From Delhi Mr. Taylor travelled northward4 through a country well subjugated5, which, under English direction, was made fertile and safe for travellers. His way lay toward the sunnier resort of the invalids6 and wealthy Europeans, which lay far up in the Himalaya Mountains, where the snow never melted and where the hot, miasmatic7 winds of the plains cannot follow the fugitive8. At Roorkee, while lying in his palanquin, he caught his first glimpse of the Himalayas, and felt that crushing sense of awful sublimity9 which fills the soul of every new spectator. Towers that the arch of heaven seems to rest upon, white and gleaming as the purest pearl, rise one behind the other, until the farthest are lost in the haze10 of intervening space. Titanic11 pillars of snow, so grand, so mighty12, so expressive13 of the most gigantic forces known or imagined by man, how can language convey their immensity? It is useless to attempt it. For you may talk, and talk, of mountains and the glorious[222] sunsets that enamel14 them in roseate tints15, yet no one will shed tears or feel a tremor16 of awe17. But he who beholds18 them for the first time lets the tears unnoticed fall, and trembles as if thrust suddenly into the personal presence of the Almighty19. Such a sense of humility20, of abject21 unworthiness, takes possession of the beholder22, that the soul labors23 heavily under the oppressive load, and the body shrinks from a nearer approach. There is nothing so powerful for driving atheism24 or egotism out of a man as the near view of the Himalayas or Andes or Rocky Mountains. The noblest races of the world have been reared in the wild regions of lofty mountains, and none so tenaciously25 revere26 their Maker27, or so willingly sacrifice themselves for their friends or their God as the natives of the mountain passes.
Mr. Taylor approached the highest range as near as the heights of Landowr, which is about sixty miles from the snowy peaks of the loftiest range, and is itself so high as to hold the snow the greater part of the year. There he saw the gorgeous illumination of those heavenly snow-fields, when the sun was setting and when it seems as if a universe was in a blaze, while its lurid28 glare shone full upon those stupendous monuments of the earthquake’s titanic power. Mr. Taylor gazed upon those masses of the purest white, as twilight29 began to hide their outlines, and thought that, as he said in one of his lectures, “within three hundred miles of me are mightier30 mountains than these!”
[223]
Having seen the mountains and checked his old desire to stand on top of the highest one, he turned about and started southward for Calcutta, taking the first day’s journey on an elephant kindly31 loaned him by a new-found friend. He journeyed thence in the horse-carts of that time, via Meerut and Cawnpore, to Lucknow, where he was entertained in a most royal manner by the English officials. After examining that great metropolis32 of the interior, he hurried on to Benares and thence by quick relays to the great city of Calcutta.
With a peculiar33 faculty34 for foreseeing the effect of certain influences on human nature, Mr. Taylor foretold35 the approaching mutiny. He saw that the English treated the natives with habitual36 indignity37. He saw that three-quarters of the earnings38 of the people was taken by the government. He saw that the English were in a great minority. He saw that the Sepoy regiments39 were good soldiers. He saw that influential40 positions were held by dangerously powerful natives. And he declared that a rebellion was not only possible, but probable.
Four years later began that great rebellion among the natives, which became one of the bloodiest41 and cruelest contests known in the annals of history. Chiefs and princes who received Mr. Taylor cordially during his visit, were afterwards executed for treason. Fortresses43, temples, and cities, which he visited were[224] shattered and torn by the shots of contending armies. Oppression and aristocratic pride resulted, as it naturally would, in horrid44 carnage and an impoverished45 treasury46. Mr. Taylor’s words of warning as they appeared in America, were probably never read in England, or if they were read, were scouted47 as the fears of one who did not understand the “permanency of a despotism.”
Although his stay was short in Calcutta, his description of the people, the dwellings48, the shipping49, and social customs was one of the most clear and complete to be found in print. One who reads it sees the city, the river, the verdant50 plains, and the sea spread out before him, and becomes acquainted with the shop-keepers, police, Parsees, Arabs, Hindoos, Chinese, and Europeans, that made up the motley throngs51. True to his patriotic52 purpose, he gave the commerce of the port such attention as the interests of our merchants required.
