Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East, Oliver Optic [read along books TXT] 📗

band, Sir Modava will tell you something about the principal towns; "and as he retired the audience separated, for it was to be a promenade concert.

"I was asked just now by Mrs. Blossom about missions here in Ceylon," said the Hindu gentleman as he took the stand. "The English Baptists sent missionaries here eighty years ago; the Methodists a year later; the Americans three years later; and the Church of England five years after. A great deal of Christian teaching has been done in Ceylon, though I am not able just now to give you statistically the results of missionary work; but it has included the establishment of schools, female seminaries, and even collegiate institutions, carried on by the missionaries, outside of the government system of education.

"Point de Galle, at the south-western extremity of the island, is a town of forty-seven thousand inhabitants, and has a good harbor in a sheltered bay. It was formerly the principal coaling and shipping station in this part of India; but all this has gone to Colombo. The Orient line of steamers, whose principal business is with Australia, sends some of its ships here; and most steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental line, called the 'P. & O.' for short, touch here. A great deal of freight had to be reshipped at Point de Galle for various ports of India.

"The name was given to the place by the Portuguese, and its meaning is doubtful. Galles is the French of Wales, and La Nouvelle Galles is New South Wales; without the final s, the word means an oak-apple, in French. As I heard one of the 'Big Four' say this morning, 'You pay your money and take your choice,' as to the signification of the word. At any rate, the importance of the place is gone, and Colombo has captured its business and its prominence.

"Colombo is the capital of Ceylon. It is about seventy miles from Point de Galle, on the south-west coast of the island. It has a population of almost 127,000, which has been increased at the expense of Galle, as we generally call it to economize our breath. It is located on a peninsula, with the sea on three sides of it, with a lake and moat on the land side. By the way, Mr. Woolridge, do you happen to remember the Italian name of Christopher Columbus, whose discovery of America you are to celebrate at Chicago this year?"

"Cristoforo Colombo," replied Morris promptly. "I read it on his monument at Genoa last summer."

"Quite right, my young friend; and that is where the capital of Ceylon obtained its name, which the Portuguese gave it, in honor of the great discoverer, only twenty-five years after the great event of his life. The buildings are about the same as you will observe in all British colonial towns, and I need not mention them. You will ride out to Lake Colombo, and visit the cinnamon gardens there. The breakwater, which has been the making of the city, cost �600,000; for it is an entirely safe harbor, with every facility for landing and embarking passengers and goods. I believe nothing is left to you but to see what his lordship and I have described."

Sir Modava retired from the stand; and the band started into an overture, which was hardly finished before the bell for lunch sounded. Before the collation was finished the ship had taken a pilot, and in due time the Guardian-Mother came to anchor at her last port in India proper. As the ship came into the harbor she passed abreast of the Blanche, and was greeted with three cheers, which were promptly and vigorously returned.

Accommodations had been bespoken by Lord Tremlyn, and early in the afternoon the party were quartered in the Elphinstone. Carriages were obtained, and before night they had visited the principal parts of the town, and even the cinnamon gardens, in which they were greatly interested; and some of the ladies told what it was good for, both as a spice and a medicine.

"I suppose you know all about cinnamon, Mrs. Belgrave," said Sir Modava, as they were looking at the trees.

"I only know enough about it to put it in my apple-pies when I make them."

"This island produces the finest article in the world. It is a very old spice, mentioned in the Old Testament, though I forget the name by which it is there called," added the Indian gentleman.

"But I did not suppose it grew on a tree; I had an idea it was a root."

"No; it is the inner bark of the trees before you. They are from twenty to thirty feet high, and are sometimes a foot and a half through. But the cultivated plant is not allowed to grow more than ten feet high. The leaves average five inches long, and taste more like cloves than cinnamon. There are two crops a year in Ceylon, the first in March, the last in November. The bark is taken off with considerable labor and care, and when it dries it curls up as you find your stick cinnamon."

"I used ground cinnamon," added the lady.

"It is the same thing, passed through the mill. Cassia is another species of cinnamon, and its oil is often substituted for the true oil; and very likely you buy it ground for the real thing."

The experts explained some other plants, especially cinchona, one of the most valuable medicinal plants, from which Peruvian bark, quinine, and other drugs are made, in which the three doctors were much interested. The company returned to the hotel; and after dinner the Italian band gave a concert on the veranda, as they had done in every city where the tourists remained overnight, which called forth repeated rounds of applause from the citizens of Colombo.

