of his
he is
nearest relations, but then he adopts his future successor that
the latter may make offerings to the souls of himself and his
ancestors. The yellow robe and the five-clawed dragon
are theemblems of the imperial house. The Emperor is
immeasurably superior to his people, and the mortals who
may speak to him are easily counted. A few years ago the
European ambassadors in Peking exacted the right to see the
Emperor every New Year's Day. This they did, but had no
talk with him.
China the oldest, the most populous, and the most con-
is
servative kingdomin the world. In the time of Nineveh and

Babylon it had attained to a high civilization, and has
remained the same through 4000 years. Of Nineveh and
Babylon only rubbish heaps are left, but China still shows no
sign of decay. Western Asia is like a vast graveyard with
innumerable monuments of bygone times. There devastating
migrations of peoples took place, and races and dynasties
contended and succeeded one another. But China is still the
same as ever. The isolated position of the country and the
objection of the people to contact with foreigners have
contributed to this. The reverence for the old state of things
and for the memory of their forefathers makes a new generation
similar to the preceding.
During the twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ
three imperial families ruled in China in succession. Two
and a half centuries before our era a powerful and far-sighted
emperor built the Great Wall, the mightiest erection ever
completed by human hands (Plate XVII.). This wall is
1 500 miles long, 50 feet high, and 26 thick at the bottom and
16 at the top. Towers stand at certain intervals, and there
are gates here and there. It is constructed of stone, brick,
and earth. It is in parts much ruined, especially in the west,
and in some places only heaps of earth are left.
Why was this immense wall erected ? The Chinese are a
peaceful people, and they surrounded themselves with walls
to prevent intrusion from outside. In China there are 1553
towns enclosed in massive stone walls, and the great emperor
in the third century B.C. naturally thought of building a wall
in the same way all round his extensive kingdom. It was
principally from the north that danger threatened. There
lived the nomads of Eastern Turkestan and Mongolia, savage,
brave, and warlike horsemen. To them the Chinese wall was
an insurmountable obstacle. But precisely on that account

has also affected the destiny of Europe, for the wild
this wall
mounted hordes, finding the way southwards to China barred,
advanced westwards instead, and in the fourth century, in
conjunction with the Alans, overran extensive areas of
Europe.
The Great Wall, however, could not protect China for
ever. In the year 1280 the country was conquered by Jenghis
Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo's friend and
patron. He, too, was a great builder. He constructed the
Grand Canal (see map, p. 174) between Peking and Hang-
chau, immediately to the south-west of Shanghai. His idea
was that the rice harvest of the southern provinces should also
benefit the northern parts of the country. Previously the rice
had been freighted on junks and carried along the coast, where
it was exposed to the attacks of Japanese pirates. the Now
junks could pass safely through the country by the new canal.
The 840 miles long, crosses the Yellow and
imperial canal is
Blue rivers, and in use.

is It is a memorial of the
still
hundred years' rule of the Mongols.

In 1644 China was conquered by the Manchu dynasty,
which still reigns. Exactly a hundred years earlier the
Portuguese had seized Macao, not far from Hong Kong. Since
then, and particularly during recent decades, Europeans have
encroached on Chinese soil. The French possessions on the
peninsula of Further India were formerly under Chinese pro-
tection. The Great Powers have made themselves masters of
some of the best harbours in China. On two occasions, the
latter during the Boxer insurrection in 1900, Peking has been
entered by the combined troops of European nations.
The " Middle Kingdom " is China proper, but the " Son
of Heaven" also rules over four dependencies, Eastern
Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Tibet. The area of
the Chinese Empire altogether is thirty-five times that of the
British Isles, and its population is ten times as numerous, being
about 433 millions indeed, every third or fourth man in the
;
world is a Chinaman.
Owing to the situation of the country the climate is good
and healthy. The differences of temperature between winter
and summer are large in the south reigns almost tropical
;
heat ; in the north, in the districts round Peking, the winter

is bitterly cold. The soil is exceedingly fruitful. Tea, rice,
millet, maize, oats, barley, beans, peas, vegetables, and many
other crops are grown. In the southern provinces the fields
x.i 'THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 167
are full of sugar-cane and cotton bushes. The whole country

is intersected by large rivers, which serve for irrigation and the
transport of goods. In the west rise lofty mountains, forming
continuations of the Tibetan ranges. Eastwards they become
lower. The greater part of China is a mountainous country,
but lowlands extend along the coast. Six of the eighteen
provinces border on the coast, which abounds in excellent
harbours.
The " Middle Kingdom " is,
then, a fortunate country, one
richly endowed by nature in every respect.In the mountains
lies inexhaustible wealth of minerals, and China possesses larger
coal-fields than any other land in the world. Its future is,
therefore, secured, and China's development may some time
surpass that of America.
It is well known that a country which has deeply indented
coasts gains an early and extensive development. Thus
Greece was in old times the home of learning and art and ;
thus Europe now dominates the rest of the world. For a

people which dwells within such coasts comes sooner and
more easily than others into contact with its neighbours, and
by commercial intercourse can avail itself of their resources
and inventions. But in this, as in so many other respects,
China is an exception. The Chinese have never made use of
their coast. They have, on the contrary, avoided all contact
with foreigners, and their development within their own
boundaries has therefore been exceedingly peculiar. Their
culture is different from anything else, and yet it is most
estimable and refined.
Two thousand years before Christ the Chinese had written
characters. Later they invented the hair pencil, which is in
use to this day. They grind down a jet-black ink, in which
they dip the brush, and hold it vertically when they write. The
manufacture of the ink is their secret, and the " Indian ink"
which we use in Europe is obtained from them. A hundred
years after Christ paper was made in China. In an ancient
town at Lop-nor, where wild camels now roam, I found a
collection of Chinese letters and documents on paper which
had remained buried in the desert since A.D. 265. In A.D.
600 the Chinese had invented the art of printing, which in
Europe was not invented until 850 years later. The Chinese
were acquainted with the magnetic needle 1100 years
before Christ, and made compasses, and they knew of gun-
powder long before Europeans. Three thousand years ago
the Chinese were proficient in the art of casting bronze. In
1 68 FROM POLE TO POLE ft. i
the interior of the country arc still to be found most beautiful

objects in bronze — round bowls on feet decorated with lions
and dragons, vases, dishes, cups, and jugs, all of dark, heavy
bronze executed with the finest and most artistic detail. The
porcelain manufacture attained its greatest excellence in the
time of Kang Hi and Kien Lung. Then were made vases,
bowls, and dishes of such exceeding perfection that neither
the Chinese themselves nor any other people at the present
time can produce their match. The arrangement of colours
and the glaze excite the admiration of all connoisseurs.
Porcelain articles of this period are now extremely rare, and
fetch enormous prices. In Japan I saw a small green Chinese
bowl on three feet, with a cover, which had cost eleven hundred
pounds. Compared to the Kang Hi vases, the finest porcelain
that can be produced nowadays is mere rubbish.
The Chinese language is as singular as everything else in
the great kingdom. Every word is unchangeable. While
we say "go, went, gone, will go, should go, going," the
Chinese always say simply "go." The precise meaning is
shown by the position of the word in a sentence or by the
help of certain auxiliary words, as, for example, " I morning
go," " We yesterday go," where the future or past tense is
indicated by the words " morning " and " yesterday." A
single word, //, for instance, may have a number of different
significations, and what it denotes in any particular case
depends on the tone and pronunciation, on its position in
the sentence, and on the word which comes before or after.
The language is divided into many different dialects, of which
the principal is the mandarin or the dialect of the educated.
Every word has its particular written sign, and the Chinese
language accordingly possesses 24,000 different written
characters ; only one man in twenty and one woman in a
hundred can read and write it.
Chinese literature is exceedingly rich, almost inexhaustible.

At a time when the bronze age still reigned in northern
Europe, the Chinese had a highly cultivated literature. From
the fifth century B.C. down to our own day it has run an un-
interrupted course through centuries and ages. When the
northern vikings were executing their plundering raids by sea
and setting up their runic stones, a geographical hand-book
was published in China called a "Description of all the
Provinces " and abundantly illustrated by maps. Thanks to
their chronicles we can follow the history of the Chinese for
4000 years back. And the most remarkable feature of these
xii "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 169
annals that they arc distinguished by the strictest accuracy

is
and reliability.All kinds of subjects are alluded to, even

the most insignificant events. Chinese books are very cheap,
and every one who can read can provide himself with quite
a large library. Of the numbers of books we can have some
conception when we hear that the Emperor Kieng Lung
had a library so large that the catalogue of his books filled
122 volumes.
The Blue River

The Blue River, or Yang-tse-kiang, the Mekong, and the
Salwin all rise in eastern Tibet and flow quite close to one
another southwards through deeply excavated parallel valleys.
But while the first two continue their southerly course all the
way to the sea, the Blue River turns off sharply eastwards in
western China and divides the Middle Kingdom in two.
It is only Europeans who sometimes call the largest river
of China the "Blue" River. The Chinese themselves call it
the " Great " River, or the " Long " River, or, far up the country
to the west, the " River of Golden Sand." Only three rivers
in the world are longer, namely, the Nile, the Mississippi, and
the Amazon. The Obi and Yenisei are about the same
length, 3200 miles. The Blue River discharges 244 times the
volume of water of the Thames.
In one respect the Blue River is far superior to all the
waterways of the world, for on this river and its tributaries, or,
in short, in the area of its drainage basin, live not less than
180 millions of human beings, or an eighth of the total
population of the world. The parts of China proper situated
on the Blue River arc called the River Provinces. The viceroy
of two of these, namely Hupeh and Hunan, has more subjects
than any country in Europe, except Russia. The most
westerly province of China, Sze-chuan, traversed by the Blue
River, is in area and population equal to France. Europe
shrinks up to nothing before such comparisons.
On the Blue River stands a series of famous old towns.
Chungking is the capital of Sze-chuan, and thus far European
steamers ascend the river. Hankow is the largest com-
mercial town in the interior of China. Nanking, near the
mouth, was formerly the capital of China. South-west of
Hankow a large lake lies on the southern bank of the Blue
River. JIu means lake in Chinese, king is a capital city, pe
i;o FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
and nan south. Peking, therefore, means the

signifies north,
"northern capital," and Nanking the "southern capital";
Hupeh signifies " north of the lake," and Hunan " south of the
lake."
The province of Hunan, south of the lake, is one of the
most noteworthy in all China. Its people are a vigorous
and independent race, and make the best soldiers in China.
They are more hostile to foreigners than other Chinese, and
the capital of Hunan, Chang-sha, has been of old a centre of
opposition to foreigners and of revolutionary agitations.
Even large ocean liners ascend to Hankow, and smaller
steamboats to the capital of Sze-chuan. The latter are
formidable competitors to the junks, many thousands of which
have from time immemorial provided for the transport and
traffic on the great river. There are many different kinds of
junk. Some are large, others small some are built for the
;
lower, quieter waters of the river, others for the rapids in

Hupeh and Sze-chuan. But they are all well suited to their
purpose, and are an ornament to the grand beauty of the
constantly changing landscape through which the river has
cut its valley.
In some districts the junks are built of cypress wood, in
others of oaken planks. This is to make the boats more
elastic and supple, and to diminish the risk of springing a
leak among the rapids. Where the danger is unusually great
a pilot is taken on board, but still it is reckoned that one junk
in ten runs aground, and one in twenty is totally wrecked.
To go from Hankow to Chungking takes thirty-five days,
and to come down in the opposite direction with the stream
only nine days. The voyage down the river is much more
dangerous, and on this voyage most of the shipwrecks
occur.
Every large junk has a small dinghy to convey passengers
and goods to and from the shore. A large junk is 40 feet
long. It is high at the stern, and here stands a kind of cabin
roofed with plaited straw or grass matting. A
junk going
upstream carries a cargo of two and a half tons, one going
down six tons. The vessel is propelled by oars, some of
which are so large that they require eight men each. These
are needed most in drifting with the current, when the boat
must be controlled by the steering oars. The junk has also
a mast and sail which is used in going upstream with a
favourable wind, and is lowered when coming down with the
current. Only the bow is decked.
x„ THE BLUE RIVER 171
It may well be asked how it is possible to get such a large

heavily laden boat up against the strong river current, for it
is evident that however favourable the wind might be, the
vessel would be carried down the rapids. A long rope of

twisted bamboo a hundred yards long is fastened to the bow
of the junk, and with this the vessel is dragged up by some
sixty men who run along the bank. The bank, however, is
usually steep, with dangerous rocks projecting out into the
river, and over these the men have to scramble like monkeys,
still pulling at their rope. Often neither the boat nor the
river is visible from the rocky path, but the skipper of the
boat is in constant communication with the towing men
by means of drums on board. Six men are always ready to
clear the rope if it catches against any projection, and others,
who are stark naked, do the same work in the water. On
the cliffs along the river, grooves and marks have been worn
out by the ropes, for towing has here been practised for
thousands of years. There is always a score of men on board
to steer and fend off the boat with poles. They have also
bamboo poles with hooks at the end to help in dragging the
boat up against the current.
These men work like galley-slaves, and their work is both
dangerous and exhausting. Week after week they walk with
bent backs struggling under the towing rope. They are
covered with bruises, which scarcely heal up before they are
torn open again, and especially on the shoulders the marks of
the rope are visible. They have a hard life, and yet they
are cheerful. They are treated like dogs, and yet they sing.
And what wages do they receive for a journey of thirty-five
days up the river ? Three shillings, besides three meals of
rice a day, and meat" three times during the journey ! For
the down journey, when the work is much easier and the
time only one-fourth, they receive only a shilling. These
labourers earn about i-J-d. for ten hours' work.
In February the river is lowest and the water clearest.
Then the towns and villages stand 160 feet above the
surface of the river. Their walls, staircases, gates, and
pagodas stand up in the flat triangles of the valley open-
ings. Every inch of hill and valley is covered with fields
or woods. Later in the spring the river begins to rise, and in
summer is a huge rolling volume of chocolate -brown or
greyish water. At certain places where the valley is
narrow the water may rise a hundred feet higher than in
February. A voyage on it is then more dangerous, for
banks, boulders, and reefs are covered with water and form
whirlpools and seething eddies.
Below the towns and villages shoals of junks lie moored
waiting for work. Every cliff, every bend has its name
Yellow Hat, Sleeping Swine, Double Dragon, etc. Nor are
pirates wanting. They have their haunts among the moun-
tains, and fall upon the junks at convenient points. Some-
times large white notices are seen on projecting rocks. They
may be " The waterway is not clear," or " Small junks should
anchor here." Thus the boatowners are warned of danger.
The earnings of a boatowner are not large, and he is glad
enough if he can bring his boat back to Hankow in safety
after a voyage up and down the river. With anything but
pleasure he sees the large Russian vessels lying at Hankow
and taking in tea. Hankow is the greatest tea port of China,
and China is the home of the tea plant. It is not more than
250 years since tea was first known in Europe, where it is
now in general use, as also in many other parts of the world.
In England and Russia it is a national drink, and the Russians
used formerly to transport their tea to Europe by caravans
through Mongolia and Siberia. Now the export of tea from
China has declined, and the Middle Kingdom has been out-
stripped by India and Ceylon.
In Northern China
In the north-westernmost province of the kingdom,
Kansu, is a famous old town, named Si-ning, surrounded
with a fine stone wall. I had completed my first journey
through Tibet and came to Si-ning on November 23, 1896,

accompanied by my servant, Islam Bay.
When we left Si-ning we had a riding horse each, and
six mules with their three drivers. They accompanied us for
some days as far as a small town, where we exchanged them
for two large, heavy carts on two wheels and covered with a
tilt of straw matting. In one we packed all our things, in the
other I took my seat, while Islam rode. Each cart was
drawn by a mule and two horses, driven by a pleasant
Chinaman. I had no interpreter, and had to get along with
the few words I had managed to pick up.
For six days we travelled northwards through the Kansu
mountains, going up and down all the way over stony passes
and over frozen rivers with or without neck-breaking bridges.
xii IN NORTHERN CHINA 173
The carts creaked and rocked through narrow hollow r<

where it would have been impossible to pass a cart coining
from the opposite direction. In such places, therefore, one of
our drivers went on in front shouting to keep the road clear.
Fortunately we were in the company of other carts. When
two carts meet where the road is narrow, it is customary for
the smaller one to back and leave the road open for the larger.
We set out just after midnight, and drove on till noon.
In spite of furs and rugs I was almost frozen through. Islam
preferred to go on foot, and the drivers who ran beside the
wagons also managed to keep themselves warm.
At break of day on December 10 we came to the bank of
a stream which falls into the Yellow River (Hwang-ho). It
was frozen quite across, and a path of sand showed where the
route crossed the river. Our companions were to go over first
in one of their carts with a team of three horses. They dashed
at full gallop out on to the ice, but had not gone far before
a wheel cut through the ice and the cart was held fast as in a
vice. The whole load had to be taken out and carried over
to the farther bank, and after much trouble the empty cart
was hoisted up.
At a broader place the men cut up the thin ice in the
middle of the bed where the water was three feet deep, and
when another cart tried its luck it pitched suddenly down into
the opening and remained fast. Two additional horses were
attached, and all the men shouted and cracked their whips.
The horses reared, fell, were nearly drowned under the ice,
threw themselves about and jumped up on to the ice, only to
drop back again into the hole. A young Chinaman then
threw off every stitch of clothing and went into the water,
1
8° below freezing-point, to pull away the pieces of ice
and stones which held back the wheels. I cannot tell how it
was that he was not frozen to death. He afterwards warmed
himself at a fire made by Islam Bay. We struggled for four
hours before at last the irritating river was behind us.
In Liang-chau, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, with a
quadrangular wall, handsome gates, and broad, busy streets,
we stayed with some missionaries. Here we had to wait
twelve whole days before we could procure nine camels
and two men who were willing to take us to the town
Ning-hsia on the Yellow River, nearly 300 miles off. The
missionaries had no other guest-room than their chapel,
which was rather cold on Christmas Eve the temperature
;
inside was 3 .
174 FROM POLE TO POLE PT. I
For twenty days we travelled through a country called

Ala-shan, which for the most part is inhabited by Mongols.
We followed a desert track and encamped at wells. Certain
belts were buried in drift sand which formed wave-like dunes.
Here we were outside China proper and the Great Wall, but
we frequently met Chinese caravans. Two horsemen had
>H>£«s «>
°
£^ Vg^nhôP^
MAP OF NORTHERN CHINA AND MONGOLIA, SHOWING JOURNEY FROM TIBET

THROUGH SI-NING TO PEKING, AND FROM PEKING TO KANSK (pp. 172-179).
At the time of Dr. Hedin's journey through Mongolia, the Trans-Siberian Railway
did not extend east of Kansk.
been assigned to me as an escort by the last Chinese governor,

for the country is unsafe owing to robbers. All, however,
went well, and we came safely to Ning-hsia on the Yellow
River.
From Ning-hsia we had 267 miles to the town Pao-te, and
now we had to cross the Mongolian district of Ordos, between
the Great Wall and the northern bend of the Yellow River.
In summer it is better to travel by boat down the river, which
xn IN NORTHERN CHINA 175
rises in north-eastern Tibet and falls into the northern bay

of the Yellow Sea after a course of 2500 miles. The river
owes its name to its turbid yellow water, which makes the sea
also yellow for some distance from the coast. Elsewhere the
Yellow Sea is no yellower than any other.
At that time, in January, the Yellow River was covered
with thick ice, and where we crossed it with our nine camels
its breadth was 3S0 yards. Then we made long days' marches
through the desert, and had a very hard and troublesome
journey. We
had indeed with us enough mutton, bread, and
rice, and there were wells along the road. One of them was
130 feet deep and was walled round. But we suffered from
cold. Sometimes the temperature was only 1.5 at noon, - 27
at night, and 16.5 in the tent. Besides, it blew steadily and
with the velocity of a hurricane. Fortunately I had bought a
small Chinese portable stove, which kept me from freezing.
It is not larger than an ordinary teapot and has a perforated
cover. A few pieces of glowing charcoal are embedded in
ashes in the tin, which is thus kept warm all day. Up on
the camel I had this little comforting contrivance on my
knees, and at night I laid it among my rugs when I crept
into bed. One day there was such a furious storm over the
level and exposed country that we could not move from the
spot. We sat wrapped up in our furs and rugs and simply
froze.
On arrival at Pao-te I had still 430 miles to travel to the
capital of the kingdom, Peking. I was eager to be there, and
resolved to hurry forward by forced marches. I hired a small

two-wheeled cart, and had no servant with me but the Chinese
driver. Islam with an interpreter was to follow slowly after
with our baggage.
On this route no fewer than sixty-one Swedish mission-
aries were at work, and I often stayed in their hospitable
houses. At other times I put up in the country inns. They
are incredibly dirty, full of noisy travellers, smoke, and vermin.
The guest room where you sleep at night must be shared
with others. Along the inner wall stands a raised ledge of
bricks. It is builtlike an oven and is heated with cattle-
dung beneath and on the platform the sleeper, if not half
;
suffocated, any rate half roasted.

is at
In Kalgan (Chang-kia-kau), where the Great Wall is passed,
I exchanged my cart for a carrying chair on two long poles.
It was borne by two mules which trotted along over the

narrow mountain road leading to Peking. Sometimes we were
1 76 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. 1
high above the valley bottom, and met whole rows of caravans,
carts, riders, and foot passengers, chairs with mules, and every-
one was in constant danger of being pushed over the edge.
At last, on March 2, I arrived at Peking, after 1237 days of
travelling through Asia, and passed through one of the fine
gates in the city walls (Plate XVIII.).
Mongolia
Between China in the south and Eastern Siberia on the
north, stretches the immense region of inner Asia which is
called Mongolia. The Chinese call it the "grass country,"
but very large parts of it are waterless desert, where drift-sand
is piled up into dunes, and caravan routes and wells are far
apart. The belt of desert, one of the largest in the world, is
called by the Mongols Gobi, a word which in their language
denotes desert. The Chinese call it Shamo, which signifies
sandy desert.
Mongolia is subject to China, and the Mongols' spiritual
superior or pope is the Dalai Lama. They have also a

number of Lama monasteries, and make yearly pilgrimages in
large parties to Lhasa. An extraordinary proportion of the
male population of the country devote themselves to a
religious life and become monks. The Chinese are glad of it,
for the peaceful cloister life causes the formerly savage and
warlike Mongol hordes to forget their own strength. Services
before the image of Buddha in the temple halls lead their
thoughts in other directions, and they forget that their people
once held the sceptre over almost all Asia and half Europe.
They do not remember that their forefathers, the Golden
Horde, forced their way seven hundred years ago through the
Caucasus, levied tribute throughout Russia, and alarmed all
the rest of the West. They have forgotten that their fathers
conquered all the Middle Kingdom and digged in yellow earth
the Grand Canal on which the junks of the Chinese still ply.
The sword has rusted fast in its sheath, and the Mongolian
chiefs, whom the Chinese call vassals or dependent princes,
encamp peacefully on the steppes under their eight bans.
The Mongols are nomads. They own large flocks of
sheep and goats, and live on mutton, milk, butter, and cheese.
Among their domestic animals are also the two-humped
camel and a small, hardy, strongly built horse. Their life is a
perpetual wandering. They move with their flocks from one
x.i MONGOLIA i
77
steppe to another. I f the herbage is dried up in a district, or
allthe pasture is eaten up, they put their tents on camels and
set out to find better grazing. Their tents arc exactly the
same as those of the Kirghizes of the Pamir and the Kirghiz
Steppe. They arc shaped like haycocks, and consist of a
framework of tough ribs covered with black felt.
The Mongols are a good-tempered and amiable people.
I made acquaintance with them on the outskirts of their wide
domain, and once I travelled right through Mongolia. My

starting-point was Peking, and my direction due north-west.
It was in the end of March and the beginning of April, 1897.
At that time the Trans-Siberian Railway was not completed
farther than to Kansk, a small town east of the Yenisei.
That was the longest drive I ever took in my life, for from
Peking to Kansk the distance is 1800 miles, and I only rested
a day on the whole journey, namely at Irkutsk, the capital of
Eastern Siberia.
In Peking I provided myself with all that was necessary
for a journey to the Russian frontier. First and foremost a
Chinese passport, which authorised me to call out Mongols
and their horses, and, if I wished, to put up in their tents.
—
Then provisions had to be bought tinned meats, bread, tea,
sugar, etc. From the Russian Legation I obtained an escort
of two Cossacks, who were very delighted to have this chance
of returning to their homes in Siberia after completing their
time of service in Peking.
In Mongolia the traveller does not drive in the usual way.
There is no driver on the box, and you do not lean back
comfortably in a four-wheeled carriage on springs. To begin
with, there is no road at all and no rest-houses ; but horses
must be changed frequently, and this is done in the Mongolian
villages. The Mongols, however, are nomads, and their
villages are always on the move. Therefore you must know
first of all where the villages happen to be, and in the second
place must give the people notice to have a certain number
of horses ready. A mounted messenger is sent on in advance
for this purpose and then the horses are never wanting.
Only the Mongols themselves know where the next villages
are situated, and so at every village a fresh retinue of Mongols
is provided. And because the villages are being constantly
moved you can only travel in a straight line between them,
and cannot follow any determined route. You drive along
over desert and steppe, and usually see no vestige of an old
wheel rut.
N
The vehicle in which you travel is a very simple con-

trivance. It is a cart on two medium-sized wheels, closed
all over with a rounded tilt covered with blue cloth. A small
window in front and two side windows allow you to see over
the steppe the window glass is fixed into the stretched
;
cloth so that it cannot be cracked by the jolting. The cart

has no springs, and its bottom rests directly on the axles.
There is no seat, and the traveller sits on cushions, furs, and
rugs, and there is only room for one person. The cart is of
the usual Chinese pattern with shafts for a mule or horse.
In China the driver sits on one of the shafts or runs alongside.
I had my bags strapped on to the base of the shafts. My
large baggage was forwarded on camels, and it reached
Stockholm six months after I did.
The style of harnessing is the most curious of all. A
loop of rope is fastened to the extreme end of each shaft,
and a long, rounded cross-bar is passed through the two loops.
Two mounted Mongols lay the bar across their knees in the
saddle, but no draught animal is put between the shafts. A
rope is fastened to each end of the cross-bar and two other
riders wind these ropes twice round their bodies. They have
all riding whips, and when all is ready the four riders dash at
full speed over the steppe, dragging the cart after them.
Twenty other Mongols ride on each side, half hidden in
clouds of dust. Suddenly two of them ride up beside the
men who hold the cross-bar on their knees. Of their own
accord the two fresh horses slip their heads under the bar, letting
it fall on to the riders' knees, while the men who are relieved
hold in their horses and let the cart roll on. These then join
the rest of the troop. The cart does not stop during this
change of horses, which is accomplished in a couple of seconds,
and a furious pace is always kept up. In the same way the
two front riders and their horses are relieved without
stopping. When one of them is tired, a fresh rider comes
forward and winds the rope round his waist.
After two or three hours a village of several tents is seen
on the steppe ahead of us. About thirty horses are held in
readiness by the headman of the village, who has been
warned the day before by the messenger. At every stage a
few roubles 1 are paid to the Mongol attendants. This pay-
ment has always to be made in silver roubles, for the Mongols
will not take paper money or small coins.
Thus we go on and on, it would seem interminably, over
1
A Russian coin, worth about 2s. i4tl.
XII MONGOLIA 179
the boundless steppe — each day the same bumping and

jolting, each day the same monotonous landscape. In
northern Mongolia, however, snow lay deep on the ground,
and here the cart was drawn by men on camels. By this
time Iwas so bruised and worn out with the continual
jolting that it was a pleasure to drive on the soft snow.
Marco Polo
In 1 162 was born in Mongolia a chief of the savage
mounted hordes who bore the name of Jenghiz Khan. He
subdued all the surrounding tribes, and the whole Mongol
race was collected under his banner. The more his power
increased, the more extensive regions he desired to conquer,
and he did not rest till practically all Asia was reduced under
his rule. His motto was " One God in heaven and one
Great Khan on earth." He was not content with a kingdom
as large as that of Alexander or Caesar, but wished to reign
over all the known world, and with this aim before his eyes
he rode with his horsemen from country to country over the
great continent. Everywhere he left sorrow and mourning,
burnt and pillaged towns in his track. He was the greatest
and most savage conqueror known in history. When he was
at the height of his power he collected treasure from innumer-
able different peoples, from the peninsula of Further India
to Novgorod, from Japan to Silesia. To his court came
ambassadors from the French kings and the Turkish sultans,
from the Russian Grand Dukes and the Khalifs and Popes
of the time. No man before or since has caused such a stir
among the sons of men, and brought such different peoples
into involuntary communication with one another. Jenghiz
Khan ruled over more than half the human race, and even
in many of the countries which he pillaged and destroyed
his memory is feared even to this day.
At his death Jenghiz Khan was sixty-five years old, and
he bequeathed his immense kingdom to his four sons. One
of these was the father of Kublai Khan, who conquered
China in 1 280 and established the Mongolian dynasty in the
Middle Kingdom. His court was even more brilliant than
that of his grandfather, and an exact description both of the
great Khan and his empire was given by the great traveller
Marco Polo.
In the year 1260 two merchants from Venice were dwelling
i So FROM POLE TO POLE rr. i
in Constantinople. They were named Nicolo and Maffeo

Polo. Their desire to open trade relations with Asia induced
them to travel to the Crimea, and thence across the Volga and
through Bukhara to the court of the Great Khan, Kublai.
Up to that time only vague rumours of the great civilized
empire far in the East had been spread by Catholic
missionaries.
The Great Khan, who had never seen Europeans, was
pleased at the arrival of the Venetians, received them kindly,
and made them tell of all the wonderful things in their own
country. Finally he decided to send them back with a letter
to the Pope, in which he begged him to send a hundred wise
and learned missionaries out to the East. He wished to
employ them in training and enlightening the rude tribes of
the steppe.
After nine years' absence the travellers returned to Venice.
The Pope was dead, and they waited two years fruitlessly for
a successor to be elected. As, then, they did not wish the
Great Khan to believe them untrustworthy, they decided to
return to the Far East, and on this journey they took with
them Nicolo's son, Marco Polo, aged fifteen years.
Our three travellers betook themselves from Syria to
Mosul, quite close to the ruins of Nineveh on the Tigris, and
thence to Baghdad and Hormuz, a town situated on the
small strait between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
Then they proceeded northwards through the whole of
Persia and northern Afghanistan, and along the Amu-darya
to the Pamir, following routes which had to wait 600
years for new travellers from Europe. Past Yarkand,
Khotan, and Lop-nor, and through the whole of the Gobi
desert, they finally made their way to China.
It was in the year 1275 that, after several years' wander-
ings, they came to the court of the Great Khan in eastern
Mongolia. The potentate was so delighted with Marco Polo,
who learned to read and write several Eastern languages, that
he took him into his service. The first commission he
entrusted to the young Venetian was an official journey to
northern and western China. Polo had noticed that Kublai
Khan liked to hear curious and extraordinary accounts from
foreign countries, and he therefore treasured up in his memory
all he saw and experienced in order to relate it to the
Emperor on his return. Accordingly he steadily rose higher
in the estimation of Kublai Khan, and was sent out on other
official journeys, even as far as India and the borders of Tibet,
x.i MARCO POLO i 8 i
was for three years governor of a large town, and was also
employed at the capital, Peking.
Marco Polo relates how the Emperor goes hunting. lie
sits in a palanquin like a small room, with a roof, and carried
by four elephants. The outside of the palanquin is overlaid
with plates of beaten gold and the inside is draped with tiger
skins. A dozen of his best gerfalcons are beside him, and
near at hand ride several of his attendant lords. Presently
one of them will exclaim, " Look, Sire, there are some cranes."
Then the Emperor has the roof opened and throws out one
of the falcons to strike down the game this sport gives him
;
great satisfaction. Then he comes to his camp, which is

composed of 10,000 tents. His own audience tent is
so large that it can easily hold IOOO persons, and he
has another for private interviews, and a third for sleeping.
They are supported by three tent-poles, are covered outside
with tiger skins, and inside with ermine and sable. Marco
Polo says that the tents are so fine and costly that it is not
every king who could pay for them.
Only the most illustrious noblemen can wait on the
Emperor at table. They have cloths of silk and gold wound
over their mouths and noses that their breath may not pollute
the dishes and cups presented to His Majesty. And every
time the Emperor drinks, a powerful band of music strikes up,
and all who are present fall on their knees.
All merchants who come to the capital, and especially
those who bring gold and silver, precious stones and pearls,
must sell their valuables to the Emperor alone. Marco Polo
thinks it quite natural that Kublai Khan should have greater
treasures than all the kings of the world, for he pays only with
paper money, which he makes as he likes, for notes were
current at that time in China.
So Marco Polo and his father and uncle lived for many-
long years in the Middle Kingdom, and by their cleverness
and patient industry accumulated much property. But the
Emperor, their protector, was old, and they feared that their
position would be very different after his death. They longed,
too, to go home to Venice, but whenever they spoke of
setting out, Kublai Khan bade themstay a little longer.
However, an occurred which facilitated their
event
departure. Persia also stood under the supremacy of the
Mongols, and its prince or Khan was a close connection of
Kublai Khan. The Persian Khan had lost his favourite wife,
and now desired to carry out the wish she had expressed on
1 82 FROM POLE TO POLE IT . i
her deathbed that he should marry a princess of her own race.

Therefore he despatched an embassy to Kublai Khan. It
was well received, and a young, beautiful princess was selected
for the Khan of Persia. But the land journey of over 4000 miles
from Peking to Tabriz was considered too trying for a young
woman, so the ambassadors decided to return by sea.
They had conceived a great friendship and respect for the
three Venetians, and they requested Kublai Khan to send
them with them, for they were skilful mariners, and Marco
Polo had lately been in India, and could give them much
valuable information about the sea route thither. At last
Kublai Khan yielded, and equipped the whole party with
great liberality. In the year 1292 they sailed southwards
from the coast of China.
Many misfortunes, storms, shipwreck, and fever befell
them on the voyage. They tarried long on the coasts of
Sumatra and India, a large part of the crew perished and two
of the three ambassadors died, but the young lady and her
Venetian cavaliers at last reached Persia safe and sound. As
the Khan had died, the princess had to put up with his
nephew, and she was much distressed when the Polos took
leave of her to return home to Venice by way of Tabriz,
Trebizond, the Bosporus, and Constantinople. There they
arrived in the year 1295, having been absent for twenty-four
years.
Their relatives and friends had supposed them to be dead
long before. They had almost forgotten their mother tongue,
and appeared in their native city in shabby Asiatic clothes. The
first thing they did was to go to the old house of their fathers
and knock at the door but their relations did not recognize
;
them, would not believe their romantic story, and sent them
about their business.
The three Polos accordingly took another house and here
made a great feast for all their family. When the guests
were seated round the table and the banquet was about to
all
commence, the three hosts entered, dressed down to the feet
in garments of costly crimson silk. And as water was taken
round for the guests to wash their hands, they exchanged
their dresses for Asiatic mantles of the finest texture, the
silken dresses being cut into pieces and distributed among
their retainers. Then they appeared in robes of the most
valuable velvet, while the mantles were divided among the
servants, and lastly the velvet went the same way.
All the guests were astonished at what they saw. When
x„ MARCO POLO 183
the board was cleared and the servants were gone, Marco Polo
brought in the shabby, tattered clothes the three travellers
had worn when their relatives would not acknowledge them.
The seams of these garments were ripped up with sharp
—
knives, and out poured heaps of jewels on to the table rubies,
sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds. When Kublai
Khan gave them leave to depart they exchanged all their
wealth for precious stones, because they knew that they could
not carry a heavy weight of gold such a long way. They had
sewed the stones in their clothes that no one might suspect
that they had them.
When the guests saw these treasures scattered over the
table their astonishment knew no bounds. And now all had
to acknowledge that these three gentlemen were really the
missing members of the Polo house. So they became the
object of the greatest reverence and respect. When news
about them spread through Venice the good citizens crowded
to their house, all eager to embrace and welcome the far-
travelled men and to pay them homage. " The young men
came daily to visit and converse with the ever polite and
gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about
Cathay and the Great Can, all which he answered with such
kindly courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his

debtor." But when he talked of the Great Khan's immense
wealth, and of other treasures accumulated in Eastern lands,
he continually spoke of millions and millions, and therefore
he was nicknamed by his countrymen Messer Marco Millioni.
At that time, and for long afterwards, great envy and
jealousy raged between the three great commercial republics,
Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. In the year 1298 the Genoese
equipped a mighty fleet which ravaged the Venetian territory
on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Here it was
met by the Venetian fleet, in which Marco Polo commanded
a galley. After a hot fight the Genoese gained the victory,
and with 7000 prisoners sailed home to Genoa, where
they made a grand procession through the city amidst the
jubilation of the people. The prisoners were put in chains
and cast into prison, and among them was Marco Polo.
In the prison Marco had a companion in misfortune, the
author Rusticiano from Pisa. It was he who recorded Marco
Polo's remarkable adventures in Asia from his dictation, and
therefore there is cause of satisfaction at the result of the
battle, for otherwise the name of Marco Polo might perhaps
have been unknown to posterity.
1
After a year prisoners were exchanged and Marco Polo

returned to Venice, where he married and had three daughters.
In the year 1324 he died, and was buried in the Church of
San Lorenzo in Venice.
On his deathbed he was admonished to retract his extra-
ordinary narrative. No reliance was placed on his words, and
even at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were
learned men who maintained that his whole story was an
excellently planned romance. The narrative taken down in
prison was, however, distributed in an innumerable number
of manuscript copies. The great Christopher Columbus, dis-
coverer of America, found in it a support to his conviction
that by sailing west a man would at length come to India.
There are many curious statements in Marco Polo's book.
He speaks of the " Land of Darkness " in the north, and of
islands in the northern sea which lie so far north that if a
man travels thither he leaves the pole-star behind him. We
miss also much that we should expect to find. Thus, for
example, Marco Polo does not once mention the Great Wall,
though he must have passed through it several times. Still
his book is a treasure of geographical information, and most
of his discoveries and reports were confirmed five hundred
years later. His life was a long romance, and he occupies one
of the most foremost places among discoverers of all ages.
XIII
JAPAN (1908)
Nagasaki and Kobe
MARCO POLO was also the first European to make Japan

known in Western countries. He called it Chipangu, and
stated that it was a large, rich island in the sea east of China.
Accordingly the Chinese call it the " Land of the Rising Sun,"
and Nippon, as the Japanese themselves call their islands, has
the same poetical signification, derived from the rising of the
sun out of the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The flag of Japan
displays a red sun on a white field, and when it flies from the
masts of warships the sun is surrounded by sixteen red rays.
We leave Shanghai by the fine steamer Tenyo Maru,
which is driven by turbines and makes 18 knots an hour.
The Tenyo Maru belongs to a line which plies between
Hong-kong and San Francisco, calling at Shanghai, Japan,
and the Sandwich Islands on the way. From Shanghai it is
470 miles over the Eastern Sea to Nagasaki, a considerable
town situated on Kiu-shiu, the southernmost of the four islands
of Japan proper.
As we near Japan the vessel crosses the great current
called the " Kuro Shiwo," or the " Black Salt." It comes from
the region immediately north of the equator, and flows north-
wards, washing the Japanese coast with its water, over 200
fathoms deep, and with a temperature of 72 just as the Gulf
,
Stream washes the east coast of Europe. Off Japan the sea
is very deep, the lead sinking down to 4900 fathoms and more.
In Nagasaki the visitor is astonished at the great ship-

building yards and docks they are the largest in Asia, and
;
the Tenyo Maru, as well as other ships as big, have been, for
the most part at any rate, built here. It is hard to believe
that it is only forty years since the Japanese took to European

1S5
i86 FROM POLE TO POLE
civilization and the inventions of Western lands. In many
respects they have surpassed their teachers.
After a whole day in Nagasaki we steam out to sea again
and make northwards round Kiu-shiu to the beautiful narrow
strait at Shimonoseki which leads to the Inland Sea. Un-
fortunately it is pitch dark when we pass Admiral Togo's
fleet. He has just been engaged in manoeuvres with eighty-

five of Japan's two hundred modern warships. In sea-power
Emery V/aiSef sc.
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM SHANGHAI THROUGH JAPAN AND KOREA TO DALNY
(pp. 185-202).
Japan is the fifth nation of the world, and is only surpassed

by England, Germany, America, and France. A large number
of their warships were captured from Russia during the war,
and afterwards refitted and re-christened with Japanese names.
On a peace footing the land army of Japan contains 250,000
men and 11,000 officers. In time of war, when all the
reservists and landwehr troops are called out, the strength
amounts to a million and a half; 120,000 men yearly are
called out for active service. The Japanese make any sacrifice
when it is a question of the defence of their fatherland. To
them affection for Nippon is a religion.
x,.i NAGASAKI AND KOBE 187
The area of Japan is about half as large again as that of

the British Islands, and the population is, roughly, a quarter
more. But if the recently acquired parts of the mainland,
Korea and Kwan-tung, be included, 77,000 square miles
must be added and the population increased to 65 millions.
Early on the morning of November 9 we pass through
the strait of Shimonoscki into the Inland Sea, the Mediter-
ranean of Japan, which lies between the islands Hondo,
Kiu-shiu, and Shikoku. The scenery which unfolds itself on
all sides is magnificent, and is constantly changing. Close
around us, away over the open passages and in among the
dark islands, is the clear, green, salt water, edged with foaming
surf and dotted with picturesque fishing-boats under full sail
and as a frame to the gently heaving sea we have the
—
innumerable islands some large, some small, some wooded,
others bare, but all sloping steeply to the shore, where the
breakers thunder eternally. A pleasant breeze is felt on
the promenade deck of the Tcnyo Jfaru, the air is fresh
and pure, the day bright and cheerful, and from sea and
coast comes a curious mixed odour of salt brine and pine
needles.
At dusk we cast anchor in the roadstead of Kobe, where
the Tcnyo Maru has to remain for twenty-four hours in
order to take cargo on board. A launch takes us to the busy
town, and we determine to spend the night on shore in a
genuine Japanese hotel. At the entrance we are met by the
landlord, in a garment like a petticoat and a thin mantle with
short hanging sleeves. Two small waiting-maids take off our
shoes and put a pair of slippers on our feet. We go up a
narrow wooden staircase and along a passage with a brightly
polished wooden floor. Outside a sliding door we take off
our slippers and enter in stocking feet. Cleanliness is the
first rule in a Japanese house, and it would be thought
inexcusable to enter a room in shoes which had lately been
in the dust and dirt of the lanes and streets.
Our rooms are divided from one another by partitions of
paper or the thinnest veneer, which can be partially drawn
aside so that the rooms may be thrown into one. Here and
there mottoes are inscribed on hanging shields, and we see
that they are written in the same singular characters as are
used in China. On one wall hangs a kakemono, or a long
strip of paper with flowers painted in water-colours. On a
small carved wooden stool below the painting stands a dwarf
tree scarcely two feet in height. It is a cherry-tree which
has been prevented from growing to its full size, but it is a

real, living tree, perhaps twenty years old, and exactly like an
ordinary cherry-tree, only so small that it might have come
from Lilliput.
The floor is laid with mats of rice straw with black
borders. Each mat is 6 feet long and 3 wide, and when
a house is built the areas of the rooms are always calcu-
lated in a certain number of mats ; thus a room of six
mats is spoken of, or one of eight mats. Not infrequently
the rooms are so small that three or even two mats will cover
the floor.
We
take our seats crossed-legged or on our heels on small,
square, down cushions, the only furniture to be seen. A young
Japanese maiden, also in stocking feet, enters and places a
stove in the middle of our circle. There is no fireplace.
This stove is shaped like a flower-pot, made of thick metal,
and is filled with fine white ashes. The young woman builds
the ashes up into a cone like the summit of Fujiyama and
lays fresh glowing charcoal against it. Instead of tongs she
uses a pair of small iron rods.
Bedsteads are not used in Japan, and the bedding,
which consists of thick padded quilts of rustling silk, is
simply spread out on the mats on the floor. All the
service and attendance is performed by women. They
are dressed in their becoming and tasteful national costume,
the " kimono," a close-fitting coloured garment, cut out round
the neck, a broad sash of cloth round the waist, and a large
rosette like a cushion at the back. Their hair is jet black,
smooth, and shiny, and is arranged in tresses that look as if
they were carved in ebony. Japanese women are always
clean, neat, and dainty, and it is vain to look for a speck of
dust on a silken cuff. If they did not giggle sometimes, you
might think that they were dolls of wax or china. They are
treated like princesses with the greatest politeness and con-
sideration, for such is the custom of the country. They do
their work conscientiously, and are always cheerful, contented,
and friendly.
We
sit down on our cushions for breakfast. The serving-
girlsbring in a small red-lacquered table, not larger or higher
than a footstool. Every guest has his own table, and on
each are five cups, bowls, and small dishes of porcelain and
lacquer, all of them with lids like teapots. These contain
raw fish and boiled fish in various forms, omelettes and
macaroni, crab soup with asparagus in it, and many other
x,r. NAGASAKI AND KOBE [89
strange viands. When we have partaken of the first five dishes,

another table is brought in with fresh dishes; and if it is a
great banquet, as many as four or five such tables may be
placed before one before the dinner is over. We cat with two
chopsticks of wood or ivory not larger than a penholder,
drink pale, weak tea without sugar and cream, and a kind
of weak rice spirit called saki. When a bowl of steaming rice
cooked dry is brought in, it is a sign that the meal is ended.
The streets of Kobe arc not paved. They arc narrow

roads, too narrow for the large, clumsy vehicles, which arc,
however, few in number, and are mostly used for the transport
of goods. —
The people ride in " rickshas " neat, smart, two-
wheeled gigs drawn by a running bare- legged man with
a mushroom -shaped hat on his head (Plate XIX.). _
The
road westwards along the coast runs through a succession of
animated and busy villages, past open tea-houses and small
country shops, homely, decorated wooden dwellings, temples,
fields, and gardens. Everything is small, neat, and well kept.
Each peasant cultivates his own property with care and affec-
tion, and the harvest from innumerable small plots constitutes
the wealth of Japan. It is impossible to drive fast along the
narrow road, for we are always meeting waggons and two-
wheeled carts, porters, and travellers.
At the "Beach of Dancing Girls" we stay a while under
some old pine-trees. Here people bathe in summer, while the
children play among the trees. But now in November it is
cold rather than warm, and after a pleasant excursion we
return to Kobe. On the way we look into a Shinto temple
erected to the memory of a hero who six hundred years ago
fell in a battle in the neighbourhood. In the temple court
stands a large Russian cannon taken at Port Arthur, and also
a part of the mast shot off the man-of-war Mikasa.
Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century
A.D., and more than half the population of the country profess
this religion. The old faith of Japan, however, is Shintoism,
to which about one-third of the people still belong. The sun
is worshipped as a principal god and the powers of nature are
adored as divinities. From the solar deity the imperial house
derives its origin, and the Emperor is regarded with almost
religious reverence. Respect is also paid to the memory of
departed heroes, as in China. Of late Christianity has spread
far and wide in Japan, and Christian churches are now
numerous.
190 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . ,
Fujiyama and Tokio

It is now November n. During the night the Tenyo
Maru has passed out fromKobe into the Pacific Ocean, and
is now steering north-east at a good distance from the coast
of Hondo. The sky gloomy, and the desert of water
is
around us is a monotonous steely-grey expanse in every

direction.
The Mediterranean countries of Europe
lie on the same
parallel of latitude as Japan. But Japan lies in the domain
of the monsoons or periodical winds, and when these blow in
summer from the ocean, they bring rain with them, while the
winter, when the wind comes from the opposite direction, is
fairly dry. On the whole Japan is colder than the Mediter-
ranean countries, but the difference in climate between the
northern and southern parts is very great. On the northern
island, Yezo, the winter seven months.
lasts quite
At noon Fujiyama 1 seen towards the north-east.
is first
Nothing of the coast is visible, only the snowy summit of the
mountain floating white above the sea. Our course takes us
straight towards it, and the imposing mountain becomes more
distinct every quarter of an hour. Now also the coast comes
in sight as a dark line, but only the summit of the mountain
is visible, a singularly regular fiat cone. The top looks as if
it were cut off; that is the crater ring, for Fujiyama is a
volcano, though it has been quiescent for the past two centuries.
The snowfields in the gullies stand out more and more
clearly, but still only the summit is visible, floating as it were
free above the earth, a vision among the clouds. An hour
later the whole contour comes into view and becomes sharper
and sharper and when we anchor off the shore the peak of
;
Fujiyama rises right above us.

Fujiyama is the highest mountain in Japan, and the
crater ring of the slumbering volcano is 12,395 feet above the
surface of the Pacific Ocean. Fujiyama is a holy mountain ;
the path up it is lined with small temples and shrines, and

many pilgrims ascend to the top in summer when the snow
has melted away. It is the pride of Japan and the grandest
object of natural beauty the country possesses (Plate XX.).
It would be vain to try to enumerate all the objects on which
the cone of Fujiyama has been represented from immemorial
times. It is always the same mountain with the truncated top
— in silver and gold on the famous lacquered boxes, and on
1
"Fuji," without equal ; "yama," mountain.
xiii FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO 191
the rare choice silver and bronze caskets, on the valuable

vases in cloisonne, on bowls, plaques, and dishes, on screens,
parasols, everything.
Painters also take a delight in devising various foregrounds
to the white cone. I once saw a book of a hundred pictures
of Fujiyama, each with a new foreground. Now the holy

mountain was seen between the boughs of Japanese cedars,
now between the tall trunks of trees, and again beneath their
crowns. Once more it appeared above a foaming waterfall,
or over a quiet lake, where the peak was reflected in the water ;
or above a swinging bridge, a group of playing children, or

between the masts of fishing-boats. It peeped out through
a temple gate or at the end of one of the streets of Tokio,
between the ripening ears of a rice-field or the raised parasols
of dancing girls.
Thus Fujiyama has become the symbol of everything that
the name Nippon implies, and its peak is the first point which
catches the rays of the rising sun at the dawn of day.
Singularly cold and pale the holy mountain stands out
against the dark blue sky as we steer out again to sea in the
moonlight night. It is our last night on the long sea voyage
from Bombay. Close to starboard we have Oshima, the
"great island," an active volcano with thin vapour floating
above its flat summit. Japan has more than a hundred
extinct and a score of still active volcanoes, and the country
is also visited by frequent earthquakes. On an average 1200
are counted in the year, most of them, however, quite in-
significant. Now and then, however, they are very destructive,
carrying off thousands of victims, and it is on account of the
earthquakes that the Japanese build their houses of wood and
make them low.
In the early morning the Tenyo Maru glides into the
large inlet on which Yokohama and Tokio are situated.
Yokohama is an important commercial town, and is a port
of a large number of steamboat lines from the four
call for
continents. Its population is about 400,000, of whom 1000
are Europeans — merchants, consuls, and missionaries.
A
few miles south-west of Yokohama is the fishing-village
of Kamakura, which was for many centuries the capital of
the Shoguns. It has now little to show for its former great-
ness —
at one time it was said to have over a million inhabitants
— except the beautiful, colossal statue of Buddha, the Daibutsu
(Plate XXI.). The figure, which is about 40 feet high, is cast
in bronze, and dates from 1252.
At the head of the bay lies Tokio, the capital, with over two
million inhabitants. Here are many palaces surrounded by
fine parks, but the people live in small, neat, wooden houses,
most of them with garden enclosures. The grounds of the
Japanese of rank are small masterpieces of taste and excellence.
It is a great relief to come out of the bustle and dust of the
roads into these peaceful retreats, where small canals and
brooks murmur among blocks of grey stone and where trees
bend their crowns over arched bridges.
In Tokio the traveller can study both the old and the
new Japan. There are museums of all kinds, picture galleries,
schools, and a university organized on the European model.
There is also a geological institution where very accurate
geological maps are compiled of the whole country, and where
in particular all the phenomena connected with volcanoes and
earthquakes are investigated. In scientific inquiries the
Japanese are on a par with Europeans. In the art of war
they perhaps excel white peoples. In industrial undertakings
they have appropriated all the inventions of our age, and in
commerce they threaten to push their Western rivals out of
Asia. Not many years ago, for example, some Japanese
went to Sweden to study the manufacture of those safety
matches which strike only on the box. Now they make
safety matches themselves, and supply not only Japan but
practically all the East. At Kobe one can often see a whole
mountain of wooden boxes containing matches, waiting for
shipment to China and Korea. So it is in all other branches
of industry. The Japanese travel to Europe and study the
construction of turbines, railway carriages, telephones, and
soon they can dispense with Europe and produce all they
want themselves.
The present Emperor of Japan, Mutsuhito, 1 came to the
throne in 1867. His reign is called Mei-ji, or the "Era of
Enlightened Rule." During this period Japan has developed
into a Great Power of the first rank, and it is in no small
measure due to the wisdom and clear-sightedness of the
Emperor that this great transformation has been accomplished.
Formerly the country was divided into many small
principalities under the rule of daimios or feudal lords, who
were often at war with one another, though they were all
subject to the suzerainty of the Shogun, the nominal ruler
of the whole country. Together with the samurais the
1
The Emperor Mutsuhito died on July 30, 1912, and was succeeded by his
eldest son, Yoshihito, who was born in 1879.
PLATE XXI.
THE GREAT l;il>l>Ii.\ AT KAMAKURA.
T^filCi :
x,,i FUJIYAMA AND TOKIO 193
daimios constituted the feudal nobility. It is curious to

think that little more than forty years ago the Japanese fought
with hows and arrows, sword and .-.pear, and that the samurais
went to battle in heavy harness with brassards and cuisses,
helms and visors over the face. They were skilful archers,
and wielded their great swords with both hands when they
rushed on the foe.
Then the new period suddenly began. In [872 universal
service was introduced, and French and German officers were
invited to organise the defensive force. Now Japan is so
strong that no Great Power in the world cares to measure
its strength with it.
Nikko, Naka, and Kioto

From Tokio we travel in two hours
northwards by train
to Nikko. There are several and we put up in one
villages,
of them. In front of the inn ripples a clear stream, spanned
by two bridges, one of which is arched and furnished with a
red parapet. Only the Emperor and his family may step
on to this bridge other mortals must pass over another
;
bridge near at hand. On the farther side we ascend a

tremendously long avenue of grand cryptomerias rising
straight up to the sky. It leads to a mausoleum erected
to the memory of the first Shogun of the famous dynasty of

Tokugawa. The first of them died in the year 1616.
This mausoleum is considered to be the most remarkable
sight in Japan. It is not huge and massive, like the Buddhist
temple in Kioto, the old capital of Japan. It is somewhat

small, but both outside and inside it displays unusually exquisite
artistic skill. Granite steps lead up to it. A torii, or portal,
is artistically carved in stone, and another is so perfect that
the architect feared the envy of the gods, and therefore placed
one of the pillars upside down. We see carved in wood three
apes, one holding his hands before his eyes, another over his
cars, and the third over his mouth. That means that they
will neither see, hear, nor speak anything evil. A pagoda
rises in five blood-red storeys. At all the projections of
the roof hang round bells, which sound melodiously to the
movement of the wind. In the interior of the temple the
sightseer is lost in dark passages dimly illuminated by oil
lamps carried by the priests. The walls are all covered with
the finest paintings in gold and lacquer. A moss-grown stone
staircase leads down to the tomb where the Shogun sleeps.
i 94 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
Nara is situated immediately to the south of Kioto.

