Chinese Coolies

Monday morning, April 18/98. On board the SS P&O RMS “Rohilla” in straits of Formosa towards Nagasaki, our first port of call in Japan. Very fine morning, 10:30, your time 2 a.m. Sea smooth as molten lead & delicious air.

Well, I had to post letters at Hong Kong by 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. Had the mail steamer from Colombo, the “Coromandel”, arrived as advertised (daylight) then letters would have been delivered by 10:30 but at that hour the bags were just being delivered at post office. I watched them from hotel door. I took my 4 packages away to Mr. Plage‘s house near the China Sugar Refinery, two rickshaws: I in one with hat case, & the 3 pkgs. in the other. I got back about 12:30 & went to the Institute & got 2 letters, Willie’s & Mary’s, & parcel of papers. I read Willie’s first & very pleased I was with it. It was kind of him to go to Greatham & see them all, & I hope Horace did come & spend Easter. Also glad J. Garner is with Horace now. I noted the “Mail” contradicts the Gourley rumour & I seriously hope all is well with the doctor. Also I noted a paragraph say Mr. Steel was able to sit up a bit. Poor man. I do often think about him. Also I am delighted all goes on so well with you all.

[3:46]

Then Mary’s letter was so very comforting & gratifying, containing so very much of the very deepest interest to me, & so very graphically describing father’s last end & the laying him away. It was verily life giving after my anxiety & sorrow. How well all had been ordered, & with what satisfaction every detail had been worked out, causes me to give thanks for such God-sent mercies.

John Foster was not named. Surely he would be there. How kind of the friends from a distance to attend. Poor Mr. Gradon. I do believe he would feel father’s loss as that of a brother. They were great friends. So also Mr. Lockwell. I sent them both picture post cards from Hong Kong. How very strange father should end his life at W. H’pool & Hannah too. All things seem well ordered & possibly for all your comfort it was well it did happen at W. H’pool, as it enabled you all to help each other without the inconvenience of disturbing two homes. I feel very thankful it was so & my dear Willie with you, very comforting it is to me.

I have a feeling of satisfaction about Mr. Wright officiating. He certainly, next to Mr. Sinclair, & father thought much of Mr. Wright, & they were not exactly strangers. [3:47] Doesn’t it seem remarkable now all these associations blended at the last? Yes! Willie decided wisely to have additional carriages & I am pleased to know who occupied them. I think it will be well to get Wilson to inscribe on the stone father’s death when Mary goes to Berwick. I’ll enclose a copy for your approval, but Wilson must be instructed to letter it both in conformity with mother’s & every letter perfect. Let there be no hesitation about instructing him. One badly formed letter would spoil the whole inscription & be a lasting annoyance. (Watson’s to wit.) You quite surprised me about the amount of insurance, had no idea so much. Yes, I am sure father was much respected & well he deserved it as we consciously know. We shall ever have happy memories of he & mother. Oh! The mystery of the “beyond”. Can they have met? What would we give or do to know that great mystery? We believe it will be so & look forward to joining them.

We will have much to talk about when, please God, we meet, & I yearn to hear it. I can’t relieve my mind from regret that I should have been so far away from his bedside during his last hours. Oh, how strange it does feel. You can’t imagine the feeling [3:48] & it will, I believe, ever remain strange why it should have been so. Little did I or any of us think that within 6 weeks after bidding him goodbye at Berwick station he should have passed away, & at West H’pool too, & then all to have transpired 6 weeks before I knew of it. Oh, the great mystery of time & the unknown future. Truly it is well for us our vision is restricted. I am sure you all, like myself, have reason to feel grateful that God our Father in Heaven has given us the means & desire to have made both mother & father’s last years so happy & free from worldly care and anxiety, & how very appreciative they were for all we offered them. What happy & glorious satisfaction it is now that all is past.

We left Hong Kong on Saturday morning[1] (yesterday) at 5 punctually. I went on board at 3, Saturday, settled down, but got little sleep as there was much noise loading cargo &c. We have few passengers, about 20. Carl Hertz[2] & his wife are passengers. They have been performing at Hong Kong for 14 days – 2nd tour round the world. They are very quite [sic] & seem nice people, then there’s a Mr. R.S. Budgett & daughter doing the tour. I wonder if they are of the merchant stock. Willie can ask their traveller.

[3:49]

Yesterday was a most lovely day at sea. China coast in view all day. Sea smooth as oil. A most beautiful sun set (6:15). Hundreds of fishing boats we passed, but this morning our course is altered & only here & there do we discern land. This steamer, Rohilla, is sister ship to the Verona, exact, but we were most uncomfortably crowded in her but here is it delightsome beyond measure, & here I am on deck writing this on a table & sitting in my deck chair. No vest on but a beautiful blue silk Cummerbund on woollen shirt & feel very comfortable.

Captain has just told us he had seen an enormous devil fish jump out of the water. We can’t be every where & no doubt we do miss sights now & again. Yesterday I saw many porpoises & flying fish.

I am pleased to tell you I am feeling well & enjoy the sea atmosphere but hunger has never once been experienced. I fancy my stomach catar[r]h[3] has completely washed that organ, if such we possess, however I take my food & it agrees with me.

