MR A. REISCHEK. HIS VOYAGE HOME. LETTER FROM VIENNA.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 394, 17 August 1889, Page 4

MR A. REISCHEK. HIS VOYAGE HOME. LETTER FROM VIENNA.

Mr A. Reisoiiek, the well-known Austrian naturalist who, it will be remembered, spent many years in New Zealand (especi. ally in the West Coast Sounds), in natural history and scientific pursuits, and who has just reached his Austrian home after a prolonged absence, sends us from Vienna an interesting letter detailing his voyage home from Auckland, and his cordial reception in his native city. Standing on the deck of the s.s. Waihora as she steamed out of the Waibemata one evening in February last, Mr Reischek looked his last on the city of Auckland. " Parting is always sad," he said, " and in this instance I felt it more sorrowful than ever to part from friends who came forward to stand by my side when the clouds were blackest around me. Then it is doubly hard to leave such a lovely country, the garden of the Southern Hemisphere, in whose grand solitudes I spent so many happy hours." In Sydney Mr Reischek met some old friends, and occupied two or three pleasant pays in " doing " those lions of the place which interested him most— the Botanical Gardens and the Zoological and Anthropological collections in tho Museum.

ON BOARD THE R.M.S. ARCADIA. The homeward - bound travellers embarked on March 2nd on the line steamer Arcadia for the overland route to Europe, via Melbourne, Adelaide, Albany, Colombo, Aden, and Brindisi. The Technicological and Ethnological collections in the Melbourne and Adelaide museums he speaks of in high praise, as a savant in i these matters. In the Melbourne Museum he was surprised to find a fine carved figure head of a Maori war-canoe which had once j been in his possession. Mr Reischek describes the town of Albany on the South Australian Coast as small but pretty, and surrounded by sheltering hills. The Arcadia finally left the last of Australian waters, the harbour of Albany, on March 14th, and began her Indian Ocean voyage. " The Arcadia," Mr Reischek says, "is a floating palace, everything beautiful, comfortable, and in order. What strikes me greatly is the very strict distinction between first and second-class passengers on board. The officers are a fine lot of men, and the hard-worked stewards arc tho most obliging follows I have yet met during all my travels. The captain is a straight up and down, rather stern man, and would do credit as a commander of a naval squadron."

' ' ZOOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. " Mv Reischek, true to his ruling passion, occupied his leisure time on board the Arcadia in making what he termed "zoological observations " of his fellow passengers. After dealing with the males — "a poor, uninteresting lot" — he rather ungallantly describes the females as " mostly antiquities, with physiognomies showing moie storm than sunshine." One ancient spinster was " a walking medicine chest," and was accustomed to lay in wait for the unfortunate naturalist, and. endeavour to experiment on his cast-iron constitution with her gentle aperients and homceo- | pathic compounds on some preposterous pretext or other. She was the bane of his life for a few days, until he devised some method of keeping her at bay. As usual on large ocean steamers, all sorts of amusements were got up to relieve the tedium r of the voyage, and this trip of the Arcadia was characterised by unusually pleasant re-unions and entertainments. Concerts, Christy Minstrel performances, a bat masgtie by electric light, etc.', succeeded one another throughout the passage.

A fierce tropical thunderstorm was experienced crossing the Line, and the traveller describes the scene as " a grand one."

AT COLOMBO. On March 25th the voyagers, afc leasb those of them who were early on deck, witnessed the rising of the sun from behind the blue mountains of Ceylon's "fragrant isle," and by 11 a.m. the Arcadia anchored inside the massive breakwater of Colombo, the usual call-port of inward and outward bound Australian steamers. A lively scene here presented itself to the traveller's eyes. "Dozens of native Catamarans were darting about, and some here and there fishing, Amphibious Cingalese youngsters, in the garb of ' old man Adam,' were soon alongside in their frail Catamarans, shouting out to the white man for * a dive.' When a coin was thi-own into the sea half -a dozen of these frog-like creatures dived after it like a flash, and I never saw them lose a single coin. They hold them in their mouths just as monkeys store their nuts. .Large barge? laden with coal passed, with bronzed figures tugging at , oars which looked like immense spoons. On landing on the Colombo Wharf we were literally mobbed by guides, pedlars and beggars. After a long parley we arranged with a guide and party to sail us round the western shore of Lake Maratana, renowned from ancient time as a locality for washing clothes in its fresh water. We saw more than a hundred men at work round the lake busily rubbing away at piles of clothes. . . ". . . Ceylon is a lovely tropical garden. In Colombo all sorts of fruits, flowers, perfume plants, etc., grow luxuriantly ; all through the extensive system of irrigation. I don't wonder that the natives are so thick when the soil is so very fertile. Swarms of beggars follow us ; like Topsy, they must have ' growed,' for none of them ever had a father or a mother. The children all look very happy and very dirty. The natives are very hospitable, very religious, and very fond of making a good bargain."

