The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume I Part 12

Nearly seventy years elapsed before any other noteworthy discovery was made in regard to Australia. In Captain Cook's first voyage, in 1768, he explored and partially surveyed the eastern part of its coasts, and discovered the inlet, to which a considerable notoriety afterwards clung, which he termed Botany Bay, on account of the luxuriant vegetation of its sh.o.r.es. Rounding the western side, he proceeded northwards to Torres Straits, near which, on a small island off the mainland, he took possession of the whole country, in the name of his sovereign, George III., christening it _New South Wales_. It is still called _Possession_ Island. Captain Cook gave so favourable an account of Botany Bay on his return, that it was determined at once to form a colony, in which convict labour should be systematically employed. Accordingly, a fleet of eleven vessels, under Captain Phillip, left Portsmouth on the 13th of May, 1787, and after a tedious voyage, reached Botany Bay the following January.

Captain Phillip found the bay was not a safe anchorage, and in other respects was unsuitable. A few miles to the northward he discovered an inlet, now named Port Jackson-from the name of the seaman who discovered it-and which had been overlooked by Cook. The fleet was immediately removed thither, the convicts landed, and the British flag raised on the banks of Sydney Cove. Of the thousand individuals who formed this first nucleus of a grand colony, more than three-fourths were convicted offenders. For some time they were partially dependent on England for supplies. It had been arranged that they should not, at first, be left without sufficient provisions. The first s.h.i.+p sent out after the colonists had been landed for this purpose was struck by an iceberg in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, and might not have been saved at all, but for the seamans.h.i.+p of the "gallant, good Riou," who afterwards lost his life at the battle of Copenhagen. He managed to keep her afloat, and she was at length towed into Table Bay, and a portion of her stores saved. Meantime, the colonists were living "in the constant belief that they should one day perish of hunger." Governor Phillip set a n.o.ble example by putting himself on the same rations as the meanest convict; and when on state occasions he was obliged to invite the officers of the colony to dine with him at the Government House, he used to intimate to the guests that "they must bring their bread along with them." At last, in June, 1790, some stores arrived; and in the following year a second fleet of vessels came out from England, one s.h.i.+p of the Royal Navy and ten transports; 1,763 convicts had left England on board the latter, of whom nearly 200 died on the voyage, and many more on arrival. The number of free settlers was then, and long afterwards, naturally very small; they did not like to be so intimately and inevitably a.s.sociated with convicted criminals. In 1810 the total population of Australia was about 10,000. In 1836 it had risen to 77,000, two-fifths of whom were convicts in actual bondage, while of the remainder, a large proportion had at one time been in the same condition. Governor King, one of the earlier officials of the colony, complained that "he could not make farmers out of pickpockets;"

and Governor Macquarie later said that "there were only two cla.s.ses of individuals in New South Wales-those who had been convicted, and those who ought to have been." Under these discouraging circ.u.mstances, coupled with all kinds of other difficulties, the colony made slow headway. Droughts and inundations, famine or scarcity, and hostility on the part of the natives, helped seriously to r.e.t.a.r.d its progress. About the period of Sir Thomas Brisbane's administration, there was an influx of a better cla.s.s of colonists, owing to the inauguration of free emigration. In 1841, transportation to New South Wales ceased. Ten years later the discovery of gold by Mr. E. H. Hargreaves (on the 12th of February, 1851) caused the first great "rush" to the colony, which influx has since continued, partly for better reasons than gold-finding-the grand chances offered for stock-raising, agricultural, horticultural, and vinicultural pursuits.

To the north and south of Sydney, the coast is a nearly unbroken range of iron-bound cliffs. But as a vessel approaches the sh.o.r.e, a narrow entrance, between the two "Heads" of Port Jackson, as they are called, discloses itself. It is nowhere greater than a mile in width, and really does not appear so much, on account of the height of the cliffs. On entering the harbour a fine sea-lake appears in view, usually blue and calm, and in one of its charming inlets is situated the city of Sydney.

"There is not," writes Professor Hughes, "a more thoroughly English town on the face of the globe-not even in England itself-than this southern emporium of the commerce of nations. Sydney is entirely wanting in the novel and exotic aspect which belongs to foreign capitals. The emigrant lands there, and hears his own mother tongue spoken on every side; he looks around upon the busy life of its crowded streets, and he gazes on scenes exactly similar to those daily observable in the highways of London, Liverpool, Birmingham, or Manchester.... 'Were it not,' says Colonel Mundy, 'for an occasional orange-tree in full bloom, or fruit in the background of some of the older cottages, or a flock of little green parrots whistling as they alight for a moment on a house-top, one might fancy himself in Brighton or Plymouth.'"(102) Gay equipages crowd its streets, which are lined with handsome shops; the city abounds in fine public buildings. In the outskirts of the city are flour-mills of all kinds, worked by horse, water, wind, and steam; great distilleries and breweries, soap and candle works, tanneries, and woollen-mills, at the latter of which they turn out an excellent tweed cloth. s.h.i.+p-building is carried on extensively around Port Jackson. Although now overshadowed by the commercial superiority of Melbourne, it has the preeminence as a port.

