The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume I Part 15

It says much for the naval and engineering skill of all concerned in the transport of this unwieldy ma.s.s of iron, weighing 8,000 tons, over nearly 4,000 miles of ocean, without the loss of a single life, or, indeed, a solitary accident that can be called serious. The conception, execution, and success of the project are wholly unparalleled in the history of naval engineering.

Leaving Bermuda, whither away? To the real capital of America, New York.

It is true that English men-of-war, and, for the matter of that, vessels of the American navy, comparatively seldom visit that port, which otherwise is crowded by the s.h.i.+pping of all nations. There are reasons for this. New York has not to-day a dock worthy of the name; magnificent steams.h.i.+ps and palatial ferry-boats all lie alongside wharfs, or enter "slips," which are semi-enclosed wharfs. Brooklyn and Jersey City have, however, docks.

Who that has visited New York will ever forget his first impressions? The grand Hudson, or the great East River, itself a strait: the glorious bay, or the crowded island, alike call for and deserve enthusiastic admiration.

If one arrives on a sunny day, maybe not a zephyr agitates the surface of the n.o.ble Hudson, or even the bay itself: the latter landlocked, save where lost in the broad Atlantic; the former skirted by the great Babylon of America and the wooded banks of Hoboken. Round the lofty western hills, a fleet of small craft-with rakish hulls and snowy sails-steal quietly and softly, while steamboats, that look like floating islands, almost pa.s.s them with lightning speed. Around is the s.h.i.+pping of every clime; enormous ferry-boats radiating in all directions; forests of masts along the wharfs bearing the flags of all nations. And where so much is strange, there is one consoling fact: you feel yourself at home. You are among brothers, speaking the same language, obeying the same laws, professing the same religion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF NEW YORK HARBOUR.]

New York city and port of entry, New York county, State of New York, lies at the head of New York Bay, so that there is a good deal of New York about it. It is the commercial emporium of the United States, and if it ever has a rival, it will be on the other side of the continent, somewhere not far from San Francisco. Its area is, practically, the bulk of Manhattan or New York Island, say thirteen miles long by two wide. Its separation from the mainland is caused by the Harlem River, which connects the Hudson and East Rivers, and is itself spanned by a bridge and the Croton aqueduct. New York really possesses every advantage required to build a grand emporium. It extends between two rivers, each navigable for the largest vessels, while its harbour would contain the united or disunited navies, as the case may be, of all nations. The Hudson River, in particular, is for some distance up a mile or more in width, while the East River averages over two-fifths of a mile. The population of New York, with its suburban appendages, including the cities of Brooklyn and Jersey City, is not less than that of Paris.

The harbour is surrounded with small settlements, connected by charmingly-situated villas and country residences. It is toward its northern end that the masts, commencing with a few stragglers, gradually thicken to a forest. In it are three fortified islands. By the strait called the "Narrows," seven miles from the lower part of the city, and which is, for the s.p.a.ce of a mile, about one mile wide, it communicates with the outer harbour, or bay proper, which extends thence to Sandy Hook Light, forty miles from the city, and opens directly into the ocean, forming one of the best roadsteads on the whole Atlantic coasts of America. The approach to the city, as above indicated, is very fine, the sh.o.r.es of the bay being wooded down to the water's edge, and thickly studded with villages, farms, and country seats. The view of the city itself is not so prepossessing; like all large cities, it is almost impossible to find a point from which to grasp the grandeur in its entirety, and the ground on which it is built is nowhere elevated.

Therefore there is very little to strike the eye specially. Many a petty town makes a greater show in this respect.

