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ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY
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OF
Dr.  James  Vanderpool,





      OF NEWARK, NEW-JERSEY,






  Who Died at Yokohama, Japan,




           JANUARY 14, 1876,





    Jn the Thirty-j^ifth Year of his ^ge,






 While nn a ^To^age artxuud the World. 
 
              Prefatory  Note.

                      —»<>»«>«—

  As this Memorial Sketch is intended for private  distri-
bution only, the  number of copies  being limited to thirty,
any apology respecting its contents may seem  to be unne-
cessary.
  Nevertheless, the compiler deems it proper to say to any
one into wbose bands it may chance to fall, that the matter
composing  it was taken from the private journal of Dr.
James Vanderpool, kept by him on his eventful voyage
from New-York to Yokohama, and from letters written by
him to friends at borne; and, further and chiefly,  that the
Doctor never  for a moment  imagined that  his  writings
would be published,  and they were  consequently  never
revised or corrected by him.
  It is hoped, that this explanation  will be  considered as
satisfactorily  accounting for  any  errors in  statement or
blemishes in style which may  mar this sketch.
427284 
 
          Biographical  Sketch.

                     -•—<«»t»—♦-

n^HE subject of  this sketch, Dr. James Vanderpool,
     was the the third son of Beach and Susan Chambers
{nee Fisher) Vanderpool, and was born in  the City of New-
York, November 4, 1841.   He died in Yokohama,  Japan,
January 14, 1876, in the thirty-fifth  year of his age.   His
father removed from New-York to  Newark, New-Jersey,
his native town,  about  one year after  the birth  of his
son James.   When thirteen years of age, James was placed
under the charge of Mr. Charles M. Davis, of  Bloomfield,
New-Jersey.    On leaving Mr.  Davis's school,  be went to
Mr. Maurice's Mount Pleasant Academy, at Sing Sing, New-
York, where  he was prepared  for college.  In  1859, he
entered the Freshman class of Yale College,  and  passed
two years at  that institution.  Thence he went, in 1861, to
Williamstown,  and  was  admitted  to the Junior class of
Williams College.   He was graduated  in the class of 1863 ;
and, returning to Newark, commenced the study of medicine
in the office of Dr. Isaac A. Nichols.  He remained  with
Dr. Nichols  about a year, and then matriculated  at the 
                            6
 College of Physicians and Surgeons  (Columbia  College),
 New-York City.   He received his degree of Doctor of Med-
 icine in 1866, and, in competition with  some fifteen or
 twenty other young physicians, sought the position of House
 Physician of the New-York Hospital, which then stood  on
 Broadway, opposite Pearl  street.  The  examination was a
 very severe one; but Dr. Vanderpool succeeded in securing
 the prize,  and acted for more than two years in the capacity
 of House Physician in that well-known  institution.
   In 1869, he settled in Newark, and commenced the prac-
 tice  of his profession.   He was  appointed a member of  the
 medical staff of St. Barnabas' Hospital, chartered in 1867;
 but  soon resigned  that position, in order to accept a mem-
 bership on the medical  staff! of  St. Michael's  Hospital.   In
 1870, he was elected brigade surgeon, with  the rank of Ma-
jor, on the staff of Brigadier-General Plume.
   In the  Summer  of  1873,  in company  with his eldest
brother, be made a trip to Europe,  and visited the British
Isles and a part of  the Continent.
   On November 29, 1874,  be sailed from the port of  New-
York,  in  the barkentine " James  Cot idle"  (new),  Captain
Alexander, bound  for Yokohama, Japan, with the intention
of making a journey around the world for the benefit of bis
health.  The voyage continued  without  extraordinary inci-
dent, until April 1, 1874, when, at 3 o'clock a. m., the bark-
entine  struck a coral reef  off the isles  of  Wangi  Wangi,
and between those isles and the island of Boeton, which lies
near the large island of  Celebes in the Oriental Archipelao-o, 
                           7
The barkentine was wrecked;  and the crew, including the
captain, his wife and two children, and the doctor, took to
the boats, and were rowed some twenty or thirty miles to a
village (Kapotah)  on the small island of Lombada, which
they found to be inhabited by savages, who with  some diffi-
culty were persuaded to permit them to land.  But, on the
whole, they  were  kindly received  by the islanders,  who
assigned them quarters under a large, palm-thatched fish-
ing-shed on  the beach.  They were at first  suspiciously
watched by the  barbarians, who would  not suffer them to
enter any oc  their villages.
   At the end of two weeks, the shipwrecked mariners were
rescued by an  Italian man-of-war,  a corvette, the " Vettor
Pisani,r' and were carried to Amboyna, on an island of the
same name, sometimes called the  " Nutmeg Me,"' in the pos-
session of Holland.  Dr. A"auderpool was courteously invited
by the  Commandant of the corvette, Sig. A.  di Negri, to
accompany him  to Yokohama, and accepted the invitation
as far as Hong Kong, where  he took passage  in  ihe White
Star Steamer  " Belgic," for Yokohama.
   He reached his destination  on the 8th of July, having
lost  a large part of his effects by the shipwreck.  While
awaiting advices in  Yokohama,  he  received the appoint-
ment of  Surgeon  on  the  first-class  passenger Steamer
" Golden Ag>\"   of  the  Mitsu Bishi  Mail  Steam   Ship
Company, plying between Yokohama  and Shanghai;  but
declined  the  position.  He soon made the acquaintance of
Dr. Eldridge,  the Physician-in-Chief of the Yokohama Gen- 
                           8
eral Hospital;  and, at his invitation, accepted the position of
assistant physician at the hospital, until he could make ar-
rangements for the future.   He occupied apartments at the
hospital; and,  on the night  of the  13th of January, 1876,
about 11  o'clock, was  heard to enter his room as  usual.
Not  appearing on the morning of the 14th, a Japanese ser-
vant went to his apartment, and found him dead in his bed.
He had  the  appearance rather of one that slept than of one
who  had already crossed  the dark river.  He was buried in
the foreign  cemetery on  the 16th,  the Rev. Mr. Miller,  i-.
missionary of  the Eeformed (Dutch) Church, reading the
burial service of the Church  of England, of which Dr. Van-
derpool  was  a  member.
  On the 22d of September,  the remains were exhumed, and
sent  to  Newark, New-Jersey, by way of San  Francisco.
They reached  their  destination  on the 30th of  October;
and,  the next  day,  were taken to  The House  of Prayer,
where funeral  services were held,  the  Rev.  Mr. Goodwin,
who had baptized Dr.  Vanderpool in that Church, on the
30th of March, 1872,  officiating.   Afterwards, they were
borne to Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and re-interred  in the
family vault.
MAY HE  REST IN PEACE! 
Journal   and   Letters.
   The following are extracts in regular chronological order
 from Dr. Vanderpool's Journal,  and from numerous letters
 written to his friends and relatives in Newark.   The first
 letter  is the one he despatched by the pilot, who took the
 " James Condie" out of the harbor of New-York:

                        On Board  u James Condie" \
                     12.30 p. m., November 29, 1874. j
 Dear Parents :
   They are just weighing anchor and setting some  of the
 sails, preparatory to the vessel's starting off on her lono-
 voyage.  A fine breeze is  blowing  from  the North  West;
 and, although the water is rough, the fog has entirely cleared
 away.  All last night we lay at anchor, where father, Wil-
 liam and Wynant left us, when they bade me good-bye.
  As I now write (1.20 P. m.), the bark is fairly on her way,
 and is  rapidly approaching the Narrows.  We will soon be
 out on the wide ocean, and  pretty rough we will find it,
judging from the state of the weather in the Bay.   The pilot
came on board at 11 this morning; and will take the  vessel
out, some fifty miles.  He expects to quit the ship, late in
the  afternoon.  I can't tell  "how I  like it, as far as I have
           2 
10
g0t"—everything about me is so strange and unusual, that
I can scarcely realize my position.
                " Alone, alone, all, all alone,
                  Alone on a wide, wide sea"
about expresses the state of my feelings at the present time.
Some other  ships  are starting off  at the same time as our
own, taking advantage of the  fine breeze which is blowing
from the North North West, to put out to sea.
  The steward, who is  the same intelligent genius who in-
formed father that the Cape of Good Hope and  Cape Horn
were near neighbors, told me this  morning, that it was his
impression that the " James Condie" was a lucky ship, and
could pass any of  the fastest ocean steamers in a  fair race.
Evidently, the  steward's strong points are  best  seen in the
cook's galley.
  You must excuse my inditing this letter  in pencil instead
of in ink.   I have not  yet taken out my writing  materials
from my trunk.   In fact, I have not begun  to get my things
settled; and cannot  do so probably for some days.  There
are six of us to sit down to meals: the mate,  the captain,
his wife and two children and  myself.
   The order has just been given to set all sail; and in a few
minutes we will be flying through the air and water at high
speed.
   The pilot has just come for  my letter, so  I must close.
   With love and a " God bless you" for all, believe me,
              Your affectionate son,
                                  James  Vanderpool. 
11
From   his  Journal.
                                     December 1, 1874.
   At 4 a.m., we went into the Gulf Stream.  The tempera-
 ture of the water was 74°,  and that of the air, 50°.  The
 wind is dying out, and  it is raining.   I must say something
 about our habits of  daily  life on shipboard.  Breakfast is
 on the table at 7.30 a.m. ;  and we who partake  of it in the
 cabin are supposed  to be prompt  in our  attendance on it
 and the  other meals, since those in the forecastle must be
 supplied  with their food  in  regular season—so much on
 board ship  depends  upon promptitude and order.    In  the
 cabin, we make  six at table—the Captain,  Mrs. Alexander,
 Miss Lela and Master Rob, the first mate, (Mr. McKinney),
 and myself.

