MRS. JUDSON TEACHING A CLASS OF NATIVE CONVERTS.
From Prome to Thayetmyo the voyage was without any incident of importance. Our friends had made the acquaintance of two or three English officers who were on their way to the military post at Thayetmyo, and just before reaching the landing the three Americans were invited to visit the barracks or cantonment. The invitation was accepted without hesitation.
BARRACKS ON THE FRONTIER.
The cantonment is on the frontier, between the native Burmah, or Ava, and the British possessions, or rather it is on British soil very close to the line. On the other side there is a station for Burmese troops, but for more than half the time it is unoccupied, and when troops are stationed there they have no intercourse whatever with the English, through fear of losing their heads. The British barracks consist of substantial wooden buildings, and there are shaded walks and drives all around them, and numerous little gardens which are maintained by the soldiers.
There was nothing of any special interest in Thayetmyo, as it is only a small village, and derives its importance from being a frontier post; consequently the boys were quite ready to return to the steamer, which was announced to start down the river early in the morning, or as soon as it had landed the cargo it brought up and taken in a new one. The work of discharging and receiving cargo was kept up during the night, and a little after daybreak the strangers were travelling once more in the direction of Rangoon.
They were consoled for their failure to go to Mandalay by making the acquaintance of a fellow-passenger who told them a great deal about the capital of Ava and its king, or rather about its former ruler, King Mounglon, as he had not been there since the throne fell to Theebaw. This gentleman, Captain Blakeley, had lived at Mandalay in the official service of the British Government, and was on fairly pleasant relations with Mounglon; he went frequently into the royal presence, and had been consulted at various times on matters of importance to the Burmese Government.
While he was telling the Americans about the Burmese court and other things of interest, Frank and Fred made sure of their memories by taking notes of the conversation: in the latter part of the voyage they wrote out in full what they had briefly set down, and then read the matter over to their polite instructor. He complimented them on the accuracy of their report, and said he could not have done better than they in putting his own words on paper.
Here is the report, which is supposed to be in the words of Captain Blakeley:[6]
VIEW OF MANDALAY, CAPITAL OF THE KINGDOM OF AVA, OR BURMAH.
"You must know, to begin with, that the Kingdom of Ava, or Burmah, changes its capital very often. Five hundred years ago the city of Ava was made the capital, and it remained so for nearly three centuries. Monchobo was the capital from 1740 to 1782, and then the seat of government was taken to Amarapoora, where it remained till 1819, when it went back to Ava. Twenty years later Ava was destroyed by an earthquake, when the court moved to Monchobo, later to Amarapoora, again to Ava, and last (in 1857) to Mandalay. These cities are only a few miles from each other, and whenever the capital is changed the inhabitants of the old city are mostly taken along to start the new one. In 1855 the site where Mandalay stands was a series of rice-fields; now a city of100,000 inhabitants covers the ground, and is enclosed by substantial walls of brick and mud.
BOAT DRAWN BY A BULLOCK.
"You can't see much of Mandalay as you approach it by steamer, as it lies on a level plain, and the houses near the river are not the best that the city contains. You will be reminded of Rangoon, or Bangkok, as the spires of the temples and pagodas are thickly surrounded by foliage, and it is only when you have climbed to the top of a temple, and looked down from that elevation, that you begin to have an idea of the extent of the city. In the rainy season a great part of the plain around Mandalay is flooded, and then the natives go about in canoes and on rafts. Sometimes you see them in boats drawn by bullocks or buffaloes; the unhappy animals are forced to wade where the water is a foot or two in depth, andwhere there is a scarcity of harness they drag the craft behind them by means of ropes tied to their tails.
"In the city itself most of the houses are on posts or piles, to avoid the effects of the inundations; the best of them are two stories high and of brick or framed timber; but there is a large number of only one story, and this is invariably the case with the smaller dwellings of the natives, which are constructed of bamboo. These houses burn easily, and sometimes they have fires that cause immense destruction, and devastate acres and acres of ground. The only consolation after such a fire is that the houses are not costly, and the sufferers can easily be lodged again.
"The population of Mandalay is principally Burmese, as might be expected; but there are great numbers of Chinese living there, and most of the commerce of the place is in their hands. Then there are many Malays, and people from other parts of Asia; as for the Europeans, there are not more than twenty or thirty, and they include a few men engaged in trade, two or three missionaries, and the English resident and his official assistants. At present there is not a single European in Mandalay, as you are already aware, on account of the danger of war with King Theebaw.