In fact, Melbourne is not a sea-port at all, as we shall see. Vessels of large burdens can lie alongside the wharves of Sydney, and "Jack," in the Royal Navy at least, is more likely to stop there for awhile, than ever to see Melbourne. He will find it a cheap place in most respects, for everywhere in New South Wales meat is excessively low-priced; they used formerly to throw it away, after taking off the hides and boiling out the fat, but are wiser now, and send it in tins all over the world. Such fruits as the peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, fig, grape, cherry, and orange are as plentiful as blackberries. The orangeries and orchards of New South Wales are among its sights; and in the neighbourhood of Sydney and round Port Jackson there are beautiful groves of orange-trees, which extend in some places down to the water's edge. Individual settlers have groves which yield as many as thirty thousand dozen oranges per annum. One may there literally "sit under his own vine and fig-tree." If a peach-stone is thrown down in almost any part of Australia where there is a little moisture, a tree will spring up, which in a few years will yield handsomely. A well-known botanist used formerly to carry with him, during extensive travels, a small bag of peach-stones to plant in suitable places, and many a wandering settler has blessed him since. Pigs were formerly often fed on peaches, as was done in California, a country much resembling Southern Australia; it is only of late years they have been utilised in both places by drying or otherwise preserving. A basket-load may be obtained in the Sydney markets during the season for a few pence.

The summer heat of Sydney is about that of Naples, while its winter corresponds with that of Sicily.

But are there no drawbacks to all this happy state of things? Well, yes; about the worst is a hot blast which sometimes blows from the interior, known popularly in Sydney as a "brick-fielder" or "southerly buster." It is much like that already described, and neither the most closely-fastened doors nor windows will keep out the fearful dust-storm. "Its effect," says Professor Hughes, "is particularly destructive of every sense of comfort; the dried and dust-besprinkled skin acquiring for the time some resemblance to parchment, and the hair feeling more like hay than any softer material."

Should Jack or his superior officers land during the heat of autumn, he may have the opportunity of pa.s.sing a novel Christmas-very completely un-English. The gayest and brightest flowers will be in bloom, and the musquitoes out in full force. "Sitting," says a writer, "in a thorough draught, clad in a holland blouse, you may see men and boys dragging from the neighbouring bush piles of green stuff (oak-branches in full leaf and acorn, and a handsome shrub with a pink flower and pale green leaf-the 'Christmas' of Australia) for the decoration of churches and dwellings, and stopping every fifty yards to wipe their perspiring brows."

Before leaving Sydney, the grand park, called "The Domain," which stretches down to the blue water in the picturesque indentations around Port Jackson, must be mentioned. It contains several hundred acres, tastefully laid out in drives, and with public walks cut through the indigenous or planted shrubberies, and amidst the richest woodland scenery, or winding at the edge of the rocky bluffs or by the margin of the glittering waters. Adjoining this lovely spot is one of the finest botanic gardens in the world, considered by all Sydney to be a veritable Eden.

Port Phillip, like Port Jackson, is entered by a narrow pa.s.sage, and immediately inside is a magnificent basin, thirty miles across in almost any direction. It is so securely sheltered that it affords an admirable anchorage for s.h.i.+pping. Otherwise, Melbourne, now a grand city with a population of about 300,000, would have had little chance of attaining its great commercial superiority over any city of Australia. Melbourne is situated about eight miles up the Yarra-Yarra ("flowing-flowing") river, which flows into the head of Port Phillip. That poetically-named, but really lazy, muddy stream is only navigable for vessels of very small draught. But Melbourne has a fine country to back it. Many of the old and rich mining-districts were round Port Phillip, or on and about streams flowing into it. Wheat, maize, potatoes, vegetables and fruits in general, are greatly cultivated; and the colony of Victoria is pre-eminent for sheep-farming and cattle-runs, and the industries connected with wool, hides, tallow, and, of late, meat, which they bring forth. Melbourne itself lies rather low, and its original site, now entirely filled in, was swampy. Hence came occasional epidemics-dysentery, influenza, and so forth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TIMBER WHARF AT SAN FRANCISCO.]

CHAPTER X.

ROUND THE WORLD ON A MAN-OF-WAR (_continued_).

THE PACIFIC STATION.

Across the Pacific-Approach to the Golden Gate-The Bay of San Francisco-The City-First Dinner Ash.o.r.e-Cheap Luxury-San Francis...o...b.. Night-The Land of Gold, Grain, and Grapes-Incidents of the Early Days-Expensive Papers-A Lucky Sailor-Chances for English Girls-The Baby at the Play-A capital Port for Seamen-Hospitality of Californians-Victoria, Vancouver Island-The Naval Station at Esquimalt-A Delightful Place-Advice to Intending Emigrants-British Columbian Indians-Their fine Canoes-Experiences of the Writer-The Island on Fire-The Chinook Jargon-Indian "Pigeon-English"-North to Alaska-The Purchase of Russian America by the United States-Results-Life at Sitka-Grand Volcanoes of the Aleutian Islands-The Great Yukon River-American Trading Posts round Bering Sea.

