Chapter I: Front Matter

EAST OF SUEZ

PRESENT-DAY EGYPT

By Frederic Courtland Penfield, Former American Diplomatic
Agent and Consul-General to Egypt.

* * * * *

_Secretariat
du
Khédive_

RAS-EL-TEEN PALACE,
ALEXANDRIA, 4th November, 1899

FREDERIC C. PENFIELD, ESQUIRE,
Manhattan Club, New York.

My dear Sir:

I am commanded by H. H. The Khedive to
acknowledge the receipt of the copy of your
book "Present-Day Egypt," which you have
so kindly forwarded for his acceptance.

I am to say that His Highness has read it
with much pleasure and interest, as it is the
only book published on Egypt of to-day by
an author thoroughly acquainted with the
subject through long residence and official
position in the country.

I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) ALFRED B. BREWSTER,
Private Secretary to H. H. the Khedive.

* * * * *

Revised and Enlarged Edition. Fully illustrated.
Uniform with "East of Suez." 8vo. 396 pages. $2.50

The Century Co.,
Union Square New York

EAST OF SUEZ
CEYLON, INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN

By
Frederic Courtland Penfield
Author of "Present-Day Egypt," etc.

Illustrated from Drawings and Photographs

"East is East, and West is West, and
never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at
God's great Judgment Seat."
_Kipling._

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1907

Copyright, 1906, 1907, by
THE CENTURY CO.

_Published, February, 1907_

THE DE VINNE PRESS

TO THE MEMORY OF
KATHARINE

Introductory

If books of travel were not written the stay-at-home millions would know little of the strange or interesting sights of this beautiful world of ours; and it surely is better to have a vicarious knowledge of what is beyond the vision than dwell in ignorance of the ways and places of men and women included in the universal human family.

The Great East is a fascinating theme to most readers, and every traveler, from Marco Polo to the tourist of the present time, taking the trouble to record what he saw, has placed every fireside reader under distinct obligation.

So thorough was my mental acquaintance with India through years of sympathetic study of Kipling that a leisurely survey of Hind simply confirmed my impressions. Other generous writers had as faithfully taught what China in reality was, and Mortimer Menpes, Basil Hall Chamberlain, and Miss Scidmore had as conscientiously depicted to my understanding the ante-war Japan. Grateful am I, as well, to the legion of tireless writers attracted to the East by recent strife and conquest, who have made Fuji more familiar to average readers than any mountain peak in the United States; who have made the biographies of favorite geishas known even in our hamlets and mining camps, and whose agreeable iteration of scenes on Manila's lunetta compel our Malaysian capital to be known as well as Coney Island and Atlantic City--they have so graphically portrayed and described interesting features that of them nothing remains to be told. But to know Eastern lands and peoples without an intermediary is keenly delightful and compensating.

The travel impulse and longing for first-hand knowledge, native with most mortals, is yearly finding readier expression. Our grandparents earned a renown more than local by crossing the Atlantic to view England and the Continent, while our fathers and mothers exploring distant Russia and the Nile were accorded marked consideration. The wandering habit is as progressive as catching, and what sufficed our ancestors satisfies only in minor degree the longing of the present generation for roving. Hence the grand tour, the circuit of the earth, is becoming an ordinary achievement. And while hundreds of Americans are compassing the earth this year, thousands will place the globe under tribute in seasons not remote.

For many years to come India and Ceylon will practically be what they are to-day, and sluggish China will require much rousing before her national characteristics differ from what they are now; but of Japan it is different, for, having made up their minds to remodel the empire, the sons of Nippon are not doing things by halves, and the old is being supplanted by the new with amazing rapidity.

Possibly it is a misfortune to find oneself incapable of preparing a volume of travel without inflicting a sermon upon kindly disposed persons, but a book of journeyings loaded with gentle preachment must at least be a novelty. Travel books imparting no patriotic lesson may well be left to authors and readers of older and self-sufficient nations. A work appealing on common lines to a New World audience would be worse than banal, and a conscientious American writer is compelled to describe not alone what he saw, but in clarion notes tell of some things he failed of seeing for our country, emerging but now from the formative period, and destined to permanently lead the universe in material affairs, is entitled to be better known in the East by its manufactures.