From Calcutta he proceeded by an English steamer to Penang on the coast of the Malay Peninsula. It is a delightful53 locality, and is as beautiful in situation and vegetation as its clove54 and nutmeg trees are fragrant55. There again he gratified his taste for climbing a mountain, and spent nearly his whole time ascending56 to the signal station on the highest peak of the peninsula. It was the only place he visited in which he left unseen the attractive nooks, grottos57, waterfalls, and jungles, and chose instead the less interesting[225] experience. It was a source of regret to him afterward42, that he did not spend the few hours he had, in the lowlands and on the mountain-sides rather than at their tops. Every traveller who has visited Penang could detect the error. Yet, Mr. Taylor set down in his account of his visit more valuable information and a more graphic58 outline of the landscape than any traveller appears to have done, notwithstanding the beautiful falls of Penang are visited by thousands yearly.
NATIVE COTTAGES IN THE TROPICS.
Accompanying the steamer in its usual route, Mr. Taylor stopped at Singapore, at the extreme southern end of the peninsula. It was a new port at that time, and was not so important as it afterwards became; yet he found ten or fifteen thousand people there, mostly dirty and repulsive59 Chinese. Mr. Taylor was not pleased with the Chinese as a race, for two reasons. First, he heard such reports of their barbarity, beastliness, and dishonesty; second, they were an awkward, unsymmetrical people, devoid60 of that physical beauty which the artist admires and copies. He dwelt upon the latter fact in his letters, and mentioned it in his book. Neither Phidias, Polycrates, Raphael, or Angelo would have selected a model from among these creatures, and naturally enough the artistic61 taste of Mr. Taylor was shocked by such natural deformities as the Chinese were, when looked upon with reference to the graceful62 and beautiful in the human form. It is but just to the Chinese as a nation to say that, according to the writer’s experience among them, the[226] Coolies who emigrate to Singapore, Sydney, and California are by no means a fair sample of the educated and wealthy classes who remain at home and drive out the least useful and least intelligent portion. If one were to judge of the acquirements, ability, or physical beauty of the Chinese nation exclusively by the poor emigrants63 who cannot successfully compete with their neighbors, and hence are compelled to go away from home for success, he would be nearly as sadly misled as one would be should he form his opinion of the American people by the inmates64 of their jails and poor-houses. There are many noble men and beautiful women in the interior of China, whether regarded mentally, morally, or physically65. Mr. Taylor did not see them, and like a faithful scribe he wrote down only those things he saw, and knew to be true. The Chinese whom he saw in the ports engaged in unloading vessels66, or doing like menial services, were not beautiful, and he said so.
When Mr. Taylor arrived in Hong-Kong he was received with the same kind hospitality which his very countenance67 secured for him in every land. The United States Commissioner, the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, who happened to be at Macao, and whom Mr. Taylor met there on crossing the bay from Hong-Kong, offered to attach Mr. Taylor to his staff, for a trip to the seat of war. The great rebellion in the Kiangsu province, lying north-westerly from Shanghai, had assumed such threatening proportions that the[227] emperor at Peking trembled on his throne. Exaggerated accounts of the fiendish atrocities68 of the rebels, and rumors69 of great battles and successful sieges had reached the seaports70, and even the peaceful American merchants at Shanghai feared capture and death. In view of all this, Mr. Taylor anticipated an exciting experience. Together with the whole ship’s company, he felt, when the United States steamer left Hong-Kong for Shanghai, as if there was a measure of uncertainty71 if he ever returned. But the reports had been so much enlarged in their transmission to Hong-Kong, that when they arrived at the port of Shanghai they were delighted to find the place in no immediate72 danger of attack from the Chinese. In order to show the rebels that the Americans were neutral in all the Chinese quarrels, the Commissioner undertook the hazardous73 task of ascending the Yang-tse-kiang River to the beleaguered74 town of Nanking. It seems to have been a foolish undertaking75, and viewed from any diplomatic stand-point, to have been indirectly76 an encouragement of the rebellion. It was not so intended, however, and Mr. Taylor did not give his opinion of the “good faith” which prompted the sending of envoys77 to a local rebellion in the interior of a “great and friendly nation.” But what good sense could not do, the shoals and incompetency78 of the native pilots did accomplish; and the Commissioner who was going up the river to pat the rebels on the back and ask them not to hurt their friends, the[228] Americans, was compelled to return to Shanghai. It would have been better for the United States if the second undertaking had been equally unsuccessful; but as Mr. Taylor had no share in it, it is of no further importance here.
