Not even excepting the Inland Sea, that dreamy waterway among the grottoes, pines, and [68]torii of picturesque3 Japan, there is no sea so beautiful as that around the Southern Philippines. The stately mountains, that go sweeping4 by in changing shades of green or blue, appeal directly to the imagination. Unpopulated islands—islands of which some curious myths are told of wild white races far in the interior; of spirits haunting mountain-side and vale; volcanoes, in a lowering cloud of sulphurous smoke; narrows, and wave-lashed5 promontories6, where the ships can not cross in the night; great mounds7 of foliage8 that tower in silence hardly a stone’s throw from the ship, like some wild feature of a dream,—such are the characteristics of the archipelago.
The grandeur9 of the scenery, the tempered winds, the sense of being alone in an untraveled wilderness10, made up in part for the discomforts11 of the Romulus. The tropical sunsets, staining the sky until the whole west was a riot of color, fiery12 red and gold; the false dawn, and the sunrise breaking the ramparts of dissolving cloud; the moonlight on the waters, where the weird13 beams make a shimmering14 path that leads away across the planet waste to terra incognita, or to [69]some dank sea-cave where the sirens sing,—this is a day and a night upon the summer seas.
On Summer Seas
On Summer Seas
At night, as the black prow15 goes pushing through the phosphorescent waters, porpoises16 of solid silver, puffing17 desperately18, tumble about the bows, or dive down underneath19 the rushing hull20. The surging waves are billows of white fire. In the electric moonlight the blue mountains, more mysterious than ever, stand out in bold relief. What restless tribes of savages22 are wandering now through the trackless forests, sleeping in lofty trees, or in some scanty23 shelter amid the tangled24 underbrush! The light that flickers25 in the distant gorge26, perchance illumines some religious orgy—some impassioned dance of primitive27 and pagan men. What spirits are abroad to-night, invoked28 at savage21 altars by the incantations of the savage priests—spirits of trees and rivers emanating29 from the hidden shrines30 of an almighty31 one! Or it may be that the light comes from an isolated32 leper settlement, where the unhappy mortals spend in loneliness their dreary33 lives.
On the first trip of the Romulus I was assigned to a small, mildewed34, stuffy35 cabin, where [70]the unsubstantial, watery36 roaches played at hide-and-seek around the wash-stand and the floor. It was a splendid night to sleep on deck; and so, protected from the stiff breeze by the flapping canvas, on an army cot which the muchacho had stretched out, I went to sleep, my thoughts instinctively37 running into verse:
“The wind was just as steady, and the vessel38 tumbled more,
But the waves were not as boist’rous as they were the day before.”
It was the rhythm of the sea, the good ship rising on the waves, the cats’-paws flying into gusts39 of spray before the driving wind.
I was awakened40 at four bells by the disturbance41 of the sailors swabbing down the deck—an exhibition performance, as the general condition of the ship led me to think. Breakfast was served down in the forward cabin, where, with deep-sea appetites, we eagerly attacked a tiny cup of chocolate, very sweet and thick, a glass of coffee thinned with condensed milk, crackers42, and ladyfingers. That was all. Some of our fellow-passengers had been there early, as the dirty table-cloth [71]and dishes testified. A Filipino woman at the further end was engaged in dressing43 a baby, while the provincial44 treasurer45, in his pink pajamas46, tried to shave before the dingy47 looking-glass. An Indian merchant, a Visayan belle48 with dirty finger-nails and ankles, and a Filipino justice of the peace still occupied the table. Reaching a vacant place over the piles of rolled-up sleeping mats and camphorwood boxes—the inevitable49 baggage of the Filipino—I swept off the crumbs50 upon the floor, and, after much persuasion51, finally secured a glass of lukewarm coffee and some broken cakes. The heavy-eyed muchacho, who, with such reluctance52 waited on the table, had the grimiest feet that I had ever seen.