A common course for a vessel crossing the Pacific would be from Australia or New Zealand to San Francisco, California. The mail-steamers follow this route, touching at the Fiji and Hawaiian groups of islands; and the sailor in the Royal Navy is as likely to find this route the orders of his commander as any other. If the writer, in describing the country he knows better than any other, be found somewhat enthusiastic and gus.h.i.+ng, he will at least give reasons for his warmth. On this subject, above all others, he writes _con amore_. He spent over twelve years on the Pacific coasts of America, and out of that time about seven in the Golden State, California.

It has been said, "See Naples, and die!" The reader is recommended to see the glorious Bay of San Francis...o...b..fore he makes up his mind that there is nought else worthy of note, because he has sailed on the blue waters of the most beautiful of the Mediterranean bays. How well does the writer remember his first sight of the Golden Gate, as the entrance to San Francis...o...b..y is poetically named! The good steamer on which he had spent some seventy-five days-which had pa.s.sed over nearly the entire Atlantic, weathered the Horn, and then, with the favouring "trade-winds," had sailed and steamed up the Pacific with one grand sweep to California, out of sight of land the whole time-was sadly in want of coals when she arrived off that coast, which a dense fog entirely hid from view. The engines were kept going slowly by means of any stray wood on board; valuable spars were sacrificed, and it was even proposed to strip the woodwork out of the steerage, which contained about two hundred men, women, and children. Guns and rockets were fired, but at first with no result, and the prospect was not cheering. But at last the welcome little pilot-boat loomed through the fog, and was soon alongside, and a healthy, jovial-looking pilot came aboard. "You can all have a good dinner to-night ash.o.r.e," said that excellent seaman to the pa.s.sengers, "and the sea shan't rob you of it."

The fog lifted as the vessel slowly steamed onwards.

On approaching the entrance to the bay, on the right cliffs and rocks are seen, with a splendid beach, where carriages and buggies are constantly pa.s.sing and repa.s.sing. On the top of a rocky bluff, the Seal Rock or "Cliff" House, a popular hotel; below it, in the sea, a couple or so of rocky islets covered with sea-lions, which are protected by a law of the State. To the left, outside some miles, the Farralone Islands, with a capital lighthouse perched on the top of one of them. Entering the Golden Gate, and looking to the right again, the Fort Point Barracks and the outskirts of the city; to the left the many-coloured headlands and cliffs, on whose summits the wild oats are pale and golden in the bright sunlight.

Before one, several islands-Alcatraz, bristling with guns, and covered with fortifications; Goat Island, presumably so called because on it there are no goats. Beyond, fifty miles of green water, and a forest of s.h.i.+pping; and a city, the history of which has no parallel on earth. Hills behind, with streets as steep as those of Malta; high land, with spires, and towers, and fine edifices innumerable; and great wharves, and slips, and docks in front of all; with steams.h.i.+ps and steam ferry-boats constantly arriving and departing. And now the vessel anchors in the stream, and if not caring to haggle over the half-dollar-a large sum in English ears-which the boatman demands from each pa.s.senger who wishes to go ash.o.r.e, the traveller finds himself in a strange land, and amid a people of whom he will learn to form the very highest estimate.

That first dinner, after the eternal bean-coffee, boiled tea, tinned meats, dried vegetables, and "salt horse" of one's s.h.i.+p, in a neat _restaurant_, where it seems everything on earth can be obtained, will surprise most visitors. An irreproachable _potage_: broiled salmon (the fish is a drug, almost, on the Pacific coasts); turtle steaks, oyster plant, artichokes, and green corn; a California quail "on toast;" grand muscatel grapes, green figs, and a cooling slice of melon; Roquefort cheese, or a very good imitation of it; black coffee, and cigars; native wine on the table; California cognac on demand; service excellent-napkins, hot plates, flowers on the table; price moderate for the luxuries obtained, and _no waiter's fees_. The visitor will mentally forgive the boatman of the morning. Has he arrived in the Promised Land, in the Paradise of _bon vivants_? It seems so. In the evening, he may take a stroll up Montgomery Street, and a good seat at a creditably performed opera may be obtained. n.o.body knows better than the sailor and the traveller the splendid luxury of such moments, after a two or three months' monotonous voyage. And, in good sooth, he generally abandons himself to it. He has earned it, and who shall say him nay? The same evening may be, he will go to a 300-roomed hotel-they have now one of 750 rooms-where, for three dollars (12s. 6d.), he can sup, sleep, breakfast, and dine sumptuously. He will be answered twenty questions for nothing by a civil clerk in the office of the hotel, read the papers for nothing in the reading-room, have a bath-for nothing-and find that it is not the thing to give fees to the waiters. It is a new revelation to many who have stopped before in dozens of first-cla.s.s English and Continental houses.