Those ferry-boats! The idea in the minds of most Englishmen is a.s.sociated with boats that may pa.s.s over from one or two to a dozen or so people, possibly a single horse, or a donkey-cart. There you find steamers a couple of hundred or more feet long, with, on either side of the engines, twenty or more feet s.p.a.ce. On the true deck there is accommodation for carriages, carts, and horses by the score; above, a s.p.a.cious saloon for pa.s.sengers. They have powerful engines, and will easily beat the average steams.h.i.+p. On arrival at the dock, they run into a kind of slip, or basin, with piles around stuck in the soft bottom, which yield should she strike them, and entirely do away with any fear of concussion. "I may here add,"

notes an intelligent writer,(114) "that during my whole travels in the States, I found nothing more perfect in construction and arrangement than the ferries and their boats, the charges for which are most moderate, varying according to distances, and ranging from one halfpenny upwards."

The sailor ash.o.r.e in New York-and how many, many thousands visit it every year!-will find much to note. The public buildings of the great city are not remarkable; but the one great street, Broadway, which is about eight miles long, and almost straight, is a very special feature. Unceasing throngs of busy men and women, loungers and idlers, vehicles of all kinds, street cars, omnibuses, and carriages-there are no cabs hardly in New York-pa.s.s and re-pa.s.s from early morn to dewy eve, while the shops, always called "stores," rival those of the Boulevards or Regent Street. Some of the older streets were, no doubt, as Was.h.i.+ngton Irving tells us, laid out after the old cow-paths, as they are as narrow and tortuous as those of any European city. The crowded state of Broadway at certain points rivals Cheapside. The writer saw in 1867 a light bridge, which spanned the street, and was intended for the use of ladies and timid pedestrians.

When, in 1869, he re-pa.s.sed through the city it had disappeared, and on inquiry he learnt the reason. Unprincipled roughs had stationed themselves at either end, and levied black-mail toll on old ladies and unsophisticated country-people.

So extreme is the difference between the intense heat of summer and the equally intense cold of winter in New York, that the residents regularly get thin in the former and stout in the latter. And what a sight are the two rivers at that time! Huge ma.s.ses of ice, cras.h.i.+ng among themselves, and making navigation perilous and sometimes impossible, descending the stream at a rapid rate; docks and slips frozen in; the riggings and shrouds of great s.h.i.+ps covered with icicles, and the decks ready for immediate use as skating-rinks. The writer crossed in the ferry-boat from Jersey City to New York, in January, 1875, and acquired a sincere respect for the pilot, who wriggled and zig-zagged his vessel through ma.s.ses of ice, against which a sharp collision would not have been a joke. When, on the following morning, he left for Liverpool, the steams.h.i.+p herself was a good model for a twelfth-night cake ornament, and had quite enough to do to get out from the wharf. Five days after, in mid-Atlantic, he was sitting on deck in the open air, reading a book, so much milder at such times is it on the open ocean.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROOKLYN BRIDGE.]

But our leave is over, and although it would be pleasant to travel in imaginative company up the beautiful Hudson, and visit one of the wonders of the world-Niagara, to-day a mere holiday excursion from New York-we must away, merely briefly noting before we go another of the wonders of the world, a triumph of engineering skill: the great Brooklyn bridge, which connects that city with New York. Its span is about three-quarters of a mile; large s.h.i.+ps can pa.s.s under it, while vehicles and pedestrians cross in mid-air over their mast tops, between two great cities, making them one. Brooklyn is a great place for the residences of well-to-do New Yorkers, and the view from its "Heights"-an elevation covered with villas and mansions-is grand and extensive. Apart from this, Brooklyn is a considerable city, with numerous churches and chapels, public buildings, and places of amus.e.m.e.nt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FERRY-BOAT, NEW YORK HARBOUR.]

Halifax is the northernmost depot of the whole West India and North American Station, and is often a great rendezvous of the Royal Navy. It is situated on a peninsula on the south-east coast of Nova Scotia, of which it is the capital. Its situation is very picturesque. The town stands on the declivity of a hill about 250 feet high, rising from one of the finest harbours in the world. The city front is lined with handsome wharfs, while merchants' houses, dwellings, and public edifices arrange themselves on tiers, stretching along and up the sides of the hill. It has fine wide streets; the princ.i.p.al one, which runs round the edge of the harbour, is capitally paved. The harbour opposite the town, where s.h.i.+ps usually anchor, is rather more than a mile wide, and after narrowing to a quarter of a mile above the upper end of the town, expands into Bedford Basin, a completely land-locked sheet of water. This grand sea-lake has an area of ten square miles, and is capable of containing any number of navies.