A second meal was served at ten o’clock, for which the tables were spread on deck. The plates were stacked up like Chinese pagodas53, and counting them, you could determine accurately54 the number of courses on the bill of fare. There were about a dozen courses of fresh meat and chicken—or the same thing cooked in different styles. Garlic and peppers were used liberally in the cooking. Heaps of boiled rice, olives, and [72]sausage that defied the teeth, wrapped up in tinfoil55, “took the taste out of your mouth.” Bananas, mangoes, cheese, and guava-jelly constituted the dessert. After the last plate had been removed, the grizzled captain at the head of the table lighted a coarse cigarette, which, in accordance with the Spanish custom, he then passed to the mate, so that the mate could light his cigarette. This is a more polite way than to make an offer of a match. Coffee and cognac was brought on after a considerable interval56. Although this process was repeated course for course at eight o’clock, during the interim57 you found it was best to bribe58 the steward59 and eat an extra meal of crackers.
Our next voyage in the Romulus was unpropitious from the start. We were detained five days in quarantine in Manila Bay. There was no breeze, and the hot sun beat down upon the boat all day. To add to our discomforts, there was nothing much to eat. The stock of lady-fingers soon became exhausted60, and the stock of crackers, too, showed signs of running out. As an experiment I ordered eggs for breakfast once—but only once. The cook had evidently tried [73]to serve them in disguise, believing that a large amount of cold grease would in some way modify their taste. He did not seem to have the least respect for old age. It was the time of cholera61; the boat might have become a pesthouse any moment. But the steward assured us that the drinking water had been neither boiled nor filtered. There was no ice, and no more bottled soda62, the remaining bottles being spoken for by the ship’s officers. At the breakfast-table two calves63 and a pig, that had been taken on for fresh meat, insisted upon eating from the plates. The sleepy-eyed muchacho was by this time grimier than ever. Even the passengers did not have any opportunity to take a bath. One glance at the ship’s bathtub was sufficient.
It was a happy moment when we finally set out for the long rambling64 voyage to the southern isles65. The captain went barefooted as he paced the bridge. A stop at one place in the Camarines gave us a chance to go ashore66 and buy some bread and canned fruit from the military commissary. How the captain and the mate scowled67 as we supplemented our elaborate meals with these purchases! [74]One of the passengers, a miner, finally exasperated68 at the cabin-boy, made an attack upon the luckless fellow, when the steward, who had been wanting an excuse to exploit his authority, came up the hatchway bristling69. In his Spanish jargon70 he explained that he considered it as his prerogative71 to punish and abuse the luckless boy, which he did very capably at times; that he would tolerate no interference from the passengers. But the big miner only looked him over like a cock-of-the-walk regarding a game bantam. Being a Californian, the miner told the steward in English (which that officer unfortunately did not understand) that if the service did not presently improve, the steward and cabin-boy together would go overboard.
Stopping at Dumaguete, Oriental Negros, where we landed several teachers, with their trunks and furniture, upon the hot sands, most of us went ashore in surf-boats, paddled by the kind of men that figure prominently in the school geographies. It was a chapter from “Swiss Family Robinson,”—the white surf lashing72 the long yellow beach; the rakish palm-trees bristling in [75]the wind; a Stygian volcano rising above a slope of tropic foliage; the natives gathering73 around, all open-mouthed with curiosity. At Camaguin, where the boat stopped at the sultry little city of Mambajo, an accident befell our miner. When we found him, he was sleeping peacefully under a nipa shade, guarded by a municipal policeman, with the ring of Filipinos clustering around. He had been drinking native “bino” (wine), and it had been too much even for him, a discharged soldier and a Californian.
It was almost a pleasant change, the transfer to the tiny launch Victoria, that smelled of engine oil and Filipinos, and was commanded by my old friend Dumalagon. The Victoria at that time had a most unpleasant habit of lying to all night, and sailing with the early dawn. When I had found an area of deck unoccupied by feet or Filipino babies, Chinamen or ants, I spread an army blanket out and went to sleep in spite of the incessant74 drizzle75 which the rotten canopy76 seemed not to interrupt. I was awakened in the small hours by the rattle77 of the winch. These little boats make more ado in getting under way than any ocean [76]steamer I have ever known. Becoming conscious of a cloud of opium-smoke escaping from the cockpit, which was occupied by several Chinamen, I shifted to windward, stepping over the sprawling78 forms of sleepers79 till I found another place, the only objection to which was the proximity80 of numerous brown feet and the hot engine-room. The squalling of an infant ushered81 in the rosy-fingered dawn.