"The city and its suburbs cover several miles of ground, but the city itself is a mile square, with high walls enclosing the four sides, and each wall pierced with three gates. Outside the wall there is a deep ditch that is kept constantly filled with water, and evidently it is the intention of the king not to be taken by surprise by having his ditch empty. The soldiers of the king are stationed at all these gates to preserve order, and see that no hostile force enters the sacred precincts, but they would be a poor match for European troops. Their uniform is a combination of the English and Burmese dress; they are almost always barefooted, and their guns are a mixed lot from all parts of the world, and generally of very old pattern. Some of them carry heavy swords that resemble butchers' cleavers, and others are armed with swords and lances.
"The king has a great many titles, and some of them have a comical sound in Western ears. Here is a fair sample of them:
"His Golden-footed Majesty, Ruler of the Sea and Land, Lord of the Celestial Elephant and Master of many White Elephants, Owner of the Shekyah, or Indra's Weapon, Lord of the Earth and Air, Lord of the Power of Life and Death, and Great Chief of Righteousness.
"It is no wonder that he considers himself of great importance when he has all these titles applied to him, and many more besides. Some of them sound like burlesque, particularly the one that calls him ruler ofthe sea and land; he has no seaport of any kind whatever, and all his commerce with foreign countries must descend the Irrawaddy through British territory, or be carried overland to China.
"The government is a despotism of the most emphatic sort; the king has the power of life and death over all his subjects, and may order any one beheaded without the slightest reason, and at a moment's notice. It is said that in old times, whenever the court ceremonies were going on, if any person made the least mistake, even so much as taking a short step when he should have taken a long one, orvice versa, the king commanded him to be beheaded, and he was taken outside the building and decapitated instantly. They are not so bad as that in these latter days, though King Theebaw seems to be coming quite near the ancient mark.
"The form of government is about the worst that could be imagined; the king takes the revenue, or so much of it as reaches him, and spends it in any way he pleases, and when his pocket gets empty he makes a fresh collection. Some of the districts up the river are subject to frequent levies; the inhabitants have several times refused to pay, but it seems that they are dependent upon the lower country for their supply of salt, and whenever their taxes do not come promptly, the king prohibits the exportation of salt to them. This is sure to bring them to terms; but it is now rumored that they have found a mountain of salt there, and if so, they will be likely to declare themselves independent.
"My first interview with the king was a more ceremonious affair than subsequent ones, and there were many novel features connected with it. The audience was appointed for ten o'clock in the forenoon, and I was there promptly with my introducer; when we got to the palace we were told that we must wait till eleven o'clock, as his majesty was just then occupied with the royal astrologer, who had made some important discoveries in the positions of the stars. There was no help for it, and we waited; but in the mean time we had interviews with some of the ministers, and other persons attached to the court, so that the period of waiting was not altogether lost.
"Most of the ministers do not receive any salaries, but are supported by bribes and extortions. They try all cases that are appealed to them, and take ten per cent. of the amount involved as their compensation; it often happens that they take the whole money, and the winner of the case is told that he must be satisfied with the honor of defeating his adversary. The king pays his troops and officers in goods that he buys of the merchants, and if they wish to convert them into cash, they must sellat half price, or even less. In fact, the whole government is a system of bribery and corruption, and the wonder is that it has kept up so long.
THE ROYAL PALACE AT MANDALAY.
"The king rarely goes out of his palace, as he is constantly fearful that some ambitious relative will endeavor to supplant him if he leaves home even for a single hour. The royal palace covers about seventy acres of ground, and is surrounded by two walls, the inner wall being thirty feet from the outer one. The palace is a gaudy sort of building, with a great deal of carved woodwork around the eaves of its many roofs and stories, and having poles for bells and flags at every corner and angle. It looks better at a little distance than when close at hand, as it is not always kept in good repair; and since the king stays inside the most of the time, he can hardly be expected to know enough about the roofs and outer walls to give the proper orders concerning them. The gates of the palace are very strong, and made of beams of teak fastened together with iron bolts. They could not offer much resistance to artillery, or even to a keg of powder exploded against them, but could hold out for some time against anything that an ordinary force of Burmese could bring forward.