Here are many famous temples, pagodas, and torn, and here
also is the largest image of Buddha in Japan, twelve hundred
years old. The finest thing of all, however, is the temple
park of Nara, where silence and peace reign in a grove of tall
cryptomerias. Along the walks are several rows of stone
lamps placed on high pedestals of stone. They stand close
together and may number a thousand. Each of these lamps
is a gift of some wealthy man to the temple. On great
festivals oil lamps are placed in them. Hundreds of roedeer
live in the park of Nara. They are as tame as lambs, and
wherever you go they come skipping up with easy, lively
jumps. Barley cakes for them to eat are sold along the paths
of the park, and you buy a whole basket of these. In a
minute you are surrounded by roedeer, stretching out their
delicate, pretty heads and gazing at the basket with their lovely
brown eyes. Here a wonderful air of peace and happiness
prevails. The steps of roedeer and pilgrims are heard on the
sand of the paths, but otherwise there is complete silence and
quiet. The feeling reminds one of that which is experienced
at the Taj Mahal.
All Japan is like a museum. You can travel about for
years and daily find new gems of natural beauty and of the
most perfect art. Everything seems so small and delicate.
Even the people are small. The roads are narrow, and arc
chiefly used by rickshas and foot passengers. The houses
are dolls' closets. The railways are of narrow gauge, and the
carriages like our tramcars. But if you wish to see something
large you can visit the Buddhist temple in Kioto. There we
are received with boundless hospitality by the high priest,
Count Otani, who leads us round and shows us the huge
halls where Buddha sits dreaming, and his own palace, which
is one of the most richly and expensively adorned in all
Japan.
If you wish to see something else which does not exactly
belong to the small things of Japan you should visit a temple
in Osaka, the chief manufacturing town of Japan. There
hangs a bell which is 25 feet high and weighs 220
tons. In a frame beside the bell is suspended a beam, a
regular battering-ram, which is set in motion up and down
when the bell is sounded. And when the bell emits its
heavy, deafening ring it sounds like thunder.
Kioto is much handsomer than Tokio, for it has been less
affected by the influence of Western lands, and lies amidst
xiii NIKKO, KARA, AND KIOTO [95
hills and gardens. Kioto is the genuine old Japan with

attractive bazaars and bright streets. Shall we look into a
couple of shops ?
Here is an art-dealer's. We enter from the street straight
into a large room full of interesting things, but the dealer
takes us into quite a small room, where he invites us to sit at
a table. And now he brings out one costly article after
another. First he shows us some gold laequered boxes, on
which arc depicted trees and houses and the sun in gold,
and golden boats sailing over water. One tiny box, containing
several compartments and drawers, and covered all over with
the finest gold inlaying, costs only three thousand yen, or about
three hundred pounds. Then he shows us an old man in
ivory lying on a carpet of ivory and reading a book, while
a small boy in ivory has climbed on to his back. From a
whole elephant tusk a number of small elephants have been
carved, becoming smaller towards the point of the tusk, but
all cut out in the same piece. You are tired of looking at
them, they are so man)', and they are all executed with such
exact faithfulness to nature that you would hardly be
surprised they began to move.
if
sets on the table a dozen metal boxes exquisitely

Then he
adorned with coloured lacquer. On the lid of a silver box
an adventure of a monkey is represented in raised work.
1'ursucd by a snake, the monkey has taken refuge in a cranny
beneath a projecting rock. The snake sits on the top. He
cannot see the monkey, but he catches sight of his reflection
in the water below the stone. The monkey, too, sees the
image of the snake, and each is now waiting for the other.
Now the shopman comes with two tortoises in bronze.
The lapanese are experts in metal- work, and there is almost
life and movement in these creatures. Now he throws on to
the table a snake three feet long. It is composed of number-
less small movable rings of iron fastened together, and looks
marvellously life-like. Just at the door stands a heavy copper
bowl on a lacquered tripod, a gong that sounds like a temple
bell when its edge is struck with a skin-covered stick. It is
beaten out of a single piece, not cast, and therefore it has

such a wonderful vibrating and long-continued ring.
Let us also go into one of the famous large silk shops.
Shining white silk with white embroidered chrysanthemum
flowers on it —
women's kimonos with clusters of blue flowers
on the sleeves and skirt —
landscapes, fishing -boats, ducks
and pigeons, monkeys and tigers, all painted or embroidered
on silk — herons and cranes in thick raised needlework on

good and tasteful.
screens in black frames— everything is
Among the most exquisite, however, are the cloths of cut

velvet. This is a wonderful art not found in any other country
than Japan. The finest white silken threads are tightly
woven over straight copper wires laid close together, making
a white cloth of perhaps ten feet square, interwoven
with
copper wires. An artist paints in bright colours on the cloth
a landscape, a rushing brook among red maples, a bridge,
a
mill-wheel, and a hut on the bank. When he has done, he
cuts with a sharp knife along each of the numberless copper
wires. Every time he cuts, the point of the knife follows one
of the copper wires, and he cuts only over the coloured parts.
The fine silk threads are thus severed and their ends stand up
like a brush. Then the copper wires are drawn out, and there
stand the red trees, hut, and bridge in close velvet on a
foundation of silk.
In all kinds of handicrafts and mechanical work the
Japanese are experts. A
workman will sit with inexhaustible
patience and diligence for days, and even months and years,
executing in ivory a boy carrying a fruit basket on his back.
He strikes and cuts with his small hammers and knives, his
chisels and files, and gives himself no rest until the boy is
finished. Perhaps it may cost him a year's work, but the
price is so high that all his expenses for the year are covered
when the boy is sold to an art-dealer.
XIV
BACK TO EUROPE
Korea
Our journey eastwards ends with Japan, and we turn west-
wards on our way back to Europe. The portion of the main-
land of Asia which lies nearest to Japan is Korea, and the
passage across the straits from Shimonoseki to Fu-san takes
only about ten hours. The steamer sails in the morning, and
late in theafternoon we see to larboard the Tsushima Islands
rising out of the water likehuge dolphins. Our course takes
us almost over the exact place where, on May 27, 1 905,
Admiral Togo annihilated the squadron of the Russian
Admiral Rozhdestvenski.
The Russian fleet had sailed round Asia, and steamed up
east of Formosa to the Strait of Korea. The Admiral hoped
to be able to reach Vladivostock, on the Russian side of the
Sea of Japan, without being attacked, and on May 27 his
fleet was approaching the Tsushima Islands. But Admiral
Togo, with the Japanese fleet, lay waiting off the southern
coast of Korea. He had divided the straits into squares on a
map, and his scouting boats were constantly on the look-out.
They could always communicate with Togo's flagship by
wireless telegraphy. And now currents passing through the
air announced that the Russian fleet was in sight, and was in
the square numbered 203. This number was considered a
good omen by the Japanese, for the fate of the fortress of
Port Arthur was sealed when the Japanese took a fort called
" 203-metre Hill (Port Arthur, which lies on the coast of the
7
'
Chinese mainland, had fallen into the hands of the Japanese

on January I, I
',05).
When the news came, Togo knew what to do. With his
large ships and sixty torpedo boats he fell upon the Russian
197
198 FROM POLE TO POLE r „ i
fleet,and the battle was decided within an hour. The

Russian Admiral's flagship sank just on the spot where we are
now on the way to Fu-san. The Admiral himself was rescued,
sorely wounded, by the Japanese. His fleet was dispersed,
and its various divisions were pursued, sunk, or captured.
The Russians lost thirty- four ships and ten thousand men. It
was a bloody encounter which took place on these usually so
peaceful waters. The Japanese became masters of the sea,
and could, unhindered, transport troops, provisions, and war
material over to the mainland, where the war with Russia still
raged in Manchuria.
From Fu-san, which for two hundred years has been a
Japanese town, the railway takes us northwards through the
Korean peninsula. We ascend the beautiful valley of the
Nak-tong-gang River. Side valleys opening here and there
afford interesting views, and between them dark hills descend
steeply to the river, which often spreads out and flows so
gently that the surface of the water forms a smooth mirror.
The sky is clear and turquoise-blue in colour, and spans its
vault over greyish-brown bare mountains. Where the
ground on the valley bottom is level it is occupied by rice
and wheat fields. Every now and then we pass a busy
village of grey thatched houses, where groups of women and
children in coloured garments are seen outside the cabins.
The men wear long white coats, and on the head a thin black
hat in the form of a stunted cone with flat brim. Seldom are
the eyes caught by a clump of trees as a rule the country is
;
bare. Innumerable small mounds are often seen on the

slopes these are Korean graves.
;
The signs of Japan's peaceful conquest of Korea are

everywhere apparent. Japanese guards, policemen, soldiers,
and officials are seen at the stations the country now contains
;
more than 200,000 Japanese. Settlers from Japan, however,

take up their residence only for a time in the foreign
country. For example, a landowner in Japan will sell half
his property there, and with the proceeds buy land in Korea
three or four times as lame as all his estate in the home
country, and in fertility at least as good. There he farms
for some years, and then returns home with the profits he has
earned. Numbers of Japanese fishermen also come yearly to
the coasts of Korea with their boats, and return home to Japan
with their catch. Thus Korea is deluged with Japanese of all
kinds. The army is Japanese, Japanese fortresses are erected
along the northern frontier, the government and officials are
xiv KOREA 199
Japanese, and soon Korea will become simply a part of the

Land of the Rising Sun.
We cross the range of mountains which runs like a back-
bone all through Korea from north to south, and late in the
evening we come to the capital, Seoul, which has 280,000
inhabitants, a fifth of whom arc Japanese. The town is
confined in a valley between bare cliffs, and from the heights
all that can be seen is confusion of grey and white houses
with gabled roofs covered with grey tiles. In the Japanese
quarter life goes on exactly as in Japan rows of coloured
;
p.iper lanterns hang now, at night, before the open shops,

and trade is brisk and lively. In the Korean charters the
lanes arc narrow and dismal, but the principal streets arc
wider, with tramcars rattling amidst the varied Asiatic scenes.
Here are sedan chairs (Plate XXII.), caravans of big oxen
laden with firewood, heavy carts with goods, men carrying
unusually heavy loads on a framework of wooden ribs on
their backs, women sailing past in white garments and a veil
over their smooth-plaited hair. A
row of grown men and
boys pass through the streets carrying boards with Korean
inscriptions in red and white those arc advertisements.
:
Before them marches a drum and flute band, filling the

streets with a hideous noise.
Korea has 13 million inhabitants, and in area is just
about as large as Great Britain. It is now subject to Japan,
and is administered by a Japanese Resident-General, whose
headquarters are at Seoul.
Manchuria
From Seoul we travelled northwards by rail to Wi-ju, a small
place on the left bank of the Yalu River, which forms the
boundary between Korea and Manchuria. Opposite, on the
right or north bank of the Yalu, stands An-tung, a town with
5000 Japanese and 40,000 Chinese inhabitants. The river
had just begun to freeze over, and the ice was still so thin that
it could be seen bending in great waves under the weight of
our sledge, which a Chinaman pushed along at a great speed

with a long iron-shod pole. However, we reached the other
side in safety.
From An-tung to Mukden is only 200 miles, but the
journey takes two whole days. The little narrow-gauge
railway was laid down during the Russo-Japanese War to
enable the Japanese to transport provisions and material to

the front. The small track goes up and down over the
mountains in the most capricious curves and loops, and the
train seldom accomplishes the whole journey without a mishap.
The Japanese Consul at An-tung, who had made the journey
eight times, had been in four railway accidents, and two days
previously the train had rolled down a declivity with a general
and his staff.
The view through the carriage windows is magnificent.
This part of Manchuria is mountainous, but in the depths of
the valleys lie farms and fields. Manchus in long blue coats
and black vests wind along the road tracks, some on foot,
others mounted, while others again drive two-wheeled carts
drawn by a horse and a pair of mules. All the watercourses
are frozen, but there is no snow. It is sunny, clear, and calm
in these valleys, where the thunder of battle has long died away
among the mountains.
Half-way to Mukden we halt for the night, and start next
morning before daybreak in biting cold. Some Chinese
merchants join the train, attended by servants bearing paper
lanterns. A small party of Japanese soldiers also is here.
They are in thick yellow coats with high collars, basliliks, red
shoulder knots, caps with a red border, leather-covered felt
boots, and are armed with cutlasses and rifles. They are
sinewy and sturdy fellows, neat and clean, and always seem
cheerful.
At length the Christmas sun rises glowing red, and the
ice flowers vanish from the windows. Here, where the winter
cold is so piercing, it is oppressively hot in summer. Our
little toy train crosses a river several times on fragile bridges
of beams, which seem as though they might at any moment
collapse like a house of cards. Small strips of tilled land,
creaking ox-carts on the deeply rutted roads, tiny Buddhist
oratories, primitive stations with long rows of trucks of fuel,
—
a country house or two that is all that is to be seen the
whole day, until late in the evening we arrive at Mukden.
Manchuria is one of the dependencies of China. The
Russians constructed a railway through the country to the
fortress of Port Arthur, but, as is well known, the Japanese
succeeded in capturing the fortress during the war. By the
peace of Portsmouth, 1 concluded in September 1905, the
Japanese acquired Port Arthur, the adjacent commercial port
of Dalny, with the surrounding district, the southern half of
1
A seaport of New Hampshire, U.S.A.
XIV MANCHURIA 201
the large island Sakhalin, the supremacy over Korea, together

—
with the South Manchurian Railway so that the Russians had
unknowingly built this railway for the benefit of their enemies.
Round Mukden was fought the greatest battle of the whole
Russo-Japanese War. The contest lasted twenty days more ;
than 850,000 men and 2500 guns were engaged, and 120,000
were left dead on the field. On March I, 1905, the whole
Japanese army began to move, and formed at last a ring
iound the Russians and Mukden. Thus the Japanese
became for the time being the masters of Manchuria, but on
the conclusion of peace the country was handed back to China.
The life in the singular streets of Mukden is varied and
attractive. The Manchus seem a vigorous and self-confident
people ; they are taller than the Chinese, but wear Chinese
dress with fur caps on their heads. The women seldom
appear out of doors ;they wear their hair gathered up in a
high knot on the crown, and, in contrast to the Chinese women,
do not deform their feet. Among the swarming crowds one
sees Chinamen, merchants, officers, and soldiers in semi-
European fur-lined uniforms, policemen in smart costumes
with bright buttons, Japanese, Mongols, and sometimes a
European. Tramcars drawn by horses jingle through the
broader streets. The houses are fine and solidly built, with
carved dragons and painted sculpture, paper lanterns and
advertisements, and a confusion of black Chinese characters
on vertically hanging signs. At the four points of the compass
there are great town gates in the noble Chinese architecture,
but outside stretches a bare and dreary plain full of grave
mounds.
In re-ling, or "Northern Tomb," rests the first Chinese
Emperorof the Manchu dynasty, and his son, the great Kang
Hi, who reigned over the Middle Kingdom for sixty-one years.
Pc-ling consists of several temple-like buildings. The visitor
first enters a hall containing an enormous tortoise of stone,
which supports a stone tablet inscribed with an epitaph ex-

tolling the deceased Emperor. At the farthest extremity of
the walled park is the tomb itself, a huge mass of stone with
a curved roof. In a pavilion just in front of this building the
Emperor of China is wont to perform his devotions when he
visits the graves of his fathers. Solemn peace reigns in the
park, and under the pine-trees stone elephants, horses, and
camels gaze solemnly at one another.
From Mukden Port Arthur is an easy eight hours' railway
journey south-westwards; and it is only an hour and a halt
more to Dalny, which in Japanese hands has grown to a large

and important commercial town.
The Trans-Siberian Railway

On December 2<S, 1908, we stepped into the train in
Dalny, and commenced a railway journey which lasted with-
out a break for eleven days.
First we have to go back to Mukden, and then a somewhat
shorter journey to the last Japanese station. At the next the
stationmaster is a Russian, and Russian guards replace the
Japanese. In the afternoon the train draws up at Kharbin on
the Sungari River, a tributary of the great Amur. It was
towards Kharbin that the Russians slowly retired after their
defeat, and on this very platform Prince I to, the first Japanese
Resident-General of Korea, was murdered barely a year later.
At Kharbin we have to wait two hours for the inter-
national express, which runs twice a week from Vladivostock
to Moscow.
Next morning we stay for two hours at a station in
Manchuria, on the boundary between Manchuria and Siberia,
between China and Russia, and here our luggage is examined
by the Russian customs officers. We put our watches back
—
one and a half hours that is the difference of time between
Kharbin and Irkutsk. We are now travelling from east to
west, in the same direction as the sun. If the train went as
fast as the sun we should enjoy perpetual day but the train
;
lags behind, and we only gain an hour in the twenty-four.

The Trans-Siberian railway is the longest in the world,
the distance from Dalny to Moscow being 5400 miles. The
railway was completed just in time for the war, but as it had
only one track, it taxed all the energy of the Russians to
transport troops and war material to the battlefields in Man-
churia. A second track is now being laid.
By using this railway a traveller can go from London to
Shanghai in fourteen days, the route being to Dover, across
the Channel to Calais, by rail to Moscow, from Moscow to
Vladivostock by the Trans-Siberian railway, and from Vladi-
vostock to Shanghai by sea. The sea voyage from London
—
by the P. and O. calling at Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said,
Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong takes —
about six weeks, which can be reduced to a month by travel-
ling by train across Europe to Brindisi (at the south-eastern
»v THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 203
corner of and thence by steamer to Tort Said, where

Italy),
the liner is joined. There is still a third nmte, across the
Atlantic to the United States or Canada, by rail to San
Francisco or Vancouver, and then by steamer to Shanghai
via
This journey can also be accomplished in a month.
Japan.
On the last day of the year we pass through the Yablonoi
Mountains and enter the region called Transbaikalia, because
it lies on the farther, that is, the eastern, side o( Lake Baikal.
Here dwell Burials, a Mongolian people— in winter in wooden
huts surrounded by enclosures for domestic animals, in summer
in tents. When we awoke on the morning of New Year's
-
\ooo.oou
h Miles
200 400 600 800
Bo' fGr»
THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.
Day the train was passing along the southern shore of Lake
Baikal, and one of the most enchanting scenes in the world
was displayed to the eyes of the passengers. On the eastern
shore the mountains stood clearly defined in the pure morning
air, while the ranges to the west were lit up by the clear sun-
shine. lere and there the slopes were covered with northern
1
pine and fir-trees. The line runs all the way along the lake
shore, sometimes only a couple of yards from the water.
This part of the Trans-Siberian railway was the most difficult
and costly to make, and the last to be completed. During
its construction traffic between the extremities of the line was
provided for by great ferry-boats across the lake. The line
winds in and out, following all the promontories and bays of
the lake, and the train rolls on through narrow galleries

where columns of rock are left to support a whole roof of
mountain. Sometimes we run along a ledge blasted out of
the side of the mountain, above a precipitous slope which falls
headlong to the lake. We rush through an endless succession
of tunnels, and on emerging from each are surprised by a new
view of the mountainous shore.
Baikal, or the " Rich Lake," is the third inland sea of
Asia, only the Caspian and the Sea of Aral being larger.
Its height above sea-level is 1560 feet; the water is light-green
in colour, sweet, and crystal clear, and abounds in fish, among
them five species of salmon. There is also a kind of seal,
and in general many of the animal forms of Baikal are allied
to those of the salt sea. Baikal is the deepest lake in the
world, soundings having been taken down to 5618 feet.
Steamers cross the lake in various directions, and in winter
sleighs are driven over the ice from shore to shore. At the
beginning of January the whole of the deep lake is so cooled
down that ice begins to form, and the lake is usually frozen
over to the middle of April.
We stop an hour at Irkutsk to change trains. Irkutsk is
the largest town in Siberia, and has 100,000 inhabitants it ;
stands on the bank of the river Angara, which flows out of

Lake Baikal, and thus forms the outlet of all the rivers and
streams which empty themselves into the lake, the largest of
which is the Selenga. Although the Angara is five times as
large as the Yenisei, it is called a tributary of the latter.
The Yenisei rises in Chinese territory, and, running north-
wards right through Siberia, falls into the Arctic Ocean. It
receives a large number of affluents, most of them from the
east. Its banks are clothed with forest, and from Minusinsk
downwards the river is navigable.
The Lena, the great river which passes through eastern
Siberia north-east of Baikal, is not much smaller than the
Yenisei. There stands the town of Yakutsk, where the
temperature falls in winter down to - 8o°, and rises in
summer to 95 . North of Yakutsk, on the river Yana,
lies Verkhoiansk, the coldest place in the world, the centre
of low temperature or pole of cold.
In area Siberia is larger than the whole of Europe, but the
population in this immense country is no greater than that of
Greater London, i.e. about seven millions. Of these 60 per
cent are Russians, 20 per cent Kirghizes, and the remainder
is made up of Buriats, Yakuts, Tunguses, Manchus, Samoyeds,
xiv THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY
Ostiaks, Tatars, Chukchis, etc. No small part of the Russian
population consists of convicts transported to Siberia, whose
hard lot is to work under strict supervision in the gold mines.
Their number is estimated at 150,000. Before the railway
was made they had to travel tremendous distances on foot.
They marched ten miles a day in rain and sunshine, storm
and snow, through the terribly cold and gloomy Siberia.
Before and behind them rode Cossacks, who would not let
them rest as they dragged their chains through the mud and
mire of the road. Frequently women and children followed
of their own free will to share their husbands' and fathers' fate
during their forced labour in the mines. Now there is a
great improvement. The labour, indeed, is just as hard,
but the journey out is less trying. The unfortunate people
are now forwarded in special prison vans with gratings
for windows. They are like travelling cells, and can often
be seen on side tracks at a station.
In the neighbourhood of the Lena River dwell Yakuts of
the Turkish-Tatar race. They number only 230,000 men, are
nominally Christians, and pursue agriculture and trade. East
of the Yenisei are the Tunguses, a small people divided into
" settled," " horse," " reindeer," and " dog " Tunguses, accord-
ing to the domestic animal of most importance to their mode of
life. In western Siberia, the governments of Tobolsk and
Tomsk, live Ostiaks, a small Finnish tribe of 26,000 persons,
who are poor fisher folk, hunters and nomads with reindeer.
This tribe is rapidly dying out. North of them, in the northern
parts of western Siberia and in north-eastern Europe, live
the Samoyeds, of Ural-Altai origin, who are still fewer in
number than the preceding tribe, and live by reindeer-
breeding and fishing.
All these Siberian tribes and many
others are Shamanists,
and are so called after their priests, They believe
Shamans.
in an intimate connection between living men and their long-
deceased forefathers. They entertain a great dread of the
dead, and do everything they can to exorcise and appease their
souls, bringing them offerings. All this business is attended
to with much black magic and witchcraft by the Shamans, who
arc also doctors. When any one dies the spirit of the dead
must be driven out of the tent, so the Shaman is summoned.
He comes decked out in a costly and curious dress, and with
religious enthusiasm performs a dance which soon degenerates
into a kind of ecstasy. He throws himself about, reels and
groans, and is beside himself. And when he has carried on
2o6 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. i
long enough he catches hold of a magic drum, whose soothing

sounds calm him and bring him back to his senses. When
he has finished his performance the soul is gone !
Over white plains, over hills, and through valleys, the

train bears us on farther north - westwards through the
government of Irkutsk. At Krasnoiarsk we cross the
Yenisei by a fine bridge nearly two-thirds of a mile long. In
summer vessels can ascend as far as Minusinsk, in a district
of southern Siberia, rich in gold and iron and productive soil.
In general Siberia is a rich country. Gold, silver, and copper,
lead, graphite, and coal occur, besides many other valuable
minerals and stones in the mountains. The country has also
good prospects of future development owing to its remark-
ably excellent agricultural land. Most of this is situated
near the railway, and all Siberia is intersected by a net of
waterways. From one of the tributaries of the Obi steamers
can pass by canal to the Yenisei, and thence on to the Lena.
Omsk, the third town of Siberia, with 89,000 inhabitants,
is the centre of this water system. More than 6000 miles
of river can be navigated by large steamers, and nearly
30,000 by smaller boats. In western Siberia, around
Tomsk and Omsk, the agricultural produce increases year
by year, and the time will certainly come when these regions
will support a population many times as large as at present,
and export large quantities of corn in addition. This is the
only thing which will make this enormously long railway
pay, for it cost somewhere about £1 1,000,000 to build.
We have passed Tomsk and crossed the Obi by a fine
massive bridge of stone and iron. The Obi is the largest
river of Asia. In length it is equal to the Yenisei and Blue
River, but its drainage basin is larger than that of either of the
others. Where the great affluent, the Irtish, runs in from the
west, the Obi has a breadth of nearly two miles, and at its
mouth, in the Gulf of Obi on the Arctic Ocean, the breadth
has increased to twelve miles. The Irtish also receives from
the west a large tributary, the Tobol, and at the confluence
stands the town of Tobolsk.
One day passes after another, and one night after another
rises up blue and cold from the east. We have left every
mountain and hill behind us, and the boundless plains, like a
frozen sea, lie buried under deep snow. Sometimes we travel
for a whole hour without seeing a farm or village. Only
occasionally do we see to the north a small patch of taiga, or
the Siberian coniferous forest, silent and dark. A clump of
x,v THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 207
birch-trees Is a rare sight. The country Is open, flat,

monotonous, and dead-white as far as the horizon.
Thus we travel on by degrees through Siberia, this im-
mense country bounded on the south by the Altai, Sayan, the
Yablonoi and Stanovoi Mountains, and on the north by the
Arctic Ocean. Huge areas of northern Siberia are occupied
—
by tundras moss-grown, marshy steppes, with little animal
life, frozen hard ;ts stone in winter and thawed during the
short summer into dangerous swamps.

In the frozen ground of northern Siberia, and particularly
in old flood plains, have been found complete specimens of
the mammoth. This animal is an extinct species of elephant,
which, during the diluvial period, was distributed over all
northern Asia, Europe, and North America. The mammoth
was larger than the elephant of the present day, had tusks as
much as 13 feet long-, a thick fur suitable for a cold climate,
and quite a luxuriant mane on the back of the head and neck.
That prehistoric man was a contemporary of the mammoth is
proved by ancient rude drawings of this animal.
Larches, pine and spruce, birch and willow, compose the
forests of Siberia. The larch manages to exist even round
the pole of cold. The Polar bear, the Arctic fox, the glutton,
the lemming", the snow-hare, and the reindeer are the animals
in the cold north. In the central parts of the country are to
be found red deer, roedcer, wild swine, beaver, wolf, and lynx.
Far away to the cast, on the great Amur River, which is
the boundary between the Amur province and Manchuria,
as well as in the coast province of Ussuri, on the coast of the
Sea of Japan, occur tigers and panthers. The most valuable
animals, the furs of which constitute one of the resources of
Siberia, arc the sable, the ermine, and the grey squirrel. The
south-eastern parts of this great country are a transitional
region to the steppes of central Asia, and there are to be
found antelopes, gazelles, and wild asses.
At length, on January 5, we arc up in the Ural
Mountains, and the line winds among hills and valleys.
Near the station of Zlatoust stands a granite column to mark
the boundary between Asia and Europe.
The Volga and Moscow

From the boundary between Europe and Asia the train
takes us onwards past I' fa to Samara. The hills of the Urals
2o8 FROM POLE TO POLE rr. i
become lower and the country flattens out again. Snow lies
everywhere continuous sheet, and peasants are seen on
in a
the roads with sledges laden with hay, fuel, or provisions.
At Batraki we pass over the Volga by a bridge nearly a mile
long. The Volga the largest river in Europe it is 2300
is ;
miles long, and has source in the Valdai hills (between

its
St. Petersburg and Moscow) at a height of only 750 feet

above sea-level. It flows, therefore, through most of Russia
in Europe, traversing twenty governments. The right bank
is high and steep, the left flat and at its mouth in the
;
Caspian Sea it forms a very extensive delta. The Volga is

navigable almost throughout its length, and has also forty
navigable tributaries. The river is frozen over for about five
months in the year, and when the ice breaks up in spring
with thundering cracks it often causes great damage along
the banks. Crowds of vessels, boats, and rafts pass up and
down the sluggish stream, as well as passenger steamers built
after the pattern of the American river boats. By the
Volga and its canals one can travel by steamer from the
Baltic to the Caspian Sea, and from the Caspian Sea by the
Volga into the Dwina and out to the White Sea. The Volga
is not only an important highway for goods and passengers,
but also an inexhaustible fish preserve indeed the sturgeon

;
and sterlet fisheries constitute its greatest wealth.

When the train has rattled heavily and slowly over the
Volga, it proceeds west-north-west into the very heart of holy
Russia, and late on January 7, 1909, we roll into the station
of Moscow, the old capital of Russia.
Moscow is a type of the old unadulterated Russia, a home
of the simple, honest manners and customs of olden days,
of faith and honour, of a child-like, pure-hearted belief in
the religion of the country, the Catholic Greek Church. In
its crooked, winding, badly -paved streets swarm Tatars,
Persians, and Caucasians, among Slav citizens and countrymen,
those inexterminable Russian peasants who suffer and toil
like slaves, look too deep into the vodka l cup on Saturday,
yet are always contented, good-tempered, and jovial.
The town stands on both sides of the small Moskva River,
which falls into the Oka, a tributary of the Volga, and is
inhabited by more than a million souls. The Kremlin is the
oldest part, and the heart of Moscow (Plate XXIII.). Its
walls were erected at the end of the fifteenth century they ;
are 60 feet high, crenellated, and provided with eighteen

1
A Russian alcoholic liquor usually made from rye.
XIV THE VOLGA AND MOSCOW 209
towers and five gates. Within this irregular pentagon, a mile

and a quarter in circumference, arechurches, palaces, museums,
and other public buildings. There stands the hell tower of
[van Veliki, 270 feet high, with five storeys. From the
uppermost you can command the whole horizon, with Moscow
beneath your feet, the streets diverging in every direction
from the Kremlin like the spokes of a wheel, and crossed
again by circular roads. Between the streets lie conglomera-
tions of heavy stone houses, and from this sea of buildings
emerge bulb-shaped cupolas with green roofs surmounted by
golden Greek crosses. Large barracks, hospitals, palaces,
and public buildings crop up here and there. Right through
the town winds the Moskva in the figure of an S, and the
walls of the Kremlin with their towers are reflected in the
water.
In the tower of Ivan Veliki hang thirty-three bells of
various sizes. At its foot stands the fallen " Tsar " bell,
which weighs 197 tons and is 65 feet in circumference. In
its fall a piece was broken out of the side, and it is there-
fore useless as a bell, but it is set up on a platform as an

ornament.
Within the walls of the Kremlin is also the Church of the
Ascension of the Virgin, which is crowned by a dome 138
feet high, with smaller cupolas at the four corners. Standing
in the centre of the Kremlin, this church is the heart not
only of Moscow but of all Russia, for here the Tsars are
crowned, while the bells of Ivan Veliki peal over the city.
The interior of the cathedral presents an indescribable effect.
The light from the narrow windows high up is very dim,
and is^ further dulled by gilded banners with pictures of
saints and crosses. The temple nave is crammed with
religious objects, iconostases and icons, sacred portraits of
solid gold with only the hands and faces coloured. Wax
candles burn before them, from which the smoke rises up
to the vaulted roof, floating about the banners in a greyish-
blue mist.
To the orthodox Russians the Kremlin is almost a holy
place. They make pilgrimages to its temples and cloisters
with the same reverence as Tibetans to the sanctuaries of
Buddha. "Moscow is surpassed only by the Kremlin, and
the Kremlin only by heaven," they say.
Perhaps no year in the history of Moscow is so famous as
the year 1S12. Then the city was taken by Napoleon and
the Grande Armec. The Russian army abandoned the city,
l'
210 FROM POLE TO POLE i
.-. i
and the citizens left their homes. Napoleon entered on

September 14, and next day the city began to burn. The
Russians had set fire to it themselves in several places.
Three-fourths of the city lay in ashes when the French
evacuated Moscow after an occupation of five weeks and
the loss of 30,000 men. The remembrance of this dreadful
time still survives among the populace.
St. Petersburg and Home
From Moscow an express train takes us in eleven hours

to the capital of Peter the Great, St. Petersburg, at the mouth
of the Neva, in the Gulf of Finland. Here we are in the
midst of very different scenes from those in Moscow. Here
is no longer genuine uncontaminated Russia, but Western
civilisation, which has come and washed away the Slavonic.

The churches and monasteries indeed are built in the same
style as in Moscow, and the eyes meet with the same types
and costumes, and the same heavily laden waggons and carts
rumble over the Neva bridges but one feels and sees only
;
too plainly that one Europe.

is in
The Neva is forty miles long and a third of a mile broad,
and comes from Lake Ladoga. It is spanned by four fine
bridges, always crowded with carriages and foot passengers,
and in summer numerous small steamboats ply up and down.
In winter thick ice lies on the river during four months.
St. Petersburg has nearly two million inhabitants, which is
rather more than a hundredth part of the population of the
whole Russian empire. The appearance of the town shows
that it is new, for the streets are straight and broad. The
climate is very raw, damp, and disagreeable, and it rains or
snows on 200 days in the year.
A walk through the streets of St. Petersburg shows the
traveller much that is strange. Tiny chapels are found every-
—
where in the middle of a bridge or at a street corner. They
contain only a picture of a saint with candles burning before it.
Many persons stop as they pass by, uncover their heads,
fall on their knees, cross themselves and murmur a prayer,
and then vanish among the crowd in the streets. It is also
noticeable that this city is full of uniforms. Not only do the
soldiers of the large garrison wear uniforms, but civil officials,
schoolboys, students, and many others are dressed in special
costumes with bright buttons of brass or silver. But what
xiv ST. PETERSBURG AND HOME 2:1
especially attracts the stranger's attention arc the vehicles.

Persons of the upper classes drive in open sleighs and cover
themselves with bearskins lined with blue, and are drawn by
tall, dark, handsome trotters. Sometimes also z.troika^ or team
of three horses abreast, is .seen, one of the horses in the middle
under the arch which keeps the shafts apart, while the other two,
on cither side, go at a gallop. The hackney sleighs are also
common, so small that two persons can hardly find room to sit,
and as there is no support or guard of any kind, they must
cling to each other's waists in order not to be thrown off at
sharp corners. These small sledges have no fixed stands, but
they are drawn up in long rows outside hotels, banks, theatres,
railway stations, and other much-frequented places, and may
be found singly almost anywhere in the streets. The drivers
are always merry and cheerful, and keep up a running con-
versation with their passenger or their horse, which they
call " my little dove." All drive at the same reckless pace,
as if they were running races through the streets.
St. Petersburg is rich in art collections and museums,
picture-galleries, churches, and fine palaces. The finest
building in the city, however, is the Isaac Cathedral, with
its high gilded dome, surrounded by four similar but smaller
gilded cupolas. The cross at the top is 330 feet above the
ground, and the great dome is the first thing in St. Petersburg
to be seen on coming by steamer from the Gulf of Finland.
When the Cathedral was built, it cost more than two and
three-quarter million pounds. It was finished fifty years ago,
but has never been in really sound condition, and is always
undergoing extensive repairs.
The last stage of our journey

is now at hand. One
evening we drive with much ringing of sleigh bells,
in a troika,
to the station of the Finland Railway, whence the train takes
us through Viborg to Abo, the old capital of Finland. Here
a steamer is waiting to take us over to Stockholm, which was
the starting-point of our long journey.
PART II
STOCKHOLM TO EGYPT
To London and Paris
Again we set out from Stockholm in the evening by train,

and the next morning we reach Malmo, a port on the west
coast of Sweden, not many miles north of Trelleborg, from
which we started on our journey eastwards across Asia.
From Malmo a steamer soon takes us across the narrow sound
to Copenhagen, the beautiful capital of Denmark, and then
we take the train across the large, rich, and fertile island of
Zealand. There farms are crowded close together among the
tilled fields
; there thriving cattle graze on the meadows,
yielding Denmark a superfluity of milk and butter there
;
the productive soil spreads everywhere, leaving no room for

unprofitable sandy downs and heaths, as on the west coast of
Jutland. The Danes are a small people, but they make a
brave struggle for existence. Their country is one of the
smallest in Europe, but the first in utilising all its possi-
bilities of opening profitable commerce with foreign lands.
Much larger are its possessions in the Arctic Ocean, Green-
land, and Iceland, but there the population is very scanty and
the real masters of the islands are cold and ice.
At KorsOr, on the Great Belt, we again go on board a
steamer which in a few hours takes us between Langeland and
Laaland to Kiel, the principal naval port of Germany. Here
we arc on soil which was formerly Danish, for it was only
during her last unfortunate war that Denmark lost the two
duchies of Schleswig and Holstcin.
We travel by train from Kiel through fertile Holstcin
southwards to the free Hansa town of Hamburg on the Elbe,
the greatest commercial emporium on the mainland of Europe,
and, after London and New York, the third in the world.
215
2 I 6 FROM POLE TO POLE
From Hamburg the train goes on through Hanover
and Westphalia, across the majestic Rhine, through South
Holland, not far north of the Belgian frontier, to the port of
Flushing, which is situated on one of the islands in the
delta of the Scheldt. Here another steamer is ready for
us, and after a passage of a few hours we glide into the broad
trumpet-shaped mouth of the Thames and land at Queen-
borough. There again we take a train which carries us
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM STOCKHOLM TO TARIS.
through the thickly-peopled, well-cultivated country of Kent

into the heart of London, the greatest city of the world.
After a few days' stay in London we go on to Paris by —
train to Dover, across the Channel at its narrowest part in
a swift turbine steamer, and again by rail from Calais to
Paris, through one of the most fruitful districts of France,
vying with the valleys of the Rhone and Garonne in fertility.
In a little over seven hours after leaving London we arrive at
the great city (Plate XXIV.) where the Seine, crossed by
thirty bridges, describes a bend, afterwards continuing in the
most capricious incandcrings to Rouen and Havre.
, TO LONDON AND PARIS 217
The thing the stranger notices in Paris is the boule-

first
vards — broad, handsome streets, with alleys of leafy trees

between nnvs of large palatial houses, theatres, cafes, and
shops. The oldest, the boulevards proper, were formerly
the fortifications of the town with towers and walls "boule- ;
vard" is, then, the same word as the English "bulwark."

Louis XIII., who enlarged and beautified Paris, had these
bulwarks pulled down, and the first boulevards laid out on
their site. They are situated on the north side of the
Seine, and form a continuous line under different names,
Madeleine, des Capuchines, des Italiens, and Montmartrc.
This line of boulevards is one of the sights of Paris.
In later times boulevards were also laid out where there
had been no fortifications before. Under Louis XIV. and
his successors Paris grew and increased in splendour and
greatness then it was the scene of the great Revolution and
;
its horrors then under Napoleon it became the heart of the

;
mightiest empire of that time. With the fall of Napoleon

Paris was twice entered by the forces of the Allies, and
in 1S71 it was besieged and captured by the Prussians.
Since then Paris has been spared from disastrous misfor-
tunes, and is, as it has been for many centuries, the gayest
and most animated city in Europe.
Let us take a rapid walk through the town, starting at
the Place de la Bastille, on the north bank of the Seine, where
formerly stood the fortress and prison of the Bastille. This
prison was stormed and destroyed at the commencement of
the Great Revolution, on July 14, 1789, and since that year
July 14 has been the chief national festival-day. In the
middle of the square stands the July Column, and from its
summit a wonderful view of Paris can be obtained. YVc now
follow the Rue de Rivoli, the largest and handsomest street in
Paris. On the left hand is the Hotel de Ville, a fine public
building, where the city authorities meet, where brilliant
entertainments arc given, and where the galleries arc adorned
with canvases of famous masters.
Farther along, on the same side, is the largest public
building of the city, the palace of the Louvre. Like the
British Museum, it would require months and years to see
properly. lere are stored colossal collections, not only of
I
objects of art and relics from great ancient kingdoms in

Asia and Europe, but also of the finest works of European
sculptors and painters of all periods.
We walk on north-westwards through the luxuriant
218 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. n
gardens of the Tuileries, and stop a moment in the Place de la

Concorde to enjoy the charming views presented on all sides
— the river with its quays and bridges, the parks and avenues,
the huge buildings decorated with exquisite taste, the wide,
open spaces adorned with glorious monuments, and the never-
ending coming and going of pleasure-loving Parisians and
Parisian ladies in costumes of the latest fashion.
From the Place de la Concorde we direct our steps to the
Champs Elysees, a magnificent park with a broad carriage-
way along which the fashionable world rides, walks, or drives
in smart carriages and motor cars. At the northern side of
the park lives the President of the Republic in the palace of
the Elysees.
If we now follow the double row of broad avenues north-
wards we come to the Place de l'Etoile, a " circus " where
twelve avenues of large streets meet. One of them, a pro-
longation of the Champs Elysees, is named after the grand
army of Napoleon and leads to the extensive Bois de Boulogne.
In the middle of the Place de l'Etoile is erected a stately
triumphal arch, 160 feet high, in memory of Napoleon's victories.
From here we follow a busy street as far as the bridge of
Jena, and on the opposite bank of the Seine rises the Eiffel
Tower, dominating Paris with its immense pillar iooo
feet high. The Eiffel Tower is the highest structure ever
reared by human hands, twice as high as the cathedral of
Cologne and the tallest of the Egyptian pyramids. At the
first platform we are more than 330 feet above the vast city,
but the hills outside Paris close in the horizon. When the
cage rises up to the third platform we are at a height of 864
feet above the ground, and see below us the Seine with its
many bridges and the city with its innumerable streets and its
140 squares. A staircase leads up to the highest balcony, and
at the very top a beacon is lighted at night visible 50 miles
away. From the parapet we hardly dare allow our eyes to
look down the perpendicular tower to the four sloping iron
piers at its base, especially when it blows hard and the whole
tower perceptibly swings. There is no need to go up in a
balloon to obtain a bird's-eye view of Paris from the top of
;
the Eiffel Tower wc have the town spread out before us like a
map.
Napoleon's Tomb
When we
have safely descended from the giddy height,
wc make our way across the Champ de Mars to the Hotel
PLATE XXV
NAPOLEON'S TOMB.
Hotel <l. S lm.ili.lf~.. Paris.
page ?m.
i
NAPOLEON'S TOMB 219
dcs Invalides. Formerly several thousand pensioners from

the great French armies found a refuge in tin's huge buildii
but now it is used as a museum for military historic relics.
Wc pass in under the glittering gilded dome, visible
all over the city, and find ourselves in a round hall,
the centre of which is occupied by a crypt, likewise
round and several feet deep and open above. On the floor
in mosaic letters arc glorious names, Kivoli, Pyramids,
Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, Wagram, and Moscow.
Twelve marble statues, representing as many victories, and
sixty captured colours keep guard round the great sarco-
phagus of red porphyry from Finland which contains the
remains of Napoleon (Plate XXV.).
No one speaks in here. The deepest silence surrounds
the ashes of the man who in his lifetime filled the world with
the roar of his cannon and the thunder of his legions, and
who within the space of a few years completely changed the
map of Europe. Pale and subdued, the light falls over the
crypt where the red porphyry speaks of irresistible power, and
the white goddesses of victory are illumined as it were with a
reflection of the years of glory.
Unconsciously we listen for an echo of the clash of arms
and the words of command. We seem to see a blue-eyed
boy playing at his mother's knee at Ajaccio in Corsica wc ;
seem to hear a youthful revolutionist, burning with enthusiasm,

making fiery speeches at secret clubs in Paris. Pale and
solemn, the shade of the twcnty-six-year-old general floats
before our mind's eye as he returns from a scries of victories
in northern Italy, where he rushed like a storm over the
plains of Lombardy, made a triumphal entry into Milan, and
for ever removed the ancient republic of Venice from the list
of independent States.
We recall the campaign of the French army against
Egypt and the Holy Land. Napoleon takes his fleet out
from the harbour of Toulon, escapes Nelson's ships of the
line and frigates, seizes Malta, sails to the north of Crete and
west of Cyprus, and lands 40,00x3 men at Alexandria.
The soldiers languish in the desert sands on the way to
Cairo, they approach the Nile to give battle to the Egyptian
army, and at the foot of the pyramids the East is defeated
by the West. The march is continued eastwards to Syria.
Five centuries have passed since the crusaders attempted to
wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of unbelievers. Now
again the weapons of Western lands clash in the valley of the
220 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . n
Jordan and at the foot of Mount Tabor, and now the French
General obtains a victory over the Turks outside Nazareth.
In the meantime, however, Nelson has annihilated his fleet.
The flower of the republican army is doomed to perish, and
Napoleon's dream of an oriental dominion has vanished with
the smoke of the last camp fire. He leaves Egypt with two
frigates, sails along the coasts of Tripoli and Tunis, and
passes at night with extinguished lights through the channel
between Africa and Sicily.
Again our eyes turn to the dim light under the cupola of
the Invalides, and the marble columns and statues look white
as snow. Then our thoughts wander off to the Alps, the
Great St. Bernard, the St. Gotthard, Mont Cenis, and the
Simplon, where the First Consul, like Hannibal before him,
with four army corps bids defiance to the loftiest mountains
of Europe. We seem to see the soldiers dragging the cannon
through the frozen drifts and collecting together again on the
Italian side. At Marengo, south of the Po, a new victory is
added to the French laurels, and the most powerful man in
France has the fate of Europe in his hands.
Then various episodes of his marvellous career pass before
us. Our eyes fall on the name Austerlitz down in the mosaic
of the crypt. The Emperor of France has marched into
Moravia and drawn up his legions under the golden eagles. A
distant echo seems to sound round the crypt —
it is Napoleon's
cavalry riding down the Russian guards, it is the " grand

army " annihilating the Austrian and Russian forces, it is the
French artillery pounding the ice on the lake and drowning
the fugitives, their guns and horses.
Amurmur passes through the crypt, an echo from the
battle of Jena, where Prussia was crushed, its territory devas-
tated from the Elbe to the Oder, and its fortresses surrendered,
Erfurt, Magdeburg, Stettin, Liibeck, while the victor made
his entry into Frederick the Great's capital, Berlin. We hear
the tread of the columns and the tramp of horses through the
mud on the roads in Poland, and we see the bloody battlefields
of Pultusk, east of the Vistula, and Eylau in West Prussia,
where heaps of bodies lie scattered over the deep snow. We
see Napoleon on his white horse after the battle of Friedland
in East Prussia, where the Russians were defeated. The
guards and hussars rode through them with drawn swords.
Their enthusiastic cry of " Long live the Emperor " still
vibrates under the standards round the sarcophagus and
;
above the shouts of victory the beat of horse hoofs is heard

,
NAPOLEON'S TOMB 221
on the roads of Europe; it is the courier between the head-

quarters of the army and Paris.
The conqueror marches to Vienna, and threatens to crush
Austria. He gains the bloody battle of Wagrara, north-east
of Vienna, he wipes out states and makes them dependencies
of France and their rulers his obedient vassals, and he
gives away royal crowns to his relations and generals. His
dominion extends from Danzig to Cadiz, from the mouth of
the Elbe to the Tiber he has risen to a height of power and
;
glory never attained since the golden age of Rome.

Bayonets and sabres, cuirasses and helmets flash in the
sunlight as the invincible army camps with band and music
and song above the Nicmen. Half a million of soldiers are
on their way to the old capital of Russia, Moscow. The
Russian roads from Vilna to Vitebsk arc full of endless lines
of troops, squadrons of cavalry in close formation, and
enormous baggage trains. The Russians know that their
freedom is in danger they burn their own towns and villages,
;
devastate their own provinces, and retire little by little, as

they did a hundred years earlier when Charles XII. invaded
Russia. At length there is a battle at Moscow, and the
French army enters the town. We
see in imagination the
September nights lighted up far and wide by a blazing flame.
Moscow is on fire. On the terrace of the Kremlin stands a
little man in a grey military coat and a black cocked hat,
watching the {lame. Within a week the old holy city of the
Muscovites lies in ashes.
The falls over Paris, and we see
early twilight of winter
the shadows deepen round Napoleon's tomb. We fancy we
see among them human figures fighting against hunger, cold,
and weariness. The time of misfortune is come. The great
army is retreating, the roads are lined with corpses and
fragments. The cannon are left in the snow. The soldiers fall
in regiments like a ripe crop. Packs of wolves follow in
their tracks they are contented with the dead, but the
:
Cossack squadrons cut down the living. At the bridge over

the Beresina, a tributary of the Dnieper, 30,000 men
are drowned and perish. All discipline is relaxed. The
soldiers throw away their guns and knapsacks. Clothed in
furs and with a birchen staff in his hand, the defeated emperor
marches like a simple soldier in the front. Thanks to the
severe climate of their country and its great extent, and
thanks also to their own cautious conduct of the war, the
Russians practically annihilated Napoleon's arm}'.
:
222 FROM POLE TO POLE PT h

.
The darkness deepens. At Leipzig Russians, Austrians,

Prussians, and Swedes oppose Napoleon. There his proud
empire to pieces, even Paris is
falls captured, and he loses his
crown. Me
is carried a prisoner down the Rhone valley
through Lyons, and shipped off to the island of Elba.
Once more he fills the world with tumult. With a brig
and seven small vessels he sails back to the coast of
France. He has a force of only I ioo men, but in his hands
it is sufficient to reconquer France. He marches over the
western offshoots of the Alps. At Grenoble his force
has increased to 7000 men. In Lyons he is saluted as
Emperor, and Paris opens its gates. He is ready to stake
everything on a single throw. In Belgium is to be the
decisive battle. Hostile armies gather round the frontiers of
France, for Europe is tired of continual war. At Waterloo
Napoleon and his fate is sealed for ever.
fights his last battle,
He leaves
Paris for the last time. At the port of Rochefort,
between the mouths of the Loire and the Garonne, he goes
on board an English frigate. After seventy days' sail he is
landed on the small basaltic island of St. Helena in the
southern Atlantic, where he is doomed to pass the last six
years of his eventful life. Here also his grave is digged under
the willows in the valley.
Nineteen years after Napoleon's death the simple grave
under the willows was uncovered, the coffins of wood, lead,
and sheet-iron were opened in the presence of several who
had shared his long imprisonment, the remains were taken on
board a French frigate amid the roar of guns and flags waving
half-mast high, the coffin was landed at Cherbourg in
Normandy, and the conqueror of Europe once more made his
entry into Paris with military pomp and ceremony, in which
all France took part. Drawn by sixteen horses in funereal
trappings and followed by veterans of Napoleon's campaigns,
the hearse, adorned with imperial splendour, was escorted by
soldiers under the triumphal arch of the Place de l'Etoile and
through the Champs Elysees to the Hotel des Invalides,
where the coffin was deposited in the Finnish sarcophagus.
Thus was fulfilled the last wish of the conqueror of the world
" I desire that my remains may rest on the banks of the
Seine."
Paris to Rome
The stranger leaves Paris with regret, and is consoled
only by the thought that he is on his way to sunny Italy.
,
PARIS TO ROM!-: 223
The train him eastwards, and he looks through the

carries
window the hills and plains of Champagne, the home of
at
sparkling wine. Around him spread tilled fields, villages,
and farmhouses. Where the soil is not suitable for vines,
uh.at, or beet, it provides pasture for large flocks. Men are
seen at work everywhere, and the traveller realises that
France is so prosperous because all its small proprietors,
peasants, and townspeople are so industrious and so thrifty.
Now the frontier is reached. The great fortress of Belfort is
the last French town passed, and a little later we are in
Alsace.
Another frontier is crossed, that between Germany and
Switzerland, and the train halts at the fine town of Bale,
traversed by the mighty Rhine. Coming from the Lake of
Constance, the clear waters of the river glide under the
bridges of Bale, and turn at right angles northwards between
the Vosges and the Black Forest.
From Bale we go on south-westwards to Geneva. Along
a narrow valley the railway follows the river Birs, which falls
into the Rhine, and winds in curves along the mountain
flanks, sometimes high above the foot of the valley, and
sometimes by the river's bank. It is towards the end of
January, and snow has been falling for several days on end.
All the country is quite white, and the small villages in the
valley are almost hidden.
Now we come to three lakes in a row, the Lake of Bicnne,
the Lake of Neuchatcl, and the great Lake of Geneva, which
we reach at the town of Lausanne. Here the snow has
ceased to fall, and the beautiful Alps of Savoy are visible to
the south. The sun is hidden behind clouds, but its rays are
reflected by the clear mirror of the lake. This view is one of
the finest in the world, and our eyes are glued to the carriage
window as the train follows the shore of Geneva.
In outline the lake is like a dolphin just about to dive.
At the dolphin's snout lies Geneva, and here the river Rhone
flows out of the lake to run to Lyons and debouch into the
Mediterranean immediately to the west of the great port of
Marseilles.
Geneva one of the finest, cleanest, and most charming
is
towns in the world. Between its northern and southern

halves the water of the lake, deep blue and clear as crystal, is
drawn off into the Rhone as into a funnel. There the current
is strong, and the river is divided into two by a long island.
Thc^ finest sight, however, is the view south-eastwards
224 FROM POLE TO POLE P1 , „
when the weather is clear. There stand the mighty summits

and crests of theAlps of Savoy, now covered with snow, and
glittering in white, light blue, and steely grey tints. There
also Mont Blanc is enthroned above the other mountains, nay,
above all Europe, awesome and grand, the crown of the Alps,
the frontier pillar between Switzerland, France, and Italy.
From Geneva we go eastwards along the northern shore of
the lake. The air is hazy, and the Alps of Savoy look like a
light veil beneath the sun. In this light the water is of
a bright green like malachite. Beyond Lausanne the mist
disappears, and the Alps again appear dazzling white and
steep as pyramids and towers. Towns, villages, and villas
cast reflections of their white or coloured house-fronts and
their light balconies on the lake. The shore is lined by a row
of hotels surrounded by gardens and promenades. Travellers
come hither from all countries in summer to feast their
eyes on the Alps and strengthen their lungs by inhaling the
fresh air.
We leave the lake and mount gently up the Rhone valley
between wild rocks. It becomes narrower as we ascend. The
Rhone, a tumultuous stream, roars in its bed, now quite
insignificant compared to the majestic river at Geneva. In
the valley tilled fields are laid out, dark green spruces peep
out of the snow on the slopes, while above all the snow-white
summits of the Alps are enthroned.
A few minutes beyond Brieg the train rushes at full speed
straight into the mountain. The electric lamps are lighted
and all the windows closed. The tunnel is filled with smoke,
and a continuous reverberation dins our ears. The Simplon
tunnel is the longest in the world, being 12] miles long. It is
only a few years since it was completed. Work was begun
from both sides of the mountain at the same time, and when
the excavations met in the middle and a blasting charge
burst the last sheet of rock, it was found that the calculations
had not been an inch out. After fully twenty minutes it
begins to grow light, and when the train rolls out of the tunnel
we are on Italian ground.
The train now descends a lovely valley to the shore of
Lago Maggiore. Framed in steep mountains, the dark blue
lake contains a small group of islands, full of white houses,
palaces, and gardens. One of these is well known by the
name of Isola Bella, or the Beautiful Island.
Night hides from our eyes the plains of Lombardy, Milan
with its famous cathedral, the bridge over the Po, and then a
i PARIS TO ROME 225
number of famous old towns, including Bologna with its

university about fifteen hundred years old.
Next morning, however, we see to the south-west some-
thing like a flaming beacon. It is the gilded dome of St.
Peter's Church, which, caught by the rays of the rising sun,

shines like a fire above the eternal city.
Tin: Eternal City

The King of Italy has 35 million subjects, but in Rome
livesanother mighty prince, the Pope, though his kingdom is
not of this world. His throne is the chair of St. Peter, his
arms the triple tiara and the crossed keys which open and
close the gates of the kingdom of heaven. lie has
270 million subjects, the Roman Catholics. For political
reasons he is a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican, a collection
of great palaces containing more than 10,000 halls and apart-
ments. There also are installed museums, libraries, and
collections of manuscripts of vast extent and value. The
Vatican museum of sculpture is the richest in the world. In
the Sistine Chapel, a sanctuary 450 years old, Michael Angelo
adorned the roof with great pictures of the creation of the
world and man, of the Fall and the Flood, and at the end
wall an immense picture of the Last Judgment. To the
west of the palace stands the Pope's gardens and park, and to
the south the Church of St. Peter, the largest temple in
Christendom. The whole forms a small town of itself; and
this town is one of the greatest in the world, a seat of art and
learning, and, above all, the focus of a great religion. For
from here the Pope sends forth his bulls of excommunication
against heretics and sinners, and here he watches over his
flock, the Catholics, in accordance with the Saviour's thrice
repeated injunction to Peter :
" Feed my sheep."
A drive through Rome is intensely interesting. The
streets arc mostly narrow and crooked, and we are always
turning corners, driving across small triangular open places
and in lanes where it is ticklish work to pass a vehicle
coming in the opposite direction. Yet no boulevards, no great
streets in the world, can rival in beauty the streets of Rome.
They are skirted by old grey palaces built thousands of years
ago rather than centuries, decorated with the most splendid
window frames, friezes, and colonnades. Every portal is a
work of art round every corner comes a new surprise, a
;
Q
226 FROM POLE TO POLE ft. ii
fountain with sea-horses and deities, a mediaeval well, a moss-

grown ruin of Imperial times, or a church with a tower whence
bells have rung for centuries over Rome.
And what a commotion there is in all these narrow streets !
Here comes a peasant driving his asses weighed down with

baskets of melons and grapes. There a boy draws a hand-
cart piled up with apricots, oranges, and nuts. Here we see
men and women from the Campagna outside Rome, clad in
their national costume, in which dirty white and red pre-
dominate, the men with black slouched hats, the women with
white kerchiefs over their hair. They are of dark com-
plexion, but on the cheeks of the younger ones the roses
appear through the bronze. The patricians, the noble
Romans who roll by lazily in fine carriages, are much fairer,
and indeed the ladies are often as pale as if they had just left
the cloister or were ready for the bier. Boys run begging after
the carriage, and poor mothers with small infants in their arms
beseech only a small coin. There are many in Rome who
live from hand to mouth. But all are cheerful, all are comely.
Now we reach the bridge of St. Angelo over the muddy
Tiber, and before us stands the massive round tower of the
castle of St. Angelo, which the Emperor Hadrian built 1800
years ago as a mausoleum for himself. On the left is the
piazza of St. Peter, which, with its surrounding buildings, its
curved arcades, St. Peter's Church and the Vatican, is one of
the grandest in the world. Between its constantly playing
fountains has stood for 300 years an obelisk which the
Emperor Caligula brought from Egypt to adorn Rome. It
witnessed wonderful events long before the time of Moses.
At its foot the children of Israel sang the melodies of their
country during their servitude. It was a decoration of Nero's
circus, and saw thousands of Christian martyrs torn to pieces
by Gallic hounds and African lions and still it lifts itself
;
80 feet into the air in a single block, untouched by time and

the strife of men.
At the north side of the piazza is the gate of the Vatican,
where the Swiss Guards keep watch in antique red and yellow
uniforms. Before us are the great steps of St. Peter's Church.
We enter the grand portico and pass through one of the
bronze doors into the church. All the dimensions are so
immensely great that we stop in astonishment. Now our
eyes lose themselves in sky-high vaulting, glittering with
colour, and now we admire the columns and their capitals,
pictures in mosaic or monuments in marble. Rome was not
, THE ETERNAL CITY 227
built in a day, says the proverb, and St. Peter's Church alone
was the work of 120 years and twenty Popes. Italy's fore-
most artists, including Raphael and Michael Angelo, put the
best of their energies into the building of this temple, where is
the tomb of the Apostle Peter. The great church contains a
bronze statue of the Apostle Peter in a sitting position, and
the right foot worn and polished by the kisses of the faithful.
is
High above the vaulting over his head is to be seen the

in
following inscription in Latin
—
"Thou art Peter, and upon
:
this rock will build my church, and I will give unto thee the
1
keys of the kingdom of heaven."

Paul has also a worthy memorial church in Rome, St.
Paul's, which stands outside the walls. On the way thither
we pass a small chapel where, it is said, Peter and Paul took
leave of each other before they went to suffer martyrdom.
On the facade the final words are inscribed. Paul said :
" Peace be with you, thou foundation of the church and

shepherd of Christ's lambs." And Peter " Go forth in peace,
:
thou preacher of the gospel, righteous guide to salvation."