While at Shanghai he experienced the sensation of being besieged79 without seeing an enemy. The frightened people organized themselves into military companies and drilled with the sailors. Breastworks were thrown up and cannon80 placed ready for action. The streets were patrolled and a guard kept over the provisions and ammunition81. Tales of approaching hosts were freely circulated, and once the terrified populace were informed by an intelligent refugee that the enemy were within sight. Yet the days passed on; the Chinese government began to show vitality82, and the great rebellion, with all its fearful butchery and refinement83 of cruelty, was extinguished without the molestation84 of the foreigners at Shanghai, and was overcome, notwithstanding the encouraging assurance given the rebels by the United States Commissioner that our government was not disposed to interfere85 with their outrages86.
While in Shanghai Mr. Taylor wrote some admirable articles upon the tea culture of China, and upon the possible commerce with the Pacific coast of America, which were published in New York and London. He felt the throes of an earthquake while there, and had some pleasant interviews with the educated classes[229] of China. He saw the parade of the native soldiers, and witnessed their grotesque87 religious ceremonies. His observation was so close, and his generalization88 usually so just, that until within a few years there has been no book printed in America which gave so much of the information desired by popular readers in so little space as Taylor’s account of that visit.
Early in May Commodore Perry arrived at Shanghai, prepared for the expedition which the United States had ordered him to make to Japan, and Mr. Taylor’s long-felt desire to embark1 on that enterprise was gratified. He was compelled to enlist3 in the navy as master’s mate, and subject himself and all that he should write, to the orders of the navy department and officers of the fleet. It seemed at first to be rather humiliating terms, but after he had made the acquaintance of the officers and learned the ways of a ship he found it a very pleasant position. Thus, from one calling to another, he turned with a readiness and a success which were astonishing.
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1
embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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subjugated
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| v.征服，降伏( subjugate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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miasmatic
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| adj.毒气的，沼气的 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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enamel
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| n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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beholds
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| v.看，注视( behold的第三人称单数 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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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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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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beholder
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| n.观看者，旁观者 | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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tenaciously
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| 坚持地 | |
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revere
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| vt.尊崇，崇敬，敬畏 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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mightier
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| adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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indignity
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| n.侮辱，伤害尊严，轻蔑 | |
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earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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bloodiest
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| adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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scouted
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| 寻找，侦察( scout的过去式和过去分词 )； 物色（优秀运动员、演员、音乐家等） | |
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dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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verdant
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| adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的 | |
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throngs
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| n.人群( throng的名词复数 )v.成群，挤满( throng的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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53
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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54
clove
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| n.丁香味 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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grottos
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| n.（吸引人的）岩洞，洞穴，（人挖的）洞室( grotto的名词复数 ) | |
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graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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seaports
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| n.海港( seaport的名词复数 ) | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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beleaguered
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| adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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envoys
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| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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incompetency
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| n.无能力，不适当 | |
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besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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82
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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molestation
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| n.骚扰，干扰，调戏；折磨 | |
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85
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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86
outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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87
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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88
generalization
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| n.普遍性，一般性，概括 | |
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