   Towards the latter part of  December,  he  writes :
   The chief events I note in December are:  Catching and
 eating flying-fish.   These are an excellent small fish for a
 fry.   They are somewhat bony, but sweet, tender and juicy.
 One of the  seamen caught a dolphin,  and we ate a portion
 of this classical  fish  for supper.   I witnessed for the first
 time the beautiful spectacle of the bright and swiftly chang-
 ing hues of the  dying dolphin.   All the  prismatic  colors
 of the rainbow flash over the quivering surface of the fish's
body, as it writhes tortuously about in its final death-throes.
One instant, a portion of  the skin is a  dark blue, which, 
12
with electrical rapidity, is succeeded by a bright  orange or
yellow tinge.  This gives way to a rosy shade of red ;  and
then a wave of bright  green rolls over  and momentarily
subdues all other hues.  As death  comes  near at hand, the
dolphin gradually assumes a dull bluish-gray color—his
death hue—and soon the lovely death scene is over.
  The dolphin is an excellent eating fish.   The flesh is hard
and firm, and  a trifle inclined to be dry, but sweet—dimly
reminding  one of salmon.  A piece of silver,  generally  a
Spanish dolhir, is placed by the  regular sea cook in the pan
or pot in which  the  dolphin is cooked.   Should it  turn
black, which it never does,  the fish is pronounced in a pois-
onous condition, and is at once summarily hove overboard;
but if the silver retains its brightness, the dolphin is consid-
ered to be in a healthy  and edible condition.
  A few days after this, the same sailor caught a bonita, an-
other tropical fish, found in the same latitudes as the dolphin.
The bonita is a fat, clumsy,.unwieldy-looking member of the
finny tribe ; but a swift and graceful swimmer withal.   The
one we caught weighed about sixteen  pounds.   The flesh is
dense and dry, and not to be  compared in taste and flavor
with that of his more comely neighbor, the dolphin.
  Sometimes a large flock of flying fish would dart from the
water, presenting a beautiful resemblance to a flight of bright,
silvery-plumaged birds.  When they rise from the ocean in
such numbers, it is very probable that they are seeking ref-
uge by an aerial flight from the pursuit of  their dreaded and
ravenous enemies, the dolphins or bonitas.   The flyincr-fish.
is a warm-water fish, and is never found far from the tropics.
They are easily captured by exposing a bright lantern over
the ship's side on a dark night.   They are attracted by the
brilliant glare, as moths are by a  candle's flame, and fly at it.
Many in this way land upon  the deck, and being unable to
rise, are easily taken.  By this simple method,  we  have 
13
 secured several nice messes of  this peculiar fish  for break-
 fast.   The so-called wings of the flying-fish are nothing but
 its enlarged  bronchial fins.   It can sustain itself  in  the  air
 but a short time by means of these wings, and flies close to
 the surface, and almost invariably to windward.
   The  bark left port greatly overloaded.   Constructed to
 carry 1,000 tons, she was laden with 1,100; and, instead of
 drawing 16|- feet of water,  her  full allowance,  she draws
 nearly 18 feet.  Consequently, she is too  low in the water,
 has lost her  proper buoyancy, comports herself in a heavy,
 loggy manner;  and, in a heavy  sea, her  decks  are  almost
 constantly deluged.   On the 31st of December, the captain,
 in order to give his ship some relief, hove overboard about
 50 tons of her cargo, consisting of  kerosene-oil in boxes, each
 box weighing 84 lbs.   This eased her; but, on a  future
 occasion, it was found necessary to jettison a yet larger por-
 tion of  her cargo.
  Before reaching and while sailing in the tropics, we were
 grievously retarded in our  progress towards the line  by
 many calms and baffling winds.  Some days,  we lay helpless
 as a log, a scorching tropical sun, almost-in the very  zenith,
 darting down his fiery, perpendicular rays  upon us, as we
 sluggishly  lay rolling in the swell of the  sea,  and lazily
 drifting in its currents,
           " As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean."
  On other  days, we lay becalmed- in showers.    We were
 thirty-nine days in reaching the Equator, which we crossed
January 7, 1875, in Long. 28° 35' W.   Near the line, we.
first saw the  Southern Cross, that beautiful constellation,
consisting of four stars of great  brilliancy  (three of them
of the first magnitude), in the form of a cross, 70° S. E. of
Sirius, in the  neighborhood of the South Pole.    Near this
constellation  are the  Magellan clouds,  two  large nebulous
clusters. 
14
  Impelled by the trade winds, we sailed along blithesoinely
enough.  The direction of these winds is from the North East,
North of the Equator; and from the South East, South of
that line.  They are separated from one another by a region
of calms,  where  thick, foggy air  prevails, with  frequent
rains, accompanied by thunder  and  lightning  (the  Dol-
drums).  The "trades" generally extend more to the North
than to the  South of  the line.   In  breadth,  they vary be-
tween three  and  ten  degrees.   They elicited the astonish-
ment of the  early navigators, and  were considered among
the inexplicable mysteries of  Creation ;  but now, by careful,
scientific investigation, they are found to be amenable to
the inviolable laws of Nature; and the navigator  pursues
his trackless  journey with  perfect confidence,  under  the
benign influence of  extended knowledge.
   The "trades" extend  over that portion of the earth's
surface  which is heated by  a tropical  sun, and the air, be-
coming rarified and expanded, causes a current to set in
from either icy pole towards the line.
   On  February  10th,  1875, we met the  American ship
"Sapphire" from Cardiff  to Batavia, and  indulged in quite
a long chat  with her, by means of the variously colored flags
and pennants employed at sea for conversational purposes.
After learning one another's longitude, as calculated by each
vessel,  and  exchanging mutual wishes  for  a  prosperous
voyage, we  separated, and went on  our respective courses.
   In the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope (which
we doubled on the 8th of February), we fell in with the first
albatross we had yet seen.   I had heard much of this great
sea-bird, and  the impressions I had formed  of  it derived
their depth  and color chiefly from reading in my  younger
days Coleridge's weirdly beautiful poem,  "The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner."  In this remarkable ballad, the sacred
character of the albatross and the superstitious veneration with 
15
which it was formerly regarded by seamen, and the fearful dis-
asters which befell the ship and  her crew, in consequence of
the ruthless slaying of one of these birds by a sailor—are
vividly described.  This noble bird occupies the same proud
position among his  fellow sea-birds as does the lordly eagle
among the feathered tribes  on  terra firma.  He  is a very
king of marine birds.   His outstretched pinions frequently
measure from  eleven to fourteen feet from tip to tip; and in
the strongest gales  he sweeps majestically over the foaming
billows, skimming over them, and often grazing their spray-
covered summits—for hours,  apparently without moving his
enormous wings.   He can fly in the teeth of  the fiercest
wind;  and can also alight and swim upon the surface of the
water,  with the ease and gracefulness of  a swan.   The eyes
of the albatross  are dark and beautiful, with a singularly
mild  and soft expression.   These birds readily  approach
a  ship to  pick up the bits of  fat pork or pieces of bread
thrown over to them; and are frequently captured by means
of a large fish-hook, baited with a tough piece of pork.
   The 31st of January was  made memorable by our  cap-
ture of a large, female albatross.   I say "our," because I
assisted the others  in effecting the capture.  It was a calm
evening,  scarcely a ripple roughening  the smooth  ocean.
The poor bird was lured to  the vessel's stern, by means of
the tempting  bait of a piece of pork fastened  to  a  hook;
and was then  transfixed by a " grain " (harpoon), hurled by
one of the sailors.   This albatross measured eight and a half
feet  across the wings.   I secured one of the long, slender,
hollow wing-bones, so  much  prized for pipe-stems, as a tro-
phy.   I also succeeded at various times  in  catching several
Mother Carey's chickens.   They are a very pretty little bird,
with lovely black eyes, and long, black, slender legs, termin-
ated by web feet.
   About one month out, after I had become partially adapted 
16
to my strange mode of life on shipboard, I commenced the
study of Navigation, in an amateur sort of way.   I acquired
a fair knowledge of plain, parallel and middle latitude sail-
ing, with a  general idea of great circle sailing, and  also  of
nautical astronomy.   Then I learned the use of the sextant,
and became skilful enough in  the employment of this instru-
ment to  get a pretty accurate altitude of the sun.   After
a while, I found I was able to  ascertain tolerably well a ship's
latitude and longitude, her course, departure, etc.  It is not
a difficult science  to  master—in  fact, just hard  enough  to
give its acquirement a spice and zest.  Nearly all the prob-
lems likely to  arise in navigating  a ship  can be solved by a
careful inspection of the  right  tables in  the proper mathe-
matical works, especially in the Nautical Almanac, published
annually at  Greenwich.
  I found an  old  Spanish grammar in the  Captain's cabin,
and tackled  that.   I wanted to attain to  a sufficient knowl-
edge of the  Spanish language—one of the most magnificent
in the world—to enable me at least to read it.   I found it
not a difficult  tongue to  learn; but to study any language
without the aid of a  master  is a laborious  task.  One has
an uneasy feeling, that he is  not  learning correctly step, by
step, as he advances.  This is especially the case in regard to
the pronunciation.          *     *     *     *    *     *

  How very disagreeable it  is writing  at sea on such an
inconvenient table as  I am forced to use, with a great rim,
two inches high, all around its edge.



  I had quite a  practice among  the ship's crew.  Anion t'-
other patients, I had the second mate, a good specimen  of a
New-York bummer, who  feigned a severe  illness, kept his
berth,  and sent for me.   But I  had  seen  a good deal  of 
17
"sojering" at the old New-York Hospital, and I soon saw
into bis little game.   I applied an enormous blister over his
entire abdomen.  He made a rapid recover}-.