Paul's tomb is under the high altar of St. Paul's Church. In
the interior of the church we notice portraits in mosaic of all
the Popes from St. Peter to Leo XIII.
Rome is inexhaustible. It has grown up during 2600
years, and each age has built on the ruins of the preceding.
The city is piled up in strata like a geological deposit. What
lies hidden at the bottom is scarcely known at all that is ;
from the time of the early kings of Rome. Then follows the
city of the Republic, and upon it the Rome of the Emperors,
the cosmopolitan city, where the Caesars from their palace on
the Palatine stretched their sceptre over all the known world
from foggy Britain and the dark forests of Germany to the
burning deserts of Africa, from the mountains of Spain to
Galilee and Judaea. Many stately remains of this time of
greatness arc still preserved among the modern streets and
houses. Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians have sacked
Rome, monsters of the Imperial house have devastated the
city to wipe out the remembrance of their predecessors and
glorify themselves but if Rome was not built in a day, so two
;
thousand years have not sufficed to blot out its magnificence.

Then follow new strata, the Christian age, the Middle
Ages, and modern times, with their innumerable churches,
monasteries, and massive solemn palaces. Christianity built
on the ruins of paganism. Ancient and modern times are
inextricably mixed. Up there on the Capitolinc hill rides a
Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, in bronze. Look round,

and there on the farther bank of the Tiber another horseman
looks over the eternal city, the brave champion of young
Italy's liberty, Garibaldi. You ride through a street lined
with grand shops in new buildings, and in a couple of minutes
you are at the Forum Romanum, the Roman market-place,
the heart of the world empire, the square for markets, popular
assemblies, and judicial courts, a marble hall in the open air.
Over its flags, victors, accompanied by their comrades in arms
and their prisoners, marched up to the Capitol to sacrifice in
the temple of Jupiter, where now only a few pillars and ruins
remain of all the splendour Julius Caesar and Augustus
lavished upon it.
At one time we are like pilgrims in the fine Church of St.
Peter at another we are strolling under the triumphal arch of
;
Titus, erected in remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem

in the year A.D. 70.
The largest and grandest ruin in Rome is the Colosseum
(Plate XXVI.), an amphitheatre which was built by the
two Emperors, Vespasian and Titus, and which was finished
eighty years after the birth of Christ. The outside walls are
nearly 160 feet high. The tiers of benches, which could
accommodate 85,000 spectators, were divided into four blocks,
of which the outermost and highest was set apart for freedmen
and slaves with their women. The tickets were of ivory,
and indicated the different places so clearly that every one
could easily find his way in the huge passages, colonnades,
and staircases. The benches were covered with marble, and
many statues of the same material adorned the upper walls
of the amphitheatre. The spectacles were usually held in
the daytime, and to abate the heat of the sun immense silken
awnings were stretched over the arena and the auditorium.
When the theatre was full, it presented a scene of dazzling
splendour. In the best places sat senators in purple-bordered
togas, the priests of the various temples, the Vestal virgins
in black veils, warriors in gold-embroidered uniforms. There
sat Roman citizens in white or coloured togas, bareheaded,
beardless, and closely cropped, eagerly talking in a language
as euphonious as French and Italian. All strangers who
were staying in Rome were there, ambassadors from all the
known countries of the world, statesmen, merchants, and
travellers from Germany and Gaul, from Syria, Greece, and
Egypt.
A circus or theatre of our day is a toy compared to the
,
THE ETERNAL CITY 229
Colosseum. The old Romans were masters in the arran

ment of spectacles to satisfy the rude cravings of the mas
Woods and rocks were set up, in which bloody contests were
fought, and where gladiators hunted lions and tigers with
spears. The immense show-ground could be quickly filled
with water, and on the artificial lake deadly sea battles were
fought and the bodies of the slain and drowned lying on the
;
bottom were invisible when the water was dyed red with
blood. The arena could be drained at once by ingenious
channels, slaves dragged out the corpses through the gate of
the Goddess of Death, and the theatre was made ready for the
night performance. Then the arena was lighted up with
huge torches and fires, and troops of Christians were crucified
in long rows or thrown to the lions and bears. When a
Roman emperor celebrated the thousandth anniversary of
the founding of Rome, two thousand gladiators appeared in
the Colosseum, thirty -two elephants, and numbers of wild
animals.
Not far from the Colosseum begins one of the oldest and
most famous roads ever trodden by the foot of man the —
Appian Way. Here emperors and generals marched into
Rome after successful wars here their remains were carried out
;
to be burned on pyres and deposited in urns in mausoleums and

tombs. Here the Christians came out at night in silent ranks
to consign the remains of their co-religionists, torn to pieces
in the arena, to the catacombs of underground Rome. Here
St. Paul made his entry into Rome, escorted by troops
1
of Christians, as recorded in the last chapter of the Acts of

the Apostles and to-day we find on this road a small chapel
;
which is called " Whither goest thou ? " (Quo vadis ?) at the
point in the road where Peter saw his vision.
Pompeii
From Rome we go on. to Naples, where to the east the
regular volcanic cone of Vesuvius rears itself like a fire-
breathing dragon over the bay, and where towns, villages, and
white villas stand as thick on the shore as beads on a rosary.
Our time is short we drive rapidly through the lava-paved
;
streets of Naples, and cannot feast our eyes long enough

with the sight of these fine dark men in their motley dirty
garments, and cannot hear enough of their melodious songs
in honour of delightful Naples. Their warm affection for the
famous city is quite natural, and one of their sayings, " Sec
Naples and die," implies that life is worthless to any one who
has not been there.
During our wanderings we come to the National Museum,
and there we are lost to everything outside. There we forget
the bustling life of the streets, the blue bay and the green
gardens for here we are in the presence of antiquity an
; —
immense collection of artistic objects, statues, and paintings
from Pompeii.
Emery "Walker sc-
MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA.
In the sixth century B.C. Pompeii was founded at the

southern foot of Vesuvius, not far from the shore of the bay.
About eighty years before our era Pompeii came under the
rule of Rome, and during the succeeding 150 years it was
changed into a genuine Roman town in all respects in style —
of building, language, trade, and manner of life. A wall with
towers enclosed this collection of streets and houses, and at
night the eight town gates were closed and shut in 20,000
inhabitants. In its principal square, a place of popular
assemblies and festivals, stood the Temple of Jupiter among
!
POMPEII 231
porticoes, arcades, and rows of marble statutes. In another

square theatres were erected, and there also stood an old
Greek temple.
Many rich and eminent Romans loved Pompeii, and built
costly villas in the town or its beautiful environs. One of
these was the famous orator and author, Cicero, whose villa
was situated near the north-eastern town gate. Again and
again he went to Pompeii to rest after the noise and tumult of
Rome, and the last time he is certainly known to have
sojourned there was in the year 44 B.C., shortly after the
murder of the great Caesar.
From the vicinity of Cicero's villa ran north-west the
Street of Tombs, bordered with innumerable monuments like
the Appian Way outside Rome. Some were quite simple,
others resembled costly altars and temples, and all contained
urns with the bones and ashes of the dead.
Some streets were lined entirely with shops and stores.
Most of the streets were straight and regular, some broad,
others quite small ; they were paved with flags of lava and
had raised footpaths. Here and there stones were laid in a
row across the street, whereon foot passengers could cross
over dryshod after the heavy torrential rains, which then, as
now, repeatedly converted these lanes into rivers and canals.
Pompeii had several bath-houses, luxuriously and comfort-
ably furnished, built of stone, dark and cool, and very
attractive during the warm, sultry summer. In the apodyterium
the visitor took off his clothes, and then repaired to the
various rooms for warm air, warm baths, and cold baths.
The walls in the frigidarium were decorated with paintings
representing shady groves and dark forests the vaulted roof
;
was painted blue and strewn with stars, and through a small
round opening the sunlight poured in. The basin itself was
therefore like a small forest pool under the open sky. The
bather was thoroughly scraped and shampooed by the
attendants, and last of all smeared with odorous oils.
The houses of wealthy citizens were decorated with
exquisite taste and artistic skill. Towards the streets the
houses showed little besides bare plain walls, for the old
Romans did not like the private sanctity of their homes to be
disturbed at all by the noise of the streets and the inquisitivc-
ncss of people on the public roads. So it is still, if not in
Italy and Greece, at any rate over all the Asiatic East.
Pomp and state were only displayed in the interior. There
were seen statues and busts, flourishing flower-beds under
open colonnades, and in the midst of the principal apartment,

called the atrium, was a marble basin sunk in the mosaic
pavement, and through a quadrangular opening in the roof
above the sun and moon looked in and the rain often mingled
its drops with the jets of the constantly playing fountain.
When the master of the house gave an entertainment, tables
were carried in by slaves, and the guests took their luxurious
meal lying on long couches. They ate, and drank, and
jested, listening from time to time to the tones of flutes, harps,
and cymbals, and watched the lithe movements of dancers
with eyes dull and heavy with wine.
Happy days were spent in Pompeii in undisturbed peace-
fulness. People enjoyed the treasures of the forests, gardens,
and sea, transacted their business or the duties of their posts,
and assembled for discussion in the Forum, where the columns
cast cool shadows over the stone flags. No one thought of
Vesuvius. The volcano was supposed to have become for
ever extinct ages ago. On the ancient lava-streams old
trees grew, the most luscious grapes ripened on the flanks of
the mountain, and from their descendants is pressed out at
the present day a wine called Lachryma Christi. A legend
relates that when the Saviour once went up Vesuvius and
stood in mute astonishment at the beautiful landscape
surrounding the Bay of Naples, He also wept from grief over
this home of sin and vanity ; and where His tears moistened
the ground there grew up a tendril which has not its like on
earth.
The year before the burning of Rome, Pompeii was
devastated by a fearful earthquake. The inhabitants soon
took heart again, however, and built up their town better and
more beautiful than ever. Sixteen years passed, and then the
blow came, the most crushing and annihilating blow that ever
befell any town since Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed
by fire from heaven.
The elder Pliny, who left to the world an immortal work,
was then in command of a Roman fleet anchored in the Bay
of Naples, and lived with his family in a place not far from
Pompeii. His adopted son, the younger Pliny, a youth of
eighteen, spirited, quick, and talented, was also with him.
Vesuvius broke into eruption on August 24 in the year 79,
and in a few hours Pompeii and two other towns were buried
under a downpour of pumice and ashes, and streams of lava
and mud. Among the victims was the elder Pliny.
Several years afterwards, the Roman historian Tacitus
,
POMPEII 233
wrote to the younger Pliny and asked him for information
about the manner of his uncle's death. The two letters con-
taining answers to this question arc still extant. Pliny
describes how his uncle was suffocated by ashes and sulphurous
vapour on the shore. lie had himself seen flames of fire
shoot up out of the crater, which also vomited forth a black
cloud spreading out above like the crown of a pine-tree. He
went out with his mother to the forecourt of the house, but
when the ground trembled and the air became full of ashes
they hurried off, followed by a crowd of people. His mother,
who was old, begged him to save himself by rapid flight, but
he would not desert her. And he writes " I looked round
: ;
a thick smoky darkness rolled threateningly over us from

behind it spread over the earth like an advancing flood and
;
followed us. Let us move to one side while we can see,' I

'
said, so that we may not fall down on the road and be

'
trampled down in the darkness by those behind.' We had

scarcely got out of the crowd when we were involved in
darkness, not such as when there is no moon or the sky is
overcast, but such as prevails in a closed room when the
lights are out." And he tells how the fugitives tied cushions
over their heads so as not to be bruised by falling stones, and
how they had repeatedly to shake off the ashes lest they
should be weighed down by them. He was quite composed
himself, and thought that the whole world was passing away.
By this eruption Pompeii was buried under a layer of
pumice and ashes 20 feet thick. For a long period of
years the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came hither and
digged up with their spades one thing or another, but then
Pompeii sank into the night of oblivion and slumbered under
the earth for fifteen hundred years. At last the town was
discovered again, and excavations were commenced. Country
houses, fields, and clumps of mulberry trees had sprung up on
the deep bed of ashes. Not till fifty years ago did modern
investigation take Pompeii seriously in hand, and now
more than half the town is laid bare. Strangers can ride
unhindered through the streets, look into the shops and baths,
and admire the fine wall-paintings in the palaces of the great.
The columns of Jupiter's temple, so long buried in complete
darkness, are again lighted by the sun, and cast their shadows
as of old over the stone flags of the Forum (Plate XXVII.).
The Street of Tombs is exposed, and young cypresses grow
up among the monuments. The dead, which were already
buried when Vesuvius scattered its ashes over them, listen
234 FROM POLE TO POLE PI . n
now to strange footsteps on the road. But the unfortunates

who were buried alive under the shower of ashes have de-
cayed and turned to dust. And yet they may still be seen
in the museums, with distorted limbs and their faces to the
ground. We see them in the position they assumed when
they fell and the ashes were bedded close to their sides.
Thus they remained lying for eighteen hundred years, im-
bedded as in a mould. Their bodies returned to the earth,
but the empty space remained. By pouring plaster into
these forms, life-like figures of persons have been reproduced
just as they were when death overtook them. Here lies a
woman who fell outside her house and grasped with convulsive
fingers a bag full of gold and silver. Here is a man resting
his heavy head on his elbow, and here a dog which has
curled itself up before it was at last suffocated.
So the sleeping town has wakened to life again, and the
dead have returned from the kingdom of shadows. The
excavated pictures, sculptures, and art treasures of Pompeii,
together with the whole arrangement of the town, the style of
building and the inscriptions, have thrown an unexpected
light on the life of antiquity. We can even read the passing
conceits scribbled on the walls. At one corner a house is
offered for hire from July I — "intending tenants should
apply to the slave Primus." On another a jester advises
an acquaintance " Go and hang thyself."
: A citizen writes
of a friend : "I have heard with sorrow that thou art
—
dead so adieu " Another wall bears the following warning
!
:
"This is no place for idlers go away, good-for-nothing." It

;
is curious to read the names Sodom and Gomorrah, evidently
scribbled by a Jew. Low down on the walls small schoolboys

have practised writing the Greek alphabet, showing that
Greek was included in their curriculum. And once were
found written in charcoal, and only partly legible, the words,
" Enjoy the fire, Christian," a scoff at the martyrs who,
soaked in tar, were burned as torches in Nero's gardens.
From Naples we take a steamer for Egypt. Aftcr
crossing the Bay of Naples we have to starboard the charm-
ing island of Capri. On its northern side you may swim or
row in a shallow boat, under an arch of rock three feet high,
into the Blue Grotto. Inside is a quiet crystal-clear sheet of
water which extends more than 50 yards into the hill. The
roof over its mirror is more than 160 feet high. The only
light comes in through the small entrance. Owing to the
reflections of the sky and water, everything in the grotto is
,
POMPEII 235
blue, and stalactites hang like icicles from the roof and walls.
If you dip an oar or your hand into the water it shines
white as silver, owing to the reflection from the sandy bottom.
It is possible to enter only in calm weather, or the boat would
be stoved against the rocky archway.
in
On a to larboard appear the white houses and
promontory
olive gardens of beautiful Sorrento, and then we steer out
into the turquoise blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. To the
south the rocky island of Stromboli rises from the waves with
its ever-burning volcano, like a beacon. In the Straits of
Messina we skirt the shores of Sicily and Calabria, which
have so frequently suffered from terrible earthquakes. At
last we are out in the wide, open Mediterranean. Italy sinks
below the horizon behind us, and we steam eastward to
Alexandria, the port of the land of the Pharaohs.
II
AFRICA
General Gordon
Seldom has the whole civilised world been so convulsed, so
overwhelmed with sorrow, at the death of one man as it was
when in January, 1885, the news flashed along the telegraph
wires that Khartum had fallen, and that Gordon was dead.
Gordon was of Scottish extraction, but was born in one
of the suburbs of London in the year 1833, an d as a young
lieutenant of engineers heard the thunders of war below the
walls of Sebastopol. As a major of thirty years of age he
commanded the Imperial army in China, and suppressed
the furious insurrection which raged in the provinces around
the Blue River. "The Ever-Victorious Army" would have
come to grief without a strong and practical leader, but in
Gordon's hands it soon deserved its name. He made his
plans quickly and clearly, brought his troops with wonderful
rapidity to the most vulnerable points in the enemy's position,
and dealt his blows with crushing force. In a year and a
half he had cleared China of insurgents and restored peace.
After several years of service at home and other wander-
ings in Eastern lands, Gordon accepted in 1874 an invitation
to enter into the service of the Khedive of Egypt. The
Khedive Ismail was a strong man with far-reaching projects.
He wished to extend his dominion as far as the great lakes
where the Nile takes its rise, and Gordon was to rule over a
province named after the equator.
Immediately to the south of Cairo begins a plateau which
stretches from north to south through almost the whole con-
tinent. In Abyssinia it attains to a considerable height, and
near the equator rises into the loftiest summits of Africa.
These mountains screen off the rain from Egypt and large
236
GENERAL GORDON 5/
areas of the Sudan. The masses of vapour which arc carried

over Abyssinia in summer by the monsoon are precipitated as
rain in these mountain tracts, and consequently the wind is
Emery Walter «.
MAI' of NORTH-EASTERN AFRICA, SHOWING EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.
dry when reaches Nubia and Egypt

it while the moisture
;
which risesfrom the warm ocean on the east, and is borne

north-westwards by the constant trade-wind, is converted into
water during eight months of the year among the mountains
on the equator.
rain which falls on the mountains of Abyssinia gives

The
rise to the Atbara and Blue Nile, which produce abundant
floods in the Nile during autumn ; and during the rest of the
year the White Nile, which comes from the great lakes on
the equator, provides for the irrigation of Egypt. Thus the
country is able to dispense with rain, and innumerable canals
convey water to all parts of the Nile valley. Many kinds of
grain are cultivated —
wheat, maize, barley, rice, and durra (a
kind of millet) vegetables, beans, and peas thrive, numerous
;
date palms suck up their sap from the heavy, sodden silt on
the river's banks, and sugar-cane and cotton are spreading
more and more. Seen at a height from a balloon, the fields,
palms, and fruit-trees would appear as a green belt along the
river, while the rest of the country would look yellow and
grey, for it is nothing but a dry, sandy desert.
The Nile, then, is everything to Egypt, the condition of
its existence, its father and mother, the source of the wealth
by which the country has subsisted since the most remote
antiquity. Now that we are about to follow Gordon along
the Nile to the equator, we must not forget that we are
passing through an ancient land. The first king of which
there are records lived 3200 years before the Christian era,
and the largest of the Great Pyramids at Ghizeh is 4600
years old (Plate XXVIII.). Its funeral crypt is cut out
of the solid rock, and in it still stands the red granite sar-
cophagus of Cheops. Two million three hundred thousand
dressed blocks, each measuring 40 cubic feet, were used
in the construction of this memorial over a perishable king,
and the pyramid is reckoned to be the largest edifice ever
built by human hands. The buildings and works of the
present time are nothing compared to it. Only the Great
Wall of China can vie with it, and this is ruined and to a
large extent obliterated, while the pyramid of Cheops still
stands, scorched by the sun, or sharply defined in the moon-
light, or dimly visible as a mysterious apparition in the dark,
warm night.
Twelve hundred miles south of the capital of modern
Egypt the desert comes to an end, and the surface is covered
by vast marshes and beds of waving reeds. This is the
Sudan, " the Land of the Blacks." At the point where the
White and Blue Niles mingle their waters lay the only town
in the Sudan, Khartum, whither trade-routes converged from
all directions, and where goods changed hands. Here were
brought wares which never failed to find purchasers. The
n GENERAL GORDON 230
valuable feathers plucked from the swift-footed ostrich were

needed to decorate the hats of European ladies the wild
;
elephants, larger and more powerful than their Indian con-

geners, were shot or caught in pitfalls in the woods for the
sake of their precious ivory. But the most esteemed of all
the wares that passed through Khartum were slaves
—
" black
ivory," as the)- were called by their heartless Arab torturers.
Elephants' tusks are heavy, and cannot be transported on
horses or oxen from the depths of the forest, for draught
animals are killed by the sting of the poisonous tsetse fly.
Therefore the tusks had to be carried by men, and when these
had finished their task they were themselves sold into Egypt,
Syria, and Turkey. The forests and deserts were not in-
exhaustible ;
ivory and ostrich feathers might be worked
out, but there would always be negroes.
When the Khedive Ismail invited Gordon to enter his
service as governor of the new province not far from the
sources of the Nile, Gordon accepted the post in the hope
that he would be able to suppress slave-trading, or at least to
check the hunting of black men and women. He left Cairo
and travelled by the Red Sea to Suakin, rode to Berber on
the Nile, and was received with much pomp and ceremony
by the Governor-General at Khartum. Here he heard that
the Nile was navigable for 900 miles southwards, and there-
fore he could continue his journey without delay.
The Nile afforded an excellent passage for Gordon's small
steamboat. But the Nile can also place an insurmountable
obstacle in the traveller's way. After the rainy season the
White Nile overflows its banks, forming an inextricable
labyrinth of side branches, lakes, and marshes. The country
lies under water for miles around. The waterway between
impenetrable beds of reeds and papyrus is often as narrow as a
lane. The roots of large plants are loosened from the mud
at the bottom, and are compacted with stems and mud into
large sheets which are driven northwards by the rushing
water. They are caught fast in small openings and sudden
bends, and other islets of vegetation are piled up against them.
Thus the river course is blocked, and above these natural
dams the water forms lakes. Such banks of drifting or
arrested and decaying vegetation are called sudd, and the
more it rains the greater are the quantities that come down.
At length the sudd becomes soft and yields to the pressure of
the water, and then the Nile is navigable again.
Gordon's small steamer glides gently up the river. He
240 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . ,i
advances deeper and deeper into a world unknown to him,

and around him seethes tropical Africa. On the banks
papyrus stems wave their plumes above the reeds. It was
from the pith of papyrus stems that the old Egyptians made
a kind of paper on which they wrote their chronicles. Here
and there swarthy natives are seen between the reed beds,
and sometimes noisy troops of wandering monkeys gaze at
the boat. The hippopotami look like floating islands, but
show themselves only at night, wallowing in the shallow
water. A little beyond the luxuriant vegetation of the banks
extends the boundless grassland with its abundant animal
lifeand thin scattered clumps of trees.
After a journey of four days the steamer glided past an
island. There dwelt in a grotto a dervish or mendicant
monk named Mohamed Ahmed, who ten years later was to
be Gordon's murderer.
In the middle of April Gordon and his companions were
in Gondokoro, a small place which now stands on the
boundary between the Sudan and British East Africa, and
here he took charge of his Equatorial Province. He forced
the Egyptian soldiers, who garrisoned this and one or two
other posts on the Nile and robbed on their own account, to
plough and plant he arrested all slave-hunters within reach
;
and freed the slaves he succoured the poor, protected the

;
helpless, and sent durra to the hungry.

The heat was excessive, and Gordon and his staff were
pestered by crowds of gnats. It was still worse in September
when the rain poured down and large tracts were converted
into swamp, from which dangerous miasma was exhaled.
In a month seven of Gordon's eight officers had died of
fever, but he himself continued his work undismayed, and
wrote in his diary :
" God willing, I shall do much in this
country."
He soon perceived that the best districts of his province
lay around the large lakes in the south. But the Equatorial
Province was too far away from Egypt. It hung as it were
on a long string, the Nile, and from the largest lake, the
Victoria Nyanza, the distance to Cairo in a straight line was
nearly 2200 miles. Much shorter was the route to Mombasa
on the east coast, so Gordon advised the Khedive to occupy
Mombasa and open a road to the Victoria Nyanza. Then
it would be easier to contend against the slave-trade. He
described the condition of the Sudan in forcible letters,
and into the Khedive's ears were dinned truths such as he
„ GENERAL GORDON 241
I Ic would first estab-

never heard from his servile pashas.
lish steam communication with the lakes, and a number of
boats which could be taken to pieces were on the way to
his province.
The boats came up time when the Nile began to
at the
rise after rain, and then plan was to advance farther
his
southwards. The natives were opposed to this progress and
feared the supremacy of Egypt, and therefore they tried to
prevent the advance of the " White Pasha," who was loath to
employ arms against them. All they wanted was to be left
in peace in their grasslands and forests and when now an
;
intruder, whose aims they did not understand, penetrated into

their country, they endeavoured whenever they could to bar
his way, so that he was obliged, much against his will, to
resort to force.
After all kinds of troubles and difficulties he reached at
last the northernmost of the Nile lakes, the Albert Nyanza,
and it was a great feat to have brought a steamer even thus
far. He did not succeed in reaching the Victoria Nyanza,
for the ruler of the country between the lakes had resolved to
oppose with all his power any intruder, were he white man
or Arab.
For three years Gordon was at work on the Upper Nile in
the neighbourhood of the equator. During the next three
years we find him in the deserts of the Sudan farther north.
He was Governor-General of the whole of the Egyptian
Sudan, and Khartum was his capital. His province was
1200 miles broad, from the Red Sea to the Sahara, and as
long from north to south. The whole country was in a state
of unrest. The Khedive had carried on an unsuccessful
war against the Christian King of Abyssinia, and the
Mohammedan states of Kordofan and Darfur were in revolt
against Egypt. There half- savage Beduin tribes were
scattered about over the deserts, and there some of the worst
slave-dealers had their haunts.
In May, 1877, Gordon mounted his swift dromedary to set
out on a journey of 2000 miles. He wished to visit the
villages and camps of the slave-dealers in distant Darfur.
The hot season had set in. When the sun stood at its
meridian altitude the shadow of the dromedary disappeared
beneath the animal. A dreary desert extended on all sides,
greyish-yellow, dusty, and dry.
The White Pasha skims over the desert mile after mile.
He has the finest dromedary in all the land, an animal that
R
2 42 FROM POLE TO POLE PT n
.
became famous throughout the Sudan. Some hundreds of

Egyptian troopers follow him, but he leaves them all far
behind and only a guide keeps up with him. He rushes over
the desert like the wind, and suddenly and unexpectedly draws
rein at the gates of an oasis before the guard can shoulder their
arms. After giving his orders in the name of the Khedive,
he disappears as mysteriously, no one knows whither. At
another oasis, perhaps 300 miles away, the chief has been
warned of his coming and has therefore posted watchmen
to look out for him. Round about lies the desert, sandy and
yellow, with a surface as level as a sea, where the approach
of the White Pasha can be seen from a long distance. The
watchman announces that two black specks are visible in the
distance, which, it is supposed, are the Pasha's outriders, and
some hours must pass before he arrives with his troops. The
two specks grow larger and come rapidly nearer. The
dromedaries swing their long legs over the ground, seeming
to fly on invisible wings. Now the men have come to the
margin of the oasis. The watchers can hardly believe their
eyes. One of the riders wears the gold-embroidered uniform
of an Egyptian pasha. Never had the Sudan seen a
Governor-General travelling in this way without flags and —
noisy music, and stripped of all the display appropriate to
his rank.
And as he came so he flew away again, mysteriously and
incomprehensibly. Again and again he lost his armed force.
In some districts he closed the paths leading to wells in
order to bring the submission.
refractory tribes toWith
inflexible severity he broke the power of the chiefs who still
carried on trade in slaves. He freed numbers of black
captives and drilled them as soldiers, for his own fighting
men were the scum of Egypt and Syria. With a handful of
men he dealt his blows at the weakest points of the enemy's
defence and thus always gained the victory. In four months
he suppressed the revolt and checked the power of the slave-
dealers.
Gordon had now cleared all the west of the Sudan, and
only Dara in southern Darfur remained to be dealt with.
There the most powerful slave-dealers had collected to offer
resistance. He came down one day like lightning into their
camp. They might easily have killed him it was he who —
had ruined their trade in black ivory. He went uncon-
cernedly among the tents, and they did not dare to touch
him. And when his own troops arrived, he summoned all
the chiefs to his tent and laid his conditions before them.
They were to lay down their arms and be off each to his
own home ; and one by one they obeyed and went away
without a word.
But the slave-trade was a weed too deeply rooted in the
soil to be eradicated in a single day, and the revolt and
troubles which constantly arose out of this horrible traffic
gave Gordon no peace. He left the Sudan at the end of 1879,
and the next two years were occupied with work in India,
China, Mauritius, and South Africa. Meanwhile remarkable
events had occurred in Egypt. Great Britain had sent vessels
and troops to the land of the Khedive, and had taken over
the command and the responsibility. The chief of the
dervishes, Mohamed Ahmed, whom we remember on the small
island in the Nile, proclaimed that he was chosen by God to
relieve the oppressed, that he was the Mahdi or Messiah of
Islam. Discontent prevailed among the Mohammedans
throughout the Sudan, for Egypt had at length prohibited the
slave-trade,and the Mahdi collected all the discontented
people and tribes under his banner. His aim was to throw
off the yoke of Egypt. Proud and arrogant, he sent de-
spatches through the whole of the Sudan, and his summons
to a holy war flew like a prairie fire over North Africa.
The British Government, which was now responsible for
Egypt, was in a difficulty. The Sudan must either be con-
quered or evacuated, for the Egyptian garrisons were still at
Khartum and at several places even down to the equator.
The Government decided on evacuation, and Gordon was
sent to perform the task of withdrawing all the garrisons.
He accepted the mission and set out immediately for Cairo.
Thus Gordon began his last journey up the Nile. At
Korosko, just at the northern end of the great S-shaped bend
of the Nile, he mounted his dromedary and followed the
narrow winding path which has been worn out during
thousands of years through the dry hollows of the Nubian
desert, over scorched and weathered volcanic knolls and
through dunes of suffocating sand.
On February 18, 1884, Gordon, for the second time
Governor - General of the Sudan, made his entry into
Khartum, where he took up his quarters in his old palace.
Cruelty and injustice had again sprung up during the years
he had been absent. He opened the gates of the over-
crowded gaols, and the prisoners were released and their
fetters removed. All accounts of unpaid taxes were burned
244 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. ii
in front of the palace. All implements of punishment and

torture were broken to pieces and thrown into the Nile.
Then began the evacuation of the town. As many as
3000 women and children were sent to Abu Hamed and
through the desert to Korosko. They got through with-
out danger and were saved. Where women and children
could travel, it would have been easy to lead troops from
Egypt. Instead of this, however, England despatched an
expedition to Suakin to secure an outlet on the Red Sea,
whereupon the rebellious tribes of the Sudan were roused to
fury, believing that the white men intended to come and take
their country. Consequently they rallied all the more
resolutely round the Mahdi, and their hatred extended to
the dreaded Gordon and the few Europeans with him in
Khartum.
As long as the telegraph line was still available to Cairo,
Gordon kept the authorities informed of the state of affairs
and pointed out what should be done to ensure success. He
asked especially that the road from Berber to Suakin should
be held, for from this line also the Sudan could be con-
trolled, but his advice was not attended to and Berber was
eventually surrounded by the Mahdi's troops and captured.
Several chiefs north and north-east of Khartum, who had
previously been friendly disposed, now joined the Mahdi.
News of fresh desertions came constantly to Khartum, and
even in the town Gordon was surrounded by traitors.
itself
On March 10 the telegraph line was cut and then followed
six months of silence, during which the world learned little
or nothing of the brave soldier in the heart of Africa. On
March 1 1 Arab war parties appeared on the bank of the
Blue Nile, for the Mahdi was drawing his net ever closer
round the unfortunate town.
During the preceding years the Egyptian Government
had caused Khartum to be fortified after a fashion, and
during the earlier months of the siege Gordon worked day
and night to strengthen the defences. His soldiers threw up
earthern ramparts round the town, a network of wire entangle-
ments was set up, and mines were laid at places where an
assault might be expected. At the end of April the town
was entirely blockaded, and only the river route to the
north was still open. At the beginning of May the Arabs
crossed the Blue Nile, suffering great losses from exploding
mines and the guns of the town. In the early part of
September there were still provisions for three months, and
n GENERAL GORDON 245
the Arabs, perceiving that they could not take the town by
storm from the White Pasha, resolved to starve it out.
The Nile was now at its highest, and huge grey turbid
volumes of water hurried northwards. Now was the only
chance for a small steamer to try to get to Dongola, where it
would be in safety. On the night of September 9 a small
steamer was made ready for starting, and Gordon's only
English comrades, Colonel Stewart and Mr. Power, went on
board, together with the French Consul, a number of Greeks,
and fifty soldiers. They took with them accounts of the
siege, correspondence, lists and details about provisions,
ammunition, arms, men, and plans of defence, and everything
else of particular value. Silently the steamer moved off from
the bank, and when day dawned Gordon was alone. Alas,
the little steamer never reached Dongola, for it was wrecked
immediately below Abu Hamcd. Every soul on board was
murdered, and all papers of value fell into the hands of the
Mahdi. On the other hand, Gordon's diary from September
10 to December 14, 1884, is still extant, and is wonderful
reading.
By this time the British Government had at last decided
to send an expedition to relieve Khartum. River boats were
built in great numbers, troops were equipped for the field,
the famous general, Lord Wolseley, was in command, and by
the middle of September the first infantry battalion was up
at Dongola on the northern half of the great S of the Nile.
But then the steamers had only just arrived at Alexandria,
and had to be taken up the Nile and tediously dragged
through the cataracts, while the desert column which was to
make the final advance on Khartum had not yet left England.
A long time would be required to get everything ready.
In Khartum comparative quiet as yet prevailed. The
dervishes bided their time patiently, encamping barely six
miles from the outworks. Shots were exchanged only at a
distance. On September 21 Gordon learned by a messenger
that the relief expedition was on the way, and ten days later
he sent his steamboats northwards to meet it and to hasten
the forwarding of troops. But thereby he lost half of his
own power of resistance.
On October 21 the Mahdi himself arrived in the camp
outside Khartum, and on the following day sent Gordon
convincing proofs that Stewart's steamboat had sunk and
that all on board had been slain. He added a list of all the
journals and documents found on board. From these the
Mahdi had learned almost to a day how long Khartum

could hold out, the strength of the garrison, the scheme of
defence, where the batteries stood and how long the ammuni-
tion would last. This was a terrible blow to the lonely
soldier, but it did not break down his courage. The death of
Stewart and his companions grieved him inexpressibly, but
he sent an answer to the Mahdi that if 20,000 boats had
—
been taken it would be all the same to him " I am here
like iron."
In the relief expedition was a major named Kitchener,
who was afterwards to become very famous. He tried to
get into Khartum in disguise to carry information to Gordon,
and he did succeed in sending him a letter with the news
that the relieving force would set out from Dongola on
November 1. When the letter reached Gordon the corps
had been two days on the march, but the distance from
Dongola to Khartum is 280 miles in a straight line.
By November 22 Gordon had lost nearly 1900 of his
fighting men, but his diary shows that he was still hopeful.
On December 10 there were still provisions for fifteen days.
The entries in the diary now become shorter, and repeatedly
speak of fugitives and deserters, and of the diminishing
store of provisions. On December 14 Gordon had a last
opportunity of sending news from Khartum, and the diary
which the messenger took with him closes with these words :
" I have done the best for the honour of our country.
Good-bye."
After the sending-off of the diary impenetrable darkness
hides the occurrences of the last weeks in Khartum. One or
two circumstances, however, were made known by deserters.
During the forty days during which the town held out after
December 14, 1 5,000 townspeople were sent over to the Mahdi's
camp, and only 14,000 civilians and soldiers were left in the
doomed city. Omdurman fell, and the Mahdi's troops pressed
every day more closely on all sides. Actual starvation began,
and rats and mice, hides and leather were eaten, and palms
stripped to obtain the soft fibres inside. But the White
Pasha rejected all proposals to surrender.
Meanwhile the relief columns struggled southwards and
on January 20, 1885, reached Metemma, only a hundred
miles from Khartum. There they fell in with Gordon's boats,
which had lain waiting in vain for four months, and four
days later two of the boats started for Khartum.
Halfway they had to pass up the sixth cataract, there
;
losing two days more, and not till the 28th had they left the
rapids behind them. The noonday sun was shining brightly
when the English soldiers and their officers saw Khartum
straight in front of them on the point between the White and
Blue Niles. All glasses were turned on the tall palace
every one was in the greatest excitement and dared hardly
breathe, much less speak. There stood Gordon's palace, but
no flag waved from the roof.
The boats go on, but no shouts of gladness greet their
crews as long-looked-for rescuers. When they are within
range the dervishes open fire, and wild troops intoxicated
with victory gather on the bank. Khartum is in the hands
of the Mahdi, and help has come 48 hours too late.
Two days before, January 26, the dervishes, furious at
their continual losses and the obstinate resistance of the town,
had flocked together for a final assault. The attack was
made during the darkest hour of the night, after the moon
had set. The defenders were worn out and rendered in-
different by the pangs of hunger. The dervishes rushed into
the town, the streets and lanes with their savage
filling
howling. was then that Gordon gathered together his
It
twenty remaining faithful soldiers and servants, and dashed
sword in hand out of the palace. It was growing light in
the east, and the outlines of bushes and thickets on the Blue
Nile were becoming clear. The small party took their way
across an open square to the Austrian Mission church, which
had previously been put in order for a last refuge. On the
way they were met by a crowd of dervishes and were killed
to the last man. Foremost among the slain was Gordon.
The Conquest of the Sudan

The Mahdi did not long enjoy the fruits of his victory,
for he died months to the day after the fall of Khartum.
five
His successor, Abdullah, bore the title of Khalifa, and for
thirteen years was a scourge to the unfortunate land. The
tribes of the Sudan, tired of the oppression of Egypt, had
welcomed the Mahdi as a deliverer, but they had only
exchanged Turkish pashas for a tyrant unmatched in cruelty
and shamelessness. Abdullah plundered and exhausted the
country, but with the money and agricultural produce he
extorted from the people he was able to maintain a splendid
army always ready for the field. His capital was Omdurman,
where the Mahdi was buried under a dome but he did not
;
fortify the town, for long before any Christian dogs could
advance so far their bones would whiten in the sands of Nubia.
Yet after many years the hour of vengeance was at hand.
The British Government had taken the pacification of the
Sudan inhand, and in 1898 an army composed of British and
Egyptian troops was advancing quietly and surely up the
Nile. There was no need to hurry, and every step was made
with prudence and consideration. The leader, General
Kitchener, the last man to send a letter to Gordon, made
his plans with such foresight and skill that he could calculate
two years in advance almost the very day when Khartum
and Omdurman would be in his hands.
At the Atbara, the great tributary of the Nile which flows
down from the mountains of Abyssinia, Kitchener inflicted
his first great defeat on the Khalifa's army in a bloody battle.
From Atbara the troops pushed on to Metemma without
further fighting, and on August 28 they were only four days'
march from Khartum.
The green of acacia and mimosa is now conspicuous on
the banks of the river, which is very high. The grey gun-
boats pass slowly up the Nile in the blazing sun, and the
troops push on as steadily and as surely as they have from
the start of the expedition. Small parties of mounted
dervishes are seen in the far distance. The country becomes
more diversified, and the route runs through clumps of bushes
and between hillocks. A short distance in front are seen white
tents, flags, and horsemen, and the roll of drums is heard.
It is the Khalifa calling his men to the fight but at the last
;
moment the position is abandoned, the dervishes retire, and

Kitchener's army continues its march.
At length the vaulted dome over the Mahdi's grave
beside the Nile bank rises above the southern horizon, and
round about it are perceived the mud houses and walls of
Omdurman. Between the town and the attacking army
stretches a level sandy plain scantily clothed with yellow
grass and here took place a battle which will not be forgotten
;
for centuries throughout the Sudan.

On the morning of September 2, Kitchener's forces are
drawn up in order of battle. Single horsemen emerge from
the dust on the hillocks, increase in number, and then
come in clouds like locusts— an army of 50,000 dervishes.
Their fanatical war-cry rises up to heaven, gathers strength,
grows louder, and rolls along like a storm wind coming in
„ THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN 249
from the sea. They charge at a furious pace in an unbroken

line, and it looks as though they would ride like a crushing
avalanche right over the enemy. But the moment they come
within range fire issues from thousands of rifles, and the
dervishes find themselves in a perfect hail of bullets. Their
ranks are thinned, but they check their course only for a
moment, and ride on in blind fury and with a bravery which

only religious conviction can inspire. The English machine
guns scatter their death-bolts so rapidly that a continuous
roll of thunder is heard, and the dervishes fall in heaps like
ripe corn before the scythe. The fallen ranks are constantly
replaced by fresh reinforcements, but at last the dervishes
have had enough and beat a retreat. At once Kitchener
pressed on to Omdurman, but the bloody day is not yet at
an end. The dervish horsemen rally yet once more. The
Khalifa's standard is planted in the ground on a mound, and
beside it the Prophet's green banner calls the faithful together
for a last desperate struggle. The English and their Egyptian
allies fight with admirable courage, and the dervishes strike
with a bravery and contempt of death to which no words can
do justice. Under the holy banner a detachment advances
into the fire, wavers, is mown down, and falls, and almost
before the smoke of the powder has cleared away, another
presses forward on the track of the slain, only to meet the
same fate and join their comrades in the happy hunting-
grounds of eternity.
At length the day was ended and the Khalifa's army
annihilated — 11,000 killed, 16,000 wounded, and 4000
prisoners ! The Khalifa himself escaped. His harem and
servants deserted him, and he who in the morning had been
absolute ruler over an immense kingdom, wandered about
in the woods like an outlaw. He fled to the south-west and
succeeded in collecting another army, which was completely
cut to pieces the following year in a battle in which he
himself also perished.
When all was quiet in Omdurman, the victors had a
solemn duty to fulfil. Thirteen and a half years had passed
since the death of Gordon, and at last the obsequies of the
hero were to be celebrated in a fitting manner. In the court in
front of Gordon's palace the troops are drawn up on three
sides of a square, and on the fourth stands the victor, sur-
rounded by generals of divisions and brigades and by his staff.
Kitchener raises his hand, and in a moment the Union Jack
rises to the top of the flagstaff on the palace, while a
thundering salute from the gunboats greets the new colours

and the Guards' band plays the National Anthem. Another
sign, and the flag of Egypt goes up beside the Union Jack
and the Khedive's hymn is played. Then the belated funeral
service is impressively conducted by four clergymen of
different Christian denominations, the Sudanese band plays
a hymn which Gordon loved, and lastly Kitchener is saluted
with the greatest enthusiasm by the officers and men under
his command.
Ostriches
Now all is changed in the Sudan. A railway runs from

the Nile delta up to Khartum, and another connects Berber
with the Red Sea. In Khartum there are schools, hospitals,
churches, and other public buildings, and one can travel safely
by steamboat up to the great lakes. Gordon's scheme to
connect the Victoria Nyanza with Mombasa on the coast
has been carried out, and a railway has been constructed
through British East Africa. White men have advanced
from all sides deeper and deeper into the Black Continent,
and have made themselves masters of almost all Africa. Wild
animals have suffered by this intrusion into their formerly
peaceful domain, and their numbers have been diminished by
the chase. In some districts game has quite disappeared, the
animals having sought remoter regions where they can live
undisturbed.
In the Sahara, in the Libyan desert, on the open grasslands
along the Upper Nile, on the veldt of South Africa, wherever
the country is open and free, lives the ostrich but it does not
;
occur in the worst desert tracts, which it crosses only in case

of necessity, for it likes to have water always near at hand.
The appearance of the ostrich is no doubt familiar. It is
powerfully built its long bare neck supports a small flattened
;
head with large bright eyes the long legs rest on two toes
; ;
and the wings are so small that the animal is always restricted
to the surface of the ground, where, however, it can move with
remarkable swiftness. The valuable feathers grow on the
wings. ostrich attains a height of eight feet, and when
The
full grown may weigh as much as 165 pounds.
Ostriches live in small flocks of only five or six birds.
They feed in the morning, chiefly on plants, but they also
devour small animals and reptiles. By midday their stomachs
are full, and they rest or play, leaping in circles over the sand,
ii OSTRICHES 251
regardless of the blazing sun or the heated ground. Then

they drink and wander about eating in the afternoon. In the
evening they seek their roosting-places.
Sight is the ostrich's acutest sense, but its scent and hearing
arc also sharp. When it is pursued, it darts off with flutter-
ing wings, taking steps ten or twelve feet long. It is always
on the look-out for danger, and the zebra likes to keep near it to
avail itself of the bird's watchfulness. In North Africa the
Arabs hunt the ostrich on swift horses or running dromedaries.
Two or three horsemen follow a male, which after an hour's
course is tired out, and gradually relaxes its pace. The horses
also are tired after such a chase, but one of the riders urges
on his steed to a last spurt, rushes past the ostrich, and hits it
on the head so that it falls to the ground. The bird is then
skinned, the skin being turned inside out so as to form a bag
for the feathers. The feathers of the wild ostrich arc much
finer and more valuable than those of the tame. A full-grown
ostrich has only fourteen of the largest white feathers.
The hens lay their eggs in a shallow hollow in loamy or
sandy soil, and it is the male bird which sits on the eggs. In
the daytime the nest may be left for hours, but then the
ostriches cover the eggs with sand. The young ones leave
their shells after six weeks and go out into the desert. They
are already as large as fowls, but then an ostrich egg weighs
as much as twenty-four hen's eggs, and measures six inches
along its greatest diameter.
The ostrich is remarkably greedy, and turns away from
nothing. The great zoologist, Brehm, who had tame ostriches
under his care, reports that they ate rats and chickens and
swallowed small stones and potsherds, and once or twice his
bunch of keys disappeared down the stomach of an ostrich.
"
In one ostrich's stomach was found nine pounds of " ballast
— stones, rags, buttons, bits of metal, coins, keys, etc.
Some say that the ostrich is inconceivably stupid, but
others will not accept such a severe condemnation. The
traveller Schillings, who is noted for his photographs of big
game in Africa taken at night by flashlight, once followed the
spoor of some lions for several hours. Suddenly he came
upon an ostrich's nest with newly hatched chickens, and he
wondered where the parents were. To his astonishment, he
found that the lion had not touched the defenceless creatures,
and he soon discovered the reason. In the moonlight night
the ostriches had perceived the danger in time and sprang up
to lure the lion away from the nest. Their stratagem sue-
252 FROM POLE TO POLE pt.ii
ceeded, for it was evident from the spoor that the lion had
pursued the flying ostriches farther and farther from the nest.
And when the pair of ostriches thought that they had enticed
the king of animals far enough off, they returned home.
Baboons
Baboons are monkeys which resemble dogs rather than
human beings, and almost always remain on the ground,
seldom climbing trees. They are cruel, malicious, and
cunning, their expression is fierce and savage, and their eyes
wicked. Among their allies they are surpassed in strength
only by the gorilla and they are bold and spirited, and do
;
not shun a deadly struggle with the leopard. They have

sharp and powerful teeth with which to defend themselves,
and their tusks are very formidable.
The old Egyptians paid deep homage to the sacred apes,
which belong to the baboon tribe, and had them represented
on their monuments as judges in the kingdom of death. They
live in large companies among the cliffs of the Red Sea coast
of Nubia and Abyssinia, but they also occur in the interior
on high mountains. Roots, fruits, worms, and snails are
their chief food. They are afraid of snakes, but they catch
scorpions, carefully pinching off the poison gland before
eating the reptiles. When durra fields are in the neighbour-
hood of the baboons' haunts, watchmen must be posted, or
the animals work great havoc among the grain. And when
they are out on a raid, they, too, have sentinels on the look-
out in every direction.
During the night and when it rains they sit huddled up
among inaccessible rocks, whither they climb with wonderful

activity. They sally forth in the morning to satisfy their
hunger, returning to the high rocks at noon. Afterwards
they go to the nearest brook or spring to drink, and after
another meal retire for the night.
If a party of such baboons, consisting perhaps of a hundred
individuals, is sitting in a row near the edge of a cliff and
suddenly becomes aware of a threatening danger— as, for
instance, a prowling leopard— they all utter the most singular
noises, grunting, shrieking, barking, and growling. The old
males go to the edge and look down into the valley, fuss
about and show their ugly tusks and strike their forepaws
against the sides of the rock with a loud smack. The young
ones seek their mother's protection and keep behind them.
ii BABOONS 253
Brchm once surprised such a party huddled together on

the margin of a cliff. The first shot that echoed through the
valley roused the greatest commotion and displeasure, and
the monkeys howled and bellowed in chorus. Then they
began to move with astonishing activity and surefootedness.
Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no
damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh
shot they halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks
and yelled abuse at their disturbers. The front of the cliff
seemed in some places to be vertical, but the baboons climbed
about everywhere. At the next bend of the road the whole
troop came down into the valley, intending to continue their
flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting
dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop
of baboons, but before they could come up with it, the old
baboons halted, turned round and presented such a terrible
front to the dogs that these quickly turned back. When the
dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time, most of
the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few
remaining in the valley, among them a small young one.
Frightened at the onslaught of the dogs, the little creature
fled shrieking up a boulder, while the dogs stood round its
base. Brehm wished to catch the young one alive, but just
then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no heed
of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, con-
trolling them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block,
whispered some calming sound into the ear of the young one,
and set out on his return with his protege. The dogs were so
cowed that they never attacked, and both the young baboon
and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their friends.
The Hippopotamus
In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large,
clumsy, and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred
also in Lower Egypt, where it was called the river hog, but
at the present day it is necessary to go a good distance south
of Nubia in order to find it. In many rivers it migrates with
the seasons. It descends the river as this falls in the dry
season, and moves up again when the bed is filled by rain.
The body of the hippopotamus is round and clumsy, and
is supported by four short shapeless legs with four hoofed
toes on each foot. The singular head is nearly quadrangular,

254 FROM POLE TO POLE PT n
.
the eyes and ears are small, the snout enormously broad and
the nostrils wide (Plate XXIX.). The hairless hide, three-
quarters of an inch thick, changes from grey to dark brown
and dirty red according as it is dry or wet. The animal is
thirteen feet long, without the small short tail, and weighs as
much as thirty full-grown men.
The hippopotamus spends most of his time in the water,
but goes on land at night, especially in those districts where the
rivers do not afford much food. Stealing carefully along a
quiet river the traveller may often take him by surprise, and
see two small jets of water rise from his nostrils when he
comes up to breathe, snorting and puffing noisily. Then he
dives again, and can remain under water three or four
minutes. When he lies near the surface only six small knobs
are seen above the water, the ears, eyes, and nostrils. If he
is not quite sure of the neighbourhood, he thrusts only his
nostrils above water and breathes as noiselessly as possible.