Halifax possesses another advantage not common to every harbour of North America: it is accessible at all seasons, and navigation is rarely impeded by ice. There are two fine lighthouses at Halifax; that on an island off Sambro Head is 210 feet high. The port possesses many large s.h.i.+ps of its own, generally employed in the South Sea whale and seal fishery. It is a very prosperous fis.h.i.+ng town in other respects.

The town of Halifax was founded in 1749. The settlers, to the number of 3,500, largely composed of naval and military men, whose expenses out had been paid by the British Government to a.s.sist in the formation of the station, soon cleared the ground from stumps, &c., and having erected a wooden government house and suitable warehouses for stores and provisions, the town was laid out so as to form a number of straight and handsome streets. Planks, doors, window-frames, and other portions of houses, were imported from the New England settlements, and the more laborious portion of the work, which the settlers executed themselves, was performed with great dispatch. At the approach of winter they found themselves comfortably settled, having completed a number of houses and huts, and covered others in a manner which served to protect them from the rigour of the weather, there very severe. There were now a.s.sembled at Halifax about 5,000 people, whose labours were suddenly suspended by the intensity of the frost, and there was in consequence considerable enforced idleness.

Haliburton(115) mentions the difficulty that the governor had to employ the settlers by sending them out on various expeditions, in palisading the town, and in other public works.

In addition to 40,000 granted by the British Government for the embarkation and other expenses of the first settlers, Parliament continued to make annual grants for the same purpose, which, in 1755, amounted to the considerable sum of 416,000.

The town of Halifax was no sooner built than the French colonists began to be alarmed, and although they did not think proper to make an open avowal of their jealousy and disgust, they employed their emissaries clandestinely in exciting the Indians to hara.s.s the inhabitants with hostilities, in such a manner as should effectually hinder them from extending their plantations, or perhaps, indeed, induce them to abandon the settlement. The Indian chiefs, however, for some time took a different view of the matter, waited upon the governor, and acknowledged themselves subjects of the crown of England. The French court thereupon renewed its intrigues with the Indians, and so far succeeded that for several years the town was frequently attacked in the night, and the English could not stir into the adjoining woods without the danger of being shot, scalped, or taken prisoners.

Among the early laws of Nova Scotia was one by which it was enacted that no debts contracted in England, or in any of the colonies prior to the settlement of Halifax, or to the arrival of the debtor, should be recoverable by law in any court in the province. As an asylum for insolvent debtors, it is natural to suppose that Halifax attracted thither the guilty as well as the unfortunate; and we may form some idea of the state of public morals at that period from an order of Governor Cornwallis, which, after reciting that the dead were usually attended to the grave by neither relatives or friends, twelve citizens should in future be summoned to attend the funeral of each deceased person.

The Nova Scotians are popularly known by Canadians and Americans as "Blue Noses," doubtless from the colour of their nasal appendages in bitter cold weather. It has been already mentioned that Halifax is now a thriving city; but there must have been a period when the people were not particularly enterprising, or else that most veracious individual, "Sam Slick," greatly belied them. Judge Haliburton, in his immortal "Clockmaker," introduces the following conversation with Mr. Slick:-