A VISIT TO AEABY PASHA. After visiting the Colombo Museum and the Buddhist Temple, Mr Reischtk and his friends drove out through deliciously fragrant cinnamon gardens to the beautiful residence of the noted Araby Pasha, who has been living in exile in Ceylon since the British-Egyptian " little trouble " of 1884. The party were received very courteously by Araby. He is described as "a tall, strongly- built man, with an intellectual face and very keen eyes." During the conversation he was asked if he liked Ceylon. He answered with an unequivocable negative. "No; Egypt is my country, where my wife and family and all my friends are." "He appears almost heartbroken in his exile, although it is in the midst of spicy groves and tropical luxuriance of vegetation and beautiful surroundings. A oneeyed son of his is with him. He is a plucky fellow, and stood on his father's side in battle, and latterly in exile and sorrow."

A BUDDHIST TEMPLE. • Mr Reischek describes a visit he paid to the Kataluna Buddhist Temple. "The great image of Buddha, cut out of solid stone, is 27ft high, and is surrounded by many other carved figures of deities, including the image of the god Presiraer, expected to I appear on earth 80 years hence ; four guardian gods, one representing temperance, two prudence, three fortitude, four justice, eighty deified disciples of Buddha ; Siva, the destroyer, with three heads and four hands ; Kandy, a hero ; Gine, the celestial god, guardian of vessels and music, with the enormous eyes, one on the forehead, che sun ; an alabaster figure of the god's disciples ; the Buddhist nuns, the mother of Buddha, Brahma, 24 predecessors of the last Buddha, and many other figures, carved and painted and very interesting. After leaving the customary offering we left."

THE CINGALESE. " We drove back through the marriage quarter of the town, which consisted of long, low dwellings, with narrow doors and still narrower window-slits. The places look more like prisons or dungeons than houses in which to spend the honeymoon. The natives are tine looking people, chocolate-coloured, some with fine figures. The very red lips and black teeth, from constant chewing of betel-nuts, do not, however, convey a good impression to the ordinary tourist As wo paid our bill a 6 the Globe Hotel and walked out into the passage, we were surprised to find a long row of the whole of the hotel employees ranged along the walls — cooks, waiters, bootblacks, boys, etc. We were at first inclined to take them for a guard of honour, and weie beginning to feel rather gratified ab the compliment, but a general chorus of demands for ' backsheesh ' considerably altered the case, and we accordingly had to expend a considerable sum in parting gratuities. " On reaching the wharf we engaged two natives and their hoats to row us out to the Arcadia, after arranging for the fare. The two cute Cingalese rowed us out only a short distance and then demanded more pay before they would pull another stroke. . They would not land us, neither would they put us on board the ship." The remonstrances of the indignant " white men " were vain until Mr Reischek lost his patience and threatened to throw the mutinous crew overboard at once unless they pulled away for the Arcadia. This settled the matter, and the overawed Cingalese soon had the voyagers , alongside the ship. " The scene on deck was a very animated one ; crowds of I native dealers were offering their wares, ivory and ebony-wood carvings, tor-toise-shell figures, porcupine quills, 6tc, all the while keeping up such a terrible shouting and squabbling that one would have thought at least half a dozen murders were going on at the same time. Every now and then the staves of the native policemen would come down with a resounding thud on the heads of the jobbering dealers which would knock an ordinary being senseless."

JEST ROUTE TO ADEN. " Leaving the hills of Ceylon behind on a fine summer's evening, the took her way through the Arabian Sea to her next call port, Aden. During the trip across the heat was dreadful — 97 degrees in the shade ; the evenings, however, were beautiful. The scene from the vessel's deck by night, tar out at sea, is one of the many charms of the tropics — the horizon gemmed with sparkling stars reflecting themselves in the rippling phosphorescent waters, and a gentle Jbreeze, deliciously I cool, fanning the cheeks burnt by the glaring heat of the day. It was in times like j this that I gave myself up to thoughts ot far - away New Zealand and the .many kind friends left behind me there. . . . At 7 o'clock in the morning of April 2nd, we sighted the steamer Gairloch, outward - bound from Glasgow. She hoisted a distress signal, and after exchanging signals the Arcadia sent a boat on board with the doctor, who found that the. captain of the Gairloch was

dangerously ill from an internal complaint;. The boat returned, and a short time afterwards we saw the steamer lower her flag! to half-mast; so it seemed the sick man had passed away. Thab evening the high mountains of Arabia came into sight, and early next morning we steamed into the Gulf of Aden. What a contrast to the rich and beautiful scenery of lovely Ceylon ! The Bay of Aden lay between two rugged, barren hills, backed by still more desolate Arabian heights. From the vessel we could see camel caravans passing along at the base of the hills. Boats , with Greeks, Mussulmen, Arabs, Abyssinians, negroes," Jews, and representatives of many other nations., came alongside, and the Arcadia's main deck was soon transformed into an Eastern market-place by the queerly -attired vendors of fruit, eggs, horns, skins, shells, corals, carved sticks, photographs, etc. Amongst the many vessels in the port was the old steamer Bangalore, in which I went from Ceylon to Australia twelve years ago. She was loaded with Mahometan pilgrims on their pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Mahomet. A large Russian steamer was lying in port, crowded to excess with unfortunate convicts going out under guard to exile in Siberia, some political offenders, others ordinary criminals, many of whom would never see their home again, but whose future would be spent in the icy regions of the Great Russian convict-land. The steamer was bound from Odessa, on the Black Sea, to a Siberian port on the Pacific.