"Everybody who goes to be presented to the king must carry a gift of some kind, as this is the custom of the country. I was aware of the custom, and so came provided with a handsome travelling-clock, by one of the best makers in Paris; the prime-minister looked it over carefully to see that no dangerous explosive was contained in the clock, and then said it was quite appropriate to the occasion. When the time came for the audience, the minister led the way to a stone staircase, and motioned for us to leave our shoes, which we did. Then we ascended the staircase, and were admitted to the reception-room, and shown to our places. A few paintings adorned the walls, and at one end there was a green curtain with an opening about ten feet square; through this opening we could see a stage about a yard in height, and there were steps leading from the floor of the room to the stage. At the top of these steps there was a velvet cushion, on which a handsome opera-glass was lying, and I readily guessed that this was the station of the king during the audience. The party for the audience consisted of eight or ten persons; two or three princes of the royal family were on the right, facing the cushion; then came the prime-minister, then myself, and next to me my introducer; then two missionaries and a couple of merchants, if I remember correctly. Behind us were some Burmese officials, who had been recently appointed, and had come to thank the king, and make him the customary presents in token of their recognition.
COPY OF AN OLD BURMESE PAINTING.
"In front of each person there was a little stool or bench, which held the present he had brought; the master of ceremonies arranged us and our presents in the proper order, and we were specially cautioned to keep our feet behind us, as it is very improper to allow a royal personage to see the soles of your feet under any circumstance. The Europeans were seated on the floor in a half-kneeling attitude, while all the natives were prostrate, with their faces within an inch of the floor, and their feet as far aft as it was possible to get them. They kept their eyes turned downward, and I very much doubt if any of them saw enough of the king to say how he looked, and what he did.
"The king—remember, I am speaking of Mounglon and not of the present ruler, Theebaw—came forward at the sound of a couple of blows on a drum, and laid himself down against the cushion with one side of his body toward the audience. Then he picked up the opera-glasses and deliberately surveyed the entire party one after another, though we were not more than twenty feet away from him. I suspect that the glasses were something new, and he was desirous of using them as much as possible, since he did not appear to be near-sighted. When he had finished his inspection he waved the glass to indicate that the performance might go on, and on it went. The king's secretary read the names and occupations of the various persons to be presented, together with a list of the presents they had brought.
"Then the business of each person was stated; those who had petitions to present handed them forward, and they were referred to the proper minister; newly-appointed officers, who had brought baskets of fruit, were very quickly disposed of, and then the king talked with me, through an interpreter, concerning England and its customs. He hoped I would enjoy my stay in Mandalay, and said he had found the English very pleasant people, and most agreeable neighbors. The last remark was more polite than truthful, as he could hardly be expected to regard with favor the foreigners who have possessed themselves of two-thirds of ancient Burmah, and may fairly be suspected of wanting to capture the rest.
"The audience lasted about half an hour, and was brought to an end by the king suddenly rising and going out of the room. One of the queens had been standing behind the screen, and fanning his majesty with a long-handled fan made of peacock's feathers. As soon as her lord and master walked away, she satisfied her curiosity by seeing what kind of beings the strangers were. She came to the opening in the screen, and as she stood there we had a full and fair view of her. Perhaps it was due to the fact that she was very pretty that she thus allowed us to see her, but of this I cannot be at all certain. At any rate she was exceedingly handsome, and I was told that the other three queens were as good-looking as herself. The king has something more than a hundred wives, but only four of them hold the rank of queens.
"We rose as soon as the audience was ended, and went down the steps where we had left our shoes. When we were all re-shod, I went with my introducer to see the famous white elephant, which was standing in a stable not far away. He was not particularly white—in fact, his name was the whitest part of him. His ears were slightly spotted, and so were the front and top of his head, while the rest of him was about the complexion of the ordinary elephants. He had a gorgeous lodging all to himself, but he was said to be of a bad temper, and, in spite of his noble character, he was chained to a post as any ordinary beast might be. I fancy he would have made things very lively if he had been divested of his chains and allowed to walk around freely.
"Burmah shares with Siam the honor of being one of the lands of the white elephant, and some of the wars between the two countries have grown out of disputes relative to the possession of these coveted beasts. They are held in great esteem, partly on account of their being the habitations of Buddha in his numerous transmigrations, and partly because their possession is held to be synonymous with good-luck both in peaceand war. When a white elephant dies he is buried with royal honors, and the whole nation goes into mourning.[7]
MOUNTAIN GORGE ON THE UPPER PART OF THE RIVER.
