Emily Eden

“ George and Captain Grey glided gracefully about in the barge, paying visits to the authorities; and then George fetched us, and we walked about the town, which is flourishing, and though very dirty is much more amusing than Funchal; but there is not even a common café in it where they can cook a bad luncheon.
More than two-thirds of the population are slaves, and there is hardly a pure white left. It is odd how short a time surprise lasts. ”

“ The mornings till nine or ten quite cool, and those people who are strong and silly enough to get up and go out before breakfast say it is quite cold. The days are all alike in India, because the old sun will have its own wicked will, and the glare and heat make it necessary to keep the shutters shut; but with that the house is quite cool now; and then the hour in the evening from five to six, which is all the going out we can have, is really very enjoyable. It grows too foggy and dark after six to stay out ”

“ It certainly is a shocking life for very young people. I don’t think it signifies so much for us who have had our share of air and exercise in our day; but there are a number of young ladies just come out by the last ships, looking so fresh and English, and longing to amuse themselves; and it must be such a bore at that age to be shut up for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four; and the one hour that they are out is only an airing just where the roads are watered. ”

“ Such a really good life, and there are so few, that it certainly is pleasure rather than pain to think that the race is actually run and won. You have no idea how awful it is to receive a pile of English papers for two months, without letters to break what is to come, or to state it at once; but we go from paper to paper, looking at the list of deaths, not knowing what a day may bring forth. ”

“ He is full of civilities to us. There is no possibility of sleeping on shore—first, because there are no hotels, and then the mosquitoes arid all sorts of vermin would make it impossible; but the ‘Jupiter’ at anchor is very different from the ‘Jupiter’ at sea, and makes a very good hotel. Then ‘His Excellency’ (as we all sneeringly call George, when we are bored) has a beautiful barge of his own on board; belonging to the ship, of course, but it is independent of the captain’s gig and the officers’ barge, &c., so that we can go out in it and come in as we like. ”

“ We arrived here at eight last night, after a tedious day of working into the harbour, with a doubt to the last whether we should not be becalmed; but the beauty of the place makes up for a great deal. It far exceeds all the amount of praise that has been lavished on it. ”

“ In the first place, there is nothing so little sublime as the sea; it is always tiresome, and very often dirty and soap-suddy. Then, it is not true that ‘there are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it;’ there are hardly any fish, and those few are not to be caught. ”

“ It is clearly the best hour for going out. We always send our horses to the Government House bungalow half way, and we were a large party changing horses—Fanny and —— in his phaeton (the other aides-de-camp in their gigs) , and I observed it would be odd if we arrived safely, merely judging from the manner of horses in India; they are all raving mad, and there never is a day without an accident on the course. ”

“ I can imagine that travellers who have not seen the sunsets we have let off from the Temple Walk at Eden Farm, or the terrace at East Combe, may be satisfied with what they see in the tropics; but that is no reason why we, who know better, should put up with such an inferior article. ”

“ The streets swarm with slaves wearing the same quantity of clothing that Adam did when he left Paradise, and they are carrying weights and dragging carts, and making an odd hallooing noise, rather a cheerful one, and are totally unlike anything we are in the habit of seeing, and yet the sight of all these undressed creatures is not startling after the first moment. ”

“ We cannot go till 6.15, and till that time we are from 9 a.m., when we breakfast, obliged to fill up the time for ourselves. Fanny and I sit together in the morning, but absolute solitude is quite necessary, great part of the day, for everybody; and one’s eyes grow tired of reading and drawing, and then Fanny takes to her parrots and paroquets, and I am able to offer a pea to a pigeon. ”

“ We entrapped a small shark, and that is all; the flying-fish are rather like grasshoppers, but without the pleasing accompaniment of grass, and dolphins we have never yet seen. Then, a tropical sun is not that fiery furnace we have always supposed it to be. ”

“ They have no gardens, no villages, no poor people, no schools, no poultry to look after—none of the occupations of young people. Very few of them are at their ease with their parents; and, in short, it is a melancholy sight to see a new young arrival. ”

“ Though people have very violent illnesses here, and those that are well, look about as fresh as an English corpse, yet I do not think the mortality is greater than in any other country, and the old-fashioned days of imprudence about health are quite as much gone by as the times of great extravagance. People save their money, and don’t go out in the sun. ”

“ We cannot achieve a cowslip, and nobody has ever seen a daisy, but the yucca (I do not know how it is spelt—a sort of aloe I mean) , with its thousands of white bells, grows along the sides of every road, and lovely it looks. Then there are roses all the year round here; that is some compensation. My garden is really pretty, but as I mean to make a sketch of it for you, whenever it is cool enough to sketch, I won’t describe it. I have had a sort of altar built in the middle of it, in imitation of one I saw at the head of a ghaut, the vase thereof to be filled with flowers. ”

“ The little thing herself was in such delight at being able to talk over her English days; for, like all young Indians, she is quite a stranger to her parents, and her whole heart is with ‘grandmamma and my aunt at Blackheath.’ When they came over to dinner Captain —— said he had not seen her in such spirits since she came out; and then everybody began asking her questions, and —— insisted on her recollecting Boritt, which she could not comply with; and, at last, by way of pointing out where he lived, George said, ‘But were you never at Trill’s?’ ‘Oh, Lord Auckland, do you know Trill’s? ”

“ Poor little Chance feels it dreadfully, and I am afraid is not long for this world. He has had two fits this week, which is the sure sign, in this country, of a dog not being able to bear the climate. —— has taught him such quantities of odd tricks, and he is so unlike anything else here, that he will be a dreadful loss to the whole family. There is no such thing as a small dog to be seen here. ”

“ One of our leaders turned short round, dragged the carriage off the road and settled himself with his head in the carriage looking at George and me—very pleasant, but we did not want him; and in the shake the postilion, who drove the wheelers, was knocked off, and fell between his two horses. The syces all ran to help him, taking immense care not really to go near the kicking horses; all the natives are frightened to death at the least trifle. ”

“ Major Byrne gave me six beautiful pigeons, all manner of colours, and I have had part of my balcony netted over, and keep them there; and as they all fight it is a constant diversion to keep the peace and to feed them all. ”

“ I keep silence—yea, even from good words—but you will allow there is ample provocation for bad ones. I am thinking of being extravagantly original the next few weeks, just to show them that even habit cannot bring me to their dull level. ”

“ I have heard a great deal about you and Eastcombe, and you have no idea of the fun and pleasure of it; much the most amusing day I have had in India, and quite unexpected. We have had a Captain and Mrs. —— staying with us at Barrackpore. He is a very clever man, about forty-five, and nearly seven feet high ”

“ However, they woke at last, and the shutters were shut and order restored, and I thought I might go to sleep; not that one ever can in this country if the night begins ill, so of course some of the bearers, who sleep in the verandah below, began to cough out of compliment to the storm, and some English chickens Wright has set up began to crow, and the heat was worse than ever when the hurricane went by ”

“ We are so longing for more ships; our last sea letters were dated the 27th of April—five months ago. Last Sunday I got a letter by the Overland Packet from —— of the 1st of July, and another from the Duke of Devonshire of the same date, giving a great deal of amusing gossip ”

“ But the Bishop was much too full of his own sufferings to mind it. He had been twenty days in a steamer coming down from Allahabad and was nearly baked, and he drove straight to Government House on landing. I never saw anybody so done up. He has been up the country ever since we arrived. We hear he is very amusing; he always says something very odd in his sermons, particularly if he sees his hearers inattentive. Several people have told me that they heard him say in the cathedral, ‘You won’t come to church. Some of you say it is too hot ”