"Seen," says Mr. W. F. Rae,(103) "as I saw it for the first time, the appearance of San Francisco is enchanting. Built on a hill-slope, up which many streets run to the top, and illumined as many of these streets were with innumerable gas-lamps, the effect was that of a huge dome ablaze with lamps arranged in lines and circles. Those who have stood in Princes Street at night, and gazed upon the Old Town and Castle of Edinburgh, can form a very correct notion of the fairy-like spectacle. Expecting to find San Francisco a city of wonders, I was not disappointed when it seemed to my eyes a city of magic-such a city as Aladdin might have ordered the genii to create in order to astonish and dazzle the spectator. I was warned by those whom personal experience of the city had taught to distinguish glitter from substance, not to expect that the reality of the morrow would fulfil the promise of the evening. Some of the parts which now appeared the most fascinating were said to be the least attractive when viewed by day. Still, the panorama was deprived of none of its glories by these whispers of well-meant warning." The present writer has crossed the Bay in the ferry and other boats a hundred times, and on a fine night-and they have about nine months of fine nights in California-he never missed the opportunity of going forward towards the bows of the boat when it approached San Francisco. As Mr. Rae writes, "The full-orbed stars twinkling overhead are almost rivalled by the myriads of gas-lights illuminating the land." Less than thirty years ago this city of 300,000 souls was but a mission-village, and the few inhabitants of California were mostly demoralised Mexicans, lazy half-breeds, and wretched Indians, who could almost live without work, and, as a rule, did so. Wild cattle roamed at will, and meat was to be had for the asking. The only s.h.i.+ps which arrived were like the brig _Pilgrim_, described by Dana in "Two Years before the Mast," bound to California for hides and tallow. Now, the tonnage of the s.h.i.+pping of all nations which enters the port of San Francisco is enormous. The discovery made by Marshall, in 1847, _first_ brought about the revolution. "Such is the power of gold." _Now_, California depends far more on her corn, and wool, and hides, her wine, her grapes, oranges, and other fruits, and on innumerable industries.

Reader, you have eaten bread made from California wheat-it fetches a high price in Liverpool on account of its fine quality; you may have been clothed in California wool, and your boots made of her leather; more than likely you have drunk California wine, of which large quant.i.ties are s.h.i.+pped to Hamburgh, where they are watered and doctored for the rest of Europe, and exported under French and German names; your head may have been shampooed with California borax; and your watch-chain was probably, and some of your coin a.s.suredly, made from the gold of the Golden State.

This is not a book on "The Land," but two or three stories of Californian life in the early days may, however, be forgiven. The first is of a man who had just landed from a s.h.i.+p, and who offered a somewhat seedy-looking customer, lounging on the wharf, a dollar to carry his portmanteau. He got the reply, "I'll give you an ounce of gold to see you carry it yourself."

The new arrival thought he had come to a splendid country, and shouldered his burden like a man, when the other, a successful gold-finder, not merely gave him his ounce-little less than 4 sterling-but treated him to a bottle of champagne, which cost another ounce. The writer can well believe the story, for he paid two and a half dollars-nearly half a guinea-for an _Ill.u.s.trated London News_, and two dollars for a copy of _Punch_, in the Cariboo mines, in 1863; while a friend-now retired on a competency in England-started a little weekly newspaper, the size of a sheet of foolscap, selling it for one dollar (4s. 2d.) per copy. He was fortunately not merely a competent writer, but a practical printer. He composed his articles on paper first, and then in type; worked the press, delivered them to his subscribers, collected advertis.e.m.e.nts and payments, and no doubt would have made his own paper-if rags had not been too costly!

A sailor purchased, about the year 1849, in an auction-room, while out on a "spree," the lots of land on which the Plaza, one of the most important business squares of San Francisco, now stands. He went off again, and after several years cruising about the world, returned to find himself a millionaire. The City Hall stands on that property; it is surrounded by offices, shops, and hotels, and very prettily planted with shrubs, gra.s.s-plots, and flowers.

There was a period when females were so scarce in California that the miners and farm-hands, ay, and farmers and proprietors too-a large number of these were old sailors-would travel any distance merely to see one.(104) At this present time any decent English housemaid receives twenty dollars (4) per month, and is "found," while a superior servant, a first-cla.s.s cook, or competent housekeeper, gets anything from thirty dollars upwards.

Theatres at San Francisco were once rude buildings of boards and canvas, and the stalls were benches. A story is told that at a performance at such a house quite a commotion was caused by the piercing squall of a healthy baby-brought in by a mother who, perhaps, had not had any amus.e.m.e.nt for a year or two, and most a.s.suredly had no servant with whom to leave it at home-which was heard above the music. "Here, you fiddlers," roared out a stalwart man in a red s.h.i.+rt and "gum" boots, just down from the mines, "stop that tune; I haven't heard a baby cry for several years; it does me good to hear it." The "one touch of nature" made that rough audience akin, and all rose to their feet, cheering the baby, and insisting that the orchestra must stop, and stop it did until the child was quieted. Then a collection was made-not of coppers and small silver, but of ounces and dollars-to present the child with something handsome as a souvenir of its success.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO.]

San Francisco, as the most important commercial emporium and port of the whole Pacific, has a particular interest to the "man of the sea." It has societies, "homes," and bethels for his benefit, and a fine marine hospital. At the Merchants' Exchange he will find the latest s.h.i.+pping-news and quotations, while many public inst.i.tutions are open to him, as to all others. Above all, he will find one of the most conscientious and kind, as well as influential, of British Consuls there-and how often the sailor abroad may need his interference, only the sailor and merchant knows-who is also one of the oldest in H.B.M. consular service. No matter his sect, it is represented; San Francisco is full of churches and chapels. If he needs instruction and literary entertainment, he will get it at the splendid Mercantile Library, or admirably-conducted Mechanics' Inst.i.tute.