                      the ocean.
  To thoroughly appreciate sea-life, one must take a long
voyage in a sailing-vessel.
  How mistaken are they who call the sea monotonous.  I
think the aspect of the ocean is never precisely the same on
different occasions.   It  varies  unceasingly in  motion, in
color, in  expression, in lustre.
  Between the ocean  in a tempest, when
                  "hills of seas, Olympus high,"
rise and fall in endless succession, and when the winds "take
the ruffian billows by the top," "curling their monstrous
"heads, and hanging them with deafening  clamour in the
"slippery shrouds," when all  is  gloom,  wild tumult and
commotion, and  the  ocean in  a state of perfect  calm—its
glassy surface  of unruffled smoothness, spread out like a vast
mirror—the contrast is indeed immense.   But, between these
two radically opposite conditions—themselves never exactly
alike in every particular—there intervenes an endless,  grad-
uated series of changes in appearance, very often impossible
to describe, but which do not escape the observation of one
who loves to study the features of the mighty deep.
  As only the skilled e\re of affection is able to detect and
understand those minute  shades of expression in the familiar
features of the loved one; can alone perceive the faint quiv-
ering of the lip, the dim  shadow of the frown that scarcely
darkles the uncontracted brow, the momentary scintillation
of the light that flashes from the eye, the repressed shrug of
the shoulders,  or the half-checked toss of the head—none of
which a less interested observer would notice: so it is only
           3 
18
be who has gazed long and  often upon the beautiful  and
sublime visage of the eternal ocean, has intelligently noted
its differing moods and their  external denotements—who is
capable of  appreciating  those endless minuter variations of
aspect, which elude the  careless or superficial observer, who
pronounces the ocean dull and monotonous.
  The great multitude and variety of the epithets bestowed
upon Neptune's domain, descriptive of one or more of its
innumerable characteristics,  prove  the  number of different
impressions its versatility makes on different minds.
  To mention a few of  these titles, some of them sublimely
expressive, will recall  to the memory many others.   Old
Aschylus  (was  it not?), in his "Prometheus  Vinctus,"  em-
ployed that imperishable figure, representative of  the ocean
in one of its sunny,  dimpling moods:
                          "pontion te kumaton
                anerithmon gelasma,"
the countless laughter of the waves of the sea.
   These words are a beautiful  poem in themselves—an ex-
quisite onomatopoeia, which paints graphically  the aspect
of  ocean when its sparkling  waves are merrily dancing in
the joyous sunlight.   Homer often speaks  of  " the loud
sounding sea,"  "the  earth-shaker."   Shakspeare writes of
"the  cradle of  the rude,  imperious  surge," "Neptune's
salt-wash."  Then we  hear of "the  trackless  main," "the
sparkling  brine,"  "the  multitudinous seas  incarnadine,"
" the deep  blue  ocean,"  " the marbled ocean," {Homer), "the
fickle ocean,"  "the  treacherous  ocean,"  " the briny deep,"
{SIiale),  "the wide  sea,"  "the never  quiet  ocean,"  "the
 tossing sea," "the cruel waves," "illimitable ocean," (Milton)
 "breezy deep,"  {Pope),   &c,  &c.   Indeed,  old Ocean  ever
 speaks a varied language to him who loves to hold con-
 verse with him, and to view his majestic face  with  love
 and reverence and awe, 
19
                                       March 14, 1875.
   I  shall  never forget  the  afternoon  of  this  memorable
Sunday, or the novel and deep emotions I then experienced.
About 5 o'clock  p.m., for the first time in over a hundred
days, I  once  more  had a view of land,  and inhaled its de-
licious,  indescribable odor. At that hour, the clouds, which
all day had obscured the horizon off our port side, cleared
away, and we saw the dim,  mountain outlines of the islet
of Panditti and the island of Lombok, distant forty miles.
Between the latter  and  Sumbawa lie x\llas Straits, about
twenty  miles  wide, through  which  our vessel intends  to
sail into the Oriental Archipelago.   The long, long voyage
I had made was an excellent  preparative for this first sight
of mother earth.  The almost measureless watery waste that
separated me from my western home  seemed like a page of
existence, void  and  blank.  Here  then at last, after crossing
the vast gulf that rolls between me and  the United States,
lie before  my eyes  the  golden Indies.   How many  a  bold
navigator has  lost  his life in endeavoring  to  reach those
shores, whose dim outlines I now perceive.  Of what crimes,
bloodshed, rapine have those enchanting islands  been the
theatre—occasioned by man's insatiable greed and lust of gold!
   These were some  of the confused thoughts which crowded
one another in  my mind  this  evening, as I gazed upon the
faintly-seen island of Lombok.   I never knew what it was
to love the land until to-day.   There was something almost
ecstatic  in the  thought that  it was visible and  so close at
hand.   " A life on the ocean wave," I think, is chiefly beau-
tiful  and valuable, because it heightens one's appreciation  of
the far higher, nobler life  on the blessed earth.   I can sym-
pathize with the impulsive feelings, which led Columbus and
his followers to kneel down and embrace their mother earth,
from whom they had been separated so long, when they first
landed in the New World. 
20
                                        March 17,.1875.
   We have been sailing Westerly along the South coast of
Sumbawa  since morning,  and have  only made about fifty
miles.   We must be  not  far  from  Alias  Straits.   As we
coast along this bluffy and precipitous shore, we enjoy some
charming views of  coast  scenery.   The hills are  covered
with verdure from the beach  to their very summits.   We
caught a fine glimpse of  the  volcano of Tambora, whose
cone-shaped peak rears  itself  high above the surrounding
summits; and, when visible  through the hazy shroud that
envelops it, forms  the marked feature in the prospect.  This
volcano, situated on the North side  of the island, in 1815,
burst out in a terrible  eruption.  Fire and ashes  destroyed
almost utterly the vegetation of the  entire island ; and the
wretched natives  perished by thousands from  starvation.
The ashes and scoriae vomited forth from the crater darkened
the air at a distance  of more  than four hundred miles from
the scene of  desolation.   Since that direful  occasion, the
mountain has remained in a state of quiet;  and in calm
majesty towers benignantly above its  harmless  companions.
  On the North portion of the  island  of Lombok, is another
volcano.  It is  extinct, or, at  least, has been  so for centu-
ries.  To-night,  the sun set in golden magnificence over the
western range of hills, which limit the island  of Sumbawa
in that  direction.  The transcendent  glory of  the regal de-
parture of the God  of Day  completely  baffles  my feeble
powers of description.   I simply record it as another of the
bewilderingly  beautiful tropical sunsets  that have  ravished
my vision and soul,  during this voyage.
          " Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows
           In yonder West: the fair, frail palaces,
           The fading Alps and archipelagoes
           And great cloud-continents of sun-set seas."
  Nature in all her manifestations is  so lavish of her power
and beauty—is  so grandly and wantonly exuberant  among 
21
her favorite tropics—that to one reared under colder  skies,
she  is  awfully, painfully impressive.
   Buckle,  in his incomparable work, The History of  Euro-
pean  Civilization,  from this fact of  the overwhelming dis-
plays  of force that Nature makes  in tropical climes, has
drawn  some startling conclusions  as to the  baneful  effects
such  exhibitions produce upon the mental, physical and
political organization of their inhabitants.    They are over-
awed into  a condition  of abject degradation and  supersti-
tion.    In the presence of this unseen, irresistible, beautiful,
and yet, sometimes, devastating power, they have a morbidly
acute consciousness of  their own  insignificance and  help-
lessness ; and, in slavish terror,  they  fall prostrate before  it.


                                        March 18, 1875.
   We are  still experiencing all the horrors  of a  calm  in
the torrid  zone.    Five days  becalmed under a burning,
vertical  sun—languidly rising  and  falling  with  the long
swell of the ocean, within  a few miles of the coast,  some-
times on our  port,  sometimes  on our starboard side, now
ahead, now astern, as the bark  lazily shifts her position  in
the changing currents—breathing the hot, heavy, moisture-
laden,  lifeless  air  of the  burning  zone.    Of what eternal
length  seem  the moments!   How  long, the long, weary
days !   No wind from day to day ; but every day

           " The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts,
            Among the palms and ferns and precipices ;
            The blaze upon  the waters to the East,
            The blaze upon the waters to the West:
            Then the great stars that globe themselves in heaven,
            The hollow, bellowing ocean, and again
            The scarlet shafts of sunrise,"
but no  wind.   Here we wait,  off this rugged coasted isle,
whose
              "Mountains are wooded to the very peak," 
22
and where
            " All round the coast the languid air doth swoon,
             A plaything of the elements,"
sadly realizing the truth that man is
               " Servile to all the skyey influences."
  0 weather,
            " Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
              Shall never tremble "
  The great beauty  and usefulness of the science of navi-
gation have forcibly  impressed themselves upon my mind,
and elicited my warmest admiration,  in the  course of this
voyage over the illimitable waste of waters.  Through the
trackless ocean, for a distance of 15,000  miles, we  have
found our way to the little narrow strait between Lombok
and Sumbawa, which formed our objective point.


               profanity among sailors.
  One disagreeable peculiarity, which has often forced itself
upon my notice, is a disposition among seamen to the  most
frightful profanity.    The  slightest provocation  will evoke
from  the  lips of an old tar a  mighty torrent of  invectives
and  expletives, which fairly freeze the  blood of one  only
used to the  ordinary  modes of swearing.   When sail  is to
be shortened,  or the  ship  to be jibed in rough weather, or
if any of  the  more  arduous labors in the  vessel's manage-
ment are to be performed—then, in the  hurry and  excite-
ment of the work,  are the flood-gates of  blasphemy  wide
opened; and fearful oaths,  dreadful objurgations and  terrific
curses resound on all sides, until the very atmosphere looks
blue and smells sulphurous.
  If a luckless mariner fails  to instantly understand and
execute an order, bellowed out by the roaring mate, or,  what
is worse, if he misunderstands,  and does the thing he  should 
23
not do—then is he overwhelmed by such a deluge of exe-
crations as would utterly paralyze  any one but a seaman
accustomed to such frightful bursts.
   Under so  powerful  an incentive  to displays of objurga-
tory powers,  the mate erupts like a  volcano in action; and
pours forth  red-hot lava streams of malediction, hurls out
vast, glowing masses of solid curses, scatters in every direc-
tion the blinding  dust and ashes of lesser oaths, and ap-
pears to be in momentary danger of exploding into  atoms,
in one grand detonation of profanity.  A command to haul
on a rope or to "belay there,"  or to "pull taut," is  accom-
panied with  a fiendish yell  of recommendation from the
mate of the  poor sailor-man's soul to a place  not to  be
mentioned to ears polite.
  To those unaccustomed to such imprecations,  these fre-
quent oaths  sound truly terrifying and loathsome.   The
vice of swearing, like most others, loses some of its evil  by
being deprived of its grossness.  There is an art of elegant
profanity, as Bob Acres essayed to teach.   But these nauti-
cal fellows are rough, uncouth and gross in all they do. Cut
off for the most part from the great,  busy current of human
life, they  are freed from the restraints, which  men  living
together in masses impose on each other's conduct.   Those
who dwell in cities are compelled to do this for their own
protection and comfort; but with seamen, roving in every
direction over the ocean, with no settled habitation, alone
in the world, with no strong ties to connect them with their
fellow-men, thrown into contact with associates as rude and
unpolished as themselves, no such necessity is felt to exist.
Consequently, Jack Tar, while possessing many praiseworthy
and amiable  traits of character, is to one of a refined and
sensitive taste rather a disagreeable, not to say, repulsive
object. 
24
                                      March, 20, 1875.
   Never did I think that I should live to have my patience
so bitterly tried.  The calm continues.  For an entire week,
have we been floating about, in nearly the same spot, im-
prisoned within wooden walls, seeking to enter Alias Straits.
It is the most trying of positions in which one can be placed.
The pen fails to give even a faint  conception of the terrible
irritation produced  on one's  nerves by a calm at sea, under
an equatorial sun.   But " break my heart, for  I must hold
my peace."  Words avail nothing.


