From Japan and China to Europe there is a regular mail service each way once a week, and the arrivals and departures can be relied upon very nearly like those of railway trains. One week it is performed by the French steamers, and the next by the English, and so it goes on, from the year's beginning to the year's ending. The smaller lines of steamers add materially to the opportunities for a traveler between Europe and the far East, and it may be fairly stated that at all times of the year there are two steamers a week each way, while during the tea season there are double that number. When the new crop of teas comes in there is generally a race between two or more steamers from China to London; the shortest passage thus far recorded was made in thirty-seven days from Shanghai to the docks at London by one of these tea steamers, and her competitor was only a few hours behind her.
An English company skirts the coast of India and Ceylon from Bombay to Calcutta with weekly steamers each way; it sends its ships northward from Bombay to Kurrachee, Bushire, and up the Tigris as far as Bagdad, and from Calcutta it sends them to Burmah, the Straits of Malacca, and Singapore. There is a Chinese line from Rangoon to Singapore, touching the principal ports of Burmah and the Straits, and there is a Chinese line and a Siamese one also, connecting Singapore with Bangkok every four or five days. The Dutch owners of Java have a line from Amsterdam to Batavia twice a month each way, touching Gibraltar, Naples, and Suez, and they have several lines around the Java seas, to communicate with the Spice Islands, and enable them to keep a watchful eye over their possessions. About once a month they send a steamer to Melbourne and Sidney by way of Torres Straits, and they send a ship every week around the coast of Sumatra. The coast of China is well served by English lines, and in the last few years by a Chinese one, composed of ships purchased of foreigners. In the same way there is a Japanese company that navigates the waters around the Mikado's Empire, and also connects the Japanese ports with Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Yang-tse, the great river of China, is navigated by a Chinese company and an English one, the former being equipped with steamers built in the United States, and the latter with boats constructed in England, after the American model.
The ports of Australia and New Zealand are connected by local lines, and there are two or more lines of steamers that ply between Australia and England; from England to Australia the route is by the Cape of Good Hope, but on the return voyage the ships go through the Suez Canal, in consequence of the peculiar course of the trade-winds. On their outward passage they touch at the Cape of Good Hope, and thus come in competition with the lines that have been established between England and South Africa. The regular service is weekly, and performed by two companies, making alternate departures.
Coming back to Europe, we will turn our eyes toward the west once more. There is an English line running to the West Indies, touching the principal ports as far as Aspinwall, where they connect with the steamers of another English line from Panama to the Straits of Magellan. Three French lines perform nearly a similar service, one going from Saint Nazaire to Aspinwall, a second from Saint Nazaire to Vera Cruz, and a third from Havre and Bordeaux to Aspinwall. All these lines touch at ports on the way, and one of them has a branch to Cayenne; the departures each way in each direction are monthly, while that of the English one is fortnightly. Another French line goes to Brazil and La Plata, touching at the French colony of Senegal, on the African coast, and there are two Italian lines from Naples and Genoa that cover the same route, but without visiting Senegal. There are two other French lines to the east coast of South America, and two or three English ones, so that the traveler in either direction will have plenty of ships to choose from. Then there are local lines all along the coast, and there is an English line through the Straits of Magellan, and up the west coast of South America as far as Callao, not to be confounded with the one already mentioned from Panama southward. Besides these there is a Spanish company plying between Cadiz and Havana, and a Portuguese one from Lisbon to Brazil.
We have almost girdled the world in our observations of steamships, and may now return to New York. The advertising columns of the leading dailies will tell all about the numerous local lines that skirt our coast as far South as Vera Cruz and Aspinwall, and they may or may not tell us of a line from New York to Rio de Janeiro flying the American flag. Several lines of this kind have been established, but they have never been of long duration, as the cost of maintaining them is greater than the receipts, and the United States government refuses to adopt the English policy of sustaining steam lines by permanent mail contracts. As this page is being written such a line is in full operation; its permanency is to be most devoutly hoped, but hopes will not always pay the expense of running a steamship. An English line connects New York with Brazil, but does it in a roundabout way; the steamers go from England to Brazil, carrying cargoes of English manufactures, thence they take cargoes of coffee and other South American produce to New York, and at the latter port they load for home with whatever freight is offering.
Between San Francisco and Japan and China there are two lines of steamers; both are under American management, and the ships of one are of American build while those of the other are leased from English owners. The service is semi-monthly, divided between the two companies, and the broad Pacific is traversed in about twenty days. There is a coasting line from San Francisco to Panama, and there are two coast lines going north to Oregon and British Columbia. An American line runs from San Francisco once a month to the Sandwich Islands, and the Feejees to New Zealand, and there connects with the local steamers to Australia.
Here we are at the point we reached by steamer from Europe, and may pause awhile to consider other matters. We have seen the North Star and the Southern Cross, the pine and palm; blasts from high latitudes have chilled our limbs, and we have been faint and suffering under the terrible heat of the equator. But our tireless steamer bears us on and on, indifferent whether it breathes the airs of the tropics or the poles; its pulseless limbs are never wearied so long as we supply its digestive and respiratory organs with their needed aliments. The steamer has destroyed the poetry of the ocean, but it has been a material force in bringing peace on earth and good will to men.
CHAPTER XVI.
BY STAGE-COACH, DILIGENCE, AND POST.
The world moves rapidly, and the greater part of its motion, from a traveler's point of view, is by steam. On land and on sea the steam engine is the great propelling force; the railway train has usurped the place of the stage-coach and diligence, and the white wings of the sailing ship have been shrouded by the smoke of the steamer's funnel. The sailing ship and the stage-coach still exist, but their importance is gone, and, from present indications, there is no likelihood that they will ever return to their former greatness. On a few routes in England coaching has been revived, but only as an amusement, and there is no prospect that it will gain more than a slender patronage. The sailing ship is not a remunerative possession in competition with the steamer, and the persons who take passage in it wherever there is opportunity for the more expeditious form of travel are few and far between.
Before the general adoption of the railway in the United States, the mail-coach was in the height of its glory; all over the settled portion of the country the crack of the driver's whip resounded, and the vehicle, gaudy with paint, and dusty with what it had gathered from the road, was the admiration of all who saw it. The veterans who guided these conveyances were famous in their line as victorious generals, and it was the proud ambition of many a noble youth to be a first-class stage-driver on a great route. Early in the century, and down to 1840, the triumphs of these jehus were mainly in the Atlantic States and over the Alleghenies, but with the extension of the railway, the stage-coach became a star of empire, and took its course westward. The last great route of the stage-coach was covered by the completion of the Pacific Railway, and now its services are confined to localities that have not been reached by the iron horse.