The cure is an unlimited quantity of Kreuzbrunner water at six o'clock a.m., with an hour's walk, an exquisite band—just as good as Godfrey's, if not better—playing the while. The Maríenbad band is, I think, the best I have ever heard; the conductor is a very big "swell," and has lots of decorations. Later you have fifteen minutes' bath of Marien Quelle, which is wonderfully electric, and then you have a Moor-fuss-bad, which means mud up to the knees. To a novice this sort of thing is very amusing; to see the procession to the springs, almost like a religious procession, each with a glass in their hand. I think all this is a great mistake for some people, and only produces congestion—I think that Maríenbad exhales congestion out of the very ground. I found a good German professor to read with, and I established a little branch for prevention of cruelty to animals, which was very much needed, especially by the dogs which draw the carts.
I here made acquaintance with Madame Olga di Novikoff, who certainly kept me from feeling dull, for she was capital company—most amusing, and was to me a new and interesting study of the sort of life that one reads so much of, but in England rarely meets.
The Scientific Congress at Venice.
On the 7th of September I was so ill that I did not know how to get to Vienna, but I had myself put into a coupé to myself, with room to lie down, and I never stirred off it during the eleven hours and forty minutes viâ Pilsen and Budweis to Vienna, when at the station Richard awaited me with the information that he had got a dinner-party to meet me, and so I had to dress and receive. We had after this one delightful dinner and evening with Baron Pino and his wife at Hietzing, and next day we went down to Trieste. We just changed baggage and went to Venice for the great Geographical Congress, which was opened on the 15th. The illuminations at Venice were something to remember all one's life, every bit of tracery of the buildings, and especially that of St. Marco, being picked out with little lamps, and the artistic part of it was to throw the electric light only on the Basilica. I never in my life saw, and never shall again see, anything to equal it. Lady Layard gave a party to all the English and Americans, and the chief of the Venetian Society. Captain Vernon Lovett-Cameron, R.N., V.C., was staying with us, and we collected around us all the pleasantest people there at our breakfasts and dinners. The regatta was also a never-to-be-forgotten sight. The King and Queen were there. All the gondolas represented some country; there were the old Venetian gondoliers, there were Esquimaux, there were troubadours—you could not imagine a country or character that was not represented; and every gondola that assumed no character was dressed in gala array, and their men in gondolier uniform and sash. Ours was covered with pale blue velvet. Another day was the opening of the gardens of St. Giobbe by the Royalties. Here, amongst other friends, we met Mr. Labouchere, General de Horsey, who was a very dear friend of Richard's, General Fielding, and many others. There was a night serenade on the water with every boat illuminated, which was also a grand sight.
Captain Cameron was wild with spirits, and we had many amusing episodes and one especial sort of picnic day at the Lido, where, just as Lord Aberdare and some of the primmest people of the Congress were coming, Richard and he insisted on taking off their shoes and stockings and digging mud-pies, like two naughty little boys, and they kept calling out to me, "Look, nurse, we have made such a beautiful pie," and "Please tell Dick not to touch my spade." I could not speak to the people for laughing, especially as some of them looked so grave. However, Richard was exceedingly angry, as he had a good right to be. Here was a Geographical Congress just outside the City of which he was Consul, and, as if it had been done on purpose to let him down before foreigners, he was not only not asked to be the representative from Austria, but not even asked to meet his fellow-geographers, not even asked to take any part in it, not even asked to speak at it; so he held himself entirely aloof from them, as far as Congress was concerned, and he left his card in the Congress-room with the following squib, as spoken by the British representatives from London to Venice:—
"We're Saville Row's selected few,
Let all the rest be damned;
The pit is good enough for you,
We won't have boxes crammed."
Would they have ventured so to treat Stanley or Livingstone or any other Traveller? No! they would not. Every nation had put forth its best men, but it must be acknowledged—whether it is jealousy or what, I cannot imagine—ours get crushed and ignored on every possible occasion, and the men of intellectual straw shoot up to make fools of themselves and their country. The following letter was sent afterwards to Richard by our old friend, H. W. Bates:—
"1, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, W., October 1st, 1881.
"Dear Burton,
"I read your very amusing and clever account of the Venice Congress in the Academy before receiving your letter of the 26th. There cannot be any doubt that your estimate of the meeting is correct, and that it was a vain show without any serious import for science. But then the question arises, 'Who expected it to be otherwise?' We in London did not. A proof of which, take the fact that the R.G.S. did not send anything for exhibition. Lord Aberdare to a certain extent represented us there, but there was no intention, as far as I know, of British geographical science being represented there for serious purposes, because nobody here believed anything serious would be done at the Congress. Notwithstanding all this, I cannot understand how it came to pass, that you and Cameron were not asked to take the active part that was your due in the meetings and discussions. Nobody of course wanted geographical information, but for the European éclat of the thing you ought to have been put forward.
"Yours sincerely,
"H.W. Bates.
"P.S.—You will not see a word about Venice in our October number. We shall perhaps give a page about it in November, if I can get authentic report of what little work was done. Can you supply it, i.e. a dry, serious compte-rendu, professionally?
"Mrs. Burton's communication has not yet arrived. Give my kind regards to her."
On the 24th we all broke up and went back to Trieste. Captain Cameron then came to us at Trieste, and Colonel Gould, and Abbate Glübich.
On the 18th of November Richard, who had all this while been arranging the journey with Captain Cameron, had been employed by a private speculator to go out to the West Coast of Africa, especially to the Guinea Coast, and to report on certain mines there, which Richard had discovered in 1861-64 (when he was Consul for that coast, and was wandering about, discovering and publishing his discoveries), if he could conscientiously give a good one. He was to have all his expenses paid, a large sum for his report, and shares in the mines; so on the 18th of November we embarked at two o'clock in the day.