SIGHTS IN PONDICHERRY.—THE FRENCH EAST INDIES.—VOYAGE TO MADRAS.
The steamer lay quietly at anchor during the night, though she rolled somewhat from the motion of the waves that sweep almost constantly from the Bay of Bengal. The anchorage is only an open roadstead, and sometimes the surf beats on the sandy beach with such force that landing is next to impossible. There is a small river emptying into the sea at Pondicherry, but it is only accessible to native craft, which draw but little water, and to the smallest of foreign vessels.
In the morning all the passengers went on shore, with a warning from the captain to return before noon, as he should sail for Madras a few minutes after the sun had passed the meridian. There was hardly any wind blowing, and the surf was quite light on the beach: our three friends united with one of the other passengers in hiring a boat rowed by eight men, which was to take them ashore and back again to the steamer for the aggregate sum of four dollars. As soon as the four were seated in the stern of the craft the natives pulled vigorously at their oars, and shot the boat ahead with satisfactory velocity; they accompanied their rowing with a song which was sung by the two sides of rowers alternately, and then by the whole crew in chorus. The words, as near as the boys could make them out, were about as follows:
"Ahee! ma wala deery—
Ahee! ja nala meery—
Ahee! wala, nala, jan!"
GOING ASHORE.
As they reached the shore the boat rose on the crest of a wave, and the instant she touched the sand the crew sprung out and seized her sides to run her up the beach before the next wave could arrive. Nobody received the least wetting, but the shore was so damp with the spray and surf that walking was not desirable. The boatmen stepped into position to receive the passengers on their backs, and our friends went ashore in a manner that was not altogether dignified, though decidedly comfortable.
NATIVES IN THE SURF.
When the north-east monsoon is blowing in its full force the surf is so heavy that no boat can live in it. The great rollers rush in one after the other in rapid succession, and with a front ten or twelve feet high: foreigners are cautious about venturing into it at such times, but the natives have no such fears, and many of them improve the opportunity for surf-bathing. With a short plank to keep them afloat, they spring into the waves and allow themselves to be tossed here and there by the turbulent waters, and if they are thrown on the sand again and again they sustain no injury.
SCENE NEAR PONDICHERRY.
As they walked along the beach and into the city, Doctor Bronson told his young companions about Pondicherry and its history.
"Pondicherry," said he, "is the capital of the French possessions in India—Les Indes Orientales Françaises. It is a city of barely 50,000 inhabitants, and the French territory attached to it has about 200,000 inhabitants on an area of 112 square miles. There are two or three other small settlements in India belonging to the French, but altogether they do not number 50,000 people in their limits. This is all that is left of the once wide possessions of the French in India. There was a time when the French were more powerful in the East than the English, and about the middle of the last century the latter began to fear that they would be driven out of Hindostan by their rivals. The French held more than half the country, and Madras and the principal cities in the English possession were besieged by the French and their native allies. The genius of one man turned the tide of war, and a succession of victories gave the English practical control of the whole country."
"That man was Lord Clive, was he not?" said one of the boys.
"Yes, Lord Clive. He organized a small force of English and native soldiers, and managed them so skilfully that one after another of the enemy's strong places fell into his hands. I advise you to read the history of his life whenever you have the opportunity, as it is exceedingly interesting, and will amply repay you for the perusal. I cannot, in the time at our disposal, give you even a brief outline of it, as it covers many events of importance, and includes a period of nearly twenty-five years. He fought many battles, and was nearly always victorious: the most important was the battle of Plassey, which occurred on the 23d day of June, 1757."
"I've read about that battle," said Frank; "it was the one that decided the question of the English staying in India or being driven out of it."
"You are right," answered the Doctor; "if the battle of Plassey had gone the other way, the English power would have been completely broken, at least that is what the English historians themselves admit. Clive's army consisted of only 3000 men, and two-thirds of them were native soldiers, the rest being Englishmen. The native army opposed to him was 55,000 strong, consisting of 40,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and having fifty large cannon, drawn by elephants and oxen. It is proper to say that the infantry was armed principally with pikes, swords, and bows and arrows, and the only weapons using gunpowder were some old-fashioned firelocks. The English had the best fire-arms of those times, and their artillery was far superior to that of the natives, though the number of pieces was smaller.
"The native nabob who commanded opened fire on Clive with his heavy guns, but they did very little harm. The English artillery replied with such deadly effect that the nabob ordered a retreat; Clive's army then advanced, and the enemy was thrown into confusion, and the retreat became a disorderly rout. All their artillery and camp equipage fell into the hands of the English, and the victory was complete."
One of the boys asked if many of the combatants were killed.
"No," was the reply; "the loss of life on both sides was very small, especially for such a complete defeat on one side, and a decisive victory on the other. About 500 of the native army were killed, and a great number made prisoners; the English lost twenty-two killed and fifty wounded—when I say English, I mean the entire army under Clive's command.