"'You appear,' said I to Mr. Slick, 'to have travelled over the whole of this province, and to have observed the country and the people with much attention; pray, what is your opinion of the present state and future prospects of Halifax?' 'If you will tell me,' said he, 'when the folks there will wake up, then I can answer you; but they are fast asleep. As to the province, it's a splendid province, and calculated to go ahead; it will grow as fast as a Virginny gall-and they grow so amazing fast, if you put one of your arms round one of their necks to kiss them, by the time you've done they've growed up into women. It's a pretty province, I tell you, good above and better below: surface covered with pastures, meadows, woods, and a nation sight of water privileges; and under the ground full of mines. It puts me in mind of the soup at _Tree_mont house-good enough at top, but dip down and you have the riches-the coal, the iron ore, the gypsum, and what not. As for Halifax, it's well enough in itself, though no great shakes neither; a few sizeable houses, with a proper sight of small ones, like half-a-dozen old hens with their broods of young chickens: but the people, the strange critters, they are all asleep. They walk in their sleep, and talk in their sleep, and what they say one day they forget the next; they say they were dreaming.'" This was first published in England in 1838; all accounts now speak of Halifax as a well-built, paved, and cleanly city, and of its inhabitants as enterprising.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ISLAND OF ASCENSION.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRISTAN D'ACUNHA.]

CHAPTER XII.

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

THE AFRICAN STATION.

Its Extent-Ascension-Turtle at a Discount-Sierra Leone-An Unhealthy Station-The Cape of Good Hope-Cape Town-Visit of the Sailor Prince-Grand Festivities-Enthusiasm of the Natives-Loyal Demonstrations-An African "Derby"-Grand Dock Inaugurated-Elephant Hunting-The Parting Ball-The Life of a Boer-Circular Farms-The Diamond Discoveries-A 12,000 Gem-A Sailor First President of the Fields-Precarious Nature of the Search-Natal-Inducements held out to Settlers-St. Helena and Napoleon-Discourteous Treatment of a Fallen Foe-The Home of the Caged Lion.

And now we are off to the last of the British naval stations under consideration-that of the African coast. It is called, in naval phraseology, "The West Coast of Africa and Cape of Good Hope Station," and embraces not merely all that the words imply, but a part of the east coast, including the important colony of Natal. Commencing at lat.i.tude 20 N. above the Cape Verd Islands, it includes the islands of Ascension, St.

Helena, Tristan d'Acunha, and others already described.

Ascension, which is a British station, with dockyard, and fort garrisoned by artillery and marines, is a barren island, about eight miles long by six broad. Its fort is in lat. 70 26' N.: long., 140 24' W. It is of volcanic formation, and one of its hills rises to the considerable elevation of 2,870 feet. Until the imprisonment of Napoleon at St. Helena, it was utterly uninhabited. At that period it was garrisoned with a small British force; and so good use was made of their time that it has been partly cultivated and very greatly improved. Irrigation was found, as elsewhere, to work wonders, and as there are magnificent springs, this was rendered easy. Vast numbers of turtle are taken on its sh.o.r.es; and, in consequence, the soldiers prefer the soup of pea, and affect to despise turtle steaks worth half a guinea apiece in London, and fit to rejoice the heart of an alderman! The writer saw the same thing in Vancouver Island, where at the boarding-house of a very large steam saw-mill, the hands struck against the salmon, so abundant on those coasts. They insisted upon not having it more than twice a week for dinner, and that it should be replaced by salt pork. The climate of Ascension is remarkably healthy. The object in occupying it is very similar to the reason for holding the Falkland Islands-to serve as a depot for stores, coal, and for watering s.h.i.+ps cruising in the South Atlantic.

Sierra Leone is, perhaps, of all places in the world, the last to which the sailor would wish to go, albeit its unhealthiness has been, as is the case with Panama, grossly exaggerated. Thus we were told that when a clergyman with some little influence was pestering the Prime Minister for the time being for promotion, the latter would appoint him to the Bishopric of Sierra Leone, knowing well that in a year or so the said bishopric would be vacant and ready for another gentleman!

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIERRA LEONE.]

Sierra Leone is a British colony, and the capital is Free Town, situated on a peninsula lying between the broad estuary of the Sherboro and the Sierra Leone rivers, connected with the mainland by an isthmus not more than one mile and a half broad. The colony also includes a number of islands, among which are many good harbours. Its history has one interesting point. When, in 1787, it became a British colony, a company was formed, which included a scheme for making it a home for free negroes, and to prove that colonial produce could be raised profitably without resorting to slave labour. Its prosperity was seriously affected during the French Revolution by the depredations of French cruisers, and in 1808 the company ceded all its rights to the Crown. Its population includes negroes from 200 different African tribes, many of them liberated from slavery and slave-s.h.i.+ps, a subject which will be treated hereafter in this work.

