Part 41 (1/2)

I found him as good as his word, with reference to my playing Rajah, for he did not so much as mention to me, once, any rule limiting the stay of belligerents in French waters. We now got under way, and stood in to the anchorage, the French officer kindly consenting to show me the way in; though there was but little need, as the harbor was quite free from obstructions, except such as were plainly visible. The water in this cosy little harbor was as smooth as a mill-pond, notwithstanding occasional gusts of the monsoon swept down the mountain sides. There were mountains on two sides of us, both to the north and south. The harbor was, in fact, formed by two mountainous islands, both pa.s.sing under the name of Condore; there being only a boat-pa.s.sage separating them on the east.

This was our first real resting-place, since leaving the Cape of Good Hope, and both officers and men enjoyed the relaxation. The island was full of game, the bay full of fish, and the bathing very fine. We felt quite secure, too, against the approach of an enemy. The only enemy's steamer in these seas was the _Wyoming_, for which we regarded ourselves as quite a match. We had, besides, taken the precaution, upon anchoring, to lay out a spring, by which we could, in the course of a few minutes, present our broadside to the narrow entrance of the harbor, and thus rake anything that might attempt the pa.s.sage. The Governor of the island now came on board to visit us. He had his headquarters at a small Malay village on the east coast, where, by the aid of a sergeant's guard, he ruled his subjects with despotic sway. He brought me on board a present of a pig, and generously offered to share with me a potato-patch near the s.h.i.+p. What more could a monarch do? This was an exceedingly clever young Frenchman--Monsieur Bizot--he was an ensign in the French Navy, about twenty-two years of age, and a graduate of the French naval school. The commander of his flag-s.h.i.+p--the small country craft already described--was a mids.h.i.+pman. These two young men had entire control of the government of the island, civil and military.

Kell having set his mechanics at work in the various departments, to effect the necessary repairs on the s.h.i.+p, I relaxed the reins of discipline, as much as possible, that, by boat-sailing, fis.h.i.+ng, and hunting excursions, my people might recruit from the ill effects of their long confinement on s.h.i.+p-board, and the storms and bad weather they had experienced. The north-east monsoon having now fairly set in, the weather had become fine. The heat was very great, it is true, but it was much tempered by the winds. During the two weeks that we remained in the island, almost every part of it was explored by my adventurous hunters--even the very mountain tops--and marvellous were the reports of their adventures which they brought on board. Some small specimens of deer were found; the bison--the bull of which is very savage, not hesitating to a.s.sault the hunter, under favorable circ.u.mstances--abounded on the small savannas; monkeys travelled about in troops; parrots, and other birds of beautiful plumage, wheeled over our heads in flocks--in short, the whole island seemed teeming with life. The natives told us that there were many large, and some poisonous serpents in the jungles, but fortunately none of my people were injured by them.

We found here the famous vampyre of the East. Several specimens were shot, and brought on board. Some of these monster bats measure from five to six feet from tip to tip of wing. The head resembles that of a wolf. It has long and sharp incisor-teeth and tusks, and would be a dangerous animal to attack an unarmed man. The reptile tribe flourishes in perfection. A lizard, measuring five feet ten inches in length, was brought on board by one of the hunters. Nature runs riot in every direction, and the vegetable world is as curious as the animal. The engineer coming on board, one day, from one of his excursions, pulled out his cigar case, and offered me a very tempting Havana cigar. Imagine my surprise when I found it a piece of wood! It had been plucked fresh from the tree. The size, shape, and color--a rich brown--were all perfect. It was not a capsule or a seed-pod, but a solid piece of wood, with the ordinary woody fibre, and full of sap.

I put it away carefully among my curiosities, but after a few days it shrivelled, and lost its beauty.