Hippopotami often lie splashing in shallow water, or
climb up on to the bank to sun themselves and have a quiet
lazy time. Very frequently they are heard to make a
grunting noise of satisfaction. When evening comes they
seek the deeper parts of the river, where they swim up and
down, chase one another, and roll about in the water with
great nimbleness and activity. They swim with great speed,
throwing themselves forward in jerks, and filling the air with
their gurgling bellowing cry ;
yet if they like they can swim
so quietly that not the least ripple is heard. A wounded
hippopotamus stirs up the water so that a small canoe may
capsize in the swell from his forequarters.
When several old males are bellowing together, the din is
heard for miles through the forest and rolls like thunder over
the water. No other animal can make such a noise. Even
the lion stops to listen.
On the Upper Nile, above Khartum, where the most
luxuriant vegetation struggles for room on the banks, and
the river often loses itself in lakes and swamps, the hippo-
potamus, like the crocodile, seldom goes ashore. Here he
lives under lotus plants and papyrus leaves, soft reeds and
all the other juicy vegetation that thrives in water-logged
ground. He dives and rummages for a couple of minutes,
stirring up the water far around. When he has his huge
mouth full of stems and leaves, he comes up to the
surface again, and the water streams in cataracts off his
rounded body.
n
l'l.AI I. XXIX,
\ iiiri't >p< ami s.
.
ii THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 255
In districts where he goes on land to graze, he often works
great damage among the corn and green crops, and may
even attack the villagers. And he is not always to be trifled
with if a canoe disturbs his repose. The most dangerous is
a mother when her young ones are small. She carries them
on her back as she swims and dives, sometimes to the bottom
of the river. A gun must be heavily loaded if the shot is
to have any effect on such a monster, and penetrate such a
cuirass of hide. If the animal puffs and dives, he is lost to
the hunter ; but if he raises himself high out of the water
and then falls again with a heavy thud, the wound is mortal
and the hippopotamus sinks to the bottom. After an hour
or two the body rises to the surface again.
Some negro tribes on the White Nile dig pitfalls for hippo-
potami, and on the rivers which enter Lake Ngami (see map,
p. 262) on its northern shore the natives hunt for them with
harpoons, much in the same way as whales are killed in the
northern and southern oceans. The harpoons have a sharp
barbed blade of iron, and this point is secured by strong string
to a stout shaft of wood, the end of which is attached by a line
to a float. Two canoes are dragged on to a raft of bundles
of reed tied together, and between them the black hunters
crouch with harpoons and light javelins in their hands.
When all is ready, the raft is pushed out into the current and
drifts noiselessly down the river. The huge animals can be
heard rolling and splashing in the water in the distance, but
they are still hidden behind a bed of reeds. The raft glides
gently past the point, but the hippopotami suspect no danger.
One of them comes up close beside the raft. The harpooner
stands up like a flash of lightning and drives his sharp weapon
with all his strength into the animal's flank. The wounded
hippopotamus dives immediately to the bottom, and the line
runs out. The float follows the hippopotamus wherever he
takes his flight, and the canoes, now in the water, follow.
When the brute comes up again, he is received with a shower
of javelins, and dives again, leaving a blood-red streak behind
him. He may be irritated when he is attacked time after
time by spears, and it may happen that he turns on his
persecutors and crushes a too venturesome canoe with his
great tusks, or gives it a blow underneath with his head.
Sometimes the animal is not content with the canoes, but
attacks the men, and many too daring hunters have lost their
lives in this way. When the hippopotamus has been
sufficiently tired out, the hunters pick up the float, and take
.
the line ashore to wind it round a tree, and then they pull
with all their might to draw the creature up out of the water.
The flesh is eaten everywhere, especially that of the
young animals, and the tongue and the fat of the older ones
are considered delicacies. Riding-whips, shields, and many
other articles are made out of the hide, and the large tusks
are valuable. Hippopotami may be seen in some of the
zoological gardens in Europe, but they do not thrive well in
the care of man.
Man-eating Lions
A terrible tale of man-eating lions is told by Colonel
Patterson in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.
Colonel Patterson had been ordered for service on the
Uganda Railway, which runs from Mombasa north-westwards
through British East Africa to the great lake Victoria
Nyanza, the largest source-lake of the Nile. But in 1898,
when the Colonel arrived, the railway had not been carried
farther than the Tsavo, a tributary of the Sabaki, which
enters the sea north of Mombasa. Here at Tsavo (see map,
p. 237) the Colonel had his headquarters, and in the neighbour-
hood were camped some thousands of railway coolies from
India. A
temporary wooden bridge crossed the Tsavo, and
the Colonel was to build a permanent iron bridge over the
river, and had besides the supervision of the railway works for
thirty miles in each direction.
Some days after his arrival at Tsavo the Colonel heard
of two lions which made the country unsafe. He paid little
heed to these reports until a couple of weeks later, when one
of his own servants was carried off by a lion. A
comrade,
who had a bed in the same tent, had seen the lion steal
noiselessly into the camp in the middle of the night, go
straight to the tent, and seize the man by the throat. The
poor fellow cried out " Let go," and threw his arms round the
beast's neck, and then the silence of night again fell over the
surroundings. Next morning the Colonel was able to follow
the lion's spoor easily, for the victim's heels had scraped
along the sand all the way. At the place where the lion had
stopped to make his meal, only the clothes and head of the
unfortunate man were found, with the eyes fixed in a stare
of terror.
Disturbed by this sight and the sorrowful occurrence, the
Colonel made a solemn oath that he would give himself no
ii MAN-EATING LIONS 257
rest untilboth the lions were dead. Gun in hand, he climbed up

into a tree close by his servants' tent and wailed. The night
was quiet and dark. In the distance was heard a roar, which
came nearer as the two man-eaters stole up in search of
another victim. Then there was silence again, for lions
always attack in silence, though when they start on their
night prowl they utter their hoarse, awful cry, as though to
give warning to the men and animals in the neighbourhood.
The Colonel waited. Then he heard a cry of terror and
despair from another camp a hundred yards away, and after
that all was still again. A man had been seized and dragged
away.
Now the Colonel chose a waiting-place where the last man
had been carried off, but here, too, he was disappointed. A
heart-rending shriek rang through the night at still another
part of the camp, and another workman was missing.
The Indian workmen lay in several scattered camps, and
evidently the lions chose a fresh camp every night to mislead
the men. When they found that they could carry off a man
with impunity every night or every other night, they grew
bolder, and showed not the least fear of the camp fires, which
were always kept alight. They paid no heed to the noise
and tumult they caused, or even to gunshots fired at them
in the darkness. A tall, thick fence of tough, thorny bushes
was erected round each camp as a protection, but the lions
always jumped over or broke through it when they wanted
a man. In the daytime the Colonel followed their tracks,
which were plainly visible through the thickets, but of course
could not be perceived on stony ground.
Things became still worse when the rails were laid farther
up the country, and only a few hundred workmen remained
with Colonel Patterson at the Tsavo bridge. He had
unusually high and strong fences built up round his camp,
and the fires were enlarged to blazing pyres, watchmen kept
guard, guns were always ready, and within the enclosure
empty oil tins were banged together to scare the beasts if
possible. But it was all no use. Still more victims dis-
appeared. The Indian workmen became so panic-stricken
that they could not shoot, though the lion was often just in
front of them. A patient was taken from the hospital tent,
and the next victim was a water-carrier from another part of
the camp. He had been lying with his head towards the
middle of the tent and his legs outwards. The lion had
sprung over the fence, seized the man by the foot, and
S
dragged him out. In his despair he had grabbed at a box

standing by the tent canvas, and instead had caught hold of
a tent rope, which gave way. Then the lion, with his prey
in his mouth, had run along the fence looking for a weak
spot, and when he had found one, he dashed right through the
fence. Next morning fragments of clothing and flesh were
found on the paths. The other lion had waited outside, and
they had consumed their prey together.
Then followed an interval of quiet, during which the lions
were engaged elsewhere. It was hoped that the tranquillity
would continue, and the workmen began to sleep outside
because of the heat. One night they were sitting round a
fire, when a lion suddenly jumped noiselessly over the fence
and stood gazing at them. They started up and threw

stones, pieces of wood, and firebrands at the beast, but the
lion sprang forward, seized his man, and dashed through the
fence. His companion was waiting outside, and they were so
impudent that they ate their victim only thirty yards off.
The Colonel sat up at night for a whole week at the camp
where a visit was expected. He says that nothing can be
more trying to the nerves than such a watch, time after time
in vain. He always heard the warning roar in the distance,
and knew that it meant, " Look out we are coming."
;
The hungry cry sounded hoarser and stronger, and the

Colonel knew that one of his men, or perhaps he himself,
would never again see the sun rise over the jungle in the east,
and there was always silence when the brutes were near.
Then the watchmen in the various camps would call out,
" Look out, brothers, the devil is coming." And shortly after-
wards a wild scream of distress and the groans of a victim
would proclaim that the lion's stratagem had been successful
again. At last the lions became so daring that both cleared
the fence at once, to seize a man apiece. Once one lion did
not succeed in dragging his man through the fence, and had to
leave him and content himself with a share of his comrade's
booty. The man left behind was so badly mauled that he
died before he could be carried to the hospital tent.
No wonder that the poor workmen, wearied and worn by
sleeplessness, excitement, and fear of death, decided that this
state of affairs must come to an end. They struck. They
said that they had come to Africa to work at the railway, and
not to supply food for lions. One fine day they took a train
by storm, put all their belongings into the carriages, took
their seats themselves, and went off to the coast. The
ii MAN-EATING LIONS 259
courageous men who remained

with the Colonel passed the
night in the station water-tank, or in covered holes
trees, in
digged down within their tents.
On one occasion the Colonel had invited a friend to
come up to Tsavo and help him against the lions. The
train was late, and it was dark when the guest followed the
path through the wood to the camp. He had a servant with
him, who carried a lantern. Half-way a lion rushed down on
them from a rise, tore four deep gashes in the Englishman's
back, and would have carried him off if he had not fired his
carbine. Dazed with the report, the lion loosed his hold and
pounced on the servant. Next moment he had vanished in
the darkness with his prey.
A few days later a Suaheli came and said that the lion
had seized an ass, and was engaged in his meal not far away.
Guided by the Suaheli, the Colonel hastened up and could
see from a distance the back of the lion above the bushes.
Unfortunately the guide stepped on a twig, and the lion
immediately vanished into impenetrable brushwood. Then
the Colonel ran back and called out all his men. Provided
with drums, sheets of metal and tin cans, they surrounded the
thicket, and closed in with a great noise, while the Colonel
kept watch at the place where the animal would probably
—
come out. Quite right there he came, huge and fierce, angry
at being He came forward slowly, halting
disturbed.
frequently, and looking around. His attention was so taken
up by the noise that he did not notice the sportsman. When
he was about thirteen yards off the Colonel raised his double-
barrelled rifle. The lion heard the movement, struck his
front claws into the ground, drew back on to his hind paws
as though to gather himself up for a spring, and snarled
wickedly, showing his murderous fangs. Then the Colonel
took aim at the head, pressed the trigger, and the rifle —
missed fire !
Fortunately the lion turned at that moment to go back

and the other shot had no effect but to call
into the thicket,
and hasten his flight. The untrustworthy
forth a furious roar
gun had been borrowed for the occasion, and after this the
Colonel determined to rely on his own weapon.
The ass lay still untouched. A platform twelve feet high
was erected on poles close to the carcase, and on this the
Colonel took up his position at sunset. The twilight is very
short on the equator, and the night soon grows dark when
there is no moon. The nights in Africa's jungles are silent
260 FROM POLE TO POLE PT u
.
with an evil-foreboding and awesome silence, which conceals

so many ambushes and costs so many lives. The inhabitants
of the jungle may expect an ambush at any moment. The
lonely Colonel waited, gripping his rifle hard. He relates
himself that he felt more and more anxious as time went on.
He knew that the lion would come to feed on the ass, for no
cry of distress was heard from the adjacent camps.
Hist! that sounds like a small twig breaking under a
weight. Now it sounds like a large body crushing through
the bushes. Then all is quiet again. No, a deep breath,
a sure sign of hunger, betrays the proximity of the monster.
A terrible roar breaks the stillness of the night. The lion
has perceived the presence of a man. Will he fly ? No, far
from it, he scorns the ass and makes for the Colonel. For
two hours he prowls about the platform in gradually
diminishing circles. Now the lion has matured his plan of
attack, and goes straight towards the platform for the
decisive spring. The animal is just perceptible against the
sandy ground. When he is quite close the first shot thunders
through the night, the lion utters a frightened roar and
plunges into the nearest bushes. He writhes, and bellows,
and moans, but the sounds grow weaker, till after a few
long-drawn breaths all is quiet again. The first man-eater
has met his fate.
Before the dawn of day the workmen came out with
trumpets and drums, and, with shouts of rejoicing, carried the
lion-killer round the dead animal. The other lion continued
his visits, and when he too bit the dust a short time after,
the men could quietly resume their work on the railway, and
the Colonel, who had freed the neighbourhood from a scourge
that had troubled it for nine months, became a general hero.
The foreman composed a grand song in his honour, and
presented a valuable testimonial from all the men.
One day he dined with the postmaster Ryall in a
railway carriage, little suspecting the fate that was to befall
the latter in the same carriage a few months later. A man-
eating lion had chosen a small station for his hunting-ground,
and had carried off one man after another without distinction
of rank and worth. Ryall travelled with two other Europeans
up to the place to try and rid it of the lion. On their arrival
they were told that the animal could not be far away, for it
had been quite recently in the neighbourhood of the station.
The three Europeans resolved to watch all night. Ryall's
carriage was taken off the train and drawn on to a siding.
„ MAN-EATING LIONS 261
Here the ground had not been levelled, so the carriage was
tilted a little to one side. After dinner they were to keep
watch in turns, and Ryall took the first watch. The!.:
was a sofa on either side of the carriage, one of them higher
above the floor than the other. Ryall offered these to his
guests, but one of them preferred to lie on the floor between
the sofas. And when Ryall thought he had watched long
enough without seeing the lion, he lay down to rest on the
lower sofa.
Thecarriage had a sliding door which slipped easily in
its grooves, and was unfastened. When all was quiet the
lion crept out of the bush, jumped on to the rear platform of
the carriage, opened the door with his paws, and slipped in.
But scarcely had he entered, when the door, in consequence
of the slope of the carriage, slid to again and latched itself.
And thus the man-cater was shut in with the three sleeping
men.
The sleeper on the higher sofa, awakened by a sharp cry
of distress, saw the lion, which filled up most of the small
space, standing with his hind legs on the man lying on the
floor, and his forcpaws on Ryall, on the lower sofa on the
opposite side. He jumped down in a fright to try and reach
the opposite door, but could not get past without putting
his foot on the back of the lion. To his horror, he found
that the servant, who had been alarmed by the noise, was
leaning against the door outside but, putting forth all his
;
strength, he burst open the door and slipped out, whereupon

it banged to again. At the same moment a loud crash
was heard. The lion had sprung through the window with
Ryall in his mouth, and as the aperture was too small, he
had splintered the woodwork like paper. The remains of
the man were found next day and buried. Shortly after the
lion was caught in a trap, and was exhibited for several days
before being shot.
David Livingstone
In a poor but respectable workman's home in Blantyrc,
near Glasgow, was born a hundred years ago a little lad
named David Livingstone, who was to make himself a great
and famous name, not only as the discoverer of lakes and
rivers, but also as one of the noblest men who ever offered
their lives for the welfare of mankind.
In the national school of the town he quickly learned to
read and write. His parents could not afford to let him
continue his studies, but sent him at ten years of age to a
cotton mill, where he had to work from six o'clock in the
m
'Africa"""^
Livira^tone's Apprenticeship Journey ••..
„ First Great
„ Sec:nd „ „
ii
Third „ „
Funeral Rcute ....
EryUsh Miles
IPO 200 300 4?0 500 600 700
morning till eight in the evening. The hard work did not
break his spirit, but while the machines hummed around him
and the thread jumped on the bobbins, his thoughts and his
desires flew far beyond the close walls of the factory to life
and nature outside. Me did his work so well that his wages
n DAVID LIVINGSTOM'- 263
were raised, and he spent his gains in buying books, which

kept him awake \.iv into the night. To add to his knowledge
he attended a night-school, and on holidays he made long
excursions with his brothers.
Years fled and the boy David grew up to manhood.
One day he told his parents that he wished to be a medical
missionary, and go to the people in the cast and south, tend
the sick, and preach to any who would listen. In order to
procure means for his studies he had to save up his earnings
at the factory, and when the time was come he went with his
father to Glasgow, hired a room for half-a-crown a week, and
read medicine. At the end of the session he went back to the
factory to obtain money for the next winter course. Finally
he passed his examination with distinction, and then came
the last evening in the old home and the last morning
dawned. His father went with him to Glasgow, took a long
farewell of his son, and returned home sad and lonely.
Livingstone sailed from England to the Cape, and betook
himself to the northernmost mission-station, Kuruman in
Bechuanaland. Even at this time he heard of a fresh-water
lake far to the north. It was called Ngami, and he hoped to
see it one day.
From Kuruman he made several journeys in different
directions to gain a knowledge of the tribes and their lan-
guages, to minister to their sick and win their confidence.
Once when he was returning home from a journey and had
still 150 miles to trek, a little black girl was found crouching
under his waggon. She had run away from her owner
because she knew that he intended to sell her as a slave as
soon as she was full-grown, and as she did not wish to be
sold she determined to follow the missionary's waggon on
foot to Kuruman. The good doctor took up the frightened
little creature and provided her with food and drink. Suddenly
he heard her cry out. She had caught sight of a man with
a gun who had been sent out to fetch her and who now came
angrily to the waggon. It never occurred to Livingstone to
leave the defenceless child in the hands of the wretch. He
took the girl under his protection and told her that no danger
would befall her henceforth. She was a symbol of Africa, the
home of the slave-trade. And Africa's slaves needed the help
of a great and strong man. Livingstone understood the call
and worked to his last hour for the liberation of the slaves, as
Gordon did many years later. He strove against the cruel
and barbarous customs of the natives and their dark super-
264 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . 11
stitions,and hoped in time to be able to train pupils who

would be sent out to preach all over the country. In one
tribe the medicine-men were also rainmakers. Livingstone
pointed out to the people of the tribe that the rainmakers'
jugglery was only a fraud and of no use, but offered, if they
liked, himself to procure water for the irrigation of their
fields, not by witchcraft but by conducting it along a canal
from the neighbouring river. Some rough tools were first
hewn out, and he had soon the whole tribe at work, and the
canal and conduits were laid out among the crops. And
there stood the witch-doctors put to shame, as they heard
the water purling and filtering into the soil.
In 1843 Livingstone started off to found a new mission-
station, named Mabotsa. The chief of the place was quite
willing to sell land, and he received glass beads and other
choice wares in payment. Mabotsa lay not far from the
present Mafeking, but seventy years ago the whole region
was a wild. On one occasion a lion broke into the village
and worried the sheep. The natives turned out with their
weapons, and Livingstone took the lead. The disturber of
the peace was badly wounded and retired to the bush. But
suddenly he rushed out again, threw himself on Livingstone,
buried his teeth in his shoulder, and crushed his left arm.
The lion had his paw already on the missionary's head, when
a Christian native ran up and struck and slashed at the
brute. The lion loosed his hold in order to fly at his
new assailant, who was badly hurt. Fortunately the animal
was so sorely wounded that its strength was now exhausted,
and it fell dead on the ground. Livingstone felt the effects
of the lion's bite for thirty years after, and could never lift
his arm higher than the shoulder ; and when his course was
run his body was identified by the broken and reunited arm
bone. He had to keep quiet for a long time until his wound
was healed. Then he built the new station-house with his
own hands, and when all was ready he brought to it his
young bride, the daughter of a missionary at Kuruman.
Another missionary lived at Mabotsa and did all he
could to render Livingstone's life miserable. The good
doctor hated all quarrelling, and did not wish that white men
should set a bad example to the blacks, so he gladly gave
way and moved with his wife forty miles northwards. The
house in Mabotsa had been built with his own savings, and
as the London Missionary Society gave him a salary of only
a hundred pounds a year, there could not be much over to
„ DAVID LIVINGSTOXK 265
build a house. When he left, the natives round Mabotsa

were in despair. Even when the oxen were yoked to the
waggon, they begged him to remain and promised to build
him another house. It was in vain, however; they lost their
friend and saw him drive off to the village of Chonuane,
which was subject to the chief Scchcle.
From the new station Livingstone made a missionary
journey eastwards to the country whither the Dutch Boers
had trekked from the Cape. They had left the Cape because
they were dissatisfied with the English administration of the
country, for the English would not allow slavery and pro-
claimed the freedom of the Hottentots. The Boers, then,
founded a republic of their own, the Transvaal, so named
because it lay on the other side of the Vaal, a tributary of the
Orange River. Here they thought they could compel the
blacks to work as bondmen in their service without being
interfered with. They took possession of all the springs, and
the natives lived on sufferance in their own country. The
Boers hated Livingstone because they knew that he was an
enemy to the slave trade and a friend to the natives.
Livingstone had plenty of work at the station. He built
his house, he cultivated his garden, visited the sick, looked
after his guns and waggons, made mats and shoes, preached,
taught in his children's school, lectured on medicine, and
instructed the natives who wished to become missionaries.
In his leisure hours he collected natural history specimens,
which he sent home, studied the poisonous tsetse fly and the
deadly fever, and was always searching for remedies. He was
never idle.
—
His new place of abode had one serious defect it was
badly situated as regarded rain and irrigation, and therefore
Livingstone decided to move again forty miles farther to the
north, to Kolobeng, where for the third time he built himself
a house. As before, his black friends were much disturbed
at his departure, and when they could not induce him to
remain, the whole tribe packed up their belongings and went
with him. Then clearing, building, and planting went on
again. At Kolobeng Livingstone had a fixed abode for
quite five years, but this was his longest and last sojourn in
one place, for his after-life was a continuous pilgrimage with-
out rest and repose. As usual, he gained the confidence and
friendship of the natives.
The worst trouble was the vicinity of the Boers. They
accused him of providing Sechelc's tribe with weapons and
exciting them against the Boers. They threatened to kill all

black missionaries who ventured into the Transvaal, and
devised plans for getting rid of Livingstone. Under such
conditions his work could not be successful, and he longed to
go farther north to countries where he could labour in peace
without hindrance from white men who were nominally
Christians, but treated the natives like beasts. Besides, hard
times and famine now came to Kolobeng. The crops
suffered from severe drought, and even the river failed. The
natives went off to hunt, and the women gathered locusts
for food. No child came to school, and the church was
empty on Sunday.
Then Livingstone resolved to move still farther north-
wards, and on June i, 1849, the party set out. An
Englishman named Oswell, who was Livingstone's friend,
went with them and bore all the expenses of the journey.
He was a man of means, and so several waggons, eighty
oxen, twenty horses, and twenty-five servants were provided.
After two months' march they came to the shore of Lake
Ngami, which was now seen for the first time by Europeans.
The king, Lechulatebe, proved less friendly than was expected.
When he heard that Livingstone intended to continue his
journey northwards to the great chief Sebituane, he feared
that the latter would obtain firearms from the white men and
would come down slaying and pillaging to the country round
the lake. Finally the expedition was obliged to turn back to
Kolobeng. Livingstone, however, was not the man to give
in, and he went twice more to the lake, taking his wife and
children with him.
On one of these journeys he came to the kingdom of the
great and powerful Sebituane, and was received with the
most generous hospitality. The chief gave him all the
information he wished, and promised to help him in every
way. Afew days later, however, Sebituane fell ill of in-
flammation of the lungs and died.
Livingstone then continued his journey north-eastward
with Oswell to the large village of Linyanti, and shortly after
discovered a river so large and mighty that it resembled one
of the firths of Scotland. The river was called the Zambesi.
Its lower course had long been known to Europeans, but no
one knew whence it came. The climate was unhealthy, and
was not suitable for the new mission-station that Livingstone
intended to establish. The Makololo people, the tribe of the
deceased chief, promised to give him land, huts, and oxen if
„ DAVID LIVINGSTON']': 267
he would stay with them, but his mind was now occupied
with great scIh.-iius and In- gave up all thoughts of a station.
Honest, legitimate trade must first he made to flourish. The
Makololo had begun to sell slaves simply to be able to buy
firearms and other coveted wares from Europe. If they
could be induced to sell ivory and ostrich feathers instead,
they would be able to procure by barter all they wanted from
European traders and need not sell any more human beings.
But to start such a trade a convenient route must first be
found to the coast of either the Atlantic or Indian Ocean. A
country in which the black tribes were in continual war
with one another simply for the purpose of obtaining slaves
was not ripe for Christianity. Accordingly Livingstone's
plan was clear first to find a way to the coast, and then to
:
foster an honest trade which would make the slave-trade

unnecessary.
1 laving sent his wife and children to England, Livingstone
made his preparations, and in the year 1853 he was at
Linyanti, in the country of the Makololo. Here began his
remarkable journey to Loanda on the west coast, not far
south of the mouth of the Congo. No European had ever
travelled this way. His companions were twenty-seven
Makololos, and his baggage was as light as possible, chiefly
cloth and glass beads, which serve as currency in Africa. He
took no provisions, as he thought he could live on what the
country afforded.
The journey was difficult and troublesome, through a
multitude of savage tribes. Eirst the Zambesi was followed
upwards, and then the route ran along other rivers. In
consequence of heavy rain, swollen watercourses and
treacherous swamps had to be crossed continually. Living-
stone rode an ox which carried him through the water after a
small portable boat had been wrecked and abandoned.
Swarms of mosquitoes buzzed over the moist ground, and
Livingstone repeatedly caught fever from the damp, close
exhalations, and was often so ill that he could not even sit
on his ox. But amidst all these difficulties and hardships he
never omitted to observe the natural objects around him and
to work at his map of the route. His diary was a big volume
in stout boards with lock and key, and he wrote as small and
as neatly as print.
Step by step he came nearer the sea. Most opportunely
they met a Portuguese, ami in his company the small troop
entered the Portuguese territory on the west coast. The
Portuguese received Livingstone with great hospitality, sup-

plied him with everything he wanted, and rigged him out
from top to toe.
Some English cruisers were lying off Loanda, having come
to try to put down the slave-trade, and Livingstone enjoyed
a delightful rest with his countrymen and slept in a proper
bed after having lain for half a year on wet ground. It would
have been pleasant to have had a thorough holiday on a com-
fortable vessel on the voyage to England after so many years'
wanderings in Africa, but Livingstone resisted the temptation.
He could not send his faithful Makololos adrift besides, he
;
had found that the route to the west coast was not suitable
for' trade, and was now wondering whether the Zambesi
might serve as a channel of communication between the
interior and the east coast. So he decided to turn back in
spite of fever and danger, bade good-bye to the English and
Portuguese, and again entered the great solitude.
Before Livingstone left Loanda he put together a large
mass of correspondence, notes, maps, and descriptions of the
newly discovered countries, but the English vessel which
carried his letters sank at Madeira with all on board, and
only one passenger was saved. News of the misfortune
reached Livingstone when he was still near the coast, and he
had to write and draw all his work again, a task that took
him months. If he had left the Makololo men to their fate he
would have travelled in the unfortunate vessel.
Rain and sickness often delayed him, but on the whole his
return journey was easier. He took with him from Loanda
a large stock of presents for the chiefs, and they were no
longer strangers. And when he came among the villages of
the Makololo, the whole tribe turned out to welcome him,
and the good missionary held a thanksgiving service in the
presence of all the people. Oxen were killed round the fires
at night, drums were beaten, and with dance and song the
people filled the air far above the crowns of the bread-fruit
trees with sounds of gladness. Sekeletu was still friend ly,
and was given a discarded colonel's uniform from Loanda.
In this he appeared at church on Sunday, and attracted more
attention than the preacher and the service. His gratitude
was so great that when Livingstone set out to the east coast
he presented his white friend with ten slaughter oxen, three
of his best riding oxen, and provisions for the way. And
more than that, he ordered a hundred and twenty warriors to
escort him, and gave directions that, as far as his power
ii DAVID LIVINGSTONE 269
extended over the forests and fields, all hunters and tillers of
the ground should provide the white man and his retinue
with everything they wanted. Not the least remarkable
circumstance connected with Livingstone's travels was that
he was able to carry them out without any material help from
home. He was the friend of the natives, and travelled for
long distances as their guest.
Now his route ran along the bank of the Zambesi, an
unknown road. During his earlier visit to Linyanti he had
heard of a mighty waterfall on the river, and now he dis-
covered this African Niagara, which he named the Victoria
Falls. Above the falls the river is 1800 yards broad, and the
huge volumes of water dash down foaming and roaring over
a barrier of basalt 390 feet high to the depth beneath. The
water boils and bubbles as in a kettle, and is confined in a
rocky chasm in some places barely 50 yards broad. Clouds
of spray and vapour hover constantly above the fall, and the
natives call it " the smoking water." Among the general
public in Europe, Livingstone's description of the Victoria
Falls made a deeper impression than any of his other dis-
coveries, so thoroughly unexpected was the discovery in
Africa of a waterfall which could match, nay in many respects
surpass, Niagara in wild beauty and imposing power. Now
a railway passes over the Falls, and a place has grown up
which bears the name of Livingstone.
The deafening roar of the water died away in the distance,
and the party followed the forest paths from the territory of
one tribe to that of the next. Steadfast as always, Livingstone
met all danger and treachery with courage and contempt of
death, a Titan among geographical explorers as well as
among Christian missionaries. He drew the main outlines
of this southern part of Darkest Africa and laid down the
course of the Zambesi on his map. For a year he had been
an explorer rather than a missionary. But the dominating
thought in his dream of the future was always that the end of
geographical exploration was only the beginning of missionary
enterprise.
At the first Portuguese station he left his Makololo men,
promising to return and lead them back to their own villages.
Then he travelled down the Zambesi to Quilimanc on the sea.
He had, therefore, crossed Africa from coast to coast, and
was the first scientifically educated European to do so.
After fifteen years in Africa he had earned a right to go
home. An English ship carried him to Mauritius, and at the
270 FROM POLE TO POLE ,,. .1
end of 1856 he reached England. He was received every-

where with boundless enthusiasm, and never was an explorer
feted as he was. He travelled from town to town, always
welcomed as a hero. He always spoke of the slave-trade and
the responsibility that rested on the white men to rescue the
blacks. Africa, lying forgotten and misty beneath its moving
rain-belts, became at once the object of attention of all the
educated world.
Detraction was not silent at the home-coming of the victor.
The Missionary Society gave him to understand that he had
not laboured sufficiently for the spread of the Gospel, and
that he had been too much of an explorer and too little of a
missionary. Pie therefore left the Society and when, after a
;
sojourn of more than a year at home, he returned to Africa,

it was in the capacity of English Consul in Ouilimane, and
leader of an expedition for the exploration of the interior of

Africa.
We have no time to accompany Livingstone on his six
years' journeys in East Africa. Among the most important
discoveries he made was that of the great Lake Nyassa,
from the neighbourhood of which 19,000 slaves were
carried annually to Zanzibar, to say nothing of the far greater
numbers who died on the way to the coast. One day
Livingstone went down to the mouth of the Zambesi to meet
an English ship. On board were his wife and a small specially
built steamer called the Lady Nyassa, designed for voyages on
rivers and lakes. Shortly afterwards his wife fell ill and died,
and was buried under the leafy branches of a bread-fruit tree.
In spite of his grief he went on with his work as diligently as
before, and when the time came for him to sail home, he
thought of selling the Lady Nyassa to the Portuguese. But
when he heard that the boat was to be used to transport
slaves, he kept it, steered a course for Zanzibar, and then
resolved to cross the Indian Ocean in the small open boat by
the use of both sails and steam. This was one of Livingstone's
most daring exploits, for the distance to Bombay was 2500
miles across the open sea, and in the beginning of January the
south-west monsoon might be expected with its rough, stormy
seas. He hoped, however, to reach Bombay before the
monsoon broke, so with three white sailors and nine Africans,
and only fourteen tons of coal, he steamed out of the harbour
of Zanzibar, saw the coast of Africa fade away and the dreary
waste of water close round him on all sides.
Two of the white sailors fell ill and were unfit for work,
„ DAVID LIVINGSTONE 271
and the bold missionary had to depend almost entirely (.11

himself. Ocean currents hindered the progress of the Lady
Nyassa, and for twenty-five days she was becalmed, for the
coal had to be used sparingly, and when the sails hung limp
from the mast there was nothing to be done but to exercise
patience. Fortunately there was sufficient food and drinking
water, and Livingstone was accustomed to opposition and use-
less waiting. He had to ride out two violent storms, and the
Lady Nyassa was within a hair's breadth of turning broadside
to the high seas. In view of the immense watery waste that
still lay before him he meditated making for the Arabian
coast,
but as a favourable wind got up and the sailing was good he

kept on his course. At length the coast of India rose up out
of the sea, and after a voyage of six weeks the Lady Nyassa
glided into the grand harbour of Bombay. The air was hazy
and no one noticed the small boat, but when it was known
that Livingstone was in the city, every one made haste to pay
him homage.
In the' year 1866 Livingstone was again in Africa. We
find him at the mouth of the Rovuma, a river which enters the
sea to the east of Lake Nyassa. He had thirty-seven servants,
many of them from India, and one of his men, Musa, had been
with him before. He crossed the country to Lake Nyassa,
but when he wished to pass over to the eastern shore in native
boats, he was stopped by the Arabs, who knew that he was
the most formidable opponent of the slave-trade. He had no
choice but to go round the lake on foot, and little by little he
made contributions to human knowledge, drew maps, and made
notes and collections. He came to districts he already knew,
where black women were carried off by crocodiles on the bank
of the Shire River, where he had lost his wife, and where all
the missionaries sent out on his recommendation had died of
fever.
His staff of servants soon proved to be a worthless lot.
The Indians were dismissed, and few of the others could be

depended on. The best were Susi and Chuma, who by their
faithfulness gained a great reputation both in Africa and
Europe. Musa, on the contrary, was a scoundrel. He heard
from an Arab slave-dealer that all the country through which
Livingstone was about to travel was inhabited by a war-like
tribe, who had lately fallen upon a party of forty-four Arabs
and killed all but the narrator himself. Musa and most of his
comrades were so frightened that they ran away. On his
arrival at Zanzibar, Musa informed the British Consul that
FROM POLE TO POLE pt. n
Livingstone had been attacked and murdered and all his goods
plundered. The false account was so cleverly concocted and
so thoroughly rehearsed that Musa could not be convicted of
deceit. Every one believed him, and the English newspapers
contained whole columns of reminiscences of the deceased.
Only one friend of Livingstone, who had accompanied him on
one of his journeys and knew Musa, had any doubts. He
went himself to Africa, followed Livingstone's trail, and learned
from the natives that the missionary had never been attacked
as reported, but that he was on his way to Lake Tanganyika.
The road thither was long and troublesome, and the great
explorer suffered severe losses. Provisions ran short, and a
hired porter ran away with the medicine chest. From this
time Livingstone had no drugs to allay fever, and his health
broke down. But he came to the southern extremity of
Tanganyika, and the following year discovered Lake
Bangweolo. He rowed out to the islands in the lake, and
very much astonished the natives, who had never seen a
white man before. Extensive swamps lay round the lake, and
Livingstone believed that the southernmost sources of the
Nile must be looked for in this region. This problem of the
watershed of the Nile so fascinated him that he tarried year
after year in Africa ; but he never succeeded in solving it, and
never knew that the river running out of Bangweolo is a tribu-
tary of the Lualaba or L'pper Congo.
Most of his men mutinied on the shore of Bangweolo.
They complained of the hardships they endured and were
tired of munching ears of maize, and demanded that their
master should lead them to country where they could get
sufficient food. Mild and gentle as always, Livingstone spoke
to them kindly. He admitted that they were right, and con-
fessed that he' was himself tired of struggling on in want and
hardship. They were so astonished at his gentleness that they
begged to remain with him.
Livingstone was dangerously ill on this journey and had to
be carried on a litter. There he lay unconscious and delirious
with fever, and lost entirely his count of time. The troop
moved again towards Tanganyika, and was to cross the lake
in canoes to the Ujiji country on the eastern shore. If he
could only get so far, he could rest there, and receive new
supplies and letters from home.
Worn out and exhausted he at length reached Ujiji, a
rendezvous for the Arab slave-dealers. But his fresh supplies
had disappeared entirely. He wrote for more from the coast,
„ DAVID LIVINGSTONE 273
and urged the Sultan of Zanzibar to see that nothing went

astray. He wrote heaps of letters which never reached their
destination. A packet of forty-two were sent off at one time,
not one of which arrived, for at that time the tribes to the east
of the lake were at war with one another.
Livingstone did not allow his courage to fail. No diffi-
cultieswere great enough to crush this man. With Susi and
Chuma and a party of newly enlisted porters, he set out west-
wards across the lake, his aim being to visit the Manyuema
country, through the outskirts of which flows the Lualaba. If
Livingstone could prove in which direction this mighty river
ran, whether to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, he could then
return home with a good conscience. He had determined in
his own mind that he would not leave the Dark Continent until
he had solved the problem, and for this he sacrificed his life
without result. The canoes sped over the lake, and on the
western shore he continued his journey on foot to the land of
the Manyuemas. He marched on westwards. When the rainy
season came on he lost several months, and when he set out
again on his next march he had only three companions, two
of them being the faithful Susi and Chuma. In the dark
thickets of the tropical forests he wounded his feet, dragged
himself over fallen trunks and decaying rubbish, and waded
across swollen rivers and among the crowns of the lofty trees
;
and in the dense undergrowth lurked malaria, an invisible

miasma. He fell ill again and had to rest a long time in
his miserable hut, where he lay on his bed of grass reading his
tattered Bible, or listening to the native's tales of combats with
men and apes, for gorillas lived in the forests.
Thus year after year passed by, and not the faintest
whisper from the noisy world reached his ears. The only
thing that retained him was the Lualaba. Did its waters
run in an inexhaustible stream to the western ocean, or did
they flow gently through forests, swamps, and deserts to
Egypt ? If he could only answer that question, he would
go by the nearest way to Zanzibar and thence home. He
had heard nothing of his children and friends for years.
The soil of Africa held him prisoner in a network of forests
and lianas.
In February 1S71 he left Manyuema and came to Nyangwe
on the bank of the Lualaba, one of the principal resorts of
slave-dealers. The natives were hostile, believing that he
was a slave-trader and the slave-traders who knew him by
;
sight hated him. He tried in vain to procure canoes for a

T
274 FROM POLE TO POLE n. n
voyage down the great river. He offered a chief, Dugumbe,

a liberal reward if he would help him to prepare for this
expedition. While Dugumbe was considering the offer,
Livingstone witnessed an episode which surpassed in horror
all that he had previously met with in Africa. It was a
fine day in July on the bank of the Lualaba, and 1500
natives, mostly women, had flocked to market at a village
on the bank. Livingstone was out for a stroll, when he saw
two small cannon pointed at the crowd and fired. Many of
the unfortunate people, doomed to death or the fetters of
slavery, rushed to their canoes, but were met by a band of
slave-hunters and surprised by a shower of arrows. Fifty
canoes lay at the bank, but they were so closely packed that
they could not be put out. The wounded shrieked and threw
themselves on one another in wild despair. A
number of
black heads on the surface of the water showed that many
swimmers were trying to reach an island about a mile away.
The current was against them and their case was hopeless.
Shot after shot was fired at them. Some sank quietly without
a struggle, while others uttered cries of terror and raised their
arms to heaven before they went down to the dark crystal
halls of the crocodiles. Fugitives who succeeded in getting
their canoes afloat forgot their paddles and had to paddle
with their hands. Three canoes, the crews of which tried to
rescue their unfortunate friends, filled and sank, and all on
board were drowned. The heads in the water became
gradually fewer, and only a few men were still struggling for
life when Dugumbe took pity on them and allowed twenty-
one to be saved. One brave woman refused to receive
help, preferring the mercy of the crocodiles to that of the
slave-king. The Arabs themselves estimated the dead at 400.
This spectacle made Livingstone ill and depressed. The
description of the scene which afterwards appeared in all the
English journals awakened such a feeling of horror that a
commission was appointed and sent out to Zanzibar to
inquire into the slave-trade on the spot, and with the Sultan's
help devise means of suppressing it. But we know that in
Gordon's time the slave-trade still flourished in the Sudan,
and several decades more passed before the power of the
slave-dealers was broken. As for Livingstone, it was fortunate
that he did not accompany Dugumbe, for the natives com-
bined for defence, attacked the chief's party and slew 200
of the slave-dealing rabble.
Thus the question of the Lualaba remained unsolved, but
"
„ DAVID LIVINGSTON]-: 275
Livingstone began to suspect that his theory of the Nile

sources was wrong. lie heard a doubtful tale of the Lualaba
bending off to the west, but he still hoped that it flowed
northwards, and that therefore the ultimate source of the Nile
was to be found among the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. When
difficulties sprang up around him, his determination not to
give in was only strengthened. But he could do nothing
without a large and well-ordered caravan, and therefore he
had to return to Ujiji, whither fresh supplies ought to have
arrived from the coast. And amidst a thousand dangers and
lurking treachery he effected his return through the disturbed
country. Half dead of fever and in great destitution he-
arrived at Ujiji in October.
There a fresh disappointment awaited him. His supplies
had indeed come, but the Arabian scoundrel to whose care
the goods had been consigned had sold them, including 2000
yards of cloth and several sacks of glass beads, the only
current medium of exchange. The Arab coolly said that
he thought the missionary was dead.
We read in Livingstone's journal that in his helplessness
he felt like the man who went down to Jericho and fell
among thieves. Five days after his arrival at Ujiji he writes
as follows " But when my spirits were at their lowest ebb,
:
the good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning Susi
came running at the top of his speed and gasped out 'An
Englishman I see him and off he darted to meet him.
!
! '
The American flag at the head of a caravan told of the

nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin,
huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, etc., made me think This '
must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end

like me!'"
How Stanley found Livingstone

Now we must go back a little and turn to another story.
Henry Stanley was a young journalist, who in October
happened to be in Madrid. He was on the staff of the
great newspaper, the New York Herald, which was owned
by the wealthy Gordon Bennett. One morning Stanley was
awakened by his servant with a telegram containing only
the words "Come to Paris on important business."
: Stanley
travelled to Paris by the first train, and at once went to
Bennett's hotel. Bennett asked him, " Where do you think
Livingstone is ?
—
2/6 FROM POLE TO POLE ,. T . u
" I really do not know, sir."

" Do you think he is alive?"
" He may be, and he may not be."
"Well, I think he is alive," said Bennett, "and I am
going to send you to find him."
" What !
" cried Stanley. " Do you mean me to go to
"
Central Africa ?
" Yes I mean that you shall go and find him.
;
The old
man may be in want take enough with you to
; help him,
should he require it. Do what you think best but find
Livingstone."
In great surprise Stanley suggested that such a journey
would be very expensive, but Bennett answered, " Draw a
thousand pounds now and when you have gone through
;
that, draw another thousand, and when that is spent, draw

another thousand, and when you have finished that, draw
another thousand, and so on but find Livingstone"
;
" Well," thought Stanley, " I will do my best, God helping

me." And so he went off to Africa.
He had, however, been charged by his employer to fulfil
other missions on the way. He made a journey up the Nile,
visited Jerusalem, travelled to Trcbizond and Teheran and
right through Persia to Bushire, and consequently did
not arrive at Zanzibar until the beginning of January,
1871.
Here he made thorough preparations. He had never
been before in the Africa of the Blacks, but he was a clever,
energetic man, with a genius for organisation. He bought
cloth enough for a hundred men for two years, glass beads,
brass wire and other goods in request among the natives.
He bought saddles and tents, guns and cartridges, boats,
medicine, tools, provisions and asses. Two English sailors
volunteered for the expedition, and he took them into his
service, but both died in the fever country. Black porters
were engaged, and twenty men he called his soldiers carried
guns. After he had crossed over from Zanzibar to the
African mainland, the equipment of the expedition was com-
pleted at Bagamoyo, and Stanley made haste to get away
before the rainy season commenced.
The great and well-found caravan of 192 men in all
trooped westwards in five detachments. Stanley himself
led the last detachment, and before them lay the wilderness,
the interior of Africa with its dark recesses. At the first
camping-ground tall maize was growing and manioc plants
ii HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE 277
were cultivated in extensive fields. The latter is a plant

with large root bulbs chiefly composed of starch, but also
containing a poisonous milky juice which is deadly if the
roots be eaten without preparation. When the sap has been
removed by proper treatment, however, the roots are crushed
into flour, from which a kind of bread is made. Round a
swamp in the neighbourhood grew low fan-palms and acacias
among luxuriant grass and reeds.
Next day they marched under ebony and calabash trees,
from the shells of which the natives make vessels of various
shapes, for while they are growing the fruits can be forced
by outward pressure into almost any desired form. Pheasants
and quails, water-hens and pigeons flew up screaming when
the black porters tramped along the path, winding in single
file through the grass as high as a man. Hippopotami lay
snorting unconcernedly in a stream that was crossed.
Then came the forerunners of the rainy season, splashing
and pelting over the country, and pouring showers pattered
on the grass. Both the horses of the caravan succumbed,
one or two fellows who found Bagamoyo more comfortable
ran away, and a dozen porters fell ill of fever. Stanley was
still full of energy, and beat the reveille in the morning himself
with an iron ladle on an empty tin. On they went through
dense jungle. Now a gang of slaves toils along, their chains
clanking at every weary step. Here again is a river, and
there the road runs up a hill. Here the country is barren,
but soon after crops wave again round villages. Maize fields
in a valley are agitated like the swell of the sea, and gentle
breezes rustle through rain -bedewed sugar-cane. Bananas
hang down like golden cucumbers, and in barren places
tamarisks and mimosas perfume the air. Sometimes a halt
is made in villages of well-built grass huts.
Over swampy grasslands soaked by the continuous rains
Stanley led his troop deeper and deeper into Africa. After
having lasted forty days, the rainy season came to an end on
the last day of April. The men marched through a forest of
fine Palmyra palms, a tree which grows over almost all tropical
Africa, in India, and on the Sunda Islands, and which is
extolled in an old Indian poem because its fruits, leaves, and
wood can be applied to eight hundred and one various uses.
Afterwards the country became more hilly, and to the west
one ridge and crest rose behind another. The porters and
soldiers were glad to leave the damp coast-land behind and
get into drier country, but the ridges made travelling harder.
They encamped in villages of beehive-shaped huts covered

with bamboos and bast, and surrounded by mud walls. Some
tracts were so barren that only cactus, thistles, and thorny
bushes could find support in the dry soil, and near a small
lake were seen the tracks of wild animals, buffaloes, zebras,
giraffes, wild boars, and antelopes, which came there to drink.
Then the route ran through thickets of tamarisk, and
under a canopy of monkey bread-fruit trees, till eventually at
a village Stanley fell in with a large Arab caravan, with
which he travelled through the dreaded warlike land of
Ugogo. When they set out together the whole party
numbered 400 men, who marched in Indian file along the
narrow paths.
" are you, White Man ? " called out a man at Ugogo
How
in a thundering voice when Stanley arrived, and when he had
set up his quarters in the chiefs village the natives flocked
around to gaze at the first white man they had ever seen.
They were friendly and offered milk, honey, beans, maize,
nuts, and water-melons in exchange for cloth and glass beads,
but also demanded a heavy toll from the caravan for the
privilege of passing through their country.
The caravan proceeded through the avenues of the jungle,
from time immemorial frequented by elephants and rhino-
ceroses. In one district the huts were of the same form as
Kirghiz tents, and in another rocks rose up in the forest like
ruins of a fairy palace. The porters were not always easy to
manage, and on some occasions were refractory. But if they
were given a young ox to feast on, they quickly calmed down
and sat round the fire while strips of fresh meat frizzled over
the embers.
Now it was only one day's march to Tabora, the principal
village in Unyamwezi, and the chief settlement of the Arabs
in East Africa. The caravan set out with loud blasts of
trumpets and horns, and on arrival discharged a salvo of guns,
and Arabs in white dresses and turbans came out to welcome
the explorer. Here Stanley found all his caravans, and the
Arabs showed him every attention. They regaled him with
wheaten loaves, chickens and rice, and presented him with
five fat oxen, eight sheep, and ten goats. Round about they
had cultivated ground and large herds, and it was difficult to
believe that the stately well-grown men were base slave-
traders.
Just at this time the country of Unyamwezi was disturbed
by a war which was raging with Mirambo, a great chief in
„ HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE 279
the north-west, and consequently when Stanley left Tabora,

now with only fifty-four men, he had to make a detour to the
south to avoid the seat of war. At every step he took,
his excitement and uncertainty increased. Where was this
wonderful Livingstone, whom all the world talked about?
Was he dead long ago, or was he still wandering about the
forests as he had done for nearly thirty years ?
A bale or two of cloth had frequently to be left with a
chief as toll. In return one chief sent provisions to last the
whole caravan for four days, and came himself to Stanley's
te.it with a troop of black warriors. Mere they were invited
to sit down, and they remained silent for a while, closely
examining the white man then they touched his clothes,
;
said something to one another, and burst out into unrestrained

laug'nter. Then they must sec the rifles and medicine chest.
Stamey took out a bottle of ammonia, and told them that it
was good for headaches and snake-bites. His black majesty
at once complained of headache and wanted to try the bottle.
Stanley held it under the chiefs nose, and of course it was so
strong that he fell backwards, pulling a face. His warriors
roared with laughter, clapped their hands, snapped their
fingers, pinched one another, and behaved like clowns. When
the king had recovered, he said, as the tears ran from his
eyes, that he was quite cured and needed no more of the
strong remedy.
A river ran among hills, through a magnificent country
abounding in game, and lotus leaves floated on the smooth
water. The sun sinks and the moon soars above the mimosa
trees, the river shines like a silver mirror, antelopes arc on
the watch for the dangers of the night. Within the en-
closure of the camp the black men sit gnawing at the bones
of a newly-shot zebra. But when it is time to set out
again from the comfortable camp, the porters would rather
remain where they arc and enjoy themselves, and when
the horn sounds they go sullenly and slowly to their loads.
After half an hour's march they halt, throw down their loads,
and begin to whisper in threatening groups. Two insub-
ordinate ruffians lie in wait with their rifles aimed at Stanley,
who at once raises his gun and threatens to shoot them on
the spot if they do not immediately drop their rifles. The
mutiny ends without bloodshed, and the men promise again
to go on steadily to Lake Tanganyika, according to their
agreement.
Now Stanley is in a forest tract where cattle of all kinds
"
2 So FROM POLE TO POLE pt. ii
are pestered by the tsetse fly, and where the small honey bird
flics busily about among the trees. It is like the common
grey sparrow, but somewhat larger, and has a yellow spot on

each shoulder. It receives its name from its habit of flying
in short flights just in front of the natives to guide them to
the nests of wild bees, in order to get its share of the honey.
When a man follows it, he must not make a noise to frighten
it, but only whistle gently, that the bird may know that its
intention is understood. As it comes nearer to the wild bees'

nest, it takes shorter flights, and when it is come to the spot,
it sits on a branch and waits. Stanley says that the honey
bird is a great friend of the natives, and that they follow it at
once when it calls them.
Stanley now turned northwards to a river which flows into
Lake Tanganyika. The caravan was carried over in small
frail boats, and the asses which still survived had to swim.
When the foremost of them came to the middle of the river
he was seen to stop a moment, apparently struggling, and
then he went down, a whirlpool forming above his head. He
had been seized by a crocodile.
A caravan which came from Ujiji reported that there was
a white man in that country. " Hurrah, it is Livingstone !
It must be Livingstone " thought Stanley.

!
His eagerness
and zeal were stimulated to the uttermost, and he offered his
porters extra pay to induce them to make longer marches.
Eventually the last camp before Tanganyika was reached in
safety, and here Stanley took out a new suit of clothes, had
his helmet chalked, and made himself spruce, for the reports
of a white man's presence at the lake became more definite.
The 28th of October, 1871, was a beautiful day, and
Stanley and his men marched for six hours south-westwards.
The path ran through dense beds of bamboo, the glittering,
silvery surface of Tanganyika was seen from a height, and
blue, hazy mountains appeared afar off on the western shore.
The whole caravan raised shouts of delight. At the last ridge
the village of Ujiji came into sight, with its huts and palms
and large canoes on the beach. Stanley gazed at it with
eager eyes. Where was the white man's hut ? Was Living-
stone still alive, or was he a mere dream figure which vanished
when approached ?
The villagers come streaming out to meet the caravan,
and there is a deafening noise of greeting, enquiries, and shouts.
From the midst of the crowd a black man in a white shirt
and a turban calls out, " Good morning, sir !
"
ii HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE 2S1
" Who the mischief are you ? " asks Stanley.

" I am Susi, Dr. Livingstone's servant," replied the man.
?
"What! Is Dr. Livingstone here
"Yes, sir."
" In this village? Run at once and tell the Doctor I am
coming."
When Livingstone heard the news he came out from his
verandah and went into the courtyard, where all the Arabs of
Ujiji had collected. Stanley made his way through the
crush, and saw a small man before him, grey and pale, dressed
in a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, a red-sleeved
waistcoat, and grey trousers. Stanley would have run up to
embrace him, but he felt ashamed in the presence of the
crowd, so he simply took off his hat and said, " Dr. Living-
"
stone, I presume?
"Yes," said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.
" I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you."
" I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."
They sat down on the verandah, and all the astonished

natives stood round, looking on. The missionary related his
experiences in the heart of Africa, and then Stanley gave
him the general news of the world, for of course he knew
nothing of what had taken place for years past. Africa had
been separated from Asia by the Suez Canal. The Pacific
Railway through North America had been completed. Prussia
had taken Schleswig-Holstcin from Denmark, the German
armies were besieging Paris, and Napoleon the Third was a
prisoner. France was bleeding from wounds which would
never be healed. What news for a man who had just come
out of the forests of Manyuema !
Evening drew on and still they sat talking. The shades

of night spread their curtain over the palms, and darkness
fell over the mountains where Stanley had marched, still in
uncertainty, on this remarkable day. A heavy surf beat on

the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The night had travelled far
over Africa before at last they went to rest.
The two men were four months together. They hired
two large canoes and rowed to the northern end of Tanganyika,
and ascertained that the lake had no outlet there. Only two
years Lieutenant Cameron succeeded in finding the
later
outlet ofTanganyika, the Lukuga, which discharges into the
Lualaba and when he found that Nyangwe on the Lualaba
;
lies 160 feet lower than the Nile where it flows out of the
282 FROM POLE TO POLE ft. n
Albert Nyanza, he had proof that the Lualaba could not

belong to the Nile, and that Livingstone's idea that the
farthest sources of the Nile must be looked for at Lake Bang-
weolo was only an idle dream. The Lualaba therefore must
make its way to the Atlantic, and in fact this river is nothing
but the Upper Congo. Lieutenant Cameron was also the
first European to cross Central Africa from east to west.
On the shores of the great lake the two travellers beheld a
series of beautiful landscapes. There lay villages and fishing-
stations in the shade of palms and mimosas, and round the
villages grew maize and durra, manioc, yams, and sweet
potatoes. In the glens round the lake grew tall trees from
which the natives dig out their canoes. Baboons roared in
the forests and dwelt in the hollow trunks. Elephants and
rhinoceroses, giraffes and zebras, hippopotami and wild boars,
buffaloes and antelopes occurred in large numbers, and the
northern extremity of the lake swarmed with crocodiles.
Sometimes the strangers were inhospitably received when
they landed, and once when they were off their guard the
natives plundered their canoes. Among other things they
took a case of cartridges and bullets, and the travellers
thought it would be bad for the thieves if the case exploded
at some camp fire.
It soon became time, however, for Stanley to return to
Zanzibar and inform the world through the press that
Livingstone was alive. They went to Tabora, for Living-
stone expected fresh supplies, and in addition Stanley gave
him forty men's loads of cloth, glass beads and brass-wire,
a canvas boat, a waterproof tent, two breech-loaders and other
weapons, ammunition, tools, and cooking utensils. All these
things were invaluable to Livingstone, who was determined to
remain in Africa at any cost until his task was accomplished.
—
The day of parting came March 14, 1872. Stanley
was very depressed, believing that the parting was for ever.
Livingstone went with him a little way and then bade him a
hearty farewell, and while Stanley made haste towards the
coast the Doctor turned back to Tabora and was again alone
in the immense wilds of Africa. But he had still his faithful
servants Susi and Chuma with him.
The Death of Livingstone

At Zanzibar Stanley was to engage a troop of stout,
reliable porters and send them to Tabora, where Livingstone
u THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE 283
was to await their arrival. He had entrusted his journals,

letters, and maps to Stanley's can-, and that was fortunate,
for when Stanley first arrived In England his narrative was
doubted, and he was coldly received. Subsequently a re-
vulsion of feeling- set in, and it was generally recognised that
he had performed a brilliant feat.
In due time the new supply of porters turned up at
Tabora, fifty-seven men. They were excellent and trust-
worthy, and in a letter to Stanley, Livingstone says that he
did not know how to thank him sufficiently for this new
service. At the end of August the indefatigable Doctor set
off on his last journey. He made for Tanganyika, and on
New Year's Day, 1873, he was near Lake Bangweolo. It
rained harder than ever, pouring down as the flood-gates of
if
heaven were opened. The caravan struggled slowly on through
the wet, sometimes marching for hours through sheets of
water, where only the eddies of the current distinguished the
river from the adjoining swamps and flooded lands. The
natives were unfriendly, refused to supply provisions, and
led the strangers astray. Livingstone had never had such a
difficult journey.
His plan was to go round the south of Lake Bangweolo
to the Luapula, which flows out of the lake and runs to the
Lualaba. Then he meant to follow the water in its course to
the north, and ascertain its direction and destination.
But whichever way the mysterious river made its way to
the ocean, the journey was long, and Livingstone's days were
numbered. He had long been ill, and his condition was
aggravated by the hardships of the journey. His body was
worn out, and undermined by constant fever and insufficient
nourishment. Yet he did not abandon hope of success and
conscientiously wrote down his observations, and no Sunday
passed without a service with his people.
Month after month he dragged himself along, but his
strength was no longer what it had been. On April 21 he
wrote with trembling hand only the words, "Tried to ride,
but was forced to lie down and they carried me back to
vil. exhausted." Acomfortable litter was made, and Susi
and Chuma were always with him. Livingstone asked the
chief of the village for a guide for the next day, and the
chief answered, " Stay as long as you wish, and when you
want guides to Kalunganjovu's you shall have them."
The day after he was carried for two hours through marshy,
grassy flats. During the next four days he was unable to
write a line in his diary, but was carried by short stages from
village to village along the southern shore of Lake Bang-
weolo. On April 27 he wrote in his diary, " Knocked up
quite, and remain — —
recover sent to buy milch goats. We
are on the banks of the Molilamo." With these words his
diary, which he had kept for thirty years, concluded. Milch
goats were not to be had, but the chief of the place sent a
present of food.
Four days later the journey was resumed. The chief
provided canoes for crossing the Molilamo, a stream which
flows into the lake. The invalid was transferred from the
litter to a canoe, and ferried over the swollen stream. On the
farther bank Susi went on in advance to the village of
Chitambo to get a hut ready. The other men followed
slowly with the litter. Time after time the sick man begged
his men to put the litter down on the ground and let him
rest. A drowsiness seemed to come over him which alarmed
his servants. At a bend of the path he begged them to stop
again, for he could 'go no farther. But after an hour they went
on to the village. Leaning on their bows, the natives flocked
round the litter on which lay the man whose fame and
reputation had reached them in previous years. A hut was
made ready, and a bed of grass and sticks was set up against
the wall, while his boxes were deposited along the other
walls, and a large chest served as a table. A fire was lighted
outside the entrance, and the boy Majwara kept watch.

Early on April 20 the chief Chitambo came to pay a
visit, but Livingstone was too weak to talk to him. The
day passed, and at night the men sat round their fires and
went to sleep when all was quiet. About eleven o'clock Susi
was told to go to his master. Loud shouts were heard in the
distance, and Livingstone asked Susi if it was their men who
were making the noise. As the men were quiet in their huts,
Susi replied, " I can hear from the cries that the people are
scaring away a buffalo from their durra fields." A few
minutes later he asked, "Is this the Luapula?" "No,"
answered Susi, " we are in Chitambo's village." Then again,
" How many days is it to the Luapula? " " I think it is three
days, master," answered Susi. Shortly after he murmured,
" O dear, dear " and dozed off again.
!
At midnight Majwara came again to Susi's hut and called

him to the sick man. Livingstone wished to take some
medicine, and Susi helped him, and then he said, " All right,
you can go now."
.. THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE 285
About four o'clock on the morning of May Majwara 1
went to Susi again and said, "Come to Bwana, am afraid

I
;
I don't know if he is alive." Susi waked Chuma and some of

the other men, and they went to Livingstone's hut. Their
master was kneeling beside the bed, leaning forward with his
head buried in his hands. They had often seen him at prayer,
and now drew back in reverential silence. But they felt ill at
case, for he did not move; and on going nearer they could
not hear him breathe. One of them touched his cheek and
found it was cold. The apostle of Africa was dead.
In deep sorrow his servants laid him on the bed and went
out into the damp night air to consult together. The cocks
of the village had just begun to crow, and a new day was
dawning over Africa. Then they went in to open his boxes
and pack up everything. All the men were present so that
all might be jointly responsible that nothing was lost. They
carefully placed his diaries and letters, his Bible and instru-
ments, in tin boxes so that they might be safe from wet and
from white ants, which are very destructive.
The men knew that they would have great difficulties to
encounter. They knew that the natives had a horror of the
dead, believing that spirits in the dark land of the departed
thought of nothing but revenge and mischief. Therefore
they perform ceremonies to propitiate departed spirits and
dissuade them from plaguing the living with war, famine, or
sickness.
Susi and Chuma, who had been with their master for
seven years, felt their responsibility. They spoke with the
men whom Stanley had sent from the coast and asked their
opinion. They answered, " You are old men in travelling
and hardships you must act as our chiefs, and we will
;
promise to obey whatever you order us to do." Susi and

Chuma accordingly took the command, and carried out an
exploit which is unique in all the history of exploration.
First of all a hut was erected at some little distance from
the village, and in this they placed the body to prepare it for
the long journey. The heart and viscera were removed,
placed in a tin box, and reverently buried in the ground, one
of Livingstone's Christian servants reading the Funeral
Service. The body was then filled with salt and exposed for
fourteen days to the sun in order to dry and thus be preserved
from decay. The legs were bent back to make the package
shorter, and the body was sewed up tightly in cotton. A
cylinder of bark was cut from a tree and in this the body was
286 FROM POLE TO POLE i,. n
enclosed. Round the whole a piece of canvas was bound,

and the package was tied to a pole for convenience of carry-
ing. On a tree near, Livingstone's name was cut and the
date of his death, and Chitambo was asked to have the grass
rooted up round the tree so that it should not at any time be
destroyed by a bush fire.
When all was ready two men lifted the precious burden from
the ground, the others took their loads on their backs, and a
journey was commenced which was to last nine months, a
funeral procession the like of which the world had never seen
before. The route ran sometimes through friendly, sometimes
through hostile tribes. Once they had to fight in order to
force their way through. News of the great missionary's death
had preceded them. Like a grass fire on the prairie it
spread over Africa from coast to coast, creeping silently
through the forests. In some districts the people ran away
from fear of the sad procession, while in others they came up
to see it. Bread-fruit trees stretched their boughs over the
road like a canopy over a victor returning home, and palms,
the emblems of peace and resurrection, stood as sentinels by the
way, which was left clear by the wild animals of the forest.
And mile after mile the party marched eastwards under the
green arches.
In Tabora they met an English expedition sent out too
late for the relief of Livingstone, and its members listened with
emotion to the tale of the men. They wished to bury the
corpse at Tabora, but Livingstone's servants would not hear
of it. A few days later they met with serious opposition. A
tribe refused to let them pass with a corpse. Then they made
up a load resembling that containing the body, and gave out
that they had decided to return to Tabora to bury their
master there. Some of the men marched back with the false
package, which they took to pieces at night and scattered
among the bush. Then they returned to their comrades, who
meanwhile had altered the real package so as to look like
a bale of cloth. The natives were then satisfied and let them
move on unmolested.
In February, 1874, they arrived at Bagamoyo, and the
remains were carried in a cruiser to Zanzibar and afterwards
conveyed to England. In London there was a question
whether the body was really Livingstone's, but his broken and
reunited arm, which was crushed by the lion at Mabotsa, set
all doubts at rest. He was interred in Westminster Abbey
in the middle of the nave. The temple of honour was filled
—
,, THE DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE 287
to overflowing,and among those who bore the pall was Henry

Stanley. The grave was covered with a black stone slab, in
which was cut the following inscription :
" Brought by \i 1 hi i 1 1. hands

Over land and
Here i.i
DAVID LIVINGSTONE,
Mission \ry, Traveller, Philanthropist.
Born .March 19, 1813,
At BlantyrEj Lanarkshiri .
I mi i. May 4TH, 1873,

A Oil umbo's Villagk, Ilala.
I I
For thirty vicars his life was spi n i
in an cjnvi earied effort to evangelise

hi: native races, to explore the
i
undiscovered secrets,
And abolish mh desolating slave-
trade of Central Africa. ." . .
The memory of the " or the " Helper of Men,"

Wise Heart "
as the)' called Livingstone, is still handed down from father to
son among the natives of Africa, and they are glad that his
heart remains in African soil under the tree in Chitambo's
village. His dream of finding the sources of the Nile, and
of throwing light on the destination of the Lualaba, was not
fulfilled, but he discovered Ngami and Nyassa and other lakes,
the Victoria Falls and the upper course of the Zambesi, and
mapped an enormous extent of unknown country.
Stanley's Great Journey
In the autumn of 1874 Stanley was back in Zanzibar to

try his fortune once more in Darkest Africa. He organised a
caravan of three hundred porters, provided himself with cloth,
beads, brass-wire, arms, boats which could be taken to pieces,
tents, and everything else necessary for a journey of several
years,
lie made first for the Victoria Nyanza, and circum-
navigated the whole lake. He visited Uganda, came again
to Ijiji, where Livingstone's hut had long been razed to the
ground, and sailed all round Lake Tanganyika.
;
Two years after he started he was at Nyangwe on the

Lualaba. Livingstone and Cameron had been there before,
and we can imagine Stanley's feelings when he at last found
himself at this, the most westerly point ever reached by a
European from the coast of the Indian Ocean. Behind him
lay the known country and the great lakes ; before him lay a
land as large as Europe, completely unknown and appearing
as a blank on maps. Travellers had come to its outskirts
from all sides, but none knew what the interior was like. It
was not even known whither the Lualaba ran. Livingstone
had vainly questioned the natives and Arabs about it, and
vainly Stanley also tried to obtain information. At Nyangwe
the Arab slave - traders held their most western market.
Thither corn, fruit, and vegetables were brought for sale
there were sold animals, fish, grass mats, brass-wire, bows,
arrows, and spears and thither were brought ivory and slaves
;
from the But though routes from all directions met

interior.
at Nyangwe, the Arabs were as ignorant of the country as
any one.
black continent, " Darkest Africa," lay before Stanley.
The
He was a bold man, to whom difficulties were nothing. He
had a will of iron. All opposition, all obstacles placed in his
way, must go down before him. He had determined not to
return eastwards, whence he had come, but to march straight
westwards to the Atlantic coast, or die in the attempt.
Accordingly, early on the morning of November 5, 1876,
Stanley left Nyangwe in company with the rich and powerful
Arab chief, Tippu Tib, and directed his way northwards
towards the great forest. Tippu Tib's party consisted of 700
men, women, and children, while Stanley had 154 followers
—
armed with rifles, revolvers, and axes. " Bismillah in the
name of God " cried the Mohammedan leaders of the com-
!
pany, as they took the first step on the dangerous road.