"So much for Mandalay and the King of Burmah. It is a pity you cannot go up to the city, and also to Bhamo, three hundred miles farther, where steamboats can run nearly all the year. Between Mandalay and Bhamo the scenery is more interesting than on the lower part of the Irrawaddy; in many places the mountains come close down to the river, and just before you reach Bhamo there is a narrow gorge where the river flows for a dozen miles or more between steep mountains several hundred feet high. Some of the cliffs are nearly perpendicular, and the river is penned in so closely that the current is very swift; one mountain, nearly a thousand feet high, is called 'Monkey Castle,' on account of the great numbers of monkeys that are frequently seen around it, and there is another where thousands of screeching parrots make the air resound with their unmelodious calls.
"On an island some distance above Mandalay there is a Buddhist monastery, where the monks keep some large fish in a tank, and have made them so tame that they come when called to be fed, and will allow their keepers to stroke their backs. They belong to the dog-fish family, and their mouths are capacious enough to take in anything that their stomachs will hold.
"Bhamo used to be an important place of trade, as it is quite near the borders of Yunnan, the frontier province of China. For the last fifteen or twenty years there has been a rebellion in this part of China, and the trade has greatly diminished; the Chinese Government does not appear able to suppress the rebellion, and as long as it lasts there will be very little trade with Bhamo. The importations from China consist of tea, silks, cotton cloths, and earthen-ware, and the goods for which these articles are exchanged are mostly of European manufacture; and, by-the-way, let me say that the chief use the Burmese make of tea is to form a salad of it, and not to drink it in a decoction as most other nations do."
This was the end of the conversation about the part of Burmah that our friends were unable to visit. By the time the account had been written out, and received a few verbal corrections, the tower of the Shoay Dagon, or Golden Pagoda of Rangoon, was in sight, and the voyage up and down the Irrawaddy was fast drawing to a close.
"Where shall we go next?" one of the boys asked, as soon as they were safe on shore at Rangoon.
"That will depend on circumstances," the Doctor answered. "India and Ceylon are before us, and we must first see to which we can get with the least trouble and delay. We can find ships for Calcutta or Madras, I presume, and perhaps we may hit upon one that is ready to go to Ceylon. The latter would be preferable, as we can easily get from Ceylon to India, whereas it might be out of our way to go to Ceylon after seeing the peninsula of Hindostan. We will see what can be done."
The trio proceeded to their banker's, and asked about the possibilities of departure.
To their delight they ascertained that there was a steamer ready to leave for England with a cargo of rice, and she would stop for coal at Point de Galle, in Ceylon. She had accommodations for a few passengers—the banker they were visiting was agent for her—and it required but a short time for the whole business to be arranged. Doctor Bronson and the youths were booked for Point de Galle, and returned at once to their hotel to be ready to go on board as soon as the sun rose the next morning.
The steamer sailed promptly, and by noon they were out of the river and leaving the shores of Burmah behind them.
COAST OF THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS.
The general direction of the ship was toward the south-west. The captain told the boys that on the morning of the second day out they would pass the Andaman Islands, but would not stop there; the Andaman Islands, he explained, were a long narrow group that extended nearly parallel to the coast, and belonged nominally to British India, though only a few of them had been occupied. "The remarkable things about these islands," he continued, "are the inhabitants. They are different from any other known race in the world, and their languagehas no resemblance to that of any part of India or the peninsula of Malacca.
"They are small in stature, being rarely more than five feet in height, and they have slender limbs, woolly hair, flat noses and thick lips, so that they resemble the negro more than any other race. Their skins are black, and the only clothing they wear is a thick plastering of mud, which they put on to prevent the insects biting them. When it cracks, or becomes worn in spots, a fresh roll in the mud gives them a new suit of clothes, and I doubt if there is any place in the world where a man can be clad more cheaply than in these islands, provided he follows the fashions of the natives. They never cultivate the soil, but live entirely by fishing; and one of their favorite amusements is to paint their faces with red ochre."