The apes did not appear to be afraid of the gun--probably because they were not accustomed to be shot at. They would cl.u.s.ter around a hunting-party, and grin and chatter like so many old negroes, one sometimes sees on the coast of Africa. One of the mids.h.i.+pmen having shot one, described the death of the old gentleman to me, and said that he felt almost as if he had killed his old ”uncle” on his father's plantation. The wounded creature--whatever it may be, man or animal--threw its arms over the wound, and moaned as plaintively and intelligibly as if it had been gifted with the power of speech, and were upbraiding its slayer. During our stay I made the acquaintance--through my opera-gla.s.s--of several of these lampoons upon human nature. A gang of apes, old and young, came down to the beach regularly every morning, to look at the s.h.i.+p. The old men and women would seat themselves in rows, and gaze at us, sometimes for an hour, without changing their places or att.i.tudes--seeming to be absorbed in wonder. I became quite familiar with some of their countenances. The young people did not appear to be so strongly impressed. They would walk about the beach in twos and threes--making love, most likely, and settling future family arrangements. The children, meanwhile, would be romping around the old people, screaming and barking in very delight. If a boat approached them, the old people would give a peculiar whistle, when the younger members of the tribe would betake themselves at once to the cover of the adjoining jungle.

A hunting party, landing here one morning, shot one of these old apes. The rest scampered off, and were seen no more that day. The next morning, upon turning my opera-gla.s.s upon the beach, I saw the monkeys as usual, but they were broken into squads, and moving about in some disorder, instead of being seated as usual. I could plainly see some of them at work. Some appeared to be digging in the sand, and others to be bringing twigs and leaves of trees, and such of the debris of the forest as they could gather conveniently. It was my usual hour for landing, to get sights for my chronometers. As the boat approached, the whole party disappeared. I had the curiosity to walk to the spot, to see what these semi-human beings had been doing. They had been burying their dead comrade, and had not quite finished covering up the body, when they had been disturbed! The deceased seemed to have been popular, for a large concourse had come to attend his funeral. The natives told us, that this burial of the monkeys was a common practice. They believe in monkey doctors, too, for they told us that when they have come upon sick monkeys in the woods, they have frequently found some demure old fellows looking very wise, with their fingers on their noses sitting at their bed-sides. The ladies may be curious to know, from the same good authority, how the monkeys of Pulo Condore treat their women. As among the Salt Lake saints, polygamy prevails, and there are sometimes as many as a dozen females ”sealed” to one old patriarch--especially if he be broad across the shoulders, and have sharp teeth. The young lady monkeys are required to form matrimonial connections during the third or fourth season of their belledom; that is to say, the parent monkeys will permit their daughters to sally out and return home as often as they please, after they have ”come out,” until three or four moons have elapsed. After that time they are expected to betake themselves to their own separate trees for lodging.

I was frequently startled, whilst we lay at Pulo Condore, at hearing what appeared to be the whistle of a locomotive--rather shrill, it may be, but very much resembling it. It proceeded from an enormous locust.

Pulo Condore lies in the route of the French mail-steamer, between Singapore and Saigon, the latter the capital of the French possessions in Cochin China, and the Governor receiving a large mail while we were here, was kind enough to send us some late papers from Paris and Havre. Every two or three days, too, he sent us fresh beef, fowls, and fruits. On the Sunday evening after our arrival, he, and his paymaster repeated their visit to us, and brought in the same boat with themselves, a bullock--a fine fat bison! In a country comparatively wild, and where supplies were so difficult to be obtained, these presents were greatly enhanced in value. Poor Monsieur Bizot! we all regretted to learn, upon our return to Europe, that this promising young officer, so full of talent, life, energy, hope, had fallen a victim to a malarial fever.

Kell performed quite a feat at Pulo Condore in the way of s.h.i.+p-carpentry.

Our copper having fallen off, some distance below the water-line, he constructed a coffer or caisson, that fitted the side of the s.h.i.+p so nicely, when sunk to the required depth, that he had only to pump it out, with our fire-engine and suction-hose, to enable his mechanics to descend into a dry box and effect the necessary repairs. We found our s.h.i.+p so much out of order, that it required two weeks to get her ready for sea. At the end of this time, we took an affectionate leave of our French friends, and getting under way, under sail, we again threw ourselves into the monsoon, and south-west current, and turned our head in the direction of Singapore.

