THE COMPLETE GLOBE-TROTTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1007, 28 July 1883, Page 4

THE COMPLETE GLOBE-TROTTER.

" (" PAIL MALI. GAZETTE. ”) Left London on May ist and travelled by evening train to Dover. The Channel was somewhat loppy, as usual, but soup at Calais buffelt soon restored exhausted nature. Went on to Paris ; monstrous fine town ; the Boulevards and Napoleon’s tomb really worth seeing. Took a coupe to Marseilles, and put up at an hotel in the Cannebiere ; a splendid .street, but very noisy. Next day went on board our steamer, and tooled quietly down the Mediterranean. It doesn’t differ much from the Atlantic, but is perhaps a trifle bluer. Touched; at Malta—fine old fortified ■place, though very dirty. There were once some knights here, who seem to have been expelled by the English Governor. Maltese lace is made here. Took in some new passengers, and then steamed on to Alexandria. The town is called after Alexander the Great, who was apparently born in the neighborhood; but it is not otherwise interesting. Saw Pompey’s pillar, erected to commemorate his victory over Caesar. The population consists principally of donkey - boys, whose charges are shamefully exorbitant. Not being able to speak the language— Turkish, or something of that sort — was compelled to submit to their extortions, but caught them a crack or two on the head with my cane, by way of compensation. On to Suez, which tut|ied out,to be very hot; yet nothing at albcompared to the Red Sea. Slept on declc all down the latter, and glad enough to get on shore again, even at Aden. Officers quartered at Aden say it is a dull hole, which is easy to be- , 'lieve,' for the country about consists chiefiy.pt sand and rock. The people are Arabs—a very filthy lot. Officers’ dub, however, not half bad, and cook makes a capital curry. Landed mails and proceeded immediately to Bombay. '

India does not seem quite so wealthy as we had always been led to expect it. Hotel accommodation bad, ; and natives mostly lean and not half dressed. Landing at Bombay is a horrid bore, owing to the surf; and the boatmen charge absurdly. Some of the natives are Hindoos, and some Mahomtnedans, but as a whole a bad lot, I should say, and frightfully superstitious. Ran across to Calcutta, a long and tedious railway journey, stopping on the way at a place called Allahabad, where there is an underground temple. Turned aside tb Agra and ' Delhi to see the Taj—a very handsome sort of mosque place, and some other old native buildings ; also to look up ; some fellows whom I used to know* at * Marlborough. Club at Delhi very comfortable, but the hotel most ill-organised. Calcutta is a really fine town —quays and public buildings quite'in-the European style, and people driving about in carriages just like the Park or Regent street. Sorry to leave such capital quarters for the P. and O. steamer, to Singapore, which is built on an island in the Straits. The inhabitants are chiefly Chinese, Malays, Dutch', and other foreigners; but the town looks prosperous, and the hotel Was good. Brandy and seltzer is always taken iced ; they don’t get Apollinaris here yet. Touched at Java, a Dutch island, where they grow a good deal of coffee; and then straight on to Yokohama. Japan is certainly gll round, ,the queerest place we have been to;, the houses are half of them built of paper, arid you go about the streets in a sort of Bath chair they call a jinfikisha. However, the tea-houses are really very pleasant, and I cordially approve of the dancing girls. Altogether Japan seems a very nice sort of country for Europeans; not too straitlaced, and with plenty of fun going on everywhere. We had an excursion or two into the interior, stopping at delightful tea-houses, and trying to chaff the natives, especially the girls. Once pr twice some of the fellows tried to chaff us back, being foreigners to them; but of course that set us upon our dignity, and we flatter ourselves a judicious application of British oak about their shoulders soon brought them to a sense of their proper places. From Japan we steamed right across the Pacific, the longest and most

tedious sea I ever had anything to do with.' The steamers stop at Honolulu, better than half-way over, where we Stayed for a fortnight. This is a very jolly little town, and the natives are sztremely picturesque, but dying out rapidly. The mountain scenery is very grand, and we saw a first-rate volcano with a lake of fire in the middle.

They make up delightful riding excursions to go to see it; and the half--caste ladies ride as well as men, and are very pleasant society. Their mothers were cannibals. Most things are cheap except liquors. The next steamer took us on to San. Francisco, “magnificently situated,” the guidebook says, “ at the portals of the boundless Western ocean.” Coming ■-.across we curiously lost a day, owing to. a habit of counting the sailors have v on the 180th meridian. San Francisco is called Frisco here; it is a fine town, with first-rate hotels, elevators, bars, and all the latest appliances of the most 1 advanced civilisation. We went to the and heard Christina Pattalina: quite a treat to be back again in the cultivated world once more. After ‘ visiting the Chinese quarter, a dirty hole, which everybody in Frisco told us ought to be burnt down immediately, we look a palace car for Sacramento. j The big trees, which we also visited, ■‘areVery Targe indeed ; on one of the ' Stuhips they have made a platform for dancing, and a good many couples can dance there together without risk of collision. Salt Lake City is an interesting town, built by the Mormons, followers of Joe Smith, now dead; there is a large temple, not in - very l good architectural taste, I should say, and an excellent theatre. Mbrmonism doesn’t seem a bad sort 'Of ’thing j but the people are polygamists, which of course is very shocking, and .the Gentiles in the place are dreadfully prejudiced against it. How- ■ efar, a Mormon elder with whom I con-'-versbs told me he didn’t think there : was a nobler or grander set of men in the world than the Mormons; and as he has been, here ever since before the 3&a&fta&e, as they call it, he must have had opportunities of judging. We ftrdssed America by the Pacific railway, and spent a day at Niagara—very fine and a week in New York. 'lAfoiufca is [a splendid country, with and admirable railway

arrangements, besides which the cigars are goqd; but from my observations in the States I am fully convinced that Republican institutions won’t hold water. Most of the people are tired of the Republicans, as they themselves told me, though I don’t quite understand their motives, as they nevertheless declared that . they were ardent Democrats. However, it is quite certain that before many years are over America will become a limited monarchy with an hereditary aristocratic class. We sailed from New York in one of the fastest Atlantic liners, and had a splendid passage to Liverpool; In conclusion, I have no hesitation in saying that there is nothing like travel to enlarge the mind and widen one’s views of things generally ; and that those who can’t themselves go abroad will derive much benefit from reading judicious books of other people’s voyages. Though, to be sure, after this condensed summary of all that is worth seeing in foreign parts, it is difficult to understand why anybody else should ever wish to say the same things over again, at greater length, and with no further important additions.