There is a capital "Art a.s.sociation," with hundreds of members. He will find journalism of a new type: "live," vigorous, generous, and semi-occasionally vicious. The papers of San Francisco will, however, compare favourably with those of any other American city, short of New York and Boston. The sailor will find the city as advanced in all matters pertaining to modern civilisation, whether good or bad, as any he has ever visited. The naval officer will find admirable clubs, and if of the Royal Navy will most a.s.suredly be put on the books of one or more of them for the period of his stay. He will find, too, that San Francisco hospitality is unbounded, that b.a.l.l.s and parties are nowhere better carried out, and that the rising generation of California girls are extremely good-looking, and that the men are stalwart, fine-looking fellows, very unlike the typical bony Yankee, who, by-the-by, is getting very scarce even in his own part of the country, the New England States.

If Jack has been to China, he will recognise the truth of the fact that parts of San Francisco are Chinese as Hong Kong itself. There are Joss-houses, with a big, stolid-looking idol sitting in state, the temple gay with tinsel and china, metal-work and paint, smelling faintly of incense, and strongly of burnt paper. There are Chinese _restaurants_ by the dozen, from the high-cla.s.s dining-rooms, with balconies, flowers, small banners and inscriptions, down to the itinerant _restaurateur_ with his charcoal-stove and soup-pot. Then there are Chinese theatres, smelling strongly of opium and tobacco, where the orchestra sits at the back of the stage, which is curtainless and devoid of scenery. The dresses of the performers are gorgeous in the extreme. When any new arrangement of properties, &c., is required on the stage, the changes are made before your eyes; as, for example, placing a table to represent a raised balcony, or piling up some boxes to form a castle, and so forth. Their dramas are often almost interminable, for they take the reign of an emperor, for example, and play it through, night after night, from his birth to his death. In details they are very literal, and hold "the mirror up to nature" fully. If the said emperor had special vices, they are displayed on the stage. The music is, to European ears, fearful and wonderful-a mixture of discordant sounds, resembling those of ungreased cart-wheels and railway-whistles, mingled with the rolling of drums and striking of gongs. Some of the streets are lined with Chinese shops, ranging from those of the merchants in tea, silks, porcelain, and lacquered ware-a dignified and polite cla.s.s of men, who are often highly educated, and speak English extremely well-to those of the cigar-makers, barbers, shoemakers, and laundry-_men_. Half the laundry-work in San Francisco is performed by John Chinaman. There is one Chinese hotel or caravanserai, which looks as though it might at a stretch accommodate two hundred people, in which 1,200 men are packed.

The historian of the future will watch with interest the advancing or receding waves of population as they move over the surface of the globe, now surging in great waves of resistless force, now peacefully subsiding, leaving hardly a trace behind. The Pacific Mail Steams.h.i.+p Company's steamers have brought from China to San Francisco as many as 1,200 Chinamen-and, very occasionally, of course, more than that number-on a single trip. The lowest estimate of the number of Chinese in California is 70,000, while they are spread all over the Pacific states and territories, and, indeed, in lesser numbers, all over the American continent. One finds them in New England factories, New York laundries, and Southern plantations. Their reception in San Francisco used to be with brickbats and other missiles, and hooting and jeering, on the part of the lower cla.s.ses of the community. This is not the place to enter into a discussion on the political side of the question. Suffice it to say that they were and still are a necessity in California, where the expense of reaching the country has kept out "white" labour to an extent so considerable, that it still rules higher than in almost any part of the world. The respectable middle cla.s.ses would hardly afford servants at all were it not for the Chinese. All the better cla.s.ses support their claims to full legal and social rights. The Chinamen who come to San Francisco are not coolies, and a large number of them pay their own pa.s.sages over. When brought over by merchants, or one of the six great Chinese companies, their pa.s.sage-money is advanced, and they, of course, pay interest for the accommodation. On arrival in California, if they do not immediately go to work, they proceed to the "Company-house" of their particular province, where, in a kind of caravanserai, rough accommodations for sleeping and cooking are afforded.

Hardly a better system of organisation could be adopted than that of the companies, who know exactly where each man in their debt is to be found, if he is hundreds of miles from San Francisco. Were it possible to adopt the same system in regard to emigrants from this country, thousands would be glad to avail themselves of the opportunity of proceeding to the Golden State.

One little anecdote, and the Chinese must be left to their fate. It happened in 1869. Two Chinese merchants had been invited by one of the heads of a leading steams.h.i.+p company to visit the theatre, where they had taken a box. The merchants, men of high standing among their countrymen, accepted. Their appearance in front of it was the signal for an outburst of ruffianism on the part of the gallery; it was the "G.o.ds" _versus_ the celestials, and for a time the former had it all their own way. In vain Lawrence Barrett, the actor, came forward on the stage to try and appease them. He is supposed to have said that any well-conducted person had a right to his seat in the house. An excited gentleman in the dress-circle reiterated the same ideas, and was rewarded by a torrent of hisses and caterwauling. The Chinamen, alarmed that it might result in violence to them, would have retired, but a dozen gentlemen from the dress-circle and orchestra seats requested them to stay, promising them protection, and the merchants remained. They could see that all the better and more respectable part of the house wished them to remain. After twenty or more minutes of interruption, the gallery was nearly cleared by the police, and the performance allowed to proceed. And yet the very cla.s.s who are so opposed to the Caucasian complain that he does not spend his money in the country where he makes it, but h.o.a.rds it up for China. The story explains the actual position of the Chinaman in America to-day. The upper and middle cla.s.ses, ay, and the honest mechanics who require their a.s.sistance, support their claims; the lowest sc.u.m of the population persecute, injure, and not unfrequently murder them. Many a poor John Chinaman has, as they say in America, been "found missing."

