“On board the I.M.S. ‘Kiautschou’
“January 16th, 1901.
“The weather was cold and windy when we arrived late at night outside Port Said, and midnight was well past when we had taken up the pilot and were making our way into the port. The intense cold had caused me to leave the navigating bridge; and as I did not think it likely that our agent would arrive on board with his telegrams until the next morning, I had followed the example of my wife and of nearly all the other passengers and had gone to bed. However, if we had thought that we should be able to sleep, we soon found out our mistake. The steamer had scarcely taken up her moorings when several hundreds of dusky natives, wildly screaming and gesticulating, and making a noise that almost rent the skies, invaded her in order to fill her bunkers with the 800 tons of coal that had been ordered. Perhaps there is no place anywhere where the bunkers are filled more rapidly than at Port Said, and certainly none where this is done to the accompaniment of a more deafening noise. Just imagine a horde of natives wildly screaming at the top of their voices, and add to this the noise produced by the coal incessantly shot into the bunkers, and the shouting of the men in command going on along with it. You will easily understand that it was impossible for anyone to go to sleep under conditions such as these.... After trying for several hours, I gave up the attempt, and, on entering the drawing-room, I found that willy-nilly (but, as Wippchen would have said, more nilly than willy) practically all the other passengers had done the same thing. There I was also informed that those who were in the know had not even made an attempt to go to sleep, but had gone ashore at 2 A.M. Port Said is a typical brigands’ den, and relies for its prosperity on the mail packets calling there. The shops, the taverns, the music-halls, and the gambling places are all organized on lines in accordance with the needs of modern traffic. So it was not surprising to see that the proprietors of these more or less inviting places of entertainment had brightly lit up their premises, and hospitably opened their doors despite the unearthly hour, being quite willing to try and entice the unwary passengers into their clutches.”
“Between Aden and Colombo.
“January 24th, 1901.
“ ... We did not stop long at Aden; and as the quarantine regulations for all vessels arriving from Port Said were very strict, it became impossible for the passengers on board the Kiautschou to land on the island. Aden, which the British would like to turn into a second Gibraltar, is situated in a barren, treeless district, and is wedged in between hills without any vegetation. Small fortifications are scattered all over the island. It must be a desolate spot for Europeans to live at. The British officers call it ‘The Devil’s Punch Bowl,’ and to be transferred to Aden is equivalent to them to being deported.”
“January 28th, 1901.
“ ... In the meantime we have spent a most enjoyable and unforgettable day at Colombo. The pilot brought the news of Queen Victoria’s death, which filled us with lively sympathy, and which caused a great deal of grief among the British passengers. Shortly before 9 o’clock we went ashore: and as the business offices do not open until an hour later—thus preventing me from calling on my business friends at that hour—I took a carriage-drive through the magnificent park-like surroundings of the city. The people one meets there are a fit match to the beautiful scenery; but whilst in former times they were the rulers of this fertile island, they are now, thanks to the blessings of civilization, the servants of their European masters....
“When we reached the old-established Oriental Hotel where we had our lunch, we met there a number of our fellow-passengers busily engaged in bargaining with the Singhalese and Indian dealers who generally flock to the terraces of the hotel as soon as a mail packet has arrived. The picture presented by such Oriental bargaining is the same everywhere, except that the Colombo dealers undeniably manifest an inborn gracefulness and gentlemanly bearing. When I tried to get rid of an old man who was pestering me with his offers to sell some precious stones, he said to me, in the inimitable singing tone of voice used by these people when they speak English: ‘Just touch this stone, please, but do not buy it: I only wish to receive it back from your lucky hands.’ In spite of their manners, however, these fellows are the biggest cheats on earth. Another dealer wanted to sell me a sheet of old Ceylon stamps for which he demanded fifteen marks—a price which, as he stated, meant a clean loss of five marks to him. When I offered him two marks instead, merely because I had got tired of him, he handed me the whole sheet, and said: ‘Please take them; I know that one day I shall be rewarded for the sacrifice which I bring.’ Later on I discovered that the same man had sold exactly the same stamps to a fellow-passenger for 50 pfennigs, and that he had told the same story to him as to me. Such are the blessings of our marvellous civilization....
“ ... In the afternoon we went for a magnificent drive to the Mount Lavinia Hotel, which is beautifully situated on a hill affording an extensive view of the sea. Boys and girls as beautiful as Greek statues, and as swift-footed as fallow deer, pursued us in our carriage, begging for alms. It was curious to see with what unfailing certainty they managed to distinguish the German from the English passengers, and they were not slow in availing themselves of this opportunity to palm off what little German they knew on us. ‘Oh, my father! My beautiful mother! You are a great lady! Please give me ten cents, my good uncle!’ We were quite astonished to meet such a large progeny....”
“February 2nd, 1901.
“.... The entrance to Singapore is superbly beautiful. The steamer slowly wended her way through the channels between numerous small islands clad with the most luxurious vegetation, so that it almost took us two hours to reach the actual harbour.... The food question is extremely complicated in this part of the tropics, which is favoured by kind Nature more than is good. The excessive fertility of the soil makes the cultivation of vegetables and cereals quite impossible, as everything runs to seed within a few days, so that, for instance, potatoes have to be obtained from Java, and green vegetables from Mulsow’s, in Hamburg. I am sure my geography master at school, who never ceased to extol the richness of the soil of this British colony, was not aware of this aspect of the matter.