CURRY.
To those who are fond of this condiment, it may be interesting to know that Singapore has the reputation of furnishing the best article in this form of diet. It would require one to be more of a connoisseur than the writer to decide whether Singapore, Manila, or Anjer is entitled to the palm in preparing this article of luxury. Those who award it to Singapore say there are ingredients in the mixture at this place which are not to be obtained elsewhere; for they can not be exported and retain their flavor, the excellence of curry depending, we are told, on its being prepared fresh every day. The flavor of the fresh cocoanut is essential. Those who have eaten curry powder on their food in this country, have an agreeable surprise on tasting the article of curry in the East Indies. The servants grind some of the ingredients on stones, and the frequency with which we saw the operation as we passed along the streets in Singapore, made us feel that the preparation of curry root has a reputation which it requires labor to maintain.
To specify all that is to be enjoyed in Singapore through every sense, would fill a volume. We went off to the “Suwo Nada” in a boat and steamed away from this garden of luxuries by groves of cocoanut trees, through lines of ships from all quarters of the globe, and, after an enchanting passage, found ourselves once more safe in Hong Kong harbor.
V.
MANILA.—HOMEWARD BOUND.
My country, sir, is not a single spot
Of such a mould, or fixed to such a clime;
No! ’tis the social circle of my friends,
The loved community in which I’m linked,
And in whose welfare all my wishes centre.
Miller’s Mahomet.
* * * * *
Whose heart has ne’er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
W. Scott; Lay of the Last Minstrel.
* * * * *
There blend the ties that strengthen
Our hearts in hours of grief,
The silver links that lengthen
Joy’s visits when most brief.
Then dost thou sigh for pleasure?
Oh! do not widely roam,
But seek that hidden treasure
At home, dear home!
Bernard Barton.
On the 22d of November we left Hong Kong for Manila, our agents concluding to wait no longer for hemp to fall, but to load the ship with sugar. We took in three million pounds, enough, we were told, to supply our whole country one day.
We reached Manila Bay Dec. 1, but we would not have wondered had we been weeks, instead of five days, in contest with the current and head winds. One day we tacked fourteen times off Manila. At length we dropped anchor in the spacious roadstead, and waited for the health officers and the custom-house officials to inspect us. No one is allowed to have any communication with a vessel until she is officially visited. Steam-tugs would be an advantage to weary mariners contending against the current in sight of anchorage.
We were the guests of a gentleman and his wife, he a member of the house of Messrs. Peele, Hubbell, & Co.[60] We were there seven weeks, and, even if delicacy permitted, language would fail in the attempt to express what we enjoyed in that beautiful house. Situated at one end of the city in the parish of Santa Ana we were removed from the noise and tumult of business. The river runs near the house with a current of at least four miles an hour, bringing down, day by day, literally innumerable wild herbage plants washed from the lakes in the country. Few things ever gave me a more vivid idea of infinitude than that ceaseless flow of herbage. Immense plaintain-leaves stood round the house looking like the blades of huge oars; the banana hung in large clusters; the garden was filled with many things to delight the eye. The house covered a large area. You enter it by a spacious driveway, roofed over with the main building. Stone steps lead up to the story on which are all the rooms in the house, high and wide, opening into the large hall. Instead of carpets, floors here are polished, by rubbing them with the plaintain-leaf. The house was cool and in all respects most comfortable. The eye is refreshed by constant verdure, the grass in December and January having the brilliant green which our early grass presents in the month of June. It seemed strange to be riding in open carriages at Christmas-time and January, with ladies in muslin dresses, or requiring only light shawls. The atmosphere is clear, and the stars have so peculiar a lustre as to be the subject of remark by foreigners. The river runs about fifteen miles to a lake, by cocoanut groves, and in some places by steep cliffs nearly two hundred and fifty feet on each side, covered with foliage, and having small cascades. In the river there are as many as twenty-eight rapids. Some of our party ascended them in canoes, spending two days on an excursion with a company. One evening a party of gentlemen took a small steamer, the private property of a friend, and went with us up to the lake. It was a moonlight night; the East-Indian scenery, the curves in the stream, and at last the scenery of the lake, made the excursion enchanting.
The society in Manila, composed of American, English, Scotch, and Spanish people, was delightful. Their hospitalities, entertainments, and numberless courtesies make deep impressions upon a visitor. There are no unpleasant distinctions among them; they maintain an agreeable freedom in their intercourse. Indeed one cannot spend a few days in Manila without feeling glad if it happens to be at the close of a long tour; for as it will be most likely to be pronounced the climax of his social experience, it will be appropriate to leave it at the close.
I used to drive with Mr. Peirce when he visited the sugar mills where his House were obtaining their supply of sugar to load our ship. We saw the crude material just from the cane, drying in the sun. I remember that on our passage home from Manila the cabin table happened to be short of sugar; but having three million pounds on board we ventured to draw on the cargo for a supply. When it came on table from the hold, the sight of it made us feel that sugar refinery was far from being a luxury, for it was hard to believe that the dark, coarse stuff could ever become white powdered sugar. Could we but shut our eyes, as we were inclined to do when we put it into our cups, we could draw from it a power of sweetness, though with a large tare and tret of original fibrous matter.