"Clive's victory at Plassey was followed by another at Patna over the troops of the Great Mogul, and in the year 1759 he defeated an army that was sent from the Dutch East Indies by the Governor of Batavia. Then he went to England, where he remained four years before returning to India to resume his command of the affairs of the colonies. On his final return to England his administration was questioned, but he vindicated himself in a parliamentary examination and died in 1774."
While this conversation was going on our friends were strolling through the streets of Pondicherry, and observing its peculiarities. Fred said he expected to see a great fort and many soldiers, but the Doctor told him that when the place was given up by the English, in 1814, it was on the condition that no European soldiers should be kept there, and no fort should be built. The same was the case with the other French possessions in India, and consequently they could never be of any military importance, and would speedily fall into the hands of the English in case of war between the two countries.
HOUSE IN THE EUROPEAN QUARTER.
They found that the European quarter was well laid out along the sea shore, and separated from the native portion by a ditch, which was crossed by several bridges. The streets are broad, and shaded by magnificent trees, and nearly every house has a fine garden attached to it. The squares are large, and there are many temples and pagodas that tell the traveller he is in India. Many of the natives speak French, and altogether they appear content with the foreigners that rule over them.
AN INDIAN WOMAN.
They met many natives, and the boys were impressed with the oddity of the appearance of many of them. The quantity of jewellery worn by the women surpassed what they had seen in Ceylon, or in any of the countries hitherto visited, and one of them remarked that people in India were willing to suffer much inconvenience for the sake of fashion. As he said so he pointed out a woman who had a ring at least two inches in diameter thrust through one side of her nose in such a way that it hung down over her mouth, and reached to the level of the base of her chin. It certainly appeared as though it would be a great hinderance to eating and drinking, but the woman seemed proud of her adornment, and probably would have been unwilling to part with it.
It was further observed that she had her ears pierced with several holes, and each hole contained a ring. The whole front of the ear was filled with rings. As if this were not jewellery enough, she had a double string of beads on her neck, a great necklace of silver coins that hung to her waist, and a couple of ornaments on each arm. Bells tinkled as she walked, and, on glancing at her ankles, Frank and Fred observed that they were beautified with heavy rings of silver.
AN INDIAN MAN.
The fondness for jewellery was not confined to the women by any means, as the boys had occasion to remark before they had finished their discussion of the wearer of the many rings. They saw several men whose ears were pierced in the same way as those of the women, but they were content with filling the holes with delicate pearls. A few of the wealthiest of the native men had diamonds in their ears, but the lower classes could not afford such a luxury.
In front of the principal hotel of the city there was a group of natives around a performer who appeared to be doing something interesting. Our friends stopped to see what the attraction was, and found that a snake-charmer was exhibiting his power over a cobra-di-capello. As the boys had not yet seen a snake-charmer in India, the Doctor motioned to the man to bring his serpent near the veranda of the hotel, where the strangers took their seats. Accordingly the performer brought forward a small basket, about the size and shape of an ordinary cheese, and then squatted in front of it.
A SERPENT-CHARMER.
With an instrument somewhat resembling a flute he began playing a dull, monotonous air; in a few moments there was a movement under the bit of cloth that lay in the basket, and presently the head of a cobra appeared. Slowly the snake elevated himself till nearly half his length was in the air, and as long as the music continued he swayed his head backward and forward, and apparently tried to keep time to the tune. When the musician laid aside his flute the snake subsided, and crawled under the blanket as though he wished to go to sleep again. The performance was over, and the man advanced with a low bow and extended his hand for his reward. The Doctor gave him a sixpence, another spectator added a similar amount, and the snake-charmer went away satisfied.
"He was only an ordinary performer," said the Doctor; "I can show you some that far excel him before we have been long in India. Their adroitness will astonish you, and some of their tricks will appear like the work of a magician; I will not detract from their interest by telling you what they will do, but would rather have you wait and see for yourselves. The time for our return to the ship is approaching, and we had better move on."
Suiting the action to the word the Doctor rose, and was followed by the youths. In a little while they were passing through the surf and out toward the ship, which they reached without mishap of any kind. A little past noon the anchor was lifted, and the steamer was under way for Madras.
It is about ninety miles from Pondicherry to Madras, and as the steamer was not a fast one, it was well into the night before she arrived at the latter port. The captain announced that she would remain there until evening of the second day after their arrival, and thus they would have two full days on shore. They could do as they liked about coming off to sleep on board or staying at a hotel. As there was a good chance of a wetting in the surf while going back and forth, it did not take a long consultation for them to decide to remain on shore. Rising early in the morning they ate a light breakfast, and then took their satchels with such toilet-articles as they desired during their single night on land. Plenty of boats were at the ship's side, and a bargain was made to the effect that for two rupees each they were to be carried to the shore and back again, with a rupee additional to the crew by way of perquisite.