The sailor ash.o.r.e in San Francisco may likely enough have an opportunity of feeling the tremor of an earthquake. As a rule, they have been exceedingly slight, but that of the 21st October, 1868, was a serious affair. Towers and steeples swayed to and fro: tall houses trembled, badly-built wooden houses became disjointed; walls fell. Many buildings, for some time afterwards, showed the effects in cracked walls and plastering, dislocated doors and window-frames. A writer in the _Overland Monthly_, soon after the event, put the matter forcibly when recalling the great earthquake of Lisbon. He said, "Over the parts of the city where s.h.i.+ps anch.o.r.ed twenty years ago, they may anchor again," for the worst effects were confined to the "made" ground-_i.e._, land reclaimed from the Bay. Dwellings on the rocky hills were scarcely injured at all, reminding us of the relative fates of the man "who built his house upon a rock" and of him who placed it on the sand. Four persons only were killed on that occasion, all of them from the fall of badly-constructed walls, loose parapets, &c. The alarm in the city was great; excited people rus.h.i.+ng wildly through the streets, and frightened horses running through the crowds.

California possesses other ports of importance, but as regards English naval interests in the Pacific, Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, B.C., which has a fine land-locked harbour of deep water, dock, and naval hospital, deserves the notice of the reader. It is often the rendezvous for seven or eight of H.M.'s vessels, from the admiral's flag-s.h.i.+p to the tiniest steam gun-boat. Victoria, the capital, is three miles off, and has a pretty little harbour itself, not, however, adapted for large vessels. Formerly the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, the mainland, were separate and distinct colonies; they are now identified under the latter name. Their value never warranted the full paraphernalia of a double colonial government-two governors, colonial secretaries, treasurers, attorney-generals, &c., &c.; for these countries, charming and interesting to the tourist and artist, will only attract population slowly. The resources of British Columbia in gold, timber, coal, fisheries, &c., are considerable; but the long winters on the mainland, and the small quant.i.ty of open land, are great drawbacks. Approaching Vancouver Island from the sea, the "inside channel" is entered through the grand opening to the Straits of Fuca, which Cook missed and Vancouver discovered. To the eastward are the rocks and light of Cape Flattery, while the rather low termination of Vancouver Island, thick with timber, is seen to the westward. The scene in the Straits is often lively with steamers and s.h.i.+pping, great men-of-war, sometimes of foreign nationalities; coast packet-boats proceeding not merely to Vancouver Island, but to the ports of Was.h.i.+ngton Territory, on the American side; timber (called "lumber"

always on that side of the world) vessels; colliers proceeding to Nanaimo or Bellingham Bay to the coal-mines; coasting and trading schooners; and Indian canoes, some of them big enough to accommodate sixty or more persons, and carrying a good amount of sail. The Straits have many beauties; and as, approaching the entrance of Esquimalt Harbour, the Olympian range of mountains, snow-covered and rugged, loom in the distance, the scene is grandly beautiful; while in the channel, rocky islets and islands, covered with pine and arbutus, abound. Outside the Straits two lighthouses are placed, to warn the unwary voyager by night.

Often those lighthouses may be noted apparently upside down! Mirage is common enough in the Straits of Fuca.

Victoria, in 1862, had at least 12,000 or 15,000 people, mostly drawn thither by the fame of the Cariboo mines, on the mainland of British Columbia. Not twenty per cent. ever reached those mines. When s.h.i.+ps arrived in the autumn, it was utterly useless to attempt the long journey of about 600 miles, partly by steamer, but two-thirds of which must be accomplished on foot or horseback, or often mule-back, over rugged mountain-paths, through swamps and forests. Consequently, a large number had to spend the winter in idleness; and in the spring, in many cases, their resources were exhausted. Many became tired of the colony; "roughing it" was not always the pleasant kind of thing they had imagined, and so they went down to California, or left for home. Others were stuck fast in the colony, and many suffered severe privations; although, so long as they could manage to live on salmon alone, they could obtain plenty from the Indians, who hawked it about the streets for a s.h.i.+lling or two s.h.i.+llings apiece-the latter for a very large fish. The son of a baronet at one time might be seen breaking stones for a living in Victoria; and unless men had a very distinct calling, profession, or trade, they had to live on their means or have a very rough time of it.