I have a bath every morning early, both at sea & ashore – salt water at sea & plenty of it, hot or cold, & fresh after it to wash the salt off. I have a big 4 berth Cabin to myself, ports (2) open all night till about 4 or 5 it comes in cool, [3:50] when I get up & partially close them. They have inside sliding windows, square ports & very much larger than the modern steamers. These old boats are popularly comfortable & I think so too.

Hong Kong I did like. It’s a most charming city & from the mid-harbour quite a lovely picture, but at night, seen from ship board, quite a panorama. It is built on the mountain side on terraces up, up, up, & dotted every here & there with out of the way palatial dwellings. Everybody goes up on chairs, 2 & 4 coolie chairs, rickshaws by the thousands, & its a treat to see the man-o-wars’ men riding in the rickshaws, Tommy Atkins[4] also & even negros, Chinamen too. Little walking is done by any one. Horses & carriages, or gharrie, are scarcely known. Little use for them except the coast road, which is a beautiful cycle road & much used. What thousands live in boats. Families born, raised, live, & die in boats. Women do rowing with the baby in a bag on her back. She sculls while some of the boys & girls rows. Some husbands work coolie work ashore & live in the boat – sampan – & the wife & children earn their living with the sampan, thousands of them all in the harbour [3:51] & as you approach the jetties or front of harbour, the sampan men, women, & children fairly mob you to take their sampan – “Sampan, Sir. Sampan”.

What strong men the Chinese coolies are. I never saw such muscles & calves, & the weights they carry, all by bamboo rods across the shoulders, & 2 baskets swinging from each end. 4 I saw carrying the big casks of Edinbro’ beer, “McEwens”. They sling it, two each end, & away they go with it up hill, & the hand cart – you see none of our horse coop carts so big – 2 ropes as shafts with 12 & 15 coolies who have ropes branching from the 2 shaft ropes & 2 men with the shafts at back guiding. Every thing is by coolie labour, & to see them coaling, discharging into go downs, that is warehouses, & then carrying out again as required. They go in hundreds too [sic] & fro, nearly naked, 2 baskets suspended from the poles across the shoulder. It is labourious [sic] work but they go at it in a smart style, always trotting, & must keep going or they would get run over. It is good to see how the tower of Babel was built. I passed one junk discharging into a go down a cargo of cases of Cutting’s apricots [3:52] another Gossage’s Soap – everything is here, everything we have – C&B’s, Moris Moreton’s, Mackonochies Roses, LJC, H&P’s. Every hotel has H&P’s milk & other biscuits, & the missionaries had H&Ps biscuits, Osborne, milk, nonpareil &c. &c. Also you see hundreds of cases of Swiss & English milk & did I tell you that at every station in India advertisements were “walled”, same as at home, every known tablet from Beecham to Whisky. The war ships in Hong Kong harbour, & they are numerous, display their search light every night & whenever a stranger comes in they salute each other with gun fire.

I got a new thin suit, a pair of check trousers like the old ones I have, & several other things in Hong Kong. My baggage gets sorely knocked about & a bit damaged now & again, but no wonder. The lock of my hat case got wrenched off but a Chinese repaired it most beautifully. It was only fastened in by straight brass small sprigs. Now it is bolted on the inside & nuts – very small & the surface outside smooth.

The crew of the steamer are all Chinese except officers & engineers, & they are very handy, & the stewards very cleanly but slow. Nothing hurries in the East.

[3:53]

I forgot to say how pleased I was to know Andrew[5] got a day off to attend his g’father’s funeral & stayed all night. Bless him. I feel proud of him & hope he is still happy & enjoying the piano!

Willie & he must get their cycles into first class repair for the season & I hope each will enjoy themselves. Willie is to get a trap driver also & run you all out on Wednesday afternoons when you care to. Be sure & make yourselves happy. Willie will please send up to Mr. Adamson a tin of pine or pears with my compliments. I sent him a p’card from Hong Kong, James too & Mr. Leask, & be sure to thank Mr. Leask & Thomas for me for their thoughtful kindness in sending wreaths for father’s grave.

My warmest regard to Mr. Nawton, & I oft wonder how his mother is keeping. Willie did not tell me what came of the Blenheims’ good luck & what amount I got. I intend to post this at Nagasaki when we arrive & again I will post before leaving Japan for Hong Kong. I come back in this steamer. She lays 9 days at Yokohama & this will do me for Japan.

[3:54]

[1] Inserted on facing page: “SS ‘Rohilla’ was advertised to leave Hong Kong harbour for Nagasaki at daylight Sunday morning. I went on board on Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock.

Hertz left England on tour January 1/96 & has been in the colonies a long while. 3 of his assistants are on board as 2nd class passengers. He has several pet animals also. He was advertised to perform at Kobe on Saturday 23rd April. We will only get there on May 1st. Nagasaki 25/4/98”.

[2] A world-famous illusionist credited with first taking “cinema” to Australia.

[3] Acute gastritis

[4] Slang for common British soldier

[5] Andrew isn’t living at home.  He is apprenticed as a Chemist with Mr. Elliot