                     MARINE DISHES.
   There are some dishes peculiar to marine bills of fare, of
which I should probably have  remained  in blissful ignor-
ance,  had I not undertaken  this  voyage.   These culinary
phenomena are never visible, I think, on land.  They exist
solely on board ship.  From time immemorial, these  gas-
tronomic productions of the  "cook's galley" have been held
in high  esteem  by the sons  of Neptune.   None but  the
nautically trained palate can fully appreciate  the gustatory
charms of these delicious viands—to the terrene general they
are caviare.  They suit not the uninitiated landlubber.
   I will  endeavor to describe these  mysterious alimentary
compounds.
   I mention first  " scouse"—not  because I consider  it  as
leading in excellence: for where merit is so exalted, such a
distinction might appear invidious—but for the reason that
this article of diet pertains  exclusively to the  first  meal of
the day.  It is a breakfast food.   Scouse is prepared  as
follows:   Sliced potatoes are commingled with small bits of
fat pork and a  few shreds of the remnants of yesterday's
ham or corned beef.  A "hard tack" or two is broken into
pieces and added, and the whole is  stewed together.  Put in 
                            25
 salt and pepper ad libitum.  There, " isn't that a dainty dish
 to set before the King? "
    Next we have "duff"—marine manna—the old Salt's am-
 brosia.  Duff  is a dessert.  It is assigned its regularly ap-
 pointed days, when it makes its appearance  upon the festal
 board ;  and Jack looks forward to " duff-day," with as eager
 and bright  anticipations  as the enraptured swain  to the
 try sting time with his lady-love.   Abolish duff and  duff-
 days,  and the sunshine of  the sailor-man's life  would be
 darkly  clouded.  Duff  is the all potent smoother  of the
 many bitter asperities of his laborious existence.   What the
 roast beef and mutton  of old England  is to the stalwart
 Briton ; what the simple, unstimulating maccaroni is to the
 son of bright Italia;  what his plain  boiled rice is  to the
 frugal Asiatic, the indigestible buckwheat cake to the  lank
 child of Columbia, the indispensable tuber to the Hibernian,
 the gutted bologna to the  Teuton, the hinder, extremities of
 the batrachian  to the Gaul—all that and  more is duff to an
 old Tar.  Yet  this so wonderfully  beloved viand is most
 unpretending in the  simplicity of its manufacture.  Some
 flour,  a small  modicum  of shortening  (raising powder),
 water, and a few dried currants or raisins, boiled together in
 a tin vessel, constitute this admired article of dessert.   It is
 eaten with a sauce or with  molasses—black  and pungent.
 So much for duff.

                                       March 22, 1875.
   Last night we anchored in  sixteen fathoms of water, about
 two miles off the shore of Lombok.
   This  eraming, I  descended the  ship's  side by the man-
 ropes into the small boat, and we^were soon pulling briskly
 towards the verdure-clad  shores of  Lombok.   Just before
reaching the land, we passed through a little flotilla of native
fishing catamarans.   The beautiful brown-colored occupants
           4 
                          26
of the same expressed not the slightest concern at the sudden
appearance among them of the  strangers from the  West;
nor did they interrupt for a moment their arduous piscato-
rial employments.   With lower lips thrust out,  and with
mouths filled with colossal quids of chewing tobacco, they
greeted us with looks of lofty  disdain.   We found good,
fresh water in the river, which in this spot mingles its waves
with the  ocean.

                                       March 28, 1875.
  For the past four dismal days, we have again been suffer-
ing all the agonies of a tropical calm in the Mores  Sea.
We have  been slowly  drifting along  the  South-Eastern
borders of the  group*  of islets called the Pater Nosters.
The sea  is literally as smooth  as glass.  The heat is over-
powering,  the thermometer marking 95° in the shade.   I
have never known until now  what it was to suffer from
hot weather.
               THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
  While I confess my liability to be considered the tedious
teller of a twice-told tale, in commenting upon the features
of a region so frequently visited, and about which so much
has been ably written, yet  the wondrous beauty of what I
sjc compels some utterance of  my thoughts.
   The pleasure derived from  a view of these enchanting
"Gardens of  the Sun," these chosen seats of Arabian fable,
is greatly heightened  by the  contrast  they  present to the
weary waste of waters of the eternal ocean, which  has palled
upon the eye of the voyager who has passed tedious months
upon its bosom, ennuied, almost to death, for one  glimpse
of blessed mother Earth. 
                            27
   Whether  the  curious  group of a  thousand isles is the
 debris of a vast continent,  riven  in  pieces by volcanic or
 other telluric forces ; whether  it is composed of the visible
 mountain  summits of  a  continent, the lowlands of which
 have been deluged ; or whether the platform of the Archi-
 pelago is gradually rising towards the sea level, are questions
 for scientific discussion.
   The latter explanation seems preferable, and is supported
 by the  fact,  that  the growth of many islands is daily and
 visibly  progressing.  This  growth  is  either  from enlarge-
 ment of their sea  margins by decaying vegetation, or a car-
 rying up of a series of structures by submarine architecture,
 which become clothed with verdure, as  soon as they meet the
 atmosphere.  The  situation of the Indian Archipelago is
 between Longitude 95° and 135° East.   At certain seasons
 of the year, devastating hurricanes occur in  and near  the
 Straits of Molucca; but the islands of  the interior  of  the
 Archipelago lie in  a region of almost  perpetual  calm.   Of
 the main  approach, through the  Straits of Sunda, we did
 not avail  ourselves, as, in consequence of the South West
 Monsoon, just  now prevailing, it  was more  advantageous
 to enter through Alias Straits, between the Islands of Lom-
 bok and Sumbawa,
   The Indian Ocean rolls its mighty waters through many
 channels between Australia  and the shores of the  Asiatic
 continent into the yet vaster Pacific.   Where it flows over
 the Equator, it  is  studded by these splendid islands,  and
 clusters of islets, famed in Eastern  story as the " Islands of
the Blessed."  They constitute the Oriental Archipelago,
 and form, in extent, the largest archipelago on the  globe,
containing an area of five  million of  square miles.  The
most renowned and civilized nations of Asia encircle it, and
make it their highway of maritime traffic.  On the East, is
China, distant only a few days' sail.  The Red Sea can be 
28
reached in from two to three weeks.  Favorable winds make
the distance, in time, from  Hindustan,  only a little over ten
days.   Europe is  ninety, and Western America only fifty,
days off.  The riches and splendor of  the Indian Archipel-
ago have  induced, in the remotest periods of maritime  re-
search,  the  voyager to  venture  on its exploration.  Not
including New Guinea, it contains within its limits the two
islands, Borneo  and Sumatra, of the first  class, one of the
second  (Java), with the Malay peninsula of equal extent,
and many others of  minor dimensions, Celebes, Luzon, the
Phillipine, and the Moluccas, or Spice Islands.   The major-
ity of these possess navigable rivers, extensive alluvial tracts,
and immense natural riches.  The clusters of islets are (lis
persed over narrow seas, with the larger islands intervening.
The navigator in these waters encounters innumerable chan-
nels and passages, intricate, tortuous,  abounding in  rocks,
reefs and shoals.   The navigation, though difficult,  is ren-
dered  less  dangerous  by  the  prevailing  serenity of  the
weather, and the steadiness of the winds.   From the broad
and angry ocean, our vessel glided through the Straits upon
calm waters, on  every side limited by green shores, except
where narrow seas and  channels  seem  to  lead into other
archipelagoes.   It  has  been observed,  that  a ship might be
months sailing round  one island, while, in other parts,  it
might pass through several groups in a day.  As soon as
one shore recedes from view on  the left, the eye is greeted
by visions of innumerable coasts on the right.
   As  a famous traveler has observed, " No where  on the
" globe is a scene so wonderful displayed, as that revealed
"to the navigator of the Indian  Archipelago.  It seems a
" magical  confusion of land and  sea,  islands innumerable
" appearing  over the horizon, and multiplying as he pro-
"c-eds."  The luxuriousness and  beauty of the vegetation
one beholds among these isles are  amazing.   There prevails 
29
a perpetual  bloom and freshness in these tropical forests of
unfading green.   The atmosphere of equatorial warmth, yet
continualry  charged with moisture and  purified  by winds,
is so fecundating, that the coral turret scarcely appears above
the surface  of the  sea before it becomes a floating basket
of flowers.   Even the granite rocks and  the volcanic coasts
are wrapped in eternal green.  Countless birds, of wondrous
plumage, red, blue,  gold, with metallic lustre, but with no
sweet music in  their voices, and a parasitical vegetation,
fantastic, entangled  with  beautiful flowers, are found in the
dense forests.
  The woods of  these islands are the  homes of those  most
beautiful  of birds,  called by Pliny,  discolores maxime  et
inenarrabiles, the  birds of paradise.  Fable reports these to
be the messengers of God, whose flight is  toward the  Sun,
but overcome by the perfumed atmosphere  of the Indian
isles,  they  fall  earthward, and  are  captured  by human
hands.
  In  contemplating the singular  natural features of  this
most beautiful region, of the splendor of which the fancy of
a Northern reader can scarcely conceive, I can best employ
the words of another, who says: " Nature, which, in other
" parts of the world, secretes her beauty, has here ungirdled
" herself, and  given her  wild and glowing  charms in all
" their fulness to  the eye of day."
  The climate of these regions is not congenial or conducive
to the health of an  American or European.   The popula-
tion  is  diversified.   Originally, the Malays drove out the
Aborigines,  but there is now a mixture of foreign races—
Hindus, Chinese, Persians,  Japanese,  Dutch,  Portuguese,
English. &c.  The sight of the trading vessels in the Archi-
pelago is remarkable and  striking.  The huge and heavily
freighted junk of China, the  painted galley of Cochin, the
prahu of the Malay, and English, Arabian, and other vessels 
30
 may be seen passing and re-passing in all directions.   Some
 are  slowly making their way from  port to  port,  others
 stealthily creeping along the shores, and all contributing to
 a  succession  of curious and  characteristic  scenes, which
 attract  the voyager's  eye.  In religion, tin1  Crescent is
 triumphant over the Cross, for  the following reasons :  By a
 politic concession to the Hindu prejudices of the  Malayan
 race, the dominant one on the islands  at the time, the early
 Mohammedans acquired, and still hold, the highest place in
 their estimation.  The minds of the inhabitants were (dosed
 against Christianity by this substitution of  the religion of
 the Prophet for Hinduism.  The proselyte, as is always the
 case, became the bigot.   The Malay relinquished one religion,
 and  could  not  easily be  persuaded,  that  he had  only
 exchanged one form of error for another.   Mohammedanism
 was  firmly  estabished by  the  Arabian  missionaries before
 any European navigator had penetrated to these regions.
   When  these  islanders  beheld,  and so  terribly  suffered
 from, the effect  of the rapacit}r, the perfidy,  and cruelty of
 the early Dutch, Portuguese  and Spanish  Christian  ex-
 plorers  and  traders in  the Archipelago,  they saw  little
 reason for a change of faith.


