Frank Marryat

“ I have often mused, as I have sat in this little den, on the life I was leading, and reflected with regret that its charms must some day succumb to use, and that, in time, even deer hunting would pall on the taste, and the excitement of a wild life become monotonous. With health beating in every pulse, with God’s best gifts strewed round him in profusion, and intellect to fashion them to use, a man acknowledges instinctively the infinite wisdom of the Creator, and feels a proportionate gratitude for His gifts. ”

“ How is it, as I have already observed, that all the colonies founded by other nations, either languish or have been swept away,—not all, perhaps, as yet, but the major portion of them; while every colony founded by our little island appears to flourish, till it becomes so powerful as not only no longer to require the nursing of the mother country, but to throw off its dependence, and become a nation of itself? How is it that it can so truly be said that the sun never sets upon the English flag? ”

“ Pass on filth, squalor, and poverty, and make way as you should for wealth, for here, with tinkling bells and gay caparisons, comes a train of mules laden with gold—pure gold from Peru; as each mule bears his massive bars uncovered, glittering beneath the cordage which secures them to the saddle, you can touch the metal as they pass. ”

“ The fort is well built; and although a century old, is in very good preservation. It has a numerous garrison, and is defended by guns of large calibre. There is also an establishment of gun-boats, which scour the coast in search of pirates. On each side, and at the back of the town, are groves of cocoa-nuts, bamboos, plantains, and other fruit trees, through which narrow paths are cut, forming delightful shady walks to a stranger, who gazes with astonishment and pleasure upon the variety of delicious fruits, of whose existence he had no idea. ”

“ No one knows how many fortunes have been made at Carson’s Hill, nor how many bloody battles have been fought there for the rich earth—but a great many. Two small armies met once on the brow of the hill, and parleyed, weapons in hand and with savage looks, for as much quartz as you might carry away in a fish-cart. ”

“ One day an easy walk would bring me to a marsh, and a few shots from my double-barreled gun would secure as many wild-ducks as we required, but on another I might be doomed, after a long journey, to extend myself over the carcase of a buck, and then, exposed to a glaring sun, unaided, flay my quarry and disembowel him, quarter him, and carry him home piece by piece, over four or five miles of successive cindery hills. I had no stout little pony with a shaggy mane and tail, such as one sees carrying home the deer in Landseer’s splendid pictures. ”

“ England fills the world and civilises the world with her redundant population, and all her colonies flourish, and remind you of a swarm of bees which have just left the old hive and are busy in providing for themselves. The Dutch colonies are not what you can call thriving; they have not the bustle, the enterprise, and activity which our colonies possess. The Dutch have never conciliated the natives, and obtained their goodwill; they have invariably resorted to violence, and to a disregard of justice. ”

“ Perhaps in no other community so limited could one find so many well-informed and clever men—men of all nations, who have added the advantages of travelling to natural abilities and a liberal education. Most of these are young, and are among the most reckless, perhaps, just now; but by-and-by, when this fever of dissipation has given way to better impulses, these men will gladly abjure a life which has been entailed more upon them by circumstance than choice, and will be the first to help to elevate society to a standard adapted to their real qualities—and tastes. ”

“ There is an absence of variety in the scenery of the Chagres river, as throughout its whole length the banks are lined to the water’s edge with vegetation. But the rich bright green at all times charms the beholder, and the eye does not become wearied with the thick masses of luxuriant foliage, for they are ever blended in{4} grace and harmony, now towering in the air in bold relief against the sky, now drooping in graceful festoons from the bank, kissing their own reflections in the stream beneath.
Every growing thing clings to and embraces its neighbour most lovingly ”

“ Under these circumstances, we remained in watching and silence during a night which appeared interminably long; and daylight was gladly welcomed by the whole party; and when it arrived we found ourselves anchored among a crowd of small islands, which were covered from the beach to their summits with the most luxuriant foliage. Within shore of us was a beautiful little sandy bay; while the whole coast, as far as the eye could reach, was one extended jungle, by all accounts extending many hundred miles inland, and infested with tigers and other beasts of prey. ”

“ It is easy to be grateful when one has health, strength, and freedom, and easy to flatter oneself into the belief that a life so primitive is more natural than one more civilised; but it is but the lazy gratitude of one who has nothing else to live for but himself, and who is freed, not alone from the conventionalities which a more civilised state imposes, but from all claim upon his self-denial. ”