One of the great industries of Sierra Leone is the manufacture of cocoa-nut oil. The factories are extensive affairs. It is a very beautiful country, on the whole, and when acclimatised, Europeans find that they can live splendidly on the products of the country. The fisheries, both sea and river, are wonderfully productive, and employ about 1,500 natives.

Boat-building is carried on to some extent, the splendid forests yielding timber so large that canoes capable of holding a hundred men have been made from a single log, like those already mentioned in connection with the north-west coast of America. Many of the West Indian products have been introduced; sugar, coffee, indigo, ginger, cotton, and rice thrive well, as do Indian corn, the yam, plantain, pumpkins, banana, cocoa, baobab, pine-apple, orange, lime, guava, papaw, pomegranate, orange, and lime. Poultry is particularly abundant. It therefore might claim attention as a fruitful and productive country but for the malaria of its swampy rivers and low lands.

And now, leaving Sierra Leone, our good s.h.i.+p makes for the Cape of Good Hope, pa.s.sing, mostly far out at sea, down that coast along which the Portuguese mariners crept so cautiously yet so surely till Diaz and Da Gama reached South Africa, while the latter showed them the way to the fabled Cathaia, the Orient-India, China, and the Spice Islands.

In the year 1486 "The Cape" of capes _par excellence_, which rarely nowadays bears its full t.i.tle, was discovered by Bartholomew de Diaz, a commander in the service of John II. of Portugal. He did not proceed to the eastward of it, and it was reserved for the great Vasco da Gama-afterwards the first Viceroy of India-an incident in whose career forms, by-the-by, the plot of _L'Africaine_, Meyerbeer's grand opera, to double it. It was called at first Cabo Tormentoso-"the Cape of Storms"-but by royal desire was changed to that of "Buon Esperanza"-"Good Hope"-the t.i.tle it still bears. Cape Colony was acquired by Great Britain in 1620, although for a long time it was practically in the hands of the Dutch, a colony having been planted by their East India Company. The Dutch held it in this way till 1795, when the territory was once more taken by our country. It was returned to the Dutch at the Peace of Amiens, only to be s.n.a.t.c.hed from them again in 1806, and finally confirmed to Britain at the general peace of 1815.

The population, including the Boers, or farmers of Dutch descent, Hottentots, Kaffirs, and Malays, is not probably over 600,000, while the original territory is about 700 miles long by 400 wide, having an area of not far from 200,000 square miles. The capital of the colony is Cape Town, lying at the foot, as every schoolboy knows, of the celebrated Table Mountain.

A recent writer, Mr. Boyle,(116) speaks cautiously of Cape Town and its people. There are respectable, but not very noticeable, public buildings.

"Some old Dutch houses there are, distinguishable chiefly by a superlative flatness and an extra allowance of windows. The population is about 30,000 souls, white, black, and mixed. I should incline to think more than half fall into the third category. They seem to be hospitable and good-natured in all cla.s.ses.... There is complaint of slowness, indecision, and general 'want of go' about the place. Dutch blood is said to be still too apparent in business, in local government, and in society. I suppose there is sound basis for these accusations, since trade is migrating so rapidly towards the rival mart of Port Elizabeth.... But ten years ago the entire export of wool pa.s.sed through Cape Town. Last year, as I find in the official returns, 28,000,000 lbs. were s.h.i.+pped at the eastern port out of the whole 37,000,000 lbs. produced in the colony. The gas-lamps, put up by a sort of _coup d'etat_ in the munic.i.p.ality, were not lighted until last year, owing to the opposition of the Dutch town councillors. They urged that decent people didn't want to be out at night, and the ill-disposed didn't deserve illumination. Such facts seem to show that the city is not quite up to the mark in all respects."