                                       March  31, 1875.
   To-day we are sailing through the Flores Sea, under full
 sail and with a fresh breeze.  On our port side, the island
 of Kambillan is visible.  Further on, we pass by the island
 of Boeton, behind which  is Moena, located at  the South-
 Eastern corner  of the large island of  Celebes.   When  we
 pass  the East Cape on this island, we will bear to the North
 East; and, going between Wangi Wangi and the coast, will
enter  the Molucca  Sea.   The  navigation  of  these  seas is
 most difficult and perplexing.   In addition to the fact that 
31
rocks, shoals and reefs abound in great numbers, their exact
extent and  locality  are  but imperfectly known;  and  the
charts and sailing directions for these perilous latitudes are
consequently sadly defective.
  The moon does  not rise to-night until 2  or 3 A.M.  The
heavens are  thickly overcast with clouds, and the  night, as
was  the  previous  one, is intensely dark.  The wind  blows
strong from  the West, and, with  all sails set, we are dashing
swiftly through  the  water and the darkness.  Just before
retiring to-night, I looked at the chart, and  could not help
noticing  with how many dangers we were begirt.  Captain
Alexander is a perfect stranger to these waters ; and here
we are, sailing at full speed, on a dark night, surrounded by
so many frightful dangers.  When I went to bed to-night, I
felt just the least shade  of uneasiness, for  nearly the first
time during this voyage.


                                        April 1, 1875.
  This  morning, about 3 o'clock, I was awakened out of a
troubled and feverish sleep  by a sound, one of the most
awful that can affright the ears of a mariner.  I perceived
that  the ship was no  longer moving  through the water.
The  noise was a harsh, grating one, accompanied by a rapid
succession of vibrations, which shook the vessel from stem
to stern.   I  immediately arose, and a few moments sufficed
for  the completion  of my toilet, which  was then  almost
made:  for  I had lain  down the previous night  almost
dressed, and oppressed with dark forebodings.  I  ascended
to the quarter-deck by the after companion-way, and imme-
diately comprehended our critical position.   Looking down
over the port side of the ship, about eight feet below the
surface, I perceived a white,  glistening bed of coral.   A
few yards ahead, off the  port bow, one could see  and hear 
32
the angry  breakers  tumbling  over the treacherous reef,
which had ensnared our bark in its adamantine toils.   She
was slightly careened over to  starboard, on which side  the
depth of water was about ninety fathoms.
  In a short time, the rudder  began  to scrape harshly on
the rocky bottom, and many pieces of the keel, worn away
by attrition over the rough coral, could  be seen tossing on
the waves about the ship.   There existed  still a chance, a
small one to be sure, to extricate the vessel from her fright-
ful position, by taking advantage of a favorable change of
wind,  and getting her off the reef.   But all hopes of saving
the bark  were  extinguished  by a short  but terrific squall,
which, setting in from the South West, drove the craft fur-
ther upon and wedged her more firmly  into the coral wall,
upon which she had struck.  After this, she leaned heavily
over to starboard—her bottom  was stove in in many places
—she began to fill—the masts began to sway horribly to
and fro, and seemed in momentary danger of falling—and
nothing remained, but to  pack up, as quickly as possible,
clothing,  provisions,  bedding,  &e,  and,  abandoning  the
unfortunate  bark to her fate,  to take to  the small boats.
We hastily collected our necessary effects ;  what stores and
provisions were deemed essential were placed in the boats •
and, about 10.20 a.m., seven hours after  we struck the reef,
we were  pulling away from the " James Co,idle "  towards
the to us unknown shores of a  group of low-lying, wooded
islands off  our port  quarter,  apparently  about fifteen or
twenty miles distant.
  It seems  that  the  Captain, in endeavoring to avoid the
reef off Boeton—a strong current setting in from the North
West—was  driven  out of his  course  on  to  another  reef
environing Wangi Wangi, and known as the Camboda reef.
About 6 p.m., we  arrived at a village, called  Kapotah,  on
an island (Lombada), opposite Wangi Wangi. 
33
   There are on  this island several villages, surrounded by
 high walls.   As  the  boats  were nearing the  shore, the
 natives collected in groups, to the number of two or three
 hundred.  -The  men were all armed  with spears or  other
 weapons ; and the Chiefs, of whom there were several, wore
 short iron swords.  None of the arms seemed  of  foreign
 manufacture.    The Chiefs  approached  our  shipwrecked
 party ;  and, by means of gestures,  were made to understand
 that the vessel of the strangers had been lost.
   We were thereupon well received  by  the natives, who
 assigned us quarters under a  roomy, palm-thatched fishing-
 shed on the beach;  but we were not allowed to enter the
 village  itself, which was  surrounded by a wall, about eight
 feet high, composed of pieces of scoriae, volcanic rock, coral,
 &c.  A convenient portion of the  shed was screened off for
 the accommodation of Mrs. Alexander and the children.  I
 laid down on  the  hard  boards, amid  the  ceaseless talking
 and mutterings of  a hundred naked savages, who remained
 in and around our shed all night.  Overcome by fatigue, I
 soon fell asleep.

                                        April 2, 1875.
   This  morning, the Captain, the first  mate and most of the
men went off  in the long boat to visit  the wreck, and to
secure some of the effects and provisions which had been
left  behind yesterday.   With the steward and one of the
men, I remained on shore to guard Mrs. Alexander and the
children, and to  prevent  the  pilfering of our stores by the
islanders.
   Soon after we had quitted the wreck, it was visited by
some of the natives in their  "prahus."   They stole  much
clothing and  other effects ; and  many of the  wretches are
now strutting  around, clothed in some  of Union  Adams'
best shirts—at my expense.
          5 
34
     During the whole day, we were ceaselessly stared at and
  commented upon by curious groups of dusky savages.  But,
  on the whole, the natives  treated us with kindness.   They
  brought us cocoa-nuts, and we enjoyed an abundance of the
  delicious fluid they contained.   We also had a fair share of
  bananas and other tropical fruit.  Captain  Alexander and
  the crew returned from the wreck,  late  at night,  bringing
  many articles—among them, my trunk.

                                          April 3, 1875.
     I made  the acquaintance to-day of Kambesi, one  of the
  native Chiefs ; and endeavored to learn from him some of
  the language of the islanders.
     (There is quite a long vocabulary of the names of familiar
  objects in the Doctor's Diary.)
     On the 10th of  April, the Captain and I started  off on
  an excursion, intending  to go  to the town of Vulio.  We
  stopped at  Mendati,  on  the  opposite  island of  Wangi
f  Wangi, got acquainted with the Rajah,  and were invited  to
  partake of his hospitality.  He promised to send  us boats
  to-morrow, to carry us and our effects to  Vulio;  and so we
  returned to Kapotah.  In the afternoon, I received a present
  of a fine fat buck kid  from Kambesi, which was  imme-
  diately slaughtered by that affable heathen and some of his
  chocolate-colored  comrades.  A  part of  the carcass fried
  for supper proved excellent eating,  and especially grateful
  after our long abstinence from fresh  meat.
    The barbarians, among whom  our destiny has driven us.
  are below the medium height, frailly built, with  generally
  good faces.   Their noses have broad bases and are  some-
  what flattened.   They have full  lips, straight  foreheads,  of
  medium extent,  large eyes, generally  of a soft,  childlike
  expression, and  inclined,  in  some  instances,  to  protrude.
  Their hair is black, and not  very coarse, straight, and.  in 
35
some cases, curly.   Their heads  are of average size, flat at
the occiput and peaked at the  posterior  summit.  They
have smooth and glossy chocolate or coffee-colored skins.
There is no obesity among them.  They are, on the whole,
a very  moral set.  Licentiousness and inebriety, those  two
titanic  vices,  are here  unknown; and the  same remark is
true of Wangi Wangi,  Mendati and Leeah.
  The  natives manifested a strong desire to  learn something
of foreign countries.  They explained, that  Dutch steamers
occasionally passed  near the  islands.  Several of the men
suffered from dysentery; but, fortunately, medicines  had
been saved from the wreck ; and, under the  treatment which
I advised, the disease was arrested.
  Captain Alexander  thought it best to endeavor to reach
Macassar, about two hundred  miles away;  and accordingly
arranged with the Chiefs to supply him with five "prahics "
or boats,  to carry the party and what  provisions and effects
had been saved to that  port.

                                       April 13, 1875.
  This morning, I  took a trip in the long boat to Leeah,
with Captain Alexander and a part of  the crew.   Arrived
there, we found a prahu getting ready for  us.  Returning,
we  found the Rajah of  Vulio awaiting us  ; and I had the
honor of prescribing a  bottle  of  " Jayne's Expectorant " for
a bronchial affection with which  his Majesty was afflicted.