“ At times we would emerge from the wood, and find ourselves passing through cultivated patches of ravines, enclosed on all sides by lofty mountains, covered with foliage. In these spots we found a few natives with their families, who seemed to be contented in their perfect isolation; for in these secluded spots generations may pass away, and know no world beyond their own confines of forest jungle. ”

“ With our mules in a string we plunged at once into a narrow rocky path in the forest, where palm trees and creepers shut the light out overhead;—splashing through gurgling muddy streams, that concealed loose and treacherous stones—stumbling over fallen trees that lay across our road—burying ourselves to the mules’ girths in filthy swamps, where on either side dead and putrid mules were lying—amidst lightning, thunder, and incessant rain, we went at a foot pace on the road to Panama. ”

“ To add to the excitement, the bands of the several regiments played the most popular airs on a parade adjoining to the esplanade.
While the carriages were driving up and down, the vesper bell tolled from the cathedral. In an instant every carriage stopped—every head was uncovered, and bent in an attitude of devotion. Horses, women, men—all as if transfixed: every tongue silent—nothing heard but the bell of the cathedral, and the light breeze [124] which bore away its vibrations. ”

“ Look on the motto, “We strive to save;” now look on the coffin that contains all that is mortal of one who under that banner has found a death as worthy of the laurel as any soldier who at once brings pride and sorrow to the nation in whose cause fighting inch by inch he yields up life. ”

“ This was the only specimen of the upas tree that I saw in Borneo. The lower orders at Bruni, in addition to a jacket and trousers, wear an immense straw hat of a conical shape, with a brim as wide as an umbrella. This hat, unless thrown back on the shoulders, entirely conceals the face. At times, when the river is crowded with canoes, nothing is to be seen but a mass of these straw hats, which present a very strange appearance. But the greatest novelty at Bruni is the floating bazaar. There are no shops in the city, and the market is held every day in canoes. ”

“ We may condemn the love of political power, that in the main actuated the Jesuits in their efforts to propagate their faith; but how much has not the love of power, equally reprehensible, been a bar to the cure of our evils at home? Would the young and energetic of our young clergy seek a field abroad in which to work, with little reward and great privation, if the field at home was open to them? ”

“ In short, I never yet was on a coast which, on arriving on it, promised so much, and, on landing, caused such a series of disappointments to those who love to ramble about, than the coast of Borneo. To the naturalist, however, confined as he is to the shelving beach, there is ample food for employment and research: the island abounds in novel objects of natural history, both in the animal and vegetable kingdom. ”

“ It is now that the formation of the Californian saddle and the large wooden stirrups protect the rider: a small bar lashed crossways to the peak of the saddle prevents the horse from rolling over, and when he rises his tormentor rises with him unhurt; finding all efforts useless, he bounds into the plain, to return in a few hours sobbing, panting, but mastered. ”

“ May it not be that when our naval commanders, with a due regard to propriety, have commenced their despatches with "It has pleased the Almighty to grant us a splendid victory," at the same time that they were trusting to the arms of flesh and blood which have so well supported their endeavours, and in their hearts ascribed their successes to the prowess of man,—may it not be, I say, that the Almighty has, for his own good reasons, fought on our side, and has given us victory upon victory, until we have swept the seas, and made the name of England known to the uttermost corners of the globe? ”

“ How many boats have left a ship in the dark night but half full, fearing the impetuous rush which a panic-struck crowd would make at it if again it touched the ship’s sides? Yet the cost of such a buoy is but ten shillings, and that of a life-boat thirty pounds.
It may be said that every passenger can carry his own life-preserver, and that most do so: this is nothing;{400} it gives me no increased confidence to know that Muggins who sleeps next to me has an India-rubber bag that he can blow out each night before turning in. ”

“ Passing Benicia we entered Suisun Bay, on the shores of which a city was attempted—New York by name—but failed. There is something to admire in the audacity of speculators, who finding themselves possessed of a few acres of swamp, wave their wands and order a city to appear. The working human tide of California ebbed and flowed past New York with great regularity, but all commands to arrest it, and direct it from its natural course were futile as regarded that city, which really presented no advantage that I could see. It is now dusk, and we enter the Sacramento river. ”

“ But I will say this for them, that as a nation they are most charitable, and that they are true friends to one another in adversity; once your friend, the American will share all he has with you, and risk his life in defence of your honour and name—more, he will not even permit merited censure to be passed upon you in his presence, and however suspicious of others worldly contact may have made him, he will repose his confidence in you like a child. And so common are these friendships, that the true generosity which cements them forms a prominent feature of the American character ”