Frank thought it would be very interesting to have a look at this strange people, but the captain shook his head, and continued:
"They will not hold any intercourse with strangers, and whenever a ship goes there the natives flee to the interior. If a ship is wrecked on the coast, and the crew falls into the hands of the natives, they are usuallykilled; it need to be said that the natives were cannibals, and for a long time the story was believed; but later investigation shows that it is untrue. But their bad reputation and strange appearance caused it to be reported that the people of the Andaman Islands were monsters; in the time of Marco Polo this story was current, and the dog-headed men of Angamanain, of which he writes, are generally believed to have been the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands."
As the captain had predicted, the islands were visible at daylight on the second morning; Frank and Fred were up early to have a look at them, and, while they steamed steadily onward, the boys indulged in numerous speculations as to the strange region of the world they were now in.
Suddenly the first officer of the ship called to them to see a curiosity. The inspection of the islands was abruptly terminated, and the boys went to where the officer was standing.
The men were occupied with their daily task of washing the deck of the steamer; half a dozen were busily scrubbing with old brooms and "swabs," and two were engaged in hoisting water over the ship's side by means of a large bucket. At the last haul the bucket had brought up a snake that was wriggling about on the deck in the hope of getting away, and he kept opening and closing his mouth as though he would like to revenge himself on somebody or something by a bite.
Fred observed that the men kept at a respectful distance from the snake, as though they were afraid of him; consequently, he followed their example, and did not venture closely.
"Here's a sea-serpent for you," said the officer. "If you want him you're welcome."
Neither of the youths cared for the property in its present condition, and so the offer was declined. Frank asked if it was a genuine sea-serpent.
"As near as I've ever seen," was the reply; "but it isn't what you commonly understand by the sea-serpent. This is a sea-snake, and he is found only in the Indian Ocean and the waters connected with it. They are generally not far from land, but I've seen 'em one or two hundred miles away from shore, so it's pretty certain they spend most if not all their lives in the water."
"His bite is said to be poisonous," he continued, "and for that reason nobody wants to go near him. As soon as you've seen all you want to of him in his live state we'll kill him, and then you can look at him closely."
Just then Doctor Bronson came on deck, and after a brief survey of the reptile his curiosity was satisfied. Then the snake was killed by a blow from a handspike, and stretched on the deck.
SEA-SNAKE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN AND FOX-SHARK.
Frank measured the reptile, and found him a trifle over three feet in length. The head was quite broad and long, and the neck slender. The body was covered with fine scales, and the tail was formed by a gradual thinning of the body without any reduction of height. The Doctor said the tail was a close resemblance to that of the thrasher, or fox-shark, and he added that the latter had sometimes been mistaken for a sea-serpent.
While Frank was measuring the snake, Fred was looking over the side of the ship in the hope of seeing another. Suddenly he shouted,
"Here! here! come quick! A snake! a snake!"
Doctor Bronson and Frank ran to the side, and looked in the direction where Fred pointed.
There, sure enough, was a snake swimming with his head a couple of inches out of the water, and taking things very leisurely. He propelled himself with his tail, which he swung easily from side to side, exactly as we see with the great majority of fishes. He made very little ripple on the water, and it required sharp eyes to discover him. They watched him as he swum away from the side of the ship, and in a very short time he was out of sight.
Meantime, the captured snake had been thrown overboard, as no one cared to preserve it, and the men did not wish to keep it on deck. "These reptiles come to life sometimes after they're killed," said one of the old mariners, "and before you know it they lay hold of your foot if it is the first thing handy."
The Doctor and the youths walked aft, and seated themselves under the awning, where they could look at the receding shores of the islands. A few moments after they were seated, Frank asked the Doctor if he had ever seen a real sea-serpent.
The Doctor smiled, as he answered in the negative.
"But is there such a thing as a sea-serpent?" Frank persisted.
"That is a direct question," the Doctor responded, "but I am not able to answer it directly. Before I say yes or no I must make an explanation, or rather I will tell you what is known on the subject, and then you may make the answer for yourselves.
"It is the fashion of the time," he continued, "to laugh at any one who thinks he has seen what may be a sea-serpent. On several occasions reputable ship-captains have come forward with their officers and crew to make oath to what they had witnessed, and their chief reward has been to be ridiculed by the newspapers generally: they have been treated as deliberate liars, or it is hinted that they were intoxicated at the time they supposed they were looking at a sea-serpent. The result has been to make mariners reluctant to give any kind of testimony concerning the possible existence of a sea-serpent, through fear of being treated as impostors.
