In no department of travel has more progress been made than in ocean travel. I crossed the Atlantic in 1861 in the "City of Washington," of the Inman Line, and returned in the Cunard steamer "Niagara," the voyage each way lasting twelve days, and they were twelve days of great discomfort. The sleeping accommodation was below the saloon; the cabins were lit by oil lamps, which were put out at eleven o'clock at night; the air was foul and stifling; and there was an entire absence of ventilation.
In the saloon, above the dining-tables, trays filled with wine-glasses swung from side to side with every roll of the ship; the saloon was lit by candles, which spurted grease and smelt abominably. There was no smoking room provided, and we sat in the "fiddlee" upon coils of rope, while the sea washed to and fro, or else we tried to get under the lee of the funnel. What a change has taken place, and how greatly the electric light has contributed to the comfort of travellers by sea!
The Franco-German Battlefields.
The most interesting journey I ever made was in 1871, when with my father and the late Dr. Grimsdale and Mr. Ryley I visited the Franco-Prussian battlefields. The war was not ended and the German army was still surrounding Paris, which made travelling difficult, but we met with great civility from the Prussian officers, and visited the battlefields of Saarbrück, where the Prince Imperial received his baptism of fire, Wörth, Hagenau, Weissenburg, Gravelotte, where we found men still burying the horses slain in the battle, Mars-le-Tour, Metz, and finally Sedan. We gathered many trophies, but were not allowed to bring them away. Wherever the Prussians made a stand and were slaughtered in their hundreds, as at Gravelotte, we found pieces of small German Bibles, and we were told that every German soldier, from the Emperor William downwards, carried a Bible in his haversack.
Costa Rica.
The year after I retired from business, in 1891, I visited Costa Rica with my eldest daughter, to inspect the railway in which we were much interested. The country from Port Limon, which lies on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, bathed in a tropical sun, to San José, the capital, is most picturesque and remarkable for its deep ravines, its rapid rivers, and its wealth of vegetation. On leaving Port Limon we passed through long and deep valleys filled with palms and every species of tropical plants, which made us exclaim that we might be in the Kew conservatories. We gradually worked our way up 5,000 feet to the plateau upon which San José is situated, and the scenery hereabouts reminded us of an undulating English landscape, such as we have in Kent or Surrey.
The railway was then in its infancy, and in a very rickety condition; it was said that the man who travelled by it for the first time was a hero, and if he travelled a second time he was a fool. But reconstruction was already in progress.
We were much interested in the banana cultivation, as it supplied cargoes for our steamers sailing between Port Limon and New York, a trade which has since developed into gigantic dimensions. We had all the anxiety of finding the capital necessary to finance both the banana industry and the railway, and like most pioneers we did not secure the reward; it went to an American company, who reaped where we had sown. My daughter and I had a charming trip to Cartago, and ascended the volcano of Iritzu, 13,000 feet, and from the summit had a view of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We made also a trip to the Pacific coast on horseback; it was a long journey, and in order to escape the heat of the sun we travelled chiefly by night. We passed innumerable waggons drawn by bullocks and laden with coffee for shipment from the Pacific coast. It required some vigilance on our part to prevent our horses being struck by the long horns of the bullocks as we passed by. We had eventually to leave the high road and strike through the bush, the Indians going before cutting down with their machettes the vines and tree branches which blocked the path. We returned only a few days later, yet such is the rapid growth of tropical vegetation that the Indians had again to clear the track. We stayed the second night at the village of Esperanto, and early next day reached the Trinidad gold mines, situated on the mountain side looking down on the Pacific coast. I shall never forget the view which stretched out before us. There was the Pacific Ocean lying opalescent in the bright beams of the morning sun, and studded with little blue islands, looking like so many blue beads upon a silvered mirror.
On our way out from Jamaica to Limon we spent two days at Colon. The works on the Panama Canal were in active operation. We went a little way up and saw enough to convince me that the French would never make the canal. The waste of money was prodigious. We saw a train of trucks loaded with cases side-tracked into the bush and completely grown over. The sickness was also terrible. Every day a funeral train came down to Colon from the works with bodies for interment, and grave spaces in the cemetery were so scarce that they were let at a rental of so much a month. Now, thanks to the researches of the Liverpool Tropical School of Medicine, these pestiferous swamps have been rendered innocuous.