Every piece of money expended in travel is but the concrete form of somebody's toil, or the equivalent of a marketed product: and consequently it is almost unnecessary to remind that industry and thrift must precede expenditure, or to assert that toil and travel bear inseparable relationship. What the American, zigzagging up and down and across that boundless region spoken of as East of Suez, fails to see is the product of Uncle Sam's mills, workshops, mines and farms. From the moment he passes the Suez Canal to his arrival at Hong Kong or Yokohama, the Stars and Stripes are discovered in no harbor nor upon any sea; and maybe he sees the emblem of the great republic not once in the transit of the Pacific. And the products of our marvelous country are met but seldom, if at all, where the American wanders in the East. He is rewarded by finding that the Light of Asia is American petroleum, but that is about the only Western commodity he is sure of encountering in months of travel.

This state of things is grievously wrong, for it should be as easy for us to secure trade in the Orient as for any European nation, and assuredly easier than for Germany. We have had such years of material prosperity and progress as were never known in the history of any people, it is true; but every cycle of prosperity has been succeeded by lean years, and ever will be. When the inevitable over-production and lessened home consumption come, Eastern markets, though supplied at moderate profit, will be invaluable. We are building the Panama Canal, whose corollary _must_ be a mercantile fleet of our own upon the seas, distributing the products of our soil and manufactories throughout the world, and Secretary of State Root has made it easy for a better understanding and augmented trade with the republics to the south of us. But America's real opportunity is in Asia, where dwell more than half the people of the earth, for the possibilities of commerce with the rich East exceed those of South America tenfold. Uncle Sam merits a goodly share of the trade of both these divisions of the globe.

The people of the United States must cut loose from the idea that has lost its logic in recent years, that the Pacific Ocean _separates_ America from the lands and islands of Asia, and look upon it as a body of water _connecting_ us with the bountiful East. The old theory was good enough for our home-building fathers, but is blighting to a generation aspiring to Americanize the globe. The genius of our nation should cause our ploughs and harrows to prepare the valley and delta of the Nile for tillage; be responsible for the whir of more of our agricultural machinery in the fields of India; locate our lathes and planers and drilling machines in Eastern shops, in substitution for those made in England or Germany; be responsible for American locomotives drawing American cars in Manchuria and Korea over rails rolled in Pittsburgh, and induce half the inhabitants of southern Asia to dress in fabrics woven in the United States, millions of the people of Cathay to tread the earth in shoes produced in New England, and all swayed to an appreciation of our flour as a substitute for rice--yes, make it easy to obtain pure canned foods everywhere in China and Japan, even to hear the merry click of the typewriter in Delhi, Bangkok and Pekin.

Do we not already lead in foreign trade? We do, I gratefully admit; but it is because we sell to less favored peoples our grains and fiber in a raw state. Confessedly, these are self-sellers, for not a bushel of wheat or ounce of cotton is sold because of any enterprise on our part--the buyer must have them, and the initiative of the transaction is his.

What economists regard as 'trade' in its most advantageous form, is the selling to foreigners of something combining the natural products and the handiwork of a nation--this is the trade that America should look for in the East, and seek it now. It is not wild prophecy that within five years a considerable number of the sovereign people of the country controlling its growth will feel that it is carrying international comity to the point of philanthropy to export cotton to England and Japan to be there fabricated for the wear of every race of Asia, and sold in successful competition with American textiles. In the pending battle for the world's markets Uncle Sam should win trade by every proper means, and not by methods most easily invoked; and let it ever be remembered that shortsightedness is plainly distinct from altruism.

FREDERIC C. PENFIELD.

AUTHORS CLUB, NEW YORK CITY,
January 26, 1907.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE WORLD'S TURNSTILE AT SUEZ 3

II COLOMBO, CEYLON'S COSMOPOLITAN SEA-PORT 30

III THE LURE OF THE PEARL 50

IV UPWARD TO THE SHRINE OF BUDDHA 92

V IN CEYLON'S HILL COUNTRY 108

VI BOMBAY AND ITS PARSEE "JEES" AND "BHOYS" 126

VII THE VICARIOUS MAHARAJAH OF JEYPORE. 149

VIII THE WORLD'S MOST EXQUISITE BUILDING 168

IX BENARES, SACRED CITY OF THE HINDUS 185

X INDIA'S MODERN CAPITAL 205

XI ISLAND LINKS IN BRITAIN'S CHAIN OF EMPIRE 226

XII CANTON, UNIQUE CITY OF CHINA 244

XIII MACAO, THE MONTE CARLO OF THE FAR EAST 267

XIV THE KAISER'S PLAY FOR CHINESE TRADE 290

XV JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL FUTURE 315

INDEX 345

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

GULF OF MANAR PEARLING BOAT, AND DIVERS RESTING
IN THE WATER Frontispiece
From drawing by Corwin K. Linson.