These remarks are not made to deter adventurous spirits from going abroad; but we would advise them to "look well before they leap." But how utterly unfitted for mining-work were the larger part of the young men who had travelled so far, only to be disappointed. There was no doubt of the gold being there: two hundred ounces of the precious metal have been "washed out" in an eight hours' "s.h.i.+ft" (a "s.h.i.+ft" is the same as a "watch" on board s.h.i.+p); and this was kept up for many days in succession, the miners working day and night. But that mine had been three years in process of development, and only one of the original proprietors was among the lucky number of shareholders. A day or so before the first gold had been found-"struck" is the technical expression-his credit was exhausted, and he had begged vainly for flour, &c., to enable him to live and work. The ordinary price of a very ordinary meal was _two dollars_; and it will be seen that, unless employed, or simply travelling for pleasure, it was a ruinous place to stop in. Fancy, then, the condition of perhaps as many as 4,000 unemployed men, out of a total of 7,000 men, on the various creeks, a good half of whom were of the middle and upper cla.s.ses at home. But for one happy fact, that beef-which, as the miners said, _packed itself_ into the mines (in other words, the cattle were driven in from a distance of hundreds of miles)-was reasonably cheap, hundreds of them must have starved. Everything-from flour, tea, sugar, bacon, and beans, to metal implements and machinery-had to be packed there on the backs of mules, and cost from fifty cents and upwards per pound for the mere cost of transportation. Tea was ten s.h.i.+llings a pound, flour and sugar a dollar a pound, and so on. Those who fancy that gold-mining, and especially deep gravel-mining, as in Cariboo, is play-work, may be told that it is perhaps the hardest, as it is certainly the most risky and uncertain, work in the world; and that it requires machinery, expensive tools, &c., which, in places like Cariboo, cost enormous sums to supply. If labour was to be employed-good practical miners, carpenters, &c. (much of the machinery was of wood)-received, at that period, ten to sixteen dollars per day. This digression may be pardoned, as the sea is so intimately bound up with questions of emigration. Apart from this, from personal observation, the writer knows that quite a proportion of miners have been sailors, and, in many cases, deserted their s.h.i.+ps. In the "early days" of Australia, California, and British Columbia, this was eminently the case.

A large proportion of the sailors in the Royal Navy have, or will at some period, pa.s.s some time on the Pacific station, in which case, they will inevitably go to Vancouver Island, where there is much to interest them.(105) They will find Victoria a very pretty little town, with Government house, cathedral, churches and chapels, a mechanics' inst.i.tute, a theatre, good hotels and restaurants-the latter generally in French hands. He will find a curious mixture of English and American manners and customs, and a very curious mixture of coinage-s.h.i.+llings being the same as quarter-dollars, while crowns are only the value of dollars (5s., against 4s. 2d.). Some years ago the island system was different from that of the mainland; on the latter, florins were equal to half-dollars (which they are, nearly), while on the island they were 37 cents only (1s. 7d.). The Hudson's Bay Company, which has trading-posts throughout British Columbia, took advantage of the fact to give change for American money, on their steamers, in English florins, obtaining them on the island. They thus made nearly twenty-five per cent. in their transaction, besides getting paid the pa.s.senger's fare. Yet the traveller, strange to say, did not lose by this, for, on landing at New Westminster, he found that what was rated at a little over eighteenpence on Vancouver Island, had suddenly, after travelling only seventy miles or so, increased in value to upwards of two s.h.i.+llings!

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BRITISH CAMP: SAN JUAN.]

Outside Victoria there are many pleasant drives and walks: to "The Arm,"

where, amid a charming landscape, interspersed with pines and natural fir woods, wild flowers, and mossy rocks, there is a pretty little rapid, or fall; to Saanich, where the settlers' homesteads have a semi-civilised appearance, half of the houses being of squared logs, but comfortable withal inside, and where a rude plenty reigns; or to Beacon Hill, where there is an excellent race-course and drive, which commands fine views up and down the Straits. In sight is San Juan Island, over which England and America once squabbled, while the two garrisons which occupied it fraternised cordially, and outvied with each other in hospitality. The island-rocky, and covered with forest and underbrush, with a farm or two, made by clearing away the big trees, with not a little difficulty, and burning and partially uprooting the stumps-does not look a worthy subject for international differences. But the fact is, that it commands the Straits to some extent. However, all that is over now, and it is England's property by diplomatic arrangement. There are other islands, nearly as large, in the archipelago which stretches northward up the Gulf of Georgia, which have not a single human inhabitant, and have never been visited, except by some stray Indians, miners, or traders who have gone ash.o.r.e to cook a meal or camp for the night.

Any one who has travelled by small canoes on the sea must remember those happy camping-times, when, often wet, and always hungry and tired, the little party cautiously selected some sheltered nook or specially good beach, and then paddled with a will ash.o.r.e. No lack of drift-wood or small trees on that coast, and no lord of the manor to interfere with one taking it. A glorious fire is soon raised, and the cooking preparations commenced. Sometimes it is only the stereotyped tea-frying-pan bread (something like the Australian "damper," only baked before the fire), or "slapjacks" (_i.e._, flour-and-water pancakes), fried bacon, and boiled Chili beans; but ofttimes it can be varied by excellent fish, game, bear-meat, venison, or moose-meat, purchased from some pa.s.sing Indians, or killed by themselves. It is absurd to suppose that "roughing it" need mean hards.h.i.+p and semi-starvation all the time. Not a bit of it! On the northern coasts now being described, one may often live magnificently, and most travellers learn instinctively to cook, and make the most of things.