The next morning the travellers proceeded by railroad to Kandy, which Sir Modava insisted was the right way to spell it. The route was mostly through an elevated region, and when they reached the place at noon they had attained an elevation of 1,665 feet above the sea. They remained at Kandy three days, and were sorry the commander would not allow them to stay longer, for it was the most delightful region they had yet visited. They were in sight of the lofty mountains of the island before mentioned.

They found here the remains of ancient temples from one hundred and fifty to four hundred feet high; and one of them was built to contain the shrine of Gautama's tooth, and another for his collar-bone, both of which the English believe are frauds. Another was the Brazen Palace, nine stories high, and supported on sixteen hundred pillars. But most of the party took no interest in these structures, they had seen so many more that were larger, grander, and finer. They saw here the sacred Bo-tree, of which they had before been informed.

With great regret they left Kandy, and were soon in Colombo again. The Guardian-Mother was announced to sail the next day early in the afternoon. The time for parting with Lord Tremlyn, Sir Modava Rao, and Dr. Ferrolan had nearly arrived. The hosts of the party had provided a grand dinner for the last one. The governor and a number of officials, the American consul, and others had been invited.

Lord Tremlyn presided with Captain Ringgold on his right; and after the fine dinner had been disposed of the commander was the person called upon to respond to the first toast, "The Guardian-Mother and her Passengers." The name announced was received with the most tremendous applause, and "For he's a jolly good fellow!" was sung by Englishmen, assisted by the Americans, including the ladies.

Captain Ringgold began his speech, for which he had prepared himself, and reviewed the incidents which had occurred since the survivors of the Travancore had been taken from their perilous position. He set forth the obligations to which his passengers and himself were under to the distinguished gentlemen who had conducted them through India. He was frequently interrupted by hearty applause, and his speech was as eloquent as it was sensible; and it was worthy a Senator in Congress.

Lord Tremlyn was equally eloquent in the acknowledgment of his obligations, and those of his friends, to the noble commander and his ship's company; and possibly he was a little extravagant in some things that he said, but that was excusable on such an occasion. The next person presented was Mr. Louis Belgrave, who declared that he represented the "Big Four," which puzzled the strangers, though he explained the term and where it came from. The boys had been happy all the time. They admired and loved the noble gentlemen under whose guidance they had had six weeks of the best time in all their lives. When he said what he had to say, he approached the chairman with a large and handsome frame in his hand, containing a testimonial from the passengers, attested by the autographs of all, which he presented to Lord Tremlyn, with the best wishes of all the signers, who had profited so extensively from their kindness, for the health, happiness, and length of days of the trio.

This ceremony, not set down in the programme, brought forth rapturous applause and ringing cheers. The band played, and everybody seemed to be enjoying the happiest moment of his life. All the principal personages at the table made speeches, of which the Indian reporters, if any were present, have not given in their reports. It was a remarkably joyous occasion, and it was two o'clock in the morning when the banquet-hall was cleared.

All the forenoon was spent in exchanging the parting greetings. Both Lord Tremlyn and Sir Modava invited any or all of the party who might be in India or in England to visit them; and the commander and Mrs. Belgrave, as well as the others, extended similar invitations to the three gentlemen. After tiffin, when the party started for the steamer that was to convey them to the two ships, it seemed as though all the citizens of Colombo, with their ladies, had gathered to assist in the parting benedictions. The military band alternated with the Italian, cheers without number rent the air, and the party had all they could do to return the salutes, and answer all the kindly words spoken to them by entire strangers.

The steamer cast off her fasts, and then the din was greater than ever. The guests at the banquet went off to the ships, from the smoke-stacks of which the black smoke was pouring out, as if to emphasize the reality of the departure. All manner of courtesies were exchanged, but finally the passengers were all on board of the Blanche and Guardian-Mother. A salute was fired from the heaviest guns on both vessels, the screws began to turn, the final words were shouted, and the steamers stood to the southward.

It required some time to digest the sights the voyagers had seen in India; but when, a few days later, the Nickobar Islands were reported off the port bow, the "Big Four" began to think and wonder what new and strange climes they were to visit. They were inclined to believe they had seen everything that was worth seeing in the civilized world, and they had some decided views of their own in regard to the future. They were eager to engage for a time in something more stirring than gazing at palaces, churches, temples, and other wonders of the great cities; and they were not diffident in the expression of their wishes when the commander called a meeting in Conference Hall to consider what ports the Guardian-Mother should visit next, as well as to inform the tourists in regard to the islands in the immediate vicinity. Those who are interested in the decision of the company, and in the events which followed in consequence of it, are referred to the next volume of the series: "HALF ROUND THE WORLD; OR, SOME ADVENTURES AMONG THE UNCIVILIZED."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Across India, by Oliver Optic