C. D. Mackellar

“ Neither Emperor, Statesman, nor Socialist can now stay it—the German people are awake and eager. Their day is coming—it is near at hand—they see the writing on the wall.
This is a strong race, a slow-thinking, heavy, ponderous people; not easily roused and moved, but once roused, once fired with an idea, their force is not far from being irresistible. Already they see themselves the Successors of the Modern Roman Empire; they point everywhere to the signs of its decline; they illustrate it by the history of that other great Empire ”

“ Partly because it is true, and partly because the Germans in the East and on their big liners are carefully, quietly, zealously doing all they can to spread the idea and make people believe it. As they never see a British ship now, nor a British flag, but everywhere the German flag and German people, what can they do but believe it? All honour to Germany for her clever foresight and her successful endeavours to push her fortunes; it is not Germany we are to blame but ourselves. ”

“ Of course I went to Kawasaki and saw Kobo Daishi's image—carved by himself when in China, thrown into the sea, drifted to Japan and caught in a fisherman's net, and which then performed miracles—and the village fairs round the temples under the trees formed like junks; was constantly on the Noge-yama full of its Shintu and Buddhist shrines, and its gaily clothed girls sauntering amidst the cherry trees just coming into blossom; went walks and drives everywhere—often with Captain Heinrich and Lieutenant Dzjobek. ”

“ Any one contemplating a tour in what is so truly called a Wonderland, can do no better than place himself in the hands of the above-named companies, from whose officials they will receive every aid, courtesy, and information. They may wander for months in the fascinating Dutch East Indies and not exhaust their varied interests.
I also would here like to take the opportunity of thanking all those people, personally unknown to me, who, on reading another publication of mine, did me the honour and the kindness to write me such very pleasant and friendly letters. ”

“ This woke us up—it was no longer the Stille Meer—and I revelled in it, as I love a great gale at sea beyond anything. A monsoon is no joke though, and a time it was terrific and left us breathless; we were buffeted about and wondered where we would be driven to. Even as we entered St. George's Channel and approached the Duke of York Islands, behind which appeared the volcanoes known as the Mother and Daughters, we were still in the thick of the storm, which came at us from every direction at once. As darkness came on I wondered what island we should go ashore on, but did not much care. ”

“ I can foresee a splendid future for Northern Australia—this island paradise in the Straits, and British New Guinea—it is far away, but it is to come one day. To me it is inexplicable how few people ever seem able to look beyond the present. The Barrier Reef and Torres Straits are mines of gold. ”

“ I don't know when I am leaving for Hong-Kong, China, Japan, and America—just when I am tired of Singapore, and that is not yet. People are kind here, it is all very pleasant, I like the gaiety and colour of it all, and feel quite loth to commence travelling again. I have been back to the Stettin for another farewell—but already New Guinea seems like a dream, and as if it were long ago since I was there. ”

“ The Germans, like the people of England, Scotland, and Ireland, do not realise or understand that now throughout the whole globe is scattered in strong, rich communities the fittest of the British Race, growing in numbers, in pride, and in ambition—full of almost pitying love for their Motherland, ready and eager to stretch forth a protecting and helping hand in any hour of stress that comes to her, but sternly determined to guard and cherish for themselves the great lands they, in but a short space of time, have made into practically independent nations. ”

“ There are very handsome buildings and private houses. There is a railway up to the Peak, but I liked toiling up the steep, winding ways, watching the people and the lines of coolies carrying up bricks on slings across their shoulders. What loads they carry, men and women, and how ceaseless the movement. I amused myself very well, and explored as much of Hong-Kong and the Kowloon mainland as I had time for. When out in the country I once met a Chinaman tearing along with a rickshaw in which lolled a dead - drunk and sleeping bluejacket, whose face and clothes gave evidence of a battle. ”

“ This mighty Empire is the greatest the world has ever seen; its resources are greater than ever, yet nothing almost is made of them, and the huge, unwieldy Empire is drifting—whither? Is it to drift apart, or are its people to wake up and realise that together we stand, sundered we fall, and that each individual part of the Empire, great or small,is as important as any other. “England”—nor even Great Britain—is not the Empire, only part of it. Everything, every climate even, that human beings need, is to be found within this mighty Empire ”

“ There are most beautiful trees, beautiful as to their high straight stems, and as to their crown of foliage blazing with pink or scarlet blossom. I can tell you nothing of what they are, as they are new to me, and no one here knows or cares. There are pandanus, banyan, and pawpaw trees. There are quantities of ferns, palms, and beautiful orchids. I wander about through all this quite happy, my dog as content as I am. I think Captain Thompson must have spoken to the dog ere he left, and bid it take care of me, as I find that he left messages for every one directing them to see after me. ”

“ But at present I am too pleased and interested to be as scornful and sarcastic as my nationality requires over the endeavours of Germany to found a colony, and people are much too amiable and kind to me to make it possible for me to be patriotically nasty. They are so anxious one should be pleased and admire all they have done, and in this hot weather it saves trouble to be amiable and interested—and I am genuinely interested, for the colonisation of a new land engages my sympathies too sincerely to let me care whose land it is. ”