The huge caravan, an interminable file of black men,
entered the forest. There majestic trees stood like pillars in
a colonnade there palms struggled for room with wild vines
;
and canes there flourished ferns, spear-grass, and reeds, and

;
there bushes in tropical profusion formed impenetrable brush-

wood while through the whole was entangled a network of
;
climbing plants, which ran up the trunks and hung down from
the branches. Everything was damp and wet. Dew dropped
from all the branches and leaves in a continuous trickle.
The air was close and sultry, and heavy with the odour of
plants and mould. It was deadly still, and seldom was the
i, STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY 289
slightest breezeperceptible; storms might rage above the

tree-tops, but no wind reached the ground, sheltered in the
dimness of the undergrowth.
The men struggle along over the slippery ground.
Balancing their loads on their heads with their hands, they
stoop under boughs, push saplings aside with their elbows,
thrust their feet firmly into the mud in order not to slip.
Those who are clothed have their clothes torn, while the
naked black men graze their skins. Very slowly the caravan
forces its way through the forest, and a passage has frequently
to be cut for those who carry the sections of the boats.
All who, after Stanley, have travelled through the great
primeval forest in the heart of Africa have likewise described
itssuffocating hot-house air, the peaceful silence, only broken
by the cries of monkeys and parrots, its deep, depressing
gloom. If the journey is of long duration men get wearied,
experiencing a feeling of confinement, and long for air,
freedom, sun, and wind. It is like going through a tunnel,
no country being visible on either side. The illumination is

uniform, without shadows, without gleams, and the perpetual
gloom, only interrupted by pitch-dark night, is exceedingly
wearisome. Like polar explorers in the long winter night,
the traveller longs for the sun and the return of light.
The party travelled northwards at some distance east of
the Lualaba. Stanley climbed up a tree which grew some-
what apart on a hillock. Here he found himself above the
tree-tops, and saw the sunlit surface of the primeval forest
of closely growing trees below him. A continuous sea of
boughs and foliage fell like a swell down to the bank of the
Lualaba. Up here there was a breeze and the leaves fluttered
in the wind but down below reigned darkness and
;
silence
and the exuberant life of the tropics.
Even for such a man as Stanley this primeval forest was
a hard nut to crack. Sickness, weariness, and insubordination
prevailed in his troop. The great Tippu Tib considered it
impossible to advance through such a country, and wished to
turn back with all his black rabble, but after much hesitation
he was at last persuaded to accompany Stanley for twenty
days longer. So on they went once more, and after innumer-
able difficulties came again to the bank of the Lualaba.
The huge volumes of water glided along silently and
majestically. Brown and thick with decaying vegetation,
the Lualaba flowed between dense woods to the unknown
region inhabited by negro tribes never heard of by
U
2QO FROM POLE TO POLE pt. ii
Europeans, and where no white man had ever set his foot.
Here Stanley decided to leave the terrible forest and to make
use of the waterway of the Lualaba. There were the boats
in sections, and a whole fleet of canoes could soon be made
from the splendid trees growing at hand. The whole cara-
van was accordingly assembled, and Stanley explained his
purpose. At first the men grumbled loudly, but Stanley
declared that he would make the voyage even if no one went
with him but Frank Pocock, the only survivor of the three
white men who had started with him from Zanzibar. He
turned to his boat's crew and called out, " You have followed
me and sailed round the great lakes with me. Shall I and
my white brother go alone ? Speak and show me those who
dare follow me " On this a few stepped forward, and then
!
a few more, and in the end thirty-eight men declared them-

selves willing to take part in the voyage.
At this juncture many canoes full of natives were observed
at the opposite side of the river, so Stanley and Tippu Tib
and some other Arabs entered the boat and rowed up to a
small island in mid-stream.
Here the black warriors were in swarms, and thirty canoes
lay at the water's edge. At a safe distance, Stanley's in-
terpreter called out that the white man only wished to see
their country, that nothing belonging to them should be
touched, and that they themselves should not be disturbed.
They answered that if the white man would row out to the
island in the morning with ten servants, their own chief would
meet him with ten men, and would enter into blood-brother-
hood with him. After that the strangers might cross the river
and visit their villages.
Suspecting treachery, however, Stanley sent twenty armed
men by night to the island to hide themselves in the brush-
wood. Then in the morning Pocock and ten men rowed out
to the meeting-place, near which Stanley waited in his boat.
A swarm of canoes put out from the western bank, and when
they came to the island the rowers raised their wild war-
whoop, Ooh-hu I Ooh-hu-hu I and rushed ashore with bows bent
and raised spears. Then Stanley's twenty men came out of
their hiding-place, the fight was short, and the savages dashed
headlong into their boats and rowed away for their lives.
The next morning, with thirty men on board his boat,
Stanley began his journey down the river, while Tippu Tib
and Pocock marched with all the rest of the troop along the
bank. The natives had retired, but their cry of Ooh-hu-hu !
n STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY 291
was still heard in the distance. On an island between the

main river and a tributary Stanley's party landed to wait for
the caravan and help it over the affluent. In the meantime
Stanley made a short excursion up the tributary, the water of
which was inky-black owing to the dark tree roots which
wound about its bottom. On his return he found the camp
island surrounded by hostile canoes and heard random shots,
but when his boat drew near, the savages were frightened
and rowed away.
At length Tippu Tib straggled up with his party, and the
journey could be continued. The boat was rowed near the
bank, and the two divisions were kept in touch with each other
by means of drums. All the villages they came to were
deserted, but the natives were evidently keeping a close watch
on these wonderful strangers, for one day when some of
Stanley's men were out scouting on two captured canoes,
they were attacked, and when they tried to escape they
came among eddies and rapids, where their boats capsized
and four rifles were lost. The men climbed up and sat astride
the upturned canoes until they were rescued by their comrades.
Then the expedition went on again. The river was
usually half a mile broad or more, and frequently divided by
long rows of islands and holms. The large village of Ikondu
consisted of cage-like reed huts built in two long rows. All
the inhabitants had fled, but pitchers full of wine were sus-
pended from the palms, melons and bananas emitted their
fragrance, and there was plenty of manioc plantations,
ground-nuts, and sugar-cane. Near the place was found a
large old canoe, cracked, leaky, and dilapidated, but it was
patched up, put in the river, and used as a hospital. Small-
pox and dysentery raged in the caravan, and two or three
corpses were thrown daily into the river.
Once, as the small flotilla was rowing quietly along not far
from the bank, a man in the hospital canoe cried out. He
had been hit in the chest by a poisoned barb, and this was
followed by a whole shower of arrows. The boats were rowed
out from the dangerous bank, and a camp was afterwards
pitched on an old market-place. The usual fence was set up
round the tents, and sentinels were posted in the bush. Then
were heard shots, cries, and noise. The watchman ran in
calling out, " Look out, they are coming," and immediately
arrows and javelins rattled against the stockade, and the
savages rushed on, singing their dreadful war-songs. But
their arrows and javelins were little use against powder and
ball,and they soon had to retire. They were reinforced,

however, and returned again and again to the attack, and did
not desist till the fight had lasted two hours and twilight
had come on.
After other combats, Stanley and Tippu Tib came to a
country on the western bank densely peopled with hostile
natives, where they had to fight again. The savages were
repulsed, and rowed out to a long island, where they moored
their canoes by ropes fastened round posts. They would
certainly renew the attack next day. But this time they were
to be thoroughly checkmated. Rain pelted down on the
river, the night was pitch dark, and there was a fresh breeze.
Stanley rowed to the island, and his boat stole silently and
cautiously under the high tree-covered bank. He cut the
ropes of every canoe he got hold of, and in a short time
thirty canoes were sent adrift down the river, many of them
being caught by boatmen posted farther down stream. Before
dawn the men were back at the camp with their looted
boats.
The savages, who lay crouching in their grass hovels on
the island, must certainly have felt foolish in the morning
when they found that they had lost their canoes and were left
helpless. Then an interpreter rowed out to them to put
before them the conditions exacted by the white man. They
had treacherously attacked his troop, killing four and wound-
ing thirteen. Now they must furnish provisions, and then
they would be paid for the captured canoes and peace would
be established.
It was important that the expedition should have a few
days' rest at this place, for Tippu Tib had had enough, and
refused to advance a step farther down the river with its
warlike natives. Accordingly, he was to turn back with his
black retinue, while Stanley was to continue the journey with
a selected party, many of whom had their wives and children
with them. The troop consisted of a hundred and fifty souls.
Provisions were collected for twenty days. The canoes were
fastened together in pairs by poles, that they might not
capsize, and the flotilla consisted of twenty-three boats.
It was one of the last days in December. A thick mist
hung over the river and the nearest palms were scarcely
visible, but a breeze sprang up and thinned the haze. Then
the trumpets and drums sounded the signal for starting, and
Stanley gave the order to get into the boats. The parting
song of the sons of Unyamwezi was answered by Tippu Tib's
STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY 293
returning troop, and the flotilla of canoes glided down the
dark rivertowards unknown lands and destiny.

Stanley believed that this mighty river, which he named
after Livingstone, was none other than the Congo, the mouth
of which had been known for more than four hundred years;
but he did not reject the possibility that it might also unite
with the Nile or be connected with the Niger far away to
the north-west. The journey which was now to solve this
problem will be famous for all time for its boldness and daring,
for the dangers overcome and adventures experienced, and
is quite comparable with the boat journeys of the
Spaniards
who discovered the Amazons and Mississippi rivers in
America.
Fourteen villages buried in the dense bush, and Stanley's
lie
flotilla makes for the to encamp for the first time after
bank
parting from Tippu Tib. Here the natives are friendly, but
there is trouble a little farther on, where the woods echo with
the noise of war-drums and the savages are drawn up with
shield and spear. The drum signals are repeated from village
to village, from the one bank to the other. Canoes are
manned and put out from both banks and Stanley's flotilla is
surrounded. The interpreters call out " Peace Peace " but
!
!
the savages answer peremptorily, Turn" back or fight."

Consultations and negotiations are held, while the river
sweeps down the whole assemblage of friends and foes. More
villages peep out from the trees where dwell enemies of the
attacking savages, so the latter dip their oars in the water
and row back without coming to blows.
But soon there was a different scene. Javelins were
thrown from other canoes and the dreadful poisoned arrows
were discharged, so the death-dealing European firearms had
to be used in self-defence. On this occasion Stanley's men
succeeded in capturing a number of shields, of which indeed
they had need.
Again the war-drum is heard, just as the flotilla is passing
a small island. Stanley orders his boats to keep in the middle
of the river ready for action. Swarms of canoes shoot out
from the bank like wild ducks, and the black warriors beat
their spears against their shields. The interpreter gets up in
"
the bow and shouts out " Peace !Take care or we strike !
Then the savages hesitate, and retire quietly under promon-

tories and overhanging wooded banks. By the single word
" Peace " the interpreter could often check parties of warriors,
!
but others answered the offer of peace with a scornful laugh,

and their showers of arrows and assegais had to be met with

a volley of rifle bullets.
The New Year (1877) had already come, when a friendly
tribe warned the travellers of dangerous falls and rapids, the
roar of which they would shortly hear. The flotilla glided
along the right bank, and all listened for the expected
thunder. Suddenly savages appeared on the bank and_ hurled
their assegais ; then the war-drums were heard again, and
a large number of long canoes approached (Plate XXX.).
The warriors had painted one half of their bodies white and the
other red, with broad black stripes, and looked hideous. Their
howls and horn blasts betokened a serious attack. By this time
Stanley's boats were out in the middle of the stream in order
of battle, with the shields placed along the gunwales to protect
the non-combatants. A canoe 80 feet long rowed straight for
Stanley's boat, but was received by a rattling volley. Then
it was Stanley's turn to attack, for the great canoe could not
turn in time. Warriors and oarsmen jumped overboard to
save themselves by swimming to land, and as the other boats
vanished the expedition could go on towards the falls.
Now was heard the roar of the water as it tumbled in wild
commotion over the barriers in its bed. The natives thought
that this was just the place to catch the strangers, and Stanley
had to fight his way step by step, sometimes on land and
sometimes on the river. In quiet water between the various
falls the men could row, but in other places paths had to be
cut through the brushwood on the bank and the canoes hauled
over land. Often they had to fight from tree to tree. Once
the savages tried to surround Stanley's whole party in a large
net, and lost eight of their own men for their trouble. These
captives were tattooed on the forehead and had their front
teeth filed to a point. Like all the other people in the country,
they were cannibals, and were eager for human flesh.
One day at the end of January Stanley's boats crossed the
equator, and the great river turned more and more towards
the west, so that it evidently could not belong to the Nile.
Here the party passed the seventh and last fall, where the
brown water hurled itself in mad fury over the barrier. Thus
the series of cascades afterwards known as the Stanley Falls
was discovered and passed.
Below the falls the river expands, sometimes to as much
as two miles in breadth. The opposite bank could hardly be
seen, and the boats came into a labyrinth of channels between
islands. The rowers sang to the swing of their oars, and a
i, STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY 295
sharp look-out had always to be kept. Sometimes can'

followed them, and occasionally ventured to attack. Wild
warriors were seen with loathsome features, and red and grey
parrots' feathers Oil their heads, and bangles of ivory round
their arms.
In one village was found a temple with a round roof
supported on thirty-three elephants' tusks. In the middle
was set up an idol carved in wood and painted red, with black
eyes, hair, and beard. Knives, spears, and battle-axes were
wrought with great skill, and were ornamented with bands of
copper, iron, and bone. Among the refuse heaps were seen
remains of horrible feasts, and human skulls were set up on
posts round the huts.
Interminable forests grew on the banks and islands, with
the many-rooted mangrove-tree, tall, snake-like canes with
drooping tufts of leaves, the dragon's-blood tree, the india-
rubber, and many others.
Danger and treachery lurked behind every promontory,
and the men had to look out for currents, falls, rapids, and
whirlpools. Hippopotami and crocodiles were plentiful. But
the savages were the worst danger. Stanley and his men
were worn out with running the gauntlet month after month.
At the village of Rubunga, where the natives were friendly,
Stanley heard for the first time that the river actually was the
Congo. Here the traveller was able to replenish his stock of
provisions, and when the drums of Rubunga were sounded it
was not for battle but to summon the inhabitants to market, and
from the surrounding villages the people came to offer for sale
fish, snails, oysters, dried dog-flesh, goats, bananas, meal, and
bread. As a rule, however, no trust could be placed in the
natives. In their hideous tattooing, with strings of human
teeth round their necks and their own teeth filed to a point
like a wolfs, with a small belt of grass round their loins and
spears and bows in their hands, they did not inspire confidence,
and frequently the boats had barely put out from the bank
where the people seemed friendly before the natives manned
their canoes and pursued them. In this region they were
armed with muskets procured from the coast. Once Stanley's
small flotilla was surrounded by sixty-three canoes, and there
was a hard fight with firearms on both sides. In the foremost
canoe stood a young chief, handsome, calm, and dignified,
directing the attack. He wpre a head-covering and a mantle
of goatskin, and on his arms, legs, and neck he had large
rings of brass wire. A
bullet struck him in the thigh. lie
quietly wound a rag round the wound and signed to his

oarsmen to make for the bank. Then the others lost courage
and followed their leader's canoe.
They struggled southwards from one combat to another.
The passage of the great curve of the Congo had cost thirty-
two fights. Now remained a difficult stretch, where the mighty
river breaks in foaming falls and rapids through the escarp-
ment which follows the line of the west coast of Africa.
These falls Stanley named after Livingstone he was well
;
aware that the river could never be called by any other name
than the Congo, but the falls would preserve the great
missionary's name. Innumerable difficulties awaited him
here. On one occasion half a dozen men were drowned and
several canoes were lost, and the party had to wait while
others were cut out in the forest. One day Pocock drifted
towards a fall, and was not aware of the danger until it was
too late and he was swept over the barrier. Thus perished the
last of Stanley's white companions.
At another fall the coxswain and the carpenter went
adrift in a newly excavated canoe. They had no oars.
"Jump, man," called out the former, but the other answered,
" I cannot swim." " Well, then, good-bye, my brother," said
the quartermaster, and swam ashore. The other went over
the fall. The canoe disappeared in the seething whirlpool,
came up again with the man clinging fast to it, was sucked
under once more, and rose again still with the carpenter. But
when it reappeared for the third time in another whirlpool
the man was gone.
At last all the boats were abandoned and the men travelled
by land. The party was entirely destitute, all were emaciated,
miserable, and hungry. A black chief demanded toll for their
passage through his country, and they had nothing to give.
He would be satisfied with a bottle of rum he said. Rum,
indeed, when they had been three years in the depths of
Africa Stanley was reasoning with the chief when the cox-
!
swain came and asked what was the matter. " There's rum
for him," he said, and gave the chief a buffet which knocked
him over and put his whole retinue to flight.
Now it was only a couple of days' journey to Boma, near
the mouth of the Congo, where there were trade factories and
Europeans. Stanley wrote a letter to them, and was soon
supplied with all necessaries and after a short rest at Boma
;
the party made the voyage round the south of Africa to

Zanzibar, where Stanley dismissed his men.
ii STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY 297
*He then travelled home, and was, of course, feted every-

where. Eor a thousand years the Arabs had travelled into
the interior of Africa, but they did not know the coursi
the Congo. European explorers had for centuries striven to
penetrate the darkness. The natives themselves did not know
whither the Lualaba ran. All at once Stanley had filled up
the blank and knit together the scattered meshes of the net ;
and now a railway runs beside the falls, and busy steamboats
fly up and down the Congo. Well did Stanley deserve his
native name of Bula Matadi, or " the breaker of stones," for no
difficulty was too great for him to overcome.
—
After a life of restless activity including another great
African journey to find Emin Pasha, the Governor of the
Equatorial Province after Gordon's death — Stanley was
gathered to his fathers in 1904. He was buried in a village
churchyard outside London, and a block of rough granite was
placed above the grave. Here may be read beneath a cross,
"Henry Morton Stanley— Bula Matadi— 1 841 -1904," and
lastly the word that sums up all the work of his life, " Africa."
Timbuktu and the Sahara

In the middle of north-western Africa, where the continent
shoots a gigantic tongue out into the Atlantic, lies one of the
world's most famous towns, Timbuktu.
Compared with Cairo or Algiers, Timbuktu is a small
town. Its three poor mosques cannot vie with the grand
temples which under French, Turkish, or English dominion
raise their graceful minarets on the Mediterranean shores of
Africa. Not a building attracts the eye of the stranger
amidst a confusion of greyish-yellow mud houses with flat
roofs and without windows, and neglect and decay stare out
from heaps of ruins. There is hardly a tottering caravanserai
to invite the desert wanderer to rest. Some streets are
abandoned, while in others the foot sinks over the ankle in
blown sand from the Sahara.
Timbuktu is not so famous as the sparkling jewels in the
diadem of Asia
The very name
— Jerusalem and
of each of these
Mecca, Benares and Lhasa.
as it were, a vital portion
is,
of a great religion, and indeed almost stands for the religion

i; self. Timbuktu has scarcely any religion, or, more correctly,
too many. And yet this town has borne a proud name
—
during its eight hundred years of existence the great, the
learned, mysterious city.
the No pilgrims flock thither to
fall down prayer before a redeemer's grave or be blessed
in
by a high priest. No pyramids, no marble temples, make
Timbuktu one of the world's wonders. No wealth, no
luxuriant vegetation exist to make it an outer court to
Paradise.
Scale, 1:40,000,000
English Miles
300 400 500
I.onsf. io°\Ve
NORTH-WEST AFRICA.
And yet Timbuktu is an object of desire. Millions long

to go there, and when they have been, long to get away again.
Caravan men who have wandered for months through the
desert long for the tones of the flute and the cithern, and the
light swayings of the troops of dancers. Palms and mimosa
grow sparsely round Timbuktu, but after the dangers of the
desert the monotonous, dilapidated town with its dusty,
ii TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA 299
dreary streets seems really like an entrance to Paradise.
Travelling merchants who have risked their wealth in the
Sahara among savage robbers, and have been fortunate to
escape all dangers, are glad at the sight of Timbuktu, and
think its grey walls more lovely than anything they can
imagine.
The remarkable features of Timbuktu are, then, its
situation and its trade. We have only to take a look at the
map to perceive that this town stands like a spider in its web.
The web is composed of all the routes which start from the
coast and converge on Timbuktu. They come from Tripoli
and Tunis, from Algeria and Morocco, from Senegal and
Sierra Leone, from the Pepper Coast, the Ivory Coast, and
Slave Coast, the Gold Coast, and from the countries round
the Gulf of Guinea, which have been annexed by France,
England, and Germany. They come also from the heart of
the Sahara, where savage and warlike nomad tribes still to
this day maintain their freedom against foreign interference.
In Timbuktu meet Arabs and negroes, Mohammedans
and heathens from the deserts and fruitful lands of the
Sahara and Sudan. Timbuktu stands on the threshold of the
great wastes, and at the same time on the third in rank of the
rivers of Africa. At the town the Niger is two and a half
miles broad, and from its mouth it discharges more water
than the Nile, but much less than the Congo. Like the
Congo, the Niger makes a curve to the north, bidding defiance
to the Sahara ; but the desert wins in the end, and the river
turns off towards the south.
It is a struggle between life and death. The life-giving
water washes the choking sand, and just where the strife is
fiercest lies Timbuktu. From the north goods come on
dromedaries to be transported farther in canoes or long,
narrow boats with arched awnings of matting, or, where the
river is not navigable, on oxen and asses or the backs of men.
Dromedaries cannot endure the damp climate near the Niger,
which especially in winter overflows its banks for a long
distance. Therefore they are led back through the Sahara.
They thrive on the dry deserts. The constantly blowing
north-east trade-wind dries up the Sahara, and in certain
regions years may pass without a drop of rain.
The name Timbuktu has a singular sound. It stands for
all the mystery and fascination connected with the Sahara.
It leads the thoughts to the greatest expanse of desert in
the world, to long and lonely roads, to bloody feuds and
300 FROM POLE TO POLE it. u
treacherous ambushes, to the ring of caravan bells and the

clank of the stirrups of the Beduins (Plate XXXI.). There
seems to be a ring in the name itself, and we seem to hear the
splash of the turbid waters of the Niger in its vowels. We
seem to hear the plaintive howl of the jackal, the moan of the
desert wind, the squealing of dromedaries outside the northern
gateway, and the boatmen splashing with oars and poles in
the creeks of the river.
Caravans from the northern coast bring cloth, arms,
powder, paper, tools, hardware, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco,
and a quantity of other articles to Timbuktu. But when they
begin their journey through the Sahara, only half the camels
are laden. The other half are loaded with blocks of salt on
the way, for salt is in great demand at Timbuktu. Caravans
may be glad if they come safely through the country of the
Tuaregs, and at best they can only obtain an unmolested
passage by the payment of a heavy toll. On the return
journey northwards the dromedaries are laden with wares
from the Sudan, rice, manioc, honey, nuts, monkey bread-
fruit, dried fish, ivory, ostrich feathers, india-rubber, leather,
and many other things. A small number of black slaves
also accompany them. The largest caravans contain five
hundred or a thousand dromedaries and five hundred men at
most. The goods they can transport may be worth twenty-
eight thousand pounds or more. Five great caravan roads
cross the Sahara from north to south.
Let us set out on a journey from Timbuktu, and let us go
first eastwards to the singular Lake Chad, which is half filled
with islands, is shallow and swampy, choked with reeds, rises
and falls with the discharge of the great rivers which flow into
it, and has a certain similarity to Lop-nor in Central Asia.
Nearly 17 cubic miles of water are estimated to enter

Lake Chad in the year, and when we know that the lake on
the whole remains much about the same size, we can conceive
how great the evaporation must be.
We have our own dromedaries and our own Arab guide
on whom we can rely. We can therefore go where we like,
and we steer our course from Lake Chad towards the
eastern Sudan, where we have already been in the company
of General Gordon. But before we come to the Nile we turn
off northwards to cross the Libyan desert, the most inaccess-
ible and desolate, and therefore the least known, part of the
Sahara. On our way northwards we notice that animal and
vegetation life becomes more scanty. Even in the Sudan the
„ TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA 301
grasslands more thinly clothed and the steppes more

arc
it-like farther we travel, and at last blown sand
the
predominates. We must follow a well-known road which has
been used for thousands of years by Arabs and Egyptians.
We arc in the midst of the sea of sand. Here lie at
certain places dunes of reddish-yellow drift sand as high as the
tower of St. Paul's Cathedral. We sec no path, for it has
been swept away by the last storm ;
but the guide has his
landmarks and does not lose his way. The sand becomes
lower and the country more open. Then the guide points to
a bare and barren ridge which rises out of the sand like a rock
out of the sea, and says that he can find his way by this
landmark, which remains in sight for several days, and is
then replaced by another elevation.
We encamp at a deep well, drink and water our camels.
Next day we are out in the sandy sea again. The sky has
assumed an unusual hue. It is yellow, and soon changes
into bluish grey. The sun is a red disc. It is calm and
sultry. The guide looks serious, and says in a low tone
"samum." The hot, devastating desert storm which is the
scourge of Arabia and Egypt is approaching.
The guide stops and turns round. He is uncertain. But
he goes on again when he sees that we cannot get back to the
well before the storm is upon us. It is useless to look for
shelter, for the dunes are too flat to protect us from the wind.
And now the storm sweeps down, and it becomes suffocatingly
close and hot. The dromedaries seem uneasy, halt, and turn
away from the wind. We dismount. The dromedaries lie
down and bury their muzzles in the sand. We wrap up our
heads in cloths and lie on our faces beside our animals to get
some shelter between them and the ground. And so we may
lie by the hour panting for breath, and we may be glad if we
get off with our lives from a samum when we are out in the
desert. Even in the oases it causes a feeling of anxiety and
trouble, for the burning heat is most harmful to palms
and crops. The temperature may rise to 120 in this
dangerous storm, which justifies its name of " poison wind."
The storm passes off, the air becomes clear and is quiet
and calm, and the sun has again its golden yellow brilliance.
It is warm, but not suffocating as it was. The heated air
vibrates above the sand. Beside our road appears a row oi
palms and before them a silver streak of water. The guide,
however, goes on in quite a different direction, and when we
ask him why, he answers that what we sec is a mirage, and
302 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . „
that there is no oasis for many days' journey in the direction
in which we see the palms.

In the evening we come to a real oasis, and there we are
glad to rest a couple of days. Here are a hundred wells, here
the ground is cultivated in the shade of the palms, here we
can enjoy to the full the moist coolness above the swards of
juicy grass. The oasis is like an island in the desert sea, and
between the palm trunks is seen the yellow level horizon, the
dry, heated desert with its boundless sun-bathed wastes.
If we now turn off towards the north-west, Fezzan is the
next country which our route touches. It is a paradise of
date palms. They occur in such profusion that even drome-
daries, horses, and dogs are fed with the fruits. The surface
of the ground also has undergone a great change, and is not
so sterile and choked with sand as in the Libyan desert.
Here and farther to the west the country becomes more hilly.
Ridges and bosses of granite and sandstone, weathered and
scorched by the sun, stand up here and there. Extensive
plateaus covered with gravel are called Jiammada they are ;
ruins of former mountains which have burst asunder. In the

Sahara the differences of temperature between day and night
are very great. The dark, bare hill-slopes may be heated up
to 140 or more when the sun bathes them, while during the
night the radiation out to space is so intense that the
temperature sinks to freezing-point. Through these continual
alternations the rocks expand and contract repeatedly, fissures
are formed and fragments are detached and fall down. The
hardest rocks resist longest, and therefore they stand up like
strange walls and towers amidst the great desolation.
If we go another step westwards we come to the land of
the Tuaregs. There, too, we find hilly tracts and hammadas,
sandy deserts and oases, and in favourable spots excellent
pastures. We have already noticed in Timbuktu this small,
sturdy desert people, easily recognised by the veil which
hides the lower part of the face. All Tuaregs wear such a
veil, and call those who do not " fly-mouths." They are
powerfully built, and of dark complexion, being of mixed
negro blood from all the slaves they have kidnapped in the
Sudan. They are as dry and lean as the ground on which
they live, and nature in their country obliges them to lead a
nomad life. Wide, simple, and dreary is the desert, and
simple and free is the nomad's life. The hard struggle for
existence has sharpened their senses. They are acute
observers, clever, crafty, and artful. Distance is of no account
ii
TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA 303
to them, for they do not know what it is to be tired. They

fly on their swift dromedaries over half the Sahara, and area
terror to their settled neighbours and to caravans. On their
raids they cover immense distances in a short time. To ride
from the heart of their country to the Sudan after booty is
child's play to them. They have made existence in many
oases quite unendurable. What use is it to till fields and rear
palms when the Tuaregs always reap the harvest? The
French have had many fights with the Tuaregs, and the
railway which was to pass through their country and connect
Algiers with Timbuktu is still only a cherished project. Yet
this tribe which has so bravely defended its freedom against
the stranger docs not number more than half a million people.
The Tuaregs are not born to be slaves, and we cannot but
admire their thirst for freedom, their pride, and their
courage.
desert here exhibits the difficult art of living.
The Even
animals and plants which are assigned to the desert are
provided with special faculties. Some of the animals,
snakes and lizards for instance, can live without water.
Dromedaries can go for many days without drinking.
Ostriches cover great distances to reach water before it is
too late. Plants are provided with huge roots that they
may suck up as much moisture as possible, and many of
them bear thorns and spikes instead of leaves so that the
evaporation may be insignificant. Many of them are called
to lifeby a single fall of rain, develop in a few weeks, and
die when long drought sets in again. Then the seeds are
left, waiting patiently for the next rain. Some desert plants
seem quite dead, grey, dried-up, and buried in dust, but
when rain comes they send out green shoots again.
Every river bed is called in the Sahara a wadi. Very
seldom does a trickle of water run down it after rain, but
in these beds the vegetation is richer than elsewhere, for here
moisture lingers longer than in other spots. Many caravans
march along them, and gazelles and antelopes find pasture
here.
A European leaves Algeria to make his way into the
Sahara with an incomprehensible feeling of fascination. In
the French towns on the Mediterranean coast he has lived
just as in Europe. He has been able to cross by train the
forest-clad heights of the Atlas Mountains, where clear brooks
murmur among the trees. He leaves the railway behind, and
finds the hills barer the farther he travels south. At last the
monotonous, slightly undulating desert stretches before him,

and he feels the magical attraction of the Sahara drawing
him deeper and deeper into its great silence and solitude.
All the colours become subdued and greyish-yellow, like
the lion's hide. Everything is yellow and grey, even the
dromedaries which carry him, his tent and baggage, from
well to well. He can hardly tell why he finds this country
pleasanter than the forests and streams on the slopes of the
Atlas Mountains perhaps owing to the immense distances,
;
the mysterious horizon afar off, the blood-red sunsets, the

grand silence which prevails everywhere so that he hardly
dares speak aloud. It is the magic of the desert that has
got hold of him.
Thirty years ago a large French expedition, under the
command of Colonel Flatters, marched along this route from
Algeria southwards through the Sahara. It consisted of a
hundred men, including seven French officers and some

non-commissioned officers, and its equipment and provisions
were carried by three hundred dromedaries. The French
Government had sent out the expedition to examine the
Tuaregs' country, and to mark out a suitable route for a
railway through the Sahara to connect the French possessions
in the north and south. It was not the first time that the
Colonel had travelled in the Sahara, and he knew the Tuaregs
well. Therefore he was on his guard. Everything seemed
most promising. The Frenchmen mapped parts of the
Sahara which no European had ever succeeded in reaching
before— even the great German traveller, who had crossed
the Sahara in all directions, had not been there. The most
dangerous tracts were left behind, and the Tuaregs had offered
no resistance indeed some of their chiefs had been friendly.
:
In the last letters which reached France, Flatters expressed a

hope that he would be able to complete his task without
further trouble, and to advance even to the Sudan.
Then the blow fell. The expedition was suddenly attacked
at a well, and succumbed after a heroic defence against
superior numbers. Most of the Frenchmen were cut down.
Part of the caravan attempted to reach safety by hurrying
northwards on forced marches, but was overtaken and
annihilated. Many brave Frenchmen have met the same
fate as Flatters in the struggle for dominion over the^ Sahara.
If we travelled, as we have lately imagined, on swift-footed
dromedaries in a huge circuit from Timbuktu through the
Sudan, the Libyan desert, and the land of the Tuaregs, we
—
„ TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA 305
should at last come to Morocco, "The Uttermost West," a<

this last independent Sultanate in Africa is called. Morocco
is the restless corner of Africa, as the Balkan Peninsula is of
Europe, Manchuria of Asia, and Mexico of North America

in South America all parts are unsettled.
Ill
NORTH AMERICA
The Discovery of the New World
Now we must say farewell to Africa. We have in front of
us the Straits of Gibraltar, little more than six miles broad,
the blue belt that connects the Mediterranean with the
Atlantic, the sharply defined boundary which separates the
black continent from the white.
We have but a step to take and we are in Spain. Here,
also, a dying echo from the splendid period of Arab rule
reaches our ears. We are reminded that twelve centuries
have passed away since the Prophet's chosen people conquered
the Iberian Peninsula. The sons of Islam were a thorn in
the sides of the Christians. Little by little they were forced
back southwards. Only Cordova and Granada still remained
in the possession ofthe Arabs, or Moors as they were called,
and when Ferdinand the Catholic married Queen Isabella
of Castile in the year 1469, only Granada was left in the
hands of the Moors. Their last king lived in his splendid
palace, the Alhambra in Granada. In 1491 the Spanish
army besieged the Moorish city. Barely forty years earlier
the Mohammedans had taken Constantinople. Now other
Mohammedans were to be turned out of western Europe.
New Year's Day 1492 came and Granada fell. The Moorish
king had to bend humbly on his knees before the victor ere
he went on his way, and the Castilian flag waved from the
towers and pinnacles of the Alhambra.
This remarkable incident was witnessed by a mariner
from Genoa, forty-six years old. His name was Christopher
Columbus.
At the time of the fall of Granada there was no one among
306
in THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD 307
the learned men of Europe who had any suspicion of the

existence of a continent in the western ocean, and the
—
Portuguese sought only a sea route to India the rich land
of spices, gold, pearls, and coral. But there was a learned
mathematician, Toscanelli of Florence, who perceived that,
as the world was round, a mariner must necessarily reach
Japan, China, and India by sailing westwards from Europe,
and as early as 1474 he produced maps and other proofs of
the correctness of his theory. It was Columbus, by his
boldness and ability, who converted this theory into fact.
Christopher Columbus was the eldest of five children of
a weaver in Genoa. He and his brothers also engaged in the
weaving industry, but as their father's affairs were anything
but flourishing, the sons decided to seek a living in foreign
countries. Christopher became a sailor, and acquired all the
qualifications necessary to handle a ship. He gained great
experience and a thorough knowledge of his new profession.
He once sailed on an English vessel to Thule or Iceland, the
longest voyage which mariners of that time dared attempt.
Then he tried his fortune In Portugal, earning a living by
drawing sea-charts and serving as skipper on Portuguese
vessels sailing to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and
to Guinea. In the Portuguese school he learned much which
was to be of great importance in his future career. He made
his home in Lisbon, where he married a lady of rank.
It was at this time that he entered into correspondence
with Toscanelli, who sent him a map of the route over the
Atlantic to Japan, and gave him much information drawn
from Marco Polo's descriptions. These letters made a deep
impression on Columbus. He wrote back to Toscanelli that
he thought of sailing westwards to Marco Polo's countries
according to his instructions, and Toscanelli replied that he
was glad to find his ideas were so well understood, and that
such a voyage would bring great gain to Columbus, and an
extraordinary reputation among all Christian peoples.
Columbus tried in vain to obtain the support he needed
for carrying out his plan. The King of Portugal and the
learned men of the country listened to him, but treated him
as a presumptuous dreamer. There were a few, however,
who thought that he might be right, and on their advice the
King sent a vessel over the ocean without telling Columbus.
It soon returned without having seen land. When Columbus
heard of this underhanded proceeding, he left Lisbon in
disgust and travelled alone to Spain. His wife and children
:o8 FROM POLE TO POLE
never saw him again, except his son Diego, who afterwards
joined his father.
For two years he travelled from town to town in that
part of southern Spain which is called Andalusia, selling
charts, which he drew with his own hand. At last he was
received at Court, and was able to set forth his plan before
an assembly of courtiers and ecclesiastics. But Castile was
too much occupied with the war against the Moors in Granada
and Malaga to venture on such a great enterprise, and
Columbus had to wait for better times.
TOSCANELLI S MAP.
Two years more passed by and Columbus was again

summoned to the Court, then in Cordova on the bank of the
Guadalquivir. His eloquence and enthusiasm had little effect,
however, and after two more years of useless waiting he re-
solved to turn his back on Spain and try his fortune in France.
Sad and depressed, he followed the great highroad from
Cordova. Being destitute he went up to a monastery beside
the road, knocked at the gate, and begged for a piece of
bread for his little son Diego, whom he held by the hand.
While he was talking to the porter the prior came by,
listened to his words, perceived by his accent that he came
from Italy, and enquired into his story and his aims. The
prior was a learned and benevolent man, and entered warmly
into the plans of the Italian mariner, perceiving that such an
opportunity of acquiring lands in eastern Asia should not be
m THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD 309
lost to Spain. He accordingly wrote to Queen Isabella, and

at the end of 1491 Columbus spoke again before the learned
men of the realm. Some of them treated him as an impostor,
but others believed his words ;
and when, after the fall of
Granada, the Court had a free hand, it was decided to equip
Columbus for his first voyage over the Atlantic.
All the negotiations nearly fell through at the last moment,
owing to the demands of Columbus. He wished to be
appointed High Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy over all
the savage countries he discovered, and he demanded for
himself and his descendants an eighth part of all the revenues
of the new lands. But when he declared that he intended to
devote his gains to the recovery of Jerusalem from the Turks,
his wishes were granted and funds were assigned for the
equipment of three ships in the harbour of Palos.
These vessels each had three masts, but they were far too
small for such an adventurous enterprise. Only the Admiral's
ship, the Santa Maria, was completely decked over. The
other two, the Pinta and Nina, had only decks fore and aft.
The two brothers Pinzon, of noble extraction, at once
volunteered for the voyage, but it was far from easy to enlist
crews. Had it been a voyage along the coasts of Europe and
Africa, there would have been no difficulty in rinding men,
—
but for a voyage straight out into the unknown ocean with
that the sailors would have nothing to do. At last it was
necessary to open the prisons in order to procure ninety men,
for only that number was needed for the whole three vessels.
The lists of the crews are still extant, and show that most of
the men were Castilians.
Two doctors were taken, as well as a baptized Jew, who
spoke Hebrew and Arabic, and might be useful as an
interpreter when the expedition came over the ocean to India.
Curiously enough, Columbus had no chaplain on board, but
before he set sail his friend the prior administered the
sacrament to all his men, who in the opinion of most were
doomed to a watery death.
Armed with a royal despatch to the Great Khan of
Mongolia, Columbus stepped on board the Santa Maria, the
moorings were cast off, and on August 3, 1492, the three
ships steered under full sail out into the open sea.
They kept on a south-westerly course, and in six days
reached the Canary Islands, where the little fleet stayed a
month to repair some damages and patch up the Pintcts
broken rudder.
3 io FROM POLE TO POLE PT . n
On September 8 a definite start was made, and when

the lovely Canary Islands and the Peak of Teneriffe sank
beneath the horizon, the sailors wept, believing that wind and
sails would carry them from the world for ever, and that
nothing but water and waves awaited them in the west.
From the first day Columbus kept a very exact diary,
which shows how thoroughly he embraced Toscanelli's theory
and how implicitly he relied on his fellow-countryman's
calculations. To his crews, however, he represented the
distance as short, so that their fears should not be increased
by the thought of the great interval that separated them from
the Old World. They became more anxious as days came
and went, and still nothing but boundless deserts of water
spread in every direction.
After a week's sail their keels ploughed through whole
fields of floating seaweed, and Columbus pacified his men by
the suggestion that this was the first indication of their
approach to land.
The Santa Maria was a broad and clumsy vessel, really
intended to carry cargo. She was, therefore, a slow sailer,
and the other two ships usually took the lead. They were
of more graceful build and had large square sails, but were of
barely half the tonnage of the flagship. But all three kept
together and were often so close that shouts could be heard
from one ship to the other. One day Pinzon, captain of the
Pinta, called out to Columbus that he had seen birds flying
westwards and expected to sight land before night. They there-
fore sailed cautiously lest they should run aground, but all
their apprehension ceased when a sounding-line two hundred
fathoms long, lowered through the floating sea-wrack, failed
to reach the bottom.
Their progress was stopped by several days of calm, and
it was September 22 before the sea-weed came to an end
and the vessels rolled again out to the open bluish-green
water.
Through hissing surge the Santa Maria and her two
consorts cut their way due west. Amore favourable breeze
could not be wished. It was the trade wind which filled their
sails. The sailors were afraid of the constant east wind, and
when at length it veered round for a time, Columbus wrote in
his journal :
" This head-wind was very welcome, for my men
were mightily afraid that winds never blew in these seas
which would take them back to Spain."
Toscanelli's map was sent backwards and forwards
„, THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD 311
between Columbus and Pinzon, and they wondered where

they really woe-, and how far it was to the islands of eastern
Asia. On September 25, Pinzon ascended the poop of the
Pintaznd called out to Columbus, "I sec land." Then he
fell on his knees with all his crew, and, with voices trembling
with excitement and gratitude, the Castilian mariners sang

"Glory to God in the Highest." This was the firsttimea
Christian hvmn had sounded over the waves of the Atlantic.
The sailors of the Santa Maria and Nina climbed up into
the rigging, and also saw the land and raised the same song
of praise as their comrades. But next day the longed-for land
had vanished. It was only a mist which lay over the sea to
leeward, a mirage in the boundless desert of water.
At the beginning of October, Columbus began to suspect
that he had already passed the islands laid down on Toscanelli's
map, and he was glad that he had not been detained by them
but could sail straight on to the mainland of India. By India
was meant at that time the whole of eastern Asia.
On October 7 the men on all the three vessels were
sure that they saw land. Every sail was set. Each vessel
thought it an honour to reach it first. The Nina took the
lead. At sunrise the flag of Castile was hoisted to the top-
mast and a shot thundered from its poop. During the day
the land vanished again. But now flocks of birds were seen,
all making south-westwards, and Columbus gave orders to
follow in the same direction. He wrote in his diary " The
:
sea, thank God, lay like the river at Seville, the temperature
was as mild as in April at Seville, and the air was so balmy
that it was delightful to breathe it."
But they sailed day after day and through the nights, and
still there was nothing to be seen but water. The men had
several times given vent to their discontent, and now began
to grumble again. Columbus soothed them and reminded
them of the reward that awaited them when they had attained
their goal. " Besides, their complaints were useless, for I
have sailed out to reach India, and intend to prolong my
voyage until, with God's help, I have found it."
On October 1 1 a log was seen floating in the sea with marks
on it apparently cut by human hands and shortly after, a
;
branch with clusters of berries. Then the sailors became

content, and the Admiral promised a reward to the man who
first sighted land. All kept their eyes open and watched
eagerly.
In the evening Columbus thought he saw a flash of light
3 i2 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. u
as though a man were carrying a torch along a low shore, and

later in the night one of the Pinta's men swore that land was
visible in front. Then all sails were taken in and they waited
for the dawn.
When the sun rose on October 12, 1492, its rays
illumined, before the eyes of the Spaniards, a flat grass-
covered island which Columbus called San Salvador or St.
Saviour, after Him who had rescued them from the perils of
the sea. This island evidently lay north of Japan— at any
rate, would appear so from Toscanelli's map. Little did
it
Columbus and his men suspect that a whole unknown

continent and the world's greatest ocean, the Pacific, still
separated them from Japan. The small island was one of
the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island. If
the voyages of the Northmen five hundred years earlier be

left out of account, this island was the first point of the New
World reached by Europeans.
The great day was begun with the Te Deum. The officers
congratulated the Admiral, the sailors threw themselves at his
feet and begged forgiveness for their insubordination. A
boat was lowered, into which stepped Columbus with the flag
of Castile in his hand, followed by the Pinzon brothers with
the Banner of the Cross, and a few others. Without knowing
it, Columbus stepped on to the soil of America. Solemnly
he took possession of San Salvador on behalf of the crown of
Castile. A cross was erected on an elevation on the shore in
token that the island was in Christian hands.
The natives must have been astonished when they saw the
three wonderful ships arrive off their coast and white men
come ashore. At first they held aloof, but with beads and
other gifts the Spaniards soon gained their confidence. They
had only wooden javelins for weapons, did not know iron,
had long lanky hair, not woolly like the negroes, were naked,
and painted and white. They knew gold,
their bodies red
and that was well, for and gold above everything,
it was gold,
that Columbus needed to free the Holy Sepulchre from the
Turks. These savages had gold rings in their noses, and
when the Spaniards inquired by signs where the gold came
from, they pointed towards the south-west.
Columbus, of course, called them Indians. Seven of them
were taken on board. They were to go to Spain and " learn
to talk," so that they might act as interpreters on subsequent
voyages.
Then the voyage of discovery was resumed. The ships
m THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD 313
had to be sailed with great caution, for dangerous reefs lay

round the islands. According to the signs made by the
savages two large islands lay to the south. One must be
Japan, and when Columbus landed on the coast of Cuba and
heard of a prince named Kami, he thought that this man
must be the Great Khan, and that he was really on the main-
land of eastern Asia. Accordingly he sent his Jew and two
of his savages ashore to look for the Great Khan. They were
fair days away and searched as well as they could among
the tent-like huts of the natives, but never saw a glimpse of
any Mongolian Great Khan in Cuba.
Exceedingly beautiful was this strange coast, reminding
them of Sicily. Sweet song of birds was heard, there was an
odour of fruits, and green foliage and palms waved like plumes
in the breeze. The Spaniards were astonished to see the
natives walking about smoking rolled-up leaves which they
called tobacco, and had no notion what a source of wealth
these leaves in the form of cigars would become in the future.
Pinzon on the Pinta must have been bewitched by all the
wonders he saw, for he ran off with his vessel to seek the land
of gold on his own account. Columbus himself sailed across
to the large island of Haiti, which as usual he took possession
of in the name of Castile. The natives received him every-
where with amazement and submission, believing that he was
an emissary from the abode of the gods.
On the northern coast of the island a great misfortune
occurred on Christmas Eve. An inexperienced steersman was
at the Santa Maria s rudder, and let the vessel run on a sand-
bank, where it became a wreck. The crew had to take refuge
on the Nina. The natives helped to save all that was on
board, and not even a pin was stolen.
But the Nina could not hold them all, and how were they
to get back to Spain ? Columbus found a way out of the
difficulty. He decided to found a colony on the coast. Forty
men were to be left behind to search for gold, and by the
time Columbus returned from Spain they would no doubt
have a tun full of the precious metal, and that would be
enough for the conquest of Jerusalem. The sailors were only
too glad to remain, for they found the natives accommodating
and the climate good. It was in all respects much pleasanter
than to endure hardship on the Nina, and perhaps founder
with the wretched little ship.
Accordingly, a blockhouse was built of wreckage from the
Santa Maria, was surrounded by a wall and moat and pro-
3 i
visioned, and after presenting the chief of the Indians with a

shirt and a pair of gloves, Columbus weighed anchor and
steered for home.
He had not sailed far before he fell in with the Pinta, and
took the independent Pinzon into favour again. Then they
sailed eastwards across the Atlantic.
On February 12 a storm arose. All the sails were
furled and the two ships lost sight of one another for good.
The Nina pitched horribly and threatened to sink. All made
ready for death. Columbus, fearing that his discoveries
would perish with him, wrote a narrative on parchment,
covered it with wax and placed it in a cask, which was
entrusted to the angry waves. The sailors thought that it
was an offering with which Columbus sought to allay the
storm.
A few days later the Nina arrived safely at the southern-
most island of the Azores, and thence continued her voyage
to the mouth of the Tagus and Lisbon.
On March 15 the inhabitants of Palos saw the most
famous of all the ships of the world come into the harbour.
The people streamed down with the wildest jubilation and
all the church bells were rung. The same evening the Pinta
also sailed in, but was very differently received, for it was
already known that Pinzon wished to usurp the honour of the
discovery, being convinced that Columbus's vessel had been
lost in the storm. No one took any notice of him, and he
died a few days later, probably of chagrin and sorrow.
In Seville Columbus received a summons from the King
and Queen, who were staying in Barcelona. His journey
through Spain was one great triumphal progress. He was
feted as a conqueror in every town. He was conducted in a
brilliant procession through the streets, six copper-brown
"Indians" marching at the head with coloured feathers in
their head-dresses. This was Christopher Columbus, who
had given new lands to Spain, who had discovered a con-
venient sea route to India just at the time when the Portuguese
were looking for a route thither round the coast of Africa.
In Barcelona all his titles and privileges were solemnly con-
firmed. Now he was actually the Admiral of the Ocean and
Viceroy of India. Now he had attained the height of
worldly honour.
Then began
the time of adversity.
On
second voyage, when he set out with seventeen
his
ships, he discovered the northern Antilles as far as Porto
Rico and came in At Haiti he found

contact with cannibals.
that the forty men whom he had behind on his first
left
voyage had been killed by the natives. He took it for
granted that Cuba was the mainland of Asia, and that thence
the journey to Spain might be made dryshod by following
Marco Polo's footsteps. Discontent was rife among his men,
the natives rose up against the intruders, rivals sprang up
around him like mushrooms, and in the home country he was
abused by high and low.
He returned to Spain to put everything right but this
;
time he was no longer received with rejoicing, and found

that he had now a formidable rival in Portugal. In the year
1497 Vasco da Gama discovered the real sea route to the real
India by sailing round the south of Africa, an event which,
in the eyes of that generation, quite eclipsed the discoveries
of Columbus. In India inexhaustible riches were to be
found, whereas the poor islands of Columbus had simply cost
money, ships, and men.
But the strong will of Columbus overcame all obstacles,
and for the third time he sailed for his fictitious India. Now
he held a more southerly course, and discovered the island
Trinidad, and found that the water between it and the coast
of Venezuela was fresh. There must then be a large river
near. This river was the Orinoco.
Disturbances broke out again in Haiti, and Columbus's
opponents sent home complaints against him. A Royal
Commission was sent out to hold an enquiry, and in the end
arrested the Admiral and sent him in chains to Spain. The
captain of the vessel wished to remove his fetters and leave
him free as long as he was on board, but Columbus would not
consent, for he wished to retain them as a " reminder of the
reward he had got for his services."
But when he was led in chains through the streets of Cadiz,
the scene of his former triumph, the displeasure of the people
was aroused, and at the Court Columbus met with a friendly
reception. He even succeeded in fitting out a fourth expedi-
tion and crossed the Atlantic in nineteen days. The new
Governor forbade him to land, and Columbus expressed his
indignation that he, the discoverer, should not be allowed to
set foot on his own islands. He then steered westwards and
came to the coast of Honduras, and thence followed the coast
of Nicaragua southwards. He fully and firmly believed that
this was Malacca, and that farther south would be found
a passage to India proper. He sailed back towards Cuba,
3 i6 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. ii
but was driven by bad weather to Jamaica, where in

^reat extremity he had to run his ship ashore. One of his
trusty men rowed for four days in a canoe over the open sea
to Haiti to beg for help. Meanwhile the shipwrecked men
were in hard case. The natives threatened them, and refused
them all help. Columbus knew that an eclipse of the moon
would shortly occur, and told the natives that if they would
not help them, the God of the Spaniards would for ever
deprive them of the light of the moon. And when the shadow
of the earth began to move over the moon's disc, the natives
were terrified, feet of Columbus, and promised
fell at the
him everything. pretended to consider the matter, but
He
at last allowed himself to be persuaded and promised that
they should keep their moon. And then the shadow moved
off quietly into space, leaving the moon as bright as a silver
shield.
At he received assistance, and in 1 504 was back in
last
Spain. No one now paid any attention to him. His
property was confiscated, his titles were not restored to him,
and even the outstanding pay of his followers was kept back.
Ill with gout and vexation, he stayed at first in Seville. His
former friends did not know him. Lonely and crushed down
by grief and disappointment, he died in 1 506 at Valladolid.
No one took any notice of his decease, and not a chronicle of
the time contains a word about his death. Even in the grave
he seemed to find no rest. He was first interred quietly in
Valladolid then his remains were transferred to a monastery
;
church in Seville half a lifetime later his body was carried

;
to San Domingo in Haiti, where it rested for 250 years until

it was deposited in the cathedral of Havana in Cuba and ;
finally, when Cuba was lost to the United States, the remains
of the great discoverer were again brought back to Spain.
Columbus was a tall, powerfully built man, with an
aquiline nose, a pink and freckled complexion, light-blue eyes
and red hair, which early became white in consequence of much
thought and great sorrows. During four centuries of admira-
tion and detraction his life and character have been dissected
and torn to bits. Some have seen in him a saint, a prophet ;
others have called him a crafty adventurer, who stole Toscan-

elli's plan in order to gain power, honour, and wealth for him-
self. But when, about twenty years ago, the fourth century
since his discovery was completed, full amends were made
to his memory and his achievements were celebrated
throughout the world. He opened new fields for unborn
generations, he extended the bounds of the earth, and guided

the world's history into new channels.
Four years before the death of Columbus, Amerigo
Vespucci of Florence, who made four voyages across the
ocean, suggested that the new lands had nothing to do with
Asia, but were a " New World " in distinction to the Old;
and
a German schoolmaster, who wrote a geographical text-book,
suggested in the introduction that as the fourth continent had
been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vesputius),
there was no reason why it should not be called Amerigo or
America after its discoverer. The proposal was accepted,
and only too late was it realised that Columbia would have
been the proper name.
One discovery followed after another, and the coasts of
America gradually assumed on charts and maps the form
with which we arc familiar. Let us for a moment dwell on
another of the most striking voyages in the history of the
world. In the year 15 19 the Portuguese Magelhaens sailed
along the east coast of South America and discovered the
strait which still bears his name; and what is more, he found
at last, through this strait, the western passage to India.
He sailed over an immense ocean, where the weather was good
and no storms threatened his ships and accordingly he called
;
it the Pacific Ocean. Other dangers, however, awaited him.