MASULLAH-BOATS IN THE SURF AT MADRAS.
The boat they engaged was of the variety known as the masullah; it was made of long thin planks, and the sides were very high in order to keep out the surf, or as much of it as possible. The planks extended from one end of the boat to the other, and were tied together with coir ropes running through small holes bored in the edges. The seams were calked with the fibres of the cocoa-nut-tree, and daubed with pitch; but in spite of this precaution the craft was a leaky one, and a man was occupied more than half the time in baling her out. The bottom was flat, and covered with a quantity of small twigs to keep the feet of the passengers from getting wet; the crew wore neither shoes nor stockings, and consequently it made little difference to them whether their feet were wet or dry.
The captain of the steamer told them that the masullah-boat was a remarkable construction, and though it appeared frail, it was in reality very strong. "It goes on the waves instead of through them," said he, "and is therefore just what is wanted for the surf. The sides are so flexible that they can be brought close together, and then sprung out again without apparent injury, as I have seen them do repeatedly. They bump against the sides of our ship for hours without any more effect on them than on a rubber ball, and they will carry any sort of cargo that can be lowered into them."
Away they went on their trip to shore, the crew singing the same kind of song they had heard at Pondicherry, and rowing with curious-looking oars or paddles that had quite a resemblance to enormous tea-spoons. As they neared the land, the waves rolling in from the sea were not a pleasant sight, and the situation was not improved when the men stopped rowing just outside the line of surf and demanded double pay before going in. This is a favorite trick with the Madras boatmen, and it frequently succeeds where the passengers are timorous: this time it did not work to their satisfaction, as the Doctor peremptorily ordered them to row back to the steamer if they were unwilling to keep to their bargain. Finding themselves foiled, they pulled away at the oars, keeping the head of the boat straight on for the shore. She rose on one wave, and then on the next and the next: there are generally three lines of waves pursuing one another, and the third, counting from the outside, is the one that breaks into surf.
As they struck the sand with the surf the boatmen sprung out and ran the boat out of reach of the next wave. A little water was taken into the stern of the boat in the shape of spray, just as they rose on the crest of the last wave; Frank was slightly sprinkled with it, but the Doctor and Fred escaped without the least wetting.
From the sand they were carried by the men to dry ground, and as soon as they were fairly on their feet a great clamor was raised by the crew for extra pay. The Doctor told them it would be due when they returned to the ship and not before, and without more words the trio walked off with their satchels, to which they had clung.
A CATAMARAN.
The masullah-boat is not the only kind of craft that passes through the surf at Madras. Just as they landed, Frank and Fred saw a sort of raft with two men on it boldly launching into the waves, and it was followed by another with only one man on it. The Doctor explained that these rafts or catamarans were made of three logs that turned up at the ends, and were lashed side by side, and they were chiefly used for taking letters and light parcels from ship to shore, or from shore to ship. The men that manage them have high hats with pockets in the lining, and everything they carry is put there for safety.
At the side of the street, just above the beach, stood a garry, or carriage, which the Doctor engaged to take them to the principal hotel. The crowd of boatmen and beach attendants followed, and pressed so closely that it needed several strokes of the umbrellas of our friends to keep them even a yard away, and, as they entered the carriage, a dozen hands were thrust into the windows with demands for backsheesh. Some of these fellows followed the carriage for nearly half a mile, shouting their complaints, and making a vain effort to be bought off. Doctor Bronson said they were the most persistent beggars he had ever seen, with the possible exception of the Arabs at the great pyramids in Egypt, and it was quite possible that the latter might learn a lesson from the beach-combers of Madras.
With the crowd shaken off at last, our friends had a chance to look around them and obtain their first impression of Madras.
The city stands on a plain close to the sea, and extends seven or eight miles along the coast. The view, as one approaches it from the water, is quite picturesque; between the beach and the first line of buildings there is a wide street, in which we see a good deal of activity in the early and late hours of the day, but very little when the sun is at or near the meridian. The densest part of the city is in the neighborhood of the long pier, and for nearly a mile up and down the shore the line of buildings is almost unbroken. This part of Madras is called the Black Town, and nearly all the business of the place is conducted here; in the rest of the city the buildings are much more scattered than in the Black Town, and, altogether, Madras is said to cover an area of about thirty square miles.
Frank wondered how many inhabitants there were in Madras, and what was the proportion between the natives and foreigners.
HINDOO NATIVE OF MADRAS.
"There are about 400,000 people living here," Doctor Bronson answered, "and the majority of them are Hindoos. There are less than 2000 people of English birth here, exclusive of the garrison, and there may be four or five hundred German, French, Greek, and other European nationalities. It is an odd spectacle to see so small a population governing a large one, but you must bear in mind that this is the case in nearly all the cities of the East where Europeans have obtained control."