Nothing is finer in camp than a _roast_ fish-say a salmon-split and gutted, and stuck on a stick before the fire, not over it. A few dozen turns, and you have a dish worthy of a prince. Or a composition stew-say of deer and bear-meat and beaver's tail, well seasoned, and with such vegetables as you may obtain there; potatoes from some seaside farm-and there are such on that coast, where the settler is as brown as his Indian wife-or compressed vegetables, often taken on exploring expeditions. Or, again, venison dipped in a thick batter and thrown into a pan of boiling-hot fat, making a kind of meat fritter, with not a drop of its juices wasted. Some of these explorers and miners are veritable _chefs_.

They can make good light bread in the woods from plain flour, water, and salt, and ask no oven but a frying-pan. They will make beans, of a kind only given to horses at home, into a delicious dish, by boiling them soft-a long job, generally done at the night camp-and then frying them with bread-crumbs and pieces of bacon in the morning, till they are brown and crisp.

It was at one of these camps, on an island in the Gulf of Georgia, that a camp fire spread to some gra.s.s and underbrush, mounted with lightning rapidity a steep slope, and in a few minutes the forest at the top was ablaze. The whole island was soon in flames! For hours afterwards the flames and smoke could be seen. No harm was done; for it is extremely unlikely that island will be inhabited for the next five hundred years.

But forest fires in partially inhabited districts are more serious, or when near trails or roads. In the long summer of Vancouver Island, where rain, as in California, is almost unknown, these fires, once started, may burn for weeks-ay, months.

The Indians of this part of the coast, of dozens of petty tribes, all speaking different languages, or, at all events, varied dialects, are not usually prepossessing in appearance, but the male half-breeds are often fine-looking fellows, and the girls pretty. The sailor will be interested in their cedar canoes, which on Vancouver Island are beautifully modelled.

A first-cla.s.s clipper has not more graceful lines. They are always cut from one log, and are finely and smoothly finished, being usually painted black outside, and finished with red ornamental work within. They are very light and buoyant, and will carry great weights; but one must be careful to avoid rocks on the coast, or "snags" in the rivers, for any sudden concussion will split them all to pieces. When on the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, a party of men found themselves suddenly deposited in a swift-running stream, from the canoe having almost parted in half, after touching on a sunken rock or log. All got to sh.o.r.e safely, and it took about half a day of patching and caulking to make her sufficiently river-worthy (why not say "river-worthy" as well as "sea-worthy?") to enable them to reach camp. The writer, in 1864, came down from the extreme end of Bute Inlet-an arm of the sea on the mainland of British Columbia-across the Gulf of Georgia (twenty miles of open sea), coasting southwards to Victoria, V.I., the total voyage being 180 miles, in an open cedar canoe, only large enough for four or five people. The trip occupied five days. But while there is some risk in such an undertaking, there is little in a voyage in the great Haidah canoes of Queen Charlotte's Island (north of Vancouver Island). These canoes are often eighty feet long, but are still always made from a single log, the splendid pines of that coast(106) affording ample opportunity. They have masts, and carry as much sail as a schooner, while they can be propelled by, say, forty or fifty paddles, half on either side, wielded by as many pairs of brawny arms. The savage Haidahs are a powerful race, of whom not much is known. They, however, often come to Victoria, or the American ports on Puget Sound, for purposes of trading.

"How," it might be asked, "does the trade communicate with so many varieties of natives, all speaking different tongues?" The answer is that there is a jargon, a kind of "pigeon-English," which is acquired, more or less, by almost all residents on the coast for purposes of intercourse with their Indian servants or others. This is the Chinook jargon, a mixture of Indian, English, and French-the latter coming from the French Canadian _voyageurs_, often to be found in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, as they were formerly in the defunct North-West Company. Some of the words used have curious origins. Thus, an Englishman is a "King-George-man," because the first explorers, Cook, Vancouver, and others, arrived there during the Georgian era. An American is a "Boston-man," because the first s.h.i.+ps from the United States which visited that coast hailed from Boston. This lingo has no grammar, and a very few hundred words satisfies all its requirements. Young ladies, daughters of Hudson's Bay Company's employes in Victoria, rattle it off as though it were their mother-tongue. "Ikte mika tikkee?" ("What do you want?") is probably the first query to an Indian who arrives, and has something to sell. "Nika tikkee tabac et la biscuit" ("I want some tobacco and biscuit"). "Cleush; mika potlatch salmon?" ("Good; will you give me a salmon?"). "Naaaawitka, Se-am" ("Yes, sir"); and for a small piece of black cake-tobacco and two or three biscuits (sailors' "hard bread" or "hard tack") he will exchange a thirty-pound or so salmon.

The Chinook jargon, in skilful hands, is susceptible of much. But it is not adapted for sentiment or poetry, although a naval officer, once stationed on the Pacific side, did evolve an effusion, which the sailor is almost sure to hear there. It needed, however, a fair amount of English to make it read pleasantly. Old residents and visitors will recognise some of its stanzas:-