                                       April 14, 1875.
  At 5 A.M., the boat returned from the  wreck with the
joyful  news that an Italian corvette had heard of our sad
plight, and was waiting outside to take  us all on board.   The
vessel proved to be the  Steamer " Vettor Pisani," commanded
by  Sig.  Alberti  di Negri,  from Macassar  to Amboyna. 
36
 Two large boats, in charge of Italian naval officers, were
 sent to Kapotah, and by Hi a.m., we were all safely  on
 board  the  corvette, which immediately steamed away for
 the wreck of the "James Condie," some thirty miles distant,
 to save the sails and rigging; after which she sailed for
 Ambovna.   Never was  more kindness  shown  to ship-
 wrecked mariners, than has been exhibited to us  by the
 Commandant and officers of the "Vettor Pisani."
      *       *        *       *        *        *
   On the 17th of April, the  corvette  dropped anchor off
 the city of Amboyna, on an island of the same name in the
 Indian Archipelago.   For ten days, Dr.  Vanderpool was
 quartered in the Dutch Military Hospital at Amboyna, the
 guest of the Government of Holland.


   In a letter completed at Amboyna, May 7th, he writes as
 follows :—
   None of the officers on board the " Vettor  Pisani" can con-
 verse in  English; but,  of course, they all speak  French.
 The latter is the  only medium of conversation that  I can
 employ when  talking  with  them.  I  find that the three
 weeks' practice I have had in speaking French with the
 naval officers of the corvette and the Dutch officers of the
 garrison in  Amboyna—many of whom I constantly meet—
 has already improved my facility in conversation.
   Did time permit, I would like to give you a little sketch of
 Amboyna;  but you will doubtless find in the Encyc.  Britt,
 a full account of the town and  its history.
   In front of the open door, where I am writing these lines,
 are growing two beautiful nutmeg trees, with their delicious
fruit hanging in profusion among the leaves.  This rare tree
grows nowhere in the world with the luxuriance and perfec- 
37
tion  that it does in the isle of Amboyna, which is hence
sometimes  called the  "Nutmeg Isle."  Under more propi-
tious circumstances, I  should greatly enjoy the many natural
beauties of these wonderful islands.

  By the polite invitation of the Commandant of the Italian
corvette,  the Doctor embarked on her on the seventh of
May, bound for Hong Kong.  In a  letter dated on board
that vessel, lying in the harbor of Ternate, Isle of Ternate,
only 45'  North  of the Equator, in Longitude 127° E., he
writes as follows:

  On Friday, May 7th,  at 4 o'clock p.m., after  bidding
good-bye to Captain Alexander and family, and the friends
I had made at Amboyna, I embarked in one of the "Vettor
Pisanis" small boats for the corvette, which  lay  a short
distance from the pier, out in the bay.   The  officers  met
me in a body, as I stepped upon the decks of the Italian
man-o'-war, and extended to me, an unfortunate shipwrecked
citizen of the United  States, a most  cordial and courteous
welcome to the hospitality of the Italian Government.  Half
an hour later, we were steaming out  of Amboyna Bay, and
were soon on our course Northward towards Ternate,  dis-
tant from  Amboyna  375 miles, a Dutch  settlement on an
island  of the same  name,  one of the Molucca group, near
Gilolo, on the East side of the  Molucca Straits.
  We  made our way through these  shoal-and-reef-studded
waters slowly and with caution.    Constant references were
made to the charts, which were entirely new and of the latest
date, unlike those used on board the ill-fated "James Condie,"
which  were all second or  third-hand maps, and were npt
constructed from the  latest geographical data.  We passed
by many of the enchanting Spice  islands, verdure-clad,  and 
38
 their "mountains wooded to the very peak," which gem the
 tranquil waters of the Oriental Archipelago; and, yesterday
 afternoon,  at  5 o'clock,  we dropped anchor opposite the
 port of Ternate, in the midst of some of the loveliest scenery
 in the world.   Immediately behind the town, rises its ever-
 smoking volcano, which is frequently in a state of eruption.
 The whole region hereabouts is of a marked volcanic char-
 acter ; and earthquakes are often experienced.   I have  been
 lodged as well as circumstances will allow to a passenger on
 board a man-o'-war, where, of course, no  provision is  ever
 made for travellers.  Consequently, I have to make shift,
 as best I can.   I sleep in the general officers' cabin,  in  a
 hammock slung up there every night for my accommodation.
 My toilet, I have to  make in the state-room  of one of the
 officers.


  His next letter was written on board the corvette,  in  the
 China Sea,  and bears date, June 23d.  He says:

  The scenery in  the  vicinity of Ternate, as  we steamed
 away from  that island, was  grandly beautiful.   At some
 remote period, a vast eruption has upheaved under the equa-
 tor an archipelago, of which Ternate forms an island, some
 miles off the Western coast of Gilolo.  The gigantic cones of
 Ternate and Tidor elevate themselves opposite one another,
 crowned with craters, in the same manner as the famed isle
 of Stromboli.
  A narrow passage separates these two immense masses of
 lava, whose summits are lost  in the clouds, more than  five
 thousand feet above the level of  the  sea.   The  volcano of
 Ternate, on its Northeast aspect, is entirely stripped of  veg-
etation.   Long, blackish furrows yet remain  to mark the
courses  taken  by the incandescent lava in the eruption of 
39
1838.  Perhaps there does not exist under heaven a portion of
earth, where are gathered together in a space so contracted,
so many natural riches as at and near Ternate.  The cocoa-
tree, its trunk and summit laden with nutritious fruit;  the
cotton tree, with its yellow flowers;  the  coffee plant, with
its red berries—all these flourish in this  volcanic soil, side
by side with the orange tree, the mangoustan and the durian
of Java.
  In the government of the Moluccas, the Dutch  retain in
their own hands all the affairs of administration.  The native
Sultans, as e.  g. those of Ternate and Tidor, and the Rajahs,
wield a certain nominal power; and their pride is flattered
by the payment into their hands of a large annual tribute.
  I am told,  that,  about three years ago, the volcano of
Ternate  was  in a  state of eruption, for more than two
months; and, that,  during the disturbance, immense quan-
tities of red-hot lava rolled in torrents down the mountain's
side into the sea.   The  town of Ternate has been saved,on
the occasion of this and  prior eruptions of its neighboring
volcano, from frightful destruction by the  existence between
them  of a considerable  and  distinct mountain elevation,
which serves as a gigantic barrier against  the  deadly rivers
of lava.
  A mixed population,  as in all  the European settlements
in the  islands of the great  Archipelago, inhabit Ternate, to
the number of three or four thousand.   The Chinese, that
wonderful people, who always manage to obtain a firm foot-
hold where gain is to be acquired, and who, by their industry,
perseverance,  economy  and sobriety, make their residence,
no matter where it may be,  profitable to  themselves and to
the community in which they dwell, occupy the chief busi-
ness quarters of the town.   The Malays have their peculiar
district:  and the Europeans, almost exclusively Hollanders,
of course, have theirs. 
40
  The fortress. Orange-built, some two hundred years since,
is occupied by a garrison  of about  one hundred  men, and
mounts two guns.
  The Portuguese formerly held  possession of Ternate, and,
in fact, of the whole Molucca group.  The ruins of several
old  Portuguese forts are to be seen on the different parts of
the  island.  With a young Italian and two Dutch  officers, I
made one morning a very pleasant excursion to one of these
interesting relics of Portugal's faded greatness.
  On Thursday,  May 13th, to save coal, steam  was shut off,
and the corvette  sailed  along under  canvas alone.   In these
far-off regions, where coal  is scarce and  expensive, great
economy and judgment in its use are required on the part of
those in  charge  of ships of war, moved by steam power.
On  quitting and  entering a port, the screw  is  required by
law to be used.   But at sea, as much use as possible is made
of the sails. . And, as I have found by a bitter experience,
going under sail  in a region infected with calms is  for the
most part the dismallest of all dismal occupations.   In the
Molucca  Sea, however,  on  the "Vettor Pisani," we did passa-
bly well; and, with the occasional welcome aid of the pro-
peller, the distance between  Ternate and  Papua,  though
slowly, was not provokingly so, sailed and steamed.  From
the very commencement of my trip in  the  corvette, I was
treated both by "il Commandante" and the officers with the
greatest kindness, consideration and hospitality.  I can never
forget or repay the distinguished favors I have received from
these warm-hearted Italians.   After the strangeness of my
position had somewhat passed away, and I felt more at home
among these strangers, and when my health had  gradually
improved, after the trying experiences I had  undergone, I
commenced to take some  enjoyment and profit out of my
new life on board  a  man-o'-war.  Of course, French is the
only  language spoken between the officers and myself.  By 
41
 continual  and forced practice,  I  have, gradually acquired
 that  facility in  the  use of this invaluable tongue,  which
 enables me with ease to receive and to communicate ideas
 by its  means, in my daily intercourse with those among
 whom I for the present live.
   On Friday morning,  May 21, I crossed the line for the
 third time, in a direction from North to South, in longitude
 about 133° East.  About noon, the  same day, from  our
 starboard-quarter were visible in the misty distance the lofty
 mountain ranges  of Western New Guinea.