THE EED SEA AND SUEZ CANAL. ' "Leaving Aden, we passed the narrow Sbraibs of Bab-el-Mandeb, the 'Gate of Tears,' and entered the Red Sea, of many historical associations. The straits are dangerous, and many vessels have been wrecked and lives lost there. The Red Sea is notorious for taking her share of human sacrifices ; for many invalids travelling from Europe to Australia or from India and China Home succumb to the enervating heat and general unheallhiness of the Sea. After a short stay at Suez the Arcadia took the lead through the Suez Canal, followed by the steamer Orient and several other vessels. It is an art, indeed, in navigation to guide a giant vessel like this through the canal, on whose banks at some parts we could almost jump from the ship's decks. The third vessel behind us soon stuck in the mud and blocked up the canal for those in the rear. Basking in the sun or lying in their mud huts along the banks we could see Arabs, Egyptians, and negroes, and others working removing dredged sand from the banks further inland. Some of the larger canal stations were surrounded by pretty gardens of date-palms and flowers. Afc one place we saw a stalwart Bedouin chief marched along with his long musket slung aross his shoulders, and a little distance off was a halted caravan, the camels all hobbled by the front legs. At every station were vessels waiting to continue on their course through the canal.

IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. " After coaling at Port Said, we left for Brindisi, on the Adriatic coast of Italy. After rough weather, we sighted, on April 9th, the first European land— the high, snow-covered mountains of Crete. The nights were now very cold. Passing along the picturesque lonian Group, we reached Brindiei. Here the formidable- looking Customs officers came on board, armed with swords, rifles, and revolvers. We thought they intended taking possession of the ship, but they were very polite -end kind. The town of Brindisi is surroanded by ancient stone walls, in places mearly a chain thick, with turrets and narrow doors, at which armed Customs officers are posted. Everything in the town is very dear except wine and fruit. Here I left the good ship Arcadia, on board of which I had spent so many pleasant days on the voyage from Australia. On shore I met some old friends, Mr and Mrs Black and s>on, of Christchurch. After taking walks out in the surrounding 'pleasant land,' between orange groves, olives, and vineyards, I took passage by the steamer Daphnjß for Trieste, the Austrian port on the Adriatic. On board her I met my friend Count Westphalia. After a pleasant run up I sighted the hills of old Austria again for the first time in many years. At Trieste the water-police and Customs officials came on board and turned the ship inside out in their strict search, after which we were permitted to land. The harbour was crowded with shipping, and the city has much increased in size and splendour.

HOME AGAIN. "I soon left Trieste by train with my smal menagerie for Vienna and Home. The weather was very cold, and the heights over which the railroad lay were snowcovered. It wae a pleasant sight to see the roofs and steeples of the Imperial City again through the mist, and hear the welcome sound of the great Cathedral bells. As soon as I stepped out of the railway carriage I was rushed by relatives, old friends, and newspaper reporters, and my hand was well-nigh paralysed by the amount of shaking it was subjected to. My welcome home was indeed a cordial one. "I have presented my collection of luatara lizards, bird?, toekas, New Zealand pigeons, etc., to the Vienna Zoological Gardens, Museum and other institutions. Very great changes have been made in the city of Vienna during my long absence, and the metropolis has been"much beautified. "In concluding," Mr Reischek says, " I must say that I shall always think with pleasure of the happy days I spent in your beautiful Islands of New Zealand, and I wish you and all my distant friends, to the colony, prosperity and happiness."

COOK'S TOURIST AGENCY. In a postscript, Mr Reischek desires to " give honour to whom honour is due." " I travelled through Thomas Cook and Sons' Tou/ist Agency, and I must say that their arrangements for travellers are the best thab I have yet experienced. At every port their agents come on board the ship, and assist the travellers promptly without further expenses, in the politest manner, giving every information required. All the managers at the various ports and stations did everything possible for my comfort." — "Auckland Star," August 12.

The recently published* statistics of drunkenness in New South Wales prove that the Mother Colony is ridding herself of the evil reputation which she has borne of being the most drunken colony of Australasia. Since 1885 there has been a regular decline in the number of persons arrested for drunkenness, the number in that year being 282 per cent, of the population, while in 1888 the number of arrests was only 1-98 per cent. Estimated upon the average consumption of intoxicating drink, the relative positions of the several colonies stand thus, the 1 ba3ia adopted being represented by proof alcohol: —New South Wales, 3 23 gallons; Victoria, 3-80 gallons; Queensland, 3*39 gallons ; South Australia, 332 gallons ; New Zealand, 2-18 gallons j and Tasmania, 217 gallons, flttha* CJ«*««, ;