"About a year ago, while one of the steamers of the Peninsula and Oriental Company was making its voyage from Bombay to Aden, two or three passengers, who were on deck early in the morning, saw what exactly resembled a snake, sixty or eighty feet long, thrashing the water about half a mile from the ship. They called the attention of the captain to it, and then that of the officer on watch; the captain turned for a few seconds in the direction indicated, and then looked away, and, as he did so, he instructed the officer of the watch to keep his eyes straight ahead. The passengers afterward drew up a statement of what they had seen, and asked the captain to sign it; he refused to do so, and furthermore ordered his officers and men to make no mention of the affair in any way whatever. He gave as an excuse for his action that, no matter how seriously and carefully he made his statement, he would be ridiculed for it, and his veracity and sobriety questioned, and he did not care to be thus treated. 'If a snake should come on board,' said he, 'and eatup half the crew and passengers, I wouldn't say it was a snake, unless I could take him along to prove it, and perhaps then I wouldn't.'
"The sea-serpent described in ancient histories is undoubtedly fictitious, and so is the one referred to in the nautical song, somewhat like this,
"'From the tip of his nose to the end of his tailIs just nine thousand miles.'
"We will dismiss everything of antiquity, and also the serpent of the foregoing ballad, and come down to modern times. Naturalists are now pretty well agreed that the existence of the sea-serpent is a possibility; the celebrated Professor Agassiz said that if a naturalist had to sketch the outlines of an ichthyosaurus or plesiosaurus from the remains we have of them, he would make a drawing very similar to the sea-serpent as it has been described. The race is generally believed to be extinct, but he thought it probable that it would be the good-fortune of some person on the coast of Norway or North America to find a living representative of this type of reptile.
"Fossil remains of reptiles that lived ages and ages ago have been found by the geologists, and their former existence is proved beyond a doubt. For example, we find that on the coast of North America,there were reptiles that could swallow a full-sized man as easily as a frog swallows a fly. A restoration of the fossil reptiles that once flourished in the State of New Jersey would not make that State a pleasant one to reside in, and the same may be said of the plains of Kansas and other parts of America. Look at this picture of the reptiles of New Jersey, and then say if you would like them for neighbors.
RESTORED FOSSIL REPTILES OF NEW JERSEY.
"If such things have lived, why is it impossible for some members of the family to be prowling around to-day in the depths of the ocean? If the size of the monsters causes us to be sceptical, let us remember that there are inhabitants of the deep that quite equal them in bulk. Whales that exceed eighty feet in length are not uncommon, and when we consider their great depth in proportion to their length, we can easily have enough to make a first-class sea-serpent, and leave a few tons to spare.
CUTTLE-FISH ATTACKING A CHINESE JUNK.
"Then there is the colossal cuttle-fish which abounds in the Indian Ocean and adjacent waters; they have been found with arms twenty-eight feet long and two feet in diameter, and, as they have eight of these arms, the aggregate length of all of them would surpass any respectable sea-serpent. Fishing-boats and canoes are sometimes attacked by them, and it is said that they have been known to overturn a two-masted junk.In the year 1878 the steamerYang-tse, of the French Mail Company, while coming down the China Sea, ran into one of these cuttle-fish during the night, and the shock of the blow was so great that it was felt throughout the ship.
"Among the islands of the Indian Ocean the cuttle-fish is the great dread of the natives, and on the coast of Madagascar the negroes will not venture to swim near rocks or cliffs. They will tell you any number of stories of men that have been pulled under water by these fish and drowned; and from their great dread of the fish, it is very evident that their stories are not works of fiction.
"So much for the huge inhabitants of the deep that we know about; let us come to the sea-serpent himself, and investigate the cases in which he is said to have been seen.
"The Rev. Paul Egede, missionary to Greenland in the eighteenth century, says as follows:
"'On the 6th day of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and frightful sea-monster which raised itself so high out of water that its head reached above our main-top. It had a long, sharp snout, and spoutedwater like a whale, and very broad flappers. The body seemed to be covered with scales, and the skin was uneven and wrinkled, and the lower part was formed like a snake. After some time the creature plunged backward into the water, and then turned its tail up above the surface, a whole ship-length from the head.'"
"Perhaps it was only a whale he saw," Frank remarked.