                                         May  22, 1875.
   The "Vettor Pisani" anchored in Dorey Haven, near the
 little Papuan village of Dorey, on the large island  of New
 Guinea—her object  in .visiting  this out-of-the-way country
 being to find and succour, if need  be, a Sig. Beccarre*, an
 Italian naturalist, who had been sent out by the National
 Museum of Genoa, to make scientific explorations  in  the
 Oriental Archipelago and in New Guinea.
   This time last year, of all the myriad places under heaven
 that I had ever  entertained the slightest idea  of visiting,
 New  Guinea would have been considered the most wildly
 improbable.  Who so blinded as to deny that there is some
mighty Power beyond and above our control, which lays its
strong hand on every deed  we do.  Freedom of will is  a
grand thought; but thisAa truer and a grander one.
   The only European  residents at  Dorey and  in the few
adjacent  Papuan  villages in this  portion of New Guinea,
are five Dutch missionaries, who have been sent hither by
the " Utrecht Missionary Society."   These missionaries have
been  here for nearly ten years;  and, within that period,
so, at least, one of them, the Rev. Mr. Van Hassel, informed
me, they have converted but one Papuan.  Shortly after
           6 
42
his conversion  to Dutch Protestantism, this  poor Papuan
died.  As this was not calculated "pour encourager les ant res"
not a single proselyte has since been made.   This occurred
some eight years ago.
   While the vessel remained at Dorey. nearly every day, in
company with some of the officers, I indulged in my favorite,
loved exercise of pedestrianism, among the trackless,  virgin
forests of Papua.   You can well  imagine, how I have  suf-
fered from lack of this  exercise,  during the  past  seven
months.  Of  course,  during these excursions through the
woods, we beheld with joy and surprise all the  marvels of
wood scenery under the line.  The exuberant vegetation, the
dense foliage, the strange birds of  brilliant  plumage, the
loud, harsh humming  of  monstrous  insects—all were to us
both novel and  interesting.
   On the 29th of  May,  in  company  with  several  of the
Italian officers,  I paid a visit to  a curious and  remarkable
Papuan temple, situated a short distance up the coast from
the town of Dorey.  It was built, like all Papuan structures,
over the water,  about two hundred feet from the shore, with
which it was connected by means of a narrow and apparently
insecure bridge. Its shape was that of a Papuan war prahu,
or boat, with a high  bow and stern; and it was supported
by twelve wooden  pillars, carved  in the form of nude men
and women.   The men hold a spear in the right hand in the
act of throwing it; and on the left arm is a buckler.   There
were also wooden  human figures at the thresholds  of the
two door-wa3~s  of the temple.  I found that the interior of
this temple, when I visited it on a subsequent occasion, con-
tained on its woodwork  numerous  curious  and  fantastic
representations.  The figures had evidently at one time been
painted, but the paint  had worn off.  I was informed  that
there were two  or three other temples  similar to this one, in
the  neighborhood  of  Dorey.  They are dedicated to the
Creator of Life. 
43
   The inhabitants of this part of New Guinea consist of two
 distinct classes or divisions—the Papuans, who live on the
 sea-coast, and those who reside among the neighboring moun-
 tains, called the Alfak mountains.   These  differ  in  their
 personal appearance, character,  habits and religious belief.
 Those who reside on the coast are of medium  size, well-built,
 stout and muscular.  Their colour is of almost negro black-
 ness ; and in feature they resemble the African race.  The
 nose is broad and  flattened ; but does not present the wide
 expanded nostrils of the negro.  The lips are moderately
 large and thick,  and the mouth  rather  larger than the
 medium  size.  The eyes are protuberant, round, open and
 expressive of good humor, friendliness and peace.  The hair
 is black  and woolly,  or, rather, fleecy; and the  favorite
 method of wearing it is long and brushed up straight from
 the head—" each particular hair on end."  They take  great
 pride in this  bushy chevelure,  which they often transfix with
 a peculiarly shaped and rather pretty comb, made of bamboo.
 The head  is well-shaped and  entirely unlike that of the
 negro.   The  dress of the men  approaches, as nearly as any
 dress can, the simple, original fig-leaf—merely a very narrow
 cincture of coarse cloth around the loins.  The women wear
 a scant,  loosely flowing robe  of the same material.  The
 Papuans of the coast, like the pre-historic lacustrine abori-
 gines of the Swiss lakes, live in  houses built  over the water
 on bamboo piles, one hundred feet or more from the shore.
 A narrow and frailly constructed foot-bridge,  about eighteen
 inches wide, made of the ever useful bamboo, spans  this dis-
 tance, and affords  a  dangerous  and treacherous mode  of
ingress and egress, except to trained Papuan feet, to the
bamboo, cocoa-thatched, many-chambered domicile.  Why do
these Papuans thus construct their dwellings over the water ?
I could not obtain a satisfactory reply to this oft-repeated
interrogatory.  Among other reasons assigned by the Dutch 
44
missionaries here, were the great facility for domestic drain-
age offered by this system ; protection from wild animals,
reptiles, &c. ;  the avoidance of the unhealthy night air under
the dense foliage of the forest, impregnated with  malaria—
the natives not having the proper instruments with which
to hew down the trees, &c.  Whatever may be the cause,
the coast inhabitant  of New Guinea, with his wife, concu-
bines and children,  from the earliest  ages,  have  tenanted
these supramarine structures.
  The Papuan of the coast  is  of  a kindly and  peaceable
disposition—in this  respect 'contrasting  greatly with  his
ferocious congener of the mountain—until  he becomes en-
raged,  and then  the latent,  savage cruelty of his nature
is at once manifested.  They have  but one legal  wife, and
but few children, about  two or three in each family, the
number being kept reduced to the comfortable limits which
comport with economy by artificial means.   The Papuan
has slaves to work for him, smokes cigarettes, occasionally
has terrific sprees on saki, and lives at  ease and in plenty;
for Nature bountifully supplies  to  these people  provisions
from her choicest stores.  The religious belief of the Papuans
is a simple, pure, modern Spiritualism.
  They hold converse by means of sounds, signs and var-
ious observances, with the spirits of their ancestors.  These
shades are their  guardian  genii.  They are not  adored or
worshipped,  but appealed to  as beings  in a higher and
happier sphere.   Sometimes, these ghosts of the departed
dead are rudely symbolized in  figures of stone  and wood.
The following Papuan legend is probably also connected in
some way with the religious belief of this  strange people:
   Ages ago, so runs  the tradition, firmly  believed in by
every  Papuan, all the  inhabitants of New  Guinea  were
white.   In those far-distant times, on an island about eighty
miles to the  North of Dorey, whose  name I forget, there 
45
lived a wise and great man named Mangoondah.  He had
an only child, a daughter, young, beautiful and of stainless
virtue.  The father had received mysterious  premonitions,
that this virgin daughter would some  day give  birth to a
son, without the aid of any of mankind.   Some time after,
this virgin did in fact miraculously conceive and give birth
to a son.  The young infant grew to manhood,  and was
noted for his  great strength and beauty, for his wisdom, and
for his wonderful  skill in the use of  the bow and  spear.
When he had arrived at man's estate, he began to teach the
Papuans, going about to  their various villages, and endeav-
oring to inculcate the precepts of virtue.
  He also healed  the sick, and even,  so  the  legend runs,
raised the dead.  He was  much  beloved by the people, but
when he told them, that  he was the Son of God, who made
all Papua and the Papuan race, they refused to believe him.
No means that he could employ would induce the people
to credit his  Divine paternity.  Finally, this  Son of Man-
goondah—the Great Prophet, the natives term him—ascend-
ed bodily into heaven.  Just before his departure, he told the
Papuans, that, as a punishment for their disbelief in  him,
they should, on his ascension, become  suddenly black, and
should continue so, until  his re-appearance  among  them,
which  would  surely  occur at  some distant  epoch.  The
Papuans still confidently expect his coming, and hope some
day to be  all white once more, with plenty to eat and drink,
and no more work to do.  This  constitutes the Papuan
Millennium.  The similarity between this  tradition and the
Christian  Gospel  is very evident.   At what period it  was
derived therefrom,  it is of course impossible to say.
  x-       *        *        *       *       *       *

  Of the natives who inhabit the mountains, I could learn
but little.   They are of ferocious, war-like tempers, and are 
46
greatly feared by the peaceful dwellers on the coast.  Their
complexion is much lighter than that of the latter people,
and they have hair of almost a red color.  Their religion is
pure,  brutish fetichism of  the  lowest  type.   The  Alfak
mountains where they live are said to contain vast  numbers
of those splendid birds, so famed  for their beautiful and val-
uable  plumage,  the Birds  of Paradise, burrumata,  as  the
Papuans call them.  The Rev. Air. Beyer, one of the Dutch
missionaries I have mentioned, had in his possession no less
than five living  Birds of Paradise !   They presented a rare
spectacle, which I duly appreciated.
   The paucity of inhabitants I saw in New Guinea, and  the
little I saw of them ;  the many islands I have passed by in
the immense Archipelago, sparsely inhabited or utterly with-
out inhabitants,  called to my mind the lines:
             "A part how small of the terraqueous globe
              Is tenanted by man—the rest a waste."

   On the 6th of June, the fifteenth anniversary of the decla-
ration  of the Unity of the Italian States,  made at  Turin in
1860, was duly celebrated on board the corvette, which was
gaily   decorated  with many  colored flags  and pennants.
At noon, a salute of  twenty-one  guns was  fired,  which
greatly aroused  the astonishment, if not the terror,  of  the
fleecy-headed Papuans, who doubtless wondered what it was
all about.
  The "Vettor Pisani," named after a celebrated Italian Ad-
miral, a Venetian,  I think, was built at Venice in 1870, and
is therefore a new  vessel.  She is ship-rigged, and  of 1,900
tons burthen.   She carries fourteen 261b.  muzzle-loading
guns.   Her commandant is Sig. A.  di Negri, and  ber first
officer  Sig.  Castolucci.  The other officers are  six lieuten-
ants,  an "Ingenieur-en-chef," besides  "middies," "sous-
officiers,"  " maitres d'equipage," &c.  Her machinery, of 
47
Italian manufacture, is first-class.   Her  total cost, if I am
not mistaken, was in the neighborhood of $250,000.

  He remained at Dorey until June 8th, when, at 5 a.m.,
the " Vettor Pisani"  hove anchor, and  steamed  away for
Hong Kong.   In  longitude 134° E., he again crossed the
line, for the fourth time.
  The Commandant thought  at one time  to  stop at  the
Spanish city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, but
concluded  not to do  so—the supply of coal  obtained at
Dorey having proved almost worthless—and, besides, it was
reported that paladial fevers were prevailing at Manila.  In
the afternoon  of  June  27th,  the corvette found  herself
anchored in the harbor of Hong Kong; and here the Doctor
took leave of her, intending to proceed in a passenger vessel
to Yokohama, his destination.   The same day,  he  attended
divine service at the English  Cathedral of St. John; and of
this he writes as follows :  "I tell you,  William,  it was a
great relief for me, when I  reached  the City of Victoria, on
the island  of  Hong Kong, to  breathe once more a  pure,
healthy, Anglo Saxon, moral  atmosphere.   I don't think I
ever delighted  so  much in the House of God, and in  the
beautiful service rendered  in  His  honor, as I did on that
occasion.  I had been so  long debarred the privilege  of
attending any church  service, and,  in the mean time, such
momentous incidents had transpired in my life;  and, besides
all this,  I had passed so many hours in the society of infidel
scoffers at divine truths, that I keenly appreciated the sim-
ple, unpretentious, Anglican form of worship."

  Of Hong Kong he writes :
  In Victoria, usually called Hong Kong, one never walks,
unless he  be  a Chinese or a Malay of  the lower orders. 
48
The proper thing is to take a chaise.  Two Coolies, their
heads shaded  by immense  straw hats, carry you in a chair,
suspended  from two  long, bamboo poles, at a rapid pace
through the streets.  Price, twenty cents per hour.  I shall
not attempt to give you any idea of the beauties of the pub-
lic gardens, cut in lovely terraces from the  steep mountain
sides, or of the "heureuse  vallee" called "happy," because
one  finds  there  a  little more  shade, a little more air and
freshness than elsewhere.