We crossed the Gulf of Siam under easy sail, that we might have the benefit of any chance capture, that might present itself. There was a number of vessels hurrying on before the brisk monsoon, but no Yankee among them. The Yankee flag had already become a stranger in the China Sea. On the evening of the 19th of December, we ran in, and anch.o.r.ed under Pulo Aor, in twenty fathoms water, within half a mile of the village, on the south-west end of the island. The island is high, and broken--its forests being composed almost entirely of the cocoanut--and is inhabited by the same cla.s.s of Malay nomads already described. Their houses were picturesquely scattered among the trees, and several large boats were hauled up near them, on the beach, ready for any enterprise that might offer, in their line. The head man came off to visit me, and some piraguas with fowls and fruits came alongside, to trade with the sailors.

These islanders appeared to be a merry set of fellows, for during nearly the whole night, we could hear the sound of tom-toms, and other musical instruments, as though they were engaged in the mysteries of the dance.

Some very pretty specimens of young women, naked to the middle, came off in their light piraguas, handling the paddle equally with the men, and appearing quite as much at home on the water. The next day being Sunday, and the weather not being very propitious for our run to Singapore, it being thick and murky, we remained over at our anchors, at this island, mustering the crew, and inspecting the s.h.i.+p as usual. After muster, some of the officers visited the sh.o.r.e, and were hospitably received by the natives. They saw no evidences of the cultivation of the soil, or of any other kind of labor. Nature supplied the inhabitants, spontaneously, with a regular succession of fruits all the year round, and as for clothing, they needed none, so near the equator. The sea gave them fish; and the domestic fowl, which seemed to take care of itself, and the goat which browsed without care also on the mountain-side, secured them against the caprice of the elements. Their _physique_ was well developed, and life seemed to be with them a continual holiday. Who shall say that the civilized man is a greater philosopher, than the savage of the China seas?

On the next morning, at a very early hour--just as the c.o.c.ks on sh.o.r.e were crowing for early daylight--we hove up our anchor, and giving the s.h.i.+p both steam and sail, shaped our course for Singapore. Soon after getting under way, we fell in company with an English steamer running also in our direction. The navigation, as one approaches the Strait of Malacca, on which Singapore is situated, is very difficult, there being some ugly shoals by the wayside; and the weather coming on thick, and heavy rains setting in, we were obliged to anchor in the mouth of the Strait for several hours. The weather now lifting, and the clouds breaking away, we got under way, again, and taking a Malay pilot soon afterward, we ran into Singapore, and anch.o.r.ed, at about five P. M. The harbor was filled with s.h.i.+pping, but there was no United States s.h.i.+p of war among the number. The reader has seen that the _Wyoming_ was at Anger in the Strait of Sunda, only two days before we burned the _Winged Racer_. She must have heard of that event soon after its occurrence, and also of our burning the _Contest_ near Gaspar Strait. The English s.h.i.+p _Avalanche_ had, besides, carried news to Batavia, that we were off Sorouton, still higher up the China Sea. The _Wyoming_, if she had any intention of seeking a fight with us, was thus entirely deceived by our movements. These indicated that we were bound to Canton and Shanghai, and thither, probably, she had gone.

She must have pa.s.sed within sight of Pulo Condore, while we were sc.r.a.ping down our masts, tarring our rigging, and watching the funeral of the dead monkey described; and about the time she was ready to run into Hongkong, in the upper part of the China Sea, we had run into Singapore, and anch.o.r.ed in the lower part.

CHAPTER L.