"I should have said," responded the Doctor, "that the good missionary was as familiar as an old whaleman with the appearance of the whale and his kindred, and furthermore that his book shows him in other things to have been a very careful and exact observer.
"Bishop Pontoppidan, of Norway, devoted a good deal of time to the investigation of the sea-serpent, and personally sought out all the mariners he could hear of who had seen one of the monsters. Here is the story told by Captain Lawrence de Ferry, of Bergen, Norway, and he, with two of his sailors, made oath to its correctness before a magistrate:
"'The latter end of August, in the year 1746, on my return from Trondhjem on a very calm and hot day, within six miles of Molde I heard a kind of murmuring voice from the men at the oars, and observed that the man at the helm kept off the land. I inquired what was thematter, and was told that there was a sea-snake before us. I then ordered the man at the helm to keep to the land again, and to come up with this sea-snake, of which I had heard so many stories; as the snake swum faster than we could row, I took my gun and fired at it; on this he immediately plunged into the water. We rowed to the place where it sunk down, thinking it would come to the surface; however, it would not. The head of this snake, which he held more than two feet above the surface of the water, resembled that of a horse. It was of a grayish color, and the mouth was quite black and very large; it had black eyes, and a long white mane that hung down from the neck to the surface of the water. Besides the head and neck we saw seven or eight coils or folds of the snake, which were very thick; and as far as we could guess, there was about a fathom distance between each fold.'
CAPTAIN LAWRENCE DE FERRY'S SEA-SERPENT.
"Captain Little, of the United States Navy, in 1781, describes a snake he saw in broad day on the coast of Maine, in 1780. It was about forty or fifty feet long and fifteen inches in diameter, and he carried three or four feet of his length out of water. Captain Little ordered out his boat to pursue the snake, but they did not succeed in capturing him.
"Rev. Donald Maclean, a Scotch minister, describes a snake that he saw in 1808, which greatly alarmed his own crew and that of several fishing-boats that were out with him. In 1809 an American clergyman, who was out in a boat with his wife and daughter and another lady, in Penobscot Bay, saw a serpent that they estimated to be about sixty feet long, and as large as a sloop's mast. About this time the same snake, or one closely resembling it, was frequently seen in the neighborhood of Penobscot Bay, and a few years later (1817) a similar sea-monster appeared near Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was seen on many occasions and by great numbers of persons. The Linnæan Society of Boston took the matter up, and collected the testimony of as many witnesses as could be reached. It remained in sight all the way from several minutes to two hours, and at distances varying from thirty feet to a quarter of a mile. One man saw it moving across the bay at the rate of a mile a minute; another watched it for half a day, and says it had a head shaped like a rattlesnake's, but as large as that of a horse. One man saw it open its mouth, which was like a snake's; another said the body was rough and scaly; and another that it darted out its tongue at least a couple of feet. Its length was estimated all the way from forty to eighty feet, and its color was dark. Finally, the magistrate before whom the testimony was taken had an opportunity of seeing the monster, and his evidence corroborates that of the rest.
HEAD OF CAPTAIN M'QUHAE'S SERPENT.
"In 1830 the sea-serpent appeared near Kennebunk, Maine, and wasseen by several persons. In 1845 he showed himself near Lynn, Massachusetts, and he had a great many observers, among whom were several of the old merchants and other solid men of Boston and its vicinity. He has appeared several times since then at various points on the New England coast, but has not been seen by many persons.
"Later still we have the evidence of Captain Peter M'Quhae, commanding the frigateDædalus, of the British Navy. He testifies that, on August 6th, 1849, in latitude 24° 44' S., longitude 9° 22' E., he and his officers and crew saw a sea-serpent. He thus describes it:
"'Our attention being called to the object, it was discovered to be an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea; and as nearly as we could approximate by comparing it with what our main-top-sail yard would show in the water, there was at least sixty feet of the animal just under the surface, no part of which was used in propelling it through the water, either by horizontal or vertical undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee-quarter that, had it been a man of my acquaintance, I should have easily recognized his features with the naked eye; and it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the south-west, which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour, apparently on some determined purpose.
"'The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen inches behind the head, which was, without any doubt, that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water. Its color a dark brown, with yellowish-white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or, rather, a bunch of sea-weed, washed about its back. It was seen by the quarter-master, the boatswain's mate, and the man at the wheel, in addition to myself and officers above mentioned.'