  On the 1st of July, after  four  days spent in Hong Kong,
he  sailed  in the White Star  Steamer " Belgic " for Yoko-
hama, distant 1,620 miles, which port he reached late in the
evening of the 8th of July.   He went ashore on the morn-
ing of the 9th, and put up at the French H6tel du Louvre.
  On the 21st of September, he writes:

  I noticed in the Japanese Herald yesterday a brief extract
from a Dutch paper, to the effect that the wreck of the bark
"James Condie"  had been  sold  at  Sourabaya,  Java, for
18,000 florins.   Ill-fated ship !

  (In fact,  the "James Condie" was got off  the  coral reef,
and " floated on  her cargo "  [petroleum], some 500 miles to
the port of  Sourabaya, where she was docked and repaired.)
  I received the other  day a  call from one  of the seamen
who served on  board the "James Coudie."  He was being
sent home  by the United States Consul  at Batavia  as  a
distressed seaman.  For some reason  or other, I was a great
favorite in  the fo'castle on board  the  clipper, and all the
men were ever ready to do me  a favor if I desired one of
them.  This was partly owing no  doubt to the fact, that I
had done them all, at times, some little medical services. 
49
                         Yokohama, October 5th, 1875.
   At 9.30 a. m.,  Sig. Zobel, a Spanish  gentleman, and my-
 self, took the train from Yokohama for Tokei (Tokio).
 Arrived there, we proceeded to the house of the American
 Minister, the Hon. John A. Bingham.  I enjoyed a most agree-
 able call on this gentleman, and, on taking my departure,
 was cordially invited to repeat  my visit.   Thence we went
 to Atanga Yama, a hill of considerable height,  ascended by
 a steep stone staircase of 86 steps.  On  the summit, we saw
 a ruined Oratory and the remains of long, covered galleries.
 Here also we found a tea-house, where I stood treat to tea
 and soda  water  " aux fieurs de  cerise," a  hot,  sweetishly-
 insipid compound,  which I had  to force  into  a rebellious
 oesophagus.  From the top of Atanga Yama, the vast city
 of Yeddo is revealed to view.   The ramparts,  moats and
 leafy parks of the Mikado's castle are plainly visible.   The
 castle  itself was burned, a few years ago.   One sees a veri-
 table ocean of white walls, long  streets  and grey  roofs.
 Nothing interrupts  the  monotony of  the panorama, except
 here and there the dark foliage of clumps of trees, or the
 gable of some temple.   By means of a  pass, obtained from
 Mr. Bingham, I  also  enjoyed  the privilege of  visiting the
 gardens, or, rather, the park of the Mikado, which is thrown
 open to the public provided with passes, at stated seasons.
 This park  is vast, grand and artistically laid out.   Thence
 I went to the temple of Shita, a fine specimen of a Buddhist
 place of worship.

  On the 11th of October, he writes:  The other day (the
 6th inst), I experienced a new and startling sensation.  I
 was in my room in the third story of  the Hotel du Louvre,
about 6.25 p.m., and was just finishing my toilet preparatory
to o-oing out to  dine with a young  American physician,
when suddenly I heard a low, rumbling, awful noise under
           7 
50
me, and  perceived the floor  upon which  I was standing to
be raised upwards.   It immediately fell again ;  and then the
walls,  ceiling and floor  began to vibrate fearfully to and
fro.   I at first was tempted to make a bolt  for down  stairs
and into the street;  but I instantly reflected, that I was just
as safe where I  was, in  case the shock should bring  the
house  down.  In a  minute or two,  all was over;  but that
minute seemed a  very long one.
  The number of the shocks was  two—one  vertical and
undulatory;  the  second more  violent, but horizontal,  the
direction being from East to West.   The  city clock  and
many in private houses were stopped;  and vases and  other
objects were thrown  down.   It was the severest earthquake
experienced in Yokohama, for sixteen years.
  The sensations  and experiences  during a  " tremblement de
terre " are indescribably disagreeable.   One then obtains for
the first time some idea of the temporary nature of mundane
affairs.   If the firm earth trembles, where shall we  look for
permanency ?  Then are we able to realize the full  force of
those lines of the  mighty poet:
            " The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
             Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
             And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
             Leave not a rack behind."

  My time at present is not passed in idleness.   I am down
on the books both of the Germania and English Clubs as a
visitor. '  Both have large  and well-selected libraries ;  and I
pass two or three  hours  daily in the reading-rooms.  Then
the office of  my friend, Dr. Eldridge, without doubt  the best
physician in Yokohama, is always open to me.   He has the
finest medical library in  Japan.   Here I  pass  some of mv
time ;  and,  saw-bones  like,  we  gossip  over  " cases" of
interest.  I walk  much every day, and  do anything rather
than nothing. 
51
   The following is a copy of the  last letter received  from
him.   It bears date December 26, 1875, and was no doubt
the last he ever wrote:

                       Yokohama, December 26, 1875.
Dear Parents :
   As I write these lines, it is with you in Newark the 25th
of December, and you are  celebrating  the Christmas which
we in Japan observed yesterday.   So, at the beginning of
my letter, it will be appropriate for me  to wish you  all at
home a " Merry Christmas."  It has been a long, long time,
since I have enjoyed the pleasure of being with you on this
great Christian festival.   My Christmas last year was passed
under the scorching rays of a tropical sun, near the Equator
in the South Atlantic.   Here  in  Yokohama, the weather,
at this season of the year,  though cold, is not as extremely
so as with those who pass the  winter in  the  Northern
States.
   It freezes during the night;  but,  during  the middle of
the day and forepart of the afternoon, it is only comfortably
cold.
   Well, I have not much that is either novel or interesting
to write you concerning myself.  Nothing new has occurred
in my daily life, since I last wrote, to interrupt or diversify
its tedious and. at times, depressing monotony.
   To tell the  truth, if, when I came to Japan, I had a  half-
formed  intention of remaining here, I could not possibly
have selected a more unpropitious  time to visit this country.
Times are  frightfully hard and tight, and there is  but  little
money in the country.
   The trade between Japan and  other lands  has greatly
fallen off within  the  past  two or  three  years.   She either
possesses no mineral resources, or else she stupidly refuses
foreigners permission to penetrate into the interior to develop 
52
them.  Her people are poor—awfully poor.   A gentleman
told me, the other day, that most of the Europeans in Yoko-
hama at present remain here, simply because they are forced
to do so.   If they could pull out of their different business
occupations, a great  many of the foreigners  would gladly
return to their homes.  Under these depressing circumstan-
ces, I am utterly discouraged from making the attempt to
practice  my profession  in  a place,  already overstocked
with physicians, most of  whom have been in Japan for years,
know something of the language, and  are  familiar with the
manners and customs of  the inhabitants.
  I could have taken, had  I  so wished, a position as  Sur-
geon on one of the Steamers of the " Mitsu Bishi" (Japanese)
line, formerly the Pacific Mail  Steam Ship Company, and yet
managed by  European  directors, between Yokohama and
Shanghai,  [his appointment  as Surgeon of  the first class
Steamer  " Golden Age,"  dated Tokio, November 6th, 1875,
was  found among his  papers] ; but,  after mature delibe-
ration,  I  concluded to decline the offer.  The pay was little,
and the work was less.   I am not  altogether idle or unoccu-
pied.   I  am  sometimes left  in charge  of the  Yokohama
General Hospital, when the  regular  visiting physician  is
unable from pressure of  business or other reasons  to attend.
This is,  of course, a profitable and for me agreeable  em-
ployment.
  But, on the whole, I do  not think I should ever be con-
tent to cast my lot with those who are  residents  of Japan.
Life  here is a life in the  midst of  semi-civilized heathen;
and you can scarcely  appreciate  how yearningly  the foreign-
ers in this land of the rising Sun often long for  their native
country.   I freely confess, that  I would most gladly see my
home again, after  my long  series of varied and calamitous
experiences.
  You may perhaps wonder why I don't write you some- 
53
thing about the manners  and habits of the Japanese, as I
have  observed them, and of the beautiful  country they
inhabit.   Well, I have intended doing so—in fact, I think
I have expressed to you such intention.  But the subject of
Japan and the Japanese has been written threadbare, as you
know ; and, after all, there is not much of real interest to be
learned or said about theYn.
  I have received two telegrams by mail, via San Francisco,
from home: one from Eugene, dated  October 28;  the other
from  father,  dated Newark, November  14.   This last I
received, December 17.  From both I gathered the welcome
information that you at home were all well.
  I have to plead guilty of having committed one piece of
extravagance; but no doubt you will agree with me,' that it
was a necessary one.
  You know that,  for three months, I was a recipient of the
hospitality—hospitality of the warmest and most  unstinted
character—of the Italian officers of the "Vettor Pisani."   I
felt it incumbent  upon me to  reciprocate to some  slight
degree their kindness and generosity towards myself, and to
pay off part of the heavy debt their courtesy had imposed
upon  me.  I  could  hit  upon   no better or  more fitting
method  than  to invite  them  to a dinner, a day or two
before their vessel sailed for South America.  Accordingly,
I gave  them  a dinner—not an extravagant  one by any
means, but a good one.
  It has been long since I received a letter from home; and
I desire eagerly to  hear news of you.
  I hav'n't told you  how I passed  my Christmas.  Very
quietly, I can assure you.   In the  evening at 7 (the dining
hour in Yokohama), in accordance with an invitation, I took a
Christmas dinner with a young Norwegian residing in Japan.
There were only five  of us at  table—two  Norwegians,  an 
54
Austrian, a Scotchman and myself.   Roast goose and plum
pudding were the "pieces de resistance" of the repast.
  About three weeks ago, we were visited by another sharp
shock of earthquake.   It was a severe and a long one.  No
one who has not experienced the peculiar sensations, caused
by the heaving and shaking of the solid earth, can  conceive
how intensely disagreeable they are.
  My  love to yourselves, brothers,  Nellie,  Alice  and the
children.  I sometimes wonder if I  shall ever see you all
again.   For myself, I am well and doing well.
           Your affectionate son,
                           JAMES VANDERPOOL.
      Newark, New-Jersey:
printed by ward & tichenor,
        December, 1876. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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