Simon's Bay, near Table Bay, where Cape Town is situated, is a great rendezvous for the navy; there are docks and soldiers there, and a small town. The bay abounds in fish. The Rev. John Milner, chaplain of the _Galatea_, says that during the visit of Prince Alfred, "large shoals of fish (a sort of coa.r.s.e mackerel) were seen all over the bay; numbers came alongside, and several of them were harpooned with grains by some of the youngsters from the accommodation-ladder. Later in the day a seal rose, and continued fis.h.i.+ng and rising in the most leisurely manner. At one time it was within easy rifle distance, and might have been shot from the s.h.i.+p."(117) Fish and meat are so plentiful in the colony that living is excessively cheap.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPE TOWN.]

The visit of his Royal Highness the Sailor Prince, in 1867, will long be remembered in the colony. That, and the recent diamond discoveries, prove that the people cannot be accused of sloth and want of enterprise. On arrival at Simon's Bay, the first vessels made out were the _Rac.o.o.n_, on which Prince Alfred had served his time as lieutenant, the _Petrel_, just returned from landing poor Livingstone at the Zambesi, and the receiving-s.h.i.+p _Seringapatam_. Soon followed official visits, dinner, ball, and fireworks from the s.h.i.+ps. When the Prince was to proceed to Cape Town, all the s.h.i.+ps fired a royal salute, and the fort also, as he landed at the jetty, where he was received by a guard of honour of the 99th Regiment. A short distance from the landing-place, at the entrance to the main street, was a pretty arch, decorated with flowering shrubs, and the leaves of the silver-tree. On his way to this his Royal Highness was met by a deputation from the inhabitants of Simon's Town and of the Malay population. "This was a very interesting sight; the chief men, dressed in Oriental costumes, with bright-coloured robes and turbans, stood in front, and two of them held short wands decorated with paper flowers of various colours. The Duke shook hands with them, and then they touched him with their wands. They seemed very much pleased, and looked at him in an earnest and affectionate manner. Several of the Malays stood round with drawn swords, apparently acting as a guard of honour. The crowd round formed a very motley group of people of all colours-negroes, brown Asiatics, Hottentots, and men, women, and children of every hue. The policemen had enough to do to keep them back as they pressed up close round the Duke." After loyal addresses had been received, and responded to, the Prince and suite drove off for Cape Town, the ride to which is graphically described by the chaplain and artist of the expedition. "The morning was very lovely. Looking to seaward was the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Hanglip, and the high, broken sh.o.r.es of Hottentot Holland, seen over the clear blue water of the bay. The horses, carriages, escort with their drawn swords, all das.h.i.+ng at a rattling pace along the sands in the bright suns.h.i.+ne, and the long lines of small breakers on the beach, was one of the most exhilarating sights imaginable. In places the cavalcade emerged from the sands up on to where the road skirts a rocky sh.o.r.e, and where at this season of the year beautiful arum lilies and other bright flowers were growing in the greatest profusion. About four miles from Simon's Bay, we pa.s.sed a small cove, called Fish-hook Bay, where a few families of Malay fishermen reside. A whale they had killed in the bay the evening before lay anch.o.r.ed ready for 'cutting in.' A small flag, called by whalers a 'whiff,' was sticking up in it. We could see from the road that it was one of the usual southern 'right' whales which occasionally come into Simon's Bay, and are captured there. After crossing the last of the sands, we reached Kalk Bay, a collection of small houses where the people from Cape Town come to stay in the summer. As we proceeded, fresh carriages of private individuals and hors.e.m.e.n continued to join on behind, and it was necessary to keep a bright look-out to prevent them rus.h.i.+ng in between the two carriages containing the Duke and Governor, with their suites. Various small unpretending arches (every poor man having put up one on his own account), with flags and flowers, spanned the road in different places between Simon's Town and Farmer Peck's, a small inn about nine miles from the anchorage, which used formerly to have the following eccentric sign-board:-

'THE GENTLE SHEPHERD OF SALISBURY PLAIN.

'FARMER PECKS.

'Multum in Parvo! Pro bono publico!