CAPTAIN M'QUHAE'S SEA-SERPENT.
"He gives a sketch of the serpent to show his general appearance, which certainly is very snaky.
"In 1860," the Doctor continued, "a sea-serpent was washed ashoreon the Bermuda Islands, which answered exactly the description of Captain M'Quhae's snake, except in size. It was sixteen feet seven inches long, and its construction was such as to show very clearly that its home was in the water. A snake three feet long, lacking a single inch, was killed on the coast of Massachusetts and sent to some of the scientific men of Boston. They pronounced it a true sea-serpent, and found that its body could be bent vertically with the greatest ease, but it was difficult to bend it horizontally. The same was the case with the Bermuda serpent; and in all the descriptions of the sea-serpent off the coast of New England or of Norway, it has been observed that the folds came above the water, one beyond another. One observer said it was like a string of kegs or floats; and those who are sceptical as to the existence of the snake have attributed this appearance to a school of porpoises pursuing each other. But it should be remembered that most of the observers are men perfectly familiar with porpoises and other marine productions, and not very likely to be deceived."
"Haven't I read somewhere," said Fred, "that there was a skeleton of a large sea-serpent in a museum in Germany?"
"Quite possibly you have," Doctor Bronson answered, with a smile, "and thereby hangs a bit of history. An enterprising American was trading on the coast of Siberia, where formerly great numbers of whales were killed. Their bones were thickly scattered along the beach, and he conceived the idea of turning them to account.
"He hired the natives, and set some of his own men at work to collect the bones of three good-sized whales. Out of the ribs and vertebræ of the three he constructed a magnificent snake a hundred and ten feet long, and with a capacity sufficient for swallowing a four-horse coach, with team, passengers, driver, and all. He was careful to reject the head, pretending it had not been found; if he had shown the head, the deception would have been revealed too soon for his purpose, as some one would have been sure to recognize it as the head of a whale.
"He shipped his prize to Hamburg, and it was put on exhibition there, and then offered for sale. It was bought by a wealthy museum, and the scientific men came from far and near to see it. The speculator disappeared; not long after he had gone the secret came out, and the wonderful serpent was found to be the skeletons of three whales neatly put together.
"One thing I had almost forgotten to mention: the snakes in the Indian seas were useful in showing ships their position before the mariner's compass was invented. Pliny says the Roman navigators 'directed their course by the flight of birds, which they took with them and let go from time to time; also various signs in the sea, such as the color of the water, and sea-snakes floating on the surface.' A Turkish treatise, written in 1550, mentions a route from Aden to Guzerat, and then by the coast to Malabar, working by the stars, sea-snakes, and birds; and a Mohammedan writer, in 1749, says that, while sailing along the coast of Ceylon, they knew they were near the land three days before they saw it, from the snakes in the sea."
The steamer sped onward to the south-west, toward the shores of Ceylon; favored by the north-east monsoon, she made good progress, and the time passed rapidly for our friends. On the morning of the third day, after they lost sight of the Andaman Islands, a sail was reported directly ahead, and the boys were thrown into a state of excitement in consequence.
Rapidly they approached the stranger, which was soon made out to be a craft of a style that had not been seen before. As it came toward them, Fred remarked that it was the narrowest boat he had ever seen to carry such a sail, and Frank wondered why it did not tip over; but as it came nearer, and swung along-side, he saw the reason why.
The boat was about thirty feet long, and hewn from a single log that had been spread at the centre, so as to hold two men of medium size, sitting side by side. On the gunwale, or top edge, there were planks a foot and a half in width, and these planks extended the whole length of the boat, and were closed at the ends by short ones that had a considerable slope forward; the latter planks served to keep out the waves, and, as they were somewhat narrower than the width of the log, they gave the craft its very pinched appearance. They were fastened to the boat by means of coarse twine,or "coir" twisted from the fibres of the cocoa-nut-tree. The joints were daubed with pitch and oil to render them water-proof, but they were only partially so, and when the boat leaned far over to leeward, it was likely that a good deal of water would be shipped.
"You are quite right," said the Doctor, in response to the observation just recorded, which was made by Frank, "but she doesn't go far over to leeward, even in the strongest winds."
"How can that be," queried Frank, "when she's so narrow?"
"The outrigger keeps her down," was the reply; "you have beenso absorbed with looking at the boat that you haven't seen the outrigger."