The mariners sailed for four months over unbroken sea, suffer-
ing from hunger and disease. At last three of the vessels
reached the Philippines. There Magelhaens landed with a
small party, and was overpowered and slain by the natives.
Only one of the ships, the Victoria, came home, but this was
the first vessel which sailed round the world.
During the succeeding centuries white men struck their
claws ever firmer into America. The Indians were forced
back into the backwoods, and in North America they have
been almost exterminated. Under French, and later, under
English rule, those parts of North America have developed
an unexpected power and wealth which were despised by the
Spaniards, who in their boundless greed of gain thought of
nothing but gold.
New York
In a house in a Swedish countryside sit an old man and
woman talking seriously.
" It is a great pity," says the old woman, " that Gunnar
is beginning to think of America again."
3 i8 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . n
" Yes, he will never rest," replies the old man, " till we
have given our consent and let him go. To-day he says that
an emigration touter has promised him gold and green
'
'
forests if he will take a ticket for one of the Bremen line

steamers. I reminded him that the farm is unencumbered, but
he answered that it could not provide for both his brothers and
himself. It was a very different thing for you, father,' he
'
said, but there are three of us to divide the produce.'

'
He
thinks it is a hopeless task to grub in our poor stony hills,
when boundless plains in the western states of North America
are only waiting to be ploughed, and in any factory he can
be earning wages so large as to yield a small income for
several years."
" Yes, indeed,I know, it is his cousins who have put this
fancy in his head with their glowing letters. But I suppose

we cannot prevent him going if his heart is set on it ? "
" What can we do ? He is a free man and must go his
own way."
" Well, perhaps it is best. When he is home-sick he will
come back again."
" I amit will be long enough before that happens.
afraid
At starting all seems so fine. I shall soon come home with
'
a small pile.' In reality all his memories will grow faint

within a year, and the distance to the red cottage will seem
to grow longer as time flies. I mourn for him as dead
already ; he will never come back."
A few days after this our emigrant Gunnar breaks all ties and
tears the roots which since his birth have held him bound
up all
to the soil ofSweden. He travels by the shortest route to
Bremen and steps on board an emigrant steamer for New
York. During the long hours of the voyage the people sit on
deck and talk of the great country to which they are all bound.
Before the last lighthouse on the coast of Europe is lost to
sight, Gunnar seems to have all America at his finger-ends.
The same names are always ringing in his ears — New York,
Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco have become quite
familiar, and he has only to insert between them a number of
smaller towns, a few rivers, mountains, and lakes, to draw in a
few railway lines, to remember the great country of Canada to
the north and mountainous Mexico in the south, to place at
three of the corners of the continent the peninsulas of Alaska,
California, and Florida, and at the fourth the large island of
„, NEW YORK 319
Newfoundland, and then his map of North America Is
complete.
The voyage over the Atlantic draws to an end. One day

a growing restlessness and excitement is perceptible, and the
travellers cast inquiring glances ahead. It is said that the
American coast will be visible in an hour. And so it is. An

irregular line appears to starboard. That is Long Island.
Two hours more, and the boat glides into the mouth of the
Hudson River and comes alongside at Ellis Island in the
harbour of New York. A row of other vessels lie moored at
the quays. These have brought immigrants to America
also
and will soon return to fetch more. They must go backwards
and forwards year out and year in to carry three thousand
persons daily to the United States.
Gunnar has packed his things in good time and takes up
a favourable position from which he can observe his fellow-
travellers. He has never heard such a noise and never seen
such bustle. The people throng the gangways, call to one
another, haul out their discoloured portmanteaus and their
roped bundles. There are seen Swedes and Germans,
Polish and Russian Jews, Galicians and Croats mingled to-
gether, some well dressed and with overcoats, others in
tattered clothes and with a coarse handkerchief in place of a
collar.
Yonder, overlooking New York harbour, stands the
colossal statue of Liberty, a female figure holding a torch
in her right hand. When darkness lies over the earth she
throws a dazzling beam of electric light out over the water,
the quays, houses, and ships. But Gunnar experiences no
feeling of freedom as he sets his foot on American soil. He
and all his fellow-travellers are provided with numbered
tickets and marshalled into long compartments in a huge
hall. Then they are called out one after another to be
questioned, and a doctor comes and examines them. Those
who suffer from lung disease or other complaint, or being old
and feeble have no prospect of gaining a livelihood, receive
a peremptory order of exclusion on grey paper and must
return by the next vessel to their fatherland. The others
who pass the examination proceed in small steamers to the
great city, where, among the four millions of New York, they
vanish like chaff before the wind.
From whatever land they may come they always find
fellow-countrymen in New York, for this city is a conglomera-
.
tion of all the peoples of the world, and seventy different

languages are spoken in it. A third of its inhabitants have
been born in foreign countries. In Brooklyn, the quarter on
Long Island, there are whole streets where only Swedes live.
In the " Little Italy " quarter live more Italians than there are
in Naples, in the " Chinese Town " there are five thousand
Chinese, and even Jews from Russia and Poland have their
own quarter. Gunnar soon finds that New York is more
complicated than he supposed when he was rolling out on the
Atlantic.
Meanwhile he decides to take it easy at first, and to learn
his way about before plunging into the struggle for existence.
In Brooklyn he soon meets with a fellow-countryman and
gets a roof over his head. A pleasant, well-to-do railway
employe from Stockholm takes pleasure in showing him
about and impressing him with his knowledge of America.
"This town must be old," says Gunnar, "or it could not
have grown so large."
" Old ! No, certainly not. Compared to Stockholm it is
a mere child. It is barely three hundred years old, and at the
time of Gustavus Adolphus it did not contain a thousand
inhabitants. But now it is second only to London."
" That is wonderful. How can you account for New
York becoming so large ? Stockholm and Bremen are
pigmies beside it. I have never seen the like in my life.
There are forests of masts and steamboat funnels in all
directions, and at the quays vessels are loaded and unloaded
with the most startling speed."
" Yes, but you must remember that the population of the
United States increases at an extraordinary rate. During
last century it doubled every twenty years. And remember
also that nearly half the foreign trade of the Union passes
through New York. Hence are exported grain, meat,
tobacco, cotton, petroleum, manufactured goods, and many
other things. It is, therefore, not remarkable that New York
needs 36 miles of quays with warehouses, and that more than
seventy steamboat lines sail to and from the port. And,
besides, it is a great industrial town. Think of its position
and its fine harbour ! Eastward lies the Atlantic with routes
to Europe westwards run innumerable railway lines, five of
;
which stretch right through to the Pacific coast."

" Tell me something about the railways," exclaims Gunnar,
who wants to go out west at the first favourable opportunity.
" Yes, I can give you information about them, for I have
"
,,, NEW TORK 321
been working on several lines. As far back as [840 the

United States had 2800 miles of railway, and twenty years
later 30,000 miles. Now it has nearly two hundred and
forty thousand miles of rails, a strip which would reach to the
moon or ten times round the equator. The United Stalls
have more railways than all Europe, though the population
is only a fifth that of Europe ;but the area is about the
same."
" How do you explain this rapid development of railway
"
enterprise ?
" Well, the fact is that at first the aim was to fill up the
gaps between the waterways. Rivers were relied on as long
as possible, and the first railways were built in districts
where there were no large rivers. Then in course of time
various lines converged together, new railways were con-
structed, and now the forty-nine States are covered with
a connected network of lines. Moreover, the country roads
are so bad that they must be supplemented by railways."
" A
large number of bridges must be necessary across all
the large rivers ?
" Yes, certainly.The Americans are adepts in bridge-build-
ing, and the railway bridges over the Mississippi and Missouri
and other rivers are masterpieces of the boldest art. Where lines
cross deeply eroded valleys, bridges of timber were formerly
built, likesky-scraping parapets with rails laid along the top;
but such bridges are now fast disappearing and iron bridges
are built, and the trains run at full speed over elegant
erections which from a distance look just like a spider's web.
Just look to your left. There you have one of the world's
strongest bridges, the suspension bridge between New York
and Brooklyn. It is of colossal dimensions, and yet it looks
so fine and delicate as it hangs between its two mighty piers.
You see that vessels with the tallest masts can pass clear
below, for it is poised 135 feet above high water. The
length is nearly a mile and a quarter. It is wonderful that
men have been able to stretch this huge span of iron above
the water. Wait a little and you will sec a kind of aerial
railway."
Then the Stockholm man takes his new friend to a station
to travel on the elevated railway through New York.
Gunnar's astonishment is beyond bounds as he rushes along
on a framework, supported by innumerable iron pillars, over
streets and squares, and sees the seething crowd moving in
carriages and on foot below his feet.
Y
—
322 FROM .POLE TO POLE PI , „
" This railway is worked by electricity," says the man
from Stockholm. " We
have many like it in the country."
He says we in order to be taken for an American.
" This is the most remarkable thing I have seen," cries
Gunnar, who is dizzy with looking at the swarming crowd in
the second city in the world. " To lay railways underground
is easy enough, but to build them up in the air is different.
There is nothing like this in Europe. Is it the case that on

the railways to the West the trains travel at a furious
"
pace ?
" Oh, no, it is not so bad as that. They seldom do more
than 53 miles hour, and for a short distance 56
in the
miles in a little over three-quarters of an hour. The
journey to any of the large towns in the West is most
comfortable, if one can afford to travel first-class. There is
a train to San Francisco like a rolling hotel. Everything
you can want is on board, even a bathroom, a library, and a
barber's shop you sit in comfortable arm-chairs beside the
;
large windows and look out at the flying landscape, or you

can move about the long train, write letters, read, eat, sleep
just as if you were at home. And when you come to the
Rocky Mountains in the far West, there is plenty of variety.
There the train runs up the valleys, in and out of ravines and
glens, turns giddy corners on precipitous cliffs, rolls over
cool passes with grand views, and rushes over noisy iron
bridges. On the western side of the Rocky Mountains it
descends in capricious curves towards the coast. Sometimes
you shiver and wonder if the driver has lost control of his
engine. The train seems to bump along by its own weight.
It leans over now to the one side and now to the other,
according to the direction of the curve. It may be ticklish
work to move about the carriage. Before you are aware you
get a jerk and are thrown against the wall. When the
passengers are collected in the dining saloon, they have
reason to admire the negro waiters as they balance the soup
plates. Supple as eels they follow the movement of the train
and do not spill a drop. You would think that they must
come down with a bang and swim in soup, but they lean in
the contrary direction to the train and nip about quietly while
the train rushes rumbling and shaking down the valley,
heaving like a ship at sea."
" Come now, stop, or you will set me on fire with longing
for the Far West."
" Ah, well, let us get off at this station and walk a little.
i'l.ATK xxxif.
SKY-SCRAPERS" IN NEW YORK.
To face page 323.

,,, NEW YORK 323
Here is not delightful with its leafy

the Central Park. Is it
trees an. 1 cool pools? In summer

it is burning hot in the
town, and it is refreshing to rest an hour or two in the shade

of the trees. The winters are equally cold, and raw, biting
winds blow from the east coast. Here is Fifth Avenue, the
finest street of New York. In the row of palaces you see
here live millionaires, railway kings, steel kings, petroleum
kings, corn kings, a whole crop of kings. Rut would ratherI
we went to look at the rows of houses facing the Hudson

River."
" lies, then, on the Hudson River?"
New York
That is so, but more properly speaking New York stands
'
on the island of Manhattan in the mouth of the river. We

are standing, then, on Manhattan, and it is interesting to
recall the fact that this island was sold three hundred years
ago bv Indians to Dutchmen for the sum of four pounds. It
is rather more valuable now Just look at the hideous

!
sky-scrapers with their twenty and thirty storeys" (Rlate

XXXII.).
" I was just wondering why houses are built so enormously
high."
"is owing to the tremendous value of the ground.
That
When there is not space enough to build out laterally, the
buildings arc piled up heavenwards, where there is plenty of
room. They are certainly not handsome. Look at this row
of houses, some of moderate height, others as tall as chimneys.
Are they not like a row of keys moved by invisible gigantic
"
fingers?
should not like to live in such a building, I am sure.
*
" I
On the top floor I should be giddy with the height, and on

the first I should expect the whole mass to tumble down
on me."
" We are better off in Brooklyn, where the houses are of
moderate height. To-morrow I will show you something not

less remarkable than the wealthy quarter of the city. I will
take you to the Chinese town. There Chinese swarm in the

dirty lanes there the whole place reeks of onions and tobacco
;
and spirits from the public-houses there are vile gambling

;
hells and opium dens and there paper lanterns on fishing

;
rods hang outside the tea-houses. Then we can take a look at

'Little Italy,' a purely Italian town in the midst of the New
York of the Americans. There you will see only Italian
books in the book-shops, there Italian newspapers are read,
there wax candles burn round images of the Madonna in the
324 FROM POLE TO POLE ,-,. n
churches, and black-haired, brown-eyed children from sunny

Italy play in the gutters. And we must not forget Little
'
Russia,' the Jews' quarter. The Jews are a remarkable

people ;
you never see them drunk, and you never hear of
any crime or felony committed by them. They live poorly,
cheaply, and sparingly, and seem cheerful in their booths
beside the streets."
" All this is very well, but I do not understand where all
the immigrants go. I am told that as many as three thousand
persons land daily on Ellis Island. At this rate New York

receives yearly an addition of a million souls."
" Yes, but how many do you think remain in New York ?
Most of them go up country and out westwards. Some
improve their position and then repair to other fields of work.
But many also stay here and increase the slum population.
The immigrants who are destitute on landing take work in
factories atany wage they can get. The wages they receive
seem very high compared to those in their own country,
but they are low for America. Accordingly the immigrant
Europeans thrust out the Americans, and therefore there are
two millions out of work in the United States. And so there
are failures, human wrecks, who are a burden to others. If
you like we will try this evening to get to a midnight mission
and see the poor wretches waiting in crowds for the doors to
open. They have a worn, listless expression, but when the
doors are open they wake up and rush in, fill all the benches
in the large hall, and go to sleep in all imaginable positions."
" What do they do there ? "
" A missionary preaches to them, but they are hungry and
weary, and sleep soundly on their benches. Among them
you will find tramps and vagabonds, professional beggars and
thieves, idlers and men out of work. In the daytime they
beg and steal, and now at night they take their sleep in the
mission. When the preacher finishes, they file out and go to
the bread stalls to get food. Such is their life day after day,
and they sink ever deeper into misery."
" Theyare the slag that remains after the precious metal
has run of course.
off, It is curious to think of a people that
is increased by a never-failing stream of immigrants. What
"
will be the end of it ?
" No one can answer that question. Everything is possible
with Americans. They are a mixture of English, Scandi-
navian, German, Dutch, Italian, and Russian blood, to name
only the principal constituents of this complex blend, this
trncryWallcer sc-
NORTH AMERICA.
"
huge incorporation. Out of all these elements one day an

American race will emerge, when Ellis Island has closed its
gates to emigrants from Europe."
" Tell me another thing, now. Why is not New York,
the most important city, also the capital of the country ?
" It was thought that the city which bears the name of
the great Washington had a more convenient and more
central position with regard to the States of the original federa-
tion. The population of Washington is only about 330,000,
and there are fifteen larger cities in the United States, but it
is the centre of government. There the President lives in
White House, there Congress assembles in the Capitol, there
stands the Washington monument surrounded by large
national buildings, and there three universities are established."
Chicago and the Great Lakes

After our friend Gunnar has seen as much as he wants of
New York, he obtains a good post in a large factory, but he
stays there only two months, for with other Swedes he receives
an offer from Philadelphia which he does not hesitate to
accept. His idea is to work his way gradually westward. If
he can only get as far as Chicago he thinks it will not be
difficult to go on to San Francisco.
Now he works in a yard where more than a thousand
locomotives are made annually. This yard seems to him
quite a town in itself. Here the iron is made white hot in
immense furnaces, there it is hammered and rolled, and with
irresistible power human hands convert the hard steel into
steam boilers, wheels, axles, and parts of machines which are
put together to form engines. The workshop is traversed in
all directions by rails, and the completed steam -horses are
sent out all over the railway systems of the United States.
Gunnar learns from his mates that Philadelphia is one of
the largest cities of the world, with nearly a million and a
half inhabitants, and that in America only New York and
Chicago are larger.
After a while, however, Gunnar has had enough of

Philadelphia, and takes a ticket for Pittsburg, the steel and
iron capital, where immigrants never need be in want of a
post. He travels without a change of carriages between the
two towns, traversing the whole of Pennsylvania. Innumer-
able branch lines diverge in all directions, for towns and
"
i„ CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES 327
villages arc everywhere. Here a railway runs to a mine,

there another to a district rich in mai/.e and tobacco, and here
again a third to a timber yard. At the station stand long
trains laden with grain, planks, petroleum, cotton, reaping
machines, coal —
in fact all the wares that the earth can
produce by its fertility, and men by the labour of their hands.
The country becomes hilly, and the train winds about
through the northernmost part of the Alleghany Mountains.
Gunnar lets his eyes rove with strained attention over the
dark woods, the waving fields, and the smoke rising from
villages and farmhouses, when an American comes and sits
down on the scat just in front of him.
" I see that you are a newcomer in America," says the
stranger. " It may then interest you to know that the crest
of the Alleghany' Mountains, composed of granite, gneiss,
and slates, is the watershed between the Atlantic and the
Mississippi. You must not suppose that these mountains arc
everywhere as low as here ;
far down south-west, in North
Carolina, there are summits more than six thousand feet high.
Maize and fruit are grown in the valleys, and there are fine
forests of pines and foliage trees. And there are places where
you lose yourself in dense clumps of rhododendrons and
climbing plants. And there are wild recesses where men
never go, but where bears and wolves have their haunts
among broken branches and twigs, fallen trunks and moss-
grown granite boulders, and where nothing is changed
since the time when the Indian tribes went on the war-path.
But where are you bound for ?
" I am
going to Pittsburg to look for work, for I was a
smith at home."
"Oh, Pittsburg! I was foreman in some steel works
there for two years, and I have never seen anything more
wonderful. You know that this town has sprung up out of
the earth as if by magic. When petroleum springs were
discovered, it increased at double the rate, and now it is one
of the world's largest industrial towns, and, as regards iron
and steel, the first in America. Here materials are manu-
factured to the value of more than nineteen million pounds
annually. Almost inexhaustible deposits of coal arc found in
the neighbourhood. More than twenty railway lines converge
to Pittsburg, which also has the advantage of three navigable
rivers, and a network of canals. And round about the town
are suburbs full of machine factories, steel works, ami glass
works. The neighbourhood has a million of inhabitants,
a third of them foreigners, mostly Slavs, Italians, and

Hungarians. You have a kind of feeling of oppression when
you see from a height this forest of reeking factory chimneys,
and when you think of the unfortunate men that slave under
this cloud of coal smoke. There is a hammering and beating
everywhere, and a rumble of trains rolling over the rails.
Overheated furnaces bubble and boil, and sparks fly out
under the steam hammers. At night you might think you
were in the bottom of a volcano, where lava boils under the
ashes ready to roll out and destroy everything. A weird
reddish-yellow light flames forth from thousands of fires,
lighting up the under side of the thick smoke cloud. I am
sorry for you if you are going to Pittsburg. You had much
better travel straight on to Chicago. Not that Chicago is a
paradise, but there are better openings there, and you will be
nearer the great West with its inexhaustible resources."
" Thanks for your advice. I am the more ready to follow
it because I always intended to get to Chicago sometime."

" From Pittsburg," continues the American, " a line runs
direct to the large town of St. Louis on the Mississippi. St.
Louis is a junction of great importance, for not only do a
whole series of great railway lines meet there, but also
innumerable steamboats ply from there up the Mississippi and
Missouri, and to all the large towns on their tributaries. St.
Louis is the centre of all the winding waterways which
intersect all parts of the United States. And there you can
travel on comfortable flat-bottomed steamers along the main
river to New Orleans, a great harbour for the export of cotton.
You can well conceive what a blessing and source of wealth
this river is to our country. It is of immense extent, for it is
the longest river in the world, if we take its length from the
sources of the Missouri in the Rocky Mountains, and in the
area of its basin it is second only to the Amazons. Its plain
is exceedingly fruitful, and far around its banks grain shoots
up out of the soil to feed many millions of human beings.

And its waterways, ramifying like the nerves of a leaf, facilitate
communication and the transport of goods between the
different States.
" You should just see how the great river rises in spring.
You might think you were sailing on a large lake, and, as a
matter of fact, it floods an area as large as Lake Superior. If
the Mississippi is a blessing to men, on the other hand in
spring it exacts a heavy tax from them. The vast volumes
of brown, muddy water often cut off sharp bends from the
in CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES 329
river-bed and take short cuts through narrow promontories.
By such tricks the length of the river is not infrequently
shortened by ten or twelve miles here and there. But you
can imagine the trouble this causes. A town standing on
such a bend may one fine day find itself six miles from the
bank. In another the inhabitants are in danger of being at
any time drowned like cats. A railway bridge may suddenly
be suspended over dry land, while the river has swept away
rails and embankment a little farther off. Our engineers
have great difficulty in protecting constructions from the
capricious river in spring. Not a year passes without the
Mississippi causing terrible destruction and inflicting great
loss on those who dwell near its banks, especially in cattle.
" You have only to see this water to comprehend what
immense quantities of earth, sand, and mud arc yearly
carried down by it. And all this silt is deposited in the flat
delta below New Orleans. Therefore the delta extends from
year to year farther out into the Gulf of Mexico. This is an
easy way of increasing our territory, but we would willingly
sacrifice the gain if we could get rid of the terrible floods in
spring."
The train with our two travellers on board has now crossed
the boundary of Pennsylvania, and is making its way west-
wards through the states of Ohio and Indiana. Boundless
plains extend to north and south, planted with maize, wheat,
oats, and tobacco. Maize fields, however, are the most
frequent, and the harvest is just beginning. Gigantic reaping
machines, drawn by troops of horses, mow down the grain and
bind it into sheaves, while other machines throw it into
waggons. The reapers have only to drive the horses all ;
the rest is done by the machines. Certainly men's hands

could never be able to deal with all this grain whole armies
;
could be hidden under the ears of maize.

Now the train skirts the shore of Lake Michigan, which
stretches its blue surface northwards, and a little later halts
at Chicago.
Gunnar has been directed to an agency for Swedish work-

men, and the first thing he does is to call there. In a day <>r
two he obtains work in the timber business, and goes up to
Canada in a large cargo steamer which carries timber from
the forests of Canada to Chicago. Here the timber supplies
seem to him inexhaustible when he sees the dark coniferous
woods on the shores and hills, and when he notices that
"
330 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. u
hundreds of steamboats are carrying the same freight. The

workman beside him, an Englishman, boasts of the immense
territory which occupies almost all the northern half of North
America.
" Canada is the most precious jewel in the crown of Great
Britain, next to the mother-country and India."
"Why is Canada so valuable? I always thought that its
population was very small."
"It has not many people you are right there. Canada
;
has only seven million inhabitants."

" Oh, not more ! That is just about as many as Greater
London."
" Yes ; and yet Canada is as large as all Europe and as
the United States of America. It stretches so far to east and
west that it occupies a fourth part of the circuit of the earth,
and if you travel from Montreal to Vancouver you have a
journey of 2906 miles. But you can well understand that
such an extensive country, even though it is thinly peopled,
especially in its cold, northern parts, must yield much that is
valuable to its owners."
" Yes, certainly; so it is in Siberia, where the population
is also scanty."
"Just so. In Canada fields, mountains, forests, and water

yield an immense revenue. Think only of all the agricultural
produce which is shipped from here, not to speak of gold,
fish, and furs. The wheat produced in Canada is alone
worth over 22 million pounds sterling a year. There are also
huge areas which are worthless. We get little advantage
from the northern coasts, where the Eskimos live."
" You are quite at home on these lakes ?
" Oh yes. When a man has sailed to and fro over them
for ten years, he knows all about the roadsteads and channels,
and about when the ice forms and breaks up, and when there
is a prospect of a storm."
" But the storms cannot be very dangerous ? "
" Ah, you do not believe in them. All the same they may
be just as dangerous as in the Atlantic, and when a real
hurricane comes, the skipper will do well to seek shelter, or at
the best he will lose his cargo. You will soon have oppor-
tunities of seeing, hearing, and feeling how the surge beats
just as on the coast of the ocean. But then, all these lakes
have an aggregate area more than half as large as the Baltic,
and if we take the depth into account we shall find that the
volume of water is the same as in the Baltic. Lake Superior
PLATE XXXIII.
NIAGARA FALLS.
in CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES 33'
is the largest lake in the world. Beyond the point yonder

lies Lake Huron. You must acknowledge that this scenery
is beautiful. Have you ever seen anything to equal this
sheet of dark-blue water, the dark-green woods, and the grand
peaceful shores? It is a pity that we do not go to Lake Erie,
for at its eastern extremity is one of the wonders of the world
and the most famous spectacle in North America."
"You mean the Falls of Niagara, which I have heard
"
described so many times ?
"Yes. Think of a steamboat on Lake Eric sucked along
by the stream that flows to Ontario. This lake lies 300 feet
lower than Erie, and about half-way between the two lakes the
water passes over a sharp bar and plunges with a thundering
roar into the depth below (Plate XXXIIL). The barrier
itself, which is a thousand yards broad, is formed of a huge
stratum of sandstone, and the rocks under it are loose slates.
Erosion proceeds more rapidly in the slates than in the hard
limestone, which, therefore, overhangs like the projecting leaf
of a table, and the collected volumes of water hurl themselves
over it. But when the limestone is so far undermined that
it is no longer able to bear the weight of the water, fragments
break off from time to time from its edge and fall into the
abyss with a deafening noise. Thus in time the fall wears
away the barrier and Niagara is moving back in the direction
of Lake Eric."
" Moving, do you say ? The movement can surely not
be rapid."
" Oh no ; Niagara needs about seventeen thousand years
to move half a mile nearer to Lake Eric."
" That's all right, for now I can be sure it will be there
when I visit some future opportunity."
it at
" Yes, and you would find it even if a crowd of railway
lines did not run to it. You hear the roar of the thunder '
water forty miles away, and when you come closer you see
'
dense clouds of foam and spray rising from the ravine 150
feet below the threshold of the Fall. Yes, Niagara is the
most wonderful thing I have seen. In all the world it is sur-
passed only by the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, discovered
by Livingstone. One feels small and overawed when one
ventures on the bridges above and below the Fall, and sees
its 2So,000 cubic feet of water gliding one moment smooth as
oil over the barrier, and the next dashing into foam and spray
below with a thundering noise."
" It would not be pleasant to be sucked over the edge."
332 FROM POLE TO POLE P1 , „
" And yet a reckless fellow once made the journey.
For
safety he crept into a large, stout barrel, well padded inside
with cushions. Packed in this way, he let the barrel drift
with the stream, tip over the edge of the barrier, and fall per-
pendicularly into the pool below. As long as he floated in the
quiet drift, and even when he fell with the column of water,
he ran no danger. It was when he plumped down on to the
water below and span round in the whirlpools, bumped
against rocks rising up from the bottom, and was carried at a
furious pace down under the watery vault. But the traveller
got through and was picked up in quiet water."
" I suppose that there are bridges over the Niagara River
as over all the others in the country ? "
" Certainly. Among them is an arched bridge of steel
below the Falls which has a single span of 270 yards, and is
the most rigid bridge in the world."
" Tell me, where does all this water go to below Niagara ? "
" Well, it flows out into Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto,
the largest town in Canada. Then it runs out of the lake's
north-eastern corner, forming winding channels among a
number of islands, which are called The Thousand Islands.
Then the river, which is called the St. Lawrence, is sometimes
narrow and rapid and sometimes expands into lake -like
reaches. At the large town of Montreal begins the quiet
course, and below Quebec the St. Lawrence opens out like
a huntsman's horn. The river is frozen over every year, and
in some places the ice is so thick that rails can be laid on
it and heavy goods trains run over it. In spring, when the
ice begins to break up, the neighbourhood of the river is
dangerous, and sometimes mountains of ice thrust themselves
over the lower parts of Montreal. It can be cold in Montreal
— down to - 30 . It is still worse in northern Canada. And
thesummer is short in this country."
" You have just mentioned Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec.
Which is the capital ? "
" Oh, none of these is the capital of the Colony. That
honour belongs to the small town of Ottawa. And now I
will tell you something extraordinary. The Dominion of
Canada is situated between two goldfields. In the extreme
east is Newfoundland, in the extreme west Klondike. I shall
never forget the gold fever which seized adventurers in nearly

all countries when it was known that the precious metal
occurred in large quantities in the gravel and sand-beds on
the banks of the Yukon River. I was one of them myself.
in CHICAGO AND THE GREAT LAKES 333
Men rushed wildly off to get there in time and stake out
small claims in the auriferous soil. What a wild life! How
we suffered! We had t<» pay a shilling for a biscuit and a
dollar lor a box of sardines. We were -lad when a hunter
shot elk and reindeer, and sold the meat for an exorbitant
[dice in gold dust. We lived huddled up in wretched tents
and were perished with cold. Furious snowstorms swept
during winter over the dreary country and the temperature
fell to -6f. And what a toil to get hold of the miserable
-old! The ground is always frozen up there. To work in
it you must first thaw the soil with fire. By degrees the
situation improved and a small town grew up on the goldfield,
and in a few years the gold won attained to the value of five
millions sterling."
" And the other gold mine, then ? "
" Newfoundland. A cold polar current brings yearly
quantities of seal, cod, salmon, herring, and lobster down to
the banks of Newfoundland, where more than fifty thousand
fishermen are engaged in catching them. As the fish brings
in yearly a revenue of several millions, this easternmost island
of North America may well be called a gold mine too."
Through the Great W'est

After a few profitable voyages on Lakes Michigan and
Huron, Gunnar has saved so much that he can carry out his
plan of travelling to the extreme West. He intends to let
his dollars fly in railway fares, and, after he has seen enough
of the great cities of America, to settle down in the most
attractive district. There he will stay and work until he has
saved up enough to buy a farm of his own in his native
country.
He sets from Chicago and leaves St. Louis behind him,
off
and is by a train on the Pacific Railway through
carried
Missouri and Kansas westwards. In the latter State he flies
over boundless prairies.
Eventually a German naturalist enters Gunnar's carriage
when the train stops at a large station. He is dusty and
out of breath, and is glad to rest when he has seen his
boxes and chests stowed away in the luggage van. Like all
Germans he is alert and observant, agreeable and talkative,
and the train has not crossed the boundary between Kansas
and Colorado before he has learned all about Gunnar's
experiences and plans.
" "
334 FROM POLE TO POLE n . n
Soon the German on his part explains the business which

has brought him out to the Far West.
" I have received a grant from the University of Heidel-
berg to collect plants and animals in the western States, and I
travel as cheaply as I can so that the money may last longer.
I love this great America. Have you noticed how colossal
everything is in this country, whether the good God or wicked
man be the master-builder ? If you cross a mountain range
like the Rocky Mountains, or its South American continua-
tion, the Andes, it is the longest in the world. If you roll over
a river, as the Mississippi-Missouri, you hear that this also is
the longest that exists. If you travel by steamboat over the
Canadian lakes, you are told that no sheets of fresh water in
the world surpass them. And think of all these innumerable
large towns that have sprung up within a century or two.
And these railways, these astonishing bridges, these
inexhaustible natural resources, and this world-embracing
commerce. How alert and industrious is this people, how
quickly everything develops, how much more bustle and
feverish haste thereis than in the Old World !
" It is charming to see the Rocky Mountains become

more and more distinct, and the different chains and ridges
stand out more sharply as we approach."
" Yes, indeed. You notice by the speed of the train that
we are already mounting upwards. You see the prairies pass
into the foot of the hills. We shall soon come into the zone
of dwarf oaks and mahogany trees. Higher up are slopes
covered with fine pine woods, and willows and alders grow
along the banks of the streams."
" You speak of trees. Is it true, as a skipper on Lake
Michigan told me, that there are trees here in the west which
are over three hundred feet high ?
" Quite true. Your informant meant, of course, the two

species of the coniferous family which are called mammoth trees,
because they are the giants of the vegetable kingdom, as the
mammoths were of the animal kingdom. They grow on the
western flanks of the Sierra Nevada in California. When one
sees these heaven-aspiring trees one is tempted to believe
that their only aim in life is to rise so high that they may
look over the crest of the coast range and have a free view of
the Pacific Ocean. One of these giants which fell long ago
had a height of 435 feet and a girth of no feet at the base.
It was called the Father of the Forest.'
' The trunk is
hollow. There is also another fallen mammoth called the
ii, THROUGH THE GREAT WEST 335
'
Riding School,' because a man on horseback can ride some
way into the inside. These trees aresupposed to be several
thousand years old. The place in the Sierra Nevada where
the giants stand on their ancient roots is protected
last
and is the property of the whole people. If the law did not
protect the trees, they would go the same way as the bisons
and Indians."
" Is there not also a reserved area in the Rocky
"
Mountains ?
" Yes the Yellowstone National
; Park in the state of
Wyoming. a wonderful place, and whole books have
It is
been written about it. There are as many as four thousand hot
springs and a hundred geysers in the lower part of the valley
between the crests of the Rocky Mountains. The Giant Geyser
shoots up to a height of 250 feet, and Old Faithful' spouts
'
up once an hour. The Park contains many other natural

wonders, and there are preserved herds of wild animals, such
as elks, antelopes, and stags. Even beavers have found a
refuge in its streams."
"
"
Arc there dangerous beasts of prey in these mountains ?
asks Gunnar while the train puffs and rolls heavily up a dark
valley.
" Yes the grizzly bear is the largest of them.
;
He is not
so particularly dangerous, and at any rate is better than his
reputation. If he is only left in peace he will not come near a
man, and if he is attacked he almost always takes to flight.
But if he is wounded at close quarters he may take a terrible
revenge, and he is the strongest of all the animals in his native
haunts. It was formerly considered a great honour to wear a
necklace of a grizzly bear's teeth and claws.
" It is a fine sight to see a grizzly bear roaming through
the woods and thickets, where he considers himself absolute
master of all the animals of the region. He is sometimes
brownish, sometimes grey, and a grey bear is supposed to be
more dangerous than a brown. He lives like all other bears,
hibernates, eats berries, fruit, nuts, and roots, but he also kills
animals and is said to be very expert in fishing. I will tell
you a little hunting story.
" A white hunter was once eager for an opportunity of
killing a grizzly bear, and a young Indian undertook to lead
him to a spot where he would not have to waft long. The
two marksmen hid behind a small knoll, after having laid out
a newly-killed deer as bait. The Indian, who knew the
habits of bears, was not mistaken. Soon a huge bear came
waddling out of the wood with such a ridiculous gait that the
white hunter could hardly control his laughter, though the
Indian remained silent and serious. The old fellow stopped
frequently, lifted his nose in the air, and looked about to
convince himself that no danger lurked around. Once he
began to scratch in the ground, and then smelled his forepaws
and lay down on his back and rolled. He wanted probably
to rub his coat in some strongly smelling plant.
" Then he went on again. After a time he sat and clawed
his fur, looked at his paws, and licked his pads. Then he
scratched himself behind the. ears with his hind paws. And
when his toilet was finished he trotted straight towards the
place where the deer lay. When he saw the animal he was
surprised, reared up on his hind legs to his full height, cocked
his ears, wrinkled his forehead, and seemed perplexed.
When he was sure that the stag was dead he went up to it
and smelt it. Then he went round and nosed about on the
other side to see if the animal were dead on that side also.
" His meditations were here interrupted, for the white
hunter fired and the bear fell, but raised himself again on his
hind legs. The hunter followed his example, but the Indian,
who saw that the bear was in an angry and revengeful mood,
advised him to hide himself again quickly. Too late
! The
furious bear had seen his enemy, and rushed in a rolling
gallop towards his hiding-place. The hunter found it best to
run, and in a minute was with the Indian perched on the
bough of an oak. Here they loaded their guns again, while
the bear, limping on three legs, made for the tree. Hit by
two bullets he fell down, tore up the earth and grass with his
claws, and at last became still."
" It a shame," said Gunnar, "to kill these kings of the
is
Rocky Mountains for amusement or to gain a name as a

hunter. Probably they are fated to pass away like the bisons
and Indians."
" Oh no, not yet. They will long survive in inaccessible
regions of the mountains and in the uninhabited parts of
Canada. But certainly it is a shame to destroy them
unnecessarily, particularly when we hear of such a deed of
chivalry as the following.
" A traveller took a young grizzly bear with him to Europe,
and on board he was a general favourite. He drank and ate
and played with the sailors, and, curiously enough, conceived a
great friendship for a small antelope which travelled with him.
When the vessel came into port and the antelope was being
m THROUGH TI1K f.RKA'I' WKST 337
led along a street, a large bulldog fell on the defenceless

animal. The hear, which was led behind the antelope hy a
chain, perceived his friend's danger, tore himself away from
his keeper with a single jerk, threw himself on the bulldog,
and mauled him so badly that he ran away howling with
pain."
"You may well declare," says Gunnar, 'that everything

in America on a large scale, but all the same lions and
is
tigers are not found here."

" No, but there arc jaguars and pumas instead. Both are
more common in South than in North America, where the
jaguar only comes as far north as the south-western States
and Mexico. They are found in the outskirts of forests and
in the tall grass of the pampas, where wild horsemen track
them down, catch them in lassoes, and drag them after their
horses till they are strangled. The jaguar also frequents
thickets on the river-banks and marshes. He keeps to the
ground, whereas the bold and agile puma even pursues
monkeys in the trees. With shrill screams and cries of warn-
ing the monkeys fly from tree to tree, but the puma is after
them, crawls out along a swaying branch and jumps over to
another on the next tree. Both are bloodthirsty robbers, but
the jaguar is the larger, stronger, and more savage. He
can never be properly tamed, and never loses his innate
treacherousness, but the puma becomes as tame as a dog.
1
The puma never attacks a man, but you must be on your
guard against a jaguar. Both are enemies of flocks and herds,
but while the puma never worries tame animals larger than
sheep, the jaguar will often attack horses, mules, and young
cattle. The jaguar hunts only at daybreak and twilight, or
when the moon shines brightly the puma only in the evening
;
and at night. The puma is dark reddish-yellow, the jaguar

orange with black spots and rings on his fur, a marking which
reminds one of the colour of certain poisonous snakes. The
puma's cubs are charming little creatures, like kittens, but
larger. Their eyes do not open until they are ten days old ;
then they begin to crawl about very awkwardly, tumbling

down at every other step, and climb up on their mother's back.
They soon become sure on their feet and, like kittens, play
with their mother's tail.
" The jaguar is a keen and patient hunter. He crawls along
on his belly like a cat, and from the recesses of the thicket
watches his victim without moving an eye. He creeps nearer
Z
33 8 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . n
with wonderful agility and noiselessness, and when he is sure

of success he makes his spring, tears open the throat of the
antelope, sheep, or waterhog, and drags his booty into the
thicket. Small animals he swallows hair and all. Of a horse
he cats as much as he can, and then goes off to sleep in some
concealed spot. When he awakes he goes back to his meal.
" On one road in South America twenty Indians were
killed by jaguars within a lifetime. If a man has presence of

mind enough to shout and make a noise and go towards the
brute, the latter withdraws. Otherwise he is lost, for even
if he escapes with his life, the wounds by the jaguar's
inflicted
blunt claws and teeth are terrible and dangerous. There are
Indians in South America who are said to hunt the jaguar in
the following manner. They wrap a sheepskin round the left
arm and in the right hand hold a sharp two-edged knife. Then
they beat up the jaguar and set dogs at him. He gets up on
his hind legs like a bear, and attacks one of the Indians. The
man puts out his left arm for him to bite, and at the same
time runs his knife into the beast's heart.
" A
traveller relates a very good jaguar tale. Some sailors
from Europe had landed on the bank of a river in South
America. Suddenly they saw a jaguar swimming over from
the farther bank. They hurriedly seized their guns, manned
their boat, and rowed out to meet the animal. A
shot was
fired and the jaguar was wounded, but instead of making off,
he came straight for the boat. The sailors belaboured him
with the oars, but he paid no attention and managed to drag
himself on to the boat, when the crew all jumped out and
swam to the bank. The jaguar remained, and drifted comfort-
ably down the river. A little farther down came a boat
of other sailors, and this time it was the jaguar who jumped
out and disappeared among the thickets on the bank. It
was a great feat to make his escape after tackling two boats'
crews."
The continues on its noisy course through the

train
mountains. Dark, wild glens open on either side. The
monotonous rumble of the wheels on the rails has a soothing
effect, and the German, following the example of many other
travellers, goes to sleep in his corner.
But when the tireless locomotive draws its row of heavy
carriages out on to a giddy bridge and the waves of sound
sing in brighter tones than in the enclosed valleys, the com-
partment wakes to life again. People look out of the windows
PLATE XXXIV.
CANONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER.
i
in THROUGH THE GREAT WEST 339
and gaze at the yawning depth beneath them. The train
seems to be rolling out into space on the way to heaven.
The German lights a cigar and begins another lecture to
his fellow-traveller.
"Here we arc passing over one of the source streams of
the Colorado River. You seem disinclined to admit that
everything is grand in America, but I maintain that nothing
in the world can compare with the great canon of the Colorado.
You may believe me or not. You may talk of fire-vomiting
mountains and coral reefs, of the peak of Mount Everest and
the great abysses of the ocean, of our light blue Alps in
Europe and of the dark forests of Africa, nay, you may take
me where you will in the world, but I shall still maintain that
there is no stupendous overpowering beauty comparable to
the canons of the Colorado River (Plate XXXIV.).
" Listen ! This river which discharges its waters into the
Gulf of California is fed by numerous streams in the rainy,
elevated regions of the Rocky Mountains. But where the
united river leaves Utah and passes into Arizona, it traverses
a dry plateau country with little rain, where its waters have
cut their way down through mountain limestone to a depth
of 6000 feet. The strata are horizontal, and the whole scries
has been cleared away by the continued erosive power of
water, aided by gravel and boulders. This work has been
going on from the commencement of the period in the world's
history known as the Pliocene Age, and it is reckoned that
the interval which must have elapsed since then must have
amounted to millions of years. And yet this space of time,
from the Pliocene Age to our own, must, geologically speaking,
be extremely insignificant compared to the length of the great
geological periods. The six thousand years which we call the
historical period is but the beat of a second on the clock of
eternity, and what the historian calls primeval times is the
latest and most recent period in the last of all the geologist's
ages. For while the historian deals with revolutions of the
sun of only 365 days, the geologist is only satisfied with
thousands and millions of years. The Colorado River has
presented him with one of the standards by which he is able
to calculate lapse of time. You will acknowledge that it is no
small feat for running water to cut its way down through solid
rock to a depth of 6500 feet and these canons are more than
;
1 So miles long and four to eleven miles broad.
" By its work here the river has sculptured in the face of
the earth a landscape which awes and astonishes the spectator.
34 o FROM POLE TO POLE pt. h
It is like nothing he has ever seen before. When he stood at

the foot of the "Alps he gazed up at the snow-clad wastes of
the mighty mountain masses. When he stands at the edge
of the canons of the Colorado he looks down and sees a
yawning chasm, and on the other side of the giddy ravine the
walls rise perpendicular or sloping. He seems to stand before
the artistically decorated facade of a gigantic house or palace
in an immense town. He sees in the walls of the valley, niches
and excavations like a Roman theatre, with benches rising in
tiers. At their sides stand gables and projections of rock, like
turretsand buttresses. Under huge cornices rise columnsstand-
ing out or attached at the back, all planned on the same gigantic
scale. The precipitous cliffs are dark, and the whole country
is coloured in pink, yellow, red, and warm brown tones. The
sun pours its gold over the majestic desolation. No grassy
sward, no vegetation carpets the horizontal or vertical sur-
faces with green. Here and there a pine leans its crown over
the chasm, and when the cones fall they go right down to the
bottom.
" In the early morning, when the air is still pure and clear
after the coolness of the night, and when the sun is low, the
canon deep gloom, and behind the brightly lighted tops
lies in
of the columns the shadows lie as black as soot. Then the bold
sculpturing stands out in all its glory. On a quiet night, when
the moon holds its crescent above the earth, an oppressive silence
prevails over this region. The roar of the river is not heard,
for the distance is too great. A feeling of romance takes hold
of the visitor. He fancies himself in a fairy world. Only a
step over the edge and he would soar on invisible wings to a
bright wonderland."
At Salt Lake City the German leaves the train to begin
his investigations round the Great Salt Lake and the Mormon
capital. Gunnar travels on through the mountainous districts
of Nevada and California, and when the train at last pulls up
at San Francisco he has reached the goal of his hopes.
Here is one of the finest cities in the world, situated on a
peninsula in a deep and spacious inlet surrounded by moun-
tains. Almost all traces of the terrible earthquake which a
few years ago destroyed the city have disappeared, and
splendid new buildings of iron and stone have sprung up from
the rubbish heaps, for as a commercial emporium San Francisco
has the same importance with relation to the great routes
across the Pacific as New York has on the Atlantic side.
IV
SOUTH AMERICA
The Inca Empire
A TERRESTRIAL globe naturally presents a better image of
the earth than any map, for it shows plainly the continents
and the configuration of the oceans, and exhibits clearly their
position and relative size. If you examine such a globe, you
notice that the North Pole lies in the midst of a sea, sur-
rounded by great masses of land, whereas the South Pole is
in an extensive land surrounded by a wide sea. Perhaps you
wonder why all the continents send out peninsulas southwards ?
Just look at the Scandinavian Peninsula, and look at Spain,
Italy, and Greece. Do not Kamtchatka and Korea, Arabia
and the Indian Peninsula all point south? South America,
Africa, and Australia are drawn out into wedges narrowing
southwards. They are like stalactites in a grotto. But how-
ever much you may puzzle over the globe, and however much
you may question learned men, you will never know why the
earth's surface has assumed exactly the form it has and no
other.
On another occasion you may remark that Europe, Asia,
Africa, and Australia lie in an almost continuous curve in the
eastern hemisphere, while America has the western hemi-
sphere all to itself. There it lies as a huge dividing wall
between two oceans. You wonder why the New World has
such a peculiar form stretching from pole to pole.
Perhaps you think that the Creator must have changed
11 is mind at the last moment, and decided to make two dis-
tinct continents of America. You seem to see the marks of
His omnipotent hands. With the left He held North America,
and in the right South America. Where Hudson Bay runs
34'
342 FROM POLE TO POLE pt. u
into the land lay His forefinger, and the Gulf of Mexico is the
impression of His thumb. South America He gripped with
the whole hand, and there is only a slight mark of the thumb
just on the boundary between Peru and Chile. It almost
looks as if He grasped the continent so tightly that its western

border was crumpled into great wrinkles and folds which we
men call the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. If we did not
know that it is the ocean winds that feed the rivers with rain,
we should be tempted to believe that the Mississippi, Amazons,
Rio de la Plata,and other rivers were moisture still running
out of the mountains under the pressure of the Creator's hands.
And so He has divided America into two. In one place
the connection broke, but the fragments still remain, and
we call them the West Indies or Antilles. In other places
the material was too tough. Mexico thins out southwards as
though it were going to end in the sea, and Central America
is stretched like a wrung-out cloth. Between Guatemala and
Honduras it is almost torn through, and the large lake of
Nicaragua is another weak point. But where Costa Rica
passes into the Isthmus of Panama the connection between
the two halves of the New World has been almost broken and
hangs only by a hair. The peninsula, however, resisted the
pull, and has held, though reduced to a breadth of forty miles.
Then, of course, man must come and help the Creator to
finish the work which He Himself found very good. It was
long before men ventured on so gigantic an undertaking, but

as they had succeeded in separating Africa from Asia, it was
no doubt feasible to blast a canal through the hills of the
Isthmus of Panama, 300 feet high. It has cost many years and
many millions, but the great cutting will soon be ready which
will sever South America from the northern half of the New
World. It is surely a splendid undertaking to make it possible
for a vessel to sail from Liverpool direct to San Francisco
without rounding the whole of South America, and at a single
blow to shorten the distance by near 6000 miles.
The bridge still stands unbroken, however, and we come
dryshod over to South America just where the Andes begin
their mighty march along all the west coast. Their ranges
rise, here in double and there in many folds, like
ramparts
against the Pacific Ocean, and between the ranges lie plains
at a height of 12,000 feet. Here also lift themselves on

high the loftiest summits of the New World — Aconcagua
in Argentina, the highest of all, an extinct volcano covered
with eternal snow and glistening glaciers Sorata in Bolivia
; ;
- /
\
(Fierradel Fuego
'
C.Horn
Scale, 1:60,000,000
English Miles
Bo ' '-V.y.t im, of Greenwich 4°

dker >c.
SOUTH AMERICA.
;
344 FROM POLE TO POLE re. n
the extinct volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador, like a marble dome

and lastly, one of the earth's most noted mountains, Cotopaxi,
the highest of all still active volcanoes (Plate XXXV.).
Stand for a moment in the valley above the tree limit,
where only scattered plants can find hold in the hard ground.
You see a cone as regular as the peak of Fujiyama. The
crater is 2500 feet in diameter, and from its edge, 19,600 feet
high, the snow-cap falls down the mountain sides like the rays
of a gigantic starfish. When the Spanish conquerors, nearly
four hundred years ago, took possession of these formerly free
countries, Cotopaxi had one of its fearful eruptions ;
and even
in more recent times European travellers have seen the mantle
of snow melt away as from a lighted furnace, while a brownish-
red reflection from the glowing crater lighted up the devasta-
tion caused in the villages and valleys at the foot of the
mountain by the flood of melted snow and streams of lava.
Even under the burning sun of the equator, then, these
giants stand with mantles of eternal snow and glittering blue
fields of ice in the bitterly cold atmosphere. Up there you
would think that you were near the pole. There are no trees
on the high crests, which seem to rise up from the depths
of the Pacific Ocean ;
but the climate is good, and agri-
culture yields sustenance to men. On the eastern flanks,
which are watered by abundant rains, the vegetation is
exceedingly luxuriant, and here the traveller enters the
primeval forests of the tropics. Here is the home of the
cinchona tree, here orchids bloom among the tall trunks,
and here whole woods are entangled in a network of lianas.
Immense areas of Brazil and Bolivia are covered with impene-
trable primeval forests, which even still present an obstacle to
the advance of the explorer.
Thus we find in the Andes all zones from the hot to the
cold, from tropical forests to barren heights, from the equator
to high southern latitudes.
Among these mountains dwelled in former times a remark-
able and law-abiding people, who under judicious and cautious
kings attained a high standard of power and development.
To the leading tribe several adjacent peoples allied themselves,
and in time the mightiest and most highly-cultured kingdom
of South America flourished among them. According to
tradition, the ruling royal family took its rise where the
icefields of some of the loftiest summits of the Andes are
reflected in the mirror of Lake Titicaca. The king was
called Inca, and when we speak of the Inca Kingdom we
iv THE INC A EMPIRE 345
mean old Peru, whose people were crushed and annihilated
by the Spaniards.
The Inca Empire extended from Colombia and Ecuador
in the north far down to the present Chile. The Inca's power
was unlimited, and after death he was honoured with divine rites.
He was surrounded with wealth and grandeur. A red head-
band with white and black feathers was the sign of his royal
dignity. By his side stood the High Priest, who had to
inquire into and proclaim the will of the gods.
In Cuzco, the holy city of the Indians, north-west of
the Titicaca lake, the Inca people had erected a splendid
temple to the sun and moon. The halls of the sun temple
were overlaid with plates of the ruddiest gold, and the friezes
and doors were of the same precious metal. In the principal
hall was worshipped an image of the sun with a human
face in the centre, surrounded by rays of precious stones.
In another hall the image of the moon goddess glittered in
silver.
The sun and moon were, then, the objects of the deepest
reverence. But the Inca people also prayed to the rainbow
and to the god of thunder, and believed that certain inferior
deities protected their herds, dwellings, fields, and canals. They
wore on the neck amulets which shielded them from danger
and sudden death, and were eventually buried with them.
The dead were sewed up in hides or matting and interred
under the dwelling-house, or, in the case of important men, in
special funereal towers. On the coast the body was placed
among boulders, in sand-banks, or in large vessels of earthen-
ware. With a dead man were laid his weapons and imple-
ments, with women their utensils and handiwork, with children
their playthings. To the dead, flowers and fruit were offered,
and llamas were sacrificed. Dead Incas were deposited in the
temple of the sun, and their wives in the hall of the moon.
The Festival of the Sun was held at the winter solstice, and
on this occasion the Inca himself officiated as High Priest in
his capacity as the " son of the sun." Then was lighted a fire
on the altar of the sun, which was kept in all the year by the
virgins of the sun. These had a convent near the temple, the
royal palace and the house of nobles. It was also their duty
to make costly robes for the priests and princes, to brew maize
beer for the festivals of the gods, and after victories or a
change of Incas to offer themselves to the gods.
The earlier history of the Inca people is lost in tradition
and the mist of legends. We know more of their administra-
346 FROM POLE TO POLE pi. n
tion and social condition, for the Spanish conquerors saw all
with their own eyes. The constitution was communistic.
All the land, fields, and pastures was divided into three parts,
of which two belonged to the Inca and the priesthood, and
the third to the people. The cultivation of the land was
supervised by a commissioner of the government, who had to
see that the produce was equitably distributed, and that the
ground was properly manured with guano from the islands on
the west coast. Clothes and domestic animals were also dis-
tributed by the State to the people. All labour was executed
in common for the good of the State ;roads and bridges were
made, mines worked, weapons forged, and all the men capable
of bearing arms had to join the ranks when the kingdom was
threatened by hostile tribes. The harvest was stored in
government warehouses in the various provinces. An
extremely accurate account was kept of all goods belong-
ing to the State, such as provisions, clothes, and weapons. A
register was kept of births and deaths. No one might change
his place of abode without permission, and no one might engage
in any other occupation than that of his father. Military
order was maintained everywhere, and therefore the Inca
people were able to subdue their neighbours. Everything
was noted down, and yet this remarkable people had no
written characters, but used cords instead, with knots and
loops of various colours having different meanings. If the
Inca wished to send an order to a distant province, he
despatched a running messenger with a bundle of knotted
strings. The recipient had only to look at the strings to find
out the business on hand.
To facilitate the movement of troops, the Incas con-
structed two excellent roads which met at Cuzco— one in the
mountainous country, the other along the coast. Europeans
have justly admired these grand constructions. The military
roads were paved with stone, and had walls and avenues of
trees. At certain intervals were inns where the swift-footed
couriers could pass the night. The principal highway ran
from Cuzxo to Quito. When the Inca himself was on a
journey, he sat on a golden throne carried on a litter by the
great nobles of the empire.
European explorers still discover grand relics of the Inca
period. The people did not know the arch, and did not use
bricks and mortar, yet their temples and fortresses, their gates,
towers, and walls are real gems of architecture. The joins
between the blocks are often scarcely visible, and some
IV THE INCA EMPIRE 347
portals arc hewn out of a single block with artistic and

original chiselled figures and images of the sun god on the
facades.
Their skill in potter}- was of equal excellence, and as
workers
in metal there was none to match them in the South American
continent. They made clubs and axes of bronze, and vessels
and ornaments of gold and silver. In their graves modern
explorers have found many striking proofs of their proficiency
in the art of weaving. They used the wool of llamas,
alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos. These species of animal,
allied to the camel, still render great services to the Indians.
The llama is distributed over the greater part of the Andes,
and the male only is used as a transport animal. The llama
is shy, stupid, and quiet, and his head is somewhat like a
sheep's. The alpaca does not carry loads, but is kept as a
domestic animal for the sake of its meat and wool. The
vicuna and guanaco also do not work in the service of man.
The latter is found chiefly on the steppes of Patagonia, where
he meets the fate of the South American ostrich and falls to
the arrows of the Indians.
The Inca people wove clothes of the wool of these animals
as well as of cotton. The chief garment of the men was a
short shirt without sleeves, of the women a longer shirt with
a belt round the waist. The men wore short hair with a
black bandage round the head ;and outside the bandage they
wound a noose or lasso. The women wore their hair long.
Sandals covered the feet, and in the ear-lobes were inserted
round pegs. The people reared and grazed cattle, as we have
seen, and were hunters and fishermen. They grew potatoes
and many other root crops, bananas, tobacco, and cotton, and
sowed extensive fields of maize. They had all the character-
istics of the American race — a short skull, sharply cut features,
and a powerfully built body.
For centuries the Inca people had lived in •undisturbed

repose in their beautiful valleys and on their sunlit table-
—
lands between the mountain ranges or cordillcras, as they
are called —
which compose the Andes. If their peace
was occasionally disturbed by neighbouring tribes, messages
in knotted signs flew through the country, and the roads were
full of armed men but the Inca kings dreamed of no serious
;
danger. For several hundred years their power had passed

from father to son, and no neighbour was strong enough to
wrest the sceptre from the Inca king's hand. Not a whisper
of such names as Chimborazo and Cotopaxi had reached

