Ritter von Karl Scherzer

“ The park with its fragrant shady aisles, its majestic leafy domes, impervious even to the rays of the tropical sun, its huge piles of rock round which clamber the immense roots of gigantic fig-trees, its deliciously cool atmosphere, its soft green velvet paths, its heaps of ruined walls, and its death-like quietness, seems as though destined for the asylum of an exiled poet, who, instead of lamenting his destiny like common men in sullen silence, felt 395his spirit roused amid this wonderful tropical beauty to fresh sublime efforts,—"Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme!" ”

“ Dense clouds of vapour filled the abyss below, from which at a considerable depth and in various directions issued the most appalling sounds, as though hundreds of steam engines were sobbing at work far beneath us, or like the broken sound of water falling in spray from a great height upon the rocks. Some dead trees standing on the brink of the abyss had a blackened appearance as though they had been charred, which we ascribed to the sulphureous vapours, that must be evolved with most destructive power when the crater is in full activity. ”

“ Can we feel surprised that naked men, who do not inhabit the more favourably situated spots ventilated by regular winds, but live on the swampy coast, in the sandy bays that are fringed with a forest belt, where they can grow their cocoa-palms with the least labour to themselves, who leave their bodies exposed now to the violence of tropical rains, now to the fiery rays of a tropical sun, and whose food consists almost exclusively of cocoa-nuts and the fruit of the pandanus,—can we wonder that they should be in an especial degree subject to disease? ”

“ Every brook and river overflows its banks, covering with a tide of muddy brown water the alluvial soil wrested from the bed of ocean, while the frogs croak incessantly day and night, and the lizards and snakes emerge from their holes, and creep into every corner of the dwellings of every man; all through the hours of darkness is heard the loud thousand-voiced hum of insects, of myriads of mosquitoes, till it is hardly possible to find a dry place throughout the house. ”

“ Every one bestirred himself to point out to us everything that was worth knowing, or that the city could present of interest or deserving special attention. After a cursory stroll through the most frequented streets, with their dense crowds of people, which sufficiently proved to us that trade was in fact the chief occupation of the inhabitants, we turned our attention to the shops of some of the Mahometan merchants, when our eyes were dazzled with all the most various products of India. ”

“ Insatiable as sharks, greedy as a set of silk-worms upon a mulberry tree, the more you get the more you want. Even our most trifling profit you have taken to yourselves. Now, however, the cup is full, Heaven in its wrath has decreed your destruction,—our people shall cut you off with divine weapons of fire. Hearken now, O people, to the four following rules for the extermination of the barbarians: All barbarians must be beheaded, that our reproach may be removed, and our Middle Kingdom be no longer insulted. ”

“ Scarcely is it possible to conceive a richer landscape, recalling as it were the primeval days of earth in all the luxuriance of Nature in the flush of youth, than this forest of tree-ferns, enveloped in clouds of warm vapour, which rise from this volcanic spring, close alongside of a clear, cold mountain torrent, which just here leaps into the same chasm! ”

“ All vehicles stop suddenly short, the gentlemen and servants uncover their heads, the restless masses stand as though nailed to the ground, and then sink gradually on their knees in prayer, their heads bared and their cigars extinguished; no one would venture to break in upon the universal stillness so long as the bell continues to toll. But as soon as it is silent, each jumps to his feet, and proceeds on again, believing he may now in safety give way to his frolicsomeness and pursue his pleasures.
Life in Manila during the dry season was described to us as exceedingly agreeable and gay. ”

“ Acute business men in Hong-kong and Shanghai assured us that it only needed an impulse from without to increase the silk manufacture of China tenfold, and supply the annual demand for silk of the entire globe, which, if we are to believe encyclopedias and such like authorities, amounts to from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 lbs. What makes Chinese silk especially suitable for the European market is its possessing in great perfection the two chief qualities of substance and colour, while, on the other hand, it is inferior to that of Europe in the fineness and glossy feel of its fibre. ”

“ We now followed up a narrow footpath, which led to a gently-sloping eminence behind the huts, and soon found ourselves surrounded by bread-fruit trees and banana, while from time to time a black basaltic rock cropped out from among the red, marl-like soil, and beautiful small lizards with sapphire-blue tails that shone with a metallic lustre, shot about with the velocity of an arrow among the stones. The prevailing formation, as in almost all the volcanic islands of the Pacific, is an amorphous basalt-lava, full of olivin and porphyry. ”

“ Under a more cheerful sky the country round would of course assume a more agreeable and even imposing appearance, when the outline of the gigantic volcanoes of Java come into view in the background, with their heavenward towering peaks, partly covered with snow, permitting us to form some faint conception of the prodigality of Nature in this, the most beautiful island of the Malay Archipelago. ”