THE ALABAMA AT SINGAPORE--PANIC AMONG THE ENEMY'S s.h.i.+PPING IN THE CHINA SEA--THE MULt.i.tUDE FLOCK TO SEE THE ALABAMA--CURIOUS RUMOR CONCERNING HER--AUTHOR RIDES TO THE COUNTRY, AND SPENDS A NIGHT--THE CHINESE IN POSSESSION OF ALL THE BUSINESS OF THE PLACE--ALABAMA LEAVES SINGAPORE--CAPTURE OF THE MARTABAN, ALIAS TEXAN STAR--ALABAMA TOUCHES AT MALACCA--CAPTURE OF THE HIGHLANDER AND SONORA--ALABAMA ONCE MORE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN.

It turned out as I had conjectured in the last chapter. The _Wyoming_ had been at Singapore on the 1st of December. She had gone thence to the Rhio Strait, where a Dutch settlement had given her a ball, which she had reciprocated. Whilst these Yankee and Dutch rejoicings were going on, the _Alabama_ was crossing the China Sea, from Borneo to Pulo Condore. All traces of the _Wyoming_ had since been lost. She had doubtless filled with coal at Rhio, and gone northward. We had thus a clear sea before us.

A very gratifying spectacle met our eyes at Singapore. There were twenty-two American s.h.i.+ps there--large India-men--almost all of which were dismantled and laid up! The burning of our first s.h.i.+p in these seas, the _Amanda_, off the Strait of Sunda, had sent a thrill of terror through all the Yankee s.h.i.+pping, far and near, and it had hastened to port, to get out of harm's way. We had recent news here from all parts of the China seas, by vessels pa.s.sing constantly through the Strait of Malacca, and touching at Singapore for orders or refreshments. There were two American s.h.i.+ps laid up in Bankok, in Siam; one or two at Canton; two or three at Shanghai; one at the Phillippine Islands; and one or two more in j.a.panese waters. These, besides the twenty-two s.h.i.+ps laid up in Singapore, comprised all of the enemy's once numerous Chinese fleet! No s.h.i.+p could get a freight, and the commerce of the enemy was as dead, for the time being, as if every s.h.i.+p belonging to him had been destroyed. We had here the key to the mystery, that the _Alabama_ had encountered no American s.h.i.+p, in the China Sea, since she had burned the _Contest_. The birds had all taken to cover, and there was no such thing as flus.h.i.+ng them. This state of things decided my future course. I had, at first, thought of running up the China Sea, as far as Shanghai, but if there were no more than half a dozen of the enemy's s.h.i.+ps to be found in that part of the sea, and these had all fled to neutral ports for protection, _cui bono_?

It would be far better to return to the western hemisphere, where the enemy still had some commerce left. Indeed, my best chance of picking up these very s.h.i.+ps, that were now anch.o.r.ed under my guns in Singapore, and disconsolate for want of something to do, would be to waylay them on their homeward voyages. They would not venture out in a close sea like that of China, so long as I remained in it. After I should have departed, and they had recovered somewhat from their panic, they might pick up partial cargoes, at reduced rates, and once more spread their wings for flight.

I had another powerful motive influencing me. My s.h.i.+p was getting very much out of repair. The hard usage to which she had been subjected since she had been commissioned had very much impaired her strength, and so constantly had she been under way, that the attrition of the water had worn the copper on her bottom so thin that it was daily loosening and dropping off in sheets. Her speed had, in consequence, been much diminished. The fire in her furnaces, like that of the fire-wors.h.i.+pping Persian, had never been permitted to go out, except for a few hours at rare intervals, to enable the engineer to clink his bars, and remove the incrustations of salt from the bottoms of his boilers. This constant action of fire and salt had nearly destroyed them. I resolved, therefore, to turn my s.h.i.+p's head westward from Singapore, run up into the Bay of Bengal, along the coast of Hindostan to Bombay, through the Seych.e.l.le Islands to the mouth of the Red Sea, thence to the Comoro Islands; from these latter to the Strait of Madagascar, and from the latter Strait to the Cape of Good Hope--thus varying my route back to the Cape.