Europe.
A great Inca had recently died and bequeathed his power
to his two sons, Huascar and Atahualpa. Just as always in
the Old World, such a partition produced friction and disputes,
and at length civil war broke out. After four hundred years,
we read with sorrow the account of the suicidal strife which
harried old Peru, divided the Inca people into two hostile
factions, and thus made them an easy prey to the conquerors.
Scarcely had the clash of arms died out after the brave
and chivalrous Cortez had burned his ships on the coast of
Mexico, subdued the kingdom of Montezuma, and placed it
under the crown of Castille, before another Spanish conqueror,
the rough, cruel, and treacherous Pizarro, cast his eyes south-
wards, covetous of new gold countries. With a handful of
adventurers, he made his way down to Peru, but soon per-
ceived that he could not succeed without help from the home
country. The Emperor Charles V. listened to his tale of
gold and green forests, and in the year 1531 Pizarro set out
again, this time with a company of 180 well-armed cavaliers.
By degrees he gathered fresh reinforcements, landed on the
coast of Peru, and marched into the Inca kingdom.
Pizarro was clever and courageous, but, unlike Cortez, he
was a base man and a scoundrel. He had no education or
proper feeling, and could not even write his name, but he was
cunning and knew how to take advantage of favourable
circumstances. By means of scouts and ambassadors he soon
made himself fully acquainted with the situation. He lulled
the fears of Atahualpa by offers of peace, with the result that
the Inca king requested his assistance to crush his brother
Huascar. If the brothers had held together, they could have
driven the Spanish pestilence out of the country. Now the
fate of both was sealed.
It was agreed that Atahualpa should come in person to
Pizarro's camp, and he arrived in pomp and state, escorted
by an army of 30,000 men. He naturally wished to impress
his ally with his power. He sat raised on a litter of gold, and
was surrounded by all his generals.
Then Pizarro's military chaplain stepped forth, a Catholic
priest. In one hand he held a crucifix, in the other a
breviary. Raising his crucifix, he exhorted the Inca king in
the name of Jesus to accept Christianity and to acknowledge
the King of Castille as his master. Atahualpa retained his
composure, and simply answered that no one could deprive
IV THE IXC A EMPIRE 3Vj
him of the rights inherited from his fathers. I Ic would not tor-
swear and did not understand what the prii

his fathers' faith
said. "It is written here in this book," cried the priest, and
handed the breviary to the king. Atahualpa held the book
to his ear, listened, and said as he threw the breviary on the
ground, "Your book does not speak."
Without warning, a massacre was commenced. The
cannon and muskets of the Spaniards ploughed red furrows in
the ranks of the Peruvians. Protected by their helmets and
harness of steel, and with halbcrts and lances lowered, the
cavaliers swept irresistibly through the ranks of half-naked
natives and spread terror and confusion around them. All that
could be reached with sword, spear, or bullet were mercilessly
slaughtered. Four thousand dead bodies la}' scattered over
the ground, among thousands wounded and bleeding. The
rest of the army was completely scattered and took to flight.
The Inca king himself had been early taken captive to be
kept as a hostage. Enormous plunder fell into the hands of
the victors. The report of a land of gold in the south had not
been an empty tale here was gold in heaps. The loot was
;
generously divided between the officers and men, and, with the
crucifix raised to heaven, the priest read mass while the other
villains thanked God for victory.
The captive Inca king begged and prayed to be set at
liberty. But Pizarro promised to release him only after he
had bound himself to fill a moderate-sized room with gold
from the floor up to as high as he could reach with his hand.
Then messages in knotted cords were carried through all the
country which remained faithful to Atahualpa, and vessels,
bowls, ornaments, and ingots of gold poured in from temples
and palaces. In a short time the room was filled and the
ransom paid, but the Inca king was still kept a prisoner.
He reminded Pizarro of his promised word. The un-
scrupulous adventurer laughed in his black beard. Instead of
keeping his promise, he accused Atahualpa of conspiracy,
condemned him to death, and the innocent and pious Indian
king was strangled in prison. By this abominable deed
the whole Spanish conquest was covered with shame and
disgrace.
One of Pizarro's comradesarms, Almagro, now
in
arrived with with an army of 500
reinforcements, and
men Pizarro marched on through the high kinds to the
capital, Cuzco, which he captured. Then he fell out with
Almagro, and the latter determined to seek out other gold
.
countries in the south on his own account. With a small

part\- he inarched up into the mountains of Bolivia, and then
followed the coast southwards to the neighbourhood of
Aconcagua, tie certainly found no gold, but he achieved a
great exploit, for he led his troop through the dreaded
Atacama desert.
Meanwhile Pizarro ruled in the conquered kingdom.
Close to the coast he founded Lima, which was afterwards for
a long period the residence of the Spanish viceroy, and is now,
with nearly 150,000 inhabitants, still the capital of Peru. It
has a large number of monasteries and churches, and a
stately cathedral. The port town, Callao, was almost totally
destroyed a hundred and sixty-six years ago by a tidal wave,
which drowned the inhabitants and swept away the houses ;
but it gradually regained its prosperity, and now has 50,000

inhabitants.
At length, however, Pizarro roused a formidable insurrec-
tion by his cruelty, and while he was besieged in Lima his
three brothers were shut up in Cuzco. Just then Almagro
returned from the Atacama desert, defeated the Peruvians,
seized Cuzco, and made the three Pizarro brothers prisoners.
But the fourth brother, the conqueror, succeeded in effecting
their liberation and in capturing Almagro, who was at once sent
to the gallows. Afew years later, however, Almagro's friends
wreaked vengeance on Pizarro a score of conspirators rushed
;
into the governor's palace and made their way with drawn
swords into the room where Pizarro was surrounded by
some friends and servants. Most of these jumped through
the window ; the rest were cut down. Pizarro defended
himself bravely, but after killing four of his assailants he
fell to the ground, and with a loud voice asked to be
allowed to make his confession. While he was making the
sign of the cross on the ground, a sword was thrust into his
throat.
The murdered Inca king is an emblem of bleeding South
America. All was done, it was pretended, in order to spread
enlightenment and Christianity, but in reality the children
of the country were lured to destruction, deluded to fill
Spanish coffers with gold, and then in requital were persecuted
to death. Civilisation had no part in the matter it was only
;
a question of robbery and greed of gain, and when these

desires were satisfied, the descendants of the Incas might be
swept off the earth.
,v THE AMAZONS RIVER 35'
Tin-: Amazons River

In Peru the largest river of the world takes its source,
and streams northwards among the verdant cordilleras of the
Andes. Wheat waves on its hanks, and here and there stand.
a funereal tower or a ruin from Inca times. Small rafts take
the place of bridges, and at high water the river rushes foaming
furiously through the valley.
And then it suddenly turns eastwards and cuts its way
with unbridled fury through the eastern ridges of the Andes.
The water forces itself through ravines barely 50 yards wide
and dashes with a deafening roar over falls and rapids.
Sometimes the river rests from its labours, expanding to a
width of two or three furlongs. Crystal affluents hurry down
from the snow-fields of the Andes to join it. It takes its
tribute of water from mountain and forest, and is indeed a

majestic stream when it leaves the last hills behind.
The source of the Amazons was discovered in 1535 by
Marafion, a Spanish soldier. Vicente Pinzon had discovered
its mouth in the year 1500. But Maranon, on the one hand,
had no notion where the river emerged into the sea, and
Pinzon, on the other, knew not where the headwaters purled
through the valley. It was reserved for another Spaniard to
solve the problem. Let us follow Orellana on his adventurous
journey.
Gonzalo Pizarro served under his brother, the conqueror,
in northern Peru. There he heard of rich gold countries in
the east, and decided to seek them. With an army of
350 Spanish cavalry and infantry, as well as 4000 Indians,
he set out from Quito and marched over the Andes past the
foot of Cotopaxi to the lowlands of the Napo River.
It was a reckless enterprise. The Indians were frozen to
death in crowds on the great heights. Instead of gold, nothing
was found but wearisome savannahs and swamps, and dismal
forests soaked with two months' rain. Instead of useful
domestic animals, no creature was seen but the thick-skinned
tapir, which, with a long beak-like nose, crops plants and
leaves and frequents swampy tracts in the heart of the
primeval forest. The few natives were hostile.
When the troop reached the Napo River on New Year's
Day, 1540, Pizarro decided to send the bold seaman Orellana
on in front down the river to look for people and provisions,
for famine with all its tortures threatened them.
A camp was set up and a wharf constructed. A small
brigantine for sails and oars was hastily put together, and
Orellana stepped on board with a crew of fifty men, and the
boat was borne down the strong current.
Dark and silent woods stood on both sides. No villages,
no human beings were seen. Tall trees stood on the bank
like triumphal arches, and from their boughs hung lianas
serving as rope ladders and swings for sportive monkeys with
prehensile tails. Day after day the vessel glided farther into
this humid land never before seen by white men. The
Spaniards looked in vain for natives, and their eyes tried in
vain to pierce the green murkiness between the tree trunks.
The men showed increasing uneasiness but Orellana sat
;
quietly at the helm, gave his orders to the rowers, and had
the sail hoisted to catch the breeze that swept over the water.
No camping-places on points of the bank, no huts roofed
with palm leaves or grass, no smoke indicated the vicinity of
Indians. In a thicket by a brook lay a boa constrictor, a
snake allied to the python of the Old World, in easy, elegant
coils, digesting a small rodent somewhat like a hare and
called an agouti. At the margin of the bank some water-
hogs wallowed in the sodden earth full of roots, and under a
vault of thorny bushes lay their worst enemy, the jaguar, in
ambush, his eyes glowing like fire.
Atlength the country became more open. Frightened
Indians appeared on the bank, and their huts peeped through
the forest avenues. Orellana moored his boat and landed
with his men. The savages were quiet, and received the
Spaniards trustingly, so the latter stayed for a time and
collected all the provisions they could obtain. The Indians
spoke of a great water in the south which could be reached in
ten days.
The fifty Spaniards were now in excellent spirits, and set
to work eagerly to construct another smaller sailing vessel.
When this was done, Orellana filled both his boats with
provisions, manned the larger with thirty and the smaller with
twenty men, and continued his wonderful journey, which was
to furnish the explanation of the great river system of tropical
America. Around him stretched the greatest tropical lowland
of the world, before him ran the most voluminous river of the
earth. He saw nothing but forest and water, a bewitched
country. He had no equipment beyond that which was
afforded by the Napo's banks, and his men grumbled daily at
the long, dangerous voyage.
After ten days the two boats came to the " great water,"
iv THE AMAZONS RIVER 353
where the Napo yields its tribute to the Amazons River. The
latter was then rising fast, and when it is at its height, in
June and July, the water lies forty feet above its low water-level.
Farther down the difference tends to disappear, for the northern
tributaries come from the equator, where it rains at all seasons,
while the southern rise at different times according to the
widely separated regions where their sources lie. To travel
from the foot of the cordilleras to the mouth the high water
of the main river takes two months.
The Spaniards felt as if they were carried over a boundless
lake. Where the banks are low the forests are flooded for
miles, and the trees stand up out of the water. Then the
wild animals fly to safer districts, and only water birds and
forest birds remain, with such four-footed animals as spend
all their lives in trees. The fifty men noticed that certain
stretches on the banks were never reached by the high water,
and it was only at these places that the Indians built their
huts, just as the indiarubber gatherers do at the present day
(Plate XXXIV.).
When the high water retired, large patches of the loose,
sodden banks were undermined, and fell into the river,
weighed down by the huge trees they supported. Islands of
timber, roots, earth, and lianas were carried away by the
current. Some stranded on shallows in the middle of the
river, others grounded at projections of the bank, and other
rubbish was piled up against them till the whole mass broke
away and danced down the river towards the sea. Here the
men had to be careful, for at any moment the boats might
capsize against a grounded tree trunk. Deep pools also were
found, and the current ran at the rate of 2\ feet a second, and
they often had the help of the wind.
They soon learned to know by the changed appearance of
the forest where they could land. Where the royal crowns of
foliaged trees reared their waving canopy above the palms
they could be sure of finding dry ground but if the palms
;
with verdant luxuriance raised their plumes above low brush-

wood, they might be sure that the bank was flooded by the
ri\*er.
If the voyage on the capricious river was dangerous, the

Spaniards were still more disturbed by Indians, who came
paddling up in their canoes and showered poisoned arrows
on the boats. To get through in safety, the explorers had to
avoid the banks as much as possible.
At the end of May they drifted past the mouth of the Rio
2 A
Negro, which discharges a large volume of water, for it collects

streams from Venezuela and Guiana, and from the wet llanos,
or open plains, north of the Amazons River. Where the great
tributary is divided by islands it attains a breadth of as much
as thirty miles.
Here Orellana stayed several weeks with friendly Indians,
who lived in pretty huts under the boughs of bananas. The
vessels were repaired, and provisions taken on board maize, —
chickens, turtles, and fish. There were swarms of edible
and the Indians caught them and collected their eggs;
turtles,
and the fish were abundant and various no wonder, when —
two thousand species of fish live in the basin of the Amazons.
Shortly afterwards they glided past the mouth of the
Madeira, a mile and a half broad, which discharges a volume
of water little inferior to that of the main river. For the
Madeira has its sources far to the south, and descends partly
from the cordilleras of Peru and Bolivia, partly from the
plateau of Brazil.
Woods and no end of water, month after month The !
heat is the same the year round

all —
not very excessive,
seldom 104", but still oppressive and enervating because of
the humidity of the air. Yet the voyage was not monotonous.
Leaning against the masts and gunwale, or leisurely moving
the oars, the soldiers could observe the dolphins leaping in the
river, the sudden darts of the alligators as they hunted the
fish through the water, or the clumsy movements of the
manati, one of the Sirenia, as it cropped grass at the edge
of the bank, to the danger of the eel-like lung fish, which
sometimes goes up on to dry land. Sometimes they saw the
Indians in light canoes pursue manatis and alligators with
harpoons for the sake of their flesh, and perhaps they felt a
shiver at the sight of the huge water-snakes of the Amazons
River.
On they went through the immense forest which extends
from the foot of the Andes and the sources of the Madeira to
—
the mouths of the Orinoco through this dense, rank carpet
which covers all the lowlands of Brazil with its teeming and
superabundant life, and which is so bountifully watered by
tropical rains and flooded rivers. All the rain that falls on
the llanos and the selvas (as the wooded plains are called) makes
its way through innumerable affluents to theAmazons and
enters the sea through its trumpet-shaped mouth. The river,
with its forests, is like a cornucopia of vast, wild, irrepressible
nature, where life breathes and pulsates, where it bubbles and
IV THE AMAZONS RIVER 355
ripples, seethes and ferments in the soft productive soil, where

animals swarm, and beetles and butterflies are more numerous
than anywhere else on our earth, and arc clad in the mosl
eons hues of the tropics. There old trees on the bank are
undermined and washed away, while others decay in the sultry
recesses of the forest. There the earth is constantly fertilised
by the manure of animals and their corpses and by dead
vegetation, and there new generations arc continually rising
up from the graves in nature's inexhaustible kingdom.
The Spaniards had no time to make excursions into the
country from their camps. It is difficult to make one's way
through this intricate, ragged network of climbing plants
between trunks, boughs, bushes, and undergrowth. In the
interior, far away from the waterways, and especially between
some of the southern tributaries, lie forests unknown and
untrodden since heathen times. Perhaps there are Indian
tribes among them who have not yet heard that America has
been discovered, and who may congratulate themselves that
the forests are too much for the white men.
There palms predominate in a peaceful Eden, and at their
feet flourish ferns with stems as hard as wood. In the
bamboo clumps the jaguars play with their cubs, and on the
outskirts of the swamps the peccary, a sort of small pig, jumps
on his long, supple legs. A dark-green gloom prevails under
the tall bay-trees, and their stems stand under their crowns
like the columns of a church nave. There thrive mimosas
and various species of fig, and climbing palms are not
ashamed of their inquisitiveness.
See 200 feet high, with its round, hard fruits as
this tree
large as a child's head When they arc ripe they fall, and
!
the shell opens to let out the triangular seeds which we call
Brazil nuts.
Look at the indiarubber tree with Its light-coloured stem,
its light-green foliage, and its white sap, which, when congealed,
rolls round motor wheels through streets and roads.
Here again is a tree that every one knows about. It
grows to a height of 50 feet, and bears large, smooth, leathery
leaves, but its blossoms issue from the stem and not among
the foliage. Its cucumber - shaped orange fruits ripen at
almost all seasons in the perpetual summer of the Amazons.
In the fruit the seeds lie in rows. The tree grows wild in the
forests, but was cultivated by the Indians before the arrival of
white men, and they prepared from it a drink which they
called "chocolatl." It was bitter, but the addition of sugar
—
and vanilla made it palatable. This tree is called the cocoa-

tree.
better known and more popular is another drink
Still
coffee. The
coffee-tree is not found in the primeval forests,
but in plantations, and even there it is a guest, for its native
country is Kaffa in Abyssinia, and coffee came from Arabia
to Europe through Constantinople. Now Brazil produces
three-fourths of all the world's coffee, and in all thousands of
millions of pounds of coffee are consumed yearly.
The vanilla plant, also, is one of the wonderful inmates of
the forests. In order that the wild plants which are indigenous
in the mountain forests of Mexico and Peru may produce
fruit, the pollen must be carried by insects. Many years
ago the plant was transported to the island of Reunion in
the Indian Ocean, where it throve capitally, but bore no
fruit. The helpful insects of its native country were absent.
Then artificial fertilisation with pollen was successfully
attempted, and now Reunion supplies most of the vanilla in
the world's markets.
Think again of all the animals which live in the forest and
its outskirts towards the savannahs There is the singular
!
opossum, and there is the sluggish, scaly armadillo, which

loves the detestable termites —
those white ants which, with
their sharp mandibles, gnaw to pieces paper, clothes, wood, the
whole house in fact. Then there is the climbing sloth, with
its round monkey head and large curved claws. All day long
it remains sleepily hanging under a bough, and only wakes
up when night falls. It lives only on trees and eats leaves.

In far-back ages there were sloths as large as rhinoceroses
and elephants. We
have, too, the raccoon in a greyish-yellow
coat, also a nocturnal animal, which sleeps during the day in
a hollow tree. He lives on small mammals and birds, eggs
and fruits, but before he swallows his food he cleans it well,
generally in water.
There is a perpetual gloom under the crowns of the
foliaged trees and palms. It is the home of shadows. Only
lianas, these parasites of the vegetable kingdom, raise their
stems above the dusky vault to open their calyces in the sun.
Round them flutter innumerable butterflies in gaudy colours.
On the border between sunlight and shade scream droll
parrots, and busy pigeons steer their way among the treeson
rustling wings. There humming-birds dart like arrows
through the air. They are small, dainty birds with breast,
neck, and head shining like metal with the brightest, most
iv THE AMAZONS RIVER 357
vivid colouring. They build their nests carefully with

vegetable fibres and moss, and their beaks arc long and fine
as a reed. There is a humming-bird which does nol gi
longer than an inch and a half, and weighs little more than
fifteen grains.
We must now go back to see how Orellana got on with
his two brigantines.
Below the mouth of the Madeira he landed once on the
northern bank in a region inhabited only by tall Amazons,
from whom the river received its name. But the talc of
Amazons was really a sailor's romance, just as the Spaniards
dreamed of Eldorado, or the land of gold.
On they went and the river never ended. During their
voyage they saw in lakes by the bank, well sheltered and
exposed to the sun, the grandest of all flowers, the Victoria
regia of the water-lily family, floating on the water, its
leaves measure six feet in diameter, and the blossoms arc

more than a foot across. The flowers open only two
evenings, first white and then purple.
Between the mouths of the mighty tributaries Tapajos
and Xingu the Spaniards saw the great grassy plains
stretching up to the river. They only just escaped cannibals
on the northern bank. Warned by friendly Indians, they
were on their guard against the piroroca, the mysterious bore,
fifteen feet high, which is connected with the flow of the tide
and rushes up the river twice a month from the sea, devastat-
ing everything. Finally they came to the northern mouth
oHihe Amazons River, having traversed 2500 out of the 3600
miles of its length.
Here Orellana decked his vessels over and sailed out to
sea, making for the West Indies along the coasts of Guiana
and Venezuela. Even after the coast was lost to sight he
still sailed in yellow, muddy, fresh water, and he was far to the
north before he came to blue-green sea-water. For three

hundred miles from the mouth the fresh river water overlies
the salt. At Christmas he dropped his anchor on the coast
of San Domingo, and his grand exploit was achieved.
V
IN THE SOUTH SEAS
Albatrosses and Whales
Like the sting on the scorpion's poison gland, Tierra del

Fuego, the most southern land of America, juts out into the
southern sea. It is separated from the mainland by the sound
which bears the name of the intrepid Magellan. In the
primeval forests of the interior grow evergreen beeches, and
there copper-brown Indians of the Ona tribe formerly held
unlimited sway. Like their brethren all over the New World,
they have been thrust out by white men and are doomed
to extinction. They were only sojourners on the coasts of
Tierra del Fuego, and their term has expired. Only a few
now remain, but they still retain the old characteristics of their
race, are powerfully built, warlike and brave, live at feud with
their neighbours, and kindle their camp fires in the woods, on
the shores of lakes, or on the coast.
Many a sailing vessel has come to grief in the Straits of
Magellan. The channel is dangerous, and has a bad reputa-
tion for violent squalls, which beat down suddenly over the
precipitous cliffs. It is safer to keep to the open sea and sail
to the south of the islands of Tierra del Fuego. Here the
surges of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans roar together against
the high cliffs of Cape Horn.
Who listens to this song, who gazes with royal disdain
down over the spray, who wonders why the breakers have
been there for thousands of years pounding against gates that
never open, who soars at this moment with outspread wings
—
over Cape Horn who but the albatross, the largest of all
storm birds, the boldest and most unwearied of all the winged
inhabitants of the realm of air ?
Look at him well, for in a second he will be gone. You
358
v ALBATROSSES AND WHALES 359
sec that he is as large as a swan, has a short, thick

neck, a
large head with a powerful pink and yellowish bill, and that
he is quite white except where his wing feathers are black.
His wings are wonders of creation. When he folds them,
they cling close to the body and seem to disappear but now
;
he has spread them out, and they measure twelve feet from
tip to tip. They are long and narrow, thin and finely formed
as ,i sword blade. He moves them with amazing steadiness,
and excels all other birds in strength and endurance. No
bird has such an elegant and majestic flight. He spreads his
wings like sails with taut sheets, and soars at a whistling pace
Up against the wind. Follow him with your eyes hour after
hour in the hardest wind, and you will see that he makes a
scarcely perceptible beat of his wings only every seventh
minute, keeping them between whiles perfectly still. That is
his secret. All his skill consists in his manner of holding his
wings expanded and the inclination he gives to his excellent
monoplane in relation to his body and the wind. Everything
else, change of elevation, and movement forwards with or
against the wind, is managed by the wind itself. When he
wishes to rise from the surface of the sea he spreads his wings,
turns towards the wind, and lets it lift him up. Then he soars
in elegant curves and glides up the invisible hills of the
atmosphere.
Most noteworthy is the perfect freedom of the albatross.
He shuns the mainland and breeds on solitary islands he can ;
scarcely move on the ground, and when he is forced to alight

he waddles clumsily along like a swan. He comes in contact
with the earth only at the nest, where the hen sits on her
single egg and tucks her white head under her wing. Other-
wise he does not touch the ground. He finds his food on the
surface of the sea, and spends three-fourths of his life in the
air. There he soars about from sea to sea like a satellite to
the earth, moving freely and lightly round the heavy globe as
it rolls through space.
He is not restricted to any particular course, no distance

is too great for him ; he simply rests on his wings and sweeps
easily from ocean to ocean. He is, however, rarer in the
Atlantic than in the Pacific Ocean, and he avoids the heat of
equatorial regions. He sails in any other direction he pleases,
where he has most prospect of satisfying his voracious appetiU'.
What di) you think of an albatross which was caught on a
vessel and marked so that it might be recognised again, and
which then followed the vessel for six days and nights
—
watching for any refuse thrown out ? The ship was in the
open sea and was sailing twelve knots an hour, but the
albatross did not tire. Nay, he made circles of miles round
the vessel at a considerable height. On board the ship the
watch was changed time after time, for man must rest and
sleep, but the albatross needed neither sleep nor rest. He
had no one to whom he could entrust the management of his
wings while he slept at night. He kept awake for a week
without showing any signs of weariness. He flew on and on,
sometimes disappearing astern, and an hour later appearing
again and sweeping down on the vessel from the front. That
it was the same albatross was proved by the mark painted on
the breast. Only on the seventh day did he leave the ship,
dissatisfied with the fare set before him. He was then
hundreds of miles from the nearest coast.
Just think of all the wonderful and remarkable sights he
must witness on his airy course ! He sees everything
that takes place on the decks of large sailing vessels, and the
smoke rising out of the steamers' funnels. He marks the
clumsy movements of the twenty-feet-long sea-elephants on
the gravel shore of the islands of South Georgia, east of Cape
Horn, and sees the black or grey backs of whales rolling on
the surface of the water.
Perhaps he has some time wandered away northwards
over the Atlantic and seen whalers attack the blue whale
the largest animal now living in the world, for it often attains
to a length of 90 feet. At the present day whalers use
strongly built, swift, and easily handled steam-launches, and
shoot the harpoon out from the bow with a pivoted gun.
In the head of the harpoon is a pointed shell which explodes
in the body of the whale, dealing a mortal wound, and at
the butt end a thick rope is secured. The vessel follows
the whale until it is dead. Then it is hauled up with a steam
winch and towed to a whaling station in some bay on the
coast, where it is flitched. Then the oil is boiled out, poured
into casks, and sent to market.
Much more picturesque and more dangerous was the
whaling witnessed in northern seas by the forefathers of the
albatross, for man has been for a thousand years the worst
enemy of the whale, and some species are almost exterminated.
Then the whalers did not use a gun, but threw the harpoon by
hand. Every vessel had several keelless whale-boats, pointed
at both bow and stern, so that they could be rowed forwards
or backwards. When a whale was seen in the distance
v ALBATROSSES AND WHALES 361
the boats set out, eachboat manned by six experienced

whalers. One of them was the coxswain, another the
harpooner, while the others sat at the oars. The harpoon line,
an inch thick, lay carefully coiled up, and ran out through a
brass eye in the bow. Every man knew from long experience
what he had to do at any particular minute, and therefore
there was silence on board, all working without orders.
When all is ready one of the boats rows towards the
whale, and the harpooner throws his sharp weapon with all
his strength into the whale's flank. Almost before the
harpoon has struck the boat is backed swiftly. Wild with
pain, the whale may strike the boat from above with his
powerful horizontal caudal fin and crush it at a blow, or he
may dive below the boat and upset it, but usually he thinks
only of making his escape. He makes for the depths in
fright, and the harpoon line runs out, the strands producing a
singing sound. Great care is necessary, for if the line curls
round a man's leg he is carried overboard and is lost. The
whale dives at once to a depth of a couple of hundred
fathoms. There it is dark and quiet, and he remains there
half an hour or an hour, till at length he is obliged to come
up to breathe. The lie of the line in the water shows
approximately where he will come up again, and another
boat rows to the spot. As soon as he appears above the
surface a second harpoon whistles through the air.
The whale is now too breathless to dive. He swims along
the surface and lashes the waves with his tail to free himself
from his tormentors. He speeds along at a desperate pace,
dashing the waves into spray around him and drawing the
boats after him. The crews have hauled in the lines, and the
boats arc quite close to the whale, but they must be ready to
pay out the lines if the whale dives. The boats' prows are
tilted high up into the air and the water streams off them.
They shoot forward like mad things through the foaming sea,
whether it be day or night, and pitch up and down over the
crests of the waves. With stretched muscles, clenched teeth,
and glaring eyes the whale-hunters follow the movements of
the whale and the boat.
They notice that the pace slackens. The whale begins
to tire, and at last is quite exhausted. Its movements
become irregular, it stops and throws itself about so that
the water spurts up round it. Then a boat rows up, and a
long spear is thrust in three feet deep towards the animal's
heart, and perhaps an explosive bullet is fired. If the lungs
362 FROM POLE TO POLE it. n
are pierced the whale sends up jets of blood from its nostrils
— " hoisting the red the language of whalers.
flag," in Its
time is come it gives up the struggle, and its death tremors

;
show that another of the giants of the ocean has bid a last
farewell to its boundless realm.
Robinson Crusoe's Island
On
motionless wings an albatross hovers high above Cape
Horn. His sharp eye takes in everything. Now he sees in
the distance smoke from the funnel of a steamer, and in a
couple of minutes he has tacked round the vessel and decided
to follow it on its voyage to the north. To the east he has
the coast of Chile, with its countless reefs and islands and
deep fiords, and above it rises the snow-capped crest of the
Andes. As soon as refuse is thrown overboard, the albatross
swoops down like an arrow. A
second before he touches the
water he raises his wings, draws back his head, stretches out
his large feet in front with expanded claws, and then plumps
down screaming into the water. He floats as lightly as a
cork. In a moment he has swallowed all the scraps floating
on the surface, and then, turning to the wind, rises to a giddy
height.
The happens to be carrying goods to Santiago, the
vessel
and casts anchor at its port town, Valparaiso.
capital of Chile,
In the background rises Aconcagua, the highest mountain of
America.
Then the albatross steers out to sea to try his luck else-
where. Seventy miles from the coast he comes across the
notable little island, Juan Fernandez, and circles round its
volcanic cliffs. For him there are no frightful precipitous
ascents and descents from his height he can see all he wishes
;
to see. It is otherwise with explorers. Some cliffs are

inaccessible to their feet, as Carl Skottsberg found when he
went out to the island three years ago in a Chilian vessel.
He saw the cliffs 3000 feet high, and heard the surf rolling in
round the island. It was a perfect picture of wild desolation.
He found it difficult to land in a small boat. He looked in
vain for parrots, monkeys, and tortoises, but found, instead,
that more than half the number of the plants on the island
are such as grow on no other spot on the earth. Among
them are palms, with bright, pale-green trunks, which have
been recklessly destroyed by men to make walking-sticks.
v ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND 363
Here also arc tree-ferns, and the small, delicate, climbing

ferns which gracefully festoon trunks and boughs. And 1
also is the last specimen of a species of sandalwood which,

wonderful to relate, has found its way hither from its home in
Asia. A couple of hundred years ago it grew profusely on
the island, but now it has been nearly exterminated by man's
cupidity. The red, strongly scented wood was too much in
demand for fine cabinet work and other purposes. Only one
small branch now produces foliage on the last sandal-tree.
In this case it is not the last tree among many, but the last
specimen of a species which is vanishing from the earth.
In a cave at the foot of a mountain, according to tradition,
lived Robinson Crusoe, and from a saddle in the crest he
threw longing, eager glances over the great ocean. A
memorial tablet in the cave relates that the real Crusoe, a
Scotch sailor named Selkirk, lived alone on the island for
four years and four months in the years 1704- 1709. He went
on shore of his own accord, being dissatisfied with the officers
of the ship to which he belonged. The climate was mild, the
rainfall moderate, and wild goats and edible fruits served him
for food.
Such is the actual fact. How much more do we delight in
the Robinson Crusoe whose story is so charmingly depicted
in a romantic dress! His vessel foundered, and he was the
only man who was thrown up by the stormy waves upon the
island. There he made himself at home, wandered round the
shore and through the woods, and filled a shooting-bag of
banana leaves with oysters, turtle's eggs, and wild fruits.
With his simple bow he shot the animals of the forest to
make himself clothes of their skins, and wild goats, which he
caught and tamed, yielded him milk, from which he churned
butter and manufactured cheese. He became a fisherman,
furrier, and potter, and on the height above his cave he had
his chapel where he kept Sundays. He found wild maize,
and sowed, reaped, and made bread. As years passed on, his
prosperity increased, and he was a type of the whole human
race, which from the rude simplicity of the savage has in the
course of ages progressed to a condition of refinement and
enlightenment. When he was most at a loss for fire to
prepare his food, the lightning struck a tree and set it on fire,
and we remember that he then kept up his fire for a long
time, never letting it go out. He was very grieved when it
at length expired, but a volcanic outbreak came to his assist-
ance, and he lighted his fire again from the glowing lava.
"
He made himself a bread oven of bricks, and built himself a

hut and a boat.
Once when he was away on an excursion, and lay asleep
far from his dwelling, he started up in alarm at hearing
some one call out his name. It was only his own parrot,
which had learned to talk, and which had searched for him, and
was sitting on a bough calling out " Poor Robinson Crusoe !
How well we remember his lonely walk to the other side

of the island, when he stood petrified with fear before the
print of a human foot in the sand ! For eight years he had
been alone, and now he found that there were other human
beings, cannibals no doubt, in the neighbourhood. He stood,
gazed, listened, hurried home, and prepared for defence.
Here, also, he is a type of peoples and states, which sooner or
later awake to a perception of the necessity of defence against
hostile attacks. His suspicions give way to certainty when
one day he sees a fire burning on the beach. He runs home,
draws up the ladder over the fortification round his dwelling,
makes ready his weapons, climbs up to his look-out, and sees
ten naked savages roasting flesh round a fire. After a wild
dance they push out their canoes and disappear. At the fire
are left gnawed human bones and skulls, and Robinson is
beside himself at the sight.
At the end of the fourteenth year he is awakened one
stormy night by a shot. His heart beats fast, for now the
hour of deliverance is surely at hand. Another shot thunders
through the night. Perhaps it is a signal of distress from a
ship ! He lights a huge fire to guide the crew. When
morning dawns, he finds that a ship has run on to a sub-
merged rock and been wrecked. No sign of the crew is
visible. But yes, a sailor lies prostrate on the sand and a
dog howls beside him. Crusoe runs up he would like a
;
companion in his loneliness but however long he works

;
with artificial respiration and other remedies, the dead will

not come to life, and Robinson Crusoe sadly digs a grave
for the unknown guest.
Another year passes and all the days are alike. As he
sits at his table, breaking his bread and eating fish and
oysters, he has his dog, parrot, and goats as companions
and gives them a share of his meal.
One day he sees from his look-out hill five boats come to
the island and put to shore, and thirty savages jump on land
and light a fire. Then they bring two prisoners from a boat.
One they kill with a club. The other runs away and makes
v ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND 365
straight towards Crusoe's dwelling. Only two men pursue

him, and Crusoe runs up. to help him. At a sign from his
master, the dog rushes on one of the savages and holds him
fast till he nets his death-blow, and the other meets the same
fate. Then Crusoe by signs and kindly gestures makes the
prisoner understand that he has found a friend. The poor
fellow utters some incomprehensible words, and Crusoe, who
has not heard a human voice for fifteen years, is delighted
to hear him speak. The other savages make off as fast as
the\- can.
Robinson Crusoe's black friend receives the name of
Friday, because he came to the island on a Friday. In time
Friday learns to speak, and brightens and relieves the life
of the solitary man. One day another wreck is stranded on
the rocks, and Robinson and Friday fetch from its stores
firearms and powder, tools and provisions, and many other
useful things. When eighteen long years have expired, the
hero of our childhood is rescued by an English ship.
Across the Pacific Ocean
The albatross is a knowing bird, or he would not follow

vessels for weeks. He knows that there is food on board,
and that edible fragments are often thrown out. But his
power of observation and his knowledge are much greater
than might be suspected. He knows also of old where small
storm birds take their prey, and when he finds them flying
along with their catch he shoots down like lightning among
them, appropriates all he can find, and does not trouble
himself in the least about the smaller birds' disappointment.
But these vultures of the sea are still cleverer in other
ways. Their forefathers have lived on the sea for thousands
of years, and their senses have been developed to the greatest
acuteness and perfection. They know the regular winds, and
can perceive from the colour of the water if a cold or warm
sea current sweeps along below them. If now our friend
the albatross, travelling westwards over the islands of Poly-
nesia, wishes to be carried along by the wind, he knows that
he has only to keep between the tropic of Capricorn and the
equator in order to be in the belt of the south-east trade-wind.
And no doubt he has also noticed that this wind gives rise
to the equatorial current which, broad and strong, sets west-
wards across the Pacific Ocean. If he wishes to fly north
3 66 FROM POLE TO POLE
of the equator, he receives the same help from the north-east
trade-wind but if he wanders far to the south or north of
;
the equator, he will meet with head winds and find that the
ocean current sets eastwards. In the northern half of the
Pacific Ocean this north-easterly current is called the Kuro-
shiwo, or " Black Salt." It skirts the coast of Japan and runs
right across to Canada. This current is one of the favourite
haunts of the albatross.
He knows further that the arrangement of winds and
currents is just the same in the Atlantic. There, however,
the current running north-east is called the Gulf Stream, and
160 180
Kermadec fs
^Sydney *
New 1/
elbourne
Tasma'nia^? Zealand^ j
^ Cnith
Auckland!.. -Antipodes
M „W„J " 'Campbell I.
Long. 140 East 160 180 160 Long. 140 We
THE SOUTH SEAS.
it is the warm water of this stream, coming from the equator,
which makes the climate of north-western Europe so mild,

and prevents even the northernmost fiords of Norway from
freezing in winter.
Meanwhile the albatross is on its course westwards, care-
less of winds and currents. He heeds not the hardest storm,
and, indeed, where could he hide himself from its violence?
His dwelling is the air. The sea is high, and he skims just
above the surface, rising to meet each wave and descending
into every trough, and the tips of his wings seem to dip into
the foam. The great ocean seems dreadfully dreary and
deserted. The sun glistens on the spindrift, and the albatross
v ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN 367
is reflected in the smooth, bright roof of waves above the fairy
crystal grottoes in the depths.

He rises to see whether the island he is thinking about
is visible above the horizon. Beneath him he sees the dark,
white-tipped, roaring sea. From the west, bluish-black rain-
clouds sweep up and open their sluice-gates. Is the albatross
hindered in his flight by the rain which pelts violently down
on his back and wings? Well, yes, he must certainly be
delayed, but he can foretell the weather with certainty enough
to keep clear, and he is swift enough on the wing to make
his escape when overtaken by rain. And he can always
descend, fold his pinions, and rest dancing on the waves.
The rain over, he flies higher up again and now sees
Easter Island, which from an immense depth rises above the
water, terribly lonely in the great ocean. On a sloping beach
he sees several monuments of stone, thirty feet high, in the form
of human heads. They mark graves, and are memorials of
a long-vanished settlement. Now there are only about 1 50
natives on Easter Island, and even these are doomed to
extinction. Three white men live on the island, but it is
long since news was heard of them, for no vessel has touched
there for several years. Of other living things only rats,
goats, fowls, and sea birds exist on the island.
At some distance to the north-east lies Sala-y-Gomez, a
small island of perfectly bare rocks, only inhabited by sea-fowl,
and there the albatross pays a passing visit. Now he rises again
and continues his flight westwards. Soon he comes to a swarm
of insignificant islands called the Low Archipelago. So we
name the islands, but the dark-skinned natives who by some
mysterious fortune have been banished to them call them
Paumotu, or " Island Cloud." A poet could not have con-
ceived a better name. There lie eighty-five groups of islands,
each consisting of innumerable holms. They are really a
cloud of islets, like a nebula or star mist in the sky, and this
swarm is only one among many others studding all the
western part of the Pacific Ocean.
Now the albatross soars round the rocks of the " Island
Cloud." He can see them easily from up above, but it
is a harder matter for a vessel to make its way between the
treacherous rocks and reefs. Though they are so many,

the aggregate area amounts to less than four square miles.
Almost all are formed of coral, and most of them are atolls.
Reef - building corals are small animals which extract lime
from the water. They multiply by budding, and every group
3 68
FROM POLE TO POLE PT u
.
forms a common clan where living and dead members rest

side by side.Coral animalculse demand for their existence a
firm, hard sea bottom, crystal-clear water, sufficient nutriment
brought to them by waves and currents, and lastly a water tem-
perature not falling below 68°. Therefore they occur only in
tropical seas and near the surface, for the water becomes colder
with the depth. At depths greater than 160 feet they are rare.
They die and increase again and again, and therefore the
coral reefs grow in height and breadth, and only the height
of water at ebb tide puts a limit to their upward growth.
The continual surf of the sea and stormy waves often break
off whole blocks of coral limestone, which roll .down and
break up into sand. With this all cavities are filled in, and
thus the action of the sea helps to consolidate and strengthen
the reef. Other lime-extracting animalculse and also sea-
weeds establish themselves on the reef. In the course of
time the waves throw up loose blocks on the top of the reef,
so that parts of it are always above the water-level. When
the water rises during flood-tide, white foaming surf indicates
the position of the reef at a long distance. During the ebb
the reef itself is exposed and the sea is quiet. Between ebb
and flood the fairway is dangerous, for there is nothing to
warn a vessel, and it may run right on to a coral reef and
be lost.
Reefs have various forms and lengths. The great Barrier
Reef, which lies off the north-east coast of Australia, is
1 200 miles long. When reefs form circles they are called
atolls. By means of winds, birds, and ocean currents, seeds
are carried about the ocean, and strike root on any parts of
the reef which lie above the level of the flood-tide. In the
fulness of time the atoll is completed, built up by animalculse
and plants. The " Island Cloud " is the largest continuous
atoll region in all the world. There the circular coral islands
lie like a collection of garlands thrown down upon the sea.
Within them the water may be as much as 230 feet deep, and
in the lagoons of some atolls all the fleets of the world could
find room. The minute coral animalculse have provided by
their industrious labour shelter for the largest vessels.
On many of the atolls grow cocoa palms, and only then
are the ring-shaped islands inhabitable. How curious they
look to one approaching on a vessel Only the crowns of
!
the palms are seen above the horizon the island, being low,
;
is out of sight. One might be coming to an oasis in the

boundless Sahara. At last the solid coral around °f the
island comes into sight (Plate XXXVII.). Breakers dash

against the outer side of the ring, but the lagoon within is
smooth as a mirror in the lea of the corals and palms.
Four thousand natives of Polynesian race live on the
holms of the " Island Cloud," a couple of hundred on each
atoll. They gather pearls and mother-of-pearl, and barter
them for European goods at a ridiculously low price. On
some islands, bread-fruit trees, pineapples, and bananas are
—
grown. Animal life is very poor rats, parrots, pigeons,
thrushes, and lizards— but all the richer is the life in the sea
outside. The natives are most excellent seamen, and it is
hard to believe that they are lifelong prisoners on their
islands. They sail with sails of matting made by the women,
and have outriggers which give stability to their boats, and
they cross boldly from island to island.
What does the albatross care if the French have hoisted
their tricolourcd flag over the atolls of the "Island Cloud"
and their nearest neighbours to the west ? He is absolute
ruler over them all, and seizes his prey where he will.
Now he makes for the Society Islands, and takes a circuit
round the largest of them, Tahiti, the finest and best known
of all the islands in the southern sea. There again he sees
volcanoes long since extinct, grand wild cliffs thickly covered
with wood, impenetrable clumps of ferns, and luxuriant grass,
while down the slopes dance lively brooks to the lagoon
separated from the sea by the breakwaters of the coral master-
builders. On the strand grow the ever-present cocoa palms,
as distinctive of the islands of the southern sea as the date
palms are of the desert regions of the Old World. Here the
weather is beautiful, a warm, equable, tropical sea climate
with only three or four degrees difference between winter and
summer. The south-east trade-wind blows all the year round,
and storms are rare visitors. The rain is moderate, and fever
is unknown.
The natives take a bright and happy view of life. They
deck their hair with wreaths of flowers, their gait is light and
easy, and they knew no sorrow until the white man came
and spoiled their life and liberty.
Now the original inhabitants of Tahiti are dying out, and
are being replaced by Chinamen, Europeans, and natives from
other islands to the north-west. They still, however, till their
fields, put out their fishing-canoes in the lagoon, and pull
down cocoa-nuts in their season. They still wear wreaths of
flowers in their hair, a last relic of a happier existence.
2 B
Pigeons coo in the trees, and green and blue and white
parrots utter their car-piercing screams. Horses, cattle,
sheep, goats, and swine are newcomers ;
lizards, scorpions,
flies, and mosquitoes are indigenous. The luxuriant gardens
with their natural charms Europeans have not been able to
destroy, and the frigate bird, the eagle of the sea, with the tail
feathers of which the chiefs of Tahiti used to decorate their
heads, still roosts in the trees on the strand, and seeks its food
far out in the sea. The albatross cannot but notice the frigate
bird. He sees in him a rival. The latter does not make such
long journeys, and does not venture so far out to sea but he is
;
a master in the art of flying, and he is an unconscionable thief.

He follows dolphins and other fishes of prey to appropriate their
catch, and forces other birds to relinquish their food when
they are in the act of swallowing it. When fishermen are out
drawing up their nets, he skims so low over the boat that he
may be stunned with an oar, and he is so attracted by bright
and gaudy colours that he will shoot down recklessly on to
the pennants of ships as they flutter in the wind, swinging to
and fro with the roll of the vessel. He soars to an immense
height, like the eagle, and no telescope can match the sharp-
ness of his eyesight. Up aloft he can see the smallest fish
disporting itself on the surface of the water. Especially he
looks out for flying-fish, and catches them in the air just as
they are hovering on expanded fins above the waves, or else
dives after them and seizes them down below. When he has
caught a fish he soars aloft, and if the fish does not lie com-
fortably in his bill he drops it, and catches it again before it
reaches the water and he will do this repeatedly until the
;
fish is in a convenient position for swallowing.

Our far-travelled storm-bird continues his long journey
westwards, and his next resting-place is the Samoa Islands,
which he recognises by their lofty volcanic cliffs, their tuff
and woods and waterfalls, as much as 650
lava, their beautiful
and surrounded by the most luxuriant vegetation.
feet high,
Over the copses of ferns, and climbing plants, and shrubs,
reminding one of India, flutter beautiful butterflies.
Around their oval huts, with roof of sugar-cane leaves and
the floor inside covered with cocoa mats, are seen the yellowish-
brown Polynesians, of powerful build and proud bearing.
The upper parts of their bodies are bare, and they wear neck-
laces of shells and teeth, deck themselves with flowers and
feathers, smear their bodies with cocoa oil, and tattoo them-
selves. Of a peaceful and happy disposition, they, too, have
been disturbed by white men, and have been forced to cede

their islands to Germany and the United States.
It rains abundantly on the Samoa Islands. Black clouds
sink down towards the sea, violent waterspouts suck up the
water in spiral columns which spread out above like the crowns
of pine-trees, and deluges of rain come down, lasting sometimes
for weeks. Everything becomes wet and sodden, and it is
useless to try to light a fire with matches. Almost every year
these islands are visited by sudden whirlwinds, which do great
damage both on sea and land. Wreckage is thrown up on
the shore, fields and plantations are destroyed, leaves fly like
feathers from the cocoa palms, and if the storm is one of the
worst kind, the trees themselves fall in long rows as if they
had been mown down by a gigantic scythe.
The albatross knows of old the course of the great steam-
boat liners. He sees several steamers at the Samoa Islands,
and afterwards on his flight to the Fiji Islands, and if the
weather is overcast and stormy he leaves his fishing-grounds
in the great ocean deserts and makes for some well-known
steamer route. For in stormy weather he can find no soft
cephalopods, but from a vessel refuse is thrown out in all
weathers. He knows that the Samoa Islands are in regular
communication with the Sandwich Islands, and that from
these navigation routes radiate out like a star to Asia,
America, and Australia.
He sails proudly past the Fiji Islands. He does not
trouble himself to make an excursion to the Solomon Islands
and the world of islands lying like piers of fallen bridges on
the way to the coast of Asia. Though New Caledonia is so
near on the west, he is not attracted to it, as the French use it
as a penal settlement.
Rather will he trim his wings for the south, and soon he
sees the mountains on the northern island of New Zealand
rise above the horizon. Among them stands Tongariros
active volcano with its seven craters, and north-east of it lies
the crater lake Taupo among cliffs of pumice-stone. North
of this lake are many smaller ones, round which steam rises
from hot springs, and where many fine geysers shoot up,
playing like fountains.
He sees that on the southern island the mountains skirt
the western coast just as in Scandinavia, that mighty glaciers
descend from the eternal snow-fields, and that their streams
lose themselves in most beautiful Alpine lakes. He gives a
passing glance at the lofty mountain named after the great
navigator Cook, which is 12,360 feet high. On the plains

and slopes shepherds tend immense flocks of sheep. The
woods are evergreen. In the north grow pines, whose trunks
form long avenues, and whose crowns are like vaultings in a
venerable cathedral. There grow beeches, and tree-ferns, and
climbing plants but the palms come to an end half-way down
;
the southern island, for the southernmost part of the island is

too cold for them.
Formerly both islands were inhabited by Maoris. They
tattooed the whole of their bodies in fine and tasteful patterns,
but were cannibals and stuck their enemies' heads on poles
round their villages. Now there are only forty thousand of
them left, and even these are doomed to extinction through
—
white men as in the struggle between the brown and black
rats. Formerly the Maoris stalked about with their war clubs
over their shoulders ;now they work as day labourers in the
service of the whites.
At last our albatross rises high above the coast and speeds
swiftly southwards to the small island of Auckland. There he
meets his mate, and for several days they are terribly busy in
making ready their nest. They collect reeds, rushes, and dry
grass,which they knit into a kind of high, round ball. The
month of November is come and the summer has begun. In
the southern hemisphere midsummer comes at Christmas and
midwinter at the end of June. Then the albatrosses assemble
in enormous flocks at Auckland and other small, lonely islands
to breed.
Across Australia
There are still districts in the interior of the fifth continent

which have never been visited by Europeans. There stretch
vast sandy deserts and the country is very dry, for the rain of the
south-east trade-wind falls on the mountain ranges of the east,
where also the rivers flow. Fifty years ago very little was
known of the interior of Australia, and a large reward was
offered to the man who should first cross the continent from
sea to sea.
Accordingly a big expedition was set on foot. It was
equipped by the colony of Victoria. Large sums of money
were contributed, and Robert Burke was chosen as leader.
He was a bold and energetic man, but wanting in cool-
headedness and the quiet, sure judgment necessary to con-
duct an expedition through unknown and desolate country.
v ACROSS AUSTRALIA 373
Two dozen camels with their drivers were procured from

north-west India. Provisions were obtained for a year, and
all the articles purchased, even to the smallest trifles, were of
the best quality money could buy. With such an equipment
all Australia might have been explored little by little. When
the expedition set out from Melbourne, the capital of Victoria,
there was great enthusiasm many people came out really to
;
to look at the camels, for they had never seen this animal
before, but most of them looked forward to a triumph in
geographical exploration.
Burke was not alone. He had as many as fifteen
Europeans with him. Some of them were men of science,
who were to investigate the peculiar vegetation of the country,
and the singular marsupials, the character of the rocks, the
climate, and so on. One of them was named Wills. Others
were servants, and had to look after the horses and transport.
The caravan started on August 20, i860. That was the
first mistake, for the heat and drought were then setting in.
The men marched on undismayed, however, crossed Australia's
largest river, the Murray, and came to its tributary, the Dar-
ling. There a permanent camp was pitched, and the larger
part of the caravan was left there. Burke, Wills, and six
other Europeans went on with five horses and sixteen camels
towards the north-west, and in twenty-one days reached the
river Cooper, which runs into Lake Eyre.
Here another camp was set up, several excursions were
made in the neighbourhood, and a messenger was sent to the
Darling to hurry up the men left behind. The messenger
loitered, however, one week passed after another, and when
nothing was heard of the men, Burke decided to march north-
wards with only three companions, Wills and the two servants
King and Gray, six camels, two horses, and provisions for
three months, and cross the continent to the coast of Queens-
land on the Gulf of Carpentaria. The other four were to
remain with their horses and camels where they were until
Burke came back, and were to leave the place only if
absolutely obliged to do so.
All went well at first, but the country was troublesome
and rough, wild and undulating (Plate XXXVIII.). As
long as the explorers followed the sandy bed of the Cooper
River they found pools of water in sufficient numbers. At
midday the temperature in the shade was 97 but it fell at
,
night to 73 when they felt quite cold.

,
Then they passed from bed to bed of temporary streams,

carrying water only in the rainy season, and there the usual
pools of water remained in the shade of dense copses of
grass-trees, boxwood and gum-trees or eucalyptus. The last
named were evidently not of the same species as the world-
renowned blue gum-tree which occurs in Victoria and
Tasmania, for this dries up marshes and unhealthy tracts and
grows to its height of 65 feet in seven years. But the
giant gum-tree is still more remarkable, for it attains a height
of over 400 feet, and another species of eucalyptus has
reached 500 feet.
The party had also to cross dreary plains of sand and
tracts of clay cracked by the drought, and there they had to
have their leather sacks filled with water. Sometimes they
saw flocks of pigeons flying northwards, and were sure of
finding water soon if they followed in the same direction.
At some places there had been rain, so that a little grass had
sprung up ; in others the saltbushes were perishing from
drought.
The animal life was very scanty. In the brief notes of
the expedition few forms are mentioned except pigeons and
ducks, wild geese, pelicans and certain other waders, parrots,
snakes, fishes, and rats. They saw no' kangaroos those—
curious jumping and springing animals which carry their
young for seven months in a pouch on the belly, and are
as peculiar to Australia as the llama to South America nor ;
do the travellers speak of dingoes, the wild dogs of Australia,

which are a terror to sheep farmers.
They saw Australian blacks clad with shields, long spears,
and boomerangs, and nothing else. These naked, low-typed
savages sometimes gave them fish in exchange for beads,
matches, and other trifles. They were active as monkeys in
the trees when they were hunting the beasts of the forest, but
when they saw the camels they usually took to their heels.
They had never seen such kangaroos before, with long legs
both back and front, and also humpbacked.
After the travellers had crossed a hilly tract they had
not far to go to the coast. From the last camp Burke and
Wills marched through swamps and woods of palms and
mangroves, but they never caught sight of the waters of the
Gulf of Carpentaria. Forests hid them and swamps inter-
vened when they were quite close to the shore. Burke had
attained his aim he had crossed Australia.
: But his exploit
was of little use or satisfaction, least of all to himself, for his
return was a succession of disasters, the most terrible journey
v ACROSS AUSTRALIA 37 5
ever undertaken in the fifth continent. Thunder, lightni

and deluges of rain marked the start southwards. The
lightning Hashes followed one another so closely that the
palms and gum-trees were lighted up in the middle ol the
night as in the day. The ground was turned into a con-
tinuous swamp. In order to spare the camels, the tents had
been left behind. Everything became moist, and the men
grew languid and when the rain ceased drought set in again
;
and oppressive, suffocating heat, so that they longed for night

as for a friend.
An emaciated horse was left behind. A snake eight feet
long was killed, and following the example of the savages they
ate its flesh, but were sick after it. Once when they were
encamping in a cave in a valley, a downpour of rain came,
filled the valley, and threatened to carry away themselves and
their camp. Mosquitoes tormented them, and sometimes they
had to lose a day when the ground was turned into slough by
the rain.
One man sickened and died, but on April 21 the three
men were in sight of the camp where their comrades had been
ordered to await their return. Burke thought that he could
seethem in the distance. How eager
they were to get there !
Here they would find all above all, would be

necessaries, and,
saved from starvation, which had already carried off one oi
the four.
But the spot was deserted. Not a living thing remained.
There were only on a tree trunk the words " Dig. April 21."
They digged and found a letter telling them that their
comrades had left the place the same day, only a few hours
before. Fortunately they found also a supply of flour, rice,
sugar, and dried meat enough to last them until they reached a
station inhabited by whites. But where were the clothes to re-
place their worn rags, which would scarcely hang together on
their bodies ? After four months of hard travelling and constant
privations they were so overcome by weariness that every step
was an and now they had come to the camp only to
effort,
find that theircomrades had gone off the same day, neglecting
their duty. Fate could not have treated them more cruelly.
Burke asked Wills and King whether they thought that
they could overtake their comrades, but both answered no.
Their last two camels were worn out, whereas the animals of
the other men were, according to the letter, in excellent
condition. A
sensible man would have tried to reach them,
or at least have followed their trail, and this Wills and King
.
wanted to do. But Burke proposed a more westerly route,

which he expected would be better and safer, and which led
to the town of Adelaide in South Australia. It ran past
Mount Hopeless, an unlucky name.
All went well at first, as long as they had flour and rice
and could obtain from the natives fish and nardoo, ground
seeds of the clover fern. They even ate rats, roasting them
whole on the embers, skin and all, and found them well
flavoured. One camel died, and the other soon refused to
move. He supplied them with a store of meat. But their
provisions came to an end, and, what was worse, water ceased
on the way to Mount Hopeless.
Then they decided to return to the abandoned camp. On
the way they kept alive on fish which they sometimes pro-
cured from natives, having nothing else but nardoo seeds
plucked from the clover fern. Half dead with hunger and
weariness they came back to the camp.
Midwinter, the end of June, was come, and the nights
were cold. It was decided that Burke and King should go
out and look for natives. Wills was unable to go with them,
and was given a small supply of seeds and water.
After two days slow travelling Burke could go no farther.
King shot a crow, which they ate, but Burke's strength was
exhausted. One evening he said to his servant, " I hope that
you will remain with me until I am really dead. Then leave
me without burying me." Next morning he was dead.
Then King hurried back to Wills and found him dead
also. The last words he had entered, four days before, in his
journal were " Can live four or five days longer at most, if it
:
keeps warm. Pulse 48, very weak."