Most of the transportation of the southern islands is accomplished82 by such boats as the Victoria. I can remember well the nights spent on the launch Da-ling-ding, an impossible, absurd craft, that rolled from side to side in the most gentle sea. She would start out courageously83 to cross the bay along the strip of Moro coast in Northern Mindanao; but the throbbing84 of her engines growing weaker and weaker, she would presently turn back faint-hearted, unable to make headway, at the mercy of a sudden storm, and with the possibility of being swept up on a hostile shore among bloodthirsty and unreasonable85 Moros. Another time, and we were caught in a typhoon off the north coast. We thought, of course, [77]our little ship was stanch86, until we asked the captain his opinion. “If the engines hold out,” he replied, “we may come through all right. The engineer says that the old machine will probably blow up now any time, and that the Filipinos have quit working and begun their prayers.” Generally a Filipino is the first to give up in a crisis; but I have seen some that managed their canoes in a rough sea with as much skill and coolness as an expert yachtsman could have shown. I have to thank Madro?o for the way in which he handled the small boat that put out in a sea like glass and ran into a squall fifteen miles out. All through the morning we had poled along over the crust of coral bottom, where, in the transparent87 water, indigo88 fishes swam, where purple starfish sprawled89 among the coral—coral of many colors and in many forms. But as the wind came up and lashed the choppy sea to whitecaps, as the huge waves swept along and seemed about to knock the little banca “off her feet,” Madro?o, standing90 on the bamboo outrigger—a framework lashed together with the native cane91, the breaking of which would have immediately upset the boat—kept her bow [78]pointed for the shore, although a counter storm threatened to blow us out to the deep sea.
So, after knocking around in bancas, picnicking with natives on the chicken-bone and boiled rice; after a wild cruise in the Thomas, where the captain and the crew, as drunk as lords, let the old rotten vessel drift, while threatening with a gun the man that dared to meddle92 with the steering93 gear; after a dreary six months in a provincial town,—it seemed like coming into a new world to step aboard the clean white transport, with electric-lights and an upholstered smoking-room.
A tourist party, mostly army officers, their wives and daughters, “doing” the archipelago, made up the passenger list of the transport. The officers, now they had settled satisfactorily the question of superiority and “rank,” made an agreeable company. There was the Miss Bo Peep, in pink and white, who wore a dozen different military pins, and would not look at any one unless he happened to be “in the service.” Like many of the army girls, she had no use for the civilians94 or volunteers. Her mamma told with pride how, at their last “at home,” nobody under the rank of a major had been present. One of the young lieutenants95 down at Zamboanga, when he found she had not worn his pin, “retired to cry.” But then, of course, Bo Peep was not responsible for young lieutenants’ hearts. If he had been a captain—well, that is another thing. There was the English sugar-planter from the Tawi-Tawi group, who never lost sight of the ranking officer, who dressed in flannels96, changed his clothes three times a day, and who expressed his only ideas to me by virtue97 of a confidential98 wink99.
For three whole days we were a part of the fresh winds, the tossing waves, the moon and stars. And as the ship plowed100 through the sea at night, the phosphorescent surge retreated like a line of silver fire.
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1
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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divulge
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| v.泄漏(秘密等)；宣布，公布 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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promontories
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| n.岬，隆起，海角( promontory的名词复数 ) | |
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mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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porpoises
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| n.鼠海豚( porpoise的名词复数 ) | |
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puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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flickers
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| 电影制片业； （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的名词复数 ) | |
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26
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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emanating
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的现在分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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mildewed
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| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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38
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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crackers
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| adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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pajamas
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| n.睡衣裤 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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49
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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50
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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51
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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53
pagodas
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| 塔，宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 ) | |
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54
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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55
tinfoil
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| n.锡纸，锡箔 | |
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56
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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interim
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| adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间 | |
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bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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63
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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75
drizzle
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| v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨 | |
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canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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77
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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79
sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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80
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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81
ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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82
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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83
courageously
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| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
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84
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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85
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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86
stanch
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| v.止住（血等）；adj.坚固的；坚定的 | |
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87
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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88
indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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89
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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90
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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91
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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92
meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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93
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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94
civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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95
lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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96
flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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97
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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98
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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99
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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100
plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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