“ The tones work like enchantment upon the people at whatever distance they may be audible, and for a few moments a profound silence succeeds to the noise and bustle. The labourer and the promenader, the ladies and gentlemen of the upper ranks in their elegant carriages, as well as the poor Tagale returning homeward from his hard day's work, and driving his laden mule before him, are for the space of an instant awed by the solemn sounds. ”

“ Hardly any spot, indeed, can be named more suitable for thus expiating crime than this remote island, where the white man, face to face with nature in a new and unwonted aspect, and at the mercy of a savage people, often deprived for months of the consolations and support of civilization, finds in his solitude ample opportunity to reflect upon the enormity of his guilt, and to mourn over his own evil fortune. ”

“ How out of place, accordingly, does social or intellectual life appear in such countries, as compared with the colonies settled in temperate climates, in North America, at the Cape, in Australia, in New Zealand, in all of which the immigrant population is of a fixed character, building up for themselves a second home, and clinging with love and gratitude to the soil that gives them sustenance, and on which their sons will grow up, under the invigorating influences of free institutions, into free, prosperous, self-relying men! ”

“ Unfortunately we reached Manila in the height of the rainy season, when even the attractiveness of nature can only be guessed at by occasional glimpses, and the delightful outdoor life which enlivens the streets and the front porch of the private residences of the inhabitants, is utterly arrested. Here, as in Batavia, the tropical rains fall with a violence of which a native of the northern climates, who has never lived in the tropics, and knows only the rainfall of his own country, can hardly form any conception. ”

“ On the left lay Nangkauri, with its forests. On both sides of Kamorta and Nangkauri, huts and villages were visible sprinkled along the shore, from which numerous natives put off in their canoes to the frigate, but presently lay on their oars at a respectful distance, and followed us like a sort of squadron of observation. On the right was visible in mid-channel between Tringkut and Kamorta the solitary rocky island of Tillangschong; the shores of all these islands, and indeed the whole horizon, being lit up with a gorgeous Fata Morgana. ”

“ In truth, the inhabitants of Kar-Nicobar are among the most perfect of human-kind. In their commerce with us they showed themselves to be child-like and ignorant, yet virtuous, trustworthy people, without ambition or the thirst of knowledge, but also without jealousy or envy. If ever any breach between themselves and the Europeans has been pushed the length of violence, such has pretty certainly resulted rather from their being in a measure suddenly incited to self-defence than from any open predisposition to mischief. ”

“ Adjoining this hamlet was a forest of cocoa-palms. We penetrated into it, and suddenly found ourselves, to our great astonishment, on the track of a well-worn footpath, which was probably, with the exception of the paths in Great Nicobar and Pulo Milù, in better condition than any other we had hitherto encountered in the Nicobar Islands. What more natural than to suppose that a path so well worn must necessarily lead to an important settlement? ”

“ As in Lyons, in Spitalfields, or among the Silesian Mountains, the Chinese silk-weaver lives and dies in the most abject misery, and the delicate and beautiful fabrics of his loom are produced in a wretched hut of such mean dimensions, that he is sometimes compelled to dig a hole in the soil in order to find room for the treadle. ”

“ In the choreographic art, despite the important part which dancing plays in their religious worship, the Javanese, like all the other populations of Asia, lag far behind the natives of the north. True, the dance with them has a widely different meaning, compared with that which we attach to it, who waltz and polka away in joyous, frolicsome mood, whereas the Asiatics, the Malay and the Hindoo, also dance during seasons of grief and anguish; with them dancing is nothing but a mode of expressing their feelings, whether these be grave or gay, joyous or sad. ”

“ I have not the slightest expectation that any advantage will accrue to civilization or Christianity from the religio-political movement of the Tai-ping. No Chinese will have anything to do with them. Their whole activity consists in burning, murdering, and devastating. They are universally detested by the people; even those inhabitants of the city who do not belong to the 'Brotherhood' detest them. For eight years their head-quarters have been at Nankin, which they destroyed, nor have they as yet made the slightest attempt to rebuild it. Trade and industry are forbidden. ”

“ Equally fortunate as in the straits was our passage through the labyrinth of islands, through which a vessel must wind in order to reach Singapore. And this roadstead itself, what a contrast it presented to the lovely beach of the Nicobar Islands! Here were thousands of ships of all sizes and rigs, and the flags of nearly all sea-faring nations in the world. We found at anchor the English frigate Amethyst, and the 136screw corvette Niger; and having warped ourselves into their vicinity, by 2 P.M. we had cast anchor in 13 fathoms water. ”

“ A group of these half-naked children of the 275Celestial Empire, seated in a circle on the ground amid the flare of torches and lamps, each holding in his lean hand a pair of greasy, well-worn cards, and with a little heap of copper or silver pieces spread out before him, following the chances of the game with a wild eagerness that makes him utterly heedless of what is passing around him, presents a spectacle of such powerful interest, that the beholder, especially if a foreigner, likes to remain amid a scene so peculiar, despite its repulsiveness. ”