When the travellers were not heard of, the worst fears
were entertained, and relief expeditions were despatched from
Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane, and in Sydney and other
towns Burke's fate was discussed with anxiety. At length
they found King, who had gained the confidence of the natives
and had sojourned with them for two months, living as they
did. He was unrecognisable and half out of his mind, but he
recovered under the careful treatment he received. The two
dead men were buried, Burke wrapped in the Union Jack.
Later on his remains were carried to Melbourne, where a fine
monument marks his grave. This is almost all that remains
of an expedition which started out with such fair prospects,
but which came to grief at the foot of Mount Hopeless.
VI
THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS

Sir John Franklin and the North-West Passage
We have now surveyed the earth's mainland, islands, and
seas. We have seen how man by his endurance and thirst
for knowledge has penetrated everywhere, how he has wandered
over the hottest deserts and the coldest mountains. The
nearer we come to our own times, the more eager have
explorers become, and we no longer suffer blank patches to
exist on our maps. The most obstinate resistance to the
advance of man has been presented by the Poles and their sur-
roundings, where the margin of the eternal ice seems to call out
a peremptory " Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther."
But even the boundless ice-packs could not deter the bold
and resolute seafarers. One vessel after another was lost,
crew and all, but the icy sea was constantly ploughed by
fresh keels. The North Pole naturally exercised the greater
attraction, for it lies nearer to Europe, amidst the Arctic
Ocean, which is enclosed between the coasts of Asia, Europe,
and North America.
In the "forties" of last century, English and American
explorers were occupied in searching for a north-west passage,
or a navigable channel for vessels making by the shortest
route from the North Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Let us
look at the story of a famous expedition which set out to find
this passage.
Sir John Franklin was an officer in the Royal Navy. lie
had led expeditions by land and sea, in both the northern
and southern hemispheres, and in particular had mapped con-
siderable areas of the north coast of America cast of Behring
Strait. Most of the coast of the mainland was thus known,
377
and it remained only to find a channel between the large
islands to the north of it. Such a passage must exist, but

whether it was available for navigation was another question.
A number of learned and experienced men decided to send
out a large and well- furnished expedition for the purpose of
effecting the north-west passage. The whole English people
i8o°S
400 600 8oo

Franklin's Route
Nordenskibld's Route
teofthe Fram ..
isen's route aftei

leaving the Fram
Nordensklbldy^^S^
SIBERIA
"1
.St'' jr .V%
\
&
;
a tj <p
West '•.C~rFarewell
60 Lon^. Meridian of Greenwich <
THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS.
took up the scheme with enthusiasm. Hundreds of courageous

men volunteered for the voyage, and Admiral Sir John
Franklin was appointed leader of the expedition, from which
neither he nor any of his subordinates was ever to return.
The ships chosen were the Erebus and Terror, which (as
we shall see later) had already made a voyage to South Polar
regions, and which were now refitted from keel to topmasts.
Captain Crozier was the second in command and captain of
vi SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 379
the Terror, while Franklin hoisted his flag on the Erebus,
where Captain James was under him. The members o\ the
expedition were chosen with the greatest care, and when they
were all mustered, the vessels had on board twenty-three
officers and a hundred and eleven men. Provisions v.
taken for three years, and the vessels were fitted with small
auxiliary engines, which had never before been tried in Polar
seas.
Theconstituted authorities drew up a plan which Franklin
was was left free to act as he thought proper
to follow, but he
when circumstances demanded alterations. The main thing
was to sail north of .America from the Atlantic side and come
out into the Pacific Ocean through Bchring Strait.
The Erebus and Terror left England on May 19, 1845.
All officers and men were full of the most lively expectations
of success, and were resolved to do all in their power to
achieve the object of the expedition. They passed the
Orkney Islands and on Midsummer Day saw the southern
extremity of Greenland, Cape Farewell, disappear to wind-
ward. Next day they encountered the first ice, huge floating
icebergs of wild, jagged form or washed into rounded lumps
by the action of the waves, and ten days later the -ships
anchored near Disko Island, on the west coast of Greenland.
Here they met another vessel which had come up north with
an additional store of provisions and equipment. Its captain,
the last man who spoke with Franklin and the members of
the expedition, said that he had never seen a finer set of men
so well prepared and so eager for their work. He thought
that they could go anywhere.
On July 26 the Erebus and Terror were seen, for the last
time, by an English whaler. After that day the fate of the
most unfortunate of all Polar expeditions was involved in
an obscurity much denser than that which surrounded Gordon
in Khartum after the telegraph line was cut. What is known
only came to light many years later through the relief
expeditions that were sent out, or was communicated by
parties of wandering Eskimos.
Meanwhile the voyage was continued north-westwards
between two large islands into Lancaster Sound. Soon
progress was delayed by masses of pack ice, and the engines
were found to be so weak that they could be used only in
smooth, open water. In another sound, to the north, the water
was open, and here the ships managed to sail 150 miles before
the ice set fast again. Then they passed through another open
3 So FROM POLE TO POLE PT n
.
sound back to the south. Early autumn had now come,

and all the hills and mountains were covered with snow and
fresh ice was forming in the sound. Here Franklin laid the
Erebus and Terror up for the winter, having found fairly
sheltered anchorage at a small island.
What kind of life the men led on board during the long
winter we do not know. We can only conjecture that the
officers read and studied, and that the men were employed in
throwing up banks of snow reaching up above the bulwarks
to keep in the warmth ; that snow huts were built on the ice
and on land for scientific observations and that a hole was
;
kept open day and night that water might always be procur-
able in case of fire when the pumps were frozen into pillars of
ice. When the long night was over and February came with
a faint illumination to the south, and when the sky grew
brighter day by day till at last the expedition welcomed the
return of the sun, probably men and officers made excursions
to the neighbouring islands to hunt. Their hopes revived
with the increasing light. Only 260 miles of unknown coast
remained of the north-west passage, and they believed that
the New Year would see them return home. The sun
remained longer and longer above the horizon, and at last
the long Polar day commenced.
When the Erebus and Terror were released in late summer
from their prison of ice, and the small island could at last be
left, three sailors remained on the beach. Their gravestones,
carved with a few simple words, were found five years later by
a relief expedition, and they constitute the only proof that
Franklin wintered at this particular spot.
To the south lay an open channel, and this southern
passage must in time bend to the west. Mile after mile the
vessels sailed southwards, carefully avoiding the drifting ice.
East and west were seen the coasts of islands, and in front,
in the distance, could be descried King William Land, a large
island which is the nearest neighbour to the mainland. The
north-west passage was nearly accomplished, for it was now
only about 120 miles westward to coasts already known.
How hopelessly long this distance seemed, however, when
the vessels were caught in the grip of the ice only a day
or two later! Firmer and firmer the ice froze and heaped
itself up round the Erebus and Terror the days became
;
shorter, the second winter drew on with rapid strides, and

preparations to meet it were made as in the preceding year.
The vessels lay frozen in on the seventieth parallel, or a little
south of the northernmost promontory of Scandinavia; but

here there was no Gulf Stream to keep the sea open with
its warm water. Little did the officers and crew suspect that
the waves would never again splash round the hulls of the
Erebus and Terror.
We can well believe that they were not so cheerful this
winter as in the former. The vessels were badly placed in
the ice, in an open roadstead without the shelter of a coast.
They lay as in a vice, and the hulls creaked and groaned under
the constant pressure. Life on board such an imprisoned
vessel must be full of unrest. The vessel seems to moan and
complain, and pray that it may escape to the waves again.
The men must wonder how long it will hold out, and must be
always prepared for a deafening crash when the planks will
give way and the ship, crushed like a nutshell, will sink at
once. But worst of all is the darkness when the sun sets for
the last time.
However, the winter passed at last, and the sun came
back. It grew gradually light in the passages below deck,
and it was no longer necessary to light a candle to read by in
the evening. Soon there was no night at all, but the sun
shone the whole twenty-four hours, and all the brighter because
the vessels were surrounded by nothing but ice and snow.
Far to the south and east were seen the hills on King William
Land. If only the ice would release its hold and begin to
drift But the pack-ice still remained to the westward, and
!
it was possible of course that the vessels had been damaged
by the pressure.
Two officers with six men undertook a journey to the
south coast of King William Land, whence the mainland of
North America could be descried in clear weather. At their
turning-point they deposited in a cairn a narrative of the
most important events that had happened on board up to date.
This small document was found many years after. The little
party returned with good news and bright hopes, but found
sorrow on the ships. Admiral Franklin lay on his deathbed.
The suspense had lasted too long for him. He just heard
that the north-west passage had been practically discovered,
and died a few days later, in June, 1847. This was fortunate
for him. His life had been a career of manliness and courage,
and he might well go to sleep with a smile of victory on his
lips. But we can imagine the gloom cast upon the expedition
by the death of its leader.
It was now the season when the ice begins to move, and
.
open water may be expected. No doubt they made ex-

cursions in all directions to find out where the surge of the
salt sea was nearest. Perhaps they resorted to ice saws and
powder to get out, but in vain the ice held them fast. How-
;
ever, they were delighted to find that the whole pack was
moving southwards. Could they reach the mainland in this
way? A great American company, named after Hudson's
Bay, had small trading-posts far in the north. If they could
only reach one of them they would be saved.
Autumn came on, and their hope of getting free was dis-
appointed. To try and reach the mainland now when winter
was approaching was not to be thought of, for in winter no
game is to be found in these endless wastes, and a journey
southwards meant therefore death by starvation. In summer,
on the other hand, there was a prospect of falling in with
reindeer and musk oxen, those singular Polar animals as
much like sheep as oxen, which live on lichens and mosses
and do not wander farther south than the sixtieth parallel.
In the western half of North America the southern limit of
the musk ox coincides with the northern limit of trees. A
herd of twenty or thirty musk oxen would have saved Franklin's
distressed mariners. If they could only have found Polar
bears, or, even better, seals or whales, with their thick layer of
blubber beneath the hide and Arctic hares would not have
;
been despised if in sufficient numbers ! But the season was

too far advanced, and the wild animals had retreated before
the cold and the abundant snow which covered their scanty
food. No doubt the officers deliberated on the plan they
should adopt. They had maps and books on board and knew
fairly accurately how far they had to travel to the nearest
trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the way
they had every prospect of finding game and meeting Eskimos.
It was decided to pass the third winter on board.
The cold increased day by day, and the length of the
days became shorter. The sun still rose, described a flat arch
to the south, and sank after an hour and a half. Soon the
days lasted only half an hour, until one day they had only a
glimpse of the sun's upper curve glittering for a moment like
a flashing ruby above the horizon. Next day there was
twilight at noon, but at any rate there was a reflection of the
sunset red. During the following weeks the gloominess
became more and more intense. At noon, however, there
was still a perceptible light, and the blood-red streak appeared
to the south, throwing a dull purple tinge over the ice-pack.
Then this dim illumination faded away also, and the Polar
night, which at this latitude lasts sixty days and at the North
Pole itself six months, was come, and the stars sparkled like
torches on the bluish-black background even when the bell
struck midday in the officers' mess.
Those who for the first time winter in high northern
latitudes find a wonderful charm even in the Polar night.
They are astonished at the deep silence in the cold darkness,
at the rushing, moaning howl of the snowstorms, and even at
the overwhelming solitude and the total absence of life.
Nothing, however, excites their astonishment and admira-
tion so much as the " northern lights." We know that the
magnetic and electric forces of the earth time after time envelop
practically the whole globe in a mantle of light, but this
mysterious phenomenon is still unexplained. Usually the
aurora is inconstant. It flashes out suddenly, quivers for a
moment in the sky, and then grows pale and vanishes. Most
lasting are the bow-shaped northern lights, which sometimes
stretch their milk-white arches high above the horizon. It
may be that only one half of the arch is visible, rising like a
pillar of light over the field of vision. Another time the
aurora takes the form of flames and rays, red below and green
above, and darting rapidly over the sky. Farther north
the light is more yellowish. If groups of rays seem to con-
verge to the same point, they are described as an auroral
crown. Beautiful colours change quickly in these bundles of
rays, but exceedingly seldom is the light as strong as that of
the full moon. The light is grandest when it seems to fall
like unrolled curtains vertically down, and is in undulating
motion as though it fluttered in the wind.
To the sailors in the ice-bound ships, however, the
northern lights had lost their fascination. Enfeebled and
depressed, disgusted with bad provisions, worn out with
three years' hardships, they lay on their berths listening to
the ticking of their watches. The only break in their
monotonous existence was when a death occurred. The
carpenter had plenty of work, and Captain Crozicr knew the
funeral service by heart. Nine" officers and eleven of the
crew died during the last two winters, and certainly a far
greater number in the third. This we know from a small
slip of paper well scaled up and deposited in a cairn on the
coast, which was found eleven years afterwards.
At length the months of darkness again came to an end.
The red streak appeared once more in the south, and it
gradually grew lighter. Twilight followed in the footsteps of

darkness, and at last the first sun's rays glistened above the
horizon. Then the men awakened once more to new hope ;
Brahmins on the bank of the Ganges never welcomed the

rising sun with more delight.
With increasing daylight came greater opportunity and
disposition to work. Several sledges were made ready, heavy
and clumsy, but strong. Three whale-boats, which for three
years had hung fast frozen to the davits, were loosened and
hauled on to the ice. The best of the provisions still remain-
ing in the store-room were taken out, and great piles of things
were raised round the boats. When everything to be taken
was down on the ice, the stores, tents, instruments, guns, ammu-
nition, and all the other articles were packed on the sledges.
The three whale-boats were bound with ropes, each on a
separate sledge, and a sledge with a comfortable bed was
assigned to the invalids. During all this work the days had
grown longer, and at last the men could no longer control
their eagerness to set out. This early start sealed their fate,
for neither game nor Eskimos come up so far north till the
summer is well advanced, and even with the sledges fully
laden, their provisions would last only forty days.
On April 22, 1848, the signal for departure was given,
and the heavy sledges creaked slowly and in jerks over the
uneven snow-covered ice. Axes, picks, and spades were
constantly in use to break to pieces the sharp ridges and
blocks in the way. The distance to King William Land
was only 15 miles, yet it took them three days to get there.
The masts and hulls of the Erebus and Terror grew smaller
all too slowly, but they vanished at last. Captain Crozier
perceived that it was impossible to proceed in this manner,
so all the baggage was looked through again and every un-
necessary article was discarded. At this place one of the
relief expeditions found quantities of things, uniform decora-
tions, brass buttons, metal articles, etc., which no doubt had
been thought suitable for barter with Eskimos and Indians.
With lightened sledges, they marched on along the west
coast. They had not travelled far when John Irving,
lieutenant on the Terror, died. Dressed in his uniform,
wrapped in sailcloth, and with a silk handkerchief round his
head, he was interred between stones set on end and covered
with a flat slab. On his head was laid a silver medal with an
inscription on the obverse side, " Second prize in Mathematics
at the Royal Naval College. Awarded to John Irving,
VI SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 385
Midsummer, 1830." Owing to the medal the deceased officer

was identified long after, and so in time was laid to rest in his
native town.
Two bays on the west coast of King William Land have
been named after the unfortunate ships. At the shore of the
northern, Erebus Bay, the strength of the English seamen was
so weakened that they had to abandon two of the boats,
together with the sledges on which they had been drawn so
far uselessly. At their arrival at Terror Bay the bonds of
comradeship were no longer strong enough to keep the party
together, or it may be that they agreed to separate. They
were now less than a hundred men. At any rate, they
divided into two parties, probably of nearly equal strength.
The one, which evidently consisted of the more feeble, turned
back towards the ships, where at least they would obtain
shelter against wind and weather, and where there were
provisions left. The other continued along the south coast
with the whale-boat, and intended to cross to the mainland
and try to reach the Great Fish River. No doubt, when they
had been succoured themselves, they meant to return to their
distressed comrades.
Terrible must have been the march of the returning party,
and terrible also that of those who went on. Of the former
we know next to nothing. Themarched and marched,
latter
dragging their heavy sledges after them till they died one
after another. There was no longer any thought of burying

the dead. Every one had to take care of himself. If a dying
man lagged behind, the others could not stop on his account.
Some died as they were walking this was proved afterwards
:
by the skeletons which were found lying on their faces. Not

a trace of game was found in May and June on the island,
and they dragged their heavy ammunition boxes and guns to
no purpose, not firing a shot.
Now the small remnant waited only for open water to
cross the sound to the mainland. At the beginning of June
the ice broke up, and it may be taken for granted that at this
time the survivors actually crossed, for the boat was afterwards
found in a bay called Starvation Cove. If only the boat had
been found here, it might have been drifted over by wind and
waves but skeletons and articles both in and outside the boat
;
were found, showing that it was manned when it passed over

the sound and when it landed.
Many circumstances connected with this sad journey are
mysterious. Why did the men drag the heavy whale-boat
2 C
with them for two months when they must have seen the
mainland to the south the year before, on the excursion which
they undertook when the Admiral was lying on his deathbed ?
Where the sound is narrowest it is only three miles broad ;
and, besides, they could have crossed anywhere on the ice.

But as all died and as not a line in a diary came to light, we
know nothing about it.
When no news was heard of Franklin after two years, the
first relief expeditions were sent out. Time passed, and it
became still more certain that he was in need of help. In the
autumn of 1850 fifteen ships were on the outlook for him.
The most courageous and energetic of all, who for years
would not give up hope of seeing him again, was Franklin's
wife. She spent all her means in relief work. In the course
of six years the English Government disbursed ^890,000 in
relief expeditions. Most of them were useless, for when they
set out the disaster had already taken place. One expedition
which sailed in 1848 was caught in the ice, and resorted to a
singular means of sending information to the distressed men,
wherever they might be. About a hundred foxes were
caught and fitted with brass collars, in which a short descrip-
tion of the position of the relief ship was engraved, and then
the foxes were let loose again.
In 1854 the names of Franklin, Crozier, and all the other
men were removed from the muster roll of the Royal Navy.
A statue of Franklin was set up in his native town, and a
memorial of marble was erected in Westminster Abbey with
the words of Tennyson :
Not here the white North has thy bones

! ; and thou,
Heroic sailor-soul,
Art passing on thine happier voyage now
Toward no earthly pole.
The Voyage of the "Vega"

A remembrance of the Arctic Ocean is the pride
brilliant
of the Swedes. The north-west passage had been discovered
by Englishmen but the north-east passage, which for 350
;
years had been attempted by all seafaring nations, was not

yet achieved. By a series of voyages to Spitzbergen, Green-
land, and the Yenisei, Adolf Nordenskiold had made himself
an experienced Polar voyager. He perfected a scheme to
sail along the north coasts of Europe and Asia and through
vi THE VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA" 387
the Behring Strait out into the Pacific Ocean. His plan,
then, was nothing less than to circumnavigate Asia and
Europe, an exploit which had never been performed and
which the learned declared to be impossible. It was thought
that the ice-pack always lay pressed up against the Siberian

t, rendering it impossible to get past; parts had been
already sailed along and stretches of coasts were known, but
to voyage all the way to the Behring Strait was out of the
question.
Now Nordenskiold reasoned that the ice must begin to
drift in summer, and leave an open channel close to the land.
The great Siberian rivers, the Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena,
bring down volumes of warm water from southern regions
into the Arctic Ocean. As this water is fresh, it must spread
itself over the heaviersea water, and must form a surface current
which keeps the ice at a distance and the passage open.
Along the ice-free coast a vessel could sail anywhere and pass
out into the Pacific Ocean before the end of summer.
Accordingly he made ready for a voyage in which the
Vega was to sail round Asia and Europe and carry his name
to the ends of the earth. The Vega was a whaler built to
encounter drift ice in the northern seas. A staff of scientific
observers was appointed, and a crew of seventeen Swedish
men-of-war's men were selected. The Vega was to be the
home of thirty men, and provisions were taken for two years.
Smaller vessels were to accompany her for part of the
voyage, laden with coal.
The Vega left Carlskrona in June, 1878, and steamed along
the coast of Norway, past the North Cape, towards the east.
The islands of Novaia Zcmlia were left behind, the waters of
the Obi and Yenisei splashed against the hull, no drift ice
opposed the passage of the Swedish vessel, and on August 19
Cape Cheliuskin, the most northern point of the Old World,
was reached.
Farther east the coast was followed to Nordenskiold Sea.
Great caution was necessary, for the fairway was shallow, and
the Vega often steamed across bays which were represented
as land on maps. The delta of the Lena was left behind,
and to the east of this only small rivers enter the sea.
Nordenskiold therefore feared that the last bit of the voyage
would be the hardest, for open water along the coast could
not be depended upon. At the end of August the most
westerly of the group called the New Siberia Islands was
sighted. The Vega could not go at full speed, for the sea
388 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . u
was shallow, and floating fragments of ice were in the way.

The prospects became brighter again, however, open water
stretching for a long distance eastwards.
On September 6 two large skin boats appeared, full of
fur-clad natives who had rowed out from land. All the men
on the Vega, except the cook, hastened on deck to look at
these unexpected visitors of Chukchi race. They rushed up
the companion ladder, talking and laughing, and were well
received, being given tobacco, Dutch clay pipes, old clothes,
and other presents. None of the Vega men understood a
word they said, but the Chukchis chattered gaily all the same,
and with their hands full of presents tumbled down to their
boats again and rowed home.
Two days later the Vega was in the midst of ice and fog,
and had to be moored to a floe near land. Then came more
Chukchis, who pulled the Swedes by the collar and pointed to
the skin tents on land. The invitation was accepted with
pleasure by several of the Vega men, who rowed to land and went
from tent to tent. In one of them reindeer meat was boiling in
a cast-iron pot over the fire. Outside another two reindeer
were being cut up. Each tent contained an inner sleeping-
room of deerskin, which was lighted and warmed by lamps of
train oil. There played small stark-naked children, plump
and chubby as little pigs, and sometimes they ran in the same
light attire out over the rime between the tents. The tiniest
were carried, well wrapped up in furs, on the backs of their
fathers and mothers, and whatever pranks they played these
small wild cats never heard a harsh word from their elders.
The next day the Vega tried to continue her voyage, but
the fog was too dense, and the shelter of a mass of ground
ice had again to be sought. Nordenskiold was, however, sure
of gaining the Pacific Ocean in a short time, and when fresh
visitors came on board he distributed tobacco and other
presents among them with a lavish hand. He also distributed
a number of krona 1 pieces and fifty earrings which, if any mis-
fortune happened to the Vega, would serve to show her course.
During the following days the ice closed up and fog lay
dense over the sea. Only now and then could the vessel sail
a short distance, and then was stopped and had to moor
again. On September 18 the vessel glided gently and
cautiously between huge blocks of grounded ice like castle
walls and towers of glass. Here patience and great care
were necessary, for the coast was unknown and there was
1
A krona is a Swedish coin worth about is. i?;d.
VI Till-: VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA" 389
frequently barely a span of water beneath the keel. The

captain stood on the bridge, and wherever there was a gap
between the ice-blocks he made for it. It was only possible
to sail in the daytime, and at night the Vega lay fastened by
her ice anchors. One calm and fine evening some of our sea-
farers went ashore and lighted an enormous bonfire of drift-
wood. Here they sat talking of the warm countries they
would sail past for two months. They were only a few miles
from the easternmost extremity of Asia at Behring Strait.
The Vega had anchored on the eastern side of Koliuchin
Bay. It was September 28. Newly formed ice had stretched
a tough sheet between the scattered blocks of ground ice, and
to the east lay an ice-belt barely six miles broad. If only a
south wind would spring up, the pack would drift northwards,
and the last short bit of the north-east passage would be
traversed.
But the Fates decreed otherwise. No wind appeared, the
temperature fell, and the ice increased in thickness. If the
Vega had come a few hours sooner, she would not have been
stopped on the very threshold of the Pacific Ocean. And
how easily might these few hours have been saved during the
voyage ! The Vega was entrapped so unexpectedly in the
ice that there was not even time to look for safe and sheltered
winter quarters. She lay about a mile from the coast exposed
to the northern storms. Under strong ice pressure she might
easily drift southwards, run aground, capsize, or be crushed.
The ice-pack became heavier in all directions, and by
October 10 the Chukchis were able to come out on foot to the
vessel. Preparations were made for the winter. High banks
of snow were thrown up around, and on the deck a thick
layer of snow was left to keep the heat in. From the bridge
to the bow was stretched a large awning, under which the
Chukchis were received daily. It was like a market-place,
and here barter trade was carried on. A collection of house-
hold utensils, implements of the chase, clothes, and indeed
everything which the northern people made with their own
hands, was acquired during the winter.
The Vega soon became quite a rendezvous for the three
hundred Chukchis living in the neighbourhood, and one team
of dogs after another came daily rushing through the snow.
They had small, light sledges drawn by six to ten dogs,
shaggy and strong, but thin and hungry. The dogs had to
lie waiting in the snow on the ice while their masters
sat
bareainin^ under the large awning. At every baking on
390 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . ii
board special loaves were made for the native visitors, who
\\i mid sit by the hour watching the smith shaping the white
hot iron on his anvil. Women and children were regaled

with sugar and cakes, and all the visitors went round and
looked about just as they liked on the deck, where a quantity
of articles, weapons, and utensils lay about. Not the smallest
trifle disappeared. The Chukchis were honest and decent
people, and the only roguery they permitted themselves was
to try and persuade the men of the Vega that a skinned and
decapitated fox was a hare. When it grew dusk the fur-clad
Polar savages went down the staircase of ice from the deck,
put their teams in order, took their seats in the sledges, and
set off again over the ice to their tents of reindeer skins.
The winter was stormy and severe. Clouds of snow swept
over the ice, fine and dry as flour. Again and again the cold
scene was lighted up by the arcs of the aurora. In the
middle of December the planks in the sides of the Vega
cracked as the ice pressed against her. If the pressure had
been bad, the vessel might have been broken to pieces and
have sunk in a few minutes. It would not have been so
serious for the crew as in the case of the Erebus and Terror,
for here there were people far and near. But to ensure a safe
retreat, the men of the Vega carried to the nearest shore pro-
and ammunition to last a hundred men for thirty
visions, guns,
days. These things were all stacked up into a heap covered
with sails and oars. No watch was kept at the depot, and
though the Chukchis knew that valuable goods lay under the
sails, they never touched a thing.
Near the Vega two holes were kept always open. In one
the captain observed the rise and fall of the tide the other
;
was for water in case of fire. A small seal splashed for a long
time in one of the holes and came up on to the ice after fish-
ing below. One day his retreat was cut off and he was caught
and brought up on deck. When fish bought from the Chuk-
chis had been offered him in vain, he was let loose in the hole
again and he never came back.
A house of ice was erected for the purpose of observing
the wind and weather, and a thermometer cage was set up on
the coast. Men took turns to go out, and each observer
remained six hours at the ice-house and the cage to read off
the various instruments. It was bitterly cold going out when
the temperature fell to - 51 ,but the compulsory walk was
beneficial. One danger was that a man might lose his way
when snowstorms raged in the dark winter nights, so a line
vi THE VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA" 391
was stretched the whole way, supported on posts of ice, and

with this guide it was impossible to go astray.
Then came Christmas, when they slaughtered two fat pigs

which had been brought on purpose. The middle deck was
swept out, all the litter was cleared away, and flags were hung
round the walls and ceiling. The Chukchis brought willow
bushes from the valleys beyond the mountains to the south,
and branches were fastened round a trunk of driftwood.
This was the Vega's Christmas tree, and it was decked with
strips of coloured paper and small wax candles. Officers and
men swung round in merry dance beneath flaming lanterns
suspended from the roof. Two hundred Christmas boxes
were found packed on board, parting gifts of friends and
acquaintances. For these lots were drawn, and many amus-
ing surprises excited general hilarity. So the polka was
danced on the deck, while cold reigned outside and snow
whizzed through the frozen rigging. For supper there was
ham and Christmas ale, just as at home in Sweden. Old
well-known songs echoed through the saloon, and toasts were
given of king and country, officers and men, and the fine little
vessel which had carried our Vikings from their home in the
west to their captivity in the shore ice of Siberia.
The winter ran its course and the days lengthened in the
spring. Cold and continual storms were persistent. Even a
Chukchi dog can have too much of them. One day at the end
of February a Chukchi who had lost his way came on board,
carrying a dog by the hind legs. The man had lost his way
on the ice, and had slept out in the cold with his dog. A
capital dinner was served for him on the middle deck, and the
dog was rolled about and pommelled till he came to life again.
During the spring the Vega explorers made several longer
or shorter excursions with dog sledges and visited all the villages
in the country. Of course they became the best of friends
with the Chukchis. The language was the difficulty at first,
but somehow or other they learned enough of it to make
themselves understood. Even the sailors struggled with the
Chukchi vocabulary, and tried to teach their savage friends
Swedish. One of the officers learned to speak Chukchi
fluently, and compiled a dictionary of this peculiar language.
Summer came on, but the ground was not free from ice
until Jul}'. The Vega still lay fast as in a vice. On July 18
Nordcnskiold made ready for another excursion on land.
The captain had long had the engines ready and the boilers
cleaned. Just as they were sitting at dinner in the ward-room
they felt the Vega roll a little. The captain rushed up on

deck. The pack had broken up and left a free passage open.
" Fire under the boilers " was the order, and two hours later,
!
at half-past three o'clock, the Vega glided under steam and

sail and a festoon of flags away from the home of the
Chukchis.
Farther east the sea was like a mirror and free of ice
beneath the fog. Walruses raised their shiny wet heads
above the water, in which numerous seals disported themselves.
With the wildest delight the Vega expedition sailed south-
wards through Behring Strait. In the year 1553 a daring
Englishman had commenced the quest of the north-east
passage and had perished with all his men, and during the
following centuries numberless other expeditions had tried
to solve the problem, but always in vain ; now it was solved
by Swedes. The vessel glided out into the Pacific Ocean
without a leak not a man had been lost and not one had
;
been seriously ill. It was one of the most fortunate and most
brilliant Polar voyages that had ever been achieved.
Yokohama was the first port, where the Vega was welcomed
with immense jubilation, and then the homeward journey via
the Suez Canal and Gibraltar became a continuous triumphal
procession.
Nansen
From many signs around the northern cap of the world a
young Norwegian, Fridtjof Nansen, came to the conclusion
that a constant current must flow from the neighbourhood of
Behring Strait to the east coast of Greenland.
Nansen resolved to make use of this current. Others had
gone up from the Atlantic side and been driven back by the
current. He would start from the opposite side and get the
help of the cur-rent. Others had feared and avoided the
pack-ice. He would make for it and allow himself to be
caught in it. Others had sailed in unsuitable vessels which
had been crushed like nut-shells among the floes. He would
build a vessel with sides sloping inwards which would afford
no hold to the ice. The more the ice pressed the more surely
would this ship be lifted up out of the water and be borne
safely on the ice with the current.
The progress would be slow, no doubt, but the expedition
would see regions of the world never before visited, and would
have opportunities of investigating the depth of the sea, the
vi NANSEN 393
weather and winds. To reach the small point called the North
Pole was in Nansen's opinion of minor importance.
Among the many who wished to go with him he chose
the best twelve. The vessel was christened the Fram (Plate
XXXIX.), and the captain was named Sverdrup. He had
been with Nansen before on an expedition when they crossed
the inland ice of Greenland from coast to coast. They took
provisions for five years and were excellently equipped.
The first thing was to reach the New Siberia Islands. To
those the Vega had shown the way, and the Fram had only
to follow in her track. Just to the west of them a course was
steered northwards, and soon the vessel was set fast in the ice
and was lifted satisfactorily on to its surface without the
smallest leak. So far everything had gone as Nansen antici-
pated, and the experienced Polar voyagers who had declared
that the whole scheme was madness had to acknowledge that
they were not so clever as they thought.
We have unfortunately no time to accompany the voyagers
on their slow journey. They got on well, and were comfort-
able on board. The ice groaned and cracked as usual, but
within the heavy timbers of the Fram there was peace. The
night came, long, dark, and silent. Polar bears stalked out-
side and were often shot. Before it became quite dark
Nansen tried the dogs at drawing sledges. They were
harnessed, but when he took his seat, off they went in the
wildest career. They romped over blocks and holes, and
Nansen was thrown backwards, but sat fast in the sledge and
could not be thrown out. In time the driving went better,
and the poor, faithful animals had always to go on sledge
excursions. Two were seized by Polar bears and two were
bitten to death by their comrades. One fine day, however,
puppies came into the world in the midst of the deepest dark-
ness. When they first saw the sun they barked furiously.
The Fram drifted north-west just as Nansen had fore-
seen, passing over great depths where the two thousand
fathom line did not reach the bottom. Christmas was kept
with a Norwegian festival, and when the eightieth parallel
was crossed a tremendous feast was held but the return of
;
the sun on February 20 excited the greatest delight. The

spring and summer passed without any remarkable events.
Kennels were erected on the ice out of boxes, and more
puppies came into the world. Possibly these were as much
astonished at the winter darkness as their cousins had been
at seeing the sun.
Nansen had long been pondering on a bold scheme

namely, to advance with dog sledges as far as possible to
the north and then turn southwards to Franz Josef Land.
The ship was meanwhile to go on with the drift and the usual
observations were to be taken on board. Only one man
was go with him, and he chose Lieutenant Johansen. He
to
first spoke to him about the scheme in November, 1894. It
was, of course, a matter of life or death, so he told Johansen to
take a day or two to think it over before he gave his answer.
But the latter said " Yes" at once without a moment's hesita-
tion. " Then we will begin our preparations to-morrow," said
Nansen.
All the winter was spent in them. They made two
" kayaks," each to hold a single man, somewhat larger and
stronger than those the Eskimos use when they go fishing
or seal-hunting. With a frame of ribs and covered with sail-
cloth these canoes weighed only thirty pounds. They were
covered in all over, and when the boatman had taken his
seat in the middle and made all tight around him, seas might
sweep right over him and the kayak without doing any
harm. A dog sledge, harness, a sleeping-bag for two, skis,
staffs, oil cooking-stove
provisions, — all was made ready.
The took place at the turn of the year, when the
start
most terrible ice pressure broke loose on all sides threatening
the Fram. Mountains of ice-blocks and snow were thrust
against the vessel, which was in danger of being buried under
them. The sea water was forced up over the ice and the
dogs were nearly drowned in their kennels and had to be
rescued quickly. Banks of ice were pushed against the
vessel, rolled over the bulwarks, and weighed down the
awning on the deck and it was pitch dark, so that they
;
could not find out where danger threatened. They had,

however, stored provisions for two hundred days in a safe
place. By degrees the ice came to rest again and the great
rampart was digged away.
Twice did Nansen and Johansen set out northwards, only
to come back again. Once a sledge broke, and on the other
occasion the load was too heavy. On March 14 they left
the Fram for the last time and directed their steps north-
ward. They had three sledges and twenty-eight dogs, but
they themselves walked on skis and looked after their teams.
At first the ice was level and the pace was rapid, but after-
wards it became lumpy and uneven, and travelling was slow,
as first one sledge and then another stuck fast.
v, NANSEN 395
After two marches the temperature fell to - 45 ami it was

,
very cold in the small silk tent. They were able to march
for nine hours, and when the ice was level it seemed as if the
endless white plains might extend up to the Pole. So long
as they were travelling they did not feel the cold, but the
perspiration from their bodies froze in their clothes, so that
they were encased in a hauberk of ice which cracked at every
step. Nansen's wrists were made sore by rubbing against
his hard sleeves, and did not heal till far on in the summer.
They always looked out for some sheltered crevice in the
ice to camp in. Johansen looked after the dogs and fed
them, while Xansen set up the tent and filled the pot
with ice. The evening meal was the pleasantest in the day,
for then at any rate they were warmed inside. After it they
packed themselves in their sleeping bag, when the ice on their
clothes melted and they lay all night as in a cold compress.
They dreamed of sledges and dog teams, and Johansen would
call out to the dogs in his sleep, urging them on. Then they
would wake up again in the bitter morning, rouse up the dogs,
lying huddled up together and growling at the cold, disen-
tangle the trace lines, load the sledges, and off they would go
through the great solitude.
Only too frequently the ice was unfavourable, the sledges
stuck fast, and had to be pushed over ridges and fissures.
They struggle on northwards, however, and have travelled a
degree of latitude. It is tiring work to march and crawl in
this way, and sometimes they are so worn out that they
almost go to sleep on their skis while the dogs gently trot
beside them. The dogs too are tired of this toil, and two of
them have to be killed. They are cut up and distributed
among their comrades, some of whom refuse to turn cannibals.
When the ice became still worse and the cold white desert
looked like a heap of stones as far northwards as the eye could
see, Nansen decided to turn back. It was impossible to
find their way back to the Fram, for several snowstorms had
swept over the ice obliterating their tracks. The only thing
to do was to steer a course for the group of islands called
Franz Josef Land. It was 430 miles off, and the provisions
were coming to an end ; but when the spring really set
in they would surely find game, and they had for their two
guns a hundred and eighty cartridges with ball and a
hundred and fifty with shot. The dogs had the worst of it
for them it was a real " dog's life" up there. The stronger
were gradually to eat up the weaker.
So they turned back and made long marches over easy

ice. One day they saw a complete tree trunk sticking up
out of the ice. What singular fortunes it must have ex-
perienced since it parted from its root At the end of April
!
the spoor of two foxes was seen in the snow. Was land
near, or what were these fellows doing out here on the ice-
covered sea ? Two days later a dog named Gulen was
sacrificed. He was born on the Fram, and during his short
life had never seen anything but snow and ice now he was
;
worn out and exhausted, and the travellers were sorry to part
from the faithful soul.
Open water, sunlit billows
! How delightful to hear them
splash against the edge of the ice ! The sound seemed to
speak of spring and summer, and to give them a greeting
from the great ocean and the way back home. More tracks
of foxes indicated land, and they looked out for it daily.
They did not suspect that they had to travel for three months
to the nearest island.
At the beginning of May only sixteen dogs were left.
Now the long summer day commenced in the Arctic Ocean,
and when the temperature was only twenty degrees below
freezing point they suffered from heat. But the ice was bad,
and they had to force the sledges over deep channels and
high hummocks thrust up by pressure. After great difficulties
they staggered along on skis. The work became heavier
for the dogs as fewer were left, but the provisions also
diminished.
Afurious snowstorm compelled them to remain in a camp.
There they left one of the sledges, and some broken skis were
offered to the flames and made a grand fire. Six dogs could
still be harnessed to each of the two remaining sledges.
At the end of May they came to an expanse of ice inter-

sected by a network of channels with open water, which
blocked the way. Now animal life began to appear with the
coming of summer. In a large opening were seen the grey
backs of narwhals rolling over in the dark-blue water. A seal
or two were seeking fish, and tracks of Polar bears made them
long for fresh meat. Nansen often made long excursions in
front to see where the ice was best. Then Johansen remained
waiting by the sledges, and if the bold ski-runner were long
away he began to fear that an accident had happened. He
—
dared not pursue his thoughts to an end he would then be
quite alone.
June comes. The scream of ivory gulls pierces the air.
VI NANSEN 397
The two men remain a week in a camp to make their kayaks

seaworthy. They have still bread for quite a month. Only
six dogs are left when only three remain they will have to
;
harness themselves to the sledges.

In a large strip of open water they shoved out the kayaks,
fastened them together with skis, and paddled them along the
margin of the ice. On the other side they shot two seals and
three Polar bears, and therefore had meat for a long time.
The last two dogs, too, could eat their fill.
At last the land they longed for appeared to the south,
and they hastened thither, a man and a dog to each sledge.
Once they had again to cross a strip of open water in kayaks.
Nansen was at the edge of the ice when he heard Johansen
call out, " Get your gun." Nansen turned and saw that a large
bear had knocked Johansen down and was sniffing at him.
Nansen was about to take up his gun when the kayak slipped
out into the water, and while he was hauling and pulling at it
he heard Johansen say quite quietly, " You must look sharp if
you want to be in time." So at last he got hold of his gun,
and the bear received his death-wound.
For five months they had struggled over the ice, when at
the beginning of August they stood at the margin of the ice
and had open water before them off the land. Now the sea
voyage was to begin, and they had to part with their last two
dogs. It was a bitter moment. Nansen took Johansen's dog
and Johansen Nansen's, and a couple of bullets were the reward
of their faithfulness.
Now they travelled more easily and quickly. The kayaks
were fastened together, and with masts and sails they skimmed
past unknown islands. Heavy seas forced them to land on
one of them. Just as they drew up their kayaks a white bear
came waddling along, got scent of them, and began to sniff
along their track. To our travellers his visit meant provisions
for a long time. Nansen and his travelling companion took
possession of their new territory, wandered over the island, and
returned to their dinner of bear, which did them good. Next
day they looked for a suitable dwelling-place. As they could
not find a cave, they built a small stone cabin, which they
roofed with skis and the silk tent. Light and wind came in
on all sides, but it was comfortable enough and the meat pot
bubbled over a fire of fat.
Nansen decided to remain on this island for the winter.
The islands they had hitherto seen were unlike any of the
known parts of Franz Josef Land, and Nansen did not know
398 FROM POLE TO POLE . ,
u
exactly where he was. It was impossible to venture out on

the open sea in the kayaks. It was better to lay in a supply
of food for the winter, for when darkness came all the game
would disappear. First of all they must build a comfortable
hut. There was plenty of stone and moss, a trunk of drift-
wood found on the beach would form a roof ridge, and if they
could only get hold of a couple of walruses, their roofing
would be provided.
A large male walrus was lying puffing out in the water.
The kayaks were shoved out and lashed together, and from
them the colossus was bombarded. He dived, but came
up under the boats, and the whole contrivance was nearly
capsized. At last he received his death -wound, but just
as Nansen was about to strike his harpoon into him he sank.
They had better luck, however, with two others which lay
bellowing on the ice and gradually went to sleep, unconscious
that their minutes were numbered. Nansen says that it seemed
like murder to shoot them, and that he never forgot their brown,
imploring, melancholy eyes as they lay supporting their
heads on their tusks and coughing up blood. Then the
great brutes were flayed, and their flesh, blubber, and hides
carried into the hut. When they brought out the sledges and
knives, Nansen thought it might be as well to take the kayaks
with them also. And that was fortunate, for while they
stood cutting up as in a slaughter-house, a strong, biting land
wind sprang up, their ice-floe parted from the land ice and
drifted away from the island. Dark-green water and white
foaming surge yawned behind them. There was no time to
think. They were drifting out to sea as fast as they could.
But to go back empty-handed would have been too vexatious ;
so they cut off a quarter of a hide and dragged it with some

lumps of blubber to the kayaks. They reached the land in
safety, dead tired after an adventurous row, and sought the
shelter of the hut.
In the night came a bear mamma with two large cubs, and
made a thorough inspection of the outside of the hut. The
mother was shot and the cubs made off to the shore, plunged
in, and swam out to a slab of ice which would just bear them,
and scrambled up. There they stood moaning and whining,
and wondering why their mother stayed so long on shore.
One tumbled over the edge, but climbed up again on to the
slippery floe and the clean salt water ran off his fur. They
drifted away with the wind and soon looked like two white
spots on the almost black water. Nansen and Johansen wanted
v, NANSEN 399
their meat, themore because the bears had turn and mangled
allthe walrus meat lying outside the hut. The kayaks w
pushed out and were soon on the farther side of the Hoc with
the bear cubs. They were chased into the water and followed
all the to the beach, where tiny were shot.
way
Things now began to look better—three bears all at once !
Then the first walrus came to the surface again, and while he
was being skinned another came to look on and had to join
him. It was disgusting work to flay the huge brutes. Both
the men had their worn clothes smeared with train-oil and
blood, so that they were soaked right through. Ivory and
glaucous gulls, noisy and greedy, collected from far and near
and picked up all the offal. They would soon fly south, the
sea would be covered with ice, and the Polar night would be
so dismal and silent.
It took a week to get the new hut ready. The shoulder
blade of a walrus fastened to a ski served as spade. A walrus
tusk tied to a broken ski staff made an excellent hoe. Then
they raised the walls of the hut, and inside they dug into the
ground and made a sort of couch for both of them, which they
covered with bearskin. After two more walruses had been
shot they had plenty of roofing material, which they laid over
the trunk of driftwood. A bear came, indeed, and pulled down
everything, but it cost him dear, and afterwards the roof was
strengthened with a weight of stones. To make a draught
through the open fireplace they set up on the roof a chimney
of ice. Then they moved into the new hut, which was to be
their abode through the long winter.
On October I 5 they saw the sun for the last time. The
bears vanished, and did not return till the next spring. But
foxes were left, and the)' were extremely inquisitive and
thievish. They stole their sail thread and steel wire, their
harpoon and line, and it was quite impossible to find the
stolen goods again. What they wanted with a thermometer
which lay outside it is hard to conceive, for it must have been
all the same to the foxes how many degrees of temperature
there were in their earths. All winter they were up on the

roof pattering, growling, howling, and quarrelling. There was
a pleasant rattling up above, and the two men really would
not have been without their fox company.
One can hardly say that the days passed slowly, for the
whole winter was, of course, one long night. It was so silent
and empty, and an oppressive, solemn stillness reigned during
the calm night. Sometimes the aurora blazed in a mysterious
4 oo FROM POLE TO POLE PT . n
crown in the sky, at other times so dark, and the stars glittered
with inconceivable brilliance. The weather, however, was
seldom calm. Usually the wind howled round the bare rocks
lashed by millions of storms since the earliest times, and snow
swished outside and built up walls close around the hut.
The endlessly long night passed slowly on. The men ate
and slept, and walked up and down in the darkness to stretch
their limbs. Then came Christmas with its old memories.
They clean up, sweep and brush, and take up a foot's depth
of frozen refuse from the floor of the hut. They rummage for
some of the last good things from the Fram, and then Nansen
lies listening and fancies he hears the church bells at home.
In the midst of the winter night comes New Year's Day,
when it is so cold that they can only lie down and sleep, and
look out of their sleeping-bag only to eat. Sometimes they
do not put out their noses for twenty hours on end, but lie
dosing just like bears in their lairs.
On the last day of February the sun at last appears again.
He is heartily welcome, and he is accompanied by some morn-
ing birds, Little Auks. The two men are frightened of each
other when daylight shines on them, as their hair and beards
have grown so long. They have not washed for a year or
more, and are as black in the face as negroes. Nansen, who
is usually extremely fair, has now jet-black hair. They may
be excused for not bathing at a temperature of- 40 .
The first bear has come. Here he is scratching at the

hut and wanting to get in there is such a good smell from
;
inside. A bullet meets him on the way. And as he runs off

up a steep slope he gets another, and comes rolling down in
wild bounces like a football. They lived on him for six weeks.
While the days grew lighter they worked at a new outfit.
They made trousers out of their blankets. Shoes were
patched, rope was cut out of walrus hide, new runners were
put on the sledges, the provisions were packed, and on May
19 they left their cabin and marched farther south-west.
Time after time they had to rest on account of snowstorms.
They had thrown away the tent, and instead they crept in
between the sledges covered with the sail. Once Nansen came
down when on skis, and would have been drowned if Johansen
had not helped him up in time. The snow lying on this ice
was soaked with water. They had always to keep their eyes
open and look for firm ice. The provisions came to an end,
but the sea swarmed with walruses. Sometimes the animals
were so bold that Nansen could go up to them and take
VI NANSEN 401
photographs. When a fine brute had been shot the others

still lay quiet, hitting them with their alpenstocks
and only by
could the travellers get rid of them. Then the animals
would waddle off in single file and plunge head first into
the water, which seemed to boil up around them.
Once they had such level ice and a good wind behind them
that they hoisted sail on the sledges, stood on skis in front of
them to steer, and flew along so that the snow was thrown up
around them.
Another time they sailed with the kayaks lashed together
and went ashore on an island to get a better view. The
kayak raft was moored with a walrus rope. As they were
strolling round Johansen called out, " Hullo, the kayaks are
adrift."
They ran down. The wind was blowing off the land.
Out on the fiord all they possessed in the world was being
mercilessly carried away.
" Takemy watch," cried N arisen, and throwing off a few
clothes he jumped into the ice-cold water, and swam after the
kayaks. But they drifted more rapidly than Nansen swam,
and the case seemed hopeless. He felt his limbs growing
numb, but he thought he might as well drown as swim back
without the boats. He struck out for his life, became tired,
lay on his back, went on again, saw that the distance was
lessening, and put out all his strength for a last spurt. He
was quite spent and on the point of sinking when he caught
hold of one of the canoes and could hang on and get his
breath. Then he heaved himself up into the kayak, and
rowed back shivering, with chattering teeth, benumbed, and
frozen blue. When he reached the land Johansen put him in
the sleeping-bag and laid over him everything he could find.
And when he had slept a few hours he was as lively as a
cricketand did justice to the supper.
Farther and farther south they continued their daring
journey over ice and waves. A walrus came up beside
Nansen's canoe, and tried its solidity with his tusks, nearly
taking kayak and oarsman down with him to the salt depths.
When the animal went off, Nansen felt uncomfortably cold
and wet about the legs. He rowed to the nearest ice, where
the kayak sank in shallow water and all he possessed was wet
and spoiled. Then they had to give themselves a good rest
and repair all damages, while walruses grunted and snorted
close beside them.
This journey of Nansen's is a unique feat in the history of
2 D
402 FROM POLE TO POLE PT „
.
Polar travels. Of the crews of the Erebus and Terror^ hundred

and thirty-four men, not one had escaped, though they had
not lost their vessels and though they lay quite close to a coast
where there were human beings and game. But these two
Norwegians had now held out in the Polar sea for fifteen
months, and had preserved their lives and limbs and were in
excellent condition.
Their hour of delivery was at hand. On June 17 Nansen
ascended an ice hummock and listened to the com-
motion made by a whole multitude of birds. What now?
He listens holding his breath. No, it is impossible Yes, !
indeed, that is a dog's bark. It must surely be a bird with a

peculiar cry. No, it is a dog barking.
He hurried back to the camp. Johansen thought it
was a mistake. They bolted their breakfast. Then Nansen
fastened skis on his feet, took his gun, field-glass, and alpen-
stock, and flew swiftly as the wind over the white snow.
See, there are the footprints of a dog Perhaps a fox ?
!
No, they would be much smaller. He flies over the ice

towards the land. Now he hears a man's voice. He yells
with all the power of his lungs and takes no heed of holes and
lumps as he speeds along towards life, safety, and home.
Then a dog runs up barking. Behind him comes a man.
Nansen hurries to meet him, and both wave their caps. Who-
ever this traveller with the dog may be, he has good reason
for astonishment at seeing a jet-black giant come jolting on
skis straight from the North Pole.
They meet. They put out their hands.
" How
do you do?" asks the Englishman.
" Very well, thank you," says Nansen.
" I am very glad to see you here."
" So am I," cries Nansen.
The Englishman with the dog is named Jackson, and has
been for two years in Franz Joseph Land making sledge
journeys and explorations. He concludes that the black man
on skis is some one from the Fram, but when he hears that it
is Nansen himself he is still more astonished and agreeably
surprised.
They went to Jackson's house, whither Johansen also was
fetched. Both our explorers washed with soap and brush
several times to get off the worst of the dirt, all that was not
firmly set and imbedded in their skins. They scrubbed and
scraped and changed their clothes from top to toe, and at last
looked like human beings.
IV NANSEN 403
Later in the summer a vessel came with supplies for
Jackson. With this vessel Johansen sailed home.
Hansen .and
At Vardo they received telegrams from their families, and
their delight was unbounded. Only one thing troubled them.
Where was the Fram} Some little time later Nansen was
awakened at Hammerfest one morning by a telegraph
messenger. The telegram he brought read " Fram arrived
:
in good condition. All well on board. Shall start at once for

Tromso. Welcome home." The sender of the telegram was
the captain of the Frav/, the brave and faithful Sverdrup.
VII
THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS

It is barely a hundred years since European mariners
began to approach the coasts of the mysterious mainland
which extends around the southern pole of the earth. Ross,
who in 1 83 discovered the north magnetic pole, sailed ten
1
years later in two ships, the Erebus and the Terror (afterwards
to become so famous with Franklin), along the coast of the
most southern of all seas, a sea which still bears his name.
He discovered an active volcano, not much less than
13,000 feet high, and named it Erebus, while to another
extinct volcano he gave the name of Terror. And he saw the
lofty ice barrier, which in some places is as much as 300
feet high.
At a much later time there was great rivalry among
European nations to contribute to the knowledge of the world's
sixth continent. In the year 1901 an English expedition under
Captain Scott was despatched to the sea and coasts first
visited by Ross. Captain Scott made great and important
discoveries on the coast of the sixth continent, and advanced
nearer to the South Pole than any of his predecessors. One
of the members of the expedition followed his example some
years later. His name is Shackleton, and his journey is
famous far and wide.
Shackleton resolved to advance from his winter quarters
as far as possible towards the South Pole, and with only three
other men he set out at the end of October, 1908. His
sledges were drawn by strong, plump ponies obtained from
Manchuria. They were fed with maize, compressed fodder,
and concentrated food, but when during the journey they had
to be put on short commons they ate up straps, rope ends, and
one another's tails. The four men had provisions for full)'
three months.
404
THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS 405
While the smoke rose from the crater of Erebus, Shackle-ton

marched southwards over snow-covered ice. Sometimes the
snow was soft and troublesome, sometimes covered with a
hard crust hiding dangerous crevasses in the mass of ice. At
the camps the adventurers set up their two tents and crept
into their sleeping-bags, while the ponies, covered with horse-
South Georgia
Known Land I Supposed land

I \ I
Pack /ce _...*-—''Ice Wall

Long. 150° West Chatham Is.
THE SOUTH POLAR KKGIONS.
cloths, stood and slept outside. Sometimes they had to

remain stationary for a day or two when snowstorms stopped
their progress.
When the sun was hidden by clouds the illumination was
perplexing. Xo shadows revealed the unevenness of the snow-
field, all was of the purest white, and where the men thought
they were walking over level ground, they might quite
4 o6 FROM POLE TO POLE PT . n
unexpectedly come down on their noses down a small slope.

Once they heard a thundering noise far away to the east. It
sounded like a cannon shot, but probably was only the
immense inland ice "calving." When the ice during its
constant but slow motion towards the coast slides out into the
sea, it is lifted up by the water and is broken up into huge,
heavy blocks and icebergs which float about independently.
When these pieces break away the inland ice is said to
" calve."
Shackleton advanced towards the pole at the rate of twelve

to eighteen miles a day. His small party was lost like small
specks in the endless desert of ice and snow. Only to the
west was visible a succession of mountain summits like towers
and pinnacles. The men seemed to be marching towards a
white wall which they could never reach.
On November 31 one of the ponies was shot, and its flesh
was kept to be used as food. The sledge he had drawn was
set up on end and propped up as a mark for the return
journey. Five days later Shackleton came to Scott's farthest
south, and the lofty mountains with dark, steep, rocky flanks
which he afterwards had by the side of his route had never
before been seen by man.
A couple of days later a second pony was shot, and
shortly afterwards a third, which could go no farther, had to
be put out of his misery. The last pony seemed to miss his
comrades, but he still struggled on with his sledge, while the
four men dragged another.
The mountain range which they had hitherto had on their
right curved too much to the east, but fortunately it was cut
through by a huge glacier, the great highway to the Pole.
They ascended the glacier and crossed a small pass between
great pillars of granite. Now they were surrounded by lofty
mountains. The ice was intersected by dangerous crevasses,
and only with the greatest caution and loss of time could they
go round them. A bird flew over their heads, probably a gull.
What could he be looking for here in the midst of the eternal
ice ?
One day three of the explorers were drawing their sledge
while the fourth was guiding the one drawn by the pony.
Suddenly they saw the animal disappear, actually swallowed
up by the ice. Asnow bridge had given way under the weight
of the pony, and the animal had fallen into a crevasse
IOOO feet deep. When they bent over the edge of the
dark chasm they could not hear a sound below. Fortunately
v„ THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS 407
the front cross-piece of the sledge had come away, so that the
sledge and man were left on the brink of the chasm. It the
precious provisions had gone down with the horse into the
bowels of the ice, Shacklcton would have been obliged to turn
back.
Now left without assistance in dragging the sledges, they
had to struggle up the glacier between rocks and slates in
which coal was imbedded. On Christmas Day the temperature
was down to -47 —
a fine midsummer!
At length the four men had left all mountains behind, and
now a plateau country of nothing but snow-covered ice
stretched before them. But still the surface of the ice rose
towards the heart of the South Polar continent, and the
singing headaches from which they suffered were a con-
sequence of the elevation. A flag on a bamboo pole was set
up as a landmark.
On January 7 and 8, 1909, they had to lie still in a
hard snowstorm, and the temperature fell to - 6< When such ) .
is the summer of the South Pole, what must the winter be like ?
January 9 was the last day on their march southwards.

Without loads or sledges they hurried on and halted at
88° 23' south latitude.
They were only 100 miles from the South Pole when
they had to turn back from want of provisions. They might
have gone on and might have reached the Pole, but they
would never have come back.
The height was more than 10,000 feet above sea-
level, and before them, in the direction of the Pole, extended
a boundless flat plateau of inland ice. The Union Jack was
hoisted and a record of their journey deposited in a cylinder.
Shackleton cast a last glance over the ice towards the Pole,
and, sore at heart, gave the order to retreat.
Happily he was able to follow his trail back and succeeded
in reaching his winter quarters, whence his vessel carried him
home again in safety.
THE END
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Ex Libris

MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

M \CMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

mission, been abridged and edited for the

Across Europe — page

The Bazaars of Stambul . .

III. Through the Caucasus, Persia, and Mesopotamia

IV. The Persian Desert (1906)

Across the Kevir . . • •

The oasis of Tei bes . 5 1

V. On the Kirghiz Steppe (1893-5)—

Vlll FROM POLE TO POLE

VII. Eastern Turkestan (1895)

Across a Sea of Sand 90

VIII. The Desert Waterway (1899)—

The Tarim ....

The Wandering Lake

IX. In the Forbidden Land (1901-2, 1906-8)-

Attempt to reach Lhasa . 115

Benares and Brahminism . '34

The Useful Plants of India 142

XI. From India to China (1908) —

"The Middle Kingdom " . 164

XIII. Japan (1908)

Fujiyama and Tokio I90

XIV. Back to Europe-

How Stanley found Livingstone -75

The Discovery of the New World . . 306

IV. South America —

V. In the South Seas —

and the North-West Passage

VII. The South Polar Regions ....

III. Oil-Well at Balakhani • 36

IV. A Persian Caravanserai 43

VIII. Srinagar and the Jhelum River 87

IX. Digging for Water in the Takla-makan 94

XI. Tashi-lunpo. '-5

XII. Simla 131

XIII. The Taj Mahal

XVI. On the Canton River '59

XVII. The Great Wall of China . .65

XVIII. Gate in the Walls of Peking 176

XXII. A Sedan-Chair in Seoul . . 199

XXV. Xapoleon's Tomb . 219

XXVI. The Colosseum, Rome 228

XXVII. Pompeii 233

XXIX. A Hippopotamus 254

XXXII. " Sky-Scrapers" in New York 323

XXXIV. Canons on the Colorado River 339

2. Map showing journey from Berlin to Constantinople . 10

4. Map showing journey from Constantinople to Teheran, latter

part of journey to Baku, and journey from Baku across

5. Map showing journey from Orenburg to the Pamir . . 56

6. Map showing journey from Teheran to Baluchistan . .

7. Map of Northern India, showing rivers and mountain ranges 82

8. Map of Eastern Turkestan . . . . .90