[Sidenote: Penang.]
[Sidenote: Bishop of Labuan.]
[Sidenote: Character of Chinese.]
Penang.—June 1st.—We have just returned to our vessel after a few hours spent on shore; or, rather, I have just emerged from a bath in which I have been reclining for half an hour, endeavouring to cool myself after a hot morning's work. We made this place at about eleven last night, running into the harbour by the assistance of a bright moon. The water was perfectly smooth, and I stood on the paddle-box for some hours, watching the distant hills as they rose into sight and faded from our view, and the bright phosphorescent light of the sea cut by our prow, and which, despite the clearness of the night, was sometimes almost too brilliant to be gazed at. When we dropped our anchor, the captain still professed to doubt whether or not he would have to proceed immediately; but he gave me to understand that, if he could not accomplish this, he would not wish to leave until twelve to- day, so that I should in that case have an opportunity of landing and ascending the mountain summit. On this hint I had a bed prepared on deck (fearing the heat of the cabins), and tried, though rather in vain, to take a few hours' sleep. At five A.M. I was told that the Resident, Mr. Lewis, was on board, that carriages and horses were ready, and that, if I wished to mount the hill, the time had arrived for the operation. I immediately made a hasty toilette, and set forth accompanied by the General, some of the others following. We were conveyed in a carriage three miles, to the foot of the hill, and on pony-back as much more up it, through a dense tropical vegetation which reminded me of my Jamaica days. At the end of the ride we arrived at the Government bungalow, and found one of the most magnificent views I ever witnessed; in the foreground this tropical luxuriance, and beyond, far below, the glistening sea studded with ships and boats innumerable, over which again the Malay peninsula with its varied outline. I had hardly begun to admire the scene, when a gentleman in a blue flannel sort of dress, with a roughish beard and a cigar in his mouth, made his appearance, and was presented to me as the Bishop of Labuan! He was there endeavouring to recruit his health, which has suffered a good deal. He complained of the damp of the climate, while admitting its many charms, and seemed to think that he owed to the dampness a very bad cold by which he was afflicted. Soon afterwards his wife joined us. They were both at Sarawak when the last troubles took place, and must have had a bad time of it. The Chinese behaved well to them; indeed they seemed desirous to make the Bishop their leader. His converts (about fifty) were stanch, and he has a school at which about the same number of Chinese boys are educated. These facts pleaded in his favour, and it says something for the Chinese that they were not insensible to these claims. They committed some cruel acts, but they certainly might have committed more. They respected the women except one (Mrs. C., whom they wounded severely), and they stuck by the Bishop until they found that he was trying to bring Brooke back. They then turned upon him, and he had to run for his life. The Bishop gave me an interesting description of his school of Chinese boys. He says they are much more like English boys than other Orientals: that when a new boy comes they generally get up a fight, and let him earn his place by his prowess. But there is no managing them without pretty severe punishments. Indeed, he says that if a boy be in fault the others do not at all like his not being well punished; they seem to think that it is an injustice to the rest if this is omitted. I am about to do with a strange people; so much to admire in them, and yet with a perversity of disposition which makes it absolutely necessary, if you are to live with them at all, to treat them severely, sometimes almost cruelly. They have such an overweening esteem for themselves, that they become unbearable unless they are constantly reminded that others are as good as they…. The Bishop seemed to think that it would be a very good thing if the Rajah were to go home for a time, and leave the government to his nephew, whom he praises much…. When we came down from the mountain we went to the house of the Resident on the shore, and there I found all the world of Penang assembled to meet me; among them a quantity of Chinese in full mandarin costume. It was not easy, under the circumstances, to make conversation for them, but it was impossible not to be pleased with their good-humoured faces, on which there rests a perpetual grin. We had a grand 'spread,' in which fresh fish, mangosteen, and a horrible fruit whose name I forget (dorian), but whose smell I shall ever remember, played a conspicuous part. After breakfast we returned to our ship to be broiled for about an hour, then to bathe, and now (after that I have inserted these words in my journal to you) to finish dressing.
[Sidenote: Singapore.]
June 3rd.—Just arrived at Singapore. Urgent letters from Canning to send him troops. I have not a man. 'Shannon' not arrived.
Singapore.—June 5th.—I am on land, which is at any rate one thing gained. But I am only about eighty miles from the equator, and about two hundred feet above the level of the sea. The Java wind, too, is blowing, which is the hot wind in these quarters, so that you may imagine what is the condition of my pores. I sent my last letter immediately after landing, and had little time to add a word from land, as I found a press of business, and a necessity for writing to Clarendon by the mail; the fact being, that I received letters from Canning, imploring me to send troops to him from the number destined for China. As we have no troops yet, and do not well know when we may have any, it was not exactly an easy matter to comply with this request. However, I did what I could, and, in concert with the General, have sent instructions far and wide to turn the transports back, and give Canning the benefit of the troops for the moment.
[Sidenote: Diversion of troops to India.]
The importance of the determination, thus simply announced, can hardly be exaggerated. 'Tell Lord Elgin,' wrote Sir William Peel, the heroic leader of the celebrated Naval Brigade, after the neck of the rebellion was broken, 'tell Lord Elgin that it was the Chinese Expedition that relieved Lucknow, relieved Cawnpore, and fought the battle of the 6th December.' Nor would it be easy to praise too highly the large and patriotic spirit which moved the heads of the Expedition to an act involving at once so generous a renunciation of all selfish hopes and prospects, and so bold an assumption of responsibility. Proofs were not wanting afterwards that the sacrifice was appreciated by the Queen and the country; but these were necessarily deferred, and it was all the more gratifying, therefore, to Lord Elgin to receive, at the time and on the spot, the following cordial expressions of approval from a distinguished public servant, with whom he was himself but slightly acquainted—Sir H. Ward, then Governor of Ceylon:—
"You may think me impertinent in volunteering an opinion upon what in the first instance only concerns you and the Queen and Lord Canning. But having seen something of public life during a great part of my own, which is now fast verging into the "sere and yellow leaf," I may venture to say that I never knew a nobler thing than that which you have done in preferring the safety of India to the success of your Chinese negotiations. If I know anything of English public opinion, this single act will place you higher, in general estimation as a statesman, than your whole past career, honourable and fortunate as it has been. For it is not every man who would venture to alter the destination of a force upon the despatch of which a Parliament has been dissolved, and a Government might have been superseded. It is not every man who would consign himself for many months to political inaction in order simply to serve the interests of his country. You have set a bright example at a moment of darkness and calamity; and, if India can be saved, it is to you that we shall owe its redemption, for nothing short of the Chinese expedition could have supplied the means of holding our ground until further reinforcements are received."
For the time the disappointment was great. His occupation was gone, and with it all hope of a speedy end to his labours. Six weary months he waited, powerless to act and therefore powerless to negotiate, and feeling that every week's delay tended to aggravate the difficulties of the situation in China.
Singapore.—June 5th.—It is, of course, difficult to conjecture how this Indian business may affect us in China, and I shall await our next news from India with no little anxiety. Await it, I say, for there is no prospect of my getting on from here at present. There is no word of the 'Shannon' and till she arrives I am a fixture.