PORT SAID ENTRANCE TO SUEZ CANAL, SHOWING DE
LESSEPS'S STATUE 8
From photograph by Georgilada Kip.

ITALIAN WARSHIP STEAMING THROUGH CANAL 13

CARGO STEAMER IN THE CANAL AT KILOMETER 133 25
From photograph by Georgilada Kip.

THE JETTY AT COLOMBO 32

HINDU SILVERSMITHS, COLOMBO 38
From photograph by Skeen & Co.

A HIGH PRIEST OF BUDDHA 42
From photograph by Colombo Apothecaries Co., Ltd.

REPRESENTATION OF BUDDHA'S TOOTH, COLOMBO MUSEUM 46

MAP OF THE GULF OF MANAR, "THE SEA ABOUNDING IN PEARLS" 53

COOLIES CARRYING PEARL OYSTERS FROM THE BOATS TO THE
GOVERNMENT "KOTTU" 60
From drawing by Corwin K. Linson.

THE LATE RANA OF DHOLPUR IN HIS PEARL REGALIA 67
From photograph by Johnston & Hoffmann.

INDIAN PEARL MERCHANTS READY FOR BUSINESS, MARICHCHIKKADDI 74
From drawing by Corwin K. Linson.

THE LATE MAHARAJAH OF PATIALA IN HIS PEARL REGALIA 83
From photograph by Johnston & Hoffmann.

A LADY OF KANDY 94
From photograph by Skeen & Co.

TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH, KANDY 99
From photograph by Colombo Apothecaries Co., Ltd.

CREMATION OF A BUDDHIST PRIEST 105
From photograph by Platé & Co.

TREES IN PERADENIYA GARDEN, KANDY 111
From photographs by Frederic C. Penfield.

TAMIL COOLIE SETTING OUT TEA PLANTS 115

TAMIL GIRL PLUCKING TEA 119

A KANDYAN CHIEFTAIN 124

PARSEE TOWER OF SILENCE, BOMBAY 129

A BOMBAY RAILWAY STATION 136

A BOMBAY POLICEMAN 141

HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH OF JEYPORE 148

A MATCHED PAIR OF BULLOCKS, JEYPORE 153

STREET SCENE, JEYPORE, SHOWING PALACE OF THE WINDS 157

COURT DANCERS AND MUSICIANS, JEYPORE 162

THE TAJ MAHAL, AGRA 169

ALABASTER SCREEN ENCLOSING ARJAMAND'S TOMB, TAJ MAHAL 175

INLAID WORK IN MAUSOLEUM OP ITIMAD-UD-DAULAH, AGRA 182

SCENE ON THE GANGES, BENARES 188

BENARES BURNING GHAT, WITH CORPSES BEING PURIFIED IN
THE GANGES 191

BENARES HOLY' MEN 198

A BRAHMIN PRIEST 203

A CALCUTTA NAUTCH DANCER 207

GENERAL POST-OFFICE, CALCUTTA 212

SHIPPING ON THE HOOGHLY, CALCUTTA 215

CALCUTTA COOLIES 222

HONG KONG HARBOR 229

HONG KONG'S MOUNTAINSIDE 233

A FORMER "HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR" OF HONG KONG 240

TEMPLE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED GENII, CANTON 247
From photograph by A-Chan.

CITY OF BOATS, CANTON, WHERE GENERATIONS ARE BORN
AND DIE 254

EXAMINATION BOOTHS, CANTON 261
From photograph by A-Chan.

PRINCIPAL SECTION OF MACAO 270

FRONTIER GATE BETWEEN CHINA PROPER AND THE
PORTUGUESE COLONY 275

MONUMENT AND BUST OF CAMOENS, MACAO 279

IN A FAN-TAN GAMBLING HOUSE, MACAO 288

TYPICAL BUSINESS STREET IN A CHINESE CITY 293
From photograph by A-Chan.

EXHIBITION OF BODIES OF CHINESE MALEFACTORS WHO
HAVE BEEN STRANGLED 300

SIMPLE PUNISHMENT OF A CHINESE MENDICANT 305

CHINESE BUDDHIST PRIESTS 311

BRONZE DAIBUTSU AT KAMAKURA, JAPAN 319
From photograph by Frederic C. Penfield.

A GARDEN VIEW OF THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, TOKYO 328
From photograph by Frederic C. Penfield.

JAPANESE JUNK, OR CARGO BOAT 337

EAST OF SUEZ