“ On arrival at Hong-Kong the sides of thetanks, which are the side the ship, are thrown open, and out pours a silver flood of live fish into the waiting boats, which race each other to market, as the first boatload fetches a higher price than the others. It was a wonderful sight to see this silver flood issuing from the ship's side. Another wonderful sight on this lower deck was to see the seven hundred Chinese passengers, packed there like sardines with all their goods and gear. They sprawled about in every attitude, and we had to step over them and almost on them to see the tanks. ”

“ Sourabaya is, after Batavia, the important port of Java. It contains Chinese houses and temples, Arab mosques and Malay buildings, to say nothing of the spotless white houses of the Dutch; the land is a brilliant garden, and has an additional charm in its own active volcano Bromo, which rejoices in the largest crater in the world, three miles in diameter, a bottomless pit of seething vapours and fiery floods, with volumes of smoke and red-hot stones cast up to fall back again. ”

“ In the hotel is living a man who is terribly ill with the coast fever; came here, where there is none, to recruit, and has delirium tremens all the time the—wreck, the miserable wretch, is awful to see. All day and night he calls without ceasing on Mrs. M‘Nulty or Bridget for drink, and they are angels of goodness and patience with him, for he is a terrific nuisance. I have heard Mrs. M‘Nulty rise up in the night, go to him and reason with and chide him as if he were a child. ”

“ Feeling that I am very ignorant and uneducated, I am going to have a look for myself and to try to learn something—though I sigh to think there is so much to learn in the world, and so little time to do it in!
In Sydney they told me I was mad to want to go to New Guinea; the natives murdered and dined on every one they could; the coast fevers and malarias killed off the remainder—and German New Guinea of all places! The very idea of visiting those Germans who had dared to set up a colony of their own so near British possessions! ”

“ Once, in a quiet street, I came across some Japanese girls learning to ride a bicycle—it is at any time a rather amusing sight—but those quaint little figures careering wildly, bicycle and all, into the arms of every passer-by, their peals of soft laughter and little cries—the gaiety of the thing was so infectious that you felt it quite natural to be as one of them and assist in the lesson, just as you would with children ”

“ But wonderful are the coral gardens—coral of every shape and sort, great branches of it, big boulders of it, and the haunt of innumerable strange brilliantly coloured fish and other creatures. Sometimes when the tide goes out deep pools are left in these coral gardens, the water being clear as glass, revealing the most marvellously beautiful creatures of every sort. There are scores of fish of every shape, as brilliantly coloured as hummingbirds—so brilliant in colour as to be quite uncanny. ”

“ What have such people to do with the brave and sturdy men and women, boys and girls, who are doing their best to build up a mighty Empire over the seas—the real British? Yes, it must be from over the seas, from north and south and east and west, that come those who are to save our honour and our Flag, and to stir up the slumbering ones here—only slumbering, I hope and believe—nay, I feel sure of it—for most certainly the day is near when the people themselves will demand that every citizen is trained to take his share in the defence of his land. ”

“ Between them and Australia lie all these wonderful isles, yet not a single British ship is ever seen. We, too, have our share in Borneo, the largest island in the world next to New Guinea, yet it might not exist for all sign here of our being there. It is inexplicable.
I have always these brave old explorers in their quaint little ships in my mind here. How little has changed since they saw it, save where volcanic disturbances have altered the aspect of the land!—and such catastrophes have not been infrequent. There are the great mountain ranges—does no one want to learn their secrets? ”

“ It was very cold at times, and Japanese inns inland were unbearably so at the time. The heat of a charcoal brazier was never sufficient for me, and I have always particularly disliked charcoal fumes. All the trivialities that amused me would be tedious to read—and more, Japan is not a country to read about; it is a country to see. Each one must see and judge for himself. ”

“ Could no British statesman—or politician—look far enough ahead to see what was coming, what was inevitable when the Sandwich Islands passed to America? Do they realise what the fortified Panama Canal is going to mean? Do they believe that the Americans will let any temporary checks interfere with their ultimate aim of fortifying that canal and assuming full power? Do they believe that the Republic of Panama—in reality a creation of the Americans—is destined to be anything but a stopgap? ”

“ I have a prophetic eye, and I look to the day when those who have to guide the destinies of our great Empire claim for the Empire the services in some high position of such a man as Sir Ernest Shackleton, with his unique combination of qualities, so admirably fitted to guide a ship of Empire to a safe and splendid harbour—no “little thing” is fit for a man who sees nothing in anything that has not obstacles to be overcome, rises in delight to tackle those obstacles, and goes at it with unwavering energy, spirit, and zest. ”

“ I ask, for it seems so strange to be sitting opposite an old friend out here, smoking and drinking—but good it is to see again a friend, and one whose face and name can only recall such pleasant memories. I ask many questions, and he tells me many interesting things—but all the time, delighted and charmed as I am with the beauty and character of my surroundings, I am only too conscious of that terrible odour. It must be bad drains, is so strong, and has pervaded every inch of Batavia I have seen since I arrived at Pandjong Priak Wharf—the train, the streets, the canal, and now the hotel. ”

“ It is wonderful the amount of people who feel it necessary to take care of this helpless being, who in reality is very capable of taking care of himself, but does not like to hurt their feelings by showing it. The only time the inscrutable faces of the Chinese stewards light up is when, with an insinuating smile, they offer you "cully and lice," a dish always in favour in hot climates. ”