We were received with great cordiality by the people of Singapore, and, as at the Cape of Good Hope, much curiosity was manifested to see the s.h.i.+p.

After she had hauled alongside of the coaling wharf, crowds gathered to look curiously upon her, and compare her appearance with what they had read of her. These crowds were themselves a curiosity to look upon, formed, as they were, of all the nations of the earth, from the remote East and the remote West. Singapore being a free port, and a great centre of trade, there is always a large fleet of s.h.i.+pping anch.o.r.ed in its waters, and its streets and other marts of commerce are constantly thronged with a promiscuous mult.i.tude. The ca.n.a.l--there being one leading to the rear of the town--is filled with country boats from the surrounding coasts, laden with the products of the different countries from which they come. There is the pepper-boat from Sumatra, and the coaster of larger size laden with tin-ore; the spice-boats from the spice islands; boats with tin-ore, hides, and mats from Borneo; boats from Siam, with gums, hides, and cotton; boats from different parts of the Malay peninsula, with canes, gutta-percha, and India-rubber. In the bay are s.h.i.+ps from all parts of the East--from China, with silks and teas; from j.a.pan, with lacker-ware, raw silk, and curious manufactures of iron, steel, and paper; from the Phillippine Islands, with sugar, hides, tobacco, and spices.

Intermixed with these are the European and American s.h.i.+ps, with the products of their various countries. As a consequence, all the races and all the religions of the world were represented in the throngs that crowded the coaling jetty, to look upon the _Alabama_, wearing the new flag of a new nation, mysterious for its very distance from them. We were to their eastern eyes a curious people of the antipodes.

The physical aspect of the throng was no less curious than its moral.

There was the Malay, the Chinese, the j.a.panese, the Siamese, the Hindoo, the Persian, the wild Tartar, the Bornese, the Sumatran, the Javanese, and even the New Zealander--all dressed, or undressed, as the case might be, in the garb of their respective tribes and countries. Some of the most notable objects among the crowd, were jet-black Africans, with the amplest of petticoat trousers gathered at the knee, sandalled feet, and turbaned heads--the more s.h.i.+ning the jet of the complexion, the whiter the turban.

The crowd, so far from diminis.h.i.+ng, increased daily, so that it was at times difficult to pa.s.s into and out of the s.h.i.+p; and it was some time before we could learn what had excited all this curiosity among those simple inhabitants of the isles and continents. Some of these wonder-mongers actually believed, that we kept chained in the hold of the _Alabama_, several negro giants--they had heard something about the negro and slavery having something to do with the war--whom we armed with immense weapons and let loose, in time of battle, as they were wont to do their elephants! They waited patiently for hours, under their paper umbrellas, hoping to catch a sight of these monsters.

Singapore, which was a fis.h.i.+ng village half a century ago, contains a hundred thousand inhabitants, and under the free-port system has become, as before remarked, a great centre of trade. It concentrates nearly all the trade of the southern portion of the China Sea. There are no duties on exports or imports; and the only tonnage due paid by the s.h.i.+pping, is three cents per ton, register, as a lighthouse tax. The currency is dollars and cents; Spanish, Mexican, Peruvian, and Bolivian dollars are current. Great Britain, with an infinite forecaste, not only girdles the seas with her s.h.i.+ps, but the land with her trading stations. In her colonization and commerce consists her power. Lop off these, and she would become as insignificant as Holland. And so beneficent is her rule, that she binds her colonies to her with hooks of steel. A senseless party in that country has advocated the liberation of all her colonies. No policy could be more suicidal. Colonization is as much of a necessity for Great Britain as it was for the Grecian States and for Rome, when they became overcrowded with population. Probably, in the order of nature, colonies, as they reach maturity, may be expected to go off to themselves, but for each colony which thus puts on the _toga virilis_, Great Britain should establish another, if she would preserve her empire, and her importance with the nations of the earth.